Fantasy Friday: Reachable Stars

    The goal of this week is to discuss several players that are having solid seasons but surprisingly not owned in as many leagues as one would think. This obviously does not mean these players will be available in your specific league, but it does show that a lot of owners are undervaluing these players. Even if they aren't on the waiver wire, consider trading cheap and getting the better end of the deal. The percent owned will be using Yahoo! Leagues stats. After the jump, a collection of solid, yet less-than-reasonably appreciated players.

Updates

Hey everyone just wanted to give some updates with the site.

As you've probably noticed by now we have a new look! Hope you enjoy it, if not give us some suggestions! We're always looking to improve.

We've also implemented some advertisements, hopefully it isn't too many, but if you think they take away from the site, let us know.

I've also added in Links & References below our History. Here is a nice, easy, and convenient way to visit many of the sites we use for our material.

And finally below that is another blog you might find of interest; JR's MLB Player Analysis, he does similar work as us and a great job at it, check him out!

Thanks again for staying tuned and continue to do so as we have many more posts, updates, and ideas on the way!

Taking a Look at FanGraphs Pitcher WAR

For those of you that read FanGraphs you will know that they released some new statistics for pitchers. If you aren't aware of them I will give you the three links. New Stats Revealed, Fielding Dependent Pitching, and Pitcher War/FDP. Before Tuesday, FanGraphs only offered pitcher WAR until 1976 (I believe) but now they have it all the way back to when major league baseball started. This isn't really going to be a long post, but more after the jump!

Please Rise in The King's Court

Unless you've been living under a rock these past few weeks, you probably know that Seattle Mariners starting pitcher, Felix Hernandez, has been flat out dominant. The climax of his dominance occurred on August 1 when he pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Since then he has been absolutely lights out. After the jump we'll see just how good he's been, and compare his season to other similar ones.

Hollywood’s New (not so bright) Stars

Welcome back to the last installment in my four piece series breaking down the Dodgers and Red Sox deal. If you missed out on the other three you can view them here, here, and here.

There’s no doubt the intention of the new Dodgers ownership, win now and win big. As the Yankees have shown us in the past money does make winning easier and since the ownership change, money seems like an endless commodity in LA. In the past month or so the Dodgers have accumulated around $300 million worth of contracts for both now and future. The biggest of bunch coming in their latest blockbuster with the Red Sox, but will this new blockbuster be the next Dark Knight or the next Twlight.

Adrian Gonzalez Past, Present, and Future

Welcome to part three of this four part series breaking down the Dodgers and Red Sox trade. If you missed part 1 check it out here and part two here.

Now onto the Dodger perspective of the deal while this is a blockbuster type deal, the names may be bigger than the assets at this point in each of their careers. The centerpiece of his deal is Adrian Gonzalez, who’s considered by many to be an elite first baseman. The numbers don’t lie either, he’s a 4 time All Star, 3 time Gold Glove winner, an owner of an .881 career OPS, and has accumulated 30.3 fWAR up to age 30 so far. However since his move to Boston one could say he’s underachieved a bit and not been the player we envisioned we thought he’d be.

The Red Sox New Yutes

Hey everyone this is part 2 of a 4 part series breaking down the Dodgers and Red Sox deal, for part 1 of this series check out this link.

My favorite of the bunch is Rubby De La Rosa, the kid’s arm is electric to say the least. He’s been rattled by  the injury bug and has Tommy John last year, but his ceiling is well worth the risk. He’s only 23 and had an average fastball of 96 MPH last year and in his brief return this year averaged 94.3 MPH. Before he got hurt last year he held the opposition to a 3.87 FIP and 3.55 xFIP as well as nearly struck out a better per innings, 8.9 K/9, pretty impressive considering his age. Control will make or break Rubby, despite the gaudy strikeouts his walk rate of 4.6 BB/9 last year and career 4.0 BB/9 in minors is too high to succeed at a high level.  Despite this though, his stuff is good enough to succeed and a worthwhile gamble for the Red Sox. If he continues to develop and finds consistency in his slider, curveball, and changeup he has the ceiling of an ace and the floor of a closer.

The Dodgers Spending Spree Continues

In what seemed like an unthinkable long shot 24 hours ago the Red Sox and Dodgers are now on the verge of completing a 9 player blockbuster deal. The deal is to send Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto, and $12 million from the Red Sox in exchange to the Dodgers for James Loney, Rubby De La Rosa, Jerry Sands, Allen Webster, and Ivan DeJesus.  The deal is so big there’s no good place to even begin breaking it down, but let’s start with just the cash.

The Twins Get A Bargain With Willingham

After having one of their worst seasons in recent memory the Minnesota Twins went into the 2012 off-season in need of major help. Justin Morneau only played in 69 games due to concussion symptoms and compiled an abysmal .274 wOBA. Joe Mauer dealt with a number of ailments, most notably bi-lateral leg weakness, and played in only 82 games. In those 82 games he only managed to have a .319 wOBA. That's not exactly what you want from the two highest paid players on your team. As a result the Twins went out and signed free agent, Josh Willingham, to a three year deal worth twenty one million dollars. To date that was the most expensive free agent contract that the Twins have given out, so they needed it to be a good deal. After the jump we will see how it's turned out so far.

Fantasy Friday: Injury Edition

   TGIFF! (Thank God it's Fantasy Friday!) If you are like me, it has been a long week full of weird happenings in baseball. The Rays apparently cannot lose, the Nationals have a tough decision to make re: Steven Strasburg, something something Mike Trout something something, etc. We are getting near September call-up time, probably the theme for next week's Fantasy Friday, and the new wildcard playoff format is leading to some exciting playoff races. All in all, baseball is giving us another incredible season. Even with all the excitement, it is easy as a fantasy owner to be frustrated with all the injuries hitting your team. After the jump, I will look at a handful of players who are on the DL and how you should react to that problem.

New Site

Hey there, my name is Alex and I am the founder of Saber Analysis. As of today Blogger is the new home for this blog. Saber Analysis is a blog that's dedicated to sabermetrics and everything else baseball. Currently there are two writers, myself and Tim. I just wanted to let you know that when I imported the articles from the old site it made everything written by me. That is in fact not true. Tim is our fantasy guru and he also had written a lot of other pieces. I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference based on our styles. A lot of the other articles that were written 4-5 months ago were written by a person named Lee, but he went and wrote for a Braves blog called Tomahawk Take. For our old readers we hope you keep reading, and for our new readers we hope you enjoy!

-Alex

Tom Tango Would Like a Word

Actually, more like he wants smart, observant baseballing enthusiasts (such as this readership) to help in his annual crowd-sourcing project. In a nutshell, 'crowd-sourcing' is using the collective intellect of a group to arrive at a reasonable conclusion. By using a large sample size of entries, the variance (of extreme answers) is reduced and meaningful data can be gathered. He explains it better than me, that is why HE is well-known Tom Tango and I am aggressively-good-looking-but-unknown Tim Nicodemus, so just follow the link and help him out. And for the love of goodness, somebody do the Padres.

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/scouting_report_2012_by_the_fans_for_the_fans/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

You may now return to your baseball-watching, blog-reading, cigar-smoking lives. If you are into that kind of thing.

A Look At The "Other" Rookies - Pitchers

Unless you've been living under a rock you've known that Los Angeles Angels outfield phenom Mike Trout has been tearing up baseball. Bryce Harper of the Nationals had a hot stretch but has since cooled off. Those aren't the only rookies who are playing this year though. There are a ton of rookie pitchers this year that deserve to be talked about. In this piece I will be talking about three pitchers who are working on their first full year in the big leagues.

Fantasy Friday: Buy and Sell

With most leagues ending in a few weeks, now is NOT the time to be sitting idly by and not making moves. Last week, I covered generic strategies for whatever position you find your teams. This week I want to look at various players that you all requested and/or I have been interested in recently. Don't forget to send me Fantasy questions over twitter (@timnicodemus) or email (timnicodemus3@gmail.com). Who is a good pick? Who should get dropped? Answers, jokes, and wOBA to follow.

