Bear or Bull: The Quintana Quandary

July 21, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 24 Comments

The surname Quintana is listed as having a Spanish origin and meaning “dweller on a piece of land whose rent is one-fifth its produce.” In the case of Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jose Quintana, this definition seems to be fairly accurate. After all, he starts one-fifth of his team’s games and is compensated roughly one-fifth of what a pitcher his caliber would be on the free agent market. If my math is accurate, this would make him the equivalent of an indentured servant or a government mule in the MLB pecking order. There’s no need to start a fundraiser for this mule, however, as his listed salary of $5.4 million this season is hardly chump change, but the truth is that Quintana has been undervalued and underappreciated for quite some time now. Since the beginning of the 2013 season, Quintana has produced the 6th highest WAR (16.3) among all MLB pitchers, placing him directly above established aces Madison Bumgarner, Zack Greinke, and Jon Lester over that span. He’s also in the midst of arguably his best season to date, as his 3.13 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 8.15 K/9 rates represent career best marks in those respective categories. With impressive numbers like these, Quintana is starting to gain more traction in fantasy circles, as his name has been popping up on a lot of top 20 starting pitcher lists around the web in recent weeks. Quintana just might be one of the top dozen or so MLB pitchers in real life, but has his fantasy value followed suit?

Let’s take a look at Quintana’s profile to see if his ascension into the fantasy elite is sustainable moving forward. Here are a few observations:

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2016 REL Dynasty League Update: Week 16

July 21, 2016 | Razzball Elite League | 4 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

I know I used a similar open a few updates ago, but dayum! Next week we’ll be over 100 games into the season! That’s right, I plagiarized myself. Is that in fact plagiarization?! Is it bad I had no idea plagiarize had that first “i” in there?! I can’t even plagiarize the word plagiarize!

The NL continues to be a boring domination by the Nationals, who keep adding younger and sexier talent somehow. Their Minor League system is some sort of oligarchy. Don’t know if I’m using that term correct, I never studied for History class… At least the AL is much more interesting, with the Blue Jays in the driver’s seat with the surging Tribe moving into second. The Orange Birds, who led for most of the season in the AL, are still clearly in the mix, as are the Red Sox and Astros with over 100 points. Here’s how weeks 15-16 went down in the 2016 REL League:

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DraftKings: Fluttering Wright By

July 21, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: wheyen3

Steven Wright has been a revelation this year, and he’s such a feel good story. Everyone has fooled around with a knuckleball in their backyard, and lemme tell ya, mine’s pretty good! I may even look more athletic than Steven Wright… However, Knuckle Papi is the guy in The Show, and I’m the guy writing about him. Ah well, someone has to do both. Just pick him in your lineup today, he’s facing the Twins… Need I say more?

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.

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Tyler Hits The Naquinella

July 21, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 552 Comments

by: Grey

“Naquin the Chef looks determined without being ruthless. Something heroic in his manner. There’s a courage about him. Comes across so calm. Acts like he has a dream. Full of passion. Well, you know why. Knock homers out of the box all the time. Pitches know his repertoire, big fly. Yeah, straight up, Naquin mess your whole team up. It’s for real though, ball connect with stick, ditto. We could trade places, ball lifted run around the bases. Word up, peace, infatuated redfaces.” I almost didn’t write the title of the Naquin the Chef song, Infatuated Redfaces, but then I was like, “There’s a team named Redskins and a mascot named Chief Wahoo, I think I’m all right.” Yesterday, Tyler Naquin kept it going with the insane run he’s been on — 3-for-4, 6 RBIs with two homers (11, 12). He now has six homers in the last ten games. That’s six homers in July to go with his six homers in June. As I said back in spring training when I saw Naquin play, he had a nice stroke against righties, but looked kinda gnarly vs. lefties. Looks like a 17/17 player that needs to platoon. Right now, his power’s way above that, but will likely come down to earth at some point. Of course, I’d still own him now. Word up, peace, infatuated redfaces. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Breakout Prospects for 2016: Eloy’s In Single Name Territory

July 20, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 60 Comments

by: Geoff

Unless you’re a greasy teenager or the warden of Shawshank Penitentiary breakouts are good. Particularly when we’re talking about athletes, and even more so when we’re talking about up and coming athletes. Heck, I can still remember when I first saw young Ariel Winter blossom from younger sister on Modern Family to busty sexpot. After writing that last sentence I feel like I’m ghostwriting Tehol’s posts again. Who knows maybe I am, throw in a Dom Brown reference and a couple of lords and BOOM you got a Tehol post. That’s not why we’re here though. No we’re here to talk about the breakout stars of the minor leagues. The guys jumping up, and in some cases, into the top 100. It’s a great time to review this for a few reasons. Chief among them is three and a half months of data to crunch. Not to mention a plethora of updated top 100 have hit the streets. So who am I lovin, who do I want to be huggin? Let’s get into it.

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Fire Sale

July 20, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 12 Comments

by: malamoney

Last Friday I presented my pitcher projections for the second half of the season. In said projections I concluded by predicting that Chris Sale would be the American League Cy Young Award winner. I put his final line at 227 IP, 23 W, 6 L, 231 K, 47 BBI, 186 HA, 82 ER. Sale certainly came out of the second half gates as if he had read my post. There was a rumor going around that both Sale and Dylan Bundy frequent Razzball. I have no proof, but it sounds logical to me. Speaking of Bundy, while it might not have been very impressive, he made his first Major League start this past Sunday. Despite only lasting 3.1 innings, there are still some positive takeaways. I’m not sure what his exact role in the Orioles’ rotation is going to be, but it seems he’s going to be groomed into becoming a full-time starter. It just might not be this year. I’d also like to point out that I expressed my interest in Bundy this season back in April. On April 13th I said I’d rather stash Dylan Bundy than own Byron Buxton. Then, one week later, I elaborated on my thoughts on Bundy. Those in leagues that allow SP in RP, should take an extra look at Dylan should he be available in your league.

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DraftKings: Chen-uwine Gonna Have You Riding That Pony

July 20, 2016 | DraftKings |

by: Sky

Unless you’re not into that, of course. And if you are, that’s cool, I’m not into it myself. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…anyhoo, Phillies can be ponies, right? But of course, we know that even with that reference, it still doesn’t work seeing as, well, look at the dang gif, y’all. You know he ain’t talking about equestrians. For those who still haven’t got it, it’s a sexual innuendo, or ‘inyourendo’ if you’re 15 mentally which I am so we’re good! Now that I’ve dated myself very badly, lets get down to dropping that synth-burp bass and talking up Wei-Yin Chen. Feels like we’ve been here plenty this year and the theme has been common and easy to follow. Here’s a quick flowchart:

You’re welcome for offering up the Staples button for ya because yes, that was easy. The Phillies have found a new low of late as they’ve even slipped beneath the Braves in wRC+ against southpaws, sitting at a lowly 64. They say it’s lonely at the top, but what’s it like sitting down there on the porcelain throne? Whew…Chen isn’t the safest get for the night based on his own stats on the year and his HR tendencies, but with the opponent at hand, I could see 6 to 7 Ks and it’s just a question of how many bombs he gives up whether that’s worth much. I’ll play him in cash and tourneys alike on such a smedium evening slate. But enough about bad 90s R&B, let’s move on. Here’s my Peyton Manning grooving hot taeks for this Wednesday 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 next 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.

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Kershaw And Ryu, Perfect Together (On The DL)

July 20, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 578 Comments

by: Grey

It’s time for the Dodgers’ mailbag with your host, Grey Albright and I’m here with Dave Roberts. First question up, Billy from Toluca Lake asks, “Why didn’t we sign Johnny Cueto?” Dave Roberts runs full-speed towards 2nd and slides head-first…safe! Well, that doesn’t exactly answer the question, but he is still quick. Okay, next question, “Was there ever a chance of re-signing Greinke?” Dave Roberts brushes dirt from his uniform and motions for the ump to call him safe, and he likely would’ve been safe if we were in a game and not just taking questions from Dodger fans. Okay, next, “What exactly is Brandon Beachy doing as a Dodger?” Dave Roberts takes off for third, what a speed demon, though we’re not sure what that has to do with the Dodgers losing pitchers one per hour. Early yesterday, the Dodgers announced Hyun-Jin Ryu hit the DL with elbow tendinitis. There’s no clear timetable for his return, but I’d guess sometime in the future. Him returning in the past seems to be a long shot, at best. Ryu didn’t look good after he returned from injury and I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t return until next season. If you have no DL room, you should look on Redfin. Might be time to get in a bigger place. For now, I’d drop Ryu. Next up for the Dodgers was Clayton Kershaw would be shut down indefinitely. Ouch. I hate to see the top guys in the game get shut down. It hurts the game that we all love. Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t own him, and am pumped about the teams that do have him, losing him. Schadenfreude! If he’s shut down now, I’d say the earliest he could possibly return is mid-August. Filling in will be Julio Urias and his special brand of 5 IP, 3 ERA, blink-and-you-miss-it starts, which makes me wonder if he’s seen himself pitch. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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One Man’s Trash: Majority Report

July 19, 2016 | Uncategorized | 41 Comments

by: Big Magoo

Howdy Razzballero, and welcome to the second half of the MLB (and fantasy) season. Hopefully, you were all able to recharge the batteries a bit over the All Star break and prepare yourselves for the fantasy baseball stretch run. I enjoyed a random viewing of the movie Minority Report last week during the down time and, when looking at the reboot-happy nature of Hollywood these days with projects like the new Ghostbusters movie, it got me thinking about a fantasy themed reboot of the 2002 Stephen Spielberg film. It can be called Majority Report starring Grey in the Tom Cruise protagonist role where he can be credited as Ice Tumors or Crime Oust (because a Tom Cruise anagram as an alias to protect his alias somehow makes sense to me) and I could have a cameo role as one of the lesser precogs who is occasionally (but not usually) able to predict the future of the fantasy landscape. I haven’t figured out the plot yet, though it would probably involve Grey stalking Giancarlo for one reason or another. Ok, so it’s more of just an extremely lazy re-imagining than anything else, but last week would’ve been one of those rare scenes that my character was able to predict the transaction future of the fantasy baseball landscape. As of yesterday, the five most added players in ESPN leagues over the past seven days (Koji Uehara, Randal Grichuk, Brandon McCarthy, Hector Santiago, and Yangervis Solarte) as well as two out of the next four most added players (Anthony DeSclafani and Max Kepler) are ones that I discussed in my second half difference maker articles last week (the hitters can be found here while the pitchers can be found here). In short, if these players are still available in your league, add them!

Anyway, let’s move on to a few players who are more likely to still be sitting on the waiver wire, shall we? 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 15

July 19, 2016 | Our Leagues, Razzball Commenters League | 9 Comments

by: MattTruss

Despite it only being a three day work week for us fantasy baseballers, there’s no rest for the weary here at RCL HQ. We’re still here, crunching the numbers and cranking out standings for you all. Many of you took advantage of the time with no games to do some self-reflecting. Looking inward you identified your team’s weaknesses and set about addressing them. Like any good rehabilitation process, you’ve come to terms with your team’s issues and now it’s time to fix them. After only eight trades last week there were eighteen this week. Looks like you all are gearing up for that second half run. Let’s take a look at those trades and what else happened in RCLs in the shortened week that was, week 15.

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DraftKings: Ian KINGsler

July 19, 2016 | DraftKings | 3 Comments

by: AskRotoBaseball

If you paid attention to Major League Baseball on Monday night, you know that the Tigers beat the Twins 1-0. BORING. The over/under for Monday’s game was set at 10 1/2. I hope at least one reader put a couple of bucks on the under. Tonight will be different. I will put my guarantee down that more than one run will be scored by the Twins and Tigers on Tuesday night. In fact, it will be a completely different game. So, who is going to set the table for a high-scoring affair? Easy. Ian Kinsler! He will set the table for Detroit’s offense, which works out well considering he’s 5-for-10 lifetime against Tommy Milone. Monday night may not have worked out as planned, but I am doubling down and putting all of my money on Kinsler and the Tigers. You should do the same!

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Podcast: “To Be Grey’s Friend He’ll Give You $20!”

July 19, 2016 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | 23 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

We’re back with a hot-off-the-presses Razzball Pod, and on today’s show we recap the past week including the Drew Pomeranz trade, Michael Conforto getting called back up, and how Yulieski Gurriel impacts the timeline of Alex Bregman. We then go through some hot, hard-throwing pitchers including Chad Kuhl, and Dylan Bundy‘s stock in dynasty. Lastly we review some hot schmotato bats, with one schmotato totally making Grey change his tune. And if by tune you mean Joe Ross music, it makes another appearance! Even though it’s more like going to the club with a massive hangover rather than dropping Molly, stupid Joe Ross’s shoulder… Here’s out latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

Download from iTunes

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