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Stephen Piscotty Should Be Ready For Season Opener
Oakland Athletics outfielder Stephen Piscotty (oblique), who was shut down from baseball activities earlier this spring, told NBC Sports Bay Area in April that he was pain-free and taking swings. Piscotty said that he was "fully confident" that he will be ready for the 2020 season opener. Fantasy owners will probably want the 29-year-old to... Read More
A.J. Puk, Jesus Luzardo Could Be Free Of Innings Restrictions
Oakland Athletics left-handed pitching prospects A.J. Puk (shoulder) and Jesus Luzardo, the team's No. 3 and 1 prospects at MLB Pipeline, respectively, could be free of innings restrictions in 2020 now that the season will only consist of 60 games and start in late July. Puk was shut down in March when he suffered a... Read More
Fantasy Value In a 50-Game Season: Starting Pitchers
Having now passed the ides of June, there is still no start date for the 2020 season and no guarantee that we'll even ever get one. MLB and the MLBPA continue to pass proposals back and forth, with each side taking their turn at rejection. This puts baseball in a situation where Commissioner Rob Manfred is... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks For 6/23/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. If you haven't signed up for the RotoBaller Premium Slack chat, it's a great space to chat during the day about the lineups. You can also follow me and the other Rotoballer writers on Twitter. In particular, @efhatch1990dfs has his personal KBO DFS Cheat Sheets which you... Read More
Rich Hill (SP, MIN) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleepers
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~ 170 CURRENT ADP: ~190 overall ANALYSIS: Rich Hill has been somewhat of a conversation centerpiece lately. Originally, Hill was going to miss the first half of the season, but with the delay, we could be seeing a "full season" of Hill. The left-hander has essentially never been a bad pitcher.... Read More
ADP Champ or Chump: Mike Minor
How will the shortened MLB season impact the fantasy game? This question is foremost on many owners' minds, and one of the most common responses has been to value workhorse pitchers who rack up decisions more highly. Owners are encouraged to draft studs like Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, but realistically you won't be able... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks For 6/21/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back RotoBallers! How did you do on last night's slate? I fared better on FanDuel than I did on DraftKings. I made a last minute change or two on DraftKings swapping out Ha Seong Kim for Dixon Machado and that was the difference between cashing and not. Kim just felt too expensive to me... Read More
Overvalued and Undervalued Shortstops in 2020
In the last few seasons, the shortstop position has improved tremendously with the emergence of All-Stars like Alex Bregman, Trea Turner, and Trevor Story. The position has four potential first-round picks, and a staggering ten picks in the top 40 according to NFBC. By comparison, second base and third base have five players each in... Read More
MLB Draft Review and More with Chris Welsh - Bases Loaded Podcast
Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) is joined by Chris Welsh (@IsItTheWelsh) and they dive into the MLB draft. Subscribe to the Bases Loaded podcast, part of RotoBaller Radio's Podcast Network. Like and Subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all our latest podcasts and catch us on iTunes and BlogTalkRadio as well! Be sure to also tune... Read More
A's Add Three Minor Leaguers
The Oakland Athletics signed three undrafted free agents for a maximum of $20,000 each. They include Wake Forest catcher/infielder Will Simoneit, Loyola Marymount catcher Cooper Uhl and Iowa right-handed pitcher Grant Judkins. The 2020 draft concluded on Thursday, June 11, but all 30 teams are allowed to sign an unlimited number of high school and... Read More
Oakland Athletics: Top 10 Dynasty Prospects
The Oakland Athletics will be our next stop on the farm to evaluate the best prospects on each MLB team. Once the 2020 MLB season begins, it may turn out that Minor League systems will be more important than usual. Franchises are losing money during the pandemic layoff, so many teams will be looking for... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 6/16/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. It’s a brand new week of KBO DFS and while MLB struggles to find come to an agreement on their season, we still have foreign baseball to satisfy our fantasy fix. New to KBO? DraftKings and FanDuel will use the same scoring system that they do for... Read More
Michael Guldberg, Dane Acker Under-The-Radar Picks For A's
The Oakland Athletics selected Georgia Tech outfielder Michael Guldberg with the 98th overall pick in the third round in the 2020 MLB draft on Thursday. They went on to take Oklahoma pitcher Dane Acker in the fourth round (127th overall) and Washington pitcher Stevie Emanuels in the fifth round (157th overall). Guldberg isn't big at... Read More
Does James Paxton's Spin-Rate Adjustment Matter?
