Flags Fly Forever Fantasy Baseball

George Bissell, Mike Gianella and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus discuss the importance of avoiding confirmation bias, overreacting to small samples or drawing significant conclusions from early season results (5:00), a trio of players they’ve been targeting in Hunter Strickland (15:00), Jordan Hicks (18:00) and Matt Moore (21:00), and finally banter about several situations they’re monitoring including Kenley Jansen (24:00), Kevin Gausman (31:00), Rhys Hoskins (38:30), Justin Smoak (40:00), Gerrit Cole (42:00), Chris Davis (44:30) and Blake Snell (47:00).

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”

Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell and Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus discuss critical spring training takeaways and developments including Dan Vogelbach (8:00), Scott Kingery (11:00) and Ryan McMahon (17:00), a league-wide shift in closer and elite multi-inning reliever usage (22:00), the value of newly-minted closers Brad Boxberger (28:00), Dominic Leone (32:00), Blake Parker (35:00), Jeurys Familia (37:00), and unsettled situations in Chicago, San Francisco and Texas (38:00), the impact of injuries to Salvador Perez (40:30), Madison Bumgarner (43:00), Greg Bird and Dinelson Lamet (47:00), and finally close out by highlighting notable spring training performances from Byron Buxton (48:00), Billy Hamilton (50:30), Amed Rosario (54:00), Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty (57:00), Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber (59:00), Yonder Alonso (1:00:00), Delino DeShields and Joey Gallo (1:01:00), Tyler Glasnow (1:03:00) and Yonny Chirinos (1:05:00).

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”
Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

Justin Mason of FanGraphs and Fantasy Alarm joins George Bissell and Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus to discuss the fantasy fallout from Justin Turner’s fractured wrist (8:30), the recent signings of free agent pitchers Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn (15:00), the demotion of top prospect Ronald Acuna (21:00), spring training storylines including Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Lucas Giolito and Dan Vogelbach (23:30), and finally recap their Tout Wars Head-to-Head (31:00) and Tout Wars National League (50:00) auctions from New York City last weekend.

Link to Tout Wars Draft Grids

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”

Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell, Mike Gianella and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus host their annual auction strategy podcast. They discuss the importance of establishing bid limits (4:00), being aware of league-specific contextual factors (8:00), focusing exclusively on value and extracting as much as possible (11:30), category scarcity and being prepared to make sacrifices (16:00), how to approach power and starting pitching in the current fantasy landscape (19:00), being flexible and adapting to your environment on the fly (30:00), avoiding narratives and confirmation bias (37:00), knowing when to embrace risk with high-upside talent (43:00), building a roster beyond Opening Day (48:00) and forgetting about positions and focusing solely on talent (53:00).

Finally, they close out the show by breaking down each of their The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational snake drafts (55:00).

#TGFBI Draft Grids

Bret Sayre, League Eight

Mike Gianella, League Five

George Bissell, League Six

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”

Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

USA Today Sports Senior Fantasy Editor Steve Gardner joins George Bissell and Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus for their annual recap of the LABR NL-Only (4:00) and AL-Only (30:00) auctions held in Arizona last weekend.

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”

Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell and Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus are joined by 2016 NFBC Main Event champion Rob Silver to discuss their strategic approach to constructing a fantasy rotation (5:00), how the league-wide decline in starter workloads has reshaped the landscape (12:00) and break down the following starting pitchers in-depth: Stephen Strasburg and Carlos Carrasco (15:00), Madison Bumgarner (24:00), Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom (27:00), Zack Greinke (30:00), Shohei Ohtani (34:00), James Paxton (36:00), Chris Archer, Yu Darvish and Carlos Martinez (39:00), Robbie Ray (41:00), Aaron Nola and Masahiro Tanaka (44:30), Jeff Samardzija (50:00), Charlie Morton (51:30), Jameson Taillon versus Alex Wood (53:00), Luis Castillo (55:00), Luke Weaver (1:01:00), Garrett Richards (1:06:00), Aaron Sanchez (1:11:30), J.A. Happ (1:13:00), Dinelson Lamet (1:15:00), Cole Hamels (1:17:00), Michael Fulmer (1:18:00), Marco Estrada (1:20:00), Rick Porcello (1:23:00), Tyler Glasnow (1:29:00), Seth Lugo and Matt Harvey (1:34:00). Finally, they banter about the viability of eschewing risky, late-round starters in favor of high-volume, high-strikeout middle relief pitchers (1:37:00).

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”
Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell, Mike Gianella and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus survey the fantasy landscape at outfield. They divulge their strategic approaches at the position (4:00) and discuss the following players in-depth: Giancarlo Stanton (9:00), J.D. Martinez (13:00), Billy Hamilton and Byron Buxton (17:30), Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger (24:00), Rhys Hoskins (27:30), Christian Yelich (30:00), Justin Upton (31:30), Tommy Pham (33:00), Yoenis Cespedes (37:00), George Springer (38:00), Lorenzo Cain (40:00), A.J. Pollock (43:00), Adam Eaton (46:30), Kyle Schwarber (48:00), Ian Desmond (49:30), Mitch Haniger, Adam Jones and Jose Martinez (51:00), Ryan Braun, Aaron Hicks and Kevin Kiermaier (54:00), Brett Gardner, Michael Brantley and Lewis Brinson  (57:00), Joc Pederson, Michael Conforto, Avisail Garcia and Willie Calhoun (1:00:00), David Dahl, Lonnie Chisenhall and Victor Robles (1:05:00).

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”
Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell, Mike Gianella and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus recap the 2018 LABR Mixed draft (2:00). They discuss Bret’s selection of Bryce Harper in the first round (22:00), Francisco Lindor and Alex Bregman in the second and third rounds (28:30), Billy Hamilton in the fourth round and the increased value of stolen bases in fantasy (36:00), Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Gray, Felix Hernandez and Bret’s general pitching strategy (41:00), Andrew McCutchen and Chris Taylor in the sixth and seventh rounds (51:00), and finally Bret’s aggressive approach towards non-elite closers (54:00).

Link to the full LABR Mixed draft board: https://rtsports.com/labr-mixed-draft

Audio Intro: That Fleeting World, “The Alchemist”

Audio Interstitial One: Silent Partner, “Big Screen”

Audio Interstitial Two: Young The Giant, “My Body”

Audio Outro: Silent Partner, “Chances”

George Bissell, Mike Gianella, Bret Sayre and Zach Steinhorn of Baseball Prospectus break down the fantasy landscape at shortstop. They discuss the newfound depth at the position and its impact on their strategic approaches on draft day (3:00) before analyzing the following hitters in-depth: Trea Turner (7:00), Carlos Correa (10:30), Francisco Lindor (13:00), Alex Bregman (17:30), Corey Seager (27:00), Jean Segura and Elvis Andrus (33:00), Xander Bogaerts (37:00), Zack Cozart (39:00), Tim Anderson (41:00), Didi Gregorius (44:00), Javier Baez (45:30), Trevor Story, Paul DeJong and Jose Peraza (46:30), Marwin Gonzalez (47:30), Asdrubal Cabrera (49:00), Freddy Galvis (50:00), Gleyber Torres (51:00), Jorge Polanco (52:00), Ketel Marte (54:00) and Amed Rosario (56:00).

George Bissell, Mike Gianella and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus break down the fantasy landscape at third base. They discuss the gap between the handful of upper-echelon performers and the glut of power-oriented lower-tier options at the hot corner (5:00) and analyze the following players in-depth: Kris Bryant (11:00), Josh Donaldson (13:00), Anthony Rendon (15:00), Justin Turner (18:30), Manny Machado (20:00), Miguel Sano, Travis Shaw and Mike Moustakas (26:00), Rafael Devers (29:00), Nick Castellanos, Adrian Beltre and Evan Longoria (30:00), Joey Gallo (37:00), Kyle Seager (45:00), Ryon Healy (47:00), Jeimer Candelario (48:30), Wilmer Flores (51:00), Jedd Gyorko (54:00), Brian Anderson (55:00), Cory Spangenberg (59:00), Nick Senzel (1:01:00) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1:02:00).