Archive for Head to Head

I guess this is a full-blown series now, and why not? The theme kind of fascinates me. In the two previous entries, I’ve covered Jimmy Nelson and Domingo Santana, and today it’s Stephen Piscotty’s turn. I go to a whole lot of Triple-A games, and those games are packed with guys who are almost — but not quite — ready for the majors. In Nelson’s case, I suggested that an inconsistent release point could pose problems, while Santana needs to rein in his over-aggressive approach.

These are both players that I like a great deal as prospects, but sometimes it’s simply more interesting to think about what’s keeping a guy in the minors, rather than dreaming about his ceiling. And this comes from someone who is admittedly overly forgiving at times; I can find something to like about a crappy college first baseman, for example. I also typically enjoy Nicolas Cage movies, so it’s probably a good idea for me to focus a bit more on the negatives every once in awhile.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another day, another save for 39-year-old Koji Uehara of the Boston Red Sox. He fanned one and induced two groundouts to seal his 14th save of the season on 14 pitches. Uehara has now converted 30 consecutive save opportunities dating back to July 6th of last season. Koji owns a 0.63 ERA (1.69 FIP) and a ~33% K-BB% in 27.2 innings of work in ‘14. Something else that caught my eye while cruising Uehara’s player page is his SwStr% over the past three seasons: 18.9%, 18.5% and 18.5%. Have to love the consistency. With my tail between my legs, I’ll have to admit I was totally wrong on this guy heading into this year. I anticipated Father Time creeping up on the old man, but he’s apparently nowhere in sight. Sorry for doubting you, Koji.
Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 128

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss, by request, Marcell Ozuna; Alex Wood; Danny Duffy; Mookie Betts; Joc Pederson; Jay Bruce; George Springer; Marco Estrada; and Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Cuddyer and the Colorado Rockies’ outfield. Other topics of interest covered: Justin Verlander, the Seattle Mariners’ shuffled roster that now includes Jesus Montero is up, Adam Wainwright, Wilson Ramos and Francisco Liriano.

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 »

The data is a little thin today. My RSS reader is down/under attack so I had to go old school and check as many websites as I could manually.

• Carlos Gonzalez had a “fatty mass with tentacles” or a “Cheeto” or a “shrimp” removed from his hand. Which ever  it was, it is probably good it is no longer in his hand.

• After scoring a 158 the last time I ran my PAIN report, Francisco Liriano now heads to the DL with an oblique stain. These core injuries for pitchers usually take about two months to heal.

• The Rangers have just been snake bitten with injuries. Tanner Scheppers is back on the DL and Jim Adduci re-broke his finger on a minor league rehab assignment. Grantland’s Jonah Keri looked in detail at the Rangers struggles to stay healthy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some fantasy pundits – including a few at RotoGraphs – and owners were optimistic about the fortunes of Joe Mauer entering this season, in large part because the Minnesota Twins were moving him away from catcher permanently. Although his brand of statistical output is mediocre for a first baseman, the catcher eligibility he retains could make him one of the more valuable rotisserie commodities in this transition year.

Mauer’s apologists – such as yours truly – were confident of his chance to avoid injury as long as he manned a less stressful position. His rough first two-plus months of the 2014 campaign seem to have done little to tarnish the RotoGraphs group’s and my hopes, though.

Read the rest of this entry »

When a player has a poor start to the season, it can be very difficult to properly rate him in fantasy. Even when he starts to play to his previously established career standards, that one bad month can drag down his season totals for the rest of the year. While it is important to not overrate the most recent month’s production in lieu of the bad month in April, when that recent month matches a player’s track record, it is pretty clear which is the anomaly. Here are a handful of players who suffered from poor starts this season and have heated up with the weather.

Read the rest of this entry »

Starting pitching is so tough to evaluate. First, you get massive amounts of information every five days, but each of those bursts of information is tied to a single park or team and is so context dependent. Second, there are only five starting slots, and if you’re the sixth-best starting pitcher on your team, you’re outta luck.

That last part is really the reason for the delay on these rankings. Tony Cingrani was a starting pitcher yesterday and we were about to pub the rankings — and then news came out that Mat Latos would take his slot this week. Now Cingrani is suddenly among the prospects — who are impossible to project given their uncertain role — and waiting for Alfredo Simon to pumpkin or Latos to hurt again. That’s not great for his ranking.

Read the rest of this entry »

I must have a thing for second. I finished there in Mixed Tout Wars in both 2011 and 2012. I was runner-up in AL LABR in 2013. I placed there on multiple occasions in my dynasty football league – although I won that once, barely. More often than not, I get the girl because, if she feels like lovin’ me, if she gets the notion … you guessed it. I just haven’t mustered what it takes to seal the deal, on a number of occasions. Which seems odd, because I like mustard.

I don’t have a thing for second basemen, though. It’s just a coincidence that both of my recs this week play that position. I’m not trying to horn in on another of Scott Strandberg’s territories … again. But damn if it ain’t the second time I done so.

Read the rest of this entry »

Injuries are a deep leaguer’s best friend…as long as those injuries don’t occur to your own players of course. As has become par for the course here at the deep league waiver wire, these two recommendations are the latest pair of beneficiaries of the recently disabled.

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 127

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss Grant Balfour and the Rays’ bullpen, the Orioles’ bullpen, Joe Nathan, Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago, Eddie Butler and Tyler Matzek, Kevin Gausman, the much anticipated call-up of Gregory Polanco, a touch on Kendrys Morales, Manny Machado, and requested topics Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Lawrie, with more requested subjects coming in the next episode.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us any fantasy questions you have so that we may answer them on our next episode.

Read the rest of this entry »