Episode 013: Fantasy Baseball Joe Pisapia
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Episode 013: Fantasy Baseball Joe Pisapia

Fantasy Baseball, Podcast

Episode 013: Fantasy Baseball Joe Pisapia

Episode 013: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Baseball Edition: All Star Break Special

Featuring Joe Pisapia (@JoePisapia17) Fantasy Black Book

About My Guest: Joe Pisapia is the author of the #1 Best Selling Fantasy Baseball book in the Kindle store three years running, and is launching his new Fantasy Football series this season called The Fantasy Football Black Book 2014 Edition. He is also the co-host, with Dan Strafford, of The Fantasy Black Book Show on SiriusXM Fantasy Channel from 10 PM to 1 AM every Saturday night.

Episode Summary: Joe and I talk about some of the most important story lines in fantasy baseball at the All Star Break. We cover everything from players we expect big second halves from to former Cy-Young winners we may want to stay away from. This episode is loaded with excellent fantasy takes as well as examining why some players may be struggling this year because of things that happened last year.

Episode Breakdown:

Intro
We get to know Joe and talk about his show on Sirius XM as well get into some of the ways RPV can help fantasy sports players.
Players Discussed: Cliff Lee, Shelby Miller, Andrew McCutchen, Andrew Cashner, and many, many more.
The Coach’s Office: Will Eric Hosmer be a top 10 first baseman in the second half? Will Tim Lincecum keep up his recent form? Can I drop Shelby Miller for Jake Odorizzi or Kevin Gausman? Who should I trade away: Jared Weaver or Jake Shields?
Waiver Wire Adds for the second half of the fantasy baseball season
Outro

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

Thank Yous For Episode 013: I want to thank my buddy, Joe Pisapia, for coming on the podcast and sharing his fantasy baseball knowledge with me, and especially with my audience. 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

A Reactionary Tale

Patience is the name of the game when waiting for a top draft pick to play up to their potential. While MLB teams try to boost their prospects’ confidence with long stays in hitter-friendly minor league destinations or playing them in low pressure situations in the big leagues, fantasy GM’s are not afforded such luxuries. We do not have the ability to drop our struggling draft picks in the batting order or send them to the minors to work it out (hey Ike Davis, I’m talking to you). We can only banish them to our bench and hope they eventually play themselves back into our good graces.

A lot of GMs are demonstrating the patience of a two year old while waiting for their players to get back on track. I have seen last year’s NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey actually come across the waiver wire in one of my leagues. While Dickey’s WHIP is not what it was with the Mets last year (1.31 vs. 1.05), his strikeout rate has been getting better over his last few starts. I think the adjustments to switching leagues, as well as early season injuries, have gotten Dickey off to his rocky start. Who knew knuckleballers could suffer minor injuries that affect their statistics? If Dickey can cut down on the walks and stay healthy he can make it back to the top of a fantasy rotation.

Julio Teheran was every experts’ pick to be the next big thing coming out of spring training. While Matt Harvey and Shelby Miller have performed like fantasy studs to start the year Teheran has slowly built up a little steam. He showed poor command and little fantasy value as he started the year cold. He started the year with a whimper as he shelled by the lowly Cubs. He was able to escape without a loss thanks to the Upton brothers and Carlos Marmol, but his next few starts were not much better. He has slowly worked his way back to fantasy relevance ever since. His 9.00 ERA has come down to 3.99 and his record is a respectable 3-1. His 5.4/9 K rate and 1.35 WHIP show that he is not yet a fantasy star as many predicted, but if his current form continues he could be a nice pitcher to have on your roster (especially when he faces the offensively-challenged Mets and Marlins within the division).

Whenever I look at a surprise name on the waiver-wire I am reminded of a fantasy football all time blunder in one of my fantasy football leagues. The year was 2001 and everyone and their mother were looking for the next Terrell Davis to take them to the championship. Priest Holmes had moved from the world champion Baltimore Ravens to the Kansas City Chiefs and looked like he could be a nice RB2 if he was given a chance. After week two of the NFL season Holmes had a combined 51 yards rushing with zero touchdowns. A very good friend jettisoned him to the waiver-wire and the rest is history. Holmes rushed for over 1,500 yards with 600 yards receiving to go along with ten touchdowns. He went from a waiver-wire refugee to a fantasy football stud.

I refuse to be the next guy to drop a future fantasy MVP before the season even heats up. I saw my friend desperately try to make up for his big mistake, eventually trading for Holmes a few years later just so he could put that miss-step behind him. I will place Josh Hamilton and B.J. Upton right where they belong, sitting next to each other on my bench while I weather the storm with the Jason Kubel’s and Dominic Brown’s of the world. Just because your guys go through a cold streak or are at the top of Yahoo’s most dropped charts doesn’t mean you have to panic. Just try to be patient and think of Priest Holmes running into the end zone for someone else’s team.

This article was originally posted at www.FantasyJudgment.com