Mid-Round Starting Pitchers - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values and Targets

Welcome officially to the 2022 fantasy baseball season! Now that an MLB deal is in place, a lot more fantasy drafts will be taking place -- and we're here as always to guide you through it. Once you reach the middle rounds of drafts, everyone is looking to draft players with upside that can provide... Read More

Royals Trying To Acquire Frankie Montas

The Kansas City Royals are one of the teams trying to acquire Oakland Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas, according to sources. The Royals freed up $8.5 million in the trade Wednesday that sent left-hander Mike Minor to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for lefty reliever Amir Garrett. The A's, on the other hand, have already traded... Read More

Yankees Discussing Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas

The New York Yankees are among the teams talking to the Oakland Athletics about star young pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, according to sources familiar with the situation. In addition to the Yankees, the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox have discussed the two starting pitchers. The A's are clearly rebuilding after already trading... Read More

Matt Chapman Traded To The Blue Jays

The Oakland Athletics traded third baseman Matt Chapman to the Toronto Blue Jays for Kevin Smith, Gunnar Hoglund, Zach Logue and Kirby Snead. He is one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball. He now joins a loaded Toronto Blue Jays lineup, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, and Teoscar Hernandez. The 28-year-old... Read More

Where to Draft Injured Hitters in Fantasy Baseball

After a stressful few months where seemingly everybody became an expert on the economics of baseball and traded spin rate analysis for PR spin analysis, we can get back to digging into the game itself. It's wonderful news without a doubt. Except possibly for those injured players who were hoping for another few weeks of... Read More

White Sox Discussing Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas

Along with the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago White Sox are among many teams talking to the Oakland Athletics about trading for starting pitchers Sean Manaea and/or Frankie Montas. The A's already have traded starting pitcher Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets and first baseman Matt Olson to the Atlanta Braves, so their full rebuild... Read More

A's Acquire Cristian Pache, Shea Langeliers

The Oakland Athletics acquired outfielder Cristian Pache, catcher Shea Langeliers and starting pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes from the Atlanta Braves on Monday in exchange for first baseman Matt Olson, according to a source. The A's are clearly rebuilding heading into 2022, but it's a big prospect haul for them. Pache and Langeliers were... Read More

Braves Acquire Matt Olson From A's

The Atlanta Braves are acquiring first baseman Matt Olson from the Oakland Athletics on Monday in exchange for starting pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes, outfielder Cristian Pache and catcher Shea Langeliers, according to a source. Another blockbuster in what should be a crazy week. It also means that former Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman... Read More

Let's Overreact to Spring Training News and Tweets

Baseball is back, spring training is here, and every tweet from every beat writer is getting scrutinized to an outrageous level. It's wacky season at its best, but instead of shying away from that, we're going to lean into it. I've found some bits of news that are interesting and also, at times, amusing, and... Read More

Twins Discussing Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas

The Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics have discussed trade proposals in recent days that would include a starting pitcher going to Minnesota, and pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas are the top candidates to be included in a deal, according to sources. The Twins are dealing fast and furious now that MLB is back in... Read More

Athletics Claim Sam Selman Off Waivers

The Oakland Athletics have claimed relief pitcher Sam Selman off of waivers, according to A's beat writer Matt Kawahara. Selman split the 2021 season with the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Angels. He pitched a total of 25 innings, posting a 5.76 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. The 31-year-old southpaw likely won't land... Read More

Chris Bassitt Traded To Mets

The New York Mets have traded for right-handed pitcher Chris Bassitt, according to ESPN. Minor league pitchers J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller will head to Oakland in exchange for the 2021 All- Star. Bassitt was having a strong season for the A's before his season was derailed by facial fractures after being hit with a... Read More

Updated Fantasy Baseball First Base Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Roto Leagues

Welcome back RotoBallers to some more preseason fantasy baseball rankings! RotoBaller is constantly working to try and bring fantasy baseball managers the best advice, especially during draft season. A big part of that includes regular updates to our tiered rankings for all formats. Our MLB rankers, -- JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Ariel Cohen, Nicklaus Gaut,... Read More

Finding Clones of Stud Hitters at Cheaper Draft Day Costs

Fantasy baseball is, most of the time, a category-centered game. Unlike fantasy football, where all you want are raw points, the roto category format of baseball really separates certain players in terms of how they can help your fantasy team. Some hitters will boost your team's batting average while bringing down your home run pace,... Read More

Updated Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Roto Leagues

Fantasy baseball draft prep never stops, lockout or not. As we all anticipate the start of spring training, many fantasy baseball drafts are already underway. To prepare our readers, RotoBaller's rankers -- JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Ariel Cohen, Nicklaus Gaut, and Nick Mariano -- have updated their 2022 fantasy baseball mixed league rankings. This article... Read More

Ramon Laureano Participating In Spring Training

Oakland Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano (suspension) can work out with the team during Spring Training. In 2021, he was suspended 80 games for violating MLB's PED policy and has 27 games remaining on his suspension. The 27-year-old will stay in Arizona and continue to work out when the team leaves for Opening Day. He underwent... Read More

Elvis Andrus Should Be Ready For Camp

Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said that he thinks shortstop Elvis Andrus (leg), who fractured his left fibula last September and had surgery, will be "ready to come to camp and hit the ground running." Andrus should be able to work out early in spring training, but the A's could ease him into game action... Read More

Braves Have Been In Touch With Matt Olson

The Atlanta Braves have been in touch with Oakland Athletics first baseman Matt Olson, who is an Atlanta native, in the event that free-agent first baseman Freddie Freeman signs with another team. The New York Yankees and Texas Rangers have also been interested in trading for the rising left-handed slugger, but no deals are close.... Read More

ADP Review - February Risers and Fallers

The fine people over at NFBC have really put together an awesome fantasy sports product. You can participate in fantasy drafts all year long, and the platform is just great. One of the coolest things they do is keep detailed ADP data. You can even select custom date ranges to limit the drafts you want... Read More

Building an Offense After Pick 100 - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

There are basically three large categories of players you'll draft in a fantasy baseball league: Hitters Pitchers Relief Pitcher One of the tougher things to nail down in a draft is when to dive into each of those groups. There are good arguments for going heavy at hitting early on, good arguments for quickly grabbing... Read More

Manufacturing a Stud: Late-Round Hitter Combos

Fantasy baseball is most often a category-centered game. You compete in five or six offensive categories every week with your final season finished depending on how well you perform in each category. This opens up the opportunity to deploy certain draft strategies that help your team become more well-rounded all throughout the draft. The best... Read More

High-Upside Hitters for Fantasy Baseball - Deeper Leagues Analysis

If you are drafting this early in the fantasy baseball season, you are probably playing in some pretty serious leagues. That means there is a good chance your draft is stretching past 300 picks. It is very tough to keep a large player pool sorted out in your head, and it's not hard to get... Read More

High-Upside Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball: "Stuff" Edition

In the first analysis of my "finding high-upside starting pitchers" series, I looked in depth at swinging-strike rate. You can read that here. That analysis looked at overall SwStr% for every pitcher, taking into account all of their pitch types to one SwStr% number. In this article, I want to go a step further and... Read More

Yankees Targeting Matt Olson

The New York Yankees are looking to add a first baseman prior to the start of the 2022 season. According to a report from Yankees beat writer Erik Boland, Athletics first baseman Matt Olson is their preference at the position. However, the Athletics will have a high asking price in return for Olson, targeting prospects... Read More

Strong Septembers to Remember - 2022 Breakout Candidates

One of the most difficult things to do as a fantasy sports contributor is attempting to glean valuable information from small sample sizes. Small sample sizes represent a higher opportunity for variance, which can wreak havoc if not taken seriously or properly accounted for. However, variance isn't all bad and there are certain things to... Read More

Contact Rate Gainers - Statcast Review for Fantasy Baseball

As the MLB and MLBPA keep working towards ending the lockout and getting baseball back into our lives, we've been keeping the offseason content going by digging into some 2021 stats. While we all obviously want the lockout to end, this is a useful time to do your research and have a better understanding of... Read More

Late-Round Stolen Base Targets for Fantasy Baseball

Ah, stolen bases. It's a real love/hate relationship. They're fun, but they also seem to be dying out, which means fantasy baseball managers are hunting for them like Nicholas Cage hunting for his precious truffle pig. (Side note: "Pig" is such a gem. Forget whatever you think it's about and just watch it. It's so... Read More

Take Out the Trash: Pitchers Who Should Junk Their Worst Pitch

Just throw the ball over the plate- it's that easy, right? Unfortunately, pitching is much more than that. In fact, it's a science. What are your best pitches? What's the optimal pitch usage for each pitch? How do they play off each other? There are so many variables that can be difficult to pin down. In... Read More

Jon Anderson's SP Tiered Rankings and Projections, Part 2

We're back to finish out my starting pitcher tiers! In Part One, we covered my top-38 starters, you can check that out here! We'll reveal and review the rest of my top-75 starters in this post. I admit that things got a little sloppy for me near the end, but when I encounter a pitcher... Read More

Jon Anderson's Outfield Tiered Rankings and Projections, Part 2

I'm back to finish out my outfield ranks and tiers, which will be the final post in this series. You can read part one here. We only have three tiers left to cover, but there are 34 names in these tiers. Plenty of different profiles, upsides, and downsides to deal with. Let's finish this baby... Read More