"March 2016" Monthly Archives

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Player Analysis - March 31, 2016

    Tejada Is No Peralta Ruben Tejada just walked into a dream situation after getting released by the New York Mets, agreeing to a 1-year, $1.5 million contract with Matt Matheny and the St. Louis Cardinals. With incumbent starting SS Jhonny...

  • Entertainment
    ADP: Finding Some Good in a Sea of Bad by Kyle Elfrink

    To contend and win in fantasy baseball you need to be on top of what's going on with all 30 major league teams. The position battles. The call-up's. The lineup switches. The hot and cold streaks. And if you challenge...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - Mar 29, 2016

    NAVA-MORE? - It's looking more and more like a Nava/Gentry platoon is what the Angels will roll into 2016 with in LF, and while Nava really struggled last season, there is a bit of cause for slight optimism. Nava has...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep-March 28th, 2016

    Cincinnati Reds-News and Notes J.J. Hoover as closer Reds manager Bryan Price has stated, if the season started today that J.J. Hoover would be the closer. J.J. Hoover has saved five games over his career, so this is going to...

  • Entertainment
    Lift Me: Players that could see a rise in HRs in 2016

    Lift Me: Players that could see a rise in HRs in 2016 Hit the ball hard and good things happen! As I wrote in a recent article, the correlation last year between Hard Hit % and HR/FB rate was approximately +.66...

  • Entertainment
    Fantasy Baseball's Golden Rule: Know Your League's Settings

    Knowing your format is probably the most important item on your draft prep checklist. You can know the player pool inside and out, buy the best draft software (ours, of course) and execute your draft strategy perfectly, but without taking...

  • Entertainment
    Who Are These Guys? By Kyle Elfrink

    There's a red moon rising ... On the Cuyahoga River ... Rolling into Cleveland on the lake For baseball fans of a certain mood and generation, those three lines likely lead to an instant recall of the opening scenes from...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 25, 2016

    Let it (Miguel) Sano? Sano is one of the more intriguing options heading into the 2016 season. He is the highest-rated Twin option out in the fantasy landscape, and with good reason. In an 80 game debut for the...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 24, 2016

    Pittsburgh Pirates What a Juan-derful Spring for Nicasio Juan Nicasio is competing for one of the final two rotation spots with Jeff Locke and Ryan Vogelsong and is making the decision for the Pirates brass quite difficult. After dominating the...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep 03/22/2016

    White Sox Notes In my last article about two weeks ago, I wrote about Adam LaRoche potentially bouncing back, and whether or not he would see reduced playing time. Well, those issues are mute now. And without getting involved in...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 21, 2016

    Royals News: Can Moose be the best value of the year? A former first round pick, Mike Moustakas has long been mentioned as the future cornerstone of the Kansas City Royals. While he has been pretty good the last several...

  • Entertainment
    Sorting through the ADP Movers

    Here's the latest ADP shifts that we've taken note of since the the fantasy Baseball draft season kicked off in the middle of February. As you'll see below, the player news flow does make it's impact on Average Draft Position...

  • Entertainment
    Fighting the Tide of Perception by Kyle Elfrink

    Let's get things rolling with a simple comparison ... Player A - 331 games, 1,222 ABs, .294 AVG, 46 HR, 149 RBI, 188 R, 25 SB, .371 OBP, .487 SLG Player B - 357 games, 1,309 ABs, .272 AVG, 55...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep-March 18th, 2016

    Cincinnati Reds-News and Notes Can Cody Reed make the jump from Double-A? Cody Reed has been the most impressive player at Reds camp. He has caught everyone's attention and that is a good thing for someone trying to make the...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 17th 2016

    Hector Olivera, Atlanta Braves - Olivera is tearing the cover off the ball this spring and is triple slashing .429/.432/.514 in 12 games. This is a huge step in the right direction for Olivera as he didn't exactly impress as...

  • Entertainment
    ADP: A Few of My Favorite Buys by Kyle Elfrink

    I do not know exactly when or where the term, 'sleeper,' was coined, but it's a word that gets tossed around thousands of times a day every March (for baseball) and August (for football) and then it's mostly forgotten. Or,...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep- March 15, 2016

    Notes from the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues (Ides of March Edition)... After the trade of Jean Segura there was going to be a new SS in Milwaukee. How long the new guy stays there will depend on how much progress...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 14, 2016

    Chicago Cubs News: Is Kyle Schwarber Still Worth a Second-Round Pick? About three weeks ago, I had the great opportunity to travel to Arizona to scout the Cubs as they opened up camp in Mesa. The buzz surrounding the team...

  • Entertainment
    An EYE Towards 2016: Exploring a Hitter's BB:K Ratio

    At Fantistics we love to look at a hitter's batted ball profile--the type of contact they are making--in order to project the trajectory of those surface statistics that matter in fantasy, such as batting average and home runs. After adding...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 12, 2016

    Dodgers - Starting Rotation in Flux As usual, injuries have struck the Dodgers' rotation. Brett Anderson is out until at least July after undergoing back surgery. Hyun-Jin Ryu is targeting mid-May for his return from labrum surgery, but a torn...

  • Entertainment
    What's the Lineup Going to Look Like? by Kyle Elfrink

    The Arizona Diamondbacks made splash after splash during the offseason. There was the out-of-nowhere signing of ace hurler, Zack Greinke. There was the expensive trade that added Shelby Miller to the roll call. Later, they tacked on yet another arm...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - Mar 11, 2016

    FORGET THE BIG THREE, HOW ABOUT THE BIG FOUR? - With the Big Three at the front of the rotation and Lucas Giolito waiting in the wings, Joe Ross has understandably flown under the radar a bit in Washington, but...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 10, 2016

    A's Outfield Platoon Part II Last week I wrote about the the top three most likely players to get run in the A's massive outfield platoon: Josh Reddick, Billy Burns, and Kris Davis; but with the way the A's...

  • Entertainment
    ADP: Chapman Out ... and Down by Kyle Elfrink

    Over the past few seasons, looming suspensions have damaged many pre-draft ranking boards in the NFL. Now, fantasy baseball players are joining their football brethren. There's been a slight resolution on the Jose Reyes front, but that situation is still...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 8th, 2016

    Philadelphia Phillies My Cousin Vinny Vincent Velasquez, the centerpiece in the trade that sent Ken Giles to Houston, tossed 3 scoreless innings on Monday, getting off to a solid start in his bid to make the opening day rotation. He...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - 03/07/2016

    Indians Notes: Francisco Lindor, CLE Lindor enters the 2016 season as one of Cleveland's bright spots, not only because of his superior defense but also because of his incredible .313/.353/.482 slash and 12 HR's in 99 games in his rookie...

  • Entertainment
    Advanced Scoring Weights for Fantasy Baseball 2016

    Advanced Scoring Weights Fantasy Baseball

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - March 5, 2016

    Giants rotation We've already seen Matt Cain miss time with a cyst on his pitching arm, and now Johnny Cueto is having his Saturday start pushed back for unspecified reasons. In all likelihood, Cueto will be fine for Opening Day,...

  • Entertainment
    Spring Numbers That DO Matter by Kyle Elfrink

    You've all heard it and you've all read it ... training camp numbers don't matter. It's a refrain that thunders from the mountain tops throughout the exhibition seasons in Arizona and Florida. It's an old stand-by and one that I've...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep March 4

    A's Outfield Platoon Part I With the addition of both Khris Davis and Chris Coghlan this offseason, the A's outfield is as busy as ever. They now have: Josh Reddick, Billy Burns, Josh Reddick, Coco Crisp and Mark Canha...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep - Thursday, March 3 2016

    My Money is on Edwin Getting Paid in 2017 Edwin Encarnacion (TOR / DH) - Contract year alert! I was thinking back on Edwin's 2015 and thought it would have been a disappointing year. Then I realized he actually hit...

  • Entertainment
    Preseason Prep- March 2, 2016

    Stroman, Marcus - Tor/P: Marcus Stroman started off the baseball season in style on Tuesday, striking out the first Philly batter he faced on three pitches. He would allow two runs in a second inning that included a poor judgment...