Sky Domboske of Fantistics joins Jeff Erickson to discuss his league-leading Tout Wars head-to-head team, the latest injury news with the Orioles and Yankees and a lot more!
🚨RotoWire’s NEW Pick ‘Em Tool ap
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rotowire-picks-player-props/id6478879624
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rotowire.picks
🚨RotoWire’s NEW Fantasy Football ONLY Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCohJKHBxtK2ZqOJB2TXxc0Q
🔐 Unlock RotoWire’s Paywall for FREE (2 days)
http://www.rotowire.com/pod
⚾️Home Run Forecast (Save 30%)
https://www.homerunforecast.com/rotowire
👑DraftKings Pick6
Download the new DraftKings Pick Six app and use code RWPICKS.
New customers play $5 and get $50 in Pick Six credits
RotoWire on Twitter:
Tweets by RotoWire
Tweets by RotoWireMLB
IG and TikTok @RotoWire
00:00 – Sky Dombroske podcast
00:30 – News & Notes:
01:00 – Gerrit Cole returns; Aaron Judge (hand) sits
06:30 – Kyle Bradish out for the season; Jordan Westburg (hip) sits
08:00 – Walker Buehler to IL
13:00 – CJ Abrams sits with wrist injury
14:30 – Nolan Arenado, Kyle Gibson latest STL woes
16:00 – Willie Mays passes; Rickwood Field game
19:00 – Head-to-Head Leagues
19:15 – Increase in market share
21:00 – Types
23:30 – Tout Wars format
26:00 – Sky’s Team
31:00 – Getting to know Sky & his work
31:05 – How did you get into “the industry”?
35:00 – Where/when can we find your work?
#Fantasybaseball #MLB #Baseball #Waiverwire #mustadd
head-to-head leagues get the spotlight today on the rootwire fantasy baseball podcast scy D Roski from fantistics will be joining me Jeff Ericson coming up [Music] next hey everybody Welcome to the RO wire Fantasy Baseball podcast I’m Jeff Ericson here with Sky Roski from fantistics fantasy baseball insight uh we are brought to you by the good folks from home run forecast and DraftKings new pick six app uh Sky welcome to the show congrats on being in first place in tout Wars head-to-head how are you thanks man I’m doing great how about you doing well uh we got a lot of news to deal with too in addition to all of our head-to-head talks so let’s just jump right into it big Series in New York Baltimore New York the Yankees uh lost yesterday seven6 in Extra Innings but it was Garrett Cole’s first pitch first start of the Season uh big Ting they’re big to get him back oh no question about it it’s pretty amazing that they’ve been able to be as successful as they have without their obvious Ace um you know the emergence of Luis heel and and some other guys pitching a little bit above expectations like Clark Schmidt has been great for them um I all the talk that I’ve seen about Cole’s outing last night was that oh yeah he looked absolutely normal I’m not so sure about that I think he’s still building up uh velocity was down a little bit not a lot of swing and miss not a lot of Chase compared to to normal some hard contact but in general I think I’m pretty bullish on Cole I think that he’s healthy I think he’ll be all right and probably just get stronger as we move towards the end of the season yeah and you know he wanted to stay longer into that game you know he begged to stay start the fifth inning gave up the blooper took him out after that like okay what did that teach us nothing it was just a bloop hit and then of course uh you know next batter homers a after he’s pulled uh so he gets stuck with the extra earned run on top of that there but still yeah if you have Cole you probably used him um and you’re definitely using him going forward oh two starts next week I think even though he’s still building up you definitely use him and he was so ticked because it was said Mullins on a high fast ball that blooped one into Center and that has happened numerous times to Cole he was fuming when he got to The Dugout but absolutely he’s he’s a competitor that’s just how he is so absolutely Aaron judge got hit by a pitch on the hand on Tuesday set out yesterday interesting there was a point I think in the seventh inning where they had the bases loaded and uh instead of bringing judge in a pinch hit they Ed Jami Jones first pitch popup inning over if there was ever a spot they were gonna use judge yesterday was there and they didn’t so I I’m guessing he really truly was not available he was not available in Aon Boon’s mind apparently he was available in Aaron judge’s mind because he was lobbying to start the game yeah um and you know always do that right of course but you know I think it judge unfairly perhaps has an injury-prone label I think that since he went to the Pilates and yoga and excessive stretching model of preparation versus the strength training preparation he’s really been aside from running into a weird odd wall in La he’s been healthy so yeah I think it’s unfair to call him injury-prone but they’re always GNA be really careful he’s obviously the centerpiece of the offense but man like I don’t I don’t get mad I don’t yell at my TV very much why is J Jones on the on the roster why is he on the roster at all it just doesn’t make and I am a Yankee fan full disclosure yeah so I was just not pleased why why is he batting in that situation come on I know I know so it if you we snapped our fingers and made you Bry Cashman for a day who replaces Jones on the roster uh I mean the obvious answer of anyone is is you know a little bit simple but you know if Justin debang guys were healthy I think he should replace him uh you’ve got plenty of flexibility with OC uh I’m not sure if um perza is quite healthy yet but he should be ready fairly soon I I think Jones’s time on the roster is definitely limited uh probably a few more weeks but you know the Yanks are doing well enough they don’t feel the need and they haven’t for probably decades at this point to work on the last couple spots on their roster and it will cost them it has cost them in the past it will cost them last year it definitely cost them absolutely uh they had many injuries and you know they just lost Rizzo for eight weeks and on a play that looks so innocuous too it did but you know tell me more about the kid they called up who’s now playing a lot of first uh you know it was not on my radar heading into the season but we’re seeing uh you know Ben rice getting a lots of looks like he could get a lot of run at first base I think he’s going to this kid is I think he’s going to surprise people a little bit Plus for all of us in the Fantasy Realm he has catcher eligibility in many so you know huge potentially uh I hope they do start using him a little bit at catch tavinho obviously over the last handful of games the Boston series and now the Baltimore series really having some problems throwing the ball his strength has always been in terms of framing um you know teams are starting to figure out that they can run on certain guys that you know stolen bases over the last year and a half we all know have become much more uh profiled in baseball they’re they’re back for the first time in like 30 years and I think the teams are starting to exploit this with trino uh Wells is a pretty good throwing catcher he may get some more run but I’d like to see use rice a little bit as a third catcher yeah uh I would too um and I I think that it you know it’d be you know just I like having another guy that is catcher eligible that plays elsewhere sometimes that’s always nice you get the extra at bats that go with that there um we’ll see if he can handle major league pitching but I’m encouraged it’s someone we’ll be bidding on this weekend a lot in most of our leagues yeah no question about it you saw that foul home running hit that I mean that thing got out of there in a hurry yeah absolutely um the other thing too is you talking talking about trino is catching you know with MLB kind of pretty much you know telling us showing us the road map they’re not going to go full ABS uh in the future it’s going to be a challenge system so framing is still going to matter you know because you can’t challenge every ball strike call you know exact well I mean as much as Aon would try to yeah you’re still going to be able to steal some uh here and there so that that’ll be interesting to see uh how that evolves the position evolves a little bit other side of the picture there uh the Orioles they just lost Kyle bradish they got the news on that he already has had his surgery um so he is out for the season uh you know it’s the internal brace procedure uh they’re playing you know they keep on losing pitchers and yet their pitching is not that bad um we keep on calling for them to trade one of their many prospects and they haven’t done it yet and they may not feel the same sense of urgency that we feel for them well I think you’re exactly right it hasn’t gone according to plan obviously but the results results matter over methods sometimes and you know they’re only a couple games out one in the L column uh actually they might be even after last night so I think that they’re willing to kind of play this out a bit and see where they sit they’re clearly a playoff team at this point regardless um I do expect them to make a move for a starting pitcher it was probably always in the cards they just have too many guys for the number of spots available in terms of hitting uh and we’re not even talking about you know kad’s been up and down a bit uh Kyle Stowers is hanging around Kobe Mayo just came off the iil yesterday he’s going to be ready at some point so all the those couple spots they have available on the left side of the infield especially with Jackson holiday you know he’ll at some point he’ll be there these these spots are filled so they have a surplus makes total sense to use some of it to deal and and pick up starting pitcher which was always sort of the the empty spot in their fiveyear plan from a handful of years ago please free Connor and Orbee free him please just want to get anywhere would be fine just give them a chance to play that’s all I asked but but uh yeah we’ll see what they do uh I’m out here in La a lot of hand ringing over the pitching staff and Walker ber and how he’s been pitching lately goes on the Isle after getting hit by a comebacker on that line drive in Co field this week uh and his his results haven’t been that great lately and he’s still not 100% I know I think some people expected him to be at close to full capacity capacity because he had he was really essentially ready last September coming back from TGs uh had the whole offseason they slow rolled him and this year didn’t pitch in April he’s still not himself he’s not and it’s funny because that comebacker hit him on the left hip but he had been complaining of right hip discomfort for the last couple outings and really for me this I stint seems like a mental reset yeah the real issue here for me though is the list of success stories from pictures that have had two Tommy John surgeries essentially reads Nathan ofal and no one else like everyone else and we’ve got more guys Shane mclan Hanah Jacob deg Grom that are not yet back that have had the same issue and I would be very very leery of any pitcher on their second Tommy John SE particularly when it’s in a relatively narrow span of time like five years six years or fewer you know eales were almost a decade apart and he’s the one guy that has come back to a level of success you could maybe make an argument for Jameson tyion but he wasn’t the same guy the velocity never really came back he just was sort of modestly effective without it I really un concerned yeah I I think that’s a great point that you bring up there too and uh you know will Carroll does a great job of tracking these and all that there’s a there’s there’s people doing good work in the space you know letting us know which ones are their second I mean it it’s so commonplace now that it’s actually harder to track in a way because so many of you know so many pitchers have their first plenty of times uh it’s just a question and many times even before they even hit the professional level sometimes so it’s it’s harder to keep a track of that but yeah I think that’s a really good point um you know there’s added urgency now for the Dodgers too though with yamamoto’s rotator cuff injury now uh Kershaw just threw his first rehab game yesterday at ha Rancho camanga um so maybe there’s some uh reason for optimism there and the Dodgers do have that mentality they can kind of use the regular season to get ready for the playoffs they’ve been kind of pointing towards this all along but still you gotta wonder who are their playoff pitchers going to be yeah I think that’s pretty valid assessment of the entire Dodger situ situation right now and anything less than a world series title is a disappointment with the way that they’ve structured this team y however you do have the Spector of Otani potentially being ready to pitch late in the season to so could that be an option I you’re probably a little more plugged in out there than I am as far as that goes you know I I think it’s a great question I don’t think it’s going to happen but you never know maybe he comes back as a reliever for the playoffs you know and then you know they stretch him out in the offseason there because he is doing his throwing program that is happening um but you know then you run into okay are you g to send him on rehab assignments are you going to have how are you going to work him along so that he can pitch in a big league game without it taking away from him playing in September is that a risk of him losing playing time in September before by the way minor leagues end their season before the Major League Baseball season ends too for that matter that’s a good point I think it’s a very valid question to ask because they like you said they’re going to be ramping up for playoffs they’re not going to be concerned with where they are I don’t think there’ll be any competition for them really so they could certainly do something where you know maybe you make up a phantom Eon or something for Otani and just have him work on throwing for a couple weeks but you know getting back to Clayton Kershaw by all accounts he’s looked really good in his rehab and I he’s the kind of guy like I wonder if he could just pitch till he’s like 50 or like Satchel Page kind of thing I I he just seems Timeless could could be uh you know talking about greatest active pitcher is it either Kershaw or Verlander is the question for me but uh I go Kershaw but I can see an argument for both um I agree I think it’s Kershaw as well yeah Dodger fans are so jaded though because of the lack of playoff success it’s kind of funny to see that there there’s a segment of Dodger fans out here that I see I’m I’m a non-d Dodger fan living out here I don’t hate the Dodgers but because of the blowups in the playoffs there’s there’s a segment of fandom there that that that’s not behind him it’s kind of interesting to see yeah my partner Lou bloi on on fantistics you know he he often calls us just cynicist about our own team and I think most of us get we’re like too close and we overanalyze everything and pick apart moves and things I think we all just really kind of have a LoveHate relationship with our own teams yeah I joke and say I’m a self-hating Reds fan so uh yeah that’s fair yeah I I I I definitely think there’s something to that there from Lou I love the excitement though with the Reds that’s a fun organization right now yeah I want them to all be healthy so they can actually be exciting and not just Ellie it’ll happen that’s let’s hope let’s go let’s go all right uh CJ Abrams had with yesterday with a wrist injury level of concern with him uh maybe three out of 10 four out of 10 I mean if anything I don’t think there’s anything broken in there but you know he may miss up to a week or so he’s he seems hopeful but guarded uh in the couple little interviews I saw you know I I doubt he plays the next couple games but he’s hoping it’s not an i Elon yeah actually you you talked about will will Carroll earlier he has been beating the drum on padded gloves and how many guys have we seen hit over the last just couple weeks oh my goodness mie bats out for for a couple months and these paded gloves would probably reduce injuries by I don’t know 50 to 75% of this sort yeah well you and I are both of an age we we saw Jeff Bagwell play um and we know that the start of his career he got twice he got hit by pitches you know had to have his Hammet bone removed you know he started wearing all the protective gear after that and he was like starting a trend and you know obviously you know there he he had been you’re talking about unfortunate tags you know he was considered injury-prone at one point in time because of his batting stance um and he kind of turned that one around he was fine but uh you know and you know and sometimes it’s on the base pass like it was with Abrams where he got that collision with Corbin Carrol when Carol was trying to steal a base I mean uh I don’t know what you do on when you’re in the field and you’re wearing a glove and you do that I don’t know if I don’t think you can do much there yeah I think that that’s about as good as you can do but you’re Will’s right though technology could help us in a lot of different ways for sure um all right let’s move on to our next one on the topic and one more injury note uh the St Louis Cardinals had a couple of things happen yesterday late Scratch by Kyle Gibson with back spasms and Nolan Aron got hit by a pitch and had the double whammy elbow and down to uh sensitive area after that there um you know Gibson is the one that concerns me because he had actually pitched pretty well lately for the Cardinals kind of fueling some of their turnaround um and then they had to go with Lor and he got knocked around pretty good yeah I think Gibson you know I I watched the entire interview with him and he does not seem concerned he said this is the kind of thing he’s had happened before he just never had it happen in pregame stretching it sounds like just a muscle spasm and from what I saw from how he from what I heard from what he was describing