Best Ball Sleepers and Late Round Targets for Fantasy Baseball

Best ball leagues are one of the latest variations of fantasy baseball that are quickly growing in popularity. Draft day is the only day of the year where owners will have control over their roster. There is no waiver wire and there are no trades. Owners won't even set daily lineups, as they will instead […]

Updated Third Base Rankings - 2018 Fantasy Baseball

With the regular season blessedly just a few weeks away, it's time for the RotoBaller staff to update our rankings one last time. We continue our review of the March update with a look at the third base position. There's a ton of talent at the hot corner this season, with the usual elites at […]

Points League Primer - Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy

When discussing fantasy baseball, an often neglected but entertaining format is the points league. These exist in both season-long cumulative and weekly head-to-head leagues. While existential debates about scoring categories and their true depiction of player worth are endless, points leagues arguably get closest to the objective of sabermetrics. Points leagues attempt to define a […]

Top First Base Prospect Rankings - 2018 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers. I'll be breaking down impact prospects by position. Today I'm bringing you my top 10 first basemen - MLB prospect rankings for the 2018 fantasy baseball season. First base is always a challenging position to find rookie stars. It’s not every year a Cody Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins reach the majors. Most […]

Xander Bogaerts Rankings Debate - Comparing RotoBaller's Rankers

We continue our long-running series of articles debating fantasy rankings with a player who was widely selected in the second or third round last year, but endured a disappointing 2017 campaign. RotoBaller's expert writers have come up with our consensus rankings for mixed leagues, but that doesn't mean we agreed on everything. In this space, […]

Updated First Base Rankings - 2018 Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back RotoBallers. With the MLB season just a few short weeks a way, it's time to update our rankings and analysis to account for injuries, free agent signings, spring training risers/fallers and more. We kick off our updated March rankings today with the first base position. Harris breaks down each tier and provides analysis […]

Turning Two - Beware the Trending Six-Man Rotation

A six-man starting rotation? "That's just not what MLB is to me," Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels said recently. As someone accustomed to being at the forefront of a pitching staff and who's logged 362 starts over 12 Major League seasons, it's only logical that Hamels would expect to keep trotting out there as much as […]

Tim Lincecum to Join the Bullpen

Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that pitcher Tim Lincecum will be joining the bullpen for the Texas Rangers in 2018. What role he will occupy is still to be determined, according to general manager Jon Daniels, but the team has not ruled out using Lincecum in the late innings. The former Cy […]

Rangers Unlikely to Use Six-Man Rotation in 2018

It appears that Texas Rangers starting pitcher Cole Hamels got his wish, as the Star-Telegram's Jeff Wilson reports that the Rangers are unlikely to use a six-man rotation in the upcoming season. There had been chatter that the Rangers were considering the strategy in recent weeks, leading to Hamels' negative comments. It was unlikely that […]

Julio Pablo Martinez Could Sign With Rangers Tuesday

Cuban prospect Julio Pablo Martinez has been making the rounds since defecting to the U.S., and the Texas Rangers hope to sign him quickly. Tuesday is the first day that the 21-year-old outfielder is eligible to sign, and the Rangers have emerged as the front-runners within the last two weeks. They can offer him nearly […]

ADP Rankings Debate - Andrew Benintendi vs. Marcell Ozuna

RotoBallers Andrew Le and Sean Scampton recently did their best Celebrity Deathmatch impression by debating between Andrew Benintendi (Andrew) and Marcell Ozuna (Sean). Interestingly, Benintendi and Ozuna face an odd occurrence where one player has the ADP advantage while the other is being ranked higher overall and at their position. As always, arguments about players […]

Hitters Who Changed Scenes for 2018

We are just weeks away from the start of the 2018 baseball regular season, which makes it a good time to look back at the big roster moves made in this most recent offseason. I already provided a group of four pitchers who changed scenes. Now, here are four hitters who moved to different teams. For […]

Points Leagues Outfielders - Overvalued and Undervalued

As we’ve established, player values can fluctuate pretty widely between points leagues and the more popular, traditional rotisserie and head-to-head formats. If this is your first experience with a points league, you may be wondering how to identify players whose contributions make them more or less appealing for that particular scoring system. You've come to […]

Anthony Rendon Rankings Debate - Comparing RotoBaller's Rankers

We continue our long-running series of articles debating fantasy rankings with a player that managed to stay healthy enough to post his first 100-RBI season and is now one of the top third baseman on draft boards. RotoBaller's expert writers have come up with our consensus rankings for mixed leagues, but that doesn't mean we […]

Cole Hamels Not a Fan of Proposed Six-Man Rotation

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Cole Hamels had a "back in my day" moment when discussing the idea of deploying a six-man rotation. "That's just not what MLB is to me," Hamels told Gerry Fraley on Saturday. The Rangers have openly considered the six-man rotation an option that interests some of the more analytically-minded front offices. […]

Champ or Chump - C.J. Cron and Carlos Gomez

As promised, it's time to take a closer look at the players Tampa Bay brought in to replace those that the team shipped out of town. C.J. Cron has been buried behind uninspiring fantasy options such as Albert Pujols in recent years, but his underlying power metrics suggest a 30-HR campaign if given regular PAs. […]

RotoBaller Industry Expert Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft

On Thursday, February 15th, we brought together an illustrious group of industry experts to take part in the RotoBaller Friends and Family mock draft. We'll be playing this out as a best ball league. Our participants represented sites like: Creative Sports (Lawr Michaels) Fangraphs (Alex Chamberlain) GuruElite (Ray Flowers) Fantasy Alarm (Howard Bender) CBS (Heath […]

Joe Panik (2B, SF) - 2018 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers & Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Target ~295 CURRENT ADP: 385 ANALYSIS: Over the past two seasons, Joe Panik has put up eerily similar numbers, averaging 10 homers, 64 runs and 58 RBI. The only fluctuation was his batting average, where an unlucky .245 BABIP in 2016 resulted in a significantly lower .239 BA versus his career .282. Now […]

Elvis Andrus in the Lineup Friday

Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus (back) is taking the field in a live game for the first time in 2018. After sitting with back issues up until now, the steady performer is ready for action. Hitting in the two hole and taking the field at his usual shortstop position, it looks like Andrus is all good. […]

2018 Bullpen Outlooks - American League West

The American League West is third in our series of 2018 Early Bullpen Outlooks and will wrap up the AL side of things. The AL West has some solid bullpens with some dependable closers at the helm, but none who really inspire confidence as early or even mid-round fantasy selections. At least not yet. The Angels have some […]

2018 Relief Pitchers - Dynasty Tiered Rankings

As we move closer to the 2018 baseball season, at RotoBaller we have released our Dynasty Rankings. We have been dissecting the tiers of each position, showing fantasy owners where to find value in their draft. We have a total of 54 relief pitchers ranked in the first six tiers. When looking at dynasty leagues, one […]

Points Leagues Shortstops: Overvalued and Undervalued

As we’ve discussed before, points leagues are a bit of a different beast than the more popular head-to-head and rotisserie formats. One of the easiest and best ways to ensure that you’re making a smooth transition between these disparate styles is to identify players whose values change most. Luckily for you, you don’t have to go it […]

Seung Hwan Oh's Elbow Expected To Be Fine

When the Toronto Blue Jays signed reliever Seung Hwan Oh, there were some reports indicating that his right elbow might be troublesome. This was largely due in part to Oh’s verbal agreement with the Texas Rangers falling apart due to a rumored failed physical. For now, though, it sounds like Oh’s elbow is good enough, […]

Tim Lincecum a Lottery Ticket for Texas

Pending a physical, pitcher Tim Lincecum will join the Texas Rangers on an incentive-laden one-year contract. Evan P. Grant reports that the deal is for just $1 million for the season. The former two-time Cy Young winner is trying to resurrect his career one more time after showing little life in a 2016 Angels campaign […]

2018 Starting Pitchers - Dynasty Tiered Rankings

We continue our fantasy baseball dynasty rankings analysis with the first base position. RotoBaller writers Kyle Richardson, Chris Zolli, Pierre Camus, and I have come up with our preseason rankings to give you a sense of player values as early as possible. In a dynasty league, it can be tough to decide between a proven veteran or […]

Chris Sale Rankings Debate - Comparing RotoBaller's Rankers

We continue our rankings debate with a look at one of the game's most dominant arms. Major League Baseball's reigning strikeout king is a consensus top-four starting pitcher, but his exact draft value is still in question. RotoBaller's expert writers have come up with our consensus rankings for mixed leagues, but that doesn't mean we agreed […]

Points Leagues Third Basemen: Overvalued and Undervalued

Most fantasy baseball analysis is geared toward rotisserie and head-to-head formats. Given the popularity of those setups, that's understandable. But plenty of folks out there play in points leagues, and player values can change quite a bit in that format compared to the more mainstream variants. This series is aimed at identifying some of the players […]

2018 Third Basemen - Dynasty Tiered Rankings

The hot corner runs relatively deep in terms of draft value this year. While stalwarts like Arenado, Machado, and Bryant easily claim the top tier, you can find a former MVP at the ninth spot, a back-to-back 30-HR hitter at 14, and perhaps the best prospect in all of baseball at the 20th spot. Without […]

Top 500: Mixed Leagues Tiered Staff Rankings (February)

Spring training is officially here! To celebrate, today we are here to look at our staff's updated 2018 fantasy baseball mixed league rankings for February and the top 500 players. Our rankings are updated weekly, but enough changes have taken place recently (see humidor, Arizona) to release a new overall list. Over the next few weeks we will also be publishing individual tiered […]

Martin Perez Close to Returning

TR Sullivan of MLB.com reports that Texas Rangers starting pitcher Martin Perez (elbow) is close to returning to action and is scheduled to pitch in a simulated game Tuesday. He'll work on fielding drills as the week goes on, and Perez reportedly said "I am ready" when asked about a potential return. This supports a previous […]