Grey Albright and I started the podcast by reminiscing about porn in the pre-internet days, where going “incognito” meant sneaking into the bathroom for five minutes with a Playboy. That seamlessly transitioned us into fantasy baseball talk, of course, as we got equally as excited about the historic rookie seasons of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. We broke down Miguel Cabrera's disappointing year, and discussed how far he will drop in 2018 rankings. At the midway point, Ralph Lifshitz joined the show to discuss Jeff Samardzija, Marcus Stroman, Jose Ramirez, Marcell Ozuna, and Amed Rosario. Finally, 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:
Monthly Archives: September 2017
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Haniger The Mariner Shows His Manager A Little Character
September 26, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 125 Commentsby: Grey
I am a winner who's probably gonna win again. Giancarlo, forgive me! Giancarlo, forgive me! So many swings I don't understand. Sometimes I need to stream Tommy Milone. Mitch don't kill my vibe! Mitch don't kill my vibe! I can feel your energy while Judge hits homers two planets away. I got my drink, I got my music. I would share it, but today I'm yelling. Mitch don't kill my vibe! Mitch don't kill my vibe! (repeat 2x) Yesterday, Mitch Haniger (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) hit his 15th and 16th homers, and now has 4 homers in the last nine games. He even has a steal, and his run game got the whole world talkin'. King Kunta. Oops, wrong Kendrick Lamar song. If you need help this final week, grab this *itch. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Two-Start Starters, Week 26: Snells Like A Championship
September 25, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Two Start Pitchers | 6 Commentsby: mikeMaher
Greetings and welcome to the last Two-Start Starters post of the year. With it being the last week of the season, make sure you take this list with the biggest grain of salt you can find. Just stay away from the bath salts. That will lead to entirely different issues in the coming weeks.
For the last week, obviously, our problem is that these rotations are written in pencil. As more and more teams clinch the playoffs and become locked into their spots, they will rest starters. Some teams, looking ahead to a potential one-game playoff (which is the dumbest thing baseball has ever decided to do, but that is a rant for another time), may even tweak their rotation to get a certain starter lined up for that crucial game. So, disclaimer over. Take this list as a starting point, but know that it could be very fluid throughout the week.
The first thing you may notice is that Chris Sale is scheduled to make two starts, but I did not include him in the rankings. That is because that second start is not a certainty by any means, and I would argue it is very unlikely. If the Red Sox have already clinched the division, there is little chance he starts or, if he does, that he pitches deep into the game. If the Red Sox might be destined for a Wild Card Playoff game, then they will likely want to keep Sale fresh to be able to start that game. Sale is obviously still worth starting for his one start, but don’t bank on getting two starts from him this week.
There are others who are probably in similar situations. I removed Dallas Keuchel, Jon Lester, Luis Severino, and Jake Arrieta because I would avoid them strictly for two start purposes. Obviously, those are still pitchers worth starting; they just are not reliable options if you absolutely need two starts. While I left them on the list, I would also avoid Yu Darvish, Alex Wood, and Carlos Martinez.
As for the Streamonator picks for this week, there are actually seven starters with positive money values who are owned in less than 75% of RCLs:
FantasyDraft: Yu Nola It’s The Last Monday For DFS Baseball
September 25, 2017 | DFS, FantasyDraft |by: Teddy Heater
Wow! Time really does fly when you're having fun. I honestly can't believe that the 2017 fantasy baseball season is already over...well, almost. Kudos to you who are still fighting the good fight all the way til the end. Tip of the cap to you. It's been real fo sho and I hope you all have a great offseason but before you go, let's talk about our two top arms tonight. Yu Darvish at $24,00o is the top pitcher on the board tonight and I love the start against the Padres. I know we've been picking on them all year and if my calculations are correct, it's paid off, about 82% of the time. Darvish had a rough time finding his groove in Dodger blue right out of the gate, but he's thrown up two 23+ fantasy point starts in the last 2 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers for a 30+ night, time to let the big dog eat. Meanwhile, Aaron Nola at $15,600 is facing the Nationals tonight and the Streamonator loves this start right behind Darvish. Frankly, Nola has been great all year and the Nats have been resting guys. If Nola gets a light Washington lineup then all in on him in both cash and tourney play. Now that are pitching is locked and loaded, let's go see who we can pair with Stanton in Coors.
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!
Aaron’s Amazing Stats Worth The Awful Puns? You Be The Judge
September 25, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 257 Commentsby: Grey
Let's see, all rise for the Judge. Can I get a witness for Judge? Judge, jury and executioner of fastballs. This is one Judge who should never see the bench. There's a ten from the East German for Judge! Well, you can be the Judge of that, not really tho. You can Judge a book by how hard he knocks the cover off the ball. And, of course, five minutes to Judge Mollywhopper. All right, all right, enough. Yesterday, Aaron Judge went 2-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs with his 47th and 48th homer, as he hits .281. I don't want to have to bring out the caps, but he's a ROOKIE. *inserts meme of white guy blinking* He has the rookie record for walks, within one of the rookie record for home runs and the first player with 200 Ks and a .262+ average in baseball history. I looked through the last 120 years of baseball for a comparable year, and I found Mike Schmidt's best year and a not-yet-white Sammy Sosa. So, a Phillie hero and vitiligo. In the 2nd half, Judge 'only' has 18 homers, and increased his K-rate to 32.9% from 29.8, only hitting .213. In 2018, there's going to be huge risk and reward when drafting Judge. I'd be shocked if he falls further than the top 15 overall, so you're gonna have to gamble that he won't hit 40 HRs with a .240, and be essentially Khris Davis. Either way, it's gonna be tough to Judge. Ugh. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
With the majority of my roto leagues signaling their solidarity, I've found myself enamored with 2018, more so than any other year of my fantasy baseball playing career. There is a point - in most leagues - where the tides of 2017 halt their shifty tendencies. No longer is that seventh place team making a four-spot jump over one weekend; no longer are you running to MLB.com's shop to buy a shirsey of a player who just tagged three homers for your squad.
In these moments you no longer think of a player like Byron Buxton, Zack Godley, or Hunter Renfroe with wonder for his next two weeks, but instead fix keen eyes on any adjustments that might stick when the new year comes. Figuring out your level of trust with players like this is essentially mock drafting... with yourself... in your own head.
My last two columns on Razzball covered some guesses for hype-laden players and their 2018 ADP (here and here). Natural progression suggests that it's now time for some mock drafting. Justin Mason of Friends with Fantasy Benefits wrangled some analysts and poof, we currently have FOUR mock drafts running. At the writing of this, each sits different pick intervals, with about 60 spots worth of picks between the freshest and most antique .
Follow the action as it unfolds. Notable participants include...
I'm tag teaming today's post with FredWord who had to attend a quaint country wedding where wifi doesn't exist. Fred wrote up some pitchers, and I'll fill in the rest. Also of note, this is typically a day for FantasyDraft content, however, they have shuttered their baseball doors early to make way for fooseball. Harumph! The nerve! No harm, no foul though, we'll just pass the content over to FanDuel for the final week. Now, onto Fred's lede:
Please raise your hand if you were kicked out of the playoffs last week. Phew! I thought I was the only one. I’m still a bit numb from being kicked out the first week of the playoffs. I refuse to log into my app to salvage a 5th place finish. Instead I logged in early the first morning to scavenge any free agent rookies who might be a keeper next year. I have turned all my attention to DFS for the final week of baseball. An interesting pick for today is Jharel Cotton ($5,900). Cotton is coming off a groin injury and likely will be under owned. He gets a favorable matchup at home vs the Rangers who tend to strikeout a lot. In his last start against the Rangers he had 9 k’s in 6 innings. Probably the biggest factor to this equation is Cotton is from St. Thomas Virgin Islands who was recently devastated by hurricane Irma. Cotton is going to be pitching with a lot of emotion today. This would be more of a tournament play as there is always risk playing a guy coming off interest.
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 Rankings: Top 10 Catching Prospects
September 24, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 41 Commentsby: Geoff
Last year, my brother from another mother, Michael C. Halpern, predicted a new wave of offensive catchers. Players like Gary Sanchez, Tom Murphy, and Willson Contreras were here to lead the first wave in a new generation. Fast forward one year later, and Gary Sanchez and Contreras are in fact leading a new generation of good hitting catchers, while the other guy has been erased from my memory. Or at least I thought, I'm shocked I can even recall Tom Murphy's name. But that's neither here nor there. We have some exciting catchers to cover. That's right, I used the words exciting and catchers in the same sentence! This sounds like Razzball sacrilege! But it's true, because, for the first time since the Clinton administration, there's as many as 10 crouching tigers I would own in dynasty. Here's to this wave of talented backstops being better than the previous. And may that apply in the most double entendre of ways possible to all aspects of your life, loyal reader. I appreciate you for committing this time to something as trivial as catching prospects. Pray hands... So the least I can do is wish you good luck in your love life. Today's post concludes my positional top 10s, we've already dug through Pitchers, outfielders, shortstops, third baseman, second baseman, and first baseman. Onto catchers!
Closer Report: All’s Well That Saves Well
September 23, 2017 | Closers, Middle Relievers |by: Smokey
Quick, grab a coin from your pocket. Now hurl it in a river, and imagine it's at someone in your office two cubicles away. Now mid-flight, make a wish. Get back to me in two-three days and let me know how it went. This luck and wish game is much like the closer game. We hope and pray that all is well, but at the end of the day, we only care about the accumulation. This late in the season its all about the job. Who is doing it and who isn't, period. The stalwarts are on cruise control into the final stretch of the season and are mostly on more winning teams than the teams that have situations that aren't the most ideal. Good bullpens usually equal good-to-moderately-good success in real life. Much is the same with fantasy closer investment and going into next year if you struggled for saves this year. Invest in teams that will have aspirations of playoff baseball. The investment in drafting a round or two earlier than usual should pay off in the long run of the ever treacherous 180 days of fantasy baseball. So with the season winding down, let's see what is happening in the saves market around the game as we transition into fantasy football, basketball, hockey and SOCCER!
Phantasmo Erasmo Has No Limit
September 23, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 8 Commentsby: Dan Pants
[player]Erasmo Ramirez[/player] was masterful Friday night in what was one of his best starts of the season going eight strong innings against the we-don't-lose Windians, allowing just three hits, one earned run and striking out a season high 10 batters. Erasmowing down hitters? ErasMo Innings, Mo Strikeouts? ErasMost definitely more comfortable in Seattle than in Tampa? Ugh, I know. Headlines are hard you guys, I ran out of steam about three weeks ago and I'm sorry but that's the best I'm going to do. However you headline it, after being wang-jangled around the Rays pitching staff, from starting rotation to bullpen and back again, Ramirez has settled nicely into the starting pitching job he deserves since being acquired by his old team, the Seattle Mariners, in July. He holds a respectable 3.79 ERA in 10 starts with the M's since, but it's the 52/13 K/BB ratio that really raises my eyebrow, Dwayne Johnson. If we remove a hiccup he encountered with a rough start in Houston, Erasmo has three quality starts in September with a 22/4 K/BB ratio. Yes, more please! He gets to finish his season strong with a favorable start next week in Oakland, and outside of the obligatory Matt Olson home run, I could see him pitching a successful outing there. At about 10% owned, Ramirez is a streaming option readily available in most fantasy leagues if you're looking for an easy win to push you over the edge. And if you've been out of contention for weeks and are still reading this, first, Ramirez could be a decent late-late round sleeper to consider for 2018, and second, thanks for sticking with us and not jumping ship to fantasy football coverage (which you can check out here). You guys are the true Razzball MVPs. Except of course for the writing staff, obviously, they the real MVPs, especially me.
Here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:
It’s actually really unfair that poor Stephen Strasburg still has the “Stressbird” moniker in these here Razzball parts, but old habits and nicknames die hard. [Sidebar: Plus I went to a music festival last week and wanted to use a title that keeps me in nostalgic, douchey concert-goer mode. (Side-sidebar: I saw Rodriguez, a musician I’ve loved for 30 years and never thought I’d get to see; I was one of that generation of kids in South Africa described in Searching for Sugarman, if anyone’s seen that. Think it’s on Netflix.)]. Strasburg has been lights-out for weeks, earning 1 run so far in September and 2 runs in August, after a whopping 4 in July. He’s facing the 25th-ranked, 3-game-losing streak Mets; the only Met who’s had real success against him is Yoenis Cespedes, who is out with an injury to one of his many legs, to boot (sorry). Of course Strasburg does cost a small fortune on FanDuel today: $11,300. If that’s too rich for your blood, I’ll explore some more reasonable pitching options below. Read on, MacDuffs!
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: 2017 End-of-Season Prospect Positional Rankings: Second Base
September 23, 2017 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 8 Commentsby: Halp
With Yoan Moncada and Ozzie Albies graduating to the Majors, the second base prospect class is so uninspiring that we talk about Moncada and Albies anyway. And sneak in some Rihanna talk too. None of the blame for this mediocre class lies at the feet of Scott Kingery, though, who is one of the top breakout prospects of the season and someone who Ralph and I both put in the near elite fantasy prospect range. We debate Isan Diaz vs. Keston Hiura, how much power Max Schrock and Luis Urias are going to develop, and if we still believe in Shedric Long. We cover everybody from Travis Demeritte, Nick Solak, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., to Kevin Kramer, Esteury Riuz, Ryne Birk, Garrett Hampson, and many more. Finally, 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 Prospect Podcast:
