Empty the Bench

Anybody who is a Twins fan or who has owned Johan Santana on their fantasy team knows he typically starts very slowly. It usually takes him a while to get his feel for the changeup, and he’s even been known to skip a few over the plate in spring training. He always gets on track to post some of the best overall numbers in baseball, but in the months of April and March he has a very un-Santana career ERA of 4.42. Yesterday, Johan threw five scorless innings and only gave up one hit (a nub hit that he misplayed himself). What was important about the start, though, was that he had unseasonable control over that changeup, the most devestating pitch in his arsenal.

“He’s got a pretty good feel for that, early,” catcher Joe Mauer said. “Which is good for us and probably bad for some other people.”

The day he won his second American League Cy Young Award, Santana maintained that there was room to improve. It’s apparent that getting off to a fast start is one way of achieving that, and getting control of his changeup could fuel such a start.

“Before, my changeup wasn’t there at this point,” Santana said following his 62-pitch outing. “Now it is there. I’ve got a good feeling.”

If Santana is locked in already, his sky-high draft stock can only improve. Traditional wisdom in fantasy baseball is to lock up a slugger early, as pitchers can be very fickle and injury prone. It’s the same thinking behind the unwritten rule that you always draft a stud running back in the first round of a football draft. However, as consistent and as far ahead of the pack as Johan is, he represents the Peyton Manning of baseball. After Albert Pujols goes off the board, it wouldn’t be a mistake to take him with any other first round pick.

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