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Speaker 2Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasybaseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris.
Speaker 1Hello! Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Tuesday, August 25th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, is Zach Wheeler broken? Is Cal Raleigh back? I have hitter fun facts, three pitcher questions, and much more. Let's jump in.
Speaker 3Wow! Hey now! Hey now! Hey now!
Speaker 1All right, let's just start off with Zach Wheeler, man, because this is another pitcher. I mean, if we give all the attention to Paul Skeens, we've got a lot of attention here to Zach Wheeler, who kind of looks like he is broken right now. Something is wrong with Zach Wheeler, because he got destroyed in Seattle. Four plus innings, nine hits, eight runs, five walks, four homers allowed in this one. Still had a bunch of whiffs. That wasn't an issue. Fifteen swinging strikes on 103 pitches. But man, nine hard hits in this one. 95.1 average exit velocity against. I mean, the amount of... The amount of hard hits with the walks and just the lack of strike throwing here. And this all kind of stemmed back from that start on July 27th, where his fastball velocity was way down in that one. It was like 93.5 miles per hour. He's averaging 95.2 on the season. So, not way down, but down. It was down almost two miles per hour. The velocity has come back since, but Zach Wheeler has not. He is completely lost. So... In his last six starts, 851 ERA, 193 whip, 16 walks in 24 and a third, eight homers allowed. So, I will search for some quotes while you give your opinion here, Chris, but what is wrong with Zach Wheeler right now?
Speaker 4I don't know. I mean, this is one of those situations where he's been so bad since that weird velocity start that you almost have to assume he isn't healthy, and it's not an unfair assumption given that. He had thoracic outlet surgery basically this time a year ago. So, it wouldn't be shocking if there was some kind of injury going on here. Now, the thing that makes that tough is that his velocity, like you said, has been fine. And if you look into the Stuff Plus metric on Fangraphs, that pretty much looks the same in the course of the past five starts. It's actually, I believe, gone up. It's 105 for the season. I think it's 107 over the past six starts, which is weird. 100 is average on this scale, by the way. But one thing that you'll see pretty regularly is, I think Bryce Miller is a good example, where the stuff still looks okay. I think his velocity was down a little more than Wheeler's, but the stuff still looked okay. The stuff certainly didn't scream, hey, this guy's not healthy. But we did learn that he's been dealing with an injury that has not prevented him from pitching, but it has prevented him from pitching well. And when you dig into some of the numbers with Wheeler, you mentioned the 16 walks in his past six starts. He had 22 in his first 16 starts for comparison. And if you look at the Stuff Plus metric on Fangraphs, they also have something called Location Plus, which is a proxy for command, I suppose, because we don't have a lot of we don't know what pitchers are actually trying to do. We only know where the ball is going. And he was at a 108 Location Plus through July 21st, which would be tied for the sixth best mark among starters. In the five starts entering Mondays, he was down to a 98, which would be a bottom 10 mark among all starters. Now, if you look at that leaderboard, you'll see Dylan Cease and Cade Cavalli and Christopher Sanchez. And Nolan McLean, all at 98 or worse. So it's not like pitchers can't be good without good control. Dylan Cease's whole career is a testament to the ability to be good without good control. But Wheeler has always had exceptional command, at least in the second half of his career when he's emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball. And so Dylan Cease can make that work. Maybe Zach Wheeler can't. And, you know, we don't have the metrics for this. Start yet. But, I mean, you look at the pitch locations, you look at the results he gave up, five walks and four innings, a lot of hard contact, a lot of four seamers, cutters and splitters catching too much of the zone. I can't imagine that mark is going to be any better here. So it certainly looks like it's a command issue for Zach Wheeler. The problem is, from our perspective, is what's causing that? Is it just sometimes guys have bad months? It might just be that. It also might be he's not healthy and he's pitching through something and it's not enough to keep him off the mound, but it's enough to impact his performance. It's possible that he's just hit a wall coming off surgery. It's possible that he's permanently hit a wall. You know, all of these things are possible. I think the one thing you can say for sure is. I don't see how you can start him right now because his next matchup on Sunday is at the Angels. That's a great matchup.
Speaker 1If that one goes poorly, I mean, there's no way you can use him after that.
Speaker 4At Seattle is about as good a matchup as you're going to get. That's true. He was bad against the Marlins a couple of starts ago. He was bad against the Cardinals. I think he had a bad start against the who was it? The Blue Jays, who aren't a particularly good lineup. So I don't think you can look at the matchup coming up and say, yeah, I know. He's been bad, but I'm just going to trust him there either way because he has struggled against beatable matchups to like this has not been a particularly difficult stretch of the schedule for him. He's had the Marlins, the Orioles, the Blue Jays, the Cardinals, the Marlins, and then the Mariners in Seattle. Who's the toughest matchup out of those? The Orioles. That's not a good lineup supposed to be, but it's not.
Speaker 1It's middle of the pack. Yeah. Look, your point is valid, and I know that we're kind of speculating that he could be battling something, everything postgame, like Zach Wheeler has reiterated multiple times that he feels healthy, his body feels good, and that's, quote, the most frustrating part for Zach Wheeler. There was another quote here. It's really frustrating leading off the game, and I walked the guy, and then it tumbles into a big inning for them. I hate walking guys. It's really frustrating all around. It's frustrating just the whole situation. Wheeler said he's perfectly fine and healthy, so I'm not really sure. I mean, it could be just one of those things like, yeah, he's. In his mid to upper 30s, and maybe he's just going through a bout here where he's struggling to locate. I mean, if you rewatch some of these home runs that he gave up, it was like fastballs, middle, middle, or like hanging splitters. So it's like, yeah, clearly he's got an issue with command and getting knocked around right now. So we'll have to see if anything else comes out, but yeah, the last six starts just really, really bad here for Zach Wheeler. You're probably, if you play in a weekly lineup league, you're locked in for the two-star week. But unless we see like a really dominant start on Sunday, I think we probably lean towards benching him for the next couple of times out until we see him look more like Zach Wheeler once again. Somebody who did a lot of that damage off of him, Chris, was Cal Raleigh. My gosh, we needed a game like this.
