Fantasy Baseball Trade Targets - Buy/Sell For Week 4

Making the right trades can be crucial to championship success in fantasy baseball, almost as much as the draft, if not more. While most trades can have a significant impact on your fantasy team, it’s the deals where you acquire undervalued players and then see their production improve that can really tip the scales in […]

Changes to the Baseball in 2022 (And What To Do About It In Fantasy)

Offensive production has been down quite a bit early on in the season, and there has been plenty of grumbling about the state of the baseball, including from some Major League players. At the time of this writing, the league triple-slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) sits at .232/.306/.370 and we have seen a significant reduction in homers […]

Finding Breakout Hitters for Fantasy Baseball: Chase Rate Early-Season Metrics

In an earlier article on Blast Rate, I mentioned that this was the time of year that some hitting metrics start to stabilize. While many of us want to focus on exit velocity and hard-hit rate because they lead to more exciting outcomes, I think focusing on plate discipline metrics can be just as important. […]

Florio's Bullpen Report: Add Ryan Helsley and Michael King While You Can

The popular fantasy baseball strategies this draft season were to load up on offensive players and those elite relievers who can safely get all the save chances. So far in the first month, offense is historically down and we have seen more bullpens change than stay the same. This is not me knocking the strategies, […]

Early-Season Minor League Hitter Breakouts - Fantasy Baseball Prospect Risers

With almost one month of minor league games complete, many prospects have taken steps forward. This article highlights a small group of prospects likely to be big risers on midseason top 100 lists. The following group shares important traits making their breakouts likely to stick and rocket them up midseason top 100 lists throughout the […]

Are You For Real? Surprising Pitcher Starts from Week 4

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. April is behind us, which officially means all numbers are real. Anyone on a hot […]

Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Exit Velocity Changes For Week 4

Welcome back to RotoBaller’s Statcast pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I will 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. Statcast has a cool year-to-year change feature for a host of metrics, and this week […]

Hitter Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Average Exit Velocity for Week 4

We can finally start extrapolating something from one of the easiest Statcast metrics to decipher - exit velocity. This stat stabilizes after approximately 70 plate appearances or 45 batted-ball events. Last week, we looked at early leaders in maximum exit velocity because it doesn't take long to take something away from that metric. Keep in […]

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 4

When will the offense pick back up? At the moment, the league-wide OPS is just .675. Meanwhile, home runs have become much more scarce this season, leading to a lot of lower-scoring affairs. Whether it's the baseball, the effect of humidors being in every stadium, or hitters needing to get back up to speed, runs […]

Finding Breakout Hitters for Fantasy Baseball: Blast Rate Early-Season Metrics

It's about that time in the season when we start getting antsy about slow starters, or wondering if players off to hot starts on the fantasy baseball waiver wire might be for real. While it's still important to keep in mind that we're dealing with small sample sizes, there are some stats that have begun […]

Homer Run Risers and Fallers: Batted-Ball Profile Changes for Fantasy Baseball

We are closing in on the end of April, which means we have a pretty decent-sized data sample for hitters now. The league leaders will clear 100 plate appearances in the next week or so, which gives us a lot of good stuff to look into. A lot of times we find a breakout or […]

Mining the Minors for Hot Prospect Hitters and Call-Ups - Nolan Gorman, Triston Casas, Luis Garcia, and more

If you've played even one year of fantasy baseball, you know that predicting minor league call-ups can be a frustrating endeavor. We have to weigh not only the talent of the player and the potential lineup opening in his major league organization but also the relative competitiveness of that organization and any financial or service […]

Early Pitching Outliers: Swinging-Strike Rate vs. Strikeout Rate

It is very early in the season, as the league leaders have made just four starts. Because of this, we have a lot of strangeness in the data that has been generated, especially with pitching, which is an inherently random exercise. One thing that can be a bit random over a small sample size is […]

Fantasy Baseball Trade Targets - Buy/Sell For Week 3

Making the right trades can be crucial to championship success in fantasy baseball, almost as much as the draft, if not more. While most trades can have a significant impact on your fantasy team, it’s the deals where you acquire undervalued players and then see their production improve that can really tip the scales in […]

