Tag Archives: Shelby Miller

Patting My Back: Pat Corbin And Shelby Miller

by Ben Carsley

My last week on TDG was none to kind to the ego.

In my weekly column, I made the world aware of an embarrassing comparison I made between Jesus Montero and a future Hall of Famer, then questioned the future of a man I once believed to be among the best prospects in baseball.

In our second installment of A Podcast For Your Eyes, I was forced to talk about Montero, Eric Hosmer and Will Middlebrooks: three former prospect sweethearts who are crushing more dreams than fastball these days.

And finally, in the waning moments of PFYE, The Sequel, I betrayed my better self by revealing to the world that I had succumbed to the affordable evil that is Yellowtail wine.

I need to get back on my game, and what better way to do so than to spill 600 words on how right I was on two pitchers carving up the National League as we speak?

This week, no panic button shall be pushed. This week, my back shall be patted. Continue reading →

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A Podcast For Your Eyes 2.0: It’s the Daniel Nava of Wines

by The Dynasty Guru

As I hinted at in yesterday’s post on the updated Top 500 Dynasty League Rankings, Ben, Craig and I sat down to “record” the latest PFYE on the subject at hand. So for your amusement, we talked over gchat for almost an hour and a half about what we’ve liked and not liked so far during the 2013 season–along with some tough decisions to be made. The following conversation has not been edited, abridged or otherwise touched (besides cleaning up our names and the formatting so that it’s easier to read).

Without any further introduction (because this post is long enough as is), I present to you the Episode 2 of A Podcast For Your Eyes.

Bret:  i’m back, babydoll!

Craig:  BRETTY WESTSIDE

Bret:  so you guys ready to kick this thing off?

Craig:  as long as you’re not being Lucy to our Charlie Brown, yes.

Ben:  i am prepared.

Craig:  but seriously I just logged off twitter, so yes I’m ready

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Ben’s Eleven Bold Predictions

by Ben Carsley

As a prospect writer, I’m wrong on the World Wide Web all the time.

“Casey Kelly makes a smart late-round pick this year,” I will write one week before we lose him to injury. “Adam Eaton can grab you 30 cheap steals,” I opine before his elbow acts up. “Devin Mesoraco will be a Top 12 Fantasy catcher this year,” is a sentence linked to my name from 2012.

You have to be willing to look bad sometimes to do this on a regular basis. It’s just the nature of the beast. So when Bret asked if I wanted to make 11 specific predictions about the 2013 season, my reaction was a simple one: how bad could it be?

Here’s what I think will happen as Opening Day nears. This article will self destruct in mid-June.

1. Shelby Miller will win 15 games for the Cardinals this season, to go along with an ERA in the mid-3.00s and 190 strikeouts in 180 innings. The Cardinals are a good team and Miller is a good prospect, so perhaps this isn’t super bold, but when you consider just how good the stat line I offered up is, this prediction should count. He’s really good, even if he’s overshadowed by the likes of Oscar Taveras. In related news, I have Miller in all but one of my redraft leagues this season. Happyface.

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The Top 225 Dynasty League Starting Pitchers, Part 1 (#1-50)

by The Dynasty Guru

There are nearly a million ways to construct a starting staff for your dynasty league team. However, I cannot stress how important it is (especially for starting pitchers) to know your league’s scoring system inside and out. The rankings you’ll find below are for a standard 5×5 rotisserie league, but more and more leagues are switching over to a points format, which makes pitcher valuations a little trickier. Does your scoring system value overvalue or undervalue strikeouts? Does it give a lot of weight to wins, losses and quality starts, or not? How important is it for a starter to accumulate 225+ innings? The easiest way for you to determine where you can take advantage of your scoring system is by looking at previous season totals and comparing them to standard 5×5 end of season valuations (like the ESPN Player Rater). No matter how sharp the guys in your league are, there’s always room for arbitrage.

There is a lot of great information out there, when it comes to individual starting pitcher analysis, but nothing more comprehensive than Paul Sporer’s Starting Pitching Guide. If you don’t know what it’s about, check out the link here. And if you do, and haven’t ordered it yet (like I have), you’re starting out at a disadvantage. He’s running a 33% discount off the regular price, which you can get if you order it before my dynasty league rankings are complete on February 14th.

