Derek VanRiper

Wisconsin

Executive Producer, Podcasts at The Athletic

Executive Producer, Podcasts @TheAthletic | Rates & Barrels | (he/him)

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Articles

Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. top the order

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

The schedule is filling up with drafts, and thanks to another overseas start to the MLB season - Dodgers-Cubs for a two-game series in Japan - we'll have baseball games that count in just two weeks (March 18-19). This time of year, the softest part of the hitter rankings list for 2025 is the bottom 100, where your team's late-round needs will guide your preferences and decisions more effectively than rigidly adhering to the order in which I've listed these players.
Looking ahead to 2025, including a 'too early' draft

Aug 23, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

If you're excited about fantasy baseball in the second half of August, you're likely in at least one of these groups:Contending to win a championshipIn range of cashing with one or more teamsGenerally awesomeEven as the current season winds down, the mind drifts to the clean slate that awaits us when the final tallies for 2024 have been registered.
Raw power is fun, but does it help us dream on a player's potential?

Aug 12, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

We're 10 years into having Statcast at our finger tips to analyze baseball in a more granular way than most of us could have dreamed of. The Statcast metric I continue to waver about is maximum exit velocity (Max EV), which Eno Sarris once referred to as a way to quantify the raw power we see graded for players on the 20-80 scale. Max EV is fun, that much I'm sure of, and hitting baseballs harder than anyone else on the planet is undoubtedly cool.
Trade deadline winners, and the best rotation trios in baseball

Aug 4, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

The curtain is raising for the third and final act of the 2024 fantasy baseball season. It's another important weekend for pickups - especially in mono leagues with the new arrivals to each league's player pool - launching us into the final two months, where surprising endgame contributors are waiting just around the corner to help carry us to championships.
Francisco Lindor's HOF resume, Paul Skenes' case as the top starter for 2025 and more

Jul 14, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

Maybe this answer was in front of us all along. To begin the week, we asked: Who is the next Hunter Brown? The goal of the question was to find pitchers currently performing at a level so low that managers in shallow leagues would be willing to drop them, but with enough raw talent and rebound potential to be a difference maker in the second half of the season.
Looking back at the past calendar year, and turning the page to the second half

Jul 3, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

13.1 miles down, 13.1 miles to go. I've never run a real marathon, but as far as keyboard athletics go, fantasy baseball season ticks that box nicely. My recurring mid-summer wish is a normalization of July second-half drafts. In fact, I think second-chance drafts could take off in other fantasy sports as well. Draft day is the best singular day of the year in most situations, so why not add to the fun?
Trusting your eyes vs. trusting the numbers, re-thinking Nats pitching and more

Jun 21, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

As we approach the mid-way point of the 2024 season, the tension between rest-of-season projections and outliers (in both directions) increases. Across our rosters, we are often wrestling with the differences between the actual production that we've seen this season, the projection generated for the rest of this season, and the previous expectations we had for a player (the initial season projection).
From Bobby Witt Jr. to Ben Rice

Jun 18, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

As the midpoint of the 2024 season approaches, it's time for another update to our hitter rankings. The most challenging ranks are players that are still relatively "new'"to the pool like David Fry and Spencer Horwitz, and the early-rounders still underperforming their projection now that we've moved into the back half of June (i.e. Bo Bichette and Manny Machado).
The end of an era, Gunnar Henderson's ascent to stardom, and don't-buy bats

Jun 13, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

I wanted to begin this week's recap by taking a moment for a quick farewell to our friend Nando Di Fino, who has left The Athletic for a new opportunity. As long as there has been fantasy coverage on this site, Nando was leading it, bringing in great writers and constantly pushing to try new things while working with a massive newsroom to build friendships and collaborate in ways that few people can. Anyone with leadership experience knows that getting buy-in from a large team is tough.
Heeding your midseason problems, unexpected steals and more

May 31, 2024 | nytimes.com | Derek VanRiper

With the first two months and change in the books, and plenty of season left to play, it's helpful to have a record of the problems you are encountering at this point of the season. If you were adamant about getting a strong speed base with your first few hitter selections, did you find enough power in the rest of the draft to get the balanced squad you were aiming for?