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Speaker 2Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Oh, and first pitch rushing deep left field. This is where the walkable... Got a fantasy question? Email fantasybaseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now, here's Frank Scott,
Speaker 1Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Tuesday, September 1st. Here we are. Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. We will fire up the drop-o-meter for four starting pitchers, one of whom is Kyle Harrison. What's going on with that guy? Alex Bregman has turned into Barry Bonds and much more. But first, more prospects are on the way. It is September 1st, so we do have rosters expanding to 28, 28, right? That's the number. So the two names that we have so far, I guess there could be more announced on Tuesday. But the Padres are promoting their top catcher prospect, Ethan Salas, who is just 20 years old. He has had an up-and-down minor league career, but he has been mashing since moving up to AAA. He's only played 24 games there, but hitting .326 with three homers, 24 RBI, three steals, and a .949 OPS. Scott, for those who play in Dynasty, we have heard Ethan Salas and Salas' name for a long time now. 15% rostered. Your thoughts on him, the player? Will he play enough? Because they also have two other interesting, decent catchers on the roster.
Speaker 3I mean, is Freddy Fermin that decent or interesting?
Speaker 1I feel like he's good defensively.
Speaker 4He's been really good in the second half of the season.
Speaker 3Both him and Luis Camposano have actually been great. Camposano's been hitting well, but he brings no defensive value, so they can't play him all that regularly. I think Ethan Salas solves the problem of, okay, we get a good defender behind the plate, but he can actually hit. At least, hopefully, he can actually hit, because as you alluded to, Frank, it has been a ride getting Salas here. He emerged as a consensus top 10 overall prospect heading into the 2024 season, because the year before, 2023, he had reached AA as a 17-year-old, and that seemed to be the... the biggest justification. Well, I mean, a catcher gets to AA at 17. He must be amazing. His stock fell after that, and coming into this year, he wasn't even widely on top 100 lists, because he struggled to hit in the upper minors and had some injuries along the way.
Speaker 4He only played 10 games in 2025.
Speaker 3That stalled his development. And yet, here he is at age 20 as a catcher reaching the majors, because... his offense exploded this year in the minors in really all the ways you would want it to. I don't look at Salas and want for much. His zone contact rate at AAA, especially impressive, 95%. So when he chooses to swing at a pitch in the zone, he hits it. He doesn't chase a ton. The plate discipline's been really good. The exit velocities have been, I would say, decent, no more than decent, but considering he's 20, that's still a solid achievement. Could stand to put the ball in the air more. But overall, he ended up pitting between AA and AAA, 296, 10 home runs, 17 steals, so adds a little bit of speed, potentially, in 96 games, OPS of 822. And those numbers got better once he moved up to AAA, hitter-friendly league. But still, there is a gap between AA and AAA in terms of... of the level of competition. And obviously, Ethan Salas navigated that gap fine. So he's coming up. I don't think he's going to remove Luis Campuzano from starting consideration as well as he's hit. But I'm guessing Salas will play 60% of the time, at least until he proves he doesn't deserve that much, which at age 20 is possible. But, you know, two catches, two catcher leagues, I think everyone should be interested in Ethan Salas. And the upside is enough that... Yeah, if I didn't already have a second-grade catcher, I'd be making a move for him.
Speaker 4I love AJ Preller. I just love how aggressive... Like, I'm not even sure... I think there are people who would argue he's a bad GM, and I think that's clearly ridiculous. Like, his team is in the playoff hunt every single year. That's not an accident. I love how aggressive he is. He is, man. And, like, if he's got a window, he's going to force his way through it. And it might not always be the smartest long-term play. I think Yu Darvish has about six years left on his contract, but they are aggressive, and they will call guys up when they think they're ready to make an impact. So, you know, it's largely worked. Jackson Merrill was awesome as a 20-year-old. Fernando Tatis was awesome as a... 19-year-old, I think. I'm excited to see Ethan Salas. I think any... If you've been looking for upside for your number two catcher spot, I think it's perfectly fine to pick him up.
Speaker 1I was really hoping that Darvish's contract that you mentioned was just hyperbole, but he legitimately does have two more years after this. He doesn't have six, but...
Speaker 4It was a little bit of hyperbole, but...
Speaker 1But the fact that he has two more at ages 40 and 41 is pretty damning, I would say.
Speaker 3I think Xander Bogarts has at least six.
Speaker 1Well, Manny Machado has... He has, like, eight, I think. I think Bogarts actually has, like, closer to 10, which is extremely scary. But Ethan Salas, again, he's only 20 years old. The defense has been, you know, lauded for years. Apparently, people were saying, like, he can call a game and catch a Major League game when he was, like, 18 years old. And so there's no worry about that. It's just, all right, how is he going to hit in the majors? Just trying to figure out where I'm going to drop him into the rankings. Looking at our consensus catcher rankings, we have... From 17 through 23, it's Carter Jensen, Kaber Uyiz, Yainer Diaz, Tyler Stevenson, Moises Ballesteros, Real Muto, and Rafael Flores. How many of those... Where do you think Ethan Salas would drop into that mix?
Speaker 4Behind Tyler Stevenson, I think, because he's been really good in the second half.
Speaker 1He's been hitting well for a while, yeah.
Speaker 4But I think it's fine to take him ahead of the rest of those guys.
Speaker 1It's tough with Flores because he's been hitting well for a while, too. Lots of strikeouts, but lots of power, too.
Speaker 3I think I'd have to put him behind Flores, personally. That's fine. Which, I know it's always a funny thing to be like, oh, yeah, this prospect, he's got all this upside. Look at all these great things he was doing in the minors. And then be like, he's my 23rd ranked catcher. But, you know, there's the... There's the willingness to play the lottery, and then there's the rational response to playing the lottery, you know? And when it comes to ranking, I'm going to do the latter. When it comes to discussing, I'm probably going to do the former.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. So, I mostly agree. I think, like, I would take Jensen, Stevenson, and Flores ahead, but then I'm probably going to slot Ethan Salas right at number 20, which would be ahead of Real Muto, Caber Ruiz, Yainer Diaz, and Moises Ballesteros. So, if you play in a two-catcher league, that is the mix that Ethan Salas is in. The second prospect that we're getting, the Nationals are calling up infield prospect Yohandy Morales. He is 24 years old, and he has been mashing this year. 104 games at AAA, 286 with 25 homers, and 881 OPS, 91.5 average EV, 13% barrel rate. Some of the underlying plate discipline stuff, very worrisome here for Morales. Chris, I'm not sure that Morales is a legitimate Like, top, top. end prospect but yeah if nothing else he looks like he he might be a hitter like a solid right
Speaker 4handed stick yeah you can make a case for him as like a better in fantasy than real life prospect because he's he plays first and third base i think in the long term he's viewed as more of a first baseman and it's a right-handed likely long-term first baseman the bar for being a viable major leaguer in the long term with that profile is really high he doesn't provide much defensive value very little on the base paths so he's gonna have to hit and that's why you're not gonna see him like as a top 10 prospect the national system but the minor league production is very good this season it's a 126 wrc plus he's bounced back from a down season uh last year he's hitting the ball hard um i'm just not sure how much he's gonna play is the thing because they're already running out a platoon at first base they could just decide they're done with brady house um who has shown very little at the major league level but if they don't do that you know maybe he's the dh but i think he'll i don't know if johandy morales will play every day for them so that that's that's the biggest concern here but
Speaker 3he's a moderately interesting bat yeah i don't know like now seems like an odd time to give up on brady house he has an 800 ops over the past 17 games or at least he came into today like that and for the year for the year he has a 700 ops i mean i don't think that's i don't think that's low enough to give up on a player i mean some 700 ops guys have long careers um so i i hear you on that with johandy morales who if you listen we we did talk about him a few times this year on the uh the fantasy baseball today express the the prospect focused one that comes out weekly um because he was surging at times mid-season the exit velocities are very strong i think i i i agree with the take that the playing time is going to be hard to find here because because brady house is back in the majors and because and doing okay and because uh james would likely be back this week well sure and and abamelic or t. ended up beating johandy morales to the majors i think it's going to be sparse playing time but he hits the ball very hard and there's always a chance with guys who hit the ball that hard i think so lazaro montes when he came up yesterday the some people were evoking the name as merlin valdez i think because as merlin valdez obviously had a run of success this year and made himself more of a name because of that but i would say johandy morales in terms of the kind of prospect as merlin valdez was very similar right-handed cornermen who hit the ball very hard but miss it too much and it seems like as merlin valdez well he obviously did fade we don't know why he faded but it probably had something to do with that i think morales has a similar boomer bust profile with the expectation being it's probably gonna bust
Speaker 1yeah johandy morales six percent roster on cbs i think it's only an nl only name for now and uh yeah it is kind of just tough to see where the playing time comes there's abamilic ortiz at first base there's brady house at third at dh it's been a combo of like your beat vivas and andres chaparro but chris you mentioned james wood who's gonna be back and they also still have dylan lyle and dylan cruz and uh jacob young in the outfield not that young is like whatever he's not anything special very good defensive player he's good defensively and he's been like okay offensively in the second half of the season so um i think james wood's probably gonna get some dh time as well so uh yeah just uh probably a wait and see there with johandy morales let's get into the players of the night from monday's action oh my goodness gracious oh my goodness scott what just happened to kyle harrison well what happened
Speaker 3to kyle harrison was he pitched on the road i think that's the main the main uh the main thing to distinguish here because i don't know why we haven't drawn as much attention to this as maybe we should have uh it's just not something i thought to check myself but for as much as we've made of brian woo's home and away splits kyle harrison's are even more extreme so here at chicago worth noting cubs offense has been on fire that venue seems to be playing really well right now for hitters although the wind the stats on the wind weren't and it wasn't blowing out that hard but still worth pointing out wrigley field's been a hitter's paradise of late harrison got bombed nine earned runs on 10 hits and three and two-thirds innings five home runs surrendered uh we're all three of alex bregman's off harrison i don't know if all three were so like the hottest hitter in the second half was one of the hitters he was facing but anyway two of them were off three two of the three one of them was off uh andrew vaughn i think so at home this year kyle harrison has a 126 era a 0.86 whip 12.3 k per nine only four home runs allowed like he's the best pitcher you've ever seen at home on the road 594 era 158 whip 9.4 k per nine so even the k per nine's three fewer for all the extra batters he's facing and 15 home runs allowed again compared to four at home that is stark uh and stark enough that i mean as as the season draws to a close here i think we got to be choosy about when we use kyle harrison since returning from the il three of his starts have been amazing two of them have been dreadful and so the dreadful starts overshadow the amazing ones and his numbers look pretty awful if you can avoid the the dreadful ones again 126 era at home i don't know how literally to take that but uh america family field is a strange venue yeah when it first opened and for i don't know decade and a half after that it was regarded as like one of the most hitter friendly parks in baseball but it's as as we've learned to measure these things or maybe it's even played differently it's become less so and in particular a lot more strikeouts happen there and i think it's just because it casts these unusual shadows with the game and it's just like it's just like it's just like it's just like with that retractable roof it has uh and for whatever reason like it works really well for harrison i don't know i don't know if that explains so much why why he's so bad on the road but like i do kind of buy in his case that okay this this may be a really good place for him to
Speaker 4pitch yeah i think part of it is probably he just has a pretty unusual profile and and from what i understand indoor venues do help pitchers with their ivb and he gets about a half inch more ivb at home than on the road so there's not nothing there um but yeah if you're talking about like weird sight lines or you know weird shadows what however you want to phrase it you know that that does seem like something that might specifically help a guy like kyle harrison who's just kind of weird like he's got iffy ivb on his force field and he's just kind of weird like he's a teamer but he gets a huge amount of uh horizontal break to the arm side with it and so you know that could be and and like scott said it's a slight uh positive park for home runs now over the past three seasons it has the second highest strikeout park factor of any park in baseball so you would expect every pitcher to be better at american family ballpark or field or that's a little extreme and in fairness it's really like two or three bad starts one of them was three on runs and four and two-thirds innings the other were eight and nine runs so you know those those numbers he's mostly been pretty good at home is what i'm trying to say as well
Speaker 1or on the road sorry i i will point out that he also just has not looked exactly right since coming back from that forearm injury that he was dealing with so uh in the five starts since coming back his fastball velocity he's ever done in the last five years he's never done in the last five years 93.7 miles per hour before he went on the il it was 95 miles per hour so for someone who relies on their fastball as much as kyle harrison does the velocity has been down on that pitch and then there was another start one of the five since coming back on the road where he got the the scoring line was changed from eight earned runs down to three earned runs he still gave up eight runs but only three of them were earned and obviously that could have made like his overall line since returning look a lot worse as well so he still gave up eight runs but only three of them were earned and obviously that could have made like his overall line since returning so he's had some really big blow-up starts here uh recently since coming back and he is still 96 percent rostered he is 85 started i do have a drop-o meter set up so let's just do it where
Speaker 3is kyle harrison on zero the drop-o okay yeah that was like i said three awesome starts since
Speaker 4returning and then two dreadful ones i also just i this is not always the most helpful way of getting a good start but i think it's a good start if you're going to be able to get a good start if you're going to be able to get a good start if you're going to be able to get a good start if you're
Speaker 1I mean, it's really just one of the matchups. So if you're locked in this week, he has another road start later this week at Cincinnati, where a lot of home runs are hit. Next week, it's at home against Cincinnati, so that would be a good one. The week after that, the Brewers, I don't know his matchup yet, but they're on the road the entire week. So two of his next three matchups are on the road. So do with that what you will with Kyle Harrison, but yeah, I'm pretty sure you just play the matchups with him depending on where he is pitching that week. All right, Chris, over to you. I guess we'll just stick with this game for a second, and I will mention my player of the night, Alex Bregman. He has turned into Barry Bonds. Yes, 4-4, no, 3-for-6 with a triple dong, 4 RBI, and 41 games in the second half, 296, 14 homers, 35 runs, 36 RBI, a 980 OPS. He is second in homers, second in runs, third in RBI in the second half. PCA the only name ahead of him in those categories, so it does help out. All this Cubs production, but you know, we did this a couple of weeks ago, like a buy or sell. Like, oh man, are we buying what Bregman's doing? I don't know. He might just be awesome. Maybe not this awesome, but he might just be really, really good for the rest of the season.
Speaker 4So I do think this is raising some questions about how we're going to view him for 2027, and it's September. I think a lot of the discussions are going to be geared toward that line of thinking anyway moving forward, but I think he's up to like fifth or sixth among, third baseman in fantasy rankings this season. I don't think you should look at this and say, ah, Michael, Alex Bregman was great in the second half, so he's going to be great next season. I don't think like that's not, he's not a 980 OPS guy, and I hope I don't have to say that. I don't think anybody's going to look at Alex Bregman next season and say, look what he did in the second half. He has gotten his overall numbers to a very, very respectable place. He kind of just looks like the normal Alex Bregman, and it's funny because it's just kind of the opposite of last season when he was incredible in the first half last season and then really bad in the second half this season. This year, really bad in the first half. He's been incredible so far in the second. September is going to play a big role in how we view him for 2027, but I think on the whole, he has moved back from fringe starter at third baseman, which that's damning with faint praise at this point, to. Pretty good starter at third base. He's going to end up with 25 plus homers and 90 plus runs and probably 90 plus RBI. And basically that's what you drafted Alex Bregman for. You know, maybe there's a, you got to account for some downside next season because he is in his thirties and there's always risk there. But I think the second half has mostly just gotten Alex Bregman back to where he's supposed to be. And I don't, I don't want to read too much into it beyond that. I don't want to read too much into it beyond that.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's fair. I mean, look, tail of two seasons, but the numbers again are, are pretty close to what we usually expect from Bregman. I think each of us, I know Scott was down on Bregman. I expect him to be worse this year as well. But yeah, obviously has already surpassed what I thought he was going to do. And 26 homers are the most that he has hit in the past two, four, six, seven years. So he's probably going to be a little bit better. He's probably going to pass that. He's probably going to be his most home runs hit since 2019. He's not going to sniff 41 anymore, but you know, he might get close to 30 the way that he's hitting right now.
Speaker 3So 2019 was the juiciest of the juice ball era.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3And he had 40, a lot of players had their career high and home runs and two thought in 2019, just like a lot of players had their career high and home runs in 1987. I wonder what was going on then. It was a long time ago, but I wonder what was going on in the nineties. Well, we kind of know what was going on.
Speaker 4I think, I think, I think it was a lot of juiced ball. There was a lot of juicing in general.
Speaker 3we've, we've had that conversation before where I kind of given, given how small the differences in, in like things like seam height and, and core buoyancy, like such tiny insignificant differences can make a big difference in how the ball carries. I think a lot of the ups and downs over the history of baseball are probably related to that. But we don't need to get into that conversation again. It's it's, it's the sort of conversation that makes people pop blood vessels for some reason. I think it's interesting, but whatever.
Speaker 1I will highlight one other player in this Cubs game. Cause they hit nine home runs as a team. They put up 17 runs. Niko Horner has looked a lot like himself in the second half. He is now hitting three 33 with four homers, 24 RBI eight steals of 7 99 OPS here in the second half. First, half to 33 with a six 31 OPS, but he was underperforming expected stats and things. So I, I just think Niko Horner is back on track as well. So a shout out to both him and Alex Bregman, Chris, a quick thought here on your player of the night.
Speaker 4Don Lyle, who has also had a huge second half. It's not quite as huge as OPS is around 900. He has matched his first half Homer total after going deep twice on Monday. He's got 10 now in the second half. You attend the first half. That's how that works. And he's mostly kind of like Alex Bregman, at least playing his way into what I thought he was going to be. And it looks like we're going to get a 25 Homer 15 steel. I get 90 runs in RBI each out of Dale and Lyle with a two 65 ish batting average. It's a pretty good player. It's not a superstar, but it's most Brian Reynolds seasons is what we're going to get out of Dale and Lyle. That's a, it's a pretty good player, a borderline top 100 pick. And I think people would be surprised that he's going to end up ranking that high this season based on how slow he was early on. And we'll see how September goes, but yeah, this is Dale and Lyle mostly playing his way into what I expected from him.
Speaker 1I did not think that he would hit for this much power. And obviously again, like a big second half has helped bring those numbers back up here for Lyle, who's now up to 20 home runs. He has 13, steals on the season as well. But I also wonder if the nationals are just kind of helping him tap into more of that power the way they have with other players this season, because in the second half, or I, you know, I wrote down over his last 31 games, but during that stretch, he has a 91 mile per hour, average EV, a 12% barrel rate, and he is hitting a lot more fly balls. So he's just doing the things that we want to see to get more power out of him. And I just wonder like the nationals have done that with their other players too. So yeah,
Speaker 4no, that they seem to have taken a step forward organization, Lee, in a lot of ways, maybe not so much on the pitching side, but certainly with their hitters. I mean, you're, you're getting, I mean, Kate Cavalli. Sure. That's the one. Don't, don't really ask about anyone else. Don't ask about the bullpen. No, that's bad. I believe they're too blown. Save short of the MLB record is what I saw. Got a whole month left too, but on the hitting side, they've had, you know, finally CJ Abrams sustaining the breakout for a full season and, and James, would send it down a lot of the rough edges and yeah, it's Dale and Lau was below 88 miles per hour and average X velocity. Each of the first three months of the season, he's been above 90.5 in both July and August. So it might just be a hot stretch, but I think he's a player. I think he's pretty good.
Speaker 1Yeah. I mean, if someone can contact that nationals front office and get their hands on Dylan Cruz, that would be pretty nice. If we can figure that out. Oh man. Before we hit our first break, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already, big thank you to everyone for being here. We do appreciate it. Again, hit that like button. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Baseball has always been a game of inches. Now it's also a game of seconds. T-Mobile and MLB have teamed up to bring ABS challenge to all 29 ballparks across the U S this isn't a minor upgrade. This is the most significant new technology in the history of the sport. And it's powered by T-Mobile with every pitch thrown ABS challenge uses real time precision to verify the call, giving them the support they need. No delays, no guesswork, just accuracy at the speed. The game demands. Thanks to ABS challenge. T-Mobile is helping power the moments that define the game. When performance and reliability are non-negotiable MLB turns to T-Mobile. That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when the most innovative network in the country powers, the most data-driven sport in the world. T-Mobile powers MLB is most ambitious technology and America's best network powers your connection to baseball Homer away. Every pitch, every game, every day, every day T-Mobile it's better over here. Major league baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of major league baseball. Visit MLB.com T-Mobile best mobile network in the U S according to Ookla speed test based on analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data. First half, 2026 Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break, but not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts. So let's take a minute. To go over some of my faves Snapple, real facts, 1417 before 1859 baseball umpires sat behind home plate in rocking chairs. Snapple, real facts, 1483, more than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple, real fact, two 53. The first TV remote control introduced in 1950 was called lazy bones. Snapple, real fact, 2105 professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville in the off season. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment because let's be honest. this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting.
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Speaker 1It appears we are getting closer here with Aaron Judge. Good news there. James Wood needs one more rehab game that he will play on Tuesday, and if that goes well, it sounds like he could be back in the Nationals lineup as soon as Wednesday. So I had a lot of people asking whether or not to play him still this week, and in most cases, I would have opted to yes, leave or put James Wood back in your lineups this week. We do finally have some clarity here on the Chase Burns situation. He will not pitch at all this week, with his next start coming next Monday. September 7th against the Dodgers, and additionally, each of his starts from this point forward will be on the shorter end, as the team monitors his innings for the rest of the season and his workload. Do you guys think that Chase Burns is a drop in redraft leagues? Obviously not Keeper Dynasty League. Long term, he's going to be awesome. But in redraft, 98% rostered. What do you guys think about Chase Burns?
Speaker 3I think if you need to declare a spot, it's probably fine. He might still be useful as a three or four inning guy in a categories league the same way an elite reliever, an elite innings accumulating reliever is. Doubtful you're going to get much out of Burns in a points league still. So that would be where I'm most okay dropping him. Those tend to be shallower leagues anyway.
Speaker 1Ellie De La Cruz was in the lineup as the DH on Monday. He left Sunday with left quad tightness. That is the same quad that bothered him in the second half of last year. Apparently, he does have a small strain in that quad, but he's going to play through it. This does not seem very smart from the Reds' perspective because Ellie is the face of their franchise and you wouldn't want him to mess that quad up even more. But he's playing for now. So I guess as long as he's playing, you just leave him in your lineup. But I don't think he's going to run much the rest of the season with that injury. CJ Abrams was scratched from the lineup on Monday due to a back tightness. Cattell Marte was activated.
Speaker 4Do you think we should note for 2027 purposes that the Nationals did clarify that he is actually going to split his time between second base and shortstop the rest of the way? Yes. So entering next season with second base eligibility, not at all a given. Apparently, he has been playing better at shortstop and they want to reward him for that. So does not seem likely at this point that he's going to get second base eligibility to carry over to next year because he's got one appearance and they've got what? 25 games left. So just the math doesn't really work.
Speaker 3The math ain't math. And I get the impression CJ Abrams doesn't want to move off shortstop. And that's exactly what I think as well.
Speaker 4I find it very funny because like presumably it's like, oh, shortstops get paid more. But like teams can just check like they have stats. They can see that you're not good at shortstop. So you have to play better at shortstop in order for that to matter.
Speaker 3Doesn't necessarily all come down to dollars. There's a lot more prestige of playing shortstop. You get a lot more balls hit your way. There's pride. It's because, you know, because the position you play is part of your identity and it's tough to give that up.
Speaker 1Yeah. But if we are keeping it a buck on CJ Abrams, he is minus 17 outs above average.
Speaker 4He's been like the worst defensive shortstop in baseball since he joined the majors.
Speaker 1First percentile range, according to Stackcast. So, yeah, the way this whole thing has played out, like he's in the lineup on Monday as a second baseman and then he has back tightness all of a sudden. And he said recently he didn't want to move off of shortstop. Like it all seems a little fishy here for CJ Abrams. Quetzal Marte was activated and in the lineup batting cleanup on Monday, a very bizarre situation. But he is back with the D-backs and he is he is back to being in the middle of that lineup.
Speaker 3So I don't want to play armchair psychologist here. Maybe I'm at risk of doing that. But trying to make sense of his comments. It seems like he was playing through injury, I guess, maybe the hamstring and just didn't feel like doing it anymore, so he just stopped showing up.
Speaker 1I think there was a Ken Rosenthal article where he kind of broke it down and said that Marte wanted to get an MRI, but the team didn't allow him to. Or there was some kind of miscommunication there. Like he was playing through injury. And he wanted to, like, get treatment or something or and I don't know, I guess maybe the team didn't want him to. There was something like that. But yeah, it was, I don't know, still a weird situation. I'm always.
Speaker 4I'm not a doctor, famously. I don't know if there's some reason why guys shouldn't get MRIs. Like I know with like what's what's what's the cortisone shots, there's like a limit to how much you can like safely have that done in a given year at x-rays, too.
Speaker 3And yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, but I have no idea about MRIs. There might be some risk and if there's magnets, I don't know how they work, but I'm always amazed when professional sports teams are like, he's not going to have an MRI. It's like, just just do it. You got the it's right there. Yeah, there's like a there's like a you have to swipe your card every time you do it. Like I figure you already paid for it, right? Like, I don't know how I mean, I genuinely don't know how it works, but I'm just I'm always amazed when professional sports teams are paying guys twenty five million dollars a year and they're like, it's he doesn't need an MRI. It's fine. Like, just do it.
Speaker 1I'm pretty sure they have to pay every time an MRI happens, but I have I genuinely have no idea.
Speaker 3Nobody likes to go to the doctor, Chris.
Speaker 4Everybody puts it off because, like, I remember a few years back, like Carmelo Anthony had to get fluid drained from his knee and he was like, I do not want to do that. And I get that. I don't want to have fluid sucked out of my knee from a giant needle. If I can avoid that, that's reasonable. But I was like, I guess you do have to get a shot, right? Like they got to put the stuff in you. That stuff feels weird. That's it.
Speaker 3Yeah, it makes it makes you feel like warm all over.
Speaker 4Oh, yeah, I had to get that when I was in the hospital a couple of months ago and it like had a very strong feeling. I was going to throw up in the MRI machine, which would have been a problem for everyone. Everybody involved will get. I didn't just to be clear.
Speaker 1Wilson Contreras was placed on the aisle with a left hamstring strain and Mickey Gasper was recalled and he was in the lineup at first base for the Red Sox and he hit another home run. I mean, that guy's been on fire. 8% rostered. I think he is back to being a name of interest in two catcher leagues. I guess I'll ask Mickey Gasper or Ethan Salas.
Speaker 3I'm going to say solace. I agree.
Speaker 4I mean, you might just start at first base every day and it's like I can see the case for it. It's not a I laughed because it's just funny to ask that about Mickey Gasper, who had zero home runs before, what, eight days ago? But the way he's playing. Yeah. I mean, he might be in the middle of a pretty good lineup moving forward.
Speaker 1Other first base replacements. If you lost Wilson Contreras, some names in shallow leagues, Royce Lewis, Bryce Eldridge, Josh Bell, Ty France, who had another big game here on Monday in midsize leagues, you have Christian Encarnacion Strand, although of course he was not in the lineup in Coors Field. That was annoying. Tim Tawa has first base eligibility, Kobe Mayo, Abimelech Ortiz and Connor Norby. And then in the deepest of leagues, Nathaniel Lowe and Andres Chaparro, who I don't know how much he's going to play. Now that they have Yohandy Morales, Connor Griffin will have his rehab move from double A to triple A starting on Tuesday. Sounds like he could be back pretty soon. Garrett Crochet played catch off the mound on Monday. The Red Sox remain optimistic that Crochet could return as a reliever at some point in September. Joe Ryan will start a rehab assignment at triple A on Tuesday. He's been out since August 7th with a glute strain. Sonny Gray had his next start push back to Saturday against the Orioles to get him. I haven't seen any talk of an injury for Sonny Gray, but he's also just old, so that could be part of it. Xavier Edwards on the I.L. with a left thumb sprain. Javier Sanoja started at second base with Leo Jimenez at third base on Monday. Speaking of the Marlins for a second, Chris, did you see Esterio Ruiz's throw from the outfield? No, I did not. Look it up while I'm talking. It was one of the worst throws I have ever seen in my life. Second base replacements in shallow leagues if you lost Edwards, who has been struggling a lot over the past couple months. There's Luke Kieschel, Royce Lewis, Zach Gelov, Travis Bazzano, Willie Castro. Some second basemen in mid-sized leagues, Tommy Edmond, Tim Tawa, Angel Hanau, and Connor Norby. And then some deeper replacements, you have David Hamilton and Vaughn Grissom. Chris, what did you think of that throw?
Speaker 4So that didn't go the way I thought it was going to go, which it didn't go the way Esterio Ruiz thought it was going to go, clearly, either. I expected it to be kind of like a dribbler, like he just threw it into the ground. He did the equivalent. He did the exact opposite of that. He soared it way over third base by about 40 feet. That was almost impressive.
Speaker 1He was off by 50 feet, man. It was like all the way down the left field line. It was such a bad throw. The Orioles claimed Luis Robert off waivers from the Mets. And this is interesting. I didn't think another team would pick him up and pay the remaining $5 million salary. Do you think Luis Robert just jumps in as a near everyday player for the Orioles?
Speaker 4It's a little bit crowded. And the timing is weird because Colton Couser's been better lately. But I think the defense is not great from either him or Lodi Tavares or whoever else is playing center field for the Orioles. So I think from that perspective, it's an interesting fit. Couser did rob a game-winning home run tonight. Fantastic catch. For the final out of the game in Coors Field. That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1Poor Jake McCarthy.
Speaker 4Yeah, I would guess. Luis Robert's going to play pretty regularly. But I don't think it'll be literally every game.
Speaker 1In deeper leagues, I picked up Lodi Tavares this week for those awesome matchups. So he's probably not going to play anymore this week with Luis Robert coming in. So that's not great. George Lombard has missed two straight with that knee inflammation. Bryce Miller will rejoin the Mariners rotation following the injury to Emerson Hancock. Joe Musgrove is expected to make one more rehab start before returning to the Padres. Justin, what? Anything on Joe Musgrove?
Speaker 4Oh, it's frustrating because it seemed like he was way ahead of Nick Pavetta. And now it's like, is he going to make his debut at the same time as Nick Pavetta? Well, probably not the same time, but...
Speaker 1Yeah, he might. Justin Steele will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. He will return as a reliever this season. JT Ginn's next start will be pushed back to this weekend in Seattle as the A's look to manage his workload. Pedro Ramirez was out of the lineup Monday due to back spasms. Luis Renjifo will miss the remainder of the season with an ACL tear and MCL sprain. in his right knee. Brutal injury. He was actually playing pretty well for the Padres. The Tigers promoted infield prospect John Peck on Monday. Scott, do you have anything on John Peck? 24 years old.
Speaker 3Let me see. I took some notes on him yesterday. Obviously not a big prospect.
Speaker 4Wasn't that the kid from Drake and Josh?
Speaker 3I don't remember that kid's name. It was Josh Peck. Oh, okay. He had pretty good numbers in the minors, but he didn't hit the ball especially hard. And I don't think it's going to be more than a bit player in the majors, if that.
Speaker 1Again, that is John Peck being promoted by the Tigers. Let's fire up the drop-o-meter for some other starting pitchers here. And George Kirby took another step back. Scott, you know what that means. Five innings, five runs, two walks, two strikeouts, two homers, it's allowed here for George Kirby, who bounced back great in his previous start, but clearly was not that player here. He's another one who has home-road splits on the season, which is like the Mariners pitchers. Last seven starts for Kirby. It's a 614 ERA 156 whip. He's still 96% rostered. Where would you guys put George Kirby on the drop-o-meter?
Speaker 3I mean, I'm not dropping him. Yeah. I don't... I guess I don't... I don't want to quite go zero, but he'd be like a two.
Speaker 4I agree. You're starting him at home against the Athletics this weekend. You're probably not starting him at the Athletics next week, though.
Speaker 3Yeah. It's one of those... I mean, he's kind of becoming a Charizard. You know? Because he just... It seemed like he made such strides last time out. Okay. I moved George. I moved George Kirby back up in my rankings. I'm obviously not near where he was at the start of the season. But then this happens. And he made some arsenal changes last time that I kind of thought maybe he'd stick with given the success he had. He emphasized a splitter, threw it 14% of the time last time. It's not a pitch he throws very often normally. And he stopped doing that. Again, gave up the splitter after one good start. He brought back the sinker after basically ditching it last time. And the sinker's a pitch. It's got like a 340 batting average against for him. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to make of George Kirby at this point. But he just seems to not have a good grasp on what to do anymore.
Speaker 4From a fantasy perspective, he's kind of coasting on reputation at this point. Yeah. This guy hasn't been that good the last two seasons. And I think last year it was easy enough to write it off as, okay, he missed the first two months of the season with a shoulder injury. But he's been healthy this season. I don't think he's had any kind of IELTS stint this season. Right? And he's been worse. Should I correct that? Yeah. I'm not going to give up on him in the long run because there's clearly talent there. There's clearly... A great home ballpark to help him live up to that reputation.
Speaker 3I think he needs to get out of Seattle, frankly. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I think they've meddled with him so much, like they've meddled with all their pitchers, that he's kind of lost his way. And I know... I forget who it was, but one of the national writers at the trade deadline mentioned a lot of teams were interested in him because they thought they could fix him.
Speaker 1I feel like Nick Pollock has brought up Kirby getting out of Seattle and potentially being better as well.
Speaker 3That may be who I'm referring to, actually, when I said one of the national writers. So, it doesn't mean it's going to happen, but I don't know. I'm kind of over the sinker thing, to be honest. I feel like I'm constantly talking about, oh, thank goodness this guy threw a sinker less this start because it has a .350 batting average against.
Speaker 4But that's the trade-off you make with the sinker, right? You're not going to miss many bats, but some guys have a better feel for it, or some guys do have a platoon advantage when they throw their sinker.
Speaker 3Right, but when the batting average is that high, that's a really bad batting average on a pitch.
Speaker 4Yeah, it depends on the pitcher.
Speaker 3And obviously, it could be less an effective pitch on its own than something that bolsters the arsenal. But, like, it just... I don't know. It feels like... It feels like when the game got away from throwing sinkers, pitching got a lot better on the whole. And now they brought it back because it worked for some pitchers. And it just... It's the sort of trend that I think doesn't need to become as league-wide as it has.
Speaker 1All right. His start next week is on the road. George Kirby, his start the week after that looks like it's also on the road. It's at the Angels. There's a chance that it could be in Coors Field. That would be pretty terrible. I would put this number a little bit high. I would put this at, like, a five. On George Kirby. I think in shallower leagues, you can... Especially in a daily lineup league, if you need that spot to stream, I would be all right getting... I mean, yeah.
Speaker 4If he's not at home the next two weeks...
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4That's pretty reasonable, yeah.
Speaker 1Yep. Next up here, we have Peter Lambert, who has regressed a little bit here. Four and two-thirds, two runs allowed, five walks, six strikeouts against the White Sox. His previous two starts before this were very bad as well. It was nine earned runs over three and two-thirds. The other one wasn't... I probably overstated, like, awful or whatever, but the other start was five and two-thirds, seven hits, three runs, three walks, five strikeouts. He just hasn't looked as good lately. 80% rostered. Where would you guys put Peter Lambert on the drop-o-meter?
Speaker 3It always seemed kind of fake. So, particularly now that, presumably, he'll still make a second start this year, and I imagine that'll be the case. It'll probably be his last two-start week of the year. So, even with a good matchup, I'd be a little hesitant to use him at this point. So, I would go... I'd probably go, like, six or seven. Let's say six and a half. I always like the halves. See if I can get it. You can't do it. Yeah! There you go. We got it, baby. Let's go. 65% on the graphic.
Speaker 4For the people listening, there's a little graphic, and Frank has a little needle that he can play with to show you. to show.
Speaker 1- I have this interactive tool now for drop-o-meter and worry-o-meter, so I'm just here messing around with it. The last name on the list is Gage Jump, who unfortunately we were recommending as a two-star pitcher this week. He got destroyed at the Rangers. You would think on the road has a better chance here. Seven runs allowed over four and a third, three walks, two strikeouts. Still got some whiffs here, 13 on 91 pitches. His first six starts were great. His next 12 starts, 706 ERA, 181 whip, 63% rostered is Gage Jump. Where is he on the drop-o-meter? Oh, man. Nine, 10?
Speaker 3I want to jump ship. I think it's fair to attach the Charizard label to Gage Jump. He might be the new face of Charizard, frankly, because this is...
Speaker 1I don't think anyone will overtake Mackenzie Gore, Scott.
Speaker 3He's the OG, but Gage Jump has taken it to another level, because he'll do what he did last time. If he throws 65% of his pitches for strikes or better, it goes great. This start, he didn't even throw 60% of his pitches for strikes, and that seems to be the tipping point for him, whether Gage Jump destroys you or whether he destroys his opponent. You obviously have no way of predicting how that's going to go heading into the start. It's just... It's just a total dice throw. And I think the bad starts are so bad that the good starts aren't worth it. I agree.
Speaker 4I mean, he's at like 11%, 12% walk rate across both Triple N, the majors this season. That's just... It's not totally untenable, but Blake Snell's kind of the only guy who actually makes that work consistently. So he's got to improve that. I think he's a really... He's a really talented pitcher. I think the stuff absolutely is there for him to be a difference maker in fantasy. But he's not right now because the command and control just isn't where it needs to be. And Gage Jump is going to be on my sleepers list for next season. But I don't think you need to roster him right now.
Speaker 3I'm going to only put it at a 7, though. And I'll tell you why. The Athletics have the best pitching schedule remaining, as we talked about last week. I would be afraid of somebody using him against me based on that schedule and the good version showing up. Maybe it'll go the other way. They'll use him against me and it'll be the reason I win. But I'd just rather remove that variable from play, if possible. I'm still putting it at a 7, which means I'm fine dropping him. But you need to actually be dropping him for something you want, not just spite dropping him.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3I don't think anybody's going to add him. I mean, he might show up on the sleeper pitchers list the rest of season with those matchups. I got to come up with 10 names every week.
Speaker 1It's just tough, too, because how many of those starts are at home? I would think you probably never want to use him at home. And then he has a two-star week where both are on the road this week. And the first one on the road here, he gets walloped. So it's like, how can you have any level of confidence in using Gage Jump? So I would probably be more closer to a 10 as well. Just jump and ship for anyone else that pops up here. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver names. I've got, hey, real quick. We'll do that right after this.
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Speaker 1Welcome back, Fantasy. We're going to see baseball today. Let's run through some waiver wire hitters from Monday's action. And Walker Jenkins is on the board. Hit his first career home run. It did come off of a position player, but he is up to 64% rostered. And he's looked pretty good so far. Ty France is picking things back up. Last 19 games, 313 with three home runs and OPS over 900. First half of August, you know, he did, you know, slow down a little bit. But again, Ty France has picked things back up here. He's 51% rostered. And Cam Smith had himself a, you know, a better August here as well. He went two for four with a double triple, two RBI. He hit 250 with four homers and a 785 OPS in the month. He is 40% rostered. Do you think any of these three roster rates need to be higher? Jenkins at 64%, France at 51%, Cam Smith at 40%.
Speaker 3I think Jenkins and France do. I think especially France. Like, guys got like an 860 OPS on the year and a good batting average. And he's got a good batting average. He's still only 50% rostered in CBS leagues. Like, that seems crazy to me. On the one hand, I get it. And we've talked about this a lot. Like, first base being as deep as it is. But, you know, it's down Nick Kurtz. It's down Wilson Contreras. It's going to be down more guys probably over the next four weeks. And I think Ty France is closer to being a must start than a waiver pickup. I'm not exactly calling him a must start. But I would not be ashamed to start him in any league going forward.
Speaker 4You think I'd rather start him than Christian Walker?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4Oh, yeah. I'm sure that's not the only first base.
Speaker 1I would make that swap straight up in like a shallower league. I would just drop Christian Walker for Ty France.
Speaker 4Yeah. I mean, I think even like a points league, I know Luis Garcia is having an awesome season, but he does still sit out. So, you know, that's... I think he started a couple against lefties lately, but, you know, that's a conversation worth having. And then, like, you look at like a points league, like Josh Naylor, he's been pretty bad all season. I know he's been better in the second half, but better in the second half is still worse than what Ty France has been. So, yeah, those are all worthwhile conversations to have.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, we're at the point if you're in a head-to-head league and you have a playoff matchup, like you just need to start someone who is doing something now or has really good matchups. If you have like a dead spot in your lineup, someone that's underperformed all year, now is the time where you can go ahead and make that swap. So, not that I want you to overthink this time of year, but it's like, yeah, if you haven't been getting much from Walker or Josh Naylor, like, just you can move on at this point.
Speaker 3As for Walker Jenkins, he needs to be more rostered than 64%. But when he got called up, we talked about Mustad everywhere, even the shallower leagues. I faced a decision. In one of my shallower leagues, three outfielder points league, and I couldn't find a way to get him on my roster. I think I did put in a low bid for him just in case, but somebody obviously outbid me for him, and I was fine with it. I get not adding him in a shallow three outfielder league if you've got a full outfielder and don't want to clutter your bench. I get it. But somebody in your league could use Walker Jenkins. The biggest knock on him now is that he's hit ninth every game. Yeah. And I don't know if there's going to be time for that to change, no matter how well he performs. But, you know, so far he's done pretty well.
Speaker 1I agree. Some deeper names here. Vaughn Grissom, three for five with two doubles and four RBI. He is 11% rostered. He has first, second, and third eligibility. Jonah Cox is making some noise here for the Giants, two for five with his fourth home run. He has started six straight. And in 14 August games, 297, three homers, four steals, 945 OPS. He was having a very good season in the minors as well. And anything here with Cody Freeman of the Rangers, two for four with two RBI and a steal. He has started 11 straight. And during that span, 324, one homer, one steal. Scott, I feel like he's a name you brought up last year. I know he had a pretty big season in the minors last season. But anything here with Cody Freeman, Jonah Cox, Vaughn Grissom, some deeper names?
Speaker 3I've been... kind of impressed by Vaughn Grissom. The numbers aren't amazing, but I figured he was just done. We were done with him in fantasy. He's hitting the ball a tiny bit harder this year. Still only 28th percentile, so he doesn't hit the ball very hard. The biggest change, though, is that a lot more fly balls. And despite this big game, he hasn't actually produced that well in August, so I don't think we're at a point where we're adding Vaughn Grissom outside of the deepest of leagues. But he may... they still have a career ahead of him i think this year has shown that much that's the most i could say for this group yeah look they're kind of they're non-prospects who made some noise in the minors this year and like look nlal only of course anybody who's getting playing time is worth adding but they're and so we can mention them for that reason but they're definitely players who don't need to be on the average fantasy players radar unless they do something to put themselves on the average
Speaker 1fantasy players radar the waiver wire pitcher of the night was walbert arania who was awesome against the yankees seven innings of one run ball eight strikeouts zero walks that is the key he threw 72 percent of his pitches for strikes first pitch strikes to 19 of 25 batters that is a 76 percent clip he had 16 whiffs on 95 pitches look we've mentioned it already a few times but uh walbert arania definitely in that charizard category uh when the control is off it is really off and he could just straight up have some bad starts but his stuff is filthy though like when he's on he's unhittable like he was in this one so i don't know that i'd put him in that
Speaker 3charizard category and i i say this apologetically because i did not put him in my sleeper pitchers as a two-star pitcher and i did not recommend him as a streamer yesterday and he had his best start of the season so like i feel bad about that but you look at the game log yes his two starts prior to this one weren't very good they weren't like they weren't like gage jump bad they just weren't very good and the rest of his game log there's like two misses the entire season otherwise so ground ball pitchers tend to have really high floors from start to start they don't always have the highest ceilings and i don't think walbert arania ceiling is particularly high though i do think it's higher than the average ground ball pitchers and i would be fine using him i think with any matchup going for not saying he's must start but like if if you're not sure who to plug into your pitching staff i i think walbert arania is always going
Speaker 4to be an okay choice i do think from a long-term perspective the ceiling here could be very very high it just it comes down to the walk rate you know i don't think because he threw a bunch of that we can project that out the rest of the way but he is the type of pitcher that if the light ever goes on it could be very very impressive it's just we have spent three years saying that about jose soriano and kind of falling for it when he does it for a couple of weeks and then he regresses so i i i think walbert arania is probably someone who's going to be a very very popular breakout candidate next season to the point where i could see his price getting too high with too many people baking in that improvement already but it's true if he gets the walk rate below like four per nine you know i i think you could see like a sandy alcantara type uh trajectory for walbert arania remember sandy alcantara couldn't throw strikes early on his group too so yeah he's a fascinating pitcher for for 2027 for sure would you drop any
Speaker 1of the uh drop-o-meter names for walbert arania kirby jump jump for sure lambert yeah lambert and jump jump and lambert yeah okay not kirby uh i had two very deep names on here i probably don't want to spend too much time on them but did you guys see anything from kate povich or robert stock they had decent starts i noticed
Speaker 3povich struck out 11 in his final start at triple a prior to being called up again here and i always feel like there should be more there with him because he has these flashes uh but i don't see enough to i don't even i don't even know if i'm going to be able to see enough of him i don't even know if this was a spot start or not last time he came up it was just for a start or two so i don't think we can count on him in fantasy it's just more does kate povich have a future in the orioles rotation or is he always going to be in this limbo where you know they're calling him up when they need a spot starter i don't know uh but he had a good start here and his last minor league start was really good and he's had flashes before so i i remain i remain interested whenever i see him in the box score we'll just put it there and i'll see him in the box score i'll see him in the box score
Speaker 1put it that way and scott unfortunately it turns out elmer rodriguez was not a glue guy after all rough start for here on monday hey real quick hey real very quick a quick thought on each of these names michael harris uh continued his great season he had his 23rd home run but i just thought it was interesting his steals are down from 20 to 10 uh and his sprint speed is down quite a bit so not really sure what that's about it's still a great season but not as many steals as usual
Speaker 4they're gonna steal more bases than they did last season are they okay they had 82 last year they have 75 right now entering today so they are gonna they're gonna beat that where are they
Speaker 3michael harris yeah um i don't know well it's mostly gone to austin riley he's got like six
Speaker 4yeah the fact the sprint speeds down a little bit is you know worrisome i guess michael harris is still only 25 though so i i don't doesn't all these have one
Speaker 3just one steal if that okay so riley has nine i undersold it yeah he's been he's more than double
Speaker 4his career he's having the the exact reason we all hoped he would all these has three three yeah yeah uh yeah acuna has 19 harris has 10 jorge mateo had 10 before uh you don't uh and austin riley has nine yeah yeah hey matt olsen has four good for him all right no
Speaker 1all right well uh still a great season for michael harris who also has improved mightily against lefty so shout out to him manny machado four for five with a double and a run scored his previous 29 games before this 209 with one homer two steals a 562 ops he is now 34 years old i i kind of just think that like age is catching up to him k rate is up to a career high his quality of contact is
Speaker 3down it just looks like machado's just getting older i mean he got really hot mid-season uh kind of about the same time fernando tatis picked it up and that gave me hope that he was it was clicking again for him but obviously the numbers from the past 29 games don't lie and been pretty bad again yeah and so i imagine manny machado is not somebody who's gonna go
Speaker 1in the top 100 in drafts next year just one month with an ops over 800 this season for manny machado ryan jeffers he needed a big game he got it two for three with a double dong for rbi his previous 36 games before this so since coming back from the ham a bone injury 246 batting average three homers 729 ops and the quality of contact is way down 85.7 average ev a six percent barrel rate so it it kind of feels chris there's two ways you could go here because like maybe ryan jeffers was just playing over his head and he was always going to regress or maybe the ham a bone
Speaker 4has just kind of you know slowed his season down uh porcino los dos i think the answer is both um he was never that good like ryan jeffers looked like one of the 10 best hitters in baseball for the first month and a half of the season or whatever and he's not that we know that um and then he got hurt and probably isn't i don't want to say he's not 100 healthy but it's just that can be an injury that the effects of it linger and he's probably just cold as well um i think he's a pretty good hitter but even like the overall number is still 870 ops i don't think he's anywhere close to that good i think you take 100 points off ryan jeffers ops and i feel like that would be a pretty good spot to to place expectations for him so he's a fringe number one catcher uh not a superstar which is fine
Speaker 3the biggest disappointment for me since coming back he's only playing like two out of every three games which is it there there are enough good catchers who play a lot more than that that it jeffers definitely seems like uh like an also ran in that competition
Speaker 1yeah it's fair uh next up i feel like we haven't heard much about munitaka morikami lately he went for two with rbi three walks one strikeout 45 games since returning from that hamstring injury hitting 189 nine homers the ops is around 750 uh 35 percent carry so that number has gone up uh and some of the underlying plate discipline stuff has gotten worse since returning from injury i don't know scott temperature check here on on morikami i don't know how i feel about this one well i i
Speaker 3can't say i'm surprised even at his best i was thinking yeah that batting average is going to have to go down given the amount of swing and miss in his game um is it be has it has there been too much of a correction at this point maybe but not necessarily i will point out that uh even with his batting average now under 220 and of course a million strikeouts murakami's head-to-head point per game average which of course is not his optimal format it's it's 3.1 which it's good i mean yandi diaz is 3.15 and head to head points is his optimal format yeah yeah so it's still really good I don't know that you need to be starting him at points league at this very moment, but he's still had a good year for points league.
Speaker 4He's going to be a fascinating player for 2027 too. I was in on him coming into the season because his price was just so low. But there's just a difference between when he costs the 220th pick or whatever and when he costs, I don't know, 120. And tend to think it's probably going to be a no for me if it's that price, but he's going to be very team build dependent because you're going to have to either punt batting average or really insulate it to make up for the damage he's going to do because I think he's going to go down as one of the biggest batting average drains of fantasy relevant players.
Speaker 3I think there's going to be so much bust potential for Murakami every year. Mm-hmm. That doesn't mean he's not going to have a good career. It's just sort of like Javier Baez. He was in my bust list for like six straight years and eventually he busted. He didn't have the late career that so many players of his caliber do. And you don't know when it's going to happen, but the vulnerabilities here are so significant. Even if it's not a total collapse like in Baez's case, it could just be a year where he gets his 20, 20th percentile outcome and it makes him totally useless. I think that's in the cards for Murakami.
Speaker 1Hey, real quick. Jacob deGrom continues to pitch well at home. Seven shutout innings, one hit, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He had 19 whiffs on 85 pitches. The updated home road splits, 242 ERA at home, 586 on the road. I don't know why there are so many pitchers with drastic home road splits this season, but deGrom is one of them.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, I'm inclined to not put much weight on this one because Jacob deGrom's been around a while. It's not like we're just discovering who Jacob deGrom is now and, oh, maybe he's not a guy who can pitch in this environment. I think we know he can pitch anywhere. You know, there have been some bad starts recently. The previous one was awful, but I think this is a reminder that Jacob deGrom is still a must start, basically.
Speaker 1I do know that ballpark in Texas, the newer ballpark that they've made there, it plays much more pitcher-friendly, so I think that's just something to keep in mind for their pitchers. I mean, you don't really want to play the matchups with deGrom, but, I mean, we might be at that point in his career.
Speaker 4Second best pitchers park in baseball over the past three seasons.
Speaker 1Again, that's out in Texas. Last three names that I have here, all three, I think, are kind of like pitching over their heads, but, you know, they're getting it done right now. It's Clay Holmes, who in five starts with the Cubs, has a 155 ERA and a one whip. Aaron Nola, who over his last seven starts has a 250 ERA, but that also comes with a 126 whip. And Brandon Fott, who just had another quality start, and he struggled the two starts before this, but still in 12 starts since being recalled at the end of June. 222 ERA, a .95 whip. So, Chris, I don't think any of us kind of buy any of these three picks, but do we just continue to throw them out there while they're pitching this way?
Speaker 4I think Holmes is, yeah, I think Holmes is worth buying into. Now, he's already up to 83% rostered, so it's not super actionable, but...
Speaker 1I like him as a pitcher. I just don't buy, like, a 155 ERA. Oh, no, of course, but you don't want to buy that for anybody.
Speaker 4Yeah, nobody's a 155 ERA pitcher, especially not a guy who gives up as much contact as Clay Holmes does. But this is a perfect marriage of player and team, because the Cubs, even without Dansby Swanson, still have a very, very good infield defense. Maybe it's not, you know, far and away the best in baseball anymore, but it's still very good. And Clay Holmes gets a ton of ground balls. So I think this is going to be pretty good for him. I don't think you should expect a lot of eight strikeout starts from him moving forward. I don't think you should expect a 155 ERA moving forward. But even if it's a 355 ERA and a 118 whip, that's still a very useful player, and that's... That's not the ceiling for him, I think, because of the defense behind him. I think Clay Holmes is not a great pitcher. I think he's very, like, Marcus Stroman-y. And in an average context, that's like a high three ZRA pitcher who's pretty boring for fantasy. But on the Cubs, I think he's well worth using for fantasy. Nola and Fott, I don't have very much faith in. I have slightly more faith in Nola than Fott, but that's because I have zero faith in Brandon Fott.
Speaker 3Yeah, this is five. Straight, really good starts for Nola with much better strikeout numbers during that time. And it's not like... It's not like the drop-off for him was evident right when it happened. It was more, well, he's been bad for a long time, so clearly he's not good anymore. So I can't really pinpoint what's changed to make him so good over these last five starts, but I couldn't either. And he went bad. So that makes me wonder if it's... It's just command, I think.
Speaker 4The stuff ratings have mostly looked the same. The velocity, pitch movement, all that stuff mostly looks the same. But his command went from pretty bad before this most recent stretch to quite good. Well, can it stay quite good?
Speaker 3I mean, because obviously it was for many years in the past.
Speaker 4That's... I think that's the toughest question to answer when it comes to command because it's... Yeah. It's just... It's not throw harder or change your pitch mix. It's just... He just has to pitch well. And some guys can sustain that and some guys can't. But I think we are at the point with Aaron Nola where the highs and lows are going to continue to be frustrating for him. He's certainly not the ace he once was, but this stretch is certainly... Getting him back to... Yeah, you can use him. Which it didn't look like he was that guy anymore.
Speaker 1Some hitting leftovers. I won't go through all of them. Just want to give a shout out to Raphael Devers who is on fire. He has five homers in his past 11. He's now up to 30 homers and has his OPS over 800 on the season. So he has really turned things around. And Bryson Stott, who had the longest home run of his career. 464 feet, 110 miles per hour off the bat. So shout out to Bryson Stott. Some other... Pitching leftovers here. I'll just mention the names if you guys have a quick thought on any of them. Michael King, quality start. Taj Bradley, big bounce back, nine strikeouts. Ian Seymour, 10 strikeouts. Gave up yet another home run. And Peyton Tolley, not at his best. Did not use his curveball 10% of the time.
Speaker 3I know. And he did in his previous five starts. Did Peyton Tolley and had a 237 ERA 102 whip, 11.3K per nine. What are you doing?
Speaker 4You tried to tell him, Scott. What are you doing, Peyton? I do want to highlight Ian Seymour. Yeah, the ERA is a little inflated. 421 for the season. I think he just kind of lived with it because he's so good at everything else. 421 ERA, okay, yeah. But 114 whip, 11K per nine. The ERA estimators are better than the ERA. I think he's just good. He's not perfect. He's not an ace. But I think Ian Seymour is more or less someone I'm just starting.
Speaker 1He's kind of like the latest iteration of Joe Ryan or Shota Iwaga. But he gets even more strikeouts than those guys.
Speaker 3You know what I've noticed? What have you noticed? With this stretch of starts where he keeps giving up three earned runs, started throwing the sinker a lot more. More than 20% his last three starts and you know the numbers on the sinker. 354 batting average against.
Speaker 4And in his case, I just don't think like... I think he just kind of live with the home runs.
Speaker 1I think he's only throwing that sinker to try to get away from home runs so you get the ball on the ground more.
Speaker 4And I would guess he's only throwing it to lefties.
Speaker 3When you walk literally no one. As he has done now, at least in his last three starts. And you strike out what, a third of the batters you face? I think that might be too much.
Speaker 4He's still throwing a bunch against righties. That seems dumb.
Speaker 123% against righties.
Speaker 4Yeah. I think using, using the sinker against lefties is fine. I don't see any point in him throwing it against righties. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, Seymour, man. Lots of... The K to walk stuff is great. It's a good whip, but probably a higher ERA because he has allowed 20 home runs on the season now. The call to the bullpen for the Mets. Kodai Senga got the ninth with a one run lead. He did pick up his fifth save. For the Nationals, somebody named Eric Tolman closed out the final two innings. They were two scoreless innings with four strikeouts for his first save. So, look, they've been searching all year. Perhaps he's the latest name to work in, but the Nationals do not have a closer and they never will ever again. For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable. Brian Abreu picked up his eighth save. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz got the ninth with a one run lead. He allowed a run, but it was mostly because of a bad misplay by Julio Rodriguez, which caused a leadoff triple in the ninth inning. It was Andres Munoz's ninth blown save of the year. And then for the Orioles, Andrew Kittredge got the ninth with a one-run lead. He picked up his ninth seed. Dave, thanks to an amazing catch by Colton Couser who robbed a two-run home run to end that one. Andrew Kittredge, you owe Colton Couser a steak dinner because that was amazing.
Speaker 4I also want to point out on Kodai Senga, this was his third time pitching in four days, so everything he does is new. He's like a newborn baby here in the closers role, but he pitched effectively in consecutive games over the weekend for the first time and then pitched the third time in four days. I'm going to guess he's going to get some time off here. So it was nice that he got the save here because I don't think he got a save in either of the previous two appearances, but just they're stretching him as a closer. They're testing him out and he's responding well. So I think that that bodes well for him.
Speaker 1And thank you, New York Mets. I am a Mets fan for the next couple of days as they face the Tampa Bay Rays, although Yankees got destroyed by the Angels, so it didn't matter anyway. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Grayson Rodriguez up against the Yankees. We have Randy Vasquez at the Reds. Nick Lodolo against the Panthers. Padre Sean Minaya at the Rays. A.J. Smith-Shauver at the Nationals. Connor Prelip against the Tigers. Randy Dobnak against the Marlins. Robert Gasser at the Cubs. Eric Lauer against the Cardinals. We did lose J.T. Ginn on Tuesday, so it's a pretty bad day.
Speaker 4Pretty grim. It's not great.
Speaker 3Dobnak, baby.
Speaker 4Yeah, I don't buy it, but sure. The Marlins are pretty bad. And... could see a good Connor Prelip start, but I don't think you can expect it.
Speaker 1I think there's just a lot of volatility here. If I had to choose, I would throw out Grayson Rodriguez and Minaya, but I think it is as likely as they blow up as they help you, so...
Speaker 3Yeah. I prefer Minaya to Grayson Rodriguez.
Speaker 1On Wednesday, we have Grant Holmes at the Nationals, Jacob Lopez at the Rangers, Cody Bradford home against the Athletics, Andrew Painter at the D-backs, Patrick Sandoval... against the Mariners, Landon Roop at the Pirates, Jared Jones against the Giants, Joey Cantillo against the Blue Jays, Dean Kramer against the Tigers, David Peterson against the Brewers, and Hayden Wisniewski home against the White Sox.
Speaker 4This is Wisniewski's second start in a row against the White Sox, right?
Speaker 1No, he faced the Yankees last time out, and he was pretty good.
Speaker 3Okay. Jacob Lopez should not qualify for this list anymore. It's a good matchup at Texas. I don't think the matchup matters. At this point, I'd be willing to start Lopez against anybody.
Speaker 4I think that's not quite as true for Andrew Painter, but it's kind of true of Andrew Painter as well. I think he's more qualified than anybody else on this list. D-backs are bad against righties, too. Yeah. And then... Cantillo, I don't hate. Kramer, I don't hate. I don't love, but I don't hate. Sandoval against the Mariners? Yeah, I don't really trust it. Peterson, I don't hate. I mean, the Brewers are a tough matchup, but a lot of what we said about Clay Holmes is also true of David Peterson. He's a groundball pitcher in front of arguably the best defense in baseball, so I think that's a good spot for him. He's been better with the Cubs, too.
Speaker 1David Peterson, that is.
Speaker 3A lot of what we said about Clay Holmes. It's not great at Holmes.
Speaker 1Yes, yes, correct. Yes, Clay Holmes. So we like Lopez, we like Painter, and then a couple wild cards in there. Cantillo, Sandoval, David Peterson. We'll throw those names out there. And we're already up against it. Continue to send in some team names. We'll read them next week. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
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