How I celebrate after the completion of the Roto Riteup:

We don’t even have a caption. Just watch this bat flip.

via @MiLB pic.twitter.com/8MENdugkSF

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 18, 2019

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6/17/19

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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• @sporer – Host

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

• Edwin Encarnacion to NYY (0:54)
• Mike Clevinger returning (6:26)

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The short-season leagues are slowing getting underway with the more advanced of those groups already playing ball. The remainder of the leagues will get going within a week. So who are some of the interesting names to know for dynasty league managers?

I’m glad you asked. Today’s piece will look at five players you should mentally file away and consider adding to your minor league rosters once they hit the full-season league (assuming you play in leagues with managers who didn’t also read this piece).

I don’t necessarily advocate taking players really early in their careers and needlessly using a roster spot on someone playing in a short-season league unless they’re extreme talents. There have only been a few players that I’ve added to my Ottoneu teams prior to their arrival in full-season ball: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., and Wander Franco.

The truth is, if you follow prospects closely, you can almost always find a good player worth adding to your roster. And adding a player too early often means you’re committing a roster spot to a player for three or four years if you grab them right out of the draft or rookie ball; more often than not in those scenarios you’ll end up ditching them before they actually help out. You’re better off leaving them unclaimed, monitoring their progress and jumping on them when the hype train starts warming up.

D’Shawn Knowles, OF, Angels

Knowles is another talented outfield prospect in an Angles’ system that also includes Jo Adell, Brandon Marsh, and Jordyn Adams. The club signed two top prospects out of the Bahamas back in July 2017 and Knowles has been the better performer to date, although he’s been returned to the advanced rookie league after spending half of 2018 at that level.

Although he hit .321 in 28 games there, it was with a .463 BABIP and 31% strikeout rate. The young outfielder doesn’t project to be much of a power hitter (although pretty much anyone can hit 20 homers these days in the MLB) and his game is really built around hitting line drives, getting on base and stealing bases. The good news is that he has a quick bat and short path to the ball so it’s really about pitch recognition and learning through repetition.

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My dad always told me to dress for the job you want:

This HAS to be a first. Martín Maldonado is sporting a tie over his catcher's gear and it's incredible. 😂#AlwaysRoyal | #Royals pic.twitter.com/My74ZhE1Vz

— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) June 16, 2019

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For most people, today is Father’s Day. For those who have an NFBC league, it’s Yordan Alvarez Day. The bids for him this week will be off the charts. It’s not just him who’s available and with many owners spending time with their families, there should be deals everywhere.

The projection guidelines:

• The ownership rates are from CBS since they have some quickdraw waiver wire leagues where players can be picked up at any time.
• The FAAB estimates are based on the 2018 15-team mixed NFBC leagues which used a $1000 FAAB budget. Owners are going to need to convert these values to their own league.
• The ownership values were taken from Saturday and lots can happen in between when they publish and FAAB bids run.
• Only players owned in 50% or fewer of CBS leagues are examined.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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PLAYER RATER CHECK-INS

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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.

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