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I hope everyone had a fun second week.  There was some good, like Mark Trumbo going double dong in one inning.  There was also some bad, like whatever it is Matt Harvey is doing.  Trevor Story didn’t hit a homer every single day this week, easing the pain for those of us that don’t own this middle infield monster.  Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief as just about everyone that should have a home run has hit one by now, even Mike Trout!

It’s the silly season for our leagues at this point  We can see huge swings in the standings based on 2-3 good days of stats.  We have a new top team on the RCL leaderboard and they had one of those silly gains to get there, gaining 25 points in 7 days time.  Not bad for a frequent commenter, occasional contributor and long time Razzballer.  Despite that enormous gain, they aren’t even this week’s team of the week.  I’m sure the suspense is killing you, so come on down after the jump and check out the week that was…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

That’s what we’re all chasing here, right?  The White Whale.  We’re all obsessing over this silly little game in the hopes of hitting that four…five…six figure payday.  We pour over stats from wOBA to z-swing % and everything in between hoping to glean some hidden gem that gives us an edge over the rest of the field.  I can only imagine the number of hours I’ve put into looking at match-ups, fiddling with lineups, checking the weather, checking Twitter and pondering game theory.  Well, tonight will be no different.  Friday nights are one of my favorite nights to play DFS.  It’s always a full or nearly full slate, game times are typically 7 EST and all the 10 EST lineups are out by the time lineups are due.  Tonight is no different, and tonight, I’m looking to clobber Tim Melville.  You’re darn tootin’ I went with a Moby Dick reference on a night I’m stacking against Melville.  If you caught that before this point in the paragraph, give yourself a hearty pat on the back for reading a book or two. This call doesn’t take a lot of pondering.  Tim Melville’s AAA numbers last year were a lovely 4.63 ERA with a 6.1 K/9 and a 4.0 BB/9.  You know how Grey uses K-rate minus BB-rate to determine how good a pitcher is real quick?  10 K/9 – 3 BB/9 = 7 = Borderline ace = Chicken diner, or something like that.  Quick math gives us Tim Melville’s difference of 2.1.  If a difference of 7 is a borderline ace, a difference of 2 is a borderline “doesn’t belong in the major leagues”.  All of your Cardinal batters are in play, righties and lefties alike.  Melville was equally generous to both handed batters in the minor leagues.  So, stack ‘em up, hope they hit and let’s see what else can find to help you catch your whale tonight.

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well try out this 10 teamer of Razzball writers and friends to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

What an opening week.  It’s so great to have baseball back and to be back to the RCL grind.  Are you slugging your way to the top of your league via Trevor Story?  Maybe you’ve Edinson Volquez’d yourself to the front of the pack instead.  Either way, I hope your roto points floweth over.  Kyle Schwarber owners, (I had 1 share just for SsNGs) I send my condolences.  Mike Trout and Zack Greinke owners, the support group meeting is tonight at 7 in the basement of the town library.  I’ll bring the Cracker Jack, you bring the Big League Chew and we’ll have a prayer octagon.  

Already the RCL battle has been waged on the waiver wire as the race to grab the top up and coming prospects is in full sprint.  In just the first week we’ve seen Max Kepler, Mallex Smith and the top prize, Nomar Mazara all called up to the show.  Kepler is yet to crack the lineup, but 4 teams have decided to make the stash.  52 teams are hoping Mallex Smith can give them some sweet, sweet SAGNOF.  So far, there’s just been a hit, a run and a caught stealing that ended in a nasty forehead gash, but the speed is real.  Then there’s Mazara, who made his presence felt ASAP with a dinger (1 more than Mike Trout!) in his first game.  As of Monday morning he was scooped up in 84 of 85 leagues.  The 85th league is 12 Matthew Berrys running Razzball recon, so they hardly count.  This year’s rookie class has a lot to live up to after last year’s rookie nookie, but they’re getting and early jump.  Speaking of jumps, let’s take a look at which RCL teams are getting early jumps on their league standings:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It feels so good to be back in the DFS saddle, does it not? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been taking it easy this first week. This week has been full of weird start times, random lineup decisions and even a snow out for Pete’s sake! SNOW! With a near full slate today, though, it’s a fine time to jump on in. It’s appropriate there’s a game at Coors today too, since I’m a big Coors stacker. Today will be no different and for those choosing to play the all day or 4 o’clock start time I would like to turn your attention to Jabari Blash. Blash was in the Mariners system for some time and was left exposed to the Rule 5 draft after bashing 32 HRs across two minor league levels last year. The A’s snagged him, traded him to San Diego and now here we are. You may not have heard of Blash, so here’s the 3 second scouting report. Blash can mash. Need more? Well, he doesn’t hit for average and he strikes out a lot, but that power! A little deeper dive shows us a .305 ISO last year in the minors, part of that was in the PCL, but still, the power is legit. Do you know what scores a lot of points in DraftKings games? Home runs, that’s what. Do you know what doesn’t count against batters in the DraftKings games? Strikeouts. Blash in Coors, even for the elevated price tag of $4,000 is worth a shot. Check the lineup and if he’s in, jump all over the somewhat unknown masher and reap the rewards. Let’s see what other picks we can unearth for the Friday slate.

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well try out this 10 teamer of Razzball writers and friends to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

You guys and five girls are what makes the Razzball community great.  Case in point, I’ve gotten countless ideas for articles based on feedback, comments, questions and general conversation with you all.  It really is my favorite part of this site.  One such idea came up when a commenter got a hold of me and asked me who they should be following on Twitter.  Let’s take a quick step back, you should absolutely use Twitter to enhance your DFS game.  Heck, if you’re a fan of baseball and have a smartphone, there’s no reason to not follow most of this list below.  That goes for DFS players and non DFS players alike.  There is no faster news source for lineups, weather, late scratches or other breaking stories out there.  I love what Twitter has done for the game, it’s an ideal pairing I think.  I almost always have my laptop open with Twitter up while I’m watching games.  

The thing with Twitter though is you have to be following the right people to make it worth your while.  I gave the commenter a blanket statement on who to follow, but it gave me an idea to just write an article on the subject.  So, here we have the MattTruss guide to DFS Twitter.  I’ve broken this up into different categories, so pick and chose, or follow them all, it’s your choice.  I hope this helps, I know it’s been an invaluable tool for me.  If nothing else, maybe it’ll save you an hour or so of Googling.  Also, if there is someone I missed that you enjoy following, please add them in the comments.  Sharing is caring and, back to come full circle, is what makes @Razzball awesome!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

That’s a wrap on the 2016 Razzball Commenters League fantasy baseball draft season.  You can close out of spreadsheets and stop worrying about whether or not you should handcuff Ken Giles with Luke Gregerson (Yes, yes you should have).  What’s done is done and now it’s time to prep for the daily grind that is an RCL league.  So, grab your caffeine ingestion method of choice and start researching tomorrow’s batty calls.  

This week, we’re going to take a look at all the draft data that all of you contributed to our leagues.  We span from drafts the morning of February 28th all the way until this past Sunday afternoon.  That’s just over a month of draft data to break down, dissect and tear apart.  Next week, we’ll be able to focus things on you all as we’ll have a week’s worth of stats to ponder.  Without further ado, let’s dig into how the RCLers drafted this year.

First of all, here is the ADP spreadsheet, all finalized for your viewing pleasure.  Feel free to keep that open as you read along…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We are now so close Opening Day that I can taste it.  Cold beer, processed meat, and mustard, it doesn’t get much better than that.  This time next week we’ll all be in a full on panic over why our first round pick hasn’t hit a HR in the first two games and how we can possibly be in last place with THIS team.  We’ll talk you off that ledge when the time comes.  However, this week I want to go over a few last tidbits before you dive into you RCL career.  I have one last note on the draft as well as a loophole you should know about and take advantage of.  These are the last couple of things I couldn’t cram into my other posts but I think are too important to just let go.  I’ll also be sharing the newest week’s worth of draft data with you.  We’ve had so many drafts the past week and we’re up to a total of 57 drafted leagues and counting.  Come check out the latest and greatest numbers as you prepare for the final draft weekend before shizz gets real.  We have RCL drafts going off all during the final weekend.  You can even create a last minute league like VinWins and I and draft over a cup o’ joe and a bowl of Cap’n Crunch at 7 AM EST Saturday morning.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  So go on, go create a league and/or fill one that needs filling.  This post will still be here when you get back and then we can talk about your upcoming draft.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RCL draft season is well under way now.  We’ve got about three drafts per day going off and the data is just flowing in.  Hopefully, you are all putting the ADP Spreadsheet to good use.  I see plenty of anonymous animals peeping it between seven and ten at night, so I think you are.

This week I wanted to briefly go over some notes on pitching in the RCLs.  I say briefly because this subject has been covered many times before, quite brucely, much more succinctly than I could cover it.  I’ll tell you young Razzballers a story, about where it all got started, way back in a time known as twelve after twenty, with Simply Fred.  Fred was on to something that only a few of the top RCLers at the time were on to and it started a revolution.  Rudy felt he could improve the process and the Stream-O-Nator was born!  The world hasn’t been the same since.  Finally, Rudy covered the importance of maximizing IP and how to value our streamers here.  That should be enough clickbait and reading to get you off to sleep tonight where visions of ERA, WHIP and K/9 will dance in your head.  If you’re feeling lazy though, I’ll give you the cliffsnotes version with a couple of my own notes.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Last week, we covered why you should join a RCL, so this week, let’s start covering what to do once you’re in there.  To be honest, most all of this has been covered somewhere on the site over the years, most often by Rudy.  If you haven’t been playing in RCLs though, I could see how some of this has been glossed over, so I’ll try to consolidate some info for the newbies.

I’d like to preface that I’m no expert in the matter.  I loved Ralph’s line from a couple weeks back when talking about dynasty leagues and I think the same applies to me here.  “See, here’s the thing, I’m not so much an expert as I am avid player.” Bingo.  I’ve finished in the top 20 of the master standings a couple times and won the ECFBL in a year when it had the highest league competitive index.  It’s not nothing, but far from expert.  With that out of the way, let’s jump right into the nitty gritty.

The first and most important item in competing for a top spot in these leagues is TIME.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Well, here goes nothing.  From here on out I’ll be your RCL tour guide.  I’ll be guiding you through all the sights and sounds (Are there sounds?  The crunch of “All Dressed” Humpty Dumpty potato chips perhaps.) of the RCL season.  I, for one, am a huge fan of the RCLs, the format, the League Competitive Index competition, battling hundreds of other managers for the top of the overall standings and of course, the non stop action.  It’s kind of like pounding a pot of coffee every hour, on the hour for six straight months.  I’m also a huge nerd for all the numbers and data that gets collected from running so many leagues under the Razzball umbrella.  I will do my part to share some of these numbers with you along the way and try to glean some info from all that data.  VinWins was my hero back when he ran the RCL Updates, so I’ll do my best to be his protege.  In order to make the data pool even larger though, we need you, and you, and you too.  You see, what makes RCLs great is all of you.  Man that sounds mushy, but it’s true.  In an ideal world, every Razzball reader would head on over to the RCL sign-ups, pick a league and all would be right with the world.  For those of you that aren’t so eager, let’s sit down and chat it out.

First of all, if you’re on the fence about joining an RCL, that can’t be comfortable.  You really should hop down from there and just join a league already.  I get it though, back in the late aughts, when I first started lurking around Razzball I too was reluctant to join an RCL.  I kick myself now though for not joining in the fun sooner.  I’ll give you the reasons I was staying away and then explain why it was complete bunk.  Maybe I can sway another 2-3 of you to come join the masses.  If you have other reasons for keeping away, by all means, lay them on me in the comments.  I love talking RCLs and if we can be doing something better, I’ll be your voice to the big wigs.  So, here we go:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I said it last week and I’ll say it again, if you’re still reading our DFS content at this point in the game, then you most likely had yourself a profitable season. Congrats and come on into the comments and brag about your successes. Let’s see if we can finish off the season on a high note and maybe win a little extra spending money before the holidays. Also, if you’ve done well this season (Over $600 in winnings) you’ll need to set a little aside for taxes, you know, if you’re into paying those.

Now, come sail away with me to Arizona. Don’t worry, it’s a “dry” heat. Once we’re there, we’re going to check out Robbie Ray. Ray checks in with a very affordable $6,900. Let’s face it, he’s affordable because he isn’t really that great, but, and it’s a big but, he’s got a couple things going for him. Well, he’s got one thing going for him and that’s his opponent. The Rockies are such a beautiful disaster away from Coors field, that they can make even make the most mediocre pitcher look amazing. Away from home, the Rockies have the lowest team OPS in the majors, about 50 points below league average as a matter of fact. Even more in Ray’s favor is his handedness. The Rocks are bottom five in team OPS vs. Lefties. Add this up and you can see a lefty on the road is death on the Coors crew. It makes sense really, their only scary RHB is Arenado. Does DJ LeMahieu strike fear in your heart? Wilin Rosario maybe? I thought not. Ray’s been fairly respectable in his own right. His 3.53 ERA is right in line with his 3.55 FIP and his 8.3 K/9 is nothing to sneeze at. Ray’s biggest issue is being a little WHIP-y at times and that can get him into trouble. I think this match-up really sets up well for him though and he can be a low-priced star for tonight’s slate. Let’s look at a few more potential stars tonight:

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well try out this 7 teamer of Razzball writers and friends to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I love when halfway decent starting pitchers are given away for practically free on DraftKings. I especially enjoy it when it happens on a Coors field day. That of course could be read as a “Coors Field” day or as a Coors “field day”, because both are true. When you’re trying to squeeze in as much Coors exposure as you can, a 4K pitcher opens up an awful lot of options. Logan Verrett sits at $4,500 tonight and gets to square off at home against one of, if not the worst hitting team in the majors in the Atlanta Braves. Jon Niese just completely shut them down. That’s the same Niese who had given up 11 runs in his previous 8 IP mind you. The Braves have the lowest team OPS in the majors and their “lead” in the category seems to grow by the day. Verrett has been a more than capable spot starter for the Mets as they try to limit every one of their young pitcher’s innings. Tonight he fills in for deGrom and should be good to go for at least 75-80 pitches, possibly more. He only threw 63 against the Marlins over 5 IP, but the Mets let him air it out for 93 a month ago at Coors field. All he did there was hold the Rockies to 1 run in 8 IP and strikeout 8. The strikeout upside is limited with the Braves as they are pretty stingy when it comes to striking out, but posting zeros works too and a win should be easily obtained. For $4,500 you can’t get too greedy. I do imagine Verrett will be fairly highly owned at this price and Coors field on the docket so despite the low price he may be more of a cash game play than a GPP. Let’s look at some more plays for tonight’s DFS slate:

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well try out this 5 teamer of Razzball writers and friends to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.

Please, blog, may I have some more?