Another week, another seven days of fantasy baseball disappointment and injury frustration… at least for those Corey Kluber and A.J. Pollock owners out there. The good news with these two one-time fantasy studs, if there is any, is that sadly, they cannot really do more damage out of your lineup than they were doing while they were active in 2019. Losing someone you drafted early gets more devastating the deeper the league is, and sometimes you just have to hope other owners are dealing with as much bad luck as you are. For now, let’s move right on to looking at some players that may be on the radar for those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Things can change in a hurry in baseball, and when they do, things can change even faster in fantasy baseball. Since last week, we’ve seen the horrific collision between Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez, the Pirates promotion of shortstop Cole Tucker, and Tucker’s sudden fantasy relevance. He went from being a 2% owned player in CBS leagues, where he was probably only hanging around on keeper/dynasty league type rosters, to being a 30% owned player who has a legitimate shot to obtain at least some degree of mixed-league relevance this year. It’s just another reminder that, in leagues both deep and shallow, you need to stay on top of things and not let a potential asset to your roster get away. The players we’ll be looking at this week may not have the upside of a Cole Tucker type, but may be worth a look for those of us searching for help in AL-only, NL-only, and other very deep leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Another week, another round of tweaked hammies (hope you’re as not-really-hurt as you claim, Jean Segura!), nightmare pitching (thanks for nothing, Corbin Burnes!), and various trials and tribulations that cause headaches for any fantasy owner, but are particularly excruciating for those of us in the deepest of leagues, where suitable waiver-wire replacements range from nearly-impossible-to-come-by to completely non-existent. Once again, here’s hoping you’re avoiding as many of those headaches as possible while we take a look at players who may be of some interest to those in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?How’s it going, deep-leaguers? Hope everyone out there has dodged as many fantasy baseball injury bullets as possible, since we know that losing your studs in a deep league is a much different level of disaster than it is in the shallow, mixed-league world. It’s not super helpful to read about how you might consider picking up Dansby Swanson or Eduardo Escobar to replace Trea Turner in your lineup when the “best” shortstop available in your league is Kevin Newman. As we continue to ask for leniency from the fantasy baseball gods, let’s do what we do here, and take a look at some players who may be on the radar for those of us in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Baseball is finally in full swing, and if you are a member of the Club of Deep-League Fantasy Baseball Owners (CDLFBO — pretty catchy, huh?), and play in NL-only, AL-only, or other extra deep leagues, you’ve come to the right place. Each week, we swim in the deepest end of the player pool, taking a look at a handful of players that some shallow-leaguers may have never even heard of, but that we CDLFBOs might be needy enough to take a look at for our teams. Our threshold for now will be guys who are less than 10% owned in CBS leagues, so let’s see who might be out there waiting to cozy up to an available roster spot.
Please, blog, may I have some more?This is my last post that is being written before all MLB teams will have finally, gloriously started the 2019 baseball season, and I think we’re all more than ready for less talk and a little more action. Last week, we chatted about American League hitters that could probably be had for $1 or a free round auction pick (or at the very end of a snake draft) in even the deepest of fantasy baseball leagues. Now we’ll get right to it and do the same for some of their brethren in the senior circuit.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Happy week between sort-of-opening-day and actual Opening Day! Last week we talked about starting pitchers to target in the deepest of leagues, and this week let’s switch the focus to hitting. As always, we’re looking at players who may be off the radar in standard mixed leagues, but could be of use to those of us living in the world of AL-only, NL-only and other ultra deep fantasy baseball. For now, we’ll concentrate on a handful of guys in the American League, looking for players who are likely to open the season getting at least some major league at bats, rather than minor leaguers who may make an impact later in the year. I’m going to go right to the perceived bottom of the barrel: all of the players on this list went for a mere dollar in the Tout Wars AL-only and/or the LABR AL-only auctions.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Greetings, friends and fellow humans that enjoy fantasy baseball!
