2017 Prospects: Top 30 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Leagues (Week 1)

Hello everyone, and welcome to my weekly Top-30 Fantasy Rankings for Impact Rookies. In this series, I will be going over the top prospects in baseball and discussing which ones figure to have an impact for the rest of this fantasy baseball season. We are officially underway in the 2017 Major League Baseball season! Who […]

Streaming Wars: Waiver Wire Targets for April 5th

Over the offseason, there was much ado about the home run surge of 2016. Would it continue into 2017 or was regression looming? One game into the MLB season, and we already have 30 home runs - a 5,400 home run pace. Yasmani Grandal, Rougned Odor, and Khris Davis have already popped two apiece, as has […]

Yahoo MLB DFS Advice (4/4/17): Daily Fantasy Baseball Lineup Picks

Baseball is back, and we couldn't be happier. It's definitely very difficult to predict a player's performance this early in the season (granted it's always difficult) so I have focused heavily on past success. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for Yahoo on 4/4/17. The DFS lineup […]

Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 13: Barrels For Pitchers

Last time, we looked at Barrels, a stat combining exit velocity and launch angle to measure how often a batter makes quality hard contact. As much as batters want to hit a Barrel every time, pitchers want to avoid them at all costs. Yet there is some evidence that pitchers do not have the same […]

Yahoo MLB DFS Advice (4/3/17): Daily Fantasy Baseball Lineup Picks

Happy opening day! Hooray for baseball! This is going to be a very exciting season, especially with the huge increase in homers we saw in 2016. How will that play out this year? We'll watch and see.  Today, Yahoo has some great value options to choose from for DFS games. Let's get down to business. In […]

Lucas Duda (1B, NYM) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Mixed, NL-only Leagues OWNED IN: 10% Fleaflicker ANALYSIS: Lucas Duda missed most of 2016 with a back injury, but over the prior two seasons, he was seventh among first basemen in home runs and 12th in both runs and RBI. While he's never going to hit for a high average […]

Streaming Wars: Exploiting the Waiver Wire to Win Your League

Welcome to Streaming Wars, a new column offering waiver wire recommendations for the next day. Streaming goes by many names such as micromanaging, churn and burn, etc. Whatever you call it, the goal is the same - to fully leverage your weakest roster spots. Streaming is not for everybody, but it is for mostbody. Sometimes, you'll have […]

Week 1 Waiver Wire - First Base (1B) and Third Base (3B)

The season is officially underway and waivers are finally open to all antsy fantasy owners who are already desperate for help. Whether you're dissatisfied with your current starters or are scrambling for a replacement for Adrian Beltre or Anthony Rendon, these corner infielders could step right in and help your fantasy team. Third base is as deep […]

Week 1 Waiver Wire: 0-25% Owned Pickups

Baseball is finally back. In light of this, let's give that free agent pool one last look over before the stats start flying. Here are the best players who are owned in 0-25% of Yahoo leagues. You can see our column on 25-50% owned players as well. These are your deeper Week 1 waiver wire pickups and […]

Week 1 Waiver Wire: 25-50% Owned Pickups

Wow, we're really here. After all this time, baseball is truly back. Happy Opening Day RotoBallers! In light of this, let's give that free agent pool one last look over before the stats start flying. Today, we'll look at players who are owned in 25-50% of Yahoo leagues and see who stands out. You can […]

Baseball Award Predictions that (Probably) Won't Come True

My least favorite type of baseball articles to read are preseason predictions for awards. Nobody in their right mind is going to pick against Mike Trout for AL MVP and there's a very narrow population of players that are considered in the NL. It's not exactly informative to hear someone say, "Clayton Kershaw has a […]

ADP Champs or Chumps - Albert Pujols & Miguel Cabrera

I know what you're thinking. "ADP Champs or Chumps? The season has already started!" That may be true, but there are some leagues that wait until the first week of the season to conduct their drafts. Personally I think that this is a terrible idea, as values become more linear when you know Opening Day […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 12 - Barrels for Batters

If you've watched a baseball broadcast in the so-called Statcast Era, you have undoubtedly noticed the broadcasters commenting on a batted ball's exit velocity, or EV. Many have taken to using stats like Hard% and Soft% to forecast how a player should be performing, expecting larger Hard% rates to produce larger BABIP figures. There is […]

