Justin Upton Playing First Base

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Justin Upton is starting at first base and hitting fourth in Monday's Cactus League game against the Oakland Athletics. It's the first time that Upton will play first base in a major league game, although he's been working at the position this spring. If the Angels actually decide to use the […]

C.J. Cron Clears Concussion Protocol

Colorado Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron (head) cleared the league's concussion protocol after leaving the Cactus League game on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to manager Bud Black. Cron was hit in the head by a pitch, but it luckily hit his shoulder before hitting his helmet. The 32-year-old slugger will likely be back […]

Later-Round Fantasy Baseball Hitter Targets: Home Runs

Today, we will be highlighting some hitters that can help your team in the home runs category without costing you tons of your draft capital. We have gone through several categories already, so check out those posts if you've missed them. These analyses are vital to having a successful fantasy baseball draft in rotisserie-style leagues. […]

Cardinals Finalize Deal With Albert Pujols

The St. Louis Cardinals finalized a one-year, $2.5 million deal with free-agent first baseman Albert Pujols on Sunday, according to sources. Pujols is expected to arrive in Jupiter, Florida, this week. The 42-year-old future Hall of Famer has come full circle and will sign with the team that he began his illustrious career with. Now […]

Hitters Under $10: Salary Cap League Draft Targets for Fantasy Baseball - Yoan Moncada, Josh Donaldson, Brandon Belt, and more

It's a cliché to say that those managers who finally dip their toe into salary cap leagues never go back to snake drafts. Snake drafts have their own charm. There is simply more going on, and thus, more fun to have when participating in a salary cap draft. There become no bounds on how one […]

Giants Acquire Luke Williams

The San Francisco Giants have acquired infielder and outfielder Luke Williams from the Philadelphia Phillies for minor league infielder Will Toffey and cash considerations. Williams hit .245 with a .315 on-base percentage, one home run, and a pair of stolen bases in 108 plate appearances for the Phillies last season. Capable of playing all four […]

Frank Schwindel Returns To Lineup Sunday

Chicago Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel (back) returned to the team's Cactus League lineup on Sunday and is hitting third and playing first base. Schwindel has been out of the spring lineup since he was scratched with back tightness on Wednesday, but the injury wasn't very serious and he may not have missed a game […]

Giants Not Ruling Out Brandon Belt, Tommy La Stella

The San Francisco Giants aren't ruling out first baseman Brandon Belt (knee) or infielder Tommy La Stella (Achilles) for Opening Day, even though neither has appeared in a spring game yet. Belt and La Stella have been simulating game action by taking plenty of at-bats in live batting practice. Belt, 33, had surgery in September […]

Updated Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings for Roto Leagues - Ronald Acuna, Randal Grichuk, Luis Castillo, Dylan Floro, Shane Baz and More

Welcome back RotoBallers! Spring Training is upon us, and fantasy baseball drafts are about to get busy. Below are our updated 2022 fantasy baseball draft rankings and tiers for roto leagues. We will be updating these rankings constantly, and releasing updates every few days along with relevant injury updates to be aware of. Five of […]

Jon Anderson's 2022 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide

Baseball is happening in 2022, and it is happening in full force. With the excellent news of the lockout ending, we are ready to dive full steam ahead into the fantasy baseball draft season! I have had my head deep in baseball data since before Christmas, so I wanted to come out with a miniature […]

Jesse Winker Takes Reps At First Base

Seattle Mariners outfielder Jesse Winker wore a first baseman's glove and fielded grounders from infield coach Perry Hill on Sunday, according to Ryan Divish. Acquired from the Reds earlier this month, Winker has never played the infield before, let alone first base. However, it appears the Mariners are exploring their options at the position now […]

Evan White Diagnosed With Sports Hernia

Seattle Mariners first baseman Evan White (hernia) has been diagnosed with a sports hernia, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. Also per Divish, the first baseman wants to have surgery "as soon as possible." White hit .144 with a .202 on-base percentage and a pair of home runs in 104 games in the […]

Josh Bell (1B, WAS) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 105 CURRENT ADP: ~121 overall ANALYSIS: As many as 31 players are projected by Steamer to reach more HRs than Bell next year (32+). I said players, not first basemen. First basemen: six of them, all with ridiculous strikeout projections that come out at an average of 151+ per man, a […]

Nathaniel Lowe (1B, TEX) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 190 CURRENT ADP: ~237 overall ANALYSIS: I promise this isn’t because Lowe went a perfect 8-for-8 on stolen-base attempts in 2021. It’s neat, but please don’t pencil those again! Anyhow, Lowe should be a beneficiary of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien hitting up top, with a chance at 100 RBI near the heart of […]

Frank Schwindel (1B, CHC) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 190 CURRENT ADP: ~226 overall ANALYSIS: During the month of September, Schwindel produced a 160 wRC+ and a 1.2 fWAR across 134 plate appearances. The plate appearances are just as noteworthy as the production. Schwindel, 29, had seen a total of 15 career plate appearances prior to 2021. However, he […]

Jesus Aguilar (1B, MIA) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 260 CURRENT ADP: ~285 overall ANALYSIS: Aguilar built off his success in the shortened season and enjoyed another strong campaign in his first full year with the Marlins. The slugger hit 23 doubles and 22 homers while posting a .788 OPS. He also recorded a .329 OBP and struck out […]

Brandon Belt Dealing With Knee Inflammation

San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt (knee) has been dealing with right knee inflammation in camp, but he has been participating in full baseball workouts and will be re-evaluated next week for spring training game activity. Belt is also returning from a fractured thumb last year. The 33-year-old missed over a month with a […]

Brandon Belt (1B, SF) - 2022 Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 195 CURRENT ADP: ~223 overall ANALYSIS: Over the last two seasons, Belt's barrel rate has spiked to near 17% in both seasons and his hard-hit rates are at career highs. That's part of the reason Belt hit 29 home runs in just 97 games last year and has 38 home […]

Michael Florio's Hitters to Target in Points Leagues

Points leagues are becoming more and more popular in fantasy baseball. They have long been my favorite format because they are great both for the newcomer and the seasoned vet. The thing about points leagues is that while the scoring can vary based on platform, they tend to reward more outcomes than traditional Roto leagues, […]

Prime-Age Infielders Set to Break Out for Fantasy Baseball

With baseball officially back, we can finally move on from worrying about whether the teams would actually be on the field and start worrying about the fake teams we're going to field this year in fantasy baseball. This article is going to break down three infielders in the age 26-29 range who are on the […]

RotoBaller Staff Mock Draft Analysis: 12-Team Roto League Draft

Fantasy prep is never complete without mock drafts. So in doing our best to prepare for the 2022 season, my fellow RotoBaller writers and I got together for a 12-team 5X5 Roto mock draft. The only difference is that we used Quality Starts instead of Wins. I’ll be breaking down our draft round-by-round and highlighting […]

Let's Overreact to Spring Training News and Tweets: Part Two

Baseball is back, spring training is here, and every tweet from every beat writer is getting scrutinized to an outrageous level. It's wacky season at its best, but instead of shying away from that, we're going to lean into it. I've found some bits of news that are interesting and also, at times, amusing, and […]

Joey Votto (1B, CIN) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 120 CURRENT ADP: ~143 overall ANALYSIS: It had been more than a decade--a decade as in like 10+ years!--since Votto lastly put up a Swing% above 43% (43.9 percent last year) as that had not been witnessed by any pair of eyes since the year 2010 when he went for […]

Rhys Hoskins (1B, PHI) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 110 CURRENT ADP: ~128 overall ANALYSIS: After seeing a lot of success early in his career, Rhys Hoskins has fallen off in the minds of many. Digging into the numbers was interesting, as outside of a few outlier stats (.226 AVG in 2019 for example), he hasn’t been that much […]

Mike Brosseau Exits Friday's Game With Illness

Milwaukee Brewers infielder Mike Brosseau left Friday's Spring Training game with an illness, according to Will Sammon of The Athletic. The severity is unknown at the moment. The club acquired the 28-year-old from the Tampa Bay Rays over the offseason before the lockout. Brosseau slashed .187/.266/.347 with five home runs across 57 games in 2021. […]

Updated 2022 Fantasy Baseball Rankings for Points Leagues - Matt Olson, Carlos Correa, Josh Donaldson, Justin Verlander and More

Welcome back RotoBallers! Spring Training is in full swing, and fantasy baseball draft season is about to pick up in a big way. Below you'll find our MLB team's updated 2022 fantasy baseball points league rankings, specifically catered and adjusted for for points leagues and head-to-head (H2H) points league formats. In the last few days […]

NFBC Points League Primer for Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Points-league players are often overlooked in the fantasy baseball draft world. Rankings for roto leagues do not match up and one-size-fits-all points rankings aren't much better since every site has unique scoring settings. So here I am, taking the baton from Nicklaus Gaut and advancing toward new horizons. And those horizons, today, go by the […]

Best Ball Targets for Fantasy Baseball (Premium Content)

Best Ball is a tricky game, especially for those just getting into it. The concept may seem easy enough – draft a team and let the computer do the work for you while your only responsibility is making the occasional adds or drops. This may be the case on the surface, however, to win a […]

Nick Mariano's Points Leagues Targets for Fantasy Baseball (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Fantasy baseball drafts (and their articles) are almost all about finding the next superstar and unearthing talent late, but points formats are typically lumped into rotisserie angles and/or ignored entirely. We can't have our pointy RotoBallers sad, so let us write with a different […]

Nick Mariano's Points Leagues Early-Round Overvalued (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Fantasy baseball drafts (and their articles) are almost all about finding the next superstar and unearthing talent late, but we can't forget that surrendering value by over-drafting can be just as crucial. There's insight out there for most anything, but coverage of points leagues […]