Boy, this Ohtani is all anybody’s ever talking about. I’m so sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant that Ohtani is. I was so tempted to put Shohei Ohtani on this list. So tempted! Unfortunately he only has 30 at-bats compared to the league leader, his teammate, Albert Pujols’s 67. That’s too small of a sample size for me to overreact and 3-4 batting games per week can leave you in a hole. It is fun to see that he has a 0% soft contact rate though. But that Ohtani is some kind of something, huh?
This winter weather is messing with a lot of players. At the bottom of my top 100 you’ll see a list of hitters who shoulda, coulda, woulda been in the top 100 if they were healthy. I think most of them will return and find themselves back on the top 100 list, but for now, due to their missed games and health uncertainty -- they get their own list.
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I really can't believe that I let a mediocre Spring Training keep me from drafting [player]Shohei Ohtani[/player] with a reasonable pick. I remember last year when the rumors were becoming clearer and it was looking very much like he'd be coming to the Majors in 2018. My first thought was that whoever had the first pick in my league was going to take him. Our league has ten teams and six keepers so the first pick is actually the 61st pick. There was no doubt in my mind that he'd be the first pick. Having won the league I would be stuck with the last pick. No chance I'd get a crack at Shohei. Ohtani wasn't drafted until the sixth pick of the sixth round. That's 126th overall. I made SIX picks and didn't think once about grabbing him. You might want to think twice about taking advice from me.
Tonight on the slate we have some big time arms taking the bump, especially the top three options of the night (Noah Syndergaard, Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber.) Given my choice of first pick on Draft.com I would rank them accordingly..
- Noah Syndergaard
- Max Scherzer
- Corey Kluber
I'm convinced you'd be better off if you ignored everything from Spring Training. For every one thing you gleam from the spring that pays off, there's five terrible habits you pick up like you're a priest in The Keepers on Netflix. Okay, maybe you would have seen Joey Gallo wasn't striking out as much (barely has carried over), but you also would've seen Shohei Ohtani looking terrible. Hat tip to someone on Twitter who screenshot this:
So many things wrong with this -- Has Bryce Harper ever been bad? I mean, maybe injured, but a bust? WUT. Also, it's one thing to be concerned about Shohei Ohtani, but bust? He hadn't pitched one inning in the major leagues by that point and was being drafted around 100th overall. Bust? It was a gamble, risk was baked in. Yesterday, Shohei Ohtani bust...ed out! (See what I did there?) He went 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners (1 hit, 1 walk), 12 Ks. Good luck convincing someone he's a bust now when trading for him.
The other pitcher with "Otani" in their last name is Jameson Taillon who went 9 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 1.26. Last year, I suggested to get his feng shui back, to find his equilibrium, because he couldn't pitch with one testicle missing, I suggested he put a walnut in his jock strap for balance. Well, I'm not saying he took my advice, but, yesterday, Jameson Taillon gave up one hit. Imagine he was a eunuch? He'd be Sandy Koufax! Wait, was that why Koufax had a girl's first name? For a while last year, Taillon was treating the surviving twin like a punch bag, but he looks back to the potential ace he once was. Go get 'em, Jameson Walnut! Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
So many things wrong with this -- Has Bryce Harper ever been bad? I mean, maybe injured, but a bust? WUT. Also, it's one thing to be concerned about Shohei Ohtani, but bust? He hadn't pitched one inning in the major leagues by that point and was being drafted around 100th overall. Bust? It was a gamble, risk was baked in. Yesterday, Shohei Ohtani bust...ed out! (See what I did there?) He went 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners (1 hit, 1 walk), 12 Ks. Good luck convincing someone he's a bust now when trading for him.
The other pitcher with "Otani" in their last name is Jameson Taillon who went 9 IP, 0 ER, 1 Hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 1.26. Last year, I suggested to get his feng shui back, to find his equilibrium, because he couldn't pitch with one testicle missing, I suggested he put a walnut in his jock strap for balance. Well, I'm not saying he took my advice, but, yesterday, Jameson Taillon gave up one hit. Imagine he was a eunuch? He'd be Sandy Koufax! Wait, was that why Koufax had a girl's first name? For a while last year, Taillon was treating the surviving twin like a punch bag, but he looks back to the potential ace he once was. Go get 'em, Jameson Walnut! Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Week 2 of Razzball’s top 100 hitters is here! Now with actual baseball being played! This list is not going to be overly reactionary after nine days of rainy, snowy baseball. Barring injury you won’t see too many shake-ups among the top hitters. Yes, I see Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo’s batting averages and I’m not going to freak out and you probably aren't either. Should you try to buy low on them if someone’s entire team is really under-performing: of course you should. In the same vein, if you saw in the comments last week everyone was calling for Jose Martinez to be on the list, but he has just as many multi-hit games as 0-fer games. If he can even that out a little bit he’ll find himself climbing this list faster than the yodeler in a game of Cliffhangers on Price is Right after some fool says that a bag of rice-a-roni costs 10 bucks. Get a grip Suzanne! Shohei Ohtani on the other hand -- after the sloppiest of sloppy springs he is now starting to live up to the Japanese Babe Ruth moniker with HRs in three straight games. He's not in the top 100 proper just yet -- but should he keep this up he'll be rising up.
Didi, Didi, can't you see, sometimes your home runs hypnotize me? Or how about, Gre-Gre-Gregorius? Gre-Gre-Gregorius... Gregorius sung by Duran Duran or Biggie work for me. Fun fact! Duran Duran is the past tense of Da Doo Run Run Da Doo Run Run. Bit a of a trivia whiz, though I did need to Google to see if it was spelled whiz or wiz. Did you know Truvia was discovered by someone sniffing artificial sweetener off a Trivial Pursuit card? Any hoo! [player]Didi Gregorius[/player] went goofy time, there's always money in the banana stand, crying at the end of The Last American Virgin but with tears of joy, with himself yesterday -- 4-for-4, 3 runs, 8 RBIs and two homers (1, 2). His first homer went 346 feet, which is almost three and half Cespedes. I was way off Didi in the preseason, but that was almost (exactly) five games ago, let's forget about that! Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Tommy John season is back! Actually it already started a few days ago with the news A.J. Puk would need the famed procedure. Actually it started before that, when we learned David Phelps would need it. Actually it started before that, when we learned Jharel Cotton would need it. Actually….well, you get the idea. Apparently routinely throwing a baseball isn’t good for your elbow. In fairness, neither is slamming your head into 300 pound men running as fast as they can, but hey, Americans love watching both activities so much that those who are able to do them the best get well compensated for it, so it’s all good, right? Just don’t slam your head into the tall white guy while he’s throwing or punting, we can’t tolerate that. Anyway, back to baseball because you’re here for some quality Daily Fantasy Baseball analysis. To those who read me last year - I appreciate you continuing to be a loyal reader. To the rest of you - welcome to the party...so let’s raise a glass of the bubbly, or your beverage of choice to the 2018 MLB season - may our hitters drop multiple bombs and our pitchers throw multiple 20 strikeout games (hey, we’re greedy) and we can retire wealthier and wiser and most importantly, sooner. Also, those last three sentences are the most amount of pomp and fluff you’ll get in this article all season, since that’s not my style and odds are, not yours either.
So before we get any older, on to the picks...
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If you read the title and expected this post to be an anit-MadBum rant, you'll find your initial impression to be inaccurate. I've been a huge Bumgarner fan since he came into the Majors. In fact, I picked him to be this season's National League Cy Young Award winner in the Razzball experts picks. I had to change that prediction to [player]Stephen Strasburg[/player] after the injury for obvious reasons. Last year's accident was one hundred percent avoidable. As much as I love him, I really hope he did not get paid for his missed time. Shame on him for riding a dirt bike. What's next, sky diving? This year, however, was just another of the many injuries to a pitcher as a result of an unpredictable comebacker. I'm going to go out on a short limb and say that there was very little, if anything, he could have done to avoid the injury. The incident actually looked quite harmless compared to other comebackers I've seen over the years. My favorite was back in 2008 when Papa Grande took a line drive right off the dome piece. I can't seem to find a good quality video, but he went down like he had been shot. The craziest part is that he ended up staying in the game and getting the save. The messed up part is that when he went down, all I could think about was the ten points I wasn't going to get for the save. I was pissed. When he ended up staying in the game he became an instant hero.
Last week, I congregated some fantasy and baseball writers with the objective of doing a league with similar characteristics to the Tout Wars H2H or LABR. A 12-team snake draft, head-to-head with 5x5 scoring categories and 2 catchers.
With the influx of fantasy basketball and football, the head-to-head leagues is a format increasing in popularity. (Which is why if you play in these leagues, check out the "Getting Ahead" series.) If you play head-to-head leagues, they offer a different way to play than Roto leagues, and it requires a different strategy. The league functions are essentially the same as the standard “rotisserie” style. However, instead of adding the accrued statistics and ranking each column as you would in a standard rotisserie league, each individual category is counted as a win, loss or tie. In a league using 10 categories, teams will rack up some combination of 10 wins, losses and ties per week. The head-to-head style of play lends itself perfectly to stocking a pitching staff with multiple relievers. Grabbing an elite reliever, such as Craig Kimbrel or Kenley Jansen, instead of a fourth or fifth starter may allow an owner in a head-to-head league to eke out wins in multiple categories.
In traditional rotisserie leagues, the production of some relievers may not be enough. They may log solid ERA, WHIP or strikeout totals, but their total number of innings pitched may not weight heavily in the overall statistics. Nevertheless, this is a very useful strategy in H2H, giving you the opportunity to obtain wins in saves, ERA, and WHIP with middle and late round players.
For the first time, and some research, this was my key strategy in my drafts this season. Trying to grab a couple of elite relievers between rounds 4 to 8. I drafted Robert Osuna with the pick 56 and Aroldis Chapman with the 65. And in late rounds Andrew Miller (161), Chad Green (224) and Chris Devenski (272).
We (me) have gone over the catchers, 2nd basemen, shortstops and 3rd basemen to target, cause I have to do everything around here! Look at me, throwing shade like a beach umbrella! That makes sense…if you don’t think about it! That’s what I want my bumper sticker to say, and then when I step out of my car, I want my clever t-shirt to say it too, “That makes sense….if you don’t think about it.” How can I arrange my life so this happens? I need a personal assistant. “So, it says you worked as Kanye’s assistant and you bought mirrors for nine months straight….” That’s me checking the CV of my favorite imaginary assistant. Okay, so this post is all the outfielders that are being drafted after 200 overall that I have uber-sexy feelings for. Last year, I featured Aaron Judge, Domingo Santana and Joc Pederson, who I've featured every year since 1924, but not this year! Now, this is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Canada) supplement to the top 100 outfielders for 2018 fantasy baseball. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2018 projections. Anyway, here’s some outfielders to target for 2018 fantasy baseball:
Welcome welcome welcome! I have an aunt-in-law that says everything in thirds, and it’s cute the first time, and the second time, but after you’ve heard “Love you love you love you” for the 800th time, it’s gets old. Always like starting with a random tangent, don’t I? Anyway, these are my OPS-only rankings (meaning OPS replaces AVG). I play in 6x6 leagues, and they make some sense to me, but can’t we just kick average to the curb already? I’d rather play in an OBP and OPS league, and if I’m doing that let’s just stick with 5x5, amirite? But I digress.
These are hitter rankings, no pitchers. I don’t like Pitchers, and I’ve even recommended in this space eliminating them from Fantasy Baseball and going to team pitching like they used to do on MLB.com’s fantasy baseball site. They still might, but I’m not playing on their website; I mean, Yahoo! (Ohtani as two players?) and ESPN are bad enough (and CBS I haven’t even checked in on in years). Makes me understand the move to Fantrax for Razzball Commenter Leagues (Join one here!)
When trying to determine overlooked players for the upcoming season I always take a peek back in time. Last year’s sleepers can be a good start. They may not necessarily be the classically coined “post-hype sleeper” but players that were intriguing going in to last year and did fine. They can easily slip right in line again especially if they are young. Twins’ outfielder Max Kepler fits the bill. Still 25, now entering his third season in the majors, Kepler has established himself as a pretty okay player. Coming into 2017, many expected some sort of breakout. Unfortunately, his production in 2017 mimicked 2016 a little too closely. But why can’t 2018 be the year we all wanted 2017 to be for Kepler?