Arismendy Alcantara (2B, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in NL-Only / Deeper Leagues / Keeper Leagues ANALYSIS: Arismendy Alcantara was called up to make a two-game major league debut for the Cubs on Wednesday, with Darwin Barney out on paternity leave. Well, those two days are up, and Alcantara isn't going anywhere just yet. The sixth highest-ranked hitter the Cubs […]

Fantasy Baseball ROS Rankings: July Update

  RotoBaller Fantasy Baseball Rankings for July 2014 Clayton Kershaw, Andrew McCutchen, J.D. Martinez and Billy Hamilton stole the fantasy baseball headlines during the month of June.  Kershaw put up one of the best pitching months in recent history, while J.D. Martinez came out of nowhere to revive many lucky fantasy owners hopes if they picked […]

Fantasy Baseball Buy and Sell: Starting Pitchers for Week 15

We’ve made it to July and it’s time to take a realistic look at your fantasy roster. If your team resides close to the bottom of the pack it’s time for you to make some serious moves. Even if your team is in last place you still have a chance to manipulate your roster and […]

Justin Ruggiano (OF, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Very Deep Leagues  ANALYSIS: Justin Ruggiano has been on fire as of late, since June 25th through July 7th, Ruggiano is hitting .463 (19/41) with 6 doubles,  2 HR and 9 RBI.  This streak has raised his season average to .295.  Ruggiano has showed his power before when he was with the Marlins, […]

5 Two-Start Starting Pitcher Streamers for Week 14

This weekly piece focuses on the best two-start pitchers and streamer waiver wire pickups for the upcoming week of fantasy baseball. These under-the-radar, two-start pitchers can be sleepers off the waiver wire depending on your league format, including NL-Only and AL-Only formats, and you can consider adding them to your head-to-head and daily-league lineups. These pitchers are near […]

3 Must Own Starting Pitchers: Waiver Wire Pickups

Fantasy baseball owners are always looking for sleepers and the next big player from the waiver wire to help improve their teams. Every year there are starting pitchers who come out of nowhere to make a huge splash, and pitchers that come into the season with high expectations but don't but it all together immediately. In this […]

Third Base (3B) & First Base (1B) Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 13

There are a lot of newcomers on this week's list of potential pickups at the corner infield spots as several players seeing the first regular playing time of their careers are starting to produce consistent results. Granted, there are always more question marks about an unproven player, but there is also more upside. Perhaps more […]

Deep League Waiver Wire Pickups (NL Edition): Week 13

Another week is in the books as we keep steam rolling toward the midway part of the 2014 baseball season. It's really time to start making moves, and targeting those potential sleepers for categories that you may be struggling in. Each week we will show you a few potential waiver wire gems to grab in […]

Jake Arrieta (SP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add Immediately ANALYSIS:  As you’re reading this right now, someone else in your league is signing Arrieta to a fantasy contract for the rest of the season and unfortunately you’ve missed the boat.  If by some miracle he is still available, pick him up now, immediately if not sooner!  Arrieta is on pace […]

Luis Valbuena (2B / 3B, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Leagues ANALYSIS: If I were to ask any of you who the number 12 ranked player in all of the Major Leagues currently was for on-base percentage do you think you'd give me the correct answer? Unless you answered Luis Valbuena, you'd be wrong, not surprisingly. The 28 year old has […]

Junior Lake (OF, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deeper/ NL-Only Leagues ANALYSIS: Junior Lake’s career started out with a bang last July but has cooled considerably like a Junior Mint.  The 24-year-old outfielder has a lot of potential but can’t seem to put together a string of solid at bats to sustain production over the course of an entire […]

Neil Ramirez (RP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues (that value saves) ANALYSIS: Neil Ramirez is the latest Cubs reliever to rack up some saves, immediately making him a viable waiver wire pickup and another in the list of saves sleepers for fantasy baseball. This afternoon Ramirez nailed down the save for the Cubs, his second in 3 days as […]

DFS Lineup Picks for 6/13: Fanduel & DraftKings Advice

Hello fellow RotoBallers and daily fantasy sports enthusiasts! Every Friday morning for the rest of the fantasy baseball season, we will be publishing this short piece detailing two recommended daily league player recommendations and sleepers, from two or three of our favorite DFS sites. This week's featured expert analysis will include lineup value picks from Fanduel and DraftKings. If you […]

Hector Rondon (RP, CHI) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 10+ Team Mixed Leagues, Must Own in NL-Only Leagues ANALYSIS: What's with the lack of fantasy baseball love for Hector Rondon? You would think that the assigned closer for the Chicago Cubs, with very good pitching ratios thus far in 2014, should be more than 47% owned in Yahoo leagues right? […]

Deep League Waiver Wire Pickups (NL Edition): Week 9

It's hard to believe that Memorial Day has already come and gone. For many, the day signifies the unofficial beginning of summer, but for fantasy baseball owners it signifies the first "mile marker," so to speak, to gauge what their players are doing. In other words, while there still is plenty of time left for underachieving players […]

