When building a fantasy rotation, you’re going to need to add depth, and the more you can add, the better you’ll be. Fortunately, you can do a lot of that with pitching, and these guys are some good ones to look at. Best of all is that any or all of these guys will probably be available to you.
Mark Buehrle, Miami Marlins
The concern here is that Buehrle’s around the plate a lot, so he does surrender a lot of hits. But that’s really the only concern here.
The hits are more than made up for by the fact that he hardly walks anybody, so the WHIP is greatly neutralized. On top of that, he does not allow a lot of run, so the ERA will be fine.
Buehrle is pitching on a team that will give him plenty of chances to win games, and he throws a lot of innings, never logging fewer than 200 in a full season. That’s a good way to keep your staff ERA down, as it limits the damage caused by one run.
On top of all of that, Buehrle is now in the National League, so he now gets the benefit of facing a pitcher instead of nine professional hitters. This is a good middle of the rotation guy that will make your team very deep in pitching.
Dixon’s Projection’s
| IP | H | BB | ER | W | K | ERA | WHIP |
| 207 | 226 | 47 | 88 | 13 | 118 | 3.83 | 1.32 |
R.A. Dickey, New York Mets
The drawback here is the Mets are just not a very good team, so the wins aren’t likely to be high. Still, pitching in Citi Field has done good things for Dickey, who has a 3.08 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in two years as a Met.
What a guy like Dickey will do is enable you to pick up pitchers that will win a lot of games but have inflated ERA’s, like guys on the Yankees or Red Sox. Dickey will be there to provide a good balance.
Even with the fences moving in, there is no reason to think that Citi Field won’t still be a strong pitching park. The fact is that it’s hard to hit that knuckle ball, so a spacious stadium is good for the ERA. The strikeouts won’t be great, but won’t be terrible either.
Dixon’s Projection’s
| IP | H | BB | ER | W | K | ERA | WHIP |
| 205 | 198 | 52 | 78 | 13 | 129 | 3.42 | 1.22 |
Wade Davis, Tampa Bay Rays
Think of this is sort of a coupling move. I previously said Dickey would be valuable because you could then go for a guy on a good team that will win games but have a higher ERA and WHIP than you would like. Davis is that guy.
The innings will be solid, which is always good. The walk totals won’t be high, which will neutralize a lot of hits. But the Rays will win a lot of games, which means Davis will win games. That’s just as valuable as any category in fantasy baseball.
Dixon’s Projection’s
| IP | H | BB | ER | W | K | ERA | WHIP |
| 186 | 181 | 63 | 81 | 15 | 127 | 3.92 | 1.31 |
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com