Sore Elbow Keeps Johan Santana From 1st Spring Start

Johan Santana has been the model of consistency over the past five seasons. He's thrown over 200 innings in each season since 2004. He's struck out 200 or more batters in each of those seasons as well. What he won't do to begin the 2009 season is make his first spring training start.

Tenderness in Santana's pitching elbow has caused the Mets to scratch their ace from Friday's game against Italy, where he was scheduled to throw one inning.

Now, before you "the sky is falling" folks overreact and do something crazy, listen up. Take a deep breath ... hold it for a second ... now let's calmly talk about why this isn't such a big deal for your fantasy squad.

• This is Spring Training people! Players aren't supposed to be at their best yet. In fact, this time of year was created for working out kinks just like this one.

• Santana has a history or elbow soreness like this in early spring. And, as mentioned earlier, Santana's history is pretty good.

• This move is completely precautionary. Santana is still scheduled, and still expects, to make his next appearance; a regular exhibition game on Tuesday. Here's what's going to happen to you Santana owners over the next few days:

The fantasy GM's in your league, the real sharks, are going to shoot you a trade request with two or three serviceable players and tell you that you're a fool for not trading Santana now while you can still get some value for him and before his elbow explodes into a million pieces. Don't let any of this rhetoric get to you. You can't trade Santana after one missed exhibition start in late February. At least not for anything less than a player of first round talent.

For those of you who haven't drafted your fantasy team yet or are waiting for your auction to start. Santana's Average Draft Position before this news came out was 17.81, and that's where it should stay. Santana is still a mid-second round selection and should be one of the first two pitchers taken off of the board. If you're the type of fantasy GM who likes to take the best starting pitcher, feel comfortable still doing so. Feel comfortable bidding anywhere from $28 to $36 for Santana if you're an auction league GM.

Thursday's news shouldn't make you treat Johan Santana any differently from a fantasy perspective.