Throughout history, there have been many of great things that have risen. I have to put bread at the top of the list. Christ was head and shoulders above the pack, but I had to deduct points due to the lack of video evidence. Men with or without erectile dysfunction would agree with me that the penis has to be in the top 3. On the other side of the spectrum, not everything that rises is good. Hollywood would disagree with me here, but Jason rising from the dead for another Friday the 13th was sub-optimal for those trying to have a good time. Ever seen the creatures that live at the bottom of the ocean? Don’t want those rising up to the surface. How could I forget cost of living? For fantasy baseball, the same dynamic plays out. A rising number in home runs, RBI, and stolen bases are a good thing for a batter. For a pitcher, not so good. Every once in a while, a player will rise from the depths of the abyss and become relevant. Aledmys Diaz is one such player. The question is will he stay up or return back to the black unknown?
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Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Madison Bumgarner vs. Zack Greinke
August 8, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, All Podcasts, Ditka |by: B_Don
Last week Madison Bumgarner journeyed to Arizona with his sights on his lifelong dream: jumping the Grand Canyon with his dirt bike. While he was in the area, MadBum decided to drop in at Chase Field to toss 5 innings of shaky one run ball against old man Zach Greinke. Both of these vets flashed nice wood in this outing. Not that kind of wood! I’m talking about wood baseball bats, they each flashed the lumber, driving in one run off their counterpart. B_Don and Donkey tell you everything you need to know about this intriguing pitching matchup, including what to expect from each of these aging aces for the rest of this season and beyond.
Your handsome hosts also profile the rapidly rising star Eugenio Suarez in this episode. Spoiler alert Donkey has a very lofty (and crazy) Eugenio Suarez comp. Lastly, listen in to find out which waiver wire targets might lead you to fantasy baseball fame and fortune down the stretch. Experience this week’s Ditka, Sausage Pod here.
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If Travis Scott were playing Draft, he would say, “straight from Mexico, call her Quintana!” Jose Quintana was able to get himself back on track in his last start, throwing six innings with six strikeouts, no walks, and just one earned run. Granted, it was against the Padres, but he gets another easy matchup against the Royals tonight. Kansas City has a pitiful .293 wOBA versus lefties this year, which is even worse than the Padres mark. He should also have no problem getting a win against Heath Fillmyer. You can get an awesome start out of Quintana and still land him late in your draft.
New to Draft.com? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Felix Hernandez went 6 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.73 vs. Bartolo Colon – 7 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 5.18. Or is that Bartolo Colon, weighing in at 518 pounds from parts unknown and ratios you don’t want to know? This matchup was billed as, “F-Her/Colon, rated NC-17. Or maybe simply NR, as in Not Recommended.” All kidding aside, F-Her’s fallen so far, Colon is outpitching him, and Colon is not outpitching anyone else. That’s a Trump tweeted, “Sad!” On the bright side, Rougned Odor (2-for-5, 2 runs, 4 RBIs and his 14th homer) has rediscovered our love. Two years ago, Odor beat up Jose Bautista. Last year, he beat up his fantasy owners. This year, he’s beating back the beat like Vinny from The Jersey Shore. I’m glad I went back in on him because making up is sweeter than caramel honey on your bed sheets. (Is that an R. Kelly song? It should be.) I’d contend (for the featherweight title) that Odor really hasn’t done anything different this year. Yes, his walk rate is nearly double, but his BABIP has turned around. Here’s what that leads me to believe: You get a little bit luckier, so you don’t feel compelled to swing at everything, so you get more selective. It’s a self-fullfilling prophecy in direct opposition to what happened to him last year. Does this mean I’m going back in him for a third year in a row next year? Damn skippy! He can’t fail me again! (He totally can!) Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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The trade deadline has come and gone, and Grey and your boy Ralph are back for another week. We’re rocking and ready to break down the deals that went down last week. Early in the show we talk about tip jars at take-out places, Eloy Jimenez’s ETA, Jonathan Villar’s coming renaissance, and Brian Dozier’s impact on Max Muncy. We then hammer the rest of the moving parts, touch on closer changes, and close with hot schmotato hitters and pitchers to target. As always, go and checkout our sponsor Rotowear.com and use our promo-code SAGNOF to get 20% off all of your purchases. It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast:
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Happy trade deadline week RCLers. This is the final week you have to trade for some steals, saves, power or help out those pitching ratios with a big time name. It’s at this point in the season that you can really see some overpaying going on. Giancarlo for Edwin Diaz? Possibly. Aaron Judge for Billy Hamilton? It all depends on team needs and where the most points can be gained. Remember, there are no extra points for winning a category by 50. Take a look at the overall standings in your league and see where teams are bunched together. If there’s an opportunity to leap over multiple teams by taking a category by storm, make your move now. If you’re in second place right now, make that move for first, play to win, go out and make it happen. The Razzball Commenter League trading deadline is Friday, August 10, at midnight (well, 11:59 PM EST technically). I expect there will be a flurry of activity to break down for next week’s update. For this week however, we have three trades to look at as well as a new overall leader. There were some big shake-ups in the top 10 and we have two weeks worth of data to sift through. Come read about all of this and more in the week that was, week 18 in the Razzball Commenter Leagues:
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Draft: Eugenio, Or You Don’t
August 7, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Draft | 2 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
Has there been a bigger surprise this season than the 26 bombs Eugenio Suarez has dropped? Guy has gone from fringe infielder to power corner while holding down one of the game’s nice young prospects. Adapting your preexisting evaluation of players is one of the harder things to do in the course of a season. Suarez is a top play now, especially against lefties. Let’s see who else you need to consider on Draft.com today.
