Drafting or trading for Troy Tulowitzki isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, whenever I find myself on the clock on draft day and his name is staring back at me from the list of available players, this scene usually comes to mind. Just take a look at his games played totals over the past three years: 47, 126, 91. That’s 264 games out of 486 that he managed to stay healthy for. Yikes. That sounds about as reliable as day-old fast food that’s been sitting out on the kitchen counter. But oh the potential rewards that can come with taking that plunge (on Tulo, not the congealed burgers). Over that three year span from 2012-14, Tulo finished in the top 5 among all qualified MLB hitters in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage, as well as 3rd in OPS (.950) and wOBA (.408) behind only Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout. Needless to say, he led all MLB shortstops in each of those categories by significant margins. Tulo could always be counted on to produce at an elite level when healthy. So what’s wrong with him this season? Have all of the injuries finally caught up to him?
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Closer Report, Week 9: You can Spell Melancon Without a K
June 4, 2015 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 49 Commentsby: Smokey
For a few days it’s been all quiet on the closer front. Usually in the lede, I talk about a change in regime and the pluses/minuses and my opinion on it. There hasn’t been one for two whole weeks… It’s crazy. MLB is putting me outta business in the jibing about fantasy closers market. Where does the unemployment line start? I am only half kidding, and I’m also half crazy too. So that makes me half-something. So believe it or not, the season is officially 3/8 of the way over. That is just crazy in itself to even fathom. I think I have rambled on about nothing long enough… let’s talk about someone, anyone, shall we? I like the rebound to form that Mark Melancon has shown, due to a K/9 of 4.68. I haven’t seen a true one-outcome reliever before, but if you own him, I would sell for a better product. You can probably get by on two things in your favor. One, his name uses letters that can be read in a left-to-right format, which, from what I am understanding, is standard for reading purposes. Two, he has 6 saves in the last two weeks and when people look to see how he has been doing, they will see that he is tied for the lead during that time frame in saves. Listen, if you need saves and you own Melancon, I am not saying go out and sell him cause I said so. I am saying swap him and a extra player and see if you can get an improvement on the K category. The other owner will be so smitten that he got a closer and another player for just a closer, he won’t realize that he was jobbed. Side note, make sure he doesn’t read this blurb first or the jig is up. Stick around more snippets of informative justice are on the way…
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Quick, who leads the Colorado Rockies in hits? How about batting average? And most importantly for this column, who leads the Rockies in OBP?
If you said Troy Tulowitzki or Nolan Arenado, you’d be wrong. If you said Carlos Gonzalez, you’d be really wrong. The correct answer is D.J. LeMahieu. LeMahieu has been one of the Rockies best batters to start the season and, after a bit of a production dip, has started to hit well again. Walt Weiss has begun experimenting with LeMahieu in the 2-hole, which in a decent Rockies lineup, could lead to some runs. I wouldn’t go out of my way to acquire him, but if he is available on the wire or if someone is wanting to deal him, he is worth the look. His .394 OBP is not sustainable (career .322), but even a marginal slide backwards would be serviceable in most leagues at second base.
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Let me start by saying that for once, I’m not going to complain about the Thursday slate. Weird, I know. There are only seven games today, but after messing around with the slate and pricing, I’m pretty pleased with the options tonight.
But see one of those options, can’t be called that. No, instead, we have to call him mandatory. Tournament, cash, side bet with Grandma — it doesn’t matter. It is Matt Harvey day, and while it’s lost its luster the past two times out, he’s a must for today’s slate.
Straight to the cash, homie.
New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well try out this 20 teamer of Razzball writers and friends 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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Pike Place Now Selling Filet Of Trumbo
June 4, 2015 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 707 Commentsby: Grey
To paraphrase Collective Soul, “Diamondbacks, your cup runneth over with outfielders. Don’t scream about! Don’t think aloud! Trade an outfielder now, baby! Just spit him out! Don’t worry about! Don’t speak of doubt! Turn your organization’s head and spit Trumbo out!” From Collective Soul’s website (that was surprisingly not a Geocities site or Myspace), they’re still touring. Coming to a church bingo hall near you! So, the Mariners acquired Mark Trumbo and Vidal Nuno for Welington Castillo, Dominic Leone, Jack Reinheimer and Gabby Guerrero. During one of the games I took in at spring training this year, I screamed at Guerrero, “Hey, number ninety-two,” because I had no idea who he was and the media guide only went up to ninety-one. Then I jawed at Guerrero for about ten minutes, giving him a little taste of some major league heckling. Now that I realize who he was, it turns out we were both Gabby. This doesn’t do anything major to anyone’s value. Diamondbacks were one of the best team offenses in this little thing we call reality, so if anything, Trumbo takes the smallest of hits. Park-wise, Mark can be Trumbomb or Trumboner anywhere, so I’m not concerned. The ones that get the biggest value boost here are David Peralta (2-for-5, 1 run, 2 RBIs) and Castillo. Welington relocates his boeuf to the desert and becomes an everyday catcher with 15-homer power and a .270 average. Definitely grab him in NL-Only and two-catcher leagues. Peralta will have a chance to prove himself, but he’s more of a 14-homer, 8-steal guy, so nothing huge. This does stop the Diamondbacks from benching A.J. Pollock (2-for-4, 2 runs, 7th homer, and 2nd in as many games; grab him!), Ender Inciarte (0-for-5) and Yasmany Tomas (3-for-5, 2 runs, 1 RBI) when Jake Lamb returns. Or as Lamb would say, “Not baaaaah for either team.” Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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All hail his grace, Tehol of House Beddict and House Razzball, first of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of Fantasy Baseball, and Protector of the Realm.
Come, sit with me at the fire pit while we witness Grey, Lord of Light, burn another traitor at the stake. Ahhhh, I love a good BBQ, don’t you? Rudy Gamble, Warden of the Norh, is here, rambling on and on about how statistics show that gelded men are superior warriors. Oh Sky, I’m truly sorry. The theory HAD to be tested. Sending the High Sparrow, Jay Wrong, to bring you up on false charges, imprison you for 2 and ½ months, feeding you gruel, and b*tch slapping you with the ladel every time you got mouthy was a tad over the top, but hey, I’m a King, and am extremely busy. Kind of forgot you were in there. J-FOH, bring me another glass of red wine with a wildfire floater, would you? And no lip this time. I don’t want to have to feed your spleen to the direwolves. Really, J-FOH, you can be quite mouthy. RAAAAAAAAAALPH, by “the 7”, you are a right lackadaisical bastard. Were you touched by a stone man recently, or were you just sucking the pipe with Ser Smokey again? I REQUESTED my armor removed over 20 minutes ago. Oh, imagined I’d enjoy roasting by the fire, sweating my kingly balls off, did you? Don’t make your King command Grand Maester Mike to lace your milk of the poppy with donkey urine again. That brings to mind the time my Dragon, Dom Brown, the Dread, almost choked to death on the last assassin who dared make an attempt on my life. [As always, Game of Thrones spoilers ahead!]
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This is part two in what is a very special mini-series exploring the St. Louis Cardinals’ “Gas House Gang”. You can read part one here. The story continues…
Left to right: Johnny Mize, Curt Davis, Lon Warneke, Terry Moore, and Joe Medwick.
Most of the starters were sick of the Deans. The favorite refrain, repeated endlessly over the course of the season, “Them Giants don’t have a pig’s chance in winter of beatin’ me and Paul.” Perhaps the pitcher who took the most offense at the braggadocio was Jean Otto “Tex” Carleton. Carleton, like Frisch, was a college grad. He had a naturally truculent disposition and was looking for trouble most of the time. He was deeply resentful of the Deans, predicting that they wouldn’t last in the Bigs.
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Razznasty League Update: J-FOH’s Power Brings May Flowers
June 3, 2015 | Our Leagues | 112 Commentsby: Mike
Entering June, it’s becoming a two-horse race between Hannibal Montana (Csifu) and Razzball’s own J-FOH in our dynasty league – the Razznasty. There’s a group duking it out behind them, but both teams have pretty much dominated the league so far. Since our last update, J-FOH has pulled away from R’azbahl Al Ghul and closed the gap on Csifu’s first-place lead. Csifu’s squad continues to pitch incredibly well with an absurd 2.56 team ERA. J-FOH leads the league in homers (by 18), and has gone toe to toe with Csifu in wins and saves. His 3.04 team ERA is good for second in the league while his WHIP is sitting third. Somehow these two teams managed to avoid the starterpocalypse and forgot to invite the rest of us into their bunker. Read on for a look at the full standings, this month’s trades, and our league’s FAAB report.
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It’s the oldest trick in DFS. Blah blah blah Rockies blah blah blah Coors blah blah blah all the money. It’s true. If you are the type to play multiple lineups in a day (as I do in low dollar contests), it behooves you to follow the blah blah and build a Rockies stack, as well as their opponent. Right now, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers, the same early season juggernaut that sees them second in road wOBA and tops overall against RHP.
Sometimes the Coors stack goes awry, but not in this series. It’s been some delicious soft serve home runs for many of the participants, largely due to the usual questionable Rockies pitching. Now Wednesday starter Chad Bettis has been better than most Rockies starters. After all, he does sport a spiffy 3.42 SIERA, which isolates the actual skills of the pitchers. He also has missed 10% of the bats he’s faced so far this season, a good measure of the man. Same for the other side, where Michael Bolsinger has surprised, sporting a shiny 3.14 SIERA of his own.
(Sidenote: For comparison sake, Corey Kluber has a 2.45 SIERA, Chris Sale a 3.08 and Mark Buehrle is saddled with a 4.64 number.)
So does that mean you shy away from the game? By no means! There are some excellent bats to target, provided they are playing. In the interest of staying away from this obvious stack below the weekly DraftKings contest invite, here are the names I am tracking for the game today, presented without comment:
Michael McKenry, C: $3,400
Ben Paulsen, 1B: $3,300
Alexander Guerrero, 3B/OF: $3,700
Andre Ethier, OF: $4,400
Joc Pederson, OF: $5,100
The other guys, like Troy Tulowitzki, Nolan Arenado and Adrian Gonzalez, I would love to roster and with some of the picks below, maybe you can fit them in without sacrificing starting pitching. Good luck!
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Please, blog, may I have some more?Finally, the phrase ‘riding my jock’ could be used in the Dodgers’ clubhouse without referencing Alyssa Milano. Joc Pederson went 1-for-3, 2 RBIs with his 15th homer in the 1st game of the doubleheader, then 2-for-5, 2 RBIs with his 16th homer in the 2nd game of the doubleheader. He now has a .260 average to go with the 16 homers and 2 steals. Oh, bee tee dubya, he has 30-steal speed, we just haven’t seen it yet! I don’t even own him and he makes me goose pimply and go humma-humma-humma and get warm and fuzzy and make me want to dip my hand into wax and walk into Madame Tussaud’s and say, “I’m Tom Selleck from the third floor.” How is it even possible I like a guy I don’t own? Am I getting empathic unlike Alice in Luther? This isn’t coming out of nowhere either. He had the PCL’s first and only 30/30 year in 2014. First time in 80 years someone had done that in the PCL. Not since Trout has a player gone from rookie to the first round, but this Joc has the tools! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
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One Man’s Trash: E-Rod Juices Up the Radar Gun
June 2, 2015 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 73 Commentsby: Big Magoo
Eduardo Rodriguez (+38.9%) was the most added player in fantasy baseball this past week, and it’s not hard to see why. For those of you who Googled the words fantasy, hard, and rod and ended up here, perhaps you’d like to stick around and check out this fantasy baseball thing. Or you could just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Rated R GIFs of Sexy Celebs ad. Your choice! As far as Mr. Rodriguez goes, his big league debut against the Rangers last week couldn’t have gone much better for the 22-year-old. The young lefty threw 7 2/3 shutout innings while registering 7 strikeouts during the outing. Perhaps most impressively, his average fastball velocity of 95.0 mph (according to the Brooks Baseball PITCHf/x game report) would place him 10th among all qualified MLB starting pitchers and 1st among lefties. Of course, it’s just one start, and his minor league numbers show that he can be prone to occasional bouts of wildness, but E-Rod looked pretty impressive on this day. If he’s available in your league, grab him while you still can. No guarantees here, but loads of fantasy upside. And I’m not talking to you, Googlers. Gross! Here were a couple of other big adds and drops in fantasy baseball from this past week:
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Did you guys seriously think I was doing a theme based on the 1980 classic film 9 to 5? Now don’t get me wrong, I have seen that movie more times than I care to admit. Working for Grey is like working for Dabney Coleman in the movie. Damn, I miss Dabney, always enjoyed his work (here is my top five movies of his in no particular order: 1,2,3,4,5). I’m not even going to go down how the other writers fit into that cast. Okay, twist my arm why don’t you… if I must, Tehol is Dolly Parton for obvious reasons, Sky is Lily Tomlin with that big brain of his and I’m Jane Fonda. Wait, no, I mean Jay is Jane, Fonda because he has silky smooth skin. [Jay’s Note: I do.] I’ll be Margaret, the drunk wise cracker. Hey, I can’t be doing this, I said I wouldn’t I have some update issues to discuss. You have to excuse the mess above, I get sidetracked more than a meth head with ADHD. This week we won’t be having the weekly leaders due to some computer issues. I apologize for that, and hopefully they will return next week. If you had a good week, then please share in the comments… or if you’re SteveNZ, share if you had a bad week. That guy is always having a bad week. Instead of the weekly leaders, I’ll be highlighting the category counting stats leaders for the first third of the season, as I feel a need to show love to more people. My therapist says its good for my anger issues. That guy is a pain in my ass.
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