Luis Castillo

There are three words that are synonymous with buy-low pitcher targets: Tommy John surgery. What used to be a curse for pitchers, now isn't so terrifying to think about. Sure, the pitcher will miss anywhere from 12 to 18 months, but pitchers are coming back just as strong, if not stronger than they were pre-surgery. Two of the four pitchers discussed below are the latest big name pitching prospects to tussle with that pest, Tommy John. But even with them missing the 2018 season, and likely a little of 2019, their upside…

It is hard to believe we are already on the verge of entering Period 5 in the Fantrax Bronze Points Salary Cap Challenge game. And yet, barely 10% of all games have been played. That’s partly because there have been roughly a thousand postponements thus far, but it does remind us that it is still very early in the 2018 baseball season. Having said that, I think we do have enough data to look not only at the most popular players, but the most popular players among Top 100 teams. Having an idea of who the teams higher up in…

With a couple of weeks of the season now in the books, some early-season performances can start to become meaningful predictors. That said, results-based data (and even batted ball data) have not had enough time to really find their level yet. More granular changes become meaningful more quickly, though, and there is a ton of potential value to be had for owners who identify sustainable early-season breakouts. Case in point: Ketel Marte, a player whose surface numbers were not doing him justice, raised his batting average…

It’s still far too early to panic if your team is low in the standings, but at least we are starting to a gather a bit of data to work with. In general, it would be wise to wait a couple of more weeks to determine whether a player is addable or droppable. However, that luxury is not always afforded due to injuries and other factors. Here are the players who are the most popular among the nearly 750 teams in the Bronze Salary Cap Points Challenge game. I have also noted players who have been added or dropped by at least 20…

Welcome to the first edition of my weekly Fire & Ice articles here on Fantrax. Each week I'll be looking at a player who has been under performing (Ice) and over performing (Fire) and diving into the numbers to evaluate whether their performance is legitimate or anomalous. The title is also as close as I could get to a Game of Thrones reference without getting too carried away (and if you ever want to talk Thrones please find me @NathanDokken on Twitter).There's only one week in the books, so a lot of stats aren't…