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Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 10 - Buy or Sell?
Hard-Hit Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 10)
In the latest edition of Statcast Studs and Duds for offense, we're going to shorten the range of outcomes. I will look at leaders in hard-hit balls over the past month only. Also, rather than simply isolating Hard% as a metric, I am looking at the total leaders in batted ball events that qualify as... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 9 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 8! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Champ or Chump: Bryan Reynolds and Cavan Biggio
Prospects continue to be called up faster than we can look at them, so we have two more on the docket this week. Bryan Reynolds was a second-round pick by the San Francisco Giants in 2016, but nobody seems to have noticed him raking for the Pirates. Cavan Biggio has big league bloodlines, and his... Read More
Sauceda's Slants: Buy Low Report - 8 Hitters to Target
There’s something positively blissful about scanning your rosters and seeing double-digit — or *gasp* single-digit! — ranks up-and-down the roster. But let’s be clear: these stats are in the past. They’re already banked. They shouldn’t overpower our valuation of them going forward because, really, that’s all that matters — what are they likely to produce... Read More
xSLG Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 9)
For this week's iteration of Statcast Studs and Duds, it's back to the expected stats. This time, we'll look at slugging percentage by comparing players' Expected Slugging (xSLG) to their actual Slugging (SLG) rates. For those unfamiliar with this metric, Expected Slugging Percentage (xSLG) is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle and, on certain types of... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 8 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 8! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Champ or Chump: Brendan Rodgers and Austin Riley
The top prospects have been getting called up quickly of late, giving us plenty of options who warrant a closer look. Let's go with 22-year-old kids who took a big step forward at Triple-A this season, are infielders technically playing out of position at the big league level, and were drafted in 2015. Those criteria... Read More
Barrel Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 8)
We're back to revisit Barrels this time but with a slight twist. Back in Week 4, I looked at players at the very top and bottom of the Statcast leaderboard for Barrels per Plate Appearance. To check out that analysis and a detailed explanation of what makes a Barrel so valuable, click here. To differentiate... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 7 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 7! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Champ or Chump: Keston Hiura and Jose Ramirez
The Brewers have summoned top prospect Keston Hiura to replace the injured (and struggling) Travis Shaw on their roster, giving fantasy owners another hyped toy to play with. Unfortunately, it appears as though the excitement surrounding the 22-year-old's big league debut far outpaces his realistic output, potentially driving many owners to waste FAAB or waiver... Read More
Exit Velocity Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 7)
For this week's Statcast Hitter Analysis, we're going back to where it all started and revisiting exit velocity. So far, we've also looked at barrels, sweet spot rate, xwOBA, and xBA. With a larger sample size, the exit velocity leaderboard can be very telling. In our earlier iteration, names like Daniel Vogelbach, Renato Nunez, J.D.... Read More
Sauceda's Slants - Six Hitters to Buy for Today's Environment
Pitching days can be pure euphoria — firing up the games to watch your pitchers (hopefully) mow down the opposing team for several innings. Catching one of your hitters’ at-bats just doesn’t create that same lasting feeling. Or, at least that’s what I used to say. Nowadays, I find myself bracing for dear life whenever... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 6 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 6! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Champ or Chump: Spencer Turnbull and Joey Votto
If April is the month of churning through sleeper candidates to figure out who can stick on your roster, May is the month where you start to look at disappointing performers to see if it's a simple slump or something more. There are still plenty of intriguing players on most waiver wires, but the fact... Read More
xBA-BA Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 6)
This week, we're going back to the basics to look at batting average. Of course, with Statcast we are able to dig deeper than that and look at how hitters are either underperforming or overperforming by comparing their averages to expected stats, or xBA in this case. Expected stats for an all-encompassing stat like average... Read More
Champ or Chump: Michael Chavis and Mike Soroka
The topic of the day is former first-round picks with the first name "Michael" currently owned in approximately 50% of fantasy leagues. In truth, the fact that both of the players discussed below fit all of those criteria is nothing more than happy circumstance, but both players deserve more fantasy attention than they're currently getting.... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 5 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 4! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Sweet Spot % Leaders - Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds (Week 5)
In this week's version Statcast Risers and Fallers for Hitters, we're going to examine a newer metric called Sweet Spot percentage. It may seem like a simple colloquialism but Statcast now measures how frequently a batter truly hits the sweet spot, at least according to ideal launch angle. Simply put, this stat measures any batted-ball... Read More
Cheap Steals, Where Art Thou?