it it’s the kind of thing I get with my back all the time where it just it just goes into spasm and it takes a few hours and some stretching to calm it down further and then after that you’re fine no recurrence it just is one of those things so he seems to think that maximum he might miss one more start if it doesn’t loosen up but he said he see how it feels today I wouldn’t be surprised to him make his next start I’m not really concerned about him as far as ronado goes he basically hit right on the nerve on his elbow yeah and he said it just keeps ringing and it’s causing his hand to cramp up so he can’t you know yeah actually like grip the bat or anything he feels that he’ll be playing by the week by the end of the weekend so probably again they they may have avoided long-term stuff on both of them I hope yeah I I think that’s right um now the Cardinals they play tonight in the rickwood game uh in uh in in Birmingham Alabama so he’ll probably sit that out and then return on Saturday because they are off Friday uh as they move on to uh St Louis after that there but uh you know I’m always interested to see the rickwood field game the these I I like all the alternate sight games I think they’re kind of fun um we’ve got that tonight along and ironically it’s the same week that Willie Mays passes uh you know they were going to bring this Hall of Fame plaque anyhow down there because this is a lot lot of connection to Willie Mays uh sad sad news to happen at the same time too bad it would have been nice for him to be able to see that game it would have been great um and obviously Willie Mays was the greatest living ball player probably uh interesting question as to who might be right now um but I think this will turn into even more of a tribute to Willie Mays than it already was going to be and I agree with you I really canot dig these alternate site games I know purists are gonna scoff at that but I think they’re kind of cool yeah uh I was gonna was a real cynic about this Field of Dreams game um and then it happened and I was like oh yeah okay that’s pretty cool yeah I get it I get what they’re doing yeah exactly and yes the cynic and me is still saying they’re trying to cash in a little bit and okay fine but it was still pretty darn cool well you see I’ve got my my Homestead grey head on today just in honor of nice game so awesome that that is really cool um so yeah we can looking forward to watching that every game today other than that is a day game so this this game can have the spotlight too I thought that was kind of cool to see yeah they did that with the Field of Dreams thing too I think it makes a lot of sense it’ll drag those casual fans in and all the people who just want to watch baseball every night well that’s the game that’s on so yeah exactly exactly so there you go uh before we move on and we talk head tohe head leagues gotta share a note from one of our sponsors our our good friends at DraftKings uh they have got a new app called the pick six app did you ever play the over under game with your friends you know I think I can eat that slice of pizza in under 30 seconds or I know it’ll take you over a minute to to down that two ler if you have then you’re going to pick love pick six the new Fantasy game from DraftKings here’s how to play during baseball season pick between two and six players and choose if they’ll have more or less of a stat like runs hits strikeouts and more track your picks and play against others for a shot to win huge cash prizes that’s all there is to it download the new DraftKings pick six app and use code RW picks new customers play five bucks and get 50 and pick six credits that’s code RW picks for new customers to play five bucks and get 50 and pick six credits only on DraftKings pick six the crown is yours one per new customer non-withdrawable pick six credits expire in six months limited time offer gambling problem call 1800 Gambler 18 plus in most eligible States not available in all states including New York and Connecticut sorry Sky uh eligibility restrictions apply void were prohibited C terms at PX six.com pix six. draft gangs.com SL promos I’m here with Sky droski from fantistics Fantasy Baseball Insider T Wars head-to-head is where Sky plays for T Wars and he is in first place right now congratulations on that thank you no problem uh I don’t play my uh head tohe head leagues uh it’s kind of a blind spot for me and I know head-to-head leagues are really you know blowing up wherever you go um you know if you look at like ESPN or CVS or any of the you know massive Yahoo any of the big service Prov providers uh they’ll they’ll tell you head-to-head leagues comprise over half their leagues yeah I’m a big proponent of head-to-head leagues I know again you talk about fantasy baseball purists and they’re just they really like the Roto format and they don’t like all the luck involved with head-to-head but you know that’s sort of any competitive Endeavor when you’re competing against team versus Team or individual versus individual there is luck involved in competition and I think it’s just more representative of what compet ition is to play head to-head I happen to be a fan so yeah I mean I don’t think you change what you’re doing all that much but you do change what’s valuable when you’re looking at analyzing players you’re not just overweighting saves or overweighting stolen bases and things like that so I sort of like it as maybe a little bit more representative of what a player truly brings to the table to the game of baseball instead of just Fantasy Baseball yeah uh and it’s kind of the essence of fantasy uh you know that uh you know it’s me versus you and this is and especially if you’ve played in Fantasy Football before playing on Fantasy Baseball then that’s all you know right if you started in fantasy baseball then maybe you you were weaned on the road over format like I was you know I started playing a long time ago um and I just that’s what I learned I’ve played some head-to-head leagues but it’s not my first