Author Archive: Paul Sporer

8/27/21

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

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INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Rhys Hoskins out for the year (1:16)
  • Connor Joe, Jeimer Candelario replacements (5:20)
• Gavin Lux optioned to AAA (10:18)
• Chris Sale & Carlos Carrasco dominate (16:40)

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The blue bar represents the START of a new tier.

I generally don’t include IL’d guys. It’s especially precarious this late when guys could just be shutdown if they are on bad teams.

I view these as 2-3 week rankings given the volatility of pitching so I will include at least 1 and probably 2 more updates on the site before season’s end, but I am updating them regularly on our Patreon.

FYI: instead of updating the rankings in September, I started the Daily SP Chart.

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A day late, but still great!

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Cleveland has become something of a starting pitcher factory. It really started with the emergence of Corey Kluber and reclamation of Carlos Carrasco in 2014 and has continued through this year despite a bevy of injuries. Their best starters – Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale – have spent months on the IL and derailed Cleveland’s season, but there has been plenty of opportunity for the likes of Triston McKenzie, Cal Quantrill, and Eli Morgan, showing that Cleveland is likely to remain a pitching force for years to come. I want to focus on McKenzie today.

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8/23/21

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

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

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INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Edward Cabrera to debut Wednesday (3:35)
• Pablo López on rehab (7:44)
• José Urquidy on rehab (9:36)
• Aaron Civale on rehab (13:43)

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8/20/21

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

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

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INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Byron Buxton starts rehab Friday (1:08)
• Freddy Peralta to IL (3:22)
• Chris Bassitt to IL after hit by batted ball (8:00)
• Nick Senzel returned to MLB IL (11:55)

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At this point in the year, full season lines are heavily influenced by how a player started. That first month-to-6 weeks can hold a player down or prop them up for quite a while. Here are 10 players who have surged or fallen from their early season work. And yes, I grant that some of y’all have probably noticed a few of these and if that’s the case, just exclude yourself from the headline and roast the dweebs who aren’t as cool as us.

Yes… that’s right. As cool as us.

PITCHING

Kenta Maeda has a 2.98 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in his last eight starts since July 1st. In that time, he has a 31% K rate and 6% BB rate across 45.3 IP. In his first 12 starts, he had a 5.56 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, 21% K, and 8% BB in 56.7 IP.

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Transcript is now available!

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8/17/21

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

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

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INJURIES/TRANSACTION NEWS

• Fernando Tatis Jr. returns w/2 HR (1:19)
• Nick Senzel activated… and sent to AAA/Jose Barrero called up (7:12)
• Joe Ross done for the year (16:07)
• Yasmani Grandal moved to Triple-A rehab (16:50)

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We are only a month into the “second half” but we are already seeing some pitchers turn their season around. I put it in quotes because it’s obviously not a pure 81/81 game split, but rather the halves are determined by the All-Star break. I’m sure some players use the time off to dig into their numbers and come up with a gameplan to improve while others likely just relax and enjoy the breather. These three arms have been markedly better since July and I wanted to investigate what changed to bring about these turnarounds.

Marco Gonzales, SEA

1H: 5.88 ERA/1.46 WHIP in 56.7 IP | 2H: 1.67 ERA/0.90 WHIP in 32.3 IP

While few fully believed Gonzales’s 2020 (3.10 ERA/0.95 WHIP) since it was just two months, he was still drafted for useful ratios over a good number of innings. At no point in the first half was his ERA below 5.00 and his 2.4 HR/9 was seeing him hit more waiver wires with each passing week. He opened the second half with a trip to Colorado which was sure to be a disaster given how his season was going to that point… so of course he put up a 5 IP/2 ER outing, notching his second win of the year.

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