MLB Tool Analysis: Daily Batter Hub
Welcome to the first installment of the MLB Tool Analysis series. Every Thursday, I’ll be highlighting one of our free research tools and will show you how to you can use it to identify players that should be on your radar. If you’re reading this, then you probably already know that RotoGrinders has some of the best free content in the industry. The free daily research tools being offered can do wonders for your bankroll. But how do we best leverage these tools to our advantage?
We are going to start this season’s series off with the Daily Batter Hub. There is a plethora of valuable information in this tool and almost all of my hitter research is done here. I’ll highlight a few of the main areas that I use on a daily basis.
Top wOBA by Position is where I go to first to find the top matchups of the day. The MUwOBA (Match-Up Weighted On Base Average) is a gem of a stat that combines the allowed wOBA of the pitcher, the attained wOBA of the hitter and home/away splits.
In terms of who to target, the average MUwOBA is .320. Over .340 is above average. Over .370 is great and over .400 is the “What are you thinking by not putting this player in your lineup?” stat. I use the MUwOBA stat as a main factor in building cash game lineups, but it’s useful for tournaments too.
I’ll take a look at two positions and let you in on my thought process. For the sake of this example, let’s ignore the names of the players and just look at the MUwOBA. The top outfielder matchup for this slate comes in a .375, which is 20 points higher than the next guy. So this player really jumps out to me as someone who should be in a lot of my lineups regardless of price.
Now taking a look at second base, we can see that none of the hitters are in elite spots to produce for this slate. In this scenario for cash game lineups, I will usually try to punt the position by rostering the cheapest player in the top-10 of this particular matchup. This could also be useful for tournaments, as there might be a high priced stud on this list in a less than ideal matchup that you could potentially roster at a low ownership percentage.
The next tool to look at is the HR predictor. This tool is pretty self-explanatory. It spits out a list of players that have the best percentage to go deep on that particular day. Home runs can make or break your lineups, so it’s always a good idea to find the players with ideal home run matchups.
I like to look for correlations in the MUwOBA charts and the HR probability charts. Coming in with the sixth-best chance to homer on this slate is Luca Duda. If you scroll up you’ll also see his name sandwiched between two high priced players in Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Bautista. Stanton and Bautista will almost always be higher owned because of their name factor. I’ll be the guy rostering the lower priced, lower owned Duda, and you should be too.
The last part of the Daily Batter Hub to look at for today is the Daily Stolen Base predictor. They say “speed kills,” but not in DFS. Speed wins you GPPs. Also, there are almost always a few value plays that have a good chance at a stolen base on that day.
I love this tool because it gives you stolen base allowed percentages for the pitchers when paired with both the starting catcher and the backup. So you can easily see what the matchup looks like depending on which catcher is in the lineup that day.
I’ll take a look at two players and show you how they both have good matchups for stolen bases but for different reasons.
The first is Ben Revere.
Doug Fister comes in with the worst percentage of stolen bases allowed for the slate, so any of the Phillies speed guys need to be considered. Fister’s rating is so bad that Revere is still the top option even with Wilson Ramos’s elite throw out percentage behind the dish.
If you were scared off of Revere by Ramos or any other elite catcher, you could look for matchups like the one that Juan Lagares has. He’s facing Jared Cosart, whose .76 rating isn’t terrible, but it isn’t good either. Pair that with Salty’s inability to throw out base stealers and you have a prime matchup for multiple stolen bases. These are stolen base matchups that I tend to target.
The first MLB tool analysis is in the books. Hopefully, this information will help you in your quest to build a profitable lineup. Have a great weekend and check back next week as I highlight another free RG MLB research tool. As always, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on twitter, @Socky21