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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It’s September call-up time! Other than Javier Baez, who is actually still owned in a whopping 48% of CBS leagues, there doesn’t appear to be any players with much of a chance to make a real impact in fantasy leagues. But there are still some names worth considering for the last month of the season that are lightly owned.

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Yesterday, I discussed rookie Byron Buxton and his struggles making contact with pitches outside the zone. Every hitter (I assume) makes less contact on such pitches versus those inside the zone, of course. But today I wanted to check in on those who have made the most contact with the pitches they should be making contact with — those in the zone. And to add to the fun, I’ll just check in on the leaderboard over the last 30 days, highlighting the interesting names.

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Often times, the most heavily hyped prospects flop in their first taste of Major League action. As I discussed a couple of weeks ago, this has not happened to top Twins prospect Miguel Sano. But it has to their top rated prospect, Byron Buxton. Over 86 plate appearances, Buxton has posted a paltry .235 wOBA. It would be easy to look past the surface results and consider them just some standard struggles at the plate for a youngster, coupled with some likely poor fortune. But there have been some very troubling signs behind these numbers.

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In deeper leagues, especially those of the mono-league variety, everyone is typically always in search of better pitching. Hitting too, of course, but that’s for another article. The problem with deep leagues is that no one has depth. So to fill one hole you will almost assuredly create another one. It’s simply much more difficult to trade when your bench is filled with scrubs, except when it’s categorical, like trading an excess of saves for a starting pitcher. But that doesn’t happen often, so the alternative is to simply aim lower. Trading for a Chris Sale level pitcher is great and all, but it’s not the only way to improve your pitching staff. So here are four names who have all drastically underperformed their SIERA marks so far this year, which means they could likely turn you a profit in a trade if their fortunes turn.

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Is it hard to believe that we only have a little over a month of the season left or is it hard to believe that we still have a little over a month of the season left? I think I feel both ways at the same time. In any case, it’s time to uncover some hidden gems. Or at least that’s the goal.

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You know when you don’t own a player on any of your fantasy teams and late in the season you’re browsing through box scores and you realize “Woah, Player X has XX homers?!?!?!”. Yes, as fantasy owners, especially for those in mixed leagues, we generally follow all of baseball. But I personally don’t pay as much attention to players I don’t own and know I am unlikely to own all season. So when spending the last 20 minutes trying to figure out what to write about, I noticed that Matt Carpenter had just hit his 19th homer of the season. Bingo! Something to write about.

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