Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers for Week 5

There is nothing quite like the ebbs and flows of fantasy baseball. Every at-bat of every game is the final straw based on that moment whereas in reality, players will have hundreds more across the next dozen weeks to neutralize whatever outcome came about. Across the past month, plenty of recently unknown players have thrived... Read More

Pitchers Advanced Metrics Leaders for BABIP - Statcast Studs and Duds (Week 5)

Welcome to another edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series for the 2024 season! Each week, I will select one stat, choose a few pitchers with strong metrics and poor metrics, and analyze them to determine how their future performance may change. Over the last two weeks, I looked at different components... Read More

Pitcher Arsenal Changes for Fantasy Baseball (Week 4): Pitch Mix, Movement, and Velocity

Injuries aside, starting pitchers have blown up the ratios. That's especially true for some higher-end starting pitchers based on ADP and expectations, including Jesus Luzardo, Luis Castillo, George Kirby, and Chris Sale. One quick way to examine whether the struggles might be luck or skill issues involves scraping the FanGraphs data over the past week... Read More

Pitchers Advanced Metrics Leaders for Launch Angle - Statcast Studs and Duds (Week 4)

Welcome to another edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series for the 2024 season! Each week, I will select one stat, choose a few pitchers with strong metrics and poor metrics, and analyze them to determine how their future performance may change. Last week, I wrote about average exit velocity (EV), and... Read More

Surprising Starts From Fantasy Baseball Pitchers: Who Will Regress?

When putting together a fantasy baseball team, starting pitching may be the most difficult position to account for. Chances are you won't put together a team full of set-it-and-forget-it aces. As the season goes on, injuries will occur and some sleepers will end up not making the big jump some people expected. On the other... Read More

Starting Pitcher Arsenal Changes for Fantasy Baseball: Pitch Mix, Movement, and Velocity

We've had 16 pitchers in the top-200 picks of NFBC ADP injured in the first week or so, with Sonny Gray as the only pitcher returning from an injury. Meanwhile, seven hitters inside the top 200 in ADP have been injured to begin the season. It's been brutal and we seem to have pitchers unexpectedly... Read More

Top 101 Starting Pitcher Fantasy Baseball Rankings: The Baller Ranks (Week 3)

Several high-profile pitcher injuries have hit early but we press on with my weekly top 101 SP Baller Ranks breakdown. And many early-round pitchers with good health have had poor performances. It's a crazy world but we do our best to make sense of it with the second 2024 edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher... Read More

Pitchers Advanced Metrics Leaders for Exit Velocity - Statcast Studs and Duds (Week 3)

Welcome to the second edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series for the 2024 season! Each week, I will select one stat, choose a few pitchers with strong metrics and poor metrics, and analyze them to determine how their future performance may change. Now that we have some batted-ball data, I will... Read More

Starting Pitcher Arsenal Changes for Fantasy Baseball: Pitch Mix, Movement, and Velocity

We're dealing with small samples when we're only a week into the fantasy baseball season. However, the market reacts daily to any positive or negative performances. It's important to look beyond the results and understand the skills that led to the results. Since we usually can't control for the luck factors, we want to identify... Read More

Top 101 Starting Pitcher Fantasy Baseball Rankings: The Baller Ranks (Week 2)

The 2024 season is off and running so it's time to rev up my weekly top 101 SP Baller Ranks breakdown. We've survived a long offseason and built a squad on draft day. Now, we must see where initial results have landed with the first 2024 edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks! This... Read More

Starting Pitcher Advanced Metrics Leaders for ERA-xERA - Statcast Studs and Duds (Week 2)

Welcome to the first edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series for the 2024 season! Statcast provides a ton of insightful advanced metrics that can be used to understand pitchers' performance and predict future fantasy performance. Diving into underlying stats is one of my favorite aspects of fantasy baseball and I am... Read More

Exit Velocity Standouts (EV50) - Finding Sneaky Power Hitters for Fantasy Baseball

We have tons of access to baseball data in our fantasy analysis. Sometimes, we might have too many tools and resources because it can be overwhelming, especially in the beginning stages. One of those resources is Baseball Savant better known as Statcast data. The social media joke involves the red and blue sliders on a... Read More

Pitchers: Spring Training ADP Risers and Fallers for Fantasy Baseball Drafts (2024)

Last time, we examined hitter risers and fallers in ADP. Now, we'll look at pitcher risers and fallers. The ADP market is sharp, but it doesn't mean we should automatically align with a riser or faller. One quick example came from my previous article. Wyatt Langford kept climbing closer to his teammate Evan Carter in ADP,... Read More

Biggest Barrel Risers for 2024 Fantasy Baseball Hitters (Barrel %)

For the hitters in our fantasy baseball lineups, we want the best possible outcome from each one of their plate appearances in 2024. One of the best ways to predict hitters with the best outcomes is with Barrels. When MLB introduced the stat in 2016, they showed that Barreled balls result in an average of... Read More

