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Here I go, here I go, here I go again (again?).  Girls, what’s my weakness? (Men who play baseball.)  Okay, then.  *insert GIF of Ariana Grande saying ‘Thank u, next’* Today, is the day in history known as, “Aw, sookie sookie, don’t need the nookie, Grey’s giving me a fantasy baseball cookie.”  Or, more succinctly, the top 500 for 2019 fantasy baseball.  A few years ago, the top 500 was only a top 300 for fantasy baseball.  Before that, it was 16 AD and I was drafting in one-person leagues because no one knew fantasy baseball or baseball.  In a few years from now, this is going to be a top 10,000 and I’m going to be ranking Mike Trout Jr. Jr. Jr. the 15th.  Today, in this year, nineteen after twenty, comes the top 500 for 2019 fantasy baseball.  Or as I like to call it, from Mike Trout A to chimpanzee.  Actually, I don’t call it that.  So, this post isn’t meant to send shockwaves through your system.  The pipe cleaner that the doctor uses to get the clogged wax from your ears is meant for that.  This is simply to give you an idea of where guys are ranked in relation to other positions.  I.e., you know I like Jonathan Villar better than Gleyber Torres, according to the top 20 shortstops, but do I like Villar better than Domingo Santana?  Okay, it’s not that simple.  You’ll notice after the top 200, positions start to get clumped together.  I might be the only fantasy baseball ‘pert to tell you this, but it doesn’t matter where, say, Tyler White is ranked vs. Blake Parker.  If you need a closer, White isn’t going to help you.  He can be ranked 50 spots in front of Parker and it doesn’t matter.  That’s why I have the 2019 fantasy baseball rankings broken down by positions.  If you need a 1st baseman, where Justin Smoak vs. Ryan Zimmerman matters, but where Smoak is ranked vs. Ketel Marte really doesn’t matter.  Also, there’s no comments about players, which you really should know prior to drafting.  In other words, Jose Altuve might be in the 20’s overall, but am I drafting him?  Well, you’d know if you read the top 20 2nd basemen.  There’s also a top 100 for 2019 fantasy baseball to help you.  Also, the Fantasy Baseball War Room and tomorrow will be a pitchers’ pairing tool, then on Monday will be our Razzball league signups.  Anyway, here’s the top 500 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

