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Itch and I were having a discussion yesterday and I'm going to paraphrase it here:
Itch, "I know the Cubs are not good. I just cannot remember a trade as weird as the Jordan Montgomery thing. Why would the Yankees trade Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader? Like, you find out the guy (Bader), is hurt you cancel the trade, you don't trade for him on purpose. They (the Yankees) had a deal in hand for someone, is the story Cashman is leaking?"
Me, "Yeah, but it's not why. We're missing a piece of the details. People being told, 'The Yanks had a deal in place' or 'Jordan Montgomery wasn't making the playoff rotation, and the Yankees need defense because Aaron Hicks is awful' are not real reasons. That's just what they're feeding people. We do not know the real reason. We're missing a piece that makes the trade make sense, and, without that reason, we will never know."
Itch, "I meant to text my brother. Who is this? Grey? I want to punch you so bad."
We may never know why the Yankees traded Jordan Montgomery (9 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, zero walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.08), but it wasn't because he's a bad pitcher. He was a sleeper last year for me, and I think people still underestimate him. He won't blow you away with strikeouts for 2023 fantasy either. His ground balls are up (not literally) going from 42.7% to 47.1%. His command is immaculate (1.7 BB/9), down almost a full walk per nine. That is my one concern about him for 2023 fantasy. When you have a 7.8 K/9, you kinda have to be perfect with your command. You lose a fraction of that command and your ERA goes from 3.30-ish to 3.85+. Usable, but not nearly as lovable for this JoMosexual. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
See all of today’s starting lineups
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ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK |
The MLB playoffs are still a month away, but your fantasy baseball playoffs are practically here! Your starting pitching philosophy changes dramatically when the stakes are high and time is limited. If you're a strong team in the playoffs, you'll want to use pitchers with confident outcomes. If you're a weak team, you might need to make some risky pitcher plays to stay in the running -- but nobody expected the #6 seed to advance anyway, right? When the expected outcome is "lose," you should take every risk you can to put variance in your favor and win.
Let's jump right in to the actionable items. As mentioned last week, I am no longer providing the hierarchical ranks -- the data window of remaining MLB games is insufficient to move the ranking needle on up-and-coming pitchers.
Good Day All,
We find ourselves in the dog days of summer. Congrats to those in the hunt of their respective leagues, and congrats to those still reading these articles. If you’re in a keeper league, your trade deadline has likely come and gone, and accordingly, you have a good idea if your team is a contender or pretender for this year. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Heading down the stretch and 60% of Major League teams still are in playoff contention. The storylines from last week look much the same this week. The Los Angeles Dodgers are still the best team in baseball and continue to win despite big injuries, especially in the rotation. Please, blog, may I have some more?
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"Hello, Sharks! I'm here today with a lip balm like you've never seen before. It only needs to be applied once, and it lasts forever. It's called...It's Da Balm! And it's made out of napalm. On the tables in front of you, you will find a sample of the product. We have had no complaints! Try it please, and I think you'll be left, as most, completely speechless, lips falling onto the floor." Mr. Wonderful mumbles as his bottom lip falls off. "Another happy customer!" So, Alec Bohm (3-for-5, 6 RBIs, and his 9th and 10th homer) and Mark Canha (3-for-5.5 RBIs and his 9th and 10th homer) had a dueling two-homer game, both for their 9th and 10th homers. Elias Sports Bureau about to concoct some trivia out of that shizz! Mark Canha's homers ended up being more important, but you know him. Alec Bohm or Alec Bohm for 2023 fantasy baseball? Do you know him? Maybe, but let's see. He's corrected what was hurting him last year in a big way. His Launch Angle (10.7) almost doubled this year, and his flay ball rate, while no one would consider it elite, it's much better (28.7%). Don't love that his HardHit% has come down, but it's still top 50-ish in the league and his exit velo (90 MPH) is solid. Bohm's 2023 price will be interesting to see, and a buying opportunity might be present. Not sure if a sleeper is in the works, though. He doesn't feel on the precipice of being jaw-droppingly great. Or lip-droppingly. Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
In case you weren’t aware, I’m a software engineer by trade. I only do this on the weekend because of the incredibly high* salary offered here at Razzball. So, I bring that mentality to my fantasy sports. I write programs to help me in my research, and those programs have rules that define certain categories of players — like, and this should not be a surprise at this point, the levels of pitchers in this column — and I don’t bend or break those rules. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Welcome back to another edition of Top Dynasty Keepers.
This week we are going to take a look at two youngsters recently promoted to the majors - Vaughn Grissom of the Atlanta Braves and Brett Baty of the New York Mets.
Grissom and Baty both earned their promotions to the majors thanks largely to the fact that the Braves and Mets were shorthanded at second base and third base due to injuries. The Braves have been without Ozzie Albies at second base while the Mets will be without Luis Guillorme into September and Eduardo Escobar has been banged up and not playing well.
Both players were having outstanding seasons in the minors, and both players were drafted in 2019, but that is about it when it comes to comparing Grissom to Vaughn.
DIFFERENT PATHS
Atlanta didn't draft Grissom in 2019 until the 11th round as the 337th player selected. Unless you play in leagues with deep minor league rosters, you or most of the other players in your league likely didn't have Grissom on your radar entering the season.
He certainly wasn't on the radar of the people who put together rankings lists. Grissom wasn't ranked as a Top 100 prospect by Baseball America, MLB or Baseball Prospectus entering the season before finally reaching 79th in the MLB midseason rankings.
As mentioned earlier, Baty was also drafted in 2019. However, he was taken off the board 325 picks ahead of Grissom as the Mets tabbed him with the 12th overall pick. Because of his draft slot, Baty has likely been on the radar of most fantasy players. He entered the season as the 39th best prospect by Baseball America, 27th by MLB and 13th by Baseball Prospectus. Before being recalled by the Mets, Baty worked himself up the MLB rankings to 19th.
FANTASY OWNERS FAVOR GRISSOM SO FAR
It could be a matter of timing as Grissom reached the majors first, but right now fantasy owners are favoring him more than Baty. Grissom is rostered in 38.5% of leagues while Baty is rostered in only 17.5% of leagues. In Yahoo, both players are getting a lot more attention. Grissom is getting a lot of love as he is rostered in 66% of leagues while Baty is rostered in 38% of leagues,
With Albies appearing to be closer to a return to the Braves and with Baty clearly in position to get a lot more playing time, perhaps more fantasy owners will turn their attention to Baty.
Right now, let's shine the spotlight on both.
After a rough article in Week 17, we bounced back big time last week. All of our pitchers had good starts, and the batters did enough to help our counting statistics. That has me ready to keep rolling here because these final two months are the best time to stream pitchers. Please, blog, may I have some more?
If you were like me growing up, your Grandma always made your favorite dishes. We’d show up on her doorstep and she was always willing to whip something up for her boys. With a cold glass of soda, we’d sit down at the table and watch her go to work. Please, blog, may I have some more?
I was going to copy and paste the whole list here, but then I remembered last time I did that, I had to scroll forever to read the profiles on this group, which is arguably the most important group in the list for our purposes given that they're the likeliest to be available in the most leagues. Anyway, the links are still here and the most streamlined way to build this out, I think.
Here’s a link to the Top 25.
Here’s a link to the Top 50.
Here’s a link to the Top 75.
76. RHP Gavin Williams | Guardians | 22 | AA | 2022
77. RHP Cade Cavalli | Nationals | 24 | AAA | 2023
78. C Tyler Soderstrom | Athletics | 20 | AA | 2023
79. OF Sal Frelick | Brewers | 22 | AAA | 2023
Gavin Williams threw six hitless innings his last time out, bringing his Double-A ERA down to 1.59 and his WHIP to 0.95. That’s in 45.1 innings across 11 starts. WHIP is 0.81 in eight starts since July. Cleveland is somehow getting better at pitcher development, partly because they’re applying their systems to better and better athletes. Williams is 6’6” and 255 pounds but repeats his delivery well. Two plus benders. Double-plus fastball.
Cade Cavalli is similarly enormous at 6’4” 240 lbs. You could convince he’s three inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than that. Looks like a linebacker pumping high heat with extreme run to the right-handed batter’s box. Bigtime tempo guy. When it’s going well, he’s back on the mound and firing in blinks. When it’s not, his whole game slows down. He’s been awesome for three months (2.12 ERA, 1.02 WHIP since May 22) and would likely be in the majors at the moment if the Nationals were.
I’ve never been a Tyler Soderstrom pusher. I think he can hit, and I’ll give him the high-probability big leaguer thing, but ours is a game of impact. Standout tools. Soderstrom’s best tool is hit, which is often what you’d like to see, but Oakland is not the best home for a hit-first catcher who might not catch but doesn’t have much speed to handle the outfield.
Get your money for nothing and your licks for free. Better Call Sal has a 200 wRC+ in 15 games at Triple-A. He’ll be on the next stash list.
There are only about six weeks left in the season. If you play in a roto league, don’t be afraid to make bold cut decisions. Out in front of saves or steals by a lot? Maybe it’s time to cut that second or third closer or that speed-only bat. Please, blog, may I have some more?
This week our top 100 hitters get a shakeup not only from shifting roles and recent performance, but unfortunately, we see a few players tumbling down by their own accord. Whether it was a bad haircut leading to a PED suspension or another off the field run in with the law, it is not the way we want to see a player dropping out of the rankings. That said, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Marcell Ozuna do not seem to care about your fantasy team any more than their own team at this point, so our rankings had to return the favor. Disappointing as it may be for teams relying on their fading stars at the end on the season, it is out with the old and in with the new in this week’s rendition of the top 100 hitters for the rest of the 2022 fantasy baseball season.
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