RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 22

I hope everyone had a great long weekend and you’re all freshened up for the final four weeks. I’m just barely recovered from a weekend of Fantasy Football drafts. These are teams that will be mostly ignored for the first 4 weeks of the season until baseball is over. That’s why I went ahead and drafted Tom Brady, Le’Veon Bell and Josh Gordon on every team. See, I’m a thinker! This is where things get a little crazy for those that are two sport fantasy stars. Some RCL teams that were hanging on by a thread could be completely forgotten as owners turn their longing eyes to Fantasy Baseball’s more popular, but I think, less skillful cousin. I maintain the opinion that my grandmother could sit down with a random set of rankings and draft a Fantasy Football team that could win a championship. I’ve seen teams that drafted 3 kickers take down a league championship before. That’s not to say I don’t love it, I really do, but baseball has a much bigger place in my heart. It takes a special type of sadist to login everyday for 26 straight weeks, set a roster, make appropriate add/drops and not lose interest by May though. If you’re reading this, you’re clearly one of those sadist, and I applaud you. Let’s finish strong and then get back to those football teams we’ve been ignoring and beat the snot out of grandmama and the dude with three kickers, shall we? But first, let’s take a look at what happened in the RCLs in the week that was, week 22:

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See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Sat 8/9
	ARI \| ATH \| ATL \| BAL \| BOS \| CHC \| CHW \| CIN \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| HOU \| KC \| LAA \| LAD \| MIA \| MIL \| MIN \| NYM \| NYY \| PHI \| PIT \| SD \| SEA \| SF \| STL \| TB \| TEX \| TOR \| WSH \| OAK

DraftKings: Brandon Finnegan And GPP Friends!

September 6, 2016 | DraftKings | 1 Comment

by: AskRotoBaseball

When things are ugly, they tend to be really freakin’ ugly. The pitching on Tuesday night is deplorable. Corey Kluber clocks in as the top option due to his strikeout ability, but after that, things get quite ugly. With that said, Kluber makes a solid cash game option. After that, the following players are solid GPP plays: Brandon Finnegan vs. New York Mets, Tyler Anderson vs. San Francisco, and, oh my god, Wily Peralta at home against the Cubs. Starting with Peralta, this is the kind of play that could win a big stakes GPP. He could easily get hammered like Lenny Dykstra at a retirement home, but his ownership will be so low that if you do hit, you’ll look like a genius. The Giants continue to struggle and Anderson has actually been a decent option at Coors Field. He is averaging 17 DK points compared to 12.5 on the road. Finally, Finnegan has been killing it like O.J. Simpson. I mean, home, road, it hasn’t mattered. He is slicing and dicing the competition and has 29 strikeouts over his last 20 innings pitched. If I were to pair and pitcher with Kluber or Gio Gonzalez in cash games, it would be Finnegan.

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday September 12th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.

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Podcast: “Hold On, I’m Putting That On SoundCloud – ‘Grey’s Freestyle SoundCloud'”

September 6, 2016 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 27 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

The gang is back together! With Grey surviving his weekend with Grandpa Albright, we talk a few of the new rookies on the block with rosters expanding like Yoan Moncada and Raimel Tapia. We then debate where Brian Dozier will rank next year and take a look at the second half HR leaders. I tried my best to trick Grey and have Jedd Gyorko count twice! Then we try out a new game of “would you stream me?” for pitchers down the stretch, and take a look at a few other streamer hitters for the final month. Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Pod:

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Royals Hustled By Minnedozier Bats

September 6, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 263 Comments

by: Grey

Holy shizzballs. That’s not the Urban Dictionary definition of shizzballs either, which is when you shizz your grapes. That’s shizzballs as in this is the greatest display of sexiness since a young Kim Cattrall was featured in a window display. Brian Dozier is doing more for the long ball than any old man with shizzballs could ever imagine. That’s back to the original definition of shizzballs. Right now, Dozier is the exact perfect moment when your 12-year-old self pressed the buttons perfectly together on the old cable box and unscrambled Playboy TV at its best, with a perfectly scrolled, snowy version of Naughty Candid Camera. Trying to cover, when being caught, “It’s Allen Funt, mom. Uh…Maybe that’s not an F on the front of his last name.” Yesterday, Brian Dozier hit three more homers — 3-for-5, 4 RBIs, hitting .279 — and now has 38 homers on the year, and is easily leading the entire majors for homers in the 2nd half with 24 homers. For 2017, he’s going to be tough to peg, due to his inflated HR/FB% and falling line drive rate, but he doesn’t look much worse than a 25 HR/15 SB guy, which still has value. For this year, obviously you ride the lightning. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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You Can Derelict My Asdrubals …And The Top 100 Hitters, Week 23

September 5, 2016 | Creeper of the Week, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 6 Comments

by: M@

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Listen, I know as well as any that it’s difficult this time of year to really hunker down and focus on baseball. Football’s in the air, the leaves will start changing soon as the temperature drops, summer’s officially over and did I mention that football’s here? But as much as your tendency is to check out, you gotta spent through the tape if you want to finish strong. No lie, I won a Roto championship on the final day by closing a three point gap thanks to my pickups. It happens! So while you league and others are wandering off into the beautiful horizon of fantasy football (I write on the football side, too!), now’s the time to take your advantage like the tortoise vs. the hare and make up ground on these fools! Whether it’s the foresight to pickup Yasiel Puig like two weeks ago, jumping on board the Tim Anderson bandwagon last week, or scurrying into the waiver wire bin to find this week’s creeper, get every advantage you can.

Speaking of this week’s creeper, here’s a sneaky name that probably deserves more mention among the top MI tiers, but always seems overlooked come draft season. Oh, and allows for incredible team and article names…

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SAGNOF Report: Dyson Sucks Up Bags

September 5, 2016 | Closers, Steals | 8 Comments

by: Smokey

The Royals are fun, no gimmick team to watch. They aren’t really mashers, and they aren’t really a base-to-base team. They are a cross of both, and masters of none kinda thing. With the recent injury to Cain, who has been nursing a wrist injury, Jarrod Dyson has found himself a regular seat at the big boy table. He always had the ability to steal bases, and by what we are witnessing as of late, it is that if given the opportunity for regular at-bats those SB numbers could blossom into something actually useful. Over the last 30 days, he has more at-bats than any other 30-day span this year and the SB tally is a complete reflection of it. He had 13 steals in the first half in 172 plate appearances, and in the second half, with more starts, he has 12 in 95, The falloff in production, who could expect a lot from Paulo Orlando and the injury to Cain, seem to have cemented him in the top of the lineup for at least the next few games. If nothing else, he is a pinch-run threat and with 25 total steals to date, could be an asset for a spot play down the stretch as we should be maximizing every angle or roster spot possible. Available in 94% of RCL leagues and currently not just rewarding with steals, as he has 4 runs and 3 RBI’s over his last seven. Not a true one-trick pony, sorta like the Royals. Let’s see what else is on the get down with the Saves/Steals Ain’t Got No Face department…

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DraftKings: Dr. Drew Is Coming Back To Cali To Carve Up The Padres

September 5, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: Teddy Heater

Happy Labor Day DKer’s! Hopefully most of you got to sleep in today and if you didn’t you should have, because I’ll only be featuring the late games due to scheduling conflicts. The Early Bird usually fairs well in most aspects of life, but for me in DK it’s just the opposite, as I tend to win in the later contests. My theory is that the East Coasters are putting together weak ass lineups because they’re all loaded up on Bud Light & Blue Crab, trying to chase the dragon from the earlier games. Regardless if there’s any proof to my theory, I can assure you that we’re in line tonight to cash in on some holiday DK dough as long as you follow my lead. There are some top Aces’s taking the mound tonight, I’m hoping that Drew Pomeranz, $12,000 at San Diego gets passed over for the bigger names like Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Justin Verlander and Cole Hamels. I’m sure Pomeranz was ecstatic when he found out he was being traded to a playoff contender at the trade deadline and they told him he was going to Fenway (lowercase yeah). When the trade went down, everyone questioned his durability after having an All-Star first half, because he’s never pitched more than 97 innings in his previous five seasons. Initially he made the critics look like they knew what they were talking about as he definitely took a few lumps when he arrived in Bean Town. In fact some of the Boston Brass thought there may have been an undisclosed injury, because in his first three starts he went 0-3, coughed up 12 ERs in just 14.1 innings and looked like hot garbage. Good thing for the Red Sox he figured things out, because this Dr. Drew has been carving up AL opponents over his last six starts. He’ll never light up the radar gun, but he’s got a nasty hook that’s contributed to 39 Ks over his last 36.2 innings to go along with a 2.78 ERA. I know it seems like I pick on San Diego every Monday, but this has all the right ingredients for a monster performance by the former Padre. I love rostering guys that are facing their former team, although I’m sure he was happy to leave San Diego, there’s still a little part of him that wants to shove it! I’m expecting double digit Ks tonight to go along with a W thanks to the big Boston bats beating up on Edwin Jackson in Petco.

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run today to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.

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Abreu Shows Minnesota His Dong Twins

September 5, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 216 Comments

by: Grey

Not quite as spiritually moving as John Lennon, but imagine for a moment Jose Abreu were to actually put together two solid halves in the same year. “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No ‘He’ll end up below Andrus,’ for half the year. Above Andrus only this Jose guy. Imagine Abreu playing a decent, full season like today. Aha-ha… Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to drop or trade for, and no ‘Abreu’s so cold it’s like this hell has a fridge in it’ too. Imagine all the people living to get a piece of…Abreu… You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one! I hope some day Abreu’ll be better than Andrus, and play an entire season as one.” So, Jose Abreu hit two homers yesterday (3-for-7, 7 RBIs, and 21st and 22nd HRs), and he’s been great recently, but it’s hard to get that excited about a guy for 2017 who invariably takes three months off every year. Can’t imagine he’s a top 25 player ever again. You-WHO-OOH! Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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Two-Start Pitchers, Week 23: Put the Hamel Down

September 4, 2016 | Two Start Fantasy Starters | 29 Comments

by: M@

Like a vagabond hipster too afraid to settle down, this one could have gone in a thousand different directions: “Stop! Hameltime.” “Sledgehamel” “Hamel ‘Em Home” “Drop the Hamel” Haha, when you’ve been around for nearly a decade as a dominant pitcher your name is bound to be punned and used more times than Grey’s transaction count in his RCL. So, I’ll take the phrase that chooses to play on the words of truck drivers everywhere declaring their lead foot flushing it to the floor, and get to show one of the dopest gifs of a Marvel character out there. Not the best (wonderful for a litany of opportunities through text), or a close second, but definitely up there, just like Cole Hamels age.

Hard to believe Cole Hamels burst onto the scene ten years ago during the glory years of the Phillies, but as a 22-year-old he managed a 9.86 K/9 in his rookie season (his career high). Fast forward to his 32-year-old season and he’s still going strong at 8.90 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9. The age keeps getting higher, but the perception keeps dropping, unfortunately. That BB/9 is the highest of his career, and he’s outperforming his FIP by a significant amount (2.91 ERA to 3.86 FIP). SO, why in the world am I highlighting him? Because he’s not pitching at Arlington this week!!! Let me introduce you to splits, ladies and gentlemen. Or, well, primarily gentlemen. And if I’m introducing you to splits, haha, you need to immerse yourself in everything Razzball over the next five months or so before Spring Training. We’ll get you there. Don’t worry. Now, back to Cole…

Pitchers and baseball players emerge and evolve all the time. Hamels is no stranger to this. His 2016 look? 2015 Dallas Keuchel, without the historic W-L record at home to earn a Cy Young. Everyone’s low on him, but when he’s on the road he’s arguably a top 5 SP. Take a look:

HOME – 5-2 with a 4.10 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, .270 AVG against, .779 OPS against, 16.2% HR/FB, 4.44 FIP
AWAY – 9-2 with a 1.97 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .203 AVG against, .578 OPS against, 10.1% HR/FB, 3.38 FIP

And would ya look at that…Hamels is pitching AWAY from Arlington TWICE this week! He should roll through the AL West in Week 23, earning a slot with the top tier. Here’s a bold prediction for the combined two starts: 15.2 IP, 10 H, 1 HR, 3 ER, 4 BB, 16 K. You take that every time.

