It appears another National League contending club is giving the starting shortstop keys to a relatively unproven youngster. As of now, Zack Cozart is slated to be at short on opening day for the Cincinnati Reds.
In 2007, the Reds drafted Cozart in the second round (they also drafted Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco – what a haul).
Please, blog, may I have some more?As we learned in our recent poll, Razzball readers play three main roster formats (adds up to > 100% b/c some play multiple formats):
Format
# of Respondents
%
Yahoo! standard (C/1B/2B/SS/3B/3 OF/2 UTIL/2 SP/2 RP/4 P)
626
42%
ESPN standard (C/1B/2B/SS/3B/5 OF/CI/MI/UTIL/9 P)
452
30%
NFBC/2 Catcher format (2 C/1B/2B/SS/3B/5 OF/CI/MI/UTIL/9 P)
261
18%
Other
620
42%
Note: About 8.5% plan to play both ESPN and Yahoo formats.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Here’s what I wrote for Ryan Braun back in December when I wrote my top 10 for 2012 fantasy baseball: 1. Ryan Braun – Would I be happy to take Pujols third? Oh, hecksfire. I’ll bludgeon snitches for Pujols third. Still doesn’t mean Pujols is first. I’m not ranking Braun number one to be different than every Tom, Dick and Berry. Braun’s gonna be 28 and he’s headed for a Hall of Fame career. Pujols is a Latin 32. The 1st base eligibility is nice, but outfield isn’t exactly stacked in 5 outfielder leagues. I don’t think we’re going to get another season of 33 steals, but he steals 15 bases like a fat kid likes cake. He gets little bumps and bruises, but he also hasn’t played in less than 150 games in his career (excluding his rookie year). His average last year was on the high side, but he’s still a career .312 hitter. Are you paying for an MVP year by taking him first? Maybe, but his off year is better than 99% of players and he’s consistent. Give me consistent and let me gamble later in the draft. That’s not Rudy Gamble. 2012 Projections: 105/35/110/.310/15
That’s right. I had written that before the suspension. Then the drug test came and I put it away in my big virtual drawer of posts I’ll never use right next to my Elijah Dukes Fantasy Sleeper After Winning Humanitarian of the Year Award post. It was done. He was busted. No one comes back from that– Well, you know the story. Do I think it’s risky to take Braun first overall now? Nope. In fact, after all this mishegoss (The Hebrew Hammer will like me using that), I see Braun about to prove some snitches a thing or two about snitching. My rankings are being updated as we speak. As they said in the 90′s, Braun’s found serenity now:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
First the Vernon Wells sleeper post (hahahahahahaha — terrible), then the Alex Rios sleeper post (hahahahahahahaha – worse), now a Kevin Youkilis sleeper post…. Seriously, am I getting old here? What the eff in the effhole? Where’s my youth love? My rookie nookie! I blame ESPN and the rest of the schmohawks out there in Internet land. Why does ESPN rank Youuuuuuk in the 2nd round last year <italics for emphasis>for them<italics for emphasis> and now he’s 100? I get that he had a bad year, but he’s done? Just like that? Fork’s in him? How is he being drafted in the 80′s of mock drafts? I understand he’s injury prone, but everyone’s done with The Greek God Of Limps? I have a lot of questions. So what makes Kevin Youkilis a 2012 fantasy baseball sleeper?
Please, blog, may I have some more?
For those fantasy players who play in standard mixed leagues, the hot stove season is a time of excitement. These owners can just sit back and enjoy the player moves, secure in the knowledge that regardless of what happens there will not be a huge impact on gameplay.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
I know how much you love draft strategy. Whether it’s snake draft or auction draft. You gobble this shizz up. Okay, I wasn’t speaking literally, don’t eat your computer. Auction drafts are the best. They remind me of a time not that long ago when I wore a giant-fonted Yuuuuuuuuuup on my chest and bought twenty-four dollars worth of 1980′s wrestling action figures for $5600 just so Darrell Sheets couldn’t get them. I will enjoy putting those little plastic Greg “The Hammer” Valentine action figures into the figure four with my son, Lil’ Yuuuuuuuuuup; he officially changed his name at my behest. There’s ten U’s in my Yuuuuuuuuuup. If you use nine or eleven U’s, you are still infringing on my trademark. So, lots of you know my fantasy baseball auction tips already, but some of you just joining us — hey, close the door behind you!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
We ran two polls in the past week to understand in which types of leagues that Razzball readers will be playing in 2012. We got an overwhelming response (2,500 total responses between the two polls).
The volume of the response wasn’t the only surprise. Other surprises include:
Only about 15% of Razzpondents plan on playing in a MLB league with 15, 16, 18, or 20 teams. We expected more. It must be that the people in those league formats disproportionately comment.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Philadelphia Phillies 2011 Minor League Review
Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America:
2012 (27) | 2011 (11) | 2010 (18) | 2009 (12) | 2008 (22) | 2007 (21) | 2006 (22)
2011 Affiliate Records
MLB: [102-60] NL East
AAA: [80-64] International League – Lehigh Valley
AA: [74-68] Eastern League – Reading
A+: [75-63] Florida State League – Clearwater
A: [68-69] South Atlantic League – Lakewood
A(ss): [43-33] New York-Penn League – Williamsport
The Run Down
The Phillies graduated quite a bit of talent in 2011. They also shipped a few nice prospects Houston’s way. What’s left is not exciting. Not from a fantasy perspective, at least. The Phillies have some nice arms in the lower rungs of their system – A-ball pitchers like Trevor May, Jesse Biddle and Jonathan Pettibone. Biddle will need a few more years of seasoning, but May and Pettibone could be up next year. There are a few relief arms ready to contribute in the bigs, but the closer situation in Philly is locked up for the time being. Offensively, the Phillies a pretty well set at the Major League level. Any reinforcements they needed arrived last year. Freddy Galvis might catch on in a utility role, but he won’t see regular time unless Jimmy Rollins or Chase Utley gets hurt. Don’t expect this system to produce a big league regular until Sebastian Valle arrives two years from now.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
For most of you, been there, read this shizz already, but there’s Razzball newbies (Razzbabies?) that need some coddling occasionally. If you know PEDS, skip ahead into the comments and discuss my mustache. So, there’s a BRAN (Balanced Roster After Nine) Drafting Strategy by Rudy “The Fro Knows” Gamble. He’s also touched upon some fantasy baseball drafting tips. It’s a year or so old, but it’s timeless so when you read it don’t bother looking at the clock. There’s also a LIMA Plan (Low Investment Mound Aces) by Ron Shandler. There’s been a ZIMA Plan by Matthew Berry; it involves a lot of stumbling around and the hiccups. There’s been a Punt One Category draft strategy. There’s been a Punt Two Categories draft strategy, which was conceived by a leaguemate of Punt One Category who just couldn’t stand being upstaged. And there’s the Forget When Your Draft Is So Your Team Is Autodrafted strategy. I love when my leaguemates use that one. Then there’s my fantasy baseball draft strategy, Performance Enhancing Draft Strategy or PEDS.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
I’m a pretty harsh critic of Razzball, but occasionally we’ll post things that even I feel are extremely helpful. Usually these are done by other people for our site. Yesterday, we brought you the one and only 2012 Fantasy Baseball War Room. (Honestly, there may be more War Rooms than you can shake a stick at, but who’s intro’ing anything by saying we brought you the “one of a couple zillion War Rooms?”) Another thing we’re offering is the 2012 fantasy baseball tiers, brought to you by regular commenter and all-around solid F.O.R., VinWins. This fantasy baseball tier sheet is like the Cliff Notes version of the 2012 fantasy baseball rankings. The tiers give you where I ranked players and the tier names, which should give you a rough idea of what I’m thinking when you don’t have much time.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
