Episode 223

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the injury news related to Jed Lowrie, Albert Pujols, Alcides Escobar, Archie Bradley, Anthony Rendon, Mat Latos, and Phil Hughes. They also touch on the call-ups of Tim Cooney and Jack Leathersich (and how it relates to Rafael Montero, who ended up getting hurt during his spot start on Tuesday). And finally they look at some recent performances from Ryan Braun, Denard Span, Hanley Ramirez, Shane Greene, Drew Hutchison, Dallas Keuchel, Mike Pelfrey, and Ubaldo Jimenez.

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We haven’t finished April yet and injuries are already taking their toll on a lot of teams. I’m talking “real” teams in this instance, but that of course trickles down to our fantasy clubs so we’re also left looking for replacements for the likes of Adam Wainwright, Brandon McCarthy, and now Masahiro Tanaka (although this will be focused on NL arms, so you’ll have to be in a mixer to use one of these as a replacement for Tanaka).

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Episode 222

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss news related to recent injuries, call-ups, big performers, and of course bullpen shakeups.

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Episode 221

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss injury news related to Ian Kennedy, Dexter Fowler, Joe Nathan, and Shane Victorino. They also investigate the findings of Scott Spratt regarding early-season defense and then discuss 10 guys who are struggling majorly early and get a read on whether or not they’re ready to make a move in response to the slow start.

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Jonathan Lucroy, Yan Gomes, and Travis D’Arnaud all recently hit the disabled list. John Jaso was on the DL after just one plate appearance! Matt Wieters started the season on the DL and it seemed like Devin Mesoraco was headed there soon until a recent PH appearance. He hasn’t started a game since April 11th and he missed seven games in between PH appearances on the 12th and 21st. That is four of the top 10 drafted catchers, another within the top 15, and one of the most popular second catcher options in Jaso as he stood to get a ton of playing time as a non-catching catcher.

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Episode 220

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the rash of catcher injuries while offering up some potential replacements and also talk about the two hot new call-ups: Addison Russell and Carlos Rodon

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The new high-strikeout, pitching-focused environment has changed the game in many ways, but one of the more significant ways is the rising value of middle relievers. For years I used to roster 2-3 middle relievers in an AL- or NL-only league to supplement my staff instead going with the fourth- or fifth-starter from some middling team. The linked article was done in 2011 when it was still kind of a niche strategy that maybe a couple of teams could pull off. There wasn’t the overwhelming volume of viable relievers that we see now with gaudy strikeout rates and microscopic ratios.

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Episode 219

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss a bunch of different players with no real unifying theme this time around: Nelson Cruz, Danny Salazar, Brandon McCarthy, Chris Carter, Steven Souza, Carlo Rodon, and Alex Rodriguez as well as several other guys currently battling injuries.

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Episode 218

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss the news surrounding Yasmany Tomas, Danny Salazar, Carlos Gomez, Adam Ottavino, and Mark Melancon. And then they dive into some hitters of note and discuss whether or not they have changed their tune on them based on the early start.

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This is a tough time of the year for fantasy baseball analysts. We’re not even at the end of week two meaning that in most cases the sample sizes are still too small to really be useful. The downside of this is that the fantasy analysis can become lazy as we wait for more data. Too often you see the vague, unhelpful “sell high” tag attached to any mid-rounder who is off to a high start or “buy low” on the star who has two rotten starts on his ledger thus far. But what does that even really mean? It’s so easy to say and so hard to actually execute.

Nobody who spent a top 20 pick on Stephen Strasburg (6.75 ERA in 10.7 IP) is going to move him for Nick Martinez (0.00 ERA in 14 IP). In fact, they probably aren’t going to move him at all (nor should they). You know what’s easy? Me telling you to go sell high on Chris Heston. But it’s also generic and frankly, shitty advice because it offers no insight into what selling high might be, especially because I know full well that unless Teresa Heston (that Chris’ mom, I looked it up) is in your league, you can’t really cash him in for some great return. The rest of your league is just as skeptical about his dubious 0.69 ERA as you are right now.

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