A chronically overworked bullpen experienced some considerable hiccups in 2014, as the Minnesota Twins saw the undoing of eighth-inning man Jared Burton as well as a late-season bout of struggles for closer Glen Perkins.

Perkins’ woes coincide pretty much directly to an arm issue that cost him a good chunk of September, but also provide a reminder that your great closer almost always already has one foot somewhat out the door.

Only three bullpens in baseball threw more innings than the Twins in 2014 — the Rockies, Cubs and Angels. No ‘pen struck out fewer batters than the Twins at 6.7 per 9. Worse yet was that the unit had the third-worst groundball rate at 40.1 percent. Sure, that’s OK in a big park, but not if you don’t have good outfielders, and not particularly if you don’t strike anybody out. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The New York Yankees head into 2015 praying that their rotation will hold up. As nearly anyone can reasonably surmise, it won’t. Injury concerns abound in the Yanks’ top five, and there’s not much help waiting in the wings. If everyone stays healthy, this rotation will be very formidable. Unfortunately, there aren’t many bigger ‘ifs’ than that one.

CC Sabathia
Masahiro Tanaka
Michael Pineda
Nathan Eovaldi
Ivan Nova
Chris Capuano

Those six names are the only ones that we have projected to pitch more than 19 innings as a starter for the Yanks this season. Considering the team used a whopping 13 starters last year, that’s red flag number one. Let’s start with Sabathia and work our way down.

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The Mets have conducted a quiet offseason. Rumors about the infield swirled for months. Daniel Murphy is one year from free agency, will he be traded? Wilmer Flores fits better at second base, can the Mets acquire Troy Tulowitzki? It’s too early to definitively say “no” to both questions, but we can almost rule out a trade.

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The New York Yankees saw two of their starting three outfielders miss the end of the season due to injuries last year. Both Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran lost some time, with Beltran being limited to 109 games last year. Ellsbury did managed to play the vast majority of the season however, as both he and Brett Gardner posted over 630 plate appearances each, though Gardner himself is coming off of surgery for a sports hernia this off-season. When healthy, all three starting OFers offer fantasy owners various stats, but the outfield reserve for the Yankees could prove valuable as well.

Center Field
Jacoby Ellsbury
Chris Young

Left Field
Brett Gardner
Chris Young

Right Field
Carlos Beltran
Chris Young
Garrett Jones

In the minors
Jose Pirela
Tyler Austin
Mason Williams
Rob Refsnyder
Taylor Dugas
Ramon Flores
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The Washington Nationals have such an embarrassment of riches in their starting pitching rotation, there has actually been talk of trading wunderkind Stephen Strasburg because, well, they could probably get away with it. Take your pick of #1 starters here, because all five could be featured at the top of the rotation for many teams. Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister, and Gio Gonzalez make up their normal rotation, making the odd man out a 3-win pitcher from 2014 named Tanner Roark.

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According to ERA and xFIP, the Mariners had the best bullpen in baseball last year, a fact that broadcaster Dave Sims was not shy in pointing out. With a pen full of gas cans — most of whom can pitch multiple innings if needed — opponents don’t get a chance to pick on a weak link in the late innings. Though they lost Brandon Maurer in a trade with the San Diego Padres, the Mariners bullpen should be in competition to retain their title in 2015.

The Closer: Fernando Rodney
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It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The Blue Jays enter the 2015 season with high expectations, which is a common refrain from recent seasons that has yet to turn into a playoff berth. Despite that real-life disappointment, many of the team’s moves in recent seasons have created fantasy success. Elite players Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion anchor their lineup, and some new additions offer fantasy potential to varying degrees, especially in the infield.
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While the Rays lack a clear number one a la David Price, the team has plenty of depth with SP2/3/4 types, all fantasy worthy for at the very least stream starts. There is value to be had in Tampa, but much of it will come in the later rounds/cheaper cost than previous seasons.

Episode IV, A New Hope
Alex Cobb
Chris Archer
Jake Odorizzi
Drew Smyly

Episode V, The Minors Strike Back
Alex Colome
Nate Karns

Episode VI, Return of the Injured
Matt Moore
Burch Smith
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This post continues our Depth Chart Discussions. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, rotation, and bullpen) and will continue to break them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find the Depth Chart Discussion posts gathered here.

As Eno examined a couple of weeks ago, the Red Sox infield has seen some changes this offseason. (The same would hold true for the Red Sox’s rotation and outfield for that matter.) But no team in the league has seen more changes to their infield than the Oakland A’s, whose 2015 opening day lineup projects to return exactly zero starters from the 2014 version.

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The Astros rotation was surprisingly decent last year. As a staff they totaled 12.4 WAR which made them the 12th best rotation in the league by that metric. But I’m about 99.9% sure no Astros starter had an ADP that made him a regular selection in 12-team mixed leagues. Yet they ended up producing the 20th and 33rd most valuable fantasy starters. Insane. But drafters aren’t totally buying it as those same two pitchers currently have ADPs of 53 and 65. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this staff is that the five starters who threw the most innings for Houston last year may be the same five starters to begin the year with only one real threat to steal a rotation spot. For a rotation that no one thought was any good just a year ago on a team that is still rebuilding, it’s surprising not to see much, if any, turnover. Read the rest of this entry »