Let’s talk. This is the last tier rankings update of the season and I wanted to take this opportunity to explain how these rankings transport from my brain to these virtual pages of typed letters. Judging by your comments on these very rankings each month, it’s clear that you take these seriously. That’s a good thing, as it confirms that what we do here is truly helping you, or at least you would like what we do to be helping you.

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Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!

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Yesterday, I shared the names of four speedsters who are available in the vast majority of leagues played on CBS. Naturally today, I shift my focus onto the power guys. Unlike the speed demons, it’s more difficult to find strong sources of power available for free. But they might be there if you dig deep enough. Here are three names for your consideration.

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With about two months left in the season, we all know what our team’s strengths and weaknesses are and where we could gain and lose points in each of the standings categories. I’ve said this in the past and will say it again — your place in the various categories is much more important when deciding on your weekly active roster then what a player’s overall value is in a vacuum. It’s rather obvious, but it bears repeating. If you’re first in homers and RBIs by a substantial margin, benching the likes of Brandon Moss or Chris Carter are easily justifiable. If you need speed, these four guys are available in the majority of leagues, and more than 50% of those on CBS.

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We collectively scratched our heads when the Diamondbacks traded top prospect Trevor Bauer to the Indians after the 2012 season. But after he posted a suspect 4.15 ERA at Triple-A with the Tribe and then a 5.29 ERA over four starts with the Major League club, we thought that perhaps the team didn’t act as silly as we originally thought. A turnaround at Triple-A resulted in his second chance with the big club, but a 4.25 ERA remains a mild disappointment.

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It’s been a disappointing season for Jake Peavy, as he posted a 4.72 ERA with the Red Sox and although meaningless on its own, sported a rather hilarious 1-9 record. And it’s not even like he was simply suffering from poor fortune. His 4.33 xFIP was his worst mark since his first full season in 2003, as his strikeout rate was down and walk rate up. It became acceptable to drop him in shallow mixed leagues. But on Saturday, the Giants acquired the right-hander, resulting in Peavy’s return to the National League. Let’s find out if that is going to be enough to put him back on mixed league radars.

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Yesterday, I used Jeff Zimmerman’s recently published xBABIP table to identify five trade targets, with the underlying assumption that they have suffered from poor BABIP fortune, which is likely to reverse over the final two months of the season. Today, I will check in on some hitters whose BABIPs are far above their xBABIP marks and could be in for quite the decline over the rest of the season. As such, they are perhaps strong sell candidates.

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On Friday, Jeff Zimmerman published the calculated xBABIP marks using his new equation incorporating Inside Edge data. While we are well aware that we remain far away from a perfect xBABIP equation as some commenters pointed out what’s missing, it’s still a useful metric to analyze. So I have curated a list of hitters whose xBABIP marks are significantly higher than their actuals and could represent good acquisition targets for the final two months of the season.

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In a move that we’ve been waiting on for quite a while, the Padres finally traded away their starting third baseman since 2009. Chase Headley now finds himself in New York, calling Yankee Stadium home. That alone should be cause for celebration, as his home park hasn’t been too kind to him over his career. But Headley has been a disappointment once again this year and has been bothered by a herniated disk in his back. Could this move be the jolt he needs to reward those fantasy owners who remained patient?

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Isn’t it fun playing the free agent pool merry-go-round? Ya know, picking up another player seemingly every week to fill that one roster spot you just can’t find a permanent player for. Between injuries and demotions, that describes about half my Tout Wars roster. Awesome. Here are two options for deep leaguers, one is almost guaranteed to be temporary, the other could potentially become permanent.

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