Big Prospect Promotions & Welcome Back, Dylan Cease! (6/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Setting the Stage: Today's Fantasy Baseball Topics Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? E-mail. Speaker 2 Fantasy baseball at CBSI. Speaker 1 Dot com get ready to win your league. We're fantasy because reality. Now here's frank, Scott and Chris. Hello. Speaker 2 Welcome in tough fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, June 10th, I am Frank Sample. Join by Scott White to stay on the show. We got two more big prospects who got the call. We'll break those down in just a little bit. Big return from Dylan Cease will fire up the wariometer and much more. Let's jump in. Speaker 1 You can't put it on the board. Yes, yes. Speaker 2 I would have to imagine that would have been Hawk Harrelson's call for Braden Montgomery's walk off home run if you were still calling the game. Did you watch? I mean, I'm sure you watch that, that game, Scott, it was, you know, obviously against the Braves. Did you see any of the White Sox broadcast? It was they did like this retro night thing where everything looked and sounded like the 80s. Speaker 1 I did see clips of it. Speaker 2 It was pretty cool. Speaker 1 The the, what do they call that in the corner of the screen? The bug scoring bug. I should know that I'm in broadcasting. Yeah, now it it was. It was a fun throwback there graphically. Speaker 2 It was cool. Yeah, it was cool. I mean, the only thing is I I'm not a real big Bob Costas guy, but I mean, whatever. I I get that he's part of like the fabric of baseball and all that stuff, but any who let's get into the players of the night again. We'll get to the prospects in just a little bit. Jack Caglianone's Recent Surge and Fantasy Value Scott, talk to me about Jack Caglione. Might it finally be happening finally? Speaker 1 Well, for a day it happened. He went three for three with two home runs. Also stole a base, for whatever that's worth, and walked. But really, it's the two home runs here that are worth stressing. And really, since the calendar flipped to June, Caglianone has looked better. He's gone 10 for 21 with a 476 batting average, is now up to three home runs. And it's sort of the same story if you if you dig into the the data with Caglione, sort of the same story as last year where he has throttled the ball consistently, 96th percentile average exit velocity, 98th percentile Max exit velocity, hits the ball about as hard as anyone, which of course we knew from his time at the University of Florida, but it wasn't translating to production. The big difference between this year and his rookie year was the strikeout rate has blown up. It's it's 30% this year was 22% last year. That was part of what made him so encouraging. For a guy with that much power to not be, to not be have an excessive strikeout rate. Well, it has been excessive this year. Not so excessive that with as hard as he hits the ball, he couldn't theoretically overcome it. But you know, he hadn't been and he wasn't last year either. And it's it's easy to lose heart when you have that many months of underachievement, despite the data looking so good. And I don't know, I don't know if it's turned around now, but I know that if you gave up on Caglione, understandably, I did too. Yeah, me too. And at least one of the leagues where I drafted him, he's worth a look again, because there is a lot of talent there. You can tell just by all those those red lollipops on his baseball savant page among everything else. And this brief though it is, it's the clearest demonstration of that talent in the major so far. So you know you got a spot to play with, you need outfield help. It's time to pick him up again, and we'll see what happens next. Speaker 2 Yeah, the underlying numbers all still look pretty good. It seems like he has traded in, you know, more strikeouts this season for more power. He's trying to get to that power. He's clearly hitting the ball really hard. 93.9 average exit velocity is among the best in baseball. It just hasn't really translated to big power production yet. But obviously two home run game here. He has three home runs in June so far, and the overall line is OK. I mean, 261 batting average, 8 homers, 3 steals, 780 OPS. Hopefully he can build off this. 62% rostered some other names that are right in that range. Jung Hoo Lee who is racking up the hits but clearly does not have the same type of juice that Caglianone does. Who would you rather have between those two? Speaker 1 I mean points leagues you still have to lean Lee because he's such a good contact header and Caglianone such a bad contact header. Talking CBS scoring, of course, otherwise, though, you know, it kind of depends what you need more. I would say they're about on equal footing in terms of how roster they need to be. Caglianone has vastly more upside. I think you feel a little more confident and and Jung Hoo Lee right now just being useful, but he it is it is pretty hollow that batting average, what else he provides with it. And so if that were to slip at all, he'd quickly lose value. Speaker 2 Would you take Caglianone over any of the other young outfielders? Not the prospects. We'll get to those in a second, but you know, the AJ Ewings, Ryan Waldschmidt, Antonacci, even throw Noel Di Marte in there, who recently got called back up. Speaker 1 It's pretty easy to take him over Marte because the playing time since returning hasn't been consistent there. He he was out of the line up again here on Tuesday. So I think Caglione over Marte is a pretty easy call. Those others, I mean, none of them, none of Ewing or Walshmidt or Cruz have really given us, have, have, have really made it so we feel like we can't drop them. They, they, they're not solid for fantasy by any means. They've all had their moments. I think Ewing and Walsh, Schmidt especially. But they haven't solidified their place on fantasy rosters. And I don't think any of them has, at least not clearly has more upside than than Caglione himself. So if he's the one attracting the attention right now, I'd be fine swapping out any of them for him. Again, I'd be a little more hesitant in the points league because I don't think Caglione's strikeout rate gives them as much margin for error in that format. But I, I would say at the very least they're on equal footing there. I I'd probably put Cruz below all of them because obviously this is more than just year, more than just this year of him, him letting us down. Dylan Cease Dominates in Return with New Arsenal All right, let's talk about the returning Dylan Cease, who was awesome against the the Phillies here. 6 innings of one run ball, 11 strikeouts to one walk, 29 whiffs on 93 pitches, 10 of those on the fastball, 8 on the change up, 7 on the slider. He's just a more complete pitcher so far this season with the Blue Jays. He used his change up and his sinker more in the start and he just had everything working. I mean again, like 3 different pitches with 7 plus whiffs is just insane stuff for any any starting pitcher. And on the season it's a 291 ERA, 116 with 13.6 K per nine. His 27% K minus walk rate is second among all qualified starting pitchers behind only Jacob Mesirowski. So he's still doing CS. And I feel like at any point, there could still be walks that pop up, obviously, like this erratic sense of pitching that we get from Dylan Cease every now and then. He's inconsistent at times. So far this year, he has been a lot better than that. I totally get that. But Scott, it's looking like Dylan Cease is just a legit top 12 starting pitcher SP one this season, at least based on what he showed us so far and obviously in this return. Speaker 1 I don't know that I'm ready to put him in my top 12 yet. There are a lot of candidates for that spot, but just to speak more broadly about it, he is still Dylan sees, like you said, but he's, he's also different. You know, he's he's, he's a more, I would say, I would say this is the best Dylan sees we've ever seen. Not statistically, he's had better years statistically, but in in in terms of how good he could be with what he is demonstrating because he has fleshed out that arsenal in a way we've never seen before. So last year, 82% combined fastballs and sliders, just those two pitches 82% of the time. This year, it's more like 65% of the time he got whiffs. You mentioned 7 plus whiffs on three different pitches. That itself is pretty amazing for any pitcher but Cease, especially with his limited arsenal historically. So seven or more whiffs on three different pitches. He got at least one on five different pitches, all of which he threw at least 11% of the time. He talked about the change up specifically because that was not something he featured. It's not even something he really threw last year. And it it was responsible for the IT it had the plurality of the whiffs here on Tuesday with eight of them. He described it as not metrically sexy, but he's been getting good results with it. He feels like it is a pitch you wanna keeps working on and he think feels like it compliments his arsenal well. And I think we're seeing it in the results not only with the whiffs here in this start, but his ground ball rate is way up this year. His average exit velocity against is is the lowest, which is to say the best it I'm not going to say it's ever been, but the best it's been since that 2022 season when he had the 220 ERA. So yeah, I, I think Dylan sees has unlocked another level here joining the Blue Jays. And you know, not every start's going to be its dominant as this one. He's still going to struggle with control at times, but I'm excited to see if he can become steadier overall now that he has these additional weapons to work with. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think it just raises the ceiling for Dylan Cease and he always had a high ceiling. It's, you know, the floor that we always have to worry about. So I, I still think there is some variance on a start to start basis, on a month to month basis for Dylan Cease. I just left him as my SP12 while he was hurt because I knew he would be back pretty soon. It was only a hamstring injury he was dealing with. But when you couple the K minus walk stuff with the new pitches, the expected ERA is in the low threes. It all looks really, really promising. I'm, I'm thinking Dylan Cease is like a borderline ace as long as he can maintain these, these gains with these new pitches that he's been throwing. He wasn't the only one in this game, by the way. It was a a pitcher's duel up in Toronto. Speaker 1 It's time. Zach Wheeler Continues Strong Season with Quality Starts To Zach Wheeler on the other side, just another ho hum. Strong start, quality start. 6 innings of one run ball, 5 strikeouts to zero walks. He had fifteen wins on 96 pitches, 6 on the fastball, 3 on the splitter, 2 on the sinker, 2 on the sweeper and he is down to a 222 ERA. He's got a .85 WHIP, 2 earned runs are fewer. In seven of nine starts, he's gone 6 plus innings in eighth straight. He's not exactly the Zach Wheeler of old just because the strikeout rate isn't where it was before, but in terms of just results, keeping runs off the board, and even the volume he's provided, those are all pretty close to the Zach Wheeler. So again, he's not a top five starting pitcher, but I think he's like 8590% of the pitcher he was pre injury. So why? Speaker 1 Do you not have him in the top 12? I understand why you're saying he's not top five, but you're putting cease in the top 12. Speaker 2 Yeah, I have Wheeler at 14, so he's. Speaker 1 I think I'd rather have Wheeler than cease. I don't seem much to be concerned about here. Speaker 2 It's just a strikeout. It's honestly it's the strikeout difference between the two. Speaker 1 But I don't see why that wouldn't return to its former levels given that, you know, we talked about this last time, his velocity is basically back to where it was prior to the thoracic outlet surgery. So I'm not seeing a lot of difference here. Wheeler World yes, results wise, the strikeouts are down some. It's still, you know, it's still a, it's not like it's a bad strikeout rate. It's just kind of an average strikeout rate. But I, I think it could come back and I think obviously he's good enough that he can make do with it not being, it was 11.7 per nine last year. That was by far the best of his career. But 10 per 9 high, 9 per nine, that's where he normally resides. And I think he could get back to that. Doesn't necessarily need to, but I I wouldn't be surprising if he did. Speaker 2 Yeah, I could see Zach Wheeler being more steady, more consistent than Dylan cease. But again, on a start to start basis, I, I just, I think the upside is as higher with Cease 13.6 K per 9 is just bananas for him. And then with Zach Wheeler, the swinging strike rate down from 14 1/2 percent last year to 11%. I'm very high on Zach Wheeler. I don't, I didn't want this to turn into like I'm down on Zach Wheeler. I I was clearly wrong. Speaker 1 You always do that to me, Frank. Speaker 2 Look, I, I, I was down in him coming into the season. Clearly I was wrong about Zach Wheeler, but yeah, he just continues to get it done. It's quality start after quality start. Dylan Dingler Racking Up Home Runs and Catcher Value One other mention here, I wanted to give a shout out to Dylan Dingler who is Catching Fire 4 for five with a double Dong. That's two Ding a lings. Someone tweeted and asked to call his home runs Ding a lings. So that's what we're going with. Three runs, four RBI. That's his second multi home run performance in his last seven games. And over Dylan Dingler's last 16, he's batting 283, eight homers, 20 RBI and OPS up over 1000. We've said it all season, Scott. I mean, the stack cast stuff for Dylan Dingler under the hood is just fantastic. 94th percentile or better in XBAX slug X woba. He has sixteen home runs total on the season 857 Opsi think we're just starting to see all that hard contact come to fruition now with the with the power catching up here for Dylan Digler. Speaker 1 Heath Cummings, who does fantasy football for CBS but used to do fantasy baseball. Do you remember his preferred term for home runs? Speaker 2 It was dongs. Yeah. Yeah, Dongs. Speaker 1 He's like to call home runs dongs. So why don't we call Dingler home runs Ding dongs? Speaker 2 Ding Dongs. Yeah, fair enough. Are you in, Scott? You're all the way in. You trust. Speaker 1 Me, I mean, I, I don't know that I have much to add analytically. You pretty much said everything already. He's it's just a question of sorting out where exactly he belongs in the top ten at this point at catcher. I I know Rushman is now dealing with a hamstring injury. Adly Rushman, so that might be reason enough to drop him behind. It's crowded up there still, though I, I know it's not. I know catcher's lost some of its depth to attrition. Not at all surprising given the the physical demands of the position, but once you climb inside the 10, it's like, oh, where are the misses here? Obviously Baldwin and Cal Raleigh are on the IL currently, but they're they're still top five. I would assume we'd still have them top five. William Contreras is underwhelmed a little with the power and Yvonne Herrera has not been quite as good as we hoped, but they've both still been very productive overall. Like, I'm not, I'm not sure I can say, sit here and say I'd rather have Dingler than either one of them. I don't know. Do you disagree? Speaker 2 No, obviously so. Speaker 1 It's probably just Liam Hicks, I think. Would you rather have Dingler than Liam Hicks? Speaker 2 I still have Will Smith ahead of him, but I think that's a pretty easy swap. Yeah, I think Dingler ahead of Hicks, ahead of Smith, then that gets you up to 9. It's close with someone like Yvonne Herrera. I think Goodman is moving back up. He's just on an absolute heater right now too. So yeah, somewhere in that like 6 to 9 range. I think for for Dylan Dingler makes sense. Speaker 1 I mean, I can't, I, I don't see how I can get him higher than 8 and that's if I move him ahead of Hicks, which may be fine. You know, I've had, I've had a little more skepticism for Hicks than I'm feeling for Dingler right now. Dingler and his Ding dongs. But but yeah, I think 8th as high as I could go 'cause there's still so much, so many high end hitters at that position. Speaker 2 All right, before we hit our first break, just a reminder that Scott's top prospects to stash is or will be up on the site here on Wednesday morning slash afternoon. And make sure to check out our FBT Express episode where we will talk about a bunch of prospects. And Speaking of prospects, we'll talk about more of those in just a second. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today, and let's talk about prospects. Braden Montgomery and Cole Carrig Get the Call We got two more big promotions here. The White Sox called up outfielder Braden Montgomery, 23 years old, 12th overall pick in 2024. Came over to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade. Big raw power, big eggs of velocities. Last 10 games at AAA before the promotion, 474 batting average, 2 homers, 17 runs scored, and he made an instant impact. He went 2 for five with three RBI, including a walk off home run he hit to the opposite field off of Ricelle Iglesias in his debut. So very, very impressive stuff. 30% rostered Scott. What are your expectations for Brighton Montgomery and what type of leagues are you looking to add him in? Speaker 1 I mean, first of all, it's all downhill from here, right? Your first Major League game, you hit a walk off home run a so high come from behind walk off home run right like just the the the you you can't reach that high again emotionally. And I I kind of it makes sense that the clips that that's going around of that walk up a walk off home run is the White Sox broadcast because obviously he's a White Sox player and the announcers have the appropriate level of enthusiasm for the moment. But it's if if you're able to find a clip of the Braves broadcast of that walk off home run, they get a better shot of him rounding first base. And the expression on his face is just priceless. I mean, that he was walking on air. And you know, even though it was it was a bit of a dagger since it was against my favorite team. It was hard not to feel good for for Braden Montgomery in that moment. And he's a talented player. As you mentioned, the X velocities have always, you know, he, he hasn't been in the minors that long. He was drafted, what, two years ago, immediately moved in the Garrett crochet deal before he even had a chance to play a game in the Red Sox system this year. AAA 94th percentile average exit velocity, 97th percentile Max exit velocity. But there are some glaring weaknesses here, too that could undermine his success in the majors. More than than it did in the minors, only 76% zone contact rate, which is very low. It would be among the lowest among qualifiers in the majors. And he was doing that against minor league pitchers. It was 18th percentile at AAA, the zone contact rate also just a 12th percentile pull error rate. So he wastes a lot of that hard contact. Even this home run here, the walk off home run was to the opposite field and the metrics aren't on it weren't particularly good. Hit less than 100 mph, OK, you know, he hits the ball hard, only went 343 feet only would have been a home run in 2 of 30 parks. So he can't get away with hitting the ball that direction. It's not it's not going to wind up being a home run very often. And so we kind of saw, even though it worked here, we kind of saw that we kind of saw the flaw in action there for for Braden Montgomery. So 5 outfielder leagues, certainly 15 teamers, like 15 teamers is a must. The outfield pool is terrible. And those formats, 12 team, 5 outfielder leagues, OK, still probably. I mean, there's a lot of upside here for Braden Montgomery. Anything shallower than that three outfielder leagues, I don't know. I think you can take a wait and see approach. I don't think Braden Montgomery is definitively better than some of those others we listed off Ryan Walsh, Schmidt, AJ Ewing. In fact, I, I, I think as a prospect, I like them a little less than both, but you know, they're, they're basically in the same category. And so I think in three outfielder leagues you probably wait and see. Speaker 2 And the other big name getting called up here, the Rockies promoted Cole Carrig, a name that we have talked about for a while now. 57 games at AAA this season, he hit 338, six homers, 55 runs scored, thirty stolen bases, a 943 OPS as well. He went one for three with a triple and a walk in his debut. The Rockies also placed Tyler Freeman on the seven day concussion IL. So I'm just left wondering, would they have called up Cole Keurig even if that injury didn't happen? Or is this just an injury replacement? So just a little bit worried about that. But he's a big name prospect and he was putting up massive numbers. 19% rostered. Same question. Scott, what size leagues are you looking at him in? Who do you prefer between Keurig and Braden Montgomery? Speaker 1 It's probably the same situation. I mean all 5 outfielder leagues you're probably looking to add him 3 outfield release. You could probably wait and see. I think his skill set Karigs lends itself a little more to points leagues because there's better plate discipline and he's an extra base hit machine. The kind of extra base hits that aren't rewarded in categories. League standard 5 by 5 leagues anyway, but R and points leagues. Speaker 2 And especially in Coors Field. Speaker 1 Especially in Coors Field. And again, we saw that play out in his first game because the one hit Kerrig Kerig had was a triple that was just hitting to the right field corner. But the corner's so deep at Coors Field, the gaps are so deep and wide. And there's just, you know, if a ball gets past an outfielder at Coors Fields, Kerig's very likely to get a triple, as we saw here on Tuesday. And just looking at his production at AAA, So 338 batting average, 943 OPS, despite having only six home runs, he had 26 extra base hits overall. So he he's just his skill set lends itself to a lot of extra base hits and it's going to be amplified at Coors Field. 30 steals. Obviously he's got a ton of speed, 99th percentile Sprint speed at AAA and you know, center field capable started at center field, obviously has the speed to run down fly balls in that big outfield. So I, I imagine if he hits, he's sticking around. That's a big if, of course, as it is for any call up. But he has the right environment and the right environment to maximize his his hitting ability. And he was batting 338 at AAA. So I, I feel pretty good about Kerrig. I would say part of me thought if the Rockies called up an outfielder it would be Zach Veen who is showing a lot of improvement at AAA this year and his was already on the 40 man roster. But clearly they decided to go with Gary gets dead and it's up to him now if he sticks around. But I like his chances. Speaker 2 So let's just rank all the young outfielders, Scott, cuz these are the questions I've been getting all day long. So Ryan Walshmidt, AJ Ewing, Noel DI Marte, Dylan Cruz, Cole Carrig, Braden Montgomery, There's six names there. How would you rank those 6? Speaker 1 Somebody said Cole Kerig has poor plate discipline. It was 10.5% walk rate, 15% strikeout rate at AAA and 90th 90% zone contact rate. So he chases a fair amount, but I don't know that I'd say he has plate bad plate discipline. Anyway, I was thinking about that and not hearing the names he said. Could you So could you say them again? Speaker 2 Yeah, so Walt Schmidt, AJ Ewing, Noelvi Marte, Dylan Cruz, Cole Kerig, Braden Montgomery, those 6. Speaker 1 I would say the top four that I'm about to rattle off very messy and it could change one big game could change it, but I will go. You're not, you're not putting Caglianone in here, right? Speaker 2 Well, I guess we probably should. Yeah, throw them in there. Speaker 1 Right now, because again, because Caglianone just had that big game, I'm going to say Caglianone Ehrig just because he's a hot new name. Ewing, Walt Schmidt, Montgomery, Marte, and Cruz. I'm putting Noel V Marte ahead of Dylan Cruz, which should tell you how little confidence I have in Cruz because, again, Marte's not even playing that much. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think I would go Caglianone as well. Then I would go Ewing, Karig, Montgomery, Walt Schmidt. Ultimate's been OK, but he's also like striking out 30% of the time so far. He just hasn't really hit for power. And then I'll go Dylan Cruz, Marte. I I like Duel V Marte. It's just again, he's, he's not playing enough. So that that is the order there. But you know, 2 pretty exciting prospects getting called up here on Tuesday. Brewers Sign Luis Lara, Accelerating Prospect Promotion We do have one of their prospect news item here. The Brewers signed Luis Laura to A7 year $31 million extension. The deal includes 3 club options, which could keep Laura with the Brewers through the 2035 season. We have talked a lot about him on that FBT Express episode that we do every week. He's 21 years old. He's having a very strong season at AAA. He's 12% rostered Southfield eligible. Scott, do you think this extension accelerates Luis Lara getting promoted to the bigs 'cause I mean, it sounds like you think he's close either way, so. Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, I added him to the five on the Verge in last week's prospects report. Those are the five prospects that most need to be stashed in fantasy. I removed Kohl Carrick from that list to do it, but we don't need to talk about that. Yeah, the fact they signed him to a deal that pretty much always points to, OK, this guy's about to be promoted or it is, it's often the moment he gets promoted 'cause they don't have to think about service time anymore. It's all accounted for in the contract. Now. I say that used to be that used to always signal that because we've had a couple examples of it not signaling that this year with Colt Emerson in the Mariners organization, took him several weeks to get called up still. And in the Brewers organization with Cooper Pratt, who still isn't up. And I don't know that he deserves to be heating up a little at AAA, but Louise Laura's been killing it at AAA and they could obviously stand to upgrade in their outfield. I'm not it it I I guess for fantasy purposes, the skill set looks a lot like Cole Kerig. I think he's better than Cole Kerig because I think he is a true hit tool stand out in a way. You know, like Cole Kerig was hitting like 3 almost 340 at triple AI understand. But there are some some problems in the hit tool there, like the chase rate I referred to that Luis Laura doesn't have and I think Laura has more to grow into too. So I think he's a better prospect overall. I think he's less flawed. I think he is, if not the top prospect to stash right now, one of the top two among ones who haven't been called up yet, obviously, because I think it could happen very soon now that this contract is in place. Ronald Acuña Injury and Other Key Player Updates All right, let's get into the non prospect news items and not again. Ronald Acuña pulled up lame after trying to leg out an infield single. Turns out he felt tightness in that same left hamstring that it landed him on the aisle earlier this season. Waltz Weiss said this injury quote doesn't seem as bad as the last one. Acuña will get an MRI in his day-to-day for now. We'll see how he feels on Wednesday, but obviously recurrence of a hamstring injury. If I had to guess right now, I would guess that it lands in an IL stint, but again, that's just me speculating. Tarek Scubal is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Wednesday. If that goes well, it sounds like Scubal could rejoin the Tigers rotation this weekend. So amazing recovery once again for Derek Skubal, who looked great in his lone rehab outing on Monday. Francisco, or Sunday, whenever that was. Francisco Lindor will go through full baseball activities this week during the Mets homestand. He's been on the aisle since April with a calf strain. Bobby Witt junior was back in the lineup after missing Sunday with right knee soreness. Cole Reagans will throw a bullpen on Wednesday, his first time throwing off a mount since suffering a set back in late May Brandon Woodruff started a rehab assignment at the Arizona Complex League on Tuesday. I'll see if I can pull those numbers up at some point. Drake Baldwin will face live BP on Thursday and Friday. If all goes well, he will start a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. Connor Griffin is scheduled to resume throwing on Wednesday. He's working his way back from that flexor strain in his right elbow. O'Neil Cruz was scratched from the lineup as he works through that cut on his left hand. Byron Buxton was back in the lineup after missing the past two games with a shoulder contusion. He went one for five with his 19th home run. He also struck out four times in that game. Samuel Bassayo was out of the lineup on Tuesday due to a left wrist pain. Adly Ruchman also out of the lineup, apparently dealing with a left hamstring tightness. Will Smith of the Dodgers has missed three straight with a neck discomfort and might need a stint on the IL. That would obviously be great news for Dalton Rushing's fantasy value. If you're wondering why Trevor McGill did not pitch in that slugfest on Monday night, he was unavailable due to oblique tightness, so we'll have to see if that lands him on the IL opens up yet another opportunity for Abner eBay. Shane Beaver's fourth rehab start will come this Thursday at AAA. In his first 3 outings, he has allowed eight runs on fifteen hits, two homers over 7 innings, 8 strikeouts to zero walks. A lot of times Scott's like rehabbing pitchers. We don't know exactly what they're working on if they're just trying to get pitches over the plate. So I, I don't want to put too much into, you know, the, the surface level numbers here for Shane Bieber, but how much of it is it a priority to stash him right now? He's 60% rostered. Speaker 1 That's probably about right. 60% rostered. I came out with IL Stash rankings a little over a week ago and he was trying to remember where he was. I went 60 deep there, which is the deepest I've ever had to go. It was about midway, probably it's it's a it's a good idea if you have IL space, but at the same time, you shouldn't be counting on Shane Bieber being your savior. Speaker 2 So I just pulled it up. Shane Bieber was 29th out of 60 names there. Oh. Speaker 1 Man, IL stats pretty much dead on there huh? I only wrote the thing. Speaker 2 There you go. Taylor Simpson was back in the line up after missing 3 games with a with left thumb soreness. Colt Emerson has missed two straight with back tightness. Colt Montgomery was out of the line up due to back tightness. Not going to be confusing at all. Just looking at box scores. We'll have Colston Montgomery and Braden Montgomery in the same lineup, but yeah, it's just like not going to be confusing at. Speaker 1 All in Montgomery. Speaker 2 Yep Yep. Francisco Alvarez was activated from the IL. He is 37% roster. Scott, what is your interest level in Francisco Alvarez? Speaker 1 That was a very undiscernible reference to the rockapella song Capital for the many people out there who are familiar with it the way they say Montgomery in that song. Anyway, again, I was thinking about that and not actually listening to you. So that's I'm I'm the great, great panelist here for you to ask questions to. Speaker 2 Francisco Alvarez, what's the interest level on him? Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. So you know how I said there's been a great deal of attrition a catcher? Well, Alvarez should relieve some of that. Again, I'm not counting on him being a saviour and two catcher leagues, he might feel like a saviour. I had him in one of those recently. But there's a lot of upside there. There's been for years. He hasn't lived up to it, but there have been flashes at times and he's probably more valuable than anything you can find on the wafer wire. Speaker 2 Geiner Diaz started a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Xander Bogarts was placed on the paternity list. Will Wagner was recalled by the Padres. Dalton Varshaw has missed four straight with wrist inflammation. He had an MRI come back negative. He did appear as a pinch runner and stole a base here on Tuesday. So hopefully getting closer to a return. And Jack Kohanowitz will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of this season. Dustin May's Performance and Pitcher Waiver Targets Let's take a look at waiver wire pitchers from Tuesday's action. And Dustin May got it done again, this time at the Mets. 6 shut out innings, 6 strikeouts. He had 10 whiffs on 101 pitches. His first two starts were terrible. And 11 starts since it is a 289 ERA, 109 WHIP, 65% rostered Scott. Do you think Dustin May is a must roster at this point, the way that he's pitching right now? Speaker 1 You and Chris keep trying to make fetch happen with Dustin May. Speaker 2 Oh, we'll get you eventually, Scott. Speaker 1 We'll get me eventually. I'd be lucky just after this start, maybe maybe I mean 11 starts. You mentioned the numbers there. If if those were his season stats, of course he'd be must roster at this point. And it's really just those two bad starts bringing it down. But you know what, You know what, you guys, you guys always give me a hard time when I say remove the two worst starts and look how good the numbers are. And that's what you're basically doing here with Dustin May just wanna say. Speaker 2 We've been around you so long, Scott, that it's, you know, it's rubbing off a little bit. Speaker 1 You've rubbed off on me and I've rubbed off on you, and now we've basically switched places on the whole matter. It's what it seems like. I'd feel a lot better than about Dustin May if his ground ball rate was still good. It's not. And if he gave up weaker contact than he does, he has a pretty hard contact for for as many fly balls as he's allowed. And yet he's only given up five home runs this season. So that's in 13 starts. Five home runs. Speaker 2 He has. He has managed to avoid barrels pretty well so far this year. Speaker 1 And that kind of makes sense with as much movement as he has in his arsenal. But I still think I just don't think there's got to be some some amount of correction there. I don't know. He's it's fine to roster on me, probably needs to be rostered more than 65% of leagues. He's been a quality start machine. I just, I, I, I'm very, I'm going to be very quick to let him go if, if he has a couple bad starts in a row. Speaker 2 I think Dustin May is clearly behind Roki Sasaki, Reid Detmers, who we spoke about over the weekend. I think I would take gauge jump over him too. Just the mystery bag, the upside that he possesses. JT Ginn, would you rather have JT Ginn or Dustin May? Obviously, JT Ginn bad start here on Tuesday, but pitching in Vegas, I think we get my. Speaker 1 Pass. It's pitching on the moon basically, and that's what it feels like. It's sort of like Kors Field, where I just don't think we can take much of anything from a a start that a pitcher makes there his pitch selection and then the characteristics of all the pitches were way off and then deuce vertical break way off drop was way off for JT Gen. I'm I'm frankly impressed he's still got 15 whiffs. And that's that's that's what's really blowing my mind with JT Gen. the the way the whiffs have been recently here. Like I, I was always intrigued by him, but it he's he's looking even better than I imagined he could be. I'm this stark kind of raised his stock in my eyes, to be honest. I know the result wasn't good, but again, given the circumstances, you couldn't have you couldn't really expect a good result. And yet there are positives to take away from it. So Long story short, I prefer again to May. Speaker 2 Would you? I think I would take Dustin May over these last four names. Walbert, Irena, Noah Cameron, Shane Baz, Luis Castillo. Do you agree with that? May over. Irena Cameron, Baz Castillo. Speaker 1 Yeah, I think so. It wouldn't surprise me if Castillo quickly overtook him the way he's looked recently. But obviously his season long numbers still look pretty bad all. Speaker 2 Right. Let's quickly talk about Wahlberg Arena. He's been good. Obviously the struggles with control are still there. He had five walks here on Tuesday, but it was 5 shutout innings. He had 7 strikeouts, only 7 whiffs on 107 pitches. The reason I bring him up is it looks like you could maybe beat the rest of your league to the waiver wire in line for two starts next week at the D backs at the Athletics as of now. Again, things could change, but Walbert, Arrhenius Scott, can I interest you potentially as a two star pitcher next week at the D Backs at the Athletics? Speaker 1 What is that that the athletics mean? I think it means back in, in in Sacramento. I think this week is the only, I think so time they're playing in Las Vegas. Yeah, I think while Bert Irania is very likely to be among my sleeper pitchers for next week, with those two starts, the matchups could be better, the matchups could be worse. He clearly didn't have it in this start. His most thrown pitch, the change up, I believe, was only fourth most thrown in this one. He didn't write down exactly. I'm going off memory there. But like, he didn't throw out nearly as much and he still managed to do OK in spite of that. Obviously the walks were high. The walks have been high throughout. He entered the start with five walks per nine. But you know, a really good ground ball pitcher that has at least that one good swinging missed pitch. I think he has. I think he's got a decent whiff rate on a couple others too. Yeah, I, I, I like Wilbert Araneo overall. He's flawed, but. For as rostered, or I guess I should say for as available as he is, I think he's pretty good. Speaker 2 Yeah, the change up was his fourth most used pitch in this one and he got 0 whiffs on that change up. It's been his best pitch all year. So, you know, given that context, it is still pretty impressive that he was able to throw 5 shutout innings and seven strikeouts here. Again, that is Walbert Arena. Trevor Rogers, he's looked OK his last two starts. I think we need to see more. He was home against the Mariners 5 2/3. Three runs, three strikeouts to one walk. What do you think, Scotty? It's been a little bit encouraging, but I I think we need to see more before we do anything with Trevor Rogers. Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm not seeing, not seeing a lot of positives other than, OK, the results are looking a little better. I, I, I've basically given up on Trevor Rogers. He's only 61% rostered and yet in my article that came out Tuesday, most over rostered players by position he was. He was one of my 5 picks at SP even with a 61% roster rate. I just don't have a lot of hope for Trevor Rogers at this point. Speaker 2 Would easily drop him for Dustin May, for JT Ginn, for Walbert Arania. Again, that's Trevor Rogers, so you could go ahead and drop him for any interesting pitcher that pops up. Some deeper names here. Slate Ciccone. He has looked better recently. He backed had back-to-back starts against the Yankees. 5 innings of two run ball, 7 strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 87 pitches. He's throwing his cutter more and, and it's, it looks like a pretty good pitch. So I don't think we need to do anything with it yet. But I, I, I like the change in, in approach here for Slate, Zaccone and Eric Lauer. One out short of a quality start at the Pirates. 5 2/3, two runs, five strikeouts to zero walks. He is only 10% rostered and he's looked OK in three starts with the Dodgers so far. Scott, can I interest you in any deeper names here, Slate, Taccone and Eric Lauer? Speaker 1 They're potential streamers, though I haven't had much reason to suggest them as such. I'm a little annoyed that Lauer was as promulent in this start as he was because he's blocking the River Ryan from coming up the River Ryan, which I, I, and I mentioned this to you the other day because this is how boring I am. I'm going to bring it up again. Have you noticed that lakes when you when you you name a proper lake, lake comes first like Lake Superior, Lake Okeechobee. But then with rivers, river comes second, like Mississippi River, Ohio River. Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, I had not noticed that until you brought it to my attention, but it. Speaker 1 We better start noticing the I. There are exceptions. The Great Salt Lake Lake comes last, but usually it's Lake 1st and River last. Speaker 2 Seems factual to me. Speaker 1 I I find that interesting. Why did we? Why did we land on that? Speaker 2 No lies detected, Scott. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have an answer for you, but I'll look it up after the show and see what I can find. Let's take our final break. What are your turn? I've got some waiver wire hitters, the worryometer and much more. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Matt McLain's Resurgence and Hitter Waiver Options Quickly run through the waiver wire hitters here from Tuesday's action at Matt McLain. He is making some stuff happen lately. He went over 3, but he did have two walks. He had three steals in this game against the Padres and over his last four games he has five hits, three homers, 3 steals. We need to see more, but we we know he does have some power and speed. He's got 51% roster for Matt McLain. Is this enough to move the needle yet or do we need to see more? Speaker 1 I want to see if his playing time has. Speaker 2 I believe he started four or five straight, but he sat out. Speaker 1 Some before that, yeah. Four straight and seven of eight. So all all at shortstop. He was at shortstop today, right? Speaker 2 I will look that up. Speaker 1 It would be all at shortstop if that was the case. So the Ellie de la Cruz injuries is doing him some favors as far as that goes. And and you know, he could if if he continues this recent trend, he could find his way back into the line up more permanently. The pull air rates better than it's ever been, still not very good, but better than it's ever been. The strikeout rates better than it's ever been, still not very good, but better than it's ever been. The bats speed is up, which I think we've been noting all along. So you know, we were never that sold on Mcclain's skill set, even at his best, but the skill set looks better. And so I guess I wouldn't be terribly surprised if if the production if if he became a usable player again. I don't know that it's a rush to add him situation unless you're really hurting at second base, like you're really hurting at second base or I guess shortstop either of the positions where he qualifies. Then of course you you, you take a shot on upside wherever it reveals itself. But I I think in most cases we still need to see more. Like you're saying. There's reason for hope, though. Speaker 2 Three other names here. Spencer Jones, who hit his first career home run. It was a bomb. 112 X velocity, 443 feet straightaway. Center field. Also has a 41% strikeout rate so far in his career. Jacob Gonzalez quietly hitting well so far with the White Sox. 2 for four with a walk, a run in RBI. He has started seven of eight and Joe Mack is coming around a little bit. 4 for four with three runs scored. Over his last seven, he's betting 391 with a Homer and seven RBI. Can I interest you Scott? Let's say in roto roto style line up. So 5 outfielders, 2 catchers, middle infield spots. Any interest in Spencer Jones, Jacob Gonzalez and Joe Mack? Speaker 1 Look, I am hopeful that Spencer Jones can figure it out. That would be amazing. Ton of upside there. I I think though, probably Slade Saccone was feeling embarrassed to give up that home run based on how easy a time Major League pitchers have had with Spencer Jones so far. So yeah, that strikeout hurdle, it's going to be really difficult to overcome. Joe Mack, you know, he's going to keep playing catcher for the Marlins, but I, I just he's he's got to get a lot hotter than this, I think to make a Denton fantasy. He's he's strikes me as more of a glove first guy. I know he was pretty productive in the minors, but not in a way that I necessarily trust to translate against Major League pitching. So maybe the one I have the most hope for here is Jacob Gonzales. And I was curious how much how regularly he's playing pretty much everyday at first base. You know, I'd, I'd still prioritize like Matt McLain over him, but we'll keep an eye on Gonzales, who was among the minor league leaders and leaders in home runs when he got called up, and with some impressive underlying data, too. Speaker 2 With Spencer Jones, he is behind all those other outfielders we spoke about earlier, right? So the prospects that got called up today, Ewing, Walt Schmidt, Cruz, Marte, Caglione behind all those, right? Speaker 1 Yeah, I, I my expectation is Spencer Jones never amounts to anything in fantasy. The the strikeout issues are just too great. The contact is just too great. But his upside is enormous if I'm wrong about that. So it's it's like we kind of call all prospect call UPS lottery ticket into a degree. That's true. But, you know, lottery ticket, what do they, you're more likely to get struck by lightning than to win the lottery. So like, it's, it's that level of unlikely for Jones, but not impossible. Assessing Worry Levels for Peralta, Bradley, and Cole All right, well, let's fire up the wariometer here on Wednesday and I've got 3 pitchers here 10. You are extremely worried. You could not be more worried about this player 1. You are not worried at all. Freddie Peralta, a rough outing here against the Cardinals 6 innings, six runs allowed. Did have 5 strikeouts in two walks. Under the hood, everything's seemed OK, but he did allow seven hard hits in this game. He's allowed four plus earned runs in three of his last four outings. The ERA has climbed over 4. Scott, where is Freddie Peralta on the worryometer? Speaker 1 It's not that I'm worried so much, it's just that I'm underwhelmed. I think part of the issue would it really stood out in this start is just his he, he no longer emphasizes the slider like he once did. He threw it 2% of the time in this start He threw his he's thrown it 10% normally this year. That used to be his pitch man and it still has the best whiff rate of all his pitches and he just doesn't feature it as much. He basically didn't at all in this start and got a bad result. And I think maybe that explains helps to explain why the results have been a little underwhelming all year. I'm not really counting on it improving. I think he's fine, but I I think he's not nearly as good as he was drafted to be. He's more like a top 36 pitcher the rest of the way than a top 24 pitcher. That's how I'm viewing Freddy Peralta. Yeah. Speaker 2 Would you slap the buy low label on him or just he is what he is? Kind of stay away unless you get him really cheap I guess. Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. I don't what is the ERA up to now after this start. Speaker 2 Four O 4 with a 132 wit. Speaker 1 I think he'll be better than that, but I also don't know if that's bad enough, particularly after this one start that anybody's looking to unload him for Nichols on the dollar. So I, I think I, I don't, I'm not thinking him in terms of a traditional buy low. I think he's probably better than he's been so far to, to that degree. Yeah. But I I don't it's not like you should seek him out specifically because there's so much gain to be had there. Speaker 2 Let's talk about Taj Bradley, who had a rough outing at the Tigers. Four and a third innings. Five runs allowed, three walks, 3 strikeouts, 3 homers allowed. His four seam fastball got destroyed. Of the 9 batted balls, 8 of them were hard hit. 100.2 Average exit velocity on that pitch here and in four starts since returning from the ILA 7 ERAA 167 WHIP. Scott, where is Taj Bradley on the Warriometer? Maybe he should be on the drop O meter. Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm not sure I actually gave a number for Freddy Peralta, by the way. I'm going to put him at like a four on the worryometer. I'm going to put Taj Bradley at like A7 on the worryometer. I'm not that motivated to drop him yet. It's not unthinkable and shallow leagues where you desperately need somebody to drop. He was overachieving earlier this year. The heart contact, he gives up a lot of hard contact. Most of it's in the air. He had had good home run luck that kind of came back. It kind of normalized all at once here with the three home runs against the Tigers. But there may be still more to give back there in the home run category. But I even more than that, I, I feel like since that pectoral strain you mentioned, the 7 ERA and four starts, he has not thrown the splitter nearly as much. He's thrown it about half the time. If you look game by game, he was throwing it more than 20% of the time before the injury. It's more like, you know, 10 to 12% in the start. Since then it was 11% in this start and Splitter has been, you know, it was kind of the key to him having so much success earlier on. So I think partly there's regression at play here. I think partly it's I, I don't know why he's changed things up. I don't know if it's related to the pectoral injury, but it's not a good trend for Taj Bradley and it may exacerbate the downfall or accelerate the downfall. It's probably a better word choice. Speaker 2 If he was the worst pitcher on your team, would you drop him for Rokie Sasaki or like Jared Jones? Speaker 1 Yes. Speaker 2 OK, Again, that was Taj Bradley we were just talking about. I'm not sure that Gerrit Cole deserves to be part of the wariometer segment, but I just find his return kind of weird so far, so I'll throw him in here. We'll talk about him. A short outing here at the Guardians 4 innings, two runs, 4 strikeouts to two walks. Only four swinging strikes on 83 pitches. The velocity was up across the board. He topped out at 100 mph on the fastball. He did get 3 whiffs on the slider. He he just could not get whiffs on anything else. Some questionable defense behind him in in the start as well forced him to throw more pitches and that's why it was on the the shorter end of in this outing. But the strikeouts are just not there so far. Scott, what are your thoughts? If you want to give a worryometer number, go for it. But like what are your overall thoughts? Gerrit Cole through four starts. Speaker 1 I'll give them the three on the worryometer, which doesn't mean I'm not at all worried. There's a little bit of worry there. My overall thoughts were were, so this was the 4th start, right? My overall thoughts were that, OK, the first and third start where the strikeout numbers were down, that's when he threw this new sinker more. And then the second start where he got with set more at a rate we'd expect from Gerrit Cole. Yeah, 15 on 79 pitches struck out 10. That second start, he didn't throw the sinker much at all. So my thought was, OK, get rid of the sinker guy, it's not helping you, and I hoped it would be as simple as that. He pretty much got rid of the sinker in this one, threw it only 4% of the time, and yet 4 whiffs on 83 pitches. So apparently it isn't that simple for Gerrit Cole, which raises my worry by a point. Speaker 2 Yeah, if I'm making excuses for Gerrit Cole, which I guess I'm obligated to do in the in three of the four starts where his strikeouts were lower and the swinging strikes were down, it was against the Guardians twice and the Rays once. And both of those teams have two of the six lowest strikeout rates against right-handed pitching this season. So they're just they're not teams that swing and miss all that much. But you know, Gerrit Cole of old, that probably wouldn't matter. He would still get whisk no matter what. So it's I don't know how much does it matter. I think it's part of the reason, but I also just, he's not fully back yet. Quick Hits on Key Hitting and Pitching Performances I, I think we just need more, we need more data here from Gerrit Cole to see what he does against other teams as well. Some leftovers bombs away in Vegas once again here on Tuesday night. The A's wound up winning seven to five. They got six more homers, 5 on the A's side of things, one for the Brewers, we got homers from Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Jonah Himes, Zach Geloff, Jackson Trio wanted to just quickly touch on Henry Bolte, who went one for four, his first career Homer to RBI. He's been solid, but he just isn't playing enough. He set out three of the past nine games 36% rostered Scott. What size leagues do you think Henry Bolte needs to be rostered in right now, if any? Speaker 1 I mean, right now 36% seems OK to me. We'll see if he picks up the pace here now that he has, now that he's in the home run column. And that was, that was a legitimate home run. It didn't. It probably didn't need to travel 446 feet, but now hit 107 mph at a 27° launch angle. That's going to be a home run, I would say. So, yeah, Bolte, it was a legit home run. He's been hitting the ball very hard, striking out too much, though, and not playing enough. So unless unless he earns his way into more playing time, he just doesn't need to be that rostered. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think just deeper 5 outfielder leagues for now, similar to Spencer Jones. I think kind of in that in that same conversation, three other hitters who are picking up the power. Corbin Carroll back-to-back games with a home run. He has four homers in his past 7. Hunter Goodman is on fire. He has five home runs in his past seven games. He's up to 18 on the season. And Riley Green, the power starting to come around a little bit over his last seven games, he's hitting 346 with three home runs. Think it was mostly just a matter of time for all three of these. While the power has been there for Corbin Carroll Scott, he only has seven seals. He's on pace for 17 stolen bases. Last year he had 32. That seems kind of weird for Corbin Carroll. Speaker 1 I knew better not to mention him in my sad fantasy feud showing yesterday, which thankfully nobody teased me about. I was, I was relieved about that. You know, 98th percentile Sprint speed. So that clearly isn't the issue. It's not like he slowed down. Literally. I'm trying to remember last year how it played out with the steals because I want to say I don't. Speaker 2 Think he stole that many in the first half either. Speaker 1 Last right, that's what I'm remembering too. And so first half he only had 11 steals and so that's obviously through mid-july. We're not even there yet. He has seven. So it's it's playing out similarly. That doesn't mean he's going to have 21 in the second-half like he did last year, but it does mean you probably shouldn't lose heart because that's just the way stolen bases go sometimes. Speaker 2 All right, some pitching leftover studs with quality starts Paul Skeens against the Dodgers 6 innings, two runs, 7 strikeouts. He had 19 whiffs on 103 pitches. This was his first quality start since May 12th. And Logan Gilbert a strong outing at the Orioles 6 innings of one run ball, 5 strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 105 pitches. I've noticed his last couple starts, he's focusing more on his four seam and his slider and I feel like that's a good thing. Like let's condense everything and get back to what works with Logan Gilbert and, and he has looked better over his last four outings. Scott, anything to add on Logan Gilbert and Paul Skeens? Speaker 1 Yeah, it feels like the whole Mariners pitching staff, right, Like they got, they were so good to begin with and then they got a little too clever and they're having to relearn what made them good in the 1st place. So I'm hopeful that's what's happening with Gilbert Skeens, you know, 4 shaky starts in a row. So it was nice to see him bounce back. He leans a lot on that fastball, too, so maybe he was getting a little too clever with all those pitches he doesn't need. But never, never a doubt never moved him out of the top spot in my starting pitcher rankings. Speaker 2 All right, this next game up, maybe he's better than we think. Nick Martinez, another quality start, this one against the Red Sox. 7 innings, three runs, only two strikeouts at zero walks. Nice bounce back after six earned runs in his previous start, but three earned runs are fewer. In 12 of 13, he has gone 6 plus innings. In eight of 13. He's been really consistent. I, I, I do think there will be some regression at some point. I don't know, Scott, maybe Nick Martinez is just better than we think. Speaker 1 The Rays have made changes here, so his firt, his top 2 pitches last year while still with the Reds were the sinker and the change up. This year, No, wait a second, I got that backwards. His top 2 pitches last year with the Reds were the cutter and the fastball. This year they're the sinker and the change up. Change up's been his best swing in this pitch. The sinker is obviously a pitch that's that it, you know, an important pitch for pitch to contact guys. And Nick Martinez I I think has leaned into that pitch to contact approach this year in a way that's really benefited him. He's not as good as a 243 ERA. Obviously he's got a 452 X ERA, but you know, 366 FIPP. He's always been a great strike thrower and I think is preventing home runs with the sinker being a prominent part of his arsenal now and I think he's I think he's decent. I'd I'm not saying he's mush roster. He probably seems that way with as good as his ERA is right now. I don't think it'll remain that way, but I, I, I, I think he'll remain relevant at the very least. Speaker 2 Especially in head to head points leagues where he does have that RP eligibility. 2 solid outings, but just not as efficient as they usually are. Max Meyer against the D backs 5 and a third innings, two runs, 5 strikeouts. 2 homers allowed in that one and Chase Burns 5 and a third, two runs allowed, seven strikeouts. Both were solid. Scott, just, you know, we didn't get the the recent length that we've been getting from both of those guys. Anything on Burns and Max Meyer. Speaker 1 Not really. Meyer's previous start was awesome, the start before that wasn't so much so. He's been a little hit or miss lately, but overall the numbers are still really good and I think the approach makes sense. Think he's having a breakout season and Burns is awesome. He doesn't go 6 innings every time, but he's awesome. Speaker 2 And just a flat out bad outing here from Peyton Tolley at the Rays. 6 innings, nine hits, four runs, three strikeouts, only 7 whiffs on 94 pitches. Still has a 270 ERA, one O 6 WHIP. I I think he's allowed to have a bad start. Anything that actually worried you at Peyton Tolley. Speaker 1 No, that was my take away too. It was the Rays right? His previous start against the Rays also wasn't dominant, so they may they may just have his number a little bit, but in any case not not worried about totally moving forward. Speaker 2 Some other hitting leftovers Randy Aroza Reyna continued his huge season. He hit his seventh home run with three RBI. Contract year Randy having a big one. Freddie Freeman 2 for four with a walk, RBI and two runs scored. He surpassed 2500 career hits. Huge accomplishment. Congrats there to Freddie Freeman. Andy Pajes another one, his 15th home run. He had three RBI. Otto Lopez continued his massive season. 3 for five, four runs scored, 11 steals. Jazz has been much better since about mid-May Hit his 9th home run. Over his last 20 games he's hitting 289 with five homers, 5 steals and OPS over 9, 100. Alec Burleson hit his 9th home run and he's hitting 389 over his last 9. Matt Olson continued his power bounce back. He went 2 for four with a double Dong three RBI. He is on pace for 45 homers, 118 runs and 120 RBI. Massive, massive season here from Matt Olson and Miguel Vargas. Another one, one for four with a walk and his 16th home run. Lots of names here, Scott. Anything that stood out, Anything that you'd like to touch on before we get to the bullpens? Analyzing Closer Roles and Bullpen Situations I would say, I would say I just want to mention Matt Olson very nearly had three home runs in that game. I don't know that it technically counted as a robbery. It would have been a home run in six of 30 stadiums. It looked like it was going out and it was a leap at the wall. Speaker 2 His fourth batted ball went to the warning track, too. Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. So hopefully he's heating up again. He'd cooled off a little after a after a blazing start to the season. And they may really need him if Ronald de Cuny is going back on the IL, which I suspect he is. Speaker 2 The call to the bullpen for the Royals, they had a normal save chance and it still went to Alex Lang, so that was encouraging to see. He walked one, he struck out two for his fourth save. He did throw six straight balls to open this appearance. They got Matt Strom warming up in the bullpen, but he settled down, converted his fourth save, 30% rostered. Kind of feels like the guy for now. For now, Alex Lang. Speaker 1 You said he threw how many straight balls to begin the appearance? 6? I thought you said 8. And I was like, how do you have only one walk there? OK, that makes more sense. Yeah, it was getting harder to make the case that he wasn't the guy, even though the circumstances were odd with his first 3 saves, all three of them. But I think this makes it plainly clear that he is now the top dog and the Royals bullpen. Alex Lang. Speaker 2 Or the White Sox Sir Anthony Dominguez pitched the 8th inning with the game tied. Grant Taylor then pitched A scoreless 9th. He came back out for the 10th. He allowed the Manfred man to score on a hit, but he wound up with the win because the White Sox walked it off against Rice and Iglesias. But Dominguez in the eighth here, Scott Grant Taylor gets the 9th in the 10th. Kind of feels like they might be shifting over to Grant Taylor. He is 34% rostered. How do you feel about the White Sox bullpen right now? Speaker 1 Yeah, that's the impression I'm getting to. I know last time we talked about it, Chris, Chris felt like that wasn't gonna happen, that they still had too much financial incentive to stick with Sir Anthony Dominguez. But I'm not sure they're thinking in those terms anymore. I mean, if the season ended today at the White Sox would be in the playoffs I believe. Speaker 2 They're playing really well. I think they just have to go for whoever's, whoever gives them the best chance. Speaker 1 Right, right. And now with this 8th inning appearance for Sir Anthony Dominguez, that makes four of his last six appearances where he's entered prior to the 9th. So that's a stretch of about two weeks where they haven't been treating him like a closer. He has gotten one save during that time, but that's not conventional. Clothes are used. It's not how they were using them before. And now this is two appearances where Grant Taylor has gotten that shot instead of Dominguez. So yeah, I, I think Taylor is. Things are trending Taylor's way here in the White Sox bullpen, in leagues where saves are scarce, Definitely need to pick him up. Or in leagues where you need to to to fortify your Dominguez spot. I Yeah, you got to pick up Taylor there, too. Is like a handcuff. Speaker 2 Who would you rather add between Alex Lang and Grant Taylor? Speaker 1 Well, if it's purely about maximizing saves in the short term, I have to say Lang, I feel more comfortable in in him having that role right now. He's not as good as Taylor. And so if it's more about securing the best closer for the long run, then maybe Elaine Taylor. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think that's the way I would go as well. Grant Taylor, I mean, he, he is filthy. I I get why they're going to him. And and so I do think in the long term, he's probably just going to take over that bullpen for the Mariners. With Andres Munoz unavailable, Jose Ferrer got the 9th with A2 run lead. He allowed two runs on a walk and three hits. He took his second blown save but he wound up with the win because on the other side for the Orioles, top of the 10th inning at Rico Garcia allowed A2 run Homer and he took his first loss of the season. For the Rays. Brian Baker picked up his 18th save for the Yankees. David Bednar was unavailable. Fernando Cruz got the final five outs, 4 via strikeout for his first save. For the Blue Jays, Louis Varlen got the 9th with the game tied. He allowed a run on a hit and on a walk and a hit but wound up with the win because on the other side for the Phillies, Yowan Duran got the bottom of the ninth with a one run lead. He allowed two runs on three hits. He took his first blown save and third loss of the season and then as we mentioned earlier, Rice and Iglesias. He was actually going for the five or the the two inning win here but gave up that walk off home run to Raiden Montgomery. Top Pitcher Streamer Options for Midweek Games To stream or not to stream? On Wednesday, we have Ryan Nelson at the Marlins, Andre Palante at the Mets, Seth Lugo versus the Rangers, Peter Lambert at the Angels and Reid Detmer's home against the Astros. Speaker 1 I think yesterday I recommended on Wednesday Ryan Nelson, Seth Lugo and Reid Detmer's and I am inclined to say that again. Speaker 2 Yeah, I would probably just change up the order. I think I would go Nelson, Detmer's, Lugo. I think Palante is fine as well if if you miss out on those other three on Thursday, we have Christian Scott against the Cardinals, Hunter Dobbins at the Mets, Zebby Matthews at the Tigers, Kate Dare Montero against the Twins, Meryl Kelly at the Marlins and Kumar Rocker at the Royals. Speaker 1 I am going to say Zebulon Matthews, which is actually his middle name. That's where Zebby comes from. Speaker 2 Sultan. Speaker 1 Otherwise, Meryl Kelly at Miami, probably, and I really don't want to pick a third. It's between Christian Scott against the Cardinals and Kumar Rocker at Kansas City. Yeah, I I feel better about Matthews and Kelly though. Speaker 2 I would go Scott as the third option. Yeah, I would go Matthews, Kelly and then Christian Scott in that order. But again, Kumar Rocker, if you missed out on the other three, I think is OK. We are gonna wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow.