6/4/19

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 – Producer/Co-Host

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

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS, INJURIES, RUMORS (2:00)

• Adley Rutschman goes 1.1 (2:00)
• Dallas Keuchel/Craig Kimbrel rumors (10:15)
• Pedro Strop activated (15:52)
• Andrew McCutchen injured, could require IL (19:07)
  • Adam Haseley called up
• Miguel Cabrera has chronic knee issue (22:25)
• Nelson Cruz back (25:35)
• Jeff McNeil back (28:20)

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Another month is in the books and pitching landscape remains a mess. We lost 10 pitchers off last month’s rankings from underperformance, injuries, and demotions (to the pen or minors) and frankly, I could’ve maybe cut it to 105, but a lot of us play in deep leagues so we have to know the dregs. There are some major moves within even the top 50, let alone the rest of the rankings so I’ll have either an article or solo pod diving into reasoning behind the largest changes and how I feel about them going forward.

I look at my in-season rankings in 4-6 week blocks so the potential innings limits facing some of the younger arms rated highly aren’t really that important right now. Given that so much is going to change in the next month let alone the next four, I don’t see the point in pretending that these updates are viable for the rest of the season.

Pay attention to the tier! If I didn’t rank someone as high as you thought I should, but they are still a must or usually start, then it’s probably not worth freaking out too much. Those tiers mean they are in the rotation pretty much all the time. I’m open to debating slotting, too, but worrying about a 4-spot difference between two guys in the same tier is probably a waste of time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s data dump is brought to you by Paul Sporer and Justin Mason. In a recent Sleeper and the Bust episode, they were frustrated with not knowing how bidding in a 12-team league compared to a 15-teamer. I decided to go ahead and dive into the bidding in the NFBC’s 12-team Online Championship and the 15-team Main Event.

Note: I worked on this article over the weekend and only had this season’s FAAB data up to week 10. By the time the article publishes, week 11 will be available. The results wouldn’t change much with one additional week.

First, here is some background information on the league types. They are exactly identical in these ways:

• 23 total starters, 9 pitchers, 14 hitters
• $1000 in FAAB to spend with no Vickrey bidding and the results run on Sunday evening.
• No $0 bids.
• Seven bench spots.
• Both have a league and overall prize.

As for the differences, one is obvious, one has 12 teams and the other 15 teams. The less obvious one is that the 12-team leagues, on average, start drafting earlier in the preseason. For this reason, MLB teams have more time to churn their rosters and deal with injuries making the first FAAB period a little more aggressive compared to the 15-team leagues.

Read the rest of this entry »

History is important:

Just because my video triggered some “old school” baseball people yesterday. Here’s 60 seconds of bat flips before millennials ever made it to the show pic.twitter.com/ldocmGWsTC

— Shelfy (@RealShelfy) February 28, 2019

Read the rest of this entry »

6/3/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is brought to you by Out of the Park Baseball 19, 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 SLEEPER19!

Follow us on Twitter

• @justinmasonfwfb – Producer/Co-Host
• @sammyreidFI – Guest

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

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS, INJURIES, RUMORS (2:00)

• Nate Lowe promoted and demoted
• Jay Bruce traded to the Phillies
• Joey Gallo hurts his oblique
• Yusei Kikuchi skipping his next start
• Jimmy Nelson to start Wednesday
• Will Smith to be sent down?

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

It has not been easy to predict who will get the Red Sox’s next save on any given day, but with 20-20 hindsight, there has usually been a clear logic to Alex Cora’s bullpen usage decisions. I will fully admit, though, that I am lacking for a convincing explanation as to why he had Matt Barnes pitch the eighth inning with an 8-2 lead against the Yankees on Sunday night.

Perhaps Barnes needed to get some work in? Not likely, as he, Brandon Workman and Marcus Walden all pitched with the Red Sox trailing on Saturday after not having been used in four days. Maybe Cora was being extra cautious with a tough part of the Yankees’ lineup coming up? That’s more likely, as the 1-2-3 hitters — DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez kicked off the Yankees’ portion of the inning. Barnes allowed each of them to reach base, and then LeMahieu scored on a balk. Voit and Sanchez would eventually score, too, whittling the Red Sox’s lead down to three runs.
Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

5/31/19

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
• @pitcherlist – Co-Host

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

NEW TOP 100 PITCHERS:

• Griffin Canning – 93
• Spencer Turnbull – 100

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Baseball Savant recently released these new Pitch Movement leaderboards and they’re very cool. I don’t always get in the weeds on movement numbers to find out who leads what, but this has definitely made that easier. They explain at the top how they come up with the metrics and then show how much better than average the pitcher is with a given pitch’s break or drop.

Caleb Smith’s Fastball Horizontal Movement

Smith’s breakout season has been aided by big improvements in his fastball, including a jump in horizontal break. Only Richard Rodriguez (86% better than average) and Chris Sale (80%) are further above average than Smith’s 71% mark. His 4.8 pitch value on the heater is 25th-best this year and up from -3.0 last year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Angels

• Luis Rengifo has started eight straight games with no power (.034 ISO) and zero stolen base attempts.
• Since Zack Cozart went on the IL, the players in the lineup have stayed constant besides Jared Walsh giving Albert Pujols a break every third day or so.

Astros

• The lineup is in flux with George Springer, Carlos Correa, Aledmys Diaz, and Jose Altuve on the IL.
• Derek Fisher has started in four straight games, leading off twice.
• Tyler White, Tony Kemp, and Jack Mayfield are each seeing regular playing time.

Read the rest of this entry »