Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Orlando Hernandez, Mike Pelfrey

When you have Santana at the top, you automatically have a great pitching staff. He is the ace of the major leagues and is looking at a huge season, not only because he moves to the National League, but unlike the Twins, the Mets can actually score runs! Those two or three no decisions that come from his team’s inability to score will be wins in Flushing. Pedro, if healthy, has shown that he is still a very effective pitcher. Oliver Perez should take the next step towards dominant this year, if he could just cut down on those walks. Expect 16-18 wins for him. Maine had a stellar first half, and then fell back to earth after the All-Star Break. Orlando Hernandez might be 55 years old, but is still getting batters out, and if Mike Pelfrey ever figures it out, he’s got the stuff to be a extraordinary pitcher. The Mets’ are going to strike a lot of hitters out this year. The top four in their rotation are all guys who average nearly a strike out an inning. And as stated before, their offense is good enough, that even some days when the starters don’t bring their best stuff, they still might be able to win an 9-7 type of game.

Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsusaka, Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield, Clay Buchholz, Curt Schilling, Bartolo Colon

Beckett easily could have won the AL Cy Young Award last year, as he was the only pitcher to win 20 games. Outside of his first year in Boston, Josh has had a good consistent career, and is the ace of this staff and one of the first five pitchers off the board in most fantasy drafts. Matsusaka struggled last year in his first season in America, but he still won 15 games and fanned 200 guys. It was a year of transition for Dice, a new team, a new country, a new language, and a new 5-man rotation (instead of six in Japan). Considering all he had to handle, I’d say he did quite well. Jon Lester has been one of the more inspirational stories to come along in recent memories. One of the top pitching prospects for the Sox, he beat cancer and came back to pitch in the majors in 2007. Be a little wary of his 11-2 career record, he’s on a very good team and his ERA is over 4.50. Walking batters has been his biggest problem thus far, and if he can get that under control, expect him to win 10-13 games. Tim Wakefield may pitch until he is in his late 40s (not to mention keep Doug Mirabelli employed), and he has never been exciting, but he will eat up innings and win double digit games. Clay Buchholz is one of the more exciting prospects to come down the pipe in a while. He has dynamite stuff, and even threw a no-hitter in his second career start. With the injury to Curt Schilling, Buchholz will get his chance to prove he belongs right now. Curt Schilling will be missing at least the first half of the season, maybe more. If he’s able to come back, he will give the Sox a huge second half push. Boston brought in former Cy Young winner Colon to try to resurrect his career. He is basically insurance against injuries at this point, but could prove valuable if one of their starters is unable to go.

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1. Johan Santana—MIN—Since 2004, no one has been as dominating as Santana, as he won two Cy Young awards in that time. From ’04 to ’06 he averaged 18 wins, 230 innings, and almost 250 strikeouts to only 48 walks. He stumbled a bit last season (a season most other pitchers would take in a heartbeat), but between moving to the NL, and getting on a team that actually scores some runs, 2008 could be a HUGE year for Santana. It is possible for him to hit 20 wins for the second time in his career, and approaching 300 strikeouts is within reach. Only two concerns come with Johan. One is he has logged so many innings over the past four years, it is possible an injury could pop up. Second, the Mets have had a knack for getting great new players who seems to under perform once they hit Flushing. I don’t see either happening, Santana is a no brainer as the first pitcher off the board.
2. Jake Peavy—SD—Peavy won the pitcher’s triple crown last year, as he led the National League in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. Peavy has a dominating fastball and a slider that often has some unhittable break on it. Being in San Diego is both a blessing and a curse. His home ballpark is very spacious, keeping many balls in the yard. The curse comes from the Padres offense. Many times Peavy will end up with a loss or no decision simply because the Pads couldn’t score. Peavy only gave up more than three runs five times last season as he mowed down NL hitters. His is just one year removed from a sub-.500 record and 4.00+ ERA season, however, I believe it was just a blip on his career. Although he usually doesn’t excel in the wins category, Peavy is superb in all others and should be the second pitcher taken.

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