I’m a little late to the party reviewing my bold predictions. Out of sheer cowardice (or a schedule crunch/things continually coming up). They are, as always, a mixed bag. I find 3/10 is the number you’re kind of aiming for, because any lower and you’re an idiot and any higher and you weren’t bold enough. So, let’s see how this goes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Well, this is it, folks. This is my final Roto Riteup of the regular season (I’m still figuring if I’ll do playoff editions or just switch into offseason mode right away). It’s been a trip, and I appreciate you reading and rolling with my advice on the news each morning, if you’ve done so. Zach and Justin are great dudes to work with, Eno a great dude to work under, and it’s resulted in a really fun year. So thank you.
Tim Tebow homered on the first pitch of his professional baseball debut. You’ll want to bump him from No. 1 to No. 1!!! for your 2017 keeper league drafts, naturally. After all, “He’s such a winner,” as Terry Collins said.
Unrelated, I was trying to think of what the baseball equivalent of Tebow’s NFL run would be, from a fantasy perspective. Tebow wasn’t good, but he ran enough that he was valuable in most formats. I guess maybe 2015 Billy Hamilton is close? I’m going to put something together for this for tomorrow, I think.
The entire Rotographs site has become about final-week streaming options, so make sure to look around outside of the Roto Riteup for more tips on who to start over the final days of your season. There’s only so much I can add, so allow me this aside: If you ever have the opportunity to see Chance the Rapper live, do it. Don’t question it, don’t hesitate, don’t worry about the cost. I can’t recommend it enough. I missed an important Jays-Orioles game to be uplifted by 90 minutes of pure joy. I’d even stream Chance tonight, as he does a second show, if I could.
This is it. We’re down to the final week. It looks like most have shifted their focus to 2017, as they rightfully should have, so we’ll probably keep it pretty brief in this space for the week, maybe with a look back on our 2016 performance at some point in time. For a few more days, we soldier on and trudge through the waiver wire.
Walking out of the office on Friday like:
Have a good weekend, everyone.
You know how in Spring Training, players really ease into the workload, first starting off with one plate appearance, then two, slowly working their way up to full games? There’s a good reason. I just took several months off from playing basketball and then played on back-to-back nights, and I am dead now. You are reading the work of a ghost. An old, sore, broken-ass-jumper ghost.
I’m unsure there’s a better way to wake up than to your team having won through the night. Yes, it’s September and I should just be staying up as the Jays reach to rediscover their offense ahead of a (sigh) likely wild-card game, but some nights you just have to let go. And again, waking up to that news is better than coffee. I hope your day started well, too.
I almost feel like I should be giving a quick playoff race update in this spot, because even though this is entirely a fantasy blog, it’s hard to focus on much other than the post-season. So, let’s try it:
Relevant Winners: Red Sox, Blue Jays (!), Giants
Relevant Losers: Tigers, Orioles, Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals
Odds update, per our Standings page:
| Team | W | L | DIV GB | WC GB | DIV | WC | POFF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indians | 84 | 62 | – | – | 97.10% | 2.40% | 99.40% |
| Red Sox | 82 | 64 | – | – | 68.10% | 27.10% | 95.20% |
| Rangers | 87 | 60 | – | – | 99.90% | 0.10% | 100.00% |
| Blue Jays | 80 | 66 | 2.0 | – | 19.00% | 53.70% | 72.70% |
| Orioles | 80 | 66 | 2.0 | – | 12.20% | 48.60% | 60.80% |
| Tigers | 78 | 68 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 2.90% | 25.40% | 28.40% |
| Mariners | 78 | 68 | 8.5 | 2.0 | 0.10% | 29.70% | 29.80% |
| Yankees | 77 | 69 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 0.70% | 5.90% | 6.60% |
| Astros | 76 | 70 | 10.5 | 4.0 | 0.00% | 7.00% | 7.00% |
| Royals | 74 | 72 | 10.0 | 6.0 | 0.00% | 0.10% | 0.10% |
| Team | W | L | DIV GB | WC GB | DIV | WC | POFF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubs | 93 | 53 | – | – | 100.00% | 0.00% | 100.00% |
| Nationals | 87 | 59 | – | – | 100.00% | 0.00% | 100.00% |
| Dodgers | 82 | 64 | – | – | 93.70% | 6.10% | 99.90% |
| Giants | 78 | 68 | 4.0 | – | 6.30% | 72.40% | 78.70% |
| Mets | 77 | 69 | 10.0 | – | 0.00% | 75.70% | 75.70% |
| Cardinals | 76 | 70 | 17.0 | 1.0 | 0.00% | 43.30% | 43.30% |
| Marlins | 73 | 73 | 14.0 | 4.0 | 0.00% | 2.00% | 2.00% |
| Pirates | 71 | 74 | 21.5 | 5.5 | 0.00% | 0.40% | 0.40% |
Shout out to my pal Christian Stoinev for throwing out the first pitch at the Diamondbacks game in fashion. I’m starting a petition to have dogs on the mound for all pitchers starting in 2017.