With fantasy baseball season coming to an end, the Roto Riteup would like to remind you to not get complacent:
GOT HEEEM! pic.twitter.com/UZJaSm0Uwa
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) September 23, 2017
We’ll be writing each day up again like last week, but here’s a quick primer on the pitching slate next week for possibly available arms.
*all stats cited for the 2nd half unless otherwise noted
Lefty
Tyler Anderson v. MIA – It is in Coors, but MIA has the 4th-worst wOBA v. lefties (.304) in the second half thanks to just a .126 ISO.
Brent Suter v. CIN – CIN has the 26th wOBA v. lefties (.305).
Here’s everything you need to know about an unusually quiet weekend of bullpen activity around the major leagues:
Jeurys Familia has been moved back to the closer position on the grid for the Mets. A.J. Ramos has struggled as of late, and it was always assumed that Familia would at some point find his way back to the ninth inning for New York. Familia picked up his first save since May 5 on Friday (pitching 1/3 of an inning), then the following day he pitched a scoreless ninth in a tie game at home, as closers often do. Familia’s track record and projections indicate that he should have no problem being a very good closer again. He induces a ton of ground balls and limits the home run ball very well. Meanwhile, Ramos’s days as a must-own fantasy asset may be over if Familia has indeed regained the role of closer. Ramos could still have some value in holds leagues, but there are better options out there. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing our series of looking at widely available starters who might be worth a stream down the stretch, here is a look at Sunday. Tough slate with a general lack of really intriguing arms and then some of the ones who are appealing have to face very difficult matchups. These are ranked in order of how much I like them:
Luiz Gohara, ATL (4%) v. PHI (Pivetta)
He walked four in four during his MLB debut, but he’s been walk-free in his last two starts – both against Washington – allowing five earned in 12.3 IP with 10 K. Facing Texas and then Washington twice to open your MLB career is brutal, so this will be his best matchup by far. The Phillies are 27th in wOBA against lefties with a .308 mark. You might want to hang onto him for next week at Miami if this goes well.
After a lackluster 2016 with a 6.50 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.61 WHIP across 14 starts, Daniel Mengden seemed to be headed into a career of fantasy irrelevance, reinforced by a pair of poor outings earlier in 2017. But since returning from a rib injury, Mengden was allowed just 2 ER in three starts, including 16 scoreless innings in his last two games. You might be excited (it’s hard not to be excited) especially when he induced zero walks and eleven strikeouts as well. Our first instinct is to believe that Mengden made a dramatic shift and while we can’t expect a 0.00 ERA, a sub 4.00, maybe even a 3.50 ERA could be in his future.
But 16 innings is a small sample and I elected to scrutinize each pitch Mengden threw in those two spotless starts. Instead of the normal rundown, I want to emphasize a few elements from these starts that can help us determine what to expect from Mengden for his final two starts and entering 2018. Read the rest of this entry »
9/22/17
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Quite a few aces (and Matt Harvey) are throwing on Saturday so owners may not have many open slots but here are some lowly owned starters. While I normally limit my ownership rate to 10%, I bumped it up to increase the options.
Henderson Alvarez (1% owned) vs Braves (Julio Teheran)
Starting Alvarez is like playing Russian roulette with five chambers filled. It may kind of possibly end up good, but likely not. The basic issue is that it’s about impossible to have a feel for his talent level with spotty starts since coming back from shoulder surgery. Instead of trying to make sense of the rehab starts, I will let Steamer and Zips do the work. They put him with a near 5.00 ERA and 5.5 K/9. If those stats along with a possible Win, if he can make it five innings, against Teheran and the Braves are usable, start him.
Chat transcript is below!
| 1:39 |
: It’s chat tiiiiimmmeee!!! I can’t believe the regular season is almost over 🙁
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| 1:39 |
: For next year: Olson or Hoskins and how close is it?
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| 1:40 |
: Hoskins, but it is close. I just prefer Hoskins w/the much better K%. Olson will struggle to hit .263 in a full season at a 28% K rate
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| 1:40 |
: Will Dahl play next year and if so, will he be any good? Or is he just never going to be able to stay healthy?
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| 1:41 |
: I mean, I certainly *think* he’ll play next year, but I don’t know for sure. I expect him to be a solid OF when healthy
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| 1:41 |
: When starting a league, what’s your keeper format philosophy? Increase in cost/draft round per year? # of keepers? And is snake or auction a preferred format?
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On Wednesday I reviewed the results of the first three rounds of a new dynasty league prospect draft. I’ll continue that review today with rounds 4 – 6, where some deeper, more interesting prospects appear.
Dynasty Prospect Draft Review: Rounds 1 – 3
This draft should help you “discover” a few names to keep an eye on going forward. If you have specific questions about players or the thought process of why they were selected, fire away in the comments section, as I’ve asked each owner in the league to be on standby to provide feedback as we review the rounds.
Before I review my own thoughts on the draft, you should know this Ottoneu league uses the “FanGraphs Points” scoring system based on linear weights, so offense is heavily slanted towards wOBA skills (and speed is almost a non-factor). We also somewhat arbitrarily removed the Top 12 overall offensive prospects to save them for the standard 40-man auction next spring. Otherwise, any minor league player without one (1) MLB PA or IP is eligible to be drafted. You can read more about the custom rules of this dynasty league here, and follow along with the draft here.
Many of the prospects below are also featured on the 2018 Top 100 Fantasy Prospects list.
Sometimes, I like to read the bad advices. I feel slightly bad for calling out a fellow writer, but this is one of the top three articles to appear when you search Shohei Otani. That means a ton of people are reading it, and it’s hilariously misinformed. The fourth paragraph in particular is almost entirely incorrect. And it happens to be the crux of the article.
AGENDA