New Prospect Tool + Draft Simulator + 2017 Tools Update

February 28, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball DFS | 35 Comments

Our daily/weekly MLB projection tools (Streamonator, Hittertron, DFSBot, etc.) will be back for 2017. We are in the process of updating the payment software (our previous vendor, CoinTent, went out of business) so just hold tight for now. But I do have two good pieces of news to share! First, we partnered with our friends at FantasyPros to bring you a free fantasy baseball draft simulator where you can: 1) set the league preferences, 2) choose between either Grey or Rudy's cheat sheets (you can see them when you scroll down from your player selection screen) and 3) see how it compares with the consensus (a decent proxy for ADP). Second, given the demand from dynasty leaguers and redrafters who like rookie nookie for MLB prospect info, we just launched a new tool called Prospectonator (links for hitters and pitchers) that can now be found in the top menu (under Tools) and linked at the top of all the Preseason Projections/Player Raters.

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See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Thu 5/15
	ATH \| ATL \| BAL \| CHW \| CIN \| HOU \| LAD \| MIN \| TB \| TEX \| TOR \| WSH \| ARI \| BOS \| CHC \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| KC \| LAA \| MIA \| MIL \| NYM \| NYY \| OAK \| PHI \| PIT \| SD \| SEA \| SF \| STL

RCL Update: Twist of Time

by: MattTruss

Last week we covered why you should join and RCL, so this week let’s start covering what to do once you’re in there. To be honest, most all of this has been covered somewhere on the site over the years, most often by Rudy. I covered this info last year, Big Odio has covered/ranted in the comments plenty about it as well. If you haven’t been playing in RCLs though, I could see how some of this has been glossed over, so I’ll try to consolidate some info for the newbies. Frequent players, feel free to skip ahead. Should you take all my advice as gospel? Nah, you do you, I’ll do me and we’ll both be happy. All I can give you is a voice of experience. I’ve played in these leagues for quite some time in some very tough leagues. I’m not the best player around, but I can hold my own. I’m here to help you do the same. No one wants to be fighting for 11th place, so here we go!

JB’s 2017 Top 100 Starting Pitchers

February 28, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Pitcher Profiles | 191 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

We back baby! Spring Training is already starting up (We desperately need shorter games, but like 2 extra weeks of Spring Training?!?! I know, I know, WBC, but whatever!), we're about to March, drafts about to be drafting... Love this time of year. So note to self - get the rankings done earlier in 2018. Second note to self - bitch slap Grey when I see him in person next week for making everyone else look so bad, with his ranks done so early! But hey, not like he's got other sports to worry about! Speaking of, if you haven't played fantasy basketball yet, shameless plug sentence/link for you to come over and check us out on hoops! Play in some Hoops RCLs next year maybe! Ok, JB's ADHD voice, back to bidness! My yearly baseball magnum opus is finally complete - weeks in the works - and went from 9600 words last year to 9700! Weird they were so similar... I'm kinda like Tolstoy, they just gonna keep getting longer, hah! Of course no one is expected to read War & Peace in one sitting, so take your time getting through this bad boy! I'll wait! I'm pumped to get the Pitcher Profiles ramped up again, better quality GIFs, and another year with the Gamescore+, which maybe we can start to automate with more batted ball data out there. RUDY?!?!?! WHERE'S RUDY?!?!?!?! SOMEONE GET ME RUDY!!! Also, if you missed the wrap up I put together a few weeks ago, you can check out how Grey and I did vs. ESPN with the 2016 SP ranks. A question that is always debated and weirdly always different for each ranker/rankings sets is: are these your personal rankings? Adjusted for ADP? Are they how you would draft, or how you think guys will finish? I've decided I have the be all, end all answer. I did these ranks initially without looking at ADP or any other rankings sets. The ranks are my personal ranks for how I would value guys one over the other, and then I'll use this list to be malleable for every draft/site/league format. Pigeonholing ranks to adjust for ADP means you're stuck looking at one list of ADP data. So there's my answer for how I approach rankings. Anyway, here we go! Find below my top 100 SP for 2017. And as always, my top-5 sleepers (to varying degrees) are James Paxton, Sean Manaea, Blake Snell, Ivan Nova & Reynaldo Lopez. Plus bonus #6 - Tyler Skaggs - moved him up after re-looking at his data. Apparently I love my lefties this year!

