[brid autoplay=”true” video=”432555″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 14″]

So, when does Brendan McKay come up to replace an Ineffective Listed Blake Snell?  Ton of people asking about McKay, so I’ll go over him briefly, because I have nothing else to do but service you.  I am a mere vessel for your wants and dreams. Bit like the Flowbee if you need a haircut.  Prospect Mike just went over McKay in his last post.  McKay is the Rays’ Ohtani.  Though if hitting and pitching made Ohtani a unicorn, I’m not sure what that makes McKay.  A Loch Ness Monster?  Seen more often, but just as imaginary?  McKay’s likely headed for a Middler role in Tampa, and maybe some at-bats.  His arm excites me more than his bat, he could have a 9+ K/9 and always has insane command (2 BB/9), but Jalen White Clarence Beeks or Brendan McKay?  Meh, I don’t think there’s that much of a difference.  Guess McKay has more upside, and love how he sounds like what a dad would call a character on 90210 back in the 90s.  Why do we even care about McKay?  Have you seen Blake Snell (3 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.01)?  If you have, send him back to replace the stunt double who is wearing his jersey.  “I thought when they said ‘changeup,’ they meant a changeup from pitching well, so I started pitching like garbage.”  That’s Blake Snell addressing dozens of crying Rays fans.  I know no one wants to hear this right now, but Snell doesn’t appear to be pitching poorly; he’s having atrocious luck.  Like if a ball is hit right at a fielder, a squirrel grabs the ball and throws it into the outfield for a double.  He could be a buy low, as long as he’s not hiding an injury, real or fake.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Learn more about our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!

The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.

I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!

Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Sun 8/3
ARI | ATH | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | ATL | CIN | OAK

No one is perfect. Even the greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera, had a career save percentage of 89%. In addition, no one can have an approval rating of 100%. There are too many divergent perspectives, opinions, and experiences for that to be feasible. John F. Kennedy, the 35th POTUS, has the highest average approval rating (70.1%) since the Gallup Poll was created in 1935. The high mark was 83%, while he bottomed out at 56%. Donald Trump, the 45th POTUS, has a high of 46% with a low of 35%, which gives him an average of 39%, the lowest by far of any POTUS. For as much as a POS he’s been, though, he has provided value for many. Which brings me to Ian Kennedy of the Kansas City Royals, who many have sworn off from past experiences, but has been added in 7.9% of ESPN leagues over the past week. How will this Kennedy Administration end?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Grey is down to his last resort and invited B_Don to come on and guest host. The Fantasy Master Lothario makes his case for Phil Collins as the greatest musician of all time. To be fair, he does have the greatest 11 beat drum solo EVER.

After some music talk off the top, we talk about the game for the chaps across the pond, and the announcement that Vlad Jr. will be in the HR derby. Grey and B_Don both give you their thoughts on Frankie Montas for next season and talk about some of the exciting young prospects entering the game.

The guys get into a Yordan evaluation for ROS and where he fits in the rankings along with what leagues you should be targeting recent call-ups Zac Gallen, Logan Allen, Bobby Bradley, and how the Mountain Mets will screw up the Brendan Rodgers/Garrett Hampson situation this time. So, if you can hear Grey calling in the air tonight….. Oh Lord….

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Another week has passed in the Razzball Commenter Leagues and yet again, the FFBs sit atop the Master Standings.  The lead shrank a bit this week, but not enough for a change at the top. As I was looking at the Master Standings and wondering how anyone was going to catch FFB I noticed that FFB has made a whopping 273 moves so far, meaning they only have 227 remaining.  If my hippo math serves me correctly, there are 25 weeks this season meaning we’re just about halfway through this long haul of a season. In other words, FFB is slightly over pace in that department. For all those in the top ten that are currently looking up at FFB, we can at least hope they run out of moves by the beginning of September and we’ll have a shot at catching up then.  All this move counting had me going down the rabbit hole and surprisingly, FFB is not the moves leader on the season. To find out who that honor belongs to as well as which leagues have made the most moves as a whole, jump below for the rest of the week that was week 12 in the RCLs:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Cleveland starter Shane Bieber ($9,800) has put together an outstanding season thus far, posting an elite 31.4% K-rate with just a 5.7% walk-rate, good for a 3.68 FIP and a 3.27 SIERA. He’s coming off of two straight dominant outings where he’s struck out 20 batters in 13 2/3 innings and faces a Royals lineup that is in the bottom-third of the league in wOBA against righties with their .309 mark. There’s a ton of quality starting pitching to choose from on the slate, but Bieber’s strikeout upside puts him in the same class as Scherzer and Cole – only Bieber will save you $1,300 in payroll.

