Major updates to the fantasy assistant

It’s officially summer, which means baseball is in full swing and we can’t wait until fantasy football arrives.  Over the past two months, there have been major updates to FantasySP that I had yet to post about.

The two biggest updates include the Weekly Projections and our new way to analyze waiver pool.  These are game changers in my book and you owe it to yourself to check it out inside the fantasy assistant.

The full list of updates include:

  • NEW! Projected Weekly records and category performance has been added for baseball.  NBA, NHL, and NFL are soon to follow.
  • NEW! Support for league customization has been added.
  • NEW! Brand new way to analyze the waiver pool.
  • Resigned a few areas of the fantasy assistant.
  • Fixed numerous bugs.
  • Easier way to sync fantasy leagues.
  • Support added for CBSSports 2014 football leagues.
  • Many more misc updates and enhancements.

Help with the Waiver Wire

Deciding who to pick up or drop in your fantasy league can be a daunting task.  The Fantasy Assistant offers a brand new way to help decide who to pick up.  Our Waiver Research tool  combines player trends with fantasy performance.

The Waiver Research tool is offered for all major fantasy sports, including fantasy football, baseball, basketball, and hockey.

Waiver Research
Waiver Research

Our tool offers various ways to analyze the waiver pool in your league.  You can break things down by a specific timeframe of days or weeks.  You can also break things down by specific positions.

A key aspect of the Waiver Research tool is the F+ rating, shown in green.  The F+ rating combines fantasy performance with player trends to help you decide who to pick up.  The higher the rating, the better the pickup.

You’ll notice that player’s you own are also shown in the mix and are highlighted in yellow.  It is critically important to show where your player’s performance stacks up against the waiver pool.   We make it easy to compare your player’s performances across shorter and longer timeframes to see if a free agent may be worth the pickup.

The icons next to each player name provide links to the fantasy league player page and an availability breakdown of which league he is owned in.

Finally, we also provide each player’s OWN and START ratings which are shown as two orange graphs.  When deciding who to pick up, it is very important to take note of these percentages. We guarantee  by using our Waiver Research tool that your research time will be cut down drastically.

Go ahead and take the plunge with the Fantasy Assistant.  If you aren’t a member yet, then SIGN UP now.

Sell High: Chase Utley

Chase Utley is holding on to the top spot for NL second baseman in the MLB All-Star fan voting with an impressive .305/.364/.474 triple-slash line, 5 homeruns, and 33 RBIs. Although, it wasn’t even a month ago that Utley was hitting .333. Since May 24th, Utley is hitting just .253 while slugging a traumatic .326 in 24 games. That’s a batting average 80 points lower and a slugging percentage 220 points lower than his numbers prior to the date!

The Phillies, however, are streaking at the moment, winning eight of their last ten. Perhaps Utley has heated up with the team? Wrong. In those 10 games, Utley is hitting .243 and slugging .324 with just 3 RBIs. His numbers have been visibly declining as the season progresses. Conclusion: we can call April and May just a “hot start” and his current numbers are deceiving of how he is actually producing.

Utley typically performs well in what his former manager Charlie Manuel would call “hittin’ season,” or July. Unfortunately, the following month of August is indisputably his weakest offensive month, given his career record. The fantasy owners of Utley have a decision to make:

A)     Hold on to Utley and pray that he heats back up with the weather, but take the sure hit in August.

B)      Believe in Utley’s decreasing numbers and sell him high while he still has value as a .300-hitter and soon-to-be All-Star.

For most cases, I suggest Option B.

De Aza Still Viable

Alejandro De Aza is putting together another fine fantasy season. He ended the month of May hitting just .173 and has since hit .375 in June. Many fantasy owners do not trust his game but he remains a viable fantasy option despite his struggles.

Analysis: De Aza had a solid line last year- 17 HR, 20 SB, 84 R, .264 BA. Thus far this season he is on a similar pace- 5 HR, 11 SB, 25 R, .222 BA. He currently ranks as the 75th best fantasy outfielder this season and the 38th best over the last two weeks of the season.

We have to keep in mind that the .222 batting average will continue to climb. De Aza is a career .266 hitter and his BABIP is down by about 70 points this season. Other than his poor batting average he remains consistent with his career marks in walk rate, strikeout rate, isolated power, HR/FB rate and contact percentage.

Expect the batting average and power numbers to tick up a bit and expect more of the same in the steals department. He currently ranks 19th among outfielders in stolen bases. Alejandro De Aza is available in 70-80% of fantasy leagues.

Selling High- Vargas

Jason Vargas has a 3.25 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP this season. He’s also a thirty-one year old with a career 4.20 ERA, 4.58 xFIP and 1.31 WHIP.

Analysis: Yes, Jason Vargas is having a fine season but he will not sustain it. The 3.25 ERA is nice but his xFIP is 4.09. Vargas’ strikeout rate of 6.4 K/9 is average for a fantasy starter but there are other areas of concern. His strand rate is 8% above his career average and his fastball velocity is down which isn’t surprising considering he is 10th in baseball in pitches per game at 104.7 per. Over his last five starts he has averaged 109 pitches per start. In short- he is due for a drop off sooner than later.

This is the perfect time to maximize value/return on a fantasy pitcher with good numbers through 99.2 innings on 15 starts. Even when using the eye test he just doesn’t impress unlike an Edwin Jackson type(who by the way has a 5.12 ERA/3.65 xFIP with 83 K’s in 84 IP). Currently, Jason Vargas is available in 20-60% of fantasy leagues.