Henderson Alvarez – 2012 Fantasy Baseball Stud
So I’m not just one of those “dudes” who highlights “guys” you already know will be good, and writes a few thousand words telling you that they will indeed be good. “Hey, Justin Upton is going to be really good this year.” That’s one of those dudes…man that dude is the complete worst. No, that’s not what we do here at FantasyBalk.com. We provide hard-hitting, never sober, always obnoxious, never apologizing, fantasy baseball news and notes. Plus I strive to only write about 500 words on the guys I like.
Let me paint a scene for you: You are an hour (or two) into your fantasy baseball draft. Your keyboard has an ashy orange film about an inch thick from your Cheesy Puff stained fingers. You have, so far, been dominating the draft thanks to the awesome rankings provided by FantasyBalk.com (check them out here.) You are the talk of the war room. Your opponents are saying things like, “Oh man, I can’t believe you are building such a solid pitching staff even though you waited so long to grab a starter” “I can’t believe you didn’t grab Mike Napoli, Robinson Cano, Justin Verlander, insert over-ranked 2012 Fantasy Baseball player.”
So far you are absolutely pwning this draft. But here is where things could get hairy (and I am not talking about former Met Howard Johnson’s back hair.) You are just a few key pieces away from pole-vaulting yourself to the top of the pack. Prospects start flying off the board, as well as some veteran players. There goes Johan Santana, there goes Bryce Harper, what the Fukudome someone just took Kosuke! Here is where you need to be making smart picks and not just relying on Yahoo’s/ESPN’s/insert platform rankings. Here’s where you need to grab guys that will becomes Studs. Well my friends (and enemies!) Henderson Alvarez has stud written all over him (and it’s in permanent marker too.)
Now Alvarez isn’t my typical “stud” pitcher kind of a guy. He doesn’t have high K/9 upside (his k/9 last year was only 5.65 in 63.2 major league innings). That will very rarely get-it-done…especially in the AL East. But what Alvarez does have going for him gets me pretty darn excited. Alvarez has a power sinker and is able to rack up a ton of ground balls (53.5% in the majors), and he has incredible control. He walked just 1.7 batters per nine innings in the minors, and he issued just 1.13 BB/9 last year (his rookie year.) How do you beat the Yankees, Red Sox, etc? Keep the ball in the park and don’t put them on base for free. Knowledge dropped! He currently has an O-Rank on Yahoo of 294, and an ADP on mockdraftcentral.com of 270. It’s a shame the guy can’t be pitching in San Diego or Seattle. Oh Wellz. The good news with a guy like Alvarez, is that you’ll know in about three starts if he is worth staying on your team or not. If he is indeed inducing the ground balls, and not walking anybody he could be a really great late round pick.
My 2012 projections for Henderson Alvarez: 11-7/3.78/1.18/105 (155 innings)
I see him being my final starter on quite a few of my teams this year. Let the great “Kel and the Henderson” experiment begin! 552 words…man I need to stop overachieving.
