The Mid-September Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

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• Last 2 weeks of the season
  • No more fear of droping players
  • Specific team schedules in the penultimate week, and lineup decisions
  • Contending teams and playing time

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The dropped players make up a shortlist this week as the season winds down. Lots of the moves are from the fantasy managers playing the weekly short game and not caring about the long-term production. They are the right moves with just three weeks left in the season.

For this weekly feature, I use the NFBC Main Event because of the number of identical leagues. Additionally, the managers stay engaged longer on the whole since each spent $1700 per team. I tried to find that sweet spot between the obvious and bizarre drops and will focus on players dropped in six to nine leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. Read the rest of this entry »

Like the last couple of weeks, this week is again low on usable hitters, but there are plenty of one-start options on the wire.

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

Things either slow down or heat up this time of year, depending on your league. In playoff leagues, action can be fast and furious, as the remaining teams scramble for streamers, fill-ins and generally anyone who can throw points up on the board. In year-long leagues, sellers have already targeted the most interesting prospects, some teams may have checked out, and the teams at the top may not need to jockey for position much.

But there are still some interesting names popping up in auctions right now, and the four with the most live auctions – Josh Lowe, Frank Schwindel, A.J. Alexy, and Eric Lauer – worth taking a look at before you have to make a call on them in the next 48 hours.
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7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Last week, I got several requests for more hitters but there are no more on the up. It got even worse this week when rosters expanded. Major league teams are using more platoons and resting guys so the average hitter’s production is down.

Additionally, lots of starters were added to the rotation, but most aren’t even average. Also, many rotations have expanded to six or even seven men. While they provide new options, make sure they provide more fantasy value than the players being dropped.

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of players, especially starters, were dropped who shouldn’t have even been rostered. It seems like managers are looking anywhere for starters and keep lowering their standards while there are middle relievers available who will be more productive. I can see taking a chance on a two-start guy, but most of the suspect guys dropped were one-start streamers.

For this weekly feature, I use the NFBC Main Event because of the number of identical leagues. Additionally, the managers stay engaged longer on the whole since each spent $1700 per team. I tried to find that sweet spot between the obvious and bizarre drops and will focus on players dropped in six to nine leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. Read the rest of this entry »

There are just not a lot of available good hitter options this week. One issue is that quite a few teams are going with platoons and most of these teams are facing a mix of righties and lefties making most fantasy irrelevant. As for starting pitcher options, it’s one of the best weeks since the first couple of months with several guys returning from the IL, rookie call-ups, and relievers transitioning to starting.

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

After going through the drops, most of them seemed obvious with players going to the IL or the minors. I think it’s because many teams are checking out for football season with both adds and drop not being made. Next week I’ll drop the threshold down to six to nine drops.

For this weekly feature, I use the NFBC Main Event because of the number of identical leagues. Additionally, the managers stay engaged longer on the whole since each spent $1700 per team. I tried to find that sweet spot between the obvious and bizarre drops and will focus on players dropped in seven to ten leagues. Previously the number was six to nine, but I adjusted with the Main Event adding four leagues since I did the report. Read the rest of this entry »

7:30	Jeff Zimmerman:

7:32

Jeff Zimmerman: Mike Ashmore @mashmore98 Kluber walks a run home with the bases loaded, and his night is over. 45 pitches/20 strikes. Current line w/bases loaded and one out: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. Fastball command just was not there tonight. He popped a few 90’s on the gun in the second w/FB. 12 Aug 2021

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