Episode 155

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

RotoGraphs streaming guru Brandon Warne joins Nicholas Minnix to discuss, among other things, Lorenzo Cain’s potentially diminishing PT; Joc Pederson and Alex Guerrero; Carlos Martinez and Shelby Miller; Archie Bradley; Dan Straily; Trevor Rosenthal; Greg Holland; Daniel Norris; Avisail Garcia; Michael Cuddyer; Gerrit Cole; Wil Myers; David Wright; and, of course, this week’s two-turn pitchers of interest.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode. Read the rest of this entry »

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As my first RotoGraphs post, I dwelled way too long on this title: Coresistency Dickerson? Too corny. Corey Dickersplits? Too dirty. In any case, you can see from any of these titles where I’m going.

As the season winds down, I’m in trade mode, and I keep finding myself in trade discussions with Corey Dickerson owners. I am a win-now type of guy and therefore am all-in on trading prospects for sure-things when it comes to dynasty/keeper leagues. Dickerson was in an interesting boat for me: Do I buy? In the one league I have him, do I sell? While I would love to see him in front of or behind Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado on a more consistent basis (he’s full-time now, but the trio is rarely healthy), his Splits Page has me convinced.

Usually I stroll down the splits page and get excited by some segments and turned off by others, but I was satisfied throughout…

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I got my first opportunity to see Jorge Soler in person last Friday, and to say that he was impressive would be a colossal understatement. I’d read the scouting reports, watched him on MiLB.tv, etc. But Soler is one of those guys that you just can’t really prepare yourself for. He’s so insanely talented that it would be easy to get lost in superlatives while merely naming off his attributes.

The 22-year-old Soler has been even better than Javier Baez (my thoughts on him here) or Kris Bryant (write-up on him here) this season. Sure, Bryant and Baez have put up video-game numbers of their own, but what Soler has managed to accomplish through 43 games — split between Double-A and Triple-A — is simply astounding. Through 156 plate appearances (he’s missed time with hamstring injuries), Soler is hitting an outrageous .346/.442/.746. In addition to his 11 homers, Soler has hit more doubles (17) than singles (16).

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Back in early March, we took a look at why pitchers work on new pitches and the ones that were doing so during Spring Training this year. Both Jensen Lewis and Josh Zeid offered their thoughts as pitchers that have gone through the process of adding a new pitch at the major league level. Martin Perez, Sean Doolittle and Jake Odorizzi gave quotes to writers in camp explaining why each was adding a new pitch in 2014.

Adding a new pitch does not guarantee success nor will it instantly improve the prospects of one’s career. The previous article cited examples of how new pitches aided Wade Davis, Kevin Correia and Ross Detwiler while it had a negative effect on Clay Buchholz.

Now that the season is three-quarters complete, we have enough of a sample size to ask the simple question: did the new pitches help?

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–Jenrry Mejia dished a clean ninth frame with a strikeout on just nine pitches in a non-save situation against the Nationals. This outing is an interesting one considering Mejia is apparently pitching with a sports hernia. He’ll have these issues taken care of in the offseason, but for the time being, the Mets’ medical staff has cleared him to to take the hill. In 43 appearances this season, the 24-year-old is 5-5 with 17 saves in 20 chances. He currently owns a 3.84 ERA (3.58 FIP) and owned a 1.55 WHIP with a 12.8% K-BB% entering tonight’s contest. If-and-when Mejia does goes under the knife for the sports hernia, he could “gradually return to baseball activities between three-and-six weeks after therapy.”
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Episode 154

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

Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss, among other things, Mike Fiers; Jake Arrieta; Tim Lincecum; the San Diego Padres’ evolving lineup; Kendrys Morales; Brian McCann; Michael Bourn; J.J. Hardy; and some requests – Madison Bumgarner, Collin McHugh, Marcus Stroman, Mike Minor, Kyle Hendricks, and Mike Napoli.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode. Read the rest of this entry »

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• Justin Verlander is out collecting opinions on his sore shoulder. Dave Cameron and Eno Sarris both looked at Verlander’s velocity decline. Right now, I think Verlander is trying to find anyway to continue pitching this season. If he does continue to pitch, I would expect the same lower production from earlier in the season to continue.

• Manny Machado is on the DL with a sprained knee and he doesn’t expect to be back in just 15 days.

The O’s haven’t given a timetable for Machado’s return. He’ll be eligible to return from the DL on Aug. 27, but chuckled at the suggestion that he could return in two weeks. He says he’ll return when he’s able “to go out there and be Manny Machado.”

So in a couple of weeks, team rosters expand and all the players on the 40-man rosters can be added to the MLB club. Even if Machado isn’t Macado yet, he could be taken off the DL and pinch hit. Just remember, if he comes back September 1st, it doesn’t mean he is 100% ready to go.

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I covered Brandon McCarthy in a Waiver Wire post a couple of weeks ago (for the second time this season, the second time) because I was more excited about his prospects to see some positive regression now that he had joined the New York Yankees. Multiple news outlets in the Big Apple reported reasons that the organization targeted the right-hander. Brian Cashman and/or his advisers essentially believed that, with a couple of tweaks, he would deliver results more in line with his peripherals than he had for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Drew Fairservice, a recent addition to the FanGraphs team, wondered whether McCarthy’s results were more the product of Pinstriped Intervention or the laws of mean. It’s fair to ponder, and Drew gives the club credit. Eno and I (mostly Eno) mentioned in the podcast some possible reasons, such as the parity of a couple of his pitches, for McCarthy’s continually disappointing results in the desert in light of his indicators. Components such as xFIP and SIERA can serve an array of purposes, but they’re not inherently predictive. Read the rest of this entry »

The Orioles have not had a lot of luck with their pitching prospects of late, most recently thanks to Dylan Bundy’s Tommy John surgery. That is part of the reason that Kevin Gausman is such an exciting pitcher for them. Also he throws really, really hard. When he finally reached the majors to stay as a starter in June, Orioles fans and fantasy owners were ready for Gausman to strike out a ton of batters and become the ace of Baltimore’s staff. Instead, Gausman has struck out more than three batters fewer per nine innings this season than he did in his stint in the majors in 2013, and his overall numbers have declined further since the All-Star Break.

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As we continue to get closer to September, the real fun begins. While rosters haven’t expanded just yet, injuries and ineffectiveness have motivated teams to give their youngsters an opportunity. And that means a wealth of new names have been appearing in your free agent pool and will keep doing so. Let’s take a gander at three of those new names and decide if they are worth gambling on.

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