Every off-season I like to target players who are flying under the radar because they were busts the year before but had quality performances the season prior. Their lack of excellence could have been caused by injury, changing teams and cities, or maybe they celebrated their career year a little too hard and showed up to spring training out of shape and never recovered. Have you ever been injured and still had to attend work and be productive? Have you ever moved to an entirely new city for a new job? It can be a shock to your system if you don’t have your local coffee shop to hold your hand. I would know, I’ve done it six times not to brag. Drafting with this strategy does carry some risk, your crush really might be injury prone (Miguel Cabrera), or the league has figured out his weaknesses and he can’t adjust (Chris Davis) so you end up cycling through the latest 1B flavor of the week. Over the course of this series we will examine 12 players that had highly productive 2017 seasons but failed to live up to expectations in 2018. Now that their stock is low and they’re no longer a trendy name we can capitalize and find some value in the middle rounds. Typically we’re targeting guys in the 6th through 12th rounds that could return top 20 value.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Another week, another division bites the dust. We wrap the NL West with the San Francisco Giants…a team that I’m not sure I could name five players on. Good thing I’m only responsible for the minors! Er, fantasy baseball minor leagues that is. Be specific, Mike. First lesson in Blog Academy…we are precise with our words…we are precise with our words. This is just the opposite of the Padres – only one Top 100 (a catcher…vomit!) and a bunch of 45s or lower, and I don’t mean cool records. I mean guys that don’t really project to be everyday players. But don’t worry. I’ve included my favorite video of San Francisco to make this worth your while!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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One word about this top 100 for 2019 fantasy baseball, before I give you another 5,000 words.  I’m going to avoid repeating myself from the position rankings in the 2019 fantasy baseball rankings.  If you want to know my in-depth feelings about a player, then you need to go to his positional page, i.e., the top 20 1st basemen for 2019 fantasy baseball, the top 20 outfielders for 2019 fantasy baseball, the top 20 Gucci handbags for 2019– Ah, I almost got you.  This post is meant to give you an idea where guys from different positions are in relation to each other.  Since this post is only the top 100, there’s more players where this came from.  471 more, to be very exact.  Next up, there will be a top 500 that will go to 571.  Then, after that, there will be a top 7,500 that will go to 8,602, then a top 25,000 that will go to 28,765, then a top 600,000 that will go to 892,121, until we end up with a top kajillion in April that will go to a kajillion and one.  Or maybe I’ll stop at the top 500.  Yeah, that makes sense.  Not to get all biblical on you, but this is the gospel.  Print it out and take it to Mt. Sinai and it will say, “Win your 2019 fantasy baseball league, young prematurely balding man.”  Projections were done by me and a crack team of 100 monkeys fighting amongst themselves because there were only 99 typewriters.  Somebody please buy Ling-Ling his own typewriter!  Also, the online Fantasy Baseball War Room is, uh, online.  It might be a little wonky still, but working out kinks.  Anyway, here’s the top 100 for 2019 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to Razzball from my winter slumber and told you all about some early slow drafts I’ve been doing this season, starting all the way back over Thanksgiving weekend.  I only mentioned hitters from these drafts, and am now ready to start discussing their pitching brethren.  Since I’ve noticed that there is suddenly a lot more fantasy baseball content out there over the last few weeks in terms of rankings, ADP, etc., I’m ready to concentrate less on where guys were drafted in my leagues, and move on to looking at a handful of fellows who I’m already feeling at least mildly warm and fuzzy about.  On second thought, these guys may not exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy, more like adding them to a roster will make me a little less sick to my stomach at the end of a long draft than some of the other names that will be out there.  Since deep league fantasy baseball is my usual thing, I’m taking a very, very early look at guys who will be drafted in later rounds.  I’m still contemplating strategies for how I’ll draft (or purchase at auction) starters this year — between the massive disappointments that many of my second and third tier pitchers (must take this moment for obligatory shout-out to my personal 2018 deep league-ruiners, Jose Quintana and Jon Gray) and the wacky “opener” hijinks that will no-doubt be prevalent again this year, I feel like I’m going to need a different strategy for every league based on its specifications.  For now, though, I know that I want to keep an eye on a handful of starting pitchers that I can turn to late in a draft or auction, regardless of format, which brings us to today’s list.  Just to keep things deep-league relevant, all of these guys are outside of the top 225 in terms of current NFBC overall ADP, so anyone on this list is pretty much just waiver-wire fodder for most shallow, standard leagues.  As we deep-leaguers know, however, one man’s waiver-wire fodder…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Admit it, you need the cackle in your life. Once you hear the defining howl of one Fantasy Master Lothario it’s clear that ranking season is upon us. Rankings are coming! No, rankings are here! After running through a snoozefest in the top 25 catchers and a disappointment in the extremely shallow first base position, we move onto the keystone. A group of players so good they qualify for every other position and set of rankings. Don’t believe me? Go look! I think every one of these guys qualifies at shortstop, outfield, catcher, bullpen catcher, score keeper, and back up left field. All this to say there’s a ton of top players in these rankings and a bunch of bats you should be targeting. Listen up punks Grey Albright is in the building on the latest episode of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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With these top 100 starters for 2019 fantasy baseball, I’ve finished our (my) 2019 fantasy baseball rankings for positions.  Still coming will be a top 100 overall and top 500 to see how all the positions mesh together like your mesh Redskins jersey that meshes with your burgundy sweatpants.  Trust me, when you see how long this post is, you’ll be glad I kept this intro short.  As always, my projections are included, and where I see tiers starting and stopping.  If you want an explanation of tiers, go back to the top 10 overall and start this shizz all over again.  Anyway, here’s the top 100 starters for 2019 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Every year, MLB trends – e.g., K’s are up, starter innings are down, the opener! – cause a lot of fantasy writers and players alike to rethink how they approach starting pitching in drafts. Reflection is generally a good thing but it is a waste of time if you keep making the same mistake.

