There are too many stats (“Welcome to FanGraphs”), so I decided to take a step back and try to remove as much noise as possible when making decisions. I’m not reinventing any concept, just concentrating on the most important factors. The fewer, the better. Today, I’m going to focus on my “new” power factor and mention how I settled on Contact%.

I know several other sources have a focus on keeping their inputs basic, but each one disagrees with the results. I decided to add to the disagreement and pick out the best options for the standard roto game. Read the rest of this entry »

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They get originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers are going to try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in four or more of these leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Angels

• Just a mess with everyone getting hurt.

• Brandon Drury has started 12 straight games at second base while now batting third.

• Randal Grichuk with 16 straight starts but is always in the bottom half of the lineup. Read the rest of this entry »

Every season, I try to determine how much closer turnover there is from the last drafts to the season’s end. For example, here is last season’s report.

I decided to verify the beginning of the season section before every manager disappears. For most of the selections, I used our Opening Weekend Bullpen Report. Here are the values I think are right but I don’t feel good about the ones in Yellow. Could people spend a minute looking over the Yellows and verify the names on their favorite team(s)? Thanks.

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For those in early drafts, two international names to consider are Jung-hoo Lee 이정후 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

As for international stars, the Padres might try to bring to the U.S. this coming offseason, Kim’s former teammate, Jung-hoo Lee, is an obvious candidate. San Diego sent multiple high-ranking evaluators to watch Lee this year before the Kiwoom Heroes outfielder suffered a likely season-ending ankle injury in July. Some rival clubs view the Padres, who employ both Kim and Chan Ho Park, as the current favorites to land Lee. It remains to be seen how the ankle injury affects his market. Unfortunately for Lee, who turns 25 this month, it could lower his price.

The Padres also figure to be in the mix for Japan’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but fierce competition is expected for the Orix Buffaloes ace. The 25-year-old Yamamoto is so coveted he could command a contract approaching nine figures — before factoring in the posting fee.

Read the rest of this entry »

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They get originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers are going to try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in four or more of these leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »