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Speaker 3Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasybaseball at cbs.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now, here's Frank, Scott, and Chris.
Speaker 1Hey there! Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Wednesday, August 26th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Sowers. Today on the show, we got some big bounce-backs on the mound. I've got some buy or sell, waiver ads, and should we hold or drop these struggling players? Is it time to hold them? Or fold them, Chris? Oh, like the song. Chris knows the words. It's a great song. He knows every word to this song. He was singing it while we were setting up.
Speaker 4It was great. It's The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. Yes. For anyone who doesn't know. It's a great song. It is a great song. R.I.P. Dolly Parton. Yes, of course. Kenny Rogers' song partner many times. One of the greatest to ever do it. One of, I'm going to go ahead and say it, one of the greatest Americans of all time. Top ten American. Put her on Mount Rushmore. Dolly Parton. Absolute legend. Love her. R.I.P. Fair enough. Well said. That's what I said.
Speaker 1I cannot say, I cannot add anything else to that. Let's talk about baseball. Oh my goodness! Unbelievable! All right, Chris. Player of the night. Are we going good or bad? Hmm.
Speaker 4There were some good options today. I'm sure we'll talk about a bunch of them. Gage Jump was good. Taj Bradley had an immaculate inning. while also not having a great start because that's kind of the Todd Bradley experience. But we are going to go negative today, and we are going to go with, we'll focus on Jacob deGrom, but I'm sure we'll talk about another frustrating pitcher. And Jacob deGrom, boy, he gave up eight runs in three and two-thirds innings against the White Sox today. He gave up six hits, five walks, only two strikeouts. That is wild stuff. When you dig into the numbers, it does look like maybe he got babbipped a little bit because 15 batted balls, only two of them were hit 95 miles per hour or harder. He had an 83-mile-per-hour average exit velocity. But I do think it's worth noting that the first inning, when things were really bad for him, he gave up hits on 71.3, 78.1, 71.5. And 69-mile-per-hour batted balls. And a 74-mile-per-hour batted ball for good measure in that first inning. Four of those five hits were on batted balls with an expected batting average of at least 400. So he didn't get hit hard. But I'm not sure it was actually terrible luck either, especially when you look at the five walks in three and two-thirds innings. And then when you look at the pitch chart, and you say, Well, there is a big cluster of four-seamers right smack dab in the middle of the strike zone. And that's not what you want to see. And he had a lot of pitches in the strike zone overall. It just didn't seem like Jacob deGrom had it on Tuesday. But it kind of increasingly feels like Jacob deGrom doesn't have it, doesn't it? He's got a 720 ERA now. In the month of August. He had one amazing start. Ten strikeouts over six shutout innings. He had another pretty good start. Five one-earned run innings with nine strikeouts. The three other starts have been pretty brutal. One of them he left with an injury. But he has two starts now in August with more walks than strikeouts. That is not Jacob deGrom. And I don't know if it's because he's not healthy. I do know that he dealt with, what was the injury in July?
Speaker 1It was a glute.
Speaker 4Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1And then it was a triceps in August.
Speaker 4So, it sure seems like he's not healthy because he had a 348 ERA at the end of June. He has a 421 ERA for the season now. So, the whole thing with Jacob deGrom has always been, well, he's going to be dominant when he's on the mound. And that was mostly true last season. But it has not been true this season. And he's 38 years old. And while the stuff still looks very good, the command is clearly not where it needs to be. I'm hoping that he just isn't healthy right now. Because the alternative is he's lost a lot. And that's not something I want to consider right now.
Speaker 1What's so interesting, too, is according to Fangraph's Stuff Plus and Location Plus metrics, his previous six starts in the second half before this one, it was a 108 Stuff Plus, 110 Location Plus. And those are awesome numbers.
Speaker 4Yeah, those are incredible numbers, yeah.
Speaker 1It's very weird what's going on here with Jacob deGrom. Yeah, I think those are like the main two possibilities here, is that he either is not healthy, he had the glute in July, and he had the tricep in August here. Even though his previous start out, so frustrating. So frustrating as a Jacob deGrom owner in multiple leagues, where I had him in the lineup for the start, he left after two innings with a tricep injury, took him out for the start where he had the six shutout innings with ten strikeouts, because he didn't know if he was going to start that week or not. And then you put him back in the lineup for this one, and he gets absolutely shelled. So just really, really frustrating Jacob deGrom experience here. And I do want to credit the White Sox, too, because they had a clear plan and were very disciplined. They had just a 15% chase rate against Jacob deGrom in the start. His zone percentage actually wasn't bad, but his strike percentage was terrible. It was only 52% because they did not chase any of the secondary pitches outside the strike zone. And in fact, his slider was not good at all. It had zero whiffs. And typically, the slider is amazing for Jacob deGrom. So I think there is something wrong. It's either, I think he's kind of pitching through some stuff that is just kind of built up over the year, or he's 38 years old and things are just starting to add up for Jacob deGrom. So I did have a buy or sell for later on. Buy or sell. Jacob deGrom is not an ace anymore.
Speaker 4I think you have to buy it. And it's not just a reaction to this start or this recent run, because you look at the overall line. And while, look, the strikeout rate is still 30%, walk rate 6%. That's amazing. What you are seeing when you look past that, though, is he's been getting hit hard all season.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 490.7 mile per hour average exit velocity. That's bottom 60%. In the entire league, 398 expected Wobon contact. That's 390. That's bottom 10%.
Speaker 1He gave up a lot of hard contact last year, too.
Speaker 4Yeah. And it's gotten worse. And so, you know, the one thing that I do wonder with Jacob deGrom, and we've seen this for really most of the past, like, eight years with him, is he has become primarily just a fastball slider guy. That's not entirely true. He throws the changeup and curveball. about 18 to 19% of the time typically. Um, but for the most part, he's throwing primarily fastball slider and the change up in curveball still look great and still get great results when he throws them. And I do wonder, is there a world where he starts to sprinkle those pitches in a little more now that, you know, we're seeing this approach isn't working or he's just not healthy and that'll solve itself one way or the other.
Speaker 1With all of that being said, two starts at home next week for Jacob DeGrom, and they are against the Athletics, who have all those injuries, and Tampa Bay, who is a pretty good lineup. They make a lot of contact. But Jacob DeGrom's home road splits this year, 267 ERA at home, 586 on the road. It's been a weird year for pitcher splits, just like DeGrom, Brian Wu. I feel like there's a few other pitchers that whenever I've looked at their... Yeah, I mean, I guess that's kind of expected with the Athletics guys, but, yeah, I feel like a lot of... Normally, pitchers are better at home, but I feel like there's a bigger disparity between home and road splits for a lot of big-name pitchers this year. So, with all that being said, I think you're still using Jacob DeGrom with two starts at home next week, but I think we just, we have to kind of like pull back the expectations for Jacob DeGrom at this point. Let's just get the two buyer cells out of the way here. The other one I had was Gavin Williams, who had his shortest start of the season. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He only recorded four outs. He gave up five runs. He gave up two homers in this one. So weird. He gave up only three hard hits. His average EV was 83.6 miles per hour, but on those three hard hits, he gave up two home runs. So, you can't really say it's bad luck. Like, he made two bad pitches, and he gave up two home runs, right? And we know his previous eight starts before this, he was tremendous. 3.35 ERA, .87 whip, 14.5 percent, 14.5 K per nine there. For Gavin Williams. The buyer cell here was, he's just back to being a random number generator, which is what he was for most of the season before this eight-start stretch.
Speaker 4I'm as tired of talking about Gavin Williams as the audience is of hearing me talk about Gavin Williams. And this is one of those situations where I wish this wasn't a Chris and Frank podcast. Nothing against Chris and Frank. Love Chris and Frank. But... We need that Scotty perspective. I just... He's not an ace. He looks like an ace sometimes, but we have seen throughout Gavin Williams' career that he is never quite as good as he seems when he's at his best. And that's true for every pitcher, but it feels especially true for him because he just goes through these stretches where he's absolutely untouchable. He had that stretch of five starts with 11 or 10 or more strikeouts. He only had three walks in that stretch. And then in four starts. Since then, he has like an eight ERA. He has, let me do, 10 walks in four starts. He did have one 11 strikeout start, but he's also had two starts with five earned runs or more. I just... Look, he's a top 20 starting pitcher on the season. Probably he was 16th coming into this start. This might drop him out of the top 20, but he's right around there. And I think that's about where I have him ranked. And I feel pretty comfortable with that. It's just the, there's an insistence when he has those good stretches that that's who he actually is. And I just don't think that's the case. I think he's always going to be frustrating. You look at who he's been the past two seasons. It's been a very different pitcher between 2025 and 2026. But the one thing that's been sustained throughout there is the inconsistency. And, you know, I know he had the run late last season. They got his ERA down, but there were a lot of struggles along the way. And he has bumped his strikeout rate up to 32% this season. That's an elite mark. His walk rate's down to 7.7%. That's really good. And he's, he has the fourth highest expected Wobon contact of any starting pitcher. He's just, he has not figured out, maybe he'll get there. But he has not figured out a way to put everything together all at once. The strikeout rate's better. The walk rate's better. He gets crushed when he does give up contact. And I think he's just a high three's ERA guy. You know, maybe it's not 398 like it is right now, but his XERA coming into this start was 389. Yeah. You know, I think this is just who Gavin Williams is. And you just have to live with the ups and downs and accept that you're going to get a ton of strikeouts. And it's just going to come with, you know, probably a higher ERA than you'd hope.
Speaker 1It feels like a pretty clear trade-off too. And we've talked about this a lot this season where it's like, if you're throwing more strikes, you're in the zone more, you're just bound to give up more hard contact. So, and look, it's a, I guess it's a trade-off you're willing to take because the whip is much better this year for Gavin Williams. Although the ERA obviously is, is elevated. So that, that is kind of, that is the trade-off here. It's like his whip is better, but the ERA has taken a step up. But the strikeouts have also gotten a lot better this season as well. So I still think this is the best version of Gavin. Williams that we've seen, but it, that's just part of his profile is that it's going to be a higher ERA for this reason.
Speaker 4It's just annoying that it's clearly been a breakthrough season for him. Yeah. And he also has a 398 ERA.
Speaker 1Yeah. I'm looking at my rankings and I'm going to update my pitcher rankings on Wednesday. I don't know who deserves to be the number 10 pitcher because I'm going to drop Zach Wheeler down with how he's looked lately. And then the names that I had at 11 through 14, Chase Burr, Burns, Gavin Williams, Paul Skeens, Jacob DeGrom.
Speaker 4I don't think Chase Burns can be there.
Speaker 1And if Zach Wheeler is at the top of that list, I think that the top nine in some order is Mizzy Arowski, Tarek Skubal, Christopher Sanchez, Cam Schlittler, Chris Sale, Yamamoto, Dylan Cease, and Jesus Lizardo and Logan Gilbert. I don't really know who deserves to be number 10. I mean, you can make an argument for like Garrett Cole, Nolan McLean, Drew Rasmussen. Those are the next names. I have a Uri Perez, Parker Messick, Uri Perez, Cade Cavalli, Peyton Toley. I don't know.
Speaker 4Yeah. No,
Speaker 1Blake Snell's probably in that mix.
Speaker 4Drew Rasmussen.
Speaker 1Yeah. I don't know. I think it's kind of, to me, there's a clear top nine right now. And then the next tier is kind of like 15 names that you can rank in almost any order from 10 to 25, basically.
Speaker 4Yeah. No, it's tough because I was on vacation last week, so I haven't updated my rankings in two weeks now. And I'm, I'm going to have to do a big one tomorrow, but just looking at, I mean, a couple of guys have gotten hurt, but also like Shoddy Monago was in that like 30 to 20 range for me. I don't think he belongs there. Range, Ron, Ron Hesuarez, no Braxton Garrett, maybe Sandy Alcantara might be a top 25 starting pitcher. Now it's, I think Logan Henderson's in that mix too. I don't know if Kyle Harrison can be in that mix. I'm sure we'll talk about him later, but it feels like he's good. Like it seems like the, the concerns are gone, but he hasn't thrown more than 90, pitches since he came back from the IL.
Speaker 1He's been limited. His velocity has been down a little bit since coming back. So yeah, it's, it's an interesting time for the pitching landscape. I would say. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Let's take our first break. If you are listening on audio and you enjoy the podcast, make sure to give us a five-star rating and review on both Apple or Spotify, wherever you listen. We really do appreciate that. Let's take a break. And when we return, we will get into some big bounce backs here from Paul Skeens and George Kirby. What did they do differently? We'll talk about it right after this. Banking on Mercury is the ultimate solution for anyone tired of that kind of busy work. You can set automated transfers to keep your accounts in a specific target range and use their built-in spend management tools to handle employee reimbursements without the usual mountain of paperwork. It's free to get started. 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Remember waking up on Saturday mornings pouring a big bowl of sugary cereal and drinking every last drop of the sweet milk at the bottom nothing beats that feeling of pure nostalgia which is why i am completely obsessed with cachava's new cinnamon french toast flavor it gives you all those warm comforting morning feels but with incredible benefits instead of a sugar crash made with real cinnamon bark it honestly tastes like a warm slice of french toast in a glass just two scoops gives your body a massive upgrade with clean plant-based protein fiber and greens to support your energy digestion and whole body health it's packed with superfoods completely non-gmo and contains zero artificial sweeteners fillers or nonsense whether you love classic vanilla rich chocolate or this amazing new french toast blend it's the easiest way to give your daily routine a serious boost treat yourself to a childhood favorite go to cachava.com and use code fantasy for 15 off your first order that's cachava k-a-c-h-a-v-a.com code fantasy welcome back fantasy at baseball today let's uh dive into these big bounce back starts here from paul skeens and george kirby obviously two names we have talked a lot about as well paul skeens like every time he pitches uh we are all over it seeing what's going on here and this was his best start in a while six shutout innings three times in a row and he's got a lot of three hits four strikeouts to zero walks four strikeouts not great but he did have 13 swinging strikes on 87 pitches that is a very good rate there for paul skeens the velocity was mostly fine the fastball was up a little bit averaged 97.2 miles per hour on that pitch it did dip down in his final inning of work here but the main change i noticed here chris is he just used his force team a lot less than the start 29 usage it was 42 entering this one uh the the force team and sinker were both good they had four whiffs each and it's it's an interesting change because the velocity has been down on his fastball but the ex-woba and the whiff rate are still basically right in line with where it was last year so it's an interesting change what do you think about this change for paul skeens and um how how much confidence i guess did you build after a start like this with with paul skeens again so to answer the second question i think
Speaker 4first um he's got i believe let me check yeah he's got like a dream to start week next week he's got the giants and angels i believe um it's pretty awesome i mean i just want to make sure because i i did write about this earlier giants and angels at home you can't ask for for two better matchups really in a two-star week than that um i i do think you have to start him for that and i do think it's worth noting that for for the people who are insisting that paul skeens must be hurt and maybe i don't know but this was his best fastball velocity start since may uh 97.2 miles per hour at the four seamer it was only up 0.4 from his previous start he had one at 97.1 recently so it's not like a huge outlier but you know that's a good sign i think it was a good start it wasn't dominant it wasn't like vintage paul skeens but he threw strikes he got 13 whiffs on 87 pitches he limited hard contact he did most of the things you wanted to except for get strikeouts really and so is that enough to make me confident in paul skeens the rest of the season no is it enough to make me confident in starting him next week yeah given the matchups and given how he looked today i'm definitely going to start him next week that doesn't mean he's going to be good um but i i think you have to start him given that matchup as far as the tweaks he made you know throwing the four seamer less sinker and slider more i don't know if throwing either one of those pitches is necessarily the thing that i would think of to to fix paul skeens but it's interesting that he's been struggling with his defense and he's been trying different things um i don't know i i i don't have a good sense for where he's at right now because i haven't had a good explanation for why he's been struggling beyond well he must be hurt and with the velocity taking back up it's like well that theory is kind of harder to to make sense of so i don't know i i'm really i'm struggling paul skeens is searching we're all trying to find we're all trying to figure out who did this and um i don't know i i i hope my my uncertainty about all of this is shining through because i'm i'm really not sure what to make of paul skeens at all right now i mean
Speaker 1you did give people what they need to hear and look they're probably going to start him no matter what i mean he's your first or second round pick you probably just go down with the ship with paul skeens but i mean obviously coming off a start like this where things did look a little bit better and again we needed to see a start like this oh yeah and the matchups for next week i i think there has to be at least a little bit more confidence based on where he was at to to go out there and and use him in that two-star week again that is paul skeens what about george kirby a big bounce back against the phillies here seven and two-thirds innings one run nine strikeouts to one walk 21 whiffs on 92 pitches and 12 of those came on the fastball and he did he did make some changes here like changes in velocity pitch mix pitch movement so the four seam he threw it 42 percent in this one it was 28 entering the velo was up 1.3 miles per hour up to 97.9 it also had two more inches of induced vertical break and again it had 12 of his 21 swinging strikes so it was a really really dominant fastball and then his change up was very different the velocity was down 1.5 miles per hour and it had seven more inches of drop uh it had three of his 21 whiffs so george kirby is not shy about tinkering but i feel like these are pretty interesting changes in terms of velocity and pitch movement just being very very different for both the fastball and the change up which could play off of each other very well yeah there's there's something weird going on with the
Speaker 4pitch effects and i'm guessing that they're just they're grouping his splitter and change up together because i'm looking at it right now and i'm seeing he didn't throw any change ups and it was all split up and i'm looking at it right now and i'm seeing he didn't throw any change ups and splitters splitter rate but i hate when that happens i think you're right because the splitter spin rate is registering at up 224 rpm which probably means that some of those splitters are change ups it is still i guess noteworthy that he threw the splitter and change up 14 of the time in this start that is usually a combined 7.5 so part of that double the usage yeah yeah part of that is is it was a very lefty heavy lineup for the phillies 73 of his 92 pitches were against lefties he'll throw the change up and splitter more against those but even there he threw 18 percent splitters and change ups uh against lefties typically it's about 10.9 against lefties so there was still a concerted change what you know because the data is a little wonky right now you know it wasn't more splitters and change ups for the season it's been more change ups and splitters so i you know we'll see but there's something going on with the data that makes it harder to to parse right now but either way he did make some changes here and um that's noteworthy because things haven't really been working all that great for george kirby this season and so making some changes is probably in his best interest um how sustainable is this i don't think you can ever count on a 50 percent whiff rate for a four seam fastball moving forward that's that's unsustainable the velocity i mean look if he's going to average 98 miles per hour with the four seamer and get 15 inches of induced vertical break instead of 13 okay yeah maybe maybe that'll work but that's probably not going to prove sustainable so i think the best you can say is great start great execution from george kirby i i don't necessarily know if he's fixed but probably going out with a two-star week for him next week too probably keeping him in my lineup there yeah i checked earlier oh actually i don't know if it's
Speaker 1going to be a two-star week it looks like one against the red socks in boston and uh you yeah
Speaker 4if he had that second start versus the a's that would be a lot more uh promising but it looks like
Speaker 1gilbert's getting the two-star week next week this won't surprise you but he has a 321 era at home in 2019 era on the road uh for george kirby and he could be facing a red socks lineup that has roman anthony back in it by next week as well so don't exactly love that but i do love again the fastball velocity being up and getting whiffs with that pitch because when george kirby has been at his best in previous seasons he is getting big whiffs on his fastball the whiff rate has been down on that fastball all season long so i think that is a really really encouraging sign here uh for george kirby i wouldn't say that he's just a must start like set it and forget it yeah red socks but i think he's kind of like on the fringe and if you don't have better options you you probably could use him in that matchup but uh not with the most confidence Do want to welcome back Tyler Glass now, who is OK in his return at the Braves. Five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts, zero walks. He had 15 whiffs on 89 pitches here. Chris, what did you see from Tyler Glass now? Did he look like himself, mostly?
Speaker 4I think for the most part he did. This is another instance of a lot of weak contact, especially early on. There was a lot of runners on base early on, but it was only, I believe, two hard-hit balls in the first inning, a bunch below 82 miles per hour. So I think that the kind of shaky first inning, one, a little bit of rust, and two, just a little bit of bad luck. But otherwise, seven strikeouts, zero walks, 15 whiffs on 89 pitches. He got up to 89 pitches in his first start back, so they're not babying him. I think it's more. It's more or less all systems go for Tyler Glass now moving forward. And, you know, much like Blake Snell, when he's out there, you're starting him. So, you know, if you kept him on the bench for the first start back, I always think that's reasonable. I always think it's reasonable to sit a guy in his first start back from a long layoff. You never quite know what they're going to look like, although he was very good on his minor league rehab stint. But I always think that's a reasonable enough call. If you did, you're getting him. You're getting him back in your lineup next week. Is he a two-star pitcher next week? I don't think so. Actually, it's not even worth trying to parse their rotation right now because the Otani of it all, I have no idea how they're going to handle that because Otani's likely to return sometime in the next week.
Speaker 1So I think that would make it a six-man rotation.
Speaker 4Yeah. He's probably not going to be used as a full starter, so they may piggyback him with someone.
Speaker 1I have no idea. I think it would be Eric Lauer is what I saw. Yeah. I think it would be Otani as an opener and then Eric Lauer as a...
Speaker 4Yeah, so it'll probably be one start next week versus the Cardinals, it looks like. Yeah, you're starting him for that one.
Speaker 1Yep. Again, that is Tyler Glass. Now, just a reminder of what he did in his four rehab starts. 132 ERA, .51 whip, 13.2K per nine there for Tyler Glass. Now, the final line here, not amazing, but still had the seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 89 pitches. I would say overall pretty encouraging. Return there for Tyler Glass now. Let's run through the news and notes. And Aaron Judge did some cage BP work on Tuesday in addition to running, and he's also throwing at over 100 feet. So, you know, we got to get him facing, you know, real pitching and things like that. And then, you know, it'll slowly continue to build up. But my rough estimate would be like mid-September, I think, at this point.
Speaker 4I think it could be quicker than that because I don't... Look, he's been out so long. He's been out since like late June, right? Early June, I think. Early June?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4It might require a rehab assignment, but I wouldn't be surprised if he just comes back without a rehab assignment.
Speaker 1I think that's actually more likely. And they'll use his games back with the Yankees as his rehab just to kind of like ramp up to the postseason.
Speaker 4And maybe he's DH-ing more often, but I think it's not going to be like once he's cleared, he's got to go on a rehab assignment. I think once he's cleared, he's going to be in. And it probably won't be by next week, but I do think there's a chance this moves a little quicker than you might think just because, you know, obviously you want to make sure he's still healthy for the postseason. You don't want to rush him back, but you also want to make sure that he gets the reps in that he needs before then.
Speaker 1Yeah. There was a date thrown out there by Joel Sherman. I don't know how. I know Sherman is like pretty connected and stuff.
Speaker 4Yeah, he's kind of plugged in, yeah.
Speaker 1But he threw out September. He threw out September 10th as a potential return date.
Speaker 4That's basically two weeks exactly from now.
Speaker 1And it would be, that would be one day before. I think they have a series, the Subway series with the Mets starts on September 11th. Okay. So perhaps they want him back for that, you know, whatever. They're going to sell tickets anyway. It's a Subway series, but obviously lots of fanfare involved if Judge could get back for that. So I would say that's probably the target, but, you know, we'll just update you with everything that we learn about Aaron Judge. He threw a four inning live BP on Monday and could start one of the double header games this weekend on Saturday against the Red Sox. So they've said all along, Max Fried has said it too, that they think this could be a minimum stay, 15 days in the IL. I'm not sure how smart that is, but perhaps they were just really being really cautious about this and perhaps it's not as bad as a previous injury, which is what they've said all along for Max Fried. Byron Buxton left too. Tuesday night in the seventh inning with an apparent side or back injury. He's been dealing with that hip a lot this season. So my guess is that it's either just his hip or the hip has kind of led to some compensation injury for some other part of his body. But this is unfortunately the Byron Buxton experience for most of his career. He's still really, really good when he's played this year, but he has just missed a lot of time once again this season.
Speaker 4Maybe this is the impetus to get Walker Jenkins up.
Speaker 1It could be, yeah. If Buxton goes back on the IL, they are in that mix for the wildcard spot. And they, oh, they lost. They lost here on Tuesday. It's a bad loss. Bad loss against the Athletics. Roman Anthony could return Friday against the Yankees. Great. Perfect timing against the Yankees. Love that. Roman Anthony went two for four with a homer at AAA on Tuesday and he's looked pretty good in his rehab game. So hopefully he is, hopefully he's back this weekend for fantasy. Don't really want to see that. I don't want to see him crush my Yankees because I just, I just know he is. Don't be selfish. He's going to be a Yankee killer for the next 20 years. There's no doubt in my mind. He's going to own the Yankees. Don't be selfish. For his whole career. Definitely. Pete Fairbanks was placed in the IL with nerve irritation in his hand and there was a beat writer who mentioned three names, Calvin Fauché, Michael Peterson, and Josh Eckness. If you play in a really deep league where saves are scarce and you lost Pete Fairbanks, I would still lean Calvin. Calvin Fauché of the three, but it wouldn't surprise me if they just kind of mix and match there with the Marlins. This one came out of nowhere. Shane Bieber coming off, maybe his best start of the season, went on the IL with a right teres major, with right teres major inflammation. So that is like the right under the shoulder, right? It's kind of like the armpit area there. So another unfortunate arm injury for Shane Bieber who really has not been able to stay healthy since coming back from Tommy John surgery last year. Adley Rutschman was out of the lineup due to right elbow irritation and he's dealt with a lot of stuff too. He had the wrist previously. He's been on the IL multiple times this season and hasn't really looked so great since joining the Red Sox, but maybe he just needs to get healthy and then we can see Adley Rutschman get back on track.
Speaker 4He's no Mickey Gasper.
Speaker 1Mickey Gasper, man. Who is that guy? Bonkers. Double dong here on Tuesday's last eight games. I think he has like, four home runs, five home runs. Five home runs. He had zero home runs before that. Yeah, guys, he's crushing it. Chase DeLauder has missed two straight with left hamstring tightness. He did not start on Tuesday, but he came on as a pinch hitter late in that game. So hopefully that's good news for him to play in the next couple of days. Hunter Goodman was activated from the IL and he returned with a bang. One for four with his 35th home run of the season. Jack Caglione has missed two straight with right ankle soreness. Will Smith was scheduled to catch five innings at AAA on Tuesday. I did not actually look that up, so I'll look it up during the break. I'll check, yeah. But yeah, that is Will Smith. He's working his way back from that neck injury. Elmer Rodriguez is likely to start for the Yankees on Wednesday with Max Freed and Ryan Weathers in the IL. The Yankees are obviously in some need of pitching help. And his last five starts at AAA. Elmer Rodriguez, 138 ERA, 115 whip, 10K per nine, 2.8 walks per nine. So he's looked very good. I mean, I think he's kind of, he's done everything he can in the minors. So the question remains, can Elmer Rodriguez do it in the majors? And so we will see on Wednesday if he can against the Astros.
Speaker 4By the way, Will Smith did play. He seemed to play five innings and then was replaced and he had a home run.
Speaker 1Nice. All right.
Speaker 4It was not like a shot. It was only 92 miles per hour, but he did have 104 mile per hour line out and a 91 mile per hour fly out. You know, draw whatever conclusions you want from that.
Speaker 1That would be, you know, get him back for all of September. That would be a pretty nice boost here for those in two catcher leagues. And Carson Wisenhunt, unfortunately, was diagnosed with a torn UCL in his elbow and surgery has been recommended. If that's the case, likely misses all of 2027.
Speaker 4The third young pitcher having Tommy John surgery for the, or a UCL tear for the Giants in like the last two months, right? Who else has there been? Um, oh gosh, I, I, I should know this before I say it, but it was definitely multiple pitchers. Um, oh gosh, they had Hayden Birdsong and Trevor McDonald also had Tommy John surgery. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1That is, that's pretty rough there for the Giants. Let's take our final break. When we return, I have a bunch of waiver wire names. I have a bunch of names. Do we hold these guys? Do we drop them? They've kind of slowed down a little bit. We'll do all that right after this. Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break, but not just any break. This is a refreshing break with... We all know about Snapple's iconic Real Facts, so let's take a minute to go over some of my faves. Snapple Real Fact 1417, before 1859, baseball umpires sat behind home plate in rocking chairs. Snapple Real Fact 1483, more than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple Real Fact 253, the first TV remote control introduced in 1950 was called Lazy Bones. Snapple Real Fact 2105, professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville in the offseason. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting. Alright, now let's get back to the show. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball Today. Let's run through the waiver wire hitters from Tuesday's action. And two shallow league outfielders. Luis Robert is making some stuff happen, two for four. With a walk in his 10th. 10th homered, he has four home runs in his past six games. And in August, he's hitting .305, six homers, .985 OPS. It does look like he's sitting out every third or fourth game. They're probably just trying to keep him healthy. 68% rostered on CBS. And Max Clark, homered off of a lefty here in Ian Seymour. It was his second home run overall. And in 23 games, he's hitting .247. Two homers, three doubles, two triples, a steal. Just a .704 OPS. Really doing too much yet. 65% rostered. Do you think either of these numbers need to be higher for Robert or Max Clark?
Speaker 4I don't think so. And in both cases, I think it's because they're not running very much. And in Robert's case, you have to imagine that's just... We don't get hurt, you know? Like, there's just no point. And so, as good as he can be as a hitter, given the regular... And given the fact that he's not running, it limits his appeal in both formats. I think he's a very fringy starter in a head-to-head points league. And even in a roto league, I'm not sure he's much more than a fifth outfielder because of the lack of speed. So, that's where I'm at on Luis Robert.
Speaker 1Yeah, I can't interest you in him in like a three outfielder category league, right? I feel like there's still too many other options.
Speaker 4Maybe, but there's... Yeah, there's probably 36 guys. I'd... Prefer.
Speaker 1We got a huge game from Yainer Diaz of the Astros. Three for four with a double dong. Three runs, three RBI. His first multi-home run game of the season. His playing time, I hadn't realized, has kind of fallen off. He's only started seven of the last 15 games for the Astros. I don't really blame them. He's a bad defensive catcher. The offense is just kind of mid. He's like between a 700 and 750 OPS the past couple of years. The hard contact is down. The ground ball rate is... It's way up. So, 38% rostered for Yainer Diaz. I think he's just a two-catcher league guy. Yeah, I don't even think I would look at... I don't even think he's like a hot hand name in a one-catcher league.
Speaker 4Yeah, as much as I'd like it to be the case, I don't think... I think Yainer Diaz has to do more. And specifically, it's the playing time. If he can... You know, if this leads to them playing him more, maybe. But he's been pretty unremarkable for two years. Two straight years now. So, I'm kind of done there.
Speaker 1Yeah, I agree. A couple of their names here in five outfielder leagues. Ryan Waldschmidt, one for one with a pinch hit. Walk-off two-run homer in the ninth inning of that game off of Jacob Webb. He has looked better since being recalled. And didn't start this one, but was playing pretty consistently. Started 19 of the last 21 games here for the D-backs. He's 26% rostered. And I'll bring his name up again. He just keeps on homering. That is Tristan Peters. Who went 3-for-3 with two walks and his 11th home run. He has homered in four straight games. And in August, 322, five homers, two steals, 1081 OPS. Seven games next week. All against right-handed pitching. So, I am kind of interested there in Tristan Peters. What do you think about these two, Chris, in five outfielder leagues? Waldschmidt and Tristan Peters?
Speaker 4With all the righties on the schedule, sure. I think Tristan Peters is a fine streamer. I don't think he's someone who you need to look at as a must-start player. But, sure, with a full week of righties scheduled to face, I think that's okay. That being said, the average exit velocity in August is just 85.2 miles per hour. Now... For Peters? For Peters, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's a big pulled air rate guy. He's a pulled air rate guy.
Speaker 4And his ex-WOBA is 361 in this month. So, that doesn't mean there's nothing there. It's just, you know, I think the talent level is pretty limited overall. And, obviously, you know, the playing time isn't 100%. Waldschmidt, he's definitely hitting better since coming back in early to mid-July. It was like July 10th. He's hitting like 289 entering today. The problem is this was just his third home run. I think he only has one or two stolen bases in that span. Strikeout rate is down to like 25% in that stretch. But that's still 25%. That's still too high for a guy who's not hitting for much power. So, it's kind of an empty Babbitt-fueled batting average in a way that... I remain intrigued by Ryan Waldschmidt in a long-term sense. But not even in like five outfield or 12-team leagues does he need to be rostered completely.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think I'd rather roll the dice on like a Tristan Peters hot hand approach with those matchups that he has next week. And even someone like Henry Bolte, who has his own warts, but there's been a little bit... More juice there with Bolte in terms of just like power and speed. Waldschmidt hitting better, as you mentioned, but we just really haven't seen enough power and speed from him, aside from this game, where he had a pinch hit home run. A couple deeper names here. Christian Encarnacion's train, two for five with his seventh home run, three RBI. The homer, 111.8 exit velocity, 450 feet, and he hit it off a lefty. He is crushing lefties. So, if you see lefties on the schedule, he has a 1068 OPS against lefties, only 576 against righties. For Encarnacion's train, Von Grissom, two for five with a double dong, three RBI, but he was struggling big time in August before this one. And then the Mickey Gasper, who you mentioned earlier, two for two, double dong, two walks, two homers, two runs, two RBI, eight games since returning to the Red Sox. He is 10 for 21 with five homers and 12 RBI. However, I don't really see how he's going to play once Roman Anthony is back for the team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They have three outfielders and then a DH and then also Adley Rutschman at catcher. So.
Speaker 4Yep. I think it would have to be like Rutschman goes on the IL with this elbow thing, but there's not, as we're speaking, there's no indication of that. And he has not caught since he came back. So, it's been exclusively DH and he was pretty, I think, pretty heavily used at DH before this as well. So, I don't think they love his defense anyway. I mean, look, he's got five homers. He's got five runs in, what, eight games since coming back from AAA. He's making it very, very hard for them to take him out of the lineup. But, absent an injury, I just don't see any way that he sticks around. So, this is purely, if you want a very short-term hot hand play, pick up Mickey Gasper. And maybe he sticks around when Roman Anthony comes back. But I don't think he's going to start a lot when Roman Anthony comes back. Maybe. Maybe just start him ahead of Connor Wong. Like, that's your number two catcher. But, I don't think that's, even that doesn't seem particularly likely. I know they like, I know they like Connor Wong.
Speaker 1Encarnacion Strand, by the way, the schedule for next week. Seven games. Three are in Colorado. Okay. Four against the Red Sox, who have three lefties on the schedule. So, three lefties plus a Coors Field series. That is primo for Encarnacion Strand. Yeah.
Speaker 4That might be a good sleeper hitter for next week. Yeah. I don't, I don't have a ton of faith in him overall. But, yeah, with that context, a bunch of lefties and games at Coors Field. You know, if he starts five or six of those games, that'd be great. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah. Even if we only get two games in Coors, and then you get the three, you know, lefties, the way he's hitting them. It's pretty interesting. As, like, a deeply corner infielder there, Christian Encarnacion Strand. Hold or drop. Sam Antonacci is someone that you and I, in particular, Chris, we were very excited about. Sam Antonacci. And for good reason. He had a big game here, but he has slowed down. Two for four with a double, a triple, a walk, RBI, three runs scored. His previous 44 games before this was hitting just 213. Three homers, five steals. That's still okay. But a 623 OPS. Not hitting the ball hard at all. The expected stats look really bad. And he has struggled big time against lefties. Just a 582 OPS. And he has sat out against five of the last ten lefties that have been on the field. Yeah. On the schedule here. So, Antonacci has second in outfield eligibility. He's still 81% rostered. Do you think that number should be that high still for Antonacci?
Speaker 4That does feel a little high. Yeah. Because that means he's rostered in a decent number of points leagues. And if he's not playing quite every day, it's really hard to justify that for a guy who's probably not a difference maker. I still think he's a pretty good hitter overall. And I think this is probably just the ebbs and flows of the season. I mean, you look at... Of a rookie season at that. Of a rookie season. And you just look at, like, Nico Horner, who's a very good... established player but of this same archetype right he had two months that where he was practically useless for fantasy like that that just kind of happens for guys sometimes so i'm not i'm not giving up on sam antinacci but yeah i think 81 probably still a little too high
Speaker 1whenever you hear chris's cat feeder go off you know that we started very late i mean yeah the
Speaker 4cat feeder going off 45 minutes in that's that's real late it's usually like maybe right at the end but now that yeah it's 2 a.m on the east coast here we go hey that's august for you you know uh
Speaker 1yeah august you know we're tired it's late in the season and six west coast games on all these west coast games and it's like come on who did i didn't really start writing until like 11 today so yeah brutal brutal stuff uh some waiver wire pitchers on the shallower end here arandola a quality quality start at the mariners six innings two runs seven strikeouts 12 whiffs on 92 pitches and uh really everything looked pretty good here except for his four seam which got hit hard that is usually the case for arandola his last six starts he has a 260 era a 124 whip 41 strikeouts over 34 and two-thirds innings he is 75 percent rostered and it looks like at the d-backs and home against the braves next week so two-star pitcher the other name here is clay holmes who was great at the d-backs seven shutout innings two hits two walks five strikeouts he had 12 swinging strikes on 93 pitches and his first start back from injury was rough i think it's fair to just kind of write that one off like rusty whatever he hasn't pitched in since may but his next three starts with the cubs 19 innings one run only nine strikeouts to five walks so he's not getting whiffs he doesn't usually get a lot of those but a 65 percent ground ball rate during that spin so that is very helpful especially with that defense behind you so uh chris who do you like more here from a very shallow league perspective nola 75 percent clay holmes 72 percent roster
Speaker 4probably nola what's tough is his this like big stretch that he's on 41 strikeouts and 34 and two-thirds innings over his last six starts there have been some mild tweaks to the arsenal you know he's throwing uh the change up more it's mostly about command there was a piece on philly's nation on monday from tyler brown that talked about you know went into the numbers about you know how much better the command has been and if that sticks then he can make it work he's clearly making it work right now but command is very uh i don't know what the term for the opposite of sticky would be slick yeah it's very it's slippery um and so anytime we're talking about players who are improved but because of improved command that's not to say it's not real those command improvements are real but sustainable and real are similar but different words when you're talking about moving forward and so my guess is this is gonna get pretty ugly again at some point but he's got a two-star week next week i think it's okay to use um aaron nuller for that one oh you know the the problem with clay holmes is he's so defense dependent right and that's that's really tough too because you can only like we like guys who get strikeouts because that's what's in their command what's in their control um and clay holmes is about as defense dependent as any pitcher in baseball he's got he's got a lot of defense dependent and he's got a lot of defense dependent and he's got a lot of you know even with dansby swanson out the best still one of the best defensive you know maybe still the best defense in baseball you go with dansby swanson out so you know he's at miami versus milwaukee next week one really good matchup one not so great one i i think both these guys are pretty good two-star pitchers for next week i think there's probably a higher ceiling for aaron nuller because of the strikeouts yeah clay holmes probably a little more dependable that's exactly what you're looking for that's exactly what you're looking for that's exactly what you're looking for
Speaker 1that's exactly where i was going as well i think clay holmes higher floor i think noah higher ceiling i think noah noah wider range of outcomes where the high end could be much better but the low end is that you know he can um i still think there's a little like volatility in there where he can have some blow-up starts for aaron nola um and you know it kind of depends what you need too if you're in a roto league at this point in the season you're chasing strikeouts i know it's you know perhaps wins in ratios like it makes more sense to go with clay holmes so consider those two things in a points league i i think they're pretty similar i think clay holmes is more likely to go deeper into starts just because he's like pretty efficient but um yeah i don't know i think
Speaker 4that one's pretty close yeah it is because noah is such a workhorse that if he's pitching well he's going to go deep into games true uh it's just you know those those two things have to
Speaker 1go together for him two other names here in shallow leagues i i just i don't really trust it with either one of them uh zach thornton solid outing here against the brewers six innings one run four strikeouts to zero walks and uh we know he is a pitch to contact he entered this game with a 485 x era but he does have three earned runs or fewer in all nine starts since being recalled on june 26th he gets the astros this weekend and then the giants next week at home so that's
Speaker 4pretty good match up there for thornton one start streamer yeah
Speaker 1and then bryce elder uh quality start here against the dodgers six innings three runs five strikeouts to zero walks did have 12 whiffs on 98 pitches three earned runs or fewer in seven of his last eight outings the one where he didn't it was seven earned runs over five innings he gets the rockies this weekend in atlanta and then he's at the phillies next week so i probably would just lean thornton against the giants over elder at the phillies right yeah yeah if you want to drop elder after this two-star week i think that's perfectly fine a couple of uh deeper names a little bit lower down the list gage jump we haven't been able to play that sound drop in a while for gage jump
Speaker 4but uh he had that start against boston a couple weeks ago yeah yeah that's true i didn't play it
Speaker 1then i should have uh but he had a good start here six and a third two runs two walks nine strikeouts he had 13 whiffs on 94 pitches interestingly enough zero runs three earned zero whiffs on his slider but everything else looked pretty good here for gage jump he gets two starts on the road at the rangers at the mariners that is pretty intriguing for gage jump uh and then there's chris bassett here like i don't know i think we know chris bassett is but he had a good start here six and two thirds one run five strikeouts to his credit the velocity was up quite a bit across the board like between one and a half and two miles per hour on all of his pitches and in three starts since returning 306 era 130 whip and it looks like it's just one start against the red sox next week so i i think gage jump is infinitely more interesting yeah i mean just from a talent perspective i think gage
Speaker 4jump is super talented it's just a question of how long is it going to take him to to take these flashes like what we saw tonight nine strikeouts and six and a third innings he had the 11 strikeouts start against boston i think four starts ago or five starts ago something like that in between i it's clearly not a finished product it's super risky to start him at texas at seattle next week but those are two really good matchups i it could go really well and you could get i don't know 18 strikeouts and and a three era over two starts for gage jump and it could be super impactful but if he gave up 10 runs next week it wouldn't surprise me either so that's a really risky one i i i think just in terms of talent he's by far the most talented of any of the waiver wire pitchers we've talked about today it's just a question of how long is it going to take for him to to even get to the point where it's two out of three good starts instead of one out of three you know yeah that's just where he's
Speaker 1at right now hold or drop these four pitchers taj bradley a mixed outing here at the athletics four runs allowed over six and two third innings but he had 11 strikeouts and he tossed
Speaker 4an immaculate inning which is awesome the final pitch of that inning i'm not exaggerating when i say it was one of the best pitches i've ever seen it was a hundred miles an hour just clipped the bottom of the strike zone by like the smallest like the the seam of the baseball it was just absolutely unhittable man when taj bradley is on he can do some absolutely bonkers stuff and he gave up four and runs and six and two thirds innings and it's like yeah that's he's clearly kind of the full taj bradley experience he's kind of like a poor man's gavin williams and yeah in that way i mean they're kind of having the same season right now uh williams whip is a lot better he probably has more strikeouts i would guess that's different
Speaker 1the biggest difference between them is just the walk rate this season between taj bradley and he's ever as good as he looks at his best five starts in august a 540 era 158 whip here for taj bradley it's
Speaker 4he someone that you would just continue to hold on to probably but we are late enough in the season that if it happens to work out i don't know what the schedule is i'm gonna look right now if the schedule is not favorable in the next couple of weeks you could avoid him but it looks like next week's gonna be two starts versus the tigers at the white socks yeah those aren't incredible matchups but they're not terrible and then it's probably versus cleveland then it looks like it's going to be at the angels then maybe at the giants it's pretty good that's a pretty good run to close out the season now taj bradley is one of those pitchers where the matchups don't matter quite as much as how well he's pitching at any given moment but still i think you probably
Speaker 1don't want to drop him all right next up we have your favorite pitcher chris brandon fought not great here against the cubs six and two-thirds four runs two walks three strikeouts only had six whiffs on 103 pitches and he's given a four plus earned runs and back-to-back starts the weirdest part is that he had a 15 swinging strike rate in the two starts before this but it was just six percent in this one and it looks like he lines up for two next week home against the phillies and at the asherah so the matchups are i would say more middling i would say closer to bad than middling yeah but what do you think about holding on to brendan
Speaker 4and fought for those two you know what i'm gonna say i would drop him bang like if you want to hang on to him in a points league okay sure as far yeah but in in a roto league i i you are already here at the point where he's at risk of undoing all the good whatever good he did for you with that crazy run because now he's had consecutive starts with four plus earned runs it feels like we are teetering right now right yeah like this is we did this with bryce elder right like the era is up over four or right at four now for the season remember how good he was for two months to start the season you you don't want to you don't want to mess around with found money you know like it's fine to to ride it while it's hot i don't think brandon fought particularly good even in this who start week he does not strike out enough guys to justify it in a roto league i think
Speaker 1drop for andrew painter and jacob lopez yeah i think both of those guys are way better yeah both are still sub 50 rostered on cbs by the way walbert arania big control problems here against the guardians three and two thirds five hits three runs five walks to three strikeouts he was spotted a five zip lead and could not get through five innings in this one the velocity was up i don't know if that's a good thing because obviously it affected his ability to throw strikes his last four starts it's a 529 era 153 whip 12 walks over 17 innings so i feel like around this time a month ago we were like hey man walbert arania deserves more respect and then he's just kind of fallen off since then
Speaker 4yeah and and this is you know we talk a lot about like the strikeout walk ground ball or contact super quality of contact suppression skills and he's decent at strikeouts maybe average ish maybe slightly above he's got terrible control and he's got really good quality of contact suppression that means he's probably a fringy pitcher you know you probably want at least two of those skills to be above average and he's at like one maybe one and a half so i think when things have gone wrong for him this is another one where it's probably okay to to drop him i still think he's super talented i still think the the final month of the season could go really well for him but he relies a lot on his defense and when the control is this bad things can go really wrong
Speaker 1really quickly so i think he's another one that's pretty easy drop for painter and um take a look yes yep again that is walbert arania last name that i'll mention here it's ian seymour who had a mixed outing he was the bulk reliever at the tigers look we all love ian seymour but i i just wonder if maybe we're overvaluing him a little bit on the season he is just he's giving up too many home runs too many barrels he gave up another home run in this one it was to max clark a lefty off off a lefty 1.6 home runs per nine that is pretty high he entered this outing with a 10 barrel rate his k minus walk stuff is great he's gonna grade out really good in terms of era estimators because of that but he he does give up some loud contact in the air unfortunately um and if you play in leagues with quality starts like now they're i mean i i haven't ranked so high but i just i don't know are we overvaluing ian seymour
Speaker 4um maybe i where do you have him ranked i guess that because i have him around 50 oh i haven't met like 31 yeah so maybe that's the distinction all right so the question is
Speaker 1am i overvaluing he's yeah i i think ranking well in a points league because he is a spark
Speaker 4i do think that helps but the the bulk reliever thing is always going to be a little bit of a hindrance because you don't get that what three start three points in cbs leagues for quality starts you can still get the win it probably gives you a better chance of getting a win actually and so you know there is some trade-off there and the wins are worth seven so that's more valuable but there's some trade-off there i do think he's very good and you know this is another one he's not dissimilar to gavin williams um he's just And he's got like 29% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate. That's pretty much exactly where Gavin Williams is at. It's just that usage and the fact that he plays for the Rays, you're not going to get a lot of seven-inning outings out of Ian Seymour. You're not going to get very many quality starts out of him. So there are maybe some poor man's Gavin Williams vibes here. But I still think he's good. And of these four, I think he's clearly the one. Well, him and Taj Bradley are actually very similar. So I think those are the two that I wouldn't drop. If you want to drop Albert Arreña, I can see it. If you want to drop Brandon Fott, yes, you should drop Brandon Fott.
Speaker 1All right, let's wrap up with some hitting leftovers here. And Jaron Duran had a huge grand slam in extra innings. It was his 18th home run. Updated numbers in August, 263, 5 homers, 3 seals, 839 OPS. Luis Garcia Jr. had a massive game, 4 for 5 with his 27th home run and 3 RBI. He has homered in three of his last five games. And all of a sudden, his numbers with the Yankees look pretty good. 18 games, 284, 4 homers, and an 860 OPS. Francisco Lindor, 2 for 4 with a walk in his 13th home run. He has looked pretty good in the second half. Vinny P, baby! Vinny passed Guantino. He is making stuff happen since he returned. 1 for 3 with 2 walks and his 5th stolen base. I don't know how he has 5 steals. I believe he's one of the slowest players in all of baseball. But maybe he's been watching Josh Naylor, and so that's what he's doing. But in 8 games since returning, he is 11 for 29 with 2 homers, a steal, and an 1195 OPS. Pete Alonzo is red hot right now, 4 for 4 with his 31st homer. He has 8 home runs in his past 15 games. Ian Hatt hit his 23rd home run, 3 homers in his past 5 games. Looks like he is getting back on track. It was a... Pretty rough stretch there for like a 2-month span for Ian Hatt. But hopefully getting back on track now. O'Neal Cruz homered off Mason Miller. The first player to do that this season. I mean, can you imagine a more electric duo, right? Like, Mason Miller throws a million miles per hour. O'Neal Cruz hits the ball a million miles per hour. So that was pretty cool to watch. Unless you're a Padres fan, unfortunately. Cal Raleigh picked up where he left off from Monday. He hit his... 18th home run. He has 6 home runs in his past 9 games. And Stephen Kwan. Shout out to the guy. 5 for 5 with a walk, RBI, and 3 runs scored. Last 36 games, he's hitting 383, 5 steals, and OPS over 900. So, Stephen Kwan looks to be back. Lots of names here, Chris. Feel free to touch on any of them.
Speaker 4Okay, that's a lot of guys. Luis Garcia is going to be really interesting for 2027. We talked about Jaron Duran. In that context yesterday. But Garcia, like, is he going to be the Ben Rice of next year? Where we're just hoping the Yankees trust him enough against the lefties to really maximize his value? I don't really think that's going to happen at this point in his career. But he's just having an awesome season. He's going to end up with 30-plus homers, probably 100-plus RBI. For a guy who doesn't play every day, that's crazy.
Speaker 1But even a full season as a strong side platoon, in Yankee Stadium, that seems pretty intriguing.
Speaker 4Yeah, no, I think it's going to be... I mean, first base is... You know, we talked before the season, first base has kind of been historically weak the past couple of seasons. That has really changed this year. The WRC plus for first baseman this year is up to, like, 117. Last year, it was, like, 108. That is a massive jump. Yes, a huge change. Wow. So, that's going to be really interesting to dig into what's exactly going... going on there.
Speaker 1I wonder if they would try him at second base. Jazz Chisholm is a free agent.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's...
Speaker 1I mean, look, he's bad defensively there. There's no doubt, but I wouldn't put it past him.
Speaker 4That's a good point. Yeah, that's an interesting one.
Speaker 1Or do they revisit, like, Ben Rice at catcher, and maybe they just play Garcia at first?
Speaker 4There's no way. There's no way.
Speaker 1I mean, Stanton is probably done, right?
Speaker 4Yeah, I think Stanton's done.
Speaker 1So they have the DH spot. They could just do Garcia at first and Ben Rice at DH.
Speaker 4Does he have the arm for third base? Probably not. I don't know if he's ever played third base. I know he came up as a shortstop.
Speaker 1I think McMahon still has another year on his contract.
Speaker 4Okay. Not good. Luis Garcia's going to play every day against the Redskins. It's just a question of where. But he's going to be really interesting to rank next season. Probably not going to be a top 12 first baseman, just because the position's so loaded, but a really interesting one. And then O'Neal Cruz, he continues to hit really well. That's looking like a bad call for me, even with the strikeout issues. That's going to be a fascinating player to rank next season because we're going to end up with about, I don't know, 95 games of O'Neal Cruz having a breakout season, and I don't really know how to value that. He might still go 25-30 in a very partial season. That's wild. So, yeah, I don't know. And then Stephen Kwan, he's been awesome for like two months now. So he's looked like himself. This was one where a lot of the defensive metrics, we're still pretty good in a way that made me think he wasn't quite as done as he looked early on. And then now he's turned it around. So I do think you can more or less just view Stephen Kwan how he's always viewed Stephen Kwan, which is a good but not super impactful fantasy option, but a great source of batting average.
Speaker 1Pitching leftovers here. Michael King was great against the Pirates. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 98 pitches. His velocity. Up around like one to one and a half miles per hour on all of his pitches. He got a lot of chase in this one. And he threw first pitch strikes to 24 of 26 batters face. That is awesome for Michael King. Peyton Toley just missed out on a quality start. Five and a third. Two runs, seven strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. And Kyle Harrison, who we mentioned earlier, he was solid. Five innings, one run, five strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 90 pitches, but has not thrown more than five innings in each of his four starts since coming off the IL. One earned run or fewer in three of those four. And then it was eight runs in the other one. Only three of those were earned. So any thoughts here on Harrison, Peyton Toley and Michael King?
Speaker 4Yeah, in Harrison, it's sort of a good news, bad news thing. Like he he had that one disastrous start where I believe his velocity was down and we were kind of panicking to start since then have been very good. I think it's 13 starts. He's thrown three strikeouts to three walks in that span. I think he's only given up one earned run. That's all awesome. He hasn't thrown more than 90 pitches, I think, since May. No, June. Sorry, he hasn't thrown more than 90 pitches since June. It's like eight starts, so it's not a huge sample size, but he's been five innings or less, as you mentioned. I just I think that's probably going to be the case for him moving forward, which just puts a cap on how good he can be. I still think he's going to be good. But, you know, when he was at his best, he was at his best. Kyle Harrison looked like a top 20 starting pitcher with that limitation. It's probably going to be more like top 30, top 35.
Speaker 1Mm hmm. Call to the bullpen for the Tigers. Kenley Jansen picked up his 17th save for the Rockies. Jordan Romano got the ninth with a two run lead. He walked one, but picked up his 13th save. He's up to 65 percent rostered. I still think we could have some implosions coming here in Coors Field. But it certainly shouldn't be much higher than that. He is. I don't think he's a guy who needs to be
Speaker 4rostered in like every points league or anything.
Speaker 1He's just the guy, though. He is the guy for the Rockies. For the Braves, Rysel Iglesias got the ninth with a one run lead. He gave up a lead off triple to Otani, but was able to pull off the Houdini here for his 28th save for the Astros.
Speaker 4He has been pretty shaky lately.
Speaker 1He was shaky, but I feel like he's settled down again in his most recent games.
Speaker 4So he hasn't given up a run in his last three, but he has seven walks in ten innings in the month of August. And he has a walk in four of his past five outings as well. So and only three strikeouts in that span. So, yeah, that's fair. He's kind of getting away with it a little bit right now.
Speaker 1Again, that is Rysel Iglesias and moving on here for the Astros. Josh Hader got the final four outs for his 19th save. He has been ridiculous since coming back from injury. 0.81 ERA, 0.72 whip, 44 strikeouts, over 33 and a third innings. For the Mets, Kodai Sengo is unavailable. Would have been his third game in four days. Austin Warren got the ninth with a one run lead. He gave up a run on two hits and two walks. He took his second blown save, but the Mets wound up winning in extras. For the White Sox, Grant Taylor entered with two outs in the ninth. The bases were loaded, a four run lead. He got the final out for his eighth save. For the Athletics, Hogan Harris entered two outs in the seventh and he allowed a hit, but he picked up his 12th hold. Elvis Alvarado wound up picking up his fourth save and he has two of the last three saves for the A's. He is four percent rostered. So in the deepest of leagues where you need saves, I kind of feel like they're going back to Alvarado here and see, I think they want him to take over the role. He throws really hard. You know, he's an electric arm. And obviously he's younger than someone like Hogan Harris. So I think they could kind of build off that, but it'll it'll be up to Alvarado to see if he could take advantage. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz picked up his 24th save. For the Giants, Dylan Smith was unavailable. Carson Seymour got the ninth inning with a three run lead. He allowed a solo homer, but picked up his first save. And then for the Cubs, Daniel Palencia got the eighth with a four run lead. He gave up three runs on a walk and two hits. He only recorded two outs. Jacob Webb came on. He got the last out in the eighth and they stayed out there for the ninth. And he gave up a pinch hit home run to Ryan Walsh. It took his sixth blown save in a fourth loss. I kind of felt like this could have been a nice win here. A feather in the cap for Jacob Webb with Daniel Palencia struggling in the eighth inning, but then Webb went out there and struggled, too. So I kind of feel like we're back at square one.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean, look, Palencia struggling does at least make it a little easier for Webb, but he's got to get the job done, too. And I think Palencia is the better pitcher. So in the long run, I do expect it'll be him if he's healthy.
Speaker 1Then we had the Battle of the Masons in San Diego. Mason Miller got the ninth with the game tied. He did give up that solo homer to O'Neal Cruz and then Mason Montgomery on the other side walked one. He struck out two for his sixth save. And he is he is the dude for the Pirates right now. He is forty three percent rostered and maybe two of the most. Two of the best, two of the most electric relievers in baseball right now, Mason Miller and Mason Montgomery, they might just be the two best.
Speaker 4You know, the the the the place my mind went is. That trade is looking awesome for the Pirates this season, right? Who did they give up to get Mason Montgomery? They only gave up Mike Burroughs, I believe it was a three team trade. And so I believe the Rays got Mike Burroughs, the Rays got Jacob Melton. And Anderson Brito from the Astros. The Astros got Mike Burroughs and the Pirates got Brandon Lau, who's having a typical awesome Brandon Lau season. Mason Montgomery, who looks like one of the best relievers in baseball. And Jake Mangum, who's been an awesome fourth outfielder for them.
Speaker 1So that is a great trade.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's a pretty awesome trade for them.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 4It's kind of kind of a really bad trade for the Rays.
Speaker 1Really bad trade for everyone not named the Pirates.
Speaker 4Yeah. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah.
Speaker 1You know, trading for Mike Burroughs. I'm sure that didn't help Dana Dana Brown keep his job, unfortunately.
Speaker 4No, no, no, no. But yeah, that's you know, I'm not the Pirates probably aren't going to end up making the playoffs anyway, right?
Speaker 1No, no, they really fell off to start the second half. I don't I don't think they will. Which sucks because I really wanted to see the Pirates make the playoffs, too.
Speaker 4So, yeah, well, maybe maybe next time don't make Ryan O'Hearn your big agency splash, maybe actually, you know, I mean, try to be fair, right? OK, they spent money on Marcelo Zuna, too. But O'Hearn was good, but that was.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, the other player they were linked to was Eugenio Suarez, which wouldn't have been much better. Yeah. You know, they just threw the bag at Kyle Schwarber. And then, you know. I think they'd probably be in the playoffs if they had Kyle Schwarber right now. Yeah. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Nick Lodolo at the Giants, Landon Roop home against the Reds, Joey Cantillo at the Angels, Grayson Rodriguez. Home against the Guardians. Bubba Chandler is at the Padres. Michael McGreevy home against the Orioles and JT Ginn home against the Twins.
Speaker 4I thought this was better when we did this yesterday. Ginn. And Cantillo. And then there are like I could talk myself into Grayson Rodriguez. I could talk myself into Bubba Chandler. I probably can't talk myself into Landon Roop. I think Ginn and
Speaker 1Greedy are the highest floor options. yeah and then i think cantillo and grace and rodriguez are kind of the upsidey variance plays on on wednesday on thursday it's a pretty short slate we have a couple of tbds so there's not many options as of now but uh hayden wesneski is at the yankees jake irvin gets the rockies in washington spencer aragetti against the royals and sean mania home against the brewers
Speaker 4we're gonna have to do a little uh fantasy feud or something on thursday only seven games i'm
Speaker 1already thinking about it if there's anything that you the listener would like to hear tweet
Speaker 4at me and maybe we'll yeah come up with something on thursday right um i would maybe go with sean mania and that's probably not anyone else yeah yep i agree we are gonna wrap there for chris i
Speaker 1am frank thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on apple or spotify and we will be back again tomorrow bye
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