ESPN talks to Scout X

ESPN reports various musings from Scout X, a big-league scout with a couple of interesting considerations for the 2010 season. Among them:

He thinks Matt Cain has a better six- to eight-year outlook than Tim Lincecum.

He also likes Phil Hughes over Joba Chamberlain for Yankees fifth starter.

Nothing else really stands out.

Fantasy Impact: It's becoming fairly typical for those doubting the diminutive Lincecum and his unique pitching rotation. We still find the best analysis of his mechanics to be much less of an indictment than what the doubters are saying.

Hughes vs. Chamberlain is certainly a tossup. Neither is a good fantasy option due to their low sample size and MLB inconsistency, but they both deserve flier picks due to playing for the Yankess.

Three AFL amigos

No surprise that three of the five pitchers leading the Arizona Fall League after just a couple of starts each are players who got a cup of coffee in MLB this year.

Phil Hughes and Clay Buchholz have combined to give up one run (Hughes' run) in 18 innings. Max Scherzer has given up three runs in 12 innings and struck out 12.

Scherzer looked pretty strong at the Major League level this year, and might've stayed with Arizona for longer had he not experienced some arm troubles. Hughes struggled, although he, too, wasn't healthy. Buchholz showed a couple of flashes with the Red Sox, but there's a good reason he's not on the postseason roster: he wasn't very good (2-9, 6.75 ERA) most of the time.

Fantasy Update:Scherzer deserves a serious look from the Diamondbacks in spring training. The other two have the stuff to be MLB starters, but if the Yankees and Red Sox do some offseason spending on their respective rotations, they might be left out of the mix. Does that make them trade bait?