Today I am going to steal a column idea and talk about everyone’s least favorite subject, my fantasy team. I am going to look at the options I have in the playoffs for a team decimated by injuries. For the two people still reading, hang in for a ride of self pity.
Todd Frazier is seeing some pine, Trevor Plouffe is resembling a large orange-ish gourd, Adrian Beltre has a balky shoulder — there are probably a goodly number of you out there scrambling to fill games played at third base as you stagger to the finish at the hot corner. To that end, there are a pair of guys that have been stinging the ball lately that are worth vetting to see if they fit any plans for your daily transaction league needs.
Similar to yesterday’s post in which I advocated picking up Lance Lynn and streaming him in daily leagues, I am going to touch on two pitchers that are owned in a majority of leagues that I am shying away from this weekend. There are of course leagues in which you simply have to start these guys, since you may find difficulty finding replacements or need every attempt at strikeouts and wins to keep you alive for another week, but if you have the ability to avoid starting these pitchers, I would advise to do so this weekend.
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While we sit here on the site and talk about September call-ups, streaming pitchers, and potential waiver claims to help for the final few weeks of the season, there are some that are forced to just sit and wait it out; helpless to their cause after months of intense work. There are waiver claim limits, innings caps, games-played restrictions, and sometimes just a constrictive set of rules that prevents any more tweaking of what you hope will be a championship team. There’s nothing you can do but stare at your live scoring each night while hoping and praying your place in the standings is either secure or on the upswing. It’s truly an agonizing situation. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time again to look ahead to the 2013 fantasy baseball season by highlighting the top potential impact rookies at each position. Why? Because it’s never too early to begin thinking about next year, even if you’re still trying to win your league right now.
For those of you in keeper leagues, particularly deeper ones, these primers will be especially helpful, because you’ll find out which young players may be worth snatching up now — before other owners get a clue — so you can hang onto them next season, when their value kicks in. Think of it like an investment requiring only a little up-front cost that could pay off big in the near future.
Much like my Mining the Minors columns on this site, which focus on current-season impact more than long-term upside, these 2013 rookie primers are meant for players who will exhaust (or are expected to exhaust) their rookiedom next year. Also much like my MTM work, the point here is to find the right mix of opportunity and talent, so that you’re picking up a player who can contribute, either in a starting role or as a reserve, from Opening Day or soon thereafter. For now, it’s good to get ahead of the curve with a snapshot of the young talent at each position.
In case you need a brief example of how this sort of strategy can be worthwhile: In two deep leagues, one AL-only and one NL-only, that allow for up to 10 keepers, I picked up Jarrod Parker, Addison Reed and Will Middlebrooks, as well as Paul Goldschmidt, Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart around this time last year, keeping them all for dirt cheap. Worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Here are the previous position primers: Catchers
Next up? Corner infielders (aka, first and third basemen).
The Athletics are trotting out pitchers who simply refuse to walk opposing batters. It’s getting crazy really. In fact, every member of their current rotation with the exception of Jarrod Parker, sports a sub-2.0 walk rate! That’s pretty amazing. Two of those pitchers have pretty much come out of nowhere this year. Let’s see what we can expect next season.
• Tom Wilhelmsen needed 19 pitches in Toronto to earn his 26th save of 2012. Wilhelmsen surrendered a walk, but fanned two and induced a fly ball to lock down his seventh consecutive save. The Mariners ninth-inning man is now 4-3 on the year with 26 saves, a 2.50 ERA (1.14 WHIP) and a 2.33 K/BB. Wilhelmsen’s save tally is good enough for 12th-best season in club history, which is a huge accomplishment considering he didn’t take over the role until June 4th — 59 games into the season.
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1. Cliff Pennington will be a top-five AL SS.
Not a good start, as Pennington wouldn’t be a top-five shortstop in California right now. It hasn’t been for lack of opportunity, either, as the A’s have let him trot out there 100-plus times before deciding Stephen Drew was a better choice.
2. Anibal Sanchez will be the best roto starter in Miami (and best outright).
He’s no longer in Miami, but while he was there this was probably close to true. Josh Johnson has more wins, but has also thrown 50 more innings as a Marlin this season. This wasn’t actually all that bold of a prediction, as Buehrle — who by most scoring systems probably is the de facto top dog — has been typical Buehrle, and the team has completely fallen apart, depriving most of these hurlers of their deserved wins. Carlos Zambrano and Ricky Nolasco need not apply.
I am more of a head-to-head guy than a roto player, and my main leagues over the years have mostly been daily leagues rather than weekly. That’s rather odd for the industry, but there are certainly a lot of leagues out there that are similar and sometimes get neglected in fantasy writing. One of the main reasons people run from these kinds of leagues are streams, but with weekly caps on player additions I feel these kinds of leagues are sort of “making a comeback.” With that said, there are still ways to stream pitchers and at this time of year, if you don’t have a strong pitching staff or one of your rotation members just got shut down – looking at you Jeff Samardzija and Stephen Strasburg – finding a replacement is extremely difficult.
One pitcher I would gamble on is Lance Lynn, who is scheduled to start this week in place of Jake Westbrook. Lynn has spent the past few weeks in the bullpen, so he is available in a lot of leagues and if any pitcher on the waiver wire has the upside of Lynn, I don’t know what kind of league you’re playing in. Sure there are guys with solid matchups, but Lynn has been pitching to major leaguers all year and for the most part was very effective against them. He sputtered after the All-Star break and his move to the bullpen as warranted, but if I am looking for one good start off of a waiver wire member I am most certainly willing to put my faith in Lynn against the Dodgers on Thursday.
Even in his struggles, he was still striking out batters at a decent clip. The 5.23 ERA over his last eight starts is ugly, but 39 strikeouts in 41.1 innings at least gives the ability to get a big strikeout night and could potentially push you ahead of your opponent in that category given the right circumstances. Most of the time when I look at the waiver wire this time of year I end a post with “this guy is probably not a team saver,” but I honestly believe Lynn could be that guy that saves your team. If you have an offense that should perform well against your opponent, streaming a guy like Lynn could provide you with enough juice on the pitching end to squeak by. That’s the situation I am in in my head-to-head league and I am confident Lynn succeeds against the Dodgers this Thursday. If you are looking for someone to stream, go with Lynn if he is available. If it doesn’t work, feel free to blame me. I think it will.
