Pitching Risers & Time to Drop These Hitters? (8/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

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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. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC - "FRIEND CAUSE"] Happy CUMO Friday and welcome in. Tough fantasy baseball today on August 14. I am, for example, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had some big old pitching performances. Braxton Ashcraft definitely needed that. Peyton Toley and Kate Cavali are on the rise and only nine games on the schedule. You know what that means. No, it's not fantasy feud. We're doing name that player, drop-o-meter addition. So should be fine. I don't know what that means. But I bet it's going to be a hoot. All right, let's jump in. Oh my goodness. Unbelievable. Maybe we should just call on Audible and make Edwin Diaz our oh my goodness. Yeah, I have a lot. --the player the night. Because for the first time in a while, we're starting earlier than usual. And games are still going on. Edwin Diaz just blew another save. So it's not looking good for him. Don't drop Tanner Scott just yet. Scott, let's go over to you. You're player the night. Which pitcher would you like? I would like Braxton Ashcraft. Braxton Ashcraft. Yeah, that one. He was great. He was great at the Marlins complete game on just 85 pitches, by the way. Struck out 10. Really good. And he needed it because in his previous seven starts, he had a 6.81 ERA. Things were not looking good for Braxton Ashcraft. So how did he do this? Well, even though he struck out 10, I can tell you he didn't get a ton of whiffs. I mean, 10 was the total. Again, it was on 85 pitches. So that comes out to a pretty good rate. But not like you're expecting when you see the guy had 10 strikeouts. And what he did differently in this one was lean on his sinker. 32%. It was his most thrown pitch in this start. Normally, it's 14%. So he more than doubled his sinker usage. And the reason why I think he tried doing that is the main reason he was getting bombed in his previous seven starts, again, with a 6.81 ERA. It's got the home runs. 2.8 home runs per nine during that seven start stretch. In his 16 starts prior to that, what made him a breakout player in fantasy, what made him an all-star, Braxton Ashcraft, first 16 starts 307 ERA, only 0.7 home runs per nine. So there was a stark contrast there between the first 16 starts and the next seven. And it's really the home runs. How do you avoid home runs, putting the ball on the ground more? What's the pitch that puts the ball on the ground the most? The sinker. I think it's pretty obvious here what Ashcraft was trying to do. I almost called him axecraft again. What Ashcraft was trying to do? And it worked. It worked really well. I don't know where it goes from here. Maybe he can keep doing this. I don't think if he keeps doing this, we can expect the big strikeout number that he got. And this start to be in the norm. But it's just a sample of one where he's leaning on the sinker this much. He was throwing it more earlier this season for what it's worth. So I think getting away from it like he did was part of the reason why things went sideways for Braxton Ashcraft. But it's not like he was ever throwing it as his lead pitch like he did in this start. So curious to see where it goes. I feel like we've had a lot of pitchers this week do something very different in their most recent start. And for the most part, it's led to good results. But it kind of creates this resetting of expectations as long as they stick with this new approach anyway, where, OK, it worked this first time. But where does it go from here? I think that we still have to let that play out with Ashcraft. And I would not mind resetting my expectations for Braxton Ashcraft again based on what he did in the seven starts before this. And using the sinker more, he had a 50% crown ball rate in this start. He did give up 10 hard hits. He's still a lot of Homer. But for the most part, I mean, if you're getting a 50% crown ball rate, doesn't really matter if you're giving up hard contact. Well, it matters. But it matters a little. But it's helpful that it's going into the ground. So-- Ground balls tend to be hit harder than fly balls. So if you get more ground balls, the exit velocity is probably going to be higher. Yeah. His curve ball was a little bit different as well. I wanted to highlight that. It was good. It had four of his 10 swinging strikes. And it had four more inches of drop in this one. And it got a lot of cheese. So welcome sight from Braxton Ashcraft to his 66% started on CBS. I have to assume that number will go up for next week, coming off this start. And he is at home against the Tigers. Is that just the auto start getting back in your line-ups if you didn't? Yeah. Yeah, it feels like the right call, watch him revert to what he was doing in the previous seven. Because again, it's-- like we've said with some of those other pitchers, Louis Castillo, and Sean Menaya looked really good with what they did in their most recent start. But that doesn't mean they're just going to keep doing it. It's putting a lot of faith in a sample of one. But Ashcraft has been by far the best of those three for the entirety of 2026. So I think we can put a little more trust in him. All right, Chris, over to you, your player of the night. Which pitcher would you like to choose? Yeah, I'll go with Kate Cavali, who was frankly almost as good. As Braxton Ashcraft, he went up against the Cubs, tougher matchup. A shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, two walks, one hit. He got 14 whips on 103 pitches. And his velocity was in a big way. He averaged 98 miles per hour with his four-seamer. That is the second highest of his season. I do want to caution on that one that