2016 Minor League Preview: Chicago Cubs

February 17, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 23 Comments

When your farm system graduates four top 100 prospects in one season, like the Cubs did, it’s only natural that your overall minors grade takes a hit the following year. After coming into 2015 with one of the most talented groups in recent memory the 2016 version is a bit of a letdown. Don’t misunderstand me, the Cubs system is still head and shoulders above the last two systems we previewed, but it’s a far cry from the level it’s been the previous two springs. There’s still a solid group of hitters left and some upside arms with ETA’s a year or two out. So there’s still a lot to discuss, but none of the current crop has the through the roof tools of Bryant, Russell, Soler, or Baez. In closing its not the prospect pants tent of yesteryear, but it hasn’t dipped to Angelic levels either.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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#	MLB Starting Lineups For Sat 8/9
	ARI \| ATH \| ATL \| BAL \| BOS \| CHC \| CHW \| CIN \| CLE \| COL \| DET \| HOU \| KC \| LAA \| LAD \| MIA \| MIN \| NYM \| NYY \| PHI \| PIT \| SD \| SEA \| SF \| STL \| TB \| TEX \| TOR \| WSH \| MIL \| OAK

2016 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep, Pitchers Pairings

by: Grey

For these pitcher pairings, I’m going to be using our (my) 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. Notably, the top 20 starters for 2016 fantasy baseball, top 40 starters for 2016, top 60 starters for 2016 and the top 80 starters for 2016. You can also just go to our Fantasy Baseball War Room. Okay, formalities out of the way. *rolls up sleeves, makes farting noise with hand under armpit, rolls down sleeve* Let’s get busy! Now, what is a pitcher pairing? It’s your plan for putting together a fantasy staff. A course of action. If you have A pitcher, which B, C, D, E and F pitcher goes with him? Which is different than ‘F this pitcher,’ that’s what you say in May. You should have six starters. The sixth starter is Aaron Sanchez or take whoever you want. I suggest an upside pick. Sanchez comes to mind. Or Vincent Velasquez. Daniel Norris also comes to mind. I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5 and some variation of 9 pitcher leagues like the Razzball Commenter Leagues. Speaking of which, the RCL league signups began on Monday, go sign up for a league. (NOTE: What you are about to read is massively confusing. If it were found scribbled in a notebook, the FBI would be watching me. If Charles Manson stood up and read this at the next prison Meet N’ Greet, no one would blink an eye.) Anyway, here’s pitcher pairings for pitching staffs for 2016 fantasy baseball drafts:

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Under the Greydar: Erasmo Ramirez

February 16, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 47 Comments

by: Big Magoo

The late rounds of most fantasy baseball drafts are typically filled with mediocre veterans and low percentage lottery tickets. “Maybe Jered Weaver has another sub-4.5 ERA season left in his arm. Is Max Kepler likely to be called up before the all-star break?” That’s you weighing your options in the last round of your draft. Pretty uninspiring, aren’t they? There is another group of players that is more likely to have an immediate impact on your fake team during the upcoming season – the post-hype players. These are the guys who showed promise at one point in their careers but lost some their shine due to underperformance or durability issues. Erasmo Ramirez is the type of player who falls into this group.

When trying to identify potentially undervalued starting pitchers, there are a few key things that I always look for. Notice that I specified undervalued players, since the hard-throwing, high strikeout artists (Syndergaard, Harvey, Sale, Strasburg, etc.) and the young “sleeper” types who are generally perceived to have high ceilings (Walker, McCullers, Rodon, Iglesias, etc.) don’t necessarily fit that description. So if velocity and K-rate are de-prioritized, what’s left to focus on?

There are a few other traits/skills that are worth emphasizing as far as starting pitchers are concerned. These include the abilities to:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The Razzball Elite League – Now On Baseball!

February 16, 2016 | Our Leagues, Razzball Elite League | 196 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

Special Note: Thanks to everyone who showed interest and joined! Unfortunately, this league is now full. But we are taking a list of replacement owners for any unforeseen events that cause a vacancy in the comment section, so be sure to leave your info there…

Razzball Nation!

The Baseball Razzball Elite League is here!

Oh man, I haven’t been this excited since the Brewers traded for CC Sabathia. Has anyone thought back on the irony of CC playing for a team named about alcohol creation? Cust kayin’!

So over on Hoops, we’ve had a ton of fun creating The Razzball Elite League, made for the deepest of deep and faintest of heart. Or not the faintest… Don’t you not want faint?! Worst open ever!

I gotta say, commenters are my heroes. Who would’ve thought someone named Joey Jo Jo Jr Shabadoo would be the inspiration for what will easily become my favorite fantasy league?! But last year, seeing their league listed in a comment here, got my balls rolling. No, not dropping, OK?! Jo Jo Jr was my flash of genius in creating the REL Baseball League, but it may be my flash of overly-obfuscating, we shall see!

I’m not going to list out the full rules, since that would REALLY be the worst post ever. So here’s the Cliff’s [Lee] Notes – The Razzball Elite League is a team-based dynasty, where you have to ALWAYS own 15 players from your parent team’s roster. There’s obviously 30 MLB teams, so it’s a 30-team league, however split into 15-team AL only and 15-team NL only leagues. The two leagues are Roto, and play through the first 148 games. Then the final two weeks, the pennant winners of the AL and NL Roto leagues play each other in a H2H World Series. On top of your 15 player quota from your parent team you manage a full 25-man roster (with a lot of DL and a few NA spots) and manage a farm system with your parent team’s prospects. It’s going to be a fun way to blend real-life MLB situations (monitoring trade markets, tanking, contacts, etc.) with the standard 5×5 roto fantasy system.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Fantasy Baseball War Room Is Back

February 16, 2016 | 2016 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 236 Comments

by: Grey

By the title, I’m referring to the return of the Fantasy Baseball War Room. I’m not saying the Fantasy Baseball War Room is back, as in, is a butt. So, if Sir Mix-A-Lot is reading, I’m truly sorry for the confusion. Our Fantasy Baseball War Room is one part draft tool, one part fantasy team evaluator, one part fantasy junkie’s s’s and g’s tool, one part holy, two parts smokes, three parts… How many parts is that so far? Cause it’s only really seven parts total. I think there’s one part kill-your-day-with-this-war-room-thing-a-maboob in there too. After you’re done signing up for a Razzball Commenter League (oh, just sign up already!), this is the next step. Practice with building a team.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Podcast: “I Like How You Can Tell The Odor Between A Crunchy Cheeto And A Puffy Cheeto”

February 15, 2016 | All Podcasts | 8 Comments

by: JB Gilpin

The Razzball Pod is back! On today’s show we blitz through some minimal news from last week including the Mat Latos signing, but we spend the majority of our show wrapping up Grey’s infield ranks. We start with 2B and both really like Rougned Odor, Grey buries some vets, and then there’s nothing like digging deep into the SS pool! Maybe we should re-title the SS pool the Deadpool. We then wrap up with some 3B discussion and a new dynasty league announcement. If that’s not a reason to listen the whole way, then I dunno what is! Here’s our latest edition of the Razzball Baseball Podcast:

Download from iTunes

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Over the Greydar: Preliminary Thoughts

February 15, 2016 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 61 Comments

by: Max

Readers of Razzball, it is very likely, no it is certain, that all of you see sir Grey’s rankings as law. I know when I was a young Razzballer I looked at Grey the same way he looks at Giancarlo. Are his rankings undeniably the best out there? YES! I’m personally growing a mustache because of him and his writing is absolute. Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Where is this random dude we’ve never seen on Razzball Baseball going with this?”. Let me introduce myself. A few of you may know me as I wrote weekly articles for Razzball Football this past season under the tutelage of Mr. Tehol Beddict himself. I am the Razzball squire and demand respect! I hail from Montreal, Canada and I love me some maple syrup covered bacon for breakfast while listening to Celine Dion and touching up my igloo. Now, back to where this post started. Why did I bring Grey and his rankings up? Well, I will be performing the unenviable task of nit picking at Grey’s preseason rankings, from top to bottom. I will highlight players I believe are overvalued, overrated, etc., (the opposite goal of our Under the Greydar series.) Bonkers, I know! As Grey’s word is law, many Razzballer’s will be cussing me out and I CANNOT WAIT FOR IT. You are welcome to berate me in the comments below; I accept all challengers. Grey is about to wrap up his rankings, so we’ll start from the top and make our way down. We have just under two months before the season begins and encourage you to give the Anti-Grey a chance. I will make sure to provide relevant data and research, not just gut feel, for all you concerned. Usually I will open up with a fun story that caught my attention that week, but today you were blessed to learn about the Razzball squire and all of his preseasonal offerings. When the season begins, I will shift the focus of my posts, as I will have spent more than enough time blasting and fawning over Mr. Albright. Note: Grey doesn’t know who I am yet but he knows that some new mystery writer is foaming at the mouth to get in on the action. Today I will dissect a couple of his top-20 players…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2016 Razzball Commenter Leagues

February 15, 2016 | Our Leagues | 278 Comments

by: Grey

Happy Presidents Day, or as it will be known next year, King Trump Day. Since you’ve got the day off from that job you tell your wife you’re going to every day only to sit in the car beneath an underpass where they filmed 97% of last year’s True Detective, why not get your fantasy on? Not your fantasy where it’s you and that girl from high school in a tub of Alphabet Soup! That fantasy baseball fantasy! Because you know what would be really cool? If you could join a fantasy baseball league that was against, like, 1000 other fantasy baseball teams. But not a 1000-person league, where people are trying to figure out who the back-up third baseman is on the Single-A Astros affiliate, the Corpus Christi Amscrayers. No, this is a 12-person league designed so you compete against eleven other people in your league, then 90 other leagues of twelve. That would be cool. Oh, wait, we’ve done that. It’s called the Razzball Commenter Leagues, and they’re back, and you don’t even have to be a commenter to join it! For a limited time only, get your loved one a fantasy baseball league! That’s right, your hearts go pitter-patter or you’re dead on the inside (my condolences). Since back in June when you abandoned your fantasy baseball team because it was totally sucking and you returned to your cubbyhole of leftover Chinese food and Teddy Grahams, you’ve longed for this day. As Bob Marley sang, this is your redemption song, mon. Or womon, for our five girl readers. It’s time again to join some fantasy baseball leagues. Before you close all of your extraneous porn windows and rush to sign up, let’s explain how these fantasy baseball leagues are going to work. We’re going to have a bunch of leagues and crown a winner from each, then we’re going to crown ONE winner from all of the winners. We will be crowning the winner by taking each team’s points and multiplying it against a ‘league competitiveness factor.’ If you want to see how it worked last year, go here. (You’ll see a name up there that you might recognize as the eighth best — ME!) So we’re going to fill up as many fantasy leagues as we can for the next seven weeks. Each fantasy baseball league will be a mixed league, 12 team, snake draft, roto, 5×5, 5 OFs, one Middle Infielder, one Corner Infielder, one Utility, 9 pitchers, 20 game eligibility, 180 Games Started max, 1000 IP minimum. Like last year, we will again be going with TWO DL SLOTS. The only things you need to change from the default settings is the 180 Games Started and the TWO DL SLOTS. Please be vigilant about having the exact same league rules and setup as everyone else. The lineup is also known as: C/1B/2B/SS/3B/CI/MI/5 OF/UTIL/9 P/3 BENCH/2 DL with 180 Games Started and 1000 IP minimum. The fantasy leagues will be played in ESPN and they will be free to join.

We’re going to start with twenty leagues of 12 and see how we do from there. To join a league… Sorry, again for the people in the back of the room:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2016 Minor League Preview: Kansas City Royals

February 14, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 51 Comments

by: Geoff

It’s been a long time coming for the Kansas City Royals, but they finally tasted the sweet fizz of championship champagne last fall, and it was all due to Jonny Gomes. I’m not sure if you know this, but he’s the kind of guy you want to go to war with. Hacksaw Jonny musings aside, the Royals built a winner the old fashioned way. And by old fashioned I mean good drafting, solid player development, and excellent trading. In the process, they’ve graduated quite a few players onto their major league squad, traded some for established vets, and let others take the time needed to fully develop. The aftermath is there isn’t a ton of sexy fantasy prospects anymore, but the farm’s not barren, and there are some really intriguing players in the low minors. Dayton Moore and his constituents stuck to their philosophy, and in the end they’re the poster children for why prospects matter. Just ask Baseball America!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2016 Team Previews: Cleveland Indians

February 13, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 22 Comments

by: M@

tuxes

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…Matt Lyons, to provide his take on what the team has in store this season. Now enough rambling, let’s see what 2016 holds for the Cleveland Indians!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Bullpen Report: Draft Day Holds and Cuffs

February 12, 2016 | Middle Relievers | 37 Comments

by: Smokey

What if I told you that the top-four teams last year in Holds didn’t make the playoffs? I know the obvious answer would be: it’s a made-up stat that does nothing but clog a fantasy roster with fodder and otherwise un-rosterable relievers. Well, if you said that out loud, then I am mad at you and you can not come to the Razzball Winter Dance Carnival. No, but seriously, I get offended when people make such determinations. Listen, you are either in a league that uses Holds or you aren’t. Not all of these guys is basically like having a second doorstop (when one doorstop will do). Many of these guys are usable in most formats as ratio gaps in K/9, looking for cheap wins or for a slow day of waiver wire madness. My theory on any league is to roster any two relievers that are non-closers at all times. At worst, they decimate your rates for one day. At best they give you an inning or two and give you great rates and a few K’s. Now, for Holds leagues, I am a hoarder. I live by this simple motto. Two pairs and a wild, just like five-card poker. It stands for two closers, two stud holds guys, and a streamer. In moves leagues, it’s a little more difficult to do, but in non-move limited league, it’s a fun way to just basically win your Holds category by August, save yourself the innings/starts and then stream the holy hell out of the last seven weeks. So since you have searched around the web and found zero other info on the topic (yeah, I looked, so take that), here are the holds tiers and sleepers for the 2016 year.

“A Hold is credited any time a relief pitcher enters a game in a Save Situation, records at least one out, and leaves the game never having relinquished the lead. Note: a pitcher cannot finish the game and receive credit for a Hold, nor can he earn a hold and a save.” ~ The edited out part of the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 500 for 2016 Fantasy Baseball

February 12, 2016 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 311 Comments

by: Grey

A mere year ago this was a top 400 for fantasy baseball. A mere few years ago before those years ago, this was a top 300 for fantasy baseball. Before that, it was 16 AD and I was rolling with Jesus to this deli that had great matzoh ball soup. In a few years from now, this is going to be a top 10,000 and I’m going to be ranking Mike Trout Jr. Jr. Jr. the 15th. Today, in this year, sixteen after twenty, comes the top 500 for 2016 fantasy baseball. Flippin’, right? Or as I like to call it, from Mike Trout A to chimpanzee. Actually, I don’t like to call it that. So, this post isn’t meant to send shockwaves through your system. The pipe cleaner that the doctor uses to get the clogged Cheeto out of your artery is meant for that. This is simply to give you an idea of where guys are ranked in relation to other positions. I.e., you know I like Jean Segura better than Ketel Marte, according to the top 20 shortstops, but do I like Segura better than Lucas Duda? Okay, it’s not that simply. You’ll notice towards the last top hundred there’s a ton of pitchers clumped together and a ton of outfielders. I might be the only fantasy baseball ‘pert to tell you this, but it doesn’t matter where, say, Yangervis Solarte is ranked vs. Rick Porcello. If you need a pitcher, Solarte isn’t going to help you. He can be ranked 75 spots in front of Porcello and it doesn’t matter. That’s why I have the 2016 fantasy baseball rankings broken down by positions. If you need a 2nd baseman, where Scooter Gennett is vs. Kolten Wong matters, but where Scooter vs. Jay Bruce really doesn’t matter. Also, there’s no comments about players, which you really should know prior to drafting. In other words, Mark Trumbo might be in the early 100s overall, but am I drafting him? Well, you’d know if you read the top 20 1st basemen. There’s also a top 100 for 2016 fantasy baseball to help you. Along shortly will be a Fantasy Baseball War Room and a pitchers pairing tool. Anyway, here’s the top 500 for 2016 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?