Hope you all had a Happy Fourth of July holiday. USA! USA! USA! There are two sides to every coin, though. Imagine how England has felt for the past 240 years? It's gotta be ten times worse than how I feel due to the Dodgers trading Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields back in 1993. If you still can't feel the pain, then imagine Draymond Green kicking you in the nuts. These vomit-inducing scenarios are what it feels like when contestants landed on a whammy in the gameshow
Press Your Luck. What I try to do in this weekly column is highlight some of the lower-owned players, that performed well over the past week, and steer you clear of those whammies. Without further ado...
See all of today’s starting lineups
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ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK | SD |
Have you ever had one of those pineapple upside down cakes? Those things are weird, I can’t get over the fact that it looks like the cake is staring at me. It’s like some sort of creature from the deep I wouldn’t want to bump into while out for a snorkel (Snorkeling? Snork?). Weird is also a great way to describe Michael Pineda’s season thus far. April and May saw him post around a 7 ERA while June has provided a 2.75 ERA. What will July bring? Well, the K rate has increased from 10 to 12 and the walk rate has dipped slightly from 2.5 to 2. Both are good signs. The best sign of all though is the number of hits he’s allowed. April/May’s hit rate was over 12 per 9 IP. June’s hit rate is about half that, at 6.75 H/9. So what happened here? Well, even though it FEELS like Pineda’s been around forever, he’s only 27 and maybe he just hit a rough spell. The metrics weren’t really that out of whack and we could have is a classic case of a guy getting unlucky, pressing, having some control issues and things snowball before something clicks. I’m guilty of hitting the panic button, perhaps a bit too early, in my season long leagues. In the daily game, it’s time to hop back on board thanks to the strikeout upside Pineda can provide. With any luck, the masses will still be scared off by the ugly overall numbers. Ugly like a pineapple upside down cake. Here’s some more picks for the night’s DraftKings slate:
New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday July 11th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.
Wade Davis hit the DL with a forearm strain. Brooks Pounders was called up in a corresponding move. Brooks Pounders is also my favorite AVN starlet. This sounds ominous for Davis, a forearm strain is not good for pitchers. A precursor for Tommy John surgery, they say. They also chew Copenhagen and call everyone kid. The one bright spot in this dark, gloomy sky is the backdating of the DL stint. Maybe, just maybe, Davis will return right after the All-Star break, when he's eligible. Yes, he could only miss seven games from now. That skywriter is trailing smoke behind him, writing, "Hope Davis." But maybe he ran out of fuel and was gonna write, "Hope Davis Will You Marry Me?" In Davis's place, Joakim Soria or Kelvin Herrera will replace him. Kelvin is much better, so why 'You must be Joakim' at all? That hard-to-quantify, harder even to justify outside of your own front office, closer experience. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Howdy Razzballero! I hope you all had a great Independence Day, and I'm not referring to the movie sequel that was released about a decade and a half too late. Doesn't Hollywood have any original ideas anymore? Why are there so many mediocre sequels and remakes/reboots in the theaters at any given time? I briefly considered making a rare trip to the movies during the holiday weekend, but since the thought of dropping $20 a person on tickets, popcorn, and drinks while settling for the new Tarzan flick or another crappy sequel (Independence Day, The Purge) didn't seem all that appealing to me, the decision was made to stay home and watch the old Dolph Lundgren flick I Come in Peace (also listed as Dark Angel in some places) instead. It's a cheesy late 80s/early 90s sci-fi/action movie about an alien drug dealer who induces heroin overdoses in humans and then harvests their endorphins. And it features Ivan Drago kicking ass. Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds. Kind of like a cooler version of Independence Day. So I guess the moral of the story is to save your money and watch old Lundgren movies. But I digress. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, fantasy baseball! That brings us to this week's most added player in ESPN leagues, Washington Nationals pitching prospect Lucas Giolito (54.5% owned; +46% over the past week). Giolito has long been a coveted commodity in fantasy circles due to his mid-high 90s fastball and 80 grade hammer curveball. His buzz died down a bit following mediocre results in his first eight Double-A starts this season (18% K%, 13% BB%, 4.08 FIP, 3.82 ERA), but that was mostly due to early season mechanical adjustments that were made to his delivery. Over his last six Double-A starts, Giolito was much more effective (28% K%, 8% BB%, 2.39 FIP, 2.52 ERA). His control has been iffy at times, but he clearly has swing and miss stuff and the natural sinking action on his fastball tends to keep the ball in the park (13 HR allowed since his professional debut in 2012). A couple of popular current comps for Giolito are Noah Syndergaard and Stephen Strasburg, but he also reminds me of a couple of big righties with the hard fastball/hammer curve combo from their early Marlins days (Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett). Strasburg's DL stint prompted his call up, and Joe Ross' current one has allowed him to extend his stay in the majors. The upside here is obvious. If he's still somehow available in your league, Giolito is a must add.
Here are a couple of other interesting adds/drops in fantasy baseball over the past week:
Here we are, it’s the halfway point of the season, lucky week 13. There are 26 weeks in this fantasy season, so while the All Star Break marks the unofficial halfway point, this week is the true halfway mark. The halfway point this year looks a lot like the end of the season last year with familiar friend Cram It leading the RCL Master Standings, albeit, in a different league. A virtual tip of the cap goes out to Cram It, it’s no easy feat topping all these nut jobs and here he is doing it twice. At the official halfway point we also had our first team eclipse the 180 Games Started mark. With 182 Games Started, Calgary Cannons, take a bow. The Cannons can now go about stacking relief pitchers in search of saves (53), ratio help (4.11 ERA, 1.31 WHIP), and improving that K/9 (7.9). Their 89 wins might move up to around 100 or so, but with teams like the Yapping Chihuahuas out there with 62 wins and 86 GS left, it’s not very likely to hold up. As everyone is slowly recovering from their Independence Day long weekends, let’s take a look at what else happened in the week that was, week 13:
I love a good deal. If I'm going to a Pirates game and pay $20 under face value for tickets, I'm happy. How about a $2,000 TV from Best Buy for $1,200 on sale? That would make me ecstatic. Hell, I just bought Lay's Potato Chips (best chips ever, by the way) for $1.77 a bag. That's the family size bag! Talk about a great holiday bargain. On Tuesday night, there is one clear bargain that stands out and it must be exploited. Over his last four starts, Madison Bumgarner's DraftKings pricing has ranged from $12,800-$14,000. He faces the Rockies--at home--and is priced at $11,700. We all know how this game is played. If the game is at Coors Field, there is extreme risk involved. But, this game is being played in the friendly confines of AT&T Park. MadBum is both a cash and GPP option. Exploit this bargain--hopefully you can use the savings to buy some potato chips.
New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run next Monday, July 11th, to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.
That's right folks, I bring to you a very special "ID4 edition" podcast, and we call it "ID4" because it's not that common of a phrase, isn't really used by many people and, you know, movies, so for something this special, we want to give it a sort of... unique nomenclature. Therefore, I have. BOOM. So yeah, JB is somewhere vacationing (and probably getting married again) without a computer mic, so here I am, bringing you the much heralded Grey (and myself) in discussion about all the important and current fantasy baseball issues. So of course we open the show talking about my relationship woes, almost like a callback to the old Nick the Podcast Host days. But after that, we actually do get to "stuff". Important stuff. As Donald Trump would say, the best stuff. Jose Berrios and Jeimer Candelario, a potential call-up and a recent call-up, respectively, are touched upon. We went over Joey Votto's up-and-down season, Edwin Diaz and his closer potential, Aaron Nola's recent struggles, and how the return of Dee Gordon could shake up the Marlins infield a bit. And seeing as how we're right around the mid-year point, Grey throws out his first-half most valuable pitcher and hitter thus far, and we go over the MLB playoff picture and who we expect to see in the World Series. We would have talked about Game of Thrones and it's season finale, but I'm pretty sure we burned up all of our time talking about putting me on Tinder. First world problems, fo sure...
