Raise your hand if you have ever made a fart noise with your armpit. Now raise your other hand if you’ve ever laughed at someone else making fart noises with their armpit(s). Notice I made the word armpit potentially plural since there are many that can do this with both armpits. Not at the same time of course. These people are referred to as being “armpitfartidextrous”. If you currently do not have any hands raised, please close your browser because you are either not being honest or are not going to enjoy my flavor of humor. If you have never heard of an armpit fart, then technically you should have closed your browser and should not be reading this, but if you’ve ignored my instructions and are still here, then watch this dude.

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Mon 8/4
ARI | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | ATH | CHW | OAK | SEA | WSH

Welcome fantasy baseball aficionados to my first Razzball article. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going over things like streaming strategies and how to win a Yahoo Pro League but we’re going to start by introducing some bounce-back candidates. Finding bounce-backs is one of the keys to being successful in fantasy baseball, as that can make an average team an elite one. That’s one of the major reasons why I drafted Trevor Story last season. Looking at his peripheral statistics from a disappointing 2016-17 season and factoring that in with his ballpark and price made him one of the best values (RD 8-9) in drafts last year. He’s all the way up to the second round this season and finding a guy who can have that sort of jump is critical in building your team. The main goal here is to draft someone who will outplay their price tag and these candidates are all in fantastic situations to do just that.

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[brid autoplay=”true” video=”374500″ player=”10951″ title=”2019 Razzball Draft Kit 3rd basemen”]

*places an order on Amazon for a megaphone, goes with the free shipping option, waits three to five days, sits outside the door for shipment, begins to rain, yells for Cougs to hand me an umbrella, shakes head annoyed when she hands me a drink umbrella, on the fifth day, the megaphone arrives, opens box, groans, heads out to CVS for some batteries for my new megaphone, buys batteries, unable to wait any longer, places batteries in megaphone while inside the CVS, grimaces at feedback, then cackles into megaphone for ten minutes straight until escorted out of the store*  I am ordering megaphones to laugh into because it’s so hilarious I am writing an overrated post for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.  Can we all agree that at least 30% of the people drafting Vlad “The Mini Impaler” are doing it because they have so much FOMO after Ronald Acuña Jr. last year?  Maybe even 50% or more are drafting Impaler Jr. due to FOMO.  Even ESPN and Yahoo are ranking Vlad for that FOMO factor.  Yo, Yahoo and ESPN, you can’t make up for Mr. Bungling Acuña last year with your ranking for VGJ this year.  You just can’t.  By the way, I wanna see a show on MTV called The FOMO Factor hosted by Ludacris, and it’s the worst show ever but everyone on the show feared it was going to be the best show.  Anyway, what can we expect from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?

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I grew up playing 720 Degrees by Atari. If any of you are unfamiliar with the game, you skate around, collect money for doing tricks, and try to earn enough tickets to enter a skate park. The best part of the game was when the timer would run out when you weren’t in an event, and a swarm of bees would chase you down while a narrator would narrate, “SKATE OR DIE!!” in a menacing narrator voice. Fast forward to 2019, and skate or die has been replaced with ride or die with scooters. I have to admit. Riding the electric scooter is fun, and in a city like Los Angeles, it’s very useful. Side sociological observation: While they are prevalent in most places, drive to the hood and you won’t find too many. Hmmmm. Anyways, besides the “shit they leave behind,” as Grey so eloquently described them in his Top 20 2nd Basemen, the electric scooters have become very dangerous. There have been hundreds of injuries and even three fatalaties. Yikes. But this is a fantasy website, so I’m going to talk about a different scooter, as in Scooter Gennett. Do we ride or die with him in 2019?

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NL WestNL Central | NL East | AL West | AL Central | AL East

I don’t pay much attention to Spring Training statistics.  You never know who the statistics are coming against.  Baseball-Reference did, however, have an amazing tool last year that attempted to quantify the quality of opposing pitchers or batters faced during spring training games on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being MLB talent and 1-3 being high A to low A level.  This tool is great, but it averages all the Plate Appearances or batters faced.  You would still need a deeper dive to see if your stud prospect smacked a donger off of Chris Sale or off of your kid’s future pony league baseball coach.  So what should we watch for in March when we’re starved for the crack of the bat?  Ignore “best shape of their life” stories and Spring Training statistical leaderboards.  Pay attention to injuries and lineup construction and position battles!

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Couple of sells before the words to ring the till’s bells.  If you want an ad-free experience, click here.  Join a Razzball League, they’re filling up, but they need youse, so stop being afraid of success!  Finally, Rudy released his War Room, you need to subscribe to our tools to get it.  Not to toot Rudy’s horn — ew! — but it is what we both use in all our drafts.  I’m basically crediting it with our Tout Wars wins.  It is leaps and bounds better than our online War Room.  It is indispensable in NFBC leagues.  You can get access to the War Room via the Easter Egg hidden in the middle of the Stream-o-Nator page.  You have to subscribe, though.  Speaking of NFBC, sign up to take on Rudy or I or Ralph or MattTruss.  League’s start drafting March 4th.  Wait, there’s a more detailed intro:

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A howdy, a hey and a hi-yo Silver to all the hot-rod rowdy Razzball readers in deep anticipation of this; The third installment of my series on the oft spat upon Quality Start (Part 1 and Part 2).  I’m so glad to be back at the grindstone so soon; Things around here are getting better every day. Recuperation from a neck surgery is progressing daily, and little John is sleeping a little longer every night. In fact, I’ve sat down to start this article three different times already; Each time ending up down a different rabbit hole of QS stats which set me on a productive, yet different path than intended.  So for the delight of the crowd (and the detriment of the nerve endings in my fingers) the H2H part of our QS exploration will become a series within a series.  Just as a note going forward; Always keep in mind that point league formats can vary greatly. I will be using the format from my own CBS Home League which is only slightly varied from the standard: +0.5 per out, +1.0 per K, -0.5 per runner, -1.0 per run, +7.0 per W, +5.0 per QS, -5.0 per L. We wanted to make sure that in the event of taking a Quality Start + Loss, (which we call ”eating the cock-meat sandwich”) that the QS negates the Loss. All leagues are different so make sure to adjust for your own format as we progress.

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The Brewers system is pretty much Hiura and then everybody else. It’s kind of like how there is Blatz beer, and then everything else. Can I use my powers as an internet blogger – whose words reach tens of people – to say something slightly controversial? *whispers* I don’t get the craft beer thing. I mean, I understand micro-brewing and that, but when did we start talking about beer like it’s wine with “notes” and such? I guess I’m a reverse beer snob. I stick to the classics. Hamm’s, Carling Black Label, Genesee, and, if I’m feeling extra fancy, Miller High Life. If you’re a craft beer guy or gal…cheers to you. Just remember stubborn old farts like me are still out there when you’re stocking up for your next party. Rant over. Back to baseball…

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What an absolute trip this offseason has been, huh?  Emphasis on ‘has been,’ and hyphenated.  And trip as in “catch one’s foot on something and stumble or fall or other Macy Gray lyrics.”  And ‘trip’ might actually be a misspelling of ‘drip.’  To recap, what an absolute drip this offseason has-been, huh?  Players have already reported and Manny Machado is only now signing and Bryce Harper still hasn’t, said the man who likes to point out the obvious.  Obvious Man continued, “I need oxygen to breathe.”  Shut up, Obvious Man!  Yesterday, the Padres signed Manny Machado to a 10-year, $300 million contract.  We should’ve seen this coming all along.  After all, San Diego is the world’s most languid city.  Also, remember all those people saying Machado would sign with the White Sox, due to Yonder Alonso signing there and being his brother-in-law?  I mean, a guy doesn’t want to be with his in-laws? No kidding!

Now Machado will be in the cozy position of hitting between Ian Kinsler and Eric Hosmer.  Does he just prefer to hit in garbage lineups?  Was Balty-more (how I say it) not bad enough for him?  What an absolute shizzshow this 1st round has become.  In the top 10 for 2019 fantasy baseball, I’ve moved Machado down to another tier as the 2nd tier in the top 10 becomes increasingly barren.  “Acuña or Trea Turner or die,” as my bumper sticker I’m manufacturing says.  Petco isn’t the ‘terrible’ park everyone has made it out to be in past years, i.e. Petco isn’t for the birds and is not a dog of a park or–Fill in your own damn animal pun!  It’s still makes me shudder hard at thinking of hitting in front of Hosmer, but, as previously mentioned on the aforementioned tip, hitting in the Orioles’ lineup wasn’t amazing either and Machado did fine for many years.  I did lower his projections in the top 10, and I’m now way more tentative on him.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw for fantasy baseball this offseason:

PSYCH!  Before getting into the post, we have an announcement:

