Last week, an official member of the Razzball Commenter Crew (It’s free to join!) asked if I could do a Bear or Bull on Jorge Soler. I immediately responded with “Bareback?” and “Are you Japanese by chance?” Ok, I lied. My first response was “Sure,” but that doesn’t get clicks!!! Plus, my jokes come out as fast as a sloth takes a dump, but hey….eventually both come out. Anyways, Soler has been a hot topic recently. I’ve seen headlines circulating all over the internet, but like a psycho child that doesn’t take a peek at the hidden Christmas presents, I refrained. I wanted an unadulterated look. So, here it goes…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Mon 8/4
ARI | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | ATH | CHW | OAK | SEA | WSH

Five weeks are now in the books.  With twenty to go, quick math tells us we are ? of the way through our season.  To those ahead in your Razzball Commenter Leagues, that might be exciting, but to those at the bottom of the barrell, that could be unwelcome news.  Is it possible you’ve already accumulated ? of your final stats for the season? The Inning Pitch limit should be easy to plan for, you should be right around 280 IP right now.  If you find yourself a bit behind, stream an extra starter or two per week to pick up the pace. If you are way over-paced, maybe add some high strikeout middle relievers I talked about last week.  It can be much harder to make up ground in the Games Played race though. This is an area where having some lineup flexibility is key. With just three bench spots, you have to use them wisely. I like to think of the waiver wire pool as my floating bench, always there with a batty call when needed.  I routinely rotate out between 3 and 5 positions on my team for this purpose. Do I occasionally miss out on a break out player? Maybe. I was streaming J.A. Happ the first few weeks of the season before he was added and held. I’ve also added and dropped Jake Junis a hand full of times for streams, never once did I think about holding him.  I’ve added Jeimer Candelario more times than I can count and Matt Adams has been a recent hot add as well. The next time ol’ Matty Adams has an off day or is out of the lineup, guess who’s heading back to the wire? It’s a fine line, but I tend to never fall in love with a batty call, there’s always someone out there producing and keeping the flexibility to make these moves is key in the daily format with no GS limits.  There are free counting stats out there for the taking, you just need to find them.  Now, for the rest of the week that was, week 5 in the RCLs:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Guess what? All the top stories are about GROINS!!! But in all cereal-ness, we don’t get soggy in milk, and we take you through the plague of injuries throughout MLB. We discuss the DL stints of Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto, Jacob deGrom, Miguel Cabrera, and Jake Lamb. The rest of the show is dedicated to a celebration of diversity. No, that’s not right, it’s actually just Grey and I talking Jake Faria’s renaissance, Domingoat German’s Sunday start, Walker Buehler’s long term value, and our thoughts on Mike Soroka’s first two MLB starts. There is even more Jelly in these donuts, Frank. So stay tuned! 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 Podcast:

 

BTW: Get your Prospect Jesus and Grey Albright Tout Wars Champ shirts here!

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You’ll have to forgive me for any shortcomings in this Draft article. I’ve spent the last two days going down a Childish Gambino rabbit hole (I still can’t believe this is Donald Glover singing Redbone). Glover is one of the most versatile performers going right now, much like A.J. Pollock is one of the most versatile baseball players in the game at the moment. Power, speed, clean-up spot: Pollock is a fantasy triple threat.

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!

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Zach Eflin has to be one of the Phils fans favorite pitchers.  His last name just rolls off their tongue.  “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”  “You’re Eflin right!  And I’m kissing her right now.  On Facetime.  She’s a Merchant Marine, and stationed overseas.  It’s actually very sweet how we kiss.  With SnapChat filters.  That dresses me in a baby bonnet.  TMI?”  Sure, it was a short schedule day, so this might have something to do with my joy at Zach Eflin.  Yesterday, he went 6 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 0.71.  It’s only through 12 2/3 IP so o?ekávání.  I know.  That’s what I thought too, but then I started looking at his numbers, and, ugh, it’s 12 2/3 IP, but you gotta be Eflin kidding me?  He has a 9.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and a 94 MPH fastball, that is up two miles from last year.  Maybe this is a blip, but maybe this is encouragement you receive to burp from your Facetime’ing mom.  Also, in this game, Odubel Herrera hit some ding dongs — 2-for-3, 3 runs, 5 RBIs and his 4th and 5th homer — because ODB waited until everyone was out on him after last year.  Damn, ODB, why you gotta ad-lib some fire after I’m no longer invested in you?  ODB with more ad-libs than Quavo after a fifth of Cuervo, and Columbus, Ohio seeing the Cleveland Indians and being like, “Yo, I descubierto’d.”  (I really had to fight for that third rhyme.)  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Baseball Twitter is one of my favorite things in the world. It’s often full of interaction between analysts and fans, even analysts and other analysts, but every so often, we’re graced with the thoughts of major league players. Those we covet for their statistical production on our fake baseball teams sometimes descend from olympus to dwell amongst us fans. Sometimes that interaction is jovial, leaving us all with fuzzy feelings of joy and hope for a better world. Other times it’s between Trevor Bauer and Lance McCullers.

