However, Arizona’s rotation may be somewhat overlooked.  While their staff may not be among the league’s elite, there are certainly fantasy relevant guys in the rotation.

Although Saunders won 17 games in 2008 and 16 games in 2009, he really was not that good and only accumulated four Wins Above Replacement (WAR) over those two seasons.  

Saunders’s ERA has been over 4.40 in all but one fluke season, and his career K/9 is 5.14.  As you can see, Saunders is no staff ace but more like a third or fourth starter on a team with a very thin rotation.  He might be useful in deep NL-only leagues, but for where you will have to draft him to get him, you should probably avoid him altogether.

Innings are not likely to be a concern with Hudson going forward because his workload only increased 22.2 IP from ’09 to ’10, so he should be able to top 200 IP in ’11 and pitch deep enough into games to rack up some wins.  

Moreover, his ERA will spike but is sure to stay under 4.00, and he could strike out close to a batter per inning.  That means Hudson should be viewed as a borderline top-30 pitcher, and a guy that I plan on taking in a lot of drafts this year because I assume that having him at no. 28 in my rankings means I am higher on him than most.

Even if you set the workload increase aside, Kennedy is a bit of an injury risk, but 194 innings is a scary number for a guy who has never thrown more than 160 innings at any level in the minors.  

If healthy, Kennedy has the talent to be a top-40 pitcher, but you would be wise to avoid the risk and draft him only as a sixth starter (if at all) in ten-team mixed leagues.

It sure was fun bashing Joe Saunders and telling you about two exciting, young pitchers, but the rest of Arizona’s rotation is about as unexciting as possible.  

If you are an NL-only league owner, you should hope Enright and Galarraga get the starts because Duke is completely useless.  Duke strikes out no one (4.71 career K/9) and is an absolute WHIP killer (1.48 for his career, 1.65 in 2010).  

Enright and Galarraga should be able to keep their WHIP under 1.40, post an ERA at or around 4.50, and their K/9 could be around 6.00.  They certainly will not single-handedly win any NL-only leagues for you with those numbers, but they could be decent contributors at the back end of your fantasy rotation.