• The MLB.com writers put together an article on the prospects who might contribute the most in the majors. For example, here is the write-up on Bubba Chandler.

Pirates: Bubba Chandler, RHP (MLB No. 15)
Chandler served notice at the end of last year at Triple-A with a 1.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, .183 BAA and 12.4 K/9 rate over seven starts for Indianapolis, and it wouldn’t have been surprising to have seen him up last year to help out had the Pirates hung around the playoff race. It remains to be seen if the club will be willing to bring him north on Opening Day, but the fact that they didn’t get the extra PPI Draft pick from Paul Skenes winning Rookie of the Year because they didn’t bring him up right away and he ended up being awarded a full season of service time anyway will be enough of a lesson learned.

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Toward the end of the 2024 season, I aggregated fastball performance metrics with “Know Your Averages 2024” and wrote about the pitchers near the minimum, the maximum, and the average. For example, Aroldis Chapman’s sinker still rules the SwStr% category (maximum, 17.8%), while Jake Woodford couldn’t buy a swinging strike (minimum, 0.9%) and George Kirby was perfectly average (6.0%). Below, you can find links to those posts. You may find them useful when contextualizing the statistical vomit coming from any baseball podcaster’s repertoire. I needed to do it for myself:

Fastballs: Four-seamers | Sinkers | Cutters

But now we move beyond the fastballs and attempt to digest all those other pitches. There are tremendous differences in the fastball swinging strike rates around and below 10% and the 15%’ers of sliders and splitters. We’ll begin with sliders.

Breaking and Offspeed Pitches: Sliders | Changeups | Curveballs | Splitters | Sweepers
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Here is today’s chat transcript:
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American League

Angels

• The owner mentioned Christian Moore as someone who could contribute this year.

“I’m really happy with the way it’s going,” Moreno said. “Perry has done a good job, Wash is really focused. I like the coaches. Just sit and watch these young guys throw bullpens and where they came from and what programs they came through. And we have a second baseman [No. 68 overall prospect Christian Moore] who just won a championship in college. You have to continue to put up good building blocks. And then the reality is being able to supplement everything.”

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Prospects have become increasingly important to winning re-draft fantasy leagues. Of course, they have always been major in-season acquisitions, but now they’re making their presence felt at the draft table, too. With more fantasy managers aware of the prospects who are likely to have an impact in a given season, the battle for their services has become much more fevered, leading some managers to stash desirable prospects for a month or two rather than try to pluck them off the wire once they are called up and risk missing out.

These guys aren’t draftable in every format, but I cast a wide net so that the list has utility across many formats and can be revisited when those players who don’t break camp on a big league roster are called up. All of them should be in the majors for a substantial portion of the 2025 season. It is worth familiarizing yourself with them so that you’re ready to bid on the ones who aren’t draftable in your particular league.

These rankings are now available on the 2025 Fantasy Rankings tab of The Board, where you can also see the Top 150 Dynasty Rankings! Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Mike Trout will play right field this year.

Mike Trout had a meeting with Angels coaches yesterday, and they determined he will play right field moving forward in an effort to preserve his body.

— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) February 17, 2025

This move doesn’t change Trout’s value but does for the other outfielders. Who will play centerfield? Jo Adell? Mickey Moniak? Will Taylor Ward continue to play every day in left field? Read the rest of this entry »

• It seems that MLB.com will be updating their injury report pages this season. A reminder that these are not articles but rather pages where info can be added or deleted anytime. For example, here is a report from the Cubs site on Nico Hoerner likely missing the season’s start.

2B Nico Hoerner
Injury: Right flexor tendon
Expected return: Early 2025
Status: Underwent surgery on Oct. 11. Currently in Arizona training and doing light baseball activities. Rehab could linger early into the season

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• MLB.com ran an article with all the projected starting lineups. For example, the author sees the Marlins starting Matt Mervis at first base.

MARLINS

Lineup
1. Xavier Edwards, SS
2. Connor Norby, 3B
3. Jonah Bride, DH
4. Jesús Sánchez, RF
5. Dane Myers, CF
6. Matt Mervis, 1B
7. Otto Lopez, 2B
8. Kyle Stowers, LF
9. Nick Fortes, C

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As we hit the beginning of draft season, it is important to monitor where players are being drafted on a regular basis. Throughout draft season, I will be doing that work for you with regular updates on the Average Draft Position on NFBC up until Opening Day. You can read all the Market Reports here.

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The smiles appear before the response.

Ask a few Orioles hitters for their immediate reactions to news that the club is moving in the left field wall, and their approval can be seen on their faces.

The above quote came from the Orioles caravan and got me thinking about how projections incorporate three new park changes.

I’ve seen the park changes referenced in articles and pods for reasons to fade or target certain players. I lean on projections and assume that they incorporate dimensions into account when they create their projections. If the changes are already accounted for, I don’t want to overrate affected players. After looking over various projections, most seem to take the changes into account, but some haven’t yet. Read the rest of this entry »