Starting Pitcher (Part 1): Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at part one of our outfield rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have certainly seen some […]

2017 Prospects - Top 30 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Drafts

Hello everyone, and welcome to my weekly Top-30 Fantasy Rankings for Impact Rookies! In this series, I will be going over the top prospects in baseball and discussing which ones figure to have an impact for the rest of this fantasy baseball season. Opening Day is almost upon us. As I am writing this, we […]

ADP Champs or Chumps: Johnny Cueto & Noah Syndergaard

Every fantasy owner has certain guys that they can never seem to stay away from, no matter how many seasons they are disappointed. The inverse is also true, making it perennially challenging to trust a player you do not believe in. This latter point is true of Johnny Cueto and myself. His fantasy stats have […]

Shortstop ADPs - Overvalued and Undervalued

Now that the first day of spring has passed, we are now entering the prime season for fantasy baseball drafts. Before you enter your draft room this year, it would behoove you to check out our ADP analysis pieces here at RotoBaller. This will ensure that you have a good working knowledge of how players […]

ADP Champs or Chumps - Ender Inciarte & Kevin Kiermaier

If you play in a deeper league, you will quickly discover that your goal in the draft is different. Standard formats do not ask you to worry about playing time for anyone except your sleepers, as there are plenty of starting players in MLB to fill every slot in the fantasy league. Try an NL-only […]

Potential Third Base ADP Busts for 2017

We’re less than a week from baseball, which means drafts are flying in hot and heavy. If you haven’t yet drafted, we’ll be wrapping up our positional avoid series this week with third basemen today before outfielders and pitchers later in the week. Third base is one of the strangest positions in fantasy this year. […]

Draft Values: The 2017 All-Bargain Team

This article first appeared on the Metro news publication. Our long national nightmare is nearly over. No, not that one…here we’re referring to the lack of baseball. Opening Day is right around the corner, and not a moment too soon. After last week’s look at the busts, let’s end draft season on a happy note […]

Three Potential AL Outfielder Busts for 2017 Fantasy Baseball

As much as we all love to find that diamond in the rough who exceeds expectations in the late rounds of our fantasy drafts, we loathe drafting a guy, expecting great things from him and being let down. It’s inevitable that it will happen to some fantasy owners. It’s almost impossible to completely avoid it, […]

Relief Pitchers - Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at relief pitcher rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have seen a bit of movement. As […]

Shortstop: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

Just like second base, shortstop is a deep position this year. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the tiers. As before, this round of rankings features picks from Kyle Bishop, Nick Mariano, Bill Dubiel, Brad Johnson, Harris Yudin and myself. Check out all of our updated rankings. Adjust your league size, and export your rankings. Tiers, […]

Potential ADP Busts for Second Base in 2017

We’re continuing our Positional Avoid series today with a look at second basemen. Earlier, we examined three potential busts at catcher and at first base. We continue our positional avoid series today with three second baseman who are going just a bit higher than would seem to be logical in 2017 drafts. Second base is a position that […]

Top Gainers in Pull Rate: What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece continues the series where we explore some […]

Top 100 Keeper Values for 2017

What's up RotoBallers. Welcome back to the finale of my series on keeper leagues. Today we'll take a look at the final product, the top 100 Keeper Values, after analyzing each tier at every position this offseason. Keeper Value Rankings are intended for Keeper Leagues in which a fantasy owner must forfeit a designated draft round […]

Outfield (Part 2): Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at part two of our outfield rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have seen a bit […]

Second Base: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

The positions that are usually thought of as thin are unusually deep this year, with second base being no exception. Unlike years past, you won’t be forced to have a poor first base option if you don’t take one early. Nonetheless, we need to examine each tier to see where the best values lie. Here, […]

Top Gainers in Hard Hit Rate - What to Expect in 2017

The baseball universe is really coming into its own when it comes to advanced data metrics that we can parse through, with hard-hit rates, exit velocities, spray charts and batted-ball outcomes all becoming accessible tools to throw in the toolkit before we go digging for answers. Today's piece kicks off a series where we're going […]

2017 Prospects: Top 30 Impact Rookies for Fantasy Drafts

Hello everyone, and welcome to my pre-season Top-30 Fantasy Rankings for Impact Rookies! In this series, I will be going over the top prospects in baseball and discussing which ones figure to have an impact for the rest of this fantasy baseball season. This season is not even underway yet, and already there have been some […]

Outfield (Part 1): Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at part one of our outfield rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have certainly seen some […]

Deeper Late Round Draft Fliers for RBI Production

Runs batted in can be a difficult stat to predict given that RBI production isn’t solely up to an individual player and the skills they possess. It goes without saying that in order for there to be opportunities to drive in runs, there must be players on base to drive in. This makes factors such […]

Third Base: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. However, our third base rankings, tiers, and auction values have remained shockingly consistent – the top 15 haven’t budged. […]

Tom Bellucco's 10 Bold Predictions for 2017

Our series of bold predictions continues. It has been a while since I contributed here at RotoBaller, but with my Master's Thesis winding down and the baseball season looming, I felt it was about time to hop back into the fold. Let's dust off the old hunch machine and see what kind of bold fantasy […]

Catcher: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

We rolled out our final update of 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. All week long, we’re looking at the biggest movers and shakers at each position. we’ll present our updated catcher […]

Top 550: Updated March Rankings and Tiers

Welcome back RotoBallers. It's officially draft season, preseason baseball is in high gear, and opening day is right around the corner. Below you will find our updated 2017 fantasy baseball tiered rankings (top 500) for mixed leagues. In case you missed it, you can also read our points leagues rankings with analysis as well. Six of our lead fantasy […]

Dynasty Shortstops: Top MLB Prospects for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers. I've already looked at the top 10 prospects for each MLB team, and now I'll be breaking down impact prospects by position. Today I'm bringing you my top 15 shortstops - dynasty prospect rankings for 2017 dynasty baseball leagues. There are only three positions in baseball that warrant an extended list. Outfield and […]

Dynasty Third Basemen: Top MLB Prospects for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers. I've already looked at the top 10 prospects for each MLB team, and now I'll be breaking down impact prospects by position. Today I'm bringing you my top 10 third basemen - dynasty prospect rankings for 2017 dynasty baseball leagues. Historically, third base has always been a great source of slugging prospects. These […]

Points Leagues Shortstops: Overvalued and Undervalued

As we’ve discussed, points leagues are a bit of a different animal from the more popular head-to-head and rotisserie formats. One of the easiest and best ways to ensure that you’re making a smooth transition between these disparate styles is to identify players whose values change most. Today we're looking at some potential shortstop sleepers and […]

The Hitters: Five September Surgers to Breakout in 2017

As the 2017 fantasy baseball season draws near, we are forced to look back at the 2016 numbers that were and decode what to buy into and what to ignore. How much should we write off that cold streak due to a potential lingering injury? Will this trade affect Player X in a positive or […]

Mid-March Bullpen Updates for Closers & Saves

We're almost halfway through March and we have about as much clarity at the back end of some bullpens as we had in December. While many bullpens are set in stone, there are still a few heated competitions happening across Grapefruit and Cactus League play as managers try to decide who to hand the ball […]

Dynasty Second Basemen: Top MLB Prospects for Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers. I've already looked at the top 10 prospects for each MLB team, and now I'll be breaking down impact prospects by position. Today I'm bringing you my top 10 second basemen - dynasty prospect rankings for 2017 dynasty baseball leagues. It has taken some time, but the position of second base is actually […]

Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 7: FIP & xFIP

The first advanced pitching stat most fantasy owners encounter is FIP. FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, and attempts to measure a pitcher's actual skill instead of the effects of luck or his supporting cast. According to the DIPS theory that the metric is based upon, pitchers control only Ks, BBs (and HBP) and home […]