I call it mayonnaise malaise because those words go together as cool as words can, and that it reminds me of how my wife always make fun of me for how I say mayonnaise (I say it May-naze, which is the Chicagoan in me I guess though Tony Soprano says it similarly so maybe it’s my Italian side) even though I didn’t even like mayo until my late twenties and my wife is a fan of Miracle Whip. Now though my wife makes her own mayo (we did move to Cali this year) and I’m stuck with the mayo malaise blues.
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Hey, hey my over the internet degenerates! It’s Sunday so that means your good buddy Honcho is here to bless you with the best DFS suggestions in the free world…..and Canada, of course. Anyway…..How are things on the west coast? I hear you’re moving real fine. At least that’s what Clint Hurdle wants us to believe. That’s why he’s offering up Chad Kuhl for our DraftKings pleasure today. Now, before you click out of this article because you think I’m bat s**t crazy, please hear me out. This is purely a tournament play. I like to really pivot away from the herd when I’m trying to strike it big in a GPP and this play qualifies as a major jab step. Kuhl represents a sizeable discount ($6,600) as far as a 2nd starter is concerned and with that kind of value we can apply the savings to a top tier arm or a couple big bats. In his last start, Kuhl recorded four strikeouts in six innings of work, while giving up just 2 runs. He did a great job of keeping the ball down in the zone – inducing ten ground outs compared to just four fly outs. In fact, Pittsburgh has won all five games that Kuhl has started this season – including games against the Cubs and Nationals. The Pirates’ right-hander isn’t Cy Young worthy, but he can be an effective pitcher in the right spot. Now, it could be my keen intuition or the 15 Zima’s I’ve slammed while writing this, but Sunday afternoon in Chavez Ravine seems to be one of those spots. The Dodgers are striking out at a 21% clip this year and their .313 wOBA ranks just 20th in all of baseball. Kuhl has made just two starts on the road this season, but he carries a 1.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP away from home, so we have that to lean on. Again, this is a dart that you’ll only want to throw if you’re trying to win some simoleons in a tournament. It’s worth a shot and no matter what happens, I’ll still be the best friend you’ve never met. Here’s a look at my favorite suggestions for today’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 August 15th 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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Judge-ing the Numbers: Minor League Batted Ball Profiles
August 14, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 74 Commentsby: Geoff
You’re only as good as the information you have. This can apply to anything in life, but is particularly true when it comes to studying up on prospects for fantasy. Or prospecting, if you will. Players are constantly evolving, particularly those in the minors, and it’s important to keep up with the latest scouting reports, videos, and statistics. One area that’s heavily overlooked with prospects is batted ball profile. The numbers are tough to find, but there’s some intriguing options in the dark corners of the Internet. Yours truly has scoured those dark corners. Actually J-FOH scoured these corners, introduced them to me, and here we are. Today is a very special day. Why? Well, because I’m doing my very best on this fine Sunday to impersonate one Big Magoo. While I certainty can’t do our resident number savant justice; I’ll use his words as a guideline, while we take a look at the batted ball profiles for some of the top players in minor league ball this season. Including some recent graduates like Aaron Judge, Alex Bregman, and Andrew Benintendi.
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Two-Start Pitchers, Week 20: Phelps Looks Golden, Duh!
August 13, 2016 | Two Start Fantasy Starters | 23 Commentsby: M@
I mean, is there any other photo that more represents the name Phelps this summer? Wait. (Checks the photo again). Hang on.
There we go! Haha, sorry about that. Who’s that other dude? HE’S NO DAVID PHELPS! I tell ya that much…
Now, in all seriousness, David is no Michael, but in Week 20 he has the potential of bringing your fantasy baseball some significant value. And we’re not talking GOLD-TONED value, for all you Razzball Podcasters (thanks for that one, @Grey). While only starting two games this year, Phelps is producing a career year. By far. With a K/9 over 11 the Marlins have used him in multiple situations leaving to his 5 W and 3 SV. He’s been valuable in his role, but moving into the rotation for this week could bring great things. The Marlins are in the playoff hunt and need some fresh breath to get some elusive wins of late. Enter Phelps. And enter the Reds and Pirates lineups.
Phelps LOB% (Left on-base %) is a large reason his stats look so great (88.5%), but all the peripherals match up to his impressive surface stats of ERA (2.40) and strikeouts (11.03 K/9). It will be interesting to see how he translates his success through a lineup a second and then, hopefully, a third time, and he’ll need to do better than his history as a starter, but I have every reason to believe he can. The Reds are a porous team with a few traditional bright spots in the lineup, and the Pirates offense has tried its best to suck enough to rival the Braves in season-long numbers. Phelps is on the road for both, but has a good defense behind him and features a great shot at scoring some W.
