Matt McLain: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

Fantasy managers love guys who hit home runs. We also love guys who steal bases. Our favorite players can do both, and guys who project to run and hit for power rarely stay on waivers very long. If you want them, you have to act quickly. Matt McLain made his big league debut last night, […]

Matt Mervis: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

Finally! A big league team called up a prospect who isn't a pitcher! The Chicago Cubs have summoned Matt Mervis to play first base and hopefully spare them from starting both Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini. Fantasy managers searching for offensive upside are likely checking him out. To be fair, Mervis doesn't check many of […]

Gavin Stone: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

This column isn't intended to look at young pitchers exclusively, but big league clubs keep calling up intriguing arms that leave us no choice. The latest is Gavin Stone, a well-regarded prospect in the Dodgers organization who is expected to start against the Phillies on May 3. The 24-year-old wasn't a huge prospect at the […]

Mason Miller: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

Starting pitchers with electrifying stuff keep getting called up, with Mason Miller and Logan Allen the most recent examples. Miller has been somewhat polarizing in the fantasy community, with some drooling over his raw stuff while others don't want an Oakland (Las Vegas?) Athletic under any circumstances. Miller hasn't thrown more than 7 IP at […]

Taj Bradley: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

Exciting names for fantasy baseball have been coming up rapidly lately, with Brett Baty, Zach Neto, Edouard Julien, and Taj Bradley all generating buzz. Bradley is the only pitcher of the bunch, so he merits further attention. Bradley has a 5.40 ERA after his MLB debut, but the surface stats mask an outstanding 8:1 K/BB […]

Francisco Alvarez: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

When mega-hyped prospects fail to make the Opening Day roster, fantasy managers have grown accustomed to waiting for service time shenanigans before seeing what they can do at the big league level. That appeared to be the case when the Mets left Francisco Alvarez off of the Opening Day roster, but that has changed. Omar […]

Mitch Garver: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back for another exciting fantasy baseball season! For anyone unfamiliar, this weekly column takes a deep dive into a single player, using all of the tools at our disposal to determine his fantasy viability. We focus on waiver wire guys you could likely add, but occasionally explore more established names as trade possibilities. The […]

3 Potential Shortstop Busts For 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Once upon a time, the shortstop position was comparable to catchers in fantasy baseball in that nobody wanted to roster them, but the rules said you had to. Things couldn't be more different in 2023, as the shortstop position is filled with a blend of established stars and young guns that are literally oozing upside. […]

Statcast xStats: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Statcast is a valuable tool for fantasy baseball analysis, and it can be easy to look at a stat called "Expected Batting Average" and blindly use it as your projection moving forward. Of course, proper use of these metrics is a little bit more nuanced than that. First, a disclaimer: This article is about the […]

Statcast Pitch Tracking: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

When you're evaluating a pitcher by Pitch Info on FanGraphs, sometimes you see pitches that don't seem to accomplish anything. If Pitch X is seldom a strike, rarely chased outside of the zone, and not generating whiffs or a favorable batted line against, why doesn't the pitcher scrap it entirely? Some pitchers could improve by […]

Spin Rate: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

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. It has also become controversial due to allegations of pitchers using foreign substances to increase their spin. Unfortunately, the baseball world has done a lousy job of conveying what spin […]

Pitcher Statcast: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Statcast metrics such as Barrels and Brls/BBE are great ways to evaluate a fantasy baseball 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 […]

Barrels and Brls/BBE: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Previously, we looked at how the exit velocity is only one piece of the fantasy baseball analysis puzzle. Baseball broadcasts will commonly cite Launch Angle (LA) to complement their EV figures, but it is given in terms of degrees. LA is basically a fancy way of saying things that the fantasy community has used for […]

Statcast Exit Velocity: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

If you've watched a baseball broadcast in the Statcast Era, you have undoubtedly noticed the broadcasters commenting on a batted ball's exit velocity, or EV. Many have taken to using stats like Hard% and Soft% to forecast how a player should be performing, expecting larger Hard% rates to produce larger BABIP and HR/FB figures. There […]

MiLB Stats: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Once you've grown accustomed to having advanced tools to help make fantasy decisions, it can feel disorientating to be without them. Prospects are increasingly becoming a focal point in both real and fantasy baseball, but the minors simply don't have all of the data available for MLB players. For example, advanced plate discipline stats, Pitch […]

Ballpark Factors: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

If you have ever selected a streamable pitcher based on a home park or benched an otherwise must-start arm at Coors Field, you already know how much a stadium can impact a player's bottom line. Ballpark Factors quantify the influence each stadium has, allowing you to make the most of your fantasy team's real-life schedule. […]

Pitch Info: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

One of the most fundamental questions in fantasy sports is if a player's current performance is sustainable. More than any other sport, baseball has a slew of statistical measures that can be dissected in numerous ways to analyze player performance. Pitch Info is a publicly-available pitch tracking system that provides a lot of data to help […]

Lineup Slots: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

You may be wondering why there aren't any advanced stats aimed at predicting a player's counting stats like runs and RBI. The answer is simple: modern sabermetrics reject the idea of a "clutch RBI guy" and therefore do not bother inventing predictive metrics for it. Runs and RBI are team-dependent stats and are unhelpful in ascertaining […]

Pull%: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

We have previously determined that fantasy managers generally prefer batters to hit the ball into the air to have a chance at a home run. Yet, all fly balls are not equal for this purpose. A player can maximize his power production by pulling the ball in the air. One way to illustrate this is […]

Pitcher BABIP: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

While FIP is a useful tool to predict a pitcher's future ERA performance, fantasy managers should remember that ERA, not FIP, is what 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 of […]

FIP/xFIP: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

While we've only examined how to evaluate hitters using advanced stats thus far, sabermetrics are at least as useful for pitchers. The first advanced pitching stat most fantasy managers encounter is FIP. FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching and attempts to measure a pitcher's actual skill instead of the effects of luck or his supporting […]

Plate Discipline: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

No matter how high a particular player's BABIP may be, his average will be mediocre at best if he strikes out too much. This is why fantasy managers have known for years that players like Mike Zunino are potential drains on a fantasy team's batting average. Furthermore, players who whiff a lot tend to continue […]

Batted Ball Distribution: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Fly balls can turn into home runs. Ground balls never do. It would seem as though fantasy baseball owners want their batters to hit nothing but flies, yet this is not always the case. Why would this be? The answer, of course, comes down to batted ball distribution and how batters make contact. The league […]

HR/FB: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

Using BABIP to predict a player's batting average is great. Batting average is a category in many league formats, and every hit is an opportunity to steal a base or score a run. Most fantasy managers find the long ball sexier, though. Every HR comes with a guaranteed run scored and at least one RBI. […]

Hitter BABIP: Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

The most accessible of the fantasy-relevant advanced stats is BABIP, or Batting Average on Balls In Play. It simply measures a player's batting average on balls in play, with outcomes such as strikeouts and home runs removed from consideration. In general, the league average hovers around .300, a nice round number to remember. However, it […]

Using Sabermetrics for 2023 Fantasy Baseball: Introduction

Hello, fellow RotoBallers! Sabermetrics have become an integral tool for fantasy baseball draft prep, but a concise resource for understanding the basics can be difficult to find. This series will attempt to define and explain all of the metrics fantasy managers may find useful, citing examples of how to use them in the process. Multiple […]

Cal Raleigh: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

Did you know that catcher Cal Raleigh has hit 25 homers for the Seattle Mariners this season? Drafted in the third round of the 2018 amateur draft, Raleigh once had some prospect pedigree but saw it fade when his MiLB numbers weren't special. He made his big league debut in 2021 and hit .180/.223/.309 with […]

Josh Jung: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

We've reached the middle of September, which means that many fantasy managers are either completely out of it or cruising to a title. If you're among the few in a battle that will last until the season's final days, the particulars of your league standing page will dictate what you have to do. Therefore, the […]

Triston Casas: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

September call-ups might not be as extensive as they once were, but that hasn't stopped a variety of prospects from being called up in the past few days. The latest debut is first baseman Triston Casas of the Boston Red Sox, a name that Boston fans have been screaming for since Bobby Dalbec proved he […]

Corbin Carroll: Champ or Chump for Fantasy Baseball?

With September on the horizon, fantasy managers have officially entered the stretch run. This is the time of year when your standings page should be dictating the moves you're making, as it often makes sense to drop a more talented player for one who contributes in key areas you can gain points. Your rivals are […]