Author Archive: Paul Sporer

8/13/17

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 (4:20)

• How has Aaron Nola run off a 1.71 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and 78 Ks in 68.3 IP over his L10 starts?

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8/10/17

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!

Special thanks to Chris Welsh from InThisLeague.com for editing the episode!

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• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette

Leading Off: Question of the Day

• What’s your favorite nickname for Player’s Weekend?

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Chat transcript is below!

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We’re in the dog days of the season now. Every little edge you can get with a player can be a major difference. You have to manage to your standings, not just the most talented players. It’d be great to find another Tommy Pham or Chris Taylor, but there is plenty of luck involved with something like that. Instead, let’s find some skilled players who could help us in a category or two and maybe it’ll all come together for a two month stretch of their peak which has them playing like one of those out-of-nowhere superstars.

Marcus Semien (OAK, SS)

Semien has been a solid power-speed shortstop the last couple seasons, especially if you can plan around his poor batting average (averaged 21 HR, 10 SB, .247 AVG in 2015-16). He hasn’t had a real shot to improve upon those numbers this year as a bruised wrist popped up in mid-April and left him sidelined for 74 games. He’s been back since early-July and after ramping up over a few games, he has really heated up over his last 20: .306/.366/.459, 3 HR, 2 SB in 93 PA. He’s making great contact during the run with a tiny 6% soft contact rate and keeping the strikeout rate palatable at 21% (compared to 24% for his career). A shortstop with guaranteed playing time and diverse fantasy skills could be a beast for extended stretches. In June and July of last year, he only hit .238 but popped 12 HR with 7 SB.

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8/9/17

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!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette

Strategy Section: Breakout Hitters

• Aaron Judge (4:00)
• Andrelton Simmons (13:34)
• Marwin Gonzalez (18:20)
• Michael Conforto (25:50)
• Marcell Ozuna (28:15)

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It’s been a big year for hitting without a doubt, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen some great pitchers emerge. Guys like James Paxton, Alex Wood, and Luis Severino are winning leagues for people, but there are also plenty of intriguing arms who aren’t necessarily toting gaudy bottom line results. However, their skills and stuff set them up to be next year’s version of those guys and they are the ones you can buy now for a big 2018 payoff. We’ll span league depth with a couple deep league considerations, too.

Danny Salazar | Indians

Danny Salazar has been peak Salazar since his return from the DL and I’m pretty excited about his prospects down the stretch and beyond. He’s allowed just three runs in 20 innings since returning, with 28 strikeouts, five walks, and eight hits! We talked about him on the podcast right around his return, I wrote up his first and second starts in the Roto Riteup, and then Eno wrote up his new approach. We saw what he can do in 2015 with a 3.45 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 195 strikeouts in 185 innings. Since then, his walk rate has spiked to 11% and he’s been DL’d with both elbow and shoulder injuries, but he’s still just 27 with top-flight skills.

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I’m filling in on the BR from the road at Saberseminar so no chart today, but here’s a look at the relevant bullpen news from Friday’s slate:

• Bruce Rondon notched his first save of the year for the Tigers, but that was because Shane Greene had saved three straight and wasn’t available.
• Blake Treinen blew another save for Oakland, his third since joining the team on July 17th. The blown saves are the only runs he’s allowed (one of which was unearned) in 10 appearances with the A’s (1.74 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 11 K, 3 BB in 10.3 IP).
• Bud Norris notched his second straight clean save for the Angels in that game that Treinen blew. Norris allowed 8 ER in 1.3 IP over three appearances before the two saves.

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We are in the dog days of the season now. Some of you have already transitioned to fantasy football (how dare you!), some of you are trying your best to stay engaged, but summer activities are tough to ignore, and then the rest of you are fully engaged – meticulously staying abreast of every bullpen change, every lineup move, and prospect call-up. I want to take a quick look at eight interesting starters and even those of you in the latter group hopefully garner something useful about these intriguing names.

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8/2/17

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!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer
• @enosarris
• @jasoncollette

Leading Off: Question of the Day (5:00)

• Favorite prospect the rest of the way: Amed Rosario, Ozzie Albies, or Rafael Devers 

Notable Transactions/Rumors/Articles/Game Play 

• Yu Darvish to LAD (14:09)
• Sonny Gray to NYY (19:59)

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You’re all familiar with pros and cons lists. Today’s subject is pitcher German Marquez from the Colorado Rockies. The 22-year old righty has had an impressive rookie campaign spurred by a two-month hot stretch that is ongoing. He was a top 100 prospect across the industry this year, charting 52nd on Eric Longenhagen’s list, but didn’t get much buzz because of his home ballpark. His quality pitching and the success of Colorado have forced us to take notice.

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