Welcome back FA Nation! If you’re new to FA Nation or if this is your first time reading this piece that we do weekly at Fantasy Alarm here is a little summary of what it’s all about. Each week we breakdown a situation or statistic that MLB managers have an impact on in regards to our fantasy teams. This week we’re taking a look at a few teams with logjams, role changes or have an excess of viable options at their disposal and how the manager is handling it as of late. Let’s get to it!

St. Louis Cardinals (Mike Shildt)

Since July 14th 2018 when former manager Mike Matheny was fired, Mike Shildt has had several chances to make HIS impact on the team. Lineup decisions, call ups and rotation spots all make up a series of influences that a new manager has on his squad as a new voice. Shildt took over a team that Matheny had been heavily criticized for misusing. So far since July 15th when Shildt took over, the Cardinals have gone 10-8 as a team but have the third best OBP in all of baseball and have been shuffling their rotation and bullpen to find the right mix for the rest of 2018.

One of the more frustrating situations for fantasy owners up to this point are the playing time issues in St.Louis. Jose Martinez hasn’t been getting a full compliment of at bats despite his .821 OPS and 124 wRC+ in 2018 due to his lack of ability on defense. Another problem for fantasy owners has been the distribution of starts for Cardinals outfielders. Dexter Fowler , Harrison Bader , Marcell Ozuna , Tommy Pham and Tyler O’Neill have all been in the outfield this season and if you’ve owned any of these players you’ve prayed at least once to the fantasy gods that Mike Matheny would leave them in the lineup. Shildt has had it much easier as Fowler has gone down to injury and the team traded Pham to the Rays. Yairo Munoz is the new fill in since those roster moves happened and he has made a start in center and right field and also two more starts in left field. The path to playing time seems to be much more clear under the direction of Mike Shildt so if you own O’Neill, Ozuna or Bader you can breathe easier, for now.

As for the rotation and bullpen its still up in the air as Bud Norris and Jordan Hicks are battling for the closer role at the back end of the bullpen. After the struggles in two appearances from Norris around the all star break, he’s turned in five straight scoreless appearances allowing four baserunners in five innings while striking out four batters in that span. Hicks had a rough outing on the 3rd of August allowing three baserunners and giving up a run at Pittsburgh. Before that Hicks hadn’t allowed a run since July 15th covering a span of seven appearances. For now its Norris’ job to lose. The rotation is still in flux with injuries and ineffectiveness surrounding them. Ten different pitchers have made a start for the Cardinals this season as the team tries to see who wants a role here. Austin Gomber , John Gant , and Daniel Poncedeleon have recently made spot starts with the injury to Carlos Martínez . The team also just claimed Tyson Ross off waivers from the Padres so it remains to be seen what happens in St.Louis in regards to a rotation spot.

Milwaukee Brewers (Craig Counsell)

The Cardinals and the Brewers are in very different places as a franchise but have very similar issues. The Brewers main issue is a good issue to have, they have too many good players. Christian Yelich , Lorenzo Cain , Ryan Braun and Eric Thames are the main outfielders with the team sending down Keon Broxton and Domingo Santana . The infielders are Travis Shaw , Jesus Aguilar , Mike Moustakas , Jonathan Schoop , Hernán Pérez , Orlando Arcia and Brad Miller and are all vying for starts.

Manager Craig Counsell likes to play the splits. For example, yesterday the Brewers took on Jon Gray of the Colorado Rockies and Counsell elected to sit right handers Jesus Aguilar and Lorenzo Cain in order to get Shaw in at first base and Thames in at right field. Saturday, the team faced off against left handed pitcher Tyler Anderson and sat lefties Moustakas and Thames in order to get as many right handed bats as possible. This is not good for fantasy owners when hitters are only getting starts three or four nights a week. Typically, teams will face one or two left handed pitchers a week so this has a bigger effect on the righties in this lineup. It’s definitely something to monitor going forward if the Aguilar’s and Schoop’s are being benched frequently in order to get lefties into this lineup. Maximizing the everyday potential of this lineup seems to be more important to Counsell and the Brewers higher ups than getting guys regular reps.

New York Yankees (Aaron Boone)

After several additions to the pitching staff in New York, the team now has some depth at the position. This is what were looking at from a fantasy perspective, Luis Severino is locked in as the ace despite his recent struggles. C.C. Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka make up the next two spots in the rotation. After those three, Boone has recent addition J.A. Happ locked in to a starting spot when he returns from his stint on the disabled list after coming down with hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Yankees made the decision to remove Sonny Gray (and his smiling tendencies) from the starting role and have put him into the teams bullpen where he’s likely to pitch in low leverage situations and possibly a long relief role. This has opened up the door for Lance Lynn , for now, to be the fifth starter down the stretch. If he performs well enough, the team doesn’t have a ton of options to replace him anyways, Lynn is basically guaranteed to maintain that role for the rest of the season. If he ends up blowing the opportunity and really tanking, the team could look to make a call up from their minor league system or give the role back to Gray.

The bullpen is stockpiled and ready for a playoff run if the Boone and the starting pitchers don’t ruin it. Moving Gray to the bullpen and adding Zach Britton , the Yankees have a plethora of depth and with the lack of effectiveness it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see the Yankees start getting into that bullpen earlier in games to give themselves a better chance to compete the rest of the way. Chapman, Betances, Robertson, Green, Holder and now Gray and Britton make for an elite group as a whole. Long relief pitchers like Gray and A.J. Cole could also get some opportunities to extend the life of the bullpen by providing meaningful innings if Boone decides to “bullpen day” it at all the rest of the season. The team is reeling right now and could use a spark, don’t be surprised if Boone starts making some more drastic changes and lighting some fires.