his previous time averaging more than 98 was on June 30th. He averaged 98.2. He averaged 96.3 in his next start in 96.4 in the start after that. So like Scott said, you can't always extrapolate one start to the next. But we're going on a lot more than just one start of Kate Cavali pitching really, really well. This is his seventh straight quality start. His fourth start of the season with double-digit strikeouts. And his last 10 starts. He has a 243 ERA, a 0.96 whip. 69 strikeouts to 13 walks while averaging almost six innings per start. He gets ground balls on everything in his arsenal, except for the four-seamer. The four-seamer's a-- it's not a terrible pitch. It misses bat to an OK rate. The expected woe was not that bad. But it gets pretty hard, and it gets hit hard in the air. Everything else, though, gets a ton of ground balls. And the curve ball is a really good swing in mispitch. The sweeper has started to come around. He threw that, actually, the most in this start, I believe. That was his most used pitch, which is pretty unusual. And sorry, it was his second most used pitch. He threw a 23% of the time. He got five of his 14 whiffs with that one. And that whip rate is starting to get close to 30% now. And if you have two breaking balls that you can throw 25% of the time and get 30% whiff rates, or better in the case of an Uncle Curve, that's pretty impressive. So I don't know. There are the underlying numbers don't exactly back up to the breakout for Cavali, especially the XERA. But that's even one where given the amount of ground balls he gets, the XERA's kind of surprising being 412. Like the XERA is the same as it was last season. And his strikeout rate is up to 26% on the air. That's a little surprising. And it makes me wonder what's going on there. but I see. a lot to like about Kate Cavali and not, you know, with the exception of the limited track record, I don't see a ton to be skeptical about. Now, the limited track record is a pretty big reason to be skeptical, but this was a guy who at one point was a top prospect. injuries got in the way, but he's been someone we've been interested in. And yeah, there's a lot to like about Kate Cavali this season. Yeah, I had the same takeaway of, I guess it was two or three weeks ago when I wrote about pictures in the circle of trust. And I was trying obviously to pick out some pictures, not in the circle of trust. And like, honestly, Kate Cavali was the first place my mind went. Okay. He's been performing well, but I don't really trust it. And I was going to obviously explain why and the article. But then when I went looking into it, I was like, you know, all this underlying data looks a lot better than I feel like it did the last time I looked at it. Especially, I mean, part of it was his control's gotten a lot better over the course of this season, so you can no longer mark that as a red flag. But that ground ball raping is high. I did too. I mean, if you're a decent control pitcher with good ground ball skills and you're getting, he's getting almost 10 strikeouts, but I'm not in any point. 29. 28. I've got a person that strike out right since the off-star game. I think for a ground ball pitcher, we go control like that 8.9. Kate Brown is great. And he's, you know, and the swinging strike rate is low. And of course, I love swinging strike rate. I think it strongly correlates with how good a picture is. But when everything else is that good, I can look past it. And, you know, the XERA, like he said, it's a little high. The fit is pretty much right in line with the ERA. So that's, I put those two about on equal footing in terms of how predictive they are. And yeah, I think Kate Kavali is definitely in the circle of trust. I can say for sure now. This was his fourth start with double digit strikeouts this season. He has a quality start in seven straight. And I would like to highlight that because earlier this season, it kind of felt like he was still a thrower, throw through really hard, but he wasn't very efficient and the control was not very good. And it feels like right before our eyes, he is developing into a pitcher, like a very refined pitcher who is not walking as many. He's getting more whist than he was earlier in the season. He's getting a lot of ground balls as you guys have pointed out. And so I opted the rankings today. And I had Kavali at 44. That was before this start. I kind of feel like he's just a like top 40 top 36 SP. Like guys who I have from 30 to 33 Sean Burke, Logan Henderson, Troy Melton, Braxton, Ashcraft. Why wouldn't Kate Kavali kind of be in that mix, you know? Now that's a fair point. I mean, you know, Melton's been really good, but the strikeouts have certainly been inconsistent. Burke, I'm just like the thing with Burke, I'm struggling with is just how much of this, how much of this breakout is something he can sustain, but when it seems mostly like it's improved command and that's always a little shakier. Yeah, I think he belongs in that group certainly. Yeah. So that would make Kate Kavali a pitching riser and my player the night, I'm going to call another audible. I'm just going to go with all the pictures here. Another pitching riser of that is Peyton Toley who just had another great start. This one at the Blue Jays. Eight shut out innings two hits two walks only four strikeouts only six swinging strikes on 91 pitches, but he did use that curve ball more once again. He used it 18% of the time. It was 9% entering and it was a solid pitch for him. Only had two whips, but he got some called strikes. He avoided hard contact on that pitch. He, you know, didn't have the dominant whiff stuff, but he filled up the strike zone 51% zone percentage and he avoided hard contact. So whenever I see that, you could throw strikes, you could throw in the zone and you're not getting hit hard. That