Can You Smell What The Mock Is Cooking?

February 13, 2017 | 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 22 Comments

Earlier this week I partook (a much fancier word than participated) in my first mock draft of the season. As most of you know I am much more of a points league player, but I have no issue going both ways. This draft, however, represented a less common fantasy baseball format known as the 5×5 head-to-head league. This was actually the first time I had even drafted for this format, and with barely an hour to prepare, I’m not sure how I feel about the results. In hindsight, had I had more time to calculate more precise player values for this league format I believe I would have applied a different strategy when selecting my players. While I obviously cannot go back and actually change my picks, I can imagine the results with a different outcome. After all, imagination is the essence of discovery.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Fantasy Baseball War Room, 2017 Edition

February 13, 2017 | 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 214 Comments

by: Grey

The Fantasy Baseball War Room is back! I’m not saying the Fantasy Baseball War Room is back, as in, is a butt. So, if Sir Mix-A-Lot is reading, I’m truly sorry for the confusion. Our Fantasy Baseball War Room is one part draft tool, one part fantasy team evaluator, one part fantasy junkie’s s’s and g’s tool, one part holy, two parts smokes, three parts… How many parts is that so far? Cause it’s only really seven parts total. I think there’s one part kill-your-day-with-this-war-room-thing-a-maboob-as-a-pinwheel-spins in there too. Essentially, this helps you practice building a fantasy baseball team.

If you’re unfamiliar with our Fantasy Baseball War Room, it’s a draft tool to help you track where you are at any moment in a draft. It shows you if you have too many steals, homers… Or if your ERA or WHIP are too low. Or too high. Or if your lamb is still rare or should be turned (results vary on lamb). If you’ve already drafted a team, go into the War Room, enter your team and it shows you exactly how stacked/dreadful the team is. If you’re in the middle of a draft, you can filter which guys are left that have the most home runs according to my projections. Or the most steals, or the most runs or the most whatever (only applicable if “Whatever” is a category in your league). If you’re in a bind, go into a Warm Room and take a shvitz. Ah…That’s better! There might be some bugs in our Fantasy Baseball War Room, just comment here and we’ll look into fixes. The default projections are mine from the 2017 fantasy baseball rankings. Also, Rudy’s projections are now up! They can be found at my ranking page that I just linked to or here: hitter projections and pitcher projections. There, you’ll see rankings for every conceivable league (OBP, OPS, Holds, etc). Anyway, here’s the step by step instructions on how to use the Fantasy Baseball War Room:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Prospect Podcast Episode 26: St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners Prospects

by: Geoff

We’re coming to an end ladies and gentlemen, we’re almost through these damned system reviews, but not before we get through a couple we’ve been dying to talk about. Why are we excited to talk about Cardinals and Mariners? Couple of names for you Alex Reyes, Harrison Bader, Delvin Perez, Tyler O’Neill, Kyle Lewis, and many more. Lot of top 100 names to touch on, and some mixed league relevant guys too. I go on a rant about Tyler O’neill’s lack of love from the industry, and we make fun of Harold Reynolds making fun of the Baseball America guys. It’s our usual hijinks and prospect obsessive compulsive disorder. It’s the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2017 Minor League Preview: St. Louis Cardinals

February 11, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 38 Comments

by: Geoff

Wait, what? This doesn’t look like Halph…SIGH, yucky words from Ralph. TL;DR…. Now that we got that out of the way. Yes, this Saturday you get yet another verbose, yet informative minor league rundown from Prospect Jesus himself. Not to worry, we just flip-flopped days, your weekly dose of the prospect podcast is coming tomorrow. Today we dig into the useful but always a little boring St. Louis Cardinals system. Only this time we got some sweet sweet muy caliente at the top of the system, with at least 4 members of my forthcoming Top 100 (dropping February 22nd Shameless plug). With Alex Reyes on the cusp of the major league stardom, and Luke Weaver and Harrison Bader not too far behind, the future remains bright in “The Lou”. Isn’t it always? Seems one generation leaves, and another comes up right behind it. Death, taxes, and the St. Louis Cardinals player development machine just keeps rolling along. It should come as no surprise that the 2016 draft yielded yet another strong crop of players including wunderkind Delvin Perez, and personal favorite Dakota Hudson. Not to worry there’s plenty more to discuss, and a lot of good names to be cognizant of for dynasty league managers. So off we go, let the trumpets blow and hold on because the driver of this mission is a pro. The Ruler’s back. The Top Cardinals Prospects for 2017 Fantasy Baseball.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2017 CBS H2H Experts Draft: It’s Mocking Season!

