Please see our player page for Jahmai Jones 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.
by: Grey
Walking down the street of Pittsburgh, talking to Yinzers to get their thoughts on Paul Skenes‘s debut, and the people were chatty with anecdotes. I told them about how Skenes could be the best pitcher in baseball and they told me about when they saw Dale Berra and Dave Parker pull out a baggie of […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?The singular of fireworks is firework, but sounds weird. A firework should be a professional wrestler who pretends to be a fireman for his character. That’s a firework. Speaking of firemen, Happy 4th of July or as firemen call it, “Why did you put a Roman Candle in your butt and aim it at your house? Dumb move, especially since you lived in a thatched hut.” You don’t need fireworks to light up the night sky when you have Michael Harris II (2-for-3, and his 8th and 9th homer). Megahertz is electricity. I’m glad I took the Big Dub on calling him overrated already so I can now go back to basking in his hawt-ness. Is that not how this works? Can I not call a guy overrated, then enjoy him a few months later? I absolutely can. No one says I need to watch him be a stinker the whole season. He was overrated coming into the year, and now he’s properly rated. When I rank him in the top 100 for the 2nd half next week, I think I’ve finally figured out where he should go. Sounds like Fiddy. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
by: Mike
It’s chucking down snow in my neck of the woods. Perfect time to hole up and make a list of the top 100 prospects for 2019 fantasy baseball. Before we begin…an observation. The roads are empty around here except for pizza delivery cars. Ordering a pizza in a blizzard seems like a dick move to me. So I’m dedicating this post to the real heroes – the pizza delivery boys and girls braving a foot of snow in their crappy car to make sure Edna has her half-pepperoni, half-bell pepper medium pie while she watches reruns of Friends on Netflix. Moving on, if you’re just tuning into this station, we’ve already gone over the top 25 prospects for 2019 fantasy baseball as well as the top 50 prospects for 2019 fantasy baseball. For thoughts on every player and to see each team’s top ten prospects, visit our 2019 minor league preview index. Concerning these players listed below, my goal when drafting/picking up one of them is to net some sort of positive value and see them playing regularly. Essentially, this final group is composed of players with 50ish overall ratings on the scouting scale…not your superstars or even All-Stars, but a decent shot to carve out a career in the big leagues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
by: Geoff
On Saturday Night my phone rang, my cellphone obviously I’m not a dinosaur. I quickly looked at my screen noticing it was Lance. This was unusual because Lance usually texts me. I feared the worst, perhaps Lance was kidnapped by a street gang and held for ransom. Was he lost? Cold? Did he forget his Keys IN CONNECTICUT?!? I put aside my panic for a moment and decided to answer it. **Deep breath** “Hey Lance, what’s up?” “WE HAVE EMILY COMING BACK THIS WEEK”. Lance then hung up and immediately texted me the rundown of his day like a normal person. Phone calls are for weirdos. Long story short, Emily Waldon of The Athletic Detroit and The Athletic MLB, joins us to talk some Arizona Fall League, Tigers Prospects, and some recent interviews she did with AA catcher Jake Rogers and AA outfielder Daz Cameron. (Yes, that’s Mike’s son.) It’s another episode of rapid fire minor league takes. I wouldn’t go that far but we talk a lot of players. It’s the Razzball Prospect Podcast powered by ProspectsLive.com. As always make sure you stop by Rotowear.com, and support our sponsor by picking up some of the freshest T-shirts out there.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Mike
Two weeks ago the 2019 Astros prospects list published. One of the more difficult players to figure from that group was Forrest Whitley. He’s one of the most talented arms in the minors, but simply didn’t pitch much in 2018 due to suspension and injury. That’s where leagues like the AFL (Arizona Fall League) and LIDOM (Dominican Winter League) come in handy. They give us an extended look at prospects that would otherwise be haunted by question marks heading into spring training. So far, Whitley’s numbers in the AFL should quell any fears. Through two games started with the Scottsdale Scorpions, he’s struck out 14 batters in seven-plus innings while allowing just three free passes and two earned runs. Those are the ace-like numbers his fantasy owners need in their life, and they were enough to earn him Pitcher of the Week honors. Here’s what else is happening around the offseason leagues…
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Mike
The Angels are a funny team. Not the ha-ha kind of funny. More like the “that’s funny, I could have sworn I turned the stove off…why does my house smell like burning?” kind of funny. It’s like they made this weird deal with the devil where they got to draft the best player in the universe twenty spots after Matt Hobgood (edit: HobWELL) and in return they aren’t allowed to do anything in the playoffs. But good news everyone! The farm system is looking a lot better. When I left Razzball to bottle bathtub gin in 2016 this system was a dumpster fire. And the dumpster was full of tires. And the tires were full of cat hair. Flash forward to 2019 and there are several fantasy-relevant options. Friends…let’s pretend heaven exists and peep the 2019 Angels prospects.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
This is for all the people that have come up to me over the last few weeks and asked “Yo, Ralph when’s that Top 100 droppin’ son?” And I said, “When it’s finished”. This is for y’all, one love! Oh but wait, there’s more to come too. This is simply a sweet, sweet 20% of the overall ranks. The full 500 will drop on Sunday. I want to thank all of my readers over the years for supporting me in all that I do here. These rankings posts are a lot of questioning your evaluations, and even more sleepless nights. So, I hope you enjoy. As for the Top 100, I’ve gone a little heavier in discounting pitching than in previous years, instead favoring upside bats. Why? Because pitching prospects are like reflections in side view mirrors, all much closer than they appear. Think about Shane Bieber vs. Tyler Glasnow, one guy was hyped to the max, the other was a boring strike-thrower that likely would never crack a top 250 for fantasy. Who would you rather own now? Speaking of upside, you’ll see the second half of this list is a little more upside heavy with some breakouts mixed in for good measure. What can I say? I like the young upside hitters. This exercise was a process,I began by listing nearly 700 players, then went player by player ranking each on a “would I trade this guy for this guy” trip, then I stared at the list changing ranks over and over again while I smoked like a German. That’s not a joke, this actually happened. All to whittle it down to the list below, the Top 100.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
First thing’s first, the Top 100 is here for your consumption. Now you can stop F$#@ing asking me. Kidding..kidding. This is complied from all the research I’ve done since November. Some players have moved up, others have moved down, some stayed the same, while others have straight left the top 100. My hope with the later release was that I would be able to do my deepest dive yet, and integrate the knowledge of off-season adjustments that we get in mid-spring. Hopefully this has led to my most extensive and comprehensive list to date. I’ve provided tiers within the rankings, to give you an idea of where one value level starts, and another begins. We’re going all the way to 300 this year with the next two 100s coming over the next two weeks. It’s the post you’ve been waiting for! I hope it was worth the wait…
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
A week after covering two of the less exciting systems in baseball, the Broshitz train keeps on rolling. Running on nothing but the pure excitement the Angels top 5 prospects bring. We don’t spend much time chit-chatting on this one, we dive right into Shohei Ohtani, his impact, outlook, and potential value in 2018. We spend a good chunk of time digging into the swings of Jahmai Jones and Jo Adell. Debating which Angels outfielder should rank higher, and what the finished products will look like. We discuss Kevin Maitan’s market correction, Brandon Marsh’s back hip coil, and which MLB player his swing reminds us of. There’s some discussion of the back end of the Angels top 10 and a couple of hidden jewels. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 20% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
Over the past few off-seasons one of the most unpleasant tasks was writing up the Los Angeles Angels farm system. They didn’t just lack depth, they lacked sizzle, spice, anything naughty or nice. I mean it was the dregs of the minor league ranks, a 30 grade in both ways you could take it. I’m not going to blame the reign of Jerry DiPoto, but take a look at the Mariners. They’re the new Angels. As for the Angels they’ve added some exciting talents over the last three seasons, culminating in the signing of the most hyped Japanese player since Masahiro Tanaka. In fact, since June the Angels have added three of their top four prospects, and you could make an argument that they secured the services of the best Free Agent in Shohei Ohtani, best prep hitter in Jo Adell, and the best international hitter of the past two July 2nd periods in the emancipated Kevin Maitan. It’s an interesting mix, with some up and coming talents that showed some spark in 2017. They still lack depth, and players like Taylor Ward and Nonie Williams have struggled to meet expectations, leaving the two areas of need, middle infield and catcher, further exposed. The system is a work in progress, but just another strong draft and signing period from being a top system. It’s the Los Angeles Angels Top Prospects.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
I know, you thought it was going to be 100 prospects right? Well, it’s a good news/bad news thing. The good news is I will be ranking the Top 100 Prospects and beyond, however I will be doing them in increments of 50. So the bad news is you only get 4,000+ words and 50 prospects to read. Lets be honest, we are amongst friends here right? Even 4,000 words is at least two, if not three bathroom sessions. I know that’s when you read these, and I’m cool with it. Now that we’ve made assumptions about your bathroom reading habits, lets move along. As always, I’ve tried to balance the right now value of “close to the majors” prospects vs the high end talent. While also trying to be somewhat objective, and conscientious of the general consensus, which is important to trade value. That’s not to say I don’t go rouge and aggressively rank some players I like. Ahhh, who am I kidding it’s all personal bias. So here you go, dig in. The next 50 will drop on Wednesday at the stroke of midnight.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Geoff
Doesn’t it seem like every summer the national press needs a narrative to link onto and dubs it the “year of the something or other”? Think about it for a second, in recent seasons we’ve had “The year of the rookie”, “The other year of the rookie”, “The year of the homer”, “The year of the juiced ball”, so on and so forth. You get the point, sports writers are boring and unoriginal the whole lot. Well, I for one would like to follow in the grand tradition of sport writers, and apply this lazy, tired, haphazard, and cliche approach to my minor league baseball coverage. Therefore, I am dubbing 2017 MiLB “The Year of the 19 year old”. Why? Because between Ronald Acuna, Bo Bichette, Kolby Allard, Mike Soroka, and now the Astros Forrest Whitley, the biggest news-makers have been 19 years of age.
Speaking of Whitley, recently promoted to AA Corpus Christi, the righty went 6 scoreless Thursday, allowing two hits, and striking out a career high 11 batters. Not too shabby for a kid facing high school competition 15 months ago. I ranked Whitley 75th overall in my top 100 back on July 2nd. Which was right about the point that his season took off. It was a high rank on a fantasy focused list for a teenage starter in A ball. I can recall really not being able to explain why I liked Whitley 25 spots higher than Ian Anderson when asked by Halp on the Prospect Podcast. I just fell in love with the idea of a 6’7 240 lbs monster with a arsenal of offerings. Since that date Whitley has rewarded my faith, dominating the Carolina League in a way no teenager should. Going 3-1 over his next 6 starts, while racking up 50 k’s to 9 walks in 31.1 innings.
Please, blog, may I have some more?