means you're good. That means your stuff is just good. So and we've seen that with Peyton Toley. Like, you just watching pitch his stuff is awesome. So his last four starts. It's a 178 ERA, a point 9 1 whip 32 strikeouts to just five walks over 25 and a third innings. The K to walk is great. He's really limiting hard contact 85 mile per hour average EV during that four star stretch. So Toley's another one. I moved them inside of my top 24 starting pictures, which there are concerns about the innings and stuff like that. But yeah, I'm not going to I'm just not going to worry about that too much until it's a thing. And right now he's pitching like one of the best pictures in baseball. I mean, there are only six weeks left. So when you're talking rest of season rankings, I do think I do think you have to adjust down for somebody who is is likely to face some some curtailment there, although they did just let him go eight. So maybe they don't care. I don't know. They should probably care by historical standards. That's, you know, he's obviously a rookie. A couple dozen innings beyond his previous high. You would imagine it would become an issue at some point. But so far has it. Yeah, it is about 22. I think it's 22 innings above his career high. Which isn't nothing, but you know, you could see another 25 or 30 innings. And how much different is that than what you'd expect from any other pitcher? Yeah, I the Red Sox seemed destined for the postseason and presumably, presumably they would hope to go deep in the postseason and presumably they'd want to be a big part of that or would need him to. So I don't know. We'll see. I just think like obviously he's trending up. Obviously, I'm really excited about his future. But if you look at my rankings and you're like, well, why don't you have this guy? That's why. Because they're I think is a clear innings concern there. But to get back to your point about the curve ball for those who, you know, listen, last time we talked about it, we're paying attention. Coming into this start, tolly in his 12 starts where he threw his curve ball less than 10% of the time, 380 ERA 131 with 8.7 Kper 9. Not terrible, but not very good. The seven starts where he threw his curve ball more than 10% of the time, 220 ERA 0.76 with 13.3 Kper 9. He's basically a god. And this started through at 18% of the time. Now that 13.3 Kper 9 number is going to go down because he only had four in eight innings and that's that's a little bit of a head scratcher. But overall, I think this continues the pattern of when he treats the curve ball like a significant part of his arsenal. He, Peyton tolly dominates. Last picture I would like to mention before we hit our first break is Logan Gilbert who you don't need me to tell you he's he's great. He's completely locked in and he is a borderline ace once again. Six shutout innings seven strikeouts at the Yankees. He had 15 swinging trikes on 95 pitches. His velocity was up in this one as well around one and a half miles per hour on all of his pitches. And now over his last 14 starts a 254 ERA 0.89 whip and over a strikeout per inning and six or more innings in 11 of those 14 outings. So that was a problem for him last year. It was a problem from earlier this year. He was inefficient. He's throwing his fastball more during that stretch and it kind of feels like everything has fallen into place there for Logan Gilbert who I now have back inside of my top 12 starting pitchers and ahead of Paul skiing. So Logan Gilbert trending back up into that SP one territory. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure he ever quite left for me. But it was looking a little hairy at times this season. What's interesting is he seemed like he was trending up by emphasizing the fastball. He had a stretch of four starts. I think it was where he threw it more than half the time and it was a really dominant four start stretch. And then he got back to mixing the pitches more evenly. But this this recent success is more about his velocity being up across the board. And it was up the most in this start. Yeah, everything up about one and a half miles per hour. So I don't know how much of velocity bump how sustainable that is. So I still don't long story short, I still don't understand why Logan Gilbert or maybe maybe the better way to put it is I still don't understand what the most optimal approaches for Gilbert and if he even understands what's the most optimal approaches. But so the one thing I will say is he had gone early on in the season who was throwing a cutter more than ever before the cutter. What was that? Her bug? He's killing another bug. Yeah, it's just I'm just camping out here, man. Yeah, so he yeah, okay, he has kind of shelved the it's both the sweeper and the cutter recently. And I think that's interesting just because he's a guy with a deep arsenal with a lot of pitches that are very similar. Like he you don't see a lot of pitchers who throw both a splitter and a change him. And he throws, he also throws a slider, a sweeper, and and a cutter. And I do wonder when you have so many similar types of pitches, if it can just kind of throw you off, especially when like, you know, I think the cutter was more of a new pitch for him this season or something that he hasn't used all that often. The sweeper has come and gone throughout his career. And so I just wonder like, when he was deemphasizing the fastball early on, was that because the fastball just wasn't working as well because he was throwing the cutter. This is the kind of stuff that, you know, there can be some kind of knock on effects when you expand your arsenal. I think he has benefited from streamlining things though. I guess is the way I would put it. - Yeah, I mean, don't overthink it, right? Like I feel like a lot of the Mariners pitchers sometimes-- - They absolutely overthink it. - They try to just add too much stuff and it's just-- - Yeah, I saw-- - I know what works, man. - Yeah, well I saw there was a piece from James Fegan who covers the white socks for socksandshin.com and he had a piece before Luis Castillo's start yesterday where he talked about Castillo re-emphasizing the changeup which we've talked a lot about when he got to the Mariners, he became more of a four-seamer slider guy rather than the changeup sinker guy he was. And that's a Mariners thing. You know, they have things that they want their guys to do and they like to experiment and nudge guys in certain directions and maybe that doesn't always work. And I think-- - They worked really well at first. - Yeah, 'cause he was kind of, Castillo was kind of slipping and Cincinnati had a good long run of being a border line ace but he began to slip towards the end. The Mariners acquired him, tweaked his pitch mix. He got back to being pretty dominant for the first couple of years there. That's when he lost a little bit on his fastball, especially. And I think it stopped working and he can go back to doing what he did in Cincinnati, hopefully. That's what happened in that white sock start. I don't know if you had finished your point. - Yeah, yeah, no, but it's just to say that they, as an organization, they have things they want their guys to do and I think they tend to prioritize pitchers who like tinkering as well. I think that's a symbiosis that they like, but you can tinker, you can overtinker, I think. And maybe that's what we saw early on with Logan Gobert, especially. - Reminder that our week 22 preview, our FBT Express episode will be out on Saturday morning and Scott's articles will be live on the site on Friday. So if you need to research sleeper hitters, sleeper pitchers, two star pitchers, you can find all of that on the website, cbsports.com/fantasy/baseball or on the CBS fantasy app. Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes and Jacob DeGrom left after just two innings with right triceps fatigue. The velocity was fine. In fact, it was actually up on some of his pitches. The results were not fine. Two innings, six hits, two runs, four hard hits, and he'll have five hits in the second inning. The first time he's allowed five hits in an inning since September 5th of 2017, which is kind of crazy, but that just goes to show how dominant Jacob DeGrom has been in his career. But yeah, look, triceps pitching arm, Jacob DeGrom, lengthy injury history, scary. - Yeah, it is. And there have been some kind of inexplicable struggles of late. This was his third start in five, I want to say. That was pretty bad. So yeah, it might, it might, it might have been a precursor to a little stint on the eye, I will see. - Yeah, I just assumed he was still dealing with that glute thing that he was dealing with in July, but now it's triceps as well. So we'll see. I never know how to react to a fatigue diagnosis, especially just coming out of a start, 'cause what does that mean? Like, is that you're just tired? Like, how do you differentiate between triceps fatigue and sometimes structural? Yeah, like I never know how to react to that. And it's something we're talking about. Yeah, we talk about this sometimes where some teams just call things something and then call other teams might call it something different. So I don't really know how to react to this, but it's certainly what I want to see from a guy with Jacob de Graham's history. So did he have, did he have triceps fatigue last year? That's, sorry, I'll look it up, but that actually sounds like something he might have dealt with at the end of last season as well. Yeah, I mean, he's no spring chicken, right? So it's not surprising that he would be dealing stuff as the season goes on. Hunter Green officially had Tommy John surgery. That is the second of his career. And it's already been reported that he will miss all of next season, all of 2027. So very tough blow for Hunter Green, his keeper, Dynasty managers, and obviously the Reds as well. Freddie Freeman was in the lineup after that nasty spill on Wednesday night. So nice to see that he was back in there. Byron Bucksen was activated from the I.L. Bryce Terang was out of the lineup due to left knee pain. He underwent an MRI and I have not seen an update on those results. So we shall see with Bryce Terang. That's, I, after Tuesday's start, there was the situation where Pat Murphy said he heard his thumb and he would misspoke. It was actually Jackson, Tureo, but I saw like there was like a 12 hour period where a bunch of people on the fantasy baseball Twitter were like, hey, there's a mod a time. And then it was like, oh no, Bryce Terang's not hurt. And then he gets hurt the next day. That's weird. Yeah. They still make mod a work if they wanted to. Like the whole left side of their infield has been pretty bad all season, but it's obviously a stretch promoting a 20-year from 19. He doesn't turn 20 until May of next year. Yeah, I wish. But he's 19 until next May. So he's been good at AA, but since it's double, and we don't have data to see how hard he's actually impacting the ball. And he hasn't been like, one so-do good as he's been good, but it's like a 125WRC plus, I think it's, which is, that's awesome for a 19 year old at AA. But it's not so awesome that you think, oh, this guy just has nothing left to learn in the minors, you know? Yeah. I saw a lot of people talking about mod a too. Look, anything is possible. I would highly bet against that happening, but it would be fun for fantasy for sure. Tyler Glass now will make at least two more rehab starts before returning, one on Friday, and then another one likely the middle part of next week sounds like maybe Wednesday will be his last rehab start assuming he makes it through both of those healthy. The Mariners option, Colt Emerson to AAA, and it has been a struggle. In 68 games, he hit just 190 with eight homers, three steals of 581 OPS, 34% K-rate, 86.7 average EV. So it was a pretty aggressive move. I know that they signed them to the extension earlier in the season or before the season, but he's still really young. He's 21 years old, and they've moved him up levels like pretty quickly. I guess I'm just making excuses for the guy, but what do you guys, what do you guys think long term about Emerson? Does, I mean, how much does this concern you? It really is, Sean, it concern us. Breaking into the majors is hard. He moved quickly, as he said. He's still very young. He turned 21 25 days ago. Yeah, but what's going to happen is his fantasy stock is not going to be particularly high until he actually performs well in the majors. So what I'm saying is, I don't know that you can do it right this second, but I think Colt Emerson becomes a great by low opportunity in a dynasty league, especially, or if you have a fresh dynasty league next spring, that's just starting up. He's going to go shockingly late because he no longer counts technically as a prospect, but he's still, the upside hasn't changed, and he obviously would be a prospect if he hadn't gotten called up this year. I very much look forward to Colt Emerson and my sleepers column for next season. It is worth noting he wasn't like amazing at AAA before his promotion, so he hasn't been incredibly productive at any level this season, but he's so young that it doesn't really change my long-term outlook for him, but just for the record, he had a 102WRC plus in AAA. He was basically an average hitter. Doing that as 20 is very impressive. There's still a lot to like, but it's been a rough season for Colt Emerson overall. - Davis Martin was ejected in the third inning after hitting South Stewart with a pitch in the helmet and Stewart Homer, off of him in the first inning of that game. And earlier in that same at bat, Davis Martin actually had another pitch that went over South Stewart's head. So I mean, he seemed genuinely sorry and that he didn't mean to do that, but it's just way too coincidental, Guy Homer's off you, he'd throw near his head, and then you also throw near his head later in the bat and you actually hit him. So very weird stuff. Obviously Benches cleared all that stuff, and Davis Martin was ejected from that game. This is another reminder, if you need it, to drop Davis Martin. Kyle Teal has made progress with his left ankle sprain and could start a rehab assignment by the end of August. And Yraj Riga was placing the IL with left hip inflammation. And Jordan Lawler could be activated from the IL next week. It has been another brutal season of injuries for Lawler who had a broken wrist. And then a right hamstring strain that he is now coming back from. He is 33% rostered, has third base and outfield eligibility. Do you guys have any interest in Jordan Lawler? Let me tell you what's gonna happen though. Oh. No matter how well he finishes the season, no matter how well he looks next spring, people will be very angry if you refer to Jordan Lawler as a sleeper or a breakout candidate because he's for sure he's got the label now, he can't stay healthy. And to this point, he hasn't stayed healthy. So it's not like it's not earned. I just don't think, I don't think it's the sort of thing you can predict that well, particularly for someone as young as he is. I remember, gosh, it's gonna make me sound old, I guess I'm old. But I remember Cole Hamill's had, he couldn't stay healthy that attached to him. Aaron Nola. I remember Aaron Nola. I don't remember that one there. Aaron Nola. He had a bunch of like elbow scares early on in his career. But Cole Hamill's did, I think it was mainly his back and he was an incredibly durable pitcher for the first several years of his career. And that's pitchers. I mean, hitters obviously have even more opportunities to stay healthy. So I'm kind of rambling, kind of wasting time, probably tired of that, Frank. But Jordan Lawler, I think the upside has it changed for him either. And he was actually looking more like he was on the verge of meeting at this year. Yeah, that's the thing is he's never not been productive. He's just so rarely been on the field. Well, I guess in previous major leagues. In previous major, but it was never more than 75 played appearances. But any significant play or sample size we've gotten, Jordan Lawler has remained incredibly productive. So I'm still going to be interested in him. I just, is he going to play? I, let's see. So he had been in an outfield or this. Yeah, he only used to play much in field at all. They got a new park, the age. Max Kepler. Yeah, come on. Yeah, Max Kepler. Yeah. Yeah. Get him out of there. Dirty cheater. But I guess for fantasy, we actually want to more for third base, which he still has eligibility at. Again, I was updating the rankings earlier. Third base is just such a wasteland, man. So it wouldn't surprise me if Jordan Lawler hits the ground running like boom, he's just instantly ranks as like a top 20 third base in the rest of season. So yeah, I think in road o leagues for short, 12 team, road o or deeper, where you have the corner, you have five outfielder spots, I would be pretty interested in Jordan Lawler. Let's get into the waiver wire pitchers from Thursday's action and the two shallow lead names Shane Drowin, solid at the Dodgers, five and a third, three hits, three runs, three walks, had five strikeouts. He actually left the game with one earned run and two runners on base. Antonio Senn's a teller than gave up a three run homer. The philosophy and the breaking pitches were up on all three 1.3 miles per hour each and a drawing 58% roster. He gets the Mariners next week and Walbert, Arania, six shutout innings with five strikeouts here actually did not have his best change up or sweeper, but still managed to have a scoreless outing his, his four seam was great. His sinker was solid. He's 65% rostered. He's a 175 year A over his last seven starts and he is at the Astros next week. Chris, who do you like more from a shallow league perspective, Shane Drowin or Walbert Arania? I think it's Arania. Drowin has the better matchup next week, so if you want to use that as the tiebreaker, that might be fine, but I think I like Arania a little more just as a picture. Another one, I'm sorry Scott. He's fine. I see how it is. I missed it. It flew away. I got the flying ones now, not the earwigs. We got to start doing the bug counter throughout the podcast. We have one kill, one miss for Scott right now. They're both misses. Oh, geez, oh for two. They're both misses. Oh for two. Oh, swigging a miss. Oh, I mean, if I breathe it in like that other one, that time when I still lived in Florida, then it'll be dead for sure. It's not going to survive in those lungs of mine. Yes. Drowin and Walbert Arania should not qualify his potential pickups anymore as far as I'm concerned. You can understand a little more in Drowin's case. His last two starts haven't been that good. It's been uncharacteristic control issues, I believe. Now I could give you the exact number. His last two starts Drowin has, where is he? It's a lot of walks. A lot of walks since last two starts. Seven walks since last two starts. Intended a third innings, yeah. But I still think there's a lot to like in that profile. And I'll point out he was facing the Dodgers in this start. And in spite of the walks, he survived. Next matchup, next week's matchups really good. He is among the sleeper pitchers going against the Mariners, best matchup of all, frankly, for a pitcher. So yeah, a lot to like here. Three others. So I just remain confused why Robert Aurena's roster rate is so low. Like, I guess his breakout happened a little later, but he's been good all season. It could be the way the whip is still high. Yeah, but like, is there any real difference between him and Jose Soriano? Probably. I mean, his ERA is actually better than. Yeah, it's better. Yeah, better than his better of late. Soriano's whip is 125. I think their strikeout rates are right around the cause like my, my sense, my, I want to be a little skeptical of Robert Aurena's success. But usually when a guy has a sub three ERA in August, who's been pitching all year, they're 100% roster. And this guy has just never gotten close to it. And I don't really like if he was 100% roster and people were like, how can you not have Robert Aurena as a top 30 starting pitcher while I'd be like, okay, now I can talk bad about Robert Aurena. But everyone else is more skeptical than me. I don't get it. I'm kind of confused. Usually in these situations, it's because of wins. We don't often get wins because there's no, there's no evaluation, advantage to looking at wins. You can't, you can't really predict how our pitchers going to perform moving forward. So we don't, you know, a lot of times we're spending it forward here. So we're not really looking at wins. Aurena just picked up his eighth win today. Yeah, him and Soriano were on the same team. I mean, the big difference there is Soriano was really good early on in the season. And that's why he has stuck around 100% roster. But it's just, it's weird that Aurena hasn't picked up any real momentum in his roster rate. I'm just, I, it's surprising. I also think we are at the point in the season where you probably aren't going to see too much roster movement just in terms of roster rate. You will see some. I'll tell you, there's been a lot in the last couple of weeks, players who I put on the sleeper pitcher and hitter list like, as he killed Iran, I think it's gone up like 10 percentage points just in the last week. So it's more than you, maybe not as much as it used to be, but it's still, it's still enough to move the deal. I think three other waiver wire pitchers, Aaron Nolan, racked up the whiffs here at the twins, five innings, one run, nine strikeouts, no stack cast, the field of dreams. So I can't tell you about swinging strikes or anything like that. But he has eight or more strikeouts in back to back outings and a 291 ERA over his last four starts. That also comes with a 148 whip for Aaronola. K there, Montero, what a weird start. Six and a third shut out. Zero strikeouts. Two swinging strikes on 88 pitches. But he has a 322 ERA and a point nine nine whip. He is at the pirates next week. Aaronola gets the Marlins and Mac Sherser, a solid outing against the Red Sox, five innings, one run, four strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 92 pitches for him. I know most people will scoff and Mac Sherser at this point, rightfully so you probably should not be interested in him. But he has looked much better in the month of August for whatever that is worth. He is at the Tampa Bay race. Can I interest you guys in any of Sherser? K there, Montero, Aaronola. See like Montero is almost as wide the roster as Walbert or Anya and I think he's not nearly as good. So that's close to drawing too. Yeah, like that's the one where Montero, I just like whatever, he's 56% rostered. If you want to add him, Pittsburgh is not a terrible matchup. I guess, but that's one I have very little faith in. So that's one that I'm excited to be skeptical about. I don't really have any interest in any of these guys. Montero, if you want to do the play the high hand, he's clearly pitching well right now. He's not a total flu because control is really good. He's getting weak contact. There's not nothing here. I just don't think he's nearly as good as he has pitched. Sherser, is that a scoff? How do you scoff? What's a scoff? That sounded pretty good. Pasha, is that a scoff? That's. That