Dynasty First Base Rankings for Fantasy Baseball

As we prepare to flip the calendar to 2021, fantasy baseball managers are poring over MLB free agency news and the latest rankings. That includes our constantly-updated dynasty rankings. We will take an early preseason look at each position with some thoughts on individual player values heading into next season. Today, we start with first […]

You Paid What?! Overvalued Players in Auctions

Assuming the 2021 MLB season starts on time, we are on the precipice of fantasy baseball draft season. Spring Training will get underway next month, at which point, drafts roll out in full force. We aren't there quite yet, which makes sense. Many of the biggest free agents remain unsigned; the league is unsure of […]

Red Sox Avoid Arbitration With Rafael Devers

The Boston Red Sox avoided salary arbitration with third baseman Rafael Devers on Friday by agreeing to a one-year, $4.575 million deal, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The 24-year-old broke out in 2019 with a .311 average, 32 home runs and 115 RBI while leading the league with 54 doubles and […]

Andrew Benintendi Deal Could Happen Soon

The Boston Red Sox could trade outfielder Andrew Benintendi soon, but it won't be to the Miami Marlins, according to an industry source. Other teams that have checked in on Benintendi include the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics. The Pittsburgh Pirates could also be a fit. He's entering the back half of a […]

Marlins Interested In Willson Contreras, Andrew Benintendi

The Miami Marlins have interest in trading for Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras. With the team currently projected to start the 2021 season with a platoon of Jorge Alfaro and Chad Wallach behind the plate, catcher is one of Miami's biggest needs. Miami is also one of several teams engaged with the Boston Red Sox […]

Abandon the Win AND the Quality Start

The Win. One of the cornerstone categories of fantasy baseball since its creation. In recent years, baseball fans and fantasy managers alike have been debating the value of the win and whether or not it's overrated. With this debate, the quality start has become a category that more and more leagues are turning to as […]

Red Sox In Serious Trade Talks Involving Andrew Benintendi

The Boston Red Sox are in serious trade talks with multiple teams regarding outfielder Andrew Benintendi as they look for more prospects with emphasis on pitching and the outfield, according to multiple sources. Nothing is imminent, however. Benintendi slashed .282/.359/.447 with 38 home runs, 78 doubles and 42 stolen bases in 333 games from 2016-18, […]

David Dahl to the Rangers - Fantasy Impact

It's been a rough journey through the majors so far for David Dahl. The potential has been there for the former 10th overall pick, but he has been plagued by injuries nearly every season. A torn hamstring in 2013 and a lacerated spleen in 2015 cost him time in the minors, a stress fracture in […]

Red Sox Have Serious Interest In Jake Odorizzi

The Boston Red Sox have serious interest in right-handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi, according to a source. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was with the Rays front office when Tampa Bay acquired Odorizzi in December of 2012, so there is familiarity between the two. Odorizzi is in the middle tier of free-agent starters and had a […]

Year-In-Review: Rafael Dolis and Jordan Romano

As I created my early 2021 Relief Pitcher rankings, I realized how wide open so many bullpens are right now due to free agency. One team that will surely add a late-inning arm this offseason is the Toronto Blue Jays, as Anthony Bass and Ken Giles are both now free agents. But are they in […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball First Base Rankings

Once again, I'll start by saying the 2021 baseball season is not guaranteed to be a normal one. But for now, let's just close our eyes and dream of a world unencumbered by COVID-19 and talk about our silly little game as if a 162-game season will come next spring. Join me for my position-by-position […]

Red Sox Have Strong Interest In Kike Hernandez

The Boston Red Sox have strong interest in free-agent utility man Kike Hernandez, according to sources. Hernandez has spent the last six years with the Dodgers and played for Puerto Rico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic when current Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the general manager. Michael Chavis, Yairo Munoz and Christian Arroyo […]

Marcus Semien Could Be A Fit With Red Sox

Free-agent shortstop Marcus Semien could be a fit with the Boston Red Sox, but at second base. Semien has played the most games of any shortstop from 2018-20 and was fifth among shortstops in WRC+ in 2018. He was the college roommate of current Red Sox scouting director Paul Toboni. Xander Bogaerts remains entrenched at […]

Projecting Power in 2021: Late ADP Options

Like a sitcom catchphrase from a bygone era, we all want more power. We'll take it early and we'll take it late but it always feels extra sweet when one of your final picks suddenly becomes one of the mayors of dong city. Looking at a player's exit velocities can tell us a lot about […]

Red Sox Sign Matt Andriese

The Boston Red Sox agreed to a one-year deal with right-handed pitcher Matt Andriese on Wednesday. The deal includes a team option for the 2022 season. In addition, Boston claimed catcher Deivy Grullon off waivers from the Reds. Andriese made 16 appearances (one start) for the Angels in 2020 and had a 4.50 ERA, 1.00 […]

