RADIO
2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers - Jorge Alfaro
Biggest Fallers: K-BB%, Part 2
K-BB% is a valuable metric because it shows which pitchers can combine strikeout ability with pinpoint control. Pitchers with high K-BB% possess high floors and ceilings because even when they’re not accumulating strikeouts, they are still usually able to pound the strike zone. Name K-BB% '18 K-BB% '19 K-BB%-Diff ADP (NFBC) Patrick Corbin 24.80% 20.10%... Read More
Early ADP Thoughts - Outfielders
♫It's the most wonderful tiiiiiiiime, of the year!♫ Well, sort of. In much of the country, February brings terrible weather and generally feels interminable, despite being the shortest month on the calendar. This being a leap year, we get an extra day of it. Fun! But for fantasy baseball owners, fun is exactly what you... Read More
2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers – Corey Dickerson
Corey Dickerson signed a two-year deal with the Miami Marlins this offseason, not normally something which is a recipe for fantasy success. However, Dickerson is someone who can provide fantasy value in what appears to be a slightly improved lineup. The addition of Jonathan Villar along with the emergence of Brian Anderson and Jon Berti... Read More
Will the Real Shohei Ohtani Please Stand Up?
When he arrived in 2018, Shohei Ohtani was regarded as one of the most dynamic and difficult-to-value players in the league. After two excellent, but injury-marred seasons, that much hasn’t changed. We have a clearer sense of Ohtani’s talent, but drafting him is still a unique challenge. In fact, the fantasy owners I've talked to... Read More
Biggest Fallers: K-BB%, Part 1
K-BB% is a valuable metric because it shows which pitchers can combine strikeout ability with pinpoint control. Pitchers with high K-BB% possess high floors and ceilings because even when they’re not accumulating strikeouts, they are still usually able to pound the strike zone. The list below shows pitchers with the highest drop-off in this rate... Read More
Kenta Maeda To Twins - Fantasy Impact
Late Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox triggered a blockbuster, three-team trade that sent star outfielder Mookie Betts to the west coast and brought a couple of top prospects back to Boston. What was lost in the madness was the third team, the Minnesota Twins, making a big addition to their starting... Read More
Going Full Corbin: Pitchers Who Should Throw Their Best Pitch More
Patrick Corbin has made a case for himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball. He produced 14 wins in 202.0 innings pitched with a 3.25 ERA and 28.5 K%. Corbin wasn’t always this good though. In 2016, his ERA was a pedestrian 5.15 with a mediocre 18.7 K%. Suddenly, Corbin decided to start... Read More
Mookie Betts and David Price to Dodgers - Fantasy Impact
For weeks there have been rumors of a potential Mookie Betts trade. It seemed Betts might be heading to the San Diego Padres, but recently another NL West team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, became involved in the trade discussions. Like most times, when the Dodgers get involved they get what they want. On Tuesday, Mookie... Read More
Analyzing Fly Ball Metrics: 2020 Negative Regression Candidates
Last week, I uncovered a few pitching casualties from the record-setting 2019 season, which saw an unprecedented amount of home runs hit and a "juiced" ball theory come into light. While the use of the defensive shift has caused more players to change their swing into a fly ball-oriented approach, this monumental increase in dingers... Read More
Should We Buy Back Into Blake Snell?
Author note: Blake Snell dealt with an elbow issue ad received a cortisone shot. That lead to his ADP falling, and for good reason, but he returned to the mound since and now with the start of the season delayed, he should be ready for the start of the season. Early in 2018, I was... Read More
Analyzing Fly Ball Metrics: 2020 Positive Regression Candidates
A once intermittent and revered event, the home run ball has now engulfed baseball to extraordinary levels, which has theorists convinced that the ball is tampered with or "juiced." For a good reason, as last year we saw four teams shatter the single-season home run record previously held by the 2018 Yankees, with the Minnesota... Read More
Cavan Biggio: 2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper
Now that the calendar has flipped to February, it's time to begin mapping out strategy in earnest for your 2020 fantasy baseball drafts. That includes identifying potentially undervalued targets, often referred to in the popular parlance as "sleepers." Anyone who has read my work in the past knows my feelings toward that term. It's too... Read More
Nick Castellanos to Reds - Fantasy Impact
The winter of the Cincinnati Reds keeps rolling on. They already added some pitching in Wade Miley, a journeyman to play shortstop in Freddy Galvis, a power-hitting monster in Mike Moustakas, and a Japanese leadoff man in Shogo Akiyama. Now, they have secured one of the top outfield targets on the market in Nick Castellanos.... Read More
2019 Season in Review: Noah Syndergaard
The 2019 season was very uncharacteristic for Noah Syndergaard. Not only was it the worst overall season of his career, but it was markedly different from his performance just one season previously. Syndergaard performed well within his career numbers in 2018, going 13-4 with a 3.03 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and 24.1% strikeout rate. His record... Read More
Early 2020 ADP Reflections - Third Base
