While Nelson Cruz seems to be fouling up a half dozen of our depth chart discussions, assuming the Detroit Tigers don’t boldly go where everyone says not to, their outfield situation is pretty well sewn up. And although they may lack star power, for fantasy purposes, there are players that just might help you.
The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen combined for the third best bullpen ERA last year, which is especially impressive given they finished 27th in strikeout percentage. That their relief corps finished with a sub-3.00 ERA was largely due to their 78.3% left on-base percentage — which ranked in the top five in baseball. The pen of the Bucs managed to post a second best .272 BABIP which of course helped keep the LOB% high and the ERA down. Curiously the Pirates relief corps maintained a low BABIP while also posting the highest ground ball rate in the league last year, 52.0%. The fantasy talent dries up quickly after the closer and setup men, though there are holds to be had if one can find strikeouts elsewhere.
The closer
Jason Grilli
No surprise here as Grilli has been spectacular for the past several seasons. Rather than fitting in with the rest of the bullpen by getting ground outs and a few strikeouts, Grilli is the opposite. He 14.5% swinging strike rate last year led to a 36.6% strikeout rate, nearly a career high mark. Grilli does a superb job of keeping the ball in the yard, especially considering his tendency to record plenty of fly outs. His 33.0% GB% was tied for fourth lowest of any reliever with at least 10 saves, getting more grounders than only Ernesto Frieri, Huston Street, and Joe Nathan. On top of his home run prevention, last year Grilli’s 6.4% walk rate was the lowest single season mark of his career. Despite this being his age-37 season, Grilli still has plenty of zip on his fastball — it averaged over 93 mph last year — and he effectively mixes off-speed pitches to induce whiffs. While he did miss time last season due to a forearm strain, Grilli managed to come back in September and even finish the season as the closer.
Read the rest of this entry »
Billy Hamilton is fast. We get it. He swiped 103 bases at Low-A Dayton in 2011. In 2012, he stole 155 bases between High-A Bakersfield and Double-A Pensacola and then kicked in another 10 during a 17-game stint at the Arizona Fall League. Last season, he put another 75 notches in his belt at Triple-A Louisville, and when he was given his cup of coffee in the bigs, he swiped another 13 bases over the team’s final 13 games. Yeah, he’s pretty darn fast. But while he’s bathing in quickness rivaled only by the Flash, the Roman god Mercury and that little kid from The Incredibles, Hamilton may not be the 2014 fantasy goldmine that everybody seems to think. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple weeks ago, Paul Swydan wrote about the Cardinals’ crowded rotation and rather than rehash that article here, let’s just agree that the Cardinals have an unfair quantity of potential starting pitchers. Paul actually undersold the system’s depth, as there are a couple prospects who talent evaluators believe will be ready sometime in 2014. With that said, let’s dive into fantasy value and expected roles.
Nothing seemed to go right for the Chicago Cubs in 2013. While the team wasn’t expected to be good, it had a young core of players who could contribute to the next winner on the North Side. Virtually all of those players collapsed last season. Starlin Castro finished the year with a .280 wOBA, Anthony Rizzo regressed in his first full season and Jeff Samardzija failed to capitalize on his strong 2012. Both Castro and Rizzo are the more alarming cases. They were supposed to give fans a look at the team’s future before the next crop of talented prospects were ready. They’ll need to rebound if the team want to continue the long climb back to respectability.
The Pirates starting pitchers were damn good last year. They posted a 3.27 ERA, good for third best in baseball and the National League, and delivered an intriguing mix of strikeouts and ground balls. If the entire staff was one pitcher, it would be exactly the type I love. A.J. Burnett may be gone, but the rotation is still composed of a high upside group.
The Pirates have perhaps the best outfielder in baseball not named Mike Trout, but it appears that they’ll have to play mix and match in right field until their top prospect is ready to answer the call. Their outfield produced about 13 real world wins last season, and that was with terrible play from Felix Pie and Travis Snider. Fantasy owners will be hoping for a repeat in 2014.
Heading into the offseason, the Cardinals didn’t seem to have too much work to do with their outfield. Sure, they were set to lose Carlos Beltran, but they had depth within the organization and there hardly seemed to be a need to go fishing on the free agent market. A quick trade to maybe give themselves some improvement in center field happened early in the winter, but everything else was left alone. Now here we are with less than two weeks before pitchers and catcher report and less than a month before position players make their way and there’s still no room for potential rookie sensation, Oscar Taveras. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cincinnati Reds bullpen offers little in the way of drama, unless you consider shut-down, lights-out closers to be dramatic.
Yes, it’s Aroldis Chapman atop the food chain in the Queen City, and there’s little reason to doubt he’ll once again be one of fantasy baseball’s premiere closers. Of course, there’s always the hope the Reds decide to use him more, further leveraging their $5 million investment for 2014.
There are two big stories when it comes to the Reds offense. One relates to an outfielder, which indirectly affects the infielders and their fantasy potential and the other involves an infielder that somewhat surprisingly still dons a Reds cap. Another less major, but still noteworthy, story is the changing of the guard behind the plate. Ryan Hanigan’s departure opens the door for Devin Mesoraco and now there’s simply no excuse to not make him the every day catcher and see what he could do.