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

Guest: Mike Gianella

Strategy Section

• Kentucky Derby Style (KDS) Draft Order
  • Which draft slot is most similar to an auction?
  • General preferences for slot selection
  • 2023 preferences for slot selection
• Middle Infielders
  • The shortstop and second base player pools
    • SS – Deep
    • 2B – Wide Bottom
  • Do you need to draft stolen bases from the middle infield position?
  • Jon Berti
  • Adalberto Mondesi
  • Bounceback middle infield candidates

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

ATC Undervalued Players

• Middle Infielders
  • Amed Rosario
  • Gleyber Torres
  • Jorge Polanco
  • Vaughn Grissom
  • Ketel Marte
  • Brendan Rodgers
  • Ezequiel Tovar
  • Luis Garcia
  • Nick Gordon

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

Guest: Frank Stampfl

Strategy Section

• Personal goals for 2023
• How the projections are handling the new rule changes
• Stolen bases increase for 2023
• Starting pitcher strategy for 2023
  • The 3 1A Strategy
• Justin Verlander
• Tyler Glasnow
• Corner Infielders
  • Players who will gain value from switching teams / change of scenery
  • Definition of a “shallow” position
  • Third Base strategy for 2023
  • The corner infield conundrum

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

ATC Undervalued Players

• Corner Infielders
  • Christian Walker
  • Rowdy Tellez
  • Alec Bohm
  • Ryan McMahon
  • Josh Naylor
  • Yandy Diaz
  • Wil Myers
  • Jared Walsh

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

Guest: Phil Dussault

Strategy Section

• Draft Preparation
  • How to prepare for drafts
  • When to adjust projections
  • What news to look out for
  • Should you have a “do not draft” or “only draft from” list?
  • Should you plan draft picks for particular rounds?
    • Creating a map
    • Does it change depending upon your particular draft slot?
• Risk
  • Should you stay away from injury prone players?
    • Should you especially stay away from risky pitchers?
  • How to discount players for risk
  • Should one be super conservative in the early rounds?
  • Are leagues won by taking risks early on, middle or late in drafts?
    • At what point in the draft should you start to switch from being more conservative to seeking out more risks?
  • Types of risk that often do / do not work out
  • Pricing starting pitchers returning from injury
• FAAB
  • Which is more important – the draft or the weekly waiver wire grind?
  • How to know who to pick up each week
    • Identifying save candidates before they are closers
  • How to know who to drop each week
  • Learning from one league to the next
  • Learning fron friends
• Multi-positional players
  • Value in various fantasy formats
  • How to utilize
• Streaming pitchers
  • Should we be streaming pitchers in 2023?
  • How should one alter their draft to avoid streaming pitchers?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

1st & 2nd Round

• Overvalued Players
• Undervalued Players
• How to value Shohei Ohtani for 2023

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

Guest: Vlad Sedler

Projections

• VDP Projections
• ATC Projections

Strategy Section

• Risk
  • How to price players with risk
  • Is there a limit to the amount of risk you can assemble on one fantay roster?
• Closers
  • The arguments for and against drafting a super elite closer in the 2nd round
• Catchers
  • General assesment of the catcher player pool
  • General strategy for drafting catchers in 2023

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

ATC Undervalued Players

• Catchers
  • Willson Contreras
  • Sean Murphy
  • Danny Jansen
  • Cal Raleigh
  • Logan O’Hoppe

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The 101st episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Matt Mervis, Cubs

Interview

• Arizona Fall League 2022
  • The experience
  • Undervalued players
• The most influenctial person in Matt’s career
• How Matt signed with the Cubs
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• Analytics / tools used to prepare for games
• Is preparation about harnessing stregnths, fixing flaws or exploiting opponents’ weaknesses?
• World Baseball Classic
  • Team Israel
• How will the new MLB rules affect the game (banning the shift, pitch clock, etc.)?
• Goals for the 2023 season
• Undervalued players in the Cubs organization
• Plans until spring training
  • Cubs Con
  • Duke First Pitch Banquet
• Major league players that Matt loved watching growing up

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The 100th episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Vinnie Pasquantino, Kansas City Royals

Interview

• Highlight of career thus far
• Difference between major leagues, minor leagues and college
• Analytics / tools used to prepare for games
• Is preparation about harnessing stregnths, fixing flaws or exploiting opponents’ weaknesses?
• Goals for the 2023 season
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• How or will Vinnie change his batting approach without the shift?
• Why did left handed hitters not attempt to bunt against the shift?
• How important is it to interact with the fans on social media?
• Who is an undervalued player on the Royals?
• The most influenctial people in Vinnie’s career
• Vinnie’s love of Vinny Testaverde and the Jets
• The toughest pitcher that Vinny has faced in the majors
  • What makes Justin Verlander so good?

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

Guest: Danielle McCartan (WFAN, NY)

Latest on the Carlos Correa saga

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

New York Mets

• What are the Mets still missing for 2023?
• How will the Mets catching situation shake out in 2023?
  • What are the plans for prospect Francisco Alvarez?
• How will Tylor Megill and David Peterson fit into the Mets plans for 2023?
  • What will be their roles?
• Kodai Senga
• Could Shohei Ohtani sign with / be traded to the Mets??

New York Yankees

• What are the Yankees still missing for 2023?
• How will the shortstop playing time shake out this year?
  • Who will be the opening day SS?
•  Who will be the Yankees’ closer in 2023?
  • How will the saves shake out?
  • Undervalued for 2023: Tommy Kahnle
• What will the Yankees do with Aaron Hicks this season?
• Will Gerrit Cole’s HR rate rebound?

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

Guest: Steve Phillips, Former New York Mets General Manager

Interview

• How has the General Manager’s job changed since the late 90s?
  • How has the use of analytics changed?
  • Do ballclubs still use any quick simple stats (ERA, wRC+ etc.), or do they use complicated arrays of stats?
• Has the recent free agent signings alligned with new age analytics, or have we gone back to the older style supply/demand economics and marketing?
• Which teams and players have been the winners of winter meetings / free agent signings?
  • Are the Yankees losers of the Winter Meetings (since the team hasn’t improved on paper)
• Which player has more risk for 2023 – Justin Verlander or Jacob deGrom?
• Will there be any reprecussions of the Mets going over the highest luxury tax penalty level? Is this good for Major League Baseball?
• Potential free agent contracts for Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in 2024.
• New Major League Baseball rules
  • Are these good for baseball?
  • What are some effects?
    • Will pitchers change their repitoires?
    • Will / how will infields & outfields start to shift?

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The Pitch Clock Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Andy Andres

Strategy Section

• Large free agent pitcher signings
• Who has more risk – Justin Verlander or Jacob deGrom?
• 185+ IP Pitchers
• Do we need to take an ace starting pitcher in drafts?
• Will streaming be a poor in-season strategy in 2023?

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

Guests: Tristan Cockcroft & Derek Carty

2023 Projections

• How will projections handle the new MLB rule changes?
  • Hits due to banning the shift
  • Stolen Bases
  • Balanced Schedule
• Will fantasy players overreact to the changes?
• How did 2022 projections handle the universal DH?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Strategy Section

• What makes a risky player?
  • Can we determine / quantify player risk?
    • ATC Parameter Risk
• Should we be avoiding risk more in drafts, particularly in the early rounds?
  • Should reliable Freddie Freeman be a top-6 draft pick?
• Should risk be looked at on the (fantasy) team aggregate level, or only on an individual player basis?
  • Mike Podhorzer’s risky LABR team
• Corner Infielders in 2022 – Where was the value?
  • Where will the value be for corner infielders in 2023?

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