Bear or Bull: Jay Bruce The New Jay Wrong?

May 23, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 109 Comments

One of the constant questions I get is ‘Where did you get your nick from?’ The other ones, if you were wondering, are ‘Who is that in your avatar and what is he holding?’. Obviously you’ve never seen Worf hold a tribble. But if you have, then you would know those things are not what is in my avatar. It is none other than Montgomery Scott, from old school Trek. And what is he holding in his hands? The answer to that, like all things in life, is whiskey. And don’t worry, I’m already advocating to Rudy for a Star Trek character page for all of us to link to. Thank me later. Anyhow, where were we? Ah, yes, the origination of my Razzy call-sign. Its really not that hard to decipher. Let’s just say that it was given a long time ago, in a state far, far away. And it was given because when I do things, in all aspects, I do them very, very wrong. And the reason all of this got brought up is Jay Bruce seems to be on pace to strikeout 209 times and only hit 18 homeruns. You certainly wouldn’t call that Jayright, so let’s find out if we should start calling him Jaywrong after the jump.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Josh Jumps Off The Rutledge

May 23, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 941 Comments

by: Grey

Josh Rutledge did not play for the third time since last Friday because Walt Weiss is crummy with crackers, then thinking he was a real Weiss guy, Rutledge was sent down to Triple-A. This is the same Rutledge that went into yesterday’s game hitting .259 with a homer, 3 runs and 3 RBIs in the last week. He’d be leading the entire Marlins team with those numbers! On our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater, he was above Starlin Castro, Alcides, Alexei, Rollins, Asdrubal for the year… Seriously. He was doing better than all but 8 shortstops. Yes, I’m on the River Denial and my boat is called, “Dubya Tee Eff?!” and I’m stopping at the Sphinx to riddle him with, “What are the Rockies doing?” Are you seriously going with DJ LeMahieu because he had hits the last two days?! Why not just go with David Guetta? At least he’s had hits I’ve heard of! The problem seems to be that the Rockies are holding Rutledge’s fielding against him. Luckily, Weiss wasn’t managing the Yankees in 1996 or Jeter would’ve been sent down for Luis Sojo. I know, The Art of Fielding, I know Dan Fielding, I do not know of sending Rutledge down for fielding. Stop the madness and bring back Rutledge! I’ll admit when I’m wrong with drafting guys, but Rutledge was not a mistake. It’s stupid teams, playing for stupid things that don’t matter in 5×5 roto. STUPID! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Razzball Podcast — The One Where Rudy Explains All Of Razzball’s New Features

May 22, 2013 | All Podcasts | 490 Comments

by: Grey

I sat out this podcast. Now, now, don’t boo like Justin Bieber just won an award. It should be about the craft that we’re making, and… this is not a gimmick, this is not a gimmick. This is about our Player Pages. What I like most about the Player Pages is that they give me another reason to not go to ESPN. The second reason is they are designed strictly for fantasy baseball. I love what Fangraphs offers, but it’s for a baseball perspective. Sometimes you can’t see the fantasy forest because of all of the baseball trees. I want to know how a player did most recently — their ten game and thirty game log. I want to know their position rank, according to preseason and season to date, and not just for ESPN or Yahoo, but both. Not just for 10 team, 12 team or AL or NL-Only leagues, but all of them. I want to know how well someone is vs. righties and lefties. I want to what their next week looks like and what pitchers they are gonna face. I want to know how well they will do vs. how well they just did. I want to know the future, basically. That is all there. While it has its place, it doesn’t matter for fantasy how well, say, Juan Francisco did in Colorado in April when we get to June. If it’s more than 30 days away, who cares for fantasy? I want to know how well he’s going to do tomorrow or this weekend, or what he’s done for the last week. I want to know if I own Kyle Seager in my 14-team ESPN league where is he a positive (runs) and where is he a negative (steals). While it’s interesting that Seager had 174 ground balls in 2012, this doesn’t do anything for me without calculations. Those calculations have been done. If you’re curious how many homers Hank Greenberg hit in 1938 (58), cool, but these Player Pages won’t help you. If you want to know the exact predicted line of John Gast for his next start, these Player Pages will help you. Also, on today’s podcast, Smokey joins up to discuss bullpens in flux and late night munchies. Nick tries to convince Smokey that Skittles should have their own line of sodas and I think that’s the most brilliant thing Nick has ever said. Agreed, Nick, I want to drink the rainbow! JB joins Nick to discuss his posts for the Play with Rudy from Razzball over at DraftKings and how the new tools give you an unfair advantage when playing against the masses. Then Rudy and the Hitter-Tron and Player Pages. Anyway, here’s the Razzball Podcast (now with Rudy dropping knowledge on your head):

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Prospect Power Rankings, Week 7

May 22, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 118 Comments

by: Scott Evans

Baseball’s purest prospect has been called up. Jurickson Profar has surfaced in Texas, and if you’re just learning this now, you’re far too late. Don’t sweat it too much if you didn’t get your hands on Profar — I don’t see much room for him in the Rangers lineup once Kinsler returns. If you did happen to scoop him, though, he’s a wonderful lotto ticket with an even bigger potential payout given 2B eligibility. In other close-to-the bigs news, Houston prospect, Jonathan Singleton, will debut at Low-A next week after serving a 50-game suspension. He’ll join MiLB home run leader, George Springer, at Double-A before long, and proceed to Triple-A where he’ll likely stay for most of the year. In a different organization, Singleton and Springer would find themselves on the cusp of breaking through, but I don’t see the Astros starting their clocks while the team is in rebuilding mode. Until further notice, those two remain outside the scope of these power rankings.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

DraftKings – Hungry For Some Money

May 22, 2013 | DraftKings | 4 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

So for any of you esteemed loyalists to Razzball Nation who have not yet tried out DraftKings, the real question is why are you such a Schmohawk!? Well don’t worry, we can trim that Schmohawk right off with an awesome offer from our friends at DraftKings to get you winning right away. For any first time depositor to the industry leading daily fantasy site, if you deposit at least $25 you’ll receive an extra $10. Hurry though – the offer is only good until Friday at 5:00 PM EST – aka when Grey gets up in the “morning.” That mustache won’t comb itself! You’ve got to enter through our link here into another CAN YOU TAKE DOWN RUDY GAMBLE (and Nick) CONTEST, which returns to Friday (the 24th) this week. The contest is limited to 30 entries (up to 2 per person), with the winner receiving a ticket into another one of their huge six figures contests – the $100,000 Punch Out on June 14th. But as always, there isn’t just 1 winner. This week spots 2-5 will double up to $10 and 6-10 nab $5. And if you’re a first time depositor, you can get your two entries this week essentially for free!

The last huge DraftKings $100K Spring Fling challenge last Friday had six Razzballers enter and commenter Pacochu got 54th and notched $200 buck-a-roos! Not bad for a $5 entry, huh? Hey Pacochu, next time we get cervesas at the cantina the Dos Equis are on you! I don’t always drink beer with Razzballers, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Now I’m starting to get hungry for some tacos.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Gaus Célèbre

May 22, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 546 Comments

by: Grey

Yesterday, I was thinking how Miguel Gonzalez, who went 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, is a’ight. Has nominal value in mixed leagues against weaker teams and a solid back-end guy for AL-Only leagues, which could describe the entire O’s staff. With the O’s, you gotta mind your P’s and Q’s. Excuse me, I had Alphabet Soup for lunch and just burped. Those O’s starters are okay, but I crave excitement. I’m an adrenaline junkie. Sometimes I’ll blog with no pants on just for the RUSH I get. While in Starbucks. While holding my dog over my junk so I don’t catch charges. I’m a responsible adrenaline junkie. So, when I heard Kevin Gausman will make his major league debut on Thursday, you can imagine how awkward it was carrying my dog over my junk without any hands, while working my cellular mobile device trying to pick up Gausman. I’ve gone over Gausman as recently as two weeks ago. He was my Wheeler before Wheeler. I lurve Gausman. The O’s staff is iffy at best, so Gausman could definitely stick around. His numbers in the minors this year are insane. In 46 1/3 IP, he has 49 Ks and 5 walks. He could be the best called up pitcher this year. More likely, he’ll have some extreme ups and downs in the AL East. I’d still grab him in all leagues just in case his ups far outnumber his downs. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Book Of Moreland

May 21, 2013 | OPS Leagues | 131 Comments

by: Tom Jacks

Mitch Moreland, a notable imperialist, has been capturing the hearts and minds of fantasy owners while their villages are unsuspectingly pillaged. On the baseball field, he’s been hitting better than he has since 2009… when he was in high A ball. The boy’s a time bomb! So, will he be able to maintain anywhere near this level of production? Or will he turn it off like a light switch (just go click)? My fortune cookie says, “Signs point to yes.” Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Exhibit A for why you shouldn’t ask your fortune cookie conflicting questions. For those of you who are familiar with Mitch, you’re probably pulling a Large Marge like me when you realized that he’s hitting over a 1.100 OPS in May. He’s doing everything a little bit better: lower strikeout rate, higher walk rate, and a higher home run to fly ball rate, which could be sustainable. Although the caveat is that he’s absolutely crushing the ball at home and against righties, so it’s hard to tell if he’s right side up or upside down. I’m thinking that he’ll likely produce closer to his numbers from last year, with slight improvement going forward. Mitch, I’ve got Moreland a feeling that you’ll still be solid the rest of the way. Anyway, here are some other players who have my attention in OPS leagues:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Pitcher Profile: Jake Odorizzi’s 2013 & Rays Debut

May 21, 2013 | Pitcher Profiles | 12 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

When David Price went down with a triceps injury, mercifully so with the struggles he was enduring, the Rays finally announced over the weekend that prospect Jake Odorizzi would be called up from Triple-A Durham to take his spot in the rotation . As Bill Murray would say, “Go Bulls!” I was fortunate enough to see Odorizzi pitch in Durham earlier this season, throwing 6.2 innings of shutout ball with 8 Ks against AAA Gwinnett.

From what I remember in that outing, he features a mid-to-low 90s fastball and a wipe out breaking ball. Other than that, I couldn’t tell much more from our seats, which were surprisingly tough to get in the Bulls home debut that night. There were free fireworks! Also, the city of Durham loves their Bulls, it is a very nice AAA experience. Anywho, I was stoked that Odorizzi would be pitching right around when my next Pitcher Profile was due out, so I decided to break down his Rays debut (and 3rd career start) at Toronto and see what kind of impact he could have for fantasy owners:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Red Light, Green Light: Steals and Such at the Quarter Pole

May 21, 2013 | Uncategorized | 40 Comments

by: Mike

I went ahead and picked up Jarrod Dyson this past week only to watch him sprain his ankle before even entering my lineup. ESPN has him listed as 0.0% ownership, so apparently my team doesn’t even count in their world. I was about to get all depressed about it and throw on my Skinny Puppy t-shirt and black eyeliner when I realized that this is a SAGNOF world, and that means when one speedster goes down, we just go to the heap for another. We’re about 1/4 of the way through the season already, and that means it’s time to take a look at some stats for pitchers, catchers, and teams to try to exploit when chasing steals. I’ll also take a look at what Will Venable is up to and how Pedro Florimon may be a possible source of cheap speed in very deep leagues. At the beginning of the season, I posted the 2012 numbers for pitchers and catchers who should be exploited or avoided when it comes to steals, as well as team SB allowed for matchup purposes. Here are those same stats through the first 40 games of the 2013 season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RCL Update: May 21

May 21, 2013 | Our Leagues | 28 Comments

by: VinWins

Mauledbypandas held on to first for another week, but Jack Full of Hate closed the gap to just three tenths of a point as he moved up from 11th place to second. Impressively, the Hateful Jack also has the 18th ranked team. Check out the Master Standings (you can also access them via the Leagues menu up top) to see where your team ranks in comparison to the other 767 teams through Sunday. Tell me your team and league in the comments and I’ll add your Razzball handle to the standings.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Corbin Ain’t No Pat C

May 21, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 809 Comments

by: Grey

On a scale of one to ten for most surprising starters, Patrick Corbin is a one. One being the best. When you beat your high score in Mario Kart you never scream out, “I’m number ten,” do you? Okay, so don’t question my numbering. On a scale of one to ten for how likely it is Corbin keeps this up, it’s around a 5, the number made famous by Short Circuit. Didja know before Short Circuit people would count 1, 2, 3, 4, 6? It’s also why Marilyn Monroe left Joe DiMaggio. Corbin’s not a 1.44 ERA pitcher, but he’s not what he seemed like coming into the year either. His fastball has jumped in velocity, which has helped all of his pitches. I don’t own him, which butters my grr’s. I know most of you must’ve benched him in Coors yesterday for his 10 K, 9-inning, three-hitter gizzem, so I’ll say it for you, sonavabench! Luckily, you own him for the whole season and he looks like he can be a mid-3 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 7 K-rate guy, i.e., a fantasy two to three. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

A Razz New World

May 20, 2013 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, fantasy baseball strategy, Player Raters | 181 Comments

by: Rudy Gamble

We like baseball. We might even love baseball. But we love fantasy baseball more.

If you read this site at all, this should not be news to you. We do not pretend to be a general baseball site. We do not pretend to write like general baseball writers or general baseball fans. Our focus and point of view has been irrevocably bastardized through the tainted prism of fantasy baseball fanaticism (and the fact that we are smart asses).

Much like you, the vast majority of our baseball-related surfing is focused on day-to-day management of our fantasy baseball teams. Over the years, I shutter to think how much time that Grey and I pored through player news, game logs, player stats, etc. trying to find information that could help our teams.

Please, blog, may I have some more?