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Kerry Klug

Author: Kerry Klug

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Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters: Double Turn!

April 7, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Top 100 Hitters | 34 Comments

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It’s the most glorious weekend of the year — Wrestlemania weekend! You know what that means: wrestling themed blurbs!

On the Double Turn…

Two players in my pre-season top-5 are trending in opposite directions, but I don’t start freaking out too much until tax day. A lot of experts were calling for Jose Ramirez and Christian Yelich to regress from their MVP-caliber seasons last year. Well Yelich came out swinging an angry stick hitting a homerun in four straight games to start the season leaving him ranked third on the Razzball Player Rater so far. He’s reached base successfully in every game so far and is on his way to competing for the MVP again in 2019. Jose Ramirez? Not so much. For some players we like to point out how they’re “continuing their hot hitting from the end of 2018.” Ramirez is doing the opposite. He ended 2018 with a 40 game slump hitting .166 with a .597 OPS. He also only hit .231/.646 in the minors. His BABIP is currently sitting at .150, he only has 3 strikeouts to 2 walks and he’s hitting a higher percentage of fly balls from 2018 (small sample size) so maybe he’s just getting a bit unlucky in the early going. However, it’s enough to make me flip these two in the rankings.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Ambulance Chasers, Week 2: Pinstripe Panic

April 3, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 8 Comments

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Seven games into the season and we’ve already got some season altering injuries. A lot of injured players that are out there have been injured for a while like Salvador Perez, Michael Fulmer, Alex Wood etc. They’ve been injured for a long time so you had a plan to replace them — or not draft them at all so I won’t be talking about them.

Below are some recent injury updates that are affecting your teams. Every week I’ll be posting injury updates and my thoughts on what you should do with that player and if there are any sneaky replacements who are owned in less than 35% of leagues or so on the waivers you can pick up in their place. Often I won’t just name that player’s replacement that’s on his team. That’s lazy journalism.

However, every league is different so treat this column like a mailbag — if you suffered an injury and don’t know who to replace them with — just drop a comment with some of the best available options in your league and I’ll give you my advice!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters, Week 2: WILD OVERREACTIONS

March 31, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Top 100 Hitters | 21 Comments

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I’m not going to overreact to 20 at-bats. I will not do it. That being said, if you’re in a league with me — every one of my players is a bum and is on the block. Starting next week we’ll start to see some moving and shaking, but this list is mostly a refresher from the pre-season. There are really only six “fallers” this week and they’re all injury related. I’ll be writing more about them in my injury column which drops on Wednesday, but here’s who slipping, tumbling, sinking, fumbling:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

2019 Fantasy Baseball Keeper Rankings

March 18, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Keepers | 40 Comments

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Redraft leagues are the standard of the fantasy sports industry. Each year you get a fresh start at remembering you shouldn’t draft A.J. Pollock. Ever. You can draft whoever you want at your draft position or spend as much as your budget on whoever you want. But for me there is nothing more fun than a good long-term keeper league. Smart owners get to flex on their leaguemates by keeping players they selected deep in their drafts or picked up on a hunch. Keeper leagues are a great intermediate option between full-on redraft leagues and the craziness of a dynasty league. 

Below you’ll find my keeper rankings for 2019. I’ve included each player’s age, position eligibility for the start of the 2019 season and any concerns I have about each player. Here’s what you’ll also see: I’m not high on starting pitchers. Too likely to suffer an injury and miss a large chunk of time. I’m not high on guys with less than two seasons of experience. I’ve seen sophomore slumps and prospect busts far too often. There are exceptions like Ronald Acuna who seem like a sure thing — but when it comes to Vlad Guerrero Jr. I prefer the wait and see approach. Plus, we really don’t know when he’ll even debut. Players over the age of 31 worry me — especially players whose value is speed dependent. I don’t want to keep a player whose decline is starting to begin. Injury prone players: duh. I’m not going to keep someone who can’t take the field.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

2019 Fantasy Baseball Team Previews: New York Yankees

March 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 6 Comments

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Well the first for-sure, definite, 100% confirmed, future Yankee free agent signing has signed with the Padres. And this kid is now every Yankee fan:

That was definitely me back in the early 90’s when my favorite player was Don Mattingly (because he lead the league in having a walrus mustache just like my Dad. Runner up: Dennis Eckersley.) Like all Yankee fans and the bandwagon Yankee fans, I then went through the arrogant highs of the late-90’s dynasty. Followed by the dark, lonely era of the Aughts which turned me into the bitter, jaded fan who grew sick and tired of the high-spending, future-sacrificing ways of the overpaid Yankees that I am today. My writer photo above is a sarcastic response to the Yankee fans who never grew out of the dynasty era and still yell “COUNT DA RINGS BRO! DEREK JETAHHH BABBYY!!!” Despite the Yankees only winning one championship in the last 19 years. But there is now a light at the end of that tunnel! Five of the players in the Yankees starting lineup are home grown players! Our ace came up through our own developmental system and wasn’t just plucked from some poor, small market, podunk team like the Reds! Our bullpen is TERRIFYING!

The eyes of Yankee Nation are set on only one thing: adding another championship ring to the trophy case. The team, fans and front office will accept nothing less. Right now, many experts have the Bombers tabbed as the World Series favorite — we’ll see how that all shakes out in October. I talked to Callen Elslager from the Fantasy Life Blog who just had his 2019 Yankees Team Preview published. Here are his thoughts on a few key questions the 2019 Bronx Bombers are facing:

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Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters, Preseason: Spring Training Update

March 6, 2019 | Top 100 Hitters | 26 Comments

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This won’t be a formal full update of my Top 100 Rankings list. I’m just going to highlight a few players who have helped their cause after the first week of Spring Training. I’m not going to focus on anyone who is falling in my rankings just yet. It’s hard enough to provide a weekly top 100 hitters list during the regular season when the games matter — but I’m not going to overreact to a few spring training games. Dominic Smith is currently leading the league in batting average for Pete Alonso’s sake! Hey…that sounds like a good place to start!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

2019 Fantasy Baseball Top 100 Hitters: The Preseason Edition

February 25, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Top 100 Hitters | 15 Comments

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Categories, eligibility and speed. These are the things that dictate where I rank hitters. Categories: A guy who contributes in all 5 categories is going to be ranked higher than someone who contributes in only 4 — even if those 4 categories are elite. That’s why I’m a bit lower on J.D. Martinez and Nolan Arenado compare to other people. Eligibility: obviously guys with multiple position eligibility or a shallower position will be ranked higher than say an outfielder. “Then why aren’t you higher on catchers?” Because after the top-2 catchers they’re basically all the same and likely to miss time. Speed: the most elusive of 5×5 categories. If you can give me at least 10 steals I’m going to give you a boost in my rankings. That’s why I’m higher on someone like Tommy Pham than others. If Trea Turner gets the 75-80 stolen base attempts that the Nationals want him to get then he has the chance to end the season as a top-3 player.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters Preview: Guys I’m Low On

January 31, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Top 100 Hitters | 17 Comments

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A lot of the hitters you’ll find on this list aren’t necessarily going to be God awful, fall off the face of the Earth, undraftable players — they’re just guys who had explosive 2018’s who you shouldn’t draft at their 2018 end of season value. Something I’m noticing is that there a lot more players who I’m high on (might have to do a part 2 of that series!) Maybe I’m too optimistic of a person, but I’m hoping every player is working on improving themselves in the off-season. Eric Hosmer HAS to be in his backyard taking golf swings to improve that 60.4% ground ball rate, right? Brian Dozier is definitely at the batting cage with a stance so closed the pitcher will be able to read his full name on the back of his jersey to improve his 49.9% pull rate, right? Billy Hamilton has to be working on his bunting so he can reach first base more than 30% of the time right?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters Preview: Guys I’m High On

January 22, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 9 Comments

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As I’m working on my pre-season top 100 hitters column each week I sometimes like to ask my friends for their thoughts as a barometer for who I might be too high or too low on. As a fun experiment I start with my #1 and #2 ranked players and whoever they voted was better was locked into their ranking — and whoever lost would face the next ranked player.

For example: “Mike Trout or Mookie Betts?” Unanimously Trout.

“Betts or Jose Ramirez?” 4 votes Betts, 1 for Ramirez.

“Ramirez or Francisco Lindor?” 4 for Lindor, again — 1 for Ramirez.

For the most part players rarely lasted more than 2-3 match-ups before they won and were given their consensus ranking. However, there was one player who lasted 8 match-ups (meaning an 8 ranking difference between my top 100 and the group consensus top 100) and that man was…

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Who is This Year’s Jesus Aguilar?

November 29, 2018 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 14 Comments

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First base was pretty disappointing last year. Only three first basemen finished with more than 90 runs, only four hit over 35 home runs and only 5 had over 90 RBI. Owners with quick triggers probably finished high in their fantasy leagues if they grabbed Jesus Aguilar. So what am I looking for in “This Year’s Jesus Aguilar?” I’m talking about a first baseman who had a solid minor league resume before an unexpected breakout in the big leagues yet still wasn’t on a lot of fantasy teams to start the season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

2019 #2EarlyMocks Rounds 15 – 23

November 1, 2018 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 9 Comments

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I lied to you loyal Razzball readers. In part 1 of this 2019 fantasy baseball mock draft hosted by Justin Mason of Friends with Fantasy Benefits, I told you this was going to be a four-part series. Well, unfortunately between rounds 23 and 24, the MLB regular season ended and thus, so did our Fantrax mock draft. The draft room disappeared from the league page and every future pick was being auto-drafted. Rather than waste your time discussing random players being auto-drafted I’m just going to highlight a few notable undrafted players at the bottom of this article. Back to the draft itself: three words can sum up rounds 15 through 23: risk, relievers and rookies. You’ll soon see what I mean. (BTW, the 2nd part of the fantasy baseball mock draft.)

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