choice but I also you know I just haven’t gotten in that right head-to-head league and there’s a lot of different ways to play head-to-head too there’s not one set formula I think that may be one of the things that uh is great but it’s also complicating when you’re trying to introduce people to it it definitely can be I have four different head-to-head leagues two of which have been going on for many decades every one of the four has a completely different format so that’s obviously Choice a job a when you’re looking at your league is figure out what the scoring format is and understand where you how you can exploit it yeah absolutely I I think that’s so important and you know it’s any League that you play in any Fantasy game that you play in that’s important I mean even I think if you’re in a roto League there’s always little wrinkles and nuances like my my my home League my original home League I play in three home leagues so when I say home League I got to differentiate but amaki I love this league AO only 4×4 uh but it’s we grandfather the Brewers in because it’s we they were in the AL yeah um so we still Yes um so there you go that that League started in 1990 or 91 maybe and I joined I think in 993 uh and it’s great it’s like Peter shanki and his his fraternity brothers and I went the same school but I was in a different fraternity as Pete so I joined a little bit after the fact and uh it’s still the same characters all along it’s a fantastic League that’s really cool and it’s funny that that League you started in 1993 because what the league that I call my home League I also joined in 1993 it happened to start 1984 though oh wow I think there’s only three original owners left I’m probably the next long as 10 year owner uh there’s only 16 teams left we used to have 18 we contracted a few years ago but you know Point style scoring format similar but yet different to The Tout Wars format that we’re using uh it’s so much fun though I just actually spent you can see how red I am right now I was just down in South Carolina for five days we don’t get sun in Syracuse so I have no idea what this this bizarre bright thing in the sky is I was down there for five days playing golf withle uh no other side of the state over at kiwi ke okay beautiful beautiful area but I play in his member guest every year so I just drive all the way down seeing clients over like 20 hours and then park there for four days and play some golf with him so I’m I’m a little sunburned right now that’s awesome yeah I I do a golf trip every year and we go to Myrtle many of those years uh we’re g to do the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama this year though please tell me how that is I’ve always wanted to do it yeah uh looking forward to it can’t wait and I have uh I have a cousin lives in Auburn so I’m going to see him beforehand he actually see an Auburn game so I’m excited about that oh that’s going to be awesome that’s an experience yeah exactly I can’t wait um all right uh perfect Segway though in the T Wars you’re saying that your one of your League’s models kind is similar to the T Wars format let’s tell what what’s unique about the T Wars format so last year I I figured head tohe you I I do head tohe all the time this will be easy so I get into the season and you know Greg JWT who’s a good friend of mine U actually helped me out a little bit and said you know you do want to stockpile some pitchers so I picked a couple guys you know mediocre starting pitchers that I normally might not have chosen in the reserve rounds just to have some backup and as it turns out as I get into the format and see what’s valuable well it’s completely different from my normal head-to-head leagues in that bad to mediocre starts don’t crush you normally in head-to-head you’re really leery of having a course field start or something like that but the start has to be just totally abysmal for it to actually hurt you the T Wars format so the best thing to do is just stockpile starts every single week so I’m also churning my roster in this T Wars format much more than I normally do in my head-to-head formats because I I just want 10 to 12 starts every week so that I can just cram in as many guys as I can because an average start probably gets you 10 to 15 points a hitter gets two home runs you might get 12 points so they’re really valuable so you just you have to understand what your scoring format rewards and what it doesn’t penalize right I I I think that’s so important and you know in some leagues closers will be have more value um in some leagues they could be completely uh you know you don’t have to chase the saves you don’t it doesn’t matter as long as you get your points it doesn’t matter where they come from so it doesn’t and sometimes it’s head-to-head category sometimes it’s head-to-head points sometimes those saves are worth more than others there’s a lot of different permutations that you can play and like you said knowing what matters knowing what to hone in on is super important there um and that will reflect in the auction values too and I think it’s interesting too it’s head-to-head auction leak too it is I actually love the auction format because you know doing what I do with numbers and everything I I’m pretty good at Market efficiencies and things like that I think that’s probably one of my strengths so you know during the auction I had no problem maybe going a little higher than other people would on some players and just completely shying away from others just as I you know I pick my numbers that I want to use see where the prevailing sentiment is on things and adjust accordingly during the auction indeed indeed well let’s take a look at some of the players that have uh done well for you so far I mean Jose Ramirez obviously in the hitting side of things has been amazing uh you’ve had a couple sneaky guys though jiren Duran is a guy that has really performed for you this year he has and I like jiren Duran I think that I like him for different reasons than other people