Eric Heberlig, Rich Wilson On STATS Fantasy Advantage

[Greg Ambrosius]

We have a great show planned tonight on STATS Fantasy Advantage on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio. Eric Heberlig, who has the top two teams in the NFBC XII right now along with two teams in the Top 10 overall in the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Online Championship, will join us at 8 pm ET. We'll also have Rich Wilson of Prospect361.com on at 7:30 pm to talk about the top minor-leaguers to target next. Eric is having a heckuva season in the NFBC and we're looking forward to featuring him on the show. You won't believe how many teams he's managing right now, most of them with Sunday FAAB's!! Love it.

Eric is the type of owner we're proud to feature on the industry's only 24/7/365 sports network. This should be a fun, fun interview. Congrats Eric on the great start.

We're also increasing our fantasy football coverage to 45 minutes in our two-hour show, so look for NFFC ADP's at 8:15 pm ET. We also have Arnie Stapleton of the Associated Press on at 8:30 pm ET. Arnie covers the Denver Broncos for the AP and we'll talk to him about Wes Welker going to Denver and more. Should be fun.

And our own Sammy "the STATS Man" Lubeck has some great stuff to kick off the show at 7 pm ET. Tune in for those unique stats on guys like Max Scherzer, Wil Myers and No. 2 hitters in MLB.

See ya tonight from 7 to 9 pm ET on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio 210/87.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks again to Eric Heberlig of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania for joining us on the STATS Fantasy Advantage last night. He was a GREAT guest. And good luck with all of your NFBC teams: 40+ in all!! As Eric said, he just loves to draft against 11 or 14 other great owners and he can't help himself. But he takes care of FAAB every day and he loves the NFBC format.

It also helps that he knows what he's doing. His teams are still 1-2 in the NFBC XII and he's now 3rd and 9th overall in the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Championship. Good luck the rest of the way Eric.

If you didn't hear the interview last night you can still hear it on SiriusXM On Demand.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here's a few notes from Sammy "The STATS Man" Lubeck during last night's show. Pretty cool stuff.

** Max Scherzer
-first starting pitcher to start 10-0 since Roger Clemens started 11-0 with Blue Jays in 1997
- 6+ strikeouts in all 14 starts this season - longest active streak in the majors

Wil Myers
-37 HR last season, second most HR in all minor leagues

Zach Wheeler
- lost just once over his last 11 starts at Triple-A Las Vegas

Impactful Rookies
- Yasiel Puig - 23 hits are tied for third most hits by a player in first 13 games since 1921
- Jose Iglesias - hitting .435 in 92 AB this season, at least one hit or run in 19 consecutive games
- Jedd Gyorko - leading all rookies with 36 runs and 66 hits
- Shelby Miller - 8 wins, 96 strikeouts and 2.08 ERA
- Hyun-Jin Ryu - 6-2 record, 2.85 ERA and 10 quality starts
- Evan Gattis - averaging a HR every 11.64 AB - 5th fewest AB per HR by rookie all-time (min 150 AB)

Teams Struggling at One Position
Brewers 1B - .188 BA, 5 HR
Mets 1B - .188 BA, 5 HR, 20 RBI
Marlins 1B - .202 BA, 3 HR
Orioles 2B - .213 BA, 2 HR, 21 runs
Marlins 3B - 0 HR, 19 RBI
Mariners SS - 15 runs scored
Royals OF - 14 HR

Lineup Spots
#2 Hitters - 206 HR, .264 BA, .720 OPS
#3 Hitters - 330 HR, .272 BA, .809 OPS

#2 Hitters Thriving this season
- Manny Machado - 101 hits, 33 doubles, 46 runs
- Jean Segura - 82 hits, 10 HR, .328 BA, 19 SB
- Carlos Beltran - 15 HR, .318 BA
- Mike Trout - 10 HR, 37 RBI

[DOUGHBOYS]

Joe Mauer's .330, 42 runs, and 22 doubles out of the two hole on a bad team deserves a mention....

[Greg Ambrosius]

Joe Mauer's .330, 42 runs, and 22 doubles out of the two hole on a bad team deserves a mention....

The stats above are their stats from the 2 hole, but you are correct on Mauer. He deserved a mention and I'll cut Sammy's knees off for missing him!! Mauer has 23 ABs in the 3 hole, so his actual stats from the 2 hole are:

.325, 37 runs, 20 doubles, 5 home runs and 20 RBIs. Very solid.

[Greg Ambrosius]

It's good to see that Eric didn't suffer the STATS Fantasy Advantage jinx last week when he appeared on our show. Eric is now leading the overall competitions in the NFBC XII and the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Championship. That's $120,000 in grand prizes right there.

CONGRATS Eric. That's one hell of an accomplishment to lead those two overall competitions as we near the midway point of the season. Very impressive indeed.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm sorry I didn't post about last night's show BEFORE we went on the air, but kudos to Adam Kleeberg of Atlanta, Georgia for being a GREAT guest last night on STATS Fantasy Advantage. Adam is battling for the $70,000 grand prize in the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Online Championship and he had some great insight into his drafting strategies, how that worked with this team of his and his thoughts on actually watching MLB games!! Believe it or not, Adam hates to watch baseball, but he loves fantasy baseball. He's also an enthusiastic fantasy football and basketball player, which is cool.

Anyway, he was a great guest last night as we had one of our livelier shows. We'll continue to get our top NFBC guys on throughout the season, even though we are mixing in more fantasy football talk each week. Thanks Adam and good luck the rest of the way.

[Greg Ambrosius]

We'll have minor-league expert John Sickels of ESPN.com on STATS Fantasy Advantage tonight at 7:30 pm ET to talk about the current crop of rookies and the next crop of prospects to reach the majors. John publishes the Baseball Prospect Handbook and we look forward to talking with him. The first hour of tonight's show will be on NFBC FAAB bids, Injury Updates, the minor-leagues and some crazy stats from the first half of the season. It all starts at 7 pm ET on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio 210/87. See ya there.

NFBC veteran Chris Vaccaro will also be joining us live at 8 pm ET to talk about the $150,000 he won in the NFFC Primetime last year. Chris competes in baseball, football and basketball with us and he's the defending champion of our NFFC Primetime. We look forward to talking with Chris again. We also will be talking with former 49ers WR Mike Shumann of KGO TV in San Francisco at 8:30 pm ET about the Niners. It's all fantasy football during the second hour of STATS Fantasy Advantage this week. We're looking forward to it.

[Greg Ambrosius]

If you missed our show on Wednesday night, then you missed a lot of our cool STATS Facts that we get from the STATS Research team. Here are some of the items we mentioned at the start of our show.

1. How does Yasiel Puig's rookie June month rank historically among all rookies in their first month?

MLB, Most Hits in Debut Month – Since 1921
PLAYER MONTH H
Joe DiMaggio May 1936 48
Yasiel Puig Jun 2013 44
Bob Elliott Sep 1939 42
Greg Mulleavy Jul 1930 40
Ichiro Suzuki Apr 2001 39

MLB, Highest Batting Average in Debut Month – Since 1921 (minimum 100 PA)
PLAYER MONTH H AB BA
Yasiel Puig Jun 2013 44 101 .436
Joe DiMaggio May 1936 48 126 .381
Albert Pujols Apr 2001 34 92 .370
Austin Jackson Apr 2010 36 99 .364
Curtis Goodwin Jun 1995 37 103 .359

2. Let's look at Miguel Cabrera's first half numbers and compare them historically to others at this point. Where do his RBIs rank after 81 games in recent years?

MLB, Most RBI Thru 81 Team Games – Since 2000
PLAYER RBI
Carlos Delgado, 2003 Tor 88
Edgar Martinez, 2000 Sea 86
Miguel Cabrera, 2013 Det 82
Todd Helton, 2001 Col 82
Manny Ramirez, 2001 Bos 82
MLB, Players with .369+ BA & 82+ RBI Thru 81 Team Games – Since 1930
PLAYER RBI BA
Miguel Cabrera, 2013 Det 82 .369
Joe Medwick, 1937 StL 95 .406
Lou Gehrig, 1934 NYY 93 .371
Al Simmons, 1933 CWS 84 .369
Jimmie Foxx, 1932 Phi 101 .383
Babe Ruth, 1931 NYY 86 .376
Lou Gehrig, 1930 NYY 93 .375
Chuck Klein, 1930 Phi 103 .405
Babe Ruth, 1930 NYY 84 .374
Al Simmons, 1930 Phi 82 .384

3. Albert Pujols is playing his former team for the first time this week in Anaheim and there’s no doubt the Cards miss him. But what have been Albert Pujols' stats since he joined the Angels and how does that compare to Cardinal first basemen during that time?

Pujols vs. All Cardinals’ First Basemen – Since 2012
(through Monday’s games)
Pujols Cards’ 1B
AVG .273 (252/924) .294 (283/962)
OBP .336 (347/1032) .347 (366/1056)
SLG .486 (449/924) .479 (461/962)
OPS .822 .826
R 126 134
H 252 283
2B 68 68
HR 43 32
RBI 154 173

4. What have the Yankees' third basemen combined for offensively this year without Alex Rodriguez?

2013 Season Splits (Yankees – Through Monday’s games)
Position G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP LOB SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
As 3b - 300 27 68 13 0 4 23 19 1 80 7 - 2 0 .227 .288 .310 .598

What kind of production have the Yankees been getting without them at 3B and SS and how does it compare league wide?
2013 Yankees 3B & SS, with AL Ranks
3B SS 3B/SS
BA .227 (10) .199 (14) .213 (15)
OBP .288 (10) .266 (13) .278 (14)
Slg .310 (15) .273 (14) .292 (15)
HR 4 (t-14) 2 (t-12) 6 (15)
RBI 23 (t-14) 17 (t-14) 40 (15)
Runs 27 (13) 27 (t-13) 54 (15)

5a. Jose Fernandez isn’t winning much in Miami but at 20 years old he’s been pitching very well. How does he compare with other 20 year old pitchers through the same number of starts?

Lowest ERA thru 16 Career Starts, Pitchers 20 or Younger, First Season since 1921
PLYR SPAN WL ERA SO
Dwight Gooden 07-APR-84 - 25-JUN-85 18-8 2.20 (57/233.1) 256
Howie Pollet 20-AUG-41 - 21-JUN-42 9-5 2.24 (30/120.2) 54
Gary Nolan 15-APR-67 - 23-APR-69 14-6 2.51 (63/226.1) 197
Bob Moose 19-SEP-67 - 29-AUG-68 7-6 2.68 (36/121.0) 81
Dave Rozema 11-APR-77 - 01-JUL-77 7-3 2.69 (35/117.0) 50
Jose Fernandez 07-APR-13 - 01-JUL-13 5-4 2.72 (28/92.2) 94
Chet Nichols 03-JUN-51 - 14-SEP-51 8-5 2.73 (34/112.0) 44
Don Gullett 22-JUN-70 - 03-JUL-71 10-3 2.77 (35/113.2) 55
Fernando Valenzuela 09-APR-81 - 16-AUG-81 9-4 2.87 (38/119.1) 115
Bob Feller 23-AUG-36 - 03-JUL-39 31-14 2.96 (142/432.0) 394

6. Chris Davis has 31 HRs by July 1st. How does that rank historically in recent times?
MLB, Most HR Thru End of June – All-Time
PLAYER SEASON NUM
Barry Bonds, SF 2001 39
Mark McGwire, StL 1998 37
Ken Griffey Jr., Sea 1998 33
Sammy Sosa, ChC 1998 33
Luis Gonzalez, Ari 2001 32
Ken Griffey Jr., Sea 1994 32
Chris Davis, Bal 2013 31

8. Adam Dunn is hitting .199 with 22 HRs. When was the last time a hitter had 40+ HRs while hitting under .200?
No player has ever hit 40+ home runs in a season while hitting under .200. Here are the lowest batting averages all-time by players with 40+ home runs in a season:
MLB, Lowest Batting Average by Player with 40+ HR – All-Time

1 Adam Dunn
2012 CWS
151 539 87 110 19 0 41 96 105 3 222 .204 .333 .468
2 Curtis Granderson
2012 NYY
160 596 102 138 18 4 43 106 75 4 195 .232 .319 .492
3 Adam Dunn
2006 Cin
160 561 99 131 24 0 40 92 112 12 194 .234 .365 .490
4 Adam Dunn
2008 Cin-Ari
158 517 79 122 23 0 40 100 122 13 164 .236 .386 .513
5 Jose Canseco
1998 Tor
151 583 98 138 26 0 46 107 65 5 159 .237 .318 .518

6. Pittsburgh has the best record in all of baseball at 51-31. When was the last time the Pirates had the best record in all of baseball? What has been their record since then?

Prior to this year, the last time the Pirates held the best record in baseball in May or later in a season was on May 15, 1992, when they were 23-11. The last time the Pirates held the best record in baseball in June or later was at the conclusion of the 1991 season (their 98-64 record that year was the best in baseball).

Since May 16, 1992, the Pirates are 1498-1881 (.443; through Monday’s games).
Since the start of the 1992 season, the Pirates are 1521-1892 (.446; through Monday’s games).