Shane Smith (Appalachian League & Toronto Blue Jays)

Hello friends, baseball fans and fantasy sports fans alike! I’m Shane Smith and I’m delighted to be the newest writer at Prospects1500. I’ll be covering the Appalachian League (assuming it returns in 2021) as well as adding some Blue Jays MiLB content in addition to Greg Bracken’s coverage. I’m originally from Charlotte, NC. I moved to the Triangle area of NC in 1995 and have lived here since. I live about 5 minutes from the home offices of the Appy League, another 5 from Durham Bulls Athletic Park and less than an hour from many other minor league stadiums as well. I plan to be right in the heart of the action once MiLB baseball returns. Unfortunately, my dream of becoming a big leaguer never came to pass. Instead, I’m a Commercial Banker with a large national institution in Durham, NC. I look forward to this new endeavor and hope to meet many of you via this platform soon.

I can’t remember a time when baseball wasn’t my favorite of all major sports. We didn’t have a major league team growing up in Charlotte. We did have the Charlotte O’s – Baltimore’s Southern League, AA affiliate. The O’s won their championship when I was 7 years old. From that moment on, I was hooked. In 1989, the O’s became the Knights and George Shinn (booooo) took over and took the team to Fort Mill, SC. Affiliations changed, too. The Knights signed an agreement to be an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately, with the stadium much further away, we went to fewer games and WGN became my saving grace. I could ALWAYS watch the Cubs whenever they played. Their minor leaguers were written about in the local sports rag, too. Unfortunately, the Cubs affiliation didn’t last long but my life long allegiance to the Chicago Cubs has.

I first played Fantasy Baseball in high school, circa 1993. We’d use newspaper box scores to tally the league’s games from the night before. Fast forward a few years and I was playing Sporting News’ Fantasy GM Challenge. A top-10 finish there opened my eyes to the prospect fantasy sports could be more than a simple hobby. Then, Daily Fantasy Sports came to be. In 2015, I qualified twice for the FanDuel World Fantasy Baseball Championship. A 15th place finish there left a bad taste, but the experience was one I’ll remember forever. In 2018, I qualified for both the FanDuel and DraftKings World Fantasy Baseball Championships. Two more rather disappointing finals finishes later, I still grind in the daily fantasy space. Whether it’s Dynasty, Season Long or Daily Fantasy baseball that’s your thing, you can trust the staff at Prospects1500 to keep you well apprised of team talent pipelines for years to come.

Baseball, particularly MiLB, is in a precarious spot at the time of this post. We have no idea when the “kids” will get back on the field. What I do know is that I look forward to sharing my thoughts and insight with you, the reader. I welcome all questions, comments or ideas and encourage all of you to join me on Twitter @THEssmith_8.

 




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