Join us this week on Bottom of the Barrel Scrapers as we look at a stopgap infielder with multi-position eligibility and a former playoff hero who just might have found his stroke in 2011. They may not be the tastiest treats on the fantasy dessert buffet, but hey…they’ve each got a World Series ring. That’s something, right? Read the rest of this entry »
Your Monday morning waiver wire features a shortstop and a starting pitcher, so let’s dive in…
Going into the season I noted just how shallow the shortstop position was. Behind Tulowitzki and Ramirez, the cupboard was barely stocked with anything useful. Over the past two weeks we’ve seen some surprise players start to hit far above expectations and make a name for themselves. Is their success sustainable? Probably not in most cases, but in the fantasy world we ride hot streaks as far as we can. At the same time there have been more heralded shortstops who have struggled to get things going. For the first time this season lets take a look at the Risers and Fallers at shortstop
It’s been over a month since we debuted the shortstop player rankings. We’re only a little over a week into the season so it’s too early to make any significant changes to the rankings, but there have been many surprises among the position. Let’s take a look at a few of the more interesting players that have emerged thus far:
If I gave you 100 guesses at naming the third ranked overall player so far according to Yahoo! I’m betting no one would guess its Willie Bloomquist. The usually light hitting shortstop, who has never ended a season in which he gathered 100+ PA’s with an OPS over .700, is tearing the cover off of the ball. Originally filling in for the injured Stephen Drew, Bloomquist’s triple slash line of .394/.429/.524 with six stolen bases looks like a misprint. Now that Drew is back, Diamondbacks Manager Kirk Gibson has tried to find ways to keep Bloomquist’s bat in the lineup, playing him in left field the past two games. There’s zero reason to believe he’ll keep hitting anywhere close to this pace. His K% is only 6.1 so far, down from 17.5% for his career. The reduced strikouts are resulting in more line drives falling for hits; his LD% is up ~9% from last season. His ownership numbers are jumping by the day, but if you want to ride a hot hitter who will pick you up some cheap steals at a weak position there are worse options than Bloomquist. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d type.
It’s a tough time of year to find fantasy gold on your waiver wire as your competition is picking through players just as intently as you. But you might want to build your bench depth by taking a chance on some overlooked guys like a veteran infielder who has had batting average issues or a formerly hyped prospect who just needed a little extra time to break out. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s say you blew all of your money on Albert Pujols, Michael Pineda, and Eric Hosmer, and need a super-cheap shortstop in an ottoneu fangraphs points league. Or, maybe you’re scrambling because Stephen Drew is dealing with his day-to-day, negative-MRI, weeks-old abdominal injury. You have $2 to spend, and you need a shortstop with a job. Here are shortstops who have been going for two bucks in ottoneu points leagues:
| Name | wOBA:ZiPS | wOBA:Oliver | TAv:PECOTA | Average | %Owned |
| Jason Bartlett | 0.318 | 0.312 | 0.254 | 0.295 | 47% |
| Brent Morel | 0.308 | 0.308 | 0.252 | 0.289 | 47% |
| Miguel Tejada | 0.317 | 0.304 | 0.246 | 0.289 | 50% |
| Erick Aybar | 0.304 | 0.301 | 0.236 | 0.280 | 37% |
| Alex Gonzalez | 0.305 | 0.290 | 0.236 | 0.277 | 43% |
| Clint Barmes | 0.295 | 0.293 | 0.240 | 0.276 | 3% |
| Orlando Cabrera | 0.291 | 0.290 | 0.235 | 0.272 | 7% |
| Brendan Ryan | 0.277 | 0.269 | 0.232 | 0.259 | 7% |
Since it’s a FanGraphs Points league, we can get a good idea of value by simply ranking players based on your favorite offensive rate stat, be it wOBA here or at Hardball Times, or TAv at BPro. I took a dumb average of the three projections just so we could get an overall ranking, but the average itself has no meaning in and of itself.
Stealing Jeff’s format from his post yesterday, I’ll be looking at some various shortstops around the fantasy landscape. It’s been a few weeks since shortstops were discussed in these pages, aside from going over how bad they are, and while not much has transpired, there is something to be said.
The only major news coming out of the shortstop community lately is the concern over Stephen Drew’s availability for opening day due to an abdominal injury. The MRI results were negative, and while it doesn’t look like he’ll be put on the disabled list, he could still be held out a few days as a precautionary measure. The problem for the Diamondbacks, and potentially for fantasy owners, is that the team doesn’t have a suitable backup for Drew. They recently put Tony Abreu on waivers, so he could potentially be claimed by another team. That leaves utility man Willie Bloomquist, but his .299 OBP last year isn’t appealing on any level.
We have Drew rated as the sixth best shortstop this season, and we know the SS talent pool isn’t very deep so any loss to an upper tier player will be felt more so than positions.
In case Drew is out for any extended period of time here are some shortstops to consider that are owned in less than 10% of all ESPN or Yahoo! leagues.
