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Speaker 2♪ Alcantara, Suroka, you look so good in polka ♪ ♪ Peralta, Manoa, bounce back for Arenola ♪ ♪ Chilito, Castillo, Yoshida, Moussou, Tsubasa ♪
Speaker 3♪ Tocano, Envato, values so high but ADP's so low ♪ ♪ Frank loves him some kind of joe ♪ ♪ Now let's get on with the show ♪ ♪ Now let's get on with the show ♪
Speaker 1Happy Kokomo Friday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on September 4th. I am Frank Stamfel joined by Scott White. Today on the show, what do we do with Kate Anderson? Start, sit, or drop these four pitchers? Want to talk a little late season strategy when it comes to struggling hitters, some big names. What do we do? Do we stick with the guys who got us here or do we potentially bench drop some names? And a pretty light schedule, you know. What that means.
Speaker 2Scotty doesn't know.
Speaker 4I don't know the answer to the first questions you've already asked. Well, let's try and figure it out together. I don't know much of anything.
Speaker 1Let's jump in. In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened. All right, first and foremost, we'll get to Kate Anderson in a second. Oh my goodness gracious. Adley Rutschman, the ultimate revenge game. You've got to respect it, man. Comes into Camden Yard. First time back in Baltimore, two for four with a double dong, and he needed it. 16 games now with Boston, even after this game, hitting just 193 with three home runs, and the strikeouts, ground balls have been up. The quality of contact has been quite bad. We know that he has been battling this hyperextended elbow, but clearly did not bother him here in this game. So, Scott, if you have Adley Rutschman, I was updating my rankings earlier today. And initially, I moved him down outside my top 12. I saw this game. I'm like, all right, let me just leave him inside the top 12. But would you be inclined to just go with a hot hand? Just seeing the way that Adley Rutschman has played aside from this game and the fact that he's kind of banged up, what would you do with Adley Rutschman right now?
Speaker 4Is he the hot hand now? I like this one game. Yeah, but two home or game. I mean, how much hotter does it get off the waiver where I guess it comes down to like, who specifically? Are you talking about Mickey Gaspar? Over Adley Rutschman, Carter Jensen is hot and we'll get to him, I'm sure. But he's already rostered in more than 80% of leagues, so I doubt that's an exchange many people can make.
Speaker 1Right. I guess Alejandro Kirk is at a really good second half. I don't know what he's done in the past week or so. I haven't really. I haven't really mentioned his name much, but I know his second half was has mostly been pretty good. So someone like that, maybe.
Speaker 4I got to be honest. Like. Yeah. If I have Adley Rutschman and I was considering making a change, this game would say, okay, I guess I can't make a change. That's like, who knows if he's about to go off here? He may not, but he may. And like, I'll feel stupid if I chose now to drop him. So yeah, I, I, I don't think, like in, in theory, Adley Rutschman is not the kind of, uh, let let's call him universally rostered. I'm sure he's close enough is, is not the kind of universally rostered player that I think is untouchable this time of year, because this is like a third straight year of disappointing production. I, I think our baseline expectation from that for Adley Rutschman has to fall now. Uh, so I don't think he's somebody you can't think about replacing, but I, I, it just after a two Homer game, I'm probably not replacing him.
Speaker 1Adley Rutschman is 87% rostered on CBS. So he's still rostered in, in many leagues and, uh, yeah, I get it. I mean, before this game, we had the news that he's dealing with this elbow injury and that he's going to play through it for the rest of the season. He had a wrist injury before this, and he got off to a pretty good start this year, but really has kind of tailed off. So, uh, I, I wish he could play every game against the Orioles. That would be amazing, but hopefully this is the start of a, a strong finish here in September for Adley Rutschman. All right, Scott. Oh my goodness. Cade Anderson. And he has been quite bad so far that YouTube chat is not happy about it. I was reading comments before, uh, we started things up here and I guess a little transparency, like we're disappointed too. Like, you know, we all thought he was going to be good and, uh, you know, I have him on a few teams and it obviously is not working out. I guess this could be a lesson for future days and future podcasts about, uh, potentially hyping, uh, pitchers coming up from double eight to the majors.
Speaker 4So it worked for George Kirby. It worked for Brian Wu.
Speaker 1It worked for Logan Gilbert was pretty much Miller.
Speaker 4Uh, I think, I think Logan Gilbert did get a couple of starts at triple a before getting called up, but close enough, like it's certainly not unprecedented for like clearly the Mariners themselves. I just listed off a bunch of Mariners pitchers. They made a habit of it. They don't like putting their, their, their big pitching prospects through the PCL, which is a very difficult. It's a very difficult league to pitch in. Okay. So first of all, if you can tell me a single person who, when Kate Anderson got called up, said, don't bother with them, then that person deserves a lot of credit because it it's turned out to be a waste of time. I feel like it's a waste of time. It was a waste of a roster spot. I am disappointed. I had him stashed for months in tout wars because 15 team Roto league, it's really hard to get starting pitching off the waiver wire. I needed most help, the most help in the starting pitcher categories. So I thought, okay, I'll go ahead and stash Kate Anderson and maybe I don't have to spend truckloads of fab dollars on pitchers that I don't have a lot of confidence in anyway, and I'll be fine. Fortunately, I have a big lead in tout wars still, but it doesn't look like Kate Anderson's going to be of much help to me. So of course it's disappointing. Secondly, like, what do you do with them now? Well, let's just talk about how he's performing. He hasn't had like a disastrous start, like one of those two and two thirds inning eight or run start that immediately makes you say, okay, this guy's not ready for the majors. Send him back down. He wasn't a start like, uh, had Dixon, uh, uh, Pius of, of the red Sox had a few days ago, for instance, but it's just been so underwhelming and basically every way, uh, not missing many stats. In this latest start, he, uh, uh, you don't two walks in five innings. Didn't he have another start with a lot of walks too, which was, and then on top of it all on top of him, just not looking very effective. He's limited to about 80 pitches. He threw 71 at 79, excuse me, in this start. So with a hard cap on how deep he's able to work into games. You need him to be dominant. And he's been far less than dominant. He's shown no shown no signs of dominance. So even though he has a good matchup coming up, he's facing the Rangers next week. I think it's totally fine to drop Kate Anderson. I'm not saying you have to, like I'm, I'm never in favor of a spike drop, but I don't plan to use them against the Rangers. Seemed like a pretty good match up here against the athletics in Seattle.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 4And that was kind of his last chance for me in the leagues where I picked him up. He's just not demonstrating enough. So then the question for me is, and this I think is the most interesting question, what does it mean for him next year? What are we going to do with Kate Anderson next year? To me, it seems ridiculous, just intellectually, to say this is a huge pitching prospect, the consensus top pitching prospect in baseball when he got called up. And by the way, you can't say it was some flash in the pan who just clearly was picking on players who weren't as experienced. He was the top pitcher taken in his draft class. So from an evaluation standpoint, Kate Anderson has been highly regarded from the beginning. And I think it's unlikely they just got him completely wrong. It's reasonable to give rookies callbacks. But at the same time, there hasn't been that glimmer of potential like we saw with Chase Burns when he got called up last year, for instance. Or I don't know, Treya Savage, I think, had more than a glimmer of potential. But Bubba Chandler had a glimmer of potential. Maybe that's not a good example because he hasn't had a very good rookie season either. But you get what I'm saying. Kate Anderson, in three starts, hasn't given us anything we can point to and say, yes, I see why this guy was so highly regarded. Even though the results have been disappointing, I see it. I haven't seen it. So that's my biggest question. Presumably, he's going to have the inside track on a rotation spot for the Mariners next year. What kind of draft? Is anybody going to be talking him up as a sleeper? He'll still be a prospect. How high is he going to show up on next year's prospect list? I'm really interested to see because it has been that underwhelming. And then the next thing to talk about is, I think, where you wanted to go. What does this say about prospects in general, prospect call-ups in general? I think that it's the sort of thing that is never going to have 100% accuracy. You're often going to miss in a major way. And I'd rather miss this way. I'd rather miss, okay, I paid a few fab dollars to stash a guy for a few weeks. He got called up. It didn't work out. I'd rather miss that way than I just completely ignored that guy because I got burned by the last prospect call-up. And he was a monster who completely changed the standings in my league in favor of the guy who did pick him up. We call them lottery tickets, meaning you shouldn't expect it to pay off. But if it does pay off, it does so in a way that is life-changing or, in this way, in this case, league-changing. And it's always a guessing game, though. It's always hunches, and it's always a roll of the dice. Yeah, I think that's fair. Look,
Speaker 1we say that about a lot, pretty much all prospects, that they are lottery tickets. And it's just, it's a mystery box. It's taking a shot on the unknown, on upside a player that we haven't seen before. And it's like, where else are you going to find that on the waiver wire? And some of the players that we haven't seen before, they're going to be If you play in a shallow enough league, I mean, your waiver wire might just be robust. And perhaps, you know, prospects aren't for you. And it doesn't make as much sense for you to be aggressive on prospects in leagues like that. But typically, if you go into, you know, 12-team roto leagues or deeper, the waiver wire isn't like that. And so you want to take shots on players you haven't seen before and guys who are highly regarded prospects. And again, not every prospect is going to hit. I totally get that. And I think, perhaps, I will take the blame here, Scott. I like to hype up prospects. I understand that. Like, that is a thing that I like to do. I mean, this is a new player that is joining the player pool. And for many of them, they have awesome numbers in the minors. And I am personally excited to see what these players can do. It doesn't always pan out for fantasy. But I personally get very, very excited when prospects get called up.
Speaker 4Well, it's you and everyone else, Frank, is the thing. And like, again, why wouldn't you hype up a $30 million jackpot? You know, like, it's so rare to find league-changing talent on the waiver wire mid-season that, of course, you have to hype it up. But, like, contextualize it properly. Play responsibly, as they say. It's unlikely your life is going to be changed, but it could be changed. And it's so rare to find that kind of potential on the waiver wire. Especially this late in the season.
Speaker 1I mean, I really hyped up Kate Anderson two weeks ago, the way I started that episode.
Speaker 4I don't... I think you're being hard on yourself. Because when I think... Because I didn't get that impression. I don't think, Kate Anderson, this is Frank Stamfel's guy. Like, he's totally... No, no. Look, everybody... Planted his flag in him in a way that...
Speaker 1Everybody was excited about it. Like, I totally get that. But, you know, I did go above and beyond. Look, I'm frustrated, too, as I mentioned. I thought about, I told Scott beforehand, bringing an egg with me on today's podcast and just, like, cracking it over my own head and having egg on my head. While we talk about Kate Anderson. But neither here nor there. The conversation for next season, he still has probably three or four starts. Let's see what he does in those. And obviously, that will shape what we think about him in the offseason. But I think, perhaps, this could be a lesson for future years. A lefty that's coming up that doesn't have overpowering stuff. And so far, we only have a stuff plus metric for his first two starts. His stuff plus is at 98. 100 is league average. So, that's all we have so far on Kate Anderson. But there have been other lefties that have got called up that don't throw hard and have a wide array of pitches. I know, I think you made the Max Friedkamp. Like, I still think that's on the table for Kate Anderson. And I don't want to overreact too much long term. But for this season, I don't think that he's very, I don't think he's usable. And so, that's fine. Like, you're not using him next week against the Rangers, even though it's at home. It's a, on paper, it's a good matchup against the Rangers lineup. But they are fifth in Wobba against lefties. So, I'm just not using him there. And I think that you can defend dropping him. So, that's fine.
Speaker 4I'm not going to rehash the scouting report. It's just, and I get you don't want to, you don't want to say it's hopeless and just a guessing game. But there's a big risk of overcorrecting here too. And like, you don't want to just swing wildly between two extremes and constantly changing your approach and never land on an answer that's going to yield the highest rate of success.
Speaker 1All right. That was a lot of talk about Keenan Anderson. Scott, who would you like to talk about?
Speaker 4So, my player of the night is Cal Quantrill. He probably does not have a very good stuff plus rating. I don't think he's that good. He's been around a while, but holy cow, has he gotten good results lately? Here on Thursday, seven shutout innings against the Rays, two hits allowed in those seven innings. That means in his last eight starts now, Cal Quantrill, Cal Quantrill of all people. Last eight starts, 125 ERA, 0.76 whip, even 8.5K per nine. Not with a very good swinging strike rate. Again, I don't think he's this good. I don't know why he's been this effective. And it always feels like in these cases where a not so good player has a crazy good run, the moment you start buying it and using him is when it all comes crashing down. But his next matchup is, I don't know, against the Mariners in Seattle. The best lineup to pitch against the best place to pitch. So I'm pretty high on Cal Quantrill for next week. I think, uh, I think he's worth picking up and streaming certainly over Kate Anderson, who may well be his opponent. Yeah, that would make some
Speaker 1sense. They both, uh, line up for that same matchup next week. Yeah. Cal Quantrill, he is 43% rostered. Cal Quantrill, he is 43% rostered. Cal Quantrill, he is 43% rostered. Cal Quantrill, he is a spark for those who play in head to head points leagues. We do have a long track record of Cal Quantrill not being very good, but he's pitching well right now. And, uh, yeah, it's a good matchup next week in a good environment to pitch in, in Seattle. So he is definitely in play. He is an option. Uh, that is Cal Quantrill. Want to give a couple of shout outs here. PCA, another one, his 39th home run. And that was the difference in this game against the Brewers. Obviously very important games there in the NL central. And, uh, Cal Quantrill, he's a good matchup next week. Now has 15 home runs in his past 27 games up to 39 home runs, total 32 steals. He's got to start running Scott. Cause I want to get a 40, 40 season here. We have 21 games to get one homer and eight steals. So, all right, PCA, let's, uh, let's pick up the steel pace a little bit and, and get that
Speaker 440, 40 season now. Too busy homering. Yeah. Can't steal when you're homering. That is fair. Remember
Speaker 1that happened to, I think it was Corbin Carroll a couple of years ago in the first half, he had like no steals, but he was just hitting a bunch of home runs. So it's, there's something to that. I mean, you legitimately cannot run if you're just hitting home runs all the time. I don't want to mention Tarek Skubal here as well. Just an uncharacteristic start against the Cardinals. Five and two-thirds, 10 hits allowed, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk, he had 13 whiffs on 102 pitches. And 10 hits allowed, his most since July 22nd, 2024. So over two years since Tarek Skubal has done this. And only one of the 10 hits had an XBA below 450. So most of these hits were deserved. Scott, was there anything in the profile or anything you saw that made you nervous about a, I can't even say bad because he only gave up two runs, but an uncharacteristic start from Tarek Skubal?
Speaker 4I didn't see anything that made me nervous. I think it was just one of those days. His previous two starts were great. And of course, he's been on a great run for a while now. So no worries.
Speaker 1The updated numbers for Tarek Skubal with the Dodgers. In six starts, he's a .303 ERA, .118 whip. That number is a little high. 43 strikeouts to eight walks over 35 and two-thirds innings. But still, three earned runs or fewer in 14 of 15 starts since returning from injury. That is Tarek Skubal. And I have a couple of programming updates here before we hit our first break. And for the weekend, obviously Labor Day weekend here, we will not be live on Sunday night due to Labor Day. But instead, we do have a pre-recorded podcast dropping at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday where we recapped that first NFBC draft that was done a couple of weeks ago. We had Casey Bubba on to join us from the Bubba and the Bloom podcast. So it was me, Chris, and Bubba. We broke down like the first two or three rounds. We looked at Bubba's team, where Paul Skeens went in that draft. So it was a very, very interesting conversation starting to get the wheels turning for next year. And our usual FBT Express episode will drop on Sunday. And that will be previewing next week's action. So be on the lookout for all of that this weekend. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break. But not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts, so let's take a minute to go over some of my faves. Snapple real fact 1417. Before 1859, baseball umpires sat behind home plate in rocking chairs. Snapple real fact 1483. More than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple real fact 253. 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 offseason. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting. All right, now let's get back to the show. Baseball season is in full swing. And there's no better place to be than Cal Shee, America's number one prediction market platform. Atlanta is currently trading at 7% to win it all, meaning a $100 trade pays out over $1,200 with a win. On Cal Shee, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. And as the odds move, you can buy in or out any time throughout the postseason. Download the Cal Shee app and use code FAN to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. L-S-H-I, Cal Shee, trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Cal Shee products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calsee.com slash regulatory.
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Speaker 1Welcome back, Fantasy at Baseball Today. Let's run through the news and notes. Shohei Otani was out of the lineup on Thursday as he battles a pair of injuries, the left knee discomfort. He's also dealing with a right biceps issue. And Chris pointed this out on Wednesday night that Otani looked pretty bad. In the batter's box. And, you know, perhaps contributed to him getting the day off here on Thursday. Interested to see where this goes, Scott, because obviously I don't think he's going to pitch again in the regular season. Like, maybe he can make a relief appearance in the postseason here and there. But, you know, these injuries seem like they're legitimately affecting Shohei Otani at this point.
Speaker 4Yeah, they do. I know I retweeted this quote. Did I not retweet it? I thought I retweeted it. Now I can't find it. Anyway, Dave Roberts basically said, I saw what everyone else saw out there with Shohei Otani's swing on Wednesday. And I'm paraphrasing very much here. I saw what everyone else saw. And, you know, we might need to give him a break to get his swing right again. Because, you know, yeah, it just seems like he's... In a way, we haven't seen with all of Shohei Otani's previous injury, the twice-torn elbow ligament that he just kept hitting through it and it wasn't a problem at all. He seems to be affected mechanically now by this one. And that's something we're not used to. I doubt we see him pitch at all the rest of the season because I think in order for the Dodgers, obviously, pursuing the three-peat here to get... Like, they need Shohei Otani right as a hitter, I think, if they're going to complete that repeat. They probably don't need to. Their pitching is so dominant that they might just be able to ride that to a championship. But it makes it a lot harder if Otani isn't hitting like Otani can. So we may see him take a few days off down the stretch. I don't know. We'll just have to see how it goes. I can't imagine sitting him in fantasy at the moment. You know, if sitting a day turns into sitting multiple days, then that's something we may have to consider. And then there's the bigger question. What does it mean for him being drafted next year? I don't know if you guys got into this on that pod that I wasn't a part of. I was invited to it, so I shouldn't sound... I shouldn't sound like I have sour grapes or anything. But my initial thought is that Aaron, Judge, and Shohei Otani will still be my top two players next year in some order. They have... Obviously, Otani and Judge, their season was kind of marred by injuries. But when healthy, they still looked really good. And they have crazy good track records. But I said it before on the podcast the other day, I don't... Like, it wouldn't surprise me if there's far less consensus in the early rounds than there usually is because they're... There have been so many players who... So many of those players, the mainstays there, whose seasons have been marred by injury, who are just disappointing production, and yet they're still in their prime. They still have crazy good track records. What do you do with them? You know, it's not just Otani and Judge. It's Ronald Acuna. It's Gunnar Henderson. It's Jose Ramirez. It's Julio Rodriguez, who hasn't had the big second half we're always counting on. It's so many players. And it's going to be... It's going to be wild, I think. I'm going to be disappointed if a consensus emerges, if too tight of a consensus emerges, because I think there's a lot of room for argument in the first two rounds next year, beginning with Judge and Otani.
Speaker 1Well, in that draft that we recapped, neither of those players went first overall. It was Pete Crow Armstrong who went first overall.
Speaker 4And that's going to be a hard sell for me because, like, normally, we don't do the... We don't... Fantasy analysts don't say, oh, the guy came off a career season. Well, let's just bet on him doing it again. That rarely happens. And Pete Crow Armstrong was the guy who had a lot of naysayers coming into the year, and we're just going to put that all aside at the expense of Judge and Otani? I would have a hard time doing that. As somebody who was heavily invested in Pete Crow Armstrong this year and his job, enjoyed the fruits of his MVP season. and I don't think I could take him number one overall.
Speaker 1I think that's fair, but I just think that there is no clear top pick in fantasy. So I think it's okay for PCA to be in that mix, especially when he's as young as he is and has made the improvements that he has, has power and speed, the best defender in baseball, so he's going to play every single day. And then those guys are getting older, like Otani and Judge are entering their mid-30s. They both dealt with injuries this year. I think it's a real conversation.
Speaker 4Not for the first time for either of them. No. And it didn't scare us away previously. I feel pretty confident saying I'll have Pete Crow Armstrong in the top five, but I don't think I could have him number one.
