Like most Americans of our generation, we remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we got the news about Kennedy. It seems like just yesterday. In fact, though, it was last week, and we were sitting at our computers, as usual, staring at baseball numbers, as usual. We froze with horror and disbelief as we saw that Ian Kennedy had pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowing 9 baserunners and 7 earned runs. Actually, now that we brood about it, that may instead have been May 17, when we were sitting at our computers, as usual, staring at baseball numbers, as usual. We froze with horror and disbelief as we saw that Kennedy had pitched 5 innings and given up 6 earned runs. Or, we wonder, as the mystic chords of memory begin to chime like Peter Buck’s guitar, was it instead May 12, when we distinctly recall freezing with horror and disbelief as we saw that Kennedy had pitched 4 2/3 innings, let 11 guys reach base, and surrendered 5 earned runs? No, wait—it might, after all, have been April 25, when Kennedy pitched 4 1/3 innings, with 9 baserunners and 8 earned runs the outcome, and we froze with horror and disbelief. Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 44 -Sabermetric Darling

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss an apology for the sound quality on Wednesday, a tough selection of catchers on Thursday, Chris Young’s volatility, Robinson Cano’s disappearing power, Erasmo Ramirez’s undying potential, and some potential breakout hitters that are showing concerning peripherals.

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NL OF Tiers: May
NL OF Tiers: Preseason

I love Bob’s Burgers. That love stems from a love of H. Jon Benjamin, which stems from a love of Home Movies. However, I do not find Archer all that funny. It is the lesser show, and that’s that.

I’m sorting the tiers by secondary characters in Bob’s. It’d be too easy to rank Bob’s family. Or would it? Should I? No, I won’t. I’ll stick to the game plan.

Aside from the top tier, the rest of the hitters are ranked loosely in their respective tiers. An argument could be made for all of them to move up or down a couple of spots.

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Agenda

1. Bullpens
2. Daily DFS – Erasmo
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Morton, Perez, Weaver, Grichuk, Pagan
5. Factor Grid

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It’s rankings update time! As you may have consistently noticed as the updated RotoGraphs consensus rankings for hitters have gradually been released, two months of performance is hardly a large enough sample size to move the needle all that much for me. Unless there is a clear explanation for a change in performance and/or underlying skills, then more often than not, the player is going to revert to what you had him projected for in the preseason.

For pitchers, it’s essential to remember that ERA is not a skill. It’s just a result. So I don’t really care what a pitcher’s ERA is at the moment. What I’m really interested in is their peripherals and any changes in pitch mix and/or velocity. And even if their peripherals have changed, you then have to ask yourself if its sustainable. Again, more likely is that what we initially forecasted is what is going to be posted the rest of the way, though obviously this is not always the case.

As a reminder, the tiers are named after the best characters from the FXX show, Man Seeking Woman.

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Today is apparently hug your cat day. Given that this book currently graces my shelf, I guess I’ll go hug one of the cats.

On today’s agenda:
1. Lance McCullers dominates
2. Eduardo Rodriguez cruises
3. Javier Baez watch
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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• Fernando Rodney blew his third save of the season in pretty sloppy fashion last night. The righty’s ERA is now up to 6.85. While his xFIP is a slightly better 4.90, a 19% K% isn’t going to cut it if you are walking 12% of the batters you face. Captain Crooked Hat’s velocity and SwStr% haven’t fallen off a cliff, so there is still some positive signs here, but the footsteps of Carson Smith might be growing just a bit louder. Speaking of Smith, the setup man tossed another scoreless inning yesterday evening and now owns a 2.20 xFIP. He can help your rates in all leagues, but if saves are at a major premium in your deeper formats, speculate away.

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We’re making our way around the diamond with our updated rankings and today we are diving into the outfield, a robust fantasy position with plenty of elite-level talent. Here are the positions we’ve done so far and you can also access them via the Positional Rankings in the right sidebar:

• Catchers
• First Basemen
• Second Basemen
• Shortstops
• Third Baseman

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

FYI: the table is sortable!
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My fondness of baseball should be quite well known at this point, and if it isn’t, what are you doing here on FanGraphs, but I also enjoy other nerd endeavors, namely video games and esports. In that vein and in honor of Fallout 4 being announced, today’s rankings will be reflective of my favorite games currently in my Steam Library. Take note these aren’t my favorite games of all time, but the ones readily available to play. As always, these rankings reflect what I believe the players will accomplish rest-of-season, not what they’e done to date in a standard 5×5 format. Read the rest of this entry »

I am humbled by the interest in my expected isolated power (xISO) equation since its inception. A fairly simple but helpful tool, I take solace in hoping it maybe has helped one fantasy owner identify a smart buy-low candidate — or reluctantly cut bait on Carlos Gonzalez. I also appreciate the feedback and recommendations for improvement and expansion. I will take care to consider their implementation when I have more available time.

It’s important to remember that Steamer and ZiPS also provide updated and rest-of-season (RoS) projections for most players. Hitter ISOs aren’t listed on the page listing all projections — only slugging (SLG) and batting average (BA) are included, forcing the user to perform some light arithmetic — but ISOs are listed on each hitter’s personal page. And they are not fundamentally different from the expected ISOs I have calculated for you today (spoiler alert). For reference, I crunched the correlation coefficients of every qualified hitter’s current xISO versus his current Steamer and ZiPS ISO projections:

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