Archive for Strategy

Beat the Shift Podcast – Vacation Episode w/ Pierre Camus

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

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Overall Episode w/ Marc Winokur

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

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – NFBC Episode w/ Zack Waxman

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

Guest: Zack Waxman

Draft Champions Podcast

Strategy Section

  • NFBC
    • Power players
    • Drafting early vs. drafting late
    • The use of projections
    • ADP
    • Jacob deGrom’s innings for 2025
  • Waiver Wire / FAAB
    • General Strategy
    • Putting in the time
    • What to tackle first / how best to use your time?
    • Track remaining FAAB?
    • Allocate FAAB weekly?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Buy/Sell/Hold

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – 2nd Month Episode w/ Chris Welsh

The 2nd Month episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Chris Welsh

Strategy Section

  • Waiver Wire
    • What player level is it acceptable to cut (for underperformance)?
      • Based on time of the season
      • Based on current standing
    • In practice, are player pickups more for the short term or for the long term?
      • Does it differ hittter vs. pitcher?
  • Prospects
    • Are prospects good waiver wire investments?
      • What level of FAAB spending should you spend on prospects?
    • Key prospects to know for redraft leagues
      • Now
      • Later in the season

Buy/Sell/Hold

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Overpaying for a Bird and a Song

Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

Last week, the Giants decided to move Jordan Hicks to the bullpen and Hayden Birdsong to the rotation. While some fantasy managers had already stashed Birdsong, he was available in many leagues like these nine NFBC Main Event leagues.

These teams spent 15% to 20% of their yearly budget on a starter projected to be below replacement-level. Unless a manager wore blinders or took some analyst’s hype without any doing their own basic analysis of Birdsong. No line of reasoning points to Birdsong making a difference, and the most likely scenario is that he’s on the waiver wire in a couple of weeks. Read the rest of this entry »


Two Graphs, One Player: The Carson Kelly Conundrum

Cubs catcher Carson Kelly (15) reacts after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning at Wrigley Field.
Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images

In the wild and crazy world of Ottoneu fantasy baseball, players can battle it out in a points-style format that is so true to modern hitting that batting averages are meaningless and home runs are more valuable than a 12-pack of eggs. Don’t worry, this article applies to all leagues, regardless of format. Has this ever happened to you?

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Betting Episode w/ Eric Samulski

The Is It Too Early episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Eric Samulski

Strategy Section

  • Is it too early?
    • Is it too early to give up on winning if you are in last place?
    • Is it too early to punt certain roto categories?
    • Is it too early to stop looking at preseason projections?
      • Is it too early to count on year to date stats?
    • Is it too early to take victory laps?
    • Is it too early to trade?

Buy/Sell/Hold

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Betting Episode w/ Jennifer Piacenti

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

Guest: Jennifer Piacenti

GDD Update

Strategy Section

  • Sports Betting
    • Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)
    • Betting terms
      • Money Line
      • Run Line (Spread)
      • Totals – Over/Under
    • Prop Betting
    • Arbitrage

Buy/Sell/Hold

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Hot & Cold Episode w/ Sky Dombroske

The Hot & Cold episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Sky Dombroske

Tout Wars Head to Head

  • Draft recap
  • Strategy & execution
  • Hitter vs. pitcher split
  • 1st week matchup !

Strategy Section

  • What stats do you use to determine if a hot/cold start is for real?
    • Hitters vs. Pitchers
  • How long do you play the hot hand?
  • When do you bench a cold player?

Hot Players

Torpedo Bats

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Cold Players

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Mailbag

Injury Update

 

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Predictions Episode w/ Howard Bender

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

Guest: Howard Bender

Strategy Section

  • Early drafting (January/February) vs. Late drafting (March)
    • Pros & cons, advantages & disadvantages, differences
    • Average draft position (ADP)
  • Our player shares in the 2025 draft season
    • Players we drafted early but not late
    • Players we drafted late but not early
    • Our most drafted players
    • Players we didn’t plan to draft, but did
    • Players we planned to draft, but didn’t
  • FAAB
    • What are you looking to accomplish in the first FAAB period?
    • How do you evaluate players for the first FAAB period, and early on in the season?
    • How much does a player’s hot performance in the opening week influence your FAAB bidding?

Predictions

  • Bold Predictions
    • Player predictions
    • Team predictions
    • Baseball event predictions
  • Awards Predictions
    • MVP
    • Cy Young
    • Rookie of the Year
      • Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week
  • Playoff Predictions
    • A team unlikely to make the playoffs that will
    • A team likely to make the playoffs that won’t
    • The worst team in baseball
      • Board bet !!!
    • Pennant winners
    • World series winner

Injury Update

 

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