malamoney

Points Leagues, Yordan Alvarez

May 11, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 48 Comments

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Was Yordan Alvarez indeed called up? Allow me to clear things up. He’s not. At least not yet. Despite leading AAA in home runs (14) and runs batted in (44) and boasting a .398 batting average, Yordan Alvarez appears no closer to Houston than the next Astros prospect. Speaking of Astros’ prospects, there’s also the problem of Kyle Tucker, who is a more heralded prospect. Unlike Alvarez, however, Tucker is having a rather mediocre start to 2019. He has hit a fair share of homers, but that’s about it. Considering Tucker already struck out in his first taste of the Majors, I’d say Yordan has the edge should a need arise on the Astros roster. And that brings us to the real problem. The Astros roster. In order to get Alvarez on it with regular playing time they’d have to expose either Tyler White, Max Stassi or Tony Kemp to waivers and I don’t believe they are ready to do so. Couple that with the fact that the Astros offense is near the top of many categories, there just isn’t a place for Yordan Alvarez. Sadly, many (myself included) see mid to late June as a more realistic timeline for a call up. For what it’s worth, I stashed him two weeks ago. Hopefully we are all wrong and he’s up sooner.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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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
Dan Pants

Odorizzi Getting Busy

May 11, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 61 Comments

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It’s a good time to be a twin! No, not just if you’re a mother on Mom’s day because you got twice the bragging rights. The Minnesota Twins look unstoppable right now posting their third shut out in the past four games including Jake Odorizzi‘s gem Friday night as he extended his scoreless streak to 20 (! ! !) innings. It’s his third start in a row without allowing a run and he’s given up just seven hits in that stretch. The former Ray pitched seven shut out innings against the Tigers, allowed just one hit (a double to Christin Stewart in the first inning) and struck out five, walking none to earn his fifth win. Jake was hammering the strike zone, throwing 66 of his 95 pitches for strikes and lowering his ratios to a gorgeous 2.32 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. That ERA’s good enough for 3rd in the AL, folks. And let us not forget that 43/15 K/BB is making me real happy happy. Dude is hotter than Hunter Johanssen’s twin sister (that’s Scarlett) which is pretty darn hot you guys! If we look at some next level stats, the 0.42 HR/9 is obviously not sustainable, and the 24.8 GB% is suspect. The 2.84 FIP and 4.49 xFIP suggest there is regression coming in the form of some home runs balls but all the stats that matter (9.07 K/9, 17% K/BB, .221 BABIP) show he’s still trending in the right direction. Jake gets the Angels next week and he needs to be owned everywhere, at least while all the Minnesota Moms are showering their Twins with love and Odorizzi is making it look Odoreasy.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Thomas Howland

FanDuel: The deGrominator

May 11, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 4 Comments

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Jacob deGrom.  That almost says it all.  Sure, he’s 2-4 with a 3.60 ERA this year on the whole.  But in the month of May he is back to his dazzling self: 1.24 ERA, 13 Ks, 3 BB in 14 innings.  And if that wasn’t enough, he’s toeing the rubber against the 30th ranked run scoring team in the majors.  Not only are the Florida Marlins the 30th ranked offense, they’re a full 20 runs behind the 29th ranked Detroit Tigers.  That’s worse than the lazy plot devices going on in Game of Thrones!  The Marlins are so bad, and deGrom is so good, the Mets are favored at -410.  A whole season goes by and you don’t see a line like that.  He’s expensive ($11,300), but there is no surer thing on FanDuel this year than deGrom against the Marlins.  Of course, there’s more than one way to skin a FanDuel lineup, so on to 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?
B_Don

Baseball Podcast: Grey Guilts Donkey Teeth Into Sleeping With Cougs

May 11, 2019 | Ditka, Razzball Podcast | 6 Comments

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While B_Don is off taking care of “family business” in Puerto Rico, Grey swoops in to steal the one and only Fantasy Sausage Show about baseball. As usual, nobody has any idea whether or not the show is actually recording.

After 10 minutes of standard Grey Albright nonsense, Donkey Teeth and the Fantasy Master Lothario dig into Donkey’s most recent Top 100 Starting Pitchers post. The guys take a closer look a Hyun-Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray, Chris Sale, Martin Perez, Lucas Giolito, Griffin Canning, Clayton Kershaw, and Joey Bag O Butts Lucchesi. Grey also admits he may have been mistaken about Zack Greinke and Madison Bumgarner, while Donkey Teeth makes yet another case for Yusei Kikuchi.

The show is rounded out with a comparison of two of Grey’s early season offensive darlings: Hunter Dozier and Christian Walker. Find out what to expect from these two young bats moving forward and where they might be drafted if fantasy drafts were taking place today. Enjoy this special Grey Albright Sausage episode while supplies last!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

The Interest Rate Will Only Get Higher To Buy A Mountcastle

May 10, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 554 Comments

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[brid autoplay=”true” video=”412367″ player=”10951″ title=”FantasyBaseball2019BuySellHold7″]

Since Game of Thrones is out here messing up the last seven years of my life by landing the final season like it’s Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, I figured I’ll drop on you a buy for Ryan of Mountcastle.  What if the end of Game of Thrones is that they take a page out of Lost’s book, but take it one step further?  That’s right, the end of Game of Thrones is we’re the ones living in purgatory by watching another great show screw up its ending.  I might’ve just spoiled two shows in one go.  We shall see!  Actually, we might not because the scenes will be too dark.  As for Ryan Mountcastle, he should be called up any day now to play 3rd for the Orioles, but why do we care?  Thanks, awkward leading question!  This isn’t because buyin’ Mountcastle sounds like a new HGTV show.  “What’s his defense like?” “Like an Italian hill town in Tuscany!”  He has solid power, and should make contact while not having great plate discipline.  At some point in the very near future, he’s going to be an add in all leagues, so get ahead of the curve, like if you had dragons, and knew how to use them and weren’t going mad in the last ninety minutes of a poorly-paced show.  Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Mayday

May 10, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Deep Leagues | 1 Comment

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Happy second week of May, everyone!  It’s still early in the baseball season, but not necessarily as early as it might seem… within the next few days, most teams will have played 40 or 41 games, which means we are just about 25% of the way through MLB 2019.  Still a relatively small sample size, I suppose, but each day that goes by we can feel more celebratory about the guys we drafted in multiple leagues who are treating us very well so far (Tyler Glasnow, Matthew Boyd, and Caleb Smith, right now I love you all more than you’ll ever know). We can also beat ourselves up a bit more every day over the fellows who are looking like downright mistakes (Tyler Skaggs and Colin McHugh, what can I say?… feels like it’s just not going to happen for us this year).  Then again, the players in that first group might crash and burn at any given moment, and those in the latter could turn it around at a moment’s notice, which is why fantasy baseball can be both so exciting and so excruciating.  Speaking of excruciating, that’s exactly how looking for help on the deep-league waiver wire can feel this time of year – but let’s take a look at a few guys who might be available in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Yost

Getting Ahead in H2H, Week 6: Derek’s Got Some ‘Trichs Up His Sleeve

May 10, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head Leagues |

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It’s hard to not like the man. The MLB needs more players like Derek Dietrich. Whether he’s smacking dongs, fending off a horde of bees, or rocking a sweet eye black mustache, he never ceases to entertain. In the words of Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory, it gets the people going! His success so far this season makes for a great story, as he was forced to settle on a minor league contract to begin the year. The utility man has seen the bulk of his playing time at 2B thus far, taking advantage of Scooter Gennett going down. With Scoot set to miss another month or so and the release of OF Matt Kemp, Dietrich should have a path to pretty consistent playing time.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Richardo

FanDuel: The Great Red Hope

May 10, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 7 Comments

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Finally Friday! FanDuel has us set up with a huge 14-game slate, and for once this week, we look to be in the clear on the precipitation front. Can we talk about just how much an ace Luis Castillo ($10,500) has been? He’s sporting a 30.3% K%, which is supported by his massive 14.9% swinging strike rate. I’m going to go out on a limb and say he probably doesn’t maintain his 1.97 ERA all year, but his 3.51 SIERA is solid. Finally, on the batted ball front his ground ball rate is 57.8%, which leads the league. Add to his greatness, that he gets the perfect matchup against the Giants in Oracle Park. Now you know that Luis Castillo’s my go-to starter in cash games today, so let’s take a look at some other plays on today’s FanDuel slate.

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?
Grey

La Stella And Angels Ride On Detroit’s Streetcar Named Desire (Or Any SP Not Named Boyd)

May 10, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 360 Comments

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[brid autoplay=”true” video=”411377″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 7″]

First off, big congrats to Albert Pujols (1-for-4 and his 6th homer), as he passed 2,000 RBIs. That is amazing. Now would some archaeologist find old man Pujols’s Holy Grail Goblet Room and let him retire in peace? Second off, David Fletcher went 2-for-5, 2 runs, hitting .310, as he finally seems to be settling in at leadoff. Can we just pause for one second and try to comprehend how stupid I am?  Okay, you don’t have to rundown all my countless idiotic calls.  I get it.  Okay, with my stupidity in mind, it took a major league manager — Bad Assdunce, in this case — almost six weeks to realize Fletcher is the best guy to hit leadoff on the Angels.  Assdunce hit Kole Calhoun (2-for-4, 3 runs, and his 9th homer, hitting .223) for 78 ABs at leadoff — a .240 hitter on a good day!  Ya know, when they hire MLB managers, they’re not hiring their best and brightest.  Oh, and I have it at 50/50 odds Fletcher doesn’t stay at leadoff, just so ya know.  By the by, Fletcher is not in this afternoon’s Buy column, but if he’s available add him for average and hopefully counting stats.  Finally, Tommy La Stella.  What in the holy fudge?  Only, I didn’t say fudge.  I said the mother of all curse words.  Yesterday, he went 2-for-4, 4 RBIs and his 8th and 9th homer.  Did he even have nine homers in 1,000 at-bats prior to this in his career?  Not to answer, because I don’t care, but WUT. At this point, Travis Shaw would need to have the best month of his career to even tie La Stella in fantasy value.  I am laughing through tears.  Sad clown tears!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Son

Bear or Bull: Fletcher Lives!

May 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 29 Comments

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I’m a Chevy Chase guy. The National Lampoon movies, Caddyshack, and Spies Like Us were some of my favorites. I also enjoyed Fletch, in which he portrayed Irvwin Fletcher, a newspaper reporter who utilized a bevy of disguises. Would I shell out $13 for a movie ticket + $10 for popcorn + $5 for a drink + $5 for Red Vines if it was showing in the theaters now? Negative. It’s a B movie from the 1980’s, but if my desktop abacus is not failing me, the money I save from not going to the theater could allow me to purchase some mental PEDs, which would make it an A +++ movie. Regardless, the movie did well enough at the time of its release that the powers in Hollywood spent money on making a sequel, Fletch Lives. As with most sequels, it wasn’t as good as the first, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Which brings me to David Fletcher of the Anaheim (definitely not in Los Angeles) Angels, who is the sequel to another David of Angels past. Will this sequel fail to live up as well?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Butters

FanDuel: Fresh Ace

May 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 2 Comments

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Just called up and already priced like an ace? That’s where we find Mike Soroka, (SP: $9,800) The price scares me a little bit, but I’m a big enough believer to Soroka and he’s been rolling since his promotion. What’s not to love? That pristine ERA? The 27 Ks in 23 innings? The fact that the Braves have a strong offense, giving him solid win potential? Or maybe you’re afraid of the D Backs offense that will be stepping into the box against him. They’re not a terrible offense but I don’t think I would describe them as elite. This isn’t his first taste of the show so he’s not completely green. Lock him in.

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?