One Man’s Trash: Chill Out With The Iceman

July 26, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 49 Comments

This week’s most added fantasy player, Cleveland Indians outfielder Tyler Naquin (51.5% owned; +33.1% over the past week), isn’t like the majority of the most popular fantasy players to be plucked off of the waiver wire throughout the course of the MLB regular season. Despite being a mid-first round pick out of Texas A&M in the 2012 MLB draft, he was never really considered to be a top prospect. His skillset and minor league statistics suggested that he was likely to have a Gerardo Parra type of career in the majors, meaning that he fit the high floor, low ceiling mold rather than that of a true difference maker. Despite the blistering offensive start to his MLB career (.321/.380/.626 slash line), Naquin has been buried in the bottom third of the lineup for 193 of his 207 plate appearances this season. It seems as though his own team has been as slow to embrace him as the fantasy community. For those of you who are familiar with the X-Men franchise, he kind of reminds me of the Bobby Drake character, who’s also known as “Iceman.” Iceman isn’t one of the leaders of the group, nor is the most powerful mutant in the bunch. He’s one of the younger, newer members who just does his job without much fanfare. When in pressure situations, Naquin has proven to be one cool customer as well (1.094 OPS with men on base; .984 OPS in “high leverage” situations). Plus, since the Iceman had a bit of a romantic dalliance with the Rogue in the early X-Men films, there’s the obvious Naquin/Paquin connection to be made. I already discussed Naquin a couple of weeks ago here, so be sure to add him if he’s still hanging around on your waiver wire.

Here are a few other interesting adds/drops in fantasy baseball over the past week:

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RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 16

by: MattTruss

The prospects are coming, the prospects are coming! What fun the end of week 16 brought. I, for one, was so excited that I happened to catch the news on Twitter of Manuel Margot being pulled in the 4th inning of his game that I totally whiffed on the David Dahl news. Turns out Manny Margot just had a bum foot…awesome. Now these Hippos are almost entirely Dahl-less in the RCLs. That makes me sad. As of this writing Dahl is owned in 75% of leagues and if he stays with the club through this week and makes it back to Coors still on the roster, I could see that number growing pretty quickly. Alex Bregman also got the call, but he was already stashed in most leagues. In fact, he’s only available in three leagues as of now. Those three leagues are clearly asleep at the wheel. Trea Turner is doing his thing and all his owners are happy to see he’s not getting Dusty’d…yet. With Nomar Mazara, Wilson Contreras, Tim Anderson and Max Kepler also out there making an impact, it’s been quite the season for the rookies so far. Let’s see who out there is putting these rooks to good use and what else transpired in the week that was, Week 16:

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DraftKings: Bettis Can’t Play The Trumbone

July 26, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: AskRotoBaseball

If I were to have asked you prior to the start of the season, who would lead the majors in home runs on July 26, you probably would have said, “Harper, Stanton, or Bautista.” Hey, all of those are fair names. In fact, Encarnacion, Frazier, or Arenado would have made great choices as well. But, would any of you picked Mark Trumbo? Highly unlikely. It appears as though Trumbo is the new Nelson Cruz. After struggling in back-to-back season, Trumbo is well on his way to 40-plus homers, which would be a career high. Baltimore is a perfect spot for Trumbo and he’s making the most of his tenure in Charm City. On Tuesday night, the Orioles welcome Chad “Don’t Call Me Jerome” Bettis and the Rockies to Camden Yards in what will likely be an all-out slugfest. The funny thing is that the Orioles are drastically underpriced. Only $4,100 for Trumbo? Um, what? This guy is leading the majors in home runs for God’s sake! Though his ownership will likely be high, it’ll be tough to fade Trumbo is cash games. Play him and love him when he goes deep twice or play him and get moderately annoyed when he goes 0-for-4 with three Ks and a flyout with the bases loaded–hopefully he’s 50 percent owned!

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 next Monday, August 1st, 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: “I Was Trying To Get 3 Augustus Gloops, But I Kept Losing!”

July 26, 2016 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 37 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

We’re back with an all new “GREY GREY GREY! … and JB” Podcast, where Grey again struts his stuff like he’s the cock of the walk. On today’s show we discuss the Chris Sale situation, Aroldis Chapman getting traded to the Cubs, and two huge prospects making their debuts on Monday night. Then we get into some flavor-of-the-week pitchers like Tyler Skaggs and Sean Manaea, as Grey and I get into a shouting match that makes his neighbors Mr. Heckles him. “You’re disturbing my oboe practice!” We also hit on some hot sluggers like Ryan Schimpf, and run through some set-up guys who could be getting saves after the trade deadline. Here’s the latest edition of the Razzball Pod, now with more swearing!

