Revision 67402827 of "Fantasy 411" on enwiki

== The Fantasy 411 ==
The Fantasy 411 is an [[MLB]] [[radio]] [[broadcast]] on MLB.com.  The hosts are primarily Mike Siano and Cory Schwartz, with occasional contributions from Vinny Micucci and Jeffrey Ma.  The show airs Monday through Friday during the MLB [[season]].  The show's main focus is [[fantasy baseball]], although listeners often like to tell [[Chuck Norris Facts]].  Mike and Cory answer [[fans]] questions through [[telephone call|calls]], [[e-mails]] or [[instant messages]].  In the [[offseason]] the Fantasy 411 airs once a week until the end of February, after which it airs twice a week.  The show can be downloaded as a [[podcast]] through MLB.com or [[iTunes]].  The [[archives]] of the Fantasy 411 are available through MLB.com.

==The Hosts==

Mike Siano and Cory Schwartz both live in [[New York City]] and they both vehemently support the [[New York Yankees|Evil Empire]]

===Cory Schwartz===

Schwartz is host that is more inclined toward statistical analysis and [[sabermetrics]], especially since he is a member of the [[Society for American Baseball Research]] (SABR).  
Schwartz is also responsible for providing insight on the [[Minor league baseball|minor leagues]] and upcoming prospects.  In May 2006, Schwartz questioned the strategy and went [[emo (slang)|emo]] after poor performances from [[Ian Snell]] and [[Juan Cruz]] but has since retracted his doubts.  
Schwartz's signature topics are his National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) team and, why the  [[Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim]] should promote [[Howie Kendrick]] (Kendrick was promoted in July 2006).  Schwartz's signature phrase is "DTM" which is an acronym for "Dead To Me." Schwartz uses the phrase during the [[[[Help:Section#Section_linkingPitch and Ditch]] segment of the show for pitchers who have not performed well while on his fantasy team, such as [[Ted Lilly]], [[Jeff Suppan]] and [[Ian Snell]].

==The Fantasy 411 Philosophy==
The Fantasy 411 Philosophy is a strategy for creating a successful fantasy baseball team.  The strategy is to use early [[draft (sports)|draft]] picks on good [[Batting (baseball)|hitters]] and [[closer(baseball)|closers]] rather than starting [[pitchers]].  This strategy is also useful in [[auction ]] leagues, where more money should be spent on hitters and closers rather than starting pitchers.  The reason for the Fantasy 411 Philosophy is that hitting performance is much more predictable than pitching performance, and that good hitting is much harder to find than good pitching.  The merits of the Fantasy 411 Philosophy have been proven true in 2006, as many high-profile starting pitchers who were taken early in fantasy drafts, such as [[Jake Peavy]], [[Andy Pettitte]], [[Mark Buehrle]] and [[Randy Johnson]] have performed poorly, and others, such as [[Mark Prior]], [[Rich Harden]] and [[Ben Sheets]] have succumbed to injury.  Some Fantasy 411 favorites for 2006 are [[Brandon Webb]], [[Dan Haren]], [[Jeremy Bonderman]] and [[John Lackey]], all of whom enjoying great success in 2006 and were taken much later in most fantasy drafts than more recognized, less successful stars.

== Strategies and Sayings ==

Mike and Cory use many original strategies and sayings in their show as part of the Fantasy 411 Philosophy.

===List of 12=== - A list of [[pitchers]] that Schwartz comes up with at the start of the season, with the theory being that once pitchers reach a certain level of experience, usually around 500 [[innings]] pitched, they tend to improve significantly.  This year's list included [[Brandon Webb]], [[Jeremy Bonderman]], [[Aaron Harang,]] and [[Bronson Arroyo]].

==="[[Batting (baseball)|Hitters]] Hit"=== - Siano and Schwartz use the phrase "hitters hit" when referring to the idea that good hitters tend to balance out poor hitting with good hitting and that performance for hitters is much easier to project than pitching performance.

===[[Pitch]] and Ditch=== - A [[strategy]] that Siano and Schwartz use based on the theory that good pitching is plentiful.  The main components of the strategy are to find pitchers who are avaliable on the waiver wire, watch the matchups and pick up pitchers accordingly.  The benefit of the strategy is that it allows a fantasy player to maximize points in counting [[statistics]] (such as [[wins]] and [[strikeouts]]), provides good roster flexibility and increases the likelihood of finding suprise breakthrough performers such as [[Cliff Lee]] and [[Chris Capuano]] in 2005 and [[Erik Bedard]] and [[Josh Johnson]] in 2006.  Pitch and Ditch can be considered a risky strategy because it increases the likelihood of having a very poor performance, which can severly hurt a fantasy team.  

==="Don't Chase [[Wins]]"=== - A strategy that is tied in with Pitch and Ditch. [[Statistical analysis]] shows that the number of wins, a fundamental [[statistic]] in [[fantasy baseball]], that a pitcher earns are not consistent and that the number of wins that a pitcher earns is not a good reflection of his true skill. Thus, Mike and Cory tell the listeners to focus on improving other pitching statistics, such as [[saves]], [[strikeouts]], [[ERA]], and [[WHIP]] and that accumulating wins requires patience.