[player]Paul DeJong[/player] (25.7% owned - increase of 19.2%) is batting .313/.331/.602 with nine home runs, 17 runs scored, and 20 RBI in 128 at-bats. Over the past week of regular season games, DeJong is 11-for-16 with five doubles and three home runs. He has hit a home run in three consecutive games! Why am I suddenly walking through a Vegas casino and see a roulette board showing that the last 15 spins have all been red? "Always bet on black." When trying to dig deeper into DeJong, Fangraphs just happens to be down. Kind of like every missle launch that the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un has had. Thank goodness the internet has a plethora of options for any and every subject matter. Too much perhaps? North Korea scoffs at the notion, as they have just 28 websites. Anyways, DeJong is striking out 28.6% of the time and has an ISO of .289. The BABIP is also .378, so expect that .313 batting average to come down. DeJong is eligible at 3B/2B/SS, but he's batting eighth in the batting order. He did hit .299 with 13 home runs in 190 at-bats down in Triple-A, so there's hope, the same amount as an American going to North Korea and not getting arrested for being a spy. TRASH...
Monthly Archives: July 2017
Learn more about our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!
The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.
I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!
Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.
OPS Leaguers Unite! OPS 1st Half Stars (Part 2)!
July 15, 2017 | OPS Leagues | 12 Commentsby: Phil B.
Hope all of you out in Razzballland (who doesn’t like the ol’ triple L) enjoyed the All-Star Break. We all now know making the All-Star game an exhibition game again was a great idea. It’s just too bad they only scored three total runs. Still I’ll take the more fun baseball games and juiced baseballs; reminds me of the nineties. This season thus far has been a throwback to those days, right?
I think what the MLB marketing department did was they looked at the last truly successful, cross cultural, baseball era and it was the steroid era, right? Admittedly people did care and pay attention when the Cubs won last year and when the Red Sox won their first but that’s World Series time, a couple weeks in October. But baseball needs fans for 162 games and that means continuing to target casual fans. For example, my wife. She knows about Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire but didn’t know who Mike Trout was until we went to an Angels game. She doesn’t know Bryce Harper; she does know ARod and Barry Bonds but she’s familiar with baseball enough to go because of those guys (and buy a hat and a t-shirt and a hot dog and frozen lemonade). Point being, if baseball wants that all-important demographic that really doesn’t care about baseball (but will go to games) they should stick to this...
Called upon in the ninth inning to protect a one run lead [player]Aroldis Chapman[/player] blew his third save of the season Friday night surrendering two hits and two walks and allowing two earned runs. After giving up an infield single to Mookie Betts to start the inning, Didi Gregorius mishandled a Dustin Pedroia single that could have been a double play ball to put two men on and the Yankees unraveled from there. The blown save was not entirely Chapman's fault here as the Yankees defense botched two straight double play balls, and then a double steal really flustered Chapman leading him to walk the next two batters including the game winning run. The loss highlights a Yankee bullpen that has been god awful lately with set up man Dellin Betances rocking an 8.68 ERA and 2.14 WHIP over the past month and Chapman sporting a 8.10 ERA in July with a .412 BAA. Talk about a bullpen in La La Land! Speaking of Award snubs and perfect segues, the fans have spoken, the emails have continued rolling in (seriously guys, get a life!) and the suspicious packages have arrived on my doorstep. Back by popular demand I return to bring you the fourth annual 2017 mid-season fantasy all-star awards. *And the crowd goes wild!* I don't want to pile on Chapman here with a Razzie award but he did walk in the winning run so I'm going to give an award to Andrew Benintendi for easiest game winning RBI ever. To be honest, I just really wanted to give Beni Baseball an award.
Here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:
FanDuel: California Reaming
July 15, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel, Fantasy Baseball DFS | 2 Commentsby: VictoriaB
And how did you spend your All-Star Break? Rocking and crying in a corner, like I did? Thankfully, baseball is back and my twitching has even just about subsided. Today, for our first over-the-halfway-hump Saturday on FanDuel, there’s a ton of good pitching (discussed below), but my focus turns to one game in particular: the sweet intra-state match-up as Madison Bumgarner (at a not-so-sweet $11,000) squares up against the San Diego Padres in Petco Park.
This is, of course, Mad Bum’s return from the DL after leaving his dirt bike shoulder-first (ouch). I know, normally I too would be leery of starting a returning pitcher immediately, but this is Mad Bum. This start’s in Petco; it’s not quite the pitcher’s mecca it used to be, but still pitcher friendly. The Padres can’t hit lefties, to the tune of a .214 average. And in his last rehab start, Bumgarner struck out 8. So I’m paying up for him and finding ways to fill up my lineup around him as cheaply (and probably badly!) as possible. Mostly by picking on Derek Holland, to be honest: Mariners hitters offer a definite stack possibility today.
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!
I start the podcast by letting Ralph’s real first name slip on air by accident in a conversation about me fearing that I would let Ralph’s real first name slip on air by accident (I don’t think he heard me, though, shhhh). We then discuss the blockbuster Eloy Jimenez trade, along with how much the news of Jay Groome’s father’s arrest should impact his fantasy value, if at all. We talk fake call-ups (Yoan Moncada), real call-ups (Zack Granite), and prospective call-ups (Amed Rosario, Rhys Hoskins, Brent Honeywell, Dominic Smith, Scott Kingery, and many more). Finally, I look forward to Rappin’ Ralph and Nick the Smooth Dick being featured on an upcoming RotoRhymes track, but in the meantime, make sure to head over to RotoWear.com and enter promo code “SAGNOF” to get 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy game right now. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:
We break from the usual 12 dollar salads, donkeys, and hypothermia to breakdown, in basic fashion, the relief rankings for the final 70-plus games. Why is this helpful you may ask? Because for trade target reasons or chasing saves for points, you may want guy A over guy B. With the relief ranks it is as fluid as a clogged sewer drain, because on any given week, the middling type closer can hit bumps in the road and be removed from contention. So if you are using this as a trade commodity in your quest to add saves, my advice is this add the elite only. Nothing lower than the top-12. These guys are all nailed on and in an impressive state, barring an injury obviously. Now with that, we also have to realize that trades will happen... and take one reliever from a good situation to a better one, then on the reflexive of that, it can turn one with a job into a set-up situation. Regardless, here is my stab at the top relief pitchers for the second half of the Fantasy Baseball season. Cheers!
Ever played Fantasy Soccer? Wanna try? The Fantasy Premier League Season is about to begin, check out Razzball Soccer for all your Fútbol needs!
Points Leagues: Rise Of The Vottoman Empire
July 14, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 26 Commentsby: malamoney
FanDuel: Who’s On First? I Don’t Know. THIRD BASE!
July 14, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel | 2 Commentsby: cinthree
After one month spent as a visiting blogger for Monday picks, I have returned to the spot where I really broke through in the world of Daily Fantasy Blogging, FanDuel Friday. So we’re back to a one-pitcher site and positions mattering. And on today’s slate, we actually have a perfect example of how positions matter, because Third Base is loaded today. You’re going to have to make a tough choice at third, and that choice may well be the difference between winning and losing (because if your third baseman stinks, you’re in trouble because with so many good choices in good matchups, odds are the public will get good production at the position). It’s actually to the point where the Braves decision to move Freeman leftward on the defensive spectrum makes everything more complicated - if Freeman was a 1B, he’d be the lockiest chalk-lock of all-time today, and you’d have one less quality 3B to consider. Instead, we have an absolute logjam at 3B, and very little in the way of cash-viable 1Bs. I remember the good ol’ days of one month ago, when Donaldson and Beltre were hurt, Turner and Lamb were overpriced, Machado and Seager were still priced as if they weren’t in massive slumps, and Nolan was priced as if he was playing in Coors even when he wasn’t - you were pretty much looking at either spending up for Bryant, spending down with Gyorko or Castellanos, or splitting the difference with Longoria. Those were the good ol’ days!
