Ahh, playoffs! Can you smell that? Sweet, sweet playoffs. The fantasy baseball regular season is coming to a close and the fantasy playoffs will be starting within the next couple of weeks in most head-to-head formats. For those in roto leagues, we're coming down the home stretch. Tough decisions will need to be made, but take solace that if you're still reading thi column in August, it probably means you're already had to make (and decided correctly) most of your toughest decisions of the year. WIthout further adieu, here's what's happening around the league:
Around The League:
-For the first four months of the season, BOS CL Matt Barnes was one of the best stories in baseball. Unfortunately, over the last three weeks, Barnes has an ERA over 20 and has nearly doubled his total earned runs on the season. Over that stretch, he has also taken three losses, including two blown saves. After his latest beating, Manager Alex Cora indicated that Barnes would not get the next save chance, instead mentioning names like Hansel Robles, Garrett Richards and Garrett Whitlock. Interesting, set-up man Adam Ottavino did not have his name mentioned, despite filling in earlier this season and he was the one who actually recorded the save on Friday night. In the meantime, Robles and Ottavino would be the primary targets given their previous experience, but both Richards and Whitlock present interesting upside beyond the latter two. Whitlock has had a couple rough outings recently, but with a better than average contact rate and hard hit rate allowed, a high groundball rate and a resectable 31% called + strike percentage, he's certainly an up-and-coming name to watch.
-CHC RP Adam Morgan notched the save for the Cubs in Game 1 of their double-header on Wednesday. Saves have been a rare commodity for the North Siders though, so it's tough to call any player the team's closer with any certainty. Newcomer Codi Heuer also has a save for the club over the last two weeks. Morgan is a left-hander, so he's at a slight disadvantage in that regard since he's one of just two lefties in the Cubs bullpen. Morgan's slider is definitely his best pitch and it helps him post very good overall numbers for SwStr% (16%) and groundball rate (47%). Longterm, Codi Heuer is more likely to be the one viewed to be as the closer of the future in Chicago, but right now Morgan is a more polished pitcher.
-One day after Yankees manager Aaron Boone pulled his closer Aroldis Chapman from a save opportunity gone wrong, Boone threw Chapman back out there on Thursday night to lock up the team's 12th straight win. Chapman made quick work of the Athletics and for fantasy owners, it was a great sign that Boone continues to have confidence in his closer, despite giving him a short leash.
-The closing situation in Seattle continues to be cloudy, but while RP Drew Steckenrider and RP Paul Sewald each recorded saves this week, only Seward was used in a traditional situation. Steckenrider's save came after he pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Seward appears the have the upper hand right now and his 2021 season has been truly remarkable. After being an extremely average pitcher for the Mets, Seward has thrown his fastball less and his slider more, which has helped his fastball to become a more effective pitch. Year-over-year, his SwStr% is up 11% (16% vs 5%) and his contact rate has dropped by 19%, seemingly driven by a higher spin rate. Regardless of how he's doing it, the Mariners seem to have a knack for turning average veteran relievers and turning them into stars - Sewald is just following in Kendall Graveman's footsteps.
-Similar to the Cubs, the Pirates haven't been presented with many save chances since trading away Richard Rodriguez, but last weekend RP David Bednar finally notched his first save for the team and followed it up with his second save on Monday. Bednar is a well-rounded right-hander with an above average fastball and slider. He's positioned well to be the Pirates closer of the future since he won't be eligible for arbitration until 2024 and won't hit free agency until 2027.
-After being a lemon during most of his time with the Cubs, somehow the North Siders squeezed out just enough of Craig Kimbrel's former glory in the 1H of 2021 to give contenders, specifically the White Sox, the illusion that he still had some magic left. Kimbrel has a 5.79 ERA since joining the White Sox and while he's still striking guys out and limiting his walks (which historically has been the key to his success), his barrel rate and average exit velocity have both increased. He's not close to supplanting Liam Hendriks and he can be safely dropped in most leagues, despite successfully converting his first save on Friday in a normal day of rest for Hendriks.
-It's been a tough week for the Reds bullpen. After getting Tejay Antone back for the first time since May, he made one appearance before landing back on the injured list and getting diagnosed with a torn UCL, which will require Tommy John Surgery. To make matters worse, both Mychal Givens and Michael Lorezen blew saves this week. The latter two will continue to form a committee at the back end of the Reds bullpen the rest of the way.
-It wouldn't be a closer update if we didn't talk about the Rays' flavor of the week. That man this week is Colin McHugh, the former Astros starting pitcher who moved into the bullpen when he joined the Rays earlier this year. The right-hander has started a few games as an opener and on Saturday he notched his first save. He's been excellent - limiting his walks and posting a strikeout rate of 34%. But then in true Rays fashion, left-hander Josh Fleming got the save on Sunday and Andrew Kittredge closed the game on Tuesday. Kittredge remains the consistent favorite, but McHugh is a name to watch.
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Ahh, playoffs! Can you smell that? Sweet, sweet playoffs. The fantasy baseball regular season is coming to a close and the fantasy playoffs will be starting within the next couple of weeks in most head-to-head formats. For those in roto leagues, we're coming down the home stretch. Tough decisions will need to be made, but take solace that if you're still reading thi column in August, it probably means you're already had to make (and decided correctly) most of your toughest decisions of the year. WIthout further adieu, here's what's happening around the league:
Around The League:
-For the first four months of the season, BOS CL Matt Barnes was one of the best stories in baseball. Unfortunately, over the last three weeks, Barnes has an ERA over 20 and has nearly doubled his total earned runs on the season. Over that stretch, he has also taken three losses, including two blown saves. After his latest beating, Manager Alex Cora indicated that Barnes would not get the next save chance, instead mentioning names like Hansel Robles, Garrett Richards and Garrett Whitlock. Interesting, set-up man Adam Ottavino did not have his name mentioned, despite filling in earlier this season and he was the one who actually recorded the save on Friday night. In the meantime, Robles and Ottavino would be the primary targets given their previous experience, but both Richards and Whitlock present interesting upside beyond the latter two. Whitlock has had a couple rough outings recently, but with a better than average contact rate and hard hit rate allowed, a high groundball rate and a resectable 31% called + strike percentage, he's certainly an up-and-coming name to watch.
-CHC RP Adam Morgan notched the save for the Cubs in Game 1 of their double-header on Wednesday. Saves have been a rare commodity for the North Siders though, so it's tough to call any player the team's closer with any certainty. Newcomer Codi Heuer also has a save for the club over the last two weeks. Morgan is a left-hander, so he's at a slight disadvantage in that regard since he's one of just two lefties in the Cubs bullpen. Morgan's slider is definitely his best pitch and it helps him post very good overall numbers for SwStr% (16%) and groundball rate (47%). Longterm, Codi Heuer is more likely to be the one viewed to be as the closer of the future in Chicago, but right now Morgan is a more polished pitcher.
-One day after Yankees manager Aaron Boone pulled his closer Aroldis Chapman from a save opportunity gone wrong, Boone threw Chapman back out there on Thursday night to lock up the team's 12th straight win. Chapman made quick work of the Athletics and for fantasy owners, it was a great sign that Boone continues to have confidence in his closer, despite giving him a short leash.
-The closing situation in Seattle continues to be cloudy, but while RP Drew Steckenrider and RP Paul Sewald each recorded saves this week, only Seward was used in a traditional situation. Steckenrider's save came after he pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Seward appears the have the upper hand right now and his 2021 season has been truly remarkable. After being an extremely average pitcher for the Mets, Seward has thrown his fastball less and his slider more, which has helped his fastball to become a more effective pitch. Year-over-year, his SwStr% is up 11% (16% vs 5%) and his contact rate has dropped by 19%, seemingly driven by a higher spin rate. Regardless of how he's doing it, the Mariners seem to have a knack for turning average veteran relievers and turning them into stars - Sewald is just following in Kendall Graveman's footsteps.
-Similar to the Cubs, the Pirates haven't been presented with many save chances since trading away Richard Rodriguez, but last weekend RP David Bednar finally notched his first save for the team and followed it up with his second save on Monday. Bednar is a well-rounded right-hander with an above average fastball and slider. He's positioned well to be the Pirates closer of the future since he won't be eligible for arbitration until 2024 and won't hit free agency until 2027.
-After being a lemon during most of his time with the Cubs, somehow the North Siders squeezed out just enough of his former glory in the 1H of 2021 to give contenders, specifically the White Sox, the illusion that he still had some magic left. Kimbrel has a 5.79 ERA since joining the White Sox and while he's still striking guys out and limiting his walks (which historically has been the key to his success), his barrel rate and average exit velocity have both increased. He's not close to supplanting Liam Hendriks and he can be safely dropped in most leagues.
-It's been a tough week for the Reds bullpen. After getting Tejay Antone back for the first time since May, he made one appearance before landing back on the injured list and getting diagnosed with a torn UCL, which will require Tommy John Surgery. To make matters worse, both Mychal Givens and Michael Lorezen blew saves this week. The latter two will continue to form a committee at the back end of the Reds bullpen the rest of the way.
-It wouldn't be a closer update if we didn't talk about the Rays' flavor of the week. That man this week is Colin McHugh, the former Astros starting pitcher who moved into the bullpen when he joined the Rays earlier this year. The right-hander has started a few games as an opener and on Saturday he notched his first save. He's been excellent - limiting his walks and posting a strikeout rate of 34%. But then in true Rays fashion, left-hander Josh Fleming got the save on Sunday and Andrew Kittredge closed the game on Tuesday. Kittredge remains the consistent favorite, but McHugh is a name to watch.
