Fantasy Baseball Strategy For A 60-Game Season: Steals

June 26, 2020 | fantasy baseball strategy | 78 Comments

This year we don't have SAGNOF we have SSSAGNOF. That's Shortened Season SAGNOF, baby! I just started breakdancing after screaming baby. What, is this a lost episode of Ally McBeal? 'Member that show? I don't, because I didn't ever watch crap TV shows. Get your taste out yo' ass! Also, that popsicle stick. That vacuum cord. That microwaved burrito. How many things do you have in your butt? As mentioned the other day in my Jarrod Dyson 60-game sleeper, steals might be the most predictable stat we have this year. Have Sprint Speed, will travel from 1st to 2nd. With runs and RBIs, it's going to come down to lineup placement. With home runs, it's going to come down to--Well, just go read the article. With steals, it's gonna be as easy to measure as clicking that little button on the top of your stopwatch. By the by, what if the person pressing the clock button is slow, doesn't that change the clocked time by a lot? Has anyone ever said runners' times pre-digital age are all hogwash because it depended on the old man in black & white with the monocle pressing a stopwatch button? Did I just uncover some truth that everyone already knew but me? Yes? Cool. Our 2020 fantasy baseball rankings have been updated to a 60-game season. So, with a 60-game season, what is a fantasy baseball strategy for steals?

Learn more about our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!

The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.

I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!

Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.

See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Sat 5/24
	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

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Baseball Is Back, The 60 Game Season, & NL DH Candidates

June 25, 2020 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast |

by: Geoff

We recorded an episode over the weekend before the news broke. I was drunk, Grey was handsome, and baseball seemed very unlikely. This show will never see the light of day, as MLB decided to blindside us with actual baseball! Knowing this new, uh, news, Grey and I got on the line and said, "We gotta give the people the good new, uh, news!" So like a couple of missionaries stationed in a foreign land, we brought the good news. The news of baseball's return and the glorious idea of the NL DH. Due to our excitement around the potential boost for several NL players in fantasy, Grey and I go team by team breaking down viable DH candidates for every club. It's a glorious return to baseball!

Draft Leftovers: CNT Players Spilling into the 2021 Crop

June 25, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects |

by: Hobbs

Historically, players who compete for the USA Collegiate National Team do quite well in the MLB Draft. Despite the uniqueness of the event in 2020, this rule held true on June 10 and 11, as 41 USA Baseball alumni were selected across the 160 picks included in the five round draft. Of the 26 players to make the 2019 USA CNT summer roster, 20 – you heard that right, 20 – were drafted in the abbreviated 2020 draft. Further emphasizing the importance of USA CNT participation was the fact that each of the top five picks – Spencer Torkelson, Heston Kjerstad, Max Meyer, Asa Lacy and Austin Martin – were included on that 26-man squad. Even if you suck at math, you have likely already used the art of deduction to determine that only six players from that team went undrafted two weeks ago. Two of those players, Sam Houston State’s Colton Cowser and Mississippi’s Doug Nikhazy, were not even draft-eligible, as their draft year does not come until 2021. As a side note, Cowser is currently positioned as my No. 8 college player to target in the 2021 class. I have only ranked 12 players so far in the 2021 crop and although Nikhazy did not crack that list, he’ll fall within my top 20-25 when I begin to expand on those rankings. That leaves us with just four 2019 USA CNT alumni that will now be reclassifying into the 2021 draft year: left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbott (Virginia), first baseman/outfielder Tanner Allen (Mississippi State), catcher Casey Opitz (Arkansas) and shortstop Luke Waddell (Georgia Tech). None of these four are expected to sign any kind of post-draft free-agent deal, unsurprisingly so, as all likely already turned down offers for more than $20,000 during the latter rounds of the 2020 draft.

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Baseball is Back! Post MLB Draft Prospect Celebration

June 25, 2020 | All Podcasts |

by: Donkey Teeth

Baseball is coming! The spring was dark and full of terror. But the Lord of Light is generous and merciful, so a 60-game baseball season will lead us out of the darkness! I'm joined by prospect wizards, The Itch and Hobbs, on this week's celebratory Goin' Deep Podcast. Off the bat we discuss a few of the ins and outs of the forthcoming MLB season and what it might mean for prospects and your fantasy baseball leagues. Then we dive into the 2020 MLB Draft results as Hobbs and Itch share which teams landed their favorite draft classes and why. Later the prospectors divulge which players from the draft we might actually see up during this shortened 2020 season, including Max Meyer and Burl Carraway. Hobbs also discusses a few of the names from his Pre-Draft and Post-Draft Prospect Sleepers. Oh and if you missed it, the Razzball Prospect Podcast is back as The Itch gave you his debut solo podcast earlier this week. Look for more prospect podcasts featuring both Hobbs and The Itch, coming soon. Play Ball!

Fantasy Baseball Strategy For A 60-Game Season: Home Runs

June 25, 2020 | fantasy baseball strategy | 72 Comments

by: Grey

Welcome back to another post that you never thought you'd read from a guy who never thought he'd write it! We're sailing into uncharted territory, worried we could die from some unknown disease, while maybe carrying the unknown plague ourselves that will kill everyone else. "Argh! Name that team in Cleveland the Indians and lets get these 60 games going!" Guys and five female readers, if someone beats the 73 homer record in only 60 games, they have to count it even if the person is shooting up while in the on-deck circle, right? As Long John Silver once said, don't want to go out on a limb, but c'mon. In a shortened season of 60 games, it will be imperative that you go after categories vs. players. Sure, use the fantasy baseball trade analyzer. (I clickbaited you and you didn't even see it coming!) Roast your leaguemates with them quick-to-the-point-to-the-point-no-faking fake baseball trades, but you need categories and stats over player names. Who can get you home runs and how fast can they do it? How do we even figure that out? Luckily, this is a rhetorical question to tell you I have you covered like a blanket infected with lice. So, with a 60-game season, what is a fantasy baseball strategy for home runs?

Taxi!! Follow That 40-man Bus! (American League Central Scuba Dive)

June 24, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 8 Comments

by: The Itch

As I write we don’t know everything official yet, like who's going to opt out for health concerns, but we know the owners have taken their ball and headed home. If you see a headline saying the sides have come to an agreement (and I've seen several using that language today), that’s not a fair representation of how this shizz went down. The players have indeed signed off on the health stuff, but it’s not clear they had a choice. Regardless, Major League Baseball’s 2020 regular season will consist of 60 games with a limit of 60 players per team, including taxi squads. 30 looks like the opening number for active rosters, which is a bit staggering when considering in-game applications, but rosters are scheduled to decline to 26 spots by the halfway point because reasons. Might need a few new folding chairs in the bullpen. Making a team’s 40-man roster has always granted players an edge in getting a promotion. Every season when we’re waiting for our favorite prospects to get the call, we watch a parade of misfit toys already on the 40 get that chance first. Especially in some organizations that don’t like to toggle the 40-man. f you’re in a deep league, making semi-regular rounds on the 40-man rosters can give you a predictive edge. If you’re in any league, really, how can it hurt to know who’s likely to get called up next at a given position on a given team, no matter how anyone’s hitting or pitching? Can’t hurt, right? 2020 will be all about maximizing short-term opportunities, so let’s take a lap around the AL Central.

Baseball Podcast: MLB Player Interview. JB Wendelken RP Oakland A’s

June 24, 2020 | All Podcasts |

by: Brent

JB Wendelken (@jbwendelken) joins the show to talk about his career so far and some hurdles he has had to overcome from TJ to be one of the best relievers in the A's bullpen. We discuss what he felt on draft night and later in his career getting traded away from the Boston Red Sox to the White Sox and now is in Oakland. JB also gives us some of his favorite memories, and some of the best foods to grill on his Traeger grill.

Fantasy Baseball Strategy For A 60-Game Season: Runs & RBIs

June 24, 2020 | fantasy baseball strategy | 82 Comments

by: Grey

Deal has been struck, right? Baseball is the only sport where it announces its start, but no one is sure if it really announced its start. Good ol' baseball being super stupid as usual. Okay, baseball is set to return on July 1st, and the season will happen, if Covid cooperates. The season won't look like any baseball season we've ever seen before. This year someone will get to 220 at-bats and it will take playing every game of the 60-game season while ducking Covid, which is not "ducking" after Siri autocorrects it; that's not "ducking" at all. No one says get the duck out of here, Siri, unless you have Daffy problems. Mookie Betts might get 50 runs, and he will lead the major leagues in runs. Cody Bellinger might lead the majors in RBIs with 58 and only score 35 runs. There could be guys who hit at the bottom of their respective lineups, play every day and barely crack ten runs or RBIs. Actually, gonna google real fast if anyone has every played in every game of a baseball season and failed to reach 10 runs or RBIs. Just messin'! I ain't googling that shizz because obviously it ain't ever been done. There might be five everyday players in the Tigers' lineup this year who don't reach 10 runs or RBIs. You know AP style is to write out numbers one through nine? Well, it is, and we might need to write out numbers in statlines this year. Nike Goodrum: nine/four/nine/.two-fifty-four/three. Ain't no way around it. I have gone on the record as saying I welcome any baseball this year. Whether it's 50, 60, or 20 games. Doesn't matter to me, because I want to see them get out there and play baseball. Give me a month of games; works for me! Just don't let me see anyone spit! You heathens! This year could be so screwy that MLB start its 60-game season and, due to Covid, end early and we only get 40 games. That's just what we're gonna have to deal with this year. Instead of going over all the players who will become DHs in the NL, which I will let stew for a week, I'm going to talk about overall strategy for a 60-game season. All 2020 fantasy baseball rankings have been updated for a 60-game season. So, with a 60-game season, what is a fantasy baseball strategy for runs and RBIs?

