2008 Fantasy Rankings - Starting Pitchers

I tend to be very conservative when projecting pitchers' statistics. The reason for this is that stats like wins, ERA, and WHIP can vary wildly from season to season. I am a little less conservative when it comes to strikeouts because there is more correlation in K's from one season to the next than in most stats. So, before I get thousands of comments complaing about so-and-so's low win projection, just realize than I am well aware of the conservative nature of the pitching projections. I also didn't include saves because it's zero for everyone.

FV stands for Fantasy Value. Methodology found here.



Notes

• I adore Matsuzaka. I've laid out the case for him previously. It revolves around a good K rate and good run support.
• The Red Sox rotation gave me some problems. I basically just assumed all six of Beckett, Daisuke, Wakefield, Schilling, Lester, and Buchholz would get a bunch of innings. Obviously, that can't be true and right now Buchholz appears to be the odd-man-out, unfortunately. But, if he earns a spot in the rotation, you can see how highly I think of him.
• Yes, Bonderman had a rough 2007, but he's being way undervalued. I like him almost as much as his teammate, Verlander, who's being drafted seven or eight rounds earlier.
• McGowan ranks pretty highly, thanks to a good K/9 projection of 7.9.
• I like Mark Prior a lot if he's healthy. That's a big "if."
• Maine is going to rack up K's and wins feasting on some of those NL teams, with the Mets offense (and above-average defense) backing him up.
• I listed the top 81 so that Dontrelle Willis would show up. He hasn't been good for a while and that was playing in the NL. Now, he's going to the big boys' league and he's going to get lit up. The Tigers will probably score enough runs that he'll still be able to win a good chunk of games, but that's not enough to make up for his high ERA and WHIP, and low strikeouts.
• I like Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum a lot, but that Giants offense is just plain terrible. I may have been generous even projecting 10 wins for each of them.
• It looks like Joba Chamberlain is going to start the year in the bullpen, but I don't see that lasting long. He'll be in the rotation at some point and he'll be mowing hitters down.