The 1st & 2nd Rounds episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Frank Stampfl

Strategy Section

• Fantasy baseball resources
• Looking back at last year’s fantasy teams
  • Learning year over year
• Do not draft lists?
• Risk adjusting player prices
• Limiting aggregate risk on a fantasy roster
• Year over year consistency
• Drafting inexperienced players in early rounds
  • Elly De La Cruz
  • Corbin Carroll

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

1st & 2nd Rounds

• What should you accomplish in your first 2 picks?
  • Draft certain stats or a certain type of player?
• Do you need to draft an ace starting pitcher in the first 2 rounds?
  • When should you draft Spencer Strider?
• Overvalued players in the first 2 rounds
• Undervalued players in the first 2 rounds
• Other players who should be drafted in the first 2 rounds
• Ronald Acuna Jr. is #1
  • This year’s KDS should universally start with #1
  • Who to draft at #2?

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

Guest: Jacob Steinmetz (Arizona Diamondbacks)

Interview

• Personal history
• Milestone ages – 70 MPH, 80 MPH, 90 MPH
• Getting noticed in high school
• Experiences as a first year minor league ballplayer
• Goals for 2023
• Goals for 2024
• Experience of being drafted
  • Mazel “lucky” draft slot
• Turning professional vs. heading to college decision
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• Playing for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic
• Experience as the first Orthodox Jewish players drafted by a major league team
• Major league players that have influenced Jacob the most
• Jacob’s father’s influence (Elliot Steinmetz)
• The Arizona Diamondbacks organization
  • Coaching
  • Analytics
  • Development
• Sticky stuff
• Changes in the 2023 MLB rules
• Robo umpires / Challenge system
• Softball advice for Ariel

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

Guest: Rob Friedman

Interview

• How did Pitching Ninja come about?
• When did you realize that you’ve made it to the big time?
• Major league pitchers benefiting from watching and interacting with Pitching Ninja
• What is the difference beteween a sweeper and a slider?
• The effect of the new rule changes on baseball and on pitching
  • The incerase of performance variance between starts
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • Swinging strike rates
  • Called strike rates
• How will swinging strike rates fare in 2024?
• Are batters trying to put the ball more in play, or are still swinging for the fences?
• How is a GIF pronounced?
• What is the most important aspect of analytics for pitchers these days?
• What has been Pitching Ninja’s impact on the fantasy baseball world?

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

Guests: Tristan Cockcroft & Derek Carty

Strategy Section

• Which is more important – the draft or in-season moves?
• Is it more important than ever to bank low-risk players in the early rounds of drafts?
• What makes a risky / consistent player?
  • Is Shohei Ohtani risky for 2024 as a hitter?
  • Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • How should we determine what constitutes a consistent player, and how should we value consistency?
• Young players
  • Should we be cautious to roster young players with limited experience?
  • How should we value the playoff experience of young players?
• Stolen base landscape
  • How should we value SBs in 2024 drafts?
• Closers
  • Optimal strategy in retrospect for 2023
  • Prospective strategy heading into 2024
  • Should we be drafting middle relievers?

2024 First Round

• Who is a player that will be drafted in the first round of 2024 that is undervalued?
• Who is a player that will be drafted in the first round of 2024 that is overvalued?
• Who is a player that will not be drafted in the first round of 2024 that should be?

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

Strategy Section

• Last Weeks Strategy
  • Gaining in categories vs. Defending in categories
  • Marginal categories
  • Ratio categories strategy
    • Number of starters vs. number of relievers
    • Balancing with quantity stats
  • Chasing wins
  • FAAB Bidding
  • Game 163

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

Guest: Patrick Davitt

Strategy Section – Last Month

• Categories
  • Which categories can fluctuate more in the final month of the season?
• FAAB
  • How to manage FAAB in the final month of the season?
    • How does the first 5 months affect the final month FAAB?
    • Purchasing power
  • Leftover FAAB vs leftover auction dollars
• Lineups
  • Should you be churning your roster more in the final month of the season?
• Injuries
  • How to determine the right time to drop injured players (in the final month), and does it matter what caliber of player it is?
  • 50% Rule
  • Player examples
    • Joe Musgrove
    • Kyle Wright
    • Felix Bautista
    • Alek Manoah

Strategy Section – Drafts

• Draft strategies that went right in 2023
• Draft strategies that went wrong in 2023
• Taking injury risk players in drafts
  • Is Aaron Judge worth the risk in 2024 drafts?
  • Hitters vs. Pitchers

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

Guest: Scott Chu

Expert League Update

• Expert League Updates
• Players that worked out this season
• Players that busted this season

Strategy Section

• Time management
  • Bare minimum tasks
  • Important tasks
  • Nice to haves
• Important uses of time
  • Deep dives
    • Pre-season vs. in-season
  • Consuming fantasy content
  • Looking at standings, categories
  • Trading
• Ethics of competing towards the end

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

Guest: Andrea Arcadipane

Strategy Section

• How to do an in-depth player analysis
  • What stats / components to look for
  • Hitters vs. Pitchers
  • Pre-season vs. in-season
  • Veterans vs. Rookies
• How to detect undervalued players for stolen bases
  • Players who read pitchers well
  • Organizational philosophies
  • Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • Pitchers who are easy to run on
  • Catchers who are easy / difficult to run on

Trade Deadline Wrap-up

• Quick thoughts
• Major prospects traded
• Players who gained or lost value as a result of the MLB deadline deals
  • NL East
  • NL Central
  • NL West
  • AL East
  • AL Central
  • AL West

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

Guest: Clay Link

Strategy Section

• Setting Lineups
  • General points of what to look for when setting your fantasy lineups
  • Streakiness
  • Sitting struggling starters
  • Looking at matchups
  • • 2-Start Pitchers
  • When to consider category standings while setting your lineups?
  • Protecting pitcher ratios in roto
  • How to use Shohei Ohtani?
  • When to look at the “overall contest” categories vs. league specific ones in the NFBC.

Trade Deadline Deals

• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• News and fantasy analysis of recent MLB deadline deals
  • Reaction to the Los Angeles Angels becoming “buyers.”
  • Other potential players who may be traded
  • Who to pick up in fantasy in anticipation of trades?

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

Guest: Kevin Hasting

Strategy Section

• MLB Trade Deadline Strategy
  • Planning your roster for the MLB trade deadline
  • Trading players on your fantasy team
    • Which is more accretive – pre or post MLB trade deadline?
  • Waiver Wire
    • Is it worthwhile to speculate on MLB players who could gain value from being traded?
    • Who ends up gaining more post trade deadline – the player being traded, or the player gaining playing time by filling a void?
  • Big name player trades
    • Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
    • Is the change in value due to the change in venue sizeable / worthwhile to consider?
    • Should we impose a value penalty on players due to changing their environments / organizations mid-season?
    • Pitcher arsenal changes post-trades
• Players likely to be traded from MLB teams that will be “sellers”
  • Cardinals
  • Royals
  • Pirates
  • Mets
• How long should you hold players on your roster after they lose playing time / role?
• NFBC semi-weekly roster setting
  • Maintaining roster flexibiltiy due to injury
  • Alternative format discussion
  • Using the utility spot properly

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