Dusty Baker, making an art of not saying a player has Covid while saying a player has Covid, hired an airplane to drag a banner in the sky proclaiming, “Yordan Alvarez is out for an unspecified amount of time for an unspecified reason.” Then another plane flew past with the banner, “Read the context clues here, guys.” Dusty Baker has the most subtle touch with Covid, and that’s why I love him. Unless it’s not really Covid and Yordan just has something else mysterious. MLB should hire Scooby and his Gang (but not Scrappy, he can get f*cked) to try to figure out all these mysterious IL stints. Maybe the league isn’t haunted, but it’s some old-timey guy with a top hat who is just trying to live in one of the stadiums without being hassled. So, Yordan Alvarez hit the IL and this is now me expressing full-throated concern. I moved him down in my top 100, top 500 and top 20 outfielders. Hopefully, he’s okay and can get back out there quickly, but he seems assured to miss the start of the season. This might just be the opening Kyle Tucker needs to get everyday at-bats, which is what we say right as Dusty Baker names Aledmys Diaz the DH. I kid. Kinda. Anyway, here’s what I saw yesterday for fantasy baseball:
Jose Urquidy – Hit the IL with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge-overhead-airplane-banner-from-Dusty Baker.
Delino DeShields – Hit the IL again with no explanation. No explanation is actually the explanation. This is either terrible or completely obvious, depending on your math. See, Delino needed to test negative twice to return from the IL on Saturday, which he did, but two negatives is obviously a positive. I don’t want to write a doomsday novel here, so I will keep it brief. If players are testing negative, rejoining team, then testing positive, the tests are faulty and this is not going to work.
Freddie Freeman – Doing much better, but still no timetable for his return, or if he will return at all. *Freeman’s fantasy owners prepping a Tommen-like drop from the (White) Castle window*
Patrick Sandoval – Tested positive on June 22nd, and is doing much better, throwing a bullpen session on Sunday. What’s the Vegas odds that Pablo Sandoval throws more IP this year than Patrick?
Jordan Hicks – Opted out. *rubs gloved hands together* Now it gets interesting! Ryan Helsley was mentioned by the Cards’ GM as a potential closer if Giovanny Gallegos can’t go and, right now, he can’t go, so I moved Helsley way up in my top 500 and plopped Gallegos into a potential closer share with him. Could both get canceled out by C-Mart? I suppose like any great suppository, but the GM saying Helsley is pretty telling — Tellsley? Hmm, that’s bad.
Charlie Blackmon – Arrived at camp, or as my Jewish friends call camp, “Where I went to be mocked for my black underwear and lack of kayaking ability.” I hadn’t moved Blackmon down in my rankings, so we good.
Christian Walker – Diagnosed with a groin strain. Why can’t we have anything nice? Real World/Road Rules contestant and D-Backs manager, Torey Lovullo, said he’s hopeful Walker is ready for Re-Opening Day. So am I, Torey. So am I.
Howie Kendrick – Hasn’t arrived at camp yet. I feel an opt-out coming from Howie, but that’s pure speculation. Kieboom goes the spec market!
Mallex Smith – Arrived at camp. Okay, but Kyle Lewis has hit five homers in eight at-bats, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood doesn’t sing Mallex, but Relax, Smith.
Byron Buxton – Carted off the field, hurting his leg on a catch. Bad news: Byron Buxton is hurt. Good news: It’s not truly a baseball season without Byron Buxton getting hurt. I haven’t moved Buxton yet in my rankings, because I haven’t heard the extent of the injury, but the Twins are optimistic, which means only what, 60-day IL?
Jesus Luzardo – Hasn’t been cleared to rejoin team. I have him projected for 39 IP, and, honestly, I can’t tell if that’s with or without me docking him playing time. Is 39 IP a full season, Fantasy Baseball Overlord? FBO, “Stop bothering me with nonsense.” Oh…*hikes to top of Half Dome*…kay.
Lourdes Gurriel – Arrived at camp. Thank you, Jesus! Not you, Luzardo, you’re still on my shizzlist.
Chase Anderson – Has an oblique strain. Originally, I left him in my rankings, but, upon reflection, which started like this, “Hey, reflection, what is cookin’ good lookin’?” And ended with me removing Anderson from my top 100 starters. It’s Nate Pear-SZN!
Zack Godley – Released by the Tigers. The Tigers’ roster is officially unGodley.
Trout/Springer. Bregman/Gleyber. Fair trade? Who wins.
Seeing that playing time will be so crucial (especially in h2h), should we just start targeting guys who are or will be back with antibodies?
Should we also target teams with less cases and potential spread and avoid those who do (Astros)?
Do I drop Happ or Hilliard to pick up Puig in an NL only keeper?
I could also drop Cespedes.
i’d drop cespedes here for puig.
Yoenis, yes
If Puig gets more ABs then Riley I’m going to be so pissed. I hope this is just an insurance move by their part. In the age of Covid the 4th OF has become the 5th.
Riley is DH/3B maybe 1B if Freeman can’t go…Puig is a starting OF
Speaking of 1B-my man Eaven is scalding White hot right now. He is hitting off of Mariners pitching so no one can tell fo sho.
Jared “Killing it” Kelenic is also showing he is worth the hype right now.
Does the fact that I just write that much about the Mariners prove how much I’ve missed baseball or what?
I do love this teams future-if the Jays and the M’s could get even remotely good pitching they could take over the AL pretty soon.
I know, I’m pumped up for Kelenic too, he looks so sweet — White seems fine for a flyer, but slightly less googly-eyed for him
puig’s been removed from player rater, this happened recently. signed or not he should still be in there, albeit his projected numbers could be lower than say a few days ago (but he’d still have some at bat projections, albeit with his expected value being a LOT lower than his per at bat value).
holy shit, this is nice (above), i had no clue puig’s news when i typed this, i was just doing rankings for some leagues i have drafting in about 5 days from now till season time.
guessing in a 14 team OBP over AVG, hits/total bases added h2h keep 9 predraft (5 of them have to be hitters) this would make puig a keeper over kingery now?
espn eligibilities
currently have:
C
1B: goldy
2B: mostsuckass (3B)
SS: treat
3B: kingery (CF)
CI
MI
LF
CF
RF: stanton
OF
util (1)
puig (RF)
SP (want about 8, max 12 starts per week): ryu, bieber, otani (get the DH too here)
RP (max 5): t.rogers (MIN)
if we’re going by raters (both your rankings and rudy’s before he removed puig, plus his HATE kingery, in his kingery wouldn’t be owned in 12 teamers nearly at all unless a lot of starting hitting slots)
after keepers these would also be available (i have 13th pick in 1st round): olson, albies, ozuna, cruz, villar, suarez, abreu, robles, correa, tendi, hoskins, laureano, franmil, legs mcneil,
puig DOES show up in the OPS rater, so it’s possible he was missing from the regular 5×5 12 team one for a long time, i’m just now ranking for my only 5×5 league (in all the others i merge yours with rudy’s OPS stuff). puig shows up as the per game 67th best hitter (right by gallo).
Weird, I pinged Rudy, not sure, honestly
Yes
I pinged Rudy
he fixed it before my latter comments to the point where right now it looks like i don’t even know how to look that stuff up, which is nice (excepting the sense that i come off looking like a twit)
Ah, okay, No problem
Not showing in the Trade Analyzer either.
Might be a cache issue, but will ping Rudy
Finally a Yasiel Puig sighting – signs to play RF for the Braves.
Acuna, Ozuna and Puig isn’t a bad outfield.
Finally! Damn, tho, my Austin Riley
Sure he won’t be the starting 3B over Camargo?
He’ll DH, 3B and maybe even 1B if Freeman’s not back…So he’s fine now, but one less spot for him — it doesn’t kill Riley completely
camargo’s the whole time been listed as the righty side 3B. riley did get moved into the DH spot at depth charts but that was always going to be a mix of him/duvall. those 2 are the losers in that puig signing. riley will probably still be doing the lefty side 3B though (rechavarria is a stupid silly option)
Time to fine tune the roster in a 12 team roto keeper auction league. I have Kyle Seager at 3b for a $1. He had a good second half. That said, would you drop him for Shaw, Bohm, Franco? Riley is available but not eligible at third—just OF.
Would you replace McCutchen with Riley? I suppose Riley could get 3B eligibility(5 games) but I think unlikely.
I have Freddy Peralta at a $1 but would you drop him for Gore, Austin Adams or Helsley? I only have Osuna and Bradley for closers.
Finally, I have first pick in an NFBC Main this weekend. Still Acuña,Yelich and Bellinger in that order? I like Yelich playing against AL Central and like Bellinger in that lineup but does Acuna just have 16/16 potential we can’t resist?
Thanks and your writeups are always the best. What’s your novel going to be about?
With Puig now clogging up OF I think I’d hold with Seager.
Cutch.
Peralta has a spot on playing roster right away. I’d hold, but he’s movable most likely.
Acuna is the guy because of the steals potential.
Agree with Knoche
Ozuna, Acuna and Puig, OH MY!
yeah if puig bounces back and ozuna’s metrics show stats (last year he was actually quite good, bad luck results) that’s a fantasy superstar OF. everybody clap for markakis (some people i know have children in like 3rd grade that weren’t born the last time anybody in fantasy was doing that)
Yeah, I’m wondering if this is more about Freeman than Markakis. Riley could play first now. The still have Ender but he’s more a 4th OF now.
we have no news that freeman is out kind of long time, we do on markakis, and he plays the same OF spots puig could. and unlike riley ATL had every intention of playing markakis everyday until he sat out. riley (and possibly duvall) obviously would benefit a ton if freeman was out longer, but his would be a sit out decision, we already know his symptoms lasted 3 total days (accoring to what was reported from him or his wife). that puig to BAL most likely is the most recent news that affected this, it probably got around what his current price is/was a few days ago. it’s entirely possible that “puig to BAL” was set up by his agent, and that got ATL more in contact with puig.
sorry, it was 4 days (thurs- sun if we include parts of all) on freeman’s symptoms.
Yeah, all true and all possible. And I think Duvall can play first some too if he had too. It’s all speculation which makes it hard , Maybe by the end of the week there will be Freeman news.
yeah if riley can play 1B i’m sure duvall can (didn’t he used to have 1B/some CI OF while on CIN anyway?). if freeman is actually out by end of year i’m sure duvall will end up with DH/1B and a CI OF pos, and riley 1B/3B/DH (at least in yahoo, if riley’s mostly playing against lefties only, entire possible he might not get all of them at all sites)
i forgot the very recent (yesterday where manager str up lied about what apparently looked like a decently bad ankle sprain, but today he backtracked to “it’s a worse ankle sprain”) pache update on ATL, that could also be the most significant update that led to puig being signed right now. they probably already had talked to him and knew his price. inciarte gets hurt possibly the most from this too. i doubt they ever DH him and ozuna/acuna ain’t getting much off time, nor i’d think puig.
Puig to the Braves
Nice!
How should I divvy up my hitter/pitcher splits for my valuation settings? The default is 65/35.
It’s a Roto league 7×7 – snake draft
Runs hits HR RBI SB BA OBP
Wins Losses Ks WHIP ERA Saves, Quality Starts
Stick with 65/35 or adjust it some? Love to hear some opinions on this. Thanks guys
I’d go 70/30ish
Would you give any category any more or any less weight when using the projections or weigh them all equally?
Right now they’re all weighed 100 but I can move up or down per category
I’d move down losses, saves and QS
So I just dropped Jordan Hicks, and the other RPs I have right now are Will Smith, Ottavino, Hunter Harvey, and Austin Adams (still on the IL list, but I’m guessing Yahoo didn’t change it yet until the season starts)
Should I grab Knebel? I’m in a league with saves and holds.
Also – My SPs are deGrom, Bieber, Paddack, R Hill, Disco, Turnbull, Alex Wood, and Fulmer (IL obviously). Should I drop Disco, Turnbull, Wood or Fulmer for Ross Stripling?
Sure on Knebel — Turnbull for Stripling
There are now 10 MLB players who have tested positive for Covid and have returned to camp
after two negative tests. The average time missed is 10 days:
K Calhoun – 4 days
J Gallo – 6 days
S Brito – 6 days
K Jansen – 8 days
S Kingery – 8 days
D DeShields – 8 days (did he test positive again? we don’t know yet)
T Pham – 8 days
T Glasnow – 11 days
C Blackmon – 20 days
P Sandoval – 20 days
We’re probably going to see more like Glasnow who was away from camp for “unspecified reasons” but reported his positive test when he returned to camp today. Yordan Alvarez and Jose Urquidy of the Astros are likely in the same boat as Glasnow was, as Grey wrote above.
Yup
Great stuff as usual .. this is all so crazy .. S+H league.. roto … Helsley avail … add him in place of Pressly, Britton, Lugo, Betances?? Thank you as always
Thanks, TP! Meh, I’d prolly hold for now
Nick Solak or Travis Shaw at 3b for the 60 games? 12 team deep league with OPS as an added Offensive category.
Solak
Tho, honestly, whoever has more ABs
I’ve read a bunch of fantasy experts saying saves will be hard to come by for Workman this year, because the BoSox rotation is so bad.
I’m in a saved plus holds league. I’m concerned about ratios as well as the counting stats. Should I look for top tier holds guys like Pressly, Pagan or Will Smith or stick with Workman?
Hold
their rotation was horrible last few months of last year (also no sale (at least nothing like “sale”) nor price by that point), i just read almost all of his saves came in august/sept last year somewhere yesterday. only possible difference is how long ed-rod is out, and workman is already priced low for definite closer types.
having said that if a hold is the same as a save (saves + holds, rather than saves and holds but separately, where in the latter you want holds and saves, but separately) this becomes more arguable. i’m in both types of leagues, in the one you just want the guys who are good and get the most leverage opps, in the other you’ll still want some closers along with the holds guys, even if some of the closers aren’t great or aren’t in great situations (BOS’s rotation for instance). BOS will still win games from their offense. and outside of barnes it’s not like they have too many good RP in which to steal workman’s job. whereas HOU, if say pressly starts out bad, they’ve got tons of guys that might just move him out of leverage spots. and as far as “pressly won’t start out bad” well that happens to all sorts of RP’s in small samples all the time, no matter how good they were in the preceeding 2 years. i’d be much more worried about pagan getting holds on SD rather than workman getting saves on BOS. w.smith is near identical boat to pressly, albeit he’s got a far shittier guy ahead of him, him i could see adding over workman and it not being a bad idea.
A save is the same as a hold and a hold the same as a save in my league. Counting as one category.
I have Rogers, N. Anderson, Workman and Britton (grabbed him after Chap went down with COVID).
It’s Workman’s really high walk rate and enormous spike in K rate that concerns me he may be a one hit wonder. Whereas, Pressly and even Smith have proven themselves over the last few years and the former led the league in holds last year.
Grey, do you have any input as to why you would keep Workman over the others?
@Grey: Ahead of my league’s Sunday’s draft – should I just follow your Top 100 rankings or go through your 60 game strategy articles to “prep” for the draft. I’m thinking of going hitters with my first 8 picks (after 3 keepers), and then finishing my draft with a mix of SPs and RPs.
Some changes my commish decided to make – counting Es for hitters/fielders, replacing OBP with OPS
For pitchers, increasing innings limits to 35 per week and replacing SVs with SVs + HLDs.
I’m guessing i’ll probably need 11 pitchers, 5 SPs and 6 RPs with a mix of streaming (we have a weekly moves limit) to get me over the 35 innings. I figure pitching is going to be a big enough shitshow that I can stack with the best available batters off your Top 100 and then just throwing darts at pitchers this site has deemed as sleepers, and using closermonkey to find the SVs+HLDs guys.
Prolly both, but I have been updating my rankings and Rudy’s been updating his — Rudy’s OBP are specifically updated
While I do like the monkey, we have HLDs rankings too
Rats right Raggy, Rordan’s got Rona!
-Scoob
We gotta contact trace, Scoobs!
I’ve been doing a slow draft over text for three days and its making Covid a little easier to deal with. I guess this may happen after all. Fingers crossed!
Gray do you have your own closer rankings listed anywhere besides scrolling through the top 500?
You can sort the Top 500 by RPs. That should do the trick. But no, Grey doesn’t do the blurb writeups for closers when doing the rankings leading up to Spring.
What Nux said — thank you, Nux
Thanks Knux and Grey
No problem
Buxton 2021 Breakout!
HAHA
Why oh why do I draft Buxton every year? What’s the definition of insanity again?
Ha, rinse and repeat every year
I actually LOL’d last night reading he got hurt again. After what, 3 days in camp? Dude is made of glass. But I keep drafting him. Buxton is my Kryptonite…
Yeah, it’s too bad bc I do think he’s talented, but woof on his injury history
His half season last year was such a tease – .262 / 10 / 46 / 14 with an .827 OPS in 271 at bats. Reason I keep going back to the Buxton well…
Oh, I know, it’s enticing
Can I use “China Doll” as a reference?
What does that even mean?
“Where I went to be mocked for my black underwear and lack of kayaking ability.”
It sounds personal ya know? Grey’s experience at Summer Camp. Prob best not to ask.
lol ……….good advice
Me and my Jewish friends wore black underwear and lacked kayak ability, i.e., we weren’t very athletic…. sometimes it’s as clear as what’s written
Did’nt know black underwear was a thing …..but summer camp level kayaking skill are definitely a low bar toward athleticism for sure.
HA, yup!
FYI but Bryce Harper played at 3B yesterday
I know, it’s gonna be a mess this year with guys out of position
All MLB umpires wear black underwear, It’s in their contract. Part of their uniform requirements. Not sure about their kayaking skills though
Then they are my people!
Brian Urlacher, Travis Kelce, and Bradley Beal have joined A-Rod’s bid to buy the Mets. I’m a Bears fan…Urlacher is one of my all-time favorite players. To clarify, Grey, that’s the Chicago Bears. They’re a football team in the NFL ;) Chicago Bear and Polar Bear together? Oh the possibilities…
This would be awesome! I’m not the biggest A-rod guy, but I love the idea of players owning teams or at least being a big part of the ownership group. I think that’s the right direction. It at least feels better than a couple of faceless millionaires. Or… ya know… a Wilpon.
A-Rod is just trying to buy the Mets bc of Jeter and the Marlins, right? I mean, clearly, right?
Rich people pissing contests.
Yeah, I’m happy for your Brian guy, but it does seem like we’d have to put up with stupid photos of A-Rod and Jeter every time Marlins face the Mets.
G –
I can’t believe baseball is back, as in I still feel like we’re all getting duped here but I have nothing else to do so might as well get our hopes up!
I took a sabbatical from Razzball because as it turns out when I lost my job (music business) I have less time to read about fantasy baseball because now I have to parent all day, funny how that works.
Hope you and yours are well, and happy to be back in the comment section – albeit less frequently and in between tantrums, but we back (for now)!
Sorry you lost your job, but we’re here and it’s good to see you!
It’s technically a furlough with the intent to rehire ASAP but who knows when live music is coming back.
You still writing for your ‘other’ job?
Fingers crossed then you get hired back…Actually been working on a novel
Nice! Just let me know where to send my unemployment subsidy once it’s published!
Haha, appreciate you!
Parts of PA just moved to green june 16 so far so good ..limited indoor seating……we did an outside show a couple weeks ago and have another outdoor one this sunday. I won’t do an indoor one just yet. Tables spaced about 8-10′ apart people were pretty good about the disticancing and mask etc. hopefully your will open up soon.
I’m at a theater – so only indoor seating on my end. Some shows still scheduled for the Fall, but seems like early 2021 is best case scenario.
Crap, that sucks, man…Hoping for best!
Yeah not much hope for theater in urban areas any time soon. Good luck.
good luck on your novel grey
Thanks!
Buxton. Like death & taxes. Comforting when normal shizz happens nowadays.
Haha, yup
The Nats put a couple RPs on the IL last night with no sign or word of Robles or Soto.Martinez did say whatever this means-
“The other one, we’ve got to be careful with,” Martinez added, referencing the 37-year-old Kendrick. “We’ll see where he’s at”-MASN
Yeah, I’m worried
I saw somewhere that DC and LA have local ordinances requiring 14 days of quarantine after contact.I don’t know if teams in other cities are letting players back after 2 negatives in a shorter time frame.
The first I heard about the infected Nats players was 7 days ago but Howie wasn’t mentioned.I think Soto will be back by next Tuesday.Not sure about Robles.The Nats always act like they’re guarding the launch codes.
Really on Soto? Where are you hearing that because I’m officially concerned
It saw a blurb from a “Nationals correspondent” whose name I forget.
Here’s some info.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/07/juan-soto-isolating-under-coronavirus-protocol.html
Ah, okay…Well, hopefully
In other Covid news Glasnow is back and just threw 49 pitches.He was positive.
Great! It does seem promising how guys are coming back — shame we didn’t start in April so everyone would have a chance to come back
I’m just praying for a vaccine(or herd immunity) by 2021.If there was ever a year I truly needed the distraction it was this one.
Think they could’ve done what MLB is doing right now in April and had same level of success
Grey!!!
Excellent COVID-19 report! Better than anything Fauci has ever said!
a. Glad Mallex is back in camp. He’s the reason I need maalox in my morning coffee.
b. So signed up Helsley over Seth Lugo. My bullpen now is…
Chappy (COVID)
Nick Anderson (unclear if he’s the closer)
Kintzler (dropped him twice and added him 3 times already and not sure if he’s gonna be good)
Workman (hopefully he’ll be useful)
Do you think Lugo is more valuable to me than Helsley in my current bullpen?
c. In my other league, the aforementioned CWalker is on my roster. Will wait and see, but I can move Madrigal to the U, Riley to replace HDozier and then HDozier to replace CWalker in the CI. See? Piece of cake, only if Madrigal isn’t playing….Oh, well. There’s always next year.
d. MLB quote of the day for July 14, 2020.
‘A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.’
Lawrence Peter ‘Yogi’ Berra, aka Lorenzo Pietro Berra. Famous for many things including 10 WS rings (1 more than DiMaggio’s 9, hence the connection from yesterday’s quote) and the harmonica incident.
Harmonica incident
On the team bus, Berra told Phil Linz to STOP playing the harmonica. Linz didn’t stop because he was on the other end of the bus and didn’t hear him. Mickey Mantle heard differently and thought Berra told Linz to play louder, which Linz did! And then Yogi got all angry and slapped the harmonica from Linz as he was playing. [Something like that, anyone on the bus please correct me.]
The other connection from DiMaggio’s quote yesterday was the fact that Berra rarely struck out. He hit more homers than he struck out five (5) times in his career.
1950 – 28 HRs, 12 Ks
1951 – 27 HRs, 20 Ks
1952 – 30 HRs, 24 Ks
1955 – 27 HRs, 20 Ks
1956 – 30 HRs, 29 Ks
He was also an outstanding defensive catcher. He led all catchers in double plays six (6) times (an MLB record) and was one of only four catchers to have a 1.000 field percentage when in 1958 he played 88 games without an error. I’d have to say one of the best overall catchers, maybe the best overall.
Cheers,
Ante
Thank you!
A. As long as he doesn’t bother Kyle Lewis
B. Kintzler’s prolly guy I’m losing there
C. Yeah, don’t put it out there
D. Haha, I wasn’t on the bus…Didn’t realize Yogi has such a short fuse tho…Wow, Yogi, chillax
Grey!
a. Reading your replies are like manna from Heaven on THAT island paradise. We arrived like 3 hours ago, going stir crazy already.
b. Will hold onto Kintzler for a few, but yeah don’t like him very much. Will replace with Knebel who is on my wire in both leagues.
Cheers,
Ante
A. Haha, go have fun!
B. Yeah, that’s fair for now