It’s the 15th Annual Razzballies! Wow! They’re old enough to smoke weed, drink beer, and pretend not to drink beer and smoke weed! Welcome back to our year-end awards show! If there’s any issues with the award ballots, don’t look at me. These were all tabulated at the accounting firm of Fried, Tellez and Bregman. Stop giving them the evil eye, German Marquez! You might be wondering why I’m hosting. Well, at the last minute our other host had to back out. Sadly, Joe Buck couldn’t be hair. I mean here. HAHA…Wait a second! Why is Will Smith, the reliever, coming on stage? *smack* Ow! Saves ain’t got no face, but I do! Now, before we get to our first award, I just want to thank everyone. I appreciate all of you, except Alek Manoah. That guy took it literally when someone told him to get lost! Okay, enough foolery, Tommy boy, now onto the awards, without which you’d have no idea who was the best and worst hitters and pitchers this year, and you’d be left giving out your own awards and no one cares if your “Low sodium tomato soup in a sourdough bowl” won your “Whitest Lunch Of All-Time” award. Stop making up fake awards! Leave that to me! Anyway, here’s the year-end awards for the best and worst of 2023 fantasy baseball:
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Emerging from your mother’s basement after six months, “I did it! I won my fantasy baseball league!” It begins to dawn on you that the world no longer looks as you remember it. Where there were once blossoming trees, there’s now decaying branches. Where flowers once sprouted, shriveled vines remained. A tumbleweed blows past. Minutes later, back in your mother’s basement, you’ve painted a face on the tumbleweed and you say to it, “Can you believe I won my league by two points?” After a brief pause, you say, “Do you think I should keep Christian Encarnacion-Strand in an 11-team keeper league with no restrictions? Mr. Tumbleweed, I’m asking you a question.” On a serious note, as many of you know, I started Razzball during the WGA strike of 2007-08, because I was laid off from a job and didn’t have shizz to do. (Since it is invariably asked, I was working with a Zucker brother of Airplane/Naked Gun fame.) This summer with the WGA strike happening again, I was reminded how lucky I am to have this gig, talking about fantasy baseball and just generally goofing off with all of you. Thank you for another great year! (Crazy that those trees were decaying and I still got some freakin’ sap!) Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Let’s get it out of the way right now, the Top 100 Hitters for 2024 being released on the final day of regular season will be wrong. Did you expect it to be 100% right? Players will surge in the playoffs; home ballparks will change with the trade or free agency landscape and deeper analysis will shed light on potential hidden gems. Frankly, your 2023 final standing may not even be settled. However, there is no point in waiting for our first draft of 2024 rankings as the successful fantasy owner never rests! So, for my last post of the 2023 fantasy baseball season, it is time to predict the future and dig into the Top 100 Hitters for the 2024 fantasy baseball season.
Please, blog, may I have some more?1. Rangers OF Wyatt Langford (21, AAA)
Could not be contained by minor league pitching. Texas is going to be scary in the outfield for a long time with Evan Carter and Langford patrolling the grass.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to the last weekend of regular season baseball.
Many fantasy leagues have already ended their seasons, and if you won a title, congratulations! Some leagues are still going, so if you are playing in the title game, good luck.
Because a lot of leagues have closed up shop for the season, adding players off the waiver wire may not be possible. But since you are in a dynasty league, trades are always ready to be made. Thus, I have selected two targets that I think would be good players to try to add to your roster.
The first is Jordan Westburg of Baltimore. A reader asked me what I thought about him last week, so I figured I would go more in depth about the Orioles’ rookie this week. The other player is Elehuris Montero of Colorado.
A Little Background
Westburg was a star infielder at Mississippi State, helping the squad make the College World Series in both 2018 and 2019. Baltimore loved his combination of power and speed and selected him with the 30th overall pick in 2020. Westburg’s compact swing and bat speed produces power from gap to gap, a nice feature considering the deep left field of Camden Yards.
Meanwhile, Montero was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Cardinals in 2014 and spent two years in the Dominican Summer League before coming to the States in 2017. He then established himself as a top prospect after a fantastic 2018 season before eventually being traded to the Rockies ahead of the 2021 season as part of the Nolen Arenado trade.
Both players are now trying to establish themselves as major leaguers, but I believe both should be on your radar as players to target.
Please, blog, may I have some more?What a season, friends (and it’s not even over yet!) — so much to discuss and so little time. In continuing our thoughts from last week, we’ll once again touch upon the magical greatness of the RCL leagues (one more shout out to MattTruss for editing all these posts AND serving as the god of […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Nice to see a team (the Jays) that has to play well actually play well. Feels like a rare thing this final week. It’s been like teams have been taking must-win as a challenge and saying, “Prove it!” Or like a spiteful child saying, “I don’t want to must win, you must win!” Chris Bassitt (7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 12 Ks, ERA at 3.60) went out and must-won’d his behind off, and, from what I know of Bassitts and their rear porches, there were some dramatically wide swings and they smelled some other dog’s butts. Maybe that analogy got away from me, but you can’t spell analogy without anal. Hey now! Just opened Chris Bassitt’s player stat page, and you’re never gonna believe this, but what he’s done for the last six years? He’s doing it again! Wild, right? Chris Bassitt has made a career out of being criminally underrated. Look at his stats: 8.4 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 3.60 ERA, and guess where he ranks for starters on the year on the Player Rater. That’s top 20 starter numbers. He will barely be a top 40 starter in drafts again in 2024. Underrated, always. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?What is up party people? With the regular season now in the final week it seems like an appropriate time to take a look back and see where that can help us next year. There will be much more to unpack once the season ends but for now here are some quick hitters about some of the top players this season.
Shohei Ohtani – You had to know I was going to start here. Despite missing the month of September he will likely finish as the number 1 player this season. It feels like we’re used to it at this point but honestly that’s wildly impressive. He possesses a ceiling that is unlike anything I have ever seen. Unfortunately, that ceiling will not be there next season after undergoing a not quite Tommy John surgery. Reportedly, the procedure went well and he is expected to be ready to rock by the time next season rolls around… purely as a hitter. There’s also the matter of his impending free agency. I really don’t know where to rank him for next season and it will definitely be influenced by his chosen team. No matter where he ends up, he should be an elite hitter, but without pitching he’s not the slam dunk we’re used to.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Mike Couillard and Jeremy Brewer have launched a pod, Cards & Categories, to discuss baseball from card collecting and fantasy angles! In our twelfth episode, we open with discussion on the tight playoff races and even more multiple superfractors surfacing. Then we review the release of 2023 Topps Update coming up on Oct. 11 (25:42). Finally, we close out by […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?It had been too long since we had a Mets appearance in the lede area. The last time I believe was Brett Baty, who then went oh-for-three months and was sent down. Before that it was Max Scherzer, who was having a HOF career to that point…or maybe it was Justin Verlander, who was also a first ballot guy…or was it Pete Alonso, who has the 2nd lowest BABIP of the last 20 years (.204. There have been 4,105 hitter seasons since 2000 of 450 PAs. Pete Alonso’s BABIP is only better than Aaron Hill’s .196 in 2010). No, no, no there’s no curse. It’s not the Curse of Bill Buckner’s Eternal Soul. This is all random chance. Congrats to Francisco Lindor (4-for-7, 6 RBIs and his 28th, 29th and 30th homer) on a great doubleheader. Here’s to many successful years trying to do anything worthwhile in a Mets uniform. I’m sure it will come very easy. I kid, of course. The Mets feel like the NL East’s answer to the Padres. How many games should they have won vs. how many did they? Maybe an extra 25 games? There’s a parallel universe where the Padres and Mets are meeting in the NLCS. In that parallel universe, ARod is your father. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?I’ve been thinking about the pitch clock a lot this week. Went from a huge, over-the-line-smoky deal to oh-yeah-the-pitch-clock in record time. Been wondering if the clock could take center stage again for a moment or two during the playoffs. Also been thinking about what other rule changes could follow that path. The extra inning runner should move to first base, particularly in the new steals-happy paradigm. Fans remember big postseason steals because they’re fun. Dave Roberts spun a whole managing career out of knowing how to snag that key bag. Even if we wind up with a couple more 14-inning slumber parties, the game would feel more just, which I think fans would appreciate over the long haul. I don’t mind the idea of a shootout type scenario and understand how we got to the ghost runner, but people might prefer a home run derby if we’re doing that, which feels pretty far from quote-unquote real baseball.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Howdy, Razzball faithful! We’ve finally made it to the finish line! Here’s hoping that you’re still in the running for that league crown, or at least haven’t fallen victim to that dreaded cold spell in those Head-to-Head playoffs. If you’re out of the running in fantasy baseball, hopefully, you’re still excited for the real playoff […]
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