FantasyPros Baseball Podcast

Bobby Sylvester hosts a lively discussion with our network of 100+ experts that will keep you both informed and entertained. Find out which hidden gems to pick up before your league-mates while receiving analysis of the latest news from around the diamond. We’ll also share DFS picks for the upcoming slate of games. Got a question that you want answered on the show? Shoot us a message for our listener mailbag.

Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | TuneIn

Corey Knebel Hurt, Listener Mailbag + Waiver Wire Pickups (Ep. 101)

It’s been a busy first week of baseball and there’s plenty to discuss with FantasyPros analyst, Dan Harris. We’re kicking things off with the latest injuries and signings including Greg Holland (2:16) and Corey Knebel (5:38). Find out why Jack Flaherty (10:28) is a must-add right now and what our thoughts are on Michael Conforto’s return (12:23). More importantly, we’re answering a bunch of your questions from our listener mailbag including what to make of Kenley Jansen (21:09), Ohtani’s hot start (23:31), and Arizona’s humidor (30:25) for starters. Of course, we’ve got waiver wire talk too so find out why we love as adds including keeping an eye on Willie Calhoun (39:54), Michael Brantley (42:38), Jake Junis (45:04), Tyler Mahle (46:18), and Tyler Skaggs (47:16) to name a few.

Sponsors:

DraftKings.com – Play one-day fantasy baseball today. Build a new team any way you’d like and take a swing at real cash prizes. Use our promo code “PROS” for a free entry into a contest now.

Opening Day FanDuel Advice (Ep. 100)

The season is upon us and we’ve got a full rundown for Opening Day FanDuel players. There are a lot of names to cover so we’ve got Dan Harris, featured writer at FantasyPros joining us to discuss our favorite plays at each position for cash and tournament games. We’re starting things off at the most expensive position at pitcher and despite there being multiple aces, listen in to why Chris Sale should be in your lineups (5:12). If you’re searching for some upside GPP plays, consider Chase Anderson (14:00) or Patrick Corbin (15:05). There are too many players to list, but we’re naming our top two locks to wrap up the show if you’re trying to figure out who to build your lineup around (1:03:42).

Sponsors:

FanDuel.com – Play in our Opening Day daily fantasy contest at FanDuel for your chance to win cash and a lifetime subscription to FantasyPros. Use our special link today at fantasypros.com/contest to enter.

Over & Undervalued Players (Ep. 99)

We’re days away from the season starting and if you’re still preparing for your draft, we’ve got Derek Carty of RotoGrinders here to help provide advice. We’re running through a handful of players that we feel are over and undervalued. Find out what we like and dislike about Zack Greinke (1:00), why Derek is really high on Justin Verlander (2:08), why we love Jose Quintana (6:00), and why Giancarlo Stanton deserves to be the #2 pick in fantasy drafts (20:10). We’re also discussing a pair of catchers (33:49), Jake Lamb (36:34), Delino DeShields (37:28), and many other players.

Sponsors:

DRAFT.com – Use DRAFT.com where you can play in one-week snake drafts for real money. The drafts literally take only a few minutes to complete and if you pick a great team, you’ll win cash prizes. New users at DRAFT will get a FREE 6 month upgrade to FantasyPros at our highest tier. Just use our special link to make your first deposit of $10 to get your instant upgrade.

Listener Mailbag & Bold Predictions (Ep. 98)

One of the most fun things to do is make bold fantasy predictions and we asked our good friend Jim Sannes of numberFire to join us in doing so. Before we get bold though, we’re answering some of your questions from our mailbag. Get our thoughts on Mariners first baseman Dan Vogelbach (3:31), which players we find ourselves drafting a lot (6:12), and who our early World Series picks are (11:01). Then we’re giving our top five bold prediction countdown with Jim kicking things off about Ozzie Albies (20:05), Bobby making a bold claim about Trea Turner (22:56), and then we discuss other players like Greg Bird (27:09), Zack Godley (29:38), Miguel Sano (32:57), Lucas Giolito (35:03), Mike Clevinger (39:34), Joey Gallo (41:36), and Miguel Cabrera (46:37).

Sponsors:

Late-Round Stashes & Deep Sleepers (Ep. 97)

We’re talking players to stash with Steve Gardner of USA Today and this episode is packed with goodies, but before getting into that, we’re discussing Jorge Polanco’s suspension (2:15), Justin Turner’s wrist (4:31), and Daniel Murphy’s knee (6:08). As you plan for your draft, listen in as we discuss stash candidates in Michael Conforto (17:11), Danny Salazar (20:40), Ryan McMahon (27:33), Gleyber Torres (31:49), Nick Senzel (34:08), among many others.

Sponsors:

Mid-Round Steals, Busts, & Breakouts (Ep. 96)

We’re back with another episode and this time we’re covering all the mid-round sleepers, busts, and potential breakout players. Joining us is Jared Kwart of Fantasy Cruncher. Listen in as we each name our top three players in each of the categories mentioned. We’re starting the show off with mid-round steals (3:37) before Bobby and Jared disagree on whether Elvis Andrus is a steal or bust (24:28). If you’re interested in breakout players, find out why Greg Bird (44:57) or Nomar Mazara (50:32) should be on your watch list.

Sponsors:

DRAFT.com – Play in one-week snake drafts for real money. The drafts literally take only a few minutes to complete and if you pick a great team, you’ll win cash prizes. New users at DRAFT will get a FREE 6 month upgrade to FantasyPros at our highest tier. Just use our special link — FantasyPros.com/offer — to make your first deposit of $10 to get your instant upgrade.

Fathead.com – Fathead is the leader in authentic, officially licensed life-size wall graphics. Get your favorite athlete, character or logo for your wall to personalize your space. You can get 10% off your purchase by going to Fathead.com and using promo code “FANTASYPRO”.

High-Risk Players & Late-Round Gambles (Ep. 95)

Drafts are around the corner and when the time comes, you’ll inevitably be faced with some tough decisions. Joining us to chat about some of those choices is one of the most accurate experts in the industry each year, Jake Ciely of RotoExperts. Listen in as we touch on players you might consider drafting that carry increased risk such as Aaron Judge (6:26), Byron Buxton (10:27), Masahiro Tanaka (14:29), David Price (20:47), and Trevor Story (22:26) to name a few. We’re also naming players that are worth gambling on at the end of your drafts like Ryan McMahon (38:00), Matt Harvey (44:48), or Tyler Glasnow (47:38).

Sponsors:

Mock Draft w/ Middle Round Picks (Ep. 94)

We’re kicking off the week with a mock draft and this time, we’re starting from the middle picks at 5 and 7. Joining us for some fun is FantasyPros writer Chris Bragg. As with any draft, practice makes better and with the season approaching quickly, it’s best to get an idea of how each draft might shake out. Before we get into the picks (10:19), there have finally been some more free agent signings. Naturally, we’re discussing Jake Arrieta’s new team (1:57), Lance Lynn’s one-year deal (4:19), Jonathan Lucroy joining the A’s (5:40), and Neil Walker adding to the Yankees’ already strong team (7:35). We then go pick-by-pick explaining our rationale. Find out how Bobby and Chris end up going two different directions with strategy.

Sponsors:

Top Sleepers w/ Eno Sarris (Ep. 93)

We’ve got everyone’s favorite episode and joining us to chat sleepers is Eno Sarris of The Athletic. Eno’s out in Arizona keeping his ears to the ground during spring training so we’ll be chatting about what he personally looks for when it comes to pitchers (11:19) as well as his thoughts on Zack Greinke’s dip in velocity (37:50) and Madison Bumgarner’s outlook (48:26). First things first though, we’re counting down our top five favorite sleepers (6:29) with Eno kicking things off and telling us about Andrew Heaney, while Bobby discusses Danny Salazar (8:49).

Sponsors:

Mock Draft with an Early Pick (Ep. 92)

Mock drafting is one of the best ways to prepare for a draft so we’re running through a mock of our own with Justin Mason of FanGraphs. We’ll be drafting from the first and second picks and just like a real draft, the timer to make a decision can go by fast so listen up as we give our initial thoughts on the players (4:32) before we dive deeper into how we attempted to construct our teams (22:29).

Sponsor: www.FantasyPros.com/offer – Use this great app where you can play in one-week snake drafts for real money. The drafts literally take only a few minutes to complete and if you pick a great team, you’ll win cash prizes. New users at DRAFT will get a FREE 6 month upgrade to FantasyPros at our highest tier. Just use our special link to make your first deposit of $10 to get your instant upgrade.

Starting Pitcher Rankings & Tiers (Ep. 91)

We’ve got a player packed episode for you as we run through all the different tiers of pitchers that you’ll be looking at come draft day. Joining us to chat in this episode is Garion Thorne of FNTSY Sports Network. We’re starting off discussing the big four at the top of drafts (5:34) and why we don’t like Clayton Kershaw as the top pitcher in this group (8:11). We’re then moving on to the second tier as we talk about Zack Greinke (14:37), Stephen Strasburg (17:13), Luis Severino (20:20) to name a few. If you’re curious on who to take in the next tier after that, get our thoughts on Chris Archer (25:56), Yu Darvish (27:21), Aaron Nola (30:52), among many others who are being drafted around that time. There are far too many players to list so listen in now.

ADP Most Over and Underdrafted Players (Ep. 90)

It’s time to check out player values based on Average Draft Position (ADP) and we’ve got George Bissell of Baseball Prospectus joining us to name the most over and undervalued players right now. We’re covering a whole lot in this show including the Steven Souza trade and its impact (1:13), who’s more valuable right now between Ronald Acuna and Victor Robles (13:34), and why J.D. Martinez is should be going just as high as Giancarlo Stanton (16:37). Find out who our top 3 most overdrafted guys are (27:46) such as Alex Wood (29:03), before we move onto our most underdrafted players (36:45) like Alex Bregman (39:16).

Sponsor: www.AudibleTrial.com/fantasypros — Audible has over 180,000 titles to choose from in every genre: thrillers, business, romance, comedy, sci-fi and more. Audible titles play on iPhone, Kindle, Android and more than 500 devices for listening anytime, anywhere.

Free Agent Signings + Mock Draft w/ Paul Sporer (Ep. 89)

It’s always a special show when Paul Sporer of Fangraphs comes on and this episode is no different. We’re mock drafting the first three rounds and talking about all the players that you’ll be coming across in your draft. There was also big news that came across the ticker with J.D. Martinez signing with the Red Sox (0:42). Get our thoughts on the Red Sox/Yankees (6:24), the Eric Hosmer signing (14:16), whether Trea Turner belongs in the top 3 (20:02), if Clayton Kershaw is our top pitcher off the board (26:13), and how our second (35:35) and third rounds turn out (47:34).

Spring Training & Fantasy Rankings w/ Scott White (Ep. 88)

It’s time to chat about Spring Training and here to talk about all things fantasy baseball is Scott White of CBS Sports. With the recent news coming from the Diamondbacks about using a humidor, we’re first discussing its impact on the players there and in particular, A.J. Pollock (2:46) and Paul Goldschmidt (3:59). We’re then answering your questions about what fantasy owners can take away from spring baseball including youngsters to watch in Ronald Acuna (6:07), Victor Robles (7:57) and Francisco Mejia (8:34). Scott’s also answering questions about his rankings and why he’s higher or lower compared to the consensus in regards to players like Buster Posey (21:28), Matt Carpenter (26:07), Starling Marte (31:16), Dylan Bundy (35:19), and Ian Happ (36:59) just to name a few.

Bounce-Back Candidates (Ep. 87)

With players reporting to Spring Training, baseball is finally back! We’ve got a great episode covering the Yu Darvish signing (1:49) and potential bounce-back candidates for 2018 (7:12). We’re starting at the high end with the likes of Mookie Betts (8:10) and Madison Bumgarner (9:11) before discussing Starling Marte (17:35), Trevor Story (21:28), Xander Bogaerts (25:20), Yoenis Cespedes (29:54), Ian Desmond (35:47), David Price (47:21), Johnny Cueto (51:35), and many others.

Predictions for Last Year’s Breakout Players (Ep. 86)

We’ve got special guest Ron Shandler hopping on the show to give his takes on players that surprised us in 2017. It’s easy for recency bias to take place, so make sure to get our thoughts on guys like Elvis Andrus (2:34), Ryan Zimmerman (5:18), Whit Merrifield (8:23), Chris Taylor (8:45), Corey Knebel (14:50), Felipe Rivero (15:42), Chase Anderson (19:56), Alex Wood (22:41), along with a handful of other players who you might not be sure about.

Sophomore Expectations (Ep. 85)

We’re back and joining us this episode is Jim Sannes of numberFire.com to chat about the sophomore class in 2018. People often think of the sophomore slump as a reason to avoid certain players, but this class could be special and different. Before we get into those players, we’re quickly discussing the Seung-Hwan Oh signing and the busy bullpen in Texas (1:40). If you want to hear about the youngsters, we’ve got you covered as we chat about Aaron Judge (8:57), Matt Olson (12:54), Rhys Hoskins (12:54), Cody Bellinger (15:33), Yoan Moncada (22:43), and a handful of pitchers (34:01).

Early Rankings Standouts (Ep. 84)

Guest Brandon Warne of The Athletic joins us to take an early dive into the expert consensus rankings. First, we digest the Christian Yelich trade and fantasy implications (0:40). We also explain why Alex Avila is all of a sudden a favorite sleeper of ours (8:30). As we go through the rankings, we each explain which players we think are too high or too low at this point. Players discussed include Clayton Kershaw (11:10), Bryce Harper (12:33), Noah Syndergaard (17:23), Gary Sanchez (28:41) among many others.

Dynasty Baseball Talk w/ Steve Gardner (Ep. 83)

Steve Gardner of USA Today joins us for a show dedicated entirely to dynasty fantasy baseball leagues. We’re answering questions from the listener mailbag (2:27) about general strategy, 2019’s top prospects (8:47), the top rookies (11:46), a few busts from last year’s rookie class (17:50), and future shutdown closers (22:57). In the second half of the show, we count down the three dynasty assets you should try to acquire (25:57)before we each give one name to avoid or sell high on (38:41).

Post-Winter Meetings & Listener Mailbag (Ep. 82)

Brandon Warne of The Athletic joins Bobby Sylvester to discuss the Winter Meetings and their fantasy implications as the two tackle a dozen questions from the Listener Mailbag. They start (1:06) by addressing the new fantasy values of recently acquired players, Giancarlo Stanton and Evan Longoria before eventually diving into discussions on Marcell Ozuna and Shohei Otani. Later (5:54), they discuss potential trades and the impact on the fantasy status of Gerrit Cole, Manny Machado and a trio of stars who may get traded in the coming months. Brandon and Bobby also touch on the Marlins’ decimating their ball club (18:09), the top remaining free agents (27:18) and whether or not Barry Bonds belongs in the Hall of Fame (36:07).

Winter Meetings, Early Sleepers & Best Rookies Ever (Ep. 81)

After a few months away, the FantasyPros Baseball Podcast is back with Bobby Sylvester and FantasyPros’ Featured Writer, Dan Harris. The pair chats about the World Series and Winter Meetings (1:17) before answering some questions from the listener mailbag (19:28) including whether Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are among the best rookies of all time and who their favorite early sleepers are. The show ends with Dan challenging Bobby to some trivia (39:23).

For our full archive of episodes, check us out and subscribe to any one of the channels below:
iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | TuneIn