Pelfrey, Mike

Mike Pelfrey has several things going for him this season, chief amongst them is that he has been able to get on the mound regularly and he's only 26. Trust me, if you're a Mets fan you know what I am talking about. He's pitching in a very good park for his game, it depressed home runs and increased strikeouts. The Mets as a team struck out 564 at Citifield, but only 467 on the road bettering only the hapless Nationals and Pirates. Pelfrey mimicked that percentage.

Pelfrey is the kind of pitcher that lives on the edge. He possesses average control despite a lower than average K:BB rate - according to K:BB Tom Glavine had worse control than Clayton Kershaw, so please don't fall into the mistake of equating K:BB with control. And he doesn't miss bats so he's always got baserunners on, a career WHIP of 1.49 which is not going to get it done. Combine that WHIP with a career strikeout rate just over five per nine innings and it's not hard to see where his pretty good 3.72 ERA of 2008 became his terrible 5.03 in 2009.

But Steve, you have him ranked as "go the extra dollar?" Indeed I do. Pelfrey could be this year's Randy Wolf...well, Randy Wolf lite. Wolf went for $1 in expert auctions such a Tour Wars and then went on to be perhaps as high as the 15th best starter in fantasy last season (if you listened to my picks last season, you're very welcome). Pelfrey won't be top 15 because he doesn't have the strikeouts in his bag and he really can't limit baserunners. But being only 26 he could easily be better (Citifield) than he was in 2008, when he struck out 110 with a 3.72 ERA. A little extra bullpen support, pick up his strand rates to a more normal figure and you have 3.50-1.30-120. And for $2 I am signing up for that.