Life was good for Derek. Retired from the Yankees in 2014 at the age of 40. On top of the world. The King of New York. Started up ThePlayersTribune.com. Opened restaurants. Partnered on multiple business deals. Even got married in 2016! Was able to join Bruce Sherman’s consortium in purchasing the Marlins. Life was indeed good. Then the Marlins lost seven of their first ten games. Jeter knew it’d be bad, but he didn’t know it’d be this bad. The competitive juices began bubbling in his body. Then the Marlins lost eight of the next ten games. Steam began venting through his ears. Jeter stormed into Sherman’s office. “Bruce! I can’t take this shit anymore. I gave you my Black Book for this? You’re a gazillionaire. Do something.” KAPOW! Bruce b-slapped Derek with the Black Book…knocking him out. Little did Derek know, but underneath Marlins Park, a group of scientists had been working feverishly after getting the order earlier in the year. “I’ve been watching Westworld. I’m a gazillionaire. Do something.” When Derek woke up, he felt woozy. “Mirror. I need a mirror.” Ahhhhhhhhh. After the doctors had explained what they had done, Derek got up. Legs felt spry. Arms felt strong. Let’s do this. It was tough sledding in the beginning. From April 22nd to the end of the month, a span of eight games, Derek “Dietrich” (36% owned – increase of 15.4%) hit .179 with one home run and a 42.9% strikeout rate. Once the month of May hit, though, Derek got his groove back. 8 home runs, 25 runs scored, 21 RBI, .348 batting average and a 23.4% strikeout rate. Now, the BABIP has been .426. That’s obviously going to come down, but….Derek is batting lead off against righties and fifth against lefties. While he strikes out more against lefties, he’s more than held his own against them and actually has a higher ISO (.211 vs .182). Playing for the Marlins stinks and regression will kick in, but the 2B/3B/OF eligibility is nice and there’s a chance it really could be Jeter. No? Show me evidence to the contrary. TREASURE
Freddy Peralta (48.7% owned – increase of 35.1%) has been slicing and dicing his opponents. Grey wrote about him HERE recently. Grey! Why you gotta be a heightist?! Anyways, 13.9 K/9!!! Dayam! He had a 12.81 K/9 in AAA and 12.86 K/9 in AA, so it’s not an outlier. The xFIP is 2.57 and the swinging strike rate is 15%. Very nice, but the BABIP is .154 and the sample size is only 22.2 innings. I really don’t know what to think of Freddy. He throws a fastball at 91.3 mph and complements it with a curveball. He throws the change up 2.9% of the time, so he’s essentially a two-pitch guy. The hard contact rate is only 27.4%. My ever increasing gut is telling me that regression will come…and come hard, but the numbers are telling me he’s been elite. Press and parlay!!! But walk away from the table at the first sign of trouble. That’s always helped me at the craps table and should be applicable with Freddy. TRASHY TREASURE or TREASURY TRASH
Shane Bieber (34.7% owned – increase of 30.4%) has me shaking my booty from side to side. 10.80 K/9 with a 1.47 BB/9. xFIP of 2.61 WITH a .408 BABIP. Yummy. Dan Pants wrote about him HERE recently. While the K/9 numbers and swinging strike numbers are lower than Freddy’s, I like Bieber a little better. He has better control and a more diverse arsenal of pitches (fastball, slider, curveball, and change up). I’m not going to look up how tall he is. I’m not a heightist like Grey. TREASURE
There were not many candidates for this week’s article. For the 25 players with the highest dropped percentage, 13 were a result of injury, 1 for suspension, 1 for demotion, 3 for part-time players, and 8 were pitchers (that weren’t injured). For the most added, 15 were pitchers and 4 were catchers. Why am I mentioning this? We are at the half way point of the season. Much of the waiver wire darlings have been picked up already. It’s like this. Earlier in the season was like going to the Bellagio buffet with every station open. Now? Only having rice and chow mein trays out. With that said, occassionaly a dessert tray will slip out from time to time. The lack of options shouldn’t bring complacency, but rather more vigilance.
Thoughts on Jesse Winker? Is the power developing? Or is he just another LHH OBP guy with not much else, in a platoon?
@Chucky: I like Winker. The power may be more a product of the home park he plays in, but he’s still young. What I most like is that he’s not overwhelmed by LHP. Do the Reds think the same, though? That is the question
You’ve revealed yourself, Son!
@Grey: As what? You freaking heightist
If you’re over five seven, you’re dead to me
@Grey: Ha! Supposed to take off 2 inches right?
I’m picturing you stumbling around LA muttering, “I see dead people” over and over again.
Everyone is surprisingly short in LA, thankfully!
@Grey: Because everyone else is dead to you!!!!
This might be true, different perspective
@Grey: I will not walk around LA the same again. Good thing all I do is drive.
Had to make a decision on picking up either Pivetta, Eflin or Beiber last Wednesday night on waivers. I really liked all of them. I chose Pivetta simply because of the K’s (standard 5×5 roto league.) Please tell me I made the right move by passing on the other two.
@Doc Samson: If I choose correctly, will you make it rain in my PayPal account?
I like Pivetta and Bieber the best. Coin flip for me.
@Son: Pivetta is more certain to be getting starts. Carrasco should be back for the Indians in about a week, and Salazar may be back about a week later (though I am not holding my breath on him). How the starting rotation will shake out there is uncertain. So yeah, unless it is a pure streaming sitaution, Pivetta over Bieber at this point.
Have Beuhler, Miles Mikolas, and Freddy Peralta. Thinking that next week I would activate Beuhler, swap out Mikolas and Peralta for Bieber and Loaisiga. Peralta and Mikolas are due for regression (I hope not today or Sunday). So, shuffle the deck or keep what I have in hand. 8 teams, 6×6, H2H, just got into first place, lead by 1.5.
@Roger Anderson: I’d swap out Mikolas for Bieber, but I’m probably holding onto Peralta. Matchup with ATL is definitely tough, but he’s shown so far that he can miss bats. In addition, I’m a little worried about Loaisiga against TOR. They can stack the lineup with a ton of righties and, while he’s been ok against them so far, the strikeout rate is low, walk rate is high, and the hard hit rate is over 40%.