Prior to the All-Star break, four RotoGraphs writers — Eno Sarris, Jeff Zimmerman, Howard Bender and me — engaged in the just-for-fun activity of drafting Pick Six-style teams, with the pool of players limited to those available in 10% or less in ESPN leagues (at the time of the draft). Given those parameters, the exercise proved to be challenging, but if you paid attention to our picks, you may have managed to snag a useful fantasy player or three off the waiver wire — no matter what kind of league you play in. Let’s update the scoring and hit on each owner’s best and worst selections. In other words, it’s time to see who’s in line for some bragging rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

When the Mets dealt Francisco Rodriguez to the Brewers last month, veteran ninth inning guy Jason Isringhausen stepped into the closer’s role for the Mets. Aside from a pair of meltdowns earlier this month, he did the job admirably and notched career save #300 last night. He’s 22nd on the all-time saves list, and if nothing else, that total shows longevity in a role that generally has no staying power at all. It doesn’t appear that Izzy will get many saves beyond 300, however.

Read the rest of this entry »

At this point in the season, roto players are scratching and clawing through their categories looking primarily at the ones that have some shred of movement possibilities.  Head to head owners are gearing up for their fantasy playoffs as their regular season is almost at a close.  Whichever style league you find yourself in, it’s time to start focusing on the hitters that are swinging a hot bat right now, despite their overall value.  The catching position is perfect for this.  If you’re not sitting on one of the top five backstops out there, then chances are, the players you are using are relatively interchangeable with those that are sitting out on your waiver wire.  So why not use the one with the hottest stick right now?  If he starts to cool, you can probably find an easy replacement who is on the upswing for the final month then.  Here’s a look at some of August’s hot bats behind the plate that may be useful at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »

– Despite his status as a top prospect, Mike Moustakas hasn’t been able to do much against MLB pitching. He’s hitting below the Mendoza Line at the moment, and while some may point to his .214 average on balls put in play, the 22-year old also hasn’t shown anything when it comes to power production. Moustakas never had very high BABIPs in the minors, either, so a low career mark in the majors wouldn’t be the least bit surprising. If you own the Moose in a standard league, it’s time to give up hope and let him go on his merry way. He’s still worth holding onto in dynasty and slightly deep keeper leagues since he’s still so young and talented. Moustakas may need another stint in Triple-A to figure out what ails him before too long, but I’m not sure if the Royals are willing to call his debut a failure just yet.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, I asked for our reader’s input on a few topics and here are some of the results. Thanks to everyone that filled out a survey (over 330 filled out) and hopefully we can use the information to better serve our readership:

5 categories for each pitching and hitting: 58%

Even with the expansion of other types of fantasy leagues, the basic 5×5 league is still the most common.

Types of Leagues
Roto 46%
H2H 50%
Other 4%

There was almost a 50%-50% split between head to head and roto. We may have not been giving the H2H format enough credit, so there may be more content on them in the future.

Average Number of Teams in a Mixed League:12.4
10 Team League: 24%
12 Team League: 43%
14 or more teams: 20%

Leagues are generally small in number with 2/3 of the leagues having between 10 to 12 teams. This fact leads us to our next bit of data:

% of leagues with a player over 50% owned in all leagues, but still available on the waiver wire: 75%

I have seen many comments on waiver wire articles that the players covered were not available in their leagues. These owners must be the vocal few and players over 50% owned may be popping up more in WW articles.

Percentage of leagues with 1,2, or 3 DL spots: 73%

The number of DL spots for leagues seems low. Long term DL stashing doesn’t seem like a viable option for many owners useless it is a top tier player.

Days for position qualification
1: 2.%
5: 39%
10: 39%
20: 5%

These number are fairly common.

Designate a difference between SP/RP: 77%

With the high number of H2H leagues and those that have SP/RP designations, we should write more articles on starting pitchers with RP qualifications.

Weekly Lineup changes: 24%
Daily Lineup changes: 74%

Mixed League: 89%
AL Only 6%: 6%
NL Only 4%: 4%

Nothing ground breaking with the 2 previous results.

Keeper League: 62%

This was probably the most surprising number out of the whole survey. Almost 2/3 of the leagues are keeper leagues. This off season we will look into more strategies/rankings for these leagues.

FAAB Budget: 20%
Reserve Roster: 30%

I am actually surprised that the numbers are this high for these two results. More future content may be coming on these two topics.

Auction League: 27%
Draft League: 70%

This seems about right with the ease of running a snake draft

Well that is all for today. I may cut and sort the data a little more, but the preceding is a nice snapshot of the current Rotographs readership. In the future we hope to direct more content for the types of leagues and rules readers use. Finally, thanks again for everyone that participated in the survey.

Over the weekend, two Pittsburgh outfielders started their rehab assignments at the same time. Since they’ve been injured, much has changed on their major league team. At one point, the Pirates were in first place. Now they are in fourth. They were above five hundred, now they’re seven games under. They were buyers, and now they are 13 games out of first and might already be looking to next year.

But, most importantly for fantasy baseball addicts, the two jobs that were theirs have been distilled down into one starting spot. Yup, Jose Tabata and Alex Presley will return soon and they may find themselves in a battle for playing time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good things come to those who wait. But if you were one of the many fantasy owners depending on Jason Bay, no one would have blamed you for cutting bait on the 32-year-old outfielder earlier this season. Expected to be fully recovered from a concussion suffered last season, Bay was a sleeper candidate entering 2011. Unfortunately, Bay’s struggles at Citi Field continued, and he never appeared fully recovered from his concussion. After an 0-5 performance on July 26th, Bay’s slash line fell to a putrid .227/.314/.319. At that point, no one would have blinked an eye if you had cut bait. Since then, however, Bay has experienced a bit of a rebound. Though it’s an incredibly small sample, Bay may be inching back towards respectability.
Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s look at a pair of hot cornerers for the fantasy stretch drive…

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s about a month and a half left of regular season baseball to be played, and hopefully you still have a chance to finish in a money spot in your fantasy league. This is a great time to still be paying attention, because many are not. Whether your leaguemates’ focus shifts to football or they are faring too poorly in the standings to still keep as up-to-date as they used to, there is less competition for free agents. Besides the favorable position you may find yourself in with regards to free agents, there are also some strategies to consider for the stretch run.

Read the rest of this entry »

– After missing two and a half weeks with a strained oblique, Brian McCann was back in the Braves lineup on Sunday. The 27-year old catcher was having his best offensive season since 2008, blasting 18 homers and hitting over .300 in under 400 trips to the plate. If his oblique is truly healed, he should continue to be an elite catcher over the rest of the 2011 campaign. If you play in a shallow league, make sure to check to see if someone was stupid enough to dump McCann from their roster when he went on the DL.

Read the rest of this entry »