Fantasy Baseball: Stroman out, Hutchison In

Your fantasy baseball drafts are probably right around the corner so here is a little bit of a catch me up for you guys last minute. I will focus on the Toronto Blue Jays a little in this post because they lost one of their more promising arms in Marcus Stroman this season due to Tommy John surgery. It will be a collective team effort to replace what the young right hander brought to the table but as far as fantasy is concerned I think the pitcher with the most to gain is Drew Hutchison.

It’s convenient that this post comes just days after Hutchison pitched four shutout innings in his latest spring training start on the road against the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore had seven projected Opening Day starters on the team and Hutchison held the Orioles to only two hits and a walk while getting two strikeouts. It’s only been two starts and its only spring training but Hutchison has yet to allow an earned run this spring for the Blue Jays. It sounds to me like he may be ready to break out in a big way, especially considering the fact that this early in the spring a lot of the younger hitters are in camp and those hitters tend to be aggressive and more finely tuned since they played in Winter Ball, the Arizona Fall League and equivalents.

Hutchison went 11-13 with a 4.48 ERA last season but did strike out a batter an inning basically with a 3.91 FIP. Hutchison put more than his fair share on base last season but he stranded most of them helping his own cause and with youth on his side he has plenty of upside this season in fantasy and will likely not be picked in the first 8-10 rounds. Hutchison is 24 years old and may be a sleeper heading into the 2015 both for the Toronto Blue Jays and your fantasy team.