In life, we often don’t have a choice in who we love. The same holds true for fantasy baseball fans. Right or wrong, rational or irrational, we are drawn to certain players each season., maybe through hype or a glimpse of what could be from the previous season. In this series of articles, I would like to spotlight just who you should be “crushing” on in 2009.
It is hard to describe what I have for Brett Cecil as a full-on crush. I am definitely “in-like” at this point though. The twenty-two year old was drafted as a supplemental first round pick in 2007 by the Toronto Blue Jays. For three years at Maryland University, he played as a reliever. As they had done with other farm relievers like Shaun Marcum and David Bush, Toronto liked Cecil’s stuff enough to try to convert him to be a starter. In short stints, his fastball can jump to the mid-nineties, but it’s best if he works in the 90-92 mph range because it allows him two-plane movement on his pitches and induces plenty of ground outs.
Demoted at the end of the spring with a solid 3.09 era and 12 k’s in 11 2/3 innings pitched, Cecil at least gave Blue Jay management something to think about. However, when the object of your crush doesn’t have a job, this, obviously, sends up a red flag. Nobody wants to commit to someone who won’t pull there own weight. Someone who will just sit in reserve and take up space with no prospect of or desire to earn their keep. (hmm, my wife may think that sounds familiar).
But fear not, my friends! The Toronto Blue Jays have decided to field a starting rotation, who aside from Roy Halladay and the very mediocre Jesse Litsch, has a total of 92 major league innings pitched by the third, fourth, and fifth starters. Richmond, Romero, and Purcey. So Cecil, who, with the promotion of Travis Snider, has become the Jays top prospect, will wait in Double A ball for his chance, which I am predicting could come a couple months into the season or surely by All-Star break, or even sooner should an injury occur.
So if you have room in your reserve slot of your team for a cheap (for now) arm that with a little luck could develop into a solid #3 or possible #2 pitcher, go ahead and grab Cecil before you have to fight for his services on the waiver wire.
Mike Koepp
Apr 19. 2009
Toronto has a decent farm system.
And your man crush was enough to offer me a decent farm player in return for Cecil. Chris Coghlan I believe.