Welcome to day seven of the 2019 DFS Baseball Season! First, to my returning readers – the most loyal readers for the greatest weekly column in existence – I hope your off-season was quite relaxing (and profitable if you played the other sports in DFS, of which I contributed an NFL column to the site to keep me busy during the long winter months). Second – to any new readers – this article is for Daily Fantasy Sports only – so for season-long questions, head back to the main page and check out all the season-long tools that Razzball has to offer. The purpose of this article is to help you Daily Fantasy players out there build your lineups. One key point I must stress – the analysis and advice in this column will primarily be for FanDuel Main Slate cash games. This is a critical fact – many touts just spew their “top plays” without regards to the site or to the type of contest – which is as foolish as trading the best WR in the league because he dances in the end-zone and has funny-colored hair, for two draft picks and a run-stuffing safety who struggles in pass cov…wait, this is an MLB column, back to that. It’s important to know that the majority of this article will be focusing on FanDuel cash plays. This leads me to something I want to really stress for 2019 – user feedback. I want to hear from you guys (you can hit me up on twitter). Disagree with me on a player? Let me know! Have a follow-up question? Let me hear it! I’m not perfect, sometimes I will miss a detail or overlook a fact. Ideally, we can get good conversations going in the comments section of each article and provide even more assistance in building lineups that crush the souls of our competition and rake in all the monies. One last thing – if you’re reading this article, you’re looking for an edge in your DFS contests. The single biggest piece of advice I can give is to sign up for DFSbot here at Razzball and to incorporate the projections into your daily analysis. Yes, I fully admit that my endorsement feels like a shameless plug, but frankly, I don’t care, because Rudy’s projections are the best in the business. If you’re looking for sustained DFS success, it’s a massive mistake to not sign up for the DFS tools here at Razzball.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!
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Trea Turner broke his finger when he squared around to bunt. He hit two homers in his last game, including a walk-off homer, so of course he’s bunting. I mean, OF COURSE. Why wouldn’t he be bunting? You gonna let (fill-in name) just be the best bunter in Major League history? (Fill-in name of a bunter that no one’s ever heard of because no one cares about bunting) is not gonna go down in history as the greatest bunter without a freakin’ fight from Trea Turner? Is he? I mean, IS HE?! What in the holy eff bombs!? Don’t bunt! Turner will likely be out for a month and everything that is wonderful can’t be mine. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Peter Alonso was a swell young fella, who bounced from city to city to display his Herculean feats of power. Brooklyn. St. Lucie. Binghamton. Las Vegas. The shows got so wild that even the baseballs starting singing Britney Spears’ Hit Me Baby One More Time as they hurled 60 feet 6 inches down the pitching tunnel. 80 grade power with a 6′ 3″ 230 to 245 pound frame, depending on who you ask just added to the legend. Once he made it to The Show, though, Peter decided to simplify things and changed his name to Pete Alonso, which takes it from two syllables to one. You know what else has two syllables? Home run. So, Peter Alonso has gone from a swell young fella to a generous one because now we can save time and oxygen every time he hits a home run, which he is planning to do plenty. Instead of Peter Alonso hits another home run, it is now Pete. Gone. Simple and efficient. I like it. That philosophy also is a microcosm of his general hitting approach: See ball, hit ball. Ok, all jokes aside, Alonso was added in 18.4% of ESPN leagues over the past seven days, bringing his ownership from 29.7 to 48.1%. Trash or treasure?
Please, blog, may I have some more?With just a few days to go before opening day of the baseball season we invited Rotowire and Fangraphs Jason Collette to talk about the upcoming season. We hit on Jason’s AL Only Tout Wars draft, talk some Rays breakouts, and new pitches for 2019. If you take anything away from this episode let it be Jason’s Yandy Diaz argument for 2019 relevancy. I bought in and snagged Yandy where I could. Plug in, turn on, and tune out as we take you on another Fantasy Baseball journey of sound. It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Podcast. Bee-T-Dubs, don’t forget to order 12 of the new Razzball shirts over on Rotowear.com!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome my good and/or decent Razzball Commenter League managers. How were your first four days of fun? Oh, you drafted Giancarlo Stanton, Justin Upton and Daniel Murphy did you? Welp, there’s always next year! I kid, I kid, the RCL format is actually one of the easier formats to recover from these types of things. Just pony up to the Hitter-Tron and make due with batty calls for the next few weeks, you’ll be OK. This Razzball Commenter League update will be a little different than most. Throughout the year I’ll be bringing you stats, trades, weekly leaders and overall standings. With only four days worth of data (and most of them half days at that) it’s really not worth diving into. Our RCL bots are not up and running yet either, so there’s not much to look at just yet. Instead, this week, I’ll be giving you a couple of FanTrax tips I’ve found helpful along the way, go over a few trades from the past week and let you peak in on the ‘Perts League. So, let’s get down to business, shall we? We shall!
Please, blog, may I have some more?It feels like the Yasiel Puig hype has already died down, as his price is falling on FanDuel. After an offseason that saw his NFBC ADP rise to 57 by mid-March, Puig’s price is down to just $3,000 on FanDuel. But does his price deserve to be so low after only three games? Puig is coming off of a season with an elite 150 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, and is batting third in a strong Reds lineup. He’s in a fantastic hitter’s park in Cincinnati and gets a great matchup against Jhoulys Chacin, who posted a poor 4.51 Deserved Run Average in 2018. If Puig was coming off of a random 1-for-11 streak in the middle of June nobody would bat an eye, so why do we care now? The Wild Horse is one of the best bets you can make on Tuesday.
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Mike Clevinger is old school. Not old school like really old school, but instead what we’d consider old school. Ya know, good. That’s one adjective for old school nowadays. Like things were once better. Of course, shizz was sideways with grabby hands and unhappy people during old school times too, but there’s a Gaussian blur of nostalgia that washes over people to make them think old school is good. So, Mike Clevinger is old school like that. He’s also old school in that he can throw a lot of pitches. Not really old school like when Vida Blue used to throw 175 pitches by the 3rd inning, get an arm transplant then come out and throw another 100 pitches with a groundskeeper’s arm sloppily attached to his shoulder. Nah, not real old school, but old school as we think about it in the new school. That’s Mike Clevinger. A youngish starter (he’s 28) who can throw 200 IP, when so many other starters are lucky to get through 150. Yesterday, Mike Clevinger went 7 IP, 0 ER 1 hit, 3 walks, 12 Ks as he did exactly what I expected from him when I said he was a number one starter coming into this year and you said, “Grey, you’re handsome as fudge, but Clevinger is a #2.” Nah, you’re doing a number two out yo’ mouth, Clevinger is a number one. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Do you own Trea Turner, he of three steals in one game? No? Then you’re chasing speed with the rest of us. It’s pretty early to go dropping players you drafted for a rabbit with a chance at a steal. However, if you have a free spot put it to use. Like Kanye craving a fair-haired lady lover, we’ll do anything for a save or steal come September. It’s never too early to pad those columns.
Please, blog, may I have some more?After being left off of the last podcast, B_Don returns for this post Opening Day podcast with Ditka of Razzball, Grey Albright. We let Donkey Teeth jump in occasionally to make dick jokes, ask some questions, and provide commentary.
Yes, we say we are going to wrap up and talk for 20 more minutes.Start with some nonsense, finish with some division and World Series prediction, but in the middle there’s some solid information about opening day and some players that ended up on our teams or that we are looking at on the wire.
We never know if the show is actually recording or if anyone is listening, but it’s always fun talking shop with the boss. We get to some mutual love on German Marquez ($13, really?), Adalberto Mondesi, and Fernando Tatis Jr. We discuss some Opening Day surprises and busts with the likes of Chris Sale, Zack Greinke, Eric Lauer, Luis Castillo, Enrique Hernandez, and more.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Although it is April 1st, this list of FanDuel picks for the first Monday of the MLB season is no joke. What might make you laugh though is the pitching options for the main slate. The pitching is very thin with few options to feel really good about. The list certainly will leave you desiring more.
But while the pitching stinks, there are plenty of bats and stacks to choose from as you look to build your winning FanDuel lineup for Monday. To help you navigate those options and more, let’s dive right into the DFS picks for Monday, April 1st.
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!
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If a tree falls in a forest, but no one drafts the tree does it make a sound? That’s what it felt like this weekend at Razzball. I’m sure a ton of people were angry that Daniel Murphy fractured his finger, but I heard nary a peep from the Razzball faithful. I’m guessing because of where I ranked him. According to FantasyPros, the top person ranked him 26th overall. The worst ranking of him, and, oh, it’s just silly. Some total numbskull ranked him 150th overall. Wait a second, I’m that numbskull, and the awful ranking was actually him 26th overall. I should’ve wrote an overrated schmohawk post for him, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to write this in February, “He’s old, and will get hurt. End of post. So, did everyone already take down their Groundhog’s Day decorations?” I honestly couldn’t figure out why people were drafting him. His projections were 22 HRs, .310. I mean, okay, but kinda big whoop, no? Meh, I guess it’s irrelevant now since I know none of you drafted him. Right? Riiiiiiight? The good news is Garrett Hampson and Ryan McMahon should see more at-bats, and, just as I say that, the Rockies played Mark Reynolds at 1st base on Sunday. Oh, Rockies, you dumb, dumb team, which is different than the creative team behind Dum-Dum lollipops. They’re terrific. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?I’m not going to overreact to 20 at-bats. I will not do it. That being said, if you’re in a league with me — every one of my players is a bum and is on the block. Starting next week we’ll start to see some moving and shaking, but this list is mostly a refresher from the pre-season. There are really only six “fallers” this week and they’re all injury related. I’ll be writing more about them in my injury column which drops on Wednesday, but here’s who slipping, tumbling, sinking, fumbling:
Please, blog, may I have some more?