The Starting Pitcher episode (Part 2) of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Eno Sarris

Pitching+, Stuff+, Command+

Strategy Section

• Effects of new MLB rule changes on pitchers
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• Risk
  • Valuing pitchers returning from injury
    • Chris Sale
    • Jacob deGrom
    • Tyler Glasnow
  • Valuing older pitchers with lots of mileage on their arms
• Shohei Othani
  • Is there extra risk asscociated with rostering the two-way player?
• Starting pitcher strategy
  • General landscape
  • Do you need to draft an ace pitcher in fantasy?
  • Should we avoid the waiver wire for starting pitchers?
    • Should we avoid streaming SPs?
  • Should we tilt the Hitter/Pitcher % split more towards pitching?
  • Should we use more bench slots for starting pitchers this year?
  • Should we be chasing any of the following?
    • Wins
    • Innings
    • High IP / GS
    • Pitchers on good teams

ATC Undervalued Players

• Starting Pitchers
  • Aaron Nola
  • Shane Bieber
  • Kevin Gausman

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Starting Pitcher episode (Part 1) of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Nick Pollack

Pitch Level Value (PLV)

Strategy Section

• Role changes
• New pitches
• Pitch mix changes
• Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
• What can we learn about pitchers from spring training?
• Valuation of foreign pitchers
  • Kodai Senga

ATC Undervalued Players

• Starting Pitchers
  • Luis Severino
  • George Kirby
  • Jeffrey Springs
  • Drew Rasmussen
  • Chris Bassitt
  • Pablo Lopez
  • Alex Cobb
  • Alex Wood
  • Steven Matz

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Guest: Steve Gardner

2023 LABR Auctions

Strategy Section

• General Auction Preparation
  • How does it differ from snake drafts?
• Position scarcity in auctions & punting
• Live auctions vs. online auctions
• Mono league auctions
• How does auction strategy and future FAAB spending tie in together?
• How should you prepare yourself mentally for the auction?
• What should you do during auction breaks?
• Scouting other league members
  • How does this affect the way that you should auction?
• How to create auction values & strike prices
  • When should you bid over your values?
• How much should you spend on hitting vs. pitching?
• Stars & Scrubs vs. Spread the Risk
• In-draft adjustments
  • In-draft inflation
• Nominations
  • How do you determine who you should nominate next?
  • Controlling a room with nominations
• Money Management
  • Pacing yourself throughout the auction
  • Having the hammer at the end
• Bidding
  • How often should you bid on players?
  • Price enforcing
  • Starting bids
  • Freeze bids
  • Bid on the ‘9’s?
  • Timing of bids
  • $2 bids
  • Sneaking $1 players in early

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Guest: Sara Sanchez

Strategy Section

• Blind spots of projections
  • When can the human eye do better than projections?
• Masataka Yoshida
• Outfiled Player Pool
  • General layout
  • Platoon players strategy
• Juan Soto vs. Freddie Freeman

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

ATC Undervalued Players

• Outfielders
  • Nick Castellanos
  • Taylor Ward
  • Jake McCarthy
  • Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
  • Alex Verdugo
  • Mitch Haniger
  • Randal Grichuk
  • Austin Hays
  • Manuel Margot
  • TJ Friedl
  • Tyrone Taylor
  • Garrett Mitchell
  • Ian Happ

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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?

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS