Sean Manaea Effective In Spring Start Versus White Sox

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Sean Manaea allowed one run on five hits in 5 1/3 innings pitched in a Cactus League start against the White Sox. Manaea struck out three and walked two while lowering his spring ERA to an even three. Manaea doesn't pitch deep into games, but he's a surprisingly strong source of […]

Correlating Statcast to Outcomes: Why You Should Pay Attention to Barrels

Barrels are the keeper of life’s finer things. Beer, pickles, monkeys, the list is endless. Barrels don’t just hold fermented vegetables and unruly simians these days, barrels may also hold the key to identifying the game’s best hitters and struggling hitters who may be due for brighter days. In my mission to find just how […]

JB's Bold Predictions for 2021

I'm going to let you in on a little secret... JB stands for "JUST BOLDNESS". Okay that's a lie... it's actually not a secret because I use that every year in my bold predictions intro (three years in a row now, sure saves time on writing a new intro though). Nevertheless, welcome to the latest […]

2021 Points League Ranks - First Base

Draft season is in full gear as we're only less than two weeks from Opening Day baseball. 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 […]

Daulton Jefferies Making Case For Fifth Rotation Spot

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Daulton Jefferies fired four innings of shutout baseball on Tuesday against the Rockies as he makes his case to be the fifth starter to begin the season. Mike Fiers (hip) and A.J. Puk are also in the running for the job, but Fiers has been injured and Puk has struggled with […]

Jon Anderson's "My Guys" For 2021

My name is Jon Anderson and I am a nobody in the fantasy baseball industry. I have no credentials, no huge following on social media. However, I was given a log-in to this website and now I can freely put my words out there for you to read. That's more than nothing, which has given […]

Ramon Laureano Back In Action Monday

Oakland Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano (side) is back in the lineup for Monday's game against the Rockies. Laureano was scratched from Wednesday's game last week after feeling some pain in his side. The 26-year-old was slated to get simulated game at-bats before seeing spring action again, though he appears to have recovered ahead of schedule, […]

Ka'ai Tom Continues Hot Spring In Push For Roster Spot

Oakland Athletics outfielder Ka'ai Tom is 8-for-16 with four extra-base hits and five RBI through five Cactus League games. Tom was a Rule 5 Draft pick and is competing for the fourth outfielder job in Oakland with Seth Brown. Tom was impressive again on Monday roping a two-run double and also drawing a walk against […]

Jesus Luzardo Impressive In Third Start On Monday

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo was much sharper in his third start of the spring on Monday against the Diamondbacks. Luzardo twirled 4 1/3 innings, surrendering three hits and a walk while fanning three batters. This was by far the best outing of the spring for the 23-year-old, as he had allowed five earned […]

A.J. Puk Hit Hard By Diamondbacks

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher A.J. Puk allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings in a Cactus League game against the Diamondbacks. Puk allowed three hits and two walks while only striking out one in a relief outing Monday. Fantasy managers generally shouldn't put too much stock into Spring Training stats, but given how little Puk […]

Kyle Bishop's 10 Bold Predictions for 2021

I've been in the bold predictions game since 2015 and in that time I've had my share of successes. Befitting a premise that demands spicy takes, though, I've also wildly missed the mark a bunch of times (whither goest thou, Byung-Ho Park and Delino DeShields?) The format's been around long enough that you almost certainly know the […]

Nick Mariano's Top 140 Saves+Holds Rankings

To any reader who thinks they don't have a voice here at RotoBaller, let it be known that this article came from a simple Reddit comment about how those seeking Saves+Holds reliever ranks were often overlooked. Poof, and here we are. Allow me, Nick Mariano, 2018's most accurate draft expert (top-three for RPs in '18 […]

Tyler Soderstrom Impressing Coaches In A's Camp

Oakland Athletics catcher prospect Tyler Soderstrom is turning heads in big league camp as he prepares for his first season of pro-ball. The 19-year-old Soderstrom has no chance of being on the Opening Day roster, however, manager Bob Melvin has been impressed with the 2020 first-round draft pick. Melvin said, "For a guy that's still […]

Elvis Andrus Off To A Slow Start In Cactus League Play

Oakland Athletics shortstop Elvis Andrus has gotten off to a slow start in his first Spring Training with his new team. Andrus is batting just .207 and has reached base only seven times through 30 plate appearances this Spring. Andrus is coming off a lost 2020 season as lingering back issues limited him to 32 […]

Spring Training Lineup Takeaways - Week 3 Lineup Trends

We are entering week four of Spring Training and week three gave us a lot to watch down the stretch. But of course, you can catch up by talking a look at week one and week two recaps. Just a reminder, in my Lineup Takeaways series we are focusing 100% on lineups, news and quotes […]

Finding Hitter Clones At Cheaper ADPs

One of the most useful algorithms in the machine learning world is that of data clustering. Clustering, in this case, is defined 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 […]

Multi-Position Assets For All Fantasy Leagues

With such a short season in 2020, many starting pitchers weren't able to throw more than 60 innings, so it's unlikely that they take the massive jump this season that would allow them to get to the 170-180 innings we usually expect. To work around this, many teams have discussed implementing six-man rotations and even […]

Chris Bassitt Continues To Pitch Well In Spring Training

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Chris Bassitt continued his strong spring by firing 3 2/3 shutout innings against the Angels on Saturday. Bassitt allowed one hit and two walks while striking out five in his third start of Cactus League play. The 32-year-old righty had a strong 2020 with a 2.29 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP, […]

Nick Mariano's H2H Points Leagues Targets (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Fantasy baseball drafts (and their articles) usually cater to the biggest stars or the deepest sleepers, but there are very few articles that simply discuss the mid-round targets that deserve a boost in points league formats (even if points veterans will laugh at some […]

Nick Mariano's H2H Points Leagues Early-Round Avoids (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Fantasy baseball drafts (and their articles) are almost all about finding the next superstar and unearthing talent late, but we can't forget that surrendering value by over-drafting can be just as crucial. There's insight out there for most anything, but coverage of points leagues […]

Stephen Piscotty Scratched From Lineup Friday

Oakland Athletics outfielder Stephen Piscotty (wrist) was scratched from Friday's lineup due to left wrist soreness, according to San Francisco Chronicle writer Matt Kawahara. Kawahara reports that Piscotty received a cortisone shot for the ailment, and that he is expected to miss a couple days. Piscotty has struggled this spring with a .150/.280/.150 line and […]

Points League Players and the Platforms Who Hate Them

Trust. Whether in roto, point leagues, or otherwise, players should be able to trust that the rankings and values they choose to rely on will be accurate and specific to their league format. That standard seems to be a bit fuzzy when it comes to points leagues, even though point leagues should be fantasy baseball's […]

2021 Points League Rankings - Starting Pitcher

We had to take a brief hiatus but are getting back at it on the points front at RotoBaller, now just a few weeks from the start of spring training. We've already covered most of the hitters so we're moving over to pitchers. So let's do some point ranks, shall we? If you've forgotten from […]

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 […]

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 […]

Later-Round Category Targets - WHIP

Welcome back to RotoBaller and my later-round category targets series, thanks for being here. In this article, we're going to talk about some middle and late-round starting pitchers that can help your team in the WHIP category. It's important to note that there is a ton of overlap with WHIP and ERA, and I've already made […]

Later-Round Category Targets - ERA

Starting pitching is a finicky thing in the fantasy world. There is certain to be lots of impactful injuries, breakouts, and busts this year within the starting pitching position. After the first handful of rounds of the draft, it gets pretty tough to find guys you can feel confident about helping your team in the […]