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Notable Transactions/Rumors

• Corey Dickerson – Jake McGee trade (2:20)
• Doug Fister to HOU (11:05)

Strategy Section

• 2B Ranks
  • Is Jose Altuve a first-rounder? (18:20)
  • Can Matt Carpenter keep his power? (24:20)
  • General thoughts on Joe Panik? (27:55)
  • Josh Harrison flopped after huge ‘14, now what? (33:25)
  • Where is Howie Kendrick going to play? (39:12)
    • We actually learned mid-pod! (1:15:55)
  • Better bounceback candidate: Dustin Pedroia or Anthony Rendon? (43:30)
  • Gimme a sleeper (20s or later)
    • Addison Russell (53:53)
    • Brad Miller (1:03:30)
  • Gimme a bust (top-10 you don’t love)
    • Ian Kinsler (1:06:34)
  • Twitter/Email Questions
    • Kevin (email): Impact Rookies (1:12:08)
    • Eddy (email): Injured Guys in Dynasty Startup (1:18:00)

We have a new email address for questions: sleeperpod@gmail.com. Send your fantasy-relevant questions. You can send keeper questions, but those are much better for Twitter. Questions most likely to get selected are those that apply more broadly, as opposed to specific trade or keeper queries. However, if you do ask a league-specific question, please include the league size and categories.

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It’s crunch time. Trades and keepers for all ottoneu league are due in just a little over two days. An offseason of reshaping your roster is about to be locked in place for all of 2016. Are you ready?

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After last week’s gigantic breakdown of the Twins’ position battle breakdown pitching-wise, the offensive one is going to be brief, and probably a bit of a letdown. Despite having a glut of similar players returning from a middle-of-the-pack offense — they finished eighth among 15 AL teams in runs scored — there aren’t many position battles after a pretty quiet offseason as far as the Twins of 2016 are concerned.

Catcher

Despite coming off a poor season in 2015, Kurt Suzuki basically enters this season as the starter behind the plate. However, a wrinkle has been added, as the club added John Ryan Murphy from the Yankees in an offseason deal for centerfielder Aaron Hicks. It has the chance to be a signature move from Twins GM Terry Ryan, as Murphy is coming off a .277/.327/.406 line in part-time duty with the Yankees behind Brian McCann. If he can come anywhere close to replicating that, he’ll take a big chunk of playing time from Suzuki and probably quickly. My immediate vision is that it’ll be a timeshare of a 5-2 or 4-3 platoon with the Twins giving Murphy as much as he can handle provided he hits at least at the league average — not a high standard behind the plate — and handle a staff that for some reason raves about Suzuki’s receiving. The Twins also have to keep Suzuki under 485 plate appearances — he didn’t reach that mark even last year with Eric Fryer and Chris Herrmann behind him — to keep his 2017 option of $6 million from vesting. Odds are, he won’t come close. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rays have two potential positional battles. One is more of a classic debate, whereas the other battle is a little more complex as it is not Player A vs. Player B for the same position. At catcher, the Rays will need to decide how much they value defense over offense with Curt Casali and Hank Conger slated to be behind the dish. Things are a little more complex with the addition of Corey Dickerson, who will certainly play right field with a righty on the mound. What will the Rays do when a lefty starts?

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Some of this is being repeated from the Primer piece that went up this morning. 

We’re bringing them to you earlier this year, but that also means that they’re far from set in stone so take that into consideration as you peruse them. There are still strong arms on the free agent market, let alone all the moving and shaking that happens once players start reporting to camp.

• Outfielder (Jan. 18)
• Starting Pitcher (Jan. 20)
• Shortstop (Jan. 22)
• First Base (Jan. 25)
• Catcher (Jan. 26)
• Second Base (Jan. 27)
• Third Base (Jan. 28)
• Reliever (Jan. 29 courtesy of the Bullpen Report crew-today)
• DH (Jan. 29-later today)

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments.

We can also be reached via Twitter:

• Paul Sporer
• Alan Harrison
• Darren Schienbein 
• Benjamin Pasinkoff
• Colin Zarzycki
• Brad Johnson
• Paul Kastava

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?!

Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. Like I said, it’s early. Things are going to change.

The chart is sortable and by default it’s sorted by AVG. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1. That would be 61 for Alan and Paul K., 56 for Colin, 54 for Ben, and 51 for Brad. They are indicated in red on the chart.

Key:

• AVG– just the average of the seven ranking sets
• Adj. AVG– the average minus the high and low rankings
• SPLIT– the difference between the high and low rankings

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We’re starting to roll out Ottoneu FGpts rankings today.  We will start with catcher and work our way through the rest of the positions by the time auction drafts are in full swing.  In the context of Ottoneu, perhaps rankings are a misnomer, because you really want to know the dollar value each player is worth. We’ve included this information as well. In all, these rankings should help to give you a spread of four dollar values for each player, as well as a comparison to average prices (post-arbitration, pre-cut deadline) within the Ottoneu FGpts universe. Each player’s Ottoneu eligibility (5GS, 10 appearances) is included as well, though players are ranked at their most valuable position. If you have questions on a specific ranking, or a question for a specific ranker, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Consider this your very early, subject to change, Ottoneu pricing cheat sheet.
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As a standings gain point disciple, one of the questions I get asked most is if I know where to get final standings data (and SGP denominators) for AL- and NL-only leagues. You can find reliable mixed-league data if you search hard enough on the web. But you won’t find much, if anything, about the only-league format.

Thanks to a tip from Mike Gianella, I finally got my hands on a nice set of AL- and NL-only standings. Mike suggested I check with the guys that run OnRoto.com. If you’re not familiar with OnRoto, they’re a league hosting and stat service that caters to hard-core and old-school rotisserie leagues… Meaning they host a lot of only leagues.

OnRoto has also historically hosted the various Tout Wars competitions. So this is legit data from a trusted fantasy resource. In this post we’ll be looking only at the AL data (NL coming soon). I was able to obtain the standings for 76 different 12-team AL-only leagues and here’s an analysis of the data… Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the annual series: ‘A Minor (League) Review of 2015.” This series is a great way to receive a quick recap of the ’15 minor league season for your favorite club(s), while also receiving a brief look toward the 2016 season and beyond. It can also be a handy feature for fantasy baseball players in keeper and Dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Francisco Lindor, SS: A member of one of the best rookie classes in recent memory, Lindor could end up being one of the best all-around players due to his defensive acumen, speed and hitting ability. Promoted to the Majors as a 21-year-old, Lindor immediately improved the club’s infield defence and hit much better than expected — both in terms of average and of power. The biggest knock on Lindor is that he doesn’t walk much, but he also keeps the strike outs down. He should be a star for the Indians for many years to come.

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We’ve started our annual Depth Chart Discussions, re-branded as Playing Time Battles for 2016. You can catch up on every team we’ve covered in the Playing Time Battles Summary post or following along using the Depth Chart Discussions tag.

With Chris Davis back in the fold, the Orioles have a surprisingly settled roster. Presently, the battles are all constrained to the outfield and designated hitter role. Davis should claim first base full time while Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, and J.J. Hardy will start whenever healthy. Adam Jones has center field on lock down, but his flanks are up for open competition.

Corner Outfield

Left and right field could belong to anybody, even a player not currently on the roster. The Orioles were among the finalists for Yoenis Cespedes, offering a five-year contract that he ultimately spurned in favor of the Mets. The club probably won’t burn their top draft pick to sign Dexter Fowler. However, I could see them signing one of Austin Jackson, Marlon Byrd, David DeJesus, Alex Rios, or Shane Victorino. The trade market also has a few names.

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• After an injury filled 2015 season, Marco Gonzales will try to stay healthy in 2016, but will start the season as the Cardinals’ 6th starter.

With his shoulder strengthened and his mind clear, Gonzales can pitch himself back into the big-league mix this spring. While there’s not an obvious spot for him in the rotation, he will be jockeying for position on the depth chart. The Cardinals will also consider their three young, lefty starters — Gonzales, Cooney and Lyons — for possible bullpen inclusion.

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