Archive for July, 2017

Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – July 28th, 2017

1:38
Paul Sporer: Good day, everyone!

1:38
LudeBurger: Paul-eeee!!

1:38
Paul Sporer: yooo

1:38
Chris: Would you trade Scherzer for Arenado straight up in a dynasty? Have some depth at SP with MadBum, deGrom and Thor when he comes back.

1:38
Paul Sporer: Ya I’m good with that

1:38
seth: Keepable Brett Gardner for unkeepable Scooter + Luis Castillo, who you got?

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 482 – Rookies & Dynasty Buy-Lows

7/28/17

Eno’s internet connection was a little wonky and led to a crackling sound with his recording. We’re addressing the internet issues for the future. 

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 18, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER18!

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Leading Off: Question of the Day

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One Hot Hitter and a Stat Stuffer – Pearce and Zimmer

If at first you don’t succeed, try again? Well, I’m once again suggesting taking a shot on a hitter who struggled out of the gate. Also, I was shocked to see the ownership rates tied to a stat-stuffing outfielder in Cleveland. The toolsy rookie is owned in over 50% of leagues on just one of the three heavy-hitter fantasy providers. Read the rest of this entry »


Deep League Stolen Base Options

It’s getting time for some teams to start making a single category move to improve in the standings. Today, I am going to examine speedsters owned in less than 5% of ESPN leagues for owners looking for a few extra steals.

Alcides Escobar (4.7%): Escobar has nothing going for him (.230/.254/.316) except the chance he could get back to stealing bases like he previously. Since he’s a complete statistical black hole otherwise, he should probably only be used in the last week or so of the season to not kill the other categories.

Adam Frazier (4.6%): Frazier is one of the more balanced choices to help with steals going forward. Steamer has him with only five more over the rest of the season.

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Field of Streams: Episode 283 – The Stars Are Aligning For Dinelson Lamet

Episode 283 – The Stars Are Aligning For Dinelson Lamet

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

In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss Matt picking against his own pitcher, Adrian Beltre’s heroics, Parker Bridwell’s puzzling success, Derek Fisher, Yusmeiro Petit getting a start, Dylan being scared of the nationals, Trevor Cahill losing the one intriguing thing about him, trying to figure out Adam Conley, Matt refusing to pick against Jesse Chavez, The Crosstown Cup, and another big Hawk Harrelson meltdown.

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The Prospect Stock Watch: Gohara, Heredia, Florial

Today’s Prospect Stock Watch takes a look at a former Mariners pitching prospect making good in the Braves system, yet another impressive Dodgers prospect and a Yankees prospect that could be on the move at the trade deadline.

Luiz Gohara, LHP, Braves: The Braves organization has drafted a number of impressive, young arms in recent years but the club has also had eye for acquiring talented mound performers. Gohara was acquired from the Mariners at the beginning of this year in a deal that had Mallex Smith going the other way. A native of Brazil, this young left-handed spent parts of five seasons in Rookie or A-ball – as he struggled to stay healthy and find consistency. He opened 2017 in high-A ball in Atlanta’s system and struck out 39 batters in 36.1 innings with a 1.98 ERA. Gohara, 20, has been equally successful in double-A with 60 strikeouts in 52 innings. Overall, he’s whiffed 99 batters in 88.1 innings with just 28 walks. He has a sturdy frame and should be capable of developing into an innings-eating starter if he watches his weight. Another option, given Atlanta’s incredible pitching depth, would be to consider shifting him to a high-leverage relief role where he could be overpowering with a mid-90s fastball and potentially-plus slider.

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#2xSP (7.31-8.6)

I’m not one to make excuses, but man this has been rough this year. With pitching injuries, the fluctuation of even moderate starters and the advent of the 10-day disabled list, trying to find viable candidates for these kinds of columns has been…..let’s just say a bit difficult. Thanks for hanging in there all season, as we’ve picked up some steam lately. Be sure to check out the #2xSP hashtag on Twitter if you don’t see this column, as I’ll list my recommendations there as well.

Here’s how we’re doing so far this season (through half of Week 15)

25-25 record
4.82 ERA
7.6 K/9
2.2 K/BB
1.47 WHIP
28 quality starts

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

RHP Mike Foltynewicz – 36.3% ESPN – @PHI (85), v. MIA (96)

I’ve been a big fan of Folty’s all season long, as he’s taken a really nice step forward as a key cog in future Braves rotations. He’s improved every year in red and blue ERA-wise, and has stayed fairly consistent with strikeouts and walks while tightening up most other aspects of his game. The WHIP is still a bit concerning at 1.39, but he’s been prone to some really strong streaks this year. The best part here is that Folty also misses out on the mid-week series against the Dodgers — the No. 2 offense in baseball (111 wRC+). Read the rest of this entry »


Fantasy Implications for Recent Trades: (BOS-SF, STL-SEA, & MLW-CWS)

The Giants traded Eduardo Nunez to the Red Sox for minor leaguers Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.

It’s tough to see how this trade will eventually affect Nunez’s value. On the positive and known front, Nunez is going to a better hitter’s home park. Additionally, the Red Sox’s lineup (4.7 R/G) is better than the Giants (4.0 R/G). That is about where the certainty ends.

The biggest questions are when and where will Nunez play. He’s played third, short, and the outfield so far this season. Additionally, he’s played at second as recently as last year. The Red Sox don’t have any major holes across their lineup especially after promoting Rafael Devers to play third.

Besides Devers, the other weak spot in the lineup may be Mitch Moreland at first base. The team could bench Moreland and move Hanley Ramirez to first. Or possibly move Devers to first and let Nunez play third.

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Batted Ball Quality: Marwin, DeJong, and Seager

Over the past three years I’ve had a lot of fun studying quality of contact stats, and I’ve tried to put everything I have learned into xStats.  This uses exit velocity, launch angle, running speed, park factors, temperature and more to measure a player’s offensive performance and displays this information in the form of basic slash line items to make it easy to understand for any baseball fan.  You’ll see stats like expected batting average, slugging, BABIP, and wOBA. (xAVG, xSLG, xBABIP, and xOBA, respectively).

Recently I’ve run 7 day, 30 day, and 60 day stats, giving an insight into players who have been out or under performing their game results in recent weeks. Today I want to touch on a few of the batters I find particularly interesting, and I’ll include a little table showing a few other notable players as well. Read the rest of this entry »


AL SP Strikeout Rate Surgers — Last 30 Days

As I have been known to do, let’s take our every-so-often look at American League starting pitchers who are currently making a surprise appearance atop the last 30 day strikeout rate leaderboard. Since pitchers change so much more frequently than hitters, whether due to fluctuations in velocity or an adjustment to pitch mix, it’s far more valuable to analyze small sample pitching performance than hitting performance.

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