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Fantasy Baseball: Will April Power Bring More Fantasy Showers?
Hello, friends.
It's a wonderful time of year, with buckets of April showers now forcing a bevy of flowers to bloom at our house, whilst tricking any passerby into thinking master gardeners must live there. In reality, we just bought our house from an old woman who really (really!) liked to garden and had virtually everything automated/dummy-proofed. I'm not even kidding - only a bare minimum of maintenance is required and we spend a couple of months drowning in flowers -- but those silly, passersby don't need to know that, do they? Ruse!
April also brought us new showers of power for fantasy baseball; some old faces, some new. I bet you can't guess who is currently leading the league in home-run rate? Psst...It rhymes with "Jorge Polanco". With every flip of the calendar, our sample sizes to separate the useful wheat from the confusing chaff of statistical noise grow ever larger. Particularly in the land of power, as many batted-ball statistics don't require monster pools of data before we can start naming them possibly significant.
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Read The Transcript Of Nicklaus Gaut’s Fantasy Baseball Chat
Nicklaus Gaut will be talking fantasy baseball with Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers today at 11am central time. Get your question in early or participate in the live event at the link below!
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Fantasy Baseball: All the Streams Fit to Print
Hello, friends.
We're three (ish) weeks in, but more importantly, the Masters are over, so I no longer have to hear that hack, Jim Nantz, continue to rip off my signature catchphrase.
Streaming pitchers in April can be dicey, and not just because of the actual pitchers available. It's also the fact that our roster spaces are likely very limited, unless you've been beset by a bevy of injuries (he said, staring at a roster that includes Shane McClanahan, Reynaldo Lopez, Ranger Suarez, and Nestor Cortes).
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Fantasy Baseball: New Gods?
Hello, friends.
In a sport with as much variance as baseball, there are few highs like those of catching some small-sample lightning early. Whether it's a favorite late-round draft pick currently cashing sleeper checks, or someone you pounced on after they came out of the ether to explode in a way Yoan Moncada only dreams about -- finding early gems is always fun.
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Fantasy Baseball: (Mostly) Everything You Need to Know
Hello, friends.
"Welcome back!" he said, staring into a mirror. Apologies for my absence during literally the most inconvenient month of the year; wrist injuries wait for no man. Or, at least, they made this man wait until he could type with less pain. But we're back, baby -- and we're more Nick than ever?
Well, anything interesting happen recently? Ha! That question was a ruse -- in fact, many interesting things have shaken up the fantasy baseball snowglobe of information we were working with all through the draft season. That's the tough thing about early-season fantasy: Is everything noise, or is anything real? What to react to and what to ignore?
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Fantasy Baseball: Becoming a Fantasy Expert With Two Weird Tricks
Hello friends.
Ooops, I did it again. And by it, I mean went full clickbait on the title. Sorry but it made me laugh.
Do you know what's not a laughing matter, though? Going into your draft feeling unprepared. Or even if you are prepared, not feeling confident in your ability to find the edges that'll let you draft a championship contender. Well, fear not, my friends -- the answers lie within. Clickbait, smlickbait --we're going to teach a couple of easy ways to put you on the road from joe to pro. And there's even a free prize at the bottom of the box.
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Fantasy Baseball: Regression Is A Cruel Mistress
Hello friends.
The Gauts remain buried in Midwest snow and single-digit temps, but the good news is I've become super proficient in virtual learning/hiding from my kids to sneak away to write fantasy nerd stuff. They always find me, though...Always.
Regardless, let me warm up my fantasy soul with some regression-fueled hate. Wait! Hold on; just wait. I know "regression" can be a dirty word for some, as it's too often used as a crutch to explain both the good and the bad. Its disciples can go too heavy with their reliance while the detractors get set against all things analytical and too often throw out all the good with the bad.
Like most things, an extreme path is rarely best. Regression can be good and regression can be bad; it's all relative, baby. Just like we shouldn't assume that a 3.00 xFIP will translate to a 3.00 ERA in the future, we also shouldn't assume a 4.00 xFIP will equal a 4.00 ERA.
No individual number tells the whole story in baseball, but they can serve as markers, good or bad, pointing out areas that may warrant further examination. And while one bad flag doesn't necessarily mean disaster, worry should pile up as the number of red flags mounts.
Let's look at three starters who were excellent last season but have more red flags than a Turkish semaphore team. That's right -- a flag-signaling joke. Deal with it.
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Fantasy Baseball: The Seventh Annual Sleepys (Pitchers)!
Helllo friends.
Happy Valentine's Day! Or, as I like to call it, Happy My Birthday Eve! That's right, y'all -- much like a bearded Cupid, this cherubic lothario was born just a whisper from our Hallmark-created day of lo-oove. Fitting but a little on the nose, if I say so myself.
Any-who. I know you're not here for love-talk, you're ready to mainline some of that hot sleepiness right into your fantasy veins. Well, don't let me hold us back anymore. It's time to get back to America's #1 (probably) fantasy baseball fake award show...
It's the Sleepys!
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Fantasy Baseball: The Seventh Annual Sleepys (Hitters)!
Ya-aawwwwwn. Much like the mighty grizzly bear, I've spent the cold winter months of the midwest hibernating in my west county burrow. The calendar has now flipped to February, though, and I've awakened to see all of the telltale signs heralding the full arrival of fantasy baseball season... Football is finally ending and birds are almost chirping, while dozens of podcasts extensively extol the virtues of the same seven players. And just yesterday, Eno Sarris emerged from his local craft brewery and saw his own merm's shadow, officially ushering in 30 more weeks of content. Huzzah!
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