Fantasy Baseball Thoughts

After looking over the pre-rankings of the starting pitchers at Yahoo.com - I though I would share some of my "buy" thoughts (but not all because I still haven't had my drafts yet).

Top 5 Buys (undervalued pitchers)

1. Derek Lowe - Yahoo has him ranked 36th among starters but this year he should put up numbers like 2002 when he was a Cy Young candidate. Lowe won't help too much with K's or K/9 but for most of the year he should be matched up against other teams #3 pitchers - which should lead to a big win total for Lowe. Also his sinkerball allows him to keep a low pitch count - that should lead to a number of complete games and possibly some shutouts (I know he only had 1 in 2002 but this is Lowe's contract year). I would try and make him your #2 starter.

2. Jeff Weaver - not even in Yahoo's top 100. He should return to his 17-6 / 3.18 ERA 2002 form pitching half his games in the expanses of Chavez Ravine and all of his games away from the pressure of Yankee Stadium. A good #3 for your team.

3. Randy Johnson - ranked by Yahoo as the 6th best starter and 28th best player overall. I would take a risk on Randy and put him as the number 1 or 2 starter in all of baseball (along with Pedro) and a top 10 fantasy pick overall.

4. John Thomson - he will be this year's Russ Ortiz. Look for him to have 17 wins for the Braves. Good #3 or #4 guy.

5. Johan Santana - look for him to get some serious Cy Young consideration this year if he stays healthy. Potential 20 wins. Santana could post the kind of numbers that Derek Lowe posted in 2002 when he too was making the switch of coming out of the bullpen to being a starter.