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.
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FanDuel: The Great Red Hope
May 10, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 7 Commentsby: Richardo
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.
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Please, blog, may I have some more?[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:
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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?
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Closer Rankings, Week 7: Sick As A Seattle RP
May 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Closers | 32 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
Roto-Wan is recovering from the toddler flu. I’m his semi-conscious fantasy lobe here to deliver you the best closer rankings I can with the limited blood sugar I’ve been able to hoard. Tiers will be sick day daytime TV-themed.
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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.
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Robbie Looks So Sexy He Should Be Called X-Ray
May 9, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 712 Commentsby: Grey
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”411377″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 7″]
Doe, a deer, a female deer that sounds like Chaz Roe. Ray, a drop of eleven Rays! Me, a name I call myself while looking in the mirror to check on my hair–Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. I was just singing a little song I call, “Julie Andrews is One Hot Cougar.” Yesterday, Robbie Ray did the impossible. No, not strike out 11 Rays hitters. I mean, yes, he did that. But that’s not what I found impossible. I find it impossible to like him, and yesterday he made me smile a little. Sure, this ‘impossible task’ is a bit subjective, but get out of your own head, it’s all subjective! Life’s subjective! Wow, I just became an angry philosopher. Call me Socrankies. Robbie Ray’s line yesterday 5 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners (3 BBs), 11 Ks is almost exactly him to a T. He is a 4.7 BB/9 guy and that was his BB/9 yesterday in under six innings. He can’t go deep because of the walks, and his Ks are gorge, but also limit his IP. I don’t hate him as much as it might seem. I don’t own him, but I can understand the allure. I “allurve” Ks. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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Prospect News: Bobby’s World
May 8, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 28 Commentsby: Mike
Indians prospect Bobby Bradley (4-for-4 with two homers) is enjoying a strong start for the Columbus Clippers. Through 28 games, he’s hitting .299 with six home runs and 11 doubles. The average is inflated by an uncharacteristic and unsustainable .419 BABIP. The real Bradley is a low-average power hitter with the potential for 25+ dongs over a full season in the majors. That low-average is probably going to be pretty low though. Think .230s, maybe worse. Since his promotion to Triple-A last year, Bradley has seen his walk rate decrease by about 3% and his strikeout rate increase by about 7%, all the way to 33%. That approach doesn’t bode well for success in the majors, especially since he is already limited defensively to first base. We should find out soon enough though. I suspect Bradley will be with the Indians at some point this summer, where he’ll be a power flyer in AL-only formats, and maybe even some deeper mixed formats. Here’s what else is happening around the minor leagues…
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Ambulance Chasers, Week 6: Arm-ageddon
May 8, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 11 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
If it wasn’t bad enough that 11 of the top 30 starting pitchers drafted this year have an ERA over 4.00, now we’ve got an all-SP Ambulance Chasers. In the last two issues of Ambulance Chasers there were an additional 7 injured SPs for another grand total of 11. Hold your starting pitchers close — tell them you love them — you never know when they’ll be the next to go…
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Another week and another big call-up to gush over. This week it was Nick Senzel of the Reds. True story: Neither Grey or I wear pants this episode. It’s a bottomless kind of week. Beyond Senzel we talk Steven Matz injury, Shohei Ohtani’s return, and Michael Chavis’ ROS. We then have a question I never thought I’d ask “Is Jose Iglesias mix league viable?” Probably not, but we discuss it anyway. It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast.
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I’ll get to the FanDuel slate in a minute, but Ohio baseball teams had quite the day yesterday. They started the day in Cleveland, where Lucas Giolito, he of the 5.32 ERA, shut out Cleveland pretty easily through 7.1 innings. Though after years of being sub replacement level, Giolito actually is showing signs of being decent and increasing his strikeout rate from 16.1% to 28.9% in only 23 innings. Then, later in the day, Cincinnati forced Mike Fiers (6.81 ERA and 5.33 xFIP) to throw 131 pitches in 9 innings while getting no hits and managing only two walks. This isn’t new, both teams have been playing like horse poop all year. Cleveland has now tied with the Marlins for most futile offense in the Majors with a 67 wRC+, and the Reds are 25th with a 78 wRC+. Both of these teams were expected to actually have decent offenses and just aren’t any good so far. Anyway, I have nothing to say here, just that yesterday, these 2 Ohio teams were awful and have been awful all year.
On to the picks…
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Please, blog, may I have some more?[brid autoplay=”true” video=”411377″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball 2019 Mailbag Week 7″]
No ham sad-wiches at this Fiers fest! Mike Fiers pitching a no-hitter with 6 Ks, ERA down to 5.48, and he only needed 131 pitches. Previously, he threw a no-hitter in 2015 when he threw 135 pitches. Man, pitchers really threw a whole lot more pitches back then in the mid-twenty-teens. Way back when we still thought Game of Thrones was a good show and not a shill for Starbucks. Way back in 2015 when we all got along outwardly and just simmered under the surface with our political differences. What a time! Of course, Mike Fiers was facing the Reds, and Fiers is red and *insert Spider-man pointing at himself jpg* and Ramon Laureano needed to rob Joey Votto of a home run, but…piece of cake. As we knew all along, there’s nothing to Fiers except Fiers himself. He was a streamer I strongly considered yesterday, because Fiers is the epitome of a Medi-OAKer pitcher, and he was at home facing a terrible team. Sadly, the one thing that puts out Fiers is when you put your stream on him. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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