Those of us who spend approximately 52 of 52 weeks of the calendar year thinking about this glorious time we like to call fantasy baseball drafting season have, at this point in March, read countless “sleeper” articles by now recommending players we should be able to pick up late in a draft. But these articles quickly become laughable for those of us who go the extra fantasy mile and play in AL-only, NL-only, and other crazy deep leagues. Yep, life sure would be sweet if I could grab Jonathan Schoop or Eduardo Rodriguez at the end of my AL-only draft to fill out my infield and my rotation, but that’s just not how it works. It would also be nice if I could scoop up Jesse Winker or Nick Senzel for a few bucks at the end of my NL-only auction, but in at least one of my leagues, guys like Senzel have been parked on another fantasy owner’s minor league team for three or four years. And this brings me to our little corner of the Razzball-verse: the place where we talk about players who we might actually be able to draft or buy on the cheap in world of deep-league fantasy baseball.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Some Very Early Thoughts On Deep-League Starting Pitching
February 5, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 9 Commentsby: Laura Holt
A couple of weeks ago, I returned to Razzball from my winter slumber and told you all about some early slow drafts I’ve been doing this season, starting all the way back over Thanksgiving weekend. I only mentioned hitters from these drafts, and am now ready to start discussing their pitching brethren. Since I’ve noticed that there is suddenly a lot more fantasy baseball content out there over the last few weeks in terms of rankings, ADP, etc., I’m ready to concentrate less on where guys were drafted in my leagues, and move on to looking at a handful of fellows who I’m already feeling at least mildly warm and fuzzy about. On second thought, these guys may not exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy, more like adding them to a roster will make me a little less sick to my stomach at the end of a long draft than some of the other names that will be out there. Since deep league fantasy baseball is my usual thing, I’m taking a very, very early look at guys who will be drafted in later rounds. I’m still contemplating strategies for how I’ll draft (or purchase at auction) starters this year — between the massive disappointments that many of my second and third tier pitchers (must take this moment for obligatory shout-out to my personal 2018 deep league-ruiners, Jose Quintana and Jon Gray) and the wacky “opener” hijinks that will no-doubt be prevalent again this year, I feel like I’m going to need a different strategy for every league based on its specifications. For now, though, I know that I want to keep an eye on a handful of starting pitchers that I can turn to late in a draft or auction, regardless of format, which brings us to today’s list. Just to keep things deep-league relevant, all of these guys are outside of the top 225 in terms of current NFBC overall ADP, so anyone on this list is pretty much just waiver-wire fodder for most shallow, standard leagues. As we deep-leaguers know, however, one man’s waiver-wire fodder…
Please, blog, may I have some more? Slow Drafting In A Slow Off-Season
January 18, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Keepers | 11 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Baseball is back, friends! Well, maybe not quite yet, but 2019 brings us the earliest opening day in MLB history (and that doesn’t even count the games in Japan a week earlier), so that’s something, right? And I guess the offseason really hasn’t been all that slow, especially compared to last year, but it sure feels like it when you’re checking MLB Trade Rumors news every ten or fifteen minutes!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Rolling In The Deep: Hot 2018 Finishes
September 27, 2018 | Uncategorized | 8 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Well, it looks like we’re out of catchy titles and silly ledes involving bad puns, which can mean only one thing: baseball season is coming to a close. It’s devastatingly sad for some, a huge relief for others, and completely irrelevant to those of you who accidentally ended up here looking for help with your fantasy football team.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Rolling In The Deep: Spread Some Buttrey Goodness
September 20, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Deep Leagues | 7 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Happy almost-Fall Equinox, deep-leaguers! We’ve continued to tick the days off the calendar and here we are with just over a week to go in this glorious time of year we like to call the fantasy baseball season. I seem to forget each year how random (and often frustrating) setting a lineup gets each September, with expanded rosters wreaking havoc on playing time situations, pitching rotations, and accurate injury reports, but it will all be in the rear-view mirror soon enough. If nothing else, in the deep-league world, this is a good time of year to keep an eye on the teams at the bottom of the standings, looking for that proverbial diamond in the rough. This week we’ll concentrate on guys who’ve been getting regular playing time for bad teams. I find bad MLB teams are always a great place to look for deep-league fantasy help, and perhaps never more so than these last weeks, when players who would be lucky to be scraping together a few at bats for a contending team often find themselves in an eliminated team’s lineup daily. As is our deep-league norm, it’s unlikely any of these players will make a standard-league fantasy impact any time soon (or perhaps ever), but some may be of interest to those in NL-only, AL-only, or other deep leagues – either for the last days of 2018, or for us to put a pin in for when we head into the 2019 season and beyond.
Please, blog, may I have some more?