[player]Carlos Carrasco[/player] was bumped from the rotation. Do I smell a 400-foot, long-tossing fool from Columbus, Ohio that has a rap group that plays to sell-out shows in the furnished basement of his parents' house? [player]Trevor Bauer[/player], your time is near. I said that last line in a Darth Vader voice. Trevor, I am your father. I said that in the voice of someone who has a son named Trevor. Am I confusing you? How about now? Trevor Bauer may have overcome his past WHIPping post issues and could be usable in all mixed leagues. They worked with Trevor in Triple-A. They taught him to pitch from the rubber instead of short center. I would speculate on him, as I said in Friday's Buy column, I wouldn't go and drop anyone too crazy valuable. [player]Josh Tomlin[/player] may instead be called up to replace Carrasco. Tomlin can't pitch out of the bullpen because it takes him like 2 innings to get out of his oversized chair. Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Razzball Nation! I used today's title to try and embody the question everyone is having looking at their waiver wires...
Who the hell is this guy?!
Before his ridiculous debut at Safeco, [player]Collin McHugh[/player] had pitched less than 50 ML innings with an ERA that resembled an Extenze advertising claim. Called up to fill in for a DL-bound Corey [player]Scott Feldman[/player], McHugh got a struggling Mariners offense with swiss cheese bats for 12 Ks and no walks in 6.2 for his first win - giving up three singles and no earned. I love that before the start, Bo Porter said McHugh is a "pitch to contact guy." Good thing the Mariners ain't got no contact right now!
I watched some highlights of the Ks that game and was lukewarm impressed, but McHugh went out and shut down the A's, who have a pretty solid O these days. #Moneyball! So I decided to take a deeper look at his hot start to 2014 and break down what he could offer fantasy owners looking for some SP help:
More terrible relievers turning into dominant starters, mo problems!
So it’s been an up-and-down start to this young season – pretty much all of my sleepers except maybe
[player]Corey Kluber[/player] (who I still like a lot) are doing great,
[player]Nathan Eovaldi[/player] still looks pretty good and
I remain bullish on him, but
[player]Tyson Ross[/player] who I bailed on turned in a gem on Saturday.
Then to my rankings, where, yes, I didn’t have
[player]Jesse Chavez[/player] ranked last week. I had him at 102 and couldn’t break him in, then Monday night he went out and carved up the Angels for 9 Ks in 7 innings with only one earned. I mentioned that night in the comments I would have to add him in there, but before Monday he was a terrible career-reliever with only one eye-popping start at the Twins. I’m regretting not adding him somewhere (“welcome to the party, pal!”), as I streamed some guys yesterday who weren’t awful, but would’ve preferred Chavez. And I would’ve been right too, as he dealt another solid game. Here’s how he looked yesterday against the Astros:
"I know it was you, Alfredo, you broke my heart--because I should have picked you up yesterday. You're nothing to me now. Not a brother, not a friend--but, I'll admit you may be an intriguing add in fantasy baseball this week." Michael Corleone's words for his fantasy team are harsh but true. Reds pitcher [player]Alfredo Simon[/player] continued his streak of success yesterday, pitching six scoreless innings versus the Cubs, allowing just six base runners and striking out three. Coming off the heels of an eight inning gem last week against Tampa, where he allowed just one run and struck out four, Alfredo now has pitched 21.0 innings, allowing just 2 ER and 13 hits, while grabbing two wins. It looks like he'll stick in the rotation while [player]Mat Latos[/player] is on the shelf. Simon's sparkling 0.86 ERA is good for top 3 in the league, and the 0.81 WHIP sure is purdy. But before you go racing to the waiver wire dropping your [player]Stephen Strasburg[/player]s or your [player]R.A. Dickey[/player]s for this guy, just wait a second. Because I didn't say Simon says? Got ya! I know. Bad. I'm sorry. Anyway, let's examine if Simon says you should grab Alfredo or not. If we look closer into the starts, it's a small sample size but we get the sense he's been pretty lucky so far, and not just because he's faced the Mets, Rays and Cubs. Simon's .194 BABIP is good for top 10 in the league. Along with a 3.14 FIP (3.90 xFIP) and an insane 94.3 LOB% we have a ton a nerdy stats that say major regression coming. Translation: Alfredo is probably gonna get sauced. Mama mia! That's not to say that those numbers are not still very good. After moving to Cincinnati from Baltimore, Simon was awesome in relief, with a 2.76 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in two years from 2012-2013, way above his career averages (3.98 ERA and 1.33 WHIP). And he's been extremely efficient as a starter this year as his 13.4 pitches thrown per inning (roughly 3.5 per batter) shows. Doode is doing work. The 13/4 K/BB ratio is nothing special, but he is working efficiently in his starts, going deep into games. So Simon says, if you need a streamer you can grab AlFredo for his next start in Pittsburgh. He's under 20% owned, and he's making us an offer we can't refuse. Ride this hot streak out for now, but if he's ready to sleep with the fishes don't hesitate to take him out to the middle of Lake Tahoe and take care of business.
Here's what else happened Friday night in fantasy baseball:
Scott White from CBS hosted this AL-Only draft that started at 10 AM PST, but started around 1 PM PST for me because I refused to draft anyone for the price they were going. Instead of drafting, I watched my favorite cooking show,
Celebrity Chef Mr. Hamiham. He's the only one I know that makes a sandwich like my Eastern European nanny, Viktoria. Everyone that knows anything about sandwich preparation knows there's no sandwich before adding the white cabbage. Rudy was in Tampa (slogan: We're no San Diego, but just as classy), so I went it alone with this draft. All the mistakes (none!) and acclaim (some!) can fall fully on my shoulders. I drafted this on February 18th, so don't say so-and-so may not make the rotation/lineup/team or is now injured, why did you draft him? I drafted him because at the time it seemed like a smart move. Okay, okay, at no point does it seem like a smart move to draft Kurt Suzuki. Point taken. It's a
12-team AL-Only league and I drafted using that thing I linked to under the link-ma-whosie -- seamless linking! Anyway, here's my 2014 fantasy baseball AL-Only team:
There’s SAGNOF – now there’s BGLIF or BABIPGLIF.
B(ABIP)GLIF = BABIP’s Got Little Face. As you delve into players for your drafts and you see a surprising glorious batting average from last year, ensure you validate it. Use
Razzball Fantasy Baseball BABIP vs. Average Comparison. I’ll point out some sleepers below using this method.
*Channeling my inner Hank Williams Jr.* Are you ready for some baseball? *Fireworks, confetti cannon, ‘splosions, dingo attacks* Perhaps only us baseball junkies and fantasy geeks are excited about opening day Down Under. Is there fantasy cricket? Asking for a friend. Sky needs, like, four more fantasy sports to write about and I’m imagining Nick and his
Razzball Radio rolling tanker going all
Road Warrior across the outback. I’m more excited than a Lipitor snorting
Vin Scully, cuddling with a koala he thinks is actually
[player]Yasiel Puig[/player]. Slather my hot dog in Vegemite, turn up the Men at Work and blow my didgeridoo, baseball is back. With the
RCL’s in full swing and the season firing up in Australia, I’m balls deep in 20 teams – RCL’s, H2H leagues, dynasty leagues, auctions leagues, AL-only, NL-only, a pitcher league and an All-Timey fantasy draft that ought to prove interesting – I drafted Shoeless Joe in the round 13, that’s value! If you have yet to draft or are already making moves let’s dig out the ol’ jammer crammer machine© and get to work on the schmotatoes in the outfield. Since we use ESPN for the Razzballin’ leagues, let’s use their rankings and go digging for some jams and crams outside the top-100 players. No use in bickering whether to jam
[player]Mike Trout[/player] or cram
[player]Billy Hamilton[/player] – although I would. We are looking for mid-late round upside filled value here. It’s time to jam it or cram it. Hey Nick, I’ll drive that tanker.
It began as a whisper... a promise... the lightest of breezes danced above the cries of men and women cheering him on in little league. That breeze became a wind. A wind of freedom... a wind of justice... a wind of vengeance. The time has come, my Beddictites, to prepare yourselves for a breakout of epic proportions. I speak not of the Herp, but of the Harp; [player]Bryce Harper[/player] to be clear.
Some would argue that Nostradamus's greatest prophesy was made in the year 1566, mere days before his horrific case of the Gout brought him to his death bed. "What prophesy is this you speak of, oh wise and charming Beddict?" Ask and thou shalt receive. A deep search into the annals of Nostradamus's journals produced this historic find-- "In the year of our Elder Gods, 2014, a breathtakingly handsome young writer will come out of the shadows and change the world forever. He will no doubt be criticized by many a troglodyte [Ed. Note-- Good word usage bro.], but he shall not hold it against them, for they not know better. On March 10, 2014, this debonaire young man, who will be known as the Mark Twain/William Shakespeare of his generation, will make a prediction about another chosen one, another young man I have seen in my dreams, an athlete of sorts. These overwhelmingly powerful visions of this brutish boy swinging what seems to be a wooden stick at a bloodless round object have seemingly pushed me to the brink of my grave. It's either these visions or this Mother F'ing gout! Anyway, I know not what this prediction shall be, but whatever it is, it will have an 85 percent chance of coming to fruition. These two young men's futures will be forever intertwined for better or for worse. Take heed, for it has been written. I can now die in peace knowing my last true vision has been recorded in my leather-bound and padlocked journal. Now, if only this useless peasant, wife of mine would bring me my favorite chocolate sprinkled crepes along with some brie. Tis a virtual certainty she's yet again, getting bent over in the barn by my stable boy, Mortimer. By the Gods, I despise that whore." It's been said those were the last sentences ever written by Damus, as he passed and now resides with Hood in "House Death."
First off, I would like to say Eric Sogard should be the
Face of the MLB; that vote was rigged in David Wright's favor. Baseball needs more nerdy-looking, glasses-touting,
Bernie-leanin', jive-walking players. But without further ado, here is the AL West Spring Training Showdown. (You can check out the AL Central Spring Training Preview
here and NL East Spring Training Preview
here.)
Welcome to the second annual
Razzball Keepers Top-100 list-a-roo. I capped it AND italicized it, because it's just that special. (The
2013 Top-100 can be found
here.)
Spoiler Alert! We’re doing things keeper league style, dynasty style... which ever nomenclature you prefer. Basically, if you hold onto players for more than a year, these are the rankings you’ve been waiting your whole life for. Whole life man. Seriously.
Remember, the process for this list is quite unique. Unlike Grey, I didn’t type half of it with my mustache. Also, this isn't your list. It's my list. So, yeah, I'll love guys a lot more than you will. I'll also love your mom. Or vica versa. It's just the way it is. If you stuck me in a keeper this very instant, this is pretty much the list, in order, of who I'd personally want long term. Things like previous production, expected 2014 production, projections for 2015-2017, future potential, positional-scarcity, and injury-risk are all things I bake into the rankings. Regardless, the big takeaway here is that I believe in the Oxford comma. And I guess a lot of comma's in general. And short sentences. And baking. And female nudity. Word.
Note: I’ve only ranked players who have pitched at least one inning or had one at-bat in their MLB career, sans Masahiro Tanaka and Jose Abreu. Our prospect maven, Scott Evans, has the low down on all those MiLB guys I left out. Go check out his 2014 rankings (Top-25, Top-50), he won't bite... I think.)
When we started the hitter rankings, we were mere boys. Now, we're men as we come to the end of the road for hitters and we can't go on, it's unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you. You, “Hey, look at that, I’m in a crazy/stupid/gooftarded deep league and everyone in this league that I’m talking to myself about is well-versed in this fantasy baseball shizz because they are also in this crazy/stupid/gooftarded deep league yet they forgot to draft Matt Holliday. Cool, I'll take him with my 350th pick.” Yeah, that’s not going to happen. If you’re drafting from guys in the
top 100 outfielders for 2014 fantasy baseball, your league is deep and you know you’re not going to get much from these guys. Potatoes to chips, most of these guys will be worth owning at some point in the season. If you’re joining us late, here’s the
top 20 outfielders,
top 40 outfielders,
top 60 outfielders and
top 80 outfielders. Next up in our
2014 fantasy baseball rankings will be the pitchers. You can hardly wait. No, you. Anyway, here's the top 100 outfielders for 2014 fantasy baseball:
