Bear or Bull: Do You Like To Live Dangerously?

February 14, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 12 Comments

Image result for do you like to live dangerously

I knew this girl in high school that got bored easily and always needed that tinge of drama or danger in her life. She was definitely not the missionary type. She enjoyed conflict because it made her feel alive. On the other hand, I knew girls that just reveled in the safety of companionship. Did I just humble brag that I actually knew a girl? Indeed, and not just one girl but girls with that capital “S”!!! My parents knew what they were doing when they named me Stan Son. Shout out to Momma and Poppa Son.

The differences are what make life awesome, interesting, and fun to experience. And so it is in the fantasy baseball world. There are so many ways to attack the maze that, more often than not, our personal biases and philosophies will dictate which player we choose.

Case in point, compare Daniel Murphy with Rougned Odor. They both play second base, bat left-handed, and are being selected close to each other in fantasy drafts, but they are very different players. The one you select will shed light on your personality, so let’s delve into each a little further and see if you are indeed a psycho that likes to live dangerously!!!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep, Pitchers’ Pairings

by: Grey

For these pitcher pairings, I’m going to be using our (my) 2017 fantasy baseball rankings. Notably, the top 20 starters for 2017 fantasy baseball, top 40 starters for 2017, top 60 starters for 2017 and the top 80 starters for 2017. You can also just go to our Fantasy Baseball War Room. Okay, formalities out of the way. *rolls up sleeves, makes farting noise with hand under armpit, rolls down sleeve* Let’s get busy! Now, what is a pitcher pairing? It’s your plan for putting together a fantasy staff. A course of action. If you have A pitcher, which B, C, D, E and F pitcher goes with him? Which is different than ‘F this pitcher,’ that’s what you say in May. You should have six starters. The sixth starter is Blake Snell or take whoever you want. I suggest an upside pick. Snell comes to mind. Or Mike Montgomery. Daniel Norris also comes to mind. I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5 and some variation of 9 pitcher leagues like the Razzball Commenter Leagues. Speaking of which, the RCL league signups will began as soon as ESPN opens for business. (NOTE: What you are about to read is massively confusing. If it were found scribbled in a notebook, the FBI would be watching me. If Charles Manson stood up and read this at the next prison Meet N’ Greet, no one would blink an eye.) Anyway, here’s pitcher pairings for pitching staffs for 2017 fantasy baseball drafts:

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Pitcher Profile: Recapping 2016’s Starting Pitching And JB’s/Grey’s/ESPN’s 2016 SP Ranks

February 13, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Pitcher Profiles | 54 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Better late than never! February in the following year is always THE BEST time to review last year’s follies and jollies, amiright Razzball Nation!?

After making it through the duldrums of Winter (which I haven’t really had in NC, but ya know, the EPA was lying about global warming), I’m finally catching up on my Pitcher Profile wrap-up for the 2016 season. If anything, it turns out to be a pretty funny post! Let’s see how bad JB/Grey/ESPN ranked the AL Cy Young Winner! Always a good time… They say hindsight is 20/20, but seeing how bad some of these went, I’ll need my hindsight to be 420 to get through this!

As I did last year and the previous seasons ere’twixt, I’m here to break down my initial 2016 Starting Pitcher Ranks with the – hot, hot, hot! …or cold – hits and misses. I compare and contrast what happened with Grey’s 2016 ranks at SP, along with ESPN’s initial ranks from the 2016 season, then make us all look foolish by lining these up with Razzball’s Player Rater rank amongst SP. And as I did last year, complete the analysis with the Player Rater’s top-40 SP that I missed on in my ranks. Lots of whiffing this season! Whiffing as bad as I do when I play Rocket League, the boost makes you go too fast!

Here’s the recap to 2016’s starting pitching ranks (plus my 2017 ranks should be out hopefully in a week or two):

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Can You Smell What The Mock Is Cooking?

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

by: malamoney

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?

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

February 12, 2017 | Prospect Podcast, Razzball Podcast | 14 Comments

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?