The High-Stakes Lowdown: A RotoViz Podcast: Eric Balkman chats with high-stakes fantasy football players.

GUEST

Bill Van Ormer - @Wavo20

This month, Bill Van Ormer, who will be representing the Joes in the 2025 FFPC Pros Vs. Joe's Challenge as 42 FFPC Joe's will battle 42 industry pros for seven free 2026 FFPC Main Event entries to compete for the $1,000,000 Grand Prize, joins the program. He’s a former five-time FFPC league champ as well.

In this episode, the guys hash out how to handle George Pickens in FFPC Big Gorilla drafts, whether Derrick Henry is going to come through again for FFPC Main Event owners, how the Cam Ward/Calvin Ridley connection is going to perform, and so much more.

If you’re a listener of the show who isn’t subscribing yet to RotoViz, you can get a special 10% discount through the podcast homepage.

HOST

Eric Balkman (@EricBalkman) – Host of the High-Stakes Fantasy Football Hour podcast, Insider Access on the Bettor Sports Network, talent and content producer for the Fantasy Football Players Championship, and host of The Show With Balky on 95.3 and 99.1 The Score in Appleton, Wisconsin.

SPONSOR

Fantasy Football Players Championship – The home of season-long high-stakes fantasy football. Check out the FFPC today!

SHOW NOTES

Thanks to Eric and the FFPC for coordinating this show. Thanks to Grapes for providing the theme music.​

Email: RotoVizRadio@gmail.com

Twitter: @RotoVizRadio

Liam Kerr (The Welcome Party) joins host Thomas Emerick for some early-aughts Boston angst — and rebirth. It’s October 2004. The Red Sox are down 0-2 in the ALCS. Game 3 at Fenway turns into a historic beating—and somehow, the start of everything. We talk baseball, politics, and comebacks from the edge.

2004 ALCS Game 3 Final Score: New York Yankees 19, Boston Red Sox 8

• NYY takes 3-0 series lead in American League Championship Series
• BOS now needs to win four straight to reach the World Series
• Game stats via Pro Baseball Reference

Episode threads:

• How the weight of Red Sox history—from Ruth to Buckner to Boone—hung over every fan in 2004.
• The 2004 ALCS offseason shakeups: Nomar out, A-Rod almost in, and what that meant.
• The Varitek vs. A-Rod brawl and how it defined the season’s edge and rivalry tone.
• Boston’s midseason slump and rebound: 55% playoff odds at one point, 64% the rest of the way.
• Game 3 unravels fast—Yankees drop 19 runs behind A-Rod, Sheffield, Matsui, and Bernie Williams.
• Coping mechanisms as Sox fans watched one of the worst home losses in franchise history.
• Where Liam watched Game 3, and how that night felt personally and politically.
• Parallels between Red Sox down 3-0 and Democrats down three branches of government.
• What Boston’s "Idiots" mentality says about staying loose under pressure—"Don’t let us win tonight."
• Kevin Millar’s walk, Dave Roberts’ steal, Bill Mueller’s hit—the spark of the comeback.
• How Theo Epstein and Billy Beane saw value in overlooked talent like Millar.
• The Red Sox win two Ortiz walk-offs in one calendar day—belief starts to return.

RotoViz contributor Thomas Emerick

The Welcome Party co-founder Liam Kerr (@LiamKerr)

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Justin Herzig joins Colm Kelly to reveal 4 players he can't stop selecting in fantasy football drafts! They discuss why you should join them and add them to your best ball and redraft rosters in 2025!

Timestamps

0:00 Intro

1:00 What is fantasy football upside?

5:00 Rashid Shaheed

14:00 Jaylen Warren

18:00 JJ McCarthy

24:00 The Late TEs - Terrance Ferguson, Ja'Tavion Sanders

30:00 Outro

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RotoViz Radio Executive Producer Colm Kelly (@OvertimeIreland)

Justin Herzig (@JustinHerzig) - Best Ball Guru at EstablishtheRun

BetterHelp - This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ROTOVIZ, and get on your way to being your best self.

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Listeners of RotoViz Radio can save 10% on a one-year RotoViz subscription by visiting RotoViz.com/podcast or by using the promotional code "rvradio2025" at the time of purchase.

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