RotoGraphs is looking for information on the types of leagues that our readers are in order to more specialize the content. Feel free to submit information on one or as many leagues you belong. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Goto the following link to answer the questions. Thanks for your time and we will publish the results soon.

Link to RotoGraphs Reader Survey

Today we will begin to roll out our preseason content in an effort to get you ready for all of your drafts. So that we can remain short and punchy yet also comprehensive, we’ve settled on a certain approach for these next few weeks.

We’re going to dedicate our time to attacking each position one by one. This week, we will cover catchers and first basemen. Those lumbering lumber-swingers will be our focus, and once we debut the combined RotoGraphs rankings, we’ll cover risers, fallers, divers, dippers, lungers and squatters.

In other words, each RG writer will take a different slant at the two positions. Some will talk about the old guys that are sliding down the rankings, others about young guys coming up. We’ll outline some $1 sleepers and some deep league options. We’ll handicap some position battles.

This way, you’ll get many different opinions about one position at a time and we’ll still be able to get you your rankings in time.

Let’s also take this moment to welcome Erik Hahmann (of DRaysBay), Justin Merry (of Basement-Dwellers), Michael Barr (of RotoHardball) and Howard Bender (of FantasyBaseballBuzz) to the RotoGraphs team. We’re excited about this year!

I’m pleased to announce that FanGraphs first publication, The 2010 Second Opinion is now available for sale at the price of $7.95! What you get is a PDF and all the information is also available online through your FanGraphs.com account. Here’s the rundown:

Player Profiles – Over 400 in-depth player profiles written by many of the FanGraphs and RotoGraphs contributors you’re already familiar with.

Articles – Closer situations, players coming back from injuries, sophomore players to watch, 2010 fantasy prospects, impact trades, the big questions for 2010, and something that Carson wrote, where he answers your questions before you even ask them!

Stats & Graphs – Each player profile is accompanied by a stat box with 10 very useful stats for both fantasy and real-life player evaluation including spark graphs showing career trends.

Team Previews – Each team is previewed for next season, giving you the rundown on what to expect from a fantasy and real-life standpoint.

Bonus Material – FanGraphs has partnerned with ESPN Insider this season and if you purchase the PDF, you’ll have access to anything we write for ESPN Insider right here on FanGraphs.com up until March 1st, 2011.

Online Integration – In addition to the PDF, you will have access to all the information in the book on FanGraphs.com when logged in to your FanGraphs account. This information will include the written player profiles which will be integrated into the stats pages and all the articles and team previews in the book.

If you run into any payment problems or other issues please fill out a contact form and we’ll try and solve the problem as soon as possible!

RotoGraphs is now accepting applications for fantasy baseball writers. These are paid, part-time positions that require a commitment of five posts per week. We are specifically looking for writers with knowledge of multiple fantasy formats, who are comfortable with writing strategy-based articles.

Writers may be asked to tackle specific topics as assigned, but a big part of the job is to independently develop interesting topics and ideas on a regular basis. Strong writing skills and the ability to write clean copy are important along with a familiarity of the statistics found on FanGraphs.

To apply, please send us email with your background and why you’d like to write for us. Please include anything you think will be helpful in evaluating your application such as: writing samples, links to current blogs, fantasy experience, resume, etc….

Interested writers can contact us (David Appelman and Marc Hulet) at wanted+rotographs@fangraphs.com with the heading RotoGraphs Application 2010.

Many people have written in to ask for advice on trades. We now have an email address rotographs+mailbag@fangraphs.com specifically (and only) for questions of this nature. This will be a work in progress initially but it will be a collective effort among all people on the RotoGraphs staff.

When you submit to the mailbag, please include all relevant details. We need to know your league parameters. Also, if you are trading different positions, like an outfielder for a pitcher, your other options at both positions are key considerations. Try to give us the most information in the fewest amount of words.

Here’s an example: In a 13-team mixed roto league I was offered Matt Garza for Carlos Lee. I have OF depth to trade Lee and my SP are Beckett, D. Davis, E. Jackson, Meche, Pelfrey, Washburn and Zito. That was 35 words and had all of the necessary information.

We will try to answer as many questions as possible but please understand that it may be impossible to respond to everyone. The first priority will be to interesting proposals that could apply to many different leagues. A two-for-two trade in a 12-team mixed roto league probably will have a better chance of being answered than a five-for-five deal in a 16-team NL-only points league.

Fire away!

The CHONE Projections are now up in the player pages, the projections section, and you can get a customized player list of projections using the MyTeam feature.

Huge thanks to Sean Smith for allowing us to post the projections again this year and don’t forget to check out baseballprojection.com to see any player’s projection in more detail.

They’re here!

The 2009 Bill James Handbook projections are now available on FanGraphs in the individual player pages. Big thanks to Baseball Info Solutions for letting us run these for the 3rd year in a row! If you want the sortable stats version and are not content with seeing one player at a time, you will have to purchase a copy directly from them.

Welcome to RotoGraphs!

Originally FanGraphs was started as a fantasy baseball analysis tool. I use FanGraphs constantly to make decisions in my fantasy baseball league and with a combination of luck and smart moves often prompted by the information available on FanGraphs, I’ve won my league 4 out of the past 5 years.

I have a couple goals for this blog:

1. To make fantasy analysis easy for you. We’ve assembled an excellent team of writers and analysts to break down the numbers for you. Whether you agree with their analysis is up for you to decide, but they will be giving you their unique perspective on players using many of the metrics available on FanGraphs.

2. It’s my hope that as you read the analysis available on this blog, you’ll become more accustom to the style in which we analyze players, prompting you to do your own analysis if you so choose.

Our team of writers consists of (in alphabetical order):

Peter Bendix of beyondtheboxscore.com.
David Golebiewski of ESPN Inside Edge and drivelinemechanics.com
Marc Hulet of baseballanalysts.com and the fangraphs.com blog
Brian Joura of fantasybaseballgenerals.com and newyorkmetsdaily.com

I know baseball season just ended, but it’s never too early to start preparing for next season and we’ll be blogging multiple times a day, about as many players and strategies as possible.