DraftKings: The Hunger Games

August 17, 2016 | DraftKings | 16 Comments

Let me start out by briefly introducing myself because this is my first post here at Razzball. Literally everyone that has ever played fantasy sports thinks they are the best to ever do it. All of these people are wrong. I am the best, period. Now that I got that off my chest, let’s head into my picks for today…

When I think of the word “Archer,” I first think of Katniss from The Hunger Games. Why? Because she is an artist with a bow and an arrow in her hands. She uses her archery skills to fight off enemies and ultimately win “the games.” Next, I think of one of the very few talented players on the Tampa Bay Rays, Chris Archer. Though Archer had a rough start to the year, he is still averaging 18 DK fantasy points per contest and has a very favorable matchup against the San Diego Padres this afternoon. A date with Archer on his home turf is never fun. He is significantly better in Tampa Bay than he is on the road. Not to mention, the Padres can’t do anything offensively unless they are facing a left-handed pitcher. Plus, believe it or not, the Rays are hot. They have somehow managed to score 35 runs in that past two games, so Archer should get the run support he needs to register a win and an extra 4 DK points. So, go ahead and take Archer at $10,600, grab your popcorn, and enjoy two bottom-of-the-league teams face-off against each other.

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 August 22nd 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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See all of today’s starting lineups

#	MLB Starting Lineups For Wed 8/6
	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

Brave Or Chicken? Swanson’s Both!

August 17, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 333 Comments

by: Grey

True or false: A) Dansby Swanson is famous for being Ted Knight’s caddy in Caddyshack. B) Starting a meme at his frat house in Arizona where he’d put his checkered pants on a cactus with the caption, “I’m thirsty, yo.” C) There’s no C. D) All the above. E) Was drafted a second ago by the Diamondbacks 1st overall, then traded to the Braves for the fellow WASP, Shelby Miller, and all-around terrible pitcher. If you answered D) All the above, how did you know what all the above was before reading E? Also, it was a true or false quiz, what the hell is all of the above?! So, Dansby Swanson is being called up by the Braves just in time, no lie, for their series against the Diamondbacks. Dayum. Hello, wounds, here’s your salt. In Prospector Ralph’s midseason top 100 prospects, Dansby was 22nd overall, right by Willie Calhoun, who totally tanked Mike Dukakis’ campaign. Swanson is a 22-year-old that was a’ight in Double-A (8 HRs, 6 SBs, .261 in 84 games). That’s neither here nor there, he’s young; he should be owned in most mixed leagues; you’re not going to find his talent level on waivers in many leagues; semicolons; fun. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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One Man’s Trash: A Bronx Tale

August 16, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 20 Comments

by: Big Magoo

Over the past few seasons, the blueprint for the New York Yankees franchise has been a predictable one: assemble an aging, overpriced roster, finish a few games over .500, rinse, repeat. Reload rather than rebuild. However, those days appear to be coming to an end. 41-year-old Alex Rodriguez and 39-year-old Carlos Beltran are gone. 36-year-old Mark Teixeira has been reduced to a part-time role. High priced relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller have been traded away for a boatload of prospects to restock the farm system. The youth movement is officially underway. One of the newest youngsters on the Yankee roster is this week’s most added player in ESPN leagues, 24-year-old outfielder Aaron Judge (34.8% owned; +31.1% over the past week). Judge’s 6-foot-7, 275 pound frame and impressive raw power have drawn comparisons to Giancarlo Stanton, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. Stanton already had 154 homers on his MLB resumé by the end of his age-24 season while Judge is just getting started. I think that more reasonable comps would be along the lines of players such as Richie Sexson and Mark Trumbo – big, powerful righties who have racked up some impressive home run totals throughout their careers. Another trait that Judge shares with those sluggers is his propensity to strike out, as he’s whiffed in 24% of his plate appearances this season after doing so in 26% of his PAs last year. The homers could come in bunches at times, but there could be some cold streaks as well. A .250ish average with plus power is a reasonable projection for Judge moving forward. He’s worth an add in all leagues for his power upside alone.

Here are a couple of other recent Yankee call-ups who have drawn the attention of fantasy owners over the past week:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 19

August 16, 2016 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenters League | 35 Comments

by: MattTruss

A big “Thank You” to VinWins for stepping in last week, what a guy! Vin’s post are what I strive for each and every week, so I hope you enjoyed him last week, because it’s back to mediocre drivel this week! The trading deadline has now come and gone in the RCLs and it went out with a bit of a whimper. A couple of our top teams made some moves, but it wasn’t the 30 trade onslaught I was anticipating. If you weren’t able to find a dance partner, fear not. We are about to enter the silly season of fantasy baseball, where everything is needs based. Travis Jankowski won’t help you any if you’re already leading your leagues in steals and Aaron Judge is on the wire. Ditto for those teams that have used all or most of their Games Started limit. Starting pitchers should start dropping like flies in the next few weeks, making for a streamers paradise. Kudos to you if you’ve paced yourself well, now good luck avoiding the Cleveland Streamer. A new overall leader emerged from the fray this week, it took having the highest league score to do it, but it shows someone from a, “not so competitive RCL”, has shot at the title if they put up huge league numbers. With seven weeks left, expect some big changes to the overall standings as teams use up those GS or teams that have used all their GS get caught. There’s still plenty of time to make some noise, so get rowdy. But first, check out the rest of the week that was, Week 19:

