Writer’s Note: Mike Pelfrey ranked 139th on Zach Sanders’ rankings.

You aren’t going to draft Mike Pelfrey. You probably won’t pick him up in season. You may not even use him as a two-start option.

But Pelfrey isn’t as bad as he looked last year, and in fact may have some untapped upside that the Twins could be getting on the cheap after re-signing him to a two-year, $11 million deal.

Pelfrey missed nearly all of the 2012 season after having Tommy John surgery, and rushed back to join a Twins rotation in shambles just a year later. It was obvious he wasn’t right from the get-go, and he said as much himself — though much later on. Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: Hughes ranked 132nd on Zach Sanders’ starting pitching rankings.

It might shock a few people to find out that if not for Ricky Nolasco’s pact, Phil Hughes’ three-year, $24 million deal would be the biggest free agent contract handed out in Twins history.

In fact, I’d almost wager that the statement would induce spit-takes from any Yankees fan with a beverage in hand. Really? For Hughes?

The same Hughes who had an ERA over 5.00 last year? The one who allowed 1.5-plus home runs per 9 over the past two? The guy whose career ERA (4.54) isn’t really that much better than either of his FIPs (4.31, both), leaving one to wonder if his ceiling simply isn’t that high? Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: Nolasco ranked 45th on Zach Sanders’ rankings of starting pitchers.

What qualifies as a veritable spending spree for the Minnesota Twins has left right-hander Ricky Nolasco searching for some warm clothes and a nice pair of mukluks, as he’ll spend at least the next four seasons with the club after signing just prior to the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Nolasco has long been a pitcher who has underperformed his peripherals (4.37/3.76/3.75), and after 1300 career innings, it’s probably just time to take him for who he is rather than who he should be. Much like pitchers like Matt Cain can consistently outperform their peripherals, I think it’s probably less of a stretch to say pitchers can underperform them as well. After all, bad things compound themselves much more quickly and effectively than good things. Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: Alex Gordon ranked 24th on Zach Sanders’ end-of-season rankings among outfielders.

I think the way I’ve always thought of/considered Alex Gordon is as the player whom, when stuck with, finally rewarded his team’s patience. And it sort of feels weird to call it ‘patience’ when he shuttled between Kansas City and Omaha countless times even after he had two seasons of 100-plus big league games under his belt.

In fact, I think that’s what surprised me most about breaking down Gordon. I knew from being an AL Central-centric viewer that his 2011 ‘breakout’ came at an age (27) and experience level (season five) that doesn’t typically equate when it comes to a player who hasn’t experienced a change of scenery. Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: Willingham ranked 89th on Zach Sanders’ outfield rankings.

It couldn’t be more blatantly obvious that Josh Willingham had a down season. Not only were his offensive numbers down monumentally, but he only got into 111 games. That was the lowest mark the oft-injured outfielder had posted since 2008, and the second-fewest in his career. Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: J.J. Hardy ranks ninth among shortstops in Zach Sanders’ rankings.

J.J. Hardy experienced a rebound of sorts in 2013, hitting .263/.306/.433 with 25 home runs, 76 RBI, and a .322 wOBA. That’s pretty much right in line with his career line of .260/.312/.428; in fact, that’s also a .322 wOBA. His 162-game averages (via Baseball Reference) are 23 home runs and 76 RBI. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Trevor Plouffe ranked as the No. 28 third baseman on Zach Sanders’ 2013 rankings.

Let’s first dish out some indisputable truth: the entire premise of owning Trevor Plouffe centers around a ridiculous stretch he had in the early summer nights of 2012.

Plouffe hit half of his home runs that season between June 8 and July 3, a span of about three-and-a-half weeks. In that time frame, he hit .330/.398/.791, with 18 of his 30 hits over that span going for extra bases. Read the rest of this entry »

Writer’s Note: Gordon Beckham ranked 31st in Zach Sanders’ season-ending rankings among second basemen.

The 2013 season marked the fourth-straight season in which Gordon Beckham finished with an OPS under .700. In fact, in two of the last four seasons, Beckham has had an OBP under .300, with more than twice as many strikeouts as walks in all four of those seasons.

In essence, those four season’s encapsulate the essence of Beckham, whose remarkable ascent to the big leagues came one year after he was the first round pick (eighth overall) of the White Sox. Beckham signed in August of 2008, and by June the next year he was a fixture in the Pale Hose lineup.

That first year was rather good to Beckham, as he took over third base from Josh Fields and never really relinquished it. In 103 games totaling over 400 plate appearances, Beckham hit .270/.347/.460 with 43 extra-base hits, seven steals, and a solid 1.6 K/BB rate.

But that season pretty much sums up the modicum of success he’s had at the big league level. Since his rookie season, he’s hit .244/.306/.364 while almost exclusively playing second base for the Sox. Beckham’s second half in 2010 gave many fantasy writers — this one included — optimism for the future. Through the midsummer classic that year, Beckham had hit .216/.277/.304 before turning on the jets to the tune of a .310/.380/.497 second half.

The next best half-season split Beckham has had in the interim was in the first half this year, when he hit .335/.357/.443 in just 44 games. But then he sputtered to a .616 OPS in the second half, and further cemented himself as a night-and-day player with little to no predictability as to which is which, and why. Read the rest of this entry »

In some ways, Prince Fielder’s 2013 looked an awful lot like his 2012. In fact, depending on league type, he could have been nearly as valuable this year as he was last.

Consider:

To those in 5×5 leagues, that’d probably look like a bit of a decline, and perhaps not even enough of one to draw statistical significance from.

But if Fielder’s October performance wasn’t indicative enough — 9 for 40 with just one extra-base hit — 2013 was certainly a down year. Especially by Fielder’s lofty standards (career .388 wOBA, .358 in ‘13). Read the rest of this entry »

On the surface, Joe Mauer’s 2013 season looks like business as usual. In fact, compare the lines:

.324/.404/.476 in 2013
—————————————-
.323/.405/.468 career mark

But it would be foolhardy to think it’ll be business as usual with Mauer going forward, and there are a few reasons why. Read the rest of this entry »