• The Yankees activated David Robertson from the DL today but he didn’t enter tonight’s game against the Red Sox. Shawn Kelley did an admirable job filling in but the ninth inning definitely belongs to David Robertson in the Bronx. If Robertson’s healthy, his above average control and elite strikeout ability could easily make him a top ten closer. Of course we all know that, it’s why we drafted him as such just a few months ago. Of more interest might be Dellin Betances, who’s 0.93/1.59/2.15 ERA/FIP/xFIP and 14.90 K/9 could make him a more major player in the back of the Yankees bullpen as the season goes on. Adam Warren received a save opportunity this season, but projecting these guys forward Betances will likely provide more value with his strikeouts, and once he develops a trust with Girardi he could see more consistent meaningful innings.

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Episode 110

The latest episode of The Sleeper and the Bust is now live! Jason Collette and Eno Sarris discuss Dallas Keuchel, Brad Miller, Yu Darvish, more closer craziness, Dan Haren, Zack Greinke, and the Chris Sale situation.

As usual, don’t hesitate to 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.

Thanks to Ian Miller aka Teen Archer, for the new intro music. Approximately 41 min of joyous analysis.  

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I asked twitter if I should write about Dallas Keuchel, Marcus Semien and Jonathan Schoop, or Brad Miller, and they spoke definitively: what’s going on with Brad Miller? So I wrote up Brad Miller and then I discovered that Blake Murphy had done the same. So he might include some of my charts and analysis, he might not, but we were too similar.

And I start again, with the second-most requested topic: Dallas Keuchel, come on down!

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Unless you play in a one-catcher league (bo-ring, to me, but I totally get why some people do it) or subscribe to a strategy that purports the selection of two top-rated catchers, you’re faced with the prospect of ownership of some serious crap at the position in at least one of your two C spots. We can’t all draft Devin Mesoraco. (Those who did may want to see what he’d fetch in a trade.) Some of us ended up with Alex Avila’s .175/.283/.250 and 58.3 contact rate through 47 plate appearances. (The Detroit Tigers tell us that he’s working through that awful start. Fingers crossed. At least he’s practically assured playing time.)

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Brad Miller is no longer taking walks or getting hits. That’s obviously a problem, because it means he’s killing your team in average, failing to drive in runs and not getting on base to score runs or steal bases. Entering the seasons as the Fangraphs consensus number nine at shortstop and not ranked by a single person as outside of the top-10, Miller has instead repaid owners with the 24th-best performance at the position, providing net positive value only in home runs (he has three).

The .187-7R-7RBI-3HR-0SB line is obviously troubling. The realities underneath it – specifically, his suddenly-anemic walk rate and sky-high strikeout rate – are even more troubling, though hopefully they represent a short-term issue.
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Agenda

1. A reminder about tomorrow
2. DFS Stacks
3. Wednesday Picks
4. Oh Table, My Table

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Dave Cameron tweeted something interesting yesterday. As of yesterday, the top three offenses in the major leagues were: Colorado, Oakland, and Miami.

Strange, right? Although, aside from the Marlins I’m not too shocked. After all, the Rockies’ roster still has Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. Except, I am surprised that Charlie Blackmon has been their best hitter thus far. It’d be fun to see what that team could accomplish if they had a solid rotation, but alas. They’re not terrible, but they’re not very good either. As it stands, Colorado is one of the best offenses to stack – shocker. I’m buying into the Athletics’ offense a little more as well, especially versus right handed pitching. As far as the Marlins are concerned, I’m going to need to see a little more.

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Another week, another crop of injuries open up spots for two waiver wire candidates. Me thinks there’s a pattern here. As we snorkel amid the waiver wire waters, our first contestant is no stranger to deep league fantasy owners, though his awful 2013 made him persona non grata in the vast majority of formats entering the season. Meanwhile, a Tommy John snakebite has opened up a spot in the Yankees rotation, potentially opening the door for an intriguing left-hander to aid fantasy owners.

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Yesterday, I unveiled the xK% regression equation 2.0 and used it to discuss pitchers who may enjoy a strikeout rate surge in the near future. Today I am looking into the opposite group — those whose xK% suggest a decline in strikeout rate may be imminent. Similar to the surgers, I am only going to list those pitchers with actual K% marks of at least 20%. If he’s only posting a 15% mark to begin with, but should really be at 10%, do we really care?

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Happy National Jelly Bean Day! Go ahead and order a 50-flavor box for someone. If that someone were to be me, I would not argue.

On today’s agenda:
1. Cameron Maybin’s recovery
2. Kevin Kouzmanoff keeps hitting
3. Oscar Taveras watch
4. The Daily Five

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