As I was looking to figure out what to do with my teams and see if there were any trades/waiver moves that would strengthen my rosters I thought it was the right time to put together some positional rankings. Understanding a player’s value relative to another goes a long way in simplifying the process. The rankings that follow are a combination of year-to-date performance and rest of season expectations. The blend is about 70/30 YTD (in most cases). I live in the here and now and put a much heavier weight on what someone’s doing right now than I do on what they did last year or the year before that. Don’t get me wrong, it counts, but that’s where the thirty percent comes in.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Points Leagues: DFS Wars
June 1, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 8 Commentsby: malamoney
Two years ago Heath Capps, a fellow fantasy sports writer, invited me to join a daily fantasy baseball league he was running. Every Friday about twenty of us self proclaimed wannabe fantasy experts would compete against each other in MLB DFS using FanDuel’s Friends Mode. Each week the results were combined with the previous weeks’ contests as Heath maintained an overall leaderboard. The league was named DFS Wars and it was as much an experiment as it was competition. Nonetheless I was a big fan of the format and enjoyed participating.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues, Oh Oh Oh O’Riley
May 25, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 12 Commentsby: malamoney
I really hope the O’Reilly Auto parts jingle is stuck in your head for the rest of the day like it’s been for me since I thought of the title. Damn you Austin Riley. Damn you shitty commercial. Talk about picking up right where he left off in AAA. Austin Riley has sprinted out of the gates in the race for National League Rookie of the Year. He’s got a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to catch Chris Paddack, but he’s certainly giving it the ole Major League try. In 38 plate appearances he has exactly 38 points. For those of you that don’t have a calculator nearby, that’s one point every time he steps into the batters box. And for those of you that are wondering if that’s good, well it’s better than good. As Tony the Tiger often said, it’s grrrrrreat! It’s only been 38 plate appearances, but if it’s any consolation, through 144 plate appearances in Gwinnett he tallied 156 points (1.08 PPPA). If he can come anywhere near close to keeping this up, he’s going to make Atlanta fans and fantasy owners extremely happy. Keep an eye in your rear view mirror Chris Paddack.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues, Yordan Alvarez
May 11, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 48 Commentsby: malamoney
Was Yordan Alvarez indeed called up? Allow me to clear things up. He’s not. At least not yet. Despite leading AAA in home runs (14) and runs batted in (44) and boasting a .398 batting average, Yordan Alvarez appears no closer to Houston than the next Astros prospect. Speaking of Astros’ prospects, there’s also the problem of Kyle Tucker, who is a more heralded prospect. Unlike Alvarez, however, Tucker is having a rather mediocre start to 2019. He has hit a fair share of homers, but that’s about it. Considering Tucker already struck out in his first taste of the Majors, I’d say Yordan has the edge should a need arise on the Astros roster. And that brings us to the real problem. The Astros roster. In order to get Alvarez on it with regular playing time they’d have to expose either Tyler White, Max Stassi or Tony Kemp to waivers and I don’t believe they are ready to do so. Couple that with the fact that the Astros offense is near the top of many categories, there just isn’t a place for Yordan Alvarez. Sadly, many (myself included) see mid to late June as a more realistic timeline for a call up. For what it’s worth, I stashed him two weeks ago. Hopefully we are all wrong and he’s up sooner.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I’ve seen a few articles the past few days about how to replace Corey Kluber and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think they were all shit. It is absolutely not possible to replace the hole left in your roster by losing Kluber. Not with any player or players on the wire at least. The way I see it there is only one way to fill the void, and doing so will weaken your team in other areas. You’re going to have to trade a hitter for a pitcher of Kluber’s caliber. To do so you are going to have to part with a top of the line bat. As I said, this is obviously going to weaken your offensive production. Even if you have a surplus, moving a guy like Freddie Freeman, Francisco Lindor or Andrew Benintendi is going to hurt. The other option would be to sacrifice the future by including a draft pick, prospect or both if your league permits. You could also consider trading Kluber. These options would allow you to trade away a lesser bat right now, reducing the immediate impact. I’d target teams lower in the standings for a move such as this. No matter how you slice it, when that line drive hit his forearm, every one of his owners felt the pain. I heard a rumor that he was going to team up with Corey Feldman and revive the show The Two Coreys on YouTube Premium.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues: Ov-La-Di, Ov-La-Da Jr.
April 27, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 23 Commentsby: malamoney
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been the most talked about prospect since I can remember, and his debut has been one of the most anticipated events since many of us have begun playing fantasy baseball. Congratulations to everyone that owns him in keeper leagues as you have very likely just won the lottery. I guess you […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?
