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Humor me for a second. Pretend that you don’t already know this post is about Mark Trumbo. OK, good.

As of Monday morning, through 48 plate appearances, Bryce Harper hit six home runs, stolen three bases and walked twice as often as he struck out. It’s ridiculous to extrapolate, but acknowledge that Harper has basically replicated Barry Bonds‘ historic and infamous 2001 batting line through a small sample size, and it gives you a sense of just how monstrous of a start Harper has had — at just 23 years old.

Now, try to comprehend that Harper, per weighted runs created (wRC+), isn’t even the best hitter in the game right now. There must be luck involved, you think to yourself, and you’re certainly right in one instance: Daniel Murphy and his .500 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) have vaulted Murphy to the top of the leaderboard.

But right below him, sandwiched between him and Harper, mere decimal points of a percentage point of wRC+ better than Harper, is Mark Trumbo. Mark Trumbo, of the career 110 wRC+, is, in a sense, hitting like peak Barry Bonds. They got there in different ways, but numbers are numbers. I guess everyone is due for a good week, Trumbo included, right? Or is there something more to this?

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Episode 138 – Sounds Like August Names To Me

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Brad Johnson discuss Dylan having more energy this morning, holding a grudge bias against fantasy players who have burned you in the past, Brad choosing Rougned Odor despite not being interested in him, Eric Surkamp vs. Mike Wright, the one scenario where Brad is not utilizing Eugenio Suarez, and The Daily Grind Invitational.

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Agenda

1. Introducing The Daily Grind Invitational
2. Daily DFS
3. SaberSim Observations
4. Tomorrow’s Targets – Stripling, Fister, Gennett, Villar
5. Factor Grid

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In this episode of OttoGraphs, we take a trip back to spring 2015, when Trey and Joe interviewed Niv Shah, the creator of Ottoneu, for an early predecessor of this show. We’re re-releasing the bulk of that interview today for any Ottoneu fans interested in taking a look back some of the origins of the game, and how it has changed over the past year. Please pardon the audio quality – as you may imagine, this interview was recorded at a time when all of us in the OttoGraphs crew had limited experience with this sort of thing, but after a little editing magic to spruce things up your ears should come through the experience just fine. Then, get ready for a podcast double-shot, episode 6 is coming up later today, featuring a brand new interview with Niv!

Feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions you may have about this episode or future topics. We can be reached individually on Twitter:

@OttoneuTrades

@JustinVibber

@TomHasOpinions

@Fazeorange

Lastly, special thanks to Treemen who provided our intro and outro music. If you like what you hear, please check out their other work at http://treemen.bandcamp.com/

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Exit Velocity! It’s all the rage now. And it should be. With just one season’s worth of incomplete data, we’re still trying to figure out what it all means. You’re familiar with my xHR/FB rate metric, right? That equation uses a hitter’s batted ball distance to determine what his HR/FB rate “should have” been. Unfortunately, batted ball distance is a result and the goal for any metrics I develop is to use metric that represent underlying skills. Exit velocity is that underlying skill. The hope is that it will eventually replace batted ball distance in my equation.

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I survived the late night seagull attack in San Francisco last night. I appreciate everyone’s thought and prayers. Read the rest of this entry »

• Quick Notes from Sunday: Ryan Madson received and finished another save opportunity last night against the Royals earning his fourth save on the year. No announcement on a change has been made but Madson has received more save chances than Doolittle thus far. I’m going to put Madson ahead on the red hot grid for now but we might be looking at a quasi-committee of sorts. Alex Colome earned his first save for the Rays and should be an option for saves until Brad Boxberger returns. Jonathan Papelbon blew his first save of the year. Jason Grilli also blew the save but Arodys Vizcaino wasn’t available and this only helps Vizcaino’s standing in the Braves pen.

And on to today’s games:

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4/18/16

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

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette

Strategy Section: Bullpens

• Closer Volatility (4:00)

Strategy Section: Low-Level SPs

• Mat Latos (25:00)
• Jhoulys Chacin (29:00)
• Wade Miley (32:45)
• Chase Anderson (41:35)
• Kendall Graveman (44:50)
• Tyler Chatwood (49:30)
• Dan Straily/Drew Hutchison (55:00)
• A.J. Griffin (1:01:50)

Mailbag

• Brian: Trading Aroldis Chapman (1:06:00)

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• Just a handful of players moved on or off the DL over the weekend. Most of the injury information was on return times which are located in the last spreadsheet.

• Daniel Nava is on the DL with knee tendinitis.

Nava expects to return to the majors at the start of May, as soon as he is eligible.

To replace him until then, the Angels called up Rafael Ortega from triple-A Salt Lake.

• Nick Hundley is the first player placed on the 7-day concussion DL this year after experiencing damage to the brain from a foul tip.

Hundley, hurt on a foul tip on Wednesday night, hit in the batting cage and attempted to do 10 sprints on Friday. However, he only made it through four before feeling woozy. It took the Rockies a while to reach the decision because Hundley felt good standing still. It took activity for symptoms to show. He also suffered a forehead contusion from the way the impact spun his mask.

Hundley said his only previous concussion was in 2012.

I could see his return take a while because of the 2012 concussion.

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