The Middle Infield episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Chris Towers

Strategy Section

• League format differences
  • How would your draft strategy change between?
    • Rotisserie (Roto) vs. HTH Points vs. HTH Categories
    • Waiver wire leagues vs. non-waiver wire (Draft Champions / Draft & Hold) leagues
    • Having IL slots vs. no IL slots
    • Large bench vs. small bench
    • Trading vs. non-trading leagues
    • Daily lineups vs. weekly lineups
• Middle Infielders
  • General player pool observations
  • Jacob Wilson as a fantasy starting shortstop
  • Which statistics should you look to draft from the MI position?

ATC Undervalued Middle Infielders

• Jeremy Pena
• Brice Turang
• Trevor Story
• Willy Adames
• Dansby Swanson
• Ezequiel Tovar
• Gleyber Torres
• Xander Bogaerts
• Masyn Winn
• Andrés Giménez
• Other honerable mentions

Injury Update

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The Corner Infield episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Mike Gianella

Strategy Section

• Multi-positional eligible players
  • Importance & use
  • Should you make a “do not draft” list?
  • Target multi-positional players? Or is it simply a tie-breaker?
  • How to value players who are expected to gain additional positional eligibility early on in the season?
• Colorado Rockies nostalgia
• Shallow vs. Deep positions
  • What is the weakest position this draft season?
• Narrow vs. Wide positions
• Corner Infielders
  • General player pool observations
  • Which statistics should you look to draft from the CI position?

ATC Undervalued Corner Infielders

• Freddie Freeman
• Yandy Díaz
• Alec Burleson
• Luis Arraez
• Alec Bohm
• Jake Burger
• Nolan Schanuel
• Miguel Vargas
• Andrew Vaughn
• Other honerable mentions

Injury Update

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The Player Analysis episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Lance Brozdowski

Personal History

• The future of Statcast broadcasts

Recent News

• Recent free agent signings
  • Kyle Tucker
  • Bo Bichette
• Will we see more short term / with opt outs / high AAV contracts going forward?

ATC Projections

• Accounting for fluke seasons
• Making adjustments to the projections
• Using the ATC Projections

Player Analysis

• Should we pay attention to players who “went to driveline?”
• Potential rookie pitcher breakouts
  • Trey Yesavage
  • Jonah Tong
  • Payton Tolle
  • Bubba Chandler
• Changes in pitchers’ pitch mix
  • Trends for 2026
  • The future of projections
  • Will pitchers focus on their best pitch, or spread around the mix more?
• Using Stuff+
• Using Bat speed
  • Minors vs. Majors

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The Catcher episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Ron Shandler

Fantasy Reconstructed

Strategy Section

• How do you prepare for fantasy baseball drafts?
  • Broad Assessment Balance Sheet (BABS)
    • BABS Risk Budget
  • Should you make a “do not draft” list?
• Risk
  • Precision vs. imprecision of fantasy baseball pricing
  • Evaluating player uncertainty
• Auction tactics – Ariel vs. Ron
  • DEBATE !
  • Pricing methods
  • Nomination strategy
• Drafting
  • “ADP Chicken”
  • How closely do you look at other teams’ rosters during drafts?
• Catchers
  • The catcher “bump” in pricing
  • This year’s catcher player pool and value distribution
  • Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • Where should you take Cal Raleigh in drafts?
  • Strategy differences between 2 catcher and 1 catcher leagues

BREAKING NEWS

• Kyle Tucker signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers

ATC Undervalued Catchers

• Salvador Perez
• Will Smith
• Alejandro Kirk
• Ryan Jeffers
• Bo Naylor

Injury Update

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The LIVE from First Pitch Arizona 2025! episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guests: Derek Carty & Tristan Cockcroft

