What better topic to get Grey’s blood boiling early in the week than top starting pitchers for fantasy. If you don’t know, not sure how you couldn’t, but Grey hates pitchers in the top three rounds. He’d rather live out his days as Pablo Sandoval’s bosom sweat mediation pad than draft Clayton Kershaw. So we use Grey’s Top 40 Starting Pitchers as our guide, and dive into the strategy of building a pitching staff. We go tier by tier, directing you on who to avoid, who to draft, and where to buy the best boba filled refreshments. #Bobalife. 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:
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2nd Basemen To Target, 2018 Fantasy Baseball
March 13, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 195 Commentsby: Grey
Psst! This post is gonna list 2nd basemen that you should target in your 2018 fantasy baseball drafts. I’m whispering because you don’t want everyone to see this post. No, I can’t whisper louder, then it WOULDN’T BE WHISPERING! Okay, gig’s up (or maybe that’s jig’s up), the love I’m about to reiterately (Made Up Word of the Day!) confirm is on these guys I love later in drafts. I’m not going to mention Ian Happ other than this one mention of him where I say I’m not going to mention him. I’m not mentioning Happ other than this mention of not mentioning him because these are players that you’re looking at later and all of them have ADPs after 200. Some could be the 2nd baseman on your team, they are more than likely MIs. This is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Croatia) supplement to the top 20 2nd basemen for 2018 fantasy baseball. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2018 projections. Anyway, here’s some 2nd basemen to target for 2018 fantasy baseball:
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USA Today may no longer appreciate the insights shared by Larry King in his long-running column but we at Razzball were thrilled when he accepted our invitation to share his thoughts on Fantasy Baseball….
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We all believe in Grey. That is why we are here. It is why we read every recap, every buy/sell, and why we all spend hours, and countless reams of paper, printing Grey’s rankings. We want to dominate our fantasy baseball drafts and our leagues and do everything in our power to humiliate and destroy our friends (which is what true friendship is all about).
Razzball was built on the power of Grey’s Greydar and his ability to spot fantasy baseball studs before anyone else. It works because Grey’s Greydar is a million times better than anyone else’s Greydar since he is Grey and everyone else is not. Keep in mind, however, that ranking players is not black and white. There are many shades of grey, which explains why Grey is the best Grey there is.
Nevertheless, even the best will have a few misses when ranking hundreds of players. This is why I have been tasked with questioning the Greyness of Grey’s great Greydar, specifically the players that Grey may have overrated for this upcoming season. We are calling this analysis: Over the Greydar.
In this first installment of Over the Greydar I focus on the high-end starting pitchers that I think Grey may be a little too high-end on this season:
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Scott Kingery and Phillies Devil Magic
March 12, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Rookies | 10 Commentsby: Lance
Drafting players who won’t break camp with a team inside 200 overall signals we are ready for the 2018 season. If you have confidence in the draftee, however, then is it safe to say that aggression is warranted?
Over the last three days of NFBC drafts, Scott Kingery’s draft stock has ranged between 178 and 362, with his average owner pulling the trigger in the 24th around. This represents substantial inflation from his January and February draft stock, which sat him outside of the 30th round on average.
In scenarios where spring training confirms the talent and readiness of a prospect, it’s natural, with the lack of major league statistics to form a consensus on a projection, for assets like Kingery to be appealing given the unknown. Sometimes this works out. Remember Kris Bryant and Cody Bellinger?
Please, blog, may I have some more?This weekend I went to Palm Springs to see the in-laws, and I was saying to Father Cougs that I wished I bet on the Phillies to win the World Series back in November when we were in Vegas. He replied, “With all that blog money you have?” Then I went to the bathroom and told my reflection, “One day they’re not gonna laugh at you! I promise you that Reflection Grey!” Then, while sitting in a stall, I listened on my iPhone to the theme from Rocky, Gonna Fly Now, and stabilized my ego. Trying hard now! Gettin’ strong now! Gonna fly now! Any hoo! The newest favorite son of Philadelphia, Jake Arrieta, joined an already underrated starting rotation. I’d contend (for the welterweight championship) that Arrieta isn’t even their ace, that label goes to the guy draped in Mardi Gras beads, Nola. For a while, it appeared Arrieta was headed to Philly. I hear the hold up was due to Arrieta unable to find a special type of umbrella. “Do you have an umbrella that blocks thrown batteries?” In the top 40 starters, I said, “At this stage in Arrieta’s career, I don’t see his value changing much no matter where he signs. If he goes to Miller Park, Chase or Coors, then I’ll lower him a little, but I see no way I raise him up outside of a move to Petco, which doesn’t seem likely, because the Padres are playing for 2020, then, in 2020, they’ll be playing for 2023.” And that’s me quoting me! See, so nothing really changes, and I’m not looking to draft Arrieta suddenly, but a solid real world move for the Phils. Anyway, here’s what else I saw in spring training for 2018 fantasy baseball:
Psyche! Before we get into the roundup, there’s a $10 league signup today that needs some people. When we did the polling of what youse wanted in your fantasy leagues, a large majority of you wanted paid leagues, but I’m getting the feeling we may not be doing them next year, and go back to all free leagues. You don’t want to bet $10 to win $100 that you’re better than eleven others? C’mon, put that Jimmy John’s sub money where your mouth is! Hey, I could write ad copy. Anyway, the roundup:
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One size fits all is bullshit. I’m 5 foot 7, one hundred forty pounds. You mean to tell me the same shirt that’s supposed to fit a dude 6 foot 4, two-sixty is going to fit me comfortably. What in the world does any of this have to do with fantasy baseball? That’s simple. There is no “one size fits all” set of rankings. Think about a league that penalizes you one point when a hitter strikeouts versus a league that does not. This would greatly affect the value of players such as Joey Gallo and Aaron Judge. How does that single set of rankings you’re using from [insert favorite website] account for this difference? Unfortunately it does not. Every, well nearly every, league is different in the points league universe. The number of different combinations of points per stat category is staggering. But at the end of the day there’s only one that matters to you.
This spreadsheet is an attempt to provide you with the most accurate rankings based on your league specific settings. More about that in a moment. Please note these are not projections. They are estimations.
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2018 Fantasy Baseball Team Previews: Detroit Tigers
March 11, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 5 Commentsby: Dokken
Welcome to Razzball’s 2018 team previews. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be previewing all of the teams and talking to writers who represent those teams around the web. We want to provide the best and most in-depth fantasy projections to go along with the asking the most useful questions to those who know their teams best. We want to talk about the players in the first half of your draft and also the deep sleepers that make you log into google and start watching Midwest Single-A ball for hours. Just kidding, don’t do that, hopefully we don’t go that far…
The Tigers finally embraced their need to rebuild in 2017, trading off superstar pitcher Justin Verlander for prospects Franklin Perez, Daz Cameron, and Jake Rogers. Miguel Cabrera had the worst year of his career, Victor Martinez is just about over the hill, and there isn’t much else going for the roster either. Kate Upton won’t even be in the bleachers anymore. Times are tough. The projection systems all have the Tigers fighting for the worst record in baseball. However, there is still fantasy gold to be mined on crappy teams, so let’s get to diggin’. I asked Emily Waldon of The Athletic Detroit to help us polish this Tigers coal into diamonds. Wait, crap, I was going with the gold metaphor, not diamonds. Umm…let’s just get Emily’s take and try to milk some fantasy value from the teat of this ugly roster.
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2018 Philadelphia Phillies Minor League Preview
March 11, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 36 Commentsby: Geoff
Welp, Philly finally got their Super Bowl didn’t they? Now they get their Hoskins, Titles, Cheesesteaks, roast porks, and more Hoskins!?! I’m moving to Philly y’all. I’ll even listen to Meek Mill if it means I get to watch Rhys Hoskins and the rest of the young up and coming Phillies core everyday. That’s serious too, I’m not listening to Meek Mill ever. Come on now dude, Drake bodied you. Whack commercial rap battles aside, there’s still a ton of talent in the Phillies system. The organization has done a good job identifying talent both domestically, as well as internationally. Though a rough early return from their 2016 draft class, has the ominous feeling it might have been an opportunity squandered. Fortunately, this potential disaster coincided with the emergence of Sixto Sanchez, Adonis Garcia, and the ascension to the majors of a talented trio of position players in Rhys Hoskins, Nick Williams, and J.P. Crawford. The latter of which qualifies for this list for the 20th time. It’s another action packed system coming up, it’s the Philadelphia Phillies Top Prospects for 2018.
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Rudy’s 2018 Yahoo! Friends & Family Mixed Draft
March 10, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy, Our Leagues | 47 Commentsby: Rudy Gamble
On March 1st, Grey and I took part in the Yahoo Friends & Family Draft – a now 15-team snake draft that is unique amongst expert leagues in that it is a daily transaction league instead of weekly transactions. While it is not quite as wild west as RCLs (125 player add limit + today’s pickups go on your roster starting tomorrow), it requires a different draft mentality.
Rather than belabor my picks, I’m going to just display my roster and just riff on a couple of draft strategies/philosophies and how they applied to this draft. (I only have one of these behemoth draft reviews in me this year – see 15-team LABR Mixed draft).
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Don’t Call It A Comeback: 16 Post Hype Sleepers In 2018
March 10, 2018 | Fantasy Baseball Sleepers | 16 Commentsby: Al Shines
How long should we wait for prospects that hit the majors to become fantasy relevant? At what point do we give up and move on? Every season we get so hyped up about guys we’ve never seen throw or hit a ball in the MLB and yet for some reason we get so excited about these names that are rumored to hit rosters in mid-May. Sometimes these players become superstars and are even better than we could have imagined and sometimes they keep dropping in the batting order until there back in minors a few weeks later. Its not the players fault that we expect way too much out of them so quickly, as fantasy players we are not a patient bunch! We give them three at-bats before we start dropping them in our ranks and they haven’t even had time to learn their team’s celebrations yet. Sometimes we just give up on these guys too soon, but every player is different and some need years to adjust in the majors to actually become fantasy relevant.
The list below is basically all post-hype sleepers going into the 2018 season, which are really just players that were sleepers the past few years and failed to hit expectations. Some are top prospects that seem to have been forgotten about and all of these guys are dropping a little farther in drafts than their actual potential. Also, a lot of injuries have severely effected some of these players right when they were starting to get going and comfortable in their situations. These players were all top prospects at some point early in their careers, so they all have something that stands out from the rest. We need to stop giving up so early on these guys and its tough with so many young ball players coming into the league in what seems like every other week. Here are 16 guys I think are better than their ADP and have a chance for some big breakout’s this season. Just remember to be a little patient…
Please, blog, may I have some more? Prospect Podcast: Minnesota Twins Top Prospects for 2018
March 10, 2018 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 19 Commentsby: Geoff
If the Twins aren’t a top ten system in terms of talent, they’re certainly top ten in terms of names. Just think about it, you have Yunior, Wander, Akil, Brusdar, and I didn’t even mention Kohl! That’s right, it’s Twins week on the prospect podcast, and Broshitz tackles another system filled with goodies. We go through all the top names in typical fashion, dispersing knowledge here and there. This episode was the best one ever. I’m going to say that every week until it’s true. 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?
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