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It’s too easy for a pitcher without a track record to run off a single season of 15+ wins, see 1999: Bottenfield, Kent. For the Rockies, Jorge De La Rosa had 16 wins, Ubaldo Jimenez had one less, but Jimenez is 3 years younger and his stats have been trending upward. I tried to mostly look at strikeouts and ERA over wins because wins can be very fickle to the whims of the offense of your team. Lincecum was the strikeout leader by far last year, but c’mon, Chris Carpenter missed a few starts and was downright dominant when he did pitch giving up very few runs. If you need further justification for his name being above Timmy’s, remember this is a Cardinals blog!

I think the elite starters end with Josh Johnson. There are a few more good solid closers that have good job security AND ability, but the guys I picked all have track record, stuff and lack of very recent injury. Half the fun of playing fantasy baseball is finding out who will close next. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Billy Wagner returning to his old self very soon. Keep an eye on him through spring training and you can probably steal him in your draft. And with all due respect to this being a Cardinals blog as referenced earlier, there is no way I’m going anywhere near Ryan Franklin.