Performing backward looking analysis with the intention of using it for forward looking actionable advice is only as good as the success of the advice. So I always make sure to look back on the season and review all the analysis I performed and the advice it drove. We know that fastball velocity is very important for pitchers and that it also stabilizes pretty quickly, meaning we don’t need many pitches to learn valuable information. So early on in the season, I posted several articles highlighting fastball velocity surgers and decliners. Let’s now review the first I posted on July 27, which was after just one start and through July 25. Did these pitchers sustain their newfound velocity levels or were they one game wonders, regressing right back to 2019 marks?

Read the rest of this entry »

For the shortened 60 game season, I wasn’t in the mood to post 10 bold predictions, so I settled with six. The upside of the fewer games is greater potential for the random and unexpected to occur, which means a higher rate of bold prediction hits…hopefully. Let’s see if that turned out to be true.

Read the rest of this entry »

With two ratio categories as opposed to one for hitters, a shortened season is an even better opportunity for me to get a bold pitcher league leader correct! Let’s see if I did.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every year I take the bold and daring adventure known as bold league leaders. I rarely get any of these right, but it’s fun to decide on the names, and might give you the little nudge you need to roster a chosen player. In a shortened season, it’s a little easier to get one of these right since more luck is involved, which I need a lot of if I’m not picking the obvious choices. So let’s see how I did with my 2020 Bold Hitter League Leaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over a shortened 2020 season, I suggested it might be a good idea to discount ratios, such as batting average, and buy more stable counting stats, like home runs. As such, I identified and discussed seven cheap power buys worthy of buying. The thinking was that you would get your homers, while the projected low batting averages reducing their costs would be volatile and might not necessarily finish at a negative value. Let’s see how the players ended up doing.

Read the rest of this entry »

The season has ended (boy was that quick!), which means it’s now time for me to go review crazy. I like to look back at all the articles I posted proclaiming this and speculating that about the upcoming season and reviewing the players discussed and my thoughts. In mid-July, a week before the season began, I published Five Starting Pitchers to Buy Cheap. Over a shortened season, I posited that the already volatile ratio categories were going to end up at surprising levels for many starting pitchers. So perhaps it might be prudent to focus more on strikeouts and almost entirely ignore ratio projections since 12 or so starts isn’t nearly enough of a sample for ratios to settle where we expect them to. That was the basis of this post, and of course taking ADP into account and targeting cheapies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday has a much smaller slate of low-owned pitchers in CBS leagues with only six choices. So let’s discuss these six in hopes of finding streaming options. As usual, I will conclude my thoughts with a STREAM or NOT recommendation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s continue our look at potentially streaming starting pitchers owned in 30% or fewer leagues on CBS. Today we’ll look at Wednesday’s slate as indicated by CBS. Below, I’ll discuss each stream candidate and conclude with a STREAM or NOT decision.

Read the rest of this entry »

As we enter the final full week of the season, streaming starting pitchers to try to maximize your wins and strikeouts might either become a viable strategy for you now or has been a strategy you have been executing for some time already. So let’s review the probable starters for Tuesday’s games that are owned on 30% or fewer teams in CBS leagues and conclude with a STREAM or NOT decision, assuming a 12-team mixed league.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I discussed the teams scheduled to play eight games next week and the players widely available who might be worth a pickup, depending on your alternatives. Today, let’s identify the teams with the fewest games next week and which hitters you might consider benching, or even outright dropping, as a result. The advice here is aimed at shallower (12 teams) mixed leagues with weekly transactions.

Read the rest of this entry »