RADIO
NFBC Draft and Hold Strategy - Pitching Category Boosters
There is no such thing as a can't-miss pitching prospect. Pitchers never stay healthy. Relievers are volatile. All of these are sayings that diehard fantasy baseball players are familiar with, and to some extent, live by during the fantasy season. Developing a pitching strategy is hard enough with access to the waiver wire, but in... Read More
On February 13, 2019, we assembled a group of industry experts to take part in the second annual RotoBaller Friends and Family Expert Mock Draft. Our participants represented multiple sites, including: CBS Sports (Heath Cummings) The Athletic (Nando Di Fino) Fantasy Alarm (Howard Bender) Fangraphs (Alex Chamberlain) RotoWire (Tim Heaney) Mastersball/ESPN (Todd Zola) GuruElite (Ray... Read More
The first advanced pitching stat most fantasy owners 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 cast. According to the DIPS theory that the metric is based upon, pitchers control only Ks, BBs (and HBP) and home... Read More
At RotoBaller, we recently assembled a group of fantasy baseball experts to take part in the RotoBaller Friends and Family Expert Mock Draft. Our participants came from all over the industry, representing a host of various sites such as: CBS Sports (Heath Cummings) The Athletic (Nando Di Fino) Fantasy Alarm (Howard Bender) Fangraphs (Alex Chamberlain)... Read More
In a heavyweight matchup of back-end first basemen, it's young versus old in this clash of right-handed bats. Although they are closer in age than you might initially suspect, 28-year old Luke Voit is the early favorite on the books over the veteran 34-year old Ryan Zimmerman. Chosen at an ADP of 329, Zimmerman is... Read More
When given the choice between a mostly-unproven talent who could contribute something in five categories on one hand, and a newly-successful player likely to be limited in HR and RBI, who would you pick? This is essentially the choice presented by Mallex Smith and Victor Robles this draft season. Both are being drafted within the... Read More
While participating in a fantasy baseball draft, you’ll undoubtedly face numerous hair-pulling decisions that could either make or break your season. Here at RotoBaller, we care about your luscious locks, so we divulge into these anxious situations before they happen to make it easier for you on draft day. Speaking of lack of hair, Rick... Read More
With the growing interest in draft-and-hold formats, new draft strategy prep is critical for full season runs at the title. For those who are new to the format, typically teams draft 27 starters in a live draft, with 27 players joining the team in a reserve section through a slow draft. With top prospects also... Read More
Here at RotoBaller, we've been producing fantasy baseball analysis all offseason. As part of that, our awesome MLB team has written up detailed 2019 fantasy baseball outlooks for 400+ players. These player outlooks include RotoBaller's analysis on how we expect a player to perform in 2019, where to target them in 2019 drafts, and supporting... Read More
After years of struggles at the plate early in their careers, Eddie Rosario and Aaron Hicks both figured something out in 2017, which they were able to transfer to 2018. Rosario hit .288/.323/.479 last year with 24 home runs, 77 RBI, eight steals, and 87 runs scored. Meanwhile, Hicks hit .248/.366/.467 with 27 home runs,... Read More
To this point, this series has focused exclusively on trying to predict and validate home runs and batting average. There is a reason for this--modern sabermetrics tend to 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... Read More
Over the years, I’ve done hundreds of mock drafts, maybe even thousands. However, as someone relatively new to formal writing about fantasy baseball, I’ve never been part of an organization that ran a slow mock draft. I recently took part in RotoBaller’s Dynasty Mock Draft, and boy was it ever SLOW. We started this thing... Read More
With the NFL season officially a thing of the past, we can now turn our undivided fantasy attention to preparing for our baseball drafts. We are still waiting on the answers to a few key questions (such as, I don't know, where Bryce Harper and Manny Machado might play their home games?), but we have... Read More
Earlier in this series, we saw that fantasy owners generally prefer batters to hit the ball into the air in order 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... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, and I’m here to continue RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the ever-volatile relief pitcher position. The "closer carousel" seems to spin faster and faster every year, and there are very few names in the 'set... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, so I’m here to carry on RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the stars of the infield, the shortstops. The position is star-studded, and in roto leagues, I think I'd be comfortable with any of the... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, so I’m here to continue RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the incredibly deep outfield position. There is a seemingly neverending stream of useful bats, but there are still clear chokepoints where the risk portfolio thickens.... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, and I’m here to continue RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the increasingly scant catcher position. Traditionally a thin position to begin with, catcher seems to be growing thinner every year as far as fantasy production... Read More
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 owners have known for years that players like Chris Davis are potential drains on a fantasy team's batting average. Furthermore, players that whiff a lot tend to continue... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, so I’m here to carry on RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the keystone position. Traditionally a scarce position in fantasy, second base has truly risen over the past few years, and truthfully I'd be happy... Read More
It’s never too early to start looking toward the fantasy baseball season, so I’m here to kick off RotoBaller’s position-by-position rankings analysis series for points league and head-to-head (H2H) formats with the hard-hitting first base position. Traditionally a power haven, first base has a fairly clear top three tiers and then the floor starts to... Read More
For readers who tune in to watch MLB games regularly, the phrase “small ball is dead” is becoming more and more the cliche. Managers do not feel the need to run as much, there is a decreasing rate of sacrifice bunts, and above all, no more hit-and-run as a primary offensive tactic. While many factors... Read More
When discussing fantasy baseball. An often neglected-but-entertaining format is the points league. These exist in both cumulative season-long and weekly head-to-head formats. While existential debates about scoring categories and their true depiction of player worth are endless, points leagues arguably get closest to the objective of sabermetrics. Points leagues attempt to define a player’s contribution... Read More
Fly balls can turn into home runs. Ground balls never do. It would seem as though fantasy owners want their batters to hit nothing but flies, yet this is not the case. Why would this be? The answer, of course, comes down to batted ball distribution and the manner in which batters make contact. In... Read More
If you've watched a baseball broadcast in the so-called 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.... Read More
Catcher is a tough position to evaluate, as many teams utilize multiple catchers and it is rare for one to play 140 or more games in a season. Wear and tear as a backstop limits offensive value for sure, but there are still a group of solid catchers that can contribute in multiple categories. Beyond... Read More
Using BABIP to predict a player's batting average is great. Average is a category in many league formats, and every hit is an opportunity to steal a base or score a run. But most owners find the long ball sexier. Every HR comes with a guaranteed run scored and at least one RBI. Many owners... Read More