do a lot of people are looking at oh he’s got great speed maybe he’ll steal some bases and you can kind of see when guys that are Roto players come into head-to-head their teams seem to have like an abnormal amount of St bases and things like that like I I just I’m not even paying attention to that I think Jaren Duran can get on base that Red Sox lineup although young is not bad and he’s Banting at the top of the order so again you’re talking opportunities with uh some head-to-head formats you will get penalized for unsuccessful plate appearances in tout Wars you do not a strikeout is a negative but just a simple out is not so you just you want maximum amount of opportunities maximum Advance maximum plate appearances maximum game started these are the things that are important in this particular format yep yep and all politics are local once again I mean that’s knowing the format like Keith says that he looks for Mashers and pop that’s it well in some leagues that’s what matters um and others maybe not as much you know if you get more credit for just getting on base walks and H hits by hit by pitches and things like that well then all of a sudden that can just turn that equation around a little bit there um you you pitching side of things uh you got TK scub ball obviously for 24 bucks this is also if I correct me if I’m wrong you need to have two Rel pitchers right you need to have two pitchers that are coded as relievers yes and that’s another really big benefit to people is if you can get a guy coded as a reliever they don’t score quite as many points as starters that does start yeah yeah that’s right um so yeah Spencer Strider as a reliever was the ultimate cheat code his rookie year I mean that that was great or even the second year I should even say because sometimes you got some carryover with that uh but you also got Mason Miller for a in the auction that tends to work out pretty well that I wouldn’t say that that was um we’ll say 50% luck 50% by you know I think Mason Miller’s a fantastic pitcher I did not know for sure that he was going to be their closer at the time of the auction right exactly you also picked up Kirby y that’s worked out pretty well the Rangers gave him a long drought between save opportunities for a while they’ve kind of picked it back up a little bit lately uh but that’s also he’s been just a really good pitcher he has you know I had Pete Fairbanks um who I was planning on using most of the time instead but when he had the nerve irritation issue in his hand I just grabbed Yates off the waiver Weare because you have to have a relief pitcher and he had just started getting saves for Texas and you know how managers are with pedigree like if a guy’s ever gotten saves before he’s a closer so I just assumed that that was what was going to happen and got lucky with that guess Billy Harris asks about Mason Miller are the A’s going to trade him before the de the trade deadline you wouldn’t think that he would be one of the guys vulnerable to trade because he’s still on team control and he’s clearly still on the up trajectory for his career so that would not be my expectation but with regards to the A’s they could do anything right now and I wouldn’t be all that surprised it’s kind of like the white socks like they make a decision you’re like oh well all right sure yeah uh that’s true that’s true uh you know I mean the A’s I always used to look at like anytime the A’s made a trade okay hold on to your wallet instead it hasn’t been that way lately I mean they got just crushed in the Shawn Murphy trade where they did not end up with William conteras I mean langers is fine don’t get me wrong but contras you know was there for the taking they didn’t take and they what they got they chose to get Estuary Ruiz they targeted Ruiz instead so uh maybe he said flashes but man he’s more tools than skills at this point yeah and you know maybe it’s not we shouldn’t say it’s not your father’s a but maybe it’s not your really older brother’s a this is a different organization now well they’re so hamstrung by ownership too I mean it’s just hard hard to tell who’s really pulling the strings and that that’s the thing that’s the real problem there um we’re going to talk and learn a little bit more about what sky does uh but first quick note from our friends at home run forecast can certain weather conditions lead to more home runs the atmosphere can affect how far a baseball flies by 20% home run forecast measures the weather conditions at a ballpark to tell us if the atmosphere is good or bad for ball flight during a game an index value that rates the air is created for each game and Ballpark and is displayed on a scale from 1 to 10 home run forecast premium site offers index values by the hour for each game 24-hour forecast wind direction and speed and even whether the roof will be open at certain stadiums home run forecast is offering a special for the start of the baseball season you can get access to the premium site for the entire season for only $28 a savings of nearly 30% go to homerun forecast.com RotoWire now to sign up also we are on the bluewire network your other ads all right thanks for your patience and thanks to the bluewire network thanks to home run forecast for joining us today and sponsoring us throughout the season I here with Sky droski from fantistics fancy baseball sky how did you get into the industry I’ve Loved baseball since so oh I think I picked up my first pursue the pennant game in 1986 so I I just love the sport I love the pace of it you know I’m a sports fan I watch almost every sport that there is but baseball’s always had a special uh I’ve had a special affinity for it so when I started my career um with Mara Lynch back in the early 90s I was working 70 80 hours a week and I had my kids fairly young so I kind of needed to be home a decent amount and I was looking for something that I could do because I don’t sleep much something I could do in my spare time so I started writing for top prospect alert.com for free and my wife at the time she saw that I was spending this time not getting paid so she actually unbeknownst to me put a couple resumés in for me with places and fantistics is uh Who Came Calling so I started with them oh God it’s got to be like 18 years ago now or wow it’s a long it’s a long time um and I’ve been writing for them ever since you know Anthony Perry is is an excellent guy I consider him a friend of mine luas he’s a very good friend of mine I see him probably once a year um so yeah that’s kind of how it came about very cool I didn’t realize it was 18 years ago it’s been a long time that’s very cool I’m guessing but I think it’s about then because I remember when came onto the scene it was not too far after we started Roto was Roto news back in the day at 1997 um and I think fantistics was right around that same time pretty close to that same time and I remember seeing Anthony sometimes at various uh like fsga things and then tout obviously we got him in board in tout and all that but uh yeah uh you guys do a lot of radio together you and Lou um yeah and you know that you guys we’re we’re back to back on Saturday sometimes I I jump in on the Saturday show uh sometimes and I’ve been doing the Sunday show for a while too and you know it’s one thing I didn’t have training for I mean you’re you were working for maril Lynch you were you know you’re doing on the finance side of things obviously you weren’t trained to do that either and here we are both just uh talking away well I think speaking to clients and I actually did some you know huge you know couple hundred person presentations too so I have a little bit of public speaking experience I guess you’d say much better in smaller groups but you know you it’s like anything else you keep doing it and I don’t want to say you ever get really comfortable with it like public speaking is just not a comfortable sort of thing but you just get to the point where especially at our age you’re just like whatever I’m just gonna speak and whatever happens happens right that’s right and I I was in I was in law school uh so I was trained to like maybe although I I didn’t really want to be a trial attorney I wanted to be a state planner or tax work I want to do individual you one toone client work fortunately this took off on the other in instead I I was studying for the bar exam when we launched the company passed the bar got sworn in never practiced uh but uh you know it’s there is a little bit of that sort of training but it’s so funny like northwestern’s this big radio TV film school I didn’t take a single class uh in that genre at all and here I am on radio five days a week it’s funny how that works what do they say life happens yes indeed it it does and you it’s a beautiful thing too um it’s great that it’s worked out now you still have your gig it’s not with maril Lynch anymore who are you with now no I spent 15 years at maril Lynch and then I went independent so I’m 30 years in the business uh as of well last week actually um so I’m independent independent now through uh LPL uh so much better when I was back with Mar Lynch it was 400 and some clients and you’re just you’re tied to the phone you’re tied to the computer so now 150 clients I would be willing to go up to maybe 17 or so but you know my wife and I we take my clients out to dinner we spend hours and hours with them and don’t even discuss business it’s just I feel more a part of their lives and you know the the phone never rings and I look at it I’m like really a not this person like it just doesn’t happen anymore so it’s a much more relaxed comfortable way to go about my business I always I wanted to really help people I thought this would be an Avenue to do it in reality I think you know a monkey could probably do a credible job at this um you know you just you’re you’re you’re trying to not blow people up and make sure that you keep their best interest at heart and that’s all it’s that’s all about and you said that it’s helped you in fantasy uh that it’s one of those things where the skills at least in valuation skills it’s definitely helped you and certainly in an auction format I can imagine it can help you in a lot of different ways though there’s so many ways that I do think that this background helps me uh but one of the most important things and I’ve been saying this on the radio almost every week is that you know we all get into ruts where we we form opinions and they’re just so hard to crack despite so much evidence to the contrary we just we have these opinions we really want to hold to them but I think it’s really critical to be malleable in the way that you believe about things that understanding yourself your strengths your weaknesses and being open to new data and when you see things not just being oh you know just brush that off because it doesn’t fit what you think right I think it’s really important absolutely I I think so many times when people do projects they’ll look for their research to confirm their Theory as opposed to finding the answer without question and you know you really have to try to be as open-minded as you can yeah absolutely I mean we all we all remember our lessons on the scientific method when we grew up grew up there um so it’s it’s important to kind of stick to that there I mean you know certain events have you know reinforced that lesson for us lately so uh you know it’s always good to know um and they will continue to do so I’m sure because that’s the way the world Works indeed it is hey uh when can people find your show uh do you guys also have a podcast as well we do have a podcast um Lou will actually give information on that on the show we’ve got a couple weekends of shows left and that’s it we’ll turn it over to the football guys uh but we are on channel uh SiriusXM 87 Saturdays and Sundays usually on Saturdays you’ll get me Sundays you’ll get Brandon Cameron from 11: to one Eastern right and then we jump in after that on Sundays uh I’m on from 1: to 3 on Sundays and I’ve had Dan klaskin from uh your your