Episode 278

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris offer up their favorite 25-and-under potential keepers around the diamond. These are guys are likely attainable in your leagues, so no Bryce Harper or Jose Fernandez as they are simply cost-prohibitive at their level. These are like Xander Bogaerts, Maikel Franco, Kyle Schwarber, and Kolten Wong among many others.

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Here’s one you haven’t heard before: the baseball season is long. (Who knew?) One potential downside of the six-month grind is that it’s hard to follow everything. My work is baseball – watching it, writing and talking about it – and I still can’t possibly follow everything that is going on in this great game. It’s impossible to miss the historical seasons that Zack Greinke and Bryce Harper are having. Even a breakout season like A.J. Pollock’s is rather prominent. What I find getting lost in the shuffle at times are strong second halves that follow a down or injury-riddled first half.

The underperformance or injury sets the tone for the perception of that player’s season and it can carry throughout the season even in the face of high-end performance refuting the initial look we got at that player. Here are three strong second-half performances that you might be missing:

Travis d’Arnaud [C, NYM]

A solid second half last year plus the rich prospect pedigree of this former first-rounder was enough to make him one of the more appealing C2 options this year sitting 13th among backstops by ADP according to FantasyPros. He came out of the gates firing with a .317/.356/.537 line including 2 HR and 10 RBI in his first 11 games before a fractured right finger sent him to the DL.

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Episode 277

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

IF YOU DOWNLOADED BEFORE 5:40 CENTRAL TIME ON 9/15, PLEASE RE-DOWNLOAD THE NEW, FULL VERSION.

THE PREVIOUS VERSION CUTS OFF AT 5-6 MINUTES. 

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss some possible options for late-season streaming to acquire HRs, SBs, and Ks. Names include Mark Canha, Khris Davis, Jonathan Schoop, Carl Crawford, Jean Segura, Raisel Iglesias, and Taylor Jungmann plus many more.

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Remember April?

How crazy was that month? It seems like ages ago at this point.

It was a month during which Chris Sale had a remarkably misleading 5.32 ERA. Sale was at 2.37 through the first three starts of the season’s opening month before the Twins rocked him for 8 ER in just 3 IP of work. That seemed especially preposterous at the time given the opposition, but now the Twins sit just a game out of the second wildcard spot and while it’s always jarring to see Sale rocked, the Twins being the ones who inflicted the damage isn’t as much of a shock as they’ve now done it multiple times to Sale.

There were also several guys pitching out of their minds in April and as we do in every April likely as a response to a winter without baseball, we got overly excited about some of the performances because they were all we had on the 2015 season. Sure, some guys post a mid-2.00s ERA in April and it’s a harbinger of a Cy Young-level season, but most are just having their best month – a month we wouldn’t notice if it had been June or August.

April gets us drunk on the potential of five more months at this new level. Today, we’re going to look back at five surprise pitching standouts from the month and see how things have gone since the fast start.

Nick Martinez, TEX

April: 0.35 ERA in 26 IP

Since: 5.08 ERA in 95.7 IP

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Episode 276

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette enjoy a Sunday freestyle, touring the day’s slate and discussing what interests them.

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Episode 275

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris try to identify some favorable and unfavorable schedules down the stretch for pitchers you may be streaming from reserve to starting lineup or directly from the waiver wire. Is it time to pick up some of the favorable? Maybe you have one of the unfavorables and it’s time to cut him. We discuss in detail.

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I hope you got your stolen bases in the draft this year. Like saves, stolen bases is often the category that a few teams will leave for in-season management. The ability for one player to make a substantial impact combined with the likely availability of new SB sources throughout the year allows you to allocate the draft day resources elsewhere and adjust via trades or the waiver wire. Sometimes 30-HR guys emerge out of nowhere like Lucas Duda and J.D. Martinez last year (and Martinez was actually just a 30-HR pace, hitting 23 in 123 games), but it’s very rare whereas the wire seems to deliver at least a couple of speed studs each year.

Not in 2015.

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Episode 274

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris talk about Josh Tomlin, Rick Porcello, Drew Smyly, J.A. Happ, Ian Kennedy, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Corey Seager before getting into their topic of the day: top 10 SPs for 2016. Any glaring omissions from either top 10? Feel free to put your top 10 in the comments.

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Episode 273

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris talk Corey Seager, Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Conforto, Didi Gregorius, and Jay Bruce. The main topic centers around IP limits for young starters and we find out how Eno is handling: Noah Syndergaard, Raisel Iglesias, Carlos Martinez, Lance McCullers, Taijuan Walker, Joe Ross, and Luis Severino

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Continuing from yesterday, here are updates on key young arms facing potential innings limits in September.