Contrary to popular belief, the secret to rebuilding (and winning) your fantasy league is not hoarding prospects. This season, you could be waiting patiently for the arrivals of Michael Kopech, Willie Calhoun, and Luis Urias to save your team, or you could have jumped on pop-up producers like Max Muncy, Jesus Aguilar, and Ross Stripling. Last year, Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, and Charlie Morton were universally available if your timing was right.

The thing about prospects is that sometimes they pan out, and sometimes they don’t. Even a “successful” one like Ronald Acuña has just a 114 wRC+, with a rest-of-season projection slightly below that. In real life, that’s fantastic for a 20-year-old and Acuña is a likely future star. But in the meantime his production is nothing special.

And again: Acuña is a success story. Owners might wait years for the likes of Byron Buxton, Dansby Swanson, and Alex Reyes to carry their teams to relevancy. All the while, players like the following four who are owned in less than 40 percent (well, actually, 43 percent) of Ottoneu leagues have been quietly carrying contenders: Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Greeting from Denver as the FanGraphs writers travel here for the weekend. These reports aren’t as detailed as normal as beer and a whiffle ball game call.

Angels

• It’s set with the top. The bottom is a complete mess with Luis Valbuena getting the most consistent playing time.

Astros

• It’s also set at the top with two outfield platoons. Josh Reddick and Tony Kemp face righties and Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Marisnick face lefties.

Athletics Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been going over lineups at the end of each week for about a month now. I’ve found doing the entire league at the same time is too much for several reasons. From now one, I’m going to take turns between leagues.

Big Five

• Michael Taylor and his 17 stolen bases may be headed to the bench or another team.
• Maikel Franco is riding-the-pine-for-nine since J.P. Crawford has returned from the DL.
• Scott Schebler has heated up over the last 28 days (.329/.406/.494) and is now the Reds leadoff hitter.
• Jon Jay is now the Diamondbacks everyday leadoff hitter.
• Dominic Smith is starting at first base for the Mets but doesn’t hit well enough to be major league first baseman.

Braves

• They are completely set in their ways with a constant lineup. A future change is Ronald Acuna coming off the DL and replacing Charlie Culberson.

Read the rest of this entry »

Big Five Value Movers

1. Danny Valencia looks to be hitting fulltime in Baltimore.
2. Greg Bird is batting 3rd for the Yankees.
3. Cleveland’s and Houston’s outfields are in flux with players returning from the DL.
4. Heyward and Almora are playing fulltime with the Cubs.
5. Joe Panik is leading off for the Giants.

Angels

• I can’t believe the lack of talent surrounding Mike Trout. In their last game, the Angels figured Martin Maldonado was their fifth best hitter.
• For the few fantasy-relevant hitters on this team, they are set at the lineup’s top except Albert Pujols who has been dealing with an ankle injury the past few years days.

Astros

• Josh Reddick’s return has caused a ripple effect with Tony Kemp, Jake Marisnick, and Marwin Gonzalez each seeing their playing time cut. For now, I would stay away from them all.
• Evan Gattis is back to being the permanent DH. After struggling out of the gate, he has hit .286/.350/.714 over the past month with nine home runs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Angels

• They have not been able to settle on a leadoff hitter, mainly because Zack Cozart (.232/.310/.395) and Ian Kinsler (.217/.286/.331) both haven’t hit. I wonder if the Angels may add a high on-base outfielder to leadoff.

Astros

• None

Athletics

• They are using the same platoon lineups over the past few weeks with Marcus Semien’s paternity leave causing some mix-ups.

Read the rest of this entry »

After getting some internal and external feedback, I’m going to be posting a league-wide lineup evaluation every Friday (or possibly Saturday). The goal is to help owners find targets for the weekend waiver wire and help keep my weekend free. I will focus on just lineups and stay away from position changes. Also, if nothing is written about a team, nothing has changed in the past week.

Angels

Zack Cozart has replaced Ian Kinsler at the top of the lineup and moves down a few spots when Shohei Ohtani hits.

Astros

Alex Bregman is back at the second spot after hitting .282/.404/.564 over the past 14 days.

Evan Gattis is starting to hit better (.276/.300/.621) over the past two weeks. It might be good time to buy low.

Athletics Read the rest of this entry »

With our auction calculator update, I going to look at three top-rated batters.

Ozzie Albies

In my recent Launch Angle podcast, I had a tough time deciding if I’d draft Ozzie Albies or Jose Altuve in a new 2018 league. I decided I’d go with Altuve but being that I had to think about it, I needed to see if I buy Albies’s ascension into a possible first or second round talent.

Others and myself had an idea Albies was going to be good but just not hit for so much power. If someone would have told me to predict six and 13 for Albies’s home runs and stolen base totals, I would have swapped them. Last year, he had 15 HR and 29 SB. The season before, it was 6 HR and 30 SB. I figured the speed was safe (and it is) but his power may come later. I was right, he isn’t hitting for more power, he’s utilizing his it better.

Read the rest of this entry »