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Nationals outfielder slash heartthrob slash wait-he-did-what Alex Call came through for Washington with a walk-off single in extra innings for Nats. Jesse Winker who is right! Call also scored the game-tying run in the 8th inning and is now batting a real sweaty .459 (17-37) since being re-Called to the big league roster. Through those […]

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Welcome back to the fourth installment of the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty rankings. As we count down toward the top group, we first hit the players ranked 150-126.

As we get closer to the more coveted players, the breakdown of this group is logically different from last week’s overall group. The biggest change is the age of this grouping skews younger, with 19 players in their 20s, including seven who are 24 years old or younger. Here is a look at this week’s players:

6 players between the ages of 30-34
12 players between the ages of 25-29
7 players between the ages of 20-24
8 infielders
6 starting pitchers
6 outfielders/DH
5 catchers

The one position that stands out is the number of catchers. Some owners will avoid catchers like the plague. There are a lot of good, young catchers in the majors, so why avoid catchers if you are going to have to start them? And in two catcher leagues, there is no way you can ignore them. In fact, you can make that a position of strength of you snag two young catchers who will produce for the next five years.

And now my weekly reminder: if a top prospect hasn’t reached the majors yet, they won’t be in these rankings. Itch has been running down the top prospects per team and will continue his great work. No need for me to repeat what he says.

Now on to the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings: 150-126…

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I was a history major in college.  This was a terribly poor decision.  I realized after my first year in history/secondary education that I did not really enjoy history.  I was gonna be a coach.  My only A’s in college were coaching classes.  Why did I think that history was interesting?  Who would ever read stuff like that just for the fun of it?

As I’ve grown older, I realized that there is some history that I enjoy.  I just don’t enjoy ALL of it.   It’s all good, I was only a Social Studies teacher for two years before I took a different type of position.  The lesson is to never listen to your parents, I guess.

For a time, I felt the same about dynasty baseball leagues.

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Did you know that Grey Albright is collector of art? He’s a man of sophisticated tastes and by art and sophisticated tastes I mean Alek Manoah and Chase De Jong shares on his fantasy baseball teams. What one person calls waiver wire adds, are another’s art collection. Other exciting items Mr. Albright has procured in recent weeks; an original Eric Hasse, a Seth Brown, a DJ Stewart, and even something called a Paul Fry! Move over Isabella Gardner, there’s a new collector in town. And by town I mean 3,000 miles west. Any the who… the Razzball podcast is back with loads of tidbits, advice, confirmation bias, and dad jokes.

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Even after harvesting the farm to add star-level MLB bats (Marcell Ozuna and Paul Goldschmidt) each of the last two off-seasons, the Cardinals’ system remains solid. 

We’ve known for years the Cards get more out of their fringe types than just about every organization. We even invented a phrase to encapsulate this quality, letting “Devil Magic” explain everything Cardinal for years before the Astros and Dodgers captured the zeitgeist. You’ll still hear the phrase, but not every ten minutes like once upon a time. These days, we know everyone’s just cheating and hacking and scratching and clawing for every little inch of advantage they can get, but hey, that’s the American Dream personified via sport. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. You can always find a fall guy no matter how ugly it gets. (See: Correa, Chris)

That’s a link to just one story, but the whole saga is pretty good lore if you get on an injustice kick.

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While sweet sixteens are traditionally celebrated by girls, it’s 2019 and so many lines have been blurred that we are living in a very “anything goes” society. Setting a new personal high, Walker Buehler struck out 16 Colorado Rockies while throwing a three-hit complete game gem. What I like most: Well I guess what I like most is the sixteen punch outs, but what I really like is the zero walks. Sixteen strikeouts and no walks is so sexy. How sexy? 2007 Grady Sizemore sexy. Walker did give up two solo home runs, but those were to two of the best hitters in baseball. Charlie Blackmon has been unbelievable lately and Nolan Arenado is Nolan Arenado. He did strike both of them out (Arenado twice) over the course of the game, but when you strikeout 16, that’s bound to happen. To put Buehler’s performance in terms my usual nine readers might better understand, he scored just under 50 fantasy points depending on if you league gives points for complete games. That’s the kind of points jolt that feels like a gut punch to your opponent when he checks his/her matchup and sees he’s playing Buehler.

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