Colorado Rockies

Here is a team in which every hitter and their back-up is drafted every season, and every pitcher with the exception of the closer goes undrafted.

As a result, most people would say there is almost never a sleeper anywhere on the roster. And if one emerges, every Roto site and Rotopundit immediately covers him to the extent that he is known by everyone.

(My take on the Colorado closer is contained here. My take on any Colorado reliever who does well is contained in this post about Tim Harikkala last June.)

I disagree. A couple/three slee....players to note are Ryan Shealy, Jeff Salazar (covered previously here and here respectively) and Josh Wilson.

Shealy may make the roster this spring. He is a good end-of-draft player. He has the chance to be this year's Ryan Howard - a blocked 1B prospect who gets a chance to play due to an unforseen injury to a stud 1B. Amongst all the bench players on the Rockies, he is far and away the most attractive one. However, this is well-known.

Jeff Salazar is a very deep sleeper. At the time I blogged him last July, he was the next CF. His AAA experience was not great. However, he did draw 76 walks on the season, which is consistent with his previous two seasons, and that is clearly better than anything current CF Cory Sullivan will do. He also hit 12 HR and stole 17 bases between AA/AAA. With a demonstrated willingness to take pitches, he could be in Colorado before the summer begins if Sullivan does not improve.

Another player of note is Josh Wilson. He was tossed away by the Marlins despite the complete lack of middle infield depth. That is a caveat that must be remembered. That aside, he put up intriguing numbers the past two season in the minors - 15 HR 14 SB in 2004 and 17 and 17 in 2005. With the Colorado air, these are the types of numbers that make a team take notice.

He is currently behind Luis Gonzalez who has spent the past two seasons with the Rockies serving as a good utilty player. As a result, Wilson does not have much chance of displacing him this Spring. However, Wilson was a more powerful minor leaguer with better SB and walks than Gonzalez. I can see him grabbing 250+ ABs with the Rockies and matching Gonzalez's HR/SB numbers.