Lastly, unlike many of the pitchers highlighted in this series, David Phelps is ACTUALLY AVAILABLE FOR PICKUP! He’s only owned in 10.2% of leagues. He won’t go past 6 or 7 innings, but it’ll be enough to bring great value.
Here’s how the rest of Week 20 stacks up!
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As a Mariners fan, it’s very rare I have much of any empathy for other teams and their fans, especially teams that just came off winning a World Series. And yet, here I am looking at the sad state of the Royals and think to myself ‘how many black cats crossed this team’s path?’. A majority of KC’s masterpiece last year was the young nucleus staying healthy, guided by Alex Gordon as the vet, and a crazy good bullpen. Flash forward to this year and it seems like the entire team is on the DL. No really! This is not the roster it was back in 2015 and the numbers resemble it. The Royals have the 5th worst wRC+ on the year and are K’ing about 5% more than they did last year. But even those numbers lie a little because it keeps some of the early part of the year – read: when the team was healthier – in the equation. So instead, I’m looking at their second half numbers and yup, worst team in baseball by wRC+ standards. Yes, worse than the Phillies and the Braves. Yes, that is really, really gross. But now that I’ve done all that research, it’s time to turn it into some cash money and with that, we get Tyler Duffey. Tyler’s game log inspires zero confidence as it’s about as up and down as a certain type of professional dancer around certain poles. That said, at $5,700, he inspires me to call him my SP2 in tourneys. Now that we’ve turned the Royals’ pain into our gain, let’s see what else we should do. Here’s my hung over and maybe still drunk taeks for this Saturday DK 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 August 15th 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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Joe Musgrove shut down the mighty Toronto Blue Jays for the second time, going seven strong innings, allowing just six hits, two runs, a walk and striking out seven for his first major league win. He looked dominant. Like Michael Phelps dominates the pool, or Simone Biles dominates her sport, and all sports, for ever and ever. Simone though. Have you ever seen such dominance? Clearly, ESPN has not. Regardless, Joey Joe Joe now sports a sparkling 1.47 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and 21/2 K/BB ratio though 18.1 innings. Did you miss out on Jameson Taillon, Michael Fulmer, Lucas Giolito or Blake Snell? Well frown no-more, my frowny-faced friend, because Joe Musgrove may just be the best performing of the rookie-nookie bunch, and while everyone is off drafting their fantasy football teams, Musgrove is still available in over half of baseball leagues. Who is this Musgrove character, and what makes him a must-own pitcher, you ask? In 16 games in AA and AAA (85.1 IP), Joe was 7-4 with a 2.74 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 87/10 K/BB rate. Oh yeah. For those of you playing at home, that will help your fantasy team. He also plays for the Houston Astros, a team in dire need of all the help they can get as they make their playoff push. Grey told you told BUY and Joe Musgrove needs to be added in all leagues as soon as you finish reading this…sandwich! Gotcha! Now make like Katie Ledecky and 100m fly to the waiver wire!
Here’s what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:
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Bullpen Report: Everyone Do The Bullpen Shuffle
August 13, 2016 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 12 Commentsby: Smokey
The holds leaderboard has been basically demolished as guys have switched roles. Three out of the top-10 holds guys (Bettances, Herrera, and Watson) currently are holding down the closer roles for their respective teams. Add in two more from the top-20 (Andrew Miller and Ken Giles) and you can see that 20% of the entire holds leaders are double dipping in stats. Not always a bad thing, but when you are counting on one stat from a guy and then it switches to another, it detracts from the previous. Have no fear, because the bullpen aficionado is here to steer you through the muck and mire that is the bullpen shuffle. So for this week, we are going to look at guys who aren’t in a closing role. I have taken current closers out of the equation for the chart, because this is a holds piece and we don’t want “their kind” infiltrating the holds stuff. So be active on the waiver wire as we come down to the end of the season, there should be no commitment in the relief game.