On to the picks once Freeman is 1B again...
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!
Since there were no games this week and players haven’t been able to get hot or cold or humid, this Buy/Sell is going to be slightly different. This Buy/Sell includes some players that are owned in more than 50% of leagues. Okay, that’s not different for the Sells, but it does change the Buys. "Hello? No, B-U-Y-S. Thanks, you too!" That was GLAAD calling me about potential insensitivity. I have not triggered anyone in almost three days, unless you count that fisherman I saw with a pipe that I called "Hipster Popeye." As I mentioned in my top 100 for the 2nd half of 2017 fantasy baseball, my biggest Buy of the 2nd half is Manny Machado. He's about to come on in the 2nd half like he's Mickey Maris in 1927 with Barry Bonds’s personal trainer. For the 2nd half, I gave Machado the projections of 48/18/49/.288/3. This year he's been gun shy. He's swung at 4% less pitches inside the strike zone. Either guessing wrong, or just being flat out beat by fastballs. Ground balls have gone through the roof (especially if ants are reading) and fly balls have fallen, and I don't mean a defective zipper. Bad swings, and weak contact? I'm gonna call them flailing balls, lightly chuckle to myself and sip my Tom Collins. That's all bad news, said Mr. Exposition. The good news is, it's a small sample size -- that's what she said snidely! -- and it's been mostly propped by a terrifically terrible -- terribically? -- May. His May was so bad it will hold down his season-long stats. In May, he had a 6% line drive rate and a 51% ground ball rate. El oh what? Was he a 78-year-old Jeter for a month? By the way, 78-year-old Jeter is dating your 23-year-old niece, and you're proud of her. You absolutely should buy Machado, and on the pronto. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
As in our inaugural post last week (in which we managed to break both Jason Vargas and Jim Johnson! Who will it be this week?), Dr. Easy and I will be taking another look at a few more players who may be doing better or worse than you thought they were. To do this, once again we went trawling through the Razzball Season-to-Date Player Rater (all hail Rudy, Rudy for king — hell, let’s just elect him Fantasy Baseball Overlord), looking for surprising performances to help you with trade targets, waiver wire pickups and DFS plays.
Precipiently* (*not a word), in Monday’s daily goodness, Grey referred to the crap-ton** (**not a Système International unit, for the scientists playing along at home) of home runs that are being launched at the moment. “I have two mixed leagues where I feel like if I’m not getting at least five homers per day, I’m falling behind,” he hath quoth. Dr. Easy and I had just started to think about a similar thing: in this brand-new reality, in each category considered by the Player Rater, what constitutes “falling behind”? Take a guess: what would constitute a good HR or SB season? How many home runs are enough home runs? How many steals does a player have to have — or be on pace for — to be giving you value in a particular category? So this week, we’re taking a look at that too...
Ambulance Chasers, Week 15: All-Star Broken
July 13, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 11 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
Seems like even the injury bug is down in Miami enjoying the All-Star game so we've got a light load of injuries this week. However, I fully expect him to come back twice as strong once everyone starts exerting themselves again after enjoying Mama's home cooking and catching up on Orange is the New Black on the couch for the week.
As always, if you've got league specific injury questions please leave them below in the comments and I'll get back to you!
Bear or Bull: Marwin Is A Real (Bleeping) G
July 13, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 6 Commentsby: Son
Marwin Gonzalez is batting .308/.391/.576 with 16 home runs, 29 runs scored, 53 RBI, and four stolen bases in 258 plate appearances. On the Razzball Player Rater, Gonzalez is the 62nd overall player. But it gets better. G is the 13th first baseman, ninth third baseman, and 26th outfielder. Holla! Is it sustainable?
