It doesn’t seem like we’re already a quarter of the way through the baseball season, but here we are. The player rankings are headlined by familiar names like Jose Bautista, Ryan Braun, Dan Haren, Jeff Weaver, Roy Halladay, etc. Even names like Lance Berkman, Curtis Granderson, and Matt Kemp have had success recently enough that seeing their names among the best players in fantasy to this point doesn’t seem like that much of a shock.

However, there are a few players who appear in the upper echelon of nearly every player ranking that are proving to be serious bargains at the quarter way mark. I guess depending on where you drafted Jose Bautista he could be considered a bargain as well, but he’s on another planet right now. I’m talking about players who were drafted in AL or NL only leagues but rarely made a roster in standard mixed leagues.

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Today’s Waiver Wire focuses on two ground ball pitchers who are enjoying good starts to their seasons, even though no one seems to be noticing.

Joel Pineiro: 11% owned

After five seasons (2004-2008) of being nearly unownable in anything other than deep AL or NL only leagues, Joel Pineiro has seen his career, both in real life and fantasy, rejuvenated by the addition of a sinker.  He was taught the pitch by St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan while with the Cardinals in 2008. The next season he saw ground ball percentage jump 60.5%, more than 12 points higher than the season before. Pineiro also saw his ERA, FIP, and xFIP get below 4.00, the first time any of them had been that low since 2003. He took his new found success to Anaheim where he only pitched 152 innings, but won 10 games and had a very respectable triple slash line (ERA, FIP, xFIP) of 3.84/3.84/3.73.

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It’s interesting to see how a player with a relatively small amount of experience can see his pre-season ranking fluctuate from year to year. If he has a breakout season in his first full year but follows it up with a subpar second season, he’ll be dropped in the rankings come his third year. It’s only natural. A track record of sustained success is needed to receive the benefit of the doubt. Adam Lind doesn’t have that.

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It’s only been 30+ games into the season, but there have been a few substantial changes so far. Let’s take a look at who has moved, and how the stalwarts have fared.

Tier 1:
Hanley Ramirez
Troy Tulowitzki
Jose Reyes

Despite his awful start, I refuse to move Ramirez from Tier 1. He’s too young and his track record is too good to give up on yet. If he’s still hitting below .200 with one home run come July, then we’ll talk. After a torrid start Tulowitzki has cooled off, but he still leads all shortstops in home runs with 8 and will likely end the season as one of the best players in all of fantasy baseball. Reyes is the newcomer to the Tier. Originally in Tier 2, his outstanding play, coupled with the overall blah-ness of the position propelled him up. A .329 average with 12 steals will do that for a person.

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The first month of the season has gone by. How is your team looking? Are you satisfied? Probably not, right? Does the urge to drive to Miami and beat up the slumping Hanley Ramirez grow stronger by the day? Are you sending threatening letters to Carlos Pena? Do you believe Jered Weaver’s hot start has been aided by the Luck Dragons?

If your answers to the above questions is “yes”, well, you may need more help than I am able to provide. However, if you feel capable of moving on, then may I suggest it time for you to start looking into the trade market. Today I’m going to focus on a pitcher with familiar names who, while off to great start, isn’t likely to keep up his current level of performance, creating an excellent sell high candidate.

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The mantra of FanGraphs is “Do not put too much faith into small sample sizes.” We all have it tattood on our chests, just below a picture of the site’s founder, Dave Appleman.

In the world of fantasy baseball that mantra can be twisted a bit, as we will gladly ride a player on a hot streak as far as he will take us. That doesn’t mean we believe in the statistics the player is putting up – more often than not he’s dumped when the hot hitting ends. A lot of fluky things can happen over the course of ~100PA. It’s up to you to decide what is legitimate and what isn’t. Take Chris Coghlan for example.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Due to an injury to a Phillies’s closer, Ryan Madson will take over the 9th inning duties until further notice. No, really, Ryan Madson is getting opportunities to close games again.

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Going into the season I noted just how shallow the shortstop position was. Behind Tulowitzki and Ramirez, the cupboard was barely stocked with anything useful.  Over the past two weeks we’ve seen some surprise players start to hit far above expectations and make a name for themselves. Is their success sustainable? Probably not in most cases, but in the fantasy world we ride hot streaks as far as we can. At the same time there have been more heralded shortstops who have struggled to get things going. For the first time this season lets take a look at the Risers and Fallers at shortstop

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There’s no position more fungible on a baseball team than the closer. At other positions you can have middling to even below average success and still keep your job (see Bartlett, Jason). But, blow a few saves in a row? If you’re named anything other than Mariano Rivera you’re likely in trouble. That was the fate endured by Joe Nathan and Ryan Franklin over the weekend.

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There are a number of prominent fantasy players who are currently injured but are scheduled to come off the disabled list in the next few weeks. Late April could end up feeling like Christmas to some owners. We’re going to take a look at three of those players today.

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