Archive for Roto

Jon Lester has been traded by the Red Sox to the Oakland Athletics, and in a fascinating twist, Boston will receive Yoenis Cespedes in return. Jonny Gomes will accompany Lester in Oakland, and a competitive balance pick will go with Cespedes to Boston.

Lester has reemerged as an absolute ace in his contract year, and he’s rolling into the Bay Area with a career best ERA, WHIP, FIP, xFIP, and SIERA. While most people consider Boston to be a hitter’s paradise, it’s actually relatively neutral outside of doubles smacking off the Green Monster, but moving to Oakland will still be a good thing for Lester. Oakland is one of the great pitcher’s parks, with spacious foul ground that makes ranchers fantasize about life on the open range. Lester has started six games in Oakland throughout his career, allowing four homers with an ERA of 3.52 in 38.1 IP, slightly better than his career ERA in Fenway park.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have added Justin Masterson to their rotation. The new team should be good for the right-hander, as Jeff Sullivan wrote on the non-fantasy side. Bernie Miklasz, long-time, reputable Cards beat guy and columnist, highlighted many of the same reasons. Potential positives:

• Masterson moves from perhaps the worst defensive team to perhaps the best
• If his knee is sound, which it reportedly is, then his command, velocity, etc. should rebound

In general, Masterson seems to be in a much better position to rebound for fantasy owners already. All he’s had to do is spend nearly four weeks on the disabled list and then pack his bags.

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It is a bizarro right field in Tampa Bay this season. Wil Myers seemed assured to follow up his .293/.354/.478 rookie half-season with a top 40 outfield season, at the very least. Instead, Myers hit just .227/.313/.354 in the first third of the season and then landed on the 60-day DL with a wrist injury. Meanwhile, the bulk of the optimism that surrounded Kevin Kiermaier before he was promoted in mid-May was related to his defense. Two months and a .308/.359/.538 triple slash later, Kiermaier has been a much better Wil Myers than Wil Myers has been.

This post is not about Kevin Kiermaier. August Fagerstrom and Ben Duronio said it all in their recent real baseball and fantasy articles, respectively. This article is about Jake Odorizzi.

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We collectively scratched our heads when the Diamondbacks traded top prospect Trevor Bauer to the Indians after the 2012 season. But after he posted a suspect 4.15 ERA at Triple-A with the Tribe and then a 5.29 ERA over four starts with the Major League club, we thought that perhaps the team didn’t act as silly as we originally thought. A turnaround at Triple-A resulted in his second chance with the big club, but a 4.25 ERA remains a mild disappointment.

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Two pitchers who have changed scenery in the past four months and have rediscovered better versions of themselves with the relocation. Either of them could have a shelf life that lasts into the season’s final weeks. The first is pretty much entirely in control of that possibility, for fantasy baseball owners. The second’s rotation spot may be in jeopardy, but if he survives the week, then you might want to take a look.

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It’s been a disappointing season for Jake Peavy, as he posted a 4.72 ERA with the Red Sox and although meaningless on its own, sported a rather hilarious 1-9 record. And it’s not even like he was simply suffering from poor fortune. His 4.33 xFIP was his worst mark since his first full season in 2003, as his strikeout rate was down and walk rate up. It became acceptable to drop him in shallow mixed leagues. But on Saturday, the Giants acquired the right-hander, resulting in Peavy’s return to the National League. Let’s find out if that is going to be enough to put him back on mixed league radars.

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This year doesn’t look like a promising one for the promotion of catching prospects, at least those who could make a positive impression in fantasy baseball leagues. The San Diego Padres’ Austin Hedges may prove to be the exception to make his debut. Andrew Susac could allow the San Francisco Giants move Buster Posey to first base in September if circumstances called for it. Christian Bethancourt may be back with the Atlanta Braves to grab some pine. The Boston Red Sox may even want to give Blake Swihart a taste of The Show in September. But these youngsters probably aren’t ready for the bigs.

I decided to hold off on August catcher tiers until after the non-waiver trade deadline. There shouldn’t be much movement at this position, but a few extra days in the potential aftermath can’t hurt.

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If you were/are depending on Mike Napoli to provide your fantasy team with power, chances are, you’ve been disappointed. As of now, Napoli’s hit 12 home runs in 353 plate appearances, and has an ISO of .172 – the lowest of his career. So, what’s the deal? And is there anything to look forward to down the stretch?

First things first, Napoli’s had some injury woes this season that have undoubtedly led to his meh numbers. He dislocated a finger on his left hand in mid-April; he never went on the DL, but still…that’s a rough injury to play through if you’re having to swing a bat. And then, on May 24, he sprained his right ring finger, which cost him a trip to the DL. Perhaps some fingers are worse than others – Napoli’s teammate, Dustin Pedroia, hasn’t been the same since his thumb injury, even though his power may have already been in decline – but either way, it’s not hard to make a case that injuries have hurt Napoli a little this season, from a playing time perspective, at the very least. Read the rest of this entry »

As it’s the end of July, we might as well take a look at two players who have had big months and recently drawn the eye of deep-league fantasy owners. As usual, these recommendations are best reserved for owners in mono leagues.
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Yesterday, I used Jeff Zimmerman’s recently published xBABIP table to identify five trade targets, with the underlying assumption that they have suffered from poor BABIP fortune, which is likely to reverse over the final two months of the season. Today, I will check in on some hitters whose BABIPs are far above their xBABIP marks and could be in for quite the decline over the rest of the season. As such, they are perhaps strong sell candidates.

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