Patience.

In this day and age, with every moment needing to be gratifying and an end result needed that day, that hour, and even that minute, season-long fantasy baseball is seemingly quite the opposite. The daily grind takes a toll mentally, and it is hard to remind yourself not to live and die with every moment this early in the season. I am not saying that these stats do not matter as much as the stats needed in September to win your leagues, we all know they count the same. But season long fantasy sports are a different animal when you add the human element into it. That human element is what makes our game so fun, and not to mention stressful. We have so many decisions to make for 6 months, it is hard to quantify the decisions we made in April and May come September.

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

Guest: Sweeny Murti, WFAN

Personal history in the business

New York Yankees

• Who has been the Yankees MVP to date?
• Gerrit Cole
• DJ LeMahieu
• Deadline trade needs
• Gleyber Torres
• Giancarlo Stanton / Luis Severino – Injury updates
• How will the Yankees handle innings limits for starting pitchers down the stretch in 2021?
• Is Aaron Boone on the managerial hot set?

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

Guest: Steve Carney

Personal history in the business

Baseball in 2021

• Effect of fans
• New rules – 3 batter minimum, 7 inning doubleheaders, extra innings

Tampa Bay Rays

• Who is the Athletics MVP to date?
• Tyler Glasnow
• Closer situation
• Ji-Man Choi
• Vidal Brujan / Wander Franco – Timetables

AL East Predictions

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The Bay Area Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Jessica Kleinschmidt

Personal history in the business

Oakland Athletics

• Chris Bassitt
• Who is the Athletics MVP to date?
• Ramon Laureano Injury Update
• Closer situation
  • Jake Diekman
  • Lou Trivino
• Athletics needs via trading
  • Potential trade candidates (as buyers)
• Athletics Prospects
  • Daulton Jefferies
  • Grant Holmes
  • Nick Allen
  • Logan Davidson
  • Luis Barrera
• Marcus Semien contract thoughts

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The Miami Marlins Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Craig Mish

LABR Mixed Auction Update

Working in the Business & Playing Fantasy Baseball

• Craig Mish Personal History
• Advangates gained for fantasy baseball
• Thoughts on Marlins GM Kim Ng [later in the show]
• Working as a beat reporter in COVID times [later in the show]

Miami Marlins

• Closer situation
  • Yimi Garcia
  • Anthony Bass
• Trade Possibilities as sellers
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. outlook rest of season
  • Rankings game
• Trevor Rogers
  • Innings Limit
• Sixto Sanchez Update
• Marlins Prospects
  • Edward Cabrera
  • Jake Eder
  • Max Meyer

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The NL Central Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Sara Sanchez

Strategy Section

• Injured List roster slots in fantasy baseball
  • Do they add or remove “luck” to the game?
  • Do they take away “decisions” that fantasy owners have to make?
  • Is 2021 different than other seasons with regard to its use?
  • The use of a Limited IL slot for high value / undropable players.

Chicago Cubs

• Closer situation
  • Will Craig Kimbrel still close if traded?
  • Who is next in line for saves?
• Anthony Rizzo & Kris Bryant
  • Contract status
  • Who is more likely to be traded?
  • Who is more likely to be a Cub in 2022?
• Javier Baez outlook rest of season
  • Who would you rather have ROS – Baez or Lindor?
• Kyle Hendricks outlook rest of season
  • HR/FB rates and when FIP differs greatly from xFIP
• Prospects that may have an impact in 2021
  • Keegan Thompson
  • Miguel Amaya
  • Brailyn Marquez
• Underperforming players worth considering in fantasy
  • Ian Happ
  • Joc Pederson
  • Matt Duffy

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There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to fans. It is a dimension as vast as the width of two balls and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and dark, between strike and ball, and lies between the pit of a batter’s fear and the summit of his bat’s knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Shadow Zone.

The entire zone can be divided into four attack zones, starting at the heart, and moving out to the shadow zone (the width of a ball on the inside and outside of the strike zone), which is followed by the chase and waste zones.

We’ll be focusing on the shadow zone, home of pitcher’s pitches and balls framed to strikes, looking first at the players who are offering at these borderline pitches the least in 2021. However, swinging less at shadow pitches doesn’t guarantee success and some hitters are better served by being more aggressive. Like most things, it’s a case-by-case situation. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Guest: Jeff Erickson

Strategy Section

• Returning players to active lineups
  • When to return struggling hitters
    • Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
  • When to return struggling pitchers
    • Luis Castillo
  • When to return recovered injured players
  • When to insert prospects
    • Jarred Kelenic
    • Bobby Dalbec
    • Jo Adell
• How to determine when a “hot” waiver wire player is worth a pickup

Cincinnati Reds

• Closer situation
• Nick Castellanos – Where does he rank ROS among outfielders?
• Is Tyler Mahle for real?

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If I were to look into the rear-view mirror while riding in the back seat of an Uber and ask the driver, “Could you tell me the expected time of arrival, minus the current time please?”, I would probably get some weird looks. But, if I were to ask you, fantasy baseball enthusiast, for your team’s current stolen base total, plus your rest of season (RoS) projected stolen base count, you would probably be delighted. It would give you a good sense of where your team is and where your team is heading.

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

Guest: Steve Gardner

Strategy Section

• Lineups
  • 5 games for a star vs. 7 games for a scrub
  • When should you start paying attention to categories when setting your lineup?
    • When should you be playing the Jon Berti types?
  • Monday morning decisions for injured players
    • What are the key words/terms that managers use that you should pay attention to when making your decisions?

Fantasy Baseball in 2021

• How does 2021’s lower batting average environment affect how you play fanasty?
• What does the 2021 pitching environment mean for player values?
• Should we change the rules of rotisserie baseball?
  • BA vs. OBP
  • Saves vs. Saves + Holds
  • Wins vs. IP vs. Wins + Quality Starts

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