New to Draft.com? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!
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Lance Likes Being A Yankee More Than A Twinkie
August 7, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 277 Commentsby: Grey
Lance Lynn had to shave his beard to play for the Yankees, because the Yankees are fascists. I wish Giancarlo would grow a mustache as giant FU. What, are they going to bench him until he shaves? Actually, Giancarlo should carve an F and a U in both of his sideburns. That would be such a 1970’s move. You could see Willie Stargell, high as a kite, being like, “Carve, ‘Down with Whitey’ in my sideburns.” Little did we know a clean-shaven Lynn would be an all-new pitcher, throwing 7 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, ERA at 4.58. Prior to the trade, here’s the Twins pitching coach talking to the bullpen catcher, “Do you think Lynn might be dragging his right side a little bit because of all that facial hair?” “I don’t know, but Sasquatches have been deemed the new sexy ‘It Thing,’ so who’s to argue?” Yesterday, we saw more of Lynn (literally and figuratively) of what made him a solid starter in St. Louis for many years. His season numbers are still garbage but, if nothing else, the Stream-o-Nator loves his next start. If he can command his pitches, he could have a solid final seven weeks. It’s all about The Art of Shaving two walks off his rate. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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You Probably Shouldn’t Have Dropped Jon Gray
August 6, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, 2018 Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 6 Commentsby: Lance
Jon Gray made two starts in the minor leagues on July 3 and 8. His first was ok (6 IP, 2 ER, o BB, 6 K) and his second wasn’t great (4 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K). Craig Edwards of Fangraphs wrote a great column on whether Gray deserved his demotion. His premise highlighted the massive discrepancy between Gray’s ERA and FIP, something brought on by a mix Coors Field and poor luck.
My affinity for statistics often wins out over “gut feelings” and other intangible factors, but I’ve also never been in the shoes of a baseball operations employee staring at seven consecutive starts of more than three earned runs and considered how confident I was in the numbers winning out. Particularly odd about the demotion is the seven-inning, 12-strikeout performance Gray twirled against the Marlins after his stretch of misery. He followed this rebound up with another poor outing on August 28 and then was demoted. If anything, I would’ve been encouraged Gray’s dominance of the Marlins and more willing to tolerate a poor performance similar to his prior stretch. The Rockies were not that tolerable.
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SAGNOF Report: Mallex Exotic Dancer
August 6, 2018 | 2018 Fantasy Baseball, 2018 SAGNOF | 3 Commentsby: Smokey
Join the 2018-19 Razzball Fantasy Premier League for a chance at prizes! Don’t know about Fantasy Soccer? That’s okay, Smokey is here to walk with you throughout this journey of exploration and an absurd amount of accent marks on player names. So probably hide all your snacks. It’ll be a long journey…
Ah, words. It is funny how the simplest play on words could lead to such stupid humor. Because on one hand, Mallex Smith could be an exotic dancer… on the basepaths, and the other? Well, we know the implication. Either way, in his artistry it can only be called one thing: SAGNOF sexy. The base-stealing profession hasn’t been the most flourishing business, with the price of liquor licenses and the growing deficit of accumulation on the stat. It is a dying business. One that allows you to jump all nimbly-pimbly from steal branch to steal branch. When looking at steals, especially in the SAGNOF world, I try to break them down into a two week stretch. I look for who is getting the at-bats, who is getting on base, and of course who is actually stealing bases. Over that 14 game stretch, Mallex is doing all three. He is getting at-bats, and not all from the leadoff spot either. ( He’s getting on base at a .528 clip, with a BB% of 13%.) These numbers are all the dream scenario for a SAGNOF savior for a week or three. Steals? Well, he stole more bases (6) than everyone in baseball not named Jose Ramirez or Whit Merrifield. The joyous thing about this, is that the Rays are basically punting but not actually trying to lose. So the at-bats and opportunities will and should continue. As with most saviors of the theft, counting stats are going to be spotty and the one thing you can count on slightly are runs scored, but in smaller comparisons, because… well, the Rays don’t score a ton. So if you are on the lookout for a few here and few there steals, then Mallex is your boy for the next few games, or even a week. But don’t fall in love, because he will break your heart by Labor Day. Cheers!
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