Nathan Dokken169 posts

Welcome to the fifth and final edition of this Sabermetric Series. It's time to look beyond the basic pitching metrics and dive into some of the best tools at our disposal for pitcher evaluation. Here we will cover batted balls, quality of contact, and plate discipline. Wait, what's that you say? We already did that? Well, my sweet summer child, we have covered such things for hitters, but not pitchers! The metrics are the same, but how we look at them and utilize them are much different. These stats can be every bit as…

Welcome to Part 4 of this Sabermetric Series, where we will be moving from hitters to pitchers. We're going to start with the basics and look into the benefits of using various ERA estimators. We'll go over a whole bunch of fun acronyms, such as:LOB% K-BB% FIP xFIP SIERA ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-OK, so why all these random letters? What's wrong with good ol' ERA (acknowledging that they, too, are just letters)? Well, ERA lets us know a pitcher's past results, but it doesn't tell us if those results are…

Welcome to Part 3 of this Sabermetric Series. In previous installments, we discussed a batter's quality of contact, batted ball distribution, familiarized ourselves with various metrics, and applied those things to player splits.Previous InstallmentsSabermetric Series, Part 1: Quality of Contact and Batted BallsSabermetric Series, Part 2: Applying Metrics to SplitsIn this edition, we round out hitters by taking a look at their plate discipline. Plate discipline is important because it can help you discern…

The beautiful thing about Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy is that you can do a hundred drafts in a season and no two of your teams will be the same. Sure, we all craft our own strategies. We all have our own pet players. We know our buddy loves a certain player, so are sure to draft him a round early just to ruin their day. This is the glory of fantasy sports.But back to the point at hand. No matter what your strategy is going into the draft, something will not go as planned. You have to be flexible. Always have a…

Welcome to Part 2 of the Sabermetric Series! In Part 1 (which you can find here), we began with quality of contact and batted balls for hitters. Here in Part 2, we are going to round out the batted ball portion of that and move on to understanding some of the commonly used metrics such as wOBA and OPS+. We are then going to take what we've learned and apply them to MLB splits data for hitters. Let's roll!Previous InstallmentsSabermetric Series, Part 1: Quality of Contact and Batted Balls HR/FB% Last week we left…

Welcome to part one of this Sabermetric Series. If you're new to Sabermetrics, this will be a great place to start. Throughout this series of posts, we will be diving into many different Sabermetric tools that are at our disposal, including how quality of contact affects BABIP.We'll look at how we can apply them to make us better fantasy players.How do all of these nerdy numbers make us better fantasy players, you ask?Well, by taking into account the entirety of a player's peripheral Sabermetric stats, we can…

This is a series based on outliers. It's hard to imagine more of an outlier injury than "ATV accident", yet that's exactly what cost Madison Bumgarner nearly half of the 2017 season. He also missed a big chunk of time in 2018 with a fractured metacarpal. Clearly, these are fluke injuries, but we've also seen some decline from Bummy. It's time to take a step back and re-evaluate what our expectations should be.If you're like us you can’t wait until spring to get the 2019 fantasy baseball season started? Well, you…

I like to think that my palate has changed a bit since my early 20's. Call me a hipster if you want, but these days if I'm having a beer I prefer something with a lot of flavor. A stout, a porter, even an IPA or two. That said, if it's the Fourth of July and I'm looking at an all-day drinkfest as I float around a lake on a boat, I'm probably just going to bring a case of Coors Light. Taste the Rockies!If you're like us, you can’t wait until spring to get the 2019 fantasy baseball season started. Well, you don’t have…

Will Josh James' bubble burst in 2019? Nathan Dokken conducts a reality check.

Sean Newcomb was a divisive prospect coming up through the minors. Some thought his large frame and high octane fastball/curveball combo made him a high upside starter. Others argued his poor control and lack of viable third pitch would make him a bullpen piece. Those question marks would end up turning him into a trade chip for the Angels. There was enough intrigue to interest the Braves, however, who sent Andrelton Simmons to the Angels in exchange for Newcomb and Erick Aybar following the 2015 season.If you’re…