Spring Training Competitions & Fantasy Baseball

Pitchers and catchers have reported to their various spring camps and first workouts are already underway as we inch closer to the 2016 regular season. As we inch closer to the 2016 regular season we also inch closer to the 2016 Fantasy Baseball season and your fantasy baseball drafts if you haven’t had yours already. I tend to like to wait until March, sometimes even late-March, before having my draft because so many things can happen between the beginning of spring training and the beginning of the regular season with injuries and spring training competitions being at the top of my precautionary list. You can’t predict or analyze injuries for the most part but you can analyze and take a stab at predicting the spring training competitions though and I will attempt to do just that in hopes of helping you with your upcoming fantasy baseball drafts.

We’ll start in the American League East with the Toronto Blue Jays and their closer situation. Will it be Roberto Osuna or will it be recently acquired Drew Storen? Storen could close and the Blue Jays could opt to place Osuna in the starting rotation or they could place Aaron Sanchez in the rotation and let Osuna and Storen battle it out for the 9^th inning. In my opinion I think the team attempts their own dominant back end of the bullpen and at least starts the season, barring one disaster or amazing spring training from either one of these men, with Storen in the 8^th and Osuna in the 9^th.

Sticking with the AL East theme we head down to Tropicana Field with the Tampa Bay Rays to try and sort out their outfield, first base and DH position battle they have going on. As it stands now Kevin Keirmaier is a lock for the team with Corey Dickerson, Steven Souza, Desmond Jennings, Steve Pearce, Logan Morrison and Mikie Mahtook vying for playing time. The team also has James Loney at first base but with capable first base options like Morrison and Pearce his job may be on the line as well. This is going to be one of the tougher ones to predict but you have to think Dickerson gets one of the starting spots with Keirmaier and Jennings while Loney stays at first base and Morrison spends much of his time at the DH position. Pearce should see plenty of time off the bench though and is eligible at multiple positions this season once again.

I’ve said many times this winter that even the worst team is going to have around 30-50 saves throughout a season. Even a team that loses 100 games is going to have 62 wins so giving a team 30-50 saves is not out of the realm of possibilities. The real question is will all those saves go to one person, which is ideal in fantasy, or to multiple people, which obviously is not. This is the question you should be asking if you’re in need of a closer and trying to decide who will close games for team’s like the Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers to name a few. Spring competitions are all over with Will Smith battling Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress in Milwaukee, David Hernandez battling Ernesto Frieri and Edward Mujica in Philadelphia, AJ Ramos battling Carter Capps in Miami and Jason Grilli battling former Yankees prospect Arodys Vizcaino in Atlanta. If I had to pick a winner in each of these competitions I would have to go with Will Smith in Milwaukee, David Hernandez in Philadelphia, AJ Ramos in Miami and Jason Grilli in Atlanta but all will have extremely short leashes on from Opening Day on. If you’re set elsewhere and you absolutely need a closer it may be worth grabbing two options from one team just to make sure you have the saves situation handled, one can easily be traded or passed through waivers to the free agent market later on.

So there you have it, the spring competitions that could impact your fantasy baseball draft and league this season. There are more, the Yankees bullpen, the Washington Nationals shortstop situation, the Tigers center field situation, whether Hanley Ramirez will stick at first base in Boston, various starting pitching competitions around the league and almost the entire Atlanta Braves team is up for grabs. Spring training is close and I can’t say how excited I am to be talking about it and how excited I am to be talking about fantasy baseball. That means real baseball is near and that makes me smile. Hope this information helps and if it does pass it on!

Fantasy Baseball: Who Are the Atlanta Braves?

As a fan of the New York Yankees that has since moved out of the state and to metro Atlanta, Georgia I am forced to keep up with the Atlanta Braves. For one it’s all you can see down here without a MLB TV package and it’s the only baseball talk I get down here unless I am at a Yankees vs. Braves game and also it’s kind of frowned upon to not at least pretend like you’re rooting for the home team down here. For that reason alone I wanted to take this opportunity to shine a light on the current status of the Braves team as far as fantasy baseball goes because even my biggest Braves fan friends don’t know 90% of the team anymore. Maybe they will read and learn something and I hope that you do as well as you prepare for your fantasy drafts and lobbies.

