Worst Keeper of 2014

It's time for the annual vote and rite of passage: who was the worst keeper of the 2014 season.  Let's jump right to the candidates.

• Jonathan Villar.  Who the fuck is this guy?

• Jonathan Villar.   Okay, so I looked him up.  Villar is apparently the major haul that Houston received from the Roy Oswalt deal 3 1/2 years ago, and is a shortstop for the Astros.  Which means Corey kept an Astro.  This is historic because the last Astro kept in this league was Hunter Pence in 2011.

• Jake Peavy.  I didn't realize we were playing Whatifsports.  The last time this guy was any good, Giancarlo Stanton was still called M*ke and getting ready for the junior prom.  But hey, it's always nice to have a team's 5th starter be your 4th starter.

• Jonathan Villar.  So how good was this guy last year?  Well, in 241 plate appearances, he managed a .243/.321/.319 slash line, good for a cool 79 OPS+.  He did finish in the top 10 of two categories last year: caught stealing and sacrifice hits.  Then again, he is on the Astros, so it's not like he had a lot of teammates helping him out.  Thankfully that should improve in 2018.

• Kenley Casey Jansen.  Like you can tell them apart.

• Jonathan Villar.  Okay, well at least he's highly rated, right?  He's...hmm, 16th on Yahoo's rankings for shortstops.  Okay, then he's a highly regarded prospect that makes him a good gambit for 2015 since Corey is not a favorite this year.  So....hmm.  He last made BA's top 100 in 2010, when he was the 94th best prospect in baseball.  He was the Astros' #3 prospect in 2010, slipping to #4 in 2011, #12 in 2012, and completely off the list in 2013.  Part of the reason for that appears to be that in July 2012 he pulled a Jason Isringhausen and broke his hand punching a wall, costing himself half a season.  So he's a temperamental asshole as well.  Good to know.

• Zack Wheeler.  This isn't really about Zach Wheeler, but about this year's collective decision by the league to keep every young and interesting pitcher, even if they've proven nothing.  Off the board before draft day are Wheeler, Sonny Gray, Danny Salazar, Tony Cingrani and Gerrit Cole, five pitchesr who have a collective 74 starts in the league.  (I was this close to joining this group and keeping Chris Archer.) It's an interesting gambit.

• Jonathan Villar.  The final point: Corey already has Xander Boegarts, the #2 prospect in all of baseball who is getting a starting job this year, and who is a shortstop on his roster.  Boegarts made is easy for him to cut Starlin Castro loose.  Apparently he also made is easy to keep the second coming of Cristian Guzman.

• Hiroki Kuroda.  39 years old, had a bad second half last year, and induces a ton of groundballs to an infield that's populated by half-dead men and Kelly Johnson.

Polls are open now!