It took a dominant 11-strikeout, zero-walk performance from Taijuan Walker for the fantasy world to finally take notice of him. I don’t have ownership trend data to exemplify this, but I do have an anecdote: he was available in every league I’m in before the start, and he was owned in every league I’m in shortly after it.

The truth is Walker had demonstrated progress, described here by Eno Sarris, in his prior four starts, notching 27 strikeouts to three walks in 29 innings. Someone who hadn’t been paying attention to Walker probably wouldn’t have noticed: his ERA prior to the recent five-game surge stood at 7.33, and he had completed the sixth inning only twice in nine games. Once a hyped prospect, he looked like a 22-year-old who still needed seasoning to reach his potential.

No longer, as you will probably have to give up an asset of value to acquire Walker from a fellow owner now. The price may not be too steep given his poor ratios (4.94 ERA, 1.39 WHIP), but this is likely the highest they’ll be for the rest of the season.

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Episode 58 – There’s A Bit More Upside With Marco Estrada

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Mike Bolsinger’s tough splits, Matt ranting about Tyler Flowers while Dylan remains diplomatic, the negative runs scored that the White Sox are in for, Logan Morrison’s new job as a leadoff man, “The Roaring Phillies,” the must-mention team, a conspiracy surrounding Marco Estrada, and waxing philosophical regarding Robin Ventura.

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Among the peccadilloes and eccentricities that we’re willing to confess to in this forum, perhaps the most embarrassing is our continuing thirst for 80’s synthpop, which we were too old for even the first time around. The sillier and stupider the better, as far as we’re concerned: Human League, Soft Cell, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Human League, A Flock of Seagulls, Men Without Hats, and of course post-Vince Clarke Depeche Mode, goth-synth titans so dumb they make Ozzy Osbourne look like Harold Bloom. (Come to think of it: Have you seen Oz lately? Even with the makeover, he does look kind of like Harold Bloom, who’s looked pretty much the same for the last 40 years.)

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Agenda

1. Sporer on Shellackings
2. Daily DFS – Farmer, Buchholz
3. GB / FB Splits
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Rodon, Jungmann, Welington, Rajai
5. Factor Grid

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I haven’t forgotten about you National League only owners! Because I play in the American League Tout Wars, it’s far easier for me to come up with deep league names in that league. But it’s time to give you NLers some love.

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Another Roto Riteup, another new Spiderman. I still wish Donald Glover would have been given the nod, but Tom Holland received the honor. I guess I’ll have to settle for Glover to be in The Martian, a film I am very much looking forward to after reading the book.

On today’s agenda:
1. Luis Valbuena continues to slug
2. Bad news for Freddie Freeman
3. Streaming Pitching Options
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It was a Monday night just a few weeks ago that I watched the destruction of two high-quality pitchers (one is a bona fide ace) sink my DFS evening yet again and I actually wrote about it at another outlet. Just three weeks later, I saw my DFS night end before it started as another pitcher had his face caved in and this time by baseball’s worst team both by record and wRC+ against righties. Michael Pineda was rocked for eight earned on 11 hits in just 3.3 innings with nary a strikeout to soften the blow.

It’s the second time in three starts that Pineda has been blown up like this and the fourth time this year he’s allowed five or more earned runs. This is the same guy who has a 16-strikeout game on his ledger this year as well as three others of nine strikeouts. This is the same guy who had a 2.72 ERA through his first seven starts of the season.

But the volatility, my god, the volatility.

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• There is no word on who the next closer in Toronto will be as a save situation did not present itself tonight but we do know that Brett Cecil is officially out. Steve Delabar entered the game in the ninth inning down by a run. He proceeded to allow a homer to Asdrubal Cabrera and a walk to Brandon Guyer but then retired the next three batters. Tonight’s outing likely won’t play a role in Delabar’s role in the pen and although there might be a current committee in Toronto without a closer announced, I’m still buying more stock in Roberto Osuna.

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Episode 244

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the injury news about Freddie Freeman, Jered Weaver, Travis d’Arnaud, and Erasmo Ramirez. Then they discuss the trade rumors swirling around Cole Hamels which leads into a discussion about trading Mike Trout in one of his leagues.

Tuesday’s main topic is about guys playing like studs that we haven’t talked much this year:

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The catcher position has been an interesting position all season long. The depth at the position was hurt earlier this year when Jonathan Lucroy and Travis d’Arnaud went on the disabled list, and Matt Wieters still recovering from his elbow injury, but there have been some big surprises at the top of the catcher ranks this year in Steven Vogt and Russell Martin. Most people know Martin is a solid player, but not many expected him to have 44 runs, 10 homers, and a .365 OBP before the end of June. There has been good deal of power at the position with seven players hitting double digit home runs.
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