Tyler Anderson came into focus on the fantasy landscape this week after a pair of gems in a 2-start week, including an 8-inning win on Sunday. His 2.45 ERA and 0.68 WHIP in 14.7 innings absolutely helped him earn some more attention, but maybe he deserved the attention prior to last week given that he had a 3.38 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in his first five starts. Let’s see what he is doing this year to net a 3.05 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 41.3 IP so far.

The 31-year-old lefty has had runs of viability throughout his career, but with four of his first five seasons spent in Colorado, it was tough to consistently rely on him. He moved to San Francisco last year and earned some sleeper buzz only to essentially be what he was in Colorado with a much lower strikeout rate:

He survived the massive strikeout dip by halving his home run rate from 1.5 (2016-19 rate, he was actually at an obscene 3.5 mark in ’19) to 0.75, which isn’t too surprising given the move from Coors Field to Oracle Park. Although it is notable that the HR dip came despite a surge in flyball rate as he went up 11 points from 2019 rate to 44%.

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Sometimes the truth hurts

MLB trying to “improve” baseball pic.twitter.com/yHmAq9QnOq

— Justin Mason (@JustinMasonFWFB) May 9, 2021

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Talent changes are easier to identify with pitchers earlier in the season, as changes in velocity, pitch shape, and pitch mix are more readily apparent. Change isn’t always good and turning one bad pitch into a good one isn’t a guarantee of success but it’s a pretty good start.

When a pitch has seen dramatically different results against it, chances are something changed, whether solely involving the aforementioned qualities above, or how the pitches fit together as part of a player’s pitch mix whole. Change is everywhere and ongoing, we just have to find the where and (hopefully) why.

Using Run Value (RV/100 pitches) as our barometer, we’ll see what we can see about which pitchers have seen the most dramatic turnaround with one (or more) of their offerings. Remember that RV is the total run impact, according to the base-count state when the pitch was thrown. The more negative, the better. 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).
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7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

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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.)
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It’s official, we are about one week into May and the availability of decent starting pitching has dried up. Also, there aren’t any new bullpens to attack for Saves. With few desirable pitchers available, hitters will be the focus of this report.

One small change I made was that I grouped the catchers together. They just didn’t fit in with the other hitters.

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.
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American League

Angels

• With Pujols being optioned, Jared Walsh can just play first and an outfield spot opens up. Watch the playing time of Taylor Ward and Juan Lagares over the weekend for this open spot.

• José Iglesias (.630 OPS) has moved up to hitting fifth over the last three games.

• Griffin Canning keeps tinkering with his windup.

While Canning presented first-round level production during his days as a Bruin, longtime UCLA head coach John Savage pointed out that Canning would likely alternate between going over his head as he began his windup. Canning has done just that in his short pro career and into his time in the big leagues — once again making the switch to go over his head before his last start. Read the rest of this entry »

Most platforms have a feature where you can click something by the player’s name to put them on a virtual watchlist. It is smart to use this feature before the season starts because once it starts you be sorting by stats and you could miss out on someone you really want about to get a new role because you sorted by PA and he just didn’t show very high.

• Previous Watchlists

Brandon Belt used a trip to Coors (.400 AVG, 2 HR, 7 RBI) to garner some more attention and get himself on track.

SHALLOW LEAGUES (mixed leagues – 10 or fewer teams)

Willie Calhoun| UT, TEX

Is Calhoun finally breaking out? I guess 2019 was essentially a breakout (110 wRC+, 21 HR), but he’s hitting .328/.397/.492 so far this year with 3 HR and 7 RBI in 68 PA. The 26-year-old DH is playing almost daily since coming off the IL on April 17th with an occasional sit against a lefty, but otherwise he usually just moves down the lineup against southpaws. He is leading off against righties and part of this Rangers lineup that is shocking the league a bit with the 17th most runs (135) and 16th highest wRC+ (98).

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