Last year, I polled you wonderful readers asking which group of pitchers you expected to perform better during the post-All Star Break period. The two groups were composed of the pitchers whose ERAs were most disparate from their respective SIERA marks. While a one year sample wasn’t going to prove anything, I was curious what you all thought and what would actually happen. Do I put too much faith in SIERA? If the SIERA beaters from the first half still significantly outperformed the underperformers, then perhaps I either have to rethink the way I evaluate pitchers or those specific pitchers were doing something not being captured by the metric.

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It’s been one hell of a strange season for Kolten Wong. He’s hit a couple of very high peaks and a couple of equally low valleys; as such, it’s quite difficult to judge his body of work on the season thus far, as his .242/.299/.392 slash line isn’t really representative of how he’s played at any point this year.

I was high on Wong coming into this season, but he scuffled badly in April. He hit just .221/.264/.265 in 76 plate appearances, and found himself back in Triple-A before the month’s end. The 23-year-old got his game back on track in Memphis, hitting a robust .360/.400/.533 with three homers and six steals in 18 games. While he was gone, Mark Ellis fought a losing battle with the Mendoza line, hitting .190 as the Cards’ starting second baseman.

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It has only been 155 plate appearances since his call up, but not much about Jon Singleton’s first 38 games in the majors has been impressive. He certainly has power, as evident by the six homers he has hit and the strength he has shown on those homers, but even his ISO of .176 is uninspiring.
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I have been a fairly regular advocate of targeting injured players in keeper and dynasty leagues. To a team competing, they are no better than a prospect, but to a team building for the future, they are far more likely to pan out.

A few weeks ago, Prince Fielder was cut in the original ottoneu league and re-signed for $24. He is a free agent in the FanGraphs ottoneu Experts League. And I am in the midst of trade talks around him in a non-ottoneu dynasty league. And I am really not sure what to make of the Ranger 1B.
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I asked twitter what I should write about, and the requests were too many to get to. So I thought I’d get to as many as I could, and the only grouping I could find was starting pitching. So let’s take a look at these guys without spending three thousand words on them! I’ll try to be succinct.

(Okay, I lied, I picked the pitchers because I love pitchers.)

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Yesterday was the Futures Game at Target Field, and even though it wasn’t offered on MLB.tv or ESPN, it offered a glimpse of tomorrow’s potential superstars. Much like the Futures Game, the Roto Riteup offers a glimpse of superstar talent who haven’t put it all together yet.

On today’s agenda:
1. Joey Gallo leaves his mark
2. Derek Holland out until late-August
3. James Paxton to rehab Thursday
4. Robbie Ray to start Saturday

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Episode 141

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! As they slide into the All-Star break, Jason Collette and Nicholas Minnix talk fantasy All-Stars, MVPs, and ROYs by league. Do not be afraid to share your dissenting opinions!

We also discuss a little ROS fantasy team evaluation, a few players coming back from injury, a few – especially Masahiro Tanaka and what to do with him – going out with injury, Shane Greene, the Minnesota Twins’ evolving rotation, and the Tampa Bay Rays’ infield.

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

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• Jake McGee returned from spending a few days with his new daughter and was immediately greeted with a save opportunity. He did his job, nailing down a 3-0 victory, whiffing two in a perfect ninth inning. The lefty now has six saves over the last month, the rest of the bullpen has four combined. It’s pretty clear he heads up this committee, although Joe Maddon has not quite gone the distance in committing to the southpaw.

There has been some chatter in the comments lately about Brad Boxberger. Read the rest of this entry »

Here for Blake today. Instead of talking about a specific player let’s talk about fandom, mine in particular.

I haven’t watched my favorite team [the Atlanta Braves] play a game in over two months. I’ve watched maybe five or six innings total of Braves’ baseball. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It just happened. Sure, I joked about not watching until B.J. Upton no longer hit leadoff, but I kinda just stopped watching because I wasn’t enjoying it any longer.

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Today is the final day of the 2014 World Cup. My pre-tournament pick (Brazil) lost their past two games by a combined score of 10-1, so add soccer to the list of things I thought I knew about, but actually don’t.

On today’s agenda:
1. A long and short day for Jimmy Nelson
2. Brett Anderson’s return
3. Is there a plan for Arismendy Alcantara?
4. Brock Holt: (almost) shortstop
5. The daily five

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