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Speaker 3That's HelloAlma.com. ♪ Alcantara, Sirocco, you look so good in polka ♪ ♪ Peralta, Manoa, bounce back for Arenola ♪ ♪ Chilito, Castillo, Yoshida, Mosul, Suco ♪
Speaker 4♪ Alcantara, Sirocco, you look so good in polka ♪ ♪ Peralta, Manoa, bounce back for Arenola ♪ Chilito, Castillo, Yoshida, Mosul, Suco ♪ Alcantara, Sirocco, you look so good in polka ♪ ♪ I know, value's so high, but ADP's so low. Frank loves him some kind of joe. Now let's get on with the show. ♪
Speaker 5Happy Cocoa Bowl Friday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on September 25th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, it is our final podcast of the season. Not the final podcast of the year, so stick with us in the offseason, but it is our final in-season podcast. Here we are. We will preview the weekend for those still playing in daily lineup leagues. I've got some buy or sell. We've got a sleeperometer. And that's right, we're going out with a bang. ♪ Scotty doesn't know. Oh, Scotty doesn't know. Oh. ♪ Scott, we did it. You know, I was thinking about this earlier. This is my seventh season with CBS. Doesn't that seem crazy? It does. It does.
Speaker 6It does seem crazy. That's a lot of seasons.
Speaker 5Honestly, you know, I was like, how long have I been here? It feels like, I don't know, three, four years or something like that.
Speaker 6Seven seasons. Seven seasons. Where did the time go? Gosh. We won't talk about how many seasons I've been here.
Speaker 5Oh, I mean, how many is it actually?
Speaker 6Are you closing in on 20? So I started my time at CBS on the very day Joey Votto started his major league career, which was. September 4th, 2007, I believe. So that would mean I just passed 19 years. Now, my first baseball season was 2008. So I guess that's 18 years then of covering baseball, right? Isn't that how it would work? Yeah. Yep. So 18th season covering baseball.
Speaker 5Wow. You've been at CBS since I was in high school. That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 6I mean, I wasn't long out of high school.
Speaker 5There we are. All right, let's jump in, players of the night. Holy cow! How about that? Big day for Chicago baseball. Both the Cubs and the White Sox clinched playoff spots minutes apart here on Thursday afternoon. And PCA got it done. Picked up his 40th steal of the season. Just the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history. Now the naysayers. Out there, the traditionalists will say, well, the 40-40 season is now watered down because we've had so many lately. It's still really, really hard to do, all right? So, Peeker Armstrong, shout out to you. Awesome season. He is in play for the number one pick in fantasy drafts next season. But yeah, honestly, awesome year for both PCA, the Cubs, the White Sox, man. Like, what? Nobody had them over 500 this year. And now they're in a. Like, in a playoff spot? Just awesome, awesome stuff there for the White Sox. They're not much over 500. That's fair. To be fair. But it's just, you know, the three-year or whatever. Since Will Venable has taken over, he's just done a fantastic job getting them back on track. So, shout out to Chicago baseball. All right, Scott, let's go over to you, your player of the night.
Speaker 6Gonna go with the guy we talked a little bit about yesterday. But I want to talk about a little. I want to talk about him a little more. And that is George Lombard. After a slow start to his. Major League career, George is getting upset. Here on Wednesday, two for four with a home run. That's his seventh in a short time in the majors. And gives him four in his last seven games. He's batting.321 during that seven-game stretch. Both of his batted balls, the two hits Wednesday. Or, sorry, Thursday. Both of the batted balls were over 110 miles per hour. And now, since. September 14th. That's less than two weeks. All four of his hardest hit balls have come since September 15th. All of them being over 110 miles per hour. So, he is. He's figuring it out. I mean, this was a guy, George Lombard. He hit the ball very hard in the minors. At least, from the data we can see, a triple-A. And the exit velocities weren't carrying over so much early on. Which is. Understandable. I mean, he arrived at age 21 after a quick climb through the minors. Recently turned 21, by the way, when he arrived. So, you can understand there being some growing pains. But, like, I think he is hitting his stride now. Now, his average exit velocity during this stretch is still not that impressive. It's like 88, 89 miles per hour. But just him hitting those peak exit velocities, the 110-plus with consistency, I think bodes well for next season. And I stand by what I said yesterday. He's an 8 on the sleeperometer, George Lombard. Next year could be the summer of George.
Speaker 5There you go. And, overall, in 74 games, he's got 7 homers, 23 runs, 22 RBI, 2 steals. Full season pace, just for fun. 28 homers, 87 RBI, 91 runs scored, 8 steals. So, we're not expecting that next season. But, I did have him on the buyer's sell for later on, Scott. Buyer's sell, we have a 2010 season incoming for George Lombard. 20 homers, 10 steals.
Speaker 6Oh. I thought you were talking about the year. I'm like, what does that mean? At least, yeah. I mean, look, if you just pace out his home run numbers this year. It's 28. Yeah, exactly. So, that seems like a pretty good number. Like, a pretty easy prediction, especially if I'm expecting improvement from him next year. And then, as far as the steals go. He hasn't run that
Speaker 5much, but he's 93rd percentile.
Speaker 6Yeah, right. And, I think we've seen him steal bases at a pretty good clip in the minors. Let me double check that. It was the low minors, I guess. As recently as AA last year. He stole 24 bags in 108 games. So, yeah, I think 2010 is a very conservative prediction, actually. And, I think it could be more like 30-20, frankly. I mean, that's kind of the upside case, but I think it's within the realm of possibility.
Speaker 599th percentile outcome.
Speaker 6I don't even know that it's 99th percentile. It might be 75th percentile. I think he's really good.
Speaker 5You know what, Scott? Music to my ears. You said it, not me. Scott. The new Yankee fan. You heard it here on the podcast. He also had a crazy acrobatic slide at home plate to avoid the tag. I don't know if you saw this play, Scott. It was amazing. Did you see George Lombard's slide? I dropped it in the private chat on StreamYard if you want to check it out. But, he slid way too early in front of the catcher. It was a wild pitch. Like, he was dead to rights. And, then he just kind of like jumped around the catcher and completely avoided the tag. It was something, I don't know. It was like a spider monk. He was crazy. But, yeah. That is George Lombard Jr. My player of the night is going to be Zach Geloff. Two for three with a double dong. And, he is having a massive September. 284 batting average. Eight homers. Six steals. A 998 OPS. He has really taken advantage of his home environment this season. The home road splits. 298 batting average. 15 homers. 937 OPS at home. And, on the road. batting average, 7 homers, 664 OPS, and I do remember the game that he had in the Las Vegas venue, remember they played that, I guess it was was it a whole week or was it just three games? I don't remember exactly, but they played those games in a Las Vegas ballpark and the hitting environment was crazy. Like there was just some absurd number of home runs that were hit and that does get factored into his home numbers for this season. So I do think they're a little bit inflated, but the good news is that he has at least one more year playing in Sacramento, which is also a great hitting environment. And yeah, I like the gains that he's made this season, obviously lowering the strikeout rate this year. A lot. Some of the underlying stuff like his zone contact is still not great, but he has improved like the chase rate, the whiff rate, still a really good athlete 87th percentile sprint speed. The pulled air rate is decent at 18%. Like he's just he's made improvements like around the fringes here and it's come back to a big bounce back season for Zach Geloff. His full season pace 33 homers, 111 runs scored, 24 steals. So I think playing in Sacramento masks some of his deficiency, Scott, but he has another season there next year and I could see I could see like 2020 season for next season for Zach Geloff and maybe even that's conservative for him.
Speaker 6Well, yeah, I mean he was 20 he's 2016 right now. Yeah, 20, 22 homers, 16 steals. So I don't think you're going out on much of a limb predicting a 2020 season next year, especially since you know, he hasn't been a full time fully healthy player. Zach Geloff this year and he's gone to 22 homers, 16 steals. So I don't know you're being a little too conservative in your home run stolen base estimates right now. I've got projections
Speaker 5brain. I'm just thinking about how projections are going to be spit out numbers for these guys. And typically they're pretty hype them up. Frank, you're here to hype them up. Yeah, I mean the high end is that he's he's another guy that could be like a 3020 guy if everything works out.
Speaker 6So to follow up on a few things you said about Zach Geloff. Yes, he had the big series when they played in Las Vegas. He said eight home runs in September and none of those games in Las Vegas. So you can't take that away from him. You mentioned the improvement in strikeout rate 24% versus 46% for the little bitty was around last year, but the year before 34%. So like it's a huge improvement in strikeout rate. And one thing you didn't mention average bat speed way up 1.6 miles per hour like that. Zach Geloff has gotten a quicker bat and that's like legitimate skill improvement. You know, like I don't even know that skills the right word. It's like he's just gotten better. He's just gotten better. It's not just results based. It's process based improvement that you can measure now with the addition of bat speed on stack cast. So like he has grown as a hitter. I think it's pretty obvious and because he has very favorable eligibility. I think Zach Geloff is should should attract a lot of interest next
Speaker 5year. It's it is especially impressive that he's improved the bat speed while maintaining the career best strikeout rate. So that's very encouraging there for Zach Geloff. I'm buy or sell top. I don't know how high to go with this top 100 pick in drafts next year. Is that too high? I mean, he went from a guy that you know, we weren't drafting. He was a free agent pickup this season. Is he inside the top 100 next year because of that third base eligibility? I think
Speaker 6because of that third base eligibility. I haven't gotten around a third base yet starting my rankings for it next year. But I know how scarce it is. And we've talked about it a little, the three of us with Chris here. I don't know if it was on the air. But who fits into the top 12? I got to imagine Geloff's going to because some of the other names we are bringing up aren't as exciting, at least for at least for categories leagues. Now you could make the case for like Isak Barret is ahead of him in points. Max Muncy ahead of him in points, but I don't think you could in categories.
Speaker 5All right. Again, that is Zach Geloff. Big, big bounce back season and future looks bright here for heading into next season. Do want to give a shout out to Lucas Spence. Who who is Lucas Spence? He started in center field for the Astros here on Thursday. Not only did he hit his first career home run, he hit his second and then his third all in the same game. Three for four with a triple dong five RBI at the athletics. I don't really think this guy matters for fantasy. I you know, I'm rooting for a man. I hope you prove me wrong, but I just wanted to give him a shout out because man to hit your the first three home runs of your career all in the same game is pretty awesome. 23 years old.
Speaker 6Anybody hits three home runs. They're going to get a shout out.
Speaker 5Yeah, for sure. Undrafted, you know, free agent and in the minors this year, 13 homers, 17 steals, but lower batting average. It's got it. I don't think it really matters for fantasy, but men shout out to Lucas Spence.
Speaker 6Yeah, I didn't see any interesting data points looking at his minor league numbers. The exit velocity readings were pretty ordinary in addition to the stats you just gave. And he didn't do anything with his previous stints in the majors this year. So we'll see how he follows up this performance, Lucas Spence. But as of now, I think he's not a name you need to remember.
Speaker 5All right. Before we hit our first break, we will have an FBT Express episode dropping on Friday morning. Giving out hitting and pitching streamers for this weekend. We will also have that same segment here today on the podcast. So I don't know if you want to listen to it twice, but programming update, no weekend recap on Sunday. Starting next week, we move to our offseason schedule. We will be live on YouTube Monday and Wednesday nights. Maybe sometimes during the day. We'll see about that, but it will be Monday and Wednesdays and the audio pod will be in your feed Tuesday and Thursday mornings. That's basically from October through December. Then once we get to January, three podcasts per week. And then February, it's our usual position previews, five podcasts per week, all that good stuff. Also, just want to give everybody a heartfelt thank you for sticking around all year, supporting the podcast. Whether you are an OG who's been listening to this podcast since I was in high school, since Scott was freshly out of high school two decades ago.
Speaker 6Since Jamie Eisenberg was hosting it.
Speaker 5Ah, man. Even if you're someone who just found the podcast this year, to all the diehards in the YouTube chat, shout out to you guys. I know I typically I don't have the wherewithal to interact with the YouTube chat because there's just so much going on throughout the show and me trying to like coordinate and keep everything moving. But yeah, I do see a lot of the same names in there and you've been here all season long. So I want to give all you a shout out as well. We appreciate each and every one of you and big thanks. Had a ton of fun and we don't take it for granted. So thank you all for supporting the show. Let's take a break and we'll be back 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 1417. 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 Facts 253. The first TV remote control introduced in 1950. was called Lazy Bones. Snapple Real Facts 2105. Professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville in the offseason. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting. Alright, now let's get back to the show. 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 is an 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 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, CalSheet, trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. CalSheet products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calsheet.com slash regulatory. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball. Today, let's run through the news and notes. Ronald Acuna returned to the lineup after fouling a ball off of his left leg earlier in the week, and let's hope everything's good. Come out of this weekend okay, so that your Braves can have him ready to go in the postseason. Jesus Lizardo threw a successful 30-pitch bullpen on Thursday. He could face hitters this weekend and still hopes to be on the Phillies' wildcard roster. Jeremy Pena was back in the lineup after missing Wednesday with wrist soreness, and I saw him steal a base in that game. I don't know how many hits he had, but he had at least one. He stole a base in the ninth inning as well. Jeremy Pena, big year next year. One of my bold predictions that I had last week or two weeks ago, whenever that was. Luis Arai suffered a sprained left ankle during Thursday's game against the Brewers. That's something we'll have to watch. Only three days left in the season, and the Phillies need Luis Arai, so hopefully he'll be all right for the playoffs. Alex Bregman resumed hitting Wednesday, and it went well. Craig Council said Bregman needs to get the swelling down in his left cheek before being cleared to play in games. Cedon Raffaello was back in the lineup after leaving Wednesday with right hamstring tightness. Wilson Gutierrez has missed six straight with that bruised right hand, and after the game, he said he has not been able to swing without pain and is uncertain if he'll be ready for the wildcard series in the playoffs. So that is big news, man. Wilson Gutierrez is middle-of-the-order bat for the Red Sox. I mean, he's probably the biggest thump in that bat, right? And so he's had a massive season for them. They need him healthy, so that could be a huge blow if he is not ready to go for the playoffs here on Tuesday. Sandy Alcantara will not start this weekend, but will be available out of the bullpen. Who knows? Maybe he gets a save or two. I have no idea. The White Sox placed Luis Castillo on the I.L. with a right-shoulder impingement. Just a disaster trade all around for the White Sox. And even with that, they made the playoffs, so again, shout-out to them. The Angels placed Ben Joyce on the I.L. with a right-shoulder impingement, and what do you know? They had a save opportunity right away here on Thursday. It was Ryan Watson who tossed a clean inning. He struck out two. He picked up his fourth save, and he looks like the guy for the final weekend here for the Angels. The Braves placed Martin Perez on the I.L. with lower-back inflammation. The Astros placed Dalton Varshow on the I.L. with left-wrist inflammation. He will miss the wild-card series if the Astros win their division. And some prospect news. Brewers prospect Luis Pena, underwent surgery Thursday to repair his fractured left ankle. The Brewers did not reveal a timeline, but this injury typically takes like six to nine months to recover from. So, probably going to be a long road back here for Luis Pena, and probably will not see him up with the Brewers next year. He'll probably, if everything works out, maybe he'll get up to like double-A by the end of next season. That is Luis Pena. All right, let's help those out. Those Daily Lineup League players still competing in their championships, and this was very weird putting this this early in the rundown, Scott, but I've got to stream or not to stream, and here we go. On Friday, Jackson Jobe is going up against the Pirates. Andrew Alvarez is home against the Mets. Bubba Chandler is at the Tigers. Brandon Young against the Yankees. Grant Holmes is at the Marlins. Those are the top five names that I see, but then there's a couple others I'll just mention. Lodolo's at the Blue Jays. McGreevey at the Brewers. Robert Gasser is home against the Cardinals. Brendan Fott is at the Pirates. Padres. Wesneski and Jacob Lopez are going up against each other. I saw someone in the YouTube chat saying they wanted to use Jacob Lopez. Please, please do not do that. David Peterson at the Red Sox, and Brian Bayo home against the Cubs.
