Not that long ago, I remember hearing a story. One I will recount for you here, but you can’t tell anyone else. Promise? Okay, there was this guy Brandon Bielak, and he was real into attachment parenting and had to put up with his stupid father, Nick, and dopey brothers, Tony and Joey Lawrence — Whoa. Well, the Teen Beat on, and I’m reading this from an old TV Guide with Miss Piggy on the cover, can you tell? Brandon Bielak is an enigma. Nothing exists on him, besides Matt Roush’s blurbs. Confession Alert! I used to collect TV Guides. What an absolute nerd. Any hoo! Bielak was found on waivers by me (or was it in an abandoned refrigerator — wait, wrong show), and he went 5 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 1.76. He works with a 94 MPH fastball, and a ton of secondary pitches with the curve hooking hard, and looking especially nice. He’s very serviceable, bordering on more. He could be a back-end fantasy starter for years to come. Now, I’ve streamed this guy a few times, and Streamonator thinks Bielak next start is even better — with no Big Bang in sight. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday 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 Fri 8/8
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

Sequels are rarely better than the original. Caddyshack II and all the Karate Kids come to mind, but there have been many instances when the new surpassed the old. The Dark Knight, Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2, and X-Men United are but a few. The same dynamic has played out in the baseball world as well. Pudge Rodriguez was a Hall of Fame catcher. His son Dereck? Not so much. C’mon? There’s a reason it’s named the Hall of Fame. Vlad Guerrero and Craig Biggio were both Hall of Famers and have sons in the big leagues now. Cavan and Vlad Jr. have just started their baseball careers, but the probabilites are low that they surpass their father’s exploits. But, but, but….that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, as Ken Griffey Sr. was a three-time All-Star, but Griffey Jr. was elected to the Hall of Fame. So what can we make of Mike Yastrzemski‘s hot start to the Rona-infested season of 2020? Will he be but another run-of-the-mill sequel or are there signs that he’s on his way to eclipsing grandpa Carl’s 3,419 hits, 452 home runs, and Hall of Fame career?

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The season is cruising along and just like every year before this, Giancarlo Stanton has hit the IL. Last week I touched on Mike Tauchman saying, “If Gardner continues to struggle at the dish, don’t be surprised if Tauchman gets extra at-bats in his stead.” Turns out it was a Stanton injury that opened to door to regular ABs for Mike Tauchman. In Saturday’s doubleheader, Tauchman played both games, batting 6th and 7th. Looking back to 2019, the lefty slugger was decent against both lefties and righties, posting a .247 ISO vs. righties and a .413 wOBA against lefties. The most impressive part of Tauchman’s abilities is his plate discipline as he put up double-digit walk rates against both lefties and righties. If you’re still searching for speed, grab Mike Tauchman now as he’s only owned in 8.5% of ESPN leagues and 40% in CBS Sports leagues. Let’s take a look at some other players to grab to give you a head start on your opponents.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Another week of Major League Baseball and another week of COVID-19 related stories. We recorded this yesterday evening about an hour before the Mike Clevinger news drops so we just focus on Zach Plesac and the cancellation of the Cardinals games in the early part of the week. We then spend some time discussing wavier wire adds of note over the last few days and what our long term perspective is on them. It’s a packed show of 2020 shart season analysis. Yes, you read that right, it’s a shart season because it’s a mess and has no shape other than brown water.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I hope everyone had a fun second week in the Razzball Commenter Leagues.  There was some good, like Fernando Tatis Jr.  going bonkers with six homers in six games.  There was also some bad, like Giancarlo getting hurt yet again.  Juan Soto returned and immediately hit a bomb.  Maybe he can give Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez a little pep talk.

It’s the silly season for our leagues at this point (who are we kidding this whole year is silly season), where we can have huge swings in the standings based on 2-3 good days of stats, or a week of Tatis-level production.  We had 23 leagues change leaders this week and I’m a little surprised it wasn’t more.  Four teams remain in the top 10 from last week and one of them just so happens to be the first place team.  Let’s take a look at the standings as well as some trades in the RCLs this week.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

What a different season, and a move from Baltimore to southern California has worked for Dylan Bundy, $9,700. Traded for not-a-whole-lot in December, the Angels move for him didn’t even register a blip. But the Angels presumably looked at Bundy’s arsenal, saw one pitch in particular that has been difficult to hit, realized that ‘difficult to hit’ is a good quality for a pitch to have, saw he threw it about 20 percent in Baltimore, thought, “what if…” then said, in their best Boomhauer voice, “Throw that one pitch of yours more.” Dylan Bundy stared blankly. Apparently Max Stassi understood, because he started throwing down three fingers more often, Bundy is throwing his slider more often, and hitters have been hitting his pitches less often. It’s that simple sometimes. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Let’s take this lesson to heart, and also do more of what works and less of what doesn’t in our DFS lineups. Read on to find out how.

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Please, blog, may I have some more?

For next year’s All-Star Game:  The best of the AL and NL will face off against just ex-Mets players. Maybe they can get Steven Matz (4 1/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 8.20) to pitch the Home Run Derby too. He’s useless otherwise. Oh, don’t worry, Matz is a great 2nd half pitcher, so wait until you see him around September 1st. Wrong city transpo line and total mixed metaphor, but the Nats T’d off on Matz like they were his daddy and Asdrubal Cabrera (4-for-4, 3 runs, 5 RBIs and his 2nd and 3rd homer) was in charge of doling out the punishment. Then Juan Soto (3-for-4, 3 runs, 3 RBIs and his 2nd homer) was the uncle who came in to tell Asdrubal that the Mets had enough, only to wait until no one was looking and lay a noogie on them himself. Then, as Sexy Dr. Pepper left the room, he tagged in Treat Urner (3-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 2nd homer) who laid all 155 pounds of himself into them. If the Mets ever let Pete Alonso go, he might be the first to hit five homers in a game. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

What is up people! It’s Monday afternoon for most of you, and that case of the Mondays has you thinking about the next worst thing in your life. No, not the death of your dog, Peaches. Yes, that’s it! The state of your fantasy baseball pitching roster! It’s beer thirty somewhere, so crack a cold one, and let’s explore the exploding world of starting pitching in the third installment of the Top 100 Starting Pitchers series!

August 10-16, 2020

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The rocky start to our baseball season continues. The Cardinals are fighting outbreaks. Cleveland is grounding pitchers for breaking protocols. Fernando Rodney is preparing to debut. Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria. Sorry, I went full Venkman for a second. Let me wipe the ectoplasm off. There. Now to the prognostication.

  • You can write Rafael Montero’s name in pen as the Rangers closer. He’s been the only one they’ve called to close out games since his return. Seems rash I know. Welcome to fantasy baseball in 2020. Raf may have been everyone’s least favorite TMNT but he may be the best reliever to pop in the SAGNOF scene all year if he stays healthy.
  • Please, blog, may I have some more?

Well, I knew the 2020 season would be weird, but I guess I really wasn’t expecting it to be quite so grueling.  Filling in for injured players, COVID list players, and players not playing due to other teams’ COVID outbreaks has been from exhausting to downright impossible in my deeper leagues.  Carry on we must, though, as MLB continues to seemingly defy the odds and keeps checking games off the calendar.  This week, we’ll look at some NL names who may be of interest to those of us in the deep-league world.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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This week on I Can’t Believe It’s Not Not News, Global pandemic be damned, Donkey Teeth sends comedian Billy Hurley and Master of Lothario Grey Albright all around the world to get the first hand scoop on some of the wildest news stories you’ll ever hear.
Billy visited an Emu sex party out in San Francisco, for the good of show, of course. And Grey covered this week’s top story from across the pond as a man had a prosthetic penis attached to his arm. I know, you can’t believe it’s not not news, right? But it is news! 
Please, blog, may I have some more?