Archive for Featured

I’ll be in the comments answering questions and discussing changes!

Focus more on tier differences than rankings differences within a given tier. Sure, the top and bottom of a tier can be discussed, but 7-10 rankings within the same tier isn’t a huge split to me and comparing them would likely come down to short-term matchups.

Changes (won’t appear on the boards below):

• Peter Lambert – HOU – Team Streamer #91 – got knocked off during an edit when I was digging in a previous version on Sheets, thinking I was only changing some of the header text. I’ve got him at the very end of the Team Streamer tier, ranking 91st. Let’s see how this trip to Baltimore goes this week but then a LAD/at CIN 2-step next week is scary for pitchers way better than Lambert so it’s far from a must-start. If we see another 8 punchies, I might mess around and run him in my Main Event but I would at least keep him even though benching a 2-step is usually grounds for roster removal (the idea being “if you’re not going to use them in a 2-step, are they really worth it?” but there are exceptions, IMO). He lines up for TEX and at MIN the following weeks after the 2-step.

Full Rankings Without Tiers

Here is today’s chat transcript:
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• Daily SP Chart archive
• 2-Start podcast episode
• Preseason SP Rankings (update coming Monday April 27th!)

Welcome to the Daily SP Chart.

The chart includes their performance for 2026, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues – essentially a shallow, medium, deep league setup – and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations for standard 5×5 roto leagues, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment. I usually do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions.
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Rumbling, tumbling:

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7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now, while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. I start players being added at CBS who started the week on less than 40% of rosters.

The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference, grouped by hitters, starters, and relievers. Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

American League

Angels

• Vaughn Grissom (vs LHP) and Adam Frazier form a second base platoon.

• Yoán Moncada (.679 OPS) and Oswald Peraza (.889 OPS) are splitting time at third base. Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up on April 25th of 2005 like I did any other day. I only had vague recollections of the night before and I was shaky and a bit nauseous, but that was normal because I was an alcoholic. I grabbed the bottle that was reserved for the mornings and I walked over to the sink in my bathroom. I looked in the mirror and didn’t like who looked back at me. Instead of pouring the contents of that bottle into a glass, I poured it down the sink. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Patience.  Read the rest of this entry »

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Earlier this week on the CBS Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, Chris Towers noted that Shane McClanahan was struggling more than he would have expected, even with his STUPH model grades down. Chris wondered if a pitcher’s STUPH drops to a new level, does the pitcher perform worse than those who were already at that level? Pitchers need time to adjust to their new talent level. Well, I decided to give the question a quick look.

When McClanahan last threw back in 2023, he had a Pitching+ of 115, and now has a Pitching+ of 90. While he has the same number of strikeouts (9 K/9), the rest of his results have been horrible (5.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) as his walks have ballooned (5.5 BB/9). The biggest issue with analyzing this change is that it is extreme, with a two-year gap between throwing. I needed to simplify the search.

Finding a large enough sample set was a pain. The set needs to include starting pitchers (I stayed away from combining starters and relievers) with a STUPH decline into a range with a large enough sample of other pitchers already pitching in that range. And all this occurs in the few seasons that STUPH models have existed. In the end, I went with Pitching+ as my metric because I wanted the pitcher’s overall talent. Also, I wanted a quick snapshot, not a full-blown study. Future studies could use several factors.

For the sample, I took all starters with at least 40 IP in back-to-back seasons. I subdivided that group into pitchers who saw their Pitching+ drop between five and 10 points into the 95 to 105 Pitching+ range (n=26). Then I created another group of pitchers with a 97.5 to 102.5 Pitching+ range in subsequent seasons (n=37).

Here are the average values from the two samples.

Even though Pitching+ was the factor controlled for, both sets’ Stuff+ and Location+ values ended up similar. And that’s about it for any similarities. The declining pitchers threw fewer innings (possible injury?) with an ERA that’s 0.64 higher and a WHIP that’s 0.11 higher. These pitchers seemed to struggle at the new talent level compared to pitchers who had time to adjust to it.

The effects seen by this one small subset mean someone should dive in to verify the results. The different ways to cut up the data could be endless. Different change sizes? Include TheBot Values? Do changes in Stuff values lead to changes in Location values? After a season with worse STUPH, do the pitchers’ results improve? As long as the sample sizes remain reasonable, the combinations are endless. I’m afraid Chris opened a can of worms.

• Daily SP Chart archive
• 2-Start podcast episode
• Preseason SP Rankings (update coming this wk! Monday April 27th!)

Welcome to the Daily SP Chart.

The chart includes their performance for 2026, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues – essentially a shallow, medium, deep league setup – and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations for standard 5×5 roto leagues, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment. I usually do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions.

Read the rest of this entry »