I took a look at the batting leaderboards since the start of the 2018 second half (July 19th). I didn’t set out to find anything in particular, I just wanted to see what’s been going on over the last three-plus months of games. I used a 300 PA cutoff which gave us 170 hitters. Here’s a few interesting nuggets I found on the AVG & HR boards:

BATTING AVERAGE

Christian Yelich | .357 in 457 PA – Yelich is unsurprisingly lapping the field with a 16-point advantage (he also has a 111-point OPS advantage over Mike Trout) over the next guy. I haven’t looked at every category yet, but I’m sure Yelich has substantial leads in several of them given his utterly insane finish that has carried over into this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

A while back, I brought forward my thoughts on being 100% transparent about my weekly player acquisitions. The article started many discussions, but my thoughts kept coming back to one point. Does it matter that I have some skin in the game? I lucked into a position to provide fantasy content, does it matter if my ideas are successful when there is quite a bit on the line?

Note. For this article, I’ll use tout in place of an industry expert for consistency’s sake. Also, for the game’s participants, I will use owners.

I felt every tout should have some skin in the game and let their results do some of the talking. Some touts may disagree on this take, but I needed to find out and joined a few NFBC leagues. Besides just rostering a team, I felt I needed to be competitive.

Some of this belief may come from my own insecurities. I know I’m not close to the most entertaining personality, so I think my results may give me credibility. I have no idea if this is true.

Part of the belief comes from Ray Dalio’s book, Principles: Life and Work. In one section he states (p. 376):

“Remember that believable opinions are most likely to come from people 1) who have successfully accomplished the thing in question three times and 2) who have great explanations of the cause-effect relationships that lead them to the conclusions.”

So, do I need to be successful in all formats for others to believe me? So many questions.

Read the rest of this entry »

5/13/19 … er 5/14/19 (some technical issues held the pod over until Tuesday, my apologies!)

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!

TUESDAY’S DRAFTKINGS GAME FOR THE SHOW

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS (8:42)

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Game of Throne is everywhere…

José Berríos, Filthy 82mph Curveball…and Sword. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/cbvVWZer8u

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 14, 2019

Read the rest of this entry »

Another week of players heading to the waiver wire. Here’s a look at most dropped players in the NFBC Main Event (38 leagues).

Injured

• Drew Pomeranz (18): A lat injury has placed him on the IL but what’s really hurting him is the 5.93 ERA.
• Francisco Mejia (17): He’s landed on the IL (knee) and his owners moved on since he was just hitting .167/.207/.259.
• Mike Zunino (12): He’ll miss over a month with a quadriceps injury.
• Clay Buchholz (10): A bad shoulder is keeping him out.
  Read the rest of this entry »

With the 2019 amateur draft only three weeks away, the Prospect Stock Watch is reviewing some of the players from last year’s draft. Today, we’re checking in on 13th overall selection Connor Scott of the Miami Marlins.

The decision to start 2019 in full-season ball was a surprising move by the Marlins. The young outfielder was drafted out of a Florida high school where he was a two-way player (left-handed pitcher and outfielder). At the time of the draft, I wrote that Scott should be selected in the first or second round — but as a pitcher. Admittedly, the scouting consensus at the time was that he should be selected as a hitter due to his toolsy, athletic skill set. I personally loved his easy delivery, great pitcher’s frame and potential to develop at least two above-average offerings from the left side.

After he signed with the Marlins as an outfielder last June, he was assigned to Rookie ball where he posted a .630 OPS in 27 games. He was then oddly pushed up to Low-A ball for another 23 games where the OPS dipped to .572 and he struck out 30% of the time. On the plus side, he showed a willingness to take a walk with an 11% walk rate.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you invite the fam over, but forgot to pay the power bill this month:

Bruce Springsteen concert or baseball game?

The lights went out at the Trop so the fans tried to help out.

pic.twitter.com/BjUYM7v3lh

— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 12, 2019

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

With just the normal closer speculation bids, I’d not be surprised if this week had the lowest percentage of remaining FAAB spent so far this season. With Derek Dietrich as the top prize on the hitting side, I don’t expect owners to be spending much.

The 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.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week we’re looking at 10 minor leaguers who are going off in the high minors (AA/AAA). We’ll look at what they’re doing and how it might impact a future call-up.

Yordan Alvarez | OF/1B – HOU

The #7 prospect on the Astros list is going off so far this year, already clubbing 14 homers in just 134 PA. He has a 213 wRC+ while improving both his strikeout (21%) and walk (14%) rates. His obscene 48% HR/FB rate obviously won’t continue, but he is absolutely locked in and knocking on the door of the bigs.

Playing time is tight in Houston, but Tyler White needs to be looking over his shoulder with that 95 wRC+. Alvarez isn’t on the 40-man while Kyle Tucker is, but I can’t see how Alvarez’s performance wouldn’t have him first in line if a spot opens, even with it needing the extra work to get him on the 40-man.

Read the rest of this entry »