Please see our player page for Edwin Rios 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.
Hayden Wesneski leads us off in his quest to take home the last rotation spot. He’s yet to allow a run in 4.2 innings this spring after posting a 2.18 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 33 innings for the Cubbies last year. Javier Assad and Adrian Sampson have been effective in their regular season chances, too, but Assad could go back to Triple-A, and Sampson could go to the bullpen. Either could be fine in the rotation, but neither has a great case to block an emerging arm like Wesneski.
Third base is a busy spot this spring. Edwin Rios was playing a lot with Patrick Wisdom on the shelf due to lingering soreness in the groin, but Wisdom returned to the lineup Monday. While he feels like the frontrunner given his playing time the past couple seasons, Wisdom is arbitration eligible next year and could command a sum that’s not commensurate with his on-field contributions, given the slipshod nature of the process and the number of home runs he hits.
Razzlings, I am willing to bet at least a few of you that have watched and, perhaps, even enjoyed the 1996 film The Craft, starring the inimitable Fairuza Balk. Imagine a group of four Catholic high school girls begin to dabble in the dark arts. It begins innocently enough with spells for levitation, hair color […]
(NOTE: THIS POST WAS RELEASED EARLY THIS WEEK ON OUR PATREON. IT’S $10/MONTH.)
Riley Greene is 21. He was 20 last year. That’s how age works. Next year, he’ll be 22. Guess what he’ll be in two years. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Wrong! 23. *marks test with a D* It’s a passing grade, but I expected more from you. I am passing you because I didn’t want to see you again next year. As a 20-year-old in 124 games at Double and Triple-A, Riley Greene went 24/16/.301 with 25 doubles, eight triples and a 11.5% walk rate and 27.6 K%. That last rate worries me a tad. He was the youngest guy at Double-A, so I’m not writing him off as a guy who can’t make contact, but when a guy with a 27% strikeout rate comes up, here’s what happens: The strikeout rate balloons to 32%, then people are like, “Damn, I wanted to like Riley but he comes with a .230 average, and I can’t afford that. Maybe some other time!” Then his strikeout rate falls back to 27% and people are like, “That’s better, but he’s still a .250 hitter, and I already have Mark Canha.” Finally, when Riley’s forgotten, his strikeout rate drops to 20%, he hits .285 and people are like, “Wow, where did that come from? He’s breaking out late in his career,” and he’s really only 23 years old. That’s obviously a trend I’ve seen happen more than once. So, he might hit .230 this year. Everything else? Well, kinda beautiful. Five tools gets a bad rap because it’s tossed around with hyperbole, but Riley Greene is five tools without the hyperbole. It’s literal. Riley Greene wears his underwear like a glove because he’s got five tools. On Prospect Itch’s top 100 fantasy baseball prospects, I watched the top 20 or so, and from what I’ve seen, Riley Greene has earned his 6th overall ranking, while also getting short shrift because the guys in front of him are so good. Guess Riley is Greene with envy. *falls down a staircase, sits up* Tah-dah! There’s nothing Riley Greene can’t do. He might’ve broke camp with the Tigers, but he broke a foot instead. Now that he’s healthy, he will be up in a matter of weeks. I’d put the date at June 15th with a plus or minus five days. Also, here’s me talking about Riley Greene on our Youtube channel. Please click that and click subscribe so I can stop asking.
Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:
It is Thursday, June 2nd, Lou Gehrig Day in Major League Baseball! We have a seven-game DFS main slate on FanDuel that starts at 6:40 pm Eastern Time. It does feature a Coors Field matchup between the Rockies and Braves with Austin Gomber facing off against Ian Anderson. If you don’t have time to read […]
Happy Wednesday, RazzFam! Another middle of the week DFS menu full of salty and sweet selections from MarmosDad is here for you today! We’re officially over 25% of the way through the season, so a lot of you full-season players are probably having a look at standings and seeing where you can make some trades […]
Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend. We are officially about to turn the page to June. Most starters that haven’t been injured are taking their 10th trip through the rotation and we are getting a read on what they are going to produce for the year. Dylan Cease didn’t produce on my […]
Hope everyone had a glorious Memorial Day, while placing some hot dogs in your gullet and swallowing them whole with some cheap beer. Like George Washington would’ve wanted it! George used to remove his wooden teeth and eat hot dogs whole. True story. So, I’ve become Mr. Pull My Pitcher With 90 Pitches. I hate pitches 90-100. They suck. In ten years, I will hate pitches 80-90. Then, ten years later, I will be Mr. I Like The Starter Who Comes In From The 4th Thru The 5th Inning. ACKSUALLY, that brings up a point, what happens when no starters go more than four innings? It’s coming at some point. Will we adjust our fantasy scoring categories? Something to think about, which is why I’m looking for an emoji with a hand on a chin that is using its other hand to slowly raise its middle finger towards Craig Counsell. Aaron Ashby (6 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 12 Ks, ERA at 2.70) was fantastic. Dot dot dot. Through 6 innings! He never needed to go out there for the 7th, and it unraveled from pitches 90 thru 100. See? That’s why I am whoever I said I am five sentences ago, to paraphrase Eminem. Ashby’s 11.5 K/9, 5 BB/9, 3.08 xFIP is so itsy-bitsy close to an ace and unusable on the other side. Thankfully, his command is usually much better, i.e., AA – BB = CC, i.e., Aaron Ashby minus walks equals CC Sabathia. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Red Sox second year breakout and probably should-be closer Garrett Whitlock began the night on a roll firing six innings of two run baseball, allowing just six base runners, five hits, one walk and striking out four. The offense was on fire, Xander Bogaerts had two hits with a 3-run homer, Fenway was abuzz, and […]
Another week, another reminder of how quickly things can change in fantasy baseball’s deep league landscape. My desk is often littered with post-its featuring names of players I might write up a little blurb on, most of whom have fantasy ownership in the 0-5% range. What a difference a few days or a week can […]
First reaction to the Dodgers trading AJ Pollock for Craig Kimbrel was justifiably noisy in the FantasyVerse. People had been touting Kimbrel and drafting him as a closer for months upon months and only recently began to count how many chickens they’d pre-counted as eggs in the White Sox arm barn. Now Kimibrel was officially a Final Boss on the winningest team in baseball and people wanted to crow, which I tend to think is for the birds.
Next second, the internet turned to watch as all the Blake Treinen shares went poof into a fine powder. The phantom limb pains of those who’d just lost 30 saves could be felt everywhere around us.
A few internet moments later, Gavin Lux sprinted into the spotlight, charging the Twitter stage like Will Smith to smack the shit out of all the haters who’d buried him during draft season. Like me. Only I’ve been burying Lux on lists since way back when he was just a hotshot kid out in California, so I saw him coming and ducked out of there. My attention was elsewhere anyway.
It seemed like a nothing move at the time. Just a transactional move that people would forget about within hours, if not minutes. Just ten days ago, the Nats announced they would be demoting Carter Kieboom. Then, before leaving town, Carter Kieboom watered down all the hand sanitizer. Now Patrick Corbin, Yan Gomes, Josh Bell, Brad Hand (ah HA!), Will Harris, Josh Harrison, Alex Avila, Jon Lester, Jordy Mercer and Kyle Schwarber are all on the IL, as the Nats recalled Luis Garcia and Kieboom. “Kieboom goes my flight to the minors!” That’s Carter Kieboom as he mixed a cocktail of Palmolive and Capri Sun into the hand sanitizer bottles. “These stupid straws!” That’s Kieboom struggling to get the juice out of the plastic-metal pouches. Wow, Kieboom is not being very stealth. So, it sucks if you had Hand, Schwarber, Corbin, Bell…Well, the guys there you might’ve had. Hopefully, they all return shortly. For all these moves, the only guy I grabbed in leagues was Tanner Rainey, who might now get saves, but Daniel Hudson is also there, so that’s a crapshoot too. “All these crapshoots and I should clean my hands…Hey, why does this soap smell like tropical punch?” Off to the side, snickering, “More like Crappy Sun!” Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
First Base is back baby! It’s good again!!!! Shout it from the mountains!!! Read this in one of those culturally appropriated Robin Williams voices. After a few lean years the first base position has some sizzle. Or perhaps this is the hangover of the catcher episode. “Catchers: The Ugly Friend/Slump-Buster of Fantasy Baseball”. Anyway, Grey, yours trues, and crews (there is no crew) chew through the top bats at first base. A serious run through 50+ names you need to know for 2021 Fantasy Baseball.