Matt Barnes Penciled In As Red Sox Closer

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said that relief pitcher Matt Barnes is currently penciled in as the team's closer for the 2021 season. The 30-year-old right-hander had nine saves in 13 tries last year, with most of them coming after the club traded Brandon Workman to the Phillies. "If the season started tomorrow and […]

Red Sox Expect A Better J.D. Martinez In 2021

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora thinks outfielder/designated hitter J.D. Martinez will have a much better season in 2021. Martinez was fourth in the American League MVP voting in 2018 after he hit 43 home runs and led the league with 130 RBI while helping the Red Sox to a franchise-record 108 wins and a […]

Strike Zone Rate Analysis - Starting Pitchers

There are hundreds of metrics out there that describe pitchers. The richness of the available data is rivaled by no other sport. This can at times lead to information overload, leading us too far away from the core tenants of what success looks like. One group of statistics that are very simple and very helpful […]

Year-In-Review: Diego Castillo and Nick Anderson

As I created my early 2021 Relief Pitcher rankings, I realized how wide open so many bullpens are right now due to free agency. But there is at least one team that can sleep well knowing the back end of their bullpen is solid as bedrock and that's the Tampa Bay Rays. Diego Castillo and […]

Early-Round Fades and Overvalued Studs

Entering 2021, there is a bit of recency bias in the early ADP as well as an overall sense of unknown entering 2021 as a whole in terms of what rules are in place, where players are going to hit in the lineup or even where many players will play and how that could affect […]

Hunter Renfroe Signs With Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have signed outfielder Hunter Renfroe to a one-year, $3.1 million contract on Monday. Renfroe joined the Rays ahead of the shortened 2020 season but struggled to repeat the form he displayed throughout the 2019 season, when he launched a career-best 33 home runs to go along with 64 RBI, five stolen […]

Year-In-Review: Framber Valdez

Houston Astros starting pitcher Framber Valdez has been one of the team's many intriguing prospects over the past several seasons. He first got consistent playing time (mostly in relief) in 2019 and put forth poor results with a 4-7 record, 5.86 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, and 20.7% strikeout rate over 70 2/3 inning pitched. He also pitched […]

Chris Sale To Throw Off Mound In January

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale (elbow), who is almost nine months removed from Tommy John surgery, is long tossing and plans to start throwing off a mound in January. "The recovery is going great," said B.B. Abbott, Sale's agent. "If anything, they'll be holding him back. From a work ethic standpoint, he's not […]

Red Sox Interested In Jake Odorizzi, Rich Hill

The Boston Red Sox have made it no secret that they are looking for starting rotation help this winter after a cumulative 5.34 ERA from their starters in 2020, which ranked 25th in baseball. There's little chance that they will pursue the top free-agent arm on the market in Trevor Bauer. Boston is expected to […]

MLB's Best Pitches by the Numbers

One of the most-often used algorithms in the data science world is called clustering. Clustering is defined, by Wikipedia, as: grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters) In baseball […]

Biggest Fallers of 2020 – Relief Pitchers

In an abbreviated 60-game season, a large number of relievers previously considered to be lockdown closers or dominant set-up men struggled consistently, ultimately resulting in a negative impact on their fantasy value. As we previously did with RP risers, we will now look at the biggest fallers of the 2020 season as we gear up […]

Raisel Iglesias To Angels - Fantasy Impact

The 2020 Winter Meetings may be taking place virtually, but that didn't stop the Los Angeles Angels from addressing one of their biggest needs before some participants could even log on. The Angels acquired former Reds closer Raisel Iglesias who should immediately slot into the ninth-inning that has been a sore spot for the Halos for […]

Statcast Review - Hard Hit/Exit Velocity Pitching Leaders

Pitcher contact quality can be a tricky attribute for fantasy managers to incorporate into their analysis. On one hand, pitchers are more at the whim of hitters when it comes to contact quality than the other way around. On the other hand, it certainly seems as though pitchers can exert meaningful control over their contact […]

Projecting Power in 2021: Early ADP Air% Exit Velocity

Looking at average exit velocity to project future power is not very useful compared to looking only at balls hit in the air. Because who cares how hard ground balls are hit? However, it can be even more useful to parse out those velocities into more refined bins and cast a more critical eye to […]

Jon Lester Not On Red Sox's Radar

Free-agent starting pitcher Jon Lester said he'd be open to a return to the Boston Red Sox in early May, but at the moment it doesn't look like the Red Sox are interested in that scenario becoming a reality, according to a major league source. Lester became a free agent when the Cubs didn't pick […]