Baseball is back!

So that means fantasy sports players have their hobby back as well. What better day to have Jeff Erickson join us from RotoWire to look at the start of the Major League Baseball season.

We talk about how crucial it is for fantasy owners to watch teams in the middle of the Central Divisions as players try to fatten up on the soft underbelly of that group early in the season.

Jeff has long been bullish on Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove, and he continues to be after what we’ve seen from the starter in the rebooted spring training and his exhibition outing versus Cleveland.

We also have a discussion about the short-lived Toronto “’Burgh Jays.” Like our guest from Wednesday, Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun, Jeff was someone who saw room for improvement in Toronto this season. But now, without a home city to play in, maybe not so much.

The expanded baseball playoffs format is crucial for owners, too. The longer teams stay alive, the better it is for draftable players on your roster. And the competition in your fantasy leagues may get deeper for an extended period of time in what is otherwise a short sprint of a 60-game season.

Mookie Betts signed a mega deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. What does this mean moving forward for superstar players? Jeff talks about payment in nontraditional ways such as bitcoin and gold.

Can you imagine Bob Nutting in those situations? The Dodgers will be offering contracts in gold and bitcoin. Nutting will be countering with tin foil and spinning coins from Mario Brothers.

We also dive into some football talk as Antonio Brown’s retirement only lasted 48 hours. With his renewed complaints to get back into the league, is it wise for fantasy drafters to at least take a flyer on him in a late round?

And we try to figure out how players may use the “opt out” rule to their advantage in NFL contract negotiations over the next week before the deadline for it hits on Aug. 1.

LISTEN: Tim Benz and Jeff Erickson preview the start of the shortened MLB season

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