X
Lost password?

Don't have an account?
Gain Access Now

X

Receive free daily analysis

NFL
NBA
NHL
NASCAR
CFB
MLB
MMA
PGA
ESPORTS
BETTING

Already have an account? Log In

X

Forgot Password


POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Articles & Tools
Import Your Leagues
Daily Stats & Leaders
All Pitcher Matchups
Compare Any Players
Player Comparisons
Rookies & Call-Ups
24x7 News and Alerts

Breakout Pitchers for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Brayan Bello - Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Draft Sleepers, Waiver Wire Pickups

Finding breakout starting pitchers is one of the most important things we have to do in order to win fantasy baseball leagues every season. In most leagues, an individual starting pitcher has more of an impact on a fantasy team than an individual hitter since they are throwing a higher percentage of your team's total innings than a hitter is contributing in at-bats.

Most every team in your league will come out of the draft with 2-3 really good pitchers, and this year especially - every team is going to have an "ace" or two, at least to start with. Teams separate themselves in pitching by finding those breakout pitchers late in the draft or on waivers early in the season and letting those guys take their pitching staff to the next level.

Finding these breakouts ahead of time is a tough task. It's especially tough before we have seen anybody throw a pitch, which is when I am writing this. We can make it a little bit easier on ourselves by looking to the past and finding the breakouts that already happened and examining what happened there. Let's start there.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and weekly lineup resources:

 

Last Year's Fantasy Baseball SP Breakouts

It was a more quiet year for the breakout starting pitcher. Still, there were a handful of names that were surprising given their final season roto finish. Here are those names.

Dylan Cease, Chicago White Sox

He finished as the #6 SP in standard rotisserie leagues. It wasn't shocking that he had a very good year because we did know prior that Cease had an upside - but he was drafted outside of the top 30 SPs and ended up a top 10 guy, so you can definitely call that a breakout.

The funny thing about the breakout is that he didn't really improve all that much in the underlying metrics. His K% was great in 2021 (31.9%) and stayed great in 2022 (30.5%), and his bad walk rate actually got worse (9.6% to 10.2%). The reason he put up better results was what was happening when contact was being made.

His GB% came up five points to 39.4% (still a pretty low number), and the xwOBA on contact against improved drastically (.313 down from a .383 mark). We know that pitchers don't have a ton of say in what happens with the contact they're allowing, but it's fair to surmise that some of Cease's gains were a result of him throwing his slider (his best pitch) more often. That percentage came up to 43% for 31% and it became his most commonly thrown pitch.

The takeaway here is that breakouts often benefit from good luck on things that are mostly out of their control, but they can also take a step forward by changing their pitch mix. Since it's February, we don't know what pitchers might change their pitch mix - so we'll have to wait until the season starts to get and use that kind of data.

Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers

Gonsolin's breakout really didn't make any sense. He did finally get a solidified spot in the rotation so that obviously helped. However, his K% came down drastically from 27% to 24%. He did lower the walk rate a bunch (14.2% to 6.8%) - so that's certainly helpful. The bottom line is that Gonsolin posted a 2.10 ERA with a 17% K-BB%, which doesn't make a lot of sense, so we can't really learn much from his breakout either (besides maybe saying hey - start a bunch of games for the Dodgers, that helps!).

Nestor Cortes, New York Yankees

This one was mostly about the opportunity. He shared time between the rotation and bullpen in 2021 and posted a very nice 20.3% K-BB%. He earned himself a job in the rotation in 2022 and took full advantage with a 2.44 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. He did miss a handful of starts, starting 28 games, which kept his strikeout total down a bit at 163.

The lesson to learn here is that we should jump at any pitcher that showed us a 20% K-BB% the previous year and seems poised to have a shot at an established job in a rotation.

Kyle Wright, Atlanta Braves

We just hadn't seen much of Wright prior to 2022. He spent almost the whole 2021 season in AAA and didn't even pitch that well down there with middling numbers everywhere. He also wasn't all that fantastic for fantasy purposes after April, but he stayed in the rotation and pitched well enough to cross the finish line as a top 20 SP. That roto finish was certainly benefited by the 21 wins he put up, a number which led the league.

The lesson to learn here:

  • Wins are important in roto fantasy baseball
  • Pitchers with deeper pitch arsenals tend to get deeper into games, which helps in getting wins
  • Pitchers on good teams win more games

Obvious stuff, but we can definitely lean more toward pitchers with 4+ pitches belonging with strong offenses behind them when picking potential breakouts.

Okay, now we can move on. I'll use those lessons and some other more obvious (to me, at least) stuff to proceed and pick out some possible breakouts.

 

This Year's Starting Pitcher Breakouts

These aren't going to be in the order of how strongly I feel, but I will make that clear in the write-ups. I am starting with a trio of Dodger SPs to kick us off.

Dustin May, Los Angeles Dodgers

I really believe in this one, just so you know! May missed most of 2021 and then most of 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2021. He made just 11 starts over those two years, so we don't have a ton of data to go off of.

What we do know is that, and let me say this very unscientifically, May is dive-bar floor level filthy.

SwStr% GB%
Pitch May League May League
Sinker 8.1% 7.0% 66% 55%
Curveball 18.5% 13.0% 55% 46%
4-Seam 14.5% 10.6% 19% 34%
Cutter 17.8% 15.3% 46% 43%

Four pitches beating the league average SwStr% while being one of the best ground-ball pitchers in the league (54% GB% altogether). If he doesn't strike you out, you're most than likely putting a ball on the ground. That's a fantastic combination, and given this guy's age (25) and velocity (98.2 on the four-seam, 97.5 on the sinker), the sky seems to be the limit.

The downside, of course, is health concerns. Can he throw 180 innings this year after totaling just 109 Major League innings over the last three seasons? Probably not. Is it insane to think he could get somewhat close to that? I don't think so, and that's enough for me to take a risk on the potential there.

 

Noah Syndergaard, Los Angeles Dodgers

It is tough to believe in Thor as a useful fantasy pitcher right now given the 16.8% K% he posted last year across 134.2 innings. That's putrid. He has become a sinkerballer over the year (32% sinker last year, 5.6% SwStr% on the pitch), so I think we would have to see a shift away from that to see him break out with the Dodgers.

The good news is that the Dodgers may very well have this in mind. They are clearly one of the best-run organizations in baseball, and they jumped at the chance to sign Syndergaard - so maybe they see an opportunity here. It seems to me that it will take more than just a pitch usage change to do anything, as Syndergaard really doesn't have impressive whiff marks on any of his five offerings - so that's a downside, but maybe the Dodgers will have him change a pitch entirely.

You just never know, and a relatively young (he's 30) pitcher going to a new team always presents some opportunities for things to change for the better. Maybe Thor will add some velocity, tweak his arsenal, and excel in Los Angeles. The chance of that happening more than cancels out the (lack of) risk you get on him with his current ADP of 330.

 

Ryan Pepiot, Los Angeles Dodgers

This third Dodger does not currently have a spot in the rotation, WHICH WOULD MAKE IT PRETTY TOUGH FOR HIM TO BREAK OUT LOL!

He might not even really be their #6 option once the season gets rolling, with plenty of other guys to like in that organization. However, he got some runs in the Major League rotation last year, so they like him enough to do that.

The reason I would be interested in Pepiot if he does get a spot in the rotation is his strikeout ability. He had a sick 31% K% in the minors last year and a solid enough 26.3% mark in 36.1 Major League innings. Sticking with Major League numbers, his 12.1% SwStr% was slightly above the league average, another point in his favor. He used his four-seamer 56% of the time, a high number, but it got a whiff during a strong 12.3% of the time. His next two offerings are a changeup (11.1% SwStr% and a slider (12.7% SwStr%), so there is some work to be done.

Confidence is low here, but any time a 30% strikeout rate in the minors comes up to the Dodgers, you have to keep an eye on it.

 

Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds

Low-hanging fruit alert, this is not a bold prediction!!!

We can get into the nitty gritty of pitching stats all day long. I could point to a dozen different data points on Hunter Greene and use different things to make the case for him and the case against him. But I think we just need to keep it simple stupid and realize that this kid put up a 30.9% strikeout rate in his rookie year with the Reds.

Of all pitchers that have made at least 20 starts across 2021 and 2022, only 11 pitchers have a higher strikeout rate than that. Those names:

  1. Jacob deGrom
  2. Spencer Strider
  3. Carlos Rodon
  4. Gerrit Cole
  5. Corbin Burnes
  6. Max Scherzer
  7. Cristian Javier
  8. Blake Snell
  9. Shohei Ohtani
  10. Freddy Peralta
  11. Dylan Cease

All 11 of those names are quite good for fantasy purposes, and in fact, most of them are considered aces for 2023 with the exceptions of Snell and Peralta - and most of that is because of health concerns.

If we dove into other metrics, Greene would not compare so favorably. His 9% walk rate wasn't very encouraging, the Reds are terrible, and his home ballpark gives up the most homers of any park. The strikeout rate probably outweighs all of that, however, as it is incredibly valuable to be able to put away 30% of the hitters you face without allowing a ball in play. That gives you a lot of room for error, so it's hard not to believe that Greene can be one of the game's top fantasy pitchers in 2023.

 

Hunter Brown, Houston Astros

One more "good-teamer," if you will. Brown also does not have a job in the starting rotation right now, but it seems likely that he'll find his way in there at some point even if it's not right away out of camp.

Brown posted a sweet 2.55 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP and a 31.5% K% in 14 starts in the Pacific Coast League (AAA) where it's very tough to pitch. He walked a bunch of hitters (10.6% BB%), but the extra strikeouts and ground ball rate (55%) mitigate that effect.

Despite the minor league dominance, the Astros' stacked rotation in the bigs limited him to just two starts and 20.3 total innings at the highest level (where he pitched well, giving up just two earned runs with a 27.5% K%, an 8.8% BB%, and a 65% GB% in that time). The downside here is that it's a small Major League sample, and we should be quite underwhelmed by his 10.4% SwStr% there. That said, the minor league track record of strikeouts is there, and the high ground ball rate isn't going anywhere. I think Brown will be must-own if and when he gets into the rotation, so you might as well just draft him ahead of time in deep leagues.

 

Framber Valdez, Houston Astros

This is another "low-hanging fruit" pick. Valdez is being drafted as an SP2 right now after putting together the best season of his career as he ripped off a 2.77 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP over 201.1 innings. The strikeout rate went up to a career-best 23.5% and the walk came down to a career-best 8.1%. All of that while maintaining his elite 67% GB%.

With this newfound ADP of his, there's not a ton of room for a real "breakout," but I did want to mention Valdez here because there just might be another level for him to reach.

He added a cutter last season and used it more at the end of the year than at the beginning.

 

He posted a really nice 17.8% SwStr% on the cutter with a 58% GB% across 310 offerings in the regular season. In the playoffs, he used the pitch 10% of the time with a 13.5% SwStr% and a 67% GB%.

This is a significant addition. After he upped that cutter usage seemingly for good on August 30, here are the numbers that followed:

  • 1,079 pitches thrown
  • 14.1% SwStr%
  • 29.5% K%
  • 6.6% BB%

So that is a 22.9% K-BB% - an elite figure- and about 7-10 points higher than what we had previously seen from him.

I think that proves that Framber has some upside in the tank, and I don't really think there's a ton of downside by picking him either. The Astros are a fantastic team to pitch for, and his reliably elite ground-ball rate keeps his floor quite high. The downside, I suppose, is that the cutter regresses or disappears next year and maybe he stays as a 21-23% K% guy while the walk rate comes back up above 9%. That would make him a bad pick where he's going right now, but I think the better bet is that he pitches as well or better next year - so I'm in. I love Framber as an SP2 this year.

 

Jeffrey Springs, Tampa Bay Rays

Another cheap one here. Springs pretty much had his breakout season last year when he made 25 starts and put up an elite 2.46 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP on a 26.2% K% and a 5.6% BB%. Picking up Springs early last season was one of the keys to success, so maybe that should exclude him from this write-up today. However, I make the choices, so I'm writing Springs up here as a symbol of affirmation!

The 14.9% SwStr% that Springs put up last year was right there with Cristian Javier (15.0%) and Shane Bieber (14.8%), so we have no issues there. He possesses one of the best individual pitches in the game - his changeup. On 35% usage (745 total pitches), he posted a 22.6% SwStr% and a 45.3% GB%. Those are fantastic, fantastic numbers. His primary weapon, the four-seamer, wasn't too bad either with a well above average 11.4% SwStr%. To top it all off, he put up a 5.6% BB% - a top 25 mark among starters with 25+ starts last year.

The Rays believe in Springs, giving him a four-year extension this offseason, and so do I. And he typically goes after pick 150 in drafts, so you're not breaking the bank to buy him.

 

Jordan Montgomery, St. Louis Cardinals

Much like the last couple of players I just talked about, I don't know if Montgomery fits the "breakout" archetype. He's a veteran pitcher with a history of success in the Majors, and I don't think his ceiling is all that high because of it.

However, I do really like what Montgomery did last year - and we saw an approach change after he joined the Cardinals. Any time a pitcher changes teams and then changes their pitch mix-up - there is an opportunity for quick and sudden growth (or decline, I guess). Here's how Montgomery changed after the trade:

Pitch NYY STL
Sinker 39.4% 26.2%
Changeup 24.3% 18.5%
Curveball 21.8% 23.1%
Four-Seam 8.5% 31.6%
Cutter 6.0% 0.6%

With the Yankees: 21 GS, 114.2 IP, 3.69 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 20.7% K%, 4.9% BB%
With the Cardinals: 11 GS, 63.2 IP, 3.11 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 23.9% K%, 5.1% BB%

Things are a bit strange from here, as his four-seamer actually had a worse SwStr% (6.9%) on the year than his sinker (8.7%). The league-wide SwStr% on four-seamers (10.6%) is much higher than the sinker (7.0%), so Montgomery isn't following normal patterns here.

These are all things to consider, and it's probably the reason for a little bit of hesitancy here. However, Montgomery has long posted strong SwStr% rates, and that happened again last year as he went for a 13.9% SwStr% overall. That typically plays to a strikeout rate in the mid-twenties, as we talked about with Kirby. It's quite possible that Montgomery has been working on the four-seamer over the offseason and will improve the SwStr% on that pitch - which would go a long way to continued success, especially given his low walk rate.

It's a good ballpark and division to pitch in as well, so the move to the Cardinals seems like it will end up being a big positive for his fantasy value - I'm excited to draft Montgomery this year.

 

Brayan Bello, Boston Red Sox

I was pumped to add Bello last year when he got the call-up to the Majors, and it went pretty terribly for me. That doesn't take away anything from his minor league dominance where he put up a beautiful 34% K%, a 9.4% BB%, and a 61% GB% between AA and AAA. I thought he could afford to drop to a 25% K%, a 10% BB%, and a 55% GB% and still have success in the Majors, but that didn't happen.

He turned in 11 starts in the Majors with a 20.6% K%, a 10% BB%, and a 55% GB%, and it was a 4.71 ERA with a 1.78 WHIP - not good stuff. The good news was that he was improving when the season was closing out. In September, he made six starts with a 22% K%, an 8.6% BB%, and a 52% GB%. Those still aren't fantastic marks, but the improvement was noticeable as he allowed zero or one earned runs in four of his last six starts.

There is good news on the "stuff" front as well. His changeup is amazing and fared well at the Major League level with a sick 22.5% and a 2.7% Brl%. The issue was that he didn't have much else to set it up with, as he didn't earn a ton of strikes with his sinker (27.6% CSW%), and his slider just isn't where it needs to be (9% SwStr%).

A big step forward with the command of his sinker will go a long way to facilitating the breakout, and the slider certainly has plenty of room for improvement as well. I love guys with potential for a 25%+ K% and a 55%+ GB%, and I see that being pretty likely for Bello in 2023.

 

George Kirby, Seattle Mariners

The Mariners rotation is shaping up to be one of the best in baseball, and I think Kirby is going to be the main reason that expectation is met.

The Good:

  • Kirby's 4.1% BB% was the sixth-best mark in the league for pitchers with at least 15 starts (Corey Kluber, Aaron Nola, Lance Lynn, Ross Stripling, Kevin Gausman).
  • Kirby's 46% GB% beat the league average by more than two points.
  • Kirby's four-seamer had the third-best SwStr% in the league for any four-seamer thrown more than 800 times (Luis Castillo, Lance Lynn).
  • Kirby threw 156.7 innings between AAA and MLB last year.

He throws strikes, he has a great fastball, and he's in a spot to push over 170 innings this year.

The Bad:

  • There's not much of a discount (ADP 102, max pick right now at 123).
  • He doesn't have a great secondary strikeout weapon (6% SwStr% on the curveball and a 7% mark on the slider).
  • He gave up a high barrel rate last year (9%).

I don't really care about that third bullet point, since we know that pitchers don't have much control over their barrel rates allowed. You could almost take that as a positive since there's a good chance that improves just due to variance - but it's also possible that he's telegraphing some pitches or just doesn't have enough movement on the breaking balls to avoid the barrel.

Talent is certainly not an issue here. Kirby was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball until he graduated, and he has huge velocity (98.7 mph max on the fastball, 95.4 average). One thing he doesn't have are high spin rates (his slider came in at 2,188 rpm compared to a league average of 2,431 on sliders - yikes!). That's not something we like to see, but it's also something that is very possible to improve on.

We should expect improvement in Kirby's second year in the Majors, and any improvement in the curveball and slider could really take him to the next level - I expect a higher K% and a solid WHIP from Kirby in 2023 at the very least. I think he has a strong floor with true bust-out, league-winning potential, and I've already drafted him several times.

 

Aaron Civale, Cleveland Guardians

He still hasn't quite been able to put together a full season. He made 20 starts in 2022 as a follow-up to the 21 he made in 2021. His career-high in innings pitched was in 2021 with just 124.1, so we haven't had a season where Civale was a good fantasy player overall.

We did see the best performance of his career by the underlying numbers last year, here's the career progression on that front:

We still see a bad SwStr% at 11.4%, and an underwhelming K% of 24% - but both marks were big increases from what we saw in 2021. What we also love to see is the walk rate being great every single year.

We saw a pitch mix change in 2022 as well, as Civale threw more cutters (35%) and curveballs (27.5%) while dropping the four-seamer, splitter, and slider.

Those two pitches turn out to be his best offerings with a solid 11.6% SwStr% on the cutter and a really great 21.3% mark on the curveball. His curve has long been his best pitch, and the key for him might just be to find one of those fastball variations that best set it up. You can see that he still had six arrows in his quiver last year, which gives him all kinds of different ways to go and raises his per-start floor a bit, too.

I'm not so big on splitting the season into pieces and then offering stats in that fashion - but Civale did do his best work late.

You can see the SwStr% trending upwards there. Over his final nine starts, about half of his season, he went for a 27.3% K% and a 4.1% BB% - the vaunted 20%+ K-BB%! Hitters hit just .193 off of him over that time and the GB% was strong enough at 46%.

The guy has been around for a handful of seasons now, but he started very young and is currently still just 27 years old. I'm a big fan of seeing what Civale can do on my fantasy teams this year, especially with an ADP currently at 320!

 

Ken Waldichuk, Oakland Athletics

The lefty got traded from the Yankees to the Athletics last year, which I suppose is unfortunate for him. To his credit, he took the change in stride and pitched very well.

He made 21 starts between AA and AAA (95 innings) and went for a sweet 2.84 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP on a sparkling 34.5%-9.1% BB% K-BB%. That earned him a call-up to the Majors where he made did not replicate the success with a 4.93 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP over his seven starts. His 22.6% K% also came down substantially, but some good news is that so did his walk rate down to 6.8%.

So we have a pitcher who put up bad ratios last year and will pitch on the league's worst team again this year. Not exactly a league-winning profile here, but bear with me.

Waldichuk's SwStr% was 13% - a nice number, as we've talked about over and over again in this post. His slider went for a 17.9% SwStr% and the four-seamer put up a good mark of 11.8% as well. Above-average SwStr% marks on his two main pitches as a young, talented arm - those are great signs. The team context certainly limits how many games he can win, and the A's might be careful with his innings as well - but the home ballpark is actually a big positive for him and I think the stuff is there to pitch well enough to well outpace his current ADP, which is near pick 400.

 

Bailey Ober, Minnesota Twins

The tall guy probably lost his spot in the projected Major League rotation after the Pablo Lopez trade. That Twins rotation per Roster Resource right now:

  1. Pablo Lopez
  2. Sonny Gray
  3. Joe Ryan
  4. Tyler Mahle
  5. Kenta Maeda

None of those five guys are really on the fringe either. All of them but Ryan are established veterans with contracts that would make it really tough to demote them, and you would really think the Twins want to give Ryan a good long look in the rotation after the upside he showed in 2021, forgiving him of the injuries he suffered through in 2022.

However, if something would happen and Ober would enter the rotation - I want to jump at the opportunity. Across 2021-2022 in the Majors, Ober has started 31 games and has put up a strong 19.3% K-BB% (24.3% K%, 5.0% BB%). He has long limited the walks and has shown some real strikeout upside with a very strong 13.2% SwStr%.

He is huge (6'9''), which gives him a ridiculous amount of extension and gives hitters less time to pull the trigger.


He also has a proven slider that went for a beautiful 20% SwStr% and a 33.5% CSW% last year. The downside is that his fastball is slow (91.5 on average - although the extension and location helped him put up a strong 12.4% SwStr% with it), and he gives up a lot of fly balls (29.4% GB% in 2022). We probably aren't drafting Ober until something happens to put him in the rotation, but again - if he does get a shot at some starts, I will be excited to get him on my team for 2023.

 

Garrett Whitlock, Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox rotation might have the widest range of possible outcomes than any other team. We have already talked about Brayan Bello's talent but issues with the walk, and then there's that Chris Sale guy who could potentially win a Cy Young Award this year but could also have his season end by April. Next, we have Garrett Whitlock.

Whitlock spent the whole 2021 season in a reliever role, and much of the 2022 season in that same role - but he did have a go at a rotation spot in the middle of the year before some poor performance and an injury ended that after nine starts.

Reports out of Boston say they are committed to giving the 26-year-old another shot to be a starter, so he profiles to be in the rotation when the season begins, which makes him quite interesting for fantasy purposes this year.

As is the case with most pitchers, he put up better stats as a reliever than he did as a starter. Here's that breakdown:

You will almost always see higher strikeout rates from a player in a relief role. When you know you are only in there to get 3-6 outs, you can really let it rip and go with your best stuff. As a starter, you can't do this. We see that here with Whitlock with the big five-point gap between his reliever K% and starter K%. Even with that, the 17.7% K-BB% he posted as a starter is solid, and the 45% GB% is also a mark we like to see.

If we look for starters last year with a K-BB% and GB% around what Whitlock did, we find these starters:

No true fantasy studs there (save Gonsolin, I GUESS!), but a solid group of starters. Now, "solid" does not facilitate me calling him a BREAKOUT candidate - but my thinking here is that we could easily see gains for Whitlock since we know what he's able to do in a relief role.

It's likely that he'll pitch more as he did as a starter this year, but maybe given the bad results he got as a starter - he will focus on adding a little bit of velocity, spin, and attack more even in the starter role.

It's important to notice that the 13.3% SwStr% he posted as a starter is one of the better marks you'll see. Other starters that were in the 13-14% SwStr% range last season:

Admittedly, that's a curated list to make my point look better. Some other pitchers between 13% and 14%:

You need more than just a 13% SwStr% to be successful, but the point still remains that this is a good number to have.

The average K% of pitchers between 13% and 14% SwStr% over the last two seasons is 25.6%. The highest on the list is Aaron Nola (30%) and the lowest is Ian Anderson (19%).

Maybe the best part about Whitlock is that the walk rate was great no matter the role. I think we could be looking at a 26%-6% K-BB% rate here with an above-average GB% - and that would almost surely lead to a breakout season for the righty.

Since I took some liberties here, let me just go ahead and give my true "breakout" picks in list form here. All of these pitchers were talked about above, but I'll go ahead and plant my flag a bit here. My five top BREAKOUT PITCHER picks:

  1. Dustin May
  2. George Kirby
  3. Hunter Brown
  4. Hunter Greene
  5. Aaron Civale

We'll check on this at the end of the year, hope it helped - or at least I hope you enjoyed reading it!



Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App

Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy baseball app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, sleepers, prospects & more. All free!



More Fantasy Baseball Advice




POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Articles & Tools
Import Your Leagues
Daily Stats & Leaders
All Pitcher Matchups
Compare Any Players
Player Comparisons
Rookies & Call-Ups
24x7 News and Alerts

REAL-TIME FANTASY NEWS

Jamie Benn10 mins ago

Scores Big Goal In Series-Clinching Victory
Matt Duchene19 mins ago

Ends Second-Round Series With OT Winner
Jake Oettinger26 mins ago

Leads Stars To Western Conference Final
Sergei Bobrovsky32 mins ago

Stellar In Game 6 Win
Anton Lundell43 mins ago

Comes Up Huge In Series-Clinching Win
José Ramírez2 hours ago

Jose Ramirez Cracks Go-Ahead Home Run
Jhoan Duran2 hours ago

Saddled With First Loss
Emmanuel Clase2 hours ago

Shuts Door For 13th Save
Aaron Judge2 hours ago

Keeps Rolling With 12th Homer
Gunnar Henderson2 hours ago

Homers, Triples Against Seattle
Zack Wheeler3 hours ago

Registers Seventh Quality Start
Willson Contreras3 hours ago

Gets Cast Removed
Steven Kwan3 hours ago

Resumes Baseball Activities Friday
Josh Jung4 hours ago

Still Not Swinging, At Least Six Weeks From Returning
Travis d'Arnaud4 hours ago

Leaves Friday's Game With Dizziness
Lane Thomas6 hours ago

Could Be Ready For Rehab Assignment This Week
Félix Bautista6 hours ago

Felix Bautista Begins To Play Catch
T.J. Hockenson6 hours ago

Won't Put A Timeline On His Recovery
Kumar Rocker7 hours ago

Could Face Hitters Soon
Garrett Mitchell7 hours ago

To Start Swinging A Bat Soon
Ryan Pepiot7 hours ago

Could Return To Rotation Early Next Week
Brandon Lowe7 hours ago

Could Return On Monday
Nico Hoerner7 hours ago

Hoping To Avoid Injured List Stint
Jason Heyward7 hours ago

Activated And Starting Friday
Yordan Alvarez8 hours ago

Getting A Breather Friday
Nathan Eovaldi8 hours ago

Dane Dunning, Nathan Eovaldi Throwing Bullpen Sessions
Evan Carter8 hours ago

Available Off The Bench Friday
TOR9 hours ago

Maple Leafs Bring In Craig Berube As New Head Coach
Nick Cousins9 hours ago

Re-Enters Panthers Lineup Friday
Yakov Trenin9 hours ago

Considered Day-To-Day
Tyler Seguin10 hours ago

Good To Go Friday
Roope Hintz10 hours ago

Remains Out For Game 6
Brad Marchand10 hours ago

A Game-Time Call Friday
San Francisco 49ers14 hours ago

Dre Greenlaw Ditches Walking Boot
Najee Harris14 hours ago

Slims Down With Diet Change
Tua Tagovailoa14 hours ago

Mostly Absent From Offseason Workouts
Lerone Murphy14 hours ago

Looks To Remain Undefeated
Carlston Harris14 hours ago

Set For Co-Main Event
Khaos Williams15 hours ago

Faces Carlston Harris In The Co-Main Event Of UFC Vegas 92
Angela Hill15 hours ago

A Favorite At UFC Vegas 92
Luana Pinheiro15 hours ago

Looks To Get Back In Win Column
Donovan Mitchell15 hours ago

Will Meet With Cavaliers "At The Right Time"
Evan Mobley15 hours ago

Likely To Get Max Extension
Nikola Jokic15 hours ago

Drops 22 Points In Loss
Jaden McDaniels15 hours ago

Scores 21 Points In Game 6 Win
Bruce Brown16 hours ago

Reportedly On The Trade Block
Anthony Edwards17 hours ago

Leads All Scorers In Blowout Win
J.T. Miller17 hours ago

Scores Dramatic Game-Winner
Leon Draisaitl17 hours ago

Extends Postseason-Opening Point Streak With An Assist
Ilya Mikheyev17 hours ago

Dealing With Undisclosed Injury
Sebastian Aho17 hours ago

Notches Two Points In Game 6 Loss
Jack Roslovic18 hours ago

Ends Dry Spell With Two Helpers
Artemi Panarin18 hours ago

Records Two Assists In Series-Clincher
Chris Kreider18 hours ago

Joins Special List With Third-Period Hat Trick
Scottie Scheffler18 hours ago

Detained By Louisville Police Following Traffic Incident
Brad Marchand1 day ago

Hopes To Return To Action In Game 6
Brett Pesce1 day ago

Remains Out On Thursday
Adam Henrique1 day ago

Nearing Return
Cleveland Cavaliers1 day ago

Cavaliers Will Evaluate Their Backcourt
Mike Conley1 day ago

Expected To Play In Game 6
Robert Tonyan2 days ago

Signs With Vikings
Vinicius Salvador2 days ago

Moves Up To Bantamweight At UFC Vegas 92
Adrian Yanez2 days ago

Looks To Snap Losing Skid At UFC Vegas 92
Themba Gorimbo2 days ago

A Favorite At UFC Vegas 92
Ramiz Brahimaj2 days ago

Ends Layoff At UFC Vegas 92
Edson Barboza2 days ago

Headlines UFC Vegas 92
Josh Giddey2 days ago

Provides 11 Points In Bench Role
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander2 days ago

Puts Up 30 Points In Game 5 Loss
Dereck Lively2 days ago

II Registers Double-Double Off The Bench
Luka Doncic2 days ago

Leads Mavericks In Game 5 With 30-Point Triple-Double
Derrick White2 days ago

Bounces Back Wednesday Night
Al Horford2 days ago

Stuffs Stat Sheet In Game 5 Win
Jayson Tatum2 days ago

Close To Second Postseason Triple-Double In Wednesday's Win
Pittsburgh Steelers2 days ago

Cameron Heyward Plans To Hold Out As He Seeks Extension
Tee Higgins2 days ago

Growing Frustrated With Bengals
Darius Garland2 days ago

Takes A Step Back On Wednesday
Evan Mobley2 days ago

Thrives In Game 5
Mike Conley2 days ago

In Danger Of Missing Game 6
Jamal Murray2 days ago

On The Injury Report For Thursday
Craig Porter2 days ago

Jr. Remains Out On Wednesday
Jarrett Allen2 days ago

Downgraded To Out
NFL2 days ago

Netflix Christmas Day Games Announced
New York Giants3 days ago

Giants To Be Featured On Hard Knocks
NFL3 days ago

International Games Revealed For 2024 Season
D'Andre Swift3 days ago

Could Be Used Often In Passing Game
Kirk Cousins3 days ago

Jogging, Throwing During OTAs
Sepp Straka3 days ago

In Excellent Form For PGA Championship
Tom Kim3 days ago

Trending In The Right Direction For PGA Championship
PGA3 days ago

Can Tyrell Hatton Put It All Together At PGA Championship?
Jordan Spieth3 days ago

Needs Consistency At PGA Championship
Joaquin Niemann3 days ago

To Continue Playing Well At Valhalla?
Collin Morikawa3 days ago

Rounding Into Form Heading To Valhalla
Scottie Scheffler3 days ago

Returns To Action For PGA Championship
Russell Henley3 days ago

An Interesting Name At PGA Championship
Martavis Bryant3 days ago

To Work Out For Commanders
Jahmyr Gibbs3 days ago

Could Have Bigger Role In 2024
Corey Conners3 days ago

A Real Dark Horse At PGA Championship
PGA3 days ago

Can Sungjae Im Keep The Momentum At Valhalla?
Dean Burmester3 days ago

Comes Back To PGA Championship
Stephan Jaeger3 days ago

Final Round Last Week Is Troubling
Keegan Bradley3 days ago

Still A Longer Shot For Valhalla
Shane Lowry3 days ago

In For Long Week At PGA Championship
PGA3 days ago

Alex Noren Has Been Very Consistent In 2024
Akshay Bhatia3 days ago

Eager To Take On Valhalla
Tony Finau4 days ago

The Tony Finau Roller Coaster To Continue In Louisville
Cincinnati Bengals4 days ago

Trey Hendrickson Committed To The Bengals
Matt Fitzpatrick4 days ago

Looking For Consistency En Route To Valhalla
Kansas City Chiefs4 days ago

Chiefs To Start Title Defense Against Ravens
NFL4 days ago

Jets-49ers To Face Off On Monday Night In Week 1
Wyndham Clark4 days ago

Looks To Right His Rough PGA Championship History
Bijan Robinson4 days ago

Dealing With Ankle Injury
Ludvig Aberg4 days ago

On Track To Play In PGA Championship
Marquez Valdes-Scantling4 days ago

Signs With Bills
Marquez Valdes-Scantling4 days ago

Making A Stop In Buffalo
Courtland Sutton4 days ago

Remains Away From The Team
Brad Keselowski4 days ago

Snaps Winless Streak With Second Darlington Victory
NASCAR4 days ago

Bubba Wallace Earns Much-Needed Good Finish At Darlington
Denny Hamlin4 days ago

Sees Positives In Below-Average Day At Darlington
Justin Haley4 days ago

Gets Best-Ever Finish For Rick Ware Racing
Kyle Larson4 days ago

Wins Stage, but Crashes Out at Darlington Due to Cut Tire
Todd Gilliland4 days ago

Slow Pit Stops Foil Todd Gilliland at Darlington Despite Impressive Speed
Chris Buescher4 days ago

Taken Out of Win, but Increased Aggression Working for Him
Ryan Blaney4 days ago

Despite Crash, Ryan Blaney Had One of His Best Darlington Runs
Joaquin Buckley5 days ago

Extends Win Streak
Nursulton Ruziboev5 days ago

Suffers Unanimous-Decision Loss
Carlos Ulberg5 days ago

Stuns With 12-Second Knockout
Alonzo Menifield5 days ago

Knocked Out In The First Round At UFC St. Louis
Alex Caceres5 days ago

Drops Decision Matchup
Sean Woodson5 days ago

Extends Win Streak
Michael McDowell5 days ago

Finishes 10th at Darlington Raceway
Chase Briscoe5 days ago

Delivers Value In DFS At Darlington Raceway
Tyler Reddick5 days ago

Darlington Dominance Ends With Disappointment
Noah Gragson5 days ago

Quietly Scores Another Top-15 Finish At Darlington
Josh Berry5 days ago

Ends Up Third At Goodyear 400
Ty Gibbs5 days ago

Holds On For Second Place At Darlington
Robelis Despaigne5 days ago

Suffers First Career Loss At UFC St. Louis
Waldo Cortes-Acosta5 days ago

Gets Upset Win At UFC St. Louis
Mateusz Rębecki5 days ago

Mateusz Rebecki Gets TKO'd At UFC St. Louis
Diego Ferreira5 days ago

Pulls Off Upset At UFC St. Louis
Rodrigo Nascimento5 days ago

Gets Finished At UFC St. Louis
Denny Hamlin6 days ago

The Best Active Driver At Darlington
Tyler Reddick6 days ago

Should Dominate Early At Darlington
Noah Gragson6 days ago

A Core DFS Play At Darlington
William Byron6 days ago

A Strong Pick For Darlington
Martin Truex Jr6 days ago

. Still Confident Despite Hitting Wall In Qualifying At Darlington
Christopher Bell6 days ago

Could Be A Contender At Darlington Despite Poor Track Record
NASCAR6 days ago

Bubba Wallace Needs A Good Run At Darlington
RANKINGS
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
OF
SP
RP

RANKINGS

QB
RB
WR
TE
K
DEF

MORE RECENT ARTICLES

 
UFL DFS PICKS, FANTASY FOOTBALL, DRAFTKINGS, FANDUEL

UFL DFS Lineup Picks: DraftKings Daily Fantasy Fantasy Advice for Week 8

Welcome to Week 8 of the inaugural UFL season, RotoBallers! The Birmingham Stallions won the battle of the titans over St. Louis in Week 7, so they'll be taking their undefeated record into a home matchup against the Houston Roughnecks this week. The Stallions are 16.5-point favorites, so there's a chance we see a good... Read More


Changing Of The Guard at Tight End? 2024 Fantasy Football TE Rankings Analysis

The fantasy football grind is year-round at RotoBaller! As early best ball drafts are already getting underway, we're putting together our early rankings for 2024 fantasy football. RotoBaller's David Rispoli digs into our latest Tight End rankings for 2024. Is it time for a changing of the guard at the TE positon? Our 2024 rankings... Read More


Michael Florio's Football Show - Podcast RotoBaller Network

Florio's Football Show: Late Round Targets!

Michael F. Florio is back and so is best ball season! If you are drafting in best ball, you need some targets for the later rounds. Florio gives you his favorites at each position! Plus, he talks why it is smart to wait on RBs even if you grab one in the early rounds. Get... Read More


Buy Low? Five Massively Undervalued Players in 2024 Fantasy Football Drafts

The football season never stops at RotoBaller! With early 2024 best ball drafts already taking place, we're digging into the ADP of fantasy football's most impactful players. NFL Network contributor and RotoBaller analyst LaQuan dives into the early ADP of some popular fantasy options. While these players are great, they are currently being massively undervalued... Read More


Jermaine Burton - Fantasy Football Rankings, College FB, WR, NFL Draft Sleepers

2024 Fantasy Football Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft: 10-Team Superflex Round 3

Hello everyone! I am so excited to be back here cooking up some hot football analysis with the freshest ingredients in the NFL. That’s right, we’re talking rookies just in time for your rookie drafts. Today, we have the third round of our 10-team half-PPR Superflex mock draft. I have assigned pick ranges to these... Read More


Rashee Rice - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL wr, Draft Sleepers

Top Wide Receiver Position Battles For 2024 Fantasy Football

The 2024 NFL season is still months away. Therefore, fantasy football players have plenty of time to prepare for their redraft leagues. However, fantasy football is a year-round game. There are new dynasty startup drafts and best ball leagues underway every day. While casual fantasy football players don’t have to worry about their team until... Read More


Nick Chubb - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

2024 Fantasy Football - Five Injured Players to Sell in Dynasty Leagues

Injuries are no fun. They can ruin players' careers and leave us wondering what might have been. Sadly, it’s part of the game. For fantasy football players, injuries can get old fast. Nothing saps the life out of your team more than watching star after star fall to injury. If you’re a dynasty fantasy football... Read More


Jonathon Brooks - Fantasy Football Rankings, College FB, RB, NFL Draft Sleepers

Fantasy Football Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft For Non-Superflex Leagues

Traditionally, quarterbacks are devalued in non-Superflex fantasy football formats. However, we saw a major change in that philosophy last year. After decades of agreement between analysts and fans alike, the consensus in 2023 became skewed. Suddenly, drafting players like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen in the first 15 picks of a non-Superflex draft wasn’t just... Read More


UFL DFS PICKS, FANTASY FOOTBALL, DRAFTKINGS, FANDUEL

UFL DFS Value Plays: Week 8 Bargain Bin for DraftKings Including Matt Colburn, JaVonta Payton, Sal Cannella, More

Welcome to the Week 8 edition of RotoBaller's UFL DFS Bargain Bin, where the goal is to touch on some potentially mispriced players in DraftKings' Week 8 UFL contests. Each week during the UFL 2024 season and postseason, I’ll give you my thoughts on where there may be some value spots to exploit for DraftKings'... Read More


2024 Fantasy Football Dynasty Rankings: Kyren Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., Justin Herbert, Kyle Pitts, Stefon Diggs, Brock Bowers, Xavier Worthy

Hey, RotoBallers! It's always fantasy football season here at RotoBaller HQ. With the 2024 NFL Draft in the books, it's time for more fantasy football rankings! Today, we will review our NFL team's updated 2024 fantasy football dynasty rankings (the top-500 players), including Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Breece Hall, Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, Kyle... Read More


2024 NFL Schedule Winners and Losers

After getting bits and pieces of the 2024 NFL schedule over the last few days, Roger Goodell and company have finally dropped the entire slate for the upcoming season. We still have nearly four months to sort through the entirety of this year's schedule, and while we will continue to focus in the microscope on... Read More


Fantasy Football Rookie Quarterbacks You Must Have In 2024

It's already the middle of May, and aside from Justin Timberlake memes flooding your "for you feed," that could only mean one thing -- it's fantasy football draft season! It is an excellent time of the year to get in some best ball drafts or conduct a dynasty startup. You may even be amid some... Read More


Jaylen Warren - Fantasy Football Rankings, Waiver Wire Pickups, Draft Sleepers

Fantasy Football Backup Running Backs To Draft In 2024

Gone are the days of the workhorse running back. Unless your name is Christian McCaffrey or Derrick Henry, then odds are you have a backfield running mate who sees significant touches. In fantasy football, the running back position is diluted due to running back committees. As such, many teams have multiple backs that provide fantasy... Read More