Episode 202
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss some Spring Training injuries and then deep-dive into the AL and NL LABR auctions that took place this weekend in Phoenix:
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It is much easier to get excited about a player than it is to see the negative. Sure, if a guy has a rotten injury record, it is pretty easy to knock him down. But most fantasy players are eager to identify to the next set of sleepers or breakouts or whatever term you feel is adequate to describe middle-round guys who will explode into early-round assets. What about looking at some of the flaws of those early-to-mid round guys we’re all so certain will explode this year? There are certainly reasons to love these guys (and several of them are guys I’m quite high on coming into the season), but let’s at least be aware of the shortcomings and what could possibly hold them back from that big time season we’re banking on.
Episode 201
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris start their positional previews with catchers. Behind the dish they discuss:
And then it cutoff randomly!! My computer deleted Skype in the middle of the podcast. We didn’t get a chance to rejoin because we were on a tight schedule as it was, so we just cut it there.
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed. Please rate & review the show in iTunes letting us know what you think!
Thanks to Ian Miller, aka Teen Archer, for the intro music. Approximately 44 minutes of joyous analysis.
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If you knew of me before I started here at Fangraphs, it was probably because of the Starting Pitcher Guide that I release yearly. I have joined forces with Doug Thorburn in recent years, too. He is a pitching mechanics guru who lives and breathes baseball. He’s also an avid fantasy gamer so it was a perfect marriage.
We released the 2015 version this past weekend and you can get it at thespguide.com now. Eno was kind enough to allow me the chance to share a sample with y’all so you can see what we are all about. Doug and I have decided on Gerrit Cole as the profile to share. This year we tackled 380 pitchers across the 30 organizations and wrote up 412 pages and 154,735 words about them. That is an average of about 400 words per player. Of course, some got many more and others aren’t in need of that many just yet. By the way, my writing stops at the mechanics report card and then it shifts to Doug’s work!
Without further ado, our thoughts on Cole:
Episode 200
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss Chris Sale, Alex Guerrero, Addison Reed, Garrett Richards, Wil Myers, Dayan Viciedo, Michael Saunders and finish up by previewing the Pirates & Cardinals.
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed. Please rate & review the show in iTunes letting us know what you think!
Thanks to Ian Miller, aka Teen Archer, for the intro music. Approximately 47 minutes of joyous analysis.
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Episode 199
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss Adam Wainwright, Michael Saunders, and Homer Bailey injuries, the Johan Santana signing, Jonathan Papelbon’s desire to go to Toronto, and Chris Davis playing some OF this spring. Then they discuss the strategy behind trading including some real life examples that Eno is currently mulling over, and finish up by previewing the Milwaukee Brewers.
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The outlook on Wily Peralta hasn’t drastically changed over the last year. Coming into 2014, he was a young arm in possession of some tantalizing skills: elite velocity, two plus pitches, and a tremendous groundball rate. He repeated all of that in 2014 en route to his best season yet, but there are still some issues to iron out. His season essentially breaks up into three parts, with his success against left-handers setting the tone in each.
He got off to a great start with a 2.12 ERA in his first 10 starts. The wheels came off for an eight-start run in early-summer, and he was tattooed for a 6.38 ERA before closing out the season with a 3.00 ERA in his last 14 starts, as he held the opposition to 29 earned runs – 13 of which came in two ugly starts at the end of August. His OPS against lefties in the three parts were .681, 1.063, and .759. The blowup in the middle was fueled by the slider getting uncharacteristically smashed for a couple of weeks, as all five homers that lefties hit off the pitch came during that stretch. He allowed a 1.420 OPS with the pitch, despite a 10-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the 24 plate appearances. Small samples can really hurt!
Episode 198
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss a potential position change for Kris Bryant, Joba Chamberlain back to Detroit, and Lucas Duda dealing with an oblique issue. Then they discuss Eno’s Pitcher Ranks and finish up by beginning the NL Central team-by-team previews with Chicago and Cincinnati.
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I spend a lot of time looking at pitching in any given offseason. Doing the starting pitching guide every year makes me fully aware of the pitching pool from top to bottom. I don’t have a similar exercise for digging as deeply into hitters so one thing I like to do is take a look at the part-time players, level set them at 600 PA, and see what shakes out. Let me be clear: extrapolation is dangerous. There is a lot of noise in small samples as there just isn’t enough time for everything to stabilize.
The purpose of this exercise is to unearth some potential playing time breakout candidates. Sometimes opportunity is the only real thing fueling a player’s breakout. I don’t just pick from the top of every leaderboard and tab those as potential breakouts. First off, I use 200-400 PA as the threshold so this will include a lot of injury guys. I think Troy Tulowitzki is on it yearly. Obviously we know about those guys.
Episode 197
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In this episode, Paul Sporer and Jason Collette discuss a light news day which is pretty Dodgers-centric and then finish the NL West team previews with LAD, SD, and SF.
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