Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 20

Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. We're taking a trip to America's heartland this week, with two Central arms going under... Read More

MLB Pitcher Studs and Duds - Advanced Metrics Leaders for CSW% (Week 20)

Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze what those values may mean for future performance. I have written about several strikeout and strike-generating metrics this season. Strikeouts obviously... Read More

Desert Island Hitter Metrics: Barrels, Walks, and Strikeouts

Barrels, walks, and strikeouts are three important indicators of hitting talent. Previous research by the Baseball Data Machine Learning team has found that a simple metric that sums barrels and walks and subtracts strikeouts, and then divides by plate appearances, offers a good starting point for evaluating a hitter’s talent. This article builds on that... Read More

Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 19

Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. We've got a pair of arms in the AL East to take a peek at... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Prospects Report - MLB Rookie Risers and Fallers for Week 18

It has been a few weeks since my last edition of RotoBaller’s Recently Promoted Prospects series for fantasy baseball prospects thanks to a trip to the Caribbean where I enjoyed watching MLB trade deadline madness from a beach with a drink (or two) in my hand. A number of big prospects have since been promoted... Read More

MLB Pitcher Studs and Duds - Advanced Metrics Leaders for ERA-xERA (Week 19)

Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze what those values may mean for future performance. I wrote about expected ERA (xERA) in Week 10; xERA is a 1:1... Read More

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 19

The NFL preseason may be starting, but let's not lose sight of what should be a fantastic end to the MLB season! Multiple division races are up for grabs, the wildcard races are as wide open as it gets, and it's anyone's guess who wins the major awards. I mean, what else could you want?... Read More

Finding MLB Starting Pitcher Breakouts - Pitch Mix Analysis and Mid-Season Changes (Part 2)

Welcome back to another edition of my series on pitchers with mid-season changes to their pitch mix. I seem to have found a niche covering pitch mixes and using it to evaluate where pitchers have avenues for growth or warning signs for regression. As a former catcher, I'm used to thinking about pitch sequencing and... Read More

Florio's Bullpen Week: Figuring out Bullpens First Week Post Deadline!

Last week, the trade deadline gave us the big reliever shake-up that we had been waiting for weeks to happen. But it did not disappoint. While we were able to speculate about a lot of the bullpen situations impacted we now have a week of games in the books and have seen the early plans... Read More

Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 18

Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. We've got three fascinating arms to look at this week, including Florida fireballer Edward Cabrera... Read More

MLB Pitcher Studs and Duds - Advanced Metrics Leaders for CStr% (Week 18)

Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze what those values may mean for future performance. Most fantasy managers tend to look at strikeout rate or swinging-strike rate, as... Read More

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 18

After an absolutely exhilarating trade deadline, the entire landscape of Major League Baseball has changed, more so than previous trade deadlines; to be honest, even now, I still am struggling to adjust to all of this recent player movement. Now, it's time for a very exciting playoff push. Fantasy baseball teams are built through the... Read More

Under-the-Radar Fantasy Baseball Pickups After the MLB Trade Deadline

We all know that Juan Soto is getting a fantasy boost from being a part of a strong Padres lineup and that Tyler Mahle should see increased production now that he's out of Cincinnati. Those are the takeaways from the MLB trade deadline that we've heard about all day. But what about those other guys?... Read More

Florio's MLB Bullpen Report: Making Sense of Reliever Trades for Fantasy Baseball

For weeks, I spoke about the MLB trade deadline and how the bullpen position was greatly going to be impacted. And for weeks all that there was… were crickets. But, in classic trade deadline fashion, it did not disappoint, at least not when it came to a reliever shake up.  We saw a number of... Read More

Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 17

Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. This week we're taking a trip to the bay area to take a look at... Read More

MLB Pitcher Studs and Duds - Advanced Metrics Leaders for xFIP (Week 17)

Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! The second half of the season is now underway, and I will return to my standard format for this article series. Each week, I select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze... Read More

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 17

Hopefully, I speak for everyone when I say that this marks the beginning of the best part of the baseball season. From impact in-season trades to postseason races to the fall classic, there's no slowing down in terms of entertainment from here; I'm ready to run through a brick wall just thinking about it! Fantasy... Read More

Hitters To Have A Big Second Half? Strikeout Rate Improvements for Fantasy Baseball

One good way to find hitters to help your fantasy team during the stretch run is to see which hitters have been striking out less as the year has gone by. The strikeout rate is far from the only thing to consider with a hitter, and it's probably not even the most important statistic -... Read More

Closer Stashes for the Trade Deadline: Florio's MLB Bullpen Report

I have been talking about the trade deadline and the reliever shakeup we are (still) guaranteed to see. By this point, you may be thinking of me as the boy who cried wolf, but the trades are coming - the market has just been slow to develop.  But by the time you click on this... Read More

Sneaky Fantasy Trade Candidates Worth Acquiring Ahead of the MLB Deadline

Everyone is talking about Juan Soto or Willson Contreras being moved and it's fun to speculate on where superstar and All-Star level players could be moved. The truth is in fantasy baseball, someone in your league already has these players and they are going to play every day regardless of where they play. But what... Read More

Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 16

Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. With the trade deadline looming, fantasy managers should be looking to shore up their rotations... Read More

Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - MLB Second-Half Preview

Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I normally select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze what those values may mean for future performance. As we return from the All-Star break and dive back into fantasy... Read More

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 16

Baseball is back, folks! As entertaining as the All-Star festivities were, it's nice to get back to organized baseball games, particularly with postseason races picking up. We truly are in the midst of the best time of the year. Fantasy baseball teams are built through the draft, but an argument can be made that leagues... Read More

Identifying Top MLB Pitching Prospects - Exploring Minor League Plate Discipline Data

Last week, we published an article on minor league plate discipline metrics for MLB prospect hitters, covering contact %, swinging strike %, swing %, foul strike %, called strike %, and ball %. This article today looks at the same set of metrics but for pitchers. The full minor league plate discipline leaderboards will continue... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Prospects Report - MLB Rookie Risers and Fallers for Week 15

Welcome to the first full week after the All-Star break, Week 15, and another edition of RotoBaller’s Recently Promoted Prospects series for fantasy baseball prospects! In this article are your recently promoted MLB prospects and their outlooks as we head into Week 15 of the fantasy baseball season. Here I discuss some recently-promoted top MLB... Read More

Fantasy Baseball 2022 First-Half Awards

As we close out the first half of the MLB season, we are temporarily going into reflection mode. I'm Jon Anderson and I'm here to hand out some first-half awards for fantasy baseball. I will mostly have standard-scoring rotisserie leagues in mind here, and I will try to not make injury a big part of... Read More

Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - MLB First-Half Hits and Misses

Welcome back to RotoBaller’s Statcast pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I have selected one advanced metric, chosen two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyzed what those values may mean for future performance. I have covered a host of different metrics so far and have made plenty of... Read More

Finding MLB Starting Pitcher Breakouts - Pitch Mix Analysis and Mid-Season Changes

I seem to have found a niche covering pitch mixes and using it to evaluate where pitchers have avenues for growth or warning signs for regression. As a former catcher, I'm used to thinking about pitch sequencing and how pitches work in tandem to attack hitters at different parts of the strike zone. My goal... Read More

Florio's MLB Bullpen Report: Rangers Pen Changes, Stashes Before Deadline

We are just a week from the All-Star Break, which has become the official midway point in both the MLB and the fantasy baseball season. Once the break has come and gone, you can expect the reliever trade market to ramp up and ramp up quickly. But I have spent enough time in this article... Read More