There is no one successful way to draft Starting Pitchers. There are factors specific to you (the drafter). Are you better or worse than the average person in your league at finding hitter or pitcher bargains later in the draft? Are you better or worse at streaming during the season? Is your league format conducive to streaming (better in shallow leagues and daily rosters, harder in deeper leagues and weekly rosters)? How do your projected player values line up with the market?

Here is my only evergreen advice on the subject: Do not wing it when it comes to how much you spend of your draft capital (either auction $ or draft picks in snake) on starting pitching.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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

With the top 80 starters for 2019 fantasy baseball, we are so close to the end of the rankings, I can almost taste it!  Wait, that’s not rankings I taste, I bit my lip and it’s blood.  I wonder if when Dracula bites his lip it’s like when Cougs goes out with her friends and I’m left at home while Emmanuelle is on Cinemax.  I’ll go over exactly how to draft starters in a few days, but there are so many ways to skin a cat we should have PETA breathing down our necks.  Also, I’m hoping to do the RCL signups next Monday.  Stay tuned!  Or not, your call.  All the 2019 fantasy baseball rankings are there.  Here’s Steamer’s 2019 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2019 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers.  All projections listed are mine and I mention where I see tiers starting and stopping.  Anyway, here’s the top 80 starters for 2019 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

There’s nothing going on in baseball and like any good propaganda arm we created content to discuss. We manufactured controversies and fought about them for 60 minutes. That’s actually not what happened at all. Instead Lance and I discussed the recently released Top 100 over on Prospects Live. We walk through some of our big discrepancies, and discuss our differing of opinions. But that loyal listeners is not all we talk. Oh no, we touched on a project I’m in the midst of researching. One I believe will make you deep leaguers sweat. Will I say what it is? NOPE! You gotta listen bro. It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.

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Whoa this system is deep. And I don’t mean the Swinging Friar’s “No Man Is An Island” kind of deep. I mean it took me a while to get to a player that didn’t have a 50 overall value slapped on them. I counted eight Padres in my Top 100 for 2019, which is pretty crazytown. San Diego has a nice balance of good hitting prospects and good pitching prospects, high ceilings and high floors. It really runs the gamut and should be a fun system to follow for the next year or two.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Imagine you’ve just arrived in Arizona to enjoy some Spring Training action. In exchange for sitting through two dozen enthralling exhibition baseball games in less than a week, you’ve agreed to first take your sweetheart on a day long horseback riding excursion. You’re about to pay full freight for this pricey little adventure when a shady looking cowboy pulls you aside whispering tales of an unadvertised, half price donkey option.

It’s a pivotal crossroads: Do you forfeit a few servings of nachos at the ballgames and pony up for the trustworthy horse, which you’re confident will deliver you to the promised land? Or do you gamble on the cagey donkey, which may nibble on your girl’s foot halfway through the trek before taking a nap in the middle of the desert?

Aaron “The Horse” Nola ADP 23
German “The Donkey” Marquez ADP 80

The Horse Case: In 2018, Aaron Nola made the leap from “up and coming miniature horse” to “purebred stallion”. This pony made strides across the board. Most every metric we care about saw marked improvement for A-A-Ron last season: ERA, FIP, xFIP, WHIP, SwStr%, F-Strike%, Barrel%, even all three of his FICO credit scores saw a major improvement! So the question for me isn’t so much, “Is he legit?”, as it is, “Is he worth the top 25 overall price tag?”.

With a 2.37 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and 224 Ks in 212.1 IP, Nola was so good last year that we have to dig pretty deep to find reasons for concern. One number that does jump out is his 87.6% 2nd half strand rate which was the 8th highest in the majors. Great pitchers do tend to buckle down once runners are on base, but I still think this number comes down a bit next year. Another minor concern is the innings jump…

Please, blog, may I have some more?