Speaker 6Yeah, look, you can do what you want. By all means, if you have your own hunch about Jacob Lopez, don't let me stop you, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to recommend it. I think. I think we all got burned pretty badly in his last three starts. But Andrew Alvarez is far and away the best choice to stream, I think. His last nine starts, he has a 215 ERA,.97 whip, 8.8K per nine, and he's a great ground ball pitcher. 50% rate for the year. So he's my top choice. I think after him, I would be most drawn to. maybe Jackson Jobe, who's looked better in his last couple starts, 17 strikeouts in 12 and a third innings. Pirates are a tough matchup, but his sliders looked better. And, you know, a couple pitchers that scared us away because of the matchup here Thursday ended up doing pretty well. So, you know, matchups aren't everything.
Speaker 5Especially for playoff teams that have already locked things up. They might rest some of their big. big-name players this weekend, so.
Speaker 6Yeah, who was it facing Milwaukee? Andrew Painter. Andrew Painter had a great start against the Brewers here on Thursday. So Jackson Jobe is probably my second choice. And third choice. Let's say. I'm tempted to say Brian Baio because he's been great since returning from the minors. What are his exact numbers? I think I have them in my notes here somewhere. I just. I just keep a single notepad going all season long. Just keep adding a new date. So we're up to 580,000 characters on the year.
Speaker 5Oh, my God. Whatever number I was expecting, it was. That was not the number.
Speaker 6Yeah. Yeah, 13 appearances since returning from the minors. Brian Baio has a.228 ERA, 101 whip, 8.1K per nine, a 59% ground ball rate. I was saying 50% is good. He's almost 60. It's the Cubs. But, yeah, I think Brian Baio is my third choice. I'm not eager to do it. The only one I'm excited to stream of those three is Andrew Alvarez, to be clear. But Jackson Jobe and Brian Baio are my second and third choices.
Speaker 5Yeah, my top three would be Alvarez, Jobe, and then I would throw Bubba Chandler in that mix. I'm just not really scared of the Tigers lineup. The two kind of outside looking in, Brandon Young and Grant Holmes, kind of just like high floor. I don't think you're going to get an awesome start out of either. But, Grant Holmes. Grant Holmes, like five innings, one run, five innings, two runs, something like that. Brandon Young, maybe a quality start with like five or six strikeouts. I should mention, too, the Cubs and Red Sox are playing a doubleheader on Friday because of inclement weather coming this weekend. The Yankees and the Orioles are also doing the same thing. So, a doubleheader on Friday and the Yankees and Orioles will not play on Saturday. And if the weather isn't terrible, my assumption is that they will play on Sunday as well for the third game of the series. I'll be at the 4 p.m. game on Friday for the Yankees. So, if anyone is there and you meet up, I don't know, hit me up on Twitter and let's link up. On Saturday, we have Rhett Lauder at the Blue Jays. Jonah Tong is at the Nationals. Billy Ober, home against the Rangers. Davis Martin, home against the Rockies. Again, that's in Chicago, not in Coors Field. Quinn Matthews is at the Brewers. Dustin May, home against the Cardinals. Revenge game. Griffin Jacks at the Phillies. Corbin Burns at the Padres. Ryan Johnson at the Phillies. Ryan Johnson at the Mariners. And Jack Perkins is home against the Astros.
Speaker 6So, I think we avoided Quinn Matthews in his previous start because of the matchup, and it turned out to be a good one. Do we avoid him against the Brewers?
Speaker 5The Brewers are not as good against lefties. They're more like middle of the pack against lefties. They're awesome against righties. Yeah. It could work out.
Speaker 6It was the Nationals that Matthews came through against last time. Seven innings, three earned runs allowed, three strikeouts. It was an amazing start, but it's a start you want in your lineup. And does that make it my top choice here Saturday? I think I'd take Griffin Jacks over him. He's looked really good since returning.
Speaker 5Phillies lineup is completely scuffling, so I like that.
Speaker 6And I think I lean Ryan Johnson over him. I know he kind of faltered last time out after a good run of success, but two turns ago, he shut down the Mariners. It was arguably his best start of the season. And he's made changes since the Angels fired pitching coach Mike Maddox with his pregame routine and throwing his cutter a lot more, getting a lot of ground balls, weak contact in general. I guess that Mariners start wasn't actually his best of the season because he one-hit the Rangers in August over seven. It was his third best start of the season. It was a really good start is the point. And he's facing the Mariners again.
Speaker 5Ryan Johnson. I think I would go Johnson, Jacks and Quinn Matthews as my top three on Saturday. And then outside looking in, but risky like Davis Martin against the Rockies. He's getting no strikeouts. He somehow has kept runs off the board since returning from the IL, but it's just like first series out of course, field for the Rockies final series of the season.
Speaker 6I like it.
Speaker 5Yeah, I like it outside looking in. But if you're desperate, yeah, and Jonah Tong is kind of in that same category. He's been up and down since returning. But yeah, I do prefer those other things. three much more over Davis Martin and Jonah Tong.
Speaker 6Somebody pointed out Jax is probably going to be limited. Maybe. We did see Ian Seymour go five here on Thursday.
Speaker 5But he only threw like 58 pitches. So yeah, he was limited too.
Speaker 6Yeah, that's a good point. That might, that might. I think a bunch of
Speaker 5pitchers could be limited this weekend and we just won't really know about it.
Speaker 6Yeah. That is why some people prefer not to include this last week, especially in head-to-head. I'm not among them just because I'm a purist and want all the games to count, but I get the frustration for that specifically. Some of the other stuff like, oh, this guy got injured the final week and now he's out for the season. You know, you got guys getting injured every week. I don't think that's, I think that's, I think that's some cope right there. But so let's see. What would the Rays rotation be for the playoffs? Definitely Rasmussen, Freddie Peralta, Seymour. Jacks may be the fourth, but they have Nick Martinez too, a 15 game winner. I think Jacks is better than Martinez, but I don't know that, I don't know that the Rays will see it that way. Jacks also is easiest to shift to the bullpen. So that may be their plan for the playoffs is to shift Jacks to the bullpen. In which case, it's less likely he's limited on Saturday. I would, I would think.
Speaker 5I don't know this, but I think that they would use, I think they would use Nick Martinez in like a third game in a series. Well, the ALDS will be three out of five. They could go with like a Seymour, Griffin, Jacks kind of piggyback. And that seems like it would work pretty well. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know exactly. I agree with your top two, Rasmussen and Peralta, but I don't really know where the Rays will go from there.
Speaker 6Seymour, Jacks and Martinez all have bullpen experience. They all deserve to start a playoff game, but they can't all start a playoff game.
Speaker 5And Martinez is the only one of those three that has started all season long. So yeah, maybe that matters to them. I'm not sure. On Sunday, we have Shane Boz at the Yankees. Sean Minaya is at the Nationals. River Ryan's going up against the Pirates. He looked good, but he'll likely be limited. He only threw three innings in his first start with the Tigers. Yusei Kikuchi is at the Mariners. Dean Kramer home against the Rangers. Anthony Kaye is home against the Rockies. Again, that's in. Chicago, Jansen Junk home against the Braves. Andre Palante at the Brewers. And I think it's going to be J.R. Ritchie at the Marlins on Sunday.
Speaker 6I feel like Palante's been letting us down lately. His last start was okay.
Speaker 5I think it's back-to-back quality starts for him. But he was bad before that, yeah.
Speaker 6If I could trust Sean Minaya to ditch the sinker.
Speaker 5Completely lied. It's one quality start for Palante, and he gave up eight runs in the start before that. So, kind of bad.
Speaker 6Yeah. And Brewers are a tough matchup, obviously. If I could trust Minaya to do away with the sinker at the Nationals, I could get behind that. But it's just been a few sparse starts where he's done that. A few scattered starts. And they've gone well, but he hasn't stuck with that approach. So, I don't trust it to happen again. And the Nationals are good against lefties.
Speaker 5Sunday is the worst day to stream. And it's the day, most likely, where things could kind of just get flipped on their head. And maybe, you know, a pitcher gets scratched or only goes one time through the lineup. I think we could see really weird things happen on Sunday.
Speaker 6There's literally no tomorrow for 18 teams on Sunday. So, they can do whatever they want, really. I'm going to say Palante's number one. I'm going to say. You say Kikuchi. That's Seattle's number two. Reluctantly. And Dean Kramer against the Rangers three. I might flip those two. I might say Kramer too because his last start was so good. But I don't really want to use either of those two. Kramer or Kikuchi. They are the desperation plays on Sunday.
Speaker 5I actually like Kramer the most just because he's going up against the Rangers. They're so bad against righties. And Kramer has looked good lately. I would put Palante, Boz, and Minaya all in the same category. I'm not. I'm not really excited to do it, but man, if you're desperate on Sunday and you're just going for a win or whatever it might be, you don't care about the ratios, sure. Those would be the next three. So, again, Kramer at the top and then Palante, Boz, Minaya as the next three there on Sunday. Some hitting streamers for the final weekend. And we know that the Athletics and Astros are playing the final three games in Sacramento. So, I like hitters from both of those teams. For the Athletics in particular, I like left-handed hitters. They're going up against three righties. So, Lawrence Butler and Jeff McNeil. For the Astros, I like right-handed hitters. They're facing two lefties this weekend. So, Yainer Diaz and Cam Smith. For the Marlins, I like their left-handed bats here. They're facing Grant Holmes. I wrote in A.J. Smith-Shauver, but I think he was in as a reliever on Thursday. So, I'm not really sure who's going to start on Saturday. And then J.R. Ritchie. So, I think Jacob Marcy and Griffin Conine could work out this weekend. For the Mets, they are going up against three. They're facing three lefties this weekend. So, I think Francisco Alvarez could be pretty good. For the Padres, I like their left-handed bats. They're facing three righties this weekend. Fought Burns and Soroka. So, Cronenworth and Dustin Harris. For the White Sox, they are facing the Rockies pitching staff. Two lefties. Two of the three pitchers are lefties. And so, I like Chase Mydroth a lot. He has been hot in September. He crushes lefties. So, he is, like, if you really need a second baseman or shortstop, I really like Mydroth this weekend. Randall Grischuk also crushes lefties. D-backs, left-handed bats. They are facing three righties this weekend. So, Lars Neupahr and Pavin Smith. And then, if you need steals in particular, Henry Bolte has seven in September. Jonah Cox has seven. Zach Geloff has six. David Hamilton and Cooper Pratt have six. Samad Taylor has six. And Dustin Harris has five. So, those are some names, particularly for steals. Do you have any thoughts on hitter streamers?
Speaker 6Yeah, I would still say the best two hitters. Hitter stream overall this weekend are my top two for the full week. Ty France and Henry Bolte. Yeah. So, Noel Arenado was my third for the week, but that was mostly because of the series at Coors Field, which is now over.
Speaker 5And he was awesome there. He was amazing.
Speaker 6He's already major week if you started him in a weekly league. I don't know that I'm as interested in starting him at San Diego, but I guess it depends how badly you need a third baseman. Let's see. Yeah, Geloff remains a good start. He's pretty rostered at this point, but if you're in a shallower league, and it's hard to imagine he'd still be available in a daily league, but if he is, he's a good play.
Speaker 5All right. And then some bullpen notes. If you're chasing some saves this weekend for the Pirates, Mason Montgomery struck out the side for his 17th save. Likely not available, but he's awesome. For the Cubs, Ryan Zephyrjohn picked up his seventh save, he has three of the last four saves for the Cubs. I keep saying I think it's like a combination of him and Ryan Rolison, but I do lean Zephyrjohn right now, so he could maybe pick up another save this weekend. For the Rangers, Jacob Latz was unavailable. Jordan Montgomery got his first save of the season. It was just a night off for Latz. I think he'll be fine this weekend. For the Brewers, Trevor McGill and Abner Uribe were unavailable, so Antonio Sensatella got the final five outs for his fourth save. For the Guardians, Cade Smith, struck out the side for his 41st save. And shout out to the Guardians, they also clinched a playoff spot. For the Reds, Emilio Pagan picked up his 25th save. Even with a lengthy IELTS stand, it's been a good season for Pagan. 338 ERA, 103 whip. Definitely shaky at times, but over a strikeout per inning, 25 saves, like, got the job done. For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable. Brian Abreu got the final four outs for his ninth save. For the Padres, Mason Miller allowed a run, but he picked up his 38th save. And, again, if you just need saves this weekend, names that are under 60% rostered. Grant Taylor, I don't know that he's the closer, but maybe he gets a save. Grant Taylor is 57%. Jeff Hoffman has one save this week. I think Andrew Morris has the other one, but Hoffman is 32%. Hogan Harris, 27% rostered. Rico Garcia is 25%. Ryan Zephyrjohn is 8%. And Ryan Watson, who we mentioned of the Angels, is only 2% rostered. So, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll be right back. When we return, we'll bounce around. We'll have some fun. Loosey-goosey. Kokomo Friday. We'll do all that right after this.
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Speaker 1Hey, our ride's almost here. Are you ready? Just grabbing my shoes. That's what you said 10 minutes ago. I just dropped a video call, uploading this giant file on my tablet, looking at my watch cool bananas with the group chat, and, of course, still lining up tonight's playlist on my phone. All at once? Yep, story of my life. That's why I switched to T-Mobile. They have the fastest 5G network.
Speaker 8Okay, multitasker. I see you.
Speaker 9Honestly, I never imagined I could do all this at once.
Speaker 8It's awesome. Say no more, I'm totally switching. My post is taking way too long to upload.
Speaker 5That's a sign. You've got to get T-Mobile. So many reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Fastest based on analysis by Ooklo Speed Test Intelligence data of national speed score results, incorporating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball Today. And again, we're just going to do a little bit more of this. We're going to do a little bit more of this. We're just going to jump around here. But Paul Skeens put a bow on his season, and he actually finished pretty strong here. Six and a third, one run, eight strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 96 pitches. Velocity mostly right around his season averages here. One thing I noticed, he used his slider more, and it was different. It had four less inches of drop, and it was pretty good for him. But three plus whiffs on four different pitches. I thought it was an encouraging way to end the season, but obviously. Questions still remain entering next season.
Speaker 6Yeah, questions definitely remain. I did have the thought today, though, have we been a little too hard on Paul Skeens? So he finishes with a.382 ERA, but he did make it to 200 strikeouts with all the issues he had been having. And with that.382 ERA, he has a.333 FIP, and he has an expected ERA. I don't have it the most. 382 ERA, I don't have it the most. I don't have an updated number, but it came in.327. That's what it was coming into the start. So he's actually been one of the biggest underachievers Paul Skeens has by both of those measures, expected ERA and FIP. So the data still really likes him. Obviously, he came in with consecutive one-something ERAs, so it's still a disappointment by that regard.
Speaker 5His ERA has doubled, Scott.
Speaker 6Yeah. But still, a 200 strikeout pitcher who projects for a low.3 ERA is still pretty high end. Now, that doesn't tell the whole story because not having an explanation for the drop in velocity leaves me wondering if there's something going on physically. But there have been cases for it being more of a mechanical thing, which wouldn't be as scary. And, you know, even if he doesn't, quite get it right, I mean, if he's just a.330 ERA pitcher who approaches 200 strikeouts next year, if that's all he is, that's still what? Top 12? Probably?
Speaker 5Top 12, 15. If he gets to those underlying numbers, which, again, like you said, it doesn't really tell the whole story. I still think it's really hard to just kind of parse through because, like, a lot of those starts that were good earlier on in the season were when his velocity was up, but we still had this sample from June 26th on. His last 15 starts before Thursday's action, it was an ERA over 5. And, you know, the ERA estimators were all, like, in the high threes range,
Speaker 6so maybe he's been unlucky,
Speaker 5but it's also, yeah, yeah. During this 15-star stretch, ERA over 5, but the FIP, the XERA, the XFIP were all in the high threes range. It still just feels like a, like, just a bad vibes thing, the way that the velocity and the spin rates have been trending down, and I just kind of, and even the stuff metric being down, too, I just feel like that's all just made him more hittable,
Speaker 6so I don't know. Oh, it definitely has. Yeah. But I guess I'm just, I guess I'm making the steel man case here for Skeens next year because we've been so pessimistic. Just because he's become more hittable, like, he had a lot of ground he could lose before he becomes a liability in fantasy, I guess is the way to sum it up, and I, presuming he's healthy, presuming he's fully healthy, and these, it's, the decline in velocity isn't a harbinger of surgery or a lengthy IL stint next year. Let's just take that scenario off the table. Skeens will probably still, he'll probably be pretty good next year, even if he doesn't regain his velocity. Now, I understand you can't take that scenario off the table. Yeah, that's exactly, that was my next point.
Speaker 5I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 6how would we know, you know? But, like, it's, I'm not, I don't think all is lost because, even if he doesn't regain his velocity, I don't think all is lost. It just, it depends on how healthy he is. And if he is healthy, then I think he could still turn in a top 12, season as exactly the pitcher he is right now. Or top 15, let's say.
Speaker 5Certainly possible. I, I feel, right now, my gut feel is just more pessimism for Paul Skeens, but maybe I am being too hard on him. It's just, it feels like the other shoe is, is gonna drop here at some point, but, I think I'm right about that.
Speaker 6And I'm not saying, I'm not saying I'm optimistic now. I'm just, I'm trying to look at the, the whole picture so that I can, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of parsing through my own feelings, I guess, with Skeens next year because you have to consider all scenarios. That, that's part of the reason why I don't like projections because projections can only really account for one scenario. And every player has a variety of scenarios.
Speaker 5Mm-hmm. No, I think it's good to talk through and I think it's good to paint, you know, both sides here and kind of talk, you know, upside, downside outcomes for Paul Skeens and then whoever is drafting next year, they decide, like, do they fall on the more optimistic end or, you know, perhaps this is a harbinger of something worse to come for Paul Skeens and, and I think it makes sense to talk it through. We did have our last big game in Coors Field this season and on Thursday, it was the D-backs who defeated the Rockies 12 to 8 and just some big games all around. Nolan Arenado, we spoke about three for five with his 29th home run, three RBI, massive September, 351, eight homers and 1131 OPS. He entered Thursday as a top 10 third baseman in Roto and total headset points, which is partially like the position is really bad, but also just Arenado has surprisingly had a very good season.
Speaker 6I mean, one more home run, he's a 30 homer guy again. I didn't think he'd ever be a 20 homer guy again. Right. It's maybe, it's maybe the biggest surprise for me that Arenado not only became something worthwhile again, but he became a plus. This is his best season since 2022. Yeah.
Speaker 5Yeah. And it's not close. I think most of it is just he was healthy once again for the first time in a while. Gabriel Moreno hit his 16th home run, three RBI. He is having his best power month yet. Five homers, 975 OPS, here in September. He's played a career high 128 games and he has put together 16 home runs, 81 RBI, six steals, 870 OPS. It's not quite William Contreras, but it's, it's not far off from William Contreras. It's a very William Contreras-esque profile and entering Thursday, Gabriel Moreno was a top five catcher in both Roto and head-to-head points as well. Cole Carrick hit his 11th home run. He had four hits in this game. He is having a huge September, really just August, was his only bad month. He has an 850 OPS or better in the other three months that he's played and his full season pace is right at 2020. So, I think makes for a very intriguing player for next season. Cole Carrows hit his, Kyle Carrows hit his 13th home run and he's had a solid, not spectacular season, but, you know, good OBP, decent power, solid OPS, kind of feels like a better real-life player than fantasy player. And then Zach Veen off the bench, two for two with his third home run in, 35 games, 242, three homers, two steals, 779 OPS. Comes with a 40% strikeout rate. I know that the Rockies haven't given him just a full everyday opportunity, but there is some really bad stuff in the play discipline under the hood here for Zach Veen. I don't want to write him off completely. I mean, he's a former top prospect, but doesn't look great right now, Scott, for Zach Veen.
Speaker 6No, I mean the chase rates were pretty high at AAA. I guess the one issue you could have pointed to prior to his promotion it didn't lead to a very high strikeout rate because his zone contact rate was so high when he swung at strikes at AAA he connected 88% of the time which is very high hasn't been doing that in the majors so far with pitches in the zone that he swings at but it has been sparse playing time for a guy who hasn't gotten much exposure to major league pitching to begin with I wouldn't mind seeing Zach Veen get traded I think the Rockies have such an outfield surplus right now that it's going to be hard for him to get a fair shake and I know in theory we'd rather him play at Coors Field but I'd rather him just play and see if there's anything here I still think there could be but I don't think there could be but he is going to have to clean up his swing and miss for sure
Speaker 5who is the team worse than the Rockies that we can send Zach Veen to? I mean a team with an outfield need specifically
Speaker 6it's just a they don't necessarily have to be worse than the Rockies they just need to have an opening in the outfield
Speaker 5yeah I did have four names on the sleeperometer but I'll just throw all four your way Scott and you tell me if you you could see any of them being sleeper candidates for you next year and next season Kyle Thiel hit his fifth home run and since returning he has three home runs and 808 OPS but he's hitting just 204 massive strikeout rate this year 36% K rate I know it's like just a really injury riddled season for Kyle Thiel so maybe we don't hold that against him Josh Young three for three with his 12th home run he has made some big strides this year cut down the strikeout rate 825 OPS and 299 batting average like both career bests by far for Josh Young he just has a lot of time to play hasn't really been able to stay healthy Hector Rodriguez hit his sixth home run for the Reds he had that stretch where he was hitting very well and then he completely cooled off he was hitting 054 in his 11 games before this and then David Sandlin who pitches for the White Sox six innings one run had seven strikeouts and he completely changed his pitch mix he threw his sweeper a lot more and a really small sample but that sweeper has a 42% whiff rate so and the numbers in the minors were pretty good this season Scott, how are you doing? Scott, can you see yourself being interested in any of these guys next year? David Sandlin, Hector Rodriguez, Josh Young, and Kyle Thiel
Speaker 6definitely Thiel it would have to be a two catcher league just because there's enough surplus at the position that you don't need to take that kind of chance on him in one catcher league but he has one catcher league upside Kyle Thiel I think I think we could just throw out his 20-26 numbers entirely there were too many injury interruptions and just obviously didn't have a chance to to have the typical build-up and too small of a sample too many interruptions I think we just throw it out and remember that he was a a really high-end prospect before getting promoted last year and looked really good once he was promoted so I still have a lot of confidence in Kyle Thiel long-term Josh Young is never going to stay healthy probably he has made strides this year as expected batting average 93rd percentile and his actual batting average even higher than that but even at even for as thin as third base is he feels like he's just going to be a fallback option for me and probably just in a roto league where you have the extra corner infield spot like the upside for Hector Rodriguez we'll see what the Reds do if there's any hope of him playing every day next year because platoon players they they don't matter in leagues of a certain size it's just a matter of shallowness and so that's that's something that needs to be sorted out for Hector Rodriguez but in theory I think he has the upside to matter in all leagues we just got to see what kind of role he has Sandlin I don't have much interest at Sandlin I think he's I think he's a space filler type in a rotation not that there's nothing good there but I don't think it's enough
Speaker 5all right let's do some buyer sell let's make it rapid fire Scott Alec Burleson putting the finishing touches on his breakout season hit his 24th home run 113 RBI leads Major League Baseball I had to do a a triple check a triple take to make sure that was accurate buyer sell this will be Alec Burleson's career year 24 homers 113 RBI
Speaker 6that's actually really tough somebody was trying to convince me I need to rank him ahead of Bryce Harper next year I liked
Speaker 5Burleson a lot this year and I still like him for next year I wouldn't do that
Speaker 6no because look they had similar years this year but Bryce Harper has a long history of doing that and by the way has had a resurgent season in some ways I think he's going to lead the majors in walks Harper's been really good Burleson has actually underperformed his expected slug by about 35 points and he's hit the ball incredibly hard and he's done a much better job of pulling it in the air and so that would be the argument for why he'll have the better season in the future the argument for why he won't is because bad home park terrible against lefties I'm going to say it will be his best season just because it'll be hard to replicate the RBI yeah bye sorry that wasn't rapid fire
Speaker 5no it's all good I actually buy it too and again I like Burleson a lot this year but still really bad against lefties and I just think that'll hold them back a little bit and so I could I think he'll still be a productive player like 280 I think similar like 20 to 25 home runs I can't see him replicating 115 RBI again next season so that's the hard part yeah Isak Paredes one for four with a walk in his 24th home run he is finishing strong last 43 games 294 nine homers and OPS over 900 more walks than strongness strikeouts during that time buy or sell top 12 third baseman in ADP next season not in your ranking Scott in ADP Isak Paredes
Speaker 6without having all the names lined up yet like he probably will be in my rankings certainly for points leagues he will because the plate discipline is so good
Speaker 5I think he will be yeah I'm buying it
Speaker 6this is of course presuming he doesn't get traded true and gets to take advantage as an extreme pull hitter gets to take advantage of the Crawford boxes in Houston so with that making that assumption I will buy that Isak Paredes will barely be a top one of the top 12 third baseman drafted next year but I may change my mind once I actually rank them
Speaker 5no everything you're saying here on Friday September 25th we are holding you to and you cannot change your opinion Tyler Glass now was pitching a gem and then Justin Robleski came in and jacked it all up but six and a third innings three hits three runs 11 strikeouts here against the Padres really everything was working here for Tyler Glass now his slider was different the velocity was up a little bit it had four less inches of drop but buy or sell Glass now will make 20 starts next year for the first time since 2024 when he made 22 starts and I think that's a good thing this was just his 13th and last year he had 18 starts
Speaker 6so he came close last year I want to say bye because I feel like as soon as you start ruling out a player meeting a certain health threshold he meets it the next year that just seems to be how it goes like once you buy in okay this guy's too injury prone to do this he goes and defies expectation but I will I will what am I doing I'm selling it I'm selling that I'll make 20 starts next year just because the Dodgers have the luxury of not really having to start him unless massive changes are made to them next year which there's a case for but I'm not going to sit here and predict that right now
Speaker 5yeah I am selling this is the easiest sell on the board I do wonder if the Dodgers don't win the World Series do they do they maybe go like pedal to the metal next year and you know they kind of don't win the World Series don't limit guys as much and stuff I don't know that that would help them in the postseason but just the thought has crossed my mind sell sell Tyler Glass now 20 starts Eduardo Rodriguez he got away with it for the whole year this time in Coors Field six innings nine hits a lot of hits two runs only three strikeouts but he had 12 whiffs on 92 pitches surprisingly over his last 12 starts a 12.3% swinging strike rate that is a very healthy number there for Erod buy or sell he should be drafted in every standard 12-team league next season Erod did he get
Speaker 6away with it all year he did have a 520 ERA in September you know Scott
Speaker 5if you started him from wire to wire you got a 289 ERA my friend he got away with it sure and he
Speaker 6won 16 games which obviously is worth a lot in any format except ones that don't count wins I guess any 12-team league games you're saying he should be drafted every every 12-team league
Speaker 5he should be drafted
Speaker 6I I am gonna sell that he should be drafted i'm gonna buy that he will be drafted all right but you're saying should be so i'm gonna
Speaker 5sell all right uh andrew paints are great outing here against the brewers six innings one run eight strikeouts 15 whiffs on 93 pitches and uh his change-up was awesome and i think more change-ups is a pretty good recipe for andrew painter uh buy or sell post-hype breakout for next year andrew painter sure i'll
Speaker 6buy he i feel like he kind of already has but maybe it won't get so much notice 11 starts since returning andrew painter has a 365 era 115 whip 9.0k per nine so right at a strikeout per inning um and 11 starts again good sample obviously introducing the change-up that's been really effective he threw more than ever in this latest start against the brewers was the key to the turnaround there for andrew painter right out of strikeout per inning isn't that impressive but 13.5 swinging strike rate during that time is in fact that would make him the 11th highest among qualifiers so i think uh i think he's going to build off this and perhaps even get better next year andrew painter so i'll buy the post-hype
Speaker 5breakout and these last two it's just a will you have to wait and see what happens next season i already know the answer to one that being corey sieger i know you're going to be buying 48 he homered again 48 games since returning from the il 272 batting average nine homers 811 ops very good stack cast numbers the expected stats great during that time uh and his full season pace since returning 30 homers 94 runs scored there for corey sieger what about brian woo five and a third five runs allowed four of those earned still had eight strikeouts still had 17 whiffs on 160 and he's going to be buying 48 games since returning six pitches ends his season with an era over four by will you buy the dip on brian i thought it was
Speaker 6kind of funny too that he ended with a bad start at home where he's supposed to be so trustworthy however his three starts in september were pretty good two of them were really good the one in colorado was just kind of he survived it but still uh by the dip i don't know that he's going to go that much later next year i think there's a good chance he's still one of the top 15 starting pitchers drafted but uh yeah i i will i will definitely buy the dip on corey sieger because i think it could be significant and i do think he's still the guy he's shown himself to be since returning from injury he was dealing with a bad back before then which is always debilitating for hitters see vladimir guerrero uh woo i will buy the dip on him also but i'm not going to buy the dip on him but i'm curious to see what it
Speaker 5ends up being yeah his adp before the season brian woo he was the sp7 35.2 is the adp if you set the number at 14 and a half will you go inside the top 14 starting pitchers or outside or even 15 and a half i would say i i think outside i think it'll be closer to like sp20 and if that's the case um and that's just i don't know that but it'll be whatever wild wild prediction here for next i'm
Speaker 6sure it'll be a thin margin
Speaker 5yeah but i i could see you know buying that dip honestly like to me the home road stuff is weird for brian woo but his left on base percentage went from 80 last year to 66 this year i mean that is just a wild fluctuation year over year 14 percentage points and that's that where you know most guys typically just live in like that 70 to 75 percent range every year it's just a really really wild fluctuation and i just think if he had some better luck with guys on base like he's just easily like a mid three zra guy with around a strikeout training and that's a really good pitcher so uh yeah i'd be looking to buy the dip all right scott here we go final in-season podcast of the year let's wrap up scotty doesn't know scotty doesn't know oh scotty doesn't know all right we're going out with a bang are you ready scott nope all right that's music to my ears in 39 starts since the beginning of last year 39 starts beginning of last year 287 era and a 0.99 whip 39 starts since the
Speaker 6beginning of last year so obviously this guy hasn't been around for two full seasons but he was around for two partial seasons or maybe one and then a full season this year what are those numbers
Speaker 5again 287 era 0.99 whip and it's over a strikeout training
Speaker 6you're not gonna tell me how much over a strikeout
Speaker 5per inning 232 strikeouts over 216 and a third innings
Speaker 6uh let's say no his numbers would be better than that let's go with oh man i don't know oh oh hmm what are those what are the strikeout numbers again i'm sorry
Speaker 5232 over 216 and a third
Speaker 6i don't think this is right i am going to say i'm gonna say nick pavetta
Speaker 5you got it i got it yes you got it right uh i yeah he was someone who pitched here on thursday so i guess i am very
Speaker 6surprised i got that right yeah
Speaker 5definitely you did it man but uh at the dodgers four and two-thirds shutout innings with seven strikeouts 15 whiffs on 87 pitches he's been pretty good since coming back and he's just been awesome since joining the padres last year i don't know if his arm could hold up obviously had a significant arm injury this year but i don't know could just be a flies under the radar guy for next season nick pavetta i think
Speaker 6absolutely and i don't think he'll cost that much but i think he's going to be a good guy this was the first start since returning where the whiffs were there he had only 8.4 strikeouts per nine any or i'm sorry 8.4 percent swinging strike rate much worse than having 8.4 k per nine and his first three starts back but 15 whiffs on 87 pitches against the dodgers lineup yeah looked really good i'll be in on nick pavetta with a late round pick next year
Speaker 5for sure scotty does know after all all right let's move on in 49 games since the start of august i am hitting the bottom of the board with nick pavetta being 303 with 12 homers 40 runs scored 13 steals and an ops around 900 say those
Speaker 6numbers again 49
Speaker 5games since the start of august 303 12 homers 40 runs 13 steals ops around 900
Speaker 6since the start of august is it somebody who played today it's always a good assumption he's been really good during that time but he and he's had some speed oh call kerrig the answer was jack centurio i was going to give
Speaker 5you one more hint but i think it would have gave it away i was going to give you one more hint but i think it would have gave it away i was going to also say but i was not in scott's first round for next season jack centurio i mean it's a blistering end to the season for for choreo you had him just outside your first round i think an early second round 13th uh yeah i think it was 15th when i looked earlier but somewhere in that range it's just a crazy end to the season and still super young obviously growth this season i yeah i mean i i i think you could go 30 30 next year with like good batting average and really good counting stats i'm in i i yeah i'm probably gonna have been my first round but i i i don't think it's crazy to have them as like an early second round so i
Speaker 6have 10 top 10 or hitters i don't see jack centurio breaking into that group of 10 then you have jacob mizurowski cam schlittler and tarik scoobel i have them 11 through 13 which is
Speaker 5totally defensible yeah
Speaker 6and obviously your own willingness to take a pitcher that early could affect how high choreo goes relative to them then i have cj abrams 14 i could move jack centurio ahead of them ahead of him and probably will so 14 let's say for choreo yeah in a 15 team league he would be a first rounder
Speaker 5for me that's fair i probably would rank him ahead of the pitchers so i'll probably have him at like 11 but i i do agree it would be hard for trio to break that top 10 that top 10 for scott again being otani pca judge alvarez soto bobby witt james wood tatis ellie de la cruz and junior common arrow although chris and i had a uh spirited discussion yesterday about like should aaron judge be a first rounder for next year mostly just because like the injury risk and him getting older i don't really doubt like the talent still but that's i guess that's gonna be a conversation for another day all right here we are the final name the final player and scotty doesn't know for the season i am A rookie pitcher with a.342 ERA and a.114 whip.
Speaker 6For the career? I know you said rookie pitcher, but he may have had a little bit of time last year.
Speaker 5No, no, no. This is his first season.
Speaker 6342 ERA and one. What was the whip?.114. 114. 342,.114. For a rookie pitcher. You're not going to tell me how many innings he has?
Speaker 5No. I can't have you get the final one of the season, Scott. Here, come on.
Speaker 6342,.114, rookie pitcher. Presumably pitched on Thursday. Because you're weak like that. Let's say. That's. It's nobody in my notes, I don't think. Unless it's Sandlin, who were you. It wasn't Sandlin. I kind of want to say that guy, but his start was so bad Thursday. I think it inflated his ERA and whip beyond those numbers. I don't have a good guess.
Speaker 5Maybe he didn't pitch on Thursday.
Speaker 6Maybe he didn't, but.342,.114. I mean, geez. Rookie pitcher with those numbers. I am going to say. It's such a bad guess, though. Oh, is it Zach Thornton?
Speaker 5Oh, come on. Yes! All right. Yes! Gave Scotty some layups here, some cookies. Final Scotty is a no. Turns out Scott does no, sometimes. Only when I use players who played that day, unfortunately. You know, I was the same. I was the same. I was the same. I was the same. I was like rushing to put the rundown together. Here we are. Some senioritis, you know. But, Zach Thornton, man. It's just crazy to think.342 ERA,.114 whip. It's like, we always talk about him like, oh, Zach Thornton, because he doesn't really get strikeouts, and the ERA estimators are up over four, but he's been consistent. Three earned runs are fewer in 13 of 15 starts. He entered the start with a.463 XERA. I don't know, Scott. How are you going to feel about, Zach Thornton for next season?
Speaker 6Hmm, not great. Not great. He's a fly ball pitcher who doesn't give up especially weak contact. I think it's kind of middling. And doesn't miss a lot of bats. And doesn't have, oh, he does have good control. I guess the control is the main thing, at least during his time in the majors. Thornton has limited walks. It doesn't look like that's successful of a profile to me. So I will bet against Zach Thornton next year. Yeah, not much more to add than that.
Speaker 5Yeah, I think that's fair. You know, he's been so good. It's like, I don't want to poo-poo him, but if we're keeping it real, if we're keeping it a buck, yeah, there's just not enough in the profile. If he got a bunch of ground balls, or if, you know, he limited hard contacts, you know, that would be a different conversation. Maybe he's like one of these pitchers that just gets away with it. I don't think the matchup is going to be that good. I don't think the Mets' defense projects to be very good. Obviously, they could bring in some different players in the offseason, but, you know, Bo Bichette playing out of position, and Juan Soto is still in the outfield. So, yeah, I think that puts a little bit of a cap there on Zach Thornton. All right, it turns out Scotty does know our final one of the season. Some quick leftovers here, Scott. Elie De La Cruz, he is gunning for that 30-30 in only 140 games. He has now 30 home runs and 29 steals. I mean, bet your bet. He's got a bank account that he steals the base this weekend. He's definitely getting the 30-30. Pitching leftovers, Matthew Boyd, a strong outing against the Marlins. Seven innings, one run, three strikeouts. Last six starts have been good for him, but, yeah, took a step back this year, did Matthew Boyd. Joey Cantillo pitched well in bulk relief. Five shutout innings, four strikeouts at the Red Sox. His changeup was different here. The velocity was up, and just the movement profile was different for him. Ranger Suarez took a tough loss against Joey Cantillo. Five innings, one run, five strikeouts. Ends his season with a.322 ERA and a.119 whip. Most consistent pitcher in fantasy. His last three years,.322 ERA,.119 whip,.320 ERA,.122 whip,.346 ERA,.120 whip there for Suarez. So, very consistent. And then Ian Seymour pits well. Five shutout innings with three strikeouts for him. I don't know if he'll project to be in their rotation for next season. Oh, he better. I hope he does, but it's like they have Ryan Pepeo coming back. Shane O'Mac could be back in the mix. Like, maybe Brody Hopkins and Ty Johnson are vying for start. I don't know, but any thoughts on these leftovers here?
Speaker 6Freddy Peralta's a free agent, right?
Speaker 5Yes, and Nick Martinez has a mutual option, which those almost never get picked up.
Speaker 6Yeah, so he's probably gone, too. Yeah, I think there'll be room for Seymour. Take those two out. They're taking McClanahan and Pepeo. They're taking their spots, Martinez and Peralta. So, there you go. Boy, I'd be mad if he doesn't, though. Because he's been great. Like, he has been throwing a lot of sinkers, Ian Seymour, lately. Over 20% usage in his last seven starts. And it's actually a.450 ERA during that stretch. He's done it, I think, to combat the home run issue. But he's still given up a ton of home runs. Probably even more during that stretch with the sinkers. I'm just not sure it's a very good pitch for him. So, that's a step in the wrong direction. But overall, you'll like the strikeouts, for sure. The whip. I think he's going to be kind of Joe Ryan-like in that the home runs are going to keep the ERA a little higher than you'd like. But you're still going to be pretty happy with Ian Seymour, provided he's starting every fifth game for the Rays.
Speaker 5Next year. I hope that's the case, man. But, like, 16 starts this season, 444 ERA. It's a lot higher than I thought it was, to be honest.
Speaker 6Yeah. Because, like I said, too many home runs lately. Yeah. But, there's a lot of good. I see the good in him.
Speaker 5You know? I've always loved Seymour. Isn't that what Luke Skywalker said? I don't know if the Rays like him as much as we do. But I guess we'll find out.
Speaker 6I used to think the Brewers didn't like. What's his face? Logan Henderson? Logan Henderson. As much as we did.
Speaker 5Now he's a stud.
Speaker 6Some might even say. What were you guys saying? Top 20 he'll be drafted next year?
Speaker 5Top 20, baby!
Speaker 6I'm going to have to make the best case for Logan Henderson, I think. My, how the turntables.
Speaker 5I'm calling him up in the Sky White Dynasty League. That's going to be fun.
Speaker 6You should. Yeah. It's 24 teams and he'll be a dollar keeper for you with a dedicated rotation spot, one would assume.
Speaker 5I'm ready. I'm ready. Any other thoughts here? Are we good? I don't know, Scott. Are we done? Are we wrapping it up? Is the season over?
Speaker 6This is actually my 19th season. I counted on my fingies when we went to one of the commercial breaks.
Speaker 5I thought it was 19 too, but I wasn't going to correct you.
Speaker 6Yeah. I struggle when you count both ends of a range. You're supposed to, okay, you're supposed to, like, subtract and add one to it because you're counting both ends. I don't know. For some reason, like, I should be better at math than this, shouldn't I? I didn't take a math class in college. That's my excuse. Is that true? I tested out of them. So that's, that kind of defeats the excuse.
Speaker 5Oh, big guy. I took statistics in college and I was like, yeah, you know, I know stats. I love, you know, sports and fantasy. And then I got there and I was like, wait, hold on. Am I in the right class? Statistics is, uh, college statistics is very different than what I was thinking. Uh, but that's for like the much smarter math people out there than I am.
Speaker 6Um, so yeah, that was, that's one of the credits I earned. So I did that junior year of high school, which I'm only bringing up because that's how, like, it's that much longer ago. And I really don't remember much about the class at all.
Speaker 5Yeah, me neither. I want to give a shout out to my guy. He did pitch here on, uh, on Thursday. He ends his season with an ERA below two, 195 ERA, 0.92 whip, 239 strikeouts, got all the way up to 193 and two thirds innings. So shout out to my boy, my guy, my boy, my guy, Cam Schlittler, and shout out to all of you once again for supporting us all season long. We really, really do appreciate it. We are going to wrap there. We're putting a bow on the 2026 season 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 in the off season next week.
Speaker 10Bye. Bye. Paramount Podcasts.
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