While collective bargaining is going about as well as my teenage driving tests, there are a few things we can expect with a level of certainty.  We will see increased minimum salaries, the removal of the qualifying offer system, and most notably for our 2022 fantasy baseball season the implementation of the universal DH.  While this is not a shock, the lockout has made it a challenge to narrow in on how those positions will be filled.  A number of teams will simply rotate through their bench to keep players fresh but a handful already have their tailor-made DH in-house.  The increased playing time means increased intrigue for the observant fantasy owner.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Tue 8/5
ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | OAK | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH

Howdy-do, Razzfools!

I thought it might be useful to survey the current reliever landscape in early drafts thus far. This one isn’t gonna have much in the way of deep dives or sleeper picks or what have you. It’s just a look at what’s happening right now so you can start planning your strategy a lil bit. That’s all. And what’s been happening so far has been…interesting, to say the very least.

There are usually two schools of thought regarding drafting saves. You either reach early and to secure them, or you just fade and then play the wire when needed. Depending on the league setup, of course. But by and large, you got your “get your saves early!” types and the “every team has a closer (or two!), so just fade saves!” types.

What’s interesting about this year is just how early people in Camp A have been on NFBC. And some of that is bleeding into standard Yahoo formats, as well, but certainly not to the same degree.

I’m gonna try to cater to two audiences here. So, if you’re not interested in NFBC formats, skip to the Yahoo section, and vice versa. Some (or maybe all) of what I’ve got for you may or may not be useful. Could be stuff you already know or do, but I hope either way you see it as a good refresher of things to consider when getting ready for the 2022 fantasy baseball season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Well, it’s been another tough week to be a baseball fan, Razzball friends, as instead of watching pitchers and catchers report to spring training, we’re left with radio silence when it comes to good news on the labor negations front. I understand the reaction some fans of both real and fake baseball are having: choosing to ignore it entirely for the time being, until and unless there are positive developments on the lockout front, but I hope you’ll join me in taking the opposite approach. While I too have felt like just sitting in a corner and sobbing at the thought of another year of losing baseball games that count, I’m pressing forward and instead, trying to take advantage of the extra draft prep time with no outside noise, ‘best shape of his life’ reports, or trade rumors. Yes, I’ll need to change my rankings and perceptions of player value significantly once I have more injury news, free agent signings happen, and we start to figure out what rotations and starting lineups will really look like. But because once things do move forward, we can expect a mind-blowing amount of information in a short amount of time, I want to have a good idea of how I feel about players now so that I can adjust my thoughts based on all of said new information once it arrives.  I don’t want to overreact to every snippet of news or put too much stock in a few at bats or pitches thrown once we finally have some exhibition games to watch. Since Grey has finished all of his rankings, why not enjoy taking your time perusing them and figuring out how to turn them into your best possible fantasy baseball team, while others are sitting around unprepared, just waiting for tidbits of news that may not come for a while.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

In honor of the MLB lockout, I walked into a Starbucks, wearing a full baseball uniform, with stirrups, and ordered one of those 45-ingredient drinks that all the baristas hate to make, then said my name was Rob Manfred, and started screaming, “Don’t tell anyone the MLB Commissioner was in here! Do you hear me?! Don’t you dare tell anyone! Don’t call TMZ and send them the video you’re taking of me right now! Don’t you dare tell them Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner, didn’t tip you either! That’s HIPA, so don’t you dare tell everyone any of that!” Then I stepped out of the store with my $37-dollar unicorn Frappuccino, took a big sip and realized they prolly spit in it. So, me and a bunch of Razzball commenters got together and took part in an NFBC Draft. I’m down to start another draft too, if there’s demand. Just ping the comments with a note that says something like, “Didn’t I see you in a Starbucks ordering a unicorn frappe?” I’ll make signups for the draft available on our Patreon first. For this draft, I used my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings (dur) and so did others, which screwed me real good, especially when someone drafted Steven Kwan like 150 picks before his ADP. You know who you are! This left me with a total shizzshow of an outfield, so that’s fun! Well, we’ll leave something for the recap, shall we? Yes, we shall! Anyway, here’s my NFBC draft recap; it’s a 15-team, two-catcher, draft and hold league that goes 50 rounds and has no waivers:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Over the past few weeks, we have been gradually building up to the top-25 college prospects for the 2022 MLB Draft, a process that will finally reach completion today. *giggles* These 25 names will stay in place as I provide regular Collegiate Corner updates throughout the season before releasing the Complete College Top 100 as your pre-draft guide this summer. Today, we’ll cap everything off with three more college position players, one right-handed pitcher, and one southpaw. It’s an installation I like to call “Young Pallettes Love Sprinkles,” a concept we all know to be true. The youths of today and yesteryear love those little balls of corn syrup, sugar, cornstarch and wax mixed with artificial flavors and coloring. Wax — how delicious! Hopefully, you find reading about prospects No. 21-25 just as appetizing and digestible as sprinkles, because you won’t want to write off these final five names. A lot is going to shift in these rankings over the next five months, and any one of these players could potentially vault into the top 10. Let’s finish this thing off in style, with the 2022 college season set to officially open on Friday.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

As I lay on my belly, adorned atop my plush rug with the head of Adam Silver, I noticed a glint of light out of my left eye. I slowly turned my neck like a sloth and began to smirk. One beacon after another began to Buddha Flame, producing a runway of light that could mean only one thing; baseball season is upon us.

I have been summoned to once again don my Waste Management uniform and dive into the trash cans of the fantasy streets to try and unearth some useful pieces of information. Grey and the fantastic crew at Razzball baseball got you covered with everything else, but you already know how dope they are.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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The best 2022 fantasy baseball team is a misnomer. Thankfully, none of us know what misnomer means. Sounds to me like someone tentatively wants to date the Travelocity Gnome’s daughter, “Miss Gnome, er, you wanna grab some boba and chill?” Miss Gnome brushes back her hair and bats her eyelashes that are almost as long as her two-and-half foot body, “I’d love to,” but her voice is high-pitched, which is a turnoff, so you cancel plans with her repeatedly until she gets the hint. Sorry, Miss Gnome, I like my women’s voices low like their stature. Any hoo! So the title is a bit of a superlative. What was I gonna say, “The Mostly Kinda Good Fantasy Baseball Team?” You’ll get over your scoffing; I have faith in you. This is the best 2022 fantasy baseball team that I can put together when drafting from my top 100 for 2022 fantasy baseball and top 500 for 2022 fantasy baseball. Honestly, I could draft another 25 teams from those lists, and they’d all be different, but equally terrific… Well, one of the twenty-five would only be sorta terrific, but it would be really hard to tell which one that is. If I took Adalberto Mondesi in the 4th round, everything after would change. If I took Trea Turner in the 1st round, everything after would change. I’ve previously gone over my 2022 fantasy baseball draft prep for the first few rounds and pitchers pairings. For this exercise, I’m taking Ronald Acuña Jr. in the first, because, well, people complained previously I always did this post by taking the first pick, so I’m switching it up, like when you combover your hair right instead of left. My “Best Fantasy Baseball Team” from last year is hilariously awful, and I’ll show you that team later in this post. Oh, it’s so so so so so so bad. I mean, it puts everything in question. Like, was I dropped on my head last preseason?

As for this year’s best fantasy baseball team, until pick 100, I’m taking one guy somewhere in every fifteen picks. It would be nice if I was in a league where someone drafted Gerrit Cole and deGrom in the first round and I was able to take Shohei Ohtani in the 2nd round (which is likely in some leagues), but since Acuña and him are in my first 12 picks, according to the rules I’ve set up for myself, I can’t take them both. Then, as we all know, once you get into the 100s, there’s wide gaps between ADP and where players are actually taken. People tend to look at team need over value. So for this exercise, once I get to pick #101, I’m going to pick two players every twenty picks. Finally, because there is so much latitude in the latter rounds, I gave myself free rein to fill up my team after pick 200. Throughout the draft, I also gave myself the ability to reach to a lower draft pick, but not reach forward. Or reach around, if you’re feeling frisky. It should still be my ideal team…or not. Let’s see, shall we? Bee tee dubya, this team is a 12-team, 5×5, one catcher, 5 OFs, MI, CI, 1 UT, 9 P, 3 bench, just like the Razzball Commenter Leagues (go sign up, you Big Chungus). Anyway, here’s the best 2022 fantasy baseball team:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

This post picks up where we left off Sunday when I posted the Top 25 Outfield Prospects for Dynasty Fantasy Baseball in 2022. While we’re here, I might as well include a quick link to all my work this off-season: 2022 Fantasy Baseball Prospects, the Minor League Preview Index. It’s been fun to explore the game system by system then position by position. Starting pitchers are coming up next, followed by relievers in one of my favorite articles to build every year (I’ve been working on it for weeks) before we ring in the new minor league season with a fresh list of Top 100 prospects. Can’t wait! This particular list could’ve gone on forever (in the sense that “forever” refers mostly to a pretty damn long time), but I stopped at sixty to avoid overstaying my welcome (I hope). If someone you expected to see isn’t on here please drop a line in the comments section.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

For 2022, the weekly SAGNOF piece will be focusing mostly on the neverending search for stolen bases. Every week I will help you, the reader, to parse the waiver wire and track down the next player who will underwhelm in all categories except for speed. However, now we are in the magical fantasy land that is the offseason, where everyone is going to steal 20 bases and your latest build is destined to be one that leads the league in stolen bases. Yet we, unfortunately, all know that won’t be the case.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Here’s a post that’s gonna make you wanna slap ya mama and tell her Don Magic Juan sends his best. The other day I told you how to draft your pitchers for 2022 fantasy baseball. I laid it out to you nice and simple (if you have a degree in “What The Hell Is Grey Talking About?” Not a PhD, mind you. Just a BS.) Today, we forget all that jabberwocky on the who-ha and get down to business old school-style (which means if you don’t comprehend, I will hit you over the head with a baseball bat signed by Joe Clark.) What I’m hoping to lay out to you is who do you draft 2nd, if you’ve drafted so and so first. I think it might be helpful to go through pairings for your 5 outfielders, all your middle and corner infielders too. I’m not sure I’ll have the time or patience to do them. We’ll see! Or not. Your choice. (Actually, my choice.) For easy reference, the royal we will be using the top 10 for 2022 fantasy baseball, top 20 for 2022 fantasy baseball, and the beginning of the top 100 for 2022 fantasy baseball. I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5, MI, CI, 5 OF, 1 Utility, 1 Catcher league, similar to our Razzball Commenter Leagues. (Sign up for multiple leagues, and beat the heck out of your frenemies or make new frenemies!)  Anyway, here’s some pairings for the first two rounds of 2022 fantasy baseball drafts:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

If you haven’t looked at any draft boards lately you may have missed that Hunter Renfroe is no longer in Boston. With all the drama of the CBA unfolding this winter it went a bit unnoticed; but, minutes before the lockout began the Red Sox made a deal with the Brewers and traded Renfroe for Jackie Bradley Jr and minor leaguers David Hamilton and Alex Binelas. Coming on the heels of former Brewer Avisail Garcia signing with the Marlins, Renfroe goes to the Brewers to fill the void in RF for the National League team that is soon to have a DH as well, maybe he finally sees 600+ PAs… my interest is piqued.

Please, blog, may I have some more?