RADIO
Hello again, RotoBallers. We are now more than a quarter of the way through the marathon, which is the fantasy baseball season. It’s Monday, so it is time to check up on some of the bigger headlines from the baseball world and how these stories are relevant to us as fantasy managers.
A week has gone by since Statcast debuted a slew of new metrics relating to bat swings. The numbers add another way to quantify player performance, but how useful are they? Another ballplayer was revealed to be caught up in the bookmaking investigation that rocked the start of the season. And is Ronel Blanco’s time in the sun over? Earlier this week, he was ejected from a game after umpires discovered a sticky substance on his glove.
It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day management of fantasy teams and lose sight of the league as a whole. Hopefully, these weekly check-ins help you keep tabs on what you might have missed and what it could mean going forward. If you are looking to stay on top of things as news breaks, bookmark our MLB news feed and download our mobile app.
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Statcast’s New Toys
Last week, Statcast revealed a trove of new bat-tracking data. The site now offers six new metrics that help describe a swing: bat speed, fast-swing rate, squared-up rate, blasts, swing length, and swords.
Bat speed is simply the measure of how fast a swing is as measured from the sweet spot of the bat. The league average is 72 MPH. Any swing that is 75 MPH or above is labeled as a “fast swing.” The squared-up rate tells us how close a hitter came to obtaining maximum exit velocity on a given swing. A swing that attains at least 80% of that velocity is said to have been squared up. A blast is what happens when a hitter squares up a pitch and does so with a fast swing.
Swing length is the measure of the arc a bat takes from the start of a swing until it impacts the baseball. The average swing length is 7.3 feet, with Javier Baez having the longest average swing (8.6 feet) and Luis Arraez owning the shortest (5.9 feet). Swords, popularized by @PitchingNinja on Twitter, are now defined as a swinging strike where the swing is incomplete, and the bat speed is in the 10th percentile or lower (to demonstrate the swing was not competitive).
Fantasy Impact: While the data has been fun to pore over for the last week, I’ve yet to find a way to utilize them from a fantasy standpoint. Perhaps this is because the new metrics offer a way of quantifying what we can already see but not much more. We already knew Giancarlo Stanton swung a fast bat; it’s just now we know exactly how fast, and I’m unconvinced that that will help me as a fantasy manager.
The one category that may be of use is the squared-up rate, as it is a measure of how often a hitter will meet the 80% Max EV threshold. Squared-up swings that make contact result in a .372 batting average versus .127 for those that are not. Most of the leaders in that category are going to be owned in most leagues already, but this is a category I’ll circle back to if and when I need to add a hitter from the waiver wire. Knowing one’s history for making effective contact could aid in making those decisions.
Fallen Angel
Infielder David Fletcher, currently with Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers, was revealed this week to have placed bets with alleged bookmaker Mathew Bowyer. Bowyer is the same person who took bets from Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. Fletcher, a member of the Los Angeles Angels from 2018 to 2023, was earlier reported to have attended the same poker game where Bowyer and Mizuhara became acquainted.
David Fletcher, a former Los Angeles Angels infielder currently with the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A affiliate, bet on sports with the same Southern California bookmaker who took wagers from Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter, according to multiple sources detailing the…
— Tisha Thompson (@TishaESPN) May 18, 2024
Fletcher denied making bets with Bowyer when this story first broke back in March. ESPN reported on Friday that Fletcher did indeed place wagers on several sports, though none on baseball. Fletcher’s friend and former Royals farmhand Colby Schultz was also named as a bettor and reportedly bet on Angels games that Fletcher played in. MLB’s gambling policy strictly prohibits players from wagering on baseball and also disallows the use of illegal and offshore bookmakers.
Fantasy Impact: None? I don’t think any of us were waiting on bated breath for Fletcher’s potential promotion to Atlanta. The conspiracy theorist in me is wondering how deep this might go, if any other players will be rooted out, etc. With no other news or rumors to go off of, it is pretty easy to tamp down that trivial speculation and accept that “baseball news” doesn’t always overlap with fantasy relevance.
Ronel’s New No-No
Ronel Blanco appeared in this column in April after he threw the first no-hitter of the 2024 season. Blanco stayed on a roll ever since, taking a no-hit bid into the sixth inning in his next start and continuing on to accumulate a 4-0 record with 47 strikeouts, a 2.09 ERA, and a 1.09 WHIP. The 30-year-old’s breakout season came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, May 14.
After throwing three shutout innings against the A’s, umpires discovered a sticky substance on the pitcher’s glove during an inspection. Blanco claimed whatever the umpires found was merely rosin mixed with his sweat. He was ejected from the game, and on Wednesday, MLB delivered its automatic 10-game suspension. After initially voicing that he would appeal a potential suspension, Blanco changed his tack and accepted the punishment. He will be eligible to return on May 26.
Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco has been ejected for use of a foreign substance on his glove.
(via @NBCSAthletics) pic.twitter.com/Rx2buc4uHN
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 15, 2024
Fantasy Impact: The suspension forced Blanco to miss a start against the Brewers in the teams’ weekend series, but it appears that that is the extent of the damage on that front. A May 26 return would pit Blanco against the A’s once again. If he misses the A’s, then he will likely be featured in the ensuing series against the Mariners, who are hitting .228 as a team and have a league-worst 479 strikeouts.
Any time a pitcher is busted for using a foreign substance, there is the question of how much of his success were a result of the “sticky stuff.” Six pitchers have been similarly suspended since MLB began cracking down on pitchers’ use of foreign substances. The game logs that bookend their suspensions don’t show a conclusive difference in results after the pitchers returned and, presumably, stopped doctoring baseballs.
Believers in Blanco have as close to a buy-low point as we’ve seen since the season started. Managers’ faith in the pitcher is crumbling, but the Astros have a relatively soft schedule through the end of June. Depending on when he pitches again after the suspension expires, Blanco could face off against the struggling offenses of the Cardinals, Angels, Tigers, White Sox, and Rockies over the next month. That’s a nice cushion for a “clean” Blanco to show that he is legit.
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