Or stated more accurately, both injuries and a surprise medical procedure hampered Jason Heyward’s season. After coming off a year in which Heyward was the 10th most valuable outfielder, he was limited to just 440 plate appearances as he dealt with a spate of health related issues. While actually on the field, he was still a bit of a disappointment to fantasy owners, especially to the many who figured an MVP-type season with mammoth offensive production was in the cards. Unfortunately, the health and fantasy Gods were not on his side this time.

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Episode 81
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss yesterday’s blockbuster trade and the outfield crop.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)

Approximately 38 min of joyous analysis.

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It was a historically bad year for the Miami Marlins offense. Over the summer, Bradley Woodrum shared with us where the team ranked in history among the weakest attacks of years past. But at that time, the team’s wRC+ was 78. The team actually finished the season with a more pitiful 72 mark, which tied the 1981 Blue Jays for lowest mark in his last graph. Unfortunately, Giancarlo Stanton was part of this offense and this fact hampered his fantasy value. But breathe a sign of relief folks, I will not be using the words “lineup protection” anywhere in this post (besides in this sentence)!

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Once a speedy, excellent defensive center fielder with questionable offensive skills, Carlos Gomez has made himself into a five category fantasy contributor. And with the value of his glove added in, he was baseball’s fourth best player this year by WAR. Though his breakout began in the second half of 2012, he carried over his new found batting talents and had himself a career year, posting a .363 wOBA and going 24-40 to the delight of his fantasy owners. Of course, this type of performance has fantasy owners giddy and in a recent mock draft, he was selected 25th overall. Fantasy owners are notorious for valuing players based on a “what have you done for me lately?” philosophy, so let’s figure out if this time it is warranted.

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Ranked as the fourth best prospect in the Minnesota Twins system this preseason, Oswaldo Arcia was promoted to the big club on three separate occasions (well, technically four, one of which was only for a day) during his rookie season. The 22-year-old left-hander showed some promising signs, but as usual with the majority of youngsters, has work to do to reach his potential.

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We have arrived at outfield week and that means another day of reviewing my Pod’s Picks at the position. With so many busts, it shall be interesting to see how my rankings stacked up. With so many players being ranked at the position, it allows for much more disagreement, unlike some of the other positions where sometimes my choices below were just two or three ranks different, which isn’t all that meaningful.

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Episode 80
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss the first big signing of the off-season and the shortstop crop.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)

Approximately 48 min of joyous analysis.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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The biggest story involving Zack Cozart this year was most certainly related to his spot in the batting order. He actually opened the season batting seventh, but after his scorching start that included a .108 OBP over his first nine games (he actually hit second in his eighth game), Dusty Baker had seen enough of Cozart’s strong on base skills to move him permanently to the top of the order sandwiched between Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Votto. It then took until mid-June before Baker realized the error of his ways and Cozart began shuttling back and forth between the top and the bottom of the lineup. Finally by mid-July, Cozart had officially become a bottom of the order hitter and would only see the two hole, or any lineup slot higher than sixth, once the rest of the way.

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This quote from FanGraphs commenter Scott pretty much sums up Andrelton Simmons‘ season perfectly:

Simmons hit 17 hrs? I thought he was mr defense. Guess he added some pop while I wasn’t looking.

After hitting just nine home runs in 1,096 professional at-bats previously, Simmons tapped into his power by nearly doubling that total in 45% fewer at-bats. But instead of also showing the above average speed he flashed during his minor league days, he stole just six bases at a poor success rate. We know that Simmons is a defensive wiz, but where does his offensive game go from here?

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Year in and year out, you could usually count on Jimmy Rollins for double digit home runs, 30+ steals and a boat load of runs scored hitting atop the Phillies lineup. But his age 34 season was quite the disappointment as he hit the fewest home runs in a season for his career and posted his first sub-.100 ISO and sub-.300 wOBA. Heading into his age 35 season, it is fair to ask whether Rollins’ days of earning top 10 shortstop value are over.

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