After a nice first two months of the season, June is killing me. Much of the gains I made early in the year have been given back over the last three weeks. My double up success rate has deteriorated, and I’ve hardly sniffed a cash in GPPs. I’m frustrated, but I have to fight the urge to mail it in. I’ve still had success on the whole, even if I haven’t been able to continue to multiply my bankroll like I had hoped.

I can’t be the only one feeling like this. If you’re on a bad run, I encourage you to stick with it. I’m hoping things improve as the season drags on and the data I use on a daily basis becomes more reliable. Each year I compete in the FantasyPros.com weekly football ranking contest, and I have performed much better in the second half of the season in each of the last three years. I attribute this to the data I use simply being more reliable as the season goes on. My approach to baseball DFS is almost as dependent on data, and it stands to reason that as it gets more reliable, my performance will improve. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we continue to move along with my updated Pod’s Picks, comparing my rank versus the other three RotoGraphers. We’re now up to the shortstops, of which the consensus rankings published two weeks ago can be found here. I’ll generally only consider those shortstops that I ranked within the top 20 for the bullish category and those the rest of the crew ranked in the top 20 for the bearish category.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re still sick from the nasty USMNT finish yesterday, today’s Roto Riteup may make you feel worse, not better.

On today’s agenda:
1. Matt Shoemaker, a man I believe in
2. Andrew Cashner scratched today
3. The Fascinating Five

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 132

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Special guest Fred Zinkie of MLB.com joins Nicholas Minnix to discuss Mark Melancon, the Angels’ mess in the bullpen as well as their ditching of Raul Ibanez, Alex Wood into the rotation, the Cardinals’ rotation with multiple injuries and an opportunity for Carlos Martinez, other starting pitchers with great talent but not yet a clearly defined role, a Dan Straily checkup, Joe Panik, the Royals’ 3B situation, Travis d’Arnaud, Josh Harrison, injuries to important position players such as Brett Lawrie, and more.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

• Joe Maddon continues to play Russian Roulette with his ninth inning. Today it was Joel Peralta’s turn to help fantasy owners out in the ol’ SV category. The righty spun a scoreless ninth, notching a pair of punchouts as Tampa Bay cruised to a 5-2 win. The outing lowered Peralta’s unspectacular, but solid, xFIP to 3.31 and it was his first save since May 17th of last year (a four-out affair against the Red Sox). Jake McGee leads the team in leverage index (a measure of how “crucial” the game situation is) over the last two weeks, with Peralta and Grant Balfour a little behind. Trendy candidate Juan Oviedo continues to be a little further back in the race for manager trust it appears, with other guys like Brad Boxberger, Cesar Ramos, and Kirby Yates well off the radar, regardless of how good their Triple-A numbers might have been. For now, keep owning the top three guys. However, no one seems to be running away with the job right now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Left-handed hitters are batting just .238 off of left-handed pitchers so far this season, posting a paltry .290 wOBA, roughly 20 percent below the league average for offense.

We know that the lefty-lefty match-up is a tricky one, and I think it’s generally accepted that the righty-righty match-up is less of an issue, because a righty who can’t hit righties would probably be filtered out of the talent pool before reached the majors.

Here’s how the numbers bear out so far this season:

Read the rest of this entry »

Thirty years ago today the film “The Karate Kid” was released. I’ll admit I haven’t seen the remake, but I have a hard time believing it could possibly have a better montage than the original. I mean, it was the best around.

On today’s agenda:
1. A strong outing from Mike Leake
2. J.J. Hardy hits a home run
3. Joc Pederson watch
4. The daily five

Read the rest of this entry »

• Mike Scioscia must not listen to the Backstreet Boys. Today’s reliever tasked with protecting a one-run, ninth inning lead? Well, it wasn’t Ernesto Frieri or Joe Smith. Righty Kevin Jepsen trotted out of the bullpen instead. Of course, Shin-Soo Choo immediately crushed a no out delivery to center field, giving him the unfortunate BS in the box score. Scioscia’s faith in Frieri has clearly waned recently, but typical standby Smith had pitched each of the last two days, rendering him potentially unusable. Jepsen actually decreased his xFIP to a solidly respectable 3.28 after tonight’s outing. His K% is actually the highest it’s been during his career. Part of it may be due to the addition of a changeup in Jepsen’s arsenal, which has helped nearly double his fastball SwStr% from his career mark. Regression is to be expected, but the soon-to-be 30-year-old Jepsen may be able to keep pitching at a elevated level. Unfortunately for him, he blew his chance to get in his manager’s good graces, so he’s unlikely to see the next save opportunity. Smith Time?

Read the rest of this entry »

And the weekend finally arrives. All of the weekend’s series started yesterday, but we were a little preoccupied with Clayton Kershaw to acknowledge that. The Braves and the Nationals are in a dead heat in the NL East, currently. The Orioles-Yankees series has some standings implications. As does the Indians-Tigers. Given the Royals’ recent run, that series is especially interesting.

We’re at a point in the season where things are fluid. Standings can change on a whim, but the series seem to start meaning a little more. The Red Sox are one of the teams that needs to begin making up ground. They’re 6.5 back as of Friday, after a loss to Oakland on Thursday, in the first game of a four game series. While Boston is trying to gain ground, Toronto will be facing off with divisional foe, Baltimore.

On the other coast, the Giants’ slide has helped the Dodgers make up ground, dropping the difference between the teams to 4 games, as of Friday afternoon. Best of all, for LA, they’re facing an anemic Padres squad this weekend. With good play and a little luck, the Dodgers deficit could be trimmed even further.

Read the rest of this entry »

Agenda

1. Daily Adjusted Park Factors
2. Daily DFS
3. Sunday Pick
4. Table

Read the rest of this entry »