Saturday, February 1, 2014

Hold Off On Pitching In 2014


 
By Will Banks
 


The fantasy baseball 2014 season is right around the corner, and people are starting to do their initial research for their draft strategy. There are always several different ways to attack a draft, but this season it would probably be wise to avoid going after starting pitching early on.

 

When you take a look at starting pitchers these last few years, there have really only been a handful of dependable starters who can be counted on to provide outstanding value. There is just too much inconsistency at the position right now, and a lot of that has to do with injuries. So many of the best pitchers in the game go through cold spells or injury issues that is just seems like a huge risk to draft them in the first, second or even third round in fantasy baseball 2014.

 

One pitcher who is the exception to the rule is Clayton Kershaw. He has been a Cy Young caliber pitcher for the last three seasons, and he should be dominant once again in fantasy baseball 2014. However, even he is not completely clear of any injury. His workload has been pretty heavy these last few years. The Dodgers might be wise to cut him back a little bit now that they have him locked in to such a long contract.

 

Pitchers such as Yu Darvish, Adam Wainwright, Felix Hernandez, Max Scherzer and more may appear to be bonafide aces, but they are simply not as consistent as top end positional talent. There are also going to be plenty of starting pitchers who come out of nowhere and post low ERAs while picking up double-digit wins. The same can’t be said quite as much for an infielder or outfielder. The smart money going into fantasy baseball 2014 is to invest in the Mike Trouts and the Miguel Cabreras of the world and wait for pitching later on.