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 […]

Tyler Saladino (2B/SS/3B, CHW) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Mixed, AL-only Leagues OWNED IN: 13% Fleaflicker ANALYSIS: Tyler Saladino has picked up some sleeper hype during a torrid spring, but he remains lightly owned. The versatile 27-year-old hit .282 with eight homers and 11 steals in just 319 plate appearances a year ago. Given his minor league track record […]

Cesar Hernandez (2B, PHI) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Mixed, NL-only Leagues OWNED IN: 8% Fleaflicker ANALYSIS: Cesar Hernandez looked like a utility man when he broke into the majors in 2014, but he’s developed into a player with relevance in many fantasy formats. His plate discipline, contact rate and contact quality have steadily trended up in the last three […]

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: 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 […]

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 […]

Neil Walker (2B, NYM) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers & Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~215 CURRENT ADP: ~253 ANALYSIS: Neil Walker should feel downright disrespected these days. Once considered a top 10 second baseman who won a Silver Slugger award in Pittsburgh, his value took a sharp downward turn after one season in New York. Not that Walker was that much less effective, but injuries limited […]

Raul Mondesi (2B, KC) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers & Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft Late in Deeper / AL-Only Formats CURRENT ADP: ~375 ANALYSIS: Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost made it official on Monday when he announced that Raul Mondesi would be the starting second baseman for his team in the 2017 season. Mondesi has put together an impressive spring in which he has hit .367/.380/.612 with three […]

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 […]

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 […]

Logan Forsythe (2B, LAD) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers & Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~165 CURRENT ADP: ~195 ANALYSIS: When the Twins refused to accept Jose De Leon as the sole piece in the return on a Brian Dozier, the Dodgers sent DeLeon to Tampa Bay instead. Minnesota’s loss is Forsythe’s (and his fantasy owners’) gain. While he obviously hasn’t posted the raw numbers that Dozier […]

Brandon Drury (2B/3B/OF, ARI) - 2017 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~225 CURRENT ADP: ~263 ANALYSIS: Drury opened the season with some flash by hitting four homers each in April and May with respective batting averages of .294 and .283, but then dealt with some injuries and didn’t have an everyday job in a crowded Arizona lineup. He will now hold down the keystone […]

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 […]

ADP Champs or Chumps: Keon Broxton & Trea Turner

If fantasy owners share a collective weakness, it's recency bias. How many times are we going to draft a guy based on what he did last season, or even the last month of last season, without any regard to what that player did before? Mike Trout was great out of the box, but there are […]

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 […]

Potential ADP Busts for Second Base in 2017

We’re continuing our Positional Avoid series today with a look at second basemen. Earlier, we examined three potential busts at catcher and at first base. We continue our positional avoid series today with three second baseman who are going just a bit higher than would seem to be logical in 2017 drafts. Second base is a position that […]

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 […]

Second Base: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

The positions that are usually thought of as thin are unusually deep this year, with second base being no exception. Unlike years past, you won’t be forced to have a poor first base option if you don’t take one early. Nonetheless, we need to examine each tier to see where the best values lie. Here, […]

Second Base ADPs - Overvalued and Undervalued

In this piece, I'll lay out some second 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 top half of the second base position is littered with talented players, from expected […]

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 […]