And now your top 50 dynasty league starters, with commentary:

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The Top 150 Dynasty League Prospects, Part 5 (#30-1)

by The Dynasty Guru

Today is Day Five. Over the next 27 days, this site will be dedicated almost solely to the task at hand – the 2013 Dynasty League Rankings. If you’re looking for background on both the content you should expect and the dates you should expect them, check out the 2013 rankings homepage. And we’re kicking off the month-long project with the list that I’ve gotten the most questions about since the off-season started. The only difference between the original schedule and what you’ll see this week is that I’ve broken the Top 150 out into five parts, not three. Each day of the week, you’ll get thirty more guys until we culminate Friday with #1.

First, I have a couple of disclaimers specific to the prospect list before we jump in. These rankings are for fantasy purposes only, and do not directly take into account things like an outfielder’s range or a catcher’s pop time. Of course, these things do matter indirectly as they affect a player’s ability to stay at a particular position. So, while Austin Hedges may be a top-50 prospect in baseball, due in large part to his defensive value, he’ll be much lower in these rankings because his upside isn’t nearly as great for fantasy. Additionally, these rankings will take into account a player’s parent organization – so a pitcher likely to call Petco or Safeco home, will get a bump. Same with hitters who are likely to play at Coors or in Arlington. But most importantly, the intention of this list is to balance the upside, probability and proximity of these players to an active fantasy lineup. So, in a vacuum, I’d rather have the #104 player on this list than #105 on my dynasty league roster right now, based on all of those factors.

Additionally, if you want to delve any further into the list or have specific dynasty league questions, either post them in the comments section below, catch me on Twitter at @dynastyguru or send me an e-mail to dynastyguru [at] gmail [dot] com and I will answer all of them. If you just want to say hello or tell me I’ve over/under rated someone you love/hate, that’s great too. I’m a firm believer that an ongoing dialogue is always more helpful than a singular monologue, and the goal of this is to be an additional resource in guiding your team to a championship.

So without any further ado, here is the final installment of the 2013 Top 150 Dynasty League Prospect list:

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Rebuilding a Dynasty League Roster, Part 8a: The Challenge Trade

by The Dynasty Guru

Let’s take a brief moment to go over something which doesn’t come up very often, but is exhilarating and scary when it does: The Challenge Trade. There’s a good reason why you almost never see two MLB teams trade a prospect for a prospect – neither team wants to be the one that misevaluated their own guy. Probably the closest thing we’ve seen to this in recent memory was the Yankees/Mariners trade last off-season which sent Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi to Seattle for Michael Pineda and Jose Campos. But still, not the same, since Pineda, Montero and Noesi had all logged major league time.

As the trading deadline approached in the league which is the focus of this series, I pulled off a challenge trade with another rebuilding team. When this happens in dynasty leagues, it’s almost always with guys whose stocks are falling – and this was no exception to the rule. You just have to keep the faith in your own evaluations and hope that the chips fall right for you. Here’s my challenge trade:

I dealt Brett Jackson and Ethan Martin for Shelby Miller and Brian Goodwin. (7/31/12)

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Potential September Call-Ups: The Shelby Miller Edition

by The Dynasty Guru

The first round of the 2009 draft did has seen a number of pitchers in the big leagues already – including both college and prep arms. In fact, of the 11 pitchers picked and signed in the first 18 picks of that draft, 7 of them are currently in the majors. However, the second best of the entire bunch (behind Strasburg, of course) may be close to making his major league debut. Shelby Miller was drafted by the Cardinals with the 19th overall pick and even though he’s not Mike Trout (taken 6 spots later by the Angels), who is?

The scouting report on Miller is exactly what you’ve grown to expect from a hard throwing Texan. His fastball sits in the 92-95 range, touching some 6’s and 7’s, with movement. His best off-speed pitch is a power curve which he often throws in the low-80’s and is a legit big league out pitch. On top of that, he’s developed his change-up into an average pitch and it can flash above-average. He’s still working on developing his command and control (which are not poor right now by any means), but he’s athletic enough that the profile projects him to be at least above-average here. Plus, he’s worked his way through the minors rather quickly — 2012 is his age-21 season, as Miller does not turn 22 until October.

Much more after the jump…

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