Jorge De La Rosa 2009

The Kansas City Royals have signed Jorge De La Rosa to a one year deal worth two million dollars for 2009. That's a pretty good deal, and De La Rosa is worth considering as a potential fantasy sleeper as well. He's put up some pretty scary lines in the past. Earlier in his career, he had high strikeout rates, but consistently walked close to one batter per inning. Then his strikeout rates plummetted in 2006 and 2007. Either he must have been pitching through an injury, or trying to compensate for his awful control. Finally in 2008 it all came together for him, as he struck out 8.7 while walking 4.2 per nine innings, and even saw his groundball rate rise to 45.7%. He'll need to pitch better to equal those numbers in the American League this year, but the potential is certainly there for him to have another good season.