by: Ricky Olshansky
Not a lot has changed over the last week so my player blurbs will be minimal. Many of the roto category leaders are starting to solidify their spots and the frauds are weeding themselves out faster than Chipotle enters and exits, don’t forget your Chipotlaway.
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The theory of SAGNOF is capitalizing on the chances in front of your face. The “polish sausage” king of steals has returned from the minors and re-established his presence in the stead of others. Travis Jankowski started the year out of favor, not just based on ability, just on talent. With Manuel Margot struggling and injured and Hunter Renfroe basically doing the same exact thing (but getting Pipped by Franchy), Travis has jumped from AAA and shown his best SAGNOF face. Hitting .368, with 2 steals and OBP of .455 over 12 games since his return. We all know of his one sided ability in the SAGNOF game because that is what makes him the prince of this and basically the west coast Rajai. His availability in leagues is less than 5% owned across most formats and should steadily climb until the outfield situation is a muck. An OF of Margot, Franchy, and Travis is of the extremely light-hitting variety. It is using Travis now before the likes of Wil Myers, whose return is the question. With Myers eventual return a few weeks off to possibly 10 days, using Jankowski now for the steals affect isn’t a bad idea as his stats say that he can hit, get on base and effectively get on base. The 30-steal year just two years ago shows that he has a penchant for the swipe, just has to avoid attrition, replacement and the inevitable return of better talent. He has the gig for the next week to 10 days so now is the time to see if you can steal, pun intended, a few bases to pad your stats and move along. That is what SAGNOF is, hit and move. Don’t fall in love. get what you want out of it and than throw it to the waiver wire dogs. It is a sad world we live in and there is no cuddling in the quest for steals world. I don’t care how great the big spoon feels. More saves and steals ain’t got no face goodies after the bump.
Please, blog, may I have some more?There’s some pretty good pitcher depth for your Draft team today, even if you’re in a 6- to 10-person draft. You can afford to wait a little to draft a pitcher, but if you’d prefer to take a pitcher early for the middle slate tonight, nab Carlos Carrasco. In previous match-ups, he’s held the active Detroit Tigers to a team OPS of .561 against him, with the biggest possible threat against him being Jose Iglesias: Joey Church has gone 9 for 28 versus Carrasco (OPS of .906), and after that the Tigers fall off a cliff. The weather is a little bit of a worry in Detroit, though, so keep an eye on that.
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by: Grey
Hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day! Or, as it’s known in my house, Bill Hall Day. *it’s 2074, Grey Albright’s frozen head is on a shelf next to Ted Williams’ frozen head* “Hey, Ted Williams, Happy Bill Hall Day.” “You’ve been calling it that for 65 years.” “It’ll catch on by next year. By the way, you have a booger-icicle hanging from your nose.” For Mother’s Day for Cougs, I took a picture of our dog Ted’s penis, then Photoshopped it into Bill Hall’s hands, so it looked like a pink bat. Of course, I inscribed it, “You’re always a home run to me.” I’m so romantic! Any hoo! Sean Newcomb silenced the Marlins pink bats and pink jerseys and pink hats — were they also advertising Anna Faris’ new movie, because they went Overboard! — 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners (1 hit), 6 Ks, ERA at 2.51. Of course, this matchup wasn’t the hardest, but his peripherals (10.4 K/9, 4.2 BB/9, 3.65 xFIP) look close to that of a number two to three fantasy starter. Not bad since he was drafted as number five. He’s one bad mother! Or May the Bill Hall Be With You. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
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by: Kerry Klug
I had to make this Top 100 List a Top 101 list for one week to make room for Jorge Soler. Let’s get this typical jibber-jabber out of the way: Former top prospect blah blah blah bust? blah blah blah traded! blah blah blah post-hype blah blah blah. Now that you’re up to speed let’s […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s rough to start a list that brings me as much joy as this with the sad trombone, but this is how we have to begin when we lose Clayton Kershaw. Sad trombone. There’s no current timetable for his return from biceps tendinitis, and the most recent update has him playing catch from 60 feet for five minutes. Yippee. I like to think he’s actually just practicing an eephus and he’s going to start working it into his repertoire. In any case, he’s not close to a return. Sadly, DL trips have become commonplace for Kershaw. At this point you have to bake a DL stint into his projection every year, and to me that puts him squarely behind Mad Max and Sale moving forward.
Kluber is also showing a few chinks in his armor, so that dude has to watch out for pointy objects. While he’s got a cool 2.62 ERA, his FIP is 3.94. His swinging strike rate is down a full 5% from 2017 while his contact rate is up 9%. He’s getting fewer reaches out of the zone and is missing far fewer bats in the zone. I don’t foresee an implosion of any kind per se, but among elite options he’s got my eyebrow raised.
Please, blog, may I have some more?So I was watching the Oakland A’s play the other day and took note of Mark Cahna’s walk up music, “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. You don’t see many major leaguers going with a classic like that, but if I was picking a Dylan song as my walk up song, it’d be this one. That’s my favorite song by him, a nine-minute story that feels straight out of a Mark Twain novel along with being damn catchy. Anyway, that got me thinking about another Dylan song from that same era, “Joey,” which is a song about Crazy Joe Gallo, a mafia hit man back in the 70s, because Joey Gallo (a perennial OPS Leaguers Unite! guy combo-ing power and a lack of average to make him more valuable in OPS leagues than any other) doesn’t have a nickname, and well, Crazy Joe only works if you’re really crazy, and Joey Gallo doesn’t seem so.
