Best Fantasy Baseball Podcasts

I’m an avid podcast listener.  And not just baseball.  I normally listen for an hour at the gym and

during my long evening dog walks.  I also listen in the car.  Most people who know me personally will ask my recommendations in this area.  So I think it’s time I put out a list of awards for the best fantasy baseball podcasts, with notes their impacts on my DFS thinking and playing.  The DFS game is inseperable from the game of baseball, and closely intertwined with season long fantasy play.

Award for best Daily Fantasy Podcast

CBS Fantasy Baseball Today

It’s virtually impossible to watch every game, and be aware of every news story affecting Major League baseball.  So don’t even try.  You don’t have to if you download the CBS Fantasy Baseball today podcast.  What makes this podcast indispensable is the Host Dave Aizer’s meticulous and comprehensive recaps of nearly every newsworthy item that happened or will happen that day.  Almost nothing will get by you if you listen to, at minimum, the first half hour of this broadcast each day (it runs typically just under an hour).  The analysts on this show are fairly vanilla.  They know their stuff but they are nothing special.  But the rundown of events compiled by the show’s host make this one invaluable. DFS impact: they have a guy who on occasion gives direct DFS advice, but his appearances have been lessened by CBS’s introduction of a 6pm video show focusing on DFS.  However, when the Host and the analyst’s talk about setting their lineups in Daily Fantasy (always Fan Duel as that’s their sponsor), you get a nice look into the process of one comes to decide on a DFS baseball roster.  I also heard one of the best pieces of advice ever on a show by the Analyst more known for basketball acumen, Chris Towers, when he said something like, “I’ve run into a bit of a cold streak, so I’m taking a week off to regroup and clear my head.”

Runner Up:

ESPN Fantasy Focus Podcast – Since Eric Karabell & Tristan Cockroft have taken over the show, the advice has improved, especially by being more detailed and driven by reasoning, but the show lacks the listenability it once had.  When their injury guru Stephania Bell is on, it is the most important podcast of the week, if you have players on, heading to, coming off the DL.  DFS impact: Their DFS “expert” isn’t much to talk about but Tristan Cockcroft really knows his pitching, and his advice as far as Daily Fantasy pitching goes might actually be the best in the business.

Award for Best DFS Podcast

Rotogrinders’ Daily Fantasy Fix

There are two very good daily podcasts out there, and this one gets the edge because of its’ targeted focus on what’s important to the DFS player.  The host, CrazeyGabey (Gabriel Harber) goes over each day the items you specifically want to know before fielding your lineups.  You want to know Pitcher Matchups, Batter Splits, and BvP data, and it’s in every show.  And the show is available on stitcher so I can listen to the 25 minute show on my drive home from work.  One secret about this show, and one of the primary reasons I picked this is the Host’s love and knowledge of weather forecasting: bad weather can sink your night, and listen to this show gives me extreme confidence that I understand what games will play or won’t play during the nights matchups.  Also, when they have other things to talk about (Golf Match, interview, etc), they will usually put out two podcasts that day rather that not put out the vital information listed above.

Runner Up

Daily Roto (Blog Talk Radio) – Tony Cincotta does a very nice job previewing the next day’s games, and when he interviews somebody from the business, he is much better than the folks at Rotogrinders.  An added bonus is that Daily Roto releases their podcast late on the night before the games, so you can get a jump  on the next day’s matchups.  I would not fault anyone one for picking this show over Daily Fantasy Fix, or listening to both.  I gave the other the nod mostly because of the compact detail of the show (it is normally less than 30 minutes) and the weather thing I mentioned before.  That being said, Daily Roto is an excellent show.

Best Analysts:

I used to say that my two favorite analysts were Nate Ravitz and Corey Schwartz but then Nate left baseball.  So my analyst picks have all moved up a notch.

