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Jesus Luzardo Could Change Makeup Of A's Rotation
Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo, baseball's No. 12 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline, could change the makeup of the A's starting rotation in the 60-game season this year. Oakland's starters have a 6.9 K/9 the last two seasons, which is the lowest in baseball. Luzardo, a 22-year-old left-hander, has a 10.8 K/9 in his... Read More
A's Add Robert Puason, Others To Player Pool
The Oakland Athletics added six players to their player pool Wednesday, including first-round pick Robert Puason. The 17-year-old infielder will report to the team's satellite camp. Puason is highly unlikely to play in the majors this season, but it's good news for his long-term development to train with big-leaguers. Among the five other players Oakland... Read More
Former Top Prospect Jorge Mateo Headed To San Diego
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the San Diego Padres have acquired shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo from the Oakland Athletics for a player to be named later. Logjammed in the Bay Area, the A’s No. 7 prospect was out of options and will now test his fate in San Diego. The 25-year-old possesses game-breaking speed, swiping... Read More
First-Rounder Tyler Soderstrom Invited To A's Camp
Oakland Athletics catching prospect Tyler Soderstrom signed his rookie contract on Monday and will be part of the team's 60-man roster for the 2020 season. The deal is worth $3.3 million guaranteed, well above slot estimate for the 26th overall pick. Teams were concerned about being able to sign the high-school prospect, who was committed... Read More
Draft Season 2.0 Strategy Discussion - Bases Loaded Podcast
Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland), Jorge Montanez (@Roto_Nino) and Zach Braff (@braffz) all get in on this one as they dive into fantasy baseball draft season strategy. 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... Read More
Daniel Mengden Will Be Ready For Second Spring Training
Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Daniel Mengden (elbow) said he is fully recovered from elbow surgery in February and will be ready to report when camps open up July 1. Mengden had surgery before spring training to remove bone spurs from his elbow. Mengden is expected to compete for a rotation spot when camps open up... Read More
A.J. Puk Feeling 100 Percent
Oakland Athletics starting pitcher A.J. Puk (shoulder) said he is feeling 100 percent recovered from a shoulder injury sustained during in March during spring training. Puk said he has been throwing bullpen sessions for months and should be ready to go when the season begins. While this is good news for fantasy owners, expect the... Read More
Robert Puason Expected To Be On A's Taxi Squad
Oakland Athletics shortstop prospect Robert Puason is expected to be on the team's taxi squad when rosters are officially announced. The 17-year-old is the fourth-ranked prospect in the A's farm system, but he should be ranked No. 1 when pitchers Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk and catcher Sean Murphy graduate to the big league club this season. Puason... Read More
KBO DFS Lineup Picks For 6/27/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball
Welcome back RotoBallers! There’s a good chance that your mother told you, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.“ Well, mine did too. But I prefer the words of Alice Roosevelt Longworth who changed the second part to "...then come sit next to me". Because the reality is that's... Read More
ADP Champ or Chump: Kenta Maeda
Generally speaking, ADP makes sense even if you don't agree with it. For example, this author believes that Kevin Cron would break out in a Pete Alonso manner if Arizona gave him everyday reps, but his path to playing time is questionable even with the recent announcement that NL clubs will have a DH this... Read More
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
