Welcome to the first installment of the Fantasy Radar: Fantasy Baseball Edition! Here I will make several weekly observations on hitters and pitchers on their recent trends and how you should deal with it going forward in the season. It will be split up in five categories: Quick Hits (hitters), Wild Pitch (pitchers), Falling Fast (biggest disappointment), On the Mend (injuries) and Down on the Farm (players who are in the minors, but you could see up really soon). The format is subject to change in the next couple of weeks as we work out the kinks, but the content will be the same. Suggestions are welcome from readers in the comment section because remember the purpose of this article is to better serve you guys and help you to that elusive fantasy championship! So without further delay, here are the most important 1200 words you will ever read regarding your fantasy team (at least until next week’s article).

Quick Hits

• With two SB last week, Lance Berkman now has five steals this month after no swipes in April or May. Sir Lancelot has really turned his season around after a dreadful April with a .301 BA, 12 HR, 37 RBI since May 1. With the speed turning around, look for Berkman to be that 30 homer/15 steal threat you drafted in the second or third round of your draft.
• In 2005, Scott Podsednik played 129 games and stole 59 bases with 80 runs and a .290 batting average. This season, in 52 games, Podsednik is batting .313 with 26 runs and 12 steals. He is starting to look like his 2005-06 former self and could be a good replacement if your team has some OF injuries.
• After a hot start, Nelson Cruz has Continue reading What’s Gotten into Kevin Millwood? »

I hate closers. I really, really do. I hate them in large format leagues (like the SoB 12×12 league) because they are basically worthless with 12 pitching categories and because if they have a bad outing it really screws you over. For example, this past week in my mideason league, I had Jose Valverde of the Astros blow up in the 9th inning on Sunday as he allowed a HR and lost the game. Due to this, I ended up tying losses and HR allowed. I also lost WHIP because of Valverde. This effectively turned my would-be 13-9-2 victory into a 10-10-4 tie all because of a closer who blew a save. Closers are useless pieces of garbage.

OFFENSE

Hanley Ramirez (SS), Florida Marlins: My baby boy led the Majors with an incredible 15 RBI as part of his 10-26 (.385) week. Hanley added 3 HR and 2 SB as well. Han-Ram has an RBI in each of his last seven games with five of those games being multi-RBI contests. Continue reading Fantasy Baseball Wrap-Up: Week 12 (6-22 – 6-28) »

One of my favorite tools for assessing players in fantasy baseball is Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP). A great piece done on BABIP can be found here. To those unfamiliar, here is a brief synopsis:

“Simple logic states that once a ball is hit into play, there is nothing a hitter can do to increase his chances of a hit. So, if you keep hitting them into play, they’ll eventually start to drop for you” – Steven Lourie

Basically, BABIP measures the percentage of plate appearances that end with a ball hit into play and is credited with a hit. Home runs are excluded from BABIP since they are out of play. The average BABIP for a player is usually in the area of .290-.300. So knowing that, we should be able to examine who is benefiting from luck or who is a pure hitter. Continue reading TGIF: 2009 BABIP Leaders and Losers »

I’m going to take this time to be awesome. I usually wait until the end of the “Wrap-Up” to report on the Sports of Boston baseball league, but I recently took over first place. My favorite part about the situation is that I have Jose Reyes, Joey Votto, and Erik Bedard on the DL. I can’t even imagine what my team would be like if all of them were healthy. Will this cockiness be my downfall? Yeah, it probably will.

OFFENSE

B.J. Upton (CF), Tampa Bay Rays: Seen as a letdown over the past few seasons, Upton tried to resurrect his name last week by collecting a league-leading 12 hits. The hit parade included 3 doubles, 2 HR, and 9 RBI to go with 2 SB. Upton has had more RBI this month (15) than he had in the two previous months combined. Continue reading Fantasy Baseball Wrap-Up: Week 11 (6-15 – 6-21) »

Summer is just around the corner and for those interested already, the fantasy football season is upon us. Over at Yahoo! Sports, fantasy football leagues have already been forming for weeks and owners are foaming at the mouth for their chance to conduct the all important fantasy draft for the 2009 season.

As with every season, Yahoo! has listed their players from highest to lowest rank (duh!). Surprises are expected every season when it comes to the player rankings, and this season is no different. What caught my eye this year was that Yahoo! has rocketed Jacksonville RB Maurice Jones-Drew into the top 3. Clearly the departure of RB Fred Taylor to New England means that MJD will carry a full work load by himself and this was probably the main factor in his ranking’s surge. This story seems a little too familiar… Continue reading TGIF: Maurice Jones-Drew = The Next Marion Barber »