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Baseball Prospectus | Fantasy Prospect Rankings
Fantasy baseball draft season is approaching. For those of us who play dynasty leagues, there's another group of prospects to consider drafting and holding on to for the next several years. Obviously, you want prospects from the Rockies system. There are plenty.
This Top 101 dynasty prospects list includes a total of eight Rockies prospects. plus an honorable mention: Brendan Rodgers (14), David Dahl (19), Ryan McMahon (29), Raimel Tapia (41), Jeff Hoffman (56), Forrest Wall (85), Tom Murphy (96), Trevor Story (98), and Jon Gray (HM).
Coors Field doesn't make hitters better, but it does make their surface numbers better, which is really all that matters in most formats of fantasy baseball. Likewise, it doesn't make pitchers worse, but it makes it difficult to keep an ERA under 4.00. If you want a real life takeaway of hope, it's Hoffman's high ranking. His "realistic ceiling" is listed as "the arm who overcame Coors."
Also, because you care, I've had Dahl on my primary dynasty league team since before the 2013 season. I can't wait for it to payoff in ways other than dreamy stares.
Sunday Notes: Lindor, Lucroy, Japan, Twins, Shaving Cream, more | FanGraphs Baseball
Kyle Freeland wants to keep it simple. As he recently told FanGraphs' David Laurila, "you make pitching complicated when you start letting the game speed up on you. The simpler you keep it, the easier things are going to be for you." Freeland also provides some thoughts that can be read as emphasizing pitching rather than throwing:
Fastball, I'm definitely throwing to where my catcher is set up. With my changeup, we mostly go back corner of the plate, and I let the changeup work, instead of trying to hit a perfect location with it. Slider and curveball, it will depend on the count and the hitter as to whether I'm throwing directly to the glove or to a certain spot.
As always, Laurila's entire Sunday column is worth a read.
Baseball Game Theory: Round 2 - Beyond the Box Score
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a game theory offseason simulation that we did with other SB Nation folks. The idea is that each team submits five names that they can pluck from any other organization, but the catch is that if someone else chooses that name, the player stays with his original team.
The Rockies did pretty well the first time around. The Rockies landed José Abreu, Lucas Giolito, and Kevin Gausman and lost Jake McGee, David Dahl, and Brendan Rodgers. This time around, the Rockies only landed Dillon Tate. The other four names submitted, Byron Buxton, Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and Manny Machado, missed. But they only lost Rodgers. There's no way to spin the results as positive for the Rockies. Nobody around here would trade Rodgers for Tate.
Here's a reminder to go vote for the SABR Analytics Conference Research award. The page includes a link to all of the nominees, just in case you missed something.