Start spreading the news. Martin Prado has truly woken up in the city that never sleeps. I wrote a few paragraphs about Prado last month, explaining why I’d rather have him than Dustin Pedroia rest-of-season. Now I feel compelled to study him a bit deeper, since he’s continued raking, despite battling a nagging hamstring issue that kept him out for a few games, but sure hasn’t slowed down his production.

Since being traded to the Yankees, Prado has snapped out of a year-and-a-half long slumber to put up some of the best numbers of his career. Since moving to the Bronx, Prado has been the No. 4 fantasy second baseman, hitting for both power and average. Just a quick look at his season stats, split between the two clubs, is jaw-dropping:

• w/ARI (436 PA) – .270/.317/.370, 5 HR, .099 ISO
• w/NYY (133 PA) – .310/.331/.543, 7 HR, .233 ISO

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I spent an hour trying to find something relevant to say about the last two weeks of the season but was unsuccessful. Or at least there was no topic worth spending several hundred words on. If you’re looking for a two start streamer in what is likely the last week of your H2H playoffs, look at Blue Jays Marcus Stroman and Drew Hutchison. They’re the most talented pitchers owned in less than 50% of ESPN.com leagues in terms of K-BB% and OPS allowed on balls in play (aka limiting hard contact). Instead, let’s spend a few hundred words quickly running through a way too early top 10 SP list for next year. Read the rest of this entry »

By simply taking the difference between a starting pitcher’s SIERA and ERA, you could quickly identify which guys are likely to be overvalued and undervalued in next year’s drafts and auctions. We do still have a couple of weeks left this season, so things can and will change. But it’s unlikely to change so dramatically so that the players discussed will finish out the year on the opposite list. So let’s talk about some of the biggest SIERA overperformers as these pitchers may be next year’s busts.

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The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” will not go live in this post. Jason Collette and I experienced some technical difficulties. Our sincere apologies. The good news is that this is an isolated incident, so expect us to avoid it in the future.

We did talk about fantasy baseball stuff, however. Here, I run down the topics we discussed and our main thoughts on them. As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them in our next episode. If you have a specific question you’d like answered heading into your week, then ask in the comments and we’ll get to it ASAP.

First, Jason wanted to mention a cause near and dear to him: Evan’s Young Warrior Fund. Some close colleagues of his, Evan’s parents, put this on as part of their efforts to combat a very rare disease known as AT/RT. They aren’t the type of people who ask for help, he says, so support from others is crucial to their fight. We ask only that, if you feel we’ve been of some help to you in your march to a roto or head-to-head title, you consider giving a tiny portion of your winnings to the fund. It’d be highly appreciated.

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2014 has been a lousy year for Jason Kipnis and his fantasy owners. After back-to-back campaigns as a top-five fantasy second baseman — No. 5 in 2012, No. 3 in 2013 — he is the No. 21 second baseman in standard formats this year. He has provided less fantasy production than Brock Holt.

On Wednesday, Kipnis attempted to explain his disappointing season in a rather bizarre interview with MLB.com. He mostly pointed to his new contract as an excuse, saying that it forced him to try to do too much early in the season. The problem with this explanation is that April was easily his best month of the season, as his .766 on-base plus slugging was a full 100 points higher than in his best month since. It’s now mid-September and Kipnis still hasn’t broken out of his season-long slump.

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Episode 166

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live!

Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix on, among other topics: Yasmany Tomas; Giancarlo Stanton; Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant (by request); Buster Posey (by request); Hisashi Iwakuma; Michael Wacha (by request); the closer situations in Boston, Toronto, and San Diego (by request); Dustin Pedroia; David Wright; Carlos Beltran; and streamers for the beginning of next week (by requests).

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them in our next episode.

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• Reminder, the first table of players are ones who aren’t on the DL, but should be.

• The Phillies say Cliff Lee should be ready for the start of spring training.

Amaro was asked to rate his confidence level that Lee will be ready to contribute next season.

“High,” he said.

Lee was seen by top orthopedists James Andrews and David Altchek. Both agreed that the pitcher has a strain that can heal with rest and rehab. Lee was treated with a platelet-rich plasma injection and will begin throwing in November. If all goes well, he should be ready for Day 1 of spring training.

Or he may not be. I would at least ding Lee a couple weeks of production on next year’s production.

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I covered matchups last week for some players who run often and aren’t full-timers but aren’t purely pinch runners. For fantasy baseball players who are lagging in the SB category but could gain substantial ground in it in the season’s final few weeks, such possibilities may be appealing. The return on this kind of investment is probably not great, as mentioned, but the forecasts can be pretty simple. Again, the greater challenge for a batter is to reach base, not to steal one.

First, there might be some players in your league’s free-agent pool who are more appealing than the streaming plays, however. (Ownership percentages are in parentheses.)

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September is an exciting time in baseball. It affords us the opportunity to see many of the stars of the future, who are often promoted once rosters expand. Those prospects with enough offense to be viable in fantasy this season are likely long gone from the waiver wire, but offense is not the only way September call-ups can make a difference in fantasy. The defensive upgrades some call-ups provide can make a major difference for their starting pitchers, even over only a handful of starts. Four pitchers should benefit, in particular.

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Collin McWho? That was the question I asked in early May when Collin McHugh had made just three starts. But at the time, he had allowed just six runs over those starts, while posting a sparkling 23/4 K/BB ratio in 19.1 innings. It was a small sample size to be sure, but it’s hard to fluke your way into a 30.7% strikeout rate. So we all took notice and wondered where this performance came from.

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