2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers – Jo Adell

The most coveted type of player in fantasy baseball is the batter who can hit home runs, steal bases and hit for contact. Stolen bases are harder to find, as more big-league teams are opting to take a cautious approach to baserunning. Additionally, batting average has declined because hitters are striking out more often, as […]

Dylan Cease (SP, CHW) - Fantasy Draft Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~250 (around Adrian Houser, Anthony DeSclafani, Sandy Alcantara) CURRENT ADP: ~283 overall ANALYSIS: The White Sox have a few young arms of intrigue in Cease, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez. However, Cease may have the most upside for 2020. He has elite stuff, with a curveball that seemed electric last season and, according to […]

Taking Out the Trash: Pitchers Who Should Junk Their Worst Pitch

Pitch mix changes can make or break a player’s season. That obviously goes for fantasy value as well as real-life. We've already seen how throwing an effective pitch more often could make a huge improvement a la Patrick Corbin. Sometimes pitchers just need to eliminate a pitch to see their numbers improve. Consider the following: Mitch […]

ADP Showdown – Trevor Story vs. Trea Turner

Pitchers and catchers have officially reported and position player workouts are getting underway, which means baseball season is officially upon us! Maybe you haven’t started prepping for your drafts, but fortunately for you, there have already been plenty of drafts, which means that fantasy players out there have already started dealing with tough draft position […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Pitcher Statcast

Statcast metrics such as Barrels and Brls/BBE are great ways to evaluate a batter's performance, so it is only natural to assume that the metrics would be predictive for pitchers as well. As much as batters want to hit a Barrel every time, pitchers want to avoid them at all costs. Yet there is evidence […]

Finding Combo-Player Values Using Z-Scores and ATC Projections

Towards the end of last season, I asked the question – “Draft Speed or Pound the Power?” Loaded in this seemingly simple query are two contradictory approaches – one for power and one for speed. Power Approach 1: Home run totals are dramatically up in baseball these days. Therefore, there are many power bats available […]

2020 Dynasty Leagues: Players to Sell (Premium Content)

As draft day approaches in dynasty leagues, the window to sell-high on a big name has never been better. The first days of spring training are a chance to cash in on players who may have hit their peak value before the 2020 season begins. Bartering is a matter of risk vs reward. You hate […]

Erick Fedde May Start In Minors

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Erick Fedde is eligible for a fourth year of minor league options because he's accrued fewer than five full seasons in the majors or minors. Fedde was drafted in 2014 but didn't start pitching in the minors until June of 2015 because of Tommy John surgery. Because he has another year […]

2020 Second Base Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a different strategy if you wish to truly compete. Rankings themselves are a different beast altogether, as category specialists like Mallex Smith and Dee Gordon (stolen bases), Kyle Schwarber and Franmil Reyes (home runs), […]

2020 Second Base Rankings - Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Leagues

As the season draws near, we realize more and more that it's draft season. There is a large portion of fantasy baseball busy with mock drafts, rankings, sleepers, and more mock drafts. The Dynasty community, on the other hand, is looking to continue their dominance, rebuild, or in a worst-case scenario, stick their hands up […]

Josh Hayes' 2020 Best Ball Draft Avoids (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. The fantasy baseball season is here! For those fantasy players looking to get an edge on their 2020 leagues, Best Ball formats are a great way to get a head start on the players that look to be ADP risers this season. An underrated […]

Max Scherzer Feels Good This Spring

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer is expected to start the spring training opener against the Astros on Saturday night after throwing two rounds of live batting practice on Wednesday. "I feel really good right now," Scherzer said. "To be at this point, to hit the live BP, first live BP, and be able to […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Spin Rate

Spin rate has become one of the most recognizable Statcast metrics, with supporters of a given pitcher highlighting his spin rates to make their case. Unfortunately, the baseball world has done a lousy job conveying what spin rate really means. The result has been a ton of owners who know that spin rate exists, but […]

Trea Turner Could Hit Third In Lineup

Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner is an option to hit third in the batting order now that Anthony Rendon is with the Angels. "We'll see. I talked to Davey briefly about it. I thought it was kind of a joke for the last month or so. But now I guess it's somewhat serious," Turner said. […]

Starlin Castro Will Mostly Play Second Base

Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez said that infielder Starlin Castro will mostly play second base, while Howie Kendrick will mostly play first and second base in spring training. Castro and Kendrick could play some third base later this spring, but Carter Kieboom and Asdrubal Cabrera are expected to be the primary options at the hot […]

2020 Starting Pitcher Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a very different strategy if you wish to truly compete. All preseason long, RotoBaller has you covered with the latest rankings for all fantasy baseball league types. Here we present our points league rankings […]

Victor Robles Being Considered for Leadoff Role

Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles is entering his second full season of play in 2020 with an opportunity to be the team's leadoff hitter. Robles is a speedster, which traditionally fits the role, but his .327 career OBP doesn't lend itself quite as well to the #1 spot in the order. But if he gets […]

Mock Draft Review: Best Late-Round Targets

Last week, some members of the RotoBaller staff completed a 12-team mock draft for standard 5x5 format. After the draft, we each broke down our strategy and some of our favorite picks, which can be found here. However, I want to take a closer look at one portion of the draft in particular. Since we know that […]

Faster and Furious: Pitchers with Rising Velocity/Performance

Welcome fantasy baseball players! I’m sure that you, like me, are anxiously counting down the days until your drafts and Opening Day. While the fantasy season may not start for several weeks, there are plenty of things we can do to start preparing for a successful season. One of those things is to take a good […]

2020 Relief Pitcher Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Often regarded as an inferior fantasy baseball format, points leagues offer a different style of boasting over your friends or coworkers similar to that of fantasy football. These setups are typically head-to-head formats for a one-week stretch where the player with the most points gets a win. Easy right? While it's true that roster construction […]

Carter Kieboom Looking Like Opening Day Third Baseman

With no trade in sight, Washington Nationals infielder Carter Kieboom is looking a lot like the team's Opening Day third baseman. Kieboom only hit .128/.209/.282 in a 43-PA cup of coffee in 2019, but his .287/.378/.469 career minor league better demonstrates the hype that has long surrounded him. If he busts in spring training, he […]

Jeremy Hellickson Announces Retirement

Free-agent starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson announced his retirement on Friday after 10 seasons with 10 teams. The 32-year-old suffered a shoulder setback a few weeks ago that would have required surgery. Hellickson went 76-75 in his career with a 4.13 ERA in 232 games with the Rays, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Orioles and Nationals. In that time, […]

2019 Barrel Breakouts: Who's For Real and Who's Next?

As pitchers and catchers get even closer to reporting and most fantasy leagues prepare for their drafts, everybody is looking for a leg up on the competition - a way to get in on a guy before everybody else does. In this article, we're going to look for a way to identify hitters who improved […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Pitcher BABIP

While FIP is a useful tool to predict a pitcher's future ERA performance, fantasy owners should remember that ERA, not FIP, is what really matters in most formats. This means that we are interested in the "luck" that separates the two statistics. While some of this luck is unpredictable, we can and should predict some […]

2020 Shortstop Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a different strategy if you wish to truly compete. Rankings themselves are a different beast altogether, as category specialists like Mallex Smith and Dee Gordon (stolen bases), Kyle Schwarber and Franmil Reyes (home runs), […]

2020 Third Base Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Points leagues may seem like a slight variation from traditional 5x5 category scoring leagues but you must approach draft day with a different strategy if you wish to truly compete. Rankings themselves are a different beast altogether, as category specialists like Mallex Smith and Dee Gordon (stolen bases), Kyle Schwarber and Franmil Reyes (home runs), […]

Biggest Fallers: K-BB%, Part 2

K-BB% is a valuable metric because it shows which pitchers can combine strikeout ability with pinpoint control. Pitchers with high K-BB% possess high floors and ceilings because even when they’re not accumulating strikeouts, they are still usually able to pound the strike zone. Name K-BB% '18 K-BB% '19 K-BB%-Diff ADP (NFBC) Patrick Corbin 24.80% 20.10% […]

2020 NFBC Draft and Hold Strategy - Late-Round Hitting Category Boosters (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Draft strategies are challenging to master regardless of the league. Should you focus on elite starting pitchers? Do you load up on hitting early and devour all the pitchers in the middle rounds? When do you grab a catcher in two-draft leagues? There are […]

2020 First Base Rankings - H2H Points Leagues

Often regarded as an inferior fantasy baseball format, points leagues offer a different style of boasting over your friends or coworkers similar to that of fantasy football. These setups are typically head-to-head formats for a one-week stretch where the player with the most points gets a win. Easy right? While it's true that roster construction […]

Pitchers Most Impacted By Defense: OAA Fallers

Early in January, Statcast released a full fielding leaderboard of their Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, which had previously been limited to outfielders only. The metric takes into account fielder positioning, reaction time, throw difficulty, and batter speed in order to calculate how likely a play is to become an out. The more unlikely, the […]