After the long grind, for many, it is a time to rest. A time to turn off your fantasy baseball brain for a few months, or maybe sink completely into fantasy football. Or, perhaps, just reintroduce yourself to those people who keep claiming to be your family. But one more important task remains before putting the 2022 season behind us – we must take stock, gleaning whatever lessons we can from both the highs and lows in search of a better process.

Now is the time to do so because as you sink into other endeavors, the memories will start to fade, with only the results remaining, while the path you took to get there fades into the background. But that path is what you need to remember for future success, noting what made things rough and where you ran downhill. Remembering you won or lost in 2022 won’t win you a single thing in 2023 if you don’t remember why. Read the rest of this entry »

Six more days, just one more turn around the rotation. Whether you’re in the final leg of a head-to-head run or are trying to scrape out every last stat in roto, every single sit/start decision could carry season-ending ramifications. Let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing, breaking down all the minutiae you need to make your best decisions, and packaging it all in some not-so-fancy color coding.

As per usual, we have no time to waste. Closing time, folks. Time to grab those belts. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ll only have 10 days of the regular season left after this weekend, with one normal week and one bizzaro halfy. Roto leagues get to scrape every last scrap of stat but for those in head-to-head leagues, this week might be it. One last week to rule them all.

Let’s keep giving you all the stats you need to whittle down these final oh-so-important choices, whether you’re searching for a particular category, or just need a solid outing. Over the past few months, we’ve looked at how to best evaluate matchups for left-handers, and right-handers, and how to mix in the changes in hitting environments. And how to pick who to keep, cut, or start when late-season strategies start coming into play in September. But in the championship weeks, everything becomes that much more magnified and we need all the tools you can get. Read the rest of this entry »

Two weeks. That’s it. After (another) long, chaotic offseason, and five and a half months of action, two weeks is all that is left for those looking to secure gold. This isn’t June anymore and we can’t just casually shake off a blowup start from a starting pitcher, whether stud or streamer, consoling ourselves with thoughts of there being plenty of time to balance things back out. No, no, no – this is championship season, Indy baby, and one false step can send you plummeting out of contention like a grail-hunting nazi stepping on the wrong tile.

If you want to stack fantasy chips, you better stack your advantages as high as possible. Baseball is still going to occasionally baseball but all we can do is set ourselves up for success as much as we can.

Let’s get some trophies. Read the rest of this entry »

As we’re in the final (final) stretch of the fantasy baseball season, the magnifying glass needed for every pitching start chosen needs to be that much larger. To continue our recent theme of looking at the ways to make wiser choices in these regards, I’d only intended on adding a little context about the offensive environments according to stadium park factors. But as often is the case, down the rabbit hole I tumbled. And as we’ll see shortly, one cannot simply look at park factors from a single angle, as multiple agents of chaos must be accounted for. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve officially entered championship month and whether you’re in head-to-head playoffs or accumulating your way to the money in roto, our starting choices deserve a larger microscope. Choosing who to start and sit, whether stud or streamer, can have profound implications, with razor-thin margins in a category or two, often separating the ultimate winners and losers. And given the desire to manipulate particular categories, it’s not as simple as needing “good” starts because you might be in a situation where any start that ends with a win (or a strikeout per IP, zeroed ratios, etc) is good, and any start that doesn’t is bad, regardless of the other results. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s getting even later in the fantasy season and endgame strategies are starting to come into play. While it is possible to guide your offense toward specific categories, a greater impact can be made with how you direct your pitching, depending on which categories you are looking to massage, and so that’s where we’ll continue to focus.

Round 2…Fight! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s getting late in the fantasy season and endgame strategies are starting to come into play. While it is possible to guide your offense toward specific categories, a greater impact can be made with how you direct your pitching, depending on which categories you are looking to massage, and so that’s where we’ll continue to focus. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we got a little more granular in evaluating our pitching matchups, focusing on how teams have fared against left-handed pitchers, both in terms of overall offense, as well as against individual pitch types. So, in the name of symmetry, let’s move on to right-handers this week, trying to identify weaknesses for matchups this weekend and in Week 19 of fantasy.

No time to waste, let’s go. Read the rest of this entry »

With the trade deadline behind us and only the dog days of August/September standing in the way of fantasy championships, let’s start taking a more targeted approach to our pitching matchups, with each one we choose, whether stud or streamer, carrying even more weight as the season winds down.

We’ll do this by first looking at how each team has fared by the handedness of the pitcher faced, starting with those wily left-handers and ranking teams in wOBA, xwOBA, wOBA/xwOBA (on contact), SwStr%, Whiff%, and BB%. Baseball can always baseball at any given time but looking at these ranks gives us a good starting point for how teams have generally succeeded (or failed) against certain hands, both in overall damage and whiffs. Read the rest of this entry »