Ervin Santana will make his Atlanta Braves debut this Thursday afternoon. Since it is going to be the first time we will be seeing him in a Braves uniform it seems only fitting to write a fantasy profile on the 31 year-old righty.
Santana had an amazing 2013 that included his career best in ERA at a mark of 3.24. His 3.24 snuck him into the top 25 in all of baseball and put his name on the map. Things were not looking good for this guy a few short years ago but he has revitalized his career in a big way. His 23 quality starts from last season is also another great sign that maybe this guy has figured something out.
We know that this guy is good but the question remains; should you draft him? The answer to that should without a doubt be yes. He is being drafted in roughly the 20th round and he is owned in 99 percent of leagues. Think about how obvious of a decision this is. For one you have a potential top 30 pitcher that you are drafting in the TWENTIETH ROUND! The risk to reward outcome is amazing and the fact that you won’t have to reach for him is even better.
The only risk that you are taking with drafting this guy is the same as many other guys, injuries. You can not control if a player does or doesn’t get injured so this shouldn’t even be taken into consideration. If I’m playing the devils advocate I could say something like, “Well this is the first year that he has really proved himself.” To that I would say, yes you are true but why does that necessarily mean that he won’t be good?
The stock in Santana is continuing to rise by the day. If you are in a smart league than you most likely haven’t had your draft yet. The reasoning for this is so you can weeyn out all of the injured players. The only negative side effect to this is that people are going to catch on to how good Santana really is and could slowly be rising up peoples charts. Over the next week or so keep an eye on his progression. If you like what you see go ahead and take the risk on him earlier than the 20th. If you don’t like what you see move on to the next one.