Imaginary Brick Wall

Not even football season can slow down the prospect train, as Halph is back with another jam-packed episode. Luckily, or unluckily depending on what mood you prefer Ralph in, we recorded this before the Patriots got spanked on Thursday night. We started the show by talking about a bunch of recent call-ups, including Victor Robles, Harrison Bader, Luiz Gohara, Walker Buehler, Brian Anderson, Jeimer Candelario, and Dan Vogelbach. Then, we shifted gears to dig into our top 12-ish fantasy shortstop prospect rankings, discussing everyone from Fernando Tatis Jr., Gleyber Torres, Brendan Rodgers, and J.P. Crawford, to Yu-Cheng Chang, Andres Gimenez, Wander Javier, Delvin Perez, and many more. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game (now shipping to Canada).

Razzball Prospect Podcast: 2017 End-of-Season Prospect Positional Rankings: Shortstop

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

Ralph Lifshitz and I start the podcast by reminiscing about the good ol’ days when we played tackle football without pads on and were constantly breaking our fingers, ribs, noses, and orbital bones. Nowadays, my biggest concern is this stiff neck I’ve had all day from sleeping the wrong way. We then move right into bemoaning the fact that Willie Calhoun personally declared, “I will not get called up,” along with talking about a few players who did get the call, including Jack Flaherty, Tyler Mahle, Francisco Mejia, and Renato Nunez. The meat of the show is all about ranking the top starting pitchers, discussing everybody from Michael Kopech, Brent Honeywell, Forrest Whitley, and Sixto Sanchez, to Michel Baez, Joey Wentz, Corbin Burnes, Trevor Rogers and everyone in between. As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game.

Razzball Prospect Podcast: 2017 End-of-Season Prospect Positional Rankings: Starting Pitchers

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

Ralph and Halp are taking over the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast, and we do our darndest to make up for the absence of Grey, starting the show by talking about Ralph’s vasectomy, my wisdom teeth, and the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight. We then dive deep into possible September call-ups, discussing Willie Calhoun, Ronald Acuna, Scott Kingery, Franklin Barreto, Tyler Glasnow, Harrison Bader, Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler O’Neill, JP Crawford, Willy Adames, Alex Verdugo, and Walker Buehler as the cream of the crop. We also talk about some underrated prospects who could make an impact, including Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler, Daniel Palka, Teoscar Hernandez, Jeimer Candelario, Rusney Castillo, and many more. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game (now shipping to Canada).

Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast: September Call-ups

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

What do Ryen Russillo, Louis CK (allegedly), and Ralph Lifshitz all have in common? Hint: It has nothing to do with the fact that they are all from Boston. After getting that out of the way, we dive into the very deep and talented class of minor league outfielders. We discuss if Ronald Acuna is the #1 prospect in the game, how far should Austin Meadows fall, Victor Robles vs. Kyle Tucker, and if we are still underrating Willie Calhoun. We debate the rankings of Alex Verdugo, Anthony Alford, Kyle Lewis, Tyler O’Neill, Estevan Florial, Austin Hays, Taylor Trammell and many more. We close the show by talking our favorite sleepers (Tristen Lutz, Bubba Thompson, Brandon Marsh, Cristian Pache, etc ..) and also our biggest fallers (Mickey Moniak, Blake Rutherford, and Corey Ray.) As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:

Razzball Prospect Podcast: 2017 End-of-Season Prospect Positional Rankings: Outfielders

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

Grey blames his dog Ted for an “employment challenged” person setting fire to his condominium complex and storage unit this weekend. My weekend was equally as exciting; I met up with a few friends for lunch. After swapping weekend tales, we start the fantasy baseball talk with Aaron Judge’s continued regression and Rhys Hoskins’ continued rise, and how they might be closer in fantasy value down the stretch and in 2018 than you might think. We also discuss Gio Gonzalez and Justin Smoak’s dominant seasons, before bringing Ralph Lifshitz on at the midway point to breakdown Chad Kuhl, Collin McHugh, Byron Buxton, and Josh Bell. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast:

Click here for the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Rise of the Rhys

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

I made my first ever true guest podcast appearance today with the guys over at Friends with Fantasy Benefits … I guess that makes me an Acquaintance with Fantasy Benefits. Click here to check it out.

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

Job Posting: Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast Announcer
Must possess the ability to properly introduce Grey. Possibility to expand role into Grey’s everyday life, introducing him at the gas station, Whole Foods, Laundromat, etc … Pay commensurate with experience.

On this week’s Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast, Grey Albright and I start the show by discussing Bryce Harper’s freak injury, along with how much we trust Zack Greinke and James Paxton going into next season (ranked 5th and 8th overall for starting pitchers on Razzball’s Player Rater, respectively). We then bring on Ralph Lifshitz to talk Andrew Benintendi, the RCL’s, Jon Lester, Justin Verlander, and Patrick Corbin. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game.

Click here for the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Bryce Harper, Andrew Benintendi, and a Slew of Starting Pitchers

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

Ralph and Halp are back on this week’s prospect podcast to talk more prospect text-ups. It’s the 21st century, I’m sure teams are texting instead of calling just like everyone else. Rhys Hoskins, Ryan McMahon, Dominic Smith, and Reynaldo Lopez all got the text this week, and we project their numbers for the rest of the season. We then move on to update some notable players still in the minors, including J.P. Crawford, Austin Meadows, Austin Hays, Jahmai Jones, Isaac Paredes, Kyle Lewis, and Nick Senzel, before updating our first-year player big boards, discussing the rankings of Royce Lewis, Hunter Greene, MacKenzie Gore, Luis Robert, Michel Baez, and many more. As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game.

Click here for the Razzball Prospect Podcast: Call-ups and First-Year Player Draft Rankings Update

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

The Razzball podcasting worlds collide on this week’s episode as Grey Albright and I bring on Jay to talk about all of the exciting happenings going down on the football side of Razzball, most notably Jay’s draft rankings placing an impressive 3^rd overall last year (note to self: don’t ask 3^rd place finishers who came in 1^st and 2^nd anymore).  Around all of the football talk, Grey and I slip in some fantasy baseball analysis too, starting with the Yonder Alonso trade and the seemingly imminent call-up of Rhys Hoskins. We talk about some general fantasy trade deadline advice, along with the dos and don’ts when it comes to trading with last place teams. Finally, we discuss Giancarlo Stanton and Luis Severino’s dominant seasons, and then talk about some youngsters to close the show, including Willson Contreras, Gary Sanchez, and Bradley Zimmer. As always, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game.

Click here for the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Fantasy Trade Deadline Advice

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)

“When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers”

– Oscar Wilde

Ralph Lifshitz and I started last week’s podcast by praying to the baseball gods for Willie Calhoun to be traded to the American League. We got our wish … and he is still blocked. Thanks, Shin-Soo Choo. Shockingly, we did manage to talk about more than Willie during this week’s podcast. We discussed our expectations of recent call-ups Amed Rosario, Ozzie Albies, Lucas Sims, and Jesse Winker, along with trying to predict the next wave of prospects to hit the bigs, including Reynaldo Lopez, Tyler Glasnow, Tyler Mahle, Rhys Hoskins, Franklin Barreto, and Lucas Giolito. Finally, we dove into the minor league promotions of Adrian Morejon, Alex Jackson, and Yusniel Diaz, and of course, we highly advise you to head over to RotoWear.com and enter promo code “SAGNOF” for 15% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game.

Click here for the Razzball Prospect Podcast: Recent Call-ups, Future Call-ups, and Willie Calhoun

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@ImaginaryBrickW)