American League

Angels

• Mike Trout might move to a corner outfield spot or DH next season.

Angels superstar Mike Trout said his twice surgically repaired left knee is feeling better and he’s open to potentially moving to a corner outfield spot or serving as designated hitter more often to try to stay healthy.

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American League

Angels

• Niko Kavadas (DH) only starts against righties.

• Bryce Teodosio (CF) started in four of the last five games.

Astros

• No regular first baseman with Jon Singleton, Yainer Diaz, and Victor Caratini starting there over the last four games.

• The outfield has been a mess with Chas McCormick on the IL, Kyle Tucker playing DH, Yordan Alvarez should be DH, and the corpses of Jason Heyward and Ben Gamel are still rostered.

Athletics

• Ryan Noda (vs RHP) and Tyler Nevin (vs LHP) are in a first base platoon.

• Each of Nick Allen, Tristan Gray, and Max Schuemann started at third in one of the last five games.

Blue Jays

• A mess with George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. being the only regulars.

Guardians

• Lane Thomas started eight straight including one against a lefty.

• Jhonkensy Noel started in only five of the last 10 games.

Mariners

• Steady with the second (Jorge Polanco and Dylan Moore) and third base (Josh Rojas and Luis Urías) platoons.

Orioles

• Cedric Mullins hits second with Adley Rutschman hitting fifth.

• Coby Mayo started in only four of the last 10 games.

Rangers

• Steady with Ezequiel Duran started in seven of the last 10 games.

Rays

• Jonny DeLuca started in nine of the last 10 games.

• Jonathan Aranda with six starts (four batting second) in the last seven games.

Red Sox

• Triston Casas doesn’t start against lefties and I’m not sure why with a career .754 OPS versus lefties and .842 OPS versus righties.

• Since coming off the IL, Trevor Story started in five of six games.

• Connor Wong with eight straight starts while splitting time between catcher and first base.

Royals

• Robbie Grossman has only three starts in eight games since joining the team.

• Paul DeJong with just six starts in the last 10 games.

• Since coming off the IL, Hunter Renfroe started in four of six games.

Tigers

• Jace Jung (vs RHP) and Andy Ibáñez (vs LHP) are in a third base platoon.

• Kerry Carpenter (vs RHP) and Justyn-Henry Malloy (vs LHP) are in a DH platoon.

• Trey Sweeney only faces righties.

Twins

• Edouard Julien only faces righties but leads off when in the lineup.

• Willi Castro has only three starts in the last six games.

• DaShawn Keirsey Jr. started in center field for the last two games while batting at the end of the lineup.

White Sox

• Same garbage, different week.

Yankees

• Jasson Domínguez started in three of four games since being promoted.

National League

Braves

• Ramón Laureano started three straight over Jarred Kelenic including two against a righty.

• Luke Williams saw time at second base when Whit Merrifield was banged up.

Brewers

• Jackson Chourio leads off with Brice Turang batting ninth.

• Gary Sánchez started in four of five games with three at DH.

Cardinals

• Thomas Saggese started three straight, played 2B and SS, and hit seventh.

• Jordan Walker started in 11 of 12 games since his last promotion.

Cubs

• Steady with Dansby Swanson batting second now.

Diamondbacks

• Josh Bell started in five of eight games since Christian Walker came off the IL.

Dodgers

• Chris Taylor (vs LHP) and Gavin Lux (vs RHP) remain in a second base platoon.

Giants

• Marco Luciano and Brett Wisely are splitting time at second base.

• Jerar Encarnacion started in three of four games including his first game at first base.

Marlins

• Xavier Edwards has not started for three games and there is no news as to why. Editor’s Note:

• Rookie Javier Sanoja has started three straight games.

• Nick Fortes with eight straight starts at catcher.

• Kyle Stowers is the only outfield regular with Cristian Pache, Jesús Sánchez, David Hensley, and Griffin Conine sharing the other two spots.

Mets

• With Jeff McNeil on the IL, Jose Iglesias is now the regular second baseman.

• Starling Marte has only started in four of the last seven games. Their outfield has several guys rotating in and out with Nimmo as the only regular.

Nationals

• Steady with Dylan Crews up to hitting second.

Padres

• Xander Bogaerts is playing shortstop with Jake Cronenworth moving to second, Donovan Solano joining playing first, and Mason McCoy heading to the bench.

Phillies

• Steady with speedster, Johan Rojas, getting more playing time (seven starts in the last 10 games).

Pirates

• Bryan De La Cruz started in only six of the last 10 games.

• Billy Cook started two straight in the outfield. Across two minor league levels, he hit .275/.375/.474 with 17 HR and 25 SB in 493 PA. Projections agree on the power-speed combination but don’t buy the batting average with values around .220 AVG.

Reds

• Noelvi Marte has started in only three of the last ten games with Santiago Espinal starting in all ten.

• Amed Rosario started losing playing time with two starts in the last five games.

• Jake Fraley has started 11 straight including two against lefties.

Rockies

• Hunter Goodman (catcher-qualified) started in five of the last nine games.

• Nolan Jones started in six of the last 10 games.

This weekend, I have to travel a decent distance for my aunt’s funeral, so I’m off not going to be available for a few days. For the weekend, Jordan Rosenblum will have a waiver wire article article but I went ahead and looked into some players who could be or not be options.

Batters

Note on hitters. If in a Roto league, roster who you need. If power, Matt Wallner. If speed, Otto Lopez. If all around, Tommy Pham. I haven’t spotted any major value movers since MLB teams made waiver wire claims before September 1st. Check out my Big Kid Adds where the managers in these competitive leagues added Trevor Story (a drop for me), Grant McCray (power and speed, batting average sink), or Jonny DeLuca (regular starts).

Spencer Horwitz: He’s been on fire over the last month hitting .317/.386/.633 with 6 HR. His stats are up because he’s being benched against most lefties (.916 OPS vs RHP, .511 OPS vs LHP). Next week, Toronto has only four righties on the schedule so the volume might not be there. Read the rest of this entry »

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Logan O’Hoppe tries to regain his swing as he works through some fatigue.

“After that game, we hopped in and worked on some things, felt really different,” O’Hoppe said. “So that was a good sign, you know? I mean, it wasn’t beating my head against the wall like it was the past month. So I’m just looking to build on it.”

O’Hoppe wouldn’t get into detail on the changes he made, but he said that both coaches pointed out things that were different with his swing during his recent skid.

“They pointed a lot of things out to me that I didn’t realize had changed over time,” O’Hoppe said. “There was a lot going on, so I don’t want to get into the specifics of it, but I’m grateful for them and kind of keep leaning on them.”
…
“We’re supposed to be tired right now in September,” O’Hoppe said. “I didn’t just admit that I am tired. Don’t take it the wrong way, but I really do believe that we’re supposed to be tired right now.”

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7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

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In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) 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 rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Here is your periodic reminder to read Lance Brozdowski’s work on pitcher adjustments (and watch his YouTube channel). In this instance, Lance points out how much Caden Dana’s release varies between his pitches.

There’s large release height variation here that makes me worried. He’s popping a half-foot above his slider to get to his fastball shape and then popping another half-foot to get to his curveball shape. These are massive differences and he’s not creating outlier shapes in the process like a Ricky Tiedemann, where you can squint and justify it. Rhett Lowder does this a bit too but not nearly as dramatic. Dana looks like a 20-year-old pitcher to me.

Here are Dana’s different release points.

For a comparison, here are Zack Wheeler’s release points from his last start.

The biggest issue with the various release points is he is tipping his pitches so the batters know which pitch is coming. Read the rest of this entry »

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

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