Times are grand this week in the wide world of Two Startapalooza! It is a palooza after all, which is the scientific term for pitching party. Can you imagine a carnival full of pitchers playing those games where you throw balls at the bottles and knock them over for prizes? They would win ALL of the giant stuffed bears. ALL OF THE BEARS. Leaving none for the shlubs like me that can't hit 95 on the gun. How emasculating. All the girls would leave the normal guys and flock to the pitchers. I wonder if girls are still impressed by the really crappy pitchers? I mean, he still made it to the Major Leagues, which is super impressive. Who cares if he's got a 6.30 career ERA? That man god paid. Speaking of such things, there are pitchers threatening to post a 6+ ERA this week in the bottom of this week's slate. Tiers 3 and 4 are awash with capable options though, making this a great week for standard mixed league streaming. Let's break down the options.
See all of today’s starting lineups
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ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK |
Last week I offered some hitters that make up great Buy Low candidates, so I felt it was only right to head over to the pitchers. Especially considering how rough pitching has been lately with injuries, many of us are in need of pitching help. Here are a few guys to consider that may be available at a discount in your league.
I know it’s bandied about plenty in our DFS articles to target the Rockies on the road. They are simply two different teams at Coors and away from it. Bear with me while I go down this road again and name Kenta Maeda ($21,200) my top pitcher for the main slate. The Rockies team OPS at home: 804 (4th best in the majors!), on the road: .684 (22nd in the majors). The Rockies go from a top 5 team to a bottom 10 team, that’s pretty drastic. Maeda was straight studly in his last start, finally getting stretched out and hitting 84 pitches in 7 clean innings. Overall, his 2.98 FIP says he’s actually gotten a bit unlucky so far this season (3.44 ERA). He should be good for 90+ pitches this time around and should have no trouble at Dodger stadium vs. the Rockies.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, welcome to Foro Sol in beautiful Mexico City, for the first annual Ralph vs. Lance Minor League All-Star Beisbol Spectacular. That's right! Broshitz has a venue, fresh unis, and our pick of the litter in the first half. We talk some of the stars, some of the breakouts, and some of the pop-ups. We open the show with some of the notable promotions, the Nick Senzel fallout, and my first hand looks at 2019 draft prospect Zack Thompson. Then we move right in to reveling our starting nines for the big game. It's a star studded event! As always, big shouts to our sponsor Rotowear! You can order the Rotowear shirts I spoke about on the show 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:
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I was combing through pictures on the subreddit r/WaffleHouseHotcakesShapedLikePresidents, marveling at a hotcake shaped like Harry S. Truman -- did you know the S stood for Syrup? Then I clicked on the Reddit user who posted that pic, Ididyourmomssomanytimes, to see what other things besides Truman hotcakes they were interested in, and I saw they were also on r/fantasybaseball, only this was fantasy as in D&D and Cecil Cooper was a wizard and the father of the little black kid in Stranger Things. Any hoo! If I were on the real fantasy baseball subreddit, I'd find a lot of talk about Kyle Tucker, this you can be sure of, said like Gordon Ramsay. Tucker is already stashed by Prospector Ralph in my RCL -- that *ucker! Why the hype? Pardon me as I sprinkle chia seeds on your brain. He's hitting .315 in Triple-A with 12 HRs, 13 SBs and he's only 21 years old. Kinda unfair that the Astros have this waiting in the wings, but, since they do, you know they will not wait very long to come him up, since (two since's one sentence, grammar!) they are playing to win it all. So, what are you waiting for to grab Tucker? Cecil Cooper's put a spell on your arms? Aw, shucks. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
The closer cavalcade of debauchery is well in season. Rewind four months ago and look at your team... If you drafted Jeurys Familia, Alex Colome and Bobby Osuna, you probably came out of the draft smiling like a freshly picked peach. Now you look at your team today for the first time in a month, because you most likely let the ship sail on the season because of injury, attrition or trades to your bullpen. The last two names have been done ad nauseum by me and other bullpen savants around the web... So now we look at Jeurys Familia. Or a tale of losing a job do to injury, returning, and basically sucking all the trust out of even owning him. From the beginning of the season until June 7th when he went on the DL, he posted good numbers by Donkeycorn standards; 14 saves with K/9 rate above 10 and ERA of 2.48 and a BAA of .245. All within the strain of imagination as a set it and forget it closer. Now we sit here on June 29th, and in six appearances since, he still sits at the same save total of 14, K/9 of 6.35, ERA of 9.53 and BAA of .357. Now, I am no math whiz, hell I am barely even knowledgeable about what actually is cheese whiz, but those numbers are awful and garbage. Add in the fact that the Mets as a team are in the toilet, have fired their GM, and have a worse record than the punting from day one Marlins.... Trade-value wise, he has zero in fantasy and almost in real life, because teams aren't going to trade for a guy who can't get outs. As an impending free agent, he should and will be traded, maybe to a team that has an opening in middle relief, but I don't see him gaining closer status for the near future with the Mets or another team. So if you are a Familia owner and holding out hope for some sort of revert to the former here, I am unfortunately going to tell you that he gets less than 5 saves the rest of the year it looks like. More closer news and views, read on or don't. I will continue to sit by the pool regardless!
