Robbie Ray is having a huge season thus far. He has a 3.42 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 47.3 innings and his 3.29 SIERA stands as a career best, even better than in 2017 when he posted a 2.89 ERA but a 3.53 SIERA. While being consistently maddening throughout his career – even in 2017 he had a 4.57 ERA through 8 starts and was likely on some waiver wires only to deliver a 2.24 ERA in his final 20 starts – he didn’t lose widespread fantasy appeal until last year’s 6.62 ERA in 51.7 innings. Let’s dive a bit deeper and see what Ray is doing to drive this success and how much of it is sustainable.

Arsenal is always the easiest place to start in a pitcher breakdown. Off the top we see a velo boost that has his fastball sitting at 95.3 mph, a career high. Looking at just four-seamers, his usage is also up 11 points to 58%. The results have been a bit neutered by the .238 ISO thanks to 7 HR in 125 PA. The .237/.280/.475 line is still much better than last year’s .292/.464/.689, but a bit worse than 2019’s .221/.322/.391 which is a little surprising given the improvements in not only the velocity, but also control.

Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball is happening! I decided for the entire season to run a weekly article on pitchers who have been “heating up.” I will dive into what it could mean for the pitcher and what you should do with them. This should be a captivating concept because it will be pitchers of all levels, anywhere from aces to pitchers you would have never drafted. That’s what it’s all about, catching players as they improve and acting on it before anyone else can realize. Welcome to “Throwing Heat!”

Read the rest of this entry »

A fantasy baseball story in two parts:

The Rays: pic.twitter.com/F0lxd3ZIFD

— Justin Mason (@JustinMasonFWFB) May 21, 2021

Read the rest of this entry »

NEW FEATURE ALERT! We have added an upgraded version of RosterResource’s Closer Depth Chart to FanGraphs. Read more about it here.

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).
Read the rest of this entry »

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:33	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

5/23/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @justinmasonfwfb – Host/Producer
• @EricCross04 – Guest

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

NEW FEATURE ALERT! We have added an upgraded version of RosterResource’s Closer Depth Chart to FanGraphs. Read more about it here.

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.

The 2021 version of Bullpen Report includes five different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

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.)
Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

The 2021 version of Bullpen Report includes five different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

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 »

• 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 »