Fantasy Baseball 2011: Mike Minor or Kyle Drabek?

I am back at it after a weekend away from writing, as I usually work on the prospect lists on the weekends. Here is a quick post on two pitching prospects who will more than likely be in their respective teams starting rotations in 2011-Braves pitcher Mike Minor and Blue Jays pitcher Kyle Drabek.

Minor had his cup of coffee in 2010 with mixed results. He appeared in 9 games, 8 as a starter, covering 40 innings, where he went 3-2, struck out 43, walked 11 with a 5.98 ERA and 1.57 WHIP. He was a bit unlucky as his BABIP was an extremely high .396 and his strand rate just 65%. He had an excellent K rate of 9.52 and BB rate of just 2.43. What is impressive was that with all the bad luck in strand rate and BABIP, his FIP was 3.77 and his xFIP was 3.86.

In his stops at AA and AAA in 2010, Minor went 6-7 with a 3.44 ERA, 1.155 WHIP and a K rate that approached 11 and BB rate of 3.4. In 120.1 innings, he struck out 146 and walked just 46 giving up just 9 HRs in the process.

Drabek also had his cup of coffee in 2010 as he made 3 starts, going 0-3 in 17 innings pitched, striking out 12 and walking 5, with an ERA of 4.76 and a WHIP of 1.35. His K rate of 6.35 was mediocre at best, but his BB rate of 2.65 was solid. His FIP of 4.08 and xFIP of 3.59 were excellent, but like Minor, covered a small sample size.

At AA New Hampshire, Drabek was 14-9 with a 2.94 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. In 162 innings, Drabek struck out 132 and walked 68, so it appears he will need to work on his control in spring training.

I think both will struggle a bit in 2011, as most young starting pitchers do, but think both are rosterable in AL/NL-only leagues, especially keeper leagues. I have stated previously, probably over at Fake Teams, that I am high on Minor on 2011 as I love pitchers with high K rates.