What is Toyota Fortability? It's buying smart. Right now your local Toyota dealer has great deals available on some of the most reliable trucks on the market, like the off-road Ready Tacoma, rugged, full-size Tundra, and legendary forerunner, all with the space tech and features to handle it all. From the work site to the trails, it means driving for less, with efficient hybrid options available, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, meaning bigger savings at the pump without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. The Tacoma and Tundra are ranked number one and number two in resale value over all vehicles according to Kelly Bluebook, which can mean thousands more than average, right back in your pocket when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota Fortability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Bluebook's KBB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53%, versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. [CHEERING] And for the championship, watching D-Class Film. This is what I want. Welcome to. Got a fantasy question. Email fantasy
[email protected]. Get ready to win your lead. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up, and welcome in. It's up fantasy baseball today on Tuesday, August 4. So I am Frank Scott and I'm going by Chris Towers today on the show. More prospects on the way. We had loads of home runs hit in both New York and Chicago, fire up the worryometer for Cam Schliitler, and Justin Robleski, and much more. If you're looking for any trade deadline content, you will not find it on this podcast. So if you're looking for that, we did a live stream leading up to the deadline, through the deadline after the deadline. So make sure to check that out. It's both on YouTube and in the audio podcast feed. But for this, we will start with some prospects, Chris. We have more prospects on the way. Just last week, we found out that Max Clark and Quinn Matthews were getting called up. And today, I guess yesterday now, we learned that George Lombard Jr. and Hector Rodriguez are getting called up. So let's start with George Lombard of the Yankees. They optioned Anthony Volpi, which means the expectation is Lombard will be, I believe, the everyday shortstop here for the Yankees. He started the year, destroying AA. He got called up to Triple A. He struggled at first. But he's really picked things up. He recently returned from an injury, 16 games, since returning 393, 4 homers, 17 runs, two steals, a 507 on base, and a 1221 OPS. So he is 26% rostered. What are your thoughts on the player, George Lombard? And the immediacy. Do you need to rush out and add George Lombard Jr.? Do you need to maybe not? But the thing-- I do the waiver wire column every week. And I do like one player who's rostered in 75% of leagues or less that I think is interesting or worth adding at every position. And then one deeply guy. And it is by far harder to do that at shortstop than any other position. Because you have-- I don't know, 15, 17 guys who are universally rostered or basically universally rostered. Then you have the Brooks Lee and Ernie Clement types in the 80% range. And it's really hard to find anyone who's rostered anything more than 10% who's any good at all. And so when you look at the shortstop rankings, I've written about Nessim Nunez a lot. I've written about Cooper Pratt a lot lately, because those are the two guys in the 40% to 50% range. You have Jesus Mod, a 40% roster. I don't think he's getting called up. That's what happens. Leo DeVries is 37% rostered. I mean, Lombards are already 26% rostered. And so these big time shortstop prospects are kind of the next thing. And it's just a waiting game. And Lombards are the first of them to get the call. I have some questions about how this is going to work. And whether Yankees fans are doing it again, putting too much of their hopes on a very talented, but flawed young shortstop. But I will say the thing that I find most impressive about George Lombard is the 92.7 mile per hour average. I have lots of these running at AAA, because I think the big flaw in Lombard's game is, I think can straddle the passive versus patient line. And sometimes it's great if you can draw a bunch of walks, but sometimes guys who let hitable pitches go a little too often because they're looking to chase or looking to avoid chasing, majorly hitters are going to eat you alive, if that's the case, if they think you can't hurt them when they throw in the zone. And that's going to be the thing with George Lombard. He's got to make enough contact when he swings on pitches in the zone and he's got to do damage on them when he does. You can be selective, you're going to run up high pitch counts and get yourself in a lot of two strike counts. You've got to avoid too many strikeouts and you've got to be able to make damage when you swing. You've got to hunt for your pitches and make damage with them. And okay, 93 mile per hour average, I have lots of these suggests he can do that. Now, the barrel rate's only 7%, there are some questions about how much he's maximizing the content he's making, but I think that kind of raw power speaks to, this is not going to be a Caving Bigeo thing where pitchers aren't really afraid of chasing him and that walk rate's just going to start collapsing once they figure it out. I don't think Lombard has that problem. That doesn't mean he's going to be a great player, but it's a really interesting skill set, plus power, good approach at the plate. Even some speed 14 steals in 78 games, there's just a lot that can go right here. Four George Lombards, so it doesn't need to be rostered and absolutely every league or does every single team need to run out and add him. You might have your shortstop in middle infield spot set, but it's a profile that one could be very productive from day one and two could be productive in both points and roto. Yeah, so there's a lot to like here and he is probably the only widely available shortstop with legitimate upside. I look at him versus Cooper Pratt and I see some similarities, very good approaches at the plate. Pratt, much more stolen based potential, I think, or at least what we're seeing so far. It's I think nine steals in 38 games or something. That's very impressive. I don't think Lombard's going to do that. I don't think Pratt has anywhere near the pop that Lombard does. I think it's like a six mile per hour difference in average hourjigs of velocity. So that's an interesting one. If you need stolen bases, I think I'd prefer Pratt. Otherwise, if you don't specifically need stolen bases, I might just roll the dice on Lombard. Yeah, he is a very interesting prospect and you broke it down to a tee. He hits the ball hard. It's really more line drives all fields approach like gap to gap type stuff for now. Now can he learn to optimize that? His pull to air it actually is in the 79% tile at triple A. So I'm surprised he hasn't even gotten to more power, but really it is a lot of like line drives. That is the approach here for George Lombard Jr. It's a good eye at the plate. He does swing and miss a little bit in the zone. So that's something to watch here. Yeah, very, I think it is an interesting skill. You don't see a lot of prospects come up with this exact skill set. And I don't know if you've seen his player photo, Chris. Whenever I've seen him, he reminds me so much of George Springer. Like to a tee, a baby George Springer. Let's see. I mean, you think about the skill set and then, you know, that kind of works. I know. I was thinking about that too. I'm like, maybe swear with less power, you know? Yeah, I can look a baby, very baby face George Springer because one, it's been a long time since Springer looked quite that young and also Lombard just is a young look and dude. But yeah, I can see it. Yeah. You know who reminds me of actually? Who's that? Former Major League Outfielder George Lombard. It looks almost identical. That's crazy, man. I think you're going out on a limb there. That's a little wild. Um, you know, some hints of this prospect that this got drafted to, Jacob Lombard. I don't know if you've heard of this. Oh, yeah, I can see that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm not quite the same, but yeah, very similar. Some similarities. I do think any leagues with middle infield spots, I think in anything, even in 12 team leagues with the middle infield spot, I think in deeper leagues, obviously, you want to take a shot here. I think in these are very niche, but like a deeper head-toed points league. Yeah, I'm just like the standard like shallow. There's only one short stop, only one utility, no middle infielder. Yeah, I mean, the, the, the towel wars league on it is a roto roster, but points. That's like the perfect place to try to add George Lombard. And I think any categories league that uses OBP instead of batting it. I think that would make a lot of sense for Lombard as well. Next up, the reds are calling up outfield prospect Hector Rodriguez who has taken a big step forward this season 104 games at AAA hitting 274.
