[brid autoplay=”true” video=”262532″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Mailbag Week 14″]

In 1776 on July 1st, Ben Franklin grabbed Betsy Ross and four of her friends, and was like, “This will be better than Flag Day.  We will call this Flagellation Day.  Now twerk with a firework!”  That lasted for three days until Ben yelled out an Astros’ hitter last name and called for a volunteer fire department to put out his redness.  As the fire department extinguished his Reddick, Ben proclaimed July 4th to be a day of national celebration and the rest is history.  It’s also when The Stros Spangled Banner was written.  Any hoo!  Josh Reddick (3-for-4, 2 RBIs) had a slam (8) and legs (4) yesterday, and it’s 2nd day in a row with a homer.  He’s owned in only 30% of leagues and that is a crime to humanity, a first world one, at least.  God Bless America and Ben Franklin’s Reddick!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in 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

Ryan Tepera (RP, Elbow Inflammation), the league leader in blown saves finds himself on the DL after blowing the save in his last two appearances. All ribbing aside, since Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna was placed on administrative leave after allegations of assaulting a woman, Tepera has been pretty reliable with 7 ERs allowed over 22.2 IP and those two recent blown saves were the only two he’s suffered. Stash or Trash: Tepera wasn’t a top flight closing option and he doesn’t really have a timetable so you can trash him. Replacement: Diego Castillo (1.0%.) I know you’re expecting Tyler Clippard or Seung-hwan Oh, but the Blue Jays closing gig seems to be snake-bit this year and I’m sure as soon as Tepera went down people gobbled up Tyler Clippard in your league. So, Diego Castillo: he’s made 12 appearances for the Rays this season and has only allowed 3 ERs with 19 Ks. In AAA this year he also made 19 appearances and also only allowed 3 ERs. Castillo has a stereotypical lights out closer pitch selection of a high-90s fastball and a slider. He has multiple varieties of slider that he can mix in different situations. The Rays current closer, Sergio Romo, has had mixed results since Alex Colome was traded to the Mariners. In his first three appearances after the trade he let up 5 ERs in 3 IP. After that he has settled down a bit allowing only 3 ERs in 14 IP. However with Romo being 35 years old and clearly not part of the Rays long term future — they could turn to Castillo to see if he can live up to the title of closer-of-the-future.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Gerrit Cole and his insane K-rate will be bringing the fireworks against the Rangers on today’s July 4th matchup. Cole always has high strikeout upside, but he’s got even more against a Rangers lineup that strikes out 25.3% of the time against righties, the fourth highest mark in the league. Cole should have no problem outperforming his Draft projection today. I’m looking to snag him in my drafts.

New to Draft.com? 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=”262532″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Mailbag Week 14″]

When you’re hot for two straight weeks, you’re talking in sexy whispers on my earlobes.   If Avisail Garcia and Mike Trout are filming a body-switch movie, I never want it to end.  For years I’ve remarked — I’m a remarker, yo! — that Avisail looks like Mini Miggy, now he’s actually hitting like him.  “Miggy, that is the first time in two years we’ve made love without you screaming your back hurts,”  Mrs. Miggy rolls over.  Avisail Garcia smiles wickedly at the camera.  Yesterday, he homered two more times (3-for-6, 3 runs, 6th and 7th homers), and now has six homers in the last week, and he hit .330 last year.  Sure, we can pee in the electrical blanket by talking about his BABIP last year, but there is no excuse for Garcia being on waivers.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Oooooooooo wweeeeeee can you smell that smell? What’s that, it reminds you of college? You smoked a lot of pot back then, you say? In this new age of legal cannabis, we call that the smell of Colorado; choice buds, and baffling roster decisions. No word on whether or not one impacts the other, but I’ll leave that to the courts. Why all this talk of chronic? Because I attended a pot wedding with a bunch of hippies this weekend. The whole Jon Gray demotion was going on while I was…Hmmmmm… What was I doing? I can’t remember. Any the who, we dig into Ronald Acuna Jr’s return, and the Rest-Of-Season Player Rater’s expectations for him. We spend a little time on news and notes, as well the list of Lucky/Unlucky Pitchers we teased last week. It’s a jam packed episode for reals! Big shouts to our sponsor Rotowear for lacing Grey and myself with the finest tees known to mankind. You can save 20% just by being a Razz listener, and using our promo-code SAGNOF with any of your purchases on the Rotowear.com site.

Follow me on Twitter @ProspectJesus

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I first went to a sauna almost 20 years ago. And boy….what a first experience it was, as I got high as a kite. All those years smoking the wacky tabacky probably had something to do it. Anyways, my favorite thing to do at the sauna is to go in the super hot steam room, get baked for a while, then jump into the ice cold pool. Nothing cleanses the mind, body, and soul better. While I enjoy the Korean spas, nothing beats the Russian saunas, or banyas. You want heat? The Russkies definitely bring it…and them some. Which brings me to Jose Peraza. While he is not a Russkie (Peraza is Venezuelan), he has been as hot as a Russian banya over the past week: .324/.361/.735 with 3 home runs, 8 runs, 8 RBI, and 1 stolen base. Do we need to jump into the ice cold pool to cleanse our minds of him? Or can we continue to experience the heat?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Happy 4th of July Razzball Commenter Leaguers!  This week not only marks the birthday of our fine U.S. of A., but more importantly, marks the halfway point of the fantasy baseball season!  We just finished ~13 weeks and there are ~13 weeks remaining. While we typically use the All Star Break to mark the halfway point, this week is the real deal.  If you were exactly on pace with your innings pitched, you would have 700 on the button. You can use that as a nice gauge to see if you need to be streaming your buns off the next 13 weeks or if you can chill out a bit and wait for the choice match-ups.  This week, in addition to the weekly leaders we will take a look at our halfway point leaders. It will be a quick shoutout to those teams that have started hot in each of the roto categories. Obviously, our team of the halfway point is the leader of our Master Standings.  Who might that be you ask? Let’s take a look at that and the rest of the week that was week 13 in the Razzball Commenter Leagues:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

This may be my only chance to lead with a Bieber pun, so I’m shooting my shot. Here’s hoping it’s Neil Diamond level, not Smash Mouth cover bad. If you’re going to fade the top pitchers on Draft.com tonight, the Biebs is a great gamble. To quote The Jewish Elvis, “Then I saw this Ace, now I’m a Bieleber.”

New to Draft.com? 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=”262532″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Mailbag Week 14″]

Across the media landscape yesterday, people who vaguely know sports were giving hot takes like, “Cleveland lost their sports hero.”  “What do we hang on this LeBron sports banner now?”  “All Cleveland has left is the Browns, what will they ever do?”  I blame myself.  People don’t know baseball like they should.  That pains me.  What MLB was hoping for from Judge and Giancarlo is currently going on with Francisco Lindor (2-for-4, 3 runs, 7 RBIs and his 22nd and 23rd homer, hitting .298) and Jose Ramirez (2-for-4, 15th steal, hitting .298) and people outside of Cleveland have no idea.  Don’t worry, you’re not absolved of blame either.  I blame you, as well.  We need to shout from the rooftops at what these two are doing.  They are neck-and-neck in the top five on the Player Rater.  I can’t remember another time two teammates, who are hitters, were both in the top five.  (If you can think of an instance, hit me up in the comments.  I racked my brain, which is to say I placed my head on a video of a stripper’s rack.)  Together, they are worth nearly $90!  To swoop your pretty face back to the preseason, if your team added up to $260, you were at least working on even money.  Combined they’re worth more than a third of a total team!  Which one of them is going to end up worth more?  No idea, but this will be the greatest battle since Apollo-Rocky I.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It is with great honor I submit to the fantastic readers of Razzball my first prospect-centered column. The concept will be a fun one for anybody looking forward to Ralph’s prospect omnibus that will drop in the coming days (stay tuned!).

Two prominent lists dropped in the last few weeks. One comes from Fangraphs, the other comes from Baseball America. Below I look at a few players with large differentials between the two lists. This gets tricky with players who are on one list and not on another, but I made it work.

Before we launch ourselves into the prospect stratosphere, a few logistics…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Turnarounds midseason are the waiver wire wet dreams that we all hope for.  Now add in that they are included in one of the most prolific hitting offenses. Now, throw some salt on it and say that he is going to play everyday because of spectacular defense (which I have preached before).  That player is Jackie Bradley Jr..  Yeah, I get that his season long stats are pretty much garbage and as a whole have been not rosterable in most 12-team or lesser formats… but (and there is a always a but),  he has started to come out of his shell and is profiling more of the .270 hitter based on deeper stats, including the last 10 games of actual functioning stats that he has produced.  His hard hit rate over the last 14 games played is higher than Just Dong, Mookie and any other Red Sox batter you wanna throw in my direction.  That 51.6% during that span is in the same conversation league wide as some legitimate fantasy heavyweights and in the top-20 overall during that time frame.  Now I get that this is the SAGNOF post, but we are getting to that… he has 2 steals in 11 games, but with more there to come with increased OBP over the last month, higher BB % and since he has hit over .400 for nearly 11 games played, that’ll only help his SB totals. So if JBJ is sitting on waivers, filter out the stats and look at a shorter time frame before you throw some shade on the Red Sox defensive dynamo.  More SAGNOF love and goodies for all things saves and steals after the jump.  Happy Independence day, cheers!

Please, blog, may I have some more?