Starting Pitching 2008

It seems there's more quality pitching than ever before. In my view, there are 45 good fantasy starters this season.There's three guys coming back from injury this year in Chris Carpenter, Francisco Liriano, and the chicken fighter Pedro Martinez. Liriano has 177 strikeouts in 144 career innings. Watch him in spring training. You could get a top 10 guy in the late rounds. Carpenter pitched a big 6 total innings last year. Thanks Chris, you were my 2nd overall pick. Another guy to watch in spring training. Pedro is back and if he can keep the San Diego Chicken and those terrorists from PETA off his back, he could be a nice late round pick up.

This is to me, the most debatable postion. 3-30 could be in pretty much any order. Here's the ones I like best. I doubt very seriously they'll match any other site you'll look at. When I look at pitching I look at strikeouts first and WHIP (walks+hits per innings pitched). If you don't let people get on base, they certainly can't score. I also look at ERA and almost as importantly, their team's ability to win the games after they come out in the 6th or 7th since managers are too wussy to let most pitchers go.

1-Johan Santana (Mets) Enough said. He's a top 5 overall in any league this year. 235 Ks in 219 innings/1.07 WHIP/3.33 ERA

2-Jake Peavy (Padres) Cy Young winner led the majors in strikeouts, WHIP, and ERA. Let's hope he doesn't have a setback like in 2006 after posting similar numbers in 2005. 240 Ks in 223 innings/1.06 WHIP/2.54 ERA

3-Erik Bedard (Ms) Trade to the M's will make him even better. Batters hit at a big .212 against him last year. WOW! 221 Ks in 182 innings/1.09 WHIP/3.16 ERA

4-Brandon Webb (D-Backs) Ex-Kentucky Wildcat. Must be a champion. He won't have to be the only streak stopper this year with Haren on board. It should take pressure off the entire team and propel them to the NL West crown. 194 Ks in 236 innings/1.19 WHIP/3.01 ERA

5-Josh Beckett (Red Sox) Could have been the World Series MVP. Next to Peavy, he may have the nastiest stuff in baseball. He needs to shave that crap under his lip. 194 Ks in 200 innings/1.14 WHIP/3.27 ERA

6-Aaron Harang (Reds) Keeping an ERA under 4.00 in Great American is a good thing. He eats up innings and will throw you a good complete game every now and again. 218 Ks in 231 innings/1.14 WHIP/3.73 ERA

7-Dan Haren (D-Backs) Moving to the National league and to a better defensive team will improve all of Haren's numbers in 2008. 192 Ks in 222 innings/1.21 WHIP/3.07 ERA

8-Scott Kazmir (D-Rays) This is a strikeout machine if he can stay healthy for an entire year. Finally posted 200 innings in 2007. 239 Ks in 206 innings/1.38 WHIP/3.48 ERA

9-C.C. Sabathia (Indians) 209 Ks in 241 innings/1.14 WHIP/3.21 ERA

10-Cole Hamels (Phillies) Another dominant lefty. He's still only 24 years old but missed a month last year with shoulder issues. 177 Ks in 183 innings/1.12 WHIP/3.39 ERA.

11-Rich Hill (Cubs) Hill was only 11-8 in his first full season. The Cubs are better adn he'll get 200 Ks in 2008. 183 Ks in 195 innings/1.19 WHIP/3.92 ERA

12-John Smoltz (Braves) Adding a gold glover like Texeria for the entire season will help the Brave's D. He only had 47 walks all year. He's old but still bringing it. 197 Ks in 205 innings/1.18 WHIP/3.11 ERA.

13-Chris Young (Padres) Only 9 wins in 2007 was surprising. 1.69 ERA at home was awesome. He held righties to a cool .155 batting average. That was .155 if you missed it. He's a Princeton grad so he'll figure out how to improve his road ERA. 167 Ks in 173 innings/1.10 WHIP/3.12 ERA

14-Javier Vasquez (White Sox) Vasquez reverted back to the Vasquez of old in 2007. 213 Ks in 216 innings/1.14 WHIP/3.74 ERA.

15-John Lackey (Angels) He should be around the 20 win mark again playing with that Angels D and lineup. Their outfield D is awesome with Hunter, Vlad, and Matthews or Wiltis. How can a ball fall out there? 179 Ks in 224 innings/1.21 WHIP/3.01 ERA.

