Nate McLouth has been shipped to Atlanta for several prospects and solidifies the Braves outfield, but what does this do for McLouth? The first concern is park factors as Atlanta is definitely a pitchers park, but does it really hurt his value?
First when looking at park factors you might think the drop in park factors is not much going from PNC Park to Turner Field, which are both in the bottom third of all MLB parks for home run factors. This shouldn't change his chances much. PNC Park is better for lefties as well as many NL Central parks, but it shouldn't slow him to much as his power from last year is for real.
The good news though is a much better lineup to play in. Your now looking at a huge jump in RBIs and runs. His steals will depend on where he hits in the lineup, but he is still a solid bet for 25/25.
Overall I think McLouth gets a solid boost in value from this, but nothing to big. I think he is a good bet to hold right now, but if you get a good offer or he starts extremely hot you could look to move him for high value.
Thursday, June 4
Wednesday, June 3
June Strategies to Think About
Earlier this season I preached patience and calm when it comes to your team. Early season struggles are often nothing more than random variance and will eventually sort themselves out. The problem as June starts is teams begin to make reactions to these "struggles" and prevent this return to the mean and hurt your team. An example from last year is Kenji Johjima who was limited in ABs in the second half and his "struggles" were largely explained by his BABIP.
If you own players like Garrett Atkins, Jose Lopez, Coco Crisp or Adrian Beltre they may see more days off as the summer goes trying to get them settled. If they have any competition or a hot bat to fill in you could even see them drop a game or 2 per week. This really hurts your value and limits your games played at the position.
So what is the best way to fill this spot? You don't want to try to trade these players since they are worth more, but value will be extremely low. You also can't trade for someone to fill in the spot since you should hope your player should "break out" soon.
The waiver wire is your best bet, but avoid rookies for the most part and look for solid replacement level position players. A month of replacement level player filling in when your player is out (tough to predict) should maintain solid numbers.
The one thing you should avoid is just moving your starter to the bench unless he is not playing. Sitting someone like the players mentioned above could quickly result in missing a very good day.
The one thing you should avoid for sure is trying to start playing matchups looking for that break out. All matchups are sample sizes that are much to small and supply no information, but using splits is acceptable. Sitting a lefty who struggles against left handed pitchers is a good idea in these type of situations as they would likely sit when struggling anyway.
If you own players like Garrett Atkins, Jose Lopez, Coco Crisp or Adrian Beltre they may see more days off as the summer goes trying to get them settled. If they have any competition or a hot bat to fill in you could even see them drop a game or 2 per week. This really hurts your value and limits your games played at the position.
So what is the best way to fill this spot? You don't want to try to trade these players since they are worth more, but value will be extremely low. You also can't trade for someone to fill in the spot since you should hope your player should "break out" soon.
The waiver wire is your best bet, but avoid rookies for the most part and look for solid replacement level position players. A month of replacement level player filling in when your player is out (tough to predict) should maintain solid numbers.
The one thing you should avoid is just moving your starter to the bench unless he is not playing. Sitting someone like the players mentioned above could quickly result in missing a very good day.
The one thing you should avoid for sure is trying to start playing matchups looking for that break out. All matchups are sample sizes that are much to small and supply no information, but using splits is acceptable. Sitting a lefty who struggles against left handed pitchers is a good idea in these type of situations as they would likely sit when struggling anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)