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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 305 – Arsenal Scores, Revisiting OF Ranks

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February 3, 2016

2/3/16

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

Follow us on Twitter

Notable Transactions/Rumors/Our Columns

Strategy Section

We have a new email address for questions: sleeperpod@gmail.com. Send your fantasy-relevant questions. You can send keeper questions, but those are much better for Twitter. Questions most likely to get selected are those that apply more broadly, as opposed to specific trade or keeper queries. However, if you do ask a league-specific question, please include the league size and categories.

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Innings Limit Tracker

by
February 2, 2016

This is our new Innings Limit Tracker. This covers young pitchers (age-25 season or under) who could face an innings limit this year. If you think someone should be on the list, please let me know in the comments. Also if you see a source confirming someone’s inning limit one way or the other, please let me know!

I’ll be updating this throughout the season, especially as prospects with potential IP limits come up and start making an impact.

The chart shows how old the player will be for 2016, his 2015 innings breakdown, how many innings he’d have with a 20% increase of his 2015 count, his IP limit status assuming we know something, and then the source.

(This will show up in the sidebar under Draft Tools.)

(And it’s sortable in case you’re wondering!)

IP Limit Tracker
PITCHER AGE MLB* MiLB TOT +20% IP LIMIT? SOURCE
Noah Syndergaard 23 169 29.7 198.7 238 No MLB.com
Aaron Nola 23 77.7 109.3 187 224
Henry Owens 23 63 122.3 185.3 222
Jerad Eickhoff 25 51 133.3 184.3 221
Andrew Heaney 25 105.7 78.3 184 221
Carlos Martinez 24 179.7 0 179.7 216
Matt Wisler 23 109 65 174 209
Adam Conley 26 67 107 174 209
Eduardo Rodriguez 23 121.7 48.3 170 204
Taijuan Walker 23 169.7 0 169.7 204  No  MLB.com
Lance McCullers 22 132 32 164 197 Yes Twitter
Luis Severino 22 62.3 99.3 161.6 194 Kinda… MLB.com
John Lamb 25 49.7 111.3 161 193
Steven Matz 25 50.4 105.3 155.7 187
Jon Gray 24 40.7 114.3 155 186 No Twitter
Joe Ross 23 76.7 76 152.7 183
Daniel Norris 23 60 90.7 150.7 181
Carlos Rodon 23 139.3 10 149.3 179
Kevin Gausman 25 112.3 22.3 134.6 162
Nick Tropeano 25 37.7 95 132.7 159
Raisel Iglesias 26 95.3 29 124.3 149
A.J. Cole 24 9.3 105.7 115 138
Aaron Sanchez 23 99.6 9.7 109.3 131  Yes  Twitter
Brandon Finnegan 23 48 57.3 105.3 126
Brian Johnson 25 4.3 96 100.3 120
Jesse Hahn 26 96.7 0 96.7 116
Jose Fernandez 23 64.7 24.7 89.4 107 Yes MLB.com
Archie Bradley 23 35.7 29.3 65 78
Marcus Stroman 25 46.3 7.7 54 65
*including playoffs

10 AL/NL-Only League Platoons for 2016

by
February 2, 2016

August Fagerstrom did a fantastic piece of the most promising platoons for the upcoming season. They were focused on WAR which of course includes defensive value and that doesn’t really do us any good. August kindly included a wRC+ column in the piece so we can isolate the offense and pick out the best platoons for fantasy purposes. These are best deployed in a deep league (ideally an AL/NL-Only league) with daily transactions. They require diligence to pay off. The internet age has cut out or minimized a lot of the hustle advantages in fantasy baseball and this is still one of them.

These are my 10 favorite platoons for the upcoming season. Note that these are my favorites so in some instances I expect them to do better than their projected wRC+ so this isn’t just a list of the 10 best projected wRC+ totals.

TAMPA BAY RAYS OF: Corey Dickerson v. RH, Steve Pearce v. LH [124 wRC+]

This one just so happened rank highest on August’s list by wRC+ (his calculation was 67% for the v. RH player and 33% for the v. LH player). Dickerson has owned righties in his career with a .934 OPS in 728 PA, though a lot of that is no doubt influenced by Coors Field (1.085/.695 home/road split). There will be a piece later this week by new writer Justin Mason on Dickerson that outlines why I’m not afraid of him outside of Coors.

Pearce didn’t do his normal work vs. lefties last year (just .623 OPS in 124 PA), but he has a career .824 OPS against them. He only comes into the season with OF/1B eligibility, but he played 18 games at 2B and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rays gave him some time there. He hasn’t been terrible against righties lately, either. In fact, he was flat out good in 2014 (.856, 12 HR) and while it dropped to .765 in 2015, he still hit 11 HR. Both of these guys could end up as full-time plays ,but if they happen to struggle against same-handed pitchers, they’re a perfect platoon.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 304 – Jean Segura Trade, 3B Ranks

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February 1, 2016

1/31/16

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

Follow us on Twitter

Notable Transactions/Rumors

Strategy Section

We have a new email address for questions: sleeperpod@gmail.com. Send your fantasy-relevant questions. You can send keeper questions, but those are much better for Twitter. Questions most likely to get selected are those that apply more broadly, as opposed to specific trade or keeper queries. However, if you do ask a league-specific question, please include the league size and categories.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode 303 – Corey Dickerson/Jake McGee Trade

by
January 29, 2016

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

Follow us on Twitter

Notable Transactions/Rumors

Strategy Section

We have a new email address for questions: sleeperpod@gmail.com. Send your fantasy-relevant questions. You can send keeper questions, but those are much better for Twitter. Questions most likely to get selected are those that apply more broadly, as opposed to specific trade or keeper queries. However, if you do ask a league-specific question, please include the league size and categories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Rotographs Rankings First Run – Relievers

by
January 29, 2016

Some of this is being repeated from the Primer piece that went up this morning. 

We’re bringing them to you earlier this year, but that also means that they’re far from set in stone so take that into consideration as you peruse them. There are still strong arms on the free agent market, let alone all the moving and shaking that happens once players start reporting to camp.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments.

We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?!

Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. Like I said, it’s early. Things are going to change.

The chart is sortable and by default it’s sorted by AVG. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1. That would be 61 for Alan and Paul K., 56 for Colin, 54 for Ben, and 51 for Brad. They are indicated in red on the chart.

Key:

  • AVG– just the average of the seven ranking sets
  • Adj. AVG– the average minus the high and low rankings
  • SPLIT– the difference between the high and low rankings

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Rotographs Rankings First Run – Third Basemen

by
January 28, 2016

Some of this is being repeated from the Primer piece that went up this morning. 

We’re bringing them to you earlier this year, but that also means that they’re far from set in stone so take that into consideration as you peruse them. There are still strong arms on the free agent market, let alone all the moving and shaking that happens once players start reporting to camp.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments.

We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?!

Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. Like I said, it’s early. Things are going to change.

The chart is sortable and by default it’s sorted by AVG. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1. That would be 47 for Zach, Dan, and Mike, 40 for Brad, and 48 for Paul K. They are indicated in red on the chart.

Read the rest of this entry »


The Sleeper and the Bust 01/27/2016 – First Base & Catcher Ranks

by
January 27, 2016

Episode 302

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live!

We have a new email address for questions: sleeperpod@gmail.com. Send your fantasy-relevant questions. You can send keeper questions, but those are much better for Twitter. Questions most likely to get selected are those that apply more broadly, as opposed to specific trade or keeper queries. However, if you do ask a league-specific question, please include the league size and categories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS


Rotographs Rankings First Run – Second Basemen

by
January 27, 2016

Some of this is being repeated from the Primer piece that went up this morning. 

We’re bringing them to you earlier this year, but that also means that they’re far from set in stone so take that into consideration as you peruse them. There are still strong arms on the free agent market, let alone all the moving and shaking that happens once players start reporting to camp.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments.

We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?!

Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. Like I said, it’s early. Things are going to change.

The chart is sortable and by default it’s sorted by AVG. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1. That would be 50 for Zach, 56 for Dan, 46 for Mike, 48 for Brad, and 46 for Paul K. Everyone in the top 50 was on the lists of Jeff and myself so we don’t have any +1s. They are indicated in red on the chart.

Key:

  • AVG– just the average of the seven ranking sets
  • Adj. AVG– the average minus the high and low rankings
  • SPLIT– the difference between the high and low rankings

Read the rest of this entry »


Rotographs Rankings First Run – Catchers

by
January 26, 2016

Some of this is being repeated from the Primer piece that went up this morning. 

We’re bringing them to you earlier this year, but that also means that they’re far from set in stone so take that into consideration as you peruse them. There are still strong arms on the free agent market, let alone all the moving and shaking that happens once players start reporting to camp.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments.

We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?!

Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. Like I said, it’s early. Things are going to change.

The chart is sortable and by default it’s sorted by AVG. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1. That would be 38 for Zach, 36 for Mike, 38 for Brad, 53 for me, and 46 for Paul K. Everyone in the top 50 (let’s be honest, we probably only needed a top 30 here) were on the lists of Jeff and Dan so they don’t have any +1s. They are indicated in red on the chart.

I was the only one to rank to Tom Murphy from Colorado and I slotted him 38th. Just wanted to mention that.

Read the rest of this entry »


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