The Tampa Bay Rays got the baseball world buzzing Friday afternoon when they shipped former top prospect Willy Adames to the Milwaukee Brewers along with RHP Trevor Richards for a couple middle relievers I've never heard of, Drew Rasmussen and J.P. Feyereisen. I'm partly lying for the laughs, I am aware of Feyereisen, he's been solid (3.26 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 20/11 K/BB), and if there's one thing we all know Kevin Cash needs, it's more weapons out of the bullpen. But I've already spent WAY too much time covering these relievers, and I can assure you they are not the reason this trade sent beisbol twitter into a frenzy. The trade of Adames (.197/.254/.371, 5 HR, 15 RBI) opens up a spot for a new starting shortstop in St. P and the Rays have a bit of a premium at the position including two highly-touted mega-uber super-prospects, Vidal Brujan and Wander Franco, the latter being the consensus top prospect in all of baseball. Grey told you to BUY Vidal this weekend, and that advice was pre-trade, mind you! Clearly, Grey is a witch, but it remains to be seen if it's of the sexy "Scarlet" variety. Vidal Brujan has 40-steal speed which, *Pro Tip* can help your fantasy team, but Wander is the name the Tampa fans (all 300 of them) are clamoring for. Enter the guy she told you not to worry about, Taylor Walls, who despite our deepest desires, is in fact the infielder that the Rays chose to call up this weekend to replace Adames. *Audible Sigh* No need to sigh so loudly just yet, frand, Walls has got his balls to it and he was slashing .327/.468/.490 with two homers, 10 RBI and two steals before the call up. Manager Cash suggested Walls will see plenty of time at shortstop along with Joey Wendle and could be worth a look for that speed alone, at least until one of the younger, sexier prospects arrives. Taylor had 10 homers and 28 steals between A/AA in 2019--and that is not nothing! Regardless, here's hoping Brandon Lowe (2-for-3, 3 runs, 2 HR (9), 3 RBI) is next on the trading block. The Rays are so stacked at middle infielder maybe I'm delusional if I think I'm seeing Wander before August. But perhaps an injury? That would do it! What light through Wander a hamate bone breaks? If only they had the Mets training staff. Let's make it happen!
Here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:
Monthly Archives: May 2021
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What is up degenerati? It's cha-boi Blair out here on Saturday, which is my day of aggressive projection and fronting for the Vegas hustler crowd. [holds garlic martini] You fellas check out that Andy Williams tribute show yet? [dips hand in dish of peanuts] Check me outside of the betting window, and let's get some comps together after we lose our stimmy money to the fair and honest workers at the good company Fanduel. Check my high-T picks after the signup offer!
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Ambulance Chasers: More Like Mike Out Amirite
May 22, 2021 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 15 Commentsby: JKJ
Hey, folks.
Just wanna say I'm sorry for the headline, but I really do love the "more like [insert pun version of name here]" joke format. It's my absolute favorite.
But what isn't my absolute favorite? Lol you guessed it. Injuries. Let's talk about the updates from this past week:
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(NOTE: THIS POST WAS RELEASED EARLY THIS WEEK ON OUR PATREON. IT’S $10/MONTH OR $13/MONTH WITH AN EXTRA WEEKLY PODCAST.)
"If you don't look good, I don't look good," said famed hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, as he was trying to get his son, Bob, to take off denim overalls and put on something else. Affronted, Bob Sassoon later took on his father's hair empire, literally head-on, when Bob started manufacturing baby wigs. "When they emerge from the womb, they should look da bomb," said Bob Sassoon, managing to make that awkward bomb/womb rhyme. Unfortunately, his baby wig business went belly up after two months with loses totaling twelve million dollars. The story, thankfully, doesn't end there for the Sassoons. A disgraced Bob changed his last name to Brujan, and named his firstborn son, Vidal, vowing now to capture the hair dye/shampoo market. Again, much to Bob's chagrin, Vidal Brujan became a baseball player, not a hair stylist, and Bob again disowned a Vidal right before he was about to become wildly successful. Any hoo! Here's what Prospect Itch has said about Brujan previously, "It’s rare enough for a 40-steal player to enter our game. Even rarer to find one who hits enough to earn himself regular playing time. Rarer still to find one who speaks five languages. I mention this last piece because language learning requires the same determination needed for the grind of baseball. You’re going to make mistakes. Might look like an idiot. Might often feel dumb. But you have to keep putting yourself out there. And as long as you stay positive and focus on the long term, you can improve a little bit every day. In 2014, Tampa signed Brujan out of the Dominican Republic for $15,000. He was illiterate at the time. Now: five languages. Grey can't speak one." Tough but fair, tee bee aitch. Brujan is on the 40-man roster and coming our way very soon. He will be an immediate impact guy for fantasy in all leagues, and should be picked up now. Anyway, here's some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
A reach if there ever was one, that is; doing a play of words on Que Sera, Sera which would have been most relevant like 500 years ago. Look man, I'm getting old but not that old. I did consider a play on The Witcher since maybe I could have threaded the needle on a Henry Cavill strategy (toss a coin to your Civale?), but it never came to fruition. Which is really gross when you think about that sentence and what exactly fruition means and how it came, but I'll leave that to better men (and women) than myself. And if you don't know what any of this means, I don't either, so at least misery loves company... and since the wheels have already fallen off, something that usually doesn't happen until at least the second paragraph of our weekly get togethers, let's just get down to talking about Aaron Civale and his wonderful yet "measured" start and whether or not this is sustainable. And yeah, just to come full circle, I am most definitely not the man who knew too much. (Just show this to your parents, they'll get it. They'll have questions, but they'll get it.)
I normally don't cover pitchers, and it's not that I don't enjoy pitchers, I actually dabbled horribly in high school and college, but covering a player once-a-week, bandwidth just seems to be filled more with trending hitters and analyzing that half of fantasy baseball. Don't hate the playa, hate the game man. But in terms of fitting themes and trends that synergize (corporate jargon achievement unlocked!), I think Civale kinda begs some attention and I need some more pitchers for the imaginary quota I just proclaimed.
What's up party people? It's your friendly neighborhood Butters here to help fix your points league rosters. So smash that like and subscribe button and let's get on to some bats who can help you out. Number one on that list is Willie Calhoun who should really be on more rosters, if only for the power potential. He's been DH (aka Utility) eligible only but you can now deploy him in the outfield and that's a beautiful thing. I'm encouraged by his start to the season, particularly that he's managed to keep his average around .275. I would be grabbing him everywhere to see if this is the season he gets some things figured out. All he (and any of the other guys here) cost is the worst player on your roster.
Twins slugger Josh Donaldson ($3,100) is primed for a big night on Friday, as he's been crushing the ball this year with a 95th percentile xwOBA. Donaldson also has a career-low 14.5% K-rate, combining patience and power for a 136 wRC+. The Bringer of Rain can do lots of damage against starter Triston McKenzie, who has a 2.25 HR/9 and a 6.21 FIP this season. Batting second in the lineup, Donaldson leads a Twins stack that is affordable and has the upside to take down a tournament.
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Hello darkness, my old friend...I sing to the T. Mahle coming out my butt a day after eating Chipotle is this enough details for you I can't even punctuate I'm so miserable. WHAT THE EFF, Tyler Mahle (2 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 4.20)? 4.20 is right because I want to get high to numb the pain. Eff me, that was brutal. Maybe I can sit down again in June. Right now I'm too sore from ingesting that T. Mahle. One of those Giants buggers, Steven Duggar (2-for-5, 2 runs, 4 RBIs) and his 2nd homer, and on top of that Mahle shelllacking -- yes, I'm still on that! -- no one on the Giants is anywhere near my teams, except Tauchman and he didn't even play. Holy sit! Darrin Ruf (4-for-5, 4 runs 2 RBIs) hit his 6th homer. Ruf's having one of those years where you wouldn't dare pick him up in mixed leagues, but is having a great deep NL-Only year, considering he was picked up off waivers, which is what I tell myself when I want to feel pain, because I dropped Ruf the 2nd week of the season in a 12-team NL-Only league. Haha, I am sucking it up, folx! Also, in on the action is Brandon Crawford (3-for-6, 3 runs, 6 RBIs, hitting .261) and his 11th homer. He'll be in this afternoon's Buy column as he's been for the last few weeks. I almost removed him because he really shouldn't be on waivers, and I think it's just ESPN fantasy baseballers being goofy. If you want to see the Buy/Sell now, subscribe to our Patreon. Next up, Evan Longoria (3-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs, hitting .248) hit his 5th homer, and the Giants are the best team in the majors. Welcome to 2021. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Change is the one constant in the world. You can't escape it. You can't deny it. You just have to accept it. We end up in places expecting things to go a certain way with our own laid-out plans that will succeed. But that doesn't always happen right? Life doesn't follow a script. We are continuously thrust into a new environment with a new set of rules and presented with a choice. A call to action. Adapt or die. This young man you will hear about today answered the call.
So there I sat in my office on a wet and rainy May morning. The hum of the fan overhead was a siren's call of missed sleep the night before beckoning me to steal rest from the jaws of the new day. *Ping* The phone buzzed thus piercing the calm and my sleep-deprived ears. It was Grey in my DM with a request. When the bossman pings you to say he mentioned you by name in his morning write-up... It's kinda a big deal. He didn't earn his fantasy baseball degree from the University of Phoenix, but on the mean streets of Jersey trusting his primal instincts. He's either got a really good hunch on the player or he's really curious about what's going on. This would be one of the former. Adbert Alzolay is pitching like a new man this season, and the early results are promising. He's still so young, and still largely untested, but there's something about Alzolay that makes you want to say "yay."
As a child, I don't know if there was a more overblown fear than the inherent fear of quicksand. It seemed from Scooby Doo to Gilligan's Island, there was always a person falling into quicksand. I learned to carry a stick around with me everywhere I went because that seemed to be the only true action needed to be taken. Simply reach out your stick to passer-by's and they will pull you to safety. Did I think I was just gonna fall into quicksand while on my way to Pizza Hut to play Mortal Kombat? Who knows? I was a dumb kid.
Saves and Stolen Bases are our quicksand. That was the whole point of that cockamamie story. At the beginning of the season, we knew that Saves and Stolen Bases would be our quicksand. Fearful and hoping that we had that stick with us, to be pulled to safety. Well damnit, I feel like I still haven't gotten over that fear. I still have that stick, and I wish I could just forget and go back to Pizza Hut, with my BookIt coupon in hand for that free pizza, and just drop $15 into Mortal Kombat. Either way, follow this weeks formula and Finish your opponent with a Flawless Victory.
It's Thursday and that means its time to win some sweet sweet DFS money. So let's get right down to it and find some great values like Javier Baez (SS: $3,300) He's been doing his thing which is hit bombs and steal bases. And the average ain't half bad either. He's on a roll right now so get him in your lineup and wave bye bye bye to the the competition.
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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We have six no-hitters by May 19th. Seven no-hitters is a modern-day season record. At this point, it will be more novel when someone throws a ten-hitter. Soon we'll be celebrating: Kyle Gibson just threw a 7-hitter! He allowed hits! Never is now, Mr. Gibson! This is like 2001 and Barry Bonds is throwing a no hitter every game. Conspiracy Theory Alert! Rob Manfred is going to use this year to explain why the mound has to move back a foot next year, and then we're going to have our first 100-homer season. I will bet someone this happens. We're thinking small, Rob Manfred's evil mind is thinking big picture. Or pitcher, in this case, because only jacked guys will be able to reach the plate. So, Corey Kluber (9 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits, 1 walk, 9 Ks, ERA at 2.86) threw a no-hitter against his old club, the Rangers. Not the other team that the Rangers killed. The question for us is Corey Kluber fixed. Or at least usable, which I honestly had questions about coming into the year. His numbers look number two to three-ish. He's not an ace -- 9 K/9, 3.6 BB/9, 4.17 xFIP, using xFIP there because I do believe he's been a tad 'lucky' on homers. It's solid, usable, and rosterable, which is what I say before he throws a consecutive no-hitter next time because: 2021. By the way, Johnny Vander Meer's family moving his crypt from stadium to stadium this year must be exhausting, and there's no way Johnny Vander Meer's record makes it out of 2021. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
We have six no-hitters by May 19th. Seven no-hitters is a modern-day season record. At this point, it will be more novel when someone throws a ten-hitter. Soon we'll be celebrating: Kyle Gibson just threw a 7-hitter! He allowed hits! Never is now, Mr. Gibson! This is like 2001 and Barry Bonds is throwing a no hitter every game. Conspiracy Theory Alert! Rob Manfred is going to use this year to explain why the mound has to move back a foot next year, and then we're going to have our first 100-homer season. I will bet someone this happens. We're thinking small, Rob Manfred's evil mind is thinking big picture. Or pitcher, in this case, because only jacked guys will be able to reach the plate. So, Corey Kluber (9 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits, 1 walk, 9 Ks, ERA at 2.86) threw a no-hitter against his old club, the Rangers. Not the other team that the Rangers killed. The question for us is Corey Kluber fixed. Or at least usable, which I honestly had questions about coming into the year. His numbers look number two to three-ish. He's not an ace -- 9 K/9, 3.6 BB/9, 4.17 xFIP, using xFIP there because I do believe he's been a tad 'lucky' on homers. It's solid, usable, and rosterable, which is what I say before he throws a consecutive no-hitter next time because: 2021. By the way, Johnny Vander Meer's family moving his crypt from stadium to stadium this year must be exhausting, and there's no way Johnny Vander Meer's record makes it out of 2021. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball: 