New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”432555″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 14″]

Jordan Hicks sounds headed for Tommy John surgery with a torn UCL. This sucks; don’t get me wrong, but it’s amazing all the people shocked by this news just because the Cardinals said on Sunday it wasn’t serious. I wish I could be that uncynical. I wish I could see the birds chirping and not a bird nagging another bird to take out the trash, or see the flowers and not think, “I wonder who’s buried under there,” but alas…So, with Jordan Hicks out for the next 14-18 months, who will close?  Carlos Martinez has the makings of a two-inning closer, I guess, but, man or five women, it seems super dumb to continue Carlos Martinez down the closer route.  Don’t they want him to start again at some point?  John Gant’s been great until he defecated the sheet out of my fantasy bed on Sunday.  He might still get some looks.  Then there’s wild cards, Andrew Miller (if he were great like years past; he’s no brainer) and Tyler Webb, who is only in discussion because he got one save look the game where Hicks was hurt. I’d go C-Mart and Gant at 55% vs. 42% chance and everyone else at 3%. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We got Broshitz back together again this week and brought along our favorite guest/unofficial third host Emily Waldon. If you don’t know Emily, she’s the bee’s knees, a minor league expert, and the foremost voice on the Detroit Tigers minor leagues. She’s also employed by two of the biggest outfits in sports (Baseball America and The Athletic). Do to Emily’s expertise we dig into the Tigers prospects and the Midwest League. If you’re a Tigers fan this is a podcast you cannot miss.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The album Electric Ladyland by the Jimi Hendrix Experience gave us two of the all-time great guitar riffs. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) was decades ahead of its time in 1968. All Along The Watchtower may be a Bob Dylan cover but Jimi owns that song now. It’s opening lyrics are fitting for this column, “There must be some kind of way outta here, said the joker to the thief. There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.” Are you rostering a joker or a thief with your spec add? It’s certainly confusing and there’s little relief in sight. Nevertheless, we press on.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

On Monday night’s DFS slate there are not a ton of great pitching options to choose from. But one that you can build your FanDuel cash lineup around is the Rockies’ Jon Gray. The Giants are a team that you can attack with right-handed pitching. Against right-handed pitching this season San Francisco has a low .160 ISO and a .292 wOBA. And they are even worse at home, where they have a .121 ISO and a 70 wRC+. In addition, Gray’s low price tag of $8,500 will allow you to pay up for plenty of bats.  Now on to the rest of the picks.

New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”429002″ player=”10951″ title=”FantasyBaseball2019BuySellHold13″]

Leonys Martin was designated for assignment.  His assignment is to go back in time and impress 2016 Grey less, so he doesn’t write a sleeper post about him.  On Saturday, Indians were saying Martin’s DFA’ing is more to do with Mercado getting a boost of confidence vs. Bobby Bradley getting promoted, and the Indians were lying.  Bobby Bradley was called up on Sunday. Fun fact!  After Bobby Brady lost a pie-eating contest, his father Mike told him to take the L like a man and disowned him, so he briefly went by Bobby Bradley. Bradley has 24 HRs in 67 games, hitting .292, but has some Ks, so the average could come down, but the power is not going anywhere since the majors are using a SuperBall. As Prospect Mike said yesterday in his Bobby Bradley fantasy, even with the balls stuck with Capri Sun straws, dripping juice, Bradley could still hit 20 homers the rest of the way and every fantasy team could use him.  I tried to grab him in every league, but was too slow.  Don’t worry, I just did two lines of coke to avoid that ever happening again, but now my nose is dripping with a secret formula of caramel flavoring.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

No Doubt

Player Team Opp1 Opp2
Max Scherzer WSH @MIA @DET
Gerrit Cole HOU PIT SEA

Gerrit Cole’s season has been a bit of a roller coaster, but the numbers have come around as the pro-gression (positive regression) has kicked in after a tough May. Despite the bad surface numbers in May, he had a 41.2% K rate, only a 2.6% BB rate, and the .362 BABIP screamed buy low.

Cole has bounced back in June despite the underlying numbers being worse than May, but has helped your fantasy team to the tune of a 2.16 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP in his 4 starts. Cole is a bona fide ace and there is no reason to sit him down this week.

Max Scherzer looked like somebody broke his nose or something before his last start and still managed 7 innings with no earned runs and 10 strikeouts. While you may be terrified of at Miami and at Detroit, I think you should maybe…probably….definitely start him.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I wanna start off by saying “Namaste” to Yusei Kikuchi. That guy was my headliner last week and he completely blew what was an otherwise great article. Our other five recommendations included guys like Lance Lynn, Michael Pineda, Zach Plesac, Joe Musgrove and Chris Bassitt. All of those pitchers did really well but stupid Kikuchi crapped on my week! Why did I ever trust that guy? Anyway, we’re going to build off of the positives and give you some more great streamers this week!

Please, blog, may I have some more?