Hitters: Spring Training ADP Risers and Fallers for Fantasy Baseball Drafts (2024)

We could go in a couple of directions when considering risers and fallers. One relates to which hitters have gone up or down in average draft position (ADP) over the past month by splitting it into two-week spans. Another way might involve us taking the pulse of the fantasy baseball market with some of the... Read More

ATC Projections: Pitcher Surprises And Concerns For Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Using projections in the fantasy baseball draft process helps give us a baseline of numbers to build a balanced team. Roster construction becomes more challenging with deeper rosters. Though the ADP market pushes up pitchers in rotisserie, category, and points leagues, the projections suggest avoiding at their price. That's important because many positive pitcher surprises... Read More

ATC Projections: Hitter Surprises and Concerns for Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Using the ATC projections, we have a few ways to find surprising players based on the projection systems. One way is to look at the projected auction values compared to the average draft position and see which players might be value selections. Value is a tricky word since we're (usually) discussing projected value based on... Read More

5 Mid-To-Late Round Sleepers: NL West - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

Welcome to the final draft sleeper series, where I go through every MLB team to find one sleeper you should be drafting in fantasy baseball this year. The NL West is the last one on our list. The NL West features plenty of superstars who are going early in drafts. Mookie Betts, Corbin Carroll, Freddie... Read More

5 Mid-To-Late Round Sleepers and Values for Fantasy Baseball Drafts - AL West Edition

Sometimes the hardest part of fantasy baseball drafts is who to select in the later rounds. Those are the picks that wind up being the most important because if you can hit on a player going in the 14th or 15th round, that will make your fantasy team even stronger.  With the fantasy baseball season... Read More

Hitters Spring Training News and Notes For Fantasy Baseball

The spring season has begun and now that we're several games in, it's worth taking a look around the leagues (Cactus and Grapefruit) to see which batters have started off this preseason hot and who has started off cold. Make sure you check out the version of this article that looks at pitchers who have... Read More

Starting Pitchers Spring Training News and Notes For Fantasy Baseball

Baseball is back and spring training is here! Every player is reportedly in the best shape of their lives or has worked on their weaknesses in their game. Hitters have fixed their launch angles, while pitchers have changed arm slots or added a new pitch to their arsenal. How do we know how much of... Read More

Five Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers: Mid-To-Late Round Value Picks (NL Central)

The NL Central doesn't have the same kind of fantasy baseball stars as other divisions. As a matter of fact, the first player selected from the NL Central isn't until Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz is taken in the early fourth round. After that, Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger, Freddy Peralta, and Nico Hoerner... Read More

Five Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers: Mid-To-Late Round Value Picks (NL East)

The NL East has plenty of star players going early in fantasy baseball drafts this season. Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider are going in the first round, while Matt Olson, Trea Turner, Austin Riley, Bryce Harper, and Ozzie Albies are all going somewhere in the second round. Then, players like Zack Wheeler, Pete Alonso,... Read More

Kings Of Candy: Biggest Sweet Spot Risers for Fantasy Baseball Year-Over-Year (Swt-Spt%)

We recently looked at hitters who increased their BB% the most year-over-year, but now we want to look at hitters whose sweet spot percentage increased the most. Why this metric? Well, by looking at who has increased their sweet spot percentage, you might find hitters who may be hitting the ball at a better angle,... Read More

Biggest Year-Over-Year BB% Risers for Fantasy Baseball Drafts (2024)

In this article, we'll look at players' BB% from 2022 to 2023 to see who had the biggest increases. For this exercise, I first took out any hitter who did not collect at least 400 PA in 2023. Next, I eliminated anyone who did not rise to at least above league average BB% (8.6%). Finally,... Read More

5 Mid-To-Late Round Sleepers: AL Central - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

Welcome to this ongoing series where we go division by division to analyze the best fantasy baseball sleepers on every team this year. We started with the AL East last week, so if you haven't seen that one yet, be sure to check it out. Next up will be the AL Central. Despite the AL... Read More

5 Mid-To-Late Round Sleepers: AL East - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

The stars you draft in the top half of your fantasy baseball league will almost always dictate how good your team will be. But it's those sleepers in the middle to late rounds that might matter more. Those unexpected players that you draft in the 11th or 12th round that turn out to be strong... Read More

Early Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers For 2024 Redraft Leagues

One of the more satisfying elements of fantasy baseball is finding players in the middle and late rounds and seeing them turn into big-time producers. Players who miss time in a previous season, unsung producers on bad teams, and platoon bats are often underappreciated and fall in drafts. Not every lottery ticket will be a... Read More

MLB Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Season Recap

Welcome back to the final edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I have selected one advanced metric, chosen two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyzed what those values may mean for future performance. Sadly, we have come to the end of another fantasy baseball... Read More