As we begin the second half of the season, it is important to remember the vitality of FAAB bidding during the stretch run. Free agency becomes crucial with only a couple months left in the fantasy season, trade deadlines approaching, and budgets dwindling. If you keep up with the FAAB Five every week, I should be saving you cash on names like Nick Pivetta, Max MuncyRoss Stripling, and others providing consistent value above other waiver names.

Another tricky part with late-season FAAB is navigating a lackluster list of players. At this point in your league, teams are most likely stashing the best prospects (or they’re hurt: R.I.P. Tatis Jr’s Thumb), and most players that will contribute significant value, like Jesus Aguilar, are already in the loving gaze of another owner’s eyes. I will continue to scour the depths of the waivers each week to provide the names I find most value possible, giving people ample amount of money to use throughout the Dog Days of Summer.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Sun 8/3
ARI | ATH | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | ATL | CIN | OAK

You may have observed Chris Sale throwing bullets in the All Star Game. Or perhaps you’ve seen how he’s been dominating to the tune of a 0.33 ERA, among other amazing stats, over his last 4 starts.  Now observe that he is facing the weak-hitting Detroit Tigers today, and it all lines up for a Greatest Showman performance for Ace of Aces Chris Sale.  He’s #1 on Streamonator and well on his way to a career year. Today should be no different.  Now let’s look at a few more early-, middle- and late-round picks for your Draft…drafts!

New to Draft? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care!

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Every single time I spend weeks sweating over my rankings a player emerges as under-ranked by yours truly almost immediately. The current thorn in my recently released rankings side is one Wander Franco. Ranked 82nd on my most recent Top 500, an uber-talented middle infielder with a highly touted bat. I figured being 20 spots or so into the Top 100 on a 17 year old was a pretty big statement. I was wrong. Since the final look over of my list, Franco has gone bonkers, 15-for-33, with 3 homers, 2 doubles, a triple, and 14 runs driven in. Oh, and by the way, over that period he’s struck out once. “Yeah, yeah Ralph that’s great, but it’s rookie ball!” Sure, but it’s advanced rookie ball and he’s the second youngest player in the league, and one of two 17 year olds (the Yankees Everson Pereira is the other). After last night’s game he’s sitting on a 24 game hit streak, and has nearly as many homers (6) as he does strikeouts (8), all this while he hits .384/.418/.652.

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Maybe I’m just feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, re-whatever else you can find in your local thesaurus to express that not-so-not-fresh-feeling. Or maybe I’m just crazy. Either way, this feels like the best slate of two-start pitchers we’ve had all season. The elites of Tier 1 are plentiful, and Tier 2 isn’t far behind. Tier 3 has a bevy of solid options that could well be available to you, like the surging Tyler Anderson (bad matchups) and the soon-to-be-not-disabled Zach Eflin. The names in Tier 4 aren’t (and never are) super enticing, but therein lies a cavalcade of very good matchups. Tanner Roark has a start against the Marlins, and if he can’t put up a quality start there I’m going to start a petition to let me kick him in the nads for the damages he’s caused to my ERA and WHIP. Per usual you have to be pretty desperate to roll with any of the Tier 5 options, but they’re here for your perusal nevertheless.

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I understand why sports fans who don’t watch baseball (aka losers) are so bored during the summer. I get this similar feeling every year during the All-Star Break. Like a “WOW! So this is what it feels like?” Even just a few days without baseball feels like a punishment. I can’t imagine not being a baseball fan and having an entire summer filled with no other live sports. Sure, there is NBA/NFL free agency news going on. Which I must admit was pretty exciting this year, but still. I get so tired of the news loop and the same old stories being repeated over and over. Yes, fortunately there was a World Cup which was a truly great one to watch this year. But still.

Aside from off-season “news” from other sports and a World Cup every 4 years, the summer is a terrible time for sports. That is of course, unless you are part of the pinnacle of society known as “baseball fans.” In that case, summer is awesome because baseball is the only sport we have to focus on. There are multiple games every single day, and news stations actually report on it (kinda). All I’m really trying to say is that I now can relate to people when they say the summer sucks because there are “no sports” on. These few days have made me realize how lucky I am to be able to enjoy the game of baseball every day.

As you might have guessed from my horrendous title, I am here to discuss some outfielders that should be out there on waivers that can help your team make a big push in the 2nd half.

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Welcome to your DFS post for Saturday, the second day of the rest of your lives! (Because  I don’t know about you, but I feel like I died during the All-Star Break and was miraculously revived with the return of MLB games, yesterday.) Clayton Kershaw ($23,300) is your Captain Obvious play on FantasyDraft today. You could roll with that. You could stack your Cleveland hitters versus Bartolo Colon. Or, you know, you could get a little sneakier, go a little cheaper, try to outwit your opponents, and there are enough interesting options on the slate today to pull it off. After the jump, let’s start with the…King?, Felix Hernandez.

New to FantasyDraft? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

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Afters months of anticipation, many speculative adds and drops, the Rangers have finally called up top prospect slash phenom slash future super stud slash tiger beat cover boy of the month Willie Calhoun. Wait, I thought they were supposed to call him up in May!? Well, they didn’t. So I held him a little longer. They they really didn’t and yeah, so, that’s how I cracked my cell phone screen. Willie was slashing an impressive .306/.360/.444 with 8 home runs, 57 runs scored, 42 RBI and 4 stolen bases at AAA. That’s five categories if you were counting all the times numbers appeared. Need even more numbers? He’s been red hot flames in el mes de Julio. Hitting .429/.520/.619 with two homers, 13 RBI and two stolen bases. He held a 24 game on-base streak before his call up. Willie’s feeling the heat in July! Grey told you to BUY and Friday night he started at DH and hit second. That sure would be a great place to hit if it wasn’t in the Rangers line up. He went 1-for-6 with a run scoring single in the second in his debut and he also walked and struck out twice. It’s not a Juan Soto crushn bombz debut, but there could still be big things in store for Wild Willie. He was a top five prospect and if he’s able to find playing time on this Rangers team he’s capable of filling out a box score on a nightly basis. Time to go Willy Nilly, ya’ll! It’s even better than dilly dilly! I’d grab Calhoun wherever I could based on his upside alone. This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!

