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The Oakland Athletics have had a strong rotation for several years now. The team has discovered some big pitchers in recent season, including the likes of Dan Haren, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and many other big names hurlers. Naturally, fantasy baseball fans have tripped over themselves to grab the next young hurler from Oak-town.
One of Oakland’s underrated hurlers that fantasy fans should keep an eye for this year is Dan Straily.
The right-hander was impressive at times last season, as he posted an impressive 10-8 record. He also recorded an ERA under 4.00 (3.96) in 27 starts. He ended the season even stronger, though. He was 3-1 in the final month of the season and recorded a sizzling 2.10 ERA.
Straily was a strikeout machine in the minors. He fanned 592 strikeouts in just 551.1 innings of work and actually led the minors in strikeouts in 2012. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to transition his K’s into the majors. He struck out just 7.33 batters per nine innings last season, which isn’t exactly horrible, but it isn’t the staggering numbers he posted in the MiLB.
Straily will still be a great sleeper to take a shot on towards the end of the draft. He won’t be worth drafting as a fantasy starter, but he could become a steal as a SP6 or SP7 this year.
Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.
