For more borderline players, however, if you’re anything like me, you probably watch those guys closely. When they are hot streaks, you love them. And when they go through slumps, it feels like they are single-handedly destroying your team. Feeling the feels is probably fine, but if you’re like me, you probably tend to react, not just feel. If a borderline player is slumping, at the very least, he’s going to be benched. Quite possibly, he’s going to end up on waivers – our faith in those guys is only so big, and our patience with them is often virtually non-existent. But what happens when the guys bounce back? Because skilled players, even if they’re not star level players, almost always bounce back. For those of us who lose faith in borderline players, it’s easy to cut them and never look back. But there are plenty of times when, if we could take a moment to parse through the various “noise” of the long season, we might find that those borderline players who so upset us might be producing very strong numbers. Unfortunately, we don’t notice because we’ve cut them and moved on.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Second Basemen
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Also, in baseball just as in life, the process of aging plays a part. With players who are getting older (in baseball years at least), decline is a real issue. As a result, as fantasy managers, being patient with aging players is harder than it is with young stars like Crow-Armstrong and Rice or players still in their prime like Alvarez. With older guys, when a long, bad streak rears its ugly head, it’s reasonable to wonder if the guy is just washed. Two such players who have piqued my concerns this season are Gleyber Torres (mostly due to injury) and Marcus Semien. Yet, both guys show up on the MLB leader board for runs scored over the last 15-game period. This led me to a deeper dive to find out if there’s value to be had. Here’s what I found.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I tend to firmly make up my mind about certain gaming strategies and player profiles when I play fantasy. In one way, my decisive nature is helpful – I know what I want when I draft a team or sit down to go through FAB, so I can create a plan for obtaining it. But the obvious shortcoming is once I decide a player doesn’t meet the kind of profile I like, I tend to overlook him from that point on. Which of course causes me to miss out on players who are good in ways that I don’t always notice or necessarily understand.
Please, blog, may I have some more?When it comes to fantasy baseball, perhaps our “virtuous” actions are the little parts of the grind – the FAAB, the examining underlying data, the listening to podcasts obsessively (or is that just me). When it comes to actual baseball, perhaps the “virtuous” actions are the little details that players work to correct to take a weakness and turn it into a strength. In both cases, the likely karmic consequence will be increased competitiveness, possibly more money, and a level of contentment with the commitment to getting better.
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 Commentby: 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?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?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?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?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?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 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.
Please, blog, may I have some more?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.
Please, blog, may I have some more?