Author Archive

Schedule Beneficiaries by Handedness of Available SPs

We’ll be writing each day up again like last week, but here’s a quick primer on the pitching slate next week for possibly available arms.

*all stats cited for the 2nd half unless otherwise noted

Lefty

Tyler Anderson v. MIA – It is in Coors, but MIA has the 4th-worst wOBA v. lefties (.304) in the second half thanks to just a .126 ISO.

Brent Suter v. CIN – CIN has the 26th wOBA v. lefties (.305).

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Low-Ownership Starters for Sunday (9/24)

Continuing our series of looking at widely available starters who might be worth a stream down the stretch, here is a look at Sunday. Tough slate with a general lack of really intriguing arms and then some of the ones who are appealing have to face very difficult matchups. These are ranked in order of how much I like them:

Luiz Gohara, ATL (4%) v. PHI (Pivetta)

He walked four in four during his MLB debut, but he’s been walk-free in his last two starts – both against Washington – allowing five earned in 12.3 IP with 10 K. Facing Texas and then Washington twice to open your MLB career is brutal, so this will be his best matchup by far. The Phillies are 27th in wOBA against lefties with a .308 mark. You might want to hang onto him for next week at Miami if this goes well.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 498 – Hernandez is Wile E. Coyote

9/22/17

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 18, 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 SLEEPER18!

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Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play

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Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – September 22, 2017

Chat transcript is below!

1:39
Paul Sporer: It’s chat tiiiiimmmeee!!! I can’t believe the regular season is almost over 🙁

1:39
Eric: For next year: Olson or Hoskins and how close is it?

1:40
Paul Sporer: Hoskins, but it is close. I just prefer Hoskins w/the much better K%. Olson will struggle to hit .263 in a full season at a 28% K rate

1:40
Guest: Will Dahl play next year and if so, will he be any good?  Or is he just never going to be able to stay healthy?

1:41
Paul Sporer: I mean, I certainly *think* he’ll play next year, but I don’t know for sure. I expect him to be a solid OF when healthy

1:41
weezy: When starting a league, what’s your keeper format philosophy? Increase in cost/draft round per year? # of keepers? And is snake or auction a preferred format?

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Hot Hands Who Might Be Available

I wrote up 10 bats for the stretch run just five days ago and there is admittedly some overlap here as I go position-by-position and highlight another group of hitters you may want to add, but it’s minimal (only one is completely re-recommended, the others are essentially reminders in case they’re still available). Given that we are so short-term focused at this point, I thought even five days was enough to mention them again as they continue to standout atop the leaderboards of the last month or so.

CATCHER

Christian Vazquez, Boston Red Sox

.392/.431/.598, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 20 R, 3 SB in 109 PA over Last 30 Days (all samples will be over L30 days unless otherwise stated)

Vazquez is smacking both righties and lefties during this run, but the power comes against righties (.214 ISO). He’s hitting so well that the Sox put him at DH in a recent game to keep his bat in while getting Sandy Leon a start. Vazquez has five multi-hit games in his last seven starts (spans eight games, but one was a PH appearance).

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Low-Ownership Starters for Wednesday (9/20)

I’m continuing Jeff’s series of looking at widely available starters who might be worth a stream in the final days of the season. I think Jeff was using a 10% or lower threshold, but I bumped it to 20% for one guy because I think he’ll still be out there in a ton of leagues and worth a scoop. These are ranked in order of how much I like them, but I’ll have a concise ranking at the bottom that shows the drop offs in confidence:

Tyler Chatwood, COL (18%) at SF (Moore)

Chatwood on the road has been one of the more bankable streamers for the last two seasons. Last year, he posted a nice 1.69 ERA in 80 IP away from Coors, in spite of a meager 1.7 K/BB ratio. He’s up to 3.41 in 71.3 IP this year while actually lowering his K/BB down to 1.5. He has a career 1.67 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 3.0 K/BB ratio at AT&T Park over 43 IP, including just 1 ER in 22 IP there since the start of last year.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 497 – He Plouffed It!

9/17/17

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 18, 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 SLEEPER18!

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Leading Off: Question of the Day

  • What are your thoughts on Matt Olson in 2018? (3:25)

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10 Hitters for the Stretch Run

Jeff Zimmerman has been doing a fantastic job of looking at potential streaming pitchers down the stretch so I figured I’d take a look at some hitters who may be available for the last couple of weeks in your league. I’ll start with a group of speedsters and then look at some guys hitting for power and/or batting average of late.

Jose Reyes (46% at Yahoo!)

Reyes has a .299/.366/.505 line since July 1st with 7 HR and 11 SB and he’s been surging of late with 4 HR and 5 SB in September. He only has three hitless games in his last 20 dating back to August 13th (only 20 games because of a mid-August DL stint). He’s going to play every day and can move around your lineup with SS/3B eligibility and 2B at many outlets.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 496 – Mike Zunino: Batting Champion!

9/14/17

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 18, 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 SLEEPER18!

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Leading Off: Question of the Day

  • Shohei Ohtani is coming! Where’s he going & how good?

Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play

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Second Half Hitting Standouts

I honestly can’t believe how close we are to the end of the regular season. This is a great time of the year without question, especially if you happen to like football a bit in addition to baseball. You have the playoff races, hopefully some fantasy chases, the start of football, and the transition to Fall. Oh, and then my birthday on October 24th, don’t forget please! Today, I wanted to look at some interesting second half performances that might’ve slipped your radar for any number of reasons.

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