In our ultra-premium, ultra-secret Razzball Discord (which is only for writers and those people who podcast enough that they get called writers), Rudy wrote the following about his Draft Champions decision-making process:
Now, aside from that killer avatar that Coolwhip made for Rudy, there are a few takeaways we can make from Rudy's statement.
Nolan Jones lacks desirable individual metrics: his career average K% hovers near 30%, a rate which is unsustainable for producing above-average fantasy hitters.
Nolan Jones lacks track record: he has a notch over 500 MLB at bats, which worries Rudy. Clearly, 500 AB doesn't worry the field about Corbin Carroll's repeatability, but you do you.
The Rockies suck. "That god awful offense" refers to the Rockies, not Nolan Jones, bee-tee-dubya.
Per Fangraphs, the Colorado Rockies are projected to have the largest run differential in MLB in 2024, and an average overall runs scored per game rate.
Who did Rudy choose instead? Adley Rutschman, the catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Rutschman has twice the MLB sample size of Nolan Jones, a 10% lower K rate in that experience, and bats on a team that's projected for a bit more runs than the Rockies. Good choice, Rudy!
People have lost their minds where they're drafting Ha-Seong Kim. Prolly the most obvious overrated guy I've seen in some time. Rather than talking about Ha-Seong Kim and why he's overrated, I think I can just do an Eminem-type rap about Kim. Oh-uh, I feel my rap altar ego, B. Fire, coming on. Watch out haters, here comes the Fire Man!
Welcome back to Hitter Profiles for the 2024 fantasy baseball season. With spring training officially kicking off, we are about to get a glimpse of what could be this season. This week we head over to the NL Central. The Central appears to be open for the taking whereas projections have the division expected to finish within six games from top to bottom. While top end talent might be sparse with only one player being drafted in the top 50 picks, there are intriguing players across the board. Spoiler alert, but that top 50 pick is already on the bust radar for 2024. With the final week of our division previews, we dig deep in the heartland. Next week, we start digging into the top 100 hitters for the 2024 fantasy baseball season! Without further ado, the NL Central boom and bust picks await for this week’s installment of hitter profiles.
It’s 2:58 on Friday afternoon. Should be primetime real estate for escapism, but here I am staring at Dennis Franz’s naked ass.
That’s not true, but it might as well be because I’m actually looking at a 15-team dynasty draft room. There’s six hours left on what was an eight-hour draft clock. The team that has the power to move us forward timed out last time and feels likely to time out again. Another serial offender timed out earlier today after carrying over the first two of eight-hour clock from last night, so the league has seen two picks in the last 20 hours. We’re close to the end, but it’s never felt further away.
Games were not designed to be played this way, but there’s no easy fix to this flaw in the design of dynasty leagues. Even in redraft leagues with fairly high entry fees, people fart around and people time out. The problem feels magnified in dynasty partly because it tends to be the usual suspects year over year.
It wasn’t all bad though. First-Year-Player Draft season is mostly great. Or at least it should be. Here’s how it’s gone for me.
Another week in the books means another installment of the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty rankings. This week we feature the players ranked 50-26 on our way to the top-ranked group.
Here is a look at the breakdown of this week’s grouping:
8 players between the ages of 30-34
9 players between the ages of 25-29
8 players between the ages of 20-24
11 infielders
6 starting pitchers
5 outfielders
2 infielders/outfielders
1 catcher
If you have been following this series, then you know I have favored younger players with upside over a more established player who may be slightly better right now but likely won't be in two or three years. That is because I am building a dynasty team - one that will compete now and into the future.
However, there comes a point where I want the best players right now and then weigh how long they will be at their best. In a standard 12-team league, the group of players in today's rankings are slotted in the third and fourth rounds of drafts (auction leagues are a completely different beast). However, if two players are close in talent, I will still take the younger one with more upside.
In this group of players there are eight who are 30-years-old or greater and then nine more between the ages of 25-29. I'm not going to build my team around 33-year-old players such as Jose Altuve or Marcus Semien, but I sure do want them on my team in order to win now. I will load up on younger players later in a draft who will take the place of older players I take earlier.
Now on to the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings: 50-26…
Man, it feels so good to have baseball back. Grey killed it with his positional rankings (#1 in 2023, the Fantasy Master Lothario’s rankings made us all tingly in our nethers), MarmosDad is getting us ready to field the best pitching staff we can, and Itch allows us to keep one eye on the present with another eye on the future in his prospect rankings. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Welcome, officially, to the 2024 fantasy baseball season!
Hopefully, your league is fine only two days in, but if not, the ambulance is parked just around the corner.
In this edition of Ambulance Chasers, I have a few early injury notices and updates. Please, blog, may I have some more?
What’s poppin’, Razzpimples?
We’re inching closer to March, which means it’s almost bona fide draft szn. The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational kicks off Monday, in fact. Thought it’d be worthwhile to take a quick lil look-see-roo at some bargain closers for 2024 fantasy baseball. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Hello friends, we’re slowly but surely getting through the long winter and happily inching closer to actual baseball! It’s time to take a look at a position that may not include a ton of ultra-sexy picks but does offer many solid options at all stages of a draft or auction. Please, blog, may I have some more?
O. Henry typing up a player on his fantasy baseball website, "A player who has massive amounts of upside. Just absolutely loving this guy. He can be a cheap number one starter. I'd give my wife's comb for this guy, and let her be all straggly and shizz. The only thing possibly going against this great, wonderful player is a small thing that likely won't react negatively to his value and make this whole thing ironic. That thing is the player plays for the New York Mets."
What a day for Mitch Keller, man. First, KellARRRRRRR was named the Pirates’ Opening Day starter for the second year in a row, which – yay, whatever – but the bigger news came in the form of eight figures headed his way. Please, blog, may I have some more?
I have many fond memories of playing Little League. I made an All-Star team and played in Dodgers Stadium against a team from China. Or Taiwan. I forget.
Looking back on it, I did lead the league in Little League home runs (bunt, overthrow at first, run to second, make my way to third, overthrow at third, HOME RUN!!!), Please, blog, may I have some more?