Middle infield is a position that gamers often have to hold their nose while filling. An increase in playing time for a rookie in Pittsburgh could add a semi-intriguing name to the middle infield waste land. A pair of vastly different outfielders have something to offer gamers in larger leagues. Finally, gamers looking for a possible breakout at starting pitcher who should, at worst, contribute positively in strikeouts could find this mystery man in the desert and on your waiver wire. Read the rest of this entry »

Agenda

1. Getting It Backwards
2. Daily DFS – Martinez
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Chavez, Lyons, Van Slyke, Davis
5. Factor Grid

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Episode 30 – I Understand Your Humor Now

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss not missing a podcast day, Bruce Chen’s legacy, the St. Louis Cardinals “Matt stacks,” defining “spackle,” heated opinions on Kolten Wong and his career splits, Dylan’s negative opinions about sports radio, R.A. Dickey’s decline, Dylan making hyperbolic claims about favorable stacks, Matt making jokes, Dylan’s groundbreaking analysis of the Dodgers offense, wondering if Ubaldo Jimenez likes to party, and Alfredo Simon’s voodoo magic.

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Today in The Freshmen Report we’re going to look at, among other things, the White Sox’s second base job and a potential heir apparent to Fernando Rodney in Seattle.

Previous Reports:
Freshmen May 4
Freshmen April 23

Kyle Lobstein, LHP, Tigers: If there is one thing the Rays know how to do it’s develop pitching. Lobstein is one of those lucky individuals, even though he was traded to the Tigers midway through that process. He’s not flashy but southpaws don’t have to light up the radar gun if they can command and control the ball. He averages just 86 mph but utilizes a four-pitch mix, including the trendy cutter. Despite his lack of velocity, Lobstein has a sturdy frame with a history of providing lots of innings — and he’s continued that in the Majors by averaging almost 6.0 innings a game. The big worry with this rookie right now is the lack of strikeouts. His rate sits at just 4.08 K/9 but he’s offset that by inducing ground balls at an above-average rate. Justin Verlander is getting closer to returning from the disabled list so Lobstein may have to shift to the bullpen in June, unless (or, perhaps, until) another injury crops up.

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Today represents the 12th year mark since The Matrix Reloaded was released in the United States. While not as ground breaking as the first Matrix, Reloaded had its moments. In my estimation it was certainly better than The Matrix Revolutions.

On today’s agenda:
1. Consider Peter Bourjos
2. Brett Anderson’s finds some strikeouts
3. Quick thoughts on Emilio Bonifacio
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Luke Gregerson recently spent close to a week away from his teammates in order to deal with a personal matter, but returned to the hill yesterday in a scoreless inning of work. However, the 31-year-old right-hander once again left the team tonight to deal with an undisclosed personal matter, leaving Chad Qualls to fend off the Blue Jays in the ninth-inning in a save situation. And that he did, on just 12 pitches. Qualls retired Toronto’s 5-6-7 hitters consecutively — two by ground out, one via strikeout — to notch his fourth save in five opportunities this season. Gregerson is expected back with the team tomorrow (Friday, 5/15) and should assume the closer’s role, unless the Astros’ brass decides to provide the righty with an opportunity to get some work in during a lower leverage situation.

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Episode 229

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer talks to himself for a little while! He covers the injury news involving Jean Segura, Wil Myers, Jake McGee, Kenley Jansen, Kelly Johnson, Jon Jay, and Justin Masterson. He talks about guys playing well who he believes in like Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, and Edwin Encarnacion. He spends what feels like an hour talking himself into Todd Frazier as the best candidate for the 2016 Election a top 10 fantasy player the rest of the way before moving onto pitchers Corey Kluber, Jose Quintana, and finally Sonny Gray.

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We’ve talked in the past about how important playing time is and obviously it is ideal to roster as many starting players as possible. But sometimes a player is worthy of a starting role and simply has a roadblock or two in his way. Maybe he is a young player with a veteran in front of him. Maybe he is new on the scene so there may still be a question of sustainability. Maybe his team is just deep and can’t get all the good players in all the time. Or maybe his team is just too dumb to play the better player.

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• Not many moves to and from the DL over the past few days. There has been quite a few player updates, mostly bad, which are all in the spreadsheet.

• Mike Minor is having surgery performed on his shoulder and is finished for the 2016 season.

Now that he has spent more than a year frustrated by the fact that he has not found a remedy for his nagging left shoulder discomfort, Braves pitcher Mike Minor has decided to undergo season-ending surgery later this week.

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Yesterday, I noted that Carlos Gonzalez’s isolated power, as determined by my expected isolated power (xISO) equation, mirrored his current production. This would be great news if we were talking about CarGo circa 2013.

Unfortunately, we’re talking about the 2015 incarnation of CarGo, he of the .109 ISO, .188 batting average and .233 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). The latter-most statistic might be the first talking point a proponent of his brings up in his defense: CarGo’s BABIP is atrocious right now — it’s just a matter of time until his bad luck turns around. Indeed, there may be some truth to this sentiment.

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