Archive for August, 2015

Currently Injured, Soon To Be Helpful?

The long baseball season tends to take a toll on bodies, but with just a handful of weeks remaining, there is hope to be had for those looking to replace injured players. Alternatively, some owners may be looking to scoop up a currently injured player to make a push in the final weeks. Every player listed has sub-50 percent ownership in Yahoo! formats — so maybe they’re available in your league. As always, for more injury news, Jeff Zimmerman’s MASH Report is excellent.

Matt Adams, 30 percent owned
Count me among those surprised to see Adams expected to play again this season. After experiencing a tear of his right quad, Jenifer Langosch reports Adams seems set to return to action around the first of September. I’d expect his playing time to come at the expense of Brandon Moss, as both are left-handed hitters, though Moss owners may not see a dip in his plate appearances as he can shift to the outfield. Read the rest of this entry »


The Cashner Conundrum

Andrew Cashner has been one of those pitchers that has confounded fantasy owners and experts alike. You look at his fastball velocity and you see a pitcher that ranks in the top 10 in baseball. Cashner is pitching at Petco Park which is one of the most accommodating ballparks for hurlers. He definitely has the pedigree since he was a first round selection by the Cubs in the 2008 June Amateur Draft. Cashner induces ground balls at a career rate of 50%. On the surface, these factors alone are very promising and would suggest that Cashner should be a premier young pitcher on the rise.

In 2014 he produced the following line for Fantasy owners…

GS Wins Loss Innings K/9 BB/9 ERA WHIP
19 5 7 123.1 6.79 2.12 2.55 1.13

Clearly the win totals were very disappointing but we know how team dependent wins are so with a poor hitting Padres squad with meager run support we could give him a pass. He did miss games with injury so that capped his numbers. The 2.55 ERA and 1.13 WHIP were very good even if his 6.79 K/9 was not. All in all, a promising showing for a 27 year old pitcher who has dealt with an assortment of injuries and is entering his prime years. With the overhaul to the San Diego offense in the off-season, there were reasons to suggest that Cashner could possibly be a top 40 pitcher or better in 2015 especially if he avoided injury. However, not everyone was on board as Brett Talley took a more cautious position on Cashner in his 1/22/15 article in RotoGraphs, Starting Pitcher Bust Candidates According to Streamer.
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Scanning Minor League Leaderboards for Potential September Impact

We’re on the cusp of September call-ups when rosters expand to 40 guys and a bevy of relative unknowns flood the league. Given the influx of players, it’s hard for even the most alluring of these call-ups to be guaranteed a substantial amount of playing time, but a fast start can help get their name penciled in more regularly as we hit the homestretch of the 2015 season (by the way, how are we almost in September?). It’s been a banner year for rookies coming up and making an impact which actually makes call-up season a little tougher in terms of identifying guys who could really help.

Everyone is still hoping to see Corey Seager, but the playing time issues that have been present in LA all year haven’t exactly cleared up with the emergence of Enrique Hernandez and the addition of Chase Utley into the mix. Plus, at this point Seager is stashed so he’s likely not even be available to you even if we thought he had a bead on significant time. Instead of perusing the top prospect lists, I went through the leaderboards of the upper minor leagues (Triple- and Double-A) looking for guys who could be primed to give us that boost in the standings in the season’s final month.

Some of these guys are in fact top prospects themselves, but others are off-the-radar prospects or journeyman-types who we might not expect a lot from generally speaking, but the opportunity could be there for them to parlay their big minor league season into some major league success. I’m looking specifically for power and speed assets here with the former coming today and the latter coming later this week.

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Is Justin Verlander Back?

A month ago, I ridiculed Justin Verlander. He had just come off a start during which he allowed seven earned runs and couldn’t escape the fourth inning. Through his first six 2015 starts, he posted a 6.62 ERA with only 5.82 strikeouts per nine innings (K/9).

Like clockwork, he showed up to his next start in Boston and twirled a gem, throwing eight strong innings but failing to factor into the decision, as the game went into extra innings.

Then he went to Tampa Bay (well, St. Petersburg, but who’s keeping track) and cranked out another eight innings with a whopping 10 strikeouts. The last time he strung together two straight eight-inning starts was almost exactly three years ago — July 15 and 20, 2012. Last time he struck out 10-plus batters? His final start of 2013.

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The Daily Grind: Fear, Duffey, Ross, Span

Agenda

  1. Fear
  2. Daily DFS
  3. GB / FB Splits
  4. SaberSim Hi/Lo
  5. Tomorrow’s Targets – Ross, Wolf, Cron, Span
  6. Factor Grid

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RotoGraphs Audio: Field of Streams 8/26/2015

Episode 99 – David Holmberg And Associates

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Matt being pained by taking J.T. Realmuto against Jeff Locke, Cody Anderson “and his ginormous puffy face,” the bulldog, the Narv dog, the concept of Todd Frazier getting complete baseball yips, Brandon Crawford competing for Jhonny Peralta’s obligatory mention crown, looking back at the Jake Peavy trade, guessing Randy Wolf’s velocity, Matt trying to win an office raffle for White Sox tickets, and looking forward to show No. 100.

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Miracle WHIP?

There’s about a month to go, and maybe you need some Wins—usually the closest category—in your Fantasy league. Or perhaps your counting stats aren’t going anywhere, and your only chance to finish in the money is a sudden and decisive bump in ERA and WHIP. Or maybe, as was the case for us last year, your league has an innings maximum, your adversaries are nudging against it, you’re not, and you’ve got a chance to jump several points in Strikeouts, but you don’t want to torpedo your rate stats to do it. Or possibly you’re a DFS player, and you’re tired of putting Mike Zunino and Starlin Castro in your lineup because the only pitchers you can stand to use are the ones who cost too much and Zunino and Castro are all you can afford.

Yes, most of us need starting pitchers, and there are always plenty of them out there. The established good ones are, of course, happily wedded to their owners, none of whom is you. And the young and glamorous ones—Henry Owens, Aaron Nola, Manny Banuelos—command a Spitzeresque premium that you’re unwilling to pay. The rest of them are lined up, winking at you like the crew of a North Vegas brothel. Most of them are cheap, all right, but some have obviously been irreversibly damaged by life, and your problem with the rest of them is how to avoid infection. Read the rest of this entry »


Alexi Ogando & Henry Urrutia: Deep League Wire

Is it hard to believe that we only have a little over a month of the season left or is it hard to believe that we still have a little over a month of the season left? I think I feel both ways at the same time. In any case, it’s time to uncover some hidden gems. Or at least that’s the goal.

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Roto Riteup: August 26, 2015

Today’s Roto Riteup was written while I wore a hoodie, as it was 54 degrees outside at the time of writing. In August. A summer month. Thanks for nothing, Michigan.

On today’s agenda:
1. Rut roh, Carlos Carrasco
2. Good news for Marlins outfielders
3. Welcome back, Denard Span
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Bullpen Report: August 25, 2015

• Non-closing news: It looks like Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler are seeing some late inning action in Atlanta. Detwiler has been less successful than Jackson while on the Braves and has been pitching worse than he was last year as a full time reliever. Jackson has been decent in his first go around strictly in relief, pitching to a 3.13/3.44/4.10 ERA/FIP/xFIP line. As expected his velocity has ticked up a bit to 94 mph and although his swinging strike rate has shown some improvement, he’s yet to see an increase in his strikeout rate. There could be some future improvement in that category assuming he stays out of the rotation. I wouldn’t expect much moving forward this season from Jackson but he could see the ninth if/when Arodys Vizcaino needs a day off and it wouldn’t shock me to see Jackson be more effective next year, with more repetition out of the pen.

Vincent Velasquez saw some time earlier this season out of the rotation and although he wasn’t amazing, he showed solid potential. He’s likely to enter the rotation again next year but for the rest of 2015 he could be used primarily out of the pen. Velazquez threw two innings with three strikeouts (and one earned run) against the Yankees tonight and teams looking for ratio help and strikeout totals could look his way. He’s likely to see multiple innings each appearance and outings like tonight could be more common in September.

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