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Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 9 - Pitcher BABIP
Josh Hayes' 2019 Best Ball Draft Targets (Premium Content)
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. The fantasy baseball season is here! For those fantasy players looking to get an edge on their 2019 leagues, Best Ball formats are a great way to get a head start on the players that look to be ADP risers this season. One key... Read More
NFBC Draft and Hold Strategy - Pitching Category Boosters (Premium Content)
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. There is no such thing as a can't-miss pitching prospect. Pitchers never stay healthy. Relievers are volatile. All of these are sayings that diehard fantasy baseball players are familiar with, and to some extent, live by during the fantasy season. Developing a pitching strategy... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 8 - FIP and xFIP
The first advanced pitching stat most fantasy owners encounter is FIP. FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, and attempts to measure a pitcher's actual skill instead of the effects of luck or his supporting cast. According to the DIPS theory that the metric is based upon, pitchers control only Ks, BBs (and HBP) and home... Read More
RotoBaller's Industry Experts Mock Draft - The King's Perspective
At RotoBaller, we recently assembled a group of fantasy baseball experts to take part in the RotoBaller Friends and Family Expert Mock Draft. Our participants came from all over the industry, representing a host of various sites such as: CBS Sports (Heath Cummings) The Athletic (Nando Di Fino) Fantasy Alarm (Howard Bender) Fangraphs (Alex Chamberlain)... Read More
NFBC Draft and Hold Strategy - Late-Round Offensive Category Targets (Premium Content)
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. With the growing interest in draft-and-hold formats, new draft strategy prep is critical for full season runs at the title. For those who are new to the format, typically teams draft 27 starters in a live draft, with 27 players joining the team in... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 7 - Lineup Spot
To this point, this series has focused exclusively on trying to predict and validate home runs and batting average. There is a reason for this--modern sabermetrics tend to reject the idea of a "clutch RBI guy" and therefore do not bother inventing predictive metrics for it. Runs and RBI are team-dependent stats and are unhelpful in... Read More
What I Learned in My First Slow Mock Expert Draft
Over the years, I’ve done hundreds of mock drafts, maybe even thousands. However, as someone relatively new to formal writing about fantasy baseball, I’ve never been part of an organization that ran a slow mock draft. I recently took part in RotoBaller’s Dynasty Mock Draft, and boy was it ever SLOW. We started this thing... Read More
How to Approach Rookies in Re-Draft for Success
With the NFL season officially a thing of the past, we can now turn our undivided fantasy attention to preparing for our baseball drafts. We are still waiting on the answers to a few key questions (such as, I don't know, where Bryce Harper and Manny Machado might play their home games?), but we have... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 6 - Pull Percentage
Earlier in this series, we saw that fantasy owners generally prefer batters to hit the ball into the air in order to have a chance at a home run. Yet, all fly balls are not equal for this purpose. A player can maximize his power production by pulling the ball in the air. One way... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 5 - Plate Discipline
No matter how high a particular player's BABIP may be, his average will be mediocre at best if he strikes out too much. This is why fantasy owners have known for years that players like Chris Davis are potential drains on a fantasy team's batting average. Furthermore, players that whiff a lot tend to continue... Read More
Is Punting Steals a Viable Draft Strategy in 2019?
For readers who tune in to watch MLB games regularly, the phrase “small ball is dead” is becoming more and more the cliche. Managers do not feel the need to run as much, there is a decreasing rate of sacrifice bunts, and above all, no more hit-and-run as a primary offensive tactic. While many factors... Read More
2019 Points League Draft Strategy - Fantasy Baseball
When discussing fantasy baseball. An often neglected-but-entertaining format is the points league. These exist in both cumulative season-long and weekly head-to-head formats. While existential debates about scoring categories and their true depiction of player worth are endless, points leagues arguably get closest to the objective of sabermetrics. Points leagues attempt to define a player’s contribution... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 4 - Batted Ball Distribution (Hitters)
Fly balls can turn into home runs. Ground balls never do. It would seem as though fantasy owners want their batters to hit nothing but flies, yet this is not the case. Why would this be? The answer, of course, comes down to batted ball distribution and the manner in which batters make contact. In... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 3 - Statcast for Hitters
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 and HR/FB figures.... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 2 - HR/FB for Hitters
Using BABIP to predict a player's batting average is great. Average is a category in many league formats, and every hit is an opportunity to steal a base or score a run. But most owners find the long ball sexier. Every HR comes with a guaranteed run scored and at least one RBI. Many owners... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 1 - BABIP for Hitters
Hello fellow RotoBallers! Sabermetrics have become an integral tool for fantasy baseball draft prep, but a concise resource for understanding the basics can be difficult to find. This series attempts to define and explain all of the metrics fantasy owners may find useful, citing examples of how to use them in the process. Twenty degrees... Read More
RotoBaller Early Mock Draft Analysis (Rounds 3-10)
A group of 10 RotoBaller fantasy baseball experts recently came together to conduct a slow mock draft for the 2019 season. Was it way too early? That all depends on who is asking. But with it complete, we can start to look at where players ended up on the board. This is the first staff... Read More
RotoBaller Early Mock Draft Analysis (Rounds 1-2)
I know what you are probably thinking as you click this link, who is doing fantasy baseball drafts in October and November?! Well, the answer to that is 10 Rotoballer Fantasy Baseball enthusiasts who are already longing for the long hot days of summer and the return of everyday baseball. This is the first of... Read More
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Two-Start Pitchers: What Are They Really Worth?
The idea of the “two-start pitcher” makes an appearance on most fantasy baseball podcasts, articles, sites, and newsletters as players are ranked and recommended to owners and teams. Selecting pitchers based on match-ups, park factors, and opponents over the scoring week is a regular debate as owners plan their rosters. At the same time, other... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 15 - Minor League Stats
Once you've grown accustomed to having advanced tools to help make fantasy decisions, it can feel disorientating to be without them. Prospects are increasingly becoming a focal point in both real and fantasy baseball, but the minors simply do not have all of the data available for MLB players. For example, advanced plate discipline stats,... Read More
Approaching Rookies and Prospects in Redraft Leagues for Success
Everyone wants to be the guy to say they hopped on the bandwagon of the next up-and-comer before he comes up and breaks out. This often causes younger players to be overvalued, particularly in single-season leagues where some youngsters may not even see meaningful playing time. Identifying the rookies that will actually get playing time,... Read More
Dollar Day Auction Targets for Fantasy Baseball Drafts
The latter part of an auction draft is arguably the most fun part. All of the obvious players to own are long gone, and now owners must go searching through the coal to find the one diamond that will make the difference for their team. Owners were patting themselves on the back after finding $1... Read More
Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 14 - Statcast For Pitchers
Previously, 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 influence... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 13 - Spin Rate
Spin rate has become one of the most recognizable Statcast metrics, with supporters of a given pitcher highlighting his spin rates to make their case. Unfortunately, the baseball world has done a lousy job conveying what spin rate really means. The result has been a ton of owners who know that spin rate exists, but... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 12 - Pitch Info
One of the most fundamental questions in fantasy sports is if a player's current performance is sustainable. More than any other sport, baseball has a slew of statistical measures that can be dissected numerous ways to analyze player performance. Pitch Info is a publicly available pitch tracking system that provides a lot of different data... Read More
Ottoneu Draft Strategy
Ottoneu is a format that only the fantasy baseball obsessed know about. For years I’ve been eyeing an Ottoneu league but was hesitant to take the plunge; the massive rosters, complex scoring system and year-round commitment were overwhelming, to say the least. But this year I’m ready to make the leap, having signed on with... Read More
Best Ball Sleepers and Late Round Targets for Fantasy Baseball
Best ball leagues are one of the latest variations of fantasy baseball that are quickly growing in popularity. Draft day is the only day of the year where owners will have control over their roster. There is no waiver wire and there are no trades. Owners won't even set daily lineups, as they will instead... Read More
Points League Primer - Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy
When discussing fantasy baseball, an often neglected but entertaining format is the points league. These exist in both season-long cumulative and weekly head-to-head leagues. While existential debates about scoring categories and their true depiction of player worth are endless, points leagues arguably get closest to the objective of sabermetrics. Points leagues attempt to define a... Read More
Using Sabermetrics For Fantasy Baseball Part 11 - Batted Ball Distribution For Pitchers
The league average batted ball distribution in 2017 was 20.3% liners, 44.2% grounders and 35.5% flies. We have previously seen how pitchers may specialize in either grounders or fly balls. Fly ball pitchers have a BABIP advantage over their ground ball-inducing counterparts, since fly balls (.130 BABIP in 2017) consistently have lower BABIPs than worm... Read More
