(NOTE: THIS POST WAS RELEASED EARLY YESTERDAY ON OUR PATREON. IT’S $5/MONTH.)
Was having a chat in the comments the other day with Razzball writer, Coolwhip, and I said to him something like, "Wonder if starters who throw weak-sauce fastballs are going to be better this year because there will be less effort, and leff esort (sic) this year is better because no pitchers can throw hard with no real ramp up to the season." Leff esort is such a great concept. It's like saying 'less effort' without opening your mouth, so it is being said with less effort -- hence, leff esort. Leff esort is such an easy way to live, yet alone pitch. Could all those jacked 99 MPH fastballs be just too much this year and leff esort is the way to go? I don't know. But it does seem like guys sneaking by on 91 MPH or slower fastballs are having a much better time so far. Aaron Civale couldn't get arrested with his 91 MPH fastball (if there was a law against 92+ MPH fastballs), yet here he is. Giddy up, Ryan Yarbrough (88 MPH), you slow dog! Sure, you'll do, Jon Lester (89). Hey, look at Ross Stripling (91), and you too, Matt Shoemaker (91). Merrill Kelly had moments of 92+ MPH fastballs in his first game, but he is more about his cutter (90 MPH), curve and change. Last September, Kelly also dominated, and I'm adding him everywhere. Maybe we're all just trying too hard and we need leff esort. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Monthly Archives: July 2020
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We are now just over a week into the season and all bets are off. In most years, we should be taking a longer view of these rankings and accounting for the ebb and flow of the season. In this uncertain environment we do not have time to wait to see if a guy is just having a slow start to the season. To win in what may be a ‘coin flip’ at the end of the season we must play the hot hands and cut bait on the sleepers that aren’t showing the promise we projected. Sure, there will be mistakes along the way, but the bigger mistake is being left behind.
A few things to focus on this week:
- If you are playing for the Phillies, Marlins, Blue Jays or Yankees you are dropping in the rankings. There are rumblings of playing 7 inning doubleheaders to catch up on the season and anybody on those teams will take a hit. If playing for the Marlins was not penalty enough…
- Who is off to a hot start or cold start? We can’t really base anything off of one-week, but as I mentioned in the intro I would much rather move on too early than wake up and realize the season is over because I didn’t want to bench or drop that high draft pick.
- Finally, we need to look at opportunities again. We have just hit the point where any call ups will have an extra year of time control. Nothing like the roar of the crowd (or silence of cardboard cut outs) to get somebody off to a hot start to their career.
Closer Report: Under The Boardwalk
July 31, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, SAGNOF | 18 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
It's been a busy few days for bullpen shuffling as I try to keep up from my vacation at the shore. Injuries are popping up. Ineffectiveness will also be tolerated far less. Each week of the season is roughly ten percent of it. You're already running out of time to adjust. Since I'm not into contagious viruses I won't be partaking in the usual boardwalk indulgences. Therefore, the tier themes will have to do.
Today is the day that DFS'ers and daily lineup setters alike have been waiting for - the first series of the year at Coors Field. In case you're not familiar, Coors is the ultimate hitter's park and the best run scoring environment imaginable. On FanDuel, literally every hitter in either the Padres or Rockies lineup is in play. That makes Tommy Pham (3,800) and Trent Grisham ($3,300) top targets at their prices. And if someone like Matt Kemp ($2,800) makes his way into the lineup, he's worth playing too. Coors hitters are a popular strategy, but it's for good reason, so expect plenty of production from a Padres or Rockies stack.
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!
Who Is That Prospect? The Name is Daulton
July 31, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 281 Commentsby: Grey
Daulton Varsho was called up by the Diamondbacks. His numbers in the minors are gorge, as in they will engorge you. 18/21/.301 in Double-A, and he's a catcher. Oh...*climbs to top of world's tallest stack of pancakes*...kay. Yo, Varsho, you the greatest living catcher ever? Varsho! Here's what Prospect Itch said, "Prospects don’t get much rarer than Daulton Varsho. My estimated time for his arrival says late 2020, but that might be dependent upon Arizona deciding to stop developing him as a catcher. He struck out just 13.9 percent of the time while walking in 9.3 percent of his plate appearances. That along with his .301/.378/.520 slash line and 159 wRC+ in a decent pitching environment suggests he might be ready for the leap to MLB pitching right now. Can Grey take a leap?" Not cool, man. I haven't been this excited for a catcher since I married my Cougar. My guess is he plays DH, since the DBacks ditched Kevin Cron, and already have Total Request Live and Rock the Vogt to catch. Playing time could be an issue, which is why I didn't grab Varsho in every league, but I did try him in one very shallow league, knowing I can just drop him if he doesn't work out. Yo, do you even lift, bro? Also, he'll be in this afternoon's Buy, which you could already be reading if you subscribe to our Patreon. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Prospect Watch: Clarke Schmidt
July 30, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 8 Commentsby: Hobbs
With the 2020 season now underway, prospects that failed to make their respective teams' opening day rosters have arrived at alternate training sites. In a normal year, this would be prime prospect writing season, as we'd follow players' performances at various levels of the Minor Leagues making all sorts of analysis and predictions about their MLB ETAs, future fantasy output, relevance to the current season at hand, etc. With no Minor League Baseball this season, we don't have that, but we do know that all of the information there is to know is already out there, with some extra flavor sprinkled in from summer camps. As the summer progresses, I'll continue to stay in tune with what I'm hearing about countless players situated at those alternate sites. One player I'm especially intrigued by for the 2020 campaign is Clarke Schmidt of the Yankees, otherwise known as Clark D. Schmidt, son of Clate Schmidt, of the late Claudius P. Schmidt, descendant of Cletus Z. Schmidt. The first two were true.
