Archive for May, 2015

RotoGraphs Audio: The Sleeper and the Bust 5/31/2015 – Finding Impact on the Wire

Episode 235

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss the injury news around Adrian Beltre, Jose Abreu, Khris Davis, Sean Doolittle, Scott Kazmir, James Paxton, Tim Beckham, Scott Feldman, and not-real Tuffy Gosewisch.

In a new Sunday segment, they discuss guys likely to be hot on the waiver wire this week: Eduardo Rodriguez, Mike Bolsinger, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Ryan Vogelsong, Mike Wright, Kyle Hendricks, Jung ho Kang, Preston Tucker, Billy Burns, Justin Bour, Mitch Moreland, and Cameron Maybin.

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Roto Riteup: May 31, 2015

Today’s Roto Riteup is written by that other guy.

On today’s agenda:
1. Khris Davis out with torn meniscus
2. Various news and notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options

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Roto Riteup: May 30, 2015

Rather than subject you to a yet another weekend of coverage exclusively from that other guy, for a change of pace, today’s Roto Riteup was written with love.

On today’s agenda:
1. Bad news for Stephen Strasburg
2. Alex Rios to return today
3. Streaming Pitching Options

Bad news for Stephen Strasburg
The nightmare of a 2015 season continues for the 26-year-old. Entering yesterday’s game he was the owner of a 6.50 ERA — though his 3.66 xFIP and 3.65 SIERA tell a different tale — and then he failed to record more than three outs before leaving with an injury. He tossed one-plus innings before exiting the game after a brief mound visit. Strasburg’s fastball velocity touched 97 according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post and from the available footage, a clear injury didn’t show itself. As the Post article notes, Strasburg did exit a start on May 5 due to back stiffness so here is to hoping this injury isn’t more serious. For those looking to buy-low on Stras, you may want to retract or cancel your offers until more word breaks on this.

Alex Rios to return today
The Kansas City outfield will look to get an offensive boost as the club welcomes back Rios. As stellar as the outfield defense has been, their bats have rated basically league average to this point. Rios projects to be in line with what the Royal’s outfielders have accomplished to date, but I’m personally higher on him than that. I like his doubles power, particularly in Kauffman. Last season the Royal’s field was tied for the seventh highest doubles park factor, but the stadium was league average for right-handed doubles. From 2012-2014 Rios rated tied at 23rd for most doubles in baseball with 100 and I expect him to be able to post a 30 doubles pace once again. While the Paulo Orlando triples ride was fun, he’s come back down to earth in recent weeks. Count on Rios getting the majority of the playing time in right field as well as the occasional spell at designated hitter to help keep him fresh. Prior to his injury he batted in the lower third of the lineup, but if his gap power plays to the park the way I believe it will, Rios could get moved up. He’s already owned in nearly 80 percent of CBS formats however Rios can be picked up in more than 35 percent of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues.

Streaming Pitching Options
If you enjoy streaming pitchers, tune into the Roto Riteup for recommendations each and every day.

A pitcher for today: Tom Koehler at NYM (Jon Niese)
Koehler has pitched well in his past two starts and the Mets have been less than stellar against right-handers thus far. As a team their collective 82 wRC+ versus righties comes in ranked at 27th in baseball. Koehler is widely available as his highest ownership rate among the three major fantasy sites is 16 percent in CBS leagues.

A pitcher for tomorrow: Chase Anderson at MIL (Ty Wagner)
I’m still aboard the Chase hype train. He’s up against a rather light-hitting Brewers lineup today and can be picked up in more than 45 percent of CBS leagues and over 75 percent of Yahoo! or ESPN formats.


The Daily Grind: de la Rosa, Anderson, Norris

Agenda

  1. Bull Durham
  2. Daily DFS – de la Rosa, Lincecum
  3. GB / FB Splits
  4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Anderson, Phelps, Norris, Burns
  5. Factor Grid

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Bullpen Report: May 29, 2015

Greg Holland’s velocity has been up and down this season, but he was hitting his usual ceiling of just above 95 against the Cubs on Friday. He struck out two in his perfect inning, throwing nine of his ten pitches for strikes. It wasn’t a save situation, but he looked sharp in his first appearance since Monday. Wade Davis struck out the side in his perfect eighth to keep his ERA at 0.00 on the year. Pedro Strop had another shaky outing for the Cubs, as he gave up three runs, one of them earned, in a third of an inning. He entered May with an ERA of 0.00 and has raised it to 4.09 with two days left in the month. He’s still sitting next in line for saves behind Hector Rondon, but how long will it be before someone like Justin Grimm takes that spot? The Cubs miss Neil Ramirez in that role.

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RotoGraphs Consensus Rankings – May Update: Shortstops

We’re making our way around the diamond with our updated rankings and today we are onto shortstops. Here are the positions we’ve done so far and you can also access them via the Positional Rankings in the right sidebar:

If you feel we missed someone, please let us know in the comments.

This was a really tough position for me because it’s just so messed up. The studs aren’t studding leaving it wide open at the top. There has been some nice risers, but it’s still a remarkably thin position and easily the thinnest on the diamond.

FYI: the table is sortable!

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Stream, Stream, Stream: #2xSP (6.1-6.7)

Well after taking a verbal tongue lashing — deservedly so, don’t get me wrong — in the comments last week, we managed to shave almost a full run off the ERA. So I got that going for me, which is nice. The won-loss record will be an all season thing to try get back to even, but for now we appear to be moving in the right direction….until you get a look at this week’s recs that is. But hey, this’ll be a week where these guys should almost certainly be available and at your disposal (insert trash joke here).

Here are the totals through half of week seven:

6-23 record
5.80 ERA
6.2 K/9
2.1 K/BB
1.47 WHIP

Here’s a look at this week’s recs, with team wOBA in parentheses. Y! ownership numbers pulled courtesy of twitter pal @PandaPete21, whom you should give a follow:

RHP Ryan Vogelsong – 14.9% ESPN/11% Y! – v. PIT (.306), @PHI (.284)

Vogelsong gets a pair of really nice matchups this week, which should prolong what amounts to a really solid streak that he’s been on. In fact, it coincides exactly with the calendar flipping to May, as Vogelsong posted a 9.31 ERA in April, and will conclude May with a 1.14 mark. Opposing batters have hit just .184/.244/.281 against the 37-year-old righty this month, as he’s allowed just four earned runs in that five-start span. Read the rest of this entry »


More Love for Cameron Maybin

It might feel like it was forever ago, but Cameron Maybin was once one of the most coveted prospects baseball. The type of prospect who co-headlines a package for a young Miguel Cabrera and not-yet-awful Dontrelle Willis. From 2007-2009 he ranked in the top-10 prospects in all of baseball by Baseball America. His power and speed projections lent themselves to thoughts of a possible 30/30 outfielder who would be drafted near the top of fantasy drafts. Now, he’s 600 games into his big league career and has hit 37 homers and stolen 99 bases. He does have a 40 stolen base season on his resume, but the power never truly showed up in his game and his .247/.312/.369 slash line leaves a lot to be desired. Very little was made of his inclusion in a blockbuster deal for Craig Kimbrel on opening night of the season. It appears, though, the 28-year-old outfielder is breaking out. Colleague Alex Chamberlain took an in-depth look at Maybin yesterday, and his piece is a great read. I’d like to further enhance the case for rostering the center fielder.  Read the rest of this entry »


MASH Report (5/29/15)

• Not a much of movement on the DL over the last couple of days. I submitted this article for publication early on Friday, so any injury news which comes out today will not be contained.

Jayson Werth had a major setback when it was determined he has two fractures in his wrist. He could be back in August. Or he could miss the rest of the season.

Sprains or strains forced the following players to the DL

Matt Adams strained his quad and will miss 3-4 months recovering. Basically there is a small chance he will return by the end of the season.

Michael Morse strained his finger.

Daniel Nava strained his thumb.

Collin Cowgill sprained his wrist.

Scott Atchison sprained his ankle.

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The Daily Grind: Anibal, Chi Chi, Ruf

Agenda

  1. Negotiations and Keeper Valuations
  2. Daily DFS – Anibal
  3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Elias, Chi Chi, Franco, Ruf, Guyer
  4. Factor Grid

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