Ladies and gentlemen, The Weekend! [insert GIF of James Bond introducing The Weeknd with a half-hearted shrug] We've been working double time around here to manage the holiday rush...Wait, aren't we supposed to be getting paid double time instead of working double time? I'll have to check with my union rep. Donkey Teeth, where you at? ENYWHEY. After 87 consecutive hours of number crunching, I've come to the conclusion that you should pick up Alek Manoah. Let's get everybody caught up on the pitcher news after the Greinke graphic!
See all of today’s starting lineups
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ATH | ATL | BAL | CHW | CIN | HOU | LAD | MIN | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | ARI | BOS | CHC | CLE | COL | DET | KC | LAA | MIA | MIL | NYM | NYY | OAK | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL |
Batting average is down this time of year, all the way down to a .236 league-wide average as of the Sunday morning I searched it. I know you all think I write these as you’re reading them, much like the Late Show airing at a later time than it is filmed. My world was forever changed when I realized that I had been duped by my parents, my friends, my teachers, but most cruelly, network television. Fake media indeed. It should be called “This Afternoon, But Later” with whichever comedian you used to respect hosting.
Anyways, batting averages are way down for most players, so you would think blurbs would have caught up to this fact. Well, good sir, let me tell you, this week...HEY I’M TRYING TO TELL YOU, YOU HAVE TO LET ME DO THE TELLING. As I was telling, this week I present a murderer’s row of batting average-based blurbs to remind you to not drink the Gallo-haters Kool Aid. There is no Mendoza line this year. It is the Year of Mendoza, so don’t let any blurb try to say, “His counting stats are there, but his bat leaves a lot to desire in the batting average department.” That is pure and utter laziness, a hack sentence meant to be a pithy put down but landing like a wet fish on a cement floor. Buddy, the entirety of baseball is leaves a lot to desire in the batting average department, not just you. Ready for some simple context?
I've decided to give the rankings a week off. This will allow me to work out some flaws in the matrix as I think I've got a good idea on how I'd like to proceed. The hardest part is calculating performance and expectations for players that have missed time as I use percentage of time played as a key variable. So I'm giving myself another week to dig in. I was actually going to take the week off completely, but then Grey cracked the whip and I was quickly reminded not to think such foolish thoughts. For those that actually read that and believe that Grey has a whip, well he probably does, but he doesn't use it on his points league writers. At least not this one. As I contemplated skipping this post I realized that I would be disappointing my 14 readers. That's right, you read that correctly. Based on my analytics, I am up to a career high fourteen readers. I could hardly believe the numbers myself, but as they say, the numbers don't lie. Or was it the hips? In case you were wondering Mark Twain has often been credited with the phrase "numbers don't lie" based on when he said "figures don't lie, but liars figure". Apparently the belief that this was Twain's brainchild is not unanimous. Here's what I say... "who cares".
The following are the top players in point leagues at each position. In order to qualify for this list the player must have at least 150 plate appearances (100 for catcher) and not currently be on the IL. This list was ultimately decided by points per plate appearance (PPPA).
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I Can’t Believe It’s Not Not News is back again with all the Billy Hurley jokes and Grey Albright cackles you can handle. First up, Chinese men are imprisoned for taking advantage of a glitch in the KFC app allowing them to "steal" $12,000 worth of chicken. Then Duke students invent a new toilet that takes pictures of your poop and, in an unrelated story, cicada's butts are falling off. Finally, Billy gets up close and personal with the world's largest penis.
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Ah, What a lovely day we are about to embark on. Memorial Day lots of day baseball, bbq, and some adult beverages if you are in to that sort of thing. Sign me up right. I'm going to cut right to the chase today since I've got a little shindig I've got to get ready for later today so here we go:
I wanted to wake up this morning to see
Carlos Rodon penciled in as the Chicago White Sox starter for one of the games today. They still haven't announced starters this morning but I'm not seeing anything that would lend me to believe he won't start one of the games so I'm sticking to my guns and announcing him as my pitcher to target today. Even in an 6 inning game, Rodon could seriously go out and throw a 7 inning no hitter today. He has looked that dominant and if you haven't watched one of his games today do yourself a favor and sit back and relax and enjoy some pitching mastery. Rodon faces the Cleveland Indians today who he no-hit in April and then faced them his next start also where he only went 5 innings due to some control issues (5 BB). I think he will be just fine and I expect him to go the distance today in a 3-0 victory against the Indians who are coming off a nice come from behind win yesterday and will be playing their 2nd back to back doubleheader today and you got to thing they will be just a tad fatigued. Rodon goes 7 INN 2 Hit 1 BB 9 K's in a win today. Doesn't look as if Rodon is on any slates as of now so other than Burnes who I'm recommending below I'm getting behind
Johnny Cueto ($7,500) today against the Angels. Cueto has looked good so far this year limits hard contact and doesn't walk anybody. I think he does enough today for the win against the Angels.
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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On Saturday, Marcell Ozuna was arrested for domestic violence. Proving this year, he's a piece of shit on and off the field. There's no way he plays again this year. Too bad he'll miss Player's Nickname weekend, when they could've put on his uniform back, "I'm A Garbage Human." My guess is Ozuna's suspension goes into next year too; the Braves void his contract, and he's playing the outfield somewhere with Puig. By 'somewhere' I mean not in the MLB, as he rightfully becomes Ozuna non-grata. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Week nine is in the books and there was no No-Hitter, no No-No, no games where baseballs were not hit. Is it too early to presume we're trending back to normalcy!? Probably not but we'll see what happens. Also, my prediction of Yusei Kikuchi throwing a No-No never came to fruition, hell, he did not even end up making two starts last week, but ya' win some ya' lose some. He still had a quality start and should be rostered in all leagues at this point. If only the Mariners could play the Mariners it might have happened. This week's No-No prediction comes from a young buck by the name of Dylan Cease, we shall speak on him later.
