EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 19 Part 1: English Premier League

Matchweek 19 is the biggest and strangest matchweek of the season. It begins with a full ten game slate over the weekend which is now just nine games due to Aston Villa's match with Everton being postponed due to the former's Covid-19 outbreak. There are also five additional midweek games before Aston Villa are due […]

Yoan Moncada Looking To Bounce Back In 2021

Chicago White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada had an MVP-type season in 2019 when he hit .315/.367/.548 with 25 home runs, 34 doubles, 79 RBI and 83 runs scored, but he caught COVID-19 last summer and hit just .225 with a .705 OPS and 17 extra-base hits in 52 games in 2020. The switch-hitter said […]

Liam Hendriks to White Sox - Fantasy Impact

After making a big splash last offseason the White Sox with the signing of Yasmani Grandal to a four-year deal, Chicago has done it again as they signed closer Liam Hendriks to a three-year deal. The top closer on the free agent market, Hendriks will head to the South Side after establishing himself as one […]

Alex Colome Won't Return To White Sox

Free-agent relief pitcher Alex Colome won't be returning to the Chicago White Sox after they signed reliever Liam Hendriks to a three-year deal on Monday night. The San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins appear to be those in the mix to add Colome, who is coming off two excellent seasons […]

Liam Hendriks Agrees To Deal With White Sox

Free-agent closer Liam Hendriks agreed to a three-year deal worth $54 million with the Chicago White Sox on Monday night, according to sources. The deal includes a fourth-year option. The 31-year-old will make $39 million in the first three years, and the buyout and fourth-year option are $15 million. Hendriks has been one of the […]

Abandon the Win AND the Quality Start

The Win. One of the cornerstone categories of fantasy baseball since its creation. In recent years, baseball fans and fantasy managers alike have been debating the value of the win and whether or not it's overrated. With this debate, the quality start has become a category that more and more leagues are turning to as […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 18: English Premier League

The opening weekend of 2021 saw a mixed bag for us with one winner, one loser and one postponement. Everton looked pretty toothless despite being the better side against West Ham before succumbing to a late sucker punch to lose. Brighton and Wolves then played out an entertaining 3-3 draw, a game we predicted to […]

Stunted Growth: Prospects Who Need More Time

So in 2018 and 2019, I was living the dream as I interned for a Minor League Baseball team, and I was looking forward to coming back in 2020. And then the season was canceled. Obviously, I was disappointed by everything that happened, but while I can shrug off missing a summer of interning and […]

White Sox Looking At Brad Hand, Liam Hendriks

The Chicago White Sox are among the teams interested in free-agent relief pitcher Brad Hand. They are seeking a top closer and are also interested in former A's closer Liam Hendriks. Alex Colome is a free agent this offseason after serving as Chicago's closer the last two years. Looking to shed payroll, Hand was waived […]

Nick Madrigal Plans To Be Ready For Opening Day

Chicago White Sox second baseman Nick Madrigal (shoulder) resumed baseball activity on Monday after having October surgery on his left shoulder. He took ground balls for the first time and some slow dry hacks with a short bat. Madrigal is optimistic of being close to 100 percent for the start of spring training on Feb. […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 17: English Premier League

The festive period started with a whimper, but we ended it with a bang by cashing in picks of +120 and +143 along with correct score picks of +575 and +750 in matchweek 16. We were one goal away from a +1470 parlay too but we can't grumble. This time of year is notoriously difficult […]

Year-In-Review: Rafael Dolis and Jordan Romano

As I created my early 2021 Relief Pitcher rankings, I realized how wide open so many bullpens are right now due to free agency. One team that will surely add a late-inning arm this offseason is the Toronto Blue Jays, as Anthony Bass and Ken Giles are both now free agents. But are they in […]

Adam Engel Avoids Arbitration

Chicago White Sox outfielder Adam Engel avoided salary arbitration on Wednesday by agreeing to a one-year, $1.375 million deal. The 29-year-old was a 19th-round pick out of Louisville in 2013 and made his first playoff appearance in 2020. Engel is known for his defense in the outfield and finished 3-for-12 with a home run in […]

Blake Snell to Padres - Fantasy Impact

It would be a massive understatement to say that the San Diego Padres are in "win-now" mode. They have just shipped off their number-three prospect in Luis Patino, as well as Francisco Mejia and two other prospects to acquire lefty Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays. Less than 24 hours later, they made another […]

Royals Sign Ervin Santana

The Kansas City Royals signed right-hander Ervin Santana to a minor league deal on Tuesday. Santana didn't pitch at all in 2020, but the 15-year veteran should provide a young Royals pitching staff with experience. The 38-year-old has a career record of 149-127 and a 4.09 ERA (101 ERA+) in 387 games (384 starts). Santana […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball First Base Rankings