Bullpen Report: Late-Inning Changes and Long Relievers to Stream

The only constant in life is change. Those are wise words by a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus. What not enough people realize is, that quote was said about bullpen usage and trying to figure them out for fantasy purposes. Ok, maybe it wasn’t, but it should be given all the changes that occur in major […]

Are You For Real? Surprising Pitcher Starts from Week 3

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 May fast approaching we're starting to get settled into the season, and while […]

Early-Season Small Sample Sizes And Slow Starters: Fantasy Baseball Insider Report

Welcome back to our annual Fantasy Baseball Insider series on RotoBaller.com, where we take you inside Major League Baseball clubhouses, press boxes, and front offices for exclusive insights that provide a completely unique edge on the competition. We give you an all-access pass to information and takes that simply won’t be found anywhere else, along […]

Hitter Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Hard-Hit Rate for Week 3

Admittedly, it's still early for many sabermetrics to be considered descriptive but fantasy managers can't wait until midseason to start digging for hidden gems. You could always say that taking anything away from a two-week sample size is an overreaction. The purpose here is not to proclaim these players as the hard-hit kings or absolute […]

Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Swinging-Strike Rate For Week 3

Welcome back to RotoBaller’s Statcast pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I will 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. We still have small sample sizes because the season is early, but a metric that […]

Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 3

We may be early into the MLB season, but that doesn't make each day not equally as important as the stretch run for fantasy baseball. Do I recommend checking your standings everyday for updates if you're in a roto league? No, although I must concede that I fall into this trap. Still, every extra boost […]

Are These Early Slumps Worth Worrying About? Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts, Cedric Mullins and more

We are less than two weeks into the season, and full panic mode is setting in for many fantasy players. It should not, but it is. Some of our draft picks perform poorly, and we always wonder what to do. It is even worse when watching some of our top draft picks struggle. So, what […]

Pitchers With New Pitches - Should We Care For Fantasy Baseball? Part Two

The new pitch, like the shiny new toy, might be exciting on its own, but it also needs to be a complement to what a pitcher already has. Much like a toy that's the exact same as a toy we already have makes us forget the older toy. So instead of just celebrating that some […]

Fantasy Baseball Trade Targets - Buy/Sell For Week 2

Making the right trades can be crucial to championship success in fantasy baseball, almost as much as the draft, if not more. While most trades can have a significant impact on your fantasy team, it’s the deals where you acquire undervalued players and then see their production improve that can really tip the scales in […]

Bullpen Report: Speculating on the Red Sox, Twins, Giants, and More

While many early-season trends in baseball can be dismissed as hot or cold starts, bullpens are the one thing you should always pay close attention to and get actionable information. So much of what makes relievers valuable in fantasy is the usage and opportunities they receive. This year, perhaps more than ever, there were more […]

How Sustainable is High Fastball Usage? Hunter Greene, Justin Steele Analysis

Hunter Greene and Justin Steele have looked very sharp to start the 2022 season. They are both trendy waiver wire additions in fantasy leagues right now, but I noticed something very interesting about these two guys. They have both been extremely reliant on their four-seam fastball in their first two outings, and in Greene's case, […]

Are You For Real? Surprising Pitcher Starts from Week 2

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 two weeks into the season and already numerous pitchers have emerged as potential […]

Hitter Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - Max Exit Velocity for Week 2

We couldn't wait for the delayed 2022 season to get underway and now we eagerly await the Statcast data to accumulate so we can dissect it. It's obviously too early to make anything out of a majority of the data but we can evaluate something that requires one good swing of the bat - maximum […]

Pitcher Advanced Metrics Studs and Duds - xwOBA For Week 2

Welcome to the first edition of RotoBaller’s Statcast pitcher Studs and Duds article series for the 2022 season! I am happy to be back at the helm for this series once again. Statcast provides a ton of insightful advanced metrics that can be used to better understand pitchers' performance and predict future fantasy performance. Each […]

1B/3B Waiver Wire Pickups for Fantasy Baseball Week 2

The 2022 season is officially off and running. While it’s still an extremely small sample size, there were some intriguing performances that caught my eye during the first week of the season. There are definitely some new interesting names to keep an eye on as the regular season progresses. Here are some corner infield options […]