There are plenty of players you’ll wish you had by the end of the season. Right about now I’m wishing I got Andre Ethier in a preseason trade instead of Curtis Granderson, but acquiring a player like that cost me a good deal in return – namely Derek Jeter.
I’m also ready to add Starlin Castro in my keeper league, but he’s going to cost me my high waiver priority. The same goes for studs like Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward who you probably had to burn a pretty high draft pick on to get.
Derek Holland is free.
After a terrible 2009 season and an injury during Spring Training this year, Holland is easily acquirable and available in 97 percent of leagues. In fact, listen to some of the other guys who he’s buried in free agency with: Reid Brignac, Francisco Cervelli, Vicente Padilla, Jim Edmonds, Matt LaPorta, Nate Robertson, Ronny Cedeno, Jeremy Hermida, Tim Wakefield, Ken Griffey Jr, Ryan Hanigan, Dontrelle Willis, Elijah Dukes, and Aaron Cook.
Those players, all three percent owned, are useless drains on your fantasy team, temporary adds on a Monday day game after a Sunday night game at best. But Holland is still mixed in with them. Best of all, he’ll only cost you your worst player…someone like David DeJesus.
Why do I love Holland so much? Let me count thy ways.
- He was rated the 31st best prospect in the minors pre-2009 by Baseball America.
- He has walked just 2.5 batters per nine innings in his minor league career.
- He has 138.1 innings of Major League experience.
- He rebounded from those disastrous 138.1 innings and a pre-season demotion to the tune of a 0.93 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 38.2 innings in Triple-A this season, walking just seven batters while striking out 37.
- His terrible 2009, while bad, wasn’t as bad as you might think. He was the victim of a .321 BABIP with a FIP of 5.10 (compared to his 6.12 ERA).
- According to Fangraphs.com, his HR/FB rate (15.2%) was the third worst out of 123 starters with at least 100 innings pitched.
Like I say repeatedly, you can have pitchers like Cook and Padilla who will give you a solid start here and there before you drop them for the next “hot” arm, but I’ll take the risk on the high-ceiling prospect who could end up producing like a top-30 starter.
With last season’s experience, this season’s success and a little more luck, Holland could turn out to be your best add of 2010.
No comments yet.