I joined Funston, Behrens, Pianowski, Dalton Del Don, Not The Noise (someone drafted using Brad Evans name, but it wasn’t him), Rudy, Paul Singman and others. Since Singman writes for us now, we’re up to three writers in the Friends & Family draft held at Yahoo. Within ten years, it’s going to be 14 Razzball writers vs. Funston, and Funston will prolly still win after only drafting Howie Kendrick. I’m not being entirely facetious, Razzball’s results in this league have been less-than-stellar. I don’t mention this to be modest — modesty’s for nuns! — I tell you this to preamble my reasons for drafting Billy Hamilton. I feel like my Friends & Family mojo is leaking oil, the carburetor is coughing up fumes and I’m on the side of the road, with my skirt hiked up, and no one’s stopping. So, I decided to draft someone I have never drafted before and paid full price, to boot! (By the by, when I go to Italy, I like to shout, “To boot!”) Well, enough about me, more about my team! Anyway, here’s my 15-team, 5×5, roto, Friends & Family fantasy baseball draft:
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The Numbers Game: Power and Speed
March 19, 2015 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 64 Commentsby: Big Magoo
It’s no secret that offense has been in decline across the board in major league baseball in recent years. It seems like only, uh, 17 years ago that the race was on to see who could break Roger Maris’ single season home run record. Last season, only Nelson Cruz reached the 40 HR mark and just ten other players managed to knock 30 out of the park. Remember Vince Coleman’s string of three consecutive 100+ steal seasons from ’85-’87? No? Too young, eh? If you’re familiar with the video game R.B.I. Baseball for the original 8-bit Nintendo, he’s the guy who’s able to steal bases at will. It was basically the same deal in real life. Pretty darn impressive feat, especially when you consider the fact that only four players reached the 40 SB mark last year.
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Second base is a solid position in OBP leagues and you can find standouts across the board and throughout the top-20. I have a few guys I am targeting heavily in drafts for the keystone, as well as MI positions, as I tend to end up with a second baseman there too. The top-5 in OBP looks a lot like most rankings: Robinson Cano .382, Jose Altuve .377, Ben Zobrist .354, (Anthony Rendon if eligible .351), Howie Kendrick .347, and Brian Dozier .345. There are also a couple of names left off of this list that are pretty consistently in the top 5 ranks: Ian Kinsler .307, and Dee Gordon .326 (but more on him later.) Here are a few guys I am targeting and one player, who was a surprising breakout last year, that I’m avoiding…
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2015 NL Central Spring Training Preview
March 19, 2015 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 5 Commentsby: waterloo
Do we know look at the Pittsburgh Pirates as a true contender instead of the team that had 20 straight losing seasons? For the most part, yes, but there are still skeptics out there. For the first time in a long time, the Pirates entered Spring Training with no real position battles…yet. The team surprised brass around baseball when they walked away the winner in the Jung-ho Kang bidding, but as of now, the powerful Korean [Jay’s Note: Hey, that’s my nickname!] is going to back up Jordy Mercer at short and Josh Harrison at third base…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Alex Cobb left his start the other day with forearm tightness, but he’s not concerned. “Not concerned with forearm tightness” is now the number two reason for Tommy John surgery. Number one is “torn UCL.” The number three reason is “I feel great!” If we have one more pitcher say, “I feel great,” without someone else saying they’re “not concerned with forearm tightness,” then it will be a dead heat and could come down to Tanaka’s translator chiming in with how Masahiro feels. A pitcher and manager’s reporting on an arm issue is like reading a Yelp review written by the owner of the restaurant. “I didn’t know scalloped potatoes could be so sublime!” And I didn’t know I had to avoid every other starter in drafts, but here we are. Cobb says he should only miss his Opening Day start, but I’ve lowered Cobb way down in my top 400 and into my top 60 starters to a tier where I would not draft him. There’s enough to worry about when drafting a team, don’t get too cute with “Well, so-and-so fell so far I figured I’d give him a chance even though his arm is dangling at every joint.” Anyway, here’s what else I saw in spring training for fantasy baseball:
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DraftKings: What Is This ‘Daily Fantasy’ You Speak Of?
March 18, 2015 | DraftKings | 71 Commentsby: Sky
The world that you live in is now over. Oh God, what have we done?!? I knew we should’ve recycled more! Hrm, maybe that was too dramatic of an intro for the regular reader. But I do agree, you should recycle more. Lots of states give you 5 cents back on those beer bottles, it’s totally worth it. Except those Bud bottles; yes, I’m blatantly judging you. But more to the point, the fantasy sports industry is a’changin’ and Razzball has been in on this shift in landscape since 2013 when JB first offered people a million crappy sandwiches. Believe me, the prizes have improved since then, I swear! For real, though, we’ve been talking Daily Fantasy Sports for the last couple of years and if you haven’t joined the fray, I’m gonna give you as many reasons why to below. But not just any DFS site, of course. That’s like saying you potty trained your kid and now your bathroom looks like Jackson Pollock was only given yellow to paint with. Nah, we gonna hone in that target by sending you to DraftKings. If you’ve never played, that link is where you start. By signing up through us for DK, you get a free ticket into what’s called a Moonshot. That’s a tourney. Don’t worry if you’re already getting lost, we’ll get you ready to go before the season starts so stick with us. This tourney has a $100K prize pool and top prize is $10K. Just think how much leeway with your wife and your obsession over fantasy that could buy. But of course, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. You wanna hear a bit more about this game before you dive in and dive in we shall. So here’s how your bankroll gonna get swole by playing Daily Fantasy on DraftKings for 2015 Fantasy Baseball…
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What is there not to love about Mike Trout? I know. The fact that I don’t own him in any of my keeper leagues and the chances of me owning him in any of my other leagues is slim. In order to do so I’d have to have the first pick of the first round. Or would the second pick be good enough to land me Trout? Dare I suggest the idea of drafting Clayton Kershaw ahead of Trout in head-to-head points leagues? The thought of not taking Trout with the first pick is one that only Dom Cobb could plant in your subconscious. But would it be such a terrible decision? Let’s look at the numbers.
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2015 Minor League Preview: Houston Astros
March 18, 2015 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 69 Commentsby: Mike
Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America
2014 (5) | 2013 (9) | 2012 (17) | 2011 (26) | 2010 (30)
2014 Affiliate Records
MLB: [70-92] AL West
AAA: [74-70] Pacific Coast League – Oklahoma City (2015: Fresno)
AA: [67-73] Texas League – Corpus Christi
A+: [78-62] California League – Lancaster
A: [70-69] Midwest League – Quad Cities
A(ss): [48-28] New York-Penn League – Tri-City
Graduated Prospects
George Springer, OF | Jon Singleton, 1B | Jake Marisnick, OF (from Marlins) | Collin McHugh, RHP
The Gist
This is a fun system for fantasy prospects and reminds me of the Rangers’ farm with a stud building block, toolsy outfielders, and a couple of nice arms to round things out. The Astros have talented young players surfacing on the major league team as well, with George Springer entering his sophomore season and Jake Marisnick in the mix for an outfield gig. I like Marisnick as a sleeper this year, as he’s always had that 20/20 type of profile and now finds himself in a better park for hitting. Jon Singleton needs some polish after hitting just .168 in his rookie year, but I’m still buying the 23-year-old in dynasties thanks to his power potential. Mike Foltynewicz and Rio Ruiz would have both been towards the top half of this list prior to being traded to Atlanta.
We (me) have gone over the catchers, 2nd basemen, shortstops and 3rd basemen to target. Last year, I dedicated this post to one player. I started last year’s post with, “Ahoy, all of youse that are apathetic about Michael Brantley, what follows is a one long love letter to said player, because, really, someone has to!” And that’s me rubbing it in your face that you didn’t listen to me. Sorry, that was petty, said Tom as he filed a lawsuit against Sam Smith. You know who I’m caca-cuckoo on this year? Same first name, same skill set, same set of worries, Michael “Be Mine” Saunders. It should be fun (for me) next year when I point out I tried to get y’all to draft Saunders, but no one wanted any part of him, until, of course, it was too late. Sad story (for you). (By the by, in last year’s outfielder sleeper post: Brantley, Ozuna, Yelich, Springer, Calhoun and Corey Dickerson.) Okay, so this post is all the outfielders that are being drafted after 200 overall that I have uber-sexy feelings for. Now, this is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Canada) supplement to the top 100 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2015 projections. Anyway, here’s some outfielders to target for 2015 fantasy baseball:
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Rudy’s 2015 Tout Wars Team
March 17, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Our Leagues | 99 Commentsby: Rudy Gamble
Thanks to the fantasy baseball sabbatical of our longtime pal Nick Minnix, the Tout Wars Mixed League (15-team, snake draft) had an extra spot for good ol’ Rudy. Grey is also in the league (his draft review here) which gives Razzball two chances to win and me three chances to beat Grey in a 2015 league (RCL and Yahoo Friends & Family the other two). It is also the 3rd straight expert draft (LABR Mixed, CBS AL) that fellow Austinite Paul Sporer was in the same draft as me. So I have the opportunity for two hat tricks this year (or to be hat tricked….grr, pessimistic parentheticals).
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If there were a Guinness World Records for fantasy baseball (not to be confused with Guinness beer, much to my chagrin), we’d break the entire book. For you, the readers, have answered (well, nearly) my call for 100 Razzball Commenter Leagues. This is truly a historic moment to be remembered for all eternity. Well, for the next few weeks at least. As of this writing, we are at 95 total leagues, which goes to show you not just how much support the community has offered, but also speaks to the growth of Razzball itself. Last season, we barely had 75 leagues. The year before that? 50ish. True, it’s not something you can truly use as a marker to tell you what direction we’re all going in, but let’s call it an arbitrary rough estimate. Now I’m calling on you fans of mustache and sarcasm to join the remaining leagues that are open. You no longer have to create & commish (the two c’s of life, as they call it…who they are, I have no idea, but let’s just go with it), but instead, just simply join. That’s it. Join a league and you’re done. And there are a bunch left to choose from, money leagues, ones hosted by our very own contributors, and ones that are hosted by readers like yourself. While it might matter in the micro, remember, this is a macro competition, a universal way to assert fantasy baseball dominance. Join now, and assert your dominance. Assert it.
Please, blog, may I have some more? 2015 AL Central Spring Training Preview
March 17, 2015 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 12 Commentsby: waterloo
Let’s head on over to our friends in the American League Central to see which position battles they have going on during Spring Training.
First, in Cleveland, Brandon Moss will bring his power bat to Jaco…I mean, Progressive Field. Moss will look to prove his success in Oakland is who the real Moss is, not the one that Pirates’ fans dealt with. I’m not bitter, I promise.
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