| 7:30 |
: Do you think Corbin Martin sticks in the rotation? |
| 7:30 |
: If he continues to pitch like he did today. |
| 7:31 |
: Which NL-only minor leaguer is highest waiver wire priority: Riley, Rodgers, Urias, Gallen, or someone else |
| 7:31 |
: Gallen |
| 7:31 |
: What % of FAAB are you spending on Corbin Martin in a 12 tm? |
| 7:32 |
: After today, I’m afraid he’s in the 5% to 15% range. There is always a Sunday boost |
With just the normal closer speculation bids, I’d not be surprised if this week had the lowest percentage of remaining FAAB spent so far this season. With Derek Dietrich as the top prize on the hitting side, I don’t expect owners to be spending much.
The guidelines:
I’ve been writing some variant of this pitcher transformation article from the beginning of spring training containing information from spring training velocities to pitch mix changes. With a new pitch or extra velocity, a pitcher can quickly change from one talent level to another. With the season now in full gear, the major preseason changes are known but now it’s time to start finding those pitchers who are slowly transforming themselves mid-season. Every week I hope to focus on these pitchers.
The 33-year-old Price continues to be a fastball/changeup pitcher. He keeps hitters off guard by throwing three different fastballs (cutter, sinker, four-seam). As his velocity has dropped, he’s started relying on his changeup increasing its usage from 14% in 2017 to 22% last year and finally 29% this year. The pitch has been dynamite with a 21% SwStr% and helped propel his strikeout rate from a 9.1 K/9 last year to career-high 10.5 K/9 this season. He’s pulling the old-man trick of throwing his non-fastballs more to stay relevant.
Rant: I’m not sure why pitchers wait until they start declining to make the change. Why not make the change immediately and become an ace.
For the drops, I use the NFBC Main Event (38 teams) where owners are more likely to stay active with more skin the game. Here is who they are dropping and why.
● Matt Adams (30): He continues the circle of life of injured Nationals. Ryan Zimmerman makes one of his annual trips the IL and Adams stepped up. And gets himself hurt. Jake Noll and Howie Kendrick have each played first base since Adams went down.
| 7:22 |
: First, I’ve opened up the chat but am getting a few items together like a cool beverage.
|
| 7:23 |
: Also, there is a storm going on outside and I’m too lazy to connect to my internet cable. If I disappearance for a minute or two, I probably had my power flashed on and off
|
| 7:28 |
: Tout Wars 15-team auction winners:
|
| 7:28 |
: NLowe 247
DDietrich 89 TThornton 37 BDrury 36 FHernandez 34 RRodriguez 33 GGonzalez 32 KGutierrez 29 JCandelario 27 JSoria 24 JPhegley 23 ROHearn 16 JuGuerra 12 BReynolds 9 CDavis 6 ABrooks 5 JIglesias 4 HPence 2 JPanik 1 BCrawford 0 RMoronta 0 OArcia 0 YSolarte 0 |
| 7:30 |
: Other bids for Lowe: 139
121 69 69 33 |
| 7:32 |
: And here are the mixed draft results:
|
There are a couple of big names this week, Lowe and Canning, and some potential closer roles up for grabs but overall it’s a slow week.
The guidelines
● There is some recent movement going on. Tommy La Stella has led off the last two games. Brian Goodwin is batting third. Kole Calhoun is batting sixth. Justin Bour is batting eighth. And finally, Luis Rengifo is batting 9th.
● David Fletcher is the big loser but he may play against a lefty starter. The Angels haven’t faced one since the lineup change.
● Justin Bour’s playtime maybe coming to an end with his poor performance (.174/.283/.314) and Shohei Ohtani returning from the IL in a couple of weeks.
● One of the few consistent lineups. The team continues to have one rotating spot for regulars to DH or take a break. When no one needs a breather, Tyler White is the DH.
● It’s in flux, but I’m not sure if it’s a change or just random stuff.
● It seems like Jurickson Profar is headed to the bench. He’s only played in one of the last four games.
After taking last week off, I’m back to make a brief examination of some pitchers who worry me with their declining velocity. There is no good news today. It’s just some pitchers who could be headed for a demotion or the IL.
Some quick housekeeping. The entire list of pitchers and their fastball changes are available on this spreadsheet. With more data available, I examined at the past two weeks of data for the in-season information. Finally, an injury value of -100 is bad and +100 is good.
Note: Sorry for the short article but real life got in the way and I want to make sure I have time to go through the AL lineups tomorrow.
Carlos Rodon
2018 FBv: 93.0
2019 FBv: 91.5
Last two week: 90.6
Note: This was written before he went on the DL
The 26-year-old seemed to have finally righted the boat after dealing with injuries and wildness for several seasons. In his first five starts this season, he had a 2.89 ERA and 11.3 K/9 (huge jump over 8.8 K/9 career value). Two blowup starts came against offensive powerhouses Detroit and Baltimore and now he has a 5.19 ERA fueled by a 4.4 BB/9.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been struggling this fantasy season when it comes to providing my best possible content. The root cause is that I’ve put more of my own skin in the game by joining a couple of NFBC leagues. Other owners deal with the same issue. For example, I had the following Twitter conversation this past weekend.
In a 15-team league, how much are you both bidding on Karter Kieboom?
😉
— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) April 28, 2019
In all fairness, it’s a legit question coming into the weekend’s FAAB period. Carter Kieboom just got promoted and bids were going to be high for him. What got my request denied was that both Al (in Tout Wars) and Matt (NFBC Main Event) are in 15-team leagues with me. If someone else would have asked the question, would they have given an honest answer? Maybe. Would I take their honest answer and use it against them? Maybe.
I never thought others would steal my suggestion to use against me in my leagues until last season. In The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, I had a strong feeling two owners checked out my Tout Wars bids which ran FAAB on Sunday at noon. There was plenty of time for the owners to analyze my bids before the evening bids ran. Every week the same two owners beat me out on each of my sleeper picks. It got a little annoying.