Here’s what else I saw Friday in fantasy baseball:

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This might be my favorite time of the year to do the Prospect Podcast. With so many trades, and prospects changing hands, the content writes itself. Not to mention the influx of talent from the most recent draft, and the typical stateside debuts of last year’s July 2nd class. All of this happens simultaneously, giving us endless topics to research and debate. So that we did! Lance and I kickoff  the show with some Francisco Mejia and Yusniel Diaz talk, in the aftermath of their respective moves. Follow that up with our general thoughts, impressions, and takeaways from this year’s edition of the MLB Futures Game. The last half hour or so of the show is comprised of our weekly 5 by 5 where we dive into some low minors breakouts, and get some first hand scouting notes from Lance’s recent trips to Fort Wayne. It’s another banner week on the Podcast with the Mostast… or something. As always make sure you head over to Rotowear.com and use our promo-code SAGNOF to get 20% off all of your purchases.

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You know what is fun this time of year?  The bullpen shuffle.  Whomever is closest to the computer or phone wins the waiver game in most cases.  Well… that’s now the case with the Padres with the trade of Brad Hand to the Indians.  The waiver wire is set ablaze for one Kirby Yates, but is he the guy forever, or the guy for now?  I am leaning that the trade door in San Diego is gonna revolve one more time and see Yates come out the other side a bullpen piece rather than a closing man.  Hand’s still a valuable commodity, granted he won’t be a full-time closer with the Tribe, but his peripherals and Cody Allen‘s shakiness as of late… will lead to a “sometimes” situation.  Hand is a hold in all leagues because he should get a shot for every third save or so with his new club.  Add in the K-rate over 13 and he has intrigue that only a dozen or so non-closers have. Back to Yates though, since this is the afternoon post and Grey has gone over it this morning and most likely will after this in his buy post, but Yates has value for now.  In fact, he’s had value for most of the year in holds leagues, with a 11+ K/9 and a ton of success in the setup game in the reliever farm known as the Whale’s Vagina. So why am I so hesitant to give him the go?  He is a journeyman reliever whose value is never going to be higher than right now, or in eight days with some saves to his name.  So if you swung and missed at the waiver wire add for saves with Yates, grab Craig Stammen for free and just wait.  Waiting is always a good thing, especially with a maybe-closer in the making, albeit one with not much quantity potential.  More bullpen goodies and post all star tidbits after the bump.  Cheers!

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Donkey Teeth has returned from his vision quest to find his inner ass (his spirit animal) to bring B_Don deep insights regarding human nature, the universe, mustaches and fantasy baseball. Listen in as the guys discuss the great pitching duel between The Rosses (Tyson & Stripling) as well as their respective fantasy outlooks for the future. In the pickups segment some promising names are thrown around, including but not limited to Kolby Allard, Corbin Burnes and Max Kepler. Come find us on Twitter @ditkasausagepod & @donkeyteeth87 or hit us up in the comments!

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Welcome back, baseball — oh, how I missed you! Today we’re welcomed back with a 14-game main slate on FanDuel.  I’m not sure if anyone heard the big news, but the Manny Machado rental agreement drama finally came to an end, with the slugger landing with the Dodgers. We might talk about him a little more later, but I want to focus on Baltimore.  Even with Machado, Baltimore was 7th worst in K% and 3rd worst in wOBA. Allow me to introduce to you my minimum-priced SP ($5,500), Sam Gaviglio, who faces the new Machado-less Orioles. On the season, Sammy G’s been a little up and down with a 4.58 ERA, but a 4.01 SIERA, and of the 57 innings he’s thrown this year, 30.2 have been against the Red Sox, Yankees, Braves, and Nationals.  I’m excited to see what Gaviglio can do versus an easier opponent, and at this price ($5,500), you can fit in whatever stacks you want. Let’s take a look at the rest of the slate.

New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond?  Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.  Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”272636″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Buy Sell Hold Week 17″]

Since there was only one game this week and players haven’t been able to get hot or cold or humid, this Buy/Sell is going to be slightly different.  This Buy/Sell includes players that are owned in more than 50% of leagues.  Okay, that’s not different for the Sells, but it does change the Buys.   “Hello?  No, not trying to change them, I’m talking about B-U-Y-S.  Thanks, you too!”  That was GLAAD calling me about potential insensitivity.  I have not triggered anyone in almost three days, unless you count that fisherman I saw with a pipe that I called “Hipster Popeye.”  As I mentioned in my top 100 for the 2nd half of 2018 fantasy baseball, my biggest Buy of the 2nd half is Brian Dozier.  He’s about to come on in the 2nd half like he’s Mickey Maris in 1927 with Barry Bonds’s personal trainer.  For the 2nd half, I gave Dozier the projections of 44/17/47/.274/5 in 265 ABs.  Every single year he attacks the 2nd half like a shark attacks a tourist floating on a side beef.  Hey, tourists, don’t float on a side of beef!  That is rule number one.  Literally all rules in the world come after that rule.  You absolutely should buy Dozier, and on the pronto.  Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?