Introducing RotoGraphs’ New Writers

Earlier this year, we began looking for new writers and the interest was truly remarkable. I want to thank everyone who took the time to apply. This was my first time going through a hiring process here at FanGraphs and it was incredible to see so many talented people get involved. Of course, this abundance of talented folks meant the decisions would be difficult and, in the end, they absolutely were.

I want to reiterate a note Meg had in the front page welcome. If you weren’t part of this hiring run, continue writing. There will be other opportunities, whether here or elsewhere, and not only that, but it strengthens the outlets you currently write for as they grow their footprint in the baseball world. The expansion of the baseball writing community since I started 412 years ago has been amazing to watch and helped cultivate an amazing pool of candidates.

Let’s get to know our new class of Rotographs writers officially joining the team on April 1st:

Alex Sonty

Alex Sonty is a professional DFS and poker player, while contributing to RotoGrinders, as well as serving as a part-time political science professor in Chicago, IL. He’s been playing fantasy sports since 1996 and entered the DFS realm in 2014, currently playing high-stakes MLB and NFL cash games and GPPs. He is a Chicago Tribune and SB Nation alum, while holding a J.D./M.A. and L.L.M. from DePaul University.

Twitter handle: @AlexSonty

Paul Kastava

Paul is very excited to be back writing with Rotographs. After working in education for ten years in Austin, Texas, Paul moved back to his hometown in Brooklyn where he is a Tableau Trainer and gets to work with data all the time. He looks forward to using these skills in his upcoming articles. He’s been playing fantasy baseball since middle school and loves participating in a wide variety of leagues in order to spice things up, and has beaten his fearless leader Paul Sporer in leagues before (as well as taken some L’s). Unfortunately, Paul is an avid Mets fan, but promises to go beyond the Mets 40-man roster in his analysis and is pumped to connect with all of the readers again.

Twitter handle: @paulkastava

Dave McDonald

Dave is an accomplished high stakes player who has one of the highest lifetime ROIs in the industry since entering 15 years ago. He won his NFBC Main Event league in each of the last 2 years and placed 10th overall in 2019. Dave is also a co-owner of RotoSaurus.com and co-host of the RotoSaurus High Stakes Heat pod. You can also find his thorough strategy guide in the SP Streamer draft kit. When he’s not playing fantasy baseball, Dave enjoys playing board games and ultimate frisbee, watching the Indians, Cavs, and Browns play, and hanging out with friends and family in Cleveland, Ohio.

Twitter handle: @RunDMcD

Justin Vibber

Justin is a lifelong Cubs fan who has been playing fantasy baseball for 25+ years, and has been an ottoneu addict since 2012.  He is the creator of the Ottoneu Surplus Calculator, and the host of the Ottobot podcast covering all things Ottoneu. This will be his return to RotoGraphs, where he covered Ottoneu from 2016-2018.

An accountant by day, Justin likes to think of himself as the unofficial data analyst of Ottoneu and he looks forward to continuing his work on Ottoneu strategy, Ottoneu power rankings, and the new Ottoneu Prestige League. Justin lives in Rochester, New York with his wife and two sons.

Twitter handle: @JustinVibber

Jon Becker

Jon has been a baseball and roster geek since he was eight years old, and helped Jason Martinez out at MLBDepthCharts (now FG’s own RosterResource) since 2014. He has also written for SB Nation’s MLB Daily Dish and served as a research and development intern at Sports Info Solutions. Jon is a senior at Miami University in Oxford, OH, where he also student-manages for Miami’s baseball team (go Redhawks!). When at home in Chicago and not glued to MLB.TV, Jon likes to spend time with his family and cats, cook, and watch comedy shows.

Twitter handle: @jonbecker_

Nicklaus Gaut

Named after his dad’s favorite golfer (and Gaut rhymes with caught), Nicklaus was born and raised in Cardinals nation, currently residing near St. Louis with his wife and their two tiny humans. Growing up reading books like “The Baseball Hall of Shame” and “Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball”, it was the stories of the people within the game that first made him fall in love.

Family lore holds that after waiting until the age of three to talk, his first words were “Why?”, “What for?”, and “Why not?”. Not much has changed since. Guided by Ockham, powered by Quixote, inspired by Holmes, Nicklaus just wants to play baseball detective using the wide breadth of data and tools now available to the masses. And to remind everyone that Carlos Martinez still can’t get out lefties.

Twitter handle: @NT_BurtReynolds

Lucas Kelly

Lucas is a data scientist and former science teacher from Annapolis, Maryland. He currently lives in the D.C. area. He likes to apply elements of data science to his baseball analyses and building predictive models gets him all giddy. He is the long time commissioner of a standard ESPN friends and family league and has recently ventured into a well established Ottoneu league. As an avid reader of all things FanGraphs and contributor to the community blog, Lucas is thrilled to join the RotoGraphs team. Some of his previous work can be found at Call To The Pen and his personal blog, The Pick Off.

Twitter handle: @DrEephus





Paul is the Editor of Rotographs and Content Director for OOTP Perfect Team. Follow Paul on Twitter @sporer and on Twitch at sporer.

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phaddixmember
2 years ago

Congrats to these new hires – nice to see a fellow Miami Alum on these pages! Go Redhawks!