Players Owners are Picking Up and Dumping
ESPN has a nice feature that shows which players are being added and dropped in all their leagues. Here is a look at the top pitchers and hitters being added and dropped.
Hitters
Kyle Blanks (57.5% owned, +15.5% increase) – Kyle is just getting noticed in fantasy and is a great reserve OF in small leagues or decent starter in NL-only and larger leagues. He should hit 20+ home runs with around a 0.270 average.
Colby Rasmus (66.5, +14.9%) – Great upside and people seem to be picking him up. Colby also has the chance to hit 20+ home runs also.
Miguel Tejada (73.8%, +14.6%) – Though I don’t like him as a starter, there is no reason for him not to be on a bench, especially with the 3B qualification coming soon.
Alex Gordon (31.2%, -40.6%) – Alex’s trip to the DL has caused a huge sell off. Buy low here. He should be back within the month, so if you have some DL spots available, stash him there.
Corey Hart (71.1%, -12.0%) – Corey value is down because he now seems to be platooning with Jim Edmonds. Corey looks to be starting against LHP only.
Chris Young (42.0%, -6.3%) – Not sure why the sell off. Maybe there are just better and more consistent options available.
Pitchers
Matt Lindstrom (59.9%, +40.5%) – Get the closer nod of Lyons has pushed him up quickly
Francisco Liriano (96.4%, +26.9%) – Looks like Francisco should no longer be available in any league. He is not close to a sure thing, but a chance should be taken on him. Other high risk, high reward pitchers are Ben Sheets, Fausto Carmona and Ervin Santana.
Jon Rauch (87.0%, +20.6%) – Owners sucking up Joe Nathan’s replacement.
Brandon Lyon (37.9%, -53.2%) – Lindstrom is not a lights out closer yet. Lyon will put up decent rate stats and has a good chance to take over Houston’s closer role. Buy low.
Wade Davis (64.0%, -30.9%) – The drop may be from being the 5th starter and not having as many starts. Pitchers will get injured and he will get his share of starts. Buy low again.
Joba Chamberlain (33%, -12.9%) – Joba should be picked up immediately if available. Can fill in a SP slot when starter not going and provide some good rates stats. Yes, buy low again.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
what are these, 8 team leagues?
What do you mean? I’m in a 10 teamer and the only guys from this list that are owned are Liriano and Tejada.
I really want to pick up Blanks but I have no one to drop. Kemp, C Lee, Ellsbury and Carlos Gonazalez are my OFs. And I have Billy Butler and D Lee on my bench.
Anyone have thoughts on Latos vs. Kuroda?
I mean these are players who should be owned in every league.
-Latos for help with Ks and keepers (innings limit though)
-Kuroda for WHIP help
I am going to try to get a feel of the number of owners and players in each Fangraphs reader’s league. In one of may leagues, it is so deep that the highest % owned is 5 for available players. Let me see what I can do.
I guess I’m just used to uber-deep leagues. I’m in two 16 team dynasties, and one 20 team yearly redraft. All 3 are slow-auctions where most, if not all, of the guys mentioned in this article went for $5+.
This is an interesting trend to observe, but I would imagine the people picking up on this are weeks behind where we readers would be in terms of observing players to add.
I agree with another know it all – heck, some of those guys were among 10 keepers in my league – 20 teams, 25 player rosters. An occasional version of this article for those who’ve got to dig very deep would be most welcome.
You guys are in some extremely deep leagues. The majority of leagues are either 10 or 12 team leagues. 20 teams? 16 teams? That’s definitely not the norm. Many of these guys are gone in my competitive 12 team league, but a few of them are still available.
I would assume this article is trying to suggest free agents for the 90% of leagues out there with 10-12 teams, not the 5-10% that are crazy deep like yours.
I come to fangraphs for insight I can’t get anywhere else. If I wanted information on run-of-the-mill guys like Hart, Liriano, Chamberlain, I would go to Yahoo or CBS. ESPN is downright awful in nearly every aspect, so I tend to believe the exact opposite of what they suggest. I’m in no way trying to offend you, Jeff, so don’t take it that way at all.
Basically, like Jeff said, how many readers here at fangraphs actually play in leagues where these guys are available? I’m guessing less than 5%, not 90% like you said.
Go pick up Colby Rasmus! Ya think?
10 teams is too few for a mixed league. You’ll have all-stars as FAs.
Just to throw in a vote. I’m in a 12 team mixed league and all these guys are gone. Most of which were gone on draft day… I think 10 team mixed leagues are a thing of the past. If they are not, generally pickups end up being much higher profile guys that anyone can read about on soft sites like CBS, foxsports, etc.. I think this website caters to the more dedicated fans who would play in at least slightly deeper leagues.
To clarify, I know 12 isn’t uber-deep, but with 27 man rosters, it is significant… 🙂
I try to cater to all, especially with my waiver wire pickups going from 50% on down. I wanted this to be more informative, and in the future look for increases and decreases with more availabilities.
not a single one of these guys is available in an “only” league…
I’m in a 12 team keeper league (25 man roster) and a 15 team NFBC style league. All of these guys are owned in both, outside of Hart, who I believe was dropped in my keeper league. Please dig a little deeper for some of the bigger league players who regularly read your site. Thanks!
FWIW, in my 12 team mixed league with 13 starters on offense, 9 pitchers and 8 bench spots…all of these guys are rostered except for Lyon, who was dropped this week.
For determination of readership purposes:
12 team, 30 man mixed league roster, 7×7 (r, hr, rbi, sb, avg, obp, slg) (k, w, l, s, bs, era, whip)
How about splitting it into tiers: 10 team mixed, 12 team, Only leagues and a Keeper league section.
Even in my 10 teamer, Joba is the only one available
All these guys except Rasmus, Sheets and Santana are available in my league (10 team mixed, 21 man rosters).
In two 12 team mixed leagues. All these guys gone in our draft and still owned, even Hart. Gotta dig deeper dude.
Im another in a 12 teamer and all of these guys are owned, almost everyone was drafted, though we use holds, so guys like Joba, Lyon and Rauch (when it was CBC) are no brainers.
I would say there still are plenty of hardcore fantasy leaguers who play in your 16-20 team leagues or still play your AL/NL only leagues. Of those Id say at least 25% of the readers on this site participate in one of these type leagues, so a deeper dig probably couldn’t hurt.
I like the concept, especially this time of year where there are so many knee-jerk reactions of guys getting cut for players having 3 good games, so helping to sort that out is certainly helpful.
Sorry to be negative and pile on, but I’m sure the feedback is appreciated…
All gone in my 12-team mixed league. All were drafted and are still owned.
I’m in a 10 team mixed league and everyone of these players are owned with the exception of alex gordon. For me its a wait and see approach with gordon.
In two 12 team mixed leagues, all of these guys are long, long gone.
The problem is focusing on ESPN’s charts, not Jeff’s selections. ESPN focuses on 10 team leagues as does Yahoo (notice how their mock draft system only allowed 10 team leagues?), but the real problem lies in dead leagues run by league managers hoping to inflate their leagues won stats. Yes, these people exist. Summarily, these numbers are skewed to holy hell.
If you’re going to use one sites add/drop stats, Yahoo is still your best bet.