Lance

Changing For The Better? Berrios And Castillo

April 9, 2018 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 34 Comments

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First off, go read Ralph’s post on Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. I always assumed – and I could be wrong – that many think us Razzball-ers are confined to our computers, changing our eyeglass prescription on a monthly basis as we go bleary-eyed from starting at our MLB.tv streams and Baseball Savant tabs. That is hogwash. Once a week, I make sure to step outside for an increment of 15-20 minutes. On Saturday, I took a leap of faith and decided to extend that window to a whole three hours as I absorbed a Hartford Yard Goats (this is their terrifyingly fantastic mascot) game with the almighty @ProspectJesus and fellow Razzball-ite @PaulTheMartin. It was a grand time, with extended looks at multiple top-20 prospects.

Alas, that is not what this post is about. I just couldn’t think of an intro and I wanted to brag about my weekend.

More bragging: we’ve been slaughtering it here on Razzball of late. Grey has made some fantastic sleeper calls including Patrick Corbin and others. My last pitcher-based column included Dylan Bundy, Jose Berrios, and Joey Lucchesi, three pitchers who spun fantastic outings in the past week and likely weeks to come.

Watching copious amount of baseball over the last 10 days, I noticed a slew of pitchers who were either up or down in velocity on certain pitches or entire repertoires. Analysis tends to hover around this data point for the first month of the season simply because it doesn’t take a lot for pitch velocity to stabilize, especially compared to other statistics we love to look at.

A lot of these risers and fallers, you likely already know about (think Kenley Jansen). So instead, I chose two pitchers with changes in velocity that can be linked to another aspect of their performance; maybe a little bit under the radar…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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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
Ignacio

Draft: Arms Race

April 9, 2018 | DFS, Draft |

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Tonight on the slate we have some big time arms taking the bump, especially the top three options of the night (Noah Syndergaard, Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber.) Given my choice of first pick on Draft.com I would rank them accordingly..

  • Noah Syndergaard
  • Max Scherzer
  • Corey Kluber

Syndergaard gets the top nod solely based on his match-up with the light hitting Miami Marlins. The Marlins rank in the Bottom 5 in almost every single batting category and have hit two… I repeat TWO homeruns on the season. If playing in a 3 person slate on Draft, I would load up on the top bats early knowing you have a great option waiting for you. The top bat of the night for me is Nolan Arenado in a fantastic match-up vs LHP Clayton Richard. Arenado crushes lefties and has a great history versus tonight’s starter ( 11-17 1.773 OPS).  Let’s take a look at the rest of the picks..

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

Great Sunday For Pitchers With OTANI In Last Name

April 9, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 607 Comments

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I’m convinced you’d be better off if you ignored everything from Spring Training.  For every one thing you gleam from the spring that pays off, there’s five terrible habits you pick up like you’re a priest in The Keepers on Netflix.  Okay, maybe you would have seen Joey Gallo wasn’t striking out as much (barely has carried over), but you also would’ve seen Shohei Ohtani looking terrible.  Hat tip to someone on Twitter who screenshot this:

So many things wrong with this — Has Bryce Harper ever been bad?  I mean, maybe injured, but a bust?  WUT.  Also, it’s one thing to be concerned about Shohei Ohtani, but bust?  He hadn’t pitched one inning in the major leagues by that point and was being drafted around 100th overall.  Bust?  It was a gamble, risk was baked in.  Yesterday, Shohei Ohtani bust…ed out!  (See what I did there?)  He went 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners (1 hit, 1 walk), 12 Ks.  Good luck convincing someone he’s a bust now when trading for him.

The other pitcher with “Otani” in their last name is Jameson Taillon who went 9 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 1.26.  Last year, I suggested to get his feng shui back, to find his equilibrium, because he couldn’t pitch with one testicle missing, I suggested he put a walnut in his jock strap for balance.  Well, I’m not saying he took my advice, but, yesterday, Jameson Taillon gave up one hit.  Imagine he was a eunuch?  He’d be Sandy Koufax!  Wait, was that why Koufax had a girl’s first name?  For a while last year, Taillon was treating the surviving twin like a punch bag, but he looks back to the potential ace he once was.  Go get ’em, Jameson Walnut!  Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Kerry Klug

Top 100 Hitters, Week 2: King Dididi

April 8, 2018 | Uncategorized | 40 Comments

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Week 2 of Razzball’s top 100 hitters is here! Now with actual baseball being played! This list is not going to be overly reactionary after nine days of rainy, snowy baseball. Barring injury you won’t see too many shake-ups among the top hitters. Yes, I see Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo’s batting averages and I’m not going to freak out and you probably aren’t either. Should you try to buy low on them if someone’s entire team is really under-performing: of course you should. In the same vein, if you saw in the comments last week everyone was calling for Jose Martinez to be on the list, but he has just as many multi-hit games as 0-fer games. If he can even that out a little bit he’ll find himself climbing this list faster than the yodeler in a game of Cliffhangers on Price is Right after some fool says that a bag of rice-a-roni costs 10 bucks. Get a grip Suzanne! Shohei Ohtani on the other hand — after the sloppiest of sloppy springs he is now starting to live up to the Japanese Babe Ruth moniker with HRs in three straight games. He’s not in the top 100 proper just yet — but should he keep this up he’ll be rising up. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Paul "The" Martian

FAAB Five: Don Juan Yon Chirinos

April 8, 2018 | Uncategorized | 8 Comments

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It really doesn’t matter if Yonny Chirinos (24, SP/RP, Tampa Bay Rays: 10% FAAB) is a starter or reliever, as long as he is on the mound in the MLB, he should be on fantasy teams. It only took him 54 pitches to get through 5 scoreless innings of the Red Sox lineup. The sinker has some great movement and he also carries two other pitches above 18+% SwStr% to start the season. He has been a staple on the Fringe Five, written by Carson Cistulli, and the KATOH prospect lists on Fangraphs. This means the numbers have been good, but watching him pitch in the bigs is confirmation. Since reaching A-ball in 2015, he has not posted a BB% above 4.2% and that elite command has been paired with a 50% GB% more often than not. This makes him extremely talented at limiting baserunners, which showed in Fenway. He could become available in more leagues if people are impatient with a hybrid-bullpen role. Yonny will provide serious ratio help and strikeout upside with a nasty slider/splitter combo to play off that bendy sinker. After taking down Boston twice he may cost a bit more, but anything around 10% of your FAAB is acceptable. I can see a 2017 Brad Peacock stat-line at the end of this season for Yonny Chirinos.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
MattTruss

Draft: Oh My Tani

April 8, 2018 | DFS, Draft | 9 Comments

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Who doesn’t want to draft every Sunday of the fantasy baseball season?  Well then, pop on over to DRAFT.com and join a 3, 4, 6 or even 10 player draft.  I’ve been playing around over there a bit this first week plus and depending on which size draft your choose will determine how you attack the draft.  I’ve been using the principles of Value Based Drafting or VBD to draft my teams. This means taking 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.  This is especially easy to pull off if you have subscribed to Rudy’s Tools.  If not, you can use the same principles with your own rankings.  All that being said, there are three top pitchers on the slate today with Shohei Ohtani, Kershaw and Morton.  Ohtani is my top target, because, why not at this point?  Ohtani has done nothing but live up to the hype so far with his fastball checking in at the highest velocity among all starting pitchers so far this year.  That said, if I were playing a 3 man draft, I’d pass on pitcher until my final pick. In the 4, 6 and especially 10 player drafts though, I’d boost these three up a bit to make sure I nabbed one and would be inclined to reach a tad for Ohtani.  Let’s look at a few more early, middle and late round picks for your Draft…drafts!

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?
Geoff

Minor League Update: A Night With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And Bo Bichette

April 8, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 36 Comments

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On a cold early April night in Connecticut, I got my first looks at both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in the flesh. In a matchup not short on prospects, I met fellow Razzball writers Paul (the) Martin, and Lance Brozdowski, as well as friend Scott Greene, founder of Prospects 1500. The four of us frequently paused baseball and fantasy discussion to get as many clips of Vlad, Bo, Brendan Rodgers, Sam Hilliard, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Garrett Hampson on our phones as we could. In the early going, I was impressed by the Yard Goats starter Jesus Tinoco, who was popping 95 with a wicked breaking ball. Second time through the order was not so kind however. We didn’t get a ton of offense from the trio of top prospects, but we did get a two run double from Bichette down the leftfield line, and a chopper just inside the third base bag that went for extra bases from Guerrero. Hartford’s Brendan Rodgers went 0-for-4, and Gurriel went 0-for-3 with two walks. One off the radar standout from last night was Yonathan Daza, who hit .341 last season at Lancaster, to go along with 31 steals on 39 attempts. He hit two hard ground balls up the middle, driving in Hartford’s lone run. All in all a good night, here’s some video from the game, as well as some other noisemakers in the early going of the MiLB season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Dan Pants

Moran More Hits for the Bucs

April 7, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 40 Comments

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Over the passed six months I have been imprisoned, suspended in static animation in the maximum security Galactic Fantasy Federation facility, falsely accused of recommending buys I would never endorse and urging people to sell players that I actually hold very dear. A couple lucky shots from a make-shift ion blaster I was able to telepathically build in space incarceration using spare pieces from my Mark VII Quantum E-Meter and I have escaped at last. I am writing this through a secure, untraceable VPN so I can provide you loyal readers with the fantasy information you’ve come to expect from me, even if its information so sensitive and secret that the Galactic Fantasy Federation would do anything to stop me from sharing it. I have time for a quick Friday recap before the space dogs come sniffing around my hiding hole again. And I do mean quick–just eight games on a Friday!? Y tho? Regardless, one of the few games played featured the Pirates of Pittsburgh’s plundering of the poor Cincinnati Red Legs. Unlike Sea of Thieves, this Pirates game actually featured a lot of action. The Bucs scored 14 runs on 15 hits, lead by 25-year-old third baseman Colin Moran who collected four hits, scoring three runs and driving in three. I wrote about Moran last July but that may have been a bit premature. So many super prospects in Houston, it’s hard to stand out. In Pittsburgh, almost every prospect they’ve had over the past five years has been disappointing so the bar is much lower for Colin to excel. The youngster is slashing .318/.348/.545 through five games started with a homer and 8 RBI, but it’s that sexy .893 OPS that makes me raise my eyebrow, Dwayne Johnson! It’s still early, but Colin should have plenty of opportunity to show what he’s got in the surprisingly exciting Bucs line up. Buy Moran, don’t be moronic! I think he’s worth a flier in all leagues, but don’t tell the Galactic Federation I told you that! Moran is Colin you to pick him up!

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

Please, blog, may I have some more?
VictoriaB

FantasyDraft: Cole Mining Won’t Get You Shafted

April 7, 2018 | DFS, FantasyDraft | 1 Comment

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I’ve held a myriad of weird jobs over the years, none of which I’ve been qualified for: Closed captioner for every episode of The Monkees shown here in Canada (seriously)? Check. Audio engineer in a TV mobile truck for hockey games? Check. Report writer at a geology firm? Check. Writer at Razzball? Check. I have always kind of winged it (wung it?) through life. And that’s the theme for this post: winging it. As I write this on Friday night, the Dodgers-Giants game has just been postponed and God knows who’s going to be playing where tomorrow. Also, I’ll be on a plane (winging it!) so I won’t be able to check for you. So forgive me in advance if everything I say below is irrelevant by the time the first Saturday game starts (and as always, check your lineups, kids). But going with the information we have at present, I’m going to suggest you throw Gerrit Cole into your FantasyDraft team for Saturday. Ya, he has frustrated us all in the past, but he is taking the mound versus the third-worst-in-MLB San Diego Padres. (Aside: You know, someday I’d just like to give the Padres a comforting group hug.) He had an outstanding start last time versus the Rangers, going 7 innings of 2-hit ball, and I think he’s worth the $24,000 today (and yes, that does make him the priciest pitcher on the main slate) — he’s probably going to get you a win. But if you don’t dig him (BECAUSE COAL, GEDDIT… OK, I’ll stope), I’ve excavated some more options for you after the jump.

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

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Geoff

Prospect Podcast: Pittsburgh Pirates Top Prospects And MiLB Opening Day

April 7, 2018 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 2 Comments

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Minor league ball is back, and it’s “Pants Tent” season at Casa Del Broshitz. We begin this episode with a quick look at the teams to follow early in the minor league season. Which top prospects are playing where, what teams are the most talent rich, we cover it all in the early going. We even get into some good Jay Groome and Ryan Mountcastle talk. Never one to be curt, we devote the second half of the show to the Pittsburgh Pirates top prospects. We delve into Mitch Keller, Austin Meadows, Colin Moran, and more. 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:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Hulk A Manaea Buying Wild

April 6, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 464 Comments

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For thousands of millennia, which is millions of years, Samoans were a persecuted people, due to their big bones.  One Samoan, Fa’a’la’a’la’la’la told one reporter, “If you ordered a flank steak, and got a thick ribeye, you’d be so pleased,” then Fa’a’la’a’la’la’la got choked up, “But if you order a five-foot, six-inch man and get a 485-pound man wearing a grass skirt, you make fun.”  However, through all this ridicule, the Samoans always had their main industry on the island.  An industry that sustained their people.  An industry that brought everyone together.  However, this industry has taken a hit this last year.  This industry is manufacturing tiki torches.  Fa’a’la’a’la’la’la said, “Now tiki torches make us racist?!  We’re big-boned Islanders, we can’t be racist!”  Now, the Samoan people may have had their torches snuffed, but have a new bright spot:  Sean Manaea.  He’s not big-boned and he has no apostrophes in his last name, but I can assure you he is Samoan.  He’s also a straight dazzlenozzle so far this year.  His command is at a minuscule 0.6 K/9, and his xFIP is 3.40.  His velocity is a little off, and his Ks haven’t been outstanding, but in the early going, with pitching as it’s been, I’d buy Manaea everywhere.  If not for him, do it for Fa’a’la’a’la’la’la.  Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?