Erick Fedde Waps the Mets

Washington Nationals fifth starter slash long reliever slash wait, really, that guy?–Erick Fedde was awesome Friday night as he limited the New York Mets to just two hits (seven base runners) in seven innings pitched. He struck out seven and had 31 called strikes plus whiffs, which baseball nerds tell me is pretty good. I’m Fedde up with these crazy pitching lines, ya’ll! I thought the bans were supposed to solve this, and I don’t know what to make of this guy. Erick hasn’t given up a run since a start at home versus the Phillies May 11. Since then, he’s pitched 20 scoreless innings with 17/6 K/BB. The start was Fedde’s third QS of the year and he’s lowered his ERA to a respectable 3.33 during the scoreless stretch! Also, I need a hip hop historian to tell me if I used “Wap” right here. Fetty Wap is a rapper and that’s different than Cardi B’s WAP, right? Back to Erick! More impressive than Fedde’s streak, Washington has allowed just seven runs in the past eight games, and need I remind you Max and Stras are hurt? Pretty neat until you notice that they allowed 42 runs in the eight games before that. Regardless! Someone needs to check these baseballs for spider tack! Da sticky stuff. For real though, it was admittedly a slowish fantasy day, and I didn’t want to write about Adam Duvall again, so Fedde gets the lede! His first in ever! Enjoy it, Erick, because this is likely to be a one time deal. As the aforementioned Max and Stras are out, Erick has gotten an extended look in the rotation and so far so good. He’s had some favorable matchups this month so I wouldn’t rush out to grab him, but he could be a worthwhile streamer in the right matchups. However, and I’m being 100% candid here and this could be the ethanol talking, he could pitch another 20 scoreless innings and Fedde would still scare the heck out of me. It’s got to be the baseballs, right!?

Here’s what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We’re Going Streaming, Week 5: Let’s Go All The Wei

May 1, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 4 Comments

by: Mike Honcho

Oh, hey there. Glad you could find time to visit us here at Razzball, even though it seems like the rest of the world is dry humping the NFL draft. I mean yeah, sure, I like football as much as the next person, but how awful is the first round? Seriously guys, just MAKE THE PICK! Is it necessary to have fifteen minutes between selections? The front office’s of all 32 teams have had the entire year to break down the information. Surely the final few minutes are not life and death. Remember, the Bears had all of the required data, interviews and film and still found a way to draft Mitch Trubisky. That will definitely leave a mark. That’s why I love writing this post every week. The tools here at Razzball make it almost too easy to make the right decision. If you haven’t yet, check out the Stream-o-Nator and Hitter-Tron. After you delight yourself with their fantasy baseball prowess, make the right decision and subscribe to one of the many options offered. Consider it money well spent after you’re counting your winnings in October. Remember kids, just say no to bad decisions. Anyway, as always we’ll be assisted in our streaming journey by the suggestions of both the aforementioned Stream-o-Nator and Hitter-Tron. I’ll give you a few of the gems that both these sexy bots have to offer up, while spicing up the recommendations with a few numbers that may or may not get your engine running hot. Rawwrr! Before we get started, let me remind you that every player recommended in this post will be owned in less than 50% of standard ESPN leagues. Let’s go streaming:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

This Week in Razz, Week 3

April 23, 2017 | This Week in Razzball | 2 Comments

by: Viz

Moving the standard disabled list to 10 days from 15 was a horrific decision by Major League Baseball. If a pitcher is going to miss one start, a team can just throw him on the DL now and get that extra body up in his place. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the starting pitchers in the majors end up on the disabled list for that reason. In the past, when a batter was going to be out for a week, teams had to make a decision whether to force him out another week by putting him on the DL or waiting it out. Now, teams are going to defer to putting the player on the DL. That’s where the biggest fantasy impact is going to come. We’ve already seen a bunch of players go on the 10-day DL and come off immediately when the 10 days are up. On most of my teams, I’ve had 3-6 players on the DL at the same time already and we’re only three weeks into the season. I think the use of the disabled list is going to increase by a fairly wide margin so I suggest that your league has at least 3 DL spots going forward. The more players that go on the list, the more spots you should have. Anyways, let’s take a look at what was posted on Razzball this week, including a bunch of different articles that can help you with injuries:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Rolling In The Deep, Week 3: I Senz A Telling Trend

April 19, 2017 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 16 Comments

by: Laura Holt

This morning, I decided to look at my deepest NL-only league to see who the highest-ranked player who went undrafted was. It didn’t take long to find him: as of Tuesday morning, Anthony Senzatela was ranked as the eleventh most valuable pitcher in standard, mixed 5×5 fantasy baseball leagues. My NL–only league includes a fairly complex farm system as well, so it is beyond hard to find a diamond in the rough, since most minor league players with any decent prospect status at all were drafted years ago. It’s clear why Senzatela slipped through the cracks, though – he was a mid-level prospect at best, who entered spring training as a long shot to be part of a pitching rotation in the worst pitchers’ ballpark baseball has ever seen…

Will Senzatela still be the eleventh best pitcher in fantasy at the end of 2017? Uh, no. We’d have to expect some major bumps along the way even if half of his starts weren’t going to come at Coors Field. But he’s owned in just 20% of Yahoo leagues (21% of ESPN), which I think is too low. I am basing this almost entirely on the gut feeling I had while watching him pitch. In fantasy, upside can be overrated: just ask the Robert Stephenson owner in the league I mentioned above. Stephenson has been taking up a minor league spot on his owner’s roster for four years now. Even worse, now that he’s on the big club and his owner feels pot-committed to him, Stephenson and his 5.40 ERA are taking up a valuable active roster spot. There is no guarantee that even the highest-ranked prospects will even reach star status, either in real baseball or the fantasy variety. Taking a flyer on gut feeling won’t always work out either, and sometimes can be fairly disastrous, but it’s a risk that I think you need to take from time to time in a deep league. Otherwise, how will you ever find this year’s Junior Guerra — that guy whose past statistics make you absolutely sick to your stomach, but looks damn good on the mound every time you watch him pitch… and before you know it, has been a major contributor to the success of your single-league team.

Moving on to some other deeper-league names, starting with the AL…

Please, blog, may I have some more?