It was a wild offseason for the National League, one highlighted by Trea Turner’s lucrative ($300 million) transition from the Dodgers to Phillies, along with fellow shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ introduction to the NL, via the San Diego Padres and $280 mil of his own. Two of the absolute best shortstops in the game are anchored […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Xander Bogaerts
Please see our player page for Xander Bogaerts 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.
A Preseason Trip Around The League: 2023 Shortstops
March 13, 2023 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball | 6 Commentsby: scar
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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Top 100 Hitters: Rounding Second
March 12, 2023 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters, Top 100 Hitters | 2 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Last week, we walked through my initial top 25 as we began to count down, or rather count up our top 100 hitters for the 2023 fantasy baseball season. While the top 25 was a star studded group on which fantasy dreams are born, the next 25 contain breakout potential and a number of reliable veterans. Once we get past this group, the questions start to grow and the debate will certainly spark. Without further ado, let us jump into our continuing view of the top 100 hitters for the 2023 fantasy baseball season with spots 26 through 50!
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If you are starting a team in a new dynasty league, take a look at the position breakdown of the top 200 players, using the main position for utility players except for one, who plays basically any position in the field.
What quickly jumps out is the lack of depth at second base and third base. The second and third base positions alone add up to only one more Top 100 player than the shortstop position. There are some great players at those two positions, but the overall quality lacks compared to shortstop or first base.
When it comes to catchers and relief pitchers, I can tell you right now that there are few of them ranked. There are a lot of good catchers, but many of them will get only 110 or so starts or they are getting up in age, making them less than desired dynasty options.
As for the relivers, I never chase saves (or holds if your league has them). How many players dread chasing Aroldis Chapman last year or a host of other top closers? Meanwhile, five new closer will come out the woodwork this year that you can get in the middle of the season.
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NL-Only, 12 Team Draft Recap or: The One Where I Draft The Whole Diamondbacks Team
February 28, 2023 | Featured, Our Leagues | 102 Commentsby: Grey
As many of you know, I’m in the NL-Only Tout Wars league, so every year I take part in an industry NL-Only league with the CBS peeps to try to find my footing before I go off to New York to take on the heavyweights, and Andy Behrens, who is the one guy in our league with a seemingly healthy BMI. Some might mock, some might mock draft, but this is my draft prep, and am happy to take part in this league. Dot dot dot. Until about 25 minutes into the draft, and players go for way too much, and I start getting hungry and I just want the whole thing to be over and ermahgerd! But, for those first twenty-five minutes of the five-hour draft, I’m laser focused. For this league, I once again use Rudy’s NL-Only rankings, and his War Room (it’s free with a subscription). I won’t try to get you to buy it anymore. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make the horse put a cape down so I can walk over the water without getting wet. (If you want a shallower league, play against me and hundreds others for prizes –> Razzball Commenter Leagues.) Anyway, here’s my 12-team NL-Only team and some thoughts:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome back to another week of the 2023 Dynasty Rankings. We have turned the corner and we are now racing down the home stretch as the focus this week is on players 50-26 – my Tier 2 group.
This tier is pretty diverse when it comes to the ages of the players and the percentage of pitchers appearing in this tier may surprise you. As you probably know by now, I like hitters more than pitchers.
However, in this tier, I have 10 pitchers. Why are 40 percent of the players in this tier pitchers?
Well, the answer is pretty simple. I don’t trust young pitchers nearly as much as I trust veteran pitchers or even young hitters. When starting a team in a new dynasty league or trying to fill holes in my current dynasty leagues, while I won’t chase pitching, I will look to take a top veteran pitcher over the stud rookie hurler.
Pitching Experience over Youth
As a whole, the pitcher in his mid- to late-20s, or even early 30s, has established his track record compared to a 23-year-old. That young pitcher could be great, but he can also take three to four years to get to that level of greatness, especially with so many major league teams now limiting the number of innings a young pitcher will throw in a season.
I don’t want to reach the playoffs only to have a host of pitchers shut down because they reached an arbitrary innings limit. Thus, of the 10 pitchers you will find in this tier, seven of them are between the ages of 25 and 30. Two are over 30 and one is 24.
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Fantasy Baseball Podcast: SS Rankings For 2023
February 14, 2023 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast | Leave a commentby: B_Don
It’s finally time for Grey and B_Don to explore a position that’s actually good for fantasy baseball in 2022! We run 50 deep at SS and we’re actually excited about some of those names at the bottom. We start the show with Francisco Lindor, and one of us is not looking to have many shares. […]
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 for 2023 Fantasy Baseball
February 8, 2023 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Featured | 126 Commentsby: Grey
Hello, all you brave, courageous, adventure-seekers, you’ve found the wrong website. This is fantasy baseball, not fantasy role playing, unless it’s fantasy roll-playing and this is Stratomatic, but that’s still not right. Still, fantasy baseball. Good, now that we got rid of all those people wearing fedoras and shopping from the Indiana Jones collection at Eddie Bauer, we can get down to the bidness. The Auction value bidness? Not quite, but you can find all auction values in Rudy’s rankings — one example, 12-team mixed league auction values. This is a top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball. Let’s do this!