February 10, 2017 | 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 53 Comments

by: Son

Image result for no mocking

A lot of mocking been going on around these parts recently. Some of it justified. Some of it #AlternativeFacts. Who am I kidding? It’s all justified…for all sides. What’s the lesson here boys and girls? Don’t be a freaking moron, which is exactly what you’ll be if you don’t start participating in mock drafts for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. All the projection models ain’t worth diddly poo if you can’t put it into the proper context. This past Wednesday, Grey asked/summoned one of Razzball’s finest, malamoney, and myself to participate in a CBSsports.com mock draft with industry celebrities such as Scott White, Heath Cummings, Chris Towers, and Adam Aizer. Shout out to the CBSsports.com crew for allowing me to participate in the mock draft. Scott White just posted his recap of the draft here. It was a 21-round draft with 1 catcher, 3 outfielders, 1 utility, 5 starting pitchers, and 2 relief pitcher spots. The settings were for a 12-team, H2H, 5×5 category league. The draft order was as follows:

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OPS Leaguers Unite! The SS Powership Rankings

February 10, 2017 | OPS Leagues | 12 Comments

by: Phil B.

Shortstop is top heavy, and you don’t want to leave your drafts, especially OPS-style, without one of the top six. Can I call them the Secret Six? Like the DC Comic? (Quick tangent, if you liked the Suicide Squad (movie or comic) and want an even better tale of misfit villains, then pick up Secret Six. It’s got Bane, Deadshot, great stories, and is just plain awesome. One of my favs of all time…) Anyhoo, so do you know what separates these six? They are the only guys I have predicted for an OPS over .800. Shortstop sure isn’t second base this season; who could believe all the power at the keystone?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 500 for 2017 Fantasy Baseball

February 10, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 262 Comments

by: Grey

Today, is the day in history known as, “Aw, sookie sookie, don’t need the nookie, Grey’s giving me a fantasy baseball cookie.” Or, more succinctly, the top 500 for 2017 fantasy baseball. A few years ago, the top 500 was only a top 300 for fantasy baseball. Before that, it was 16 AD and I was rolling with Jesus to this deli that had great matzoh ball soup. In a few years from now, this is going to be a top 10,000 and I’m going to be ranking Mike Trout Jr. Jr. Jr. the 15th. Today, in this year, seventeen after twenty, comes the top 500 for 2017 fantasy baseball. Or as I like to call it, from Mike Trout A to chimpanzee. Actually, I don’t call it that. So, this post isn’t meant to send shockwaves through your system. The pipe cleaner that the doctor uses to get the clogged wax from your ears is meant for that. This is simply to give you an idea of where guys are ranked in relation to other positions. I.e., you know I like Francisco Lindor better than Corey Seager, according to the top 20 shortstops, but do I like Lindor better than Joey Votto? Okay, it’s not that simply. You’ll notice after the top 200, positions start to get clumped together. I might be the only fantasy baseball ‘pert to tell you this, but it doesn’t matter where, say, Eric Thames is ranked vs. Daniel Norris. If you need a pitcher, Thames isn’t going to help you. He can be ranked 75 spots in front of Norris and it doesn’t matter. That’s why I have the 2017 fantasy baseball rankings broken down by positions. If you need a 1st baseman, where Justin Bour vs. Greg Bird matters, but where Bour vs. Brian McCann is really doesn’t matter. Also, there’s no comments about players, which you really should know prior to drafting. In other words, Jose Bautista might be in the early 100s overall, but am I drafting him? Well, you’d know if you read the top 40 outfielders. There’s also a top 100 for 2017 fantasy baseball to help you. Along shortly will be a Fantasy Baseball War Room and a pitchers pairing tool. Anyway, here’s the top 500 for 2017 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Deep Impact: Dealing With Advanced Cats, Better Meow Than Later

February 9, 2017 | Deep Leagues | 10 Comments

by: Jay

A Deep Impact series post this early in the preseason? Where I’m from, they call that Immediate Impact. HURRRR. Though… it’s hard to top my meow usage above, even with such a strong opener. Except maybe for the content of this post? Question mark, because I’m not sure what format you play in. Hint: If your league has a constitution longer than a college thesis on the European textile industry and its effect on the French bourgeoisie, well then, you’re probably in the right place. We’re here to take a short ‘n sweet look at some uncommon scoring categories that dynasty/deep leagues might use commonly. The fantasy laymen might ask why we would create such devilish inventions… and that’d be fine, because we seriously have no clue. Because it’s fun? Question mark, because it’s only fun if you know how to win with these cats. And it fits the lede’s theme. And that’s what I’m here to help you with. Theming? No. I mean, sorta. But yeah. About those cats…

Note: Football may be over, but we still have a great podcast series going into the offseason, along with NFL Draft content coming out soon. Join us?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 100 for 2017 Fantasy Baseball

February 9, 2017 | 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 242 Comments

by: Grey

One word about this top 100 for 2017 fantasy baseball, before I give you another 5,000 words. I’m going to avoid repeating myself from the position rankings in the 2017 fantasy baseball rankings. If you want to know my in-depth feelings about a player, then you need to go to his positional page, i.e., the top 20 1st basemen for 2017 fantasy baseball, the top 20 outfielders for 2017 fantasy baseball, the top 20 Gucci handbags for 2017– Ah, I almost got you. This post is meant to give you an idea where guys from different positions are in relation to each other. Since this post is only the top 100, there’s more players where this came from. 416 more, to be very exact. Next up, there will be a top 500 that will go to 516. Then, after that, there will be a top 7,500, then a top 25,000, then a top 600,000, until we end up with a top kajillion in April. Or maybe I’ll stop at the top 500. Yeah, that makes sense. Not to get all biblical on you, but this is the gospel. Print it out and take it to Mt. Sinai and it will say, “Win your 2017 fantasy baseball league, young prematurely balding man.” Projections were done by me and a crack team of 100 monkeys fighting amongst themselves because there were only 99 typewriters. Somebody please buy Ling-Ling his own typewriter! Anyway, here’s the top 100 for 2017 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Saber Says: Jose Can You See?

February 8, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 19 Comments

by: Andrew

Jose Ramirez is a switch-hitter that experiments with positions more than the Kama-Sutra. With Yahoo, he was eligible at 3B/2B/SS/OF, while he was classified as a 3B/OF in ESPN. Ranked as the 17th overall third baseman by Grey, Ramirez poses an interesting case for sabermetrics analysis. He had his first role with consistent playing time in 2016, similar to fellow star shortstop Francisco Lindor. I’ll be analyzing the two players together, to demonstrate the relative value generated by Ramirez.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Bullpen Report: Hold On For One More Day

February 8, 2017 | Closers, Middle Relievers, SAGNOF | 43 Comments

by: Smokey

Some day somebody’s gonna make you want to turn around and say goodbye. Until then baby, are you going to let them hold you down and make you cry? Don’t you know? Don’t you know things can change, things’ll go your way, if you hold on for one more day.

That music of genius was brought on by a smooth impromptu karaoke session in a West Boston saloon. It was me and Ralph and a girl who was paid by the dollar to talk to us about her kid. It’s all a true story. Fun times were had, and at the time I didn’t realize how correlative the song was back then to this particular stat category and one that is by far my favorite to talk about. Funny, it only took a Wilson Phillips song on the drive home from work to reminisce about Boston, Ralph, and relief pitching. I love the stat, not everyone uses it, but I still love it nonetheless. If your leagues uses it, cool, well I will be your every other week destination for giving you the low-down on the hold situations going across the MLB. So get comfy, with a week to go until Spring Training starts, and the full extent of the 2017 season yet to play. You will get sick of me, in say… 30 weeks. So get comfy on your favorite porcelain fantasy reading chair and welcome to a brand new year!

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Top 100 Starters for 2017 Fantasy Baseball

February 8, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 169 Comments

by: Grey

With these top 100 starters for 2017 fantasy baseball, I’ve finished our (my) 2017 fantasy baseball rankings for positions. Still coming will be a top 100 overall and top 500 to see how all the positions mesh together like your mesh Redskins jersey that meshes with your burgundy sweatpants. Trust me, when you see how long this post is, you’ll be glad I kept this intro short. As always, my projections are included, and where I see tiers starting and stopping. If you want an explanation of tiers, go back to the top 10 overall and start this shizz all over again. Anyway, here’s the top 100 starters for 2017 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?