Later-Round WHIP Warriors

Every season, fantasy owners across head-to-head leagues are faced with a tough decision on draft day. Do they load up on crummy starting pitchers at the end of the draft to amass wins and strikeouts? Or do they opt to only roster good starters and spend late-round draft picks on relievers to help with ERA […]

Diamondbacks Opening Stadium For Workouts

The Arizona Diamondbacks are opening Chase Field on Friday for individual workouts for the first time since baseball was shut down due to COVID-19. Several players arrived on Thursday for workouts at the team's spring training facilities at the Salt River Fields. Players are preparing for a potential spring training 2.0 that would take place […]

Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Dynasty Prospects

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be our next stop on the farm to evaluate the best prospects on each MLB team. Once the 2020 MLB season begins, it may turn out that Minor League systems will be more important than usual. Franchises are losing money during the pandemic layoff, so many teams will be looking for […]

Starling Marte's Wife Dies Of Heart Attack

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Starling Marte announced on his social media on Monday that his wife, Noelia, has died of a heart attack. "It is a moment of indescribable pain. On behalf of my family, I am grateful for the expressions of esteem and solidarity in this difficult time," Marte wrote. The 31-year-old outfielder was traded […]

Deeper Draft Sleepers - Shortstop

In shallow or even standard fantasy baseball leagues, there is a common tenet that the end of drafts is for taking chances. Since there is normally not much difference between a player that gets selected at the end of a draft and a player who is left for waivers, taking a large, figurative swing on […]

Three Hitters Ready to Breakout Earlier Than Their Prime

The quickest path to a fantasy championship is to identify and select potential breakouts. The challenge with this approach is that usually such players are hyped to the point where their ADP becomes inflated. This increases their risk, because often their new ADP has an assumed breakout baked into the cost.  This is why it’s […]

Third Basemen Likely to Return a Loss in 2020

So far we've covered some possible players to avoid at both 1B and 2B, so now we'll finish up by looking at 3B. Just as a refresher, my goal is these articles is to point out players who I believe won't match the value necessary for their current ADP. We frequently want to label these players […]

RotoBaller MLB Mock: Revising Draft Strategy for a Short Season

With rumors of a proposed plan to start the MLB season becoming more of a reality, it is time to start mock drafting again. I joined some writers from RotoBaller to take place in a 12-team mock draft (full draft results here) for a traditional 5x5 rotisserie league draft with a 24-player roster. It was […]

Outfielder Busts Who’ll Keep Junking It Up In 2020

The term “bust” in fantasy baseball has a number of different incarnations. In some instances, a bust is someone who adds no value to a roster whatsoever. He does nothing more than take up a roster spot, adds little-to-no counting stats, and hurts ratios such as batting average and on-base percentage. He is a net-negative […]

KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 5/8/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. Have you caught KBO fever yet? It’s only been a few days but I’ve been enjoying these games and digging in deep to research these teams and players for you! DraftKings and FanDuel will use the same scoring system that they do for MLB, however, the roster […]

Fantasy Baseball Impact of the Universal DH

With each passing day, we are receiving more news that points to Major Leauge Baseball starting sooner rather than later. Most of the news hints at an 80-100 game season, with the locations of the games still up for debate. There are also some roster changes that are being proposed for this shortened season, one […]

Eliminating Park Factors: Which Pitchers Will Suffer the Most

After weeks of half-baked proposals cribbed from rejected "BioDome" scripts, there now seems to be a scrape of light at the end of the no-baseball tunnel. MLB seems to be increasingly confident that a 2020 season will be played, whether it's playing all games in one location (the Arizona plan), playing in multiple warm-weather hubs (Arizona, […]

KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 5/6/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. Have you caught KBO fever yet? Our first slate went, well, as baseball slates tend to go! One chalky pitcher busted and one of my favorite stacks was ho-hum. But the process was solid, and that's what matters. It's only day two of KBO DFS and we […]

Drafting First Overall In Rotisserie Formats

I really do believe there’s no such thing as too much draft strategy. There are a lot of factors that play into draft selections. I will be discussing topics ranging from positional scarcity to team construction and many things in between. The idea is to go into my strategy and targets through the first 10 […]

Mid-Round Shortstops - Targets and Avoids in 2020

Once you reach the middle-to-late rounds of drafts, it would be smart to consider drafting some upside fliers that can provide a great return on value. You can take a risk or two on a variety of different players, including a prospect, forgotten veterans, players returning from injuries, or even players with skills but have […]

