Hitting for the Cycle
A Sunday Review - January 30, 2022
📖 What I’m Reading:
Why Not Now? Setting your sights on “The Majors” in Fantasy Baseball - Ryan Ireland
“The credit belongs to the person who is in the arena. Whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly ... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly ..."
- Theodore Roosevelt
I immediately thought of that quote while reading Ryan Ireland’s article in which he outlines the transition from casual fantasy baseball player to playing in more high stakes leagues at the NFBC . Ryan describes his process of playing in those leagues for the first time during the 2021 season. He lays out some resources that helped him along that initial journey as well as his list of what first time NFBC players should focus on. Ultimately, the article is about challenging yourself, learning from mistakes and understanding the work that goes into improving your fantasy baseball game. Sometimes you just have to put yourself into the arena to find something about yourself.
🎧 What I’m Hearing:
RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Podcast (January 20th & 25th episodes)
I have been really enjoying the hosting duties of James Anderson on the RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Podcast. The episodes from the past two weeks have been riveting with one of them being a little unexpected. At this point in the 2022 world of fantasy baseball, it’s must listen podcast whenever Phil Dussault is being interviewed. The January 25th Process & Strategy episode was no exception. However, it was the two hour January 20th episode on Catcher Strategy with Toby Guervin & Dave McDonald that I couldn’t get enough of. Two hours of team-by-team analysis that was focused primarily on 2-catcher NFBC leagues, but still very helpful in sorting out who to generally target from a position that is difficult to get any meaningful category stats.
📊 Metric of the Week:
ISO
Isolated Power (“ISO”) represents the raw power of a hitter by measuring the average number of extra-base hits per at-bats (slugging percentage minus batting average). It is a quick way to gauge a player’s ability to accumulate RBI and runs. As a descriptive stat, it shows what the player has done from a power perspective at that point in the season. Generally, an ISO of greater than .200 is excellent.
💬 Quote of the Week:
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - Confucius