Roto Riteup: July 10, 2026
Did not have Caleb Durbin, Power Monster, on my bingo card.
On the Agenda:
- Closer Chaos
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers
Archive for Roto
FAAB Frenzy and Waivers Wild: Week 16
Every Monday, this column will break down the most popular waiver wire and free agent acquisitions of the weekend. I dig into the top adds on the ever-popular Fantrax and in the NFBC Online Championship (OC), a national mid-stakes contest with 240 total leagues of 12 and a six-figure grand prize. Reviewing player adds between the two should provide us with a well-rounded perspective and barometer of the fantasy baseball marketplace.
Roto Riteup: July 3, 2026
Endy’s Game this year is apparently power.
On the Agenda:
- Closer Chaos
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers
Camineron, My Homeward Son
Writing about red hot chili players can be fun. When an otherwise mediocre Curtis Mead starts slamming the ball, that is objectively entertaining. Especially for the fantasy manager, players who are far exceeding their draft price or FAAB cost just give us a bit of extra enjoyment when they perform well.
Junior Caminero is certainly red hot. And considering the 45 home runs he hit last year, in his first full season, which he finished as a 22-year-old, this really shouldn’t be a surprise.
Sure, the fact that he’s hit bombs in six consecutive games, and that the stretch in question started with a three-homer game, is wildly impressive. But it’s easy to forget there were some who doubted the phenom third baseman.
Follow-Up: Lucky and Unlucky Starting Pitchers
Back in late April, I discussed how I use ERA-SIERA and other pitcher metrics to identify lucky and unlucky starting pitchers. Since it was so early in the season, we were working with a very small sample. Some of the pitchers highlighted as incredibly lucky have continued to perform well (e.g., Justin Wrobleski), while others have massively regressed (e.g., Bryce Elder). From the list of unlucky starting pitchers, most have performed much better over the last 10 weeks. Let’s review those pitchers from April and assess a few new candidates using a half-season of pitching data.
Redrafting the First Round
With three full months in the books, it’s time for some of us to move from active participation into reminiscing, wishcasting, and dreaming.
Opening back up the draft board. Peeking back, ever so reluctantly, at your preseason rankings. The notes you left yourself to take a flyer on a handful of spring training stud pitchers, from Kyle Harrison to Johan Oviedo. The highlighter on your desk reminds you of when you used it to circle Kyle Tucker as a late first-round bargain as a bat in the middle of the Dodgers order.
We’re coming up on July, and for some of us, if not the majority of us, the World Cup is offering a pleasurable respite from what has been a miserable start to the fantasy baseball season.
That is to say, we’re getting the likeliest outcome for what we signed up for. The 50th percentile outcome. We weren’t going to win! But the point is to try. Chasing that little smidgeon of hope like it’s the golden snitch.
In this article, I’ll redraft the first round for the rest of the season. To get there, I’ll meander back through the projected first rounders from the preseason, wind down into the current top performers according to the Fangraphs Player Rater, and finish with how I’d redraft the first round today, for the rest of this season, with all of the benefits of hindsight, a little foresight, and a gentle drop of dreaming on unrealized upside.
Summertime Sadness Coming for These Starting Pitchers?
There aren’t many refrains more common for fantasy sports writers than describing a hitter who is performing well during the summer as one who is “heating up with the weather.”
And the thing is, more often than not, it is justified. Ballparks across the country become more hitter friendly as the weather heats up, and cold morning games and windswept, foggy night games become hot, humid oases for home runs.
Asset Valuation Part 3: Finding Bargains Cont’d.
Intro
I left you earlier in the week with a promise to dive deeper into the bargain leaderboards created by comparing projected dollar value against the expected dollar value for a pick in that draft slot. Please accept my sincerest apologies if, left without more context, you found yourself mired in the digital equivalent of a TJ Maxx aisle, paralyzed with indecision while selecting which 10 articles of clothing you want to bring to the dressing rooms.
Roto Riteup: June 26, 2026
Any fantasy prognosticators out there pencil in Curtis Mead for 14 homers before the All-Star break?
On the Agenda:
- Closer Chaos
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers
Roto Riteup: June 25, 2026
It looks like there’s no one at this game, though I think I saw a Meckler Heckler.
On the Agenda:
- Closer Chaos
- Quick Hits
- Various News and Notes
- Streaming Pitchers