Aaron Nola Resurgence? Would You Rather...? (8/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Is Aaron Nola Finally Back to Ace Form? Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? e-mail [email protected]. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy because reality. Now here's Frank, Scott and Chris. Speaker 2 I thought we were past this, but is Aaron Nola kind of back? Hello and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Thursday, August 20th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White today on the show. Would you rather we'll check back in on some of the rookie bats, 2 pitchers who look like they are gaining ace status and much more. Let's jump in. Oh my good, goodness gracious. Oh my goodness. The players of the night. And Scott, you get Aaron Nola. How does that feel? Speaker 1 Let's drink a cola for Aaron Nola, because things are looking up here. This latest start against the Marlins. 1 earned run in seven innings, 8 strikeouts, no walks and got a ton of whiffs too, did Mr. Nola. 19 of them on 100 pitches, 12 of them on the curveball in that pitch. It's it's been a good pitch all year. It has a WIFF rate over 40%, but especially lately it has been dominating. I don't think that's too strong of a word for in his last three starts, Arandola has a 212 VRA and 13.2 K per nine. So we don't, I guess we didn't have stack cast data for his previous start 'cause it was Field of Dreams, but I was looking at the Baseball Savant game log and it did seem to, it does seem like pitch data got added in after the fact. So that was a little weird. I, I'm not exactly sure how that works if stack cast wasn't set up there, but I don't know. Bottom line is like it's three starts where he's done basically the same thing, but it's not like the pitch selection overall has changed that much during that stretch. I'm I'm not seeing a lot in the process that's actually changed here. The results are significantly better. And so I'm not saying nothing has changed. I'm I'm, but it's not, it's not the normal things we look for. Aaron Nola himself talks about how he's feeling better, how he's, you know, limiting walks, that sort of thing, just being more consistent, being more efficient, not really offering too much insight into what he's doing differently. But it's three starts in a row now where he's been on top of everything else, missing a lot of bats. And this time of year when we're all desperate for, for pitching help cuz they're dropping like flies, I, I think he's probably worth a look again, I'm, I'm, we talked about George Clawson yesterday. I'm I think I'm more interested in NOLA than Clawson personally. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think there's more. Well, I do think both pitchers are pretty volatile, especially Aaron Nola at this point in his career. Like he still does have an ERA over 5 at this point. So he is prone to blow up starts. But you know that the young gun the the mystery box, I guess with with George Clawson, I think I would still go with Clawson, but just in terms of usability next week, Aronola is at the Mariners and obviously pitching in Seattle is a great place to pitch. Mariners lineup is not very good and Aronola is much better on the road this season. So I do like that one as well. Scott, I actually looked at the last five starts for Nola. I know you mentioned the last three. Speaker 1 But the strikeout, the the big jump in strikeouts, which I find more convincing, I feel like we've had this tug of war with another pitcher, Tyler Malley, where you you wanted you go back a longer stretch for a low where it's been a low ERA. But the more convincing stretch is when the Wifs jump up for me. And so that's why I said last three. But you're right, it's been even longer than that, that Nola's ERA has improved. Speaker 2 Oh, I I can game log surf with the best of them. Sky I I finagle things all around to create whatever narrative I want to talk about. But the last five starts for Aradola, it's a 251 ERA, 129 WHIP. The walks were actually a little bit higher before this one when he walked zero in seven innings. But one thing I did notice that has changed, and I know Chris has brought this up, is he's been using his change up more so over the last five starts. Well, the previous four, it was like 26% usage. Today, on Wednesday, it was like 20%. But that still is up from his league, his season average of change of usage. But I just think using his fastball less and anything more is probably a good combination and like the curveball is the best of the best. Like that's what we want to see first and foremost. But if we can get change UPS in place of four seam fastballs, I think that can also be a recipe to help Aaron Nola have usable starts, which he has done recently. So that was just one other thing that I mentioned. But yeah, 56% roster. I, I like the match up for next week. So we'll be interested to see if he's on your sleeper pitchers. I think so, probably. Speaker 1 Probably will be if he's facing the worst offense in baseball after this kind of run he's on, yeah. Are Parker Messick and Cade Cavalli Becoming Aces? All right, again, that was Arinola, my Players of the Night, and I'm gonna cheat a little bit here. Double dip. And I mentioned up at the top, 2 pitchers I think might be gaining ace status, Parker Messick and Kate Cavalli. Both of these guys are on insane runs right now. Parker Messick, big whiffs here against the Giants, unfortunate loss. Like dude gives up one run and takes an L here. But six and 2/3 innings, one run, 10 strikeouts to zero walks, 19 whiffs on 98 pitches. His fastball was dominant, 15 of the 19 swinging strikes on that fastball. And it's kind of encouraging to me that he didn't have his change up at all in the star. Like it just was not working well. And that's typically his best pitch. And he still dominated the fastball. He used the slider a little bit more. That was a very good pitch for him in this one as well. But now this is 2 earned runs or fewer in eight straight for Parker Messick. And during that stretch, 188 ERA .96 WHIP, right around a strikeout per inning. He's just below that number, but he's limiting the walks and overall keeping runs off the board. He has been great. Kate Cavalli the other one six shutout innings, 11 strike gots here to one walk, 14 whiffs on 84 pitches. He did give up hard contact in this one. So he he he had been doing a better job of that seven hard hits, 92.1 average EV, but he was able to generate whiffs on his curveball and on his fastball. We know that curveball is, I think one of the best curveballs in all baseball with Kate Cavalli and obviously showed that again here and we've talked about this recently, how he is developing more into an actual pitcher, becoming more efficient, throwing more strikes, limiting walks and obviously has the stuff to rack up a lot of strikeouts as well. So this is his fifth start with double digit strikeouts this season. Kate Cavalli he has a quality start in eight straight and during that span, 198 ERA .92 with 57 strikeouts to just eleven walks over 50 innings pitch. So I, I know the the ace moniker kind of gets thrown around, but I, I don't know that these guys are in it yet, but I think they are getting dangerously close. Kyle, what do you think about Parker Messick and Kate Cavalli? Speaker 1 I can't disagree. I think the main thing holding Messick back is he He still tends to fall short of 6 innings. Seems to do that more often than not, but he's been great all year. I, I was actually, you mentioned the fastball use was up in this one for, for Parker Messick, that's been a long term trend. Seven of his last nine. So his season long fastball use is 38%. Seven of his last 9 notes been 50% or more. So he's really been spamming that pitch lately. And during those nine starts, 230 ERA .99 WHIP. That's really good. It's not that much better than his season numbers. His ERA and WHIP are only slightly higher than that. So I don't even know that it's made a substantive difference. He's just been good in in no matter how much he's thrown his fastball, he's been good. But Parker Messick being a rookie, he is a rookie technically isn't he haven't. Haven't heard much rookie of the year buzz for him have you? Really. That's interesting because he's got 4.5 WAR on Baseball Reference in addition to the Grady RN WHIP. Anyway, the point is early in his career hasn't hasn't been built up for that ace workload yet, which is a very part of a very big part of the ace equation, the ace formula. But he's getting there. I, I think the, the, the talent is there and I think as soon as next year we may see him in that light. And Kate Cavalli, we had our doubts early on with him, but he has legitimately gotten better over the course of the season. He's become a much better strike thrower. The strikeouts have trended up. He's and getting a ton of ground balls. Really the the big turn though was just cutting down on his walks. And it it doesn't seem like it was just a short term blip. It seems like genuine growth. And with each passing start it, it seems clear that Kate Cavali's here to stay. And I think his volume's actually pretty consistent in terms of going 6 plus, right, so. Speaker 2 Yeah, he's done it in eight straight because it's eight straight quality starts. Speaker 1 His ERA and his WHIP aren't as good as Messick's, mostly because of early on, again, he was walking more guys. But yeah, I, I, I stopped short of calling him an ace just because it is only about half a season of pitching like an ace, but it's, you know, he's he's trending that way too. I have a lot of confidence in Kate Cavalli going forward. Speaker 2 He did have the pedigree, right? Former first round pick. He dealt with a lot of arm injuries, but we always heard that he could throw hard and obviously he does do that, but he also has that wicked curveball as well. Parker Messick, I agree with you, especially early on in the season, he was not. He was. He was getting a 5 and a third and five and 2/3 very often and then they would just pull him and it was frustrating. But over his last 11 starts, he's gone 6 plus innings and seven of those. So it has gone better, gotten better as the season has gone on here for Parker Messick. I updated my pitcher rankings earlier on Wednesday. And of course, whenever you update the rankings, it feels like pitchers do something either really great or really bad that same night. And then you're like, oh, well, I don't know, Should I change this already? But Kate Cavalli, I moved up to 35. And I, I kind of just feel like that number should be higher. Some of the names I have just ahead of him, Reed Detmer's, Ian C Moore, Troy Melton, Imanaga Sandial Concert, George Kirby, Sean Burke, Logan Henderson, Those are the 8 or 9 pitchers that I have ahead of them. Speaker 1 Yeah, I like Cavalli more than most of those guys. So I agree you probably need to keep moving. Keep it moving, Frank. Speaker 2 Yep, I got to move. Speaker 1 I got to make some changes to my pitcher rankings here. Speaker 2 Yeah, I can definitely get Cavalli up to like that. I have Ashcraft Henderson, Sean Burke, 262728. I could put Cavalli in that group and have him inside the top 30. Like I'd I'd rather have Cavalli over George Kirby at this point. Like Kirby's been fine, whatever high floor. But you know, it's clearly not the pitcher that he he has been in previous years before we hit our first break. What's Going Wrong with Paul Skenes' Performance? I just feel like let's not spend as much time on his. Like Chris and I spoke about him for 10 minutes last week and I feel like we always just talk about him so much. But just another clunker from Paul Skein. So we'll get this one out of the way. But it was a rough one, even after extra rest that he was given here. 4 and a third innings, three runs, loud, four walks, 5 strikeouts. He has four walks in three of his last four starts. I guess the good news here is that the velocity was back up a little bit. And by that I mean compared to his previous starts. So it was now in line with his seasonal average, but it's it's not really up to where it was earlier in the season, but it was up in general here for Paul Skeens. And the updated numbers, last 10 starts, 582 ERA, 151 WHIP, 23 walks over 51 innings during that time. That's nearly four walks per nine. His ground ball rate is way down during that time as well. So lots of hard contact, lots of hard contact in the air. So what are your latest thoughts, Scott on on Paul Skeens? Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm not sure they changed from what I last talked about. Am I? I think Tom Ferducci's theory that he presented with visuals is the most compelling to me that he's he's off mechanically. He's more straight to the plate with his delivery. Before he had a bit of a, a, a crossover delivery. And it's, it's made him it, it's, it's, it's made his fastball less dominant. It's made his command less sharp. And until he fixes it, I think we're gonna continue to see starts like this. If not that, then there is an injury that hasn't been discovered yet. Speaker 2 Which could be. Speaker 1 Happened to that theory too. Speaker 2 Could be affecting his mechanics. Speaker 1 Sure. Yeah, Yeah. No, it could be both. You're right. That's all I can surmise for how a pitcher who looked like God's gift to pitching for two years suddenly seems very vulnerable after, I should say, 2 1/2 years because he was fine at the start of this year. It was really the end of June where this all started to fall apart. Yeah. I it's you shared with Chris and I via text today the results of the first NFBC draft for 2027, right? Do I have that right? Yeah. Is that what I was looking at? Correct. 15 teams, so bigger league and Paul Skeens went in the fifth round. Now it's a sample of 1. And obviously these early drafts especially, there's a lot of, it's a lot of flying by the seat of the pants, right? It's a, it's a lot of particularly all, all it takes is one person in the league when their pick is up to think of a guy like, Oh yeah, remember I thought of this guy, I better take him here. And it's not, there isn't a ton of organization. There isn't a lot of consensus yet, but I think you see that more reflected in players who move up the draft board. I'm more interested in the ones who've moved down the draft board. And so seeing Paul Skeens go as late as Round 5, surely there's some recency bias at play there. And I don't think he's actually going to go that late once drafting picks up in earnest. If he tells, I'll have a lot of Paul Skeens I guess. But it it shows just how much confidence in him has diminished over these last two months that again, he went from being God's gift to pitching and fantasy to 5th rounder in a 15 team league. Which is what about it was about the 70th pick. Speaker 2 The thing that stood out most was Kate Anderson went in the very next round, not the very next pick, but in the sixth round. So it was like just the interesting dichotomy there. I guess it's like the proven should be stud Paul Skein slipping now down to the fifth round, the guy who has not thrown an inning yet in the majors in the sixth round. So it was just pretty interesting to compare and contrast there. Yeah. And shout out to Rob Di Pietro, the Deadpool hitter on Twitter. I I know that they put out the draft board. And so if anyone else wants to check it out, it's an interesting concept, right? Because they're still, you know, like 5 six weeks left in the season. And I think that's part of why Skeens went so late in that particular draft is because between now and the end of the season, you could find out his arm is falling off. And then that pick can mean absolutely nothing, right? So it's just, it's, it's impossible to make draft picks for next season at this point. But it's just an interesting exercise to kind of get those wheels turning for next season. Paul Skeens 84% started on CBS. Scott, he's at the Padres next week, one of the hottest hitting teams in the second-half of the season. I would not start him. I, that might be crazy, but I, I, I, I kind of feel like I would rather use Arranola at the Mariners then Paul Skeens the way he's pitching right now against the Padres, who are hitting very well. Speaker 1 I think it's reasonable. I don't think, I don't think Skeens has been so bad that it's like, oh, I gotta get this guy out of my line up. You know, it hasn't been like Bryce Miller, for instance. Speaker 2 He's not completely crushing you, but he's just he's not helping either. Speaker 1 Right, Yeah. So if you wanna go, if you wanna go with a hotter hand with a better match up, I don't, I can't really dispute it. I my my instincts if that's the what the choice comes down to Skeens or NOLA for next week. I think I lean NOLA as well, so of course he's going to allow seven earn runs in four innings. Speaker 2 That is definitely in the range of outcomes for Aranola, but it feels like it's kind of in the range of outcomes for Paul's Keynes right now too. Before we hit our first break, make sure to hit that like button, subscribe or stay subscribed for the rest of the season until the end of time. We're going to have a lot to talk about in the offseason, maybe way more than we want, but we'll get we'll get there. When we get there. Let's let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Key Updates on deGrom, Marte, and Other MLB Players Welcome back to fantasy baseball today and let's hit the news and notes. Jacob degrom will officially start Thursday against the Nationals. He left his previous start with right triceps fatigue, so we'll have some eyes on that start. We'll see what the velocity looks like and how many pitches and how many innings he's allowed to throw cuz even before leaving his previous start, he's been pretty limited lately and honestly this hasn't been great. So we will have all eyes on Jacob degrom D backs GM Mike Hazen was noncommittal when asked whether Katel Marte will return the season. Such a bizarre situation with a lack of information. We we just have no idea what's going on with Marte. He did not show up for Monday's game in Fenway Park against the Red Sox. Then he was placed on the restricted list and then he was sent for an MRI on his knee. So we, we just don't really know what's going on with Catelle Marte and being on the restricted list. You can't even put them on your IL in fantasy, which is annoying as well. So it's like, all right, what are we doing with Catelle Marte? Speaker 1 It's a case by case basis of course. My instinct would be to try as hard as I could to keep him around unless it's a leak so shallow that. You know, second base, it's it's it's been a position of some surplus this year, I would say. And if you have another, you've just happened into another really good option there. Fine, maybe you can afford to part with Katel Marte, But if it's like a typical league, I I doubt you're going to find a magical second base Kirov waiver wire and Katel Marte's been a high end option there for many years. So in theory, if there's any hope of him coming back and you're still contending for something, you, you want to you, you, you want to take that chance that he actually does come back and, and you're, you're willing to sacrifice a roster spot to do it. But you know, it depends how many roster spots you're already sacrificing on other things. It depends how again, how abundant your waiver wire is, how good your second base alternative is it, it depends on a lot of things, but it generally speaking I would try to hold out. Speaker 2 Joe Ryan threw a 25 pitch bullpen on Tuesday. He's working his way back from a left glute strain. Edwin Diaz had an MRI on his neck that revealed no additional damage. He is dealing with some inflammation there and Tanner Scott picked up yet another save. So two days is closer. 2 saves there for Tanner Scott. 66% rostered on CBS. That number should be closer to 100%. Jeremy Pena left early Wednesday after getting hit by a 100 mile per hour sinker on his right hand. X-rays came back negative. Good news. Jack Caglione left early with right ankle soreness and I did not really see anything after the game. No updates, no quotes, so hopefully it's not too serious for Kags. Vlad Junior went through a full workout on Wednesday and is targeting a return to the Blue Jays on Saturday. Cody Bellinger could return as soon as Sunday. He's supposed to start his rehab assignment here on Thursday. Samwell Basayo was activated by the Orioles. He started at first base and hit cleanup. He went one for three with a hit by pitch. Daniel Palencia will. Speaker 1 They trade Adlai Rushman and they bring Basayo back as a first baseman. It's. Speaker 2 Kind of weird, yeah. Speaker 1 I mean, obviously just 'cause that's the first game he plays back from the IO. It's not like he's it's not like they're declaring him a first baseman now, but it's it's still weird. It just seemed like he'd be a full time catcher going forward. Speaker 2 Yeah. And they, yeah, technically they're catch. They're carrying three catchers on the roster because they have Samuel, Basayo, Carlos and Irvaez. And then Yohel Pozo came in the game later in that game. So it's, I don't know, I don't really know what's going on with the Orioles roster management right now. Daniel Palencia will be reinstated from the IL on Friday. It's unclear who will be the Cubs closer the rest of the way. And we know that Jacob Webb has been pitching very well. I believe just yesterday, Scott, you expect Daniel Palencia to very quickly kind of retake that closer role, right? Speaker 1 That would be my expectation. Can't guarantee it of course, but it they seem pretty thrilled with Valencia in the role before all these injuries came up and they seem reluctant to move Jacob Webb into the role when Valencia was out. So I would guess their opinions there haven't changed, but I could be wrong. Webb has pitched well, and they may not want to rock the boat too much. Speaker 2 Ben Brown is slated to throw against live hitters Friday at the Cubs facility in Arizona. He was awesome before a before he suffered a stress reaction in his neck. I don't think there's enough time here to get for him to get built up as a starter once again for the Cubs, but I do think he makes for a very, very intriguing sleeper for next season again, that is Ben Brown. Jacob Wilson has missed three straight with a sore left shoulder. Nolan Arenado returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with left side discomfort. The Brewers activated Cooper Pratt from the IL. He is 40% rostered and he was heating up before he got hurt. Scott, where would you rank Cooper Pratt among the rookie shortstop? So Lombard, Anhel Ha, now Kaylin Culpepper. Where is Cooper Pratt in that mix? Speaker 1 No, no, I, I put him behind Lombard. I was holding up the one finger like, you know, Doctor Strange and Avengers end game. But no, I put him second behind Lombard. I think he was looking really good though. Cooper Pratt, stealing plenty of bases, getting on base, not a lot of power, but those others in that group haven't done much at all. Speaker 2 And we will catch you up on what they're doing in just a little bit. The Angels reliever Sammy Natera junior, he is nursing a tight back and his day-to-day. That's why he has not appeared in a game in over a week. Xander Bogart's left early with a right hamstring injury. Jorge Polanco will have season ending surgery on his left ankle. Marcelo Meyer could make his Giants debut on Monday. And in 70 games this season with the Red Sox, he hit just 220 with three homers. 3 deals. Former top prospect. It has not worked so far in the majors. Don't really see why it would work out very well in Oracle Park. 18% roster. Do you have any deep league interest in Marcelo Meyer? Speaker 1 I have virtually no interest in Marcelo Meyer. I picked him up in an NL only league. Speaker 2 That's exactly where that's exactly where I'm looking at him as well. Speaker 1 Yeah, I obviously he wasn't part of the NL only player pool until recently and I guess since he was on the IL, others didn't think to pick him up first. So I have him there, but I'm not expecting much. I think it's telling. I think it's telling how quickly the Red Sox gave up on him. Then again, they've been making a lot of short sighted decisions on the trade market lately, as the Brewers can point out with Kyle Harrison and the Dodgers can point out with James Tibbs and I don't know, maybe Marcelo Meyer. The Giants will score a win there, too, but we've seen next to nothing from him now in between both this year and last in the majors. Speaker 2 And last but not least, the Phillies signed Nestor Cortez to a Major League contract. He had surgery last October to repair a tendon tear in his throwing arm and he will have a chance. I don't know how built up he is, but he will have a chance to make it into the Phillies rotation. No I guess they they called up Andrew Painter recently. I felt like they were using a bullpen game recently but now it looks like they do have 5. So probably more of a, a, a relief role than anything for Nestor Cortez. Comparing Top Players and Prospects in 'Would You Rather' Would you rather here we go. I'm gonna pit a couple players up against each other and I've got a bunch of these. So let's get into it. Young upside, starting pitchers with control problems. And neither was great on Wednesday. But Walbert Orania, 5 innings, three hits, three runs, 7 strikeouts. He did have 14 whiffs on 94 pitches and Roki Sasaki, who survived Kors Field 5 innings for him, seven hits, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk. Both of them did have a lot of whiffs. Sasaki had 18 whiffs and Arania had 14. If I pull up the schedules for next week, it looks like Arania for two home against the Guardians, home against the Phillies and Sasaki, it's one start at the Atlanta Braves. So that could factor into your decision. Scott, would you rather Walbert Arania or Roki Sasaki? Speaker 1 Just for next week. Speaker 2 In general, you could answer for both if you want. Speaker 1 Well, I mean next week I'll go with the two star guy Irania. I think Sasaki is more talented and has shown it consistently enough over it didn't write down the stretch of time, but it's been, it's been close to two months now, right Sasaki? Speaker 2 It's basically been the the second-half of the season. Speaker 1 Yeah, which has been the last A7 start stretch. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 Where he's really lived up to his upside. And so if we're looking beyond next week, whether it's rest of season or next year or dynasty or whatever, I'd, I'd, I'd rather have Sasaki. But for next week, Irena. Speaker 2 All right, Next up, would you rather more young, upsidey starting pitchers? AJ Smith, Schauver. A rough line here in his return, but I think it was a little unlucky. 4 and a third innings, Five hits, four runs, three walks, 3 strikeouts. He did have 13 swinging strikes on 75 pitches. 11 of those came on a splitter. He got through 4 innings, just one run, and then he struggled in his final inning of work. He left with two earned runs and couple runners on base. The reliever came in and kind of jacked up the line. There he is 29% rostered. Looks like he's in line for two against the Dodgers and the Rockies next week. And then Jackson Job is the other name. 5 and a third. One run, three walks, 3 strikeouts here. 1 earned runner fewer in two of three starts. The other one, it was 6 earned runs. So and four strikeouts or less in all. All three of those 57% rostered one start against the Rays next week. Scott, would you rather AJ Smith, shover or Jackson job? Speaker 1 I don't care for Smith shover. See how I threw your curveball there? Little curveball? I don't know, like obviously I'm, I'm just, I'm just meeming up here and don't take anything I say too literally. But I have been more discouraged than not. I'd say from Smith Shovers 2 starts in the majors this year. He had two whiffs total in the first start. That was on about 60 pitches. In the second start he did have 13 whiffs. As you say, 11 came on the splitter, 0 on the fastball. Like the fastball is not missing bats at all through two starts. But you know, and it's it's now it's a trend because it's two starts. And also the velocity was much lower in this second start than the first start. Like on everything. Yeah. So I I just don't see any justification to use Smith Shaw for next week, even with two starts, One's against the Dodgers and you said the others, the other was in Colorado. Speaker 2 No, it is in Atlanta against the. Speaker 1 Rockies OK, well, that that's a little better, but Even so, I I think we need to see a good start from Smith shover in the majors before I'm ready to trust him like that. Now Jackson job, I'm not blown away by what he's doing either. He did change up. He did change his pitch mix in this one threw a lot more sinkers, 28% versus 8% previously. It was mostly at the expense of the slider, which was supposed to be a great pitch for him. That's always what the scouting report said so far, the slider at least coming into the start, 11% with rate, which would be bad for A4 seamer. A slider with an 11% with rate that does not sound good. So they're having them learn more into a a pitch to contact approach. It seemed like with so many sinkers in this start and you got a good result. To be fair, I'm just not seeing the upside at the moment. I'm not saying it's gone. I'm not saying Job is never going to live up to his prospect potential, but I'm not seeing the upside right now. And so I'm I kind of want to do neither. But if you're forcing me to pick one, I'll pick Job. Speaker 2 I guess I mean, that is helpful for the listeners that you just don't really have confidence in either 1. So I will accept neither as an answer there. What about for these next two corner infielders? And both of them have sound drops. So it's the battle of the sound drops here. Vinnie Pascuantino, Vinnie P baby, he is back with a vengeance. 3 for four with a walk, his 7th home run, three runs, two RBI. The Homer came off of a lefty 4 hard hits in this game all 4 / 102 mph, the home run 105.6 EV 427 feet and I believe he just missed a home run on Tuesday night as well like it was a double off the top of the wall. So could have been back-to-back games here with the Homer. Maybe the hand is and wrist are finally healthy for Vinnie P who is 70% rostered and the other name is Josh Bell. One for three with a walk in RBI and a run scored. Not a outstanding game or anything, but the updated August numbers 361. Four homers and OPS over 1000. Scott. Who do you like more as a cornerbat, Vinnie P or Josh Bell? Speaker 1 I like Josh Bell because I, I don't know, he's been, he's actually been good this year and Vinnie Pasquantino, for the most part, hasn't. Maybe we're seeing the start of, of, of Pasquantino getting right here. It was his first home run since returning in those fourteen games and he has looked better. But Bell's been good enough that I don't see any reason to go away from him. Speaker 2 All right, well, you know, I just Vinnie Pease is a guy I always want to root for. So I I do hope that he turns things on. And obviously it's only three games, but he has looked better since returning. And again, yes, hopefully he is finally healthy. Once again that is. Speaker 1 I mean even at his best his his career high in OPS is 798. If any Pascuantino, it was technically higher as a rookie, but he played 72 games so. Speaker 2 It wasn't over 800 last year. Speaker 1 Nope, 798. Speaker 2 Wow. All right, I guess we all got sucked into that Team Italy World Baseball Classic. Sipping the espresso, huh? Maybe we were sipping a little bit too much. Vinnie P Kool-aid. How about that? Speaker 1 Now, now, if he is that still, I mean, that was 32 home runs, 798 OPS, Josh Bell 751 OPS coming into play Wednesday. So it would be better. But you're asking Pascuantino to be at his best all of a sudden, rather than what he's actually been for most of this year, which is at his worst. So I I think I'd just stick with. Speaker 2 Bell is that, do we have one on the bug counter? Scott did. We just did. We smash. Speaker 1 No, I just. I just picked up my phone for no apparent reason and then set it down clumsily. That's it. All right, sorry for the thud. Speaker 2 Let's continue on with a catcher. Would you rather Alejandro Kirk stayed hot 2 for five with his 7th home run? Last 22 games, 380 with five homers, 17 RBI, his OPS up over 1000. And Rafael Flores came on as a pinch hitter and made a big impact to Homer twice, including one of them in the ninth inning to tie the game here. Both homers over 400, 20 feet. The one in the ninth inning was 110 mph off the bat. And over his last seven games, he's 10 for 23 with five homers and ten RBI. This would you rather doesn't seem like it should compare because their roster rates are very different. But if you told me you just wanted to shoot for upside with Flores over Kirk, I don't think that's crazy either. So would you rather Kirk or Flores? Speaker 1 I mean, I gotta go with Kirk if it's if, if we're comparing apples to apples here, Like it's just it, it's it seems too cute to go with Flores when when Kirk is a perfectly stable option who happens to be hot right now. And so that's even better stable and hot. Flores, though, is is interesting. I don't know why he was so bad in the minors this year and has come up looking awesome. I mean, three of his bad balls in this game were and I made a note of this, three of his batted balls were no, it was just the two home runs. The two home runs were hit one O 6.4 and 110. The 110 makes it his hardest hit ball of the season, majors or minors. So he's turned it on here and it's it's been long enough that you know, I'm not inclined to dismiss it completely, especially since he was so good in the minors 2 years ago. But where did it come from and where does it go? I I think the uncertainty there would lead me to call Rafael Flores just a an option for for two catcher leagues where you really don't like your second catcher. Speaker 2 I was really hoping we would get the the continued lyrics to cotton eye Joe there, but Rafael Flores 9% roster. If we do, would you rathers with other names like in closer to his roster rate? There was a few that I saw Eduardo Valencia still not playing enough, but he's made a impact in a small sample too. Who'd you take there, Flores or Valencia? Speaker 1 Flores. Speaker 2 Would you rather Rafael Flores or Luis Compusano, who's hit very well? It's not really playing enough. Speaker 1 Yeah, so you gave me the answer, Flores. Speaker 2 Rafael Flores or Moises by Esteros, who's playing a lot but has done nothing. Speaker 1 Yeah, so Flores, like you're making it clearly Flores is the best of his class. All right, Those being what Catcher's rostered in less than 25% of leagues. Speaker 2 So let's bump up a class. How about Flores versus the Marlins guys Joe Mack and Augustine Ramirez? Speaker 1 I'll take Flores over them, OK? Speaker 2 And now I'm interested to see how high we can go. Einer Diaz had 40% rostered. He's kind of crap. Speaker 1 Beat. Oh, I haven't looked at Diaz lately, but you're telling me he's kind of crap? So. Speaker 2 On the season, 252 with eight homers and 66. Speaker 1 Games. I mean look, the bottom line is if you think you have the bad catcher, Flores might be better than bad so swap him out. If you think you have a good catcher, just stick with that good catcher because most likely Flores is not that good but at least at least there's a chance with him unlike some of those other guys. Speaker 2 All right, last, would you rather on the player side, we have corner infielders, deeply corner infielders here, Charles McAdoo and Andres Chaparro. Charles McAdoo went three for four with two RBI in his first steal. He has started seven of the last nine games for the Blue Jays. A little unsure where he plays if Vlad actually does return this weekend, but having a pretty good season in the minors this year was Charles McAdoo and Andres Chaparro. Got a start at DH against a right-handed pitcher. He typically only plays against lefties. Has now started three of the last five against right-handed pitchers and he went three for four with his eighth home run. And his underlying date is pretty good. Scott so deeply corner guy. Would you rather Charles McAdoo or Andres Chaparro? Very deeply. Speaker 1 Yeah, well, I think I'm going to have to say McAdoo because of the playing time. Let me double check that he hasn't quite been playing every day himself. Speaker 2 And do you think that he'll have a spot if Vlad returns this weekend? I guess. Speaker 1 The question they put. Speaker 2 Vladdy at DH and Okamoto at 1st and Matt could do a third. I guess they could do that. Speaker 1 Isn't Vlad like a glove caliber first baseman though? Well. Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, they could, you know, kind of mix it up. But either way, like Springer mostly. Speaker 1 They have room at the DH spot to play right well. Speaker 2 Springer mostly plays DHI forgot about him. He doesn't really play the outfield anymore. Speaker 1 You're right. Speaker 2 So. Speaker 1 McAdoo has appeared as a left fielder during this time. He's been up and, and they they have room in the outfield for him if they want to keep him around. But it's a fairpoint. Chaparro. Chaparro's interesting. I mean, he's, he clobbered the ball today. 3 batted balls over 104. And since he has played against a couple right handers recently in the Nationals, you know, they have some openings after the trade deadline. Maybe, maybe they do give him some looks down the stretch. He's already 27. It's not like he's a building block in all likelihood. But he hits the ball hard. He's his walk rate has actually been really good. Strikeout rate decent polar rate good like I yeah there's a path to success here. I I think there is for McAdoo as well. McAdoo seems like a really good back control guy who can get into one often enough to to to be of some value 16 home runs in 89 games of AAA this year. But the the zone contact rate, very impressive, about 90% and good line drive stroke too. So I I like them. Like neither one of them is probably a huge upside guy, but they're interesting enough data points here for me to say I like Andres Chaparro and Charles McAdoo is so really comes down to playing time, I guess. I guess I've talked myself into Chaparro after kind of leaning McAdoo at first, but clearly it's a thin line. Clearly it's just if you could, if you could make a strong enough case that one's gonna get more playing time than the other, then OK, I'll, I'll go with the one who I think's gonna play more. Speaker 2 Yeah, I am. I think I would lean Chaparro again, starting again, three of the last five, and it's only 28 at bats, but he has a 1235 OPS against righty. So I think the Nationals should just throw him out there and see what he could do against both left-handed and right-handed pitching. That doesn't mean that they will do it just 'cause I want them to do it. I also have them in my NLA League. So let's go Andres Chaparro, let's let's get some more playing time. And the last, would you rather, Scott, would you rather a bowl of ice cream or a bowl of spaghetti? Feels topical with our conversations. Speaker 1 Lately, Yeah. So I was thinking about this the other day yesterday when I said there are worse things you could eat every day than spaghetti. And one of the things I was thinking was ice cream. Ice cream is probably a worse thing to eat every day, and I got in the habit of eating ice cream every day and then my cholesterol readings came back high, so I had to break that habit and it was now I eat. Now I eat ice cream like once a week. Speaker 2 But now you should experiment on yourself and eat a bowl of spaghetti every day. Get your cholesterol levels and see if if it also goes up. Speaker 1 The triglyceride spike. Speaker 2 If they don't, then that. Speaker 1 Means. Speaker 2 It actually is healthier to eat a bowl of spaghetti every day. Speaker 1 Well, for me, like, I mean, I think part of this is everybody's body responds in a different way to, to, to these conditions and in different states of life. Obviously it responds differently, but I like ice cream more. I, I would rather eat a bowl of I, I, I actually was eating ice cream every day. I was not eating spaghetti every day like spaghetti, Don't get me wrong. But I'll take the I'll take the bowl of ice cream if there are no health ramifications. Speaker 2 We know which way I'm going, obviously, based on yesterday's conversation. I like both a lot too. I would go with the bowl of spaghetti, give me a little spicy marinara sauce in there as well. I would text Chris. I feel like he's probably not awake at this point and I don't want to scare him, but he would have to be the tiebreaker. So perhaps I'll ask him on Thursday and and I'll I'll report back on Friday. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll check back in on the prospects, see how they're doing, ask some waiver wire leftovers and we'll get to that right after this. How Are Joshua Baez and Top Shortstop Prospects Performing? Welcome back fantasy baseball today and let's check back in on the prospects, the recent call ups and see how they are doing. And Joshua Baez, it's interesting, right? He had the three Homer game and then did nothing until Wednesday where he did not start, but he actually came off the bench and made an impact. He went one for one with a walk and two steals. The games in between this one and his three Homer game, he went over 17 with 7 strikeouts. Scott. So I kind of feel like we're going to see a lot of this potential streakiness from Joshua Baez. Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean the the the duality of Joshua Baez. I think we've seen it here in this short time and I pointed out after the three Homer game, as exciting as it was, as as much as everyone was right to respond to it like they did. Those three home runs came off Matthew Libertour, who doesn't throw very hard. Matthew Boyd. I'm I'm sorry, Matthew Boyd yeah, had the wrong I had the wrong not hard throwing Matthew left-hander in the NL Central. Matthew Boyd, the all three home runs came off Matthew Boyd. And Joshua Baez struggles in particular with is with high heat. So that is a pitcher he should have owned, and he did. And I think he's talented. But will other Major League pitchers be better able to exploit his weakness? Well, maybe that's what we've seen since. Maybe it's just baseball. And, you know, you're supposed to fail more than you succeed. But but yeah, I think, I think now some doubt has crept in how valuable bias is going to be the rest of the way. Not saying you drop him if you picked him up. It's still a lot to work out here. But it it took a while for him to get that fourth hit. Speaker 2 And then checking back in on the shortstop prospects. George Lombard Junior. He has held up. Honestly, all three have held up so far pretty nicely. He went 2 for three with two RBI. He has started each game in 13 games so far. 318 batting average, 2 homers, 1 steal in 857 OPS. Kaylin Culpepper. He went three for four with a run score. He has started six straight and 11:50 since getting called up and so far he is 11 for 35314 batting average with one Homer, eight O 4 OPS and on Hell now he keeps racking up the hits 2 for four with two singles. Nothing else. Has started 11 of 13 games since getting called up and is hitting 341 with one Homer, seven runs, one steal in 876 OPS. So Scott, your thoughts so far on these three and has your ranking of the three changed at all? Lombard, Culpepper and Anhel Hanau. Speaker 1 I don't think it's changed. I know I had Lombard number one and he's been the most productive so far and I think he has the highest upside. So I'm sticking with that and. Speaker 2 I know this doesn't matter much, but his defense I I don't know if you've watched or seen any of these numbers, Scott, he already has 8 defensive runs saved in 11 or 12. It's I haven't seen anything like it. It's. Speaker 1 Certainly matters for like job security. Not that not that he's hitting a way that would make it insecure. Now in Culpepper, I don't care as much. It's kind of just either of you show me something, I'll I'll prefer you. They're not doing much right now. And I'd yeah, I'd drop either for Cooper Pratt if somebody made Cooper Pratt available when he first went on the ILI know he was expected to miss more time than it seems like he's going to. I I I don't have much confidence in an hour Culpepper right now. I was dropping Culpepper and some roto leagues even as deep as you go into the hitter pool. I just needed to make better use of that roster spot. Deep Dive into Waiver Wire Gems and Bullpen Situations Some waiver wire hitter leftovers here. Anything to see here with these two. Ryan Waltzman has looked better since returning to to the D backs. He went 2 for three with two walks and his seventh stolen base. 26 games in the second-half, 321, two homers, 15 runs scored, one steal, 848 OPS. Another one like he's hitting well, but there isn't enough oomph. You know, we're not getting a lot of power and speed from Ryan Walshmidt. And then Matt McClain has looked better since returning from the IL 20 games since coming back, he is hitting 2:38 with three homers, 4 steals, a 754 OPS. Both are right at 27% rostered. Anything to see here with either Ryan Walshmidt, Matt McClain? Speaker 1 I don't think there's much to see with McClain. I have been encouraged for the most part by this return for Walshmidt. He is hitting the ball significantly harder. Hasn't translated to a lot of power yet, but he has been. Looks like he was in a little mini slump before this game. He had been piling up a lot of hits. But yeah, he was. He was in a little. He was in a rough stretch there. Overall though, I like what he's been doing and I think he's trending up the right direction and I think if as long as the Diamondbacks stick with him, he'll be worth using. A5 outfielder leaks. Speaker 2 How would you rank these 3? Ryan Walschmidt, Zach Veen and Henry Bolte. Speaker 1 Man, I feel like I'm picking on Veen, which I don't want to feel that way because I like Zach Veen, but I'm going to go Walschmidt, Bolte, Veen. It's just a playing time issue for Veen. It's the main thing, yeah. Speaker 2 I I hear you with the playing time, I think I would still put Veena at the top of the list, I think and he still comes into games as a pinch hitter even when he doesn't play start against lefties. But I do think he's gonna start against most, if not all righties. And I just think there's more impact in his bat over the other two. So I'll I'll take the slightly lesser playing time, but perhaps more impact on a per game basis there with Zack Veen, waiver wire pitcher leftovers. Clay Holmes was OK against the White Sox, 5 and a third innings, one run, two walks to 1 strikeout. The velocity down across the board. That is 2 starts in a row where the Velo has been down here for Clay Holmes. His first start with the Cubs was rough. The last two have been solid. He's he's at the D backs next week. And I think we need to reframe how we view the D backs because if there's no Katel Marte in the lineup and they've also just been bad against righties this season, I think Clay Holmes at the D backs could actually be a pretty good start next next week. Speaker 1 Yeah, that's fine. I I don't entirely trust Clay Holmes. He has had two good starts in a row, basically no strikeouts, velocity's down on everything, one to two mph. Is he just getting away with it? Definitely suspicious of that, but if you need a streamer I could think of worse ones. Hopefully you don't need a streamer. Like, we talk about streamers a lot because it's actionable, but the ideal scenario is you never need to use one, right? Yeah, I can think of worse one than Clay Holmes though. Speaker 2 Yeah. Would you hold or drop? Dustin May got crushed by the Mariners 2 innings, seven hits, seven runs allowed in this one. And he did continue to use that cutter more, which seems like a trend here with the Brewers. But it really had nothing working. It had one way of 9% CSW, Five hits against that cutter on 7 batted balls despite a 69.8 average X velocity. So that seemed kind of weird and unlucky for Dust and me. Speaker 1 That's the impression I got. So it the pitch selection was very similar to the first two starts with the Brewers, which were very successful. He gave up seven hits. Only one of them was an extra base hit, a double. He had only three hard hit balls and the for the game not just on the cutter but for everything. Dustin May's average exit velocity was 76.9 which is really good. So I I didn't watch the game. I don't know how these hits looked, but by the data sounds like he had a lot of bad luck and so I would not be jumping ship here. Speaker 2 He did have at least There was one single that had a 170 batting average. There was another one that had a 220. Speaker 1 Expected. Speaker 2 Batting average. Excuse me. Yeah. Another one that was at 290. So that's a little bit, I mean, not as defensible, but at least two of the hits, you know, had Xbas at 2:20 or lower. So yeah, I think I would be holding on Dustin May. Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't drop Dustin May for Clay Holmes, for example. Speaker 1 I mean, an expected batting average of 290 on a bat at ball is still, you're not expecting that to be a hit. Yeah, it's the ones that are 500 or higher that you're expecting to be hits. Speaker 2 Yeah. So he did have at least three that were, I mean, below 300 xba, right? Yeah. So are you holding? You might have said that already. Yeah, Yeah, a deeper name here. You mentioned him earlier, Matthew Liberatore with a quality start at the Red. 6 innings, three runs, 9 strikeouts to zero walks. He still only had eight swinging strikes here on 100 pitches. He has looked better in August in four starts, four O 3 ERA, but a .9 O WHIP and over a strikeout per inning lines up for the Orioles and the Pirates next week. Pirates are much better against righties than they are against lefties, so this is kind of like a deep league streamer. But any way you would consider Liberatore with the Orioles and Pirates next week? Speaker 1 I gotta do it. Yeah, right. Strikeouts. I mean, good for him, but it's I don't see a lot to, I don't see a lot that inspires confidence here. Speaker 2 And then some very deep names. Jose Erkiti was awesome in bulk relief at the Cubs. 6 shutout innings with eight strikeouts. He had eight swinging strikes on 68 pitches. And he was pitching pretty well in the minors. 348 ERA, one O 6 WHIP there for Jose Erkiti. Adrian Hauser has been pitching better for the Giants. 5 shutout innings, 3 strikeouts. And over his last 11 games, only one of those a start. So it's mostly relief appearances, but a 150 ERA .91 WHIP for Adrian Hauser. And then I'll just mention tugboat Matt Wilkinson who got called up. I don't really understand the point. Like they called him up to be an opener. They only threw two. He threw 2 innings, They were shut out, one hit, zero walks, 0 strikeouts. I did not have a single swinging strike. But he was a marvel on the mound. He he is fun. He's one to watch for sure. I I just don't really get why they didn't let him throw more innings in this one. But three very deep league names got anything here? Matt Wilkinson, Adrian Hauser and Jose Arkiti. Speaker 1 I mean, Arkiti looked really good in this one and it was the first time he's looked really good all year. So I'm kind of just want to brush it off. And I did not even spend a second looking into Adrian Hauser. So that that shows you my level of interest there. Speaker 2 All right, some hitting leftovers. Carson Binge having himself a strong August 2 for four with his 15th home run. And in the month 311, four homers with a 930 OPS. Pete Alonso hit a bomb. It should have been 2/1 for four with his 29th home run. Scott, did you see the replay of the Pete Alonso foul versus fair home run call down the line? Speaker 1 I did not. Speaker 2 All right, you check that out. You let me know what you think. I mean, unless the replay center had replays that we were not seeing or that I was not seeing because at least on the Yankees broadcast, every single one looked like it was inside of the foul pole. So I I felt like there should have been two home runs for Pete Alonso here, but he is on a heater his last 10 games, 19 for 38, with six home runs during that stretch. Speaker 1 So you're saying you saw angles that clearly showed it fair. Speaker 2 Yes. Speaker 1 It's hard to The problem was it was so far above the foul pole. You know that it gets into, you know how the camera's positioned, the angle that the camera's positioned relative to what you're looking at. It can be misleading where like you, you can, you can think it. It's just misleading. Camera angles make things misleading when you're having to, when you're having to judge where something is relative to something else. With a foul pole, usually it's not higher up than the foul pole. So you can see if the white goes on the inside of foul pole, if the little white sphere passes on the inside or if it passes on the outside, 'cause it disrupts the yellow when you're watching the replay, right? The fact that it was so high I think makes it a little hard to say for sure. And if you're not sure and the initial call was foul, then you probably have to stick with foul. Speaker 2 Yeah, there are a couple of different like views here. The one on the the Yankee broadcast, it looked clear as day. But then there's another one here from Jacob Calvin Meyer who covers the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun where it looks very foul. So I, I guess perhaps the replay center was looking at that one. But every, everyone I saw before that one looked like it was pretty fair. So yeah, you know. Speaker 1 I, I just, I know it comes up when the camera is positioned behind the pitcher's mound in a, in a less than optimal way. It can kind of play tricks on you the way the ball is moving because you're, our eyes are limited in how we can and, and the ways we can measure these things. And so if you're just relying on your eyes and you don't have like a clear giveaway, like again, the white passing over the yellow, I mean, your eyes aren't going to play tricks on you with that. If you're if you're just having to gauge the the direction of something on the X axis relative to something on AY axis and there's space in between them, it's just it's you're not going to be very good at gauging that. Speaker 2 Yeah. But also it's it's 2026 and I feel like we have the technology to get this right. You know, it's like, is there a chip inside the ball that you could just kind of track the batted ball and see like, you know, whether or not it was fair? Like, I don't know. It just it feels like this is a solvable problem. In the year 2026, Jordan Walker looks just fine. He went one for four with a walk in his 25th home run. He did struggle out of the gate in the second-half. But so far in August, 338, three homers, 3 sealed, 940 OPS. He is awesome. Sal Stewart, also awesome. And he clobbered another Homer. That's not the right sound drop. I swear I changed it. What happened there? I don't know. Yeah. Well, I I definitely changed it beforehand. I don't know what happened. There you go. There's your your Sal Stewart, Super Mario, but his 27th home run and he Mario, Mario. Someone else yelled at me about that but. Speaker 1 Mario. Speaker 2 It is what it is. Man leads Major League Baseball and RBI. How about that Sal Stewart, 94, of those bad boys? Speaker 1 For on a bad offense. Speaker 2 True that. Josh Naylor is picking things back up 3 for five with his 25th stolen base. Last nine games he is 15 for 36 with two homers and three steals. The batting average, the steals right where they should be or even better with the with the steals. But everything else, just dreadful for Josh Naylor this year. The home runs, the runs, the RBI, the OPS. Everything else down for him and Jackson Trio picking things back up 3 for five with his 12th stone base. And in August, 309, four homers, 2 steals, 926 OPS for Jackson Cheerio, Some pitching leftovers. Michael King took a tough loss at the Mets. 6 2/3, two runs, two walks, 4 strikeouts. Taj Bradley was OK against the Braves had been struggling recently. 5 innings, two hits, one run, 7 strikeouts to three walks. And Peyton Tolley was just OK against the D backs. 5 innings, three runs, six strikeouts to two walks. He did throw that curveball over 10% of the time. So I feel like I always need to point that out for you. Now, Scott. And the last thing here what what happened at your Rasmussen? He got bombed by the Blue Jays, 5 innings, five runs, five strikeouts to two walks. Any thoughts on Rasmussen, Tolley, Taj and Michael King? Speaker 1 Yeah, I think Rasmussen's allowed to have a start like this occasionally. They've been so rare, I wouldn't make anything of it. You say Taj Bradley was OK against the Braves? I think he's pretty darn good. Had a 180 ERAA, 100 WHIP, and more than a strikeout per inning in this one. Speaker 2 Yeah, but only 5 innings and three walks in five innings is a pretty bad ratio. Speaker 1 Well, the walks are the big concern for Bradley because this is now six of his last 7 starts where he's had three walks or more were. Speaker 2 You expecting me to do the thing? Speaker 1 I did it first. Speaker 2 Yeah, it's it's 5.2 walks per 9 during that seven star stretch. By the way, it's bad for Taj. Speaker 1 Yeah, it's not, it's not what you wanna see. And I do think it spells trouble in the long run if it continues. It's it's funny how there's such a clear dividing line between two walks and three and a start, right? If a guy walks 2 and a start, you don't even notice. If a guy walks 3, it's like. Speaker 2 That is true though. Speaker 1 It's, it's I, I yeah, it's so clear that that distinction between those two integers in that stat. Speaker 2 All right, I did have one other name here, kind of confused by Brandon Fott. Who? I mean, on paper, he had a regression start here, five runs over 5 2/3 innings, but 8 strikeouts to zero walks. He had 17 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. And look, for most of the stretch it seemed completely unrealistic and not sustainable. But he now has 13 or more swinging strikes and back-to-back starts. So I'm just left wondering like, I don't know, is Brandon Fott starting to figure out the whiffs? I I'm kind of confused by that one. Speaker 1 I mean, if this is the trade off, do we want it? Do we want him to figure out the whiffs? Speaker 2 He's bad, but he gets whiffs or he's good and he doesn't get whiffs. Speaker 1 So the the turn around happened because of his change up and a mechanical change that made the change up more effective. In this start, he threw a lot more of the sweeper, which was kind of his old go to and it was a better bat missing pitch and he missed more bats. But the previous nine starts on the strength of change up, he had a 115 ERA and you know, gave up five run runs in this one, even though he got more with. So I I don't know, maybe the perfect version of thought the the one that combines the best of everything doesn't exist, but I I wouldn't consider this start a step in the right direction necessarily. Speaker 2 All right, yeah. I mean, it's, it's weird. I I hate whenever we do that too, or I do that, it's like a guy goes on this run where he gets really good results with his ear and whip, but he doesn't get strikeouts or doesn't look sustainable. And then the first start where he gets blown up, it's like, oh, he got whiffs now. And then it's like, well, I can't buy into that start because it technically wasn't a good one. So it's just, I don't know, a weird, weird run here for Brandon Fott, the call to the bullpen for the Dodgers. Top Pitcher Streamer Options for the Week Ahead I mentioned another day, another save for Tanner Scott, who is 66% rostered and he is the top reliever priority right now in leagues where he's available. For the Giants, Dylan Smith entered in the 8th inning with A1 run lead. He tossed 2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and he picked up his third save. He seems like the guy for the Giants right now. For the Mets, Kodai Senga got the 9th with a three run lead. He allowed a run on a walk and two hits, but picked up his fourth save. And Scott, did you see the entrance for Kodai Sangha? Speaker 1 I did see that one, Yes I did. Speaker 2 Beat it baby, it's fun. I like that they had an image of him on the the big video scoreboard of him wearing the red Michael Jackson jacket. Speaker 1 Yes, and, and Mr. Met was jamming out, busting some moves out there had a couple other dancers like, you know, they tried to do it up. Which tells me that that may be the clearest indication, in fact, that Kodai Sanga is the closer. Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh, no, he's the guy. It's just is Devin Williams returning or not? That's that's the only question we have left. I mean, the Mets aren't really playing for anything. So like, yeah, why not just build up Kodaisenga as a high leverage reliever? And maybe he's part of the plans for next season, or you could trade him to someone else and you could be like, hey, look at this guy, he's an awesome closer and who wants Kodaisenga, so. Speaker 1 Kodaisenga. So you know, we told wait, now I'm getting the lyrics wrong. I had it and now I lost it. The joke's not going to work anymore. Speaker 2 I was talking with a couple of friends. I'm like, why does he come out to Ghostbusters? It is kind of weird because like, I guess technically he throws the ghost fork and so he is defeating opponents with his ghost fork pitch. But I mean, isn't that that's just like a clear opportunity Ghostbusters for for Kodai Senga? Speaker 1 So Kodai Senga is running on the field and it's playing. They told him. Don't you ever come around here. That is the message they're sending to Devin Williams. Speaker 2 Is that a lyric from Beat It? Speaker 1 That's how the song starts. You heard you ever heard the song before Frank? Speaker 2 I know the song, I don't really I. Speaker 1 Wasn't sure I was going to get the words exactly right. Speaker 2 I don't pay attention. Speaker 1 They told them, don't you ever come around here? Speaker 2 I guess that would make sense that. Yeah, yeah. And that was your. Speaker 1 That's what they're telling Devin Williams. Don't you ever come around here. We got Kodai Sanga now. Speaker 2 And that was your best Adam Azer impression? Probably one of the only times I've ever heard you sing on this show. Speaker 1 That's pretty good. I sing all the time. Come on. Speaker 2 For the Royals, Steven Cruz got the 9th with a four run lead. He gave up two runs, but he did close it out and he does look like the highest leverage name there for the Royals. For the White Sox, Grant Taylor got the 9th with a three run lead. He walked one, he struck out two for his 7th save for the Pirates, Mason Montgomery was used in the ninth with the Pirates down one run at the time. He gave up two hits, he struck out two, he kept it scoreless and the Pirates wound up winning the game. And Luke Weaver actually pitched in the 8th. So yet another reminder that Mason Montgomery looks like he is kind of taking over that 9th inning role for the Pirates. For the Tigers, Kenley Jansen got the 9th with a one run lead. He allowed two solo homers. He took his fifth lone save and his fifth loss. It's unfortunate because I believe he's 9 or 10 saves away from 500. He just looks cooked, man. Kentley Jansen, he just, I know he had a run recently where he got some saves, but overall, I mean, he, he's looked pretty cooked this season. So I, I hope he can latch on at least a little bit longer to, to get to 500 saves. For the Twins, Yoentris Gomez clean inning for his 20th save. For the Reds, Emilio Pagan gave up A2 run Homer but was able to lock down his 16th save. For the Phillies, Yohan Duran picked up his 28th. For the Yankees, David Bednar picked up his 29th. For the Rays, Brian Baker picked up his 36th. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz picked up his 23rd. And for the Astros, Josh, Josh Hader picked up his 18th save, who we haven't really talked about, but Josh Hader has been amazing ever since returning from injuries, so. Speaker 1 That he has. Speaker 2 Good for Josh Hader. Speaker 1 It's one of the good ones. Speaker 2 To stream or not to stream? On Thursday, we have Michael Mcgreevy at the Reds. Brady Singer home against the Cardinals. Landon Roop at the Guardians. Shane Bieber at the Rays. Gauge jump at the Royals. Grant Holmes at the White Sox. Anthony Kay against the Braves. Robert Gasser against the Mariners. Andrew Alvarez at the Rangers. Grayson Rodriguez at the Astros. Speaker 1 So did we talk about this one? I guess we did, I said. Landon Roop. I don't remember Gage jumping on this list before, but. Speaker 2 He is a new addition. Speaker 1 New addition to Thursday. I mean, it's it's it's boom or bust. You know, it's it's fortune favors the bold here with Gage jump. But you like the favorable match up there at Kansas City. And so I might be willing willing to risk it. It's not like Roop is entirely bankable himself. So landed Roop gauge jump and then Michael Mcgreevy, Brady Singer against the Cardinals, Mcgreevy's opponent is OK. And Robert Gasser against the Mariners is also OK. So that's five decent options on a light slate. Can't complain about that. Speaker 2 I would go Roop Mcgreevy Singer as just kind of like the high floor guys. But I do agree I would have gauge jump as a fourth option if you just want to you wanna shoot for some strikeout upside there at the Royals on Friday, we have Sean Minaya at the White Sox, JT Ginn at the Astros, Joey Cantillo, but he's at the Rockies, unfortunately, Nick Ladolo at the D backs, Connor Prelip is at the Padres, Bubba Chandler is at the Dodgers, Hunter Dobbins at the Phillies and Hayden Wesneski home against the Athletics. Speaker 1 Yeah, this is tougher. JT Ginn at Houston, nice high floor option there. I guess Shawn Minaya at the White Sox, though, I like that start to that that that turn 2 starts ago when he eliminated the sinker and got a ton of strikeouts and then he didn't follow up by doing that in his next start. So I'm I'm not sure he's actually on the right track, but it has been a a solid run. So Minaya at the White Sox would be my second choice. Distant third would probably be Hunter Dobbins at Philadelphia. I don't have a lot of confidence in Nick Ladolo right now. Speaker 2 He the results have been OK. I think his last one or two last one, but at the D backs no could tell Marte. It does help. If I had to choose a third, I think I'd probably go with Ladolo, but it it is very risky. So I I agree with Gin and Manaya as the top 2 for Friday. We are gonna wrap there for Scott. I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Appler Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow.