American League

Angels

• A simplified swing may have rejuvenated Max Stassi’s career.

“I feel a lot better after my hip surgery I had in the fall,” Stassi said. “My routine is totally different. Mindset, gameplan, everything is a lot better. Obviously, a lot more confidence.”

Stassi had previous experience with assistant hitting coach John Mallee from their time together with the Astros and said he worked hard with fellow hitting coaches Jeremy Reed and Paul Sorrento to simplify his swing.

“The short version would be I’m hunched over a little more over the plate,” Stassi said. “Kind of a posture thing, so I’m able to get into my back hip and keep my posture level, versus getting too uphill. My lead arm is now down, so I can work directly towards the ball. And then, I’m just trying to rotate as much as I can.”

The big improvement so far with Stassi is his contact rate jumping from 68% to 75%. The improvement has helped halve his strikeout rate from 33% to 16% and improve everything else. For his career, he has a .640 OPS but it is up to 1.096 this season.
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I don’t know how helpful today’s rankings will be. Many feel like moves that should have happened a week ago. Almost all of them will be off next week’s list (> 40% owned). Maybe with all the roster moves last week, a player or two wasn’t added.

As usual, I’m going to at least cover the players in demand using CBS’s (40% or less initial ownership) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered by my preference grouped by starters, relievers and hitters.
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I’m grinding away trying to find any pitchers who have changed their pitch mix and are flying under the radar. The changes could be for the better or worse. Also, I’m focusing on lowly owned guys. There is no reason to worry about pitchers who aren’t an option to cut or add. For example, Walker Beuhler has limited the usage of his four-seamer and curve and is throwing his cutter, sinker, and slider more. Sure he might change but is any owner going drop or bench him on the information.
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I have sent parts of three days to come up with the following few blurbs. There is just no player-specific information available. I blame it on the lack of player access … and the void is completely understandable. News outlets need their quotes on the game just over and the one coming up. There are no deep dives in the zoom calls.

Much of the “news” being reported is just being pulled from the boxscore or here at FanGraphs. I’m going to focus my efforts on the same sources. Personally, I’ve found more actionable items just looking through lineups than going through article after article. During the offseason, I just collected each bit and then could run them all at once. I don’t have the luxury sandbag the information with everything in flux. The RotoGraphs side is working on a unique solution. Stay tuned.

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Transactions are up as teams try to fill their rosters. With every player added, someone becomes available. Some players are duds but a few have some value on the right team. Here is a look at some players who may be heading to the waiver wire.

For this analysis, I use the NFBC Main Event because of the number of identical leagues. Additionally, the owners stay engaged longer since each spent over $1000 per team. I tried to find that sweet spot between obvious and bizarre and will focus on players dropped in six to nine leagues.

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Right now, the fantasy game has …. changed …. shifted … has gone just bizarre. It has only been a week and a half of games, but I’ve never dealt with so much uncertainty and the way I set these rankings reflects that change. I’m valuing MLB playing time and experience over potential whenever possible. I’m trying to limit the variation for now and will gamble more if a team starts falling behind in a couple of weeks.

As usual, I’m going to at least cover the players in demand using CBS’s (40% or less initial ownership) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered by my preference grouped by starters, relievers and hitters.
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I went through the few National League lineups to see if there was a change in a player’s value different from preseason expectations. Here are my thoughts on each team.

Braves

• They are using separate lineups against different handed pitchers. Matt Adams and Ender Inciarte are facing the righties and Adam Duvall and Johan Camargo are facing the lefties.
• Ronald Acuña Jr. has not got going yet with a (.143/.250/.179) slash line and 50% K% (25% SwStr% versus four-seamers).

Brewers

• Two handedness lineups with Eric Sogard (4 of 4) and Ben Gamel (3 of 4) facing righties and Jedd Gyorko (2 of 2) in against lefties. There is not an obvious sub with lefties.

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I went through the few American League lineups to see if there was a change in a player’s value different from preseason expectations. Here are my thoughts on each team.

Angels

• Albert Pujols has already sat in two of the six games.
• David Fletcher (1.022 OPS) is playing every day and leading off.

Astros

• Kyle Tucker (.188/.235/.313) started three straight games.
• It’s one of the more consistent lineups.

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