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The Fantasy Baseball War Room is back!  I'm not saying the Fantasy Baseball War Room is back, as in, is a butt.  So, if Sir Mix-A-Lot is reading, I'm truly sorry for the confusion.  Our Fantasy Baseball War Room is one part draft tool, one part fantasy team evaluator, one part fantasy junkie’s s’s and g’s tool, one part holy, two parts smokes, three parts… How many parts is that so far?  Cause it’s only really seven parts total.  I think there’s one part kill-your-day-with-this-war-room-thing-a-maboob-as-a-pinwheel-spins in there too.  Essentially, this helps you practice building a fantasy baseball team. If you’re unfamiliar with our Fantasy Baseball War Room, it’s a draft tool to help you track where you are at any moment in a draft.  It shows you if you have too many steals, homers… Or if your ERA or WHIP are too low.  Or too high.  Or if your lamb is still rare or should be turned (results vary on lamb).  If you’ve already drafted a team, go into the War Room, enter your team and it shows you exactly how stacked/dreadful the team is.  If you want to practice mocking for your Razzball Commenter League, do that too.  (Fantrax waived $80 fees for us, so go join some Razzball Commenter Leagues!)  If you’re in the middle of a draft, you can filter which guys are left that have the most home runs according to my projections.  Or the most steals, or the most runs or the most whatever (only applicable if “Whatever” is a category in your league).  If you’re in a bind, go into a Warm Room and take a shvitz.  Ah…That’s better!  There might be some bugs in our Fantasy Baseball War Room, just comment here and we’ll look into fixes.  The default projections are mine from the 2019 fantasy baseball rankings.  Also, Rudy's projections are now up!  They can be found at my ranking page that I just linked to or here:  hitter projections and pitcher projections.  There, you'll see rankings for every conceivable league (OBP, OPS, Holds, etc).  Anyway, here's the step by step instructions on how to use the Fantasy Baseball War Room:

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Thu 5/22
ATH | ATL | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | LAA | MIL | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | TEX | TOR | WSH | ARI | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | KC | LAD | MIA | MIN | NYM | OAK | SF | STL | TB
Sorry for the delay between installments, but it's been crazy here at the homestead! And speaking of which, The 18th Out, Part 1 can be read here.  I recently had a neck surgery in late January, and we had a newborn baby boy (John Robert! What's up Bubba!) in October. Who would've thought the combination of the two would put some kind of restraint on free time (and ability to keep my arm extended on the keyboard)?  I'm not exactly 100% and practicing fully in pads, but I'm off the DL (renamed the IL since I started) and I'm ready to score some goals... The time has come for the second installment of my exploration into the red headed stepchild of fantasy stat-lines; the Quality Start. In this edition, we'll put the final touches on the efficacy of seeking out Quality Starts in the roto game and hopefully draw a cohesive conclusion before moving onto the fun part of QS talk; WEEKLY POINT LEAGUE DO-OR-DIE MAYHEM!!! However, before we can put the Brooklyn Brawler beat-down on that freckled miscreant under the stairs, I must unfortunately apologize for a specific inaccuracy in Part 1.  As someone who is very particular when it comes to precision I got caught with my rosy red assumption out, pants down around my ankles. (Sorry, I didn't hear you coming ESPN, I would've freshened up...) I copied a 2018 Team Pitching Totals Chart from ESPN, sorted for Quality Starts (Provided below). I didn't even think to double check the once great sports network, turned annoying social justice warrior.  Apparently Quality Starts are so overlooked that mega fantasy sites don't even know how to calculate them anymore.  This being the glorious age of trolling on an internet that never forgets, I feel compelled to post their erroneous numbers below... (The cause for this detour, that better not turn this into a Deliverance situation. If you hear banjos in the background, start running and don't look back.)
For all the longtime Razzballers out there, you may remember a post just like this a few years ago. If so, you have a great memory and should consider a field in Jeopardy attempts or keeping track of how many times Trump mentions Hillary. If not, this particular strategy piece has staying power. Even with some dated examples, the main overarching theme is a sound one for Deep Leagues and can be an additive for your related strategies. So without further ado, A Deep Impact series post is now upon you! (Where I'm from, they call that Immediate Impact. HURRRR.) So... I'm not sure what format you play in. But if your league has a constitution longer than a college thesis on the European textile industry and its effect on the French bourgeoisie, well then, you're probably in the right place. We're here to take a short 'n sweet look at some uncommon scoring categories that dynasty/deep leagues might use commonly. The fantasy laymen might ask why we would create such devilish inventions... and that'd be fine, because we seriously have no clue. Note: Fantasy Football may be over, but keep Razzball in mind for next season!
If you’re like me most days, you’re sitting in your car beneath an underpass and writing ALF fan fiction, but today we have a different type of fantasy for you to engage in.  No, not your fantasy where it’s you and that girl from high school in a tub of Alphabet Soup and you write her a love letter on her back in noodles!  This is a fantasy baseball fantasy!  Because you know what would be really cool?  If you could join a fantasy baseball league that was against, like, 1000 other fantasy baseball teams.  But not a 1000-person league, where people are trying to figure out who the back-up third baseman is on the Single-A Astros affiliate, the Corpus Christi Amscrayers.  No, this is a 12-person league designed so you compete against eleven other people in your league, then 75 other leagues of twelve.  That would be cool.  Oh, wait, we’ve done that.  It’s called the Razzball Commenter Leagues, and they’re back, and you don’t even have to be a commenter to join it!  For a limited time only, get your loved one a fantasy baseball league!  That’s right, your hearts go pitter-patter or you’re dead on the inside (my condolences).  Since back in June when you abandoned your fantasy baseball team because it was totally sucking and you returned to your cubbyhole of leftover Chinese food and Teddy Grahams, you’ve longed for this day.  As Bob Marley sang, this is your redemption song, mon.  Or womon, for our five girl readers.  It’s time again to join some fantasy baseball leagues!
Finally we have a trade to sink our teeth into, as JT Realmuto was traded for the Phillies in exchange for Sixto Sanchez, Jorge Alfaro, and lefty Will Stewart. An interesting deal with some ripple effects on the fantasy catching landscape. Lance and I discuss all the players involved, stump for Sixto a little before moving on. What do we move on to? Me waxing poetic about how good the Padres Chris Paddack can be and just how remarkable his 2018 really was. If you don't know now you know. We wrap up the show with a little Daniel Espino talk and send you on your merry way. It's the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.

Follow Lance on Twitter @Lancebroz and follow Ralph @ProspectJesus, and of course find all their work on www.prospectslive.com

Time flies when you're having fun. Well, at least I'm having fun. I can't speak for you kind reader. We've only two more divisions to cover for minor league rankings and spring training is just around the corner. I can smell the pine tar! While lurking on Reddit last week, I stumbled upon a great tool created by a user named BoBtheMule. I reached out to him about it and it turns out he's a Razzball reader. Basically, he compiled all the prospect rankings from free sites on one sheet. You can check it out here. It's very well done. Anyhoo, I thought it would be fun to see where I'm higher or lower than some of the other big sites (six others to be exact, including Razzball's own Ralph from ProspectsLive). Anyhoo part two, I've been out of the game for a time, and while I don't peep other rankings when creating my own, I do think it's interesting to go back and look at how my rankings compare to others in the industry. As Kierkegaard pointed out, "Life can only be understood backwards." Let's take a look!
Ditka once hit a HR off Sandy Koufax, took a HR away from Hank Aaron, and was called the best defensive CF of all time by Willie Mays. Ditka could’ve been the greatest baseball player of all time, but he decided it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else be the GOAT in 2 sports. There was no velocity reading on Ditka because the means to measure that level of speed did not exist in the 60s. With this week’s helping of sausage, the Ditka dudes deep dive on Yoan Moncada to see if the former top prospect is worth his current 158 ADP. B_Don and Donkey Teeth also take a look at Brian Dozier and Rougned Odor to evaluate their bounce back potential at different points in their respective careers. After the profiles, the guys discuss some later options at the position that could be steals in your draft. Come and get your sausage here!
As we get closer your drafts I wanted to look at how we approach the drafting of Pitchers and Catchers. Depending on how your league is scored, most “experts” advise finding at least 600-700 strikeouts from your starting pitching to contend for a title. There is a great discussion going on in the industry about where, when, or even IF you should draft an ace. I love pitching. I think it is the most fluid element of fantasy baseball. If you know your splits, ratios, batter vs. pitcher match-ups, and park impacts you can really work the waiver wire, find your K’s, and win your leagues. Here are some stats that may help you:
From this post, life emerges.  *toadstool morphs into frog, frog morphs into person, person types up this post* See!  Darwinism at its most basic, and 'basic' like your girl who just wants a pumpkin spice latte and to play Candy Crush.  It's how basic is defined, yo.  For these pitcher pairings, I’m going to be using our (my) 2019 fantasy baseball rankings.  Notably, the top 20 starters for 2019 fantasy baseballtop 40 starters for 2019top 60 starters for 2019, the top 80 starters for 2019 and top 100 starters.  You can also just go to our Fantasy Baseball War Room.  Okay, formalities out of the way.  *rolls up sleeves, makes farting noise with hand under armpit, rolls down sleeve*   Let’s get busy!  Now, what is a pitcher pairing?  It’s your plan for putting together a fantasy staff.  A course of action, of course -- of acoursion, naturally.  If you have A pitcher, which B, C, D, E and F pitcher goes with him?  Which is different than ‘F this pitcher,’ that’s what you say in May.  You should have six starters.  The sixth starter is Jimmy Nelson or take whoever you want.  I suggest an upside pick.  Nelson comes to mind.  Or Ross Stripling.  Touki Toussaint also comes to mind.  Dereck Rodriguez anyone?  I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5 and some variation of 9 pitcher leagues like the Razzball Commenter Leagues.  Speaking of which, the RCL league signups will begin on Monday. (NOTE: What you are about to read is massively confusing.  If it were found scribbled in a notebook, the FBI would be watching me.  If Ed Kemper stood up and read this at the next prison Meet N’ Greet, no one would blink an eye.)  Anyway, here’s pitcher pairings for pitching staffs for 2019 fantasy baseball drafts:
Do you remember the last time you swung and missed? Maybe it happened at your beer league softball game? Or maybe it was during last week’s company-wide meeting when you thought you’d tell that funny story about the peanut butter thing but screwed up the beginning, and nobody laughed—not even Amber from accounting who giggles at everything—so you sat down all hot faced, feeling stupid all day? Or maybe you’re thinking of that day you finally asked out Amber from Accounting, and that time she did laugh? Nobody likes to swing and miss, is all I’m saying. And nobody likes that awkward what-what of trying to save a story from a bad opening line. Here’s some baseball-related proof:
[brid autoplay="true" video="379070" player="10951" title="2019 Razzball Draft Kit Draft This Not That"] Here I go, here I go, here I go again (again?).  Girls, what's my weakness? (Men who play baseball.)  Okay, then.  *insert GIF of Ariana Grande saying 'Thank u, next'* Today, is the day in history known as, "Aw, sookie sookie, don’t need the nookie, Grey’s giving me a fantasy baseball cookie."  Or, more succinctly, the top 500 for 2019 fantasy baseball.  A few years ago, the top 500 was only a top 300 for fantasy baseball.  Before that, it was 16 AD and I was drafting in one-person leagues because no one knew fantasy baseball or baseball.  In a few years from now, this is going to be a top 10,000 and I’m going to be ranking Mike Trout Jr. Jr. Jr. the 15th.  Today, in this year, nineteen after twenty, comes the top 500 for 2019 fantasy baseball.  Or as I like to call it, from Mike Trout A to chimpanzee.  Actually, I don’t call it that.  So, this post isn’t meant to send shockwaves through your system.  The pipe cleaner that the doctor uses to get the clogged wax from your ears is meant for that.  This is simply to give you an idea of where guys are ranked in relation to other positions.  I.e., you know I like Jonathan Villar better than Gleyber Torres, according to the top 20 shortstops, but do I like Villar better than Domingo Santana?  Okay, it’s not that simple.  You’ll notice after the top 200, positions start to get clumped together.  I might be the only fantasy baseball ‘pert to tell you this, but it doesn’t matter where, say, Tyler White is ranked vs. Blake Parker.  If you need a closer, White isn’t going to help you.  He can be ranked 50 spots in front of Parker and it doesn’t matter.  That’s why I have the 2019 fantasy baseball rankings broken down by positions.  If you need a 1st baseman, where Justin Smoak vs. Ryan Zimmerman matters, but where Smoak is ranked vs. Ketel Marte really doesn’t matter.  Also, there’s no comments about players, which you really should know prior to drafting.  In other words, Jose Altuve might be in the 20's overall, but am I drafting him?  Well, you’d know if you read the top 20 2nd basemen.  There’s also a top 100 for 2019 fantasy baseball to help you.  Also, the Fantasy Baseball War Room and tomorrow will be a pitchers' pairing tool, then on Monday will be our Razzball league signups.  Anyway, here’s the top 500 for 2019 fantasy baseball: