There is no doubt of Johnson’s potential, but unfortunately it all hinges on a shoulder that may or may not be able to handle a full work load this season.  If you pay for a reasonable basement stat line – indicating there is potential for him to miss time, but not to the extent he did last season – from Josh Johnson on draft day then you take out the high risk/high reward that is attached to owning him.  That basement is probably somewhere between his 2010 and 2011 season performances, which could look  like 150 IP, 9 wins, a 2.50 ERA and 142 strikeouts.   

Following new manager Ozzie Guillen from the Windy City to South Beach, Mark Buehrle has thrown at least 200 innings in all 11 major league seasons as a starter, and even though he does not strike out a lot of batters he does have two big assets in his corner heading into 2012 – moving out of one of the most hitter friendly ballparks in major league baseball and heading from the American League to the National League.  Buehrle is what he is, but will still probably outperform his draft day investment even without a high strikeout total.

Anibal Sanchez was tagged as a 2011 breakout candidate by some, and did turn in an impressive season despite winning only 8 games.  Now at age 28, and six seasons of experience behind him, don’t look for more improvement this year, but he should produce another solid showing in 2012, similar to last season’s numbers but with a higher win total.