The Cheap Seats: Is it time for fantasy coaches to take a victory lap over Jack Flaherty?

The cheap seats will come to you every Tuesday at the height of baseball season. Questions about baseball – both fantasy and real life – go to the front of the line, but we can talk about all sports, life, music, food, travel, pets, movies – just about anything. Catch me in @scott_pianowski on X/Twitterand there we go.

Victory laps aren’t my thing, but I can understand why any Flaherty coach is skipping around town today. Flaherty racked up 14 strikeouts in his Tuesday game against the Cardinalsand this is the kind of tour that shows the Signature Significance Light — when the scope of a singular event is so remarkable, we can ignore that it is a sample of one; There’s probably a meaning behind it. And Flaherty has looked dynamite all year, starting in Spring Training and heading into April.

Forget Flaherty’s current ERA – all the estimators say he should be in the 2s somewhere – and the brilliant K/BB ratio speaks for itself. If Flaherty doesn’t get hurt, he’ll certainly look like one of 2024’s sure answers.

It’s not fun to say yes, but the right answer is yes.

For all the skill, pedigree and hype tied to Holliday, he is still only 20 years old. Baseball is difficult. And even if he gets another chance soon, Holliday will almost certainly find himself at No. 9 in the lineup. It might be a while before he’s confident enough to steal bases in the majors. And while 10 games isn’t a verdict on much, he will have to erase the memory of the 18 strikeouts (versus just two walks) he absorbed in the first round.

That’s going to happen with Holliday, but I’m not going to proactively pursue him this year. If he proves me wrong, I can live with that.

I can’t imagine the Henderson coach isn’t over the moon with his superstar, but I guess you can take his temperature. Maybe start by not mentioning Henderson by name. See if he’s eager to acquire the Judge and tentatively try to get to Henderson (I don’t think it will work yet, but you can try). I suspect that to get Henderson into this format would probably cost more than Judge.

We love post-hype stories like the one Adell is working on, and his playing time is a little more secure now that Mike Trout is injured again. A plausible advantage appeared a week or two ago. At this point, it’s probably the last decision to add Adell into a competitive mixer. He is still only 25 years old. Player development is not always linear.

Each league is different and you have to play according to your situation and context; these disclaimers are up front. But when it comes to free agents and FAB offers, I think it’s important to take into account the gap between Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball.

“League Winner” may be an overused term, but 1-2 impactful calls can rock a fantasy football season. You don’t have to be right that often. Fantasy Baseball is more about the long term, with more data points and much deeper lineups. Even if you have the biggest ADP destroyer on your team, you could still have a terrible team. It’s a deeper and more dynamic game. (This is also why I often say that the weakest manager in your league might win in fantasy football, but they have almost no chance of winning in fantasy baseball. This isn’t a feature or a bug. I don’t care if a game is a little more luck based and more skill based game. That’s just the way it is, baby.)

Back to FAB habits. I try my best to stay a week or two ahead of the market, trying a speculation play before it turns into something more obvious. I also like Fred Zinkie’s free agent spirit; I don’t have the exact quote, but he talked about making offers as if you were trying to come second to competitors. If you can get the player in your price range, great. Otherwise, the next vesting period won’t be too far away.

Spanning the globe

Great question. Two films stand out to me, where the music is so perfectly curated that I can’t imagine anything being replaced in those slots. pulp Fiction is the first example, Rushmore O second. So let’s start with them.

O Uninformed the soundtrack is absurdly loaded, and this is also a cute film, excellent work by writer/director Amy Heckerling. Igby falls It has a fabulous soundtrack. Garden State It’s an engaging, if flawed, film, but they certainly nailed the music. There are also several TV shows that are fantastic with their musical curation -“The Sopranos“,”Mad Men” It is “Six feet under” comes quickly to mind.

Every major sport in America needs to consider a shorter regular season. I know this is nonsense in most leagues, but I suspect the NBA may have enough labor/ownership goodwill (and a forward-thinking commissioner) to someday consider this. Maybe the league realizes it could charge more per ticket if regular-season inventory was a little smaller, and the wear and tear saved on players would probably be worth it in the long run. Everyone is getting rich, anyway. Maybe you trade a small amount of compensation for a better quality of life.

So that’s my dream, and I think there’s a small chance it could happen in our lifetimes. I would also back off playoff teams in most sports, but we all know that has a 0% chance of passing.

The NFL needs two weeks off per season, with one of them tied to the suboptimal Thursday night package. I think this may pass someday. Hockey needs to get the hell out of Arizona; It looks like this will happen soon. I would also like to see NHL playoff teams ranked 1-8 in each conference or 1-16 overall. I would reduce the amount of active pitchers a baseball team can have on any given day. I would do many things.

As for college basketball, I wish we could get rid of the ultimate problem. If someone wants to go to the NBA after high school, that’s fine. Otherwise, why not make them wait another two years? Baseball has a three-year gap between decision moments and it seems to work well.

More daytime baseball wouldn’t hurt. And maybe a cheaper price for that hot dog and beer.