For those of you that missed out on round one, you can find out how this game works by clicking here. For those that need a refresher you should click the link too. For everyone else, let’s get this party started. Grab yourself a bag of Doritos, a beer and put on your guessing cap because it’s time to put some baseball facts on the table…
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Bringin’ in da star powah! Today on the Razzball Baseball Pod we discuss sleeper hitters who could vault into the second round by 2017, which Grey of course uses as yet another platform to talk about Delino DeShields. We get it already! This has become madness… (Speaking of madness, come and join the Razzball Basketball Tourney Pool!) We then interview Top Chef Season 1 Winner Harold Dieterle and get a behind-the-scenes look at the show and a more in-depth explanation of why you can’t make “faux gras” in 3 hours. Grey is so multi-lingual with his French! Then we wrap up with some news and notes since our last show, including some early standouts through the first few weeks of Spring Training. Here’s our latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:
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Please, blog, may I have some more?Like the 2nd basemen to target, this is necessary. You want to take flyers on late middle infielders. I like a few top shortstops this year: Lindor, Seager and Correa, but if you don’t get them, don’t sweat it and definitely don’t ‘panic reach’ for another shortstop just because you feel like you need one. This is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Lichtenstein) supplement to the top 20 shortstops for 2016 fantasy baseball. The players listed have a draft rank after 200 on other sites. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2016 projections. Anyway, here’s some shortstops to target for 2016 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Something dawned on me the other day while partaking in the annual CBS Expert Auction League run by Scott White (which I’ll be recapping later in the week), and it’s this: Evan Longoria is readily available for the taking this year. This was also confirmed by the fact that I’ve netted him in several RCLs (you can still join a league here!) pretty late as well, and really, the only reason that I ran into him at all is because I was looking for Chase Headley for my eventual bottom-feeding phase of the draft. How Longoria has ruined everything that I know and love! I should admit, Fantasy Baseball has probably moved behind Fantasy Football when it comes to my priorities, and seeing as there is only so much real estate in my head, it could also be fair to say that I haven’t kept myself up to speed with a lot of the everyday minutiae of Major League Baseball. So in the drafts where I was able to net Longoria pretty late, each time I would glance at his stat page and try to figure out what was so wrong with him before selecting him. And, spoiler-alert! I couldn’t really find anything glaring. No injury, no erosion of skills, etc. Obviously, there isn’t much that can glare back at you in a window of a minute-and-a-half (in this case, with several drafts, multiple minute-and-a-halves, which, coincidentally, is how I also describe my love-making) from a player page, so I wanted to take this journey of discovery and figure out exactly why Evan Longoria has fallen out of favor, and quite possibly find some kind of redeeming quality that confirms my value-pick will actually bring some sort of “value”. Or I’ll just find out that I totally effed all of my teams by drafting a dud. What an adventure! (In other words, my Alka Seltzer is on standby…)
Please, blog, may I have some more?Be sure to read Part 1 here and Part 2 here!
Dominate your draft! Conquer your league! Humiliate your friends! It’s the time of year when some non-Razzball sites try to lure you into paying $19.95 by promising you success not just in fantasy baseball but in military takeover. Destroy! Obliterate! Decimate! I don’t know about you, but I’m turned off by fantasy baseball ads that sound more like commands from a war general than ways to improve how you look at some numbers.
There are three keys to fantasy success, and those kind of sites aren’t selling any of them.
The first is Time Invested.
The second is Skill.
Before I tell you the third, is anyone else addicted to this stupid Safeway Monopoly game? I know I’m not going to win, but I keep hearing this voice inside my head saying “maybe no one else is trying as hard as you are… maybe you’ve got one of the rare pieces that they only make one of…” If you ever thought fantasy baseball was a waste of time, lady and gentlemen, I present Safeway Monopoly. I swear I spend over an hour each week going through those annoying little stickers, all of which I already own. Success in Safeway Monopoly is different than success in fantasy baseball. There’s no skill – anyone can lick stamps and put them on a board. There’s no benefit to the time you invest – I have some friends who haven’t won squat despite shopping exclusively at Safeway and scouring the internet to find rare pieces. Yet, another friend of mine won $200 on it with no effort. You know why? Luck. Those who win at Safeway Monopoly have one thing: luck. And so do some fantasy baseball players. The third component to fantasy baseball success is luck.
Please, blog, may I have some more?True Story Alert! Socrates Brito used to pause the Diff’rent Strokes credits for Dana Plato’s title card and would argue with the screen, calling himself a Socratic method actor. This drove his family crazy. For many years I’ve spouted off like Tom Selleck’s sprinkler the need to ignore spring training stats. You should only concern yourself with injuries and position battles. With that in mind, Brito is winning a position battle with Yasmany, leaving Yasmany baffled, “Do you people just want an outfielder with a long-flowing beard? Is that what this is about? What’s the argument for Socrates? Am I making an argument for Socrates by annoying you with questions? Is this table still blue to a blind person?” In the top 80 outfielders, I added in Socrates into the Brendan Dassey tier. Appropriate that he’s in the Brendan Dassey tier because if there’s any justice, there will be Socrates. In Double-A, Socrates had nine homers and 20 steals, and Yasmany looks to be headed into the same Cuban abyss as Rusney Castillo and that guy that played Tony Montana’s buddy, Manny. For 2016, I gave Socrates the projections of 56/7/47/.264/18 in 410 ABs, and if your league counts arguments with Plato, he has added value. Anyway, here’s what else I saw in spring training for fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome back campers to the second season of Razzball’s homegrown dynasty baseball league, “The Razznasty”, filled with readers, writers, commenters, and J-FOH. It’s with great pleasure that I ring in the second year of updates. Since we last left you a few teams have changed hands, a commissioner switch took place, a whole lot of trades before the winter trade deadline, and our inaugural 10 round draft comprised of the unkept, free agents, 2015 draftees and internationals. A couple of teams with ownership changes included, J-FOH pulling a Jay-z and retiring for like 5 seconds after winning last year, and then handing the M-I-C to commenter and hip-hop aficionado Nick the Dick. This was then followed by the “Hatest that ever did it” coming out of retirement to manage the first vacancy available. We also welcomed Smokey into the fold, as he stepped in to take over an up and coming squad. Finally this club will have the quality ownership to match it’s competitive roster. In addition to those three changes, we were gifted a real wheeler and dealer by the name of Raskals. An owner, that from his first day in the league, has aggressively built what seems to be a formidable contender.
In our latest installment we’ll discuss a couple of the trades from the deadline, and hear from some of the members of the Razznasty on their takeaways form the draft. Yes there were takeaways, just like the Oscars, but more like the swag from an insurance conference. Yeah another stressball!!! Well here it is Razzball’s 2016 dynasty baseball league.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to the 2016 Razzball Team Previews! You’ll find everything you need to know about each team to get yourself ready for the upcoming fantasy baseball season. And I mean everything, folks. We’ve got line-ups, charts, Slurpees, lube, a guide for beginner electricians, and even a cactus! Well, that’s a lie. That’s what Jay had last year sitting in front of him. This year? Um…a little less lube? Take that as you will. But hey, we’ve got teams to preview and questions to ask, so let’s hop to it. We a very special guest for this post…Bryan Kilpatrick, to provide his take on what the team has in store this season. Now enough rambling, let’s see what 2016 holds for the Colorado Rockies!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello everyone. For those who don’t know me, I’m Viz, Razzball’s fantasy hockey editor. I’m going to be contributing to baseball throughout the season looking at keeper values of players who are already in the majors. For my first preseason piece, I’m going to take a look at closers, specifically how their values are affected by the amount of keepers you have, the size of your league and your ability to make moves throughout the season. I’ll also mention a couple guidelines into what I look for from my closers and what I look for in guys who currently don’t have the role but could get the opportunity.
Let’s get right to it!
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s been a helluva busy morning. Your boss is on your case to get that report in by the end of the day. You only got to spend five minutes checking out Razzball today. Work sucks. Thankfully, it’s lunchtime, and just in the nick of time too. You’re famished. You’re on the clock though. Don’t have a whole lot of time to dick around and enjoy a sit down meal. You need to grab something quickly. Panera’s out. Look at that ridiculous line. Is there a “you pick three” special today or something? Chick-fil-A and Chipotle are out too. It seems like everyone is eating out today. But there are only four cars in the McDonald’s drive through. Looks like it’s the McHeat lamp special for you today! Cheap, quick, and somewhat edible. Not the worst thing in the world, but not exactly what you were looking for either. More of a “plan D” than anything else.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Sorry for the delay folks. I took a break from the real world last week, and I had promised myself and my family that I would not touch electronics. I had some writing withdrawal which lead to tremors and night terrors, but I think that was caused by some other un-diagnosed medical issue that I’m too lazy and prideful to see a doctor for. My girlfriend (she might be imaginary) convinced me to watch The Bachelor with her this past week. Potential spoilers? Let’s be honest here, if you’re reading Razzball you likely don’t watch The Bachelor. I’m not using names because I don’t remember their names, and I strongly believe everyone has that one Facebook friend that follows the show and posts about it all over their social media. I was familiar with the concept going into my viewing of the show, but in case you’re not… there’s one guy choosing between many women finding one that he loves and looking to get engaged with. So you’d expect that until he picks which girl he wants, he would hold off saying I love you to anyone. With two girls left, he tells BOTH of them he loves them. That’s a big no-no. Don’t be this foolish! If Razzball can teach you anything, it’s don’t be a d*ck. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he proceeded to tell both women that he loves the other girl too. Let’s pause here. Does this guy have a brain? I mean come on… Whenever I tell a woman that loves me that I love another woman, I expect her to die inside, not want to be with me more and be my future wife. Gentlemen, this guy is stupid. Don’t be this guy. Dating advice, at it’s finest, courtesy of the Razzball Squire…
Please, blog, may I have some more?All baseball fans cringe when they hear a pitcher is visiting Dr. James Andrews. Dr. Andrews has made his name synonymous with Tommy John Surgery, a procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) of the elbow joint. While a marvel of modern medicine in that it allows pitchers to return to the mound eventually whereas they would previously have had to call it a career, Tommy John Surgery still comes with a 12-18 month recovery period…
Please, blog, may I have some more?