• Well, OK. Baltimore’s closer situation officially might be becoming interesting. After bringing on Jim Johnson in a non-save situation last night, Buck Showalter screamed “matchups, ho!” from the dugout while nursing a two-run lead in the ninth today. Darren O’Day started the inning against the right-handed Wil Myers who promptly singled. Next up was Brian Matusz, tasked with facing the left-handed James Loney. Walk! Likely exasperated, Showalter finally turned to Read the rest of this entry »

Back in July, Mike Petriello gave us a nice background on Ivan Nova, so I’ll spare you his biographical introduction. At the time, it was July and Nova had looked pretty solid in a handful of starts, but the dreaded small sample size kind of loomed. But since that time, he’s just continued to confound opponents and he appears to be emerging as one of the more shrewd waiver wire acquisitions of the 2013 season. What’s interesting is how different he has been this year versus his career.

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Dioner Navarro

He is owned in 1% of Yahoo! leagues despite having 11 home runs and a .366 OBP and .527 SLG. He missed a bit of time due to Chase Utley destroying him at home plate but other than that he seems to be playing every day and has somewhat resurrected what seemed like an absolutely dead career.
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This is it. We’re getting real close to the end here. August is nearly finished and then we’re into the home stretch. The waiver wire will start to fill up a little more once we hit September and MLB rosters expand, but for right now it’s a matter of sifting through the rubble and seeing if there’s anyone out there who can help you in some way. There’s really no more time to sit and wait for someone to turn things around. They’re either producing or they’re not and if they aren’t, you need to make a switch fast. Time is running out. Maybe these two can be of some help… Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who reads this space regularly knows I love exploiting platoon splits in daily pools more than Kel loves orange soda. So today I’m taking a crack at trying to find guys among today’s probable pitchers with big platoon splits in 2013. This could help your roster management in a couple ways. Should you play that platoon-heavy (Matt Joyce?) guy against today’s pitcher? (the answer is no). You could also ask questions like “should you really run out that guy with a .400 wOBA against lefties against righty-mashers like the Red Sox?” (also no).

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We’ve officially reached the calm before the storm. With just a month and a half to go, the National League starting pitcher tiers have finally started to settle in. Once September rolls around, and teams start calling up prospects, it all goes to hell again. While the trading deadline has passed in most fantasy leagues, there’s still a chance to take stock of potential keepers, or cut dead weight for a potentially better player on the waiver wire. With Breaking Bad being such a topical subject, the tiers will be a ranking of the best characters on the show. Please keep in mind the players are tiered. If Homer Bailey and Shelby Miller are in the same tier, that means I value them about the same. It doesn’t mean whichever player is listed first is better. Enjoy.

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It’s time to dive into the free agent pool to make that last push into a money spot in your deep league. September is fast approaching and that’s when a ton of new options will pop up and make a case for significant playing time.

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Today’s Roto Riteup celebrates the author completing a good chunk of the Cinderella jigsaw puzzle he has neglected to work on for the past two weeks.

On today’s agenda:
1. Mike Trout misses second straight game
2. Astros call up Max Stassi
3. Clay Buchholz to start rehab assignment

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• Rafael Betancourt recorded his 16th save of the year and his first since returning from the disabled list. Betancourt faced the minimum and it looks like he’s back to his the ninth inning job in Colorado. Rex Brothers pitched quite well while Betancourt was out, but barring any injury I’d expect Betancourt to hold onto the job for the remainder of the year.

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Episode 53
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss two recent top prospect call ups and a potentially new life for a former AL East pitcher.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)

Approximately 43 min of joyous analysis.

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