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Beat the Shift Podcast – Elias Sports Bureau w/ Matt Martingale

The Elias Sports Bureau episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Matt Martingale

LABR League Update

Elias Sports Bureau

  • What does Elias do?
  • Elias and fantasy sports
  • ATC Projections

Strategy Section

  • Spring training statistics
    • Predictive value in spring training stats
    • Players who start slow
  • Predictive value of spring training manager tendencies

Who’d You Rather?

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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Roto Riteup: August 16, 2024

This is a pretty crazy play:

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Starting Pitcher Chart – August 16th, 2024

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

I want to make sure it’s known that Arrighetti isn’t just up there because he’s facing the White Sox, he has been absolutely cooking lately: 3.25 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 26% K-BB in his L6 (36 IP) including 25 Ks in his last two starts. He has still allowed 5 HRs during this run (1.3 HR9) so the longball lingers as a potential problem, but as long as they are solos (4 of the 5 have been) he can survive.

I’m still loving what Schwelly is doing, too. He went into Coors and dropped a 6 IP/2 ER/7 K gem that deserved a win before Luke Jackson and Joe Jiménez decided to allow 7 runs in the 8th inning. Schwellenbach’s been even better than Arrighetti of late with a 2.54 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, and 28% K-BB in his L6 (39 IP). I’ll take either Spencer right now, though. They are both in the rotation regardless of matchup right now in virtually every format.


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Big Kid Adds (Week 20)

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

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 »


Starting Pitcher Chart – August 15th, 2024

Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Be veryyy careful with that 1-x group, 3 of ’em are facing really tough matchups and Maeda… well, look at his numbers. There’s some sketchiness in the 2-x group, too. I just want to avoid the 7+ ER meltdowns this late in the season and of course it’s impossible to predict them, but they are so punishing at this juncture. That said, we also can’t play scared (unless you’re protecting big ratio leads and just trying to successfully land a huge lead, but that’s rare), so trust your picks and don’t overthink the duds too much.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 1331 – Paul’s August SP Rankings

8/14/24

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

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PATREON

JUSTIN GRILLS PAUL’S SP RANKINGS

Paul’s new rankings

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Mining the News (8/13/24)

American League

Angels

Jo Adell simplified his swing by removing his leg kick.

So Adell made a major change at the plate against the Rockies on July 30, ditching his leg kick in an attempt to cut down on his strikeout rate and put the ball in play more often. It’s worked so far, as he’s hitting .286/.388/.476 with two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs in 12 games since. He looks much like he did early in the year and he’s struck out just nine times in 49 plate appearances over that stretch after having previously struck out in 29% of his plate appearances.

“The no leg kick, at times it takes some getting used to, but my contact rate has gone through the roof,” Adell said. “I’ve been really able to make a lot more contact, and that’s something where it’s not always about the big fly. We’ve talked about this before, but being able to put the ball in play hard [going] forward should be my goal every time — and I think it’s given me a better chance to do that.”

Adell, 25, added that he doesn’t believe the change will have a negative impact on his power, and so far, the results have shown that. He hit a two-run homer on Friday into the bullpen in left-center field at Nationals Park that went a Statcast-projected 431 feet. And he has four extra-base hits since making the change.

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2024 In-Season Starting Pitcher Rankings – August

OK, this will probably be the last full ranking of the regular season because once we flip the calendar to September, it’s allll about what can you do for me right now. By then we can’t worry about tomorrow, everything is immediate focus only and playing hard to our standings.

I decided to rank ReyLo before he returns from injury because he’s making a rehab start tonight and expected back very soon, but if he doesn’t return, I still have Holmes ranked, too.

(Note: There won’t be a Wednesday SP Chart, but these rankings should definitely help your decisions for the day and I have my chat at 1 pm Central where you can ask any questions about the rankings!)

The $ is the earned auction value so far this year. Those with – in their Change column means they weren’t ranked last month due to injury or simply not being in the MLB rotation. ADP is the spring average draft position.

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Starting Pitcher Chart – August 13th, 2024

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Working on the new rankings, they’ll be out later today! Sorry for the late board, but here it is:

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Roto Riteup: August 13, 2024

Me when I experience any adversity:

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