Big Magoo

Bulls on Parade, Part 2: Middle Infielders

May 11, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 58 Comments

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In part one of this little mini series, we looked at all of the catchers and corner infielders that I’ll be relying on once the 2020 season gets underway. As much as I enjoy talking about Yadier Molina and Jose Abreu, those guys aren’t exactly dripping with excitement. They’re high floor foundation pieces who are useful fantasy assets, but aren’t the types of players who will carry a team to a fantasy championship. It’s like going to your local burger joint and ordering a plain cheeseburger – it’s not likely to disappoint, but it won’t be a particularly memorable meal either. Middle infielders and outfielders are the bacon, caramelized onions, and special sauce that can be added to that plain burger to make it exceptional. Sometimes, experimenting with exotic ingredients like spicy peppers can lead to indigestion, but it can also lead to a special, unique experience. And there’s plenty of spice to go around in these groups.

All of these ingredients are represented at second base, shortstop, and in the outfield. Power, speed, average, and counting stats – they can all be found in abundance here. The key is to determine who to target and when to target them. Today, I’ll be sharing the middle infielders that I targeted and ended up drafting across my five NFBC leagues for the 2020 season. I originally intended to cover outfielders as well, but since Magoobot’s self-editing mechanism malfunctioned years ago, there’s only room for the guys up the middle today. There’ll be a whole post dedicated to outfielders in part three.

Just like last week, I’ll be breaking things down by position, briefly discussing my pre-draft strategies followed by a quick analysis of each player that I ended up drafting. Both the 12 team NFBC Online Championship and 15 team NFBC Draft Champions formats require that you start 1 2B, 1 SS, and 1 MI at all times, so that’s something to keep in mind during this exercise. As a quick refresher, each player will be placed into one of the following four categories:

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
Brent

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Blue Jays Baseball with Ben Wagner

May 11, 2020 | All Podcasts |

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Ben Wagner (@benwag247), voice of the Toronto Blue Jay’s, joins the show to breakdown this young Blue Jay’s roster. We look into the signing of Hyun-Jin Ryu and why they did it. We talk about some of our favorite young players in the organization like Bo Bichette and company. Can Teoscar Hernandez develop into a Khris Davis type player with immense power? The starting rotation has a veteran presence that can help guide Nate Pearson in the big leagues with Tanner Roark and Ryu. We also take a deep dive into their farm system and Ben gives you a couple of guys that he thinks can make a big league impact in the near future.
Sean Reid Foley breakdown: 45 Min
Draft change discussion: 50 Min
J.A Happ memories: 1 HR

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Dynasty Rankings: Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2021 Fantasy Baseball

May 10, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 31 Comments

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“Crisco, Bardol, Vagisil: any one of em will give you another two to three inches drop off your curveball.”

This immortal moment comes courtesy of Eddie Harris in the transcendent classic, Major League. 

In this exchange with young fireballer Rick Vaughn, Harris articulates the typical path for a pitcher. 

“Haven’t got an arm like yours. Gotta put anything on it I can find.” 

Wily oldsters pick up tricks like Robert Kraft to help themselves keep up in a young man’s game, and they seem to be keeping (and/or setting) the pace better than ever. Blending the fire of youth with the wisdom of experience is no small task, but we’ll try to do just that here today, synthesizing short and long term value to build rankings prescient enough to help any dynasty leaguer build his own double three-peat.

So throw me a line if you’re seeing an angle I’m not. This project is on-going and stretches all the way back to early March when I met some oldster moving plutonium out of the trunk of his DeLorian.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Richardo

Player Debate: Marcell Ozuna vs Nick Castellanos

May 9, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 13 Comments

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With the world continuing to be in dumpster fire mode, I figured I’d write about things that I love. No, not my kids (although this week we learned to ride a bike without training wheels, flew a kite, lost a tooth, and watched The Sandlot for the first time – pretty epic week), but two players that I’ve fallen hard (phrasing) for – Marcell Ozuna and Nick Castellanos. Both players have similar ADPs, with Castellanos being at 83.4 and Ozuna landing at 88.6 (average ADPs from ESPN, NFBC, Yahoo, and CBS). Both players also have new homes that feature good lineups in hitters parks and the sum of the parts has my pants feeling a little tight….oh wait, that’s just the quarantine-15 that I’ve put on. Let’s dive into both players and see if we can find a clear winner.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Coolwhip

April Powers Part 2: Always In Motion Is The Future

May 8, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 38 Comments

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Continuing on the series that began with April Powers Part 1, I showed you the top hitters over the last 3 years in the month of April with the caveat that they had to be “hot” at least twice. This week we’ll take an initial look at the top hitters from April 2019 and see if how they performed in the following months, and maybe catch a glimpse of what to look out for in Part 3.

In honor of Star Wars week, let’s take a page from Master Yoda. Always in motion is the future, difficult to tell. But to find our way there, we can start by looking at the present. After all, it’s impossible to know where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve been without feeling under pressure. Right, David Bowie? They said it couldn’t be done! Yoda and Bowie in the same reference? Check. Now lets look at the board:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Dart Throws: Tyler O’Neill

May 8, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 154 Comments

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Let baseball return with the craziest shizz they got! Robot umps? Check! 7-inning games? Why not? Divisions changed? Sure! No shifts! No foul balls! Everything is in play! Pitchers have to throw with their wrong hand! Hitters have to stand on one foot! Mascots get stockpile of vaccines and choose who gets one! I don’t care! Just let baseball return! With all that said, universal DH is being thrown about like that somehow fixes baseball post-Covid-19. Has anyone on this green earth that Al Gore is eating his way through asked why? This is one that keeps coming back after every discussion about restarting baseball like they’ve already unplugged it and blew in the cartridge. Could someone, preferably a journalist, ask WHY? Why does a DH make things better for restarting? I’m guessing no one asks why because they know there’s no reason and it would just make Manfred uncomfortable. Shame more journalists don’t ask questions to make people uncomfortable. Not to go down that rabbit hole too far, but too many sports journalists (and maybe other types) are so concerned with access they refuse to ask tough questions, then they go on Twitter and make fun of the subject. Twitter is bad for a lot of reasons, but this is the reason number one for me. You see reporters say point blank about how stupid something is, but did they pose the stupidness to the actual subject? No, never. Prolly why I couldn’t make it as a journalist. If Manfred said to me about universal DH, I’d ask, why, and minds would be blown. Any hoo! Assuming there is a universal DH, our writer, JKJ, is going over a series of hitters who would benefit from it. I don’t want to go over what JKJ has said already, but Tyler O’Neill…O’Well, he’s too juicy to ignore. So, what can we expect from Tyler O’Neill in 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Hobbs

Return of the Jedi: Gauging Brent Honeywell’s MLB Future

May 7, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 27 Comments

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What a great week. Any time I have a legitimate excuse to binge watch Star Wars one day and bloat myself with an excess of Mexican food and homemade margarita slushies the next, it’s a good week. Making matters even better, I was able to catch some quality KBO action on TV, something that revealed that my thirst for baseball can be temporarily quenched by just about any bat-to-ball action – other than that time I was on a cave tour in Pennsylvania and a big brown bat flew into my crotch.

Although I know not every Razzball reader and writer is a die-hard Star Wars fan such as myself, this got me thinking: how can I incorporate these two loves of baseball and late 1970s-early 1980s science fiction? Since there are only three truly great Star Wars films, I had the idea to split my prospect writing into three categories: 1) A New Hope (breakdown of the six top-100 prospects in the Marlins farm system), 2) The Empire Strikes Back (analysis of Yankees right-handers Clark Schmidt and Deivi Garcia) and 3) Return of the Jedi (what to expect from Brent Honeywell’s long-awaited comeback).

As I began this project, it didn’t take long before I completely lost track of time down in a Honeywellian rabbit hole. What I mean by this, is that I was trudging along, minding my own business with my eyes glued to 2017 Honeywell tape on my iPhone, when I literally fell into a hole in the ground and had no choice but to research Honeywell’s outlook for the next three-to-four hours while I called for help. And that is how this piece went from one of my typical, wide-ranging prospect breakdowns to one focused on a singular arm: Brent Honeywell, the young Jedi Knight, the man who can do things on the hill that no one else can, but has long been struggling with his own inner battle of health and spiritual clarity. In this piece, I will not only break down Honeywell as a prospect, but speculate on his return to the mound, reasons behind his recent arm injuries and what level of health (or lack thereof) we might be able to predict moving forward.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Brent

Baseball Podcast: Yankees Baseball with Lou Landers

May 7, 2020 | All Podcasts |

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Lou Landers (@LandersTalks), owner of Sportscrew Radio, joins the show to talk Yankees baseball. We take a look at their loaded lineup and what kind of potential they have. Who could the potential busts in this lineup be? Gio Urshela was picked by two of us. Can Giancarlo Stanton play 140+ games this season? Can Aaron Judge stay healthy? We discuss the health of this lineup. Gerrit Cole is one of the best pitching signings the Yankees have had since C.C Sabathia. We look into the latter part of the rotation and who is going to fill the 4 and 5 spots. An Andy Pettitte comp was made with Jordan Montgomery.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Dart Throws: MacKenzie Gore

May 7, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 127 Comments

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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?
The Itch

Dynasty Rankings: Top 50 Starting Pitchers for 2021 Fantasy Baseball

May 6, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 29 Comments

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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?
Jay

When Keeping It Realmuto Goes Wrong

May 6, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 2 Comments

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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?