Articles
Launch Angle Analysis: Power Breakouts for 2022 Fantasy Baseball - Ketel Marte, Austin Hays, Jazz Chisholm Jr.
There are three essential components that go into hitting a home run. Putting a ball in play Hitting said ball at a certain angle range Hitting said ball above a certain velocity When forecasting how many homers a certain player will hit, these sabermetrics (strikeout rate, walk rate, launch angle distributions, and launch velocity distributions) […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoAdventures in Positional Scarcity - Catchers Edition for Fantasy Baseball Drafts
This question of how to handle the catcher position has taken on a new level of tough in 2022, at least in the opinion of this analyst. Catchers have always underperformed offensively relative to the rest of the positions, mainly because the first bullet point on their job description is not to hit the ball […]
Jon Anderson 3 years ago2022 SP Strategy & Player Takes with Chris Towers - Another Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Ep. 6
Jon brings on Chris Towers from CBS to talk about his SP strategy, the "injury prone" question, players takes, predictions, and more! Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, Saturdays from 3-5 PM, and Sundays from 3-5 PM. You can […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoSpring Training Skill Searching: Pitch Velocity Gainers - Mitch Keller, Joe Ryan, Madison Bumgarner and more
Not much trustworthy data comes out of Spring Training. Players are just getting back into the swing of things, and the data samples are inherently small. This means we have to tread very lightly when looking at spring data. The data points we can take a bit more seriously are the skill-based metrics. Numbers that […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoSpring Training Skill Searching: Max Exit Velocity Standouts - Brendan Rodgers, Sam Hilliard, Christian Walker, Miguel Andujar
For most advanced baseball statistics, you need plenty of data to be available before you can start interpreting them. There is so much randomness and variance in baseball, that you really cannot glean any insights from a handful of games. This doesn't turn out to be true when we're looking at maximum exit velocity. This […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoLater-Round Fantasy Baseball Hitter Targets: Home Runs
Today, we will be highlighting some hitters that can help your team in the home runs category without costing you tons of your draft capital. We have gone through several categories already, so check out those posts if you've missed them. These analyses are vital to having a successful fantasy baseball draft in rotisserie-style leagues. […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoJohn Means (SP, BAL) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~200 pick CURRENT ADP: ~220 overall ANALYSIS: Few pitchers started the 2021 season as hot as John Means did. Through his first 71 innings, Means posted a 2.28 ERA with a 0.85 WHIP, and he did that while striking out nearly a batter per inning (69 strikeouts in those innings). After that, an […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoJon Anderson's 2022 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide
Baseball is happening in 2022, and it is happening in full force. With the excellent news of the lockout ending, we are ready to dive full steam ahead into the fantasy baseball draft season! I have had my head deep in baseball data since before Christmas, so I wanted to come out with a miniature […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoOne Tweak Away: Pitchers That Could Break Out in 2022
Yu Darvish and Lucas Giolito in 2019, Robbie Ray and Shohei Ohtani in 2021. These are examples of pitchers that had struggled with their command for most of their careers, but then suddenly improved and became fantasy aces overnight. Walk rates are one of the most important things to look for when evaluating fantasy pitchers. […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoLate-Round Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Targets: WHIP
This is the next part of a series reviewing standard rotisserie league categories to identify later-round draft options and sleepers to help your fantasy team in each spot. We've already covered SP targets to help with ERA. In this article, we're looking for starting pitchers that can help your fantasy team's WHIP. This is not […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoLate-Round Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Targets: ERA
The category targets are flowing! Today we're back to starting pitching, talking about ERA. This category proves to be one of the toughest ones to find help in later in the draft. That is not to say that there won't be great ERAs coming out of the late-round pitchers, but it's very hard to identify […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoJon Anderson's "My Guys" For 2022
It's "My Guys" time! I love seeing articles like this where we people who claim to be experts plant the flag on players we love for the year. It offers a good chance for review and accountability as well. I wrote this piece last year as well. If I'm being honest, I can't say it turned […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoK-BB% Gainers: Starting Pitchers to Watch in 2022
If I were on a desert island and had to pick just one statistic to take with me to evaluate starting pitchers for fantasy baseball purposes, I would choose strikeout-to-walk ratio. Would I have bigger problems than picking the best pitchers for my fantasy team if I ever found myself alone on a desert island? […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoAdventures in Scarcity: Stolen Bases Edition
In this series of posts, I will go through a few situations in today's fantasy baseball game where resources are scarce. These are the parts of the game where the smartest and best players really excel, as they recognize the scarcity and know how to use it to their advantage. Category scoring is a zero-sum […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoKyle Schwarber Signs with Philadelphia Phillies - Fantasy Baseball Impact
The Phillies made a splash the day before Spring Training games kicked off, signing slugger Kyle Schwarber to a four-year deal. This was a much-needed move for the Phillies, who were in desperate need of another outfield bat. Schwarber has been a fantasy-relevant hitter for his whole career, and he is certainly someone to examine […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoKris Bryant Signs With Colorado Rockies - Fantasy Baseball Impact
Kris Bryant was one of the biggest names on the free-agent market in the 2021-2022 offseason, and the lockout caused a major delay in his signing. Things finally got figured out on Wednesday, when the Rockies inked Bryant to a huge seven-year deal that included a no-trade clause. This was a bit of a surprise […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoFreddie Freeman to Dodgers - Fantasy Baseball Impact
The Los Angeles Dodgers did not need to add a free agent hitter to go into the 2022 MLB season as the league's premier offense. They did not let that fact stop them from signing the cream of the free-agent crop Freddie Freeman to a huge six-year contract. Let's talk briefly about the fantasy impact […]
Jon Anderson 3 years ago2022 "My Guys" Palooza - Another Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Ep. 5
Jon brings on a host of fantasy experts to give up their five favorite draft targets for the 2022 fantasy baseball season. Experts featured: @ATCNY, @Mike_Kurland, @SamskiNYC, @RotoSurgeon, @jasoncollette, @ThunderDanDFS, @BDentrek. Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, Saturdays from […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoChris Bassitt to Mets - Fantasy Baseball Impact
The Oakland Athletics and New York Mets have clearly been on opposite sides of the offseason from the beginning. The A's are in sell mode and the Mets are seemingly buying any player they can get their hands on as they aim to make a playoff push in 2022. More evidence of this was given […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoYusei Kikuchi to Blue Jays - Fantasy Impact
The Toronto Blue Jays led the league in home runs hit last year, and it was not particularly close. Despite that, they still failed to make the playoffs. The main reason for that failure was the tough division they played in, as well as just some rotten luck. They were actually a pretty good pitching […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoFinding 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, […]
Jon Anderson 3 years ago@MLBMovingAvg on MLB Betting - Another Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Ep. 4
John Laghezza (@MLBMovingAvg) joins Jon to talk about the life of a professional handicapper, and how to best attack MLB betting. Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, Saturdays from 3-5 PM, and Sundays from 3-5 PM. You can also find […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoADP 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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoBuilding 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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoManufacturing 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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoHigh-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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoHigh-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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoA Discussion With @AdamLevitan - Another Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Ep. 3
Adam Levitan joins the show to talk about life as a professional fantasy football guy. Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, Saturdays from 3-5 PM, and Sundays from 3-5 PM. You can also find new weekly shows on YouTube, Spreaker, Spotify, iTunes, and on the site under RotoBaller Radio […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoTGFBI Talk and Draft Strategy with @RotoSurgeon - Another Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Ep. 2
Jon Anderson talks to RotoBaller's own @RotoSurgeon about his prior TGFBI success and strategy for 2022. Also, lockout chatter and third base tiers! Be sure to also tune into RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM (channel Sirius 210, XM 87) - every weekday morning between 6-7 AM ET, Saturdays from 3-5 PM, and Sundays from 3-5 PM. You […]
Jon Anderson 3 years agoJon 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 […]
Jon Anderson 3 years ago