Archive for Roto

With roughly a third of the 2014 mLB season in the books, our reliever tiers deserved to be examined. In an effort to develop said tiers for those in holds or solds leagues, I looked for pitchers who appeared in about 15 or more games, accumulated a minimum of three holds, owned a worthy K-BB% and posted fine ratios. Mind you, like everything else in life, there are exceptions to this rule. For instance, Brian Matusz, Jared Burton and Brian Schlitter don’t have the greatest K-BB% or ratios, but they do have seven holds a piece. Therefore, they were included. Also, I felt obligated to write the name Schlitter a few times, which is probably the real reason I included him.

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It’s time for another Dallas Keuchel update. He’s been this season’s breakout star on the mound, aside from Masahiro Tanaka who kind of doesn’t count. He’s received his share of attention here at RotoGraphs, and FanGraphs (Uno, Dos). Amazingly, he’s still available in 24 percent of Yahoo leagues, which is just a travesty.

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I hope that I’ve been giving it to you straight. On that note, these recommendations aren’t the most inspired. Oh, look: a guy who hit two bombs yesterday. Check it out: a recent call-up who was raking while in the minors.

Which kind of brings me to a larger point: It’s not often that I find players inspiring enough to recommend. Obviously, I’ve done it. I’ve been doing it for years … sometimes well, sometimes not so much. As far as the players go, I mean. Perhaps I’m just feeling particularly cynical or depressed.

What kind of recommendations do you want to see? I second-guess just about any name I come up with because of the multitude of league formats out there and, as a result, the usefulness of a rec. To me, there’s never enough context. I’d love to see what kinds of things readers want in a list of recommendations.

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In his first half season in the majors, Wil Myers was impressive. He hit .293/.354/.478 with 13 home runs and five steals, handily winning the AL Rookie of the Year despite not playing a game before June 18.

This year has been a different story for Myers. He’s hitting just .227 with an OBP barely clear of .300. His four home runs and one steal are well short of the paces he set in 2013. His strikeout rate, walk rate, and batted ball profile are very similar to last season. There’s no obvious culprit, but Myers has been bad.

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Starting pitchers need to be treated like stocks. Perceived value is more important than inherent value. When a stock becomes overvalued compared with your valuation estimate, you sell it, even if the company is a good one. The same goes for pitchers. I’m a fan of Scott Kazmir, think he will remain a good pitcher and solid fantasy option and I continue to be in awe at his career revival. But, it’s time to sell. And that’s precisely what I did yesterday in my local 12-team mixed league.

**Keep in mind that I am typing this before his start last night.

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Just one MASH report this week as the holiday and other commitments took up my time. Next week, I will be back on a regular schedule of a Monday and Thursday post.

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The Braves finally pulled the plug on Dan Uggla for good, it seems. Tommy La Stella was promoted to help a bottom-three situation, and now fantasy owners want to know how much he can help their teams. Only fair.

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Injuries and demotions are a deep league owner’s best friends, as long as they don’t occur to your players. But really, it’s one of the few ways to improve your roster since trading seems like an impossibility in such leagues. Both players in this week’s waiver wire are the beneficiaries of these two events.

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Just a few quick notes from tonight…

-After picking up a save in his first appearance back from the disabled list, Jason Grilli got the call in the bottom of the eighth-inning tonight with the Bucs down two runs to the Mets. Grilli surrendered a leadoff single to start the inning, then fanned the next three consecutive batters to keep the Pirates within striking distance heading into the final frame. Despite the fact that the Pirates were unable to stage the late-inning comeback, reports indicate that Grilli’s outing could be one of the final hurdles the right-hander needed to clear before reclaiming the closer tag. Stadium guns clocked the veteran’s fastball in the 92-94 range, which seems to be right in line with career norms. For his career, Grilli is 43-for-54 in save situations, 33 of which came in 2013.
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Episode 121

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is now live! Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix discuss Clay Buchholz, Francisco Rodriguez, LaTroy Hawkins and the Rockies’ bullpen, Ronald Belisario and the White Sox’s bullpen, Nick Hundley, Kolten Wong, Brett Nicholas and Michael Choice and … Kendrys Morales, and last but not least, Yordano Ventura.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us any fantasy questions you have so that we may answer on our next episode.

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