D.J. LeMahieu

VictoriaB

FanDuel: Running Out Of Gausman

September 24, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel |

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I always remind you to check your lineups before start of play, and never more so in this most roller-coastery of weeks in the most roller-coastery of seasons, as it barrels breathlessly toward the finish line. You have teams who have clinched berths in the playoffs and others realizing that 2020 is not their year (is it anybody’s year, really?), so it’s always an interesting time for setting lineups, as things can change at the very last minute: players resting, pitchers not going deep, et cetera. But as of time of writing, Kevin Gausman ($8,300) is still projected to start at home for the Giants versus the Rockies, and it is he on whom we are pinning our hopes for our FanDuel DFS lineup, this Thursday. He’s also been great in his last 2 outings, versus the A’s and Diamondbacks, going 6.0 innings with 1 earned run on each occasion. For the rest of this, my very last post of the 2020 “regular” season (thanks for hanging out with me!), let’s take a look at some hitters to recruit around him, as well as some alternative pitching, after the jump.

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?
Dan Pants

Gimme Moore

September 12, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 21 Comments

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Mariners’ outfielder slash infielder slash superhero Dylan Moore continued his onslaught on the MLB Friday night hitting his seventh home run and stealing his 10th base of the year. The 28 year old is now slashing .282/.362/.563 in just 28 games played and is looking like a bonafide fantasy darling. A slam & legs, you say? In Seattle, the slam & legs is served up mid-air at Pike’s Market and must be caught before consuming. Chase it down with piping hot latte from Seattle’s Own (but not ‘Seattle’s Own’) Starbucks, because what goes better with fresh fish besides espresso? Dylan’s got three homers and four steals in the past week! He’s also reached base safely in every game he’s played since the start of September. The steals are why I added him but the homers are why I’m now obsessed with him. Mmmoore. This no-simp September thing is going to be tough. He’s over 50% owned at the time I’m writing this and that number’s going to probably double over the weekend, but I figured you deserved a Dylan Moore lede regardless of ownership percentage and also I couldn’t get that Britney Spears song out of my head. In more important slash concerning news you should know, an anonymous San Francisco Giants’ player (probably not Pablo, definitely not Yaz) tested positive for the COVID Friday which I assume means all Giants games are cancelled for the next 5-7 days so here’s your heads up to find some warm bodies to replace your Giants and Padres this weekend ASAP as possible.  As for Moore, if you still read the late season Razzball posts you know I covered Kyle Lewis in my final post of 2019, so there are some gems to be uncovered in my lazy, late-September musings. Sometimes looking to 2021 is the best plan of action, especially when you know that each post could be your last as there is always risk of the entire Razzball staff contracting COVID and the blog getting shut down for the final two weeks. There’s nothing we could do to prevent, there’s only one straw in the office and the plastic ones are bad for the planet. Anyway! TL;DR Pick up Moore if he’s out there and drop all your Giants except Baby Yaz!

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

Please, blog, may I have some more?
VictoriaB

FanDuel: Civale Serviceable

September 10, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, DFS, Fanduel | 3 Comments

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There are only 2 Thursdays left in this weird season where life feels a little Groundhog Day-ish (doesn’t it?). So here we are on another Thursday, another day in which the pitching options seem somewhat on the “meh” side for our DFS slates on FanDuel. It’s pay up for Gerrit Cole, or take a risk and go cheaper and spend on hitting instead. Because I’ll admit to needing a little excitement in my life these days, I’m going to build a lineup around Aaron Civale ($9,200) versus the Royals. Civale could make for a good match-up versus the poor, last-in-their-division, Royals. He may earn some runs. He’s not going to be a strikeout machine. He’s more risky than Cole, but less than Paddack (more on the below). But he should go deep enough into the game and he could get a win. That’s a VictoriaB Ringing Endorsement™.  Let’s take a look at who else is out there, after the jump.

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?
Ralph Lifshitz

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Jayce Tingler Sounds Like A Sex Toy

August 19, 2020 | All Podcasts | 1 Comment

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In the aftermath of 3-0-gate, Grey and yours truly jump into the fray, and give our on the whole silly Tatis granny. As if you needed another opinion on this. Don’t you worry we quickly get it out of our systems and move onto the good stuff. No, not the 30 year old scotch in your desk drawer, we’re talking oodles of fantasy baseball jewels for your noodles. We talk Reds postponement, Oscar Mercado’s demotion, Mookie’s continued success in Hollywood, and Grey finally admits Corey Seager is good at hitting baseballs. It was like group therapy with less trust falls! After we run through all that we jump into the trio of Tigers promotions before rounding it out with injuries and hot schmotato talk. It’s another week of the Razzball podcast but with 20% less fat!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
TheTinDoor

Charting the Future: Multi-Position Premium

July 22, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball | 3 Comments

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The great Jeff Zimmerman (Fangraphs, The Process, etc.) recently revisited a topic that’s always ripe for debate: what kind of extra value does a multi-position player get, compared to those who only play one position? We can all agree that multi-position is better than single; quantifying that value, however, proves more difficult. A few years ago, Rudy assessed this briefly in his seminal piece, “Debunking Positional Scarcity“, and recommends adding a $1 for multi-position players.

Jeff’s article took a different approach: instead of measuring what a player’s value should be, he attempted to measure the actual impact in terms of draft cost. In other words, what premium does the market place on these players? Read the full piece; Jeff estimates ~$3.20 bump on average.

While I like the goal (understanding market premiums), Jeff’s methodology (comparing the draft cost of two similarly-projected players) was limited in scope. So I’ve set out to do additional analysis with the same goal: measuring the market premium of multi-position players.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: An Early Look At Third Base

February 5, 2020 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Rolling In The Deep | 6 Comments

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I’m usually not big on worrying too much about positional scarcity, but anyone who has competed in a variety of different fantasy baseball league formats knows that depth at a given position is one thing that can make a big difference in approaching a draft for a shallow league versus a deep one.  The last couple of years, I’ve been making a concerted effort to draft with less concern about a player’s position, and more towards getting the best value possible with every draft pick or auction purchase, regardless of league size.  But when approaching a draft this way, it’s even more important to know what your options are going to be at each position, which positions you can wait to fill later, and which players are actually worth reaching for if you do realize you’re running out of decent options at a given position.  Getting to the point of today’s post, let’s take a look at some third basemen for 2020, with an emphasis on how I’ll be approaching the position in deeper leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Early Second Base Thoughts

January 21, 2020 | Deep League Strategy, Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy, Rolling In The Deep | 15 Comments

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Last week we took a very early look at the first base position for fantasy baseball in 2020, both with some early general thoughts that could apply to both deep and shallower leagues, as well as some more specific thoughts about NL-only, AL-only, or other deep leagues.  We’ll move along to the Keystone this week as we try to do some early navigation into the world of second basemen.  Since Grey has already kindly gifted you with his list of top 20 second basemen for 2020 fantasy baseball, I’ll began by quoting him directly — as he said, “First time I can remember a position, besides catcher, that didn’t have one guy in the top 20 overall.”  Two other important points he made which I largely agree with and will now paraphrase:  1) The guys at the very top of this position are probably not worth drafting at their current price in any format, but 2) There are lots of 2B bargains later on.  One other thing I noticed that I thought was interesting when looking at the second base landscape:  just off the top of my head, it looks to me that about two-thirds of the top 30 second basemen also qualify at another position, even when using a 20-games-played-in-2019 threshold.  I don’t remember any position having stats quite like that in the past, and what it means to me at first glance is that there are A LOT of guys who qualify at 2nd base this year.  Let’s take a look at some names, and how the current state of second base particularly affects those of us deep-leaguers.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Laura Holt

Rolling In The Deep: Early First Base Thoughts

January 14, 2020 | Deep League Strategy, Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy, Rolling In The Deep | 25 Comments

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Happy New(ish) Year, Razzball friends!  It’s time to stop worrying about what we haven’t quite gotten around to accomplishing so far this offseason, and time to start thinking about fantasy baseball in 2020 — or as I like to think of it, a slightly more official reason to go into procrastination mode when it comes to things like real-life commitments, chores, and duties.  Since it’s still January and all, and since we’re all preparing for drafts and auctions of many different shapes and sizes, I’m going to try to cover things somewhat more generally for the time being.  We’ll still lean towards the deep-league perspective to some degree, but what I’m most interested in for now is keeping on top of the overall baseball landscape – trades, free agent signings, rule changes, depth chart shake-ups, draft trends, recent statistics that I might have overlooked, MLB teams facing unprecedented punishments for cheating, etc. – and viewing it from a more generic lens for the moment, then tailoring all of that information to individual leagues, drafts, and auctions as they come.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Ralph Lifshitz

Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Braden Bishop Is A Straw

September 4, 2019 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast |

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The season is winding down, September Call-up season is here, and we’re on to talking 2020 drafts way too early. We discuss how early is too early to draft Ronald Acuña, as well as numerous 2020 player battles. We talk about a handful of September Call-ups too, but this show is more about Grandpa Joe. For those of you that don’t know, Grandpa Joe is the Greatest Generation’s answer to Grey Albright. At 93, Joe is still making dirty jokes and sexually harassing waitresses.

As far as I know Grey does not sexually harass waitresses.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Dan Pants

Keston Time to Save Your Season

June 1, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes | 46 Comments

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Friday night, Milwaukee Brewers’ newest phenom/heartthrob/infielder Keston Hiura went three for four with his fourth home run and three RBI. Keston case you were wondering, Hiura is slashing .296/.345/.537 with four homers a steal and seven RBI through his first 15 games in the majors with two of those dingers coming in the past week along with a .353 batting average in that stretch. Did I mention he has a four game hitting streak as well? Well yes. I just did. Hiura has arrived, folks. Grey gave you his Keston Hiura fantasy a few weeks ago, and when he didn’t Austin Riley rake out of the gate, excitement seemed to cool a bit for the 22 year old 2nd baseman. But now’s your chance. He hit .333/408/.698 in 37 games at AAA San Antonio with 11 home runs, 26 RBI and four steals. I liked everything about that last sentence. Of his 43 hits, 24 went for extra bases. Sure, the 40 strikeouts in just 129 ABs is a bit concerning but when you’re fishing for rookie upside you casually ignore little warning signs like that. Here’s what Grey said about Keston, “He was striking out way too much in Triple-A to hit .333 in the majors, but 18/7/.270 sounds about right from this point forward with a chance for more.  Maybe he could even be the NL MVP.” Methinks Grey just likes him because of his mustache, but honestly, what’s not to like! He should only be better when Milwaukee comes to their senses and moves him into the heart of the lineup. Hiura/Yelich sammys anyone? He’s currently criminally under owned in many leagues and I’d add him everywhere he’s available. This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!

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

Please, blog, may I have some more?