Tyler Mahle (68% owned at FanTrax)
I watched his game for the 2nd when he beat the Cubs by going 6 IP, 0 Runs, and 7 K’s. Mahle and the opposing pitcher, Tyler Chatwood, did have generous wide strike zone to work with.
During the offseason, I posted a list of starters who could use a third pitch or throw one of their barely utilized pitches more. I attempted to track some changes during spring training hoping to find next Robbie Ray or Luis Severino. I’ve failed so far. Now with pitch tracking cameras on every pitcher, I can see if anyone is trying to throw a pitch more. I’ll go down my list from February and see who is stepping up their usage.
Dinelson Lamet (Fastball/Slider): Hurt
Antonio Senzatela (Fastball/Slider): A classification mess starts with the first healthy pitcher. MLB’s classification has him with a change curve at 8% but Pitch Info has him not throwing one. Examining his pitch movement charts shows just two pitch groupings. Verdict: Still a two-pitch pitcher
Luis Perdomo (Sinker/Curve): He threw his splitter/change six times which is in-line with his previous usage pattern. It’s a good groundball pitch (57%) but is below average for swings-and-misses for a splitter (10%). Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll prioritize questions on weekly acquisitions but will take other fantasy related questions. See everyone at 8:30 EST tonight.
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Today’s article is mainly facts with little to no narrative. I’m investigating possible changes that can be used in fantasy valuation with just a small sample, fastball velocity and lineup position.
Fastball velocity changes from 2017 to 2018 with new pitchers. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cardinals have added Jordan Hicks to their major league bullpen. The move comes as a surprise with Hicks skipping both Double and Triple-A. While Hicks’s role is not defined, he’s a talented pitcher who can’t be ignored.
The 21-year-old righty has previously shown a plus fastball. Here are the various scouting reports on it.
A plethora of information is available to fantasy owners with most just a repeat from one season to the next. For this reason, it’s tough to find anything new or helpful. Joe Rosales has stepped forward this year to provide six pages of useful injury nuggets in the Bill James Handbook, especially relating to catchers. Here are some of the highlights
1. Baseball Info Solutions is now collecting detailed injury information
Finally, and good luck. Building a comprehensive database is the key component to really understanding injuries. From personal experience, it’s just a pain-in-the-ass to track in-season injuries and also compile the end-of-season database. While, I’m sure the information is not going to be free to the public, at least the information is being collected for someone like Mr. Rosales to compile.
The major league season is starting in just a few days. Fantasy owners are making the adjustment from pre-season to in-season mode. Before owners concentrate 100% on in-season topics, they should take a step back for a few minutes and reflect on their final rosters and the process they used to acquire them concentrating on what worked and what didn’t. Here are some areas to consider and how I struggle with them.
Player Valuation Process
This area is probably the one area I struggle with balancing the most. Do I over think the player values and more importantly do I make actual decisions based on these valuations? I start all my valuations by creating a composite projection system from several websites and generally probably lock myself into these projections to create player values depending on the league’s format. Usually, I just check each value and adjust them as I see fit.
RotoGraphs will be hosting this chat every Sunday night during the season to help owners decided on their waiver claims and FAAB bidding. I will be the normal chat host but others may step in if I have other commitments.
The start time will need to be after 7:00 PM CST when I host so it’s at 7:30 for now. Let me know how the time works.
As for the focus of the chat, I’ll try to answer fantasy questions on waiver wire pickups and FAAB bidding. I’ll answer other fantasy questions if no more acquisition questions are in the queue.
This post will provide updated information on the upcoming draft weekend. I’ll update as I find relevant news over the weekend.
• A notice to those owners setting their Sunday waiver claims: I will be hosting a RotoGraphs chat every Sunday during the season from 8:00 pm EST for an hour or so starting this weekend. It will run every Sunday during the season. I may not host it every week but someone will fill in.
Friday Afternoon Update
• Erick Aybar has opted out of his Twins contract meaning Eduardo Escobar will be the Twins the second baseman until Jorge Polanco returns from this 80-game suspension. As a replacement, owners could do worse than Escobar as a replacement. He’s projected for home runs in the high teens with a few steals.
• Albert Almora Jr. seems to be batting 8th quite a bit. His value swings a ton depending if he is leading off or in the 8th spot (fewer AB and SB).
• Here are the spring training team stolen base totals with the new managers in yellow.
In a small subset of leagues, relievers who have starting pitcher eligibility are gold. If an owner hasn’t been in such a league, the following information is useless and confusing. The specific league requirements which boost these pitcher values are (Note: normally seen in Yahoo leagues):
I used to be in such a league and I would scavenge the waiver wire looking for any of these pitchers. They allow an owner to accumulate great rate stats when their starter isn’t starting. Two or three can just sit permanently in the starting slots. And every year, it seems like one guy ends up getting a few Saves.
