The Operating Room Ep. 18: 2021 Fantasy Baseball Intro

Kev Mahserejian (@RotoSurgeon) is joined by CBS Fantasy's Frank Stampfl (@Roto_Frank) to discuss the 2021 fantasy baseball season. This episode is a primer that covers the questions looming large across the fantasy landscape. Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, and […]

Gio Urshela Close To Full Health

New York Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela (elbow) is close to full strength, according to manager Aaron Boone. Urshela has made encouraging progress after undergoing offseason surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow, and fantasy managers should expect him to be ready for Opening Day (or extremely close to it) at this point. […]

Luis Severino Close To Throwing On Mound

New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino (elbow) has been playing catch and is expected to throw off of a mound within the next few weeks. Severino missed the entire 2020 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in February, and the 26-year-old appears to be on track for his original target return date sometime in […]

Yankees Interested In Signing Brett Gardner

Free-agent outfielder Brett Garnder still has a shot at returning to the Yankees in 2021, and the team reportedly continues to express interest in the 37-year-old. Gardner's fantasy value isn't great if he rejoins the Yankees as he'd be the team's fourth outfielder with the possibility of getting overtaken on the depth chart by Mike […]

Top 250 Dynasty Prospects Rankings (Part 1)

RotoBaller's Top 250 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Prospects list is back and refreshed for the 2021 season. Baseball has undergone a lot of change over the past 12 months due to the pandemic and no area of the game has been more heavily impacted than the minor leagues. Since this time last year, Minor League Baseball has […]

2021 First Base Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues

The chaotic, wild, and confusing 2020 COVID season is now thankfully behind us, am I right fellow Red Sox fans? But now is the hardest part in terms of fantasy implications from the pandemic as we try to decipher how much of 2020's statistics are actually viable data for 2021 projections. Small playing time samples, […]

Kyle Higashioka Won’t Be Gerrit Cole’s Personal Catcher In 2021

New York Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka won't start the season as starting pitcher Gerrit Cole's personal catcher in 2021, according to manager Aaron Boone. Catcher Gary Sanchez's all-around struggles last season, combined with Cole's improved performance with Higashioka behind the plate (1.00 ERA with Higashioka, 3.91 ERA with Sanchez), has fueled speculation that Higashioka would primarily […]

Clint Frazier Will Start In 2021

New York Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier was named the team's starting left fielder by manager Aaron Boone on Wednesday. That announcement should come as no surprise after Frazier posted a .905 OPS in 39 games last season, but the 26-year-old's playing time has been unusually inconsistent so far in his MLB career and it's encouraging […]

Brett Gardner’s Future With The Yankees Uncertain

Free-agent outfielder Brett Gardner faces an uphill battle if he wants to return to the Yankees in 2021, and manager Aaron Boone was noncommittal about Gardner's chances of rejoining the team this season in a press conference on Wednesday. One of the few lefties in an otherwise righty-dominated Yankee lineup over the past couple of […]

Yankees Sign Robinson Chirinos

Free-agent catcher Robinson Chirinos signed a minor-league contract with the New York Yankees on Monday, adding some uncertainty to the team's catching situation. Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole pitched well with Chirinos behind the plate when the two were teammates in 2019 with the Astros, and there's some speculation that Cole and Chirinos might be paired […]

Justin Wilson Agrees To Deal With Yankees

The New York Yankees have agreed to a deal with relief pitcher Justin Wilson, pending a physical. Wilson pitched for the Yankees back in 2015 and spent the last two years pitching out of the New York Mets bullpen. Last year, Wilson posted a 3.66 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over 19.2 innings, averaging 10.5 K/9. […]

Exploiting Early Strength of Schedule for Starting Pitchers

It's important to have a strong starting rotation for your fantasy teams. If you rely on too many high-upside arms with wide ranges of outcomes, you could be struggling to keep up in pitching categories the rest of the season, especially ERA and WHIP. High-volume pitchers with elite strikeout rates are hard to find in the […]

Sneaky Starters - Deceptive Pitchers Who Could Be Draft Steals

Earlier this week, I was reading Michael Ajeto's article on PitcherList about Brady Singer. In the article, Michael touted Singer's deception and mentioned a sign of that being Singer's Zone Swing Rate (Z-Swing%) minus his Chase Rate (O-Swing%). The premise of the concept was simple but one that stood out to me immediately. Z-Swing% measures […]

Yankees Sign Jay Bruce

New York Yankees outfielder Jay Bruce signed a minor-league contract with the team on Saturday. Bruce has a shot to make the team's Opening Day roster given its general lack of left-handed hitters, and his signing makes it even less likely that outfielder Brett Gardner (who has reportedly yet to receive an offer from the […]

Luke Voit Fully Healthy

New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit (foot) is fully healthy and ready to participate in all baseball activities. There was never any reported doubt that Voit would be ready to go for Opening Day after suffering from plantar fasciitis during the 2020 season, but injuries can be tricky and it's good to see Voit […]

Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton Trying New Workout Programs

New York Yankees outfielders Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have both made significant changes to their offseason workout programs with a focus on staying healthy for the duration of the 2021 season. Judge (91 days) and Stanton (199 days) have spent a combined 290 days on the injured list over the past two seasons, and […]

Relief Pitchers Set To Bust In 2021

Projecting relievers is notoriously tricky, and that’s especially true after an irregular 2020 season. As is prone to happen in small samples of performance, otherwise strong relievers sometimes have down seasons that are not entirely in their control. Still, some relievers are more likely to bust than others, and fantasy managers would do well to […]

Outfield Dynasty Rankings for Fantasy Baseball

We've already gone around the infield with a look at first base, second base, third base, and shortstop. Let's head to the outfield now to break down the long list of outfielders that have fantasy relevance in 2021 and beyond. All of the players listed have outfield eligibility, although several will be used at shallower […]

2021 Catcher Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues

The chaotic, wild, and confusing 2020 COVID season is now thankfully behind us, am I right fellow Red Sox fans? But now is the hardest part in terms of fantasy implications from the pandemic as we try to decipher how much of 2020's statistics are actually viable data for 2021 projections. Small playing time samples, […]

2021 All-Value Team: Pouncing on ADP Fallers

One of the most common ways to get ahead in fantasy baseball is to be on the right side of small sample-size overreactions. After the 2020 season that saw just 60 regular-season games for each team, there is sure to be a lot of this as we approach draft season for 2021. Most hitters will suffer […]

Yankees, Among Others, Watch David Robertson Throw

Free-agent relief pitcher David Robertson (elbow) threw for a number of teams on Thursday, including the New York Yankees, at the University of Alabama. Robertson touched 91 mph and showed off his patented curveball and looks to be in shape with a week until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. The Phillies declined the […]

Fantasy Baseball Preseason Injury Updates

Injuries remain commonplace in all sports. Baseball has seen the rate of injury continue to rise over the past few years. In fantasy, if someone is not in the medical field, it is hard to gauge how long a player will be out and whether they need to be replaced in a lineup. Sometimes this […]

Zach Eflin (SP, PHI) - 2021 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

Welcome back to RotoBaller's 2021 draft sleepers series. Here we'll take a look at one of my favorite breakout picks, Phillies starter Zach Eflin. Eflin elevated his game to new heights last year. The right-hander had his best season in the majors posting a 3.97 ERA, 3.50 SIERA, 1.27 WHIP, and a 10.2 SwStr% in […]

Top 50 Fantasy Baseball Redraft Prospects for 2021 (Part 2)

Spring Training 2021 is almost here, which means it’s time to start thinking about prospects again. A strong pop-up performance from a rookie or two can have a massive impact on a fantasy manager’s season. If we look back to the truncated 2020 season, we can easily locate a healthy dose of players that had […]

Top 750: Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Rankings

What's up RotoBallers. Today we are bringing you our top 750 fantasy baseball dynasty rankings for the 2021 MLB season. Dynasty leagues, or keeper formats, continue to become more and more popular in the fantasy sports landscape. For those of you who are playing in dynasty formats, or are interested in long-term valuations of fantasy players, […]

Richard Rodriguez (RP, PIT) - 2021 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

Saves are a scarce commodity in today's game, as more and more teams are relying on multiple relievers to handle ninth-inning duties. In last year's abbreviated season, just 10 pitchers reached double digits in the category. Going a little further down the list, only 18 closed out seven or more games, and that includes guys […]

Top 50 Fantasy Baseball Redraft Prospects for 2021 (Part 1)

Spring Training 2021 is almost here, which means it’s time to start thinking about prospects again. A strong pop-up performance from a rookie or two can have a massive impact on a fantasy manager’s season. If we look back to the truncated 2020 season, we can easily locate a healthy dose of players that had […]

Kyle Barraclough Joins Yankees Bullpen Mix

Right-handed pitcher Kyle Barraclough has inked a Minor League deal with the New York Yankees that includes an invite to Major League Spring Training later in February. Barraclough has not pitched in the big leagues since 2019 when he posted a 5.61 ERA across 43 appearances split between Miami and San Francisco. Having served as […]

Gio Urshela Throwing, Hitting, Fielding

New York Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela (elbow) has been hitting, throwing, and taking ground balls as he continues to recover from offseason elbow surgery. A bone spur nagged Urshela during part of the 2020 season, and the 29-year-old underwent surgery in early December to remove the bone spur from his elbow. Urshela is expected […]

Dynasty Shortstop Rankings for Fantasy Baseball

The shortstop position is usually one of the most exciting to choose from on draft day but the options are even more enticing in dynasty. As we prepare to flip the calendar to 2021, fantasy baseball managers are poring over MLB free agency news and the latest rankings. That includes our constantly-updated dynasty rankings. We've […]