MLB: Jeff Zimmerman's Fantasy Grab Bag

Regret After the Euphoria?

This section focuses on what I consider questionable/suspect adds from the past weekend in the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship. These are 12-team roto leagues (AVG) with 23-man active rosters and seven bench spots. 

The idea is to look to see if anyone was over-bid on (subjective, and honestly, not likely at this point in the season) or has little chance to live up to Sunday-night expectations.

Brandon Marsh: He is on one of the craziest and most unsustainable heaters I've seen in a long time. His current strikeout rate is 39.2%, which normally gets you demoted to Triple-A so you can "work" on lowering the number (See Jo Adell). Instead, he's posting a .468 BABIP and when linked up with his 9.2 BB%, puts his on-base rate at .340. And he's doing all this with almost no power (one HR, .110 ISO, .374 SLG). 

Tyler Gilbert: I get that he's thrown a no-hitter and is in the middle of a two-start week, but he's just not a good pitcher. The no-hitter has his overall ERA down to a juicy 2.93 with a 1.16 WHIP, but since that game, he has a 5.40 ERA and 1.67 WHIP. The problem is that he just has a 6.5 K/9 and his walk rate is up at 3.3 BB/9. The combination pushes his ERA estimators into the 5.00 range. 

Who's Playing Where

This section points out some playing-time situations to monitor over the weekend. 

Many players on every team: Every team's roster just expanded to 28 players on the first of the month. RotoWire has all the moves covered, as does MLBTradeRumors (they have provided a full list of the players called up along with links to some of the moves they covered in depth). Right now, it's impossible to know how every situation will shake out, but there are going to be some impactful ones. For those fantasy managers with weekend FAAB, the situations will hopefully clear up by the time we need to make a decision.

J.D. Davis/Dominic Smith/Kevin Pillar/Jeff McNeil/Michael Conforto: All these Mets have either lost their starting job or are in a part-time role. For example, Smith has started in just four of the last nine games. Additionally, none of them are forcing themselves into the everyday lineup. While there will be some good days from these guys, it's not a good plan to hope for playoff-winning stats from part-time at-bats.

White Sox Outfield: The White Sox are going to make the playoffs, so there is no reason for them to run their recently-injured outfielders (Luis Roberts and Eloy Jimenez) into the ground. They just added Gavin Sheets and Billy Hamilton to the roster that already includes Andrew Vaughn, Brian Goodwin and Leury Garcia among other potential outfielders. It's going to be tough for a fantasy manager to sit Roberts or Jimenez, but if every at-bat counts, it might be an option for a short week.

Rockies Outfield: Raimel Tapia has been off the IL for a few days, but how the Colorado outfield playing time will shake is still not clear. The team is in an AL park with a DH, so it is able to start four right now. It's likely that Sam Hilliard will head to the bench since he's batting ninth and the Rockies just hate playing him on a regular basis.  

Platoons to Attack

Another tough week to roster any hitter in a strict platoon. Only three teams are projected to face six or more same-handed starters. 

Cleveland (7 games, 7 vs RHP): Daniel Johnson (.242/.275/.424), Andres Gimenez (.186/.269/.288), and Bobby Bradley (.215/.310/.479) should get most of the reps while Oscar Mercado, Owen Miller, and Yu Chang head to the bench. While Cleveland has maintained these three platoons so far, I could see them end them at any point if the three hitters, especially Gimenez, keep struggling. 

Minnesota (7 Games, 6 vs RHP): Max Kepler (.230/.331/.486 with 14 HR vs RHP) should get a nice run while the Twins keep rotating players into the other side of the platoon. Luis Arraez might also be in a platoon (sat against three of the last four lefties), so he'll be safe to roster for at least another week. 

New York Mets (7 games, 6 vs RHP): It's become almost impossible to know who is or isn't in a platoon as noted above. The one set platoon to attack is Michael Conforto (.241/.349/.441 with 10 HR vs RHP), who starts against all righties. J.D. Davis should be another one, but there is some weirdness going on with Jonathan Villar playing third base against two of the last four righties.  

Teams with five games against projected righty starters: Rockies, Tigers, Brewers, Cardinals, and Nationals. 

Middle Relief Options

Decent starting pitching options can be hard to find, so here are five middle relievers who provide great ratios and some strikeouts. Also, because of how teams utilize them, they have a better-than-average chance of getting a win.

The picks are based on the following criteria from this article.

• Contending Team:  Win% >= 45%
• The manager has the tendency to use the pitcher in close games: gmLI >= 1.1
• IP/G >= 1.0: Has average more than one inning.
• The pitcher is getting strikeouts: K/G >= 1.1
• The pitcher has the tendency to throw more than one inning: IP/G >= 1.1
• Full schedule: At least six games the next week, preferably seven.
• Available in leagues: Rostership under 50% in NFBC leagues

Here are this week's top five choices and my thoughts on a few of them:

Blake Treinen: He's the top arm of this group, but there is a chance that he's already rostered. In Saves+Holds leagues, he's a must-add with ratios being elite. 

Brent Suter: As long as he is under 50% rostered and the team is scheduled for at least six games, he's going to keep making this list. With the Brewers limiting innings to their starters, I don't see his production slowing down over this last month. 

Alex Vesia: He's turned into more than a LOOGY for the Dodgers by averaging over an inning per appearance. His 11.5 K/9 makes him the most likely to generate the most strikeouts of the group.