2019 Minor League Preview: Houston Astros

The Astros are the defending world champions and just punched their ticket to the 2018 ALCS with a roster full of homegrown studs. So we can excuse them if the current system doesn’t stack up to previous years. And yet, this top ten still boasts three specs that should appear on just about every top 100 list this preseason. The Colin Moran trade and David Paulino’s graduation are the only notable changes to the group from last year. They’re a bit pitching heavy and the current MLB roster doesn’t leave much room for new talent to step into everyday roles, but that’s picking nits. On the plus side, any prospects that do manage to graduate in 2019 – I’m looking at you Kyle Tucker – are stepping into a winning environment and a stacked lineup. This year’s previews will use a simple A, B, C grading system to tier/group the prospects and as always I’m attacking these lists as a fantasy player.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Tue 8/5
	ARI \| ATH \| ATL \| BAL \| BOS \| CHC \| CHW \| CIN \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| HOU \| KC \| LAA \| LAD \| MIL \| MIN \| NYM \| NYY \| PHI \| PIT \| SD \| SEA \| SF \| STL \| TB \| TEX \| TOR \| WSH \| MIA \| OAK

Rudy Bloviates About Winning Tout Wars Mixed Draft For 2nd Year In a Row

October 9, 2018 | Our Leagues | 22 Comments

by: Rudy Gamble

It is better to be lucky than good. It is best to be lucky and good.

That is how I would describe the charmed 4-year run I have had in the 15-team ToutWars Mixed league where I have finished 2nd/2nd/1st/1st. I take a lot of pride in those finishes but it is not faux modesty that stresses the ‘charmed’ and ‘lucky’ aspect. All it takes is one or two big injuries to torpedo an otherwise strong draft – ESPECIALLY in a competitive league with weekly vs daily lineup format where there are less ‘grind’ points to gain by using Streamonator or Hittertron. I would feel even more special/lucky about it if the Nadal to my Federer (Adam Ronis) hadn’t gone 1st/1st/5th/2nd in those same years. At least I know I will have good company when the fantasy devil takes my soul and forces me to play in a 4 catcher 13 category H2H NL-only league for the rest of eternity.

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Fantasy Baseball Podcast – Eno Sarris Interview

October 9, 2018 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball | 2 Comments

by: B_Don

Eno Sarris of The Athletic joins the guys this week on the Ditka, Sausage Pod. Eno likes beer. He likes beer a lot. Sometimes he has too many beers. After an in-depth discussion about liking beer and the new breweries everyone has been enjoying, the crew delves into some fantasy baseball talk.

Find out several under the radar breakout candidates Eno is already eyeing for 2019 fantasy baseball and also what draft strategy Eno is most likely to employ come next spring’s drafts. Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler, Kyle Hendricks and the future of Shohei Ohtani are just a few of the arms discussed with the pitching whisperer, Eno Sarris, in this episode. Get your sausage while it’s hot:

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Top 20 2nd Basemen, 2018 Fantasy Baseball, A Recap

October 8, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 88 Comments

by: Grey

We already went over the top 20 catchers and the top 20 1st basemen for 2018 fantasy baseball. Today, we dip our big toe into the top 20 2nd basemen pool. 2nd basemen had some huge disappointments, while also being deeper than 1st basemen. A few disappointments, to varying degrees: Yoan Moncada, Jonathan Schoop, Dee Gordon, Paul DeJong, Robinson Cano, Ian Happ, Daniel Murphy, Tim Beckham and some in this post, big and small and one that is small that was a big disappointment. To recap this crap (rhyme points!), this final ranking for last year is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. Actually, that’s the ESPN Player Rater, I’m using the Yahoo Player Rater (due to position eligibility). Tomato-tomato with different emphasis. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 2nd basemen for 2018 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:

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Prospect Podcast: The Biggest Prospect Disappointments Of 2018

October 7, 2018 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 6 Comments

by: Geoff

It’s that funny space between the end of the minor league season, and the beginning of the Arizona Fall League on Tuesday. With limited information coming out of instructs (head over to Prospectslive.com to get those updates), Lance and I run through some of the story lines of the moment. In particular the Carter Stewart Grievance, and try to predict how much the young right-hander signed for. We then ask, “If you had to start a team (real life) with one hitter and one pitcher who would they be? Following that we jump into our biggest disappointments of 2018, where Lance and myself detail four players who let us down this season. As always make sure you stop by Rotowear.com, and support our sponsor by picking up some of the freshest T-shirts out there.

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Top 20 1st Basemen, 2018 Fantasy Baseball, A Recap

October 5, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 87 Comments

by: Grey

After drudging through an Andy Dufresne-type tunnel for the top 20 catchers for 2018 fantasy baseball, I find myself with a group that actually really hurt or helped your team depending on how you drafted. If you went wrong with your 1st baseman, it could kill your season. Hey, Wil Myers, no hard feelings from me, because I didn’t own you. You prolly got some splainin’ to do to your owners though. If you went right, you might’ve won your league. However (uh-oh), 1st base, well, I guess that’s why we’re here. To recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. Anyway, here’s the top 20 1st basemen for 2018 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 20 Catchers, 2018 Fantasy Baseball, Recap

October 4, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 50 Comments

by: Grey

It feels like just the other day the baseball regular season started. You wrote “I heart baseball” in permanent marker on your arm, then you met a girl who wrote “I heart guys who heart baseball” on her arm, then, during sex in July, you screamed out, “Give it to me, Giancarlo!” and now you don’t have baseball or a girlfriend. C’mon, calendar, make like a soldier and turn to March. The only cure for the post-baseball season blues — recapping the preseason top twenty lists and being hand-fed Doritos. First up, Cool Ranch and our preseason Top 20 Catchers for 2018. It’s important to look back before we look ahead to 2018. To paraphrase the one and only B-Real, “How do you know where you’re at, if you don’t know where you’ve been? Understand where I’m coming from?” It wouldn’t be fair for me to preseason rank the players, then rank them again in the postseason based on my opinion, so these postseason top 20 lists are ranked according to our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. It’s cold hard math, y’all! Please, for the love that all is holy, don’t ask me if this is for next year. Anyway, here’s the top 20 catchers for 2018 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:

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RCL Update: The Year That Was, 2018

October 3, 2018 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenters League | 101 Comments

by: MattTruss

Well, that’s a wrap everyone. Twenty-Six weeks down and now we have 26 more until the start of next year’s fantasy baseball season. It’s perfect symmetry, because fantasy baseball is the perfect fantasy sport. The Fighting Hams weren’t perfect, but they were good enough to squeak out an overall Razzball Commenter League Championship over 1-800-BETTSOFF. The Fighting Hams won by just 0.2 RCL points, the closest mark since 2014 when Colicky Fuddruckers won by just 0.05 RCL points. The Fighting Hams hung around the top 20 most of the season, entering the top 10 in week 14, but falling back out the following week. The Hams re-entered the top 10 in week 19 in 4th place overall and wouldn’t fall below 5th for the remainder of the season. In week 23 they took the overall lead and held it for the final 3 weeks to win the title. The Fighting Hams really rake it in, winning themselves a $250 Best Buy gift card! More importantly though, the Hams get a Razzball T-Shirt and RCL glory. Who can put a price on that? Oh, it’s $25, well then, moving on. I don’t believe The Fighting Hams have checked in via comments at all this year, but I could be wrong. Now would be a fine time to do so either way. It’s time to heap on the praise and accept your congratulations. The Hams fended off some very tough competitors this year to claim the RCL crown. I gave it a run, LauraHolt was pushing for a top spot for awhile there and Backdoor Cutters and STL Squat Cobblers are some of the best RCL players I’ve played with in my time. This is The Fighting Hams’ moment though, so hopefully they show up, take a bow and soak it up, they earned it.

Here’s what else what happened this year and this final week of the RCLs:

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2020 Minor League Preview Index

October 3, 2018 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 27 Comments

by: The Itch

Prospecting is hard work. Have you seen Deadwood? Bottom line, people can die out here looking for gold. Al Swearinger will see to that.

On the off chance you find some gold, shizz just gets more dangerous. Remember what happened to Tom Waits in that Ballad of Buster Scruggs? He was all alone out in the nothingness of nature’s beauty, working his ass off surrounded by an embarrassment of resources waiting to be swallowed up by the coming monsoon of hyper-capitalism.

Scary solitude.

And that’s kind of my goal here. I want to be early on scene, digging for veins of gold that’ll be just waiting for you to take back to your leagues anytime you happen upon my efforts.

So welcome to the Prospect Index—your portal to a rundown for every minor league system in baseball!

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Fantasy Baseball Podcast: 2019 Mock Draft Rounds One And Two

October 2, 2018 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 6 Comments

by: Geoff

It’s our annual end of season Mock Draft Spectacular when the Fantasy Master Lothario and Myself (Vanguard) mock out the top few rounds of next year’s draft while the 2018 season is still fresh in our minds. Who goes 1? Is Mike Trout still consensus? That’s for us to know and you to figure out. Maybe Mike Trout doesn’t get drafted at all? There’s a Josh Rutledge drop for the homies, and a lot more where that came from. Sorry Razzballers, but you’re just going to have to listen to get the results! Anywho, it’s the latest episode of the Razzball Podcast. As always, go and checkout our sponsor Rotowear.com and use our promo-code SAGNOF to get 20% off all of your purchases.

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The 10th Annual Razzballies

October 2, 2018 | Y to Z | 93 Comments

by: Grey

Welcome back for another star-studded event! Assuming you hack into your favorite online dictionary and replace the definition of ‘star’ with “guy who lives in his mom’s basement and screams when someone finishes his Doritos,” and next to the definition of ‘stud’ you put a picture of yourself. The Razzballies are the only award show where it’s totally fine to show up in sweatpants, and for your fingers to be orange from Cheetos. We don’t judge. We will occasionally mock. Mock-judge, tomato-tomahto. Get over it! But don’t mock Judge, that’s not all right. I hope you enjoyed the clip show where I inserted myself into various baseball clips from this year. How about the clip where I was Kris Bryant learning about launch angles from David Eckstein? Hee-lar-e-us! So, before I’m talking to no one but a room full of seat-fillers, here’s the year-end awards for the best and worst of fantasy baseball:

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All Razzballers Get At Least One End Of Season Title (Sorry If This is Yours)

October 1, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 253 Comments

by: Grey

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”301272″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Buy Sell Hold Week 27″]

Emerging from your parents’ basement, blocking the sun with your hand, “Mother, did you see wash my underwear? Mother?” You shake her shoulder and her head falls off and the skull rolls into the kitchen. You casually pick up the head, “Mother, did you do my laundry I asked for back in March?” You move your mother’s jaw bones, “Yes, sonny boy. How did you do in your fantasy league?” “Thank you for asking, mother. I achieved great success. Let’s tell father.” You turn to a sack of potatoes wearing an “I’m with stupid” t-shirt and glued-on corn cob pipe. “Father, we have won our fantasy league. It was great fun. Now it’s back to spending time with the family.” And that’s how you incorporated yourself back into family life. Well, we can’t all be winners like that gent, but it is time to lick thy wounds if you lost and razz thy neighbors if you won. So, hopefully, let’s razz on, Razzers. Unless your league counts game 163, then it’s still on like Steve Wiebe playing Donkey Kong! Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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