Zack Godley & Aaron Altherr: Deep League Wire
July 6, 2016
It’s your favorite time of the week, the moment we dive into the deep depths of the ominous free agent pool. Who will we find?! Will we discover hidden treasure?!
Archive for Hitters
Hunting Out West – Deep League Waiver Wire
Small sample sizes be damned! OK, not really. But today we take a look at two players who, in very limited playing time, have made us (or should make us) look twice and dig just a little deeper. Read the rest of this entry »
So, Danny Espinosa Has Hit 18 Homers
July 5, 2016
It took me until Saturday’s two-homer game to realize that OMG, Danny Espinosa has gone bonkers. It took him until April 29th to hit his first home run of the season. He then hit five in May, nine in June, and already has three in July. Danny Espinosa. He of the career high of 21 home runs set all the way back in 2011, his first full season, in more than double the plate appearances. He who we expected, nay, knew, was just a temporary placeholder for top prospect Trea Turner, who was surely going to be up with the big club early in the season and push Espinosa to a bench role.
Potential HR/FB Rate Decliners – 2016 Midseason Update
June 28, 2016
It’s time for an updated list of potential HR/FB rate decliners! As usual, I scanned the batted ball distance leaderboard, matched each hitter with his HR/FB rate, and identified those hitters whose distance suggests major HR/FB rate downside. Yesterday, I looked at the potential surgers.
As a reminder, please be aware that the other two components of my xHR/FB rate equation are missing from this analysis. So to avoid giving wrong advice, I have stayed away from discussing the hitters in the middle of the distance ranking. Also remember that this ignores park effects, which certainly plays a role.
Potential HR/FB Rate Surgers – 2016 Midseason Update
June 27, 2016
It’s time for an updated list of potential HR/FB rate surgers! As usual, I scanned the batted ball distance leaderboard, matched each hitter with his HR/FB rate, and identified those hitters whose distance suggests major HR/FB rate upside.
Please be aware that the other two components of my xHR/FB rate equation are missing from this analysis. So to avoid giving wrong advice, it’s why I have stayed away from discussing the hitters in the middle of the distance ranking. Also remember that this ignores park effects, which certainly plays a role.
Arismendy Alcantara & Ezequiel Carrera: Deep League Waiver Wire
June 22, 2016
I have nothing clever to say. Let’s get right to it.
2016’s Biggest xISO Disparities
June 20, 2016
Early last season, I introduced an equation that calculates a hitter’s expected isolated power, or xISO. Since I haven’t discussed it all so far this season, and we’re halfway through June, I figured now is better than never.
Before I proceed: Andrew Dominijanni expanded on my research about a month ago. He incorporated exit velocity, sourced from the new Statcast data hosted at Baseball Savant. The model better explains the variance in the data and has slightly better predictive (year-to-year) qualities, making it the optimal choice.
Andrew’s version of xISO generates a pretty simple calculation, but I’m feeling especially lazy today, and I can find hard-hit rate (Hard%), pull rate (Pull%) and fly ball rate (FB%) all on FanGraphs’ batted ball leaderboards.
Shockingly Low Home Run Totals
June 20, 2016
Last week, I discussed a multitude of players who have hit a shocking number of home runs so far this season. So today let’s check in on those on the opposite end of the spectrum, the players that beg the question…what the heck happened to your home run power?!?!?!
Deep League Waiver Wire: Sanchez and Suzuki
The two players I’m recommending this week share almost nothing in common. One is young, powerful, and crushingly enticing. The other is nearing the end of a magnificent career with the same fleetness of foot he enthralled us with 15 years ago. Endless potential versus a potential storybook ending. And if you own either of them right now, you’re likely playing in a very, very deep league.
Read the rest of this entry »
More Shocking Home Run Totals
June 14, 2016
Yesterday, I discussed five players whose early season home run totals have like totally shocked the world. Clearly, I missed a couple of obvious names and some of you commented reminding me of such. So let’s get to the rest of those shocking hitters sitting on home run totals we never expected at this point in the season.
