Top 300 Rankings & Analysis (Part 2)

Welcome, RotoBallers. You may have noticed that we're rolling out a ton of rankings content for the 2016 season. Included in this effort is our Top 300 staff rankings, which you can view by clicking that link or scrolling all the way down below. In addition to yours truly, Brad Johnson and Nick Mariano participated... Read More

Top 300 Rankings & Analysis (Part 1)

Welcome, RotoBallers. You may have noticed that we're rolling out a ton of rankings content for the 2016 season. Included in this effort is our Top 300 staff rankings, which you can view by clicking that link or scrolling all the way down below. In addition to yours truly, Brad Johnson and Nick Mariano participated... Read More

2016 Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings: Starting Pitcher (January, Part 2)

Welcome back to our second round of 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. This is the conclusion to our section on starting pitchers. If you missed Part 1 yesterday, click here. Today’s analysis will cover the remaining tiers, in which there are plenty of interesting arms. As a reminder, this round of rankings features seven of our... Read More

Randal Grichuk (OF, STL) - 2016 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Target in middle rounds CURRENT ADP: 189 ANALYSIS:  Despite a strikeout rate north of 30 percent, Grichuk managed to hit .276 last season. Paired with 17 homers, 96 R+RBI, and four steals in just 350 plate appearances, that made him a pretty nifty in-season pickup for many fantasy owners. Normally, a middling walk... Read More

David Peralta (OF, ARI) - 2016 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Target in early-to-middle rounds CURRENT ADP: 135 ANALYSIS:  David Peralta was one of the most under-the-radar breakouts during the 2015 season, hitting .312/.371/.522 with 17 homers and nine steals as he played his way into the Diamondbacks' starting left field gig. Only four other hitters managed to hit .300 while also producing an... Read More

Alex Rodriguez (DH, NYY) - 2016 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Target in late rounds CURRENT ADP: 253 ANALYSIS: In his age-40 season, after missing all of 2014 and playing in just 265 games over the three years prior, Alex Rodriguez produced an .842 OPS, 33 homers, and 169 R+RBI. No matter how you feel about him as a person or player, that's impressive.... Read More

2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Outfield (Part 2)

It’s time for another installment of the December edition of RotoBaller’s 2016 fantasy baseball rankings, December edition. If you missed yesterday’s outfield analysis, click here. Today, we’ll discuss the outfielders that I’m bearish on for next season, relative to my colleagues (again, Brad Johnson, Nick Mariano, and Max Petrie also participated in this round of... Read More

2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Outfield (Part 1)

Welcome back to the first edition of RotoBaller’s 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. We went around the horn and finished the infield with a look at third base yesterday, so now our attention turns to the outfield. If you’re just joining us, this first round of rankings was compiled by Brad Johnson, Max Petrie, and Nick... Read More

2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Third Base

We’re bearing down on the end of another calendar year. To most people, December signifies holidays, the onset of winter, and the stretch run of football season. To me – along with Brad Johnson, Nick Mariano, and Max Petrie – it means it’s time for the first round of 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. As we... Read More

Who Ya Got: DeSclafani or Iglesias?

Back in 2010, the Phillies swept the Reds in the National League Division Series. As a fan of the former, I remember noting similarities between that Cincinnati team and the Phillies of 2007. Both teams ended 14-year playoff droughts on the strength of powerful lineups and found themselves bounced without a win. Each also owed... Read More

Who Ya Got: Dickerson or Pence?

Which outfielders spring to mind when you think about the 2015 season's biggest busts? Hanley Ramirez? Carlos Gomez? Jacoby Ellsbury? All good choices, but no. Going by the difference between their ADP and final Player Rater ranking (both courtesy of FantasyPros), here's your 2015 All-Bust outfield:   Player ADP among OFs Final Rank among OFs... Read More

Who Ya Got: Rendon or Longoria?

Going by ESPN's average draft position, Anthony Rendon and Evan Longoria were seen as roughly equivalent assets in 2015. Rendon went 38th overall on average in ESPN leagues, while Longoria's ADP was 40. Granted, their aggregate ADPs on the major platforms, per FantasyPros, saw a much wider gap (29 for Rendon and 57 for Longoria).... Read More

Who Ya Got: Teheran or Wood?

Just two years ago, the Braves were coming off a 96-win season and a division title. They boasted a core of young talent that seemed poised to make Atlanta a force in the years to come. This group included Jason Heyward, Andrelton Simmons, Freddie Freeman, Justin Upton, Julio Teheran, Alex Wood, and Craig Kimbrel. All... Read More

Who Ya Got: Yasiel Puig or Gregory Polanco?

With the unprecedented dominance on display from young players, it's easy to view the ones who struggle with more disappointment than might be merited. We talked about Jorge Soler and Marcell Ozuna yesterday, but they weren't the only highly-touted young outfielders who stumbled in 2015. Today we'll take a closer look at another pair: Yasiel... Read More

Who Ya Got: Soler or Ozuna?

With the staggering influx of young talent in the game today, it's a great time to be a baseball fan. But as much as it may seem like every kid was a star in 2015, there were some who struggled in a way that's more in line with how things used to be. Today and... Read More

Who Ya Got: Schwarber or d'Arnaud?

Last offseason, I stumped fairly hard for Travis d'Arnaud as a fantasy sleeper, expecting him to build on his performance down the stretch in 2014. Unfortunately, he continued to have trouble staying on the field, as a pair of injuries put him on the shelf for most of the season's first half. When he did... Read More

The Mighty Fall: Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez

2015 marked a changing of the guard at shortstop, as the top three players at the position in offensive value (per Fangraphs) were rookies. In fourth place? Second-year man Xander Bogaerts, aged 23. The rise of youth dovetailed with the precipitous decline of two long-time fantasy stalwarts: Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez. Along with fellow... Read More

2015 In Review: Super Shortstops

The results of the Rookie of the Year ballot were announced this week and in the American League, it was a predictably tight race between a pair of precocious shortstops. The Astros’ Carlos Correa took home the hardware by a narrow margin over the Indians’ Francisco Lindor. Apart from their position and tender ages, Correa... Read More

2015 In Review: Three Rookie 3Bs

The 2015 season featured an abundance of terrific performances. Here, we'll focus on the trio of fantastic freshmen at third base: Kris Bryant, Miguel Sano, and Jung-ho Kang. Bryant was regarded as one of the best prospects in the game after posting absurd numbers across two levels in 2014. Somewhat controversially, the Cubs left him... Read More

The New Killer B’s: Betts and Bogaerts Break Out in Boston

The Red Sox were expected to contend in a wide-open AL East in 2015, in large part due to the performances of free agent acquisitions Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Instead, they finished in the basement for the third time in four years…in large part due to the performances of Ramirez and Sandoval. The veteran... Read More

Three Third-Year Starting Pitcher Breakouts

As much attention as has been heaped upon the stellar rookie class of 2015 (something I’m guilty of myself), there were plenty of breakout seasons from other young players. Today, we’ll take a look at a trio of third-year starting pitchers who made the leap: Chris Archer, Gerrit Cole, and Danny Salazar. The first overall... Read More

Who Ya Got: Cain or Pollock?

In 2015, a pair of outfielders in their late 20s with limited track records of success broke out and became bonafide stars. Neither had posted more than 502 plate appearances in a season, yet each produced seasons that prorated to 6 or more fWAR in 2014 and attracted decent buzz in fantasy circles coming into... Read More

2015 In Review: David Peralta

Prior to the season, I was preparing to write an article about a deep league outfield sleeper and had narrowed my options down to two players. The one I chose to write about was Michael Saunders, who ultimately played in only nine games thanks to a lingering knee injury. The other candidate? David Peralta. Whoops.... Read More

2015 In Review: Chase Utley

In the first five full seasons of his career, Chase Utley was one of the best players in baseball. Though he was criminally underappreciated in MVP voting, the Phillies second baseman was second only to Albert Pujols in WAR over that span (2005 – 09). Utley did everything well; he hit for average and power,... Read More

2015 In Review: Troy Tulowitzki

The book on Troy Tulowitzki has been the same for most of his career: The best shortstop in baseball...when healthy. Over the last six seasons, Tulowitzki has averaged just under 110 games played and logged over 550 plate appearances just once. However, in that same span he leads all shortstops in batting average, home runs,... Read More

2015 In Review: Miguel Cabrera

For virtually his entire career, Miguel Cabrera has been elite. Coming into 2015, he had driven in 100 runs every season of his career (excepting his abbreviated rookie campaign), hit below .310 exactly once, and had never spent a day on the disabled list. This combination of perennial excellence and durability made him one of... Read More

2015 In Review: Lance McCullers

When the Astros chose Carlos Correa over Byron Buxton with the first pick of the 2012 amateur draft, the decision was met with criticism in some circles. So far, however, Houston has to be pretty happy with how that’s turned out. Correa’s outstanding rookie season is only part of the equation. With the money they... Read More

Manny Machado: 2015 Fantasy Baseball In Review

Despite having put together 1,200 plate appearances’ worth of average offensive performance across his age 20 – 22 seasons, Manny Machado wasn’t shown a lot of love in fantasy circles before the 2015 campaign. Multiple knee injuries and what I’ve taken to referring to as the Trout Tax (the undeniable impact that Mike Trout’s ascension... Read More

2015 In Review: Odubel Herrera

It was well-known coming into the season that the Phillies would be among the worst teams in baseball. Indeed, they had their worst season in nearly half a century, narrowly avoiding 100 losses with a win on the season’s final day. A long-overdue start to the rebuilding process has the farm system looking strong, and... Read More

10 Bold MLB Predictions: End of Season Review

Now that we’ve reached the end of another fantasy season, it’s time to look back on my bold predictions from March and see how they panned out.   The Bold Predictions Joey Votto is a top five first baseman. Success! Votto bounced back in a big way from an injury-marred 2014, riding a huge second... Read More