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.