Speaker 1Joe Ryan tossed a rehab start on Tuesday night. Three innings, one hit, one run, four strikeouts, zero walks. He got up to 42 pitches. I know the Twins could use him right now, so he's working his way back. Probably at least one more rehab start. Maybe he's back after that if they want to, you know, really kind of push the envelope there. Connor Griffin is expected to return on Friday. He has gone 3-for-11 in three rehab games and in 59 games this year, 276, 5 homers, 20 steals. I did mean to check his roster rate. I'm pretty sure it's over 80%. Connor Griffin is 82% rostered, so I can't really tell anyone to go out and add him. Let's check Yahoo. Yahoo. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on with my Yahoo, but like... Bunch of Yahoos. The screen looks all messed up. I can't really see stuff. 69% rostered on Yahoo, so could be out there in some shallower formats and, you know, could be an impact player down the stretch. That is Connor Griffin. Nathan Evaldi threw a successful bullpen on Thursday. He's working his way back from right posterior elbow inflammation. Cedon Raffaello was out of the lineup after leaving Wednesday with a quad injury. Kyle Stowers left Thursday's game with left hamstring tightness. He's been on the IL twice already this season, once with an injury to each hamstring. So, I don't know, man. We gotta get some stretches in there, Kyle Stowers. Jacob Webb, who took a line drive off of his right arm on Wednesday, is still experiencing soreness. The hope is that he will avoid the IL. And, of course, the Cubs had a one-run save opportunity here on Thursday. Daniel Palencia was unavailable. Jacob Webb was unavailable. It was Ryan Zephyrjohn who pitched a clean eighth inning. And then the lefties... G. Ryan Rawlison, who got the ninth inning, and he picked up his second save of the season. JT Ginn is dealing with some fatigue, soreness, and will not start this weekend as previously expected. So, pretty unfortunate for anyone who used JT Ginn in a weekly lineup league this week. You will not be getting a start from him. Ryan O'Hearn is aiming to return from the IL next weekend against the Cubs. So, September 11th through 13th. He is 56% rostered. He is returning from a quad strain. And I thought he would miss close to the rest of the season, but we might get a full two weeks out of Ryan O'Hearn. So, I would be interested in adding and stashing him for those final two weeks, especially in a roto league. Five outfielders, corner infield spot. Ryan O'Hearn was very good earlier on in the season. Brendan Donovan is still experiencing concussion symptoms and has not yet been cleared to return. Ben Brown has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a stress relief. I do think he is a name we need to remember as a potential sleeper for next year. He was really, really good this season with the Cubs when he pitched. And here is a name we have not heard in a while. Anthony Santander has been facing live pitching and could be ready for a rehab assignment next week. 5% rostered. Do you have any very deep league interest in Anthony Santander?
Speaker 4Sure, very deep league interest. Like, AL only. Yeah. But that's about it.
Speaker 1And the Marlins DFA'd Leo Jimenez. They recalled Davison De Los Santos, who is a name we have mentioned for years now. It would be nice if they just give him an opportunity. Let's see what he could do. 23 years old and 102 games at AAA this season. 277, 21 homers, 70 RBI, 18 steals, and 838 OPS. Hits the ball hard, but not the ideal launch angle off the bat here. For Davison De Los Santos, 3% rostered. My guess is probably just a short-side platoon, Scott. Do you have any interest in De Los Santos?
Speaker 4Yeah, a ton of chase in the profile, too. It's so hard for these right-handed hitting first basemen to carve out a role in the majors unless they are tip-top prospects with near-flawless hitting profiles. And look, Davison De Los Santos has, just like Christian Encarnacion Strand did, and I don't know, who are some of the others with this profile we've talked about recently. It seems to come up often. And so it doesn't surprise me that Davison De Los Santos hasn't found his footing yet. Despite his production in the minors, he never showed up that high on prospect rank lists. I think the Marlins could create an opportunity for him if they wanted to, particularly if Kyle Stowers misses time.
Speaker 1Fair.
Speaker 4But I'm just not sure how motivated they'll be to do that.
Speaker 1Yeah. Look, it's just a name to watch for now. I don't think you need to add him outside of maybe NL-only leagues. But again, he's a guy that's had productive seasons in the minors. Let's just give him some run in September and see what the guy could do. And then if it doesn't work, all right, at least we tried with Davison De Los Santos. And by we, I mean the Marlins, not those playing fantasy. We had ourselves a pitcher's duel out in Chicago. It's time to... Logan Henderson up against Kevin Gaussman. Henderson, seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts to zero walks. Unfortunately, he gave up that two-run homer to PCA. But another dominant start, 13 whiffs on 102 pitches here. The changeup was awesome for Logan Henderson, as it usually is. It had 10 of his 13 whiffs. And it's now three earned runs or fewer in all 15 starts this season. He has gone six-plus innings. In six straight, seven innings in three of his last four. So that was a talking point and a concern for a good while there. But along with the great production, Scott, we are now starting to get legitimate, consistent length from Logan Henderson as well.
Speaker 4Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, I guess it's not crazy. But this is my fear being eliminated for Logan Henderson. Like, we could all see... Every time he got a start for the Brewers, he got a good result. I think there's still just one miss in his entire Major League career so far. But the outings tended to be short. Obviously, the Brewers kept sending him back to the minors for a while there. And it just seemed like maybe Logan Henderson wasn't, you know, with the two pitches, with the short outings, maybe he didn't profile as a true starter, or somebody who they could count on to be a workhorse and a fixture at the top of their rotation. And obviously, the last month plus has put that concern to rest. He's continued to be effective. He just did it against the top offense in baseball, the Cubs. Yes, they are now the top offense in baseball over the Nationals. And he did it against the Dodgers a few weeks ago. It doesn't really seem to matter who the opponent is for Logan Henderson. He always comes through. And now that he's... He's providing real length, as you say. I got to think of him as a must start.
Speaker 1All right. On the other side, we had Kevin Gaussman. Seven innings of one-run ball, nine strikeouts. He out-dueled Logan Henderson. 14 whiffs on 103 pitches. Splitter was awesome. 12 of the 14 whiffs there. His fastball, while it did have 18 called strikes, that is a massive number, also had nine hard hits against the fastball. 96.7 average EV. In six starts with the Cubs, 437. ERA, 114 whip. Just over a strikeout per inning. He's just been so inconsistent from start to start. 95% rostered is Gaussman. 69% started. He is at the Brewers' next start. So he gets the same offense two in a row. Milwaukee's a good place to pitch to get strikeouts, you know, being indoors and all that. But facing a really good offense two times in a row. I don't know about using Kevin Gaussman, but it's hard to say that coming off a great start. What do you think, Scott?
Speaker 4Yeah. I don't know what changed. I don't know. Like, he had his normal pitch selection, normal velo, pretty much normal movement. Got a much better result. He's been, we talk about this a lot with Sonny Gray, but Kevin Gaussman has had kind of a confounding career too from an analysis perspective. A huge prospect, faltered for like eight years to begin his career, then suddenly became an ace with the Giants and remained an ace for like half a dozen years. And then fell off in a way that's hard to understand. So, eh. Like, I don't think I'd start him next time either. Who'd you say the matchup was for Gaussman?
Speaker 1At Milwaukee, so same line up two in a row. Yeah, I don't think I'd start him.
Speaker 4But this might, if I was on the verge of dropping him, this might prevent me from doing it. Because if he does something similar against Milwaukee, Lucky next time out, well, then I really got to think about starting Gossman.
Speaker 1All right, let's take our final break. When we return, start, sit, or drop these four pitchers. I've got some waiver names. We'll talk some late season strategy. All that right after this.
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Speaker 1Welcome back. Fantasy baseball today. Start, sit, or drop these four fringe pitchers. Jose Soriano, not great at the Guardians. Four and two-thirds, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts here, and in six starts with Toronto, 436 ERA, 145 whip. His last six starts with Toronto, 436 ERA, 145 whip. His last 22 starts overall, 456 ERA, 145 whip. He's still 92% rostered. 61% started at the Athletics next week. Scott, start, sit, or drop Jose Soriano.
Speaker 4I'm closer to dropping him than starting him. In fact, I'll go ahead and say that in most cases you can drop him.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think so too. Like when Jacob Lopez and Painter are still around 60% rostered, I mean, that's just, that's an overstatement. That's a good brainer. That's an easy decision there. So, and even if you just need a streaming spot, I mean, it was a really good April for Soriano. It's been very mediocre to bad since. Tanner Bybee, a rough outing here against the Blue Jays. Four innings, five runs, five walks, four strikeouts. And the velocity was down a little bit in this one. He only allowed one hard hit, but struggled to throw his pitches for strikes, only 55% strike rate. And, you know, strikeouts are way down this year. Still 82% rostered, 53% started. At the Orioles next week, Scott, what do we do? Start, sit, or drop Tanner Bybee?
Speaker 4Again, I'm closer to dropping him than starting him. I think he's streamable. And I think Jose Soriano is streamable too. But in shallower leagues, I don't know that you have to hold on to any pitcher who is merely streamable. Like, I'm not dropping Bybee in a 15-team league. I'm not dropping Soriano. I'm not dropping Soriano in a 15-team league. But speaking to the size of leagues we usually speak to, I think Bybee is fine to drop. But, you know, I would have said that a month and a half ago too.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I think pretty easily you would drop those two for, let's say, like the top five names on your sleeper pitcher list for next week. Would that be all right to do?
Speaker 4Let me take a glance at them. Yep. Yep. All right. Those names, you know, it's kind of cruel not to mention the names. The names are Jacob Lopez, Andrew Painter, Tyler Malley, Walbert Ebrania, and...
Speaker 1Come on, Scott. Hayden Wesneski. Broadcasting 101. We're teasing it so that they seek out the other content. Yeah. Well... Well, there you go. You gave it away anyway. Drop Tanner Bybee and Jose Soriano for the top five names on Scott's sleeper pitcher list. Jake Bennett turned in a quality start at the Orioles. Six innings, three runs, seven strikes, zero walks, two homers allowed in this one. He was okay. I thought it was interesting that he only threw 68 pitches in this start. He'd been consistently in the, like, 80 to 90 range in terms of pitch count. He's 82% rostered, 57% started. He gets the Angels next week, and they are 26th in WOBA against lefties. So, start, sit, or drop. Jake Bennett, home against the Angels.
Speaker 4I lean towards start, I think. I like what he's done over his last three starts. I feel like he's gotten back on track. I think he was kind of chasing strikeouts for a while there after we kept commenting, yeah, he's doing well, but the strikeouts aren't nearly what they were in the minors. So, he started fading his sinker, throwing it only 15% to 20% at the time. Did that for about five starts. Didn't go well. Last three starts, sinker usage has been up the highest yet at 37%. And this one got a quality start. And actually, with a decent strikeout total. So, what do you know? I think Jake Bennett works best as a ground ball specialist. And I think that matchup next week is good enough to consider starting him. Though he is merely streamable himself. It's a good matchup coming up.
Speaker 1And the last name on this list is Shane O'Meck. Cannot play the drop. Bad start here. Four runs over five innings. He was at the Rangers. And only five whiffs. On 72 pitches. Nine hard hits in this one. He has not gone more than five innings in any of his last seven starts. 92% rostered. 58% started. He's at the Braves next week, where he has an ERA over four on the road this season. Start, sit, or drop Shane McClanahan.
Speaker 4I'm not opposed to dropping him. I don't see how it's that different from Tanner Bybee. I feel like the closest, uh, corollary here is actually Casey Mize in that he, yeah, he started out great Shane McClanahan, at least in terms of run prevention, but the underlying numbers made me uneasy all along. And, you know, it was hard to go against the name value of a Shane McClanahan or Casey Mize when they're basically providing good results. But it doesn't surprise me that it's, it's started to fall apart. For them late in the year.
Speaker 1Let's run through some waiver wire hitters here. And, uh, Zach Geloff stayed hot two for five with a 16th home run. He is 71% rostered. He is definitely on Scott sleeper hitters list for next week. We mentioned a bunch of, uh, A's hitters yesterday. They have six home games next week. And, uh, obviously a lot of them perform much better at home. So if you play in a shallower league and Zach Geloff is available, change that and use him next week. Louis. Anything you'd like to ask Scott?
Speaker 4He is among, my sleeper hitters, but it's, it's interesting after we had that conversation about the athletics, six home games, a bunch of righties, which helps Lawrence Butler, especially the way I start picking out sleeper hitters for the upcoming week. As I go through every team's matchups, I got a, a grid I print out here showing every team's matchups. And I just put a G or a B next to them. Or I got this weird, like infinity sign that I put next to ones that are neither good nor bad. GB, means good. B means bad squiggly means whatever. I put a B next to the athletics. They're not among the five worst hitter matchups, but I did put a B next to them. I don't think they're favorable matchups for hitters. And so I'm kind of breaking my rule by putting some athletics hitters in my sleeper hitters. Cause I usually don't pick sleeper hitters that have a B next to their schedule. Um, but you know, the home, the home aspect of the athletics, matchup, and the fact that so many of their hitters are so hot now, gel off who was cold seems to be eating all up again. Yeah. I'm willing to break that rule.
Speaker 1Yeah. Well, you know, it's kind of course field light. So I think we can, uh, you know, make some exceptions here. And I don't know, Scott, I'm looking at the, the pitchers that line up for next week there. Dylan sees, obviously Dylan sees is amazing, but then it's Jose Soriano. There's a TBD for Wednesday. I don't know who you have projected for the blue Jays on Wednesday. And then it's, it's Kirby, Brian Wu and Bryce Miller. Like, I'm not really worried about those guys right now, the way they're pitching.
Speaker 4Okay. See, I, I see sees Kirby and Wu. And I think those are three pretty good pitchers. And usually when half the schedule is good pitchers, I put a B now since they're struggling again, they didn't make my five worst matchups, but I still see those as less than favorable matchups.
Speaker 1All right. Running through some other names here. Luis Robert already making an impact with the Orioles. He went one for three with his 11th home run. He went one for five with two RBI. And his first Orioles start on Wednesday and over his last 23 games, two 84, seven homers OPS over 900 66% roster. It's got, do you think that number needs to be higher at all for Luis Robert now with the Orioles?