Speaker 4Absolutely. Here's a wild thing. Cal Raleigh had 60, was it 62 homers last season? No, 60. Whatever the number was. was it was a lot it was a whole bunch of them this was the first three homer game of Cal Raleigh's career wow isn't that something that is funny he went three for three with three homers and this was one that when I looked at the game log because I you know following along but not keeping track my sense had been that he'd been playing better lately and then you actually look at the game log and this was Cal Raleigh's first multi-hit game oh gosh since July 7th it is August 25th by the way it's August 25th that's a long time to go without multiple hits in a game he has had a couple of homers in the past like eight games um the swings have worked a little bit better as of late but yeah but he was hitting 136 in the month of August before 2020 today uh three homers strikeout rate not as bad as it could be I suppose 19 and 72 plate appearances but boy there haven't been a ton of signs of life lately uh the rolling expected wobo over the past 50 plate appearances 291 uh go back to 100 plate appearances 318 that's a little better but still pretty bad would be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this will be the worst mark of Cal Raleigh's career outside of this season so hopefully this is the start of him turning it around um it would be really nice to at least get one good month out of Cal Raleigh where at least we can say okay 2025 is not going to happen again but hey he can get back to being who he was in 2024 which was a good but not elite fantasy catcher right now I don't think you can have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 1him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 4him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 1him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 4him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 1him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 4him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of
Speaker 1him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of him turning it around I don't have a lot of confidence in that but I hope this is a sign of it honestly tastes like a warm slice of French toast in a glass. Just two scoops gives your body a massive upgrade with clean plant-based protein fiber and greens to support your energy digestion and whole body health it's packed with superfoods completely non-gmo and contains zero artificial sweeteners fillers or nonsense whether you love classic vanilla rich chocolate or this amazing new french toast blend it's the easiest way to give your daily routine a serious boost treat yourself to a childhood favorite go to cachava.com and use code fantasy for 15 off your first order that's cachava k-a-c-h-a-v-a.com code fantasy welcome back fantasy baseball today let's hit the news and notes and brian woo told reporters on monday that he is 100 confident that he will make his scheduled start against the phillies on wednesday he has not pinched pitched since august 16th because of shoulder soreness chris it's too late to tell people now because the news is out the news is out the news is out brian woo this week one start against the phillies in seattle obviously he's much better at home um but we haven't seen a pitch in like a like 10 days or
Speaker 4so i would have tried to avoid it i think that's what i said on yesterday's podcast um anytime you're i mean he's been so up and down this season anytime you have that kind of a long layoff with an injury i think there's a chance for rust he could dominate he's a really good pitcher but he hasn't been that guy more often or as often as not this season although i guess at home it's
Speaker 1more often than not yep yep i had a what my home league head-to-head points playoffs it's a two week scoring period i opted to start tyler malley over brian woo i know brian woo's ceiling is much higher but just the yeah i don't know just the indecision the kind of i don't know questionable nature of all of it and dealing with the shoulder of all things for a pitcher i opted to play it safe there tyler malley has been a pretty high floor the past couple weeks too
Speaker 4yeah you're probably not going to get nothing from tyler malley and there's a chance you might get nothing from brian woo so yeah that's reasonable yeah cj abrams returned to the lineup after missing
Speaker 1four straight with a sprain left ankle and i guess that ankle is fine because he stole two bases so cj abrams continues his massive breakout season james wood has extended his flat ground throwing to 120 feet and has resumed hitting offensively in the first half of the season he's been a good hitter and has resumed hitting off a tee he's been out since august 3rd with an oblique strain hopefully we can you know get him back early september get one final month at uh james wood and make sure he finishes strong as well give us that confidence to make him a first round pick for next season cattell marte is expected to be activated next monday so i believe that would be a minimum stay on the il dealing with that you know knee soreness uh but hopefully that is the case cattell marte expected back next week joe ryan will throw a live bullpen of one inning on wednesday he's slowly building up he's dealing with this glute strain but you know we're we're kind of running out of time here so would be nice to get joe ryan back for a couple starts as well pete fairbanks left monday's game with nerve irritation in his right hand i know this is something he's dealt with for a while i i think he dealt with this earlier this season and also on the il went on the il with that exact injury right so uh assuming he does go on the il chris who do you think would be next up in the marlins bullpen i believe the marlins got three
Speaker 4saves the last time p fairbanks was on the il it was three different players who got the saves so
Speaker 1they would not have a closer and never will ever again if you have to pick one i think it would be
Speaker 4calvin poche um but because i'm pretty sure of the three guys who got saves last time tyler phillips is in the bullpen or in the rotation and i can't even remember the lefty reliever who got the the other save so yeah i i think it's more likely to be poche than not but like it's not like he pitches the eighth inning every time out he had a recent outing where he pitched in the sixth so i i don't think the marlins they've had a lot of faith in p fairbanks despite um him being very bad this season but i don't think like calvin poche is going to step into that role
Speaker 1and be used exactly the same yeah josh eckness pitched the eighth inning here on monday i know calvin poche had pitched three three days in a row so they weren't going to use him uh and eckness has a 169 era in the season he also has 11 strikeouts to seven walks over 16 innings and a 6.5 swinging strike rate so it wouldn't totally stun me if they went to victor vodnik
Speaker 4um okay but he has a lot of faith in p fairbanks so i think it's going to be a lot of faith in p fairbanks so i think it's going to be a lot of faith in p fairbanks so i think it's going to be a lot hasn't been great since getting there five strikeouts to five walks so yeah i know he's got closer stuff but i'm not sure he's all that good yeah likely a messy situation there but i do agree
Speaker 1i think poche would be the first opportunity i guess for the marlins riley green took part in conditioning work at comerica park on monday he went on the il with a left hamstring strain on august 12th apparently bryce miller has dealt with a minor right lat injury since july 24th and definitely could explain why he's been so bad i mean i wouldn't it wouldn't surprise me if he goes in the il they skip a start or two obviously he's just been so so terrible uh so that would make some sense there for bryce miller but they're dealing with other injuries you know uh brian woo all that stuff that was going on william domus was placed in the il with a left elbow sprain chase the water was scratched from the lineup due to left hamstring tightness that one late so hopefully you saw that and were able to that was right before lineups came out yeah yeah if you're able to get lineups locked in get him out of your lineup there is a chance that he returns in the next couple days um and he's been really good since returning from that injury in mid june late june um but yeah we just don't know if if he's gonna land on the il or not again that's chase the water with a hamstring bryce eldridge was placed on the bereavement list and will miss the next three games trevor's story could be activated during this current series against he is 40 percent rostered chris what is your interest level in trevor's story
Speaker 4kalen culpepper and anhal hanao are both rostered in fewer leagues than trevor story so my interest level is not particularly high he was awesome last year maybe he can get back to that but he showed very little before the injury so i would prioritize him below kalen culpepper and anhal
Speaker 1hanao you know i i saw the red sox lineup today and i saw who they were throwing out there at shortstop and second base and i was like oh my god i'm gonna lose this game i'm gonna lose this game it was uh nick so guard at shortstop and it was anthony siegler yep at second base so would be pretty awesome if they just go like trevor story and call up franklin arias that would just be really really cool i don't know if they're going to do it but arias has been really good since getting promoted to triple a uh would be fun and obviously would lengthen
Speaker 4out that red sox lineup quite a bit they've been comfortable with a lot of zeros in their lineup all season and it's worked out so yeah i mean their pitching is is money so yeah i i think story's gonna play every day i i don't think we're gonna see our arias i i hope so i hope i'm wrong but yeah the opportunity has been there all along and they haven't gone to him that's fair
Speaker 1louise arise bryson stott and alec bohm all returned to the lineup monday after missing sunday with various injuries shea langoliers has begun hitting and throwing progressions he is four weeks removed from the game and he's been in the game for a long time and he's been in the game for a long time and he's been in the game for a long time and he's been in the game for a long time undergoing a meniscus repair in his right knee and the assumption is that he would not return this season if he had surgery which he did so uh the fact that he's you know actually making some progress yeah we could get a couple of weeks out of shea langoliers down the stretch it's
Speaker 4concerning though because that would mean he didn't have the meniscus repaired uh which you very rarely see he had some kind of term he had some kind of surgery though didn't he yeah no no so the we i think we talked about this when he had the surgery the they reported it as a meniscus repair but a meniscus repair generally is like a six month injury um and four to six months and the other options are they either remove the meniscus or they shave down the part of the meniscus that is injured and both have long-term issues and so that's a little concerning that this timetable is what it is just because he's a catcher you would think they would prioritize the long term with little to play for the rest of the way so that's i don't love to hear that just from what i understand about um meniscus injuries
Speaker 1all right max meyer has yet to be cleared to resume a throwing program and we are up against it there's only a month left so i i really don't know if we're going to be able to see max meyer return as a starting pitcher this season kyle stowers was reinstated from the il and he was back in the lineup against the left-handed pitcher on monday connelly early through a twenty-fifth inning and he was back in the lineup against the left-handed pitcher on monday a twenty-fifth pitch bullpen on saturday he's working his way back from left forearm tightness reminder he is now on the nationals he went there in the curtis me trade so my guess is they're trying to they won't rush him back but if they can get him back for a couple of starts a couple innings just to see him healthy heading into the offseason i'm sure that's what everybody would want that that's involved uh but we'll see if connelly early can make it back joe musgrove will make his next rehab start at triple a on thursday veta will resume his rehab assignment at single a at some point this week so getting closer to some reinforcements here for the padres uh joe musgrove someone that we do have you know decent amount of interest in in fantasy if he can uh let's say make a start the first week of september you could get like three or four starts out of joe musgrove colt emerson will undergo season ending left wrist surgery on wednesday he is a name to remember like post-hype sleeper i just feel like everyone's gonna forget
Speaker 4about colt emerson next season he's still very young i did he either just turned 21 or he hasn't turned 21 yet so that will be a name definitely i know he was very bad uh in his time in the majors but hey cole young was very bad last year too and he's having a nice season and colt emerson by all accounts was a better prospect so yeah he just turned 21 let's not bury colt emerson that's still a a very exciting player and they have confidence in him they gave
Speaker 1him that contract extension i believe at the time it was the largest contract extension for a player yet to debut and then i think there have been like three other guys i think connor griffin got one after that too uh i don't know around that time but yeah look the mariners have confidence i i still think we'll have a player there in colt emerson michael soroka who went on the il this weekend with uh apparently it's dead arm it was originally like a shoulder injury he expects to return in the minimum 15 days endy rodriguez who's dealing with a hip injury will take a little bit longer to return from this injury and he's going to be a little bit longer and he's going to be a little bit longer to return from this injury and that quote surgery is on the table so that's a bummer you don't like that for his um potential 2027 value he looks like a good
Speaker 4player but he just has not been able to stay healthy on the other hand rafael flores taking advantage of his opportunity he had another good good game today i believe um so i think he had a
Speaker 1couple more hits today two for four with a run and are with a walk and rbi in that game yeah he's
Speaker 4he's been very productive so um
Speaker 1i know he had a rough weekend against the dodgers but he also felt he faced like blake snell you know so he was facing off awesome pitchers but he was really good before that and the numbers in the minors this year were bad but last year they were very good for flores and he came over in that david bednar trade so uh you know the all of a sudden the pirates have interesting catchers just popping up left and right the giants optioned tugboat matt wilkinson back to triple a justin steel is hoping to start a rehab assignment after throwing two more live bullpens and he will work out of the bullpen once he returns but he is a name to remember for 2027 the mariners stated monday that brendan donovan's concussion symptoms are starting to improve and i do have some prospect notes here twins top prospect walker jenkins had another massive game on sunday going three for three with uh two walks two homers and a stolen baseball at triple a he is destroying he's gotta be up this week this weekend he looks ready i'm just not sure what the twins plans are here i i saw somebody was breaking it down where there's a way for them to like if they just keep him down all season they have more control i forgot what it was like in case of the lockout next year he could lose like another year of control yeah so if if the
Speaker 4player's clock starts and there is a lockout they would still get credit for um so if they want to play that card they could just choose to keep him down i i don't i don't know they're they're still alive i believe technically um i think the twins are pretty close the problem is there's not like an obvious hole for them trevor larnak's not great but he's not such a disaster that you have to get him out of the line like they're they're kind of don't have an obvious spot for him and that's that might be the biggest thing um but yeah jenkins i believe he had never had a multi-homer game he has three in like the past 15 games or something yeah i mean they could they could they could call them up and yeah they absolutely could and just bench trevor larnak yeah they can get rid of larnik man move luke he shall back to second like there are ways they could do it um but it's not it's not like they have a massive amount of time to do it they could do it but they could do it in their lineup even though what he's doing right now and it's also kind of it's kind of how i feel about any good pitching prospect like don't waste bullets on games that don't matter walker jenkins has a lot of trouble staying healthy throughout his career he's healthy right now you might as
Speaker 1well play him you know the twins are two games out of a wild spot right now so they're they're right there they're pretty close and uh trevor larnak in august 151 batting average
Speaker 475 ops 30 wrc plus so would be a a likely improvement over that yes uh so yes walker
Speaker 1jenkins is probably the top hitting prospect to roster no it's probably just a top prospect to stash now that kate anderson's up so uh yeah if you we could get like one month out of walker jenkins i would stash him a's top prospect leo devries was placed in the il at double a while he recovers from a sore right shoulder and white socks prospect caleb bonhamer will get some starts in center field later this week at double a to this point in his career he's only played shortstop and third base uh but the white socks are pretty loaded at both of those positions and uh bonhamer is a good prospect 20 years old he's hit 33 homers with 16 steals in 114 games between high a and double a this year and probably someone we see at some point next season so just a name to be on your radar that is caleb bonhamer uh last item here the astros and gm dana brown have mutually agreed to part weight and they're both going to be and then there were differing reports about their manager whose name is escaping joe spot joe espada there was one report that he would not be back after the season and then yeah his contract's up at the end of the season all right so and then whatever the other report was that the him and
Speaker 4the astros have had no conversations so what's his name jim crane is taking over uh baseball ops as the owner yeah never never a good sign i think uh yeah presumably it'll be a short-term thing but yeah yes uh all right let's go over to three
Speaker 1pitcher questions and first up i have braxton ashcraft who turned in a quality start at the padres six innings one run only two strikeouts he also had 11 swinging strikes on 91 pitches so feels like he deserved more than two strikeouts here um and continues to emphasize that sinker which i think has really helped him get back on track the last three starts 117 era 0.61 whip uh the strikeouts not so much 16k's to two walks over 23 innings but the ground ball rate back over 50 during that stretch so is he back braxton ashcraft define the question further is he back to being a sp3 set it and
Speaker 4forget it in your lineup probably okay but that's different than back to what he was through the first three months of the season when he looked like an sp2 a top 20 starting pitcher in his um i don't think with the striker right where it is he can be that impactful but the control has been excellent lately he has a 191 era in the month of august um he certainly looks like he's back on track i think you can feel pretty good about starting him even if you shouldn't necessarily
Speaker 1expect him to be dominant let's talk about chase burns who had a terrible start here at the giants and against that giant's lineup man if you look up and down the line you can see that he's been on that giant's lineup i mean how did this happen it's rafael devers and a bunch of guys yeah man three and two-thirds innings nine hits five runs here uh still had nine swinging strikes on 64 pitches that is a 14 swinging strike rate but some hard contact here eight hard hits allowed and i just wonder if he's starting to wear down a little bit he's up to 139 and two-thirds innings last year it was 111 total innings and he throws really hard obviously he's given up five earned last four outings so what do you think chris is do you think chase burns is starting to wear down a
Speaker 4little bit here yeah it's two of his last four three of his last six um well i guess one of them was uh was that one earned run but it was five runs okay and he gave up a homer in that outing too yeah um yeah i mean there there are still a lot going right like he still has 36 strikeouts in 27 innings in the month of august but yeah it's possible he's starting to to run out of steam a two starts well let's go back to the start of july only three starts since the start of july with more than uh five and a third innings pitched um so it's been a lot of shorter outings yeah it's possible he's running out of steam and obviously the you know he's about 28 innings ahead of where he was last year we've worried that the reds were going to shut him down at some point i don't know if it's going to be a hard shutdown like next week or anything but maybe it's a situation where he makes three more short you know five inning starts and then you know doesn't make his last start or two i would almost rather them just shut him down or tell us that they're doing that yeah that makes it easier for for us yeah yeah they haven't given us any indication they're going to do that but there's been no reporting as far as i know there's
Speaker 1been no yeah it would make sense though like they're not playing for anything at this point so
Speaker 4but I don't think it's something you can count on. You certainly can't just drop Chase Burns, right? but yeah it I think you should certainly lower your expectations for him for the final month
Speaker 1and the last name I have here is Kevin Gossman who had a big bounce back at the D-back seven shutout innings with six strikeouts to one walk but only had six swinging strikes here on 94 pitches obviously it's a good bounce back he did not complete five innings in either of his previous two starts where he allowed nine earned runs over nine innings pitched Chris what did Kevin Gossman do differently here and I mean do you do you buy this bounce back start I guess well it was
Speaker 4funny because when he got to the Cubs he was throwing a splitter more and then in this start he did the opposite and it was the four seamer that carried him but it wasn't because the four seamer was missing a ton of bats it was actually quite the opposite he only had two whiffs he just got a ton of called strikes 24 of them in fact I believe I saw that was the highest of his career on the Cubs and then he got a ton of called strikes and then he got a ton of called strikes
Speaker 1on his four seamer that is among the highest numbers I've seen on a pitch all season long 24 called strikes for Kevin Gossman's four seam fastball yeah so that you know maybe there's
Speaker 4something about the matchup and you know the the Cubs saw something in the scouting report that that said that or maybe it was just he had a good feel for it and it was a one-start thing I do not think throwing 65 percent four seamers is the answer for Kevin Gossman moving forward it was nice to see it work in this start um and it was nice to see it work in this start him stem the bleeding but I don't think this fundamentally changes how I I think about Kevin
Speaker 1Gossman and it was good to see for the first start of a two-star week because I have to imagine whoever is still rostering Kevin Gossman at this point probably threw him out there with the two starts although I wouldn't have blamed you if you benched him because of how he's pitching uh obviously and he just had he had this great start but did it in an unconventional way for him so uh 95 percent rostered 84 percent started a lot of people still still went with Kevin Gossman and it paid off in that in this first star we'll see if he can carry it over into uh this second start as well let's take our final break when we return I've got some waiver wire names from Monday and I've got some hitter fun facts we'll get to all that right after this I'm pretty confident
Speaker 5talking into a mic hey I'm doing it right now but home projects I second guess everything is that noise normal is that water damage who do I even call that's where Thumbtack comes in just upload a photo or voice note and it used to be called Thumbtack uses AI powered search to match you with a right top rated local pro so instead of guessing you get clarity and can hire with confidence for your next home project try Thumbtack hire the right pro
Speaker 6today queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun an army hung on her every word my champions
Speaker 7I have sold my chariot on Carvana it was a lovely SUV an inexplicable queenly offer they're even coming to the castle to collect it tonight we feast
Speaker 8an offer you can feast on sell your car today on Carvana pick up fees may apply
Speaker 1welcome back fantasy baseball today let's run through some waiver wire options from Monday's action and on the pitching side Zebby Matthews great outing at the athletics where did this come from it's like what is going on here I understand the athletics are missing a lot of guys in their lineup and they are prone to striking out but typically a really tough place to pitch seven innings of one run ball seven strikeouts to one walk 23 swinging strikes here on 105 pitches eight of those on the slider he had three or more whiffs on all six of his pitches which is wild he had everything working he has looked better as of late last six starts 363 era 121 whip he is home against the White Sox this weekend and then it looks like at the White Sox again next week Chris what did Zebby Matthews do here and are you buying it at all yeah two things
Speaker 4one that commercial you just played for those of you watching on YouTube it's a CBS NFL Sunday with Mr. Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra if that's going to be part of the rotation moving forward I love it it was a good commercial that song is gonna be stuck in my head every night before I fall asleep if that's gonna be every night which not complaining yeah it's just gonna be part of part of my life I'm gonna be stuck in my head every night before I fall asleep my life now um as far as Zebby Matthews my my write-up for tomorrow's newsletter starts with whoa where did that come from so I his previous career high in whiffs was 18 he had 23 in this one like you said everything was working he was throwing the uh curveball I believe with a little
Speaker 1more velocity it was the opposite the it was the opposite the curveball slower the change up yeah
Speaker 4and four seamer were harder um I don't know I I think it's probably just hey sometimes guys get locked in against the right matchup he survived a matchup again in Sacramento I think we've seen enough I I know it's been three good starts in a row now but the previous two I think were four strikeouts and five innings each um I I don't think we can really draw much from this one um good start let's see if he can build on it maybe he figures out how to do it I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know if I can figure something out but I I need to see a lot more than just one good start from Zebby Matthews before I'm willing to to change my mind on him yeah I think it's just a deeper name
Speaker 1still for now and the problem with it is that he faces the White Sox this weekend and then he faces them again next week so typically I don't like using pitchers against the same matchup two times out in a row unless it's like a really well-established pitcher uh and the White Sox are pretty good against right-handed pitching so great start here but I I do agree I don't think I'm not really rushing out to to go and add Zebby Matthews George Clausen someone that I was kind of raving about a little bit after his previous two starts he was just okay here against the Guardians five and a third six hits three runs two of those earned three walks three strikeouts he used a slider a lot more in this one 46 usage and uh it had mixed results he did get six whiffs but also gave up some hard contact I think he might have an awesome slider I just don't really know if he's going to be able to do that I don't know I don't know if he's going to be able to do anything else in his arsenal and his control is kind of uh I don't know bad inconsistent let's call it it might just be bad but uh yeah 31% rostered it's and now the angels are using a six-man rotation so that that kind of limits his upside as well it certainly was very bad in his
Speaker 4minor league career there's basically been no evidence of George Clausen being able to throw strikes consistently so I don't really see it I agree with your assessment though I think the slider is good I'm just not sure there's anything else here he does have a little bit of that like Jacob Lopez funkiness to him but I'm not sure it works as well from a a righty so I'm not I don't really see it with George Clausen I know you're not alone in being pretty excited about him he does throw pretty hard but I I think it's kind of slider or bust for him yeah so I'm not I'm not really in I think it's kind of a slider or bust for him yeah so I'm not I'm not really in I think
Speaker 1his changeup might be okay it had pretty good results in the minors but just hasn't really thrown it much in the majors so far entering this start it was 19% usage man 335 x well but 24% whiff railing yeah I don't know okay but yeah I don't we need to see more um if you picked up George Clausen I think you could probably uh pass him up for or swap him out for someone who who I think you could probably uh pass him up for or swap him out for someone who who eight strikeouts to three walks 14 whiffs on 93 pitches he's another one Chris like his slider dominant 10 whiffs 10 of his 14 whiffs I just don't really think that he has anything else so
Speaker 4not really interested in Kumar Rocker what do you think yeah we've seen some really good starts from him he hasn't really shown the ability to do it consistently um and one thing I will say about Kumar Rocker is that he's a really good starter he's a really good starter he's a really good that I do appreciate about him that I think is a point in his favor as a pitcher is he is willing to try stuff out. He had been throwing his sinker a lot more the past three starts. He's had a few stretches where he's really leaned on the cutter, although he's gone away from that lately. I think that speaks to a work ethic and a willingness to experiment and try to figure it out. I don't really think anything but the slider is good enough. I'm not sure that's enough to make it all work. He's in a stretch right now where he's getting about a strikeout per inning. His control has been really bad in the month of August, 13 walks and 24 strikeouts. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot
Speaker 1of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. I don't have a lot of faith in him. for Jacob Lopez, Andrew Painter, anyone that you could actually see using confidently in your lineup, I would drop Frambois Valdez at this point.
Speaker 4What's wild is it's not like the zero whiffs was because they weren't swinging. He had 41 swings in this game and zero whiffs. That is wild. By comparison, Jurasmson on the other side had 51 swings with 12 whiffs. I don't have a good explanation for what's gone wrong with Frambois Valdez. The one thing I will say is we know he's been pretty open about struggling with, I don't know if it's anxiety, but he's talked about having a mental health coach when he was with the Astros. That was a big part of him figuring it out. New situation, extended free agency, big contract. Maybe he's just having trouble adjusting and it'll take a little time and maybe another offseason will get him right. But I will also point out he is 32, I believe. That is old enough where sometimes guys just drop off really suddenly. And maybe that's happening. I'm inclined to think that won't be the case and I will draft him next year. Probably rank him as a top, certainly 60 pitcher, but probably not. Probably top 50 given the upside, given the rare volume that you can get out of him. But it won't be with a lot of confidence.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think it would have to be as a bench pitcher for me next season. And look, there has been pretty big skill decline this year. I mean, his swinging strike rate is down from 11.5% to 8.6%. I mean, that has to be among the worst in qualified starting pitchers this year. And his ground ball rate, which was once a strength, it's still a strength, but the past three years, it's gone from 61% to 59% to 54%. So it's just more bad at balls that are in the air and those could do more damage against.
Speaker 4And that's a trade-off you can live with when the strikeout rate was 24% like it was last season.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4But now that it's 18%, 18% is just, yeah, that's untenable. That's the kind of thing where even if he was a 61% ground ball rate, it's like, okay, great. Now you're on. Andre Palante, you know, like that's still a pretty unexciting pitcher. So he's going to have to put in some work this off season. Like Cal Raleigh, it would be great to get a good month out of him to have some faith, but I don't think he needs to be 92% rostered. No.
Speaker 1All right, let's slide over to the waiver wire hitters. And Luke Kieschel went two for six with two RBI. And I just wanted to point out once again, I feel like I brought him up recently, but 42 games since the start of July, Luke Kieschel is hitting 333. With six homers, two steals, four caught stealing. Counting stats, not really great during that time. His OPS is over 950, but he also is not impacting the ball hard at all. So the underlying metrics don't really buy it at all. But I mean, it's, we're going on two months of a 330 batting average, 950 OPS. It's at least a little live eye opening for Luke Kieschel.
Speaker 4Yeah. And you look at the underlying data, even going back to June, you know, you, you look at the month by month XO, but it was 268, 293. The first two months of the season. That's really bad. 331, 330, 374 since then. So 374 in August is great. Yeah, that's really good. And I don't think that's likely to be sustainable. And I think the whole profile makes a lot more sense. If he was running like he did last season, he only has 14 steals. He had 14 and 49 games last year. He's been caught 14 out of 20 or seven out of 21 times. So, you know, I, I, I think looking ahead, if this is a guy you can expect 12 homers out of and a, and a pretty helpful batting average, you know, 275, 280, that's awesome. If it's 15 to 20 steals though, that's a pretty fringy player. I do want to see him be more like a 25 to 30 steel guy. And then we can start talking about him. Like, you know, I, I made the Niko corner cop before the season. And that, that still seems reasonable. He's just gotta be a better base stealer.
Speaker 1Yeah. If he gets to those 25 to 30, he can kind of be that Bryson Stott set it and forget it. I mean, you're never excited to draft him, but it's just a solid middle infielder every season. And he, and he's probably gonna be a lead off hitter. Yeah. He has been leading off his OBP on the season is three 64. It was actually really good. Yeah.
Speaker 4So he just, there are as a real life player, his defense has been very bad, pretty much everywhere. They've tried him. Yeah. Which raises some questions about what the, the twins are gonna do long-term, but he's still so young and so cheap that I, I think he's gonna have an everyday role. It's just, there are still flaws in his game that you'd like to see him iron out
Speaker 1at 74% roster. It has second base and outfield eligibility. Do you think that number needs to be higher? I mean, just a must roster player at this point, Kiesel.
Speaker 4No, he's not a must start player in a points league, right? I don't even at second base. I think so. I, I wouldn't think so. So I 74%, yeah, I think he's okay to add if you don't like your second baseman,
Speaker 1but, um, yeah, even over the last 28 days in points leagues, it's 2.8 fantasy points.
Speaker 4Yeah. Like I, I would guess that's not that, that's probably worse than Bryson Stott actually. Um, yeah. So yeah, that I, I, I think his roster is probably okay.
Speaker 1Bryson Stott is at 3.7. He's actually been awesome. Wow. Geez. A couple other names. Here, Henry Bolte having a big August three for four with a walk and three runs scored. I have to bring him up while Scott isn't around. Cause I know he hates Henry Bolte, even though he had him as a sleeper hitter this week. Uh, but in 22 August games, 3 45, three homers, two steals, 17 runs scored 900 OPS, 41% roster. Do you think that number needs to be higher for Henry Bolte?
Speaker 4As a hot hand play? Sure. Like he's playing every day for the A's it's he's been leaning off too. Yeah. I mean, it's not an especially good lineup, but it is at least a good home ballpark right now or remains. Um, I do think on the whole, he is still more a collection of interesting tools than a fully realized baseball player. Um, but he's been really good in the month of August. It's with, you know, a 26% strikeout rate and a ton of ground balls and you know, there he's still figuring it out. I think there are really interesting tools here, but he is not optimized at all. Yeah. So I don't think it's likely to last, but while he's hot, sure.
Speaker 1He does hit way too many ground balls. He has big bat speed. He has great real life speed too. Like he's very fast, but he doesn't hit a lot of ground balls. And a 6% pulled air rate. Ah, that's really, really bad. Not good for the power production. Uh, he has it first or second in the lineup in 10 straight games. So at 41% roster. I think he needs to be rostered in all five outfielder leagues. So I, I feel like that number could probably be a little bit higher there for Bolte. A couple of their names here. Kalen Culpepper went four for five with four singles, a run and an RBI over his last five games. He has nine hits and a Homer. He's looked pretty good. So far. He's hitting the ball hard. Lots of line drives, 34% rostered. There's Pedro Ramirez, who we spoke about yesterday. He went two for four with a triple, a run and an RBI, uh, last two games have been great for him. He has started nine straight and 11 of the past. 12, 22% rostered second and third base eligible. And Tristan Peters, another name I brought up yesterday, but he has Homer in three straight. It was his 10th home run. He has started seven straight and 10 of the past 11, and he is having himself a pretty nice August here. Uh, Chris, any, any interest in, do you think these roster rates need to be higher? Kalen Culpepper, 34% Pedro Ramirez, 22% and Tristan Peters, 18%.
Speaker 4I think all three could be higher. I think Peters. Is probably the least interesting of the group. I, I just don't think there's a ton of upside, but he, he's got a fantasy friendly skillset with a little bit of pop and a little bit of speed and he plays regularly. So I'm not gonna say there's nothing there. And certainly 18% rostered is, is probably too low, but Ramirez, I think he's just pretty good. Um, his does not look that dissimilar from Nico Horner. Uh, it doesn't make nearly as much contact. That's the biggest difference. It's more like a 19% strikeout rate in the minors. It's more like 14, 15%. If he can get there. Uh, I think there's a lot to like about Pedro Ramirez, but he's gonna be a pretty good source of batting average. There's not a ton of hop pop, but he could be a 10 Homer guy over a full season. 25 steals is he's on pace for about that right now. Um, and he's playing every day, so I think he's pretty good, but I will say, I mean, I, I just look at Kalen Culpepper at 34% rostered and I look at George Lombard at 72% rostered. I'm not gonna say Kalen Culpepper's as good as George Lombard. Certainly as a real life player, I think Lombard is probably going to be better and, and in head to head points leagues, especially the walk rate for, for Lombard is, is likely to be better. Although I think, I think Culpepper's actually walked more so far in their major league careers. It's very close. Uh, Lombard hasn't walked quite as much as you'd expect so far, but yeah, Lombard has
Speaker 1six walks in 17 games. Culpepper has two walks in 14 games.
Speaker 4Okay. that's, um but i think colt pepper has a really fantasy friendly skill set um he's hitting the ball really hard uh he was like a 2020 guy uh on pace at triple a i i think he's definitely under rostered at 34 now in points leagues no middle infield spot you probably don't have any interest in killing colt pepper and that that's where lombard makes more sense although i don't think either of them are top 12 guys in a points league but as a middle infielder in a roto league i don't think there's that much difference between talon colt pepper and jordan lombard right now so i think there's a i think he's definitely under rostered all right did you realize i have some hitter fun facts here is that a song yeah there's a flaming lip song do you realize you play it
Speaker 1i'll check it out afterwards uh rafael devers big game here two for four with his 27th homer and three rbi he really just has a lot of potential in this game and he's got a lot of potential in a brutal april but in 100 games since the start of may 255 batting average 25 homers ops over 875 i hadn't realized it i mean since the start of may he's just been rafael devers
Speaker 4that's two years in a row that he's doing this awful april and then figures it out um i do think there there are definitely some red flags moving forward here um and there will probably come at the point where the start of the game is going to be a little bit more of a slow start isn't just a slow start but at the end of the day he's been a must-star fantasy option this season um the counting stats aren't great you know you look at the overall production and it's like he hasn't been that much worse than like pete alonso 27 homers 71 runs 73 rbi it's just for alonso i think it's like 79 runs and 85 rbi right and so that the counting stats have been better the batting average has been about 20 points better for alonso as well so i'm not saying that he's going to be a slow start but i think he's going to be a slow start saying they're the same player but there's not that much difference between them but the the counting stats are you know it's probably going to end up 32 33 homers maybe 35 if he gets hot but probably only like 90 runs 90 rbi so yeah he's not a a dominant first baseman anymore but
Speaker 1he's still a very good one otto lopez two for four with a run in rbi but he has slowed down quite a bit second half 33 games 229 zero homers still has eight steals a 549 ops lots of ground balls during this stretch and uh it was painful to do at the time but we did kind of mark him as a sell high candidate back in july um and so hopefully you did listen to that with otto lopez but yeah he has really slowed down chris
Speaker 4yeah and the the underlying numbers look a lot worse too last hundred plate appearances 298 x woba um for the season his x well was actually lower than it was last season that's interesting um what's up with that i don't have a good explanation for that because his expected batting average is higher his average eggs velocity is higher i don't know i i don't and i don't think it ever made a ton of sense to expect otto lopez to remain an elite fantasy option forever yeah but i i do still think he should be a good source of batting average not a 330 guy like he was in the first half but if he hits 280 he should be a good source moving forward and it's you know 10 to 12 homers and you know he's gonna end up with 30 steals this season it's a really solid player yeah it's just not a top 50 pick like he looked like in the first
Speaker 1half right that's exactly right jonathan aranda he hit a homer off of a lefty there have not been many of those this season his 16th home run to rbi uh but he has also had a brutal second half hitting 238 with two homers a 579 ops the k rate is up around 30 percent during that time uh he's still hitting the ball hard but not really barreling it up as much and he's actually been pretty bad against lefties this year 649 ops so i know that we've brought this up recently but another one who has slowed down quite a bit is jonathan aranda in the second half
Speaker 4he has weirdly only really had one good month this season he had five homers in april but it was with a 701 ops he had two homers in march so i guess he looked grouped them together he was awesome in may 798 ops in june he only had two homers but he hit for a good batting average it's been pretty bad since then though um yeah i i don't really know what to to make of aranda because the underlying numbers still pretty good he hits the ball very hard though not as hard as he did last season i do think there's probably at least a little bit of he's probably playing against lefties a little too much his numbers against righties have been worse than they were last season i think he's probably playing against lefties a little too last season so i don't know if that's everything but i don't know last year was so weird because he had like a four he had like a 420 babbitt didn't he he had a crazy high babbitt um because it was a relatively small sample so there's only about 400 plate appearances uh i'm probably
