From the Wise Guy at The Athletic:

Madison Bumgarner  A lot of people will
look at his 3.26 ERA and think he's still Madison Bumgarner. He's not, he's
making the transition to finesse pitcher. Threw only 34.2% fastballs and his
control went from 1.6 to 3.0. His WHIP followed suit to 1.24. Great park to
pitch in but that could change at any time and almost anywhere he goes won't be
so great. Bumgarner is a shaky SP2 and no kind of ace. $16

From the Wise Guy at The Athletic:

Jose Berrios
No progress but no regress, and a better roto season than his 3.84 ERA since his
WHIP was 1.14 and he won 14 games and struck out 202 batters. Turns 25 in May
and no arm problems through 396.1 IP. I have him #23 among SPs, behind Carlos
Martinez and Flaherty and ahead of Greinke and Zack Wheeler, which is higher
than most rankings I've seen. I like the floor and I like the ceiling, and when
I see several SPs below him getting picked before him, I'll know what to do. $20

Max Stassi (C) HOU - Feb. 17

Stassi believes he found the root cause of his offensive fade over the of 2018, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Stassi was a surprise contributor in 2018,  nine extra-base hits over his first 74 plate appearances on his way to a in the first half. Opposing pitchers adjusted and Stassi faded to a .485 the All-Star break, forcing the Astros to add Martin Maldonado and move third on the depth chart. The 27-year-old catcher was on plane during the part of the season before the fade. The problem, according to Stassi, is "come out" of his legs in his batting stance and, therefore, was unable to all parts of the strike zone. He returns in 2019 as the primary backup to Chirinos and must discover a way to sustain offense for the full season.

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Yoan Moncada (2B) CHI-A - Feb. 17

Moncada reported to camp Saturday and took grounders at second and third base, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Moncada may be asked to play some third base this season, and that will become a greater possibility if free agent Manny Machado eschews Chicago's offer. The 23-year-old infielder played third base while in Boston's organization, and the White Sox have a glaring need at the hot corner, so having him split time between the two positions makes roster sense. The position versatility will help fantasy owners, but Moncada will get his plate appearances regardless of where Machado decides to sign. The bigger issue for Moncada in 2019 is if he can cut down on his MLB-high 217 strikeouts. That limited his ability to get on base, steal bases and use his speed to create offense.

Fron the department of understatement:

Chris Davis (1B) BAL - Feb. 17

Davis (illness) took part in batting practice and fielding drills Sunday and will be a full participant moving forward, Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: The veteran slugger sat out of activities to start spring training due to bronchitis, but it appears that issue is fully in the rearview mirror at this point. Barring any further issues, Davis projects to be the Orioles' starting first baseman to begin the season, though he'll need to improve his .168/.246/.296 slash line from last season to warrant staying in that role.

I would have preferred Iglesias.

Not like he's blocking some impressive shortstop phenom.

It now appears that 2020 is a more realistic arrival time for top-prospect Keston Hiura.

Re-signed with the Brew Crew

John Sickels has him at No. 5 on his top 100 list, posted now at The Athletic.

ETA late 2019.

I hope he's right (it would make me feel better about dropping him) but fully expect Whitley to pitch his way onto the team in spring training. And then I'll have to keep bidding until I buy him. And then I'll be really, really sorry.

The weird thing about our game is this useless player (offensively and defensively) could still earn close to $10 on a $1 investment if he had a little luck with batting average or if the Orioles somehow decided to let him run a bit. 

Hi Joe,

I think what happened with the Help file in PDO is that Microsoft changed the help file format and the old one no longer worked. And we haven't updated it because we have a mostly veteran clientele that doesn't use the help file. I will dig around to see if I can find a copy of the old Help file. It should be posted and available, but as Alex said, please don't be shy about asking questions.

To add on to what Alex wrote:

1) Yes, at pattonandco.com the 5x5 stats are based on Alex's formula. In PDO software, the 2018 historical earnings price is for 4x4. In fact all the historical prices are for 4x4 in the program.

2) One of the things I use the software for is to adjust my bids after entering my league's keeper prices into the BID column. Adjusting for inflation is very important and as you know the adjustment isn't across the board. In some leagues much of it goes to pitchers, in others much goes to hitters, and in all the pricier players get more inflation in general than the cheaper ones (unless leagues miscalculate and two or three teams end up with too much money and only one good player left to buy).

3) Make sure you save to Working file after making your edits/adjustments.

4) Yes, right now the default view doesn't include some key info (like my bid prices). In Information Source you can change that. In the next release I'll include a more expansive view as the default. You can set your own and as long as you don't update the Option File your adjustments will persist.

5) Yup.

Clubhouse presence and intangibles.....has to be.

cost

Minor league deal with O's, I believe I read, which poses the musical question:  "Why?"

Apparently, "spot on" originates in billiards:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/12/frasers-phrases-spot-on-bang-on-and-wicked-wizards/

Joe --

When I click on help, I see a help message. But it pertains to this site; it doesn't help with the software. I'll try to do that.

1) I think this one is about the site. $5x5 is the value of each year's stats in 5x5, using my formulas. Peter's (in the Guide) are close but not the same.

2) You are correct. The bids are not inflation adjusted. And you are absolutely correct that  underpriced keepers can radically inflate the prices of available players.That's something we talk about extensively each year in various threads.

3) Each time you save the working file, the date and hour is shown for that particular file (e.g., nlp19.pww) -- is that what you're asking?

4) Click on List/Information Choices and check PK5, MF5 and AP4 under Rotisserie Info.

5) Yes.

I'm sure there will be more questions and do keep asking them here. Most of our subscribers have been coming back year after year. When we get a new one, we get very excited.

From the Wise Guy, who hangs out now with John Sickels at theathletic.com.

Ronald Acuna  I heard somebody say "You can't just pro-rate his stats
to 155 games." Why not? What isn't he going to do? Isn't the chance that
Acuna gets better at least as good as the chance he gets worse? He's already
shown extraordinary ability in the major leagues at the age of 20. He's a
little rough around the edges and so what? I saw no sign that the league was
catching up to him. Prorating his 2018 numbers is what you should do. High floor and way-high ceiling, Acuna will be a 1st-round pick and rightly so. Don't bet against him, enjoy him. $35

Hello Peter:

It is working. There is a learning curve but looks like it will be fun figuring it out.

I like the links to fangraphs, baseball reference, etc when you are looking at stats for an individual player.

Note that when I click on help, I get the following message:

"Error opening Help in Windows-based programs: "Feature not included" or "Help not supported"

Questions

1. On the stats page, for the year 2018, the $5x5 value shown - was that the average for 2018?

 2. I am three leagues, 2 AL, 1 NL - both are 10 teams although we may just have 9 in one league - 5 x 5 - keepers -- up to 15 keepers in one league up to 10 keepers in the other. Do the projections take into account inflation as a result of keepers?

[ It finally dawned on me why the bidding in our leagues is always so much higher than projections - the inflation due to keepers!! ]

After some more reading, I think I answered my own question - these are not inflation adjusted.  Only after I enter the keepers in my league with the value include inflation, correct?

3.  Entering my own projections - how do I enter date in the working file

4. In the projections, there are no values for AP, PK or MF. But in the raw data in the Excel spreadsheet I see values for these items.

5. "  And something else happens when you subscribe:

Rotoman's Projections Appear at the Bottom of the Stat Scans at Patton & Co.

Subscribers will see these"

Are these the Rotomans projections when looking at the stats of an individual player?

Thanks

Joe

From the Associated Press today:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Roberto Osuna will close for the Houston Astros.

"I can pretend and create some false competition, and that doesn't gain
any credibility," manager A.J. Hinch said. "Transparency goes a long
way, and maybe the closer question can be put to rest."

Good. That's settled.

Or is it?

Hinch used Ken Giles, Hector Rondon and Luke Gregerson to finish games during his first four seasons before the Astros acquired Osuna from Toronto last summer.

"I think the league has graduated to the point of, you can say somebody's
your closer and use him in the seventh or eighth inning and people don't
freak out," Hinch said. "It's amazing how the sport has evolved to
where one word doesn't mean that he has to pitch exactly in that role
every single time."