Okay, okay. "Old and busted" is probably a bit excessive. But Johnny Cueto is certainly not the "new hotness" any more. That title, friends, belongs to Max Scherzer. You may have seen me post about him once or twice. Anyway, the point of recognizing the huge schism between the two right now is that it shows just how ridiculous hype gets in fantasy baseball leagues.No less than two weeks ago, Cueto was the new Pedro Martinez, only in his prime and with faster, better stuff. And now, Cueto is getting dropped from fantasy teams left and right after giving up six earned runs in less than two innings this week.
All of this while Scherzer, who threw four plus perfect innings and got inserted into the rotation, is being added at "record" pace. I use the quotes because this is what happens with baller young pitchers when they get called up. The importance here, is to recognize the importance of selling high on these kids. If you go look at any "recent trades involving" lists on Scherzer, you'll see people like Johan Santana and Ryan Howard on the other side. And that's just ridiculous.
But the exact same thing was happening with Cueto a few weeks ago. Scherzer is going to be a dominant pitcher. And he is going to strike a ton of guys out. But the Diamondbacks are very much interested in the future of their organization. And Doug Davis is going to return. In other words, his rotation job and innings aren't guaranteed. But upside blinded owners don't see that.
That means that if you own Scherzer now -- especially in single year leagues -- you should be shopping the hell out of him. If you're going to get him on May 2nd with a waiver claim, you should already be shopping him. And if you're in a keeper league, well, there's no absolute guarantee that he'll be great forever (see: Liriano, Francisco) so there's nothing wrong with getting a proven stud for him.
Either way, the lesson is that hype is always fleeting. No matter how realistic a lot of us can be, there is always an owner blinded by the upside and potential of a young pitcher who just got called up. (Raises hand to symbolize occasional guilt.) You have to realize who that owner is and take advantage before your young pitcher gets Cuetoed.
