The Pirates enter 2013 looking to parlay three-straight seasons of increased win totals into the club’s first .500 or better finish since the George H.W. Bush administration. It shouldn’t take much, as the club went from 63-47 on August 8 to 79-83 to finish the season. To do some rudimentary math, that’s a .308 winning percentage in the last seven or so weeks in the season.

That’s not to say it’ll be easy for the Bucs to buck the trend; Houston is now in the AL West, and the Cubs appear to have a competent rotation and are trending the right way. The Pirates made a few moves in the offseason to shore up the entire team, but today we’ll just focus on the infield. Read the rest of this entry »

The Angels enter 2013 as at least a contender — if not the favorite — to win a suddenly-stacked AL West. The Astros are the only team that appear out of contention from the outset, and even there we see an organization that is improving by leaps and bounds every day. The Mariners have an impressive stable of pitching prospects, and the Rangers and A’s are no doubt fresh in our minds as the two clubs who battled it out down the stretch.

But you don’t necessarily care about division races. You want to know what the depth chart looks like for the Halos this year. Let’s do this. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I took the brave first step of showing you, the readers, my staff league Ottoneu team. But today I have to be even more brave. As a foolish young 25-year-old, I decided I wanted to get into Ottoneu. But it wasn’t just into Ottoneu, but joining an already established league. Oh, did I mention I’d be taking over Chris Cwik’s team. Oh, and I’d be the freaking commissioner.

Writer’s Note: It’s extremely difficult taking over a team mid-stream, so my team will not reflect the quality you might expect from a fantasy ‘expert’. I willingly will take all barbs tossed at me, however.

I was over my head to be sure. But the owners were patient with me, and we had a good year as a league. Not me, so much. I finished ninth in a 12-team league. Read the rest of this entry »

The deadline to keep players in Ottoneu passed Thursday evening at midnight, and today I thought it might be fun to run my roster through the wringer. After all, I’m eagerly trying to gain the acceptance of my readers! But seriously, I sort of am.

So here’s the Fangraphs Staff League II. My team name is “Bang the Woodrum”, and we are in a 12 team league — I just noticed Woodrum named his team “I am Warneing You” — with FanGraphs points (linear weights) scoring. The budget is $400, and I’ve filled 31 roster spots with $344. Last year, I led down the stretch until innings limits sabotaged me at the last second, leaving me in third place. Read the rest of this entry »

Stolen bases, like saves, can be a difficult chase for even the most dedicated of fantasy owners. In fact, I think they can even be tougher. One can study usage patterns and success rates to get a sort of ‘feel’ for who the manager might trust in close-and-late situations, but stolen bases — at least as far as the research I have/haven’t read — are less predictive. They can come in droves, or they can trickle in a few every week, or if you’re Billy Hamilton, it’s an all-out assault.

I took a look at some potential sleepers on the stolen base front a few weeks ago. Today, let’s take a peek at some possible underwhelmers as it pertains to base thievery. Read the rest of this entry »

As some readers may know, I’m involved in a Scoresheet league heavy on current and former Baseball Prospectus types. The draft starts relatively quickly — within the next few days, I think — and I’m starting to think about my keepers for 2013.

If you’re unfamiliar, here’s how it works with keepers:

Any ‘big league’ player kept costs you a pick at the front of the draft. Any ‘minor league’ player costs you a pick on the back end.

Anyway, here’s my roster, with notes after each player: Read the rest of this entry »

As many RotoGraphs readers are keenly aware, I commandeered the “Two Start Starters” pieces for pretty much the entire season in 2012. Today, I’m going to give a bit of my methodology out, and at the end ask if there’s any way I can better serve you, the readers. Read the rest of this entry »

When I look for deep stolen base sleepers, I typically look for a few telltale signs. Obviously, the player has to not be very well-known. However, I don’t think that’s necessarily as obvious as it might seem, as someone like Juan Pierre could very well be a stolen base sleeper.

But we’re looking for deep sleepers. We’re talking possible big league debut types, or guys who play on crummy teams that will run a lot. Guys hitting in front of the pitcher in the National League. Guys you just flat out don’t know much about. Let’s have a look. Read the rest of this entry »

When preliminary announcements suggested the Twins had acquired two pitchers for Ben Revere, you’d have to understand my immediate worry. I figured the big piece of the trade might be Tyler Cloyd — he of the 87 mph fastball — and maybe the Twins would nab Kyle Kendrick for good measure.

I was wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chris Capuano rejuvenation tour made its second trip around the NL in 2012, and with it came similar results. Capuano appeared in the same number of games (33), but made two more starts than he had in 2011, leading to 12.1 more innings pitched, a 0.5 increase in WAR, and pretty much everything fell into place as it had in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »