By Adam Forsyth
Yaay!!! In today’s Special Ed. of The Shallow & The Deep we take a closer look at a few fantasy baseball pitchers who are getting set to come off the disabled list…Yaaaaaaaay!!! A solid DL stashee can garner big results down the line! Yaaaaaaay!!!
The Shallow
Justin Duchscherer – Starting Pitcher
If Duchy could just remain healthy, he would be a premiere fantasy option in any and all types of leagues. Many feel pain in their own arm when the name is even mentioned after so many stints on the DL after being a starting pitcher, then shifted to a set-up guy, followed by a brief run as the A’s closer, followed by a return to a starting pitcher.
It’s obvious that the A’s are frustrated with his inability to play pain free and are hoping that this long layoff will help him join the club and finish the season with the rotation.
The 31-year olds 22 starts last season (along with 141+ IP) were career highs and the 2.54 ERA and 10 W’s were also a surge to toss his name into one of the upper echelon SP’s in the fantasy world. The most impressive stats; however, were his 1.00 WHIP and .210 BAA, which put him up in the extremely elite bracket. One would be wise not to expect a seamless “pick-up where I left off” type finish in his long journey back, but you can be optimistic that he hasn’t lost it.
Pitching one more rehab start in AAA-Sacramento is the probable scenario with the South Dakota native returning to Oakland sometime in early August. That will give him approximately 9-11 starts to show his goods, making him worthy for teams looking for a boost in their pitching line heading into the post season of fantasy.
The Deep
Shaun Marcum – Starting Pitcher
I proudly declare myself as having a huge “Man-Crush” on Shaun Marcum, as he was one of my secret weapons heading into the 2008 fantasy season and after having a tremendous start to his campaign a couple of nagging injuries bumped his numbers up a tad, leaving his line impressive, but not as spectacular as they could have been.
On top of injuries of the nagging kind, Marcum require good’ol Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his pitching arm, sending him to a year of rehab and rehabilitation. Insert the words determination, hard-work and a will to exceed any expectations and this Toronto Blue Jay is working towards seeing his way back not only ahead of schedule, but some have even projected a mid-to-late August return. That is great news for a team that has continued to deal with blow after blow to their starting rotation.
Marcum ran into a bit of a bump in his last rehab start, tweaking his back. Although a minor setback, it appears to slide his return a bit and it’s looking more likely that he may get about a month and a half to grind out his trade at the major league level. Like him or not, you just HAVE to respect his will and love for the game. There really is no other reason that he would be doing this. For that, I have to suggest to keep him and his rehab under watch, in hopes that the 2008 form is continued, making him worthy of a pick-up in deep mixed and AL-only leagues for this season.
