Fantasy Baseball’s Walking Dead

Man, Sunday night’s episode of The Walking Dead has traumatized me. Seriously, it was so good…and so chilling.

When it came down to write an injury report for the 2014 fantasy baseball season, I had

been fixating on the show; have it stuck in my head. So here we are are.

Below is a partial list of players who have serious red flags in regards to injuries. They are fantasy baseball’s walking dead.

Carlos Gonzalez

Word in camp is that Carlos Gonzalez is 100% after appendectomy and hernia surgery, plus his finger seems be be healed fine. But he seems to always be good for a DL stint or two every season. Michael Dixon took a look at what his value would be according to how much time he missed.

Matt Kemp

Speaking of Daryl Michael Dixon, here is what he wrote in one of his bold predictions regarding Matt Kemp‘s health:

"Do not forget how talented Matt Kemp is. Do not forget that he predicted a 50-50 season, and it only seemed a little far-fetched.Kemp has spent most of the last two seasons banged up. He’ll probably miss the Australia games and may miss a few other games at the start, but that will all be a good thing. He’ll miss a few early games, but he’ll play far more games down the road became of it. A healthy Kemp will dominate fantasy baseball again."

Michael Bourn

Michael Bourn is no longer baseball’s premiere speedster, that title having been passed to Billy Hamilton before he even played a full season (Hamilton is profiled here). But Bourn was still sought after for late round steals, so it’s discouraging to hear that Opening Day is questionable for him due to left hamstring stiffness. That’s not good for a speedster, folks.

Manny Machado

It looked for a moment like Manny Machado would be available for Opening Day after recovering faster than expected from his October 2013 knee surgery. He’s had a very slight setback, but he refuses to rule out being ready for Opening Day.

While defense means nothing in fantasy, the world is a little better place having the slick fielding Machado at 3B.

An Entire Horde of Zombie Pitchers

Dr. James Andrews must have bet money on a Pitchapocalypse because he’ll be preforming surgery on just about every major league pitcher. It’s a TJ pandemic out there, folks.

There is no season to say a few words about every pitcher slated to have their UCL replaced with one from a zombie cadavor, but I’ll list them here so you can avoid them at the draft table.

Patrick Corbin / Jarrod Parker / Brandon Beachy / Kris Medlen

The four pitchers above are the zombie horde and should be avoided until 2015.