Brad Miller (1B/SS, TB) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers & Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~150 CURRENT ADP: ~179 ANALYSIS: Shortstop is not the deepest position in fantasy baseball these days and there's a pretty steep drop-off after the top 10 are off the board. If you wait on the position, whether by choice or not, Brad Miller stands out as a name with great value. Miller […]

2017 Prospects - Top 30 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Drafts

Hello everyone, and welcome to my weekly Top-30 Fantasy Rankings for Impact Rookies! In this series, I will be going over the top prospects in baseball and discussing which ones figure to have an impact for the rest of this fantasy baseball season. Opening Day is almost upon us. As I am writing this, we […]

Maximizing Yahoo DL and NA Slots In Your Draft

Most fantasy baseball leagues have at least one DL spot. Many have two, three or even more. While certainly useful during the season when players inevitably get hurt, they can also be part of your draft strategy. Not as widely used and relatively new to Yahoo leagues, NA slots allow you to stockpile difference-makers for the […]

Scene Change - Four Hitters On New Teams

For those fantasy baseball players who don't follow and analyze every offseason move that occurs between October and March, catching up on those changes is a vital part of draft preparation. Below I'll quickly outline the four hitters who will likely have the most fantasy relevance for different teams in 2017. There doesn't figure to […]

Draft Values: The 2017 All-Bargain Team

This article first appeared on the Metro news publication. Our long national nightmare is nearly over. No, not that one…here we’re referring to the lack of baseball. Opening Day is right around the corner, and not a moment too soon. After last week’s look at the busts, let’s end draft season on a happy note […]

C.J Cron (1B/DH, LAA) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers & Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~210 CURRENT ADP: ~240 ANALYSIS: It’s easy for lower-tier first basemen to get overshadowed in fantasy baseball, with the position being the home of mashers like Paul Goldschmidt and Mark Trumbo. Cron is one of those players – he’s shown consistency and a good amount of power in his first three years […]

Top Power-Metric Gainers - What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece caps off our short series looking at […]

Jim Turvey's 10 Bold Predictions for 2017

One of my favorite preseason series here at RotoBaller has been the “10 Bold Predictions” series. It allows authors to pump up a few of the players and teams they like (and deflate the guys they dislike), while also going on record with actual stats and metrics. Be sure to check out just how wonky […]

Cody Bellinger (1B, LAD) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~400 CURRENT ADP: 461 ANALYSIS: A former fourth-round pick in the 2013 draft, Cody Bellinger has now become a top-10 prospect in MLB. The 21-year-old hit 29 HR with eight steals across three levels of the minor leagues in 2016, after demolishing High-A ball (30 HR, 10 SB) the previous season. He […]

Tommy Joseph (1B, PHI) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~190 CURRENT ADP: 214 ANALYSIS: Tommy Joseph exploded onto the fantasy baseball scene during his rookie season in 2016 by smacking 21 HR with a monstrous .248 ISO, both ranking third among rookies. His PA:HR ratio (16.5:1) was actually better than that of Edwin Encarnacion, who led the position with 42 HR. […]

Justin Bour (1B, MIA) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~270 CURRENT ADP: 302 ANALYSIS: Justin Bour was a popular low-end sleeper pick heading into the 2016 season, and he was certainly on his way to proving that to be true heading into July. In just three months he had racked up 15 HR, 46 RBI and a .873 OPS. The excitement came to an […]

Jeff Kahntroff's 10 Bold Predictions for 2017

Just when you thought it was over... this will officially conclude our Bold Predictions series for the fantasy baseball season. Last year was the debut of my 10 bold predictions, and I think I did pretty well. But you should be the judge for yourself and review how I did before deciding how much stock […]

Top Gainers in Fly Ball Rate - What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece continues the series where we explore some […]

First Base ADPs - Overvalued and Undervalued

In this piece, I'll lay out some first basemen who are shaping up as great values in fantasy drafts and also a few who are not worth their current prices. All ADP data can be found using our awesome rankings wizard. The first base position is an interesting one in fantasy. There's a clear top-three at […]

Bill Dubiel's 10 Bold Predictions for 2017

Here at Rotoballer, we truly do believe in the "grand finale" concept--that's why you're getting MY bold predictions after all the other chuckleheads. By chuckleheads I mean my talented and respectable colleagues. Be sure to check out just how wonky we all get this time of year with our entire Bold Prediction Series. I didn't have […]

Top Gainers in Pull Rate: What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece continues the series where we explore some […]

Top Gainers in Hard Hit Rate - What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece kicks off a series where we're going […]