Good news, I still have my sight after viewing yesterday’s eclipse. Hopefully you can still see too.
AGENDA
We’re running out of time to improve our teams, so let’s use my xHR/FB rate equation (unadjusted for home park) to identify a handful of hitters potentially due for a home run spike over the remaining month-plus of the season.
I slept through the eclipse yesterday, so it was nice of Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner to reenact it for me:
• After getting the save in yesterday’s outing, Juan Minaya followed it up with another save today for the White Sox in the first half of a double header against the Twins. Minaya has converted the last three save opportunities he’s been handed and certainly looks to be the closer. Minaya’s triple slash line of 4.50/4.57/4.26 doesn’t look too fancy but his 3.59 SIERA and 30.5% K% paints a more palatable picture. Not many saves to be expected for the rest of the season here, but I’m upgrading Minaya to yellow.
Few things are more frustrating in fantasy baseball than watching your pitcher struggle to put hitters away. He consistently gets ahead in the count and into two-strike situations, but regularly fail to finish. This is obviously even more crucial with runners on.
This is a particular struggle of youngsters if only because you will eventually be pushed to the bullpen or weeded out entirely if you don’t eventually learn to get outs with two strikes. When a young arm shows that ability early on – I say “ability”, but it’s usually a single pitch doing the heavy lifting so maybe it’s better stated as the ability to execute their out pitch – it curbs the prevalence of those disaster outings that can tank an ERA.
The Twins and White Sox have a doubleheader today. The Marlins and Phillies are playing two tomorrow. Doubleheaders are risky sources of uncommonly used players – especially since lineups aren’t usually posted for the start of contests.
AGENDA
Episode 290 – A Representative Major League Offense
The latest episode of “Field of Streams” is live!
In this episode, Dylan Higgins and Matthew Dewoskin discuss eclipse madness, Bartolo Colon’s latest impressive feat, Dylan not knowing how to pronounce Nick Delmonico’s name, Matt Joyce being on fire, actually considering Edwin Jackson in the right matchup, Mike Fiers allowing home runs again, Rhys Hoskins’ big power, the Tigers packing it in, Curtis Granderson seeking a ring with the Dodgers, Byron Buxton being locked in, and the “stoutest” baseball players in history.
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This is an updated version of an article originally posted in 2013 and then reposted in 2015.
As we get closer to our league trade deadlines (if it hasn’t passed already!) and the final month of the season, and the effect any individual player will have on our place in the standings gradually diminishes, this time of year represents one of the final chances to improve our teams. It probably doesn’t need to be stated, but it’s important to reiterate for those still clinging to preseason values (I usually cling to them far longer than most, but even I know to give them up at this point!) — you need to essentially throw player values out the window and trade for needs based on your position in the various statistical categories. Don’t worry about overpaying if you still expect the trade to net you positive points. Obviously, you want to make a trade that brings back the greatest value in return and gain you the most standings points; but if the best return available to you is a so-called $15 player for your $25 player, it’s still easily worth accepting if you expect that it gains you points.
The Little League World Series has showed us game of all shapes and sizes:
8/20/17
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