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.

It’s days like today, when there appears to be only one ace and then all the rest, that Razzball can give you a clear edge over the competition. Hiding behind the giant shadow of Gerrit Cole lurks a man striking out the world and leading one of the surprising teams of the year.  J.A. Happ is a monster right now, leading the league in K/9 with a mark of 12.7. He and his 14-11 Toronto Blue Jays get to face the last-place Texas Rangers today. It doesn’t hurt that current Rangers hit Happ to the woeful tune of a .473 OPS. After these two pitchers, it’s a significant drop-off, but the edge of grabbing J.A. Happ a pick or two after Cole is enough to bring home the bacon. Now on to some more Draft.com recommendations for 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! 

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Tue 8/5
ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | MIA | OAK

Every year a player shows up in April and makes you regret your ranking. The honor of “that guy” in 2018, at leats so far, goes to Juan Soto. Ranked 25th on my Top 100 Prospects coming into the season, if I re-ranked today, I’d move Soto up as many as 10 spots. Upon receiving an assignment to low-A Hagerstown, it was obvious from the jump his competition in the Sally was overmatched. Soto slashed .373/.486/.814 with 5 homers and 24 RBI in 15 games, and was quickly promoted to high-A Potomac of the Carolina League. So far through 5 contests he’s hitting .318/.400/.591 with a double, triple, and homer. Here’s a look at the homer he hit on Wednesday versus Wilmington. The swing is a thing of beauty, with a super quick and simple motion, strong wrists, and fast hands. It’s all evident in the video below.


Soto is already looking like he belongs in high-A, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he spent a good chunk of the summer in AA Harrisburg. He’s moving toward a near certain Top 10 rank come mid-season, and a potential Top 5 come pre-season 2019. However, we won’t see Soto at the major league level until later on in 2019. To encapsulate, Soto is a year away, but an elite talent, one that needs to be owned in every dynasty league. He pairs the ability to hit for both power, and average, and shows advanced understanding of hitting. Working counts, making adjustments with two strikes, and avoiding strikeouts. He has a real shot to be the best rightfielder in the game in his prime years.

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Last year some fellow co-workers and I decided it would be fun to join a flag football league. Seemed like a solid idea. Do some ‘team building’, get some running in, and enjoy a little competition. Well, by the end of the season we had gone through 4 QBs, one broken thumb, multiple pulled hammies and quads, and a grand total of 2 wins to show for all of our pain, so, safe to say, we made the right choice to be auditors and not professional athletes.

With the NFL draft ongoing, I thought it would be interesting to see what the best backyard football squad we could put together of current MLB players would look like. As this is a backyard/adult sport league type of team build, we’ll forego the offensive and defensive line. By NFL standards, there aren’t many guys that could play the line anyway.  David Ortiz, Big Papi, is by all accounts a mountain of a man for a baseball player at 6’4” and listed at 250 lbs. (I’m not sure I buy the weight, but that’s neither here nor there) would still be an inch short and 60 pounds light of the average offensive tackle in the NFL…

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Welcome to Week 5 as we scurry along and try to figure out which low-to-mid tier pitchers are actually good and which ones are all smoke and mirrors. You’d think we would have come up with an updated phrase for “smoke and mirrors”. Nobody has really used smoke and mirrors since, like, 1920. I have no idea if that’s accurate. In any case, there is plenty of two-start action to go around this week. Here they are, tiered for your pleasure. Let’s have a gander at some of the more interesting options as we go through those tiers as well, shall we?

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The Reds put on a hit parade Friday night scoring 15 runs on 20 hits lead by Jose Peraza who went 4-for-6 with two home runs, and two runs batted in. It was only a matter of time before this offense woke up. And by this offense, of course I mean Joey Votto who was 3-for-3, with his fourth homer. Eduardo Suarez was also 4-for-6 with two runs and an RBI, Scooter Gennett had three hits, and Scott Schebler and Adam Duvall added two hits a piece. Votto has now homered in in his fourth straight game, and I bet you’re thinking to yourself, “Self, I thought this lede was about Peraza, not the Reds bats and Votto.” Silence, knave! It all starts with Votto, whom Peraza hits in front of, and I can’t very well tell you to buy Votto now, unless his owner’s been in a coma for the past four days and is ready to trade immediately after waking up. That seems unlikely. But with Jose’s ownership at just 20%, it seems more likely he’s still available in your league. He’s hit safely in five straight games hitting .387 with the two dingers, nine runs and a steal in the past week and has quietly raised his average to .286. After hitting .259 last year with 23 steals he was a popular sleeper pick because of his speed. However, the .719 OPS is a whole lot of meh and I’d like to see him stealing a lot more bases before I fully endorse him as a buy, but I’m watching him closer than the darkest moments of Avengers Infinity War. You don’t need Tony Stark’s super intelligence or the Vision’s, uh, err, vision to see that Jose Peraza could be worth a look.

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

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If you happened to listen to Ignacio during Walker Buehler’s first start you may have rostered him in some DFS contests and done alright for yourself.  I paired him with Tanaka that night and along with a Coors stack (and Stanton’s 4-4 night) it paid off handsomely.  That was with FantasyDraft pricing Buehler down at $11,100 with nothing but minor league numbers to go on. He’s priced up a bit more ($14,900) today based on one game, but it still should be enough to get you some nice bats for the early slate.  Walker lucked out facing the Marlins in his first start, who rank dead last in team OPS, but the Giants aren’t much better, ranked 25th of 30 teams. The Giants also strikeout just about the same amount as the Marlins, so San Fran isn’t exactly a pitcher’s worst nightmare.  Buehler’s strikeout upside is likely a little limited as is his pitch count, but nonetheless, it should be a good enough start, combined with high priced bats to get you cashing those GPP lineups.

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!

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He’s up… and we are sad prospectors. I’m of course talking about the promotion of the Pirates Nick Kingham! Joking, joking, you know I’m talking the chosen one Ronald Acuña Jr.. Lance and I chat a little about the news makers in MiLB over the last week, as well as my weekend looks at the aforementioned Acuña and the rehabbing Luiz Gohara. After getting all that out of the way, we do a brief overview of the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers systems. We talk everyone from Leody Taveras to Willy Adames to Jake Bauers and Hans Crouse. It’s an action packed show spanning two systems and over 15 other minor league players. Lots of jelly in these donuts, Frank! 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:

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[brid video=”220956″ player=”10951″ title=”Giancarlo Stanton”]

“Three little kids run into frame — let’s aim for an Asian, white and black kid — then they scream, ‘Hey, it’s Mac Williamson our favorite pimp!’ Then Mac enters in a fedora and fur coat and hands out lollipops that say ‘All day suckers’ and inside the lollipop wrappers are condoms.  Can you dig it?”  That’s Melvin Van Peebles on the set of the now-classic blaxploitation film, Hopefully Pence Is Shafted.  So, first things first, will Mac Williamson lose playing time to Pence, when he returns?  Have no idea what Bruce Bochy and his size 9 hat is going to do with The Gangly Manbird.  “Can The Gangly Manbird do it with a donkey?  Can you dig it?”  That’s Melvin again.  My guess is Pence will play, but Pence hasn’t really played for two years now, and Mac Williamson, the blaxploitation film star, is playing now and that’s all that matters.  Well, also his power.  It’s insane.  He has 9 homers in 16 games this year between Triple-A and the majors.  He could hit 30+ homers without even breaking a sweat.  Except when bedding two ladies, while putting another two to work.  Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

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The Miami Jeters are currently cruising on a sub-60 win pace.  Nice if you look at the investment value in terms of dollars and the amount of talent on the field.  Now the once or semi-reliable closer, Brad Ziegler, has puked up another save chance and seen his ERA climb a blood alcohol level of 8.44.  That is a Cherynoblian level that usually results in a quick change, minus Bill Murray dressed as a clown. In the wings are two decent enough options that in most leagues should be owned for their K prowess.  They being Drew Steckenrider and Kyle Barraclough.  A change is coming, as the soft-tossing Ziegler can’t rely on sorcery and garbage to will him through save chances, no matter how few and far between they are.  The Marlins, from a standpoint of we are only winning X amount of games, and can’t afford to lose Y because of a closer who can’t shut the door is just bad for business. I am grabbing Steckenrider before Barraclough just based on games and position of appearances of date.  It is really tough to say though because they have 7 wins, and neither guy has featured more than 4 appearances when the team has been leading.  But Steck has seen more 8th innings, and I like him better because he has a closer makeup. So add accordingly if save speculating is your bag, but with success in closing comes success in the setup game.  And don’t ignore Barraclough either, because he will be in elevated positions as well and since this is the Holds portion of the week, go get him if free.

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I must admit, I’m a real sucker for stolen bases. This is especially true in H2H each category leagues, where I have seen countless matchups come down to who wins stolen bases. I’m not the “draft Billy Hamilton way too early then become disappointed when he can’t hit the baseball AGAIN” type of sucker though. I’m more of a “piecing together a lot of guys that will chip in 10-15 stolen bases but will also help considerably in other areas” type of sucker. With stolen base numbers on the decline, they are harder to find. Which in turn means that stolen bases are becoming more valuable. This is no secret, but with power and home runs being more accessible than before, stolen bases are being really undervalued.

One of the problems with trying to add stolen bases is that most guys that steal bases are either already owned, don’t play every day, or don’t help you/significantly hurt you elsewhere. Or maybe a wonderful combination! This week, I’ve got a guy for you that hopefully does not meet the above criteria: Michael A. Taylor (26.6% owned in ESPN, 38% owned in Yahoo), outfielder for the Washington Nationals.

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FanDuel Friday, are we ready to party? And by party I mean drink exactly one beer and watch round two of the NFL Draft. Any takers? No? Fine, I guess I’ll do it myself, just like I did this DFS research. Let’s get into it.

New to FanDuel? 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?

On a chalkboard someone has written, “K/9 Revolutionaries — Donuts in back, the kind of donuts you can eat.”  In a semi-circle, Patrick Corbin, Gerrit Cole, and Garrett Richards discuss a knuckle curve.  “If you dig your index finger in like you’re Richard Gere trying to get a gerbil out–”  When Kyle Gibson walks in, startling them.  “What’s up, guys?”  The other pitchers frantically hide their K/9 Revolution propaganda; Richards tries to wipe down the chalkboard but the eraser is just streaking the writing, then Michael Pineda appears, wipes pine tar over the chalkboard writing and leaves from where he came.  So, they don’t want Kyle Gibson part of the K/9 Revolution, but he looks like he might be down for the cause.  Yesterday, he went 6 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 3 walks, 10 Ks, lowering his ERA to 3.33.  His 10 K/9 would be an easy career high. This follows a trend we saw with Gibson last year in the 2nd half of the year.  He’s not doing it with gas either.  He’s dropping well-meaning, nonchalant off-speed pitches.  He scaled back his slider usage, but it’s working much better in a lesser-seen capacity, and his curve he’s using more — outside the zone.   This has upped his walks, but the number of swings he’s generated outside the zone has leaped like 12 lords.  His pitches may lack command, but the K/9 Revolutionaries should put him in charge of at least the northern border to guard against Ontario, eh.  And if you think the K/9 Revolutionaries are not real, this year 35% of plate appearances have ended without the ball in play, and, for the first time in the history of baseball, we’ve played nearly a month with more strikeouts than hits (h/t Joe Sheehan).  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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