Episode 311: Midseason and Midlife Conversations (with Jeff Erickson)

Mike and Jon welcome Rotowire's Jeff Erickson for a free-range conversation centering on our midseason process, specifically as it relates to player evaluation, the timing of cuts and adds, roster management, FAAB strategy, and how we balance our time spent on baseball with, you know, living our lives. 

We start off with a little DadCast(tm) conversation before getting down to baseball stuff.

You can find Jeff's work at www.rotowire.com, on many Rotowire podcasts, and on the Sirius/XM Fantasy channel. 

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 the awesome and generous 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.

Episode Transcript

(00:18):
Welcome to episode three eleven of FlagsFly Forever, a baseball perspective fantasy baseball
podcast. It's a special night tonightbecause, in addition to your co host
John Haglund, we have Jeff Ericksonfrom Rodo Wire. Jeff, we are
so thrilled to have you here tonight. Hey, it's the pleasure's mind.
I love talking ball with people,you know, and it's just great because

(00:40):
you guys have been, like yousaid, three hundred eleven episodes. Congratulations
on that. That's hard to do, first of all. But you know,
Mike, you and I have hadmany good conversations over the years.
John, you and I have beenkind of conversing online here and there.
But I'm happy to join both ofyou. I'm really looking forward to this.
You know what, I just realized, Jeff, that the three of
us were actually for a couple ofyears, is in the same score sheet

(01:00):
league, Yeah, which I thinkI have. Yeah, yeah, the
kid, Yep, I'm still inthat yep. Yeah, yeah, score
sheets. That that's a that's that'sa game. That's a whole thing.
Unto itself. I really enjoyed it, but it was just kind of a
time suck and in a way thatit's so different than all of you,

(01:23):
you know, all of the otherkind of fantasy prep and and play.
But it's a really cool, it'scool game, and I enjoyed being in
that league. It's it's nice toknow that OBP matters there, and it's
nice to know that you don't haveto chase saves or stolen bases for that
matter. Uh, you know youcan. You can put yourself in the
GM chair and the manager's chair ina certain sort of way, and those
are fun. You know, anysort of sim games great that way.

(01:46):
Strat's great that way too. Iplay in one Strat league and four score
Sheet leagues, and it's good tokind of keep up on those as well.
It could be a little much.I probably should pare down, but
I didn't know. I don't knowwhich league I would quit. That's a
problem. How many leagues are youin this year all told, including score
Sheet and STRATT. I think it'sat eighteen or nineteen this year, which

(02:08):
is actually scaled back by two orthree. Wow. Yeah, we're I
think I'm I'm in nine. Johnand I are doing a main event together.
This year's actually our first main events, and I do I do a
league with Brett Sayer, but yeah, including those two, I'm in nine
total and John, I think you'reYou're also in single digits too, but

(02:30):
like high single I think, yeah, and that's after scaling scaling back as
well. Yeah, so that thatwas one of my questions. That's not
on our kind of our brief rundown. I guess I always want to ask
you this. You know, Jeff, and I know John and I don't
don't do fantasy full time. Iknow you do, but you it's demanding
you do other sports. You dofootball. We were talking about that before

(02:53):
we started, Like, I'm sortof wondering how you manage all that in
particular, I think the biggest challenge, there's two challenges. One is just
line up, like navigating all that, like navigating fab in particular. I
hear a lot of people want tolisten to your ro to our shows,
say all but a lot of leagues, but I try to avoid too many
FAB leagues. And then secondly,it is really the enjoyment factor, because

(03:15):
honestly, there are times where likeeven with nine leagues, I forget who
I have on what team, andlike who's playing for me? And tore
who I should what I should berooting for. It's like, gee,
I've got three players here and fourplayers here, how do you juggle all
that? Sometimes some days better thanothers. First of all, I've found
it more difficult now, and Ithink not all of it. Some of

(03:39):
it is because the competition has gottenbetter. I think we've kind of you
know, there's Peter Kreutzer and AlexPatten used to write about the Stage three.
Hell, that was twenty five yearsago that they started writing about that,
where everybody is on a knowledge planepretty similar. They're experienced players.
I feel like it's even increased interms of the complexity. You guys are

(04:00):
playing the main event this year,and I think that crowd is a really
tough crowd tout Wars. It's beena long time since I've won. It's
it's it's really challenging. The informationis available for when there's no you know,
we're all at the same level ofinformation if you want, it's a
fire hose, but it's there,and now that we have more data than
ever to follow, it makes itreally tougher. I also, I might

(04:23):
not be you know, I thinki I'm not as quick. I'm not
as nimble as I used to bementally. You know, it's just like
you know in your twenties and thirties, you know, even early forties.
It's it's one thing. You know, I'm fifty three now and it's just
you know, the recall is stillgreat, but it's still like the smidge
slower thing it used to be.So it's just I try to be more
organized, try to be more streamlined, and it's tough. Sometimes I try

(04:45):
to prioritize, you know, Ialways go to my main event page first,
for better or worse. You know, as the season progresses, the
teams that are doing better are probablygoing to get more attention. It probably
is a little counterintuitive. It probablyshould be the other way around. The
ones that need ones that are strugglingprobably need more work and more to ELC.
But I think naturally we want tosee the good first, So that's
where I gravitate to you sometimes.But yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

(05:10):
I'm going to be an empty nesterin a year, and I wonder how
that's going to how that's going tochange things a little bit there, because
you know, I've been try tohave that good work life, kid,
family, balance, and you knowthat as they kids have gotten older,
their activities have become more time consuming, more involving and great by the way,
you know, it also kind ofmakes it challenging to be on top

(05:30):
of managing your fantasy leagues all thetime. Yeah, I mean I get
that. You know. I've gottwo teenagers and they're both at home and
they're not involved in athletics like theway yours are they were where they were
younger. But it does feel alot like like my older one is getting
her permit, or she has herpermit, she's getting driving lessons. The
younger one got a job and they'refifteen, and that's great, but it

(05:53):
involves just a lot of like it'sa show fur thing, right, Like
a lot of driving back forth,a lot of a lot of balance.
And yeah, sometimes I used tomy family be shocked to hear this,
But I used to watch more baseballa couple of years ago. Now sometimes
like I'd rather spend time with thembecause a couple of years they'll they'll have
a house and I won't be seeingthem as much. Yeah. The challenges
always put the phone away, mutethe TV or even turn it off,

(06:15):
you know, have have a conversationat the dinner table, have those family
dinners whenever you can, because nowthat's the thing you're going to remember a
little bit more. But yeah,I don't want to get too preachy here.
But at the same time, itis important to manage, you know,
to balance all that sort of stuff. And it doesn't matter whether it's
you know, just hearing about theirday or or coaching their team or whatever
it is, you know, justbeing present. Yeah, I mean that

(06:38):
that's that we could turn this intothe dad cast. I mean we John
and I have done that before.But you know, I know from talking
to you, Jeff, you knowyou're you're a devoted dad, and you
know, sometimes like fantasy sports,there is that perception you mentioned Peter Kreutzer.
I remember the old Peter Goldenbach books. You know that that that's that
ADL league and some of the storiesfrom there, where you know, you

(06:59):
have these people that sound crazed aboutfantasy sports, where you know, the
guy's making a trade on the phoneand someone's like, what's that noise behind
you, and the person like,oh, it's Atlantic City. I'm on
my honeymoon. That's that's the beachi'mb out a payphone, I mean where
that story is really old. Butyeah, like I think something that we
have improved about generationally, not justwith fantasy, but in general. I
think more of us like are therefor our kids? You know, people

(07:24):
our parents' age might think too much, but I think it's a good thing
just to like last point on theDad Cast, you know, Jeff,
you were talking about how well asyou age your you know, mental acuity,
can you know, sort of diminisha little bit? And yeah,
I feel it. Like when soI'm not writing for BP anymore. I'm

(07:48):
just doing the podcast and writing forthe annual. But when I was writing,
what I what I realized is,you know, often the only time
I would have to write my columnswould be, you know, later at
night after my son was in bed, and then starting a column at like
nine o'clock. Like when I wasin my twenties or thirties, I could
do that, no problem. Butmy brain and my body just shut down

(08:09):
at like nine nine thirty pm,and I'm useless. So it's it's just
also like finding those pockets of timewhere you're not completely washed, you know,
completely, and I go back andlook at some of the things I
did, like you know, talkabout scaling back, like scaling as Rodo
wires matured. I've been able toscale back a little bit on some of
my duties for the company too.You know. I used to write a

(08:31):
ton of player notes, used toyou know, write more articles than I
do currently. I used to managemore writers and I do less of all
those things. And it still feelsnow I talk more than I ever used
to. So maybe that's part ofit there, And that does you know,
you have to be on, youhave to be constantly on for like
a two hour stretch or an hourstretch here and there, and that does.

(08:52):
That's a different sort of strain,but you know it does. It
is interesting, like how did Ido all that? And it's just it's
just at a different age, differenttime, I may not have done it
as well too, you know.That's that's the thing. Some people are
really good at mount maintaining that,and I had just applaud them for being
able to do all that. Yeah, I mean mean for me, like
I know, to John's point,like after about two o'clock, I like

(09:16):
two PM, I can't really writelike I'm a morning writer, Okay,
just because I do a final additof the stuff I submit at night.
But I know that anything I startto try writing at seven to get thoughts
together, it's just a mess.I'll look at it the next morning and
be like, what was this?Like this is just like a word salad.
So yeah, as you get older, you definitely have to kind of
know like what works through it doesn'twork for you. Yeah, when I

(09:39):
was in my twenty same thing,I could write whenever, Like when I
started, like doing that old blogI did before VP, that was that
was almost a twenty four to seventhing. It's like, oh great,
I have an idea, I'm goingto write about it. You know,
it's two in the morning. AndI started that blog because Lucy was a
baby, and sometimes they's just upat weird times. I cannot imagine like
doing that now. Of course,you know, I can't imagine being a

(10:00):
dad at that, you know thehim now either. But that's a whole
other that's a whole other thing inthe industry. I mean, here's the
other problem, guys, is justtrying to come up with fresh ideas,
new stuff. I mean, yeah, you know, there's the old joke
in South Park, South Park episode, Simpson's did it, Simpsons did well,
somebody else has done it. BPhas done it, HQ has done
it. You know, Picture Listhas done it. You name it,

(10:22):
they've done it. And you know, it's trying to come up with,
you know, a new metric forcrying out no way, I mean that's
not going to happen. So,uh, just all the stackcast info that
we have and trying to parse allthat. I mean, it's it's it's
a fire hose, it really.Yeah, it's a it's a circular thing
too, because you know, thenyou have people like Nick Pollock or you
know, like Robert or at BPand trying to you know, Robert writes

(10:43):
something, I'm like, oh mygod, like I'm never nothing. I'm
a good writer. But in termsof coming up with a metric or a
process, like, I'm not goingto do that like some of us knowing
your strengths, like knowing like Iknow, my wheelhouse, which is valuation.
You know, it's also like historicaltrends like I know, Okay,
that's that's my wheelhouse. That's whatI'm gonna write. I'm not going to
try to invent new metric because peoplelike Robert and Nick or out there doing

(11:05):
that and doing a preat job.Yeah, so I wanted to move on
to the one of the actual topicsin our rundown. So this this is
probably gonna be like the big topics. So in season valuations and process,
a lot of what we do,you know, in the preseason. You
know, I know you're doing itright now for football, like but for

(11:26):
baseball we start earlier and earlier too, right, Like I see, I
see August, I see mock draftsin August, Like I know in two
months there is going to be amock baseball draft for August. I know
that's that's a fun you know,that's a fun thing. That's not really
that analytical, but more and morelike there's all this preseason analysis, like
we talk about ADP, we talkabout building a team. I often feel

(11:48):
when April comes around, a lotof that disappears. Like there's a lot
of like gee, where we writeabout the draft, like two weeks into
the season, and then a monthof the season, there's there's a lot
of what do I do right now? Like how do I you know,
how do I manage my fab Likehow do I manage you know, this
injury. How do I manage that? And that's all important, But I

(12:09):
think the question I have for you, how do we balance that between the
idea that you know, if youdrop a player in week three, it
could affect you, It could havea you know, butterfly effect or ripple
effect in week twenty. How howdo we account for that? And I
guess more importantly, are we accountingfor that second piece enough in our analysis?

(12:30):
I think that's a great question,and I think the answer is no,
we're not. I know I personallyfall short of that sometimes. Last
year it was a perfect example altow Wars. I picked up Jake Berger
from when he was still in theWhite Sox and you know, need it
in that bat. I think hegot sent down ever so briefly, and
I cut him, and he gotpicked up by somebody else and he dominated
the rest of year. I shouldhave just kept, you know, held

(12:50):
onto the skiel. Same thing.I think I cut Bailey Ober when the
Twins. I drafted and cut BaileyOber when he got sent down by the
Twins because they didn't have you know, they didn't have room in the in
for him at the start of theseason. And yeah, gotta you kind
of have to remember, Okay,you like this player for a reason,
and it's not just about putting outthis fire. We need to kind of
step back and say, Okay,why do I like this player? Why

(13:11):
do I not like this player?And you know, the you know,
we're so focused on the now thatwe forget that we were we could be
missing out of some value in thelong term. That's just one little micro
example, but I think it's areally important facet there. And I think
when we play in keeper leagues,we may be better at looking at the
long term. We might be betterat looking the long view. But I

(13:33):
think sometimes in our redraft leagues wejust wash our hands up and we move
on. We've got to try toremember our mistakes too. Yeah, I
mean, keeper leagues can go theother way though, Like so, you
know, just I know you're inand I forget the name of it.
You're very similar to me. You'rein a long standing I think it's the
Roto Wire, Yeah, the roadStaff Keeper League, eighteen teams, et
cetera. Yeah, all that goodstuff. Yeah, you keep the Brewers.

(13:54):
I think even though oh that's myhome league. That's I'm sorry,
that's I was talking about I'm soright because that retriates me because okay,
oh that's a redraft, all right, that's okay. I when you play
in eighteen leagues and I just Italk about them all, you know you're
going they're going to be some likelihoodof confusion there. So I say,
I mixed up my old league.So of course I'm basically up yours.

(14:16):
But yeah, I'm in an oldschool, like we just went to five
by five, Like the league startedin nineteen eighty seven at Brown University.
I wasn't I'm not that old.I wasn't in the league when it started,
but I joined in the nineties andwe just switched to five by five.
It was a four by four leaguesince nineteen eighty seven, and we
finally got enough members over the hump. But what I find sometimes is the

(14:39):
opposite, where sometimes someone will havethis like marginal keep or really frankly not
even a keep like it. Youknow, it's a similar like old school
auction style league, and they'll beattached to somebody at fifteen dollars in a
two sixty where I'm like, reallylike you, this is the guy who's
stopping you from making the trade,Like this phenomenon can go the the direction

(15:01):
where people get really attached to theirplayers, right and they're like, I
can't deal this guy because he's beenon my team for you know, four
years and I love him, andit's like, yeah, but you finished
in eighth place three in the lastfour years, Like don't you you know
see the problem here? So thereis balance, right there is. On
the one hand, yes, wedo want to have more I think good
process in terms like maybe I shouldhang on to this guy. But the

(15:24):
other side of that is, youknow, sometimes we get really attached to
players where we feel like, no, I've got to stick with this player
through the end, and that's apiece I have trouble balancing. Frankly,
I've gone too far the other way, Like I've made some mistakes in my
keeper leagues where I'll drop somebody becauseI'm thinking in a redraft mindset because almost

(15:45):
every league I'm in now is aredraft and it's like, okay, well,
I'm just going to drop this pitcher. I don't need this guy.
Or I think there was one yearwhere not last year, but the year
before where Lucas Giulio's last good yearhe was struggling at the beginning. I
dropped him. I managed to gethim back, but I lost a salary
benefit from dropping him. And thatthat's another piece too that I think sometimes

(16:07):
is difficult to navigate. I wantto go back to something Jeff said about
you know, you mentioned Jake Bergerand Bailey Ober and these are guys that
you remember dropping and you know lookback on them as as mistakes. I
mean, this is a bit ofthe twenty twenty hind side fallacy though.
I mean, because true, ifyou widen the if you look at a

(16:29):
wider angle, you want some healthylevel of churn right on your roster because
that's the only way you're going to, you know, get the good free
agent right or the you know,the difference maker that you add in in
April and he gets taught in May. So I mean, I always,

(16:49):
without fail in most of my leagues, I dropped someone early that I end
up regretting. And I've gotten betterabout just saying well, okay, I
had my reasons at that moment.And you know, if the process is
good, and it might not evenbe like a player evaluation thing, you
might think, well, Jake Berger'she's got power, he's you know,
if he finds a starting job,he's going to be really productive. But

(17:11):
I don't see where that those appouts are coming right now, and I
need this lineup spot, and sohe's got to go, you know.
So yeah, for sure, it'sit's a it's a lefting. A lot
of it is just coming to termswith your mistakes and you know, just
making sure your process was sounding yourdecision to drop that player in the first

(17:33):
place. I think you make agreat point there, absolutely, And we
always talked about don't be afraid tomake a mistake. So yeah, and
here I am lamenting those you know, it goes well, yeah, it's
like and then you want to say, and then you have to kind of
think, is this a processor oris this just a player of valuation?
Or is it just bad luck?It could be all of those, you
know, it could very easily bethat. But there is also that temptation

(17:56):
in April to just tinker with yourroster too much, right, I mean
that at least I have that temptation. It's like, you know, those
first two weeks where you're just subsessively, you know, watching the scores and
checking the box scores, and someonegets off to a really poor start and
you just get that itchy trigger finger, and you know you can make mistakes
that way. But you know alot of times the reasoning is sound and

(18:18):
it just comes back to buy youlater on for reasons you couldn't have accounted
for at the time. Absolutely well, to go all the way back to
something you said earlier, Jeff,you know, I think some of it
is, you know, we shouldn'tdo this, like you said, we
look at the teams that are moresuccessful, even though the teams that are
less successful need attention. That's absolutelytrue, and I think we all do
it. And some of it is, you know, as much as I

(18:41):
sit there every late April, earlyMay and right the dour you know it's
too early column. I've added somehumor to it. You know. A
couple of years I took last year'syou know, stats from the first three
or four weeks and went through thatthis player's awful, my team's horrible,
and then you know, rattled off, Okay, this is what actually happened.
There's still satisfaction if a player youtook, especially somebody late, is

(19:06):
great for the first three weeks,it feeds, it feeds your ego you
know, it's it's a rush likeand and that rush is why we play
this game. We don't really asmuch as people think it's a statistical game
that it is, we don't reallyplay this game so that at the end
we can be like, oh,you know, I'm an actuary, hooray.
You know, I think that's thebiggest misconception about fantasy sports. Some

(19:26):
people think, oh, it's abunch of nerds, you know looking at
a spreadsheeting. Yes it is,but but also a big, a big
part of it really is a satisfactionof Hey, this is my player,
this is my team. I'm enjoyinglike watching this you know, this player
I took in the twenty You know, I think you and Fred yesterday you
were talking about late round picks.I enjoyed this twenty seventh round player who

(19:47):
was super successful. Yeah that's right, that's right. And going back to
one thing you said too, it'slike we all like inn keeper leagues,
we all have our thing. Youknow, May I introduce you to Austin
Kerns. You know, we allhave those guys that like we keep going
back to the well for uh andagain. And you know what he did
display a skill. He unfortunately hedidn't own it. And it's the rare
thing where you know, Chandler waswrong. Well, it wasn't that Chandler

(20:10):
was wrong. That's not let meget something clear. There are exceptions to
every sort of maximum. But inthe case, Occurrency just never recovered from
his injuries, and I kept onexpecting him too. So that was my
fallacy there. Yeah, I mean, it's stuff like that is weird.
I was having two and John,you you were part of one of those
conversations. I was having two separateconversations about Hobby Bias today. And you

(20:32):
know, one of the things aboutBias when he was coming up like a
decade ago, and you probably rememberthis, you know, he strikes out
too much. There's too many strikeouts. And you look at him the last
three years and relatively, I mean, I don't want to like overstate it,
but he's cut down the strikeouts.Good news right where it's like,
yay, you know, Hobby Biasis not striking out as much, but

(20:52):
he just isn't. He's a shellof what he once was. So sometimes
those processings come to fruition, butit doesn't really matter because it's too late.
Yep, absolutely true. And youknow it's funny that we we try
to focus on one thing about aplayer and then this the butterfly effect that

(21:15):
you talked about. Sometimes it's likeone time, okay, so yeah,
he focuses on not swinging and missingso much, and then he just doesn't
drive the ball. You know,it's just like you know that happens all
the time. Tim Anderson is likejust sitting there like, yeah, he
used to be, you know,hitter for contact with the modicum of power,
and he's neither now. Yeah.And I think the other thing that's
tough too. You know, Ithink I've heard you talking a lot about

(21:37):
it. I'm sorry to bring upthis painful topic. Bo Naylor, who
I forget what league you have himin, but you've been trying to get
rid of him. Yeah. Oh, I'm really like one process thing for
me is I try like I havea line with catchers and you know,
lucker skill, you call what youwant like I this year was a Ryan
Scheffer's line for me, and it'slike, that's the last place I want

(21:57):
to get a second catcher. Ithought that the strategy of taking two like
in the tenth or eleventh round ofa fifteen team or was too soon.
So I had the Jeffers line whereit's like, okay, that's that's kind
of the line for me for theacceptable second catcher. So as a result,
except for labor, which you know, I'm in with you, and
I started with Jake Rogers, yuck, and I've Austin Wells, which is,
you know, less yuck, butstill yuck. I have, you

(22:19):
know, managed in two catcher leagues, have two acceptable quality catchers. But
but I think what winds up happeningis, you know, when when that
happens, like when we fail ona guy like Naylor or you know,
in my case like Rogers and Wells, we hyper focus on that even though
really like in the grand scheme ofthings, yes it matters, but it's

(22:40):
one you know, hitting spot onyour roster out of like fourteen slots.
Yep, you want to blame himfor the shortcom while I had three wins
in like seven thousand starts last week. It wasn't Naylor's fault. You know.
It's like there's other things happening theretoo. Yeah, And I think
that this is the other phenomenon Inoticed too, which which is, you
know, I've got Austin Riley andLabor and you know, obviously a giant

(23:00):
problem, you know, something I'mlike really annoyed and upset about. But
the other side of that is,you know, Aaron Judge was my first
round pick in the league, andobviously I'm very happy about that. But
it's when you have a boring playerin the first round who's performing and isn't
you know, Judge, and youalmost don't notice it, right, Like,
very few stories of how I wonmy league started with, oh,

(23:23):
I drafted Freddy Freeman in the firstround and he was Freddie Freeman exactly like
most of the stories start with,oh I took this guy at the twentieth
round, I took this guy intwenty fourth round. We don't really focus
on the fact that you need thoseguys in the early rounds to work out
and be good and be boring.Yeah, that's precisely right. Yeah.

(23:44):
At the same time, you knowthere's probably other you know, when early
picked Bus, it wasn't just forthat reason why your team wasn't good.
You know, all the Spencer Stridermanagers out there are probably like, yeah,
I gotta get a jail free cardhere, But chances are you had
other stakes in there too, andyou know, you just don't give up
when you in your high profile pickfails or gets hurt. You know,
you just there are other reasons too, and that's the sty of baseball and

(24:07):
a beauty of fantasy baseball in particular. Yeah, John, John, you
want to say something I heard you. We we had banned last week,
We had vowed not to bring upthe name Corbyn Carroll on the podcast.
But you're leading, you're leading leadingus inexorability to this this topic. Yeah,
I mean exactly. It's it's theuh you can now there's busting on

(24:30):
a first round pick, and thenthere's there's what what Corbyn Carroll is has
been doing up until before this week. But yeah, it's, uh,
we you know, if we goon to and our main event team is
improving, but we were starting fromyou know, literally four from the bottom
in the overall in the first coupleof weeks. But if we end up

(24:53):
not not having a memorable season,you know, this will forever be known
as the Corbyn Carol team. Butwe did also you know, draft Lindor
who is better now but had aslow start. We drafted Manny Machado,
who has not been great. Andour first team, our first picture is

(25:15):
Pablo Lopez. So we have alot of a lot of reasons for our
lack of success to this point.Oh yeah, every night Gunner Henderson hits
a homer and lind Door doesn't.It's it's always been super fun for me.
I had Acunya, I had thenumber one pick in my mane for
the first time I think ever,and yeah, probably the last time,

(25:36):
I don't know, but so yeah, I went Acunya, Lindor Alonso,
and there's Gunner at three point two, just winning the winning the world for
him. But yeah, it's justfunny because last year, you know,
I won the top mixed draft intwice twit two. So I had the
number one pick or the option numberone pick and I took it. And
I drafted Judge last year at one, which you know you might go,

(25:57):
ooh, you didn't take Acunya.But like, honestly, you know,
if you look at the last threeyears, it just looks like I picked
the wrong year to do that isyou know, yeah, absolutely, and
it wasn't so obvious. I meanI think that. And remember we draft
in mid February too, I meanI think, you know, we want
we all kind of want to seeokay, Zacunya healthy, what's going to

(26:18):
happen with Judge? You know andall that in spring training? You know,
I think it collect I mean therewere people who drafted Trey Turner at
one point one last year. Therewas like five different players getting drafted at
one pip one, So it wasn'tso obvious. Yeah, well, I
mean it wasn't obvious. And itwas also it's on base league, so
that was part of it too.You know. I looked at Judge.
I was like, well, Imean if if he's judged and he gets
on base, well over four hundredclip, Like, that's just such,

(26:41):
that's just such an anchor. Soyeah, it's it's always that thing.
You know, that's another process thingbefore we move on to like the next
and final topic. So the judgekind of fascinates me. And get John,
I know you're tired of hearing this, but he got the injury pro
label. But really if you lookback at him now, and yes,
I know this spring he had someminor ailments that you know, he was

(27:03):
fighting through. He's had one significantinjury the last four years, and it
was kind of a freak injury,you know, on an outfield fence that
some people who knows like complain wasyou know, maybe not like position right
or whatever. But even even ifthat's not the case, judge has been
pretty sturdy. So I just sortof wonder, like, how do we
account for that. I know there'sno good answer. I know we just

(27:26):
sort of throw up our hands.But to me, it's just a tough
thing, especially with hitters. Ithink with pictures, you can look at
what they're doing and say, okay, well pictures, you know, once
they get hurt, there's more risksthan getting hurt. I get all that.
I have a hard time with hitters, like why, like some of
them can't assigned narratives, the narrativesthey get assigned. Yeah, I do
too, And I always try toemphasize injury prone versus hurt. Right now

(27:49):
has some injury and then Mike Trouthappens every single year, and you know,
like Trout was amazing and then hegot hurt. I mean, it's
just I want to be able tosay, like, Okay, you know,
injury prone is not a thing,but I think it sometimes is a
thing, And I don't know howto distinguish between the two. I mean,
that's my problem is I can't tellthe difference. Yeah, I often

(28:11):
think of player's injury prone until he'snot. I know, I know,
it's not like a good you know, you mentioned Trey Turner. People forget,
but Trey Turner was injury prone earlyin his career, like his you
know, through twenty nineteen, hehad that one complete season in twenty eighteen,
he was hurt like three of theother four years, and people were
like, is he injury prone?Is this just his game? He runs

(28:32):
a lot like is he always goingto be banged up? And then you
know, including the pandemic year ina four year run where yeah, you
know, he missed a few gameshere and there, but it was pretty
healthy, and now you know,now this year's hurt. Yeah. I
think that something you know, they'regetting the label. I think has to
do with when you get struck witha string of injuries, whether or not

(28:53):
they're connected. Because I think whena player is has just broken now or
has just you know, hit somesome level that is approaching peak, and
then when the if the injuries happenedthen and there's a string of them,
Like I'm thinking about John Carlo Stanton. I'm thinking about Turner, thinking about

(29:15):
what's happening to Royce Lewis, youknow, in the past couple of years.
Like it seems like that where youare in your career arc when you
get struck with those injuries might haveto do with how you get that label.
That's just spectulation, and also howyou get the injuries. I mean,
Royce Lewis is the freak of freakinjuries. Slips on the ice,
you know, trying to shovel snowon his driveway, plays out of position

(29:37):
in the outfield, collides against thewall I mean, and he's a short
stop at the time. I mean, yeah, that's unfortunate. You know,
Jeff Bagwell got hit by pitches multipletimes, you know, and you
know we're you know, remember thebeginning of his career, he was talking
about a guy who's got these brittlebones, and then all of a sudden
he wears an elbow pad and nowhe's finding it as a Hall of Fame
career. So you know it,the narrative can change, too, Yeah,

(30:00):
I mean absolutely. But then Ithink when you get those players to
get to a certain age, whenthey have one source of the injury that's
recurring, like you know Kershaw andStrout with the back, and you know
Pooh Hooles with the with the plantarfascia ittis and you know leg problems.
Like then you can sort of sayit's injury prone because it's the same injury
that keeps happening again and again.For sure. Yeah, I mean I

(30:23):
also think, you know, playersin their thirties just injury or no,
like just tend to wind down.And one thing about the way the game
is changing and getting faster and fasteris you're just seeing more and more players
like in their mid thirties like suddenlyinjury or no, like just falling off
where you're just like, oh boy, like I don't know anybody hits Asia
League pitching now, you know.I was listening to you know, rates

(30:47):
and barrels, and I think itwas Eno was talking about the you know,
pitchers now have three different fastballs andyou have to at least two different
fastballs, and my head was spinninglike, oh my goodness, Like I
don't know how anybody hits anything.So once once you reach a certain point,
is or you're just not really goingto be able to hit the way
you used to. I'm not statingI'm not stating it well, but that's
the cliffs are just absolutely vertical thesedays for for a lot of players in

(31:11):
their in their early both sides ofthe curve too, by the way,
climbing to get there in their firstplace. You know, look at all
the rookies that have really struggled.Look at like Jackson Holiday. You know,
oh, this is I can't missprospect. Then he's a strikeout machine.
The second is he's major league pitching. I mean, it's it's both
sides. It's you know, I'llgo with BP alum and founder Joe Shean's
line, pictures are wizards. It'sreally true. I mean it, it's

(31:33):
harder than ever to hit a baseballthese days, and then when you're dead
and the ball on top of that, they're good times a right not to
be had. Yeah, so Iwant to I think we wanted to close
out and John that this was yourquestion or multiple questions, So if you
want to clarify it, please do. Yeah. Yeah, true, I
mean we talked that, we weretalking a little bit about it at the
top of the show, but Iwas just curious because so much in you

(31:56):
know all podcasts and articles and Twitterdiscourse about draft season and what we do
to prepare for drafts, but Ithink we hear less about how we manage
our teams in season. So Iwas just curious, Jeff, if you
maybe could talk a little bit aboutyour process and if you're if you're in

(32:17):
mainly leagues that have like weekly FAByou know, NFBC leagues and the like,
Like what do you do during theweek to prepare and put yourself in
a position where you don't have to, you know, give up your entire
Sunday to prepare for FAB? Likewhat are you doing on a daily basis?

(32:37):
How are you consuming stats, baseball, you know, watching games and
that kind of thing. So thefirst thing I do is, well,
I set all my leagues, youknow, all in one folder, open
them all up in tabs, andlook at the daily in the nightly box,
the box score from the night before, see if there's any of the
any flashing red injury notes to startwith there, then kind of digging on

(33:00):
those players. If I if there'sa guy that gets the call or change
in role, if I can putin a placeholder bit on a player,
I'll do so. Just remind myself, okay, I need to put a
good fab bit on them there.So that kind of streamlines the process a
little bit. You know, Iread through our player notes. We have
some tools on road to wire thathelps streamline that process. Without getting too

(33:20):
infomercially, I'll just say, like, you know, the customer customization tools
we have like my leagues, combinedwith like player news and the projected Starters
Grid saves me a lot of bitof time consuming baseball. I've got I
got Direct TV and I watched theGRID channel constantly there, so I've got
like there's eight games going on,I'll watch, I'll try to watch.
I'll you know, keep an eyeon them at least volume on one of

(33:43):
them. And I have a coupleof TVs up here, so that that's
I try to. I consume aton of baseball. I just love watching
baseball, so that helps them.And then Sunday it's still it's still a
slog though, especially one one playerbreaks and all of us then you've got
like move on that player, letalone like the related players to that in

(34:05):
seven different leagues, and you justhave to do the scramble drill as best
you can. But and then youknow, of course we agonize over the
bid amount, second guess and allthat that goes. It's not other people
probably narrowed it down a little bitbetter than I have, but I,
you know, I try to doI think the answer though, is do
as much advance work as you canso it doesn't come down to Sunday.

(34:28):
Yeah. So I like my process, Like what I do for end season
moves is, yeah, I havea spreadsheet and like all my fab like
leagues are in different tabs, andI start on Friday. Yeah, and
it's the same thing, like Iwant to have the like kind of the
shell of everything down on Friday.Like I know that they're gonna be changes,
like you said, they're gonna beinjuries, Like something's gonna happen,

(34:50):
there's gonna be news. But Idon't want to be in a position on
Sunday where I'm just starting out andyou know, some is what we were
talking about before, Like I wantto enjoy time with my family, like
I want to have it so thatif something's going on, if we have
plans like we're we're going up tomy my my in laws this Sunday,
I don't want to be consumed withlike, oh gosh, I didn't do
any of this, so so thatthat's a large part of it. You

(35:10):
know, I can't even put thatspreadsheet on my phone now and you have
a Google you know, sheets openand be like okay, well if I
absolutely have to, you know,be that person on Father's Day and look
at my phone. You know,I don't have to bring the computer and
ask for the Wi Fi and bea big pain in the butt. I
can just like look and go,oh okay, this player's hurt. I
need to do this. Well,Father's Day is the one day should have
the privilege that that's a that's agood point, you know, I I

(35:34):
unfortunately very oddly enough, and thisis this is this is a side question,
Jeff, And oh no we're gettingderailed on flags fly forever this ever
happens. But I'm were you wereyou raised in a sports family? Yes,
okay, so my dad's a bigsports fan. My mom supported that.
It's just as just two boys.Uh we played every like when we

(35:55):
weren't in organized sports, we'd playin the yard. We we'd watch,
we'd watch a lot. So yes, it was all part of like part
of my tradition growing up so Iwas not, and I think people are.
Maybe we've talked about this at toutover the years, Jeff, when
I've seen you in New York City. But my dad's my dad's from Argentina.
You know, he was born there. He came here as an adult.

(36:17):
You know, my mom was bornin Queens. But they but neither
one of them were into sports.My siblings weren't into sports, Like none
of my extended family into sports.I was just the black shape of the
family. I got into it myown, Like I started watching baseball,
I really got into it. Igot into other sports. So for me,
like they're there and I married somebodyout into sports. My kids really
aren'to sports. There's just something aboutmy life where it's just it's something I'm

(36:42):
into. And yes, I havea lot of friends who, you know,
love sports and this fantasy community whereit's tremendous for that. And I'm
sure, like you know, Idon't about where you are in California,
Jeff, but like I've got I'vegot Eric Carabell of ESPN like one town
away, and we're actually talking aboutgoing up to a game in Lehigh Valley
with a few people for me anda few others, like you know,
next Tuesday, because speaking of theOrioles, that's that their team is going

(37:05):
to be there. But yeah,as far as like my upbringing, I
just did not have like a sportsupbringing. I just got into it on
my own. I think that Ithink that might have wound up being my
weird little rebellion too, because mydad was was just totally like the no
nonsense immigrant who wasn't into sports.So funny how that works, yeah,
you know, and it was kindof a male dominated family growing up.

(37:28):
My mom was awesome and all that, but like we did stuff for the
boys. I mean, she subsumeda lot of stuff for us. It
is, you know, she wasincredible. But you know, now,
of course I have two girls,of course, you know, and like
my wife, my wife's siblings havegirls also, so it's a lot of
girls around us there. And notthat you girls can't be in sports.

(37:50):
They are obviously right so than ever, but it's just it's different. It's
just you know, I watched youknow, so we used to have our
you go to church on Sunday morningsand watch football with eat our eating off
our TV trays, watching football allafternoon you know, whereas if I'm watching
football and watching by myself for themost part, my daughter will watch with
me, my younger one. Butyou know, it's it's just a little

(38:14):
different. Yeah, I mean,and it's you know again, even though
it was like a solitary thing inmy family, Like I had friends,
you know in the neighborhood. WeI'd go to their houses or they'd come
to mind and and we'd watch mostlybaseball. You know. That's something,
you know, explaining to my kids, like there's a lot of stuff where
it's like wait, what, likehow can this be real? Like what
are you telling me? My youngerone? When I try to explain that,

(38:37):
like we used to be a baseballfirst, like country, like particularly
when we were kids, like inthe you know, late seventies and early
eighties, they look at me likea no, that that can't be right.
But I'm like, no, likethat that was true. Like the
super Bowl halftime show was nothing likeit was you know, just the band
and you know, or you know, the Simpsons Hooray for Everything bit was

(38:57):
pretty much making fun with the superBowl halftime show used to be like like
yeah, like that that's what itwas like before you know everything really like
you're veered often too into football exactly, and it'll change maybe in the next
generation will be like we'll be asoccer nation first, who knows, but
cricket nation. Yeah, right nowthat we're now that we've beaten the Yeah

(39:22):
what Pakistan. I don't know ifthey were the world the world's best,
but there was certainly one of theworld number two. India is still number
one. Part that I know thatis crazy. Are people excited though about
Like I follow the story, butare people here excited about cricket or is
it just one of those And I'mnot putting down cricket. I think it's
it's it's a great sport, butlike I'm just more wondering if people really

(39:43):
are interested or it's more of thecuriosity, like, oh, like that's
I think so. But I alsothink, you know, hey, we're
a nation, a melting pots orin a nation, and there's uh,
there's definitely a portion of our nationthat's pretty pretty pumped for this. You
know, there are more cricket fansin there a baseball fans in this world.
Well yeah, I mean but yeah, yeah, I grew up and

(40:05):
you know, I don't know howwell you know the East Coast, Jeff.
But I grew up in a place, a pretty big place like Edison,
New Jersey. And Edison has thebiggest like Indian you know population,
immigrant population in the United States,or the highest percentage, I should say,
of any place. And it's it'ssuch like where I grew up,
Like the main drag there, it'snot really a main street. It's all

(40:28):
Indian, Like almost all the signsare there people who are Indian. Tell
me if you want to like getthe best Indian from the United States,
like that's that's where you go.People from New York City go there,
like not all the time because youknow it's a pain to get there,
but like it's a special occasion thing. It's like if I want the great
Indian food on my birth year anniversaryor the authentic stuff, that's where I'm

(40:49):
going. Yeah, and I agree, it's awesome. Like I kind of
love the way that you know,this country changes to your point and grows
and evolves, and you know,you just have more and more of that.
Like, you know, being anAmerican is such a broad definition.
And I guess as far as baseballgoes, it's really tough because I hate
the idea that baseball's dying, andI don't think it is, but I

(41:12):
do. I do think it's moreof a niche kind of thing than it
used to be. Yeah, Ithink so. I just think, you
know, it's so much easier toconsume alternative things as alternative sports, alternative
activities, you name it. Yougot to do your best to keep our
keep our attention. It's just,you know, it's just harder to maintain
a percentage here, which makes theNFL dominant so crazy, the fact that

(41:37):
they've been able to do so forsuch a long time. Yeah, and
really, I'm sorry, John,go ahead, Well I was gonna say.
And yet baseball has so many marketableyoung superstars. Yeah, you know,
you know who come from places allaround the world, right, I
mean the best players, you know, joey Otani, you know, Akunya

(41:57):
Elli Da La Cruz, like theseare not players from the US. And
and I don't want this to turninto an anti MLB rant, but you
know, you wonder sometimes if theleague understands what it has, you know,
the treasure of young superstars, youngcharismatic superstars that it has. I
think it's a good point though,I mean, I think baseball is better

(42:20):
about marketing itself than it used tobe. But I think the constant labor
wars within the game have hurt quitea bit. I think baseball is anti
marketed itself every time there is alabor dispute. I think the way the
commissioner talks about this pace of thegame, I think it's not that I
think there is some truth to allthat, but and it resonates with some

(42:43):
people. But I also think whenyou've got the head of your your entire
organization talking about how he basically doesn'thave the attention span to watch a baseball
game, you know it can't help. Right, Well, now you know,
and John knows this is my hobbyhorse, but I think the pitchclock
improved things. I didn't like it. I will admit now that watching a
game is better. But the thingabout that is that what makes a game

(43:06):
unwatchable to me or all the ininning ads? Right, you know where
it's like, now here's a wordfrom this and you know you yeah,
a ten little second, like um, remember the remember Max Headroom And there
was briefly a TV show Max Headroom. They had something called they had something
called blipberts where it was a threesecond ad. That's what we're essentially getting.
We're getting all these little blipberts likein the middle of the game and

(43:29):
I'm like, wait, so onmy TV right now. In the Mariners
White Sox game apps, you're tryingto make the game more enjoyable, more
watchable, and like what are twoads in game? Like okay, whatever,
but they're just constant where it's like, oh my gosh, like I'm
I really just want to like sitback, relax and watch this game,
and you're not really letting me doso. And yes, some of it
is a lot of people don't watcha whole game anymore. You know,

(43:50):
they watch clips, or they watchhighlights or you know, you can go
down LBTV and you know just watchthe quick you know whatever, ten minute
recap and that's that's fine, LikeI have nothing against that, but yeah,
in terms of the actual enjoyment ofthe game, it does feel like,
I guess my other point about baseball, it's a hedge fund manager thing,
right. It feels like it's runby people. This isn't just baseball,

(44:13):
this is business. It's run bypeople that are trying to squeeze every
dollar out of every little thing theycan, and it doesn't matter what it
does in the medium or long term. It's just like, Nope, we
got to profit in the short term. And that to me is like we're
not going to solve the site.But that, to me is the biggest
impediments of baseball can't get out ofits own way. So I agree about

(44:35):
all the things you said there,dred percent. I noticed that the pitchclock.
One thing about it is it doesmake the television experience better. I
don't think it makes the in personexperience better. But then again, I
don't go to enough games. That'spart of my issue is like I go
to two or three games a yearmaybe, and when I'm there, I
want to enjoy myself. I wantto consume it as a fan, especially

(44:58):
if I'm taking my family there.I really don't need to be done in
two hours and ten minutes. Yeah, you go get concessions and you've missed
two innings. Yes, yes,they haven't streamlined the concessions process. It
hasn't been cheaper. It's you know, you go to a dodgery game,
especially, I mean I'm out hereand you know it's a great product,
but you know I want more ofit. Yeah, I mean, if

(45:19):
I if I go like I wentto Garrett Cole's first rehab assignment last week,
and because it was up in Summersetlike an hour you know from me,
and I like, I was therewith a friend, and you know,
while Cole was there, we werewatching intently. But after he left
the game, after I think itwas like three and a third, we
were bs ing. And for aminor league game where I'm paying like between
ten and fifteen dollars a ticket,it's like, uh, you know whatever,

(45:40):
Like I can miss most of thegame, but you're right, like,
if you're paying much more for amajor league ticket, I want to
be able to do both. Iwant to be able to kind of BS
and talk and also watch the game. And you're right, what I noticed
in game really when I go inperson, I noticed this less on TV.
I noticed that, okay, theclock has fixed things in terms of

(46:00):
the flow of the game, butthen with all the pitching changes, suddenly
the flow of the game, particularlyif you have a pitcher starting pitcher coming
out of the game in the fifth, that flow gets destroyed. And now
it's like a relief pitcher and likeyou know, walk to the mound and
a TV timeout and another relief pitcherand allso it's like, wow, this
flow of the game that you hadwith the pitch clock, it's gone because

(46:22):
now you've got each team, youknow, changing four or five pitchers that
it just gets bogged down at thatabsolutely does. Yeah, and you know
that's not going to change though unfortunately. I mean, we have the three
three batter thing and all that,and that's fine, but pitchers aren't gonna
suddenly start going longer in the games. It's no I think, if anything,

(46:42):
it's that this trend is not stopping. Yeah, you know, I'm
I'm a Mets fan, as youknow. Yes, that's unfortunate. But
one good thing about the Mets islike s n Y has one of the
better some might say the best,but it's certainly one of the better broadcasts.
Groups. You know, Gary Coneis great, you know, Keith
Nan this is great. Ron Darling'sgreat. But they do sometimes get caught

(47:04):
and the old man like kind ofcomplaining about the way things are versus the
way they were, and that's oneof their big complaints. They complained a
lot about the starter leaving in thefifth of the sixth. It's like,
you know, guys, I getit, and I agree with you from
a process enjoyment standpoint, but froman ability you know, from the fact
that like, okay, what areyou gonna do? You're you gonna have
this tired picture you know who's averageat best, like, you know,

(47:27):
come out and face the order thethird time or yes, I know for
the mess this doesn't apply. Butfor most you know, real teams are
you're going to have a good relievercome out and you know, fresh and
face the lineup for a first timeand you know, give these hitters new
look. The answer is obvious.And I think that's the problem, right,
which is, unless there's some rulechange to limit relievers or do something,

(47:47):
you know, give the starters moreof an advantage, why wouldn't a
manager go, you know, gowith all those relievers. And it's it's
not like you're going to dial backthe you know, the sort of the
craft of pitching as it's changed overthe last decade or two. Right,
You're not gonna organically get pictures tothrow slower. You're not going to you

(48:10):
know, organically get them to youknow, uh, change their their pitch.
Mix so that they can protect theirtheir arms. Like and if if
look if if Keith Fernandez and RonDarling are going to complain about pictures not
going you know, longer than fiveor six innings, well, get prepared
for your star pitchers to be injuredall the time and have incredibly short careers.

(48:34):
Yeah, that's what's that's where they'reheaded. Well, you know what
too, there's always like and thisthis is the nice full circle thing.
I think as far as we're talkingabout with like process and April and forgetting,
there's always a memory gap, right, Like people always say, oh,
pictures back in the day, we'reyou know, sturdier and more reliable,
and it's like, well that's you'reyou're remembering the best examples. Yeah,

(48:55):
you're remembering Tom Seaver, Bob Gibsonor some of the greats. Let
me introduced you to Don gell At, Don Gallet and Gary Nolan and my
Big Red Machine. Yeah that's theirshortened careers. Yeah, that's right.
Like, really what it is isthat, yes, like things have changed
the last five or six years.But there was research for a piece I
did last winter or two winters agowhere I think I determined between like nineteen,

(49:20):
like sixty three, like that,the expansion in the early sixties and
twenty seventeen, every team pretty muchhad two or three mainstays who would get
about thirty starts like on average,like more or less. There was always
like one team that you know,it didn't work out that way, and
one team like the nineties Braves,where almost everybody managed to get like thirty
starts and it was it was likethey topped out eighty five miles an hour

(49:43):
too. Right, right, Well, there's that too. But even when
pitchers were throwing slower, you didn'thave a full staff of healthy pitchers every
year. It just wasn't something thathappened. And I think that that's where
like with you know, listening toRon Darling, his memory is just playing.
And I'm not disrespecting Ron Darland.He knows more about baseball or he's
forgot more about baseball than I know. But but it's just that idea that

(50:06):
I think we get into our heads, like a selectivity about the way things
were were versus the way they actuallywere. Dred percent agree, Yeah,
John, did you have anything else? I don't want to keep Jeff too
much longer, although I think Ireally don't want to keep me much longer
because we're we're recording. It's it'sabout eleven twenty here, and you know
it's about a twenty where the twoof you are so Jeff, did you

(50:28):
have besides rode Wire and all thegreat work you do over there, which
I do consume avidly. I especiallylove the podcast. They're a regular running
companion. Do you have anything elsethat you'd like to plug before we go?
Uh? Just you guys can checkout all of our work. Just
roadewire dot com slash podcast that getsyou a free trial peak behind the paywall.
We did just launch an app.It's for picks like you know,

(50:50):
Prize Picks, Underdog all that,and it comes free with your rotal Wire
subscription. Just at search wherever onyour app store, whether it's Apple or
or or elsewhere around the Android aswell, and you just search to rot
to wire, you'll see it there. And you know I talk too much.
I'm on serious XM. I dothree podcasts for baseball a week.
Wherever you get your podcasts, I'llbe there. Great. Well, thank
you, I believe for all thetimes you've had me on on rode Wire,

(51:15):
usually have me once a year.I have not had you, we
have not had you on yet here. It's been an honor. It's been
great, you know, not justcompeting with you, but getting to know
you, like over the years,Like we really do have a fantasy community,
Like I really do believe that.And that's something that's improved too over
the years. I think when Ifirst started getting involved, like twenty years
ago, there it was more clickish, like I feel like a lot of

(51:37):
that it's not perfect, but Ifeel like a lot of that has gone
away. Yeah, I think sotoo, you know, and you know,
people like ron Chandler have done alot. You know, I don't
know, I don't think you've madeit to Arizona for first Pitch Arizona,
but it's an incredible event. Ihighly recommend that. But like tow Ars
Labor, you know, just youknow, people like Nick Pollock and Justin
Mason have done so much to builda community. And you know, I'm

(51:59):
a firm believer in that sort ofstuff. So I love seeing it there
and you guys have done a lotto foster that as well, and I
hope it continues. Well, thankyou so much. So we're gonna take
a brief break, and then we'regonna close on. Thank you once again

(52:36):
for listening to episode three eleven ofFlags Fly Forever, a Baseball Perspective Fantasy
Baseball podcast. Don't forget the seasonsand swing. You can read our eighteen
to twenty fantasy articles a week.You have my TGFBI Fab Review, my
Fantasy Weekly column, but there's alsoa lot of other great stuff as well.

(52:58):
The Stash List came out today.That's a piece by Timothy Jackson,
just a wonderful you know rundown ofwho Dustash. I use it regularly.
I'm pretty sure that's where I pickedup like two or three of my bigger
pickups and in my deeper leagues,So don't forget that as well. For
Mike Janelle and John Haglund. Andonce again thank you to our guest Jeff
Erickson. Thank you so much.We'll be back with you soon. Good

(53:20):
night everybody, and