Happy 4th of July week Razzball Commenter Leaguers! This week not only marks the birthday of our fine U.S. of A., but more importantly, marks the halfway point of the fantasy baseball season! We just finished ~13 weeks and there are ~13 weeks remaining. While we typically use the All Star Break to mark the halfway point, this week is the real deal. If you were exactly on pace with your innings pitched, you would have 700 on the button. You can use that as a nice gauge to see if you need to be streaming your buns off the next 13 weeks or if you can chill out a bit and wait for the choice match-ups. This week, in addition to the weekly leaders we will take a look at our halfway point leaders. It will be a quick shoutout to those teams that have started hot in each of the roto categories. Obviously, our team of the halfway point is the leader of our Master Standings. Who might that be you ask? It might not be who you think. Let’s take a look at that and the rest of the week that was week 13 in the Razzball Commenter Leagues:
There's plenty of starting pitching to choose from on tonight's FanDuel slate, but one option stands above the rest. Rays starter
Charlie Morton is having a phenomenal year, with a 2.43 ERA, a 2.91 FIP, a 2.62 Deserved Run Average, and he projects to be the top starting pitcher on Tuesday. Morton's got a dominant 29.9% K-rate and has a great matchup against the Orioles, whose poor .300 wOBA ranks them as a bottom-five offense against right-handed pitching. Baltimore is even worse when they're away from their hitter-friendly park, with a .285 wOBA and a 25.1% strikeout-rate on the road. In a pitcher's environment at home, Morton should easily put together a dominant start and is well worth the investment in cash games.
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Absolutely brutal news about Tyler Skaggs. Makes you remember how silly this fantasy baseball thing is in the grand scheme of things. Counterpoint: everything is serious -- politics, work, sickness, and, yes, death -- so maybe the silliness of fantasy baseball is the point. Perhaps Skaggs's passing can bring some perspective. Remember, it's not the end of the world if you drafted Giancarlo and you trail in all power categories. It's enjoying the ride, because it's often much quicker than anyone expects. Now, I’m just going to leave some white space as a moment of silence.
Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Not your Grandfather’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers…
I'm sure this won't come as a surprise, but Grandpa-Donk is what they call a "Donk of all trades". At one point in his legendary life, the venerable jackass even tried his hoof as a weatherman. In fact, he was one of the first weatherdonks on television back in the '50s.
When I was just a little donkus, no bigger than Trevor Bauer's poodle, Gramps would gather all us youngins round and tell us about his days of Hollywood stardom. The weather forecasting tools back in his time were just as primitive as the are now, so he was frequently way off on his prognostications. But he always delivered his forecast with the classic family wit, mixing in his token skyarrhea toilet humor and even the occasional dong joke, which was very risque back in his day. Grandonkey would always finish his meteorology tales with one bit of sage advice, "Find an occupation where you can be wrong 90% of the time and people still come back for more".
Writing the Top 100 Starting Pitchers post in 2019: the year of the juiciest of juiced balls, and baseballs, I imagine is exactly like being a weatherdonkey. Just other day, when The Kooch was getting lit up for the 17th consecutive outing, G-Donk called me up to tell me how proud he was that I had discovered my niche. Actually, he called to ask where he might find a fresh pair of Señor Crappers, but I could sense the pride in his voice.
The only thing we know about 2019 Starting Pitching is there's going to be lots of rainy days with a few random sunny days mixed in, followed by a tornado which will destroy what's left of your already fugly ratios. Your 2019 fantasy pitching staff is more or less going to be Seattle with a little bit of Kansas, but we're all living there in rainy tornado alley with you; so quit your whining and grab an umbrella!
Speaking of umbrellas, Mike Minor has provided a pleasant refugee from the storms this season, and he's only become sturdier as the summer monsoons set in, sporting a 1.70 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 37 June innings. Unfortunately, there's some large red regression fairies lurking here, the first of which is a massive and unsustainable 97.5% strand rate over this past month. Pair that with a lucky .200 June BABIP, and Donkey begins running for new shelter. I'd aggressively shop Minor if someone in your league thinks he's actually a top 20 pitcher, but I wouldn't sell him for
a cup of Grey's baby gravy. I'll take a guy that might continue getting lucky over a cup of Grey goo any day.
If you're unfamiliar with the New Orleans tradition of King Cake I'll fill you in. It's made in January to commemorate the arrival of the Three Wisemen, sports the official colors of Mardi Gras, and often has a plastic baby on it. It doesn't always seem like the most appetizing dessert. Looks can be deceiving, though! It's actually quite good. Just like second-year super utility stud Scott Kingery...

B_Don and Donkey are back at it this week profiling two more young ball tossers. But first DT has a few words for B_Don regarding some of his pickup recommendations on the
Razzball Podcast earlier this week.
Donkey then digs in on his profile of exciting Cubs prospect Adbert Alzolay, who features two impressive off speed pitches. The guys speculate that a longer-term opening may arise in the Chicago rotation for Alzolay; since recording Cole Hamels has hit the IL, so be sure Alzolay is owned in all leagues.
For his profile B_Don breaks down Marlins youngster Jordan Yamamoto, who has burst onto the scene with three very solid outings. The show is topped off with some rapid fire pickup suggestions: B_Don loves Ian Kinsler and Mike Fiers. Sausage, sausage, get your sausage here!
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We have to talk about these London games. They were bloody awful! Talk about giving the pitchers a lift, but lift as in British English, as in putting the pitchers on an elevator with Droopy Dog saying, "Going down?" This was like if The Spice Girls had a Cilantro Spice. The Yankees used a pitcher named Hale just to troll the Brits. They should've signed Ben Revere to a two-day contract, but just to have him scream at the front gates when the Brits were coming into the stadium. That would've been savage. Never forget, never surrender! Okay, now I'm just singing Corey Hart, WHO WAS CANADIAN BUT REACHED SUCCESS IN AMERICA! Any hoo! There was a ton of offense this weekend. Luke Voit bongo'ed four hits on Saturday, then pulled up lame because London's healthcare system. The Yanks said he should be back on Tuesday, and the Brits said, "The Yanks said something." Aaron Judge (1-for-2, 1 run) went donking (his 7th); Aaron Hicks (2-for-5, 1 run, 2 RBIs) said, "Dinger ain't just the Rockies mascot," with his 6th on Saturday; Brett Gardner (2-for-4, 1 run, 1 RBI) elicits female-like screams from Joe Buck when he went deep for his 12th homer on Saturday; Michael Chavis stepped up for the Sawx with two dongers on Saturday because the fence was 255 feet away and 0-for-5 on Sunday; Just Dong (3-for-4, 2 runs and his 18th) introduced his new cosplay character, Dongo Magnificent; Christian Vazquez (2-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 11th homer) thumbed his nose up at all Protestant Vazquezes, and all pitchers got wrecked. I mean, Rick Porcello (1/3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 5.07) and Masahiro Tanaka (2/3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.74) should've forgot their passports and never even went. Oh well, as we know, hitters don't need to be in London to tea off. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball: