Dynasty Third Base Rankings for Fantasy Baseball
We will continue our early preseason look at each position with some thoughts on individual player values heading into 2021. We've already gone over first base and second base rankings. Today, we examine a fairly deep third base position. As we prepare to flip the calendar to 2021, fantasy baseball managers are poring over MLB free […]
Top 440: Early H2H Points League Rankings
Welcome back RotoBallers. Below you will find our early 2021 fantasy baseball H2H points league rankings (top 440). As you may know, head-to-head points formats are typically underserved by fantasy baseball outlets - but this is an area that we at RotoBaller take pride in and specialize in. Throughout the preseason and regular season, we will […]
No Universal DH - 2021 Playing Time Fallers
Major League Baseball introduced the DH to the National League in 2020, but the rule change may not stick in 2021. MLB recently advised teams to assume that the universal DH will not be implemented for the 2021 season, and although that doesn’t mean that the door is closed on the rule for the year […]
Top 680: Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings (January)
Welcome back RotoBallers, and Happy New Year! Below you will find our staff's early 2021 fantasy baseball tiered rankings (top 680) for 5x5 mixed leagues. In case you missed it, you can also see our tiered positional rankings as well. Three our lead fantasy baseball analysts - Nick Mariano, Pierre Camus and JB Branson - have analyzed the MLB offseason moves and are ready to […]
Dynasty Second Base Rankings for Fantasy Baseball
We will continue our early preseason look at each position with some thoughts on individual player values heading into 2021. We've already gone over first base. Today, we continue with second base. As we prepare to flip the calendar to 2021, fantasy baseball managers are poring over MLB free agency news and the latest rankings. […]
Dynasty First Base Rankings for Fantasy Baseball
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 will take an early preseason look at each position with some thoughts on individual player values heading into next season. Today, we start with first […]
Alex Wood Signs With Giants
The San Francisco Giants signed left-hander Alex Wood to a one-year, $3 million deal on Friday. The 30-year-old can make an extra $3 million in performance bonuses for the number of games in which he gets 10 or more outs. Wood was an All-Star in 2017 and went 0-1 with a 6.39 ERA in two […]
Giants Showing Interest In Cole Hamels
The San Francisco Giants are among the teams to show interest in free-agent starting pitcher Cole Hamels (triceps, shoulder), even though the 37-year-old hasn't scheduled a throwing session for scouts. Hamels plans to pitch in 2021 after making just one start for the Braves last season. He was limited by left triceps tendinitis and shoulder […]
Abandon the Win AND the Quality Start
The Win. One of the cornerstone categories of fantasy baseball since its creation. In recent years, baseball fans and fantasy managers alike have been debating the value of the win and whether or not it's overrated. With this debate, the quality start has become a category that more and more leagues are turning to as […]
Phillies Acquire Sam Coonrod From Giants
The Philadelphia Phillies acquired right-hander Sam Coonrod from the San Francisco Giants on Saturday in exchange for right-hander Carson Ragsdale, according to Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The 28-year-old Coonrod has made 51 career appearances for the Giants after being a fifth-round pick in 2014 out of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Coonrod had a […]
Valuable Long Relievers of 2020 and the Lingering Impact (Part 2)
In part one, we examined the bullpens in Toronto and Cincinnati. The circumstantial insanity of the 2020 MLB season necessitated some adjustments in strategy, both for big-league managers and fantasy baseball GMs. One of these adjustments, prompted by frequent doubleheaders and the three-batter minimum rule, was the greater use of long-relievers and a generally reduced […]
Giants Sign Curt Casali Monday
The San Francisco Giants signed catcher Curt Casali to a one-year, $1.5 million deal on Monday. Casali is a veteran catcher that will become the front-runner to back up Buster Posey next season. Left-hander Andrew Suarez's contractual rights were sold to the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization in a corresponding move. The 32-year-old […]
Valuable Long Relievers of 2020 and the Lingering Impact (Part 1)
The circumstantial insanity of the 2020 MLB season necessitated some adjustments in strategy, both for big-league managers and fantasy baseball GMs. One of these adjustments, prompted by frequent doubleheaders and the three-batter minimum rule, was the greater use of long-relievers and a generally reduced workload for rotation pitchers. That makes sense from the perspective of […]
Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball First Base Rankings
Once again, I'll start by saying 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. Join me for my position-by-position […]
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 […]
Giants Sign John Brebbia Monday
The San Francisco Giants signed right-handed reliever John Brebbia (elbow) to a one-year deal on Monday. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The 30-year-old missed all of the 2020 season after having Tommy John surgery in June. He had a 3.14 ERA in 175 innings with the Cardinals from 2017-19, including a 1.10 WHIP […]
Statcast Review - Noteworthy xBA/xSLG Hitting Leaders
Thanks to its abbreviated schedule, the 2020 MLB season resulted in some unusual outcomes. Michael Conforto posted the highest full-season BABIP since Ty Cobb in 1913, Luke Voit was on pace for 60 home runs, and Robbie Ray walked a ridiculous 18% of the batters he faced. xStats were not immune to that weirdness, xBA […]
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 […]
Johnny Cueto Won't Pitch In Winter Ball
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and the team have decided that he will not pitch in winter ball in his native Dominican Republic this year, given that the 2020 season was his first quasi-full season since returning from Tommy John surgery. Cueto was originally scheduled to pitch for the Estrellas Orientales. Manager Gabe […]
Anthony DeSclafani Signs With Giants
The San Francisco Giants signed right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani to a one-year deal worth $6 million on Wednesday, according to a source. According to president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, the team will continue to look for another top-tier starting pitcher. DeSclafani struggled in 2020, going 1-2 with a 7.22 ERA in nine games (seven […]
Buster Posey Remains Giants Primary Catcher
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey will remain the team's "primary catcher" in 2021 and will receive "the lion's share of the reps" behind the dish despite the presence of top prospect Joey Bart, according to manager Gabe Kapler. The six-time All-Star is owed $21.4 million in what could be the last year of his […]
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 […]
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 […]
Giants Re-Sign Chadwick Tromp
The San Francisco Giants re-signed catcher Chadwick Tromp to a major league deal on Wednesday a week after non-tendering the Aruban rookie. Tromp is now back in the mix to open next season as a backup to Buster Posey, with the team indicating that they could start top prospect Joey Bart at Triple-A Sacramento to […]
A Year to Remember: Players with Career Years in 2020
The 2020 baseball season was a short one, but still a season where some players could jump onto the scene and give fantasy players something to look forward to in the coming years. Some will say 60 games are not enough for a "career season," but I beg to differ, and so do the four […]
Giants Agree With Matt Wisler
The San Francisco Giants agreed with right-handed reliever Matt Wisler on a one-year, $1.15 million deal on Tuesday. Wisler was excellent in 2020 with the Twins, recording a 1.07 ERA and 35 strikeouts over 25 1/3 relief innings. He was used as an opener in four games and also picked up one save. Most of […]
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 […]
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 […]