Author: ADHamley

Since 2002, husband to the most amazing woman I could imagine. Father to one in college and one high school -- smart, challenging kids who are, um, just like I am. Since 1999, high school English and philosophy teacher in the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB's spelling, not mine). Former tennis and quizbowl coach (with 13 state titles in QB -- woo hoo!). Baseball has been my data obsession since I was a kid, spending time organizing and memorizing baseball cards.

Read some of ADHamley's 41 posts

Zen And The Art Of Fantasy Baseball: Anguish

January 24, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball | 4 Comments

by: ADHamley

This game is an exercise in self-inflicted suffering. We make choices for our drafts or lineups, and when those choices don’t work, we suffer (maybe not relative to real life challenges, but still…). But baseball is stupid hard to predict, so we must come to terms with the fact that many of our choices in this game will be flat-out wrong. The job is to make more right ones than wrong ones. And sometimes that means going back and making the same decisions we made last year, this time with hope of a different outcome.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

How Likely Is Jeremy Pena To Repeat His 2025 Value?

December 1, 2025 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

I’m not sure what I expected before diving into Pena’s underlying data, but with a closer look, the reasons for the gains weren’t obvious to see. I’ve tried to make sense of the data below, and ultimately, while it’s possible we’re staring at a bunch of statistical noise, I see enough here to think some real growth may have occurred in Pena’s game.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Should We Buy The Dip On Albies & Volpe After Their Down Year?

September 18, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 1 Comment

by: ADHamley

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard lots of industry chatter about Ozzie Albies and Anthony Volpe. Both have had disappointing seasons, and when established names underperform their draft price in any given season, I’m usually ready to jump in to draft them at the next season’s discount. Prior to this week, though, I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about Albies and Volpe for next year, so I decided to take a closer look at their numbers. Here’s what I found.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Constructing Rosters During A Draft – Or, Why I Probably Don’t Like That One-Carrying-Skill Player As Much As Others Do

September 11, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 1 Comment

by: ADHamley

In Roto, those underlying stats are extremely helpful when I’m in the middle of a season, and I know which categories I need to bolster in order to get the best overall stats across all 10 categories. But what about during draft season? There are no standings then, so we don’t have the ability to look at the SB category and see that we’re only 4 SB away from picking up another point in the standings. In season, when we see a category where it’s possible, even likely to gain points, it’s an easy decision to go get someone from the waiver wire who can get us there without hurting us in other categories. But in the preseason, we are deciding between any number of hypothetical rosters. How do we decide between two players of similar projected $ value?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Maybe It’s Time To Believe What My Eyes Are Seeing: Top 30 Middle Infielders Heading Into The Final 4 Weeks

September 4, 2025 | Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

The last time I put out a rankings list was nearly 2 months ago as we were coming out of the All-Star Break. At that time, I was still hesitant to fully buy in when it came to players who have had unexpectedly good or bad seasons. Well, we’re running out of games to play, so maybe it’s time I come around on some players. As a result, you’ll see some fairly significant movement up and down this week’s ranks.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Looking Ahead To Offseason Drafts: 4 Players I Expect To Be Too Expensive For Me To Draft

August 28, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

Today, I’ll take a look at another tendency of drafters: a willingness to overpay for a big year, or, even worse, for a player in a bounceback year. To that end, I’ll discuss 4 players who have either outplayed their last season draft prices by significant margins or, at the very least, demonstrated a skill (or two) that drafters are often willing to pay up for.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Looking Ahead To Offseason Drafts: 4 Likely Discounts I’m Looking Forward To

August 21, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 8 Comments

by: ADHamley

In reality, it’s probably a little too early to start looking seriously toward next season, but that’s what fantasy degenerates do. On the serious side, thinking through where players are likely to be picked this coming year compared with where they were picked this last year is an extremely valuable exercise in terms of finding potential value to profit from next year. If we can predict an approximate ADP for certain players, we can already determine if those players are going to be interesting to us based on cost. Fantasy leagues are won through the simple act of getting more value for a pick than the ADP would suggest.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Middle Infield Check-In: Three Early-Season Underperformers Who Are Quietly Rebuilding Their Late-Season Value

August 14, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

When players spend the first couple of months of the season falling well short of our expectations, fantasy players are often guilty of just refusing to consider those guys at all for the rest of the season. While it’s understandable to want to refuse to roster any player who really hurt you early, that kind of emotional dismissal might cause us to miss out on good rebounds in the second half that we can get some value from. The three players I’ll discuss today all started slowly for various reasons, and I saw lots of social media buzz about dropping these guys and never looking back. But we might want to take a second look to see if there is still value to be had.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Middle Infielders With New (And Potentially Interesting) Opportunities: Minnesota Twins Fire Sale Edition

August 7, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

Middle infield hasn’t been the easiest place to find gems this season. While the SS player pool feels similar to its usual high quality with the top 10-12 at the position, its depth isn’t there in the same way we’ve seen in recent years. Conversely, while 2B doesn’t offer much ceiling this season, it seems to me a deeper position where I can find surprising help off the waiver wire to fill some stat needs. But it only goes so deep, and all of the usual suspects are widely rostered.

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Mookie Almost Certainly Isn’t Mookie Anymore – Is It Time To Move On From A First Round Pick?

July 31, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

Anyone who has watched Mookie Betts this year can see something is very wrong. Blame this year’s struggles on his preseason virus-related weight loss if you will, but that weight loss and weakness don’t explain away last year’s big dip in performance. Something is different, and it’s bad.

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Upon Further Review: Players I Haven’t Paid Enough Attention To

July 24, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

I’ve based the list of players below on comments from my readers (you know, the ones that say something to the effect of “How could you not include this guy?!?”). I actually really like those types of comments because they make me take a second look at players I may not have given appropriate credit to.

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Waiver Wire Help Coming Out Of The All Star Break: Three Middle Infielders Quietly Putting Up Helpful Numbers

July 17, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball, Players by Position, Second Basemen, Shortstops | 2 Comments

by: ADHamley

By this point in the season, the waiver wire has been foraged repeatedly, so to find help, we’ll need to look deep. Below are three deeper league options that may be able to help, even where you have needs in shallower leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?