This weekend, I have to travel a decent distance for my aunt’s funeral, so I’m off not going to be available for a few days. For the weekend, Jordan Rosenblum will have a waiver wire article article but I went ahead and looked into some players who could be or not be options.

Batters

Note on hitters. If in a Roto league, roster who you need. If power, Matt Wallner. If speed, Otto Lopez. If all around, Tommy Pham. I haven’t spotted any major value movers since MLB teams made waiver wire claims before September 1st. Check out my Big Kid Adds where the managers in these competitive leagues added Trevor Story (a drop for me), Grant McCray (power and speed, batting average sink), or Jonny DeLuca (regular starts).

Spencer Horwitz: He’s been on fire over the last month hitting .317/.386/.633 with 6 HR. His stats are up because he’s being benched against most lefties (.916 OPS vs RHP, .511 OPS vs LHP). Next week, Toronto has only four righties on the schedule so the volume might not be there. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s an odd thing, trying to rank baseball players before the season begins. There’s so much that can happen in between your last click of the “Post” button and the start of the regular season. Pre-season rankings are like a message in a bottle that gets gently pushed out to sea, or in my case, thrown overboard in choppy seas after the contents of the said bottle have been drained, stuffed with the best note I could muster and chucked out into the ether. It’s not easy, that’s what I’m trying to convey. In this post, I’m going to focus on what went well.

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9/13/24

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

PATREON

• Join our Patreon for live video feeds of each show
• Watch the video feed replay on YouTube

2-START FOR WEEK 25

• Merrill Kelly 켈리 at COL, at MIL
• Ryne Nelson at COL, at MIL
• Ian Anderson?!! at CIN, at MIA
• Albert Suárez 수아레즈 SFG, DET

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The Final Two Weeks episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Ray Murphy

First Pitch Arizona

League Updates

Strategy Section

• Final Two Weeks of the Season
  • Is there a limit to who you might sit in the final two weeks of the season?
  • How much should you churn your roster?
  • How much should real life MLB team standings / playoff pushes factor into your roster decisions?
  • Should you take a chance on stashing a returning injured player for the final week?
  • What is the bar for dropping injured or underperforming players?
  • How much should playing decisions be based on year to date stats vs. last 30 days stats vs. projected stats?
  • Gaining points vs. defending points
    • What and when should you emphasize each?
  • FAAB
    • How to allocate your FAAB spending for the final two weeks of the season?
  • Multi-position eligible players
    • How important are they in the final weeks of the season?
    • How to best utilize your roster to take account of them

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Takeaways of the 2024 season

Looking ahead to 2025

• Overall #1 pick choices
• How early should you draft Elly De La Cruz?
• Starting pitching in early rounds

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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Me anytime I write an article without making a grammatical error:

Even Dylan Crews was shocked that he tracked this one down 😯 pic.twitter.com/EH3pQCJErk

— MLB (@MLB) September 13, 2024

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the August SP Rankings (newish)

I’ve got a weekend board coming for y’all, so look for that on Friday evening. I’ll try to get one for each of these last 3 weekends.

I’m a huge  Logan Webb fan, but he isn’t an unquestioned must-start here. His 1.28 WHIP v. teams over .500 is 14 pts higher than sub-.500 clubs, including a 1.53 in 19 IP v. the Padres. I’m more inclined to run him if I’m in chase mode hoping vintage Webb returns with 8 shutty in a low-scoring win.

Brant Hurter has sneakily been a big reason the Tigers are back in the wildcard mix. He has 33 innings with 3.00 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 19% K-BB, often following an opener (1 start, 6 follows) for about 5 innings per outing. He has wins in each of his last 4 outings, including a traditional 5-inning start v. LAA.

Do not feel obligated to start Freddy Peralta. ARI is so scary. They are 1st in BB% v. righties since July 1st and 3rd on the year while Peralta has walked at least 2 batters in each of his last 10 starts (10% BB).

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: I agree w/the comment that Clarke Schmidt should be higher but I didn’t want to remake the chart so I just 2-x’d him and highlighted it to signify it was changed. I mistakenly thought this was his return from the IL, but w/the tune-up start at CHC (75 pitches, 4.7 IP), I feel good running him in a lot of spots today. He’s even borderline 3-x depending on your situation. View him more in the Webb/Hurter range.

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9/12/24

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

PATREON

• Join our Patreon for live video feeds of each show
• Watch the video feed replay on YouTube

TOP ROOKIE PITCHERS BY IP – PART 2

• Tobias Myers
• Paul Skenes
• Joey Estes
• Jared Jones
• Jonathan Cannon
• Spencer Schwellenbach

—

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment below with fantasy questions.

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Approximately 48 minutes of joyous analysis.

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While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even a larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and there are ten of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the August SP Rankings (newish)

Oof, Bobby Miller just allowed a 3-run homer, ending his day with 6 ER in just 4.3 IP. As it stands right now, I still think I’ll be in at the discounted rate for 2025, but obviously we could learn of an injury in the offseason (if not sooner) that would then change his outlook.

I’m very excited for Kumar Rocker’s debut. He has an 0.91 ERA, 0.57 WHIP, & 41% K-BB rate in his last 7 starts across Double- and Triple-A.
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• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the August SP Rankings (new)

Not a bad board for Wednesday’s full slate. Plenty of options across the various formats. I’m sure some of the 2- and 1-x guys will pop off, but identifying exactly who is tough. Bradford, for example, could deal but I’m not dying to take the shot at ARI.

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