A few noteworthy news items are, Noah Syndergaard being shut down for six weeks due to elbow inflammation. If you were stashing him you can drop him for the time being. Also, the long-awaited return of Framber Valdez to the mound happened and he looked good. He's still building his pitch count up but I'm expecting a return to the pitcher he was last season very soon. Other Astros Related news, Jake Odorizzi made his return Saturday, one day after Valdez. He also had an encouraging start. If you Have room to roster him he's worth a shot. Also, Corey Kluber will be making an extended trip to the IL.
Lastly, I'd like to thank the men and women who have served this country and those who currently serve this country. This weekend is in your honor. With that said let's play ball!
When ranking players every two weeks, you have to treat those rankings a lot like the stock market. Players are going to have hot streaks, and if you are lucky enough, you get them into the lineup and ride the wave. Of course, just like the stock market, players also suffer slumps and can devastate your lineup if they are a key part of your team.
But a good fantasy owner knows, or is lucky enough, to catch the players when his stock is going up and have enough depth to overcome a player whose stock is falling. Some players see their value drop because of injury or illness, such as Fernando Tatis Jr. A true clue chip stock, owners were obviously not going to get rid of him when his value fell. They just waited for Tatis to get healthy and watch his value rise. Right now, it is through the roof.
Players who are not Tatis are tougher to judge. Joey Wendle has taken fantasy owners on a rollercoaster ride this season. A great hot streak to start the season before turning ice cold only to turn it around at the plate. Did you catch the Wild Wendle Ride at the right time, or did you ride it too long, got off and now are wondering whether to get back on?
Let's find out with this week's rankings of the Top 25 Fantasy Shortstops.
We have been cruising all season, but this week could be some rough waves. This is easily the worst group of streamers we've had all year, but we're going to trust the process and gamble on some good results. A good sign for our articles is that many of our past recommendations have finally reached the ownership threshold regarding streamer-eligible players. That means we've stumbled into some pretty good gems, so hopefully, some of these guys are on the same boat. With that in mind, let's get into it!
When is it acceptable to pay the max price for a starting pitcher? In cash games, it’s easier to do, but it can work out in GPPs as well. Pitching is where you can rack up a 60 point outburst if the match-up is right. Max Scherzer ($12,000) checks a lot of those boxes today. At home? Check. Weak opponent? Check. The Brew-Crew sit in the bottom five in team OPS and the top five in team strikeouts. Strikeout upside? Hi….have you met Max? 12 K/9 is pretty delicious. Vegas favorite? Check. Low Vegas run total? Also check. This is setting up for a big day for Mad Max, the only real question is if the Nats can put together some runs and get him the win.
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!
I tend to dislike a lot of prospects. Not on a personal level of course. But I’ve played and coached and watched a lot of baseball, so it’s pretty common for me to dismiss a player at a glance. As I discussed in Wednesday’s article, Prospect News: Alek Manoah Debuts with Grown-Man Gas, I maintain a video-heavy research process to try and curb these first-blush reactions. My guiding principle as a teacher and coach is that anyone can make a leap in skill at any moment. We see it in baseball all the time. If you ignored JD Martinez, Justin Turner, and Max Muncy because of who they were in a previous life as a ballplayer, you missed out. These types of transformations are happening all the time, all the way down each system, on every side of the game. From throwing across the diamond to blocking breaking balls in the dirt to opening up early to pull an inside pitch out in front of the plate, players are bodies in motion, constantly evolving just to keep up. Take a glance at the statlines for Mookie Betts and Juan Soto this season. Hitting is incredibly hard. Baseball can be a nightmare when you’re caught in between, facing an adjustment phase or, like Francisco Lindor said today about studying himself from 2017, trying to imitate your past self and coming up just short.
These rankings will look a little different, I suspect, from most you’ve seen. The biggest change will likely be the names you won’t find here. If a guy is hurt or slumping, I can probably find a better prospect for the top hundred in all of baseball. We can probably all find a better guy for my dynasty teams, too. For example, I cut Houston SS Jeremy Pena in a 15-teamer the instant I learned he was out for the season. I could have tried to shop him, I guess, but he’s still a free agent in that league today. Herein we see the most crucial aspect of succeeding in dynasty leagues: maximizing every roster spot, even in the short term, even if you’re rebuilding. I’m not recommending anyone go drop JJ Bleday or Cristian Pache or George Valera, but I am suggesting you make an effort to trade some prospects with established name value if their flaws are manifesting in their stat lines in ways that most leagues and ranking services are a little slow to spot.
Well that was a much longer intro than I’d planned at the outset. Let’s get to the list.
It is time for the knockout rounds of Hitter Profiles for the 2021 fantasy baseball season. Although Jose Bautista vs. Rougned Odor might be our favorite type of knockout battle, it does not have nearly the value for an article as a comparison of two key players near each other in the season to date results. This week, we grab two central division corner infielders and two AL outfielders to go toe to toe and make the call for who will help our fantasy lineups for the rest of the 2021 season. Now that I have successfully worked in my annual quota of Rougned Odor into the intro of an article, let us get started with Josh Donaldson and Colin Moran.
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