I’ll give you a little insight into my writing these posts. I write the majority of them in October and November. Baseball’s slow then and it gives me time to backlog. I tell you this because I want to be clear that when I wrote this post Alex Presley was a sleeper with everyday playing time coming his way in five months. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Not picking on the O’s, but if they’re gonna keep rolling over, I’m gonna keep riding the Zamboni. Orioles have scored 130 runs on the year; the White Sux scored 127. Don’t give the White Sux a run for their money with being lousy. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Here’s a story I think I’ve told before, but it’s sorta related to today’s post, and it’s a short schedule day in late-September: Cougs and I went on an architectural tour of Palm Springs — hey, when you don’t have kids, you have to find stuff to amuse each other. Please, blog, may I have some more?
In most H2H leagues, this is the final week of the regular season. I reflect on this week as I have watched Pujols and Molina make their final journey around the MLB before they leave for good. Well, as far as we know! Pujols has gone on record that even if he doesn't get to 700, he will retire. I believe that about as much as I believed he was 19 when he joined the Cardinals. I think it would be an awesome situation to watch Albert come back next year (if he doesn't get 700 this year) and have all of America watching his every AB in hopes of 700. Then again, the swan song for Pujols and Molina hasn't exactly been one that I had imagined. I can remember when Mariano Rivera was retiring, he was getting rocking chairs made of broken bats, gold records, and terrifying sand sculptures. Derek Jeter received a ticker tape parade with every stadium he visited, and yet Pujols and Molina pale in comparison. Sure, Molina doesn't deserve the send-off that Jeter or Mo had gotten, but Pujols deserves so much more than what he has gotten. Hell, the Red Sox and the Cubs gave him the same gift, the #5 from their scoreboards.
I’m putting the finishing sheen on a Top 100 update for next Sunday, so if you’ve got any thoughts related to that, please slide on into the comment section.
In the meantime, I feel like we should blast some Spacehog and catch-up on the happenings where grass is green and skies are blue.
New York Yankees SS Hoy Jun Park had nothing left to prove at AAA, slashing .325/.475/.541 across 44 games at the level. His BB/K rate checked in at 46/41 over that stretch. Also hit nine home runs and stole nine bags. Safe to say he can identify some spin, and at 6’1” 175 lbs (though I think he’s a bit bigger than that), Park brings real upside to a club in crisis. He’s 25 and he’s never produced like this before, but he did post a 68/69 BB/K rate with a .387 OBP in 2018 at High A, so the plate skills and vision feel real to me.
Ahh, fantasy baseball. Coming back to writing baseball is more refreshing than a long swig of a double IPA after a day with the in-laws. It sure is good to be back, dear readers. After a seasonal hiatus during which I contributed to Razzball Fantasy Football, I'm finally back and ready to talk college draft hopefuls, prospects, rookies and beyond. Being away from you all, I felt like Pumba without my Timon. DJ Lemahieu without his chaw. Tony La Russa without someone to drunkenly yell at. You see, this is where I belong. And after reading some of Grey's 2021 fantasy outlooks on the rookie class, there's one debate I have been waiting and waiting to dip my Dunkaroos into: do I prefer Sixto Sanchez, Ian Anderson or Triston McKenzie for 2021 fantasy baseball? And where might be a good starting point to value each player heading into draft season?
[brid autoplay="true" video="276947" player="10951" title="Fantasy Baseball Mailbag Week 19"]
It's all Rangers, all the time up in this Mug's Root Beer. You in your 90's, "Hey, kiddo, I remember back in the August of 2018, this young man, Grey Albright. He had a full head of hair and a gorgeous hairlip. Well, that young squirrel talked at length about the Texas Rangers. Texas? You don't remember that? It was a state. It became a part of Meh-eee-co after the War of 2020, when Admiral Kushner tried to invade Tijuana to erect a large-scale fence twenty yards from an already erected fence. Oh, well, it was nice talking to you, I'm going back to watch The Real Housewives of Miami Island." Yesterday, Joey Gallo (3-for-5, 4 RBIs and his 30th and 31st homer) lit up the scoreboard like the Macy's Day Parade. Macy's Day is a holiday when jeans you don't want are purchased cheaply by relatives and handed to you, much to your chagrin. It's a tradition; don't act above it. You, "Can this guy really talk for 500 words about Joey Gallo without talking about Joey Gallo?" Just try me! So, Gallo is on pace for a nearly identical year to last year when he hit 41 HRs and .209. Right now, his average is at .202, but, don't worry, he's got at least .007 in that bat! His strikeout rate never budged from last year no matter what spring training narratives were saying about him cutting his Ks down. Have you seen his swing? He starts in Austin and ends in Arlington. Never the hoo! He is who he is, and good at what he does -- hit bombs. Now, see you back here tomorrow for all the dirt on Isiah Kiner's Korner with Falafel. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
So it’s September 15th. Rosters have expanded. Out of contention teams shift their focus to next year’s team, and some players pack it in for the year, or play only for their own stats. And although it’s not something you’ll often read on a site as objective-analysis heavy as Razz, there definitely is a DFS edge to be gained. It’s hard to tell sometimes and you’re going to need to keep your ears open, but some players (typically on out of contention teams) definitely change their approach. In 2015, after Jose Reyes got traded to the Rockies (and from a team in playoff contention to a team who was not), Reyes clearly did not want to be there and changed his approach to, “swing as hard as I can in case I hit it.” Then, in September he missed a few games because of a bruised achilles and (we think) just completely checked out, “hitting” .231/.259/.250 the rest of the way despite playing plenty of games in Coors. In 2016, Dee Gordon got suspended in May, came back in August and was basically the same player he had been, stolen base wise at least. He had 6 stolen bases in April on a .289 OBP in 21 games and after he returned in August, he had 8 stolen bases on a .296 OBP in 26 games. Then September came around and apparently he just decided he was going to steal every single time he got on first base no matter what, and no one could catch him. He had a .289 OBP, played in 27 games and had 15 stolen bases, including stretches where he’d steal every game. We may be to that point right now with Gordon, as he has 4 steals in his last 5 starts. Am I saying to play Dee Gordon every day? No. For all we know he’s just had a few good opportunities to steal in the last few games. But I am saying to keep an eye on him, and if he’s in “stat padding” mode, to give a small nudge to him if you’re debating between rostering him and someone else.
