Nathan Dokken169 posts

I promise I like hitters too. Eventually, there will be plenty of bats within the confines of this weekly space, but early on there is just so much more to take away from the pitching side of things. It takes time for Sabermetric stats to stabilize and become usable, but we can immediately take away major changes in things like pitch mix and velocity. That makes it more worth our time to take a look at some starting pitcher performances that should have our attention. Speaking of which, as long as I have your attention,…

What a week! Having baseball back feels better than helping an old lady cross a busy street. On top of that, you're probably going to make more money from fantasy baseball than old lady Josie, who lives out by the car lot and is known to voice her opinions at City Council meetings. Nice lady.There is a lot to cover this week. The first round of starts told us a lot about velocity and pitch mix changes, and some of my rankings have followed accordingly. To reiterate, I won't be too reactionary among the aces and move them…

We have a whopping four days worth of games in the books here in the 2019 season. You know what that means...it's time for premature victory laps and unwarranted panic! It's amazing how every year we caution ourselves that the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Yet this year, like any other, there are obscene overreactions already. Today we'll look at the opposite and extreme performances put up by Luis Castillo and Chris Sale in their first starts of 2019.Perhaps I'll mix in my own brand of overreaction…

Welcome to 2019 baseball! It's a new season and a new weekly column right here on Fantrax. Each week in this space I'll be ranking the Top 100 Starting Pitchers. One important thing to note is that I won't be ranking currently injured starters. I also won't be ranking prospects before their callups. Not only is it a bit of a fool's errand trying to gauge the value of injured players, but it's also a crapshoot trying to determine when they're returning. Anticipating callups is a similarly futile exercise. So you won't find…

I'm nothing if not BOLD, baby! Just ask that first sentence. Or all the A1 steak sauce I put on my tasty burgers. It's Opening Day, so what better way to kick off the season than with some predictions of things that will almost certainly not happen. The point of a bold prediction, in my opinion, is to use hyperbole to overstate your opinion of a player or event. It should be so ridiculous that it almost can't happen. What follows is nothing if not ridiculous. Happy Opening Day, everyone!There’s still time! Leagues…

End of the line, folks! Everybody off! It's been a blast bringing you these Dudes & Don'ts, but this marks the finale of my 2019 series. We're right up against the start of the season at long last. We're polishing this series off with probably the toughest position to nail down: Closers. There are still a ton of bullpens up for grabs, some of which will wind up as a dreaded bullpen-by-committee even once the season is underway. There is no shortage of targets to throw darts at towards the back-end of your draft, and…

It's a lot easier to poke holes in high-ADP pitchers than it is with hitters. I could use the age argument to avoid drafting Scherzer, Kluber, and Verlander. If Kershaw wasn't already hurt, he'd be atop this list. Chris Sale is coming off an injury that led to decreased velocity. Nola has only been healthy for one season. I can make more health arguments against a wide swath of the pitching field. In the end, we have to draft one of these guys and accept pitching is a minefield. These ensuing Don'ts are an even worse value…

In case you hadn't noticed, our starting pitching landscape has changed. There are a pretty solid top 30 starting pitchers, and after that, everyone has some real question marks. Nowadays it's hard to find a 200 innings starter outside of the aces, making ratios and strikeouts per inning even more valuable since you're not getting as much volume. As always, these Dudes are mid-to-late round picks who have profit potential based on their respective ADP. I've got five Dudes for you lined up here. In your FACE, Five Guys…

Last time out, we were nothing but positive as we went over my Outfield Dudes for 2019. Well, guess what Sonny Jim Bob, life ain't all sunshine and rose petals adorning your bathtub after a long hard day of filing TPS reports! Sometimes we have to throw some shade. These outfielders are very much in the shade in my estimation, set to lose value from their Fantrax ADP. All three are currently being drafted inside the top 35 outfielders because I'm not here to tell you to avoid players who are already coming cheap. Let the…

We're through with the infield and moving out onto the grass! We're nothing but sunshine and positivity today as we focus on the Dudes in the outfield. Since it's such a deep position, we're going with a quattro of Dudes!! Is that a word that people use meaning "four"? Perhaps I'm just thinking about the name of my Schick razor. A cadre of Dudes? I guess that works, although it's less specific...in any case, here are my favorite outfield values this year.Spring Training games are underway! It's time you got your…