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Oh how thangs are-a-changin’!  The Brewers have the talk of the town!  The cock of the walk!  No not Brad Peacock, who I got laughed at on the Podcast for begrudgingly dropping in our Perty Perts RCL, I’m talking about the legend himself Eric Thames!  Hey, I gotta derail the NL intro somehow, because the boring ol’ Nationals continue to dominate.  Thanks to Coors Field allowing Trea Turner a cycle and like, a bajillion RBIs!  The AL is much more interesting though, with yet another new front-runner emerging with the Mariners this week.  James Paxton for president!  Wait, he’s Canadian.  Paxton for Canadian president…  I’m running out of steam with the intro!

Here’s how week 4 went down in the 2017 REL League:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We’re back with a new edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast, that was recorded at some point in time recently, but we won’t reveal when!  On today’s show, we catch up on Madison Bumgarner losing his motorcycle’s license, Starling Marte losing his GNC Rewards Card, and the Red Sox losing their shizz over Manny Machado.  Spikes up, Dan!  We also have big news from our friends at FantasyDraft with our own Podcast RAZZBALL ONLY FANTASYDRAFT CONTEST!!!!!  It’s only $5 to join and you play against yours truly in our own contest tonight.  Makes me feel special!  We also play some FMK, and preview what we’re looking for in the week ahead including Christian Arroyo‘s callup.  Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

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PS – Sorry we ran outta time this week, but you now can join the Pod by leaving us a dime at this link, and we’ll include as many as we can on the show.  Leave us a message and we’ll answer next week!  Best promptness ever!

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So here’s something ridiculous – I think the Oakland A’s are my least favorite team.  Scratch that, F THE CARDS!  Even if they do have the best fans in baseball…  A’s are my least favorite AL team.  And it’s nothing to do with particular players, trying to be “hipster” and not liking Monyeball (It’s a cool movie!  Love the music.), or residual ire due to the Warriors.  Ugh, NBA with only 2 or 3 competing teams every year – BORING!  It just seems like every year, their offense is lacking, yet they pound on pitchers when you least expect it.  Cough, James Paxton, cough.  It’s so annoying!  It all started when I owned CC Sabathia on some dynos back when he started with the Yankees, and it felt like every April or May the A’s would tag him for 7 or 8 runs every game.  Plus, ya know, I didn’t buy into Josh Donaldson and Khris Davis decided to be a consistent power hitter in a shittier park, but we’ll end this absolutely ludicrous rant here.

Due to the above, I don’t watch a ton of A’s, so I have yet to see Andrew Triggs pitch.  His scouting report is unimpressive: his fastball actually lost velocity to be a sub-90 MPH pitch, he gets groundballs which usually means Ks should be low, is 28 and a converted closer, and it just all feels like smoke and Black Mirrors.  He’s a robot!  But maybe that perception is a reaction to my A’s bias, especially since he went into yesterday with three straight scoreless start wins.  Well, he did allow 2 unearned runs in one of em and 1 in another – yet another reason I think it’s Black Mirrors.  So I decided to watch his start Sunday afternoon to finally get the book out on the guy, and here’s how he looked against the Mariners:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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About 2.5 weeks in, only 25 or whatnot left to go!  Man I love baseball, so much time to make your shitty teams unshitty again.  “Make American Unshitty Again!”  Totally should’ve been the campaign slogan…

Speaking of, what is the AL turning into in the REL, 1990’s MLB?!  What’s with the Yankees taking over the first spot outta nowhere?!  The pinstripes have gotten a great balanced attack from their roster (despite losing Gary Sanchez), with the surprisingly hot starts from Chase Headley and Aaron Judge.  Plus Luis Severino going nuts with the Ks!  On the NL side, yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwn.  Business as usual with the Nats winning games in real-life, and awesomely suited for fantasy in REL-life.  Good luck to those squads hoping to hold onto the #1 spots!

