6/21/24

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

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

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2-START FOR WEEK 13

• Cade Povich CLE/TEX
• Brayan Bello TOR/SDP
• Logan Allen at BAL/at KCR
• Casey Mize PHI/at LAA

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The Reaction episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Michael Govier

Willie Mays

Strategy Section

• Where to look for news
• How to react to transaction news
• Playing time should be the center of your thought process
• What to look for in prospect callups?
• How to react to injury news
• How to react to over/underperformance?
• Why Michael didn’t draft Ronald Acuna Jr. at 1.1 this year in a league.

The fun of playing fantasy baseball

• Favorite and least favorite parts of the game
• How can rooting for your home team & rooting for your fantasy teams co-exist?

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Waiver Wire

Pitcher Preview

Injury Update

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the May SP Rankings

A lot of tough matchups for the streamer-worthy options could lead to some high scores on Friday night.

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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 »

Welcome to another installment of fastball velocity risers and fallers. For reference, here are a few articles that explain both the process and the importance of increased or decreased velocity when predicting future success:

• Using Game-By-Game Fastball Velocity to Influence SP Sit/Start Decisions by Lucas Kelly
• MLB pitching models should incorporate recency, giving us an intriguing ranks update by Eno Sarris
• Baseball’s ‘Hot Hand’ Is Real by Rob Arthur and Greg Matthews

The data for this article reflects games played through June 19th and only displays Statcast’s four-seam fastball (FF) velocity. 

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the May SP Rankings

There isn’t a ton to choose from outside of the obvious starts. I’m struggling to even find some good YOLO options among the 0-x guys… hell, I’m not even SUPER confident in Wilson & Allen in their respective recommendation windows. Take it easy on Thursday!

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6/19/24

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
• @jasoncollette – Jason Collette

PATREON

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

SURGING SP OUTLOOKS (L30 days PR)

• Hunter Brown 5th SP over L30
• Ronel Blanco 14th
• Tobias Myers 10th
• Colin Rea 18th

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American League

Angels

• Ben Joyce added a splinker.

Strickland, who has thrown sinkers in previous years, learned this grip from Angels pitching strategist Bill Hezel. It’s more like a one-seam sinker as opposed to the conventional two-seamer, and as a result, Strickland’s sinker is averaging about seven more inches of vertical break this season compared with 2022 (he did not appear in the Majors in ’23).

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Joyce has not shied away from using his splinker in game action. He estimated that he threw it on 10 of his 27 pitches on Friday. He went heavy on it again as the opener on Sunday, throwing it for around 20 of his 42 pitches.

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Although Joyce’s fastball averages a tick under 101 mph, it’s been hittable. So has his upper-80s slider. The splinker comes in at a third speed — the mid-to-high 90s — and moves differently due to its lower spin rate. And because the release point for all three is similar, it’s more difficult to identify which pitch is leaving Joyce’s hand.

This pitch is a one-of-one. While Johan Duran’s splinker is the closest comp, Joyce throws slower and with more spin. Read the rest of this entry »

RIP to one of the greatest players and people in baseball history:

Beautiful words about a man that was truly larger than life. Thanks @clintonyates 🙏🏾pic.twitter.com/1xVrq2Wg3N

— Xavier Scruggs (@Xavier_Scruggs) June 19, 2024

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• Daily SP Chart archive
• Check out the May SP Rankings (June update coming this week!)

OK Jonathan Cannon, I wasn’t familiar with your game! He came an out shy of the shutout v. HOU, allowing just 7 hits and a walk with 4 Ks. Pablo López now has to rally at OAK this weekend after 4 IP/5 ER v. TBR. Shockingly Aaron Civale didn’t allow any HRs, but it didn’t drive any success as he couldn’t finish 4 IP. I sold Bailey Falter a bit short after back-to-back 4 IP outings. I didn’t give him enough credit for the excellent May (2.23 ERA in 5 starts), especially with a good matchup at home. With modest Ks, he will always need the contact to find gloves, but he’s gaining some deep league streamer viability.

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