American League

Astros

• The team may be forced to roster and play José Abreu since the owner made the move.

Brown and Espada are in brutal positions. Espada can only play the roster he’s given and Brown did not sign Abreu — owner Jim Crane did during his three-month cameo as a general manager.

Both men are now forced to answer for a problem they did not create. The remaining money and year on Abreu’s contract means Crane is in control of his ultimate fate — and there’s no precedence in his ownership tenure for eating this much money due to underperformance.

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While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

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In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Real life hit me in the middle of this article on Friday. That and then needing to get the Waiver Wire and FAAB article done, I did go back and update any of the blurbs I wrote on Friday. Here is when I examined the lineups:

Angels to Twins – Friday
White Sox to Nationals – Saturday
Padres to Rockies – Friday

American League

Angels

• It’s hard to find a regular on this team who isn’t named Anthony Rendon, Mike Trout, Taylor Ward, Logan O’Hoppe, or Zach Neto. Everyone else is, at best, playing three-quarters of the time. Brandon Drury (.200/.279/.291) was getting regular playing time but is dealing with a hamstring issue. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Blue Jays

• Yariel Rodriguez is working with a pitch limit and won’t go long into games. He could end up in a tandem with Bowden Francis.

With a pitch limit of 70 or so, Rodríguez worked until two outs into the fourth inning, when he ended his outing with a called strikeout on Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers. In all, Rodríguez allowed four hits — including a solo homer by centre fielder Brenton Doyle — along with two walks and six strikeouts.
…
Coming out of the bullpen for the first time this season, Bowden Francis took over in the fourth inning. Combined with Rodríguez, they allowed just three runs over six innings — what a club is generally looking for from a traditional starter.

The Blue Jays hinted at using Rodríguez and Francis as a piggybacking tandem, and given the results this time around, it’s a strategy the club can turn to again, though Francis can also be used in spots out of the bullpen in the games between, too.
…
“We’re gonna build him up a little bit, but it’s not going to be, again, outrageous to where we’re really pushing him, six, seven, eight innings, things like that,” Schneider said. “Things could change, for sure, based on how he’s feeling and how he’s doing, but I think we’re going to play the long game a little bit.”

Read the rest of this entry »

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Brandon Drury (.429 OPS) has started in 11 of 12 games so far.

• Mickey Moniak (vs RHP) and Aaron Hicks (vs LHP) are in a right-field platoon. Hicks does play against a few righties.

Astros

• Jake Meyers (.673 OPS) and Mauricio Dubón (.639 OPS) are splitting time in centerfield.

• Jon Singleton (.581 OPS) and José Abreu (.227 OPS, wrist injury) are splitting time at first base. Read the rest of this entry »