For all intents and purposes, Jean Segura was a flopapotamus last year, failing to get to any of the previous year’s stats across the board. That includes the all loving steals category. He has gone from 33 in 2016, to 22 last year, to already having 11 in just over 200 plate appearances, which is a phenomenal pace for anyone that bought into him a his ADP in draft season. Eleven steals already leads to a projection of right around 40, and 40 steals is fantastic, as it has only been eclipsed 10 times in the last few years. Which brings back my old standby statement: that steals are a dying breed except for the select few. I fully expect that the Mariners, who currently sit top-6 in MLB in steals, to keep the running game as a a major cog now that Robbie Cano isn’t around showing his elite speed. With Dee Gordon and Segura, the Mariners have a duo of speed that really is unrivaled by other MLB teams. The past week for Jean has seen his total jump from 5 to 11 steals overall. (Coincidence that Cano isn’t in the lineup that he is taking the base rather than trying to get hit over? I think not.) Nothing about that screams coincidence, it would be more of a coincidence for me to casually run into my ex-girlfriend outside the church on her wedding day. So with a slash line of .414/.419/.655 since the removal of Cano, he looks primed to be an even more of a steal threat moving forward. That is also a nod for Dee because the re-invention of lineup changes is the way a team plays. I read that in a fortune cookie just now. So welcome to SAGNOF day, kinda like Rusev day, but with less Bulgarian influence.
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.
…Unless Miles Mikolas is quick to put the Royals to bed. I’m optimistic he just might. (Actually, it’s Victoria Day here in Canada, the day everyone must do my bidding, so he’s obliged to.) As of Monday morning, the Royals are last in MLB. Mikolas hasn’t earned more than 2 runs in a game since early April, and other than his last start, when he was yanked after 85 pitches, he tends to go nice and deep into games. He’s got my vote for pitcher on Draft today. [Sidebar: Also for 70s throwback/Paul Rudd’s gloriously mustached father.] But in case all your competitors decide to try drafting him as well, let’s look at some other pitching options, after the jump. Spoiler: there’s not a lot of depth, so I’d look to draft your pitcher early today.
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!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Juan Soto In Nats Wars: The Last OF
May 21, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 562 Commentsby: Grey
Howie Kendrick is out for multiple 10-day DLs with a ruptured Achilles injury. Look at it this way, if Achilles couldn’t come right back from an Achilles injury, how would Kendrick? He can’t, he’s out for the year. Enter stage left, Juan Soto. True story, as I was listening to Prospector Ralph and Lance Broetc. discuss the top 25 prospects for fantasy baseball (clickbait!), every time Ralph would say Juan Soto I’d think he was asking Lance if he wanted soda. I kept wanting to say, just give him a Dr. Pepper and stop asking if he’s thirsty! I don’t drink Soto, because it makes me burp, but I’ll tell you what? I’ve found a special appreciation for La Croix. Give me flavored seltzer or give me death, as Alan Hale Jr. once said. Any hoo! Love, love, lurve what the Nats did. If you have a guy that’s going to be a superstar? You call him up! H to the hockey sticks with an E in between! If the Blue Jays don’t call up Vlad soon, I will call them the BJs for the rest of eternity. Ralph has gone over Juan Soto so many times, that it’s silly to reiterate. Literally, he just wrote a Juan Soto fantasy. If you’re really lazy and you have wheels on your barcalounger so you can get around, the most succinct is Soto could be a 35/12/.300 hitter during his peak and is 19 years old with extra fizz. You can expect this year something similar to Bryce Harper’s rookie year — 20/15/.270. If your eyes don’t bug out on that, you’ve lost feeling in your eyes. Get them checked. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Top 100 Hitters, Week 8: Et Tuve Jose?
May 20, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 45 Commentsby: Kerry Klug
I rarely like to make too many movements in the Top 20 or so players, but this week I thought it was necessary. Last week saw me drop Paul Goldschmidt from 8th down to 21st and this week he tumbles a bit further down to 24. In the 4 games since my last top 100 article Goldy has gone 2 for 16 with two measly singles. He can get hot in a minute and rocket back up to the top 10 — but right now it’s disrespectful to the other players to place him in the top 10.
Jose Altuve’s slight fall is going to make a lot of people angry, but he’s just not doing enough with the bat or on the base paths to warrant a top 10 placement. I see the average over .300 but 2 HRs and 2 SBs isn’t cutting it. Just as a heads up — if you have a frustrated owner in your league who is willing to accept your offer of Jonathan Schoop and an OF2/OF3 for Altuve — make the offer now. Altuve is an avid Razzball reader and will be out to prove me wrong!
Two little Indians jumped up in my rankings: Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. They are ranked 6th and 5th respectively on ESPN’s Player Rater and earned their boost. A commenter last week pointed out how much better Lindor was performing than Carlos Correa and I that message was received loud and clear. Correa has been more lauded than Lindor, but I can’t deny Lindor is out-performing Correa so far this year. Ramirez on the other hand has statistics that compare favorably to fantasy baseball Gawd Mike Trout. Ramirez only has 6 less runs, the same amount of HRs, 5 more Rbi, 2 less steals and a higher average (even if only by .006.) With second and third base eligibility that screams top 10 talent to me. Soon.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Another week of pitching injuries with precious few callups, and the back end of this Top 100 is getting ugly. I ranked Carlos Martinez last week with the expectation that he would miss just a single start, but at this point he’s missing multiple turns so he’s out. Intriguing rookies Mike Soroka and Joey Lucchesi are DL’d, and Freddy Peralta really came down to earth in his second start. We’re creeping closer to June when we should expect to see a few more high profile callups…and Alex Reyes looms. His most recent start was 7.2 1-hit, shutout innings with three walks and 13 K’s. Seems ready to me! If you don’t have him stashed yet and he’s still available in your league, stop whatever you’re doing (reading, I suppose) and remedy the situation. If I were forced to rank Reyes before he makes a MLB start, I’d probably initially slot him in around SP30. Chris Archer is at SP29, and I don’t think he’s giving you anything Alex Reyes can’t.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
For the most part, it’s getting warmer in this great land of ours. But every fifth day, there’s a cold wind blowing from the Northeast. No, winter is not coming, and thanks to George R.R. Martin and HBO, it might never get here. Instead it is the lightning in the golden right arm of Thor himself: Noah Syndergaard. The Norse God has lit it up this year, and today he goes against the suddenly toothless Arizona Diamondbacks. Without A.J. Pollock, the lineup has underwhelmed, and what’s left barely hits to a .500 OPS against the mighty Syndergaard. 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!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Minor League Preview: Seattle Mariners
May 20, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 36 Commentsby: Geoff
This is the post no one has been waiting for. The system I dread writing about more than any other. It’s the wasteland of Dipotopia. Desolate and destitute, dark most days, and it always smells like fresh cat urine. To put it mildly the Seattle Mariners system is putrid. We’re talking a handful of interesting players, and then several waves of system depth types. Two of the more exciting, and not to mention major league ready prospects, were shipped away over the last year and a half in Luiz Gohara and Tyler O’Neill, netting humbling returns. While the most recent draft yielded an uninspiring class for the most part. It did have it’s bright spots, consisting of a pair of talents in Evan White and Sam Carlson. They also netted a couple of intriguing arms in Seth Elledge and Wyatt Mills. The Mariners did make a serious run at Shohei Ohtani, but fell short in the end. Their International period was hardly a failure however, landing one of the top power bats in the class in the Dominican Republic’s Julio Rodriguez. There’s also been a cloud of bad luck following a once promising 2016 draft class, primarily Kyle Lewis, and the saga of his knee injury and subsequent recovery attempts. There’s also the feel-good story of the Arizona Fall League in Eric Filia, that morphed into the reality check of the winter following a drug of abuse suspension. So that’s what we’re working with today. Allow me to get through this misery so I can begin the next Minor league Update. It’s the Seattle Mariners Top Prospects! (puke emoji)
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hoo doggy, we’ve got some slim pickins this week. And not like Slim Pickens from Dr. Strangelove, because he’s actually fun. The pickins in Two Startapalooza this week consist mostly of Tier 4 and 5 bottom feeders. Although, now that I think about it, riding with one of those guys is a bit like Slim Pickens riding that bomb to his doom. The top three tiers this week hold a grand total of 10 double dippers, most of which are already owned unless you’re in an extremely shallow league. Even Tier 4 is pretty sketchy this week, though. And not “draw me like one of your French girls” type of sketchy, more like an Etch A Sketch drawing from an elderly woman who’s also working a Shake Weight. There are a few permissible options that we’ll get to, but realize that if you’re in a shallow league you might be better off going with your Single Start Studs over these Double Dipping Ding Dongs. Mmm…Ding Dongs.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I used to be a Catholic schoolgirl. I was bad at it (ahem), but some things stay with one, lo these many years later. The urge to dip my fingers in holy water and genuflect (why does that word sound so dirty somehow?) whenever I walk into a church. The impulse to reply “and also with you” when someone says “May the fourth be with you”. An enjoyment of wafers and religious experiences, such as watching James Paxton ($24,100 on FantasyDraft today) deal a no-hitter against the Blue Jays last week. He’s taking on Detroit today: yes, his last start, which was also against the Tigers, saw him give up 3 earned, but I’m going to put it down to the food poisoning he was allegedly dealing with (gotta go easy on the loaves and fishes) and exhort you: Pay up and start him and may (a) piece (of the action) be with you.
