Trea Turner came and went, Luke Gregerson finally got the boot and James Shields became the first big piece to move as the White Sox fancy themselves a contender and made a proactive trade.  That was just the beginning of the fun that was had in week 9 of the fantasy baseball season.  We really only care about two of these headlines for RCL purposes, as no one whose team isn’t abandoned has been owning James Shields this year.  Nothing changes with a move to a (much) more hitter friendly park.  Turner illustrates the frustration with stashing rookies.  We talked about this a little last week and then Turner got the call, started the first game he was up and only went 3 for 3.  The nerve!  He didn’t hit a homer or even steal a base.  His punishment?  He was benched for the next two games of his call-up and then sent back to Syracuse.  Now, we wait some more, while continuing to burn a roster spot.  The nice thing Turner has going for him is he plays at second base, which is  a dearth of talent.  On the flip side, waiting on a player like AJ Reed, that could be a problem.  While your leaguemate is stashing Reed, you could be streaming Mike Napoli and/or Logan Morrison while they’re hot and be raking in more HRs than the Reed owner could hope to see in a best case scenario.  While you were stashing Reed, the guy rostering Mike Napoli was using that roster spot to hold Will Harris this whole time…that burns.  Especially since you own Luke Gregerson…double burn.  It’ll be fun (not fun) to see how that whole mess shakes out with the Astros save shituations.  I have to believe it’s only a matter of time before Ken Giles (who was waiver fodder a mere 3-4 weeks ago) is the man in the 9th inning.  I expect a lot of Ken Giles/Will Harris trades in the coming weeks in the RCLs.  Sticking with the Astros RCL news, Evan Gattis is now just two games shy of earning the coveted catcher eligibility.  Some were speculating it could take Gattis a month to earn that tag, but thanks to Jason Castro’s illness, that pace got accelerated in a hurry.  If you’re hurting for power, like the majority of my teams seem to be this year, I’d look to make a move for the Catch-162 ASAP. Here’s what else went down in the RCLS in the week that was week 9:

Two months have now passed and we’re through the 8th week of the fantasy season.  The calendar turning to June also brings the anticipated promotions of several youngsters as the Super Two cutoff tends to be right around this time of year.  Trea Turner is my favorite stash at the moment, but their are several others to ponder over and pin our fantasy hope and dreams to.  Jonathan Villar is doing his best to fend off Orlando Arcia in Milwaukee.  Maybe you’re in need of some power and happen to be short a corner man at the moment.  You might take a look at stashing AJ Reed.  There is plenty of pitching to be stashed as well Lucas Giolito and Jameson Taillon are the most likely two power arms to make an impact in the immediate future.  I had high hopes for Julio Urias coming in and being an impact bullpen arm, which for RCL purposes I preferred more than him being a starter.  Instead I got one start, a shellacking and a return trip to AAA.  Fun times.  These guys all carry risk and balancing that while weighing the impact of losing a roster spot for an unknown amount of time is tricky business in the RCLs.  Those three bench spots in our leagues are very valuable commodities.  They can be used for rostering extra RPs to tack on extra Ks and ratio help, or they can be used to platoon a SAGNOF base stealer such as, Rajai Davis with a power bat such as Trayce Thompson.  Decisions, decisions, and the answers can be different for every team.  I don’t have the answers, but I do have some numbers.  Come on down and take a look at the week that was, week 8:

Lucky week number seven is all wrapped up in the world of fantasy baseball.  Have you gotten lucky yet?  Nah, who am I kidding?  We’re fantasy baseballers, we don’t get lucky.  Unless mom brings down a plate of hot pockets that is!  No matter how great we think we are at this silly little game though, there is obviously an element of luck involved.  Now, I’m a big proponent of the mantra, “Make your own luck” and I certainly think that can be applied to fantasy baseball.  “Win luck” is a term often tossed around to describe a team that is raking in the wins and/or a team that can’t seem to buy a win (most of my teams this year it seems).  Can you make your own luck in regards to wins?  Of course you can.  You can stream those valuable middle relievers, especially the ones that frequently work multiple innings in the middle of games.  When a lead change occurs, these relievers are typically the benefactors.  It’s no guarantee of course, but it can’t hurt your luck any.  There are other ways to increase your win luck too.  Let’s take a look at another big one as well as who is getting lucky and who got luck this week in the week that was, week 7:

