American League

Angels

• Dylan Bundy has reworked his delivery.

The suggested solution from Angels pitching coach Matt Wise was to revamp his arm motion. Instead of bringing his arm all the way back, Bundy would have more of a snap throw. The look of a short-armed toss.
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This is at the root of why he started to look for speed with a longer delivery. And while it may have added a tick to his velocity, it also added a lot of movement and, thus, an inconsistent arm path.
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Wise hadn’t orchestrated this type of change at the big-league level. But he said other coaches have told him that it’s an eight-week process. It’s been exactly six weeks since Bundy vomited behind the Yankee Stadium mound. He was immediately pulled from the game — and, after, from the rotation entirely.

He ended up making the change in just four weeks — half the time Wise expected.

He has performed better since rejoining the rotation but not great. Before moving to the bullpen, he made 14 starts with a 6.72 ERA (4.46 xFIP) and 1.42 WHIP (.305 BABIP). In the four starts since leaving the bullpen, he has a 3.72 ERA (5.34 xFIP) and 1.03 WHIP (.182 BABIP). I guess he’s “better”.

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I’m a little more interesting in some of the drops this week. One dynamic that might be in play is that there are more dead teams and therefore the demand for rosterable waiver wire options is down.

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 seven to ten leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. Read the rest of this entry »

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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After a couple of weeks dominated by the trade deadline and subsequent moves, it’s back to normal this week with a decent number of hitters and starters and a few relievers.

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (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 »

For the second week in a row, I had to voice my amazement that JT Brubaker was cut in the NFBC Main Event. While Brubaker’s results have not been great (4.95 ERA), there are several signs that point to him being closer to a 4.00 ERA pitcher. The stat that sticks out is his 1.9 HR/9. The home runs have him with a 4.98 FIP while his xFIP is a full run lower at 3.98. I wanted to see if I should blindly assume that his home run rate will drop. With the expected drop, will his FIP and ERA regress downward to his xFIP? Also, are there any measurable traits that make a pitcher more home run prone? I ended up with a “maybe” and a solid “no”.

Brubaker isn’t the only pitcher who fits this mold. Bailey Ober has a 2.2 HR/9. His 4.99 ERA is almost identical to his 5.18 while his xFIP is down at 4.12. Another is Yusei Kikuchi (1.6 HR/9, 4.37 FIP, 3.47 xFIP). Adbert Alzolay (2.0 HR/9, 5.03 FIP, 3.89 xFIP). The season is over halfway over and fantasy managers are losing patience. Read the rest of this entry »

There are quite a few more names this week as are cleaning out the players who have seen their playing time clear up. Lots of hitters without jobs and relievers who are not in line for Saves. It is one of the more talented list of players I’ve profiled this 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 seven to ten leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. Read the rest of this entry »

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman: Auction League

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

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It’s below-average starting pitcher week. Or the bar has been lower on what is an average pitcher. It was tough ranking so many flawed characters, but there aren’t many decent options.

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (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

• With Jared Walsh on the IL, Phil Gosselin (.272 .332 .370) has started nine of 10 games at first base.

• Since being called up, Jo Adell is batting fifth or sixth.

• With Anthony Rendon out for the season, Jack Mayfield (.176/.200/.206) is playing third base and batting ninth.

• Justin Upton (.230/.319/.442) has sat for three of the last six games. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick note: This article got “lost” and was not published early last month. The information is still applicable.

Early last month, I was surprised by the scrub hitters being rostered for a game at Colorado.

These hitters would never be considered in a normal week but were assumed to morph into All-Stars. Truthfully, I didn’t have a good way to set an ‘add/no add’ cut-off, so here is my best attempt at a simple solution. I tried to come at the answer several ways, but I think the following procedure would be the easiest to use across most fantasy formats. Read the rest of this entry »