Investing & Maybe Fantasy Baseball

Brian McCann is still recovering from right shoulder surgery and when he’ll be able to play is still up in the air. The early indication is he’ll miss a significant portion of April. Based on this news I moved him down seven spots from 12th to 19th. McCann really scares and I may drop him even lower. Geraild Laird is expected to be the Braves primary catcher with feel good story Evan Gattis serving as the backup.

Jason Motte will be out at least a week with a mild strain in his elbow. The last thing I want to hear with any pitcher is elbow problems because when there’s smoak (I literally typed “smoak” first instead of smoke) there’s fire. I originally had Motte as a top 5 closer, but I dropped him to 19th overall in my closer rankings. Mike Matheny, the Cardinals manager, said Mitchell Boggs will get the first opportunity at closing duties. If Motte misses a substantial amount of time Trevor Rosenthal, not Boggs, will end up becoming the closer.  Boggs walks too many hitters (7.1% walk rate) for his low strikeout rate (19.6%) so he’ll eventually blow too many games. When I have my NFBC 15-team draft on Tuesday I’ll target Rosenthal with my last two picks because if he becomes the closer, he could be a top 5 closer.

Aroldis Chapman officially became the closer today (had no idea this was coming…cough, cough). He becomes my #2 rated closer behind Craig Kimbrel. For more information about my closer rankings checkout my Closer & Reliever Chart.

Adam Eaton will be out up to two months with a left elbow strain. Prior to the announcement his elbow had been bothering him for a couple of weeks. Before the news he was going way too early in drafts (173 ADP), but now could provide a nice value at the end of your draft. Proceed with caution as his timetable isn’t set in stone.

Scott Diamond, who is still recovering from elbow surgery (pitching elbow), was put on the DL. Diamond is purely an AL-only play at this point.

Jhoulys Chacin was scratched from pitching today due to back spasms.

Hanley Ramirez is expected to miss 6-8 weeks after having surgery to his right thumb on Friday. As of now Ramirez has an ADP of 20.57 at NFBC, but I’m sure the ADP is going to decrease moving forward. His viability is dependent on your league, but if you have a deep bench then I wouldn’t consider drafting him until the 6th/7th round. In general, I hate drafting players that are already hurt because timelines are not set in stone and player performance isn’t guaranteed to return, especially injuries to a player’s hand and wrist.

Tommy Hanson left yesterday’s game with right-tricep tightness. From my point of view I want nothing to do with other than AL-only leagues.

Trevor Bauer was optioned to Triple-A. I haven’t had a chance to see him in Spring, but I saw all his Major League starts and in person for the first playoff game against the Sacramento Rivercats and there were still major flaws in his game. He has great stuff, but he still had a long way to in terms of command. He was guilty of nibbling too much; trying to get betters out with the perfect pitch.

There’s a good chance Derek Jeter will start the year on the DL because he’s still having trouble playing in games so far this Spring Training. Currently, Jeter will not play in another game until his ankle is no longer sore. He’s currently going as the 9th highest shortstop in NFBC leagues, which is too high for me. I want nothing to do with Jeter this year.

It’s no suprise Shaun Marcum is already hurt. Yesterday he received a cortisone injection to relieve a shoulder impingement.