Pedro Alvarez and Paul Goldschmidt: Mining the Minors
With lots of ground to cover in the wake of all the call-ups and promotions following the trade deadline, here’s a rapid-fire version of Mining the Minors.
Archive for Waiver Wire
Ryan Ludwick, NL Outfielder
by Eno Sarris
August 1, 2011
Ryan Ludwick was traded from the Padres to the Pirates on Sunday. Once you get past the surprise that the Buccos were buyers, there are another three levels of analysis to go, at least. The prognosis for the player is not incredibly predictable.
The easy answer is that Ludwick will enjoy moving out of PetCo. Since moving to the Padres at last year’s deadline, Ludwick has enjoyed the worst ISO of his career. The drop, about fifty points, could be attributable to the home park. ESPN’s park factors have San Diego as suppressing home runs by 11.5% over the past two years. On first blush, this easy analysis makes sense.
But there are more than a few problems with this idea.
Bourgeois & Garcia: Waiver Wire
Now that the trade deadline dust has settled, let’s look at a pair of players with rising fantasy stock following moves that were made (and not made)…
Johnny Giavotella and Ryan Lavarnway: Mining the Minors
This week, it’s finally time to get to a pair of guys who were becoming impossible to ignore with their recent play. Even if one of them is forever blocked by the unsurpassable Chris Getz.
Willie Bloomquist and Dexter Fowler: Cheap Steals on the Waiver Wire
As you’re tweaking your lineup here and there, looking for a way to steal some points from your opponents, check out how adding some stolen bases to your squad can help you out. It always seems to be a very movable category in roto leagues and an often disregarded category in head to head. Adding an extra stolen base guy can give you a nice cheap way to to boost you in the category while also helping you out in areas like runs scored and even batting average. Here’s a pair of speedsters that seem to be available in plenty of leagues. Read the rest of this entry »
Ackley, Guerra & Maybin: Waiver Wire
Young players all around today, three of ’em for your fantasy squad…
Zack Cozart: Deep League Waiver Wire
Zack Cozart | SS, Reds | 4% Owned (Y!) | 4% Owned (ESPN)
Prior to hyperextending his elbow during Saturday’s game against the Braves, Cincinnati Reds’ shortstop Zack Cozart was providing his ball club with great production in an area of need. Initial x-rays of Cozart’s arm came back negative, and while we don’t have a definitive time table for a return, his injury was much less serious than it could have been.
Jason Kipnis, Michael Taylor, Tom Milone: Mining the Minors
At approximately 4:45 p.m. Thursday, the Twitter handle @TheJK_Kid tweeted the following: “ITS TIME!” This was relevant because that account belongs to Indians prospect Jason Kipnis.
Jose Altuve, Jake McGee, Tyler Flowers: Mining the Minors
This may be the only time in history that the 6’2″, 235-pound Brandon Allen shares a space with mighty mite Jose Altuve — all 5’7″, 170 of him.
Wilson Ramos and Alex Presley: Waiver Wire Help
It’s really time to start looking deeper into your free agent pool these days. Of course, it looks better when a player is owned in 40% of ESPN leagues, but does that really mean he’s outperforming a guy that may only be owned in 15%? Not always the case. It may just mean that fewer people are paying attention and don’t know as much about him to realize that he is the superior fantasy option at this point in time. Here’s a pair of guys that just might fit that description. Read the rest of this entry »