Recent injury data
• Several reports are out about the health of Cole Hamels. First, he denies he was shut down this off season for shoulder soreness. The same article goes on and confirms he experienced some soreness while pitching this past September. No signs (low Zone% or loss in velocity) point to a major injury. Keep early tabs on him, but there is no reason not to draft/bid on him
Today, I will focus on players who played through injuries in 2012 and how those players performed compared to their projections. I found players, who played through injuries, over performed their their projected power numbers the next season. From my last year’s FG+ article:
If a player persevered through an injury during the season, their overall stats probably suffered. Projections don’t know if a player played through injuries, though. The player’s projections might have been better if the player had simply gone on the disabled list to recover instead of trying to play through pain.
Welcome to the first installment of RotoGraphs’ M.A.S.H. Report. This season, I will be putting out 2 injury reports each week (Monday and Thursday afternoons) which will be a one stop shop on injured players. I will contain information like updates on recent injuries, disabled list movement and player return times. Each post will grow in size each week as I add more and more information. This post will be a portion of the size of it during the season. Also, nothing is set in stone and I open to improvements. If there is any information you want added, let me know.
One pitcher trait which is consistently desired through all the various fantasy formats is health. While hitters get hurt also, pitcher injuries can really put a damper on a fantasy team because pitchers are lost for longer periods of time. By knowing which pitchers are more at risk can help a fantasy owner make better decisions on draft/auction day.
After establishing himself as a strong fantasy performer over his first three full seasons, Matt Kemp turned on his nitro boosters and took his play to an entirely new level in 2011. That performance, which included just a home run short of 40/40, made him a top five pick in fantasy leagues last year. Unfortunately, a left hamstring strain cost him two months, but he still had himself another fantastic season while he was on the field. Fantasy owners haven’t forgotten what a full season of Kemp could provide — our own Alan Harrison took him fifth overall in the early RotoGraphs mock draft, but he wasn’t the only one to select Kemp among the top 10 players in recent mocks. He went sixth and seventh in two other industry mocks and sports an ADP of six on Mock Draft Central. But, are fantasy owners forgetting a key issue?
Freedom from shame at least. They were supposed to be bold. So let’s revisit those predictions.
[Sorry no chat today, gotta get my stuff done before heading to the city for the Bay Area meetup. And sorry for abrupt ending last week, got an important call.]
The season, sadly, is drawing to a rather rapid close for everyone, but for some players, it has already ended. In April or May, season-ending injuries bring to mind things like a torn UCL, a horrific knee injury, or a blown out shoulder; now that it’s October, a bruise in the wrong place could be enough to shelve a player until spring training starts. It’s a little depressing, frankly, but all good things must end and this end means the playoffs are nigh.
Before we get there, however, there is a little matter of the fantasy season to finish. For anyone still contesting a title, here are the players I would avoid playing if at all possible. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re going to piggyback a post from early September done by Jeff Zimmerman that lists those that have been injured in September but are not on the DL. With rosters expanding to the full 40 here in the final month, teams no longer need to put players on the DL to open up a roster spot for a new arrival. However, for those still active here ate the end and are streaming players to the bitter end, it can be tough to sift through those who have been banged up enough that they won’t make another appearance this season. Here’s an update… Read the rest of this entry »
After looking at Chris Carpenter’s 2012 debut yesterday, today I will look at two other pitchers that made their 2012 debuts this past week, Jake Odorizzi and Jorge de la Rosa
Chris Carpenter debuted on Friday night. He came away with decent results, 5 IP, 2 Runs allowed, 0 HR. Chris is usually a fantasy workhorse, but shoulder surgery has all but eliminated his 2012 season. He looks to have limited value as a streaming option this next week and has some question marks to be answered for 2013.
The big red flag that is waving over him is the drop in velocity for all his pitches. His sinker, which he threw 31 times, is down about 3 MPH from 2010 and 2011.