It’s been one heck of a year for rookie hitters. Though, if you’re in a CBS league and take a look at the season-to-date value rankings, you will only find one rookie that made the top 50, Kris Bryant. That’s no surprise though as it’s not often a rookie is that good that he’s able to break into elite fantasy territory in his first season. Of course, some hitters were just promoted too late in the season, like Carlos Correa, to build the counting stats necessary. So while the counting stats from this year’s rookie crop are what we generally expect, the power is not.

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Say it ain’t so! There’s only two weeks of the season left? Wow, how time flies. Hopefully you’re either already in a prize spot or fighting to reach one. The final two weeks are fun because you might decide to make roster moves you would never consider during the earlier part of the season. So here are some random pieces of advice and thoughts for these final two weeks.

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Sort our leaderboards by second half ERA in descending order in the American League and Jeff Samardzija sits atop the list with the highest mark. And it’s not even close. His 7.43 ERA might have been less of a surprise if it came from another former White Sox starter Hector Noesi, but the guy affectionately known as “Shark” has been bitten by the bad pitching bug. It’s not even like he has pitched well, but has suffered from some poor fortune like teammate Chris Sale (5.00 ERA in 2nd half vs 2.57 SIERA), as his 4.76 SIERA is fifth worst in the second half. Of course, he wasn’t exactly Samardzija like in the first half either, but a 4.02 ERA compiled while pitching in a hitter’s haven of a ball park and with a terrible defensive unit behind him isn’t so bad.

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We’re only a couple of weeks away from season’s end, so hopefully your team is in such amazing shape that it doesn’t require a dive into the free agent pool.

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…and it is delightful. Coming up with a topic to write about with only a couple of weeks left in the season is tough. So in the search for an idea, I fall back on my typical activity — leaderboard sorting! Though I routinely shake my head at any analysis that includes monthly or half-season splits, the performance numbers over those time periods aren’t always meaningless. Just the vast majority of the time they are. And since the vast majority isn’t quite 100%, I decided to check on the ISO leaders in the second half of the season, hoping to find a surprising name near the top. Sure enough, I found him sitting at sixteen. His name is Rougned Odor and he smells wonderful.

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I should have known. I was thrilled to have acquired Troy Tulowitzki upon his entrance into the American League at the trade deadline in AL Tout Wars. I crossed my fingers that he would remain healthy, and productive, for the several months on my squad. That wasn’t to be. Naturally, it was a freak injury that has now sidelined him, causing his many fantasy owners to groan and think to themselves “of course this happened to him”.

If you missed the news, Tulowitzki suffered a bruised back and a cracked left shoulder blade, with the best case scenario having him returning in two to three weeks. Since that means there’s a very real chance he’s done for the season, or makes it back for just a couple of games, it’s time to search for a replacement. My American League only options are pathetic. But yours might not be. So here are a couple of shortstop eligible hitters owned in fewer than 50% of leagues that could make up for at least some of the lost production.

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Heading into the 2015 season, Marcus Stroman was a very popular sleeper/breakout pick. You know, one of those players everyone hypes so much as sleeper material that he no longer actually goes for sleeper prices. In fact, a Google search for “marcus stroman sleeper” yields many articles, some of which include the following quotes:

Stroman is on the verge of breaking out into one of the American League’s best starting pitchers…Stroman’s combination of nasty stuff, good command, and superb FIP has me pinpointing 2015 as a breakout for him.

When the dust settles, the diminutive Stroman could be a top-20 starter in 2015.

There is a real chance that we start associating the word “ace” with Stroman this year.

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With a million players on every roster, sometimes it’s hard to predict exactly how the playing time will be allocated. So as usual, my choices could end up being lucky to find 10 at-bats over the next week or prove to be a nice injury replacement.

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As the founder and commissioner of my local league since its inception in 2003, I face a difficult task every year. Invariably, as the calendar flips to September, at least one owner who has little chance at finishing in a money spot, essentially abandons his team. This is not a free league for simple bragging rights. It’s certainly nowhere near the high stakes played for in the NFBC, but it’s enough to incentivize owners to remain active all season long. And yet, it’s clear that the entry fee alone is not enough.

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It is no secret that the Red Sox defense has been brutal at turning balls in play into outs this year. As a team, the pitching staff has allowed a .307 BABIP, second highest in the American League and fifth in baseball. But things are bound to improve as we have recently learned that Hanley Ramirez, currently sidelined with a sore shoulder, will never again (hopefully) play left field. Instead, he will take over first base duties when he’s healthy enough to return. While we have no idea how he will perform defensively at first, he can’t possibly cost the team as many runs there as he had done in the outfield!

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