Gio Gonzalez
Gonzalez's problem has never been his stuff. He has three plus pitches with good movement on all of them and shows the poise on the mound of a much older pitcher. His problem throughout his minor league career and brief major league career has been his lack of control. Since his promotion to Double-A in 2006, his walk rates have been continually high, and last year he walked almost a batter an inning in Oakland. Gio is worth bidding on if you're playing for next year because the former first round pick does have the raw stuff and he may have an opportunity in Oakland; the blogosphere is rife with speculation that Gonzalez will slide into the rotation in the next couple of weeks and that's why the team called him up now. I'd only bid $5 in a non-keeper league but maybe $10 in a keeper league. It's a gamble, but Gonzalez's ceiling is still very high.
Phil Hughes
Last year I wrote a fairly negative piece about Hughes, noting that he wasn't throwing his change, his fastball looked like it had lost velocity, and that his curve wasn't as good as advertised by the touts. On Tuesday, Hughes looked like the prime prospect we all thought he was entering 2008. His fastball had its zip back, the curve was a sweeping pitch that was hard to hit, and the Tigers couldn't make good contact against him all night. Fangraphs says that Hughes is throwing a cutter this year, but it looked more to me like Hughes was changing speeds effectively. If that's the case, I think the American League's going to wind up being sorry that Chien Ming Wang was pitching hurt. I don't want to get too gushy over one start, but Hughes could wind up being the best pitcher to come through the FAAB wires this year, barring a trade from the National League. Bid $45-50 if you really need the pitching. A pitcher with a ceiling this high won't come along again for some time.
Matt LaPorta
Not too many people doubt that Matt LaPorta's eventually going to have a huge impact. The question is whether he's an immediate impact player or if he'll struggle for a while before hitting his stride. His overall minor league numbers (39/119/.292 in 552 AB) make owners understandably drool, but LaPorta's struggles in AA/AAA in 2008 make me wonder if he'll have some pitch recognition/contact issues in the majors at first. No matter what, he's a pure power prospect who could still hit 15-20 HR this year if he gets the chance. Ah, but that's another issue. David Dellucci seems to be getting fairly regular PT and Ben Francisco is still lurking as well. I hope LaPorta's up to play, but Tribe manager Eric Wedge has made some screwy decisions thus far. You still have to bid $65 and hope for the best here. Like Hughes, LaPorta could be the biggest impact player to come up all year, and you'll get him for almost five months as opposed to only 2-3 for an N.L. import.
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