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JB's Bullpen Method Strategy for 2024: Making FrankenAces Out of Relief Pitchers

Mason Miller - Fantasy Baseball Rankings, MLB Prospects, Draft Sleepers

Four years ago, our esteemed JB Branson published an article breaking down his favorite fantasy baseball strategy that he’s deployed for over a decade. In his words, the Bullpen Method is a lifestyle that reflects the importance of balance on a fantasy team. Since then he's published this yearly Bullpen Method article, which most recently got him nominated for the FSWA's Baseball Article Of The Year award in 2023. He's a particularly busy man this year -- so you're stuck with me, Mr. Mariano, for this year's edition.

You need steady and consistent balance, and to be frank with you, that's extremely difficult when leaning on starting pitchers. Yes, you can hoard wins and strikeouts, but your ERA and WHIP will be walking a tightrope act. There are only around 20 starting pitchers in all of baseball that most would trust with a team's ERA and WHIP, and demand for them means it'll cost you.

The opportunity cost of a roster spot on RPs is worth the squeeze, we swear. When your draft day arrives before the start of the 2024 MLB season, we encourage you to try the bullpen method for roster construction. In covering this for JB this year, I will utilize his words from past years to describe/illustrate the methodology before getting into my 2024 picks.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and weekly lineup resources:

 

Breaking Down JB's Bullpen Method

In a standard league, one will roster ~13 pitchers. Of the 13 pitchers one drafts, six will be starters, which usually drops to five midseason. This leaves seven or eight relief pitchers, and one shouldn’t care if they are preseason “closers.” For years, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller were anchors, then Josh Hader emerged before taking the closer role, and every year, a new crop of setup studs emerges. Devin Williams in 2020, Jonathan Loaisiga in 2021, Jhoan Duran in 2022, and Bryan Abreu in 2023.

This is the Bullpen mentality, realizing that starting pitchers are heavily overrated in fantasy and subsequently, relief pitchers (especially setup men) are heavily underrated. Once you come to this epiphany, you can immediately take advantage of this blind spot and zoom ahead.

*Disclaimer - Please do not attempt this method in Points Leagues. Points leagues are made for heavy-volume starters and elite closers. This method crushes Roto leagues, where balance is king - and in H2H leagues where you can easily beat your opponent in 3 of 5 pitching categories (5 out of 5 if you are a talented SP streamer).

 

Past Examples of the Bullpen Method

Daily Roto League

Example one is the 2019 RotoBaller Expert Roto League. Now, this was a daily roster-move league, not weekly. Daily leagues almost make it unfairly easy to use this method. Replacing non-starting starters with relievers every day maximizes your IP and puts you much higher in the standings for W and K than you would in weekly leagues.

I finished the season with 13 pitchers on the roster. As is custom, five of those were starters: Homer Bailey, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Ryan Yarbrough, Tyler Glasnow, and Dylan Bundy. Typically in a vacuum with that rotation, I should have had no business being in even the top half of the league's standings, right?

What if I told you I won the league with over 100 roto points? Bullpen Method to the rescue! Since I told you just five of my 13 pitchers were starters, that means the other eight were obviously relievers. The eight RP on my roster were:

How hard do you think it was to draft this group of relievers in 2019? It's extremely easy and very cheap. All of them have an ERA below 2.80 and a WHIP below 1.09. Sprinkle in all the saves you pick up along the way as they change roles in the bullpen and you've just won three of five pitching categories handily.

Daily H2H League

Let's look at another daily lineup-winning example from 2019 - this time in an H2H league. This time, my five starters looked much better with Gerrit Cole, Clayton Kershaw, Charlie Morton, Robbie Ray, and Ryan Yarbrough. Again, I went with 13 total pitchers, meaning I had eight relievers once again. Those eight relievers were:

  • Alex Colome (Four W, 30 SV, 55 K, 2.80 ERA, 1.07 WHIP)
  • Trevor May (Five W, Two SV, 79 K, 2.94 ERA, 1.07 WHIP)
  • Drew Pomeranz (Second half - 57 K, 1.96 ERA, 0.82 WHIP)
  • Chad Green (Second half - 55 K, 2.89 ERA, 0.96 WHIP)
  • Taylor Rogers (Two W, 30 SV, 90 K, 2.61 ERA, 1.00 WHIP)
  • Keone Kela (29.2 IP - Two W, One SV, 33 K, 2.12 ERA, 1.01 WHIP)
  • Ross Stripling (Four W, 93 K, 3.47 ERA, 1.15 WHIP)
  • Julio Urias (Four W, Four SV, 85 K, 2.49 ERA, 1.08 WHIP)

As you can see with the added boost I had at SP and it being an H2H league, I cared even less about finding Saves and focused more on the extra K from my bullpen while still nailing down the ERA and WHIP categories weekly. This is why I said earlier that the Bullpen Method is more of a mentality than an actual black-and-white strategy - you can tweak it based on the league and your roster build. We will look at some of the different drafting techniques within the method a little later.

Weekly Roto Overall League

Okay, enough living in the past, even though they are beautiful examples. And enough with the low-hanging fruit daily roster-move leagues. Now, let's look at 2022 The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational.

This league is an overall contest, with weekly lineups and 15-team leagues. There were 450+ total teams in this contest. Now, weekly lineups do change the strategy a bit with the Bullpen Method. It becomes all about your RATIO. When I refer to the ratio, I am talking about how many starters versus how many relievers you have in your weekly lineup.

There is no set answer for the optimal ratio, unfortunately. It takes some focus and hard work to determine your weekly ratio based on two things: your standings in each pitching category and your pitchers' schedules/upcoming matchups.

If you fell a few spots in W and K last week, you might go six SP, and three RP for the next week. After your 6:3 week, if you fell a few spots in ERA and WHIP, then you might go 5:4 next week. Say you have a 5:4 setup but pull up your SP's matchups and one of them has a one-start week in Coors, and one of them has a one-start week against Toronto.

You might even benefit by a 3:6 ratio for a week. You will often find yourself comparing the possible effects of a starter's ~five IP, six K, 5.40 ERA, and 1.40 WHIP week versus a reliever's ~three IP, five K, 3.00 ERA, and 1.00 WHIP week. Again, it is a LOT of work, but man is it fun.

Okay, so back to my 2022 TGFBI team. Since we can not benefit from daily RP swaps into the lineup in a weekly league, I carry slightly fewer RP on my roster. I finished the season with five SPs and five RP. The five SPs were Justin Verlander, Sean Manaea, Kyle Wright, Carlos Carrasco, and Tyler Wells.  The five relievers were:

Verlander (seventh), Manaea (10th), and Barlow (11th) were my only pitchers drafted in the first 13 rounds. Needless to say, the offense was rowdy. I drafted six relievers, and only Scott Barlow and Tanner Houck remained all season, while Andrew Kittredge hurt me deeply in every league. But once again, fluidity.

Helsley, Holmes, and Sewald were all scooped up off of FAAB well before they had secured any saves for their team and easily replaced my "whiffs" like Kittredge, Lucas Sims, and Cole Sulser. So I drafted one successful "Closer" and still finished with 92 Saves (15 Roto Points).

As far as the results, I finished 60th overall out of 450+ teams and second in my league. My pitching roto points were as follows: W (14- with only five SP), SV (15), K (Two- would have hustled more to catch up in this category but accidentally blew all my FAAB on Vaughn Grissom), ERA (12), and WHIP (12).

And of course, as is the way of the Bullpen Method, the offense results were also tasty: R (nine), HR (13), RBI (15), SB (14), and BA (Two- womp, womp, never again will that happen). All in all, I did pretty awful with my Bullpen draft selections, messed up badly on my FAAB management, and still finished fairly safely in second with 108 Roto Points and inside the top 75 overall.