Best Shape of Their Lives!

February 27, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy | 18 Comments

by: Lance

The phrase "I'm excited for Spring Training" is a double edged sword, especially in fantasy baseball. We're all excited to see the early signs of life on our already drafted fantasy teams, yet there is still a month of emptiness before the actual returns start trickling in. That leaves ample time for overreaction to minor injuries and excessive helium for players who put together a few good at bats. Although many owners have the discipline to completely neglect the impacts of recency bias during the Spring, some will always fall prey to the hype, and you will feel the resulting impact in the draft room. Sometimes, it may even be good to fall prey to that hype. As we all know, fantasy baseball is often a game of balance. Below I'm going to aggregate my reaction to what has happened in the few games we have seen so far and how, if at all, I have translated these points over to the fantasy section of my baseball mind.

Ambulance Chasers: Don’t Get Tweaked

February 27, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 11 Comments

by: Kerry Klug

Let the overreaction to Spring Training numbers begin! Gregory Polanco went 3-for-3 with 2 stolen bases in his debut -- 115 SB prediction for Polanco! Jason Castro went 2-for-2 with a HR in his first game -- 60 HR for Castro! Shelby Miller allowed 2 runs, 3 hits over 2 innings -- that is actually pretty on-brand for Shelby Miller. Do not trust Shelby Miller! Health is really what you’re looking for in Spring Training and these guys are failing that test so far... Razzball Commenter Leagues are open! Play against our contributors and your fellow readers for prizes. Join here!

Carlos Gonzalez, 2017 Fantasy Schmohawk

February 27, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Overrated | 290 Comments

by: Grey

Oh no he dint! I dit. No, he dint! I dit! Dint! Dit! That was my right and left side of my brain debating Carlos Gonzalez as overrated. You'd be surprised at how often the two sides of my brain get in these verbal sparring matches. The left side of my brain was in the Debate Club in high school, so you'd think it was an unfair fight, but the right side of my brain conjured up an imaginary Debate Club with six imaginary debaters, an imaginary Debate tourney and an imaginary trip the Debate club went on where I lost my very real virginity. The left side of my brain is like, "Wut!?" Since the right side of the brain made up all of that, it's understandable that the best argument the left side of my brain can come up with is 'Oh no he dint!' Of Coors, I don't like going against Rockies hitters. This is the first time I've labeled a Rockies hitter overrated since I went after Tulo, which came out aces, prolly. No false modesty here, I'm never wrong on these schmohawk posts. You short a schmohawk and you're golden. Like my Ocean Pacific Bermudas, these are the greatest shorts ever. Anyway, why is Carlos Gonzalez overrated for 2017 fantasy baseball?

2017 Team Previews: Baltimore Orioles

February 26, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 13 Comments

by: M@

Welcome to the 2017 Razzball Team Previews! You’ll find everything you need to know about each team to get yourself ready for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. And I do mean everything, everybody. We’ve got line-ups, charts, numbers, projections, questionable questions, smarter answer, potent potables and well, that’s a lie. No potables here, but plenty of potent fantasy names brimming with potential. Now's the time to be an eternal optimist for the next two months. A quick note on the format. Each preview will feature six questions to a team's blog writer. Are there only six great fantasy questions for each team? Of course not, but THAT'S WHAT THE COMMENTS ARE FOR! So, enjoy the thoughts of another writer, the dialogue on each team, and then continue the conversation in the comments!

The Leftovers: Players Who Just Missed the Cut of the Top 100

February 26, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 38 Comments

by: Geoff

After I finished my Top 100 Prospects post, I had a whole lot of leftovers of players who didn't quite make the cut. The thing is many of these players were at one point in my Top 100, and therefore had a write up. Today's post is those leftovers, it's the turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving, or the album a band releases a year after a successful album of all the songs that didn't make the cut. It's me being lazy, but also kind of wanting you to have as much of my info as possible. I get a chance to go into detail on a few last minute subtractions, and get you familiar with some players that will be jumping into my top 100 by mid-season. These are the bubble players, those that are every bit a top 100 level player as those that just limboed under the line, some flameouts looking for redemption in 2017, and everything in between. There's a little bit of everything! I hope you enjoy, it's the Leftovers.

2017 Team Previews: Cincinnati Reds

February 25, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 23 Comments

by: M@

Welcome to the 2017 Razzball Team Previews! You’ll find everything you need to know about each team to get yourself ready for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. And I do mean everything, everybody. We’ve got line-ups, charts, numbers, projections, questionable questions, smarter answer, potent potables and well, that’s a lie. No potables here, but plenty of potent fantasy names brimming with potential. Now's the time to be an eternal optimist for the next two months. I'll be joined by Razzball newbie Zack Burgess in completing these this year (Welcome aboard, Zack!). So, we’ve got a team to preview and questions to ask. Let’s get after it! We have a very special guest for this post, Nick Doran, to provide his take on what the team has in store this season. Now enough rambling, let’s see what 2017 holds for the Cincinnati Reds!

Prospect Podcast, Episode 28: Top 100 Prospects for Fantasy Baseball

February 25, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 29 Comments

by: Geoff

Welcome to the most wonderful time of the year. It's Prospector Christmas/Holidays/Festivus/Chanukah it's Top 100 Prospects list time. Michael Halpern my cunning co-host, and I discuss the differences in our Top Prospect lists. Halp decided to be an overachiever and went a full 200 prospects over on his site Imaginarybrickwall.com. It's brilliant, check it out. We flip flop Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi in our rankings. We then fight over Benintendi, and make up over Austin Meadows. We have some big swings on Cody Bellinger, Manuel Margot, Francis Martes, and Kyle Tucker. We mix in a little talk about my affinity for hit tool first baseman that no one else likes. Then Halp wonders how Stephen Gonsalves ended up on his Top 100 and not mine. It's the latest episode of The Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast.

Bullpen Report: Sneaky Saves and Holds

February 24, 2017 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 20 Comments

by: Smokey

The theory of SAGNOF is simple, don't pay for saves on draft day. This theory is, well, in theory, correct in most instances. Saves and Holds categories are won every year by being a straight waiver wire assassin. The "fluidness" and volatility of the position makes it such. Saves and Holds are a success driven organization. It is basically the frozen concentrated orange juice stat of the MLB. So fortunate for you, I am sorta of your Billy Ray Valentine. I agree in principle with the "don't pay for saves" theory, except I usually implore you to get one of the top-12 guys instead of filling in the holes and playing the guessing game late in the draft. As I stated in my last post, there are easily 6-7 closer jobs up for grabs this year, and that doesn't even include injuries and save speculation types. That leaves about 12-15 guys who could garner saves or gain the job even before the job is theirs. Drafting for speculation is fun when you have a Kimbrel or Melancon or Oh in the bank already, but when you are basically relying on luck and happenstance in the save game, it basically means you are taking an early punt or hoping to be better then everyone else at the waiver wire. Odds aren't always good depending on waiver rules, because not everyone lives in their mom's basement has all the time in the world to do waiver wire adds all day once breaking news erupts. So for the average Joe's out there, here are five sleeper save guys and five sleepier holds candidates to consider on draft day. Razzball Commenter Leagues are open! Play against our contributors and your fellow readers for prizes. Join here!

OPS Leaguers Unite! So, You Want To Talk About Catcher Rankings…

February 24, 2017 | OPS Leagues | 14 Comments

by: Phil B.

I hope you do, because I'm at best, lukewarm (Yay! Starting off exciting). I’m not sure which I like least, Catchers in Fantasy Baseball or Kickers in Fantasy Football. Both score points/runs, both are integral to their teams, and both bore the ever-living crap out of me. But they are a necessary evil (though would anyone have a problem if we did away with fantasy catchers? I’m sure less would than doing away with kickers) that we have to play with, so while that’s the case, they get rankings. Now that you’re sufficiently warmed up, let’s get to it.