Kept: The Jason Willey Story

Kept Players
Johnny Cueto (Round 21)
Brad Lidge (Round 12)
Andre Ethier (Round 24)
Clayton Kershaw (Round 25)
Jay Bruce (Round 18)

Last Year’s Record: 7-17
Division: Winners
Season Result: He sucked it up big time.

Keeper Decision Scale: 5.1/10

Leave it to Jason to have the most perplexing set of keepers that kind of make sense, but at the same time want to make you punch him in the face for being so stupid. But before we get to the punching Jason out, here’s what Jason got right.

The Good:
Jason gets excellent values for what is expected to be two excellent young players in Jay Bruce and Clayton Kershaw. Each should have a better feel for the majors after their first full season in the big leagues.

Brad Lidge, three years later, finally recovered from being Pujolsed in the 2005 NLCS. The 12th round may be a little high, but we may not be feeling that way six months from now if Lidge stays healthy and builds on last season’s success.

Johnny Cueto has some decent strikeout numbers last season and is a good low-risk/high-reward guy at round 21.

The good news is Andre Ethier will be hitting somewhere close to Manny Ramirez in the Dodger lineup.

The Bad:
The bad news is that Andre Ethier will be in the same clubhouse as Manny Ramirez.

Johnny Cueto plays in Cincinnati, which is like saying he plays for the Rockies of the East. While his strikeout numbers are not bad, they are going to have to get much better if he is going to survive in that ballpark and be a viable fantasy option.

Brad Lidge got Pujolsed. Do you truly ever get over that?

After Jay Bruce decided to go all Roy Hobbs in his first 10 games as a big leaguer (.432/.533/.757 – that’s a 1.290 OPS! – 3 HR, 7 RBI, 12 runs, 7 BB, 3 K in 45 PA), he finished the final 98 games looking more like Tony Pena Jr. on steroids (.237/.290/.423 – a not so impressive .713 OPS – 18 HR, 45 RBI, 107 K, 26 BB in 407 PA). Clearly, at least for Jason’s sake, Bruce is not as bad as ‘roided up Tony Pena Jr., or as good as Roy Hobbs. Where Bruce falls on that spectrum will be interesting to see now that we have an idea where his ceiling and basements are. Jason better hope Bruce has a nice living room and he spends most of his time there instead of his basement.

Clayton Kershaw is going to be good, it is just a matter of when. That uncertainty may hinder Kershaw’s value to Jason. Kershaw will just be 21 this season and it is reasonable to say that Kershaw won’t start to meet his full potential until after he has maxed out his keeper options with Jason. If Kershaw is going to speed that process up, he is going to have to get better command of his pitches. Kershaw walked 52 batters in 107 innings last season. Better command could result in a better ERA this season. Jason needs the walks to turn into strikeouts.

Overall, I hate the Cueto pick, think Bruce is a bit overrated, and think Kershaw is two years away from truly seeing his major league potential. I also think you don’t every completely get over from being Pujolsed and I’m not the biggest Ethier fan as a fantasy option. However, all five of these guys have very high ceilings, which could pay off very nicely for Jason is two or three of them could reach it.