Michael Fulmer is officially oblique strain 1 of 3 in this report! Collect all three for a frustrating prize! Luckily it’s a grade 1 strain. Unluckily it’s a friggen oblique strain. They all suck and they all linger for weeks. Stash or Trash: Stash. He’s 3-9 and his frustration will frustrate you — but he’s still a worthy SP4 or 5 on your roster. Fill In: Carlos Rodon (19.6%.) Last week I told you to add Carlos Rodon, but apparently the message was not received as he’s still under 20% owned. Rodon’s K/rate is still approximately 2 strike-outs behind his career numbers so you have to believe that number will normalize as he gets more starts under his belt. As it stands now he still has a 1.19 WHIP and a 3.56 ERA in 7 starts.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Top 100 Hitters, Week 16.5: Now and Then
July 22, 2018 | Top 100 Hitters | 17 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
I started writing this week’s top 100 hitters article the same way I do every week: on the balcony of my penthouse apartment inside One57 skyscraper on West 57th street overlooking Central Park. Sipping a tall glass of Chateau Lafite 1787 while my trained Tibetan Mastiff, Chanel rests her head on my lap. This is the type of lifestyle being a Razzball writer has afforded me.
In reality, I’m sitting on my second-hand couch in north Jersey catching up on this week’s episodes of Big Brother with my wife while drinking flat Mr. Pib as my cat walks across my lapto9oi[p9vgdvc12er2`q.
Perception and reality can change over time. Our perception of a certain player during our draft will become a completely different reality over the course of the season. Since there have only been one full day of games since my last rankings this week I’m going to post last week’s rankings and compare them with where I had them ranked at the beginning of week 1 to see where my perception and the player’s reality were at odds.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Can you imagine if Kevin Pillar (OF, Sprained Shoulder) played in Boston? Yeesh. Boston Radio would be the most unlistenable noise ever recorded. “You see dat catch by Kevin Pillah?! I almost friggen ran outta my pahlah!” Pillah is going to be out 4-6 weeks after injuring the area near his collarbone. Shame. His 19 HR+SBs were looking pretty good and I think there was a good chance his run production numbers would’ve gotten a boost if he got traded to a competitor. Stash or Trash: Stash. He was having a pretty good year so far and will be back to help you for your stretch run. Fill In: Kevin Kiermaier (8.4%.) “Wait Klug. You want me to replace one injured guy…with THE injured guy?” Yea I know, Kiermaier, Shmiermaier. “I don’t want to pick that clown up just to read about him in next week’s Ambulance Chasers!” I know it’s been a lost season for KK, but he’s hit safely in 9 of his last 11 games and has a HR and two SBs in that time as well. He’s got 10 HR/10 SB capability in the second half even though, yes, he also has DL-60 capability in the second half as well.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 Hitters, Week 16: Queer Eye for the Baseball Guy
July 15, 2018 | Uncategorized | 21 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
This lede is for Eric Hosmer’s (1B, #94) eyes only. Everyone else can scroll down to the rankings and comment on how Scooter Gennett deserves to be #1 overall. Is it just Eric and I now? Okay good. Eric. E-Dog. HOZ. My guy. You’re 94th. On a list of 100. If this keeps up–you’ll be #101 on a list of 100. That means you aren’t here. Or maybe you are if I can’t limit my list to 100 again for some reason. You have four hits in July. Four! That’s the same amount of Emmy nominations Queer Eye for the Straight Guy just got! For the Queer Eye squad, all things just keep getting better! For you, if you don’t start hitting less ground balls (62%!!!) things will just keep getting worse! If you keep striking out at the highest rate of your career (22.6%!) things will just keep getting worse! And if you don’t go back to your former approach to hitting — things will just keep getting worse for you…
Please, blog, may I have some more? Ambulance Chasers, Week 16: The Goodrum Isn’t Gone
July 11, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 3 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
Is this the end for our hero? Jesus Aguilar has made Ryan Braun (1B/OF, back strain) obsolete at first. Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Thames/Domingo Santana/Keon Broxton have made Braun expendable in the outfield. He’s not helping his own case with a .235 average and a multitude of injuries. Stash or Trash: This is a tough trash because Braun has been one of the best fantasy contributors of the last decade, but I think we’re seeing the final step in his decline. He’s hurt, he’s under-performing and the Brewers have too many players at positions Braun can play. Replacement:
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 Hitters, Week 15: Superstar Shake-Up!
July 8, 2018 | Top 100 Hitters | 49 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
Last week there was an unfortunate hiatus from the Top 100 Hitters column as I was deep in the woods of Central New Jersey for my annual camping trip. Does Central Jersey exist? I was there — so I guess so.
I took a lot of time going player by player on these rankings so there are a lot of shake-ups in the rankings. I took a real close look at everyone’s numbers and tried my best to compare players 1 to 1 to see who I preferred. It can get rough comparing two players side by side. Do you prefer Player A with 60 runs, 5 HRs, 30 RBI, 20 SBs and a .285 average? Or Player B with 45 runs, 20 HRs, 50 RBI, 0 SB and a .245 AVG? In the end, unfortunately for this column — beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and I don’t mean the amazing MS-DOS dungeon crawler from 1991. Beauty is also in your roster construction — Player A might be really useful to you if you’ve got a bunch of slow-footed boobies out there.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Ambulance Chasers, Week 15: Ro Diego Mo!
July 4, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 10 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
Ryan Tepera (RP, Elbow Inflammation), the league leader in blown saves finds himself on the DL after blowing the save in his last two appearances. All ribbing aside, since Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna was placed on administrative leave after allegations of assaulting a woman, Tepera has been pretty reliable with 7 ERs allowed over 22.2 IP and those two recent blown saves were the only two he’s suffered. Stash or Trash: Tepera wasn’t a top flight closing option and he doesn’t really have a timetable so you can trash him. Replacement: Diego Castillo (1.0%.) I know you’re expecting Tyler Clippard or Seung-hwan Oh, but the Blue Jays closing gig seems to be snake-bit this year and I’m sure as soon as Tepera went down people gobbled up Tyler Clippard in your league. So, Diego Castillo: he’s made 12 appearances for the Rays this season and has only allowed 3 ERs with 19 Ks. In AAA this year he also made 19 appearances and also only allowed 3 ERs. Castillo has a stereotypical lights out closer pitch selection of a high-90s fastball and a slider. He has multiple varieties of slider that he can mix in different situations. The Rays current closer, Sergio Romo, has had mixed results since Alex Colome was traded to the Mariners. In his first three appearances after the trade he let up 5 ERs in 3 IP. After that he has settled down a bit allowing only 3 ERs in 14 IP. However with Romo being 35 years old and clearly not part of the Rays long term future — they could turn to Castillo to see if he can live up to the title of closer-of-the-future.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Ambulance Chasers, Week 14: The Old Double Sanchez
June 27, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report | 1 Commentby: Kerry Klug
Poor Aaron Sanchez (SP, Index Finger Contusion) probably hurt his finger on the latest episode of Chopped: All-Stars! The boring old baseball version of Aaron Sanchez has yet to rediscover his Cy Young caliber abilities after missing most of 2017. Sanchez rebounded nicely after a 5 inning, 7 ER performance at the end of May with three quality starts in a row in June. Hopefully this injury won’t derail his progress too much. Stash or Trash: I’d stash. If he can come back quickly he could provide some solid value in the second half. Fill In: Rather than force myself to find five starting pitchers who I might not even fully believe in — I’m going to give you three solid options at the bottom of this article who could fill in for the five injured starting pitchers this week.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 Hitters, Week 13: Aguilar Walking on Water
June 24, 2018 | Top 100 Hitters | 17 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
Not a lot of us saw this major league breakout coming from Jesus Aguilar. We were all expecting an awkward OF & 1B battle in Milwaukee between Eric Thames and Ryan Braun. Then here comes Jesus walking on the waters of Lake Michigan from Cleveland to Milwaukee to become an All-Star with the Brew Crew (he should be — stay tuned.) Maybe we all should’ve seen this coming — in 655 minor league at-bats in 2016 Aguilar hit 40 HR and 114 RBI. The average was only .261, but in the Indians minor league system he has some high average seasons (2011: .288; 2013: .291; 2014: .304.) Aguilar has already dropped his strikeout rate from 30% to 24.6% and if that number continues to go down while his contact rate continues to climb — Jesus’s ascension could continue.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Well, you can’t fix this malady. After blowing a save on Monday night, Hunter Strickland punched a wall and broke his hand. He’s expected to go 6 to 8 weeks without blowing another save.. Stash or Trash: I’m in a 14 team league and I’m trashing him. Replacement: Yoshihisa Hirano (4.9%.) With Brad Boxberger looking far from perfect, expect the Diamondbacks to start switching things up. I have a feeling that they’ll leave Archie Bradley as the set-up man because “he’s good in that role” or whatever BS the manager wants to say which could leave Hirano as a major option for saves in the desert. Hirano hasn’t allowed a run since May 5th and has 18 Ks in 17.1 IP over that time. Don’t forget that Hirano averaged 28 saves over the last 5 years he was pitching in Japan.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Slight format change going forward with this column — I’m going to be leaving short term DL candidates near where they were ranked previously. It was become too hard to remember who and when players were coming back. (Yes, I do write the injury column — but I don’t write the healthy column.) This is what happened with Starling Marte — I don’t own any shares of Marte so I didn’t notice his return from DL so he was an unfortunate oversight the past few weeks in these rankings. If someone is looking like they’ll be out for a longer period of time — they might drop a bit more in the rankings or be removed entirely (as is the case with Jorge Soler and his broken foot.) Due to these new additions we’ve got a Top 110 hitters this week with guys like Josh Donaldson, Mookie Betts, Wil Myers, Yoenis Cespedes, Ronald Acuna and others making their surprise reemergence. Next week 10 of these hitters will probably work themselves off this list. Also, as a side effect to these new additions a lot of players will look like they’ve fallen really far in the rankings — again, this should normalize by next week.
Please, blog, may I have some more?This one just came across my desk in the Razzball news room. Apparently Walker Buehler suffered this injury (rib microfracture) three starts ago (!) but he’s a hockey player who fought his way through it. Conflicting reports about whether he’ll just miss one start or more in case they want to manage his innings. Stash or Trash: Stash. Kid’s looked great and a worthy heir to the Clayton Kershaw crown. Fill In: With another six starting pitchers going on the DL, I’m going to make my starting pitcher replacements at the bottom of this article.
Please, blog, may I have some more?