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Good luck finding available talented players this week. Besides Vidal Brujan and just a few players who might not have been picked up last week (Sheets and Megill), there is not much on the wire. If there is a week to spend a minute on each team and have a few cool refreshing beverages, it’s this week. Here are three items to consider when making decisions for the short upcoming week.

1. The Dodgers are at Colorado after the break so someone like Yonathan Daza (14% rostered) might be worth adding.
2. The Yankees and Red Sox play an extra game (4 vs 3) and maybe someone like Enrique Hernandez (featured below) might be worth an add.
3. In the next full week, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Colorado all have five games.

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 »

I’m being a little selfish this week. A few of the players who were dropped in six leagues interested me, so I included them. I seperated out the hitters in Colorado. I think they were not good enough hitters to roster, but I don’t know for sure. I’ll study the Colorado threshold later this week.

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 »

I always rank the players by who I’d draft first in a redraft league. It’s getting to the point in the season when an individual team’s focus may need to be category-based (e.g. AVG or SB) so move down the list since several players may be able to fill those needs. Also, if a team is needing a closer, this is the week to do your homework. Several bullpens are up in the air and with other managers taking the day off to drink beer and blow stuff up, it may be time to grab a couple.

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 »

This past Sunday, there were just a few available middle relievers who seemed to be better additions than some starter, so my co-owner Fred Zinkie settled on Ranger Suárez. Right now, Ranger Suárez has a 0.93 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, and 8.1 K/9 and is ranked as the 52nd pitcher according to our auction calculator. While his strikeout rate isn’t the highest, he does average 1.7 IP for each appearance and accumulates 1.5 K in each of those appearances. Also, he has been able to get 3 Wins so far this season (18% Win Rate).

The other option was Giovanny Gallegos who has also been great this season (2.53 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, and 10.3 K/9). He’s averaged throwing 1.2 IP per appearance with 1.4 K per appearance. He’s been able to get 5 Wins during that time (14% Win Rate).

Since the pitcher was supposed to take a starter’s spot, the hope was to get good ratios, some strikeouts, and possibly vulture a Win. After historically finding pitchers with these traits, our two choices were fine with a major flaw. We ignored recent usage.
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Last week, none of the drops seemed like a value and deserved to be immediately rostered. The options are better this week, especially if a manager can wait on a hurt player (e.g. Boyd or Goodrum).

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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It’s catcher week with eight of them seeing their rostership jump. Otherwise, it’s a lot of the same players who are slowly seeing their rostership climb.

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 »

Today’s mini-study is inspired by Dane Dunning. He was a waiver-wire option for me in several leagues this past week. With no consideration to his talent (4.71 ERA, 3.38 xFIP), I was not interested because he was averaging just 4.6 innings per start and had only reached the five innings needed for a Win in half his starts. Those seemed too low for any chance for a Win. It got me wondering if a possible cliff exists somewhere with how far a pitcher goes into a start that just eliminates their Win chances. Instead, I found nothing.

First off, I know many factors are relevant for a pitcher to get a Win and most he has no control over. His surrounding cast must score more runs than the other team. Also, they have to field balls in play to get outs while limiting errors. Also, the bullpen must be decent enough to hold a lead. And then there is the opposing team’s starter, hitters, and bullpen. The deal is that none of the preceding factors matter if the starter doesn’t consistently throw five innings. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Taylor Ward (.932 OPS over the last two weeks) has hit third in four straight games.

• Luis Rengifo (.559 OPS) has started four straight.

• Juan Lagares (.575 OPS) has started eight of nine games.
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