The dynamic duo known as Halph is back again! For those of you who don't know who Halph is, that would be yours truly the God MC, and the notorious Michael Halpern of Imaginarybrickwall.com. We're a super duo, we're Halph! It's California week on the Prospect Podcast, as we touch on two teams in the Golden State. We start with the sunny San Diego Padres system, a farm overflowing with talented prospects. The discussion opens with a look at Anderson Espionza's real life value vs fantasy value. We then play would you rather with Hunter Renfroe and Aaron Judge, discuss Manuel Margot's future value, and discuss why Chris Paddack is worth a stash in dynasty. I continue to wax poetic about my love of A.J. Preller, and it's to the point now that you could turn it into a drinking game on this episode. There's some Razz 30 FYPD talk, oh yeah that's our new 30 team dynasty league, run by yours truly. We then briefly touch on some of the options in the Giants system. So it's 80% Padres, 10% bullshizz, and 10% Giants. It's the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.
Monthly Archives: February 2017
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OPS Leaguers Unite! Second Base Here To Stay, In A Major Way
February 3, 2017 | OPS Leagues | 21 Commentsby: Phil B.
OPS leagues are greatest! So now you know. Or at least act like it. Coming off a 2016 with all the homers (even guys like Didi Gregorius) hit, now is the perfect time to jump in and join! OPS incorporates walks like OBP does, and adds in slugging percentage to make a super sexy combo, not unlike Emily Ratajkowski and Instragram.
OPS leagues are all about home runs and power guys. So speed guys, well, they’re tolerated. High average guys, well, they’re okay, as long as they hit triples. In that spirit I encourage every one of you to join an OPS league; once you do, you’ll never go back. I’ll have an OPS league to join if you want to try one with the info at the bottom (so you have to read, or at least scroll; I swear it's worth it).
Now the 2017 season is basically almost upon us. It snuck up on me; month long new years hangover, I wasn’t even thinking about baseball, and then, I logged on to Razzball and there it was, Grey’s top 10 for 2017…and just like that, I was back! And there’s no time to waste!
2017 Team Previews: Arizona Diamondbacks
February 3, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 6 Commentsby: M@
Top 40 Starters for 2017 Fantasy Baseball
February 3, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 285 Commentsby: Grey
The 2017 fantasy baseball rankings are under that link. Why are you lifting your computer? Not literally under that link! Okay, you’re thick like a CVS receipt folded in half twelve times. In years past, the top 40 starters is a mix of guys I like and don’t like. Like a high cholesterol cow, it’s about half and half. This year, I really had to struggle to find guys that I didn’t want to draft in the top 40 starters. In the end, there were five starters in this top 40 starter post I was less okay, and more amscray. Each fantasy team needs about six starters total, so tell me again why you need to draft starters early? There's a ton of them, like, this is simple math. So, simple, there's no actual number and just 'a ton.' As with past rankings, my tiers and projections are included for the low, low price of $19.99! Kidding, they’re free. The oxygen you need to live while reading them is gonna cost you though. Anyway, here’s the top 40 starters for 2017 fantasy baseball:
Gingerphobia is the fear, dislike, or hatred of people with red hair. If every red head looked like Carrot Top, I'd probably have gingerphobia myself. Fortunately, my ex-girlfriend looked like this.
It is said that 1-2% of the world's population has red hair, so it makes sense that many would have some apprehension toward people with MC1R, the gene for red hair. For some, the experience of first contact was probably how the Native Americans reacted when they saw the first Europeans. If that doesn't jive with you, then imagine how your first extraterrestrial contact will be. Personally, I didn't even notice the color of my ex-girlfriend's hair. In fact, I just now noticed that she had any hair on her head at all.
So why am I rambling about MC1R and Carrot Top for this week's Bear or Bull? Because.....as much as we live in our fantasy baseball bubble...or mom's basement....the outside world...aka...society...aka....people...still play a huge part in perceptions of players, ADP, etc. And where there are people...there are biases and values start popping up like magic mushrooms in the "?" box.
I found these gems in a box in my basement!