NL Players Who Could Benefit From Extended Rosters

Although we still don't have baseball, we're starting to get a lot of proposals on how we COULD have baseball this summer. The plans may wind up just being a fantasy, but, hey, this is a fantasy site, so it makes sense for us to take a look at it. One of the facets of […]

Deeper Draft Sleepers - Catcher

When we do analysis here for deeper leagues there is some semblance of universal acceptance on the parameters. While there is no definitive rule on what constitutes a "deep league", that isn't really the point. This series aims to highlight players not normally drafted but can offer value in leagues where more than roughly 300 […]

Introducing xPA to Project Plate Appearances

I like big rates and I cannot lie. You other readers can't deny. When a rate walks in with an itty PA and an integer in my face, I get sprung...Whoa! Wait just one second, Sir-Mix-A-Nick. Before I go full-Rhymenoceros on everyone, maybe we oughta back the track up a little bit. What I like […]

Dynasty League Buy/Sell

With the uncertainty of opening day, there is no better time to play in an MLB Fantasy Dynasty League. Due to the league format, it by far the most unaffected by the delay of Opening Day. Drafting and trading can proceed in full force as the value assigned to these players go long beyond this […]

Deeper Draft Sleepers - NL Outfielders

We’re confident there will be a 2020 baseball season, but the game might look a little different. For instance, we may not see a 162 game season and the first several weeks may be played in empty baseball stadiums. The game may also feature a universal designated hitter. In attempting to identify deep outfield NL […]

Electronic Strike Zone: Who Benefits and Who Doesn't

Among the more high-profile MLB rule changes expected to take effect over the next few years is the usage of an electronic strike zone. The electronic strike zone was used in the Atlantic League in 2019, and the MLB Umpires Association has cleared the way for its introduction to the major leagues at some point […]

How a Revamped MLB Season will Impact Fantasy Baseball

No matter how this MLB season plays out it will look like something we have never seen before. Not only is the start of the season already delayed, but there is no definitive end in sight. If we do see baseball this season, the game is going to look very different. First, there will be […]

OPS Overachievers: Using xOPS to Judge Performance

We've already dug into xOPS by looking at the biggest underachievers from last year. Now, it's time to examine the other side of the coin - the less shiny side. Many might believe that wOBA is the stat you should be looking for and people much smarter than I have been duking out this debate […]

Starting Pitcher Deep Sleepers for AL-Only Leagues

Finding deep sleepers is one of the most fun and important things to do when it comes to draft prep. As you come towards the end of a draft you want to take players who have upside or potential to provide a lot of draft day value. That is what a draft is all about, […]

Fantasy Baseball ADP Reflections - Relief Pitchers

We’re still awaiting concrete news on how a 2020 baseball season will look like (if it does exist). Different possibilities have surfaced in recent days which includes an option of multiple doubleheaders being played every week. It’s still far too early to tell how serious or plausible this is but should it come to fruition, […]

OPS Underachievers: Using Differences in xOPS to Judge Performance

Add a player's on-base-percentage to his slugging-percentage and you wind up with OPS. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. But some things don't need to be complicated to be useful and descriptive. There are a hundred ways to judge a baseball player's performance but OPS remains one of the best proxies for quickly judging a player's overall offensive […]

JB's Bullpen Method - Building Aces out of Relief Pitchers

If you read my Top 10 Draft Tips piece, you got a preview of the method I have been using for many years in fantasy baseball. It's really less of a method or strategy, and more a state of mind. The Bullpen Method is a lifestyle! I always speak about the importance of balance on […]

Mid-Round Second Base - Targets and Avoids in 2020

Once you reach the middle-to-late rounds of drafts, it would be smart to consider drafting some upside fliers that can provide a great return on value. You can take a risk or two on a variety of different players, including a prospect, forgotten veterans, players returning from injuries, or even players with skills but have […]

Mark Reynolds Announces Retirement

Free-agent first baseman/third baseman Mark Reynolds announced his retirement on MLB Network Radio on Thursday. It will conclude a career that lasted 13 seasons, including stops in Arizona, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Colorado and Washington. Reynolds was taken in the 16th round in the 2004 draft by the Diamondbacks, and he spent […]

Pitchers Whose Value Increases In a Delayed Season

Unfortunately, we all know by now that the MLB season will be delayed or maybe even worse, canceled. There are without a doubt more important things in life than sports and one of them is health. The decision the MLB commissioner made was certainly the right one. But why do we all love baseball and […]