Two Great Men in Fantasy Baseball Today

It's always important to give a shout out to the people who make the world a better place... for fantasy baseball. Here are two such men.

Merv Pate, RotoLab

There's a man named Merv. He lives in Texas. He makes software. Fantasy baseball software. Good man. Good software.

...sorry, couldn't resist the urge to talk like a Texan, but it's because Merv Pate makes software the way a good Texan would - he writes it himself and backs up his work - personally. Heck, he'll get on the PHONE with you if you have a question, or even a suggestion. But the real reason you should care about Merv is because RotoLab is frickin awesome. It's an in-draft tool that continually revalues players based on draft inflation - taking into account the inefficiencies of the draft and highlighting your opportunities to get undervalued players.

It customizes everything based on your particular league's parameters. It values players based on the SGP method, which if you're a fantasy geek ,you know is Alex Patton's much lauded technique -used by Art McGee in the Chicago options trader's approach to fantasy baseball. It uses BaseballHQ projections (weekly updates included for HQ subscribers), but everything in the program is tweakable - you can key in your own stats, create your own player "tags" etc. You set stat goals and track your draft progress against them; it's got great searchability and dozens of useful views. It's the ultimate in-draft dashboard tool. And no, he's not a paid sponsor or my uncle.

"It is so CHOICE. If you have the means, I would definitely recommend picking one up."

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Derrick Eckardt, RotoNation

Loyal RotoFeed fans may have noticed a new source of content on TheRotofeed.com - the good stuff from RotoNation, a blog by Derrick Eckardt. I'm celebrating "Tell a Friend About RotoNation Day" right NOW. (You may also do your happy dance.) In all seriousness, Derrick is one of the good guys who's doing fantasy baseball for a living - he's approachable, he gets picked up by big blogs like Deadspin and The Big Lead, and he gets good interviews, like the one he ran with Ron Shandler. And he was nice enough to recommend TheRotoFeed.com to thousands of readers, thereby propelling him to immediate Fantasy Baseball Greatness.


Shout out to both.