Who is Being Dropped & Why
One trend I’ve noticed is some owners are starting to pack it in or succumbing to the grind. There is no reason to roster Montas with his suspension but he’s still on five rosters. Since more players are available on the waiver wire, teams down in the rankings can quickly make up ground.
The following players were dropped in more than 10 or more of the 38 NFBC Main Event leagues.
Demoted
- Leonys Martin (24): A .620 OPS. Anyone with an OPS under .650 is suspect for demotion.
- Kevin Cron (20): This demotion was a little weird since Cron was hitting good (.822 OPS). Maybe it points to the return of Jake Lamb off of the IL.
- Erick Fedde (12): 4.9 K/9 + 4.2 BB/9 = demotion
- Mike Foltynewicz (11): He’s got to work through several issues which have ballooned his ERA to 6.37.
Injured
- Diego Castillo (20): I don’t expect these shares to stay on the wire for long as some Save starved owners will take a chance on him.
- Rich Hill (16): A forearm injury has him out around a month.
- Alex Reyes (13): Removed from his AAA start with pectoral discomfort.
- Brandon Nimmo (12): Out for a month with neck discomfort.
Other
- Frankie Montas (33): PED suspension.
- Dominic Smith (19): While he’s hitting great (.937 OPS), he’s only started in one of the last seven games. I feel he’s going to get traded.
- Cal Quantrill (18): Demoted to the bullpen for now.
- Jimmy Nelson (16): Moved to the bullpen after struggling as a starter with a 9.75 ERA.
- Brett Anderson (14): He rewarded his two-start owners with a 7.20 ERA, 1.6 WHIP, and 2 K’s in 10 IP.
- Joe Biagini (13): Might possibly be Toronto’s closer while Ken Giles is on the DL (or once Giles gets traded).
- Josh Naylor (13): Has started in just two of the Padres last seven games.
- J.D. Davis (12): Somehow the struggling Mets feel they have to play Todd Frazier instead of Davis. While Davis has started three straight, it has just been six of the last eleven.
- Myles Straw (12): Started just three of the Astros last 12 games.
- Austin Hedges (11); Better catchers are on the waiver wire (.593 OPS). Additionally, Francisco Mejia has returned and has started four of the last five games. Hedges may regain the top spot since Mejia has never been able to hit MLB pitcher (career .576 OPS).
- Mitch Keller (11): A 10.50 ERA has him back in the minors. While the final results have been horrible, he’s showing some skills with his 96-mph fastball.
- Freddy Peralta (10): Throwing just a fastball means he’ll get hit around (1.9 HR/9, .349 BABIP, and a 5.68 ERA) and ends up in the bullpen where he has a 2.70 ERA.
- Danny Jansen (10): He has been historically bad (.168/.253/.237).
- Evan Longoria (10): He’s been bad (.229/.309/.390) and is barely replacement level.
- Jesus Aguilar (10): Aguilar has produced worse than Longoria (.625 OPS vs .698) in a better home park.
- Yusei Kikuchi (10): Owners can’t handle the 5.11 ERA with matching ERA estimators. The problem with Kikuchi is that his struggles are not from just one problem. He’s not a flyball or groundball pitcher. He only has a 6.6 K/9. He gets hit around (1.9 K/9 and .306 BABIP). And uses a crappy curve (4% SwStr%) over 20% of the time. It’s not one fix which will turn around his season but a complete makeover.
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.
Minor quibble: Frazier is a far superior player. Even this year with his monumental struggles off DL he has posted a superior line (120wrc vs 112) and has been one of the best hitters in baseball over last month (169 wrc). He is also a better defender, and projects better at all aspects of the game moving forward. I’m actually monitoring him in shallow leagues
I get what you’re saying but. . . . .far superior? He’s a better defender no doubt but at the plate, I think I’d take Davis. Their plate discipline stats are pretty similar but Davis hits the ball harder by both hard% and simple EV. xwOBA favors Davis but a lot and only luck has put Frazier a little bit in front of Davis – Frazier has outperformed his xwOBA by 30 points while Davis has underperformed by 40 points. That’s just luck – bad for JD and good for Frazier. .
Davis is a quality hitter who was buried in the Astros’ system for a couple extra years because they had nowhere for him on the major league roster. He deserves to be playing every day.
I guess maybe not far superior, but he’s been hitting fine this year and no real reason to think he is going to collapse moving forward. I get they want to see what they have in Davis, but Frazier could be dangled for some (albeit not very valuable) prospect or what not. He is a league average player at worst.