Here’s what I’ve said previously about Aaron Hicks, “Open Up and Buy AH, because owning Aaron Hicks is Nothin’ But A Good Time!  Also, a good time is searching any girl’s name from Rock of Love with your parental controls turned off.  Okay, I have a few Bee Tee Dubs here.  Unless you have a child, you don’t set parental controls on your TV.  You can filter what you see without magically stumbling on porn.  The internet though?  You need parental controls on it, no matter if you’re home, at work, 12 years old, 64 years old, at school or on the john.  You can Google something as innocuous as “Persian cucumber” with no parental controls and all hell breaks loose in your search results. “Oh em gee, I just wanted a recipe for a cucumber salad! And, wow, I didn’t know Omar Sharif had so many nude scenes.”  Bee tee dubya II, we’re due for a terrible 80’s hair band renaissance.  Someone needs to do a cover of a Poison song.  Bee tee dubya III, there is no bee tee dubya III.  Bee tee dubya IV, I have this nugget in my brain that says, even though I was only 14 years old, I knew how awful Poison was at the time.  Like, when they did Your Mama Don’t Dance, a big part of me knew they were absolutely terrible, even then.  Any hoo!  Hey, any hoo’s initials are Aaron Hicks.  Coinkydink?  Thinks not.  He’s on a 162-game pace of 25 HRs, 15 SBs and a .260 average.  Of course, that doesn’t matter.  We just want a hot player at this point, and, on our 7-day Player Rater, he’s near top 25, and should be owned everywhere.” And that’s me quoting me! Yes, the royal we (which is me wearing a Burger King crown) have been here before, but every year it’s the same story with Hicks, until he gets hurt. Hey, he’s more predictable than that hair band renaissance apparently! For now, Hicks is healthy, and should be owned. Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
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Bullpen Report: Dyson Sucks, But In A Vacuum, He’s the Closer
June 22, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball | 7 Commentsby: Smokey
The news that Hunter Strickland has fallen down and needs a time out for punching a door has sent a reliever ripple effect down the closer ranks. Since this is the Holds week and this is the most pertinent info going, I figured we would roll with anyways. So roll with the suspenseful animation of holds love and glory for a little bit, and while you are at it, temper your expectations of reliever-dom as we dive into the Giants reliever sitch. So Strickland got all mad, punched a door, broke his hand. The Giants are not short of ex-closers that have had time in the limelight. Sam Dyson gets the first look as expected, because Mark Melancon is not ready for prime time… yet. Dyson got the first save chance, nice! Smooth sailing. Then on Thursday? Yaks up 2 runs and gets yanked for a guy I just brought to light in Reyes Moronta. The story isn’t that intriguing as I wish there was some Usual Suspects twist where Mark Melancon was Bruce Bochy all along and he just uses the nickname ‘Verbal’ from his me-ma. Dyson seems to be the guy, until the trust level is at a reasonable level of fortitude for the previous 52 million dollar man in Melancon. The Giants aren’t going anywhere fast, so involving assets of tradeability like MM and Dyson are a boon to not only your fantasy team, but real life baseball. So the Giants may start to implore an Oprah approach to saves. You get a save, and you get a save, and you get a save! The save chase is great and fun until you are on the losing end of it. So enjoy the stat heist that you may have with Dyson, soon to be Melancon, and eventually everyone. More saves and holds goodies after the bump. Cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
This is definitely the guy that will be the hardest to “Buy Low.” In what is a down year for Bryce Harper , he still has 19 HR, a .257 ISO, and 116 wRC+. It is the batting average that has been frustrating owners, as he is now hitting a career worst .209 through 314 plate appearances. However, there are many positive indicators that his average will bounce back up to normal levels. For one, he is sporting an absurdly low .204 BABIP! Harper has a career .314 BABIP so we should expect to see some positive regression for both his BABIP and batting average. Additionally, his hard hit rate (41.2%) is way up compared to his 34.9% career mark, while his soft hit rate is down ~3%. His .345 wOBA is still great but he is underperforming in that department according to his .398 xwOBA (expected wOBA), a very significant difference of .053. The Nationals lineup is finally at full strength, and represents one of the most dangerous offenses in the MLB. This added protection should give Harper more pitches to hit. He may still hold an extremely high asking price, but if the Harper owner in your league is struggling and needs to move him for a couple pieces to compete for a playoff spot, this is the lowest his value has been.
Steamer ROS:.278/.402/.542, 19 HR, 55 R, 52 RBI, 6 SB
#6 ROS on Razzball Player Rater
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FanDuel: Newcomb Duking The O’s
June 22, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, FanDuel | Leave a commentby: MattTruss
Happy Friday Razzballers and welcome to FanDuel Friday.  It’s looking like we could have some potential rain issues on this full slate, but we’ll do our best to monitor and adjust closer to lineup lock.  If the rain holds off in Hotlanta tonight I’m all over Sean Newcomb ($8,900) as my top pitching play.  First of all, the O’s are in an NL park, which means Alex Cobb will have a bat in his hands.  Secondly, the O’s have been dreadful. They have the third worst team OPS and are 11th in team strikeouts.  As long as Newcomb can be efficient with his pitches, he should have no trouble mowing down O’s. The 9+ k-rate is juicy and the 3.23 FIP shows that the 2.70 ERA isn’t that fluky.  Oh, and just for good measure, Alex Cobb and his 7.14 ERA are in town, so the Braves bats should have a field day. Now, let’s hope Mother Nature cooperates with our money-making plans.
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?
No joy comes from benching your ace and having him do a shot of Visine right as he’s going to bed. “I’m just going to tuck myself in with a glass of warm milk and a Visine back.” Nope, that brings me zero enjoyment. It’s like calling your mechanic and telling him that your brakes don’t work, which you found out after the valet drove your Peugeot into a Chipotle. (Even Chipotles have valets in LA.) Car’s ruined, at least I wasn’t in the damn car, but no joy. That’s what I’m getting right now from Carlos Martinez. Yesterday, he went 4 IP, 5 ER, ERA up to 3.24, and it’s his 4th straight lackluster start in a row since returning from injury. He was on my bench, because I don’t trust him at all, but my car’s still being used as a salsa bar, and I don’t want pico de gallo on my hood! I want the ace pitcher I drafted! I have to assume C-Mart is still hurt, because it hasn’t only been the series of bleh starts, but the control in his last four games has been atrocious 20 BBs in 16 2/3 IP. Yesterday’s command was technically better, unless you consider being wild in the zone as big a problem. Sadly, he needs to stay on your bench until he either rights the ship or hits the Disgraceful List. Effin’ pico de gallo hood ornament! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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Prospect Breakout: Alex Kirilloff
June 21, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 27 Commentsby: Ralph Lifshitz
Coming into every season there’s nothing prospect writers love more than calling a breakout. The problem is we’re often wrong. For every Ronald Acuna we call, there’s a Yadier Alvarez or an Austin Hays. But sometimes the broken clocks of the baseball world are right, though twice a day seems like a bit much for the best of us. In this vein, let’s look at a breakout I alluded to earlier this year when I aggressively ranked the Twins Alex Kirilloff 73rd on my pre-season Top 100. Today we’ll take examine the 20 year old phenom, his strengths as a hitter, and why you should be adding him in any format where he is unowned. Because we’re all lucky enough to have Lance Brozdowski as our over the internet friend, this task has been made a little easier. As Lance just so happened to catch Kirilloff’s last stand in the Midwest League at the All-Star Game in Lansing this Tuesday. Here’s a clip from Kirilloff’s all-star game exploits below.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Alex Kirilloff #MidwestLeagueASG HR Derby hacks – beautiful swing. Finishes with 12. Went on a tare in the final seconds. #Twins pic.twitter.com/cmYC4aDAiD
— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBrozdow) June 19, 2018
One Man’s Trash: Appreciate David
June 21, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, 2018 Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 13 Commentsby: Son
