Do you think Archie Bradley’s beard arrives a few minutes before he does? Not entirely sure, but that thing is epic. I caught a glimpse of it in the bullpen when the Diamondbacks were taking on the Dodgers.

He’s also been impressive on the mound and wants to solidify himself this time around heading into his third big league season and he’s doing everything right so far. The 24-year-old has increased his velocity summing a few miles per hour to his fastball and slider. He’s also showing significant increases in his changeup’s consistency this season which just adds to his value.

He’s currently sitting at a 38.5% strikeout rate facing 26 batters over the season with a 46.2% groundball rate. I wouldn’t say he’s a “brand new” pitcher, just the pitcher he was always supposed to be. Read the rest of this entry »

On a night that didn’t have much bullpen drama, Francisco Rodriguez had a notably messy save. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, it seemed unlikely that the Tigers would have a reason to employ Rodriguez in this game, but William Cuevas loaded the bases and allowed a one-out Yandy Diaz RBI single. Rodriguez inherited a five-run lead but a bases-loaded situation. After striking out Abraham Almonte, he coughed up a pinch-hit grand slam to Lonnie Chisenhall.

Rodriguez protected the one-run lead that remained by striking out Austin Jackson, notching his fourth save in five tries, but he lifted his ERA to 5.40. On just about any other team, this could be cause for a controversy, but Rodriguez does not have any real rivals for the job at this point. Justin Wilson has been effective and could be a candidate if Rodriguez has protracted struggles. Joe Jimenez carries the label of “closer of the future,” but he was optioned to Triple-A Toledo earlier on Friday to make room for Cuevas, who was promoted from Toledo.

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We went over four hours! Lots of pickup and “slow start” chatter. I’m not really worried about any top 15ish round picks so far, but definitely open to making moves on late rounders who are meant to be churned.

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This post on old broken men comes via Mario Mendoza when he asked about a few pitchers.

While I won’t cover all the pitchers today, McCarthy and Ryu intrigue me because they’ve been productive in the past but injuries cost them most of last season. While not listed, Lance Lynn and Brett Anderson fall in the same category. As a group, they averaged 15 IP in 2016. Here is a quick take on all four.

Brandon McCarthy (Dodgers)

Wow, I hope the other pitchers will be easier to analyze. McCarthy has been consistently inconsistent. I will start with the basics. His fastball’s averaging 93.2 mph. He’s been at this higher velocity the last four seasons after averaging around 90 mph before 2014.

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Like many ottoneu owners (and baseball fans in general), I’m a bit of a prospect hound, always looking for the next Mike Trout or even the next Kole Calhoun. Unlike many of our writers, I have absolutely no scouting chops, so I prefer to take a more analytic approach to prospect evaluation. That includes looking at prospect reports from John Sickels and our own Eric Longenhagen, as well as reviewing projections from Steamer/ZiPS and KATOH. That’s only part of the story though, and with minor league games well under way we have some actual performances to add to our evaluations. Using the fantastic website MLBfarm.com, I put together a list of the top ten hitting performances in the minor leagues so far (using ottoneu FanGraphs points scoring, and filtering on prospects in the organizational Top 10s).

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Non-closing relievers typically don’t get much fanfare outside of leagues that use holds or holds combined with saves. Occasionally handcuffs to shaky closers will get a slight uptick in ownership in anticipation of said shaky closer faltering and losing the gig, but otherwise, non-closing relievers are deemed a waste of a roster spot outside of extremely deep leagues. The following quartet of relievers stand out to me as being worthy of ownership in 12-team mixed leagues or larger that don’t feature shallow benches. Chris Devenski’s relief excellence has bumped his ownership up significantly, so he’s not included. However, another multi-inning reliever is off to his own strong start and owned in under 10% of CBS, ESPN and Yahoo! leagues. A couple former closers and a lefty relief ace join him in this week’s piece. Read the rest of this entry »

I just want to point out that I didn’t say Josh Tomlin would be good. I said he adjusted his release point, had more arm side movement, and might be fantasy relevant. Yesterday, he allowed seven runs and recorded just five outs against the lowly White Sox. While I did personally pick him up in a couple leagues, I did not even consider starting him. I probably should have relayed that information yesterday.

AGENDA

1. My Recommendations Versus Cespedes
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. Fade Fade Fade
5. SaberSim Says…
6. TDG Invitational Returns!

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There is a lot to go over, so let’s just get right into it okay?

Okay.

On the Agenda

1. News and Notes
2. Yoenis…so hot right now
3. Gray’s Anatomy

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Episode 254 – If I Had Picked The Right One I Would Have Done Better

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Dylan being the new king of the podcast, Ben Revere not stealing a base for Matt, trusting Tyler Anderson, loving Eugenio Suarez against lefties, Taylor Motter’s friends and family drafting him in a fantasy league, Albert Pujols not getting on base, the first Emilio Bonifacio reference on the podcast in 2017, Kendall Graveman’s ascension, Dylan being terrified of the Astros lineup, answering a strategy question from a Twitter follower, Matt’s confidence in his crystal ball vs. Dylan making things up as he goes along, and Matt being sore after playing softball.

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Now we’re off and running with the second week of #2xSP, and after an uneven but mostly good second week, we think we have some pretty good pitchers to give a look to as Week 2 gets underway.

Here’s how we’re doing so far this season (through half of Week 1):

0-1 record
2.93 ERA
8.2 K/9
1.3 K/BB
1.63 WHIP
2 quality starts

Brandon Finnegan (two innings, five walks) kind of blew up our rates, but Jerad Eickhoff and Dylan Bundy managed to give us a stretch of quality starts that only Meat Loaf could appreciate. This week, we have some familiar names who are a bit off the radar for some reason or another. Give ‘em a look.

Here are this week’s recs (with team wRC+ for this season in parentheses):

RHP Lance Lynn – 21.6% ESPN – v. PIT (67), @MIL (86)

The good thing from Lynn is that he’s run his pitch count up and around 100 for each of his first two starts after returning from Tommy John surgery which cost him all of the 2016 season. The bad thing is that he’s only managed 10.1 innings to show for it, with six earned runs (5.23 ERA), an 8-5 K/BB ratio and a WHIP of 1.45. On the positive side, he’s allowed a batting average of just .238 and is pretty much at his career groundball rate (44.1 percent). After allowing three home runs last time out I could see being gunshy about throwing him out there, but I’m taking a shot with a couple of weak inter-divisional offenses coming up on this slate. Sure, there’s a chance each of them turns it around just in time for Lynn to come to town, but I’ll take that gamble. When Lynn is right, he’s good for strikeouts, grounders and most importantly, wins/quality starts. Read the rest of this entry »