Laura Holt

Author: Laura Holt

Read some of Laura Holt's 193 posts

Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Who Will Bail(ey) Us Out This Week?

June 22, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 2 Comments

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Hello friends, and welcome once again to the deep league corner of Razzball.  As our teams continue to get hit by injuries, demotions, and inconsistent play, it gets harder to plug those lineup and rotation holes, but plug away we will.  While I actually saw a fantasy site suggest that you might want to check your waiver wire to see if Wander Franco is still available in your league after news of his call up broke a couple of days ago, most of us, of course, will have to get a bit more creative than that.  In my leagues the free agent pool is as dried up as I’ve seen it all year, but let’s see if we can manage to stumble upon a player or two that could be of interest to those of us in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Is The Sand(oval) Always This Hot?

June 15, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 11 Comments

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As usual, this weekend in fantasy baseball brought a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and a little of everything in between.  Overall, though, it definitively proved one thing:  that Hector Neris and Rafael Montero have teamed up in an attempt to slowly but surely destroy my soul.  Sometimes this hobby of ours makes me want to run screaming for the hills – or at least unplug, abandon my teams, and enjoy this summer in my city in a way I haven’t been able to do in over a year.  Since I made a commitment to not only myself but the rare yet valuable Razzball reader who finds himself, as I do, trying to stay afloat in an ultra deep league or two, I decided to compromise. I spent the day sitting on the beach in Santa Monica yesterday (where I came up with this super witty lede), will be hitting Little Tokyo for some udon later, but in between, I’m putting my nose to the grindstone to try to find us someone out there that may be able to help our NL-only, AL-only, and other deep league teams.  (Spoiler alert:  the pickings, as they were last week, are a bit slim… here’s to hoping you aren’t spending as much of your time desperately chasing saves, speed, innings, or power in your deep leagues as I am).

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Anyone Worth Gitten(s) This Week?

June 8, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 8 Comments

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Greetings, friends!  I had the honor and pleasure of joining Grey and Geoff on the world-famous Razzball podcast this week, so let me start by thanking both of them for the opportunity to hang out and chat. I had a ton of fun talking fantasy baseball, and it was crazy to stop and realize just what a large percentage of our lives Grey and I have been playing in our OG home league together. Speaking of talking baseball, let’s do what we do here: as always, a few players who might pique the interest of those of us in AL-only, NL-only, or other particularly deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: A Moment Of Wisdom

June 1, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 7 Comments

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Happy June!  Crazy that we’re about one third of the way through the MLB year, or, as we called it in 2020, the end of the season. After even just one year of a mini season, I kind of forgot just how long and grueling 162 games of fantasy baseball can be, and how some leagues can resemble a part-time job in terms of time and mental commitment.  Then I remembered that as part-time jobs go, this is a pretty fun one (even though it makes me want to tear my hair out multiple times per week).  My deep league waiver wires are picked pretty clean and I feel like we’re in that time of year where we have to dig extra deep just to find someone that’s better than nothing, let alone has anything resembling actual upside — but let’s carry on and do what we do here at RITD, namely take a look at some names that may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Still Chasing Victor-y

May 25, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 5 Comments

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Deep-league greetings, friends, and here’s hoping that you are holding your own in your leagues.  The injuries keep coming, and information about how long players may be out is vaguer than ever, making setting a weekly lineup full of players that you know will be healthy beyond difficult even in a standard league.  And as we all know, what’s difficult in a standard league is often next to impossible in a deep league.  All I’m saying is that if you’re finding the fantasy baseball waters particularly tough to navigate this year, you are not alone.  And with that thought, let’s look at a few names who may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other particularly deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: The Season Is Still Young

May 18, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 7 Comments

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Hey Deep Leaguers!  Somehow it’s the third week of May, and suddenly we’re already a quarter of the way through the baseball season.  What that really means, I suppose, is that we still have three-fourths of a season left to go, and a ton of baseball ahead of us in 2021.  Let’s get right to it, and take a quick look at some little-owned players who may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Cup of Joe, Anyone?

May 11, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 5 Comments

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I’m not gonna lie, my friends:  if your deep leagues look anything like mine, the waiver wires continue to be in a bit of a lull in terms of suitable roster reinforcements.  I’ve got the likes of Danny Mendick and Pat Valaika in my starting AL-only lineups, and am starting the week with multiple injured players active in one of my NL-only leagues because sadly there just wasn’t anyone available to pick up over the weekend that I thought would be better than a zero in my lineup.  If you’re in a similar situation, where even the players who are completely off the radar in most leagues are already owned in yours, hopefully you’re keeping your team afloat as we press on into mid-May.  For now, let’s take a look at another group of players — all of whom are between 0 and 5 percent owned in CBS leagues — that could be of interest to NL-only, AL-only, and other deep-league fantasy baseballers.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: In The Nick Of Time

May 4, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 6 Comments

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Happy May!  The first month of the baseball season has come and gone, and for better or worse we should be getting a pretty good idea of whether or not we’ve drafted competitive fantasy baseball teams.  In deep leagues, there may not be too much we can do to improve our teams’ weaknesses, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.  Let’s look at another list of players — focusing almost exclusively on guys with minuscule ownership numbers according to CBS Sports, as we are wont to do here at Rolling In The Deep — that may be available and of potential interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other very deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Daza-d And Confused

April 27, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 17 Comments

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Well, friends, last week was a tough one for most of my fantasy teams.  I’ve had plenty of ups and downs this month, but felt like things were under control until about a week ago, when a horrible combination of  bad decision-making and unfortunate luck led to some massive hits in the standings.  I was a day late and/or a dollar short on several players that could have helped my teams, but I’m trying to re-group and trying to remember that every roster spot on every team can make a difference, even when my options to replace hurt or underperforming players are limited.  It’s still early, and thankfully we once again have a 162-game season to work with, so time to press on and hope all of the decisions we make are the right ones.  On that note, let’s take a look at some little-owned players who may be of help in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Sorry, Charlie

April 20, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 26 Comments

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Ah, injuries!  If you have a single fantasy baseball team that hasn’t been hit hard by them already this year, consider yourself lucky. I’m not sure how I forget every off-season just how brutal it feels to finally have baseball up and rolling, only to see players inevitably drop like flies, destroying six months worth of planning, hoping, and dreaming of fantasy glory.  I’m not sure which is worse, when a key player that was firing on all cylinders suddenly and unexpectedly officially hits the IL (Lance Lynn, um, what?!) or having to navigate vague reports about top studs without knowing whether they’ll miss a game or two, or be down for a huge chunk of the season.  I’m getting absolutely crushed with injuries in a few leagues as I’m sure many of you are — and, as we deep leaguers know all too well, an injury that’s a big bummer in a standard league or an RCL-type format, can be an absolutely crippling tummy punch in NL or AL-only, or other ultra deep formats.  I already know I’m going to have to play this week seriously short-handed in a few leagues because the weekly waiver deadline has come and gone, and/or there is almost literally no one available in the free agent pool who’ll get more than a handful of bats over the course of the week.  I’m still going to fight for every counting stat I can, though, because these are the same leagues that often somehow manage to come down to a single steal or a couple RBI making a difference in the final standings come late September.  This week, we’ll stay true to the RITD spirit by focusing on players that were recently added to teams in some of my deepest leagues or made CBS’s “most added” list while still being only a few percent owned — guys who are off the radar to most of the fantasy baseball world, but might just be able to help fill out a banged-up deep league lineup.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Phillip Those Roster Spots While You Can

April 13, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 12 Comments

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We’re less than two weeks in to the 2021 baseball season, and already player values have been changing all over the place.  Deep-league names that we were talking about weeks ago — and who were completely off the radar for most fantasy owners then — have shot up ownership charts.  Guys that weren’t even drafted in many or even most NL or AL-only leagues suddenly have medium/mixed-league numbers.  In CBS leagues, Yermin Mercedes is now an 80% owned player.  Akil Baddoo went from 18 to 68 percent in one week, Cedric Mullins from 20 to 60%.   And in perhaps in the most extreme deep-league rags to standard-league riches story of the young season, Tyler Naquin’s ownership went from 1% to 82% in one week.

So, what’s a deep-leaguer in need of lineup reinforcements but facing a picked-clean waiver wire to do?  I’d say re-group to the changed landscape, and keep looking in case more hidden gems emerge.  There may not be anyone out there who’s going to give you a first-week Tyler Naquin level of production (he’s on pace for 90 homers, 252 RBI, and 18 stolen bases, by the way… so, uh, pretty sure there’s a bit of a cool-down coming at some point), but let’s look at a few names to see if there may be someone who can fill a temporary hole or give you a small deep-league boost.  We’ll go from most to least owned, starting with those that may be available in medium-deep leagues and finishing with some ultra-deep league 1-percenters.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Don’t Always Overlook The Old Guys

April 6, 2021 | Rolling In The Deep | 11 Comments

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It’s been a crazy first half-week of baseball, and I’m already struggling a bit trying to keep up with tracking the waiver wire in all of my leagues.  As often happens even after months of offseason research, the first few box scores of the season have featured a handful of surprise names in terms of who’s contributing fantasy stats.  Instead of looking at a few of the young up-and-comers who’ve already made contributions that we may not have been expecting based on our winter planning, I’ve decided that this post should instead be dedicated to some names we were already plenty familiar with but may have passed right over.  It’s been hard for our heads not to be turned — and perhaps rightfully so — by the Jonathan Indias and the Akil Baddoos of the baseball world (both of whom we’ve already chatted about over the past couple of weeks).  But here at Rolling In the Deep, we’ll take one for the Razzball team this week, and concentrate on the Island of Misfit Toys rather than exciting shiny new objects.  To earn a blurb below, each player needed three qualifications:  to be age 30 or older, to have been basically left for dead (or in this case between #570 and #700)  in terms of ADP this year, and to have had at least one impressive/helpful game fantasy-wise to start the 2021 season.  Not gonna lie, those qualifications proved a bit more challenging than I thought they’d be, bringing us to the names below.

Please, blog, may I have some more?