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About Rick Lucks - RotoBaller
Hello fellow Rotoballers!
I'm a guy that was reading fantasy baseball magazines before I was old enough to legally play. Now that I am, lets win some leagues together!
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Rick Lucks - RotoBaller has written 501 articles so far, you can find them below.
Champ or Chump: Jon Gray and Luis Castillo
The early portion of any fantasy draft is filled with household names, but rarely gets truly exciting. Things don't get interesting until it's late enough to start calling out your sleepers, the guys that you just love but want to wait on because you can. Get those picks right, and you can enjoy watching your... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For June 30
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. We're coming up on the halfway point of the season, but there's still plenty of options on the waiver wire to aid your championship quest. For those who are... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For June 29
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. We're coming up on the halfway point of the season, but there's still plenty of options on the waiver wire to aid your championship quest. For those who are... Read More
Champ or Chump: Anthony DeSclafani and Aaron Hicks
It can be very tempting to search your waiver wire using each player's production to date. Most platforms allow you to sort available players based on your area(s) of need, seemingly encouraging you to do exactly this. It's fine in certain situations, but the underlying peripherals may tell a completely different story. For example, Anthony... Read More
Champ or Chump: Frankie Montas and Jonathan Loaisiga
If you're participating in the Rotoballer Challenge on the RT Sports platform, you've probably noticed that they have a list of the most acquired and dropped players for the week on every league's homepage. This past week, all 10 of the listed adds were starting pitchers. Everybody is apparently looking for an extra arm. With... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For June 25
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Kyle Gibson & Eduardo Escobar
Most fantasy owners are searching for the latest toy from the minor leagues on their waiver wires, but sometimes it's better to invest in a player with a more extensive track record. For example, fantasy baseball experts have been touting Kyle Gibson's potential for years, and he appears to have finally figured something out in... Read More
Champ or Chump: Daniel Palka & Dylan Covey
Pop quiz: Name three position players on the Chicago White Sox not named Jose Abreu. If you're an active fantasy owner, you can probably answer the question...with more difficulty than you care to admit. The same is true of the team's starting rotation. While the team as a whole isn't great, they still have a... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For June 18
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire. This article, which began last season, runs seven days a week. We are always ready to stream. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be... Read More
Champ or Chump: John Hicks & Willy Adames
Injuries are always a touchy subject in fantasy baseball. Nobody ever wants anybody to get injured, especially if you paid a high price to acquire them in March. Yet if your roster is light on saves or in need of a particular position in a deeper format, somebody getting hurt is the best chance you... Read More
Champ or Chump: Alen Hanson & Max Muncy
Personally, I use a player's track record as my primary means of evaluating minor leaguers. While other owners chase after the Juan Soto's and Ronald Acuna's of the world based on their prospect ratings, I tend to let other owners burn their early draft picks and FAAB on those guys. They could be studs right... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For June 11
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Jalen Beeks & Miles Mikolas
While fantasy baseball owners would love to roster a rotation consisting entirely of Max Scherzers and Corey Klubers, it's not feasible if you're in a remotely competitive league. Breakouts help, but the true key to maintaining strong performances in the pitching categories is to stream effectively. Basically, that means starting streamers in favorable matchups while... Read More
Champ or Chump: Niko Goodrum & Brandon Nimmo
There's a lot of fantasy analysis out there, and everybody has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to the numbers they look at. Personally, I can't stand Hard%. It was invented as a proxy to measure contact quality, but Statcast gives us specific numbers to measure the same thing much more precisely. It's... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets for June 4
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Jorge Soler and Shane Bieber
Even if you're happy with your current position in the standings, it's important to avoid complacency. Any production from an unexpected source (such as Jorge Soler of the Kansas City Royals) is liable to disappear at the drop of a dime, so it wouldn't hurt to start looking into a backup plan. Likewise, even first... Read More
Champ or Chump: Mallex Smith & Mitch Moreland
It's rare for a May transaction to significantly impact the fantasy landscape, but we've had two that did so recently. First, Denard Span and Alex Colome were traded to the Seattle Mariners. Colome's owners are now forced to speculate on who his successor might be in Tampa Bay, while Span's value remains constant as he... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For May 28
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Tyler O'Neill and Juan Soto
It seems like we're far enough into the season for the minor leagues to stop pumping out shiny new toys for fantasy owners to play with, yet the hits keep on coming. Nineteen-year old Juan Soto is the latest blue chip prospect to make an MLB debut, and the hype surrounding him is roughly equivalent... Read More
Champ or Chump: Dustin Fowler & Austin Meadows
Fantasy owners have been struggling with stolen bases since rotisserie baseball was invented. The prevailing thought used to be that they would always be available on the wire, encouraging owners to concentrate on power in their drafts and sort speed out later. As the total number of steals began to decline, many owners went the... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets For May 21
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Matt Adams and Freddy Peralta
By now, you've probably heard that the United States Supreme Court has opened the door to legalized sports betting outside of the state of Nevada. The issue has several complicated angles to consider, but I've long felt that fantasy owners should have a familiarity with how betting on baseball works. Each game's over/under numbers and... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets for May 14
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Jeimer Candelario and Fernando Romero
While it's still much too early to give up on your team, your league's standings page is starting to mean something. If you're deficient in HR or well short of the IP pace of your rivals, you should take action before it is too late. One way to do so is a trade, but it's... Read More
Champ or Chump: Tyler Mahle & Caleb Smith
Popular waiver wire arms are once again today's topic of discussion. If you're in need of a new pitcher for your staff (and nearly everyone is), both Tyler Mahle of the Cincinnati Reds and Caleb Smith of the Miami Marlins have probably crossed your mind. Neither has much of a track record though, so you... Read More
Champ or Chump: Tyson Ross and Mike Soroka
Few feelings in fantasy baseball are worse than staring at an ugly team ERA and a waiver wire full of question marks. You think you have to do something, but you don't want to compromise your offense to do it or dig a bigger hole with the wrong streamers. In this situation, you need to... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Targets for May 7
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis to improve upon your neediest categories, and target players who may be available on... Read More
Champ or Chump: Nick Kingham and Miguel Andujar
Scouting minor league lines is often an inexact science. Occasionally, you'll see a guy who seems likely to succeed right away (Rhys Hoskins last year). Sometimes, a guy's complete lack of minor league production leaves you confident that it will take a few years (Byron Buxton), if it ever clicks. Most guys don't fit into... Read More
Champ or Chump: Teoscar Hernandez and Gleyber Torres
There are still plenty of intriguing waiver wire options from the minor leagues to examine, so we're going prospecting again. Scouting produces a realistic sense of a given player's overall potential, but fantasy owners in redraft leagues are usually more concerned with the ability to make an immediate impact. This means that vanilla prospect lists... Read More
Streaming Wars - Waiver Wire Picks For April 30
Welcome back to Streaming Wars, your one-stop shop for streaming the waiver wire all season long. This article, now in its second year, runs seven days a week. It may only be April, but it's never too early to start streaming. For those who are newcomers to this feature - use this column on a daily basis... Read More
