2021 Starting Pitcher Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues (Part 1)

We now move on to starting pitcher in our mixed-league rankings analysis series. If you missed them, here is our review of Catcher, First Base, Second Base, Third Base, Shortstop, and Outfield. RotoBaller's rankers, JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Nick Mariano, and Ariel Cohen have updated our 2021 Mixed League rankings once more based on early spring training action. You can […]

Anthony Alford Swings A Bat Monday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Anthony Alford (wrist) was swinging a bat for the second day in a row on Monday after being hit by a pitch on Saturday, reports Rob Biertempful of The Athletic. Alford exited Saturday's game after being hit on the right wrist, with the team later calling it right wrist discomfort. According to Biertempful, […]

Quinn Priester Makes Spring Debut On Monday

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Quinn Priester made his spring training debut on Monday afternoon, allowing one run on one hit and one walk in two-thirds of an inning of work. The top pitching prospect in the Pirates system, Priester showed promise in his first season in the minors in 2019, going 1-1 with a 3.19 […]

Tyler Anderson Looks Sharp Against Orioles

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Tyler Anderson struck out seven batters in four innings of work on Monday in the 12-3 loss to the Orioles. Anderson allowed two runs on six hits in the start, with both runs coming off back-to-back solo home runs by Austin Hays and Freddy Galvis to lead off the second inning. […]

Gregory Polanco Triples In Return To Lineup Monday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco went 1-for-3 with a triple and a walk in a 12-3 loss to the Orioles Monday. Polanco had left the team to be present for the birth of his child, and he slotted in as designated hitter against Baltimore. After an injury-plagued 2019 campaign and testing positive for COVID-19 in […]

Ke'Bryan Hayes Hits First Homer Of Spring Monday

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes crushed his first home run of the spring on Monday afternoon, as he finished 2-for-3 with two RBI in a loss to the Orioles. Even though Monday marked his first homer, Hayes has been showing off power at the plate so far, with six of his 10 spring hits […]

Rodolfo Castro Homers In Second Straight Game

Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Rodolfo Castro hit his second home run in as many days on Sunday, finishing 1-for-2 with four RBI. After launching a two-run home run Saturday against the Yankees, Castro crushed a one-out grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to pull the Pirates within a run of the Phillies. Castro […]

Kevin Newman Goes 0-For-2 In Return To Lineup Sunday

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman returned to the lineup on Sunday afternoon and went 0-for-2 with a walk against the Phillies. Newman — who slotted in as the designated hitter and hit leadoff for Pittsburgh — had missed the past week after exiting last Sunday's game with hamstring tightness. While the results weren't ideal, it […]

Launch Angle Analysis - Potential HR Risers

With the onset of Statcast data, we can now better predict which hitters may be due for a power surge. Before recent years, we only had things like hard-hit rate and home runs per fly ball ratios to look to as predictors of future changes in home run rates. Now that we have launch angle, […]

Top 10 Tips for Fantasy Baseball Snake Drafts

Before I begin, let me caveat everything I say with this: I don't consider myself to be some sort of expert master fantasy player. I've only been playing fantasy baseball for a little under a decade. But as soon as I started to immerse myself into this game we all love, my main focus was […]

Spring Training Lineup Takeaways - Week 2 Lineup Trends

Welcome back RotoBallers! We are entering week three of Spring Training already, and with that came a lot of things we saw in week two. But of course, my week one review also still has very relevant information as well. Just a reminder, in my Lineup Takeaways series we are focusing 100% on lineups, news and […]

Finding Over/Undervalued Third Basemen Using Expected Draft Values

Last year we introduced our Expected Draft Values and explained how they would help us identify both over and undervalued players of all types. Power, speed, power+speed, batting average+power, and so on, with pitchers as well. Today, we'll look at four third basemen and our site projections for them. Stay tuned over the next couple […]

Top 25 Starting Pitchers - Dynasty Prospects Rankings

Pitching is an important element of any successful Major League Baseball team — real or fantasy. Coming off a truncated season in 2020 and facing another unique season ahead, pitching prospects will be more important than ever in 2021. MLB managers will be faced with a full 2021 season and, after throwing reduced innings last […]

Geoff Hartlieb Throws Perfect Inning Against Yankees

Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Geoff Hartlieb threw a perfect inning of relief on Saturday in a 7-5 loss to the Yankees. Hartlieb opened up the fifth innings with back-to-back strikeouts against Brett Gardner and DJ LeMahieu before getting Aaron Judge to ground out to second to end the inning. Hartlieb has not allowed a baserunner […]

Richard Rodriguez Holds Yankees Scoreless Saturday

Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Richard Rodriguez tossed a scoreless third inning against the Yankees on Saturday, allowing only one hit while striking out two in the loss. Facing the heart of the Yankees order, Rodriguez got swinging strikeouts against Aaron Judge and Luke Voit, and made Giancarlo Stanton pop out in foul territory, while Aaron […]

Bryan Reynolds Homers Against Yankees Saturday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds hit his first home run of Spring Training on Saturday, as he went 1-for-2 with a hit-by-pitch in the loss to the Yankees. Reynolds sent an 0-2 slider from Darren O'Day into the stands in right field for his only hit of the day. After putting up a big rookie […]

Adam Frazier Picks Up Three Hits In Pirates' Loss

Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier had his third multi-hit performance of the spring on Saturday, finishing 3-for-4 with a double in the loss to the Yankees. Frazier has been making a lot of contact this month, as he is 8-for-12 with two doubles, one RBI, two runs, one walk and no strikeouts through four […]

Anthony Alford Exits Game Early On Saturday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Anthony Alford exited Saturday's game early with what is described as right wrist discomfort, according to Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports. Alford was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning while facing Corey Kluber, and he was quickly removed from the game. There is no official word yet on how […]

Edgar Santana Tosses Perfect Inning Against Blue Jays Friday

Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Edgar Santana allowed no baserunners while striking out two in a 2-1 victory over the Blue Jays on Friday afternoon. Santana has not allowed a baserunner so far this spring, while striking out four in three innings of work. He has not pitched in a major league game since 2018, as […]

Blake Cederlind Placed On Injured List With UCL Strain

Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Blake Cederlind (elbow) was placed on the 60-day injured list with a UCL strain in his right elbow, according to MLB.com's Jake Crouse. Crouse reports that Cederlind sustained the injury in Wednesday night's game when he was pulled after allowing a run on one hit, two walks and a hit batter while […]

MLB Spring Training Notebook (3/12) - Severino Beginning Build Up

Welcome to the 2021 edition of RotoBaller's Spring Training Notebook. Thankfully, we have real, live baseball being played every day again, and while it doesn't count for anything, these exhibition games gives us the smallest glimmer into players and teams heading into the new season. We're officially through the first week of spring training games […]

2021 Outfielder Rankings - 5x5 Mixed Leagues

We now move on to the outfielder position in our mixed-league rankings analysis series. If you missed them, here is our review of Catcher, First Base, Second Base, Third Base and Shortstop. RotoBaller's rankers, JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Nick Mariano, and Ariel Cohen have updated our 2021 Mixed League rankings once more based on early spring training action. […]

Trevor Cahill Signs With Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed starting pitcher Trevor Cahill. He agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million contract with an additional $1 million in performance bonuses. Last year, Cahill went 1-2 with a 3.24 ER and 1.20 WHIP over 11 games (six starts). He averaged 11.2 K/9, which was well above his career average of 6.8 […]

Mitch Keller Has Another Rough Outing Thursday

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller struggled in his second start of Spring Training, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks while striking out two over two innings against the Orioles. Keller has now allowed four runs on five hits and two walks through three innings this spring with three strikeouts. Once the […]

Anthony Alford Has Big Day On Offense And Defense On Thursday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Anthony Alford hit his second home run of the spring on Thursday, as he finished 2-for-3 with a double, a homer, two RBI and two runs scored against the Orioles. Alford also turned heads with a diving catch in the third inning to rob Cedric Mullins of a base hit. He's slashing […]

MLB Spring Training Notebook (3/11) - Hiura Endures Spring Struggles

Welcome to the 2021 edition of RotoBaller's Spring Training Notebook. Thankfully, we have real, live baseball being played every day again, and while it doesn't count for anything, these exhibition games gives us the smallest glimmer into players and teams heading into the new season. We're officially through the first week of spring training games […]

Cole Tucker Returns To Hitting Activities

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop/outfielder Cole Tucker (hand) is back to hitting after having appeared in just one Grapefruit League game this spring, in which he went 0-for-3. Competition remains relatively open for the rebuilding Pirates with Tucker in the mix to earn at-bats both at short or in center field, where Anthony Alford stands out as […]

Kevin Newman Remains Out Of Lineup Thursday

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman (hamstring) is not in the lineup for Thursday's spring game against the Orioles. Newman exited Sunday's game early with hamstring tightness and has yet to appear since then. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Wednesday that Newman is no longer feeling the tightness and that Pirates director of sports […]

Jared Oliva Homers In Pirates Loss

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jared Oliva hit his first home run of the spring on Wednesday night as he finished 1-for-2 in the loss to the Yankees. Oliva has only appeared in three games this spring and is 2-for-6 with two RBI, two runs, a walk and a strikeout in that span. While he has shown […]

Brian Goodwin Hits Grand Slam In Pirates Loss Wednesday

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Brian Goodwin went 1-for-3 with a grand slam home run in a 6-5 loss to the Yankees Wednesday night. It was Goodwin's second hit of the spring as he is now 2-for-11 with five strikeouts through five games. Goodwin was thought to be one of the leading contenders for the starting job […]