Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming movie, The Hateful Eight, posted its teaser trailer yesterday (warning: language, violence…it’s Tarantino).
On today’s agenda:
1. Chris Coghlan’s fifth start at second base
2. Good news for Drew Smyly
3. Justin Turner’s (nearing) return
4. Hisashi Iwakuma’s no-no
5. Streaming Pitching Options
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– It’s not 100% clear that tonight helped sort out Detroit’s bullpen quagmire at all. Up 7-4, the Tigers called upon Bruce Rondon (not Alex Wilson) to try and finish off the Royals this evening. After inducing a groundout, things got hairy for Brad Ausmus, as the burly righty hit Alex Rios and then walked Omar Infante to bring the tying run to the plate. This got Wilson (who hadn’t pitched yet) quickly to his feet and warming behind Rondon. To Rondon’s credit, he punched out the noodle-batted Drew Butera and got Alcides Escobar to fly out to end the thread and garner “SV” number 2.
What do you think is higher: seasons played by or DL stints for Jaime Garcia? That’s probably an easy one. What about Garcia’s innings v. DL stints? I’ll tell you that he has thrown 660 innings, but that probably still doesn’t help much. Garcia broke in during the 2008 season with 16 innings of work, but then missed all of the 2009 season with Tommy John Surgery. He has run the gamut of devastating pitcher injuries with the TJ, a torn labrum, and then last year’s Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
Any one of those on their own can derail a pitcher’s career, but together they form the second worst trio imaginable outside of the Kardashian clowns. And yet like Caitlyn Jenner, Garcia has emerged from the trio’s wrath better than ever. Garcia has had success before. He returned from TJ in 2010 and enjoyed a strong rookie season with a 2.70 ERA in 163.3 innings. Coming into 2015, he’d amassed a 3.50 ERA in 594.7 innings, good for a 108 ERA+.
Despite accruing a mere 195 plate appearances between his time with the Blue Jays and the A’s this season, Danny Valencia has made a bit of name for himself in both traditional fantasy baseball leagues and Daily Fantasy Sites. His .308/.345/.544 line with nine home runs would be welcome on any team, though some people may view his accomplishments partly due to the hitter friendly confines of the Rogers Centre. Read the rest of this entry »
After KC’s World Series appearance in 2014, it is natural that there would be high expectations for the team and the Manager in 2015. In a move that confounded pundits, experts, and fans, Manager Ned Yost decided to open the season with Third Basemen Mike Moustakas batting 2nd in the lineup.
Yost has not been known as a Manager who favors making decisions based on recent statistics. In this new era of baseball, this places him firmly in the “Old School” camp. It has been reported that Yost has given his perspective on the value of sabermetrics during a number of interviews on the KC Royals Web Site. I am simply paraphrasing what others have reported including Grant Brisbee in SB Nation on 9/15/14, ” There is no possible way that recorded information about how players have performed recently can help me do my job better.” OK. We get it.
Three weeks ago I offered three (or four) starting pitchers for your consideration. In it I highlighted three starters who did not exceed various thresholds of ownership in Yahoo! fantasy leagues. Ken Erdedy liked it, and while I can’t tell if his name is real, it seems his sentiment was.
I anticipated returning with three hitters in a similar vein. However, I couldn’t help but highlight a particular hitter owned in an absurdly low percentage of leagues. (Alas, I got distracted, as I am wont to do.)
I’ll retain the format of my original post for kicks, but I have decided to point the spotlight entirely on him.
Delino DeShields Jr. (17%)
Our apologies on the delay but a few updates on the bullpens around the league:
• After hinting that Jean Machi would be closing for the Red Sox, it was Junichi Tazawa who received the save chance last night. Unfortunately for Tazawa owners he blew the save. This situation is red hot and according to Farrell now, Machi, Tazawa and Ryan Cook could all see save chances moving forward. At this point, all three are worth owning as the Red Sox sort out their back of the bullpen mess for the final two months. Tazawa received last night’s chance due to matchups, and considering he blew it I’d go Machi over Cook and Tazawa for the next opportunity.
Episode 89 – Something Called Adam Conley
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
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In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Hawk Harrelson making a remarkable comparison, a terrible DFS day split into two halves, referencing obvious podcast edits, a group of third basemen ready to mash lefties, comparing the matchups for Mike Trout and Lorenzo Cain, Matt being unable to pronounce Keyvius Thompson, the legacy of Dartmouth baseball, and a Sandy Alderson anecdote.
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To distract ourselves from the relentless midpackness of our NFBC Main Event Team, we have been ruminating about loftier matters. What, we wonder, should be the stat categories and rules of the ideal full-season roto-style Fantasy Baseball League, which let’s call the Universal Baseball Association? We invite you to play along at home, or, as is more likely the case, at work.
First, let’s consider categories. There are five criteria by which we judge our choices of categories. These are:
Fidelity. We’ve often said that, in Fantasy Baseball, you’re not drafting “players” or “teams,” but rather proper names that represent collections of stats. That’s too facile, though. What you’re drafting (or claiming or FAABing) is a bunch of stat collections that, in the aggregate, are supposed to look something like a Reality Baseball team’s aggregate stats do. For one thing, you want your league to reward player performance that corresponds to performance that succeeds on the field. For another, you don’t want your teams to lack the balance that successful Reality Baseball teams have. You don’t want to leave out anything important, except to the extent that Reality teams do, and you don’t want to overemphasize any stats. For example, you don’t want categories that encourage you to do without relief pitchers, or (important point) relief pitchers who happen not to be closers, or players who can run.
Agenda