With another regular season fully in arrears, now is a good time to look back on the season that was for 2xSP.

This was the second season I covered two-start guys for Rotographs, and this year I kept meticulous records on a Google Drive spreadsheet for all to behold. 

I think that was a pretty solid upgrade, but if there are things you think can be done better, I’m all ears. Please leave suggestions below.

Here’s a breakdown of the season:

41-47 record

The record was obviously not idea, as I was hoping for a .500 mark. But even though we as analysts don’t really care much about the win for starting pitchers, it’s still something we have to seek out as fantasy writers.

Ultimately, I’ll look for pitchers that will be put in good situations to win, but I’ll admit it’s not going to be the first qualification I look at. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s revisionist history time at Rotographs, where we go back and look at the buffoonery that was and is our bold predictions for the 2013 baseball season.

Here are mine:

1. Chris Parmelee leads the Twins in home runs.
Brian Dozier ended up leading this M*A*S*H* ward with 18, as Parmelee could never get going this season. Sadly, Parmelee finished ninth on the Twins with 8 round-trippers, right behind Pedro Florimon (9 HR, .273 wOBA).

(0/1) Read the rest of this entry »

Here are this week’s recommendations:

Marco Estrada – 14.8% ESPN – @ATL (.318 team wOBA), @NYM (.298)

Estrada has pitched phenomenally since returning from an especially bad hamstring injury. Since coming back, the right-hander has made seven starts, going 2-0 with a 2.62 ERA, 8.5 K/9, and a .522 OPS against.

It’s not entirely clear if the right-hander will get the full group of Braves, as Atlanta has little else to play for but home field advantage (and to what extent that’ll matter will be determined over the weekend). The Mets are unlikely to provide much resistance, however. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are this week’s recommendations (in an Oakland A’s edition of 2xSP):

Dan Haren – 43.0% ESPN – v. ATL (.319 team wOBA), v. MIA (.279)

Haren’s season figures don’t look great on the surface — 9-13, 5.02 ERA, 1.6 HR/9 — but they’re largely masking what was an absolutely brutal start for the Pepperdine product. On July 1, Haren’s season ERA sat at 6.15 after getting pounded by the Rockies his previous time out.

Since then, Haren’s made 12 starts, going 5-4 with a much more Haren-like 3.67 ERA, 9.2 K/9, and 5.0 K/BB. That’s the kind of guy that the Nationals were expecting, though it’s certainly a bit too little, too late for this season. The Braves matchup sort of stinks, but the Marlins matchup for than makes up for it. Read the rest of this entry »

(Writer’s Note: The Mariners announced Friday that Taijuan Walker would be shut down after his start against the Astros. He’s still a good single play there, but go with Gerrit Cole for a 2xSP.)

Here are this week’s recommendations:

Ubaldo Jimenez – 23.5% ESPN – v. KC (.305 team wOBA), @CWS (.300)

Jimenez is the starter fantasy players just can’t quit, because just once he’s left for dead, he’ll reel off a run of five solid starts and get people back on his side. To-date, Jimenez’ ERA sits at 3.79, which is the lowest it has read all season, with the exception of a six-inning, one-run season opening appearance.

The tumble, in a good way, has looked like this from month to month (May-Sept.): 6.37-4.83-4.67-4.18-3.79. With a pitching slash of 3.79/4.04/4.06, it looks like he isn’t doing it with smoke and mirrors, either. The walks are still scary high, but his home/road splits have leveled off finally (4.33 home/3.29 away), which make him a more palpable play in weeks where he’s not starting both on the road. It also helps to get a couple weak offenses this week, too. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are this week’s recommendations:

Jose Quintana – 17.7% ESPN – @NYY (.302 team wOBA), @BAL (.327)

The 24-year-old left-hander has been a revelation of sorts for the White Sox this year, going 7-4 with a 3.66 ERA and 7.5 K/9. Pitching for the White Sox has made it tough for Quintana to be a good fantasy commodity, however, as his 16 no-decisions are the most in the big leagues.

