Grey

Can You Smell What Soroka’s Cooking?

May 2, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 536 Comments

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I’m disappointed, I thought Mike Soroka was the first Thai-born pitcher.  One thing about Soroka, he really brings the heat.  He’ll also answer to Mike The Rooster Sauce.  He’s the spiciest prospect since Pirates’ Single-A phenom, Ravi Gospepradam, and the Padres’ Tony Tarasco.  If only they had that Jays’ prospect, Tom Yum Khai, to cool their palette.  The Braves alone have MLB’s staff highest on the Scoville Scale:  Soroka, Luiz Goharabnero, Mike Frankshotsaucewicz, Sean Capsium and Julio Tahiniran.  Tahini isn’t hot, unless you’re eating it in Iran!  Well, I guess Tahini could be spicy.  If you can make mayo spicy, like Spicymayohiro Tanaka.  Yesterday, Soroka went 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks in only 80 pitches, to show you how on the plate he was with that 95 MPH heat.  In Triple-A, he had a 9.5 K/9, 2 BB/9 and 1.99 ERA with nearly neutral luck.  Against the Mets, he touched the corners of the plate the entire night, barely giving anyone something easy to hit.  This was in a debut for a 20-year-old.  He had more poise than Tootie with a book on her head.  It’s gonna be hard to send him down, but I don’t know what’s in store for him.  He might get the Walker Buehler treatment with the occasional start, bouncing between the majors and Triple-A.  Either way, The Rooster Sauce looks red hot!  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 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
Son

Bear or Bull: What’s Happening?

May 1, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 33 Comments

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J.A. Happ is the 16th pitcher on the Razzball Player Rater. Bet that went in one ear and out the other. Grabs head. Shakes it up and down and side to side. Uses one of those thingamajiggies with the light on the end that the doctor uses to inspect the inside of your ear. Throws head down after being satisfied that there is more than air in there. J.A. Happ has 50 strikeouts in 36 innings for a 12.50 K/9! Wha…wha….whaaaaat! Mount Kilimanjaro just surfaced between your legs. J.A. Happ is 35 years old. Click HERE. So, what’s Happening?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
MattTruss

RCL Update: The Week That Was Week 4, 2018

May 1, 2018 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenters League | 17 Comments

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Back in the old days (last year) of the Razzball Commenter Leagues I preached about the importance of keeping an eye on your strikeouts per Game Started or K/GS.  With the move to FanTrax and the change from GS to Innings Pitched (IP) the K/GS stat goes out the window. However, we have a new stat you should be keeping an eye on now, and that is your K/9.  Since every team is limited to only 1400 innings strikeouts essentially turn into a ratio stat; a counting ratio stat I suppose, but a ratio nonetheless. Once your innings are up, you are stuck with the number of strikeouts you have.  This makes those high K/9 relievers such as Chad Green, Adam Ottavino and king of the K/9 this year, Josh Hader very valuable pieces. This also dings some of the streaming options out there like everyone’s favorite, Bartolo Colon who might go 7 innings but strikeout only 2.  If you don’t have a high-K/9 reliever or two to help balance that out, you could be doing more long term damage than good. It’s important to monitor and keep a balance. Fortunately for you, and especially those that are bad at math, we’re tracking your K/9 for you on the Master Standings page.  There, you can see that among teams with at least 40 IP/week there are 4 teams leading the pack with an impressive 11.6 K/9.  Among those are frequent commenter Great Knoche and our Excel War Room guru, Hot Rods. Bringing up the rear is Cheddar Bob with 7.0 K/9 in 231 IP.  I like to try and maintain a K/9 of around 9.5 or so.  If you’re below that mark, find yourself an Andrew Miller if you can.  If you’re above that mark, awesome!  Just make sure you’re keeping pace with your league in Wins and you should be golden.  It’s also going to be important to monitor your innings usage. You can click “MIN/MAX” on your team page to see your innings used and your pace. I like to keep my pace pretty close to right on the money, but your mileage may very.  Just don’t leave innings on the table if you can help it. Let’s take a look at the rest of the week that was, week 4 in the RCLs:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Roto-Wan

Draft: International Workers’ Day

May 1, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

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May 1st is International Workers’ Day. If you lived in Europe, you would be off from work today and free to enjoy a day filled with baseball and creating rosters on Draft. Since you don’t and aren’t, I encourage you to exercise your own form of Socialist protest and read this article on company time. Max Scherzer definitely practices Socialism: all hitters get owned equally.

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 jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Corey’s Felled, Man

May 1, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 637 Comments

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Corey Seager hit the DL about 15 minutes after weekly lineups locked for the massive Ziplock.  “Yo, I got more Ziplocks than a 5th grade bully stealing lunches,” said the very un-woke fantasy baseballer (<–my mom’s term!).  Never bully, unless you’re like Cougs and you say, “Bully bully,” thinking it’s “Dilly dilly.”  Don’t tell Cougs she’s out of touch!  Then ten minutes later, in a cruel twist of fate, Seager told the world he needs Tommy John surgery that he should’ve had this offseason.  Anyone who reads The Ball of Razz knows I hate Seager for fantasy, so I won’t rub salt in your wounds if you drafted him, but you did it without my consent, so I could retain the legal services of Gloria Allred and send you to jail.  Replacing Seager will be some combo pu-pu platter of Utley, Forsythe, Taylor and Kike.  Corey should be back next year to the City of Angels without missing a beat, unlike Corey’s Angels.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Lance

Pitcher Thoughts: Pulling the Trigger on Happiness?

April 30, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 12 Comments

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“Romantic scouting date” is exactly what it sounds like: Ralph, myself, and a baseball game. We ventured up to slightly warmer weather than Hartford brought us a few weekends ago for more looks at Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. Ralph wrote about it (right here) and I had a great time looking at the mechanics of Sean Reid-Foley (TOR) and Dillon Tate (NYY) on my Twitter feed.

For the sake of brevity, let’s get right into two pitchers I’ve had my eye on in this edition of Pitcher Thoughts.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Smokey

SAGNOF Report: Ender’s Game Is By Foot

April 30, 2018 | Uncategorized | 9 Comments

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The fantasy world is buzzing with a guy with a tilde in his name, a name that not need speaking.  Because all the prospects analysts have been walking around like freak cases of Cialis gone wrong.  I hear that if you point your juggs gun at it for 30 seconds, it will subside.  Sticking with the Bravos though, I am intrigued by the possibilities around the ever in the lineup presence of Ender Inciarte.  (Him of the 8 steals in his last 14 games.)  When thinking about that total in the past fortnight, it’s more than six whole teams have all season.  I wish that was made up, but there are some slow of foot teams who like the one bag at a time approach.  Batting a crisp .339, getting on-base with an even crispier .369, and has only not hit in the leadoff spot one entire time all year.  Coincidentally, it was yesterday. Uncoincidentally, he still produced.  He is a fixture (at the peak of that blossoming before our eyes) in the lineup, and the best thing about it is that his defense will keep him on the manager’s card to play every single day.  Defensive ability may be the sleepy fantasy stat that has no measuring stick.  Although his counting stats maybe a tad slight on the runs/RBI’s, you want him for his SAGNOF appeal, that and he plays next whats his face.  Stay cozy, my friends as we round the first month out of fantasy in style, and by style I mean with no pants and a tub of ice cream.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Al Shines

The Keepers Korner: Pitchers to Watch

April 30, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Keepers | 1 Comment

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So far, the Keeps Korner has focused on the prospects expecting to be called up, but this week we’re moving over to young pitchers who are starting to show some form of a breakout. We’ve gone over most of the prospects who have been called up lately like Ronald Acuna, Gleyber Torres, and Miguel Andujar, but also some who are still waiting like Nick Senzel and Willie Calhoun. All of these guys should be owned in any type of keeper league, even if they are just stashes. Its also time to start looking at the pitching prospects even though we haven’t seen much yet from the pitchers. Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler, two of the top pitching prospects in baseball, had stellar debuts but there are no plans for them to stay up in the big leagues for now, but both could force their respective teams to keep them up if they want help to keep contending…

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Ignacio

Draft: MurdeReds

April 30, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

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Give me all the Cincinnati Reds tonight: Joey Votto, Scott Schebler, Jose Peraza and Scooter Gennett. Tonight they could be a solid stack option that a lot of people won’t be on. It’s a nice match-up against Jhoulys Chacin, who currently has a 5.19 FIP and a K/9 of only 5. May the BABIP fairies be on our side tonight. Peraza and Votto have been on a serious tear and I expect that to continue. Let’s take a look at the rest of the picks for 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?
Grey

Nicking ‘Em? More Like Smack Kingham

April 30, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 564 Comments

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According to Elias Sports Bureau, Nick Kingham retired the most batters to start a game since 1961 in a debut.  Elias Sports Bureau also said, “There were sixteen cracks in the 5th floor’s tile closest to the bathroom, which is a new record for cracks in a tile.”  Yo, Elias Sports Bureau might have OCD.  On our top 100 starts of 2018 chart, Kingham registered in the top 10.  According to Baseball-Reference, he’s the first pitcher to debut with 7+ IP and not have a baserunner reach scoring position.  According to Kent Tekulve, Kingham was the first pitcher in a 1979 Pirates uniform not high on cocaine since Tekulve.  In all, a terrific debut for Kingham — 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, zero walks, 9 Ks.  Originally, the Pirates planned on a one-and-done, hit-and-run, wham-bam-thank-you, young-man start for Kingham and see him get sent right back down, but they rightfully are having him travel with the team, and appear to be keeping him up.  His Triple-A numbers (10.7 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 1.59 ERA) say this is the right move.  I’d hold off for now in mixed leagues, but you should cyclops him with a monocle.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Dokken

Top 100 Starting Pitchers, Week 5: Santa Maria, Faria

April 29, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 37 Comments

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Do you enjoy lists that go all the way to 100?! Well aren’t you in for a treat! I was pretty excited when I was tasked with compiling this list, and my enthusiasm continued until I reached about the SP50 mark. It was about that time my enthusiasm shifted to malaise, which then morphed into a legitimately queasy feeling as I tumbled down into the 80’s. You’re getting into a lot of interchangeable parts down at the bottom, and one particularly good or bad start could vault one of those bottom-dwellers a good 10 spots up or down. As the season rolls on I’ll include the previous week’s ranking to give you an idea of how the pitcher is trending. Since this serves as my first rankings list, however, I’ll begin with some guys I wound up ranking either higher or lower than I had anticipated going into it.

Please, blog, may I have some more?