Life was good for Derek. Retired from the Yankees in 2014 at the age of 40. On top of the world. The King of New York. Started up ThePlayersTribune.com. Opened restaurants. Partnered on multiple business deals. Even got married in 2016! Was able to join Bruce Sherman's consortium in purchasing the Marlins. Life was indeed good. Then the Marlins lost seven of their first ten games. Jeter knew it'd be bad, but he didn't know it'd be this bad. The competitive juices began bubbling in his body. Then the Marlins lost eight of the next ten games. Steam began venting through his ears. Jeter stormed into Sherman's office. "Bruce! I can't take this shit anymore. I gave you my Black Book for this? You're a gazillionaire. Do something." KAPOW! Bruce b-slapped Derek with the Black Book...knocking him out. Little did Derek know, but underneath Marlins Park, a group of scientists had been working feverishly after getting the order earlier in the year. "I've been watching Westworld. I'm a gazillionaire. Do something." When Derek woke up, he felt woozy. "Mirror. I need a mirror." Ahhhhhhhhh. After the doctors had explained what they had done, Derek got up. Legs felt spry. Arms felt strong. Let's do this. It was tough sledding in the beginning. From April 22nd to the end of the month, a span of eight games, Derek "Dietrich" (36% owned - increase of 15.4%) hit .179 with one home run and a 42.9% strikeout rate. Once the month of May hit, though, Derek got his groove back. 8 home runs, 25 runs scored, 21 RBI, .348 batting average and a 23.4% strikeout rate. Now, the BABIP has been .426. That's obviously going to come down, but....Derek is batting lead off against righties and fifth against lefties. While he strikes out more against lefties, he's more than held his own against them and actually has a higher ISO (.211 vs .182). Playing for the Marlins stinks and regression will kick in, but the 2B/3B/OF eligibility is nice and there's a chance it really could be Jeter. No? Show me evidence to the contrary. TREASURE
Some days on DFS, it's like standing sadly in the grocery store at 7 a.m. the morning after a long weekend (happy upcoming Canada Day, by the way, fellow Canadians!); i.e., the shelves are BARE. Other days, it's as if you've been let loose in Whole Foods with a $500 gift card and everything's on sale. [Sidebar: I may or may not be hungry at time of writing.] This is one of those latter days, people. One of those delirious days where the pitchers are good, many of the parks are pitcher-friendly, and there are bargains a-plenty to be had for your slate on
FanDuel. I’m putting Jacob DeGrom at the top of my list today, but really I could just do the eenie-meanie-miny-mo thing over Streamonator's top 10 and be reasonably happy about whomever I landed upon. Of course not all of them are
cheap (that would be too much to ask), but let's take a look at some options for hitters alongside all that sumptuous pitching.
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!
Yesterday, Zack Greinke went 2-for-3, 1 run, 1 RBI and his 2nd steal, hitting .300--Oops, sorry! The only pitcher whose hitting stats matter are Shohei Ohtani, because he can't pitch anymore. That tracks logically. Has any site that made Ohtani a hitter and pitcher clarified why? Because there was public pressure to make him both? Because he was going to do both? Doesn't every pitcher do both? Ohtani's not going to throw more than 50 IP this year, which is, what, a quarter of a full season for a starter? That's doing both? I know, I'm just being a hater, but it does feel like there was a double standard given to Ohtani without him actually doing anything, and he had 25 IP thrown dating back to 2016. Any hoo! Greinke! Yes, he was awesome again -- 7 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.41. His peripherals are also one of the few pitchers who is doing well that could do better -- 9.4 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 3.35 xFIP. His velocity is down two miles per hour and I'd be lying if I said I was going after him hard, unless, of course, he's eligible as a hitter. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Tough starts can really tank a prospects perceived value. There might be nothing worse for dynasty managers, than watching one of your blue chips struggle very publicly for the better part of the first half. It's only magnified when a player is on the cusp of the majors, and touted as a potential impact player from the jump. Think about how far Willie Calhoun has fallen. Earlier this year, I could have moved Calhoun for legit MLB talent in one of my more competitive dynasty leagues. Coming into the season Calhoun was a hot commodity, as I turned down deals for James Paxton and David Price amongst others. Just a few days ago in the same league, my Willie Calhoun for Max Muncy trade was scoffed at. All this to say a few things; 1. Things change quickly in the world of dynasty baseball. 2. Is a much more important lesson, and one tough for struggling Calhoun owners. Don't write off players you believe in. At the moment there might be no better example of this lesson than the Indians Francisco Mejia. The young backstop moved through Cleveland's minor league ranks like a rocket the past few seasons, before being assigned to Glendale of the Arizona Fall League. There, the Indians tried Mejia at the hot corner to less than stellar results. Everything started to go south. Mejia's hitting wasn't what it was billed to be, and the struggles carried through the beginning of 2018. Hitting just .189 entering June, the diminutive catcher has gone on a tear slashing .419/.438/.640, with four more hits on the month than his prior two months combined. In fact he has 15 multi-hit games in his last 21! That's raking, but the point should hit you like a ton of bricks. We knew Mejia was a talented switch-hitter with plus-plus hit, even through his struggles we shouldn't have lost sight of just how good this player is. Will he win you a fantasy league one day? Not likely, but he can be one of the better offensive talents behind the plate. Which leads me to my next question, what's his future at catcher? While he might never be an everyday catcher, he's still played a majority of his games behind the pate this season. Which could work out to be a best case scenario in fantasy. If he has the ability to play enough games every year to keep catcher eligibility, but not to breakdown over the course of the year it could amount to a perfect storm. A plus hitter at the catcher position that avoids the daily wear and tear that can negatively impact offensive output.
I’ve been thinking about how great things would be right now if I’d just been restricted from drafting a handful of certain players this year. When I like a guy going into the season, it’s always tough to decide just how many shares I should stock up on, and it’s particularly painful when I overbuy in situations where the answer should have been zero. If I had been unable to place [player]Jose Quintana[/player], [player]Yu Darvish[/player], [player]Luis Castillo[/player], [player]Zack Godley[/player], [player]Robbie Ray[/player], [player]Marcus Stroman[/player], or [player]Sonny Gray[/player] on a fantasy team in 2018, it seems like all would be right with the fantasy baseball world. Instead, I have leagues where a combination of these guys has pretty much sunk my team, and other leagues where I am doing well only in spite of having to overcome horrible (or non-existent) pitching from them.
It’s unrealistic, though, to think any fantasy team will be mistake-free, and as destructive as a few bad picks can be in a deep league, it does make acquiring a waiver-wire gem all the more sweet. I don’t know about any of these guys turning your season around, but it really is difficult to predict when the diamond in the deep-league rough will pop up -- so we’ll keep plugging away with a handful of players who may be available in your NL-only, AL-only, or other deep league.
Welcome to the final 2018 edition of Perception Vs. Reality. I want to thank you all for reading this article this season and I hope that you enjoyed it and found it helpful. As for me, I'm going to be putting all of my focus into the
fantasy football draft season. Jay and Grey have promoted me to Co-Head of Content over on the football side of things. I'll tell you what, we have the CONTENT. So, if you play fantasy football, click on over to the football side and check out what what have to offer so far.
We haven't taken a look at pitchers yet this season. So let's do just that. Let's celebrate those handle the other side of our points/categories. We have quite that sample size as the Major Leagues scoot towards the finish of the month of June. As always, we will take a look at the
player rater as a reference.
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