The Roto Riteup is a big fan of cycling:
You knew he wasn’t stopping at 2nd. pic.twitter.com/n0kE0dl6UJ
— MLB (@MLB) September 18, 2018
Big apologies for taking the last few days off. Been dealing with some health issues, but am now off the DL and looking forward to only pinch running and playing defense.
The Cardinals don’t have the deepest system in the word but there are some interesting prospects littered throughout the system. And the upper half of the Top 10 has some helium potential.
Click here for the pre-season Top 10
1. Alex Reyes | RHP | DL —> When healthy, Reyes has the ability to be one of the most dominating pitchers in baseball. He has three better-than-average offerings when his command is on but the control also lets him down — and hasn’t had much of a chance to get better with all the layoff time. Reyes can hit triple-digits with the heater and his curveball is a swing-and-miss offerings. The members of the Cardinals front office (and fans) will hold their collective breathes until Reyes returns healthy to the mound, hopefully for Opening Day 2019.
2. Nolan Gorman | 3B | A —> Gorman has a chance to be a beast. However, he also has a chance to de-evolve into Joey Gallo — a player who swings for the fences every single time and doesn’t have an ounce of strategy at the plate beyond the grip-and-rip. Gorman, 18, had a nice approach in rookie ball but it started to fall away in A-ball when he started to chase the homers more often. He’ll likely return to A-ball in 2019 and I’d like to see him put the homer swing in his back pocket for a while and work on pitch recognition, handling curveballs and just polishing the hit tool. Defensively, he has a chance to be average but he needs some work to get there.
Adam Conley did not have a save opportunity on Sunday against the Phillies, but nonetheless, I have moved him to the head of the Marlins’ closer committee in the grid. Don Mattingly, like many managers, will sometimes use his closer with a four-run lead in the ninth inning, and that’s what he did on Sunday. With a 6-2 lead, Conley retired the first two batters, but he allowed a hard-hit Aaron Altherr double followed by Roman Quinn’s RBI single. The lefty could have limited the damage to the lone run if Starlin Castro had not been eaten up by a Cesar Hernandez grounder, but the error allowed the Phillies to cut the lead to 6-4. Then the rally ended when Conley struck out Rhys Hoskins.
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With two weeks left, the race to fantasy gold often lies down the Path of the Stream. Join me at Streaming Wars.
AGENDA
For today’s limited game slate, I pushed my normal Fantrax’s ownership rate to 23% to snag a few more arms.
The 24-year-old lefty is not a bad option considering he’s facing the Orioles with Andrew Cashner on the mound. Borucki isn’t going to provide a ton of strikeouts (5.9 K/9) but his low HR/9 (0.6) has kept his ERA reasonable (4.26).
Richards is the day’s best strikeout option (8.9 K/9) but he’s ratio killer (1.46 WHIP and 4.85 ERA). He gets a small boost since he’s a flyball pitcher (35% GB%) throwing at home where he HR/9 is 0.9 while 1.3 on the road. There are worse options like ….
No way. The only possible desired outcome will be a Win since he is going against Ryan Borucki. Of the pitchers with at least 150 IP, his K%-BB% is the league’s lowest at 5%. Just stay away.
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9/16/18
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| 7:31 |
: most droppable? (next opponent listed) Fiers-MIN; Urena-CIN; Minor-SEA; Matz-@PHI; Sabathia-BAL; Lucchesi-SF. thanks
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| 7:32 |
: Urena or Minor
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| 7:32 |
: Best source for finding out who will actually start over the last two weeks? My points league has a cap on starting pitching for our two week final and I have to choose wisely
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| 7:34 |
: It’s a little late in the season to possibly pay the full price, but I live off the Razzball.com weekly/daily projections. Ruby Gamble runs it and he knows his shit. For many of the best out there, it’s one-stop shopping.
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| 7:34 |
: need wins- Godley has been horrible. Would you pick up CC Sabathia who has been pretty bad in September but he does have a start this week against Baltimore?
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| 7:34 |
: CC is a great streamer this week
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The FAAB bids this past week at the NFBC’s Main Event mirrored the regular season, almost dead. Even so, I’m back for another week of estimates for the upcoming bidding cycle.
First off, here is a snapshot of last week’s results.
My forward looking FAAB projections got murdered this week
Name: Proj, Actual
Mejia: $19, $17
Voit: $61, $12
O'Hearn: $10, $7
Alcantara: $13, $7
Wainwright: $25, $6
Shoemaker: $15, $5
Valdez: $24, $4https://t.co/9oSIMQLCQoI need to dive in and do some late season adjustments
— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) September 11, 2018
On average, the bids were significantly higher than expected except with some rookie call-ups. I went back to the drawing board and completely reworked my formulas with some historically acceptable results.
My current quandary is making the estimates more usable. Before next season, I can reexamine the information with fresh eyes and possibly explore other options.
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Compared to yesterday’s streaming options, today’s group could win the Cy Young. While there are still some clunkers a few usable options exist. For the pitcher examined, I’m using pitcher owned in 20% or fewer FanTrax leagues.
I’d have no issues starting him for this game. His year-long results look uninviting (5.31 ERA and 2.3 HR/9) but he’s pitched decently since coming off the DL (shoulder). Since returning, he’s posted a 7.1 K/9, 0.9 HR/9, and 3.68 ERA.
He’ll face a beatable Angels team starting Andrew Heaney. He’s a fine streaming option.
I didn’t like what I saw from Reid-Foley when he debuted and nothing has changed (6.86 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 1.62 WHIP). Now, if an owner is only needing strikeouts and doesn’t mind how much the rest of his stats get abused, Reid-Foley is the day’s best strikeout option.
I’m a little surprised Chirinos’s ownership is only 14%. He’s a perfectly fine streaming option (7.4 K/9, 3.81 ERA) and faces a shaky Trevor Cahill.
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Representing one of the most frustrating bullpens over the last month, could the White Sox situation finally be settling in? This coincides with the return of Nate Jones from the disabled list who recorded his first save since May 22nd on Friday night. Jones allowed a hit with two strikeouts during his second outing back this month and, dare speculate, should be the primary closer going forward. Jace Fry secured his 15th hold walking one and striking out one in the eighth inning while Ian Hamilton yielded a run (unearned) on a hit and a walk with a strikeout en route to his first hold in a two-thirds of an inning appearance in the seventh inning. This bridge continues to evolve, but fantasy owners may be able to take solace in this blueprint over the last two weeks when Chicago owns a lead.
While one bullpen in Chicago takes shape, the other returns to fluidity with Pedro Strop out for the remainder of the regular season. Fantasy owners should not overreact regarding Jose De Le Rosa’s save last night. He did get his first this year working around a double and a walk in Cincinnati. However, all of Jesse Chavez, Steve Cishek and Carl Edwards Jr. pitched in the two prior games making them unavailable in this game. Also, those who think Justin Wilson could figure in the save mix may wish to reconsider since he was passed over for Jamie Garcia. Garcia faced Joey Votto, Eugenio Suarez and Scooter Gennett in the eighth inning retiring them in order for his fourth hold. Wilson could have appeared in this game due to usage, so its worth noting. As for future saves while Brandon Morrow looks to complete a bullpen session later this afternoon, look for Chavez and Cishek to take the lead but nothing’s guaranteed. Chavez has been terrific as the Cubs pliable reliever with two wins, three saves, a 1.45 ERA, 2.61 FIP, 0.87 WHIP and 34 strikeouts against four walks in 31 innings since his acquisition. Stay tuned. Read the rest of this entry »