Archive for Uncategorized

Truth be told, I’ve been dreading this piece for months. Before joining Rotographs this season, I always enjoyed this series as much for revisiting the predictions at the end of the year as reading them in the first place. But of the 30 or so pieces I’ve written this year, Bold Predictions is easily my worst. Not only did I miss but I missed spectacularly. I missed in part because I went too bold but most painfully because I was sloppy. Want to know what I mean by sloppy? I predicted Greg Bird would out-perform Mark Teixeira. Seven weeks after he was lost for the season. I also got too specific, ambitiously adding milestones when broad declarations would have more than sufficed. I’m not going to enjoy what follows but without further ado, let’s Bring the Pain.

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The regular season ends Sunday, and most gamers are looking ahead toward next year at this point. Gamers in keeper leagues and dynasty leagues have the joy of managing their teams year round, and this post is largely directed at them. Of course, there’s info in here that will help those in re-draft leagues, but we’re months away from drafts. Back in early August, as one of my keeper league teams (closer to a dynasty league format with the ability to keep up to 15 players) languished near the bottom of the standings thanks in large part to being ravaged by injuries, I headed to ESPN’s free-agent pool to see who was available. I stumbled upon Gaby Sanchez — who last played in MLB in 2014 but spent the 2015 season in NPB — and the wheels began turning. I had no interest in adding Sanchez, but if he’s available, surely another former MLB player who headed overseas to revive his career would be, right? Nope. Eric Thames isn’t in the ESPN player pool. He’s not in Yahoo!’s, either. Alas, I couldn’t beat my savvy league mates to a potential steal of a keeper. If you play at another fantasy baseball provider, perhaps he’s available in the player pool there. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations on playing meaningful (fake) baseball this late into the season! At this point, your nerves, eyes, and pitching staff are shot, and you’re plugging leaks with sieves. Or maybe I’m just projecting.

Either way, maybe you’ll find this guide to the rest of the week’s streamers useful. If you’re in a redraft roto, I suggest using up your innings by Friday. The best prospect pitchers probably don’t have the innings to step in and pitch five or six on the weekend, the veterans will get some rest, and you’ll be left with some unsavory matchups, in large part, if you wait for Saturday and Sunday to blow out the rest of your innings.

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First, a quick thought on Jose Fernandez. A lot has already been said about the joy and enthusiasm with which he played the game and I second every last bit of it. Watching him pitch, he appeared to exist on another plane, one lacking a dimension for growth or improvement because how could that even be possible? His jump from A-ball to the majors was simultaneously remarkable and laughably uneventful. He even made Tommy John look easy.

Perhaps the adversities that Fernandez experienced in Cuba equipped him with the knowledge and perspective to make the athletic adversity felt by most seem inconsequential. I don’t know. What I do know is that Jose Fernandez put a face and vividness to the Cuban ballplayer’s experience that our sports media previously only alluded to in off-handed whispers. He shared personal experiences so heavy, their mere mention caused him to float above his peers.

I’ll miss watching him pitch. I wish I watched him more. But I’ll try not to think of what could have been because what was, was pretty damned significant.

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Continuing to shrive, we this week take a gimlet-eyed look at our in-season predictions. We omit any further references to our several in-season comments promoting our tragically mistaken vision of the Advent of the Five-Inning Pitcher, in penance for which we have already donned hairshirts.

Very Bad Predictions

–June 1: Mark Reynolds has “lost his power” and “will soon become a headache” to his owners. What we said at the time would still sound kind of plausible, if what subsequently occurred hadn’t occurred. At the beginning of June, despite playing in Coors and having generally good stats, Reynolds had unprecedentedly few home runs and was getting by on a bunch of seeing-eye opposite-field ground balls that had produced a ridiculous BABIP of .411. Almost immediately thereafter, though, he started (a) pulling the ball and (b) hitting fly balls, many of which (c) went for home runs. Read the rest of this entry »

Most of you that are still paying attention are scanning the pitching wire daily, looking for any help in your last matchup, your last two weeks of life in your roto league. So why make things complicated. Here’s a daily matchup / streaming calendar that just might help. Every day over the rest of the work week, with a shallow, mixed, and deep league option I like.

Good luck!

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Two weeks ago, I facetiously appended “Deep A.L. West-Only Leagues” to the end of my column’s title since the two players I wrote about both played in the A.L. West, specifically in Oakland. As if there are A.L. West-only leagues. Actually, are there A.L. West-only Leagues? Or any division for that matter? Do any of you play in divisional-only leagues? If so, why? And how’d you settle on your division? Please let me know in the comments because I’m dying to hear what a frustratingly unsatisfying experience that must be.

Well, this week I’m at it again championing two more unheralded and under-owned A.L. West players toiling away in fantasy obscurity, eager for the opportunity to play on a contender. Even one of the digital variety.

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Another great Monday to you all! I don’t have as many specific players to go over, but the ones I do have listed I want to go into a little more detail on.

To start with, let’s go with Stephen Strasburg and his curious elbow/forearm.

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There are only so many stones to overturn with waiver wire suggestions for the stretch run and only so many strategical quirks to point out, too. With that in mind, I’m going to turn my attention to 2017 — sort of. As Jeff Zimmerman recently pointed out, Kevin Gausman is shoving in the second half. Jeff noted the biggest change between halves is an improved LOB% and a drop in HR/9. Combing over his PITCHf/x data, there’s something I’ll be keeping tabs as the season winds down. Read the rest of this entry »

September baseball is the last call of the fantasy baseball saloon, and we’re all desperately scanning the room looking for that last great chance at glory. More often than not — especially if your ERA and WHIP are tanked and all you need is quality — we’re looking down that list of probable starters, looking for a pitcher worth picking up. Even better, a pitcher we could pick up and actually keep for his last few starts, something to keep us from blinking through the beer goggles of desperation again tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at some of the lesser-owned pitchers and see if any of them separate themselves.

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