A Duvall hasn’t looked this good since Popeye starring Robin Williams. You thought I was going Robert Duvall and I steered it into Crazytown with Shelley Duvall. By the way, don’t look at current pictures of Shelley Duvall. She’s a Shelley of her former self. I have a theory. She had to do everything just so for Kubrick in The Shining, to the point where she couldn’t even think for herself, then she started working with Robert Altman, who was like, “Do whatever you like, improv,” and going from one extreme to the other drove her crazy. I’d put money on it that this is the biggest update on Shelley Duvall you will ever get on a fantasy baseball website. Any hoo! Adam Duvall (1-for-4, and his 7th homer, hitting .284) has been crushing the ball for the last two weeks. Now seven homers in 33 games. Fluky, right? Not so fast, Cousin Sweatpants. Duvall hit 26 homers in only 100 games in Triple-A and 27 homers in 91 Double-A games. He was always a power guy, just never really had a chance to play. He’s now getting that chance and proving he can continue to hit homers. Will he hit anything besides homers? That’s yet to be seen, but I’d grab him in all leagues where I needed power. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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Nothing is a better, giant surprise than a Rubby in the morning!
Rubby De La Rosa has always been a guy with a power fastball and plus slider, but it’s never been enough. Ks haven’t been there, he couldn’t get lefties out, and he’s looked more and more like Nathan Eovaldi rather than “the next big thing”. But after yesterday’s outing, Rubby has somehow limited lefties to a .162 average and only allowed 1 homer in 87 LH batters faced. Compare that to last year, when lefties murdered him for .315 and 20 homers in 410 batters faced.
After a pretty brutal start – including 3 relief appearances due to the D’backs bullpen being overtaxed – I really didn’t think too much about Rubby and his upside. Kinda thought “he is who we thought he is!” Wait, that’s a different Arizona sports team… His last 5 starts have been really good with solid Ks, but I thought for sure the Giants with their bevy of lefties would crash the party. Alas, we got a Giant surprise! Here’s how Rubby looked yesterday afternoon in Zona against those Gigantes:
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You know how that should go. Countin’ money you know how it goes. Pray the real live forever man. Pray the fakes get exposed.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Drake. We’re six full weeks in and I’m just gettin’ tired of these fakes taking up roster spots due to their name value. Ya know? Pray that real live forever, man! Ok, well, I don’t really pray about fantasy baseball, but I hope that some of the bigger names turn it around and come back to life for the sake of our fantasy baseball teams. When it comes to ranking the Top 100 hitters in terms of rest-of-season value, though, it’s time to cut bait on a few. And, honestly, I may even be late by a few weeks in bringing out the scissors. You’ll see a lot of names at the bottom of the rankings this week that dropped out. Don’t freak out. Don’t get emotional. Look at the stats, even the deeper stats, and you’ll see it’s more than time to get the hotter players in your lineups regardless of name.
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SAGNOF Report: Smoke Show Stealing The, Well… Show
May 16, 2016 | Closers, Steals | 19 Commentsby: Smokey
You see that old rocking chair in the corner? That’s me, mister reliable. Made of wood and literally been around these parts since the dawn of time. I may not be the smartest fella, or the fartest smeller either, but I dig baseball. I get the stats and the hub-bub surrounding the intricacies of deeper stats. Relaying them in a manner that makes sense on paper and conveying them to you in a way that makes us all put away our Casio calculator watches is my style. This report covers similarities from what I touch on the regular in my bullpen post, so for the normalcy of life, I will add some of my usual middle relief spice into the streaming world of stolen bases. Sound good, grand glad we could agree. Rostering established stolen base guys is all well and good, but is a better feeling when you stream an option and he gets one that wasn’t normally accounted for. Kinda feels like stealing, in the actually stealing sense and not just in the statistical sense. The world of streaming swipes is becoming harder and harder as stolen bases are a stat best left for the dudes hitting dingers. The more a pitcher lets players get on base with SB opportunities, the increase for SB’s grows… sometimes. This is my first attempt at this post, so I am starting it my own way. So let’s look at this weeks options to stream stolen bases and the trends for which to follow for streaming ideas. Cheers!
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Typically I lead every Monday with a solid Starting Pitcher pick but since today’s starters are underwhelming at best, we’re going to concentrate on some juicy stacks. Michael Pineda, or the Human Pinata, is in Coors Junior and he’s given up 7 long balls to RHB. Stack 1, Paul Goldschmidt, Welington Castillo, Jean Segura, Yamany Tomas, Brandon Drury, and Jake Lamb ( I know he’s a lefty, but he’s been raking). Manaea Mania came and went, thankfully I dropped him after his second start because he coughed up 8 ER last time out against Boston. Unfortunately Texas doesn’t have too many RHB, so this is more of a mini stack, Ian Desmond, Adrian Beltre and Ryan Rua. I’d really like to jump all over Jon Niese tonight as he’s already let up 8 HR’s to RHB. Too bad Atlanta only has Jeff Francoeur and a couple other scrubs. The final stack of the night is against the cobbler, Matt Shoemaker. Anytime this guy has taken the mound post 2014 he’s been crushed by the long ball. I’m crushing on Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Yasmani Grandal tonight. As I mentioned, the pitching isn’t ideal tonight, but there’s a few matchups that could help us cash in tonight, especially if you want to go big risk, big reward. Tonight is the debut of our new Razzball Exclusive League on DraftKings, so be sure to check it out!
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. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.
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Orange You Glad You Didn’t Squeeze Out Valencia
May 16, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 841 Commentsby: Grey
Danny Valencia had himself a nice little weekend. On Friday, he hit two homers, then yesterday he became only the third player to ever have a three-homer game (3-for-5, 5 RBIs) against the Rays (last one was Carlos Delgado in 2003), and only the 2nd player that also stood for the pregame National Anthem. Valencia grew up Jewish, and, according to Wikipedia, “(Valencia’s) two key hitting coaches growing up were Bob Molinaro, a family friend who is a former major leaguer, and his mother Mindy.” I didn’t have a Jewish mother, but have plenty of experience being half-Jewish, so I can imagine the guilt trips he got, “Why don’t you marry a nice Jewish girl and stop swinging at balls in the dirt?” “You never call your mother, and you’re opening up too soon.” “You can go take batting practice after you give your mother a kiss.” Wikipedia doesn’t mention it, but one less guilt-inducing hitting coach he had was Jose Bautista. Valencia learned how to hit for more power from Joey Bats. Since Bautista imparted wisdom on Valencia, he’s hit 30 homers in the last 580 ABs. So, can Valencia keep it going? It appears so. Now finish your latkes and keep your hands back! Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
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We’re now through six weeks of the baseball season which is the point where I consider making big changes to my team. No, I don’t mean cutting Razzball’s own Delino DeShields now that he’s down at AAA Round Rock. I’m talking about trying to make a big trade if your team is at the bottom of the standings. Don’t be afraid to be bold, it definitely could be better than standing pat. And if you aren’t sure about things, there’s plenty of people on the website to ask their opinions. Here’s a summary of what’s been posted in the last week on Razzball:
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One of my longtime rules of fantasy baseball (and this one is shared by many) is to avoid older hitters. David Ortiz? Never drafted him (often and including this season to my detriment), Albert Pujols? Nope. Robinson Cano? Again, my bad this season, but still I’m not drafting him. Ben Zobrist? Just can’t do it. I know three out of the four guys I just mentioned are having great seasons thus far, but let’s see how they look in August, shall we? We shall, since August is coming whether we want it to or not; how’s that for ominous?
Thing is I just don’t want to take the chance of injury or decline. As I get older, and though I’m no athlete, it just takes longer to recover. Recover from injuries, running or long walks even, the few weights I do lift, and mainly, hangovers. I keep telling myself I’m one more bad hangover (which at this point is five or six beers and home by 11:00 PM and still takes two days to feel right again) from giving it up.
But good beer is so, so good. Just not at the ballpark for $10 a 12 ounce. As such when I go see my Cubs play the Cardinals in a couple weeks I’m bringing in a bottle of water, refilling it as often as I like in the many fountains, and eating hot dogs and nachos until my heart’s content. You know who also makes my heart’s content? Brandon Phillips. (Well, no, he doesn’t but I didn’t have a good transition there and that one did the trick. Or it didn’t. You decide!) But he’s an old guy and you don’t own them; you just said this. I know, but to be clear, I won’t draft these guys; nor will I trade for them. What I will do is pick them up off of waivers/free agent wire and plug them into my lineup.
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Hello everyone and welcome to Sunday!
I’ll be frank with you guys, this slate does not instill confidence in me. There are some very good options on offense, but not too many like I have seen in the past and at the same time, there aren’t many good pitching options at all, so much so that spending up for two SP’s seems like a must on this 11-game main slate of games.
There’s not many value options here, as the only one I could even remotely endorse is Cesar Ramos at $4,600 against Toronto, however he’s facing Toronto, so that probably isn’t a very good idea.
But, as I listen to “Regulate” off of Warren G’s 1994 “Warren G Regulate…G Funk Era” album, I am very determined and confident that I can help you guys find some good pitchers, good pitchers to pick on, and some great bats. You ready?
Let’s get to it.
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 May 16th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Today we pickup where we left off last Wednesday, with the second part of our 2016 MLB draft preview. I tried to write the entire thing in emojis, but it didn’t work, and I was told explicitly by Grey that wing dings is never appropriate for print on Razzball. Then again who prints anymore? Seriously where have all the paperboys gone? What are our children to do to learn entrepreneurship? Lemonade stand? Pffft!!! Whatever!!! I can see this is going into a “get off my lawn” type rant…So let’s move along. After reviewing the top 10 prospects in the first installment of the draft preview, this morning we look at the next 15+ prospects that should be on the first round radar. This should take us through the first 30 or so selections. So you know, there’s 30 teams, so that means there’s a player for each team figuratively. I didn’t know math would be involved either….Life hack; use calculators….they work.
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“It means no worries for the rest of your days. It’s our problem free…philosophy! Ha Kenta Maeda!”
That’s how the song goes, right? You know, the one by Timon and Pumba in The Lion King? Am I really referencing a Disney movie in a fantasy baseball post? You bet your bottom dollar I am. Just look at em swayin above. That’s swag, son! Truth is, Hakuna Matata or Kenta Maeda, they’ve basically been the same thing in 2016 for fantasy owners of Maeda. Whenever the rookie SP takes the mound good things are surely to come.
However, I, personally, would be looking to sell him high over the next few weeks. Do I think he can’t sustain his pace? Well, perhaps? Listen, you can’t argue with a 2.30 ERA and a 3.71 K/BB ratio, but his batters have a .237 BABIP against him (that’s low), and his peripherals are a little scary. When I think of Maeda more visions of Daisuke Matsuzaka pop into my head than Yu Darvish. I’m afraid that come the summer time we’re going to see hitters figure him out. And when they do, that ERA will balloon, the 89.7% runners left on base number will drop, and the value will decrease. So, how in the world is it all Hakuna Matata? Because this week he pulls the hapless Angels and the Padres…in Petco. It doesn’t get any better than that! Ok, wait…yes it does. It could be the Padres and Braves. That’s alright, though. This is a happy post. And clearly he’s still doing something right! Get the solid starts out of him now while you still can, but after he mows downtime Padres it may be the perfect time to Ha-Kenta Ma-sell high.
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Jon Gray pitched seven innings Friday night versus the Mets, allowing just five hits, two runs, a walk and struck out eight in his first win, in well, in ever. Congrats on your first major league win, chief! It only took you nine months! How about that headline? That was a bad Fifty Shades joke. If you don’t like it I will tie you up and make you like it. Mmm. Bondage. Anyway, Jon Gray–Coors pitchers be damned! After surrendering 11 runs through his first two starts, Gray has been damned good in his past three starts, giving up just four runs and 10 hits in 20.0 innings, and his 1.15 WHIP and 36/7 K/BB are certainly impressing me mucho. I know what you’re thinking, still a Coors pitcher pitches at Coors and even in the most stream worthy of starts it makes him very hard for me hard to recommend. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be on your radar, folks. You should be watching him closer than the latest episode of Game of Thrones, looking for secret hidden fantasy clues in the sand. You guys, I’m pretty sure the scarring on Jon Snuh’s chest spells out R+L=J! Oh em god, wait! The “J” must stand for, dot, dot, dot…Jon Gray! But Jon Gray knows nothing. He must be Targaryen!
Here’s what else happened in fantasy baseball Friday night:
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