by: Son
We all have players that have a sentimental place in our hearts. A batter hits a walk-off home run to ship you all the money in DFS. A streamer pitches a gem to win your league. Maybe it’s just a player that takes the time to sign an autograph. Whatever the reason may be, everyone has at least one.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Paul DeJong (25.7% owned – increase of 19.2%) is batting .313/.331/.602 with nine home runs, 17 runs scored, and 20 RBI in 128 at-bats. Over the past week of regular season games, DeJong is 11-for-16 with five doubles and three home runs. He has hit a home run in three consecutive games! Why am I suddenly walking through a Vegas casino and see a roulette board showing that the last 15 spins have all been red? “Always bet on black.” When trying to dig deeper into DeJong, Fangraphs just happens to be down. Kind of like every missle launch that the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un has had. Thank goodness the internet has a plethora of options for any and every subject matter. Too much perhaps? North Korea scoffs at the notion, as they have just 28 websites. Anyways, DeJong is striking out 28.6% of the time and has an ISO of .289. The BABIP is also .378, so expect that .313 batting average to come down. DeJong is eligible at 3B/2B/SS, but he’s batting eighth in the batting order. He did hit .299 with 13 home runs in 190 at-bats down in Triple-A, so there’s hope, the same amount as an American going to North Korea and not getting arrested for being a spy. TRASH…
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
Marwin Gonzalez is batting .308/.391/.576 with 16 home runs, 29 runs scored, 53 RBI, and four stolen bases in 258 plate appearances. On the Razzball Player Rater, Gonzalez is the 62nd overall player. But it gets better. G is the 13th first baseman, ninth third baseman, and 26th outfielder. Holla! Is it sustainable?
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
I am Son. Son I am. I like green eggs and Tommy Pham (20.6% owned – increase of 9.7%). I do! I like them, Son I am. When I think of Tommy I crave for Pho (pronounced “fuh”), probably due to the fact that he’s half-Vietnamese. Duh!!! He’s hit ten home runs and stolen nine bases. Those numbers are real. You didn’t drink too many cases. The walk rate is good (11.5%) while the strikeout rate is high (25.7%). Not anything too obscene to crucify. The average is solid (.289) while the OBP is great (.381). I’m feeling the same vibe from when I listen to Warren G’s Regulate. The BABIP is high (.358) so some negative regression should take place. But not so low that I’d link The Sign by Ace of Base. The swinging strike rate is 8.8% and he only chases 20% of pitches outside the strike zone. I hear the moans. How can we clone? Mike Matheny bats him in the two-hole against both righties and lefties. That’s more valuable to me than snatching the panties. Now, he’s much better on the road than at home (.234 vs .344). Yo, Google Chrome! Shalom! Enough PaRappa the Rapper. Pham won’t be a season winner and he’s streaky, but he could be a viable fill-in. If you do pick him up and have the urge to drop him, just watch this over and over again. On a side note, Pham has a rare eye disorder called keratoconus, which thins the cornea. He started wearing contact lenses back in 2009 to be able to track the pitches better. I’m just excited for the inevitable moment when Pham is used as a guinea pig for a Terminator-like eye transplant. TREASURE
Here’s what else I saw in the most added/dropped list:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
When Ian Happ (45.7% owned – increase of 25%) was called up in May of this year, we fantasy nerds were giddy with excitement. I imagine it was the same tingly sensation boys felt when they first saw a young Britney Spears on the Mickey Mouse Club. Unfortunately, Happ proceeded to bat .214 with only two home runs in his first month of major league experience. The dread was comparable to “young boy with tingly sensation” realizing that Britney was probably “studying” with fellow Mickey Mouse Club’er Justin Timberlake. In the month of June, though, Happ is batting .277. More specifically, since June 13th, he is batting .316 with five home runs. He’s had at least one hit in 12 of the past 14 games.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Michael Taylor of the Washington Nationals is:
A) A bad baseball player.B) An improving baseball player.C) A good baseball player.D) A good looking baseball player.R) All of the above.
Who doesn’t love sugar? Okay, a diabetic, but there’s a good chance that they loved sugar a little too much, no? How could someone not love a commodity that makes any food or drink sweeter and is used to describe “good lovin?” The thing about sugar, though, is that it is a complementary item. Granted, I used to love popping those C&H sugar cubes into my mouth. The sweetness. The way it felt when the cube melted from the saliva in my mouth. Mmmmm. Do you think I have a future as an erotic writer? Penthouse forum writer for sure. Anyways, sugar can never be a main item. No matter how you dress it up or package it. Which brings me to Lorenzo Cain.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Andrelton Simmons (48.9% owned – increase of 12.2%) is the No. 12 shortstop in Razzball’s Player Rater. Addison Russell (63.5% owned – decrease of 9.2%) is the No. 31 shortstop. It’s as if the names should be swapped. Russell should be 48.9% owned and Simmons should be 63.5% owned. I have the sudden urge to listen to some jams from Russell Simmons’ Def Jam Records…
Russell plays for the Cubs. Woohoo…He’s 23 years old. Yipee…He hit 21 home runs last season. Woo saaaa…Can you feel the excitement? I’m about to open up an incognito window on my computer. Hold up. Give me like 20 seconds….Sarcasm alert. Not about the incognito window thing, though. Now, I like Russell in dynasty. As mentioned above, he is young and could be a monster in a few years. But we trying to win rings like Kevin Durant now!!! Nothing has really changed with Russell in regards to batted ball profile and plate discipline. He pretty much is who he is right now. .240-ish hitter with 10-15 home runs. He also hits seventh, in front of the pitcher. As for Simmons, he’s always been a low strikeout/high contact batter. He has some pop and will probably end up with around 10- 12 home runs, but with a batting average closer to .275. The surprising thing with Simmons this season is the number of steals. So far, he’s pilfered 10 bags, after ending up with that total in 124 games last season. Stealing bases is one of the few stats that a player has more direct control over, so that’s a nice trend. In this week’s Razzball Baseball podcast, Grey touched on the value that power/speed guys have. Go listen to the pod and…LEAVE A REVIEW!!! Special things will happen. Anyways, back to Simmons. Actually, it’s more a rant against the Sociopath. Simmons is batting .180 against LHP and .305 against RHP this season. His career numbers are .268 vs RHP and .244 vs LHP. So, what does the Sociopath do? He bats Simmons 6th against righties and 2nd against lefties. To bring everything full circle, I guess it makes sense that Simmons is owned in 48.9% of leagues and Russell in 63.5%. What a world. TRASH for Russell. TREASURE for Simmons.
Here are a few others that stood out to me in this week’s add/drop list:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
Grey has been touting Eduardo Nunez, for what seems like, forever. He’s also been pushing the whole Convent, Edu-Nun, an educational institute for nuns thing, for what seems like, forever, forever, ever, forever, ever. I’m sorry Ms. Jackson, I’m just not feeling that, but I am the OutKast at Razzball so….
Shenanigans aside, did you know that The Convent (I’m a company man) is the No. 4 rated third baseman according to the Razzball Player Rater? The Fantasy Master Lothario knew. He can see into the future, except when it comes to a few players that shall remain nameless, for if I name them, I shall become toothless, armless, legless….you get the point. Thank goodness I’m already hairless.
Anyways, is this high noon, which Merriam-Webster defines as “the most advanced, flourishing, or creative stage or period,” for The Convent this season?
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
Ryon Healy (44.7% owned – increase of 18.3%) has hit 13 home runs in 57 games this season. In 72 games last year, Healy clubbed 13 home runs in 72 games. For those that are too lazy to use their desktop abacus, that comes out to 26 home runs in 129 games to begin Healy’s major league career. As John Hickey of The Mercury News wrote, “For the A’s, only two men have done better – the Bash Brothers. Mark McGwire hit 42 homers in his first 128 games and Jose Canseco hit 28 over the same number of games to start his Oakland career.” Yo Grey!!! Time to schedule another interview with Jose. The thing that immediately jumps out to me is the .331 BABIP. Regression, right? Well, he had a .352 BABIP last season. The projection systems have him slated for a .310-ish BABIP and .270-ish average for the remainder of the season. I’m not one to argue with the computers. It’s the same reason why I married Chinese. Just in case either take over the world, I’ve got some protection. As I continue to research Healy, the numbers look good. The contact rates are good (88.3% in the zone and 76.5% in general) and swinging strike rate is decent for a power hitter (10.9%). The chase rate of 34.2% is high (Top 30), but a far cry from the 47.1% by Corey Dickerson. Healy is mashing lefties (.408 average with five home runs), but what’s most impressive are the .346 average and 10 home runs at O.co Coliseum, which is an albatross for power. The cherry on top is that Healy plays everyday, which is sometimes worrisome with the ADD platoon nature of the A’s. TREASURE
Here are a few more players that caught my eye on the most added/dropped list for the week:
Please, blog, may I have some more?For the first seven years of his career, Elvis Andrus was a light-hitting shortstop that would provide cheap speed for fantasy teams. That Elvis has left the building. Unlike Mr. Presley, who aged into a fat slob which lowered the barriers to entry for employment as an impersonator, Mr. Andrus has become phat. For those that only know # as a hashtag, phat was synonymous with great, back in the 90’s. I still can’t believe phat was a thing.
Anyways, Andrus is the #1 shortstop in fantasy right now. He’s batting .305 with seven home runs, 34 runs scored, 32 RBI, and 14 stolen bases. The wOBA is .353 and ISO is .170.
For perspective, the ISO has been below .100 six of the last eight seasons and the season-high in home runs is eight, which occurred last year…
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Son
Danny Glover played Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movies. Murtaugh was the stabilizing force to the maniac that was Martin Riggs, played by the maniac Mel Gibson. Was Lethal Weapon a reality show before reality shows? Was the lethal weapon in Lethal Weapon Riggs or was it like a ying and yang thing where the combination of Murtaugh and Riggs formed a lethal weapon? I’m going with the assumption that Riggs was the lethal weapon.
Please, blog, may I have some more?