2020 Team Fantasy Sleepers: Texas Rangers

June 23, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 4 Comments

by: Kerry Klug

My last fantasy team preview went live on May 1, 2020. What a simpler time! Back then we were debating the new cross-league divisions they were thinking of creating. I was a rather stupidly optimistic man who predicted we’d get a return to baseball on July 4th. Now with 10 baseball camps claiming they’ve had someone come down with the ‘VID we’ll be lucky if we even see the Long Island Ducks take on the Morristown Mud Rats. Now be honest -- how many of you have already googled “NPB fantasy baseball leagues” and searched Amazon for “conversational Japanese for baseball fans?” I know it’s not just me. I’ve already got my first round draft pick lined up for my yakyu chimu: the league’s best ni-rui shu Tetsuto Yamada! He hits lots of hon-rui da and gets tons of tourui. Come on Rob SaidFred -- let’s get this league back up and running! As with all of fantasy team preview articles this year I’m not talking about the guys you know to draft. A healthy Joey Gallo is a lock for 45 HRs. Elvis Andrus will still be one of the deepest 15/15 threats in the league. Shin-Soo Choo will continue to be the Korean God of walks until he's 64. Instead, I like to look deeper at the teams to help you find value you might not have heard of yet -- or someone who has been slipping in drafts. “No prospects? You’re trash!” Nah anger management comment guy -- The Itch is the resident prospect guru and here's his top 10 Rangers prospects for 2020 fantasy baseball.

MLB’s 2020 Vision Of A Season Is More Like A Miniseries

June 23, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 79 Comments

by: Grey

BASEBALL IS BACK (after players agree to health and safety measures; kiss their families goodbye for perhaps four months if they get into the postseason; get tested for Covid-19 repeatedly; report to camp; go through spring training 2.0 which could be three weeks long; avoid injuries and anyone outside the bubble of the MLB who could infect them; dip and dodge a far-reaching pandemic while keeping their eye on the prize and that prize is what exactly? 60 games to prove they can be the fastest to ten homers and push their teams to winning 32 games? If Costanza saw this season, he'd scream, "Shrinkage!" But we're going to remain optimistic, right? We got baseball that's what's important...well, the players' health is important too, so that brings us back to the health and safety measures -- ya know what? I'm getting out of this parenthetical while I still have something to look forward to.), BABY, BASEBALL IS BACK! Spring Training will begin, in theory, on July 1st. By the by, "in theory" is something you're going to read a lot from me over the next two months. "In theory" this is baseball. "In theory" the Nats are defending their title. "In theory" Luis Arraez hit .400 for the season even though he only had 175 at-bats. "In theory" Jesse Winker could stay healthy for 60 games and be the Reds' DH. There will be a universal DH this year (not necessarily in 2021), and the season will start (in theory) on the weekend of July 24th. I told you it would start again on July 24th for the last three months. Okay, I wrote it as July 4th, but there was a 2 in front of the 4 that I was writing in .00001-point font. Not my fault your eyesight is going. Okay, baseball returning gets me to give out a little woohoo. In like 12-point font. If I'm being real and sappy, I love baseball, and I'm glad it's going to try to return. Rudy tells me he has updated all my 2020 fantasy baseball rankings to sixty games, but since this all happened late last night, it might not happen until Tuesday afternoon. I will then go over some strategy for a 60-game season and then news from spring training, where I'm almost 100% we're going to hear certain players are not going to play this year. If it's possible, I'd suggest you begin scheduling some redrafts for early July. Just think, draft season is the best season, and now we're getting it twice! Anyway, here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball:

Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast: The Itch Recaps the 2020 MLB Draft

June 22, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 4 Comments

by: The Itch

The Itch recaps the 2020 MLB Draft. Spencer Torkelson leads an ambush of young Tigers. Austin Martin books a surprise gig with a band of Blue Jays. Nick Gonzales leads a promising crew of Pirates. Ed Howard hops the El train to join the Cubs.

Throw in a whole bunch of other players along some conspiratorial thoughts connected to the post-draft signing period, and you’ve got mail! Or a notification, anyway. It’s a Razzball podcast! Back after an MLB-sized hiatus to gather around the prospect fire, gaze into the dancing future flames, and see what we can see.

Bear or Bull: Don’t Be a Chicken, Buy Dansby Swanson

June 22, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Bear or Bull | 8 Comments

by: Son

Canned foods are good to have.....in the event of a nuclear holocuast, zombie apocalypse, and/or global pandemic. Usually I would not include the "and" in the above sentence, but we live in strange times that not including it would classify this piece as fiction. Anyways, back to canned foods. You buy lots of them, stack them on the shelves, then pray that you never have to open them. I get their utility. What I don't get, though, are the canned foods that have NO PRESERVATIVES written on the label. How? One of life's great mysteries. Another enigma I stumbled upon the other day was that Dansby Swanson was being drafted as the 224th player in NFBC drafts from 5/1/2020 to 6/20/2020. <insert Nancy Kerrigan sobbing why?> Last November, Grey wrote a sleeper article on Swanson. That Grey guy is a wise, young, fella. To show that I don't just parrot Grey and ride his coattails....Who am I kidding? Have you ever ridden coattails? It's a glorious experience, especially when you can grab Grey's mustache and use them as handlebars. I digress. I wrote a Bear or Bull article on Swanson back in June of last year, so I've been bullish on his prospects for a while now. So, why is his ADP so low?