Archive for staff picks

In the two previous years I’ve curated the RotoGraphs staff picks, I evaluated them during the post-/offseason to determine which staff writer had the best time pickin’. What good are our allegedly “expert” picks if we don’t hold ourselves accountable?

You can find this year’s preseason picks here. The best pick in each category is an indiscernible blend of talent (duh) and uniqueness (like, Andrew Benintendi as a Rookie of the Year candidate is not very original, so I’d dock you points for that). Most correct (with air quotes) picks wins. Let’s go!

(Shallow) Sleeper (ADP 201-300, per NFBC ADP)

Pitcher: Robbie Ray (Brice Russ, Jeff Zimmerman)
Hitter: Domingo Santana (Al Melchior, Birchwood Bros., Justin Vibber)

There are three standout picks here, but one stands above the rest. I have written repeatedly (aka twice) about Ray’s rollercoaster career and baffling peripherals. He has delivered consecutive seasons of extreme outliers; his true self is probably a perfect blend of 2016 and 2017, which is roughly a mid-3.00s ERA with league-leading strikeouts and potentially league-trailing walks (and, also, league-trailing contact management). He is Yu Darvish’s stateside-produced clone, and early evidence (#2early mock drafts, henceforth) suggests he’ll be drafted as such.

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I’m needlessly competitive. I’ll manufacture any kind of pathetic excuse to turn literally anything into a contest, especially if there’s a moderately easy way to tally stats for it. So, let’s review the RotoGraphs staff’s picks for the 2016 season.

We make picks every season, but as I took up curating them last season, I wanted to hold us accountable while also simply seeing how well we did. Hindsight-spoiler: we actually did pretty poorly. Having not yet evaluated the results whatsoever, I hope for better but secretly anticipate more of the same.

The rules: are dumb and contrived. You’re welcome! Anyway, I choose a winner for each category based on, yes, stats, but also the uniqueness of the pick. For example, picking Noah Syndergaard as 2016’s best sophomore pitcher wasn’t exactly groundbreaking.

Again, this is mostly for fun, but it’s also worth rewarding, with the weakest of praise, those who excelled with their picks. As a reminder, I describe the criteria for each category in the original post. With that said, let’s needlessly compete!

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Below, you’ll find the RotoGraphs staffs’ picks for the 2016 season. We, here at RotoGraphs — we like to pick things. Make lists. All that.

If you have some heavy-duty drafting to wrap up this weekend, maybe these picks will come in handy. If not, perhaps they can come in handy as guidance for some thrifty, shifty mid-season moves. And if not that, then simply appreciate these for what they are: literally the best preseason picks you’ll see anywhere. Period!

OK, maybe that won’t end up being true. Who knows! None of us are clairvoyant, and that’s a damn shame. But we do our best to pretend like we are. Anyway, enough of this rambling. Here’s what you came here for, split into two tables — 2016 staff picks for hitters, and more for pitchers.

Also, for further clarity, please refer to the category definitions that follow each table.

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Here are the RotoGraphs Staff Picks for the 2015 season. Because we like to pick things! We collected all preferred players (and busts) and assembled them in one place for your reference and viewing pleasure.

Last year, we posted staff picks a couple of weeks earlier in the month as a complement to your draft planning. It’s a little late now, unless you’re drafting right before Opening Day, but hey! You can still use it as an in-season waiver wire tool and additional reasons to praise or ridicule us, if that’s your thing.

The categories are fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll try to illuminate the ones that are less clear. A sleeper is an undervalued standard mixed-leaguer, whereas a deep sleeper is a player who maybe isn’t drafted in mixed leagues but eventually succeeds, if not excels, in a starting role. Best flyers are players typically undrafted in most leagues but end up being great waiver wire additions mid-year.

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