Fantasy baseball 2017

I never get to see him pitch, but I have him on two of my fantasy teams. Hoping he can start to make some headway against big league hitters. His control seems to be an issue.

 

When your team gets 19 hits but only 31 bases ...

19-56, 0.339 BA, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 8 R, SB, BB, 31 TB+W

 

Pirates pitching coach says he's tinkering with Glasnow's delivery ... just in time for a start agains the Cubs. Yuck. Think I'll bench him today and hope McCullers struggles against the A's for my opponent.

If Glasnow sucks again today, I may have to drop him, maybe pick up Alex Cobb for a spot start against the Red Sox tomorrow. I'm trailing by 23 points and my opponent has McCullers today and Taillon pitching tomorrow. Pitchers can get you 20-25 points on a good outing (40-50 on a great one) but they can cost you -5 to -20 on a bad day.

 

Cobb sucked donkey balls today, but it wouldn't have mattered if he had a great game. My opponent put up 50 points this afternoon to pull away. Ugh, 0-2 start, but as I'm looking at my team, apart from Cobb, there's not anyone that I really want to drop.

I've got some guys off to slow starts in my dynasty league, which is killing me. I was considering adding Eric Thames tonight (he got snapped up), but couldn't find anyone in my OF who I wanted to drop (Piscotty, Herrera, Puig, Blackmon) and I like my bench hitters, too (Bird, Dahl, E. Nunez). If Thames were on the better side of 30, I wouldn't have hesitated to add him, but Dahl and Bird both have major long-term potential, and Nunez is a solid, versatile and known-quantity type of bench player (frankly, he's been better than Todd Frazier thus far and is starting for me at 3B).

 

Just traded Kepler for Dansby Swanson straight up. Hoping it was a buy low situation that works out for me. Kepler's been OK, but I'm not sure how high his ceiling really is. Plus I had nine guys on my roster who have OF eligibility and only Machado at SS, so if Swanson can get it together, I'll at least have a decent backup.

 

That made sense. I don't worry too much about slow starts yet.

 

Putting aside my desire to whack Starling Marte with a baseball bat now that MLB has suspended him for 80 games, I'm stuck with the problem of what to do with him on my fantasy team. I've got Marte in the keeper league I mentioned earlier on the thread. I can protect 14 players each year, so there is a decent chance I would keep him again. The question is if that is worth doing given that he now has the added risk of either future suspensions or a decrease in ability if he goes off the PEDs. Also, I have to carry him in one of my five bench spots for the next three months. Lastly, I kind of want to be done with the guy now that he has been busted.

Do I consider cutting him loose? No way I can deal him.

 

Personally, I'd cut him loose, but I can see the argument for keeping him. How important are steals in your league?

Guy is 28 and has never hit 20+ HRs in a season, so it seems unlikely he'll suddenly start doing so without the PEDs. He's never slugged .500, never had an OBP above .362. I doubt he's going to get better at this point, so I'd let him go.

 

Steals matter, but his lack of walks hurt. I think his upside is .320 with 15 home runs and 50 steals. Tough player to cut loose, but I've got to make some moves soon with Turner and Kipnis set to come off the DL.

This also makes it tougher to wait on Fowler, who has been awful. It may come down to cutting Charlie Morton or Drew Pomeranz to make room for a bat. I've got pretty good pitching depth.

 

I think that's a very optimistic outlook for his age 29 season or later, particularly given his lack of walks. I think .280 is far more likely if he's healthy (and eligible) for a full season. Maybe he surpasses last year's 47 steals in his age 29 season, but it's only going to go down after that. And again, we're now talking about a guy who presumably won't be using PEDs (or worse, he'll keep using and get caught).

If you can afford the wasted roster spot for awhile, it could be worth it to hang on and see if you're in a position where he's going to help you down the stretch this season. But, as you noted, with Turner and Kipnis coming back, it's going to be tough to stash him for three months.

 

Oops. That should have been 40 steals. I think the 47 last year was an outlier, but he has shown the ability to hit over .300.

I've got too many pitchers right now, though few of them are sure things. Pomeranz, Morton and Manaea could all leave me kicking myself for not cutting them soon enough. Then again, so could Greinke.

 

Marte only had 489 ABs last year when he hit .311, his only season above .291. I don't think it's a coincidence that his highest BA came in the season with his fewest plate appearances and games played. It would be awfully difficult for him to bat .320 over 600+ PAs if he's only going to draw 30 walks in a season

In 2015, when he played 153 games and had 579 ABs, he hit .287. To me, that's his ceiling for BA. The only way he bats .320 while drawing 30 walks a year is if he misses 40 games (or more) games, and that's a detriment to your team.