Podcast: “Let Me See If I Can Eat 18 Pounds Of Meatballs!”

September 20, 2016 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 45 Comments

Turn off your football and stop worrying about the weather getting colder, it's still baseball time! We're back with another edition of the Razzball Pod to prepare for the last week-and-a-half of action including Giancarlo Stanton returning to the starting line-up, the hottest hitters in baseball the past two weeks, and where Hanley Ramirez will rank in 2017. Somehow Grey likes the oldies now! But we make up for it projecting where Trea Turner is going to rank as well! Dude is inhuman! We also talk a few pitcher stream options for the next few days, and wrap with your commenter questions. Here's the latest edition of the Razzball Pod, now with less air conditioning! Download from iTunes

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See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Mon 5/12
	ARI \| ATL \| BOS \| CHC \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| HOU \| KC \| LAA \| MIA \| MIL \| NYM \| NYY \| PHI \| PIT \| SD \| SEA \| SF \| STL \| TEX \| WSH \| ATH \| BAL \| CHW \| CIN \| LAD \| MIN \| OAK \| TB \| TOR

For He’s A Jolly Porcello

September 20, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 266 Comments

by: Grey

I'm OCD about my iTunes. I listen to a new album a few times, pick out some songs that I like, five star them, and then play them endlessly until I'm sick of them. My top 20 for most played is embarrassing. I like Lil Wayne more than anyone should ever admit. Sometimes I have a song on repeat, and I'll get a phone call (rare; only old people use the phone for calling people), the doorbell will ring (less rare; Cougs orders a ton of shizz on Amazon) or I'm just called away from my desk for some reason. Then I'll forget I have a song on repeat and I'll go to lunch, dinner or...No, those are the only reasons I leave my fantasy cave. When I come back and see a song's play count has been artificially boosted with me not listening, I will edit info in iTunes and reset the play count to where it was before the accidental repeat. It's important to have a gage to tell how much you like a song. Do you like it enough to play it 200 times like, say, Aloe Blacc's Red Velvet Seat or do you like it enough to listen to it 120 times like, say, Tom Petty Yer So Bad (actual play counts)? Why do I bring this up now? Because Rick Porcello should roll his win count back to 15. 21 wins?! C'mon! That is misrepresenting him in every conceivable way. Yesterday, Rick Porcello went 9 IP, 2 ER, 4 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.08, to move his record to 21-4 <--LIES! He's pretending to be Eazy E vs. Johnny Cash (great song; play count 278) when he's really Randy Newman's Short People (good song, but you ain't listening to that nonsense more than once every few months; play count 59). His ERA isn't even accurate. It's saying, "I'm Bon Iver's Skinny Love (play count 175)," when it's really You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb by Spoon (play count 96). The only thing that is sort of legit is his 0.98 WHIP, but that's more Men At Work's Overkill (play count 186) legit. Have a season, Rick Porcello, but you are so Rihanna's Diamonds (play count 86) and not Martians vs. Goblins (play count 365). Also, if you want more, we talk about Rick Porcello on today's podcast. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Collapsing Super Nova

September 19, 2016 | Pitcher Profiles | 29 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

So for a lot of these puppies I pump out here for Razzball (That makes sense in oldspeak terms right?! You're not picturing me birthing a litter under Grey's desk at the Razzball office, right?! RIGHT?!), I write the intro before a pitcher's start to unsully my biases so you can read how the pitcher looked in real-time. Yeahhhh, football is on during Sundays now... It's tough to multi-task watching the Panthers, RedZone, AND baseball! Alas, for this week's installment of Pitcher Profiling, I had already known the outcome before breaking it down. The title should give it away as well! I lucked out and nabbed Ivan Nova in several leagues just on a streaming whim within his first few starts on the Pirates, and was reaping the rewards of a late-season pitching surge. All hail Searage! I actually read an interview with Frank Herbert that the planet Dune was actually being mined for "Magic Searage Dust", but it wasn't literary-sounding enough, so he just went with "Spice". Authors are nothing but lazy bums! Which speaking of, I picked a dude who got shellacked and didn't pitch too deep... But I wanted to take a second look at how he... well, looked (lazy again!), to see if I should just cut bait and move on, or hold onto the most recent Searage reclamation project through the finish line. Here's how Nova fared pitch-by-pitch, and hopefully a helpful treatises on if you should hold him as well:

SAGNOF Report: Stealing For The Future

September 19, 2016 | Steals | 6 Comments

by: Smokey

It's never too late to start talking about next year, is it? Well, that is the direction I am heading. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but second base, and for that matter middle infield, is going to be an interesting position come draft time or even for some keepers. This is the first time in a few years that there will be a dearth of players with a value at the position, so I am personally sorta excited, about as excited as getting a onion ring in my french fry order. The middle rounds for these second base eligible guys is going to be an interesting pecking order of who covets who more, and what we have seen this year steers them. Now, this is a steals post and most of the guys I am talking about are going to have value there and in some ancillary stat contributions, I am not talking about the over-drafting of Brian Dozier, and to some extent, Robbie Cano. Steals only guys, they in this case, have faces until at least your draft or keepers are pot committed. So this week, I am looking at some second sackers that will shine for you next year based on the second half stats. For giggles afterwards, since the season isn't over, some two-week guys that will help you down the stretch and of course some save stealers...

