Getting the jump on injured, rehabbing or struggling players can help win your fantasy leagues. Stash or Trash? tells you what your play is for these guys.Blue Jays pitcher Shaun Marcum made a successful first step on Monday in recovering from Tommy John surgery. He pitched for Class A-Advanced Dunedin, throwing three innings and allowing zero runs on two hits with a strikeout. This was his first game action since September of 2008.
Marcum burst onto the scene in 2007, winning 12 games and striking out 122 batters in 159 innings. He followed up that performance in 2008 by lowering his ERA to 3.39 and winning nine games before being shut down for surgery.
Marcum went largely undrafted prior to the 2009 fantasy baseball season as many were weary of his promise to be back by August. He now looks like he could make good on that promise.
After three strong innings on Monday, Marcum will throw again in Dunedin on Saturday before being reevaluated.
So, where should Marcum fit into your fantasy outlook?
If Marcum does get back in August, he'll be pitching for a team that scores lots of runs (their 418 runs are seventh in MLB), giving him ample opportunities to succeed. Prior to the injury, Marcum was doing some really good things to develop as a pitcher. As mentioned above, his ERA was dropping. But he was also seeing gains in his strikeout to walk ratio and a huge drop in his walk rate.
If you have an available DL spot on your fantasy team, you could do a lot worse than grabbing Marcum right now, in any format, and stashing him for the next four to six weeks.
If you do not have a DL spot available, you may want to wait for a while before clogging up your free bench spots. Give Marcum a few more outings before pulling the trigger on him.
