Randy Johnson

Minor issues with his back limited Johnson to 30 starts, but the 45-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Giants in December. It is interesting to note that Johnson pitched better in the second half than in the first, as he went 5-3 with a 2.41 ERA and 1.05 WHIP along with a 78:16 K:BB ratio and just nine homers allowed in his final 13 starts. Johnson should be able to post similar numbers again in 2009 and sitting at 295 victories, he moves to a better home park for pitchers at the expense of having one of the league's worst offensive teams providing him run support.

A return to the National League was beginning to yield some big results until Johnson was shut down for the season with a herniated disc. Given his recent injury history, you'll want to be cautious about relying too heavily on Johnson for your rotation in 2008. That said, he's still an excellent source of strikeouts when healthy and despite his age, you may be able to milk some value out of him depending on his price at the draft table. If he's able to stay on the mound, Johnson will round out one of the league's elite starting trios with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren in Arizona.

Father time seemed to be catching up with Johnson in New York, with declining strikeout numbers and an ERA over five marring an otherwise strong fantasy campaign. Johnson had surgery for a herniated disk back in October, which should alleviate some of the lingering issues. He's still effective enough to post good strikeout numbers, and the move back to the NL should help his numbers. The risk here is that he may not be ready for the start of spring training, and he'll turn 44 by season's end.

The Big Unit got off to a shaky start in 2005, but once he locked in with John Flaherty as his personal catcher, he got better and better, closing the year with a 1.92 ERA in his last eight appearances. That said, 2005 was the first time in the last 15 seasons that Johnson failed to strike out a batter per inning. The exploits of Roger Clemens aside, pitchers don't get better at age 42. Johnson can anchor a staff for at least another year, but don't pay Johan Santana money for him.

Johnson probably should have won the NL Cy Young award last season if voters had noticed how little support he received in Arizona. Not only was he unlucky in posting just 16 wins in 2004, the few hits he gave up were translated into runs at an above-average rate, thanks in part to an outfield defense that misplayed a lot of singles into extra-base hits. Now with the Yankees, he'll be one of the first starting pitchers taken in your draft, and deservedly so. There's no evident reason to forecast a decline for the Big Unit in 2005. He could easily win 20 games with the Yankees offense behind him, but injuries are always a risk for a 41-year-old pitcher.

Is Randy Johnson over the hill? Not just yet, we think. Yes, he had a poor 2003 after missing almost three months due to a knee injury. But still, in his last seven starts against NL opponents down the stretch, Johnson posted a 2.87 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP while striking out 55 in 47 innings. While that's clearly short of the form that won Johnson four Cy Youngs in a row, that ain't chopped liver, either. The Big Unit will be more affordable than he's been in years past, but he'll still be worth every penny.

The best left-handed pitcher baseball has seen since Lefty Grove. (Now how's THAT for starting an argument?) Won the pitcher's Triple Crown last year, leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts, in arguably the best year of his career and certainly his best in an Arizona uniform. Won his fifth Cy Young Award in the offseason, his fourth in a row. His last three years average 21-6, 2.46, with 350 strikeouts (12.5 K's per 9 IP) and a 1.05 WHIP. Johnson turns 40 in September 2003, but he's in excellent physical shape, and, as of now, this is the last year of his contract, although Johnson and the Diamondbacks might agree to an extension. Even if his numbers slipped just a little, to say, 18-10, 2.90, with 250 K's (after all, no one cheats Father Time forever), he'd be, at worst, one of the ten best fantasy starters in the league.