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Ahoy ahoy, Razzball Fam! This week in injuries is a little slower than last, and the status updates from last week are a roller coaster of positives and negatives. Bo is still down and out. Nathan Eovaldi is throwing in bullpen sessions. Shane McClanahan is likely done-zo for the season. Jordan Romano may be back […]

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It’s been a good time to be an MLB shortstop, given the overall depth of the position and the historical off-season we’ve had thus far. Marquee free agent shortstops Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, and Carlos Correa inked deals totaling around a billion dollars. Despite two failed physicals, Carlos Correa still made out like […]

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Washington Nationals fifth starter slash long reliever slash wait, really, that guy?–Erick Fedde was awesome Friday night as he limited the New York Mets to just two hits (seven base runners) in seven innings pitched. He struck out seven and had 31 called strikes plus whiffs, which baseball nerds tell me is pretty good. I’m Fedde up with these crazy pitching lines, ya’ll! I thought the bans were supposed to solve this, and I don’t know what to make of this guy. Erick hasn’t given up a run since a start at home versus the Phillies May 11. Since then, he’s pitched 20 scoreless innings with 17/6 K/BB. The start was Fedde’s third QS of the year and he’s lowered his ERA to a respectable 3.33 during the scoreless stretch! Also, I need a hip hop historian to tell me if I used “Wap” right here. Fetty Wap is a rapper and that’s different than Cardi B’s WAP, right? Back to Erick! More impressive than Fedde’s streak, Washington has allowed just seven runs in the past eight games, and need I remind you Max and Stras are hurt? Pretty neat until you notice that they allowed 42 runs in the eight games before that. Regardless! Someone needs to check these baseballs for spider tack! Da sticky stuff. For real though, it was admittedly a slowish fantasy day, and I didn’t want to write about Adam Duvall again, so Fedde gets the lede! His first in ever! Enjoy it, Erick, because this is likely to be a one time deal. As the aforementioned Max and Stras are out, Erick has gotten an extended look in the rotation and so far so good. He’s had some favorable matchups this month so I wouldn’t rush out to grab him, but he could be a worthwhile streamer in the right matchups. However, and I’m being 100% candid here and this could be the ethanol talking, he could pitch another 20 scoreless innings and Fedde would still scare the heck out of me. It’s got to be the baseballs, right!?

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

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One third of the season is in the books and things are going exactly as planned across the league!  With such a predictable season, it should be little surprise that our Middle Infielder Rankings are stable…right?  That could not be further from the truth.  At this point, we are enjoying our first  glance at the first place Marlins, the Cardinals have played a mere 5 games and the Astros look like a hot mess.

With so much change and outside influence, it should be no surprise that our rest of season rankings are going through a shakeup from top to bottom.  With that movement comes a new #1 for our list: Trevor Story.  Let us take a quick look at his hot start and why it is not just a hot start but the beginning of a bigger breakout and a chance to lay claim to the top spot the rest of the season.

When Story first entered the league, he was carrying a lofty 30+ K%.  Through the first 18 games of the season, he has walked (10) nearly as often as he has struck out (11) resulting in a minuscule 13% K rate.  So, are we seeing real improvement in his approach at the plate?  Let us dig a little deeper

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Ralph and Halp are taking over the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast, and we do our darndest to make up for the absence of Grey, starting the show by talking about Ralph’s vasectomy, my wisdom teeth, and the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight. We then dive deep into possible September call-ups, discussing Willie Calhoun, Ronald Acuna, Scott Kingery, Franklin Barreto, Tyler Glasnow, Harrison Bader, Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler O’Neill, JP Crawford, Willy Adames, Alex Verdugo, and Walker Buehler as the cream of the crop. We also talk about some underrated prospects who could make an impact, including Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler, Daniel Palka, Teoscar Hernandez, Jeimer Candelario, Rusney Castillo, and many more. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game (now shipping to Canada). It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast:

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There’s really no need for any introduction on this one, it’s the post upon which all prospectors are judged. It’s the Mid-Season Update to my Top 100 Prospects for 2017 Fantasy Baseball. Full disclosure, I was loosey-goosey with the eligibility rules this time around. So, while some players in the majors and under their limits might appear on this list (Clint Frazier, Franklin Barreto, Etc.), others don’t (Raimel Tapia). No rhyme or reason to it, what-so-ever. This list feels more upside heavy to me, but there was no slant or algorithm for my ranks. Just good old fashioned personal bias, of which I have plenty. Seriously, I’m an opinionated lad! But that’s why I do this in the first place. Please keep in mind, this list is 100% fantasy focused. Meaning it might differ quite a bit from other Top 100’s you may come across. Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy! The next 100 (101-200) will be out on Thursday.

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God really doesn’t want us to have nice things as prospectors, so he’s blessed us with his other begotten son, Tim Tebow! That’s right it’s a Tim Tebow-centric pod today, as we open up this week’s show discussing his immaculate connection with a batting practice fastball in instructional ball. Michael Halpern and I have a much longer discussion of The Tebow’s baseball prospects, then either of us ever hoped to have. The conclusion: I think we may have a superstar brewing in the NL East……and his name is Kevin Maitan. (See what I did there?) We talk about the top international signing, since the last top international signing, and where we’ll be ranking him come February. We then run wild with the theme of this week’s show, the Top 10 Prospect Disappointments of 2016. So we spend most of the hour dumping on players we expected to have big seasons. It’s just the level of negativity I thrive in. Hold on tight y’all it’s the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.

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You’re only as good as the information you have. This can apply to anything in life, but is particularly true when it comes to studying up on prospects for fantasy. Or prospecting, if you will. Players are constantly evolving, particularly those in the minors, and it’s important to keep up with the latest scouting reports, videos, and statistics. One area that’s heavily overlooked with prospects is batted ball profile. The numbers are tough to find, but there’s some intriguing options in the dark corners of the Internet. Yours truly has scoured those dark corners. Actually J-FOH scoured these corners, introduced them to me, and here we are. Today is a very special day. Why? Well, because I’m doing my very best on this fine Sunday to impersonate one Big Magoo. While I certainty can’t do our resident number savant justice; I’ll use his words as a guideline, while we take a look at the batted ball profiles for some of the top players in minor league ball this season. Including some recent graduates like Aaron Judge, Alex Bregman, and Andrew Benintendi.

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A couple of years ago Bret Sayre invited me to participate in his dynasty league – The Dynasty Guru Expert League, or TDGX. At the time I was writing for him at his site, and while I don’t anymore, I’ve been allowed to remain in the league as a representative of Razzball. I’d like to say my team has been killing it, but that hasn’t been the case in the first two years. The league is a lot of fun, and there are representatives from sites like Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, Baseball HQ, and CBS. It’s deep and it’s challenging. Tim McLeod and Ian Khan took the championship in each of the first two years, so major kudos to them.

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