football show on on the podcast as well Dan’s great we’re fellow Bengals fans together there so it always works out pretty well Dan and James are terrific yeah they do fantastic work and uh I always like us going back to back whether it’s football or baseball there uh I think it’s uh it’s fun um I am jealous that you do just baseball though sometimes I love don’t don’t get me wrong I love football fantasy football I love doing fantasy football work but man just trying to juggle both is tough sometimes you know I’ll come on their show once in a while I obviously I play Fantasy Football probably have more fantasy football leagues than fantasy baseball leagues because it’s just easier it’s less effort what’s another League yeah exactly but you know I think I really value and my wife certainly values getting our weekends back uh on about July 4th every year we can have the rest of the summer to do what we want on Saturdays and Sundays um I love doing the show but I also love when I’m not doing the show if that makes any sense absolutely uh what do you got on tap for this weekend for this coming weekend uh honestly we don’t even have a topic yet the topic what I do is I usually talk to on Friday I think we’re going actually going to do a podcast tomorrow um so we’ll kick around a topic at that point but I’m probably going to go with by low candidates because we’re getting close to trade season uh we’re at the season we’re at the Time of the Season where people are really looking at their teams and seeing what they need to do if they want to stay in the race or go for next year if it’s a dynasty format or whatever so I’m gonna go with some trade targets I think tomorrow or Saturday I like that I like that what I found so far and I’m in Al Wars and I’ve got a little bit of a surplus of pitching and my I spent 200 of my $260 on my auction budget on hitting and yet my hitting is just terrible um you just it just hey big brain here I’m really nailing it this year but uh I can’t trade Luis heel for a hitter not for uh anything of commensurate value um yes you can yes you can he’s going to bump up against an Innings limit probably within six weeks or so so they’re either gonna they’re either gonna start pairing him back or they’re gonna shut him down for a bit or they’re goingon to run him and then stop him well that my problem is my my opponents know this um and all of them do do all yeah I’m working on I’ve gone three different Outlets so farbe I need a little lower but uh you know just accept a little bit of a loss and overall value maybe in terms of just getting that bat in there but uh yeah it’s tough it’s tough in there and you know I’m coming off a bad year too so I really really want to do better um and it’s just scrambling and here also where is the problem with having too many leagues is that I just need to if I treated this as my only league and put the time in I probably would have had a deal done by now but that’s my problem as well it’s so tough yeah it is it is some leagues and I’ll tell you what keeper leagues I’ve made plenty of Trades already this year redraft leagues it’s hard I think anybody that has their hitters is wanting to hoard them for a while there to kind of build up the Surplus in stats before they make that trade because they can afford to do so I guess but um if you’re if you’re lacking hitting it’s tough out there on the streets yeah I could imagine yeah so we we’ll see about that and yeah you got always me and my uh my former partner Chris Liss always used to say buy lowest not just buy low but buy lowest buy at the absolute Rock Bottom you know go get go make that offer for Corbin Carrol with the day he was getting his MRI then you could probably get a deal done um you know that that’s the thing is you really have to kind because everybody knows Buy Low sell High you have to kind of take it to a different uh level there so you really have to gamble that well that’s an aggressive mindset but I think it probably in the end is going to be a profitable one more often than not yeah and especially for the leagues that you and I are in where there is experienced managers there and you know they know better they know the concepts and so there’s not a lot of Arbitrage here no there isn’t there really isn’t there and you don’t really want to be known as the guy that’s the Predator like you know winning these unfair deals you want to have you know deals that everybody just just uh you know everybody uh wins everybody gets what they want and then they’ll do future deals with you too you can do it once or twice maybe even a handful of times but sooner or later people will stop dealing with you if you just continually take advantage of people trades must Ben both teams that’s the whole point of them absolutely it’s a I mean you’re you’re in a collaboration with each other to beat the rest of the league basically every trade is like that there so it’s actually got to be a collaboration not a swoop in and all that there so anyways um I think uh we we got uh you know I know you’ve got stuff today I’ve got the show coming up uh in about a half an hour in Sirus XM fantasy so I want to thank you skot for jumping on with the uh the podcast today again tell everybody where they can hear you we’re on SiriusXM 87 on Saturdays and Sundays from 11: to 1 Eastern and all of our written content is at www. inssider baseball.com all right very good Sky awesome spending 40 minutes with you thanks for coming on board today and uh we’ll see you at T Wars in March again that sounds great Jee I’m looking forward to it thanks again for the invitation you bet thanks everybody for listening if you like this uh show please like rate subscribe review all that good stuff if you want to get a taste of our work go to fantistics for sky and go to riddle wire.com pod for a free trial uh couple days behind the pay wall there to check it all out thanks everybody for listening have a great day
2 Comments
Welcome to the Landon Knack show! 🔥
Isn't Cole Ragans a two time TJ surgery guy?