FantasyDraft: Taillon Takes His Ball To Miami

April 14, 2018 | DFS, FantasyDraft | 2 Comments

His baseball people! Geez, look where your mind goes, straight to the gutter! Speaking of gutters, the Miami Marlins are the baseball equivalent of that black gunk you find trapped in your gutter at the end of the fall when the rain and decomposing leaves have been hanging out there for weeks on end. In other words, they stink. Meanwhile, Jameson Taillon ($23,300) has been out of this world in two starts with a 1.26 ERA and 0.488 WHIP. Miami has a league worst OPS vs. RHP of 0.562 and can’t get out of their own way offensively. For the evening slate, Taillon is my top choice. In short, don’t be a nut, play Taillon.

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Prospect Podcast: Top San Diego Padres Prospects, And Scouting Vlad Jr. & Bo

by: Geoff

What a week here on the Prospect Podcast! Not only are we finishing up our pre-season preview with some of the top prospects and systems in the game, the MiLB games kicked off last Thursday, so we’ve had a week worth of looks. Including… live looks at the dynamic duo of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. Lance and I begin the podcast with a detailed discussion of what we saw from Vladdy, Bo, Brendan Rodgers, and others, before diving into some news-makers from the first week of Minor League games. This all culminates in a spirited discussion of the unbelievably talented, and deep, San Diego Padres system. When I say deep, I mean it, this should’ve, could’ve, gone three hours. We start off with Fernando Tatis Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Michel Baez, and Luis Urias, before talking some Joey Lucchesi, Jeisson Rosario, Tirso Ornelas, Cal Quantrill, Franchy Cordero, and so many more. It’s an action packed hour and half of info. 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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Buy-Senzelnial

April 13, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 496 Comments

by: Grey

The other day Cougs told me her eye drops went from $20 a bottle to $240. Naturally, I didn’t even know she used eye drops, because I don’t pay attention to much aside from who’s the backup catcher on the Nationals. So, I said to her, “$240?! Wait, you’ve been spending $20 on eye drops up until now?! Why?” She replied, “I have dry eyes, you know this.” “Dry eyes? Get some Visine!” “Visine doesn’t work.” Thinking on my feet, I responded, “Fill a bucket with water and I’ll dunk your head.” She didn’t go for that, so I continued, “Buy a $12 Super Soaker and I’ll spray your eyes whenever your eyes are feeling dry!” She started to leave the room. “Is this a hot flash thing? Don’t buy $240 eye drops! Please!” And that was how that conversation ended. Segue Alert! Nick Senzel could be a bucket of water instead of $240 eye drops. There were a lot of expensive eye drop, middle infielders at the draft, but if you grab Nick Senzel, he could be the same and free off of waivers. In Prospector Ralph’s top 100 prospects for fantasy baseball, he compared Senzel to Alex Bregman. Seems like a great comp to me. Senzel should be a 20+ HRs, 15+ SBs, .270 hitter immediately. The only thing stopping Senzel is ‘When will he be called up?’ Word on the street he could be up this weekend. If that’s the case, you’re gonna wanna own him in every league. Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

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Closer Report: Worth The Price Of Gas

April 13, 2018 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 25 Comments

by: Smokey

Speed kills. Whether that be by the arm or legs. But this isn’t no SAGNOF post, this is the weekly look at strictly bullpens. At what point do we stop looking at velocity and its effectiveness being a correlative? Probably never, as the statcast era has never looked stronger as geeks type in the square roots of derivatives to figure out the best angle of deflection for them to walk down the stairs in their parents basement. It’s a tale as old as time, and people like me mock math and numbers because, well… I am lazy. Numbers always existed, but now they are so finite that you can get a feet per second drop of a the pin that no one can hear. So maybe I should delve into the fray here and take a look at the early season velocity for closers and how they compare to last year and how they correlate to K success. Velocity isn’t the end all be all of reliever success, but is fully in the forefront when studs like Craig Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen are teetering on slow-pokes compared days of yore. So I made a hand dandy chart, comparing last years average fastball velocity, K/9 and Swinging strike % to this years to see where the relationship between success, worry and full on panic in the closer realms exist.

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Getting Ahead In H2H Week 3: Pitch, Please!

April 13, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head Leagues | 12 Comments

by: Yost

We are at the latter-half point of our Week 2 matchups, so hopefully you have secured a win in your first matchup and are working on another. Or maybe your team started out rough and you dropped the first one, and are looking for redemption Week 2. Or maybe, just maybe, you lost the first matchup and you are realizing there is no way you will come back to win this one either. Whatever the case may be, don’t panic (or celebrate) yet! Especially in H2H leagues that each category counts as a win/loss, a week is never over until it is actually over. The season is a grind, and those that pay the closest attention and don’t give up will usually be victorious at the end.

Last week I went over some hitters to look at that may help fill the void for an injured or under performing player that you no longer want. Starting pitchers are an especially tough breed, whether due to their increased susceptibility to injury or extreme variance in performance. You never want to give up on a pitcher after just a couple starts, but sometimes it is incredibly hard not to with seemingly better options available. Often times you are better off swapping a later round choice you thought would break out for a pitcher that has been seeing a much more favorable start. Especially if you like streaming pitchers to maximize K’s and win opportunities, the waiver wire churns out some solid options to roll with. Here are some starting pitchers to keep an eye on if you are in need of some help…

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FanDuel: Picks for April 13th, 2018

April 13, 2018 | DFS, Fanduel | 1 Comment

by: HouseofShlain

This is an interesting slate, which I hope you’ll all enjoy. There’s a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous. A lot of pitchers. I think I wrote up nine different pitchers. Surely, even if you play multiple lineups, you aren’t going to use nine different pitchers on FanDuel. So I gave you a lot of food for thought. I’m just sorry it’s soup, I know I should keep more of your favorites around. On the offensive side of the ball, it’s the usual suspects at the top for building blocks in both cash games and tournaments and cheaper options with the platoon advantage.

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!

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Maybe MLB Accused The Wrong Polanco

April 13, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 408 Comments

by: Grey

This preseason Gregory Polanco was a Capri Sun. Yes, the pouch drink that you need to stab 17 times to get the straw in. Crazy, right? What’s crazier is I have an explanation! Ready? Here we go, readers! There is something just completely gross about liquids in a pouch. Put some delicious nacho cheese in a ziplock bag. You do not want to eat that anymore. Seriously, cut the corner and squeeze it into your mouth. So nasty! An IV bag? Yeah, that’s appetizing. Why not grab a colostomy bag and cut out the middle man? Bagged liquids are gross. However — again with some stank! — HOWEVER, Capri Sun is surprisingly good. Okay, u-turn to Polanco. This preseason the Pirates looked like a mess. No one really wanted any of them. Marte had a suspension last year, but even he was kind of, “Well, he’s ranked here, so I guess I’ll take him.” Polanco, though? You didn’t even want him around pick 150 overall! It was a “Hmm…Take a boring MI or Polanco” pick. And a lot of you took Ian Kinsler instead! Yesterday, Gregory Polanco went 2-for-5 with two more homers, and is now up to 5 homers, and, as Anime Grey said in the first Buy, Sell, Hold video, Polanco is still a buy. Polanco is orange-flavored water in a silver pouch, the ultimate Capri Sun. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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One Man’s Trash: More Bour Than Bull

April 12, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 20 Comments

by: Son

Two days ago, Justin Bour hit 2 home runs against the New York Mets. Prior to that game, though, Bour had 6 hits in 37 at-bats with 1 run scored and 1 RBI. As a result, my inbox was inundated with questions regarding Bour and the ownership percentage in ESPN leagues went down 13.4% to 59.1%. My inbox wasn’t inundated with questions regarding Bour. That honor goes to the Nigerian prince that continues to profess his willingness to help out society by giving everyone money. The decrease in ownership, though, was indeed real. Is it warranted? The plate discipline numbers seem fine. Bour is swinging a little less than normal, but the contact rates are in line. The batted ball profile is where things are out of whack. More ground balls, fewer line drives, more infield pop ups, less hard contact, tons of soft contact, and more hits to the opposite field. No surprise then that the BABIP is .200 and batting average is .190. The strikeout rate of 22.2% is close to the career average, but the walk rate of 6.7% is well below the 10% career average.

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Rolling In The Deep, Week 2.5: So Many Injuries, Amir 14 Days Into The Season

April 12, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Deep Leagues | 10 Comments

by: Laura Holt

There’s nothing more frustrating in fantasy baseball than injuries to your studs, and nowhere is that magnified to the extent that it is in the deep-league world. Sure, it may not be fun or exciting having to replace Christian Yelich with Nick Markakis for a couple weeks in a standard league, but just think about how us deep-leaguers feel. I’ve got a few NL-only leagues where I need to replace some combination of Yelich, Wil Myers, and Eugenio Suarez… where the top “hitters” on the waiver wire are Greg Garcia and Mike Tauchman. I know that situations like this are why many people don’t understand the appeal of deep leagues in the first place, and I get it: I have at least one league where, due mostly to injuries (and perhaps one or two bad decisions ;), I am pretty much dead in the water for the season in the second week of April. But I shall press on, despite the fact that the free agent pool in most leagues is about as drained and ugly as it will be all year. All of the early surprise performers have been scooped up, and there hasn’t been time yet for new faces of deep-league hope to emerge. The following list isn’t pretty or snazzy, but it’s what we’ve got: a handful of names to consider for the injury-riddled — or otherwise desperate — in AL-only, NL-only, and other deep leagues.

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Points Leagues: Sho Me The Money. And By Money I Mean Points

April 12, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 27 Comments

by: malamoney

I really can’t believe that I let a mediocre Spring Training keep me from drafting Shohei Ohtani with a reasonable pick. I remember last year when the rumors were becoming clearer and it was looking very much like he’d be coming to the Majors in 2018. My first thought was that whoever had the first pick in my league was going to take him. Our league has ten teams and six keepers so the first pick is actually the 61st pick. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d be the first pick. Having won the league I would be stuck with the last pick. No chance I’d get a crack at Shohei. Ohtani wasn’t drafted until the sixth pick of the sixth round. That’s 126th overall. I made SIX picks and didn’t think once about grabbing him. You might want to think twice about taking advice from me.

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FanDuel: The Mossi Slate

April 12, 2018 | DFS, Fanduel | 2 Comments

by: cinthree

I’ll be honest – this is a rather unattractive slate. Hitting wise, it’s not so much an ugly slate – it’s not that everyone is in particularly bad matchups – rather – everyone is in awkward spots, where the FanDuel prices don’t quite mesh with the matchups. That would be fine if the pitching included some tasty targets that you would want to build your lineup around. But here, the pitching is yesterday’s brawls ugly. Not only are there no aces, there’s also no #2 pitchers, nevermind the 1-As. But typically a non-ace slate ends up offering plenty of intrigue because there will be mid-range pitchers like Dylan Bundy, who offers you the potential to strike out 12 guys in any given start, or Marcus Stroman, who can be counted on to deliver a safe performance of a bunch of innings without getting shelled, or Julio Teheran, where his lefty/righty splits offer you the chance to roster him if he’s facing a lineup of all righties because of the insane difference in his K rate and BB rate against righties as opposed to lefties. When you’ve got guys like that on the slate, it creates interesting decisions as you try to find the pitcher who is in the best spot that plays to their strengths and negates the weakness. There’s pretty much none of that here. It’s ugly out there today. That said, I consider myself the Joe DiMaggio of DFS blogging – I’m the true professional who always gives his best no matter the situation, because maybe there’s a kid out there reading this blog for the first time. Although kids can’t play DFS. But for those of you who can play, know that you’re going to be making a lot of uncomfortable decisions today. Nothing will be comfortable. Focus on making the optimal choices, even when that’s choosing the least unappealing option amongst the choices out there.

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?

The Padres Replaced A Frenchy-Sounding Outfielder With A Franchy One

April 12, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 654 Comments

by: Grey

Franchy Cordero went 1-for-4 with his first homer as he was called up and hit leadoff. Franchy! Franchy! Franchy! Holy almond tart, no Franchy pan for me! I won’t pan Franchy’s tools, I won’t suffer any fools, I want Franchy, man, pardon my drools. Franchy is the kind of player you watch and you’re like, “Can I own him in every league on the basis of his sprint speed?” By the way, Franchy has crazy sprint speed yet wasn’t able to make it out there for the brawl — hand on chin emoji. Franchy seems like the kind of guy that will be better in fantasy than in real life. Think about the outfield version of Tim Anderson. I grabbed him in a few leagues to see what happens. Remember, Franchy Cordero marries the best of French and Ranch dressing which is, um, I dunno, do I look like a senior citizen or a sorority girl? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?