Personally I dislike online drafts. Don't get me wrong, they are convenient and, at this point, a necessity, but they take way too much of the preparation out of the process. I miss the days when I had to show up live with a Trapper Keeper containing the research I had done over the last four weeks. Players organized by position using folder tabs, handwritten cheatsheets, a set of highlighters and, of course, one of those magazines I just sh*t on just because I felt I had to. Now you can log into your league's online draft site ten minutes before your draft and it has all the players laid out for you with rankings, projections and average draft position. What used to take weeks of hard work and determination has now been reduced to something many take for granted. What I hate the most is that a player isn't going to slip by someone because they missed them when doing their research, or they forgot to write their name down when they were transferring their notes from a page of scribble to a much neater sheet of players. Now when it's your turn it pretty much shows you who you should pick. With that all said I realize that the days of live drafts has come and gone. They are just not realistic anymore. My primary points league has participants spread out all over the country. Does California still count? Aren't they pushing for secession? That's about as good of an idea as drafting [player]Yordano Ventura[/player] with your first round pick! Too early? Top 20 Starters for 2017 Fantasy Baseball
February 2, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 216 Commentsby: Grey
The royal we already went over all the hitters for 2017 fantasy baseball rankings. That’s not the "royal we" as that term usually implies. It was me writing it alone while wearing a Burger King crown. I refuse to draft a top starter where they are usually drafted. Unlike hitters, you need six starters, depending on your league depth. Simple math tells us there’s plenty of starters to go around. Simple Math also says, “Stop putting words in my mouth!” In most leagues, there’s a ton of pitchers on waivers that can help you — all year. Not just in April, and then they disappear. With the help of the Stream-o-Nator, you can get by with, say, three starters while streaming the rest. There’s also the fact that three stats by starters are difficult to predict due to luck. Wins, ERA and WHIP are prone to shift due to which way the ball bounces and whether or not the guys behind the pitchers can score runs. Finally, the best starters can give you four categories. The best hitters can give you five categories. As always, where I see tiers starting and stopping are included and my projections. Anyway, here's the top 20 starters for 2017 fantasy baseball:
2017 Minor League Preview: San Francisco Giants
February 1, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 33 Commentsby: Geoff
The Giants are one of the more unheralded organization's in sports when you step back and consider the immense success they've achieved over the past 10 years. Yet they seem to rarely get credit when talking about the top teams of the last decade. And from a player development standpoint they're just as underrated. While they're certainly no juggernaut on par with the Astros, Red Sox, and Dodgers of the world; they've done a good job of developing a solid core of players, including two of the best at their respective positions in Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey. However, in recent years the Giants have been short on high impact prospects, instead churning out role players, and back end of the rotation pitchers. While not much has changed in that regard, there's hope that Bryan Reynolds, Heath Quinn, and 2015 2nd rounder Andrew Suarez could give them a few above average major league players in the making. Real baseball Ralph...... Why do I care? Honestly, depending upon league size you don't have to. But for those of you who are deep league junkies like myself, there's a core of interesting fringe prospects that could offer sneaky value in the short term. So you'll notice there's no Tier 1: Specs On the Beach in this system, but they're overflowing with Tier 2: Floorbored types, led by 2014 first rounder Tyler Beede. This falls in line with their overall draft strategy over the past few seasons, preferring high floor picks to those with higher ceilings. I think this year's crop strayed from that mantra a little in the later rounds but I'm sure San Fran will boring them up. Okay, now that I've attached one hundred qualifiers to this intro, let's talk some prospects! It's the Top San Francisco Giants Prospects for 2017 Fantasy Baseball.
Couch Managers 2017 Industry Mock Draft Recap, Rounds 13-18
February 1, 2017 | 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 9 Commentsby: mikeMaher
Here we are, the third of four posts about the Couch Managers 2017 Industry Mock Draft. Previously, I posted recaps of rounds 1-6 and rounds 7-12. This post is for rounds 13-18. The final post will be for rounds 19-23. Complicated stuff, I know. But try to keep up.
In case you have yet to see my previous posts, here is a quick recap of the league rules for this mock:
This mock was for a 15-team, 5×5 roto, with 23 roster spots made up of 9 pitchers (9), 1 spot for each position (8), a second catcher (1), 2 more outfielders (2), one corner infielder (1), one middle infielder (1), and one utility position (1).As I have done with the other posts, I'll post the results below by round and will offer a few of my thoughts for each round...
Top 5 Designated Hitters for 2017 Fantasy Baseball
February 1, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 139 Commentsby: Grey
I stopped doing the top 5 designated hitters a few years ago because there was only one guy, Papi Grande, that was only eligible at DH that was worth discussing. Then last year happened, and Ron Blomberg finally had something to talk about again at the bingo hall. "If you wanna sit by your bingo cards while I come in and hit them with the marker for you, I can do that." That’s Blomberg keeping his DH muscles on the ready. Now, this year, with Big Papi retired and Sano having a position, this post again feels irrelevant, but what the hey! All of the 2017 fantasy baseball rankings are under that rather self-explanatory link. As with all other posts, I say when tiers start and stop and give you my projections. If you want, here’s the 2017 position eligibility chart that doesn’t contain any of the guys in this post. Anyway, here’s the top 5 designated hitters for 2017 fantasy baseball:
