Miami Marlins starting pitcher Caleb Smith went five innings, giving up four hits, two earned runs and one walk while striking out eight in the 7-3 loss to the New York Mets on Monday. Smith did his part and he did it in fashion with eight strikeouts in only five innings. Smith has always been a pitcher to boast a high strikeout rate, with a career average of 10.16 K/9 and a 10.24 K/9 last year. [...]

The 2019 season is officially underway! After months of preparing for drafts, now owners will turn their attention to finding the best values off the waiver wire.Owners looking for two-start pitchers in this first week of the season are going to have to dig their way through the back end of team's rotations. [...]

In the days leading up to the start of the 2019 season, the Miami Marlins made it clear that the youth movement has completely taken over. Veteran Dan Straily was released and Wei-Yin Chen was sent to the bullpen, paving the way for a pitching rotation that doesn't boast a player over the age of 27.[...]

We are continuing our updated analysis of points league tiered rankings with a final look at starting pitchers. In H2H points leagues, starting pitchers are the lifeblood of a fantasy team. The more innings and strikeouts a starter can rack up, the further it carries your team toward a championship.There is a solid core of SP at the top that are sure to fly off draft boards much earlier than in roto leagues. [...]

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What do I, Nick Mariano, have in common with great minds such as Ken Jennings, Gary Kasparov, and Lee Sedot? Before, I wouldnt have had an answer, but now I can say that weve all had the honor of challenging incredible Artificial Intelligence minds! Nevermind that those other three guys got crushed in their Man vs. Machine rounds, this is no place for data and predictive analytics. Gosh! Wait.[...]

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While FIP is a useful tool to predict a pitcher's future ERA performance, fantasy owners should remember that ERA, not FIP, is what really matters in most formats. This means that we are interested in the "luck" that separates the two statistics.[...]

Fantasy experts are placing a bigger emphasis on drafting elite starters early this year. It is apparent this strategy is making its way across the fantasy community, as the high-end starters are being valued higher than before. In points leagues, this is a wise methodology, as an ace can serve as the backbone of a fantasy team. Seven different SPs tallied over 600 points in standard formats, whereas only six hitters reached that mark. Even Mike Trout failed to reach that level of production tha[...]