Archive for Featured

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Note 1: I’m going to focus more on available players who will help next week with little to no long-term implications.

Note 2: I’m using our starting pitcher grid from Friday morning. It will change between now and Monday, so try to keep up.

Note 3: Any noted rostership rates come from the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship, the same rates we use on the FanGraphs Player Rater. For reference, these leagues are 12-team Roto leagues with 30-man rosters (2 C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, 5 OF, UT, 9 P) and weekly add/drops. This rate can be compared to other rostership rates found in this article.

American League

Angels

• With three righties and three lefties on the schedule, no platoons are viable. The team starts at the Athletics, so Vaughn Grissom (35% rostered, .683 OPS) and possibly Denzer Guzman (3% rostered, .620 OPS) are in play. Read the rest of this entry »

Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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 Elite leagues (previously called High Stakes Leagues), and there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain every 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 leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

“Billy, we’ve got 38 home runs, 120 RBIs to make up for…”

“Guys, you’re still trying to replace Giambi. I told you we can’t do it. What we might be able to do is recreate him. Recreate him in the aggregate.”

It’s so tempting to head into draft prep season thinking like this. We all have our GM hats on, though we may not all pull it off quite so well. 

We scour over projections, building out potential lineups based on how many of each Roto categories we need to fill to finish near the top of the table. Or we look at certain hitters with disdain when they fall underneath our perceived thresholds when it comes to counting stats.

There’s, of course, a lot more that goes into it. Otherwise, what would we be doing here?

But the so-called “back of the baseball card” numbers still matter to us, it’s how we were trained to think about players.

In this series, I’ll point out two starting pitchers and two hitters who I think could fall victim to a bias away from low volume players, depressing their draft day costs for 2027. 

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• 2-Start podcast episode
• SP Rankings (last update: 7/24)

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!
• Laaate edit: Woo is 1-x on the road and really only a Win chase at that. I mistakenly conflated his and Gilbert’s home-road record. He’s brutal on the road like Kirby and just so tough to run on the road. Sorry it’s come so late and I hope no one is starting Woo because of my reco! 😬

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We’re following up on an earlier article about hitters who are outperforming their projected value this season. But there’s also the other side of that coin: 19 hitters among the top 200 picks who are underperforming their projected value by at least $20. Unsurprisingly, the hitters drafted within the top 50 picks who were injured or struggled have been the biggest busts.

The visual below shows hitters who have lost $20 or more this season.

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Over the course of a 162-game season, many casual fans may be surprised by how much a hitter might adjust their stance and setup. Often, the assumption is that once any athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport, there is resistance to change, particularly mid-season, and any major mechanical changes are reserved for the off-season. But it turns out hitters are constantly tinkering with parts of their stance, particularly when looking to find some form.

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Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

American League

Angels

• At the 13:50 mark is a great discussion on adjustments several of the team’s arms are making. Read the rest of this entry »

• Daily SP Chart archive
• 2-Start podcast episode
• SP Rankings (last update: 7/24)

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!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier in the week I covered some of the Dynasty Model’s biggest risers. Here, I’ll move on to presenting some of the model’s spicier takes. As if I were serving up wings in Hot Ones, I’ll go in order from least to most spicy. Hopefully by the end you aren’t left in tears like many of the guests on that show.

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In 12-team leagues, 37 hitters earned $20 or more on the Player Rater. Of those 37 hitters, 24 were drafted within the top 100 picks. Meanwhile, four hitters went undrafted or were past pick 400: Jake Bauers, Jake McCarthy, Jordan Walker, and Liam Hicks. We want to hit on these breakout hitters in the draft or acquire them during the season. These are the waiver pickups that turn into regular starters on our fantasy squads.

The 37 hitters who earned $20 or more are seen below.

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