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Please see our player page for Chase Silseth to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.

Welcome back for another installment of Up-and-Coming Dynasty players. Last week I talked about Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto and this week I’m sticking to the Angels organization as the spotlight falls on starting pitcher Chase Silseth.

Right now, Silseth is rostered in 7% of Yahoo leagues and 4.5% of ESPN leagues while he’s rostered in 65% of Fantrax leagues.

When it comes to evaluating Silseth, looking at his past is not a good indicator of why I think he is an up-and-coming dynasty player. That is because if you look at his body of work in college and first season in the minors, there would be no reason to think he would have any success in the majors.

In this case, it is looking at what he did last year with the Angels and a gut hunch. My gut is telling me that Silseth is a very under-the-radar player, one who I think will be a solid member of your pitching staff, especially in deep leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Happy Monday, Razzball faithful! For this week’s installment of Top 100 Starting Pitchers, I decided to give us all a peek into the darkness that is “The Next 100”. The shadowy realm of the next 100 starting pitchers isn’t nearly as deep of an abyss as the one that houses the pitchers that follow these […]

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installment of the 2024 Dynasty Rankings, with players No. 300 to 201 being unveiled.

When it comes to putting your dynasty team together, you want to build and then maintain a squad that can contend for years. The formula to do this, however, varies from person to person.

For me, when evaluating players for dynasty leagues, the formula for success is a dash of gut instinct mixed in with past experience and a whole lot of what the eye sees. You know a good player when you see him. But a good 34-year-old player is not the same as a good 24-year-old player. Thus, for my dynasty teams I try to follow these simple guidelines:

Youth over Age
You will need veteran players, but you don’t want a whole team of veteran players. If there is a “tie” between a young player and the player four or five years older, I’ll take the younger player.

Hitters over Pitchers
As a whole, young hitters perform better than young pitchers, and veteran hitters are more consistent than veteran pitchers. Basically, I trust my gut when it comes to hitters versus pitchers. Unless a starting pitcher is superior to a solid hitter in the round I am drafting, I will wait on the starting pitcher and go with the hitter.

Starting Pitchers over Relievers
This is pretty easy to understand why. As a group, relievers are so up-and-down it is maddening. Without fail, there will be five or six closers you can pick up in the middle of the season. DO NOT DRAFT A CLOSER EARLY. I will fill out 90 percent of my starting staff before I add my closers/relievers. In my rankings, you won’t see a reliever ranked in the top 150.

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Wow, has it already been a week since the first installment of the 2024 Top Keepers was unveiled? Time flies when the baseball playoffs are in full swing.

Last week I looked at the top relievers to keep (2024 Top Keepers – Relievers). This week the focus is on starting pitchers.

Like relievers, starting pitchers can be a little inconsistent from year to year, making it tough to nail down the top keepers. I went pretty deep this year with a list of 85, allowing for a nice mix of veteran pitchers and young up-and-comers.

That said, I’m sure I missed some pitchers you probably like more and listed players higher than you think they deserve to be.

However, I like the list I have put together and I hope you find it useful as you build your fantasy staff.

Now let’s get on with the rankings!

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Nice to see a team (the Jays) that has to play well actually play well. Feels like a rare thing this final week. It’s been like teams have been taking must-win as a challenge and saying, “Prove it!” Or like a spiteful child saying, “I don’t want to must win, you must win!” Chris Bassitt (7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 12 Ks, ERA at 3.60) went out and must-won’d his behind off, and, from what I know of Bassitts and their rear porches, there were some dramatically wide swings and they smelled some other dog’s butts. Maybe that analogy got away from me, but you can’t spell analogy without anal. Hey now! Just opened Chris Bassitt’s player stat page, and you’re never gonna believe this, but what he’s done for the last six years? He’s doing it again! Wild, right? Chris Bassitt has made a career out of being criminally underrated. Look at his stats: 8.4 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 3.60 ERA, and guess where he ranks for starters on the year on the Player Rater. That’s top 20 starter numbers. He will barely be a top 40 starter in drafts again in 2024. Underrated, always. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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What’s shakin’, Razzbacon? Last weekend, I traveled to Portland to visit my family. We don’t get to see each other too much. So, I take these moments where I can get them. As a result, I missed the MOST IMPORTANT INJURY WEEK OF THE YEAR. Luckily, my Razzball brethren Mike Couillard, co-host of the fantastic […]

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We struggled in Week 19, but we bounced back last week. All of our streamers did well outside of Zach Littell, and he didn’t even kill your lineups. That has me ready to keep rolling here, but it was a tough week to pick hitters. It’s hard to understand why because we have 10 teams […]

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Right now, it’s Saturday in Los Angeles, and there’s reports that a hurricane could be hitting the region for the first time in 70-something years. So, I am preparing as anyone from SoCal would prepare — I’m wearing a pussy hat and an altered 2016 campaign shirt that reads I’m With Herricane, while stockpiling avocado toast. If I don’t have electricity on Sunday, just know that I wrote this on Saturday and am scheduling it now. I can guess what Sunday will bring though: Wow, I can’t believe CJ Abrams stole 17 bags on Sunday and Kerry Carpenter hit five homers. Sorry Mark Whiten, but you are no longer the King! What a great Friday Buy by (stutterer!) me! Also, on Saturday, word came down that Noelvi Marte was being promoted. Maybe it’s because I’m staring down death with a hurricane that could bring 2-3 (!) inches of rain, but I’m getting choked up at how awesome some of these Reds’ prospects are, and what that means for the future. “I love this crap!” That’s me auditioning for a new MLB commercial and getting the lines wrong. Any hoo! Noelvi Marte is being called up to play where? Yes, for this year, I’m about to exercise caution. His speed, contact and power is going to make him a fantasy star at some point, but he might not have everyday playing time. He was in the Itch’s Top 50 fantasy baseball prospects, and he was right behind E! in the Reds’ prospects top 10, prior to the season. Itch said, “Marte checks in at 6’1” 181 lbs but seems to be filling out in a hurry, just to the eye test. Next time we get a fresh weigh in, he might clear two bills. The power is plus-plus, and he controls the strike zone well for someone his age and level, posting a 13.5-to-18.3 percent walk-to-strikeout rate in 30 games for the High-A Reds. He’d posted a 10.7-to-21.3 percent rate in 85 games for Seattle before coming over in the Luis Castillo trade. Could be a sign he’s on an upward trajectory in that area, and he’s got the talent to sort of choose the type of hitter he wants to be. His big leg kick is changing shape here and there over the years as he navigates that path, and I’d like to bury Grey under the path.” Yikes, what the heck? So, I grabbed Noelvi everywhere in case the Reds figure out playing time for him — yesterday, he played 3rd — but I could see dropping him in shallower leagues if the ABs aren’t there. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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When you play in a dynasty league, you should always be looking for some late season adds who will either help you during your playoff run or add depth to your team if you are already building next season.

But who is out there at this point of the season who fits that description? Well, there are plenty of those types of players sitting on the waiver wire, and I’m here to once again shine the light on a player who has thus far been overlooked.

Chase Silseth is a right-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels who did poorly in a brief stint with the club last season and started the year slowly when he joined the Angels this season. But since that slow start, he has been one of the best starting pitchers in the American League since July 1.

A MEANDERING PATH

Silseth did not enter pro ball as a top-ranked prospect. He probably hardly registered as a prospect! Silseth played his high school ball in Farmington, New Mexico, and wasn’t drafted. So he packed his bags and went to pitch for the University of Tennessee.

As a freshman he did a decent job on the mound, going 1-1 with a 4.35 ERA and 1.016 WHIP, appearing in 18 games and making two starts. But Silseth then transferred to the College of Southern Nevada in 2020 – only to have the season whipped out thanks to Covid, and then transferred to Arizona for the 2021 season. With the Wildcats he was 8-1 on the mound, but he had a 5.55 ERA and 1.449 WHIP but did have a 9.7 K/9 rate.

Despite his overall numbers, the Angels were intrigued by Silseth and selected him in the 11th round of the 2021 draft and even paid him an above-slot bonus of $485,00. The decision to draft Silseth appears to have been a good one for the Angels. Only one year later the hurler was seeing action in the majors.

Please, blog, may I have some more?