Jameson Taillon (SP, NYY) - Week 6 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 46% of leagues ANALYSIS: It's not every day that we recommend adding a pitcher with a 5.24 ERA in all formats, but Jameson Taillon has been better than that mark would suggest. In his debut season with the Yankees following the second Tommy John surgery of his career, the […]

Jake Diekman (RP, OAK) - Week 6 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 36% of leagues ANALYSIS: The growing trend in MLB toward the use of closer committees is a frustrating development for fantasy managers in traditional 5x5 leagues. While relievers who work in innings other than the ninth can still provide plenty of value via excellent ratios and high strikeout […]

Shane McClanahan (RP, TBR) - Week 6 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 20% of leagues ANALYSIS: Though he's only eligible as a reliever at the moment, Shane McClanahan is scheduled to start two games this week, including Tuesday night against the Angels. The lefthander celebrated his 24th birthday a day late with an attention-grabbing major league debut last Thursday. Though […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 6

One month down, five more to go. The fantasy baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, though hopefully your squads have gotten off to a fast start anyway. No matter what your situation, it's always a good idea to stay on top of the state of your league's waiver wire. Most of the […]

Friday Focus: Pondering Poor Pitching

Last week, we looked at a handful of big bats who have come up small so far in 2021. Today, it's time to evaluate the pitchers who have failed to meet expectations A common refrain from analysts in the opening weeks of the season - especially those who take a more stoic and patient approach […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 5

We're coming up on the end of the first month of the 2021 season. Hopefully your fantasy squads are dominating to the point where you don't need any help. More likely, whether due to injury or ineffectiveness, you're in search of a boost. Most of the players who will be written up in this feature […]

J.B. Bukauskas (SP, ARI) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 16% of leagues ANALYSIS: He's only eligible as a starting pitcher for the moment, but J.B. Bukauskas just might be the closer in Arizona sooner rather than later. A first-round pick back in 2017, the 24-year-old flamed out as a starter due to injuries and command issues. Those […]

Tejay Antone (SP/RP, CIN) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 33% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Reds, like many teams, do not have a obvious closer right now. Amir Garrett has collected two of their three saves to this point, but he also has hideous ratios (16.20 ERA, 3.20 WHIP) thanks to allowing three homers and seven (!) walks […]

Anthony DeSclafani (SP, SFG) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 41% of leagues ANALYSIS: Two issues have plagued Anthony DeSclafani during his seven seasons in the major leagues - injuries and the long ball. While it remains to be seen if he can stay out of the trainer's room, the 31-year-old's early 2021 success suggests that he may […]

Bryan Reynolds (OF, PIT) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 44% of leagues ANALYSIS: An unheralded prospect entering 2019, Bryan Reynolds parlayed a red-hot start at Triple-A into a year that saw him finish fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. That season, he hit .314/.377/.503 with 16 home runs and 151 R+BI in just 134 games with […]

Alex Kirilloff (OF, MIN) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 20% of leagues ANALYSIS: Miguel Sano's hamstring strain has opened a spot in the Twins' lineup, and they've recalled top prospect Alex Kirilloff from the alternate training site to fill it. Kiriloff appeared in one postseason game last year and was the emergency "27th man" for a doubleheader […]

Friday Focus: April No-Showers May Bring Panic

T.S. Eliot once wrote that "April is the cruelest month." He didn't have fantasy baseball in mind, but the poet might as well have been surveying the wasteland of early under-perfomers in any given season. The back half of the month represents an inflection point in the schedule, a time when the initial flurry of […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 4

We've passed the midway point of April. Hopefully your fantasy squads are dominating to the point where you don't need any help. More likely, whether due to injury or ineffectiveness, you're in search of a boost. You've come to the right place. Most of the players who will be written up in this feature won't […]

Friday Focus: Early FOMO All Stars

Every fantasy manager knows the struggle of balancing patience toward underperforming players with aggression on the waiver wire. While this push and pull will persist throughout more or less the whole season, it's at its most fraught in April. We parse tiny samples and reams of content, looking for the signals amid the noise, and […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 3

We're 10 days into the season, but it's never too early to start tinkering around the edges. Hopefully you grabbed Ryan McMahon in time for his three-homer game last week. He's now rostered in over three-quarters of Yahoo leagues, and after going deep again on Saturday that number is likely to rise. Not every player […]

Omar Narváez (C, MIL) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 23% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Brewers have the worst offense in baseball as a unit so far this season, but no blame can be assigned to Omar Narváez. The 29-year-old backstop has been swinging a red-hot bat in the early going, slashing an absurd .444/.500/.778 with a pair […]

Cedric Mullins (OF, BAL) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 31% of leagues ANALYSIS: In the current environment, any player who can steal bases piques the interest of fantasy managers, especially if they have enough juice in the bat to avoid being a zero elsewhere. Cedric Mullins' above-average speed allowed him to swipe seven bags in just 153 […]

Michael Taylor (OF, KCR) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 40% of leagues ANALYSIS: In 2017, Michael A. Taylor posted an .806 OPS with 19 home runs and 17 stolen bases in just 432 plate appearances. The next season he stole 24 bases in even fewer PA, but his production otherwise cratered and he never really recovered, barely […]

Michael Kopech (SP, CHW) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 41% of leagues ANALYSIS: While he's only eligible as a starting pitcher right now, Michael Kopech is currently occupying a multi-inning reliever role in the stacked White Sox bullpen. The former top prospect hadn't thrown a pitch in any game since September 2018 before last weekend, after Tommy […]

Ian Kennedy (RP, TEX) - Week 3 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 47% of leagues ANALYSIS: Ian Kennedy has emerged as the Rangers' closer in the early going, which has led to his rostered rate skyrocketing in the last couple of days. If he remains available in your league - pretty close to a coin flip at this point - you […]

Friday Focus: Everybody Hurts

Last week, we talked about the value of a fresh start. Hope spring trainings eternal, and the beginning of a new season always inspires at least some level of optimism for every baseball fan. Maybe your team isn't contending, but even the worst teams have a couple of players or prospects who might take a […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 2

Welcome to the first middle infielder waiver pickups article for the 2021 fantasy baseball season. In my time with RotoBaller, I've covered the waiver wire beat for every position on the diamond besides catcher. Between that and curating the site's weekly waiver wire rankings, I'd like to think my bona fides are well-established in this […]

Brandon Nimmo (OF, NYM) - Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 26% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Mets have yet to take the field in 2021 due to COVID protocols, but once they finally do, Brandon Nimmo is expected to serve as their primary leadoff hitter. There's little wonder as to why, considering that the 28-year-old boasts a career .390 […]

Raimel Tapia (OF, COL) - Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues ROSTERED IN: 33% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Rockies' disdain for letting the players that most intrigue fantasy managers actually play is well-established at this point. After a couple of years as a part-timer, however, Raimel Tapia appears to have escaped that purgatory. Prior to sitting out on Sunday due to […]

Yusei Kikuchi (SP, SEA) - Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues ROSTERED IN: 42% of leagues ANALYSIS: Yusei Kikuchi got some late-round love in drafts this spring after flashing huge velocity gains in the shortened 2020 season. What kept that increased speed from maximum effectiveness was a lack of command. Judging by his 2021 debut on Friday night, when he gave up […]

Friday Focus: (Looking For) The Heart of Opening Night

It's good to have baseball back. To call the past 12 months challenging would be a masterpiece of understatement. The pandemic has taken so much away from the world, from the trivial to the unfathomably important. There is, at last, light at the end of that particular tunnel. We are not there yet. Even the […]

Kyle Bishop's 10 Bold Predictions for 2021

I've been in the bold predictions game since 2015 and in that time I've had my share of successes. Befitting a premise that demands spicy takes, though, I've also wildly missed the mark a bunch of times (whither goest thou, Byung-Ho Park and Delino DeShields?) The format's been around long enough that you almost certainly know the […]

Hitter Targets Under $10 - Salary Cap League Values

Snake drafts are the more common method, but salary cap leagues offer a more complex flavor to your draft day. That's not for everyone, and that's fine; part of the beauty of fantasy baseball lies in its high degree of customizability. Salary cap drafts take longer, and they're much less straightforward than snakes, but for […]

Pitcher Targets Under $10 - Salary Cap League Values

Snake drafts are the more common method, but salary cap leagues offer a more complex flavor to your draft day. That's not for everyone, and that's fine; part of the beauty of fantasy baseball lies in its high degree of customizability. Salary cap drafts take longer, and they're much less straightforward than snakes, but for […]

Playing For Keeps: Making Keeper Decisions for 2021

Spring training is officially underway, and with that comes the start of fantasy baseball draft season. While the majority of people participate in redraft leagues, keeper formats are also popular, and fantasy managers in those leagues are already weighing their decisions on which players to retain and which to toss back into the pool for […]