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 […]

Later-Round Category Targets - Home Runs

Welcome back to my series of posts where I take us through a standard fantasy baseball category, break it down statistically and then locate some targets for 2021 to help you out in that category. We've already examined how to get an advantage in batting average. Today we will talk about home runs. You can also […]

Don't Overpay for Steals, Draft These Guys Instead

Steals are an increasingly precious commodity in roto leagues. If you don't grab a speedster early on, you are forced to find a modest source of steals in the middle and later rounds or just punt the category altogether. Since it's not advised to resign yourself to claiming last place in a category before the […]

NL Outfielders Ready to Break Out in 2021

The top of the outfield class this year is lined with studs. It's hard to go wrong with any of the top-ten or so outfielders in drafts, but after that, it gets a little bit shakier. Players with risky profiles, small sample size success stories, bounceback candidates, and plenty of youngsters make up a lot […]

Post-Hype Pitchers Set To Break Out

What is a post-hype sleeper? If you ask 10 fantasy analysts you'll probably get 10 different answers but it boils down to players that have fallen off the fantasy radar after garnering quite a bit of buzz in prior seasons. It's a lot like shopping in an outlet store. You've got all kinds of name-brand […]

Later-Round Category Targets - Batting Average

Of all of the fantasy sports, a baseball league using category scoring is the one most requiring manager strategy. You can draft a team full of players that overperform their draft cost but still not win your league if you don't fill up the categories correctly. If I had to give one piece of advice […]

Later-Round Category Targets - WHIP

Welcome back to RotoBaller and my later-round category targets series, thanks for being here. In this article, we're going to talk about some middle and late-round starting pitchers that can help your team in the WHIP category. It's important to note that there is a ton of overlap with WHIP and ERA, and I've already made […]

Roto Category Draft Targets - Wins

I'm here to do something that I probably can't actually do, help you find wins late in the draft. That's a very inspiring sentence, I know, but I'm an honest guy and I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I'm able to pontificate about which pitchers will earn lots of wins this […]

Later-Round Category Targets - ERA

Starting pitching is a finicky thing in the fantasy world. There is certain to be lots of impactful injuries, breakouts, and busts this year within the starting pitching position. After the first handful of rounds of the draft, it gets pretty tough to find guys you can feel confident about helping your team in the […]

Top 10 Relief Pitchers to Target - LIMA Plan

You need saves but you don't want to burn an early pick or spend up just to invest in a closer that joins the 50% club. That is, the 50% or more of relief pitchers who start the year as closers but will lose their job due to poor performance or injury at some point […]

Starting Pitcher Sleepers Who Surged In September

Do you remember the 21st night of September? I certainly don't. Amid a global pandemic, figuring out the kid's remote school schedule, and fantasy football, the whole month is a little hazy, much to the chagrin of Earth Wind and Fire. Lucky for us, every bit of data that happened on a baseball field is tracked […]

First Base Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers

The first base position has some high-end options such as Freddie Freeman, Cody Bellinger, and Jose Abreu. All are typically going in the top 40 of most mixed-league drafts. But getting one of the top guys isn't imperative. There are plenty of other viable alternatives available later in drafts. Whether it is power, batting average, or […]

Hitter Targets Under $5 - Salary Cap League Values

It's a cliché to say that those managers who finally dip their toe into salary cap leagues never go back to snake drafts. Snake drafts have their own charm. There is simply more going on, and thus, more fun to have when participating in a salary cap draft. There become no bounds on how one […]

Roto Category Draft Targets - Strikeouts

Welcome back to RotoBaller, here we have another later-round category targets piece - this time focusing on strikeouts. Strikeouts are an interesting category for fantasy given how differently they can be handled in fantasy baseball. Lots of leagues use strikeout rate of some sort (strikeout rate or strikeouts per nine). Those seem to make more sense […]

Hidden Gems To Watch - 2021 Outfielder Prospects

When we talk about prospects, almost everybody wants to gravitate to the names at the top of the various lists; the guys like Wander Franco or Julio Rodriguez. The ones we've deemed "generational talents" or determined will "win you your league." But the issue, as we've seen with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is that predicting prospect […]

Later-Round Category Targets - Stolen Bases

The stolen base is like no other category in the rotisserie game. It is correlated to no other category that is used in fantasy and is influenced by "specialists" (meaning players who only contribute in one category) way more than any other as well. Steal attempts have also been trending downward in recent MLB history, making […]

Undervalued Mixed League Draft Targets in 2021

Finding undervalued players during drafts can make or break your fantasy season. One of the ways we look for undervalued players is to utilize RotoBaller’s Expected Draft Value research developed by my colleague Nick Mariano.  We attempt to identify players who are forecast to return value in 2021 which is greater than the expected value […]

Hidden Gems To Watch - 2021 Pitching Prospects

With pitchers and catchers reporting, Major League Baseball is bearing down on a return to normalcy for the 2021 season. With the MLBPA rejecting MLB’s offer of a delayed start to the 2021 season, opening day is now officially scheduled for Thursday, April 1. When analyzing the pool of pitching prospects for 2021, there are […]

Infielders Ready to Break Out Late

Finding value is crucial on draft day and finding just one or two players in the mid to late rounds in drafts that provide better numbers than projected can give you a significant edge on the competition as you bid for fantasy glory. All too often, we look for the new shiny object in drafts […]

Hidden Gems To Watch - 2021 Infielder Prospects

When we talk about prospects, almost everybody wants to gravitate to the names at the top of the various lists; the guys like Wander Franco or Julio Rodriguez. The ones we've deemed "generational talents" or determined will "win you your league." But the issue, as we've seen with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is that predicting prospect […]

AL Outfielders Ready to Break Out in 2021

In previous seasons, outfielder has been one of the deepest positions to find top-end talent as well as deeper talent. In 2021, this does not appear to be the case as there are so many question marks and risks in the current top 50 based on ADP and throughout the entirety of drafts. It becomes […]

2021 Relievers To Target For Holds

As evidenced by the success of the 2015 Kansas City Royals and 2020 Tampa Bay Rays, we have seen a much greater focus placed on strengthening middle-relief in MLB bullpens over the past decade. Additionally, in recent seasons we have seen a shift toward teams utilizing their best reliever in the most crucial innings and […]

Trevor Rogers (SP, MIA) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 390 CURRENT ADP: ~444 overall ANALYSIS: Rogers is being overlooked to some extent because of the company he keeps. Sandy Alcantara stepped forward in a big way with an All-Star nod in 2019 and 2020 was all about Sixto Sanchez. The Marlins are now knee-deep in young arms who could vie for a […]

2021 Undervalued Draft Targets - Starting Pitchers

In late November, before I officially joined the RotoBaller team, I began a long post series where I went rotation-by-rotation, slowly populating my SP ranks for 2021. The way I did this was I would do the analysis and take a long look at each player, and then insert them into the list based on […]

Four Players Set to Break Out at Third Base

I previously identified breakout candidates at second base, so now it's time to move on to the hot corner. When defining a breakout, I look at it as a player that can take a step forward to a level they never reached before. This doesn't mean it has to be a "sleeper" or someone who […]

Deeper Draft Sleepers - First Base

Don't look now, but baseball season is on the horizon. Actually, go ahead and look as it is beautiful to see the calendar shrink as each day brings us closer to the crack of the bat and, hopefully, the roar of the crowd as America (and Toronto!) creeps back towards normalcy. It's never a bad idea […]

Five Players Set to Break Out at Second Base

When defining a breakout, I look at it as players that can take a step forward to a level they never reached before. This leaves most of the top targets at the position unavailable for this discussion. Today, we bring you five players at the second base position that can take that next step and […]

Diamonds in the Pen - Deep Reliever Draft Targets

When it comes to building a pitching staff in fantasy, most managers focus solely on starting pitchers and closers. And that makes sense. In standard scoring, those pitchers are the ones who are going to make the greatest contributions to wins, strikeouts and saves. A guy that comes in and tosses a scoreless frame in […]