Yesterday, I discussed seven recent hitter callups that have all been given starting job. Obviously, these names are going to be the priorities, particularly in deeper leagues where a recall fills a positional need. Today, let’s flip over to five more players who have recently been called up, but are currently serving in a bench role.
Trying to follow all the transactions on a daily basis can be head-spinning. Usually, it’s just a middle reliever, or a hitter expected to fill a bench role, that gets recalled from the minors. But that’s not always the case. So it pays to keep up with promotions on the chance that you just found yourself a replacement for that glaring hole you have at second base, for example. Let’s review seven of these recent hitter call-ups that look to have regular jobs.
In shallower formats, it’s true that non-closing relievers typically hold minimal fantasy value, assuming your league isn’t counting Holds. But in deeper leagues, especially mono formats, I would prefer to start a middle reliever over a slew of starting pitchers in order to preserve my ratios. Every day relievers are being recalled from the minors so it’s very difficult to keep up with the entire landscape. Since they usually fly under the radar, you should be able to catch newly dominant ones early when no one else is even looking.
It’s been about a month and a half since I last checked on the starting pitcher SIERA underperformers and overperformers. So let’s revisit these names to find out if any make good trade targets or opportunities to sell high on.
Who says only pitchers change throughout the season? Of course, batters do too, and with newfangled metrics like BatSpd, it’s easier to identify the driver(s) of such changes. So let’s identify and discuss the hitters whose BatSpd has changed most over the last 30 days compared to earlier in the season.
Though I’m not sure there’s a particular comparison study that makes such a definitive conclusion, it certainly feels like pitchers’ underlying skills are far more volatile during the season than batters. While that usually shows up in strikeout and walk rates, we also might see it in new stats like Stuff+. So it’s worth tracking recent trends to identify pitchers whose stuff has either improved or deteriorated as that could explain recent performance and potentially predict future performance better than if using stale Stuff+ marks.
It’s been nearly a month since I took my last look at batter xwOBA underperformers and overperformers, and a lot could change during that time. So let’s revisit the hitters who have underperformed and overperformed the most, determine whether it’s been a consistent trend, and decide if the hitter is due to perform closer to his xwOBA the rest of the way.
Before I decided on the topic of this article, I was randomly wondering which hitters have enjoyed the largest skill gains and suffered the biggest declines. Whose skills have actually surged most and whose have collapsed? Lucky for us, we have an all-encompassing metric that accounts for the majority of underlying skills, Statcast’s xwOBA.
Every single year, there are hitters that seemingly come out of nowhere to post fantasy seasons worthy of shallow mixed league starting rosters. Whether it’s driven by more playing time than expected or a surprise skills surge, these are the types of players that win leagues. The challenge is determining which hitters are for real and will continue delivering positive value the rest of the season, and which are merely on hot streaks that will end soon, at which point they’ll be dropped in the majority of leagues. Let’s discuss 10 such names.
Last week, I discussed disappointing unproven hitters that would likely be easier to buy low on, if you so chose, than proven veterans. Today, let’s shift over to guys we’re really talking about when targeting buy low candidate. The caveat here is that most owners will not be willing to sell low, so it’s going to be more difficult to succeed here. Let’s now dive in and decide which names are worth pursuing.