Here’s the full ranking of who else I’d take in Week 23!

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DraftKings: Jose Can You See, All The Pads Swinging Strikes

September 4, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: Mike Honcho

Don’t you just love when baseball fate takes over? Or maybe it’s just the expanded rosters in September. Either way, we’re getting a glimpse of the New Kids On The Block. Jose De Leon is the one we’ve been waiting on – at least as far as pitchers are concerned. He’s got “The Right Stuff.” I mean, come on Jose…..”Baby I believe in you.” If you’ve had a chance to watch him in action this season in Triple A, you know he’s been “Hangin’ Tough.” Okay….that’s enough of the song titles. I mean…I wouldn’t want to waste what’s left of your “Summertime.” I’m done. I promise. Anyway, Jose has a very soft landing spot for his major league debut. He’ll face the Padres in a home tilt where the Dodgers are heavy favorites and for good reason. San Diego owns a 25% strikeout rate, which is second worst in baseball and they’re the proud owners of an 87 wRC+ which qualifies for third worst in the league. If that’s not bad enough, their OBP is a paltry .300 and they’re slugging .395. So what I’m trying to say is……this is a very favorable start. De Leon has produced a 33% strikeout rate in 86 innings (111 Ks) at Triple-A Oklahoma City this year, while registering a 2.61 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 2.71 FIP. More good news! His price tag today is a very reasonable $7,700 – that’s an insane value. Sounds good right? I thought so. Thank me later internet friends.

Here’s a look at the rest of my picks for Sunday’s slate:

New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday, September 5th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. Wanna know what the best part is about signing up with us? The free subscription for the rest of the season to our DFSBot, that’s what! For details on the how to, please visit our Razzball Subscriptions page.

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Minor League Update: The Last One Y’All

September 4, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 41 Comments

by: Geoff

Over the course of the past few days, I’ve wondered if mentioning Colin Kaepernick in any way, shape, or form would boost readership here in the doldrums of the fantasy baseball season. Maybe I could say “click here to see so and so nearly naked”, or “this celebrity didn’t want this to get out”. What if I took the plunge into full on click bait and left the days of insightful minor league analysis for dynasty and fantasy baseball behind. Would it be me whining about Odell Beckham Jr. ignoring me at the Met Gala? Imagine prospector Ralph rubbing elbows with the A list. I mean seems appropriate, they’re A-list and I’m known for making a list. Thank you, thank you, you’re all too kind I’ll be here all week. In all seriousness, we’ve come to the end of the regular season in minor league baseball, and with it the end of my minor league updates for 2016. Don’t worry I’m going absolutely nowhere. I’ll be updating you on all things dynasty and prospects throughout the offseason. In fact you’ll probably have a triple dose of me with the podcast and all. So pump the volume on this track, throw some BBQ on the grill, and save some sticky ribs for your homie Ralph. The final minor league update of the 2 dot oh 1-6 is here!

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Pence Trumps Lester’s Campaign For No Hitter

September 3, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 14 Comments

by: malamoney

For those of you expecting Dan Pants, well the pants are off today. And when the pants come off, malamoney comes out. Did I just talk about myself in third person? I love when I do that. I think Grey might have asked every Razzball writer before asking me to fill in. I’m not sure I blame him, but did he really have to ask the Chinese food delivery guy too? Just because it was Chien-Ming Wang doesn’t lessen the blow to my already diminished self esteem. Speaking of self esteem, Jon Lester was on a roll last night. I’m not a big fan of Lester, but I was watching the box score thinking to myself how much easier this post would be if he completed the no hit bid. Nonetheless, with two outs in the seventh, Hunter Pence hit 1-2 pitch over the wall that Trump is going to build to keep the illegal Mexicans out to break up Lester’s no-no. “No no” is exactly what Trump plans to say to any Mexican caught trying to scale his new wall. Rumor has it that Jorge Cantu caught Pence’s home run ball and threw it back over the wall in disgust. Then he and Yovani Gallardo put on sombreros and cracked open some cervazas. Lester went the distance giving up just three hits and the one run. He struck out four and walked two throwing just 102 pitches…

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