With the All-Star game this week, most head to head leagues are combining this weekend and next week into one long week. This is an opportunity to take a small sample and "get ahead". Is this the time that I am supposed to look at the camera and smirk because I used the article name in the actual article? Who knows? What I do know is that there are some excellent matchups and opportunities to take advantage of over the weekend. Finally, remember this, now is the time that many of your league mates transition to Fantasy Football, and just being attentive and aggressive gives you the biggest advantage!
Monthly Archives: July 2021
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I know a lot of leagues start their First-Year-Player Drafts directly after the MLB Draft, so I figured no time like the present to rank the first round or so.
1. Miami SS Kahlil Watson, pick 1.16
Watson’s interview with the broadcast team was a tough listen. Sounded like he was exhausted from being on the phone all night, telling his agent he wasn’t willing to sign for whatever fully leveraged, arm-twisting deals teams were offering, probably as early as the fifth pick. Probably negotiated with at least five teams before the Marlins landed him at 16. Sounded like he shut down the Giants, who pivoted late to College World Series star Will Bednar.
As much as I love aspects of the draft, the reality of a multi-billion dollar corporations needling high school kids down as far as they’ll go exhausts me as well. No doubt they tell the kids what they’re not good at, why they should definitely sign this lowball contract, how they’re risking their family’s well being by betting on themselves.
Between the lines, Watson can do it all: hit, field, throw, thump, run, and it’s this last piece that really ties the room together for us. Miami isn’t a great place to hit, but Donny Baseball’s fish sure like to steal. Can’t really predict he’ll still be there when Watson arrives, but the Marlins will always have to manufacture runs at home.
Rolling In The Deep: My Personal Deep League All Star Team
July 13, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 15 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Happy All Star Break! As far as I'm concerned, it's time to rest our brains for a bit and take a moment to just be thankful for the good things the first half(fish) of 2021 provided for our deep league fantasy baseball teams. I missed out on plenty of deep league hidden gems this year, but I'm grateful for the ones I got. So, here's my personal, deep league, offensive All Star team: hitters that I drafted on at least one team and have been on my roster ever since -- providing more production, in some cases, than even I was realistically hoping for. While a few of these guys are now mainstays in even the shallowest leagues, all were true deep leaguers on draft day, being selected outside the top 500 ADP per NFBC when the season began.
With Geoff away, Donkey Teeth steps in to grill Grey about his top 100 rankings for the 2nd half of 2021 fantasy baseball. Note: we recorded this podcast prior to the Ronald Acuna injury so when some of the rankings we discuss are one spot off, that's why. Anyway, on this show we talk about how right we both were about Vlad Jr., plus how wrong Grey was about Ohtani and Robbie Ray. We also discuss how to value first half outperformers like Jesse Winker and Cedric Mullins. Finally, Grey commiserates about his last minute fade of Jared Walsh during the preseason. Listen in for all of this and much, much more on this week's Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast!
Avoiding the Blurbstomp – Injury Concerned
July 13, 2021 | Avoiding the Blurbstomp | 5 Commentsby: C.A. James
The All Star Break is both a necessary breather for everyone in fantasy baseball, and also the worst thing that could ever happen to the gray matter that I dedicate to visiting fantasy blurb sites and line up posters. I will now read some books, perhaps finally transfer belongings from one storage space to another. I may even clean some bathrooms. Not my own, mind you. I’ll probably break into some people’s houses and give them a taste of my special brand of “cleaning.” This entails almost finishing cleaning every surface, but getting tired and giving up. Also, I will use all of your paper towels out of spite and try to flush them down the toilet. That’s class!
On to the blurbs!
RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 14, 2021
July 13, 2021 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenter Leagues | 3 Commentsby: MattTruss
Happy All Star Break my fellow RCLers. The Razzball Commenter Leagues can take a toll on your time, your social life, and your personal hygiene. I hope you’re using the break to take a shower, get out of your sweat pants, and get reacquainted with your roommates, also known as, your family. They’ve missed you. Spend a moment and remind them that you are in fact, alive and well. Show those that love you that you haven’t been lost in the wilderness for the past 14 weeks, being cared for by a pack of wolves. In fact, you’ve just been winning fantasy baseball leagues. You know, just like your idol, Son, current ‘Perts League leader who has two teams in the top five overall. Or, perhaps your idol might be Frank Grimes, current Master Standings leader. GRIMEY! Maybe you’re partial to Laura Holt, currently in eighth place in the Master Standings. Or maybe you look up to VottomanEmpire, one of the better RCL players I know, currently sitting in sixth in the Master Standings. Whomever it may be, hopefully, you’re kicking butt just like them and getting ready to keep it up in the second half. Check out the current Master Standings and the rest of the All Star Break stats in the week that was, week 14:
Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2021: Week 15
July 13, 2021 | Top 100 Starting Pitchers | 91 Commentsby: everywhereblair
With the All-Star Game giving our fair baseballers a break, our esteemed leader -- Greyson Ignatius R. Kelly Albright -- is similarly living out his dreams at Batman Fantasy Camp. Grey called me and he kept cackling, "Dr. Freeze is here!" And I tried to tell him that it probably wasn't James Andrews but a villain, but I just heard this pained shriek on the other end of the line. Maybe the mosquitoes are really bad out there? ENYWHEY. It's an honor to bat lead-off while the fantasy equivalent of Rickey Henderson takes a day off. Let's check in on some pitchers, think about spin, and have a grand ol' time down in the comments.
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While Donkey Teeth is away, Grey and Billy shall play. Guest host B_Don does his best to keep up with Grey's thoughts for this week's episode of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Not News! First, we discuss NASA's newest high tech venture, laundry... IN SPACE! Next up, an angry neighbor forces the house next to him to cut the tree overhanging his driveway. A Florida aquarium has a painting octopus, but Grey doesn't seem impressed. The last segment of the week is about a couple of nude sunbathers would got lost in the woods after being scared by Bambi.
Tune in now for all the laughs and Albright cackles you can handle by signing up for the exclusive Razzball Patreon Club for only $5/month, or upgrade to receive the weekly podcast plus early access to all of Grey's 2021 fantasy baseball buy/sell posts for just $13/month!
Find all of this week’s stories here:
Top 100 for 2nd Half of 2021 Fantasy Baseball
July 12, 2021 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 505 Commentsby: Grey
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Welcome, prematurely balding men and five women who are married to PBMs and decided if you can’t beat them, join them! Make yourself comfortable, this is gonna be a long post. Here, enjoy some coffee. Oops, you just drank rat poison. I should’ve used different mugs. Don’t worry, it can’t be worse than rostering Cody Bellinger in the 1st half. Oh, you rostered him, and that’s why you drank the poison. Now, I’m following! Hey, I’m supposed to be leading! Before we get into the top 100 for the 2nd half of 2021 fantasy baseball, let’s just be glad our 18-year-old selves can’t see us now, we’d get beat up! But our twelve-year-old selves would think we’re the coolest! So, as with all of the other 2021 fantasy baseball rankings, slop this up with a grain of salt. If you need a 2nd baseman, but an outfielder is above him that doesn’t mean you can’t trade that outfielder for that 2nd baseman. Also, things change in fantasy baseball. Daily. I could put Fernando Tatis Jr. number one, and he could pull a–Well, we won’t even mention an injury with FTJ after we lost Tildaddy. As I say about the Giancarlo underwear I bought off eBay, why soil a good thing? This list is a road map for where I think guys are valued. It’s not the Holy Grail in the Church of Grey, that would be my mustache. This list is NOT (caps for emphasis, not aesthetics) where I see guys ending up if you were to take their first half and combine it with the 2nd half. This is simply a list of the top hundred fantasy baseball players if you were to pick them up today. So while Juan Soto did not have the greatest first half, he will appear on this list because, well, we have to believe in miracles — my 12-year-old self would want that, and to sleep with Cher. 12-Year-Old Grey loved Cher. The projections are not their combined 1st half and 2nd half numbers; these are their projections for the 2nd half of 2021. I also liberally used our rest of the season Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. That’s right, we have a Player Rater that tells you what players will do. It’s like that camera from The Twilight Zone. Welcome to the future! Anyway, here’s the top 100 for fantasy baseball for the 2nd half of 2021:
Top 25 Fantasy Second Basemen for 2021 – Week 15
July 11, 2021 | Rest of Season Rankings, Second Basemen | 9 Commentsby: Jakkers
With the All-Star break upon us, now is a good time to see who has been a fantasy star in the first half of the season and who has been a disappointment.
Owners of Marcus Semien, Jose Altuve, Whit Merrifield and Eduardo Escobar have to be ecstatic with the overall performance of those four players. Semien has been the top-ranked second baseman for most of the season, while Altuve and Merrifield have been in my Tier 1 rankings for more than a month. Meanwhile, Ozzie Albies has rewarded those owners who didn't freak out by his slow start and wanted to dump him. If you are one of those owners who did dump him, you deserve to be laughed at.
Albies is now back in the Tier 1 group and playing like the top second baseman he was expected to be this season. Escobar has been a surprise this year, at least for me, as I didn't have him ranked at the start of the year. But when you slug 20 homers and drive in 60 runs in the first half, you deserve to be ranked as a Tier 1 second baseman.
For owners of DJ LeMahieu, perhaps your patience with him is finally starting to pay off. Like Albies, LeMahieu had a horrible start to the season and dropped out of the rankings completely. LeMahieu has not had the same rapid turnaround to his season as Alibies has, but he is now ranked among the Top 25 thanks to strong 30-day stretch. Meanwhile, players like Dylan Moore and Cavan Biggio have dropped out of the rankings at some point this season and have yet to return, though Biggio has at least shown signs of life since his early slump and stint on the IL.
So, with baseball taking a rest, let's see who is ranked where in this week's rankings.
Pardon the typos today, I am typing this article through eyes filled with tears over the loss of Ronald Acuna. What a sad way to enter the All-Star break. I will be coping with the loss the only way I know how, betting a whole bunch of money on DFS and hoping that my screen turning green washes away the pain. Starting off that process we have everybody’s favorite DFS pitching target the Detroit Tigers facing our main squeeze, Jose Berrios ($9,900). We all know that the Tigers are dreadful (and they strike out the second most of any team) and Berrios has been hot of late. His last time out he put up 52 FanDuel points vs the White Sox. The last time he faced the Tigers he only managed 19 points in Detroit, but this game is at home and I really like Berrios to shine.
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Prospect News: 2021 Futures Game Fantasy Preview
July 11, 2021 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 34 Commentsby: The Itch
This day should be great for baseball.
I’ve heard some groaning about the MLB amateur draft lining up with All-Star weekend, but I think it’s kind of cool. Might be the first decent marketing move I’ve seen baseball make since Bud Selig and company turned the other way for big Mac during the home run chase.
Might be wise to say here that I don’t care about the All-Star game, or the Hall of Fame for that matter, and I don’t know many who do, but it’s viable to point out I hold no candles for the bygone days of Pete Rose running over a catcher during an exhibition game, so it doesn’t matter to me if the All-Star spotlight is weaker than it once was. That bulb’s been dimming since interleague play and got even duller when Selig tried to make it count for the World Series, a choice so dumb it rivals any of Manfred machinations.
Anyway, if baseball can win some eyes and ears by talking about the draft when people are glancing that way for the Home Run Derby, that’s a win in my book. Same goes for the Futures Game, which creates a neat sort of synergy with the All-Star game and the draft. I suppose one could argue baseball should spread these events out to get the maximum media burn from them, and there’s certainly a case to be made about avoiding the NBA finals when scheduling big events, but that won’t happen every year, and baseball has to get its press while it can. The second football players start gathering in helmets, the national focus begins to shift, or in the case of most media outlets, continues to shift.
One upshot of the schedule is that I’m not doing a mock draft this year. I was a little late to the gate compared to other popular outlets that are already on version four of their mocks. Here I picture Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas saying “four mocks, huh?” in the tone of “Big Gulps, huh?”
If seeking some draft day prep, check out the Natural, Hobbs, in his Top 30 Prospects for the 2021 MLB Draft. Instead of a mock, I’ll be publishing an early ranking for First-Year-Player drafts after the chips have fallen. In this space, I’ll try to add value to your All-Star Weekend by creating a player-by-player primer for the Futures Game scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern today.
