Khalil Greene (SS – Cardinals) Khalil Greene made his first rehab start on Tuesday, which leads me to believe that he’ll get the call back up to the majors in about a week. He was a popular sleeper candidate heading...

The first 4 weeks of the 2009 Baseball Season are history and as typical there are quite a few players who are struggling and a quite a few who are posting MVP type numbers...but who deserves to be where?  Welcome...

AMERICAN LEAGUE SB PROSPECTS FOR 2009 Adam Jones: If not for a mid-season injury, Jones may already have been established as a major speed threat. He hit 7 triples in 128 games, which is evidence of amazing foot speed, and...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay (25 for 67 .373 CS%): 4 against Baltimore (Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Jay Payton), 4 against Detroit (Carlos Guillen, Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco, Gary Sheffield) Joe Mauer, Minnesota (27 for...

First Pitch – September 17th, 2008 – NL Keepers for 2009: As Joe mentioned yesterday, the First Pitch editions these next two weeks will focus on potential keeper options heading into 2009. I will cover the NL Hitters this morning,...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay (23 for 63 .365 CS%): 3 against Boston (Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Bay), 3 against Minnesota (Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, Delmon Young, Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla) Joe Mauer, Minnesota...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro, Tampa Bay (20 for 54 .370 CS%): 3 against NYY (Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu, Derek Jeter), 3 against Toronto (Alex Rios, Marco Scuturo, Joe Inglett) Kurt Suzuki, Oakland (27 for 75, .360...

Stolen Base Report for the week of August 18th to August 24th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Kurt Suzuki, Oakland (24 for 69, .348 CS%): 3 against Minnesota (Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto, Denard Span), 4 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki,...

Stolen Base Report for the week of August 4th to August 10th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro Tampa (17 for 45 .378 CS%): 3 against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Franklin Gutierrez), 4 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre,...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Dioner Navarro Tampa (15 for 40 .385 CS%): 1 against Kansas City (Joey Gathright), 2 against NYY (Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu, Melky Cabrera, Derek Jeter), 4 against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Franklin Gutierrez)...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Kurt Suzuki Oakland (19 for 47, .404 CS%): 3 against Philadelphia (Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Jayson Werth, Chase Utley, Eric Bruntlett), 3 against San Francisco (Fred Lewis, Randy Winn, Ray Durham, Emmanuel Burriss) Ivan Rodriguez Detroit...

Stolen Base Report for the week of June 9th to June 15th Unfavorable Matchups, American League Kurt Suzuki Oakland (16 for 36, .444 CS%): 3 against NYY (Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter), 3 against San Francisco (Fred Lewis, Randy...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Ivan Rodriguez Detroit (11 for 27, .407 CS%): 3 against LAA (Chone Figgins, Macier Izturis), 3 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki, Willie Bloomquist) Kurt Suzuki Oakland (12 for 32, .375 CS%): 3 against Toronto (Alex Rios), 3...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Joe Mauer Minnesota (6 for 15, .400 CS%): 4 against Texas (Ian Kinsler, David Murphy), 3 against Detroit (Carlos Guillen, Curtis Granderson) Kurt Suzuki Oakland (7 for 20, .350 CS%): 3 against Tampa (Carl Crawford, BJ...

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it!” How many of you in the crowd have heard this one before? I know, we all have and most of the time it’s said in a loud angry tone with...

Under/Over Performing Batters Another April is in the books and as typical there are quite a few players who are in our doghouse and a quite a few players who have the keys to the penthouse...but who deserves to be where?...

AL Favorable Matchups: John Buck KC (.111 CS%, 1/9): 3 games against Texas (Ian Kinsler, David Murphy), 3 games against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore) AJ Pierzynski CHW (.222 CS%, 2/9): 1 game against Baltimore (Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis), 2 games against...

Favorable matchups for the week of 4/21 to 4/27: John Buck KC (.143 CS%, 1/7): 3 games against Cleveland (Grady Sizemore), 3 games against Toronto (Alex Rios, Marco Scuturo) AJ Pierzynski CHW (.167 CS%, 1/6): 3 games against NYY (Johnny...

Week of 4/14 to 4/20 Favorable Matchups, teams facing: Josh Bard San Diego (7% Caught Stealing in 2006): 3 games against Colorado (Willy Taveras, Scott Podsednik, Jayson Nix), 3 games against Arizona (Chris Burke, Eric Byrnes, Chris Young) Greg Zaun...

Favorable matchups for the week of April 7th to April 13th: San Diego: Josh Bard and Michael Barrett were ranked 33rd and 29th in catching runners, so anyone playing San Diego should have a field day. This is great news...

In a couple of notes and blog entries this spring I’ve referenced my affinity for using Middle Relievers, so in this entry I wanted to explain the references a bit more clearly. As you can see by the title of...

Expected ERA vs Actual ERA Part II Thursday we looked at the pitchers from 2007 who benefited from an ERA which was better "than deserved". This sabermetric formula is based on a statistic developed by researchers Dwight Gill and...

As many of you already know, Fantistics uses sabermetric theories to create it's player projections model. These theories are the foundation to our successful forecasting history. One of my favorite forecasting models that we monitor here at Fantistics is...

With the news coming out of Phillies’ camp today that Brad Lidge’s balky knee will require a minor surgery that should keep him out 3-6 weeks, I thought it would be important to briefly touch on the impact injuries can...

Earlier this week fantasy baseball owners everywhere heard the four-word reminder that their fantasy season is right around the corner: “Pitchers and Catchers Report”. While this phrase means plenty to loyal fans around the country, it specifically means two things...

The Masters of Inconsistency (Player Projections at Risk) Last season we introduced Consistency Factor and it's implications to both Head to Head leagues as well as all Fantasy leagues regardless of their scoring setup. Consistency Factor gives us an...

Here's an update on an indicator we developed last season: Consistency Factor: an indicator designed to measure a player's Weekly and/or Daily quality production output using Fantistics Fantasy Production Indicator (FPI). For anyone who has played in a Head...

2007 FPI All Stars and Anti-All Stars   Good morning everybody.  With the MLB season drawing to a close, today we will take a look at our own versions of All Star teams.  As our measure we will use our...

The signs of fall are everywhere.   The days are cooler. The leaves here in New England are turning. I am up at 5:30 am to get my kids to school every day. The Patriots are humiliating the Jets....

Good morning everyone! Today we will continue the recap of players in their contract years in 2007 that we started last week with the hitters. Of the 50 hitters we looked at last week, 13 performed better than we...

Good morning everyone!   A little mail bag this morning but first a couple of things …   Football season is approaching (for some of you quicker than others) and some of you rookies may not know that Insiderfootball.com...

Underperforming Pitchers Who Are Coming Around   Good morning everybody.  A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at some of the hitters so far this season that had been disappointments overall, but who had been coming around from...

It's a new face trying to fill some big shoes for this week's closer report as I fill in for the esteemed Mr. Blasi. Since he's the professional writer, I'll make a deal with everyone and stick to the analysis...

What have we learned? So I wanted to take another break from some of the more in-depth statistical analysis pieces to talk about what I've learned this fantasy baseball season and hopefully it will inspire some readers to write in...

A little mailbag this morning .... Dear Sweet Lou, I too am a fellow New Englander, living here in the great state of Connect-eh-cut, in Storrs. I thoroughly enjoy your wit, savvy & journalistic style very much. Keep it up!...

    Underperforming Hitters Who Are Coming Around   Good morning everybody.  Today we are going to look at players who have generally not met our expectations this season, but who have been showing signs of life lately.  Even though...

It is time to dumpster dive for starts! Want to know how I can tell? Congratulate me, I am now the proud owner of Jesse Litsch! My league has 5 reserves and currently all 5 of my reserves, Carlos Beltran,...

Pitching Category Mashup Revisited (K/BB and QS%)   Good morning everybody.  For today's First Pitch we are going to revisit some analysis we did earlier in the year.  Back in May, we were looking for another way to help identify...

I have often felt that fantasy baseball presents a good analogy to financial investing. The players of course would be the stocks and our teams would be our portfolios. I know next to nothing about evaluating a stock but I...

  Mid-Season FPI All Stars   Good morning everybody. In the spirit of the upcoming MLB All Star festivities in San Francisco, today we will take a look at our own versions of All Star teams. Except there won't be...

  Batting Average Production (Current vs. 3-Year Averages)   Good morning everybody.  Today we are going to focus on the category of batting average.  I don't know about your squads, but this is one area of the game in which...

  Power Production (Batter GB/FB Ratio)   Good morning everybody.  Today we are going to revisit some research that we've done on batter Groundball/Flyball (GB/FB) ratios.  Stated simply, hitters with lower GB/FB ratios hit more home runs and have a...

The Actual Art of the Deal Itself In the first two parts in our series on trading, we talked about how perceptions can skew player values and how you should use that to your advantage. And we offered ideas on...

Shaking the Trade Tree In the first part of our series, we talked about how one critical aspect of the trading game is being aware that every player has more than one absolute value. He has, in fact, a different...

Pitching Category Mashup (K/BB and QS%)   Good morning everybody.  For today's First Pitch we are going to do something a little off the wall -- and perhaps mathematically unsound - and mash together a couple of key pitching...

Good Morning! We are supposed to be preaching patience to you. We are supposed to tell you not to panic and not overvalue what are still some pretty meager statistical samples when we look at our rosters. That is always...

Your fantasy offense is an Army. It is, hopefully, a relentless snowfall of stats that accumulates into major problems for your opponents. However, your pitchers are different. Your pitching staff is instead an orchestra. It is helpful to be aware...

A little mailbag this morning … This subscriber didn't want his letter published so I will paraphrase his questions to protect the innocent … Dear Lou,   I enjoyed your article about the value of analyzing splits to make...

Hello everybody.  As I watched in horror at another craptacular performance from the Phillies bullpen, an idea rattled around in my head.  Part of the problem we have as fantasy analysts is that we are in some situations constrained by...

It's not as if we all need to wear name tags or anything, but there's a certain "getting to know you"atmosphere around most fantasy baseball teams this year. Of course, we know most of the names and the stat lines...

Hi everybody.  Just wanted to let you all know that the updated Park Factor reference files have been posted in the Fantistics Reference Toolbox.   Data for all major league ballparks is included, and is presented in two different...

Park Factor For my initial First Pitch of the year I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the Park Factor statistic. This should provide you with a handy reference that you can use to determine which ballparks...

We talk about numbers all the time here ...   They are important to what we do. The key to this whole game we play is to determine which numbers more accurately indicate performance and which numbers more accurately...

We spend a lot of time fretting about how well a pitcher is going to adjust to a change in leagues. We treat the AL and the NL like two separate animals when we consider such a switch, and with...

The Masters of Inconsistency (Player Projections at Risk) Last week we introduced Consistency Factor and it's implications to both Head to Head leagues as well as all Fantasy leagues regardless of their scoring setup. Consistency Factor gives us an...

Auction Drafts are quickly becoming the most popular form of draft-day fun for fantasy players everywhere. Players enjoy the fast paced flow of an auction, but most importantly they appreciate the opportunity to own any player. How Does an Auction...