Corey Schwartz (MLB.com’s Fantasy 411) – I prefer analysts that express concrete opinions over a general feel for the game.  The ESPN and CBS shows analysts don’t stand out for this reason.  I also like guys that make calls on players whether they are right or wrong.  Mr. Schwartz does this very well, most famously predicting the breakout of Edwin Encarnacion a couple years back.  It’s not the analyst’s job to set your lineup; what they should do is lay out their picks and give their reasons, and they you get to decide whether you agree or disagree with them.  Corey is the type of guy who always does this.  DFS impact: because of this shows irregular recording schedule (they release approximately every 2 weeks), the impact for DFS is minimal.

Tim McLeod  (Fantasy Baseball from Prospect 361 –Blog Talk Radio) – Rich Wilson hosts this show and Tim McLeod provides most of the analysis.  This show sometimes throws people because it doesn’t normally sound as clean as the more professional offerings, but that’s because it’s recorded live every Sunday night at 9, and a mini show on Wednesday at 8pm.  To me, it sounds like having a really nice conversation with two knowledgeable guys who love baseball that happen to be sitting a row behind you at the game.  They are not perfect, but they discuss pretty much everything that needs to be known about the past and upcoming week.  Rich Wilson’s expertise is in prospect hunting, and his just making you aware of who’s out there pays off hugely.  Tim McCleod’s years of playing fantasy baseball and his lack of favoritism, gives every possible player a chance to be lauded or criticized (He’s an Expos Fan).  I like his analysis because of its’ depth and relative objectivity.  DFS impact: Most of us play in 10 or 12 team season long fantasy leagues, these guys play exclusively in very large leagues (15’s, 20’s, etc).  Because of this they spend a lot more time talking about the fringes of the fantasy baseball world, and very little on the studs.  You’ll hear names like Gregor Blanco and Matt Boyd as much or more than Mike Trout and Giancarlo Stanton.  This awareness of the fringe is really useful in DFS, when you are trying to field your last hitter or two with only a few bucks left in your coffers.  It’s nice to choose a cheap bottom of the roster player knowing a little something about him.

Tristan Cockroft (ESPN’s Fantasy Focus Baseball) – I trust his analysis on Pitches more than anybody else (more above).

Best DFS Analysts:

As I’ve talked about all of these guys (and gal) before I will just list them in order of value to DFS playing with brief reasons.  Give any of them a shot and you will see what I’m talking about.   You will notice that none of the so-called DFS “experts” make the list.

1.  Tony Cincotta (his expertise as a DFS Player is the best we have regular access to)
2.  Tristan Cockroft (Pitchers are so important to DFS)
3. Crazey Gabey (he’s second in knowledge and experience to Mr. Cincotta)
4. Dave Aizer (when he talks about fielding his rosters, especially when Chris Towers is there).
5. Stephania Bell - For everything injury related.

Best Baseball Podcasts you probably didn’t know exist:

Baseballholics Anonymous (Independent) –Doug Thornburn and Sammy Reid host this show simply because they love talking about baseball.  And it shows in their product.  It is probably the one shows I look forward to more than any other.  Mr. Reid used to write for ESPN and Mr. Thornburn works for various sites, most notably Baseball prospectus.  They review the games, talk about all sorts of interesting things going on in baseball, and always have a game where they test their general knowledge of the game we all love.  DFS Impact: these two are avid DFS players and talk about the DFS game in a much more concrete form than any other.  It is not the focus of the show, but when it comes up, it’s as good as it gets.  Doug Thornburn has an in depth pitching focus, which is so very useful. So much so that he is often tabbed to speak on Rotoworld’s Daily podcast when they want choose to talk DFS.

MLB.com’s Statcast Podcast – Statcast has dumped a whole slew of new data on the public, but it’s not yet in a format that is easily accessible to the general fan.  MLB.com has introduced this short weekly podcast, where they talk about how some of this new information is used.  So if you want to embrace your inner baseball geek and learn about what pitchers have the most spin on their fastballs and what that means toward production, or a pitchers perceived velocity, or who hits the ball the hardest, this is the place for you.

Baseball Profcast (Baseball Professor) -  These guys rotate a little too much for my liking, but it gives you a daily difference of opinion about players and the game.  It is very much like the Prospect 361 podcast, an interesting conversation about baseball, but this time it’s by a handful of partying 20-somethings who swallowed a statistics text book, sitting behind you.