When a baseball season ends, the following season can’t come here soon enough for some fans, myself included. We start thinking about what we want to see from some players, which includes letdowns, bounce-backs, and even young prospects. Instead of letting them bounce off the brain walls, let’s put these musings into digits. This includes... Read More
Jeff McNeil - 2019 Season in Review
Jeff McNeil had quite the 2019 season for the Mets and, more importantly, for fantasy baseball owners. Never a major prospect in the Mets system, McNeil quietly joined the big club in 2018 and then blew up in 2019. Now, he is a major fantasy baseball draft riser in 2020 drafts, and there are a... Read More
J.D. Davis - 2020 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper
It's that time of year again to start touting this year's fantasy baseball draft sleepers for the upcoming 2020 season. While the term "sleeper" is generally overused, it's the simplest way for us analysts to tell you which players are a sneaky option to return value at their current draft-day price tags. With that said,... Read More
K-BB% Risers: Five Undervalued Draft Targets
Before I dive into the purpose of this article, I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Michael Simione, also known as @SPStreamer, and this is my first article over here at RotoBaller. For those who don’t know me, my favorite aspect of baseball is, without a doubt, pitching. Most of my articles... Read More
Fernando Tatis Jr. - 2019 Season in Review
A year ago, though he was highly valued in dynasty leagues, Fernando Tatis Jr. was viewed merely as a late-round flier in redraft formats. At just 20 years old and with only 450 plate appearances above Single-A, there was a large degree of uncertainty around his 2019 outlook. Would San Diego's front office manipulate his... Read More
Marcell Ozuna to Braves - Fantasy Impact
When Josh Donaldson signed with the Minnesota Twins, it appeared the Atlanta Braves would be left with a giant hole in their batting order. We don't need to worry any longer, as they have fixed that problem by signing outfielder Marcell Ozuna. The 29-year-old Ozuna turned down the St. Louis Cardinals' $17.8 million qualifying offer to... Read More
Josh Donaldson to Twins - Fantasy Impact
The Minnesota Twins recently signed third baseman Josh Donaldson to a four-year contract worth $92 million. The contract also has a fifth-year option that can take the total value to $100 million. The Twins finished 101-61 in 2019 en route to their first AL Central Division title since 2010. The addition of Donaldson will add... Read More
2019 Season in Review: Sonny Gray
2019 was a pivotal season for starting pitcher Sonny Gray, both from a real-game and fantasy perspective. The 2018 season turned out to be a complete dud for Gray, who, in his first full season with the Yankees, posted a poor 4.90 ERA and 1.50 WHIP over 130 ⅓ innings pitched. With a move to... Read More
Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball: BABIP for Hitters
The most accessible of the fantasy-relevant advanced stats is BABIP, or Batting Average on Balls In Play. It simply measures a player's batting average on balls in play, with outcomes such as strikeouts and home runs removed from consideration. In general, the league average hovers around .300, a nice round number to remember. Many know... Read More
Eric Samulski's Prospects Live Bestball 50 Draft Breakdown
This offseason, Prospects Live announced a new draft format that they were hoping would bring together the dynasty crowd with more redraft-heavy players. The format was simple and also completely complicated. Each league would be a five-year Best Ball Dynasty featuring 30 teams where each owner would draft a roster of 50 players, and the... Read More
2019 Season in Review: Carlos Correa
Over the first five seasons of his career, Carlos Correa has demonstrated why the Astros chose him first overall in the 2012 MLB amateur draft. He captured American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2015, along with some down-ballot MVP consideration. In 2017, he made his first All-Star team, finishing 10th in the league... Read More
Will There Be Fantasy Fallout for the Astros?
The Houston Astros have landed in hot water this offseason after receiving sign-stealing allegations against them dating back to their World Series championship season of 2017. A long and thorough investigation by MLB has confirmed that the elaborate scheme to notify batters of specific pitches was indeed true, and the organization is now facing the... Read More
Early 2020 ADP Reflections - Shortstop
When a baseball season ends, the following season can’t come here soon enough for some fans, myself included. We start thinking about what we want to see from some players, which includes letdowns, bounce-backs, and even young prospects. Instead of letting them bounce off the brain walls, let’s put these musings into digits. This includes... Read More
2019 Season in Review: Danny Santana
One of the first articles I ever published with RotoBaller was a warning. Specifically, this column dissuaded fantasy owners from buying into Danny Santana's breakout 2014 season. (Yes, I've been doing this for a long time/am old.) That year, Santana had emerged from obscurity as a 23-year-old rookie to hit .319/.353/.472 with 70 runs scored... Read More
Don't Doubt Mike Trout: Why He's Still #1
It has become fashionable for fantasy owners to suggest that perhaps this is the year that Mike Trout should be supplanted as the consensus first overall draft pick. Not one, but two other players - Ronald Acuna and Christian Yelich - are being regularly selected in early NFBC drafts ahead of the 28-year-old Trout, who... Read More