Speaker 1overstating it at 420 but it was very very high 409 and this season it's 346 yeah 346 is still
Speaker 4really high but when it when it regresses 60 points you know you see what happens so i don't know i i think he's a pretty good corner infielder but
Speaker 1probably not a starting first baseman jaron duran has been better in august he went two for four with a double and a run scored and so far in the month 267 four homers three steals 828 ops and i just hadn't realized his ops by month this year all over the place 464 879 395 561 and now
Speaker 4828 for jaron duran i mean well all over the place i guess you're hoping he has a good september and you can say well at least it was a good half season uh because right now it's really bad
Speaker 1three months and two pretty good months you know the power speed counting stats are all solid but it's the 209 batting average if if he was hitting 240 i mean this this line would seem pretty
Speaker 4respectable on the other hand if he was hitting 240 he would basically look like dalen lyle true which isn't which isn't great um i don't know a handful more seals but yeah everything else pretty close um i don't know he's he's gonna be an interesting player to to rank for next season because i believe has jaron turin turned 30 yet or is it soon i i can almost guarantee he will not be in boston next season he turns 30 in uh 10 days and he has i think two years of club control left and the red sox have a lot of guys so i would guess yeah i agree jaron duran probably not going to be in boston that might not be a bad thing for him if he lands in the right spot
Speaker 1we did try to tell them to sell high after that huge season a couple years ago um and now he's
Speaker 4kind of looking like a pretty middling starting outfielder um so we'll see what what the market for him looks like i would guess they could still get something decent for him but teams aren't going to be pounding the door down for a 30 year old with two years of club control left um and yeah i i probably if he's assuming he is somewhere where he's starting every day and not in a platoon role he he's probably a top 40 starting outfielder next season for fantasy but not someone i'm i'm particularly excited about anymore no i i think we're in the uh
Speaker 1decline phase here his f war over the past three years six point eight three
Speaker 4point nine zero point one yeah his has his defense uh i feel like when i've looked at it on baseball
Speaker 1savant it's actually been okay it's graded out negatively by uh like defensive war the past two
Speaker 4years depends what what source you look at then but yeah that's yeah that's rough yeah uh last
Speaker 1name here did you realize cory seager in 21 games since returning is hitting 355 with three homers 12 uh run scored an ops over 900 and his strikeout rate is down to 16 before he got hurt it was 27 so uh it kind of looked like and maybe still a possibility that cory seager is uh a little washed you know that age is catching up but uh you know that that strikeout rate bouncing back i think it's
Speaker 4a very good sign there for cory seager yeah he'll probably be someone i draft a lot of next season when he's i don't know 160th or whatever he's all yours chris i will not be drafting cory seager
Speaker 1uh pitchers that keep chugging along massive consistency here and sandy sandy tell me about it sandy alcantara yet another quality start and he has a quality start in 14 of his last 16 and during that 16 start stretch 249 era 107 whip for sandy alcantara kate cavalli another quality start for him uh six innings two runs seven strikeouts 16 whiffs on 93 pitches and he has a quality start in nine straight during that span 209 era 0.93 whip for kate cavalli who's i don't know man working his way into like top 24 like sp conversation
Speaker 4next year i don't know man kate cavalli just looks really good i'll be out if that's the price i get it like he's been awesome this season yeah he has the most starts of any pitcher in baseball this season and he's been awesome this season and he's been awesome this season and he's been awesome this season and he's been awesome this season and he's been awesome this season with three earned runs or fewer he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 26 of his starts this season
Speaker 1Sounds like a pretty good reason to draft Cade Cavalli.
Speaker 4On the other hand, he's, what, 29? And this is like the first time he's ever stayed healthy for a season? Is he really that old? I believe Cade Cavalli, he made his debut in like 20...
Speaker 1He's 28 years old, yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, he made his debut in 2019 or something? 2022. Okay, yeah. My time is a little off.
Speaker 1Drafted in 2020 as a first-round pick. But yeah, I forgot he was a pitcher out of college, so he was a little bit older when he got drafted.
Speaker 4And he just missed two full years. Really, kind of three. So, yeah. Look, my skepticism about Garrett Crochet looked really dumb last year. And it was a similar case where it was the first time he'd ever stayed healthy. So, maybe Cavalli will turn the corner. Let's not talk about what happened with Crochet this season, but, you know. Yeah, I can't quite get all the way there. And maybe that's unfair because the peripherals are really good. And he's got multiple really good swing and miss pitches, including one super elite pitch in that curveball. So, I'll grant that maybe I'm not being 100% fair to Cade Cavalli, but I can't quite get all the way there on him. As a top 25 pitcher. Top, you know, 35, top 40. Yeah, that makes sense. But I think the risk profile is just going to be a little unwise. It's going to be a little unwieldy for me. But, you know, Alcantara, it's just one bad month. He was just bad in May. And he's been awesome outside of that. So, you know, not an ace. You know, even in this really good start stretch, it's not even close to a strikeout per inning. He probably won't get back to that, but he's really good. You know, he's not an ace, but probably someone who should be drafted as a top 25, top 30 starting pitcher next season.
Speaker 1I don't know. I mean, both of these names, Cade Cavalli and Sandy, I have back-to-back SP29 and SP30. So that's where I'm at on both of those two. And then two other names here. Parker Messick, another solid outing. This one at the Angels. Six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts. And he has allowed two earned runs or fewer in nine straight. It's also two walks or fewer in seven straight. So a lot of consistency here from Messick. And Robbie Ray, five and a third innings, two runs, two walks, five strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 99 pitches. I don't trust it at all, but his last 11 starts, he has a 194 ERA. This just shows how much you shouldn't trust it. It's a 123 whip to go along with a 194 ERA. His ERA estimators are closer to four. Some of them are near five. So I said this last time out, like every start feels like a tightrope walk for Robbie Ray, but he's doing it. He's walking the tightrope.
Speaker 4Yeah. I mean, this is one of those situations where if you want to keep using, him, that's cool. I don't have Robbie Ray anywhere, so I won't be, but it's working out right now. It's just a question of does he have, do you avoid the inevitable regression? Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1Because it's someone that could fall apart fast. Remember his second half last year was really, really bad.
Speaker 4Yeah. So I would not be, I would not have a long leash with Robbie Ray. The first sign of trouble, I would be pulling him out of my line.
Speaker 1Let's see Robbie Ray's final right around this time last year from August 29th on his final five starts, 874 ERA and a 172 win. So he is someone that can undo a lot of the good very quickly there in Robbie Ray, the call to the bullpen for the raise. Brian Baker picked up his league leading 38th save of the season for the Red Sox. Aroldis Chapman picked up his 30th save, for the Guardians. Cade Smith gave up a run, but did pick up his 34th save for the Twins. Yoendris Gomez, you know, using a closer in a non save situation. He gets the ninth with a seven run lead. He gave up four earned runs on a walk in four hits. He only got two outs. And then it was Andrew Morris who came on to get the final out of that game for his fourth save. And I believe that Pirates game recently went final in extras. And it was her. Somebody named Yohan Ramirez who picked up his second save with the Pirates.
Speaker 4Yeah. Carby Yates was dancing on a, on a tight rope the entire time.
Speaker 1That was he walked to in the inning before and, and managed to wiggle his way out of that one.
Speaker 4So he was lucky to get out of it. Luke Weaver blew the, blew the hold. Mason Montgomery looked good.
Speaker 1So frustrating. We were talking beforehand in my home league, head to head playoff matchup. I had Braxton Ashcraft and Mason Montgomery in my lineup. So I was looking forward to the win into the save. And then Luke Weaver blew it. So that's rough. Come on, Luke Weaver to stream or not to stream on Tuesday. Will Warren against the Astros. Jackson Jobe against the Rays. Andrew Alvarez is home against the Rockies. We have Seth Lugo at the Blue Jays. Max Scherzer against the Royals. Zach Thornton home against the Brewers. Bryce Elder against the Dodgers. No, thank you. Anthony K against the Rangers. Chris Bassett is at the Cardinals. Walbert Arrhenia home against the Guardians. Clay Holmes at the D-backs. Aaron Nola at the Mariners. Brady Singer at the Giants. Adrian Hauser home against the Reds. There are a lot of options on Tuesday.
Speaker 4Yeah, I don't mind. I think Arrhenia is the top choice for me, but I don't mind Nola. I don't mind Singer. I don't mind. I think maybe K.
Speaker 1I like Andrew Alvarez against the Rockies. Yeah,
Speaker 4Andrew Alvarez against the Rockies. This isn't a bad day.
Speaker 1Yeah. Anthony K has been pitching for the Rockies. He's been pitching better, and he gets the Rangers, which is pretty good. And even Clay Holmes at the D-backs. I know he's not missing any bats since joining the Cubs, but they have an awesome defense, and the D-backs are not very good against right-handed pitchers this year. And they don't have Quetel Marte, so I do like Clay Holmes as well. On Wednesday, Nick Lodolo at the Giants. Landon Roop home against the Reds. Joey Cantillo is at the Angels. Grayson Rodriguez on the other side, home against the Guardians. Bubba Chandler is at the Padres. Shane Bieber coming off a great start. Home against the Royals. A.J. Smith-Shawver gets the D-backs. The Dodgers, excuse me. There's Connor Prelip at the Athletics. And J.T. Ginn home against the Twins.
Speaker 4I don't know if there's anybody I trust here. There's a lot of interesting talents versus interesting matchups.
Speaker 1I think Ginn versus the Twins feels like a high floor type option.
Speaker 4Ginn and Bieber would probably be the best ones, but it's not hard to see how it goes poorly for either of them.
Speaker 1I would go Ginn, Bieber, and Cantillo. I think so, yeah. And then a fourth as like hit or miss, but Grayson Rodriguez against the Guardians.
Speaker 4Yeah, Grayson or Bubba Chandler, but I don't trust either of them, certainly. Yep. I mean, even Connor Prelip, there's some upside there.
Speaker 1But yeah, just in Sacramento, I just hate the stream of pitchers there. I'll wrap up with a few team name Tuesdays here. These are from Jake, and they are all insurance related. How about that? Like a good Glaber, State Farm is there. Sure. We are Kyle Farmer. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Yeah. Liberator. Liberator.
Speaker 4Liberator. Liberator. I feel like I'm supposed to get this one, but I don't.
Speaker 1That's the, oh man.
Speaker 4I'm just going to write stupid insurance commercials. Oh, is it the Liberty Mutual?
Speaker 1Liberty Bibberty, is that it?
Speaker 4The Liberty Bibberty one, yeah. Liberty Bibberty. I don't understand what they're trying to sell me with. I mean, I find insurance, okay. Putting it out, I'm 38 years old now. I don't really understand insurance. Like I just like, it's just like, I don't really get it. I have it.
Speaker 1I've had to learn to, I've had to learn it.
Speaker 4It's not, it's not fun. I don't have a car. I have health insurance, but like, I don't really like, I don't understand how any of it works. I know there's like deductibles and pre, I don't really, I don't really get it. Like whatever, I'm dumb. It's fine. But I also just like, I find so many insurance commercials baffling. Like why is a guy mispronouncing the name of the company?
Speaker 1They are among the posts to make me want to buy. They are among the commercials I hate most. I just, I have insurance companies that I would never use just because I hate their commercials so much.
Speaker 4It's, which I won't mention because I don't want to give them
Speaker 1any free advertising.
Speaker 4So they all got a little, they all got a little, like a little guy, like a little mascot. I don't know. It's very confusing. I don't understand it. That's, that's, I hope I never have to understand it. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Maybe I'll just live a blessed life and never need it.
Speaker 1Yeah. This last one from Jake is Aff Lake. Aff Lake. Yep. Who's the lake that we're going for? I guess we could go like Lake Bacher.
Speaker 4I was, I was thinking of Junior Lake.
Speaker 1Junior Lake. I was thinking that too. Is it Lake Bacher or is it Luke Bacher? I think it's Lake Bacar. Bacar?
Speaker 4I don't know.
Speaker 1I feel like I heard it pronounced one time.
Speaker 4He's on my favorite team, but I, I.
Speaker 1No, he got it. He got traded to the Pirates, Chris.
Speaker 4Oh, he did. That's right. I, um, I, I usually don't watch the games with the sound on, honestly.
Speaker 1Is that because you don't like the announcers or you just have a lot going on?
Speaker 4No, it's just, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm listening to music. I'm trying, I can't listen to people talking while I'm writing. And a lot of the times when I'm watching games, I'm also writing. So like, I can't have someone talking.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4I can't have someone talking. I can't listen to rap music when I'm writing. I just want to listen to it. You know, I want to listen to what they're saying. and I just, I can't.
Speaker 1Yeah. I, I, The only music I can listen to while working is instrumental music. Anything that has lyrics. Oh, no.
Speaker 4I can listen to the new Phoebe Bridgers album while I was writing, but I can't with where the words are the focus, you know? And that's tough.
Speaker 1This last one's from Michael. If my 2027 fantasy team name isn't Y2K'd, I don't even know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4I gathered this was a discussion from his debut, but I didn't.
Speaker 1We had a lot of, there was one night where we had a lot of Y2K conversation last week when you weren't here. I don't know why, but it just, it happened. It was a thing, so.
Speaker 4All right, all right.
Speaker 1Oh, it was, oh, when we were talking about Kate Anderson getting called up, we were talking about like some of the most anticipated events in human history and how Y2K was so widely, oh my gosh, what's going to happen? And then nothing happened, so.
Speaker 4Well, hopefully, hopefully, well, no, okay. That one, because people put in work to make sure nothing happened, you know? Like, I feel like that's, people always remember, it's like, oh, they overblown, it was overblown. It's like, well, no, people actually like put in the work to make sure it didn't happen. You know, a lot of people worked overtime to make sure that the computer coding was, was up to date. So, you know, it wasn't a phantom menace situation is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1There you go. Shout out to all the coders. You get your credit. Yeah, we are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.
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