The topic of stolen bases can elicit a wide variety of opinions. To some, it is viewed as a trivial and useless category. To others, it is the mountain bypass through which you can catapult past idle teams toward the top of the standings. Regardless of your stance, the truth is that stolen bases have... Read More
Champ or Chump - Hunter Dozier and Christian Walker
Every season seems to have a couple of players emerge from nowhere to post fantasy-relevant lines in April. Most of them fade back into the abyss, but a few of them stick around to produce value for the entire season and beyond. In 2019, Hunter Dozier and Christian Walker are surely among the names who... Read More
Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 4 - Buy or Sell?
Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 4! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a... Read More
Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds - Barrels (Week 4)
We're back with another edition of Statcast Risers and Fallers for Hitters. It's time to reach into the Barrels leaderboard in order to find out who is generating high-quality contact early in the 2019 season. If you aren't familiar with how Barrels are defined, the best place to start is with our own Rick Lucks'... Read More
Shortstop - The Under-Appreciated Glamour Boys of '19
Shortstop has long been a position comprised of the nobles and the bastards. People would flock towards the highborn and turn a frigidly cold shoulder to anyone else. Fantasy managers were basically elitists in the purest definition of the word in regard to shortstops. It is time to start spreading the love and realize that... Read More
Champ or Chump - Fernando Tatis Jr. and Yoan Moncada
It can be incredibly easy to overreact to your team's performance thus far, but remember that it is still very early. You shouldn't even be thinking about dropping big names like Aaron Nola or Mookie Betts, nor should you count on Daniel Vogelbach or Jay Bruce continuing their home run binge. That said, you don't... Read More
Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds - xwOBA (Week 3)
Welcome back to our weekly Statcast Hitter Analysis series. Each week, I will select a different metric to evaluate surprising names at the top and bottom of the Statcast Leaderboards. Many fantasy baseball owners are starting to see the value of MLB's Statcast advanced stats in order to help identify potential risers and sleepers. Just as... Read More
Is Ryan Braun Worth Buying Low?
Ryan Braun is 35 years old and playing in his 13th season manning left field for the Milwaukee Brewers (though he played solely at third base his rookie year, when he slashed an unbelievable .324/.370/.634 with 34 homers, 97 RBI, and 15 steals). He faced an uphill battle in his pursuit to put the reputation-damaging PED... Read More
Champ or Chump - Corbin Burnes and Trent Thornton
By this point of the season, you probably have some injuries, under-performances, or squandered sleeper picks cluttering your roster. You're also probably intrigued by a few potential breakouts on the waiver wire. Who should you keep moving forward, and who should you pick up with any newfound roster spots? This column seeks to answer that... Read More
Hot Prospects To Watch in Week 2 - Urias, Kieboom, Robert
Last week we discussed some injury updates on some of 2019's biggest prospect names. We'll continue to give you injury updates on notable names in the minors in this space as the season wears on. But this week we'll turn our attention towards actual minor league performances and those that have turned heads by sprinting... Read More
Statcast Hitter Studs and Duds - Exit Velocity for Week 2
Welcome to this year's first iteration of Statcast Hitter Analysis. Each week, I will select a different metric to evaluate unexpected names at the top and bottom of the Statcast Leaderboards. Even if you aren't well-versed in Statcast, you know exit velocity. Even the crustiest of old-school baseball announcers have incorporated this term in his... Read More
