Daniel Murphy has started to command more attention from fantasy owners. He amassed 600 plate appearances for the first time last year and has really locked down the everyday role at second base. And over the last three seasons, he has hit .302/.344/.425 for the New York Mets — only Robinson Cano has a higher batting average among qualified second basemen over that time frame.

Despite that fact, according to Zach Sanders’ End of Season Rankings, Murphy was only the 18th-ranked second baseman in standard fantasy leagues last season. This is largely due to his lack of power and (somewhat) stolen bases. To put his lack of power into context, he only hit six home runs in both 2011 and 2012. Last season, he ranked 20th among qualified second basemen. Only Jemile Weeks and Jamey Carroll hit fewer home runs.

Murphy hasn’t always lacked power, though. He had double-digit home run totals in 2007 and 2008 in the minors, and he also launched 12 home runs during his first full season in the majors in 2009. The potential for double-digit homers seems to be present.

Could this be the season in which everything comes together and he hits for both power and average? After all, Mets’ manager Terry Collins believes Murphy is “capable of hitting .300 with 15 homers a year” and his .167 ISO through his first 23 games is the highest of his career.

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Andrew Cashner | San Diego Padres | @ Cubs on Wednesday

Cashner is your typical young flamethrower who racks up strikeouts but struggles with control. In 130 career innings, he has a 25% K% and 10.5% BB%. In eight career starts he has a 25.7% K% and 4.4% BB%. That’s probably a small sample size anomaly, but there’s a chance that the windup suits him.

But Cashner has another skill beyond just the strikeout ability; he gets a ton of groundballs. His career ground ball rate is 51.3%. If he can keep that rate up as a full-time starter, he’ll join some pretty elite company. In the last ten years, there have only been three pitchers with a full season of 24%+ K% and 50%+ GB% at the age of 27 or younger. Those three were Jon Lester, Francisco Liriano, and David Price. Read the rest of this entry »

The rookies are taking over. After a handful of major-league starts, Tony Cingrani and Shelby Miller have exceeded early expectations. While they were never compared to each other in the minors, both pitchers are succeeding utilizing an extreme fastball-heavy approach. Both players currently rank in the top-10 in four-seam usage, and would have ranked second and third last season. Even though hitters know exactly what’s coming, they haven’t been able to touch either pitcher thus far. The popular thought is that starting pitchers need three offerings in order to succeed in the majors. The track record of pitchers who utilized just two offerings makes it tough to find comparables for Miller and Cingrani.

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When was the last time the Rockies employed a true offensive threat at third base? While Chris Nelson was decent last year, posting a 105 wRC+, we really have to go back to 2007. That was the last year Garrett Atkins provided the team with strong production at the hot corner. But today, the team made a pair of moves that included designating Nelson for assignment and calling up one time hot prospect Nolan Arenado. It’s almost a guarantee that by the time this article is published, he has already been scooped up in every league he could possibly earn value in. Keeper leagues? Long gone. So rather then debate whether he is worth an add, let’s instead discuss how we should expect him to perform this season.

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As of writing, today’s Roto Riteup author is currently the third best relief pitcher in FanGraphs: The Game.

On today’s agenda:
1. Ryan Zimmerman hopefully back this week
2. Yoenis Cespedes returns, everyone hates Casper
3. Strange and Spectacular Starts to the Season

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• Jim Johnson had the day off on Sunday (he threw ~15 pitches both Friday and Saturday and had pitched four of the last five days) so Buck Showalter decided to try and have Brian Matusz close out the Athletics. “Try” being the operative word, because Matusz gave up a 2-run shot to recently-activated Yoenis Cespedes which sent the game into extras. It was there where Pedro Strop took the loss, although the winning run was unearned thanks to an error by Manny Machado.

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Episode 5
Tonight’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs contributor Blake Murphy. We talk preseason power breakout candidates and pitcher streaming strategy.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via the feed. iTunes coming soon.

Approximately 37 min of joyous analysis.

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Happy Babe Ruth Day! In celebration of the Babe, go watch The Sandlot.

On today’s agenda:

1. The return of Sean Marshall
2. Danny Hultzen’s injury
3. What to make of Kyle Kendrick
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When possible, we try to avoid one-trick ponies in fantasy baseball. That’s why hitters like Mike Trout, Carlos Gonzalez and Andrew McCutchen are as valuable as they are — they’re balanced and typically contribute to each of the traditional five hitting categories. But when honing your search for the perfect middle reliever in your deep holds league, the task becomes a bit trickier. In order to get the best bang for your buck, you want to look for the middle reliever who can earn the scab win, grab a save when the anointed closer has the night off and posts eye-popping whiff rates.

Let’s take a look at the four middle relievers who currently have at least one hold with a K% of 30% or better and a fifth reliever you should be paying attention to.

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Let’s first start with results:

Week 1: 1-3, 30 IP, 3.00 ERA, 5.4 K/9, 2.3 K/BB, 1.13 WHIP (Kevin Slowey, Ubaldo Jimenez, Joe Saunders)
Week 2: 2-3, 25.1 IP, 5.69 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 2.4 K/BB, 1.74 WHIP (Joe Blanton, James McDonald, Eric Stults)
Week 3 (incomplete): 0-1, 19.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 7.0 K/9, 2.5 K/BB, 1.19 WHIP (Wade Davis, Carlos Villanueva, Patrick Corbin)
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Total: 3-7, 74.2 IP, 3.98 ERA, 6.3 K/9, 2.4 K/BB, 1.35 WHIP

In the words of the NBA Jam announcer, “He’s heating up!” But in all honesty, this week has been a lot better in a lot of ways, most notably in strikeouts and limiting baserunners. Now to just get some wins going here. Read the rest of this entry »