If you’re a regular listener to the Razzball Hot Sheet and Razzball Radio then you know I wear a handsome turban and we Razzicians love our wOBA. “Guru, what the hell is wOBA?” That’s a great question disembodied voice of Razzball Nation that sounds slightly like my ex-girlfriend. Brenda, stop stalking me! When it comes to my daily routine for DraftKings there are a few things I do: 1) Drink a Bloody Mary. 2) Check the daily salaries, cross out the overvalued guys. 3) Check the weather and the Vegas lines. 4) Look at batter vs. pitcher stats then ignore them. 5) Dive into the wOBA and drink another Bloody. Basically, wOBA (weighted on-base average) is a way to measure a hitter’s overall offensive performance. wOBA is calculated by giving a value to each type of offensive stat including walks, singles, doubles, etc. with the player’s totals for each being combined and then divided by their total plate appearances to arrive at their weighted on-base average. That explains why I have this tattooed on my chest all Memento-style: (0.72 x NIBB) + (0.75 x HBP) + (0.90 x 1B) + (0.92 x RBOE) + (1.24 x 2B) + (1.56 x 3B) + (1.95 x HR) / PA. Math is fun! Thanks, handy abacus. If you’re curious to learn more check out The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball by Tom Tango and some other aliens that have a love for baseball stats and anal probing.
We have 12 games on the night slate with a couple aces on the mound in Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez along with some pricey big bats that’ll make putting together a solid team a challenge. Fortunately, we have the Hitter-Tron, the Stream-o-Nator and the DFSbot to help us out. Is that cheating? Hell, no! We’re Razzaholics. Let’s get to it, here’s your dirty turbaned Guru’s all-wOBA team for Wednesday 5/28. Of course all these players won’t fit on one team, but there’s a good chance you can get more than a few of them in tonight.
Clayton Kershaw, SP: $12,600 – Ok, forget wOBA for a minute and start your team with the best arm on the board. Kershaw gets a Reds team that is next to last in the NL in runs scored.
Anibal Sanchez, SP: $8,300 – The A’s have lost five of their last seven and Sanchez threw a three-hitter in his last appearance in Oaktown.
Jonathan Lucroy, C: $4,400 – Lucroy leads all catchers with at least 150 PA in wOBA at .389. Lucroy has nine hits over his last five games with five doubles, a triple and four RBI.
Brandon Moss, 1B: $4,900 – Moss leads all first baseman with a .410 wOBA and is always a great play against a right-hander. Nine of his 12 homers have come off righties. You also can’t go wrong with dong happy Edwin Encarnacion or a more budget friendly Adam Lind who also went deep last night.
Chase Utley, 2B: $5,200 – Chase and his .406 wOBA may be priced out tonight if you want some of the wOBA masters tonight. Another play I like tonight is Ian Kinsler and for more of a cheap play look to Gordon Beckham.
Juan Francisco, 3B: $4,200 – I Left My Heart in Juan Francisco is top 10 among all major leaguers in wOBA this season at .415 and crushes right-handers . Ol’ Juan gets Chris Archer tonight who’s going to try and throw lefty.
Troy Tulowitzki, SS: $5,600 – Is it possible to build a team around Kershaw and Tulo at these prices? The short answer is yes, but it’ll take some work. Tulowitzki is the king of wOBA land. His .510 weighted on-base average leads the league and, think of this, Babe Ruth’s career wOBA was, you guessed it, .510. He’s having that kind of year. Another SS option is Alexi Ramirez whose wOBA sits behind only Tulo at .366.
Yasiel Puig, OF: 5,700 – If Tulo is the king than ManBearPuig is the queen (?) Maybe more of a duke. Puig is second in the league with a .452 wOBA, but is pricey. Given the choice of Puig or Tulo tonight give me the Duke of wOBA. Other outfielders your turbaned friend likes tonight include Jose Batista, Carlos Gomez and Seth Smith.
I’m Only Happy When It Rains
According to Razzball’s resident weatherman Golden Showers, we can expect some sprinkles in Washington, St. Louis and Philly.
Doing Lines in Vegas
The Vegas sharks are circling around the TB/TOR game and CLE/CHW with both games coming in with an over of 9.
If you want to take on the Guru at DraftKings for fun or possible profit just hit me up on Twitter @theGuruGS. Cheers.
