Trent Grisham Collects Three Hits Against Cubs

San Diego Padres outfielder Trent Grisham went 3-for-3 with a solo home run in Friday's 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The 23-year old is now hitting .455 in four games this spring. Grisham finished last season with six home runs and 24 RBI in 51 games with the Brewers. With a full season of […]

Adrian Houser Sharp In Spring Game

Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Adrian Houser tossed two scoreless frames in Thursday's spring game against the Royals. He allowed one hit and one walk and struck out two. This was Houser's second appearance of the spring, and he's looked sharp thus far. Houser ended last season on a roll and is on track to open […]

Elite Starters and Pitching Trends Revisited

Last year I wrote a series [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3] on whether we were properly valuing elite starting pitchers. The basic premise was that we were likely to see fantasy-relevant starters (not openers) throw fewer innings again in 2019. I hypothesized that if there were fewer and fewer starting pitchers providing 200 innings […]

Evaluating OAA for Pitchers Changing Teams (12-Team Leagues)

Last week, I looked at Statcast’s new Outs Above Average (OAA) leaderboard, which they’ve used to identify the best defensive infielders in the league. My initial exploration of the metric was designed to identify pitchers who might have been lucky or unlucky last year as a way of mining for bounceback value or avoiding potential […]

Engel's Angles: ADP Insights, Perspectives on Aaron Judge and Ketel Marte (Premium Content)

Spring training exhibition play has just opened and expert draft season is here. The trends are being firmly established on how to draft, and where to draft certain players. We all know pure ace top starters are going to be taken very early, and there will be a high emphasis on garnering top speed merchants. […]

RotoBaller Friends & Family Industry Mock Draft: What the Experts Were Thinking

The RotoBaller Friends & Family Mock Draft has become an annual tradition where we gather some of the biggest names from the fantasy baseball world and put together a mock draft just as spring training has commenced. Thanks to RT Sports for once again hosting and providing a custom draft site where readers could follow […]

2020 Catcher Rankings - Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Leagues

Spring Training is upon us! Pitchers and catchers have reported and we finally have some box scores to desperately over-analyze. The catcher position can really be a headache for dynasty owners trying to plan for the future. Needless to say, it is not a position that many MLB teams count on for offense, leaving fantasy players […]

Freddy Peralta Finalizing Long-Term Extension With Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a new five-year deal with pitcher Freddy Peralta. The deal is for five years and $15.5 million with two club options that could bring the value up to $30 million, per Ken Rosenthal with The Athletic. The 23-year-old has been battling for a spot in the rotation this spring, […]

Platoon Watch: Part-Time Infielders Worth Rostering

It seems that platooning in major league baseball has become increasingly popular every year. This strategy benefits teams by protecting aging veterans from injury and by getting the most advantageous lineup versus a specifically-handed pitcher. While platooning is smart for major league clubs, it gives us fantasy managers headaches when our player rides the pine […]

Freddy Peralta Competing With Eric Lauer For Fifth Rotation Spot

Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta is competing for the fifth rotation spot, according to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Peralta spent most of last season in the Brewers bullpen, but the team wants to give the young arm another opportunity in the starting rotation. Peralta reported to Brewers camp with a new […]

2020 Outfield Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

We've been breaking down rankings for points leagues over the last couple of weeks in order to prepare fantasy owners for draft day. To check out previous analysis articles by position, click the following links: first base, second base, third base, shortstop, catcher, starting pitcher, relief pitcher. Outfield is obviously the deepest of all positions […]

ADP Cost Analysis - Luis Robert vs Kyle Tucker

With spring training games officially underway, excitement around the fantasy baseball season simultaneously hits a new peak. As batting orders begin to map out and pitching rotations start to take shape, a lot of movement happens on ADP lists. Prospects tend to gain the most helium around this time of year because we have a […]

2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers - Josh Lindblom

Josh Lindblom began his professional baseball career at 21-years-old in the Dodgers’ minor league system more than a decade ago, but the pitcher was never able to gain a foothold in the major leagues. Over his career so far, Lindblom has thrown 147 major league innings to go along with 497.1 minor league innings, owning […]

2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers – Jo Adell

The most coveted type of player in fantasy baseball is the batter who can hit home runs, steal bases and hit for contact. Stolen bases are harder to find, as more big-league teams are opting to take a cautious approach to baserunning. Additionally, batting average has declined because hitters are striking out more often, as […]

Dylan Cease (SP, CHW) - Fantasy Draft Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~250 (around Adrian Houser, Anthony DeSclafani, Sandy Alcantara) CURRENT ADP: ~283 overall ANALYSIS: The White Sox have a few young arms of intrigue in Cease, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez. However, Cease may have the most upside for 2020. He has elite stuff, with a curveball that seemed electric last season and, according to […]

