As usual, pitching performances in the early going have run the gamut from complete domination to shockingly bad. It’s poor starts like these that make me swear to never pay more than $10 for a pitcher. But alas, most starters have pitched just three games and still have another 180 innings of baseball left to throw. So with that said, here’s a look around the American League.
• Last night Bartolo Colon held the Los Angeles Angels to 4 base runners over the course of eight frames while striking out five. Colon hasn’t had a SwStr% that was within 2% of the league average since 2005, but nonetheless has managed to post strikeout rates that approach average. Don’t expect him to start fanning eight batters every time he takes the mound, but he limits the walks and keeps the ball in the park. He’s owned in less than one fifth of Yahoo! leagues. He’s a very handsome streaming option. And yes, that is the first time that someone other than his wife has called Colon “handsome” in quite some time.
• Jayson Werth has seemingly put his struggles of 2011 behind him. Though his nine game hitting streak came to an end yesterday, he did have an RBI and a stolen base after one of his two walks. Though he is yet to rediscover his home run swing, Werth does have three doubles and one triple already. The stolen base yesterday was the first of 2012, I think Werth still has the power and speed to go 25-20. Looking at his current Pitch f/x plate discipline, Werth is swinging at less pitches outside the zone and more pitches in the zone. Essentially his discipline has reverted back to what is was in 2010, and that is a good sign for fantasy owners. I’d look to buy low on whomever is currently owning him. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, I am going to look at some 2B options in deep leagues and, as it worked out, NL-only leagues. These 3 hitters are owned in less than 6% of all leagues, so they should be widely available.
Owned percentages are ESPN and then Yahoo.
While the disabled list is starting to fill up with in-game injuries and Tommy John surgeries, we’re finally reaching the point in the season when players are actually coming off the DL to fill in some of the gaps being left by newer injuries. Here are a pair of starters who started the season on the shelf, but either have already or will soon rejoin their respective teams. Read the rest of this entry »
There are tons of moving parts in the closer realm right now, with Brain Wilson being the latest reliever to succumb to injury. For the most part, relievers have not struggled too heavily with ineffectiveness. There are none that are currently on the hot seat to the extent that one blown save will have them removed from their role. With that said, there have been a few interesting trends that we have seen over the past few weeks.
Casilla received the first save opportunity since Wilson’s injury, so he is obviously the guy to grab if he is somehow still available in your league. He is being grabbed left and right on ottoneu, as Chad Young pointed out. And Chris Cwik pointed out that he was likely the next in line, so hopefully you listened to Chris and grabbed Casilla before last night. He is a rather solid pitcher, despite having a so-so strikeout-to-walk ratio. He generates ground balls while not allowing home runs, so while he is not an ideal back-end reliever due to his low strikeout-to-walk ratio, he should remain effective enough to hold onto the role. He will not have an extremely long leash, but a few good performances should give him some breathing room.
The Diamondbacks have been in a ton of save situations this season, and they have been forced to rest J.J. Putz during some of those opportunities. In his absence, Brian Shaw has received the chances, recording two saves in seven innings pitched. David Hernandez had pitched two consecutive days before his first opportunity, but in Shaw’s second chance Hernandez had only thrown one time in four days, so it was likely that he was available. Shaw entered in the eighth and finished the game off with 1.1 innings pitched and a strikeout while allowing no base runners. J.J. Putz has had a history with injuries, so if anything happens to Putz, it may be Shaw that gets the first chance at the closer gig. If you are looking to handcuff Putz, Shaw may have sneaked past Hernandez on the closer depth chart.
Cruz recorded a save last night for the Pirates. Joel Hanrahan has been considered day-to-day with a hamstring injury that he suffered during his save on Sunday. There is reason to worry about Hanrahan and the injury, but no reason to exactly panic quite yet. Cruz seems to be the next in line, and there is a good chance that Hanrahan gets traded mid-season. If you are looking to hold onto the Pirates saves throughout the season, grab Cruz now to ensure that you have Hanrahan’s handcuff. Things can obviously change before then, and Evan Meek is a candidate to close as well in the future, but for now it looks like the role will belong to Cruz if Hanrahan’s injury becomes more serious or if he eventually gets moved.
Between all of the injuries and slow starts, it’s expected that everyone in your league is scouring the waiver wire and looking for players to fill in the gaps. The trick though, is to do it on the cheap this early in the season. There are far too many people blowing their FAAB budget too soon or wasting a decent waiver priority on a quick-fix band-aid that won’t be playing in a month’s time, so while you need to stay active, you need to be smarter than the next guy in the way you do it. Read the rest of this entry »
Justin Morneau looks to be back and somewhat healthy this season. He has played in the first 10 Twins’ games this season with Tuesday being his first day off. In nine games, he was the designated hitter and on Monday, he played in the field as the first baseman. It is nice to see him on the field more, but what can be expected offensively from him going forward?
We’re back with another dive into the deep blue sea where we hunt for hidden treasures. Many owners are likely still hurting for a replacement for Jacoby Ellsbury and I have uncovered an outfielder and a possible outfielder (depending on your league’s eligibility rules) who may be worth a look.
• Asdrubal Cabrera has been placed on the Indians bereavement list, so make sure to adjust your daily lineups accordingly.
It’s still too early to say whose hot starts are real and whose are going to evaporate like a puddle in the sun when the weather warms up, but there are injuries to account for and high risk draft plays that are clearly not going to pan out. In that spirit, here are a pair of outfielders that should be available in all but the very deepest leagues.
Cody Ross (ESPN: 10 percent owned, Yahoo!: 11 percent owned)
It isn’t as though Jacoby Ellsbury was keeping Ross out of the Red Sox’s lineup before he got hurt, but having one fewer body in the Sox’s outfield for the foreseeable future does make Ross a more appealing property. Carl Crawford is almost ready to rejoin Boston’s lineup, and it can be reasonably assumed that once he’s major league ready, he’s going to get his job in left field back full time. If Ellsbury were still available, that would leave Ross fighting with Darnell McDonald, Ryan Sweeney, and Jason Repko for the right field spot, and while I think he’d get the majority of the starts in that situation, it becomes much easier for Bobby Valentine to rest Ross more often when he has so many other workable options.
With Ellsbury on the shelf, Sweeney no longer threatens Ross’ playing time, since Sweeny can’t play center field. Repko is really a fourth outfielder and/or defensive replacement, and if Ross can’t outhit McDonald to keep the center field job, well, things will have taken a turn for the worse at Fenway. At this point, Crawford can take back his left field job when he’s ready without pushing Ross anywhere.
Ross’ upside is in both his power and his position in the Red Sox order. ZiPS has him down for 18 HR, which seems reasonable to me, though 83 of his 102 career home runs have gone to left field, meaning he’s going to be playing a lot of wall ball with the Monster. Hitting behind Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz should give Ross plenty of RBI opportunities, even if he loses a HR or two to the Monster. He’s not worth shoehorning into a good outfield, but he’s definitely worth grabbing as either a bench option or as a backend starter in deep leagues. His walk rate — which has climbed steadily since 2009 — makes him an even better option in OBP leagues than he is in traditional leagues.
Nolan Reimold (ESPN: 2.5 percent owned, Yahoo!: 16 percent owned)
To call Reimold one of my sleepers would be disingenuous; he was one of my cicadas: very deep and very asleep, mostly due to playing time concerns. He has played in eight of the Orioles’ 10 games so far, though he came in late in two of those games, so those concerns may not be totally misplaced. That said, if he continues to hit .323/.323/.613 with home runs in three consecutive games, he shouldn’t have to worry about Endy Chavez continuing to take over his playing time.
He won’t, of course, continue to hit that well, but if he can hold the line for even a week or two more, it may make him a more permanent fixture in the Orioles’ lineup and relegate Chavez to a bench role. Unfortunately for Reimold, with Adam Jones and Nick Markakis locking down the O’s other two outfield spots, he may be battling Chavez constantly whether he hits well or not. For that reason, I don’t love him as a weekly league option for the time being. Daily players will obviously have the flexibility to move him in and out of the roster as necessary — this is one of those times where following beat writers on twitter becomes almost requisite — but I fear for the week where the O’s have six games and Reimold only starts four of them.
ZiPS likes Reimold’s power potential, listing 20 home runs as a reasonable total for him, and I tend to agree. He doesn’t bring a ton of other categories to the table, but if he can hit in the .265-.270 range instead of the .254 ZiPS projects him for, I think he brings enough to the table to be worth rostering for those in need.
