Archive for Featured

Roto Riteup: July 7, 2025

As a proud member of the Never Bunt crowd, I am conflicted:

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Starting Pitcher Chart – July 7th, 2025

Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

Daily SP Chart archive

The chart includes their performance for 2025, their opponent’s wOBA rank versus the pitcher’s handedness from this year so far, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more valuable focusing on roto.

JUMP TO 2-START CHART

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FAAB & Waiver Wire Report (Week 14)

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 »


Three Appearance Analysis with Tanner Houck: Part 2

Apr 14, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Houck (89) leaves the game against the Tampa Bay Rays in the third inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

What happened!? That’s the question we ask the morning after a stinker performance by a starting pitcher when we’re looking over our fantasy results from the night before. It’s not an easy question to answer, and even when you come to a conclusion, someone else may have a completely different perspective. This article series serves as the starting point for answering that question in the context of three individual outings. Read the rest of this entry »


Big Kid Adds (Week 13)

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even larger entry fees ($2.5K to $15K). They are named “High Stakes Leagues,” and there are eleven of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers 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 five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »


Starting Pitcher Chart – July 3rd, 2025

John Jones-Imagn Images

Daily SP Chart archive

The chart includes their performance for 2025, their opponent’s wOBA rank versus the pitcher’s handedness from this year so far, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more valuable focusing on roto.

*No chart Friday with the July 4th holiday*  🎆
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Test Driving the “Best” AI News Source

I follow a ton of different news sources besides baseball. An article titled “Q1 AI Benchmark Results: Pro Forecasters Crush Bots” caught my eye. I’m not at all surprised by the results, as stated in the title, but I did find one part fascinating. There are generally two parts to AI predicting: the AI itself (e.g. ChatGPT) and a news source. On the news sources, this quote caught my eye.

AskNews is better than other search providers: We have found that a bot using AskNews performs better than bots that use Exa or Perplexity. The template bot was used to test this. The difference between these bots is noticeable, but is not statistically significant.

As someone who mines the news all the time, I was wondering if AskNews.app could supplement my digging. Let’s find out.

Disclaimer: People seem to be on the extreme sides of AI, either they hate or think it’s the great invention of all time. I’m probably somewhere more in the middle. The one aspect I’ve used it for more than any other is coding. I feel I getting coding answers at least 10 times faster than if I did them on my own. I’ve written an app that lets me know if there are any updates to any of the MLB.com injury/transaction pages. I’ve never used it for writing (obviously), but it has it uses.

I decided to give AskNews a test drive yesterday, and the results were interesting, with Fernando Tatis Jr. now throwing 96 mph with a new changeup.

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Roto Riteup: July 2, 2025

He made this look way too easy:

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Starting Pitcher Chart – July 2nd, 2025

Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Daily SP Chart archive

The chart includes their performance for 2025, their opponent’s wOBA rank versus the pitcher’s handedness from this year so far, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more valuable focusing on roto.
Read the rest of this entry »


Position Player Playing Time Changes: July 1, 2025

John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Happy July! Below are the latest significant projected playing time changes for position players, unfortunately headlined by Corbin Carroll’s wrist fracture, which threw a massive wrench in his All-Star-caliber season.

Remaining PT% Changes, 6/24 to 7/1
Name Team Positions Old PT New PT PT Change Reason
Will Wagner TOR 3B, 1B, 2B, DH 7% 31% 24% Called back up, replacing Roden
Yanquiel Fernández COL RF 3% 26% 23% Getting his first call to the majors, Tuesday
Isaac Collins MIL LF, RF, CF 24% 44% 20% Has played well + Mitchell surgery will keep him playing
Tommy Pham PIT LF,DH 40% 60% 20% Finally heating up, 143 wRC+ in last 15 games
Colby Thomas ATH LF,RF 3% 21% 18% Called up, but will have to earn playing time
Austin Hays CIN LF, DH, RF, CF 56% 72% 16% Back from the IL
Jake McCarthy ARI LF,CF,RF 27% 43% 16% Called up to replace Carroll
Zach McKinstry DET RF, 3B, 2B, SS, LF, 1B 58% 73% 15% Will continue to play almost daily with Sweeney sent down
Jake Fraley CIN RF, DH 61% 45% -16% Shoulder sprain
Willie MacIver ATH C 19% 3% -16% Sent down with Langeliers back
Jeremy Peña HOU SS 97% 80% -17% Fractured rib, timetable unclear
JJ Bleday ATH CF, LF 56% 36% -20% Sent back down
Trey Sweeney DET SS 55% 30% -25% Sent to AAA
Corbin Carroll ARI RF, CF 95% 69% -26% Fractured wrist
Garrett Mitchell MIL CF 37% 7% -30% Shoulder surgery, may or may not return this year