Alonso Shipped Off To The Way Northwest Yonder

August 7, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 388 Comments

Let's just go on what logic tells us. Not Logic, the rapper, but logic the thing you've been chipping away at with your weed smoking. In 2015, Billy Beane traded Drew Pomeranz to the Padres for Yonder Alonso. At the time, we have to assume Beane wanted a slugging first baseman. A guy that could hit 25+ homers. Okay, so they dealt with terrible Alonso for two years, and, then, when they get what you think they had to be hoping for, they trade him for a prospect (Boog Powell) that many believe is a bench player. Now, even if Powell pans out, you had in Alonso what you wanted already. I'm beginning to think Beane just does trades to do trades. If you were to hear in fifteen years that Beane was trying to make the A's worse to get out of Oakland, would anyone be surprised? Moneyball 2 is going to be starring Jamie Kennedy and straight-to-DVD. Any hoo! Alonso loses some value going to the M's because he'll likely platoon with Danny Valencia (hit his 13th homer on Sunday), though, I guess it could be argued this is a positive move for Alonso, because he's hit .188 vs. lefties this year. As for Powell, the A's might promote and platoon him because what do they have to lose? Or rather, what do they have to win? If they're lucky, Boog will bring some of his trademark ribs. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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If Only Aaron Nola Was At Saberseminar

August 6, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 6 Comments

by: Lance

In case you can't tell from my dull, unoriginal title, I really tried to find a way to open this column with Saberseminar 2017 in Boston. Yesterday and today, the most analytically inclined minds in the baseball industry gathered in a college lecture hall on Boston University's campus to mull over the most finite details in the game. Rick Hahn (White Sox GM) spoke candidly about his club's rebuild and how he and his staff emotionally deal with "teardowns" - he even spilled some beans that Reynaldo Lopez might be called up for a start Friday (#LanceTheBeatWriter) - while Tom Tippett, Red Sox Senior Analyst, dove into all the details unaccounted for in dollar-per-WAR retrospective contract valuations. There was even a chemist by the name of Stephanie Springer - unrelated to George Springer - who closed her powerpoint with an ominous bullet-point implying players might have an advantage in PED screening (yowzas indeed). I plan on detailing my experience in a post for my brainchild BigThreeSports, but let's get to the matter at hand. We need to talk about Aaron Nola...

Hey Batter³ Contest: I Am The Bregman, They Are The Bregman, I Am The Walrus, Goo Goo G’joob

August 6, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 15 Comments

by: malamoney

Even though I'm not really a Beatles fan I still like their music. Did I just contradict myself with that statement. Perhaps instead of the word "like" I should have used "appreciate". I own some of their music, but usually when a Beatles song comes on when I'm shuffling, I skip to the next. Everyday I'm shuffling! And if I said I knew what channel the Beatles channel was on Sirius I'd be lying. All this be true, yet my hat's off to The Fab Four. Peace and love!

FantasyDraft: Cutch a Pirate by His Toe

August 6, 2017 | DFS, FantasyDraft |

by: FredWord

Don’t get it twisted, ok I got it twisted. I decided to change things up and switch to recommending an offensive player as my lede today. I’ll admit it’s been tough to pick pitchers this season and I need to shake things up. Let’s move on to my pick of the day Andrew McCutchen. I had McCutchen in my write up last Sunday when he went off for 3 home runs. I’m not expecting him to repeat that last performance, however, I’m banking on him to hit a least one today. The price tag is steep at $10,000 but he is the 2^nd best hitter against left handed pitching this season behind Nolan Arenado. McCutchen only has has 18 home runs on the year and 8 of them are from lefties. To expand further on this less than a 1/3 of his at bats have been against lefties this year. He is batting .325 against lefties this season. What I’m saying is don’t be the guy without Cutch in your lineup today. New to FantasyDraft ? 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!