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DraftKings: Trea Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’)

August 16, 2016 | DraftKings | 2 Comments

by: AskRotoBaseball

It wasn’t very long ago that Dusty Baker’s preference at shortstop was Danny Espinosa. You know Dusty–he loves his veteran guys. Fast forward a couple of months and Espinosa is still at shortstop. Where things changed is now Trea Turner is an everyday player and the leadoff man for Washington. Turner is currently playing second base on most nights and is batting .310 with three homers and 10 steals. Multi-hit games have been Turner’s speciality with plenty of extra-base hits sprinkled in. This is DraftKings gold and Turner is a horse to ride until regression sets in. Luckily, that’s unlikely to happen at Coors Field. Batting leadoff will give Turner at least four–likely five–at-bats and he get a mediocre right-hander in Chad Bettis. His price tag of $5,400 is quite high, but it’s Trea Day, so pay up so you can get paid. The young speedster is my favorite hitter on Tuesday night.

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 August 22nd 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: “Did You Put A Popsicle Stick In It, So You Can Eat It Just Like A Popsicle?!”

August 16, 2016 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 25 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Join us once more for our smooth dulcet tones on the Razzball Baseball Pod, where we catch up on the sexy, pinstriped Yankees callups where everyone digs the long ball, double-digit K performances, and where to value Alex Reyes in 2017 if he opens the season in the rotation. Then we wrap up the show by looking at league leaders, and find some surprising little nuggets with BABIP and K/9 leaders. Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Pod, now with more baking!

(And be sure to check out the newest episode of our Fantasy Football Podcast here!)

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Green Tells Chirpy Jays Bats To Chad Up

August 16, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 317 Comments

by: Grey

Chad Green was out there painting corners like he was on work release and someone decided the yellow curb needed to be yellower! Green ball in the corner pocket is what he felt! Green was dealing like a sad-looking, poker dealer at a poker room that is badly lit, which is known for having great dealers! Green for the money, gold for the honeys! Yesterday, Green was the envy of the league, though not a shizzton happened, admittedly. He threw 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners, 11 Ks vs. the Jays. Because his name is Green! Nah, that’s prolly not the reason, but it’s an interesting thought. Green has worked well in the minors (1.52 ERA in Triple-A), and gets strikeouts (9.5 K/9) with his mid-90s MPH fastball, and cutter. At this point, I’d still rely on the Stream-o-Nator with him for shallower mixed leagues, but I could see a flyer on him in keeper leagues for a chance there’s something here moving into 2017. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Reyes Readiness …And The Top 100 Starting Pitchers, Week 20

August 15, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Pitcher Profiles | 70 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

So, I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m just gonna throw out the reason why right off the bat: I’m selfish and lazy. That’s what mid-August baseball talk is all about!

As part of my rebuilding efforts in the REL – well, I should say, my main anchor in my rebuilding efforts – I got Alex Reyes to hopefully be my staff stopper. I mean, have you SEEN the Brewers rotation?! Yikes. With some control issues and a pretty bad ERA in AAA, I wasn’t too surprised to see a fantastic arm like Reyes get the call-up anyway as a bullpener. This had been speculated upon all season – the Cards did this with their major prospects in Adam Wainwright and Carlos Martinez – so we’re not getting a big shock. And with Reyes called up at the same time as Luke Weaver, it appears they might piggyback each other for the foreseeable future. But Reyes clearly, CLEARLY looks like a dominant starter that’s about ready. After seeing his debut inning last Thursday night where he hit 101 twice, I’ve been eagerly awaiting an encore. Here’s how Reyes looked in his 2nd-4th career MLB innings Saturday afternoon at Wrigley:

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It Hit Me Like a Ton of Brox …And The Top 100 Hitters, Week 20

August 15, 2016 | Creeper of the Week, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 46 Comments

by: M@

SAGNOF ALERT!!! And maybe who you’re not thinking of (unless of course you tetras’d the title together in your brain place). No, we’re not talking Travis ‘All I Do is Singles/Steals’ Sebastian Jankowski, although he could bring some value if you’re looking solely for steals. But there’s a better option out there. Someone who preseason had the chance to be Jarrod Dyson 2.0 with enough at bats. And then the at bats didn’t come. This isn’t the first time that storyline played out, though. Every spring training there seems to be some player that comes along, plays well, gets some low key hype leading into the draft and then absolutely bombs. Typically those players wallow in the kiddie pool of minor league baseball mediocrity all year until a September roster expansion call-up, but sometimes…sometimes they prove they belong far before September. I was hopeful it would be mid-April that we would see these stats accumulate for our Creeper of the Week, but an 0-16 start effectively ruptured all chances of contributing early and exited his presence from our fantasy minds. Now, with a 5-5 game under his belt and 5R/3SB in his past three games, somebody’s creeeeeeepiiiinn….

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SAGNOF Report: Jose’s On A Vacation 90 Feet Away

August 15, 2016 | Closers, Middle Relievers, Steals | 15 Comments

by: Smokey

Come on in and talk it over. So many the Erie warriors would want to say, but I think the platoon is very much over. So Jose Ramirez has embedded himself in the land where former Chisenhall’s roamed. Who, by happenstance, is playing here, there, and most left of nowhere… which is left field. Jose is getting all the good spot-stuff you need for a guy to be rostered, and I am not just referencing the SAGNOF love. He is hitting .431 over the last 15 games with 10 RBI’s 15 runs scored, 4 home runs, and the salt on the rim of the margarita glass is 6 steals. If you wanna lump in the fact that he is eligible in most formats at four positions… This is Hernan part deux the redux of multi-eligible position players with Latino descent showing out. He is currently, over the last 15 games, in the top-2 of all players in the ESPN database. Only Mr. Blackmon can hold sway over him. Now the ownership has spiked and he is currently in the 80’s, but hey, some leagues are dumb and slow, so just in case, he is there, which he shouldn’t be (just check). Worse comes to worse, he makes for an interesting guy to trade for down the stretch because his name isn’t sexy and could probably be involved with a bigger name with some draw. SAGNOF report is incoming with some players to look at and some saves ups and downs from the three days that you missed me so…

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DraftKings: Tres Zurdos

August 15, 2016 | DraftKings | 4 Comments

by: Teddy Heater

We all know Lefties do things different so I’m going to go off script today and do it like a Lefty. Instead of one featured pitcher I’m pulling a Trifecta and going with Tres Zurdos (or Three Lefties in case you don’t know basic Spanish). First up is my numero uno for the night, Robbie Ray, $9,600 vs the Mets. I don’t typically endorse a pitcher in Coors Jr, but the Mets have been awful vs LHP. Their offense is batting .221 in the month of August and their in the bottom 3 in offensive stats vs LHP. If Ray is smart he’ll avoid Wilmer Flores and Neil Walker to cruise to an easy victory with at least 7 Ks. Drew Smyly, $9,000 vs San Diego is SON’s top pick tonight, so I’m not venturing too far from a sure thing. The human emoticon got roughed up pretty bad for a month straight giving up 25 ER’s over six starts, but after a recent software update he’s turned his frown upside down and has been all smiles since. Over his last four starts he’s had 29 Ks in 25 innings to go along with a 2.52 ERA. The Padres are on the home stretch of a lengthy East Coast road trip, so I’m taking advantage of a weak offensive team who’s ready to pack it in and call it a night. The final Zurdo on my list is a Smyly’s former teammate Matt Moore, $8,800 vs Pittsburgh. Here’s another struggling offense that’s been lost for the first two weeks of August. Their offense prowess is not existent with Starling Marte nursing a back injury, Andrew McCutchen struggling and they’re hitting a paltry .214 in August. He hasn’t made a home start yet, but Moore has been solid since the trade with 14 Ks over 12 innings. His home debut is all set up for dominance, if he can limit the walks and find his command he’ll be one of the top scorers tonight.

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.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Mookie Betts The Trifecta Again

August 15, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 355 Comments

by: Grey

Yesterday, Mookie Betts went 4-for-6, 4 runs, 8 RBIs with three homers (24, 25, 26). In the long, storied history of the Red Sox, Mookie Betts is only the 2nd Sawx player to have two three-homer games in a season; the other is Ted Williams. Mookie Ballgame. The Splendid Splurger. The Greatest Mookie Who Ever Lived With Apologies To Mookie Wilson and Mookie Blaylock. The You Can’t Make This Up Because Your Imagination Can’t Come Up With Anything This Beautiful. The Hamilton Musical In Baseball Form. The Unfrozen Ted Williams. I don’t think it’s hyperbole — which is not the chamber Michael Jackson used to sleep in — to think Mookie Betts will be a top three hitter in 2017 fantasy baseball drafts. He’s now cemented himself in the three hole in one of the best offensive parks, surrounded by a team that is always potent on offense. Betts or Trout? There’s a legit case for Betts, The Splendid Splurger! Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Psyche! Before we get into the roundup, just wanted to announce our RCL fantasy football leagues are signing up. So, go over there and rush the QB! I’m pretty sure that doesn’t stand for Q-Bert. Anyway II, here’s the roundup:

Please, blog, may I have some more?