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Not a bad year for me with the 2021 catcher rankings in the broadest of terms. This year I only left one guy unranked who ended up in the top 20, and if anyone ranked Eric Haase in the top 20, then kudos to them for figuring out a reliable, gas-efficient time machine. That doesn’t mean my rankings are a chef’s kiss from Padma as I win the Quickfire. Oh, some of these are a hot mess from where I ranked them, compared to where they ended up. Please don’t ask if this is a ranking for next year. It’s not a ranking for next year. It’s me recapping last season. Please, for the love that all is holy, understand this. It’s all I ask of you. Well, that and shower me with praise. The latter isn’t hard, the former is. Also, remembering which is the ‘latter’ and which is the ‘former’ is hard too. Quibbles and semantics, my good man and five lady-mans. It wouldn’t be fair for me to preseason rank the players, then rank them again in the postseason based on my opinion, so these postseason top 20 lists are ranked according to our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. It’s cold hard math, y’all! Anyway, here’s the top 20 catchers for 2021 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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The Norm MacDonald death hit me hard and I went down a two-hour rabbit hole of old clips of him, and it was the best waste of two hours. This clip was one of my favorites (don’t ask me to choose my favorite, it would be like choosing my favorite child if I had children — though, honestly, it doesn’t seem that hard to choose a favorite child. You have, say, three kids, you can’t choose one that you like more? That feels like a you problem more than a them problem, anyway.). Bonus is Bob Einstein is in it, and we recently lost him too:

“Little did it matter; Croce would be dead within a year.” I am slayed. Well, thanks for indulging me. Now on a completely unrelated subject, Lewin Diaz! Have people been burned bad (bad Leroy Brown) by Marlins’ rookies? Jazz has been fine. What’s the problem here? I like Jesus Sanchez, no one seems to agree. I like Lewin Diaz (2-for-4, and two homers), no one else does. It seems at least. He now has five homers in 60 plate appearances, and that’s coming off a 20-homer Triple-A season (that was in 74 games). For 2022, does Lewin Diaz get the 1st base job? Not sure with Jesus Aguilar. If the NL gets the DH, then that might be moot. For this year, he’s a power corner man, but Lewin Diaz in 2022 fantasy could be an easy 30-homer guy, who might hit .220. If he gets enough junk, he might get 35+ homers. Guess you could say he hits junk yard, dog. Not the meanest of dogs, though. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Hope everyone had a good Labor Day. I stood on my lawn hugging a tree for 20 minutes until someone told me I was thinking of Arbor Day. I told them I just love trees, not letting on that I absolutely confused the two days. On Labor Day, we give thanks to all the women out there who took hours to birth us. During labor, your hoohay may have been dilated–*intern whispers in ear*–Okay, that’s not what Labor Day is about either. It’s about work, and rest, but if you ask me, if you give people a day off, then they start to like that too much and don’t like labor as much, so Labor Day should be a work day. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk where I would get booed. The Phils understood what I meant, and they did work on Labor Day. Brad Miller (3-for-5, 3 runs) hit his 16th and 17th homer, leading the way, and he’s been hot ever since he took over the strong side of the 1st base platoon, and is worth a hot schmotato grab. Next up, Jean Segura (3-for-5, 2 runs, 4 RBIs) hit his 11th homer, a grand slam, and is hitting .295 on the year, but with only nine steals, he’s been yawnstipating at best. Then, Freddy Galvis (1-for-3) hit his 12th homer, and 3rd homer in the last four games. Here’s what I said yesterday, “Best part about Galvis is he gets super hot for a week at a time. The 2nd best part is you can beat someone in your H2H playoffs with Freddy Galvis, which will totally piss them off.” And that’s me quoting me! Finally, Bryce Harper (1-for-4, 2 RBIs) hit his 28th homer, and 2nd homer in as many games. Check out Bryce hitting a non-solo homer. A Labor Day miracle! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Welcome Back! It’s been an exciting week, we got to watch the “corn” game this week (Thanks Tony L.) we had a pitcher starting his 1st game throw a no-hitter (Woof Padres) even Triston McKenzie flirted with a perfect game yesterday (Oy Vey). Today starts the beginning of another great week only 6 more to go let’s dive into it. We got a nice tidy 10 game slate and there is a pitcher that caught my eye right away. Carlos Hernandez ($7,100 ). I know you are all scared of the Astros hitters and all but hear me out. This guy can throw heat (98 MPH) does not allow HR (4 in 46 INN) K% is outstanding and limits hard contact. You would like to see him limit the BB’s but he commands 5 pitches and if he is off on a pitch, he can adjust to other pitches to get the hitter out. He has a veteran C to throw too so hopefully if Hernandez gets into trouble Salvy will be there to guide him through. Astros had to travel yesterday after a loss against the Angels and Reid Detmers so there could be some fatigue and I think this is a great letdown spot for Hernandez to capitalize on. No one will be playing him because some of the other options on the board (Cole, Gausman, Montas) are all on the board today so you will be different than most people and that’s what you got to do sometimes to reach the top.

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Before Lewis Brinson (3-for-4, 3 RBIs) homered twice (6, 7) on Wednesday, I wrote him up for the Buy column this week — which is available now on the Patreon. I had included him, because I saw recently that Lewis Brinson was hitting near-.350 in the last two weeks, and had hit some homers, so I was pumped to open his Statcast page to see improvement and! And! AND! Well, no, not entirely. He’s been better than he has been for Launch Angle, getting good wood on ball and xBA is up, but, damn, he still misses so much. If you lift balls with good wood–Wait, are we still talking about hitting? Right, right. Yes, good things will happen. Brinson is hitting balls as hard as Tatis, Verdugo, Story and Walsh. Clearly, great guys to be mentioned in the same breath, but they all make far more contact, and have three-plus times as many at-bats. This last few-week stretch has been great, but when I called him recently Byron Pennieston, because he was a poor man’s Buxton, it still applies. Of course, I’d still grab Pennieston in any league. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

All right All right..back again for another DFS degen special. Today we have a tidy 7 game main slate to choose from and the pickings are slim when it comes to pitchers to choose from. Two teams haven’t announced their starters as of yet but one pitcher suddenly stood out as a play today that looks mighty nice. The Mets organization can certainly be looked at as a team that often leaves fans head-scratching or downright furious at some of their handling of players but if they play their cards right they might have found a hidden gem in Tylor Megill ($8,500 ). Tylor is the younger brother of Trevor Megill who also is a MLB player and pitches for the Chicago Cubs. Tylor made his MLB debut in late June in a start against the Braves and hasn’t looked back since. Megill features a 94-95 mph fastball which he commands quite well but the pitch that is getting the most whiffs is his changeup which dips down into the 85 mph range with good deception down in the zone. Megill also features a slider which he dots on the corners and is generating a lot of weak hits and ground-outs. Megill has the 2nd lowest ERA in Mets history for any rookie after seven starts (Nolan Ryan is no.1) so Megill has definitely raised some eyebrows. Megill goes against a young Marlins team who he has not faced yet and has been really impressive so far against right-handed hitters .171 avg .455 OPS and only 1 HR allowed vs. righties. The Marlins really only have a couple of lefties they can employ against Megill that might give him trouble (Jazz Chisholm and M. Sierra) so that certainly doesn’t scare me away from using Megill today. The Marlins also will start a reliever today or bring up an arm from the minors so even with the Mets not having an impressive homestand at 5-6 and averaging 2.7 runs during the homestand I think the bats can give Megill enough firepower to squeak out a win against the Marlins today. The Mets are also 6-1 when Megill starts so it definitely seems Megill is in a great situation today and one that I will definitely be taking advantage of on my slates today.

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!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dodgers, Yankees and Padres should just divvy up the entire league and paper, rock, scissors the World Series.

“Paper beats rock.”
“Damn…Oh, man, did you have to bat flip your hand to rub it in? Don’t you know the unwritten rules of paper, rock, scissors?”

No matter how good the Yankees and Padres are, the Dodgers are Standard Oil. So, the full package for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner is:  Keibert Ruiz, RHPs Josiah Gray, Gerardo Carrillo; a bagel Larry King once took a bite of and put aside; fan meet ‘n greet with Rob Lowe, Hollywood Walk of Fame star of Mr. Ed; a good parking spot at Trader Joe’s, which seems impossible but whatever; a call from Tom Arnold about this “thing” and someone to intercept the call and jot down notes, and OF Donovan Casey. Let’s look at the Dodgers’ lineup once everyone is healthy:

Betts RF
T Turner 2B
Muncy 1B
J Turner 3B
Seager SS
Smith C
Bellinger CF
Pollock LF
Bench Barnes C, Pujols 1B, Taylor INF/OF, McKinstry INF/OF, McKinney OF/1B
Staff: Scherzer, Buehler, Kershaw, Urias, Price and Danny Duffy. Oh, eff off.

There’s a lot here, so let’s get on the other side of the anyway to break it down. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Dodgers announced their top pitching prospect Josiah Gray will make his major league debut today. There’s gonna be so many Grays/Greys in the majors, it’s gonna be like 50 Shades of Grey, and you’re gonna be pouring candle wax on your nips while drafting your fantasy teams. “Ow, Grey, please let me just type up this memo to HR without you tweaking my areolae!” That’s gonna be you wishing you could get all these Gray/Greys out of your head. But. You. Can’t. *Cue evil laugh that turns into a coughing fit* So, here’s Prospect Itch with the sitch, “(Josiah Gray) played 72 games at shortstop across his two college seasons but shifted to the mound full-time as a pro and has been incredibly effective in his brief career. At 6’1” with excellent ride on his his four-seamer and two benders he can bury, Gray’s traits are ideal for succeeding in the pitching paradigm that dominates our game now. His athleticism enables plus command that might be elite when all is said and done and has been good enough already to limit batters to just four home runs across four levels of minor league baseball–three of those coming in the hitter friendly California League. The Dodgers didn’t need his assistance in 2020, but I suspect he was ready to succeed if called upon and will be eager to answer the bell early in 2021. He’s a redraft target for me in deep leagues and someone I’ll be adding in shallow leagues when it seems his time is nigh. Gray is the man Grey is not.” Okay, not cool. His numbers are awesome this year — 12.6 K/9, 1.2 BB/9, 2.87 ERA, but he doesn’t seem able to rack up innings (15 2/3 IP). Never the hoo! I added JoJo Gray in two NL-Only leagues, and would grab him in the shallowest of mixed leagues too, if I needed to chase the upside dragon JoJo Pitcher, Your Career Is Calling. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Howdy, Razzfolks!

Well, *insert “San Andreas Here We Go Again” meme*

So, we know Thursday’s NYY/BOS game was postponed due to a few positive COVID-19 cases with Yankees players. There were actually more before the All-Star Game. Six in total, and three are fantasy relevant names: Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Jonathan Loaisiga. Now we’ve got an issue with the Rockies, but so far no one terribly fantasy relevant is affected. But the point is this: COVID is absolutely a thing again. And it will continue to be. This delta variant ain’t no joke; be careful out there, y’all.

This week is a quality-over-quantity type injury report. Not as many names as in past editions, but this week’s names are big ones. Arguably the biggest of ones.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

With the MLB All-Star voting complete and the starters and reserves decided, I thought I would take this opportunity to pick the real points league All-Stars. What do I mean by “real” All-Stars? Well it’s easy to spot the superstar players that are performing above the board, but when it’s a player that you drafted in the early rounds that is only doing what he was expected to do, it’s not nearly as impressive as a guy that you drafted late or picked up off the waiver wire. I’ve said this several times before and I’ll say it again, it’s not the studs you draft early that win you the championship, it’s the players that outperform their draft day value and the waiver wire wonders that do that.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

It’s July and with the MLB All-Star Break almost upon us, it seems fitting to take a look at the points league all-stars. This is for season performance to date so they will be among the top points scorers but I am giving a little more weight to guys that are outperforming their draft position. The fantasy MVP has to be Shohei Ohtani (406) He has more points than anyone else and yet his ADP was in the 40s. As a two-way player, he’s basically a cheat code in daily leagues, giving you an extra roster spot. Start him at pitcher when he’s on the mound and at DH when he’s not. Obviously, for weekly lineups, his value isn’t quite as sky-high because you miss out on more of his points but he’s still been amazing. He’s been impressive no matter what position he’s at with a power/speed combo at the plate and massive K upside on the mound. At only 26 years old the sky is the limit and he should easily be the number one overall pick next season in leagues where he’s a two-way player.

Other than the Sho, here are my other Fantasy All-Star picks.

Please, blog, may I have some more?