Once again, I'll start by saying the 2021 baseball season is not guaranteed to be a normal one. But for now, let's just close our eyes and dream of a world unencumbered by COVID-19 and talk about our silly little game as if a 162-game season will come next spring. Join me for my position-by-position […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 16: English Premier League

The EPL's hectic Christmas schedule is such that I'm having to write this before Matchweek 15 has been completed. As if teams playing two games in three days isn't difficult enough to predict, there could be some issues (such as injuries etc) that cause me to alter my thought process on a game. So I'll […]

Biggest Brl/BBE% Fallers from 2020

Last week, I discussed the importance of the Brl/BBE% and examined some players who had improved the most in the shortened 2019 season. If you haven't yet taken a look at that, I would encourage you to because I also gave a detailed breakdown of why I like this particular stat. However, if you simply […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 15: English Premier League

Another weekend of nearly but not quite as Newcastle couldn't find a winner against the 10-men of Fulham and had to settle for a point. A Newcastle winner would have netted us a +164 pick and +850 correct score. Tottenham then wet the bed at home to Leicester (losing 2-0) before Aston Villa helped us […]

White Sox Expected To Sign Yoelqui Cespedes

The Chicago White Sox are expected to sign Cuban outfielder Yoelqui Cespedes, the No. 1 international prospect and the younger half-brother of Yoenis Cespedes, for a bonus around $2 million, according to industry sources. The 23-year-old will likely sign on Jan. 15, the first day of the international signing period. He's considered a five-tool player […]

Squaring It Up: 2020's Biggest Brl/BBE% Gainers

Often when it comes to fantasy baseball, we get overloaded with statistics and it becomes hard to sort out what's useful from what's misleading. Many experts can write pages about why they swear by certain stats as being the most predictive for future success or accurate in reflecting who had a good season. In the […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 14: English Premier League

The midweek slate was brutal with zero correct picks. It goes to show how unpredictable the EPL is and how fine the margins are we're working with. Newcastle was 15 minutes away from bagging us the pick, before capitulating to a 5-2 defeat. Brighton and Fulham did draw, sadly for us it was a boring […]

Lance Lynn to White Sox - Fantasy Impact

Entering the offseason looking to shore up their pitching staff, the White Sox made the first big move in the 2020 starting pitcher market with the acquisition of right-hander Lance Lynn from the Texas Rangers. In return, Chicago sent top-100 prospect Dane Dunning and 2019 sixth-rounder Avery Weems down south to Arlington. In a move […]

Strike Zone Rate Analysis - Starting Pitchers

There are hundreds of metrics out there that describe pitchers. The richness of the available data is rivaled by no other sport. This can at times lead to information overload, leading us too far away from the core tenants of what success looks like. One group of statistics that are very simple and very helpful […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 13: English Premier League

If you read last weekend's piece, you'll have seen I'm currently nursing a broken finger which is making typing more painful than it should be. Nevertheless, the process and research doesn't diminish, just the quantity of the write-up is a bit less. We still managed to bag two winners from our three picks at +131 […]

MLB's Best Pitches by the Numbers

One of the most-often used algorithms in the data science world is called clustering. Clustering is defined, by Wikipedia, as: grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters) In baseball […]

Statcast Review - Hard Hit/Exit Velocity Pitching Leaders

Pitcher contact quality can be a tricky attribute for fantasy managers to incorporate into their analysis. On one hand, pitchers are more at the whim of hitters when it comes to contact quality than the other way around. On the other hand, it certainly seems as though pitchers can exert meaningful control over their contact […]

Projecting Power in 2021: Early ADP Air% Exit Velocity

Looking at average exit velocity to project future power is not very useful compared to looking only at balls hit in the air. Because who cares how hard ground balls are hit? However, it can be even more useful to parse out those velocities into more refined bins and cast a more critical eye to […]

EPL Betting Picks for Matchweek 12: English Premier League

First things first; this will be a shortened piece this week. Still three picks, still three score predictions and still a parlay. But I'm currently nursing a broken finger so typing is painful and is something I need to limit right now (Doctor's orders). Anyway, last week was our best of the season with two […]

Year-In-Review: Sixto Sanchez

The 2020 season presented numerous challenges and is one that most teams, Dodgers aside, are ready to move on from. In the case of the Miami Marlins, it represented a major step forward for a perennially-rebuilding franchise. The Marlins made the playoffs for the first time since their 2003 championship season, mostly on the strength […]