Re-Drafting The 2010 MLB Draft: Bryce Harper Remains Elite

As the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft approaches, it is time to take a look back on previous draft results. With that said, I am starting a new segment where I will give you my personal redraft of previous MLB Amateur Drafts. Today I will focus on the 2010 draft, which had some of the best talent in the past few decades. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to tweet me @dynasty_digest. If you enjoyed this article, please follow my blog for more updates on other drafts, fantasy baseball, and other baseball topics (dynastydigest.sportsblog.com).

1. Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper (Actual Pick: Bryce Harper)

2. Pittsburgh Pirates: Manny Machado (Actual Pick: Jameson Taillon)

3. Baltimore Orioles: Chris Sale (Actual Pick: Manny Machado)

 

To see the rest of the draft, click the link below:

 

SEE THE REST OF THE DRAFT

Daily Fantasy MLB DFS Picks For DraftKings 5/12/16

If you have any questions or comments about this article or fantasy baseball, please Tweet me @dynasty_digest. I post daily DFS lineups for Draft Kings everyday, so please make sure to follow my blog (dynastydigest.sportsblog.com) and my Twitter for updates.

P- David Price (vs. Houston Astros): $11,100

P- Vincent Velasquez (vs. Atlanta Braves): $10,900

 

To view the rest of the picks, click the link below:

 

SEE THE REST OF THE PICKS

What Is Wrong With Houston Astros’ Pitcher, Ken Giles?

The Houston Astros acquired young flamethrower, Ken Giles, from the Philadelphia Phillies this offseason. The Astros paid a king’s ransom for Giles considering they gave up top prospect, Vincent Velazquez, former #1 overall pick, Mark Appel, Brett Oberholtzer, and Thomas Eshelman. Giles’ cost was so high because of his young age, success, and his team control for the next 4 years. Unfortunately for the Astros, this trade hasn’t quite worked out as people expected. Giles continues to struggle, Velazquez continues to shine, and Mark Appel seems to be back on track.

Following the trade, the Astros were expected to name Giles the opening day closer over the previous closer, Luke Gregerson. Well, the unexpected happened during spring training. Giles struggled to get people out and the Astros decided to name Gregerson the opening closer for 2016. Many Astros’ fans believed this was going to be temporary, considering the Astros paid so much for 25 year old closer, but this situation doesn’t seem to be temporary anymore. Through 8.2 innings pitched in 2016, Giles has a 8.31 ERA, 2 losses, 13 hits given up, 3 walks, and 12 strikeouts. The start of the season is not Giles-esque considering in his first two seasons with the Phillies, he threw 115.2 innings, with a 1.56 ERA, 84 hits given up, 151 strikeouts, 36 walks, and 16 saves. So that brings up the question every Astros fan and fantasy baseball owner is asking, what is wrong with Ken Giles?

 

To read the rest of the article, click the link below:

 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

5 of the Biggest Surprises so far During the 2016 MLB Season

The MLB’s regular-season schedule is 162 games long for a reason – it’s a marathon, not a sprint. While we’re not even at the three-week mark yet, it’s still long enough for us to get a good glimpse as to which players are off to surprisingly great starts.

Baseball is a game of failure, but it’s also a game of averages. Even if a player is white-hot for a certain period of time, they’ll eventually come back down to Earth and maybe even go into a slump to even things out (unless your Bryce Harper). However, some players may use a hot start to propel themselves to a new benchmark moving forward when it comes to their career norms.

Whether the current narrative about players is good or bad, they still have five months of games left to prove themselves, one way or the other. With that in mind, here are five players who have been pleasant surprises thus far.

And yes, I know the obvious ones like Harper, Tyler White, Trevor Story and others are not on this list. I did that on purpose.

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY

MLB Power Rankings 2016: Week 2 – April

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_Hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

Disclaimer:  We based these rankings on best strength to win the World Series.  Therefore some teams that have an easier division to play in, with the least path of resistance to the postseason overall may be ranked a lot higher than a club who is equally talented, yet may play in a juggernaut of a division.

The Cubs will top our list for a second straight week despite losing 2 out of 3 games to the Rockies at Wrigley Field this weekend.  The biggest reason is the pitching.

Jake Arrieta is 3 – 0, and has picked up right where we he left off in 2015, and Jon Lester has thrown awesome too.  The Bullpen has also been good.

The bats are too solid not to come around and gel as the season moves along.  They are playing .750 baseball after a 4 – 2 week still.

Bryce Harper is the best player on the planet, and has homered in 6 straight contests at Citizens Bank Ball Park (4 overall in a row for the MLB this year.)

Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg. Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy are their top players – and all performing like it, the rest of the club is following through in their secondary roles.  This team is scary.

I have the Royals as the top American League club.  This squad is 8 – 1 in games that are not started by back end of the rotation man Chris Young.

The reigning 2 time pennant winners have company on the top of the Division to make it interesting, however this team has the better pedigree the last few years.

Some may say with a weekend series win – that the Dodgers should be put in front of the Giants, yet they are still only one game ahead of San Francisco.

With the Giants – there is no real weakness, while with the Los Angeles team, the Bullpen is not giving everyone confidence in the back half of games.

The Dodger Blue is still in the top 5, so I am high on them. Kenta Maeda could be the steal of the winter with how this guy is throwing so far.  Reinforcements are starting to come back.

Who Owned Baseball April 12, 2016 (Daily MLB AL/NL Pitcher + Hitter MVP’s) + 2016 #WOB Standings

Matt Slocum / AP

Charlie Morton pitched shutout ball into the 7th, finishing 6 2/3 innings, 3 hits and 7 strikeouts, getting the 3-0 decision for Philadelphia over San Diego.