The only reason Junis has the lede is because his name enabled the title. His points per start is piss poor at 10.25 points and it seems he must have eaten some stale matzah before Friday night’s start in New York because it was terrible. Here are my four questions. Why is this night different from all nights? It’s not. Jakob’s performance really put a damper on seders throughout the fantasy community. However… I am still a believer. In Junis that is. After all it has only been four starts. My preseason estimations had him at about 13 and change points per start, but I was/am optimistic that he’d outperform those numbers. I still think he gets there, but he has some work to do. In 22 innings he does have 24 strikeout. So there’s that. Like I said, it’s only been four starts. Look at Jameson Taillon, he’s averaging 8.75 points per start. Anyone ready to throw in the towel on him yet? I do realize that we are talking about pitchers of differing pedigree, but the point is four starts a season does not make. Instead of Junis, let’s take a look at a few starting pitchers that are off to an excellent start (pun intended).
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues: Oh No You Rendon’t
April 13, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 15 Commentsby: malamoney
In recent news, Cody Bellinger still leads all hitters in fantasy points with about 85. I say “about” because it depends on your scoring system. Aside from the fact that he is on pace for 81 home runs, there’s little I can say about Bellinger that would make him any less of a must own, must start player. We all know he’s not going to come close to 81 home runs, but I have a feeling he’s going to pick up quite a few fantasy points trying. Besides, playing the “on pace” game is a very dangerous proposition less than three weeks into the season.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues: More (cow)Bellinger
April 6, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 24 Commentsby: malamoney
As of Friday at some point (this was originally written on Thursday but I’ve made some updates), Cody Bellinger leads all hitters in fantasy points with 54. Obviously this might vary depending on your league’s scoring system, but I have to take a stand somewhere and base my posts on some standard. For those interested, said scoring system is listed a bit further down. Bellinger exploded onto the fantasy scene in 2017, hitting 39 home runs and scoring 415 points in 548 plate appearances (0.76 PPPA) en route to the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Fast forward a year, or rewind a year depending on whether you are working from 2017 or 2019, to his 2018 season where he only scored 364 points in 632 plate appearances. (0.57 PPPA). Those are still very respectable numbers (top ten 1B and top 25 OF), but they were a far cry from what everyone that drafted him were expecting. Many tagged Bellinger with the “Sophomore Slump” curse, but the big difference was the dip in home runs. I don’t have an explanation for this other than his fly balls just weren’t getting over the outfield fence as witnessed by a decline in his HR/FB ratio which dropped from 25.2% to 15.2%.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues: The Walking Dread
March 29, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 23 Commentsby: malamoney
Between preparing for drafts and actually doing the drafts I’d be lying if I said I feel refreshed now that it’s over. In fact I’m quite exhausted and have found myself walking around in a zombie-like fashion the past two weeks. And it doesn’t help that I don’t drink coffee. Never have. Most people find it fascinating when I tell them that at 42 years of age I have never had a single drop. It’s just not my cup of tea. I mean coffee. Whatever. Truth be told, drafting season is my favorite part of the whole experience. Watching the season play out is often stressful, disappointing and underwhelming. This is generally true even during successful championship seasons. Anticipation is often greater than realization. I’m looking forward to watching Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Javier Baez fall far short of their ADPs.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Points Leagues: ADP, It’s As Easy As 123
March 16, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 69 Commentsby: malamoney
What does Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson have in common? If you’re thinking “guilty”, well I don’t know about that. I know what I think, but I’ll keep my thoughts to myself. Don’t want to ruffle any feathers. The answer I was looking for was that they both got off and there was a glove involved. Get it? Don’t like it? Well you can beat it. That’s right, just beat it. Even Mike Tyson said he wouldn’t let his eight year old son hang out with Jackson. Reggie maybe, but definitely not Michael. R Kelly outta get himself a right fielder’s glove!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Knock knock. Who’s there? It’s your 2019 fantasy baseball points league draft. What are you waiting for? Open the damn door! With draft season just around the corner, I decided it was time to put together my points league spreadsheet. That and the avalanche of emails I got asking when it would be ready. Ok, perhaps avalanche was a bit of an exaggeration, but there was a small storm. Today’s post is the only post I author each year that most of you care about. Once I’ve put it out there I feel a little bit like a chick after a one night stand. However, by now I’ve come to terms with the fact that my popularity will peak early and taper off as the season progresses.
Please, blog, may I have some more?