After finally having somewhat of a breakout season in 2010, after showing little progress over the previous three seasons, Delmon Young disappointed once again last season, actually posting the worst wOBA of his career. He dealt with injuries to his oblique and ankle, which limited him to 473 at-bats and likely hurt his production. With the addition of Prince Fielder, let’s see if we should expect a rebound.
Yu Darvish isn’t baseball’s only super-hyped, high-priced international import this year; the Athletics also made waves when they signed Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. There has been some speculation that he could begin the season in the minors just to get acclimated to the best pitching he’s ever faced (as well as shake off the rust after such a long layoff), but it doesn’t sound like that will happen after signing for four years and $36 million.
It’s time to start bringing back all those “shriveling testicles” and “Manny being Mary” jokes again, folks, as the always enthralling Manny Ramirez has signed a minor league deal with the Oakland A’s and has himself, not only an invitation to spring training, but a new opportunity to return to the major leagues. There are certainly a boatload of questions surrounding this move, but as we look into them all, the one question that I have for you is — would you draft Manny for your fantasy team?
Matt Joyce season endured a roller coaster season in his first year as the main right fielder for the Rays. Batting .370 over the season’s first two months, Joyce hit just .226 for the remainder of the season. Joyce was expected to be a platoon player, but he was hitting so well during the early parts of the year that the Rays allowed him to start 15 games against left-handed pitchers. The experiment did not go well, as Joyce hit just .151/.244/.233 against left-handed starters
Entering this season, it looks like the Rays are accepting the fact that Joyce is a platoon partner. In signing Jeff Keppinger, owner of a .302/.360/.432 line against lefties, the Rays will most likely employ a platoon of Keppinger playing second base against lefties and Joyce playing right field against righties, with Ben Zobrist moving back and forth between the two positions. This is a wise baseball decision, as both struggle against pitchers of their same handedness but are very good against opposite handed pitchers.
This week, we’ll be giving away one FG+ membership per day by playing the FG+ Over/Under Game. The wrinkle on this game is that it’s subjective: we’ll provide a player and a number, and you use the comments section to make your best argument for the over or the under. The RotoGraphs staff will pick a winner every day, and that person will get a free subscription to FG+, which includes 11 full-length fantasy strategy articles, 1100 player caps on the player pages, and ongoing access to the FG+ blog, which features the writing the FanGraphs team provides to ESPN Insider on a weekly basis all year.
For our fifth (and final) over/under game, let’s take a look at Chris Young the outfielder.
The over/under for today’s game is 21. As in, will Chris Young hit more than 21 home runs in 2012?
If you had a subscription to FG+ right now, you could consult Jeff Zimmerman’s excellent piece about playing through injuries and the effect that has on projections. And you could learn more about Young’s batted ball distance after he injured his thumb half-way through last year.
But since you don’t have Zimmerman’s research at your fingertips — and yes, I’m suggesting that current FG + subscribers take a back seat and allow those without your knowledge to compete for this — you’ll have to do the best you can to predict the number of home runs that Chris Young the outfielder will hit in the coming season. Use any methods at your disposal.
Have at it!
As a speedy center fielder who stands just 5-foot-10 and weighs 190 pounds (dreads included), Andrew McCutchen hardly fits the power hitting archetype. But don’t let his small stature fool you — ‘Cutch can go deep. Possessing the quickest wrists this side of Gary Sheffield, McCutchen has increased his home run total from 12 as a rookie in 2009 to 16 in 2010 and 23 this past year. ‘Cutch has discovered his home run stroke by becoming a power threat to all fields. With a little more thump in 2012 and more walks from opponents pitching him carefully, he could become just the second Pirate ever to go 30/30 (some dude named Barry did it in 1990 and ’92).
We’ve spent so much time on these Would You Rathers with respect to keeper leagues that it’s time we threw some out for those that re-draft each year. Taking long term benefits out of the way, which player would you rather draft this season — Yoenis Cespedes or Bryce Harper?
Cuban mega star and Dominican Winter League flameout Yoenis Cespedes signed with the Oakland Athletics for four years and $36 million today. The landing spot for The Showcase might seem like a poor fit at first, but it’s not all bad news today. There are even things to like about where he ended up.
Each year, there’s always one pick in the draft that always seems to cause the biggest stir amongst the fantasy community and leads to the greatest number of emails seeking added opinions. It used to be closer to the tail end of the first round when an owner was deciding between whichever offensive treat was left or the number one overall starting pitcher. This year, I’ve received a number of emails from people with the 4th pick. People with the 8th and 9th picks are rolling their eyes right now, but truly, the 4th pick can cause quite the conundrum.
2011 was supposed to be Jose Tabata’s coming out party, his first full season in the majors, the year that made his production a bigger story than his troubled ex-wife, but it just didn’t happen. Like so many others, his plans of grandeur were derailed by injuries.
He started the season about as well as could be hoped, getting hits in the season’s first 10 games including a pair of home runs, and stealing five bases as part of a .342/.457/.553 start. Over the next 17 games however, his BABIP dropped to .213 and his overall line suffered greatly, as he hit .180/.250/.279, though he did add four more steals. His play in May and June was inconsistent, but he seemed to be getting back into a good groove when he was placed on the DL with some combination of a right hand contusion and a left quad strain. He came back in mid-August, but was back on the shelf with a fractured left hand before September was a week old. All in all, Tabata played just 91 games — fewer than he played in 2010, despite having actually broken camp with the Pirates in 2011 — and his second half was so segmented that it’s hard to make any real concrete judgments about his performance after his return from the DL. Read the rest of this entry »
