{"id":962,"date":"2013-08-19T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2013-08-19T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T16:03:00","slug":"soriano-soars-in-week-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/19\/soriano-soars-in-week-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Soriano Soars in Week 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

If\u00a0Alfonso Soriano<\/a>\u00a0was available in your league on the waiver wire after his trade back to the Yankees, I hope you went all-out to win him. I actually didn’t in my AL-only league, nervous about his low batting average, and I deeply regret that mistake, as I had enough FAAB to win him. Soriano had a monster week: .484, 5 HR, 9 R, 18 RBI, and 2 SB, worth an incredible $115.55 in the shallow 5×5 Mixed League<\/a>, $73.62 in a deep 5×5 AL Only<\/a>, and $79.75 in a similarly deep 4×4 AL Only<\/a>. Nobody was remotely close to his value in any of these leagues, with only\u00a0Addison Reed<\/a>\u00a0in the 4×4 AL league earning even half of Soriano’s value. Since he was traded to the Yankees, Soriano has hit .306 with 8 HR, 19 R, 26 RBI, and 2 SB. If the Yankees manage to squeak into the playoffs (which seems unlikely), the Soriano trade will be cited as a major turning point.
\nYu Darvish<\/a>\u00a0was a distant runner-up to Soriano in the\u00a05×5 Mixed League<\/a>, earning $47.61 after a week of two strong starts, but just one win. Darvish struck out 22 batters in 15.33 IP, giving up just 8 hits, 5 walks, and 4 ER, for a WHIP of 0.848 and a 2.35 ERA. At $35.62, This was the best pitching week in th 5×5 AL<\/a>, but in the 4×4 AL<\/a>\u00a0Darvish’s week was worth just $26.86, as the strikeouts don’t matter there.
\nAddison Reed<\/a>\u00a0was the AL’s top closer, and indeed top pitcher in the 4×4, as he tossed 5 scoreless innings with a 0.800 WHIP, 3 saves, and a relief win, earning $45.15 in the\u00a04×4 AL<\/a>\u00a0and $32.84 in the\u00a05×5 AL<\/a>. Among AL pitchers\u00a0Chris Sale<\/a>\u00a0had the second-best 4×4 week ($31.15), and 3rd best 5×5 week ($31.98)\u00a0with 2 wins, a 2.81 ERA, a 1.188 WHIP, and 14 Ks in 16 IP, earnin. The best single-start pitcher on the week was Athletics rookie\u00a0Sonny Gray<\/a>, who held the Astros to just 4 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run to win on Thursday afternoon, earning $24.30 in the 5×5 and $26.39 in the 4×4 format. That stellar outing was against the lowly Astros, but Gray is a former first round pick and pitching well in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, so he’s worth a speculative add in most formats if he’s not owned.
\nWill Venable<\/a>\u00a0is the NL fantasy MVP for week 20 after hitting .406 with 2 HR, 7 R, 5 RBI, and 1 SB, earning $44.29 in the 5×5 NL Only<\/a>, $41.85 int the 4×4 NL Only<\/a>, and $47.24 in the\u00a05×5 Mixed League<\/a>. While he’s not a high average hitter, Venable’s power has improved (a career-best 17 HR so far) and he still runs effectively (14 SB).
\nWhile the MVP was clear, the other best players depend on format.\u00a0Marlon Byrd<\/a>\u00a0edged out\u00a0Khris Davis<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a04×4 NL Only<\/a>, as Byrd hit .400, 2 HR, 3 R, 7 RBI to earn $38.55, and Davis hit .467, 3 HR, 4 R, 5 RBI to earn $38.21. Those low runs scored totals dropped Davis to 4th and Byrd to 6th best in the\u00a05×5 NL Only<\/a>.\u00a0Hunter Pence<\/a>\u00a0was the 5×5 runner-up after hitting .296 with 1 HR, 6 R, 9 RBI, and 1 SB to earn $37.61, with\u00a0Jason Heyward<\/a>\u00a0next (.385, 3 HR, 5 R, 4 RBI, $36.08).
\nThe top NL pitcher also depended on format. In the 4×4 NL<\/a>,\u00a0Heath Bell<\/a>\u00a0notched a pair of relief wins to go along with a 0.375 WHIP and 0.00 ERA in 5.33 IP to earn $27.13, ahead of\u00a0Craig Kimbrel<\/a>. Kimbrell earned $24.02 for posting 3 wins, a 0.800 WHIP, and a 0.00 ERA in 5 IP, and was by far the league’s top closer.
\nCole Hamels<\/a>\u00a0takes top honors in the 5×5 NL<\/a>, as he posted a 1. 69 ERA, 0.875 WHIP, 17 Ks and a win in 16 IP to earn $29.94. Mat Latos<\/a>\u00a0had a 1.000 WHIP, 1.20 ERA, and 14 Ks in 15 IP, also with one win, to earn $26.79, and\u00a0Adam Wainwright<\/a>\u00a0earned $25.24 on a 1.000 WHIP, 2.57 ERA, 17 Ks, and 1 win in 14 IP.\u00a0Interestingly, no NL starter won twice, but three relievers did (Bell, Brad Ziegler<\/a>, and\u00a0Chad Qualls<\/a>). Dodgers ace\u00a0Clayton Kershaw<\/a>\u00a0was the most valuable pitcher to have just one start, as he beat the Phillies with 8 shutout innings, striking out 8 and yielding just 3 hits and a walk for a 0.500 WHIP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If\u00a0Alfonso Soriano\u00a0was available in your league on the waiver wire after his trade back to the Yankees, I hope you went all-out to win him. I actually didn’t in my AL-only league, nervous about his low batting average, and I deeply regret that mistake, as I had enough FAAB to win him. Soriano had a… Continue reading Soriano Soars in Week 20<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,9,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rotovalue.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}