Hey everyone, Ben here, and welcome to the 2020 version of Stealing Signals! First of all, thank you for signing up for this newsletter. The support has been overwhelming.
Many of you have contacted me because you have been unable to complete a paid subscription, and for those of you who have tried, the site tells you to reach out to me. A quick update on that — I’ve been working over the past 48 hours or so to get Substack’s partner, Stripe, to verify this silly little sports newsletter as not in some way criminal or problematic for their business. I think because I chose the topic “Fantasy sports/gambling” this thing has been flagged, and that’s not something I can change at this point. It’s been a long back and forth where at one point I was told Stripe can’t accept “multilevel marketing” businesses. Signals is a lot of things, but I’m not sure pyramid scheme is one of them.
Hopefully we’ll have all that squared away soon. Or we won’t, at which point we’ll figure something else out. (An aside: If you think you can help, shoot me an email or DM on Twitter. Would be much appreciated.) If it’s not figured out today, you’ll still have access to Signals. I’ll make sure of that.
But a cool thing has happened. Because of this confusion, I’ve held off promoting this much … and yet, the response has surpassed whatever expectations I might have had. I want to thank you for that. It’s because of that support that this exists at all in this format. Whether you first discovered this piece last year at CBS or you have followed my work since the RotoViz days, I’m glad you’re here, and I want to do everything I can to help you — not just in your leagues this year, but also in making you better equipped to make your own decisions and improve your understanding of the game.
Now on to the good stuff — I’m already compiling my notes and preparing Stealing Signals, Week 1. The first email will go out later today, hopefully before the Monday Night Football games. That email will include recaps of Thursday Night Football and the nine early games yesterday. Then tomorrow, I’ll follow up with my reactions to the later Sunday games, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football. This will be the general order of business this season and I want to make sure I have all my analysis out there for you by Tuesday night waiver runs. Typically, the Tuesday emails will be shorter with fewer games to cover, and you should expect them earlier in the day.
You can read more in the Welcome letter on the site, including how I plan to simplify the analysis and focus on the core actionable takeaways as we get further into the season. I’m excited about this new format and how it will allow me to be more direct, as I won’t have to repeat as many things, which is something I’ve always done to be cognizant of first-time readers in any given week.
But early in the season, we have a crazy amount of new information. So I will be reviewing every game in full, and providing you with updated values, waiver targets, trade options, and more. A lot happened yesterday, and I’m excited to share my thoughts with you all.
Until this afternoon, thanks again for signing up! Chat soon.
— Ben