As the season rolls along, my choices for starters to profile should be wearing thin. Luckily for all of you, myself, and my relationship with anyone not in the Crab Army, spot starts and rookie callups give me the perfect intersect of my two worlds. Now as any good Seinfield fan knows, worlds colliding can be catastrophic. Just ask George Costanza. That however is not the case for your loyal and eccentric Prospector/Pitchspector. It’s all good on this end. Why? Because I’m more than happy to dig into the ratio roulette that is rookie starting pitchers. In the grand tradition of my messiah like activity on the prospect side, I’m here to observe these wild cards, provide my take, and lead you on the path to true fantasy salvation. This is a really long winded, and pompous, way to say I’m profiling Reynaldo Lopez’s White Sox debut today. I’ve been lower on Lopez than many other prospectors in the industry. For what feels like two years now, I’ve been constantly banging my shoe on the table of the United Prospect Nations, sternly proclaiming that “Lopez is a pen arm!” I’d make a joke of my followers storming the town square with Pier 1 style tiki torches, but the rest of the Lifshitz clan prolly wouldn’t appreciate that. Anywho, here’s what I saw.
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Happy Bryce Harper Replacement Week! :::sobs into the couch cushion I have been carrying around since watching the video of Harper tumbling over that base:::
The cruel baseball gods took Harper away from us just after we got Trout back. As of this writing, there is no timetable for his return from what they are calling a “significant bone bruise.” I’m no doctor (sorry to peel back the curtain), but how the heck did that non-contact injury get a bone bruise diagnosis? I thought for sure he tore every CL in his body. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that he tore his UCL from reaching for his knee so fast. But a bone bruise? Interesting. Let’s just hope he wasn’t evaluated by the Mets’ training staff because “bone bruise” is going to very quickly become “Oh crap, his knee actually isn’t there anymore. We can’t find it anywhere.”
Now, there is no replacing Harper’s production on your fantasy team, especially in the middle of August. That much is obvious. If you’re lucky, you took Grey’s advice about selling a superstar to heart and cashed in at the deadline. I have Harper in a keeper league where I currently sit in first place, so I have to decide if I want to deal him now to make a playoff push, pray he comes back this season and helps me, or just accept the fact that he is done for the fantasy season but still keep him for next year. I am probably going with option B/C, if we’re being honest with each other here.
I’m removing him from our beloved 100 while we wait to see how he looks this week. Hopefully, the baseball gods decide to heal him from his mystery bruise quickly and we can have him back. But it seems more likely we are going to be without him for most, if not all, of the fantasy season. Now, enough crying about Harper (at least publicly). Anyway, to the notes…
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That’s right DFSer’s, you read that correctly, it’s Discount Double Check time! I’m not too thrilled with the pitching slate tonight, so instead of payin’ top dolla’ for some so-so matchups, I’m going grab a couple under the radar guys and lots of offense. First up on the Blue Light Special, we have Jake Junis, SP $11,100. Last Week, he came out of nowhere and threw up 31.60 points against a strong Seattle Mariners team. He went 8 IP, 1 ER and 7 Ks, not too shabby for a guy who is going for a little more than my top offensive picks for tonight. He’s facing an Oakland team who is one of the worst in the AL and they lead the league in K’s vs RHP. He doesn’t have the home cookin’ on his side, but he is in a very good pitchers park. Let’s hope this Blue Light Special goes all Blue Streak and delivers a gem for us at a discount. Matching up nicely with JJ is Jerad Eickhoff, SP $15,600. J-Rad has the lowly Padres in San Diego tonight, Yes, Please and Thank You. He threw up a juicy 27 points against them last month in Philly, so I’m hoping he can surpass that tonight in pitcher friendly Petco. Now that we’ve scrapped the bottom of the barrell for our starting pitching, let’s have some fun and spend some cash on offense.
