For the first time since I can remember (which isn't that long really, thanks vodka) I added far more players back to the list than I took off. Huzzah! It felt good to not have to scrap for back-end-non-difference-makers. We even got Michael Kopech, finally! It even sounds like Eduardo Rodriguez should be back this week, although the same cannot be said about teammate Chris Sale or not-teammate James Paxton. Michael Fulmer returned after a lengthy absence and tossed 4.2 scoreless innings, which gives me hope that down the stretch he can pitch more like the player we expected back in March. Dylan Bundy, unfortunately, put up another dud and is completely off the list. You simply cannot deploy him right now. Here are some of the other notable starters from this past week of action.
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Guess I pointed you to the wrong White Sox prospect in Friday's
Buy. Hahaha, no. I didn't. I pointed you to a top hitting prospect that can help you this year.
Michael Kopech is a rookie pitcher. A boneheaded one. He used to date the daughter of the crazy white lady from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, then he started that girl from Riverdale, and I guess when I say Kopech is boneheaded, I should explain I wouldn't mind boneheading like him. Yo dude is a baller! He's also legit dopey. At one point, he broke his hand by punching his teammate. This guy has years of ridiculousness headed our way, and we should be grateful for that. As grateful because he's the top pitching prospect on Prospect Ralph's
top 500 fantasy baseball prospects, and PR's said, "Kopech is in my opinion the top 'fantasy baseball' pitching prospect in the game. What I mean by that is, on, say, a mainstream list (see: BA, BP, BABP, Fangraphs, etc.) they’ll focus more on the risk vs. upside balance. Me, I’m going upside, as you always should with pitching prospects in fantasy. Kopech has the potential to lead MLB in strikeouts one day, with his plus-plus triple digit fastball that runs in on righties, a plus slider that flashes plus-plus at times, and an improving changeup. Kopech has all-world stuff, unlike Grey who has all-stupid stuff." What the hell, brah?! Real world comparison, Kopech is Syndergaard with command issues right now, but those could clear up quickly; he's only 22. He's a grab in all leagues, but as I said in the opening, rookie pitchers provide headaches, so expectations in Czech. (Damn, should've never bought that discounted Siri.) Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Psyche! Before we get into the roundup, just wanted to point out our
fantasy football leagues are currently signing up, you have a one in three shot of winning $250 (odds may vary depending on if you're calculating odds correctly.) Anyway II, the roundup:
I typically come in here flinging jokes and happiness around like a monkey with his poo, but this week I'm distraught. This list is decimated. As most of you know by now, I don't rank injured players, and with that angle there are plenty of shlubs at the back end of the list that are barely rosterable even in deep mixers. At this point, I can't even just say that about the back end. The grossness keeps rising. This week alone we've lost (take a biiiiig breath): Chris Sale, Trevor Bauer, James Paxton, Ross Stripling, Kenta Maeda (to the pen), Tyler Skaggs, Jeremy Hellickson, Dereck Rodriguez, Marcus Stroman, Mike Montgomery, and Carlos Martinez (to the pen like Maeda). To make matters worse, we are approaching September when virtually no one is placed on the DL - they just get skipped. That reminds me of what Big Pun's catchphrase would be if he were a pitcher; instead of "I ain't a player I just crush a lot" he would tell folks "I ain't on the DL I just get skipped a lot". Catchy tune. So anyway, it's pretty hard to trust anyone on this list beyond the top 15, and I just can't remember a year when pitching was this bad. But we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!!
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Rick Porcello said of his catcher, Sandy Leon, "He's the best catcher I've ever thrown to. Period." It's a shame people don't end include other forms of punctuation when speaking. "I am the Red Sox ace. Question mark. No, I forgot about Chris Sale. Period. Actually, exclamation mark. The best Red Sox pitchers. Colon. Not Bartolo. Period. I'm going to list them. Period. Okay. Comma. Damn. Comma. I apostrophe V-E confused myself." Yesterday, Porcello threw a sparkler -- 7 IP, 2 hits, 0 walks, 1 ER, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.04, and roped a double to right, which is fun in a dog on rollerblades-type way, but is kinda irrelevant. What's less irrelevant, Rick Porcello is pitching better this year than his Cy Young year, though with less ERA to show for it, obviously. That could change in the final six weeks if he finds his groove. Period. Ya know what, exclamation mark. Strike that, interrobang. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
This week...was a project. I had to miss last week (although I did get to run into Johan Santana and Rod Carew at Target Field...you know, NBD) so there was a lot to catch up on this time out. I also have to qualify that with only a handful of weeks left in the season, you can take these ranks to be more fluid than in the past. The vast majority reading this are in standard 10-12 team mixed leagues. In those leagues, you can pretty much stream plus matchups with anyone outside of the top 60 and worry less about the actual ranking. Take full advantage of the Streamonator. Pick on the worst offensive squads in baseball - the White Sox, Orioles, Mets, Royals, Padres, Marlins, and Tigers are punching bags. Even the Reds, Giants, and Twins have been bad over the second half thus far, and sure aren't going anywhere fast.
We have unfortunately lost Johnny Cueto for the season with Tommy John, and we're still a ways off from the return of Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Martinez, Yu Darvish, or Michael Fulmer. Oh, and another qualifier: the Rays are making this list harder for me to make with this whole "Opener" business. I obviously have Blake Snell on the list, but I'm gonna go ahead and treat their long relievers that actually go fiveish innings as starters. Yonny Chirinos and the newly acquired Tyler Glasnow make the list, though their roles are somewhat murky. Fantasy-wise it's actually a bit of an advantage for these guys as far as accumulating wins. Fewer starters than ever in MLB are going 5+ innings to qualify for the win; with the Opener taking care of the first inning, all the other guys have to do is toss four innings to qualify for the dub. There's a lot of new blood on the list this week, so rather than spending time with some of the risers and fallers, we'll peep the newbs. That's as cool as my slang gets, by the way.
We’ve got ourselves a pretty decent sized Thursday slate here on FanDuel tonight. Thursday always seems to be a bit hit or miss, but tonight is a hit. None of that four game slate stuff, that’s for the birds, we have a full nine games tonight and plenty of fun to be had. We have aces galore, GPP plays and the start of a four game Sawx vs. Yanks set. The only thing missing is a Coors field game. In lieu of that, let’s crack your favorite cold one and dive into some DFS picks. Thursday is the unofficial start of the weekend after all and what better way to get the weekend rolling then winning some cash?
New to FanDuel? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well, be sure to read our content and subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays. Just remember to sign up through us before jumping into the fray. It’s how we know you care!
I've gotta say, it's nice to have a full week's worth of games to work with. Last week felt a little like picking nits, and I'm nary a nitpicker. One thing I still would like to see though IS SOME FRIGGIN CALL UPS. It's been quite a while since we've had even a couple of mid-level names like Shane Bieber or Freddy Peralta called up. You haven't really even got any value from uber-prospect Walker Buehler since early June. It would be nice to infuse some new blood into this list, but we do have a fair bit of moving and shaking to discuss. We did see two impressive debuts in back-to-back days for the Cardinals in Daniel Poncedeleon and Austin Gomber. For our purposes however, I don't think there's much there. Poncedeleon was a fine conquistador of the minors, but is a low upside option as a starter and appears to be headed to the pen anyway. The same can likely be said of Gomber with Carlos Martinez supposedly back this week, although he makes for a more interesting starter if they were to stretch him out. There are at least some veterans that have crept on to the back end of the list to mix things up. I mentioned Homer Bailey in yesterday's Two Startapalooza, whose fastball is up to 95 after a couple months on the DL, and he tossed his slider and curve more with good results. I'd like to write up Stroman, but there isn't that much to say. I couldn't tell you the last time he cracked the list, but he's been solid over the last month or so, so despite the total lack of strikeouts he's in the 90's. Unfortunately, Stephen Strasburg is back on the DL (shocker) with neck issues. He returned long enough to torpedo your ratios for a week, so that's nice. Here are some of this week's newcomers, risers, and fallers.
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Yesterday, Daniel Poncedeleon was called up and threw no hitter (thru seven innings and then was pulled from game while striking out three hitters, but it's more fun to say he threw a no-hitter, so ignore this). Incredibly, Poncedeleon is 478 years old, and he could be the ROY. *intern whispers in my ear* That's an F? What the hell is, 'He could be a FOY?' The fountain of the year? What are you talking about? Rookie of the youth? What are you talking about? Sorry, having a miscommunication with my intern. Any hoo! In Triple-A, he had a 10.1 K/9 -- up my giddy! -- a 4.7 BB/9 -- put my roll on slow! -- a 2.15 ERA -- getting the fever! -- with a 4.99 xFIP -- so I'm taking some 'Tussin. He might surprise some major league lineups, but he could easily go out and destroy you. By the way, Bartolo Colon is so intent on 300 wins that he might follow Poncedeleon wherever he goes. On the reals, Poncedeleon's dad in the stands after his son threw seven no-hit innings gave me the feels, especially when you figure his dad has to be at least 498 years old. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Considering there has only been one full night of games since I penned the last Top 100, there was more movement than I had figured there would be. I'm not one to rest on my laurels, you see. What the hell does that phrase mean, anyway? Isn't a laurel like a Christmas wreath? Maybe I've just seen Blazing Saddles too many times. Many phrases don't make sense though, if you think about them. How did "cut the mustard" become a phrase, for example? Nobody has ever cut mustard in the history of time. Unless they're snorting lines of mustard off of their coffee table, I guess. Even when I freeze my mustard, I put it in an ice cube tray so it's already separated and I don't have to cut it before melting it upon my wiener. Think ahead a little, people. Mmm. Um, anyway, there are some pitchers to discuss. Eduardo Rodriguez, a top 30 starter according to last week's list, is gone for at least a month due to ligament damage in his ankle. Jeff Samardjiza went back on the DL as quickly as he came off it, and I really wish he would just stay healthy but be bland so I can stop writing his confounding name. Carlos Martinez continues to be a headache and is back on the DL again. I don't rank injured starters, so even though it sounds like a brief DL stint, I'm leaving him off for this week. His last stint was supposed to be a lot shorter than it ended up being, too. Steven Strasburg finally returned to action, but got pounded for six runs in 4.2 innings. He's probably just kicking off rust, but I eased him in to the back end of the top 20 just to be safe.
Maybe I'm just feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, re-whatever else you can find in your local thesaurus to express that not-so-not-fresh-feeling. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Either way, this feels like the best slate of two-start pitchers we've had all season. The elites of Tier 1 are plentiful, and Tier 2 isn't far behind. Tier 3 has a bevy of solid options that could well be available to you, like the surging Tyler Anderson (bad matchups) and the soon-to-be-not-disabled Zach Eflin. The names in Tier 4 aren't (and never are) super enticing, but therein lies a cavalcade of very good matchups. Tanner Roark has a start against the Marlins, and if he can't put up a quality start there I'm going to start a petition to let me kick him in the nads for the damages he's caused to my ERA and WHIP. Per usual you have to be pretty desperate to roll with any of the Tier 5 options, but they're here for your perusal nevertheless.
Well here we are, it's the final Top 100 before the All-Star Break. It's been quite the ordeal trying to keep tabs on every starting pitcher in baseball, but I look forward to writing this every week and I hope you enjoy reading it as well. It's a bit of a wonky weeky with some players temporarily optioned to Triple-A over the break like Freddy Peralta and Shane Bieber. They'll be back though, so I left them on the list. Unfortunately, Garrett Richards won't be back, as he'll go under the knife for Tommy John surgery. On the bright side we got Thor back, along with a couple of other less impactful arms like Trevor Cahill, Masahiro Tanaka, and Brent Suter. We lost Junior Guerra to the DL with a mysterious forearm injury, which is more worrisome than wearing white pants the day after hot chili night. No word yet on how Senior Guerra is taking the news. Enjoy the All-Star Break, everyone!
For the first time in a long time, we've got more impact starters returning than vacating the list. Huzzah! I look for any reason to party, and that's reason enough for me, baby. Break out the purple drank! Carlos Carrasco spent a little more time on the DL than we expected, but he's back comfortably inside the top 20. Johnny Cueto and Garrett Richards both return to the top 35. Jeff Samardjiza is even back, unfortunately for his owners. Let's hope his fingers work on his splitter more than they work on his flowing locks of hair. The list looks a bit weird this week because of the returners. Some of the guys that I tried to jump up the list really didn't get too far, like if Mario was a real-life plumber trying to leap over a cactus. There aren't a lot of newcomers of note, so let's focus this week on risers, fallers, and the real losers who fell off the list.
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