What Do You Want to Read From RotoGraphs and Myself Now?
It’s a bizarro world we’re living in right now. With no baseball and no set date for baseball to resume at this point, it’s getting more and more difficult to decide what topic tomorrow’s article should be on. Even if I do land on such a topic, I don’t really have any idea if it’s what you actually want to read right now. So help me, and the rest of the RotoGraphs crew, brainstorm content ideas.
What do you want to read from me? Any topic is fair game. In fact, I’m sure no one will mind if we go slightly off-baseball, as long as there is at least some loose connection to the sport.
Feel free to suggest as many players as you want to get a Pod Projections post, so you can learn the details of my forecasting process.
Or perhaps you want a strategy article or even my thoughts on handling a particular situation.
Heck, even if you have keeper or league-specific questions, I could potentially write about it, as long as there’s a way to frame the question so my answer appeals to a broad range of readers, and not just you and your league.
Is there a research project or an xMetric you have been dying to analyze/develop but never had the time or Excel/analytic skills? Now’s the time to tell me!
If you’re not sure whether it’s something I would be willing to write or am capable of writing, publish a comment about it anyway! The worst that could happen is I ignore your suggestion. Even if that happens, I could pass the idea along to another writer.
Thanks for your help in ensuring RotoGraphs remains a daily destination during this difficult time.
Don’t forget to strongly consider becoming a FanGraphs member, if you have the means to do so, to help keep my favorite website and invaluable resource running.
Mike Podhorzer is the 2015 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Baseball Writer of the Year and three-time Tout Wars champion. He is the author of the eBook Projecting X 2.0: How to Forecast Baseball Player Performance, which teaches you how to project players yourself. Follow Mike on X@MikePodhorzer and contact him via email.
A couple years ago I successfully recommended through email an article series that you guys took and ran with that was a division by division breakdown of opportunities for prospects to replace currently projected MLB players.
My idea had come from a very successful fantasy year in which I selected Tim Anderson, Michael Fulmer, and one other player I’m forgetting now because I specifically had seen weakness at the White Sox shortstop and the Tigers starting pitching that year.
If you could do this annually, it really is the key to my success in an AL-Only league that goes auction on the available Opening Day Rosters and then snake for the prospects. Other hits my co-owner and I have had include Yordan (HOU DH wasn’t clear last March) and a couple years back, Bregman who at the time was a relatively low HR/RBI guy with some speed and a great pedigree—and a MI position likely to open between Jed always hurt Lowrie and someone else that is forgettable.
This is a great idea and really valuable for mono-leaguers. I’m not a prospect guy at all, but could probably read the prospect reports and stats well enough to help with this.
Might be easier to start on the big league side and find situations where the opportunity could arise and look at who could fill them, rather than starting with the prospects and trying to fit them in. We know Wander Franco is good but Willy Adames is good enough that the Rays probably won’t be pressed to call him up before they want to. From the other side, the Seattle OF, Cubs 2B, Pirates 3B, the backend of the Tigers rotation and tons of other spots are pretty wide open.
This is what I meant, like the example of last year noticing that HOU’s DH spot seemed really open all things considered for that team.
Another was noticing Orlando Cabrera was on his way out in CLE in 2011, snagging Jason Kipnis and enjoying 4 years of Kipnis at a discount rate for my league.