Players frequently enter spring training in, "the best shape of their lives," but offseason programs rarely seem to pay significant dividends. The extended offseason may have provided some players with the opportunity to make unusually significant adjustments this year, though. One example of such an adjustment is Yankees starting pitcher James Paxton, who recently announced that... Read More
Reassessing ADP - Picks 101-200 - Bases Loaded Podcast
Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) is joined by Mike Simione (@SpStreamer) of RotoBaller. They dive into recent ADP data. Subscribe to the Bases Loaded podcast, part of RotoBaller Radio's Podcast Network. Like and Subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all our latest podcasts and catch us on iTunes and BlogTalkRadio as well! Be sure to also... Read More
Tyler Soderstrom Expected To Sign
Oakland Athletics catcher Tyler Soderstrom, a highly touted catcher out of Turlock High School, is expected to sign with the A's for around $3.3 million, an over slot deal for the 26th overall selection in the first round. Soderstrom is the son of former Giants first-rounder Steve Soderstrom. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound prep prospect is an... Read More
Zack Wheeler - 2020 Fantasy Baseball Bust
The Philadelphia Phillies finished the 2019 season with a record of 81-81, which was only good enough for a fourth-place finish in the NL East and was nowhere near good enough for a postseason birth. The team was not pleased with the finish and subsequently made a change at the helm with the addition of... Read More
Stock Your Dynasty Farm: AL West Sleeper Prospects
If you've been following my series on sleeper prospects, you probably correctly noted that there are actually more than the four divisions I've already written about. Who knew?! No worries Rotoballers, a six-week gap isn't enough to keep me from tucking my tail firmly between my legs and returning to finish what we started. I... Read More
ERA Lie Detector: Finding 2019 Underachievers with SIERA (Part 2)
Welcome back RotoBallers to my Lie Detector mini-series (you can read part one here). Skills-Interactive ERA (or SIERA) has been around since 2011 when it was introduced at Baseball Prospectus by Matt Swartz and Eric Seidman before moving to its current home at Fangraphs. Much like xFIP, SIERA attempts to quantify the skills that underpin... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 6/12/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. If you haven't signed up for the RotoBaller Premium Slack chat, it's a great space to chat during the day about the lineups. You can also follow me and the other Rotoballer writers on Twitter. In particular, @efhatch1990dfs has his personal KBO DFS Cheat Sheets which you will now... Read More
A's Go With Michigan Pitcher Jeff Criswell
The Oakland Athletics selected Michigan pitcher Jeff Criswell with the 58th overall pick in the second round in the 2020 MLB draft on Thursday. Criswell was the top prep prospect in 2017 and was taken by the Tigers in the 35th round. He was an excellent No. 3 starter for the Wolverines in 2019 and... Read More
Tyler Soderstrom Hears Name Called By A's
The Oakland Athletics selected Turlock High School catcher Tyler Soderstrom with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft on Wednesday. His dad, Steve Soderstrom, was the sixth overall pick in 1993 and pitched in the big leagues, so the bloodline is there. The 18-year-old was the second catcher off the board last year.... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 6/10/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. If you haven't signed up for the RotoBaller Premium Slack chat, it's a great space to chat during the day about the lineups. You can also follow me and the other Rotoballer writers on Twitter. In particular, @efhatch1990dfs has his personal KBO DFS Cheat Sheets which you will now... Read More
Diving Into Pitch Counts For a Shortened Season
Pitchers who produce a ton of innings are a rare commodity in today’s game, with those who consistently put up 200 or more innings becoming increasingly valuable. However, with a potential shortened 2020 season and no innings limits, will this playing field be leveled? At first thought, one might think that pitchers with assumed limits... Read More
How to Approach MLB Rookies in 2020 Re-draft Leagues
While the players and owners continue to trade demands for getting the 2020 season on its feet, we're going to turn our attention to fantasy. This article will specifically look at players who have yet to make their major league debut (or come up for more than the proverbial cup of coffee) and how fantasy... Read More
Fantasy Baseball Insider Report: More Insights From an MLB Scout
The award-winning Fantasy Baseball Insider Series continues on RotoBaller, this time with more takes from a longtime Major League scout. Every year during fantasy baseball draft season, Scott Engel talks to prime MLB sources to get exclusive nuggets of information. On the condition of anonymity, former and current players, executives, scouts, media members and others... Read More
Talking Pitching With Nicklaus Gaut - Benched with Bubba (Episode 292)
Bubba (@bdentrek) is joined by RotoBaller's own Nicklaus Gaut (@NT_BurtReynolds). The guys chat about the Chris Archer injury, some pitchers that have over/under achieved when looking at ERA and SIERA, and then hit some listener questions. Be sure to subscribe to the Benched With Bubba Podcast, part of RotoBaller Radio's Podcast Network. Like and Subscribe to the RotoBaller channel... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 6/4/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS pick column with yours truly! If you haven't been following me on Twitter @efhatch1990dfs, then you should start! I have been covering KBO since day one, and have been creating my own personal KBO DFS Cheat Sheets to help people win money, you will now be able to... Read More
KBO Betting Picks (6/4/2020) - Moneylines, Totals, and Runlines
Wednesday was another day where money was made and you can't complain about that. NC dropping five runs in the first inning was a great way tot start the day, their team over eventually cashed in the fourth. Meanwhile, Samsung and LG were going toe-to-toe early before the Lions pulled away in a high-scoring affair.... Read More
ERA Lie Detector: Finding 2019 Overachievers With SIERA (Part 2)
Welcome back RotoBallers to my Lie Detector mini-series (you can read part one here). Skills-Interactive ERA (or SIERA) has been around since 2011 when it was introduced at Baseball Prospectus by Matt Swartz and Eric Seidman before moving to its current home at Fangraphs. Much like xFIP, SIERA attempts to quantify the skills that underpin... Read More