That is basically how I explain the Bullpen Method to people when inquiring about its effectiveness in the big NFBC Overall contests. The floor will always be extremely high, even if you botch aspects of it like I did last year. But due to the weekly lineups and the fact that you are competing against many more teams than just those in your league, you would have to execute it flawlessly to bank an overall.

Full disclaimer and honesty, I have yet to do so - which is more of a testament to my management errors than the method, but if you are doing a handful of entries into an overall, I would still highly recommend you utilize this method for at least one of them. If you are taking your one lotto ticket shot, do what you are most comfortable with instead and save the FrankenAces to win your single-league drafts.

 

Building FrankenAce Relievers

The first question most people ask when they see my drafts is - "How can you win without drafting aces?" Well, there are two answers. First, draft the sleepers that become aces. Like the 2019 example above, I was able to get Glasnow for very cheap. In 2020, I got Lance Lynn for a good value.

In 2021, I got Wheeler and Gausman at draft spots they blew out of the water. Last season, people let me get Justin Verlander in the seventh/eighth round! That certainly helps. But the second and most important answer is YOU BUILD THEM WITH RELIEVERS.

Like Frankenstein, you can put together a stud ace with unwanted scraps you find on the waiver wire or late in the draft. This is the heart of the Bullpen Method. (Aaron Bummer and Drew Pomeranz will always have a place in my heart and on the FrankenAce logo.)

Past FrankenAces

Let's do some hindsight FrankenAce building. The FrankenAce I want to point out from the shortened 2020 season was one built by my colleague and long-time friend, Nick Mariano. (That's me!) He is hands down the second-best FrankenAce builder on the planet (wow, I'm blushing).

We have bounced relief pitcher strategies back and forth for years. He handily won the RotoBaller Expert League in 2020 and he did it with the help of a lethal "Willianthal" FrankenAce built by two undrafted relievers: Devin Williams and Trevor Rosenthal. They produced a line of Five W, 91 K, 1.07 ERA, and a 0.73 WHIP.

Now, let's compare the stats of 2020 fantasy golden boy Lucas Giolito: Four W, 97 K, 3.48 ERA, and a 1.04 WHIP. Thanks to Rosenthal's 11 saves, undrafted Willianthal FrankenAce just beat Gioltio in four of five categories, losing strikeouts by only six.

For our 2021 FrankenAce, let's use a guy I drafted at 432 overall in TGFBI and another that I picked up in FAAB after Aaron Bummer got injured. Chad Green + Tyler Rogers = "Greegers?" Their combined 2021 stats were: 17 W, 19 SV, 154 K, 2.68 ERA, and a 0.97 WHIP. The first SP off the boards, Gerrit Cole, finished with 16 W, 0 SV, 243 K, 3.23 ERA, and a 1.06 WHIP. 

In 2022, I think one of the greatest FrankenAces of all time was created in the TGFBI. Both free agents I scored for a combined FAAB of around $50 (out of 1,000), The "Helmes Deep" combo of Ryan Helsley and Clay Holmes was LETHAL. They combined for 16 W, 39 SV, 159 K, 1.90 ERA, and a 0.88 WHIP. The AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander balled out to the tune of 18 W, 0 SV, 185 K, 1.75 ERA, and a 0.83 WHIP. He had "Helmes Deep" barely beat, but still fell 39 saves short and cost a seventh-round draft pick versus a 5% FAAB budget.

Pretty simple, no? So we are not only making FrankenAces out of late-round picks/free-agent pickups but at the same time, our offense is STACKED because while the rest of the league was wasting picks on their starting pitchers in the early rounds, we were grabbing the elite bats. That is the soul of the Bullpen Method and why it is so deadly. You are stacking your offensive categories and then winning/catching up on pitching categories on the back end without breaking a sweat.

 

Bullpen Method Drafting Strategy

Hey there, it's Nick again. As we've said numerous times already in this article, and will probably say a few more times - this is not a black-and-white strategy. You can't say, "I drafted Mason Miller because JB said relievers were better than starters and he stunk so I lost." That's why it is more of a state of mind, where names and roles don't matter. All you care about is numbers. If one guy isn't getting it done, move on, even if he is getting saves.

I have noticed over the years that the drafting strategy, specifically how you handle starting pitchers and closers, really doesn't matter with the Bullpen Method, which is what makes it so cool. You can get five true aces as your starting pitchers, you can get one ace and four mid-late round starters, or you can wait until Round 10 to get your first starter. Names don't matter. Those ~five arms are there to get you IP, W, and K to keep you afloat in those categories while your bullpen does the rest.

I ran a mock draft (using the fantasy baseball mock draft simulator) with my most common draft technique to show how little you need to focus on pitching early, especially starting pitchers.

I setup the mock with 12 teams, 5x5 Roto categories, and 29 roster spots: 2C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CIF, MIF, OF x 5, UTIL, P x 9, Bench x 6. Picking from the 10th spot.

 

HITTERS (1 x SP, 1 x RP in first 10 Rounds) I randomized myself into the 10th spot. (Click to enlarge):

This draft technique is most common with the Bullpen Method. I get one top SP among the elite bats. In this case, let’s take Spencer Strider to illustrate a popular first-round pivot. Then I might grab some stud relievers that happen to fall into my lap for those elite ratios, in this case, Andres Munoz, Pete Fairbanks, and Jose Alvarado. If they’re true “closers” then great, if not then it’s cool.

But other than that, the first half of the draft is all about the bats. We’re looking to blow the league away offensively. Then, hit the pitching fast and furious in the second half until one has a six-man rotation. I got my SP2 in Round 12 in Chris Sale. Then I filled out the rotation with Shota Imanaga, A.J. Puk, Louie Varland, and Sean Manaea. The final bullpen was Munoz, Fairbanks, Alvarado, Mason Miller, Hunter Harvey, and Jason Adam. Let's see how the projections look:

This is the prototypical league roto rankings layout for these teams. The offense is competing for the top spot in all categories because of the number of first-half picks on the stud hitters. Saves, ERA, and WHIP are GRAVY- despite only having two pitchers after Round 10.

That is the power of the ‘pen. Some successful SP-streaming throughout the season can vastly improve the K totals for some extra first-place padding, especially in daily-roster move leagues. Wins will take care of themselves as all great RP tend to beat conservative win projections.

 

2024 Draft Example

Mock drafts are neat exercises but we recognize drafting against algos can only be trusted so much. The RP landscape is ever-evolving, as you can't easily get top relievers in the middle rounds anymore. Let’s peek at how JB conducted his TGBFI draft this season, as it’s a glowing example of FrankenAce life.

TGFBI League

This is a 15-team league overall contest with a 30-man roster instead of the deep 50s seen in many NFBC draft-and-hold contests. One can easily see from the draft board below that he was able to snag a fearsome fivesome of hitters at the jump before securing two ace-upside flag plants. With 11 hitters and four pitchers through 15 rounds, the stage was set.

He ended the 30-round draft with the usual 13 pitchers - six starters and seven relievers (before Puk was confirmed to start). Cole Ragans (6th), Grayson Rodriguez (7th), Shota Imanaga (13th), Walker Buehler (16th), Kyle Harrison (17th), and Louie Varland (20th) rounded out the rotation with a solid mix of strikeout and W potential. The bullpen consists of Mason Miller (15th), Yuki Matsui (18th), Hunter Harvey (19th), Robert Stephenson (22nd), Matt Brash (25th), and Brusdar Graterol (30th).

Once again, none of these guys are considered full closers but at any given time, 2-3 of these guys will be getting saves for their team while also providing excellent ratios and racking up those relief wins.

And look at that offensive foundation laid out early on (before the Noelvi Marte suspension, naturally). Each of those first six bats are power-speed pillars and then the pop is reinforced in Rounds 10-12 and then pitching is hammered before late-round fliers. It’s truly gorgeous.

 

2024 Relief Pitcher Draft Targets

This season, once we cross into the second half of the draft and start filling my rotation and bullpen, these are some late-round relievers I'm targeting to build some FrankenAces (with consensus ADP):

Jose Alvarado, PHI - 180 ADP
Orion Kerkering, PHI - 385 ADP
Jeff Hoffman, PHI - 535 ADP

Alvarado had another strong year with a walk rate of around 11% after multiple years above 18% limited his WHIP appeal in the past. Oh, and his strikeout rate has risen by about 10 percentage points in 2022-23 compared to his first five seasons. This has come with a rough 60/40 split on the fastball/slider after being a 75% heater guy for so long. The Southpaw had 10 saves and 11 holds across 42 games last year and is now the 1A committee option for saves with Craig Kimbrel gone.

The 1A role is more impressive given who else sits in that ‘pen. Jeff Hoffman, Gregory Soto, Seranthony Dominguez, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering make for a terrifying hydra. Would you guess that Jeff Hoffman paced them in fWAR (1.5) last year? A Hoffman+Kimbrel FrankenAce gave us: 121 IP, 13 W, 24 SV, 163 K, 2.90 ERA, 1.01 WHIP. Woo-hoo.

Even a Soto-Strahm beast supplied 10 wins, five saves, 130 strikeouts, and a 3.78 ERA/1.09 WHIP in 115 IP. Dominguez had a down year but still has a generous ceiling when healthy, and Kerkering is everyone’s buzzy RP darling with a slider that could bring Thanos to his knees. Per my CUTTER projections, the 2024 Alvarado-Kerkering (Kerkerado?) pairing yields: 116 IP, 6 W, 14 SV, 152 K, 3.15 ERA, 1.21 WHIP. Remember the median-oriented nature of projections and get excited.

Robert Stephenson, LAA - 204 ADP

The Rays traded for Stephenson to kick off June and promptly unlocked his next form. The 31-year-old started to show more life in June before becoming untouchable in July. His final 28 games saw 26 IP supply a 43:3 K:BB with four earned runs allowed on nine hits.

The 47.8% strikeout rate and 0.46 WHIP led many fantasy teams to the promised land. His 44.4% K-BB% in this window blew away second place, who just happened to be teammate Pete Fairbanks (34.7%). (Trevor Megill’s 32.5% ranked fourth since I know he’s suddenly quite interesting!)

Stephenson revamped his arsenal with a cutter that he threw 41% of the time. This yielded a lowly .101 batting average against (.121 xBA) as batters struggled to square it up. He also had a splitter that devastated left-handed hitters, with only two hits coming off of it (81 thrown). Let’s hope his shoulder soreness can be shaken off. Even a couple of missed weeks in April are worth a full season of 100% Stephenson after what we saw last year.

Mason Miller, OAK - 268 ADP

Miller’s upside is one of the filthiest pitchers in the land, but health issues always seem to trip him up once any momentum gets going. Unless you're a psychic or the guy's personal physician, then we're not in the business of projecting injury at this level (and draft price point!).

A’s manager Mark Kotsay doesn’t want to anoint a closer to open 2024 but Miller has allowed one baserunner with seven strikeouts over four shutout innings this spring. Dany Jimenez and Lucas Erceg will sneak in and durability remains the top enemy, but Miller’s insane fastball is complemented by a plus slider and changeup.

Can Miller adjust to major leaguers being able to lay off when he misses the corners? If inconsistent control makes his WHIP untenable then move along. Otherwise, his K upside and easy path to double-digit saves make him an easy click.

Please remember he only had about 50 innings in the minors before his promotion to Oakland. Allow the learning curve to catch up to his raw talent. Remove save speculation and note that ATC’s projections for Miller (3.35 ERA, 11.6 K/9) compare kindly to the likes of Jordan Romano (3.39 ERA, 10.6 K/9) and Alexis Diaz (3.85 ERA, 11.1 K/9).

Yuki Matsui, SD - 287 ADP

Matsui’s introduction to MLB came with a trio of strikeouts over his perfect 1-2-3 inning. He then was forced to the medical ward with back tightness, though it shouldn’t jeopardize his April availability. Many may be used to foreign pitchers slipping in form upon coming stateside.

That is foolish to blindly place onto Matsui’s shoulders. Robert Suarez may open as SD’s closer with a healthy 2.99 ERA/1.00 WHIP in 75 MLB frames, but a .157 BABIP helped cover up a slip in strikeouts (31.9% to 22.2%) despite more grounders and a higher hard-hit rate.

Hunter Harvey, WAS - 334 ADP

The Nationals will likely open 2024 with Kyle Finnegan as closer, but Harvey remains the talent to side with. Amongst other things, recall Harvey’s 10-game window from June 21 to July 14: 9 ⅔ IP, 6 SV, 1 ER, 10:1 K:BB.

But then he missed a month due to a right elbow strain, which gave Finnegan a chance to recover the role before his horrid September. I’ll take Harvey’s 0.94 WHIP over Finnegan’s 1.30 mark any day. Harvey’s K-BB% eclipses Finnegan’s by 10 percentage points against both left- and right-handed hitters.

Jason Adam, TBR - 342 ADP

Adam had 12 saves and 11 holds in 2023 to go with a 2.98 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. Anyone looking to construct their own Build-a-Reliever-Bear Workshop team needs at least one Tampa Bay component. And yes, for those hedging Pete Fairbanks' health then Adam is your man.

Bryan Abreu, HOU - 363 ADP

Abreu continues to walk a command tightrope with filthy stuff that made him one of only five relievers to strike out 100 or more batters. Houston bringing Josh Hader in does push him down the leverage ladder but the 26-year-old has now established a penchant for big whiffs, damage avoidance (career 0.6 HR/9), and trust in his curveball hammer.

Scott Barlow, CLE - 450 ADP

Barlow encountered midseason turbulence ahead of his trade to the Padres, but he saw the light in San Diego. His first couple of appearances were marred by Coors and the Dodgers, but his final 21 games yielded this: 24 ⅔ IP, 1.09 ERA, 28:9 K:BB, 0.97 WHIP, 2.44 FIP.

There’s plenty of hullabaloo regarding Emmanuel Clase’s mounting workload after his numbers stumbled last year. Barlow is the next man up and we know Cleveland is happy to (over)lean on their 'pen.

Griffin Jax, MIN - 525 ADP
Brock Stewart, MIN - 642 ADP

Jax is yet another starter-turned-reliever success story, going from a 6.37 ERA over 14 starts in 2021 to back-to-back beautiful RP campaigns in ‘22 and ‘23. He took a small step back last year, (3.86 ERA and 3.36 SIERA compared to 3.36 ERA and 2.98 SIERA in ‘22) but his xERA actually dropped from 3.17 to 2.88 per Statcast.

And Brock Stewart had spent four MLB seasons languishing as a middle reliever before playing Indy ball in ‘20 and needing Tommy John surgery in ‘21. Most of 2022 was missed in recovery and then a rejuvenated Stewart blew us away in ‘23.

He struck out 22 batters in just 11 ⅔ IP at Triple-A before logging 39 strikeouts with a 0.65 ERA (2.21 FIP) in 27 ⅔ IP in the majors. His old fastball would sit 91-93 but now he averages about 97 with a healthy slider and cutter. Let’s hope the elbow soreness that cropped up was general post-TJS fatigue that won’t present in ‘24 after a healthy offseason.

Joe Kelly, LAD - 545 ADP

Out of 576 pitchers with at least 50 batted-ball events against in 2023, Kelly’s EV50 of 71.1 MPH led MLB. EV50 is a new Statcast metric measuring the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed.

That 4.12 ERA had a pristine 2.72 FIP/2.61 xFIP/2.79 SIERA behind it, which are all career-best marks for Kelly. The Dodgers trust him, their leverage ladder gets plenty of run, and LAD wins many a game.

Chad Green, TOR - 699 ADP

Green was a FrankenAce legend back in the 2017-21 window before the overuse got to his arm. But he came back good as new at the end of 2023 for Toronto, posting a hilarious 19.5% swinging-strike rate with three wins in just 12 innings of action.

That was fifth-best among 153 RPs with at least 10 IP in September/October. Given his track record and the glimmer of greatness that was, I’m taking him in the last round when a final FrankenAce body part is needed.

**Stay tuned, I think I have a neat Google Sheets present to link here where you can toy with building your own FrankenAce. You'll be able to see their 2023 stats, their projected 2024 stats, and the ADP demanded from each with proper platform context. But I wanted to get this out of the door for a big draft weekend!



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MORE RECENT ARTICLES

 
De'Von Achane - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL DFS Picks, Injury News

Week 17 Fantasy Football Projections: (Half-PPR) - De'Von Achane, Isaac Guerendo, Jerome Ford, Tyjae Spears, Jalen McMillan, Jauan Jennings, Rico Dowdle

Most fantasy managers are set to finalize the rest of their fantasy football championship matchup lineups. Whether you got out to a hot start this week during Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday games or need big performances on Sunday or Monday to catch up, use our Week 17 fantasy football projections to assist your close calls. Ahead of […]


Brian Robinson Jr. - Jayden Daniels - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Falcons vs. Commanders Sunday Night Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em: Michael Penix Jr., Jayden Daniels, Bijan Robinson, Terry McLaurin, Drake London, and more

With fantasy managers battling for league championships, we have an excellent matchup for Sunday Night Football between two teams who are capable of providing offensive fireworks. The Atlanta Falcons and Washington Commanders are set to square off in a Week 17 primetime matchup. This contest holds serious playoff ramifications, as both the Falcons and Commanders […]


Bucky Irving - Fantasy Football Rankings, Draft Sleepers, NFL Injury News

Week 17 DraftKings NFL DFS Lineup Picks - Main Slate (2024): Jordan Love, Bucky Irving, Brian Thomas Jr., and more

Hello, RotoBallers, and welcome to our Week 17 article for the DraftKings Main Slate! With multiple games taking place on Christmas Day and Saturday this week, we get just eight games to choose from on the Sunday Main Slate. It makes for some interesting decisions as we near the end of the NFL's regular season. […]


Tua Tagovailoa - Fantasy Football Rankings, Draft Sleepers, NFL Injury News

Fantasy Football Injury Reports For Week 17 (Sunday Morning Updates): Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Anthony Richardson, Tony Pollard, Malik Nabers, and more

Heading into Week 17 of the NFL season, injuries continue to impact the upcoming schedule. These play a huge factor in start/sit decisions for fantasy managers. Our injury updates and reports for Week 17 as of Sunday, December 29, 2024, will give you the latest updates on key fantasy football players. The injury news for […]


Isaac Guerendo - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Lions vs. 49ers MNF Start 'Em, Sit 'Em - Jauan Jennings, Deebo Samuel, Jared Goff, Isaac Guerendo, Sam LaPorta, Brock Purdy, Jameson Williams, more

It's time to take home that fantasy football championship trophy, and the last game of the week brings plenty of fantasy intrigue. Read our Monday Night Football matchups analysis article for the Lions vs. 49ers game to help make any fantasy football lineup decisions for both season-long and DFS. The Lions can clinch a first-round […]


Michael Penix Jr. - Fantasy Football Rankings, Draft Sleepers, NFL Injury News

NFL DFS Lineup Picks For FanDuel, DraftKings - Falcons vs. Commanders SNF Showdown (Week 17)

Welcome back, RotoBallers! We have an NFC South club taking on an NFC East opponent on the road for the second straight week. This time, it’ll be a duel between rookie quarterbacks as Michael Penix Jr. and the Atlanta Falcons (8-7) head north to take on Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders (10-5). Let’s see […]


Raheem Blackshear - Fantasy Football Rankings, Waiver Wire Pickups, NFL Injury News

Updated Waiver Wire Rankings for Week 17 (2024): Mid-Week Fantasy Football Pickups Include Raheem Blackshear, Trey Benson, Tyjae Spears, Chig Okonkwo

With two games in the books, there is still some time to add free agents for fantasy managers who made it to their fantasy championship game. Some fantasy managers might have got off to a hot start with the performances of Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Travis Kelce, and Patrick Mahomes. There is still plenty of […]


Isaac Guerendo - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Week 17 PPR Rankings for Fantasy Football Playoffs: Overall Updates Include Isaac Guerendo, Rico Dowdle, Jerome Ford, A.J. Brown, Joe Flacco

It's now or never time! Championship week is officially here, which can often lead to nerve-wracking start-or-sit decisions. Below, you'll see our NFL team's updated Week 17 fantasy football PPR rankings for 2024. Let's see where key players like Tyreek Hill, Isaac Guerendo, Rico Dowdle, Jalen McMillan, Jerome Ford, and A.J. Brown stand for the […]


Saquon Barkley - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em - Week 17 Matchups Analysis

Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another start'em and sit'em piece as we look ahead to Week 17! This Week 17 matchups analysis and Start 'Em, Sit 'Em will help you make the right lineup decisions in the fantasy football championship. With most leagues ending in Week 17, this is the final week of the fantasy football playoffs. That makes […]


Josh Downs - Fantasy Football Rankings, Draft Sleepers, NFL Injury News Updates

Week 17 FLEX Rankings for Fantasy Football (RB, WR, TE) - Updates Include Adam Thielen, Tyjae Spears, Josh Downs, Malik Nabers, Raheem Blackshear

If you need an extra resource to ensure you're setting your best lineups for your fantasy football championship matchup, we're here to help with our NFL team's updated Week 17 fantasy football FLEX rankings for 2024. Comparing two flex options at different positions can be a tough task, so let's see where key FLEX options […]


Michael Penix Jr. - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Week 17 Superflex 2QB Rankings for Fantasy Football: Updates for Michael Penix Jr., Bryce Young, Mason Rudolph, Tyler Huntley, Joe Flacco

Only one win stands between you and a fantasy football championship. It's time to lock in and set those optimal lineups, so be sure not to overthink your lineup calls or panic. Our Week 17 fantasy football Superflex rankings (2QB) for 2024 are here to help you navigate close start-or-sit calls. Below, you can see […]


Jordan Addison - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Week 17 Wide Receiver Rankings for Fantasy Football: WR Updates Include Jordan Addison, Jalen McMillan, Deebo Samuel, Calvin Ridley, Jayden Reed

It's always tough to navigate the deep wide receiver position, especially when studs have struggles and new faces have emerged as fantasy contributors. We're here to assist your lineup calls with our NFL team's updated Week 17 fantasy football wide receiver rankings for 2024. Let's see where key players like Jalen McMillan, Jordan Addison, Deebo […]


Rico Dowdle - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Week 17 Fantasy Football Busts? Players Who May Disappoint Include Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, DeVonta Smith, Marvin Harrison, Jerry Jeudy

Welcome back RotoBallers to our Week 17 fantasy football busts, or players who may disappoint in championship week. What if I told you that all the work, research, and lineup-tinkering you've done may not mean anything in Week 17? What if it comes down to the weather? There's a handful of games that could see […]