This week’s theme seems to be closers. Several full and part-time closers hit the waiver wire. While they all have a wart or two, a team scavenging for Saves could find a few more offers on the waiver wire.

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’ve got a full weekend planned. Besides for a few hours today, I’m not going to have time expound this or the waiver wire article. I’ll see if I can sneak away for Sunday’s chat while still taking care of my own teams. So for this article, I didn’t add many player stats and just focused on major changes. I’m now going to try to at least get a Waiver Wire rankings out.

American League

Angels

• Justin Upton has hit leadoff in the last four games.

• David Fletcher is batting ninth.

• Drew Butera has started five of the last seven games at catcher.

• Juan Lagaras is playing everyday and hitting in the middle of the lineup.

• Jo Adell is making strides to get promoted.

Angels GM Perry Minasian on minor league slugger Jo Adell "He's making some strides. He's not there yet."

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) May 26, 2021

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Today, I’m going to take a stab to answer the simple question:

“Do hitters perform better with regular at-bats?”

While the question is simple, finding an acceptable answer is not so easy. While my final approach is far from “perfect”, it verifies the statement is true to a small extent.

The concept behind the rule-of-thumb is that with regular at-bats, a hitter can get into a groove and perform better. Usually, the idea references a hitter in a platoon.

Besides being in a platoon, he could be in the National League and used primarily as a pinch hitter. Anyone going from mainly being a pinch hitter to a full-time role will no longer occur the pinch hitter penalty.
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There isn’t really an overlying theme for this week expect it seems many managers are just cleaning up their rosters of disappointing players. Since these unproductive players are being dropped, the list is barren of talent. Normally, I start with the same tought, but I end up finding a few hidden gems. Tauchman is the only one I might consider adding. I do spend some time in the append defining Trailing Drops and how it could drag down teams.

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 »

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

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After a few weeks with just a few decent new starters, the list has expanded quite a bit this week. One note on the starters. Several of them are around a 9 K/9 and 3 BB/9. To differentiate them, I’m using their groundball rate. I’m not 100% sure this is the right approach in this environment, but I’ll investigate his idea later this week.

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 »

• Some teams may save their high strikeout pitcher for extra innings to help mitigate the extra runner.

There might not be a reliever better equipped to handle the runner-on-second-in-extra-innings rule than Karinchak, who is averaging nearly two strikeouts per inning this season. Karinchak has allowed only three hits and five walks in 17 1/3 innings, so he has essentially been automatic. His penchant for racking up strikeouts, as demonstrated Wednesday, allows the Indians to wiggle out of those artificial jams in extras.

And because of that, it made more sense for manager Terry Francona to summon Clase to keep the Cubs quiet in the top of the ninth. Clase strikes out a batter per inning and doesn’t issue many walks, but because he so often forces hitters into weak contact, usually on the ground, with his 100 mph cutter, teams need to string together a few hits or benefit from a defensive gaffe to scratch across a run against him. With a runner on second to start the inning, that endeavor would become much more attainable.

As of now, I’m not sure if this applies to any bullpen but the Indians. I’ve got too much on my plate to investigate, but it might be worth those managers in deeper leagues (e.g. Only’s) to find the few examples and roster these second closers for the potential Wins and Saves. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s post is brought to you by Vince Velasquez who is schedule to face the Marlins. When I decide which pitchers to target, I look for who is facing some of the weaker offenses and Velasquez popped for being interesting (3.68 ERA, 11.4 K/9) and available. I noticed his 15% K% (5.8 BB/9) and moved on. He broke my simple rule of not rostering a player with a walk rate over 10% BB%. But is 10% the right value? After diving into the numbers, it’s not a bad rule, but I’ll try to shrink that number down.

I use 10% because it’s simple to remember. The equivalent is 3.9 BB/9 which could be rounded up to an even 4.0 BB/9. The deal is that while simple rules help, I’d like to have every advantage. For example, I used to use a 50% GB% to show an advantage. The deal is that between 50% and 55% GB, the pitcher doesn’t gain any advantage in double plays and additional high flyballs (i.e. outs).

The other reason I picked 10% is that only a few pitchers reach this total. Of the 68 qualified starters this season, nine have a walk rate of 10% or higher.
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Like most weeks, 90%+ of the drops are reasonable, but a few players might be worth adding next week. Starting pitching remains the area to dive in a little deeper to determine if blowups are BABIP driven or if there is a deeper issue.

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:

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »