It's an Opening Day Celebration!

Genius and vocal Minority. And welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Freestyle right here with the Fantasy Sports Network. We're doing. What I'm getting is to uh, you know, win our leagues and win that cash with status over beat. Cipher got a good show for you. It is opening day. It is the start of baseball season. Hope Springs Eternal. So you know what we gotta do. I gotta give you my official you know, superlatives predictions. We gotta wrap

that up. As you know, drafts have now happened. The bumping is out on the windows on the you know facades, and and we're gonna really pop it off. Okay, so we're gonna get into that for the start of baseball. We are also going to touch on the NFL. A little bit later on in the show, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about with the Giants and Odell Beckham are going through maybe a game of chicken. Uh. Maybe it's new ownership, or maybe it's new not new ownership.

Maybe it's new general managership, Ghettoman. We'll talk about that a little bit. And you know, as always we put the fun in functional sports content. We're gonna get into that. We got a whole question up as well. Okay, you gotta check it out on Twitter at spitting speeds to get out. The question is, let's start of opening day in baseball season. What do you think is the best

one to combination in Major League Baseball? And you can think of that in a couple of different ways, right, You can think of that at the plate, or you could think about that in terms of arms, right, And so the Pope question tries to capture all of that. The options for you, is it Max Schers or Steven Strasbourg to fire right handed arms for the Washington Nationals. You'll see how much I like the Washington Nationals. A little bit later on the show. Is it the new

kind of twin Towers with the Baby Bronze Bombers. Is it Gean Carlo Stan and all rise for the judge Aaron Judge number nine nine, right, because they many people predict they're gonna hit over a hundred home runs combined. Right? Are they the best one to punch? Or if you think about arms, can you stay in the division where National is on the East coast and think about the

Mets one to punch? I'm talking about four North Syndergard coming back along with Jacob Degram, one of the most consistent pitchers in the last three years in the National League. That could be even a better starting pitching duo than the one down. Or think of out this a different kind of take on an offensive duel for the world champion Houston Astros up the middle. Okay, remember how like the Detroit Tigers back in the eighties had Trammel and Whittaker.

We're talking about a l m v P Jose Altuve and up and coming potential m VP candidate Carlos Korea. Which of these combos is the best one to in all of baseball. I'll give you my take on that a little bit later. On the first, let's think about these awards that we are going to talk about here from Ajor League Baseball. The first one is that I want to go into is the SI. Okay, we gotta make our pick for the Cy Young. Um, I'm going with the third choice. Okay, I know this, Clayton Kershaw.

You gotta love him. And he's actually going at plus one twenty right now. Max Scherzer second choice, going at plus one sixty. I am going with four. I'm going with no Sydney Garden. I think he has the best stuff in the game. I think he's gonna wind up hating like the US you don't average velocity fastball. I think he's also got that sick slider. I think he's got a lot of pictures. He's got that an intimidation factor. I just think he is the most electric starter out there.

I think if he gets a full season in he can contend for the NL SI Young. So that is my pick for the n L side Young. I like, for listen, you're not gonna make any money if you're going with Kershaw, if you're going with er right, So in the a L and the Ale is tougher for me, and Alys tough for me. You got your favorites out there. You got Chrysale at plus one eighty. You've got Corey Kluber a plus two hundred. I think Carrasco is interesting

also in Cleveland at plus six fifty. But I'm gonna say here's where you go for kind of um, here's where I think you can get the crazy pop off value. All right, what about if he has this bounce back? What about David Price? What about David Price for the Red Sox. I mean everyone's focused on sale, but Price, remember before these injuries, he was a workforce for a long time. Two hundred inns, two hundred innings, you know,

strikeouts to match. I think he has an opportunity to bounce back in that truth spot behind sale and really show up, show out, show off this season and watch out for Price and you can get a good return on that. Or what about a guy like Archer? What if I got a guy like Archer for Tampa Bay. I don't even think he's gonna finish the season necessarily with the raise, you know, so that could be very

interesting as well. You can get him in plus twenty three hundred, and maybe he gets a little bit, maybe he gets moved somewhere, you know, in in halfway into the summer. Um, let's think about the m v P race. If we think about the m v P race in the American League, I said it as part of the poll question before I am going with Carlos Correa. I think Carlos Korea. I mean, he had a great year last year. He had a great year last year. He

was a first round fantasy pick in my opinion. Okay, and he only he had less than five hundred at bat because he missed sometimes at and thumb injury in the middle of the season. He had a full season out of him. As he's ascending without incredible pressure on him when it's after defending m v P. You know, next to him in the lineup, you know as his double Blake Combo. I like Korea, you can get him at plus eight hundred. Another short stop in the hell

to think about that, as well as Francisco Lindor. A lot of people like the Cleveland Indians as does Speeds and uh lind Or could be the guy that carries him. But you can't forget about you know, that lineup is just so deep, similar to Houston, that it's hard to pick one guy out. You know, Jose Ramirez out of

nowhere had an m v P kind of conversation. But honestly, I think you probably gotta go, you know, if you're not gonna do the Korea otherwise, I recommend this being a place where you go chalk and the chalk here is Mike Trout only plus one forty, right. But here's the thing. I think they have finally put some other offensive weapons around Mike Trout, and you're getting a full season of Justice Upton, You're getting be and Kinseler maybe at the top of that lineup. You know, I think

the Coals Art signing as good as well. I think they're finally putting other pieces around Trout and that just leads to more runs and more RB I s okay, So I like Trout to maybe get a slight bump in his opportunity and potential for run production. So with that in mind, it really is hard going elsewhere in the American League for the most valuablelayer, especially when he

didn't get it last year. You know, a lot of people used to say that it was the same kind of thing as oh Jordan or Lebron right now, like he could be the m v P every year and you know, and that argument was made for Mike Trout and then guess what, he didn't win it last year. You know what, Jose Altuve came up and did it last year. So you know, maybe it's time to get right back in line and give it to Mike Trout at plus one forty. I wouldn't be surprised that it's

interesting to see what the Yankees are at. You know, stands at plus eight hundred, Judge at plus twelve hundred. If you want a dark horse and you think who's gonna benefit in that line of post and you think it's Gary and Jas, you can get him at plus hundred. Edward Incarnacion. If you want to take a chance on a different Indian, which could be interesting as at thirty five hundred. Uh what if Miguel SnO carries the twins

in a surprise run, He's at sixty five hundred. Those are some guys if you want to, you know, go a little bit deeper and get a little bit of a bigger return from my clients on the stats over beat Cipher, that would be a place that I could see going. But honestly, you've gotta have Trout covered. I think it's the chalk on this one. Um is if if we go to the end now in terms of m v P, I am telling this story and you'll

see this one I make my playoff predictions. I am telling the story that this could be a very very big swan song for one Bryce Harper in Washington. Right, that's said, he is a plus two fifty favorite for the n L m vv UM. Other than that, if you went to one of the Cubs, it's it's interesting to me that Rizzle is plus a thousand and Brian is plus three fifty. You know how much bigger a

favorite Bryant is than Rizzo in that same lineup. If the Cubs go ahead and win nineties six games, right, you know, it could be either one of them that actually is the person who would get votes and be the guy who's seen as having the m v P season on that team in my opinion. You know. So it's interesting that you can get that difference in value

between those guys. And and listen a lot of people, you know, the best actual hitter ballpark, be damned, you know, record be damned, could be just Nolan Arnaldo and and you know, every now and then, one of these players who are not on a team that is in a major market, not on a team that gets a lot of hype, you know, has this weird excuse um with

the ballpark. You know, it doesn't get his dupe. But every now and then one of those kind of hitters just have an absolutely ridiculous season and you have to give him the m v P. And I think Nolan Arronado can threaten something like that this year as well. You could see him doing a three thirty five forty seven, one thirty kind of year and being just you know, the production being too hard to argue with. And if you wanted to do that, he is at a four to one right now, you know, so that I would

still go, I want to go Harper. I like Harper, but I think Arronado could also get it done in the m L as we love. Then forget about the players now for a little bit, think about the actual teams here and this is where we make our predictions. And if listen, if you're a fan of the status of Beat Cipher, if you've been down with speed spitting statistician here in the Fantasy Sports Network for a hot minute, you know that this is where we make This is where we make our money. Okay, this is where we

make our money. Last year at this time, I gave you the Houston Astros to win the al Pennant and I said, I liked them a little bit in the World Series, but they gave I gave you them in the ALCA for they to win the ALCS in the NFL season, I did the same thing with the Philadelphia Eagles. Checked the tape. Okay, so here is where you need to hear my World Series matchup and go put these teams a lot. And and I must say this first though. You know, we are in an era of baseball which

is um top heavy. You know, there is about six or seven dominant teams in Major League Baseball right now, and we can name them all. You know, there's probably there's one in each division. You know, there was a big runaway in each division last year. There are big division favorites this year. You know, we're talking about in the AL we're talking about the Astronauts, We're talking about the Indians, We're talking about the Yankees. In the National League,

you know, we're talking about the Doctors. We're talking about the Cubs, We're talking about the nash Choicals, right, and then you gotta put in the Red Sox a little bit. Then it's like who do you like? Right? So those are the teams, and yes, yes, my teams are from within that group. You know. I will say I like the Max as a dark horse to make the playoffs and make a move with that rotation. I really do. I will say I like what the Milwaukee Brewers are doing.

I will say I like what the Los Angeles Angels are doing. We'll see what happens with old Tani. Okay um. I like what the Twins are doing, but I think they're years away. Um. So here's what I'll say is if you look at the NL Pennic, if you look at the NL Pennic, you have the first choice is the Dodgers, that's plus two huntres. The second choice is the Cubs at plus three third, the third choice is

the Nats at plus three eight. Of those, I am going to refer back to that pole question about the best one to punch, and the only team here that has one of those is the Nats. Chinnals with Straus, uh Scherz and Strasbourg, and I'm gonna take them at plus three eighty. They are my National League pick right now book At the Washington Nationals, I think you can get an m V peak Aliber season out of Bryce Harper.

I think you're gonna have trade turner tray tray tray, um, you know, stealing fifty to sixty bases, hitting, you know, around three hundred, getting on based scoring runs. Out of the Zimmerman Murphy group. You know you're gonna get some production. I think a healthy eating is a very good it's it's it's a good overall squad. If Doolittle can hold down the back end, then if not to have other options there, give me the Washington Nationals. I will say

this my dark horse. And I can't believe I'm saying this, y'all who no speeds no as a Yankee pan, I can't believe I'm saying this my dark horse. Where I think they could be value is the New York Metropolitans. They are plus thirteen hundred. And if you tell me you can run out Syndergard to Graham and then whichever one of these other guys, whether it be Harvey or Matt's or you know, Vargas or Wheeler get hot throughout the year, that is formidable with an offense that has

legitimate power that you don't think about. In the National League between not only Cespitics, but Bruce and Fraser and others. Uh, Comforto is back, going to be back very very soon as well. Watch out for the Mets. But my bit ultimately is the Washington Nationals. In the American League, you have co favorites Houston, Nash Rows and the New York Yankees are at plus two twenty. Give me the next choice once again, that's the Cleveland Indians at plus three thirty.

I think the Injuries are gonna make a mockery of the A L Central. They will have the A L Central by the time you do your second beach wedding of the summer, okay, and and they'll be able to have home field advantage. I think the Indians will have home field avantage because they will run away with the A L Central. And I like then that matchup, okay, and give me the Indians at plus three thirty if you need a dark horse somehow, um, I like the

Angels a little bit at plus eight hundred. If guys like Garrett Richards, if guys like Timer Skaggs, if guys like Matt Shoemaker and Altani, can you know can produce that offense is going to be better than people think. Um, so give me in the World Series the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Nationals. You can get them both to win the World Series at about plus six to plus

eight hundred. That those are the moves I like. Give me the Indians over the Nationals in the very very and because I love these other pictures for the Indians, I love me. Not only do we have Bower, I mean, excuse me, not only do we have um Kluber, right, the cy Young Award winner, my pick to potentially do it again. Um. Then you have Carrasco. Then you have Bower, who we're gonna talk about again in a little bit

when we put the fund in functional sports, okay. Um, then you have um Cleveringer, you know, and you have Salazar, and you have all these arms. You know, the bullpen, you have the have the way Tito Francona manages that bullpen. And you have an offense that is left and right filled with young up and coming talent, including potential m

VP candidates. I can name three of them in the Lindor Ramirez and w e Edward Ariconnason Walking the parrot, give me the Cleveland Indians as Speeds is picked, get it done right here. That's the pick of the Fantasy free Style. Check this out. Um. What we're gonna do is when we come back, we're gonna talk. We're gonna continue the baseball theme. Okay, now that we got our picks in, We're gonna continue the baseball theme. And I'm gonna tell you about some things that I want you

to see early on in the season. Here are some things we are going to pay attention to early on in the season with Stats over Beat Cipher. We're gonna pay attention to these things. I gotta get them out early, you know what I mean. Including we tip our cap to someone on Speeds is championship winning team to Cleveland Indians. We're gonna talk a little bit about how Trevor Bauer has fought the arbitration system in my opinion, and he

has one. He is officially an honorary member of the Status over Beat Cipher will tell you why when we come back right here on the Fantasy Freestyle on the Fantasy Sports Network. You know what it is, ah h H stuts Sneakers are taking over tailgates and alumni homes across America. Skicks canvas, high top, low tops, slip on and kids tennis style sneakers designed and officially licensed college colors and logos is a must have for every college

fans wardrobe fun, fashionable, and comfortable. Whether you're at the big game or watching the game at home, Skicks helps fans perform better. Go to skicks dot com and use promo code f n T s Y for off your air. Now that Skicks dot com Skicks sneakers the soul of a true fan. It never gets old. Everyone to Troops one line, I was going to be on the real world. I played the Obo and I saved a kid's life.

You definitely never saved a kid's life. I'm serious. Last summer I donated bone marrow two kid who had leukemia, saving a wife. The truth is it's easier than you think. Learned how at dk MS dot org. Who knew we were living with a hero, A hero who plays the Obo. Since Real Time Fantasy Sports has been the most trusted site in the fantasy industry, home to an award winning commissioner service and endless money leagues offered at a variety of formats and skill levels. RTI sports dot Com is

the only destination for the fantasy player who wants it all. Plus, art sports offers the most reliable and quickest payouts for any level of fantasy player. Do you like trades, hate trades? Want a league for just three weeks? No problem. Rt sports dot com offers it all and to ease the gameplay for all kinds of players, were optimized for desktop, phone, or your tablet, making it simple to play wherever whenever.

Ready to get started, head to rt sports dot com slash lobby to check out all the games we have to offer and sign up to play today. Art sports dot Com everything a fantasy player could ever want under one award winning proud Signer Sports is the leading memorabilia provider for the New York Yankees, Rangers, Giants, Nix and the Brooklyn Nets. Featuring hundreds of items from your favorite athletes. Signer Sports is your sorts for the best sports gifts.

Go to signer sports dot com slash box and shop our collection of memorabilia boxes, which include ten gifts for the price of one. We've made one for each of your favorite teams. Curry Supplies are limited and these are some of the best deals we've ever offered. So go to signer sports dot com slash box today. Are you new to Daily Fantasy are you a veteran? Either way, you can better your chances of winning money and lots

of it by going to Daily Rodo dot com. Multiple people have become millionaires thanks to the guys at Daily Rodo. Why not take advice from the experts. You can become a millionaire to just go to Daily Rohdo dot com to rock Daily Fantasy Sports. Welcome back. You know what it is. Welcome back to the Fantasy Freestyle avoid Day. Martina D. K SPEEDCA to Spitting Statistician, a the stable, genius and vocal minority. We're here in the Fantasy Sports network.

You gotta check it out on Twitter at Spitting Speeds. We got the pull question up. I was asking you guys as we were doing my predictions are super relatives. I was asking you about the best one to combination in Major League Baseball? Is it Max Sures, You're Steven Strausberg in Washington, Is it Judge in Stanton in New York? Is it Altuvee and Korea and Houston? Or is it Syndergard and Grom with the New York met You can find me on Twitter at Spitting Speeds. Also do me

a favorite. The best thing to do here because early in the week catch me live in direct from Studio thirty four with the Fantasy Sports Network. Um. You see the video you know on Twitter on YouTube, um or you hear the Late week pod. But doom Mer favor. Wherever you get your podcast, subscribe, rate review, it really helps, you know, helps more people. It's like telling a friend to tell a friend, and that's how we do it digitally, you know, without the without the Russian farms and the box.

But yo, if you got the Russian farms and bots Cambridge Analytica, come hollow at Boys Speeds. You know what I'm saying. Um, I told you about our overall picks. What we're gonna do right here is I'm gonna give you my regular news and notes from the Major League Baseball and we're gonna get into a couple of stories that I think are really important throughout the year. We're gonna keep our eye on. I'm first of all, sal Perez catcher for the Kinds City Royals. Um. He tore

his m c L check this out. He tore his m CL while moving luggage. Okay, he is gonna be out like six to eight weeks they say, with an MCL injury. And this is the guy sal Perez who plays a lot of innings for the Kansa cy Roles, plays a lot of games. There was stretches. Remember Royals went to UH back to back World Series a few years ago and he was playing them and them playing in you know, w BC, and so so he is

going to be on the shuff for a while. That is a big blow to wait Kansas City Royals offense that has already lost the likes of Lorenzo Caine, already lost the likes of Eric Cosimo. I don't expect much of that offense anyway, and betwise him and like wit Meryfield and now sal Perez is down. What what can move stocks do? That's a big blow to the Kansas

City Royals. Remember one of the last free agent arms that were available in the bullpen was Greg Holland he now has uh signed a one year, fourteen million dollar deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. He's gonna probably have the Bolls role in St. Louis. That means Gregorson, who was kind of in line there, you gotta fade him. He is now full gazey, and I wanted to make

it known check this out. You know, some of the big time details we're gonna be talking about all the time, and some of the statue we talk about London Angle. One of the big ones is exit velocity. Did you see in his first swing as a member of the New York Yankees, gian Carlo Stanton It's a home run to the opposite field? Okay, And that was sick enough. And I really love him going opo, especially in Yankee Stadium, going towards the short porch with that closed off stance.

That's something the monitor. But here's why I think this is important. His exit velocity for this was one hundred and seventeen miles an hour. That is the fastest or hardest exit below that has been measured ever going to the opposite field. All right, So that's the kind of power of raw power that he is going to be bringing.

I wanted to make sure I mentioned that because I also wanted to make sure I mentioned that you can get that new exit Velo City shirt out of road away with my boy Kenneth Cashman, you know what it is over there. The other thing I gotta tell you about is if you're in the DFS world, Okay, you've gotta go on over the Fantasy Factor. Fantasy Factor is the perfect daily fantasy site for the casual recreational player. Flat of prize pools, smaller fields, single entry contests only. Okay,

it's only single entry contests. It's not about those algorithms those dudes putting in lineups in these tournaments against you. If you're just you know, you're just a fish, then bro, if you're going anywhere other than Fantasy Factor, they're also doing NHL and NBA free rolls every week. It's a free entry. Just sign up and enter. Going over tot www dot Fantasy factor dot com. All right, check this

out here on the Fantasy FREESTYFF. There's a couple of other stories I really want to talk about that you need to keep your eye on in Major League Baseball where you're celebrating, you know, opening Day, opening weekend, and Major League Baseball where hope springs eternal over here in nyc um so nice it named to twice that I think the Mets and the Yankees are playoff bounds this year for interesting different reasons. The Yankees with their bullpen,

with their offense, that that's what they're starting pitching. So it's gonna be a very interesting season and will it be the top heavy teams like I discussed. But here's another theme is you know, the spike and home runs and people are talking about this launch angle and people are talking about exit. V low I talked about power that you needed to get in fantasy baseball draft. Big shout out to the King's goot angle. Will can me up. I did some writing and you can go and get that.

It's in the Washington Post right now on Associated Press my article about getting power in fantasy baseball. You can also find it on my Twitter. Um. But the ball itself, I think it's something that is going to have a lot of conversation. Part of the spike of this is not just you know, people trying to uppercut swing and the three two outcomes. People are thinking that the ball itself is part of the change. Listen, last year there were six thousand, one hundred and five home runs in

Major League Baseball. That is a new record, heat beat um by over five hundred home runs. The height of the steroid U in two thousand, which had the record okay, and it beat last year which was third all time by five fifty home runs. Okay, this is a growing trend. There has been a huge spike, and the ball itself is another variable. The balls did actually change okay after the like two fifteen All Star break. Okay. Um, Sports Science has said this, ESPN has said this, five thirty eight,

They've all verified this. Okay. Um. But most of this, most of when you look at the ball, most of you think about like the exterior, but it was actually the interior what they call the quote unquote rubber quoted pill that um. You know, they found differences in the newer ones are less dense in the core okay, literally a lighter core of the baseball, which could make it fly further. The actual chemical composition of it is different. It is bouncier, it is less air resistant okay. And

the seams are um, not as raids. It's the seams are actually less raised there, the ball is slicker. All of these things help, you know, um, reduce a drag and wood resistance so that the ball actually does fly. I also, I have been telling you guys I've been telling my BFFs Mikey Florio and Ranks standfill for the last like two years that they changed the manufacturer of

the ball, literally Rawlings plan moved from Haiti to Costa Rica. Um. And at the same time, Rawlings was also like applying for patents on how to make bouncy your balls outside of making their Major League Baseball contract, so like they had that technology to do. So this is not some conspiracy theory. This is this is straight up like they

applied for the pattern, like that's documentable. Okay. Um, when you add all of these things together, you know, like the slicker ball, the lighter core, the potential differences in the pill the differences in like the scenes, the raisiness of the scenes. Um, scientists say you can go eight

and a half feet for them. Okay. Statisticians say that's kind of a difference in home runs that could make a huge spike like what we've seen from say two thousand fourteen or two thousand seventeen, where we've seen literally at spike in home runs. Okay, so this is absolutely real and then check it out, you know, but Major League Baseball sort of still says, oh no, you know, we're not doing anything differently, but a lot of players are, you know, saying like I have seen baseballs that were

from this era and from a different era. You can tell. And Justin Verlander is big on this. You know, Justin Verlander is very Um. You know, he's been outspoken in the past before. Um. You know, I venture to say the Richard, the Richard Sherman of uh major League Baseball with a but with a postal model wife. Um. And he literally said that he shouted out by Manford on this said he thinks there's enough out there to say that. Um. When Manford says the balls haven't changed, that that is

not true. This is you know, he was in the World Series where there was twenty four home runs in seven games. Okay, he actually tweeted this out. I put it on my timeline as well, a graph of saying like the eggs of velosity and the launch angle, you know, which would be you know, in essence, if you're thinking about geometry, you know, like how far it's gonna go and at what line? Right? Um, And that's a that's

part of it. And then the other thing would be to see when you launch those parables and how far they go and how far they fly, um, how many of them are home runs? And he's and and this graph that Verlander tweeted out shows that there is actually a difference that balls that were hit in with the same exit velocity and launch angle in two thousand fourteen first two thousand seventeen now are home runs. So the variables, like, you know, if we're doing this scientific method, the variables

are is the ball itself right? And so you know, Verlanda says, listen, it's ultimately fine because it's the same for all, but he's on. He's just more on some like don't lie kind of thing about it. And and and for me, you know, so this is this is something to look at all year, the ball itself, the home runs, the launch angle, this power. This is going to be something that is talked about at nauseum this season because we are going to see offense and chicks

Doug do luck dig the long ball, right. But for me, it's a larger thing. Okay, for me, it's this idea of baseball at such a record book sport. Okay, you know that honors its traditions and its records, and it's it's numbers, right and we talk about things like, oh, the steroids era and and and the stats that Marry Bonds had. I have maintained that I don't care about steroids. And one of the reasons why it is because you

can't compare errors. You cannot tell the difference between you know, after expansion, or in a sport that raises and lowers the mound, or in a sport wherein one league the picture can hit and in another league the picture cannot. Or when Babe Ruth never hit a home run against a black man or a Spanish man. And now you're also going to tell me that they're changing the ball itself and the composition of the ball to potentially angle what kind of effort would relate in what kind of outcome.

That's why another argument why you cannot like compare era to era in the things like the Hall of Fame, why these steroids should not be an automatic qualifier and disqualifier out for the Hall of Fame. You know, there have been so many changes and evolutions in the game. That's just another reason why you have to compare era

verse era. But this conversation about the ball itself is going to be there and be there in a big way watch that ball season, and we'll keep talking about it on the stats over beat Cipher right here on the Fantasy Freestyle. Another topic that I think will be a theme all season long is the shift. Okay, the shift. It is a huge deal, and the shift will continue to be a big deal, and some teams are going to get even more and more extreme with you. Remember,

everyone is tinkering with everything. Remember how in the last episode we talked about a four man and a bullpend day foreman rotation and a bullpend day. How multiple teams are thinking about going six man rotations. Give everybody extra rests. Okay,

Another thing is in this shift. We have seen dramatic shifts, but a J. Hinch is talking about for the Astros potentially doing things even crazier um with left with pull lefties, moving third baseman Alex Bregman from left excuse me, from third base and putting him in left field, moving the left fielder over the left center, the right field, the center field over the right center, leaving the right fielder

you know. And then this does not even end the idea of the Martini glass shift, where you already have Altove in this scenario playing in short right center field. So in essence, we're talking about five defensive players on the outfield grass, the shortstop in essence directly behind second

base and then at first baseman. Okay, we're talking about that kind of extreme and and and part of it, as Hinge explains, it is the mental aspect of He says, quote, there is a psychological part of this on the hitter that I'm looking at. Two. How much does it mess with the psyche of the hitter? And I've watched this spring guys try to change their swing and try to hit the ball the other way and hit the ball to the gap. That's largely advantage to us when big

hitters like that do that. And I don't know, I am off of two minds on this, okay, because I used to always say, you should try and take your hit against the shift. If you bump down the third base line just one time. They've got to keep you on this. And if this is happening so dramatically, these power hitters need to learn how to just take their hit go the other way. That's what you think. But I'm reminded once I um I used to work for an organization that had marked to share on its board,

and I spoke to Mark about this. Okay, a big pole hitter. Teams used to shift against them, and I said, why don't you just drop, you know, butcher boy on one down third base or slap one down third base. He looked at me and he said, Dane, I'm paid to drive in runs. And he said he can't get into that. So I wonder if there is a mental aspect like that. Last year. You know, Joe Madden has done this before. He's one of the only managers who has done this. Okay, he did it against Big Poppy

when he was the Rage manager. He did it in last year in two thousand and seventeen against Joey Vado. You know, it kind of reminds me of like in Beer League softball. You know, you can pull everything, but do you try to go opposite field? And if you try, you're not putting your good swing on it. I do. I know that from Zog Sports. Instead, I'm gonna try and break and I'm gonna try and hit a dope line drive right up the middle to left center field, you know. And so I would do that regardless of

the defensive layout. So I see it both ways. But this is something you're gonna see throughout the rest of the season. The shifts that people come up with the defense is usually driven by data, is going to be very interesting. And the other part that I want to say, here's the last thing I want to say. We're gonna be seeing this for the next two and a half months,

so a good chunk of the baseball season. And I'm telling you here on the status of beat Cipher, you have to hear about it, probably first or at least second, at least better than fifth. Let's say, all right, and this is why one of my favorite players on the team that I'm picking now for the World Series is Trevor Bauer. First of all, if you ever remember the show twenty four, one of the best shows was in

our Best TV Show of All Time tournament. Shout out to Chris Bovona, the manimal who held us down with that tournament. So if you know about Jack Bauer, then you love Trevor Bauer. Um. But Trevor Bauer is a fun loving guy. Um In two thousand sixteen, two years ago. You may have heard of him when he was in the playoffs and he um had to pitch, but with a huge injury to his hand after he was in a drone accident. He was flying a drone and his hand got caught in the propeller, sliced his hand up,

all kinds of nasty. His horrible pictures. Go online and check it out. And he pitched through it, tried to pitch through it anyway. You remember like the bloody stock of Schilling. Well this was actual that, this was real, Okay, but then check this out. He, like I said before, making a mockery of the arbitration system. He basically just

wanted to be funny. And so at first he wanted to have his request and architration should be six point nine million, sixty nine right, But his lawyers were like, now you can't do that. That's too high. But so here's what he settled on as his requests. What he wanted to check this out, six million, four hundred and twenty thousand, nine hundred sixty nine and ninety six cents. Okay, that's an important number in this story. This is how

he wanted to do it. At the four twenty in there and at the sixty nine in there, he says, I just think it's a good number. I think it actually accurately reflects my place in the salary structure relative to other athletes. Right, he goes back and forth in arbitration. He finally settles on this number that doesn't have any drug references at drug references and this comes from Jeff Pisson Yahoo. Right. He goes in arbitration, he's going for six point five to five, and he wins the case.

But he's still just wants the six point four million. Right. Um, So what he decides to do, and this is where it gets amazing. He decides to give away the difference. Okay, it's gonna be like around a hundred thousand dollars. He's gonna give it away in a campaign that he is calling get this, he's really harping on it, the sixty nine days of giving. Okay, what he is going to do is he's going to give four hundred and twenty dollars and sixty nine cents to a charity of choice

for the next sixty nine days. This is gonna total something like nine eight thousand dollars that he's giving away. Right, and then you he's paying somebody to like, you know, help administer administer the contest and the website and stuff like that with the rest of like the difference of his arbitration money, right, uh, Jeff Passing in the In the article, they call it benevolent trolling. Bauer goes, I'm

just trying to give its charity. Man. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I have the ability to do that, I have the means to do that. I'm in a good spot, and I can use my platform to spread stuff that I'm passionate about. He made a video on Twitter. I um, I retweeted that joint. It is very funny. Um, you gotta check it out. Trevor Bauer is my new favorite um status over beats honoree um, So you gotta check that out. And you

also got to nominate what charity. Let me know on Twitter at spitting Speeds what charity should we suggest he's taken, you know, suggestions on where he's gonna donate his four and twenty dollars and sixty nine cents. So we gotta let him know, and if we get some good ideas, we gotta uh definitely holler at him from the stats over beats cipher all right, check it out when we come back. But we're gonna do is. We're gonna switch gears.

We're gonna get into football just a little bit. We're gonna keep people in the fun in functional sports radio. We'll tell you how to you know, staying locked in big sports tools, big news out of the Fantasy Sports Network as well. Talk about that real quick, all that and more. Come back. Check it out. It's the Fantasy Freestyle right here on the Fantasy Sports Network. You know what it is, Day Martinez Spieza s fitting statistician. Let's go.

Have you ever wanted to have a fantasy expert in the palm of your hand, profederal yet in the pocket of your capys. We'll check it out now you can. It's the Fantasy Sports Radio Network app. Download it down to your phone. We promised, no weird viruses, no strange tracking things, just twenty four hours a day, seven days a week of pure fantasy knowledge dropping all over your head. It's a Fantasy Sports Radio Network app. Stop being a weirdo and streaming it online. Get it on your phone,

take it with you ever where you go. If you're playing daily fantasy basketball on Draft Kings or Fan Duel this NBA season, you need to sign up for daily Rodo built by a team featuring millionaire maker winners in live final champions. Daily Rhodo's customizable projections, podcasts, strategy guides and lineup optimizer will help you compete with the pros and a fraction of the time. Better yet, you can save ten percent off using the promo code F and T s y so go to Daily rohado dot com

back slash Premium to learn more about their product. H Welcome back to the Fantasy Freestyle Here in the Fantasy Sports Network. Day Martinez bes f statistician, stable genius, focal minority of the Fantasy Sports Network. You know, I guess that's getting challenged right now by our boy Craig Carton, was coming in Carton and friends, y'all doing big things mornings nine to one, making it happen with my man, the Fantasy executive Don Michelle Circle go there as well.

They're doing big things in the morning. You know, Speed's bringing it to you, you know, in the in the later parts of the day, you know what I mean. Sometimes on Tuesday you're gonna get us from Rock and Riley's studio thirty four at the happy hour as we as we usually do it with the statue of read Cipher. A big shout out to Carton and friends making a pop on the network. But if you're if you're down with Fantasy Sports Network, then you know about d k

MS as well. And I gotta tell you, every three minutes, an American is diagnosed with blood cancer. Unfortunately, only thirty of patients are able to find a compatible bone marrow donor within their family. That's how you can help. If you go to d k MS dot org slash fantasy and sign up, you can register as a donor it. They'll send you a swab kit. All you gotta do. It takes like one minute. You swap the insides of a cheek. That's it, and then d k MS will try to match you with a person in need of

a donation. The process is easy and best of all, you can actually save someone's life. You know, on the Fantasy Sports network we're talking about things in fantasy. My fantasy basketball team, my DFS line up, my fantasy my fantasy football draft, right, my dynasty. This is in real life you can save someone's life, not in fantasy. Quite literally, go to t k MS dot org slash fantasy f n t s Y to see how you can help. All right, let's keep it moving here on the Fantasy Freestyle,

which boy, that's been in statistician. I want to talk about the NFL right now. We're in this kind of malaise, okay. Everybody is kind of getting into their corners okay, and preparing for the draft. We've had pro days and combines. Now everyone's getting ready for the draft, which will be in about four weeks. We're gonna bring it to you hot on the Fantasy Sports Network. You know how we do it. You know how we did it last year as well, me Corey Parson, the Fantasy executive. It was

Mike Blewett holding it down Mommy and Emery Hunt. He is the glitch in the system, the czar of the playbook. He's doing big things here with the Fantasy Sports Network as well. We had a good old time breaking it down for you. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again bringing it to you live and direct for the NFL Draft later on this month. But now you know, the free agency wave has settled in, the teams have making some trades. You're in the you're in the point

of time and you can't believe much of anything. That is coming out of any organization. Everyone is in the greatest shape of his life. Everyone. You know, they want to work out a deal. You know that the franchise tags have passed. Everything is kind of settled in now for the draft, right And the one thing that we are hearing that is big in the NFL right now is the New York Giants and Odell Beckham. I think

the chasm between them is widening. Okay, you're hearing a lot of stuff at these owners meetings from from John Mara. And this is not an owner that talks very much. Okay, this is this is one of these quote unquote blue blood franchisees, you know what I mean. So when you hear him say things like, um, he's tired of Odell's antics. When you hear things like he's on the team right now at that kind of qualifier, when you hear him say no, he's not on the trading block. But at

the same time, here nobody is untradeable. You know, I'm starting to put some things together, and I really think that part of this. Listen, they got this JPP trade already happened to try to get better and like the second the third round, Um, and they have the number two pick. So I'm thinking there they might be getting serious offers for this number two picks from a team that wants to hop up, hop over the New York

Jets for a quarterback. And remember, think about this, if you flip the number two overall, and you flip Odell Beckham, you might be able to get a boatload of picks. We've heard the Rams out there with two picks, We've heard the Bills out there with two picks, you know, so you would be able to get a whole haul like what the Cleveland Browns did when they were playing moneyball, you know what I mean. And that is very, very interesting,

So keep your eye on that. It's looking to me like they are priming the pump for this to actually happen, you know, tryout balloons in the media and want not just to see and the other thing that really came out of this and we tried we touched on it on a previous episode of The Fantasy FREESTYFF. But this idea of now what they're calling I've what At first it was just the targeting rule kind of like in the n C double A. But there now they're saying

like just lowering head to make contact. There's a fifteen year penalty and a potential ejection. And what they the part that I thought was, you know, really a gift and a curse, is that they're saying that this is not just like tackling, and this is not just free safeties and coming over the middle. This is offensive players, running backs lowering their shoulder, lowering their head going through

the line. They're saying, this is linemen in the trenches leading with their head, lowering their head to make contact. They are literally saying, he's a tackler's ball carriers lineman. They showed videotape of the Ryan Shazier, you know, I mean, they are serious about this. But my problem with this and and and they're trying to match it up with say like the n C double a language around the targeting and hopefully it trickles down all the way to

you know, high schools youth football. Right, But my thing is this, you are I like it in the long run because they have to as as the league is now saying, get the head out of the game, you know, and get the get the CT and the concussions and the head trauma out of the game, and listen and understand how how to tackle and how to play this

game in the heads up way. They're doing a lot more now with that, and I think that's good, Okay, But at the same time, what I'm telling you is in the short term, and this is why it is a theme for you guys on the status over beach site where to look for in this next year coming up. This is kind of what we've been doing all all episode.

I've been telling you the themes in Major League Baseball, where it be the shift, where it be the ball itself and the home run launch angle stuff, or in the NFL, this is going to be a theme um lowering the head to make contact. Um. Yeah, it's good in the long run. But in the short term, what we are going to see in the two thousand and eighteen NFL se reason is a huge spike in penalties. Okay, this is going to be called you know how they

say you can call holding on every play. You're gonna see this potentially, um flooding the games to a point where it interrupts the flow of the game, to the point where it makes games longer. Exactly what we are not wanting to see, and that is a real danger. How are you gonna tell if this is lineman ball carry is a fullback making a block? Are you kidding me?

If they actually adhere to this and implement this and adjudicate this in the way that it is described, it is going to be a dramatic shift in the short term um in terms of slowing the game, in terms of penalties. And here's the other thing it's going to do. It is going to because you are trying to effectively, like you say, take the head out of the game.

It is going to change the way you play defense so that tackling is now you're not going up around the head, You're not going up around the neck, which is exactly what you want. But you know what ripple effect is. You know what the byproduct of that is you are going lower on the body to tackle. You know what that means. That means good by a c L. That means good bye meniscus. That is what we are

effectively trading in. We are effectively trading in concussions for a c L S. And if the NFL is okay doing that and things that they could claim that that is in fact player safety. We have to pump the brakes and realize that there will be ripple effects in the same way I asked a long time ago in a poll question, would you rather your favorite player have an A c L tear or head injury? And we and we swallow gulped and admitted that it was a head injury because he'd be back in them in a week,

whereas an A c L it's a season. Okay, this conversation is going to change if they do this, all right, but I think it's interesting that they're trying to say that this is under player's safety, and I think it's also two faced because of another thing I wanted you guys on the status over beat cipher. Okay, you know

how they had that concussion settlement. Well there is now um a lot more details coming about about how that's being administered, and it doesn't seem to seem like the NFL has the same heart around this issue when you look at it through this way. You know players who made the claims on the class action lawsuit on concussions

that they won, right, So check this out. Out of the seventeen hundred or so claims that have been made in the first year of the settlement, only only uh, only six have been paid out eleven hundred of them people cited dementia in these claims. Even people, only six have been paid out. The league model when they unveiled this said that they thought about four D five hundred would have been paid out by now six have and you know, and what they have is this whole crazy

loophole system bureaucracy. There is a third party UM organization that like implements it right, and but there's some clause that the league can can UM look for a review and then if that review goes against them, they can appeal it, you know, so they can keep on kicking the can down the road. Okay. The league is demanded an audit, which is that first step for half of the claims so far, okay, and then those have been denied, okay, And it's they described it as like a black hole

quote unquote. This is the say is the lawyer, the lawyer for the players. His name is Gene Lox. He represents something like over a thousand of the players who want to try to push this forward. But there is instead, you know, this kind of what he describes as black hole. And there's there's cases where people have UM Alzheimer's early on said Alzheimer's. After multiple brain scans, they have all

the documentation they need. The claim will be originally approved by this third party firm that's you know, administering the program. Right then the NFL wants an audit, right this goes, then is delays that and regardless of how it comes, and some of them go to the NFL's favored regardless of how it goes, they can still ask for a you know, appeal it, you know, and and and this

is the process that they're into. How can they say that they care about players safety when they're just gonna trade need ligaments for brains and the brains that they've already burned. They're not helping out, That's what I'm asking. They're just trading in body parts. But they're not helping There's literally over a thousand players that are in this situation. A thousand players have filed claimed six have been paid

out in the first year. Hashtag all brains matter. If the if the players were serious, this is something they could like, you know, take to the p a take to the negotiating table. But they're not going to do that. They're not gonna do that. But this is where this is. As you know, if you listen to the statute be Cipher, this is something we are going to continue to talk about.

We are continue going to you know, serve the watchdog privilege of the fourth State that has broadened in this cutting the cord way to the statue over beat Cipher. Whether it be on Twitter, whether it be on I Heart Radio, whether it be on Spotify, whatever it is, everywhere you can get and rate and review and subscribe to this podcast. We're gonna keep the NFL accountable on this issue. You know what I'm saying. And and and it's not only us, there's there's there's other people out there.

This is a big thing. Check this out. I'll leave you guys with this today. Um, there is a new CTV Studies starting in Arizona where there's an Arizona company looking to um test for CT bio markers in living patients. Okay, I think this is very interesting. Our our boy certified athletic trainer Thomas Lowe came on the show and started talking about these blood markers and things like this. Well,

this company is looking for bio markers and living patients. Okay, And there's a lot of NFL players out there in Arizona. This is an independ the company, they say, quote unquote, UM, this is ground zero for the launch of really important study. This is Solomon Wilcox. It's part of like a player's council, some panel that they've convened out there. Okay. Quote. If there is ever a time to have a call to action, this would be it. This is where the rubber meets

the road. It's tremendous number of NFL players in the Feenix area submitting to this um to be part of this new study. So this is something else we're gonna keep an eye on. We're gonna probably ask our boy Thomas Low to come back on the show, you know, and talk about this in terms of these bio markers.

But I think it's so interesting how the NFL is talking out of both sides of their hind parts when it comes to this, you know, thinking about so how much they care try to adjudicate it, and and and and and force it out of the game in the rules of the game, making it harder to play defense and creating ripple effects that we don't know about yet.

They are not taking care of their veterans who suffer from ct and and Alzheimer's and early dementia UM and in in in in the hundreds and in the thousands. And that's that's what we have to deal with here. Okay, So we're gonna keep an eye on this, but check it out when we uh when we come back next week early next week, when we're back in Studio thirty four, UM, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna have fun. We're gonna talk about some players that are taking different routes of

working their way back into the NFL. We're gonna talk about big time takeaways from you know, the first weekend of the baseball season will continue are wrapping, athletes will look back at March Madness being crowned, all that and more the status over beat cipher Um. Check us out on Twitter at spitting speed. Remember to answer the poll question of the best one to combination in all of Major League Baseball is the Yankee Sluggers Giancarlo Stain who

went off early on for the Yankees. Nice little debut for Giancarlo Stanton Or is it the pitchers in Washington? Is it four? And to Graham out there in New York or is it the double play combo for the World Series Champ Houston, Astros Korea and alt ve Um. Don't forget really helped me out over here. If you are part of the status of each side. If you want to help out the Spin Status Station Rate Review, subscribe to the podcast Big Things. I'll see you early

next week. Tell a friends to tell a friend as always, follow me on Twitter at spitting Speeds. You know what it is. We're gonna have a lot of fun as we get into this base persons, and I hope down means baseball wise as well. When you really hands that cash, spring has sprung and I am excited about it. Hope lad as well getting that here as spends that decision steadings and people who find artily wait parts. As I'm out of sp