What’s good in the Razzhood? Hope the first full week of fantasy baseball action treated you well. I had mixed results. I mean, I guess odds are if you’ve got multiple teams then you probably had mixed results yourself unless you drafted carbon copy squads. Just fyi, I’m writing this before games have finished Monday […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!
Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.
I can’t offer you proof (it’s only been a week and a half) But you’re going to face a moment of truth (when you make FAAB/WW cuts) It’s hard when you’re always afraid (to let go of your pre-season favorites) You just recover when another belief is betrayed (is it time to move on?) So […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?[brid autoplay=”true” video=”992228″ player=”13959″ title=”BSH_Week3″ duration=”189″ description=”undefined” uploaddate=”2022-04-13″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/snapshot/992228_th_1649868574.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/sd/992228.mp4″]
Freddie Freeman (1-for-3, 2 runs and 1st homer) wasted no time making the Braves regret the way they treated him this offseason. First at-bat, Freddie Freeman stepped towards the box, but first he asked to see the mic the umps use to announce the bad calls they make to the crowds. Freeman leaned into the mic and said, “Tell Acuña it’s mutual, I don’t like him either,” then took the 2nd pitch of the at-bat to deep left, the oppo taco as they call it in Mexico, and his first home run of the year was tagged. As he sashayed across the plate, he snapped and said, “Braves ain’t gettin’ none of this.” Snap! Speaking of which, what do you call every image of Freddie Freeman? Tooth pics. Take it, Highlights! It’s yours! Freeman sure has some teeth, right? The molar the merrier with that guy. Stop stop, he’s got fillings too! Okay, I will stop reading bad joke posters at a kiddie dentist now. So many games were postponed, but some still to go over, tooth be told. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?The truth about a lot of the big-name fantasy sports touts is that they argue incessantly in the comments section. Right now on the Tweeters there are two major projectionists — actually three because two of them are fighting over the interpretation of the third projectionist — about how much of a sample size you need before making definitive statements about improvement. The short answer: it’s inconclusive. The long answer (which is me summarizing a decade of data collection): about 400 IP worth of pitching. This is why you see the ol’ standards like Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole always appearing at the top of the Streamonator and other Razzball tools — we know how to expect Scherzer and Cole to perform, but we don’t know how to expect Nestor Cortes to perform. You simply can’t know the wild card pitchers when there’s no data on them. Like I pointed out last week, if you based your team on Week 1 SP returns in 2021, you would have abandoned Max Scherzer after his 4 HR allowed outing and dropped him for Kyle Gibson, the eventual SP4 for most non-winning fantasy teams.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Attention Razzballers! The Not Not News Podcast is now available 100% free of charge! Subscribe to the Not Not New Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. It’s your favorite hour of the week! The Not Not News is back with all the Billy Hurley jokes and Grey Albright cackles you […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello there, RazzSlammers! The season has begun to progress in earnest, and it’s time we all take stock of our teams and what help we might need. To the rescue: the Waiver Wire! Unlike “standard” NFBC leagues, we don’t have weekly FAAB runs in the RazzSlam… after all, you drafted 42 players! But, unlike most […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Happy Easter/Passover/holiday weekend Razzballers: Easter Weekend is upon us at my household, meaning there is plenty of delicious food/drink to be consumed, talk of World Series aspirations are still reasonable for my fellow Yankee and Met fans, and my grandfather will be asking me about the merits of investing in Bitcoin. Great times! We’ve had […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to MLB DFS, Money Monday edition. It’s me, Cousin Timmy, and I’m here to keep your Monday nights raw (wrestling fans know). If you ate too many Cadbury eggs last night you are likely reading this on the toilet. Just keep your phone clean for the sake of the rest of us. The main […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?[brid autoplay=”true” video=”992228″ player=”13959″ title=”BSH_Week3″ duration=”189″ description=”undefined” uploaddate=”2022-04-13″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/snapshot/992228_th_1649868574.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/sd/992228.mp4″]
What transpired this preseason: Coolwhip reached out to me to see if I was going to write a Nestor Cortes sleeper, because he liked him and wanted to write one. I said, “Nah, I don’t think I’m going to write one, but I like him too!” What Coolwhip didn’t know, what no one could’ve known, I hadn’t looked at Nestor Cortes at all. I said I liked him because Coolwhip said he liked him. Then I waited for Coolwhip to give us his Nestor Cortes sleeper, and, after he did, I said, “Yeah, exactly, that’s what I would’ve wrote too!” Stats and image provided by Coolwhip:
“(M)ain thing to note is in 2021 Nestor started 14 games. Before that, he had only started a grand total of… (carry the 1… multiply by square root…) 2 games. 2 games, that’s it. So this was a bit of a new foray for him. It’s not often that you go from the pen to starting and your numbers improve drastically. Not just a little mind you; but by every conceivable measure, he got better. His K-rate went up, BB-rate went down, and he cut home runs in half while suppressing hard contact and limiting runners.”
Nestor did this by scrapping the sinker and curve, and replacing them with a cutter. Also, he varies his release point a lot, like nearly every pitch. I half expect him to throw right-handed occasionally. Yesterday, Nestor Cortes (5 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 12 Ks, ERA at 0.00) threw an immaculate 4th inning, and changed his release on nearly every pitch. This is magic:
Nestor Cortes. Immaculate Inning. ? pic.twitter.com/WTJLVwOXv5
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 17, 2022
In 9 1/3 IP this year, Nestor Cortes has 17 Ks. That’s in two starts, or one Nolan Ryan start. Pardon me while I put my eyes back in my head. Nestor Cortes’s 16.4 K/9, 0.96 BB/9 and -0.26 FIP is pretty good, if you’re lacking for adjectives. You really have to be impressed with Nestor so far this year, he’s looking as brilliant as me blindly agreeing with Coolwhip. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome back to the bar, good patrons! What will it be today? Can I make you a vodka gimlet? Perhaps a Cuba Libre? Let’s take a look together at the Top Shelf of this week’s two-start pitchers (and the cheaper stuff, too). The Top Shelf Pitcher First Start Second Start Robbie Ray, SEA TEX KC […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?The Cleveland Guardians are not expected to win their division this year nor sneak into the playoffs by grabbing that sixth spot.
The expectations are low because the team is so young. But if they were playing in a dynasty keeper league, the Guardians would be the prototype team. On the current roster, only two players are over the age of 30 – relievers Bryan Shaw and Anthony Gose. The everyday lineup features only two players older than 27-years-old – third baseman Jose Ramirez and catcher Austin Hedges, who are both 29.
So when it comes to finding keepers for the rest of the season and beyond, the Guardians are a great team to examine. Owen Wilson and Steven Kwan are two players who quickly come to mind if you are thinking about additions to your team.
Right now, fantasy owners are buying into Kwan a lot more than Miller. Miller is currently rostered in 36% of Yahoo leagues and 30% of ESPN leagues. Meanwhile, Kwan is rostered in 78% of Yahoo leagues and 74% of ESPN Leagues.
Is the fantasy playing public making the right call?
Time to find out.
Please, blog, may I have some more?This is one of the most annoying weeks of the season to write about streamers. It’s always tough to gauge whether we should use stats from last season or build off the two weeks of stats we’ve developed this year. Understanding who these pitchers are is what really matters because that’s the ultimatum for picking […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?