Frenemies and cohorts, it is that magical time of year where the player pool begins to grow. Summer harvest begins to reap the treasures of the seeds sown by unheralded draft pundits of years passed. The scout's moment is now. Having spent their lives adorned with holey New Balances, wholly unrefined frozen dinners of Salisbury steak and discount diner breakfasts, they get to pound an Old Milwaukee and puff a few Doral’s as they revel in the glory of their hatred of sabremetrics. A life not fancied by us fantasy internet blogger moguls. No sirs and madams, we require a much fancier life—a life infused with excitement brought on by WHIPs and FIPs and wOBAs and WARs! The rest is mas o menos lo mismo— the same old shizz. Other than our baseball lens, the only other difference is that we stuttering B-Ball Bloggers need to score!!! Points…
Points is why we’re here, and June presents a unique opportunity where the player pool expands with talent that is usable and keepable. September offers a smorgasbord of young talent, but mostly it’s too late and the infusion of players nourish your team like an energy drink shooter with cinnamon whiskey. The hangover is awful and often begins before the luster of the buzz has worn off. The June callups are the cognacs, ladies men. Let’s take a look at these beauties.
Money means time. Time is money. I don't got much of either today, so I'm skipping the silly intro part that I'm convinced no one reads anyway. Don't worry, my feelings aren't hurt; I'm what you call a constitutionally strong person. That's the opposite of a constitutional weakling, you know, the guy who has his night ruined after you tell him his shirt collar has been flipped up the whole time, and the next thing you know, your friendship is on the rocks and you're sitting on a couch across from
Steve Harvey talking about it. That won't happen with me.
So, as
Captain Tenneal would say, LET'S GO!
Do you own your own fantasy baseball blog? Congratulations. Don’t spend your internet riches in one place!
This page has some solutions to let you spiff up your blog with links to our player pages. If you bless your reader(s) with one of these solutions, let us know and we will do our best to return the favor. Please, blog, may I have some more?
As always, probable pitchers are subject to change. For a look at all fantasy baseball streamers, click this link.
The story of
[player]Edinson Volquez[/player] and
[player]Johnny Cueto[/player] is the Tale of Two Reds.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times to have Dusty Baker as a manager. It was the age of the possibility, with two pitchers on the same team going after the Cy Young every year. It was the age of those two hurlers sharing an apartment and duking it out on PlayStation. It was the epoch of mid-90s fastballs, it was the epoch of a Cincinnati team that never made it, it was the season of 2008... It was the season of throwing way too many pitches, but it was the spring of hope ...
I know I've had some requests for more fun pitchers, but [player]Dillon Gee[/player] was a guy I ranked high and a guy I kept high. And very early on "I tried to figure out why... I had him so high!", but lately dude has been tossin' gas!
The very under-appreciated Gee ended 2013 on a tear, pitching with a 2.41 ERA from May 30 to September 15 - with 100 Ks in 137.1 IP in 20 starts. So ridiculously under the radar that Lord Helmet must've jammed it!
As a non-Mets fan and non-Gee owner in any leagues at the current present, I haven't buckled down to watch any of his starts as of late. And with three scoreless outings out of his past four - giving up two runs total in those four - I decided to break down his start yesterday at the Rockies and if Gee should be owned in a lot more than 38% of leagues:
On Saturday, [player]Jon Lester[/player] threw a gem: 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 15 Ks. Such a gem that if that were a blood diamond, diplomats from Monrovia would be lined up in the streets of Liberia for a taste of that. If that were an emerald, friends of Dorothy would stand outside of Ricky Martin's hotel for weeks just for the chance he forgoes the hotel buffet and wants to eat out. If that were a ruby, it would stand outside a Dallas police station to cover any possible conspiracies and add fuel to other conspiracies. Lester has pitched spectacularly so far, and it's not a product of luck. His 10.7 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 are elite. Those are fantasy ace numbers. His fastball doesn't have renewed life, if anything he's lost something on it. What appears to be the biggest difference is he's almost completely abandoned his changeup and throwing his cutter a bit more. Since he's always been good for 200 innings and has had huge success before, I'm willing to say he will hold the improvements to his rates and be an extremely reliable starter. Likely in the top 15 for the year. Yeah, he looks damn good. I want some, purdy puhlease. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Funny that [player]Mark Trumbo[/player] has a stress fracture in his foot, because I now have a stress fracture in my stress-bearing frontal lobe. "You wanna remember your anniversary with the Cougar or Mark Trumbo's recovery timetable?" Shut up, frontal lobe, I hate you! I wish you were dead! *wavy lines* Hey, I have no frontal lobe anymore. Cool, I really like this episode of The Big Bang Theory. They are a gang of funny people! I wish Slystevesr Stallone would do more movies. He's so awesome. Slvester? Why is there a red line under that? Damn, I can't spell my favorite movie star's name without my frontal lobe! *wavy lines* Okay, I'm glad I have a frontal lobe, but not glad I have Mark Trumbo on multiple deep league teams. Wah, wah, wah, that's the sound of my sad Trumbone. This could mean more playing time for [player]Tony Campana[/player] -- SAGNOF! -- or steady playing time for [player]Cody Ross[/player] -- um, AGNOF!, I guess. Last time Trumbo had a stress fracture -- how many stress fractures does this guy have? -- he was laid up for close to six months. Yay. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Unless you followed the career of
boxer Brandon Burke, or are a connoisseur of German speed porn, you're probably not used to seeing this many guys go down so soon.