Here’s how week 3 went down in the 2017 REL League:

PS – this league is way better than Razz30.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The season is hitting its stride!  We’re still in the honeymoon phase, got a lot of hot-n-sexy still going to keep things spicy; more spicy than say, talking about how I rage quit in Words With Friends!  On today’s show, we talk hot starts from Jose Ramirez, Marcell Ozuna, and how Grey absolutely hates James Paxton.  Hates I say!  We then play another edition of FMK, and for our first time, take your listener comments on the Pod.  Thanks to everyone who left us a voicemail!  You now can join the Pod by leaving us a dime at this link, and we’ll include as many as we can on the show.  Obviously as close to record time as you can, so bookmark the page and send us something over the weekend or Monday morning.  Don’t get Grey started on what day the Podcast is on though!  Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

Download from iTunes

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Man, after thinking about where I need to go with this intro, I got a mad hankering for Italian food.  Just ordered some to get here during afternoon baseball.  Is it profiling that now I’m non-stop craving Italian when I hear a name like Sal Romano?  But Italian food is so positive!  Is there such a thing as positive profiling?!

Speaking of Profiling, we’re back with enough edition of the Pitcher Profile!  I know I’m picking someone that’s pretty far off the beaten path, but any time Sunday baseball features an-even-somewhat-interesting guy making their debut, I’m intrigued!  Romano was vaguely on the radar for the NL-only and NFBC-type leagues given the Reds complete lack of a starting rotation, and surprisingly it was Rookie Davis getting the first DL stint (not their old farts, although Brandon Finnegan got hurt as well Saturday night) that opened an early spot for Romano to make his debut.  Buried on prospect lists in the 10-20 range for Cincy (they do have a good farm system though), with Ralph ranking him as merely a “floorboard”, Romano apparently has pretty interesting stuff from what I read, mainly a mid-to-high 90s fastball.  As tradition, I write the intro to the Profiles before I watch a pitcher’s start, and I’ll withhold any judgment until I see him throw.  So as I eagerly await my baked ziti, the Brewers game is about to start and I’m pumped to see how Romano looks and Profile his debut.  Here’s how he fared yesterday afternoon in his debut:

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REL baseball logo newA full week plus is in the books!  It’s still happy-fun-small-sample-time, but in the REL, rebuilding and tanking teams are already feeling the strain, while the big boys up top are taking their seats on the throne.  No, that wasn’t toilet humor!  Although it really wouldn’t be on you – dear reader – to think it was, knowing us clowns here at Razzball!

The illustrious 2016 Champion Nationals have already taken over the top spot as they aim to repeat with the NL pennant, but a nice start from the surprising Cincinnati Reds is a nice story line to open the year.  While in the AL, the Tigers have started off strong to try and represent the AL in the 2017 World Series, thanks to some great starting pitching in the Tigers rotation, plus a strong start for Chris Devenski.  Good luck to everyone in the REL over the next week!

Here’s how week 2 went down in the 2017 REL League:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Finally!  Some real action to talk about!  I haven’t been this excited for action since I was in high school!  Speaking on that milieu, on today’s show we play some FMK, discuss some hot starts across the league, and some not so hot ABs from Byron Buxton.  Get this guy a tennis racket!   We also try out a new recording format to make Grey sound a little clearer, so when he freaks out giving me “feedback” and annoys his neighbors, it now blasts your eardrums with HD precision!  Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

Download from iTunes

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We back baby!  The Pitcher Profiles are back!

It’s a brand new season, so we got some brand new digs!  Hah not really, just some new GIFfing magic to help make the posts pop a little, and see some pitches a little clearer.  Even better content if these posts are too long, and you just watch the GIFs then scroll to the ranks!

If you’re new to the Profiles, I break down a starter’s outing pitch-by-pitch, to try and portray how they “really” looked.  We’ve seen multiple guys have a lucky BABIP day – or a few flares fall against them – that can really skew their numbers (especially early in the year).  The Profiles try to help give an eye level account, leaving nothing to question.  I also developed my own “Gamescore+” stat, that I will continue scoring for pitchers getting Profiled.  With Statcast data now out there, I still need to work with Rudy to automate it!

So to our subject today, I know I’ve Profiled Sean Manaea before…  Here’s his 2016 Profile, but I decided to go back to the well and see if he’s maintaining his good stuff that he showed in the second half last year.  Plus in that Profile, it was his Major League debut and I thought he looked a lot better once he settled into the rotation by August and September.  I mostly hope and pray he looks good in a tough matchup @TEX so Grey would feel bad about laughing at my high Manaea rank.  My order of baseball priorities – 1) Brewers 2) Proving Grey wrong 3) My SP Ranks 4) My fantasy teams.  Here’s how Manaea looked yesterday afternoon in the desert:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

REL baseball logo newThe REL is back baby!  Sure, since I get my Brewers bias-fix it’s a little slanted, but the REL has become my favorite league.  30 teams, roughly 900 players owned, along with a whole farm system of another 400-500…  What could be better?!

If you’re new to seeing these posts – here’s a quick rundown of the REL:  15 team AL only and 15 team NL only comprise the 30-team league, and you must own 15 players from the “parent team” you manage.  You also manage that team’s farm system, and can trade those prospects amongst your Major and Minor league squads.  We play Roto for the first 148 games, until the final 2 weeks.  Then the AL pennant and NL pennant winners play a H2H 2-week World Series.  Congrats again to our inaugural champion Nationals, beating the The Tribe on a dramatic Sunday afternoon finish on the last day of the season. What a season!

With keepers announced, farm teams replenished, our supplemental draft completed, and baseball finally starting anew, the 2017 REL season is here!  We’ll be checking in with the league every Thursday afternoon, and have our owners share their thoughts every week.

Here’s how week 1 has kicked off, along with draft day and keeper thoughts, in the 2017 REL League:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The season is here!  Finally real games to talk about!  Unsurprisingly, Grey and I’s (sic) motors get going with an action-packed Pod breaking down the Sunday games, plus the first half of Opening Day from yesterday.  Should be “Opening Days”!  So confusing!  We catch up on closers being terrible, a big start for A.J. Pollock, and C-Mart pitching more like K-Mart.  The show then wraps with a run through of our 2017 Staff Picks, and man did things look great for Grey right after we stopped recording!  Literally minutes after we finish recording Rougned Odor hits his first homer, then 30 minutes later his second!  Yeesh Kubot.  Reboot!  Reboot!  Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

Download from iTunes

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Baseball is back!  Our long wait through an absolutely ridiculous winter (in pretty much all aspects of life) is finally over!

I looked back at my re-ranks from last year to kick off the season, and can you believe this is Year 5 of the Pitcher Profiles?!  Who woulda thought Grey would let me write these silly things this long?!  I’m in my 5th year though, have a lot of seasoning, I’m ready to hit my prime!

As always, a lot had changed in the past month+ since I put out my ranks in late February, with big names falling to elbow issues/concerns this time out vs. a fairly injury-free 2016.  My Alex Reyes dynasty team weeps for this offseason!  Plus ya know, massive changes after opening day.  Drop Masahiro Tanaka everywhere!  Yeah, if I were in any schmohawk leagues, I’d offer buy lows non-stop for Tanaka.  Wait, I am in the Perty Perts league, I’ll try there!  Haha I keed, I can’t walk the walk, not like I’ve topped the Perts league my first two years against Grey’s 1,000+ moves every season…

We’ll be getting into the Profiling next week (everyone watched those first 3 games, seems silly to profile any of those Opening Day guys), so get ready for some mad GIFs!  And going to try a little something new for the GIFs too!  Hopefully you like em…

Here’s my updated top 100 SP for the first week of the fantasy baseball season:

Please, blog, may I have some more?