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2008 Fantasy Baseball Search Expert Bios
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| Representing Fantasy Baseball Search |
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Todd
"The True GURU" Farino |
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| Todd Farino -
aka "The True GURU" is the owner and operator of Fantasy
Baseball Search, The Fantasy Baseball Bible, and Fantasy
Baseball Ad. He's been operating fantasy baseball
sites since 2002. His main site FB Search is a
fantasy baseball portal and search engine and offers
expert blogging and analysis all season. He also hosts the radio show
The Fantasy Baseball GURUS
every Sunday at 7pm EST. |
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| Todd derives his self-proclaimed "Mad Skillz" for
Fantasy Baseball by intensely watching and reading
everything he can about MLB. He watches nearly 350
games a year and drives his wife crazy with the ESPN News
channel or a baseball game on all the time from April
through October. His formula for ranking players and
finding sleepers consists of mathematics Matt Damon
could not solve. How about them apples?
He writes about baseball all the time in his blog
and his opinions on players are considered outside
the box and not accepted by everyday experts.
Too bad for them. |
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| Todd's strategy in winning is come out of the gates
fast and hard and to dominate enough scoring areas of the
game to win the championship. He is not greedy and
knows when he's out matched in a specific area and plays to every advantage
and weakness he can find over his opponent. |
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| Site:
Fantasy Baseball Search |
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| Age: 33 |
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| Experience: 16 years |
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| His signature move is using free
agency to the power of 10. |
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| Motto: "Anything
in FREE AGENCY is yours
too take." . |
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Representing
Fantasy Fanatics |
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Dan Cypra |
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Dan Cypra is the Co-Owner and VP of Marketing for
FantasyFanatics.com, a rapidly growing fantasy sports
community. The site
is operated by a group of guys with true experience in
building online communities.
We’re members of the Fantasy
Sports Trade Association and cover fantasy basketball,
hockey, football, and baseball. Cypra is on the FSTA Board
of Directors. |
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Cypra is an avid sports fan and currently works for the
athletic media relations department at Vanderbilt
University on game days. He’s the commissioner of his
ultra-competitive fantasy football league and knows what
it takes to play like a champion. You’ll see him
smack-talking his way to victory in fantasy baseball this
season. |
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In fantasy baseball, I tend to rely on the proven
commodities rather than over-draft younger, unproven
talent. I also hate the Yankees, which explains why
my Red Sox to Yankees ratio is 5:1. I don’t gamble
on the first five picks; each should have a
consistent track record of fantasy dominance. |
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| Site:
Fantasy Fanatics |
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Age: 26 |
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Experience: 4 years |
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His signature move: Bodyslam |
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Motto:
"My Fantasy Team is Better than Your Fantasy Team" |
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Representing
Fantasy Baseball Generals |
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Patrick
DiCaprio |
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Patrick DiCaprio operates The
Fantasy Baseball Generals blog, which is one of the
only (if not the only) blog that primarily focuses
on fantasy baseball theory and strategy. The
strategies discussed on the site are derived from
the campaigns of some of the great Generals in
history, from Napoleon to Sun-Tzu to Clausewitz.
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| He also hosts the Fantasy Baseball
Gurus radio show every Sunday at 7 pm EST.
Unlike his co-hosts, Patrick does not have a face
made for radio. |
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Arch Nemesis: radio co-host
Todd Farino, whose outside the box thinking
sometimes comes from alternate universes.
Greatest Achievement: Pursuing a different course
than his MIT classmates by writing about baseball
for free instead of making millions in the tech
markets. Damn! |
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| Site:
Fantasy Baseball Generals |
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Age: 38 |
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Experience: 22 years |
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His signature move |
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Motto:
"Many people have the will to win, very few have the
will to prepare to win." |
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Pro Fantasy Games |
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Chris
Farino |
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StoneysLounge.com is represented in this league by
myself and our top Fantasy Sports Guru, Uncle
John.
I began playing Fantasy Baseball in 1990, back
when I made my picks out of a magazine ad. A 162
game season required a couple rolls of stamps.
Times have changed immensely, and I'm proud to
call myself "old school".
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I began Stoney's Lounge in 2000 with one concept in
mind. "Your Online Corner Bar for Fantasy Sports". I and
all of my buddies had full time jobs and obligations at
home, so meeting at the pool hall 3-4 times a week
became impossible. Then I realized that this was
happening to sports fans all over the world.
So, grab some beer on your way home from work, take care
of your business at home, log on, then relax and hang
out with some very cool people at the Lounge from the
comfort of your own home.
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The Lounge has gone through many transformations over
the years, including a 4 year stretch selling league
services. The market got flooded with a lot of crap so I
reverted to my roots. All of the World News and Sports
News you need streaming on our home page and really
great, newly expanded forums.
I don't offer million dollar prizes. It's a little
corner bar and I'm proud of that.
Bust open a cold one and join our forums. I promise, you
will meet some cool and intelligent people.
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Representing
Mock Draft Central |
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Geoff
Stein |
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| On Feb.
14, 2008, Geoffrey Stein celebrated his three year
anniversary at Mock Draft Central, the greatest site
in the history of the internets. What began as a
part-time job to help pay for beer at college has
become a full-time, life-consuming venture that has
Geoff doing everything from writing to taking out
the trash. Guess which task is more fun? |
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| Geoff
has been playing fantasy baseball for about a decade
with the fondest memory of his first team being the
excitement that came over him when he drafted his
shortstop sleeper of 1999, Neifi Perez. Hey, he
played in Colorado. Back off. |
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| When he's not busy working, Geoff enjoys ... wait,
who are we kidding, Geoff is always busy working. |
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| Site:
Mock Draft Central |
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Age: 24 |
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Experience: 10 years |
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His signature move ground and pound. |
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Motto: "Avoid Giants!" |
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Representing
Melnick and Greco Fantasy Sports |
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Paul
Greco |
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Since his days in high school, over 15 years ago,
Paul Greco has always loved playing Fantasy
Sports. Everything about Fantasy Sports intrigues
him. From the strategy on draft day, to making
trades, or working the waiver wire, Paul enjoys
all aspects of the Fantasy game.
Then in May of 2006, Paul's cousin Mark
Healey, the Executive Editor of Gotham
Baseball Magazine, and the creator of
www.gothambaseballmagazine.com, joined forces,
along with their legal council, Gene Berardelli.
Together the three own
Gotham
Sports Media ,
Gotham Baseball Magazine , and
Gotham
Sports Radio
What Paul hopes to
provide the Fantasy Sports readers is something
other sites don't. Currently, experts tell you
what you should do with your team(s), but do they
do it themselves? That's where Paul really wants
to help. Everything Paul does to his teams will be
posted here in his daily blog. Paul will be
providing insight on why he makes certain moves
with his teams, such as trade proposals, waiver
wire moves, and lineup changes. Paul wants to show
you how he consistently wins his leagues and what
he does to win them. Paul does not want to just
write articles to tell you what you should do, he
wants you to feel as though you are on his team.
Call it being in the board room with Paul
everyday. Then, hopefully when you see what he's
doing, you take that and can use it with your
teams.
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In addition to being
part owner of Gotham Sports Media, LLC, Paul is
also a Principle Engineer with General Dynamics in
San Antonio, TX. Paul, a highly decorated veteran
of the United States Air Force for 10 years served
in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Northern
Watch, and Operation Southern Watch. He can also be heard on the weekly
Internet show,
Talking Baseball, every Wednesday night at 8pm
ET. RotoHog.com
has hired Paul on as a consultant to their very
popular Fantasy Games. Paul is also the voice of
RotoHog.com and has appeared on ESPN Radio, WIP in
Philadelphia,
and
KALL 700 Sports in Salt Lake City.
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| Site:
Melnick and Greco FS |
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Age: 34 |
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Experience: 18 years |
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Motto: "Don't play fantasy baseball to win, play
fantasy baseball to dominate" |
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Representing
Junkyard Jake |
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RC Rizza |
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Leveraging off the huge Polka music craze of the
late 1990's,
Junkyardjake.com first hit the web in 1998 as one
of the first sites
completely devoted to fans of Austrian folk
dancing and accordion
maintenance.
After realizing that there never really was such a
thing as a 'Polka
Music Craze', we made the abrupt switch to fantasy
sports, primarily
focusing on football, and adding baseball in 2004.
To keep up the
dynamic fantasy sports market, our site has future
plans for adding
content that covers fantasy sausage racing, and
fantasy hippie
slapping, two areas of simulated sports that have
seen surging
popularity in recent years.
RC, owner and operator of Junkyardjake.com, has
been involved in the
fantasy sports business for 15 years, but also
enjoys actual sports,
and has had a fairly successful career as a
street-baller. On the
basketball court, he's known as the 'FreeMason'
for a unique ability
to throw up bricks from any spot on the court,
especially the
free-throw line.
The nickname 'FreeMason' also refers to RC's
penchant for conspiracy
theories.
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For example, Junkyardjake.com has
recently obtained
compelling evidence which supports several popular
theories concerning
Roger Clemens. As it turns out, he is not only an
abuser of steroids,
but we are also fairly certain that he is behind
the covert evil oil
cartel that has caused high gas prices, and we are
also pretty sure
that he is a vampire.
While he is not covering fantasy sports or
propagating conspiracy
theories, RC also enjoys intermittent success in
the financial
markets, trying to avoid getting tasered at the
airport, and picking
fights with the snotty punks that work at his
neighborhood Starbucks.
(That's right Justin, I'm not finished with you
yet, and pull your
damn pants up !)
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| Site:
Junkyard Jake |
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Age: 43 |
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Experience: 15 years |
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His signature move If they take my stapler again,
I'm going to set the building on fire. |
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Motto: "Don't be a communist sissy, eat your damn
vegetables." |
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Representing
Baseball Geeks |
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Rob Reed |
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Rob is the host of the BaseballGeeks.com Podcast (currently the #3 fantasy
baseball podcast on Itunes, just behind ESPN's
Fantasy Focus and CBS Sportsline's Fantasy podcasts),
and he is the proprietor of
baseballgeeks.com
(a baseball news feeder) and
playertrack.com
(the aforementioned player ranking system, which is
like a fantasy baseball draft guide on steroids…
minus the shrunken balls). |
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Rob Reed began his fantasy baseball
journey in 1993, when his brother told him about
fantasy baseball. He caught the bug, but it was
like a minor cold. In 1996, a colleague told Rob
about a rotisserie league. This sounded interesting
to Rob. Rob joined. Rob chose Brett Butler as his
number one pick. Rob, circa 1996 = dumbass. The fantasy bug flourished,
however, becoming much like the swine flu.
Years passed, and year after
year, Rob was the guy that many in the fantasy world
like to call "easy money." He would do things like
trade Sammy Sosa after a 20+ HR outburst in May,
1998 for a closer because "nobody is going to come
close to Maris."
In fact, at this point, the bug
transformed itself into something like a raging case
of hemorrhoids. You know what I mean. Where it
feels good to scratch and play around, but the
payoff is just an awful stench, a shitty finger, and
an itch that just won't go away.
Then, one day, Rob got the
bright idea to design a system that could spot
undervalued players by comparing players against
each other according to the fantasy statistics.
This epiphany became the key for Rob to create his
basic fantasy philosophy: (1) balance is key and (2)
avoid young, unproven players until after you have
established a solid team.
Using this system (now available at
PlayerTrack.com), Rob discovered Derrek Lee before
his monster season. He discovered Matt Holliday
when fantasy players commonly referred to him as
Matt Who?
Before PlayerTrack, Rob never
placed in the money (top 3 of 10). Since
PlayerTrack, Rob has two first place finishes and a
third place finish in a highly competitive league
(third place occurred in 2006 when Rob lost Derrek
Lee to that fluke wrist injury and a $35 Gary
Sheffield for most of the year).
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| In 2008, Patrick Di Caprio of confused Rob of the
baseballgeeks.com
podcast for Rob of
fantasybaseballgeeks.com. While it is likely a
mistake that Rob was invited into this experts
league, Rob is now able to brag to his own money
league that they have not only gotten their asses
whooped by a guy they thought was "easy money," but
they have gotten their asses whooped by an "expert." |
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| Site:
Baseball Geeks |
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Age: 38 |
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Experience: 15 years |
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His signature move: Bending Over |
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Motto: "Balance is key". |
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Representing Roto Authority |
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Tim
Dierkes |
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Tim Dierkes runs RotoAuthority.com, the Internet's
first daily fantasy baseball blog (note: no idea
if that's true, it just sounds good). Tim chose
the name when he started the site back in June of
'05 because RotoGods, Docs, World, Wire, and
Roto-everything else were already taken. He's
been playing fantasy baseball (and no other
fantasy sports!) since the mid-90s, occasionally
avoiding losing. He has a knack for picking
sleepers a year before they actually perform well,
which helps no one. Despite this spotty track
record, Tim writes for RotoWorld and Hardball
Times on occasion, as well as for several annual
fantasy baseball magazines.
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| Tim also runs MLBTradeRumors.com,
which enabled him to quit his job in January (much
to the chagrin of his wife). He now reads and
writes about baseball all day long, every day. Good
times. |
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| Tim would like you to think that he
drafted two catchers in the Fantasy Baseball Search
Expert League as part of a clever strategy. Yeah,
let's go with that. |
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| Site:
Roto
Authority
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Age: 25 |
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Experience: 12ish years |
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His signature move: Drafting only players named
"Carlos" |
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Motto: "Woooooooooow" (Flavor Flav voice) |
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Representing Fantasy Baseball Geeks |
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Sean
Sultaire |
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Sean Sultaire aka "Commish"
is the co-owner/editor of Fantasy Baseball Geeks.
The site was started in 2007 and was designed to
give the fantasy baseball die-hard one stop shopping
for all of the readers' fantasy analysis needs and
to communicate with as many readers on an individual
basis as possible. The site has 12 participating
long-time fantasy baseball enthusiasts who provide
valuable & diverse insight to the game we are all
addicted to. The main feature of FBG is "12 Angry
Geeks" a FREE trade review tool to assist league
commissioners in allowing or overturning debated
trades. The trade and any other pertinent league
information is submitted to the site and
is reviewed by a group of your peers, as the 12
Geeks vote on the trade before them. 12 Angry Geeks
takes all of the personal feelings out of the
equation and votes on the trade as objectively as
possible.
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Sean started and
played in his first fantasy baseball league in
1991. After the league went belly up about half way
through the season, he learned his first lesson as
commissioner and fantasy owner: 1. Make sure
everyone pays up front. and B. Erik Hanson had a
career year in 1990 and is not the Ace of a fantasy
staff. |
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| Sean thinks
that the key to fantasy baseball glory is to be the
most prepared league participant at the draft. You
have 5+ months to get ready for your draft so there
is no excuse to not be prepared when draft day rolls
around. Know your league rules and have a game plan
on draft day. You need to take some well
calculated risks on draft day otherwise you are
destined for the middle of the pack, but don't get
too risky or draft too much upside or odds are your
team will crash and burn. |
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Representing
Rotodoc |
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Troy St.
Louis |
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Troy St. Louis is
the owner of Rotodoc.com. The site was started in
December of 2004 and has had a steady increase in
devoted fans ever since. Rotodoc.com offers
Draft Kits and advice to Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy
Football, and Fantasy Hockey fans alike.
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St. Louis is a
health care professional by day and represents his
Hospitals Union at the Executive level. He played
JR hockey for 5 years and has taught at various
hockey schools throughout Canada including the
world famous Okanagan Hockey School in Penticton
BC. |
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In fantasy baseball,
I prefer drafting players that are entering into
their prime. I look for career year and breakout
candidates and I draft well rounded players
(bellies excluded!). I never overlook pitching
and I don’t believe in punting a category. I hate
the Yankees and I love hearing them whine when my
Sox kick their cans!!!
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| Site:
Rotodoc.com |
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Age: |
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Experience: |
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His signature move: |
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Motto: |
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Representing Fantasy Baseball Mafia |
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Evan
Dickens |
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Evan Dickens was the original editor at Fantasy
Baseball Mafia at its inception in February 2007. He
later became the host of the Wire Tap podcast and
helped launch it into the top 10 fantasy baseball
podcasts on iTunes. |
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Evan retired from the Wire Tap podcast in April 2008
and now works strictly as a contract hitmen, hired
out
to put cement shoes on other owners in expert
leagues. |
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The primary element of Evan's
fantasy baseball
strategy is built around a value-oriented draft
approach. Evan also is widely regarded as an expert
in
the drafting and ongoing management of fantasy
starting pitchers, usually evidenced by a high
finish
in all pitching categories other than the
troublesome
Saves. During his time on the Wire Tap podcast, Evan
never wavered from his insistence that the only
appropriate place to ever draft a catcher is the
last
round of the draft. |
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