2016 Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings: Starting Pitchers (February)

Our starting pitching rankings will be split into two parts. Today's edition will examine only the top five tiers of starters, as determined by our staff's composite rankings (which differ a bit from my own evaluations where noted). Using the composite rankings to guide discussion helps to highlight personal preferences while also providing a more balanced view of […]

Bartolo Colon Will Have Value Early in 2016

Bartolo Colon may be the most entertaining player on the Mets just by virtue of his size, and how he looks at the plate. Make no mistake though, the seasoned veteran still has a little something something to offer. His strikeout rate and ERA won't wow anyone, but his walk rate will. Colon makes hitters […]

2016 Fantasy Baseball Draft Values? Raisel Iglesias

The hard throwing Iglesias came on the scene in Cincinnati last season and turned a lot of heads within the organization. He also made believers of the rest of the league of his true talent. Now he's one of the most popular "sleepers" in 2016 drafts. Will he turn in a big-time 2016 season for […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 9: PITCHf/x

One of the most fundamental questions in fantasy sports is if a player's current performance is sustainable. PITCHf/x is a publicly available pitch tracking system that provides a lot of different data to help fantasy owners make this determination for mound breakouts and busts alike. The first data point, and the easiest to understand, is […]

2016 Breakout Candidates: AL Starting Pitchers

The wait is finally over – pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training. Of course, here at RotoBaller we’ve been cranking out tons of preseason content for some time now. We might be a little obsessed with baseball ‘round these parts. But that’s okay, because so are you! And what better way to celebrate […]

Cincinnati Reds Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

There were a lot of ups and downs on the 2015 season for Reds’ fans. The positives: they hosted the All-Star Game, Todd Frazier won the Home Run Derby, and Joey Votto looked like an MVP again. The negatives: everything else. One could argue the Reds should have traded players like Frazier, Chapman, and Bruce […]

Chicago Cubs Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

Everyone knew that when the Chicago Cubs promoted their young prospects it would not take long for them to become a dominant force within the National League. But I don’t know if anyone envisioned them finishing with the third best overall record in baseball, winning 97 games, beating the Pirates in the Wild Card, and […]

Philadelphia Phillies Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

It has to be rough to be a fan of Philadelphia sports right now. The 76ers are purposefully tanking to get higher draft picks, the Eagles just lost the division to the Redskins, the Flyers are only a mediocre team at best, and the Phillies are still mired in a very long rebuilding process. This […]

New York Mets Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

The New York Mets surprised everyone when they not only knocked the Washington Nationals out of the NL East Division race, but when they went all the way to the World Series. Everyone knew that the Mets would at least be a threat in the National League with the strength of their rotation, but I […]

Turning Two: Who Will Have a Sub-2.00 ERA?

Turning Two: Who Will Join the Sub-2.00 ERA Club? Welcome back to our sixth edition of Turning Two. We've now discussed who will hit 50 HR, who will win 20 games, who can put up a 20/20, who can hit .350, and who can reach 50 saves. This week's topic we'll stick on the pitching side of things and focus on the […]

Washington Nationals Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

When a team finishes 83-79 with the unanimous NL MVP and a Top-5 NL Cy Young finisher, it is not often categorized as a complete failure of a year and a total disappointment, but that’s exactly what was thought of the Washington Nationals’ 2015 season. Prior to the start of the season, the Nationals were […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 8: Batted Ball Distribution for Pitchers

The league average batted ball distribution in 2015 was 20.9% liners, 45.3% grounders and 33.8% flies. Last time, we took a brief look at how pitchers may specialize in either grounders or fly balls. Fly ball pitchers have a BABIP advantage over their ground ball-inducing counterparts, since fly balls (.129 BABIP in 2015) consistently have […]

Miami Marlins Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

Another year, another Marlins team that just cannot do anything right. They signed a bunch of free agents to big deals one year, trade them all away the next. In spite of having bats like Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich in the middle of their lineup and pitchers like Jose Fernandez leading the rotation, the Marlins […]

Atlanta Braves Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

More than any other team in baseball, the Atlanta Braves have committed to an absolute complete rebuild. The Braves have dealt both Justin Upton and Melvin Upton, Shelby Miller, Andrelton Simmons, Craig Kimbrel, and many more in exchange for young talent. Since taking over the general manager position, John Hart has done an excellent job […]

Texas Rangers Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

More than any other team in baseball, the Texas Rangers snuck up and emerged as the most surprising contender in 2015. Both the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs had been rebuilding for many years so though earlier than many expected, it seemed more plausible that the Astros or Cubs would compete than the Rangers would. […]

Five Undervalued NL Starting Pitcher Targets for 2016 Drafts

The National League is simply loaded with elite pitching. You could miss out on most of the top ranked guys and still find yourself with an abundance of options heading into the middle rounds. Still, it's important to know what you're looking for when those later rounds approach and there are holes to fill at […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 7: BABIP for Pitchers

While FIP is a useful tool to predict a pitcher's future ERA performance, fantasy owners should remember that ERA, not FIP, is what really matters in most formats. This means that we are interested in the "luck" that separates the two statistics. Some of this is unpredictable, but we can and should predict some of […]

Five 2015 Busts Who Will Disappoint Again

It happens every year: A bunch of players produce way above or below expectations, and we spend the entire offseason arguing over whether or not the improvement or decline was genuine. Separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to last year’s performances can be the difference between a championship season and bitter, abject […]

MLB Podcast on RotoBaller Radio: 2016 National League Preview & MLB Player News

RotoBaller is very excited about the start of the second year of RotoBaller Radio. You can find our new shows as always on BlogTalkRadio live or on demand, and on iTunes under podcasts. Every Tuesday night at 9:00 PM EST, RotoBaller co-founder Real Talk Raph and co-host Anthony Aniano will be discussing the most recent and relevant MLB news and information […]

Five 2015 Breakouts to Believe In

It happens every year: A bunch of players produce way above or below expectations, and we spend the entire offseason arguing over whether or not the improvement or decline was genuine. Today we'll discuss five players whose coming out parties should continue in 2016. All week long, I’ll be taking a look at last season’s surprises, […]

Five 2015 Breakouts Due for Regression

It happens every year: A bunch of players produce way above expectations, and we spend the entire offseason arguing over whether or not the improvement was genuine. Separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to last year’s breakout performances can be the difference between a championship season and bitter, abject failure for your […]

2016 Fantasy Baseball Draft Values: Eduardo Rodriguez

Many of the headlines surrounding the Boston Red Sox’s pitching rotation have to do with David Price. After all, he did receive the largest contract in the history of baseball for a pitcher. However, behind Price is a group of young guns (and I guess Clay Buchholz) that are looking to make their mark in […]

Seattle Mariners Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

The Seattle Mariners farm system is not terribly promising (sorry Seattle fans). They have wagered a lot on free agents like Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano and have completely depleted their farm system. Though they have a solid rotation and a great core to build their offense around, there are several teams within their own division […]

Oakland Athletics Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

The Athletics finished 2015 tied with the Brewers and Rockies for the fourth worst record in the majors and it shouldn’t have been too surprising that they landed there. Oakland dealt Josh Donaldson in the offseason and entered the season without A.J. Griffin or Jarrod Parker in their rotation. Things were not expected to go […]

Five Undervalued AL Starting Pitcher Targets for 2016 Drafts

Winning a fantasy baseball league often depends upon finding value in the middle and end of the draft. Today I'm going to focus on a few starting pitchers from the American Leagues who fit the bill. You can find more draft values and potential sleepers in our running list all preseason long, and be sure […]

Houston Astros Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

The Houston Astros made unbelievable strides as a team in 2015. Some analysts believed that they would be at least semi-competitive, but not many envisioned them making it to the playoffs. Part of this was due in large part to the midseason call-up of Carlos Correa. In 99 games, he had as much of an impact as nearly […]

2016 Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings: Starting Pitcher (January, Part 1)

Welcome back to our second round of 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. This edition focuses on starting pitchers. We'll cover the top 60 here, and the rest tomorrow. Spoiler: Pitching is insanely deep. This round of rankings features seven of our experts. They are Brad Johnson, Max Petrie, Harris Yudin, Jeff Kahntroff, Bill Dubiel, Nick Mariano, and […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 6: FIP and xFIP

The first advanced pitching stat most fantasy owners encounter is FIP. FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, and attempts to measure a pitcher's actual skill instead of the effects of luck or his supporting cast. According to the DIPS theory that the metric is based upon, pitchers control only Ks, BBs (and HBP) and home […]

Los Angeles Angels Top MLB Prospects for 2016 Dynasty Leagues

The Los Angeles Angels still have a team that could be ready to compete for the 2016 AL West division title even after a disappointing 2015 that saw them finish third in the division race (albeit a mere three games out of first and one game out of the wild card). The division certainly didn’t […]

Top 300 Rankings & Analysis (Part 2)

Welcome, RotoBallers. You may have noticed that we're rolling out a ton of rankings content for the 2016 season. Included in this effort is our Top 300 staff rankings, which you can view by clicking that link or scrolling all the way down below. In addition to yours truly, Brad Johnson and Nick Mariano participated […]