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? Prospect Podcast: Top Hitters In The 2018 MLB Draft
May 19, 2018 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 43 Commentsby: Geoff
Draft talk is finally here, and I for one could not be more excited about it. There’s no point in the year where we’re more inundated with new prospects, and sexy new skillsets to dream on. Hope springs eternal in MLB draft-land, not only for real life teams, but for all y’all fantasy squads as well. Yes, I just used the phrase all y’all. It’s important to remain folksy in the face of privilege. Never mind that, we’re talking the top hitters in this year’s draft class. We go through all the big names from Alec Bohm to Nick Madrigal to Nolan Gorman, Jarred Kelenic, and Jonathan India. Of course we start the show off with some Vlad Jr. talk, and our usual 5×5, highlighting some top players over the last week in MiLB. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor 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?How good is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? The Blue Jays are now saying they’d like to see how he deals with failure. He’s so good, he’s never failed! He will be up by mid-June. The Jays can longer hold him down anymore without concocting fake reasons. Very soon you’re going to read this from me: “Vlad, the Mini Impaler, just jacked another homer to go with his .320 average. Aren’t you glad you listened to me and grabbed him back in mid-May? You didn’t grab him? Aw, shucks, you did a hashtag fail on that one, didn’t you? It’s all right, there should be another generational talent up in five years. I hear Bartolo Colon’s got 17 sons — one could be up soon and light the world on fire, or at least put the world in a microwave, open the door 30 seconds before the world is fully heated and eat it.” And that’s me quoting future me! So, do you wanna be the guy (or girl who can totally hang with the guys), saying, “Damn, Grey, you’re handsome AF but your witticisms cut deep sometimes.” Or do you want to read my wound-salting barbs and think, “I’m so glad I own Vlad. Now who is this Bartolo Colon Jr. he’s talking about? I should comment calling him Bartolo Semi-Colon and totally make Grey cackle!” Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Nothing is worse than owning a closer you drafted… you get comfortable and things are going well. You’re sitting pretty, a dalmation on the beer cart. Then poof! The dreaded word that for fantasy players and save connaisseurs is worse than the “I’m pregnant” line; That word is a “group”, from singular to plural. It isn’t fair. These guys don’t know the hours of time we devote to drafting a team and then getting pimped to the waiver wire for the next dude up. Well, that is where we are currently sitting with Atlanta and Philadelphia. Adding more names to the donkeycorn factory at the end of the chart. Joining the fray are now Tommy Hunter, A.J. Minter, Seranthony Dominguez, Dan Winkler, and a slew of other candidates that are all in bathrobes in a line by height down the hallway. Save orgies are good for one thing and one thing only, diversifying the stat and keeping you closer to the leader by expanding the save universe. But we all live in “a one man, one save” lifestyle like the Puritans. So what do we make of all this mess, besides getting a waiver wire mop and roster as many as possible? Stay calm if you own the old closer. There was a reason they had the job initially, and they are still in the running. Dropping a potential save candidate to the wire is never a good idea, unless you are upgrading and getting a better save option that has the job outright. This savey save advice is keen when you are middle of the pack, but if you are chasing saves and falling behind by the day, trading for one of a higher caliber is the tact to go. Let us see what else is happening in the end game of fantasy…
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Razzball.com and the Razzball logo units are copyright Razzball LLC.