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Best part is that if you shake anyone’s hand, the cocktail in the title can be used as a disinfectant. So (with forty-six oh’s), we could have baseball. Just in Arizona and Florida. That was the news reports on Friday. By today that news will likely change. Tomorrow, we’ll hear something else. On Wednesday, well, on Wednesday, we’ll hear there’s one place Coronavirus still hasn’t affected. The MLB season can be played out in full. Allow me to set the scene:  A manager comes out for a mound visit, “Just trust your stuff. Please. It’s freakin’ freezing,” as baseball plays out its 162-game season in Antartica. With the Florida/Arizona schedule the MLB has floated, the Mets will face the Astros, Nats, Cards and Marlins. El oh–oh, eff me and my Pete Alonso shares. “Hello, I’m Gary Cohen, and the Mets are coming off a 15-minute road trip to Ft. Lauderdale where they saw Scherzer, Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Now they return home for two 7-inning doubleheaders vs. Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, then it’s off to see the Cards and Jack Flaherty.” Luckily, I doubt it happens. I mean, maybe. Right now, everything’s on the table, which is a good sign that baseball will happen. But everyone in Florida and Arizona? I guess it’s not absolutely crackers, but I don’t see why playing there is any better than just playing in empty stadiums in their home cities. Is it more manageable because everyone’s in one place? Travel is not an issue for MLB teams with private jets. Long-term residences in Arizona or Florida is easier? I guess, maybe, but if teams have people come in to those residences to clean the rooms, are the maids tested? Are the Jersey Mike’s employees tested from where Mike Trout ordered his subs? Because you know homeboy loves the roast beef sub and calls himself Jersey Mike. My point is players will be at risk in Florida or Arizona. So, a Grapefruit/Cactus League season is interesting, but doesn’t solve all or really any issues. Though, I do wish I drafted German Marquez in one league with the thought he won’t have one game in Coors. Oh, and Nolan Arenado outside of Coors becomes like a 4th or 5th rounder. Anyway, here’s what else I saw for 2020 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Welcome to the weekend! FanDuel has us set up with a full 15-game slate, so there’s a lot to comb through. I feel like every week I sit here and recommend picking on the Marlins. Well, who am I to break tradition, so let’s talk about Jacob deGrom ($12,000) who faces said Marlins. deGrom has a 33.0% strikeout rate to go along with his 3.09 SIERA. The Marlins, on the other hand, are dead last in wOBA and ISO versus right-handed pitching and have a 27.1% K%, which is second worst in the league. I know deGrom is pricy, so for my bat recommendations I’ll try and focus on affordable bats on FanDuel, but first a word from our sponsors.

New to FanDuel? 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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jacob deGrom.  That almost says it all.  Sure, he’s 2-4 with a 3.60 ERA this year on the whole.  But in the month of May he is back to his dazzling self: 1.24 ERA, 13 Ks, 3 BB in 14 innings.  And if that wasn’t enough, he’s toeing the rubber against the 30th ranked run scoring team in the majors.  Not only are the Florida Marlins the 30th ranked offense, they’re a full 20 runs behind the 29th ranked Detroit Tigers.  That’s worse than the lazy plot devices going on in Game of Thrones!  The Marlins are so bad, and deGrom is so good, the Mets are favored at -410.  A whole season goes by and you don’t see a line like that.  He’s expensive ($11,300), but there is no surer thing on FanDuel this year than deGrom against the Marlins.  Of course, there’s more than one way to skin a FanDuel lineup, so on to the picks.

New to FanDuel? 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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Finally Friday! FanDuel has us set up with a huge 14-game slate, and for once this week, we look to be in the clear on the precipitation front. Can we talk about just how much an ace Luis Castillo ($10,500) has been? He’s sporting a 30.3% K%, which is supported by his massive 14.9% swinging strike rate. I’m going to go out on a limb and say he probably doesn’t maintain his 1.97 ERA all year, but his 3.51 SIERA is solid. Finally, on the batted ball front his ground ball rate is 57.8%, which leads the league. Add to his greatness, that he gets the perfect matchup against the Giants in Oracle Park. Now you know that Luis Castillo’s my go-to starter in cash games today, so let’s take a look at some other plays on today’s FanDuel slate.

New to FanDuel? 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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”411377″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 7″]

First off, big congrats to Albert Pujols (1-for-4 and his 6th homer), as he passed 2,000 RBIs. That is amazing. Now would some archaeologist find old man Pujols’s Holy Grail Goblet Room and let him retire in peace? Second off, David Fletcher went 2-for-5, 2 runs, hitting .310, as he finally seems to be settling in at leadoff. Can we just pause for one second and try to comprehend how stupid I am?  Okay, you don’t have to rundown all my countless idiotic calls.  I get it.  Okay, with my stupidity in mind, it took a major league manager — Bad Assdunce, in this case — almost six weeks to realize Fletcher is the best guy to hit leadoff on the Angels.  Assdunce hit Kole Calhoun (2-for-4, 3 runs, and his 9th homer, hitting .223) for 78 ABs at leadoff — a .240 hitter on a good day!  Ya know, when they hire MLB managers, they’re not hiring their best and brightest.  Oh, and I have it at 50/50 odds Fletcher doesn’t stay at leadoff, just so ya know.  By the by, Fletcher is not in this afternoon’s Buy column, but if he’s available add him for average and hopefully counting stats.  Finally, Tommy La Stella.  What in the holy fudge?  Only, I didn’t say fudge.  I said the mother of all curse words.  Yesterday, he went 2-for-4, 4 RBIs and his 8th and 9th homer.  Did he even have nine homers in 1,000 at-bats prior to this in his career?  Not to answer, because I don’t care, but WUT. At this point, Travis Shaw would need to have the best month of his career to even tie La Stella in fantasy value.  I am laughing through tears.  Sad clown tears!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

How’s it going, deep-leaguers?  Hope everyone out there has dodged as many fantasy baseball injury bullets as possible, since we know that losing your studs in a deep league is a much different level of disaster than it is in the shallow, mixed-league world.  It’s not super helpful to read about how you might consider picking up Dansby Swanson or Eduardo Escobar to replace Trea Turner in your lineup when the “best” shortstop available in your league is Kevin Newman. As we continue to ask for leniency from the fantasy baseball gods, let’s do what we do here, and take a look at some players who may be on the radar for those of us in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It’s crunch-time, readers, as we’re down to a number of 2018 major league baseball games left that we can count on our fingers and toes. If you’re still in the pennant hunt in an NL-only or AL-league, there’s probably at least one category where just a few RBI or a couple steals could affect your team’s status in terms of gaining or losing a point or two, and ultimately make a difference in your league’s final standings. This week we’ll look at hitters that could potentially help deep-leaguers with a few of those counting stats over the next two and a half weeks. Everyone on this list is less than 10% owned in CBS leagues, and while many of them are playing sporadically at best, most of them have actually been more productive than many of their shallow-league brethren lately. You never know who might hit that grand slam or steal those two bags on the second to last day of the season that put your team over the top!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Francisco Mejia is quick to the ball, boy, oh, boy.  I watched his 1st career home run at-bat yesterday because there was only four games last night for the MLB because they went about the start of the fantasy football season like this:  Picture the scene in Braveheart when they moon the other side, then charge at them.  Okay, picturing Mel Gibson’s anti-semitic ass?  Good, now after the mooning, imagine instead of charging, they high-tailed it the eff out of there.  That was MLB last night.  “We ain’t even got time for a white flag, we’re going home to watch football!”  By the way, one more Braveheart note, was mooning really common of William Wallace and in the 1300s?  *Googles first known mooning in history*  Wow, Wikipedia says, “In 80 AD, Flavius Josephus recorded the first known incident of mooning.”  Yo, yo, yo, it’s Flava Flavius!  And I’m here to show you my big white ass!  Any hoo!  Francisco Mejia is going to be all over my cheap catcher radar in 2019.  Really hoping Austin Hedges gets traded, because time shares suck — except when they’re giving out $20 in free casino chips to just look at one! — and I don’t want Hedges muckety-mucking up my Mejia mmm muah!  (Say that fast 117 times!)  Yesterday, Mejia hit his 1st career homer, then, in his next at-bat, hit his 2nd career homer, going 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs.  He won’t be in this afternoon’s Buy column, and, for this year, he’s in a platoon, but you know my cyclops has got that monocle.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Welcome to another Friday, where FanDuel has us set up with a 14 game slate.  Since all the studs pitched on Thursday (Scherzer, Nola, DeGrom, Bumgarner, ), we have the fun job of picking through the leftovers to find Friday’s stud.  Today I’m taking my talents to South Beach…….to write about the visiting pitcher, Mike Foltynewicz ($). <set up autocorrect to fix every time I eff up the spelling of Folynevix>  Foltyburger’s K-rate has been sick this year, up 7.5% from 20.7% in 2017 to 28.2% this year, and he even gets a small park bump in Miami.  He also gets the pleasure of facing Miami’s lineup which for the season is dead last in ISO and 28th in wOBA vs RHP.  Foltyverter is where I’m starting my lineup on this Friday, so let’s see what we can add to him to make some money.

New to FanDuel? 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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

After spending about seven weeks on the disabled list possibly sipping rum through a paper straw, Wil Myers appears to be making up for lost time. Please note that Wil uses paper, not plastic, straws because he cares about the environment. You should too. Public service announcement… Check! In the last week Wil posted 45 fantasy points. If the season began at week 14 he would be the top hitter along with Alex Bregman. Do you breg to differ? I didn’t think so. Considering Myers only played ten games before returning at the end of week 13, you could say that his season really did start in week 14. It’s unlikely that he will keep up this pace of 0.76 points per plate appearance, but it’s worth keeping an eye on Mr. Myers moving forward. If you’ve had him stashed all this time, it might just be about to pay some hefty dividends. However, with all of that said, given his injury history, I’d seriously consider selling high. Tim Lincecum just traded him in every league he owns him. Even a few he doesn’t.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”269736″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Buy Sell Hold Week 15″]

Many of you might not realize this, but I try to stay consistent in advice.  When you write 3,000 words/day, sometimes things get blurred.  I like so-and-so and don’t like that so-and-so, then the first so-and-so gets cold and I no longer like that so-and-so or the 2nd so-and-so gets hot and I like him, so I no longer like so-and-so, but do like that so-and-so.  Or sometimes I’m just so-so on a particular so-and-so, but that so-so is fluid and a so-and-so can become a little more than just so-so or a little less than just so-so.  BTW, those who just Googled for “so-so fantasy advice,” welcome!  You’re at the right place.  So, my so-so feelings on Nathan Eovaldi have moved up, and he is rattling off irrefutable evidence that he should be owned.  Yesterday, Eovaldi took a perfect game into the 7th, ending up with 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, zero walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.35, and, outside of one start in Yankee Stadium, he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in any start.  He’s thrown three starts with one hit or less!  Johnny Lasagna may have been exposed as a noodle arm, but the Italians still have Rachel Ray’s E-O-V-A.  Eovaldi is now at 8.2 K/9, 1.1 BB/9, 3.36 xFIP; those numbers suggest he should be owned in every league, and I’m in agreement.  The origin story film, Velo, may have received mixed reviews, but is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and I loved Jordan Hicks’ cameo.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?