Re-Defining a Catch & SPEEDZ on the AL East

Stable Genius and vocal Minority. And welcome to another episode of the Fantasy Freestyle right here on the Fantasy Sports Network. We got a big show for you. Check it out. We're gonna be doing a lot of things. Earlier in the week when I was at Studio thirty four and Rock and Rilly's, we were talking a lot about the NFL and free agency, kind of wrapping that up a little bit. Now that the big wave has come. You know, even even guys that are bridge people like A. J.

Mccaren and Tyrod Taylor have been moving around. You know. Uh, you know, Mike Glennon already has a deal for Garrett Blunt already has a deal. So what we're gonna do with this episode is we are going to shift it a little bit over and we're gonna talk a little bit more about baseball. You know, it is fantasy baseball season, although you would not have believed in with the northeaster that was going through the East Coast at my home, New York City earlier this week. But check it out.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna zone in on the A L East. I'm gonna give you my division preview for the AL East. You know I've been doing that, going division by division, getting you ready fantasy baseball draft, which are probably happening fast and furious. I did a baseball draft just yesterday. Okay, so that was really hot, yo. Check it out. I'll show by you. You You can catch my team on Twitter, follow me at spitting Spiece. We're

gonna get into the AL East. But and you know that, you know, you know, I'm Puerto Rica from the Bronx, so I gotta represent the Yankees the worlds. We're gonna talk about um. There's a very interesting article that I saw in Sports Illustrated about um Giancarlo Stanton and you know his his thoughts about the Marlins and his thoughts about coming over to the Yankees. We're gonna talk about that a little bit as well some other interesting parts about the a L East in general. We're gonna put

the fun in functional sports radio. A little bit later on, we talk about Tampa Bay and what they are doing, which is very unique in Major League Baseball and could be the opposite of what some other teams are doing. And it brings us to our poll question. Check it out on Twitter, what is the ideal size of a Major League Baseball rotation? Okay, this year in two thousand eighteen, there will be teams with four, five and six man rotations.

Will get into that a little bit as well. You know what we do here, put the fund in functional sports analysis. We've got the content here with the hashtags. That's overbeat Cipher. Let's get into its. Starting with the NFL. Okay Listen, Like I said, free agency continues since the last time I talked to you. I think the new signings of the note first of all, Eric Ebron going to the Indianapolis Colts. I think that is interesting because

they still have Jack Doyle there in Indianapolis. Is this the way they're gonna try and get weapons slash protection for Andrew Luckless? And this team lost Donte mong grief they lost Frank Gore. I have not seen them do that much to kind of aug meant the weapon grief. Shall we say, do you believe in Marlon Mack? I'm not sure about that. But Eric Ebron now out there in the kind of too tight end offense. A lot of teams are going through this too tight end offense.

It's gonna be hard this year in fantasy football to get a quote unquote workhorse tight end in the same way you can't get a workhorse running back. Are we seeing tight end by committee in more teams? That's something to keep an eye on. And also check this out, um, in Oakland Beast mode, we'll be back with Opland Raiders. Okay, I guess there was some kind of it was up in the air a little bit after John Gruden came

in as the new head coach. You know what I'm saying, Like, see if he was a fit, what they could get out Marshawn He actually took a cut to stay there. Okay. So um, I think that's interesting. And you know they're accumulating now with Jordy Nelson taking over the micro graduy role. They really putting the pressure on car to stay healthy with that good offensive linelessly with Gruden. Good to do there.

I think they are a fantasy herd. You know, if you listen to the stands over beat Cipher, you know about that. And the one thing I want to say before we dive into um, the real NFL topic for this episode of Fantasy Freestyle is did you see this? Um, this incident with Za Jones, Bill's wide receivers. Z A Jones was in a uh, you know, an apartment complex

in Los Angeles, Okay, And I'll tell you what. There was a woman there, and there was his brother there, and there's an argument, um and A Jones ultimately arrested for vandalism. Right. But if you see the video, and uh, there's a lot of places you can see the video, you know, I think it was originally from TMZ. And you see the video, Um, it is on some next level ish right now. Okay, he's running around n kid,

he's screaming that you know, he's fighting with Jesus. He tries to jump out potentially of a thirtieth story window. It breaks the class. I saw a video you know afterwards it look like it was definitely a crime scene involved. Okay, it's absolutely crazy. Like I'm saying, he's screaming that he's fighting with Jesus his brother who's also an NFL player. Um, I think he's a wide out with the fightings potentially, UM, you know, is trying to you know, calm him down.

And there's been a lot of an outcry about like, you know, mental health right now in um professional sports. You know, UM, guys like de Marta Rosen have come out, guys like Kevin Love have come out in the NBA talking about anxiety, talking about depression and so you know, this is a sensitive thing in the conversation right now. But I do gotta tell you this, Um, he could have just also been on K two. This is what

people on K two do, you know. So who knows what's going on in the off season was day Jones, who is a Jones, So who knows? But we do hope everything is well, but you know, let's see, let's

see how this one develops. But I had to stats that would be decipher know about that what I want to talk about though in the NFL, because listen, there's this player movement and we're gonna be giving it to you, you know, as the offseason chugs along, you know, after this free agency kind of slows down a little bit, We'll tell you who's still out there. I'll tell you what teams still need to you know, make it happen.

Next time we talk on the Fantasy Freestyle. Um and then we get into this draft coverage and we're gonna talk a lot with Emery Hunt, our guy. This are the playbook Emery Hunt. He got that new glitch in the system on the Fantasy Sports and network. You gotta love what he's doing. He's the man um. So as we go, we're gonna go into draft covers. But before that, what I do want to tell you is, listen, they're

talking about this redefinition of a catch. Okay, and this is something we talk about all the time on the Fantasy Freestyle. Check it out. Troy Vincent, the vice president of Football Operations, says, uh, you know, there's been panels, there's been reviews, okay, but they already submit a set of recommendations. And here's how they did it. I think this is interesting. They they looked at current plates and

they work back from that. You know, they kind of backwards planned there and map out if it should be a catch. You know, this is what it should be. So for example, the ideas of slight movement of the ball in the receiver's hands, they may reverse that. That used to be able to still be a catch for now off the balls moving, they might reverse that. He says, Okay, going to the ground, that part is going to be eliminated, and that's the big deal. Okay, going to the ground,

that might be eliminated. Okay, and they could change some of the replay standards as well. Okay, check this out um part of the quote. The new updated rule quote will require only that a receiver have control of the football and any slight movement of the football and the receiver's and detective via replay would not result in an incompletion.

It would also quote eliminate the requirement that a receiver who was in the process of going to the ground while making a catch must maintain control of the football while on the turf to be awarded illegal catch. So those are the two main things. Okay, and I think this is very interesting right now, that Dez Brian catch against Green Bay in the playoffs that would now be

a catch. They say, the Jesse James catch against the Patriots this year from Pittsburgh, which could have changed the entire a f c UH would now be a catch in a touchdown. Interestingly enough, I've been telling you like, I think this is a step in a good direction. I think this does make a little bit more sense. This does kind of define and clarify a little bit better. But it's still imperfect. It's still gonna be other calls. It's still gonna be other plays that we see in

the next UH, you know year. That makes us further, you know, we find a new gray area. You know. So I still say, I still say what we need to do is have you know how we listen? If we could do replay in UH centralized in New York, If now we could have independent neurologists centralized in New York which can buzz something and take a player off

the field. For players safety, oh man, we're gonna get into players safety very soon on the fantasy freestyle because this concussion settlement um is not going so well for

the NFL. But we'll get into that a little bit later on or another another down the road here on the fantasy freestyle, I've always said what you could do consistently or maybe you know, you know, as MLB had the fan Cave, maybe you could do this and just have a panel of like fans in the cave and you have five every every Sunday and they just go on thumbs up, thumbs down? Was it a catch centralized?

And boom that's it? And you know you have an alternate if it's like the teams, if it's the team's involved, he's got a he or she has to abstain and you put on an alternate, that's what's up. I would nominate, I would I would volunteer to try to do that. How can I do that? Or just have like some kids just watching and make them their decision. That's how I've always said, let me know what you think. Hit me up on Twitter at Spin and speeds. Is that the right way to do the panel? And would you

serve on it? Would you be honest on it on that sort of thing? So, um, that's that's what we're talking about NFL. But like I said, we're gonna talk mostly MLB this episode of the Fantasy Freestyle. We're gonna get into the A L East. Okay, We're gonna talk about, um, which arms I like, which one's a fool Gazzy. We'll talk about the bats um, you know, outside of just standing and judge. Obviously right standing Judge are gonna be huge, but what other bad you know, everyone knows about those

two guys. I'm trying to tell you where your diamonds and the rough and there's definitely some in the A L East. But before we do that, I want to

tell you something. I saw this very very interesting article um about Giancarlos standing okay, and he kind of really opened up about, you know, his situation in Florida, in Miami, um through the through the dull drums and seeing what has happened, you know, and and he made the point that he had eight different managers in his eight years with the Marlins, you know, and how every year someone knew would come in and be like this new enthusiasm right in this new set of ethics and this new

culture and blah blah blah, and it just became kind of a broken record. And he he kind of not necessarily tuned out, but it was hard for to have as much investment or faith, you know. And then he also said that when he went at All Star Games, when he when he was at the World Baseball Classic. When he would see other elite players, high level players and and coming from their organizations with their winning culture was like with their work ethic was like with their

level of expectation was like you know. He he literally said that, um, he felt the brunt of it and that and that he felt clowned. You know, he said, quote, you laugh it off for a while, then you start thinking, are you part of the mess? Are you the face of what everyone is laughing about? He says it didn't sit well with him for years. It started to really burn him up inside. He asked himself, if his career ended tomorrow, what would he take away from it beside

the few individual accomplishments. So this is important for him, Okay, and now he's finally, you know, has this clauset be able to hit this open market? You know? So he takes visits with the Giants, with the Cardinals, and he said he did that purposely just because he wanted to, you know, peek behind the curtain and see how other

organizations did it. And I think that's interesting. Players are considering this now with their with their with their their quality of life, the taxes, but also like what are they what kind of work situation are they getting into what do the alignment the vision? Is it a well run organization? Blank Griffin said this recently in the NBA too, when he came from the Clippers to Detroit and he's like, you know, he sees the banners on the wall and he's like, you know, this is how this is a culture,

that this is a way to do it. I think, I think, listen, that's what's happening here. So I think it's I really like standing opening up about this right in this article also, and this is potentially one of the most interesting parts to me, he talks about this is uh standing. He talks about how the death of Jose Fernandez was a huge turning point for him, you know, because on a on a number of levels too. You know. The first is that like Fernandez was a legit ace.

You know, Fernandez was that guy you could build around. Okay, he says, you need a picture like that who can dominate, like he can win the World Series. You know, he can help you in the World Series. That's sort of thing. And also because what Fernandez was in the locker room, and this has been you know, well documented, what kind of like life force he was in baseball and locker rooms as a team made as a joy and what that did to that team, right, so um, But then

he says one other thing. He says that he says that Fernandez came up to him once and was like, you know how it goes down here business wise? He says, when I get out of here, I'm going to the Yankees, and I'm taking you with me. And I've always said, oh my goodness as a as a Yankees fan, or that's the guy I wanted in this big summer coming up, which is supposed to be you know, Arper and Matado and Donaldson. I was like, now, I wanted Jose Fernandez

and he apparently wanted to come to the Yankees. But it doesn't that. And then they talked about how it comes together kind of from the cashman side of things, right, which is very interesting from the general manager. He was saying that, like listen, he knew they wanted to upgrade at d H and their first target was Otani at first, right, but then Oltani wanted to play on the West Coast and things like that. They knew they were out of

it for them. So then they went up and and we're kind of more aggressive enquiring and and and and and working and propositioning around Stanton, you know. Um. And I think that was really interesting that they talked about how they had to get some money back to go on through one nineties seven, how they had to um, how they had to take Castro. It's part of the deal to get you know, they also get down on

some money, you know. And then and then they really standing described his interactions with Derek Jeter and trying to be able to like give this team a shot with Yellows with o Juna, and how Jeter was like not into it. And I think so it's a very interesting

article and I think listen it for me. It reinforces that stand as his head on his shoulders, that he's not gonna be you know, um, starry eyed coming to New York, that he's about his business, that he's about not being necessarily fe man, but huge cog in what could be the most scary offense in a very very long time. Um, we're talking about you know, many many

Ramirez David Ortiz kind of combo. But also people are forgetting about this also with Gary sanche as the number one catcher offensively in the major leagues thirty home run potential with maybe a healthy Greg Bird, although Greg Bird could also be Nick Johnson. My Yankee fans molle, what's up? But with d d with you know, with Guardy this

is a good offense. With Aaron Kicks, this is a good offense do with I guess apparently if they want to go to veteran route with Nea Walker and Brandon Drewry with the kids coming up still, I think Torres is still like coming up as soon as that time in June is up, you know. So I think this is this is really interesting to get into the mindset, and I really like how he you know, I guess kind of let you in so obviously, um um um, I'm all about these Yankees. I'm a former bleacher creature.

But what I will try to do is give you an honest assessment of the a A least because in fantasy you gotta sometimes take your heart out of it, right. Shout out to my boy Sammy so old Dog and Zippy. Um. He couldn't play fantasy baseball because he couldn't have He would just take the entire Yankees team, or couldn't have any Red Sox or anybody even in the American League sometimes.

But you can't be that way, okay, So I'm gonna try and divorce that for you in my a L East preview coming up right about now on the Fantasy Freestyle. We're gonna do that after we come back from the break right here on the Fantasy Sports Network. We're gonna first talk about all the arms. Then, you know, then the offense, the diamonds and the fou gay zis and a little bit of more interesting things that Tampa Bay is doing as it relates to their arms. And then

we're gonna put the fun in functional sports Radio. You know what it is, which boy Dane Martinez a k a k a. The spitting status that the stable genes and the vocal minority on the Fantasy Sports Network come on right back. You know, we'll get it. We'll chop it up about the A at least, let's go sticks.

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T s Y for cent off your pair. Now that Skicks dot com Skicks sneakers the soul of a true fan. Welcome back to the Fantasy Freestyle. What's your boy, Dame Martinez be spend statistician getting in on the Fantasy Sports Network. I told you we're gonna get down about the A L East. We're gonna chop it up, giving you everything you need to know fantasy baseball. We're gonna go kind of team by team. I'll give you some diamonds, I'll give you some food gazes. I'll tell you my predictions

for the division. If you want to get on some over runners, some playoff futures. We'll get into the AL East. But first I do gotta tell you for everybody still playing DFS right now, you can play DFS basketball, you can play DFS hockey right now. And I'm gonna tell you go over to the Fantasy Factor and do that. Okay. Fantasy Factor is the perfect daily fantasy site for you know,

the casual recreational player. If you're just dipping your toe in the water, you don't want to go to these big sites where people are putting in fifty lineups to night, a hundred lineups to night. They'd be running their algorithms. You really don't have a chance, okay as a casual player. But you do. At Fantasy factor dot com. They got flatter prize pools, smaller fields, single entry contest, so you

don't have to compete with all that nonsense. Okay. They also do NHL and NBA free rolls every single week. It is a free entry, so just sign up and enter. Going over the Fantasy Factor dot com, it's the move telling me your boy's speed sense you um, free roll every week, you know what it is. Um, So let's get into this a l east. Um. The first place I want to tell you about is the arms we're gonna get into, you know. And and honestly, there are

there are some bad pitching staffs in this division. Okay, so let's let's let's get them out of the way. And obviously Baltimore is one of the one of the worst rotations in major leagues in my opinion. Okay, they played a small ballpark. Also, they play in a division where with OFFENSI juggernauts. They're gonna see the Yankees nineteen times, They're going to see the Red Sox nineteen times. You know, they're gonna even see an offense like Toronto and above

average offense nineteen times. You know. So it is not a good situation, uh for in an Orioles pitcher and and and Dylan Bundy. They're quote unquote eights. You know. Dylan Bundy is Yeah, sure, he's coming off his best season. Well, he had over a hundred fifty strikeouts fifty two strikeouts last year, but he still had a yar a. His ex fit was still four point seven seven and he he threw a hundred sixty nine innings, but that was the previous year he threw a hundred and nine innings. Okay,

that's a big jump. So I am worried about what this kid who has had injury troubles before. I would not be on Dylan Bundy. Dylan Bundy is a definite fool Gaze nominee for me in the A L East. And after that, what are we talking about? Nothing? Okay, So you're gonna keep it moving when you think about

the arms in Baltimore. You know, even when you think about the closer side, Britain is on the d L And if he's healthy, he's gonna get traded as a commodity because the Orioles won't meet him, you know what I'm saying. And Brad Brock like, how many how many opportunities you think he's gonna get. I don't know that he's an elite level closer. If you need someone at the bottom, go right ahead. But you know it's gonna be very interesting to see as Britain if Britain gets

back anytime soon, not necessarily scheduled too. In Tampa Bay, in this division, um, you you definitely you have Chris Archer, okay, And and don't get it twisted. Chris Archer is a sp one for your team, okay. In the last three years ten point seven strikeout rate, ten point four strikeout rate, eleven point one strikeout okay, in the last three years five point to war, three point to war, four point

six war. But in the last three years his record has been under five twelve and thirteen, under five hundred nine and nineteen, under five hundred, ten and twelve. He is the quality. Start reason I'm gonna call I'm gonna call Archer right now. The quality the q S flag, you know, shout out to my people over there at Rotorwear, Kenny Cash. You know what it is, you know, flying the q S flag Like that's what Archer is. He is the you know, he's gonna give you a great outing.

But there's no offense there really to help, you know. And then then what about the rest of him? Odorizzy? I think Jake od Rizzi is going to be traded. He is a prime candidate to be traded, even if no one actually sacks up and pays the price for a guy like Archer. I think someone you know, could in the in need get a guy like Jake Odorizzy. But what I'm intrigued by his Blake Snell. Blake Snell to me is a potential diamond in the rough. Okay, this is a guy um who pretty much dominates. Triple

A has been I think brought along right. I have faith in that organization to bring along young pictures. They have been doing it for a long long time. And I think this guy is about to take the jump and throw about a hundred eighty innings this year and maintain his kind of strikeout potential, and he is going very late in draft. Blake Snell is a name to watch and someone why for example, you know, in the same way in football, I say you need to wait

on quarterback because there's so many guys. In baseball, what I believe is you need to get your two starting pitchers at the top. I recommend, you know, not necessarily getting the Kershaw or the Sale or the shows are, but give me, give me into my third and fourth round. If I can get if I can get synder Guard in the third, if I can get um, you know, a Carrasco in the fourth, if I can get you know something, you know, look eight eight to ten starting

pitcher right there. If I can get stuff like that in that area, those will be my two. And then I wait for a long time. Why because I'm gonna pick my high upside guys like a Blake Snell later on in the draft. There's a lot of them out there, and some of them are gonna pop, and otherwise you're gonna be on the waiver wire early in the season anyway, and you're gonna find the guys that are having good seasons.

And that's the way I'm I'm gonna be playing and when I get my uh starting pitchers this year, and I think that's the way you should play it as well. But Blake Snell is an intriguing guy for me. So the Tampa Bay Rays, you know, are definitely above Baltimore in the division when we think about it, in the number three spot in these in the I guess these starting ranks and guys you need to know about in the A L. East. We talked about the Toronto Blue Jays, okay,

and I like Marcus Stroman. But here's the thing. Marcus Stroman is kind of a um. He is a high floor, low ceiling kind of guy, and you have to know that. So you have to know that if he's gonna be your speech. You know. I like him as a low end SP two. But the only problem is when a guy has this kind of sinker slider stuff, he doesn't strike out as many guys as you might want from

some of your power arms at the top. When you're drafting early and you're getting your SPT, you wanted to be a guy who's gonna be around one strikeouts, Okay, you and and and and Stroman is not necessarily that guy. Okay. You know who could be that guy in this notation for me, potential diamond is Aaron Sanchez. Okay, in the same way that Snell is intriguing. Aaron Sanchez is intriguing. We have seen this kid throw over a hundred miles

an hour out of the bullpen. We've seen him as a starter go a hundred and ninety innings already in his career and lead the American League in the r A. He had a three even e r A in two thousand sixteen. Okay, but he's coming off a season where he only pitched thirty six innings because of blisters, and that's something that hopefully he has going right. And I think this could be a guy that is worth taking a shot on. Again. Remember the strategy overall is you

get your studs right. If I can come away with Syndergarten, Bum Gardener, I'm happy, and then I'm waiting, and then I'm waiting for a while after I get my sp two, especially if you're in some rhodos. In my opinion, Okay, but um, that's the guy like in Toronto, it's Aaron Sanchez. I'll take him before Jay App, I'll take him before Marco Strada. Those guys could be streamers. But remember Toronto was also a good hitting park, and so give me, give me Stroman, but as a solid floor, and give

me Aaron Sanchez. The two. The number two rotation in me in this division is the Boston Red Sox. Okay, the Boston Red Sox. And to be quite honest, this is why I think I'm down on them overall. I don't think they have to now. I don't think they have the depth. Now, don't get me wrong. Chris Sale. Chris Sale is in my opinion, the number one UH starting pitcher for fantasy, for fantasy baseball. Why because of his strikeouts, Okay, just because of his strikeouts. I mean

he had three hundred and eight strikeouts last year. That is more than even Kershlaw. That's more than shuts Or. This is a guy who calls out there and every single night. But the thing is he's not gonna be on any of my teams because you have to invest pretty much a late first round pick in order to get him, or an early second round pick, and that's not gonna happen for me. Okay, I go get elite talent. Like I said, one and two and then I'll be

happy with Syndergard. I'll be happy with synder Gard after that, in my opinion. But listen, there's no there's no poo pooing how dominant Chris Sale can be. But the wild card is is David Price. David Price was a workhorse. David Price was a workhorse and then kind of has broken down since a little bit of time in Boston. And and the thing about Price that I found a little bit surprising is that he's thirty three years old. He's gonna be thirty three this August. Okay, that surprised me.

I always reminded him, he remembered, you know, he was this young kid coming out a Vanderbilt that dominated for the raise as a as a as as a closer, as a starter, you know, like he was dependable. He was their workforce. It wasn't medium game James Shield, you know, it was Price. And now he's kind of, you know, folling off. So does he have a kind of post renaissance And if he does, then they are very formidable. If not, I don't know, because I'm not moved by

Rick Porcello. Okay, he might be slightly better than what he did last year with a four six five y r A going well under seventeen. But he's certainly not even close to his two thousand and sixteen of twenty two and four and three r right, Like, that's not gonna happen, Okay, So he's not gonna be on my team's um. So then and and when you think about Stephen Wright the other guys they have in that in that rotation, Um, it's gonna be a lot on on

on price and on sale. And then what we have is what I believe is the best, is the best rotation in this division. And that s the Yanks. And and I say that at because listen, they're deeper, They're deeper. I've been saying, like who who who has a number three and four that are better than Sunny Gray and you know, say CC and more reliable. You know, Sevy was third. Luis SEVENA was third in the cy Young

voting last year behind Sale and Cluber. Okay, and um, that's pretty nasty is to nine e r A struck out ten point seven guys per nine innings. Okay, but I still do feel like in the playoff series he would be a dog to a Corey Gruber or Chris Sale or a Verlander and Kaiko kind of situation, right, and so they're he's kind of the one A and so is Tanaka. Listen to knock out a great year. Okay, we've seen him with a sub three year, right. Uh. His x FIMP last year Tanaka was was two point

four four Okay. He threw a hundred eight innings when people were worried about this album at at home most a ten strikeout for nine rate. So I mean he had a good year as well. And then you have Sunny Graham, and then you have c c and and and of course you have that bullpen. The bullpen is maybe the best in all of Major League Baseball. So that's why, that's why I think the Arms give an

advantage to the New York Yankees in this division. And then when we talk about and then when we talk about the offense, I mean, you know, come on, right, let's let's let's save the obvious for last. I mean, in Tampa Bay, this is again, this is a bad offense. Okay, this is a bad offense in the same way the Orioles have a bad uh you know, pitching staff. The Rays have a bad offense. There were twenty five in Major League Baseball last year and one scored. And then

they lost Kevin Longoria, they lost Logan Morrison. They didn't get much help. You know, Kevin Kermeyer at the top. He could be a kind of guy right um, and he's probably better than where I'm seeing him go and draft I'm seeing him go as like outfield of fifty right now. He might be slightly better than that. But his strikeout rate is is horrible. I think it's okay,

and his babbit, his baby, is gonna regress. He had a high bad if people again on fantasy field freestyle if you don't know, babit is batting average on balls in play, and that should be around three hundred. That's like the league normal. Okay. So that basically takes your batting average right, and it takes the strikeouts out of it, okay, because the strikeouts, remember the three true outcomes, right, the

three true outcomes. You take the strikeouts out of it. It It takes the defense out of it, and so everyone's batting average is gonna rise a little bit, okay. And what happens is it puts the defensive metrics. You can figure out a standard average and there should be around three hundreds. So if you're babbit is high like kire Myers is. Sometimes people have high babbitts because they're they leg out groundballs and things of that nature. And Kiremyer

does fit that prof file. But you know it's a matter of that's gonna regress back to the mean and your aver batting average will go down and it over time. You know, that's one of the indicators. And if your batting average goes down, your opportunity for runs and Ribby's and all that good stuff goes down as well, especially for it got like ker Meyer has stolen bases. You know, Ramos could be a top ten catcher if he stays healthy. He's not far removed from that season with the Nationals

where he hit three or seven with twenty two homers. Okay, and he might be in a run producing spot. But there's nothing really for this offense to think about. Okay, But then when you look at the next offense, I'm gonna tell you about um and this is gonna surprise some people, but to me, the next offense and down

four is the is the Toronto Blue Jays. And the Toronto Blue Jays listen Donaldson is an elite is elite, right, He's he's one of the top top four third basemen, you know, and he's in a walk year, which is interesting. But he's been a little injury prone to me, so that gives me a little bit of concern. Who I love in this lineup is Justin Smoke. Is this like the post post post height for Justin Smoke? Right? What his his his last year with thirty eight homers at

a no. Where is very very interesting. He's gonna be in the lineup that now has grants and at the top Donaldson morale its toolo. It's an interesting lineup, and I like Smoke. Smoking is isolated power of two fifty nine. That's pretty that's pretty high. But you know, I think he could be a breakout. I would watch him as a diamond in the rough. You know, A corner infielder is pretty deep. If you want to get a corner infielder, Justin Smoke could be a very interesting guy to get.

But I'm you know, listen, guys guys that have those ceilings too for me, like Toulow or Granderson. You know what you're getting in these kind of professional hitters. They're aging Kendricks Morales another one as a run producer, but they're they're in the fourth spot for me. In the third spot is Baltimore. Baltimore. To me, I think, listen, we talked about three two outcomes, right and in Baltimore you have a three outcome bonanza. And this is I think a lot due to the fact that Candy Yards

is their ball mark. Okay, um, Chris Davis, Jonathan Scope specifically, you know, if you need our Manny Machado, if you need power, Baltimore is for you. Okay. Manny Machado to me is a a second round pick potentially. Okay, he's in a contract year. We're gonna see what happens. I don't think he runs though, Listen, his running has gone down. But he's good for thirty home runs. He's good for ninety ribbies from the shortstop position, made from the third

based position. That's obviously good. Dude, Like Chris Davis. Chris Davis, even with a little bit of a dip and some of his power number some of his isso he's he's a thirty home run easy guy if he can stay healthy. But Jonathan Scope is the guy I want to point out Jonathan Scope second basement. He is going right now as the fifth highest second basement in a DP okay, UM, and I think it's deserved. I think it's deserved. I think this year he's gonna be in like the five

spot of the lineup. I think his walk rate went up slightly up to five percent last year, and I think that could go up a little bit more. He had thirty two homers on a hundred five ribbies, nine two runs. Okay, this is a guy you gotta keep an eye on. And he is not like he's not an old guy. He's still ascending. So I really like Jonathan Scope. He's an a l East diamond in the rough candidate for sure. UM. And then listen to Adam Jones. I don't believe it. He'll have one hot streak for you,

but you can move on from him. Scope is the guy you you like in Baltimore, UM, and he could be a very interesting, uh second baseman. I think he can be literally top five second baseman this year and in a kind of three trough outcomes power away, which is the way you need you need to get your power right. And then in Boston, listen they got j D. Martinez. They needed J D. Martinez. Uh, he'll love the Green Monster. This is a guy who had a higher OPS than

both the Gian Carloston and Aaron Judge. W W some you know, adjustment period. But he'll be overdrafted. He'll be great, but he won't be what you draft him as. And but other than that, listen, Bogart's gotta love bets, gotta of I am down on Ben Attendee. I think Ben Attendi is just like he's not a powerful he's not really a power hitter, a true power hitter. He's more of a stuff all five categories kind of guy, you know. And there's a place for that, but just not where

he's getting drafted. He's getting drafted as like a top a top ten outfielder. And you know that's kind of like the Dustin Pedroia mold, you know. And and I'm okay with that, listen. But he's just he won't be on many of my teams, okay. But you know who might be is Raphael Davers. And this is a guy, you know, my man friend Standfield has the man crush on him, right, the power is real, but um, he won't hit two eighty again. I'll tell you that. But he's definitely a guy to look at. And then last

in this division obviously is the New York Yankees. This is gonna be ridiculous. Judge in Stanton will hit a hundred home runs potentially this year, right, um, And the funny part is for me, like Gary Sanchez maybe the biggest beneficiary of this the whole thing. He's gonna hit thirty five homers. He's gonna have like a hundred ribbies. If he stays healthy, he's gonna be the number one

overall catch. He might hit fifth or six in this lineup, depending on how they spread out right ease and lefties, Okay, Like d D is gonna be a huge beneficiary. This is a short stop with twenty five home runs. And again he is a lefty, so he is gonna be breaking up some of these power bats at at some point in the lineup. Is he the fifth or sixth hitter? You know? I mean this is a guy right now, d D. Gregorious. And I'm writing about this in an article keeping an eye out. I'll let you I'll know,

I'll hit you up on Twitter and let you guys know. Um, I'm writing an article for the A P D D. Gregorious is going right now is like shortstop ten or eleven in drafts, and he's gonna hit twenty five homers. He's gonna have more opportunity for run production and greg Bird will be a low cost free agent, UH first baseman, corner in fielder for you as well, Greg Byrd, along with Justin Smoke, there are some names here in the

A L. East. What we're gonna do when we come back here on the Fantasy Freestyle, what we're gonna do is we're gonna get into my overall division predictions. I'm gonna give you my diamonds and for gay zes for the A L East, and then we're gonna have a little bit of fun. The Temple Bay Raiser doing something very interesting with their rotation. We'll get into that. It's the poll question. Remember catch that on Twitter as well.

And then we're gonna put the Fun and Functional Sports Radio and I'm gonna talk to you about why you need to budget a little bit of extra time getting a play n y C f C and Yankee Stadium, or coming to New York to play some soccer in general, Lets you boy day martsin guys, come on right back

fantasy Freestyle in the Fantasy Sports Network. Let's go. Signer Sports is the leading memorabilia provider for the New York Yankees, Rangers, Giants, Knicks, and the Brooklyn Nets, featuring hundreds of items from your favorite athletes. Sinner Sports is your swords 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 have ever offered, so'll go to signer sports dot com slash box today. Welcome back to the Fantasy Freestyle right here on the Fantasy Sports Network. Kitsch boyd Dame Martinez a k A. Speeds a k A to Spitting Statistician a k a. The Stable Genius and vocal Minority, and were chopping it up about the Al East. I was giving you all the insight on the bats, on the arms, on the closers, Okay,

and right now we're gonna do is. I'm gonna give you my diamonds and my fool gazes for the division overall and um, listen, because you've got fantasy baseball drafts going on right now. I had one earlier in the week. I got another one coming up this weekend. But if you if you're looking for elite to get into one, one thing to consider over there as fan tracks. Okay, they got a great platform. It's ridiculous. Go on over

to fan track. You could do things like multi team trades, okay, and other stuff that you just don't get from these like general providers that you're probably using right now. Check them out. Tell him your boy speeds the spit statistician sent you. Um, you know, we'll see, maybe they'll hit you up. But listen. My diamonds and fool gazes for the A L East. First of all, my diamonds in the Rough Jonathan Scope, Jonathan Scope. I told you he will be a top five second baseman this year. Is

lock it in the thirty home runs? Easy? Better spot in the lineup. I told you about Justin Smoke, diamond in the rough in the A L East for Toronto, yet thirty eight home runs last year, and I think he is going to be able to sustain some of the trends he had. What is walk rate with strike out right. I think the power is real. I like Greg Bird to stay healthy and on the pitching side. Give me Blake Snell as a diamond in the rough.

I think he can take another step and developed. I think he is worth the risk later on in draft my fool gazes for this division, I got two of them for you. The first I told you in Baltimore Dylan Bundy. Dylan Bundy is coming off a huge jump in his innings and it's not like he was ever that good. It's just because he had a good start to the year and people were like, oh, it's coming to fruition, but that was not the case later in the year. Do not believe in Dylan Bundy. And for me, listen,

uh Rick Porcello and David Price. Neither one of them are going to be able to back up Chris Sale. And I think the Red Sox know that they are full gayzies. For me, when it comes to the predictions for the A L. East, there's some interesting lines. I think. Listen, I'm a Yankees fan, Okay, I love the New York Yankees. I am a Yankees fan. There's a lot of money right now about them being a L favorites. I'm telling you right now, they are not my a L Pennant winner, Okay,

I I would stay away from this. I do think the Yankees can win the division. I do not think they win the AL Pennant. I'll give you my Pennant winners next week when we finish it up, right before, right before the baseball season starts. But it is not the New York Yankees, Okay. So I would not take that money if I were you. That is not where

I would lay my money. I like, I like another team that we already covered with what I think is better elite pitching and better uh more rounded, younger offense. Um in Cleveland, But I digress. Let's talk a little bit. Um. Boston will be there. Boston will be there, but they're in that kind of wild card tier. I don't believe in the pitching, like I said, behind Chris Sale and with Toronto and Baltimore, they're gonna lose their best players.

And then in the course of the next you know, six to eighteen months, and Mattadle and Donaldson and and and Tampa Archer is gonna be gone as well. So this is really continues to be the same arms race. It always has been between the Boston net Sox and the New York Yankees. But one thing that I do got to tell the Status over beat Cipher about this, A l East is in Tampa. If this could have Fantasy impact as well. The Tampa Bay Rays are going

with a four man rotation. You know, we hear teams like the Texast Rangers, uh considering a six man rotation. The Rays are gonna go with a four man rotation. Okay, They've got Archer like we've been talking about, Jacob Ferrier. We've got Blake Snell like I said, and Nate Eovaldi. And it's a problem if Nate Eovaldi, You're you're you're hoping to get a hundred seventy nine innings out of as your number four starter. But that's all they got. Okay,

that's all they got. So they might go with a four man rotation, but not where you're gonna be on short rest every time throughout the whole season. What they're going to do, and manager Kevin Cash has confirmedness is saying that every fifth day whenever it's needed, because remember, sometimes you do skip that turn in the rotation when

you have the days off and things of that nature. Right, So it's not utilized all the time, but when it's needed, and you know, it's probably needed, I would say twenty to twenty five times in in in the season. What they're going to do is a pen committee day. That's how they're going to do this. And I think this is very interesting. I think this is very interesting and I always want to keep it um in in the spotlight for a couple of reasons. One, I think this

could be a financial play. Okay, I think this is a financial play because they are not taking on more contractual money. Starting pitchers make a lot more money than your rough underbelly bullpen guys or your guy that can go the three innings. Okay, so this is a financial play I think for the race to keep their coughts down. It's not like they're contending anyway, right, So I think

that's interesting. And will other teams start to do it because of the way that pitching and starting pitching contracts have gone a little bit out of control, right? Or is this put you know, uh, purposefully to clear the way to let young talent that they want to bring up develop, you know, and that there will be a spot for them, uh you know, on on that random Thursday in June, they want to come up and make a spot start. I think that is another interesting thing

to consider about this. And what I will say is if and if you listen to the status over Beats Cipher Fantasy Freestyle, you know that I was talking about this in a different way last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, how they were in essence having a six

man rotation, but they were also manipulating the system. What they were doing, in my opinion, was they were leveraging the ten day d L because it went down from fifteen to ten day and the idea of like the shuttle bus from Triple A with guys like Urius, you know, in the d L, with guys like Rich Hill, guys like Kent to my Ada, and they were kind of in essence doing a six man rotation and always keeping some guy in the d L or some guy down in the minors. And that was a way to do it.

There's a lot of ways teams are doing so what is the right way? And that's the Twitter question. Uh, if still with us out there on Twitter at spitting speeds, is it a four man rotation? The standard five man rotation or the six man rotation that maybe Texas is considering, right, and I know, I think there's merit to all of them,

which is really interesting to see how this evolves. You know, we've seen the the importance on the bullpen as well and stringing together three four dominant arms out there that can go one inning and that's contractual. Also think about Dylan Patantis is arbitration, um, you know, situation. So listen, these these are these are ways that teams get around their books and their talent based on where they are

in the cycle of competing. You know, we're focused on the A L East, right, So one story I wanted to tell you guys about real quick that was pretty funny to me in the A L. East is the Yankees. The Yankees are They're they're Double eighteen in Trenton is gonna do something funny this season starting on May eighteenth, okay, on Fridays, and this is you know, minor league baseball. This is what you love. My man, Fernando Perez would love this because he says he wants to make the

product more interesting. Okay, starting in May eighteenth, the Double A Trenton Thunder are going to change their name to honor a food favorite of New Jersey. Um, and on Friday they are going to be the Trenton Pork Roles. Okay, if you don't know, if you're not from the area, you might know it as Taylor Am as well, but this is like kind of real regional and the general manager, Jeff Hurley, said that he is rebranding as the Trenton Pork Roles on Friday nights. He says it is quote

the perfect way to celebrate a garden state favorite. I think that's funny. You can see it opening up so many potential ideas for for mascots, for in between inning games and races and challenges. Um. So it's big shout out to the Yangs for you know, playing to their base as it were there becoming the Trenton Pork Roles on Friday nights. Maybe I'll have to go out there keeping it here in NYC as well, you know, we do it born and raised. Shout out to Chronicle my

man rocks one young fist full of rings. Um. We don't talk soccer much, but I thought it was funny as a New Yorker. Check this out now. Two weeks in a row, a visiting team from MLS soccer team one trying to play n y CFC one trying to play the Red Bulls were late to their arena because of issues last so last week it was you know, St. Patty's Day in New York. And you know, I don't regrudge anybody, you know, it was they parades out there.

You know, a lot of revelry going on. I call it amateur hour though that in like Santa Con uh here in New York. But the team bus for Orlando was late to Yankee Stadium and they had to push back the game like forty five minutes. And the week before that, the Portland Timbers were late to play the Red Bulls because the bus got lost in directions and

went the wrong way. Ny CFC and the Red Bulls won their games handily and in those two events, so you know, you know, the city can confuse you with intimidating before you even get here, before you even have to play the opponent. I thought that was funny. Big shout out to uh N y CFC undefeated, top of the conference. You know, if you're if you're into that, if you're into that sort of thing, right, I know one thing you need to be into is helping out

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as a donor. Dk MS will send you a swab kit. It takes legitimately one minute to do. You swab each of your cheeks and then you send it back to them. That's it, You're done, Okay, that's all you gotta do on your side. D k MS will then try to match you up with a person in need of a donation. The process is easy and best of all, you can actually save someone's life. We're not talking about fantasy sports. You know what's your fantasy team. We're talking about reality.

You can, in reality save someone's life. Go to d k MS dot org slash fantasy to see how you can help. All right, that's what we're talking about today. I gotta tell you next week we got a big week on the Fantasy Freestyle. Um, we are going to continue getting into some NFL storylines that I think are

a real interesting We'll look at free agency. What's some teams that kind of are left out of the cold in this situation at this stage of the off season, and how they're gonna have to reddicate their attention maybe

to the draft or otherwise. Um, after free agency, we'll talk about this concussion settlement, which I think is very um, you know, continuing the trend of how I've been saying the NFL does not care about players safety, and you know in baseball, we'll talk about you know everything we need to clean up our final predictions and our final you've used before the start of the baseball season. We'll have a lot of fun as well as we always do out there in Studio thirty four Rock and Riley's

there in uh midtown Manhattan. If if we can get out of the snow, you know, because it's still here. Who we thought it was spring but apparently apparently I don't know if that means the groundhok saw it or did not, but it is coming true in a big, big way here in two thousand eighteen. All right, yea, all that it is about it for me. That is my time. Thanks to everybody for supporting. And if you, if you you know, if you like what you here, if you're part of the status, would beat cipher, download

and subscribe. The thing is just hit that subscribe button. This way you get all the content, the video content, the audio content from your boys, speed and spitting Statistician, the Stable Genius and vocal Minority. I'm out of here. It's been another episode of the Fantasy Freestyle here in the Fantasy Sports Network. I'll catch you all next week. Let's make it happen Fantasy baseball right around the corner. See see see all but the Sun for the funer