Chi Chi Gonzalez has a cool name, but he doesn’t have a cool scenario at the moment. The 25-year-old has been diagnosed with a “partial UCL tear in his pitching elbow,” according to Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Gonzalez had a rough few outings with the Rangers in 2016. An 8.71 ERA with a low strikeout rate doesn’t help the situation. Mind you it is a small sample size, we were mentally ready for him to start in Triple-A.

Now, we are just mentally prepared to not see him in action for a while if Tommy John is in his near future.

On the Agenda

1. Keon Broxton
2. I’m so Prado You
3. Getting Miggy Wit’ it

Keon Broxton

Sorry, Keon Broxton, you don’t get a cool pun, maybe next time when I have had some time to think.

During a game on Friday, the Brewers outfielder was removed due to “discomfort in his surgically-repaired right wrist.”

These things are often exaggerated during spring training, but they still freak people out. This was just a precautionary thing as he said he “felt a twinge” during a check swing.

He’s had a strong spring training and is hoping to be the leadoff hitter for the team. He finished his 2016 campaign with a .294/.399/.538 and 23 stolen bags.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-next-step-for-keon-broxton-and-domingo-santana/

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3/17/17

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

Follow us on Twitter

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

Leading Off: Waiver Wire Whisperer  

• Who’s getting cut next now that Derek Norris was DFA’d?

Strategy Section: Team-by-Team Breakdowns – Cleveland Indians (4:00)

• What’s next for Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez?
• The Michael Brantley conundrum
• Any real chance of a rebound from Yan Gomes after 2 hideous seasons?
• Does Tyler Naquin hold his job all year?
• Worried about Carlos Carrasco?
  • Carrasco or Danny Salazar at their costs?
• Where do you land on Trevor Bauer?
• How many saves does Andrew Miller rip from Cody Allen?
• PROSPECTS
  • Hitters: Bobby Bradley
  • Pitchers: Rob Kaminsky, Adam Plutko, Ryan Merritt

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We all have guys we like more than others. That’s just the nature of the beast. Whether it’s guys coming off down years we expect to rebound or ones we’ve done extensive research on to forecast a much better than expected season, we all have our favorites. Sometimes, we even have them for even less legitimate reasons.

As we get knee deep into draft season, I thought I’d share with you some of the guys I like more than most at each position:

C- Yasmani Grandal (NFBC avg. 145, No. 8 C)

Scoring just 49 runs while hitting 27 home runs seems crazy fluky, but I like what Grandal brings to the table overall. He does a little bit of everything — though the average might hurt — and brings the kind of pop we don’t usually see associated with the catcher’s spot. He’s still young enough (28) to be reasonably on an upswing, and he was markedly better in the second half last year (.245/.356/.521) than before the break (.212/.323/.434). He had nothing much in the way of platoon splits last year as well. Right now I like him better than Salvador Perez, who is going about 14-15 picks earlier in drafts. Further down the list, I’m intrigued by Devin Mesoraco (No. 21 catcher, No. 298 overall) after seeing a video of him testing out his bum hip doing some pretty wild plyometric drills. He could be a huge value. Read the rest of this entry »

Chat starts shortly!

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Drew Smyly has a unique fastball. Of pitchers to throw more than 1,250 four-seamers in 2016, Smyly’s fastball was second only to Marco Estrada in terms of vertical movement, meaning, the pitch has “rise”. If Wednesday’s WBC game between the United States and Venezuela was any indication, this pitch is becoming even more unique, as Smyly is now throwing harder than he ever has.

Jeff already wrote about this game on the main site, noting why the Mariners should feel pretty good about their pair of starters, and that (at least according to the telecast) Smyly was topping 94mph. However, today, I wanted to use Smyly as a branching off point to talk about another pitcher.

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Quick looks

3/15 games

I had full game information and write-ups on each of the following three pitchers but my computer did a restart and the information was lost. Here are the condensed versions from what I remember.

• Lucas Giolito: He was a mess. His velocity is still down from his minor league reports by about 3 mph. He couldn’t throw his curveball near the strike zone. He only lasted 2/3rds of an inning with his replacement, Chris Beck, showing more promise. I am not rostering Giolito in any redraft league and recently traded Giolito for Reynaldo Lopez and Curtis Granderson in an industry 20-team dynasty league.
• James Paxton: Looked similar to 2016. No issues here.
• Cody Reed: Not ownable in redraft leagues. He throws, not pitches, with a low 3/4 arm angle which is devastating to lefties but righties can tee off on him (.131 ISO vs LHH, .385 ISO vs RHH in ‘16). Also, he can’t throw is his change for strikes (35% Zone%), so he will have issues keeping righties from waiting on the fastball. Now, if he can get ahead, his two breaking pitches, change and slider, can get some swings-and-misses so he’ll get some strikeouts. I can see the pieces which have scouts hoping but he has not put them together yet.

3/16 games Read the rest of this entry »

Almost exactly one year ago I tried my hand at 10 bold predictions with mixed results. This year, I aim to improve my results without watering down the boldness of the predictions. There’s an optimistic vibe to my 10 predictions this year as only one calls for a disappointing performance this season.

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We are updating our rankings for the stretch run of draft season! Today we’ll have third base and catcher.

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
• Jeff Zimmerman
• Mike Podhorzer
• Brad Johnson
• Justin Mason
• Al Melchior

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. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

March Updates:

• OF
• SP
• 1B
• SS
• 2B
• 3B

Read the rest of this entry »

I refuse to make this a Tim Tebow post. I won’t allow it.

With that said, he had a two-hit game and raised his batting average to .214. He even threw in a diving catch for good measure. Adjust your fantasy teams accordingly. Actually, don’t, that was a joke.

Okay, now that we have that out of our system…

On the Agenda

1. David Wrong
2. Scott Kazmir’s slowball
3. Get a grip, Scherzer

Read the rest of this entry »

We are updating our rankings for the stretch run of draft season! Today we’ll have third base and catcher.

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
• Jeff Zimmerman
• Mike Podhorzer
• Brad Johnson
• Justin Mason
• Al Melchior

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. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

March Updates:

• OF
• SP
• 1B
• SS
• 2B

Read the rest of this entry »