It can’t be easy to be the manager of a major league baseball team. True, the pay and the perks aren’t bad, and a lot of guys don’t mind the travel. But for one thing, there’s the uniform. It really serves no practical purpose, and even if you’re relatively young and relatively trim, like Kevin Cash or Joe Girardi, you’d still look better in a nice crisp Zegna. If you’re not and you’re not, you might as well be wearing a clown suit.
Often times I get my player ideas for this column from the bids in AL Tout Wars. Unfortunately, that means my recommendations typically learn toward American Leaguers, rendering National League owners $hit out of luck. My apologies. But you’re in luck! This week actually features a player from each league.
We’re not quite a quarter of the way into the season – which isn’t the quarter pole, by the way, that comes around 122 games though that won’t stop anyone – but it is a perfect time to update the consensus rankings here at Rotographs. First off, we’re about to have Memorial Day weekend and what better way to spend the extra time off than by retooling your fantasy team? To do that, you’ll need to know how we value players going forward so you don’t get ripped off at the trading table. Secondly, even though we’re only about 39 games through the season (some teams are as high as 41 played while three others are down at 36), a lot has changed.
I plan on seeing Pitch Perfect 2 at some point, perhaps today, so here is my favorite performance from the first film. Spoiler alert: I think this should have won, but that’s just me.
On today’s agenda:
1. Rusney Castillo not far off
2. Buying Mike Napoli
3. Bad news for Victor Martinez
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Episode 231
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!
In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the injury news with Jayson Werth, Victor Martinez, Wil Myers, Corey Dickerson, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jaime Garcia, and Ike Davis. They touch upon Lance McCullers Jr.’s debut, Cole Hamels’ resurgence, Anthony DeSclafani’s May, and Yasmany Tomas’ phony batting average. In transaction news, they talk about the Welington Castillo trade and Kenny Vargas’ demotion before finishing with bullpen talk.
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• I mentioned A.J. Ramos last night but failed to note that Steve Cishek was on the losing end of the game, allowing the go ahead run on three hits and a walk. Cishek’s ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line now stands at 8.22/4.91/4.76 with nine walks and 13 strikeouts in 15.1 innings. There has been chatter on Cishek regaining the role again, but I still feel Ramos’ job is relatively safe at the moment. Sure, the Marlins could try to save money on Ramos via arbitration and give Cishek the job but Dan Jennings, regardless of his exact title now, wants to win games and unless something changes, using Cishek in high leverage spots doesn’t give them the best chance.
I’m a big fan of patience in fantasy baseball. I think it’s essential to success. Obviously, there are times when aggressive action is needed so you can get the year’s J.D. Martinez or Michael Brantley (hard to remember that the top 30 pick from this year was an afterthought heading into ’14), but by and large I will lean toward the side of patience throughout April and into early May. I’m not averse to an April trade, but they are few and far between for me as I’m often willing to give my drafted players at least a month before any major moves, especially with the top half of the draft.
However, as we approach the two-month mark, we actually start to get a feel for our fantasy teams. Strengths and weaknesses are becoming more evident and with that, trades become a bigger part of the equation. With that in mind, I have some dos & don’ts that will improve your trading experience this season and going forward. I’ve been refining these for years and they’ve served me well thus far.
It’s tricky to write about batted ball mix changes, for the most part. If you’re talking push and pull, adding the ability to go the other way can increase your batting average, sure. But it can also decrease your power output. Ground balls and fly balls act the same way — there’s really an ideal mix for each hitter, and we’re trying to figure out just as much as they are which is the best way forward.
There’s one batted ball type that just plain sucks, though. The pop-up. The infield fly.
98.5% of the time, that’s an out. It’s a bad idea, plain and simple.
Episode 32 – It’s Just Juicy
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss the guest-hosting schedule over the next few days, Max Muncy question mark, Mark Reynolds and the concept of going cheap at first base, Ryan Howard’s DFS potential, who to draw from in the Philadelphia lineup, the “unlucky” Chase Utley, what is going on with Jimmy Paredes, and the weird career arc of Elvis Andrus.
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Our deep league trek this week takes us to two hurlers who have found their way into their respective teams’ rotations and stand to pick up wins for their fantasy owners. As a reminder, the recommendations in this column are mostly for mono leagues, and I use CBS for the ownership percentages.
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