Brandon Webb

Webb has made one start the last two seasons, while all of 2010 was lost following shoulder surgery. On multiple occasions, it appeared as though he was going to return in August or September and log innings out of the Arizona bullpen, but multiple setbacks in his rehab sessions prevented him from making it back as far as a minor league rehab assignment. After signing with the Rangers in January, Webb is a lottery ticket at this point as the days of inking him in for 225-plus innings appear well in the past.

The D-Backs picked up their $8.5 million option on Webb after he made just one start in 2009 and underwent a season-long attempt to rehab back from shoulder stiffness following his Opening Day start. His week-to-week status quickly turned into month-to-month, before culminating in a shoulder debridement operation in September. As spring training approached, Webb had successfully completed his rehab work and was on track to prepare for the start of spring training as he normally would. Getting him back into the rotation for another 30-plus starts would provide a huge boost to an Arizona pitching staff looking to fill a few holes on the free-agent market this winter. Fortunately for Webb, tests and the subsequent operation didn't reveal any tears of his labrum, so there's reason to believe that he'll bounce back in 2010. Be sure to carefully monitor his health and performance during spring training before an attempt to draft him on the cheap this spring.

Webb had his best major league campaign yet, finishing with 22-7 in 34 starts. You can chalk it up as another great season in what is turning into a very productive career for Webb. He's still generating plenty of groundballs (2.93 G/F), while maintaining a healthy strikeout rate (7.27 K/9IP) and limiting his walks (2.58 BB/9IP). He's proven capable of handling a heavy workload on a yearly basis, rolling up over 225 innings in each of the last four seasons, while Webb has finished with an ERA below 3.60 in all six of his seasons in Arizona. A long-term contract extension appears to be in the offing, while Arizona may need to get a hometown discount to keep him beyond an $8 million team option in 2010. Expect him to come off the board as one of the high-priced elite pitching options on draft day.

Webb had another excellent season in 2007, posting numbers again worthy of Cy Young consideration. His G/F ratio slid from an extreme 3.53 in 2006 to 2.57 last season, but his 194 strikeouts were a career high and he cut back on homers allowed for the third straight season. Webb is in his prime and with the D-Backs poised to be competitive again in 2008, expect another year of Top-10 production from the Arizona ace.

Webb improved a bit, and the defense improved a bit (.310 BABIP dropped to .293), and that's how you win a Cy Young Award. He's terrific, and likely to stay this good for a while. Mid-season shoulder issues didn't seem to bother him down the stretch.

Webb had a big comeback in 2005. Forget his ERA, which barely budged from 2004, and check the walk rate instead. Yes, he really did cut his walks in half while keeping his strikeout rate constant and pitching more innings to boot. The sinkerball artist also led the majors in groundball-flyball ratio last year (by a good margin), so the acquisition of the slick-fielding Orlando Hudson could bode well for Webb's stats.

In his rookie year Webb walked roughly one out of every twelve batters he faced. In 2004 hitters learned to lay off Webb's sinker and that walk rate skyrocketed to roughly one batter out of nine, which led to a lot of other numbers getting worse as well. Don't be fooled by that relatively pleasant 3.59 ERA, Webb's component ERA (component ERA is a statistic that estimates what a pitcher's ERA should have been, based on his hits, walks, and home runs allowed.) last year was a much higher 4.32, which indicates that, as bad as Webb's walk rate was, he was actually lucky in terms of how his walks and hits translated to runs. There's still much of talent here, and a new pitching coach can help, so if he slips to the second half of your draft, he'd be a good buy.

Here he is, the best rookie pitcher of 2003. (No, not the award winner, but what do THEY know?) In 2003, Webb posted a quality start in 21 of his 28 starts (75 percent, the best rate in the league for anyone with 20 or more starts). He held NL hitters to a .605 OPS (or, in other words, he made everyone look like Tony Womack), second in the league only to Jason Schmidt. Yes, he only got 10 wins, but his run support (3.2 runs per game) was among the worst in the majors. According to Baseball Prospectus' stats, with average run support Webb would have gone 14-5, not 10-9. Should we expect a downturn in 2004? It could always happen, but we wouldn't bet on it. He'll be the No. 2 man behind Randy Johnson in Arizona's rotation this year, and he'd be worth a high draft pick in your league.

Webb went 10-6, 3.14 in 25 starts at Double-A in 2002 (122 K's in 152 innings), then wowed ‘em in the Arizona Fall League, posting a 0.55 ERA in eight games (16 innings). He'll turn 24 in May; probably starts 2003 at Triple-A, but could crack the big-league bullpen with great spring outings and a break or two.