Please, blog, may I have some more?They call Draft fantasy for the people, and why not? It’s easy as Sunday morning. Sign up at Draft.com, do a quick snake draft of 3, 4, 6 or 10 players, and get a piece of the payouts. Here at Razzball, we recommend using Value-Based Drafting (VBD) to make the most of your roster. Using Rudy’s tools, you can easily sort values and take the projected points for the final player drafted at each position (P, IF, OF) and subtracting from all the players at that position, then re-ranking based on VBD. In other words, Razzball will give you the inside knowledge you need to dominate your DFS opponents.
Another Sunday, another jam-packed stable of starting pitchers. James Paxton? Just threw a no-no and is striking out the world. Luis Severino? Sharp as a tack with that fastball and playing on the hottest team in the majors. Corey Kluber and Dallas Keuchel? Haven’t they recently won Cy Young awards? And don’t forget Ohtani: no words for his all-around game. Of all those big guns, the guy with the best numbers against his opponent and killing it right now? Jacob deGrom of the New York Metropolitans. He’s well rested and gets to vault off his DL stint to face the Phighting Phillies, who have hit him to a tiny combined OPS of .530. Furthermore, he’s doing it in Philadelphia, where he’s 2-0 with a .978 WHIP in his young meteoric career. It’s Jacob deGrom for the win today. And hey, if you make the great decision to try out Rudy’s tools here at Razzball, you’ll find the Hittertron and Streamonator — the deGromonator fits right in!
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by: Geoff
To say the Giants have been one of the more uninspired farm systems of late is an understatement on par with saying Kate Upton is busty. We know. It’s a defining characteristic of this organization. It’s been so bad that people were actually excited about Christian Arroyo, a player that’s truly nothing more than system depth. To put it lightly 2017 was a disastrous campaign for the Giants, as they finished with the league’s worst record, despite paying the luxury tax. Sure Madison Bumgarner’s (first) freak injury played into that, but there were bigger issues. First amongst them is a lack of exciting bats in the lineup. The San Francisco organization did a good job this off-season, acquiring both Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria, for underwhelming prospect packages. They also drafted a few exciting talents in top Puerto Rican prospect Heliot Ramos, Jacob Gonzalez son of former Arizona Diamondbacks star Luis Gonzalez, and Seth Corry, an intriguing lefty from the Utah Prep ranks. With the number 2 overall pick in the draft this year, San Francisco has a great opportunity to add onto a strong foundation from last year’s class. It’s the Giants Top Prospects for 2o18.
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by: Dokken
It’s Lucky Number Slevin! No, it’s Week 7 of MLB baseball, but I swear to you every time I hear the number seven the title of that infernal movie crops up in my dome. The movie is 12 years old and I’ve never even seen it, yet still IT’S IN MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! This is cathartic. Is the flick any good? It’s got Morgan Freeman in it, it can’t possibly suck, can it? I’ve said those words regarding two-start pitchers before, and they have definitely sucked a time or two. We’re gonna do our best here to parse out the sucky options for you and put you in position for much success. I must succeed!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Cincinnati Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett homered in his fourth straight game Friday night going 4-for-5 with his 6th homer and 3 RBI. After a slow start to the season power-wise, Gennett has been slicker than a Motorola cell phone hitting .458 in the past week with 6 runs, 4 home runs and 10 RBI. Holy Vespa! Even more shocking, this is the second Reds 2B/SS I’ve profiled this year. I must be infatuated with the Reds infield. Which is kind of sad, because there are so many better infields to be infatuated with. But nope. It’s the Reds. Scooter had a career best year in 2017, hitting .295 with 27 homers, 80 runs scored and 97 RBI. If we look at the advanced stats (nerd!), sure that 20.8% HR/FB rate from last year might be a tad tough to match again, but the .339 BABIP in 2017 is not that far off from his career .329 average. In other words, 2017 was no fluke! In 2018, the .364 BABIP may be a bit inflated again, but he’s also striking out less, 18.5% versus 22.9% in 2017. So what does all this mean to all of us who aren’t mathematicians or data scientists? Speak english, doc! That average might go down but the power is legit, and Scooter is hotter than a Childish Gambino “This is America” video shot by shot breakdown think piece. Did you even notice the dancing symbolizes the fact that the new song is flames, and is distracting you aka SOCIETY from what’s really going on the in background–POLITICS. Don’t let Gennett’s slow start, or inflated sabremetrics or terrible team distract you, he’s the hottest thing on two wheels right now and worth riding where he’s available.
Here’s what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?The San Diego Padres are bad at baseball, but that makes them amazing for DFS purposes, at least when digging for a starting pitcher. Michael Wacha ($15,300) gets to reap the rewards of facing the Padres in Petco tonight. The Padres are owners of such tantalizing stats such as a team OPS of .661, second worst in all the majors. The Padres are also tied for the league lead in strikeouts. As I’ve said many a time in these articles, strikeouts pay the bills in DFS and Wacha should be in line for plenty of them. The Cards are only slight favorites against Tyson Ross and the Padres, but I think they should be more heavily favored. The over/under for the game is only 7.5, so Wacha should be safe for cash and a great piece for a GPP lineup as well. Now, Wacha this way for a few more picks for tonight’s slate.
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 you do. It’s how we know you care!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
