If you like what you’re reading then you will like my 2015 Fantasy Baseball Guide! Last year’s fantasy guide was more than 150,000 words and had 440 player profiles (of hitters and pitchers). My approach to player evaluation is to ask questions about what the player has done in the past and what he may do in the future. I certainly provide a narrative on how I feel a player will perform, but I also ask a lot of open ended questions that I hope will get you thinking about the information I’ve provided.
In late September Brandon Moss revealed he played much of the year with torn cartilage in his hip. To quote from the article, “He [Moss] didn’t want to blame his second-half numbers dip on the problem but Moss said that he does not have much range of motion or strength in the joint as a result.” In late October Moss had the torn labrum repaired as well as a clean-up procedure to an impingement in his hip.
I don’t know when the injury started to bother him, but I’m guessing it started to occur sometime in June. My guess is based purely on his statistical data and he started to trend significantly down in June.
Moss’ season was so bad you could break down his 2014 season and create a narrative based on that data. The next two tables will provide two different cuts of his 2014 season to give you some perspective.
The first table looks at is his performance for the first two months of the season compared to the last four months.
| Splits | AVG | OPS | BABIP | wOBA | K% | HR/FB |
| April-May | .276 | .934 | .290 | .391 | 19.7% | 17.6% |
| June-Sept. | .210 | .678 | .278 | .301 | 30.2% | 12.8% |
The second table shows his performance for the first three months of the season compared to the last three months.
| Splits | AVG | OPS | BABIP | wOBA | K% | HR/FB |
| April-June | .268 | .876 | .302 | .370 | 23.1% | 17.3% |
| July-Sept. | .190 | .637 | .256 | .289 | 30.5% | 10.9% |
Some fantasy owners never believed in Brandon Moss to begin with and they could have the belief that his spiral in the second half of the season was due to the regression that was bound to happen. However, if you compare his first three months of 2014 and compare them to his 2013 season they look eerily similar (table below).
| Splits | AVG | OPS | BABIP | wOBA | K% | HR/FB |
| 2013 | .256 | .859 | .301 | .363 | 27.7% | 18.1% |
| April-June 2014 | .268 | .876 | .302 | .370 | 23.1% | 17.3% |
I have no idea how much the injury effected Moss’ play on the field but the poor performance in the second half of the season suggests it had a major impact on him. Assuming he’s healthy and looks good in Spring Training I’m going to believe Brandon Moss can bounce back to the player he was in 2013.
