August 23, 2012

Value Picks

Starting Pitching for 8/23/12

by Derek Carty

Your usual host, Paul Sporer, is away this week crossing things off his bucket list.  Things like meeting Robert Pattinson, teaching tortoises how to french kiss, making snow angels in horse manure, and trying to figure out why people find Curb Your Enthusiasm funny… or, you know, doing normal, work-related stuff.  He wasn’t very specific…  In any case, I’ll be filling in for him today with VP and tomorrow with Weekly Planner.  Here goes…

Arrivals

Patrick Corbin (Yahoo! 14%, ESPN 22%, CBS 37%) has quietly put together an impressive string of starts.  While he struggled in his first go-round earlier in the year (5.27 ERA) and pitched out of the bullpen in his second back in July (5 G, 0 GS), Trevor Bauer’s struggles opened up a rotation spot, and Corbin has run with it.  Through four starts, he has a 2.77 ERA with 24 strikeouts and six walks in 26 innings.

Corbin doesn’t have lights-out stuff or the ace-level upside of fellow Snakes prospects Bauer, Skaggs (who I’ll get to later), and Archie Bradley, but he does have enough to get the job done to go along with good control.

Paul gave you a heads up weeks ago, so hopefully you already stashed Brett Anderson (Yahoo! 19%, ESPN 15%, CBS 52%) in your fantasy league.  If not, he’s still available in plenty of Yahoo! and ESPN games, but he’s going quickly and will continue to do so after his strong debut (7 IP, 1 ER, 6 K, 0 BB); he started the week essentially at zero percent ownership.  Anderson has been a strong fantasy play in all league formats since his rookie year in 2009… when he manages to stay healthy.  Unfortunately, he’s battled a number of maladies in his brief career and is now coming off Tommy John surgery.

When on the mound (and not the mend… yup, I went there), Anderson has terrific control of an arsenal built for groundballs.  His four-seamer clocked in at 93 mph in 2009 and 2010, although it fell to 91 mph before his injury last year and sat there on Tuesday.  It’ll be interesting to see if his velocity rises, but his brutal breaking ball should still allow him to strike out an above-average number of batters.  He’s well worth a play in most mixed leagues.

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