A lot of players, especially starters, were dropped who shouldn’t have even been rostered. It seems like managers are looking anywhere for starters and keep lowering their standards while there are middle relievers available who will be more productive. I can see taking a chance on a two-start guy, but most of the suspect guys dropped were one-start streamers.

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 six to nine 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 »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

There are just not a lot of available good hitter options this week. One issue is that quite a few teams are going with platoons and most of these teams are facing a mix of righties and lefties making most fantasy irrelevant. As for starting pitcher options, it’s one of the best weeks since the first couple of months with several guys returning from the IL, rookie call-ups, and relievers transitioning to starting.

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

Astros

• For José Urquidy to join the rotation, he’ll need to be fully stretched out.

All signs point to Urquidy’s being activated shortly after active rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September. The question will then become how the Astros manage six starting pitchers in the regular season’s final month leading into the postseason.

“You’ve got to come back first. … We’ll start thinking about that the closer he gets,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said Sunday. “I certainly want him back as soon as possible. But I don’t want him back to only go four or five innings because that puts a lot more pressure on my bullpen. I’ve already got two guys who are kind of five-inning guys. We need a seven-inning guy, potentially a seven-inning guy.”

In his first AAA start, he threw 49 pitches (4.0 IP). Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes conclusions to tough questions just don’t sit right, especially when the answer is “We don’t really know.”. How pitchers control batted balls has never had a simple definitive answer. I’m going to give it another shot.

I have some ideas of what might be a cause, but I want to start with a blank slate. What’s got me diving back in is the following table from a recent article of mine.

While a few percentage points of difference may not seem like much, I expected a lot more regression to the mean with my limited sample size. With just the above information, I felt I needed to re-investigate the subject. I know that some of the regression amounts have previously existed, but I wanted to dive in with some fresh eyes and new batted ball data. Read the rest of this entry »

After going through the drops, most of them seemed obvious with players going to the IL or the minors. I think it’s because many teams are checking out for football season with both adds and drop not being made. Next week I’ll drop the threshold down to six to nine drops.

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 »

7:30	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:32

Jeff Zimmerman: Mike Ashmore @mashmore98 Kluber walks a run home with the bases loaded, and his night is over. 45 pitches/20 strikes. Current line w/bases loaded and one out: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. Fastball command just was not there tonight. He popped a few 90’s on the gun in the second w/FB. 12 Aug 2021

Read the rest of this entry »

The following ranking was one of the hardest I’ve done this season. It’s tough to rank the players based on season-long versus short-term
value with just a few weeks left. Some players are useful for just a week, but that’s all some managers need. Additionally, they are all not well-rounded contributors. Everyone has at least one major flaw (e.g. limited playing time, speed-only option). For these reasons, don’t just add the top player available. Go down a few spots to see if there is a better addition.

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

• Shohei Ohtani has hit leadoff for 10 straight games.

• Jo Adell is hitting .213/.273/.328 (29% K%) with 1 HR since being recalled.
Read the rest of this entry »

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.
…
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.
…
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”.

Read the rest of this entry »