What is up party people? Who's ready to get bold and win some sweet, sweet DFS cash. Let's start off with a gamble on Joc Pederson (OF: $2,900)and the tremendous power he possesses. This is a risk/reward play because he's a streaky hitter and likely always will be. The bot likes him today which brings him into play for us. The match-up shouldn't turn you off and with his price, you can put your savings to work spending big elsewhere.
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!
Monthly Archives: July 2021
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Shohei Ohtani (2-for-4, 2 runs) hit his 32nd homer, passing Hideki Matsui as the top Japanese-born home run hitter in a season, and it's not even the All-Star Break! Such a cheat code, and I'm such a giant dummy to not have him on any team. Boy, I Mr. Bungled this one so bad it's hard for me to see through my tears of anguish. The absolute ball dropping I did by not grabbing him. Or Jared Walsh (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) who hit his 21st and 22nd homer! I wrote a gee-dee sleeper post for him! Yet, all my fantasy teams are like a milk carton with that missing Walsh kid. This is brutally difficult for me. I should've known better for Ohtani, and I did know better for Walsh! Someone shoot me into the sky, where I can do something for humanity by flipping off Bezos's orbiting rocket ship, and away from the misery of watching Ohtani and Walsh carry fantasy teams to the proverbial promised land. I was promised that land! I have my deed right here...*searches pockets for deed, pull back to reveal I'm wearing pants with millions of pockets* This is my nightmare! We're in it! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
I was watching the moment Manny Margot stretched to beat out a ninth inning infield single and pulled his hamstring, and I have to confess: I had the thought. The dream, really. And yes I did feel bad about it: that little surge of excitement at seeing a human in pain. Wow that sounds gross. I mean I knew Margot would be okay. This wasn’t a beanball in the face or some nasty outfield collision. Just a typical non-contact injury born from hustle but also perhaps the start of something magical.
Either that or a horrific surprise only a hallucination-laced culture could manifest.
I’m talking of course about the big league debut of Vidal Bruján, which is still mostly hypothetical as I type.
Could be, in the end, he’s just sat in a tent somewhere waiting for today’s double header to end so he can trek back to Durham. Now that would be scary.
Bruján has been my favorite player in the minors for quite a while now. Who’ll take his place if he stays in Tampa to become the July King?
I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "The cream always rises to the top." What happens when there's no cream? In doing these lists, one of the major parts is taking a look at the injuries from the last two weeks. Once I look into how serious the injuries are, I slide players up or down depending on how long they're expected to miss. Third base has been pretty rough this year and this week is no different. Anthony Rendon hit the IL, while Josh Donaldson remains forever DTD and there were a handful of others that were DTD over the weekend, but returned to the lineup - Jose Ramirez, Eduardo Escobar, and Yoan Moncada. Will teams be smart and just let them stay out through the break and return healthy? Or will they try and play through the injuries? Neither is good for these rankings, but things got further complicated by struggling hitters - Kiner-Falefa, Riley, McMahon. I ended up leaving Alex Bregman relatively high, even though he's going to be out until late July. If you're dealing with injuries or struggling players, you can look for relief with the likes of Wilmer Flores and Starlin Castro. Just ride those hot streaks until they dry out completely. Let's check out the list and then we'll talk about some of the movers.
I always support and root for my Asian brethren in professional sports. Hee-Seop Choi! Hee-Seop Choi! I still get chills screaming the chant in Chavez Ravine. Was he great? Far from it. But he looked like me. I know that I shouldn't take pride in their accomplishments but I do. Even after Chan Ho Park served up two grand slams in the same inning to the Fernando Tatis, I still felt pride. I may have thrown some remotes and entered a mental state of disbelief for a while but it was still there. Someone that looked like me and came from the same place as my parents was able to reach the highest level of professional sports. That said, when breaking down players for fantasy, I try and stay as objective as possible. Keston Hiura was born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father. He looks like me and I always root for him. He's also been added in 13.3% of ESPN leagues over the last week because he hit three home runs in the past two weeks. Trash or treasure?
Another Wednesday, another slate with one less game due to poor weather the night before. Thankfully we still a healthy 8-game slate on our hands with some interesting matchups. We have good pitchers against bad offenses, as well as great offenses against poor pitching. Toronto will garner much of the offensive love and for good reason but don’t ignore the 2nd team in that game.
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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It's Vidal Brujan SZN! BruSZN?! Tell me oh great Fantasy Baseball Overlord, it is not a dream I have awoken from--"Shut up and grab Vidal Brujan." That's the Fantasy Baseball Overlord speaking only to me. Sorry, you ain't got the cred! The Rays' beat writers said with Manuel Margot hitting the IL with a hamstring injury, which is truly too bad--DID SOMEONE SAY VIDAL BRUJAN?!--The beat writers also said Brujan wouldn't just be up for a doubleheader on Wednesday. He would remain with the Rays. So, I grabbed him in one league, and tried in all my leagues, including a 12-team mixed league. Here's my Vidal Brujan fantasy. Bit old, still applies, which is different than my least favorite fruit, that's "still apples." The big takeaway from my fantasy take on Brujan is what Prospect Itch said about him, "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. Go and grab him! Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 13, 2021
July 6, 2021 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenter Leagues | 2 Commentsby: MattTruss
I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July weekend, my fellow Razzball Commenter Leaguers! This weekend not only marked the birthday of our fine U.S. of A., but more importantly, marked 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 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? Let’s take a look at that and the rest of the week that was week 13 in the Razzball Commenter Leagues:
I recently decided to rent a newly-built home and moved out of the city and into the suburbs. As a result, we now have a fenced-in backyard that overlooks a massive and overgrown wooded area. It's a terrific upgrade for the dogs, but it also means I have the opportunity to observe local wildlife for the first time in eons. Just this past week, I had the great pleasure of taking in the process of allofeeding in person for the first time in my life. Allofeeding, for those of you who didn't grow up in the age of Zoboomafoo, is basically a food-sharing behavior in which an adult bird regurgitates its food and feeds a hatchling mouth-to-mouth/beak-to-beak/insert proper terminology here. I'm by no means an expert, but a truly fascinating process nonetheless -- and it's a good thing baby birds have a much broader palette than I did when I was their age. If it wasn't a burger, mac n cheese or ketchup, I wasn't eating it. And I certainly wasn't game for any regurgitated green beans.
Let's take this concept of allofeeding one step further. I've been researching the 2021 MLB Draft, which begins in just under one week and runs from July 11-13, for well over a full calendar year now. What I observe far too often during my research are countless self-proclaimed prospect/draft 'perts' who simply research players using existing rankings and regurgitate the same rankings, add a tweak here or there while writing their own brief blurb, and poof! Draft rankings. Amazing. Incredible. Well done. Allofeeding in the prospect world. Now, allofeeding is an amazing phenomena, but it shouldn't be applied to the realm of fantasy baseball or to the draft. It destroys diversity of thought. Not only does it fail to properly educate fantasy owners, but it's disgusting when applied to humans. No one wants to see allofeeding when they roll up to an Arby's. That said, I can't promise you my 2021 Complete College Top 100 for the MLB Draft is going to be dead-on, but I can promise that it is not simply industry regurgitation, and rather a product of original thought and well over one year worth of research. That is why you may question why I have certain players significantly higher or lower than where you've seen them, or perhaps a name you're completely unfamiliar with ranked inside the top 50. And if you do have such questions, please hit me up in the comments. We won't have time for a full breakdown on all 100 players, but if you use the links below, you'll be able to find an excess of prospect analysis on just about every top player that should be on your radar heading into your upcoming first-year player drafts. Onward into the abyss!
It's about that time where we take a look back at the first three months of the baseball season and take some inventory. On this week's episode Grey and myself dig into the best surprises of 2021 and its biggest disappointments. We celebrate Vlad Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Jesse Winker, Kevin Gausman's remarkable splitter and a host of others. To Ying this Yang we talk about the disappointing players too! However, we do it while listening to the Whisper Song. We shed tears for Lucas Giolito, Mookie Betts, Juan Soto, and Cody Bellinger. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. Join us on another episode of the Razzball Podcast!
Rolling In The Deep: Three Sheets To The Wind
July 6, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 11 Commentsby: Laura Holt
“Three sheets to the wind” means drunk, referencing a sailing term I believe, so don’t ask me what it has to do with fantasy baseball. I guess you could say I wished I was drunk this weekend when perusing the stats my fantasy relief pitchers left me… Hector Neris, 6 earned runs? Really? Just another snapshot of how difficult the deep league journey can be… of course I would never have had Neris in an active lineup in a “normal” league at this point, but was forced to play him in my deepest NL only league this week because I had basically no alternative until I could grab someone in our weekly FAAB bidding Sunday. Anyhow, let’s stop focusing on the negative and look forward: time for this week’s list of players that might be of interest to those of us in AL-only, NL-only, and other particularly deep leagues.
FanDuel: Top Aces In The Wrong Places
July 6, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel |by: RyanStar
Welcome back to Fanduel DFS Tuesdays here at Razzball. We have an almost full slate (Indians @ Rays postponed due to tropical storm) and our top two arms (Jacob deGrom vs MIL & Carlos Rodon @ MIN) are in spots where rain is likely. If the situation changes, deGrom is the guy to own tonight, but we have to have other places to pivot if that game doesn’t go.
The wind is blowing out in Baltimore where the Blue Jays take on whoever the Orioles decide to throw out there. The Os face off against Steven Matz who could struggle in this environment, making Baltimore a sneaky stack. In the Windy City, the struggling Cubs take on the Phillies with the wind blowing out to center. The Phillies side of this matchup will be highly owned so keep that in mind. Aaron Nola could very well dominate, however, I’m staying away from him tonight and may even get myself a few low owned Cub stacks.
Good luck tonight, and remember to stay positive and visualize that bank roll spiking like Bitcoin in April. Visualize your success! You HAVE to believe it to be true before it can happen. Go with your gut and do it with confidence. Let’s go!
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!
