One of my favorite — possibly my very favorite — bands, The Wonder Years, was on the ESPN Music podcast on Thursday. They spoke about their new album, No Closer To Heaven, their tours, the vinyl resurgence and on a number of other things as well. I didn’t personally love the album (I like their previous work, specifically The Upsides and Greatest Generation more), but I would still rate it as a solid B, maybe B+.

On today’s agenda:
1. Rangers tab Alex Gonzalez for Sunday
2. Matt Holliday’s pending return
3. Ariel Pena possibly sticking in the rotation
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Episode 275

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris try to identify some favorable and unfavorable schedules down the stretch for pitchers you may be streaming from reserve to starting lineup or directly from the waiver wire. Is it time to pick up some of the favorable? Maybe you have one of the unfavorables and it’s time to cut him. We discuss in detail.

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• Ryan Zimmerman will miss significant time with an oblique injury.

Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman remains out of the lineup because of a left oblique injury. Although he is listed as day to day, two sources expected Zimmerman to miss a significant amount of time because of the injury.

• Manuel Banuelos will be shut down for the rest of the season with elbow discomfort.

Banuelos exited Sunday’s disappointing outing against the Nationals with some elbow discomfort. The Braves held out hope that the pain would subside as this week progressed. But before Wednesday’s series finale against the Phillies, Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez revealed the rookie left-hander would be re-evaluated by Dr. James Andrews next week.

“We don’t think there is anything significant there, he’s just in pain right now,” Braves assistant general manager John Coppolella said. “He wasn’t feeling great. We had hoped he might come in and feel really good today. That didn’t happen.”

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Episode 110 – David Ross-Like Guys

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss ignoring a two-game slate, finding a way to consider Ryan Goins, Shelby Miller cooling off, searching for fantasy comps for Hector Olivera, how the Reds can try to beat Jaime Garcia, Ben Revere’s attempts at stealing bases changing due to his position in the Toronto lineup, and Alfredo Simon’s inconsistency.

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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.

—Nolan Arenado Is In Good Company–

For many, Nolan Arenado inherited the Denver spotlight when the Rockies traded their franchise icon at the deadline. But based on his performance, Arenado should have escaped Troy Tulowitzki’s shadow far sooner.

Part of Arenado’s anonymity no doubt stems from the Rockies’ lack of team success in recent seasons, but I also believe that fans are predisposed to expect stars to lead with their bats at Coors Field. Larry Walker added 13 home runs to his previous career high in his first season in Colorado. Todd Hilton hit 25 home runs for the team in his first full season in the majors with the team. Tulowitzki may have been the best defensive shortstop in baseball over the first few years of his career, but he also hit 24 homers in his first full season. Arenado was a stellar defender from day one, but he failed to reach 20 home runs in either of his first two seasons in Coors. Never mind that Arenado was 22 and 23 in those two seasons and that players tend to reach their defensive potential far sooner than their power potential; Arenado did not fit the mold of a star player in Colorado.

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Agenda

1. Rolling the Dice
2. Daily DFS
3. GB / FB Splits
4. SaberSim Hi/Lo
5. Tomorrow’s Targets – Matz, Lorenzen, GrabBag, Blanco
6. Factor Grid

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Heading into the 2015 season, Marcus Stroman was a very popular sleeper/breakout pick. You know, one of those players everyone hypes so much as sleeper material that he no longer actually goes for sleeper prices. In fact, a Google search for “marcus stroman sleeper” yields many articles, some of which include the following quotes:

Stroman is on the verge of breaking out into one of the American League’s best starting pitchers…Stroman’s combination of nasty stuff, good command, and superb FIP has me pinpointing 2015 as a breakout for him.

When the dust settles, the diminutive Stroman could be a top-20 starter in 2015.

There is a real chance that we start associating the word “ace” with Stroman this year.

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I don’t usually get too personal in these digital pages, but yesterday afternoon’s post was my 500th here at RotoGraphs. Yeah, it’s an arbitrary number, and not to toot my own horn (that obviously isn’t my normal self-deprecating style), it’s pretty nifty. For what it’s worth, thank you to the readers and commenters. I wouldn’t be here without you.

On today’s agenda:
1. Jose Fernandez to start Saturday
2. Only two more starts for Matt Harvey?
3. Welcome back, Matt Adams
4. Streaming Pitching Options
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Spent a little longer than usually updating the grid this evening, so hopefully most of the small issues that have crept up with it over the last week or two are mostly resolved. Also, while we here at the Bullpen Report are usually concerned with SP-eligible relievers who can help boost rates, check out David Wiers’ piece on potential RP-eligible starters down the stretch if you need to fill innings quotas for the rest of the season.

– Greg Holland pitched for a second consecutive day today. It was a non-save situation, and the righty retired the side on 7 pitches. The bad news? His velocity has not looked good, sitting at the lowest mark it has all year (it’s been an already down year). His strikeout and walk rates have been reasonably stable over the last few months (relative to early in the year) but his HardHit% has jumped to 39% since the all-star break (compared to just 19% before and 20% last year). It doesn’t seem that illogical to point out that his HR/FB% has been on the rise and IFFB% (a measure of weak contact) has been trending downward. Ned Yost has apparently conceded that Holland’s velocity “may not return,” an ominous side for the once dominant righty going forward. It is unclear whether the team is teetering on the edge of a change, and with Wade Davis gone in almost all leagues, there’s not a lot of speculating to be done here. We’re just kind of in wait and see mode, but I’m certainly not buying shares of Holland for less more than pennies on the dollar for the remainder of the year.

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I hope you got your stolen bases in the draft this year. Like saves, stolen bases is often the category that a few teams will leave for in-season management. The ability for one player to make a substantial impact combined with the likely availability of new SB sources throughout the year allows you to allocate the draft day resources elsewhere and adjust via trades or the waiver wire. Sometimes 30-HR guys emerge out of nowhere like Lucas Duda and J.D. Martinez last year (and Martinez was actually just a 30-HR pace, hitting 23 in 123 games), but it’s very rare whereas the wire seems to deliver at least a couple of speed studs each year.

Not in 2015.

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