Razzball Introduces An Ad-Free Option

I know, I know, I know, but you love seeing ads for “Kate Hudson Beauty Secrets” that then lead you to a free Amazon gift card which is actually an Eastern European man living in Nigeria who managed to clone your DNA from your IP address and just slept with your wife using the Amazon Gift Card Clone, who goes by the name, Tommy.  I love those ads too!  They are terrific!  However, and this is going to come as a shock to some of you, there’s people who don’t appreciate the IP clone illegal download software ads that sleep with your wife.  I know, shocker!  For those people, Razzball is introducing an ad-free option.  As Rudy tells me, direct people to the Tools Subscription page and they can figure it out from there.  I have my doubts, but what better way to prove me wrong?  The ad-free subscription runs for 250 days — a Jewish calendar year! — and is only for one sport.  There is now a Log In in the top menu for people too, so if you’re a subscriber, there’s no more need to email Rudy or I asking, “Hey, I bought the subscriptions and I can’t figure out where to log in?  Is it at the log in page?”  Wait until we introduce the “Grey comes to your house and just operates your computer for you” option.  Anyway, here’s the roundup:

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Are you triggered by Grey’s Jose Ramirez “Schmohawk” post from earlier this morning? Do you want to yell at him through your radio while he explains his Jo-Ram shade? Look no further than the Razzball Podcast, where Grey talks, and won’t answer you back as you scream obscenities. It’s a great relationship you two have… Lucky for you Grey has plenty of other goodies to share on which third baseman he thinks you should target. If you don’t know by now, Grey has a mystical “Kavorka” capable of causing injuries, poor play, or both. Just ask Kyle Schwarber. Any the who, we run through the third base ranks, running so deep that the end of the show is all about players that have yet to be born. It’s no joke! It’s all on 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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Pitchers and catchers have reported and the Razzball Commenter Leagues are open, it’s beginning to feel a lot like baseball!  I can’t wait to be half as productive at work and start losing countless hours of sleep staying up to watch the end of the Marlins@Padres game, just in case there is a closer injury.  Football was a fine diversion, but I always feel a little empty without baseball. I’m happy to be back for another season as your RCL tour guide. I love these things. Really, they play to my strengths and offer ample opportunity to test strategy and ideas.  Weekly lineups/moves have their place, I just don’t find them as fun. The daily moves, the League Competitive Index competition, battling hundreds of other managers for the top of the overall standings and of course, the non stop action make this a unique and fun challenge.  It’s kind of like pounding a pot of coffee every hour, on the hour for six straight months. It’s the fantasy baseball equivalent of snorting Red Bull. I’m also a huge nerd for all the numbers and data that gets collected from running so many leagues under the Razzball umbrella.  We’re back for another season partnering with FanTrax. FanTrax makes data collection much better which means it will be even easier to share these numbers with you along the way and try to glean some info from all that data. In order to make the data pool even larger though, we need you, and you, and you too.  You see, what makes RCLs great is all of you. Man that sounds mushy, but it’s true. In an ideal world, every Razzball reader would head on over to the RCL sign-ups, pick a league and all would be right with the world. It’s funny to see how many frequent commenters have never played an RCL. What’s wrong with you?  I was there once upon a time, so for those of you that aren’t so eager, let’s sit down and chat it out.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”378040″ player=”10951″ title=”2019 Razzball Draft Kit Top 5 Busts”]

Before I get into our 1st schmohawk post (I’m including you, because without you there’s no me; wanna hug? I’m kidding, don’t touch me), a quick remembrance.  One loyal Razzball Reader, Simply Fred, kept a running tally of how many times I nailed my schmohawk posts.  I think at last tally I was 25 for 27 over the last five years.  Something like that.  The point is I don’t know the number, because around Christmas time of this year, we lost Simply Fred.  He passed suddenly around the holidays.  He was one of our most loyal readers, and he will be missed, especially around the time of the yearly of the schmohawk posts.  In his honor, MattTruss, who runs our Razzball Commenter Leagues, is changing the championship trophy of the ECFBL league that Simply Fred was a part of to the Fred Barker Memorial Trophy, a worthy gesture for a worthy man.  Any hoo!  Jose Ramirez is a schmohawk.  This is so freakin’ obvious to me that it almost makes me question myself, because literally no one else is saying this about Jose Ramirez.  Could I really be the only one that recognizes how obvious this is?  I feel like Queen Isabella when she used cover her giant bosoms with bras that were hand-painted with round globes and Spanish men would be like, “She ain’t flat, but the earth is, so her luscious breasts are factually incorrect.”  Thankfully, Christopher Columbus recognized the beauty of Isabella’s chest, raised his mast and sailed west.  Anyway, what can we expect from Jose Ramirez for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?

Please, blog, may I have some more?