Injuries to baseball players have become a national epidemic, especially among frontline pitchers. In just a few short months, we've seen players like
[player]Kris Medlen[/player],
[player]Patrick Corbin[/player],
[player]Bobby Parnell[/player],
[player]Jarrod Parker[/player] and (most likely)
[player]Matt Moore[/player] require Tommy John surgery.
While those pitchers are done for the season (and maybe even parts of 2015), there are in fact some players
returning from various ailments who are waiting patiently to be scooped up off your fantasy baseball league's waiver wire.
The "DL stash" is a time-honored tradition that all fantasy baseball champions employ. Last week, I went over the hitters who are/were residing on the disabled list, and this week I'll be covering the guys throwing the balls to them. If you have an open DL spot, or spots, in your league, it's imperative that you use them.
You won't see me suggesting guys like
[player]Cole Hamels[/player] or
[player]Mike Minor[/player], because something tells me that you have more cojones than to play in a league so lacking in competition that they would still be available. Rather, I will highlight some pitchers more suited for deeper leagues, as well as NL- and AL-only leagues.
Y'all know why this is happening to
[player]Kris Medlen[/player], right? Why he's preparing for Tommy John surgery? It's the breeding patterns of the
Flat-Billed Pitchypus and their likely extinction. If you iron your hat brim, you are putting yourself and potentially your family in grave danger. Exhibit A: Shawn Chacon now works at a Los Pollos Hermanos, making 'deliveries.' SPOILER ALERT! Wait, you need to know what I'm spoiling first. True Detective SPOILER ALERT! The Yellow King's face looks like that due to ironing the brim of his hat while it was on his head. So, due to climate changes, mating rituals and the long hunting season of the Flat-Billed Pitchypus, the Braves went out and got
[player]Ervin Santana[/player]. The Baltimore Orioles said, "Aw, shucks, we were gonna sign him for sixteen dollars the day after the season started." Too bad, O's. Against me better judgement, I'm gonna talk like a leprechaun and move Ervin Santana up a hair in my
top 80 starters and my
top 400. Plus, we lost
[player]Randall Delgado[/player],
[player]Kevin Gausman[/player] and
[player]Brandon Beachy[/player], so there was room. Oh, have I mentioned I moved Beachy down? Yeah, I don't like that he has soreness in his biceps. Prediction Alert! In the next few years, Dr. James Andrews is going to reveal to the world a serious gambling problem, and that's why everyone that goes under his knife needs follow-up surgery and a massive amount of check-ups. Someone's gonna pay the kitty, ya heard? Anyway, here's what else I've seen in Spring Training for 2014 fantasy baseball:
Another Cuban has washed ashore, dreaming of American capitalism and getting seriously laid in Miami. The Cardinals signed shortstop, Aledmys Diaz. Let's give you a comparison that may or may not do it for you. Diaz hit 12 homers and stole 11 bases with a.315 average in his last year in Cuban ball. Recent raftee by the Dodgers, Alexander Guerrero hit 21 homers, stole 2 bases and hit .290. Right now, Guerrero might be losing the starting job to Dee Gordon who can't hit his weight, and he weighs 143 pounds. It's nice that another Cuban gets to realize his dreams like Yasiel Puig and Tony Montana, but I'm not even sure if Diaz will make an impact this year, or ever. Despite his name resembling "All Days," he's being projected as a bench player. Oh, and I just had a great idea. I'm not sure who can make this happen, but we should get Fidel Castro on the podcast to talk about baseball. Speaking of which, we're recording the first podcast of the year today and it should be on-site tomorrow. You can hardly wait. No, you! Anyway, here's what else I've seen in Spring Training for 2014 fantasy baseball:
If I am correct on my predictions, the NL pennant race will be a fun one. I see three teams with playoff potential, and a fourth that is just shy of it. Sorry San Diego fans, this isn't your year. [Ed. Note -- JERK!] Good news though, the Chinese calendar says it is going to be the year of the Tony Gwynn soon. [Ed. Note -- I take it back. Sorta.] (You can check out the AL West Spring Training Preview
here, the AL Central Spring Training Preview
here and the NL East Spring Training Preview
here.)
"Get in a line, and limp." That's the master of ceremonies at the latest calfalcade.
[player]Chase Headley[/player] has a Grade 1 strain of his calf. Grade 2 or higher would be a cow. Semantics, perhaps. He's supposed to be out for two to (stutterer!) three weeks. I've dropped him a couple of spots in my
top 20 3rd basemen for 2014 fantasy baseball and
my top 400 for 2014 fantasy baseball. Probably if he was in Coors for his home games, coming off a 30-homer season and/or whispered in my ear sweet nothings about Giancarlo, I wouldn't have moved him in my rankings at all. However, he's in Petco, coming off a 13 homer season and any reason to not mess with a Padre is good enough for me. You say confirmation bias, I say keep your Psych 101 terms and Headley. To give you a present day example of another player with a calf strain who I'm not currently moving in my rankings:
[player]Josh Hamilton[/player]. If this were the 2nd week of March, I'd re-rank him, but he's got time to heal or get injured worse. I'll be monitoring Hamilton like a cyclops with a monocle. Anyway, here's what else has been going down in Spring Training for fantasy baseball:
