Okay, so it’s not really new, that’s a lie. Really it’s a re-brand of a league that existed last year that you probably know as REL2. That’s right, Razz30 is the bastard son of JB’s REL, with a Macy’s makeover, from those dolled up chubby former homecoming queens that work the makeup counter. BTW, I can hear your inner-monologue because I have telepathic powers, and I know you’re asking “why did you rebrand a fantasy league?”. Well to put it bluntly last year was akin to pooping yourself while simultaneously driving head on into a tractor trailer truck, surviving only to find out your wife is now sleeping with your high school bully, and he doesn’t have a job, so he’s going to sleep in your spot in the bed going forward. Now you’re covered in poop, laid up in the hospital with more broken bones than Evil Kenevil, and you’re emasculated as well. Seem dramatic? Maybe, maybe not. Just talk to the guys that lost their best players from forced real life trades. I could go on and on, but why look back? We’re moving forward with a new and improved format, and I’m proud to announce we’re embarking on the first 30 team league in Razzball history. When this job was bestowed upon me, by my predecessor the Notorious M.I.K.E, I promised him I would take Razzball to places they’ve never been before. That place is a 30 team league where people are spending half their FAAB adding Raul Alcantara. It’s real out here!
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Since I know that the only thing most of you like more than rankings and projections are contests, I’ve decided to host a points leagues related fantasy baseball contest this season. Did someone say contest? And for all of you non-points league players, don’t hang up the phone quite yet. The contest is so simple that even a caveman could play it. In all seriousness I urge you to consider participating.
*Just wanted to update everyone in that this contest for Week 1 will lock on Sunday at noon (12:00 EDT) since this week starts on Sunday. All other weeks it will be Monday as stated in the post above.*
Here are the rules…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Jeurys Familia was given a 15-game suspension for domestic abuse charges filed against him this offseason. One could say Jeurys was given a 15-day DL trip to Familia, but the DL in this case is Dangerous Love. If there was anyone predestined for Family Court, it would be him. Familia was helped by his family’s testimony to Our Commissioner Manfred. They asked Familia be allowed to go on all Mets’ road trips. The Mets can sure pick closers. Let’s see: Familia; K-Rod attacked his father-in-law and Jenrry Mejia was permanently banned from MLB. The Mets don’t use a belt with their closer pants. They prefer suspenders! This is all an eerie reminder of past Mets violence when Justin Turner tried to help Ike Davis during one of his prolonged slumps. Any hoo! Familia will miss about six to eight saves and I’ve moved him down in my top 500 and moved up Addison Reed, his replacement. Anyway, here’s what else I saw in spring training for fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?In order to write this article, I quickly jot down any player who I see or hear about being reported injured throughout the week, just so I can check back later and see the extent of the injury. I have to judge if it is worth reporting on, or if the player is even fantasy relevant. That’s why you might not see me report about a guy like Christian Friedrich and his 5.37 ERA over 296 innings being injured. Saves both you and I the time and energy of reading about Christian Friedrich. So let me say right now — sorry for making you read such a long paragraph about Christian Friedrich!
Other times, someone gets injured on a Thursday or Friday and by the time I go to write them up (this article drops on Wednesdays) they’re back to 100%. Such is the case for 50 shades of Jon Gray this week.
Here’s who you shouldn’t forget about as the three months of Spring Training finally come to an end this week…
Please, blog, may I have some more?As we enter the busiest week for the world famous Razzball commenter leagues, I think it’s important to look back unto the days of yester-year and let us not forget that numbers sometimes, very rarely… OKAY, they lie a lot! But usually after massaging them, numbers are gluttons for attention. They always wanna be gone over, hen-pecked, and prodded. Just like your mother. RCL leagues are no different, and the SAGNOF’s general audience is those of us in these type leagues, looking for a special boost to their team, whether it be a streaming option, growing trend, or just some divine intervention that I say something useful. So with the help of the RCL guru, Matt Truss. I got some info that will help you analyze your stats as you peer onto your team for projecting steals and how you stand in the category. Because going into battle knowing what you need to compete is, according to G.I. Joe, “half the battle”. But since we already know, does that mean the battle is already over and we are just competing and arguing with ourselves? Confused? Me too! Well here is some less confusing info that is straight to the point with numbers and stuff… Cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to the 2017 Razzball Team Previews! You’ll find everything you need to know about each team to get yourself ready for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. And I do mean everything, everybody. We’ve got line-ups, charts, numbers, projections, questionable questions, smarter answer, potent potables and well, that’s a lie. No potables here, but plenty of potent fantasy names brimming with potential. Now’s the time to be an eternal optimist. For a few more days, at least. So, we’ve got a team to preview and questions to ask. Let’s get after it!
A quick note on the format. Each preview will feature six questions to a team’s blog writer. Are there only six great fantasy questions for each team? Of course not, but THAT’S WHAT THE COMMENTS ARE FOR! So, enjoy the thoughts of another writer, the dialogue on each team, and then continue the conversation in the comments!
We have a very special guest for this post…wait for it…our very own JB GILPIN! He’ll be our expert to provide his take on what the team has in store this season. Now enough rambling, let’s see what 2017 holds for the Milwaukee Brewers!
Please, blog, may I have some more?This draft is a crock pot vs. a microwave. A love sesh vs. a ‘hold the moan.’ A nature hike vs. “I’m gonna sit in the car as we drive past some mountains.” Guys and five girl readers, it’s a slow draft. This slow draft took about twenty-three days, 18 hours, four minutes and–okay, only a lunatic counts seconds. Not almost 24 days of straight drafting, mind you. I don’t need to ice my clicky finger. It’s five minutes of drafting, twelve hours of waiting. It does allow you to second-guess your picks. Actually, more like triple-guess. (Who are we kidding, you quadruple-guess, fiveruple-guess, sextruple-guess, ochocinco-guess your picks.) And, still, of course, I drafted Rougned Odor. *takes a long inhale* Damn, that smells good! For those not in the know, it’s a weekly, 15-team, two-catcher league that lasts for 50 rounds and there’s no waivers. Anyway, here’s my NFBC draft recap:
Please, blog, may I have some more?This is a post for the fantasy baseball drafters who use Excel, Google Docs, or some other war room software that automatically totals a drafted team’s stats while in the middle of a draft. Or perhaps for those of you who do mock drafts or simulated drafts.
The below grid represents my projected 75% mark in each stat category across 10/12/14/15/16 team ESPN and Yahoo default roster format leagues.
These numbers should only be used directionally. Please note that each projection source projects to a different league average so your team may look great if using a ‘bullish’ source and look poor if using a ‘bearish’ source. These are based on the Steamer/Razzball projections.
While I stand behind these numbers as they are part of the foundation behind my Player Rater $ estimates, I do not use these as part of my draft. I prefer to add up the dollar values per category. Same difference I suppose but it is easier to see counting totals for ratios and it lets me fixate less on the numbers (e.g., I see $7, I know they are good…I don’t fixate on 20 SBs vs 25 SBs).
Please, blog, may I have some more?We’ve called off the animals and what’s left standing are 74 Razzball Commenter Leagues. That’s down from 85 in 2016. We didn’t have VinWins creating 15 leagues all of his own this year though. All in all, not too shabby. If you missed the boat on joining, what took you so long? If you’re really hankering for a league though, post below and if we get enough interest maybe we can get one last league brewing for all the procrastinators out there. It will have to be a popular draft time (likely night, think ~9 PM EST) and it should give everyone plenty of time to join (Thursday/Friday/Saturday). Let me know in the comments and we’ll get you hooked up.
Of our 74 RCLs, 46 of them have drafted. Simple math tells us that we’ve got a lot of drafts going off this week. Which means a lot more ADP data to look at. The RCL ADP sheet has been getting lots of love. There’s anonymous animals all over that thing from 7-10 PM every night. I’m glad you’re all finding that useful. We’ll be going over some more of that data today as well as some early trades that have taken place in the RCLs. Let’s get to it!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Grey is back from his East Coast gallivanting! Just listen to the crazy Saturday night Grey had in NYC…. On today’s show, we chat on Grey’s NL-only Tout Wars squad, filled with mystery, intrigue, and Cody Reed – who just gave up 10 runs in his last Spring start! We also catch up on injuries to lefties, J.D. Martinez‘s food, and Gregory Polanco waking up with a sore shoulder. Get this guy a Tempur-Pedic! Finally, we have Rudy join us on the show with Peter Rosenbloom and Jared Cross – two of the founders of Steamer – to talk projections systems, and how they’re formulated and tweaked based on new data sets. I like the new unit of time we came up with! Plus our membership subscriptions for our own special sauce Razzball tools are now live! We’re geared for the best tools you can find for fantasy baseball, both for season-long and for DFS. Check them out at that linkity link there! Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:
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Please, blog, may I have some more?True story: I was walking through the mall in spandex shorts and a headband, strutting really. The year was 1981. I was perhaps the most handsome, well-groomed five-year-old the planet had seen. Okay, a seven-year-old pretending to be a five-year-old. Who wants to be older? Not me, Cousin Sweatpants. So, I’m cruising for chicks, crushing the scenario, when I see this total fox. I stop her and ask for a name. She says, “Jennifer Beals,” and I say, “You’re gonna be a star, kid,” then covering my mouth I say how her fame will be short-lived but how she will get some decent character work later in life. I spotted her sex appeal two years prior to her breakout role in Flashdance. I can always spot sex appeal. It’s my cross to bear. Speaking of crosses to bear, holy Jesus Harry Christ my Tout Wars team is sexy! The league is 12-team, two-catcher, NL-Only and perhaps the most respected fantasy league in the country. Sure, we’re still mocked by 99.9% of the world, but a solid chunk of other fantasy baseballers respect the Tout! Anyway, here’s my Tout Wars team and some thoughts:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Back in late February I took down the ADP for the top 300 players with the intention of later reflecting on that data. I knew it would come in handy when thinking up an idea for a future column, and my clairvoyance has been fulfilled.
I’ve always been a proponent of NFBC’s ADP because of the amount of money their leagues generally require in order to play ($125+, upwards of $5,000+ in main events). It eliminates crazy outlier picks better than your casual ESPN mock drafts, and paints a great picture for value in rotisserie leagues.
As ‘weekly lock’ are their standard format, it deviates a little bit from our typical RCL that we have on this fantastic caldron of fantasy knowledge know as Razzball, but heading into the last week of drafts, I hope this will give you a great idea of the fluctuation of players in across the league.
The time frame of the change, as you will see, is between February 28th and March 26th. I’ll break up some of our specimens based on overall ADP, as players who are going later in drafts (150+ overall) have much more room to rise and fall than a player in the top 50.
To address players who have fallen due to a temporary injury, I’ve eliminated guys like Ian Desmond, Alex Reyes, and David Dahl, in favor of taking a look at performance and playing time based fluctuations. If you desire the +/- of any other player you don’t see here, feel free to mention in the comments below and I will dig in and find it for you (as long as their in the top 500).
Keep in mind, in order for a player to fall by a given amount, that player has been drafted further above or further below what their ADP on March 26th states. This is because NFBC ADP is a rolling average. For Yoenis Cespedes to increase from 59.08 to 56.66, he would have been drafted, on average, higher than the 56.66 overall from March 26th says. Not simply the +2.42 spots my interval of change shows you!
Razzball Commenter Leagues are closing down, but there’s still a few spots left! Play against our contributors and your fellow readers for prizes. Join here!
Please, blog, may I have some more?