1/29 Stats update

Incremental update, as a few of players and rumors start sorting themselves out.

Kansas City – the biggest change is probably in Kansas City, where Yordano Ventura’s unfortunate death blows a 30-start hole in what was already a stretched-out rotation. Ventura’s loss does far more to hurt the team than picking up Brandon Moss helped.

Tampa Bay/Dodgers – The big Logan Forsythe trade improves the Dodgers second base position, largely pushing Enrique Hernandez out of the way, for a (very good) pitcher that I had them barely using. Jose De Leon will get a much bigger role in Tampa Bay, and he should be a solid starter for them. It opens up second base for Brad Miller; if they can pick up a good first baseman (I have speculatively given them Chris Carter now, instead of Baltimore), they are in real contention for the AL East. Even if they don’t, I currently have Matt Duffy under-utilised, trying to make space for Willy Adames and Daniel Robertson, two prospects I like a lot.

Angels – Luis Valbuena takes a big bite of CJ Cron.

Giants – Signing Nick Hundley opens up the possibility that we could see more of the Posey to first, Belt to LF we saw a couple of years ago. Their LF situation is weak, but Parker and Williamson are both better hitters than Hundley, so in strict terms it won’t help the offense. If getting Posey off his knees a little while helps him stay fresher, though, than it may be worthwhile.

Rockies – Greg Holland has unsettled the closer situation in Colorado. At this point, I’m still going to lean towards Ottavino – he’s the incumbent, and has a better projection than Holland – but the projections do get tricky with guys who have missed a full season. What was an 80/15 split between Ottavino and McGee is now a 65/30 split for Ottavino and Holland.

Braves – Kurt Suzuki is their starting catcher.

And various minor changes for the Nationals (Stephen Drew, Vance Worley), Cubs (Brett Anderson, Jim Henderson), Diamondbacks (Gregor Blanco,), Indians (Austin Jackson), White Sox (Peter Bourjos), Mets (speculatively adding Sergio Romo), Oakland (Adam Rosales and Alejandro de Aza), Phillies (Ryan Hanigan), Padres (Jered Weaver?), and Rangers (James Loney, Wesley Wrigth).