Last week, FanGraphs’ fearless leader Dave Cameron tweeted out Steamer’s projections for top shortstop WAR (per 600 plate appearances). The top five? Troy Tulowitzki, Andrelton Simmons, Brad Miller, Hanley Ramirez, and Chris Taylor.
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Just in case you didn’t know, Chris Carter finished the season tied for second in home runs with Giancarlo Stanton. Also in the top five were Nelson Cruz, Mike Trout and Jose Abreu. One of these is obviously not like the others, although Cruz is a cut below Stanton, Trout and Abreu yet still a cut above Carter. We all know that Carter is a one-trick pony (or a three-true outcome pony), but it’s amusing how different he is from the rest of this group when you look at something other than home runs. For example, the three studs in the top five all had a wOBA over .400 for the year while Carter’s was .346. And those three studs all contributed at least 40 offensive runs more than average while Carter contributed just shy of 13 more than average.
For the purposes of this column, it’s more important to note that the production of all four other guys in the top five of home runs was essentially worth $30 or more. Carter’s production was worth about $15. To be fair, Carter vastly out-earned the $1 at which I had him valued in the preseason, but this just illustrates how truly limiting the batting average is even when the power production is as good as you can expect it to be. Read the rest of this entry »
While gathering opinions on Twitter about Alex Rodriguez, I ran into an interesting issue – ethical reasons to not roster a player. In the past, it has never really occurred to me to not roster or cut a player based on his off-the-field actions. Certainly, I will adjust my valuations. We’ve seen divorce eat into player contributions, and ill-timed comments can lead to a change in role or a trade. But not until the Adrian Peterson fiasco has it ever occurred to me to boycott a player for ethical reasons. Perhaps I’m behind the curve, but I want to explore the topic in more detail.
Arbitration allocations and voting off players in ottoneu leagues start this Wednesday. Brad Johnson and I have both shared guides to the process in the past (both for arbitration allocations and vote offs), but this year I want to focus on one point.
Prospects. Every year I touch on this briefly and every year a couple prospects are among the most allocated-to. So this year, I want to explore allocations to prospects/rookies a bit deeper.
We’re moving on to our recap of the first basemen this week, so let’s begin by reviewing my Pod’s Picks for the position.
The 2014 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. After looking at catchers last week, we’re on to first baseman.
The players were ranked based on their 2014 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and standard 5×5 roto fantasy leagues, where only one catcher is started. Players are listed only at their primary positions from 2014.
One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth. These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. A player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.
This year, I’ve added in RotoGraphs’ preseason consensus rankings so you can see what we thought of each player coming into the year. This ranking can be found in the “Pre” column. “EOS” of course stands for End Of Season, and the rest should be self explanatory.
With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »
Suzuki was the 14th ranked catcher, behind Seattle’s Mike Zunino and ahead of San Diego’s Yasmani Grandal.
When the news broke last November that Joe Mauer would be moving off the catcher position permanently, a void opened that many assumed would be filled by Josmil Pinto. Not much was known about Pinto’s receiving skills, but the 24-year-old had just wrapped up a 21-game September run where he hit .342/.398/.566 and in doing so created considerable buzz.
It’s been nearly a year since then and Pinto still hasn’t grabbed that starting spot. And some would say it’s for good reason. No, it probably doesn’t make sense that Pinto’s age-25 season was spent by and large at Triple-A Rochester — especially in light of the Twins losing 90 games for the fourth consecutive season. But the Twins had their reasons, like it or not.
Their reasoning was the play of Kurt Suzuki. Read the rest of this entry »
There weren’t too many who were bullish on Jarrod Saltalamacchia coming into 2014 even after his 2013 totals ranked him about eighth overall for catchers. Salty was coming off his finest season as a professional, reducing his strikeout rate and increasing his walk rate, all while producing a .273/.338/.466 slash line with 14 home runs and career highs in runs and RBI with 68 and 65, respectively. He even stole four bases.
I’ll freely admit that this column is highly speculative in nature, and based on plenty of assumptions. However, that’s kind of what this time of year is for as a fantasy writer. It’s the time of year when you start going through your “What ifs” for the next season, and I think I have a pretty intriguing “What if” scenario for John Jaso.
For the second consecutive year, Jaso had his season cut short due to continued concussion symptoms. For very good reason, this has led to some speculation regarding Jaso’s future behind the plate, or possible lack thereof. The A’s already took steps in 2014 to get his bat in the lineup at designated hitter, but even with his 32 starts at DH, the 47 starts he made behind the dish proved to be too many, and Jaso’s 2014 season ended just like 2013 did.
Last Friday, I created a place to celebrate our accomplishments, dance a little jig, and bask in the radiance of fantasy glory. We didn’t all do well in 2014 – most of us have at least one disappointing roster. So, I present the pit of despair. This is your chance to bitch, moan, and gripe about your lousy luck. Get it out of your system, then let’s take a good hard look in the mirror. I said it last week and I’ll say it again – failure is the most efficient method of learning. We just have to recognize why we failed. Read the rest of this entry »