Fantasy Friday: Post-Trade Deadline Strategies

Much like empires, stock markets, and the Vengaboys (obscure Europop reference, ftw), baseball players have their ups and downs. Because of this volatility, fantasy owners are stuck w0rrying about what lineup will get them the most points. In my experience, this problem is exacerbated after the Trade Deadline, ie when the playoff races start for fantasy leagues. Seriously, if you did not realize that your league ends before the MLB regular season ends either: 1. You have a commissioner that needs to learn about fantasy sports or 2. You really need to start paying attention. In other words, now is the time that a lot of fantasy owners make moves in order to get in better position for a run in the playoffs. This post is going to discuss general strategies for each position and throw in some players that should be considered or avoided. Let the playoff hunt begin!

The Twins Have Found a Diamond In The Rough

It's no secret that the Minnesota Twins' pitching staff is having a horrendous season. Their 4.69 FIP is last in the American League and is only ahead of the Colorado Rockies 4.70 FIP. Overall there isn't much to be excited about when a Twins pitcher takes the mound. Recently that has changed though. In 2010 the Twins selected starting pitcher, Scott Diamond. Diamond was with the Braves at the time of his selection. As spring training was coming to a close the Twins traded relief pitcher Billy Bullock to Atlanta, and that allowed them to send Diamond to the minors. Diamond struggled in the seven games he started last year, but this year has been a whole different story.

A Tale Of Two Similar Pitchers

Here are two pitchers that have both pitched for the same team. Which pitcher would you rather have on your team? Since 2009 one of them has struggled but before then he was extremely productive. The other pitcher debuted in 2006 and is currently one of the best pitchers in baseball. Here are their stats:

Pitcher A (2002-2009):

K%: 18.80% BB%: 6.90% HR/FB: 9.30% GB%: 43.2%

ERA: 3.81 FIP: 3.83 xFIP: 4.00 WAR: 31.3

Pitcher B (2006-2012):

K%: 21% BB%: 6.50% HR/FB: 7.50% GB%: 33.6% 

ERA: 3.19 FIP: 3.59 xFIP: 4.04 WAR: 27.4

If you haven't figured out who they are yet, you'll find out after the jump.

Here Ye, Here Ye: Major Announcement Edition

When Alex and I met a couple of weeks ago in Minnesota, we discussed potential ideas for SaberAnalysis. Do not worry, faithful readership; we are both very much firmly involved in this blog. Rejoice, faithful readership, for we have two new weekly series coming your way. Both will be decidedly sabermetrical in perspective. Both will be interesting (I hope) and are designed to teach all of us more about baseball. Most importantly, I envision BOTH of these being driven by you, faithful readership. 

Andrew McCutchen and His Historic BABIP

After having a career year last season Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, Andrew McCutchen, was rewarded with a hefty pay raise. So far he's right where he left off last season. His 5.9 WAR is already more than the 5.7 WAR that he produced last season. His slash numbers are also currently career highs: .373/.432/.632. He's been nothing short of epic. He's had help though as evidence of his extremely high BABIP. As of today it is currently a robust .423. Where does that compare among others in history? How likely is it that he can maintain a high BABIP the rest of the way?

The Flyin' Hawaiian Heads West

After acquiring Hanley Ramirez, the Los Angeles Dodgers went out and acquired outfielder, Shane Victorino, from the Philadelphia Phillies. Victorino is a free agent after the season, and the Dodgers got him relatively cheap. He won't finish as good as last season, but he's still on pace to have +3-3.5 WAR by the time the season ends.

Francisco Liriano Is Headed To The South Side

On July 29 the Chicago White Sox went out and acquired Minnesota Twins pitcher, Francisco Liriano. On the surface one gets the impression that Liriano has been struggling mightly. That isn't quite the case though. Liriano did perform poorly during the first month of the season, and as a result he landed in the bullpen. On May 30 he found himself back in the starting rotation and looked like his old-self. The White Sox hope he continues to stay dominant as their season progresses.