Luis Urias Cleared To Resume Some Activity

Milwaukee Brewers infielder Luis Urias (wrist) was cleared to resume some baseball activity Saturday, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports. Urías played catch and said it never felt so good. “It went well,” Urías said. “I feel fine. I don’t know when we’re going to start hitting, but it could be today or tomorrow. I’m really […]

2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers - Adrian Houser

In life, there seem to be two kinds of people, the flashy and the boring. “Flashy” people like high-end materialistic things such as nice clothing or an expensive car. "Boring” people prefer the simpler things in life like spending time with their loved ones. This seems to be true when it comes to fantasy baseball, […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Pitcher Statcast

Statcast metrics such as Barrels and Brls/BBE are great ways to evaluate a batter's performance, so it is only natural to assume that the metrics would be predictive for pitchers as well. As much as batters want to hit a Barrel every time, pitchers want to avoid them at all costs. Yet there is evidence […]

Bases Loaded Podcast - All Things Fantasy Baseball w/ Nick Pollack (@PitcherList)

Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) is  joined by Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) and they discuss all things fantasy baseball! Subscribe to the Bases Loaded podcast, part of RotoBaller Radio's Podcast Network. Like and Subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all our latest podcasts and catch us on iTunes and BlogTalkRadio as well! Be sure to also tune […]

Finding Combo-Player Values Using Z-Scores and ATC Projections

Towards the end of last season, I asked the question – “Draft Speed or Pound the Power?” Loaded in this seemingly simple query are two contradictory approaches – one for power and one for speed. Power Approach 1: Home run totals are dramatically up in baseball these days. Therefore, there are many power bats available […]

Relief Pitchers to Target for Holds

Hold on... there are fantasy leagues that reward middle relievers, not just starters and closers? Yes, there are, and leagues that reward holds are one of the fastest-growing segments of fantasy baseball as real baseball continues to diminish the role of the starter in favor of building deep bullpens with multiple relievers that throw 95+ […]

2020 Second Base Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a different strategy if you wish to truly compete. Rankings themselves are a different beast altogether, as category specialists like Mallex Smith and Dee Gordon (stolen bases), Kyle Schwarber and Franmil Reyes (home runs), […]

2020 Second Base Rankings - Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Leagues

As the season draws near, we realize more and more that it's draft season. There is a large portion of fantasy baseball busy with mock drafts, rankings, sleepers, and more mock drafts. The Dynasty community, on the other hand, is looking to continue their dominance, rebuild, or in a worst-case scenario, stick their hands up […]

Four Prospect Sleepers for 2020 Redraft Leagues

Recently, Rotoballer launched a list of the Top 50 MLB prospects for the coming year. The top of the list was populated by names such as Gavin Lux, Luis Robert, and Brendan McKay. These players, among others, feature a promising combination of talent and favorable playing time projections to suggest they’ll be the cream-of-the-crop among […]

Brock Holt To Sign With Brewers

Utility player Brock Holt has agreed to a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, pending a physical, MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal reported Monday night. Holt finished his seventh season with the Red Sox with a .297 batting average, 39 runs scored and 31 RBI in 259 at-bats. He figures to serve as a super-utility man […]

Avisail Garcia, Ryan Braun To Split Time In Right Field

Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell said that outfielders Avisail Garcia and Ryan Braun will share time in right field this year, with Braun also playing some first base. Christian Yelich will move from right field to left field in 2020. Braun, 36, managed to play in 144 games for Milwaukee last year, hitting .285 with […]

2020 Keeper Value Rankings - Second Base

Keeper Value Rankings are intended for Keeper Leagues in which a fantasy owner must forfeit a designated draft pick in order to keep a player into the upcoming season. These rankings are based on Keeper "Values". In the marketing world, Value can be defined as "the extent to which a good or service (player) is […]

2020 Starting Pitcher Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a very different strategy if you wish to truly compete. All preseason long, RotoBaller has you covered with the latest rankings for all fantasy baseball league types. Here we present our points league rankings […]

How to Attack RP in SV+HLD Leagues

No position has seen as much evolution in recent seasons as the relief pitcher. Gone are the days where starters were expected to go seven innings as most teams have embraced the idea of "super-bullpening" and try to fit as many pitchers that can throw 95+ MPH into their bullpen as they can. Many fantasy […]

Mock Draft Review: Best Late-Round Targets

Last week, some members of the RotoBaller staff completed a 12-team mock draft for standard 5x5 format. After the draft, we each broke down our strategy and some of our favorite picks, which can be found here. However, I want to take a closer look at one portion of the draft in particular. Since we know that […]