Last week, the topic was spin rate, and how one can increase it. I’ll do my best to plot this spat out as concisely as possible, with links to tweets.

  • Bauer insinuates the Astros are using pine tar to increase spin rate.
  • McCullers calls foul.
  • Bauer says his issue is with the MLB, not the Astros; claims pine tar increases spin rate.
  • Alex Bregman calls Trevor, “Tyler” Bauer.
  • World asks how Bauer knows pine tar increases spin rate (no tweet, “the world” doesn’t have a Twitter account… or does it… @KanyeWest).
  • Bauer quite possibly uses pine tar in first inning of May 2 start to prove point (successfully).

We need more of this. We need all of this, all the time. Dam, I love baseball.

You’re here for fantasy content, however, so why does spin rate matter for your fantasy baseball team?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

SAGNOF info is the best way to get a leg up on the SAGNOF trade.  (I challenged myself to use that anagram twice in the same sentence.) Challenge accomplished, and in the first line too! Wish I had longer arms than those baby T-Rex arms because the pats on the back wouldn’t stop.  As I continue the back lauding, the week upcoming is a bear market in steals.  The year is mimicking the previous year’s steals downward trend, as it is down almost 8% of the pace from last years total to date.  So if you have a valuable piece of steals bait that isn’t doing so great, let’s say his name is “Billy Hamilton” and you are having trouble getting ample trade value for him…  read this post so it can be explained that despite his sub-200 average and lower than expected 5 steals to date, he still has stolen base value.  Yes, you are going to have to trade for 75 cents on the dollar, but explain this to someone looking for steals and are down on Billy that he is still top-20 in steals and with that 5 steals total, he would be at 20% of most teams total steals on the year in fantasy.  That number obviously changes by league type and such, and I took an average of all the leagues I myself compete in (median is 31).  So while I sit here and let you either figure out how to sell high or buy low on Billy Hamilton, continue the read and learn about the steals that will come, have happened, and the week’s thievery to be.  Cheers!

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Another week, another FAAB run. Happy Cinco de Mayo for those of you who remember what happened this weekend, and Happy Cinco de Cuatro for fans of Arrested Development. As with every week, I bring you my five FAAB picks. These are players that most people will be looking at this week along with others that can be had for cheap, off-the-radar, stabs. I will also provide a few names for those ONLY-league players at the end. All FAAB percentages can be applied to leagues with any budget.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar might be two of the hottest hitters in the league. Over the last 7 games, Rosario has 4 HRs and 12 RBIs and is hitting a cool .443. As for Escobar, he only has a 1.267 OPS during that span. With John Gant getting called up tonight to start for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Hermanos Ed can inflict some damage to the young RHP. Gant has struggled in his brief chances in the majors; I expect more of the same tonight. Let’s take a look at the rest of the picks tonight for your DFS team on Draft.

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?

Keeping the weekend theme of rookie pitchers not giving up hits, yesterday Domingo German went 6 IP, 0 ER, zero hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks, ERA at 2.66.  Since I wasn’t very familiar with German — “Guten tag, give your bratwurst my best kraut.” — I decided to watch this game.  German’s curve was made to look very impressive by an Indians team that still does not look right.  It also didn’t hurt that the home plate umpire gave him a very favorable strike zone — “You wear the lederhosen in the Deutschland, Lance Barrett?”  Kept feeling like a more patient team or just a few calls go a different way, and German has loaded the bases on walks with no outs, and, suddenly, he’s in a five run hole in two innings.  Bundesländer?  V to the ielleicht.  Maybe Sonntag had his Sunday best on, but I don’t trust him outside of deep leagues.  Of course, with that said (Grey’s turning the u-boat!), a flyer doesn’t hurt until the German roofie comes and you wake up in Frankfurt with a burly woman named Gertrude.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Solarte is breaking out all over! He’s halfway to his career high HR total with 9 right now. He’s a third of the way towards surpassing his career highs in runs and RBI. So what gives? Well Solarte has embraced the launch angle revolution and has dropped his ground ball rate by 7% from his career numbers. But this shouldn’t have surprised us — every year it seems like Solarte has been hitting less ground balls. In the low minors he was hitting between 50 and 60% of his balls on the ground, in the upper minors he was hitting between 40 and 50% and now he’s just taking his game to the next level. Maybe we just should’ve seen this coming?

Please, blog, may I have some more?