Industry Mock: Rapid Reactions and Lessons Learned

On Thursday night we at RotoBaller hosted an industry mock draft with some cool people from RotoGraphs, the NY Post, BaseballHQ, RotoExperts, SportingNews, Baseball Prospectus, TheFantasyFix, We Talk Fantasy Sports, and of course we had our own cohort of RotoBaller reps. There will more on the draft as a whole, be on the lookout for... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 10: Minor League Stats

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

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 9: PITCHf/x

One of the most fundamental questions in fantasy sports is if a player's current performance is sustainable. PITCHf/x is a publicly available pitch tracking system that provides a lot of different data to help fantasy owners make this determination for mound breakouts and busts alike. The first data point, and the easiest to understand, is... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 8: Batted Ball Distribution for Pitchers

The league average batted ball distribution in 2015 was 20.9% liners, 45.3% grounders and 33.8% flies. Last time, we took a brief look at how pitchers may specialize in either grounders or fly balls. Fly ball pitchers have a BABIP advantage over their ground ball-inducing counterparts, since fly balls (.129 BABIP in 2015) consistently have... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 7: BABIP for Pitchers

While FIP is a useful tool to predict a pitcher's future ERA performance, fantasy owners should remember that ERA, not FIP, is what really matters in most formats. This means that we are interested in the "luck" that separates the two statistics. Some of this is unpredictable, but we can and should predict some of... Read More

ADP Draft Sleepers Tool: Find Draft Day Gems

RotoBaller Premium Subscribers can click here to access the ADP Draft Sleepers Tool. RotoBaller’s ADP Draft Sleepers Tool is a powerful yet simple tool that can help you unearth fantasy baseball gems on draft day.  It's a sleek tool that's easy to use, and will have a huge effect on your draft selections and help you... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 6: FIP and xFIP

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

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 5: Lineups, Runs and RBI

To this point, this column has focused exclusively on trying to predict and validate HRs 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... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 4: Plate Discipline for Hitters

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 Adam Dunn, Mark Reynolds, and Chris Davis are potential drains on a fantasy team's batting average. Furthermore, players that whiff... Read More

Early Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Maneuvering the Middle Rounds

Here are the usual suspects (in draft order): Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock, Harris Yudin, Max Petrie, Josh Leonard, Ross Williamson, Andrew Miller (from The Fantasy Fix), Nick Mariano (myself), Tom Bellucco, Brian Dunshee (also from The Fantasy Fix), and Edward Suletan. Reminder - this was a traditional 5x5 redraft 23 round mock with... Read More

Early Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Points of Contention from Rounds 5-7

Here are the usual suspects (in draft order): Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock, Harris Yudin, Max Petrie, Josh Leonard, Ross Williamson, Andrew Miller (from The Fantasy Fix), Nick Mariano (myself), Tom Bellucco, Brian Dunshee (also from The Fantasy Fix), and Edward Suletan. Reminder: This is a traditional 5x5 redraft 23 round mock with 2... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 3: Batted Ball Distribution

In the first post of this series, I referenced that Chris Davis's BABIP is not explained by that post alone, and that we would consider him again in the future. He was not considered in Part 2. He will be considered here. Davis managed an above average overall BABIP of .319 in 2015, despite the... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 2: HR/FB for Hitters

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--and maybe more.... Read More

Early Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: The Fourth Round Pitching Run

The lineup (in draft order): Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock, Harris Yudin, Max Petrie, Josh Leonard, Ross Williamson, Andrew Miller (from The Fantasy Fix), Nick Mariano (myself), Tom Bellucco, Brian Dunshee (also from The Fantasy Fix), and Edward Suletan. We put together a traditional 5x5 redraft 23 round mock with 2 catchers, a corner... Read More

Early Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Third Round Breakdown

The lineup (in draft order): Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock, Harris Yudin, Max Petrie, Josh Leonard, Ross Williamson, Andrew Miller (from The Fantasy Fix), Nick Mariano (myself), Tom Bellucco, Brian Dunshee (also from The Fantasy Fix), and Edward Suletan. Scroll to the bottom for an image of the draftboard. We put together a traditional 5x5... Read More

Early Mock Draft 2016: Analyzing the Second Round

If you haven't read the first round analysis yet, you should definitely do that! Click that and then come right back here. I'll know. For those of you that want to view the draft board in all of it's glory, here it is: As a reminder, here's the lineup: Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock,... Read More

Early 2016 Mock Draft: Analyzing the First Round

Hey everyone, we here at RotoBaller just couldn’t wait any longer. We ran our first fantasy baseball mock draft this week because the fiending is real. A special thanks to Andrew and Brian who joined us from The Fantasy Fix. The lineup (in draft order): Jacob Bogardus, Brad Johnson, Alex Brock, Harris Yudin, Max Petrie,... Read More

Art of the Deal: Helping Your Fantasy Baseball Team Through Trades

  The Art Of The Fantasy Baseball Trade Negotiation You’ve chosen your team but your draft didn’t go exactly as you had planned. Maybe someone ignited a run for starting pitching earlier than you had anticipated and you got caught with your knickers down. You failed to react quickly enough and now you are stuck... Read More

Auction Strategy: Use All Of Your Money

Don't Get Caught Watching The last installment of my four part series on auction strategy is all about the money. Specifically, you should spend all of it. Your plan and budget are set, and now it is time to start drafting. You set a lovely, structured plan. Now you're immediately challenged by other owners spending... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: When to Punt a Stat on Draft Day (Almost Never)

Fantasy owners are constantly trying to find something that will give them an edge, and one strategy that has been employed is to intentionally disregard a stat during the draft. The logic is simple enough: If all teams have the same number of auction dollars or draft picks, intentionally disregarding one stat provides an advantage... Read More

How to Use Positional Scarcity and Depth to Your Advantage

Position scarcity and depth are topics of great debate every draft season. Where the talent pool is deep, you can afford to wait. Where it is scarce, an early pick is often in order. During the work on my series of draft value articles using RotoBaller's ADP Draft Sleepers Tool, I examined the depth of... Read More

2015 Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: How To Use Tiered Rankings

  What Are Player Tiers for Rankings? Over the last few years in fantasy baseball, the topic of player tiers or tiered rankings has become a trendy way to approach your draft. Often times, in real life, something that is trendy doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best course of action or the smartest idea. It... Read More

Seven Best Draft Strategies for Deep Leagues

  Draft Strategy for Deep Leagues What are deep leagues?  Are they anything over 10 team leagues?  The phrase "deep leagues" gets thrown around a lot on fantasy websites.  You see headlines like, “Deep League Sleeper” and “Deep League Targets” all over the internet.  Who are they targeting?  Are they targeting me since I’m in... Read More

Tiered Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis: Draft Strategy & Advice For Starting Pitchers

  RotoBaller analysts have been giving you a sneak peak into our consensus Premium Tiered Rankings at each position with some in-depth analysis to help you prepare for your drafts. We already looked at catchers, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, outfield, and today we tackle starting pitchers. The rest of our tiered rankings can be found in our 2015 Fantasy Baseball Draft... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Draft Plans: The Lessons Of Starting Pitcher Injuries

The Plague of Failing Elbows Since the beginning of spring training, we have seen starting pitchers Yu Darvish, Marcus Stroman, Cliff Lee, and Zack Wheeler all go down with with injuries. This, along with the outbreak of Tommy John surgeries in baseball the past few seasons, has left fantasy owners searching for "safe" starting pitching. How do we weed... Read More

Auction Draft Strategy: How to Manage Your Budget

We previous looked at Part 1 (How to Prepare for Auction Drafts) and Part 2 (Five  Key Mistakes to Avoid Making) of our Auction Draft Strategy series. Today we look at how to budget your team's salary. The most important strategy for auction drafts is how to budget your allowance. Keeping track of how your dollars are... Read More

Wait. On. Pitchers. (Until Rounds 7-8) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Strategy

When creating a Fantasy Baseball team, there are many reasons to consider waiting on pitchers. The position is easier to fill than hitting roster spots, starters are more injury prone than position players, and a starting pitcher pitches only once every five days meaning their impact is limited to a much smaller sample size than... Read More

Four Best Draft Strategies for Points Leagues

  Winning Points Leagues on Draft Day Most of the analysis you'll find in the fantasy community tends to be geared towards roto or 5x5 formats. This is done for two main reasons. First, category formats are easily the more popular of the two options. Analysts write to be read, so it makes sense to... Read More

Auction Draft Strategy: Five Key Mistakes to Avoid at the Auction Table

There are many ways your auction can blow up before your eyes. Part Two of my strategy for auction drafts is focused around five key mistakes to avoid making in auction drafts. This list of five is comes from my own experience at the auction table in more than a few auction leagues over the years. These... Read More

Top Three Keeper Selection Strategies

“Who To Keep?” It's a question which agonizes fantasy owners each year. No matter how experienced you are, it's never an easy one. A sound keeper strategy is just as important to contending in your league as any first round pick. Moreover, making a mistake at this part of the game can set your team... Read More