They say that variety is the spice of life. First of all, who is this proverbial “they” that many keep referencing? I just need to know if they are above or below the Freemasons. Anyways, in my younger days, I would partake in a cornucopia of mental steroids. Smoking trees was often a favorite pastime. There was marijuana, hemp, and cannabinoids; similar but different. Within those groups flowed a spider web of subsections. Hemp, in particular, has three species of plant; sativa, indica, and ruderalis. There are different hemp plants for different functions; for fiber, grain/seed, and CBD. Digging deeper, the quality differs depending on a variety of factors which ultimately affects the overall experience. It’s no different in fantasy baseball. There are many paths to victory, different subsets of players to choose from, and quality is differentiated. The higher you pay, the more likely you ascertain the quality, which produces a positive experience. But what if you went binge-shopping at the grocery store while having munchies? The funds are low but you need PAs with some counting stats? As you push the cart out of the grocery store, you notice a man erected like the Tower of Pisa against the wall. He tilts his head towards you, blows out the smoke from the cigarette he just inhaled and asks, “How about some Tony Kemp?”

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Wed 8/6
ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK

In the last of the series where we (I) cover the incoming NL DH class of 2022 fantasy baseball, we turn our lovely eyes West to the NL West, and today we’re joined by the great Pacific Northwesterner, Edger Martines. Edgar Martinez, Mariners’ Hall of Fame DH, wasn’t available, so I searched an online database for someone who sounds like him and who lives in Seattle.

“So, Edger Martines, what was it like being a DH? Anything these new NL DHs can gleam?”
“I work at a Chipotle.”
“That’s great! I love their rice.”

To find our NL East DH fantasy baseball recap-a-thingie click that link, and to find our NL Central DH fantasy baseball whose-he-whats-is click that. So, who are the best candidates for DH on the NL West teams, and what can we expect from them for 2022 fantasy baseball?

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Woe be to ye who love pitching prospects in dynasty baseball. Seriously. No fun to learn the hard way how tricky it is to trade a big-named pitching prospect in a strong dynasty or keeper league. Even tricker to graduate them as mainstays of a winning staff. 

I already discussed a fair bit of this in the Top 25 Starting Pitcher Prospects for Dynasty Fantasy Baseball in 2022Hitters fail, too, but they can typically be traded earlier and later than pitchers in their minor league career arc. Pitchers can be traded the week or month they get called up and then again if they’ve been really good as rookies. If you’re lucky enough to land an Alek Manoah type, you probably don’t want to trade him anyway. The Daniel Lynch types can still be moved for pennies on the dollar, but they’ve have lost at least half the perceived value they had as top 25 prospects, which, again, isn’t much in a real strong dynasty league where everyone has been burned by enough pitchers to recount the scars. 

I really should be more positive in this intro, but honestly a lot of this group is made up of players I’d trade away in a heartbeat yin my leagues. Let’s look ’em over. 

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In last week’s SAGNOF article, I looked at the state of SBs around the league from a positional standpoint. This week I wanted to dive in more from a draft cost standpoint. In order to do this, I looked at NFBC ADP for the last 30 days and used Steamer projections to find all players who are projected to have 10+ SBs. The chart below shows the number of players by round (NFBC 15 team leagues):

Editor’s Note: Make sure to check out our Razzball Commenter Leagues and sign up for one, two, three, or more!  They are free to play and the overall winner gets a Razzball gift basket.  Play against your fellow commenters, lurkers, and Razzball writers!

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Welcome back to our National League DH coverage! Joining us will be DH extraordinaire, Cliff Johnson.

“Cliff, what do you think is the hardest part of being a DH?”
“You have to be ready to play from any position.”
“Like 1st base, or catcher?”
“No, like from the far right of the bench, to the spot right next to that, to the spot right next to that, to the spot–”
“Okay, I think I got it. If DHs are always sitting, any ideas why DHs always seem to be named after places where dudes stand? There was you — Cliff. There was Stairs, and there was Chili.”
“Chili?”
“Yes, a Chili stand.”

All right, so the other day we went over the best candidates to DH in the NL East and their fantasy value. Today, you guessed it! So, who are the best candidates for DH on the NL Central teams, and what can we expect from them for 2022 fantasy baseball?

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As the lockout rages on, we can’t do anything but collectively wait with eager anticipation for baseball to begin. Seiya Suzuki meanwhile, patiently sits back and bides his time to pursue a deal here. And while he waits, we wait. Where will he sign? IF this takes too long, will he still be there?  This I swear to you, he WILL be coming. Coming off a career year just as he enters his prime in that magic age 27 season? He’ll be here ready to play.

I’ll begin this by saying projecting players is hard (nice hedging Coolwhip). We are all here just trying to make the best guesses we can based on the available data. This is even more true for foreign players coming from a different baseball meta than state-side players. Sometimes the skills translate to the MLB meta, and sometimes they don’t. There are subtle differences in mechanic philosophy, pitching strategy, batter goals, team dynamics… etc. Some things are just hard to account for. Some skills however aren’t. They translate no matter where you come from, and no matter where you go. And after some digging, I’m beginning to believe Seiya Suzuki has it.

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Last week we covered why you should join an RCL, so this week let’s start covering what to do once you’re in there.  To be honest, this has all been covered somewhere on the site over the years, most often by Rudy. If you haven’t been playing in RCLs though, I could see how some of this has been glossed over, so I’ll try to consolidate some info for the newbies.  Grizzled RCL vets can feel free to skip this and just go sign up for leagues at the end of the post.  We’ll just be covering the basics for anyone still timid about jumping in the RCL waters.  

QUICK NOTE: I need our most frequent commenters to drop me a line in the comments and join the Frequent Commenter League.  Just comment below and I will email you an invite to the email address you use to comment with.

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So, the preseason looks like this usually: Update a post from last year with a find and replace for “2022 fantasy baseball,” do a schluffen, and wake me up in time for Opening Day. This year: Is there going to be an Opening Day? Then, I lower my head and walk off, tears rolling down my cheek. Slowly at first, then the tears pick up steam, and now it’s Niagara out of my tear ducts. As I pass a group of snickering kids, I scream, “My contact lenses are bothering me! Respect your elders!” So, since we have a little bit more time — and hopefully only a little bit of time — let’s take a moment and look at each NL divisional team and whom they will likely trot out there as their DH. Trot Nixon? No, that horsey is on a farm upstate. Geez, that sounds like he did a well-choreographed handshake with his maker. He’s just retired. About fourteen years now. Why is this post about Trot Nixon? Hard to say! So, who are the best candidates for DH on the NL East teams, and what can we expect from them for 2022 fantasy baseball?

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Hidey-ho neighborino! Is that phrase trademarked or just very, very old? Fine, let’s dismiss the formalities and get straight to the nitty-gritty: men who throw balls. Hard. We’re at the point in the pre-season where we understand that the MLB and MLBPA are definitely far, far away from any sort of agreement on a contract. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s actually a “realistic” contract that’s been shared between the groups and we’ll see that contract appear the first week of March, just in time for a shortened spring training and perfectly-timed Opening Day. But that’s just me spitballing labor negotiations, and what do I know other than the chords to every song on Green Day’s Dookie album? I suppose I know pitchers somewhat well, and wouldn’t you know it — I’ve got a pitcher listicle for you! A Pitchsticle!

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I’m a little uneasy about putting out rankings at this stage of the game given the uncertainty surrounding the start of the MLB season, but I know many of you need to make some decisions about keepers and are probably starting to think about drafts. I strongly recommend that your league considers delaying any keeper deadlines and solidifying a draft date until the start of the season is more of a certainty. A lot can happen between now and Opening Day and that will directly affect player values. Those of you that read my posts over the years know that I am a numbers guy. My rankings are based on my estimations. Estimations are my version of projections. However, I have not yet started to formulate my estimations given the aforementioned MLB climate. Luckily for me, and you, Rudy, perhaps the best in the business, has generated projections. I think I might have broken a record for the number of commas in that last sentence. Almost certain it was bad grammar. Today’s rankings are based on a proprietary blend of those projections and my patent-pending algorithms.

I don’t often do ranking tiers, but when I do, I share them with you.

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