Author Archive

The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 735 – 2020 Too Early Mock Analysis

9/9/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 735 – Two-Starts and Platoons for Next Week

9/6/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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Paul runs through the scheduled two-start pitchers and righty/lefty schedule splits of each team for next week highlighting who to start and potential platoon bats who could benefit.

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Streaming Starters: September 7th, 2019

Down the stretch, we’ll be covering the probable starters and highlighting our favorites to stream as you chase down your fantasy titles. The pitcher in question must be available in 50% or more of leagues according to FantasyPros.com which combines ESPN and Yahoo! roster rates (sometimes exceptions just over 50% will be mentioned if they are really good and should have a much higher roster rate).

I’m listing them in order of interest.

SCOOP ‘EM

Chris Bassitt (9-5, 3.67) v. DET | 46%: Bassitt might still be out on Paternity Leave, but I’m seeing he’s slated to start after getting pushed from Thursday, so I stuck with writing him up. He’s had a really strong season and been particularly good since the break with a 2.75 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 52.3 IP. His ERA could be two runs higher and I’d still recommend him against the Tigers. Go pick him up before even finishing this article!

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Top 25 Catchers for 2020

It was a weird year at catcher. We came in acknowledging the incredible lack of depth with 4-5 reliable options and then just an unmitigated mess. It’s turned out to be rather deep, just with a group we could’ve never predicted. Those top 4 (and 5 if you include Ramos) have delivered and will remain atop the ranks heading into the 2020, but it again becomes a wide open pool ripe for debates after that.

Other 2020 Rankings:

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 734 – 2019 Falloffs in 2020

9/4/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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2019 FALLOFFS

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Streaming Starters: September 4th, 2019

Down the stretch, we’ll be covering the probable starters and highlighting our favorites to stream as you chase down your fantasy titles. Let’s get started with Wednesday’s slate. The pitcher in question must be available in 50% or more of leagues according to FantasyPros.com which combines ESPN and Yahoo! roster rates (sometimes exceptions just over 50% will be mentioned if they are really good and should have a much higher roster rate).

Edwin Jackson (3-8, 9.35 ERA) at KC | 0%: No, of course not.

Jakob Junis (8-12, 4.93) v. DET | 17% roster rate: Just about anyone facing the Tigers is going to be a “yes”. While Junis has a near-5.00 ERA on the season, he’s down at a passable 3.96 over the last 10 games with 59 strikeouts, 17% K-BB, and 1.26 WHIP in 61.3 innings. He hasn’t allowed more than 4 ER in any of those starts, including a 6 IP/2 ER/6 K gem against these Tigers back on August 11th.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 733 – Fireside Chat: Playing the Schedule

8/30/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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Paul and Nick review PitcherList’s excellent rest of season schedule list for starting pitchers identifying teams with good/bad schedules before highlighting some specific pitchers who could rise or fall based on their remaining schedule.

Check out the list here!

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Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – August 30th, 2019

Transcript is below! Thanks for coming out!

12:14

Paul Sporer: Good afternoon! Welcome to my weekly chat, let’s roll!

12:15

Jeff: H2H Pts League where Playoffs are 3 weeks, total score wins (can change lineup weekly) – any advice on strategy here or just keep doing what I’ve been doing all season?

12:16

Paul Sporer: Maybe dial up how much you play the schedules. If there are some 7-games v. 5-gamers, maybe player a less talented 7-gamer over a 5-gamer… within reason. Not like sitting Bregman for Leury Garcia or some shit.

12:17

Chas: Paul, do you find Taylor Swift’s “Lover” a nice return to form after her ostentatious hard-edge turn in “Reputation?”

12:17

Paul Sporer: She puts out some bops, but overall I’m pretty meh on her

12:17

seth r: traded cheap hiura for unkeepable blackmon, mallex, hendricks, and fowler–flags fly forever right?

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Assessing the New Offensive Environment

We’ve spent a lot of virtual column inches, podcast minutes, and tweets discussing the new reality of offense in baseball. Call it the rabbit ball, super happy fun ball, or bouncy ball, whatever you want, but we know that the current structure of the league’s baseballs has fueled an explosion. It’s not the ball alone, players are more in tune with their swings and more of them are understanding the importance of putting the ball in the air to maximize power output.

A quick scan of your own team likely gives you an idea of how different this environment is as many player lines look complete already and we still have a month left. But where exactly are we in relation to previous seasons? Let’s take a look:

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 732 – 2019 Breakouts for 2020

8/28/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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NEWS

2019 SURPRISING BREAKOUTS IN 2020

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