In the last of my posts trying to translate my look at the predictability of pitchers’ spring peripherals into actionable advice, I examine those pitchers whose walk rates were much higher than their Steamer projections for the regular season. These are the guys there might be some cause for concern, as opposed to the potential BB% improvers, whose spring hint at a potential step forward with their control.
Today, I am going to have a rundown on some position battles and lineup movements for various 2B. Mainly, I am looking for any last minute changes in a player’s value.
Position Battles
Royals – Chris Getz ,Yuniesky Betancourt and Jason Bourgeois – When the Royals demoted Johnny Giavotella to AAA, Chris Getz looked to be the everyday 2B. With his supposed new found swing, he looked to be given the Royals 2B job. Almost immediately, it was stated that Getz and Betancourt would have to share the 2B duites.
Yost isn’t designating either of them as the starting second baseman.
“We’ll play them both there, we’ll mix-and-match now,” Yost said.
When Spring Training opened, the top of the Cardinals’ rotation was set and whatever controversy there was, was about whether Jake Westbrook would be able to keep his spot in the rotation. For the second season in a row, an injury has thrown the rotation into some flux. Westbrook’s spot is secure — at least for now — Kyle Lohse is tonight’s Opening Night starter, and Lance Lynn finds himself in the rotation after having thrown just over 10 innings as a starter last year. Kyle McClellan may have been the more logical choice, but he wasn’t nearly as effective in that role as the Cardinals had hoped last season, so it isn’t much of a surprise that they would choose to keep him as a reliever all year as they see if Lynn can be productive over a wider sample of innings. Read the rest of this entry »
The first edition of my closer tiers has only enhanced my opinion that the position is pretty deep this year. There are certainly a few question marks, but there are a lot of high upside closers in the middle to late rounds. The first and second tier feature rock solid closers, but the third is an extremely sturdy group, in my opinion. The bottom tier guys could end up moving up as the season goes, but their lack of a hold on the closer position hurts them at this point. Some closer situations are still a bit fuzzy, but everything will likely be figured out in the next edition of the closer tiers.
Juan Francisco is in Atlanta. Paul Janish is headed to Louisville. That means Todd Frazier has made the Cincinnati Reds. He probably deserves more attention than your typical final roster guy.
For example, take a look at how his last two years at Triple-A stack up against popular middle infield sleeper (and 27-year-old) Zack Cozart:
Read the rest of this entry »
When was the last time you saw a single position in fantasy take such a beating before the season even gets underway? First there was the sudden change to Brett Myers in Houston. Then Joakim Soria and Ryan Madson headed for the DL, each in need of Tommy John surgery. Then Drew Storen had elbow issues and Frank Francisco needed his knee drained. It’s been a disaster, right?
Well, now it gets worse as Andrew Bailey heads to the shelf for three to four months with thumb surgery and Kyle Farnsworth lands on the DL with elbow soreness. The waiver wire has been a hotbed of action for the last few weeks and it’s getting even hotter with these next two guys…
Pitching, pitching, pitching! That’s the focus of today’s Roto Riteup.
– We talked a little bit about the closer situation in Boston earlier this week, but now things have gotten more complicated. Andrew Bailey is going to have surgery on his thumb, and there’s a good chance he now misses half the season or more. Whoever is name his replacement will have solid value throughout the season, whether it be Mark Melancon or Alfredo Aceves.
There will be something of a change from last year’s NL SP tiered rankings, namely, I’m going to be more flexible with the number of pitchers in each tier. I hate lists where tier four has 13 pitchers and while each isn’t that different from the one above him, the last player listed is nowhere near as good as the first. I tried to combat that by sticking with rigid size on the tiers, but it really just created the opposite problem and I was stuck with the bottom of one tier and the top of the next looking awfully similar. C’est la guerre, but it’s not a mistake I’m going to make again this year.
Tier One
I go back and forth on which of these two I’d rather have, but at the end of the day, it’s a coin flip you can’t lose. I’m giving Kershaw the slight nod here because of his slightly higher strikeout rate, but he needs to keep his walk rate low to keep pace with the notoriously stingy Halladay. Read the rest of this entry »
The shortstop position has held pretty steady over the past year. There’s been no impact rookies that have hit the scene and sky rocketed up the rankings. We break them down into tiers below which we will update periodically throughout the season.
First Tier:
Troy Tulowitzki
Jose Reyes
Hanley Ramirez
Barring any type of injury, Tulowitzki is going to hold the crown as the top fantasy shortstop for some time. His combination of power and average is unrivaled at the position. He’s a top five overall pick regardless of league format. Reyes came on extremely strong last season after a rough two years, hitting .337 with 16 triples and 39 steals in just 126 games. His hamstrings will always be a concern, and are a major reason why Tulowitzki is going to keep his shortstop crown for years to come. Even though he’s sliding over to third to accommodate Reyes, Ramirez retains his shortstop eligibility for at least one more season and picks up another. He’s included in this first tier thanks to a stellar track record and hope he can come back healthy after injuries nagged him last year. If healthy there’s no reason he can’t put up a 20HR/30SB season at minimum.
Stock down
Aaron started out 2011 with a bang. He had a 2.08 ERA, which he rode into the All-Star game as the Royals’ only invitee. The problem was that he was riding a bit of a lucky streak led by a .243 BABIP. He regressed quite a bit in the second half of the season when his ERA jumped to 4.34 because of a .393 BABIP. Also in the second half of the season, he did not record 1 Save or Hold. He was though able to accumulate five Blown Saves during that time frame.
Going into spring training, he attempted to become one of several relief pitchers league wide to transition into becoming a starting pitcher. After a few weeks, the experimentation was stopped when Joakim Soria was lost for the season and Crow was moved back to the bullpen.