Year-in-Review: Corey Seager

Corey Seager posted an overall .305/.374/.502 triple-slash in his first three Major League seasons (2015-2017) and was widely regarded as one of the best young shortstops in baseball. However, Tommy John and hip surgery forced the former first-round pick to miss most of the 2018 season. While he was able to return to action in […]

Early One-Man Mock (Round 1) - 2022 Fantasy Baseball

There is no such thing as too early when it comes to draft prep. The calendar won't flip to 2022 for another few weeks but we at RotoBaller aren't ones to sit around and wait. Mock drafts take time, so I took matters into my own hands to complete a one-man mock. For the most […]

Padres Working On Extension For Fernando Tatis Jr.

The San Diego Padres continue to work on a long-term contract extension with shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., and they would ideally prefer it to be completed before the Mets sign a possible extension with newly acquired shortstop Francisco Lindor, according to a source. It's unclear if a Tatis extension will come in the next week, […]

Padres Trying To Land Tomoyuki Sugano

The San Diego Padres are still working on reaching an agreement with Japanese star Tomoyuki Sugano, according to two sources. The deadline to sign Sugano to a deal is at 5 pm ET on Thursday. Even though the Padres traded for Blake Snell and Yu Darvish last week, they are still looking to add to […]

Yankees Acquire Greg Allen

The New York Yankees are in the process of acquiring outfielder Greg Allen from the San Diego Padres on Wednesday in exchange for left-hander James Reeves, a 27-year-old who was New York's 10th-round pick in 2015. Allen, 27, was designated for assignment last week in order to clear room for Japanese infielder Ha-Seong Kim. The […]

Valuable Long Relievers of 2020 and the Lingering Impact (Part 2)

In part one, we examined the bullpens in Toronto and Cincinnati. The circumstantial insanity of the 2020 MLB season necessitated some adjustments in strategy, both for big-league managers and fantasy baseball GMs. One of these adjustments, prompted by frequent doubleheaders and the three-batter minimum rule, was the greater use of long-relievers and a generally reduced […]

Phil Hughes Retires

Phil Hughes officially announced his retirement from baseball more than two years after throwing his last pitch. The 34-year-old right-hander announced on Twitter on Sunday what's been "fairly apparent ... these last couple years." Hughes won the World Series with the Yankees in 2009 and went 88-79 with a 4.52 ERA in 211 career starts […]

Valuable Long Relievers of 2020 and the Lingering Impact (Part 1)

The circumstantial insanity of the 2020 MLB season necessitated some adjustments in strategy, both for big-league managers and fantasy baseball GMs. One of these adjustments, prompted by frequent doubleheaders and the three-batter minimum rule, was the greater use of long-relievers and a generally reduced workload for rotation pitchers. That makes sense from the perspective of […]

A Year to Forget: Players Who Will Rebound in 2021

Happy Holidays everyone! Needless to say, 2020 was quite the crazy year — for any number of reasons. There was a lot that many of us will want to forget, and for quite a few baseball players, the 2020 season is one they'll want everyone to pretend never happened. But hey, it's almost 2021. As […]

Padres Could Re-Sign Kirby Yates

The San Diego Padres are still looking to bolster their bullpen after pulling off blockbuster trades this week for left-hander Blake Snell and right-hander Yu Darvish, and the club could re-sign relief pitcher Kirby Yates (elbow), who missed most of the 2020 season with bone chips in his right elbow, according to sources. Yates was […]

Yu Darvish to the Padres: Fantasy Impact

The holidays must have been excellent in the Preller household since Padres GM, A.J. Preller is in quite the giving mood to his team's fan base. Over the last few days, Preller has traded for Blake Snell, signed KBO star Ha-Seong Kim, and now is trading for 2020 N.L. Cy Young runner up Yu Darvish. […]

Blake Snell to Padres - Fantasy Impact

It would be a massive understatement to say that the San Diego Padres are in "win-now" mode. They have just shipped off their number-three prospect in Luis Patino, as well as Francisco Mejia and two other prospects to acquire lefty Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays. Less than 24 hours later, they made another […]

Cubs Land Zach Davies, Four Prospects From Padres

The Chicago Cubs agreed to send right-hander Yu Darvish and his personal catcher Victor Caratini to the San Diego Padres on Monday night in exchange for right-hander Zach Davies, shortstop Reginald Preciado (Padres No. 11 prospect), outfielder Owen Caissie (No. 13), outfielder Ismael Mena (No. 15) and shortstop Yeison Santana (No. 16). San Diego was […]

Padres Agree To Deal For Yu Darvish, Victor Caratini

The San Diego Padres have reached an agreement with the Chicago Cubs that would send them veteran right-hander Yu Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini, Darvish's personal catcher, for right-hander Zach Davies, shortstop Reginald Preciado (Padres No. 11 prospect), outfielder Owen Caissie (No. 13), outfielder Ismael Mena (No. 15) and shortstop Yeison Santana (No. 16). It […]

