Projecting Power in 2021: Late ADP Options

Like a sitcom catchphrase from a bygone era, we all want more power. We'll take it early and we'll take it late but it always feels extra sweet when one of your final picks suddenly becomes one of the mayors of dong city. Looking at a player's exit velocities can tell us a lot about […]

Exploring Pitch Arsenal Changes

It is really hard to know what to make of the 2020 season. This is especially true in the case of starting pitchers since the league leaders topped out around 80 innings pitched. As expected, there were many pitchers that posted much better seasons than expected, and many that posted seasons much worse. Given that […]

Brewers Claim Tim Lopes Off Waivers

The Milwaukee Brewers claimed utility man Tim Lopes off waivers from the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday. The 26-year-old hit .238 with two home runs and 15 RBI in 46 games for the Mariners during the shortened 2020 season, adding a .278 on-base percentage and .364 slugging percentage. In 2019, Lopes hit .270 with a home […]

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 […]

Biggest Risers of 2020 - Starting Pitcher

With just 60 games worth of data to draw from during the 2020 season, it's going to be a challenge for fantasy owners to determine how much to weigh those numbers when projecting 2021 performance. We see hot and cold two-month stretches all the time in a normal season, and there's plenty of time to […]

Brewers Confident Christian Yelich Will Bounce Back

Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell is confident that former MVP outfielder Christian Yelich's 2020 hitting struggles won't carry over into the 2021 season. Yelich won consecutive National League batting titles in 2018 and 2019 in his first two years with the team, but he batted just .205 with 12 home runs and 22 RBI in […]

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 […]

Early-Round Fades and Overvalued Studs

Entering 2021, there is a bit of recency bias in the early ADP as well as an overall sense of unknown entering 2021 as a whole in terms of what rules are in place, where players are going to hit in the lineup or even where many players will play and how that could affect […]

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 […]

Biggest Fallers of 2020 – Relief Pitchers

In an abbreviated 60-game season, a large number of relievers previously considered to be lockdown closers or dominant set-up men struggled consistently, ultimately resulting in a negative impact on their fantasy value. As we previously did with RP risers, we will now look at the biggest fallers of the 2020 season as we gear up […]

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 […]

Top 250 Dynasty Prospects for 2021

The 2020 baseball season was unlike any year we’ve ever seen with its shortened season and schedule that can perhaps be best described as organized chaos. The absence of a minor league season played havoc with prospect prognosticators. The 2021 season — and perhaps beyond — will continue to present unique challenges as the pandemic […]

Biggest Risers of 2020 – Relief Pitchers

In 2020, we saw a large number of relief pitchers, previously not in the upper tier of fantasy rankings, breakout or bounce back from 2019 decrepitude. Below we will take a look at a few of the biggest relief pitcher risers of the 2020 season as we gear up for 2021 drafts in the spring. […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings

The 2021 MLB season isn't guaranteed to be normal but I have hope that next spring will be much healthier. As such, I will approach ranks as if a traditional 162-game season is coming. Join me for my position-by-position ranking series for the 2021 fantasy baseball season. How much weight do we give 2020? How […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Rankings

The upcoming 2021 season may not be normal -- going from 2020 to 2021 doesn't wave a magic wand -- but there's still comfort in baseball. As such, I will approach ranks as if a traditional 162-game season is coming. Join me for my position-by-position ranking series for the 2021 fantasy baseball season. How much […]

Year-in-Review: Dylan Bundy

“Just when I thought I was out, he pulls me back in!” –That’s what fantasy managers found themselves saying about Dylan Bundy this year, as the longtime sleeper finally woke up with career-best numbers across the board, highlighted by a 3.29 ERA, 2.95 FIP, and 4.24 K/BB ratio. Going into 2020 Bundy’s NFBC ADP was […]

Dodgers Acquire Reliever Corey Knebel

The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired relief pitcher Corey Knebel from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a player to be named later on Wednesday, moments before the non-tender deadline. The 29-year-old former All-Star struggled in his return from Tommy John surgery (6.08 ER, 15 strikeouts, eight walks), but he had a 1.78 ERA and 126 […]

Projecting Power in 2021: Elite Levels of Air% Exit Velocity

Everyone wants more power, even more so when it comes relatively cheap. But even when pricey, you're going to need to draft a bomber or two. One of the best ways to see how a player's power is trending is to sift through their exit-velocities to see what they're saying. Most know by now that […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Outfield Rankings

I think most of us would agree that looking forward to 2021 is a good idea. For me, that means immersing myself in the upcoming baseball season. While there's no guarantee COVID-19 won't affect the '21 season, I will approach ranks as if a traditional 162-game season is coming. Join me for my position-by-position ranking […]

Year-In-Review: Christian Yelich

After having won the NL MVP award in 2018, Christian Yelich was well on his way to potentially winning a second consecutive award in 2019. However, he broke his kneecap in September of that year and that put a premature end to his monster season. There were some fantasy baseball managers who shied away from selecting […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Shortstop Rankings

As we begin to look towards the 2021 baseball season, we can only hope that COVID-19 will be handled well enough to let the season run as normal. Since this is a mere early ranking exercise and we have so much ahead of us, let's just close our eyes and chat as if a 162-game […]

Matt Arnold Promoted To General Manager

The Milwaukee Brewers promoted Matt Arnold to senior vice president and general manager on Thursday. The 41-year-old joined the Brewers as a vice president and assistant general manager in October of 2015. He was promoted to senior vice president and assistant general manager in June of 2019. Milwaukee has made the playoffs each of the […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Third Base Rankings

Hope springs eternal for the 2021 baseball season, but it's hard to imagine we'll be completely past COVID-19 by then. Plus, we could see opening salvos for the CBA debates to come. But for now, let's just close our eyes and dream of a perfect world and chat as if a 162-game season will come […]

Brewers To Listen To Offers For Josh Hader

The Milwaukee Brewers "intend to listen" to offers for All-Star relief pitcher Josh Hader, according to sources. The Brewers will want a big return for a player they think is the best left-handed reliever in baseball. Hader ranks in the top two percent in strikeout rate (39.7 percent) and in the top four percent in […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Second Base Rankings

As usual, I'll start by saying the 2021 baseball season may still be affected by COVID-19. Maybe even more labor disputes just for a curveball. But for now, let's just close our eyes and dream of a perfect world and chat as if a 162-game season will come next spring. Join me for my position-by-position […]

2021 First Look Fantasy Values: Third Base

The baseball offseason may officially begin with the end of the World Series but the projections offseason began last Thursday night with the release of the first Steamer projections for 2021. Created and maintained by mathematics teacher Jared Cross and his former students, Steamer remains the industry standard for non-aggregated projection systems, as well as […]

Devin Williams Named NL Rookie Of The Year

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Devin Williams was named the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday. Williams features a devastating changeup and a four-seam fastball that reaches the upper-90s. The 26-year-old went 4-1 with a 0.33 ERA while striking out 53 hitters in only 27 innings in the shortened 2020 season. He becomes the […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Catcher Rankings

Let's cut right to it: 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. It is time to decide how […]

2021 First Look Fantasy Values: Outfielders

The baseball offseason may officially begin with the end of the World Series but the projections offseason began last Thursday night with the release of the first Steamer projections for 2021. Created and maintained by mathematics teacher Jared Cross and his former students, Steamer remains the industry standard for non-aggregated projection systems, as well as […]