Burch Smith Being Demoted To Bullpen

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Burch Smith is being moved to the bullpen in favor of Jorge Lopez, who will start against the Blue Jays on Wednesday. Lopez was acquired in the trade that sent third baseman Mike Moustakas to the Brewers. In his last three starts, Smith allowed 18 hits (five home runs) and […]

Wily Peralta Locks Down Seventh Save

Kansas City Royals closer Wily Peralta looked sharp again as he finished off his seventh save of the season on Monday night. It was Peralta's first save in the month of August due to poor team play, but he worked around a walk without an issue to take care of business. Peralta was roughed up […]

Ryan O'Hearn Carries Kansas City Offense

Monday night was Kansas City Royals first baseman Ryan O'Hearn's night to put the team on his back. O'Hearn provided all three runs that KC needed to pull out a win against Toronto as he drilled his second major league home run to put the game away. Unsurprisingly, O'Hearn has struggled so far at the […]

Brad Keller Beats Blue Jays

Kansas City Royals rookie Brad Keller tossed seven strong innings against Toronto on Monday to pick up his fifth win of the season. Keller struck out four while allowing only one earned run and four hits to even his record. Keller has been a complete surprise for the Royals this year as he's stepped in […]

Rosell Herrera Should Stop Stealing Bases

Kansas City Royals rookie Rosell Herrera has been a pretty mediocre waiver claim by most measures. He's not been otherworldly good or anything, but a .247 batting average in his first big-league season isn't bad at all. However, he should really stop trying to steal bases. Herrera was caught again on Monday night, and that's […]

Glenn Sparkman Recalled From Triple-A

The Kansas City Royals recalled pitcher Glenn Sparkman from Triple-A Omaha mere hours after sending him there. Sparkman was originally demoted to make room for Blaine Boyer as he came off the disabled list, but less than 18 hours later, Sparkman was recalled to take Danny Duffy's spot as he was placed on the DL. […]

Danny Duffy Placed On Disabled List

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy was placed on the 10-day disabled list with shoulder tendinitis on Monday. Duffy acknowledged that if the team were in the playoff hunt, he would probably pitch through it, but with the team eliminated from any contention, there's no point in risking more long-term damage. No timetable was […]

Are You For Real? Surprising SP Starts (Week 20)

Welcome to our surprising starts series. Every week we’ll be going over a few surprising starting pitcher performances around the majors to determine whether these starts were smoke and mirrors or something more. This week we're looking at another of the Rays' pseudo-starters, a brand new Yankee, and a surprising second half from a Ranger. […]

Blaine Boyer Activated, Sent To Bullpen

Kansas City Royals pitcher Blaine Boyer was activated from the 60-day disabled list on Sunday and assigned to the bullpen. Boyer had been DLed since May due to a strained back, and he took the place of Glenn Sparkman who was optioned to Triple-A Omaha. The 37-year-old was absolutely atrocious to start the season, so […]

Danny Duffy Suffering From Shoulder Stiffness

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy received an anti-inflammatory injection after dealing with some shoulder stiffness this weekend. Duffy is currently scheduled to start on Thursday, but that may be in jeopardy now due to the ailment. Manager Ned Yost revealed that Duffy's actually been dealing with the issue for his last four starts, […]

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks (8/13/18): MLB DFS Lineups

We have a 10-game slate on Monday night for DraftKings and some big pitchers will be taking the hill. Yet, only one team is considered to be a heavy favorite (-200 odds, or greater): the Dodgers. We’ll see more from their pitcher in a little bit. First, let’s talk offense. Four games have an over/under […]

AL-Only Waiver Wire Team of the Week: MLB Week 20

Every week in baseball, a significant player will hit the disabled list, slip into a slump, or get traded out of a good spot. How fantasy owners adapt to these situations can make or break the season as a whole. One lousy add might not hurt the long-term standing of a team, but failing to […]

Heath Fillmyer (SP, KC) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 0% of leagues ANALYSIS: Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Heath Fillmyer is available in almost every league, but should be on your fantasy radar. Fillmyer was filthy against the Cubs in his last appearance, earning his first MLB win. He pitched seven scoreless innings against the Cubs […]

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks (8/12/18): MLB DFS Lineups

We've got a 12 game featured slate on DraftKings today, and a few big spots from the usual suspects on offense. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Indians all take on bad pitchers, and there is of course a Coors Field game. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks […]

FanDuel MLB DFS Lineup Picks (8/12/18): Daily Fantasy Baseball Advice

We have a solid 10 game Sunday slate. The "Main Slate" is essentially the "early slate," as there are no later games on the slate. Still, there are plenty of options to make lineups today. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for FanDuel on 8/12/18. The lineup […]

Wily Peralta (RP, KCR) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 25% of leagues ANALYSIS: Generally, we here at RotoBaller are not in the habit of recommending pitchers who have BB/9 rates in excess of 5.00 in both the majors and Triple-A. But saves are saves, and they're tough to come by in the dog days of August. Of course, […]

Lucas Duda Singles Twice To Extend Streak

Kansas City Royals first baseman Lucas Duda hasn't had much to celebrate this season as it's been quite disappointing overall, but he's gotten on a bit of a hot streak recently as he's hit safely in six of his last seven games. He's racked up a home run and stolen base over the streak, but […]

Brett Phillips Continues To Hit For KC

Kansas City Royals outfielder Brett Phillips has been loving life with the Royals. With a pair of singles on Friday, Phillips is now triple-slashing .265/.324/.471 since he moved to the American League. For a defense-first type of player, that's not too shabby. Unfortunately, it's built on an astronomical .444 BABIP and Phillips has also been […]

Glenn Sparkman To Stay In Bullpen

Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Glenn Sparkman will remain in the bullpen for 2018, according to manager Ned Yost. Reporters asked Yost about the possibility of a rotation spot for Sparkman this season after he came in for a long relief stint on Friday, but Yost only supported the idea of Sparkman getting a chance […]

Burch Smith Chased In Second Inning

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Burch Smith got roasted again on Friday as he was run out in the second inning after already giving up five earned runs. Smith has now given up five or more earned runs in three straight starts, and his season ERA sits at a frightening 6.97. Smith was a feel-good […]

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks (8/11/18): MLB DFS Lineups

We've got all 30 teams in action for an exciting day on DraftKings, where we have six different slates to choose from. The featured slate starts at 7pm eastern and covers 10 games. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for DraftKings on 8/11/18. The lineup picks will […]

Hitter Streamers (Week 20) - Head-to-Head Leagues

Welcome back to my hitting streamers column for Week 20, taking a look at hitters to add or stream off the waiver wire for this week's scheduled games. To keep things simple, I pick from players who are 50% owned or less and who play at least seven games in the week.  If someone jumps […]

Two-Start Pitcher Streamers: August 13th-August 19th

It’s crunch time for fantasy baseball leagues and the head-to-head playoffs are less than month away from starting. As you make your final four-week push, the streaming options are becoming more scarce and each addition is becoming more crucial. This week, I dove deep into the free agency pool and discovered some youthful talent. Hopefully, […]

Week 20 Waiver Wire: H2H Category Streamers

I like to consider myself a pioneer of the streaming approach. I won a league about seven years ago by completely ignoring saves and just stacking up the starts each week. While streaming is undoubtedly more directly associated with pitching, there's plenty of value in streaming for offense as well. Maybe you have a stacked […]

Rookie Report: Recent MLB Prospect Call-Ups (Week 19)

This week was a particularly slow week in the world of prospects; just eight rookies have debuted since the publishing of last week's column. With that being said, there are still a handful of newcomers worth highlighting and a bunch of returners still cooking with gas. As we come up on the end of the […]

Lucas Duda Back in the Lineup Wednesday

Kansas City Royals first baseman Lucas Duda is back in the starting lineup for Wednesday's game against the Chicago Cubs. Duda sat out during the first two games against the Cubs, but will return to the lineup to Wednesday's finale. Duda is playing first base and batting fifth against lefty Jose Quintana. Duda is hitting […]

Week 19 Start/Sit Matchups - Starting Pitchers

You know what it is--it's my updated starts/sits column for Week 19! Your friendly neighborhood @Roto_Dubs is back again this year with his weekly starting pitcher matchups. This is our fifth year now writing this weekly column, helping fantasy baseball managers pick the best pitchers weekly. Below are the projected starting pitching matchups for Week 19, and […]

Salvador Perez Continues To Struggle

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez is mired in a bit of a strange slump. It's not that he's pulling 0-fer after 0-fer, it's just that he's only getting one hit every other game or so. On the surface, he's safely hit in four of his last seven games, but a slightly deeper dive into […]

Alcides Escobar Records First RBI In Weeks

Kansas City Royals utility man Alcides Escobar knocked in the team's only run on Monday night, tallying his 22nd RBI of the season. It's also his first RBI since July 13, more than three weeks ago. Escobar's drought has partially been caused by a loss of playing time because the team is trying to let […]

Alex Gordon Is Hot For August

Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon has been one of the worst offensive players in the league this season, but apparently he was just saving up all his hits for August. Gordon is currently hitting .409 for the month of August, and after just six days, he's already got more than 50% the number of […]