The Reds put on a hit parade Friday night scoring 15 runs on 20 hits lead by [player]Jose Peraza[/player] who went 4-for-6 with two home runs, and two runs batted in. It was only a matter of time before this offense woke up. And by this offense, of course I mean [player]Joey Votto[/player] who was 3-for-3, with his fourth homer. [player]Eduardo Suarez[/player] was also 4-for-6 with two runs and an RBI, [player]Scooter Gennett[/player] had three hits, and [player]Scott Schebler[/player] and [player]Adam Duvall[/player] added two hits a piece. Votto has now homered in in his fourth straight game, and I bet you're thinking to yourself, "Self, I thought this lede was about Peraza, not the Reds bats and Votto." Silence, knave! It all starts with Votto, whom Peraza hits in front of, and I can't very well tell you to buy Votto now, unless his owner's been in a coma for the past four days and is ready to trade immediately after waking up. That seems unlikely. But with Jose's ownership at just 20%, it seems more likely he's still available in your league. He's hit safely in five straight games hitting .387 with the two dingers, nine runs and a steal in the past week and has quietly raised his average to .286. After hitting .259 last year with 23 steals he was a popular sleeper pick because of his speed. However, the .719 OPS is a whole lot of meh and I'd like to see him stealing a lot more bases before I fully endorse him as a buy, but I'm watching him closer than the darkest moments of Avengers Infinity War. You don't need Tony Stark's super intelligence or the Vision's, uh, err, vision to see that Jose Peraza could be worth a look.
Here's what else I saw Friday in fantasy baseball:
He's up... and we are sad prospectors. I'm of course talking about the promotion of the Pirates Nick Kingham! Joking, joking, you know I'm talking the chosen one Ronald Acuña
Jr.. Lance and I chat a little about the news makers in MiLB over the last week, as well as my weekend looks at the aforementioned Acuña and the rehabbing Luiz Gohara. After getting all that out of the way, we do a brief overview of the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers systems. We talk everyone from Leody Taveras to Willy Adames to Jake Bauers and Hans Crouse. It's an action packed show spanning two systems and over 15 other minor league players. Lots of jelly in these donuts, Frank! Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to
RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 20% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:
[brid video="220956" player="10951" title="Giancarlo Stanton"]
"Three little kids run into frame -- let's aim for an Asian, white and black kid -- then they scream, 'Hey, it's Mac Williamson our favorite pimp!' Then Mac enters in a fedora and fur coat and hands out lollipops that say 'All day suckers' and inside the lollipop wrappers are condoms. Can you dig it?" That's Melvin Van Peebles on the set of the now-classic blaxploitation film, Hopefully Pence Is Shafted. So, first things first, will Mac Williamson lose playing time to Pence, when he returns? Have no idea what Bruce Bochy and his size 9 hat is going to do with The Gangly Manbird. "Can The Gangly Manbird do it with a donkey? Can you dig it?" That's Melvin again. My guess is Pence will play, but Pence hasn't really played for two years now, and Mac Williamson, the blaxploitation film star, is playing now and that's all that matters. Well, also his power. It's insane. He has 9 homers in 16 games this year between Triple-A and the majors. He could hit 30+ homers without even breaking a sweat. Except when bedding two ladies, while putting another two to work. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
The Miami Jeters are currently cruising on a sub-60 win pace. Nice if you look at the investment value in terms of dollars and the amount of talent on the field. Now the once or semi-reliable closer, Brad Ziegler, has puked up another save chance and seen his ERA climb a blood alcohol level of 8.44. That is a Cherynoblian level that usually results in a quick change, minus Bill Murray dressed as a clown. In the wings are two decent enough options that in most leagues should be owned for their K prowess. They being Drew Steckenrider and Kyle Barraclough. A change is coming, as the soft-tossing Ziegler can't rely on sorcery and garbage to will him through save chances, no matter how few and far between they are. The Marlins, from a standpoint of we are only winning X amount of games, and can't afford to lose Y because of a closer who can't shut the door is just bad for business. I am grabbing Steckenrider before Barraclough just based on games and position of appearances of date. It is really tough to say though because they have 7 wins, and neither guy has featured more than 4 appearances when the team has been leading. But Steck has seen more 8th innings, and I like him better because he has a closer makeup. So add accordingly if save speculating is your bag, but with success in closing comes success in the setup game. And don't ignore Barraclough either, because he will be in elevated positions as well and since this is the Holds portion of the week, go get him if free.
I must admit, I'm a real sucker for stolen bases. This is especially true in H2H each category leagues, where I have seen countless matchups come down to who wins stolen bases. I'm not the "draft Billy Hamilton way too early then become disappointed when he can't hit the baseball AGAIN" type of sucker though. I'm more of a "piecing together a lot of guys that will chip in 10-15 stolen bases but will also help considerably in other areas" type of sucker. With stolen base numbers on the decline, they are harder to find. Which in turn means that stolen bases are becoming more valuable. This is no secret, but with power and home runs being more accessible than before, stolen bases are being
really undervalued.
One of the problems with trying to add stolen bases is that most guys that steal bases are either already owned, don't play every day, or don't help you/significantly hurt you elsewhere. Or maybe a wonderful combination! This week, I've got a guy for you that hopefully does not meet the above criteria:
Michael A. Taylor (26.6% owned in ESPN, 38% owned in Yahoo), outfielder for the Washington Nationals.
FanDuel Friday, are we ready to party? And by party I mean drink exactly one beer and watch round two of the NFL Draft. Any takers? No? Fine, I guess I'll do it myself, just like I did this DFS research. Let's get into it.
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!
On a chalkboard someone has written, "K/9 Revolutionaries -- Donuts in back, the kind of donuts you can eat." In a semi-circle, Patrick Corbin, Gerrit Cole, and Garrett Richards discuss a knuckle curve. "If you dig your index finger in like you're Richard Gere trying to get a gerbil out--" When Kyle Gibson walks in, startling them. "What's up, guys?" The other pitchers frantically hide their K/9 Revolution propaganda; Richards tries to wipe down the chalkboard but the eraser is just streaking the writing, then Michael Pineda appears, wipes pine tar over the chalkboard writing and leaves from where he came. So, they don't want Kyle Gibson part of the K/9 Revolution, but he looks like he might be down for the cause. Yesterday, he went 6 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 3 walks, 10 Ks, lowering his ERA to 3.33. His 10 K/9 would be an easy career high. This follows a trend we saw with Gibson last year in the 2nd half of the year. He's not doing it with gas either. He's dropping well-meaning, nonchalant off-speed pitches. He scaled back his slider usage, but it's working much better in a lesser-seen capacity, and his curve he's using more -- outside the zone. This has upped his walks, but the number of swings he's generated outside the zone has leaped like 12 lords. His pitches may lack command, but the K/9 Revolutionaries should put him in charge of at least the northern border to guard against Ontario, eh. And if you think the K/9 Revolutionaries are not real, this year 35% of plate appearances have ended without the ball in play, and, for the first time in the history of baseball, we've played nearly a month with more strikeouts than hits (h/t Joe Sheehan). Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Greetings, deep-league friends! Welcome to the small but comfy little corner of Razzball where we talk about baseball players who may be relevant to those playing in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues. Last week we concentrated mostly on the 1-2% owned types that are likely only on the radar of those involved in the deepest NL or AL-only leagues. This week, we’ll open it up a bit and consider players as long as they fall under the 20% owned threshold, while still dipping all the way down to the 1% types. (All % owned stats are from CBS sports leagues. This, in my opinion, tends to be the best happy medium of ownership thresholds, between the sometimes wacky shallowness of Yahoo/ESPN leagues, and the oft-crazy percentages you’ll see on a site like Fantrax with all of their daily-change leagues). Since we have more players to cover than usual, let’s get right to it:
With a lot of other fantasy websites I’ve noticed that in their waiver articles they’re recommending players who are owned in over 50% of standard leagues. For every league I’m in if a guy is over 50% owned he is already long gone. So going forward I’m going to focus on players who are less than 25% owned unless I really can’t find someone who fits that criteria. I really want to highlight some deep league gems who might be able to help your team after an injury. You Razzball readers are smart and don’t need me to tell you to add Cesar Hernandez (52.1% owned) if he’s available. And that's me pandering you!
Alright ladies and gentleman, just a forewarning this will be very brief as I am posting from 35,000 ft above the Pacific Ocean. After a weekend of wedding festivities, I am now on my way to the land of cheese, bread, pasta, and pizza. The beautiful country of Italy. Let's be honest though, there was no way I'd be able to spend my entire honeymoon without dabbling in Roto Leaders for our lovely
Razzball followers. Time change is a little confusing so let's see if we can find a way to make this happen! Once I'm back home, I'll be able to go more in depth, Ciao! and Eccoci qui! (Here we go)!
Welcome to Week 5 as we scurry along and try to figure out which low-to-mid tier pitchers are actually good and which ones are all smoke and mirrors. You'd think we would have come up with an updated phrase for "smoke and mirrors". Nobody has really used smoke and mirrors since, like, 1920. I have no idea if that's accurate. In any case, there is plenty of two-start action to go around this week. Here they are, tiered for your pleasure. Let's have a gander at some of the more interesting options as we go through those tiers as well, shall we? 