Are you feeling a little like Jose Bautista as the page turns to week 6 of the fantasy baseball season?  Perhaps you aren’t sure where you are, how you got there and/or where you’re going.  Dazed, confused, you look around for someone to hold you up.  Oh good, there’s Adrian Beltre, he’ll keep me from falling down.  Pretend to hold me back while I shake this off, would ya.  With any luck you’re more on the Rougned Odor side of things and you’re landing a mean right hook on the rest of your league.  Most of us are probably Sam Dyson though.  We’re lurking in the background, just waiting to spear tackle Russell Martin.  Underrated and underpublicized, we’ll be there in the end when it matters with a big play, hopefully ending on top.  Grey is surely feeling a bit like Joey Bats this week after taking a mean punch in the grill from Rudy.  He’s icing his ‘stache as we speak.  Rudy is picking his ‘fro and giving JB the business.  Punches were thrown all over the Razzball Commenter Leagues this week.  Jump on down with me and see who else landed haymakers in the week that was, week 6.

Welcome to the recap of week five.  Week five already, that doesn’t seem possible.  Five, as in the number of feet tall Jose Altuve is.  The numbers this little man is putting up don’t seem possible either.  After the 5th week of the season Altuve has 30 Runs (tied for first), 9 HRs (tied for 9th), 19 RBIs (still pretty amazing for a leadoff hitter), 13 stolen bases (most in the league), and a .325 batting average.  In week 5 alone his drafters got 2 HRs and 4 SBs.  I mentioned how Bryce Harper was a roto wet dream a few weeks back, but Altuve is making his 10 HRs/5 SBs look like pocket change.  The best part for his drafters is they didn’t need a top 3 pick to nab him.  Altuve had an RCL ADP of 10.79.  He was taken as high as 4th overall by the *ahem* “Goat F*ckers” of Albright’s ECougarHarmony.com (great league name, questionable team name) and fell to as low as 18 where “cardinals # !” nabbed him in Razzballero2.  Grabbing Altuve around pick 11 likely meant you could pair him with a power hitter such as Miggy, Abreu, Bautista, Chris Davis, or is you were lucky, Kris Bryant.  That sure seems like a pretty nice start right about now.  It got me to thinking, I wonder what impact drafting Altuve has had on the standings position.  So, employing the help of the ever helpful VinWins we set about figuring out the average standings position of those teams that drafted Jose Altuve.  The result?  Glad you asked!  Those teams that drafted Jose Altuve are currently on average in 5.88th place, we’ll call it 6th.  They are also averaging about 68.5 standings points.  Not too shabby, you certainly could be doing worse.  By comparison, Mike Trout drafters are averaging 6.34th place and 65.84 points.  As luck would have it our brand spanking new #1 team in all the RCL land was a drafter of Jose Altuve themselves, at #13 overall.  They paired him with…Clayton Kershaw of course!  Want to find out more about our new #1 team?  Then come on down and check out the rest of the week that was, week 5.

What a week week 4 was, especially for those RCLers who drafted Dee Gordon.  Gordon had an ADP of 21.35 for our RCLs and never made it past the middle of the third round in any RCL draft.  What a rude thing to awaken to Saturday morning.  Sleeping off that Friday night fun, Gordon owners woke around noon on Saturday to see their (possibly) lone source of stolen bases will be out for half a season.  So what is an RCLer to do?  With the inability to DL him, you’re either forced to drop him, or let him burn a very valuable roster spot for 3 months.  I highly doubt anyone would trade anything of value for him at this point.  When he does come back will he be rusty?  Will he be PED free and back to hitting just above the Mendoza line?  How many bases can he steal in the final 60 games and will that be worth the wasted roster spot?  The way I turn and burn my roster, I say absolutely not.  Give me Rajai Davis on days he plays and the streaming middle infield of Alcides Escobar, Danny Santana and Jonathan Villar to make up the difference and let someone else be hogtied with Dee for half the year.  It’s a darn shame that a batting title is now tainted over this, but there’s really hardly any downside for Dee here.  He got paid, a guaranteed contract, and that’s worth whatever shade is thrown his way now.  Sure, he loses about 5 million of that contract to the suspension, but that’s hardly a deterrent when there’s another 45 million that’s all but in the bank.  It’s too bad and it’s also too bad that not a peep of this was known about before now.  Dee allegedly tested positive during spring training.  If any hint of that had leaked, at least fantasy drafters would have something to go on and possibly avoid him.  Instead, they’re left high and dry.  This is a pretty big suspension for league dynamics everywhere and I wouldn’t be surprised if the likes of Billy Hamilton and Jarod Dyson are traded for a premium over the next couple weeks.  Here’s what else happened in the RCLs this in the week that was, week 4: