I didn't really believe in Gavin Floyd, a fact I readily admit. It's not because I was angry with him for failing with my hometown Phillies after being the fourth overall pick in the 2001 draft. He simply didn't look like he had the makeup to be a winner. I didn't like his strikeout rate, the choices he was making on the mound and how he reacted to failure. Like the Phillies, I questioned if he had the stuff a former first-round draft pick should have. I welcomed the trade to the White Sox, even though the return was 11 bad outings from a damaged Freddy Garcia, and ignored his potential in drafts this season.
Well, obviously that was a mistake -- but I did take a long look at Floyd about a year ago this month. Late August is the time in keeper leagues or dynasty formats in which fantasy owners should go bargain basement shopping for players with bad numbers who shouldn't be given up on. We're not talking Cliff Lee here, because that couldn't have been predicted, and Lee is not young. In leagues in which the fantasy owner is building for the future, Floyd was a nice find.
So I got to thinking, who is next season's Floyd? To be truly considered a perfect fit, the pitcher would have had to stink not just this season, but for multiple seasons. He also had to have high expectations, generally from being a ballyhooed draft pick or the key cog in a now-for-later trade. Looking at the situation now, it seems obvious Floyd emerged, right? Gimme a break. You can look up his numbers -- they weren't attractive. He had command problems in Philly and Chicago. Even in late-May, when he went the distance in a complete-game loss to the Angels and lowered his ERA to 2.93, he had 27 walks and 25 strikeouts to that point. Everyone was saying: Sell, sell, sell. Other than a seven-walk game at Texas in July, Floyd seems to have solved that issue quickly.
To continue reading this article you must be an Insider
Eric Karabell
