Rostering hitters who only hit against one type of pitcher can be challenging. You must pay extra attention in a world where paying extra attention is the only way to win. So there you have it. In this article, we’ll pay extra attention to playing time patterns to see if we can find a few sneaky additions who may add a handful of dingers to our fantasy pile before the season is over.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

The word “Issue” and the name “Tarik Skubal” haven’t been used in the same sentence very often in 2025. The Detroit Tigers’ lefty is the clear frontrunner for winning the Cy Young award at the end of the season. However, back in May, hitters began ambushing Skubal, knowing their best chance of even being graced with a ball in play was on the first pitch. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

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

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

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

Guest: Tim McLeod

First Pitch Arizona

• XFL Auction

Strategy Section

• Prospects
  • When do you activate prospects on your roster?
    • Hitter vs. Pitcher prospects
  • What do you do with prospects on your roster that are not performing (redraft leagues)?
  • When should you pick up prospects off of the waiver wire?
    • What statistics shluld you look at for minor league player prospects?
    • Do you construct your roster differently if you are often picking up prospect speculations?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Buy/Sell/Hold

• Hitter Prospects
  • Agustín Ramírez
  • Chase Meidroth
  • Roman Anthony
  • Jac Caglianone
• Pitcher Prospects
  • Andrew Painter
  • Joe Boyle
  • Brandon Sproat
  • Jonah Tong
  • Michael McGreevy

Board Bet !

Prospects

• Prospects for rest of season 2025
• Prospects for 2026 fantasy drafts

Waiver Wire / Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

Come with me, for a moment, down into the clubhouse of your favorite MLB team. Walk through the concrete halls and into the press room. Take a seat and wait for the manager to come in. Listen, you can hear it. Pencils, pens, iPad taps, all preparing to ask questions that press the manager, while also making the person asking them sound cool and trustworthy, like, “You can talk to me, it’s me! I’m cool. I’m not like these other press passers.” Here it comes, the classic question:

Press: What did you see out there with your starting pitcher today?

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Guest: Pierre Camus

Strategy Section

• FAAB / Waiver Wire
  • How much time do you spend on preparing for FAAB each week?
    • Do you prioritze leagues that you are doing well in over others?
  • Should you make last minute changes in FAAB, or leave alone?
  • How to decide how much to bid on FAAB
    • Should you look at FAAB on a dollar basis, or on a percentage basis?
    • How to decide the exact figure to bid on FAAB for leagues that employ $1000 of FAAB for the season.
  • What to prioritze in researching / perparing / putting in bids for FAAB?
• Vacation
  • How to manage your fantasy teams if you are on vacation?
  • What instructions should you give to a proxy to help with managing your fantasy teams?
  • How to make decisions if you are the proxy?
• Catcher Strategy
  • Should you spend a lot of draft capital on catchers?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Buy/Sell/Hold

• Hot Players
  • Yusei Kikuchi
  • Ranger Suárez
  • José Berríos
  • José Soriano
• Cold Players
  • Zac Gallen
  • Zach Eflin
  • Bailey Ober

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS

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

Guest: Marc Winokur

League Updates

• GDD
  • Trade!
• NFBC
  • 1st half sucesss

Strategy Section

• NFBC Overall Contests
  • When should you alter your focus from the single league contest to playing for an overall contest title?
    • Does the size of your lead matter?
    • Does format matter – FAAB vs. non-FAAB?
  • Do you alter draft strategy at all due to the overall component of NFBC contests?
• The 2025 fantasy basbeall winning strategy to date
• Are Ohtani/Judge auction bids (i.e. high priced, but high returning players) efficient?

ATC Half Season

• Hits and Misses
  • Luis Arraez value
  • The profitable range of the pre-season auction market for hitters and pitchers

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Buy/Sell/Hold

• Hot Players
  • Andy Pages
    • Who’d you rather?
  • Jesús Sánchez
  • Byron Buxton
• Cold Players
  • Ian Happ
  • Rhys Hoskins
  • Jarren Duran

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Subscribe: RSS