Here are the players on Yahoo's Can't Cut List (to do this the fast way, I just pasted the list from the home page of one of my leagues -- say hi, jilted Expos fans!):
All of these players should be expected to put up good to great numbers by year's end. But man, some ugly first-month performances on that list.
Berkman: .162 AVG/.326 OBP/.392 SLG
Fielder: .234, 3 HR, 7 R
Hamels: 0-2, 7.27 ERA, 1.79 WHIP
Hamilton: .242/.282/.379, out with rib cage injury
Peavy: 2-3, 5.74 ERA, 1.47 WHIP
H. Ramirez: .289, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 9 R, 3 SB, out with hand injury (for a player considered by many the #1 overall pick, that's ugly)
Reyes: .284, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 9 R, 4 SB (ditto for this consensus top-5 pick)
A-Rod: As many salacious rumors as there are flying around, at least A-Rod never did this.
Rollins: .207/.241/.293, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 9 R, 1 SB
Sabathia: 1-2, 4.73 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 5.29 K/9
Teixeira: .200/.367/.371
Wright: .280/.372/.390, 1 HR, 8 RBI, league-leading 27 strikeouts, 97 kajillion boos and media hit jobs.
So here's a little exercise for you: Who's going to end up with the worst season of all these guys, fantasy-wise? And yes, you can include A-Rod, who will end up missing at least 1/5 of the season, with a ton of stuff obviously hanging over his head.
I'm going with Cole Hamels. He threw approximately infinity innings last year when you combine spring training, the regular season, and his pivotal role in the Phillies' World Series run. He's been battling nebulous injury concerns for the past several weeks. I just have a really bad feeling about his season, much more than I do about most of these other guys.