Padres In Active Pursuit Of Yu Darvish

The San Diego Padres are on the verge of acquiring left-handed starter Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays, but they are also in active pursuit of Chicago Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish, according to sources. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that a deal could be done before Tuesday. The 34-year-old Japanese hurler had a sparkling […]

Padres Reach Deal With Ha-seong Kim

The San Diego Padres reached an agreement with Korean star infielder Ha-seong Kim on Monday, according to multiple reports. The 25-year-old was one of the top infielders on the open market when he was posted earlier this month by the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization. Kim primarily played shortstop and third base in […]

Nick Mariano's Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball First Base Rankings

Once again, I'll start by saying the 2021 baseball season is not guaranteed to be a normal one. But for now, let's just close our eyes and dream of a world unencumbered by COVID-19 and talk about our silly little game as if a 162-game season will come next spring. Join me for my position-by-position […]

Padres Acquire Blake Snell

The San Diego Padres have acquired starting pitcher Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for pitcher Luis Patino, catcher Francisco Mejia, infielder Blake Hunt and pitcher Cole Wilcox. Snell, the 2018 AL Cy Young award winner and all-star left hander, will join the projected Padres rotation consisting of right-handed starters Dinelson Lamet, […]

Padres Have Discussed Yu Darvish

The San Diego Padres have been in contact with starting pitcher Yu Darvish after losing out on Japanese right-hander Kohei Arihara this weekend after he signed with the Rangers. The Friars could also attempt to sign Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, who they've talked with as well. Darvish finished second in the National League Cy Young […]

Biggest Brl/BBE% Fallers from 2020

Last week, I discussed the importance of the Brl/BBE% and examined some players who had improved the most in the shortened 2019 season. If you haven't yet taken a look at that, I would encourage you to because I also gave a detailed breakdown of why I like this particular stat. However, if you simply […]

Exploring Pitch Arsenal Changes

It is really hard to know what to make of the 2020 season. This is especially true in the case of starting pitchers since the league leaders topped out around 80 innings pitched. As expected, there were many pitchers that posted much better seasons than expected, and many that posted seasons much worse. Given that […]

Padres A Suitor For Yu Darvish

The San Diego Padres are one possible suitor for Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who finished second in the National League Cy Young voting in 2020 behind Trevor Bauer. The Padres have high-end prospect depth, and general manager A.J. Preller knows Darvish well from their time together with the Rangers. San Diego has become […]

Squaring It Up: 2020's Biggest Brl/BBE% Gainers

Often when it comes to fantasy baseball, we get overloaded with statistics and it becomes hard to sort out what's useful from what's misleading. Many experts can write pages about why they swear by certain stats as being the most predictive for future success or accurate in reflecting who had a good season. In the […]

Biggest Risers of 2020 - Starting Pitcher

With just 60 games worth of data to draw from during the 2020 season, it's going to be a challenge for fantasy owners to determine how much to weigh those numbers when projecting 2021 performance. We see hot and cold two-month stretches all the time in a normal season, and there's plenty of time to […]

Statcast Review - Noteworthy xBA/xSLG Hitting Leaders

Thanks to its abbreviated schedule, the 2020 MLB season resulted in some unusual outcomes. Michael Conforto posted the highest full-season BABIP since Ty Cobb in 1913, Luke Voit was on pace for 60 home runs, and Robbie Ray walked a ridiculous 18% of the batters he faced. xStats were not immune to that weirdness, xBA […]

Padres Interested In Sonny Gray

The San Diego Padres are looking for another starting pitcher and have interest in Cincinnati Reds right-hander Sonny Gray. Mike Clevinger (elbow) is set to miss all of the 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. San Diego's payroll in 2021 will likely be lower than last season's non-prorated Opening Day mark of around $150 […]

Strike Zone Rate Analysis - Starting Pitchers

There are hundreds of metrics out there that describe pitchers. The richness of the available data is rivaled by no other sport. This can at times lead to information overload, leading us too far away from the core tenants of what success looks like. One group of statistics that are very simple and very helpful […]

Early-Round Fades and Overvalued Studs

Entering 2021, there is a bit of recency bias in the early ADP as well as an overall sense of unknown entering 2021 as a whole in terms of what rules are in place, where players are going to hit in the lineup or even where many players will play and how that could affect […]

Year-In-Review: Framber Valdez

Houston Astros starting pitcher Framber Valdez has been one of the team's many intriguing prospects over the past several seasons. He first got consistent playing time (mostly in relief) in 2019 and put forth poor results with a 4-7 record, 5.86 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, and 20.7% strikeout rate over 70 2/3 inning pitched. He also pitched […]

MLB's Best Pitches by the Numbers

One of the most-often used algorithms in the data science world is called clustering. Clustering is defined, by Wikipedia, as: grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters) In baseball […]