Yuniesky Betancourt (7% Yahoo!)
I never thought I’d be writing a blurb Yuniesky, but here I am. Somehow in 2010 he managed to hit 16 home runs after never showing that much power potential anywhere throughout his career. If you believe he magically found a power stroke and will continue to hit 10+ homers then by all means pick him up. He does have a full time gig, which most players with such a low ownership percentage do not, so if anything he’ll get the at bats. His average won’t kill you (.272 career), but he doesn’t run or provide relevance in any other category.
Cliff Pennington (1.1% ESPN)
Another shortstop with job security, Pennington’s only asset is his ability to steal bases. He only hit .250 and got on base at a .319 clip in 2010, but managed to swipe 29 bases. Oakland’s offense is fairly weak once again, so Pennington should get the green light to run whenever he feels the need. For someone with no power, he would be well served to try and flip his GB (35.6%) and FB (43.0%) percentages this season. If, and it’s a big if, he’s able to do that his value will surely increase.
Jerry Hairston Jr. (3% Yahoo)
A player with multipositional eligibility (2B, SS, OF), Hairston is once again in a part time job, this time with the Nationals. He should see some at bats in a platoon with Rick Ankiel in centerfield, and will undoubtedly see action at the other up the middle positions as well. The past two seasons Hairston has averaged roughly 450 at bats and hit 10 home runs in each campaign. That type of power plays at a weak hitting position like shortstop. Playing time will be hard to pinpoint, but in a pinch there are worse options.
While the season hasn’t started yet, it’s never too early to get familiar with your league’s waiver wire. Situations are still changing on some teams and by keeping up with the news, you’ll be better prepared to pounce on a potential quality pick-up before your competition. The waiver wire articles you’ll find here focus on players owned in less than 50% of Yahoo! and ESPN leagues. Read the rest of this entry »
During the course of the season, I will be discussing players owned in 10% or fewer of leagues on CBS Sports. Hopefully these targets will go on to have career-rest-of-the-seasons and you will thank me endlessly for sharing my wisdom. I apologize in advance if any players I mention are not available in your particular league, as I am not quite all-knowing, but working on reaching that level in due time. And off we go…
Jimmy Rollins is entering a pivotal season in his career. For years, the switch-hitter was a power/speed dynamo who ranked near the top of pre-season shortstop rankings. But, at 32, Rollins faces a contract year coming off a season sabotaged by calf and hamstring injuries (he had cysts removed from his left wrist this offseason, too). Rollins’ ailments limited him to less than 400 plate appearances in 2010, the first season that he logged less than 600 PAs in the majors.
Since his 2006-2008 peak at the plate, during which he hit .284/.342/.485 (15 percent above the MLB average, once park and league factors are accounted for), Rollins has tumbled to a .248/.304/.406 triple-slash over the 2009-2010 seasons (11 percent below average). Can we expect better from a more Zen J-Roll in 2011, or will he continue to fade?
One of the biggest factors in Rollins’ offensive decline is his batting average on balls in play — his BABIP over the ’09 and ’10 seasons was .249. That’s fourth-lowest among qualified big league hitters over the past two years, and well below his career .290 mark. And much of Rollins’ BABIP downturn has come on grounders. From 2009-10, he had a .178 BABIP on ground balls, compared to a .225 career average and a .235 average for NL hitters. That ’09-’10 ground ball BABIP was sixth-lowest among MLB hitters, placing slightly ahead of speed luminaries like Casey Kotchman, Lyle Overbay and Jose Lopez. Wait, what?
Despite top-shelf speed, Rollins has generally posted below-average BABIP figures on grounders during his career. But recently, his performance on choppers has been commensurate with players whose 60-yard dash times are measured by sun dials, not stop watches. Could those aforementioned lower body injuries be sapping Rollins of some of his foot speed?
Rollins has remained a high-percentage base stealer, swiping 31 bags and getting caught seven times in 2009 and going 17-for-18 on the base paths this past year. But he is attempting to steal bases less often. According to Baseball-Reference, J-Roll took off on 16.6 percent of his stolen base opportunities (defined as a situation in which a runner is on first or second and the next base is open) from 2006-2008. That dropped to 15.6 percent in ’09, and 12.2 percent in ’10.
In terms of other base running aspects (such taking an extra base or advancing on wild pitches and passed balls), Rollins remains above average: Baseball Prospectus’ base running stats show him adding around two runs of value in non-SB base running last year. It doesn’t seem like his wheels are shot.
Perhaps in an effort to conserve his legs, Rollins is picking his spots to go full-bore on the bases. Those forty-plus steal seasons appear to be over. But if Rollins is healthy, it’s likely that his BABIP in grounders will perk up, and so should his line. ZiPS projects a .264/.323/.426 showing in 2011. Rollins’ go-go years may be behind him, but that offensive line, coupled with around 25 steals, still makes him one of the better options at a shallow position.
