Colorado Rockies Showing Interest In Kyle Schwarber

The Colorado Rockies have shown interest in free-agent outfielder Kyle Schwarber. According to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, the Rockies could likely make a run at Schwarber and play him at DH, first base, and left field. Schwarber slashed .266/.374/554 with 32 home runs in 113 games with the Boston Red Sox in 2021.... Read More

Mariners Among Favorites To Sign Seiya Suzuki

The Seattle Mariners are reportedly among the favorites to sign outfielder Seiya Suzuki when the MLB lockout ends. He hit .317 with 38 home runs and 88 RBI over 134 games with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2021. According to Peter Gammons, the Mariners, as well as the Giants,... Read More

Spring Training Likely To Be Delayed

Major League Baseball and player representatives continue to hold much different views of the game's economics when it comes to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the scheduled start of spring training in mid-February is in jeopardy. In another few weeks, Opening Day on March 31 could be a long shot as well. Players remain... Read More

Kevin Kiermaier Could Be On The Move

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier (knee) is a prime candidate to be traded once the lockout comes to an end, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Topkin reports that Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander told Kiermaier prior to the lockout that other teams had expressed interest in trading... 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

Batted Ball Data Analysis - How Consistent Are GB%, LD%, and FB% Year To Year

When we are evaluating hitters, we talk a lot about batted ball profile. When we're talking about this, things like launch angle and ground ball rate are cited quite often. I wanted to make a post to go over these things a bit more in-depth, giving our readers more complete knowledge of the subject at... Read More

Exit Velocity Leaders - Statcast Review for Fantasy Baseball

As we wait for MLB and the MLB Player's Association to work through the lockout issues and move forward with the 2022 baseball season, we've been digging into a few players that stand out as good fantasy investments based on their 2021 Statcast numbers. As with evaluations of any metric, these should be taken as... Read More

Early 2022 Fantasy Baseball Outfield Rankings - 5x5 Roto Mixed Leagues

Welcome RotoBallers to our early 2022 fantasy baseball outfield rankings and tiers for 5x5 mixed roto leagues. This is a great time of year for baseball fans, and our MLB team is here to help you prepare for the upcoming season. RotoBaller's MLB writing staff has already hit the ground running with our 2022 Fantasy... Read More

Early 2022 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - 5x5 Roto Mixed Leagues

Welcome back RotoBallers! In this article you'll find our team's early 2022 fantasy baseball rankings and tiers for 5x5 mixed roto leagues. The new year is always an exciting time, as it marks a period where interest in the approaching MLB and fantasy baseball season starts to pick up. Our team has been hard at... Read More

Nationals Sign Rusney Castillo

The Washington Nationals signed outfielder Rusney Castillo to a minor league deal on January 8, according to the team's official transaction log page. The 34-year-old last appeared in the Majors with the Boston Red Sox in 2016. He played for Boston's Triple-A affiliate as recently as 2019 and spent the 2021 season playing for the... Read More

Using Launch Data to Search for Power Breakouts in Fantasy Baseball

Statcast data is such a beautiful thing. I start a ton of posts like this, but I want to say again - the quantity and richness of this data gives guys like me endless opportunities for statistical analysis. Today, we're going to dive into the hitting pool and focus on launch profiles, with the aim... Read More

Red Sox Reportedly Favorite To Sign Seiya Suzuki

The Boston Red Sox are reportedly the favorite to sign outfielder Seiya Suzuki when the MLB lockout ends. He hit .317 with 38 home runs and 88 RBI over 134 games with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2021. According to Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal, Boston and... Read More

Predicting Minor League Hitting Stats for the Majors: Searching for Stickiness in Fantasy Baseball

Of all the fantasy sports, baseball probably allows for the most amount of speculation. Given the nature of the game where players spend at least a couple of years in the minor leagues before getting to the highest level, there is a lot of analysis done on these minor leaguers with the hopes of figuring... Read More

Under-The-Radar MLB Free Agent Sleepers for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

Despite the free agent frenzy that happened before the lockout, there are still a number of significant free agents left on the board, both in real life and fantasy. Hitters like Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber will draw the headlines, as will pitchers like Kenley Jansen and Clayton Kershaw, and rightfully so.... Read More

Hitters Set To Break Out Late in 2022

In baseball, common sense would indicate that a player would break out when they reach their prime, which is around 26 years old. However, development is not linear. We have seen plenty of players burst onto the scene with the first or second season and flourish, while others have taken longer than expected to develop.... Read More

Plate Discipline: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

No matter how high a particular player's BABIP may be, his average will be mediocre at best if he strikes out too much. This is why fantasy managers have known for years that players like Mike Zunino are potential drains on a fantasy team's batting average. Furthermore, players that whiff a lot tend to continue... Read More

Early 2022 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - Points Leagues and H2H Points Formats

Welcome RotoBallers to our early 2022 fantasy baseball points league rankings for points leagues and head-to-head (H2H) points leagues. We couldn't be more excited to be putting out various fantasy baseball rankings and fantasy baseball articles for the 2022 season -- it's always an exciting time of year. In general, points leagues and H2H points... Read More

Melky Cabrera Announces His Retirement

Long-time outfielder Melky Cabrera announced his retirement on Friday. Cabrera hadn't played in the major leagues since 2019, but he had played in winter ball each of the last two years. The switch-hitter broke into the bigs in 2005 with the New York Yankees. He spent the first five seasons of his career in the... Read More

Which Cody Bellinger Will We Get In 2022?

Cody Bellinger had one of the better seasons you will ever see in 2019 at the ripe age of 24 years old. In 660 plate appearances, he smashed 47 homers and drove in 115 runs while scoring 121 times and posting an elite slash line of .305/.406/.629. He was just 24 years old at the... Read More

MLB Makes First Labor Proposal Since Lockout Began

Major League Baseball made its first labor proposal on Thursday since locking out players on Dec. 2, but it did little to encourage players and raised the likelihood of spring training being postponed, according to sources familiar with the situation. MLB proposed changes to the arbitration system for players with two-plus years of service, tweaked... Read More

Outfield Dynasty Rankings for Fantasy Baseball

It's not quite draft season for fantasy baseball but that matters little in dynasty. Cut/hold decisions are being made in the following weeks leading up to the annual redraft or auction so it's important to assess the relative value of each player on your roster. As it turns out, I've recently updated my dynasty fantasy... Read More

Ronald Acuna Jr. Resumes Hitting On The Field

Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. (knee) has taken the next step in his rehab from right knee surgery and has resumed hitting on the field. Acuna had surgery back in July of last year to fix a torn ACL, and he missed the rest of the 2021 season and Atlanta's improbable World Series run.... Read More

Biggest Brl/BBE% Fallers - Hitters

Welcome to part two of my pre-season series on 2021 barrel rate risers and fallers. In the first part, I looked at the players who showed the biggest barrel rate improvement in 2021 and broke down whether or not we should believe that success will carry over into 2022. In this article, I'll look at... Read More

Who's #1? Early Look at Picking First Overall

With the off-season fully underway and early drafts already taking place, it’s time to start looking at those players being selected first in drafts. This year offers a very different set of players than we’ve seen in recent memory. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and Ronald Acuna Jr. have all fallen out of contention for first... Read More

Batter BABIP: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

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

Hitter Batted-Ball Distribution: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball

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

Fantasy Baseball Risers Post-Free Agency

With all the free-agent signings and trades that happened prior to the lockout, plenty has changed ahead of the 2022 season where the fantasy landscape is concerned. The impact of new acquisitions will certainly be felt in fantasy drafts next spring. Corey Knebel, for instance, could see a significant number of save opportunities in Philadelphia next... Read More

2022 Fantasy Breakout Candidates - NL West

We have already broken down the top breakout candidates from the National League Central, National League East, American League West, American League East, and American League Central. In this column, we'll run down players from the National League West, one from each team, who could fit the bill and have breakout campaigns next season. One... Read More

Dodgers, Cody Bellinger Agree To One-Year Deal

The Los Angeles Dodgers and outfielder Cody Bellinger agreed to a one-year, $17 million deal to avoid salary arbitration before the league's Dec. 1 lockout, according to sources familiar with the agreement. The 26-year-old is coming off the worst season of his career, slashing .165/.240/.302 with 10 home runs in 95 games, but he played... Read More

Projecting Power in 2022: Increases in Air% Exit Velocities

Balls come and balls go but regardless of the current offensive environment in baseball, what hasn't changed is our fantasy love of power. But after the happy fun ball days of 2019 and 2020, the MLB went back to the lab in an attempt to deaden some of the bouncy ball hijinks. And deaden they... Read More