for 27 homers in 881 OPS, 9% walk, 20% strikeout rate. The quality of contact doesn't blow you away until you see the max exit velocity, 113.7. That kind of gets you going a little bit, 96% tile with the max EV, 79% tile, pulled air rate. That would work very well in Great American Ballpark. They just traded away Nate Low. And so that opens up a spot on the roster. Is he going to get every day playing time right away? I'm not so sure of that. I think there are ways to get it done. They can move a Hanoi Suarez to third base. They can put like JJ Blade or Noelvi Marta at DH. And then boom, and now field spot opens up. So it'll be interesting to see how the playing time plays out. But what do you think of Hector Rodriguez, the prospect? Are you looking to add him anywhere? Yeah, I think the playing time concerns are, well, certainly much bigger for him than they are for Lombard. But you do look at the reds. And JJ Blade got off to a really good start, but he's been pretty bad for a while. There's not really any future there. And Dave Myers certainly isn't a long-term building block. And at this point, I don't think you can call Noelvi Marta a long-term building block. And then they've got Suarez playing DH more often than not. He's not a long-term building block. I also don't think they're going to just get rid of him. So he's probably stuck in there. But any of those three outfield spots, if they want to mix and match, I think Rodriguez deserves a look. He is a type of player who can tend to get exposed at the matrily level. He is a very, very aggressive swinger who makes a lot of contact. He has a 56% swing rate. This season it was 60% at Triple A last season. He chases a lot. And good majorly pitchers can really, really figure that out quickly. But he also makes a lot of contact. And he doesn't strike out as much as you would think for that approach. And he hits the ball really hard. And it's a good hit tool for a guy with poor swing decisions who also hits the ball pretty well. So I don't think it's the likliest outcome in the world to heck to Rodriguez is suddenly a difference maker. But there are real skills here. And I was reading the baseball prospectus. They do their mid season top 50 update. And then they do a just missed. And he was on the just missed list. So if baseball prospectus went to 75 names, he might be on there. This is a legitimate prospect. It's not an incredible one, not a camp miss one. But I'm interested to see what it might look like if and when he gets the opportunity. So yesterday we brought up a few deeper five outfielders, five outfielders, league outfielders, Spencer Jones, Jake Mangum, Heraperto Hernandez, this one we've been talking about. I think I would still take all three of those over Rodriguez. Oh boy, it sounds like I'm, you guys are just putting me on an island as a Spencer Jones hater. I just have no faith. I mean, this working out. That's totally fine. Yeah, I mean, you could. So I, I, I'm not saying I think Hacker Rodriguez, well, if both for prospect L's blood, do you think Hacker Rodriguez would be ranked higher than Spencer Jones at this point? Jones is old and kind of a little bit of a known quantity in terms of what his limitations are. And I think his limitations are significant. I don't think he's ever going to make enough contact to really make it work. So I wouldn't hate the idea of rolling the dice on Hacker Rodriguez. I know Jones has had, you know, a good week or so, but it's not much more than one good week. So I might have more faith in Hacker Rodriguez if he gets the playing time. Yeah. And looking a little bit deeper, like names that are under 20% rostered that are also on the most added list right now, Griffin, and Konheim, Victor Mesa, Jr. S theory, Ruiz. I mean, Ruiz doesn't play every day. Mesa's very limited. Konheim, just a writing master with big contact issues. I don't take, I don't take, I think it's a guarantee Rodriguez is better than all of them, but I'm open to it. I would take care of Aribato Hernandez, who does have, I think, the most secure playing time of this group for now. Yeah. Of that second group, the K9 Mesa and Estérie Ruiz, I think I would roll the dice on Hector Rodriguez over those names. Ruiz is interesting because he's, he's, whenever it plays, he makes something happen. He's stealing bases, but he's just not playing every day. I guess they traded away Liam Hicks. So perhaps that could open up a, but that was bad. It's like, Oh, in case he's gonna play. I mean, he just came back. Yeah, I think that was why they did that move. Yeah. Fun for the agency player. Estérie Ruiz. It's just Ruiz has been weird because it's just I wish he was playing more. Right. But he's, he's appeared in 73 games. He has 149 played appearances, you know? Yeah. So again, that was Hector Rodriguez with the red. I think it's a deeper kind of five outfielder league play for now. But you know, if he gets a lot of playing time this week, I could see being more aggressive on him over the weekend and fab. So be sure to pay attention to the playing time with Hector Rodriguez. Before we eat our first break, if you enjoy the audio podcast, feel free to leave us a five star rating and review on both Apple and Spotify. It really does help us out a lot. What's up? Can I, can I promote something? Yeah. Let's make sure I have, oh, I don't know what the go to Twitter.car X dot com slash CP towers go to blue sky dot com slash CP towers. I've got a link in there for the FFT open. We are doing 36 leagues with a bunch of fantasy football experts and me. You can play against us. We are trying to raise $200,000 for our friends at St. Jude Children's Hospital. It's an unbelievably good cause that we're working with. The fantasy football team has been doing this for years. We just get bigger every year. We've already raised $53,000 and the FFT draft it on hasn't even started yet. These open FFT open spots are available. There's one spot left in the beat F beat Chris towers FFT open and I promise you, being Chris towers won't be hard. So if you want to put that feather in your cap, go to my Twitter. I've been promoting it all night. There's also chip Patterson Alfredo Brown, Ian Hartitz, JJ Zacharias and Jake Ceeley, just a bunch of great people in the industry helping us out with this. If mine is taken, join one of theirs, but there's one spot left. I would love to have an FBT person in there to beat me down and fantasy football. So make sure you join. All right. Again, the link for that is tiny url.com/fftdonate2026. There you go. That's why you're the pro. She got the smart link. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy at baseball today. Now let's get into the players of the night. Holy cow. Oh, up there. All right, Chris, before we started, you said that you were going to do the thing. What is the thing? Who's the player? Yeah, you know, obviously we all know the myth of Cicifus, Albert Camus, seminal work of mid 20th century existentialism about the, yeah, it's a great one. We all, we've all read it. It's about the myth of Cicifus. It was a Greek myth about a guy like stole something from the gods or something. I don't know. I can't remember the details are not important, but the thing is he was punished by the gods and his punishment is yes to roll a boulder up a hill every day. And then at the end of the day, the boulder rolls back to the bottom of the hill. He's got to do it the next day again. And this is his punishment for eternity for the rest of of time. And Camus in his wisdom writes, one must imagine Cicifus happy because that is the life that he has to live. And that is all to say that every time there's one of these objectively not very good pitchers who goes on a run where they are going, let's say six and two thirds innings allowing, let's say one run, five hits, one walk while only striking out three. Every time that happens, I feel like Cicifus just rolling my boulder that has Brandon Fought's ERA on it. And then the next day, I got to do it again with, I don't know, Justin Robleski or Edward Rodriguez or like, there's always one or two guys who are doing this to me specifically. And I have to find joy in them making me look like an idiot every day because eventually they're going to go out and give up, say, four home runs and back to back starts hypothetically. And that's where I'm at.
with Brandon Fought. It's not real, it's obviously not real. This is not going to last. This is going to end in heartbreak at some point. And it's just a question of, if you wanna add him to your roster, can you get him out of your lineup before the bottom falls out? 'Cause it's going to happen. Brandon Fought, since he got called back up, has like a 120 ERA and like 22 strikeouts and 40 innings or something. It's just completely obviously unsustainable. And at some point, it's going to catch up. And at some point, it's going to tank your ERA. And it's just, I don't wanna be there when it does, 'cause I have no faith in it continuing. I have no faith in his next start being good. I know that makes me different from a lot of people who listen. A lot of fans, analysts are willing to play the hot hand. I am not maybe to my detriment as a player, but I believe Brandon Fought is not very good and that is going to show up very, very soon. It showed up almost every time he pitched before he went down to Triple-I. So at some point, this is going to be really, really bad. I believe he starts against the Dodgers the next time out. It could happen as soon as then. - Is that the ball rolling down the hill? The rock rolling down the hill is him facing the Dodgers? - No, that's when Cicifist is finally happy. - Oh. - Yeah, so, okay. All right, I was trying to-- - It's not a great analogy. - I was trying to put it all together. I'm like, wait, is Chris that guy who's pushing the rock? - I'm Cicifist. And the rock is Brandon Fought's ERA. - Got it, got it, or something. - That ERA, by the way, 'cause you were close. I'll give you the exact numbers. Seven starts since being recalled, 155 ERA, 103 whip, 23 strikeouts over 42 thirds innings. So that is a really low strike outing. - And the thing is he's pitching well. That I guess that's the thing that I can sometimes forget to say during this is, Brandon Fought is pitching well. If you look at the PLV cards from Pitcherless, that grade, stuff, execution, all that stuff, the stuff, not so good. It's like a C-, it's like me in high school. And then the location was like an A today, which is like me, my senior year of high school, when I was like, oh no, I need to get into college. And that can work. It's not sustainable. You can't execute your way out of not missing bats and not having good stuff forever. You can do it for a while, but eventually it's going to catch up to you. It's going to catch up to Brandon Fought. If you want to add him, that's fine, especially in a weekly or a point-slake, especially with that spark eligibility. If you want to add him, that's fine. In a road league, especially, I think at some point he's going to undo all the good work he's done. And that's what I want to highlight. - All right, and that was Brandon Fought. And I guess I'll just keep it. I guess that was a negative breakdown, right? But let's talk about a negative performance. - Yeah, that was a positive performance. - Justin Robleski, big old regression start here at the Cubs. That's two clunkers in a row now for Justin Robleski. Four and a third, seven hits, seven runs, three walks, four strikeouts, four homers allowed by Robleski in this one. The velocity was actually up a little bit across the board here. He allowed eight hard hits, 91.8 average exit velocity against. And that's now five plus earned runs and four homers allowed in each of his last two starts. So that is a lot of homeruns to allow in a very small sample in a very close proximity here for Justin Robleski. Look, he's human, he was so good for so long he's allowed to have bad starts. The next question is how much do we worry about this, right? Like we knew there was going to be a regression at some point and now it's hitting a lot in just two starts. Like eight homeruns over a two-star trech is actually like kind of concerning. So where were Justin Robleski be on the worryometer, Chris? - I mean, he had about eight homeruns all season before these two starts of my quick math is correct. - That's a lot of homers. And this is a good example. Like, Justin Robleski had been amazing in his seven starts prior to this. And now since the start of June, he has a 381 ERA. And since the start of May, he might have like a four ERA 'cause he had a 413 ERA in May. So that's what I mean about it eventually coming undone. However, what's extra annoying about this is I had kind of learned to stop worrying and just embrace Justin Robleski recently because his velocity had been way up in the past couple of months. His strikeout rate had gone from one of the worst in baseball to actually pretty good over the past month or so, especially and now he's undone all the good work he did with the last two starts. And so are we quite back at square one? I don't know. This especially wasn't outlier for him. He had four strikeouts to three walks. He had had at least seven strikeouts in each of his previous four starts. Hadn't had more than two walks in any start since April. So I want to give Justin Robleski a little bit of the benefit of the doubt here, but I can't say I have a ton of faith in him. No, I never had too much faith in him. So we're at the point now where I'll give him a little mulligan here, but another bad start in a row, especially with a bunch of homers. One, it makes you wonder how long the dodgers are gonna stick with him in the rotation. And two, I don't think you want him in your rotation. So I'm putting him on warning. Yeah. And we've gone from watch to warning. And yeah, another bad start like this. I think we're blesses. Definitely going to get dropped. I would probably put him at a five on the worryometer. I'm not overly worried, but I'm not not worried. And it's not completely because of him. It's what you mentioned with the dodgers, where with Blake's nail returning and eventually Tyler Glass, that was gonna be back. And oh wait, they just traded for Tarek's Google. Like they just have a lot of options. And Justin Robleski didn't really throw, I believe, he didn't throw that many innings last year. So I believe he is past last year's total. It's I do think it's a little bit different when guys are healthy the full year and are pitching in relief, which I believe was the case for Robleski. He threw, yeah, 117.1 innings, 118.1 innings. So that's a pretty good amount. I thought it was a little right there. Yeah, he's almost at last year's level, but he was starting early and then he got called up and was mostly used as a multi-aiding reliever after that. I think that's a little different than when guys are just, you know, throw 90 innings, but it's because they missed a bunch of time. But yeah, I think it's possible Robleski's running out of steam here, sure. - Want to give a shout out to Alec Burleson, who just had the first three Homer game of his career, three for five, with a triple dong, six RBI here on Monday night. And he is up to 18 home runs, 77 RBI on the season. He's hitting 288, 830 OPS. He's just three Homer's and one RBI away from tying career highs in those categories. And we still have like almost two months left in the season. So pretty safe to say we're gonna get a career year here out of Alec Burleson, who entering Monday was the 31st best hitter in Ronald Leagues this year. So shout out to Alec Burleson, man, just a really good season. - Great season all around for him. Let's hit the news and notes. Again, no trade talk. If you want the trade talk, go back. Listen, we did a Terrick School emergency pod. Yes, it's Terrick School. - We got traded. - And it wasn't to the brewers, Chris. - Unfortunately. - Unbelievable. - I've got some thoughts. - Oh, we know. So if you wanna hear about Terrick School and everything else that's going on in baseball, you can listen to that emergency podcast. All the other trades we caught up earlier today, yesterday, we did a like two hour podcast. News and notes, James Wood left early after hurting his left side on a swing and he is going for an MRI on Tuesday. Very scary stuff here, Chris, because Obliques, especially for a guy that's that big, who swings that hard with that much ferocity, that much bat speed, that much exit velocity. This can, hopefully not, be a seasoned wrecker for James Wood. - Yeah, I mean, they're only calling it a side injury right now. If you saw the video, he grabs his obliques. I mean, that was right where he grabs. So it's definitely concerning. We can't say anything more than that, but it's, it's worrying. Yeah. - Speaking of big humans who are hurt, Brian Cashman had this to say of Aaron Judges' return. - Well, we currently are still very optimistic that he's going to return, but there's challenges with all that too. There's a very high likelihood that he fits the timeframe, the timeframe to come back and join us. That's what I'm hoping. - That sounds like a guy who is really, really optimistic. - What? - That Aaron Judges coming back. - That was the wordiest word salad that I ever heard in my life. - I mean, that was like me trying to explain how I feel about Brandon Fawt. - He didn't say anything. He just said-- - Yeah, that's a classic Brian Cashman quote. - That's it. - Like, he's just got, that's happens a few times a year. What?
