Although we are just one week into the season, we finally have some real numbers to look at. And as soon as real numbers are coming in, the waiver wire is churning with players being added and dropped left and right. No one wants to miss out on the potential "add of the year" so this part of the season we see lots of players flying off the wire in hopes they are season long contributors. The window to add someone this part of the year can be extremely narrow, so get ready to capitalize. Most pitchers have made one start, but it is never too early to scoop up a guy that flashes potential. There are a couple of Brewers pitchers that have impressed in their first start of the season. Both were primarily relievers last season, but open the year with an opportunity to be a productive member of the pitching rotation. Lets go shopping for a nice new pair of Brews!
The Brewers are a great team to pitch for, as they have one of the league's best offenses backing them. This means plenty of run support and thus, plenty of opportunities to record wins every time they toe the rubber. The Brewers are also a great team to pitch for because they also have one of the league's best bullpens. This should allow them to stay in line for wins when they hand the ball over with the lead and feel comfortable that the bullpen won't blow it for them. A potent offense and strong bullpen is a starting pitcher's, and fantasy owner's, ideal situation to be in.
Monthly Archives: April 2019
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After volunteering to have his first start of the season skipped last week (what a stand up guy!), Joe Musgrove opened his season with a seven inning gem, cruising through the Cinncinati Red Legs line up allowing just three hits and a walk and striking out eight for his first win of the year. Joe has always been a master with his control (just a 5% walk-rate in 2018 and he threw 18 first pitch strikes Friday night) but it's them tasty strikeouts that make me go crazier than a shadow person in a Jordan Peele movie. The replicants have risen, and they're here to steal all our best waiver wire acquisitions right before we're about to click add. That's why you have to grab Joe Musgrove while he's still available in about 40% of fantasy leagues. Shadow Lupita Nyong'o would tell you Musgrove put up some of his best numbers down the stretch last year (August and September), when he started mixing in his off speed pitches more his strikeout rate increased as a result. She's saying if he carries that mindset into this season he's got all the tools to break out in a big way in 2019 and if Friday's night performance was any indication (induced 17 swinging strikes) we're about to see Pittsburgh's prize from the Gerrit Cole trade finally pay off. Buy Joe Everything Musgrove!
Here's what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:
FanDuel: If This Is Wrong I Don’t Want To Be (W)right
April 6, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel, Fantasy Baseball DFS |by: MattTruss
We’ll be focusing mostly on the Main slate today, which is a 7:05 PM ET lock, but I’ll be sure to sprinkle in an afternoon play here and there for those of you who like that sort of thing. Both slates feature a tidy six games. The Main slate also features everyone’s favorite, Coors field! When trying to squeeze in those Coors bats with their inflated prices, we’ll need to find some cheap pitching and the occasional cheap hitter. A cheap pitcher I’ll be targeting tonight is Kyle Wright ($6,100). Wright had a fantastic spring and won the starting gig over preseason favorite for the spot, Touki Toussaint. That’s nothing to shake a stick at but Wright stumbled out of the gate. I’ll chalk that “meh” first start up to nerves and starting your first career game in the hostile city of Philadelphia. Five walks in four innings is pretty rough but that’s more walks than he had his entire spring training. Tonight we’re out of the band box in Philly and into home field advantage against a much weaker opponent in the Marlins. I mean, just look at that lineup...bleh. I like Wright and hope I’m not wrong tonight!
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!
Points Leagues: More (cow)Bellinger
April 6, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 24 Commentsby: malamoney
As of Friday at some point (this was originally written on Thursday but I've made some updates), Cody Bellinger leads all hitters in fantasy points with 54. Obviously this might vary depending on your league's scoring system, but I have to take a stand somewhere and base my posts on some standard. For those interested, said scoring system is listed a bit further down. Bellinger exploded onto the fantasy scene in 2017, hitting 39 home runs and scoring 415 points in 548 plate appearances (0.76 PPPA) en route to the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Fast forward a year, or rewind a year depending on whether you are working from 2017 or 2019, to his 2018 season where he only scored 364 points in 632 plate appearances. (0.57 PPPA). Those are still very respectable numbers (top ten 1B and top 25 OF), but they were a far cry from what everyone that drafted him were expecting. Many tagged Bellinger with the "Sophomore Slump" curse, but the big difference was the dip in home runs. I don't have an explanation for this other than his fly balls just weren't getting over the outfield fence as witnessed by a decline in his HR/FB ratio which dropped from 25.2% to 15.2%.
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Today we have a very special Game of Thrones edition with your host, Ball-less Greyjoy. Or, I guess since it's a Buy, as in pick up off waivers, it's a Game of Thrones addition. To prep for the Game of Thrones finale, I pushed a kid out a window. As I get into bed with Cougs, I yell, "The one-eyed raven is here and winter is coming!" This show better not end as a Bob Newhart dream or in a snow globe of an autistic boy. As Daenerys would say, "I just flew to King's Landing and boy are my armies tired." I wonder if Daenerys used to be Daenery but added the S on the end like Kendrys. Speaking of which, Kendrys Targaryen has no position flexibility, and is just rigid, due to the 75 years he's been guarding a freakin' wall. Why does he guard the wall? Because of the dreaded White Walkers. The Night King, head White Walker, is Christian Walker. Since Kendrys Targaryen unleashed his dragon and it ate a Lamb (then burped fire), Christian Walker could see more time on the other side of the dugout wall. He's shown good pop (who doesn't sleep with mom who is his sister) and I'm adding him in all leagues. He hit 30+ homers in Triple-A, during his last full season there. Hopefully, George RR Martin doesn't stop doing his bend the knee burpees at a Westeros Fitness and kill him off. Spoiler Alert! Game of Thrones ends with Fonzie jumping over a dragon. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Bullpen Report, Week 2: Lost In Transition
April 5, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Closers, SAGNOF | 14 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
Is your pitching staff a disaster? Don't worry, they all are. If you need a fill-in while transitioning a role consider some of these folks. Each tier is ranked, roughly speaking. The amount of variance in middle relief is greater than with closers so you can follow these less rigidly. I've pulled the names that are getting serious saves consideration, as they're likely claimed.
Baseball is finally in full swing, and if you are a member of the Club of Deep-League Fantasy Baseball Owners (CDLFBO -- pretty catchy, huh?), and play in NL-only, AL-only, or other extra deep leagues, you've come to the right place. Each week, we swim in the deepest end of the player pool, taking a look at a handful of players that some shallow-leaguers may have never even heard of, but that we CDLFBOs might be needy enough to take a look at for our teams. Our threshold for now will be guys who are less than 10% owned in CBS leagues, so let's see who might be out there waiting to cozy up to an available roster spot.
FanDuel: The Wild Thorntonberrys
April 5, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 4 Commentsby: Richardo
Y'all ready to get a little crazy on this FanDuel Friday? FanDuel has us set up for an seven-game main slate and truth be told, the pitching is not phenomenal on this slate. So, I'm turning this slate on its side and getting wild by making Trent Thornton ($7,400) my main recommendation. "Who?", you ask. Whelp, prior to his start on March 31st (5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks), he was best known as that @$$hole that hit Bryce Harper in the ankle in Spring Training. The least he can do to pay me back is give me a repeat start against the Cleveland Indians. Last years' AL Central champion is currently tied for the third least runs scored (behind the Reds and Astros) on the year. I guess that's what happens when you lose Michael Brantley, Edwin Encarnacion, and Yonder Alonso and only replace them with Carlos Santana. Add on the Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis injuries, and you get, well, a poor offense. Trevor Thornton combines a 94 mph fastball with a nasty curveball, which should be enough to carve his way through this AAA lineup + Jose Ramirez. Let's take a look at the rest of the FanDuel slate.
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!
The Orioles No Habla In Gleybar
April 5, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 403 Commentsby: Grey
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How about that Gleyber Torres schmohawk post now? Grey's a genius! Who happens to need an online dictionary to spell 'genius.' Why is that bad? Are you some kinda of elitist who memorizes werd spelings? Look at me, I'm a werd nord! Dur! I hate you! And Gleyber Torres. Why is everything going opposite world on me so far? I do fantasy baseball to relieve stress so why did I throw my computer out the window and am typing from a nearby bush? Yo, I'm so bush league! Get it? No? Me either, tee bee aitch. So, Gleyber Torres (4-for-4, 4 RBIs and his 1st two homers of the year) did the mollywhop dance on the O's' (not confusing apostrophes) pitching. Of course, Gleyber did! I'd stream any hitter against the Orioles, except maybe Chris Davis in a split squad game. Yo, Chris Davis, you wearing Opti-Grab glasses? Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Bear or Bull: I’m Cuckoo for Kike, but Flock to Joc?
April 4, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 36 Commentsby: Son
Two of the most added players in ESPN leagues over the past week were Dodgers....or how us Angelenos like to call them, Los Doyers. Enrique Hernandez saw a 50.3% increase in ownership from 16.1%, while Joc Pederson saw a 44.3% increase in ownership from 33%. Joc is owned in 77.3% of leagues, while Kike is at 66.4%? Maybe I'm not so cuckoo after all.
OPS Leagues, Week 2: Walker, Arizona Ranger
April 4, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, OPS Leagues | 10 Commentsby: mcafeeeee
It’s the second week of baseball season, which symbols the annual potential for snow baseball, interleague play, and pulled latissimus dorsi! The MLB continues to amaze everyone by scheduling our utmost northern cities for home games during the first week of April. How is Boston the only club traveling on a west coast or southern swing? It must be attributed to Dave Dombrowski attending the Ivy League of the Midwest, Western Michigan. At least the baseball brass can breathe easy now that the AAF is canceled and all those viewers will come back to watching baseball, unless you live in Los Angeles and all your games are blacked out. Baseball is back friends!
Baseball Podcast: Every Rose Has Its Thornton
April 4, 2019 | Ditka, Razzball Podcast | 2 Commentsby: B_Don
B_Don and Donkey are back to profiling dudes who play with balls. This week they look at two young bucks as Donkey digs in on Blue Jay's unknown rookie Trent Thornton and B_Don puts Matt Strahm's shaky debut under the microscope. Is Trent Thornton the real deal? Will Matt Strahm rebound? How many times can Donkey Teeth say "spin rate in a 20 second clip? Tune in and find out!
The Ditka Degenerates also talk about some week one pickups including Kolten Wong, Sandy Alcantara, Freddy Peralta, Jon Duplantier, and many more. The show is rounded out by a quick discussion on strategic differences in OPS leagues versus standard 5x5 leagues. The regular season sausage is super moist and extra steamy, taste it for yourself!
P.S. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes and be entered into a drawing to win one of these sweet puppies:
Just Tweet a screenshot of your review to @DitkaSausagePod or @DonkeyTeeth87. 