Cole Hamels to Chicago Cubs - Fantasy Implications

It did not feel like we would ever get here, but  Cole Hamels was finally traded by the Texas Rangers. Very little in baseball has been more up and down than Hamels' performances this season, but the Rangers finally found a trade partner in the Chicago Cubs, who were willing to give them the return they […]

The Cut List (Week 18): Time to Let Go?

Welcome to Week 18 of the Cut List. I'm your guest host this time around, filling in for usual steward Conor McElheney. Longtime RotoBallers may recall that I covered this beat last season. Hopefully your remembrances aren't rooted in anger after I gave you bad advice!  The format this year is a bit different, but […]

J.A. Happ in Pinstripes - Fantasy Implications

Deadline season might be the most exciting of the baseball campaign, with every team making moves and deciding whether to sell or buy. In this particular trade - Toronto sending J.A. Happ to the Yankees - the teams are moving in opposite directions with one team hoping to win the East, and the other, to […]

Week 18 Waiver Wire - Second Base (2B) and Shortstop (SS)

A few middle infielders have been moved in recent deals, and a few more may follow suit before this week’s trade deadline. Those players will, however, likely all be widely owned. We’re here to talk about some guys you might be able to acquire without the benefit of having to strike a trade in your […]

Week 18 Waiver Wire - First Base (1B) and Third Base (3B)

It is week 18 and as we move closer to the playoffs, every win is vital. Don’t become complacent, regardless of your place in the standings. You don’t need to manage your active roster the next few days so take this opportunity to clean things up. Spend some time rummaging through the waiver wire to […]

Two-Start Pitcher Streamers: Week 17 (July 30th-August 5th)

Now that the weird Week 16 schedule is in the books, we can return to our normal seven-day forecast in the two-start streamer world. However, to continue to avoid confusion, I’ll label these articles with both the week of your fantasy season (for head-to-head players) and also the dates for relevance. This week’s list will […]

Points Leagues (H2H) Waiver Wire Adds and Streamers - Week 18

Welcome back for another week of advice for points league waiver wire moves. This segment will include waiver wire adds, drops, and streaming pitchers for the upcoming week. This article will be geared specifically toward points leagues. Every points league is different, so keep that in mind. Walks and extra base hits are more valuable, […]

Buy or Sell - Undervalued and Overvalued Players for Week 18

In a relatively active week on the MLB trade market, we now have several impactful moves to digest from a fantasy standpoint. While real-life GMs always assume trades will work in their team's benefit, the reality is that not all players are able to adapt to their new team in a positive way. With more […]

Hitter Streamers (Week 18) - Head-to-Head Leagues

Welcome back to my hitting streamers column for Week 18, taking a look at hitters to add or stream off the waiver wire for this week's scheduled games. To keep things simple, I pick from players who are 50% owned or less and who play at least seven games in the week.  If someone jumps […]

Holds Leagues - Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds for Week 18

While holds are even tougher to predict than saves, the players we’ll highlight today include some elite setup men to target off the waiver wire in Week 18. One-inning middle relievers are the constant sources for holds and specialists can manage to secure a hold even with one out. However, while specialists can get many […]

Friday Five: The All-Underwhelming Team

In recent days, there have been plenty of articles written about the best and worst players of the season’s first half. It’s natural when one comes to a midpoint – leaving aside the pedantry of pointing out that it was closer to a two-thirds mark this season – to reflect on what’s already happened. It’s […]

Week 18 Waiver Wire: H2H Category Streamers

I like to consider myself a pioneer of the streaming approach. I won a league about seven years ago completely ignoring saves and just stacking up the starts each week. While streaming is undoubtedly more directly associated with pitching, there's plenty of value in streaming for offense as well. Maybe you have a stacked roster […]

Week 17 Start/Sit Matchups - Starting Pitchers

You know what it is--it's my updated starts/sits column for Week 17! Your friendly neighborhood @Roto_Dubs is back again this year with his weekly starting pitcher matchups. This is our fifth year now writing this weekly column, helping fantasy baseball managers pick the best pitchers weekly. Below are the projected starting pitching matchups for Week 17, and […]

Hot Prospects to Watch Week 17: Gonsolin, Ray, Rutherford

It's getting closer to the trade deadline and we're starting to see prospects finding new teams as star players go on the move. Francisco Mejia is the biggest name prospect to have been traded already, heading to San Diego in the deal that netted Cleveland Brad Hand and Adam Cimber. The Dodgers sent a package […]

Zach Britton - Does Joining The Bully Bullpen Help Or Hurt His Value?

