A common misnomer in fantasy baseball is that the rate stats are tough to move late in the season. The idea is that the denominator of innings gets too big to push the needle substantially with just a month and a half left. While it is true that wholesale changes to your ERA or WHIP this late in the season are unlikely barring some kind of Kris Medlen 2012 or Carlos Carrasco 2014 type players in your rotation, the reason you can still make a significant move is because the categories are often tightly bunched so you don’t necessarily need wholesale changes.

For those curious or who don’t remember the particular, Medlen had a 0.92 ERA in 78.7 IP from August 5th through the end of the 2012 season while Carrasco rejoined the Cleveland rotation on August 10th of last year and put together a killer 10-start run with a 1.30 ERA in 69 IP. Those two won people some titles for sure. I’m sure someone will have a similar kind of electric finish to the season, but trying to guess exactly who is a fool’s errand, but there is an avenue to explore for some potential ERA value. Some pitchers are markedly better at home and spot-starting them exclusively in their friendly confines could yield big returns.

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Episode 95 – Is Your List As Long As Mine?

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss Brad lamenting some unfortunate personal fantasy benchings, being spoiled by the immediate success of rookies, pitchers complaining about hitters parks, plenty of options at first base, Michael Taylor’s strange fantasy season, Eddie Rosario’s strange home/road splits, not being excited about Brad Hand, the limitations of discussions on Twitter, and background cameos from Dylan’s roommate making breakfast in the kitchen.

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Agenda

1. YCPB
2. Daily DFS
3. GB / FB Splits
4. SaberSim Hi/Lo
5. Tomorrow’s Targets – Smyly, Eickhoff, Flores, Welington, Jankowski
6. Factor Grid

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The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

–Julio Teheran May Have Found It Again–

Julio Teheran was not quite a star after the first two full seasons of his career in 2013 and 2014, but he was not far off. His 3.03 ERA was 15th best among qualified starters, just between Max Scherzer and Cole Hamels. His moderate 7.9 strikeouts per nine likely held him back from the top tier of pitchers, but his 2.1 walks per nine put him in the same category of effective yet underrated starters that Hisashi Iwakuma and Jose Quintana populate.

Meanwhile, Teheran was just 24 years old entering the 2015 season and coming off of consecutive 30-start seasons. While so many of the promising young Braves starters such as Tommy Hanson, Brandon Beachy, and Mike Minor had their ascents abruptly halted by injuries in recent seasons, Teheran seemed to have established himself as the staff anchor.

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Last week, I discussed the five starting pitchers whose fastball velocity had experienced the greatest surge over the previous two weeks. So today, I’ll check in on the decliners. Since velocity trends upward as the season rolls on, a significant decline in velocity at this time is concerning and could signal a serious issue.

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My inner (okay fine, and outer nerd) is excited for today and the rest of this weekend’s matches in the ESL One Cologne tournament for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. With a $250,000 prize pool, time to load up some CS:GO and have my old team make a comeback.

On today’s agenda:
1. Chase Utley’s new home
2. Greg Bird’s big day
3. A Minnesota outfield shuffle
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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– Uh oh. Glen Perkins had an injection in his neck on Wednesday. Yes, giant needles around my neck area? Sign me up. The scuttlebutt is that he’ll only need a few days off an be available later in the weekend or early next week, but remember, Perkins missed time last year with neck injuries as well. With the Twins going nowhere fast, they don’t have much reason to push him hard. Kevin Jepsen will get first crack at vulturing saves between now and then. The righty has regressed quite a bit after a career-best 2014. His SIERA is north of 4.00 (4.08) and both his K% (19%) and BB% (12%) are mediocre at best. That said, he seems to have a gig, albeit temporary, so pick him up in all leagues you need saves (if he’s not already gone).

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As mentioned before in these digital pages, my home league is a mixed league keeper format with 12 teams. The 29-man rosters + 10 prospect list each makes transforms what would normally be a pretty shallow league into one where it’s nearly as deep as Ottoneu. With a 5 keeper maximum, the ability to trade draft picks and built-in keeper inflation, there are a lot of wrinkles to consider when building, or for me, more accurately rebuilding. As a refresher, it’s a 6×6 league with total bases and holds as the extra categories, and on-base percentage replacing batting average. For reference, my prospect list can be found here.

A quick run down of my season goes as following:

Step 1. Blow the draft (Passing on Josh Donaldson for Stephen Strasburg hasn’t exactly worked out)
Step 2. Burn a lot of picks next year attempting to build a roster
Step 3. Probably finish no higher than fourth
Step 4. Try not cry
Step 5. Cry a lot
Step 6. Look to see what I can do in 2016 Read the rest of this entry »

This is the time of year where you need things to go just right with your Fantasy squads but you know most times that simply won’t happen. At this late stage in the season, I’m sure you are well aware of the categories where you have a chance to gain points, but with trading deadlines over in most leagues, proper use of the waiver wire might be the only thing standing between you and a dirt nap for your squad.  Since I’m in the same situation, I took time to look at some players who have value and are owned in less than 35% of CBS Sports Leagues. I currently own three of them so I’m drinking the Kool-Aid as well.

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Episode 94 – Jimmy Nelson Goes To Washington

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss J.A. Happ’s friendly new situation with Pittsburgh, appreciating extreme plate discipline, Matt finally getting Keyvius Sampson’s name right, Matt struggling to choose in a matchup between Logan Forsythe and Dallas Keuchel, remembering the good times with Ubaldo Jimenez and Kelly Johnson, considering the not-obvious picks, Starling Marte’s fresh hot streak, Matt putting Dylan through a guessing game, and referencing a reference to the live-action Bill and Ted television show.

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