Episode 49 – Hearsay Tweet Reading

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss Brad’s near miss at winning big, Dylan having a contest not fill up for the first time, a weird day for pitching options, evaluating Chi Chi Gonzalez, exceptional weather in Baltimore, Robinson Cano’s price being too cheap to avoid, J.J. Hardy’s perfect matchup, and Giancarlo Stanton planning his revenge on Chris Rusin.

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The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

–The Start After a No-Hitter–

No-hitters command a lot of attention from fans and writers and command a lot fantasy points in most formats, but I expect most fantasy players will take Chris Heston’s no-hitter as an interesting quirk rather than an indication that he deserves to shoot up starting pitcher rankings. As the platitudes go, many no-name pitchers threw no-hitters and did little else in their careers, and many of the best pitchers in baseball history never threw one at all.

The easy answer with Heston is that he is the next of the no-names. He is a 27-year-old rookie who was never highly touted as a prospect and never showed exceptional strikeout potential at any level of the minors. At 8.0 per nine, the strikeouts aren’t exceptional now, either, but the sum of all of his good-not-great parts is starting to look like a decent option even in shallower formats.

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Agenda

1. Punting Catcher
2. Daily DFS – Progressive, Camden Yards
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Hutchison, Correia, Ruf, Alberto
5. Factor Grid

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Every spring training, we make a big to do about fastball velocity. We may even remember to monitor it for the first start of the season. Whose velocity is up, hinting at a breakout? Whose velocity is down, suggesting either a hidden injury or a disappointing year is on the way? Then we totally forget about it and rarely discuss it again. Velocity does rise throughout the year, but some pitchers gain more than others, obviously. Sometimes better health or a slight tweak in mechanics mid-season could increase velocity, aside from just the warmer weather that generally lifts all boats. So here are seven pitchers whose fastball velocity has jumped in May, compared to April.

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Continuing the soccer themed intros, holy Toledo, the USMNT beat Germany yesterday! The German team didn’t bring their A-squad, but neither did the US. I may be drinking the kool-aid here, but I think the US will be the favorite to take home the Gold Cup this year.

On today’s agenda:
1. Quick thoughts on Miguel Montero
2. Consider Danny Espinosa
3. Streaming Pitching Options
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Just two days ago, the Bullpen Report team alongside colleague Paul Sporer ranked Andrew Miller the top relief pitcher in our May/June update. We’re doubtful the news is a curse of the Bullpen Report, but Andrew Miller landed on the disabled list today with a strained forearm muscle. An MRI on Wednesday did in fact reveal a strain in the flexor mass, a muscle in his left forearm. When discussing Miller’s injury with the media, skipper Joe Girardi mentioned that fatigue could be an issue with the left-hander appearing in 26 of the Yankees’ 59 games, so upon his return from the disabled list, maybe we’ll see more of a balance between Betances and Miller in save situations. Or, we could just be falling into the manager’s trap and Miller will get all the chances when healthy, but I’m guessing the former. In said 26 trips ot the bump, Andrew Miller is 0-1, a perfect 17-for-17 in save chances, a 1.03 ERA (1.93 FIP) and a 32% K-BB%. Get well, Andrew.

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I committed Matt Holliday to my disabled list Monday, marking the 14th(!!!!) DL move I’ve made for my primary team this season. Perhaps the state of my team is implied by the length of its disabled list. If not, I’ll make it clear: my team has been bad. Pretty darn bad.

All of my drafts were especially poor. I drafted the same terrible, injured, underachieving players in every league, so it has been generally a nightmare all around. The hole I dug for myself is deep. Kyle Lohse broke ground on said hole with an 8-run Opening Day outing that lasted all of 3-1/3 innings, and we never looked back. Woe is me. Alas, it’s barely the second week of June, and I have already resorted to my Hail Mary play: buy low on everyone in sight.

Calling it “buying low,” however, is a bit misleading. It’s a shallow league, so there is arguably a stronger incentive for owners to cut bait on underachieving name-brand players in order to ride the hot streaks of unknown quantities, given they crop up more abundantly. What I’m actually doing, then, is loading up on underachievers from waivers. My team is already underachieving. These guys are already underachieving. How much worse could it get?

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Sorry for the delay on this folks, but here’s a recap from last night…

• In case you felt that the Cubs bullpen situation wasn’t confusing enough, the Cubs decided to bring Rafael Soriano into the mix. We are less interested in the contract particulars here at the Bullpen Report and instead are curious how he will play out in Chicago’s pen. Soriano has yet to pitch this season so he will start off in the minors but speculation is he could be in Chicago around July 1st.  Rafael Soriano wasn’t particularly thrilling last year for Nationals, which helps explain why he wasn’t picked up this offseason but a 3.19/3.08/3.92 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line last year is useful. It’s also similar to what Hector Rondon and Pedro Strop have done this year. When Soriano is ready the Cubs are looking at three similarly talented right-handed relievers with Jason Motte lingering as well. However, it should be noted that Soriano seemed to break down towards the end of last year. Whether that’s a sign of what to expect from Soriano moving forward or whether the time off should help him, we will have to wait and see to find out.

I’m inclined to think that while Soriano is toiling in the minors, one of Rondon, Strop or Motte will grab a hold on the ninth inning but maybe this is setting up to be a real committee.

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Episode 48 – Speaking of Walkers

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Matt’s dirty air conditioner and his cleaning adventures, Tom Koehler’s reverse splits that could cause him trouble in Toronto, an unfortunate — and accidental — nickname for Shane Greene, Dylan asking great questions, Matt giving Yasmany Tomas the eye test, and Matt wanting to check in on his lead in the contest.

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Eos is extending her rosy middle finger in our direction, beckoning us to another day of Fantasy futility. Our weekly Fangraphs deadline is here, and once again, we have spent a restless night pondering, weak and weary, the question preoccupying all of Fantasyland: what’s going on with Melky Cabrera?

Since you’ve found your way here, you probably already know all there is to know about Melky, but let’s do a quick review, just for giggles. He turns 31 in August. He had some success early in his career with the Yankees, had an excellent 2011 with the Royals and an even better 2012 with the Giants, producing the highest batting average in MLB. He’d have won the official batting title, but MLB had other ideas after Melky was caught enjoying a mild stimulant composed of arrowroot, cyclopropane, and organic library paste.

He served a suspension, spent much of 2013 on the DL, then came back strong with Toronto last season (.301/.351/.458). He signed a big three-year contract with the White Sox during the off-season, and there was a broad consensus among forecasters about what would happen during 2015: Mild regression to the mean, with a slash line of roughly .290/.340/.440, a dozen or so home runs, about 75 runs scored, and maybe 65 RBIs.

In other words, a player of some Fantasy value, and he went for $10 in the Tout Wars mixed auction (same price as Joc Pederson!) and in the 12th round of the Tout Wars mixed draft. We ourselves got him in the 11th round of our NFBC draft, which was about his average draft position in the NFBC. Read the rest of this entry »