Gio Gonzalez

Though his major league career is still extremely young, it's hard not to notice why the Oakland A's were willing to part with a player like Trevor Cahill to acquire Jarrod Parker.  

After a few late shaky starts during the spring, Parker was demoted to AAA Sacramento.  He was able to rebound, however, going 1-0 with a 2.18 ERA, and more importantly, surrendering only six walks in 22 innings.

The Oakland A's have not been in the playoffs since the 2006 season. This could have been the year to make it back had they not traded away Gio Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was the ace for the A's before the offseason trade to the Washington Nationals. Now he is the Nationals' second ace, behind Stephen Strasburg, and will pitch his fourth game for Washington on Tuesday night. 

It's always a great thing to see teams lock up young players long-term, especially young pitchers. We all know the saying, "pitching wins championships." Because of that, pitching will always be at a premium in baseball.

Next year's free agent class is almost barren when it comes to starting pitching. Teams that need starters are going to be turning over every rock in search of pitchers that might be available through a trade.

Normally, I dive right into recommending specific waiver wire pickups, but based on the drastic trends so early in the season, I have to provide some big picture fantasy advice.

With just over two weeks in the books, some unsuspecting players have emerged on to the fantasy radar, while others have already been scooped up, despite a shaky track record.  But before you replace a consistent veteran with the latest fad, please consider a few things.

Before the start of the season, I wanted to see which pitchers statistically had the best fastballs, curveballs, sliders, cutters, changeups and splitters of the 2010 season.

Here are a look at the top curveballs of the 2010 season. A few notes:

The Pitch Value data was created by Fangraphs.com. I will be using the statistic, wCB, which denotes the runs above average for a particular pitch—in this case a curveball.  

In fantasy baseball, everyone knows Albert Pujols is the best player available.  If you have the first pick in a draft, you take him and go get a snack because you have two rounds till your next pick.  

But Pujols isn't going to win you the league.  

If he gets hurt, you he might lose you your league. If you don't do a good job with the rest of your draft, it's not going to matter what Pujols does. 

We here at Baseball Professor think about our readers first and ourselves second—albeit a close second. That’s why we decided to reach out to other bloggers (who follow their respective teams more closely than we do) to give you a deeper look into the important issues every fantasy owner has to come to grips with this season.

To get Roy Halladay in 2011, you will probably have to spend a first round pick on him. Sure, he's great and all, but I don't think I would want to spend my first pick on a guy that I can only use once every five days.

I like results, and hitters are going to show me results everyday. That's why I hardly ever draft a pitcher in the first six rounds. 

Right now the Oakland athletics are trying to establish a core of a winning team. They have already given two players multi-year contracts: Brett Anderson and Kurt Suzuki. Although they still have some cheap young players who haven't hit arbitration, I think they should continue to create a young core and give some players long contracts.

The New York Yankees have made small signings this year, especially after they missed out on the Cliff Lee Sweepstakes.

Players include Russell Martin, Luis Vizcaino, and Pedro Feliciano.

And if you look at it in a positive way, this is still a similar lineup compared to the 2010 team when they reached the American League Championship Series.

Adding to that, there is money that can be spent on even more signings, which can be critical.

But for now, here is the projected lineup and starting rotation of the New York Yankees, for the 2011 season.