Quintana seems to be a better bet with the White Sox playing better lately — and likely soon to overtake the Twins to get out of the Central cellar — and so far, he’s the real deal, as his 3.66/3.65/3.83 pitching slash will attest. The Yankees matchup this week is a much more accommodating one, but as loyal readers will attest, a lot of times it’s one good matchup, one possibly shaky matchup with these sorts of recommendations.

Joe Kelly – 21.0% ESPN – @CIN (.314), v. PIT (.309)

After a three-inning outing versus the Dodgers on May 25, Kelly’s season ERA stood at 7.13. Since then, in Kelly’s 16 appearances (10 starts), the right-hander has tossed 72 innings of 1.88 ERA ball, with middling peripherals (5.0 K/9, 3.5 BB/9) and a .235/.310/.328 opponent’s batting line.

In that time frame, Kelly is 6-1, though it certainly helps that he’s pitching for the NL Central leading Cardinals, whom have the second-most wins in the National League. Still, in a strategy set-up like this where wins and losses can be a bit hard to projection, Kelly — at least to me — seems like a pretty good bet.

Danny Duffy – 3.9% ESPN – v. SEA (.310), v. DET (.345)

Duffy’s 2013 body of work includes a pair of starts against an admittedly awful Minnesota Twins lineup, sandwiched around a solid six-inning effort where he beat the Detroit Tigers in half of a twinbill on Aug. 16. In those 16.1 innings, Duffy has racked up 17 strikeouts, walked just five, and allowed only two earned runs on 12 hits.

Duffy’s velocity isn’t all the way back from missing nearly all of 2012 with a torn UCL and Tommy John surgery, and it appears as though he’s scrapped his slider, but he still has plenty of velocity to spare with a 93.7 mph average heater so far. The Seattle matchup this week is a solid one, and he’s already shown well against the Tigers this year — though that’s probably not all that predictive — and as a result, he’ll reel in the third recommendation of the week.

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Also, here’s the link to the spreadsheet I keep of results so that readers can feel free to peruse it at their leisure.

Here’s  a link to the spreadsheet I keep of results so that readers can feel free to peruse it at their leisure.

And here are this weeks (young fireballer) recommendations:

Sonny Gray – 40.6% ESPN – @DET (.343 team wOBA), v. TB (.327)

This one isn’t so much about the matchups — they’re actually among the toughest an AL pitcher can have — but that I think this might be the only shot for someone to nab Gray not only for 2xSP, but just to have. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are this week’s recommendations:

Dillon Gee – 7.5% ESPN – @MIN (.303 team wOBA), v. DET (.343)

Gee gets a rare AL Central double-dip as the Mets return to Minneapolis for a one-game makeup before welcoming the Motor City Kitties to Citi Field. The Twins haven’t hit much all season long, and at last glance were striking out more than anyone this month — thanks in large part to Clete Thomas and Pedro Florimon. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are this week’s recommendations:

Jhoulys Chacin – 29.3% ESPN – v. SD (304 team wOBA), @BAL (.328)

Chacin’s having arguably his finest season as a major leaguer, and what’s odd is that it’s coming on the heels of his worst strikeout rate yet. In fact, he’s experienced a decline in whiff rate for his entire five-year career.

Chacin has supplemented his declining strikeout rate with an insanely good HR/9 rate — 0.3 per 9 which leads the NL — and a still solid groundball rate of 46.7%. All this while essentially becoming a fastball-slider guy by scrapping his curve. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick note, but you’ll only see ESPN ownership figures from this point on — barring someone really feeling that’s not acceptable. I haven’t done a Yahoo! league this year, making pulling ownership figures a bit more difficult on this cranky old work computer.

Also, there hasn’t been a single instance this year where a pitcher I wanted to use was under 50% ownership in ESPN and not the same way in Yahoo!, so this just makes sense.

Also 2.o: The boards will return next week.

Onto this week’s recommendations:

Jose Quintana – 10.4% ESPN – v. NYY (.295 team wOBA), v. MIN (.306)

The Quintana rec isn’t so much about the season that he’s having, but about the matchups this week. The Twins are sleepwalking towards a third-straight 90-loss season, and Quintana gets the “not your older brother’s”-version of the Yankees. Read the rest of this entry »