is it. No. I think that's true. It's a scoff. It's a scoff. It's a scoff. It's a scoff. It's not something you control the sound of. It just escapes from the mouth. Oh, that's. That's a bar for me. - Next time I bring up Max Scherzer, just scoff on the helion. I'll just say it. - I have no, yeah, I have no interest in that. Nola, I mean, he is looking better lately and he's made some changes to his arsenal. I'm not necessarily sure there are changes that we want him to make 'cause it's been more change ups for your curveballs, but part of the problem is we don't have the stackass data for this one. And even watching the game, they weren't showing like velocity or pitch data. So even though it was on the scoreboard at the stadium and they would cut to it occasionally. So it's like their data was there. I don't know why they didn't want to include in the broadcast, but that's a little annoying. - Scuse us. - But it does make it harder to do this. - You were doing this since before 2015, okay? - Yeah, but we used to have Brooks baseball. Remember that site? - I do remember. - I still have a tab at Brooks baseball open and use it every month or so. - Yeah. Yeah, so we have, yeah, that's just annoying that we don't have any data for this start because Nolo was kind of interesting at least from the box score and from watching it. And I would love to know if there was something notable in Taj Bradley's pitch mix 'cause he was really bad. And that's been a couple of bad starts lately for him, but the lack of data is a little bit of a hurdle. - Yeah, I will say this. If we did not have stackass data, my rundowns would be done a lot faster every day. I was like, going through Aaron O'Lan and Taj Bradley, I'm like, all right, what kind of nuggets can I find? Okay, recent game log stuff like that. It's like, all right, there's nothing else that I can look into. There's no stackass stuff. All right, let's take that break. Welcome back, fantasy baseball. Today we'll quickly run through some waiver wire hitters and we got named that player. - You want us to move quickly, I know. - Luke Keishel, two for three with a walk in his seventh home run, 33 games since the start of July. He's hitting 324 with five homers, 17 runs, two steals, also three caught stealing. His OPS over 967% rostered, second and outfield eligible. I don't know, anyone buying back in on Luke Keishel. - Two degree. Second base is deep. I don't think he's. I guess the power has picked up a little bit, but he's not stealing bases anymore. So I think there's potential here. I think he's useful Keishel. I might put him on the sleeper hitters list, some moving forward, but I don't know that he's my starter or anything. - Yeah, and anything higher than 67% means he's probably rostered in shallow or head to head formats. His game should translate well there, but he just doesn't have enough oomph yet. He's playing better, but I think we need more. - Does he play quite every day? - I believe he does. Although I'm not sure he should, if you guys saw that Kyle Sworber home run, hit off of his glove and then go over the fence. - The Marlins had another one today, by the way. - Yeah, Keishel pretty much, he sits out every like sixth game. - Okay, 'cause I was looking at his game log recently, and it wasn't, like his play-to-parents has felt a little low. He bats low in the line at more often than not. I do, given that he's hot right now, I guess our hoped for Walker Jenkins' promotion shouldn't cost him playing time, but Bucston's back, if we think Walker Jenkins is gonna get promoted, maybe they just moved Keishel back to second, I think their options at second base have been pretty lacklustically. - Cody Clemens is slowed down quite a bit. So maybe that's the answer, but that's the one concern I have, where 67% roster feels okay for Luke Keishel. - Couple of their names here, Tyler Stevenson, two for three with a walk and his 11th home run, last 30 games, he's hitting 327 with five homers and a 962 OPS, 41% rostered. Just the name for two catcher leagues, right? I can't imagine Tyler Stevenson in one catcher league. - You said last 30 games, I think I looked at last 42, 92 mile per hour average, ex of velocity during that stretch. - He's always stretched to be hitting the ball that hard. But yeah, I mean, catcher, that's the downside of a two catcher league. I know everybody's like, no, I would you do two catchers, it's so bad by the time you get to the 24th. It's because there's no reason to have a second catcher on your roster ever, unlike every other position. So the position ends up being underserved in one catcher league's eat. It every year, but particularly in your life this fall. - Yeah, yeah. - 'Cause there have been years where like, Tyler Stevenson was a French top 12 catcher and it's like, oh, nobody likes that. But he's pretty good. Yeah, he's just, the main issue is he plays like only two thirds of the time, three quarters of the time. It's real playing time disadvantage there. - He sits out like every third or fourth game with Stevenson, but that is. - Yeah. - Two, yeah. - That's exactly what he said. - That's what I said. - Next up, we have Abamellik Ortiz of the Nationals who looks good so far. He went two for four with his fourth homer, three RBI. He had three hard hits in this game. He has three homers in his past four games. He should play every day against Ryan Epitching, won't play against lefties. But lots of righties on the schedule next week. I don't know, a deeply corner. Abamellik Ortiz. - I get powers legit. It's just, you can't ever use them against a lefty and that was true in the minors and Nationals seem to be sticking to it in the majors. So you gotta choose your spots with them. But as of now, the schedule for the Nationals next week shows no lefties. So Abamellik Ortiz is among my sleeper hitters. - But