Angels

• Luis Rengifo (.597 OPS) and Wilfredo Tovar (.422 OPS) are manning the two infield positions while batting eighth and ninth.
• Kevan Smith (.284//.376/.419) is hitting better than Jonathan Lucroy (.232/.300/.368) but is only starting twice a week.
• Cesar Puello (vs LHP) and Brian Goodwin (vs RHP) are platooning in left field.

Astros

• The Astros lineup remains in flux with the three stars out and the recent promotion of Yordan Alvarez. They’ve also demoted Derek Fisher. For the last two games, they’ve used the same lineup with Josh Reddick leading off, Alvarez batting fifth, and somehow Tyler White is still batting eighth.
• When the big three return, I expect White, Tony Kemp, and Jake Marisnick to be benched.

Athletics

• The lineup is set with a Chad Pinder and Robbie Grossman splitting time in left field.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey y’all.  Since the draft was last week, I thought it would be interesting to shine some light on some players who were drafted last year and are performing quite well.  I’m bringing you two hitters drafted in the second round with some power and speed upside.  Also making their debut are two pitchers drafted in the fifth and seventh round performing well in the lower levels.  Let’s go!

Alek Thomas – (ARI A) OF – ETA 2022

Alek Thomas was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the second round of last years draft.  After being drafted the Diamondbacks sent Thomas to the Arizona League. Thomas showed a bit of power, with 2 home runs but he also hit eleven doubles.  The above average hit tool has shown, as he had a .341 AVG. His average eye also showed with a 0.396 OBP during that time and flashed his 60-grade speed with 4 stolen bases.  He finished his season in rookie ball with a 0.325 AVG and 0.394 OBP with another 8 swiped bags.

Read the rest of this entry »

6/13/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

PLAYER RATER CHECK-INS

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Last season at BaseballHQ ($$), I found the expected results for hitters returning from Tommy John surgery (TJS). The research was completed with traditional stats and no StatCast information was utilized. The reason was that only one regular, Christian Vazquez, had Tommy John surgery since there was publicly available StatCast data. That changed when five hitters had the surgery last year. With the return of Didi Gregorius, all have made it to the majors. Sadly the early returns are unspectacular with Corey Seager and Shohei Ohtani struggling.

In his first three seasons, Seager posted a .876 OPS but past two seasons it has only been a .793 OPS. I included last season because he struggled while trying to play through the injury. For Ohtani, he posted a .925 OPS last year and just a .742 OPS this season. These values line up with the original TJS article.

Read the rest of this entry »

The general assessment of the 2019 season thus far is that pitching studs have disappointed while a throng of underrated arms have come to save the day. But is that true? We know the likes of Noah Syndergaard and Aaron Nola have fallen well short of expectations and gems like Mike Soroka and Matthew Boyd have picked up the slack. What does the whole picture look like, though?

I used the NFBC average draft position for the Main Event as a starting point and then compared that to where the pitchers are in our Auction Calculator.

THE TOP 20 DRAFTED

Let’s start with the studs. Guess how many of the top 20 drafted starters are still there thus far according to the Auction Calculator?

Ready?

Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball Twitter is the best:

Another day of Angel Hernandez ruining baseball, another day of @MLB doing nothing about it. pic.twitter.com/NgIIgEVbo7

— Danny Saint (@CenterStageDS) June 12, 2019

Read the rest of this entry »

6/11/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 20, the best baseball strategy game ever made – available NOW on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms! Go to ootpdevelopments.com to order now and save 10% with the code SLEEPER20!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

GET THE SLEEPER & THE BUST T-SHIRT FROM ROTOWEAR!

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Alex Reyes to possibly join the rotation next week (4:30)
• Dylan Cease on the verge of a call up? (11:50)
• Dallas Keuchel dominant in High-A (16:23)
• A.J. Puk/Jesus Luzardo tandem starting today (20:45)

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

While I’d love to pepper my offense with Twins, Astros, Dodgers, and Brewers, the guys from the best offenses are hard to acquire, whether at the draft table or once an offense takes off in-season. The dregs of the league are still going to play 162 games, though, and not every poor team is down in the standings because of their offense so there are gems to be found.

I wanted to highlight someone from each of the poor teams (at least a couple games below .500) and see if they are someone you might want to roster the rest of the way. Oakland, New York (N), St. Louis, and San Diego weren’t included because I don’t see them in line with the rest of these poor teams.

Hanser Alberto, BAL | 2B/3B

Alberto is hitting .384/.408/.493 over his last 18 games with 1 HR and 3 SB. He has nine multi-hit games and he has batted leadoff in 12 of his 17 starts. Batting average will drive this profile with a few homers and steals, but I like that he’s atop the lineup.

Read the rest of this entry »

Me when I am home alone with the kids:

Yooooo, John Kruk is FED UP with the Phanatic. 😂 pic.twitter.com/yCayd7L8y0

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 11, 2019

Read the rest of this entry »

Instead of call-ups, I’m finding most of my gems in last week’s trash. Here are the players dropped the most in the 38 NFBC Main Event leagues

Demoted

• Corbin Martin (25): A 5.59 BB/9 and a matching ERA means he is off to the minors.
• Devin Smeltzer (23): With Michael Pineda off the DL, Smeltzer and his 89-mph fastball are back in the minors.
• Willians Astudillo (18): There is just no room for this fan favorite on the team. Marwin Gonzalez is a perfect utility player while Mitch Garver (1.103 OPS) and Jason Castro (.933 OPS) can handle the catching duties.
• Daniel Mengden (13): Mengden is an instance of an owner trying to get a jump on a possible two-start week against Tampa and Seattle. Then he went out in his one start and allowed six runs in just over two innings of work.
• Garrett Hampson (11): He’s back in AAA since he just can’t find his footing in the majors (.186/.231/.258)

Read the rest of this entry »