Archive for Roto

Episode 161

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live!

Jason Collette and Nicholas Minnix play a little “Guess who leads the league in. …” before they discuss, among other items, Adam Dunn to the Oakland Athletics; Andy Wilkins; Dilson Herrera; Felix Doubront; Justin Masterson (or, more appropriately, his potential replacements); Kevin Quackenbush; Jonathan Broxton; Miguel Cabrera; by request, Mike Minor and Adam Eaton; and, of course, some two-turn pitchers.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode. Read the rest of this entry »

Dodgers at Padres: Joaquin Benoit’s shoulder pain his back and Kevin Quackenbush should be owned in all leagues and perhaps for the rest of the season:

Why you’re not going to see #Padres closer Joaquin Benoit for a while http://t.co/LRTgQJhgQt

— Corey Brock (@FollowThePadres) August 31, 2014

It’s not yet known when Benoit will be available again. At this point, maybe assume 11 days like the last timeframe since it’s similar pain.

Yankees at Blue Jays: Future starter/ace, current september bullpen asset, Aaron Sanchez looked great striking out 3 in 2 scoreless innings for his first major league save. He threw 19 of his 28 pitches for strikes. And on 12 swings, the Yankees were only able to put the ball in play 3 times. His minimum fastball velocity was 96 MPH. The one breaking ball he threw was a beaut. to Derek Jeter on a 2-2 count. Probably anyone other than Jeter would have chased (just missed low). He’s only given up 1 ER in his last 8 appearances with a 12K:1BB ratio. IMO he’s got a great Sinker-Fourseam-Curveball repertoire in conjunction with the velocity to succeed longterm. He’s only thrown 3 Changeups thus far, but I’d assume that remains part of his starting repertorie. If so, more whiffs should come; the groundball induction is already apparent; and his command (4.3% BB-rate) thus far is a huge bonus.

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Reds at Pirates: The Josh Harrison show included a triple in the bottom of the 8th that gave the Pirates the lead for a Mark Melancon save (#25).

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I am planning on publishing this piece on a weekly basis. I’ll be looking at a few interesting players. I try to work out for 30-45 minutes a day, so I will just watch a different player each time and give my thoughts on their game at the end of the week. This will not be a complete breakdown of the player, just what I saw. Also, I will probably be looking at average to below-average players to see if anything sticks out with them.

David Buchanan

Why I watched: I noticed him while looking for pitcher with big curveballs. Looking at little deeper and found this:

Month:K%-BB%,GB%
May:4%,42%
Jun:9%,49%
Jul:12%,46%
Aug:10%,55%

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Joc Pederson has had one heck of a 2014. The center fielder has blown away the already-high expectations placed before him this year, leading all of Triple-A in home runs, on-base percentage, on-base plus slugging, walks and runs scored. To be fair, his spot atop the list in some of those categories is partially thanks to the simple fact that he’s been in Triple-A all season — and playing half his games in the bandbox at Albuquerque —  but it’s still pretty astounding stuff.

All told, Pederson owns a .304/.434/.590 slash, with 33 homers and 30 steals, making him the first player with a 30/30 season in the Pacific Coast League since Frank Demaree accomplished the feat way back in 1934. He is also the first player this author knows of who has given away his car as a ballpark promotion.

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Episode 160

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live!

Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss, among other items, along with an interesting tangent or two, Zach Walters; Kyle Ryan; Adam Wainwright; Yadier Molina; Shane Greene; Drew Smyly; the Chicago White Sox’s bullpen; Brandon Finnegan; Masahiro Tanaka; and, by request, possible changes in playing time in the final month for players like Hanley Ramirez.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode. Read the rest of this entry »

• Heads up, the DL list is basically going to become a moot point in a few days when the rosters expand. Teams have no incentive to put a player on the DL unless it is to the 60-day DL to make room on their 40-man roster. I am going to have an unofficial DL list in the MASH Reports until the season’s end so people can know which players will or won’t be available.

Also, read up on players coming off the DL in September. Many will return without being 100%. John Mayberry is one such example. The Phils pretty much say he is still hurt and they don’t know where he will fit into their outfield.

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A few days ago I released a way too early set of hitter projection values. Today, it is the pitchers’ turn. Truthfully, I wasn’t 100% sure I would release them. It requires a person using them to use their brain somewhat. I decided to go ahead and release and hope most people read a few lines of the article to understand how the spreadsheet is set up.

Notes on the data (PLEASE READ)

• I averaged the rest of season Steamer and/or ZIPS projections. Sometimes only one or the other was available so only one was used at times. The rest of season the projections are a good attempt at getting the player’s talent level right now. The values are close to the 2015 projection with the exception of the September numbers.

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In a comment on the post of a recent ep of “The Sleeper and the Bust,” quinceleather asked if there’s a way to play matchups for stolen bases for players like Rajai Davis and Ben Revere. Presumably, this would be for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of a roster spot by maximizing the rates of thievery of that brand of one-category contributor in games, series or weeks in which he has advantageous matchups and then using a different type of player (power hitter, an all-around player, a fringe regular) in place of them at other times.

I don’t think I’d take that approach for a full season. But for a particular period, especially at this point, when there are only about four and a half weeks remaining in the regular season, it could certainly, conceivably be helpful. You want to make up ground in steals, and you can afford to use this kind of method to do it. Someone else is more qualified than me to study whether it would prove to be advantageous for an entire campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Right or wrong, significantly greater weight is given to how a player finishes a season than how he began it. If a hitter endures a second half swoon, he’ll be considered a prime bust candidate the following year, regardless of what he did during the first several months. The same goes for pitchers. Let’s discuss a trio of those second half starting pitcher busts in the American League.

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