Mike Olt (3B, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Leagues if You're Power Starved  ANALYSIS: Mike Olt is similar to Juan Francisco in that he has crushed minor league pitching (28 HR and an OPS over .880 in back-to-back years) to go along with high strikeout rates that have been cause for concern. Olt has less of a sample-size at the […]

Eye on the Minors: May Call-Ups & More

  MLB Prospects Who Got The Call-Up We are getting to the point of the season where teams are calling up MLB prospects from the minors faster than I can include them in my weekly reports.  I’ll start this week with two prospects that are already seeing major league action now.   Kevin Gausman, (SP, […]

Jason Hammel (SP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ANALYSIS: Jason Hammel has had a nice start to his 2014, going 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 37 Ks in 47.2 innings. Considering he’s on the Cubs in the bottom of the ever competitive NL Central, it’s an immediate handicap in terms of fantasy relevance. However, […]

MLB Power Rankings: The Top and Bottom

The MLB season is really heating up and some teams have emerged as legit title contenders. The top part of NL West has really taken off with two teams getting involved in the latest power rankings.  Other teams are not looking as good, and find themselves towards the bottom of the barrel. These MLB rankings […]

Travis Wood (SP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Analysis

BALLER MOVE: Add Immediately ANALYSIS: Here are the only two things you need to know about Travis Wood. 1) He is a dominant pitcher. 2) He's somehow only owned in 50% of leagues. Go pick him up, immediately! Then come back and read this.....ok, now that Wood's ownership % is up a tick, here's why he's so […]

Welington Castillo (C, CHC) - Waiver Wire Analysis

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two Catcher Leagues ANALYSIS: Only 5% owned in Yahoo! leagues, Castillo will be available in a handful of 2 catcher leagues. He is benefitting from a little BABIP luck, but he's shown in the past that he can hover around .340 which means a .270 BA is attainable.  He has been racking up […]

Relief Pitcher Updates: The Closer Carousel Continues

As we head into the first week of May in the 2014 baseball season, we are seeing changes happening in the late-inning roles across baseball.  Whether due to injuries or failure, we here at Rotoballer will keep you up to date so that you can plan accordingly and adjust your rosters if need be.   Looking […]

Pedro Strop (RP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Leagues ANALYSIS: Pedro Strop will very likely be the new closer for the Cubs, at some point, after the demotion of Jose Veras. For now however, he seems to be splitting time with Hector Rondon. Both Rondon and Strop have a save each, since the removal of Veras, although Rondon's save has […]

Hector Rondon (RP, CHC) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Leagues ANALYSIS: Cubs manager Rick Renteria has stated that he will use a committee of Pedro Strop, Blake Parker, and Hector Rondon to close after the removal of Jose Veras. Although Rondon is pitching the best of the bunch, you get the feeling that Strop is next in line. Since Veras’ demotion, […]

Mike Olt (3B, CHC) - Waiver Wire Analysis

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deeper Leagues ANALYSIS: Mike Olt has earned a spot on the Opening Day roster for the Chicago Cubs.  It remains to be seen if he platoons with Luis Valbuena or he is the everyday starter.  Either way, Olt seems to have found his stroke after concussion symptoms that hindered his eye sight.  Olt […]

NL Central Preview & Rankings: Who Rises, Who Falls

The offseason is winding down, which means it’s time to evaluate which teams made the right moves and which ones got caught sleeping. Although there are still some big names out there that could help some teams whose rosters are lacking, let’s take a look at which NL Central teams will improve upon their 2013 […]

Chicago Cubs Pitching Analysis: 2014 Fantasy Baseball

Many of you may be surprised to read that the 2013 Chicago Cubs starting rotation ranked 15th in baseball in ERA, 16th in strikeouts, and 9th in WHIP. It was a sneakily effective bunch, led by fantasy super-unknowns Travis Wood and Scott Feldman, while also receiving small contributions from Matt Garza and Jeff Samrdzija’s strikeouts. […]

2014 Fantasy Baseball Impact Prospects: Second Base

When draft day 2014 comes around for fantasy baseball owners, there are going to be a lot of decisions to be made at second base. Many owners will want to get someone like Robinson Cano or Dustin Pedroia early in the draft because the position can be very thin at times. But this could be […]

Chicago Cubs Lineup Preview for 2014 Fantasy Baseball

2014 Chicago Cubs Lineup Preview for Fantasy Baseball In short, there’s not much fantasy intrigue in the field for the Cubs this year. Only two players have much more than back-end-of-draft upside, and they both come with serious risk. Such a poor group is going to struggle to cross the plate, deflating run and RBI […]

MLB News & Fantasy Baseball Analysis: Chicago Cubs Hot Stove

Despite a horrific 96-loss 2013 campaign, the Cubs have made very few moves to improve the roster. I’m not going to sit here and bash their front office for this strategy, and in fact I’m actually in favor of it, but that doesn't mean this 2014 Cubs roster is going to be very exciting from […]