Not much has changed since we last talked. Only A THIRD OF THE BULLPENS have been drastically altered. The Brain Freeze is Slurpee Big Gulp level this week. At least the dust is starting to settle from the flurricane of activity. Exercise some caution on those new openings. Often the less expensive, less glitzy alternative has the same odds to net some saves.
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Dan Winkler
Please see our player page for Dan Winkler 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.
Bullpen Report, Week 8: How Bazaar
May 16, 2019 | 2019 Fantasy Baseball, Closers, Middle Relievers | 15 Commentsby: Roto-Wan
It’s getting ugly in the reliever market. Injuries, ineffectiveness, and promotions have wrung much of the top talent out of the scene. Much like the bazaar in Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle there’s stuff everywhere, but it’s hard to find what you need. Also, there’s a basket with a cobra in it. You just have to hope the Rock shows up and start throwing people through walls. I don’t actually know what the fantasy baseball equivalent of that is. I’ve gotten off track here thinking about the Rock’s ridiculous biceps, as per uzhe. I’ll wrap up this lede in ramble with a comparison Jumanji’s theme: the only way to win the game of relievers is to play and win.
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Sexy young arms galore on this week’s Ditka, Sausage Pod! If you came upon this post by googling “sexy young sausage”, no judgment here, but this isn’t that kind of blog!
This week B_Don and Donkey Teeth profile four of the most exciting young starting pitchers in the game, as they take a look at the short debut outing of Michael Kopech squaring off against up and coming horse Jose Berrios.
Then the fellas circle back around to take a second look at Captain Jack Flaherty who was pitted in a fantastic duel against fellow rookie phenom Walker Buehler out in the city of angels. Find out which of these arms the guys like most down the stretch and going into drafts for 2019!
The show is wrapped up with the usual pickups segment highlighted by scorching hot Kendrys Morales.
Stay tuned for next week’s special guest episode featuring The Fantasy Master Lothario himself, Grey Albright!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”284415″ player=”10951″ title=”Fantasy Baseball Buy Sell Hold Week 22″]
A premature grey-haired man and a prematurely balding man sit on a Brooklyn stoop, chatting about the old days. “I can remember when Ossie Davis sat on this very stoop in Do The Right Thing.” “It was a simpler time before gentrification. Now the millennials are killing the bees, mayonnaise and plastic straws.” Sipping his drink, “My kombucha tastes like paper…stupid biodegradable straw!” “We were millennials as late as June, what happened to us?” “We grew old waiting for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.!” “Stupid millennials and their Super Twos!” So, as mentioned last week in my Eloy Jimenez fantasy, I’m back here for the other guy who could be called up this week. Will he? Unless you’re talking to my groin, and mispronouncing Willie, I haven’t a clue. I’m not saying Vlad Jr. necessarily will be called up, I’m just saying you stash him for right now. See what happens when rosters expand in a few days, and, if he’s not called up, you drop him again. No harm, no foul in holding a guy for a week who could do what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. does. For more, search the damn site! We’ve been talking about him for so long we’ve grown old! Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
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Closer Rankings: Role With The Changes
July 27, 2018 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 13 Commentsby: Smokey
The trading deadline is days away and the roles they are a changing. In comes one out goes the other. Closers losing value left and right while the waiver wire warriors of the world are circling like buzzards for the SAGNOF scrap heaps. The latest in the foray of closers to go is Joakim Soria, now a Brewer. The White Sox closer role is likely to go to Jace Fry or Juan Minaya. Not an awesome situation or a good predicament to be in, but a closer is a closer. The SAGNOF model should be: “Leave no good save behind”. Similarly, the Orioles traded Zach Britton to the Evil Empire, Brad Brach assumes the role there for the time being or until he gets traded for assets that the Orioles can ruin. The trade winds and finalized deals don’t help the set-up man either, as key components to the back-end game have been replaced by acquired talent. This is life for the ever building bullpen foundation of playoff contending teams. Build from the back, because the girth of talent that exists in the starters just isn’t there. So if you are currently zonked from losing a closer that no longer has a professional job of closing, it is time to speculate where speculating looks speculative. Look at guys on the secondary for teams that are rumored to be wheelin’ and dealin’. The Rangers, Nationals, Twins, Rays, Tigers, and to a lesser degree maybe the Cardinals… Be ahead of the curve instead of being caught looking at Uncle Charlie. Closer news is fluid this time of year, and by the time this gets posted there could be 2-3 more trades that make me look even dumber than I already do. More after the jump, with success stories and diminishing returns. Cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Bullpen Report: Kirby Your Enthusiasm
July 20, 2018 | Middle Relievers, SAGNOF | 22 Commentsby: Smokey
You know what is fun this time of year? The bullpen shuffle. Whomever is closest to the computer or phone wins the waiver game in most cases. Well… that’s now the case with the Padres with the trade of Brad Hand to the Indians. The waiver wire is set ablaze for one Kirby Yates, but is he the guy forever, or the guy for now? I am leaning that the trade door in San Diego is gonna revolve one more time and see Yates come out the other side a bullpen piece rather than a closing man. Hand’s still a valuable commodity, granted he won’t be a full-time closer with the Tribe, but his peripherals and Cody Allen‘s shakiness as of late… will lead to a “sometimes” situation. Hand is a hold in all leagues because he should get a shot for every third save or so with his new club. Add in the K-rate over 13 and he has intrigue that only a dozen or so non-closers have. Back to Yates though, since this is the afternoon post and Grey has gone over it this morning and most likely will after this in his buy post, but Yates has value for now. In fact, he’s had value for most of the year in holds leagues, with a 11+ K/9 and a ton of success in the setup game in the reliever farm known as the Whale’s Vagina. So why am I so hesitant to give him the go? He is a journeyman reliever whose value is never going to be higher than right now, or in eight days with some saves to his name. So if you swung and missed at the waiver wire add for saves with Yates, grab Craig Stammen for free and just wait. Waiting is always a good thing, especially with a maybe-closer in the making, albeit one with not much quantity potential. More bullpen goodies and post all star tidbits after the bump. Cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Bullpen Report: When In Doubt, Pick A Winner
July 7, 2018 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 17 Commentsby: Smokey
Welcome to the bi-monthly look at nose picking. Nah, I am obviously talking about bullpens, because they usually come in second to the nose goblins anyways. Lots of people always ask me: How do you shuffle between holds guys and get an effective return? First off, if you wanna surf the waiver trend and stream the hell out of relievers for holds purposes, you gotta be aware that you can’t be afraid to let your ratios go to pot. Not like move to Colorado and play Bohemian drums and stuff, just the trends that I have encountered and noticed is that with the quantity in holds there comes a slight tick to ERA and WHIP. Not an awful turn of events, if you you have sufficient starters that hold down the metrics. I don’t even know if metrics was the right word there, but I just saw a commercial for a tutoring service for kids… ummm, its summer. So back to the picking a winner lede discussion… When in doubt, pick a winner, four of the top-five hold accumulating teams are in first place. Six out of the top-10. I wish I can make the cliche statement that bullpens win games and have it be unique and quirky and new, but quality bullpens don’t not hurt your teams chance at winning. So if you are looking at streaming or even in the business for flip-flopping relievers in this high holy season of the All Star break, ask yourself two questions; how has he done over the last two weeks, and is his team scoring enough runs for the quantity? Because any good reliever needs to be worth the squeeze. And it doesn’t hurt to be a front-running team. So choose wisely, and for all intents and purposes hit me up. Never hurts to ask the guy who sleeps in bullpen pajamas. More bits of tid after the jump, cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Closer Rankings: Know Him? Doesn’t Sound So Familia
June 29, 2018 | Closers, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 21 Commentsby: Smokey
The closer cavalcade of debauchery is well in season. Rewind four months ago and look at your team… If you drafted Jeurys Familia, Alex Colome and Bobby Osuna, you probably came out of the draft smiling like a freshly picked peach. Now you look at your team today for the first time in a month, because you most likely let the ship sail on the season because of injury, attrition or trades to your bullpen. The last two names have been done ad nauseum by me and other bullpen savants around the web… So now we look at Jeurys Familia. Or a tale of losing a job do to injury, returning, and basically sucking all the trust out of even owning him. From the beginning of the season until June 7th when he went on the DL, he posted good numbers by Donkeycorn standards; 14 saves with K/9 rate above 10 and ERA of 2.48 and a BAA of .245. All within the strain of imagination as a set it and forget it closer. Now we sit here on June 29th, and in six appearances since, he still sits at the same save total of 14, K/9 of 6.35, ERA of 9.53 and BAA of .357. Now, I am no math whiz, hell I am barely even knowledgeable about what actually is cheese whiz, but those numbers are awful and garbage. Add in the fact that the Mets as a team are in the toilet, have fired their GM, and have a worse record than the punting from day one Marlins…. Trade-value wise, he has zero in fantasy and almost in real life, because teams aren’t going to trade for a guy who can’t get outs. As an impending free agent, he should and will be traded, maybe to a team that has an opening in middle relief, but I don’t see him gaining closer status for the near future with the Mets or another team. So if you are a Familia owner and holding out hope for some sort of revert to the former here, I am unfortunately going to tell you that he gets less than 5 saves the rest of the year it looks like. More closer news and views, read on or don’t. I will continue to sit by the pool regardless!
Please, blog, may I have some more? SAGNOF Report, Kiermaier is Gonna Ski the K12
June 25, 2018 | Uncategorized | 15 Commentsby: Smokey
From this day forward, or rather more bluntly on days when I have had too much of Grandpa’s wowwie sauce, it gets a little obscure. And this week by obscure I am talking about John Cusack movies. The cult 80’s classic movie Better Off Dead to be exact. Where we all wanna know where my two dollars is. Much like that movie, the Myer that we are all hoping and rooting for to defeat the preppy d-bags is Kevin Kiermaier. Recently returned from a DL stint that lasted too long in my humble K.K. loving opinion. The thing I tend to love about Kevin is that he is going to play every single day. Why you ask? Because he is an elite defender in centerfield. That my friends wins hearts and minds and cures all ills in real baseball. Unfortunately for fantasy baseball, we need results to warrant consideration for lineup-hood. While he doesn’t boast Hamilton type speed, he does have three consecutive 10/15 seasons under his belt. Like I said, it’s not elite by any stretch of the imagination, but to be honest, this whole Lane Myer/Kevin Kiermaier lede title thing was a stretch. But still, 10/15 seasons don’t come stumbling in the bar every night with the take me home pumps and no drink necessary dress on. The waiver wire is a place for throwbacks and what-ifs. So that is where I am telling you to look. If K.K. is there, grab him up, make him wifey material for the rest of this year and watch the 80 plus games he plays out the rest of the year develop into a 10/10 season. Not great, once again. I know I sound like a drunken broken record but everyday at bats are the sex panther for good SAGNOF returns. Here comes some more tidbits of SAGNOF-dom and maybe some cool little pop-up pictures for the slower reading crowd. Cheers!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Bullpen Report: Dyson Sucks, But In A Vacuum, He’s the Closer
June 22, 2018 | Uncategorized | 10 Commentsby: Smokey
The news that Hunter Strickland has fallen down and needs a time out for punching a door has sent a reliever ripple effect down the closer ranks. Since this is the Holds week and this is the most pertinent info going, I figured we would roll with anyways. So roll with the suspenseful animation of holds love and glory for a little bit, and while you are at it, temper your expectations of reliever-dom as we dive into the Giants reliever sitch. So Strickland got all mad, punched a door, broke his hand. The Giants are not short of ex-closers that have had time in the limelight. Sam Dyson gets the first look as expected, because Mark Melancon is not ready for prime time… yet. Dyson got the first save chance, nice! Smooth sailing. Then on Thursday? Yaks up 2 runs and gets yanked for a guy I just brought to light in Reyes Moronta. The story isn’t that intriguing as I wish there was some Usual Suspects twist where Mark Melancon was Bruce Bochy all along and he just uses the nickname ‘Verbal’ from his me-ma. Dyson seems to be the guy, until the trust level is at a reasonable level of fortitude for the previous 52 million dollar man in Melancon. The Giants aren’t going anywhere fast, so involving assets of tradeability like MM and Dyson are a boon to not only your fantasy team, but real life baseball. So the Giants may start to implore an Oprah approach to saves. You get a save, and you get a save, and you get a save! The save chase is great and fun until you are on the losing end of it. So enjoy the stat heist that you may have with Dyson, soon to be Melancon, and eventually everyone. More saves and holds goodies after the bump. Cheers!
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Well, deep-league folks, things are looking a little extra thin on the waiver wire this week, at least from my POV — hopefully there’s a bit more to choose from in your world. I have an AL-only team where I have dead spots at OF and CI, and there literally wasn’t a player I could use available to me on waivers over the weekend, so my starting lineup this week includes one guy on the DL and one guy in the minors. When I searched for free agents, the only available player who qualified at corner who’d had a major league at bat over the previous week was Jefry Marte. I went ahead and bid a buck on him because, why not, but evidently there was another team in a position just as dire: I actually did not end up with Marte on my team because someone else also bid a dollar on him, and I somehow “lost” due to whatever our tiebreaker is. If any of this sounds even remotely familiar to you, know that you’ve found the section of the Razzball world where we understand your pain. And if you play in a relatively deep league but there are still at least a handful of options out there, have some fun and make the most of your waiver wire transactions – who knows which random pickup could reward you with a little long-term value. And if you play in shallow leagues, enjoy your freedom and go nuts making those drop/pickups, as I have in the RCL Writers’ League – it gives me a sense of freedom that I shall never experience in leagues where the likes of Jefry Marte get fought over.
Since we’re talking about random pickups, here’s a few players that might be of interest to those of us in the world of deep, deep-ish, and super-deep-league fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more? Bullpen Report: I Dub Thee Seranthony of Dominguez
May 26, 2018 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 15 Commentsby: Smokey
Tap on the shoulder, now tap on the other shoulder. Swords and knights yadda, yadda. Pun joke and title inclusion over. I could probably draw it out to upmost degree, but I’ll just end it and rip the bandaid off and jump into the welcome back Kotter bullpen of Philadelphia. If the collective bullpen in Philly isn’t called the Sweathogs, they are doing something wrong. The Vinnie Babarino that is emerging as the future leader is most definitely Seranthony Dominguez. Dude set a record with hitless streaks to start the year for a rookie and is now the go to, end all be all holds guy for the Phillies. His arsenal screams future closer, but Kapler’s fear of commitment and Neris owning pictures of some relative of his. Dominguez is the guy, for now and for later. With 5 holds and 1 save in his last 6 appearances, he is involved in almost every winning game the Phillies are. He checks all the proverbial boxes that we have previously discussed when looking for a reliever to roster. Plus he has the save appeal, which is similar to curb appeal, minus the fact that you don’t need shrubs or a Chinese maple tree to accent how dominant he has been. Holds for now, saves for later for the Sir of the Cheesesteak. Roster with confidence as his results are great, but be patient as Kapler is a mad scientist with his bullpen decision making skills. Holds week brings the best out of all of us, because you play in a league with holds. That’s why we are fake internet friends.
Please, blog, may I have some more?A little birdie told me our 2024 Fantasy Baseball subscriptions are live. The little birdie also said it includes our Draft War Room. You really wanna lose in a fantasy baseball league to a little birdie? Would be kinda embarrassing, tbhhttps://t.co/1ag7IFSYS0
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