Champ or Chump: Mark Reynolds & Logan Morrison

It's All-Star season, and the entire baseball community is debating who should have been left off of the roster for their favorite "snubbed" player. There are plenty of quality options, from the superstar allure of Kris Bryant to  underappreciated gem Justin Turner. Fans can vote for one more player to join each league's roster from […]

Champ or Chump: Stephen Vogt & Mike Zunino

While there is no shortage of contenders for the title of Worst Individual in Human History, whoever decided that fantasy owners should roster two catchers ranks highly on the list. They put up mediocre stats roughly five days a week, losing to every other position in both quality and quantity. Bearing this in mind, you […]

Champ or Chump: Jimmy Nelson & Jordan Montgomery

Regular readers will know that this column makes extensive use of PITCHf/x data to determine the value of a given arm's repertoire. Starting with this edition, Pitch Info will be used instead. We'll have the same information to work with, but Pitch Info is more sensitive. For example, if a pitcher throws both a straight […]

Champ or Chump: Rick Porcello & Miguel Cabrera

Nothing is more frustrating in fantasy than an absolute stud you paid up for deciding to decline as soon as you roster him. You don't want to get rid of last year's Cy Young award winner or the most recent man to win a Triple Crown, yet the clock is ticking on your fantasy season. […]

Champ or Chump: Kyle Scwarber & Jonathan Lucroy

There are two viable approaches to the catcher position in fantasy. The first is to accept mediocrity, secure in the knowledge that most of your competitors will not be getting much from the position either. The second is to pay a premium for one of the few catchers who can actually hit, likely hurting your […]

Champ or Chump: Jose Berrios & Alex Wood

It wasn't that long ago that fantasy experts advised waiting on starting pitching, as aces were popping up on the waiver wire every year. A few still are, but the SP landscape as a whole is bleak. Between injuries and ineffectiveness, seemingly every owner in every league is in the market for starting pitching. Therefore, […]

Champ or Chump: Nicholas Castellanos & Robbie Ray

Potential should be a swear word in fantasy baseball. We think our roster could do this or should do that, so we stick with "our guys" through their early slump. This is usually the right call in April, but if we keep sticking until August with no improvement our fantasy season comes to an early […]

Champ or Chump: Edinson Volquez & Justin Smoak

Fantasy owners frequently limit their knowledge of the MLB player pool to only those who may be interesting from a fantasy perspective. Guys who stay in the majors without producing fantasy-relevant stats are generally assumed to have retired until we see them in a game. At that point, we say, "Player X is still active!?" […]

Champ or Chump: Whit Merrifield & Marco Estrada

At this point of the season, available players tend to fall into one of two categories. The first is a breakout performer on a weaker club no one is paying attention to, such as Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals. The second is a boring veteran player who seems to be performing as he […]

Champ or Chump: Tyler Anderson & Masahiro Tanaka

Nothing is more discouraging than watching your fantasy pitcher get lit up like a Christmas tree every time he toes the rubber. ERA and WHIP are both rate stats, meaning that it takes a lot of good performances to smooth over a disaster. Furthermore, owners with IP caps eventually reach a point where they don't […]

Champ or Chump: Adam Frazier & Hunter Renfroe

By now you've probably heard that Mike Trout will miss approximately 6-8 weeks after tearing a ligament in his thumb. This injury is worse than it seems if your fantasy roster relied on Trout, as most batters struggle to regain their power stroke after sustaining a hand injury. If you're in the tough position of […]

Champ or Chump: Trea Turner & Manny Machado

The first few guys you take in any fantasy draft are supposed to be your rocks. If their production falls off, it is easy to find yourself in a hole that can be difficult to climb out of. Do you hang on to your studs and bank on a rebound, or sell for pennies on […]

Champ or Chump: Kevin Pillar & Michael Conforto

The fantasy community hypes up a few players every draft season without driving their ADP too high. Kevin Pillar was viewed as an intriguing speed play if he could hit enough to receive regular PAs, yet his ADP was just 321. Michael Conforto was buried on the Mets depth chart, but everyone thought he would […]

Champ or Chump: Ervin Santana & Michael Pineda

One of the most amazing things about pitching is how many ways there are to do it successfully. Ervin Santana has compiled an ERA of 2.07 by allowing his defense to gobble up every ball in play. By contrast, Michael Pineda has succeeded by limiting the number of balls in play against him, striking out […]

Champ or Chump: Todd Frazier & Jake Arrieta

Fantasy owners frequently pay attention to the shiny new toys that spring up every season, but underperformers may not be noticed as quickly. If your platform of choice lacks a write-up on a particular player, it is easy to assume that he put up a boring game like 1-for-4 with a run scored. Only when […]

Champ or Chump: Scott Schebler & Yonder Alonso

Power is the result of two things: hitting fly balls and hitting the ball with authority. If the ball is stuck on the ground, it can't go over the fence no matter how high its exit velocity is. If a fly ball is weakly hit, it becomes nothing more than a routine play for an […]

Champ or Chump: Trevor Cahill & Dallas Keuchel

This has been a rotten year to invest heavily in starting pitching. Perhaps your ace is on the DL, like Madison Bumgarner or Noah Syndergaard. Maybe they are just underperforming, like Matt Harvey or Julio Teheran. Either way, you're probably looking for a reliable arm, or three. Trevor Cahill is far from the sexiest name, […]

Champ or Chump: Jay Bruce & Ryan Zimmerman

Fantasy baseball owners tend to roster two types of players. The first type is the flavor of the moment, whoever is hot lately or has scouts drooling over their potential. The second type is the boring veteran whose track record is so consistent he has to be valued highly. This approach frequently leaves the players […]

Champ or Chump: Joey Gallo & Aaron Judge

The old saying "Chicks dig the long ball" applies to fantasy baseball owners as well. Billy Hamilton is frequently criticized for offering nothing outside of steals, yet similar players who provide nothing but bombs are not only rostered, but taken inside the top 100. Hamilton goes high too, but at least two owners in every […]

Champ or Chump: Trey Mancini & Taylor Motter

Every year, fantasy owners scour minor league rosters in an effort to find the next breakout star that no one is talking about. We always think that anyone with the slightest chance of mattering in fantasy is on our radar. Then, April rolls around and somebody we have never heard of does something extraordinary. Left […]

Champ or Chump: Charlie Morton & Jason Vargas

We're getting to a point in the season when it is tempting to trust a player's numbers, but barring some major change, preseason projections are still a better indicator of future performance. The two names below were selected for entirely different reasons. Charlie Morton was seen as a sleeper based on 2016 success in an […]

Champ or Chump: Robert Gsellman & Luis Severino

It is Sunday again, meaning that fantasy owners in leagues with weekly lineup changes are scouring the waiver wire for arms scheduled to make two starts. This is a fine strategy, as the extra work can give you a boost in counting stats such as wins and strikeouts. It can also blow up in your […]

Champ or Chump: Eric Thames & Francisco Lindor

Fantasy championships are never won in April, but it still feels good to be at the top of the standings. Eventually things will stabilize, making it more challenging to make a significant jump in a short period of time. When that happens, you definitely want to be in the hunt instead of an also-ran. Chances […]

Champ or Chump: Kendall Graveman & Amir Garrett

It is so easy to overreact to a small sample. Kendall Graveman is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA this year, and fantasy owners are falling all over themselves to acquire his services. Why? Amir Garrett is also 2-0, inspiring the fantasy world to collectively ask, "Who is that?". It is time to take a closer […]

Champ or Chump - Brandon Kintzler & Yasiel Puig

Regular readers may notice that "ADP" is no longer in the title. The first week of the season has come and gone, so if you still have not completed your fantasy draft, it is looking likely that you are not playing fantasy baseball this year. That said, I liked the idea of ADP conveying how […]

ADP Champs or Chumps - Chris Devenski & Andrew Toles

The 2017 season is still far too short of a sample size to conclude anything using numbers, but the human element of player deployment is beginning to come into focus. If a player's role differs drastically from what we thought it would be during draft season, his value could explode. Getting these guys on your […]

ADP Champs or Chumps: Yasmani Grandal & Rougned Odor

Isn't it amazing? We spend the entire offseason hatching grand plans about how we are going to dominate our leagues. No detail is left unexplored. When Opening Day comes around, we are mentally prepared to treat it as the first step in our inevitable march toward fantasy immortality. Then, a few games are played and […]

Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 13: Barrels For Pitchers

Last time, we looked at Barrels, a stat combining exit velocity and launch angle to measure how often a batter makes quality hard contact. As much as batters want to hit a Barrel every time, pitchers want to avoid them at all costs. Yet there is some evidence that pitchers do not have the same […]

ADP Champs or Chumps - Albert Pujols & Miguel Cabrera

I know what you're thinking. "ADP Champs or Chumps? The season has already started!" That may be true, but there are some leagues that wait until the first week of the season to conduct their drafts. Personally I think that this is a terrible idea, as values become more linear when you know Opening Day […]

Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 12 - Barrels for Batters

If you've watched a baseball broadcast in the so-called Statcast Era, you have undoubtedly noticed the broadcasters commenting on a batted ball's exit velocity, or EV. Many have taken to using stats like Hard% and Soft% to forecast how a player should be performing, expecting larger Hard% rates to produce larger BABIP figures. There is […]