Archive for Roto

Well, I finally got through all the news after a week in New Mexico with my family. No injury prediction reports (PAIN or HURT) today, but will look at publishing them on Thursday (if not before).

• At the Hardball Times, Dan Farnsworth goes into detail on how wrist injuries affect hitters.  Here is his conclusion:

From these case studies, I suspect that hitters who tend to flatten out the bottom hand early and keep it flat through contact put greater strain on their wrist joints. This forces them to use more of their bones and ligaments to stabilize their swings, rather than their muscle mass. Muscles can be strengthened, while bones and other connective tissue cannot. Just like pitchers who are suffering from diminished velocity due to developing elbow instability, I expect hitters with this type of movement pattern to be more likely to suffer downturns in productivity.

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Arismendy Alcantara came in fifth on the Cubs’ preseason Top 10 prospects list here at FanGraphs, and was a consensus Top 100 prospect in baseball. His stock only rose further as this season went on, as he put up consistently great numbers in Triple-A. His .307/.353/.537 slash — with ten homers and 21 steals — made it seem like his arrival as a five-category fantasy middle infielder was more a question of ‘when’ than ‘if.’

Since he arrived in the majors just over a week ago, Alcantara has been every bit as good as advertised, hitting .286/.316/.543 with a homer and three steals in 38 plate appearances. His performance thus far should be more than enough to keep him in the major-league lineup; expect either Mike Olt (.142/.226/.361, 38.9% K-rate) or Junior Lake (.219/.246/.385, 34.1% K-rate) to be the odd man out on the 25-man roster when Emilio Bonifacio returns, and Darwin Barney (.230/.265/.328) sure isn’t doing anything to demand his starting job back.

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It’s not shaping up to be a great fantasy season for me actually. But this is despite most of my pitching staffs being generally excellent. At least the names on those staffs are excellent — not all of them are active. Lots of red DL tags. That’s the way of pitching.

But pitching changes in fits and starts, and it’s my favorite aspect of the game, so I’m going to make this a Monday column of sorts. The Change will look for changes in pitching mix, look at pitch types to see if newcomers have a promising pitch (maybe a change), and will generally try to help you decide what to do about a few pitchers every Monday, after their last start has provided us some change to analyze.

Today, though, one pitcher is bizarre enough to take our entire attention.

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The MLB Trade Deadline is coming up quickly, and fantasy deadlines will follow over the next few weeks. For dynasty owners, particularly those near the top of their standings, there is a big question of how you balance making a run in 2014 vs. staying in a good position for 2015.

I am in the midst of a marathon trade dialogue with fellow Rotographer Brad Johnson. Brad is sitting in fourth place, but has the 8th best offense and 4th best pitching staff and has determined that puts a top-three finish out of reach. And as he has shipped off one star after another (Miguel Cabrera, Craig Kimbrel, Adam Wainwright) he and I have repeatedly debated the merits of those stars and my young up-and-comers.

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As we continue into the second half of the season, it’s time to check back into the batted ball distance leaderboard. As usual, I am identifying potential HR/FB rate improvers by comparing a hitter’s mark to his distance. However, distance alone doesn’t tell the complete story, so this isn’t a perfect analysis. I found that batted ball angle and the standard deviation of fly balls were also quite important. But since this data isn’t publicly available yet, we have to do the best with what we have. So without further ado, here are your power surgers.

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Episode 144

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Jason Collette and Nicholas Minnix discuss, among other things, the Houston Astros’ failure to sign Brady Aiken; trade rumors (and the fantasy implications of them) regarding such players as David Price, Chase Utley, and A.J. Burnett; the big news of the weekend, aka the trade of Huston Street, and what it might mean for Joaquin Benoit; the Cleveland Indians’ rotation quandaries; Shelby Miller; Austin Jackson’s move to the leadoff spot; and a host of players returning in the next week or two.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them on our next episode.

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The Bullpen Report team welcomes you back from a much needed All-Star Break rest. While there are lots of news and notes that could be covered, tonight I’ll hit you with what appears to be the most essential tidbits. However, if by chance there’s something I missed that you feel should’ve been addressed, please just drop a line in the comments below.

While we were away, the San Diego Padres shipped All-Star closer Huston Street up the 5 freeway to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a handful of Halos’ prospects. The addition of Huston Street parlayed with the recent acquisitions of Jason Grilli and Joe Thatcher, should bolster an Angels’ bullpen that ranked 21st in the majors with a 3.75 ERA (3.90 FIP). Street will likely take on the ninth-inning for Mike Scioscia’s bullpen, sending Joe Smith back into the eighth-inning setup role. Not a bad problem to have for the Angels as long as both hurlers continue shoving.
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In lieu of a focused piece this afternoon, let’s compile some tips and tricks for the remainder of the season. I’ll categorize everything by platform or scoring type where applicable. We can discuss more ideas in the comments, and I’ll continue to build this post until we have something approaching a complete guide to the “second half.” I’m going to make a few assumptions to keep the bloating minimal. For example, I assume if you’re interested in ottoneu advice then you know the rules and quirks of that particular platform.

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The not terribly accurate “second half” starts today. If you’re anything like me, the All-Star game doesn’t do a helluva lot to satisfy the need to fill up those multiple box scores and follow the ridiculous number of rosters I have in fantasy baseball. So thank goodness the break is over and we can move on to more important things other than whether a pitcher not-so-gracefully curtseyed to a living legend. Who cares, we have titles to win here.

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These are dark times for Allen Craig owners.

It’s not just that those of us who drafted him realize he’s having a bad season — that fact became shriekingly apparent months ago — it’s that there aren’t a lot of signs that he’ll turn things around, and worse, such word is spreading throughout the fantasysphere, eroding his trade value.
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