Trevor Brown continued his surprising power surge with a pair of homers and 4 RBI to lead the Giants to a 7-2 victory in Colorado.

Derek Holland gave the Rangers 6 2/3 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits and striking out 4 in the 8-0 blowout in Seattle.

Justin Upton went 4 for 5 with a homer, 2 RBI and 3 runs scored in the Tigers 8-2 win over Pittsburgh.

They all owned baseball on April 12, 2016.

To view the Yearly Leaders for Who Owned Baseball Standings, plus see who gained 1/2 WOB’s – Click the READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY ICON OR SCROLL DOWN.

MLB Power Rankings: Week 1 Results – April 2016

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_Hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

Disclaimer:  We based these rankings on best strength to win the World Series.  Therefore some teams that have an easier division to play in, with the least path of resistance to the postseason overall may be ranked a lot higher than a club who is equally talented, yet may play in a juggernaut of a division.

Team – Rank (W – L Record) (Last week ranking in parenthesis)

(1) Chicago Cubs  (5 – 1)  (1):  The Cubs weathered the loss of their slugging OF Kyle Schwarber this week – by taking 5 of the 1st 6 games played, and all on the road.  After these 6 contests – the squad is outscoring their opponents 42 – 15.

Love the idea of setting the table with Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist 1-2-3 prior to the boppers coming after in Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.

Having the 2015 NL ROY may help Rizzo win the NL MVP this season.  He had 10 RBI this week – including a 6 RBI effort.

Jake Arrieta is already 2 – 0, and this team shows no signs of slowing down.

(2)  KC Royals  (4 – 1) (2):  This club just knows how to win with the dominant Bullpen and clutch hitting.  They have only yielded 11 runs thus far, and this team has not even hit huge strides on offense yet.

The AL Central is better in 2016 there is no question, however KC will be ready to take them on.  There may not be a more filthy Late Inning Reliever right now than Wade Davis.  Edinson Volquez has picked up right where he left off in 2015 as well.

The Future of the Philadelphia Phillies Could Be Bright

The Philadelphia Phillies haven’t had a winning season since 2011. While it has been a tough stretch of seasons for the team and their fans, they are in the midst of a rebuild that could bring the organization great success in the near future. I would expect the Phillies to start competing around 2018-2019 seasons. In this article, I will highlight some of the Phillies prospects and players that will be instrumental to the success of the Phillies. These players will include Maikel Franco, Aaron Nola, Vincent Velazquez, J.P. Crawford, Mark Appel, Jake Thompson, and Nick Williams. To read the analysis on the Phillies and the players listed above, please click the link below:

 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Philadelphia Phillies State Of The Union For 2016

The Phillies have not had a winning season since 2011 after putting forth a decade straight of them. A promising second half to the year – coupled with full seasons by Aaron Nola and Maikel Franco could have them inch closer back to achieving that mark in the next few years. The management finally started the rebuild halfway through the year, have continued it so far this winter – and the financial flexibility in going forward should really be shaped up in a few more seasons.   It may be a tough campaign in 2016 for the win loss column, however the team has a lot of young players to watch and be excited about.

Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead  Analyst) Follow @chuckbooth3024

Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports

I was lucky enough to watch a record 224 MLB Games live last year – spread across all 30 MLB parks in every day of the campaign last season.

Unfortunately I saw the most home games (33 Games) in Philadelphia with my brother living close by.  There is nothing wrong with Citizens Ball Park, it was the team that was tough to watch.

When you have Jeff Francouer as your #4 hitter for half of the year, there is something wrong with that. I love the guy, and Frenchy had a decent year, it just said a lot about the depth of the Roster in 2015.

At the end of the year Philadelphia’s management started to trade away Veterans from the glory days of the World Series, and you can start to see the healing begin.

The dealing continued with Ken Giles sent to Texas for a bunch of stud arms coming back. Now the Phillies are looking forward to a bunch of young talent coming to the big leagues in the next few seasons.

The old guard is still there with Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz holding down the Starting First Base and Catcher respectively.  Howard is an average offensive threat only now that makes $25 MIL.

Philadelphia Phillies Payroll In 2016 + Contracts Going Forward

The Phillies have not had a winning season since 2011 after putting forth a decade straight of them. A promising second half to the season – couple with full seasons by Aaron Nola and Maikel Franco could have them inch closer back to achieving that mark in the next few years. The management finally started the rebuild halfway through the year – and the financial flexibility in going forward should really be shaped up in a few more years. Philadelphia has $110 MIL in approximate Team Salary already committed for next year. I would keep the course and build through the Draft. Spending money on any premiere Free Agents is a little premature right now. In addition, the club could really trade away anything not nailed down for 2017.

Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports

The Philadelphia should have a payroll of near $110 MIL after Arbitration dollars are handed out next year.  Of that money, Ryan Howard and 3 players (Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Chase Utley) rake in $49 MIL of the salary on players that no longer play on the club, or in Howard’s case – are very unproductive.

I love the deals the franchise has made since the Trade Deadline – and even loved some of the Veterans they have picked up for the coming year like Charlie Morton and Jeremy Hellickson.

Between the half a dozen Starters or so they have acquired through trades, and their nice young Starter in Aaron Nola, they now have a promising future in the Rotation.

Mark Appel was also acquired in the Ken Giles trade.  This is a #1 overall pick who may just need some more seasoning in the Minors.