Chris Archer to Miss 2020 Season

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Chris Archer (neck, shoulder) will miss the entire 2020 season after undergoing surgery to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. This is a surprise announcement, as Archer wasn't reported to be having any issues before spring training was canceled in March. However, he did finish the 2019 season on the injured... Read More

Relief Pitcher Draft Sleepers for Fantasy Baseball

Host Michael Florio of RotoBaller Radio discusses the 2020 fantasy baseball season. In this episode, he brings you his fantasy baseball draft sleepers for relief pitchers and closers. 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

Felipe Vazquez Facing New Charges

Suspended Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Felipe Vazquez is now facing child-pornography charges in St. Louis, as he's reportedly accused of sending pornographic pictures of himself to a minor last summer. The 28-year-old left-hander was charged with statutory sexual assault and other offenses in September of last year for having improper sexual conduct with a then-13-year-old... Read More

ERA Lie Detector: Finding 2019 ERA Underachievers With SIERA

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 a pitcher's ERA, albeit in a different manner. Although technically a backward-looking evaluator,  SIERA... Read More

Starting Pitcher Draft Sleepers for Fantasy Baseball

Host Michael Florio of RotoBaller Radio discusses the 2020 fantasy baseball season. In this episode, he brings you his fantasy baseball draft sleepers at the catcher position. 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 into... Read More

KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 5/28/20 - 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 sheets to help people win money. I am going to include some of that data... Read More

Eliminating Park Factors: Which Hitters Will Benefit Most

As Major League Baseball seeks a way to open the season in early July, one proposal has teams starting or playing the entire season in warm-weather locations (Arizona and Florida) or hub cities. That leaves fantasy managers to re-evaluate hitters whose parks impact their performance and value. For hitters, it’s primarily a matter of considering... Read More

Kevin Kramer Out 4-6 Months After Surgery

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Kevin Kramer underwent hip surgery and will be out for four to six months. With the 2020 season not likely to start until at least early July because of COVID-19, this effectively will end Kramer's chances of playing this year. The 26-year-old has played in only 43 major league games the last... Read More

Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Dynasty Prospects

The Pittsburgh Pirates 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

Three Hitters Ready to Breakout Earlier Than Their Prime

The quickest path to a fantasy championship is to identify and select potential breakouts. The challenge with this approach is that usually such players are hyped to the point where their ADP becomes inflated. This increases their risk, because often their new ADP has an assumed breakout baked into the cost.  This is why it’s... Read More

Third Basemen Likely to Return a Loss in 2020

So far we've covered some possible players to avoid at both 1B and 2B, so now we'll finish up by looking at 3B. Just as a refresher, my goal is these articles is to point out players who I believe won't match the value necessary for their current ADP. We frequently want to label these players... Read More

KBO Betting Picks (5/14/20) - Moneylines, Totals, and Runlines

Wednesday was not great and a nice little reality check. However, I don't look back at any of the bets with regret or see flaw in my analysis. An eight-run second inning for LG destroyed any hopes for SK. Samsung's David Buchanan threw arguably the best game of his entire professional career against a potent... Read More

KBO Betting Picks (5/13/20) - Moneylines, Totals, and Runlines

Yesterday's slate had some exciting moments, like the NC Dinos pulling off a comeback win thanks to a ninth inning, game-tying two-run homer before a solo walk off home run in the 10th. Luckily we targeted the over in that game and it had already hit but for some, these are the moments us sports... Read More

KBO Betting Picks (5/12/2020) - Moneylines, Totals, and Runlines

Following the Monday off day, we're a full week down of KBO. It's been an exciting time being able to place bets on real baseball again, even if we're unable to watch parts of the game live. While there is still an acclimation period of knowing players, we can at least get a sense of... Read More

The King's Insider Report: Views From an MLB Scout

The award-winning Fantasy Baseball Insider Series continues on RotoBaller, this time with the takes of 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

Hidden Gems to Watch - 2020 Infield Prospects

As we continue through this window of uncertainty, the chances of having a “normal” season are getting far less likely. And while we still don’t have any concrete solutions for having a 2020 season, some ideas seem to be more likely than others. Whether implementing regular doubleheaders in a truncated season or a universal designated-hitter,... Read More

Hidden Gems to Watch - 2020 Outfield Prospects

As we continue through this window of uncertainty, the chances of having a “normal” season are getting far less likely. While we still don’t have any concrete solutions for having a 2020 season, some ideas seem to be more likely than others. One such idea of implementing regular double-headers into an already-truncated season, with three... Read More

Eliminating Park Factors: Which Pitchers Will Suffer the Most

After weeks of half-baked proposals cribbed from rejected "BioDome" scripts, there now seems to be a scrape of light at the end of the no-baseball tunnel. MLB seems to be increasingly confident that a 2020 season will be played, whether it's playing all games in one location (the Arizona plan), playing in multiple warm-weather hubs (Arizona,... Read More

KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 5/6/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another KBO DFS column. Have you caught KBO fever yet? Our first slate went, well, as baseball slates tend to go! One chalky pitcher busted and one of my favorite stacks was ho-hum. But the process was solid, and that's what matters. It's only day two of KBO DFS and we... Read More

Drafting First Overall In Rotisserie Formats

I really do believe there’s no such thing as too much draft strategy. There are a lot of factors that play into draft selections. I will be discussing topics ranging from positional scarcity to team construction and many things in between. The idea is to go into my strategy and targets through the first 10... Read More

KBO DFS Lineup Picks for 5/5/20 - DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball

Welcome RotoBallers to my first KBO DFS column. Baseball is officially back! It's been more than a month since Spring Training was canceled and the KBO is finally here to cure your baseball blues. After a long hiatus, DraftKings and FanDuel finally have live baseball contests set to go. Tuesday is opening day for the... Read More

NL Players Who Could Benefit From Extended Rosters

Although we still don't have baseball, we're starting to get a lot of proposals on how we COULD have baseball this summer. The plans may wind up just being a fantasy, but, hey, this is a fantasy site, so it makes sense for us to take a look at it. One of the facets of... Read More

Introducing xPA to Project Plate Appearances

I like big rates and I cannot lie. You other readers can't deny. When a rate walks in with an itty PA and an integer in my face, I get sprung...Whoa! Wait just one second, Sir-Mix-A-Nick. Before I go full-Rhymenoceros on everyone, maybe we oughta back the track up a little bit. What I like... Read More

Dynasty League Buy/Sell

With the uncertainty of opening day, there is no better time to play in an MLB Fantasy Dynasty League. Due to the league format, it by far the most unaffected by the delay of Opening Day. Drafting and trading can proceed in full force as the value assigned to these players go long beyond this... Read More

Second Basemen Likely to Return a Loss in 2020

As mentioned in my article covering 1B that we might be over-drafting, my goal in these articles is to point out players who might "bust" at their current ADP. The definition of a bust that I'm using is when you invest a large amount of draft capital in a player who doesn't hit the production... Read More

OPS Overachievers: Using xOPS to Judge Performance

We've already dug into xOPS by looking at the biggest underachievers from last year. Now, it's time to examine the other side of the coin - the less shiny side. Many might believe that wOBA is the stat you should be looking for and people much smarter than I have been duking out this debate... Read More

OPS Underachievers: Using Differences in xOPS to Judge Performance

Add a player's on-base-percentage to his slugging-percentage and you wind up with OPS. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. But some things don't need to be complicated to be useful and descriptive. There are a hundred ways to judge a baseball player's performance but OPS remains one of the best proxies for quickly judging a player's overall offensive... Read More

Deeper Draft Sleepers - Third Base

Entering the 2020 MLB season, third base is arguably the deepest fantasy position on the diamond. 16 of the top 100 players are 3B-eligible, according to NFBC ADP. Compare that to a normally deep hitting position like first base, where just 11 guys make the cut. What that early depth does, specifically for standard leagues,... Read More

JB's Bullpen Method - Building Aces out of Relief Pitchers

If you read my Top 10 Draft Tips piece, you got a preview of the method I have been using for many years in fantasy baseball. It's really less of a method or strategy, and more a state of mind. The Bullpen Method is a lifestyle! I always speak about the importance of balance on... Read More

First Basemen Likely to Return A Loss in 2020

We all dream of drafting the sleeper pick who vastly outproduce his draft-day value and carries our team to victory. However, the truth is that those types of selections are few and far between. Often a player will give you more value than you would normally expect from his draft slot, but it's likely only... Read More