Archive for Hitters

Gosh, I love trade deadline time as it’s always fun to see if any players switch to new teams and home parks that might dramatically affect their results. Like a hitter departing T-Mobile Park, the Mariners home, for Coors Field to join the Rockies. Or vice versa. Of course, with only about two more months of games left to play, small sample size randomness is likely going to overshadow any effects a change in park might have. That said, it’s still worth reviewing the factors for team switchers, as it could affect rest of season projections.

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Note: I know that the information here could be dated the minute it gets published because of a trade. This will be one weekend to track the news and overreact to weekend lineups.

American League

Angels

• They have too many guys at second, third, and designated hitter with one of Luis Rengifo, Brandon Drury, Anthony Rendon, and Willie Calhoun sitting each game.

• Mickey Moniak has started in 15 of 16 games in centerfield. Read the rest of this entry »

Home runs. That’s it. Yesterday, I discussed 11 hitters you might investigate if you have a hankering for stolen bases. Today, I’ll flip over to home runs. But this time, I’m going to do things a bit differently. That’s because all the home run hitters are generally going to be owned. So instead, let’s review names that really only contribute in the one category. The idea here is that if you solely need home runs and don’t want to also have to pay for other categories you might be secure in, you might want to target names whose value is almost entirely derived from that one category.

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With just over two months to go, it’s more crucial than ever to play the categorical standings. Sure, Anthony Santander just keeps homering, but he hasn’t hit for batting average and isn’t expected to, and doesn’t steal bases. So if you’re atop the home run standings, he ain’t doing you much good at the moment, outside of keeping you at the top. Instead, you might see four stolen base points in your sights, so perhaps shifting toward speed is now your optimal strategy. These are 12 lesser-owned names that could help gain you those stolen base category points.

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In the past few weeks, guests on the Baseball Tonight Podcast with Buster Olney have gone through the exercise of creating their all-time home run derby list. Obvious finalists such as Babe Ruth, Josh Gibson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Mark McGwire have filled the theoretical brackets. As another season’s All-Star break is upon us, we’ll be graced with a few hours of this year’s big boppers attempting to hit baseballs as far as humanly possible. Though it may be a new format, the goal is the same; hit home runs!

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Since 2013, I have polled you on which group of pitchers you think will post the better aggregate ERA post all-star break. In recent years, I added a hitter poll, pitting the xwOBA overperformers versus the underperformers during the pre-all-star break period, and asking you which group you expect to perform better over the remainder of the season. We know that xwOBA isn’t perfect. Neither are SIERA, xERA, and the rest of the ERA estimators. In fact, no estimated/expected/forecasted equation is going to be perfect, because there will always be players that do something we have a difficult time quantifying. Furthermore, there will always be players each year that fall into either end of the extremes for no other reason than complete randomness (luck). So let’s keep that in mind when reviewing these two groups.

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Yesterday, I discussed the Triple-A hitter HR/FB rate leaders, and uncovered a few names that might be worthwhile pickups if they get recalled. In that post, I mentioned that I pivoted away from reviewing the wOBA leaders because many of those marks are driven by unsustainably high BABIPs. I have decided to run that list anyway since overall performance ultimately is what leads to a callup, and the first step to accruing fantasy value is getting to the Majors to begin with! So let’s review the Triple-A wOBA leaders who have recorded at least 200 PAs at the level and are not currently in the Majors.

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With the trade deadline only a couple of weeks away, we’re likely to see a slew of minor leaguers get their opportunity to ascend to the Major Leagues. Since the timing of these promotions are unpredictable and heavily depend on a roster slot opening up, it’s never too early to gather a list of names to monitor so you’re the team that picks them up before having to spend lots of FAAB while competing with your leaguemates.

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While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues.

Note 1: The number of obvious moves are way down this week. While there were a couple of high-cost guys, there was a lack of options after them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s an exciting upcoming week for owners of Rockies hitters. If you don’t count yourself among that group, then this might be the week to join in on the fun. That’s because the team will be embarking on a full seven game homestand! For weekly transaction leagues, that means a full slate of games, all of which come at hitter friendly Coors Field. In these instances, I like to see which Rockies hitters languish in my leagues’ free agent pool so I could potentially take advantage of the strong schedule. So with that in mind, let’s actually review every single Rockies hitter, as any number of them could be available in your league depending on format and size.

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