When visiting another place, I want to taste the cuisine and visit the places that give the locals pride. Now that I think about it, the places that make the locals want to puke as well. Yes, I’m a rubbernecker. I have never once inquired about a pillar of the community. They are reliable, respected, and provide essential support yet…..boooorrring. Same goes for fantasy baseball. There are players we get excited about and others that are…..boooorrring. Kevin Pillar (65.8% owned – decrease of 11.1%) is one of those players. His ADP was 212.7 in ESPN leagues. Currently, he has a triple slash of .260/.302/.435 with 5 home runs and 9 stolen bases. The projection systems have him ending the season with 13 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 635 plate appearances. There were 14 players in all of baseball that ended with at least 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases last season. Now, he doesn’t walk much (5.4%) and chases a ton of pitches outside the strike zone (40.2%). With that said, he doesn’t strike out often (17.8%), will provide an ISO around .145, and have a batting average around .265. He’s batting fifth in the Blue Jays lineup and will sometimes get slotted into the two-hole. Digging into the 2018 numbers for Pillar, I noticed that he’s been experiencing some drastic splits. Against lefties, he’s batting .192 with a .200 BABIP. For his career, he’s a .282 batter against lefties with a .319 BABIP. I’d expect some positive regression. TREASURE
Brandon Nimmo (62.5% owned – increase of 41.5%) was the most added player in ESPN leagues. And for good reason. My only question is “Have 40% of owners quit already?” Nimmo has a triple slash of .267/.411/.542 with 7 home runs and 6 stolen bases. He strikes out 24.5% of the time, but walks 14.7%. The BABIP is .333, but with his speed, not too crazy of a number. He’s been entrenched at the top of the order and has an insane 45.1% hard contact rate!!! Not all is good, though. He sucks against left-handed pitching. 40% strikeout rate and .158 average. For his career, 37.3% strikeout rate and .184 average. In addition, the .275 ISO is probably not sustainable. Think more .150 range. I like Nimmo, but I do think some regression occurs and I can never forget how the Mets messed with Michael Conforto due to his struggles against left-handed pitching. Remember, this is a team that has Jose Bautista hitting third. TRASH (Keep in mind these designations are all relative)
Ross Stripling (76.5% owned – increase of 27.3%) has been the second-most added player. Grey went over him the other day, so I apologize for the redundancy, but the numbers are just so insane. 11.14 K/9, 1.86 BB/9, and 0.51 HR/9. The BABIP is .333!!! Now, the ERA of 1.52 is unsustainable….or is it? But the xFIP is only 2.63. The hard hit rate is only 22.5%. If he qualified, Stripling would lead all of baseball. For perspective. Noah Syndergaard currently has the lowest hard hit rate at 23.9%. The swinging strike rate is 11.1% and the chase rate is 32.1%. Now, here’s where you take your pants off, if you haven’t already. He’s always been slightly better against lefties in his career, but this season the K/9 is 12 and the K/BB is 7.20. AND the BABIP against lefties is a whopping .368!!! TREASURE
I appreciate that you tout Pillar and sure enough you have him in the RCL we’re playing. :) I also really wish I’d realized Stripling was going nuts before he got gobbled up. How is he not owned everywhere?
@Gerk: Ha! I’m not only the founder, but a client as well.
It took me a while to grab Stripling in the leagues I could because of his past history. I understand the skepticism. He numbers are unreal and he should be owned everywhere. For now
If he keeps it up, do you foresee gleyber being keeper material?
@Mike: Even if he doesn’t
H2H Dynasty 3B Devers, Escobar, Muncy
@gc tacos: Devers