Archive for Featured

Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – April 12th, 2019

Chat transcript is now available.

1:05

Paul Sporer: It’s time to talk some baseball! Thanks for coming out, everyone!!

1:05

ke’bryan mays hayes: Joe Musgrove owns. Thoughts?

1:06

Paul Sporer: Agreed, but I really don’t like “thoughts?” questions… it’s not really a question. You had the benefit of being first in the chat. I love Musgrove, though.

1:07

John: When do GB rates stabilize for the year?

1:07

Paul Sporer: About 70 batted balls

1:09

John: Paul help me with Desmond.  Is he droppable or should I ride this out?  GB rate is down 20 points but all statcast measures look terrible.

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Changing Fastballs

Most analysts listened when I made this pre-season request.

Almost too good. Every time I thought about writing about today’s topic, another writer stepped up. I’m done waiting and it is time to see which fastballs have changed, for the better or worse, since last year.

Instead of focusing just on velocity, I add in the fastball’s spin rate and the pitcher’s overall Zone%. With spin rate, I’ve seen pitchers try to keep up their velocity while dealing with an injury and the pitch’s spin changes. As for Zone%, if a pitcher is having issues finding the plate, they may have something mechanically wrong. By combining the three factors together, I’ve come up with an overall ‘Injury’ value where a -100 score means several negative forces are at work.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 671 – The State of Starting Pitcher

4/11/19

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!

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NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

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Passing the Whiff Test: Early K% Improvements

This is a tough part of the season for fantasy analysts. There just isn’t a ton to go off with the small samples making it difficult to come up with useful content. However, just saying “it’s a small sample, don’t worry; it’s a small sample, it doesn’t mean anything; it’s a small sample, just wait” doesn’t do anyone any good. We no longer play in an era of fantasy sports where you can wait for data to stabilize before making moves.

One of the quickest stats to “stabilize” is strikeout rate at 60 plate appearances. Now just because it stabilizes around that point, doesn’t mean it’s the new level for that player, it just means that what we’ve seen in those 60 PA has some legitimacy. Only five guys have reached 60 plate appearances through April 9th, but many are just a game or three away so I felt like we could check in on some these early strikeout rate improvements.

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Roto Riteup: April 10, 2019

I know a lot of people made fun of this yesterday…

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 670 – Fireside Chat: Pitchers Catching Our Eye

4/9/19

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

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

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The 10: Velo Gainers

Last week, I debuted “The 10” by looking at unexpected gems and we’re staying on the mound again today. While there are small sample all over the place, pitchers are at least accumulating data in areas that often stabilize sooner and can add some insight despite the fact that we’re still almost a week away from Tax Day. Meanwhile, hitters are still ping-ponging between perceived hot and cold starts as evidenced by Nick Markakis jumping 51 points in AVG with a 3-for-4 effort on Monday night.

For this exercise, I’m comparing current velos through a couple starts or handful of relief innings against the player’s full April total from last year. These gains aren’t set in stone, but they are worth monitoring, even at this early juncture. Here are 10 velocity gainers on my radar:

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Prospect Risers and Fallers

Hey y’all!

With minor league baseball back in full swing, I thought it would be fun to give my risers and fallers.  Time to plant my flag! I decided to give a riser and faller for each position. Feel free to chime in the comments with your own riser and fallers!  

Catcher

Riser – William Contreras (ATL) – Atlanta dabbled in the Realmuto trade talks this offseason but decided the price was too high but maybe they knew William Contreras is on his way.  Contreras is an athletic catcher with an above average arm and he has improved behind the dish. What really stands out for Contreras is his above average hit tool for the position that sprays the ball to all fields.

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Roto Riteup: April 9, 2019

I am the King of the woooooooooooorld!!!

 

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Who is Getting Dropped & Why (Week 3)

Fantasy owners this past week found several players in demand, so owners needed to decided who headed to the waiver wire. Here are the players released and why in the NFBC Main Event.

Injury

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