Jason Lane: The Astros finally gave up on Lane last year, as it appeared as though he'd never get back to his 2005 form (26 home runs and a .267/.316/.499 line). He had a miserable season in the Red Sox and Yankees system, hitting a combined .233 for their Triple-A clubs with 18 home runs,and at 31 it looked like he was getting close to done. He moved down the AL East food chain though and signed on with the Jays and absolutely raked this spring, posting a .358/.375/.736 line in 53 at-bats with five home runs. That's the kind of line you see up and down Cactus League rosters, of course... except that the Jays don't play in the Cactus League. Those are heavy air, Florida numbers, and in fact Lane has the highest SLG of anybody to get regular Grapefruit League at-bats this year.
Lane's got nowhere to play for the Jays right now, and has already been sent down to Triple-A Las Vegas where he will be enjoying the desert air and stands a great chance of continuing to mash. Toronto is counting on two young hitters in Travis Snider and Adam Lind to help anchor their offense, and if either of them should falter - or if Lind, a lefty, proves to need a platoon-mate - Lane will be perfectly situated to get the call. Vernon Wells isn't the healthiest of players either, giving Lane another possible path back to the big leagues. In a deep AL-only league this is exactly the kind of guy you want to stash on your reserve list, as he could provide a nice midseason power boost.
Lindsay Gulin: Now this is about as deep a sleeper as you can get. Gulin, a lefty (which will become self-evident as you keep reading, since only a lefty would get this many chances), was drafted in the 16th round by the Mets... in 1995. He bounced around the minors until 2003, usually putting up great strikeout rates with mediocre control (for instance, he notched a 137:43 K:BB ratio in 130 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in the Dodgers system in 2002) before lighting out for the territories, playing in independant leagues and finally making the majors (kind of) in 2004, pitching briefly for Fukuoka in Japan. In 2007 he latched on with the Brewers as a 30-year-old, and even made the Triple-A All-Star Game last year, but it all seemed to fall apart in the second half and he finished the season with an ugly 120:73 K:BB ratio in 137.1 innings.
Well, that was last year. The Brewers gave him a spring invite, and he's responded with a tremendous 17:2 K:BB ratio in 13 Cactus League innings.
Does he have a real shot at a bullpen job to start the year? Nope. In fact he got sent down to the Brewers' minor league camp on Monday. But you can't think Gulin is going to give up now, do you, not when he's so close? Plus, Milwakuee's bullpen is a bit of a mess. Trevor Hoffman will start the year on the DL, and while he isn't expected to be out long he is 41 years old, and Carlos Villanueva (his presumed replacement) is still unproven as a reliever. The rest of the 'pen is a rogue's gallery of arms other teams gave up on: Seth McClung, David Riske, Jorge Julio, Todd Coffey. It's not completely crazy to think Gulin finally, at long last, gets his big break when one or more of them flame out, is it? And if he's there in the bullpen, striking guys out, and Hoffman gets hurt again and Villanueva is struggling...
OK, maybe envisioning him with real fantasy value, as opposed to just getting that long-awaited heartwarming cup of coffee, is a little bit crazy. But chasing that crazy long shot brought Gulin this far.