You almost have to start with Freddie Freeman seeing as he is the only recognizable face left on the squad. Freeman is coming off a season in which he hit .299 with 12 home runs and 41 RBI through his first 66 games only to have his season derailed by several wrist injuries and an oblique injury or two. Freeman has since been given a clean bill of health but the fact remains that he will have little to no protection in the lineup and will not see many meaningful pitches all season long. If you need walks or intentional walks then go ahead and grab Freeman, if not he may not be worth a pick until around the 10^th round or so. That’s not a bash on him that’s just a sign of what’s to come with opposing team’s strategy against his team.

New arrivals in Turner Field this season will be Ender Inciarte and Erick Aybar most notably. Inciarte will replace Cameron Maybin in center field and came over from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Shelby Miller trade after breaking out in his rookie campaign with a .303 average, six home runs and 73 runs scored. Inciarte is likely to lead off in Atlanta and will be used as a weapon at the plate with his contact swing and on-base percentage as well as his ability to hit the ball in the gaps and steal bases. Inciarte seems like a shoe-in for 20 stolen bases, 70+ RBI and a .300 average. Inciarte’s biggest flaw? The fact that he struggles against left-handed starting pitching so keep that in mind if you draft him late in your draft. Hitting after Inciarte will be Aybar. Without the hitting protection of Mike Trout and Albert Pujols Aybar will an average, at best, middle infielder and likely a player I would personally stay away from in fantasy. He won’t bring you much.

Julio Teheran is a pitcher on the Braves that would be interesting to look at if you need a bonafide ace in your rotation. Teheran did not live up to the hype in 2015 posting a 4.04 ERA and a 3.27 BB/9 rate in what had to be a frustrating season for the Braves ace. Teheran saw his home run numbers go up in a pitcher friendly park and saw his road ERA skyrocket to above 5.40 so why should you trust him in 2016? Well first and foremost he will be around in the later innings giving you a low risk and high reward type pick to fill out your rotation. Secondly he will be throwing to Tyler Flowers this season who has drawn rave reviews for his pitch framing instead of Christian Bethancourt and AJ Pierzynski and finally another year under his belt cannot hurt, especially with a young pitcher. Teheran is going to be 25-years old this season and is heading into 2016 after stellar 2013 and 2014 campaigns under his belt before the step back in 2015. Buy low and sell really high on Teheran in my opinion.

If you’re looking for help later in the draft you can always look towards relative unknowns in outfielder Hector Olivera and bullpen arm Arodys Vizcaino. Olivera is said to have great plate discipline and a fluid swing that could produce 20+ home runs in a full season. Atlanta is already looking to trade one or both of Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn to make room for Olivera in the outfield while you, the fantasy owner, will likely also be able to use him at third base or second base making him a true value on your team. Vizcaino on the other hand will likely set up for closer Jason Grilli and would be the obvious candidate to take over if Grilli were to re-injure his Achilles tendon or stutter coming out of the gate at 39-years old. Vizcaino is a big strikeout guy that with the saves statistic added to his repertoire that could be a great find late in the draft.

These are just a few of the names that many of your fellow league mates may not know that you can become familiar with before your draft. It’s never a bad idea to have picks like Vizcaino and other Braves players ready to take with your last pick or two in the draft. Those are the picks you reach for the moon on and if it doesn’t work out you simply release and replace. Hopefully this helps your league and if I missed anyone let me know down in the comments section. 

MLB’S Adderall Exceptions Fall in 2015

Major League Baseball, and society as a whole truth be told, has a drug problem. The war on drugs that the government and law enforcement are fighting are against illegal street drugs but there is a bigger and much worse problem here in the United States, prescription drugs. Prescription drugs as a whole are good for those who need them and it’s not the drugs fault, it’s the people who abuse them. The people who Have “anxiety” who ruin it for all the people with anxiety and the people with “ADHD” that ruin it for the people that have ADHD as a couple of examples. Adderall is running rampant in Major League Baseball, although the exemptions for the anxiety and attention deficit disorder drug were down in 2015.

How many less exceptions were made in MLB from 2014 to 2015? One. Just one. When the final tally was made there were 111 therapeutic use exceptions (TUEs) approved for the use of Adderall in 2015. This is down for the second straight year after a high of 119 players received TUEs in 2013. 15% of MLB players are legally using the drug Adderall.

Ten players tested positive for banned substances in 2017, seven for PED’s, two for stimulants and one for supplement DHEA. No players tested positive for HGH. Five of the seven PED tests showed that Stanozolol was used, which is the new name for Winstrol that you undoubtedly remember from the Mitchell Report.

Drugs are still rampant in Major League Baseball and an independent committee is not being used to screen for TUEs and drug exceptions. Major League Baseball still has the final say though. 

Another Biogenesis All Over Again?

In less than 16 days Major League Baseball saw four different players suspended for the banned substance Stanozolol including the Minnesota Twins Ervin Santana and the New York Mets Jenrry Mejia. Joining those two were Seattle Mariners pitcher David Rollins and Atlanta Braves pitcher Arodys Vizcaino making many wonder if MLB has another steroid epidemic going on underneath their noses. New Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks so and is planning a similar probe to the Biogenesis probe from 2013 that suspended 14 players including the Yankees DH Alex Rodriguez.

The main reason that Anthony Bosch and his anti-aging clinic down in Miami were found out was because of a string of testosterone positive tests that forced the league to look further into the matter and the same pattern seems to be evolving here with Stanozolol. This could amount to nothing or it could be another black eye for the sport, I guess you will have to just stay tuned… 

Are the Atlanta Braves Rebuilding on the Fly?

The Atlanta Braves have shaken up the National League East pecking order a little this week when they traded second baseman Tommy La Stella for RHP and former Atlanta Brave and New York Yankee Arodys Vizcaino. The team then traded away homegrown talent and local boy Jason Heyward to the St. Louis Cardinals along with RHP Jordan Walden for RHP Shelby Miller and a highly regarded pitching prospect. Maybe I have become accustomed to expecting to win every season and I am losing my understanding on what it’s like to be in a smaller market with a smaller payroll but this sounds like a rebuild to me. This sounds at least like a rebuild on the fly anyway.

Pitching reigns supreme right now in that division and the Braves have lost, at least for now, Ervin Santana to free agency along with Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen to Tommy John surgery so I understand the need for pitching. At what cost does the pitching get too heavily relied on? Ask the 2014 Yankees who had a great pitching staff, injuries and all, and an even better bullpen but lost far too many 1-0 type games because of an inadequate offense. The Braves offense was already suspect with Heyward and La Stella so I can only imagine what Atlanta will be like without them.

I understand that it’s only November, 19 and there is a ways to go in this offseason but you have to wonder what new GM John Hart is thinking. Atlanta does not have a second base prospect less than a year away and the market for middle infielders is barren so why does a team trade away a guy with five years left of team control at what is becoming a premium position? Also one would think the Braves have a lot better chance at re-signing Heyward after 2015 then they do Justin Upton who is also a free agent at season’s end so why not trade Upton? The return is bigger and better and it still opens a position up for Evan Gattis.

I don’t think the Braves are done dealing soon to be free agents for controllable players and I think Upton and Gattis may be next because if it looks like a rebuild and smells like a rebuild and walks like a rebuild, it’s a rebuild. 

Are We A Trade Match With The Chicago Cubs?

The Cubs came out with the same announcement just a few days after the Yankees did stating that they are "open for business" when it comes to making trades. Neither team looks like they are willing to sit on their hands and wait for the trade deadline, or even the All Star Game, to come before moving players. Do these two teams have a fit that we may see unfold later this month and next? Let's take a closer look.

Let's be real here and start by saying that guys like Jeff Samardzija, Anthony Rizzo, Darwin Barney, Starlin Castro, and Jorge Soler are not going anywhere. That is definitely the Cubs core and it is a great core and the Cubs would be fools to get rid of any of these players unless they got back a package that they could just not refuse, i.e. Giancarlo Stanton based package. The Cubs will more than likely move big contracts and aging veterans for young guys as the youth movement continues up in Chicago behind Theo Epstein but what veterans are matches for the Yankees?

Shawn Camp has been terrible and has a bloated ERA above seven so he is staying put with the Cubs whether they like it or not. Guys like Arodys Vizcaino (Yankees prospect humper alert!), Scott Baker, Kyuji Fujikawa, and Steve Clevenger are all on the 60 day DL and will probably stay put with Chicago as well. The Cubs still have plenty of veterans and team friendly contracts that they are wanting to move with them not competing this season so I fully expect the Yankees and the Cubs to make at least one deal this trade deadline season.