Fantasy Sports podcast: MLB frustrations, running back contract woes, Ryder Cup

We bust out the time machine for this week’s fantasy sports podcast with Jeff Erickson of RotoWire.

First, we go into the future, forecasting what fantasy strategies may be like in a baseball season that lasts between 48 to 80-plus games. The big variable seems to be pitchers. With the lack of ramp-up time, condensed schedules and potentially expanded rosters, look for bullpens to be all the more important with perhaps some corresponding devaluing of starters.

While we are forecasting, we talk about how West Allegheny’s Austin Hendricks will do in Cincinnati after the Reds selected him in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft Wednesday night. Jeff is a Reds fan and is fired up about the power Hendricks could bring to a hitter-friendly stadium like Great American Ballpark.

He won’t haunt the Pirates for years to come, will he? NOOOOO! Of course not!

Then we travel back in time to the summer of 1998 for the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase. ESPN is profiling that summer in a documentary that starts Sunday night. RotoWire was just a year old at that point. Jeff tells us what it was like to launch a fantasy sports business during the height of the steroid era.

As Jeff tells us, the numbers were so daunting by so many hitters that by 1999 enough had overall projections high enough that McGwire would’ve been only a second-round pick.

We also flash back to how hard it would’ve been to pitch at that time, and why that should make the legacies of Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson all the more impressive.

We zip back to the present day to talk about golf. Brooks Koepka thinks a Ryder Cup without fans may make the event so boring that it wouldn’t be worth playing. Jeff and I have that discussion. We also talk about how the absence of fans may have a tangible impact on scores at every event.

And on the football front, most of the headlines were off the field this week, as discussion centered around anthem protests and kneeling players. But from an on-field perspective, Jeff saw one potential storyline of a significant nature. That, once again, has to do with disgruntled running backs.

Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook is threatening to hold out. The Vikings star is one of the best running backs in football. That would be a major blow to owners that want to hold onto him in keeper leagues. Plus, in traditional play, it could significantly shake up draft boards.

So, we analyze that situation, and more.

LISTEN: Forecasting fantasy strategies with a shortened MLB season