Paul Sporer Rotographs Chat – 5/19/16
by Paul Sporer
May 19, 2016
Thanks for joining me in the marathon 4-hour chat!!
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Archive for May, 2016
What exactly do launch angles mean, anyway?
Given how new Statcast is, I’m sure just about everyone has wondered what exactly launch angles mean. During games you see numbers flying through the game feed. So and so hit the ball 98mph at 27 degrees! Someone else hit it 101 mph at 37 degrees, or 5, or 17! Woo hoo! But what does this stuff mean? It’s hard enough to visualize what a 17 degree angle might look like, let alone what it means during a baseball game. You may have heard something along the lines of “a launch angle in the high 20’s, 27-29 degrees, will maximize distance,” and that means more homers, right? So maybe hitting the ball on that angle, as hard as you can, is the best way to provide as much offense as possible. However, only thinking about maximizing distance makes me a little uncomfortable. It feels, dare I say, a little old school. We live in a new era with new data to play with, and, hey look, I’ve made some charts!
DFS Ownership and Fading Strategy
When I first began playing DFS, I approached it with the belief that a good projection system is all that is needed to be successful. I still believe that accurate projections are very important for all forms of fantasy baseball (I run a sports projections site, after all), but over the past year or so that I’ve played DFS, I’ve come to better understand the deeper level of strategy needed to be successful in large-field DFS tournaments (commonly called GPPs).
The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for May 19
by Brad Johnson
May 19, 2016
Agenda
- Site Preferences
- The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard
- Daily DFS
- SaberSim Observations
- Tomorrow’s Targets
- Factor Grid
Field of Streams: Episode 160 – FRENCHY
Episode 160 – FRENCHY
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Steve Adams discuss not discussing the Twins, Mike Clevinger’s outing, Steve making the first Gordon Beckham reference of the year, picking against Jeff Locke, the viability of Jon Gray away from Colorado, taking advantage of the numerous lefties in the Yankees bullpen, picking on the beat-up Angels, an interesting matchup for Kendall Graveman, and trying to identify Steve Adams on Twitter.
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Stolen Base Opportunities
Stolen bases require a combination of runner speed, aggressiveness, and opportunity, but all too often, we assign all of the credit or blame to runners who either increase or decrease their stolen base totals to their speed. A month and a half into the season, it’s common for runners to be well off of their stolen base pace from last season even if they have not experienced a change in their speed or willingness to steal bases. Before I make any alterations to my expectations for players, I like to take an alternative look at basestealer effectiveness based on their opportunities.
Three AL Starting Pitchers to Sell Low On
May 19, 2016
It’s easy to advise fantasy owners to buy low and sell high, but unless you’re in a league filled with newbies, it’s much more difficult to actually put into practice. It’s far easier to execute a sell low or buy high trade, because we’re all trained to do the buy low, sell high thing. When you’ll selling low, your trade partner may very well think he’s buying low. But you know better. Or at least believe so.
Today, I’ll recommend three American League starting pitchers to sell low on. It’s not typically a strategy that I’m a fan of, especially early in the season when it’s still mostly small sample size zone. But there are certainly changes that can occur in various aspects of a pitcher’s underlying skill set that is driven by various forces that should alter our evaluations and projections moving forward. I think these three are examples of such happenings.
Roto Riteup: May 19, 2016
Kris Bryant played three different positions on Wednesday, requiring three different gloves in the process. Weird things happen in a 13-inning game, and in Bryant’s case, it meant playing left, third, and first, and he’s now spent at least six innings at five different positions in his career (the corners and all three outfield spots). Hopefully Joe Maddon remains super-aggressive in this regard and Bryant becomes some sort of super-eligibility slugger.
Or the Cubs just stay weird. Either way.
Bullpen Report: May 18, 2016
by czar
May 19, 2016
• The Shawn Tolleson ride is over (at least, for now). One night after giving up a walk-off granny to Khris Davis, the Rangers righty was relieved of his ninth inning duties. He hasn’t been quite as bad as the 9+ ERA would indicate (.351 BABIP with a near-career norm LD%), but the walks are up and the whiffs are (way) down. Neither are a good combination. Unfortunately for Tolleson, this may not be a temporary demotion, either. Sam Dyson takes over the gig and has one of the most lethal sinkers in the game. He also has seen a drop in K% in 2016 but you can get away with that when you are getting groundballs on 70% of those put in play against you. Obviously Dyson is a must-own across the board, although he was likely gone in the majority of leagues where saves are at a premium long ago. If you’re a Tolleson owner — first, sorry — but I’d try and spin him as a “just-taking-a-break-closer” to a less suspecting owner — I don’t think he’s getting the saves back anytime soon.
The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 346 – Grounder Day
by Paul Sporer
May 18, 2016
5/18/16
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!
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Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play
Strategy Section: The Change – Grounder Day
- Notable Droppers
- Notable Risers
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