JOUR 355 Fantasy Sports Blog

  Rutschman Gets the Call Drew Epstein 5/22/22 Rutschman takes in the scene moments before his MLB debut on 5/22/22. Adley Rutschman’s day began in his AAA manager’s office. It ended with a big league triple in Baltimore. Early this morning, the Orioles promoted the top overall prospect, and 24-year-old switch hitting catcher. A video surfaced shortly after of Adley being notified of the decision, met by several joyous teammates to celebrate with him. The meeting with his manager began with an explanation of his playing time lately and ended with the good news. It was simply one of those moments that captures the beauty of this sport. Rutschman promptly got to Baltimore and began getting ready for his big league debut against the Tampa Bay Rays tonight. Another video shows him taking it all in before his first warm up pitches prior to his official debut. He soaked in this once in a lifetime opportunity, and every baseball player’s lifelong dream came true. If this wasn't a good eno...

  Underperforming Fantasy Baseball Players and My Concern Levels For Them Drew Epstein 5/2/22 Zack Wheeler- Phillies SP: Wheeler was an ace last year. He was second in the NL Cy Young voting. This year? Not so much so far. He was great in his last start but before that, he was terrible in his first three starts. Wheeler’s stat line currently sits at 1-3, 5.79 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, and 18 Ks. There is plenty of room for optimism, however, despite the rough start for the Phillies right-hander. The first thing worth pointing out is his most recent start on Thursday in which he went six scoreless innings while striking out seven, though he did walk four. He only gave up one hit. That is reason to think maybe Wheeler will start to round into form. The metrics also suggest that Wheeler is limiting barrels and hard contact. The issue so far seems to be his command, along with the low strikeout rate he has so far. As with every pitcher, you have to wonder if his slow start was a result of the sh...

  Overperforming Fantasy Baseball Players and the Confidence I Have In Them  Drew Epstein 5/2/22 Ty France- Mariners 1B: Ty France is a good player and he was expected to be a valuable fantasy baseball piece. With that said, find me someone who saw this type of production coming. France has been a hit and RBI machine for the Mariners through the first month of the season. The current stat line on France is .333/5 HR/21 RBI, with an OPS of .950. Looking at his advanced metrics, this seems to be legit. He is hitting the ball hard and his expected batting average and on base percentage are elite, he's not just getting flukey hits. Another thing to love about France is he doesn't strike out much. He's showing all the signs of a great player to have on your fantasy team.  Confidence Level: High Kyle Wright- Braves SP: I discussed Kyle Wright after a couple of starts and he’s continued to roll. He's gone at least 6 innings in 3 of his 4 starts, a rarity with the short spring,...

  Drew Epstein’s Top 50 Fantasy Baseball Points league Rankings 5/1/21 Shohei Ohtani- Angels SP/DH (Preseason Rank: 1) Ohtani has not been great on either side of the ball so far, but his ability to do both still has him safe at the top. He has not been bad by any means, but not what he was doing last year to this point. 2022 Stats: .228/4 HR/12 RBI  2022 Stats (Pitching): 2-2, 4.19 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 30 Ks Jose Ramirez- Guardians 3B (Preseason Rank: 6) Ramirez is off to a scorching start for the Guardians and can be counted on day in and day out to be one of the best hitters, if not the best, in the league. He leads MLB with an absurd 28 RBIs to begin the season.  2022 Stats: .341/7HR/28 RBI Mike Trout- Angels OF (Preseason Rank: 13) I talked about how all Trout needed to do to be at the top of the list is stay healthy. He's done that so far and has been every bit of the Mike Trout we are used to. Do not expect any different as long as he's on the field.  2022 Stats: ....

  5 Widely Available Players Who Are Off to a Great Start  Drew Epstein 4/11/22 Jeff McNeil- Mets 2B/OF (Owned in 53.7% of ESPN leagues) Technically Jeff McNeil can’t be considered widely available with an owned percentage above 50, but he's worth mentioning here. McNeil is a career .300 hitter and he's just two years removed from an all-star season in 2019 with a slash line of .318/.384/.531. After that, there was the 60 game Covid year and a down year in 2021. So far, McNeil is looking more like himself even if it is just a weekend sample size. With some guys, you can just see that they look more like themselves, and McNeil looked that way to me this weekend. So far this early season, McNeil is 7/16 with 1 HR and 3 RBIs. If this production continues and signs of vintage Jeff McNeil continue to show, he could be a steal, especially with the positional versatility he provides.  Jurickson Profar- Padres 1B, 2B OF (Owned in 9.6% of ESPN leagues) Jurickson Profar is another ...

5 Players Who Get an Underrated Fantasy Boost on Their New Team Drew Epstein 4/2/22 Zack Greinke- Royals SP Greinke is going back to Kansas City on a 1-year $13M contract where he started his career and won the 2009 Cy Young Award. It seems few people are talking about this and the benefit this can have on his 2022 season. At age 38, Greinke is certainly getting up there in age, but he's been serviceable at worst up until this point. At his best, he was one of the best pitchers in the league but it's probably safe to assume those days are over. This is a good chance for Greinke to return to where the bulk of his career was played and pitch in a great pitcher’s ballpark. Last season he was 11-6 with a 4.16 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and 120 strikeouts. Greinke has been named the Royals opening day starter and if he uses this chance to produce similar numbers to what he was able to do last year, he’ll be a solid middle-of-the-rotation fantasy starter with the benefit of a massive ballpark u...

  5 Prospects Who Will Make a Fantasy Impact in 2022 Drew Epstein 4/2/22 Bobby Witt Jr.- Royals SS/3B The #1 overall prospect according to MLB.com. Witt is a shortstop but looks likely to begin his career at third base for the Royals on opening day. He has been having a great spring with a .458 batting average, 2 home runs, and 7 RBIs. Spring training usually doesn't mean much but in the case of a top prospect cementing his place on a team, this is worth following. Witt is a player who could be a superstar and that could happen as soon as this year. Definitely worth a late round draft pick in fantasy drafts and hope he can show off a bit of his superstar potential right off the bat.  Joe Ryan- Twins SP Joe Ryan was named the Twins opening day starter this year which is a bit of a surprise. He had 4 starts last season and posted a 4.05 ERA with a rock-solid 0.79 WHIP over about 26 innings. The fact that he's trusted by the Twins over an established veteran in Sonny Gray suggest...