Welcome to June baseball everyone! Typically, I tend to fade games in Coors. Ownership tends to be very high and as a result it’s hard to gain an advantage. However, I won’t call you a fool playing hitters on those nights. If stacking is your play, I think there are some pretty interesting games. Stacking either side or both of the Minnesota/Baltimore game is a strong play. The same can be said about the Washington/Atlanta game.

I like Houston as sneaky stack as well. Nick Pivetta has enjoyed the breakout we’ve been waiting for over the last 3 seasons. However, he is still walking plenty of batters and has a predominantly fastball/slider pitch mix. This isn’t great as the Astros have the lowest K rate in baseball. Moreover, they are 8th as a team against fastballs and 1st against sliders. While I do think the Coors game will have plenty of runs scored, there are good options elsewhere.

 

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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 | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | MIA | OAK

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I’m not a conspiracy theory guy. Sure, I think Big Onion made onion rings circular rather than like French fries because they want you to use more onions with each fried treat, but other than that, and maybe 1,500 other conspiracies, I am pretty grounded in reality. Okay, I also expect to see Kate Winslet jumping on a trampoline at a Sixers’ halftime dressed as Mare of Easttown, but reality. It’s where I am, except I truly believe Great American Ballpark is somehow stuck in 2019. Balls are still flying out there. Maybe it’s the one park where they didn’t secretly instill a humidor. Either way, yesterday was bomb-ass Philly over spaghetti in Cincy. Andrew McCutchen (2-for-3, 4 RBIs, hitting .209) hit his 8th and 9th homer, and finally moved out of the leadoff spot. Great Awakenings, literally with Joe Girardi. Next up, Odubel Herrera (3-for-6, 3 runs, 3 RBIs, 3rd and 4th homer) was moved to the top of the order, and should now move on even the shallowest league’s radar. Then, Rhys Hoskins (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) hit his 12th homer, and he’s filling in for Bryce quite nicely as the three-hole hitter — Rhys is Brycely? Hmm, not bad. Even Ronald Torreyes (2-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBIs, 1st homer) got into the act. And I thought Torreyes were just in a sunken place. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Happy June!  Crazy that we’re about one third of the way through the MLB year, or, as we called it in 2020, the end of the season. After even just one year of a mini season, I kind of forgot just how long and grueling 162 games of fantasy baseball can be, and how some leagues can resemble a part-time job in terms of time and mental commitment.  Then I remembered that as part-time jobs go, this is a pretty fun one (even though it makes me want to tear my hair out multiple times per week).  My deep league waiver wires are picked pretty clean and I feel like we’re in that time of year where we have to dig extra deep just to find someone that’s better than nothing, let alone has anything resembling actual upside — but let’s carry on and do what we do here at RITD, namely take a look at some names that may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Did you know that Grey Albright is collector of art? He’s a man of sophisticated tastes and by art and sophisticated tastes I mean Alek Manoah and Chase De Jong shares on his fantasy baseball teams. What one person calls waiver wire adds, are another’s art collection. Other exciting items Mr. Albright has procured in recent weeks; an original Eric Hasse, a Seth Brown, a DJ Stewart, and even something called a Paul Fry! Move over Isabella Gardner, there’s a new collector in town. And by town I mean 3,000 miles west. Any the who… the Razzball podcast is back with loads of tidbits, advice, confirmation bias, and dad jokes.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I hope everyone was able to enjoy a long weekend this Memorial Day.  It’s the unofficial start of summer here in the north country but it was cold and rainy here, kind of like it was at many baseball stadiums this weekend.  Between the rainouts and injuries I was lucky to get in half the normal amount of Games Played for my Razzball Commenter League teams.  My Eduardo Rodriguez vs. the Marlins start got washed out only to see him get crushed by the Astros.  According to the numbers we had a down offensive week.  If you ask my teams with the Padres pitching staff, we had plenty of offense though.  Hopefully you all had sunny weekends and plenty of offense for your RCL teams.  I’m  recouped and ready to bring you the goings on for the week in the RCLs.  Son stretched his lead again this week, but another Razzball writer is hot on his trail.  We also had a couple of weekly pitching records fall, clearly not from anyone rostering Blake Snell.  All this and more in the week that was, week 8 in the RCLs:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

What’s up everybody in Somewheresville, USA and 3 people in the UK? Most of you are recovering from the three-day federal holiday known as “Truly Time” and stepping back into the virtual or real office this morning. Hopefully, I can bring a little smile to your face and cash to your pocket.

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Hope everyone had an Ian Happy Memorial Day, only without that schmohawk and all the other Cubs. One, which would’ve been nice is Javier Baez (2-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 12th and 13th homer, hitting .260). At this point, I wouldn’t mind if all my hitters were as stingy at taking walks as Baez. Hey, Juan Soto, study the Baez TechniqueTM, which is literally swinging at everything. Embrace the unknown. Baez is like a BASE jumper. Instead, he practices the act of jumping on every pitch no matter where it is thrown. The BAEZ jumper. Also, in yesterday’s game, the Padres weren’t smart enough to avoid Patrick Wisdom (3-for-4 and a double slam (2, 3) and legs (1), hitting .467). I have dreams of streaming a guy who has a game as good as Wisdom, then I wake in the middle of the night, sweating and Cougs turns to me, “What are you dreaming of?” I reply, stoically, “Having Wisdom.” Then she asks, “Is that why you’re sleeping while wearing your monocle?” And I gently remove it and say, “No, I fell asleep looking for an ingrown hair.” If you streamed Wisdom, that’s just smart stuff, and, with Bote and Hoerner out, Wisdom might benefit with more play, like when you’re competing against an 6-year-old in a Math-off. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Ladies and gentlemen, The Weekend! [insert GIF of James Bond introducing The Weeknd with a half-hearted shrug] We’ve been working double time around here to manage the holiday rush…Wait, aren’t we supposed to be getting paid double time instead of working double time? I’ll have to check with my union rep. Donkey Teeth, where you at? ENYWHEY. After 87 consecutive hours of number crunching, I’ve come to the conclusion that you should pick up Alek Manoah. Let’s get everybody caught up on the pitcher news after the Greinke graphic!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Batting average is down this time of year, all the way down to a .236 league-wide average as of the Sunday morning I searched it. I know you all think I write these as you’re reading them, much like the Late Show airing at a later time than it is filmed. My world was forever changed when I realized that I had been duped by my parents, my friends, my teachers, but most cruelly, network television. Fake media indeed. It should be called “This Afternoon, But Later” with whichever comedian you used to respect hosting. 

Anyways, batting averages are way down for most players, so you would think blurbs would have caught up to this fact. Well, good sir, let me tell you, this week…HEY I’M TRYING TO TELL YOU, YOU HAVE TO LET ME DO THE TELLING. As I was telling, this week I present a murderer’s row of batting average-based blurbs to remind you to not drink the Gallo-haters Kool Aid. There is no Mendoza line this year. It is the Year of Mendoza, so don’t let any blurb try to say, “His counting stats are there, but his bat leaves a lot to desire in the batting average department.” That is pure and utter laziness, a hack sentence meant to be a pithy put down but landing like a wet fish on a cement floor. Buddy, the entirety of baseball is leaves a lot to desire in the batting average department, not just you. Ready for some simple context?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I’ve decided to give the rankings a week off. This will allow me to work out some flaws in the matrix as I think I’ve got a good idea on how I’d like to proceed. The hardest part is calculating performance and expectations for players that have missed time as I use percentage of time played as a key variable. So I’m giving myself another week to dig in. I was actually going to take the week off completely, but then Grey cracked the whip and I was quickly reminded not to think such foolish thoughts. For those that actually read that and believe that Grey has a whip, well he probably does, but he doesn’t use it on his points league writers. At least not this one. As I contemplated skipping this post I realized that I would be disappointing my 14 readers. That’s right, you read that correctly. Based on my analytics, I am up to a career high fourteen readers. I could hardly believe the numbers myself, but as they say, the numbers don’t lie. Or was it the hips? In case you were wondering Mark Twain has often been credited with the phrase “numbers don’t lie” based on when he said “figures don’t lie, but liars figure“. Apparently the belief that this was Twain’s brainchild is not unanimous. Here’s what I say… “who cares“.

The following are the top players in point leagues at each position. In order to qualify for this list the player must have at least 150 plate appearances (100 for catcher) and not currently be on the IL. This list was ultimately decided by points per plate appearance (PPPA).

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Razzball Patreon members receive our weekly podcast where Grey cackles about the funniest news stories we’ve found over the past week, plus you get that warm fuzzy feeling of supporting your favorite fantasy sports site in all the land.

It’s your favorite hour of the week! I Can’t Believe It’s Not Not News is back again with all the Billy Hurley jokes and Grey Albright cackles you can handle. First up, Chinese men are imprisoned for taking advantage of a glitch in the KFC app allowing them to “steal” $12,000 worth of chicken.  Then Duke students invent a new toilet that takes pictures of your poop and, in an unrelated story, cicada’s butts are falling off. Finally, Billy gets up close and personal with the world’s largest penis.

Tune in now for all the laughs and Albright cackles you can handle by signing up for the exclusive Razzball Patreon Club for only $5/month, or upgrade to receive the weekly podcast plus early access to all of Grey’s 2021 fantasy baseball buy/sell posts for just $13/month!

Watch our teaser video from this week’s episode below, just a little taste of what you’ll receive by subscribing to the weekly hour long show:

Please, blog, may I have some more?