The New York Yankees sport arguably the strongest, most dominant bullpen in baseball. Chad Green, Adam Warren, Jonathan Holder, David Robertson, Dellin Betances, and Aroldis Chapman all sport sub-3.06 ERAs and all — save for Holder — own 10+ strikeouts-per-nine-innings ratios. A.J. Cole has been nothing to sneer at either (3-1, 1.29 WHIP). You would […]

Week 18 Waiver Wire - Catcher

With the second half of baseball now in full swing, teams are doing their best to make a late season playoff push. As the trade deadline approaches, teams around the league will drastically change as they do their best to try and win the World Series. As the MLB landscape changes, so will Fantasy Baseball. […]

Rookie Report: Recent MLB Prospect Call-Ups (Week 17)

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your all-star break. I certainly enjoyed mine; it gave me a chance to think about how to approach rookies and prospects for the rest of the season and get an extended look at some top-tier MiLB talent in the futures game. Particularly, Seuly Matias and Taylor Trammell caught my […]

Statcast Pitcher Risers/Fallers - RP Trade Candidates (Week 17)

Welcome back to Rotoballer's series using Statcast to extrapolate, dig into, and commiserate over data to examine pitching performances. The weekly series will be dynamic as we fine-tune our findings and enlighten ourselves on the information and tools at our disposal. We've rolled over the All-Star break and the trade deadline is fast approaching. With […]

Power Risers/Fallers for Week 17: Buy or Sell?

Welcome to Week 17 of the 2018 MLB season and a new week of our investigation into the steepest power trenders in baseball, whether those trends are positive or negative. As the season is already nearing the beginning of August, the window of opportunity to snag a surging slugger or to deal a down-and-out disappointment […]

Champ or Chump: Dereck Rodriguez and Willie Calhoun

The moves continue to trickle in. Zach Britton is heading to the Bronx, where he figures to have zero fantasy value as the team's sixth-best reliever (if he proves he's healthy). Brad Brach got the first save opportunity in Baltimore after Britton left, but the team has a bunch of arms who could receive ninth […]

Week 17 Waiver Wire - Starting Pitchers

Those of you with trade deadlines that mirror the MLB's better strap up and prepare to hit the phones over the next week, because while eventually we'll get some exciting September call-ups and I do really like some of these names, I know that some need a bigger jump than these guys can give. Except for […]

Contact Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 17: Buy or Sell?

Welcome to Contact Rate Risers and Fallers! Our premium tools allow us to get out ahead of trends in player performance, including contact rate. Every Wednesday, we'll be looking at some players that have seen an increase in contact rate and some that have seen it decline. Contact rate can foretell a player's batting average […]

2018 Prospects: Top 30 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Leagues (Week 17)

Hello everyone, and welcome to my weekly Top-30 Fantasy Rankings for Impact Rookies! In this series, I will be going over the top prospects in baseball and discussing which ones figure to have an impact for the rest of this fantasy baseball season. Several of the top trade chips have already been moved so far […]

NL-Only Waiver Wire Team of the Week: MLB Week 17

Every week in baseball, a significant player will hit the disabled list, slip into a slump, or get traded out of a good spot. How fantasy owners adapt to these situations can make or break the season as a whole. One lousy add might not hurt the long-term standing of a team, but failing to […]

Trading Up: Offensive Category Targets

This article is the fourth in our series on trade and acquisition targets for the second half of the season. Part 1: Top-50 Players to Target Part 2: Mid-Tier and Bargain Targets on Offense Part 3: Mid-Tier and Bargain Pitchers Part 4: Offensive Category Targets Part 5: Pitching Category Targets Tweaking an offense to strengthen […]

Are You For Real? Surprising SP Starts (Week 17)

Welcome to our surprising starts series. Every week we’ll be going over a few surprising starting pitcher performances around the majors to determine whether these starts were smoke and mirrors or something more. With only the weekend's games to chose from it was slim pickings this week on the sleeper starting pitcher front. It does […]

Champ or Chump: Zach Eflin and Manny Machado

The Trade Deadline moves started early, with Manny Machado heading to Hollywood. Elite players are likely to remain elite regardless of where they play, but Machado's fantasy value is probably due for a slight hit. Brad Hand and Jeurys Familia are the other notable fantasy options on the move, and both figure to see a […]

AL-Only Waiver Wire Team of the Week (7/23 - 7/29)

Every week in baseball, a significant player will hit the disabled list, slip into a slump, or get traded out of a good spot. How fantasy owners adapt to these situations can make or break the season as a whole. One lousy add might not hurt the long-term standing of a team, but failing to […]

Statcast Hitter Risers/Fallers - BA vs Defensive Shifts (Week 17)

Defensive shifts have become a controversial topic, believe it or not, as some people actually contend it is "ruining the game." Recently fired skipper Mike Matheny was in that camp and may have been given the axe in part due to his unwillingness to embrace analytics or any of the changes in modern baseball. Given that […]

Strikeout Rate Risers and Fallers for Week 17: Buy or Sell?

Due to a combination of harder throwers and hitters focusing on hitting for power, strikeouts are at an all-time high in baseball. For pitchers, this is an ideal trend. The ability to generate swings and misses is the most important skill to possess, as it's the only true way to control what happens after the […]