Wacha Snell The Rosarios For Once

June 4, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 480 Comments

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”251895″ player=”10951″ title=”FantasyBaseballBuySellHoldWeek10″]

From Fozzie Bear’s Big Book Of Side-Splitting Jokes (Please Laugh), “Why couldn’t you hear the guy who didn’t draft Michael Wacha? He was Mike-less. Wacha Wacha Wacha.” “Did you see him pitch yesterday? He was reWachable, knocking down Pirates like he was playing Wacha-Mole. Wacha Wacha Wacha.” “What do you get when you don’t listen to Grey’s preseason advice to draft Michael Wacha? An unbearable fantasy baseball ‘pert giving I told you so’s. Wacha Wacha Wacha.” Yesterday, Michael Wacha took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, ending up with the line 8 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 8 Ks, lowering his ERA to 2.41. At one point in the 8th inning, he hit 97 MPH on the radar gun, which was the point when I licked my finger and touched the screen to listen for a sizzle. Since I didn’t hear the sizzle, I tried the same with an electrical socket to make sure I was alive and not a ghost. Turns out I’m alive, but with smoke coming out my ears. Speaking of smoke coming out of one’s ears (taking that segue right off a cliff!), Blake Snell threw about as gemmy of a gem as you’re gonna find for someone gemming up the works — 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners (0 walks), 12 Ks, ERA at 2.36. Of course, Snell was yet another one of my preseason sleepers, but if only we had one more of my preseason sleepers that did well on Sunday to satisfy my Rule of Three craving. Someone who was on no one’s radar for a reason I couldn’t quite understand. Someone who hit three homers yesterday and has 13 homers on the year. Wait, that did happen! Eddie Rosario (3-for-5, 4 RBIs) went Bazooka Jack times three yesterday to seal one of the greatest days in the history of my life. Sorry, wedding day, you’re moving down the list! If you wanna bask in my glory: here’s the Michael Wacha sleeper you ignored, the Blake Snell sleeper you missed and the Eddie Rosario sleeper you didn’t believe. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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#	MLB Starting Lineups For Sat 8/2
	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

Top 100 Hitters, Week 10: Didi Deleterious

June 3, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 50 Comments

by: Kerry Klug

Falling:

Didi Gregorius, SS, NYY: As a Yankee fan, nothing made me happier than to strap a rocket to Didi’s back and have him climb through these rankings. However, we all should’ve seen this decline coming. Since seeing his batting average peak at .368 with 10 HRs on April 27th — no one has seen a steeper fall-off than Didi. In the 25 game since that date he is hitting .135 with only 1 HR in 104 ABs and just destroying your team’s offensive numbers. I still think there will some course correction in his numbers in the coming weeks. His average and HR total has risen every year over the past three years so he might just be in a prolonged slump right now.
Buster Posey, 1B/C, SF: Posey isn’t necessarily having a bad season — he’s still hitting close to .300 — but 3 HR and 19 RBI is definitely not what you want from someone with an ADP of 54.1. A closer look shows that Posey is still hitting the ball with authority — he has a 39% hard hit rate. However, he’s hitting a high percentage of his balls into the ground (47.9%.) If he can start getting under the ball a bit more and turning some of those hard hit grounders into line drives and fly balls — he could reach 15 HRs again. However, as of right now it’s looking like he might see a declining HR total for the 4th season in a row.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 100 Starting Pitchers, Week 10: No Eflin Way

June 3, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 39 Comments

by: Dokken

What a disgusting tease of a week that was. Some people like to be teased I suppose, but in this very important fantasy baseball circumstance I’m not all about it. Just as I was all set to toss Clayton Kershaw back into the fold, he leaves his first start with back tightness and it’s back to the DL dungeon for at least a month. Same story with Alex Reyes, who I was all set to gush about this week. Sadly, he left his first start with the Cardinals after just four innings and is lost to the DL for a long, long time with a “significant” lat strain. The loss of Kenta Maeda is sad since he was pitching so well, while the loss of Jeff Samardzija is less so since he’d been horrendous. Addition by subtraction? Perhaps. We also lost Noah Syndergaard, although hopefully this will be the only week he drops from the rankings since his finger injury isn’t considered to be serious. Because of all the injuries and a general lack of blow-ups from mid-tier starters, there weren’t a lot of fallers this week. So rather than nitpick a few minor laggards, let’s look at a bunch of new entries to the Top 100, and a couple risers as well. I feel like such an optimist!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

FAAB Five: Mad Max And The Armory

June 3, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 2 Comments

by: Paul "The" Martian

Just a couple weeks ago I was touting Max Muncy (1B/3B, Los Angeles Dodgers FAAB Bid: 5-10%) as one of my ONLY league targets. Since that point, he has done nothing but continues his incredible barrel madness. Muncy has achieved a Statcast barrel on 19.4% of his batted balls this year, a rate which falls 6th on the overall leaderboard. This dramatic change stems from tremendous improvements against fastballs and offspeed pitches, alike. His xwOBA against the heater is .459, and when seeing an offspeed pitch, it is even higher at .494. He did see 331 fastballs in his last major league appearance with the Oakland Athletics back in 2016. During that sample, he was able to mash those offerings by hitting 2 HR to only 6 K. So far this season he has a higher K% against the pitch, but every underlying number is vastly more impressive than they were when he was donning green and yellow. One of the most shocking parts of his profile is the fact that he’s not getting under the ball more and he’s topping the ball a lot less. Basically, he has found a way to improve his approach for a better launch angle, without sacrificing part of his season with a ridiculous pop-up rate to compensate for generating more backspin and changing swing plane. I do love this profile, and he has found a pretty consistent spot near the top of the Dodgers lineup. Muncy was a lot sneakier a few weeks ago, but since I think he is now a clear mixed-league add I had to do a write-up on one of my favorite waiver wire adds of the season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Draft: Lester Is More

June 3, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

by: Thomas Howland

When it comes to paying taxes, less is more. When it comes to kids’ toys by the time they’re 10 years old and it’s been piling up? Less is more. If you listen to Emma Watson when it comes to a certain something, less is more. And when it comes to the Chicago Cubs playing against a depleted New York Mets team, Jon Lester is more. Lester can’t throw to first base, but he sure can pitch. This experienced lefty is the best bet for an A+ start today against a team that hits him to a paltry .223 average. Now let’s look at a few more early-, middle- and late-round picks for your Draft…drafts!

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Please, blog, may I have some more?

Minor League Preview: Texas Rangers

June 3, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 48 Comments

by: Geoff

Just two more left! In my never ending quest to make the off-season never ending, I bring you my 28th Minor League preview of the season, The Texas Rangers. A system with lots of mid-level pitching talent and scattered positional talent. Over Jon Daniels tenure the Rangers have done well in the international market, and quite a few of the players in this list came through that pipeline. Most notably my controversial number one Leody Taveras. Now, it’s true, if this post came out two months ago (when it should have LOL) Willie Calhoun would be a consensus number one. BUT, and that’s a big butt, if Willie wants to pout, sulk, and loaf I’m going to take that into consideration. I was one of your biggest fans kid. Get it together. Enough of my self righteous soapboxing. The Rangers have a decent system overall, with some players that are helping in the present (Ronald Guzman), some that are close (Willie, Yohander Mendez), and a lot of future mid-level MLB talent with some exciting bright spots in Anderson Tejeda, Pedro Gonzalez and Hans Crouse. Let’s get into it! It’s the 2018 Top Texas Rangers Prospects for 2018 Fantasy Baseball.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Closer Rankings, Week 10: Walking The Plank

June 2, 2018 | Closers, Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Middle Relievers | 19 Comments

by: Smokey

Forget about raising the Jolly Roger, let’s just salvage the poor thing. The closer there, Felipe Vazquez, or the artist formerly known as “One Inning Willy” is struggling. Which sucks for me personally because I tabbed him and the suspended one preseason to be the valued goods in the ranks of relievers. Welp, you can’t predict injury, criminal activity, or attrition. Judging that one closer is bad compared to if one is good, the eye test always wins out. But Vazquez has been bad, and with an injury asterisk. Blowing 4 saves in the last 10 games is just bad karma regardless of if your name is Mariano or not. Bad luck, sure. Injured…? More likely, which is bad. The propensity for him to be a every day or two out of three closer may be changing within the near future, not only to ease his pain with the stress of pitching the ninth, but to get a second look at one of the viable arms that has the look on paper of a closer. That triumvirate of Michael Feliz, Edgar Santana and Richard Rodriguez have pitched spotty the last few times out, but should be owned in deeper leagues where saves are like the Sahara. Cuffing yourself, even though the news on Felipe has come back clean, is the best advice I can give as a bullpen junky. Just in case is better than a dollar short. Other bullpen and closer bits of tid on the way. Cheers!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Two Startapalooza, Week 10: C-Mart Is Open For Business

June 2, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Two-Start Pitchers | 6 Comments

by: Dokken

If there’s one thing Carlos Martinez loves more than baseball, it’s porn. He and I have that in common (go ahead and Google “Carlos Martinez porn” if you want to find the related article(s), but I cannot be held responsible for the entirety of the search results), and that’s why I respect him. Thusly, I’m excited that not only do we finally get him back, it’s as a Week 10 double dipper. Sadly it’s in the place of where we expected Alex Reyes to be (wasn’t that fun while it lasted?), but we’ve gotta find our silver linings somewhere. Following an insane Week 9 where we had more Texas two steppers than any week prior, we’re back to relative normalcy here in Week 10. Tiers 1-2 are pretty slim as usual, but you feel really good about every option. Tier 3 has some fellas that might just be on your waiver wire if you’re in a shallower league, and I’d feel comfortable using every one of them. Tier 4 is surprisingly usable as well thanks to some good matchups all around. I’m not totally sure Danny Duffy deserves Tier 4 instead of Tier 5, but his matchups aren’t the worst and I’d rather throw him out than anything residing in Tier 5. Let’s dive in!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Olson Twin Homers

June 2, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 47 Comments

by: Dan Pants

I apologize for the misleading headline but neither the Mary-Kate or Ashley news story you’re looking for is here. I did it for the clicks! Elizabeth Olsen, however, is mentioned quite a bit throughout this post. And it’s not just because I’ve seen her with her shirt off. It’s because she is an extremely talented actress (do you even Martha Marcy May Marlene?). She’s also the Scarlet Witch and will destroy you with her red CGI powers if you try to #MeToo her. Speaking of extremely talented Olsons, Matt Olson went 3-for-4 Friday night with two home runs (10th and 11th) scoring three runs and driving in five. That’s now four homers in the past week for Olson, to go along with seven runs scored, seven RBI and a .269 batting average. He’s hotter than a New York minute, which is an Olsen Twins movie for the unindoctrinated. Matt hit 24 homers in 59 games last year but has amassed just 11 in 58 games so far this year. He struggled in May with a .216 batting average without Khris Davis there to protect him in the lineup, but still managed six homers. So maybe the 1.003 OPS from 2017 was a tad inflated, and yes, maybe his isolated power is down over 150 points from last season, Olson is still a 30 homer hitter, people. That means he owes you 19 from now until the end of September. Pro tip: that will help your fantasy team! If you need power, Olson has struggled enough in the early going that you can likely pry him from a frustrated owner, and if Friday was any indication he’s busting out of his funk and June could be shaping up to be a big month for the estranged Olson brother.

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

Please, blog, may I have some more?

FantasyDraft: Wallace And deGromit—A Grand Day Out

June 2, 2018 | DFS, FantasyDraft | 2 Comments

by: VictoriaB

I’m not quite sure who will be the Wallace in this scenario, but I’m hoping Jacob deGrom is the one who brings the easy cheese (oh, just go watch the movie). He’s the highest-rated pitcher on Streamonator today. It’s that pretty, pretty 1.52 ERA on the year and 1.45 ERA at home in Citi Field. He’s not cheap on FantasyDraft—$22,000—but marginally cheaper than the other boy with a J name, Justin Verlander ($23,300; top-rated pitcher on FantasyDraft for the main slate, and Streamonator slots him in second, but Justin’s match-up versus Boston makes me a tiny bit nervous. Let’s call it woman’s intuition, or let’s just blame that if I turn out to be wrong). Let’s look at some other options for your DFS slate today.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Prospect Podcast: Mocking The 2018 MLB Draft, Dynasty Style!

June 2, 2018 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 34 Comments

by: Geoff

First we baked the cake, then we made the frosting. Today we put the whole thing together, for your consumption. What the hell am I talking about? It’s First Year Player Draft day for Monday’s 2018 MLB Draft. As has become annual tradition on the show, Lance and I release, debate and discuss the first edition of our 2018 First Year Player Draft rankings. We of course start the show with some of the top minor league news like Forrest Whitley’s return, and Shane Bieber’s promotion. We then jump into our 5×5, where Lance and I each choose 5 minor leaguers to discuss. Around minute 50 we start the ranks, making it as deep as 15-20 players. If that’s not enough coverage for you, Lance, myself, as well as others will be doing a live draft reaction show on Monday night. Make sure to check Twitter for that. And as always big shouts to our sponsor Rotowear! You can order the 1.01 Dad shirt I spoke about on the show by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 20% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Buy Joe, Don’t Be An Ignore-a-Musgrove

June 1, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 391 Comments

by: Grey

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”251895″ player=”10951″ title=”FantasyBaseballBuySellHoldWeek10″]

“You want me to list the eczema medication’s ingredients? Can I ask you why?” “JUST LIST THEM.” “Okay, take it easy. Propylene glycol, paraffin wax, pinetaroleum–” “PINETAROLEUM IS NOT ALLOWED. IT INDUCES A HIGHER SPIN RATE.” That is part of a recurring dream Trevor Bauer has where he’s dressed as a TSA agent, while standing on the side of the Astros pitcher’s mound. The dream always ends the same way. Someone asks Trevor Bauer how does he account for Joe Musgrove being better after leaving the Astros and Bauer wakes in a sweat, screaming, “GERRIT COLE STOLE MY COLLEGE GIRLFRIEND!” Joe Musgrove’s velocity is up, he’s throwing a cutter 15% of the time more and abandoned his curve altogether. This has upped his ground balls (not literally) and made him a usable pitcher for all leagues, and around a 3.60 ERA pitcher. Of course, he’s not a sub-1.00 ERA pitcher, as he is right now, but still ownable everywhere. Though, I guess he could be a 1.00-ERA pitcher if his eczema medication has pinetaroleum. Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?