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Aroldis As Cub: Same Cheese, Thicker Crust

July 26, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 485 Comments

by: Grey

In 1906, the Cubs won a major league record 116 games. In 1907 and 1908, the Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships. Anticipating a third championship in 1909, a young, enterprising Chicago man bought up all the toilet paper in Chicago, planning on selling the toilet paper back to the celebrators for twice the amount of money for their ticker tape parade. The Cubs never won again, but it turned out people still needed toilet paper in their everyday life. So, he still sold it back to them at a huge markup. Now, most people would’ve been annoyed with this man, but he was so charming, which later became Charmin. A titan of industry. So, with this in mind, I’ve invested my life savings in toilet paper, and will sell it back to Cubs’ fans this October. I’m gonna make money, y’all! By the way, Cubs could be World Series champs within days of Donald Trump becoming president, that fallout shelter doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. As for Aroldis Chapman, the trade was completed yesterday with him going to the Cubs for a bunch of prospects. This kills Hector Rondon’s value for redraft leagues, since he’ll be pushed into the setup role with Aroldis closing. Whereas in New York, Andrew Miller goes from a top setup man to a top five closer. Now, here’s hoping for an Indians/Cubs World Series so I win either way with all of this TP. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Arnold Schwarzenegger Stars In Junior 2: The Guerra Story … And The Top 100 Starting Pitchers, Week 17

July 25, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Pitcher Profiles | 91 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

When you have to tell people your favorite team’s ace is a 31-year-old rookie, you kinda make a face like Arnold Schwarzenegger right there… It’s as uncomfortable as a dude getting pregnant! But for a rebuilding team, I guess nothing is inconceivable after all!

As an unabashed Brewers homer, and owner of the REL Brewers where I have to own a certain amount from my parent team, I’ve been a big follower of the Brew Crew beat, and there’s been buzz for Junior Guerra ever since we picked him up. I even brought him up on the Pod when he was promoted, much to Grey cackle-ment. I of course never saw anything like this coming though… I knew he had a fastball and a great splitter, but that splitter hasn’t been just “great”. It’s been the best splitter in baseball. His other stuff is pretty good, but he hit 98 MPH in his last start against the Pirates, and if he can throw gas like that, it’s going to make him a dynamic guy ROS. So I decided to double up on my Sunday afternoon baseball watching by breaking down Guerra’s start against the Cubs, while watching my Brewers like I would’ve anyway. Two birds one stone! Sue me! Here’s how he looked:

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Didi’s Gregarious Rise… And The Top 100 Hitters, Week 17

July 25, 2016 | Creeper of the Week, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 36 Comments

by: M@

The best leaders walk in a room and everyone knows their presence. Without even being aware of why sometimes, the attention magnetically focuses towards them. It’s like gravity. Leadership gravity. And in order to have it there is normally a glimmer of gregariousness written into the fabric of the leader; everyone’s thankful that they are exactly where they are. In baseball it’s seen in the locker room: they walk in, everyone feels it; they say a word, everyone listens; they’re at their plate, everybody watches.

The Creeper of the Week for Week 17…he doesn’t have that. Haha, a little bait and switch there for ya. Nope, I don’t peg him as the leadership gravity type, but he followed perhaps one of the greatest leaders with it in baseball history: Derek Jeter. For all his overhyped meh of fantasy baseball, you can’t argue The Captain’s leadership presence on the Yankees, and the lack of it now that he’s gone. I’d venture to say one element the Yanks have felt since Jetah hung em up is the black hole manning the field at shortstop; however, in his stead we find a player becoming so gregarious due to his rise as a hitter that he even decided to make his last name a play on that word…

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SAGNOF Report: Even Miranda Is Adding Hamilton

July 25, 2016 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 22 Comments

by: Smokey

Today is the first time that I can look at Billy Hamilton and say, “now is the time if he was available in a league I was in, I would add him.” Chances are some douche canoe has been sitting on him all year, playing him sporadically and reaping the semi-benefits of him. Watching him recently and correlating that into his last nine games, he has 9 stolen bases and looks to be turning the corner for the last 60 games of the year. Long term, I wouldn’t trust him to babysit my schnauzer, but the immediacy of his stats and the effect they can have on a your steals in impactful. The Reds are going to be sellers in a day or ten, and it would behoove them to play him everyday and let him run rampant and cause people headaches on the base paths like he is currently doing. Since the All-Star break, he has a unsustainable .390 OBP, which has garnered him the SB total that we should expect from him. The unfortunate thing is that it is like the cat calling the kettle black and the cat actually being black, because if he keeps up the .390 OBP, he is a HOF-bound and I will eat Grey’s hat. In the short term, go look at your waiver wire just to make sure that he isn’t available… if he isn’t, see if the owner is asleep at the wheel and throw him something stupid via trade. If he is available, grab him and reap the benefits for the next fortnight with your footie pajamas, kick back, and enjoy the new Jughead comic. This week in SAGNOF deets is after the bump, so do your sister a favor before I do a favor for your sister and click that button.

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DraftKings: This Young Cheeze Is Aging Like a Fine Wine

July 25, 2016 | DraftKings | 2 Comments

by: Teddy Heater

Aaron Sanchez, $10,300 vs San Diego, has been great over his last six games limiting offenses to less than 2 runs, 6 hits and 2 walks over 40 innings. The 24 year old former closer has been the Blue Jays Ace this year going 10-1 with a 2.87 ERA to go along with his 108 Ks. Even more intriguing is that he’s doing all of this in the AL “Beast” going up against some of the toughest hitters in the league. Hitters have been struggling all year to square him up as his 3.44 FIP ranks sixth behind Corey Kluber. The Padres scored 10 runs yesterday, but much of that damage was done against Washington’s bullpen in the 8th and 9th innings. San Diego still leads the league in Ks vs RHP, so I’m counting on that trend to continue so our boy Cheeze can rack up at least 7-9 K and possibly hit double digits if he doesn’t get pulled early innings limits. There’s been tons of of talk about him getting sent to the bullpen and if those rumors are true this may be one of a handful of times that we have left to roster him in DK. Let’s get some Cheeze, so we can get that DK cheddar.

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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5-Day Sale — All Throwbacks Must Go!

July 25, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 535 Comments

by: Grey

The White Sox were due to wear throwback jerseys on Saturday, and Chris Sale didn’t want to wear them. The White Sox refused to relent, so Sale took it upon himself to do something. Cut to, ahem, ten minutes later and Sale was sent home for throwing a temper tantrum and cutting up all the throwback uniforms. The most surprising thing in this story: the White Sox clubhouse had a pair of lefty scissors. After Sale cut up the White Sox 1976 uniforms, Chet Lemon weighed in, saying, “It was a tough uniform to rock. The guys on the 1983 team thought they had a reviled uniform. At least in 1983, you could strut around like a peacock, which they called Paciorek’ing, due to the grace of teammate Tom Paciorek. In 1976, they dressed me up like a lawn jockey. That shizz was offensive!” For his antics, Chris Sale was suspended for five games by the White Sox. That’s the last time he tries to introduce a cutter without talking to the pitching coach. Now, if the Red Sox trade for Sale, their top two starters could help win back the casual Jewish Red Sox fan who checked out after Youk and Theo left. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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Points Leagues: San Francisco Lindor

July 24, 2016 | Uncategorized | 24 Comments

by: malamoney

Open the door, get on the floor. Everybody walk the F. Lindor. Boom boom acka-lacka lacka boom. Boom boom acka-lacka boom boom. I can’t remember when the shortstop position was this deep. And by deep I mean you have more options than Troy Tulowitzki, who was all but guaranteed to be injured yet still outscore the field, and Jose Reyes who relied heavily on his legs to get him points. I guess there were a few years where Jimmy Rollins was a strong play at the position, but regularly there was just one, maybe two, studs at shortstop. The landscape looks quite different in 2016.

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DraftKings: The Long Season Con

July 24, 2016 | DraftKings | 6 Comments

by: Sky

If only baseball were as easy as the surface stats tell us. Player A has great peripherals and a pretty ERA. Player B has numbers more hideous than the elephant man, lock him away in the dungeon and let us never speak of him again. It’s all too easy to look at the season long numbers on a player and simply throw him out the proverbial window…or literal window if they really screwed you in your league. But of course, you’re here because baseball isn’t that easy and you’re a straight masochist. With that, enter Anibal Sanchez. Come in close and get a whiff of that stat line…whew! You don’t put up a 6.60 ERA over nearly 90 innings without doing a lot wrong. But even the worst pitchers can put things together for a good stretch and Anibal is far and away not the worst pitcher in baseball so he has that going for him. Know what else he has going for him? He just came off of a 10 K, 2 BB performance against the Twins. I know, I know, they’re the Twins, but its more common for a nice little groove of good pitching than it is to have an ace-like outing and then completely fade the next go. I’m not stumping for Sanchez for anything outside of tourneys but at $4,800, he’ll sure make your dollar stretch for a Coors day. But enough about bad pitchers have good days, let’s talk about good players and good plays. Here’s my Sunday fun day hot taeks for this Sunday 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 July 25th 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?