Archive for June, 2015

MASH Report (6/29/15)

Giancarlo Stanton is expected to be out four to six weeks with fractured hamate bone.

“From everything we’ve gotten, surgery was a success,” Marlins manager Dan Jennings said. “Now you just go through the healing process to have him back. From what we’ve been told, you’re looking at about a 4-6 week window, recovery time.”

I am not sure I completely buy a quick return time. It seems to be four to six weeks to recover from the break. Then, he will need to build up his game strength. I bet his return is closer to the six to eight weeks with a chance he doesn’t play again this season once Miami is out of the playoff pitcture.

Anthony Rendon is back on the DL, this time with a strained quad.

This marks the second trip to the disabled list this season for Rendon, who missed the first 52 games of the season because of a left knee sprain and left oblique strain. Rendon hurt his quad in the sixth inning this past Saturday after an RBI double against the Pirates.

“I felt it coming out of the box and then I had to score on [Bryce] Harper’s single,” Rendon said. “I wanted to play through it.”
Rendon played the next three games with the injury. He had an MRI recently and “it showed some pretty good changes in [the quad],” manager Matt Williams said.

“The good part about the injury, he can keep his swing, keep his timing as much as possible although it’s just BP,” Williams said. “He will stay with us during the road trip and get some work done. Hopefully, it’s just for a couple of weeks.”

He is quickly falling into the talented, but injured bin with the likes of teammate Ryan Zimmerman and Carlos Gonzalez.

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2015 Second Base Tier Rankings: July

With July nearly upon us, it’s tier time here at Rotographs. Following up on my previous themes of Kurt Russell movies and vacation destinations, I have decided to assign hard rock bands to this month’s tiers. This idea came to me at about 3am on Friday night, and I haven’t thought of anything better, so here we go.

Before we get into it, please fight off the temptation to flood the comments section with “DUDE YOU DIDN’T RANK [insert band here] WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU” posts. I’ve only got seven tiers to cover the very broad genre of ‘hard rock,’ and I had to save two of them for Creed and Nickelback. Give me a break.

TIER ONE – LED ZEPPELIN
Brian Dozier
Jose Altuve
Jason Kipnis
Dee Gordon

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Prospect Stock Watch: Chargois, De Leon, Tellez, Zagunis

The summer of 2015 is finally upon us and so too is the beginning of the trading (or perhaps more aptly known as the rumoring) frenzy that comes to Major League Baseball every July. Below are four names you could see change hands during some of the bigger deals.

J.T. Chargois, RHP, Twins: Minnesota likely doesn’t have much spare change lying around but they could probably afford a half-year rental or two given their early successes. Chargois (whom my auto-correct hates) isn’t on many people’s radar right now after throwing just 39.2 innings in parts of four seasons due to injury but he’s a bullpen arm that’s hit triple-digits on the radar gun in the past. So far this year, after missing the previous two seasons, he’s pitched in both High-A and Double-A with 27 strikeouts in 23.2 innings. He possesses the ceiling of a high-leverage reliever and now might be the best time for the Twins to try and squeeze some value out of him before something else goes clink-clang-boom in his shoulder or elbow. [Value Up]

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Almost Mid-season Check In: 10 Bold Predictions

I’ve never done a mid-season check in on my bold predictions, but I’ve also never gotten a single one right, so there’s that. Without further self-deprecation, let’s take a look at where I stand on my preseason predictions.

1. Josh Donaldson will score 120 runs (or post 130 RBI)
Originally I had this pegged specifically for 120 runs, but the comment section told me Donaldson would be hitting fifth most of the season, despite my original thoughts. Since I’m a pretty easy going guy, I decided to make this a flexible post and included the 130 RBI possibility. The commenters were correct for the first week, but then after a bit of moving around, Donaldson has settled in at the two hole. At this point the Blue Jays have played 77 games and Donaldson has scored 67 runs and tallied 48 RBIs. Good thing I made this an “or” rather than an “and” post, as I’m about 50 percent confident Donaldson will actually score 120 runs. Given that neither Edwin Encarnacion or Jose Bautista are showing any sign of slowing down at ages 32 and 34 respectively, I’m optimistic I can get this one correct. Read the rest of this entry »


The Daily Grind: Trades, Nelson, Heaney, Valencia

Agenda

  1. Three Trades
  2. Daily DFS – Nelson, Anderson
  3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Heaney, RdlR, Valencia, Ichiro
  4. Factor Grid

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RotoGraphs Audio: Field of Streams 6/29/2015

Episode 61 – Skinny Joe Blanton Is The Best Joe Blanton

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Dylan surviving his high school reunion, keeping an eye on Josh Phegley, a tough day at second base, trying to figure out what is up with Joe Blanton, the hypothetical day of no outfield picks, Matt’s descriptive explanation of his reaction to Yasiel Puig’s injury, trying to predict the prices of Monday’s pitchers in a rough day, debunking the concept of a player getting revenge on their old team, being irrationally terrified of Justin Upton, the White Sox and their impressive level of futility against lefties, Trevor May’s abysmal outing, overly complicated forms of prediction regarding Paul Goldschmidt vs. Brett Anderson, and their lack of accents.

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The Smartening Up of Our Competitors

For those of you who have read my many snake draft and auction recaps, you may recall that I rely on the same strategy season after season. No matter the format, I load up on hitting and pay significantly less for pitching than my competition. There’s a reason I continue to follow this strategy — it works. For me, at least. I have been quite successful following the plan, and when I don’t finish in the money, it’s typically because my offense was filled with busts, rather than my pitching performing like the weak staff I presumably paid for. Unfortunately, the strategy may finally have to be tweaked, as our competitors have official smartened up.

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Roto Riteup: June 29, 2015

Today’s Roto Riteup wishes you a happy Monday in what should be a short week for most of you folks.

On today’s agenda:
1. Fun with arbitrary endpoints
2. Various news and notes
3. Streaming Pitcher Options

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Bullpen Report: Sunday, June 28, 2015

Lloyd McClendon said on Saturday that he wants Fernando Rodney to reclaim the closer role. Late on Friday he also confirmed that he went with Carson Smith in the eighth because it was the toughest matchup with Mike Trout and Albert Pujols due up. If he’s going to mix and match to close out games until he has full confidence in Rodney again, don’t drop Smith just yet. He’s still going to help you with ratios and strikeouts, and I think he’s still going to pick up a few saves. Huston Street grooved a sinker to Kyle Seager, and Seager tied the game in the top of the ninth on Sunday. In the bottom half, Rodney got the nod and he gave up a hit in his seventh consecutive scoreless outing to get the game to extras. Carson Smith had pitched the last two outs of the eighth, coming in after Trout was intentionally walked. He got Pujols to fly out and then struck out Kyle Kubitza. A Tom Wilhelmsen wild pitch provided the rare wild pitch walkoff victory for the Angels in the tenth.

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RotoGraphs Audio: The Sleeper and the Bust 6/28/2015 – Matz Debuts

Episode 245

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss the injury news about three stars and a couple guys all too familiar with injuries. Then they discuss Steven Matz, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mike Montgomery, Taijuan Walker, Collin McHugh, Matt Moore, Justin Turner, and Josh Phegley.

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