Is Gerrit Cole Back? Ranking Pitchers & Waiver Wire Hitters (7/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

What is Toyota Fortability? It's buying smart. Right now your local Toyota dealer has great deals available on some of the most reliable trucks on the market, like the off-road Ready Tacoma, rugged, full-size Tundra, and legendary forerunner, all with the space tech and features to handle it all. From the work site to the trails, it means driving for less, with efficient hybrid options available, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, meaning bigger savings at the pump without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. The Tacoma and Tundra are ranked number one and number two in resale value over all vehicles according to Kelly Bluebook, which can mean thousands more than average, right back in your pocket when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota Fortability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Bluebook's KBB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. (toyota roars) We're at the Korkia Saren. The Saren is a popular car in the world. It's a car that has a lot of fun and fun. You know, the car is a car of a lot of fun. Korkia Saren is a good thing. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. (crowd cheering) - Deep love film, this is What A Boy, What A Boy? - Got a fantasy question, email fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your lead. - What fantasy? Because reality. - Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. - Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, July 23rd. I am Frank Sample, join by Scott White. Today on the show, I know. I'll be called Yankee Homer. But Garrett Cole had a vintage performance and Max Fried is back. We'll rank a bunch of starting pictures. Should these waiver wire hitters be rostered in more leagues and much more? - Let's jump in. - I don't believe what I just saw. - And before we get into all the Yankee love, I do want to give some appreciation to what the Red Sox just did. 15 wins in a row. It was amazing. The streak was snapped, but tied for the longest in franchise history. And they worked their way all the way back into a wild card spot. So it's been a very tumultuous season for the Red Sox, their organization, cleaning house, and they fought all the way back. So shout out to the Red Sox and their fans. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the Yankees and Garrett Cole, who took a tough loss, but he was pretty awesome. Looking like vintage Garrett Cole, seven innings of three run ball, 11 strikeouts to zero walks, two homers allowed. So they don't love that part, but man, it's got, we have been waiting for the whiffs, 21 swinging strikes on 93 pitches here for Garrett Cole, 13 of those on the fastball, three on the changeup, three on the curve, two on the slider. He now has 34 swinging strikes over his last two starts. So 21 in this one, 13 in the previous against the Dodgers, which is a very tough matchup. And the fastball was money here. I mentioned 13 of those whiffs at a 45% whiff rate, 45% CSW also did give up some hard contact, three hard hits, 96.6 average extra velocity against. On that pitch, he got contributions from his secondary pitches as well, multiple whiffs on each of the changeup, the curve and the slider. And I feel like we've been waiting for this version of Garrett Cole's got to just been sitting with him around SP 30 in my rankings, not really sure what to do with him, but after a start like this, I boosted him back up a little bit. I've been looking for somebody to fill the void of like, once you get outside of the top 17 or 18 starting pitchers, I just don't really know who to put in that range. And so perhaps Garrett Cole is right back in that range. What do you think of the start? - Yeah, I think like you said, it's what we've been waiting to see. Really, it's been two starts in a row now where the whiffs have been back, as I think you also pointed out. And even the two starts prior to those two, it was a very strong stat line. You know, now you just look at his four starts in July. ERI is a little high at 370, probably because of all the home runs, but 0.90 Whip, 32 strikeouts and 24 and a third innings, that is a rate of 11.8 per nine. And yeah, the whiffs have really been there the last two. So I think we were always hopeful about the direction Cole was trending. Like there was enough signs that the old Cole, Garrett Cole was still in there, that we thought it would eventually come out. And it seems to be happening now. Now when I say the old Garrett Cole, I mean, the old Garrett Cole was the top pitcher in fantasy routinely. So probably not that guy, but I think as a number of two types, starter in fantasy, somebody's gonna give you good strikeout numbers, the ERI may trend kind of high because he's home run prone. And that, you know, that's been true, basically from the time he joined the Yankees. He's always had trouble keeping the ball in the park with them. But he was still very good in fantasy pitcher first few years there before the injuries came on. And I think he can be again. Yeah, I think you said that well. It's not gonna be perfect. He is giving up a lot of fly balls so far this season, like even more than usual previously. And he's up to 1.6 home runs per nine, which is as high as since 2020, which was his first season with the Yankees. So I agree that as long as he's giving up this many fly balls, pitching his home starts in Yankees stadium, he's a right handed pitcher, short porch, in right field, obviously, there will be some home run issues, but it's really, really encouraging to see the whiffs get back on track here for Garcoles. Do you feel that same way, Scott, about once you get past the top 17 or 18 at SP, it's just, what do I do here? Because right in that range, I have Hunter Green, Max Fried, Nolamaclain, as 16, 17, 18. And then I have Hunter Brown, Logan Webb, Rasmussen, Parker Messick, George Kirby, Garcoles. It's like, I don't know, I kind of, I kind of just need someone to jump to the top of that group and claim it. Right. So looking there, I'm a little overdue for updating my rankings, but Hunter Brown has probably moved himself out of that range of the rankings in Braxton Ashcraft probably has as well. So it's a lot of candidates at the top that we think are capable of more, but we're just kind of waiting for them to show it. And I think Hunter Green has in his last couple of outings so he can move back into that top, just outside the top 15, let's say, and now Garcoles has. Now Garcoles is the latest to do it. So I think he probably moves past some of those others that are struggling. You could put Gavin Williams in that mix just one who's struggling and maybe eliminated himself from that discussion. At least for now. And then, yeah, the other game for the Yankees today and their double header against the Pirates Max Friede, coming back. Yeah. And he looked great. I think he belongs in that discussion. Yeah, yeah. I moved them all the way up to SP17. He looked, there's always going to be risk of re-injury. It was an elbow-related injury. It was, it was like a stress reaction that he was dealing with. So it wasn't necessarily a ligament type thing, but he's dealt with elbow forearm stuff over the past, not last year, but the two years prior to that when he was still with the braves. But this was really encouraging for him. Five shout out to him. He's one hit, one walk, seven strikeouts. He had 10 whiffs on 57 pitches. That is a 17.5% swinging strike rate. And his velocity was up on most of his pitches. The fastball was up 1.5 miles per hour. He averaged 96.2 miles per hour on that pitch. Not that I won him to tie off the velocity up so much. Coming back from the elbow injury, but overall, only 57 pitches. It's going to take him a little bit more time to get built up. He only got one rehab start. He'd been out since mid-May. Got one rehab start through 52 pitches in that one. So it's understandable he threw only 57. Like he said, it's going to take two or three starts probably for him to get to his usual workload. But I still think he's so good. Max-free. That you could probably just think of him as a must-start pitch or going forward. If you're loaded and you want a little more volume from somebody else, I get it. But in most cases, I want it hesitate to activate freed. Yep. So my guess is 52. And his first rehab start 57 in this one. Obviously he was cruising. And I think he'll probably get up 65, 70, maybe 75 if they want to push him a little bit in his next start. But it looks like he isn't lying for two next week. He's got the old Chicago road trip at the White Sox at the Cubs. So with two starts, he's only 29% started. I get, you know, most people didn't have in the lineup because we just, we didn't even know he was going to start, right? That news just popped up yesterday. So I think you're all good to get Max-free back in your lineup. And let's hop over to your player that I had Scott. You are going the other direction. And it might be time to say goodbye to your player tonight. And I will remember you. Gage jump. I mean, yeah, I think it's time to jump ship if we could make one more pun involving Gage jump's name. All full start at the diamond backs. Six earn runs allowed in four and two thirds innings. 