Draft: Votto And The Art Of The Pop

July 23, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

Did you know he’s popped out only 7 times since 2010, and that the average major league batter would have popped out at least twice that many times? And that he’s never popped out to the pitcher, catcher, or first baseman in his career? I’m talking, of course, about Joey Votto. Wait… one of those stats is wrong. The average MLB player would actually have popped up 127 times in that same span. Crazy, right? Like seriously, that is an insane stat. He may seem boring, but you can count on him to put up numbers. If nothing else, he is reliable. Don’t let that make him boring, and definitely don’t let someone else draft him.

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 jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Learn more about our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!

The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.

I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!

Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.

See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Thu 8/7
	ATH \| ATL \| CHW \| CIN \| MIA \| PIT \| SEA \| WSH \| ARI \| BAL \| BOS \| CHC \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| HOU \| KC \| LAA \| LAD \| MIL \| MIN \| NYM \| NYY \| OAK \| PHI \| SD \| SF \| STL \| TB \| TEX \| TOR

Vacationing In The Hampsons

July 23, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 451 Comments

by: Grey

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

DJ LeMahieu hit the DL with an oblique injury, and is out for months. It happened when DJ was carrying a crate of records. “Aunt Audrey is requesting the Electric–Side! My side!” As DJ collapsed into a heap of bar mitzvah party favors he’d collected. Garrett Hampson (0-for-3) was called up to fill in for him, and I tried to add him everywhere. Prospector Ralph had him in his top 100 fantasy baseball prospects, and said, “Hampson brings a nice mix of plus contact and plus-plus base running ability. With his combination of contact, speed, and plate approach he has a shot to carve out a niche as a top of the order run producer, which is different than Grey who is a ‘runs producer,’ as in he produces crap.” Hey! Hampson could have a 6 HR, 15 steal 2nd half, or, knowing the Rockies, Hampson will sit on the bench four out of five games while Pat Valaika plays. I wish these were laughter tears. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 100 Hitters, Week 16.5: Now and Then

July 22, 2018 | Top 100 Hitters | 17 Comments

by: Kerry Klug

I started writing this week’s top 100 hitters article the same way I do every week: on the balcony of my penthouse apartment inside One57 skyscraper on West 57th street overlooking Central Park. Sipping a tall glass of Chateau Lafite 1787 while my trained Tibetan Mastiff, Chanel rests her head on my lap. This is the type of lifestyle being a Razzball writer has afforded me.

In reality, I’m sitting on my second-hand couch in north Jersey catching up on this week’s episodes of Big Brother with my wife while drinking flat Mr. Pib as my cat walks across my lapto9oi[p9vgdvc12er2`q.

Perception and reality can change over time. Our perception of a certain player during our draft will become a completely different reality over the course of the season. Since there have only been one full day of games since my last rankings this week I’m going to post last week’s rankings and compare them with where I had them ranked at the beginning of week 1 to see where my perception and the player’s reality were at odds.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 100 Starting Pitchers, Week 17: Nightmare Weaver

July 22, 2018 | Top 100 Starting Pitchers | 15 Comments

by: Dokken

Considering there has only been one full night of games since I penned the last Top 100, there was more movement than I had figured there would be. I’m not one to rest on my laurels, you see. What the hell does that phrase mean, anyway? Isn’t a laurel like a Christmas wreath? Maybe I’ve just seen Blazing Saddles too many times. Many phrases don’t make sense though, if you think about them. How did “cut the mustard” become a phrase, for example? Nobody has ever cut mustard in the history of time. Unless they’re snorting lines of mustard off of their coffee table, I guess. Even when I freeze my mustard, I put it in an ice cube tray so it’s already separated and I don’t have to cut it before melting it upon my wiener. Think ahead a little, people. Mmm. Um, anyway, there are some pitchers to discuss. Eduardo Rodriguez, a top 30 starter according to last week’s list, is gone for at least a month due to ligament damage in his ankle. Jeff Samardjiza went back on the DL as quickly as he came off it, and I really wish he would just stay healthy but be bland so I can stop writing his confounding name. Carlos Martinez continues to be a headache and is back on the DL again. I don’t rank injured starters, so even though it sounds like a brief DL stint, I’m leaving him off for this week. His last stint was supposed to be a lot shorter than it ended up being, too. Steven Strasburg finally returned to action, but got pounded for six runs in 4.2 innings. He’s probably just kicking off rust, but I eased him in to the back end of the top 20 just to be safe.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

FAAB Five: Second Half Heroics

July 22, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 3 Comments

by: Paul "The" Martian

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 Muncy, Ross 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?

Draft: The Greatest Sale

July 22, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

by: Thomas Howland

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Minor League Update: Franco You’re My Wander Wall

July 22, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 35 Comments

by: Geoff

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.

Here’s one of those bombs, video c/o @VandyDanR. Huge night for #Rays Wander Franco. Full video of Franco will be up at @2080ball. pic.twitter.com/Cg4B7NcbG0

— Adam McInturff (@2080adam) July 15, 2018

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Two Startapalooza, Week 17: To Rodon Or To Rodon’t

July 21, 2018 | Two Start Fantasy Starters | 9 Comments

by: Dokken

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.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Getting Ahead in H2H, Week 17: Out(field) On Waivers

July 21, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head Leagues |

by: Yost

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.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

FantasyDraft: Felix The Catch

July 21, 2018 | DFS, FantasyDraft |

by: VictoriaB

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Rangers Finally Free Willie

July 21, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 30 Comments

by: Dan Pants

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:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Prospect Podcast: Yusniel Diaz, The Futures Game Wrap-Up, And Francisco Mejia

July 21, 2018 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 18 Comments

by: Geoff

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.

Please, blog, may I have some more?