Flags Fly Forever Fantasy Baseball Bret Sayre

What to talk about as the MLB season rounds the first-month post? Well, Mike and Jon text regularly about many things--and a good portion of those are baseball-related. So we looked at a few text exchanges we've had over the last couple of weeks and continued the conversation "in person," as it were.

Topics included:

- how can we "plant flags" for early-round players that we value when we are inundated by the groupthink of ADP? (or, should Zack Wheeler have been a first-round pick?)

- why does the three-week sample at the beginning of the season hold sway over our minds and player evalutions long after those hot or cold starts have ended? (or, why do you still feel bad about Francisco Lindor when you should feel bad about Matt Olson?)

- it's a wacky ERA leaderboard! Is this small-sample nonsense or is the SP landscape changing?

It's a freewheeling grab-bag of a conversation, hope you enjoy!


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.

We kick the ass of April doldrums with the help of our Very Special Guest, the one and only Grey Albright of Razzball and ostentatious eyewear fame.

After some desultory baseball discussion we talk about New Jersey's favorite defunct libertarian tourist attraction and torture park--I speak, of course, of Action Park! (If you want to know more about this hell/heaven on earth, please watch the HBO documentary, Class Action Park.)

Other topics we cover:

Awkward middle-aged man goodbye hugs
What Grey's Reading
Internet: net gain or loss for humanity?
Why none of us are eager to travel to Florida
And many other topics

Look, if you've listened to Grey before, you know this is a chaotic shitshow, but it's also a lot of fun.

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.

We're getting all T.S. Eliot on you, because for us, and for fantasy basebal content, April is kind of a dead zone. Rather than overreact to fast and slow starts, we discuss some process points in evaluating your early-season roster and negotiating FAAB at this time of year. We do this through the lens of our own underperforming Main Event team (at what point does "underperforming" just become "bad"? hopefully we won't have to answer this!). 

Also, find out who the player is that was inexplicably dropped in our league and our approach to FAABing for him. That's a tease, my friends!

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.

Hey, it's actual baseball season! After the whirlwind of positional previews and draft discussion, we put a cap on the 2024 draft season by discussing the NFBC Main Event team that Mike and Jon drafted. It was the first time either of us had participated in a Main Event, and we talk about our decision to ante up, our overall strategy, our focused strategy once we knew where we were drafting (7th), and our experience in the draft (fast and furious). 

While our team is off to a, ahem, slow start, we remain optimistic that good things will happen! (Watch this space for updates.)

Before our Main Event discussion, we discuss a couple of players who could prove disappointments--Esteury Ruiz, having been sent down, and Evan Carter, having not yet learned how to hit left-handed pitching (and thus in danger of losing playing time). Beyond these specific players, we are reminded that sometimes real baseball can influence fantasy baseball in unpredictable and inconvenient ways.

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.

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 rewardingHow preparation and strategy are different than a draftWhy you should have a Plan A and a Plan B (and possibly a Plan C)The risks and rewards of price enforcementHow to handle the endgameThat One Time Mike Had a Perfect AuctionWe 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.