Minor League Update: Eloy Battles Chicago Style Fake News

August 6, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 69 Comments

by: Geoff

Since surviving a vicious industry wide-Cub Fan driven smear campaign, Eloy Jimenez has been a man with a mission. Since joining Winston-Salem, the Chi-Sox high A affiliate, he’s slashed .352/.418/.690 with 5 homers and 18 RBI’s in his first 20 games. The 20 year old slugger has continued to make improvements at the plate in 2017, walking at a 10% clip, while maintaining K rates at or below 20%. The combination of contact, patience, and power is a rare one. This is why I rank Eloy amongst the very elite prospects in the game, with such contemporaries as Acuna, Robles, Guerrero, and Tucker. He’s likely to spend the remainder of 2017 in Winston-Salem, before being assigned to AA next season out of camp. He has a real shot at the number one prospect in all of baseball, once Ronald Acuna heads to the majors. Despite all of his recent success and oodles of upside, it will be years before we find out just how high of a price the Cubs paid for Quintana. That’s not to say that Jimenez is can’t miss, though he’s a close as they come. The Chicago White Sox system is full of future potential stars, but none shine brighter at the moment than Eloy. A future .280/35/100 player is the ceiling, with a power hitting DH floor. It wouldn’t shock me if we saw Jimenez some time in late 2018, with the mostly likely time frame being September. Here’s what else I saw in the MiLB...

Two-Start Starters, Week 19: Put Your Trust In Godley?

August 5, 2017 | Two Start Fantasy Starters | 16 Comments

by: mikeMaher

We have a bit of a light lineup this week due to some off days on Monday and Thursday, so Week 19 will be more of a challenge to find value among the Two-Start Starters. It sounds like Max Scherzer is going to be healthy enough to go and make his two starts, but that only helps out Scherzer owners and not the rest of us who are looking for some available value. Even Streamonator is down on Week 19, as there weren’t any available starters owned in less than 75% of RCLs with a positive dollar value. There is one possible exception to that statement*, but we’re not going to let statistically-based advice from Streamonator stop us from rolling the dice this week, right? There are, however, a few starters in our Replicas that I would roll with this week who might be available in your leagues. It will likely be harder to grab at least two of these starters in an RCL where waivers and ownership are a bit more savage, but all three are owned in less than 75% of ESPN leagues.

Buy It Like Tim Beckham

August 5, 2017 | Uncategorized | 31 Comments

by: Dan Pants

[player]Tim Beckham[/player] was a perfect 4-for-4 Friday night at Camden yards with his fourteenth home run of the year. He's now homered in back to back ball games. Welcome to Baltimore, Timmah! Where everyone hits everything. Beckham's bomb came off Tiger's ace Justin Verlander in the second inning to tie the game at one. He added base hits in each of his next three trips to the plate. Sure, his .279/.331/.453 slash is nothing to write home about, but that was with Tampa. Let's leave the past in St Petersburg and let's look at that slash line for Beckham since arriving in Baltimore: .688/.688/1.375! Much nicer, right? And that 2.063 OPS? Unreal! OK, so maybe I'm having a little too much fun with small sample sizes but the truth is Tim Beckham is a hot little crab cake right now! He's 11-for-16 in his last four games with three doubles and two homers. He's also scored five runs with four RBI in that stretch. As long as J.J. Hardy is sidelined, Beckham should see playing time every day and you need to ride him while he's hot. Also, for a player in the midst of a career year in Tampa, playing in the friendly Camden confines and in a much stronger Orioles line up should only help his production. He's out there in about 85% of leagues, if you're in need of a hot middle infielder, there are few bending it hotter than Beckham right now. Here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:

FanDuel: Off to a Rockies Start

August 5, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel |

by: VictoriaB

And suddenly, it’s August. Week 18 of the season. Ahhh, I remember the good ol' days of April, when former World Series contenders (*cough* Blue Jays *cough*) still had hopes of surfing their wave of 2016 success into 2017. I also remember the very first post I wrote for you lovelies, on April 8th, because here we are again, on a new go-around on the great Monopoly board of life (do pass “Go”; do collect $200), with the Phillies facing the Rockies in Colorado. The last time this match-up happened on a Saturday, poor old Jeremy Guthrie gave up 10 runs—on his birthday, to boot. I don't wish that on anyone, but I do want all those runs again! A platter of relatively slim pickings on the pitching front has me wishing I didn’t have to start any pitchers today in my FanDuel slate, but we do what we must: fade (just a little) on pitching while paying up for hitting. Luckily, there are a couple of reasonably priced pitchers today — Gerrit Cole and Drew Pomeranz, I'm looking at you — around whom we can build our lineups. 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!

Prospect Podcast: Recent Call-ups, Future Call-ups, and Willie Calhoun

August 5, 2017 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 25 Comments

by: Halp

“When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers” - Oscar Wilde Ralph Lifshitz and I started last week’s podcast by praying to the baseball gods for Willie Calhoun to be traded to the American League. We got our wish … and he is still blocked. Thanks, Shin-Soo Choo. Shockingly, we did manage to talk about more than Willie during this week's podcast. We discussed our expectations of recent call-ups Amed Rosario, Ozzie Albies, Lucas Sims, and Jesse Winker, along with trying to predict the next wave of prospects to hit the bigs, including Reynaldo Lopez, Tyler Glasnow, Tyler Mahle, Rhys Hoskins, Franklin Barreto, and Lucas Giolito. Finally, we dove into the minor league promotions of Adrian Morejon, Alex Jackson, and Yusnial Diaz, and of course, we highly advise you to head over to RotoWear.com and enter promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:

Go To Buy With One Eye Open With Winker

August 4, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 288 Comments

by: Grey

Here's a picture of Reds' outfielder, Jesse Winker:

The first thing people notice about him is he looks drunk and half-Asian. He was throwing back soju and partying in an 8x10 room with three other people singing karaoke? No, siree! Or, no Siri, if a female computer is reading. Next, you might wonder why the big grin. He doesn't have a body, ears, hair, arms, anything but a head really, so how can he keep such an upbeat attitude? Well, let me put it to you this way, maybe it's a body, ears, hair, etc. that bums people out. You never thought of that, did you? Okay, I'm being silly, but it's Friday. By the way, the other day, I realized that the days of the week MTWTFSS have WTF in the middle of them. Mind -->blown. So, with Schebler DL'd for an indefinite period of time, Winker has taken over right and started batting 2nd. His power was goofy low in the minors this year (2 HRs in 85 games), but he doesn't strike out, does walk and could hit .290. I know, a lot of good that does with diddly poo on power, but he has homered twice this week, and did have more power before this year in the minors. I'd grab him in all leagues to see if he found his stroke, even if we're not sure what exactly he'd be stroking with. Is that why he's smiling? Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

Bullpen Report: August Job Swap

August 4, 2017 | Closers, Middle Relievers, SAGNOF | 11 Comments

by: Smokey

The trade deadline usually makes a real hash out of bullpens, and this year was no different. Closers become just ordinary relievers. Ordinary relievers become closers on teams punting. Even further down, the holds through the obtuse guys now become a usable commodity. Fantasy baseball with hold leagues, catch the spirit! So like I was just saying, we have seen 5-6 teams rip apart their pecking order for hold-dom, and in some cases muddle up the closer order by trade, attrition, or subtraction. This is a good thing, makes decisions easier. Aim for guys on teams that are still getting you save opportunities. If you can't find the stat, always fall back on the standings to guide your waiver wire hand. Or even more finite, look at that teams W/L record over the last 10 games. It is no coincidence that the top three teams in save opportunities since the All-Star break have winning records (Dodgers, Mariners, and Blue Jays). Also, if you haven't been streaming Holds yet this year, there is no better time than the present. The list of holds leaders over the last 15 games is littered with names that weren't even in print by me for the whole year. So don't be afraid to roster the unknown rather than a commodity because with the season basically over in six weeks (three if you have playoffs), every one counts and every H2H win counts. Cheers!

Points Leagues: It’s Not Delivery, It’s DeJong-o

August 4, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 11 Comments

by: malamoney

Is it just me or does it seem like the St. Louis Cardinals have a prospect tree growing somewhere in Memphis? Last week I had a beer with Tim Lincecum at a dive bar in northern New Jersey. Turns out he's a coach/umpire for the Police Athletic League (PAL) of Bergen county. According to Tim, he shared a spliff with a dude that once toked with [player]Alex Reyes[/player], and he told Tim that Alex told him that John Mozeliak admitted to combining Oscar Tavares' ashes with a seed and soil mixture to grow a prospect tree. Apparently the process is becoming quite popular. How long until we start smoking people? Inquiring minds, like [player]Seth Romero[/player] and [player]Jon Singleton[/player], want to know.