Author Archive: Jeff Zimmerman

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like it will be a calm bidding week. The toughest group to rank were the starters. Almost all of them have mixed results from a small sample. It’s tough to get a read in the positive or negative direction, but I think a couple of gems are still available. If any manager has extra time this week, they need to spend it on evaluating these pitchers.

In the following article, 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 for redraft leagues by my preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Shohei Ohtani’s “weakened lower half” led to some of his struggles last season.

That exact type of pitch flummoxed Ohtani so much last season, when a weakened lower half caused him to bail out of the box constantly and shuffle his feet to the point that manager Joe Maddon joked that a seatbelt should be strapped on him. Opposing pitchers fed Ohtani a steady diet of velocity inside to set up changeups and breaking balls away, knowing that he was struggling to cover the plate.

Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• With Anthony Rendon hurt, there have been some insignificant changes.

• Jared Walsh has started three straight games in the outfield.

Astros

• The lineup was consistent until almost everyone ended up on the COVID IL.

• Kyle Tucker (.204/.241/.510) has slowly moved down the lineup from fourth to seventh.
Read the rest of this entry »

In an MLB.com article from earlier this month, Adam Berry investigates the secrets of the Rays’ pitching staff. First, read the article because it contains so many great pieces of information. I wish MLB.com did more pieces like this one.

And the guts of the article comes down to this quote:

The Rays don’t employ a one-size-fits-all philosophy, Snyder said, besides imploring pitchers to throw strikes and get to a two-strike count as quickly as possible. Beyond that, their approach is player-centered: They recognize what each pitcher does best, which they can typically tell by identifying what each does most consistently, and revolve everything around that.

Two-strike counts are important? In previous work, I’ve noticed pitchers who are behind in the count generate weaker contact along with those who have a diversified pitch mix. It’s time to dive into the effects of two strikes counts and determine if they can help pitchers limit hard contact.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the second FAAB period for the NFBC Main event and the week was a little calmer, but not much. It seems like managers might be a little too impatient on some guys. We are not even two weeks into a 26-week season.

For this weekly feature, I use the NFBC Main Event because of the number of identical leagues. Additionally, the managers stay engaged longer on the whole since each spent $1700 per team. I tried to find that sweet spot between the obvious and bizarre drops and will focus on players dropped in eight to eleven leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. The right answer might be seven to ten.
Read the rest of this entry »

7:34	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:35	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

Besides Tyler Naquin, no widely available players are generating the buzz for 10% or higher bids. There could be some players who slipped through the cracks last week like Nate Lowe who could go for high in a single league. Overall, it’s a week to save a little money and make some calculated adds.

In the following article, 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 for redraft leagues by my preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

Going off the lineups isn’t ideal with so few games, but a few useful pieces of information can be found.

American League

Angels

• The expected first base mess exists with Albert Pujols starting three games at first (one at DH) and Jared Walsh the other four. Walsh did start one game in right field.

• David Fletcher has led off every game.

Astros

• Yordan Alvarez (.333/.364/.667) has moved up from batting sixth to fourth. Kyle Tucker (.200/.212/.533) has moved down.

• Yuli Gurriel (.287/.326/.469) hit second with Michael Brantley out.
Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Athletics

• A.J. Puk will only work out of the bullpen.

Puk, 25, will work out of the bullpen, providing aid to an exhausted relief corps that worked 16 2/3 innings over the last four days against Houston. The situation was so dire that the A’s even had to call upon rookie outfielder Ka’ai Tom to pitch the ninth inning on Sunday.

I am just not sure if Puk will end up being fantasy relevant this season.

Indians

• Andrés Giménez is expected to be the full-time shortstop …

“Giménez, he’ll be right back in there,” Francona said. “I just want to keep Amed in the lineup today. We’ll be doing some mixing and matching. Amed’s gonna move back and forth a little bit. He’s not just a platoon player, for sure. We’ll make sure we keep everybody to a point where they can be productive.”

… while Amed Rosorio is easing into his outfield role.

If the team is expecting to play Giménez regularly, that means Rosario’s time in center field could be coming soon.

Read the rest of this entry »