Every Monday, this column will break down the most popular waiver wire and free agent acquisitions of the weekend.

Fantasy baseball managers know that our game is the ultimate test of grit, grind, tenacity, and patience. Unlike fantasy football, where league titles can be won with minimal in-season activity, fantasy baseball leagues require incessant attention and activity. Particularly when it comes to free agent adds and drops. Real-life baseball managers are constantly adjusting batting orders, players are frequently optioned to and promoted from the Minor Leagues, and injuries occur almost daily. There’s no resting on our laurels. We must always stay vigilant with league news and notes and remain active on the waiver wire if we want to win our leagues.

Every week, I’ll 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.

Week 8 Overview

Last week, only four teams played seven games — the Dodgers, Giants, Astros, and Mariners. I liked how the matchups lined up for shallow-league, strong-side platoon streamers, Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone. Raley hit .350 with 2 HR, 4 RBI and a stolen base. Canzone was mostly a disappointment, providing the bulk of his production with one swing of the bat — a grand slam on Tuesday. He had 6 RBI on the week, but went 4-19 (.211). The “sneaky” Jesus Rodriguez play did not work out for deeper-league managers. He went 0-11 with 1 RBI and 1 SB. Daniel Susac was activated on Friday and should earn 60-plus percent of the starts behind the plate for now. Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages managed a meager .115 average for the week, but drove in six batters. We enter Week 9 with Pages leading the majors in RBI (41), one ahead of Liam Hicks. What a world.

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7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

In thiss article, I cover the players using CBS’s and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now, while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. I start players being added at CBS who started the week on less than 40% of rosters.

The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference, grouped by hitters, starters, and relievers. Read the rest of this entry »

Back on April 14, I introduced my process of researching upcoming matchups and schedule outliers in three- to four-week windows to help identify waiver-wire and trade targets. The basic premise of this theory is that rest-of-season (ROS) analysis has high margins of error and that it is better to compartmentalize fantasy decision-making into short-term timeframes. We do not know who will get hurt and whether a specific team would be a good or bad matchup for a hitter or pitcher two months from now. We know that the New York Mets have been great to stream pitchers against, as have the Houston Astros for hitters. If Francisco Lindor, Luis Robert Jr., Jorge Polanco, Hunter Brown, Tatsuya Imai, and Josh Hader are all healthy and playing well in mid-July, the Mets offense and the Astros pitching would be better.

My long-time fantasy baseball modus ponens has been this:

1. If baseball were predetermined or highly predictable, we could rely on rest-of-season analysis for fantasy baseball decisions.
2. Baseball is not predetermined or highly predictable. Every hitter and pitcher will either have multiple prolonged slumps, get injured and go on the IL, play hurt without the public’s knowledge, or be demoted.
3. Therefore, we should not heavily rely on rest-of-season analysis for fantasy baseball decisions.

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Hot Right Now (HRN) is a weekly Ottoneu feature focused on popular players currently being auctioned or players who you should think about auctioning in your Ottoneu leagues. Even if you don’t play Ottoneu, we’ll be highlighting players you should be looking at in deeper and keeper formats. In this feature, we will break down players into two sections:

1. Current Auctions: A closer look at players being auctioned at a high rate.
2. Hot Performers: Players with a high P/G or P/IP over the last 14 days who are also rostered in 80% of leagues or less.

The RotoGraphs Ottoneu team plans to run this feature weekly, updating fantasy managers on the biggest movers in Ottoneu leagues with an analysis of how these players could or could not help your roster.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every Monday, this column will break down the most popular waiver wire and free agent acquisitions of the weekend.

Fantasy baseball managers know that our game is the ultimate test of grit, grind, tenacity, and patience. Unlike fantasy football, where league titles can be won with minimal in-season activity, fantasy baseball leagues require incessant attention and activity. Particularly when it comes to free agent adds and drops. Real-life baseball managers are constantly adjusting batting orders, players are frequently optioned to and promoted from the Minor Leagues, and injuries occur almost daily. There’s no resting on our laurels. We must always stay vigilant with league news and notes and remain active on the waiver wire if we want to win our leagues.

Every week, I’ll 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.

Week 7 Overview

The Philadelphia Phillies took advantage of their matchups (1 at MIA, 3 vs. ATH, 3 vs. COL) in Week 7. They won five-of-seven games and scored a league-high 39 runs. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper led all hitters in home runs, with five and four respectively. Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages also hit four homers, three on Wednesday against the Astros. Brandon Marsh continued tearing it up. He led everyone in hits (14 in 27 at-bats), though he only drove in three runs. Twins Byron Buxton also had a strong week and has been the top hitter in 5×5 roto over the last two weeks — 11 R – 8 HR – 14 RBI – 3 SB – .316. Luke Raley led all hitters with 10 RBI, seven in one game. He’s a strong streamer in Week 8 with the Mariners slated to face seven right-handed starters.

Read the rest of this entry »

7:32	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now, while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. I start players being added at CBS who started the week on less than 40% of rosters.

The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference, grouped by hitters, starters, and relievers. Read the rest of this entry »

Troy Taormina-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 any 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 five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

Hot Right Now (HRN) is a weekly Ottoneu feature focused on popular players currently being auctioned or players who you should think about auctioning in your Ottoneu leagues. Even if you don’t play Ottoneu, we’ll be highlighting players you should be looking at in deeper and keeper formats. In this feature, we will break down players into two sections:

1. Current Auctions: A closer look at players being auctioned at a high rate.
2. Hot Performers: Players with a high P/G or P/IP over the last 14 days who are also rostered in 80% of leagues or less.

The RotoGraphs Ottoneu team plans to run this feature weekly, updating fantasy managers on the biggest movers in Ottoneu leagues with an analysis of how these players could or could not help your roster.

Read the rest of this entry »