Hitting for the Cycle #25
A Sunday Review - July 31, 2022
📖 What I’m Reading:
Fantasy Baseball Insight: Trade Deadline Advice - Joe Orrico
Joe Orrico provides his insight and strategy on how to handle the upcoming MLB trade deadline this Tuesday for your fantasy teams. Joe’s latest article from SportsEthos is focused on leagues with daily roster moves. He states you should exercise patience early in the week in making any additions to your rosters. Also, it’s good to plan now on what categories you need the most help in as well as who will be your drops. Once the trade deadline finalizes, you will need move quickly, and have a plan of action. Remember, it’s not always about the players traded, but who will be left behind with their new roles and playing time.
🎧 What I’m Hearing:
Pull Hitter Podcast - Trade Deadline & ROS Arm Barn Chat w/Reliever Recon
The Pull Hitter podcast, hosted by Rob DiPietro, welcomes some of the Reliever Recon crew to discuss rest of season relievers and save opportunities. Around the 56 minute mark, the Reliever Recon group of Greg Jewett, Nate Marcum, and Bullpen Guru discuss several teams that could be selling, and who could benefit for potential saves rest of season on those teams. When making waiver wire bids on any of these pitchers, the group makes a great point to consider how many opportunities will truly be available if these selling teams are not that competitive rest of season. It’s helpful to be mindful of the strength of schedule to analyze where the “best” path for saves remain. As I mentioned in “Pinch Hit Musings: 2nd Half Resources”, Reliever Recon is my go to source for all RP and closer info.
📊 Metric of the Week:
Ground Ball Rate Percentage (GB%)
GB% measures the rate of ground balls divided by all balls put in play. Though the almighty K-BB% still rules the fantasy baseball universe, there are opportunities lurking with quality pitchers that have great a GB% especially when that can help you with wins, quality starts, and ERA. Even better if you’re a pitcher that can marry together better than league average K-BB% and GB% which can make all our fantasy baseball pitching categories happier. League average GB% is right around 43% this year. You can take a look at the following pitching Fangraphs leaderboard with a greater than league average K-BB% and GB% HERE.
💬 Quote of the Week:
“There are no shortcuts to success in this business. You need to work hard.”
-Frank Thomas