Author Archive: Paul Sporer

Paul’s weekly chat starts now!

Read the rest of this entry »

8/22/19

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.

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer
• @RotoGut – Guest Vlad Sedler

2020 Draft – 3 Rounds

Vlad, Justin, and Paul each take control of five “teams” and draft the first three rounds for them and discuss the thought process behind the 45 picks.

Draft Board

Read the rest of this entry »

Another Big Opening Day for Casty

Nicholas "Galaxy Brain" Castellanos has some … ~thoughts~ … on why everyday is Opening Day.

📰: https://t.co/KZt8nOLqFk
📹: @RickTarsitano pic.twitter.com/NKGxuWGYrX

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 22, 2019

Apparently, every day is Opening Day for the newest Cub Nicholas Castellanos and his “season” opens with a bang regularly as he’s been on fire since being traded over from Detroit. In just 19 games, he’s hitting a robust .392/.429/.785 with 8 HR (a full season pace of 69 nice homers), 12 RBI, and 17 R, quickly becoming a fan favorite in Wrigley. The 27-year old is still a negative defender, but he’s not worst-in-the-league level anymore making it easier to thrive on a NL team. He’s regaining his pre-2019 shine, so it’ll be interesting to see where he goes in 2020 drafts.

Read the rest of this entry »

8/21/19

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.

Follow us on Twitter

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

SPS ON FIRE SINCE THE BREAK:

• Ryan Yarbrough (1:40)
• Cal Quantrill (8:35)
• Zac Gallen (17:50)
• Chris Bassitt (28:00)

Read the rest of this entry »

German’s Home Run Troubles Continue

Domingo Germán came out of the break with six scoreless against Toronto, but has struggled mightily to keep the ball in the yard in his other seven starts. He’s allowed 14 HR in 39.3 innings (3.2 HR/9), including four straight multi-homer outings. The schedule hasn’t been friendly with starts against TB, MIN, BOSx2, and TOR (the baby Jays are 7th in HRs v. righties since the break) not to mention a trip to face the Dodgers on the docket later this week. German could be hitting a wall coming down the stretch of his first full MLB season as a starter. If you need the strikeouts, keep him in the lineup, but if you’re protecting ratios, consider sitting him in these more difficult matchups.

Read the rest of this entry »

As we slog through the dog days and try to ignore the siren call of fantasy baseball, you might be locked in the bubble of your fantasy team(s) and missing some interesting performances going on lately. Have you noticed that…

• Kyle Seager is on fire, hitting 357/.419/.786 with 10 HR, 21 RBI, and 18 R since July 22nd.

Seager’s down 2018 carried over into 2019 when he started the season on the IL and then hit just .186/.260/.331 through 46 games before this recent run. His bottom line (108 wRC+) now looks a lot like the steady Eddie he was before last year and while he likely won’t remain this hot, he should continue to be a useful 3B or CI option.

Read the rest of this entry »

Transcript is below!

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently did a solo pod covering my top 30 and I made some mistakes. I didn’t include Madison Bumgarner in the honorable mentions and I forgot to transfer Jose Berrios from the scrap list to the main one I used on the pod (that’s what I get for using two different files). I decided to do a write up and get a bit deeper on the ranking. There are a lot of changes! If you listened to the pod, have fun finding all the differences.

Obviously, they are going to change even more as the season finishes and we get into the offseason, but I was somewhat surprised at how much I changed things over the course of two days just by doing some deeper research. Maybe that’s not surprising at all… of course more research should influence my thoughts on these guys. Anyway, let’s get into it!

Let me know what you think in the comments. There are 52 names listed with the Honorable Mentions (and yes, the HMs are ranked, unlike on the pod), did I miss anyone that has to be within the top 52? As for ranking disagreements, I’m particularly interested in the sharper disagreements (like 7-10 spots). Flipping #22 and #25 is more a personal preference but thinking #30 should be at #19 or something like that is worth some discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »

8/14/19

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.

Follow us on Twitter

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

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Jameson Taillon has TJ
• Jake Arrieta (elbow) hits the IL; toast for ‘19
• Robbie Ray (back) removed from start 
• Sean Manaea back after one more AAA start
• Alex Dickerson (oblique) activated
• Jeff McNeil (hamstring) hits the IL
• Avisail Garcia (oblique) hits the IL
• Yoan Moncada on rehab
• Gerrit Cole (groin) scratched, feeling better
• Max Scherzer (back) ready to return
• Fernando Tatis Jr. (back) aiming for Fri. return
• Carlos Carrasco (cancer) facing live batters

Read the rest of this entry »

8/13/19

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.

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host

TOP 30 SPs

I didn’t do individual player timestamps because I didn’t want to spoil the list!

• Just Missed (1:00-24:39)
• 30-21 (24:40-40:40)
• 20-11 (40:41-53:43)
• Top 10 (53:44-1:09:35)

Please let me know if there was someone I didn’t mention that you consider worthy or if just your general thoughts on where someone is slotted, particularly if you have him markedly higher or lower than I do.

Read the rest of this entry »