Archive for May, 2018

Bullpen Report: May 5, 2018

Just when the St. Louis Cardinal fans thought the closer position was settled down Bud Norris goes out and pitches like… well… Bud Norris. Not exactly analysis, but ask most Cardinal fans what they think of their bullpen at the moment. In a game against their biggest rival, the Chicago Cubs and a game where Miles Mikolas pitched a gem, Norris was one swing away from blowing this one.

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Roto Riteup: May 5, 2018

Heading into the weekend like:

via GIPHY

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Pitcher Spotlight: Trevor Cahill Is Doing It Again

In these Pitcher Spotlight articles, there are specific types of pitchers I like to dive into. Some are new to many and need an introduction, some are struggling as I try to find a solution, while others are exhibiting trends in a small sample that could be stickier than we think moving forward.

Trevor Cahill falls into the latter category. There is plenty that can go wrong over the next few months to prevent Cahill from producing at a high level, though he’s showing signs of being a legitimate Top 50 starter and that’s interesting. It’s the fun stuff.

The story of Cahill is unorthodox. After seasons of mediocre as I elected to give him a nickname akin to his Irish doppelganger Trevor O’Cahill, the spring of 2017 gave us a jolt. A sudden performance spike that magically forced Jeff Sullivan to call him “good,” producing excellent numbers across a seven-game stretch:

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May Starting Pitcher Rankings Update

Wow, I can’t believe we’re already a month into the season! A quick refresher on how I put these together. This is a narrower focus than just “rest of season” as I’ll be updating these every month. Pitching is just too volatile to have confidence in a single ranking set for more than 4-6 weeks at a time. The tiers are more important than the numerical ranking as they’ll guide the start/sit decisions more accurately.

I want to be clear that the Must-Starts aren’t automatically the best pitchers, but rather the guys that you can’t sit with any confidence. Do I really think that (spoiler alert!) Sean Manaea is the 27th-best starter for the rest of the season? I have hard time saying that, but there is no circumstance where I’d bench him right now.

Please leave your questions and comments below!

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Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – May 4th, 2018

Check out today’s chat!

12:39

Paul Sporer: Helloooo!!! We’ll get started soon.

12:39

DB: Who do you like as a better minors stash in redrafts…Alex Reyes or Michael Kopech?

12:39

Paul Sporer: Kopech. Love Reyes talent, but too much of a wildcard off of TJ

12:39

Cubies Cub: Buy or Sell Nick Kingham ROY

12:40

Paul Sporer: I mean I’ll sell ROY, but I’ll buy legitimacy

12:40

paolo: no real reason to worry about rizzo, right?

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Bullpen Report: May 4, 2018

The last time we saw Ken Giles on the mound for the Astros, a Gary Sanchez three-run homer and Aaron Hicks single knocked him out of the game, and then he punched himself in the face. On Thursday night, it was Gleyber Torres who dealt the finishing blow to an Astro reliever’s save hopes.

With the Astros up on the Yankees, 5-3, heading into the top of the ninth inning, A.J. Hinch passed on giving Giles a chance at the save, even though his primary closer was available. Instead, he opted to go with Will Harris, who kicked off the inning by walking Neil Walker and then loaded the bases by allowing back-to-back singles. Brad Peacock was summoned to bail Harris out and get the save, but on his second pitch, Torres stroked a game-tying single into left field. Two batters later, Hicks scored on an Aaron Judge ground out.
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The Daily Grind: No Rake GPP Is Here!

It begins.

AGENDA

  1. TDG Invitational
  2. DFS First Take
  3. Weather Reports
  4. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
  5. SaberSim Says…

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Roto Riteup: May 4, 2018

It’s so hard, to say goodbye, to yesterday……..

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Turning Smoak Into Fire with Hernandez & Grichuk

One month into the regular season, Randal Grichuk’s tenure with the Blue Jays is off to a horrendous start. At the same time that Grichuk has struggled, Teoscar Hernandez has picked up where he left off last September, slugging .632 through sixteen games since his mid-April call up.

It doesn’t take a genius to point out that Grichuk (who was just sent to the DL) isn’t this bad and Hernandez isn’t this good. Or that Grichuk and Hernandez are actually very similar players. Both players lack plate discipline – they walk infrequently (although Hernandez has walked in the minor leagues and so far this season) and both players have been striking out around 30 percent of the time to this point in there careers.

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Ottoneu Prospect Report: May 3, 2018

As I did last year, I’m going to periodically review the top minor league prospect performances from a pure production standpoint (using linear weights based FanGraphs points). The annual top prospect lists do a good job of identifying the top talents in the minor leagues, but sometimes a prospect is lower ranked due to their extreme youth and long path to the majors, but then hits so well that their omission is glaring (think Fernando Tatis Jr.). In other cases a player not well thought of by scouts just continues to hit at every stop, and demands to be taken seriously (think Rhys Hoskins).

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