First Base is back baby! It’s good again!!!! Shout it from the mountains!!! Read this in one of those culturally appropriated Robin Williams voices. After a few lean years the first base position has some sizzle. Or perhaps this is the hangover of the catcher episode. “Catchers: The Ugly Friend/Slump-Buster of Fantasy Baseball”. Anyway, Grey, yours trues, and crews (there is no crew) chew through the top bats at first base. A serious run through 50+ names you need to know for 2021 Fantasy Baseball.
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Deep Thoughts: The Ryan, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
February 2, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball, Deep Thoughts | 3 Commentsby: Coolwhip
Far away in the land of Narnia, or in this, Tampa Bay, there lies a team still with unreleased potential. Be it a case of service clock or mathematic formula, the new regime of statistics rules these lands with an icy cold grip. It has served its purpose in recent years, and yet, also failed its master in his hour of most need this last October. Some players cannot be so easily quantified. Their measure of quality stretches beyond reason and ‘rithmetic. The new magic of formula does not always explain the world as it is. Enter one, Ryan Yarbrough. Ryan is a pitcher of unique talents for this modern era; but nothing quite new, as they are skills of the past, the old magic. Pitching with command and deception.
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Rolling In The Deep: An Early Look At Cheap Outfielders
February 2, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball, Rolling In The Deep | 12 Commentsby: Laura Holt
Happy New Year, Readers! Yes, I know it’s February, but this is my first post of the year, and as far as I’m concerned, the year doesn’t really start until I can officially start thinking about fantasy baseball. To the surprise of no one who’s ever met me, it turns out I’ve been thinking about fantasy baseball a lot lately; I’m preparing for my third draft now, after having completed my annual Thanksgiving week draft in November and another the first week of January. As always, I’m excited to reconnect with the Razzball community and hope you and yours had as good an offseason as possible, and are healthy and ready to win a fantasy championship or two in 2021. I’m crossing all of my fingers and toes that spring training and the season start safely and on time, which means it’s never too early to start looking at some potential targets for those of us who play in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues. Let’s kick it off with outfielders, as we take a look at a handful of players who currently have ADPs (according to the current NFBC rankings) outside the top 250 — but may have a sneaky something to offer, particularly in the deep league world.
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Top 80 Outfielders for 2021 Fantasy Baseball
February 2, 2021 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 65 Commentsby: Grey
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The top 80 outfielders for 2021 fantasy baseball will fall in the overall range of near 225 overall and later. This is your late 4th outfielder and 5th outfielder range, or 6th outfielder for utility spot, or 7th outfielder if you’re trying to draft so many outfielders that everyone in your league is like, “Who invited the giant dope with seven outfielders and zero corner men?” Here’s Steamer’s 2021 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2021 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. All projections included here are mine, and where I see tiers starting and stopping are included. Anyway, here’s the top 80 outfielders for 2021 fantasy baseball:
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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.
Grey Albright and Billy Hurley are back for another episode of the Patreon podcast. Whether you are signed up for Patreon for the podcast or the rankings, come listen in as guest host B_Don walks the guys through some of the best, “Not, Not News” out there. Starting with a story about an Oklahoma law maker that is trying to answer an important question, when is Bigfoot hunting season?
With all of his many ideas, we’re all surprised Grey wasn’t the person who invented airbag jeans. Continuing with original ideas, Panera has found the answer for all the winter iced coffee drinkers, bread bowl hand warmers! Why didn’t we think of that? The next story, we all agree was not a good idea as a man has turned himself into a black alien through a series of physical modifications.
We could only look at the photo of that guy so long, so, we wrap up the podcast on a lighter note as Kraft as announced that they are making a special pink, candy flavored mac and cheese for Valentine’s day. I’m sure your sweety wouldn’t throw you out of the house for making pink Kraft mac and cheese (don’t do it, it’s a trap).
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Marco Gonzales — Deal or No Deal?
February 1, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball | 4 Commentsby: everywhereblair
There’s a fair chance that a bunch of you readers out there are sitting upon a dragon’s horde-sized pile of gold right now after the GameStop madness of the last week. So, in the spirit of taking something that people don’t consider valuable and hyping it to the moon, I’m bringing you my latest Deal or No Deal article on yet ANOTHER Seattle Mariners pitcher. Wait! Don’t unfollow us! Remember the good times when Randy Johnson and F-Her were your Mariners stars? Take that level of excitement and then tamp it down to “medium reggae” while you get ready to draft your star pitcher at pick 150: Marco Gonzales.
Please, blog, may I have some more?[brid autoplay=”true” video=”707875″ player=”10951″ title=”Razzball%202021%20Draft%20Kit%20%203rd%20Base” duration=”154″ description=”” uploaddate=”2021-01-25 17:00:59″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/thumb/707875_t_1611622408.png” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/sd/707875.mp4″]
Not usually my style, but we’re taking a break from the 2021 fantasy baseball rankings for a day because of the big trade between the Rockies and Cardinals (and a shizzton of other moves). All the 2021 fantasy baseball rankings, including pitchers, are already up on our Patreon.
So, the Rockies are trying to lose, and they’re a stupid franchise. That is a bad combination. Like burning down your house for insurance money after letting your insurance lapse. The Rockies gave away their marquee player and $50 million. If this is a rebuild, and Austin Gomber is the start of–I’m sorry. I can’t even say Austin Gomber with a straight face. The Cards got Arenado for a Gomber pile of garbage. Bud Black is actually the perfect imbecile to run that team. So, on Arenado’s fantasy value, well…*swallows*…okay, so…*collects thoughts* Yeah, I moved him down in my rankings.
Arenado was traded to the Cards, and I can’t possibly tell you he’s as safe to draft in St. Louis. I don’t think the park change is as dramatic as some are making it out to be. I don’t think he’s suddenly done. I know his road/away splits, but as said many times before, guys are better at home. Even guys who aren’t in Coors. You’re staying at home, you’re surrounded by family and friends, you’re seeing your wife–Wait, are these reasons to enjoy being at home? Right, yes, I kid! Home numbers are always better. Familiarity with the park, just being more comfortable. It’s always like this; there’s stats to back it up, don’t make me pull them out. So, Arenado might not have been great on the road when he played in Coors, but you can’t just say his new home numbers will be his old road numbers. Doesn’t work like that. Trying to see the difference between him and, say, Jose Abreu, though, has become nearly impossible and Abreu isn’t a top 20 overall pick, and neither is Arenado now. I moved Rafael Devers up to the top 20 for 2021 fantasy baseball; Arenado dropped about ten overall spots (but only one spot in the top 20 3rd basemen), and I lowered his projections a bit. His new projections: 88/32/106/.279/1 in 592 ABs.
For what it’s Wuertz, here’s out Steamer projections pre-trade: 103/35/103/.286, 4th best 3B, ~20th overall. Here’s him post-trade: 86/29/85/.256; 8th-10th 3B, ~110TH overall. Um, that’s kinda gross. And, to add fire to the inferno whooshing around the Torenado, look at projections of Austin Riley vs. Nolan Arenado:
Anyway, here’s what else I saw this offseason for fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more? RazzSlam 2: The Slammening
January 31, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball, RazzSlam | 2 Commentsby: everywhereblair
Let me set the scene: it’s March 2020. Grey’s mustache is neat and trimmed, and he’s been wearing his sun hat 24/7. “At least take the hat off when you shower,” Cougs says, and Grey looks longingly out at the ocean. “The sea is the only shower I need!” he says, with dreams of visits to sushi restaurants dancing through his head. Justin Verlander is a top 10 pitcher. Steven Strasburg is healthy. Marcus Stroman is ready to pitch for the Mets. Nolan Arenado is playing for the Rockies. Nobody has heard of Randy Arozarena or him kidnapping anybody…just Miguel Sano kidnapping people.
10 months later, and Grey still hasn’t taken that sun hat off. “It’s like a mask for my brain,” he says, holding a can of Lysol at his side. Grey loads up his 2021 rankings and hoses his laptop screen down with Lysol. “GET RID OF THE BAD TAKES!” he shouts, pointing at German Marquez. But as he loads the site, he sees something so wonderful, he puts the Lysol down on his desk next to the Bartolo Colon bobblehead. He takes his sun hat off for the first time in a year, clutching it to his chest, tears streaming down his eyes. “It’s beautiful!” he says. “It’s RazzSlam SZN. There’s hope for 2021!” he shouts, only to be interrupted by his Twitter alarm alerting of another EverywhereBlair hype piece about a Seattle Mariners pitcher.
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For a couple nights this week, I drafted prospects with prospectors. Or against prospectors? Both, I suppose. Appreciated the invite from Scott White at CBS, who allowed me to come back and defend my crown from last year’s prospect mocks. That’s a joke. Not a funny one, sorry to say. Nobody wins a mock draft, let alone a prospect mock.
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Hitter Profiles: What Happens in the Outfield, Stays in the Outfield
January 30, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball | 8 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
The outfield is a special place on the ballfield. Open grasses, the last line of defense to the long ball and nobody to hear the inevitable self-scolding when something does not go as planned. Not only is it a special place, but over the years it has allowed us the opportunity to witness immensely talented defensive wizards such as Nelson Cruz, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Adams and even Jose Canseco (who had Canseco on the Razzball bingo board?).
Position scarcity is not what it once was, but outfield is still a rather deep position at the draft table. Today I profile 3 players you have specifically requested, and all are coming off strong showings in the unique 2020 season. Let us look and see if we have any diamonds in that rough outfield grass for the 2021 fantasy baseball season.
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The Saturday Morning Post: J-T-R Stays P-U-T
January 30, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball | 30 Commentsby: JKJ
Whew! What a week. Stocks wise. Baseball wise. NOLAN ARENADO WISE!!!!!!!! (Cards fan here, remember?)
Lots and lots and lots to go over this time around. The 2021 season is almost upon us and teams are scooping up names left and right. Trading names left and right. Whew, indeed!
Here’s what stood out to me lately:
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“Jiggy” is a term meaning to be cool and trendy. It’s often associated with a style of dress, and in the context of this song means dancing effectively and also making a name for yourself. It also became a term for sex.
According to the website Songfact, this is the meaning behind Will Smith’s 1997 smash hit “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It.” I hope this isn’t true because that means I’m one of the least “jiggy” people around, as I was never cool and I could never dance effectively. While Songfact’s statement may or may not be accurate, I do know that Will Smith and his album Big Willie Style played a huge role in my life. See, I grew up in a VERY religious household and profanity was absolutely not tolerated. I couldn’t listen to music or watch movies with profanity in them and God f***** forbid a curse word slipped out of my mouth. So anything that could help me fit in with my peers that didn’t also make me feel like I was going to spend an eternity in hell was really welcome in my life. Enter Will Smith. He was hip, popular, and most importantly, he didn’t use profanity in his songs. He was also the star of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which was one of the few TV shows that my Mom approved of. Will Smith was my connection to pop culture in the 90’s but there’s a new fresh prince in LA who fantasy drafters are hoping will connect them with a championship in 2021.
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