Singing a’la Ethel Merman, “I……saac Paredes!” You ever wonder if Ethel Merman was an actual merman, the fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a man and the tail of a fish? Well, I do. It keeps me up at night, actually. Cougs rolls over in the middle of the night, and sees my eyes are open, as I stare at the ceiling. Finally, she asks, “Are you thinking about Ethel Merman again?” Sullenly, I nod my head, then I turn to her, “She was so…fascinating.” Any hoo! Isaac Paredes is brought to you by me, after Podcaster Ralph brought him to my attention. True story alert! I woke up yesterday at 7 AM from a text message that read from Ralph, “I have your next Dart Throw.” Groggy (after thinking about Ethel Merman all night), I replied, “Who…?” And thus began a back and forth of Ralph telling me Jeimer Candelario wouldn’t be starting at 3rd base this year for the Tigers, and I……saac Paredes would. Back in January, which was approximately 18 months ago in real time, Prospect Itch said Isaac Paredes was a solid pick in 50-round draft and hold leagues, i.e., Draft Champion leagues. With no minor leagues this year, and Paredes on the 40-man roster, and a Latin 21 years old, and every team having a chance in a shortened season, why, I ask, not? He’s definitely going late (NFBC ADP 748), and is a guy who will be available in the deepest of leagues, even your 12-team AL-Only whosie-ma-jigs. So, what can we expect from Isaac Paredes for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

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

Well, I thought by the time June rolled around I’d be writing knowing whether or not a plan was in place for at least an attempt at baseball in 2020, but instead as I write this the immediate future of the MLB, along with much else in the world, is still painfully up in the air. As we all deal with everything going on around us, though, I don’t think it’s too self-indulgent to turn to a favorite past time/hobby/obsession/part-time job to help strengthen us mentally and emotionally — and for the readers and writers here at Razzball, that past time, of course, is fantasy baseball.

Since I’ve always been a fan of mining bad real-life MLB teams for deep-league value — attempting to find treasure in the perceived trash pile that other owners may overlook completely — we’ll take one of those bad MLB teams and see what it might have to offer, especially for us deep leaguers.  I’m choosing the Marlins, since for about five months now I’ve just had a feeling that they could be at least a bit better than folks expect, especially in fantasy terms (though in a shortened season with expanded playoffs, who knows what craziness could ensue).  I’ve gone through my rosters, and here are the Marlins I have on multiple teams, all of whom I’d consider grabbing more shares of if and when I draft more teams for 2020.  Let’s see who on this team is leading the charge to make me think there might be something to see here…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Players are saying they want to play 114 games; owners are saying 50 games; I’ve been saying 100 games, and, if I were just guessing now for the first time, I’d split 114 and 50 and still tell you 80-100 games.

The players are saying 114 games because, well, for a myriad of reasons, I imagine. One reason might be they want to seem like they’re ready to play, but owners are holding them back. This way the players can say, “We said ‘Let’s go and play,’ but the owners said, ‘Nah, you can’t have any money, we’re poor babies, so no baseball.'” Another less cynical reason might be the players just want to play, if they’re paid. What stood out to me in the players’ proposal was the contingency that a player can sit out if they want. They don’t need to be high-risk to Covid-19. They can just say, “Yo, y’all do your thing, and I’m gonna do my thing and I’ll catch you on the flip.” So, with that in mind, and, in the highly speculative market of futures and dart throws, or simply Fu DarTh, as it’s known in most circles that rely on the Force and midi-chlorians, a guy like Mike Trout could sit out this year. Fu DarTh relies on space (on the field) and a light (on players) and dark side (of the MLB this year without its best player). Jo Adell would benefit in this space (on the field) scenario. *white text on a black screen scrolls out with the MLBPA proposal, suddenly, a SWOOSH, and a giant Joe Maddon head overtakes the dark space* It will give Joe Maddon less options to use instead of Adell, too. Keep your nonsense with playing Brian Goodwin, if you must. Assume Justin Upton gets on the field, if you have to. If Mike Trout’s not there, Jo Adell will have to be. By the way, I mention this on Trout, because he’s already said he doesn’t want to play if it means he can’t leave the team to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Plus, Trout’s set for life; he doesn’t need this headache. Finally, I haven’t even mentioned how rosters will be expanded and there won’t be minor leagues this year. Even if Mike Trout plays, Jo Adell should too. So, what can we expect from Jo Adell for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Another Razzball Commenter League Update with still no Opening Day in sight.  MLB is killing me, smalls. Is there any doubt that the owners and the MLBPA will drag this out until the last possible minute?  It’s like when we have a government shutdown looming and miraculously at midnight they come to an agreement.  With the lack of news and the lack of knowing it’s still hard to do a whole lot.  I imagine our legacy leagues will all look to get drafted up in June, but until an announcement on Opening Day is made, who knows.  If you’re really itching for a league, we still have one more RCL that I’ve been pushing the draft date back and back on.  The current draft date is Thursday, June 11th at 9 PM ET.  I figured that would be close-ish to whatever is going on with the season.  If you’d like to join and draft one more team, you can click HERE and you’ll be in!  It’s that easy.  While there, you can draft all of Grey’s Dart Throws and have the all dart throw team.  I figured we could take at the RCL ADPs of all those dart throws just to see where they land, if they aren’t just 100% free for the taking.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jeff Levering (@JLevering4), radio play by play voice of the Milwaukee Brewers joins the show to breakdown the Brew Crew. We dive into the surprisingly deep rotation and bullpen. We discuss what Corbin Burnes has to do to re-discover his elite form to make a major impact in the rotation. Can Brandon Woodruff take the next step and become one of the best pitcher in the N.L.? Will Corey Knebel get his closing role back or will it be Josh Haders to lose? We also dive into the lineup and discuss how big of an impact Avisail Garcia, Brock Holt and Luis Urias can have. Can Christian Yelich hold this lineup together and provide another MVP type season? We discuss all these topic and more!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I’ve been looking forward to this post for a while.

The shut down threw the content-creation world one hell of a curveball. Many outlets have been using the dead time to catch up on unfinished 2020 organizational prospect rankings, but I completed Razzball’s back in January, so I moved on to another large project I didn’t have the winter minutes to complete but spun it forward to next season, ranking just about everyone across each position from a long-term perspective. 

Got some push back early. “So we’re just skipping to next season? smdh”

But I kept riding through the Wild West of dynasty baseball’s future, mapping middle-aged aces alongside yet-to-be-drafted youngsters. This led to wonderful conversations with Razzball’s brilliant readers, who helped me build a set of rankings I hope we can all use to find fantasy fun and glory in the seasons to come. 

I’m proud of this project, thrilled to be working with so many smart fantasy players, and eager to distill the past few months of work into this one post. Can’t wait to keep chatting and building with you all! Happy scrolling!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Back before I started getting into girls (if they ever got into me is a different discussion), I fondly remember playing Earl Weaver Baseball on the family PC. The gameplay was awful but it was cool to cobble teams together from players of all eras. I looked through my Dad’s Baseball Encyclopedia and printed out a list of player seasons for a hypothetical player draft on our dot matrix printer. Shockingly, this draft never happened. Where did I think I was going to find enough circle jerks to draft a simulated league of all-star players?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

One of the most satisfying things in fantasy baseball is looking at your players’ results at the end of the day and seeing a combo meal. For the uninitiated, a combo meal occurs when a player hits a home run and steals a base in the same game (Note from Donkey: AKA the Slam and Legs). Although the following belies real baseball, I’m ordinarily more excited by a 1/4 combo meal with one run and one RBI than a 4/5 two-run, 3-RBI performance.

Unfortunately, however, the players most likely to yield a combo meal are often selected in the early rounds of drafts. With stolen bases becoming ever more infrequent, an excellent way to gain an edge over your competitors is to select cheap stolen base targets who also won’t set you back in the power categories. If you can’t get Christian Yelich, rather than later drafting Dee Gordon, you should take a combo meal sleeper. To that end, I’ve identified a few names for you.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I very innocently searched Razzball for any mentions of Domingo Santana over the last two months. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed anyone else talking about Sunday Santana. It was so super innocent, without a care in the world, a little click here and there, and, with a small little giggle like a schoolgirl, I happened upon a post by Big Magoo about late-round outfielders who could produce value in a shortened season. Lottery tickets he’s calling them; I’m calling them Dart Throws, but tomato-tomato-with-a-different-pronunciation-emphasis. But, oddly enough, he wasn’t talking about Domingo Santana, directly. He only mentioned Sunday Santana, while mocking me for my Delino DeShields 2016 sleeper post. I’ve been owned again.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It all began on March 19. Of this year, that is. Not March 19, 1918, when Congress passed the first-ever law establishing daylight savings time. Fast-forward 102 years and we’re still acting like everyone’s a farmer. Nor are we talking about March 19, 1953, when the Academy Awards were televised for the first time. The Greatest Show on Earth was named best picture that year. On the same date in 1966, Texas Western won the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship — the inspiration for the film Glory Road.

But on March 19, 2020 — I made my Razzball debut and began analyzing the best college prospects to pursue in fantasy baseball, beginning with the Top 10 College Prospects to Target in Dynasty Leagues. From there, that list expanded to a top 25 and then a top 100, at which point we began looking into which underclassmen might also be relevant to dynasty leaguers.

In this Complete College Top 100, I not only included prospects from the 2021 and 2022 draft classes, but also reworked my previous top 100 list to illustrate some changes in opinion I have mulled through leading up to the 2020 MLB Draft. The most notable moves occurred within the top 11, as I reshuffled much of what I refer to as “The Magnificent Seven” and also gave Heston Kjerstad a bit of a boost after getting some new intel on how MLB teams are evaluating the Razorback slugger.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Our Razzball Patreon Podcast from two weeks back was so good that we’ve decided to share it with the masses free of charge! If you enjoy this show, then we’d love for you to subscribe to our exclusive Patreon feed where you can enjoy all of our future Lenny Dykstra interviews and much more for the low low price of $5 per month. Here’s what Grey had to say about this show when it was originally released a week and a half ago:

“So, I didn’t expect much from this Patreon podcast, but, honestly, waking up Lenny Dykstra mid-nap to hear him say Ron Darling sucks d**k, well…I have to be honest here, this podcast is in the pantheon of nonsense. So, we get Lenny Dykstra on the show, for, I don’t know, maybe 15 minutes. He’s in the middle of napping-slash-having sex and he’s also very, very angry with Ron Darling, but, other than that, it was a totally normal conversation where I say 1993 Phillies players names and Lenny says whether or not they did drugs with him. Ya know, standard stuff.

Then Donkey Teeth and I dive into how my grandfather picked up a girl in the last week during a pandemic and she’s now moved in with him. Again, this is normal stuff. He’s only 92 years old with more game than any of you. Next up (this is likely totally out of order), we talk about my love for Normal People on Hulu. There’s no spoilers to say I think it’s the best show of 2020. It’s at least better than the shitshow that is the world. Finally, we discuss MLB’s plans to return and Blake Snell’s channeling of Vanilla Ice during contract negotiations. Maybe Vanilla should’ve had Blake Snell talk to Suge Knight about Ice, Ice Baby song rights. Who’s to say? Then we pimp the YouTube fantasy football show that Donkey and Boof started. Bless them and everyone who listens to this Patreon podcast. It’s five dollars per month to sign up, and every bit helps right now. Also, you can help us by subscribing to our Ad-free site.” And that’s a jackass quoting a lothario. Enjoy the show!

Please, blog, may I have some more?