And that is how you celebrate after hanging an American League Championship banner.

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Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

Here is the most fantasy relevant information I could find from the Opening Day lineups

American League

Angels

• Oswald Peraza got the start at second base over Adam Frazier and hit ninth. Read the rest of this entry »

I heard someone say, “$30…” as I pressed the phone closer to my ear as if that would make it easier to hear. 

“$31,” I responded

“36!” someone yelled in the background. 

I was sweating, not because the bidding on Alex Rodriguez was getting over $35, but because on one of the hottest days at Ft. Meade, Maryland, in 2004, I was sitting in a glass phone booth trying to draft my home AL-Only auction league team. The temperature outside the booth was 85 degrees but the reflection of the sun made it feel 25 degrees warmer inside of that booth. 

I could have been thinking about the guard duty I had later that night and that I wouldn’t be sleeping until the next night because of it. I could have been thinking about the friends of mine that had already deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and what it might be like if I joined them there. However, the only thing I was thinking about at that moment was the fact that A-Rod just went for $46 and there was no way he was worth that. 

Spoiler Alert: He was. 

Fantasy baseball has been a part of my life for the last 25 years and even though it has been a long time since I played in just one league, it’s the moments like this where I probably lost ten pounds of water weight drafting from a telephone booth in Maryland that are among my favorite memories. I didn’t win that league in 2004, but I will never forget that draft. I did stumble away from the phone booth with a $1 Alex Rios which was a nice consolation prize for 2005. 

Fast forward a decade and I began playing in multiple fantasy baseball leagues in 2014, branching out from my home league a little. By the time I entered the fantasy baseball industry the following year, I was playing in five leagues. This number would reach its high water mark 2022 when I played in 29 leagues. 

The thing I began to discover as I played in more and more leagues was how often I ended up with a lot of the same guys. I also discovered that while I love drafting a ton of teams, I became a real jerk by the end of the season because of the in-season workload I was having to manage. I had some good years and some terrible ones, but even in my best years, by the time August or September rolled around, I was unbearable to be around because my stress level was through the roof. This year, I decided to cut back on leagues. 

For the first time in about a decade, I am playing in just 10 redraft leagues and four of those are bestball leagues where there is no in-season management. I also decided to not play in any high stakes leagues this year just to give myself a bit of a break. Did I miss the enormous amount of drafts I would normally do this offseason? Absolutely! However, fantasy baseball is supposed to be fun and while the drafts are a ton of fun, the management of all of those leagues come summer wasn’t as fun the last few years so it made sense to take a step back. 

That being said, when I did my ten drafts, there were a few names that stuck out to me and kept popping up on my rosters. In this article I will discuss my most rostered players for 2026. 

Ryne Nelson, SP, ARI (70% rostered) – If there was one pitcher I had circled on my draft sheets every time I sat down at the draft table, it was Ryne Nelson. After years of bouncing between the bullpen and the rotation, he is entering 2026 fully cemented in the Diamondbacks rotation for the first time. I have been a fan of his for years and believed that at some point his stuff would start to get more swings and misses. We saw it begin to happen this spring with the further development of his breaking stuff. Though his price rose towards the end of spring, his ADP most of draft season was around pick 250 and that was too easy of a price to not go all in on for me. 

Corey Seager, SS, TEX (60% rostered) – If you followed my writing or listened to my podcasts the last few years, this one may be a bit shocking for you. I have been a Corey Seager hater for years, but that was mostly due to the price attached to drafting him. Seager is elite when he is on the field, but health has been elusive throughout his career. He only has one season since 2018 where he reached 600+ plate appearances and he routinely goes in the top 60 picks. However, this year his price dropped significantly. His ADP in the NFBC Online Championship was 96.4 and he would often fall outside the top 100. This was too good of a price for me to pass up, especially in leagues where I would miss out on the elite shortstops early in a draft or auction. I am not going to project him for 600+ plate appearances this year, but if he can return 500-550 PAs at his normal production, it will be well worth the gamble. 

Taylor Rogers, RP, MIN (60% rostered) – The prices this year on closers were insane. Especially if you were in competitive leagues, if you missed out on the top 5-8 closers you were likely going to regret it and everyone felt that pressure to make sure they walked away from the first 4-5 rounds with one of those guys. I ended up trying to get one of those guys myself, but when I missed out on them, I would often target Taylor Rogers late. Rogers is one of the few relief pitchers in Minnesota with the “closing experience” that managers tend to covet. With a new manager for the Twins, I thought there was a chance they would just go with the “proven guy” for the ninth inning. He never got expensive in drafts either so he will be an easy drop if it becomes clear he isn’t the closer or if they move towards a committee in Minnesota. 

Andrew Vaughn, 1B, MIL (50% rostered) – Vaughn looked like a failed prospect with the White Sox, but after getting called up by the Brewers last season, he hit nine home runs with a .308/.375/.493 triple slash in 254 plate appearances. I still do not understand why he was going around pick 277 in leagues this season. This is a former top tier prospect that many loved when he was coming up. He is just 28-years-old and there is still plenty of upside available in the bat. 

Max Muncy, 3B, LAD (50% rostered) – Muncy really struggled at the start of the 2025 season, hitting .194/.309/.301 with one home run. However, he was diagnosed with an astigmatism in his right eye and got glasses. After getting the glasses, he hit .262/.403/.541 with 18 home runs in just 278 plate appearances. He struggled with injuries, missing a month in the summer with a knee injury, but the glasses let him cut his strikeout rate to 17%. He is healthy to start the season and was fantastic in spring. His price was too good to pass up in drafts going at pick 237 in the NFBC Online Championship. 

Nasim Nuñez, SS, WAS (50% rostered) – If you read my Bold Predictions article you already knew I was a massive fan of Nuñez. Last season, he stole 45 bases in just 324 plate appearances between Triple-A and the Majors. He doesn’t have the best hit tool, but he was able to walk at a double-digit rate throughout the minor leagues and maintained a good contact rate in his small sample in the Majors. Most importantly, he is a great defender and the Nationals have made a choice to improve their defense up the middle with Nuñez, moving Luis Garcia Jr. to first base. He should play every day and rack up a lot of stolen bases. 

Royce Lewis, 3B, MIN (50% rostered) – Sometimes in fantasy baseball we are like Charlie Brown kicking a football and falling on our butt over and over again with certain players. For me, it’s with Royce Lewis. Lewis is an elite talent. A former top prospect, Lewis has the ability to hit for power and steal bases, but he just cannot stay healthy. He has yet to register more than 403 plate appearances in a Major League season. I am dreaming of a year where he will put it all together and stay on the field, but I am likely just wishcasting. 

Here is the full list of all the players I drafted this season: 

With the first games underway, we are going to be flooded with new information. All the spring lineup speculation will give way to actual lineups. The dream that someone might not be stuck in a platoon will die. The hope that a player’s newfound spring plate discipline is a game changer will be dashed. And before too long, you will learn where your roster is deep enough to withstand those losses, plus injuries, and where you aren’t.

You will also potentially have some open roster spots. Maybe you roster Justin Steele and now he is on the 60-day IL. Maybe one of those guys you were dreaming on turns into a cut by April. The good news is, sudden roster needs and suddenly available roster spots go together like a hot dog and a beer – the existence of the former means you probably need the latter, and the latter is just so much better when you pair it with the former.

So let’s try to find readily available players to fill those needs on your open roster. Here is one guy at each position who is currently <50% rostered in Ottoneu who you can go out and pick up if you find yourself in need.N

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Let’s get this party started!

Sorry, Oneil, you’re not invited.

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• SP Rankings

And just like that, we’re back! Welcome to the Daily SP Chart.

The chart includes their performance for 2025 until we get some actual data for this year (I changed over in late-April last year), their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness from last year (not a perfect solution as teams change in the offseason, but better than using just a few days of data from this year), my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. 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 value focusing on roto.

I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations, you don’t really need a shiny stat to be convinced on starting Kirby or Sale. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get you an answer when I can. I try to do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions. Read the rest of this entry »

Schedule is obviously one of the biggest drivers for picking up a streamer. You can’t plan too far out because things can change on a dime, especially in cold weather spots this early in the season. But let’s see if the first few weeks can offer some worthy pickups.

Brandon Williamson – PIT, at MIA, maybe LAA

Injuries cleared a path for Williamson to sneak into the rotation and he sets up beautifully against two of the worst teams versus lefties last year. Pittsburgh was 29th in wOBA and Miami was 23rd. Pittsburgh did lengthen their lineup, but two of the three big adds are lefties (Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn). The Angels outing is a maybe as Nick Lodolo could be back, but then Williamson might shift into Chase Burns’s follower which is still a great role. Burns is slated to be part of the LAA series and then will pitch at MIN/at TBR if things hold, but that’s looking way too far out to have any real confidence in it. Pick him up for PIT/at MIA and we’ll go from there. The dream is Ryan Yarbrough 2.0 and they let him follow Burns (or Lowder) all year.

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With Opening Day finally here, draft season has officially come to a close. I’ve been drafting on and off since November and ended up with about 20 teams this season.

In this article, I’ll be breaking down the players that ended up on at least 40% of my rosters, and highlighting why they were targets of mine over the past several months of drafting.

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David Richard-Imagn Images

As I write this, the game is a lull between tons of news on who made which roster and real results. I went through some of my thoughts on several players and situations to track over the next few days.

American League

Angels

• While he struggled this spring (.483 OPS), Christian Moore showed major signs of improvement. He posted a new max Exit Velocity by 3 mph and his contact% jumped from 60% last spring to 75% this year. A .214 BABIP kept the 23-year-old’s  overall stats down, but he’s a guy to monitor when he gets promoted later in the year. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to start juggling lineups for the next 26.5 weeks!

Max Fried hurled 6.1 scoreless, two-hit innings in a 4-0 victory over the Giants. Every Yankee earned a hit, except for Aaron Judge, who went 0-5 with four strikeouts. Logan Webb punched out seven batters, but decimated the ratios of one fantasy manager in every league with six earned runs allowed over five innings. We get baseball on the television for most of the day, with 11 games on this official Opening Day.

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