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Usually I take Saturday pretty light. Wash my hair, get a pedicure, the normal things, but holy schnikes?! Corbin Burnes did what? Mr. Burnes made a vest out of Cleveland. That’s what he did. On Saturday, Burnes went 8 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits, 1 walk, 14 Ks, ERA at 2.25, and Josh Hader (1 IP, 0 ER) finished the no-hitter. Can a guy win the Cy Young off of one start? We have a tool for the best starts of the year, and are you surprised to see Burnes in the top four? (Side note, interesting to see Triston McKenzie up there in the top 10. Side side note, lots of early in the year starts before they checked for Spider Tack. Side side side note, it was also before pitchers were exhausted. Side side side side, look at all those no-hitters.) As far as FIP is concerned, Corbin Burnes is having the best season since 2000. It’s not even close. It’s truly remarkable and if we talk about it from now until next March, we will not have talked about it enough. His 1.50 FIP is the best pitching season for a starter since 2000. The 2nd best is 2014 Clayton Kershaw with 1.81 FIP, and there’s only three starters below a 2.00 FIP. Of those, Corbin Burnes has the best K/9, and the 9th best K/9 since 2000. There’s no starter with a 12+ K/9 with a sub-2 FIP. His K/9 and BB/9 are 12.4 and 1.7 BB/9. Those Burnes numbers are legitimately some of the best I’ve ever seen. Let’s do a thought experiment: With deGrom injured-slash-saying-he’s-not-injured, there’s a table for one at the top of starters for 2022, does Corbin Burnes sneak into the number one slot for top starters for 2022 fantasy baseball? Even if deGrom’s healthy, I’m not sure he’s above Burnes for 2022 starters. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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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

Like a fool, I went and drafted wrong…

At the beginning of the season, I didn’t publically campaign for him (much) but I did take Blake Snell in probably a third of my 12/15 team leagues—like RazzSlam. Often I was targeting Snell, Burnes, Lynn as my SP1 from the backend draft slot. For Snell, I figured 1) the skill was still there (pitches were still decent and K rate was still good); 2) he’d won a CY in the past and was incredibly unlucky with the long ball in 2020 (29.4%); and 3) Moving out from Kevin Cash’s thumb and the AL East to the NL West and the friendly pitching atmosphere (literal and metaphorical) of the Padres’ and Petco Park would set him up for a very nice year much like Joe Musgrove, whom I did write about here before the season.

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Let’s get something out of the way right now. This is the toughest time of the season to pick up streamers for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the fact that every competitive team in your league is doing the same thing. People who are this deep into the season are inevitably going to stream just like you, and it makes the pickings extremely thin. What makes it even tougher is the fact that many of these streamers have weird workloads right now. Some of them are being pushed back and scratched, while others are being held to abbreviated three-inning outings. That drives us nuts because it’s something we can’t predict, and it’s honestly only going to get worse from here on out. With that in mind, let’s hope none of these guys find themselves in that spot!

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When it comes to the Top 25 rankings, I often penalize players who are on the disabled list because those players can’t help your fantasy team. But there is always an exception to the rule. The exception is Wander Franco.

Franco left Friday night’s game against Detroit with right hamstring tightness and was placed on the 10-day IL Saturday. According to manager Kevin Cash, Franco can be out two to three weeks, though he hopes it could be a quicker recovery. The injury couldn’t come at a worst time for fantasy owners as the playoffs have started or about to start, depending on the number of teams that make the playoffs in your league.

Despite the injury, I moved Franco into the top 10 in my rankings as he now sits at No. 9. He would be higher, but my rankings also take into account what players have done the entire season, and Franco has not been with the Rays the entire season. If he had been, he would be in the Tier 1 group.

Before suffering his injury, the 20-year-old Franco ripped a pitch up the middle at 107.5 mph to reach base and extend his on-base streak to 39 games. Franco is now four games shy of tying the record for for the longest on-base streak by a player 20-years-old or younger. In 62 games this season, Franco is slashing .285-.347-463 with 49 runs scored, seven homers, 36 RBI and 2 steals. In his last 25 games, his slash line is .347-.407-.571 with 27 runs scored, three home runs and 16 RBI.

Those stats are why Franco has climbed the rankings despite him now being injured. It’s plainly obvious he is one of the best hitting shortstops in baseball and by next year he will likely reside in Tier 1 all season. Now let’s see who else has climbed in the rankings or taken a tumble.

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Welcome to the beginning of the end, baseball fans. Playoffs in fantasy baseball are underway, and this list of two start pitchers might make or break your season. Before we get to the list, we need to take a moment to talk about the Cleveland Indians, soon to be Defenders. This name change is perfect for them because their lineup is actually, quite “offensive”, too hitters everywhere. The Indians were No-Hit yesterday for the 3rd time this season by Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader, striking out 16 times in the game. The “offensive” Defenders broke the MLB record for most times No-Hit in a season. This is a record that will most likely never be broken. Also, just so all you readers are aware, there will be no individual writeups this week. Now that, that is out of the way, lets get to the injury news.

To the news! Gerrit Cole is expected to return to the Yankees Rotation this week, they are hoping for Tuesday but we’ll see. Also, Jameson Taillon hit the 10 day IL with a tendon injury in his right ankle. Sadly, one of my favorite rookies this year Shane McClanahan was placed on the IL with lower back tightness, he pitched through it though. It looks like the Rays are just getting him rested for the playoffs. Adding to the spiraling Covid concerns of the Red Sox, Chris Sale is on the Covid IL. Also, the Astros are hopeful Zack Greinke will return to the mound for them at some point this week. And Lastly, the Cardinals are optimistic Jack Flaherty will be returning in some fashion before the season ends. So if you are in the hunt for a championship and have Flaherty, monitor his return closely. Good Luck!!

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It may be the opening Sunday of the NFL but it’s no time to be slacking on our MLB FanDuel chances to cash in.  Red Sox v. White Sox should be giving us action today, a nice breeze out to left and two SP coming off the DL equals production, especially from the White Sox side. SP Max Fried $9300 has the best matchup at home today vs the Marlins and in his last 5 games Fried has 33 innings with 30 K, 5 walks, and a 1.91 ERA

New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

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The tinkering is finished for tonight.

At this point in my highway hypnosis of staring at a spreadsheet for two weeks, I’m just hoping to park the car safely.

I’d love to discuss the work with you all, so drop a thought in the comments if that appeals to you.

The only real guide I’d offer to reading these rankings is the top group is fluid. The big two of Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Witt Jr. have built their own little neighborhood. Both should have played in the majors this year. Julio is flat out embarrassing AA pitchers. I maintain my stance that Jerry Dipoto chose foolishly when he decided to push Jarred Kelenic and slam the breaks on Rodriguez, a choice he apparently made sometime back in February and never once revisited throughout the season.

After the top two, there’s not much distance between CJ Abrams at #3 and Adley Rutschman at #8, a group that’s built in part by the injuries to Abrams and Carroll and the tanking of Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit. Can make a pretty strong case that all the healthy players in the elite eight earned a shot at major league pitching this year, but that’s baseball these days. Let’s get romantic about the rest of the list!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Look, I can’t just not see a player with the last name Kirk and just go full Trek. Plus, this is a nerd safe space, right? Y’all playing fantasy baseball, so I figure equal opportunity nerdom comes into effect. It’s not just natural law, but based on science as well. Totally. And while this will not turn into the usual derivative Trek conversations (Picard vs. Kirk! Star Trek vs. Star Wars! Basement living amenities vs. Garage living amenities!), I will definitely be talking about one Alejandro Kirk (Latino Kirk from the Mirror Universe?) and what this young player can do for you in the closing weeks of the season. Will it be good? Will it be bad? I mean, the player or the post? Both could be diametrically opposed answers… actually, now that I think about it, let’s just move on…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It is the final countdown and that means players are jumping up and down the 2021 rest of season hitter rankings.  There are two main drivers to this known affectionately as the ‘Mondesi Momentum’ and ‘Trout Trouble’.  Time to break down the categories:

The ‘Mondesi Momentum’ represents those players making a late season surge. For a variety of reasons, they may have missed time earlier in the year.  It might have been an injury, minor league service time manipulation or a long paternity leave.  Whatever the case, if you have held onto or picked up these players, they will be the reason you close out the season strong.

The ‘Trout Trouble’ is an all too common story this time of the year. Due to lingering injuries and rehabilitations several players just are not going to make it back to the lineup.  Specifically for teams out of contention, there is little reason to rush a player such as Mike Trout back to only risk further injury and uncertainty heading into the offseason.  This trouble means it is time to cut bait.

Keeping these official categories in mind, the top 100 hitters for the rest of the 2021 fantasy baseball season are as follows:

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Everybody and their grandma is pumped for NFL DFS — it’s easier, there’s less variance, and you can actually count on your aces returning non-negative value. Thanks Robbie Ray! In baseball, we send our ace pitchers out against one of the worst teams in the league — that’s Robbie Ray and the Baltimore Orioles, eff-why-eye — and we get the yawnstipating line of 4 2/3 IP, 3 ER…and 8K. OK, I’m sort of fine with that. But as the most expensive pitcher on the DFS slate, I was less than thrilled to see him labor against some AAA-players and get into a verbal fight with the Orioles’ manager. Blah. But today’s a new day, and we’ve got a new ace who hopefully won’t fall apart at the seams.

New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

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Red Sox first baseman slash DH slash pink hat heart throb Bobby Dalbec continued his power barrage Friday night going 2-for-4 with a solo home run, his 21st, and a triple with two runs scored. Bobby D now has three dingers (we call them Bobby Dal-jacks) in the past three days and he’s done nothing but mash since Boston gave him full reign of the first base job post-All Star break. He was a BUY this week, and I while told you to grab him back in June, I’ll admit that was a bit premature. Bobby is a little bit, hmm, how do I say this nicely, “raw”, as his 138 strikeouts in 368 at bats clearly illustrates. But yo, the power is real, and it is spectacular. Something has clicked for him post-All Star break, maybe it was the hitting coach, maybe it was the COVID, maybe it was the Kyle Schwarber trade threatening his playing time. Whatever it was, he slashed .339/.431/.774 in August with seven Dal-jacks and 21 RBIs. He also struck out just 18 times, his lowest monthly total all year. His September has looked a lot like his August so far, .321/.387/.786 with a 1.205 OPS. He’s also taking more pitches, and this is resulting in him getting the pitches he wants to hit into the stands. He’s got 11 walks since the start of August, and he had just 13 walks through the first four months of the season. I’m saying the kid is figuring it out, on the job, at a crucial time for this Red Sox team in a wild card race and he is delivering. Sure the Ks are still there–ten strikeouts in the past 10 games, but like I said the power is legit-piece, and his .247 isolated power is one of the tops in the league. I don’t know what your fantasy team needs at this point in the season, and tbh you might be better off checking out Razzball’s Fantasy Football Rankings, but if you need power–Bobby D has got you covered. He’s hitting .317 over the past two weeks with 5 homers and 11 RBIs (9 homers in his past 23 games) and should continue to get plenty of chances while the Red Sox chase the postseason. Grab him if you like home runs–this kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!

Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:

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Howdy, Razzfolks!

We’ve reached the end, just about. Playoffs start Monday in Yahoo standard leagues. Kudos to you if you’re still alive and breathing, and I hope us ne’er-do-wells here at Razzball helped you along the way. Or at least I hope we entertained you, if nothing else!

Chicago White Sox fans have a lot of good news coming their way, and doubly so if you’ve got one or more of these guys on your fantasy teams. Let’s see what else this week brought us on the injury front:

Please, blog, may I have some more?