The official start of the 2015 major league season is fast upon us! But before that, the 15th anniversary of New Found Glory’s From the Screen to Your Stereo will happen tomorrow. The album — with all of its covers of 1980’s and 1990’s cinematic glory — can be found on YouTube.
On today’s agenda:
1. Yasmany Tomas to the minors?
2. Forearm tightness for David Robertson
3. San Diego’s fifth starter competition
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Episode 209
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!
In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris dive deep into the mid and late tier of starting pitching in this two-hour extravaganza!!!
I broke the guys up into a series of four- and five-pitcher groupings and then we talked about a couple or all in each group. These are the tiers from which a lot of breakouts and surprises will emerge.
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• Chris Sale expects to start on April 12th.
• Nick Franklin will at least miss a couple of weeks to start the season. It may not be until late May when he returns.
Nick Franklin (left-oblique strain) is “in that gray area,” according to Cash when asked if the infielder could be back by four to six weeks or six to eight
Every year, we here at RotoGraphs publish tiered rankings for every position and update them throughout the year. What you will read below are, more or less, my end-of-season projections for National League outfielders, since the season hasn’t started yet. However, these rankings will change as the year progresses, and I would be a fool to tell you the tiers below will look the same in September.
No doubt, this is a contentious matter, and you can tell me how much of a moron I am in the comments.
Without further ado, here is the 2015 season’s first installment of tiered rankings for NL outfielders.
Last night, I participated in a FSWA* sponsored league with Yahoo’s Scott Pianowski and others from the industry. It’s 14-team H2H with standard deep rosters including two catchers, five outfielders, and just four bench spots. With a $260 budget, the depth offers a modest challenge. We also have a transaction limit of 50 for the season or three per week. As the Daily Grind guy, that’s a blow to my standard approach.
Yesterday, I took our bold predictions one step further by unveiling my bold hitter league leaders. It’s not easy picking a league leader that could both be considered bold, and yet still not outrageous. Today I turn to pitchers, who with two ratio categories, are perhaps a bit easier.
It’s rather jarring to one’s sensibilities, regardless how delicate, to have a thought occur to you that goes something like “Kyle Seager isn’t that much different from Evan Longoria, and might even be better.” But indeed, that’s what recently ran through my brain, or what’s left of it after years of fermented grain based beverages. But I digress. Tiering the hot corner isn’t as cut-and-dried as it used to be, and there are very small degrees of separation throughout.
I already covered by thoughts on Anthony Gose to nab 40 steals in my 10 bold predictions — so he’s obviously a lock to do so, amirite — but I’ll elaborate a bit more. I love his speed potential and I see Jake Marisnick in a very similar way.
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Depth chart discussions are in full swing. We are analyzing each team’s infield, outfield, rotation and bullpen components in separate segments. Catch up on the discussions here.
I don’t know how analyze the Cardinals’ outfield in a way that properly acknowledges the significant role the Cardinals’ carved out for Oscar Taveras without marginalizing or trivializing his life and talent nor condoning the cause of his passing. His sudden death shocked the baseball community and left a gaping hole in the St. Louis outfield. Unfortunately, there’s a lot we’ll never know about Taveras, the budding superstar who never was — or, perhaps more accurately, never got to be.
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With the departures of Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig, and with Matt Adams employed full-time at first base, the St. Louis outfield looks thin. But the Cards have a pair of prospects ready to contribute at the Major League level (or close to it), both of whom will likely assume full-time roles in the next couple of years. Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ regulars, barring injury, will assume the lion’s share of the starting duties and produce enough offensive and defensive value to warrant their lack of depth — if they stay healthy, that is, and that’s a big “if.”
Left Field: Matt Holliday (Age 35)
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In late February, Lord Appelman unveiled the FanGraphs auction calculator which is loosely based upon a similar calculator named Last Player Picked. I penned a guide to using said calculator which has proven popular. As we delve deeper into draft season, I find that I’m using the calculator in ways that probably weren’t intended. That’s what we’re here to discuss today.