Strategy Section

• Projections
  • Are projections more accurate in this more steady state of baseball?
  • Are projections more important to use than ever?
    • ADP is getting smarter
  • What are the best reasons to ignore projections?
  • Are postseason stats factored into projections?
• Outstanding rookies/prospects – 2026 outlook & drafts
  • Trey Yesavage
  • Cam Schlittler
• 2025 Postseason
  • World series wrap-up
  • Shohei Ohtani
    • All time game performance
    • 2026 outlook
• Stolen bases
  • Juan Soto & Josh Naylor
    • How many stolen bases will they regress to in 2026?
  • How can you identify players that will suddenly have a jump in stolen bases?
  • Do you have to “pay for steals” anymore in fanatsy baseball drafts?
    • Do you now have to “pay” for power in drafts?
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• Aaron Judge
  • Are the Yankees wasting Judge’s best years?
  • Comparison to Albert Pujols
• Cal Raleigh
  • What round should Raleigh be drafted in?
  • What round will Raleigh be drafted in?
  • What rounds should you be drafting catchers in two catcher leagues?
• Injury Risk
  • Were we too low on the players that overcame injury risk in 2025 (Buxton, deGrom, Story, etc.)?
  • Yordan Alvarez & Spencer Strider – where should we be drafting them in 2026?
  • Expectations for pitchers who had a big innings jump in 2025
    • Yoshinobu Yamamoto
    • Bryan Woo
    • Garrett Crochet
  • How should last year’s innings totals be factored into 2026 innings projections?
  • Other injury risk pitchers for 2026

Audience Questions

2026 First Round

• Who is a player that will be drafted in the first round of 2026 that is undervalued?
• Who is a player that will be drafted in the first round of 2026 that is overvalued?
• Who is a player that will not be drafted in the first round of 2026 that should be?

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The Last Two Weeks episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Lauren Auerbach

Strategy Section

• Head to Head Points Leagues
  • Draft/Auction strategy heading into 2025
  • In-season strategy
  • What is overvalued and undervalued in points leagues?
  • How to prepare for playoffs
• Last two weeks of the season
  • How to know when to drop a player?
  • What to look for on the waiver wire?
  • Should you block other teams from acquiring players?
  • How to manage FAAB dollars in the final two weeks of the season?
  • How to manage ratio categories vs. volume in the final weeks?
  • How to use prospects in the final two weeks

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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The Dog Days of Summer episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Sara Sanchez

League Updates

Strategy Section

• Dog Days of Summer (late August) Strategy
  • Riding the hot hand
  • How much should you be churning your roster?
  • Which categories should you focus on?
  • How to know when to drop currently injured players?
  • Does current fantasy standing matter for making decisions?
  • Does team MLB standing matter for picking up players?

Chicago Cubs

• Rotation
• Pete Crow-Armstrong
  • Regression
  • 2026 draft season value
• Owen Caissie
• 2025 playoff chances

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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The Auction Championship episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Mike Mager

Strategy Section

• NFBC Strategy
  • What sets the NFBC apart from others?
  • Key components to winning
  • Evaluating players BEFORE looking at projections
  • Which is more important – the draft or in-season play?
  • What goes into lineup setting?
  • How do you prevent overthinking decisions?
  • Are there certain category statistics that you need to solidify early in the year?
  • Are there certain category statistics that you can wait on and pick up in-season?
  • How does strategy change year to year?
  • Auction planning
  • Today’s game
    • Pitching strategy in today’s game
    • Are there sleepers anymore?
• Waiver Wire / FAAB
  • Interaction with the current week’s lineup setting
  • Putting in the time
• Fantasy partnership
  • What makes a successful fantasy partnership?
  • Splitting up tasks

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Buy/Sell/Hold

• Hot Players
  • Nathan Lukes
  • Dominic Smith
  • Miguel Andujar
  • Luke Keaschall

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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The Trade Deadline episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Eric Cross

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Trade Deadline Deals

• Players traded
• Prospect return analysis
• Lineup changes
• New closer roles
• Fantasy impact
• Fantasy strategy

Prospects

• Top impact prospects to know for 2025

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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The Mid-Season episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Ray Murphy

LABR Update

First Pitch Arizona

Strategy Section

• 1st Half Recap
  • 1st Half Studs
    • Pete Crow-Armstrong
      • Regression – Should he / will he be drafted in the 1st round next year?
    • Cal Raleigh
      • Catcher strategy
  • 1st Half Duds
  • All-Star Game
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • Shortstops
• 1st Half Takes
• 2nd Half Predictions
• Trading Deadline
  • Should you make fantasy trades in advance of the trade deadline?
  • Should you make fantasy waiver pickups in advance of the trade deadline?
    • Closer speculations
  • How do you handle some active roster decisions and waiver decisions post trade deadline?

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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