Last winter, the Cardinals paid a steep price to acquire one season of Jason Heyward. The club is poised to let Heyward walk via free agency. My colleagues at MLBTR predict a 10-year, $200 million contract. Luckily for St. Louis, there’s very little pressure to bring Heyward back. That’s because Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk had successful seasons.
When I wrote about Paul Goldschmidt earlier in the offseason, part of my analysis focused on when he would be available in the first round. I assumed Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Clayton Kershaw would absorb the first three picks, leaving Goldy as the consensus fourth overall selection. However, there are a handful of players I could justify taking ahead of Goldschmidt. His teammate, A.J. Pollock, is one of them.
Last Wednesday, I explored the the fantasy market value of expensive stars like Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw. My colleague Chad Young used a unique methodology to discover that Trout was most valuable to ottoneu owners when he cost $65 or less.
We both project Trout to produce more than $65 of value, but the data implies it’s hard to construct a full roster around him if he costs more. Personally, I think the case for contending with an expensive player depends upon finding bargains elsewhere. You just have to be the right owner for the job.
Today, I’ll cover my continuing efforts to trade at least two of Trout ($62), Kershaw ($64), and Zack Greinke ($36). Obviously, in terms of cost, one of those is not like the others. While, I view all three as possessing comparable overall value, I’ll be focusing on the two $60 guys today.
A mixture of beer and orange juice is called a brass monkey. Occasionally, uncreative types will call it a beermosa. A mixture of Miller High Life and Tropicana orange juice is called disgusting. It’s also sometimes referred to as sweetened pisswater. Now that our mixology lesson is over, let’s talk about Brad Miller in his new digs.
Say what you will about the Cincinnati Reds, but they have some useful middle infield depth. Veteran Brandon Phillips is under contract for one more season. Since he has full 10-and-5 rights (i.e. a no trade clause), the retooling Reds may have trouble swapping him elsewhere. That’s a shame for their two shortstops – Zack Cozart and Eugenio Suarez.
We’ve had our first big offseason trade in the ottoneu league FanGraphs Staff Two. Chad Young and prospect guy Marc Hulet combined for a doozy. In the aftermath of the trade, Chad and I discussed the relative value of his players versus similar guys I had available. While I’ll refer to our ottoneu league, today’s topic has implications for most keeper leagues.
Arbitration season is over in all ottoneu leagues. It’s time to make some trades in preparation for the 2016 campaign. You’ll have until the end of January to finalize your swaps. As for today, let’s talk about two topics – arbitration results and preparation for the rest of the offseason.
I had hoped to be done with this topic for the offseason. The mistakes of the two main daily fantasy (DFS) operators – FanDuel and DraftKings – have become increasingly apparent. After slowly ramping up advertising in 2013 and 2014, we’ve been hit with a flood of TV and radio spots pushing daily fantasy as a get rich quick scheme.
Now we’ve entered a new chapter of the daily fantasy drama. Last week, New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declared daily fantasy to be gambling. He asked FanDuel and DraftKings to cease and desist all operations in New York. They’re now the seventh state to ban the games. And once again, DFS has drawn negative press in comedy news – this time from John Oliver.
A few weeks ago, I looked at some dynasty first base targets. I’ll eventually be covering every position over the offseason. Today, it’s time for second base. There are roughly 20 second base prospects I consider worthy of rostering in a true dynasty format. So as to keep this article accessible for owners in normal leagues, I’ll focus on four of the biggest names at the position.
For the last five seasons, Danny Valencia has been the perfect fantasy streamer. The 31-year-old has a career 136 wRC+ against left-handed pitching (701 PA) compared to a meager 79 wRC+ against righties (1,222 PA). So here’s what you do: find when he’s facing a lefty, roster him for that day, and drop him the next day. Thanks for joining us…
