The Mystery

I love a good mystery. So why not start my preseason writing off with a mystery? That mystery is, what the [bleep] are we supposed to do with Nestor Cortes? He came on to the scene last year and found something magical. After some unimpressive showings before he put a spell on hitters last year with great effect. Nestor was magnificent!

Season IP ERA WHIP FIP K% BB% K-BB% AVG BABIP HR/FB
Before 2021 79 6.72 1.71 6.69 21.7% 10.3% 11.4% 0.297 0.327 22.6%
2021 93 2.90 1.08 3.78 27.5% 6.7% 20.9% 0.216 0.265 11.3%

So main 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. Everything you could possibly want. Mama mia!

The plot thickens…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Mon 8/4
ARI | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | ATH | CHW | OAK | SEA | WSH

Grey Albright and B_Don are here to go over Grey’s top 20 overall rankings. Grey mentions how you should view his rankings and tiers, and how to use them during your draft. B_Don and Grey then talk about the players in each tier. B_Don asks the annoying questions you all want to hear. Every player has some kind of flaw if you dig in, and Grey provides his response to those concerns. From ADP to team build, get your answers here.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Yesterday, I went over the top 10 for 2022 fantasy baseball. Today, I throw out preconceived notions, drink some potions and lather up my body with lotions, as I sloppily slip and slide my way through a very precarious top 20 for 2022 fantasy baseball. This top twenty is a blind man playing Twister. Half the time, I’m grabbing for things not knowing if they’re there or not. I legit think this top 20 could go countless other ways. Is countless a widowed Countess? No, it’s not, it’s a confusing AF top 20 for fantasy baseball. All the positional rankings will live under the 2022 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s Steamer’s 2022 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2022 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. The projections in this post are, as always, mine. (But if you click on a player’s name, you see Steamer’s projections for that specific player. It’s magic!) Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 for 2022 fantasy baseball:

NOTE: All 2022 fantasy baseball projections are based on a 162-game season, and will be until we hear definitively there will be less games, due to the CBA. Also, I’m going on the assumption the NL is getting the DH.

NOTE II: All my rankings are currently available on Patreon for the price of a Starbucks coffee, if you get one of those extra grande frappuccino jobbers. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out over the next month, and get them all now.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Wooooow, fans said in awe as 18-year old Ohtani Shohei rounded the bases after hitting a home run. The opposing right fielder jumped from the warning track onto the outfield fence, searching for the home run ball’s landing spot. What the hell was that, a voice said in disbelief when the ball landed outside of the ballpark, an estimated 460 feet from home plate. It had cleared the defense-in-depth style outfield wall that separated high school baseball players from the industrial and commercial buildings nearby. Behind home plate, a high school girl jumped from her seat to snap a photo of Ohtani when he crossed home plate. As Ohtani left the field of play, the umpire tossed a fresh ball towards the catcher almost as an afterthought.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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“Today is a day that will live in infinity,” as FDRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….said. It will also live in your hearts and minds for the next few months as you constantly check the 2022 fantasy baseball rankings for updates on projections, rankings and just other little fun bits of tid.

Before we get into the top 10 for 2022 fantasy baseball (though I imagine every single one of you has skipped this intro), I’m gonna lay down some exposition. Here’s where you follow us on Twitter. Here’s where you follow us on Facebook. Here’s us on Youtube. Here’s us on TikTok (where we have one video of me singing Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls to boba-ristas.) Here’s our fantasy baseball player rater. Here’s our fantasy baseball team name generator. Here are all of our 2022 fantasy baseball rankings.  Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2022 fantasy baseball. And here is a picture of my son. What a punim! You may not get all of those links in such a handy, easy-to-use format again this year, so make proper note. (Unless you just go to the top menu on this page that says “Rankings” and click it, but semantics, my over-the-internet friend, semantics.) Also, here’s Steamer’s 2022 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2022 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Rudy’s on top of it this year! Sorta, he says to note it’s Version 1.0, and tweaks will happen over the course of the next few weeks. Also, Rudy’s Draft War Room is ready for all subscribers.

Now my expositional half insists I breakdown some generalizations about these 2022 fantasy baseball rankings. The 2022 fantasy baseball rankings will be an ever-evolving mass like the blob. This fantasy baseball top 10 for 2022 list is as of right now and could potentially change with a big injury or Fernando Tatis Jr. quitting baseball because he’s bored with being the best and wants to play competitive Mahjong. (I’m not sure yet where Tatis would rank in my Mahjong Top 10.) So while it is the 2022 fantasy baseball gospel, take it with a tablet of salt. Tomorrow we will cover the rest of the top 20 for 2022 fantasy baseball, then we will go around the horn with a top 20 (more like 60) list for every position. Then for pitchers and outfielders, I’ll turn the dial to 100 (more like 140). Listed with each player are my 2022 projections. Did I consult with anyone else who does projections? It would be ignorant not to, but, in the end, these are my projections. Players need 5 games started at a position to get included in the positional rankings. If I put someone in a position, that is why. Well, that is whyahoo, actually. Finally, as with each list in the 2022 fantasy baseball rankings, I will be mentioning where I see tiers start and stop. I look at tiers like this, if Tatis and Juan Soto are in the same tier, it doesn’t matter if one guy is ranked 1st and one guy is ranked 3rd, they’re both very close. It comes down to personal preference. I would prefer the guy at number one over the guy at three, but you do you, I’ll do me and let’s hope we don’t go blind. Anyway, here’s the top 10 for 2022 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Some great prospects are about to find a home on the Rangers. I wrote about their future at some length back on December 1 after they’d signed Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jon Gray and Kole Calhoun. Click here if you’d like to mosey through their organizational outlook in Prospect News: Texas Rangers Wrangle a Future For Their Jung

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Monday begins the 2022 fantasy baseball rankings and I cannot wait for you to feast your eyes on these. Or eye, for our one eye-patched reader. Hey, Google analytics tells us everything. Argh, matey! Also, hello to our reader in Mauritius! The movie about your people was very interesting, though I honestly thought The Mauritanian was going to be in outer space and the title was a typo. Enough of that! So, I left myself one spot for one more fantasy baseball sleeper. After finishing my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings (which are available on Patreon already), I went back through all of the rankings for one guy who was jumping out as being way above in my rankings, and, well, there were about hundred guys. But I only left myself one spot for one player who I am clearly more jazzed about than others, according to NFBC ADP. Now, the NFBC ADP I’m looking at is very specific, because it’s 15-team, mixed, but if Adolis Garcia has an ADP of 160 there? Well, he might actually be ranked even later when Yahoo and ESPN drop theirs, which means I like him a lot more. Let’s take a journey through my mind and find out why Grey, in all his very special third person-esque glory, likes Adolis Garcia so much. So, what can we expect from Adolis Garcia for 2022 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Bailey Ober gave up a lot of home runs. 20, to be exact. That was only in 92 1/3 IP. His 1.95 HR/9 made me choke on my boba. That alone is a crime punishable by “not getting a fantasy baseball sleeper post written for him.” Bailey Ober’s pitches generated a 19.7 Launch Angle. If you’re going to allow a 45.8% fly ball rate, which would’ve been 2nd in the league, if he qualified, you kinda can’t be allowing a Ding Dong Parade. By the way, a Ding Dong Parade is the all-male revue your wife went to during her bachelorette party; don’t shoot the messenger. “Ding Dong” Parades is a weak-hitting shortstop in the Mexican Fall League, different guy. Also, a Ding Dong Parade is not what you want to see from a pitcher or Bailey Ober’s xERA at 4.48. Reach for the Remote Control, get Ober off my TV.

Bailey wasn’t like the other kids. (REMOTE CONTROL!)
Stop allowing homers is what mattered, nothing else did. (REMOTE CONTROL!)
Fantasy baseballers said “yes” but he said “no”. (REMOTE CONTROL!)
Now he’s in this game and just like that he’s down 4-0. (REMOTE CONTROL!)

I will now grin like an idiot as I try to defend why we’re even talking about Ober. Stop giving up homers, Bailey Ober! Oh my God, I just realized something, Bailey Ober is really Homer Bailey Ober. Goodbye, friends, I’m going to walk into traffic. But first! So, what can we expect from Bailey Ober for 2022 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Psyche! Before we get into the Bailey Ober sleeper post, just wanted to announce that I’ve finished my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings and they’re all available on our Patreon. Anyway II, the Bailey Ober sleeper:

Please, blog, may I have some more?