I went to a museum many of years ago and saw a 5′ x 5′ white canvas with a 2″ black line running down the middle of it. I looked left and saw a couple on the brink of orgasm looking at it. To my right was a man with glasses that looked as if the Riddler had hypnotized him. What was I missing? Shrooms, perhaps? I’m no connoisseur of art by any means, but this Son has a little culture running through his veins, so I do appreciate art. Much of it makes no sense to me, which I guess makes me a simpleton. Michelangelo’s statue of David, though? I get. The detail. The craftsmanship. I can see it. The only questions would be: Was it cold in there? and Was David Asian? Anyways, there’s no denying what David Peralta (77.1% owned – increase of 11.1%) has been doing on the baseball field. In 285 plate appearances, David has clubbed 14 home runs with 39 RBI and 2 stolen bases. The triple slash has been .277/.337/.500. He bats cleanup, strikes out only 22.1% of the time, and has a robust 48.7% hard contact rate. What about that humidor thing? Humidor Schumidor. David has a higher walk rate, lower strikeout rate, and higher ISO at home than on the road. Now, he does struggle against left-handed pitching (29.9% strikeout rate and .228 batting average), but he has hit 3 home runs off them and still bats fifth in the lineup. On the Razzball Player Rater, David is the 28th outfielder. TREASURE
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Happy Summer! The solstice has arrived: the days are longer, responsibilities fewer, and it’s finally warm everywhere (well, I’m in L.A. so I really have no idea if it’s warm everywhere right now). No one wants to be spending extra time stuck inside at a computer over-managing his or her fantasy baseball team, but don’t be the guy who drops the ball completely. There are still plenty of points to be gained and team upgrades to be made, so keep your head in the game. For those of you whose game is of the deep league variety, we’ll get right to it this week, taking a look at some names who may be available and/or of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.
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FanDuel: Strikeouts Are Sexy
June 21, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, FanDuel | Leave a commentby: cinthree
So loyal readers of mine will recall how last week’s FanDuel slate was so painfully bad, it was akin to coming home drunk and looking for some good drunk munchies, only to find some mustard, 2 week old leftovers you forgot to throw out and something wrapped in tin foil, which even though shows promise turns out not to be that delicious piece of chicken you had yesterday, but rather some sort of substance you can’t identify, but looks a little too liquidy to be food. Well, this slate is an entirely different painful experience. It’s drunk-stumbling into Pat’s Hubba Hubba (or your cities’ best drunk food spot), but then finding out that 25% of the time, the only thing you get is Hubba Water (the Westchester people will get this). Why is this slate like that? Because even though it’s a seven game slate, the hitting is basically concentrated in 2 games. Normally, that’s not an issue – you can build lineups with the offenses from 2 games most of the time (and can do it today). The problem is that both games have massive rain issues (at least as of this writing), and will require constant monitoring all day. If those games are rained out, or at least pose enough of a PPD threat to make it so that the players are unplayable, suddenly there’s absolutely no offense of note. The result will be lineups with Scherzer and meh and RNG-centric hitters.
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?
We Are Living In The Jo-Ram’s Sick Era
June 21, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 340 Commentsby: Grey
I was feeling reflective yesterday, so I turned to the mirror and said, I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste–Mirror, “Please don’t sing that song.”–Pajamas, a hairbrush–“Please stop, please.”–New shoes, and a case! I said to my reflection, where in my rankings did Jose Ramirez place?!–“NO MORE!” I’d figured you’d like that song. “No.” You’ve heard it before? “Shut up.” Whoa, grumpy mirror. Yet another great day from Jose Ramirez (1-for-2, 3 runs, 3 RBIs and a slam (22) and legs (10), hitting .291) is what brought about my reflection. Through a 75-second detour through that website that puts everyone’s rankings together, I found out the person who ranked Jose Ramirez the highest last year ranked him 13th overall. Then I looked at where I ranked him — jackpot in my ass! — I ranked him 13th overall. I was the highest on Jo-Ram. By the by, someone ranked Jo-Ram around 130th overall. That person should quit this fake business. Bonus if it’s Clara Bell. In my rankings, I even said I wanted to rank Ramirez 12th, but wanted to separate Lindor and him. Sadly, I didn’t draft Jo-Ram anywhere, because I drafted Lindor everywhere, and, by the time the draft came back to me, Jo-Ram was gone. This was a fun trip down memory lane. Unlike when Memory Lane intersects with Cody Bellinger.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