where he gets up there and says something like that and you're just kinda like, I mean the words are English, but the syntax doesn't, like they don't add up to anything, you know? It's like when you're doing an Excel spreadsheet and you do something wrong, you just get the red error. That's what it feels like reading that quote. I don't know, well I know what he's trying to say. I have no idea when Aaron Judges is going to be back. Yeah, but he can't say that. It's just a bunch of hoping and optimism and if I had to guess right now, I think the Yankees right now would sign up for it. If they can get Judge back with like two weeks left in the regular season, they would sign up for that today. I just don't think that they don't even know if that's a possibility. So it's concerning. And I mean, if you remember back to when he first suffered the injury, it was originally a shoulder injury. That was how they diagnosed it. And then they started looking into thoracic outlet syndrome and then it turns out it's this fracture in his rib, the stress fracture, I wanted to say. And so, you know, it's just, it's in a weird spot that doesn't seem to heal well and yeah, it's just, it doesn't sound great. I'm hoping that we're making a mountain out of a molehill, but that was not the most, that was not the most promising quote I've ever heard about the best player in baseball. Kyle Harrison is confirmed to return Wednesday against the pirates. Carlos Rodón threw a live BP on Monday and who did he throw to? John Carlos Stanton. How about that? Rodón is working his way back from left elbow inflammation. Stanton working his way back from a castrain that he suffered way back in April and just keeps re-injuring. So I don't really have much faith in Stanton. I actually think maybe Rodón could be back sometime in August if there are no so back so. There was a quote from Aaron Boone. It was something like, it was just good to see him outside. It's like, dude, they're talking about him. He's like terminal. I got herminer something. Yeah, man, it makes me so sad. John Carlos Stanton has, I want him to get to 500 home runs too. Yeah, like he's one of my favorite baseball players ever at his peak. There was nobody like him, like even Aaron Judd, Shohei Tani, they're better players, but like there has never been a physical force like John Carlos Stanton and even deep into his career after all the injuries. He still hits the ball as hard as anybody. And it's just, it's, it is not surprising that his career is ending this way, but I would like to see a healthy month from John Carlos Stanton before it's over. Speaking of hermits, Chris, once the baseball season is over, I have already warned my wife. There are so many interesting video games that are coming out this fall. It is. I see I'm, I'm the opposite. As soon as the season ends, I'm, I'm just good. It's October, the weather's nice, ish for a little while. I'm, I'm hitting the trails. I'm going out. Yes. Good luck, man. There's like Grand Theft Auto coming out. There's, I mean, the new gears of War Game. I don't know if my little, I've got the little Xbox series ass. I don't think that thing is going to be able to handle GTA 6. I think that, I think there might be a fire hazard in my apartment. I'm going to, I'm going to have to like, I don't know, bribe someone to let me borrow PS5 or something. There's a hell-raiser video game coming out that looks awesome too. So there's a Wolverine game. I don't have a PS5. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Dalton rushing went on the aisle with a mild elbow strain and they're talking like it's not, it's not really a big deal. They're hoping he's back, you know, pretty soon. But if you are looking for a catcher replacement, there's Francisco Alvarez, 55% rostered. JT Real Muto has been a little bit better as of late. He's 48%. I think if you're in a two-catcher league, Joe Mack, 28%, he's basically the guy with the Marlins now. And he's actually been pretty good over the past couple of months. Yeah, he's been really solid for like two months. Andy Rodriguez. Yeah, that was the next name I was bringing up. Andy Rodriguez. He's up to like five steals and five homers. I think six, I think he's still six today. He's got a great eye at the plate. He hits the ball pretty hard. I think Andy Rodriguez is among players at the catcher position, probably the most under-roster at only 20%. And then we talked about it a little bit on the longer trade deadline show, but most of us, Starris is on the angels now. Yeah. I don't think he's gotten called up yet, but I would imagine it's going to happen pretty soon. And could very well play his way into top 20, maybe top 15 catcher ranking if he hits the ground running. Or he's not thinking about it this way because he probably is just happy that he has an opportunity to play. But imagine going from the cubs to the angels, man. Yeah. That's pretty sad. Maybe he's maybe he's a beach guy, you know, could be. I mean, I guess they got they got that one like concrete beach in Chicago. I've never been to Chicago, man. I want to go to Chicago rules. I do. Oh, my God. Frank, you got to go. You know what they have at the Chicago Field Museum, the science museum? Anything Adam Sandler related? No, but very, very much up your your your lane until April of next year, they have a Pokemon exhibit. Ooh, that's like Pokemon. It's like what if Pokemon were fossils? No. And it looks so cool. I'm trying to figure out how to get there. I've got like way too many trips with family and stuff coming up. And I'm like, I need to sneak away to the Wendy city for a weekend. Oh, man. They'll see a Pokemon fossil exhibit. I'd like to see that. I want to see Wrigley so bad. I want to. I've been to Chicago five times during baseball season and the Cubs have never been in town once. Oh, brutal. I don't know how my luck is that bad. But yeah. How about other news items here? Mitch Keller is done for the season after suffering a terrorist major strain in his right shoulder. Not only did the Rockies not trade Mickey Moniac, they gave him an extension. Two years, $16.25 million. And he responded with his 18th home run of the season. He's actually hit very well this year, 277, 18 homeers 49 RBI, 883 OPS and 75 games there for Mickey Moniac. But where is that being going to play? Where? Well, where's Charlie Condon going to play? Right? We're still asking these same questions. And the Guardians option, both Kyle Manzardo and David Fry to AAA after picking up a few bats here at the deadline. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll fire up with the Warriometer 4. Pam Schletler, we had a bunch of home runs hit in Chicago in New York. I have some waiver wire names. We'll do all that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball. Today, let's fire up the Warriometer here on Pam Schletler, who just had nothing against the Cardinals. Three innings, four hits, four runs, five walks, six strikeouts, only had eight lifts on 83 pitches. He uses curveball more than this one. And that curve just had absolutely nothing here. Or, Pam Schletler. And if you look, three of his last seven starts, not great. The other four during that stretch were really good. So I don't really think there's anything to that. It's just like the way he struggled, five walks. He had another start recently with four walks. It's like, all right, I hope the control, which was questionable in the miners, isn't starting to kind of rear its ugly head here for Pam Schletler. Yeah. I mean, there are definitely concerning signs among along the way. There is also arguably the two best starts of his career. Right. In that same stretch. So is Pam Schletler suddenly terrible? No, definitely not. Is he a little more vulnerable lately? Maybe. Yeah, I mean, it certainly seems so. Although really only two of the starts are bad. I guess there was the one that was four and a third. He gave up three in runs. I don't. Was there rain in that one? Or just he was just inefficient. Now there was no rain. Okay. So yeah, but it's really like two, two and a half bad starts. And to a certain, it's like three and a half bad starts all season. Yeah. You know, so it's hard for me to get too worked up about that. On the other hand, I've been the guy saying, I'm not worried about Paul Schienes. And now I'm starting to get worried because it keeps going. So could this be the start of the time when you should have been worried about Pam Schletler? It's possible. We look back on it, but I don't really think there's too much to worry about there. It was disappointing that the curve ball was so bad despite being used more because he had used it more in the previous start. And I think he got seven whiffs on eight swings with the curve ball in his last start. Velocities way up on that pitch. Yeah, I don't have too much concern. Is it zero? Like zero out of 100? No, it's not zero out of 100. I think it's closer to zero out of 10 on the worryometer than five. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it would be more like a one or two for Pam Schletler. And yeah, and his previous start, the curve, he used it 20% of the time. The Velocity was up almost three miles per hour. And he had seven whiffs on eight swings. So an 88% whiff rate on that curve ball. In the previous start for Pam Schletler, that was not the
case here against the St. Louis Cardinals. Bombs away. We had a bunch of homeruns in New York and Chicago, the Cardinals and Yankees combined for 10 homers in that game. Again, Alec Berlison hit three of them. He also had six RBI, but Nathan Church, another one, he reached base four times, two for three with two walks and his ninth home run also added for RBI. It was his first home run since July 3rd. And in the 26 games in between he hit 141 with a 336 OPS. So don't think we have to do anything with Nathan Church. I think the same could be said for Jimmy Crooks who hit his fourth home run of the season. He just hasn't done much. Hasn't really been playing that much either for the Cardinals. He's like a part of there's no such things halfway Crooks. Sorry. Ah, Louise Garcia, Jr. Great first impression, two for four with his 24th home run at the time. It was a go ahead home run and the Yankees were they came back from being down six runs and that capped off a seven unanswered runs and then the Cardinals tacked on six. Yeah, they had two separate six run leads. Yeah. That's that's that's what this game was just all over the place. And somebody I think it was, I don't know, maybe it was like John Boye or talking Yanks. They kind of did a side by side with Robinson Knoeswing. It was very similar. I've seen that that was his like guy growing up. Louise Garcia. So that that and you can definitely see it. I will say, you know, I don't know if Louise Garcia is going to keep this up. I think if they start playing him against lefties more, I think you'll definitely see some regression. But this was a smart move if only because he doesn't strike out very much. And that will keep Yankees fans from being apoplectic when he slumps because they keep getting guys who strike out too much. And Yankees fans take that personally. So at the very least, if Louise Garcia slumps, it won't be that way. So it it should be at least a little more a little easier to to stomach. You come to the big apple Chris, you got to perform Joe Dimaggio didn't strike out. Never. Yogi Berra didn't strike out. You know, strikes out not that much. Trent Christian. He hit his 12th home run of the season. He had two hits in this game. But in his previous 14, he was hitting 093 with zero, zero extra base hits. He is 64% roster. I was surprised. I think that number is a little bit too high here for Trent Christian. Jose Caballero won for three with a walk in his 12th Homer. That's back to that games with the home run for him. 71% rostered. He's had a good fantasy season. We know he's not a great hitter, but 12 homers and 27 seals. Obviously is very helpful for fantasy. We didn't mention this with George Lombard. I think Caballero is a pretty big loser with this happening. Yeah. I mean, you would think Lombard's getting called up to play every day. He's supposed to be a very good defensive shortstop as well. And it like I think the best version of the Yankees as a real life baseball team does not have Jose Caballero playing shortstop every single day. Agreed. The best version of this team is you pick your spots, you play your matchups, you give guys days off because of his versatility. And that was why when they recalled Anthony Volpe at first when he got healthy and he was playing over Caballero. I know that made a lot of Yankees fans mad, but it was like, I think you had to give him a chance because the best version of the Yankees is going to be someone holds down shortstop and is to be fair better than Anthony Volpe and hopefully George Lombard will be that. And then Caballero playing every day, but not necessarily starting every day. That's probably the right way. But yeah, in terms of his fantasy outlook, I think he definitely takes a hit unless Lombard is hitting 100 after two weeks, in which case, I think you probably just have to go back to the status quo. Yeah. Austin Wells went to for four with his eighth home run and in 12 games after the All Star break, he's hitting 259 with two homers and a 931 OPS. So in the deepest two catcher leagues, an intrate for catcher. So Austin Wells is going to play Ryan McMahon hit his 10th home run. I don't think anyone really cares about that for fantasy. The Dodgers and Cubs combined for six homers in Chicago. Kevin Alcantara is on the board his first career home run. And he actually was doing some interesting things in the minors this year. 271 363 on base 17 home runs 905 OPS also striking out 30% of the time. But hitting the ball really hard lots of barrels. There's just nowhere from the play Chris. Yeah, I mean, he's the reason they traded on Casey in the offseason, right? Because they had to trade one of them. And you know, maybe in 2027, they've got Ian happy and say as a Zuki heading into free agency. I don't think they're going to resign both of them. So Alcantara still a name in dynasty leagues to keep a keep an eye on. But barring in injury, I think it's really unlikely he's going to play enough to matter the rest of the way. Say a Suzuki one for four with his 19th home run in 50 games since the start of June. He's hitting 298 with 12 homers 44 RBI and an OPS over 950. So he really only had that bad May, I believe it was. And then he's just been really good ever since then. Michael Bush, two for four with his 14th home run. It did come off of a lefty. He's kind of the opposite. He had a great May. He's been pretty mid since June. 53 games since the start of June. 244 eight home runs 28 RBI and OPS around 750. I don't know, Chris, like Michael Bush is still a universally rostered player. Should he be? I don't, I don't know. He's fine. He's not a terrible player. But I think based on what we've seen so far this season, he's I don't think I have him. Yeah, he's 15th of first base. And that's even me being a little generous, although Jonathan Iran has been pretty bad for a while. Josh Nailer's been bad. Pretty much the whole season. And I'm going to talk him or a comedy. I think he has not done much since coming back from the I L. Right. Paradeus has been pretty good. You know, I think that range is pretty fungible. You know, 15 through, let's say, 22 or 23 at first base. It's a really deep position. I mean, even even beyond that, you've got Bryce Eldridge and Kyle Stowers and some guys who are really talented. So yeah, it's, it's a, it's just a tough position. But that should also mean that it's easy to replace Michael Bush. And you should be open to that down the stretch because he's not showing a sign of, you know, necessarily figuring it out. It is a deeper position for sure. We've talked about that a lot. A lot of these names are kind of slumpen right now. Sure. So we mentioned Bush. Christian Walker has been bad for a while. Right. Oh, her her hers her hers out for the season. Probably out for the season. You mentioned. Oranda has been kind of taking a step back. Like Rumfeld's been pretty quiet. Cags has been bad for a while now too. Yeah. Bryce Eldridge has slowed down like it is a deep position in terms of names. But a lot of them have actually kind of slowed down a little bit. So, yeah, hey, maybe Royce Lewis should be should be ranked higher. No, maybe. Yeah. We got to move Royce Lewis up there. Carstead Kelly went one for four with a walk in his seventh home run at three RBI. You know what he is like deeper to catch your lead kind of name. Tiasca Hernandez hit his 11th home run. He is starting to pick things back up. He has three home runs in his past five games. And so far in the second half, he's sitting 321 with a 910 OPS. So some good signs there from Tiasca. And Tommy Edmund, one for four with his third home run, three RBI. He was hitting third in the lineup against a left handed pitcher. He has started 20 of the past 21 games. 63% rostered second third and outfield eligibility. I feel like I brought him up a ton over the past couple of weeks. But I think that number is probably right. Like anything more than 63% it's like you're talking really shallow points. And yeah, I don't know if Tommy Edmund needs to be rostered in those. Yeah, I mean, it's good that he's playing pretty much every day now. Because I think that was the biggest concern. I don't really buy him as 300 hitter. I don't really buy him as an 836 OPS guy. But you know, you shave off, I don't know, 10% on both. And he's still hitting 270. And you know, I think he's useful. But I don't think he's a must start player. Let's talk some waiver wire hitters from Monday's action. And I have four shallow league outfield eligible players. And Jung Hoolie had a massive game three for four with two socks in a shoe, two homers, stolen base, plus three runs, three RBI. His first half of July was awful. But so far in the second half, 328, three homers, two steals, 971 OPS. A lot of that being carried by this one game, I realized 72% roster for Jung Hoolie. As he killed DeRon went four for four with his 13th home run. He had a terrible June. But since the start of July, he's hitting 293 with seven homers, two steals an OPS over 850. Chandler Simpson, two for four with his 28th stolen base. And over his last 35 games, he's hitting 378 with 14 steals. Again, that's Chandler Simpson. He's 73% rostered and cold carriage, two for five with a double a run in RBI. And so far in the second half, 383, one homer, three steals an OPS over 1000. He has started eleven.
of the past 12 games and he is 70% roster Chris. How would you rank these four? It might change depending on the format, but it's Jung Huli, Azikil Doran, Chandler Simpson and Colk Eric. I'm kind of bummed out because Fandcraft has that rolling games log thing where you can see how many home runs guys have hit in their last 15 days or whatever and they don't offer for stolen basis. I feel like that would be really interesting with Chandler Simpson because it feels like Aziz off in the case, but especially with him, they've come in bunches, man. There was like a 30 game stretch where he barely ran at all and it was right when he wasn't hitting either. Yeah, he was starting to get benched. He wasn't hitting at all and it was like, oh, this guy is doing nothing. And then he gets hot again around what late June, early July, let's say, and yeah, he's hitting 374 over his last 35 games now. That's what you said. Yeah, 378. That was the exact thing I was laying up. 378, 14 steals over his last 35 games. So okay, so rank them. Yeah. I think it does change depending on the format. Yeah, depending on format, you might go Lee at the top in a points league. I think you definitely go Simpson at the top in a road O league. I think no matter what Azikil Doran's probably at the bottom. Yeah, I know he's having a nice season, but I just don't have a ton of faith in it. And I think Karrag might be second in both formats. And he probably has the most upside of this group. It's just how much do we buy the playing time? 11 of the past 12 games he started. I know he's made four starts at shortstop or four appearances at shortstop. So he's about to gain eligibility there. That'll won't change his outlook too much, but it's nice to see them doing that. And yeah, I think he has the highest upside of this group. But if you're talking about starting guys, I think you'd probably rather start Simpson or Lee. Yeah. I think in a points league, it would be Lee, Karrag Simpson Doran. In a categories or a road O league, it would be Simpson Karrag. I might even take Doran over Lee in a categories league, but it's really nice to have one guy on your bench who's eligible everywhere. Yeah, I think if you're talking about starting all these guys, Doran's at the bottom. But the fact that he is literally eligible everywhere except catcher, especially in your daily line-up leagues, where you really want to stream pitchers that is such a valuable player to have on your bench, because you can just whatever injury comes up, whether it's a day to day or a long term thing, you've got someone you can slide in. Two deeper names we mentioned in Andy Rodriguez. He went three for four with a run and his sixth stolen base. He has started five of the past eight games since returning. And during that stretch, he's seven for 24 with four steals. So really starting to run a little bit, he's 20% roster, definitely a name in two catcher leagues. And Aba Mellick or T's recalled by the nationals. I mentioned this towards the end of that live trade deadline show that we did. He had his first career home run and he's got legit pop. He had 18 home runs in the minors, good eggs of loss, these good barrel rate, 3% roster. I think and not only for sure, 15 team road leads with a corner in field spot. I'm interested in Aba Mellick or T's of the nationals. And this is your new Willy Calhoun. Willy Calhoun, yeah. That's yeah. You love a guy with the same body shape as me. It is really what we're learning. He's like a medium BB baseball boy. Yeah, you love a guy who's 510 to 40. No, I mean, he's got pop. He makes a lot of contact. It's one of those ones where he's going to translate to the majors. I think scouts have a lot of concerns about that. But seeing him starting his first game back, I think that's pretty promising. I think he hit second in this one. And they didn't immediately send him down, which was what happened the last time they called him up. I think in that one, he hit second or third. And then they they sent him down after the game. It was like right before the all star break from remembering correctly. I kind of think like Andreas Chaparo is pretty interesting as well. And I hope they just start both of them at first base in D.H. the rest of the way. And I think it's see if these two guys who have hit a lot in the minors can do it in the majors. I think it's a pretty strict platoon between those two exactly. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately. So Chaparo is on the short side of that platoon for whatever reason. I know he's been okay this year, but they keep playing Jose Tena as their D.H. against right. And the reason I know all of this is because of my NL only league. I have both Tena and Chaparo. So I just like, even though they take up two roster spots, they're basically just one solid hitter. Yeah, whenever whenever handed this is going against the nationals, I have their D.H. in my lineup. But yeah, they're just, I think mostly just NL only names for now. Some waiver wire pitchers and some shallow lead names. And once that we've talked a lot about, Ian Seymour, strong outing here, even in course field, six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts, zero walks. He had 18 whiffs on 90 pitches in this one. And last three outings, he's looked better again, 216 ERA 0.96 whip. Bob a Chandler, solid at the Brewers, five and two thirds, three runs, two of those earned, five walks, still did walk, five strikeouts, excuse me, still did walk for in this one. He is 72% rostered. Shane Bieber was decent at the Astros, five and two thirds, nine hits, six strikeouts, two walks, did allow nine hard hits in this game. His last star was awful. He didn't get out of the first inning. The two before that were actually pretty good for Shane Bieber. And the aforementioned Brandon Fought, who we mentioned. So Chris, how would you rank this group? Seymour, Chandler, Bieber, Brandon Fought. Seymour is obviously at the top. I want to say Brandon Foughts at the bottom, but I know I'll get yelled at. So if you want to go with Brandon Fought, you're just going to have to disagree with me. And that's fine. Plenty of people disagree with me. Bob a Chandler has looked a little bit better lately. He's looked a little better. The four walks is still so frustrating because he had to start a couple times ago where I think he only walked one, struck out five and I was like, okay, maybe he's starting to figure it out. And then I think the last two starts the walks have been back. So I think he's still second just because, man, honestly, I might put Brandon Fought ahead of Shane Bieber. Just as at least Brandon Foughts pitching getting good results right now, I don't have any faith in it continuing, but I don't have faith in Shane Bieber. It just really feels like even the good starts for Shane Bieber. He's just trying to keep his head above water. He's not missing bats. He's getting hit really hard and getting hit really hard has always been the problem with Bieber. But if he's got, it was a a sub 10% wif rate in this one. I think it's around that for the season. It was good to see, I think he walked six in the first inning in his previous start or something. So it was good to see like he's not totally busted, but I don't really think Shane Bieber has a ton left as a as a fantasy contributor, unfortunately. Yeah. I agree that Seymour is at the top of this list. I think if you need someone to actually use right now, I know that the wheels are going to fall off for Brandon Fought. The problem is comparing him to Bubba Chandler is like Bubba Chandler has had a lot of really bad starts this year. It's haven't been on for Bubba Chandler either. Yeah. So if you just need someone to use right now, I'd probably use Fought over Bubba Chandler. I think Chandler still could, you know, there's, there's glimmers that maybe he could be useful down the stretch here. I do think Seymour is the only one that has like real like staying power like big upside thinking of the names that we spoke about yesterday. Seymour or Quinn Matthews. I like Quinn Matthews a lot. I take Ian Seymour. I think you're kind of hoping Quinn Matthews becomes what Ian Seymour has been. What about Seymour versus Walbert Arrania and who am I forgetting? There was someone. There was someone. I think I'm taking Seymour. This is one of those instances where I wish Scott was on the show because I think he's been a little more skeptical of Seymour than I have and I would love to get his perspective because I just think Ian Seymour is really good. I know there have been a couple of bumps in the road, but this is one where the the ERA is really much worse than the peripherals and it's honestly the only bad thing. Like his strikeout rates borderline elite, the walk rates pretty good. The peripherals are all better than four at least. I think Ian Seymour, I think he's good. I'm really glad I started him in a couple of leagues this week because it wasn't a sure thing, but now he just did this and gets at Seattle next time. Nice. Don't think any of these three matter, but I'll just ask anyway, I'll throw their names out there. Aaron Nola, Christian Javier and Andrew Alvarez. They all had quality starts. Anything here with any of them? No, I mean good start for Christian Javier, two strikeouts in six innings. Nine whips on 85 pitches is fine. It was a decent two-start week for Javier. I know that's all a lot of people in the comments talking about him as a two-start pitcher during yesterday's podcast. Looks like it's going to work out. This is a good start, but I don't have any amount of faith in any of these guys really. All right, some pitching left over. His Logan Webb was great at the Texas Rangers. Six shutout innings. He had a season high, eight strikeouts, only one walk. He had 16 whips on 96 pitches. Philosophy down a little bit across the board. He changed out the pitch mix as well. He doubled his cutter usage and
It was solid for him. Really had just everything working in this start for Logan Webb. When you dig into the individual pitch numbers this season, they're not really bad. I don't really understand what's gone wrong for Logan Webb. The strikeouts being down, when he gives up contact balls and play, usually his hard contact. So I guess that explains it. But in terms of just the individual pitches, they'll still look pretty good, pretty normal to me for Logan Webb. It is funny that I think everyone would agree this has been probably the most frustrating Logan Webb season since he became a full-time starter. I mean, the 374 ERA is his worst since 2020. It's also his second best whip. Like that's legitimately surprising. It's very good. He has a 1.11 whip. His whip is actually, it's not great, but it's pretty good. And that's usually the one thing you can't count on. Logan Webb for. So it's, I don't know, my sense all along has been Logan Webb is just Logan Webb, and it's just variance on one side or the other. But I think he's good. As somebody who has rostered Logan Webb a lot, the previous two years, I don't have him anywhere this season. I told myself, never again, maybe not never, but not this year. He's always frustrating to roster, man. It's just, there are so many balls in play that like, you just, it's like walking a tight rope with Logan Webb on your fantasy team. It's, it's, I think he's a guy. You feel better about draft and coming off a down year. Yeah. You know, if the, if the ADP falls, you know, around, then it's easier if he's like a six-round pick or whatever, then I, I guess he was probably a fourth or fifth round pick coming into this season. Yeah. Michael King, the other name here, he struggled with the walks at the D-backs. Five innings, three runs, but four walks had five strikeouts. You know, he's kind of been walking that tight rope all season. It's too many walks. It's not enough strikeouts. He's managed a 345 ERA, but his FIP is 419. His X-FIP is 445. So can he continue this? I would probably bet against it for Michael King. Yeah, he definitely feels like he's walking a tight rope for sure. And, you know, we are not quite to the point where we start to look ahead to 2027, but, you know, in about a month, a lot of our discussions are going to be a little more 2027 focused. And that's going to be a real interesting one to try to figure out, assuming he stays healthy. Because it's been a rocky season, the skill set looks like it has taken a step back for sure. And he's going to be 32 next year. So I, I'm not sure Michael King's trending towards being a top 50 starting pitcher next year for fantasy. I barely have him inside my top right now. So, yeah, he's, and you have to imagine there's going to be guys returning from injury and stuff that's probably going to push him down. So, yeah, yeah, I think probably outside the top of 50 right now, if I had to guess for Michael King. Couple hitting leftovers, Bryce Harper picking things back up, back-to-back games with a home run for him. Last eight games. He's hitting 300 with three homers, seven runs, seven RBI and a steel. And, Jr. coming narrow. Ah, coming narrow. Two for five with a double-dong. Three runs and three RBI. There for Jr. Caminero who enjoyed his first game in Coresfield. Quite a bit. Call to the bullpen for the Phillies. Yoan, Daron, got the ninth with a three-run lead. He shrugged out two for his 25th save. For the pirates, Gregory Soto entered in the sixth inning with a runner on second, a one-run lead. He hit a batter, but then got a strikeout. Soto came back out for the seventh. He had a single in a walk, but then he got out of it. It was Mason Montgomery who got the ninth. He had a single, but he picked up his third save. I really hope that it's just Luke Weaver as the closer, but Mason Montgomery has been good for a really long time and, you know, just gave them another vote of confidence picking up a save in a one-run game against a division opponent, where he shrugged out two and he looked really good. So I hope it's just Luke Weaver, but that is not a guarantee in the pirates bullpen. For the Blue Jays, Louis Varlin was unavailable. Tyler Rogers got the ninth with a two-run lead, and he pitched a clean inning for his third save. And for the D-backs, Brandon Garcia got the ninth with a four-run lead, clean inning to close it out. Again, he has looked very, very good over the past month or so with the D-backs. And I think it's worth noting the D-backs did score twice in the eighth inning of that game. So presumably was already warming up when they were up by two, came in when they were up by four. So I think they were treating that as a closer situation, and Brandon Garcia was going to get the save if they hadn't scored there. So I think that's very bullish for Brandon Garcia. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Sean Bonilla at the Guardians. JTGIN is returning from the I.L. He's at the Reds. Brady Singer, home against the Athletics, Zech Latel at the Phillies, great homes against the Marlins, Hayden Wes Neske against the Blue Jays, Hunter Dobbins at the Yankees, and how about this one? Grayson Rodriguez at the Orioles. Revenge game. So who are the rest of the names that we want to use tomorrow? It's all I've got, man. Yeah, this is a great list. I know Scott, when we talked about Grayson Rodriguez, his most recent start, he was mildly encouraged. I don't want to say much more than that, but I think Grayson Rodriguez missed a bunch of bats in his most recent start. Baltimore did lose two of their starters, although I guess one of them hasn't been in the lineup lately. Boy, I could see a good start from Grand Homes, but the Marlins have a lefty heavy lineup, so they could sneak up on him. JTGIN probably, it's the first game back from the I.L., but he's probably the best option at Cincinnati. It could go really poorly in that ballpark, and then Sean Manaya, I guess. I don't really have any faith in tomorrow's crop. JTGIN probably the best one. Yeah. JTGIN, it's just tough coming off the I.L., and it's in Cincinnati. Brady Singer has been pitching well. Athletics are missing a bunch of bats right now. I probably would go singer, Manaya, and then I think JTGIN third. I really wouldn't be surprised if Grayson Rodriguez does a good start, but it is so risky. So I probably would not chance it, but I'm interested to see what he does. On Wednesday, we have Will Warren against the Cardinals, Eric Lauer at the Cubs, Slates of Coney against the Metz, Brett Lauer against the Athletics, Andrew Painter against the Nationals, Bryce Elder against the Marlins, Dean Kramer against the Royals in his Twins debut, and Mitch Brott. Brott? Brott against the Bratt. I believe it is Mitch Bratt summer. Mitch Bratt against the Padres. Not a great day either. Yeah, Will Warren is probably the best pitcher on this group, Andrew Painter. Well, the Cardinals just put up 13 cards. Yeah, no, stadium. Andrew Painter had a decent start in his return, and had some changes, was starring a change up instead of a splitter. Yeah, Eric Lauer has been getting good results. I don't trust it at all. Bryce Elder has looked a little bit better, as of late. Yeah, and a lot of the Marlins best hitters are lefties, so that could work out. I can't recommend anyone with confidence, but I would go Warren, probably elder. Out, Lauer, I guess. Kramer at the Royals. I think Kramer is better than he has shown lately. Let's say that. Yeah. Wednesdays are rough one. I would say Warren, I would say elder. The painter thing is scary. If James Wood goes on the IL, I think I'd probably use Andrew Painter. If he's in the lineup, if he's healthy, Dean Kramer, I guess, on Wednesday. Let's wrap up with Team Name Tuesday. These are from Tim Likes Tacos on Apple Podcast, and the first one, Ashcrack versus Evil Dead. Yeah. I like that. Have you seen any of the Evil Dead movies? I have seen the original three. I have not seen any of the subsequent spin-offs. I've heard the new ones pretty good. I heard the same. I only saw the first one. The original trilogy, well, you've only seen the original. The original movie. Yeah, I haven't seen anything like that. That's the one that's totally serious. They play it totally straight. The second one's a little more goofy, and the third one is just like. I heard they just go off the rails. The third one is not even trying to be a horror movie. It rocks. It's so good, but it is a completely different like. I feel like that's when Sam Raimi really finds his like. signature style. That movie is. Yeah. Army of Darkness. That's what the third one's called. That movie. Great movie. Gunner and the Henderson's. Yeah. Yeah. Harry and Anderson's. Yeah. There's no Carol. Here. There's no Carol in HR. That appears to be an always sunny reference. I don't get the specific one though. Yeah. I don't. I'm not sure if I saw that specific episode. That's one I've seen like Sparac. You know, I've seen like a couple, but not. I certainly haven't done every single episode. And quit playing with your dingler. Sure. These are from Nick. That's what she and said.
- Yep, poor M.M.E.G. - Option to the minor song. - Tanner Scott, paper company. - Yep. - Bears, beater, beta star, galactica. - That's pretty good, that's a good one. - Stop looking at me, Kwan. - Yeah. - And, "Sail." - I tried to sing it like the song, but I don't even know how you-- - I don't even know that one. - You definitely know the song sale. - Okay. I'll check it out. - Well, Jam out to it after the show. - Okay. - These last couple are from Matt, and they are Ben names. He said, "I hope Chris is there." Well, - Hey. - He's here. - I'm at a flock of Seagars. - Yeah, that's good. - Teal Tuesday. - So this one I didn't know I looked it up. Apparently, it's Amy Mann's former band. That's cool. She's cool. I'm a fan of Amy Mann. - 10,000 Moniacs. - Yeah, that's pretty good. - And she and him. - I have tickets to see she and him in September. So, good, good call. - All right. - It is a, Tweet is back, baby. - No, sorry. - We are gonna wrap there for Chris, I and Frank, thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Vs Ball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five so rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. (upbeat music) (dramatic music) - Paramount podcasts. Hello and welcome to Pluto Fo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. We're all your blockbuster favorites or landing all summer long. Catch anchor man, the legend of Ron Burgundy. - Fantastic. - The Matrix trilogy. - Welcome to the real world. - Mean Girls. - Side up. - Tite and ink. - From the key in the world. - And so much more for showtime. Press nothing. They're free 24/7. - That is so fast. - On Pluto TV, stream now. Hey, never!