Everyone liked last week’s new format, so I’ll keep it going into the season.

American League

Angels

• Consistent.

• David Fletcher has led off every game this year.

• For the time being, Chris Rodriguez will remain in the bullpen.

With his success in long relief, it’s fair to wonder if it would make sense to move Rodriguez to the rotation at some point this season. But considering Rodriguez entered the season having thrown just 9 1/3 innings in the Minors since 2017 due of back issues, the Angels would rather keep him in the bullpen to monitor his innings.

Maddon, however, wouldn’t rule out a move to the rotation in the future.

“He can do either thing, but right now, we’re set at the back end [of the rotation],” Maddon said. “Making him a starter right now would be difficult. He hasn’t pitched a lot of innings. It’s almost like you’d have to build him up three years somehow.

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A while back, I investigated how a varied pitch mix helps produce weak contact. At the time, I wondered if varying pitch location would be a benefit for the pitcher. After a first stab at the data, the answer is somewhere between no and just not known.

The theory goes that a hitter would have a tough time squaring up a ball as it gets located in different parts of the strike zone. The results could even be more swing-and-miss. With this focus, I just dove in to see what stuck.

The first hurdle was finding a way to measure pitch location variation. I ended up using nine zones with nearly the same number of pitches in each zone. Deciding on just nine zone drives the rest of the results. Should there be more? Fewer? Some removed? If/when I reexamine the data, I’ll start here with some adjustments.
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The one theme I’ve seen this week is fantasy managers cutting bait with some healthy higher-round picks (e.g. David Price, Zach Davies, and Devin Williams). I agonized over Ian Happ for a while this week. The key will be determining if the struggles are random variance or change in talent.

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.
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My computer won’t power up (yes I blew on it Yants) so no chat. I’ll try answering questions on Twitter (@jeffwzimmerman) from 7:30 to 830 cst works. -Jeff

The pool of desirable starting pitchers has dried up as the breakouts (e.g. Steven Matz and Carlos Rodon) have been permanently rostered. Try to grabbed anyone left to fill your rotation to cycle through for the rest of the season. Bullpens have stabilized and for now, few options are available and desirable.

In the following article, I’m going to at least cover the players in demand 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 article is an experiment that I’d like feedback on. I’m not finding enough information that doesn’t immediately become stale for Mining the News. So, I’m going to take those nuggets and try to combine them with the weekly lineup analysis. I’m not sure if this format will work so just let me know in the comments. Thanks. -Jeff

American League

Angels

• Consistent. Everyone just moved up a slot with Anthony Rendon out.

• With Max Stassi on the IL, Kurt Suzuki (.233/.314/.367) is the regular catcher.

• Jose Rojas (.385 OPS) and Luis Rengifo (.258 OPS) are now splitting time at third base.
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Last week, I tried to find a decent source for the upcoming weather that had more than one or two days. After not finding one, I decided to create my own. Bookmark and use as needed.

American League

Angels

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The 2020 and ’21 seasons have created a unique fantasy baseball environment that has never existed. One of the biggest challenges is evaluating players. It’s been almost 18 months since there have been games across all levels. Players have changed for the good and bad. There is just no way to know how much with everyone hidden at the alternate sites. For hitters, xwOBA and a Barrel% formula can be a solution to spot and verify some breakouts.

With hitters, I find they change at a slower rate. While pitchers can change a pitch’s shape or its usage overnight, hitters can’t immediately change their batting eye or gain 50-home run power. It’s going to be subtle changes that won’t be noticeable for a few weeks. Still, I want to try to be one step ahead of these unknown adjustments by using the best indicators and hope to marry these best estimates from long-range projections.

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Just a few drops I would not have done, but overall, it was a calm, reasonable week. I expect there to be a crazy one coming up when some rookies get the call.

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.
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7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

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