7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Focus on the hitters this week with many contingency bids. Many of the fifth or sixth choices this week will be the #1 options in the upcoming weeks. It’s not a week to half-ass bidding.

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 »

American League

Angels

• David Fletcher (.487 OPS) and Tyler Wade (.648 OPS) are splitting time at second with Andrew Velazquez (.392 OPS) at shortstop.

• Brandan Marsh is hitting just .216/.216/.378 over the past two weeks, has been moved down the lineup, and sometimes to the bench.

Astros

• Since Jose Altuve came off the IL, Chas McCormick (.719) is no longer batting leadoff and splitting time with Jose Siri (.574 OPS). Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Blue Jays

• Yusei Kikuchi has tinkered with his mechanics and dropped his cutter for a slider.

It’s been less than a month since Kikuchi last faced the Yankees and didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, but in that short time, the Blue Jays pitching coaching staff, led by Walker, have been tinkering with Kikuchi’s mechanics and repertoire. It was last outing, against the Houston Astros, that Kikuchi showed a new delivery on the mound with a toned-down leg kick. They’ve also shifted the target behind the plate. And Kikuchi has scrapped his cutter entirely and instead has introduced a new, harder slider instead.

Making in-season adjustments isn’t easy and requires patience. Let’s also remember that Kikuchi has had to do this while facing an absolute gauntlet of a first stretch starting against the Yankees twice, the Red Sox and the Astros twice.

He might be worth a bench and watch to see if the changes lead to permanent improvements. 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 get originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers are going to 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 of these leagues.

Josh Winder (9): His spot start (6 IP, 7 K, 1 BB, 0 BB) was great, but he’s headed back to the bullpen with Sonny Gray coming off the IL. I’m not sure if he’s worth holding as a long reliever since he has a 4.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 10 relief innings. We’ll see how things go. Read the rest of this entry »

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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The luster is gone from all the shiny new toys and it’s a blue-collar week with boring adds. For hitters, I pushed up the full-time at-bats, so those managers with daily lineup moves might want to drop down to the platoon bats. With the starters, it seems full of guys with a 7.0 K/9 and 4.25 ERA.

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 »

American League

Angels

• Taylor Ward has led off the last four games.

• Jared Walsh (vs RHP) and Matt Duffy (vs LHP) are in a platoon.

• Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh are splitting time in left field.

• Tyler Wade (.660 OPS) is not a full-time player (started seven of the last ten) and usually sits against lefties.
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 get originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers are going to 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 of these leagues.

Jakob Junis (8): It’s not surprising at all that the Giants added a cast-off from another team and re-invented him. First, he’s throwing his slider 54% of the time, and here are the pitch’s comps.

The pitch’s results might improve as seen by the comps. One issue is that he’s not throwing it for strikes with just 27% Zone%. Read the rest of this entry »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »