Are We Overvaluing Innings Pitched Projections?

One of the biggest questions that the 2020 season has caused for 2021 is concerning starting pitcher inning totals. The league leader in regular-season innings last year, as you've probably heard, was Lance Lynn with 84 innings. The average total for pitchers who made 10 or more starts was just 60 innings. In years prior... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Hitter Batted Ball Distribution

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 always the case. Why would this be? The answer, of course, comes down to batted ball distribution and how batters make contact. The league average... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: HR/FB

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. But most fantasy managers find the long ball sexier. Every HR comes with a guaranteed run scored and at least one RBI.... Read More

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... Read More

Playing For Keeps: Making Keeper Decisions for 2021

Spring training is officially underway, and with that comes the start of fantasy baseball draft season. While the majority of people participate in redraft leagues, keeper formats are also popular, and fantasy managers in those leagues are already weighing their decisions on which players to retain and which to toss back into the pool for... Read More

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: Batter BABIP

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. Many know... Read More

Exploiting Early Strength of Schedule for Starting Pitchers

It's important to have a strong starting rotation for your fantasy teams. If you rely on too many high-upside arms with wide ranges of outcomes, you could be struggling to keep up in pitching categories the rest of the season, especially ERA and WHIP. High-volume pitchers with elite strikeout rates are hard to find in the... Read More

Don't Abandon the Win OR the Quality Start

This is a counter-argument to the post written here by Michael Grennell. In his piece, Michael argues that you should remove the wins and quality starts categories from your fantasy baseball league. You should read his full article before continuing, but I will summarize his arguments here first. This is just a summary and does not... Read More

Stat-Based Tips To Build a Strong Fantasy Baseball Roster

As we lead up to the 2021 season, fantasy baseball enthusiasts are sure to read thousands of words about players themselves: who overperformed last year and who is primed for a breakout. All of that is good stuff, and it's very helpful in starting your journey towards winning your league, but it's only half the... Read More

You Paid What?! Overvalued Players in Auctions

Assuming the 2021 MLB season starts on time, we are on the precipice of fantasy baseball draft season. Spring Training will get underway next month, at which point, drafts roll out in full force. We aren't there quite yet, which makes sense. Many of the biggest free agents remain unsigned; the league is unsure of... Read More

Abandon the Win AND the Quality Start

The Win. One of the cornerstone categories of fantasy baseball since its creation. In recent years, baseball fans and fantasy managers alike have been debating the value of the win and whether or not it's overrated. With this debate, the quality start has become a category that more and more leagues are turning to as... Read More

Early One-Man Mock (Round 1) - 2022 Fantasy Baseball

There is no such thing as too early when it comes to draft prep. The calendar won't flip to 2022 for another few weeks but we at RotoBaller aren't ones to sit around and wait. Mock drafts take time, so I took matters into my own hands to complete a one-man mock. For the most... Read More

Exploring Pitch Arsenal Changes

It is really hard to know what to make of the 2020 season. This is especially true in the case of starting pitchers since the league leaders topped out around 80 innings pitched. As expected, there were many pitchers that posted much better seasons than expected, and many that posted seasons much worse. Given that... Read More

Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft - ADP Surprises

Of course, there are many changes to be made throughout the offseason. It feels as if the dust is still settling on the 2020 World Series yet baseball fans are more ready for the upcoming season than ever. We have no idea whether a full schedule can be played, what games will look like, and... Read More

Lineup Order Risers and Fallers: AL West 2020 Review

It’s the offseason and there are about to be a bunch of moving parts. This allows for speculation in terms of players gaining or losing playing time, moving up or down a batting order and much more. The idea here is to highlight some lineup situations for each team and some potential winners or losers... Read More

How I Won Tout Wars

I am extremely fortunate to be able to write an article entitled, “How I Won Tout Wars.” It is truly a humbling experience, and I am both excited and proud to pen today’s words. Including all of the draft preparation that I describe in my aforementioned articles, here a few of the reasons that (I... Read More

Deep Dive: Oakland A's Starting Rotation

Managing fantasy starting pitchers will be especially tough this season. With just three weeks of summer camp, some pitchers will be better prepared for the start of the season than others. Identifying the deepest MLB pitching staffs that can serve as valuable waiver wire resources will be one of the keys to your successful fantasy... Read More

Roto Category Deflations for Hitters in 2020

Things are going to happen fast in 2020. You’ll want to click that add button on hitters who are in the midst of hot streaks quicker than most seasons as a 10-day hot streak this year makes up for over 15% of the full MLB season - as opposed to just 6% in a full... Read More

RotoBaller Experts League No. 2 Draft Recap

Here at RotoBaller, there is no such thing as being in too many fantasy baseball leagues. Some of the writers here are lucky enough to participate in The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, which pits writers, analysts, and experts from all across the baseball community against each other. One RotoBaller writer even started a relievers-only bullpen... Read More

Closer Conundrum: What Does Managing Like It's The Playoffs Mean?

"In a 60-game season, managers will approach every game like it's the playoffs." We've heard that refrain over and over again as we prepare for the 2020 fantasy baseball season. In fact, I think I've written that sentence, or something similar, close to ten times already. But that statement brings up a natural follow-up question: How... Read More

Fantasy Baseball: Category Deflation - Pitchers

Calling all roto players! As you all prepare for the shortened season, I'm sure you are wondering how your strategies may change and how to approach certain categories, particularly for pitching staffs. Well, I have been thinking about the same things as you and will lay out some of my thoughts on how you can... Read More

Roto Category Inflations for Pitchers in 2020

Limited sample sizes are scary territory for pitching results and analysis. In this year’s upcoming 60-game season, starting pitchers are going to be maxing out with around 12 starts, meaning that just one or two blowup games could cause a pitcher’s season-long numbers to look quite ugly. So how do fantasy managers adjust? The key... Read More

Essential Multi-Position Performers for the Shortened Season

We have already seen several players opt out of the season and others having their outlooks for the beginning of the schedule clouded by COVID-19. There will certainly be more players forced out of action, and some may even elect to walk away when they reach certain service time thresholds or if their team falls... Read More

Introducing POWA - A New Hitting Metric Stickier Than wOBA

It can be fun to look back at previous things you’ve written, gaining a window into your state of mind in that moment. I originally wrote much of this piece back in March, when baseball seemed like a distant dream. From March: "The last few weeks have been challenging. In the grand scheme of things,... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Strategies for a 60-Game Season

Host Michael Florio of RotoBaller Radio discusses the 2020 fantasy baseball season. In this episode, he brings you his approach in a 60 game fantasy baseball season. Like and subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all our latest podcasts and catch us on iTunes and BlogTalkRadio as well! Be sure to also tune into... Read More

Platoon Situations to Avoid in a Shortened Season

Fantasy baseball fans, the 2020 season is finally almost upon us, which means it’s time to start thinking about drafting and valuing players all over again! As I am sure you are all aware, the shortened season and rule changes will impact aspects of your fantasy baseball strategies, some more than others. One of the... Read More

Schedule Factors - Hitters on the Decline

Earlier this week, we took a look at which hitters have been helped the most by the recently announced 60-game schedule. Now it's time to take a look at the hitters who might be hurt the most by it. Remember that in order to fully break down the way in which a schedule may impact... Read More

The COVID Conundrum - To Drop or Not to Drop?

So….real, actual baseball games are almost upon us. Opening Day is July 23rd. And yet, we are still in the midst of a pandemic. At the time of my writing this, by my calculations, at least 90 players have had COVID-19 or have gone through the COVID Protocol due to players being traced back to... Read More

One Last Mock! ADP Values and Reaches

As the sun prepares to rise on the 2020 MLB season (I'm all about hopeful metaphors these days), it also marks the end of draft season for fantasy baseball. This weekend will see a flurry of activity from fantasy league owners trying to figure out how to properly value players amid a global pandemic. Good... Read More