Speaker 4Well, I mean, 66% is so low. I think it could have been higher with the Mets. Even they were not playing Robert Robert with the utmost consistency, but now he's what? It's two for two in terms of making starts for the Oreos. to guess given the state of their outfield he's going to play every day and so yeah i would say it needs to be higher than 66 i don't know that it needs to be like 80 but it sure it could go up
Speaker 1heroberto hernandez hit another home run his 23rd and over his last 20 games he's hitting 264 seven homers two steals ops is around a thousand and he is barreling up the ball quite a bit on the season he has 23 homers and 10 steals 40 percent rostered six home games next week scott what do you have written down on that paper there for the marlins well how's it looking for them
Speaker 4next week i have a lowercase b which so so the system i guess is a little more complicated than i just laid out but i didn't want to bother you with the details lowercase b means it's kind of bad but i'm not sure i want to call it bad i want to revisit it if i don't find enough bad matchups you um yeah they have uh it's mostly because they're facing the dodgers the second half of the week and that probably includes glass now on yamamoto yeah i i didn't strongly consider heroberto
Speaker 1hernandez as a sleeper for next week who do you like more rest of season luis robert or hernandez
Speaker 4uh i think robert but not by a lot christian and carnassio train finally did something
Speaker 1this week it doesn't help that he sat out two of three games in core's field but he did hit his eighth home run here and overall in 39 games 269 eight homers 30 rbi and 822 ops he is 33 percent rostered the orioles have six games next week only two lefties on the schedule i'm kind of worried about the playing time moving forward with uh ces there's him there's kobe mayo there's now blaze alexander i think alexander has kind of thrown a wrench here um in ces
Speaker 4and kobe mayo yeah it's true it has happened that way and it's unfortunate but uh if they still had a week against a bunch of lefties i'd have to consider them their splits are so good
Speaker 1against them yeah one deeper name i have here is brett bateman of the blue jays he went three for five with a run scored he plays every day against righties he has been leading off against righties and he has started against seven of the past 11 lefties on the schedule as well uh he's hitting 330 he's got three steals it's really you know contact a little bit of speed there's no power here pretty deeply named scott but do you have any interest in
Speaker 4brett bateman i don't think so i would much rather see sean keys get those starts but so far it hasn't happened yeah i think there's i think there's more bite to keys keys have teeth
Speaker 1that's true uh waiver wire pitchers brandon young turned in a quality start he had 17 whiffs on 98 pitches and 10 of those came on the splitter he is home against the guardians next week that's a pretty good matchup and quinn matthews he struggled with the walks but he kept kept runs off the board here at the dodgers i remain intrigued but man he just doesn't throw enough strikes in my opinion so far i mean it's very early on in his career that's quinn matthews uh he also has a pretty good matchup at the giants i think he's going to be a good matchup i think he's going to be a good matchup at the giants next week scott can i interest you in either brandon young home against the guardians quinn matthews at the giants next week they're both kind of interesting yeah uh i
Speaker 4considered quinn matthews for my sleeper pitchers i actually did include brandon young in my sleeper pitchers after seeing this start with that favorable matchup against the guardians the 10 whiffs on the splitter i don't know where that came from it had a 24 whiff rate coming in which isn't that great for a splitter usually it's the the the uh the slider that's responsible for his whiffs um i didn't see what was different about the splitter maybe maybe something will come out later that'll explain it but if he does have a second weapon there with the slider then makes it a little easier to buy
Speaker 1into the success brandon young has had this year and i have one definitive drop it is time to say goodbye to luis castillo six earned runs over four innings in six starts with the white socks 752 era 171 whip uh he's still 47 percent rostered you can definitely drop luis castillo he was dropped in my tout wars league which is a 15 team broto league so uh that pretty much means you could drop luis castillo anywhere let's get into scotty doesn't know scotty doesn't know
Speaker 8scotty doesn't know
Speaker 1all right scott are you ready honestly you've done really good i i don't even know i might have to rename the segment you you've kind of known a lot this year i think just last time
Speaker 4i think for the most part i haven't known much i think the time before you got either one or two
Speaker 1right too ah maybe all right let's jump in uh i have not homered since august 18th and over the last 30 games i am hitting 136 with a six out of five and i have not homered since august 18th and over the last 30 games i am hitting 136 with a six out of five and i have not homered since august 18th and a 38 percent k rate have not homered since august 18th last 30 136 609 38 percent k rate
Speaker 4uh well i'm gonna say julio rodriguez
Speaker 8scotty doesn't know oh scotty doesn't know the answer is munataka morikami who went oh for a minute
Speaker 1number four with three more strikeouts on thursday and i mentioned his numbers over the last 30 games he is still 99 percent rostered 89 percent started six games next week uh scott you have the white socks with the fourth best hitter matchups for next week there's uh it looks like one lefty on the schedule for morikami and i think this kind of opens up that conversation about late season strategy like morikami burst onto the scene he's been awesome for most of the year he hasn't looked same since returning from injury are we at the point scott if you if you're in a head-to-head playoff matchup where hey man morikami's ice cold let me just go with the hot hand let me start thai france over morikami just because morikami's been really bad in the second half yeah that's a
Speaker 4good example it helps that morikami plays the deepest position and there are players as good as thai france available on the waiver wire in a high number of leagues at that position and my judgment my my answer here is also impacted by the fact i'm i'm kind of skeptical about morikami and have been all along clearly he can hit the ball hard he can put it over the fence when he makes solid contact but how often is he going to do that wasn't an issue early on has become much more of an issue here lately in a way that i can't say surprises me could be that the the hamstring injury may have been a big issue for morikami but i think it's a big issue and that's why he's been so cold and that could change i'm not saying we've seen the last of morikami as a fantasy asset but if you have an alternative as good as thai france who spoiler alert is my top sleeper hitter for next week i think it makes sense all right next up in march
Speaker 1slash april i hit 248 with 10 homers and a 999 ops from may on i have hit 236 with 10 homers six steals and a 729 ops so the first month 10 homers from may on 10 homers and uh a much lower
Speaker 4ops 729 ops from may on 240 first two months 248 10 homers and a 999 ops march and april so march
Speaker 1is like whatever there's five games in march so march march is part of april that's that's one month in april 10 homers 999 ops from that point forward 236 729
Speaker 4so i'm going to hit 248 with 10 homers and a 999 ops from that point forward 236 729 march is part of april okay so he had a big april but with a low batting average and then he's been pretty blah since then is what you're telling me yes sir who could it be man who are we just talking about i don't know um i'm gonna say i don't know what i want to say i am gonna say okamoto
Speaker 1the answer we were looking for is mike trout who's actually gotten worse in the second half 43 second half games 242 two homers four steals 677 ops the expected stats are terrible during that stretch 231 360 231 xba 361 x slug and uh he's another name 99 percent ross or an 83 percent started i think we're kind of latching onto a very hot start that that faded pretty quickly well um and he does have six road games next week he has an ops over 900 on the road this year but similar question scott like what do you do with someone like mike trout do you i'm not saying you cut him but would you bench him in a three outfielder league at this point so these
Speaker 4are harder choices than i thought you were going to present me with man i i didn't know he had cooled off that much i gotta be honest but i was skeptical coming into the year how useful he'd be in fantasy moving forward. And you know what? His batting average and OPS for the year, pretty much right in line with last year. Pretty much right in line with the year that made me so skeptical. However, strikeout rate is still 26%, much better than the 32% from last year. So in theory, he either overperformed last year or is underperforming now just based on based on what we're seeing with the strikeout rate and the expected stats say he's underperforming now for what it's worth. More than he overperformed last year. Okay, so I've probably filibustered enough. I'm not opposed to sitting trout in a three outfielder league. Five outfielder, I don't think I could justify it.
Speaker 1Alright, and the last name, well not name, last clue that I'll give you here, player number three, my OPS over the past three years has gone from 993 to 841 to 677.
Speaker 4Woof. 993 is so high. Like, whose was that high? And then they were still pretty good the next year, 841. 993. That's so high. And a pretty impossible number to reach. Like Icona, like Gunnar Henderson kind of fits, but I'm not sure it's him because it's so high. Let's see, three years ago it was 2024, so it wasn't Ronald Acuna's big season, so it's probably not him. There was another name that came to mind, but then I lost it. Man, I'm gonna feel dumb when you say the answer. I felt dumb when you said the answer for all these. I always feel dumb. 993. Freaking high, man. I don't know. I'm gonna say Gunnar Henderson, because I don't want to waste everybody's time.
Speaker 1The answer is Kyle Tucker, who is still 98% rostered. That is astounding to me. And in fact, his OPS has got even worse in the second half. 590. Sub 600 OPS in the second half here. I just forgot how to play baseball, man. It is confounding for Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker. Scott, I think he's droppable. He's 98% rostered. I think he's droppable. He's bad. He's like really bad.
Speaker 4That's another one that next year, it's like, man, extensive track record still. He's gonna be 30 next year. Him. Vladimir Guerrero is another one. I saw people Yeah, I saw people wondering about him. It's gonna be crazy next year, man. Because, like, the thing is, plate discipline has been about as good as ever for Kyle Tucker. Just the exit velocities down a little. Is the bat speed down for him? Let me see if I can pull that up real quick. It says loading bat tracking. Loading it. Bat speed's not down that much. 0.7 miles per hour, average bat speed. I don't know. He's obviously had a bad year, and he had a bad second half last year. It really is
Speaker 1just the numbers at home, and I've brought this up all season. I can't understand it at all. He's hitting 185 with a 547 OPS at home. 264 with a 798 OPS on the road, which still would be down for Kyle Tucker's standards. But if you told me that he was just a 265 hitter this year with an 800 OPS, and he gave you, I don't know, 25 homers, 10, 15 steals, 10 steals, whatever it is, it's a disappointment, but it doesn't completely crater the way that... You're not talking about dropping him, if that's the number. These numbers at home, it is just, it is insane.
Speaker 4Gosh, I am not looking forward to ranking players. I gotta be honest. I've never looked forward to a less, because I just feel like I'm gonna be pulling my hair out. I think Kyle Tucker's a strong bounce-back candidate for next year. I don't think he's a strong bounce-back candidate for September, though. Well, that's the thing. If I think he's a strong bounce-back candidate for next year, why couldn't he bounce back in September? We can disagree. You're gonna feel really dumb if he has a September like the one Matt Olsen had during that bad year, what was it, two years ago? You're gonna feel dumb, Frank. I don't want you to feel dumb.
Speaker 1I can't feel dumber than I already do about Kate Anderson. Like, I
Speaker 4get in a three-out fielder, shallow head-to-head, especially points league, where your bench, you want a bunch of pitchers there. Every hitter on your bench feels like he's dragging you down. I can get dropping Kyle Tucker in that context, because in that context, you can't start him. But that's probably the only context where I'd drop him.
Speaker 1Yeah. Alright, so that was Scotty Doesn't Know!
Speaker 8Scotty Doesn't Know! Oh, Scotty Doesn't Know!
Speaker 1And this was supposed to lead into a bigger conversation, about what to do with big-name hitters who aren't producing. And again, I think this is more relevant for those playing in head-to-head playoffs, where, you know, every week matters so much, could decide whether or not, you know, you advance in the playoffs, you win your championship. So, it's hard to just put, like, a general answer on it, because obviously, like, every player is different, Scott, but what would you recommend for, you know, just using these three names as examples, and you know, even, you know, Christian Walker, we've mentioned a lot recently, Josh Naylor, who has a down season, like, guys who were either definitively drafted inside the top 100, or got off to good starts, would you be okay just maybe swapping some of those guys out for sleeper hitters at this point in the season?
Speaker 4Oh, yeah. I mean, the examples you're giving here, so, I mean, think about the examples you're giving, like, Kyle Tucker has struggled all year. It's not just, like, something that recently started. It's been all year. Yeah. Mike Trout, it's not like he was a high draft pick this year. There was a lot of skepticism about him. Got off to a hot start. You don't have to think of him as, like, one of your stalwarts. Christian Walker, he wasn't even drafted in a lot of leagues, because he was so bad last year. So, again, he's not like a stalwart. I thought this conversation was going to be more like, and I'm, I don't know how he's been doing recently. I'm just pulling an example out of the blue, but let's say Eli De La Cruz has hit 150 with no homers over his last 20 games. Do you sit him for the playoffs? No.
Speaker 1Can't do that. So, for example, there are three other names that I have that are sub-700 OPSs in the second half. Jose Ramirez, Ben Rice, and, I mean, Vlad Jr.'s been bad all season, so he's kind of more like the Kyle Tucker example, but, I mean, J-Ram and Ben Rice, like, sub-700 OPS in the second half. Do you bench those guys right now? In a head-to-head playoffs?
Speaker 4So, I think I need to look into this more, but isn't there some suspicion that Jose Ramirez isn't totally healthy? He's coming back from the fractured handmaid bone, right? I mean, that's the only thing
Speaker 1that would make sense. His underlying metrics haven't really changed all that much. Yeah, and
Speaker 4we talked a lot about how the broken handmaid bone, it can take a while for power to return. There have been many examples to the contrary, especially recently, so I think that worry has died down a bit, but Jose Ramirez may have been one who was snakebitten by it. I don't think there's any chance with Ben Rice that you sit him, because like, he's catcher-eligible, and there's still nobody I'd want starting more at that position, knowing the upside, and I think Ramirez has helped a lot by the fact he's third-base eligible, and there aren't a lot of great alternatives there, either. So, um, yeah, I, those two, especially Rice, they remain must-start in my eyes, but I'd have a hard time sitting Ramirez, too. I have other
Speaker 1bats who have struggled big-time in the second half, so I'll just ask you, I'll throw out the name you tell me, drop or bench, or just, you could say continue to start, so you know, start, bench, start, sit, or drop, basically. AJ Ewing, 499 OPS in the second half.
Speaker 4499, um, I think, uh, bench in five outfielder leagues, drop in three outfielder
Speaker 1leagues. Brandon Marsh, 510 OPS second half. Drop. Otto Lopez, 572 OPS second half.
Speaker 4I lean start at either of the positions that he plays, but if you have a great alternative, I'm not opposed to sitting him. Jonathan Aranda, 594 OPS. Um, you could drop him in head-to-head, but in Roto, probably closer to start even than bench. Christian Walker,
Speaker 1who we've talked a lot about, 598 OPS second half. Drop. All right, and then the other, the other names I had were the big ones. I guess I'll throw it out for Vlad Jr. I mean, not so sure that if you have Vlad Jr., you're playing in your head-to-head playoffs, but what would, what would you do with him?
Speaker 4I, yeah, I would try not to use him. Uh, would I go as far as to drop him?
Speaker 1I probably wouldn't drop him, but I, I would be okay benching him, especially at first base. There's so many good players.
Speaker 4Yeah. Yeah, I, I, I almost feel like you have to bench him at this point. I'm not opposed to dropping him in the shallower leagues.
Speaker 1All right, again, that was Vlad Jr. If you're looking for hitters to stream for next week, some replacements, Scott's best hitter matchups for week 25, we have the Nationals, Tigers, Cardinals, White Sox, and Padres. Be sure to check out his articles and our FBT Express episode as well. Wrap up with some leftovers. On the hitting side, O'Neal Cruz continues to impress since returning. He went 0-for-1, but he had three walks, a run, RBI, and his 26th steal. Roman Anthony hit another home run in five games since returning. He has 10 hits, two homers, five runs, and he has let off in each. Pete Alonso hit his 33rd homer, and in the second half, 305 batting average, 12 homers, 29 RBI, 954 OPS. Carter Jensen finished a single short of the cycle over his last eight games. He's hitting 400 with five homers. Jack Caglione? 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. Last 30 games, 383, seven homers, 32 RBI, three steals, OPS over 1,000 for Cags. And Corey Seager, 1-for-4 with his 14th home run in 30 games since returning, 294, four homers, 853 OPS. Scott, anything you'd like to add to the hitting leftovers?
