Few players can hold a candle to Bryce Harper. At an age where most kids are still in college, Harper has already emerged as one of the best players in baseball. After a strong rookie year, Harper has taken a step forward in year two. His walk rate is up, strikeout rate is down and his .378 wOBA is 20 points higher than last season. There is, however, one area where Harper has looked mortal. In his first season-and-a-half in the majors, Harper has shown a significant platoon split.

Read the rest of this entry »

After many weeks of speculation about whether Alex Rios would be donning a new uniform before season’s end, the Texas Rangers nabbed their Nelson Cruz replacement they so desperately needed. Rios departs the last place White Sox, a team tied for the second worst record in baseball, for a Rangers team that leads its division by a game. Jackpot! Do Rios’ fantasy owners also hit the jackpot? Let’s try to answer that question.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago, I wrote a post looking into some players who were putting up fairly pedestrian numbers but remained quite intriguing due to being young for their levels. I didn’t include White Sox outfield prospect Courtney Hawkins on the list, but I suppose I could have. Nobody would say Hawkins doesn’t have tools–he was the 13th overall pick in the 2012 draft for a reason–but he sure is struggling in High-A Winston-Salem this year. I mean, sure, he’s second in the Carolina League with 19 home runs, and he’s slugging a quite respectable .452–the elephant in the room is the strikeout totals.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Argue your limitations, and they will be yours.” — Illusions, Richard Bach

How I wish I had learned that phrase back when I was playing Little League. Defensively, I was rock solid. I could turn the double play from the second base side with ease or I could sit behind the plate for nine innings and call a game with the best of them. Put me in the batter’s box though, and my ineptitude at the plate was depressingly laughable. But rather than work my tail off to become a better hitter, I simply accepted the fact that I was never going to work my way up to the clean-up spot and when the coach said that a walk was as good as a hit, I took it as gospel. The bat barely left my shoulder and I led my team in walks. Of course I took a few cuts from time to time and even found my way on-base via an actual hit, but overall, taking a pitch was my specialty. I was the original Robbie Grossman. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s do one last round of ranks for the rest of the season. Cause I know you guys are still in it and winning your leagues because we’re helping so much, right? Right??

In any case, the trade deadline is coming up and this might help you decide on a trade or two. And to help you even further, this time I’m putting in the rest-of-season projections from Steamer. One stop shopping.

And because I can, I’m using pale ales to name the tiers. Read and drink responsibly.

Read the rest of this entry »

We can now say, with confidence and the backing of legal proceedings and pronouncements, that Ryan Braun did steroids. Those in yearly leagues have all said their curses dropped him — a good percentage of them won’t dip back into that well again, choosing to hold a grudge, or to just avoid the insecurity. But in keeper and dynasty leagues, the opportunity for arbitrage is here. Ryan Braun is available, and in a particularly desperate way in some of those leagues. But what will he look like without the juice?

Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Heyward is having a terrible year, I’m sure you noticed. What makes things harder on those that want to believe in positive regression from the star outfielder is that in some superficial ways, it looks like his other bad year, that one in 2011. Finding the differences between the two has implications both on Heyward’s rest-of-season prognosis, as well as the effort to pin-point his long-term upside.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, Alfonso Soriano returned to the team he began his Major League career with, the New York Yankees, in exchange for cash and a pitching prospect. The knee-jerk reaction is probably that his fantasy value jumps given the perception we have of the Yankees offense of years past and the hitter’s haven their home park has played as. But is this true after diving into the relevant numbers? Let’s find out!

Read the rest of this entry »

At this point, we’ve run out of superlatives to describe the season Mike Trout put together last year. He had the best age-20 season in the history of baseball, and many considered him to be the AL MVP. Reflect on that for a moment. Many people argued Mike Trout was the best player in baseball last season. He was 20 years old. That’s not normal. We all got swept up in Puig-mania this summer and have basked in the glory of Matt Harvey, but we all witnessed something truly special in 2012.

Trout’s supremacy wasn’t limited to the WAR stat, though. In ESPN leagues, he was the number-one fantasy player in all of baseball — and he didn’t even play a big-league game until April 28. The young man essentially gave the entire league a month’s head start and still finished the season in the number-one slot.

Naturally, fantasy owners were left wondering if lightning could strike twice. Considering his price tag on draft day, would it be wise for owners to invest so heavily into a 21-year-old outfielder who may suffer from the dreaded sophomore slump? Opposing teams had ample time to make adjustments this offseason. Would he make the counter-adjustments and replicate his magical rookie season, or would he experience a dramatic year-two decline like Jason Heyward in 2011?

Read the rest of this entry »

Two things stand out while highlighting Jake Elmore as the American League outfielder this week. First, it should be noted that Elmore does not yet have outfield eligibility. That is in the works, as Elmore started in left field two days ago — and has four other appearances there — and the Houston Astros plan on keeping him in left field. He does already have shortstop eligibility in Yahoo! (just second base in CBS and ESPN) and given the difference in quantity as well as quality of middle infielders vs. outfielders, it would be wise to play Elmore as your MI even when he does gain OF eligibility.
Read the rest of this entry »