16-Roy Oswalt (Astros) Roy's ERA has risen ever so slightly over the past three years. It was his first over 3.00 in the past three years. His strikeouts are down over that time too. He's still a warrior and loves to win. His numbers don't jump out but he's still a solid fantasy guy. 154 Ks in 212 innings/1.33 WHIP/3.18 ERA

17-James Shields (D-Rays) Sheilds just doesn't walk people. His only downfall is that he plays for the D-Rays which only netted him 12 Wins in 2007. 184 Ks in 215 innings/1.11 WHIP/3.85 ERA.

18-Justin Verlander (Tigers) Pitching with the Tiger's lineup scoring runs for you will get Verlander over the 20 win mark. He was 18-6 last year. 183 Ks in 201 innings/1.23 WHIP/3.66 ERA.

19-Felix Hernandez (Ms) He's still only 22 years old. His hits were up and Ks down in 2007. I'm still not completely sold. 165 Ks in 190 innings/1.38 WHIP/3.92 ERA

20-Tim Linceum (Giants) Fantastic rookie season for Timmy. His big negative is that he plays for the Giants and they'll be scraping the bottom of the NL West all year long. Another question is can he pitch 200 innings to make him a big time starter? 150 Ks in 146 innings/1.28 WHIP/4.00 ERA.

21-Roy Halladay (Blue Jays) Roy needs to find 2006 in 2008. All of his numbers were down. 139 Ks in 225 innings/1.24 WHIP/3.71 ERA.

22-Daisuke Matsusaka (Red Sox) 15-12 record wasn't so wonderful. His Ks are wonderful. He might be a big sleeper in his 2nd major league season. 201 Ks in 204 innings/1.32 WHIP/4.40 ERA

23-Yuvani Gallardo (Brewers) As a rookie, Gallardo went 9-5. His numbers are really good. 101 Ks in 110 innings/1.27 WHIP/3.67 ERA

24-Carlos Zambrano (Cubs) Carlos is still a head case. If he could get some good medication, he'd be a top 5 pitcher. He has games where his head blows up and he gets you negative points. I'd love to slap him in the head like Michael Barrett did. Still, he's got the goods and the Cubs are also good. He should see 20 wins. 177 Ks in 216 innings/1.33 WHIP/3.95 ERA.

25-A.J. Burnett (Blue Jays) Batters hit .214 against him. More strikeouts than walks is always a good fantasy thing. The negative is only 165 innings after 135 in 2006. He's always an injury risk. 176 Ks in 165 innings/1.19 WHIP/3.75 ERA

26-Chris Carpenter (Cards) Who knows after a major surjury and missing all but 6 innings of 2007. I really believe the Cardinals are close to crap as a team. I'm landing him low b/c he burned me last year. I'd still love to pick him up as my 5th or 6th pitcher somehow. Watch spring training carefully to make sure he's healthy.

27-Ted Lilly (Cubs) Two straight 15 win seasons. 174 Ks in 207 innings/1.14 WHIP/3.83 ERA

28-Fausto Carmona (Indians) After going 1-10 as a rookie, Fausto turned it around big going 19-8 in 2007. He had a 2.36 ERA after the all-star break. His only downside is a low number of strikeouts. 137 Ks in 206 innings/1.21 WHIP/3.06 ERA

29-John Maine (Mets) Opponents only batted .235 against him. He's equally tough on righties and lefties. He's got to limit his walks to match the batting average against him. 180 Ks in 191 innings/1.27 WHIP/3.91 ERA

30-Kelvim Escobar (Angels) The Angels D is awesome. He may start the year on the DL though. 160 Ks in 195 innings/1.27 WHIP/3.40 ERA.

***Injury/comeback players............Rich Harden (pitched only 27 innings in 2007), Randy Johnson (injury plagued 2007), Dontrelle Willis (Can he revive his career in Detroit Rock City?), Jason Schmitt (might start 2008 healthy), Pedro Martinez, Franciso Liriano
***Young stars.............Clay Buchholz, Homer Bailey, Jered Weaver, Phil Hughes, Chad Billingsley, Joba Chamberlain, Dustin McGowan, Matt Cain

MORE TO COME LATER.................................