DraftKings: Thor Is Officially The Last Met Standing

September 19, 2016 | DraftKings | 3 Comments

by: Teddy Heater

I know Grey already touched on the huge Starting Pitching casualties from this weekend, but man I got a swift kick in the nuts losing both Jacob deGrom and Carlos Carrasco for the year, so please forgive me as my wounds are still fresh. I had a ton of stock in Mets pitching this year, I was drafting Thor, deGrom and Steven Matz where ever I could thinking that they would have monster second halves in the weaker NL East, propelling me to multiple Championships through the dog days of the season. We had a few bumps in the road, but for the most part things were clicking, when Thor was off, deGrom was on, when deGrom was off then Matz was on and so on. Things were touch and go there for a few weeks as Noah looked like he was going to hit the DL around the All Star break, Matz was battling the elbow spurs and deGrom was steady, but not dominate. Then the wheels just fell off, everything went to Shizz and now here we are with Thor being the last man standing in the Mets rotation. I would like to initiate an investigation into the cause of bone spurs in the elbows of Mets pitchers, there's has to be an alternate explanation as to why every single guy in that rotation is dealing with similar ailments. I know that there's certain Pizzeria's here in LA that will fly in NY water to make an authentic New York pie, so if we shipped water from the Beartooth Mountains in Wyoming to the Mets clubhouse would that solve the problem? Do we need to start a Go Fund Me page so we don't lose our stud Mets pitchers to the bone spurred infected New York drinking water? Enough conspiracy theories for today, but I wanted to document it just in case it becomes a "thing" like #JonSnowIsWinter. Noah Syndergaard, $11,600 has a great home matchup vs the Braves tonight and he is back to swinging around his hammer full of K's with authority. Over his last six games he's 4-1 with a 1.37 ERA while racking up 42 Ks in 39.2 innings of work, yep I'd say he's finishing the season strong. With Madison Bumgarner, $12,600 and Clayton Kershaw, $12,600 facing off I think the majority of people will be rostering Madbum due to the Dodgers awful numbers versus LHP. Now that we got Thor locked in, let's take a look at the rest of the ideal matchups for our DK dominance. 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 today 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.

Baseman Turner Overdrive Is Takin’ Care Of Business

September 19, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 361 Comments

by: Grey

I blame Jonathan Villar, Dusty, Francisco Lindor and Rougned Odor, in no particular order. Those players and Dusty are the reason why I owned Trea Turner and dropped him. I mean, no one would be crazy enough to put Turner in at Utility when he was first called up. Wasn't gonna play him at outfield. He's a middle infielder, and I had no room. *puts thumbtacks on desk, takes particular care to make sure the sharp ends are facing up, slams head onto desk* If I owned him, Turner would solve so many of my problems. He'd even fix my irregular bowels! This weekend Turner had three homers (11), three steals (27) and is hitting .355 in only 60 games. Trea magnifique! I haven't seen this kind of emergence since...Damn, I don't know how long. Maybe last year with Carlos Correa? Ouch, that comparison means Turner could disappoint in 2017? Don't hate the player, hate the knowledge that the player possesses that makes him say things that are unlikable, which I guess could be lumped in with 'hating the player,' making it okay to hate the player. About a month ago, I thought Turner was going to be drafted around top 100 in 2017, but that was prior to the power showing up. With each homer, he's moved up about a round, and now he's breathing down the 2nd round for 2017. Depends if you think you ain't seen nothing yet with Baseman Turner Overdrive. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Points League: Points Per Game

September 18, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 14 Comments

by: malamoney

All season long I've been using points per plate appearance as my metric of choice when it comes to comparing players. It's certainly not the only stat I look at, but it definitely holds its weight when I'm punching numbers into my calculator. After some consideration I realized that points per game deserves a mention as well, especially daily leagues. Knowing how many points a player averages per game is an extremely useful statistic when deciding which players to start each day. Even in weekly leagues PPG is a strong indicator of value. Here's a look at all batters for 2016 organized by position...

DraftKings: Hey Batter-Batter, Order The Schimpf Platter

September 18, 2016 | DraftKings | 3 Comments

by: Mike Honcho

I don't know about the rest of you fellows, but I like to spoil my lady every so often. I mean, Honcho is all about romance and class. When I've been struck by cupid's arrow I like to take Mrs. Honcho to a fancy restaurant, order the finest bottle of Boone's Farm in the building and reflect on our glamorous lifestyle. So the other night, while we were dining at Red Lobster, I was filling her ears with sweet nothings about my favorite under the radar plays on DraftKings. She was enthralled with my tales as usual and she couldn't take her eyes off me as we shared a package of saltine crackers from the salad bar. Then it struck me...tomorrow the Padres will be at Coors Field! They'll be facing Chad Bettis, who happens to own a 4.70 ERA at Home this season. While that's probably acceptable for a Rockies' starter, I'm more than happy to get a piece of that action with my daily fantasy dollars. Bettis has also allowed a .260 batting average to left-handers this season, which is above the league average. I'll be looking to use a number of Padres in various lineups today, especially the power hitting lefties. Ryan Schimpf fits that description perfectly. Schimpf has 19 home runs on the year in just 238 at-bats. Sixteen of those long balls have come at the expense of right-handed pitchers - who he happens to also own a .929 OPS against. In my best Kirk Cousins voice I ask you...You Like That!? Well, I do. So excuse me while I finish my left-over plate of hush puppies and fine tune my lineup. While you're waiting, here's a look at the rest of my favorite plays for Sunday's 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 September 19th 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.

Mining The Numbers with Prospector Ralph: Good Half Bad Half

September 18, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 20 Comments

by: Geoff

A large part of success in fantasy, and dynasty leagues in particular, is identifying player trends. It's a matter of knowing when to move on from a player before it's too late, and it's knowing when to buy a player before his stock explodes. In the coming weeks we'll have a few posts dealing with who I'm targeting in dynasty leagues, and players I'm moving on from. In mid-September it's still a bit too early to get into those discussions. So, let's continue to look back at the year that was in prospects, shall we? In this vein, today we'll discuss the players that broke out in the second half after bad first halfs; and on Wednesday we'll speak on the lads that faltered in the second half after starring roles in the first. To add a bit of the tomfoolery Razzball is known for, let's christen each post with the name of a like minded spirit. We'll call the second half breakouts Samuel L. Jackson's, and the second half stumpers Corey Feldman's. There couldn't be two stars with divergent career paths. I mean have you seen Feldman lately? He's pretty much a novelty EDM act cult leader, but seems completely oblivious to this unlike the rest of the world.

Two-Start Pitchers, Week 25: Johnny Bum Lately For Playoffs

September 17, 2016 | Two Start Fantasy Starters | 36 Comments

by: M@

If you're reading this you're either a) in the fantasy baseball semifinals or championship matchup, b) a die hard Razzball fan that reads everything posted, 3) you enjoy my writing, or d) you thought this was fantasy football. Since all of the options besides the first only happen in my midnight delusions of writing (which is currently happening), I'll just lock it in that you're in the fantasy baseball playoffs. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Get Hits or Buy Ryon

September 17, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 20 Comments

by: Dan Pants

Oakland rookie third baseman [player]Ryon Healy[/player] continued to rake Friday night as he collected two hits and scored a run to extend his hitting streak to seven, with six multi-hit games in that span. Sometimes I get fantasy advice from good friend of mine and rapper 50 Cent, who is a much better fantasy baseballer than he is a real baseballer. In between freestyle seshs, Fitty says to me, "Yo D (he calls me D), you gotta get on Ryon Healy, if you been Patiently Waiting for a decent corner, dude is a P.I.M.P., get rich and buy Ryon, do-you-know-what-I-am-saying?" OK, thanks, Fitty. Not a bad headline either...also, funny, how you plugged a bunch of your songs there, but I guess these be tough times. He's right though. Healy has been a certified G-Unit soldier in the month of September, batting .400, with 9 runs, 4 homers, 5 doubles and 12 RBI. If that ain't a wanksta, I don't know what is. Honestly, I really don't. Is it bad or good? Regardless, in the past week the rookie has been very, very good. He's hitting .517 with 8 runs, 3 homers and 9 RBI. That's in seven days, people! How many more fantasy days left? Can't be much more than seven, so sounds like Ryon Healy could be a nice player to own down the stretch. He was a BUY this week and I picked him up! 50 grabbed him too and he's available in about 80% of leagues. Hate it or love it, pick him up if you want to win! Here's what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:

DraftKings: Blue Jay Migration

September 17, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: Gern Blanston

As summer has come and gone and the weather starts the cool down in the Great White North, so have the Blue Jays. The Jays are still hanging on to a wild card spot, but have gone from first to third in the division. They have lost the last four divisional series, which hasn't helped. There are 4 teams within 5 games back, all chomping at the heals of the Jays. Early in the season the pitching was a strong suit of the Jays, but now own a 4.46 xFIP so far in September. The Jays have migrated south to Anaheim and have found success. It seems all they needed was some California sunshine to get the back on the winning track. Tonight, Francisco Liriano will take the mound and look to continue the success he found in his last outing. His last outing came against the Rays, and consisted of 6.1 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk, while earning 6 strikeouts. While the Angels don't strike out a lot (16.7% vs LHP), they lose a lot. Nolasco will be on the mound for the Angles, who is 1-6 since being traded. And with that I give you the rest of my Saturday DFS picks. 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 September 19th 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.