All posts under "Preseason Prep" - Page 18

Jason Frasor - It looks like Cito, as is his wont, is going back to the well for Jason Frasor as the Jays' closer to start the season. Frasor improved his control by more than a full walk per nine...

The Oakland A’s Bullpen: Last year in this space I talked about the A’s bullpen noting the team’s unusual ability to find saves beyond the primary closer. Over the last 5 years, the A’s have averaged 35% of their total...

Cleveland Indians Right Fielder – After hitting .300/.394/.489 with 20 HRs and 20 steals in 2009, Shin-Soo Choo will once again roam right field for the Indians in 2010. Choo has an excellent eye (career OBP of .386), above average...

C. J. Wilson- TEX- For now, Wilson appears headed to the Texas rotation on the strength of his performance this spring. In 14 IP Wilson has allowed 10 hits and 2 walks while striking out 10. On the down side,...

Atlanta Braves – The Young and the Aging – There were a lot of raised eyebrows during the off-season when the Braves traded Javier Vazquez to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera. Vazquez was coming off his best year and the...

If you play in a Rotisserie league and would like to give different weights to each Roto category that you select, you can with our player projections software. Within the Setup|Edit League Settings section, select the Rotisserie scoring option and...

Mets: With Carlos Beltran out for at least the first month of the season, Angel Pagan and Gary Matthews Jr. will battle for AB. Pagan has a decent power/speed package, 6/32/.306 with 22 doubles, 11 triples, and 14 steals in...

Twins 3B - The Twins' 3B "battle" pits the disappointing Brendan Harris against the scourge of all that is good, Nick Punto. With a career OPS of .647 and 5 HRs in 509 games over the last four years, you...

Cleveland Indians First Base - Given regular at-bats for the first time since 2002, Russell Branyan provided Seattle with an excellent first half last season, posting a .280/.382/.573 line while clobbering 22 HRs. He struggled in the second half (.193/.274/.414...

Pittsbirgh Pirates Closer Situation Right now, Octavio Dotel is slated to close out ball games for the Pirates. For three straight seasons he has posted elite level K rates (12.03/12.36/10.83). Last season he posted a really bad WHIP of 1.43,...

Houston Astros – The Puma Is Out – Spring training is supposed to be about hope and optimism but this March has many teams scrambling trying to figure out backup plans for key players that are going down. Include the...

What can we expect from Alfonso Soriano? Just three seasons into a monstrous eight year deal, Alfonso Soriano looks nothing like the 40-40 candidate with a .900+ OPS that came over from Washington. Soriano’s coming off the worst season of...

Dodgers #5 starter-As of now, the front-runner here has to be Eric Stults. Stults is left-handed, has two big league shutouts on his resume, is out of options, and while it’s early, he’s looked good in camp (two scoreless innings)...

Cleveland Indians Rotation: Do the Indians have one starter worthy of a roster spot in a 10-team fantasy baseball league? The fact that a post-Tommy John surgery Jake Westbrook or the horrendously wild Fausto Carmona could potentially battle for the...

March 10, 2010 - Fantistics Preseason Notes    New York Yankees   1.The 5th Spot - Joba Chamberlain vs Phil Hughes - One of the biggest question marks for the Yankees heading into spring training is who will earn that...

Pittsburgh Pirates Andrew McCutcheon - McCutcheon is one of the game’s better young hitters and one of the few reasons for hope for Pirates’ fans in the coming years. He is a young and exciting player, and if his pre-season...

My counterparts at Fantistics have been doing an amazing job breaking down the pre-season players and the key situations to watch for all the teams and I’m excited to jump into the foray and push a few more teams onto...

Tigers No. 4 and 5 starters – Detroit has a very competitive 1-2-3 with Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, and Max Scherzer, but it’s the other 40% of the rotation that could determine the club’s fate this season. A healthy Jeremy...

Dodgers Backup Outfielders – The top three is obviously set with Manny, Kemp, and Ethier, but what about the backups? Reed Johnson was signed this winter to be the No. 4 OF, and he brings with him, a .329/.395/.483 line...

Cubs Bullpen: One of the least talked about situations in fantasy baseball is the Cubs bullpen. With Carlos Marmol, a long-time fantasy darling, securing the role last season (1.84 ERA, 63 K’s in 44 innings in Save opportunities) most fantasy...

Cincinnati Reds Chris Dickerson - Dickerson is a tad upset after he was passed over for a shot at the Reds’ CF job, which is likely to go to rookie Drew Stubbs. This leaves Dickerson most likely in a platoon...

2010 DC Catcher Preview I hate catchers. I can never get this position right, much in part to the fact that I refuse to play it safe. Well, I guess old habits die hard. After making one of my goals...

Elvis Andrus- TEX-Andrus gets most of his notice for his Web Gem work at SS. His .267 average during his rookie season was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. However, it is quite possible that it is sustainable, given his...

Consistency Factor 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 to Head league, you probably already know the...

2010 Diamond Challenge Preview Okay, this is the second of two posts today. If you want to check out how I fared last season, you can find a recap in my earlier post today. This post is the first dedicated...

To those in our audience who participate in Fanball’s Diamond Challenge game, I’m going to do a little preview as I did last year. For those of you who have not heard of the Diamond Challenge, it is a very...

Dodgers 2B battle - This is Blake DeWitt vs. Ronnie Belliard. Jamey Carroll is there as well, but more than likely he was signed as a utility man, capable of playing time all over the field. DeWitt of course had...

Cincinnati Reds Jay Bruce – Bruce has developed into a post-hype sleeper of sorts. He was the Reds’ top prospect heading into 2008, and he didn’t disappoint, blasting 21 HR as a rookie in 413 at bats. Last season, though,...

Jarrod Saltalamacchia- TEX- I might be a little biased since I met Saltalamacchia’s in-laws at a local grocery store (standing out in my Ranger fan gear made it easy for them to brag on him to me) but even I...

Hi Folks, It's time for us to revisit our yearly piece on XERA: As many of you already know, Fantistics uses Sabermetric theories to create our player projections model. These theories are the foundation to our successful forecasting history. One...

Cleveland Indians Prospect C Carlos Santana  Born: 04/08/1986 - Height: 5'11" - Weight: 190 - Bats: Switch - Throws: Right We have recently hit a pretty productive vein of young catchers and Indian's trade of Victor Martinez to the...

Atlanta Braves Prospect OF Jason Heyward  The Braves boast one of baseball's top prospect in 20-year-old Jason Heyward. Already 6-4 220 lbs, Jason won't be 21 until August 9th but the 14th overall pick in the 2007 draft entered...

Hi Folks, The player news is fairly slow this time of season as the players don't start arriving to camps until next week. However it's a great time to take a look back and see what's trending. 2010: Say...

Hi Folks, Welcome to the start of our 2010 preseason newsletter. Over the next 2 months we'll be discussing a wide range of topics related to fantasy baseball. From draft insight & strategy to minor league prospects....you'll find it here,...

Hi Folks, Welcome to the start of the 2010 season! One of the ways I open a new season is by taking a look back at the previous one. Below is the link to the Historical Fantasy Values and some...

Luke Hochevar- KC- Hot- Hochevar turned in an impressive performance last night, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk while striking out 4 in 7 IP. This follows up a disaster his last time out, when he gave...