April 16th Weekly Release Notes

Most of the updates this week focuses on baseball.  More specifically, the Fantasy Assistant.  The most noteworthy feature this week is the addition of support for AL/NL only baseball leagues.  Waiver wire suggestions now recommend league specific players if the site detects that it should. Here are the rest of this weeks changes:

  • NEW! Fantasy Assistant pitching  waiver wire suggestions has walks, holds, and saves in their own separate columns.
  • NEW! Fantasy Assistant now supports NL/AL only leagues and automatically recognizes them. Waiver Wire suggestions are then limited to the type of league you have.
  • Improvements to how the Fantasy Assistant comes up with waiver wire suggestions.
  • Removed message about accuracy from waiver wire suggestions.
  • FIX for Howie Kendrick stats
  • FIX for accuracy of batting average, slugging %, and on base.
  • Mobile site updated to show new baseball stats.
  • RSS feed for users fixed.
  • NEW! Design for new “feature tour” page completed.

Buying Low- Jose Tabata

Jose Tabata is off to a slow start for the Pittsburgh Pirates which makes him a great buy low option.

Analysis: Jose Tabata is hitting just .133 on the season but there is plenty of reason to expect a turn around. Tabata is a career .280 hitter who does not strike out much and is always looking to make contact. Tabata is also fine in the speed department. He has 37 career stolen bases in just 199 games played. His power should be surfacing soon as well. While he may not be a twenty home run guy, he will hit fifteen or so homers when he does reach his prime. Tabata is fully capable of hitting double digit home runs this year so don’t let the slow start fool you.

Tabata does have two stolen bases this year in seven games. If he stays near the top of the Pirates’ batting order runs scored should not be a problem for him either. Tabata is available in tons of leagues across the country and you will not find his stock any lower than it is at the moment. If he can stay healthy he can steal nearly thirty bags this year.

Michael Morse Out Six Plus Weeks

Michael Morse will be out at least six weeks before he can even begin to rehab his strained right lat.

Analysis: The estimated return of Morse seems to be in mid to late June. That’s two months of raw power that will be missing from fantasy lineups across the country. Morse hit .303 last year with 31 bombs, 95 RBI and most reliable projections had him hitting 25-30 home runs this year. With his temporal loss it gives some the chance to add some first base depth to their squad.

Justin Morneau makes a solid replacement for Morse. Morneau hit his first home run of the season Thursday night and appears to be healthy. He has not played over ninety games in a season in two years but you just need him to last until June. He’s hitting .281 for his career and he also sports a solid .498 career slugging percentage. In deeper leagues it appears Jesus Guzman will have plenty of value with tons of plate appearances. Guzman may be playing left field for the Padres but he has first base eligibility and he’s hitting cleanup right now.

Glen Davis Is Surging

With just a little over two weeks left in the season it’s time to make your final tweaks to your fantasy roster.

Analysis: Glen Davis is on fire and the fantasy world is taking notice. Davis has averaged 19.4 PPG, 11.0 RPG and 1.6 SPG in his last five games for the Orlando Magic. In four of those five games he has played at least thirty-five minutes. Davis is available in over seventy percent of leagues but he is going fast. A power forward who is averaging a double-double recently and is getting thirty plus minutes per game is a rare commodity on the wire, so take advantage.

If Glen Davis is not available in your league other solid rebounding bigs may be. Brandon Bass and Marcus Camby are still available in a few leagues but they do not possess the offensive potential we have seen from Davis over the past few weeks. Ed Davis is another power forward who has been rebounding quite well lately but his minutes remain in the 18-24 range.

Glen Davis may not be a shot blocker but he does shoot around 70% from the stripe. There is not a better power forward so widely available on the wire.

Stock Rising- Omar Infante

Omar Infante is off to a red hot start in the first week of the 2012 season.

Analysis: Omar Infante is just five games into his year but he already has 3 HR, 5 R and 4 RBI. He’s hitting in such an athletic and deep batting order that he can get away with flying under the radar a bit. His RBI opportunities with be plentiful even if he doesn’t move up in the order. As it stands now, Infante is available in over half of fantasy leagues and he is the trendy pick up on the wire at the moment.

Infante has hit over .290 in three of his last four years in the bigs. He only hit .276 last year but his BABIP was twelve points below his career average. Infante does not strikeout or walk much but that will have little impact on his RBI total and batting average which are his true strengths this year. Right now he makes a perfect sell high option in mixed leagues or a solid “keep for now” second baseman in NL only leagues. Considering he has only reached the double digit mark in homers just once in his career(2004), don’t go expecting twenty bombs.