[brid autoplay=”true” video=”377153″ player=”10951″ title=”2019 Razzball Draft Kit Starting Pitchers”]

Today concludes the fantasy baseball sleepers‘ portion of our program.  *nudges homeless woman sleeping on my couch that I tried to get Cougs to agree to a threesome with*  No more sleepers, Francine.  Meh, I’ll let her rest.  Like the outfielders to target, this post is necessary.  You need to target the right names at the end of the draft for starters.  Last year’s starters to target post included Jameson Taillon, Blake Snell, Charlie Morton, Miles Mikolas, Trevor Williams and Patrick Corbin.  All guys who this year are in the top 40 for starters, with two making the jump to my top 20 starters., and, one, well, can you believe ESPN ranked Snell 242nd overall last year?  Also, on a side note, Fantasy Pros recently talked about ‘perts who had foresaw breakouts last year, and they didn’t mention Blake Snell (or Jo-Ram or Acuña), but mentioned Jose Urena, Jared Hughes and Wade LeBlanc by three writers from sites that help or support them.  Not to get too aluminum-foil-hat-wearing here, but, if you don’t think they have an agenda with who they highlight, you’re not seeing the big picture.  As with other target posts, these guys are being drafted after the top 200 overall.  Anyway, here’s some starters to target for 2019 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Thu 8/7
ATH | ATL | CHW | CIN | MIA | PIT | SEA | WSH | ARI | BAL | BOS | CHC | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | OAK | PHI | SD | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR

My draft season is over and two long-ass draft posts (LABR, Tout Wars) feels sufficient. So to cover my other 6 drafts (not including my RCL where I ended up with an auto-draft because I blanked) and summarize my draft season as a whole, I put together the below chart. I imagine I will be linking to this post either to gloat or mourn after the season ends (or mourn certain picks yet gloat because I out-managed my leaguemates in season because of our awesome yet affordable season-long tools).

***Tools update – Projections have been run for the first couple of games. You can see all the pitchers in Streamonator and all 3/28 hitters under Hittertron Tomorrow (points league variant available too!). Will shift all days forward so 3/28 is ‘Today’ sometime tonight. Tentative plan is to run the first ‘Next Week’ projections on Saturday night/Sunday morning.***

Here are the leagues I am participating in:

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The master of bots himself, Rudy Gamble, joins B_Don and Donkey Teeth on this episode of the Ditka Pod. Discover what forms of sorcery Rudy finds most useful in his utter domination of Tout Wars each year. Speaking of sorcery, you can subscribe to all of Rudy’s tools and dominate your fantasy leagues right here.

Mr. Gamble also pontificates on fantasy strategy for the coming season. These strategic conversations touch on the art of stashing relief pitchers, modern day SAGNOF as it relates to both saves & steals, drafting a fantasy ace, RCL approaches, and much more. Rudy then shares a few of his favorite targets have been this draft season before the crew discusses the results of his LABR and Tout drafts. Bring your own sausage to this special guest episode of the world’s foremost fantasy sausage fest.

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Greetings and salutations, fellow baseball researchers. It is I, Mr. Moving Averages back at the helm as we charge once more through sports and time in our exploration to dissect the inner workings of the Quality Start.  We have come so far in such a short period of time. If any of the references or stats in this article appear to lack context, please refer back to prior segments for their basis, creation or explanation. There’s a lot of information and results we have established to get to this point, so looking back for a refresher is always understandable; We’ve introduced several new processes and statistics. We’ve confirmed our assertions and finally, the data mining is done; Let the analysis begin! In Part 8, the fantasy rubber meets the road as we apply some of our research to actual ballplayers that will help us to take home the fantasy trifecta; The cheddar, the chip and the trophy. We came into this with a purpose, and once this collective of truth seekers climbs the top rope you know the big elbow isn’t far behind (RIP Randy Savage OOOOH YEAAAA).

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Domingo Santana (1-for-5 with a grand slam) is already in beast mode.  That beast is a dingo, emphasis on ding, as in dinger, and you can’t spell Domingo without dong, but this dingo eats dongs not babies, and I’ve got smoke coming out my ears….We have real baseball!  Then, tomorrow we won’t have real baseball again for a week.  MLB is so crackers it’s staying at the Ritz by the water, Cheez-it, Mary and Joseph!  “Happy Opening Day two days later,” said the Time Zone to the Baseball Fan.  I can’t wait to see how Mike Fiers (3 IP, 5 ER) and Marco Gonzales (6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks) react to pitching in a game, then taking a 56-hour plane flight home to pitch again in a week.  Their combined 89 MPH fastballs are gonna have some jet lag.  Hopefully, their elbows won’t.  The Stream-o-Nator wasn’t thrilled with either pitcher, and neither was great.  Yes, the Stream-o-Nator is back!  The only real takeaway I have from these games is the A’s are at least thinking similarly to me, and that Ramon Laureano (0-for-5, 3 Ks) is the best man for the A’s leadoff job.  I’ll toast to that!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday for fantasy baseball:

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Martin Perez had a 5.48 K/9 last season in 85.1 innings pitched. His career rate is 5.46. Yuck. Last week, I wrote up Frankie Montas, who had a 5.95 K/9 last season. I guess I know what my type is. Yes, I’ve provided click bait for you. My daughter needs some new shoes, so I would very much appreciate if you clicked the Montas article a million times each. Thanks. Anyways, I’m bullish on Montas. Could the same be said for Perez?

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Do you like roast pork with provolone and broccoli rabe? Do you find John Kruk both devilishly handsome and well spoken? Can you recite from memory Michael Jack Schmidt’s retirement speech, including the exact moment he breaks down in tears? Do you know what jawn means? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re a Phillies fan. This jawn is for yous. 

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The big club has a decent shot at the division this year, which is good – because the farm is looking lean. And not in that good “I’ve lost twenty pounds and can touch my toes again” lean. No, this is the lean where every other spec is a pitcher and even the top prospects don’t touch 60 with their overall grade. Will it matter? Maybe. It’s nice to build a contender and still have some big chips to trade during a run. But that’s asking for cake and eating it too. Sixto’s gone. That leaves last year’s draft pick as their best prospect. Meh. Grab a roast pork and let’s do this jawn.

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This preseason is weird.  Games have started, but not really.  Due to the unlikely nature of the preseason, I’ve decided to delve into the wholly unlikely with some bold predictions.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever done a bold predictions post before, because, it is a very stupid post.  Do you say things like, “Cameron Maybin will hit 175 homers?”  Which is bold, but absurd.  Or do you say Daniel Palka will be a top 40 outfielder, which, I guess is bold, but I’ve already written a Daniel Palka sleeper post, so, while bold, I think it’s more realistic.  In other words, whose definition of bold are we using?  Some pussyfooters strutting around like they’ve got Brad Peacock’s plummage and saying Bryce Harper will be a top 10 outfielder or some legit peacocks who are brushing back their feathered hair in their El Dorados saying Ronald Guzman will hit 30 homers?  I honestly don’t know.  This is also why when people go back in October and say, “So, um *clears throat* I had three of my ten bold predictions come true.  The first one was Realmuto won’t be the number one catcher.  Yadda blabba bloo!”  *farts into hand*  It’s total nonsense.  Realmuto won’t be the number one catcher has like a 90% chance of happening and is not bold.  I’m gonna go crazy bold!  Let’s get ready to grumble!  Anyway, here’s some 2019 fantasy baseball bold predictions:

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Live from New York it’s the Razzball podcast! That’s right, for the first time in our history Grey and myself recorded a show live and in person. This Saturday following the first day of the Tout Wars auction/draft weekend, Grey headed over to my headquarters in Mid-Town Manhattan for a little fantasy baseball talk. We touch on my H2H points league auction results, and finish off the last 40 or so starting pitchers at a rapid pace. It’s an all-time classic for your boys, so check it out! It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Podcast. Bee-T-Dubs, don’t forget to checkout the new Razzball shirts over on Rotowear.com!

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We have another week’s worth of draft data to work with and only about one week left of the Razzball Commenter League draft season.  All public drafts wrap up on Wednesday, March 27th, so if you’ve been waiting to join a league, wait no more! We managed to fill all but one league this past week and that one had a manager bail about an hour before the draft, so it drafted with 11.  That’s a darn shame, don’t be that guy that bails right before the draft, so not cool. We have drafts all weekend long that need filling though, starting Friday and going through to Sunday. There is even a $20 league with spots to fill, so go get that money!  The sign-up sheet is linked at the end of this article, but first, let’s dive into our RCL ADP and see what Razzball Commenters are drafting so far.

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Draft season is suddenly reaching its climax, not unlike the titular Rabbit does in women that aren’t his wife in Rabbit, Run. He’s not the rabbit we’re interested in, however. We’re after some free steals late in drafts because Steals Ain’t Got No Face. Let me type that again in all caps so you’ll know I’m shouting. STEALS AIN’T GOT NO FACE. Don’t overpay for Mallex Smith when you could get Dee Gordon much later. Either could be the leadoff hitter for Seattle. Chasing speed is a dangerous game. I prefer building it into my entire roster little by little but at some point, you need someone to lead the charge in the steals category. Consider these speedsters as speculative plays late in your drafts…

Please, blog, may I have some more?