12 total base runners in those four and two thirds innings. And only through 58% of his pitches for strikes. And I think this is the key. I've been saying it since before this rough patch started for Gage jump, frankly, like he was going great early on first six starts when he was throwing strikes at a 68% rate, which is near the top of the scale, 68% first six starts at a two over year in a point nine six whip. It was great. We're all thrilled. But I thought that rate of throwing strikes was too good to be true. And I wondered how things would go once it normalized. Well, it went about as it's gone about as poorly as it possibly could because in his last five starts with a combined 63% strike rate. You might not think those five percentage points make a big difference, but it's near the top of the scales to below average in terms of strike throwing. It's become an 831 ERA a two 17 whip in those five starts for Gage jump. And part of the reason I was, I had my radar up for this is because I followed Gage jump as a prospect last year. And he started in the miners very similarly last year was surging up prospect rank lists with a, I think he had a stretch of a few starts. Basically, no walks. He was showing a leak command and then it kind of it dropped off at that point. And he didn't totally collapse, but his numbers looked a lot more ordinary by the end of the season because of it. And now we're seeing that play out in his first major league season. So I don't think this is the last we've heard of Gage jump in fantasy. I think there will be another stretch where things are clicking for him. Hopefully over time he becomes more consistent with this. But I do think there is a, a thin margin here that we've seen play out over a couple years. If you count his minor league track record. And I think for now, roster space being finite. Most people can't afford, can't afford to stick it out with him and can probably move on at this point from Gage jump. Yeah. I mentioned this yesterday with Chris, but it feels like we've moved past that previous waiver wire group that was so prevalent in June names like Kate Cavali and Sean Burke and Troy Melton. It just feels like those guys are too roster at this point. Obviously if they're out there, you can go ahead and drop Gage jump for any of those names. But I think the next group that is kind of emerging feels like change row in and I mean too that we've had a very complicated relationship with all season, but Roki Sasaki and Tatsu Yamaha coming off another really good start. Would you drop jump for any of those names? Drone Sasaki Tatsu Yamaha. I mean, boy, that feels like a combustible group. Draw, I'm not so much. He doesn't feel combustible, but I'm not totally convinced in his ability to work deep into games. I know it's been a couple of six inning starts in a row. There's a lot to like there. He would probably be the one I'd be willing to drop jump for Sasaki. I guess it's fine for the upside. Am I? I know he just had a good start, but man, the two prior to that were so bad. Nobody in baseball has a wider range of outcomes on a first-star basis than Tatsu Yamaha. I just feel like it's like a wild goose chase making that play for Am I again. I get it. It could be wrong. This comes down to just gut feeling at the end of the day. When you're dealing with such disparate outcomes from a player, there's not really any amount of number crunching that's going to solve this for you. You just kind of have to go with your feel. That's somebody in an analyst position that's not something we're comfortable with, but ultimately it's what separates the good players from the great ones is that their gut ends up. When they listen to the gut, it's quite often right. Yeah. Two of the most added starting pictures on CBS right now are Zach Thorin who has been pitching well with the men. He's not really getting a ton of whiffs, but he kind of has that funky, lefty thing going on. He is the most rostred, most added picture on CBS. He's 37% rostred. The other name is Ronel Blanco who we didn't mention on Monday, but he made his first start of the season. It wasn't a great line for and runs over four and two thirds, but he did some good things. He had H. Shrikeouts, he had 18 swinging Shrike's neck game and we've seen him have some fantasy relevance in the past. Would you go as far as to do that? Would you drop Gage Jump for either Zach Thorin or Ronel Blanco? I don't think so, and that's not because I'm so tied to Gage Jump. I'm just not sure either of those guys there's a lot of urgency to pick them up. If you wanted to do that, I'm not going to criticize you too harshly for it, but jump does have some upside. If you're going that deep, if you're scraping the bottom of the upside barrel like that, I don't know. I might just stampat, but ultimately it's not a strong inclination either way. I am intrigued by Blanco because he was something of a fantasy asset prior to missing all that time with injury and he did get a lot of whiffs in this first start back. The velocities have seemed fine. He looked basically like the picture we remember. Let me just confirm that I'm saying this, right? Yeah. I don't know. He wasn't missing a lot of strikeouts on his rehab assignment, but the characteristics otherwise looked pretty much the same. He might pick up where he left off from now Blanco as sort of a number seven, eight type starting picture in fantasy. But there's no urgency to add them with the way his first start went. Now I might throw a couple of bucks at him in a deeper league, but it's not like the average listener playing in their standard size league. It's something they can wait and see on. All right. Before we take our first break, just a reminder that the prospects to stash, FBT express episode will be coming out later on Thursday. I believe, I hope I have this right. Did you write a prospect to stash article this week? I hope you did or else I don't know what we're going to talk about on that episode. Yeah, I did. Okay. So make sure to check out Scott's article as well. That is live on the website CBS Sports dot com slash fantasy slash baseball. Or you can read it on the CBS fantasy app. Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. And for a day that included two double headers and it was just a full slate of action. I had to check multiple times to make sure I wasn't missing anything, but there really wasn't that much news. I mean, obviously like Bobby Whit went on the I L and we'll talk about that. But yeah, there wasn't like this long list of news items like we usually have. So that's good. Bobby with junior, by the way, it was placed in the I L with that lower back tightness. And it's the first time he's been on the I L in his five year career. And look, he's top three top five player in fantasy. We did our redrafting the first two rounds. He still went first overall in that draft. So you're not going to replace Bobby with junior. Hopefully he's not out too long. But if you are looking for shortstop replacements, I think someone like Jacob Wilson, who's 79% rostered. But if you play in a shallow head to point slug, I think that makes sense. Naseem Nunez, he's 45% rostered. A lot of people you need speed at a Bobby with junior. So I think that makes a lot of sense. Naseem Nunez has over 30 steals a season. And if you just need a middle infield type or someone else with a little bit of speed in the meantime, Cooper Pratt is someone that I've been talking up a little bit. He's 33% rostered as a potential middle infield replacement here for Bobby with junior. Welcome back to Jose Ramirez. He was activated from the I L. He skipped a rehab assignment completely. He went two for five with two RBI in his return. So great to have him back. Show how tiny through a 31 pitch bullpen on Wednesday, the first time throwing off a mound since having his left knee drain during the all star break. Edwin Diaz is likely to be activated next week with the Dodgers. And I wouldn't drop Tanner Scott just yet. I just want to see how this plays out for Edwin Diaz. How's the velocity look? How does he look on the mound because he wasn't very good before he got hurt? Might have been pitching hurt so that could have contributed to it. Obviously, when he's on, he's one of the best closures in baseball. But Scott, I wouldn't drop Tanner Scott just yet. Let's see how it plays out. Yeah, I agree. I agree. After such a long layoff, there's possibility of a setback and there were questions surrounding Diaz even before he went down. It might depend how scarce saves are in your league, but I think generally speaking, you wouldn't want to regret dropping Scott too soon and having to pay a big premium to get him back. - We do have some Red Sox picture news, Gerr crocheted to said Tuesday that he and the Red Sox training staff have no timeline for when he'll be cleared to restart his throwing program. He was initially placing the aisle way back on April 29th. That was originally like a cranky shoulder thing and then he had to set back with a lat injury that popped up as well. I have no idea. It's got to be clearly crocheting the Red Sox have no idea. I think if you play in a league with no aisle spots or limited aisle spots, you probably need those spots. And if we don't have a timeline, I think you could probably drop Kerr crochet. Well, I did just put out aisle stash rankings so I can contextualize it based on that. And because of the impact potential for Gerr crochet, even though the timeline is uncertain, even though the calendar is dwindling, I was able to get him as high as 17th among the aisle stash rankings. And that was before Jose Ramirez came back as before Max Fried came back. It was before I think somebody else came back who was ahead of, no, that was the only two. So we could say more like 15th now for Gerr crochet. So unless it's a league where there's one or no aisle spots are probably still stashing him. And it may not pay off, but like I'd rather, I generally speaking, I'd rather use an aisle spot on a potential impact player than a certain block kind of player, you know. Yeah, I get that. Ranger Suarez was not activated on Wednesday. Apparently he hasn't suffered a setback, but is dealing with an illness. And I also saw that Patrick Sandivall was already named the starter on Friday. So not exactly sure when Ranger Suarez is back, but hopefully it's soon. Samuel Basayo was placing the aisle with right shoulder inflammation. The Orioles went from having the best catcher tandem in the league to having no healthy catchers right now. And in the shallowest one catcher leagues, Ryan Jeffers, 79% rostered, I moved him back inside my top 10 or top 12 catchers. Salvador Perez, I just wanted to mention, he's 77%. He's been dropped in some leagues and I totally get it. But he has turned things around here in July so far, hitting 273 with four homers, 13 RBI and 913 OPS. So what do you think, Scott? Do you have any shallow league interest in Salvador Perez? Maybe bouncing back. I mean, that develops suddenly. And there wasn't an obvious choice to replace him off the waiver wire. Salvador Perez is kind of a hot amp lay. I'd be open to the idea. I don't know that it would be my first priority in leagues where the roster ship distribution was pretty typical. Like what I pick up, Francisco Alvarez over Perez, who is much more available. Well, gee, it looks like he's been sitting a surprising amount. So maybe not. I know he just hit two homers the other day. But was he in the lineup today? Probably because he had sat out the previous two games. So this is Alvarez I'm talking about. Yeah, I was back in the lineup today. But yeah, I don't know. And not nearly as consistent is the playing time for him as for Perez. So maybe Perez would be the top choice among those roster less than 80% leagues, let's say. Yeah, I did have some other one catcher league names, Francisco Alvarez, you mentioned and Dalton rushing who homered here on Wednesday. Yeah, I hadn't noticed the Alvarez playing time thing. I guess with Luis Robert back, they have now three alfield, well, four alfielders that they need to play, not need to play, but probably want to play for three alfield spots plus the DH. You also have Jorge Polanco who can only DH. And they still have Luis Torrance who they like to play is a good defensive catcher. And so, you know, with that glut, it doesn't really, the DH is not available for Francisco Alvarez. So yeah, perhaps his playing time might be trending down a little bit. But I also it looks like he's only playing every two or three games. Alvarez I also could see. Sorry, I said that wrong. Looks like he's sitting every two or three games. I could see one of Alvarez or Torrance or both being traded by the deadline. So obviously that could change things as well. Some names in two catcher leagues. Again, if you lost Samuel Bessio, even if you lost Adley Ruchman, Joe Mac, he's 21% rostered. He's hit much better over the past month. And Harry Ford, who came up with the nationals. And I know he played a lot in his first weekend, but I haven't paid attention to his playing time since. He only started one of three games in Cores field. He has started three of six since getting called up. So kind of feels like him and Caper-Reeze might just alternate a little bit and probably just cannibalize each other's fantasy value, which is not great. But yeah, looking two catcher leagues, you're looking for anyone who's playing a little bit and has some upside. And I guess that is that would be Harry Ford. JTGN was placed in the aisle with a blister on his right middle finger. They said it's minor and the hope is that he will return when first eligible on August 3rd. Blisters can be tricky. Clay Holmes has been cleared to begin his rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. He is 48% rostered and he was pitching very well before he got hurt. He is also another candidate to be traded by the deadline. So yeah, I would be interested in stashing Clay Holmes right now. He's got a major impact player, but pretty good. Whenever he was healthy, Connolly Early threw off flat ground from 120 feet on Tuesday. He's on the aisle with left elbow inflammation. And Jake Mangum was scratched from game two of the double header with right foot discomfort. He had been playing very well before this injury. So hopefully he gets back in line up. Scott, let's rank a bunch of starting pitchers here. And these are names that we've talked a lot about lately. They're just over 80% rostered. So I can't really tell people to go out and add them anymore. But just to give people an idea of just where we stand on this group. And the first group includes Logan Henderson, Cade Cavali and Reed Demers. All three had good starts here on Wednesday. Henderson five innings, two runs, nine strikeouts to zero walks. He had 17 whiffs on 80 pitches. And he's on three on runs or fewer and all eight starts. He's only completed six innings once. And that kind of just feels like a Logan Henderson thing. Cade Cavali, another strong start. This one in course field six shut out with eight strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 90 pitches. Last six starts, two 43 ERA, 0.90 Whip. And 45 strikeouts over 33 and a third, 12% swinging strike rate. So the Cade of Walk is great for Cade Cavali lately. And Reed Demers, he took eight tough laws, five in a third, one run, six strikeouts to two walks. Last two starts have looked much better. His four before that were pretty bad. So we're going to kind of in this Reed Demers limbo right now, Reed Demers purgatory that we're dealing with. Scott, how would you rank this group of three? Demers, Cade Cavali and Logan Henderson. I think personally I'd go Henderson one, Demers two, Cavali three. I understand why there's enthusiasm for Cavali now that he's been performing well, clearly. And he had another good start at Colorado. It was another start where I don't really understand why the stat line ends up so good. And for the year, Cade Cavali, poor swinging strike rate, poor expected ERA, poor contact quality, the fit is much more favorable because the K2 BB rate as you point out is good. I just don't know why he gets so many case like it's not, it's not something that there isn't totally adding up to me. And maybe he's just one of those weird pictures where it never quites ads up. And I just have to live with that, but like he's not established enough for me to accept. That's the way it is for Kate Cavali. And so I remain a bit skeptical there. Obviously needs to be rostered. But I like Henderson more. I like Demers more despite the frustrations there. Henderson, like he seems. The only question there is durability. Both in terms of Kenny stay healthy and can he provide volume. And I don't know the answer to that, but like performance wise, one miss in his entire major league career. And he comes back from that forearm cramp last time. We all know is he healthy just certainly looked at with his nine strikeouts of five innings. And the velocity was normal. Everything was normal. So I think Henderson's fine. And he would be my preferred choice of these three. The next group includes Landon Roup, who turned in a quality start at the Royal six innings two runs, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He had 12 whiffs on 91 pitches. And he now has a quality start in five of his last six outings. Jake Bennett just missed out on a quality start, but he picked up the win against the Orioles five and two thirds, nine hits, three runs, four strikeouts to zero walks. Kind of a weird start for Jake Bennett. He only had four strikeouts, but he actually got a lot more swinging strikes. He had 14 on 83 pitches, but on the flip side, he also, it gave up 12 hard hits in this game. So just kind of a weird one for Jake Bennett, but you know, he's got a 258 ERA, a.94 whip. And Peter Lambert, another quality start. This one against the Marlins, six hitting two runs, only three strikeouts. His changeup was great. It has been his best pitch all season. And over his last 10 starts, he has a 250 ERA, a 109 whip, 54 strikeouts to 20 walks over 57 and 2/3. The fifth and the X-FIP are both over 450 during that stretch, but his X-ERA is below three. So I don't really know what to do with that. It's got, how would you rank this group? Peter Lambert, Jake Bennett and Landon Rook. Well, I would rank them, I would rank them Rook number one, Bennett number two and Lambert number three. And the main reason I put in Rook number one is because, I think I see the clearest signs that he's legitimate. I see the clearest signs of legitimacy here. Bennett number two, because of the good ground ball rate, but there has been such a lack of missed bats, at least to the major league level, that I don't entirely trust what he's doing. And Lambert the same way. Like Lambert's been in okay with the missed bats and the control was a problem early on for the season, it's still, the walk rate still. It's gotten a lot better. He has up a lot of home runs. And that's why if it doesn't like him. Like you give him as many home runs, like your Eirier Eirier should be over four and he's gotten away with it so far. I don't think he's a good enough batman, or I don't think he gets enough, enough of the sort of outs that cannot come back to harm him, because it's not reliant on filters, it's not reliant on the direction the ball takes off the bat, it's a complete whiff. And so it's a free out, and that is how homer prone pitchers can avoid the sort of runaway innings that flady are ace. I think Lambert's gotten away with that recently. And enjoy it. I mean, I'm not saying you can't pick him up and roster it and write it for as long as it lasts and hope I'm wrong. Like all of those things are fine. I do it sometimes too. I sometimes play fantasy hoping that I'm wrong about somebody because that's my best hope of success. So like you can do it too. I'm not saying you have to take everything I say is gospel for sure not gonna, like a prediction that is certain to come true. But I do think there are concerns there with Lambert with the home runs and the long run, I don't expect this success to last. Would you take anybody in the second group? Again, that was Rube, Bennett and Lambert over anybody in the first group. Debtmar is Cavali and Henderson. - It's close call between Rupin Cavali. - I think I'd have to take Cavali over Rup right now. - Yeah, I think so too. - But I at my level of trust for Rup is a little higher. I just, I don't know that Rup even in a best case scenario is going to be quite as good as Cavali's been recently. - All right, let's take our final break. When we return, should these waiver wire hitters be rostered in more leaks? I have beat the waiver wire for potential two star pitchers next week and we'll do that right after this. (crickets chirping) - Mennenke huomenna korkeasaaren. Eläinte saariona, voina vuoden, jokaisena päivänä. Pierallemala korkeasaaressa tuet eläinlajien ja villilluono suojello. Tutustup päivänohjelmaan. Korkeasaarepistefi. - Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Should these waiver wire hitters be rostered in more leagues and Scott, Chandler Simpson is back to one for two with a walk, a run, RBI and two steals over his last 25 games. He's hitting 380 with 12 stolen bases. His OPS is over 900 during that shred. And he is back to hitting a bunch of ground balls, which is good for Chandler Simpson. That's what we want to see with him. He's 69% rostered. So any higher, we're talking about three alphialder leagues. Should that number be higher for Chandler Simpson? What did you say it was? 69%. Is that nice or not nice? - I don't know. It's right about where it should be, I think. There are times when he can be useful in CBS Sports Points leagues, because CBS Sports Points leagues award two points per steal by default. Could obviously change it, but two points per steal, which makes the base stealer's a lot more valuable than it had to point to format, where it's just one point per steal. And some platforms, that's all it is, one point per steal. And that basically eliminates a guy like Chandler Simpson from consideration. It makes it a very power focused format if you're only rewarding one point per steal. And so obviously in those formats, you're never touching Simpson. - In the CBS Points format, maybe he's hot enough right now that you could, let me see if the playing time has been super consistent, like true everyday situation for Simpson. Yeah, it looks like it's pretty much been. - Yeah. - So he's usable in point leagues right now, but I don't feel like, I don't feel like you're gonna stick with him risk of season or anything. - All right, next up we have notes. - Categories leagues, obviously a different story 'cause he's a stolen based specialist, but yeah, for sure. - Looks like a point's leagues. - For Nolan Aranado, he is picking things back up as well. He went one for one with three walks and his 14th home run. So perfect day at the plate, reach base four times. Over his last 18 games, he's hitting 281 with six homeers in OPS over 900. And the barrel rate around 11% during that stretch, he's 65% rostered. Scotch, did that number be higher for Nolan Aranado? - Gosh, I don't think so. There just isn't a lot of upside there. It's, he's become like a break glass in case of emergency type of player. And there are a lot of emergencies that they're based and a lot of under achievers, a lot of players hurt right now. So, you know, he's hot enough that you could use him, Aranado, but maybe it's a little low given all those factors, but I don't think he needs to be 80% rostered or anything like that. - Yeah, I would agree with that too. And look, for most of these, I'm just mostly playing devil's advocate because they're hot right now. But I would agree with those first two. What about Nick Gonzalez, nice double header here against Yankees, four for eight, hit his six home run. He is having a big July, 397, three homeers, 14 runs scored 11 RBI at 10, 79 OPS. He is hitting 313 on the season. For most of the year, there hasn't really been much punch there in terms of like power and speed, but you know, it's getting better in July. He is 60% rostered. He has second and third base eligibility. Should that number be higher for Nick Gonzalez, 60%. - I don't feel like it needs to be much higher than that. I'm glad we're finally talking about him because he has been pretty good this season. His just to put it into context, had to have points per game. It's not that different for Nick Gonzalez than for Colson Montgomery. It's about three hundreds of a point off from each other. It's better than Kazuma Okamoto. That's points leagues obviously, where, you know, obvious, I would say in a category is League of Roto League, the big number of home runs. Okamoto and Montgomery are giving you account for more and create more separation there. But my point is just that Nick Gonzalez is viable. Does someone who's merely viable, even at a weak position like third base need to be rostered and much more than 60% of leagues? I don't know, that sounds about right to me. I don't see this big July being like genuine growth from him as opposed to just a hot streak, but he's viable. Nick Gonzalez is viable. Every down then Scott, we come across a few players that profile really good as a deeper point-s league player and that's just not the standard format on CBS. But if you played in a head-toed point-s league with Roto style lineups where it's, you know, you have an extra middle infield spot or an extra corner infield spot and it's a little bit deeper. The starting lineups like, yeah, I think Gonzalez would play well in a format like that, but that's kind of a niche format, I would say. What about Tommy Edmond? He keeps hitting three for four with three RBI. He has started 11 straight games, so pretty much settling in as an everyday player here. And he's hitting over, he's hitting 360. He's got two homers, two steals, 974 OPS. And his stack-ass stuff is really good too. His average EV is 90 miles per hour. His expected numbers look good. I mean, you know, we've kind of been faked out by Tommy Edmond before, but maybe he's just finally healthy. He's 50% rostered. He has second, third and outfield eligibility. So that number be higher for Tommy Edmond, 50%. With the triple eligibility with his hot as he is, with him being part of the Dodgers lineup, it probably should be higher than 50%. I don't know that it needs to be much higher than, then Nick Gonzalez or Nolan Aeronato, I guess I'd take him over those two right now, but, But I also know he's not going to sustain this. He has been around for a long time and he's 31 years old for goodness sake. So I don't think he's going to unlock anything new. And I still look at, he stole three bases in 97 games last year. He's at two unless he had one today. Now he didn't. He's at two in 28 games this year. He's not a base stealer. After all the ankle issues, he's not doing that anymore. I don't see him being like a Luis arise type. He's never been anything close to that as a hitter. And it doesn't seem like there's much power either. So hot hand, fine, multi-eligible guy. He's proven to be usable. But I think Tommy Edmond's pretty ordinary at the stage of his career. Naseem Nunez has been hitting really well since the start of June. He went two for four with two RBI here on Wednesday, 39 games since the start of June. He's hitting 345. Only one home or you're not going to get any power. But 22 runs scored 15 steals and OPS over 800 during that time. Lots of line drives. It's 45% roster. He has second base and shortstop eligibility. I don't know, Scott. I kind of feel like this number should be higher for Naseem Nunez. Like, if Chandler Simpson is 69% rostered and we only want him in category leagues, why shouldn't Naseem Nunez be closer to where Chandler Simpson rosterated? You know what I'm saying? Like he basically gives you what Chandler Simpson does from second base and shortstop. Well, from most of the year, he was hitting under 200 and I understand he's hot now. He's gotten a badting average up. It was terrible. But like the last six or seven weeks, he's been, yeah, I didn't do that on purpose. But yeah, it is amazing how often like that is the kind of estimated range of something, you know? I guess that's part of the lore, right? I was thinking about, of course, this is what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about this the other day, I'm like, why don't people say seven eight as like their go to numbers, right? If we're just thinking about single digit numbers, it just feels like everyone always, their default is always like, all right, six or seven. And I guess that's how we got here, Scott. I thought that's how we got here. Yeah. Thought I had to do with the basketball players. Hi, okay, we don't need to revisit all that. Nunez, okay, so I could probably break it down this simply, the distinction between Naseem Nunez and Chandler Simpson. Naseem Nunez in his minor league career hit 236. Chandler Simpson is minor league career at 327. So that's the big difference. And that is a big difference. They're in the majors now. So at some point, that's not going to matter anymore. They're very early in their major league careers. I think for most of this season, it was pretty clear Nunez's steals were not worth it. Right now, they may be worth it if you need steals bad enough because he's gotten that batting average up so much in a short period of time. I still, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be that trusting of it though that he's going to remain a worthwhile hitter for fantasy. I don't know, Scott, maybe those nationals are just working their devil magic on Naseem Nunez as well. I mean, they maybe they do have kind of a good hitting system in place now. It seems like both in the majors and the minors. Yeah. Two names in five outfielder leagues. Ryan Walshmit had his first big game since returning and he went to for four years his first career home run, three RBI. He has started six of nine games since coming back and Trevor Larnick is actually been raking lately to for four with his eighth home run three RBI last 26 games for Larnick. Three 76 five homers 18 runs 20 RBI and OPS over a thousand during that span. He leads off and plays every day against right handed pitching. He will not play against lefties. He's only started against four of them this season. So the good news for next week is they only have one lefty on the schedule, but Scott, who do you like more from a five outfielder league perspective? Ryan Walshmit, Trevor Larnick. Oh, Walshmit by a lot. Just for playing time, but also upside. This is by far the lowest average ex of velocity Larnick's had in his career. Usually he's right around 90 a little over. He's at 87 right now. So it's ironic, I guess that he's hitting so well, but I want to put a lot of trust in it. Even even in like a daily line of bleed where you have the option of inserting him when there are righties, taking him out when there are lefties, I just don't think the upside is high enough to invest a roster spot in that outside of an emergency situation, of course. And then I have two deeper names here, much deeper names. Christian and Karnasi on Shren, he had a nice game, one of the double header, three for four with his second home run. It was a bomb. 106 ex of velocity, 424 feet, and he has started four of five games since getting called up by the Orioles and reminder of what he was doing in the Orioles minor league system this year, 273 17 home runs, 863 OPS, a 30% strike array and a 16% barrel rate. I swear it's not me text you've got. No, I'm sorry to everybody. You don't think you have to worry about these things at 130 in the morning, but then your phone restarts randomly and starts informing you of all the messages that missed because of whatever update it was going on. So sorry about that. It is now silenced and you don't have to hear my death note inspired text tone. So Christian and Karnasi on Shren was one of the names and Victor Mesa Jr. who had another good game, two for three, two RPI and his fourth stolen base last 19 games. He's hitting 281 six homeers four steals OPS over 950 during that stretch. So very deep names guy. We're talking like 15 team roto, maybe even deeper than that. But do you have any interest in CES or Victor Mesa Jr.? Okay, I don't right now. I haven't totally given up on Christian in Karnasi on strand mattering. Obviously, he's only playing right now as an emergency measure for the Orioles who've had some injuries there. But he has really good power. We saw it for stretches in the majors. We saw it certainly in the minors who's hitting well down there again. So I'm not totally out on him, but I just like I'm certainly pursuing Thai France over Christian and Karnasi on strand right now and how rostered is Thai France. Yeah, I think even up to 10% now. I think it's over 10, but it's probably not over 15%. So yeah, he's up to 15% for Thai friends. Very deeply scenario. All right, waiver wire pitchers beat the waiver wire for potential two-start pitchers next week. Can you see yourself using any or all of these names? And I guess we will find out for sure if they're two-star pitchers on our Saturday edition of FBT Express when we preview all of next week. So make sure to check that one out. But Griffin Jax, a strong bounce back here at the Blue J. 6 innings of one-run ball, five strikeouts to one walk. And he, just the second time completing 6 innings. So that was nice to see, but he was pretty efficient. 83 pitches here to get through 6. And he's a spark. He's 77% rostered. Looks like he lines up for the Rangers in the White Sox next week. So that seems pretty good. Pretty good. It's still hard to think of the White Sox as like not an easy matchup, you know? Yeah. They are little hitter miss, but yeah, their lineup is much better now. But even so, I mean, gauge, I'm sorry, Griffin Jax, the better half of jumping Jax, the turns out Griffin Jax is, yeah, he's been so reliable. Outings have been short. This is only the second time he's gone 6 innings. And it was with the typical pitch count. So I don't know that it indicates he's now going to go 6 innings with any regularity. But he's Greg Groundball pitcher. It gets a lot of whiffs. Probably deserves a better strikeout rate considering all the whiffs he gets. But he does fine. And I think any two-start week, regardless of the matchup, certainly with one as good as Texas. Jax makes for a strong choice. Last nine starts for Griffin Jax, 326 ERA 104 Whip, 50 strikeouts over 47 innings. And that's including his last start out, which was a disaster. So he's mostly been very reliable. Somebody who's been unreliable completely this season is Bubba Chandler, who had a great start at the Yankees, 6 in a third, shut out, five strikeouts, only one walk. He had 11 whiffs on 84 pitches. And through 68% of his pitches for strike. So that is a key number here for Bubba Chandler. Looks like he lines up for the D-backs and at the reds. I don't see any possible way that you can use Bubba Chandler's gap. But I thought the start was at least intriguing. Encouraging will call it. It was a good start. Yeah, is that a few of those this year? None of his previous three were. And so that's kind of the problem. Two-star week with pretty favorable matchups coming off a good start. I could see doing it in a points league by the Chandler, but it certainly wouldn't be a high priority. Seth Lugo, a solid outing against the Giants, seven innings, three runs, five strikeouts to two walks. And he has a quality start and back-to-back outings. Looks like he lines up at the twins at the Rockies next week. Yeah, probably not. That's probably, you know, for Seth Lugo who I think he's usable with the right matchups. I've gotten, I've recommended it as a streamer. His last two outings against the Padres and Giants, but these two upcoming matchups are a different story. Marlkelli, a solid outing against the Athletics, five innings, two runs, only three strikeouts. And four July starts, he has looked better, two 45 ERA also comes with a 127 whip. He's only completed six innings once in those four starts. He is at the pirates at the Guardians next week. We kind of, we have to reframe the Guardians because now they have Jose Ramirez back and the pirates have been a tough matchup all season. So I don't know, Scott. Marlkelli, like, I could probably see in a points league, maybe a deeper categoriz league, but in like a standard 10 or 12 league team categoriz league, I don't know if I would do that with Marlkelli. Yeah, he's looked better lately in that he's had a respectable ERA, but basically nothing else has been good. So I don't trust it. Brady Singer, another quality start. This one at the Mariners six and two thirds, three runs, six strikeouts to one walk. He had 14 whiffs on 101 pitches. So that was nice to see. And last eight starts. Brady Singer, man, he's pitching much better. 298 ERA 103 whip right around a strikeout per inning, 12.5% swinging strike rate during that time. And all the ERA estimators below four during that stretch. So against the Guardians and against the pirates. So he has the same matchups as Marlkelli. How is that possible? Whatever. I guess it's just like the inverse, but Brady Singer against the Guardians and the pirates next week. I'm a little intrigued by what he's doing. Yeah, I wonder what's changed because I hadn't really noticed this. So I don't have the answers ready to go. Let's see. It looks like he has been throwing his weeper more and his slider less compared to earlier this season. He uses a slider a lot more in this one. He threw it 40% of the time. So well, so much for that theory then. But honestly, just using either of those breaking pitches more always has seemed like the recipe for Brady Singer. Like, just give us more sliders and sweepers. But it doesn't look like it's really changed over the past couple months. So I don't know. I mean, those numbers are good for eight starts. It's a lengthy stretch. I think we have to, we have to give Brady Singer some thought. But I don't know. I don't have a lot of good answers for you right now. Next, those matchups Cleveland. Yeah, I mean, it's still pretty favorable, even with Jose Ramirez. Pirates definitely not. And that's something we've had to get used to this year, kind of like the White Sox. So I'd probably still just say points leagues for Brady Singer. But yeah, it's kind of interesting. K there, Montero. Pitchwell here at the Cubs, five and a third, one run, H. Strikeouts, Zero Walks. We get 14 whiffs on 81 pitches, which for most of the season has not been the case. He really has not been getting a lot of whiffs at all. But he has pitched to really good ratios of season 314, ERA, 0.96 whiff. He's only 34% roster. I think he's going to get some runway here with Jack Flarety Hurt. He lines up for the Orioles and at the Athletics next week. This is a slightly deeper name, Scott. But what do you think about K there, Montero? He's been shockingly effective. And I think he's had stretches of like this in past years too. And the ERA always ended up over four. I imagine that's where it's trending this year too. You know, it's not even a guy who gets seven strikeouts per inning. He's not a big ground ball guy. It gives up fairly weak contact. But it still seems like for as many flyballs as he gives up. He's had some good home run luck, which of course is going to have a big impact on ERA. So the control has been better than past years. It's been really good. But that's still just kind of one leg of the fit triangle he's succeeding on. Not getting a lot of strikeouts. Is preventing home runs, I guess, but doesn't really have the bad ball profile to suggest that's going to continue. So I think it's going to be a problem for him. I want to put a lot of faith in Kater Montero, despite the good ERA. Two very deep names who pitch here on Wednesday, pitch well on Wednesday, Hunter Dobbins for the Cardinals. He was at the Angels six shutout innings five strikeouts to zero walks. He had 12 whiffs on 86 pitches. And he used his sweeper a lot more. And it was very effective. Eight of his 12 whiffs came on that pitch. And Brian Bale looked good in his return to the Red Sox. Look relief against the Orioles five and a third shutout, five strikeouts to one walk. He, the ERA and whip were not good in the minors, but everything else like the Kater walk. He was getting ground balls. He was getting swinging strikes. Very, very deep league names. I don't even know if they stick around. Scott, but do you have any thoughts on Brian Bale or Hunter Dobbins? Yeah, the sweeper thing with Dobbins. It did play well in this start. I don't. You look at the metrics on it coming in and I don't see a lot of reason to think it was the key to unlocking everything. So I'm just ignoring this Hunter Dobbins star for now. It's not like he's given us much to get excited about prior to it. Bale has been kind of a head scratcher all year because at times he looks really good and at times he looks dreadful. And he's been especially good in starts where he follows an opener, which I guess aren't really starts, but Bale's appearance is where he follows an opener like in this one. But he keeps getting sent back to the minors and I just don't think I don't think they're the positive signs are enough to really act on him. At least not yet. I guess what I'm saying though is I haven't given up on Brian Bale as a major league fantasy relevant starter. I just don't see it right now. So just a reminder of his numbers this season as a starter versus reliever. This was entering Wednesday. So there it's not updated with Wednesday's action. But as a starter this season, eight starts a 1035 ERA for Brian Bale as a reliever 0.77 ERA 0.86 whip. Split still get any more extreme than that. I don't really know what to make of that. And then I think it was his last start before getting sent down. He actually was used as a starter and he got blown up again. And he had all these quotes about like, I am a starter. You know, I don't need an opener, but the numbers say something differently. So I approve it. Yeah. All right. We do have some leftovers here. I wanted to give some appreciation. Hit her appreciation for two unsung contributors this season. And Casey Schmidt is one. He hit his 20th home run. And since the start of June, his numbers have actually come down. It's 249 batting average, an OPS below 700. He saw us eight homers and four steals during that stretch. But I am telling you to keep the faith with Casey Schmidt because during that stretch, 43 games, despite the numbers being down, still has a 305 XBA and a 505 X-slug during that span. So keep the faith with Casey Schmidt. All right. I will. And the other name here is Brooks Lee. Someone we have not talked about at all. He is quietly just having a really solid season. He went two for five with his 15th home run for RBI, 254, 15 homers, 56 RBI, 6 steals 746 OPS. Nothing blows you away. I totally understand that. The expected stats absolutely hate Brooks Lee. But he has a 23% pull the air rate this season. So that is something we talk about a lot is like that's the way that guys that don't hit the ball hard can succeed. And this was a top prospect Scott and I think he's starting to figure some things out. So he's up to 84% roster. I can't tell you to go out and add him anymore. But I think if you've had Brooks Lee all season with his triple eligibility, I think he's actually been pretty useful. Yeah. I mean, he clearly has. And the roster rate reflects it. And I think that's all fine. He's probably as good as he's shown so far. I mean, hydrafic top prospect. Yes, you go to the stack has page and it's pretty blue. But as you point out, the pull air rate is often the variable that topples all of that. In both directions, it has been my observation since pull air rate was introduced on base boss of aunt that if a player consistently underperforms as expected stats are consistently overperforms as expected stats that the missing variable is the polar rate. So I don't know if they just need to account for that more and those expected stats, but doesn't seem like they account for it enough. Yeah. And I think that explains these situation. Before this game, Brooks Lee was on pace for 22 homers, nine steals 71 runs 82 RBI. Again, like nothing that blows you away, but it's just it's solid. Like he's actually coming into his own and there were questions whether or not that would actually happen. So shout out to Brooks Lee. He's had a very good season. Put some hitting left over CJ Abrams had another big game in cores for for five with his 16th stolen base and he did have a down June, but his July has been massive so far. 350 six homers three steals a 10 99 OPS Josh Neller is running wild once again. He picked up his 21st steel. He has six deals in his last 11 games. The power has just been bad eight home runs. He's slugging 359. The quality of contact is down quite a bit. So I think that explains it for Josh Neller. Jeremy Pania has homer in three straight. He has been very good this season when he's played. He's dealt with a lot of injuries, but entering Wednesday, he was averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game. That was better than JJ Weatherhold, Zactnetto and Mookie Bet. So very good season for Jeremy Pania when he's played. Jordan Alvarez will not stop. He hit his 34th home run. It was a go ahead home run in the eighth inning of that game. And he is up to 34 homers 77 RBI at 10 89 OPS East off parades hit another home run his 14th and last 46 games 288 nine homers 34 RBI OPS over 900. So Esauk parades is back and Jackson Merrill kind of thinking he's back to two for four with his 14th homer last 37 games 265 eight homers 10 steals and he's up to 14 homers 20 steals now on the season. So quietly, you know, we need to get the batting average up, but power speed has been very good. It seems here Scott anything you'd like to touch on. Parades is kind of having exactly the year we wanted him to have. We hoped he'd have with the Astros last year before he got hurt and I guess the 20 homer pace is a little bit on the low side. He got a 20. He got a total really slow start. Yeah, he had 20 homers in just 102 games last year and he's pacing for 20 in 152 games, he's pacing for 84 RBI, the typical high OPP at 350. I think, you know, he's 84% roster and so maybe people already know this, but it was weakest third base has been. I think he's separate is still plenty valuable in fantasy. It might be a different story if he was only eligible first, but he hasn't. He's eligible at third two. And so I think we can treat him like an asset still. I'm hopeful Jackson Merrill is starting to turn things around with a quality month of July here. It's now 278 batting average six homeruns for the month, but it's one of those things where like, yeah, that's a fine month. That's his best month. If that's your best month, I'm not sure it's enough. And you know, I go back to this is a guy with mediocre exit velocities, not the greatest plate discipline. I don't know. I know I was on this train coming into the air and I was kind of alone on it, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure Jackson Merrill's that big of a deal. Really? And he's young enough that that could change quickly. And I guess that was the optimistic stance coming in, but it's now two years in a row where he really doesn't stand out in any particular way. You could do worse, but he seems like a number four outfield or type for fantasy. The weirdest part about Jackson Merrill's down season last year was bad too, but we mostly we me and Chris blamed it on and most people I was kind of on my own, like I said, yeah, blamed it on the injuries last year. And I thought it was reasonable to do that, but 225 batting average man. It's like throughout his mind really career and even his first season, like the one thing you thought you could hang your hat on was just this guy is going to hit for a good batting average. He is aggressive at times, but he makes a lot of contact and typically hits a lot of line drives. But I would think that that's going to be the one thing that's there is the batting average. And that's the only thing that hasn't been there this year for Jackson Merrill. It's just kind of a weird season all around, but I think that batting average will continue to climb again, 265 over his last 37 games. If you can get that number to 240 to 50 by seasons and that I'm not saying that's a guarantee. But if he does that while hitting 20 homers with 30 steals, I think that's a really successful fantasy season. But 250, 20 homers, 30 steals. That's a good fantasy year, no? Not letting me have this one, huh? I don't know, man. I like Jackson. It's still a very high chase rate, not a very high strikeout rate, but a higher than average strikeout rate. And it's not like the line drive rate is that impressive. It was pretty good as a rookie. The ground ball rate has been trending up since then. It's the highest. It's been. The ground ball rate on its own, but I'm just saying you get a high chase rate, you get a blow average strikeout rate, you get kind of typical line drive tendencies. That doesn't add up to a high batting average for me. Yeah. The swinging strike rate has been over 13% two years in a row. So that will contribute to the lower batting average. And yeah, I hadn't realized this strike out rate was 25% this year. As a rookie, it was 17%. So I guess I just have this image of Jackson, Maryland, my mind, the rookie. And he has changed as a player since then. Some pitching left over his Kyle Bradish, a solid outing at the Red Sox in game two of their double header six innings, one run, four strikeouts to one walk. And over his last six starts, two, three, ERA, point eight, eight whip. And he's got the walks down. He's getting ground balls. He's limiting hard contact. Not getting the massive strikeouts like we wanted, but overall, he's looked much better. Emerson Hancock, another quality start. Six innings, two runs, three strikeouts against the Reds. And Michael King, a quality start at the Braves. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He also walked four, had 16 whiffs on 104 pitches here. He has allowed two earn runs or fewer in five of his last six starts again. That is Michael King. Anything to add on him, Emerson Hancock or Kyle Bradish. Yeah, I don't want to get sucked into Michael King again. And his four July starts, it's a 190 60 R.A. Just obviously good. To go along with that, though, is 7.8 Kpernine and 3.9 walks per nine. And it's like, his K to walk is bad, yeah. If either of those ratios was that bad, I'd have concerns. They're both that bad at the same time. And I think it's a major red flag. Double red flags, you could say the call to the bullpen for the royals. Alex Lang was unavailable. Steven Cruz got the ninth with a two run lead. He allowed a solo homer of a picked up his first save. Daniel Lynch was using the eighth inning of this game. So not available for the save, obviously. For the Brewers Trevor McGill got the ninth with a two run lead. He allowed a run on a hit and a walk, but picked up his 16 save for the pirates in game one, Gregory Soto got the 10th inning with a two run lead. It was a clean inning for his 13th save. Mason Montgomery recorded four outs across the eighth and the ninth. I don't know that the pirates have a closer right now. And I still feel like they're going to trade for one, hopefully, by the trade deadline. For the reds, Emilio Pagan got the ninth with a two run lead. He picked up his ninth save. He's looked pretty good since coming back. For the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien got the ninth inning with a one run lead. He walked to. He struck out three for his 26th save for the red socks in game one. A roll this Chapman picked up his 23rd save for the Orioles in game two. It was Tyler Wells who got the ninth inning with a four run lead, clean inning to close it out. And Tyler Wells, I think, is pretty clearly the highest leverage reliever for the Orioles right now for the raise. Brian Baker picked up his 26th save for the Yankees in game two with Fernando Cruz and David Bednar using game one of the double header. They started the ninth with Will Warren who got two outs. He allowed to hit in a walk and then it was Tim Hill who came on to get the final out for his first save. I didn't really research this I should have. I don't really know why Will Warren was used in the bullpen today. I guess Max Fried is back, but they still need five starters. It's probably nothing like he probably just makes his next start. And maybe it was just hey, they ran out of pictures on a double header day, but it was a little weird to see Will Warren in the ninth. Yeah, that is weird. I don't have a good answer for either because we kept talking about what happens when all the Yankees These pictures come back, those Ryan Weathers leave the rotation, as Will Warren potentially, but of course Carlos Rodon got hurt, so even with Freed back, they need both. I'm guessing it's just one of those things that became necessary in a double header, but Will Warren hasn't been a great rotation option recently. I just don't know what they do instead. Yeah, I think both he and Ryan Weathers are on, they're on notice because Carlos Rodon, if they're saying he's going to return at some time in August, definitely possible that he could suffer a setback. So no guarantee that he's back, but once he's back, they will use a five-man rotation. And one of Will Warren or Weathers will go to the bullpen. And I think the strong lean would be Weathers just because he hasn't thrown this many innings ever. So I think he would probably go to the bullpen, but hey, I mean, if he's much better over the past month and Will Warren just kind of stinks it up, like, yeah, there's a chance that Will Warren goes to the bullpen instead. For the Braves, Rice Illaglaceus entered with one out in the ninth, one runner on, a three-run lead. He allowed a two-run homer and then struck out the last two for his 20th save. For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable, Brian Abreu got the ninth with a three-run lead, lean innings for his six save, and for the White Sox, Grant Taylor entered in the seventh with a two-run lead. He threw two perfect innings with five strikeouts. It was Lefty, Brian Hudson, who came on for the ninth and picked up his fourth save. Grant Taylor clearly, to me, the highest leverage reliever for the White Sox, but just a reminder that that won't always be in the ninth inning for him. To stream. I just want to say some of the commenters are pointing out that Will Warren last pitch before the All-Star break, which itself raises questions. I don't know. Maybe they're just trying to hold back his innings. And so it seemed like they wanted to give him a little bit of work here. But he's still on the schedule to start. I think this weekend. Yeah. So we'll see. All right. Yeah. Fair point. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, Ian Seymour at the. It's only a five-game slate. So I haven't thought what we're going to do yet on the podcast yet, but I'm sure I will come up with something. Man, it's a feud, baby. Talked about it earlier this week. Are you going to defend the crown against Chris? I don't know. I hope so. Ian Seymour is at the blue J Shane Bieber against the raise, Michael McGreevy against the debacks, Brandon Fought against the Cardinals. I'd still be willing to use Seymour. I know his last couple of outings were kind of bumpy. I might roll the dice on his opponent, Bieber, too, who looked a lot better last time out. But you know what I think McGreevy or Bieber. That's for having only four options here, though. Three of them are pretty good. Seymour, McGreevy and Bieber. Yeah. I would use Seymour and McGreevy for sure. I know Bieber's last start was good, but everything before that was terrible. So if you're really desperate, you can go with it, but other than that, it's just Seymour and McGreevy for me. On Friday, we have Shane Jarwin against the Rockies. That's their first game away from Chorz in Milwaukee. We have Roki Sasaki at the Metz. Sean Minigan's the Dodgers knew. Hermann Marquez at the Marlin Spencer Ergity at the White Sox. Debbie Mathews against the Athletics. Ray Sirotry is at the Giants, Dustin May against the Reds. So drawn against the Rockies is a great choice. You don't mess with a Drowhan. Great Adam Sandler movie. So I think that's a Saki at the Metz. I'd be okay with Dustin May against the Reds. I think I'd be okay with both those are very combustible. And so if you want to take a better, safe, than sorry approach, I think you just skip those two. But if you're chasing and categories, Sasaki and May, those would be my second and third choices on Friday after the Drowhan. All right. I would rank it a Drowhan, Dustin May and Roki Sasaki in that order, but I agree completely with you. We are going to 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 Appleworks. Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye bye. [MUSIC] Caramount Podcasts. Now streaming only on Paramount Plus. Chicago. This is my home. It claims series The Shy reaches its final chapter. This is shy. Anything's possible. The Shy. The final season now streaming only on Paramount Plus.