This is always the most challenging time of year for me as a fantasy writer. Every statistical sample size is way too small to analyze. I haven’t been to any minor-league games yet, so I don’t have any scouting reports to share. There’s just not a whole lot to write about yet.

Point is, this is a great time to discuss more general topics, because that’s far more interesting for me — and hopefully you — than my hot takes on Ian Kinsler’s awesome first week. With that in mind, let’s dive into a topic that’s been on my mind quite a bit lately, that of the lightly owned super-utility player.

There’s nothing sexy about the lightly owned super-utility player — to be henceforth referred to as a LOSUP — but the ability to use that player to plug multiple lineup holes is a somewhat underrated commodity. In relatively deep leagues with a reasonable number of bench slots, I always like to have a LOSUP floating around.

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Jumbo Diaz garnered a blown save in Cincinnati, giving up a bomb to Jhonny Peralta in the eighth. Don’t be shocked if J.J. Hoover gets the nod over him in the near future. Aroldis Chapman didn’t strike out a single Cardinal in his inning of work, so sound some kind of alarm.

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Early season roster moves aren’t something I’m a fan of, but bottom-of-the-roster turnover is a constant reality for fantasy owners. Let’s take a look at the shortstops who have seen their ownership percentages rise and fall the most after one week (according to ESPN) in the constant waiver wire shuffle. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the small sample, the pitching trend continues (as of 4/11):

Strikeouts are up. Offense is down. The MLB ERA as it stands is 3.39! You can read why in the The Hardball Time’s Baseball Annual 2015: Jeff Sullivan looks at whether or not sabermetrics have tipped the balance of power toward pitching and defense — it has. PITCHf/x evaluation is one major reason.

More and more, pitchers know what works within their own repertoires, and we can then tell some “reperstories” based on their pitch characteristics (movement and velocity) and outcomes (swinging-strike and groundball induction).

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Episode 6 – Harang Spits in the Face of the Naysayers

The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Steve Adams discuss poor Derek Holland, comparing Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Clay Buchholz, extreme boom-or-bust strategies, what is going on with Mat Latos and Trevor May, Evan Longoria handling the knuckleball, and how to deal with Aaron Harang’s magic.

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Agenda

1. Snakebit?
2. Iglesias
3. Daily DFS – ARod
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Greene, Baker, Schoop, Pompey
5. Factor Grid

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Fastball velocity has seemingly received increasingly greater attention over the past couple of years. Perhaps it’s because it just keeps rising. A quick Google search yielded this interesting article detailing recent trends and confirming that average fastball velocity has risen every year since 2008. For us fantasy owners, velocity is important because a spike is often the precursor to a breakout. So let’s talk about a couple of pitchers and what we have seen from their velocity in the early going. These guys have all started just one game, which is as small a sample size as ever. But, velocity stabilizes very quickly, so it’s still worthwhile to discuss.

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Did you know that unlike most animals, bears walk flat-footed like humans? The Roto Riteup is here for your daily bear fact needs. Also baseball, I guess.

On today’s agenda:
1. Felix Hernandez comes up lame
2. A minor setback for Michael Saunders
3. Clay Buchholz struggles, still looks sexy
4. Streaming Pitcher Options

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Episode 216

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss the rash of injuries on Sunday and then talk about some of their Week 1 observations and decide if there is enough to change their tune on some guys.

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We may only be five or six games into the season, but the Royals are undefeated and tied with the Tigers for the best record in baseball. The division rivals don’t face off until the end of April, so we’re going to talk about other things in today’s Roto Riteup.

On today’s agenda:
1. Yan Gomes suffers knee sprain
2. Aaron Sanchez struggles in debut
3. Mike Olt goes down
4. Streaming Pitcher Options

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