Jon Anderson's 2022 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide

Baseball is happening in 2022, and it is happening in full force. With the excellent news of the lockout ending, we are ready to dive full steam ahead into the fantasy baseball draft season! I have had my head deep in baseball data since before Christmas, so I wanted to come out with a miniature... Read More

Finding Over/Undervalued Shortstops Using Expected Draft Values

We're back for another installment of the FSWA-award-nominated Expected Draft Values series, where we look at historical data to identify both overvalued and undervalued players of all types. Whether you're targeting power, speed, power+speed, batting average+power, and so on, we've got you covered. Today, we'll look at three shortstops and compare their projected statline via... Read More

RotoBaller Staff Mock Draft Analysis: 12-Team Roto League Draft

Fantasy prep is never complete without mock drafts. So in doing our best to prepare for the 2022 season, my fellow RotoBaller writers and I got together for a 12-team 5X5 Roto mock draft. The only difference is that we used Quality Starts instead of Wins. I’ll be breaking down our draft round-by-round and highlighting... Read More

NFBC Points League Primer for Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Points-league players are often overlooked in the fantasy baseball draft world. Rankings for roto leagues do not match up and one-size-fits-all points rankings aren't much better since every site has unique scoring settings. So here I am, taking the baton from Nicklaus Gaut and advancing toward new horizons. And those horizons, today, go by the... Read More

Finding Over/Undervalued Second Basemen Using Expected Draft Values

And we're back to the Expected Draft Values series, where we look at historical data to identify both over and undervalued players of all types. Whether you're targeting power, speed, power+speed, batting average+power, and so on, we've got you covered. We now head to second base as we make our way around the diamond for... Read More

Statcast xStats: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

Statcast is a valuable tool for fantasy analysis, and it can be easy to look at a stat called "Expected Batting Average" and blindly use it as your projection moving forward. Of course, proper use of these metrics is a little bit more nuanced than that. First, a disclaimer: This article is about the "Expected... Read More

H2H Points League Strategy Primer

Spring Training has finally started, the hot stove is steaming, and draft season is fully underway! Whether you are a Head-To-Head Points veteran or are interested in trying the format for the first time, there are essential preparations to be done prior to your drafts and the season. My goal here is to outline the... Read More

Fantrax H2H Points League Primer for Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Points-league players are often overlooked in the fantasy baseball draft world. Rankings for roto leagues do not match up and one-size-fits-all points rankings aren't much better since every site has unique scoring settings. So here I am, taking the baton from RotoBaller's own points league guru, Nicklaus Gaut, and advancing toward new horizons. Those horizons... Read More

CBS H2H Points League Primer for Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Our very own Nicklaus Gaut already told you: "ESPN now has point rankings that more accurately reflect how players perform under their standard point scoring system. And not just rankings but dollar values too!" As he's often said, us points-league players need the proper content from different platforms to align with their particular systems. It... Read More

Nick Mariano's Auction Draft Strategies and Tips (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Hello, RotoBallers, and let me once again applaud you and your league for playing in the more entertaining format that is auction-based fantasy baseball. This is not a 101-level "how-to" guide, you'll need to know how to click "Bid" and whatnot. But I want... Read More

Barrels and Brls/BBE: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

We've previously looked at how exit velocity is only one piece of the fantasy analysis puzzle. Baseball broadcasts will commonly cite Launch Angle (LA) to complement their EV figures, but it is given in terms of degrees. LA is basically a fancy way of saying things that the fantasy community has used for years. Am... Read More

Where to Draft Injured Hitters in Fantasy Baseball

After a stressful few months where seemingly everybody became an expert on the economics of baseball and traded spin rate analysis for PR spin analysis, we can get back to digging into the game itself. It's wonderful news without a doubt. Except possibly for those injured players who were hoping for another few weeks of... Read More

Spin Rate: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

Spin rate has become one of the most recognizable Statcast metrics, with supporters of a given pitcher highlighting his spin rates to make their case. It has also become controversial as of late due to allegations of pitchers using foreign substances to increase their spin. Unfortunately, the baseball world has done a lousy job conveying... Read More

Building an Offense After Pick 100 - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

There are basically three large categories of players you'll draft in a fantasy baseball league: Hitters Pitchers Relief Pitcher One of the tougher things to nail down in a draft is when to dive into each of those groups. There are good arguments for going heavy at hitting early on, good arguments for quickly grabbing... Read More

Manufacturing a Stud: Late-Round Hitter Combos

Fantasy baseball is most often a category-centered game. You compete in five or six offensive categories every week with your final season finished depending on how well you perform in each category. This opens up the opportunity to deploy certain draft strategies that help your team become more well-rounded all throughout the draft. The best... Read More

(Re)Introducing Custom Point Rankings for Head-to-Head Leagues

The greatest trick that rotisserie baseball ever played was convincing the world that point players don't exist. Sounds melodramatic but an overwhelming majority of the quality fantasy baseball content available is geared towards classic roto leagues even though the share of people that play H2H points on ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, and Fantrax is large and... Read More

Top-Five Strategies for Winning NFBC Best Ball Leagues

Best-ball leagues have become more popular in recent years in fantasy baseball. Dedicated players have made fantasy baseball a year-round game, and nothing prepares us better than to participate in drafts. Many of us have learned the hard way that overloading on leagues that require FAAB or setting lineups can hurt our overall results. One... Read More

Bubba's 2022 Tout Wars 12-Team Mixed Draft Recap

Even though Rob Manfred and the MLB owners decided to prolong the lockout and already cancel some regular-season games, we are drafting. I had the pleasure of partaking in the 12-team mixed league draft for Tout Wars on Tuesday. It is my second year in the league, and it is the second year for this... Read More

Positions to Prioritize: Statistical Scarcity Breakdown

Position scarcity is a big topic of debate every fantasy baseball season. Not all positions on the baseball diamond are created equal, and they often give us quite different arrays of offensive production for fantasy purposes. In this post, I will take a close look at what's going on at each position by the projections... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Tool and Draft Assistant

  Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Tool and Draft Assistant Here at RotoBaller HQ we're constantly looking to add more tools and resources to help our readers win their fantasy baseball drafts. In case you haven't heard, we'll be releasing some cool new free fantasy baseball tools this year and we're really excited about it! First up... Read More

Custom Rankings User Guide for Head-to-Head Point Leagues (Premium Content)

Whether you used our custom ranks last season or are brand new, welcome to RotoBaller's Custom Rankings Service! I'm RotoBaller's resident points lothario, Nicklaus Gaut, and I truly believe, both practically and mathematically speaking, that applying the information within these spreadsheets will give you the biggest advantages a points player can have. Premium subscribers can... Read More

Statcast Exit Velocity: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

If you've watched a baseball broadcast in the 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. There... Read More

Ballpark Factors: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

If you have ever selected a streamable pitcher based on a home park or benched an otherwise must-start arm at Coors Field, you already know how much a stadium can impact a player's bottom line. Ballpark Factors quantify the influence each stadium has, allowing you to make the most of your fantasy team's real-life schedule.... Read More

Pitch Info: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

One of the most fundamental questions in fantasy sports is if a player's current performance is sustainable. More than any other sport, baseball has a slew of statistical measures that can be dissected in numerous ways to analyze player performance. Pitch Info is a publicly-available pitch tracking system that provides a lot of different data to... Read More

Batting Order: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

You may be wondering why there aren't any advanced stats aimed at predicting a player's counting stats like runs and RBI. The answer is simple: modern sabermetrics 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 ascertaining... Read More

Pull%: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

We have previously determined that fantasy managers generally prefer batters to hit the ball into the air 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 to illustrate this is... Read More

HR/FB: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

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

FIP/xFIP: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

While we've only examined how to evaluate hitters using advanced stats thus far, sabermetrics are at least as useful for pitchers. 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... Read More

Pitcher BABIP: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

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