How to Approach Hitters With Offseason Mechanical Adjustments

Fantasy baseball is inherently reactive. As proactive as fantasy managers try to be in terms of projecting player performance, there is always an information gap between what MLB players are doing (and plan to do in the future) and the publicly available information that fantasy managers leverage. In no aspect of the game is the […]

Outfield Waiver Wire Pickups For Week 5

A brief glance at the lineup notes section of this week’s article illustrates what was a busy week in the MLB, giving fantasy managers plenty of opportunities to get ahead using waivers this week. Although most of the recommendations in this article are longer-term focused, fantasy managers should take advantage of lineup movements for short-term […]

Outfield Waiver Wire Pickups For Week 4

Injuries and game postponements have already forced fantasy managers to get creative with their rosters this season, making waivers as important as ever. In addition to shoring up fantasy lineups in the short term, valuable waiver pickups can also become mainstays in fantasy lineups and generate trade value for fantasy managers. It's worth noting that […]

Daily Fantasy Baseball Streamers - MLB Hitter, Pitcher Lineup Picks for Tuesday 4/13

We're nearly two weeks into the regular season and injuries, game delays, and general roster shuffling have already taken their toll on fantasy rosters. In leagues with daily lineups, fantasy managers can navigate those pitfalls and take advantage of favorable matchups with help from RotoBaller's daily MLB streaming articles. Each day, RotoBaller will provide you […]

Outfield Waiver Wire Pickups For Week 3

We’re only nine days into the 2021 regular season, but there has already been plenty of roster shuffling and player movement this year. Although fantasy managers shouldn’t make decisions based exclusively on less than two weeks of samples, there is one notable league-wide issue worth exploring before diving into this week: the ball. As you […]

Daily Fantasy Baseball Streamers - MLB Hitter, Pitcher Lineup Picks for Tuesday 4/6

Baseball is back, and fantasy managers in daily leagues no doubt already have holes to fill with streamers. Fortunately, RotoBaller has you covered with daily streaming picks. Each day, RotoBaller will provide you with some of the best streaming options to consider in fantasy baseball daily leagues. Additionally, these recommendations can be useful for fantasy […]

Outfield Waiver Wire Pickups For Week 2

Baseball is back, and with it came room for fantasy managers to gain edges in their leagues through the waiver wire. Playing the waiver wire well can take a poorly drafted team into championship contention or help shore up an already strong team, and waivers generally represent one of the best ways for fantasy managers […]

Hitters Primed for Comebacks After Injury-Plagued Seasons

Injuries can be tough to manage for fantasy managers, especially coming off of a 2020 season that saw coronavirus have a significant effect. Additionally, injuries can sometimes be freak accidents, and it can be difficult to separate concerning injuries from noise. Still, there are general truths about injuries that can help fantasy managers properly value […]

2021 ATC Projections: Hitter Surprises

By their nature, projection systems don’t typically offer many big surprises. Outside of Lucas Giolito’s ZiPS projection, there aren’t many player projections that jump off of the page this season. Still, even seemingly small surprises can have significant fantasy implications, and it’s worth exploring those surprises. To add an element of objectivity to this analysis, […]

NL Starting Pitchers Set to Break Out in 2021

With pitcher workloads diminishing and aces difficult to come by, finding breakout pitchers can make a significant difference for fantasy managers. Whether it be through a role change, a new pitch, a mechanical adjustment, or some other factor, plenty of pitchers break out each year and usually provide fantasy managers with excellent draft values along […]

2020 Breakout Outfielders Who'll Keep Improving

With hitters dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and related changes to the MLB season, it’s somewhat surprising that breakouts were unexceptional (if high) in their number. After 45 qualified batters improved their wOBA by at least 0.20 points between 2018 and 2019, 54 hitters managed to do so between 2019 and 2020. That’s not a […]

Danny Jansen (C, TOR) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 280 CURRENT ADP: ~310 overall ANALYSIS: Jansen was a fairly popular sleeper candidate at catcher heading into last season, but investments from fantasy managers failed to pay off with Jansen batting just .183 with a similarly poor .671 OPS. Jansen managed to post a career-best .352 xwOBA that ranked eighth […]

David Fletcher (2B/SS/3B, LAA) - 2021 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

Analyzing David Fletcher is an exercise in extremes. No qualified batter swung-and-missed less frequently than Fletcher did in 2020, and no qualified batter posted a lower hard-hit rate than Fletcher’s 17.8% mark. In an era of hitters who tend to be more power-oriented, Fletcher stands out as a contact-focused hitter with unremarkable power. Fletcher’s ability […]

Sam Chinitz's 10 Bold Predictions For 2021

The 2021 MLB regular season is less than one month away, so it’s time for some bold predictions. Last year’s bold predictions didn’t pan out too well for me; if we’re being generous, two out of the ten predictions hit -- and that’s including Corey Kluber posting a sub-3.00 ERA (which technically happened, even if […]

2020 Breakout Infielders Who'll Keep Improving

In a recent article, I outlined a methodology to determine which breakout 2020 seasons from hitters would be built off of into 2021. Upon further reflection, however, I’m unconvinced that that methodology the best way to spot breakouts that will continue to improve, in large part because of its reliance on evaluating the stickiness of […]

Chad Pinder (2B/3B, OAK) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 440 CURRENT ADP: ~542 overall ANALYSIS: Pinder took clear steps he took to improve his plate discipline leading up to the 2020 season last February, and those improvements showed up in his performance. Although Pinder’s O-Swing rate was up slightly from 2019 at 33.3%, his swing rate at pitches in […]

Jose Iglesias (SS, LAA) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 375 CURRENT ADP: ~403 overall ANALYSIS: Orioles hitting coach Don Long compared Iglesias to Hanser Alberto just before the start of the 2020 MLB season, suggesting that improved plate discipline rather than a swing change would help Iglesias be a more productive hitter. Four months later, Iglesias finished the 2020 season with […]

Prioritizing Steals in Drafts - Hoard or Punt?

Steals are projected to be the hardest stat to rack up in fantasy baseball in 2021, and ATC projects only 24 hitters to eclipse the 20 stolen base mark this season. As a result, hitters who can produce on the basepaths have earned expensive ADPs, with two-thirds of the 24 hitters projected to steal at […]

Relief Pitchers Set To Bust In 2021

Projecting relievers is notoriously tricky, and that’s especially true after an irregular 2020 season. As is prone to happen in small samples of performance, otherwise strong relievers sometimes have down seasons that are not entirely in their control. Still, some relievers are more likely to bust than others, and fantasy managers would do well to […]

No Universal DH - 2021 Playing Time Fallers

Major League Baseball introduced the DH to the National League in 2020, but the rule change may not stick in 2021. MLB recently advised teams to assume that the universal DH will not be implemented for the 2021 season, and although that doesn’t mean that the door is closed on the rule for the year […]

2020 Schedule Outliers - AL East Starting Pitchers

One of the major changes MLB teams faced during the 2020 season was the lack of a diverse set of competition. Instead of playing around 20 other teams as they would in a normal season, teams played only nine different opponents in 2020. Additionally, two-thirds of each team’s games came against opponents within their own […]

Three Hitters Set To Break Out Later Than Expected

Finding breakout hitters can be a difference-maker for fantasy teams, especially when those hitters have had limited success at the major league level and are older than when players typically have their best seasons. Whether it be through added playing time, skill improvements, or some combination of the two, post-prime breakouts can be excellent draft […]

Three Hitters Set To Break Out Earlier Than Expected

Finding breakout hitters can be a difference-maker for fantasy teams, especially when those hitters have had limited success at the major league level early in their careers. Whether it be through added playing time, skill improvements, or some combination of the two, pre-prime breakouts can be excellent draft values thanks to their unusually high upside.  […]

Statcast Review - Noteworthy xBA/xSLG Hitting Leaders

Thanks to its abbreviated schedule, the 2020 MLB season resulted in some unusual outcomes. Michael Conforto posted the highest full-season BABIP since Ty Cobb in 1913, Luke Voit was on pace for 60 home runs, and Robbie Ray walked a ridiculous 18% of the batters he faced. xStats were not immune to that weirdness, xBA […]

Statcast Review - Hard Hit/Exit Velocity Pitching Leaders

Pitcher contact quality can be a tricky attribute for fantasy managers to incorporate into their analysis. On one hand, pitchers are more at the whim of hitters when it comes to contact quality than the other way around. On the other hand, it certainly seems as though pitchers can exert meaningful control over their contact […]

Year in Review: Victor Robles

Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles endured a tough 2020 season, slashing a paltry .220/.293/.315 while collecting just four stolen bases. That pace would have given him around only 12 SB in a full 162-game season. Fantasy managers had to have been expecting more considering he was a top-75 pick on average heading into 2020, just a […]

Faster and Furious: Pitchers With Rising Velocity

The shortened 2020 season resulted in some small sample size related caveats surrounding analysis heading into 2021, but fastball velocity is largely immune from that issue. Fastball velocity is extremely quick to stabilize, and even a few pitches can provide fantasy managers with a reasonably clear understanding of a pitcher’s velocity. Further supporting that notion […]

Noteworthy xwOBA-wOBA Pitching Leaders

One of the oddities brought on by the shortened 2020 season was the number of qualified pitchers with huge gaps between their xwOBA and wOBA. In 2019, only seven qualified pitchers posted a wOBA at least 0.050 points away from their xwOBA in either direction, a number that ballooned to 52 pitchers in 2020. Of […]

Starting Pitcher K-BB% Risers: Who to Believe In

The 2020 MLB season may have left starting pitchers with shorter starts and fewer total innings than usual, but arsenal adjustments and pitch improvements were still prevalent. As a result (and sometimes as a result of other factors), several pitchers saw significant changes in their strikeout and walk rates. K-BB% is one way to measure […]

Fantasy Baseball Applications of zxwOBAcon Analysis

In part one of this series, I established that zxwOBAcon is the primary driver of season-to-season changes in xwOBAcon and that the biggest risers in zxwOBAcon each season tend to be rebound candidates. Furthermore, rebound candidates recover all of their zxwOBAcon losses more often than not and frequently outperform their season x zxwOBAcon in season […]