RADIO
2021 Points League Rankings - Outfield
February is finally here and that means that draft season is getting into full gear. And here at RotoBaller, we're about more than just roto leagues. We're here to cover your whole fantasy spectrum. So let's do some point ranks, shall we? If you've forgotten from last year, I have strong opinions on point leagues. […]
2021 Points League Rankings - Third Base
It's Friday and that can only mean one thing...More hot points action coming straight at you. So let's do some point ranks, shall we? If you've forgotten from last year, I have strong opinions on point leagues. TL;DR? You can't just transfer over value from roto and you can't just take players with good BB/K […]
2021 Points League Rankings - Shortstop
The ides of January are behind us and fantasy baseball draft season is officially in full swing. And considering that H2H point league players got ran over the most by a 60-game season in 2020, I'm guessing you're just as ready as I am to get things going. So it points ranks time, baby! If you've […]
2021 Points League Rankings - Second Base
With football finally behind us (the season is over, right?) we're entering the best time of the year...AKA fantasy baseball draft season. Many may be focused on roto but point players are chomping at the bit after 2020's shortened season basically torpedoed H2H point leagues. So let's do some point ranks, shall we? If you've […]
Spencer Turnbull Away From Team Due To COVID Protocol
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull will be away from the team for a few days due to the league's COVID-19 protocols. According to Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, Turnbull didn't do anything wrong. It's merely protocol. Turnbull should open the year as one of the team's starting pitchers. He's had an underwhelming spring so far, pitching […]
2020 Breakout Outfielders Who'll Keep Improving
With hitters dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and related changes to the MLB season, it’s somewhat surprising that breakouts were unexceptional (if high) in their number. After 45 qualified batters improved their wOBA by at least 0.20 points between 2018 and 2019, 54 hitters managed to do so between 2019 and 2020. That’s not a […]
Later-Round Category Targets - Home Runs
Welcome back to my series of posts where I take us through a standard fantasy baseball category, break it down statistically and then locate some targets for 2021 to help you out in that category. We've already examined how to get an advantage in batting average. Today we will talk about home runs. You can also […]
Post-Hype Pitchers Set To Break Out
What is a post-hype sleeper? If you ask 10 fantasy analysts you'll probably get 10 different answers but it boils down to players that have fallen off the fantasy radar after garnering quite a bit of buzz in prior seasons. It's a lot like shopping in an outlet store. You've got all kinds of name-brand […]
Later-Round Category Targets - Batting Average
Of all of the fantasy sports, a baseball league using category scoring is the one most requiring manager strategy. You can draft a team full of players that overperform their draft cost but still not win your league if you don't fill up the categories correctly. If I had to give one piece of advice […]
Roto Category Draft Targets - Strikeouts
Welcome back to RotoBaller, here we have another later-round category targets piece - this time focusing on strikeouts. Strikeouts are an interesting category for fantasy given how differently they can be handled in fantasy baseball. Lots of leagues use strikeout rate of some sort (strikeout rate or strikeouts per nine). Those seem to make more sense […]
Hidden Gems To Watch - 2021 Pitching Prospects
With pitchers and catchers reporting, Major League Baseball is bearing down on a return to normalcy for the 2021 season. With the MLBPA rejecting MLB’s offer of a delayed start to the 2021 season, opening day is now officially scheduled for Thursday, April 1. When analyzing the pool of pitching prospects for 2021, there are […]
Infielders Ready to Break Out Late
Finding value is crucial on draft day and finding just one or two players in the mid to late rounds in drafts that provide better numbers than projected can give you a significant edge on the competition as you bid for fantasy glory. All too often, we look for the new shiny object in drafts […]
2021 Undervalued Draft Targets - Starting Pitchers
In late November, before I officially joined the RotoBaller team, I began a long post series where I went rotation-by-rotation, slowly populating my SP ranks for 2021. The way I did this was I would do the analysis and take a long look at each player, and then insert them into the list based on […]
Catcher Draft Targets for All Leagues
Enough with the catcher slander! As fantasy baseball drafts heat up, all I keep reading about is how we're "forced" to draft catchers and how they can tank your roster. Catchers are people too! I could use thousands of words writing about the value of catchers and how the grind of their defensive job and […]
Tarik Skubal (SP, DET) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 275 CURRENT ADP: ~295 overall ANALYSIS: Tarik Skubal was not even the most highly touted young pitcher on his own team last year, as he was often overlooked for Casey Mize. However, Skubal outperformed Mize and posted a really strong 27.6% strikeout rate with an 8.2% walk rate. The ERA was […]
Best-Ball Late-Round Targets - Outfield
With best-ball drafts gaining steam, we are pumping out more best-ball content at RotoBaller. I wrote the Best-Ball Targets and Best-Ball Fades for the premium draft guide and will now produce a three-part series on late-round targets. Part one focused on late-round infield targets, and now we head to the outfield for some late-round targets. […]
2021 Starting Pitcher Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues (Part 2)
We now move on to starting pitcher in our mixed-league rankings analysis series. If you missed them, here is our review of Catcher, First Base, Second Base, Third Base, Shortstop, Outfield, and of course, Starting Pitcher Part One. RotoBaller's rankers, JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Nick Mariano, and Ariel Cohen have updated our 2021 Mixed League rankings once more based on […]
Julio Teheran Making Strong Bid For Roster Spot
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Julio Teheran had a fantastic outing against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday. He pitched four innings and allowed one hit, no walks and no runs while striking out seven. Teheran now has a 2.00 ERA and 0.67 WHIP with 12 strikeouts over nine innings this spring. Teheran had a dreadful 2020 […]
Matt Manning Optioned To Triple-A
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Matt Manning was optioned to Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday. Following the move, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch explained that Manning should benefit from the delayed Triple-A season start. He explained that the team was "leaning towards leaving him here in a Minor League Spring Training setting to give him a normal workload […]
Tarik Skubal Strikes Out Six Batters On Wednesday
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal had yet another impressive outing on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Skubal pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out six. He didn't give up any hard-hit balls in the game and had a whiff rate of 43%. He's now thrown eight total innings […]
Sam Chinitz's 10 Bold Predictions For 2021
The 2021 MLB regular season is less than one month away, so it’s time for some bold predictions. Last year’s bold predictions didn’t pan out too well for me; if we’re being generous, two out of the ten predictions hit -- and that’s including Corey Kluber posting a sub-3.00 ERA (which technically happened, even if […]
2020 Breakout Infielders Who'll Keep Improving
In a recent article, I outlined a methodology to determine which breakout 2020 seasons from hitters would be built off of into 2021. Upon further reflection, however, I’m unconvinced that that methodology the best way to spot breakouts that will continue to improve, in large part because of its reliance on evaluating the stickiness of […]
2021 Keeper Value Rankings - Third Base
Many many years ago, I noticed the managers in my long-time keeper league were consistently making terrible keeper decisions year after year. Instead of taking their money every year thought I would help them out and find a good set of Keeper League Rankings to share with them. What I found was quite disturbing. There […]
Spencer Torkelson's Struggles Continue
Detroit Tigers infield prospect Spencer Torkelson's struggles continued on Tuesday when he grounded out in his lone at-bat. The first-overall selection in the 2020 draft, he's been splitting his time between first base and third base this spring. He was considered to be a near-MLB-ready talent by many but he's just 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts […]
Akil Baddoo Slugs Third Spring Home Run
Detroit Tigers outfield prospect Akil Baddoo continued his torrid spring on Tuesday with his third home run. Through 12 games, he's 9-for-23 (.391) with five extra-base hits. He has also shown excellent patience with a BB-K of 8-7. Just 22, Baddoo was a Rule 5 draft pick out of the Minnesota Twins organization over the […]
Matt Manning Throws Two Shutout Innings
Detroit Tigers rookie pitcher Matt Manning threw two shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. The club is being cautious with the young hurler this spring and limiting his innings after he suffered a forearm strain in 2020. Manning's fastball touched 97 mph in Monday's game and he recorded all his outs with […]
2021 Starting Pitcher Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues (Part 1)
We now move on to starting pitcher in our mixed-league rankings analysis series. If you missed them, here is our review of Catcher, First Base, Second Base, Third Base, Shortstop, and Outfield. RotoBaller's rankers, JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Nick Mariano, and Ariel Cohen have updated our 2021 Mixed League rankings once more based on early spring training action. You can […]
Top 20 Outfielders - Dynasty Prospect Rankings
If you’ve played fantasy baseball for a while, you know how hard it can be to find enough quality outfielders to field a competitive team all year long. The good news for fantasy managers is that there are some big names on the way, thanks in part to the 2020 amateur draft which had a […]
Spring Training Lineup Takeaways - Week 2 Lineup Trends
Welcome back RotoBallers! We are entering week three of Spring Training already, and with that came a lot of things we saw in week two. But of course, my week one review also still has very relevant information as well. Just a reminder, in my Lineup Takeaways series we are focusing 100% on lineups, news and […]
Catcher Preview: Fantasy Baseball 2021 ADP Analysis
Host Anthony Aniano of RotoBaller discusses 2021 fantasy baseball catcher rankings and catcher draft sleepers who can be sneaky later-round picks. He breaks down and compares the ADPs of five different MLB players at the catcher position. Fantasy players should consider picking up these players for their drafts this MLB Season. Be sure to also tune […]
