Beat the Shift Podcast – FAAB Episode w/ Todd Zola

by
January 15, 2021

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

Guest: Todd Zola of Mastersball, ESPN & RotoWire

Park Factors

  • What are park factors, and how they are calculated? What do they capture?
  • The effect of the humidor.
  • Park factors for unknown situations.
  • Park factors for free agents.

Projections

  • How projections are treating the uncertainty surrounding the DH (for the National League) in the upcoming season.

Auction Valuation

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  • Standings Gain Points (SGP) vs. Z-Scores (Standard Deviations) vs. Percent Value Method (PVM)
    • What are they, and how they differ.
    • Pros and cons of each method.
  • Multi-Positional Eligibility
    • How to valuate players who accrue eligibility at multiple positions.
    • Should these players be pushed up in drafts?
    • For which game formats are players with multi-positional eligibility more valuable?

Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB)

  • How was FAAB different in 2020? Should some of these lessons carry over to 2021?
  • Handling uncertainty due to COVID.
  • How to allocate/budget FAAB during the season.
  • Return on Investment as it relates to FAAB.
  • Should FAAB be used more to take advantage of the schedule, to find high skilled players, or to acquire needed statistics?

Mailbag

Injury Update – Reuven gives us the injury updates.

 

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Ariel is the 2019 FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year. Ariel is also the winner of the 2020 FSWA Baseball Article of the Year award. He is the creator of the ATC (Average Total Cost) Projection System. Ariel was ranked by FantasyPros as the #1 fantasy baseball expert in 2019. His ATC Projections were ranked as the #1 most accurate projection system over the past three years (2019-2021). Ariel also writes for CBS Sports, SportsLine, RotoBaller, and is the host of the Beat the Shift Podcast (@Beat_Shift_Pod). Ariel is a member of the inaugural Tout Wars Draft & Hold league, a member of the inaugural Mixed LABR Auction league and plays high stakes contests in the NFBC. Ariel is the 2020 Tout Wars Head to Head League Champion. Ariel Cohen is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). He is a Vice President of Risk Management for a large international insurance and reinsurance company. Follow Ariel on Twitter at @ATCNY.

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shakeappealMember since 2020
4 years ago

This is the best episode of a fantasy baseball podcast I’ve heard in a while. Loved Todd’s thoughts on auction valuations.

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Ariel CohenFanGraphs Staff
4 years ago
Reply to  shakeappeal

Thank you very much!

We try to do a great job every episode in getting the best guests in the industry to discuss advanced strategies and other things you can’t find anywhere else!

Thanks so much for listening!

1