I have once again been called up from Triple-A for the spot start with Jeff away, as I have minor league options remaining. This article approximately follows his methodology, focusing on players widely available at the start of this week (I use a <75% owned in the Main Event threshold). The players are ordered for redraft leagues roughly by my rest-of-season preference–only two weeks to go (!)–grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. I tend to put a lot of weight on recent playing time trends and popular weekly (e.g., Razzball) and rest-of-season projections, including the various systems published at FanGraphs, and my own system. I play in a lot of NFBC 15-teamers, so that’s the context I have in mind when writing this. Happy bidding!
• Billy Cook started two straight in the outfield. Across two minor league levels, he hit .275/.375/.474 with 17 HR and 25 SB in 493 PA. Projections agree on the power-speed combination but don’t buy the batting average with values around .220 AVG.
This weekend, I have to travel a decent distance for my aunt’s funeral, so I’m off not going to be available for a few days. For the weekend, Jordan Rosenblum will have a waiver wire article article but I went ahead and looked into some players who could be or not be options.
Batters
Note on hitters. If in a Roto league, roster who you need. If power, Matt Wallner. If speed, Otto Lopez. If all around, Tommy Pham. I haven’t spotted any major value movers since MLB teams made waiver wire claims before September 1st. Check out my Big Kid Adds where the managers in these competitive leagues added Trevor Story (a drop for me), Grant McCray (power and speed, batting average sink), or Jonny DeLuca (regular starts).
Spencer Horwitz: He’s been on fire over the last month hitting .317/.386/.633 with 6 HR. His stats are up because he’s being benched against most lefties (.916 OPS vs RHP, .511 OPS vs LHP). Next week, Toronto has only four righties on the schedule so the volume might not be there. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s an odd thing, trying to rank baseball players before the season begins. There’s so much that can happen in between your last click of the “Post” button and the start of the regular season. Pre-season rankings are like a message in a bottle that gets gently pushed out to sea, or in my case, thrown overboard in choppy seas after the contents of the said bottle have been drained, stuffed with the best note I could muster and chucked out into the ether. It’s not easy, that’s what I’m trying to convey. In this post, I’m going to focus on what went well.
I’ve got a weekend board coming for y’all, so look for that on Friday evening. I’ll try to get one for each of these last 3 weekends.
I’m a huge Logan Webb fan, but he isn’t an unquestioned must-start here. His 1.28 WHIP v. teams over .500 is 14 pts higher than sub-.500 clubs, including a 1.53 in 19 IP v. the Padres. I’m more inclined to run him if I’m in chase mode hoping vintage Webb returns with 8 shutty in a low-scoring win.
Brant Hurter has sneakily been a big reason the Tigers are back in the wildcard mix. He has 33 innings with 3.00 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 19% K-BB, often following an opener (1 start, 6 follows) for about 5 innings per outing. He has wins in each of his last 4 outings, including a traditional 5-inning start v. LAA.
Do not feel obligated to start Freddy Peralta. ARI is so scary. They are 1st in BB% v. righties since July 1st and 3rd on the year while Peralta has walked at least 2 batters in each of his last 10 starts (10% BB).
FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: I agree w/the comment that Clarke Schmidt should be higher but I didn’t want to remake the chart so I just 2-x’d him and highlighted it to signify it was changed. I mistakenly thought this was his return from the IL, but w/the tune-up start at CHC (75 pitches, 4.7 IP), I feel good running him in a lot of spots today. He’s even borderline 3-x depending on your situation. View him more in the Webb/Hurter range.
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment below with fantasy questions.
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