RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Podcast

James Anderson is joined by Geoff Pontes of Baseball America to talk about Konnor Griffin and Kevin McGonigle's chances of making the Opening Day roster, which pitching prospects to target in 2026 fantasy baseball leagues and much more!   00:25 Konnor Griffin 09:50 Kevin McGonigle 19:25 Jordan Lawlar 24:40 Caleb Bonemer 27:25 Braden Montgomery 30:00 Dylan Beavers 31:10 Noah Schultz 34:55 Ethan Conrad 36:05 David Hagaman 37:45 Dasan Hill 39:20 Justin Gonzales 43:00 Chase Burns 46:05 Cam Schlittler 48:25 Rhett Lowder 48:55 Logan Henderson 49:40 River Ryan 50:50 Brody Hopkins 54:40 Liam Doyle 01:00:20 College Starters 01:05:05 Roch Cholowsky   Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is the Pocket Aces strategy dead, or just out of favor? Jeff Erickson discuss that talking point amongst their other observations from the LABR 15-team Mixed League draft. --- 00:00 MLB 2-3-26 Podcast 00:30 Jurickson Profar suspension. 07:30 Josh Hader might finally throw off a mound next week. 09:30 Quinn Priester may not be ready for OD. 15:30 Edwin Uceta is unlikely to be ready for OD. 17:30 Royce Lewis should be back in a week. 20:00 Mike Clevinger had a good start. Bubba Chandler has 7 walks in 3 innings. 22:45 Fernando Tatis to bat 3rd or 4th. Xander Bogaerts could bat leadoff. 24:00 Fantrax 24:52 BlueWire 25:00 10 takeaways from LABR and other early drafts 25:30 Fred was the only drafter who selected two SPs in the initial four rounds. Is the Pocket Aces strategy dead? 30:30 Why does no one want the batting average specialists? I thought that Jacob Wilson was the biggest value pick in the draft. Luis Arraez in Rd. 18 is so late too. 35:30 Why does no one believe in prospects? Has Scott Pianowski’s “avoid the shiny new toy” message finally won?! 38:00 Are we overpaying for poor save sources in a bad closer market? The RPs in Rd. 10-13 are a pretty questionable group, either in terms of skills or role. 42:00 Which Rd. 2 picks were the most surprising to you? I see a few. 45:00 Jeff had a steady stream of yellow at the bottom of your draft. Who were your favorites? And were there any that you instantly regretted? 49:30 Fred regretting Shane Bieber 51:15 Fred decided to use the unlimited IL spots to hoard players, much like MLB teams do. \ 53:00 Jose Caballero - do you see a scenario where he remains in a full-time role when Volpe is ready to return? 55:15 We each drafted two players who will likely have a single-digit homer total. How many of these players can you roster without having a problem? --- Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! (hyperlink: https://www.fantrax.com/rotowire) Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff Erickson and Scott Jenstad break down the weekend in spring training and then take a deep dive into a number of starting pitchers being selected after pick 200 in drafts. Among many arms in the range, they discuss their feelings on Shane Baz, Shane McClanahan and Roki Sasaki.   Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeremy Schneider, RotoWire fantasy writer and analyst, breaks down longshot arms to target for strikeouts and wins. He highlights swing-and-miss profiles, rebound candidates, rotation opportunities, and late-draft relievers with high K upside. Short, punchy takes on health risk vs. reward and which pitchers could provide volume-driven win totals.

Ariel Cohen, creator of ATC Projections and Tout Wars H2H champion, joins to explain his projection aggregation and draft discipline. He covers auction tactics, shifting from roto to H2H points, closer vs innings strategies, roster and playoff planning, and notes on players like Giancarlo Stanton, Ryan Weathers, Bryan Woo, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Trevor Megill.

How can you use moving averages and pulled barrel rates to help you win your fantasy league? Jeff Erickson and John Laghezza explain how. --- 00:00 RotoWire MLB Podcast 2-25-26 00:20 Welcome to John Laghezza Host of Corked Stats; TheAthletic; Substack 3x FSWA Award Winner, including this year! 02:15 News: 02:30 Merrill Kelly ruled out for Opening Day 04:40 Samuel Basallo injured at plate 09:00 Max Scherzer back with the Jays 14:00 Francisco Lindor resuming activities soon 16:30 Fantrax 17:30 Pulled Barrels 17:50 What is the stat, and what’s a good baseline? 23:00 Who are some outliers? 23:30 Isaac Paredes 26:00 Stabilization of the stat 31:00 Jeff McNeil 32:15 Bo Naylor 34:45 Matt Wallner 36:00 BlueWire 36:15 “Anti-Fragile” - what does it mean for baseball? 38:00 Velocity Bands for SP’s to predict injuries 44:00 Moving Averages - What are they, how do they apply in draft season? 48:00 Konnor Griffin 49:30 Underdog Strategies / Observations so far --- Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! (hyperlink: https://www.fantrax.com/rotowire) Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John Pausma, a high-stakes NFBC auction specialist, shares his auction war stories and roster-construction approach. They dig into massive closer inflation and its ripple effects. Discussion covers mid-tier closer targets, late-dollar strategies, nomination timing, and finding discounted outfield and pitching values.

Both Jeff Erickson and Fred Zinkie drafted in the LABR 15-team Mixed League draft Monday night, Jeff from the 11th spot and Fred from the 13th spot. They live-streamed the first 12 rounds - see who they drafted! Full draft results are here: https://www.rtsports.com/labr-mixed-draft --- Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! (hyperlink: https://www.fantrax.com/rotowire) Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff Erickson and Scott Jenstad wrap up the first weekend of Spring Training and discuss a number of interesting hitters currently being selected outside the Top 200 in drafts. The break down a numbers of Mets infielders including Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Marcus Semien and also take deep dives into Ramon Laureano, Mickey Moniak and Alec Bohm and many, many other mid to late round hitters.   Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today!     Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ryan Boyer and Todd Zola offer up their favorite steals and saves sleepers, including Luisangel Acuna and Griffin Jax. --- 00:00 Spring Training 5:56 Headlines 18:01 Sal Frelick 19:45 Josh Lowe 21:13 Caleb Durbin 22:49 Masyn Winn 24:19 JJ Wetherholt 26:15 Luisangel Acuna 27:56 Jasson Dominguez 30:11 Jake McCarthy 31:55 Joshua Baez 33:47 Lane Thomas 36:55 Robert Garcia 38:01 Griffin Jax 40:01 JoJo Romero 41:00 Robert Suarez 43:15 Kevin Ginkel/Paul Sewald 44:49 Clayton Beeter 46:20 Jordan Wicks 47:46 Jordan Leasure 49:05 Jose Corniell 50:38 Matt Svanson --- Fantrax Fantrax is the home of fantasy sports. Click here to sign up for Fantrax FREE today! Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code ROTO15 at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.