Yesterday I offered up five potential September call-ups who could be substantial power boosts to your lineup if they are indeed called up and find a measure of playing time. Today I’m doing the same thing with some speedsters. While home runs are likely the most important category in fantasy baseball as they impact everything but speed, stolen bases often offer the best route to multiple points in a short timeframe.

This isn’t always the case as your league standings may have stratified in a way where you’re 10+ SBs from even the first point, but in many others that number of stolen bases could be worth three or four points. Expecting 10+ SBs from any one of these players is likely to result in disappointment as just eight players have had a 10+ SB September since 2012, but adding 6 or 7 to your count from an unexpected source can pay real dividends.

Here are five speedy players who might be ready to deliver just that in September:

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The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

— How Much Better Would Wade Miley Be with Hanley at First?–

Wade Miley was one of the major pieces of the Red Sox’s solid depth over an ace plan for the rotation entering the season. Like many of their players, Miley has struggled. After setting a career high with 8.2 strikeouts per nine in his last season with the Diamondbacks in 2014, Miley has regressed back to 6.7 strikeouts per nine this season, similar to his 2012 and 2013 production. Meanwhile, his ERA (4.51) continues to trail his FIP (3.91) and xFIP (4.10), as they did in 2014. At a broad view, Miley is not an attractive fantasy option, even in AL-only formats.

With a closer look, Miley does start to look better. For one, he is up nearly a strikeout per nine and down half a walk per nine in the second half compared to the first half. And for another, left fielder Hanley Ramirez is expected to move to first base for 2016 and possibly even later this season.

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In deeper leagues, especially those of the mono-league variety, everyone is typically always in search of better pitching. Hitting too, of course, but that’s for another article. The problem with deep leagues is that no one has depth. So to fill one hole you will almost assuredly create another one. It’s simply much more difficult to trade when your bench is filled with scrubs, except when it’s categorical, like trading an excess of saves for a starting pitcher. But that doesn’t happen often, so the alternative is to simply aim lower. Trading for a Chris Sale level pitcher is great and all, but it’s not the only way to improve your pitching staff. So here are four names who have all drastically underperformed their SIERA marks so far this year, which means they could likely turn you a profit in a trade if their fortunes turn.

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Andrew Cashner has been one of those pitchers that has confounded fantasy owners and experts alike. You look at his fastball velocity and you see a pitcher that ranks in the top 10 in baseball. Cashner is pitching at Petco Park which is one of the most accommodating ballparks for hurlers. He definitely has the pedigree since he was a first round selection by the Cubs in the 2008 June Amateur Draft. Cashner induces ground balls at a career rate of 50%. On the surface, these factors alone are very promising and would suggest that Cashner should be a premier young pitcher on the rise.

In 2014 he produced the following line for Fantasy owners…

Clearly the win totals were very disappointing but we know how team dependent wins are so with a poor hitting Padres squad with meager run support we could give him a pass. He did miss games with injury so that capped his numbers. The 2.55 ERA and 1.13 WHIP were very good even if his 6.79 K/9 was not. All in all, a promising showing for a 27 year old pitcher who has dealt with an assortment of injuries and is entering his prime years. With the overhaul to the San Diego offense in the off-season, there were reasons to suggest that Cashner could possibly be a top 40 pitcher or better in 2015 especially if he avoided injury. However, not everyone was on board as Brett Talley took a more cautious position on Cashner in his 1/22/15 article in RotoGraphs, Starting Pitcher Bust Candidates According to Streamer.
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Is it hard to believe that we only have a little over a month of the season left or is it hard to believe that we still have a little over a month of the season left? I think I feel both ways at the same time. In any case, it’s time to uncover some hidden gems. Or at least that’s the goal.

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Episode 269

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

In this episode, Paul Sporer and Eno Sarris discuss some hot hitters, emerging closers, and interesting starters including, but not limited to: A.J. Pollock, Gregory Polanco, Rusney Castillo, Shawn Tolleson, Roberto Osuna, Ken Giles, Kris Medlen, and Matt Cain.

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The pickings feel slim with just one more week of August ahead of us, but fortunately, the fantasy dumpster is always crawling with something of use. Whether you’re looking to outfit your team with a couple of spare parts or just want to plug holes in the aftermath of a firesale, here are two players who can help your cause.

As usual, the players mentioned in this space are better suited for mono leagues, and the ownership percentages are by way of CBS.
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You know when you don’t own a player on any of your fantasy teams and late in the season you’re browsing through box scores and you realize “Woah, Player X has XX homers?!?!?!”. Yes, as fantasy owners, especially for those in mixed leagues, we generally follow all of baseball. But I personally don’t pay as much attention to players I don’t own and know I am unlikely to own all season. So when spending the last 20 minutes trying to figure out what to write about, I noticed that Matt Carpenter had just hit his 19th homer of the season. Bingo! Something to write about.

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In 157 plate appearances, Kyle Schwarber has posted a .406 wOBA. He’s a rookie. And a catcher (well, half the time). If he qualified for the leaderboard, that wOBA mark would easily rank highest among catchers, while sitting sixth in all of baseball. He has certainly enjoyed quite the tremendous start to his Major League career and the Cubs have an embarrassing amount of young talent.

We haven’t even finished the month of August yet and I’m certainly not looking toward 2016 yet. But apparently some are. And in an article I read recently, the author discussed his early picks for the first two rounds of next year’s drafts. Schwarber wasn’t included, but was discussed at the end as a notable omission.

The fact that he was even mentioned as part of a small group of omissions shocked me. That’s typically the case when we start mock drafting for the following year and you see a new name in the first couple of rounds. It takes a while to get used to seeing a new name, so the knee-jerk reaction is to feel that it’s ridiculous and the player is severely overvalued after a breakout or career year. Is it fair to feel that way about Schwarber or is he rightfully zooming up 2016 lists?

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The title of the article is an allusion to Schott’s Miscellany, which you should definitely check out if you never have and feel compelled to know that a group of larks is called an exaltation or that a member of the 32nd degree of Freemasonry is known as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

–Julio Teheran May Have Found It Again–

Julio Teheran was not quite a star after the first two full seasons of his career in 2013 and 2014, but he was not far off. His 3.03 ERA was 15th best among qualified starters, just between Max Scherzer and Cole Hamels. His moderate 7.9 strikeouts per nine likely held him back from the top tier of pitchers, but his 2.1 walks per nine put him in the same category of effective yet underrated starters that Hisashi Iwakuma and Jose Quintana populate.

Meanwhile, Teheran was just 24 years old entering the 2015 season and coming off of consecutive 30-start seasons. While so many of the promising young Braves starters such as Tommy Hanson, Brandon Beachy, and Mike Minor had their ascents abruptly halted by injuries in recent seasons, Teheran seemed to have established himself as the staff anchor.

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