Bartolo Colon, SP, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

March 24, 2006 @ 14:29:34

By Neil Warren
Edited by KFFL Staff

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's ace, starting pitcher Bartolo Colon, scared his team, his fans and fantasy baseball managers alike during last season's American League Divisional Series when he left his Game 5 start in the second inning with a strained right shoulder.  He subsequently underwent a battery of tests and was left off of the roster for the American League Championship Series, but his injury was left on the minds of his fans and owners.

We know what you're waiting to hear, dear readers.  You want to know if you should draft Colon as your fantasy No. 1 this season, and if not, where you should draft him.  The answer is, even though he should be seen as a decent No. 1 fantasy starter, you don't need to take him first, he's a No. 1 cloaked in a No. 2 or 3's body.

To the Angels' relief, the tests on Colon's injured shoulder revealed no structural damage.  Colon stuck to his rehab program through the fall and winter and didn't push himself.  He entered spring training with the team planning to handle him gently, and they did just that.  He responded by pitching well in limited outings to start the spring.  Soon came a unique opportunity to judge players before the beginning of a standard baseball season, the World Baseball Classic.  Despite coming off of injury and having only limited time to get in shape, Colon finished the WBC with only one run allowed in 14 innings and seven strikeouts, including six shutout innings against the runner-up Cuban team in his last outing.

The defending Cy Young winner is poised to dominate again.

Table: Bartolo Colon, Career Statistics, 1998–2005:

Year	Team	G	W	L	IP	H	BB	K	ER	ERA
1998	Cleveland Indians	31	14	9	204.0	205	79	158	84	3.71
1999	Cleveland Indians	32	18	5	205.0	185	76	161	90	3.95
2000	Cleveland Indians	30	15	8	188.0	163	98	212	81	3.88
2001	Cleveland Indians	34	14	12	222.1	220	90	201	101	4.09
2002	Cleveland Indians/Montreal Expos	33	20	8	233.1	219	70	149	76	2.93
2003	Chicago White Sox	34	15	13	242.0	223	67	173	104	3.87
2004	Anaheim Angels	34	18	12	208.1	215	71	158	116	5.01
2005	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	33	21	8	222.2	215	43	157	86	3.48
162 Game Average	--	34	16	9	221.2	213	77	174	97	3.94

The notable thing about the stats in the above chart is best pointed out in the bottom line, the 162-game average.  He has been a model of consistency for eight years, starting 34 games, winning 14-to-20 games, easily munching 200 innings-per-year, striking out 2-to-3 batters for every walked batter and finishing with an earned run average under 4.00.

Bartolo Colon will resume his role at the top of the rotation for the Angels in 2006 and will continue to pitch at the level he has established throughout his career.  Here is the secret for the savvy fantasy owner looking forward to their draft: Colon will probably drop several rounds in a standard, mixed-league draft.  You can either skip the starting pitcher spot for the first few rounds and draft Colon as your No. 1 in the sixth-to-eighth round or take another top starting pitcher as your second or third pick and solidify your rotation with Colon later.  The starting pitcher spot is a rather deep position this year, so you can build a very good pitching staff in the middle-to-late rounds.  Colon can certainly be a part of that drafting strategy.

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Neil Warren

Neil has been a fan of Denver sports since 1983 and has been playing fantasy baseball and football since the mid-nineties, quickly moving into the commissioner’s role after his first season. Interested in combining his love of sports with his natural penchant for writing, Neil began contributing to KFFL in 2005.

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