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Welcome back, RotoBallers, to my Week 8 fantasy baseball news, notes, and buys/sells for dynasty leagues. This weekly series will take a look at various prospects, dynasty news, and discuss fantasy implications.
If you enjoy dynasty baseball, you know it is a fast-paced game. Keeping up with the Joneses per se keeps you in the game and at the top of the standings. At the end of the day, we all want to build a dynasty team that sustains and lasts for the long haul. I am here to help you do so.
Keeping up with all the current happenings can help you stay ahead of your league mates. Call-ups, trends, and buying and selling players are all just small pieces to help you stay ahead. So, that's what we will do in this article each week. Break down everything you need to know to be successful in dynasty. Let's get to it, what do you need to know for dynasty leagues in Week 8 of the 2024 season?
Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and weekly lineup resources:- Fantasy baseball injury reports
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- Daily MLB starting lineups for fantasy baseball
- Fantasy baseball BvP matchups data (Batter vs. Pitcher)
- Fantasy baseball PvB matchups data (Pitcher vs. Batter)
- Who should I start? Fantasy baseball player comparisons
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- Fantasy Baseball live scoreboard, daily leaderboards
Recent MLB Prospect Call-Ups
It was another good week of prospect promotions. Teams are being more aggressive now than ever, as the majority of teams want to put their best product on the field, and that is what we are seeing. Let's dive into the three major call-ups that have taken place since the last dynasty news and notes article.
This week, we had one of the most anticipated debuts in quite some time as Paul Skenes took the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 11. After 27.1 Triple-A innings in which he posted a 0.99 ERA with 45 strikeouts, Skenes pitched well in his MLB debut against the Cubs. The overall line over three earned runs across four innings with six hits and two walks allowed don't reflect how well he actually pitched.
Skenes struck out seven and displayed his impressive arsenal of pitches, starting with his fastball that averaged over 100 mph in the start and throughout the entire 2024 season. His mid-80s slider showed nice depth and over 10 inches of sweeping action, displaying plus characteristics.
The new splinker is incredibly impressive, sitting at 94-95 mph and showing nice vertical movement, but also 14 inches of horizontal on average. He will even throw a curve and a changeup on occasion.
The expectations on Skenes are probably unfair, as he has been labeled as a generational talent for over a year. Even with the lofty expectations, I expect Skenes to be a high-end starting pitcher for a long time.
Robert Gasser also made his MLB debut and second start since last week's article. I am a big fan of Gasser, and even though he is not flashy nor possesses immense upside, he has everything you need to be a high-floor starting pitcher for a long time. Through his first two MLB starts, Gasser has pitched 11 innings, allowing just one earned run, good for a 0.82 ERA.
Gasser's sweeper is his best pitch, generating whiffs and chase with over 15 inches of sweeping action consistently. He throws three fastball variations in a four-seam, sinker, and cutter, which he can use in different spots. The changeup shows nice fading action and can miss bats.
The ability to throw strikes and sequence pitches is what is going to make Gasser a successful MLB arm for a long time. He should post consistently good ratios with respectable strikeouts. He is an arm I would roster in all formats as he seems locked into the Brewers rotation.
Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Trends to Watch
Bat speed. The latest and greatest metric made available to the public on Baseball Savant. It is always exciting when more data is made available for the public to use and learn more about. Obviously, more bat speed is better. Simply put, swing bat fast, hit ball hard.
But there is so much more that matters beyond bat speed. Squared-up and Blasts are other metrics that go along with bat tracking data. Squared-up rate deals with the highest possible exit velocity that swing can attain. Any swing that is 80 percent squared-up is considered a "squared-up swing."
Blasts are when a batter squares up a ball and reaches a minimum threshold of bat speed. The qualifications are summed in the formula of Percent squared-up*100 + bat speed >= 164. The minimum bat speed for a blast is 82 mph.
Let's look at some leaders for each category.
*Data according to Baseball Savant
Bat Speed Leaders
| Name | Bat Speed(MPH) |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 80.6 |
| Oneil Cruz | 77.8 |
| Kyle Schwarber | 77.1 |
| Matt Chapman | 76.9 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | 76.7 |
| Christopher Morel | 76.7 |
| Aaron Judge | 76.5 |
| Jo Adell | 76.4 |
| Julio Rodriguez | 76.1 |
| Juan Soto | 76 |
Squared-Up/Swing%
| Name | Squared-Up/Swing% |
| Luis Arraez | 43.6 |
| Nicky Lopez | 40 |
| Nolan Schanuel | 39.5 |
| Mookie Betts | 39.3 |
| Juan Soto | 38.3 |
| Brendan Donovan | 37.2 |
| Jung Hoo Lee | 37.1 |
| Nico Hoerner | 36.9 |
| Alex Verdugo | 35.4 |
| Brice Turang | 35.1 |
Blasts/Swing%
| Name | Blasts/Swing% |
| William Contreras | 24.3 |
| Juan Soto | 23.5 |
| Shohei Ohtani | 21.1 |
| Aaron Judge | 18.8 |
| Alec Bohm | 18.6 |
| Yandy Diaz | 18.6 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 18.5 |
| Salvador Perez | 17.9 |
| Eloy Jimenez | 17.7 |
| Lars Nootbaar | 17.6 |
Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Buys and Sells
I have seen some pretty bad takes about Matt Olson being a one-hit wonder, not a top-five or even top-10 first baseman; you name it, it is out there. On the surface, things don’t look great. Olson is slashing .219/.327/.397 with five home runs. This follows up a year where he mashed 54 home runs and slashed .283/.389/.604. I certainly did not expect him to continue to that pace, but the expectation was for Olson to hit 40 home runs again with a respectable batting average.
The poor start to the year screams buy low on Olson to me. He is hitting the ball harder on average than he did last year, with an average exit velocity that ranks 98th percentile among all hitters. His 15.5 percent barrel rate ranks 93rd percentile. Olson’s hard-hit rate of 58.3 percent is 98th percentile for all hitters.
Olson’s .276 BABIP certainly signifies bad luck, but he continues to hit the ball hard and actually hit it in the air consistently, though he is not getting results.
We know the quality of contact is there. Olson is hitting more fly balls and even more pulled fly balls. None of this adds up. His zone contact rate is even up four percentage points from last season.
If you want to get in on Olson, you might want to do so soon. He has hits in eight of his last nine games and two home runs in the last six games. The buy window could shut quick if Olson goes on a home run barrage.
Brent Rooker is on quite the heater right now, having 10 home runs over his first 134 plate appearances this season while posting an impressive .288/.373/.602 slash. If you look at Baseball Savant, his profile is littered with red because of how hard Rooker hits the ball, which is not a new thing. In fact, Rooker's 15.6 percent barrel rate is identical to what it was last season.
My questions with Rooker are not about the power at all but about whether the contact gains are sustainable. Last year, Rooker posted a zone-contact rate of 73.4 percent, which is rather a very alarming number. So far this year, that number has jumped to 81.7 percent. The overall contact rate of 66.9 percent is also an improvement from the 61.8 percent mark last season.
It is not completely out of the question that Rooker improved the contact and can hit for average. But at this point, we have a lengthy track record of questionable contact skills to lean on. It also does not help that he is on the Athletics, who have surprisingly been good, but I don't think it is sustainable.
I just feel most comfortable cashing out of Rooker and seeing what you can get out of him in a trade.
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