Speaker 4I would like to add that Carter Jensen might be Mr. September, the kind of start he's off to this September with three straight great games. He's 7-for-12, three home runs, two doubles, a triple, only one strikeout, which, you know, strikeouts have been a big problem for Jensen all year. And I say Mr. September because what got us so excited about him was his performance last September when he first got called up for the Royals. So we'll see if it continues. I said yesterday that even though he's been the 10th best catcher overall, there probably isn't a point this season where Carter Jensen has been one of the 10 best catchers to start. He might be one of the best 10 catchers to start right now.
Speaker 1All right. On the pitching side, we had Hunter Brown, who turned in a quality start against the White Sox, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, 14 whiffs on 101 pitches. And he has been better over his last eight starts, 268 ERA, 117 whip. And Michael Wacca turned in a quality start against the Marlins. Six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts, 20 whiffs on 96 pitches. Wacca's been good lately, man. Quality start in three straight and nine starts in the second half. 251 ERA, .92 whip. 47 Ks over 57 and a third. So the K rate, not great, but the results have been there.
Speaker 4Look, he's been good all year. This has been like I could have kept him for $17 in the Scott White Dynasty League and didn't. Like an idiot. Had to fill catchers. Or with JT Real Muto instead. Like an idiot. $17 sounds like a lot, I know, but 24 team head-to-head points league. It's really not much. Anyway, what I wanted to say about Wacca is that the last two starts have really caught my attention because he's missed a ton of bats in both. A lot more four-seamers, a lot less sinkers. And I find that interesting that there is a correlation between that pitching change and the number of whiffs he's getting. Curiously, the velocity was up 1-2 on everything two starts ago. The first of these two starts, back to normal. And this one, the velocity, still got all the whiffs with that change in pitch selection. So, I don't know. Something to monitor. If he has a big strikeout September and keeps throwing a lot of four-seamers, that might change our evaluation for Wacca next year in a good way.
Speaker 1All right, the call to the bullpen for the Pirates. Mason Montgomery got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He picked up his eighth save. 62% rostered. That number needs to be closer to 100%. Montgomery is the closer for the Pirates, and he is awesome. For the Blue Jays, Louis Varland allowed two base runners. Also struck out two for his 32nd save. For the Red Sox, Aroldis Chapman got the ninth with a three-run lead, and he allowed a two-run homer, but he picked up his 31st save. For the Royals, Nate Pearson recorded four outs across the seventh and eighth innings with a one-run lead. He picked up his fifth hold, the Royals tacked on three more, but it was Steven Cruz who got the ninth inning, and he closed it out there with a four-run lead. So, they've been, you know, sometimes they use Cruz earlier in the game if it's a bigger spot, and sometimes Pearson will get a save, but I still think Cruz is at the top of the leverage ladder there for the Royals. For the Athletics, Scott, I know you're excited about this one. It was not Elvis Alvarado who got the ninth inning. It was Hogan Harris who picked up his 14th save. There were... There were two lefties and a switch hitter coming up in the ninth inning, so perhaps they factored into it, but Alvarado hasn't pitched since like the 29th or the 30th, so should have been available.
Speaker 4And Alazaro Montes was the first of the left-handed hitters. I think he's going to be an automatic out against lefties, basically. So, I get it, but it's just frustrating because it seemed like, you know, Elvis Alvarado last week had saves on back-to-back days. It's like, okay, they're turning it over to Alvarado again. I've twice put in sizable bids on him in Tout Wars and won him each time because it looked like he was the closer, and then there's an immediate pivot. I think it's just a one-off with Hogan Harris here with the lefties coming up, but can't say for sure. By the way, did you see who closed for the Cubs today? Got a save for the Cubs?
Speaker 1Ryan Rolison.
Speaker 4Yeah, their left-hander. That's interesting. Because that's a situation lately where it seems like, nobody wants to close games. Jacob Webb's been faltering.
Speaker 1Jacob Webb got hit by a comebacker yesterday, so I don't think he was available for injury reasons, but he hasn't been good either.
Speaker 4Daniel Palencia's been worse.
Speaker 1He's been terrible since coming back, too. So, yeah, the Cubs bullpen is definitely one to watch. And then for the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien, who I just raved about yesterday, got the ninth inning with a one-run lead, and he gave up two runs. He was charged with his sixth blown save and his seventh loss. Seventh loss of the year. So, bad job, Riley O'Brien. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we have Walker Buehler up against the Yankees, Shane Drohan at the Reds. Rhett Lauder is home against the Brewers. We have Jared Jones against the Angels, Shane Boz against the Red Sox, Zebby Matthews at the White Sox, Merrill Kelly at the Astros, and Kader Montero at the Guardians.
Speaker 4I am going to recommend, and not with much enthusiasm, Shane Drohan and Kader Montero. And you could think about Shane Boz and Zebby Matthews, but I don't think either is actually that good, and they have tough matchups, Red Sox and White Sox.
Speaker 1The only one I have actual confidence in is Shane Drohan, but if you need some other names, I would go Boz, Matthews, and then Kader Montero in that order. On Saturday, we have Anthony Molina of the Giants. He's at the Red Sox. He's at the Mets. Actually got a bunch of swinging strikes in his last start. Zach Thornton is home against the Giants. Martin Perez at the Phillies. Yusei Kikuchi at the Pirates. Andrew Abbott home against the Brewers. Chris Bassett home against the Red Sox. Max Scherzer is at the Royals. Seth Lugo home against the Blue Jays. Anthony Kaye home against the Twins. Pretty bad.
Speaker 4Man, it's not fun to stream pictures right now, unless it's Jacob Lopez or Andrew Painter. That's about it. Okay, so who will I pick from Saturday? Maybe Max Scherzer at Kansas City, though they've got a couple hot hitters right now. He was good, really good last time out, but not in a way I totally buy, or even kind of buy. Otherwise... I mean, Seth Lugo against the Blue Jays, it seems like it could be a quality start, but you're betting on Seth Lugo being better than he's been for most of the year.
Speaker 1I would throw out there Max Scherzer and Zach Thornton. Thornton has got good results.
Speaker 4Yeah, Thornton's a good one.
Speaker 1I don't really buy it, but the Giants are really bad against lefties, so I'd be all right using him. And then on Sunday, we have Brady Singer home against the Brewers. Tyler Malley is at the Phillies. Walbert Arania at the Pirates. Jackson Jobe at the Guardians. Christian Scott home against the Giants. Randy Dobnak home against the Blue Jays. Gage Jump at the Mariners. Bailey Ober at the White Sox. Andrew Alvarez at the Giants. Andrew Alvarez at the Dodgers.
Speaker 4I trust Tyler Malley right now. I don't think the Phillies are the greatest matchup, but I just think he's been, I think he's really bankable. Probably the third best pitcher after Jacob Lopez and Andrew Painter, who you could find on the waiver wire in a high number of leagues. I think Walbert Arania is pretty trustworthy, even though that matchup at Pittsburgh isn't the greatest. So Sunday is probably the best day to stream. Christian Scott against the Patriots. against the Giants doesn't sound terrible, though I wouldn't expect a win. Do I want to go back to the Randy Dobnak well after he burned us last time in Blue Jays' good matchup and he's a high ground ball pitcher, so it could go okay.
Speaker 1Yeah. I feel good about Malley, Arania, and Scott, but that's about it.
Speaker 4Not Dobnak, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4Nobody wants to get behind Dobnak but me. Poor Randy Dobnak.
Speaker 1Yeah. All right. I think that'll do. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow us. and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
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