Short-season ball kicked off on Friday, allowing us to dig even deeper into the prospect player pool for some performance data. Short-season is a melting pot of players. You'll get your injury recovery guys, your recent draftees, and your teenagers getting their first taste of pro ball. It's also a great season to follow if you happen to live close to one of these parks. Small, intimate stadiums, cheap prices, good food, and good baseball. That's what it's all about, especially if you're a dad teaching your son or daughter about the Game for the first time. By and by, Happy Father's Day to all the dads reading this today. Here's what's happening around the minor leagues...
Monthly Archives: June 2019
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FanDuel: Montas Of Cash
June 15, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 5 Commentsby: MattTruss
Happy Father’s Day weekend DFSers. We’ve got the US Open, Father’s Day prep and an eight game FanDuel main slate for you tonight. Let’s try to pad your wallet so you can get an extra rib eye for the grill this weekend, shall we? To do that, we’re looking at Frankie Montas ($8,700) and his plethora of strikeouts. As we know by now, Ks pay the bills in DFS and Montas is currently rocking a 9.4 K/9 and has two 10 K games under his belt already. Montas is at home (something we always love in our DFS pitchers) and he gets to face the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners appear to have given up on the season and are swinging at absolutely everything. They lead the majors in strikeouts by a hefty margin and I love Montas to have a big game tonight. Lock and load my friends.
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!
Deep Impact: Nola Rebuilding From Hurricane
June 15, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 15 Commentsby: Coolwhip
Last year Aaron Nola was really good. He posted a 2.37 ERA, 0.97 WHIP with a 3.01 FIP along with a 9.49 K/9 that placed him among the best. He paraded up and down the French Quarter for all to see on Mardi Gras. And then Hurricane 2019 (AKA Katrina) reared its ugly head from across the sea, and has assaulted Nola with utter indiscretion and lack of mercy, destroying his and your ratios. To date, Nola has a 4.58 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and a 4.22 FIP that mostly agrees with the destruction. He was once the Big Easy, set it and forget it, an easy auto-start and reap the reward. This season he's been the Easy At-bat, bleh.
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The Padres began this year by lifting their brown, monk robe they purchased from Macy's in the Dan Brown collection and showed their first twig of the prospect tree they have cloaked underneath. Luis Urias started the year with them, looked as good as the propsblock who's in front of him, Ian Kinsler, which is to say not good, then didn't play much and was sent down. Was it too soon for him? No, he had a ten-game slump and wasn't given a opportunity. Now, Luis Urias is killing minor league pitching (14 HRs, 6 SBs, .346/.439/.681 in 223 plate appearances), and the Padres said Urias will be up this week. Hopefully, that means Kinsler is benched or DFA'd, because he's like when you underestimate a fart and need to change your pants. Urias is a solid all-around bat, think .300 hitter, with some light power and speed. He’s young though, which means he might need some patience, so remain calm. For now, I will call him, Zen Bobrist. I would grab him if you’re struggling at MI to see if he can catch fire and you can master Zen and the Art of MI Maintenance. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Rolling In The Deep: Need A NewMan?
June 14, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Deep Leagues | 6 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Happy mid-June everyone! School’s out, the weather’s warming up, and real-life leisure activities and starting to chip away at fantasy baseball time, at least in my household. So, let’s get right to what we’re here for: looking at some players who might be available for those who need help in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep fantasy baseball leagues.
FanDuel: Put Some More Cole(s) On The Fire
June 14, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel |by: Richardo
Welcome to the weekend fellow DFSers! We have a full 15-game slate on FanDuel for our Friday and I'm paying up for my pitcher tonight, so later in this article we'll focus on finding some value bats. For now, let me introduce you to my main man, Gerrit Cole ($12,000). I know, I know, I'm sitting here telling you to play the most expensive pitcher on the slate. I originally started this write-up with a different title and planning a different intro, but once I dove in some more, I realized by recommending Max Scherzer, I was hyping the second best pitcher, both in terms of skills and matchup. For the season, Gerrit Cole outpaces Scherzer in both strikeout rate (38.6% to 33.3%) and SIERA (2.58 to 2.95). Both of those numbers for Cole leads all qualified starters. Today, Cole faces the Blue Jays and Scherzer gets the Diamondbacks. Toronto sits next to last in wRC+ against right-handed pitching and has the fifth highest strikeout rate. The Diamondbacks on the other hand have the 20th best wRC+ against righties and are middle of the pack in strikeout rate. Now that you know who the top pitcher on the FanDuel slate is, lets take a look at some other options, before getting to some value bats.
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!
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As they say in Anaheim, "If you can't get to see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan, you should get to see the Gin Blossoms in concert at the Hard Rock or Shohei Ohtani." One Anaheim-born woman, Gina, was so excited about Ohtani that she got a tattoo of the Japanese symbol for strength, that she later found out was a tattoo of Calvin pissing on a Grateful Dead logo. Gina did it in honor of Ohtani, so it's still close to her heart, though mostly because it's covering a third nipple. Yesterday, Ohtani became the first Japanese born player to hit for the cycle, going 4-for-4, 2 runs, 3 RBIs with his 8th homer. The closest previous Asian cycle was Kurt Suzuki. When Ohtani becomes Hot-tani, there's few players that can match him for sheer excitement, though Ian Kinsler wears sheer pantyhose under his uni, if that counts. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Bullpen Report, Week 12: May In June
June 13, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Closers, Middle Relievers | 21 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
It's June, in case you don't own a calendar or Mayan solar stone. Fantasy owners can no longer afford to hold their breath in any given category. Now is the time to take your shots on middle relievers and hope they earn you a save or two. It's nice if they can give you strikeouts or stellar ratios in the meantime. Check your wire for the names below.
Baseball Podcast: Grey Makes Large Deposits at the Sperm Bank
June 13, 2019 | Ditka, Razzball Podcast | 8 Commentsby: B_Don
B_Don and Donkey Teeth are joined once again by the Fantasy Master Lothario on this week's special guest edition of the Ditka, Sausage, and Fantasy Sports Podcast about Baseball. As a warm up, Grey ejaculates stories of his many, many, MANY visits to the sperm repository. Once the guys finally pry Albright's mind away from P*rnHub, they get to discussing their level of belief in some of this year's mid-season breakout players.
As late June approaches, find out to what degree you should trust hot hitting Eduardo Escobar, Josh Bell, Rafael Devers, Edwin Encarnacion, and Hunter Pence. The Ditka Dudes featuring Albright also chat about a couple of the hottest arms in the game: post hype breakout, Lucas Giolito, and surprise ace, Jake Odorizzi. Grab a cup, some lotion, and your favorite nudie magazine; we're heading straight to the bank!
If you’re looking to save some cash to use elsewhere and like to be bold, turn your attention to Rowdy Tellez (1B: $2,300). He doesn’t hit the ball often, but when he does it goes a long way. To wit, he has only 42 hits in 185 ABs on the season but 10 of them have left the yard. Boom goes the dynamite. Most importantly, he just looks like a slugger, which is to say...thicc. The price is right so take a gamble. You either bet big or you go home, you gotta risk it to get the biscuit.
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!
Paddack Off To South Padre Island For Break
June 13, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 389 Commentsby: Grey
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The Padres sent Chris Paddack down to Single-A to limit his innings. When Nick Margevicius heard the news, he said, "Damn, guess I'll be limited too." Padres, "Nah, you good, throw 270 IP if you can." Paddack being sent down to the minors feels like an encapsulation of all that's wrong with baseball. Or at least that element. That whole manipulation of young players element. Paddack won't pitch in Single-A. He's going for a rest. A vacay, of sorts. A little 'how's your father' in Lake Elisnore at the House of Alfredo Griffindoor. He has to be back in 20 days (due to service time), and he will be. My guess is in two weeks. Why any team thinks it's better to shut down a guy early and start them up again vs. shut them down in August is beyond me. Member how well that helped Julio Urias? He needed surgery to correct things. To put it in laymen's terms, shut down your car in the dead of winter and restart it or leave it running while you run into CVS? Okay, maybe the Consumer Value Store scenario depends on some of your janky neighborhoods, but you catch the drift. Either way, I'm trying to hold Paddack in most leagues; he'll likely only miss three starts. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Prospect News: Carpe Dylan (Cease The Day)
June 12, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 60 Commentsby: Mike
The White Sox front office announced that top pitching prospect Dylan Cease could be up in July. My guess is it will be post All-Star Break, which by and by is the perfect time to make roster moves while the rest of your league is in rest mode. Cease is one of my favorite pitching specs, even though he hasn't had the best of seasons in Triple-A (4.10 ERA) and his player photo looks like a second grader who was told to say 'cheese'. I still think Cease is one of the best stashes for the second half of 2019 and will eventually round into a 2/3 starter in the majors. Here's what else is happening around the minor leagues...
