This will be my final starting pitcher streamers article of the season and sadly, my final article of the regular season. So if you’re in the thick of the championship run, let’s take a gander at some of the starting pitchers you should consider streaming that are likely to be available in your league.
Tim Tebow homered on the first pitch of his professional baseball debut. You’ll want to bump him from No. 1 to No. 1!!! for your 2017 keeper league drafts, naturally. After all, “He’s such a winner,” as Terry Collins said.
Unrelated, I was trying to think of what the baseball equivalent of Tebow’s NFL run would be, from a fantasy perspective. Tebow wasn’t good, but he ran enough that he was valuable in most formats. I guess maybe 2015 Billy Hamilton is close? I’m going to put something together for this for tomorrow, I think.
9/28/16
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Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play
Strategy Section: Hidden Second Halves
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Last week I unveiled my Top 24 Pitchers for 2017 and yes, it was an amazing list, I know, buuuuttt I feel like your appetites weren’t satiated so here’s the next 16 pitchers on my list right now giving you a top 40 to chew on until at least November.
Over the course of the last three weeks, I have explored different ethical and strategic questions posed to me via email and social media. It has been a fun series to write, but now we have reached it’s conclusion for the 2016 regular season. I hope to make this a reoccurring series next season. So, whenever I can get enough questions and/or scenarios for a full piece I will write up my answers. Some people really enjoyed this series. Others hated it and the answers I gave, but it made for interesting discussions within the comment sections. I would label that a success. Feel free to send me more questions at JustinMasonFantasy@gmail.com or on twitter @JustinMasonFWFB and when I have enough, I will do an offseason installment. Thanks for playing along! Read the rest of this entry »
Freddie Freeman is beating the shift
A few seasons ago, all people could talk about is shifting and its effects. Even though shifting is not in the news as much, but players are still getting shifted. Here are the 2016 leaders for facing a traditional shift:
| Name | Team | PA | AVG | BABIP | wOBA |
| David Ortiz | Red Sox | 393 | 0.328 | 0.323 | 0.330 |
| Anthony Rizzo | Cubs | 367 | 0.296 | 0.294 | 0.301 |
| Curtis Granderson | Mets | 335 | 0.237 | 0.236 | 0.240 |
| Kyle Seager | Mariners | 331 | 0.296 | 0.296 | 0.290 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | Rockies | 327 | 0.358 | 0.358 | 0.353 |
| Jay Bruce | – – – | 322 | 0.244 | 0.242 | 0.248 |
| Freddie Freeman | Braves | 319 | 0.382 | 0.379 | 0.385 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | Dodgers | 318 | 0.325 | 0.321 | 0.310 |
| Brandon Belt | Giants | 303 | 0.337 | 0.337 | 0.350 |
| Kole Calhoun | Angels | 295 | 0.321 | 0.319 | 0.319 |
| Chris Davis | Orioles | 288 | 0.266 | 0.264 | 0.256 |
| Mitch Moreland | Rangers | 286 | 0.262 | 0.262 | 0.253 |
| Stephen Vogt | Athletics | 281 | 0.294 | 0.292 | 0.291 |
| Victor Martinez | Tigers | 276 | 0.296 | 0.293 | 0.277 |
| Carlos Beltran | – – – | 268 | 0.336 | 0.336 | 0.325 |
| Brian McCann | Yankees | 266 | 0.252 | 0.252 | 0.235 |
| Carlos Santana | Indians | 265 | 0.250 | 0.249 | 0.249 |
| Albert Pujols | Angels | 255 | 0.228 | 0.227 | 0.208 |
| Robinson Cano | Mariners | 252 | 0.328 | 0.325 | 0.312 |
| Kendrys Morales | Royals | 245 | 0.241 | 0.241 | 0.226 |
One name and his stats strike out. Freddie Freeman is the player and he currently has a 29-game hitting streak. The shift is supposed to take away hits, but Freeman has decided to use the center of the field to beat the shift. He is not swinging inside out and trying to go the opposite way. Instead, he is putting the ball in the middle of the field. Here are his Center% and wRC+ by month.
Month: Center%, wRC+
Five days. That’s all that separates a small subset of ottoneu owners and a championship. As these final days play out, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the closest races across ottoneu FanGraphs points leagues as of this morning using the same standings pull that I run when creating the power rankings.
Agenda
Episode 248 – Vargas On Vargas
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss possible offseason plans, strange hangover lineup practices, the surge of 20-homer players this year, Kyle Schwarber vs. Gary Sanchez, a reference to the Chinese National Team, Miguel Gonzalez vs. Mike Leake, Matt Carpenter’s poor second half, Adonis Garcia “the Cuban crusher,” Andrew Cashner’s struggles with lefties, Andrew catcher not actually pitching on Wednesday, Joaquin Benoit’s injury, and too many words on the sixth season of The Jersey Shore.
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Friday brings a full slate of games, including a ton in which lesser owned pitchers are scheduled to start. Rather than discuss each one, I’ll instead just discuss those worthy of streaming.