Speaker 1Can you believe Bob's Discount Furniture opened 35 years ago? Back in 1991, landlines ruled the day. You could not binge watch your favorite shows, and podcasts were science fiction. A lot has changed since then, but Bob's is still doing things the Bob's way, bringing you top-tier style and features at 90s-era prices. Need to kick back? The Sedona Power Reclining Sofa is the ultimate relaxation station. Packed with genuine leather, power recline, built-in charging, cup holders, and Bobopedic seating for just $12.99. You can even pair it with a matching loveseat and recliner. And if you love hosting, the HomeWorks dining set is built for summer parties with tons of hidden storage in the table and bench, plus comfy Bobopedic foam for only $6.99. And don't miss the best-selling Cascade Bedroom set. It features a trendy reeded design, USB ports, felt-line drawers, and three gorgeous finishes at only $2.50 per piece. Stop in this Labor Day weekend to celebrate 35 years of Bob's Discount Furniture.
Speaker 2Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure what to do. You're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews. All on the app. Download today.
Speaker 3Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports.
Speaker 4And first pitch, rushing deep left field. This is one ball. Welcome home!
Speaker 3Got a fantasy question? Email fantasybaseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now, here's Frank, Scott, and Chris.
Speaker 5Hello! Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Wednesday, September 2nd. I am Frank Stamfel, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had ourselves a pitcher's duel between Paul Skeens and Logan Webb. Chris, if I told you before the season, that those two pitchers were facing off, what do you think the projected total runs would be before that game started?
Speaker 6I would set the over-under for that at 24 and a half. Over. Oh, man. I thought that was a good line.
Speaker 5It was a big night for the young bats. And what do we do with these six starting pitchers? Let's jump in. Oh, my goodness! Unbelievable! You know what's unbelievable? I heard this on the Angels broadcast. I did not fact check it, so I hope it's right. But one of their broadcasters mentioned it, so I'm going to steal it, and I'm going to use it right now. Apparently, there have been 15 rookies who have hit their first career home run in their debut this season. Fifteen! Okay. That sounds like a made-up number. That is crazy. That seems like a lot. Yeah. That seems like a lot. Fifteen prospects hit their first home run in their debut this season. Hitting home runs in their debut. I don't know. It sounds made up, but they said on the broadcast, so I'm running with it. Another one, another two who did that here, Lazaro Montes of the Mariners and Yohandy Morales of the Nationals, who we spoke about a lot over the past couple of days, but it was a fun night for the young bats. And Lazaro Montes, Chris, in Fenway Park for his debut, two for four with a walk, first career homer, 106 exit velocity. 407 feet straightaway center field in Fenway. Not an easy thing to do. We spoke a lot about him. The power is legit. Can he keep the strikeouts down? I, you know, I do remember a long, long time ago, there was this prospect, Joshua Baez, who hit three home runs in his first game and then basically struck out in every at bat since. And homered again tonight as well.
Speaker 6We homered today.
Speaker 5So it'll be interesting to see what Lazaro Montes does from here, but it was a great debut.
Speaker 6Yeah, absolutely. And, and, you know, when he got. Called up, I, I think the comp we said was, uh, the upside is as Merlin Valdez and the downside is as Merlin Valdez. And that still feels like it's in play there. There's no question that the raw power is outstanding, very close to the top of the scale. So is the strikeout rate. And one game is not going to change that one way or the other. If he strikes out four times tomorrow, that's not going to change the upside. Him hitting a big home run today doesn't change the downside. That's always, uh, going to be there. So I look, I, I, I don't think this changes anything. We, we knew he could do this. Um, it's good to see I'm, I'm happy that it happened. Uh, did two players Homer in their first career games today? Yes.
Speaker 5Yes. Lazaro Montes and Yohani Morales.
Speaker 6That is a major league record. I just checked in the stat head, uh, play index. And.
Speaker 5Is it legitimately 15 players to do it this year?
Speaker 6Today, entering today, there were 13 players who had Homer in their first MLB game, which tied 2022 for the MLB record. Wow. Now there are 15. Here's the even crazier thing. The third most games by a rookie homering in their first game of outside of 2022 and 2026 is eight. That's wild. So almost twice as many. As the third most in a season right now, that is wild. And what's really weird is, um, the first eight, so the, there have been eight seasons where eight players have Homer in their first game or more have all come since 2014. Oh, sorry. Except for 1998 was one of them, but otherwise they have all come since 2014. That's kind of fun.
Speaker 5Yeah, that is. And you know, what's interesting is during that span. It feels like it has kind of turned back into like prospects getting called up, struggling, getting sent back down. And then not all of them, but you know, some of them coming back eventually and figuring things out for the most part. So I don't know, perhaps it's just like these guys come up, it's lightning in a bottle right
Speaker 6away. Yeah. I mean, look last year, only it only happened three times.
Speaker 5Right.
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 5So it's, you know, it's that's baseball, Susan.
Speaker 6Yeah. Pretty much. There's gosh. I mean, there's a lot of teams who did it last year. I don't think any of these guys are in the majors now, Zach Cole, Carson Williams, and Matt Gorski.
Speaker 5Oh, geez. Oh man. Tucked that away for your trivia night, uh, Lazaro Montes though, again, he's 24% rostered. If you need power, five outfielder league, even if you play in a shallower, like three outfielder head to head league, and you really need power, he might be one of the best power bets on the waiver wire right now. So just keep that in mind with Lazaro Montes. Yeah. I think he's going to strike out a lot as well. Yohandi Morales of the nationals. Great debut for him. Also three for five first career home run also struck out two times here, but he had three hard hits in this game. His home run was actually his lowest of the hard hit balls that he had. So 100.8 EV, 407 feet, uh, on a pitch that was like inside on the plate. It was very easy power here for Morales started at DH against a right-handed pitcher. I thought that was promising for him here. So you look, if he starts against a righty, he's going to starting out. He's going to start against lefties. So, um, really like that the nationals have been very platoon heavy this year. He's even lower down. He's 7% rostered, uh, first base eligible. I, I would still rather take Montes. He's the higher rated prospect and, um, but I, I'm intrigued to see where this goes for Morales. I still think he's mostly an NL only name, but I mean, by the end of this week, he could very easily be in play for like 15 team mixed leagues.
Speaker 6Yeah. And that's another player. We, I, I think the. That's comp actually works even better for you on the miles Morales because they're both right. Montes, I think is a better prospect than both of them and both right-handed that also helps.
Speaker 5Um, yeah.
Speaker 6So yeah.
Speaker 5Yeah. A couple other young bats who, uh, made some noise here on Tuesday night, Hector Rodriguez had another solid game two for four with a double run and RBI. He is leading off against right-handed pitching and over his last nine games, he's hitting one with four home runs. The underlying data does not like it at all so far for Hector Rodriguez, but it's a really good home ballpark and he's getting a chance to play against lefties. He's leading off against righties. He is 18% rostered just in a vacuum, Chris, obviously different positions here, but how would you rank those three Montes, Yohandy Morales and Hector Rodriguez?
Speaker 6I think I'd go Montes Rodriguez, Morales, but the difference between Rodriguez and, and. Morales isn't huge.
Speaker 5Mm-hmm. And I know I'm wearing an Orioles shirt today, but, uh, perhaps I should have worn my Yankees attire for this next player, but I, I remain really intrigued by Spencer Jones, man. I know that there is a wide range of outcomes for this player, but he just had another big game, two for three with two walks, a sock, a shoe, two runs, three RBI and in 36 games since being recalled in late July, two 52 batting average, seven homers, eight steals, OPS is over 800, 31% K rate, actually a little bit better than I thought. It's still bad by major league standards. Don't get me wrong. but the quality of contact is bananas. The expected stats are awesome. Chris, I really don't know what is going to happen when Aaron Judge is back. Me, personally, I feel like Spencer Jones raises the ceiling of the Yankees, having him potentially in center field over someone like Trent Grisham and just moving Trent Grisham to a fourth outfielder role. But I don't know if they're going to do that. But I am very intrigued by what Spencer Jones is doing right now.
Speaker 6Yeah, I think you have to be. I mean, he has held his own a lot better than I expected him to. I thought the swing and miss would be prohibitive here. And he's been, I mean, just, he has raised his zone contact rate from 70% at AAA to 75% at the majors. That's a big deal. I mean, 75% is still really bad.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 6But it's like... It's good for him. Well, it's fairly normal. Bad. For a power hitter. You know, you will see other power hitters in that range, right? Like, I would imagine Rafael Devers is probably in that range. He actually might be even lower. Although I think he has improved this season. I want to give him credit for that. And obviously, he's been awesome himself for a while. But I do think Spencer Jones... Sorry, I'm trying to stall for time so I can find that. I'm trying to find that in-zone contact rate because, yeah, 74.7%. Look, that would be one of the five worst marks in baseball. But the bottom five are... Let's throw in the bottom... Wow, okay. Wow. The bottom nine are actually all pretty good hitters. Okamoto, Schwarber, Rosarena, Chisholm, Hunter Goodman, Rafael Devers right where Spencer Jones is, Garrett Mitchell, Nick Kurtz, Munataka Murakami. You can make it work. You have to hit the... You have to hit the ball really hard. You have to hit the ball to the right parts of the field to make it work. And it helps to have a really good eye at the plate. Not all those guys do, but... Spencer Jones checks off a lot of those boxes. I remain very, very skeptical. I think we are probably just seeing a hot streak, but the skill set is not that different from Nick Kurtz or Munataka Murakami. With speed. Yeah. Which makes it so interesting. You know, he's on like a 20-steel pace, right now, too. So, yeah, I remain skeptical, but I won't let that skepticism keep me from acknowledging that Spencer Jones right now is showing legit major league caliber skills. And, yeah, I think he... What's the roster right now? 59%? It's so hard because the timing is bad because Aaron Judge might be back next week and we just don't know what that's going to look like. I don't think they can send him down. I don't think there's any way with how well he's played.
Speaker 5I agree, but there is a chance that Spencer Jones just becomes the fourth outfielder or him and Trent Grisham are splitting time against right-handed pitching with someone else mixing in against left-handed pitching. So, it could be a frustrating situation. I totally acknowledge that. The floor for Spencer Jones, the profile, the player, and the playing time is very low. But the upside, I think, for the rest of the season is actually very high for Spencer Jones, too. So, pretty wide range there for him. A couple names. A couple names that I would take him over right now. Max Clark, who hasn't really done much so far. Walker Jenkins is an interesting conversation. I would take him over. Luis Robert. I would take him over as Merlin Valdez. Lawrence Butler has looked pretty good in the second half, but Jones has been even better than him.
Speaker 6I'd rather have Spencer Jones than Lawrence Butler. I think the downside is very similar and I don't think he has the upside that Spencer Jones has. Even, like, he's hitting well, but it's only like four homers in the second half, right? It hasn't been, like, a huge production.
Speaker 5Yeah, there's some power in speed, but, again, like, Jones has been better than him during that stretch. Would you rather have Jones or Walker Jenkins? I think that one's pretty interesting. Like, Jenkins is the better prospect by far, but... I'd go with Jenkins.
Speaker 6Yeah, I'm not going to let my opinion of either of them get swayed that much.
Speaker 5All right, fair enough. Chris, let's go over to you for your player of the night.
Speaker 6Yeah, I think when the Rays trade for anyone, the expectation is they're going to overhaul them. And if you look at just the pitch mix for Freddy Peralta, it doesn't look that different, right? Like, he's throwing his change-up a little more. He's scrapped the slider entirely, but he was only throwing that about 5% of the time. And the change-up usage has gone up. It's about 8% to 10%. It's not nothing, but over a start like Tuesdays, that's like eight pitches, seven pitches. It's... I don't think that's... Like, when I looked into it, I was like, well, I don't think that's really an explanation. But then it... I remembered I saw Lance Bresadowski, point this out a couple weeks ago. I went and looked at the newsletter that he wrote, I think it was on August 18th, about how Freddy Peralta has gone from... So last season, he started out pitching out of the wind-up, full-time, switched to pitching out of the stretch, got to the Mets, went back to pitching out of the wind-up, gets to the Rays, back to pitching fully out of the stretch. And it just seems to have helped him regain some explosiveness in his delivery. His... His... His extension has been up a couple of inches. He just kind of looks a little more athletic pitching out of the stretch, and...
Speaker 5The velocity was up here, too. I mean, that could be, like, a Mets thing. He was jacked up, but, you know...
Speaker 6But the last two starts have been good. He has three quality starts and six tries with the Rays. He only had four and 22 with the Mets. So I don't think... Look, he still has, like, a 46-year race since joining the Rays. I don't think this is, like, a sea change that has drastically altered how Freddy Peralta his outlook looks. But I think he looks better, and the results have been a little better. And especially over the past couple of starts, the results have been quite good. So are we back to trusting Freddy Peralta? Trust would not be my choice of word there. Yeah. But can you use him? Yeah. And I think we were reaching a point where you just couldn't use him. Yeah. He's got the... At the Rangers this weekend, I know there have been a few guys we have touted who have had a lot of success. Who have had bad starts against the Rangers recently. But I think on the whole, that's still a matchup and a ballpark you can target. And then I think next week it's versus Houston.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 6And then probably versus Boston. And then at New York. Okay, so the schedule's not going to do him a ton of help. But I like him making starts in the trop
Speaker 5that helps with, you know, strikeout upside.
Speaker 6So I do like that. And it looks like the next two, at least, are going to be... Or the next three are going to be indoors. So that should... That should help. I think on the whole, yeah, you're feeling a little better about Freddie Peralta. He's not an ace. I don't think you can view him as an ace right now. But Arrow clearly pointing up.
Speaker 5Yeah, not an ace. I think he's back in the startable territory, back inside the top 60, maybe top 50 starting pitchers. So someone you're thinking about using as your SP4, SP5 on a weekly basis. I think most people, you know, they might have one or two aces on their team. They might have a third, you know, very good starter that they use most of the time. But then I think for the final couple spots on their... in their rotation, they're probably just shuffling through a bunch of different names. And I think Peralta's in that mix. And again, I like him against the Rangers this weekend. Obviously, like, not a great lineup. And then the next two, although it's against tougher lineups, pitching in the trop does, you know, raise strikeout upside. So I do like that for Peralta. And the control has been really good lately, too. One walk or fewer in five of his last six starts. Again, that is Freddie Peralta. Let's take our first break. If you are listening on the audio side of things, make sure to leave us a five-star rating and review if you enjoy the podcast. We appreciate it. Let's take that break. And when we return, got a couple other big news kind of things, outline headlines to hit, and then we'll get into the news. We'll do that 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 them to make money. You can also use their built-in spend management tools to handle employee reimbursements without the usual mountain of paperwork. It's free to get started, and there are no surprise fees for the essential services you use most, like ACH and Wires. It's the smart, all-in-one financial home that actually helps you work more efficiently, giving you the data you need up front so you don't have to go digging for it. Visit mercury.com to learn more and apply online in minutes. Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services are free to use. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and column NA members FDIC. Baseball has always been a game of inches. Now it's also a game of seconds. T-Mobile and MLB have teamed up to bring ABS Challenge to all 29 ballparks across the U.S. This isn't a minor upgrade. This is the most significant new technology in the history of the sport, and it's powered by T-Mobile. With every pitch thrown, ABS Challenge uses real-time precision to verify the call, giving them the support they need. No delays, no guesswork, just accuracy at the speed the game demands. Thanks to ABS Challenge, T-Mobile is helping power the moments that define the game. When performance and reliability are non-negotiable, MLB turns to T-Mobile. That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when the most innovative network in the country powers the most data-driven sport in the world. T-Mobile powers MLB's most ambitious technology, and America's best network powers your connection to baseball. Home or away, every pitch, every game, every day. T-Mobile. It's better off. over here. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. visit MLB.com. T-Mobile, best mobile network in the U.S., according to Ookla Speed Test, based on analysis by Ookla of Speed Test Intelligence Data First Half 2026. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Baseball season is in full swing, and there's no better place to be than Calchi, America's number one prediction market platform. Atlanta is currently trading at 7% to win it all, meaning a $100 trade pays out over $1,200 with a win. On Calchi, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. And as the odds move, you can buy in or out anytime throughout the postseason. Download the Calchi app and use code FAN to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. K-A-L-S-H-I, Calchi, trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Calchi products are not available. In all jurisdictions, prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calchi.com slash regulatory. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball Today. And before we get into the news and notes again, just want to hit some other big performances from Tuesday night. And the random number generator known as Gavin Williams actually spit out an ace outcome here. And he was awesome once again. Seven innings, two hits, one unearned run, 13 strikeouts to one. 23 whiffs on 97 pitches here for Gavin Williams. His velocity was up in this one. He just has starts where like his velo just jumps up out of nowhere. And he had just crazy whiffs. He had eight on the fastball, seven on the sweeper, six on the curve. So we know the breaking pitches are great. And I feel like earlier in the season, we didn't really want Gavin Williams to use his fastball. We wanted him to use him less and use the breaking stuff more. His fastball has actually gotten a lot better as the season has gone on. I didn't really want him to use his fastball. I didn't really want him to use his fastball. I didn't really want him to use his fastball. I didn't realize, but, uh, the Woba on that is down to three, the X-Woba 312 with a 31% whiff rate on a fastball. That is insane for Freddie Peralta, uh, for Gavin Williams, excuse me. And, uh, look, the strikeouts are way up. 10th start with double digit strikeouts this season that ties Jacob Miziorowski and over his last 10 starts, 94 strikeouts in 56 and two thirds innings. That is a 15.1 K per night. So massive upside for Kevin Williams. Uh, the, what I wrote on the rundown here is I, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I think he'll be kind of an interesting pitcher to rank for 2027 is Gavin
Speaker 6Williams. Uh, absolutely. He is putting up a very similar season to Jesus Lizardo last season. And so that certainly is within play for Gavin Williams. And if you want to have faith that that is going to be the outcome, I think you can justify taking him as a top 15 starting pitcher. It goes without saying I'm not going to, but that's fine. Why do you hate Gavin Williams, Chris? I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of that. Like, and, and I know you're doing a bit, but there are people not doing the bit. And like, I had him ranked 19th entering this start. He was the 26th best pitcher in fantasy entering, entering the start. I don't hate him, but I don't know how high you can rank a guy who has two different months this season with an ERA over five 50. Um, and I, he had, so he has 94 strikeouts in 56 and two thirds innings over his past 10 starts with a three 65 ERA. Did you say that? Was that the stretch you mentioned? Yeah. Yep. Uh, I looked it up over the past decade. There have been at least 136 different stretches by starting pitchers with at least 94 strikeouts in a 10 start span. It's actually more than I thought it would be, but whatever. He has the fewest innings of those 136 spans and he has the eight highest ERA. I feel like that is Gavin Williams in a nutshell. He is capable of blinding brilliance. And if he ever manages to eliminate the really ugly starts, uh, or cut them in half, he's going to be an ace, but he hasn't done it yet. Yeah. And there's an insistence that he has to be viewed as an ace because of how good he is during his good starts. And I just, I don't think it makes sense. I don't like we, we don't have to ignore the bad starts. We can just take him as he is. And what he is, is a high, like he's pre 20, 20, like six Dylan cease, right? Like awesome. When he's awesome, strikeouts are great. Dependable. He's going to be out there. The ERA is going
Speaker 5to run a little high. That's fine. Yeah. I think he's in that SP two conversation right now. And I'm probably going to rank him somewhere there for next season. I, I'm sure there will be other people who will rank him as a top 12, top 10 starting pitcher. Uh, because I think his upside is that high. If you can cut out those, you know, those blow up starts, but we don't really have any evidence that he's going to do that yet.
Speaker 6Uh, and he's, he's not any more likely to like, anytime you're talking about volatility, you can talk yourself into one way or the other, depending on what you want. He's not more likely to cut out, to, to take the step forward than he is to take a step back. You know, like that's just either one. It could happen. I think just take him at face value, expect a high three ZRA and a ton of strikeouts. And I think you'll generally be pretty happy with Gavin Williams rather than like running around chasing the good and the bad and trying to find, Oh, that's the real one. No, that's the, I think he just is what he is for now. And then at some point he has room to grow or, or fade, you know, like that could happen too.
Speaker 5Yeah. I did have an, Oh my goodness, gracious lineup of the night. That is the twin. They pummeled the tigers 15 to two. Wanted to highlight a few names here. And, uh, Cody Clemens went one for three with a walk and his 24th home run. He's quietly had a very good season. He did struggle in August, but I just wanted to point out the underlying data for August was still very good. 92.1 average EV near 12% barrel rate. The expected stats were good. So I know it was a rough month for Cody Clemens, but he was very consistent before that. Uh, and so I would hold Cody Clemens, uh, who was down to 70%. 75% rostered. He's actually held his own against lefties this year too. So, uh, just, I'm a believer in, in what he's done this season. That is Cody Clemens, Royce Lewis, three for four with a walk, his 14th Homer, two runs, three RBI. Uh, and this was nice to see Chris because Royce Lewis was struggling his previous 16 games, one 55 batting average, zero homers, just one extra base hit three 66 OPS. The underlying numbers here, not as favorable for Royce Lewis during that stretch. Uh, but overall since being recorded, called in, I think like early June, he's mostly been very good. Uh, and his roster rate has dropped down a little bit to 71%. So who do you like more rest of season? I guess final month, Cody Clemens
Speaker 6or Royce Lewis. I have a little more faith in Royce Lewis. He has more ways to help you. Like Cody Clemens is one of those guys. It's sort of like a Brandon Lau, but less proven where you're kind of just getting home runs from him. Um, and if that dries up, things get pretty ugly pretty quickly. We're going to have to wait and see. I'm going to have to wait and see. I'm going to have to wait and see. I'm going to have to wait and see. I'm going to have to wait and see. I'm going to I think is a better overall hitter has a few more ways to impact the game, but I think both, you know, 75, 80% rostered sounds fine for both. I'm not sure either needs to be rostered in most points leagues necessarily, or all points leagues, I guess. Kaelin Culpepper stayed hot. He went two
Speaker 5for five with a double and three RBI in his 21 games. He is now hitting three 20 with three homers in eight 66 OPS. His quality of contact, uh, has actually come down a little bit, but the overall numbers are still good. He's holding his own. He's 42% rostered. I mentioned this recently, but I have moved him ahead of, uh, to the top of that shortstop trio. So ahead of Lombard, obviously he was hurt right now. Um, and on Hill had now, who has been sitting out some games recently as well. So, uh, Kaelin Culpepper in that middle infield mix right now, if you need one, uh, in like a Roto league context, and then Ryan Jeffers two for four with his 13th home run three RBI. He is waking back up. Last two games, he has three homers, seven RBI on overall. He's been a beast this season. So it looks like he is, uh, trying to finish out strong. That is Ryan Jeffers. Let's get into the news and notes. And James Wood is expected to be activated from the IL on Wednesday. So I hope people listened and put them in their weekly lineups because you could still get, I think that would be four games from James Wood, maybe five, if they have seven games as a team this week. Uh, and then, uh, I think that would be four games from James Wood. Maybe five, but I think it was only six. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, either way, I mean, he could, he could do a lot of damage in four. Oh yeah. CJ Abrams was back in the lineup after missing Monday with back tightness. Notably, he started at shortstop and he was back in the lineup.
Speaker 6Interesting. Riley Green. I don't get that second base eligibility. He'll play some, but I don't think it's going to get, get to 20. Whenever they put them in the lineup as a second
Speaker 5baseman, he's, his back is going to flare up and he's not going to play that. Riley Green was and he was in the lineup batting cleanup Tuesday against the twins. Adley Rutschman was not in the lineup due to a lingering hyper-extended right elbow and manager Chad Tracy said, this is something that Adley Rutschman will have to manage for the rest of the season. So I just think, um, he's been up and down, but I, he's mostly been bad since joining the Red Sox. I, I think our expectations should be pretty low for Adley Rutschman rest of season. I agree. Um,
Speaker 6- I do worry, like, does this mean He's going to play more DH or just not be in the lineup like he wasn't on Tuesday because, you know, that's they're trying to use that DH spot to to get all the outfielders in now that Roman Anthony's back. Yeah, I don't know. It's something to keep an eye on. I would guess he's just not going to play as much. I would think having all the all the outfielders in the lineup is a higher priority than having Adley Rutschman's bat.
Speaker 5Yeah, I guess they can against left handed pitching, get Jaron Duran out and they could put Adley Rutschman in there and then maybe some other games against right handed pitching, use him at catcher. But I think it's a fair point on both the playing time and the performance rest of the season.
Speaker 6You want one thing you cannot do is take Mickey Gasper out of the lineup. No, no, you cannot. He's he's the kid who only hits homers. He's 30. But, you know, sick mustache, too, for Mickey Gasper.
Speaker 5He's in the mix. For two catcher leagues, you know, low end catcher, too. I think you do worse than Mickey Gasper. Trey Savage will throw his first bullpen on Friday. He had meniscus surgery on August 11th. Just don't think there's enough time for him to get built back up here. The Dodgers reinstated Will Smith, Dalton Rushing and Justin Robleski on Tuesday. Will Smith will play every other day. According to Dave Roberts, Dalton Rushing will only be used as a pinch hitter off the bench. He had some UCL damage in his elbow, so they don't want him playing catcher. And Justin Robleski will be used as a reliever for the rest of the season. In fact, he made an appearance here on Tuesday and he served up a home run to Joshua Baez. Aaron Boone said Will Warren could be used as a piggyback reliever with Max Freed this weekend. Freed still is not built back up. And that's a close situation to watch for Max Freed because his velocity was down. That was his first start back from the hurting his elbow again. He has a history of elbow and forearm stuff. So I feel like it's not going to end well for Max Freed. But, you know, we'll we'll just see how he looks in his next couple of starts. George Lombard Jr. has missed three straight with right knee inflammation. It is still possible that he lands on the I.L. Davis Martin will return from the I.L. and start Wednesday against the Astros. You should not use him. He was pitching very poorly before he went on the injured list. Corbin Burns will throw a bridge game on Thursday. He's still building up his pitch count before he returns to the D-backs. Another one, Chris, where I don't know that there's enough time. Like if Corbin Burns returns, is it just as a like multi-inning reliever type?
Speaker 6Yeah, he threw 17 pitches over the weekend, I believe, on Sunday. Apparently he looked really good, but. Yeah, he didn't get any strikeouts, but I think it's just a bunch of ground balls. You start to extrapolate that. Maybe he gets up to 40 the next time, 60 after that. And it's like even that's kind of aggressive. And that might leave him with room to make one start at the end. Maybe they're, you know, if they're building him up to get him up into the postseason rotation, that would make sense. I mean, they have to make it first, but that that could be the case. But for fantasy, I think it's unlikely we're going to see Corbin Burns make a lengthy start this season.
Speaker 5Let's check in on the National League wildcard picture. And the D-backs are half a game behind the Padres. Yeah, it's really coming down to. It's just like a four team race for three spots. Technically, the Marlins are only three games out. The Cardinals are four. The Pirates are five. But you've got the D-backs and the Padres battling for that final wildcard spot. And the Phillies and Cubs look like they're just kind of locked in there. Yeah, I think they're in. As the top two teams in the wildcard. Next up, Eugenio Suarez missed Tuesday and will also miss Wednesday to take the United States naturalization test. So he is becoming a citizen. That's cool for Eugenio Suarez. Pete Fairbank. Banks began throwing off a mound Thursday. He is on the aisle with that nerve issue in his right hand. The Orioles option, Cade Povich, after his spot start on Monday. The Dodgers option, Alec Thomas to AAA. The plan is to use Tommy Edmond and Enrique Hernandez in center field. Jamison Tyone is in line to rejoin the Blue Jays and start Friday in Kansas City. Carlos Estevez will undergo season-ending surgery on his right shoulder next week. Adrian Hauser was transferred to the 60-day. I'll with that right forearm strain ending his season. We did get some other promotions here. The Orioles were called Heston Kirstad. The White Sox called up Tanner McDougal. The Orioles called up Luis de Leon. The last two are both expected to work out of the bullpen. I don't really see enough playing time here for Kirstad.
Speaker 6So yeah, and he had like an 800 OPS at AAA. He's 25 or 20. I don't think. Yeah, I don't really think it's going to happen for him.
Speaker 5I think they're all semi interesting. But not really anyone I think can make it a fantasy impact this season. And some non-fantasy news. But the Angels are being sold to. I think it's Stan Kroenke. Is that how we say his name? Kroenke. Kroenke. It's a weird spelling of the name. But I feel like I've heard it a million times in my life. Stan Kroenke. I feel like that's it. For a record $4 billion. And he also owns the Rams, the Nuggets, the Avalanche. I think he's either a part or. I don't know. Some kind of owner of Arsenal in the Premier League as well. So dude's got money. There's no doubt about that. The reign of Artie Moreno is over. And I thought this was an interesting quote from Mike Trout. I mean, you kind of felt that way. It was needed. No hard feelings to Artie. But I'm super excited. The guys are excited. There's a good vibe around the clubhouse. Vibe around the stadium.
Speaker 6I saw somebody describe Artie Moreno as like the guy. In your fantasy league who always finishes in last place but is like makes as many moves as anyone always pays his league dues on time. He's just bad. And that's kind of the owner that Artie Moreno was where like he does stars and scrubs in an auction. He spent money like that. He was not one of the owners who was not spending money. He just spent it really poorly. And it is amazing that he bought that team seven months after they won the World Series. In 2000, they won the World Series in 2002. He bought them in May of 2003. They have just been a joke for 23 years. Yeah, they had Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in their peaks, and they didn't make the playoffs at all with those two guys. And he sold the team for four billion dollars. He bought it for like one hundred and eighty million dollars. Yeah. So he made about three point eight billion dollars. I'm really glad we're going to. Potentially not have a season next year because the owners are having such a hard time making money. Really, really glad that's that's the case. That's that's awesome for baseball and a hard time spending money, too.
Speaker 5Again, you can't say it about Moreno, but that's what those are the arguments that other owners make, right? It's whatever spending money and that the whole argument, you know, for a salary floor, salary cap, all those things. So we will have all offseason to talk about that. But, you know, it feels like there are changes coming here for the Angels and potentially very good ones.
Speaker 6So Cronky's teams have been very successful over the past couple of decades. So, you know, sorry, St. Louis Rams fans. I know that you might not like to hear praise for him because he's the guy that moved the team. But, yeah, he's had a lot of success as an owner, for sure.
Speaker 5Yeah, let's get into this. Paul Skeens versus Logan Webb pitchers duel because, man, 25 runs scored in this game, Paul Skeens, another step backward coming off of, you know, what was a good start his last time out. But and especially against this Giants lineup, man, if you look at this Giants lineup, it's like Rafael Devers.
Speaker 6And what else is in this like if you want to count Bryce Eldridge as a major league hitter, I think you can. That's fair. But other than that, it's a bunch of quad guys. I'm sorry, I don't want to be like rude. But like, there's not another guy on that team that you look at and say, that's a major league star.
Speaker 5There is something to be said for I think a lot of times when players like this get their opportunity, like obviously they are going out and giving it their all because, you know, this is their opportunity to prove themselves. But yeah, Paul Skeens, another rough one, four and two thirds, eight hits, five runs, three walks, four strikeouts, only six swinging strikes on 95 pitches. The velocity was mostly in line with his season long averages, which is down from previous years. He's still just not right, Chris. I don't really know what else to say about this. There's nothing to say. I check for quotes after every start to see if there's anything. The control obviously is a problem. He has three or more walks in four of his last six starts. He has four walks in three of those. And over his last 12 outings, it's a 555 ERA, 148 whip, 3.8 walks per nine. The ground ball rate is down. The hard contact is up. The hard contact in the air is up. He's just kind of broken right now, and I don't know why. And he's at the Cubs next week. So, I don't really want to use him there. You know, like the way that Wrigley is playing, and the way that the Cubs are hitting, like, nah, man, I'm going to wait to see who's on Scott's sleeper pitchers list and probably use a couple of those guys over Paul Skeen.
Speaker 6If he goes out and averages 98.5 miles per hour with his four-seamer and blows guys away against the Angels this weekend, like looks like he's turned it around, okay, I'll start. But, no, not right now. No, I need to see something drastic. To be able to trust Paul Skeen against the Cubs. It's... Talk about hard pitchers to rank for 2027. If this keeps running through the end of the season, I have no idea what to do with him.
Speaker 5I will probably. It's so hard to say. I mean, it's impossible. We're talking about there could be an injury that comes out between now and the end of the season, which
Speaker 6the first two and a half years of his career was the best start to a career since Doc Gooden. Yeah, I have no idea what to make of it. He is ostensibly healthy. I don't think he can be, but ostensibly he is. Yeah, I don't really have anything to say. Certainly nothing new to say.
Speaker 5If he just finishes out the season similar to this the rest of the way, we don't get any news of an injury or anything. I will probably rank him as an SP2, somewhere in the like 13 to 24 range. I won't draft him there. I will rank him there. Yeah, I was thinking high end SP2, but yeah. I will rank him there out of respect for Paul Skeens. I will not be the one drafting him.
Speaker 6I have no idea.
Speaker 5Logan Webb on the other side. Got destroyed. Two plus innings. He came back out for the third. It didn't matter. Nine hits, nine runs, two walks, one strikeout. Six whiffs on 65 pitches here. Nothing too different with the velocity or the pitch mix. He did struggle with control. Only first pitch strikes to eight of 18. That's a 44% rate. And it's tough because he only gave up like five hard hits in this game, Chris. But if you look at the individual expected batting average, it feels like all the hits that he gave up were deserved. So it's just been a weird season for Logan Webb, which now has his ERA at 421 at this point.
Speaker 6Yeah, well, it's weird in a couple of ways because he also has his best whip since 2023. Yeah. Which is very weird. His control still looks awesome. He's still getting a lot of ground balls. He had a 270 BABIP entering this start. It was like 330 last year, I think. He routinely runs pretty high BABs. Yeah. I don't have a great sense of what's happening, but there is one thing that I noticed someone said. Let me see. It was, I think, just a random Giants fan who popped up on my timeline for some reason. But it was, he said, I wonder if something happened around May 2026 that potentially caused a shift in Logan Webb's pitch usage. And he points it to a graph of, of Logan Webb going from throwing about 16% combined fastballs and cutters, four-seamers, to throwing closer to 30%, 30% since the start of June. And yeah, I don't know. That is when they traded Patrick Bailey. And he's throwing his two worst pitches a lot more. And his four-seamer has been a lot less effective than it was last season. Probably because he's throwing it more. Because Logan, Logan Webb has been, the last couple of seasons especially, he saves his four-seamer almost exclusively for two-strike counts. And it was a very effective put-away pitch for him. I don't know if it's a good enough pitch to justify throwing in other counts. And that's what he's doing now. So that's the best explanation I've seen. That he's just throwing his worst pitches too much. And you probably shouldn't do that. That is, you know, not to oversimplify. I know this game can be a little more complicated than we make it sound sometimes. But don't throw your worst pitches a lot. Seems like good advice. And he's doing that right now.
Speaker 5Yeah. And additionally, I mean, this could be as a result of him throwing different pitches. But the strikeouts are just way down this year for Logan Webb too. So the swinging strike rate down from 10.7% to 8.7%. I mean, that is very clearly below league average. And his K per nine is down from 9.7 to 7.2. So I always thought that his, his strikeout rate would just come down this year. It was, it seemed honest, unsustainable last season, but it is down a lot. So more balls in play just could lead to, you know, more hits and things like that happening. So Logan Webb, he gets the Mets this weekend. He's 88% started. He gets the Padres next week. I think it's similar to Skeens. He hasn't been as bad as Skeens recently, but I would like to see at least a quality start against the Mets. And if he does that, I'm probably just still throwing him against the Padres next week, which is at home. I mean, Oracle.
Speaker 6I agree. It's also worth noting. It's just really rotten circumstances for Logan Webb. You know, he had the best defensive third baseman in baseball and a pretty good defensive shortstop behind him. And now he does not have those guys. And he lost his catcher too. And he lost his all world defensive. I think Patrick Bailey is the best defensive catcher in baseball. So yeah, I don't think the team around him is doing him any favors. And I do think Logan Webb is probably not one of those pitchers he can overcome. Uh, poor circumstances consistently. So that's the other part of it.
Speaker 5Yeah. Let's take our final break. When we return, what are we doing with these starting pitchers? We'll talk about 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 Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts. So let's take a minute to go over some of my faves. Snapple real facts, 14, 17 before 1859 baseball umpires sat behind home plate. In rocking chairs, Snapple real facts, 1483, more than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple real fact, two 53, 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 off season. 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. All right, now let's get back to the show. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. What are we doing with these starting pitchers? And up first I have Brian quality start on the road. How about that? At the Red Sox, six innings, two runs. One of those earned seven strikeouts to one walk. The velocity was up in this one, but still just didn't look very dominant. It was only nine whiffs on 99 pitches. Last start out. It was six earned runs over four innings. That was his first start back from the shoulder soreness. But his last three, he starts in the road road have been very good. 17 innings, three runs, 17 strikeouts to three walks. He's 77% started. Chris, what are you doing with Brian Wu next week at the athletics in Sacramento?
Speaker 6Yeah, that's the second worst place he could pitch. So I don't love that. I'm probably still starting him. I know that the road numbers over the season have been very bad. They've been better lately. And I just Seattle's a much better place to pitch than, than anywhere else in baseball. And so all of their pitchers do benefit from that. I do not believe Brian Wu can't pitch away from T-Mobile Park. I just, I don't think that I think he's too talented for that. I know it's been a frustrating season, but there's still a lot to like in his profile. The ERA is inflated, but the peripherals are still very good. I tend to think there's just been some weird blowups and I'm not too worried about it. I can't say I'm starting with a hundred percent confidence at the athletics, but I'm not scared of it.
Speaker 5We got a Troy Melton regression start here at the twins, five and a third, seven runs, five of those earned two homers allowed in this one, only four strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 96 pitches. His velocity was up in the start. It didn't really matter. He gave up seven hard hits. And I think the lack of strikeouts is starting to catch up a little bit here. Five strikeouts are fewer in eight straight and 13 of 17 starts. And over his last four, a four 84 ERA, one 48 whip. Only 15 strikeouts over 22 and a third. With all of that being said, his two starts next week are against the twins again. Don't love that, but gets the Rockies in Detroit. So I, I kind of feel like you've got to throw Troy Melton next week.
Speaker 6Yeah, I'm probably just starting him, but I do think that the, the thing to keep in mind here is just, if you're not a great strikeout pitcher, that doesn't mean you can't be good, but you can't give up home runs and you need the defense to help you. And if one of those things, goes wrong, things can get pretty ugly. And I think we're starting to see that a little bit here with look with Troy Melton. He got up to home runs today. And just his peripherals have not been nearly as good as his actual results. And that kind of goes without saying when you have a sub two ERA as he did entering this start, but it's still doesn't mean you should just ignore it. He has, you know, his FIP is closer to four than to three now. And I think he's probably a true talent. Level high three ZRA pitcher who was just running hot for a while. And you're probably still starting him in a two start week, but I, I would not be surprised at all. If the ratios weren't very good there.
Speaker 5And additionally, if you aren't going to miss bats, you need to find ways to keep hitters off balance to limit hard contact. And that has not been the case. The average EV is over 91 miles per hour in three straight outings here for Troy Melton over to Sean Burke, who once again walked too many, but he did, keep runs off the board here at the Astros five and two thirds shutout, one hit four walks, six strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 104 pitches. The velocity was down in this one previously when he was going through that awesome stretch. It was like the velocity was going up every star. Now it's starting to taper back for Sean Burke, who over his last four starts has a four 74 ERA, one 58 whip 15 walks to 15 strikeouts over 19 innings. He's 92% rostered. He's 75%. started, he's at the Cardinals. next week Chris what are your thoughts here on Sean Burke yeah this is him and his teammate
Speaker 6Davis Martin are a good example of something I talk a lot about where when you are talking about when pitchers are having breakouts but there's not a super tangible thing that you can look at to point to like a big pitch mix change or big velocity jump that there have been mild pitch mix changes for Sean Burke but for the most part he doesn't look that different than the guy he was last season and the biggest change is just he's pitching a lot better and that's especially true when we saw this mid-season turnaround which started around early July I think that's starting at the technically wasn't a start against the Yankees but the amazing start he had against the Yankees when he struck out 11 I think there was a little bit of a lot of a velocity jump for about three starts and then it came back down and he kept pitching really well and it was like I think that's what I'm talking about right now and that is hard to sustain it is really like great pitchers do it but everybody else guys just go through hot streaks and sometimes you're just really locked in and you're really feeling it and that can last for a couple of months but it usually doesn't last forever and that's the that's the thing with both Sean Burke I think it was more true for Davis Martin older doesn't have as good of a stuff but I when I look at Sean Burke sitting on a 320 year this season let's say he finishes the season as 320 year I picture I think a lot of people are going to take it as a big breakout and I think it's a mild breakout I think he's clearly taking a step forward but I'm not going to buy Sean Burke as a 320 year I picture next season I think he's probably more like what his peripherals say which is more like a 375 370 era picture it's still good still much better than he was before it's not really a difference maker and I think there was a month or two months where he looked like a difference maker all right
Speaker 5continuing on what do we do with these pitchers Mackenzie Gore was meh against the athletics five and a third one run four walks four strikeouts eight whiffs on 95 pitches he has four walks in back-to-back starts after a stretch of 13 with 2.3 walks per nine so uh yeah the the location control is now regressing once again for Mackenzie Gore I liked him this week two starts at home he has really drastic home road splits this year next week he's at the D-backs they are really good against lefties and he's not as good on the road so I totally find benching Mackenzie Gore and I honestly if you really need the roster spot I don't think it's crazy to view him more as like a streamer at
Speaker 6this point in the season he's got a 431 era and 129 whip and he always does yeah like for as much as we have talked about Mackenzie Gore over the last three or four seasons the numbers always end up being pretty mediocre this is another one one where you can focus on the good but I think the the bad comes up often enough that he's never a guy you want to be linked to long term um I think he's a high-end streamer with with really
Speaker 5high ceiling but not someone you can ever trust yeah last name on this list is Kyle Braddish who had another mass start this one in Coors Field so like you can't really hold it against him too much but five innings two runs two walks four strikes he's got a lot of good players and he's got a lot of great players he's got a lot of good players and he's got a lot of great players and he's got a lot of great players and he's got a lot of great players and he's got a lot of great players and he's got four strikeouts and over his last seven outings now it is a 571 era 173 whip for Braddish on the season he has a 142 whip he's 83% rostered he's 48% started he gets the Red Sox this weekend he's at the Blue Jays next week it's actually a good matchup at the Blue Jays next week but I I feel like I'd rather chase volume or find like the flavor of the week who has like a really good matchup instead of Braddish at this point it's certainly an
Speaker 6opponent's league any two-start streamer over Cabrash I think is reasonable or at least any viable two-star streamer and even in a roto league it's not like you're protecting your ratios by having Cabrash in there it's not like you're getting a lot of strikeouts from him he hasn't had a big strikeout game since like June I'm pretty sure I don't think he's had I don't think he's had more than five strikeouts in the start since June this is one of the most disappointing pitchers of the season maybe one of the most disappointing players well I don't know there's But certainly for pitchers, what we expected, there have not been many more disappointing, healthy pitchers than Kyle Braddish. And there's really nothing positive to take out of this season. I guess he hasn't gotten hurt yet. I don't want to be too negative, but that's it, right? Like, that's the extent of the positives you can take out of this season for Kyle Braddish. Strikeout rate has regressed. Walk rate has regressed. It really doesn't do anything well right now. I don't know why this has happened, because he had been so good for three years before that. But I really don't have anything positive to say about Kyle Braddish at this point, unfortunately.
Speaker 5You were spot on, by the way, Chris. Has now had more than five strikeouts and a start since June 26th.
Speaker 6Yeah, he had like two or three starts in a row with like eight, nine strikeouts. And I distinctly remember, we were like, Kyle Braddish is back. He is going to be an ace moving forward. And yeah. It's just like, not like there's been a dramatic change in his pitch mix or the... It's just, I have no idea. I have no good explanation for it, but it's just not good.
Speaker 5Let's wrap up here with some waiver wire names from Tuesday's action. It is a very, very small sample size with Trevor Story, but he does have multiple hits in three games since returning from the IL. He went two for four with a double here. And just a reminder, like, he was bad early this season. He was very good last year. He had 25 home runs. 31 steals. There is a chance that he just gives a decent amount of power and speed to close out the season. So, I'm keeping a close eye on it. I still would favor someone like Kalen Culpepper over him. But I would take Story over Lombard or Henao right now. Just because, A, one's hurt and the other one is starting to lose some playing time.
Speaker 6It's really hard to recommend Trevor Story as an add when Kalen Culpepper is rostered in fewer leagues. Correct. If you are in a league where Kalen Culpepper is rostered. And Trevor Story isn't. And you need a shortstop or a middle infielder. Sure. Go ahead. I, you know, I agree. He was so good last season that I'm not going to write him off entirely.
Speaker 5Some deeper names here. Jeff McNeil is doing some things. Two for four with his seventh home run. And in the second half, he's hitting .346. Four homers. Six steals. And .872 OPS. He is 26% rostered with first, second, and outfield eligibility. Six home games next week. Five righties in the schedule. So, you like that? Joey Ortiz of the Brewers. Two for four with his eighth home run. Two RBI. Last 42 games. I didn't realize this guy's, you know, hitting really well. 3.31. Six homers. Four steals. OPS over .900. During that stretch, he is 11% rostered. Shortstop and third base eligible. And then Mickey Gasper, who we spoke about. He just cannot stop hitting home runs. He has seven home runs in the year. He has hit all of them in his past 13 games. So, in a two-catcher league, again, if you need a catcher, Mickey Gasper. Chris, any deep league interest in a Jeff McNeil? Or Joey Ortiz?
Speaker 6Oh, McNeil as a streamer next week seems fine at home. I like that setup for him next week. I had a little bit of interest in him as a very deep sleeper coming into the season. And obviously, he was a disaster in the first half. But there were signs that he wasn't completely finished at the end of last season as well. I think he's closer to finish than not. But I don't mind him as a streamer. With Joey Ortiz, it's rare. Remarkable. He's been arguably the Brewers' best position player in the second half of the season.
Speaker 5That's crazy.
Speaker 6Which I did not expect, and I can't imagine anybody did. I don't have a lot of faith in it. The underlying numbers aren't particularly good. But it's been really good for them because some injuries and some underperformances have forced him into a bigger role. And he's stepped up. And I just want to point out, Mickey Gasper, seven home runs in his past 13 games. Do you know what his career high for homers is at any? In a season? It's 12.
Speaker 5I was going to say 10. Darn it.
Speaker 6He hit 12 home runs in 2024. He hit 12 home runs in 2025. He has seven in his past 13 games. Now, he does technically have 16 home runs on the season now.
Speaker 5He was crushing the minors this year.
Speaker 6Yeah, he has nine homers in the minors. I mean, he's 30. My guess is that this is just... A crazy hot streak. But, you know, he's playing every day right now with Wilson Contreras on the I.L. And he's red hot. So as a hot hand play for a second catcher, you can do worse, certainly. Some waiver wire pitchers here.
Speaker 5I will just mention that Nick Lodolo turned in a quality start. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. His curveball looked very good. He did not have much else working at all. He gave up 11 hard hits. You should not do anything with this, but it was nice to see. Nick Lodolo had a good start. His matchups next week. At the Dodgers and at the Brewers.
Speaker 6You should not do anything with that.
Speaker 5No, thank you, Nick Lodolo. Grayson Rodriguez struggled with the long ball, but he did rack up some whiffs here against the Yankees. Six innings, four runs, seven strikeouts, two homers allowed, 18 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. He gave up back-to-back home runs in the first inning, but then did settle down after that. Use has changed up a lot more against a... The Yankees threw out like eight of their nine starting hitters were lefties in this one. so it was very left-handed, heavy, and his changeup had 10 of the 18. team with so I thought that was encouraging and over his last seven starts 349 era 122 whip over a strikeout per inning he's at the Red Sox at the Nationals next week so the matchups are scary but Grayson Rodriguez has has looked better lately
Speaker 6fortune favors the bold yeah you gotta be real bold to trust it but that's a good way to put it I'm I'm just some idiot so like who cares but I just when I look at Grayson Rodriguez pitch I all I can think is like can we get this man a cutter or something or just like because it his changeup was awesome today that's great it tends to be his second best or his best pitch probably in terms of missing bats but you look at the velocity and it's 97 with the fastball 84 with the changeup 81 with the curveball 86 with the slider like there's just nothing in between you know it's like it's all it's half his pitches are 97 and half his pitches are 84 and there's just like I feel like he is like a great candidate for like a harder gyro slider or a cutter or a harder changeup something like a splitter something because it just it feels like there's just there's only two velocity bands in his profile and I feel like that that would be a way that he could add some deception into his arsenal I feel like there's just too much velocity separation there for a guy who throws 50% fastballs especially
Speaker 5I think those are fair points again honestly I just I just want to see any type of success here from Grayson Rodriguez sure absolutely what he's gone through the past couple years you know the arm injuries being traded for one year of Taylor Ward who just completely tanked this season four months of Taylor Ward so we'll see we'll see it looks like he's finishing strong but yeah tough matchups next week for Grayson Rodriguez do you have anything on Tyler Phillips or we could just keep moving I think we can keep moving yeah the matchups next week just one matchup against the Dodgers so unfortunately
Speaker 6he's not a terrible pitcher but from a fantasy perspective he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts he doesn't pitch deep into games he pitches for a pretty mediocre team it's just you're kind of hoping for two runs over five innings in any given start yeah
Speaker 5some hitting leftovers we got two more home runs from Fernando Tatis the updated second half numbers 293 14 homers 34 runs 34 RBI 8 steals 987 OPS he is awesome and I see you have a note here about the about Tatis
Speaker 6among the top 30 players hitters in ADP entering the season so among the hitters who were in the top 30 in ADP only Junior Caminero has been worth more than Fernando Tatis this year according to the Fangraphs player rater isn't that crazy I'm assuming so he was a half dollar behind Shohei Otani today but I assume two homer game will will give him a little bump yeah ahead you can make a case that Fernando Tatis was the best first round pick in fantasy this year which is wild because he was awful for two months yeah he didn't hit his first homer until May 30th
Speaker 5you know his line actually looks where it should at this point right like 282 19 homers 31 steals OPS right at 800 he's going to get to close to 25 home runs 35 to 40 steals that's what you wanted
Speaker 6from Fernando Tatis 80 RBI 100 runs 35 steals yeah it's an awesome season he's hitting 282 he is also now this is incredible he is tied for fourth most multi homer games in the majors he didn't hit his first multi homer game until like June 28th or something he has three multi homer games in the past two weeks wow it's wild love Fernando Tatis is doing
Speaker 5yeah so let that be a lesson to all of you out there if your first round hitter especially a guy we've seen do it for years is off to a terrible start next year don't throw in the towel just yet there there it's a very very long season and it has been a big old season for Randy Rosarena who hit his 22nd home run he has homered in back-to-back games um uh and normally Randy is very inconsistent from month to month he's like a very streaky player this year it's the opposite his monthly OPS has been between 769 and 884 each month so he's actually been very consistent this year Ozzy Albee is looking to finish strong after a very rough August he hit his 21st home run but he had a sub 600 OPS in the month of August Christian Yelich hit his 10th home run and he has looked better as of late last 12 games 333 two homers 9 RBI steal if you haven't dropped Christian Yelich yet I would just hold on to him he's playing better now Brandon Nimmo had himself a big game 4 for 5 with a double and 5 RBI he's been consistently mediocre this year he just really has underperformed his expected stats I think a lot of it is playing his home games in Texas unfortunately Rafael Devers hit another home run he has 6 in his past 12 games big game for Brandon Lau 4 for 6 with his 29th home run it's been a just great season for him all around he is a um he's the 5th best 2nd baseman in Roto the 8th best in total heads head points entering Tuesday's action O'Neal Cruz has looked very good since returning from the IL 311 3 homers 3 steals 970 OPS Chris you'll enjoy this 162 game pace for O'Neal Cruz 36 homers 112 runs 119 RBI 51 steals yeah
Speaker 6that's fun it's a bonker season I he's another one I have no idea what to do with for 2027 because I don't know I don't know I don't know we're gonna end up getting what like 110 games out of him no not even he's played 76 games we're gonna get around I mean 95 maybe maybe close to 100 games
Speaker 5I will set his offseason ADP at 36 and a half yeah I think it's gonna be
Speaker 6because Pekra Armstrong was right around 31 last year so like a very different player obviously but I think it's gonna end up settling around their third or fourth round pick I think and that's gonna be a real tough call I genuinely have no idea what to do about it because you also have to keep in mind he has missed significant time I think for the past six seasons going back to the minors or actually I think he's been in the majors now for that most of that time this one
Speaker 5what this year was a fractured hand yeah
Speaker 6no it's been like some freakish stuff there was the the fractured ankle on a play at the plate I don't know that you can take anything from that necessarily this was a fractured finger it's tough but yeah we hold that against players I think it's gonna be really interesting to see I'm gonna guess the consensus is gonna be higher on him than I am he's running a 382 Babbitt he's still striking out 35% of the time there are
Speaker 5still that much 35% hey I think he's up
Speaker 6to like 35% and look he might have the skill set to keep a yeah 34.4% he's he might have the skill set like 387 Babbitt by the way you know you would think he's a high Babbitt player his career Babbitt 321 if the batting average was 40 points lower we're having a different conversation about oh no Cruz it would still be an awesome season but I think the the flaws would be a little more obvious so I think he's gonna be a really hard player to figure out for next season I'm gonna guess I'm gonna be lower than the consensus on him but I would also guess he'll be ranked around or his ADP will be around 30th overall
Speaker 5yeah he is a tough one indeed couple of other names here Bryce Harper four for four with a walk run and RBI last 30 games 356 five homers and OPS near 1100 for Bryce Harper Jordan Walker putting the finishing touches on a monster year his 28th home run and got off to a slow start coming out of the break and I instantly think wow Chris was wrong again you know the home run Derby ruined another player but the last 30 games 301 six homers four seals 834 OPS for Jordan Walker lots of names here Chris is there anyone else you'd like to touch on before we I mean pitchers Harper 900 OPS
Speaker 6now for the season that's pretty great
Speaker 5I didn't think he had another 900 OPS
Speaker 6season yeah to be honest and then Walker you know he has not sustained the the first half pace what do you have or the first month pays really was it 12 home runs in the first month or whatever it was um he's putting together a really nice season though and as long as your expectations are something more in the low 800s OPS range I think that feels reasonable for Jordan Walker based on what we've seen um yeah maybe like a Randy or Rosarena with a little more pop kind of profile you know that that could be a reasonable uh expectation for Jordan Walker and I it does feel like there's a lot less discussion about him than certainly when there was early in the season but I do wonder you know a relatively quiet second half what kind of impact that's going to have on the way he's perceived because he's been mostly pretty good all season he's been stealing bases consistently the counting stats have been pretty good um and I feel like there might not be that as much enthusiasm for him as there could be so I don't know I'm I'm intrigued by by where Jordan Walker's price is going to end up for 2027 because if it's only like a top 50 pick know in the 50 ish range i think that feels like a pretty reasonable price for him that first nfbc
Speaker 5draft that happened he went eighth overall so oh okay then i don't know what i'm talking about
Speaker 6eighth or tenth he was a first round player wow that's wild okay then maybe everything i said is not true and i will be out on jordan walker next season because yeah i can't i mean that's a sample of one i have no idea well and i think as we get further removed like as aaron judge gets on the field right and and like as some of these disappointments fade or as some of the injured players come back i think we will probably see a little reversion to last year's first round and second round players like i think there's going to be you know maybe especially in season because some of these guys have been so disappointing maybe uh an instinctual like get them away from me but yeah if it's a top 15 price for him i think it's a good price for him i think it's a good price for him for jordan walker i'm not going to be able to justify that now i don't think on the pitching
Speaker 5side of the leftovers we have jesus lizardo with another strong start six and two-thirds one run six strikeouts at the d-backs gary cole faltered late here at the angels five and a third eight hits three runs five strikeouts he allowed a two-run triple in the sixth inning that really kind of messed up the line here for gary cole but he also gave up a lot of hard contact 12 hard hits allowed in this one for cole and eduardo rodriguez took a step back against the phillies five innings eight hits three runs three walks three strikeouts his previous four starts before this 140 era 0.90 whip over a strikeout per inning and uh all the era estimators below 250 so he legitimately was pitching better as of late chris any thoughts here on erod gary cole and jesus lizardo yeah watching this start i didn't really get why
Speaker 6gary cole was starting his fastball as much as he was it wasn't particularly effective it was getting hard he wasn't missing bats and he threw it a lot um i feel like he threw it a lot in two strike counts especially which this didn't make sense so um i don't really i don't know i don't i don't think there's much to take forward there i think he's really good um you know back in the top 12 sp discussion but that was the one thing i noticed while watching the call to the bullpen for the
Speaker 5reds emilio pagan got the ninth inning with a two-run lead he allowed a solo homer but picked his save for the marlins with a three-run lead calvin fauche was used in the sixth inning he allowed a hit but picked up his 13th hold the marlins added more runs on so it was not a save opportunity anymore but chris i thought it was interesting that calvin fauche was used in the sixth inning with no pete fairbanks it feels like they are back to not having a closer and they
Speaker 6never will ever again yeah it's weird that i guess the amount of money p fairbanks was getting paid was pitching because his role has never been in doubt at any point this season when he's been healthy and otherwise there's really just they've reverted right back to what they were before it's
Speaker 5it's a very odd situation for the rangers jacob latz came on to get the final two outs he struck out both for his 28th save for the rockies jordan romano got the ninth of the two-run lead he struck out two for his 14th save in 19 games now with colorado a 2era 111 whip 18 strikeouts over 18 for jordan romano so he is 19 rostered i think this could still end very very poorly but i also think that roster rate is just too low for someone who is the closer for his team and for the pirates mason montgomery got the ninth with the game tied he gave up two hits but picked up his third win as the pirates walked it off in the bottom of the ninth to stream or not to stream on wednesday we have grant holmes at the nationals jacob lopez at the rangers cody bradford home against the giants andrew painter at the d-backs patrick sandoval home against the mariners landon rupe at the pirates jared jones home against the giants griffin jacks in his return against the mets i don't know what the pitch count is going to look like there joey cantillo against the blue jays dean kramer against the tigers david peterson against the brewers and hayden was nesky home
Speaker 6against the white socks yeah i think from a talent perspective griffin jacks is the best guy here but he threw let's see 44 two pitches in his lone rehab game that was uh 10 days ago so i assume there was a bullpen in there where he probably worked a little more but that is not uh a great sign that he's going to go deep it's the race so you can never trust him to go deep anyway so my hope would be to avoid griffin jacks but i think he's the best pitcher here otherwise it's andrew painter jacob lopez and i think david peterson we said yesterday yeah i think cantillo against the blue jays could work they
Speaker 5are 29th in woba against left-handed pitching so uh i would put lopez at the top of the list i would put painter second and then i would choose uh joey cantillo but i could see any of peterson was nesky or you know the mariners bats are hot all of a sudden so i'm gonna say no on patrick sandoval but i could see peterson or was nesky or i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know having good starts as well on thursday blade tidwell is at the pirates louise castillo at the astros quinn matthews at the dodgers bubba chandler home against the giants brandon young home against the red sox cal quantrell home against the rays and jt gin is at the mariners i think jt gin's
Speaker 6my favorite i know cal quantrell has been very effective lately i have zero faith in it whatsoever um you do like that that start is in texas though yeah it's fine i just i don't think he's very good um i'd probably put bubba chandler ahead of quantrell i think gin and chandler yeah maybe brandon young as well though the matchup is tough and i'm not
Speaker 5sure he's particularly good so i mean all of a sudden that red sox lineup they they did get anthony and story back but they lost contrarist and adly rutchins banged up so yeah gin is i think
Speaker 6the only one i would start with any degree of confidence though all right we're gonna wrap
Speaker 5there for chris i am frank thanks as always for tuning in to fan 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
Speaker 4paramount podcasts
PodcastTranscript AI