NFBC Message Boards

I dislike most podcasts and fantasy baseball radio shows.
To tell the truth, I don't think they are very educational. They answer calls, that are for the most part, softballs for ANY advanced fantasy enthusiast.
There are different types of hosts for these shows.
The ranter, whose schtick is to be loud or pretend anger or annoyance.
The quiet guy who is asking more questions than answering.
The Numerish guy who can only quote numbers that he has obviously worked on for that specific show.
The guys who work together and try to play off each other. Most of the time, not working.

Back in the day, I would have killed for ANY fantasy show. Now, with so many out there, I want something for the advanced fantasy player. There is nothing like that out there. Most analysts make it seem as if we don't know who Joaquin Benoit is.
The closest show I've seen for my tastes is Bryan Kenney's on ESPN. But really, that is for real baseball fans, more than fantasy.

In channel hopping today, there was a show on Sirius XM that featured a segment called 'Champ or Chump'. In this segment, the hosts agree or disagree on whether a players good start is for real or not.
The name Yovani Gallardo came up.
Here is what an analyst said, "I'd have to say Chump. Everything he has done up to now leads me to say Chump. I don't think he'll continue his hot start. But, we have to continue to start him."
GEEZ! Cover your ass enough?
And to boot, he calls him a chump, but says we have to keep starting him.


This kind of analyst in no way helps the fantasy player. But, it does lead me to my next point.
We all have roster decisions twice a week. Pitchers once a week.
We don't admit it, but there is a lot of guess work that goes into those lineups.
For my part, I usually side with bulk. If a player has four games to another players three games, I'll usually take the four games guy.
I have math on my side and little else.
Other things come into play such as matchups, home park, away park, and the likeliness of playing all games.
Even a last minute rain out can change our mind.
No matter all that, it is simply our best guess.
We don't call this luck. We call it going with our gut. We call it playing the odds. We call it best Numerish.
It's luck.
We have no idea that Ryan Ludwick, who we played over Lucas Duda was going to come to the plate three times with a runner on third and less than two out.
His line reads, 4-0-1-3 and we give ourselves a pat on the back. Duda had a 4-0-3-0, but we'd rather have the rbi.
We call this good circumstances. We call it knowing splits. We call it knowing Numerish.
It's luck.

The same thing happens with pitching. We'll hear that Odorizzi is sick. We get scared that he may his start totally skipped.
We throw in Tyler Clippard and he vulchers two wins. This could have been the week that Tyler Clippard was drilled, but he wasn't.
We can call this anything we want. Truth is, we left the StarterMobile in the garage because the motor didn't sound right.
So we took the CloserinwatingCycle and found a hundred dollar bill in the gutter on the way to work.
That, that is luck.
And, we hope it happens every week of the year!

I always thought about keeping a journal, starting with the first week of the season.

Jot down what decisions I needed to make on a start vs. sit option. Not obvious ones, like should I start Trout.
More like you described. Ones that needed to be considered. Maybe 2-3 per week.

Then at the end of the week, assign a +1 if I chose the right option. A -1 if I blundered it. And a 0 if it was a wash or didn't matter.

I swear that every time I sit someone, they break out.
But that could just be because I take for granted the guy I put in went a good .280 for the week with a HR and couple RBI and a SB or two. Nothing spectacular...more under the radar. But better than the guy on the bench.

Meh...26 weeks of a journal. I really have to be bored.

Nathan Zegura's pretty good during football season. Entertaining and informative.

Fantasy Baseball radio has plenty of room to improve, but it also has come a long way in the past few years. It used to be truly awful. Phone calls are the worst. I guess they are filling time. I'd like to see them zoom in a little more rather than always taking such a wide shot.

But to join you in your complaint, what drives me nuts are the guys who can't answer a question without hedging, or asking another question in the answer.

Dan is right, all of them a hard to listen too. I guess anyone who plays NFBC is at least and in most cases more knowledgeable than all of them. These days, Greg and Tom are the few I'll listen too - No BS with them. I like Erikson and Liss - The rest of XM, ugh...... , on TV, no one. Podcasts, like Scott white and all the others, ick..... hate to be so critical, but they all add nothing to Fantasy owners who pay attention.

All the shows are trending more and more to Daily discussion like Fan duel, Draft kings, etc. The pump up daily leagues way more than they should. I look at daily and see nothing but a pyramid/ponzi scheme. they are totally reliant on new people joining, spending money, because way too many people have jumped in, lost and left. It amazes me how they are looking for new players and are all matching initial investments dollar for dollar, up to $200 or more these days. 2 years ago It used to be matches of 10.00, then 25, then 50, then 75, then a 100 and now 200 plus. They need fresh dumb money to keep it going IMO.