Tssss, tss, tss, tssss, scooby-do-boop, green light go, run so fast. I hope you've enjoyed my lyrical stylings of what I think goes through Jazz's head on the basepaths. We need the people who can hit the right notes, so to speak. I've also included the catchers being run on the most below.
It's the final countdown!
Razzball friends and family, we are in the final week of most H2H leagues. What a long strange trip it's been? Nate? What's up with all the music references? Some would say it's because some are hearing the fat lady singing, but not us! Not you! If you have been following all year, we have had some really nice wins on the season. Cedric Mullins, Robbie Grossman, Raimel Tapia, Robbie Ray, and countless others. I am not trying to pat myself on the back, but it's nice to have some W's to go along with the L's.
Are you fighting for that final playoff spot? Have you already punched your ticket into the playoffs? Regardless, now is the time to fine-tune that fantasy team. Take a look at your upcoming schedule and see if your opponent has been wiping the floor with offense or with pitching, and align your team to match their strengths or weaknesses. If you happen to have a bye, look ahead two weeks and try to see which pitchers may have 2-starts, or if there are any matchups at Coors, etc.
While it's nice to look ahead, let's not get carried away! Here are the key players who will help you get ahead in H2H for Week 21!
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Okay, let me get this straight so I can fully understand.
Robbie Ray puts on some gotchies that are three sizes too small so you can see homeboy's birth marks on his asscheeks and then he becomes elite? Fine, then I'm gonna try and write wearing jeans shorts, jorts if you will, that are too small. Ready? Here we go! Robbie...The button is digging into my FUPA! The pockets are chafing my upper thighs! Ugh, I can't get them off! Oh my God, I'm calling 911! I can't feel my knees! Help me! "Hello, can you spare Chris Sale? I need him to cut something off me. Hello?! Help!" So, Robbie Ray went 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 14 Ks, ERA at 2.72. On the
Player Rater, he's around a top ten starter. Can Robbie Ray do that in 2022 fantasy? In short, yes. In long, yeeeeeeeeeeees. He has a 11.3 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9. That's an ace. Can he repeat the command? That's the real trick, but as soon as someone shows a skill, I'm not going to take it from them. It's not like this is a 20 IP sample. He's done this for 150+ IP. Yes, Robbie Ray appears to be legit. As long as he never lets out his inseam. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
I can't tell you how many times I sit down to create this list and go, "Jesus, how bad are you at this?" Predicting the future has been tough and each week I kick myself for having to make big swings in the rankings. This week, Ty France pops onto the list, but he's batting .292 with 16 homers on the year. That places him 14th among first basemen on the year according to ESPN's player rater. Three spots below France is Jesus Aguilar, who has been a big bright spot for a young Marlins team that has shown a lot of promise in their young bats. And yet, the projection systems (and me) missed on Aguilar. Here I am, putting out yet another list lacking the Marlins slugger. While the power has been there over the last two weeks, the batting average has slipped some. In addition, the projection systems, even those that factor in opponents have Aguilar ranked outside of the top 25 first basemen. So, here I am, stubborn and sticking to my guns for the final countdown. I've mentioned how first base has been an embarrassment of riches for a while. That remains the same now. That's not meant to be a knock on Aguilar at all, it's just an explanation of how a player can still be useful in fantasy even if he's not on a silly list. Let's get to said list and then we'll talk about some of the movers.
The Supreme Leader, Grey, has blurbed about the candy sweetness of
Lars Nootbaar in the past:
“Have you checked by the candied almonds?” That’s the sweet woman at Sprouts after I asked her if they had a Lars Nootbaar. Lars Nootbaar is from Cadbury, Eggland. I could go on all day, should I? Yes? Great. The only way to get Nootbaar out is with stain remover. His granny’s full name is Granola. Keep going? Okay, okay! One more! In Nootbaar’s Twitter bio, it lists his pronouns as chewy/nougaty, and his wife’s are her/shey.
Just another example of why Grey and GOAT go hand in hand, and it's not because both are four-lettered words that start with G. Jay "Who is Never" Wrong
wrote up Nootbaar back in June, so it's not like he was just created on the Sony Studios server and inserted into the Matrix. I didn't pay much heed to Nootbaar until recently, as he's been a fixture in many of my DFS lineups because of his price in the $2,000 range on Draftkings. Let's dig in and see if he's worthy for your season-long lineups.
Happy Ohtani day to all those who observe. The playoff picture is rounding into form as we near the end of August. There’s a big series in Milwaukee as the
Reds try to keep their division hopes alive against the Brewers. The
Padres play host to the
Dodgers as they try to keep their playoff bid alive. We’ll also get a MLB pitching debut along with a handful of aces, both past and present.
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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Before the game, Kenta Maeda was getting a 2nd opinion on his UCL, which is always good news. If I were a 2nd opinion doctor, I'd just say, "Same," and collect all those greenbacks. Actually, might not even need a medical degree to be a "Same" 2nd opinion doc. So, the Twins turned to one of their great young arms, Griffin Jax (4 2/3 IP, 9 ER, ERA at 6.29). Twins got Randy Dobnak from Uber, and Jax from Postmates. If Maeda can't return, the Twins are gonna get a month subscription to Blue Apron. On the positive side of things, the Red Sox sent down Jarren Duran (well, positive after this). When the team wants to go with Travis Shaw (1-for-3 and his 8th homer) over you, well, there's no amount of violins to play. You suck. The good news: Duran's price is gonna be super cheap next year. Then, as Alex Cora continues to stupid-up the lineup card, leadoff man, Enrique Hernandez (2-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) hit his 16th homer, but the real star was Hunter Renfroe. He's rivaled only by Austin Riley, Adam Duvall, Jorge Soler--well, all Braves--rivaled only by them for guys who get crazy hot, and he's in the middle of one such stretch. He now has four homers in the four games, and, as Scooby-Doo would say, "Renfroe!" Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
I feel like we're in that extra dreadful part of the deep-league FAAB season: the real-life and (in most leagues) fantasy trade deadlines have passed, any player who might be slightly serviceable has been picked off the waiver wire, and folks who have any remaining FAAB money or waiver claims just need to hope that someone interesting comes along once MLB rosters expand. At this time of year, some leagues are as active as cutthroat as ever as owners scramble to do whatever they can to gain that extra point or two that might make a difference in the final standings. In other leagues, though, I'm seeing lots of completely checked-out owners. The beginning of football season will only exacerbate the situation, so why not take advantage of it? Even if you're buried in the standings, this last chunk of the baseball season is no time to tune out completely. It's never too early reflect on what went right and wrong this year, and it's also a great time to pay attention to what's happening now -- while other fantasy players are ignoring baseball altogether, why not start making notes on players and situations that may factor into your draft prep for 2022? While I'm still in a daily battle to make the right decisions in a few leagues where the money spots will come down to the final days (if not hours) of the year, I'm simultaneously already thinking about next season. And this week, we'll switch it up a bit: instead of concentrating on a handful of guys at the very bottom of the waiver wire barrel, we'll expand our horizons slightly by looking at one player in each league who's closer to the 20% owned threshold.
It's been said before, but I'll say it again, the Angels have done a tremendous job of wasting two generational talents over a ten year period. It's frankly impressive. Mr. Albright and yours truly debate which should go higher and where you're comfortable valuing each going into 2022. We then touch on the string of 4.2 IP starts this season, waiver wire adds, and some potential rookie call-ups. It's the Razzball baseball podcast with 20% less pants!