Back again to the bailiwick which is perhaps my least compelling at cocktail parties (and trust me, this is saying something): relief pitcher fantasy performance.
A while ago, I looked at whether or not drafting relievers was worthwhile and found, ultimately, that yes, it is worth devoting targeted draft capital to relief pitchers. But one of the outstanding questions from that analysis was whether the composition of reliever performance is changing over time, so that’s what I decided to look into next.
Whether you think first of Lenny Kravitz or Yogi Berra, the simple truism used to title this article is a more than just a pithy saying. Sometimes we think a game is out of reach – and it turns out it isn’t. Sometimes we think a series is won – and it’s not. And sometimes you think it’s late September and my fantasy standings are locked in. But are they really?
There is still a lot that can happen even in the last four days of the season.
No 2-Start podcast episode this wk because there is just SO much uncertainty that I didn’t think there’d be a ton of value to it. I should be able to run Sat/Sun boards for y’all again this weekend to help w/those last second questions.
Welcome to the Daily SP Chart, click here if you’re new to get an idea of what I’m doing with these rankings.
With such little time left, everything is heavily based on your particular situation so if you have any specific questions, drop a comment and I’ll help the best I can!
Last week, we covered hitters who outperformed and underperformed their projected value. We’re doing the same exercise for pitchers, focusing on starters. We won’t discuss all these pitchers below, but here is the list of pitchers who outperformed their expected value by a least $10 this season.
For many of us, our fantasy baseball seasons are effectively over. It wasn’t our year. But instead of sulking, something many of us do so well is to immediately turn to draft prep and the next season.
In doing that, part of the process is looking back at the season to see some of the emerging young players and ascertain whether or not their emergence was real and repeatable. One of the classic ways to do this is by looking for comparisons of these young players to established major leaguers to serve as proof of concepts.
Scouts have done this forever and it has worked in the recent past. Hunter Brown’s association to Justin Verlander foreshadowed the former’s rise to ace status. Many in the industry connected Parker Messick’s arsenal and style of pitching with Hyun Jin Ryu, and Messick has had similar results so far. Chase Burns’ reliance on the fastball and slider was compared to a young Spencer Strider’s prior to the former’s debut, and Burns has been just as good as the vintage version of Strider.
Over the course of the next few months, I’ll provide a handful of starting potentially instructive comps we can make to help illuminate this growing crop of young starting pitchers.
Today, I’ll compare Garrett Crochet and Payton Tolle, a comparison I think captures the ceiling case for Tolle to be drafted as a top-15 starting pitcher in drafts in 2027.
I believe that Tolle in 2026 is having a more polished version of Crochet’s 2024 season with the White Sox, reaching a similar innings level, experimenting with new pitches, and finding lots of success against major league hitters.Read the rest of this entry »
Before the fantasy baseball season finishes and all the managers disappear for a few months, it’s time to collect some information. Every season, I report on the batters who played through a known injury (2025 Edition). I have collected a few players throughout the season, but I am asking if anyone knows of any more hitters with a link to the source. No gut feels here. Once I get the complete list, I’ll create the full report.
No 2-Start podcast episode this wk because there is just SO much uncertainty that I didn’t think there’d be a ton of value to it. I should be able to run Sat/Sun boards for y’all again this weekend to help w/those last second questions.
Welcome to the Daily SP Chart, click here if you’re new to get an idea of what I’m doing with these rankings.
With such little time left, everything is heavily based on your particular situation so if you have any specific questions, drop a comment and I’ll help the best I can!
The final week of the 2026 season is upon us. Hitting your innings pitched cap in Ottoneu points leagues is one of the most important ways you can maximize your roster to its fullest extent. And because it’s a soft cap, you can stack as many starters as you can on the day you’ll hit the cap, and you’ll receive all the points from those pitchers.
If you’re planning ahead, you might want to think about adding one or two of the following under-rostered pitchers for their start during the final weekend of the season, if you can line everything up correctly. You’ll need to start your auction for any of these starters by Wednesday to ensure they’re on your roster by Friday. And if you’re in a more traditional fantasy league or a head-to-head league, these under-rostered starters could be solid streamers for you if you need one or two more starts before the end of the season.
Every year I report on how many closers made it through the season and how Saves were distributed (2025 report). I need help verifying that the following list is correct before writing the final report next week. Crowd-sourcing this information is a great way to make sure we have the right baseline for the report. It would be a big help if you could review the table below and offer any notes you have in the comments. At least take a look at the notes column to check if I’m right since those are the teams with the most questions? Thanks.
