I will never recommend chasing after a hot streak or benching a player until he “shows signs of life”. But sometimes, especially when it comes to pitchers, players do make real changes that have a positive effect on their performance. While I have no idea if these particularly pitchers have, it’s always interesting to identify who the best pitchers have been over the last 30 days from a skills perspective.
• It took a while, but Koji Uehara finally got his first save since being anointed Boston’s fourth closer of the year last week. Uehara spun a 1-2-3 inning, striking out a pair of Rockies looking to polish off a John Lackey victory. While there remains some question as to how frequently Uehara can work back-to-back days, he continues to flaunt otherworldly peripherals; even if his BB% has “jumped” to 6% so far this season. He doesn’t have the prototypical mid-90’s gas, but his 16.1% SwStr% shows he doesn’t need it. If he hasn’t been picked up in your league already (maybe everyone is following that Aaron Hernandez saga too closely?), stop reading and grab him.
It’s fairly likely this isn’t your first spin with fantasy baseball, so you are no doubt familiar with the fact that things go wrong. Despite all your preparation, your undivided attention to the prognosticators and the projection sheets, sometimes the bell rings and one or two of your top picks turn into moldy wet blankets. One of your sleeper picks never wakes. A can’t-miss rookie never arrives.
It happens. It’s part of the game.
Over the past 30 days Leonys Martin has a .367 wOBA, thanks to a .301/.363/.479 line. Yes, his .365 BABIP over the past month has helped, but even Martin’s seasonal line of .289/.340/.457 is nothing to scoff at. This may be the year that the Cuban defector posts his breakout season.
With the news that Jose Reyes is being activated from the disabled list here on Wednesday, there’s a fairly good chance that whoever owns him in your league might have a shortstop to send back to the player pool. Of course, if your Reyes owner is like me and landed Jean Segura early on, then chances are, you won’t be seeing the extra help on your waiver wire. If that’s the case, then perhaps there’s someone else out there whom you haven’t investigated just yet, so here are a couple of suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve talked about weather in this space a few times before, but (being my day job and all), I figured it could use some occasional expansion — you know — for those that really feel the absolute need to micromanage (be honest, that’s like half of the Rotographs demographic!). If you are like me and check your Draftstreet team (or daily fantasy lineups) somewhere between 6 and 7 PM ET, you probably want to do a quick check of the radar to look for any high impact rain events. I prefer to use the National Weather Service for a variety of personal reasons, but the vast majority of radars that weather sites use all use the same (WSR-88D) data, so it’s mainly a matter of taste (and ability to deal with blinking “click me!” ads). The below is just a quick example of the national radar mosaic I grabbed from the NWS around 9 AM ET this morning.
Tyler Chatwood has emerged as the best pitcher on the Colorado Rockies. Through 44.2 innings, Chatwood already has accumulated 1.4 WAR. Jorge de la Rosa and Jhoulys Chacin may rank ahead of him, but it’s only due to pitching more than twice the amount of innings. That’s pretty shocking considering Chatwood’s performance in the majors prior to 2013. In 206.2 innings, Chatwood had a career 4.96 ERA, and his 4.98 FIP and 7.76 xFIP didn’t leave a ton of argument for improvement. At the same time, Chatwood was promoted way too aggressively. Considering Chatwood converted to pitcher his senior year of high school, began his professional career the following season and was pitching in the majors at age-21. But two years later, that inexperience has become less of an issue. The raw Chatwood is starting to take steps toward becoming a finished product.
Desperate for pitching in your deep league? Of course you are! So that means that this is your lucky day as I feed you a spoonful of starting pitcher options for your consideration.
This morning’s Roto Riteup was prepared in between the author’s dueling job interviews.
On today’s agenda:
1. Will Middlebrooks demoted
2. Danny Duffy stays in minors
3. Corey Hart haz a sad
4. Jason Vargas requires surgery
• The Carlos Marmol saga in Chicago comes to an end as he was designated for assignment today. The Cubs now have 10 days to trade Marmol, but considering they’ve been trying that for parts of two or more seasons, I don’t think that’s a possibility. Carlos Marmol has been the Adam Dunn of pitching with a fantastic 29.8% career K% but with all those swings and misses were the bases on balls of course (15.5% BB%). For a brief stretch Marmol was one of the better fantasy closers in the game. Although his ERA and WHIP were never elite, he struck out 138 batters in 2010 with a 2.55 ERA. Marmol slipped since then and has never reached that peak, bottoming out in 2013 with a 5.86 ERA and 6.16 FIP. If someone else picks him up, it should at least be intriguing watching him the feast or famine from Marmol.
It’s strange to say, but Kevin Gregg’s cemented as the Cubs closer (until he gets traded) and behind him to see the late innings is James Russell, as well as Blake Parker . James Russell has been solid all season although he’s struggled against right-handed hitting with .346 wOBA against them thus far. Blake Parker’s only thrown 9.2 innings this year but he’s been effective with a 3.16 xFIP and a 10.24 K/9. There is trade interest in Kevin Gregg as we mentioned and if he’s gone, Parker is someone to keep an eye on for potential saves.