Grey

Shortstops to Target, 2019 Fantasy Baseball

March 12, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 192 Comments

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[brid autoplay=”true” video=”373879″ player=”10951″ title=”2019 Razzball Draft Kit Shortstops”]

Some of the highlights of this post last year were Tim Anderson, Gleyber Torres, Amed Rosario and Marcus Semien.  Then there were guys like Addison Russell and Chad Pinder — or simply Chaddison — and *raspberries lips*  So they’re not all winners, but 2nd basemen to target and the shortstops are necessary evils like changing your underwear.  Whether you want to or not, it is a good idea to take a flyer on a late middle infielder, and you should still expect to get crapped on.  That metaphor was like the yodeling guy in The Price is Right.  This is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Lichtenstein) supplement to the top 20 shortstops for 2019 fantasy baseball.  The players listed have a draft rank after 200 on other sites.  Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2019 projections.  Anyway, here’s some shortstops 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 Wed 8/6
ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK
The Real Joey Bart

Over the Greydar: Yelich The Bottom Of The Barrel

March 11, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 15 Comments

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In last week’s article, we went over bargain bin players, so we’re going to go a different route here. This is going to be a two-part piece where we focus on players that I won’t draft. These are guys that simply won’t end up on any of my fantasy teams for a number reasons, as they’re all being drafted too highly. We compared last week’s bargain bin players to tasty donuts but these players in this article are closer to rotten milk. While they may look normal on the surface, you get a whiff of them up close and nearly fall to your knees because of that sneaky smell.

In this first article, we’re going BIG! We’re going to give you three guys in the top-50 that I’m going to fade. In the next article, we’ll pick players that are going between 50-100 that we want to avoid. While none of these guys are necessarily busts, I just have a hard time seeing any of them live up to their draft price because of numerous outlier statistics. So, with that in mind, let’s get started with an MVP.   

Please, blog, may I have some more?
B_Don

Baseball Podcast: Grey And Donkey Teeth Attempt To Record A Podcast

March 11, 2019 | Ditka, Razzball Podcast | 3 Comments

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Fantasy Master Lothario, Grey Albright, joins Donkey Teeth to discuss Jackson Hole, along with many other holes. They dig into their AL and NL-Only industry league auction results, breaking down how each team shaped up and the optimal draft strategy for these formats.

The guys talk about their shared Adalberto Mondesi love, how one might come to draft Bryce Harper in an AL-Only league, and $1 bargain buys in only-leagues, as Albright struggles to conquer his addiction to lists of letters. The show is rounded out by Grey requesting Donkey’s handyman services at his new California home and a discussion about 2019 expectations for Byron Buxton.

Buckle up and prepare to feast on this special episode of the one and only fantasy sausage pod!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Vlad A Rare Oblique Jr.

March 11, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 282 Comments

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A Loch Ness Monster waits nervously in a doctor’s office.  He turns to his left to a unicorn.  “What brought you in here?”  “I was having a weird pang behind my horn for a few weeks while in Candyland, and I went for an MRI when they found a growth.”  The unicorn chokes back its fears, finishing, “I’m having a biopsy.  You?”  The Loch Ness Monster hands the unicorn a tissue, then, through tears, “I’ve been pooping this tar-like substance, and they’re not sure…what…it…is.”  As the the two of them sob uncontrollably, they look across the receptionist area to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.  The unicorn fights through tears and asks, “Why are you at the National Institute of Made-Up Injuries and Diseases?”  “The Jays said I had an oblique injury to delay my free agency.”  So, Vlad Guerrero Jr. has an oblique injury, which, honestly, is likely a real injury, but doesn’t sound serious.  Maybe it is just an aching venient injury.  Who knows.  I’ve been saying for a while that I’m not drafting Vlad, due to his ADP, and wrote a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. schmohawk, so this doesn’t affect me a ton.  Nor his MLB ETA.  He wasn’t starting the year with the Jays either way.  I haven’t changed his projections or ranking in my top 20 3rd basemen, though there have been a bunch of changes in my rankings, so let’s get to it.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw in spring training for 2019 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
John L

The 18th Out, Part 6: QS+Win Conversion And Outliers for 2019

March 10, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 9 Comments

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Welcome back for Part 6 of The Eighteenth Out. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)  Every article has brought us a step closer to redefining a new, effective way to go about evaluating and drafting point pitchers. Thankless is the job of the Point League fantasy analyst, yet we trudge on. There are times in life we break away from the pack and wander out alone into the unknown, determined to achieve our destiny. Imagine something that epic, but relating to baseball statistics (and a full orchestra playing the GoT theme song in the background). Why so serious you ask? You’ll see (I hate being wrong).

Please, blog, may I have some more?
B_Don

2019 Razzball Team Preview: Chicago Cubs

March 10, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews |

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Welcome back to baseball Cubs fan, or just fantasy readers who want to know about the Cubs. 2018 was a disappointment for many Cubs fans and fantasy owners of Cubs players alike, unless you happened to own Javier Baez. At least there is always the bleachers with a sausage and an Old Style.

While my outlook for 2019 may still be rosy (I expect the Cubbies to win the NL Central), there is an impending contract cliff that the North siders are going to have to maneuver, and the roster could look completely different in 2021 and 2022. Some of these guys the Cubs will try to re-sign, and other deals will be nice to get off the books, but the Cubs must make that decision on Jon Lester, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, Addison Russell, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana, and several other less impactful guys.

I’m a bit hesitant on the Cubs for the future, but you’re here to figure out what to do this season. While 2018 may be viewed as a down season, the Cubs still finished 9th in runs scored and the pitching finished with the 3rd best ERA in the league. PECOTA is projecting doom and gloom with a last place finish in the division, but that seems like an overreaction to a team that is getting a healthy Kris Bryant and hopefully, a healthy Yu Darvish back this season. I may even take the over on the THOME projection of 88.5 wins with a 2nd place finish in the division, but maybe I’m just optimistic, after all, it is spring training time

(To hear more about the THOME projection system, check out my podcast, Ditka, Sausage, and Fantasy Sports on Razzball when we interview the creator, Steve Paulo).

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Sean Z

Using Betting Lines And Totals To Improve Your Fantasy Baseball Projections

March 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, 2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 6 Comments

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I was never particularly motivated to use VLOOKUP (or any other function in Excel) for “professional” working purposes. I learned it a few years ago strictly to become better at fantasy baseball. By taking all of the public information that is available at your disposal, and combining fantasy valuations and projections from various industry resources (using mostly VLOOKUPs – seriously, it’s the only thing that I know how to do), you can formulate composite projections which paint an accurate picture of the fantasy landscape, and eliminate limit your individual bias when you inevitably use those projections and re-rank players by position. One resource that I find particularly helpful, and which you might not already incorporate into your own process, are the player propositions and betting over/under totals provided by sportsbooks. The betting market sets extremely reasonable expectations with regards to player floors and league leaders in statistical categories and can provide guidance as to where your projections stand relative to public perception both on an individual player basis, and against the league as a whole.  The fact that a player is listed in a category, in and of itself, can be extremely telling as to their raw skills and expectations for the upcoming season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

2019 Fantasy Baseball Team Previews: New York Yankees

March 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 6 Comments

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Well the first for-sure, definite, 100% confirmed, future Yankee free agent signing has signed with the Padres. And this kid is now every Yankee fan:

That was definitely me back in the early 90’s when my favorite player was Don Mattingly (because he lead the league in having a walrus mustache just like my Dad. Runner up: Dennis Eckersley.) Like all Yankee fans and the bandwagon Yankee fans, I then went through the arrogant highs of the late-90’s dynasty. Followed by the dark, lonely era of the Aughts which turned me into the bitter, jaded fan who grew sick and tired of the high-spending, future-sacrificing ways of the overpaid Yankees that I am today. My writer photo above is a sarcastic response to the Yankee fans who never grew out of the dynasty era and still yell “COUNT DA RINGS BRO! DEREK JETAHHH BABBYY!!!” Despite the Yankees only winning one championship in the last 19 years. But there is now a light at the end of that tunnel! Five of the players in the Yankees starting lineup are home grown players! Our ace came up through our own developmental system and wasn’t just plucked from some poor, small market, podunk team like the Reds! Our bullpen is TERRIFYING!

The eyes of Yankee Nation are set on only one thing: adding another championship ring to the trophy case. The team, fans and front office will accept nothing less. Right now, many experts have the Bombers tabbed as the World Series favorite — we’ll see how that all shakes out in October. I talked to Callen Elslager from the Fantasy Life Blog who just had his 2019 Yankees Team Preview published. Here are his thoughts on a few key questions the 2019 Bronx Bombers are facing:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Son

One Man’s Trash: Jurickson Is Profar Up The ADP List

March 9, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 22 Comments

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We’ve been mental masturbating over Jurickson Profar since way back when many considered him the number one prospect in all of baseball. Great makeup, potential face of a franchise, elite hitter, and hard worker were all phrases thrown about. And a switch hitter to boot. Unfortunately, injuries derailed his career early on and knocked most of the shine off.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Rudy’s 2019 Tout Wars Mixed Draft

March 8, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Our Leagues | 51 Comments

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On March 5th, I took part in my 5th Tout Wars Mixed Draft – a 15-team snake draft that is unique amongst expert leagues in that it is a 5×5 OBP league. Otherwise, pretty standard. Weekly transactions. 2 catchers. $1000 FAAB.

Quick Perspective On The Difference Between OBP vs AVG
I went over the key things to think about with 15 team vs 12 team mixed league standard 5×5 in my 2019 LABR writeup.

The biggest shift in OBP leagues (besides the obvious one) is that ADP for hitters is much less predictive. This makes drafts a little more unpredictable but it generally advantages the more prepared drafters in the room. I look at ADP but also put my projected $OBP – $AVG right next to it to indicate guys whose value is much higher/lower in OBP.

There are other minor shifts (1Bs look better b/c they typically have highest BB rates, hitters with high AVGs but mediocre BB rates become less valuable, etc.) but this ends up baked into the projections. I have to run 15-team 5×5 OBP custom but you can access my 12-team 5×5 OBP projections and those are updated daily for Season to Date and Rest of Season as well. All free.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Yost

Getting Ahead In H2H: Draft Day Discounts, Hitter Edition

March 8, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head Leagues | 15 Comments

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You smell that? No, this is the rare occasion where it is not “what The Rock is cooking.” I’m talking about the smell of fantasy baseball in the air. Mock drafts, tiered rankings, real drafts, sleepers, busts, you name it. With just a few weeks left until Opening Day, this is grind time for fantasy baseball owners. We have Spring Training games to overreact to, and small samples to over analyze. Players values are moving up and down, starting to settle into where they will be going in upcoming drafts.

Please, blog, may I have some more?