Third year is the year pitchers break out. Conventionally. Sometimes you’ll have the Braves make a Touki out of a rookie, who will as quickly disappear. A Quicki, so to speak. Usually, though, pitchers come up and struggle. It’s just a mess. Then they settle in a bit more in their 2nd season with fewer ups and downs, hinting at promise and things to come. Then their third year happens and everyone is like, “Hmm, where did this come from?” It came from the guy becoming comfortable in the majors. Hunter Greene will be that next year. I thought it would be this year, but there were still ups and downs, and a very long injury. Next year, Hunter Greene will be a 2024 fantasy ace. A guy that will throw some of the most dazzling numbers you’ve ever seen. This won’t be free in drafts. Everyone, I imagine, will expect it. Although expected, he will still surprise how good he is. Yesterday, Hunter Greene (7 IP, 1 ER, 3 hits, 1 walk, 14 Ks, ERA at 4.24) showed you what he will be in 25 of 30 starts next year. Taking a playoff-bound team yesterday, and just doing an utter flummox. A fluttermox. Hunter Greene’s entire 2024 fantasy season will be a fluttermox. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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I reference mlb.com throughout this piece because it’s not a pay-walled site, and they update the rankings regularly. Makes it a nice shorthand for perceived value in the real-baseball sphere.
Padres C Ethan Salas is a sell for me as a top ten prospect (No. 5 on mlb.com). It’s amazing that he made it to Double-A as a 17-year-old, but also, should he be in Double-A as a 17-year-old? I mean, what’s the point? He didn’t hit in High-A (.229 slugging percentage in nine games), and then he didn’t hit in Double-A (.214 SLG in nine games). I guess the defense can push the profile, but at some point, he’ll have to wait for the bat. And then we run into a high-minors, stall-out situation. We’re just now reaching the other side of that with Luis Campusano. It stands to reason that Salas might receive a red carpet that never got rolled out for Campusano, but that’s still years away, and the return you could earn for shopping Salas this winter or next spring probably beats waiting for me.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Happy mid-week, Razzball ruffians! It’s your favorite roto-Dad back for our final regular season write-up (ahead of next week’s look to 2024). Now that we’re officially well into Week 26, the season is definitely winding down, and the night is certainly not young. When I thought of players to write up for our final profile […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Some things in life seem like they should be easy. Maintaining a healthy diet and weight. Picking up a kid and throwing them in a pool without your shoulders being sore. Driving and texting (which obviously is a joke and don’t do it). Ranking baseballers accurately isn’t an exact science, and predicting things is hard […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?In this business, we call this an In Appreciation of Ronald Acuña Jr. post. Yesterday, he went 3-for-5, 3 runs, 2 RBIs with a double slam (38, 39) and legs (67). He’s on the doorsteps of a 40/70 season. A 40/70 season is absurd. Can remember Jose Canseco going 40/40, and people were rightfully floored. It was the most unheard of statline. Even when people tried to match it, they mostly fell short. A few achieved it, but all of them were just barely able to make it (none of them made the HOF either, oddly enough). Acuña is not just flying through 40/40, but 40/70! For fantasy, this is the best season ever. After we just had a best season ever! See the Historical Player Rater for more. This Acuña year is basically if Aaron Judge stole 70 bags. Acuña has 138 runs, 100 RBIs and is hitting .338. Honestly, I thought after Judge’s previous season, we would never see anything comparable. Now, I’m thinking Acuña goes 50/80 in 2024, and Julio Rodriguez goes 60/60 and Betts goes 70/70 and Corbin Carroll goes 100/100 and Robbie Grossman goes 120/120! What a time to be alive! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Two weeks to go and teams are creeping up on that 1400 IP limit. 47 teams have now reached the magic number with 209 more on pace to hit it. You would want about 1300 IP right now and need 50 each week to nail the 1400 mark. A note to everyone, the day you […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Down to the last two DFS articles for the season. Not our best performance last week, but as the late Lou Brown once said, “OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it’s called “two in a row”. And if we win again tomorrow, it’s called a “winning streak”… It has happened before”! […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?On this week’s episode of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast, Grey and B_Don discuss who should take home the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year awards for both leagues. We called the MVP race months ago, but do we still think so? The Cy Young for the National League is anyone’s guess even […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Willson Contreras (1-for-3 and his 20th homer) giving the winning run to Adam Wainwright (7 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 7.40) for his 200th win is severely throwing off the Comatose Cardinals Fan. “Okay, I’ve been doing a snooze button for what? Ten days? Weeks? Months? Wow, that’s wild. I feel great! Good to see Adam Wainwright pitching, too bad he allowed that homer to Contreras. Those pesky Cubs, amiright? I’m not right? Hmm, I might need to sit down. Wait a minute, I am sitting? In a jar of formaldehyde?” Maybe because I’m old enough to remember the days of 300 wins by a starter (not in one year, I’m not that old), but 200 wins feels significant. Not sure we ever see another one. Gerrit Cole is the closet (not officially, but Johnny Cueto’s not winning ten more, let alone 57 more), and Cole’s five years away, at least, which assumes health. I used to laugh that deGrom was one of the best pitchers of his generation and he won’t crack 100 wins, but a lot of pitchers won’t. Wainwright is a throwback to a bygone era. An era when pitchers started the game in the 1st inning, and went as long as they could. Sometimes, that meant all the way to 200 wins. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello? Is it me you’re looking for? I see you caressing a butter sculpture of my face. It’s not weird, just a little…out of place. I mean, I thought our relationship was me being the whiffonator, and you being a feasting fantasy baseballer who can’t get enough whiffs. Supply and demand. Basic economics.
Which is the long way of saying: we’re down to, like, 14ish games left in the season. From a writer’s standpoint, we are in meaningless territory. A player slumps, and it’s nothing more than variance. Unpredictable downtime. A player surges, and how can we tell whether it’s playoff adrenaline or they’re just flipping the coin lucky-side first? For the most part, we can’t.
Please, blog, may I have some more?The marathon is almost complete. Congrats on your championships and/or being in the hunt at this point. The waiver wire is likely barren and the trade deadline has long passed, so I figured we’d take a look at the 2024 middle infield landscape. Good news, middle infield is thriving and is strong as ever, even […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?The Mercury is rising on Freddy Peralta (P: $11,300), who has racked up nine or more strikeouts in four of his past five starts. In nine starts since July 26, Peralta has surpassed 30 DraftKings points three times, and has failed to crack 20 points just once. Against a Cardinals offense that has largely bitten […]
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