Archive for Featured

Starting Pitcher Chart – July 18th

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Daily SP Chart archive

The chart includes their season performance, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness over the last 30 days, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s basically a risky stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more value focusing on roto.

Read the rest of this entry »


Linking STUFFF Changes to Fantasy Relevant Stats

I have a major love-hate relationship with the STUFFF metrics. After just a few pitches, useful information becomes available to determine if a pitcher has improved or not. On the other hand, the issue I have against STUFFF is the lack of transparency and values change as the dataset increases. With all the STUFFF talk, all I want to know is how changes in it will affect a pitcher’s fantasy-relevant stats. In my first article, I set some ERA baselines for the STUFFF values. The next step is to understand what a change in a STUFFF value has on a pitcher. For example, if I hear their Stuff+ jumps from 90 to 110, why should I care? Is the pitcher’s ERA going to drop by 1.00 or by 0.10 or not at all? I decided to just make a major data dump to have a reference when a STUFFF value does move.

Caution: The following values may or may not be predictive. They could just be descriptive. There is just not enough information (2 years of information) to run any ideal predictive test at this point, especially with STUFFF’s vagueness and everchanging nature.

Read the rest of this entry »


Justin Mason’s Baseball Chat – July 17th, 2023

Here is today’s chat transcript:
Read the rest of this entry »


Bullpen Report: July 17, 2023

The 2023 version of the Bullpen Report includes five different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

We will always include a link to the full Closer Depth Chart at the bottom of the Bullpen Report each day. It’s also accessible from the RosterResource drop-down menu and from any RosterResource page. Please let us know what you think.

  1. Notable Workloads: Primary closers or valuable members of a closer committee who have been deemed unavailable or likely unavailable for the current day due to recent workload.
  2. Injury News
  3. Outlier Saves: Explanation for a non-closer earning a save during the previous day.
  4. Committee Clarity: Notes on a closer committee that clarify a pitcher’s standing in the group.
  5. Losing A Grip: Struggling closers who could be on the hot seat.

The “RosterResource” link will take you to the corresponding team’s RosterResource depth chart, which will give you a better picture of the full bullpen and results of the previous six days (pitch count, save, hold, win, loss, blown save).

Click HERE to view the full Closer Depth Chart.

Read the rest of this entry »


Starting Pitcher Chart – July 17th

Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

Daily SP Chart archive

The chart includes their season performance, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness over the last 30 days, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s basically a risky stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more value focusing on roto.

I posted my latest set of SP Rankings over the weekend so check them out here if you missed ’em!
Read the rest of this entry »


Sunday Night Waiver Wire & FAAB Chat

7:32
Jeff Zimmerman: Welcome.

7:33
Jeff Zimmerman: I’ve got a storm in the area so there is a chance I lose power

7:33
Jeff Zimmerman: Here are the bids from this week’s 15-team Tout Wars leagues

7:34
Jeff Zimmerman:

7:34
A.: Can recommend some ratio eraser middle relievers unlikely to be owned in a mixed 12 that counts holds as separate category?

Read the rest of this entry »


Waiver Wire & FAAB Report (Week 17)

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 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 »


Paul Sporer’s July Starting Pitcher Rankings

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been too long without an updated SP ranking. I do the SP Chart Monday-Friday, but I know many of y’all want to see everyone ranked 1-150. I decided to do it in the form of my SP Chart, giving a recommendation for 10-, 12-, and 15-team leagues which is a stand-in for shallow, medium, deep setups. An “x” in the particular category means they are pretty much a no doubt start in that format or at least in the team streamer range meaning I don’t cut them when not starting them. If they don’t have the “x” for a particular league type, they are fringe streamers and I’m unlikely to go for them outside of a nice 2-step or a really spicy 1-start against the right opponent.

I only wrote comments for select guys with most of the skips being on the top and low ends as you don’t really need me to tell you that Cole is awesome or than Lyles isn’t so awesome. If you have further questions about anyone, leave a comment! As for IL guys, I took liberty with some who are on the cusp of returning, but made some arbitrary cutoffs. For example, Max Fried is due back later this month, but his ETA is still about 2 wks from now and a lot can change so he was left off. He’s also an easy one because he’s an auto start once he returns.

Next update will be around mid-August for the stretch run.

OK, without further ado:

Read the rest of this entry »


Bullpen Report: July 15, 2023

The 2023 version of the Bullpen Report includes five different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

We will always include a link to the full Closer Depth Chart at the bottom of the Bullpen Report each day. It’s also accessible from the RosterResource drop-down menu and from any RosterResource page. Please let us know what you think.

  1. Notable Workloads: Primary closers or valuable members of a closer committee who have been deemed unavailable or likely unavailable for the current day due to recent workload.
  2. Injury News
  3. Outlier Saves: Explanation for a non-closer earning a save during the previous day.
  4. Committee Clarity: Notes on a closer committee that clarify a pitcher’s standing in the group.
  5. Losing A Grip: Struggling closers who could be on the hot seat.

The “RosterResource” link will take you to the corresponding team’s RosterResource depth chart, which will give you a better picture of the full bullpen and results of the previous six days (pitch count, save, hold, win, loss, blown save).

Click HERE to view the full Closer Depth Chart.

Read the rest of this entry »


Mining the News (7/14/23)

American League

Athletics

Luis Medina has been working on a new slider.

Medina, who typically favors his four-seamer, utilized a five-pitch mix (fastball, slider, sinker, curveball and changeup). Five of his nine strikeouts came on the slider, a pitch Medina has been working on.

Read the rest of this entry »