As far as my depth goes there is this guy who fell to me at pick number 30 - quote courtesy of BP:Athletics wrote: As far as the top rankings go, I'm not sure where you found that magical rotation depth in Toronto. I see Santana, then I see Smoltz (who won't be back until May if at all), then I see Duke, who may or may not be ready to go this year, then I see Sonnanstine, who's 102 ERA+ from last year is counterbalanced by a 77 figure from 2007. Then there's Wake, who's been nicely average the last few years. It's a fine rotation, but really what blows my mind is your claim that 38 year old Paul Byrd (4.60 ERA, 4.1 K/9), Ian Snell (7-12 5.42 ERA 1.76 WHIP) and Jose Contreras one year removed from a 10-17 5.57 gem of a season would be battling it out to be the third starter in a good IBC rotation.
Uehara was drafted by the Angels out of university more than a decade ago, but opted to stick with Japan and has guided the Yomiuri Giants ever since. Uehara has requested on several occasions to move to the majors, but the Giants refused him at every turn. He is finally a free agent, and has indicated his intent to move overseas. He is currently 33 years old, and perhaps his best days are well behind him, but overall he ranks directly behind Matsuzaka in terms of recent Japanese baseball history. Uehara is a control pitcher with a freakishly good BB/K ratio, and figures to be something in the neighborhood of a good second starter in the NL, or a fair third starter in the AL. I'd say he's the only Japanese free agent worth spending any kind of major money on this season.
Wake was better than average last year, Sonny's numbers from the year prior didn't match his peripherals. It's not JB's rotation but it'll do fine with a tough bullpen and a line-up that will score 1000+ runs again.
