The MLB trade deadline has come and gone and that typically means a lot of scrambling for those in the Razzball Commenter Leagues. Closers are a necessary evil and there’s never a better time to snag a new one then at the MLB trade deadline. This trade deadline we gained a Shane Greene, regained an A.J. Ramos and gained whatever the heck is going to happen in Minnesota. The Twins could name T.C. Bear closer for all I know; it’s not like it would matter much. To everyone stashing Kirby Yates, my condolences. The Padres apparently wouldn’t budge on their steep asking price for Brad Hand, and so we got the shaft. I was sweating the Zach Britton to Houston news for my recently traded for Ken Giles, thankfully that didn’t pan out. Now that the MLB trade deadline is over with, we turn our attention to our own, RCL trade deadline. That, my friends, is Friday, August 11th at high noon. We have 10 days to make the most of our teams for the stretch run. I expect plenty of trading action for the next two updates. There were 12 trades this week, up from 10 the previous two weeks. Let’s take a look at those, and the rest of the happenings in the RCLs in the week that was, week 17:
In the real world, the realm of 20 homers and 20 stolen bases has now become a cheap rack of cheaters at your local pharmacy. The state of the power and thievery in the game, as a combined entity, is a pooh-fest currently filled with zero residents. The possibilities of getting maybe three could happen by the end of the month and those names are first round darlings: Paul Goldschmidt (22/15), Jose Alutve (15/21), and Mookie Betts (17/17) are the closest to reaching the ranks of the common folk from 10 years ago. I have gone over the numbers in previous years posts and the number of 20/20 players is on a perpetual downward slope. So while nothing is guaranteed for the standard "he is a 20/20 player" from year-to-year, the reward when he does it is, well... rewarding. If the standard for the dual threat is just being one of a few who does both, then they deservedly so belong in the first round. Like the three names that I just mentioned. All had ADP preseason in the top-10 and very comfortably. I know it's August and I am here waxing poetic about ADP... Well, it is the first of the month and the other ADP is all about paying people, so I thought it was apropos. So when looking next year at what you can get out of a player, dumb down the 20/20 expectations and limit it to a select and proud few. sad state of affairs, next thing you know we will be giving fantasy participation trophies to everyone so nobodies feelings get hurt. Cheers!
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I'll give you the skinny: Gio Gonzalez threw eight innings of ecstasy last night. Mad props if you actually saw that coming. Baseball is a whole lotta' things, but it's certainly easy to fall ass backward into a pot of luck every now and then. Most years, you can throw away your summer and alienate say, your whole two friends whilst endlessly researching Andrew McCutchen like a madman. Eventually, you'll convince yourself that he'll suck, only for him to turn around, flip you the bird, and hit something close to 30 home runs. Orrrrr, you can be like this guy. Spend five whole minutes researching Gio, glance at his last few starts, and sit him because you're a half-wit. Baseball: ever so humbling. Oh well, enough of that, here are my picks for Tuesday's late-ish slate of games.
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In between offending billions of people, making fun of
An Inconvenient Truth, and bemoaning net neutrality, Grey Albright and I manage to rundown all of the trades at the deadline in ways only Razzball can. We talk Sonny Gray headed to the New York Yankees, Yu Darvish headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jonathan Lucroy to the Colorado Rockies, and a bunch of smaller pitcher trades too. We then celebrate the New York Mets finally calling up Amed Rosario, and debate what his numbers will look like the rest of the way. Finally, we try to predict what the last two months will bring for the slumping Aaron Judge, along with a few of his inexperienced peers, including Alex Bregman, Andrew Benintendi, Cody Bellinger, and Nomar Mazara. As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to
RotoWear.com and entering 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 Podcast:
Baseball's parity is better than any other sport. You can go into the season like, say, the Rockies. No chance at all of the playoffs with no closer, no pitching, an injured offseason acquisition and be a favorite for the playoffs in July, without that offseason acquisition doing anything, not getting anything from your returning superstar shortstop and defying gravity with a pitching staff keeping a team above water even at one mile high. Then, on July 31st, parity goes out the window and all teams doing well get much better and teams struggling sell off everything. Speaking of "I'm rich bitch," the Dodgers traded for Yu Darvish. The deadline was mostly, "Well, there goes a middle reliever," and, "Another middle reliever? Snooze," then, at the last moment, the Dodgers swooped in and grabbed Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani, two more middle relievers. Just like LA to want two Tonys, like Oscars aren't enough. Oh well, nothing big this year. When, thirty-five minutes after the trading deadline, the Dodgers announced, "Psyche, fake-out, we got Darvish too." Los Angeles is about the best landing spot a fantasy owner could hope for Darvish. He has a 9.7 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 3.81 xFIP, but was pitching in the 5th best offensive park. Hello, NL West, Dodger Stadium and facing the Giants and Padres. Now you see LA brewin? Yu sexy, get me some Trojans. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
