If you’re in a keeper league and have no shot at the money, you are playing for the future. That means potentially dropping overpriced veterans and picking up as many youngsters for cheap as possible, hoping you hit on a couple who open next season with a full-time job. If your keeper league has a minor league roster, you may even be able to keep those hitters in your minors if they don’t win a starting job next year. So let’s review five hitters who don’t currently have an every day role and wouldn’t help a contending team this year. That means it’s very likely they are still in your league’s free agent pool, depending on its depth, and they could be plucked cheaply to load your roster with potential keepers, despite not helping much, or at all, over the remaining weeks in the season.

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Yesterday, I discussed four hitters who could contribute in steals over the final three weeks that should be widely available, at least in shallower leagues. Let’s now shift our focus to power, and specifically, home runs. I filtered hitter performance over the last 30 days with a FB% of at least 37% (just above the league average) and a maxEV of at least 110 MPH. You need to hit a fly ball to knock one over the wall (welllll, except for those rare inside-the-parkers that require batter speed and usually a misplay or two) and you typically need to hit the ball hard. While these maxEV values may have come on a non-fly ball, it’s a quick proxy for power.

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We only have three weeks left of the regular season, which means you can throw out your player values (if you haven’t already) and focus solely on your categorical needs. If you’re good in home runs and RBIs, feel free to jettison Joey Gallo. If you need stolen bases, here are four under the radar options who might be available in your league depending on its depth.

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American League

Angels

• Luis Rengifo has started three of the last four games at shortstop. He is hitting .250/.308/.500 since being recalled.

• Jo Adell is up to batting fifth after hitting .297/.366/.568 with 3 HR and 1 SB over the last two weeks.

Astros

• In the six games since Chas McCormick (.767 OPS) has been off the IL, he’s started in two games while Jake Meyers (.816 OPS) has only started in three games. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve seen it before. In ESPN leagues it’s that little red exclamation point. In Ottoneu, it’s a red X. It means your guy isn’t in the starting lineup tonight and you have a decision to make. Do you sub him out for your replacement level bench guy? Or, do you roll the dice, leave your “not in the starting lineup today” player in, and hope he comes in with a big at-bat off the bench?

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Today is likely the final new everyday starters post of the week, unless a flurry of players are recalled and expected to play regularly. This trio is an interesting mix, so let’s dive in.

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I’m back from vacation, so it’s time to review the newest starters. Are any of these names worthy of a roster spot? Let’s find out.

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A few days ago, I saw this post from Eno Sarris:

Farhan Zaidi on older player value. “I don’t know that the old aging curves are especially helpful now. Players work on themselves year round in a way they didn’t. Actuarial results gleaned from census or overall data may be less valuable than what we know about the individual.”

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) August 13, 2021

Zaidi’s mention of the “old aging curves” led me down an aging curves rabbit hole, where I read excellent posts from Mitchel Lichtman on creating aging curves (part 1 and part 2) and a few more recent studies by Jeff Zimmerman. I created my own aging curve using wRC+ as the metric and I looked to see where the Giant’s players fell on the line. Using the same techniques as described by Lichtman and Zimmerman, I used the delta method on all players who recorded at least 10 plate appearances in each season between 2008 and today. Here is the league-wide aging curve including the current year:

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Let’s finish off my week with three more hitters playing every day in the NL.

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Let’s once again continue reviewing new everyday starters, but flipping over to the National League.

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