Jackson Rutledge Flashes High Upside
Washington Nationals pitching prospect Jackson Rutledge made his spring debut on Thursday with a scoreless inning of work. The 17th-overall selection from the 2019 draft allowed a hit to Brandon Nimmo but promptly picked him off first base. Rutledge then struck out both Jeff McNeil and Dominic Smith, the former on a fastball and the […]
Nick Mariano's Auction Draft Strategies and Tips (Premium Content)
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. We applaud you and your league for playing in the more entertaining format that is auction-based fantasy baseball. This is not a 101-level "how-to" guide, you'll need to know how to click "Bid" and whatnot. But I want to help you go from the […]
Nationals Need More From Victor Robles
Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles would be the team's ideal leadoff hitter, but his career .320 on-base percentage won't really cut it in such a role. Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long is looking for Robles to "progress and get better" to the point where he is capable of the "things that a good leadoff hitter […]
2021 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers - Leody Taveras
Leody Taveras received a call-up to the Texas Rangers last year despite never playing Triple-A and with only 65 games at Double-A under his belt. Given the Rangers' lack of outfield depth, it might not have come as a complete shock as Taveras entered 2020 as the Rangers no.1 outfield prospect. Taveras played in 33 games […]
Trea Turner Goes 1-For-2 Wednesday
Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner went 1-for-2 with a double in Wednesday's loss to the Miami Marlins. Turner has now recorded a hit in his first three spring training games to begin 2021. What is most interesting is that the Nationals appear to be following through with their plan of hitting him in the middle […]
2021 Keeper Value Rankings - First Base
Many many years ago, I noticed the managers in my long-time keeper league were consistently making terrible keeper decisions year after year. Instead of taking their money every year thought I would help them out and find a good set of Keeper League Rankings to share with them. What I found was quite disturbing. There […]
Lineup Takeaways - An Early Look at Spring Training Trends
As many of you know, tracking lineups is what I am all in on this 2021 season and with it comes an influx of data and information right away. Going forward, a weekly article will occur - especially as we get into more tangible information and data. However, I wanted to get ahead of the […]
Juan Soto To Make Spring Debut Wednesday
Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto (foot) will be in the lineup for his spring debut against the Marlins on Wednesday. Soto sat out the team's exhibition opener on Monday after fouling a ball off his right foot, though it turned out to be just a precautionary measure. The 22-year-old put up monster numbers in the […]
Jon Lester To Have Minor Surgery
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Jon Lester is having minor surgery to remove his thyroid gland. The Nationals reportedly were aware of this but decided to take care of it during the spring- though manager Davey Martinez believes that Lester could be back pitching in a week. The 37-year-old left-hander signed a one-year deal with Washington […]
Harold Ramirez (OF, CLE) - 2021 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers
The Cleveland Indians finished the shortened 2020 season 10 games above .500 and earned a Wild Card spot out of the A.L. Central. They had this success despite having one of the worst-performing outfields in all of baseball. In 2021, they should be much better in the outfield with a hopeful rebound from Oscar Mercado […]
Roster Construction Strategies from the End
Drafting a great roster is the vital base for a successful fantasy baseball season. All draft spots are not created equal. There are pros and cons for all of them. You'll find that everyone has their own preference on the best spot to start the draft. The purpose of this article series is to get […]
Ryan Zimmerman Homers In Spring Debut
Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman began his spring Monday with a home run. Zimmerman sat out 2020 but is back for 2021 and says he feels good. With Josh Bell set to take most of the starts at first base in D.C. this year, Zimmerman is very much a role player this season. When […]
Austin Voth Sees Improvement In Spring Debut
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Austin Voth, who is fighting for a rotation spot with Joe Ross and Erick Fedde this spring, had a 1-2-3 inning in his debut on Monday. After a disastrous 2020 which saw him throw to a 6.41 FIP in 11 starts, Voth identified a couple issues with his delivery, involving his […]
Max Scherzer Looking at Friday Spring Debut
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer, who hurt his ankle this offseason, will take a bullpen session Wednesday and start against the Cardinals Friday. Scherzer never seemed worried about the injury and is still on track to be ready when the season begins. Despite last year's uncharacteristic 3.74 ERA, Scherzer suffered from a .355 BABIP, […]
Seth Romero Being Stretched Out In Camp
Washington Nationals left-hander Seth Romero, the team's No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, will throw a live batting practice session on Tuesday. The goal is for Romero to get stretched out as a potential starter this spring, but he could also be used as a multi-inning reliever, if needed. The 24-year-old made his major league […]
Carter Kieboom Seeing Early Spring Results
Washington Nationals third baseman Carter Kieboom worked on simplifying and fine-tuning his swing in the offseason after a disappointing 2020 season. The results are paying off early in spring training, as he went 2-for-3 with a pair of hits in his spring training debut, including stretching a misplayed deep fly ball to center field into […]
Outfielder Busts Due to Bounce Back in 2021
MLB's 60-game regular season in 2020 was weird for a lot of reasons, but at the core of it, we experienced a baseball season that was more of a sprint than a marathon. Throw in the uncertainty of COVID-19 potentially wreaking havoc on the schedule at any moment in time, and making any kind of […]
Juan Soto Out For Precautionary Reasons Monday
Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto fouled a ball off his foot Sunday, thus postponing his planned spring debut Monday. There's no reason to push it, so even though Soto told manager Davey Martinez he feels fine, the team is waiting a couple days to send him out there. This incident is just a reminder of […]
Jon Anderson's Shortstop Tiered Rankings and Projections
I am on to shortstop in my position-by-position tiered rankings. Check out the rest of the series at the links below: First Base Second Base Third Base This is quite a different position than what we've seen so far with first and second base. There are four studs at the position, and lots and lots […]
Brad Hand Likely The Nationals Closer
Washington Nationals relief pitcher Brad Hand will be the Nationals closer "in a perfect world," according to manager Dave Martinez. Hand previously held the closing gig in San Diego and Cleveland from 2017-20, so this news should be no surprise. Although his xFIP has increased in all three most recent seasons, it has remained solid, […]
Stephen Strasburg Should Bounce Back With Better Health
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg was trying to pitch with a numb hand last year before he underwent surgery to fix carpal tunnel. You can throw out his lost season in 2020 in which he threw just five innings over two games. Strasburg was one of the best pitchers in baseball the last time […]
Breakout Pitchers and Late-Round Draft Targets: WPC+
Pierre Camus and Nicklaus Gaut identify pitchers who could break out in 2021. Target these pitchers late in fantasy baseball drafts! Like and subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all our latest podcasts and catch us on iTunes and BlogTalkRadio as well! Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius […]
Josh Bell Ready To Be "The Guy" In D.C.
Washington Nationals first baseman Josh Bell is looking forward to a middle-of-the-order spot in the lineup, writes Mark Zuckerman. Manager Davey Martinez indicated "a very strong possibility" that Bell would hit behind star outfielder Juan Soto, citing Bell's experience batting cleanup and his being a switch hitter. Bell is coming off a difficult 2020 and […]
Emmanuel Clase (RP, CLE) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 400 CURRENT ADP: ~447 overall ANALYSIS: A suspension wiped out his 2020 season but it only serves to make him an even better value in 2021. With Brad Hand gone, there's a good chance Clase gets at least a handful of saves even if he doesn't win the job outright. The question is […]
Is J.T. Realmuto Worth the Draft Cost?
Every year, there seems to be one catcher who stands above all others when it comes to fantasy value and consequently draft price. In 2017, it was Gary Sanchez. In 2018, Salvador Perez. After the 2019 and 2020 seasons, J.T. Realmuto has clearly emerged as the top backstop in fantasy. Catcher is one of the […]
MLB Spring Training Notebook - February 25th
Welcome to the 2021 edition of RotoBaller's Spring Training Notebook. I began this column a year ago, and made it about four or five articles in when Major League Baseball decided to shut things down, just like everything else around the globe, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We've at least made it through the first […]
Emmanuel Clase (RP, CLE) - 2021 Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers
The Cleveland Indians finished the shortened 2020 season 10 games above .500 and earned a Wild Card spot out of the A.L. Central. They had this success despite key players like Francisco Lindor and Oscar Mercado not performing up to expectations. They also had success despite losing one of their key bullpen arms in Emmanuel […]
2021 Third Base Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues
We continue to move past the chaos of 2020 and onto a new baseball season full of promise. For fantasy baseball managers, draft season is already upon us. RotoBaller's rankers, Pierre Camus, Big Pick Nick Mariano, and I have updated our 2021 Mixed League rankings as we now move on to evaluate the hot corner. […]
Max Scherzer Throws Off Mound Wednesday
Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez said that starting pitcher Max Scherzer (ankle) threw 40 pitches off a mound on Wednesday and had "no complaints, no issues." The three-time Cy Young winner suffered a minor sprained ankle a few weeks before spring training, so the Nationals are just easing him along in the early days of […]
Patrick Corbin Throws Live Batting Practice
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Patrick Corbin got some time facing live hitters on Wednesday, with the group of hitters including infielder Starlin Castro. Corbin struggled last year with a 4.66 ERA and 4.12 xFIP, but has said he never felt quite right in 2020. Fortunately, that does not include any health issues this spring, and […]