MLB: Jeff Zimmerman's Fantasy Grab Bag

Regret After the Euphoria

The section focuses on suspect adds from the past weekend in the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship. These are 12-team roto leagues with a 23-man roster and 7 bench spots. 

My focus is to look to see if anyone was over-bid on (not likely at this point in the season) or had no way to live up to Sunday night expectations. 

Tony Gonsolin: I'm not sure Gonsolin was the right call for a team chasing wins. In his first start back off the IL, he only threw 55 pitches and only threw 67 pitches in his Monday start. For now, he lines up to face Colorado at Colorado next week so it should be one and done with him. Even though his walk rate is down from 15.8% BB%, it's still at 12.5% BB% over his last two starts. The walks will eventually catch up and his 2.47 ERA will regress towards his near 5.00 ERA estimators. 

Brandon Belt: When on the field, Belt has been having a decent season (.261/.364/.574 with 24 HR and 3 SB). The issue is that Wilmer Flores is off the IL and Flores starters at first base against lefty pitchers. The Giants are scheduled to face two lefty starters, so with every at-bat counts, Belt will be sitting and not help his fantasy managers.

A.J. Alexy: Going into Monday's game, Alexy had a 0.00 ERA and 0.64 WHIP. His 9.0 K/9 was serviceable, but his walks (4.1 BB/9) and fly balls (19% GB%) were a disaster in the making. Regression came hard on Monday against the Astros when he walked four batters and allowed two home runs leading to six earned runs in less than four innings. And he still has another start against the White Sox later this week.

Who's Playing Where

The section points out some playing time situations to monitor over the weekend. 

White Sox's Shortstop: Even though Tim Anderson is off the IL, he won't be playing every day, according to Tony LaRussa. While Leury Garcia is expected to fill in for Anderson, the lack of playing time for both make them unplayable unless a team is only looking for steals. 

Tampa's Outfield: Austin Meadows has sat against six of the last eight lefty starters (.532 OPS vs LHP, .882 OPS vs RHP). While the Rays are always shuffling their outfield, Manuel Margot  (.743 OPS vs LHP) usually benefits from the additional playing time when Meadows sits.

Toronto's Third Base: Cavan Biggio is on a rehab assignment and should rejoin the Blue Jays within the week. The deal is that Breyvic Valera (.683 OPS) and Jake Lamb (.699 OPS) have hit better than Biggio (.666 OPS) while filling in at third base. Biggio is a sexy add, but he might not play much. 

Platoons to Attack

White Sox (6 vs RHP, 8 total): For now, the White Sox don't have any platoons. One player to keep an eye on is slugger Gavin Sheets (.238/.299/.516 with 9 HR in only 134 PA) who has started four of five games since Andrew Vaughn went on the IL.  

Pirates (6 vs RHP, 7 total): Colin Moran (.303/.356/.444 vs RHP) has only been starting against righties so he's a under-the-radar option. In deeper leagues, Hoy Park (.141/.238/.225) is also only starting against righties. 

Blue Jays (6 vs RHP, 7 total): The team has no set platoons. The only player to revalue is Randal Grichuck (.247/.287/.432 vs RHP) who has only started against three of the last seven righties. 

Rangers (6 vs LHP, 8 total): It's nice to have a lefty slate to attack. Charlie Culberson (.350/.383/.542 vs LHP) is the big beneficiary and he may be available on the cheap since the third base platoon isn't that obvious. He will be replacing Yonny Hernandez (.226/.273/.258) and his steals who will head to the bench. 

Versus five RHP: AZ, ATL, BAL, CIN, CLE, KC, LAD, SD, SF

Middle Relief Options

Decent starting pitching options can be hard to find so here are five middle relievers who provide great ratios and some strikeouts. Also, because of how teams utilize them, they have a better than average chance of getting a Win.

The picks are based on the following criteria from this article. 

• Contending Team:  Win% >= 45%
• The manager has the tendency to use the pitcher in close games: gmLI >= 1.1
• IP/G >= 1.0: Has average more than one inning.
• The pitcher is getting strikeouts: K/G >= 1.1
• The pitcher has the tendency to throw more than one inning: IP/G >= 1.1
• Full schedule: At least six games the next week, preferably seven.
• Available in leagues: Rostership under 50% in NFBC leagues

Here are this week's top five choices and my thoughts on a few of them.

It's a good week to be choosy with many teams having seven or more games. Cleveland, who doesn't make the Winning% cutoff, has even nine games. A couple of the above guys have an ERA over 4.00, but the rest of their stats are great. 

Garrett Crochet: Eight games for an arm with an 11.2 K/9. Sign me up. 

Josh Staumont: While Scott Barlow has settled into the closer's role, Staumont has a consistent source of SOLDS to go along with great ratios.  

Brent Suter: It'd just be wrong to not include Suter and his team-leading 12 Wins.