MLB

Fantasy Baseball Mailbag: Thursday 7/21/16

Kenta Maeda's results haven't been as rosy recently as they were earlier in the year. Is it time to jump ship or buy him in season-long fantasy baseball?

We're here to try and help you navigate the ever-changing landscape that is fantasy baseball. It's not easy to keep up with all of the day-to-day fluctuations, so it can help to have someone to bounce ideas off of. That's what our daily mailbag will look to do.

Feel free to shoot us any questions you may have throughout the day on Twitter, and then we'll try to answer as many as we can in the form of a post. If you prefer, you can also send an email to Jim.Sannes@FanDuel.com. These questions can be anything fantasy baseball related. That means daily fantasy baseball, season-long, dynasty, and everything else are all in play.

Obviously, we won't be able to get to all questions because there's a lot to cover. For additional questions, be sure to check out our new MLB DFS tools along with our daily and season-long projections, which should help out more times than not.

Now, enough of that. Let's dig into today's mailbag and see what's popping in the world of fantasy baseball.


It would probably be cheating to stick exclusively to trade targets, so let's dig a bit deeper first and discuss a few guys you can find on waivers before transitioning into two players you'll need to wheel and deal to land.

One interesting guy who is available in nearly 80% of all ESPN leagues is Mike Foltynewicz. He has made 10 big-league starts with the Atlanta Braves thus far in his age-24 season, and he has been cooking. His skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) is a respectable 3.96 with a 21.7% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. He flashed his potential two starts ago when he blanked the Chicago White Sox for seven innings, striking out 10 batters in the process. He's at Coors Field tonight, so I would hold off on adding him until before he makes his next start, but he should be on your radar right now.

A couple of other guys who you can snag are currently in the minors but should be back in the big leagues soon, and they are Jose Berrios and Tyler Glasnow. Since being optioned back to Triple-A in May, Berrios has a 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate, and those numbers shift to 27.3% and 6.8%, respectively, over the past month. With the Minnesota Twins figuring to be active at the trade deadline, Berrios isn't long for minor-league living.

As for Glasnow, the Pittsburgh Pirates have shown this year they're not afraid to unleash their top pitching prospects when they deem there to be a need. Jeff Locke's SIERA is up to 5.20 after the Milwaukee Brewers battered him last night, and it's hard to find a reason he should still be in the rotation. Glasnow seems likely to join the team this weekend, and if he can do well, it would seem hasty to expect a return to Triple-A.

If you're looking to spin a trade, Brandon McCarthy would be the first guy I'd target. You're technically "buying high" on McCarthy and his 1.69 ERA through three starts, but there are reasons to believe his success is legit. He's rocking an 11.1% swinging-strike rate in those three starts, meaning that even when his 37.9% strikeout rate regresses, he's still going to be well above average. He has been underrated his entire career, and now that he's finally in a pitcher's park, it's time to get your claws on him.

Sticking in the same rotation, Kenta Maeda is a pitcher who should be on a short list of buy-low options. People have caught onto the fact that Maeda's numbers have slipped big time recently.


There are real reasons to be concerned about Maeda, specifically the decrease of his ground-ball rate. However, the rest of his peripherals are trending in a positive direction since the start of June.

Time FrameSIERAStrikeout RateWalk Rate
April/May4.0422.4%7.5%
June/July3.2929.2%7.2%


Given that Maeda has allowed at least four earned runs in three of his last five starts, his owners are likely starting to get a bit antsy. Now's the time to capitalize on that and get a piece of his increased strikeout rate.

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