On this date in 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted, probably. Rather than dwell on that negative, this is a link to probably the greatest Mt. Vesuvius reference in pop culture history.
On today’s agenda:
1. Another quality start from Ricky Nolasco
2. Matt Cain to the disabled list
3. Eric Young’s hot streak
4. A streak of steals from Emilio Bonifacio
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I tend to wonder if Jason Kipnis believes in Karma. After starting the season batting .200/.269/286, he might have been wondering just what he did to piss off the delicate balance of the universe. Kipnis was a consensus ranked #4 second baseman back in March and by the end of April he was actually popping up on waiver wires.
Then, it seems, he got right with the world, or his chi, or whatever one might believe in. From the beginning of May to the end of June, Kipnis went all berzerker and hit .333/.421/618 with 11 home runs, 14 stolen bases, and 47 RBI in just over 200 at bats.
Here’s a link to the spreadsheet I keep of results so that readers can feel free to peruse it at their leisure.
And here are this weeks (young fireballer) recommendations:
Sonny Gray – 40.6% ESPN – @DET (.343 team wOBA), v. TB (.327)
This one isn’t so much about the matchups — they’re actually among the toughest an AL pitcher can have — but that I think this might be the only shot for someone to nab Gray not only for 2xSP, but just to have. Read the rest of this entry »
::lights fade in::
There is a small wooden table in the middle of an otherwise empty stage, next to it, a small wastepaper basket; a lone door set upstage right.
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye begins to play.
Howard Bender, dressed in jeans, sneakers, Atlanta Braves jersey and Atlanta Braves cap, enters through upstage door. He appears sullen and dejected.
He slowly walks downstage and stops just behind the table, removes his cap and sets it down on the table top. He then reaches for wastepaper basket, picks it up and sets it on the table. He puts the hat into it. He slowly removes the Braves jersey, reveals the number 22 and the name Heyward on the back. He places the jersey into the wastepaper basket. He then pulls out a single wooden matchstick from his pocket, strikes it against the table and holds it up to show the audience the burning flame. He drops it into the wastepaper basket and in seconds a large fire emerges from the basket.
Howard looks to the audience, shrugs, and without a word, walks back upstage to the door and exits.
::lights fade out:: Read the rest of this entry »
On average, Starlin Castro was the third shortstop selected on draft day, somewhere between the third and fourth rounds. He represented an intriguing power/speed option at an offensively-challenged position, and best of all, he only turned 23 in March so he was on the correct part of the age curve. No one can be blamed for buying high on the young man.
Yet, it’s August 23, and Castro is hitting .238/.274/.335 with seven home runs and eight stolen bases. His .270 wOBA ranks fourth-worst amongst qualified shortstops, and even Nick Franklin has provided more fantasy value on the season — despite not playing a big-league game until May 27. It’s frankly been a disastrous season across the board for Starlin Castro. Perhaps it’s best summed up by pointing out that he’s been worth almost four fewer wins than he was each of the previous two seasons. Four wins!
On Monday I touched on the idea of examining how hitters have performed against specific types of pitchers to try and find good daily matchups. Because a batter’s performance against a specific pitcher is too small of a sample to be predictive, why not look at a batter’s performance against that pitcher and others like him?
Let me qualify everything I’m about to say by saying that this method of choosing batters is merely something I am exploring. Despite the increased sample size I can get by looking at a batter’s performance against similar pitchers, it’s still usually not a huge sample size. And I’m also doing a pretty crude job of finding similar pitchers. I’m considering strikeout and walk skills, groundball and flyball tendencies, frequency of fastball usage and velocity as my variables in finding similar pitchers.
It’s hardly scientific and nothing close to exact. But I’m almost positive it’s a better approach than just using simple batter-versus-pitcher data. But I’m not sure it’s better than just looking at how a batter has performed against either left or right handed pitching as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
Not a ton of injury information over the past few days. I promise to get a month-to-month, vice a year-to-year, PAIN leader board. Instead, I examined the HURT and PAIN leaders for well established starting pitchers and hitters.
• I wanted to start by talking about the rash of catchers going on the DL and the fantasy impacts. First off, catching is tough. Kneeling for every pitch, having foul balls hit your head and nads, collisions at the plate. To put it in perspective, six of the last players to go on the concussion DL have been catchers. On the season, 9 of the of the 17 concussion DL trips have been by catchers.
A general fantasy rule is to never pay above or at market price for a catcher. This theme has been backed with such catchers as Joe Mauer and Buster Posey spending significant time on the DL in recent seasons. For these reasons, I try to minimize the risk I take early in a draft or with top auction dollars and not look for catcher then. Additionally, in advanced leagues, all the owners may take this rule to the extreme and catchers can be picked up for a fraction of their value.
If there’s any tool on this site I truly love, it’s the “last calendar year” sort on the leaderboards. For example, if you head over to the batting leaders and sort by wOBA over the last calendar year, you’ll get Miguel Cabrera & Chris Davis at the top, as you’d expect… but you’ll also see a pretty surprising name crack the top 20 hitters with at least 500 plate appearances: Brandon Moss. In the top 20!
Just look at the names behind him to see how impressive that is, because he’s beating out Jose Bautista, Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, and Carlos Beltran, among others. But Moss is only owned in about half of ESPN leagues, and barely more than a quarter in Yahoo. Have we all missed something?
Apparently today is Ride The Wind Day. The present author would much prefer Ride Wit Me (the radio edit version of the video).
On today’s agenda:
1. Potentially bad news for Wandy Rodriguez
2. Yet another blurb on Adam Eaton
3. Dan Uggla is scheduled to return
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Rafael Betancourt entered tonight’s game in the bottom of the ninth frame with a 4-3 Rockies lead over the Phillies. The crafty veteran retired the first two batters he faced, but then allowed a two-out double to Jimmy Rollins followed by an RBI single off the bat of Michael Young. Immediately following Young’s at-bat, Betancourt signaled for the trainer and was pulled from the game with an apparent elbow injury. The trainer’s evaluation “suggested” a possible tear of the infamous ulnar collateral ligament, which could end his season if Tommy John surgery is indeed needed to repair the ligament. It appears as if Rex Brothers will land back in the closer’s role should in fact Betancourt’s season be over. Brothers is 11-of-12 in save opportunities this season with a 1.51 ERA (3.31 FIP), a 1.16 WHIP and a 25.9% K%. The southpaw is owned in just 44% of Yahoo! leagues as of this writing, but that number needs to increase exponentially by the time the sun rises tomorrow.
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