Dart Throws: MacKenzie Gore

May 7, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 127 Comments

Here’s the Jays’ rotation:

Hyu-Jin Ryu
Chase Anderson
Tanner Roark
Matt Shoemaker
Trent Thornton

Here’s the Padres’ rotation:

Chris Paddack
Garrett Richards
Zach Davies
Joey Lucchesi
Dinelson Lamet

This is why, when asked recently, if I prefer Nate Pearson to MacKenzie Gore, why I said I like both equally. I love MacKenzie Gore and have drafted him, but who has the easier path to innings? Put aside those teams’ respective aces. Say what you want about Zach Davies, Garrett Richards, Joey Lucchesi of the Rigatoni Crime Family, Dinelson Lamet, and I’ve said plenty, but Trent Thornton, Shoemaker, Roark, Chase Anderson are a goofy mess. Shoemaker injured himself reading about how he is injury-prone. Even in regards to their two respective aces, Ryu is less likely to stay healthy for even a shortened season. Pearson’s sliding into that rotation in the landmark case of sooner vs. later. Any hoo! I just wanted to put it out there that I think both will see innings, and this isn’t about which one I like better, while I make it about which I like better for 2020, but MacKenzie Gore is going to need an injury to get in the rotation or, and this ‘or’ is the size of Kanye’s ego, starters piggybacking this year, in what will be a weird year. Minor leaguers will be a part of the major league team, whether they want to or not (of course they want to). With no conceivable minor league season, Gore should be with the Padres in some form. So, what can we expect from MacKenzie Gore for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Dynasty Rankings: Top 50 Starting Pitchers for 2021 Fantasy Baseball

by: The Itch

Old guys can throw balls, man.

You probably haven’t been to the gym in a minute, but just imagine/remember the locker room.

Young guys’ balls tend to have a little less movement. More velocity, fewer wrinkles, less wiggle. Ah, youth.

Command is where the locker analogy falters. Old guy pitchers have movement and command. They are stars of their own Viagra commercials, popping their car’s hood on the side of the road because they’ve learned a thing or two about engines by now and just plain know how to get stuff done.

Youth reigns in dynasty baseball, but it’s nice to have some oldsters in the locker room when readying a crew for extensive ball-work.

This old-balls bit is gaining momentum in my mind, and I’m not loving that, so let’s just cut to the first fifty.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

When Keeping It Realmuto Goes Wrong

May 6, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 2 Comments

by: Jay

This is it folks. I can feel baseball getting closer. It’s either that, or Rob Manfred has moved into my basement bunker and has been whispering sweet nothings in my ear. What this weird aside presupposes is, why not both? And despite having a subconscious urge to add a DH to my daily routine, we’re going to shake things up and instead of covering a value pitcher or a Padres anything, I wanted to focus thy gaze (do you even gaze, bro?) upon J.T. Realmuto. Wrongly-used partial middle “ye” English vernacular aside (the yeee!), I’m here to establish that J.T. Realmuto is a very good baseball player. In fact, he’s probably the best catcher in the league right now, both in fantasy and in real MLB terms. And while it’d be quite the content strategy to end the post here and consider this mission accomplished, I’d prefer to make the case that while Realmuto may be the real acuerdo, he’s not the ~~droid~~ catcher you’re looking for. In fact, drafting him may actually handicap your team the entire season, even if that season is shortened down to something like 12 total triskaidecagon-headers…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dart Throws: Kyle Lewis

May 6, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 116 Comments

by: Grey

Kyle Lewis is in my top 100 outfielders for 2020 fantasy baseball, but, as mentioned the other day, these Dart Throws are me being a little more footloose and fancy-free like Kevin Bacon on Casual Fridays with projections and possible upside. By the way, can you imagine explaining to an alien right now what Casual Fridays are? “It’s when you don’t have to dress up for work on Friday.” Alien speaks in an alien language while you wait for the Alien Language Translator to give you back what it’s saying. Finally, the Alien Language Translator says, “You’ve been wearing sweatpants for the last five weeks. What’s more casual? Your stained gotchies?” Yo, that Alien has a smart mouth, which is located on its feet, because it’s an alien. Any hoo! In my top 100 outfielders, I threw Kyle Lewis a bone by including him. To get him in the lineup, Dee Gordon has to be benched; Mitch Haniger’s Mr. Peanut has to be crushed; Austin Nola has to do whatever it is Austin Nola does, but on the bench; Jake Fraley has to do a bit better than Austin Nola, but not good enough to start and Dylan Moore…Well, who? Your 2020 Mariners are tight eh-eff team of recycled garbage that was never recycled. But, when the league starts up again, and, if the M’s are playing in Arizona — better! — then Kyle Lewis could be the starting right fielder. So, what can we expect from Kyle Lewis for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Rolling In The Deep: I Think I Might Be Into Catchers Now

May 5, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 22 Comments

by: Laura Holt

There have been a lot of strange things about this off-season. I mean, in addition to the obvious, like constantly worrying about the health of ourselves, our loved ones, and the fate of mankind while not having baseball as a job/hobby/distraction. For me, one of the odder consequences of the delayed season is the fact that I have yet to draft an NL or AL-only team this year, as all of my private leagues are waiting to draft until we have a better idea what the coming weeks and months will bring. Another very weird thing that seems to have happened to me over the last several months is that I have evidently developed a propensity for paying more than ever before for catchers on my fantasy baseball teams.

I realize now that this trend actually started back in ~~another lifetime~~ late November, when my first draft of the season took place. I’ve drafted quite a few teams since then — mostly 15-team mixed format, 2-catcher leagues, with a standard 5×5 roto scoring system. Unlike every other season of my fantasy baseball career, almost every one of them features at least one catcher that I had to pay for with either a mid-round pick of a handful of valuable auction dollars. Last year, I literally did not even include catchers on my master spread sheet… I just had a handful of names in mind that I knew I could grab at the very end of a draft or with my last dollar in an auction. This year, paying for a catcher was not a strategy that I came into draft season with; it just kind of happened. Draft after draft, it just continued to occur: time to make a pick, and I felt a catcher was the best value on the board. This happened back in my first drafts this winter, and continued through my last drafts a couple of weeks ago — so in terms of the catching position, my take on how to construct the best team really didn’t change once the uncertainty of the season’s timeline and potential format changes came into play. What I’m also realizing is that I’m pretty happy with how most of my teams turned out overall on paper — to the point where, if worse comes to worst and we have no baseball in 2020 and I don’t get to see if my don’t-wait-as-long-as-usual-to-draft-a-catcher method worked, I will most likely jump right back in and employ a similar strategy in 2021.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Rumors, Lies, and Hearsay, Baseball in 2020

May 5, 2020 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast |

by: Geoff

Coming down from the high of interviewing a Rap God a week ago, Grey and I are back to baseball. Well kind of… we mostly speculate about the speculation coming from the known speculators about all things baseball. In other words we discuss those verkakte plans all over Twitter and the internet. We talk a little food, a little love, a little life, as well as movies and TV. Is there anything else for us to do besides movies and TV? It’s the only thing holding society together at the moment. Someday historians will look back at this period and will be inspired to pen the book “How The Tiger King Saved Civilization”. In the future this is less ridiculous, mostly because we all dress like Kevin Nash in the 90s. Anyway, it’s the latest episode of the Razzball podcast.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dart Throws: Rougned Odor

May 5, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 174 Comments

by: Grey

This post will either be insanely stupid and a terrible use of splits stats or *mimes mind being blown*. Actually, now that I think about it, *mimes mind being blown* doesn’t sound like a positive. Two negatives? A perfect start for a post about Rougned Odor! Owning Rougned Odor over the course of the season is exactly like *mimes mind being blown*. The last time I owned Rougned Odor I repeatedly *mimes mind being blown* at how awful he was. Sometimes I’d watch him swing and miss for roughly 100 straight at-bats and *mimes mind being blown*. I once owned Rougned Odor through a 1-for-seemingly-500 stretch, dropped him and watched him hit five homers in four games on waivers and *mimes mind being blown*. There’s a countless number of *mimes mind being blown* times I can associate with Rougned Odor and none of them are good, frankly. *mimes mind being blown* is a terrible way to think about Rougned Odor — forget I ever said it! I hate him so much! Yet. Dot dot dot. I’m kinda interested, due to his splits. So, what can we expect from Rougned Odor for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RCL Update: Writers League Draft Recap

May 4, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Our Leagues, Razzball Commenter Leagues | 11 Comments

by: MattTruss

Happy Star Wars day one and all! We officially have two Razzball Commenter Leagues remaining, one of which is drafting tonight! Click HERE and you are in! Check the spreadsheet below for the last remaining RCL draft on Thursday night. Who doesn’t need a little draft therapy these days? You can snag up all of Grey’s dart throws and be ready to rumble once the season rolls. Way back on Tuesday, March 3rd at 9:00pm EST, a gaggle of Razzball Writers (well, most) settled in for an early season draft. Twelve fantasy writers in one league and you thought we weren’t going to take this opportunity to hear ourselves talk (type)? Well, then you thought wrong! We’re all loaded with hot fiyah taeks! This isn’t the ‘Perts League that Grey hosts, this is just anyone that writes for Razzball and who wanted to join an RCL. You can check out all the draft results HERE to follow along. This season’s participants in RCL draft order are:

B_Don – Podcasts & Chill

Thomas Howland – Spring Training Position Battles, DFS & Weekly 100

Will Scharnagl – Small Sample, Big Outlook

Coolwhip – Deep Thoughts

Butters – DFS Content

Hammer – The local ambulance chaser

SON – A two sport star, running the basketball side of Razzball and writing Bear/Bull for MLB

MattTruss – DFS and RCLs are my game

Richardo – Former DFS Guru turned H2H All-Star

Kerry Klug – Team Previews & Sleepers

Pat – Pitcher Profiles

Mcafeeeee – OPS is his bag

Now you know who is in the league, next we’ll hear what they had to say about it. I interviewed each writer with some questions; some personal and some generic and here’s what they had to say:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Indians Baseball with Matt Williams

May 4, 2020 | All Podcasts | 1 Comment

by: Brent

Matt Williams (@MattWi77iams), host of the Turn Two Podcast, joins the show to breakdown the Cleveland Indians Ball Club. We take a deep dive into why Jose Ramirez had such a bad stretch and what he did to fix it. We look into why or why not Francisco Lindor will get traded and to which potential suitors. How good can this pitching staff be? Matt gives his thoughts on why Mike Clevinger can win a Cy Young and if his teammate Shane Bieber can follow in his footsteps. We also look into their farm system for potential impact players that can make the big league roster.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Patreon Podcast: Don Zemmer And We Get White & Nerdy

May 4, 2020 | Podcast | 101 Comments

by: Grey

Donkey Teeth and I had the pleasure of welcoming Don Zemmer (a sentence I’m sure you expected to read pre-pandemic) to our Patreon podcast.

Who?

Dot dot dot.

Don Zemmer, fools! The guy who sings popular songs using baseball players’ names! Allow me to give you an example for the underknowers and not-yet-appreciators. For the unsubscribed and not-yet-hip-to-the-unhip. For the uninitiated and unsatiated. For the what-the-heck-are-you-talking-abouters and the seriously-fill-me-in-I’m-cluelessers! Here’s some of Don Zemmer’s best:

Thread of songs that hit 100k views

???

1. Star Spangled Banner pic.twitter.com/9FPpMoaO7p

— don zemmer (@DonZemmer) April 12, 2020

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dementors in the Outfield: Dynasty Top 200 for 2021 Fantasy Baseball

May 3, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 31 Comments

by: The Itch

Today we put the finishing touches on one of dynasty baseball’s toughest positions.

People just don’t trade speedy outfielders who can hit.

Or at least they shouldn’t.

Sure a Jarrod Dyson might get vacuumed up at basement pricing every now and then, but if you’ve got Starling Marte, Victor Robles or Oscar Mercado, you’re probably not that interested in the offers you’ve gotten for them. Speed players who contribute across the board are the dodo birds of our game. Outfield and middle infield are typically the only places to find them, apart from the occasional Jose Ramirez or prime-age Paul Goldschmidt. You flat out need some speed covering the green if you’re hoping to compete in the category, and I’m just not the type to advocate punting a category in 5×5. Trying to win leagues over here–not tell tales about fading saves and steals but hanging in with the top group anyway.

Anyway, best to get ‘em young while they’re cheap. I wouldn’t be paying up for all the guys like Pache who show aptitude in the lower minors, but if I can take a fistful of freemium fliers on guys like Jasiah Dixon and Jeferson Espinal, I’m doing that all day.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Universal DH Impact: NL West Edition

May 2, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 42 Comments

by: JKJ

Hello, again. It’s nice to be back in the saddle, writing up some fantasy baseball tidbits. I took a little hiatus after my COVID-19 Bargains series, but I’m kicking off a new one for yinz. If what’s on the grapevine is true, then we’ll finally get what I hope all of you have been waiting for: a DH for National League teams! I know you old-schoolers out there hate the idea – and trust me, I consider myself pretty old school in a lot of respects – but I don’t give two soggy turds about watching a pitcher try to hit a baseball. Some can do it okay, but the overwhelming majority cannot. It’s largely a meaningless at-bat, as far as I’m concerned. And let’s not even talk about pitchers running bases.

The 2020 fantasy baseball season is going to be a strange one, no doubt. I keep seeing this whole thing about 100 games and only three divisions total. Will these games be played in Spring Training parks? Regular parks? No one knows for sure. Are we gonna get doubleheaders like crazy? *shrug emoji* The latest proposal suggests regular home parks without fans, but we’ll see. For the sake of my sanity, I’m going to treat this series as if we’re gonna get regular home parks, and I’m going to categorize each team in their regular divisions, since that’s what we’re (read “I’m”) used to. Yes, Cardinals hitters facing more aces than just what the Cubs, Reds, Brewers, and Pirates would throw at them certainly changes things, but that’s true for every lineup if this proposal comes to fruition. I’m not going to sit here and analyze how Tyler O’Neill might fare against Matthew Boyd. I’m just going to point out some NL bats you might want to pay attention to since they may become regular instead of platooning. Capeesh? Obviously, if this division re-alignment happens, there has to be a universal DH. Either that or make the AL teams use a pitcher in the lineup. Who wants that? I sure as hell don’t.

Bear in mind, I’m not necessarily focusing on each team’s potential DH. This series is more about which NL bat benefits the most on each squad due to said DH. Could be because said bat might be said DH, or could be because said bat might be a better defensive option for another bat who could be said DH. Capeesh?

So, without further ado, here are my biggest risers were we to indeed get the lovely universal DH:

Please, blog, may I have some more?