Pinch Hit Musings: Full Intensity Time

I love this hat.

I stick with consistency over intensity. For me, being consistent is about maintaining discipline towards a committed goal. Consistency is how you endure for the long haul. Intensity is a short term finite resource that can definitely help you breakthrough mental and physical walls. More often than not, people tend to overstate the strength of intensity and underrate the power of consistency. Though there is a time and place where you do need to flip what the hat above says. It’s like what Patrick Swayze’s character preaches in the movie Road House. “Be nice…until it’s time to not be nice”. Consistency will get you to the playoffs, but sometimes intensity might be needed for that extra push towards the championship. For the fantasy baseball season, I believe you need to be consistent, until it’s time…to not be consistent.

When playing this game late in the season, you should already be turning your consistency into more intensity. I know it may sound ridiculous to claim that you need to add intensity to playing fantasy baseball. What does that mean?! You can’t help or do any of the activities that these baseball players do (Though I’m sure the armchair athletes would say otherwise!). I’m talking about the “hypervigilance” that Scott Jenstad mentioned on the RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Podcast a couple weeks ago. A relentless singular focus to be as dialed in as possible with player news, lineups, and pitching rotations. If not already done so, you need to commit to this level of intensity now. That’s hard. You’ve already been grinding all season now I’m saying to pump up the volume, pump up the volume, dance, dance?….Yeah. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to suck. But, as I mentioned in a previous FBM Monthly Review Post, “…doing something hard sucks, which is why most people stop, and can’t do it. But, you can.”

Simple but not easy.

Here are some sources that will help you on that intense hypervigilance fantasy baseball path the next two weeks as you strive for that extra push towards 1st place and/or into the money spots of your leagues:

• Bubba & the Bloom Episode 74 - Starting at the 30 minute mark, Bubba and Ryan go through the final two schedules for all 30 teams. This is worth your time, and the video clip highlights pitching rotations as well.

• The First Pitch Podcast from Pitcher List - This daily morning podcast from the team at Pitcher List has Brian “Bubba” Entrekin and Jake Crumpler detail all the fantasy baseball news, injuries, and FAAB pickups you need to consider. This podcast has been a staple for me all season, and is more critical now than ever.

• Baseball Fan Perspective’s MLB QuickCap - Justin Alston provides daily written recaps from the previous MLB action. It’s been a good way to stay tuned in from a pure baseball perspective when not watching games.

• Hot Corner Box Score Notes + News Pod - I know I am broken record here on all things Pull Hitter related, and I know it costs money, but it’s worth it and you get the fantasy goods.

• Mining the News - The once a week FanGraphs article by Jeff Zimmerman provides many of the fantasy nuggets that most don’t take the time to investigate. I know I don’t which is why I read it every week. Can’t recommend it enough.

Thanks for reading.

Take care.