Author: Nicklaus Gaut

Hello friends.

Some of you may still be chasing championships but for many that time has officially come and gone. You know it, your league knows it, all that's left is for the official horn to sound. Before you totally check out, though, and head on over to the land of big hits, exciting actions, and pudding brains, let's pause to appreciate a few excellent performances from some new starting pitchers on the scene.

Trusting starters without an appreciable body of work is one of the most dangerous games in fantasy baseball and can burn you, year in and year out. Sometimes it's believing in a repeat performance that never materializes; sometimes it's the cost of the lost opportunities if you instead keep your heart closed to new blood and assume regression that never comes. Regardless, wouldn't it be nice to not be doomed to a season of haunting questions like, "What if I'd drafted Jack Flaherty instead of Bobby Miller?", and "Maybe Merrill Kelly had to go to South Korea for a reason?"

The world will never know, my friends, but let's still try to get out in front of next year's pain by digging in on some guys who could possibly continue their breakouts into the future.

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Hello friends.

Labor Day is behind us and the calendar has officially flipped to the last month of everyone's championship runs...hopefully.

For those out of the race, we salute you. But for those that remain, a month of difficult decisions may await you because, unlike the previous five months, we're basically out of road on the whole "will so-and-so turn it around?" portion of the proceedings. The band of players you may be willing to sit in favor of some new hotness will continue to expand, as there's officially no time to wait. No time to wait for lingering injuries to clear up, no time for sluggish stars to get going again, no time to wait for bad offenses to suddenly become good, with their rising tides lifting the counting stats of everyone around.

Given that, we need to sort out the possible chaff from this final harvest of wheat. Let's get to it.

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Hello friends.

With September almost upon us, let's keep things going with some prep work for any championship runs in fantasy. We've taken a look the last two weeks at which teams to target when streaming pitchers, so it's time to flip over to the hitting side of things. And KISS shall be our guiding principle. No, not Gene Simmons and dem boys; I'm talking about Keeping It Simple Sucka's.

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Hello friends.

Why don't we get right into it? Last week, we looked at some updated data on how to be more selective about your streaming targets according to pitcher handedness. We covered the left-handers last week, so it's time to pivot over to the right side of things. There's only six(ish) weeks still left - there's no time to wait.

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Hello friends.

Pardon my absence these last two weeks, as I've had some family health issues to deal with. But I'm back now, babies, and ready to buckle down for our fantasy stretch run.

With all due respect to hitters and relievers, the most value that'll be found on the wire from now until close will come from streaming pitchers. And by value, I mean the production that can realistically help you catch up (or shore up) certain categories in your quest for a championship. I don't just mean streaming pitchers from the waiver wire, either. The band of pitchers you consider "must starts" will almost necessarily whittle itself down as decisions need to be cut with a knife that's more and more subtle as the season comes to a close.

With that in mind, let's update our previous looks at targeted streaming. That is, paying a more particular mind to which teams should be avoided and targeted according to the pitcher handedness of your possible options.

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Hello friends.

It's almost deadliiiii-ne day! This time next week, massive moves will have been made and many fantasy values will have been greatly shifted. Closer to setup man, starter to platoon, top prospect on a good team to living in a box out behind Comerica. Ahh, summer.

We'll have plenty of buyers but not all will be capital-B, "buyers" because not everyone is a real Contender. Some are only fakes who can't look themselves in the mirror and just admit that they should be looking towards 2025 and beyond instead of hoping to catch some Wild Card magic.

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Hello friends.

Whether you're an old friend from the places I've written before or a new friend for whom our courtship has only recently begun, I think we can all agree on one thing - my writing comes with a certain level of gravitas, only appropriate for the most meditative and consequential discussions. If you won't take fantasy baseball seriously, what's even the point?

So, with irreverence banished far into the sea and with all tongues planted firmly away from any cheek, it's officially time for our most official award show of the year. Officially.

No time for any shenanigans, people - it's the Halfies!

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Hello friends.

We're not yet to the MLB-sanctioned halfway mark but we are past that point going by games played. The biggest prospect names of the preseason have mostly made their way to the bigs but much like time remains undefeated, so too are there always more prospects.

Going by the questions in my weekly chat here at MLBTR (every Monday at 12 pm EST), much attention remains focused on our ever-changing answer of "Who's next?" Who are the next big prospects to get called up but also who are the ones that maybe my league-mates might not be paying attention to? And when?

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Hello friends.

After sashaying our way through the AL graveyard last week, it's time to hit the senior circuit and try to glean what we can about where the new and old fantasy values may lie come the trade deadline.

But here's the thing about the National League - they might only have three or four real championship contenders but they have a whole mess of teams that probably aren't good enough to realistically do any damage in the postseason but aren't so bad that they can sell selling to their fanbase. So, they'll do what mediocre teams like this do every year; be buyers of discounted parts that won't actively change their championship futures, when they should be sellers in a market mostly devoid of great pieces.

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Hello friends.

With the first half nearly in the rearview mirror, it's a good time to go around the league and take the fantasy heartbeats of our 30 possible champions.* Wait, Nicklaus - aren't you jumping the gun quite a bit? Everyone knows the All-Star Break isn't for three weeks, so what are you playing at? Well, real hoopers know that the truth is in the games played, and by that measure, all teams will cross the 81-game threshold by the end of this week, with all but five clubs having already reached 78 games.

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