One word about this top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball, before I give you another 5,000 words. I’m going to avoid repeating myself from the position rankings in the 2023 fantasy baseball rankings. If you want to know my in-depth feelings about a player, then you need to go to his positional page, i.e., the top 20 1st basemen for 2023 fantasy baseball, the top 20 outfielders for 2023 fantasy baseball, the top 20 Patterns In Queso That Look Like Messages From Another Planet for 2023– Okay, but I almost got you. This post is meant to give you an idea where guys from different positions are in relation to each other. Since this post is only the top 100, there’s more players where this came from. 448 more, to be very exact. Next up, there will be a top 500 that will go past 500, then, after that, there will be a top 7,500 that will go to 8,602, then a top 25,000 that will go to 28,765, then a top 600,000 that will go to 892,121, until we end up with a top kajillion in April that will go to a kajillion and one. Or maybe I’ll stop at the top 500. Yeah, that makes sense. Not to get all biblical on you, but this is the gospel. Print it out and take it to Mt. Sinai and it will say, “Win your 2023 fantasy baseball league, young prematurely balding man.” Projections were done by me and a crack team of 100 monkeys fighting amongst themselves because there were only 99 typewriters. Somebody please buy Ling-Ling his own typewriter!
Razzball Subscriptions are also now open, which include the Fantasy Baseball War Room. I don’t draft without it, neither should you. Anyway, here’s the top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 20 Shortstops for 2023 Fantasy Baseball
January 23, 2023 | Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Featured | 68 Commentsby: Grey
The top 20 shortstops for 2023 fantasy baseball are so stacked we may as well be at an IHOP, standing on a booth, screaming, “Rooty tooty fresh and fruity is woke culture gone wrong!” As I say in the video up on our Youtube channel, that does not mean you should think you can wait on shortstops. *puts on a big smile* Like and subscribe. Okay, let’s get to it! Here’s Steamer’s 2023 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2023 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2023 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more? Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Winter Meetings Recap
December 12, 2022 | All Podcasts, Razzball Podcast |by: B_Don
Grey and B_Don (basically Grey couldn’t find anyone better, yet) are back for the 2023 season! We’re here to jump into the moves from the winter meetings. We start the podcast with Aaron Judge re-signing and some discussion about the different baseballs in use last season, and well, we rant a little bit…
Then, we move on to the signings. We talk about Trea Turner heading to Philadelphia and the Bryce Harper injury news. The Rangers bolstered their pitching rotation with Jacob deGrom, Andrew Heaney, and Jake Odorizzi, but how interested are we in them? The Mets followed suit and added to their rotation with Justin Verlander and Jose Quintana. We go on to talk about the other signings including Jose Abreu, Xander Bogaerts, Willson Contreras, Mitch Haniger, Josh Bell, and the other meaningful-ish signings.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Aaron Judge grew up in San Francisco. He told associates of mine at the Winter Meetings that he can still remember which Walgreen’s he was in when he witnessed his first shoplifting. He wistfully remembered, “I was by the breath mints, and this man carried out six boxes of Wheat Thins.” Fond memories for Judge that are going to hard to replicate when he signs a 1-year deal with the Giants in ten years. As we all assumed, Aaron Judge re-signed with the Yankees through his age-39 season. Luckily, Razzball has a time machine at its disposal, and I went forward nine years to take a quick pic of Aaron Judge when he’s in that final year. Here it is:
So, Aaron Judge on the Yankees is more of the same. *claps hands, all done* No? Okay. Not sure how many people heard this, but it was reported the other day that MLB used three different baseballs last year. One of those balls was more batter-friendly. It was found only at the All-Star Game, Home Run Derby, postseason and Yankees games. This sounds like a joke, but the jokes ended with the guy walking out with Wheat Thins. I’m being serious now. Yo, jai alai called, it wants its “this sport is a joke” moniker back. MLB embraces gambling and institutes cheating by way of different balls. It truly is incredible.
Last year, Aaron Judge went 62/16/.311, guys and five girl readers, and that is the best line of all-time. 40/40 is nice; 50/10 is butter; 60/5 is nomnomnom, get in my belly; 62/12? I mean, c’mon. Seriously, c’mon. C’mon, c’mon! C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! It’s ludicrous. It’s mind boggling. Thesaurus, give me another synonym! It’s BREATHTAKING!!! He always had power — he’s a freakin’ giant, of course he has power! — but he’s never hit .300 or stole more than six bags in a season before. Also, being a certified giant (and not a Giant, as was rumored), he’s prone to injuries. That year of 62/12 wasn’t just a career year, it was the career year of career years. How’sever, if he goes 40/10/.280, it’s still very doable and a great. For 2023, I’ll give Aaron Judge projections of 109/41/102/.283/10 in 548 ABs. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this offseason for 2023 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?One week ago, I was lamenting the state of the second base position in Major League Baseball and thus fantasy baseball. Outside of a few top players, it is now overrun with utility players and doesn’t have much depth.
This week, however, we talk about one of the deeper positions in baseball. Today we unveil the 2023 Top Keepers – Shortstops edition.
Unlike second base, the shortstop position is populated with highly skilled athletes who can do it all – hit, hit for power, run and field.
The numbers shortstops are putting up support that statement, but so too does this simple fact: last season, 20 players (out of 30 MLB teams) played 100 or more games at short. Another two (Kyle Farmer and Bobby Witt Jr.) appeared in 98 games at the position while a third, Tim Anderson, missed half the season due to injuries. Then there is Fernando Tatis Jr., who we all know missed the entire year.
Unless a team is rebuilding or just doesn’t have a good player at short, it is a spot on the field where managers want to have the same player every day. And more often than not, those players are not glove-first players. Today’s shortstops are expected to hit.
What is Your Preference?
The goal, both in real life and in fantasy, is to get the great all-around shortstop. But if you want to use a utility slot or middle infield slot to boost a specific stat, this is a great position to pick a player from.
Want speed? Ten shortstops stole 20 or more bags this past season. Need power? There were 15 shortstops who walloped 15 or more homers. What about help with your average or on-base percentage? Eight shortstops in these rankings hit .290 or better and another 11 had an OBP over .330.
If your team has a specific need, a number of shortstops would be great keepers. Now, let’s dive in and take a look at the 2023 Top Keepers – Shortstops rankings.
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