How to make a Justin Verlander

Depending on your league you will have between 7-9 pitching spots available and between 2-7 bench spots. This post is about creating a Justin Verlander and managing your roster to achieve that. Of course only one owner can have Verlander so that leaves the rest of us without him. Some owners will rush to Felix Hernandez or Jered Weaver as a second choice option and others will skip this step and try to get a few of the CC Sabathia, CJ Wilson, Chris Sale bunch.

Last year Verlander ended the year with these numbers:

Innings                 Wins                      K                             ERA                        WHIP    

238.1                     17                           239                         2.64                        1.06

Excellent numbers worthy of a fantasy ace. My goal here is to create these numbers for less than Verlander costs. This isn’t that easy but it’s far from impossible. 

Start with a good pitcher with a high K/9 ratio like Max Scherzer. For comparison sakes I’ll use their dollar values at our 2012 auction. Verlander cost $36 but he was a keeper from the previous year. This year he cost $41 which is more likely what he would have gone for at auction the previous year so I’ll pick the middle $39 and use that. Scherzer went for $23.

Innings                 Wins                      K                             ERA                        WHIP    

187.2                     16                           231                         3.74                        1.27

Let’s combine that with Vinnie Pestano who was $6. I choose Pestano because high K/9 middle relievers are always readily available. They are also generally next in line for saves which can be huge. 

Innings                 Wins                      K                             ERA                        WHIP

70                           3                              76                           2.57                        1.10

Combine the two and you spend $29 and receive the following:

Innings                 Wins                      K                             ERA                        WHIP

257.2                     19                           307                         3.43                        1.23

If we assume that $39 was market value of Verlander last year then for $10 less you would have received 3 more wins, 68 more Ks, lost .80 of ERA and .17 of WHIP. This is a reasonable trade off and based on these numbers I’d take Scherzer/Pestano and $10 over Verlander but of course that’s not a fair comparison. The true value of Verlander is that he puts up these stats using only one roster spot instead of 2. With that other roster spot you’d have a higher ERA and WHIP because no one is as good as he is but you’d also gain in Wins and K. The catch is you’d have to spend more money so that $10 gap between them rises.

For me I’d rather have Pestano/Scherzer and the $10 which is the difference between Mauer ($16 last year) and Russell Martin ($7) than Verlander. Everyone builds their roster their own way but only one team can own Verlander. The rest of us are playing catch up.