Yost

Getting Ahead in H2H, Week 4: Philling Up Your Offense

April 19, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head Leagues | 12 Comments

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We’re another week into the season, so chances are another injury has come up that you need to deal with. Or maybe enough is enough and you are finally moving on from one of your struggling hitters. Perhaps you checked the standings and are scanning the waiver wire in search of adding more home runs or stolen bases. Whatever the reason may be, I’m here again to help you get ahead in your H2H leagues and Phill up your offense. Because as they always say, the best pitching is a great offense!

I am aware that there are varying league and roster sizes and that some of the guys I recommend may not be available anymore. I go by ownership percentage, but I realize the Razzball community is smarter and more well informed than your typical fantasy baseballer. So I tried to include some lower owned players, but if you would like to see more deep league options in the future just let me know below. Most of the following are owned in ~50% of leagues so at least a few of these guys should be available to you.

I have broken down these suggestions into: One guy that should be owned already in your league, four guys that could be owned, and one guy that will be owned shortly…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Fri 8/8
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
Kerry Klug

Ambulance Chasers, Week 4: Sisterhood of the Travelling Kendrick

April 19, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Injury Report |

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Oblique? More like nooooooblique! Seems like it is a mild one so he has that going for Jonathan Schoop, 2B, (strained oblique). Which is goodblique. Orioles are hoping for a minimum stay, but I think it’ll be similar to Christian Yelich where they hold him out for 15-20 days instead of just the minimum 10. Stash or Trash: Stash. Fill In: Howie Kendrick (14.5%.) Nobody wants to play Howie Kendrick — we all just somehow end up with him on our team at some point throughout the year when our players get hurt. (Which always coincides with that two game a month hot streak Kendrick always has.) The conversation we usually have with ourselves when it comes time to add Kendrick typically ends with “I guess I’ll grab Howie Kendrick to replace ____” Here’s the same old song and dance you hear about Kendrick every year: he’s hit safely in every game he’s played this season except one. He’ll accidentally hit 1-2 HRs right before you pick him up, but then won’t hit 1-2 more until right after you drop him two weeks later. Howie-ver, he won’t hurt your AVG/OBP and could provide a HR and a nice handful of runs in the Nats lineup until Schoop comes back. Then you can pass him back to the waivers until someone else needs him.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
cinthree

FanDuel: Bravely Facing The Dark Knight

April 19, 2018 | DFS, Fanduel |

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I couldn’t think of a topic relevant to today’s slate to cover in the introduction, so instead I’ll just quickly mention one factor that sometimes will be overlooked when deciding pitchers on FanDuel due to FanDuel’s insistence on having the Quality Start be worth 4 points (though it’s better than the odious win, which shouldn’t be a thing). In the National League, because they are ridiculous and still think it’s a good idea to waste people’s time by having the pitcher bat, a road team pitcher who is pinch hit for in the 6th inning will, by definition, not be eligible for a QS. The home team pitcher who gets pinch hit for in the 6th will have pitched 6 innings. So while it’s obviously a very small factor, it still can sometimes be a tiebreaker – road National League pitchers have a marginal FanDuel disadvantage because they are a little less likely to qualify for a QS.

On to the picks…

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?
Grey

Teoscar’s Ceremony So Long I Started to Yoan

April 19, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 683 Comments

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…And presenting our next award is Chance the Rapper and Grey the Napper.  *I lean into the mic*  “Thank you, it’s wonderful to be here.  Did you know the inventor of Ping Pong originally named it Fing Fong?  Yup, but he had terrible penmanship.”  *no one laughs*  “Oh, hey, there’s Jeff Daniels.  My dad loves you, but calls you Jack Daniels.  Then again, I’m not sure he’s talking about you.  Anyway, the nominees for our first Teoscar are… Teoscar Hernandez, from years in the minors of 17 homers, 33 steals.  Teoscar Hernandez, from the projections of 17/17 for this year.  Finally, Tesocar Hernandez, playing a fire emoji in The Emoji Movie, who yesterday went 4-for-6, 2 runs, 4 RBIs, hitting .421, with his 1st homer, while coming a double short of the cycle.  And the winner is…  *fumbles with envelope*  “Wow!  Tesocar Hernandez.”  “He was the only one nominated, and it’s called the Teoscars.”  “Shut up, Chance!  You’re ruining the ratings!  By the way, to cover the weed smell in your house, you should open a Subway sandwich shop in your living room.”  So, obviously Teoscar’s been all that and a swag bag of freebies, and I would grab him in all leagues.  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Geoff

Pitching Profile: Joey Lucchesi Tossing Horse Heads In Haters Beds

April 18, 2018 | Pitcher Profiles | 69 Comments

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Strong takes are my thing. Whether it be needling Baseball Prospectus over their Jorge Alfaro ranking, clashing with consensus over Rhys Hoskins, or why Shohei Ohtani wasn’t a bust before he ever threw his first regular season pitch. My opinions are strong, and I’m not one to back down if I truly believe something based on first hand looks and research. I mean, don’t even get me started on the “newly-promoted” Tyler O’Neill takes. It’s almost as if I’m the head of my very own agency, lobbying for my players value like Scott Boras with a briefcase of binders.  Yet another player who’s represented by my pretend “on-line defense agency” is Padres rookie phenom Joey Lucchesi. I ranked him 161st in my mid-season 2017 Top 200 prospects, and even predicted a 2018 MLB debut. I’m not alone on this site in my love for Lucchesi, my best friend since forever, Lance, wrote about him as a deep sleeper in late March. There’s also this tweet I tossed out there in December. Needless to say, without further chest thumping, I’m a fan of Lucchesi. There’s been a bit of misinformation out there regarding his repertoire, pedigree, etc. Today I hope to set some of that straight after watching his most recent turn against the San Francisco retirement home.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
malamoney

Points Leagues: Mother Tucker

April 18, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 17 Comments

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Preston Tucker is on pace for 32 home runs, 129 runs batted in and a .278 batting average. I realize that the whole “on pace” argument three weeks into the season holds about as much water as a bottle with a hole in the bottom of it, but the point is that he is off to a very good start. Unexpected? I think so. After spending all of 2017 in AAA fixing flat tires for the Astros, he was traded to the Braves in the offseason where he would hopefully have the opportunity to play in the Majors. Ok, maybe he didn’t fix any flats, but he did hit 24 home runs in 569 plate appearances. Perhaps the Astros felt they were one Tucker over the limit considering they also had Preston’s younger brother Kyle in the organization. Kyle also happens to be their top hitting prospect. When the front office gave him the news I hope he said “Tucker out” as he exited the meeting.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
MB

Perception Vs. Reality: April Showers, Rainy Baez

April 18, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 18 Comments

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Baseball season eh? Are they going to play any? Am I right? It’s not all bad, they still have to make up the games so it should lead to more full slates and double headers. Hopefully more full slates, I’m not a big fan of the double header. Who likes to see 1-8 with a run scored next to a player for the day? Life is full of disappointments elsewhere, leave baseball alone. Like we did in the first two weeks, we are going to look at the player rater and find some gold that your league mates might be under appreciating more than you under appreciate prestige television like The Americans.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
TroyKlauder

Draft: King Kenta

April 18, 2018 | DFS, Draft | 1 Comment

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In his start against the Padres, Kenta Maeda will run the game and have the whole world talking. King Kenta is the Stream-0-nator’s top starting pitching pick on Wednesday against the feeble Padres lineup in arguably the best pitcher’s park in baseball, Petco Park. The Padres have the second highest K-rate against righties this year at 27.6%, giving Maeda a very high ceiling for this start. Maeda has 14 strikeouts through 8 2/3 innings with a clean 2.08 ERA this season – no bones to pick here, Maeda is a top SP option tonight.

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Indians Have A Party At Lindor’s House

April 18, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 607 Comments

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The Indians and Twins set sail for the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico to rid themselves of the cold weather.  Puig should really be from there, because white people pronounce each similarly awful.  “Welcome to Pwwwwwayto Rico!”  This was a homecoming for Francisco Lindor (1-for-5, 2 RBIs) and he promptly hit his 2nd homer, a moonshot that went about 275 feet (but, hey, it counts).  Also, taking advantage of the short fences was Michael Brantley (3-for-5, 2 RBIs, 1st homer), Jose Ramirez (3-for-5, 4th homer) and Yonder Alonso (1-for-4, 3rd homer).  The video of Lindor going around the bases is all that dem feels that baseball does right.  How does baseball not have a team in Puerto Rico?  Talk about something that is so obvious you have to be as ignorantly run as MLB to not see it as plain as day.  Move the fences back 25 feet in Hiram Bithorn Stadium, switch out the fungo bats for mofongo and let that star shine!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
MattTruss

RCL Update, Week 2: The Week That Was

April 17, 2018 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenters League | 23 Comments

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Is it just me or is half the league on the DL right now?  Everyone seems like they have a strained this or a sore that.  Can the Razzball Commenter Leagues go to five DL spots next year?  I never thought I’d miss Rougned Odor so much. Ozzie Albies is helping to ease the pain though, thanks Ozzie.  Now, if Ronnie Baseball could go ahead and join Ozzie with the big club, that’d be swell. I know I’m not the only one itching to see Ronald Acuna called up ASAP.  His ADP was 79.58 and that was with early drafts having him go off the board around pick 100. The closer we got to Opening Day, the higher he was drafted, spiking at pick 47.  Team cdwiz26 was the big winner, able to nab Acuna at pick 117. Is it too soon to worry if you’re falling behind in stolen bases or some other category? Probably not yet, especially if you have a guy like Acuna waiting to make an impact.

It’s the silly season for our leagues at this point, where we can have huge swings in the standings based on 2-3 good days of stats.  Thanks to Rudy and the Robots (also the name of my Depeche Mode cover band) we have a starting point for the Master Standings. Big thanks to Rudy for working with FanTrax to get this rolling even earlier than we did last year with ESPN.  Who’s the number one team after the first couple weeks of the season? You’ll have to click below to see that. Let’s take a look at the standings as well as some trades in the week that was, week two in the RCLs:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Geoff

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Hanging Zucchinis, Week 3 Of 2018 Fantasy Baseball

April 17, 2018 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 31 Comments

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Every week I get up here and tell you “This episode has it all!”. But this week, I actually mean it. Where else can you get discussions of “Butt-texting”, exit velocities, launch angles, and geriatric dating, other than the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast? Not up to speed on what hanging zucchinis are? Take a seat, and let the Fantasy Master Lothario Grey Albright explain. Outside of Grey’s eccentric family, we come back with some hot takes, and deep discussion of Bartolo’s near perfect game, Ozzie Albies breakout, and every wavier wire darling from Joey Lucchesi to Franchy Cordero. 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:

Please, blog, may I have some more?