Flags Fly Forever Fantasy Baseball

We take the occasion of the recent Tout Wars auction weekend to do a deep dive on auctions--what we prefer, how we prepare, and some strategies and advice for those new to the format. We love auctions!

In this episode we discuss:

• Why in-person auctions are so fun and rewarding
• How preparation and strategy are different than a draft
• Why you should have a Plan A and a Plan B (and possibly a Plan C)
• The risks and rewards of price enforcement
• How to handle the endgame
• That One Time Mike Had a Perfect Auction

We also talk about the Tout Wars NL-Only League, where friend of the show Grey Albright of Razzball completely avoided starting pitchers (a gambit attributed to Mike and Doug Dennis that in fact goes back to the early days of fantasy baseball).

We conclude with a discussion of how Mike reallocates values in his bid limits when players get injured (Gerrit Cole, Devin Williams) or suspended (Noelvi Marte). 

All in all, a pretty nerdy episode. You'll love it.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Bit of a mixed bag this week:

We review Mike's Tout Wars Mixed League draft from earlier in the week. (You can see the draft board here: https://www.fantrax.com/fantasy/league/1ojcq64zltc8i9la/draft-results)

We talk (again) about your strategy for drafting starting pitchers, and why Mike generally avoids the "blob" of mid-tier starters.

We also introduce Mike's auction bid limits and discuss how to use them, and how not to use them.

Finally, we talk about the risk of players who have not yet made their MLB debut, focusing in on three names for this draft season: Jackson Chourio, Wyatt Langford, and Jackson Holliday.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

We talk outfielders this week, and given the size of the position, we did more of a strategy overview than deep dives on indivdual players. It's an interesting year at the position--great, five-category options up top but a fairly long tail of useful players deep into the 200s, and beyond.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

We step away from our positional previews to discuss the LABR Mixed League draft, which Mike took part in on Tuesday, February 20. We talk about the difference between stand-alone leagues and larger multi-league competitions, strategies for the first four rounds, how to respond to early spring training injury news, building drafts around your starting pitching strategy, what to do when closers get pushed up, and so much more.

(I would like to apologize to Nick Martinez for my unkind comment around the 39-minute mark. I'm sure you're a fun guy.)

(And I would also like to apologize for my sound quality. My microphone decided to go on holiday just before recording.)

The LABR Mixed League draft board can be found here: https://www.rtsports.com/labr-mixed-draft

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

We continue our march through the positions, spending this episode on the somewhat top-heavy position of shortstop. We go through our ADP tiers, discoursing on the following players:

Bobby Witt Jr.
Trea Turner
Francisco Lindor
Corey Seager
Elly De La Cruz
Gunnar Henderson
Bo Bichette
CJ Abrams
Oneil Cruz
Xander Bogaerts
Dansby Swanson
Anthony Volpe
Trevor Story (A Very Short Story, or Five Seconds of Regret for Jon)
Willy Adames
Ezequiel Tovar
Vaughn Grissom
Carlos Correa
Zach Neto
Extremely quick hits on Tim Anderson, Javier Báez, and Marco Luciano
At some point, we Remembered Adalberto Mondesi

Then we take some time to discuss some overall tips and strategies for your draft (aka ADP can be a dangerous thing).

Mike's article, "How to Use ADP," can be found here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/article/79732/fantasy-freestyle-how-to-use-adp/.

Mike's Tiered Shortstop Rankings are here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/article/88281/shortstop-tiered-rankings-for-2024/

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Our corners, we like them hot. Mike and Jon discuss just about every third baseman under the sun as we motor along with our positional previews. Featuring:

José Ramírez
Austin Riley
Rafael Devers
Royce Lewis
Manny Machado
Alex Bregman
Nolan Arenado
Josh Jung (with appropriately bad puns)
Spencer Steer
Jake Burger
Ke'Bryan Hayes
Noelvi Marte
Alec Bohm
Isaac Paredes
Max Muncy
Maikel García
Jeimer Candelario
Junior Caminero
Eugenio Suárez
Matt Chapman
Colt Keith
Wilmer Flores
Tyler Black
Isiah...Kiner-Falefa, really Mike?

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Hey friends, it's keystone time, and also stick around to find out why Mike utters the sentence, "second base is our kids." Before we go full Dadcast, however, we do discuss the following players:

Mookie Betts
Ozzie Albies
Marcus Semien
José Altuve
Nico Hoerner (and the Problem of Stolen Bases)
Matt McLain
Ha-Seong Kim
Gleyber Torres
Group of Spidermen Pointing at Each Other (Stott, Giménez, Gelof, Estrada, Edman)
Luis Arráez
Nolan Gorman
Ryan McMahon
Jonathan India
Luis Rengifo
Jorge Polanco
Brice Turang
Jake Cronenworth
Brendan Rodgers
Davis Schneider
Liover Peguero
Mauricio Dubón
Our Beloved Drama-Free Children

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

New year, new producer, but your same old hosts are back. Mike and Jon talk first basemen for the upcoming 2024 season. We go through tiers of NFBC average draft position, and discuss the following players:

Freddie Freeman
Shohei Ohtani (UT)
Bryce Harper
Matt Olson
Pete Alonso
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.
Cody Bellinger
Paul Goldschmidt
Triston Casas
Spencer Torkelson
Josh Naylor
Yandy Diaz
Vinnie Pasquantino
Rhys Hoskins
Andrew Vaughn
Ryan Mountcastle
Justin Turner
Anthony Rizzo
Josh Bell
Ty France
Rowdy Tellez

Phew! That's a lotta dudes at the cold corner. And I probably missed one or two that we mentioned in passing.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund.

Special thanks to Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

The season is over, long live the season. Or something. Anyway the lads recorded what ended up being their final episode of the regular season during Game 5 of the World Series. Hear them react to a new champion being crowned. Before that, Mike and Samuel went back and forth on what they feel about this year's playoffs as a whole. It's a thoughtful discussion, which hey is nice!

Got a content idea for the show? Shoot us an email at [email protected] or a message at our Twitter feed @FlagsFlyBP.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella) and Jon Hegglund(@JonHegglund). The executive producer of Flags Fly Forever is Samuel Hale(@thesamuelhale).

Oh hi there. How have you been? We've been fine, thanks for asking. If you want to hear about baseball, this is the episode for you. There's a lot of discussion about fantasy off the top, specifically evaluation in hindsight. Real nitty gritty stuff if you're into that. If you're not, fear not! It then diverges into a discussion of the upcoming ALCS...sorta. One member of the team has lost their faith in their club, and wants to publicly opine about it. That splinters off several times. In conclusion, baseball is a land of contrasts. Thank you.

Got a content idea for the show? Shoot us an email at [email protected] or a message at our Twitter feed @FlagsFlyBP.

Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy" or visit our Twitter feed @baseballpro.

You can find Flags Fly Forever on Twitter @FlagsFlyBP. The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella) and Jon Hegglund(@JonHegglund). The executive producer of Flags Fly Forever is Samuel Hale(@thesamuelhale).