Target & Avoid MIAMI MARLINS

Many Marlins’ fans could not wait to see last year’s season end. They had one of the best Fantasy players slump and then go down with an injury, their best SP battled to only nine start before being shut down, their closer getting caught with a false name and their LF demoted for being juvenile and leading the league in “tweets”.  Now it is 2012. The Marlins have new uniforms, logo and name change. They will showcase their new stadium on opening day. They have a new manager and led the off season with 3 major free agent acquisitions in Reyes, Buehrle, and Bell. This team should be able to garner many more wins than last years 72 win campaign.

TARGET

Anibal Sanchez – SP

In most of the mock drafts I have partaken in this winter I have noticed Sanchez is always the last 200K SP to be taken off the board. That is good for you come draft time and bad for your competition. The 27 year old right-hander posted a stellar 3.67 ERA in nearly 200 innings last year. His K/BB ratio of 202/64 is nearly ace-like. What even bumps his value up more to me is the new ball park. It is suppose to have cavernous dimensions that will help this pitcher even more. Not to mention he is scheduled for free agency after the season.  Combine a 200K a year SP with pitcher-friendly park, entering his free agency year along with a more potent run scoring offense and you have yourself possibly one of the greatest sleepers in the draft this year. I will be reaching for him in all drafts this year.

AVOID

Josh Johnson – SP

Everything I mentioned about external factors helping Sanchez applies to Johnson this season as well. The big difference is Johnson is coming off a major shoulder injury.  He has started a throwing regiment over the last couple of weeks and the Marlins are hoping (their word) their ace can start on opening day. What I am telling you is he is great when healthy but the risk is too high at the moment to draft him as high as the 12th SP off the board. The range from many perts varies from that 12^th ranking to 55^th SP taken. I am leaning for the latter end of the spectrum. I do not want the ace of my fantasy staff going into the season as a high draft pick to be less than dominant coming off injury.  The last thing to remember is Johnson has only 1 MLB season under his belt with 30 or more starts.