Big D. Schmidt came into summer camp with a fair amount of hype as the No. 88 prospect in the game, but he was slightly overshadowed initially by 21-year-old phenom Deivi Garcia, MLB.com's No. 92 prospect. During his time at Yankees camp, Schmidt did nothing but prove that he's close to being Major League ready despite only having 19 Double-A innings under his belt. Before being optioned to New York's alternate site, Schmidt performed admirably in both simulated and exhibition game action, ultimately earning the team's 2020 James P. Dawson Award, given to the most outstanding Yankees rookie in spring training. Translation: we strategically gave you this award so you wouldn't be pissed when we put Mike King on the roster instead of you. Even dating back to Spring Training, Schmidt still had a locker at Yankees camp when everything shut down. And for good reason, because on top of having a plus-fastball (two-seam and four-seam mix) that ranges from 92-97 MPH and an above average-to-plus tumbling changeup, he possesses a curveball that can do this:
With the season underway, there have been a substantial number of movers on my corner infielder rankings. It's difficult to make too much of a week of play, but with only 60 games total, you'll have to be aggressive in order to win your league. And that means jumping on breakouts and benching those who might be flaming out.
I made my rankings initially using z-scores based on projections. Now that we have some actual results, it's a bit of a free for all. Know only that I'm thinking prospectively, i.e., ranking players based on how I expect them to perform relative to one another for the rest of the season. Just because Starlin Castro has been better than Miguel Sanó to date, doesn't mean that I expect him to be better going forward.
When I first started writing One's Man Trash, I would go through the most added/drop list at ESPN then highlight a bunch of players that stood out to me. As time passed and evolution did its thing, I would hone in on one player and do a deeper dive. Since it's the beginning of the season, and the sample sizes are small, I'm going back to my roots. Enjoy.
David Fletcher (3B/2B/SS/OF - LAA) - 73.1% owned - increase of 38%
Fletcher lives!!! In 23 PA, he's slashing .556/.609/.667 with 1 stolen base. The walk rate is 17.4% while the strikeout rate is a paltry 13%. The BABIP is .625! Lol. He's obviously not going to maintain that level, but Steamer has him projected for a .283 batting average with 2 home runs, 3 stolen bases, and 24 runs. That ain't bad for the leadoff hitter for the Angels. Fletcher led the league in swinging strike rate last season with a 3.2% number. This season, he's at 2.3%. The contact rates are all elite. In this shortened season, Fletcher could lead the league in batting aveage and runs scored if the stars align. Finally, he's eligible at four positions, which is huge in this Rona-infested environment. TREASURE
Jayson King (@JaysonKing26), Head Coach for the Dayton Flyers Baseball team joins the show to talk Flyers baseball and what we can expect from the program in years to come. We discuss the possibility of college sports this school year, his coaching career, MLB Draft changes, and more!
I have so many questions about the 2020 season. How long will it last, for starters. For seconds: Piped-in crowd sound. It’s just… weird. Is there a crowd-sound DJ and how are their skills tested during the job interview? Are the players really fooled? Has the crowd sound ever been so loud that players can’t hear each other across the field? But I digress! Today I come at you from the great sultry north with some FanDuel picks for your DFS state this Thursday, 30 July. Another question for me today is pitching: it’s one of those days where it would be nice to dispense with a pitcher altogether, but we cannot and still, you know, actually submit a valid line-up on FanDuel, so perhaps we go the punt-pitching, splurge-on-hitting route. That’s where John Means comes in. Not to start him, but because I sense he’s going to present us with some stacking opportunities as he squares up against the Yankees. Let’s take a look at what else is out there, after the jump.
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!
"Have I been wrong, hypnotized, paralyzed, by what my eyes have seen," sang Natalie Merchant the last time I saw her at Lilith Fair. As I lay there, on that hemp blanket, eating a homemade granola bar, I thought, "I'm buying whatever that Merchant is selling." Sadly, I can't have my soul enriched during these dastardly times by some female honkeytonks, unless I happen across something between my binge watching of Siesta Key. Then, yesterday, Nate Pearson (5 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks) was as good as Natalie Merchant and Siesta Key combined. Yo, my man went from a 99 MPH fastball that had Nats' hitters bulging their eyes to a backdoor 77 MPH dipsy with poise of a 15-year vet. The 99 MPH fastball is enough, but his secondary command, just dropping pitches in. Go to the top of a mountain and let out a chef's kiss. This was against the defending champs, and he was like en bee dee. Massively impressed by him during Spring Training in March just off a few clips, but watching him for five innings has me convinced: He can be this year's Chris Paddack. He should be owned in 100% of leagues. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Have you seen A Bronx Tale?
If so, perhaps the $20 lesson is enough to share the moment in my mind with your mind.
If not, I am morally obligated to recommend that film and writerly obligated to describe a small scene that has stayed with me across two decades.
Our main character sees a guy who owes him 20 bucks. The guy sees him too and takes off running. Our main character is stopped from pursuing by his, let’s say mentor, who asks if he likes this guy with the 20 bucks. No. Not at all. He does not like him. So the mentor re-framed the context. Our main character paid $20 to get a guy he doesn’t like out of his life forever. Seems like a small win in that light to our character in that moment, but to me, it landed like few lines of dialog ever have. Perspective. It’s a kind of magic we could cast a little more often with a little help from our friends.
Atlanta has decided Mike Foltynewicz can keep the 20. They’re moving onto bigger and better things. Things like Tucker Davidson throwing 100 miles per hour from the left side.