On to the picks once I pad my stats...
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Doh! A deer, a female deer and also what the Dodgers say. Ray, a drop of golden filth. Me, a name I call myself who owns
J.D. Martinez and
Robbie Ray. Fa, a long long way to run if a Bostonian is saying far. SO another name for strikeouts. LA is where the game took place. Ti I dribble down my face, when J.D. Martinez and Robbie Ray play. Yesterday, Ray went 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 3 hits, zero walks, 14 Ks, ERA down to 2.80. Robbie Ray is an ace. No matter how you slice that pecan pie, he's an ace. No matter how you put that pancake batter on the skittle. No matter how you put whipped cream in my mouth. My God, I'm so hungry. Cougs has got me doing this Whole30 diet and I'm legit about to eat my hand. At Endorphin Ralph's
top 100 starters for this week, Ray's ranked 6th. Can't argue that, and last night he dunked all over the LA K'ers. Then, J.D. Martinez got my goosepimples all a-titter. He went 4-for-5, 6 RBIs with his 31st, 32nd, 33rd and 34th homer. Someone has to Just Dong, so who better than Just Dong? Who?! Sorry, I'm writing this wearing an owl costume. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
They call him the Shark, but
Jeff Samardzija, $17,400 can go from blood sniffing predator to Puke Soup in the blink of an eye. He's been so inconsistent it's hard to endorse him for DFS, but I'm taking a chance and letting him in the cool kids klub. Surprisingly enough, he's actually strung together 5 QS over his last six while going 4-1 over that span. His 32 Ks over the last 39.1 innings are a little low, but he shouldn't have any problem racking them up against the Padres in Petco tonight. His price tag leaves me enough room to pair him up with the human K machine, Corey Kluber, at $25,200 vs the Yankees. Aaron Judge might contribute 3 or 4 himself and the rest of the Yankee lineup shouldn't give Kluber too many problems. Kluber has been en fuego, with 6 double digit strikeout games in his last 8 starts, that's straight fire son! The pitching is a little pricey tonight so fair warning that we're going to have to get a little creative with the offense.
New to FantasyDraft? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!
Finally, things are happening! Wait, an exclamation point in the title, and to close the first sentence of this post?? Feels a little desperate, but maybe a little desperate is just what I’ve been… desperate for some intriguing, consequence-inducing major league baseball transactions, that is. And sure enough, some actual interesting major league baseball trades and moves are happening, trades and moves that have actual interesting implications in fantasy, hence my inability to refrain from the exclamation points. It’s a frustrating time of year if your team(s) are already out of the hunt, but if you have even one league where you’re still in it (or a keeper league where moves you make now affect your team’s future), then it’s worth paying a little extra attention to baseball this week.
When stuff goes down, the effects tend to be magnified in the world of NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues. A rock thrown in the ocean might not even be noticeable, but the same rock tossed into a tiny pond can make quite a series of ripples. And so it goes with trade implications in the deep-league world – one crummy closer getting traded to a new team to become a set-up man on another can set of a series of player value changes, waiver wire activity, and FAAB pickups that might make what proves to be a make-or-break difference to your pretend squad of real-life major league baseball players. A minor league promotion/demotion can give you or taketh away from you a player that can make an awfully big difference to you fantasy team – there’s still a lot of time left, after all. Keep your head in the game, check your preferred online sources of information a little more often, and don’t be the one to miss out on a move that could ultimately cost you a fantasy title two months from now. (!!!)
For the first seven years of his career, Elvis Andrus was a light-hitting shortstop that would provide cheap speed for fantasy teams. That Elvis has left the building. Unlike Mr. Presley, who aged into a fat slob which lowered the barriers to entry for employment as an impersonator, Mr. Andrus has become phat. For those that only know # as a hashtag, phat was synonymous with great, back in the 90's. I still can't believe phat was a thing.
Anyways, Andrus is the #1 shortstop in fantasy right now. He's batting .305 with seven home runs, 34 runs scored, 32 RBI, and 14 stolen bases. The wOBA is .353 and ISO is .170.
For perspective, the ISO has been below .100 six of the last eight seasons and the season-high in home runs is eight, which occurred last year...
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