Episode 020: Fantasy Baseball Michael Clifford
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Episode 020: Fantasy Baseball Michael Clifford

Fantasy Baseball, Podcast

Episode 020: Fantasy Baseball Michael Clifford

Episode 020: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Baseball Edition: August 18th to the 23rd

Featuring: Michael Clifford (@SlimCliffy) of XNSports.com

About My Guest: Michael Clifford was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and is a graduate of the Unviersity of New Brunswick. He writes about fantasy hockey and baseball for XNSports and ProjectRoto.com. He can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy.

Episode Summary: Cliffy and I talk about about the week that was in fantasy baseball and look forward to the the week of August 18th to the 24th to help everyone get ready for some late season battles in Fantasy Baseball.

Episode Rundown:

1) Intro

2) Get to know our guest.

3) Fantasy Baseball News: Troy Tulowitzski, Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Fiers, Shane Green, Hanley Ramirez, Carlos Martinez, Bud Norris, Trevor Bauer, Ryan Vogelsong, Jason Vargas, Gerrit Cole.

4) Two Start Streaming Pitchers

5) Key Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pick Ups

6) The Coach’s Office (Sponsored by RevoLabels.com)

7) Outro

You can Download this episode as well as the previous three on Itunes and Stitcher Radio.

Thank Yous For Episode 020: I want to thank Cliffy (@SlimCliffy) for coming on the podcast and talking to me about all the late season goings on in Fantasy Baseball. I would also like to thank C-Quel for providing the intro music as well as the outro beat. You can Find all of C-Quel’s current music available here.

Episode 007: The Fantasy Coach Podcast
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Episode 007: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Baseball, Podcast

Episode 007: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Baseball Edition For June 16th to June 22nd

Featuring T or as he’s known in the Twitterverse (@Whudey)

@Whudey’s Perusing The Perimeter Podcast

About My Guest:

Host of Perusing the Perimeter @ProjectRoto Radio. #3 @FantasyPros_MLB Ranker 2013 @FSWA Member Twitter Baseball/Football 2013 Champion!

You can find all of T’s recent articles Here.

Episode Summary: I get to know my man T a little bit better and talk all about the week that was in Fantasy Baseball as well as what we can expect in the near future. We talk about all the current news as well as answer some questions from the audience.

Episode Breakdown:

Intro
We get to know @Whudey a little bit as I ask him about his beloved Reds and Bengals as well learn a little bit about his podcast Perusing The Perimeter that he hosts with @Slimcliffy.
News- Wainwright injury scare, Gio Gonzalez activated from DL for Wednesday start, Votto returned this week from injury, Cargo has a small tumor with tentacles removed from his troublesome finger, Tulow and Hanley are a little banged up, Polanco’s hot start, Taveras demotion, Matt Adams brings the hammer with him off the DL, Josh Donaldson breaks an o for 33 with a seeing eye single, Sergio Romo and Ernesto Frieri Struggling, Drew Hutchinson’s crazy Road/ Home split continues this week. W-L 1-3 8.72 ERA at home, W-L 4-1 1.79 ERA on the road.
Hits and misses from last week’s episode with @RSandersRX of RotoExperts.com
2 Start Streamers and Late Week Saviors
The Coach’s Office- Q1) What does my guest @Whudey expect from Mat Latos going forward? Can he be that fantasy ace that most teams are missing? Q2) Twitter Question- Who do we each like for the rest of the year from this grouping ( Marcus Stroman, Kevin Gausman, Chase Whitley) Q3) Because of the struggles of some of the top pitchers picked in drafts this year does it still make sense to pay for pitching in Roto leagues next year?
Waiver Wire Adds
Outro

You can Download this episode as well as the previous three on Itunes and Stitcher Radio.

I want to thank my buddy T (@Whudey) for coming on the podcast and being his awesome self. I would also like to thank C-Quel for providing the intro music as well as the outro beat. You can Find all of C-Quel’s current music available here.

Don’t Drink The Sand

The perception of starting pitching depth on a fantasy baseball team is the same mirage that exists with respect to depth at running back in fantasy football leagues. You are always one pitch or one carry away from being in a bind. With pitchers, it could be age and frailty such as with Andy Pettitte and Jake Peavy. Or perhaps it is flawed mechanics that have caused your fantasy ace, Stephen Strasburg, to start drawing comparisons to Mark Prior. From forearm tightness to sore shoulders, fantasy GMs are constantly trying to avoid season-ending injuries to their starting pitchers. On the other hand, running backs are just a few fumbles or a lethal hit away from being relegated to the bench. The mere sight of your player on the week’s injury report will send many GM’s running to the waiver wire. In the end, GM’s who thought they had plenty of depth at the position realize how shallow their rosters really are.

Coming into this fantasy baseball season, the best advice I received was to grab as many quality starting pitchers as possible. Sure, draft the great position players early but make sure I stockpile as many arms as I could because you never know when injuries may occur. I heeded this advice throughout the season thus far and picked up additional quality starting pitching even though I thought I had sufficient depth at the position to start the year. I drafted Adam Wainwright, Max Scherzer, Jake Peavy, Brandon Morrow, Julio Teheran, Andy Pettitte, Jason Hammel, and Dan Haren. I quickly dropped Hammel and Haren for Shelby Miller and Justin Masterson. I then dropped Pettitte for Patrick Corbin as I didn’t want another injury prone starter in my rotation.

We all knew Peavy was eventually going to be on the disabled list…we just didn’t know when. Drafting Peavy was the equivalent of drafting Ryan Mathews or Darren McFadden in a fantasy football league. Doing either of these things requires you back them up with quality options. Peavy had been performing well up until his last two outings. I was relieved it was an injury (non-displaced rib fracture) and not ineffectiveness that caused his recent poor outings.

Well, the dreaded time has come for many fantasy owners including myself. While I lost Peavy to the DL, he was not alone. Johnny Cueto, Stephen Strasburg and Brendon Morrow were also placed on the disabled list. Morrow’s DL stint is a blessing after the way he has pitched. But for Cueto, he just recently came back and started to look like his old self. However, Strasburg is the one that scares me the most. He was likely drafted very high and was counted on to perform at an almost Verlander/Kershaw level. That hasn’t happened up to date and now he is injured again. I’m pretty sure GM’s are cursing at themselves watching Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki tearing it up while Strasburg is on the mend.

I am happy to roll out my rotation week after week and try and weather this injury storm. I am reluctant to trade my pitching because this is what can happen. I may think I’m six deep at quality starters, but I’m always one pitch, batted ball, or slip in the shower away from combing the waiver wire.

This article was originally featured at www.FantasyJudgment.com

The Challenge of Running Into Hot Fantasy Baseball Players

It appears that my luck (or lack thereof) has followed me from fantasy football into fantasy baseball. I feel I drafted a very solid team, but my early season results have been nothing to write home about. I drafted Ryan Braun with the third overall pick and he has been as good as advertised. Braun is a fantasy stud who can carry a fantasy team throughout the year. My infield is very solid with the likes of Adrian Gonzalez, Ian Kinsler and Evan Longoria. Besides Braun, my outfield consists of some late round gems such as Dexter Fowler and Starling Marte. My top starting pitchers are Adam Wainwright, Max Scherzer, and Jake Peavy. But my closers have been a mixed bag. Sergio Romo has been excellent thus far, but Joel Hanrahan seemingly has lost his closing duties to the reinvigorated Andrew Bailey in Boston.

While trying to figure out why my team was not dominating in the early going, I quickly found some players to blame. I missed the boat towards the end of the draft with selections such as Brandon Belt and Aaron Hicks who were quickly sacrificed to the waiver wire. In hindsight, I really regret picking Brandon Morrow over Jon Lester. I also rue the day of my gamble on Corey Hart’s injured knee and not targeting a solid right fielder earlier in the draft. Hart’s placement on the 60-day DL has forced me to play Adrian Gonzalez in right field and start one of my bench players (Todd Frazier and Matt Carpenter) at first base. I am losing significant power numbers when Carpenter is slotted at First Base as opposed to filling in at other positions periodically.

Before the draft, I targeted Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Moore but missed out on them by a pick or two. I have been scrambling to make up for missing out on both players ever since. That is probably why I reached for Belt and reluctantly took Brandon Morrow during the draft. I blame my poor time management for drafting Morrow, as I was down to the final five seconds on the draft clock.

Despite those shortcomings, I have made some quality early season pick-ups such as Jed Lowrie and Kyle Seager to partially offset those draft day mistakes. I even took a flier on Mark Teixeira who was dropped after the draft. Hopefully he does come back and can fill my all-important first base slot. He and Hart are stashed on my DL waiting to be utilized in June (fingers crossed). I also picked up Jose Valverde to fill the closer slot vacated by Hanrahan, and Shelby Miller to add some strike out power to my pitching staff.

Being honest with myself, I really cannot blame my team for some of my early season losses. Instead, I had the misfortune of playing against some players who produced extraordinary results. Two that come to mind are Carlos Gonzales who battered and abused the Mets, as well as Mike Napoli when he was doing his best Tony Conigliaro impression. I swear, the Green Monster is a magnet for that guy. I watched him rain double after double off that little league fence with the bases seemingly always loaded. Then incredibly, I was up against Anibal Sanchez last week when he decided to set a Tigers’ record of 17 strikeouts in one game.

Weeks like that reminded me of some fantasy football weeks your quarterback throws for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in the early game, only to be outdone by Drew Brees and his videogame-like numbers later in the day. Or if Chris Johnson (that would be CJ2K of the Tennessee Titans and not the pasty third baseman on the Braves) finally breaks out for you with a 100-yard day and a touchdown only to be outscored by Adrian Peterson during one of his record-breaking romps. I guess I didn’t realize that this type of misfortune also applied in fantasy baseball.

However, running into a couple of hot teams and players during the early part of the season is not going to get me off my game. I am going to stick to my strategy of playing match-ups and making some shrewd moves on the waiver wire. I will not hit the panic button and make a bad trade just to just to get a shaky closer or retread first baseman. After all, the fantasy baseball season is long and my luck is bound to even out. Right? Right???