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Jankies! We’ve Solved The Case Of The Stolen Bases
August 12, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Buy/Sell | 458 Commentsby: Grey
In 1972, a young Polish man by the name of Stanley “Stash” Petrosky burst on the scene with the Pirates organization and stole 87 bases while pinch-running for the Single-A Long John Silvers. No matter how many times corrected, he continually held the bat backwards and never got past Single-A, but his speed was a delight to watch. Since then, Poles have been considered some of the sneakiest fast players in the game. Some social scientists have contended that this is due to the Polish ancestors standing in line for bread. Never wanting to be standing in line ever again, they instead run and steal. Some historians say the Poles have skis on their end of their names because thousands of years ago they would tie flat boards to their ankles rather than walking and they built up a taste for speed. Others say this is ethnic profiling and it should be stopped. Either way, one guy who can’t be stopped is Travis Jankowski. Janky, as he’s not known anywhere, has 25 steals in 184 ABs. Since 2000, Jankowski has the most steals in the fewest plate appearances besides Tony Campana (there’s a throwback name). The King of SAGNOF, Rajai Davis, Jarrod Dyson, Emilio Bonifacio, Dee Gordon and Jordan Schafer are a few of the guys that have been close in the last 16 years, but what Jankowski is doing is historic SAGNOF. Or as it’s known in some cultures SAGNOFski. Oh, and Jankowski is also hitting north of .450 in the last week. Grab him! Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
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DraftKings: Yu Want to Win, Put Darvish In
August 12, 2016 | DraftKings | 1 Commentby: Gern Blanston
Yu Darvish likes to throw strikeouts, and I like to put him in my lineups. Darvish also likes pitching at the Rangers ballpark. When pitching at home in his career, Darvish has held hitters to a .279 wOBA in 310 innings. Batters have not been able get a hold of the pitches he has been throwing. Hitters have a swinging strike rate of 13.2% (career high), an out of zone swing rate of 31.3% (career high), and a zone contact rate of 80% (career low). Darvish is feeling it! He has gone over 6 innings in his last 4 starts, and has thrown 34 K with only 2 walks. In that four game span he has averaged 24 fantasy points. With the Tigers in town, Darvish should continue to pile on the strikeouts, as the Tigers have a strikeout rate of 21.6% vs RHP. Tigers are throwing out Anibal Sanchez, which should help Darvish earn the win. And with that I give you the rest of my DFS picks…
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 15th 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? Correa M*A*S*Hes Twins — Alda Balls He Hit Went Farr
August 12, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 227 Commentsby: Grey
Yesterday, Carlos Correa (4-for-8, 4 runs, 4 RBIs) hit two homers across the doubleheader (three in last three games), making it look easy like North Korea during the ‘imaginary’ Olympics that are being aired in North Korea. “It looks like the U.S.A. is going to take 1st place…” Bad editing splice job, 20 second lag, bad voiceover, “And North Korea just edges out 1st place! Wow, this will be…” Bad editing splice job, obvious voiceover, “North Korea’s one billionth medal win.” By the way, are you as surprised as me that during Olympic competitions you haven’t see any of this: “Okay, Argentina will now be serving for the win. Whoa, I think the Spanish coach just unleashed a nest of mosquitos! He’s Zika’ing them out!” Seriously, no one is Zika’ing out their opponents. So, Carlos Correa found some of his footing yesterday that he showed last August/September. Wait, is he only an August and September player? Septacular! Now he’s going to get to 25+ HRs on the year and be overdrafted again next year. We need a bad editing splice job to remove his 2nd half stats for next preseason. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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When thinking about the Colorado Rockies organization, great pitching is probably the last thing that comes to mind. The main reason for this is that there just hasn’t been much of it throughout their brief history, due in large part to the launching pad that is known as Coors Field. Mike Hampton was a former runner up in the Cy Young voting and frontline starter prior to producing a disastrous 5.75 ERA during his two seasons in Colorado. Denny Neagle was a two time All-Star and former 20 game winner who struggled mightily in a Rockies uniform. It’s pretty telling when Jorge de la Rosa, Aaron Cook, and Jeff Francis are some of the most successful pitchers in franchise history. The bottom line is fairly obvious – pitchers generally don’t fare well in Colorado. However, current ace Jon Gray is doing his best to buck the trend of underwhelming production from Rockies hurlers. Will he prove to be the exception to the rule or will he just be another in a long line of Rockies pitchers to avoid?
Let’s take a look at Gray’s profile to determine if his current success is sustainable moving forward. Here are a few thoughts and observations:
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2016 REL Dynasty League Update: Week 19
August 11, 2016 | Razzball Elite League | 19 Commentsby: JB Gilpin
Well, on the heels of the real-life Trade Deadline, we are now faced with the REL Trade Deadline looming this Sunday. We’ve started seeing a huge influx of trades as team build for the final stretch or rebuild for the future. You know the saying “the future is now”? Things couldn’t be further from the truth for my REL Brewers!
To the teams that are actually good, and we’re starting to see runaways in both leagues. In the AL, the Blue Jays are migrating to the top of every category, and in the NL, the Nats have already lived there. Looks like the initial REL World Series will be the 1 Canadian team vs. the 1 former Canadian team. At least things are going better for the ol’ US of A in the Olympics! Here’s how week 19 went down in the 2016 REL League:
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