Player Page Matches

Hey Batter³ Contest: The Sweet Sixteen

July 29, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 28 Comments

by: malamoney

With sixteen weeks in the books we have made it to the end of this contest's regular season. For all but sixteen of you, thanks for playing, but your time in this contest is over. Who are these sixteen survivors? Well, according to the rules, in order to be eligible for the playoffs you need to win a weekly contest or finish in the top three in the overall standings. And for those of you math nerds that are about to race to the comment section to tell me that sixteen weeks of contests plus three from the overall standings equals nineteen, slow your roll. The reason we only have sixteen in the playoffs is because we had two people win twice and one of the top three won a week. Before I announce the sweet sixteen I need to share the results of weeks 15 and 16. Week 15 was our shortened, three-day week after the All-Star break. [player]Anthony Rendon[/player] led the charge that week with 32 points, including three home runs. The winner of the contest was Smallwine, who also won back in week 8. Thanks to [player]Anthony Rendon[/player], [player]Travis Shaw[/player] and [player]Josh Reddick[/player] he scored 38 points. Have yourself a large wine and enjoy. El Famous Burrito finished second with 34 points. In week 16 [player]Jonathan Schoop[/player] was the top scorer totaling 44 points. The winner of our final weekly contest was LenFuego with 75 points. LenFuego's batters were [player]Andrew McCutchen[/player], [player]Mike Moustakas[/player] and [player]Giancarlo Stanton[/player]. B. Rabbit finished in second place with 68 points. Here are the sixteen weekly winners...

FanDuel: Return Of The Czar

July 28, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel, Fantasy Baseball DFS | 1 Comment

by: MattTruss

Raise your hand if you did not trust Danny Salazar ($8,200) in his first start off the DL facing the Blue Jays. I’ll admit, I benched him everywhere to feel him out and wasn’t touching him with a stick in DFS. All he did was give up 1 hit and ZERO walks while striking out 8 in 7 IP. Where the heck was that all year Danny? All can be forgiven if you keep that up for two months though. Tonight, the Czar gets to face the lowly White Sox who are in the midst of fire-bombing their major league roster that quite frankly, wasn’t very good to begin with. The Chi Sox rank in the bottom three in all of baseball in team OPS vs. RHP and that was before shipping off Todd Frazier. The Pale Hose are middle of the pack in strikeouts, but Danny has big time upside in that department, probably the biggest of any pitcher on the slate today. Ks pay the bills and that’s why Danny will the pitcher I have the most exposure to tonight. Let’s see who else I’ll be exposing myself to on this fine July night below: 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!

FanDuel: On Sale? Or Buying To the Max

July 21, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel |

by: cinthree

Chris Sale, P: $11,800 & Max Scherzer, P: $11,600 - I’m not going to even waste your time telling you how good they are. Play them. Wait a second...I’m sure all you faithful readers out there are saying “But this is a FanDuel article, we only get one pitcher!”. You’re right. So, Sale or Scherzer? This comes down to matchups and ballparks. Scherzer is facing a very good Arizona lineup, in Arizona - and unless it’s confirmed that the humidor has begun being used, Chase Field is a top-3 non-Coors offensive ballpark. On the other hand, Chris Sale is facing the pathetic Angels offense, which is approaching 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers territory for lopsidedness. For those who don’t remember, that’s the Cavs team that made the finals with Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and a small forward that remains comically underappreciated and underrated throughout his entire career. The problem is, baseball isn’t basketball. One amazing hitter can’t carry an otherwise inept lineup. The 2002 San Francisco Giants demonstrated that absurdly lopsided offenses only work if you have the single greatest offensive player of all time and a second elite-level hitter (and have at least one or two other guys that aren’t complete embarrassments - that year it was Benito Santiago and David Bell). Trout’s trying his best to be Barry Bonds, and Andrelton Simmons, shockingly, isn’t a complete embarrassment, and neither is Luis Valbuena. But the lack of Jeff Kent means this offense isn’t going to give anyone trouble. Additionally, Angel Stadium is an offense-killer, although it does get credit for not selling its naming rights (although the Cubs played in Cubs Park, but then changed the name for the 1927 season to a gum company, which is now considered a non corporate name, so the lesson is, just last a long time). So while I couldn’t fault anyone for deciding that Scherzer’s their guy tonight, when you consider that Sale is facing a vastly inferior lineup and pitching in a far more pitcher-friendly ballpark, the choice (for cash) seems fairly straightforward. And yes, astute readers of mine should note that Scherzer’s GPP-value is through the roof as my hunch is that Sale’s ownership is far higher, and it’s entirely possible Scherzer outscores Sale as both are quite dominant and it may just come down to who gets 11 strikeouts as opposed to 8. On to the picks as soon as Guaranteed Rate Field becomes a fun, cozy name... 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!

FantasyDraft: Clevinger Ready To Rock In San Fran

July 18, 2017 | DFS, FantasyDraft |

by: Ignacio

Mike Clevinger ($17,600) looks like he should be performing a rock concert with his long grunge band looking hair and his arm full of tattoos but he will be taking the mound in instead. He seems to be a great bargain tonight as he is currently on a nice roll, allowing just 2 ERs in his last three starts and racking 20 Strikeouts during that span. He should continue that trend as he heads to San Francisco to battle one of the worst teams in baseball. The San Francisco Giants are one of the worst hitting teams against RHP, they currently support a .240AVG and .674 OPS against righties . Both of those numbers rank toward the bottom of the league. To add injury to insult, they rank 28th in the league in runs scored and are dead LAST in HRs hit. Clevinger has been hurt by his walks allowed which doesn't let him get deep into games at time but the Giants are one of the most impatient teams and rarely walk. To go with Clevinger, I'd pair him with JA Happ ($15,000). He's squaring off against a struggling Boston Red Sox team. Over the last week, the Red Sox are hitting .212 as a team and have really had a hard time plating runs. Happ is a very serviceable option that tends to always pitch deeper into games and can be matched with Clayton Kershaw to provide some bats if you'd prefer. Now that we have talked about some pitching options, lets take a look at some bats... New to FantasyDraft? 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!

Hey Batter³ Contest, Week 16: Spring(er) Chicken

July 16, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 37 Comments

by: malamoney

For the second time in the last five weeks, [player]George Springer[/player] has been the top batter for the week. Back in week 11, Springer led the way with 45 points. Well, in week 14 he was at it again, slugging his way to 46 points, just edging out [player]Jose Altuve[/player] for the top spot. How about that, I managed to squeeze three commas into that sentence. I'm not sure it was proper grammar, but I can tell you that neither George Springer or I really care. Springer hit three home runs, drove in nine, scored twelve and stole his first two bases of the season en route to those 46 points. Only [player]Nolan Arenado[/player], [player]Adam Duvall[/player] and [player]Jose Ramirez[/player] have more extra base hits than King George. At 27, it seems Springer is hitting his stride and emerging as the powerhouse he promised to be back in 2013 when he fell three home runs short of a 40/40 season in the minor leagues. For those that are wondering if Foul balls completed the three-peat, the answer is no. The winner was jesusc97 who selected [player]Edwin Encarnacion[/player], [player]Francisco Lindor[/player] and [player]Domingo Santana[/player]. Those three batters scored a total of 65 points, which was enough to win week 14. In second place was MattH (55) with Jose Abreu, Ryan Braun and Scott Schebler. Here are the top five from Week 14:

Chapman in La La Land as Sox Moonlight Yankees to Steal Win

July 15, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 39 Comments

by: Dan Pants

Called upon in the ninth inning to protect a one run lead [player]Aroldis Chapman[/player] blew his third save of the season Friday night surrendering two hits and two walks and allowing two earned runs. After giving up an infield single to Mookie Betts to start the inning, Didi Gregorius mishandled a Dustin Pedroia single that could have been a double play ball to put two men on and the Yankees unraveled from there. The blown save was not entirely Chapman's fault here as the Yankees defense botched two straight double play balls, and then a double steal really flustered Chapman leading him to walk the next two batters including the game winning run. The loss highlights a Yankee bullpen that has been god awful lately with set up man Dellin Betances rocking an 8.68 ERA and 2.14 WHIP over the past month and Chapman sporting a 8.10 ERA in July with a .412 BAA. Talk about a bullpen in La La Land! Speaking of Award snubs and perfect segues, the fans have spoken, the emails have continued rolling in (seriously guys, get a life!) and the suspicious packages have arrived on my doorstep. Back by popular demand I return to bring you the fourth annual 2017 mid-season fantasy all-star awards. *And the crowd goes wild!* I don't want to pile on Chapman here with a Razzie award but he did walk in the winning run so I'm going to give an award to Andrew Benintendi for easiest game winning RBI ever. To be honest, I just really wanted to give Beni Baseball an award. Here's what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:

Points Leagues: Rise Of The Vottoman Empire

July 14, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Points Leagues | 26 Comments

by: malamoney

Since it seems like the rest of the Razzball "professors" (notice the quotes) are putting out their second half rankings I feel overwhelmed by the pressure of doing the same. Even if there are only twelve points league readers I still owe it to them to put a little elbow grease into this and generate a solid set of rankings and rest of season projections. Speaking of the people's elbow, it looks like The Rock is moving forward with plans to run in 2020. Ok, well maybe these aren't exactly his plans, but there is a committee that is standing behind him. Will Dwayne Johnson become the most electrifying president in American history? Is he going to "rock the vote". Ha! I can't wait for the debates.

FanDuel: Who’s On First? I Don’t Know. THIRD BASE!

July 14, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel | 2 Comments

by: cinthree

After one month spent as a visiting blogger for Monday picks, I have returned to the spot where I really broke through in the world of Daily Fantasy Blogging, FanDuel Friday. So we’re back to a one-pitcher site and positions mattering. And on today’s slate, we actually have a perfect example of how positions matter, because Third Base is loaded today. You’re going to have to make a tough choice at third, and that choice may well be the difference between winning and losing (because if your third baseman stinks, you’re in trouble because with so many good choices in good matchups, odds are the public will get good production at the position). It’s actually to the point where the Braves decision to move Freeman leftward on the defensive spectrum makes everything more complicated - if Freeman was a 1B, he’d be the lockiest chalk-lock of all-time today, and you’d have one less quality 3B to consider. Instead, we have an absolute logjam at 3B, and very little in the way of cash-viable 1Bs. I remember the good ol’ days of one month ago, when Donaldson and Beltre were hurt, Turner and Lamb were overpriced, Machado and Seager were still priced as if they weren’t in massive slumps, and Nolan was priced as if he was playing in Coors even when he wasn’t - you were pretty much looking at either spending up for Bryant, spending down with Gyorko or Castellanos, or splitting the difference with Longoria. Those were the good ol’ days! On to the picks once Freeman is 1B again... 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!

OPS Leaguers Unite! OPS My Stars and Garters (Part 1)

July 8, 2017 | OPS Leagues | 6 Comments

by: Phil B.

If you got the title props for being a Dr. Henry McCoy fan and I salute you (even though he's my least favorite X-Man, but that's a topic for another day and another site). On that note, here's hoping everybody had a good Fourth of July. I know I enjoyed the extra long weekend and I'm all for making the Fourth a minimum three-day weekend, and if possible, four. The only day we should never allow the Fourth to be celebrated on is a Wednesday. I think we can all come together as a country and get that done, I mean, who doesn't think America deserves four days to celebrate it's greatness, right? Anyhoo, last week's lede, Josh Reddick, is number one in OPS for the past two weeks as of this writing (just wanted to remind myself that results sometimes do happen quickly and a hat tip to my friend and leaguemate for suggesting him - I thought he did so because he was on his team but nooooo...so I added him and have been reaping the benefits...thanks!).

One Man’s Trash: I Like Green Eggs And Tommy Pham

July 7, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 8 Comments

by: Son

I am Son. Son I am. I like green eggs and [player]Tommy Pham[/player] (20.6% owned - increase of 9.7%). I do! I like them, Son I am. When I think of Tommy I crave for Pho (pronounced "fuh"), probably due to the fact that he's half-Vietnamese. Duh!!! He's hit ten home runs and stolen nine bases. Those numbers are real. You didn't drink too many cases. The walk rate is good (11.5%) while the strikeout rate is high (25.7%). Not anything too obscene to crucify. The average is solid (.289) while the OBP is great (.381). I'm feeling the same vibe from when I listen to Warren G's Regulate. The BABIP is high (.358) so some negative regression should take place. But not so low that I'd link The Sign by Ace of Base. The swinging strike rate is 8.8% and he only chases 20% of pitches outside the strike zone. I hear the moans. How can we clone? Mike Matheny bats him in the two-hole against both righties and lefties. That's more valuable to me than snatching the panties. Now, he's much better on the road than at home (.234 vs .344). Yo, Google Chrome! Shalom! Enough PaRappa the Rapper. Pham won't be a season winner and he's streaky, but he could be a viable fill-in. If you do pick him up and have the urge to drop him, just watch this over and over again. On a side note, Pham has a rare eye disorder called keratoconus, which thins the cornea. He started wearing contact lenses back in 2009 to be able to track the pitches better. I'm just excited for the inevitable moment when Pham is used as a guinea pig for a Terminator-like eye transplant. TREASURE Here's what else I saw in the most added/dropped list:

Andrew Rockets Red Blare, Bunch Of McBombs In The Air

July 5, 2017 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 372 Comments

by: Grey

Thankfully, I no longer do 4th of July like I used to, because when you have a holiday weekend that lasts five days, you will get alcohol poisoning if you go too hard, and the 4th is especially dangerous because: day drinking. At least with New Year's Eve, it's at night. The Fourth is lying on a discarded sofa on the side of a highway at 3 PM and being like, "The hum of 75 MPH cars is so peaceful, I go to sleep now," and waking up with a flashlight you mistake for a fleshlight and now you're a registered sex offender. Hopefully, none of that happened to any of you, well, maybe the fleshlight part, and you all had a safe holiday. Any hoo! Yesterday, Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-4 and his 15th and 16th homers as he hits .288. He found the Fountain of Youth sometime in May and has been a Zombino eating brain custard ever since. I'm still half expecting -- cting? -- McCutchen will resort to blah in the 2nd half, but it looks like I wrote off McCutchen before his sell-by date. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

FanDuel: Peacock Struts His Stuff

June 29, 2017 | DFS, Fanduel |

by: TroyKlauder

Astros starter Brad Peacock will take the mound on Thursday against the Athletics, making for an outstanding starting pitcher candidate on FanDuel. Peacock has an insane 13.3 K/9 in 44 2/3 innings this season, and in his six starts it's actually even higher at 13.98. Peacock has more strikeout potential than pretty much any other pitcher on any given night, but on he's got even more on Thursday as he takes on the A's. Oakland has a 25.0% K-rate against righties this year, which is the third-highest rate in the league. Peacock and the Athletics is a lethal combination that's going to result in some crazy strikeout totals. He has a ridiculous 2.08 FIP as a starter, and is coming off of a comfy ten days of rest from the paternity list. Hopefully his newborn can inspire him to pitch even better. At just $7,600, Peacock is an absolute steal of a play. 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!