Author Archive

Erik Johnson: Late Round Breakout Candidate

After five respectable outings in 2013, Erik Johnson will begin his rookie campaign as a relative unknown in the fantasy world. This season is just his third as a professional and his quick ascension through the minors bodes well. The White Sox are hoping that Johnson can fill a mid-rotation role behind Chris Sale, and he could offer possible value to 12-team mixed league owners too.

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The Obvious Risk of Drafting to Trade (And Bold Pick #11)

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’ve conducted a few odd drafts in recent weeks. In one league, I have a big surplus of outfielders, big enough that some teams have been forced to roster part time players while I sit on nine regulars and a top prospect. In another league, which I wrote about yesterday, I have a glut of corner infielders in a format where it’s almost impossible to create true scarcity.

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Lessons Learned From a Shallow Linear Weights Draft

I previously wrote about the lessons I learned from a mock draft and a funky Yahoo draft. I let Chad Young cover the lessons from an Ottoneu draft that we shared. Today I’ll walk through a shallow, linear weights, points league draft that I conducted last night.

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Brad Johnson’s 10 Bold Predictions

‘Bout that time, eh chaps? After travelling most of the way across the country over the last three days, I’ve prepared a special concoction of face melting boldness for this lovely Tuesday. Here at RotoGraphs, it is customary to list 10 such bold picks; also Eno ordered me to do so.

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Nomination Strategy Guide

Regular readers probably know by now that my favorite part of fantasy baseball is the meta-game. That’s also the biggest reason why I enjoy auction drafts more than snake drafts. Generally speaking, the more strategic options that are available, the more I like a league. Nomination strategy can swing a draft for or against you, and it’s rarely analyzed from a theoretical or data-centric perspective – probably because it’s difficult to control in a predictable manner. Nevertheless, this post will discuss some theoretical nomination techniques and when/why/how to use them.

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Eight and a Half Observations Using ZiPS Projections

So, you may have heard that ZiPS projections are now available for 2014. You may also be wondering if said projections reveal information pertinent to your fantasy drafts. Well, let me tell you.

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Lessons From a Botched Yahoo Draft

I had my first Yahoo draft of the season last Saturday and it turned out quite badly. Just about every player went for $10 above my projections. Thankfully, my keeper roster was unfair, so I didn’t need to accomplish much in the draft. My plan was to win Miguel Cabrera, a couple elite closers, and sit on my heels. But I missed Cabrera and then I missed plans B, C, and D. I even missed Jose Abreu, who I thought I could nab for under $20 (wrong). In the end, my “big ticket” expenditures were Craig Kimbrel (25), Kyle Seager (18), Brian McCann (17), and Elvis Andrus (16). I’m not pleased with any of those prices, but I had to spend the money on somebody.

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Relievers Who Have SP-Eligibility in Yahoo

Obvious fact: Yahoo is a common fantasy platform. Less obvious fact: there is some scope to exploit certain features of Yahoo. One of those is with relievers who have SP/RP eligibility. Relievers generally outperform starters in strikeout rate, ERA, and WHIP. As such, it helps those stats to use relievers as often as possible. Anytime you can use a reliever in a starter slot is potentially advantageous.

Some leagues don’t discriminate between type of pitcher, so the SP/RP status doesn’t matter. Other leagues don’t have enough bench depth to effectively use relievers in a starter slot. Generally speaking SP/RP pitchers are most useful to owners who participate in the daily grind and make over 100 moves a season by cycling the last spot on their roster. Some leagues have rules that disallow this as a viable strategy. That said, you don’t necessarily need to grind in order to leverage this strategy. Below is the not-quite-definitive list based on current eligibility; I left out some scrubs and guys who will almost certainly start. Other pitchers will gain SP/RP eligibility throughout the season, and it’s useful to periodically keep track of such things.

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Stolen Topic: Three Players I Won’t Draft

Bender wrote about three players he would not draft yesterday, and I thought I’d pitch in with three of my own. These kinds of posts convey a lot of information about where the writer thinks the marketplace really diverges from reality, so they can be among the most useful when preparing for a draft. I’m not saying that you should take what we say as gospel, but if your own expectations are substantially different than ours, it might be worth taking a second look.

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Some Relievers Who Are Maybe Possibly Good Targets

This article is intended for owners in a fairly standard 12 team league; the kind where maybe the top 28 closers are rostered (hands off Kevin Gregg) and maybe a handful of ultra-elite setup men like Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, or Mike Adams before they became closers/got hurt. I know a lot of RotoGraphs readers are not in standard leagues, so while I’ll try to include names that will be available in a large range of formats, I can’t help everyone.

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