Brad Miller In The Running At Both First and Second Base

Tampa Bay Rays infielder Brad Miller could be in the running at either first base or second base. The general manager of the Rays went on the radio that they had an "open mind" when figuring out the right side of the infield. It was also noted that Miller would be in the running at either first […]

Brad Miller Expected To Play First Base

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash said the plan for now is for infielder Brad Miller to play first base, with Micah Johnson, Daniel Robertson, Ryan Schimpf and Joey Wendle battling for the second base duties. Miller is also a candidate to start at the keystone if the Rays add a first baseman before the […]

Denard Span (OF, TB) - 2018 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~400 CURRENT ADP: 442 ANALYSIS: Denard Span did a little of everything without excelling at anything in 2017, slashing .272/.329/.427 with 12 homers and 12 swipes (seven CS). That makes him a boring fantasy selection, but he's useful roster glue in short bursts or deeper formats. Span's home park really seemed to hurt him last year, […]

Christian Arroyo (SS/3B, TB) - 2018 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~400 CURRENT ADP: 527 ANALYSIS: Christian Arroyo was dreadful in 135 MLB PAs last season, slashing .192/.244/.304 with three dingers. He was too good at Triple-A before his debut, slashing .396/.461/.604 with four big flies over 102 PAs on the back of a .427 BABIP. His full season Double-A statistics in 2016 (.274/.316/.373, three […]

Brent Honeywell (SP, TB) - 2018 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~260 CURRENT ADP: 276 ANALYSIS: Brent Honeywell took the minor leagues by storm in 2015 by posting a 3.18 ERA, 1.051 WHIP, 8.9 K/9, and 4.78 K/BB between Low-A and High-A. He entered the MLB Pipeline Top 100 (checking in at #43) prior to the 2016 season and hasn't stopped producing since. Many expected Honeywell to […]

Chris Archer Doesn't Expect To Be Traded

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Chris Archer feels confident that he won't be traded before the start of the season. “I’ve talked to (GM) Erik (Neander) a lot and he’s made me feel pretty good about being with the Rays in 2018," Archer said. Archer has mostly been linked to the Cardinals this offseason, but […]

Willie Calhoun is Coming...

Last season, the Rangers surprised the baseball world by trading superstar Yu Darvish to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a return that, at the time, was deemed pretty sparse. The centerpiece was a little known, and maybe lesser-appreciated infielder named Willie Calhoun. Drafted in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB draft, Calhoun started his […]

Steven Souza Jr. Avoids Arbitration

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Steven Souza Jr. avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $3.55 million deal, according to a source. Although his batting average remained low (.239) due to inconsistent contact, Souza otherwise had a career year, hitting 30 home runs and driving in 78 runs in 148 games. Despite the lack of […]

Alex Colome Avoids Arbitration

Tampa Bay Rays closer Alex Colome avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $5.3 million deal, according to a source. While Colome recorded an MLB-leading 47 saves in 2017, his overall numbers elsewhere weren't as impressive as his 2016 campaign. His strikeout and walk rates both went in the wrong direction, and his ERA […]

Rays, Corey Dickerson Avoid Arbitration

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Corey Dickerson avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $5.95 million deal. Dickerson made some gains against left-handed pitchers in 2017, which is encouraging, but he remains a power stick that is BABIP-dependent. However, he'll be valuable for fantasy owners across all leagues with a full-time outfield role for Tampa […]

Mets Considering Lucas Duda Reunion

The New York Mets may not be done just yet in terms of reuniting with players they traded in 2017. After re-signing outfielder Jay Bruce on Wednesday, the Amazins are reportedly considering making a run at free-agent first baseman Lucas Duda as well. In 126 games last season between the Mets and Tampa Bay Rays, Duda […]

Fantasy Implications - Yonder Alonso to Indians

It was a breakout year for Yonder Alonso in 2017, as he recorded career-highs in home runs (28), on-base percentage (.365) and slugging percentage (.501). Alonso has generally been able to get on base at a good rate with a career .340 OBP, but it was the power surge that was the most surprising for […]

2018 Relief Pitchers - Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings

We wind up our mixed league rankings analysis with a look at the most volatile position of all, relief pitchers. Whether you choose to grab a top-notch closer early or prefer to work the waiver wire all season, these early rankings will give you a good sense of where the current market values each reliever, before […]

Fantasy Implications - Evan Longoria Traded to Giants

After losing out to the Yankees in the Giancarlo Stanton sweepstakes and failing to lure Japanese star Shohei Ohtani, the Giants settled on a trade for third baseman Evan Longoria from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for outfielder Denard Span, infielder Christian Arroyo, and a pair of minor league pitching prospects. Longoria, a former […]

2018 Starting Pitchers - Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings

Welcome back to the early edition of RotoBaller’s 2018 fantasy baseball rankings! As a reminder, this round of rankings comes to you courtesy of Pierre Camus and Jeff Kahntroff, in addition to yours truly. Today, I’ll be taking a look at how we ranked starting pitchers. As you peruse the info below, keep in mind […]

2018 Outfielders - Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings

It's a new year, and with that comes our first set of rankings for the 2018 fantasy baseball season. As a reminder, our first round of rankings comes to you courtesy of Pierre Camus and Jeff Kahntroff, in addition to yours truly. Today, I’ll be finishing up the hitter side of things with a look at […]

Champ or Chump - Christian Arroyo & Denard Span

We have previously seen that both West Coast teams and bad teams are great places to mine for fantasy gold because nobody is keeping up with their games. There is a third category that also goes underappreciated: the Tampa Bay Rays. The team isn't projected to be bad (80-82 projection by Steamer) and they're not […]

Mets Considering Logan Morrison, Adam Lind

The New York Mets are open to adding free-agent first basemen Logan Morrison or Adam Lind as they look to give young first baseman Dominic Smith some competition in 2018. It's been a slow-developing free-agent market, so Morrison and Lind could fall into the team's lap on the cheap. However, Morrison may be too expensive […]

Alex Cobb Rejects Cubs First Offer

David Kaplan of NBC Sports Chicago reports that free-agent starting pitcher Alex Cobb rejected the Chicago Cubs three-year offer worth $42 million. Kaplan reports that Cobb is interested in the Cubs but was advised by his agent to turn down the offer. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports has previously reported that Cobb is seeking a […]

2018 First Base - Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings

We continue our fantasy baseball tiered rankings analysis with the first base position. RotoBaller writers Kyle Bishop, Jeff Kahntroff, and I have come up with our initial pre-draft rankings to give you a sense of player values as early as possible. There are plenty of free agents yet to sign, so keep in mind that these rankings […]

2018 Catchers - Early Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings

With the holidays in the rearview mirror, it’s time to turn our attention to the upcoming fantasy baseball season. (Or, if you’re me, it’s finally time to start writing about it now that people aren’t focused on the vastly inferior but more popular fantasy sport that is football). Our first round of rankings comes to […]

Dynasty Shortstops - Top MLB Prospects for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers. I'll be breaking down impact prospects in dynasty leagues by position over the next several weeks. I’ve already covered catchers, first basemen, second basemen and third basemen. Today I'm bringing you my top 10 shortstops - dynasty prospect rankings for 2018 dynasty baseball leagues. Though there are still plenty of players who could […]

2018 Dynasty Baseball Strategy - The Home Run Elephant in the Room

We've all heard about the home runs. A total of 6,105 balls left the yard in 2017 - or avoided outfielders sufficiently for an inside-the-park home run. The previous record of 5,693 home runs was set in 2000 during the peak of the steroid era. This time, juiced balls and mechanical changes seem to be […]

Champ or Chump: Chris Archer and Justin Verlander

Way back in March, I wrote a multi-part tutorial on how to use all of the metrics cited in Champ or Chump. I concluded the series by introducing Barrels and Brls/BBE, arguing that the metrics could have been used to predict Chris Carter's 2016 HR title had they been available before the season started. Gary […]

Daily Fantasy Baseball Lineup Picks (9/30/17): MLB DFS Advice for FanDuel, DraftKings

This Saturday has a full slate of games, so it's time to build some lineups. With several different contests being offered across FanDuel and DraftKings, you'll have lots of different lineup options. For our purposes, the following picks have been made for contests running all day. In this article, I will be providing you with my […]

Streaming Wars: Waiver Wire Targets for September 28

Welcome to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. Use this column to improve upon your neediest categories in this, the final week of the season. Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Thursday, September 28. Let's get to it.Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools […]

Streaming Wars: Waiver Wire Targets for September 27

Welcome to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. Use this column to improve upon your neediest categories in this, the final week of the season. Below are your pitcher and hitter streaming targets for Wednesday, September 27. Let's get to it.Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools […]

Week 26 Middle Infield (MI) Waiver Wire Targets

Championship week is among us! If you have made it this far, you are certainly doing something right. With the final week among us I will be digging deep to find some hot bats to help you out in the final week.  As I normally mention, when it comes to the back-end of your rosters […]

Today's Starting Pitcher Rankings (9/26/17)

Below you will find our fantasy baseball and DFS rankings for all of today's projected starting pitchers (September 26th). It's the fantasy baseball homestretch, so be sure to add and start the right pitchers daily. The concept is pretty straight forward. We round up our daily pitcher rankings, which will hopefully help you make your start/sit […]

Week 26 Start/Sit Matchups: MLB Starting Pitchers (SP)

This is it, folks. For anyone left playing in rotisserie leagues, these are our weekly starting pitcher matchups. For those in head-to-head leagues, you probably finished up last week. Hopefully we helped you win your leagues! Below are the projected starting pitching matchups for Week 26, and will be updated as more starters are announced. If […]