This article references Adrian Gonzalez, Carlos Carrasco, Carlos Correa, Charlie Blackmon, Chris Archer, Chris Sale, Christian Yelich, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Kluber, David Price, Devon Travis, Drew Storen, Eric Hosmer, Freddie Freeman, George Springer, Giancarlo Stanton, Jake Arrieta, Joey Votto, Jose Altuve, Marcus Stroman, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Paul Goldschmidt, Prince Fielder, Roberto Osuna, Sonny Gray, Stephen Piscotty, Stephen Strasburg and more! The 2016 season is finally underway. This piece would have been published last week, but technical problems led to delay. Here the final set of bold predictions for the new fantasy season.   Bold Predictions for 2016 1. Jake Arrieta finishes outside the top 20 starting pitchers There’s a good chance I’m very wrong here. It’s definitely possible that Arrieta simply hit his stride later than most, and is going to continue his reign of dominance for years. And unlike the rest of my[...]Keep on reading: Harris Yudin's 10 Bold Predictions for 2016

This article references Adam Eaton, Adrian Beltre, Brad Miller, Brett Gardner, Christian Yelich, Cristhian Adames, Danny Valencia, Delino DeShields, Devon Travis, Francisco Rodriguez, Giancarlo Stanton, J.D. Martinez, Jake Odorizzi, Jason Hammel, Jean Segura, Jose Quintana, Justin Upton, Justin Verlander, Kevin Pillar, Kole Calhoun, Masahiro Tanaka, Matt Kemp, Miguel Cabrera, Patrick Corbin, Prince Fielder, raisel iglesias, Ryan Goins, Shin-soo Choo, Trevor Story, Vincent Velasquez, Yasmani Grandal and more! Alright folks, the big week before Opening Day is upon us and that means that draft lobbies are popping off like Who Let the Dogs Out just came on at a party. What? That’s not a thing? Don’t be ridiculous. I have plenty of teams already with a few more to be drafted and figured this was a good time to break out the barometer and speak on who I found myself getting on multiple teams.   2016 "Ride or Die" Squad Members Giancarlo Stanton (OF, MIA) So much for subscribing to safe[...]Keep on reading: Nick Mariano's Heavily Owned Players in 2016

This article references Alcides Escobar, Andre Ethier, Billy Hamilton, Brandon Phillips, Buster Posey, Carl Crawford, Clay Buchholz, Clayton Kershaw, David Price, David Wright, Dee Gordon, Drew Storen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Giancarlo Stanton, Jarrod Dyson, Jason Grilli, Joc Pederson, Jonathan Papelbon, Jose Fernandez, Jose Peraza, Kevin Plawecki, Lucas Duda, Paulo Orlando, Rick Porcello, Scott Van Slyke, Stephen Strasburg, Steven Wright, Tom Koehler, Travis d'Arnaud, Trayce Thompson, Tyler Clippard, Yangervis Solarte, Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes and more! While I like the idea for this series, it has become a trend to blame fellow RotoBaller Kyle Bishop for making us do it. So thanks a bunch, Kyle, for making me do something I wanted to do anyway. Usually, I identify whether specific baseball players are champs or chumps. This time, we'll find out which one I am. Shall we get started? Editor's note: Be sure to check out our fantasy baseball rankings assistant. We recently launched this handy new rankings tool - you can easily filter, sort,[...]Keep on reading: Rick Lucks's 10 Bold Predictions for 2016

This article references Adam Jones, Anthony Rendon, Arian Foster, Buster Posey, Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Dickerson, Corey Kluber, David Price, Dexter Fowler, Ender Inciarte, Evan Longoria, Felix Hernandez, Giancarlo Stanton, Jay Bruce, Jonathan Schoop, Josh Reddick, Jung Ho Kang, Kevin Pillar, Kyle Schwarber, Marcus Stroman, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Saunders, Mookie Betts, Noah Syndergaard, Salvador Perez, Shin-soo Choo, Travis d'Arnaud, Yasmani Grandal and more! So as you may or may not know, we here at RotoBaller hosted an industry mock draft last Thursday night with some dapper gents. We are gathered here today on this webpage for part one of the reactions to the draft. Outside of discussing the awesomeness that is Jung Ho Kang’s tattoo of himself, we did actually discuss the picks (for the record, Justin Mason gave the tattoo an “80” grade). Here’s the lineup: Kyle Bishop (RotoBaller), Alex Chamberlain (RotoGraphs/RotoBaller), Brad Johnson[...]Keep on reading: Industry Mock Draft Reactions: Which Pick Were You Most Proud Of?

This article references Alex Gordon, Chris Young, Giancarlo Stanton, Jarrod Dyson, Lorenzo Cain and more! The league average batted ball distribution in 2015 was 20.9% liners, 45.3% grounders and 33.8% flies. Last time, we took a brief look at how pitchers may specialize in either grounders or fly balls. Fly ball pitchers have a BABIP advantage over their ground ball-inducing counterparts, since fly balls (.129 BABIP in 2015) consistently have lower BABIPs than worm killers (.236). Yet most fantasy owners prefer to roster ground ball pitchers, to the point that GB% is frequently cited as a periphera[...]Keep on reading: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 8: Batted Ball Distribution for Pitchers

This article references Adeiny Hechavarria, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Henderson Alvarez, Jose Fernandez, jose reye, Jose Reyes, mark buehrle, Mat Latos, Sam Dyson and more! Another year, another Marlins team that just cannot do anything right. They signed a bunch of free agents to big deals one year, trade them all away the next. In spite of having bats like Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich in the middle of their lineup and pitchers like Jose Fernandez leading the rotation, the Marlins continue to struggle year in and year out. Unfortunately for Marlins’ fans, there is no looking down in the farm system for help. For the most part, the Marlins have been[...]Keep on reading: Top 10 Dynasty Prospects: Miami Marlins

The Marlins' Stanton is one of the great power hitters in the game when healthy. How should you value him in fantasy baseball?

This article references A.j. Pollock, Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Davis, Dee Gordon, Giancarlo Stanton, Stephen Strasburg and more! The human brain is one of the most powerful and fascinating things, and one of the greatest things it has given us is fantasy baseball. Utilized properly, it is your greatest weapon on draft day and beyond. Blindly followed, it can stab you in the back. Our brains did not evolve for the sake of fantasy sports (or much of modern day life). Mechanisms that helped us assess threats in our cavemen days aren't tailored for this lifestyle. The catch is you won’t even notice what's happening, it’s [...]Keep on reading: How Your Brain Messes With Your Fantasy Baseball Draft

This article references Chris Davis, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon, Giancarlo Stanton, Ike Davis and more! In the first post of this series, I referenced that Chris Davis's BABIP is not explained by that post alone, and that we would consider him again in the future. He was not considered in Part 2. He will be considered here. Davis managed an above average overall BABIP of .319 in 2015, despite the shift limiting his groundballs to just a .162 figure. He accomplished this primarily through his line drives, which enjoyed a BABIP of .733. That is still a few points shy of his career .738 mark, however[...]Keep on reading: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 3: Batted Ball Distribution

This article references Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton and more! Using BABIP to predict a player's batting average is great. Average is a category in many league formats, and every hit is an opportunity to steal a base or score a run. But most owners find the long ball sexier. Every HR comes with a guaranteed run scored and at least one RBI--and maybe more. Many owners build their teams around power for this reason. Yet fluky HR campaigns can happen just as easily as fluky batting average ones. How do we tell the difference between a legitimate breakout and a[...]Keep on reading: Using Sabermetrics for Fantasy Baseball Part 2: HR/FB for Hitters