On the Block
A trade-deadline companion for MLB fans and fantasy players that turns rumors into plain-English impact — what a move means for the team's lineup, payroll, and your fantasy roster.
MLB fans and fantasy baseball managers who obsess over the July trade deadline and want one trusted feed instead of 12 browser tabs
- Personalized rumor stream: filter to teams you follow and only see names from confirmed reporters
- Per-rumor impact card — projected lineup shift, payroll delta, prospect cost, and a 'fit score' for the buyer's park
- Fantasy mode: paste your roster once, get an alert every time a rumored move affects a player on your team (start/sit vs trade-bump boost)
- Deadline-day push mode with 60-minute digest of late-breaking moves and waiver tips
The trend query for Ryan O'Hearn is a stand-in for the entire Astros-trade-targets piece (500+ US searches) — fans want interpretation, not just names — and MLB's July deadline is the single biggest engagement spike of the season.
MLB Trade Rumors and dedicated deadline trackers draw heavy seasonal traffic; trade-deadline fantasy impact articles are produced by multiple major outlets, validating the 'fans want interpretation not just names' framing.MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com ↗MLB Trade Deadline: Track Every Deal and Its Fantasy ... - RotoWire ↗
The market is crowded: MLBTradeRumors.com owns rumor aggregation, and FantasyPros, RotoBaller, Fantasy Alarm and RotoWire all already publish deadline trackers plus fantasy trade/impact analyzers — this idea is a re-skinned version of an established niche, not a wide-open space.MLB Trade Deadline 2025: Key Deals, Fantasy Baseball Impact & Winners ↗Trade Analyzer - FantasyPros ↗
Proven willingness to pay for MLB fantasy tools — Yahoo Fantasy Plus at ~$2.92/mo and tiered FantasyPros/EV Analytics premiums — but a deadline-only product struggles with retention and LTV since usage spikes for ~3 weeks/year.Premium Fantasy Sports Tools That Give You an Edge - Yahoo! ↗Premium Subscription Prices and Plans | Upgrade at FantasyPros ↗
Heavy seasonality: ~90% of usage concentrated around July 31 deadline; extending into offseason free agency, prospect rankings, and spring training is plausible but competing against entrenched MLBTradeRumors year-round coverage limits durability.
Technically straightforward to build with off-the-shelf LLM summarization over public rumor feeds (MLBTradeRumors, Twitter/X beat reporters) plus fantasy APIs, though real-time accuracy on rumored (not completed) deals is a real ML challenge.