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On Saturday night, Bryce Harper lunged for first base, slipped and his leg went the wrong direction. Like two white guys meeting, one goes for the handshake and one goes for the hug and it just goes awkwardly wrong in every way. Atticus Finch had much more success stepping on his white base. Owning Harper on multiple teams, I looked at the latest news Saturday night, and I saw:
Oh my God it already says Bryce Harper Was OF. PAST TENSE! pic.twitter.com/bQ3sKPNQjF
— Razzball (@Razzball) August 13, 2017
Devastated. Crushed. C’mon, thesaurus, give me another one. Thankfully, it was revealed as the best possible outcome for him, a bone bruise. Still, not a great outcome for us with him on our fantasy teams, since he will be out for the better part of the rest of the season. Don’t worry, I have Jose Pirela! *sticks head in oven, puts on The Bell Jar book on tape* Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
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Hey Batter³ Contest: Cousin Eddie Rosario
August 13, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 22 Commentsby: malamoney
Shitter’s full! This would appear true if Eddie Rosario is the lede. Rosario Dawson would have been a much better choice, however, she isn’t leading all batters this week in points, cousin Eddie is. No, not the lovable idiot from National Lampoon’s Vacation. That’s cousin Eddie Johnson. Eddie Rosario has three home runs, seven runs batted in, seven runs scored, two doubles and a stolen base as of Saturday morning. With 35 points he had two more than Joey Votto. Rosario is not owned in many leagues. However, he is outperforming the following players that are largely owned: Kyle Schwarber, Carlos Gonzalez, Gregory Polanco, Matt Kemp and Jackie Bradley Jr.
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FantasyDraft: Pain in Maeda
August 13, 2017 | DFS, Fantasy Baseball DFS, FantasyDraft | 2 Commentsby: FredWord
Can I have all Razzball readers knock on wood prior to reading this article? Thank you! I don’t want to jinx Kenta Maeda who is putting together a great and under the radar season. Maeda struggled earlier this year with control and an injury. For a while the Dodgers were unsure what they were going to do with him, they had him work out of the pen for a few weeks. Naturally, Maeda came back to life and started dealing. FantasyDraft has some crazy high prices for the elite pitchers today and this pick at $16,000 seems like a no brainer. Maeda’s ERA at home is under 3 and his k/9 is 8.64. He also gets a favorable matchup against the depleted Padres. Unfortunately I think everyone will be on this pick today just because there is not much downside to his matchup today.
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Minor League Update: Royce Lewis’ Trip To Cedar Rapids
August 13, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 80 Commentsby: Geoff
On Saturday’s edition of the prospect podcast Halp and I discussed our updated first year player draft rankings. Each of us agreed that the number 1 pick in this June’s draft had slipped ahead of Hunter Greene and into the top spot on our respective ranks. Yesterday afternoon, the Twins did us a great service. They affirmed our decision with the promotion of Royce Lewis to full season Cedar Rapids of the Midwest league. So far the top pick has been an exciting take, and surprisingly polished. The numbers are more good than great, but then again, he was playing high school baseball three months ago. Still .271/.390/.414 with 3 homers and 15 steals, ain’t too shabby in 36 games. The young shortstop has the ability to be an impact fantasy player in multiple categories at peak. Meaning his ability to stick in the middle infield doesn’t dictate his value. He was in the lineup hitting leadoff last night for Cedar Rapids, and went 4 for 5 in his debut, with 2 runs scored, an RBI, and a steal. As for my updated first player draft rankings, you can hear my thoughts on this week’s podcast, but the actual updated list we’ll save for October… Here’s what else I saw in the MiLB
Please, blog, may I have some more?Last week’s slate of two-start starters was pretty light, so it is nice to see our list back to being robust for Week 20. A week after not having any two-start starters with a positive dollar value who were owned in less than 75% of RCLS according to Streamonator, we now have three. Streamonator likes two of the starters and like likes another one. Enough stalling and fluff, here are your three beloveds for this week:
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Atlanta Braves top prospect/hot shot rookie/middle infielder/the “New” Georgia Peach Ozzie Albies hit his second career major league home run in just his ninth career major league start going 2-for-4 with the 3-run bomb. Albies has basically been doing what we expected/wished/hoped/prayed Dansby Swanson would do all season: hit baseballs. Well, luckily for us there’s plenty of young middle infielders in the sea. By the way, were you impressed by my Shelley reference in headline? You didn’t think I’d miss a chance to mention one of my favorite non-Shakespearian sonnets, Ozymandias, did you? Speaking of English romantic poets (killer segue, I know!), the 20 year-old Albies was slashing .285/.330/.440 at Triple A Gwinett, and the kiddo’s got some game-changing speed with 21 steals in 91 games. If those numbers aren’t romantic or poetic enough for you I don’t what it is you’re looking for. Funny enough, I said the same thing to my real life human girlfriend. He hit just nine home runs in the minors but its pretty clear the power is on the way, with two dingers already in just nine major league starts. Friday night was Ozzie’s first multi-hit game in the bigs, and with the homer and 3 RBI he seems to be adjusting well to his new surroundings and getting plenty comfortable at the plate. Grey told you to BUY this week, and he gushed about him here. In keeper/dynasty formats you should own him already, but I think he’s worth a flier everywhere else based on his potential to help with speed/average. The .214/.313/.464 in just nine games is too small to take away from, but the two homers and 6 RBI are certainly an exciting sign for the young infielder and fantasy owners alike. This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!
Here’s what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:
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I’m starting to think there’s a conspiracy on my FanDuel Saturdays: this is the 3rd? 4th? week in a row where the pitching options are either expensive or dismal or both. But we do have an @ARI game, huzzah: the Cubs are taking on the Diamondbacks. [Sidebar: this sounds like a nature movie in which a baby bear tries gamely, vainly, to defend his wounded mother from the evil snake, while everyone in the audience cries. (Sub-sidebar: I have a friend who tells me I always take things to the dark place.)] The Brewers have a good match-up at home versus Scott Feldman, too. Thus, we DFS warriors will make do as we can on the pitching front (Hyun-Jin Ryu, $8,200: I’m looking at you) and otherwise stack like the stacking great bastards we are.
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Ralph and Halp are back on this week’s prospect podcast to talk more prospect text-ups. It’s the 21st century, I’m sure teams are texting instead of calling just like everyone else. Rhys Hoskins, Ryan McMahon, Dominic Smith, and Reynaldo Lopez all got the text this week, and we project their numbers for the rest of the season. We then move on to update some notable players still in the minors, including J.P. Crawford, Austin Meadows, Austin Hays, Jahmai Jones, Isaac Paredes, Kyle Lewis, and Nick Senzel, before updating our first-year player big boards, discussing the rankings of Royce Lewis, Hunter Greene, MacKenzie Gore, Luis Robert, Michel Baez, and many more. As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% 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?First, a story. There was a young boy named Donkey Dong Jr. who worked at the barrel station of Niagara Falls. He would rent barrels to tourists who wanted to go over the waterfalls in a barrel that was deemed to flimsy to hold wine in Napa Valley. Then, one day, Robert Juiced Manfred showed up at his barrel station with a truck filled with baseballs that he was bringing back over the border from Guatemala. See, he drove north from Guatemala, and Waze had him detour through Canada and back into the U.S.–Nevertheless! R.J. Manfred stopped for some pop, and Donkey Dong Jr. said, “You’ve come to the right place,” and grabbed a barrel with his hands, swung it as hard as he could and hit every baseball in that truck 5,000 feet right back to Guatemala. For pop, Donkey Dong Jr. said, “I love to barrel up.” Fin. So, Joey Gallo was the lead buy in an April Buy column. Don’t like to double up on guys in a year, but here we are because you people are slow as molasses dripping down Robert De Niro’s face in Awakenings. Gallo has 50-homer power, and is currently in some kind of zone not seen since McGwire stopped sticking needles into pre-peach-tinted Sammy Sosa. How is he not owned in 50% of leagues? Don’t answer, grab him! Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
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