Author Archive: Paul Sporer

The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 705 – Struggling Star Hitters

6/17/19

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 me on Twitter

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

Read the rest of this entry »

01:03:24

Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – June 14th, 2019

Transcript is live now!!

12:20

Paul Sporer: Gooood afternoon everyone, let’s talk some baseball!!!

12:21

Chuck: Paul, is Chance Sisco good now? Is he worth taking a chance on in a categories H2H over Alfaro?

12:22

Paul Sporer: Sisco might actually be panning out a bit??? I think I might stick with Alfaro, though, tbh

12:22

Joe: I need to cut one: Carpenter or Donaldson?

12:23

Paul Sporer: Ugh, that’s tough. I guess Donaldson

12:23

NOT MACKEL: Is it time to drop Joey Votto? I’ve playing for a couple weeks without a catcher, 12 team h2h.

Read the rest of this entry »


The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 704 – Position Player Check-Ins

6/13/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

PLAYER RATER CHECK-INS

Read the rest of this entry »

01:53:38

Where Pitching Has Come From

The general assessment of the 2019 season thus far is that pitching studs have disappointed while a throng of underrated arms have come to save the day. But is that true? We know the likes of Noah Syndergaard and Aaron Nola have fallen well short of expectations and gems like Mike Soroka and Matthew Boyd have picked up the slack. What does the whole picture look like, though?

I used the NFBC average draft position for the Main Event as a starting point and then compared that to where the pitchers are in our Auction Calculator.

THE TOP 20 DRAFTED

Let’s start with the studs. Guess how many of the top 20 drafted starters are still there thus far according to the Auction Calculator?

Ready?

Read the rest of this entry »


The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 703 – Examining Sputtering Starters

6/11/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

Read the rest of this entry »

01:12:48

Useful Hitters on Bad Teams

While I’d love to pepper my offense with Twins, Astros, Dodgers, and Brewers, the guys from the best offenses are hard to acquire, whether at the draft table or once an offense takes off in-season. The dregs of the league are still going to play 162 games, though, and not every poor team is down in the standings because of their offense so there are gems to be found.

I wanted to highlight someone from each of the poor teams (at least a couple games below .500) and see if they are someone you might want to roster the rest of the way. Oakland, New York (N), St. Louis, and San Diego weren’t included because I don’t see them in line with the rest of these poor teams.

Hanser Alberto, BAL | 2B/3B

Alberto is hitting .384/.408/.493 over his last 18 games with 1 HR and 3 SB. He has nine multi-hit games and he has batted leadoff in 12 of his 17 starts. Batting average will drive this profile with a few homers and steals, but I like that he’s atop the lineup.

Read the rest of this entry »


The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 702 – Fireside Chat: Prospect Arms

6/7/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

PROSPECT PITCHER ANALYSIS:

Read the rest of this entry »

00:36:59

Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – June 7th, 2019

Transcript is available!

12:09

Paul Sporer: Hello everyone, let’s talk some baseball on this glorious Friday afternoon!

12:10

hscer: good pod as usual. here’s a vote for not trading Ketel for Ramirez

12:10

Paul Sporer: Thanks! I love Ketel and I’m definitely worried about Ramirez

12:11

Jerry: Who’s the better IL stash: Severino, Glasnow, or Taillon?

12:11

Paul Sporer: I like them in the order you’ve listed

12:11

Christian: I’m running out of patience with Donaldson and Puig…any hopes they do better than this?

Read the rest of this entry »


The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 701 – Hitter Check-Ins and SP Disputes

6/6/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

HITTER CHECK-INS

Read the rest of this entry »

01:00:16

Five Big Fallers from My SP Rankings

I released my June rankings yesterday. Justin and I also discussed some of the biggest movers into the top 50 on the podcast. There are 40 pitchers who moved up or down at least 15 spots. I can’t cover all of them here today, that’d be like a 5000-word piece, but I do have some thoughts on the biggest fallers on the list. We start with a mea culpa, but I stand by the others!

Read the rest of this entry »