Hey, Razzball Nation, you know it's your favorite white boy, right? I owe you this one. I've been patiently waiting for Gregory Polanco to explode on. You can pfft if you want but his ankles were rolled on. It feels like Polanco has been hot for so long. If you thinking he's gonna fall off, you're so wrong. Take some Marte and Polanc and you mix them up in a pot, sprinkle a 'little Hurdle not knowing who to bat where,' and what you got? You got the realest and illest batters, juggernauts of this fantasy shizz like it or not! Seriously, I've been waiting all season to feature Polanco in a lede. Yesterday, he rained some of his own fireworks on the 4th of who-lie (that's how I pronounce it), knocking out two home runs (2-for-5, 3 RBIs and his 11th and 12th homers), and you might remember from my preseason rankings, this little beaut, "Two quick things: Yes, I’m aware that Polanco is ranked insanely high in my rankings vs. other people’s rankings. And, yes, I’m going to own Polanco on every team. Confession Alert! I had Polanco in the top 20 overall prior to seeing where others ranked him and moved him down a round. I could’ve moved him down six rounds and still had him higher than everyone. Polanco feels like an Arenado situation from last year. By that I mean, I will say something to another fantasy baseball ‘pert like, “Do you like Polanco?” They’ll reply, “Yeah, I love him.” I’ll follow up with, “Then why do you have him ranked 110 overall?” They’ll answer, “I don’t know.” Then my head will explode." And that's me mic dropping. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Now, to be fair, the player profile pictures for Danny Espinosa are dated and not fully current. But I'll be damned if he doesn't own the belt for the best profile picture in recent history. Outside of
sleepy Adam Jones, you just can't beat what awaits you when you click on the Creeper of the Week's profile picture on any single site you choose to play fantasy baseball on. Go 'head. Pause reading this. I give permission (but come back!!!). Check out Espinosa's profile. But WAIT! Before you do...when you're there, go ahead and pick him up, too. Why you ask? Well, I mustache you the question of why he isn't already on your roster? Have you freaking seen what he's done lately?!? Let's highlight this creeper (who in any other context with that facial hair would
overwhelmingly be a
massive creeper. Cust sayin')...
On this high holy season of fireworks and excessive drinking, it all unfortunately comes to an end on a Monday. Today. July 5th shouldn't be a day of the hangover and partial powder burns... So in honor of our noble sacrifice, let's touch on some chaps that have some steal value. We will attack it slow so you can read this, and in between flip the burgers and dogs on the grill. The steals game is slowing down. Look at the numbers we expected from guys this year based off last years stats. Guys like Rizzo, and Goldy, and even Ryan Braun all down. The expectations across the board have to be lowered. It should be lowered enough that we open the window and chuck it out that same window. Unfortunately, we can't, because counting stats are counting stats and it is still a whole category which we must choose to score points in. The days of steals being a reliable category are long gone. The "punt a position" for SB's is a mythical lore of the whole Pegasus persuasion. It exists only because we remember the days that it actually happened. The weekly guys for the leaders in the category read like an extra list for a CSI episode, it is not fun, but we get drawn into the allure of the chase. The chase is fun, the end result is just a let down like an aerial photo of your upcoming date from Tinder. So here is the week ahead, behind and below SAGNOF targets and guys that are contributing for their teams that will make you give a second look if chasing that SB fix. Cheers!
Happy Fourth of July! Hopefully most of you are enjoying the day off, but like taxes and money, DK never sleeps. Today I'm rolling with two starting pitchers that have actually received a little extra rest over the last week
Matt Harvey, $7,000 vs Miami and
Lance McCullers, $8,800 vs Seattle. We're almost halfway through the season and my regular fantasy teams are falling apart with injuries, so every bit helps at this point. I think that the little breather that both of these guys got will give them that extra edge we need to cash in today. McCullers was dealing with a blister and last pitched on the 22nd, so he should be ready to go today. Over his last 7 starts he's averaging over 7 K's per game while keeping his ERA at a respectable 3.00. I was pretty shocked to see Harvey at 7K today, but I'm never one to shy away from a discount. His last start got cut short by a rain delay, so I'm banking that he got some extra work in this week to tweak his mechanics. Harvey has been not been anything close to the Ace that we're used to, but he's playing at home and Citi Field is going to be rocking today. A perfect storm for the Dark Knight to rise up for the Fourth.
New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday July 4th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.
The day before our Independence Day, the Nationals exploded for six home runs, a fireworks display that would make the Grucci family jealous. The Grucci fireworks family has a fascinating history. Giuseppe Grucci in 1923 said to his momma, "I don't want to be a two-bit gangster, cutting peoples' fingers off for debt payment, I want to blow up thousands of fingers all across this great nation." Then his mother smacked him and told him to finish his lasagna. Yesterday, Bryce Harper (2-for-4) hit his 17th homer, Wilson Ramos (3-for-4, 3 runs, 2 RBIs) hit his 13th, Anthony Rendon (2-for-3, 2 runs) hit his 8th, but at the heart of the fireworks celebration was Danny Espinosa (4-for-5, 6 RBIs) with his 17th and 18th home run, and his 4th and 5th homers in the last four games. For those of you who think he's a weekend hot bat, he hit .309 with nine homers in June. He's only 29 years old and he is a guy that has seasons of 20+ homers and 20 steals. So, yes, you should own him. Fun fact! Did you know what they call a fireworks display on July 3rd? A premature ejacu-elation. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
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