Flags Fly Forever Fantasy Baseball

We are back to being a fantasy baseball podcast! Mike and Jon discuss the fallout from the 2026 trade deadline, looking at the general shift that the additional wild cards have made to the timing if deal-making, as well as the specific weirdness of a Monday deadline when many leagues run their waivers on Sunday night. Then we talk players. So many players.We keep our starting pitching conversations limited to a few guys of interest (Foster Griffin, Freddie Peralta, Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes), and we dip into a brief discussion of relievers who were moved, mainly touching on the Pirates bullpen situation with their addition of Luke Weaver.For hitters, the rundown is as follows: Catchers (Hicks, Rutschman)OF bats (Ramos, Ward, Adell, Varsho, Nootbaar)IF bats (Garcia, Arraez, N.Lowe)New (possible) regular jobs (H.Rodríguez, Basabe)And, why Matt Chapman should start his offseason now.Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

We are off and running with our 2026 positional previews, starting at first base. We talk about most of the cold corner performers that you are likely to draft this season, and we mostly (but not always!) agree. First base looks different than it did a decade or two ago (a 30-steal guy? really?) but is still one of the deeper positions in the fantasy landscape.Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

We review middle infielders from the 2025 season, looking at the landscape at each position.We refer to Mike's positional retrospective articles, which you can find here:Second Basemen: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/article/102736/fantasy-retrospective-2025-second-base/Shortstops: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/article/103050/fantasy-retrospective-2025-shortstop/Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Hello strangers! After a two-month hiatus, Flags is back. I'm sure the anticipation was not nearly at the level of the follow-up to My Bloody Valentine's epochal 1991 release, Loveless, but Jon tortures that analogy anyway.We do a general check-in of things at the thirdway point of the season, zeroing on the starting pitching leaderboard, as well as discussing the many call-ups and how one might budget FAAB accordingly should you want to add one. Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Mike and Jon talk about two recent drafts they were in: Mike in the LABR Mixed Draft, and Jon in the WERF draft (one of the leagues in the overal EARTH competition). We make some observations about starters, relievers, and drafting speed. Then we get to the second half of our outfield preview, containing a lot of flawed but interesting bats. Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Finally, a position with some truly elite players! We discuss the relative merits of Gunnar and Elly in the first round, why Francisco Lindor and Trea Turner might be more similar than you think, if CJ Abrams has another level, and other topics du jour at the six.Plenty of flawed but intriguing options in the three-star tier, and then things fall of pretty quickly at the two-star tier and below. Jon and Mike pour multiple buckets of cold water on Trevor Story and Tyler Fitzgerald, respectively, and while we appreciate that Carlos Correa is still a good hitter, we just wish he would do it for a full (or even most of a) season. Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Mike and Jon would never police your keystone decisions (get it? Keystone Cops?) but we do take a deep dive into Mike's tiers at a position that is best described as "globular." Many of the top players are on downward-descending aging curves, and there's a pretty thick middle where you can find many flawed-but-interesting options. Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.

Welcome to preview season 2025! We begin our positional previews with a corner that is not just cold, but downright Arctic (at least before cliimate change melted all of the sea ice) past a certain point. We have mild disagreements about Matt Olson and Josh Naylor, and I beef with Fangraphs over their disrespect of the great metropolis of Sacramento, California. We share skepticism about Michael Toglia and Cody Bellinger and dive in the deep water to find some bargains in the one-star tier. Flags Fly Forever is a Baseball Prospectus podcast. For more fantasy baseball information, visit baseballprospectus.com and click on "Fantasy."You can find Flags Fly Forever on Bluesky (@flagsflyforever.bsky.social). The hosts of Flags Fly Forever are Mike Gianella(@mikegianella.bsky.social) and Jon Hegglund(@jonhegglund.bsky.social). The producer of Flags Fly Forever is Jon Hegglund. Special thanks to the awesome and generous Petite League for permission to use their track "Mets" for the intro and break music. Find their sweet lo-fi indie-pop sounds at petiteleague.com.