Jeff Zimmerman and I will be covering the fantasy relevant deals this week, highlighting the winners and losers and pointing out the actionable items for you in your leagues.

TOR gets: LH RP Brad Hand

WAS gets: C Riley Adams

Despite the recent struggles of Hand, the Jays brought the lefty veteran in to solidify their bullpen and perhaps even take over the closer’s role. Hand was dominating through early July with a 2.43 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 16% K-BB, and 19 SVs in 21 tries. An impossibly bad 5-game stretch saw him allow eight runs (seven earned) thanks to 11 base runners in just 4.7 innings. He blew three saves and collected three losses.

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Jeff Zimmerman and I will be covering the fantasy relevant deals this week, highlighting the winners and losers and pointing out the actionable items for you in your leagues.

MIL gets: UT Eduardo Escobar

ARI gets: C Cooper Hummel, IF Alberto Ciprian

Escobar seemed like a lock for White Sox before that trade was 86’d by the Nightengale hex:

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Jeff Zimmerman and I will be covering the fantasy relevant deals this week, highlighting the winners and losers and pointing out the actionable items for you in your leagues.

OAK gets: OF Starling Marte, cash (the rest of Marte’s contract)

MIA gets: P Jesús Luzardo

Now this is a deadline blockbuster!

This is essentially a rightfield upgrade for the A’s as their -0.3 WAR there is 27th in the league. Marte will likely assume center but then Ramón Laureano and his brilliant arm head to right, displacing the Stephen Piscotty/Seth Brown platoon. Piscotty wasn’t viable in any format while Brown has 12 HR and 2 SB but just a .199 AVG, so I can’t imagine he was being used in anything but AL-Only leagues. Speaking of AL-Only leagues, Marte is a total game-changer in those formats.

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Jeff Zimmerman and I will be covering the fantasy relevant deals this week, highlighting the winners and losers and pointing out the actionable items for you in your leagues.

HOU gets: RP Kendall Graveman, RP Rafael Montero

SEA gets: IF Abraham Toro, RP Joe Smith

On the heels of an amazing comeback win, the optics of trading your closer to team you just beat aren’t great, but optics don’t win games and this move makes a lot of sense. The Mariners have a 6% chance to make the playoffs, sitting behind Houston and Oakland, both of whom are unquestionably better than them at this moment. Keeping a 30-year-old free-agent-to-be with 33 good innings make absolutely no sense. Just because it angered fans and even some players doesn’t mean it was wrong.

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7/27/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

PATREON

• Join our Patreon
• Game of the Week Watch Party: LAD at SF – Thursday at 2:45 PM Central

INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Adam Frazier to SD (1:19)
• Jared Walsh leaves game w/side (7:00)
• Taylor Rogers leaves game w/finger (10:00)
• Jake Fraley going on rehab Tuesday (16:47)
  • Jarred Kelenic outlook
• Huascar Ynoa starting rehab Tuesday (23:00)

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The trade deadline is this Friday and could be an absolute banger. It is shaping up to be a seller’s market with a very clear set of buyers and sellers and the latter having some legitimate players to move that could alter the playoff picture substantially. There is understandable excitement related to the players who will be moved, but I want to focus on the holes their departures will open as that can often create some interesting buying opportunities for us in the fantasy realm, often at a discounted price, too. Here are six hitters who could deliver some fantasy upside if a spot opens for them.

Brendan Rodgers/Garrett Hampson | OF/2B, COL – Potential Trade: Trevor Story

Story has to get traded, right? RIGHT?! I would say the Rockies can’t possibly botch it, but we know that’s not true. They’ve shown time and again that they are capable of botching anything. His departure would likely change the fate of two guys (assuming they don’t get a shortstop back in return) as the 2B platoon of Rodgers and Hampson could both become full-timers.

Both are markedly better against lefties, but the extra volume alone can sometimes be enough to drive value, especially for Rockies given their home park. Speaking of, they have a dead even 28-28 home-road split post deadline. Well, technically that’s not 100% true, but I’m thinking more about weekly leagues and standard Sunday pickups so starting next Monday it’s 28-28.

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7/23/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @PitcherList – Nick Pollack (Producer)

PATREON

• Join our Patreon

FIRESIDE

• Max Scherzer (1:30)
• José Berríos (10:18)
• Kyle Gibson (16:08)
• Jon Gray (24:20)
• Charlie Morton (30:20)

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7/22/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

PATREON

• Join our Patreon

INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Nick Castellanos microfracture in wrist (2:12)
• Alex Kirilloff wrist surgery (7:12)
• Chris Sale rehab update (14:02)
• Jake Rogers forearm injury (18:27)
  • Eric Haase increased PT (19:12)
• Josh Rojas dislocated pinkie (22:11)
• Josiah Gray debut (24:50)
• Vidal Bruján sent down (31:12)
• TB bullpen update (33:22)
  • Pete Fairbanks last 2 saves
  • Nick Anderson throws a BP
• Yermin Mercedes stepping away from baseball (37:01)

IN FOCUS

• Jonathan India (43:04)
• Cole Irvin (52:14)
• Jon Gray (1:01:00)

HOLD OR FOLD

• Chris Paddack (1:07:49)
• Emmanuel Clase (1:11:56)

FA PICKUP SUGGESTIONS

• Justin: David Bednar (1:15:35)
• Paul: Daulton Varsho (1:18:00)

—

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment below with fantasy questions.

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Approximately 81 minutes of joyous analysis.

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New SP rankings are live and we talked about ’em!

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It’s been too long since I’ve released an updated SP ranking here on the site. While I am updating them with regularity on our Patreon, I will make sure to have another couple of updates over the final 2+ months of the season here as well.

The blue bar represents the START of a new tier.

I generally don’t include IL’d guys, but I made an exception for Manoah because he should be back after essentially a minimum stay for a back contusion. He slipped in the dugout and hurt himself, but it looks like he could pitch this weekend or be in line for a 2-start next week.

I view these as 3-4 week rankings given the volatility of pitching and I think this second half will be among the most volatility with pitchers getting skipped and shut down for innings limits. I’m confident that Luis Garcia will be swapped with Cristian Javier in the Astros rotation, but it hasn’t happened yet and so we need to enjoy his excellence while we have it. Garcia’s true talent is probably Top 30, but the rug could be pulled out at any moment so I hedged a bit with his ranking.

The same goes for the Brewers studs, though at a higher level. If we didn’t have any inning concerns, they’d all slot a bit higher.

I’ll answer as many questions as I can in the comments so let me know what you think!

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