Prior to the 2016 season, a number of fantasy enthusiasts — and Marlins fans — took a look at the healthy distances that Christian Yelich would hit flyballs and wondered what could be if he just hit a few more of them. This season, we got a snapshot of what that would look like. For the first time in his four-year career, Yelich hit ground balls at a rate below 60 percent (56.5 percent, to be exact) and drove his flyball rate up to a whopping 20.0 percent. Those trends, in combination with a higher hard-hit rate and a greater average flyball distance, helped Yelich to become the legitimate power source some of us dreamed of, as he hit 21 home runs and 38 doubles.

By hitting grounders at an extreme rate, Yelich wasn’t making full use of some strong power-hitting skills that his indicators suggested he owned. But could there be a hitter who does just the opposite, hitting too many flyballs in the face of flagging power indicators? If his rookie season is a sign of what’s to come, Jorge Polanco is becoming such a hitter.

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Clayton Kershaw missed a big chunk of the season yet he was still a fantasy MVP. The real world NL Cy Young award debate was duplicated in fantasy land with Max Scherzer and Kershaw comfortably leading Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, and Madison Bumgarner. What’s more valuable, Scherzer’s quantity or Kershaw’s quality? Our auction calculator says quantity by $1.50.

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On Sunday, it was reported that Matt Holliday signed with the Yankees to presumably be their every day DH. Well, at least until his age rears its head and injuries take their roll. Though perhaps filling the DH role every day will help him remain healthy. Yesterday, Jeff Zimmerman discussed the move and how it could affect Holliday’s fantasy prospects, but I wanted to go a little bit deeper and dive into the park factors. Since the second half of 2009, Holliday has been a St. Louis Cardinal, which calls home one of the worst parks in baseball for right-handed home runs. So let’s compare Busch Stadium to Yankee Stadium and see how the park switch may effect Holliday’s numbers.

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12/5/16

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

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• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette
• @paulkastava

 Leading Off: Question of the Day (4:20)

• Is Chris Carter going to wind up in TB?

Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play

• Carlos Beltran to HOU (8:30)
• Matt Holliday to NYY (14:30)
• Mark Melancon to SF (17:00)
• Rich Hill back to LAD (24:20)
• Steve Pearce to TOR (28:30)
• Joaquin Benoit to PHI (32:50)
• Jaime Garcia traded to ATL (37:30)

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Note: The great and powerful Paul Sporer will examine the Mark Melancon, Rich Hill, and Steve Pearce moves in the next day or so. I am just catching up on the moves from the weekend.

Yankees signed Matt Holliday

In a vacuum, this signing makes sense for the Yankees and Holliday. The Yankees needed a designated hitter and Holliday needed to transition away from playing the outfield. As the Yankees roster stands at this moment, Tyler Austin and Gregory Bird will be competing for time at first base and the outfield is Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Aaron Judge. All the veterans have a role and everyone should be content.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Joe Biagini (RHP): A Rule 5 draft pick from the Giants last winter, Biagini narrowly snuck onto the team at the end of spring training. Within a couple of months, though, he began pitching in more and more meaningful games — becoming one of Manager John Gibbons’ most trusted relievers by the end of the season. The organization feels that Biagini’s stuff would play well in the starting rotation and has considered sending him back to the minors to work him out as a starter in 2017 but reliever values are at an all-time high this winter so the Jays may be hard pressed to find enough depth that make that move a reality.

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Regular ottoneu enthusiasts may recall my retooling efforts from last winter in FanGraphs Staff Two. Here’s the short version. After going all-in to win the 2015 campaign, I was left with a very talented and very expensive roster. I needed to slice more $150 off my payroll without affecting the product. I was open to rebuilding, but I always prefer to contend.

The easy way out was to trade one or both of Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw. Unfortunately, my leaguemates and I have very different ideas about the value of expensive, hyper-elite players. I guess it makes sense that they gravitated to my roster. I had to re-equip the hard way – by making a flurry of incrimental moves.

One year later, I get to claim success. The 2016 season may have been my most successful victory yet. Now I’m attempting the same stunt once again. I entered the offseason with $510 spread across 42 players. Of that, only a couple low cost players are obvious cuts. Time to get to work.

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This wasn’t the season newly minted Andrew McCutchen owners had in mind when they rostered him during their 2016 drafts. Not only was he a disappointment in fantasy circles, but also in real baseball, where he easily posted the worst wOBA of his career and failed to muster even 1.0 WAR, finishing at a measly 0.7. His previous low WAR total was 3.4 set during his 2009 rookie season! Check out where he has ranked among outfielders since 2012 according to our dollar values:

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12/3/16

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

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette
• @paulkastava

Email Questions

• J.A. Happ, Chris Tillman, Jose Ramirez, Ender Inciarte from David
• Extensions, Ryan Braun, Travis Jankowski from Brad
• David Peralta from Willie
• Tyler Skaggs from Brian

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Hyun Soo Kim signed with the Orioles before last season on a two-year deal. He struggled mightily in spring training and because of the nature of his contract, the major league team was forced to roster him. After just 17 plate appearances in April, he became a decent semi-regular in the lineup. The left-handed hitter got on the strong side of a platoon with Joey Rickard or Nolan Reimold being the other half.

He became a decent fantasy option in daily transaction leagues by posting a .329/.410/.454 in until July 10th when he went on the DL with a hamstring injury. After the injury, he hit only .275/.353/.386. The second half numbers are decent numbers, but not as good as before the injury.

With the new StatCast data, I examined it to determine if there was a drop in Kim’s exit velocity around the time of the injury. Using a 10-day rolling average, the available data may not look like it but the rolling average generally stays around 7 mph of the overall average. Additionally, there was  no huge pattern change around the time of the injury.

The problem is that StatCast is not able to collect all the available data as documented at FanGraphs and The Hardball Times. The missing data is normal weak groundballs or high infield popups. I am not going to regurgitate the reasons and the exact details from the previous articles but I am going to take a step forward in accounting for the missing data.

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