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Closers and Saves Report - Week 10 Waiver Wire
Closers and Saves Report - Week 9 Waiver Wire
Two more no-hitters were thrown in the American League this week, making bullpen and closer news very much secondary in the pitching world. But it's only a matter of time until we see a team turn a bullpen game into a no-hitter, right? A couple of bullpen games have turned into shutouts already, so it... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 101 Relief Pitcher Rankings
The second half of May means the weather is getting warmer and we're going from 25% of the season down to 33% in the books. You should know how aggressive to be in targeting prospective saves as well as how loosely you can play it with your ratios. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto... Read More
Bullpen Report: Bullpens Keep on Changing
Another week, more bullpens changing around the league. I mean at this point you do not need to be told how important it is to stay up to date on bullpens and how they are shaking out. Unlike many other positions, the turnover is not due to injury. In many cases, teams are just moving... Read More
Bullpen Report: The Week of the Closer Injury
We are now about six weeks into the MLB season. It’s definitely flying by and before you know it, it will be Memorial Day, July 4th, and then the All-Star Break. These are all arbitrary dates you will hear thrown around as target dates for when you will have a large enough sample size to... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 8 Waiver Wire
The first few weeks of this baseball season (and even a couple of weeks leading up to Opening Day) were absolutely littered with bullpen news and notes. It seemed like almost every single day, some team was tinkering with its bullpen, or some closer was getting hurt, or some previously well-established closer was slumping while... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 101 Relief Pitcher Rankings
We're cruising through May and yet there are still so many uncertain, fluid bullpens to peruse in my 2021 Relief Pitcher Baller Ranks, which provides a weekly peek at my top 101 relievers moving forward. It's finally time to ramp it up to true 101 Dalmatians form. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 7 Waiver Wire
As we enter the second month of the baseball season, there have already been plenty of surprises. The NL East is...bad, actually? The AL Central might actually have more than one playoff team? The Yankees are terrible? Wait no, they're good again? The Red Sox are for real? Are the Dodgers okay? What in the... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 70 Relief Pitcher Rankings
Join me for the first May edition of my 2021 Relief Pitcher Baller Ranks, which provides a weekly peek at my top 70 relievers moving forward. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues with some mentions for hold candidates and ratio anchors. I decided to leave off most injured players because throwing darts at... Read More
Bullpen Report: Struggling Closers Leading to Changes?
I have been playing a lot of MLB The Show lately and the one thing I have learned playing is - relievers are very important if you are going to play anything other than a standalone game! You need to not only have multiple options you can trust but the depth of many teams' bullpens... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 6 Waiver Wire
Another week gone by, and a lot went down in the AL bullpens while the NL bullpens mostly had a straightforward week. The Tigers and Reds bullpens are still their own messes. The Royals may have a new closer already. The Mariners may be moving to a new guy too. The Blue Jays bullpen might... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 70 Relief Pitcher Rankings
We are gathered here today for April's final edition of my 2021 Relief Pitcher Baller Ranks, where we take a weekly peek at my top 70 relievers moving forward. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues with the understanding that RPs are as volatile as it gets. I decided to leave off most injured... Read More
Bullpen Report: Figuring Out Changing Bullpens
There have been a lot of shakeups in Major League bullpens, even in the last few days. Most notable among them are Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Kansas City, all of which we will explore in detail below. This article will help you stay up-to-date on closer situations and some speculative adds you can grab before they... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 5 Waiver Wire
For all the wildness that has already happened in bullpens across the league this season, this week was a nice little respite. That's not to say that nothing went down, just that it wasn't an overwhelmingly non-stop bullpen news week like every other week had been. We have a few committees settling into more specific... Read More
Bullpen Report: Closer Carousel Keeps Turning
We are just three weeks into the baseball season, but it may feel like longer because there has been an influx of news and developments that have impacted fantasy. There has been no position that has seen more changes than at relief pitcher. We have already seen a number of changes to teams' late-inning usage... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 70 Relief Pitcher Rankings
Welcome to the first version of my 2021 Relief Pitcher Baller Ranks, where we take a weekly peek at my top 70 relievers moving forward. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues, with the understanding that RPs are as volatile as it gets. You'll notice that I leave off most injured players because throwing... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 4 Waiver Wire
Another week of baseball, another flurry of bullpen moves. New injuries, lots of saves, and some blown ones as well. A few teams that had committees to start the season seem to be settling into fixed roles, but then some teams with what seemed like fixed roles are turning into committees. A Blue Jays rookie... Read More
Bullpen Report: Shaking Things Up in Week 3
We have already seen a lot of FAAB spent on pitchers that have been named the closer. It happens every year. Whenever a new closer is named, especially if it is one that can miss bats – fantasy players love a pitcher that can miss bats. And the logic behind spending up on a pitcher... Read More
The Baller Ranks: Weekly Top 70 Relief Pitcher Rankings
Welcome to the first version of my 2021 Relief Pitcher Baller Ranks, where we take a weekly peek at my top 70 SPs moving forward. This is geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues, with the understanding that RPs are as volatile as it gets. Since this is the first version of the year, it won't... Read More
The Big Picture - Closer Committees Are Here to Stay
The fireman has morphed into a fire department. We've seen this trend coming in recent years but it appears that the days of a Major League team having a single definitive closer are all but over. The instability that came with the 2020 season brought an increased reliance on middle relievers to spread out innings.... Read More
Fantasy Baseball Closers to Target
Diving head-first into relievers who have converted saves early in the season is typically fine but whatever is going on this season is very, very odd. If my math is correct, there are now 35 different relievers who have at least 1 save so far this year. After one week of games. Crazy. — Greg... Read More
Bullpen Report: What We Learned in Week 2
Relievers have become more and more important in fantasy baseball in recent years. First, with starting pitchers being limited to fewer innings than ever, it leads to relievers seeing an uptick in usage. All of a sudden, a good reliever could give you similar innings to a fringe starting pitcher, but with better ratios and... Read More
Closers and Saves Report - Week 3 Waiver Wire
Okay, so every season, everyone says things like, "bullpens are wild!" and "bullpens are so unpredictable!" and "why did you ever choose to specialize in bullpens?" All of those comments are valid, and absolutely already pertain to the 2021 season. It's been about a week since Opening Day, and several bullpens have already gone against... Read More
Late-Spring Closer Report: Unsettled American League Bullpens
"Spring stats don't matter." "Grapefruit and Cactus League games don't count." "Everyone is just working on something." These are all things we hear before baseball season, and they're mostly true. However, injuries certainly count, and there have been a few major ones already in March when baseball doesn't count. The National League seems to have... Read More
Nick Mariano's Top 140 Saves+Holds Rankings
To any reader who thinks they don't have a voice here at RotoBaller, let it be known that this article came from a simple Reddit comment about how those seeking Saves+Holds reliever ranks were often overlooked. Poof, and here we are. Allow me, Nick Mariano, 2018's most accurate draft expert (top-three for RPs in '18... Read More
Top 10 Relief Pitchers to Target - LIMA Plan
You need saves but you don't want to burn an early pick or spend up just to invest in a closer that joins the 50% club. That is, the 50% or more of relief pitchers who start the year as closers but will lose their job due to poor performance or injury at some point... Read More
2021 Relievers To Target For Holds
As evidenced by the success of the 2015 Kansas City Royals and 2020 Tampa Bay Rays, we have seen a much greater focus placed on strengthening middle-relief in MLB bullpens over the past decade. Additionally, in recent seasons we have seen a shift toward teams utilizing their best reliever in the most crucial innings and... Read More
Diamonds in the Pen - Deep Reliever Draft Targets
When it comes to building a pitching staff in fantasy, most managers focus solely on starting pitchers and closers. And that makes sense. In standard scoring, those pitchers are the ones who are going to make the greatest contributions to wins, strikeouts and saves. A guy that comes in and tosses a scoreless frame in... Read More
Starter Prospects that Could be Impact Relievers in 2021
In many ways, Major League Baseball is getting back to normal in 2021. Most importantly for sports fans and fantasy baseball fanatics, this means that the season will be 162 games after experiencing a stunted 2020 season. However, the sudden spike back to 162 games from 60 contests creates headaches for MLB managers. Lance Lynn... Read More
JB's Bullpen Method Redux - Building FrankenAces
Last year, I finally published an article breaking down my favorite fantasy baseball strategy I have been using for years. It's really less of a strategy and more a state of mind. No, the Bullpen Method is a lifestyle. I always speak about the importance of balance on a fantasy team. For your pitching staff, I... Read More