we've talked about all season. First base is absolutely loaded. - Yeah. - You know, I have Jake Berger at 35 Spencer Torkelson at 36 in my first base ranks. If you wanted to go with Ortiz over those guys just to whatever catch lightning in a bottle, I'm already working. - Fractur's son has been hot himself. - Yeah, he's been better over the past month or so. Then you get into Josh Bell who's actually been good for a while now. Ty France has been good. - I was looking at Josh Bell's gonna end up with like 24 homers and 95 RBI this season. - Yeah, he is. - It's been kind of normal Josh Bell season, but the counting stats at the end of the season, you're gonna be surprised at how good they are. - And I just wanna mention a massive game here for Raphael Flores of the Pirates, two for five with a double-dong six RBI. I think he'll get more playing time with any Rodriguez going on the IL. This is the deepest of like NL only is, those are the only leagues you need to look at. The numbers in the minors is here were bad, but they were very good last year. So just a NL only name there for you Raphael Flores. Name that player, drop-o-meter edition. And these are all hitters, stats over the last 30 days. It's gonna go wrong. - Are we not supposed to have the notes up? - It's gonna go wrong. - No, they're not in the notes. - I don't have them in the notes. This show's gonna go wrong. - Okay. - I thought, but I put a lot of work into this and now I wanna do it. - Your notes say we should be at the 30 minute mark right now and we're at the 50 minute mark. - Yeah, but that's every time. - Bad, you know. - Don't listen to that. - That's got literally every single podcast is like that. - All right, so name that player. I basically have four or five clues for every one of these players. And I will go one at a time with the clues. You guys could just throw out answers. And hopefully-- - It's like taboo. - Yeah, pretty much. So here we are. - It's forbidden word. - Are you guys ready? - I've never played taboo. - Yeah. - What? - Taboo's fun, man. - All right, all right, you know what? All right, guy who's never seen any movie. Don't do that 'cause I've never played taboo. Okay. - What are we talking about? Let's play name that player. And these are all potential drop candidates right now. First up, I will start with the last 30 days for each of these, last 30 days. I am hitting 200 with zero homers, five steals and a 503 OPS. Probably don't know who it is yet. Overall, on the season, I am hitting 282 with six homers, 18 steals and a 748 OPS. - Save your adverts. - Yeah, you got it right. How did you get it based on those clues? - That's a good guess. Way to go, Chris. - Got that, that Marlins. - I want you. - Sure, Zion. - That's right. - It was like kind of agonizing over edwards in as much as you can agonize over any player when you're doing your rankings in August. - He has slowed down tremendously. He's still 97% rostered. He's second base in shortstop eligible. My final clue, my first name is the last name of the professor in X-Men. - Oh, that would have. - That last clue is gonna be the giveaway, right? - The last clue is gonna give it away. - Which professor? - I think they're several. They're all teachers, you know? - Come on. - So what do you think? - Where is Zivir Edwards on the drop-home meter? - Ah, I may be. - He's a fringe starter as he can base. - Yeah. - At this point. And not really a viable starter in shortstop, although, you know, he's okay. - I don't think I'd be dropping him for Lucie Shull, who's two-thirds rostered. So probably not that dropable. I'd say shallow league, it's fine if you wanna go with somebody hotter, but you're not gonna drop and save your edwards in a road-o-legs, certainly. - If you wanted to play like a hot hand with Bryce and Stop, who I, in a point league, in a head-to-head league, yeah. - Grant in Bryce and Stop, you're probably more likely to use him a third base now that he's eligible there. - Sure. - Yeah. I think Zivir Edwards is fine. I think he's gold, but that's the gist of it. - What about for Zach Gelloff in a road-o-leg? - I wouldn't. I wouldn't make that switch. - I don't think I would. - I think Gelloff needs to be rostered, but that's not the way it makes it happen. - That is intriguing, that is a good question. Next up, last 30 days, I have a 128 batting average, three homers, 14 RBI, 29 strikeouts, and a 509 OPS. - Cowrally. - Sounds bad. - Dude, what the heck? - He got it. (laughing) - Wow. - Do you have access to my email? - I just noticed that he has been, that's why it just keeps getting worse for him. I saw Mike Petriela of MLB.com did a story. Or, I don't know if he published it, but I know he was working on something that he was tweeting about, and it was looking at the worst year-to-year drop-offs in MLB history, and his is the second worst ever by WRC Plus. It's him and like, there was like a Rogers Horn's Be Season back in like the 20s where like he had a bunch of personal tragedies before him and struggled. But this is like one of the worst year-to-year drop-offs we've ever seen. - I like how the commentary, which I was a big part of, commentary on Cowrally prior to the season. Okay, how would he follow up the 60-Homer season? It's like, well, we know the downside is what he was prior to the 60-Homer season, which was still a really good catcher who you could pencil in for 30-Homers and like, oh no, we didn't really know what the downside was. - We never knew. - Yeah. So he had that oblique injury earlier in the season. I just feel like that's probably right to everything for me. - I mean, he looked terrible in the World Baseball Classic. - Yeah, true. - Go back up far. - He is. - I remember people observing that and just like, obviously he's like, who cares? It's spring training, but in the end, it looked like there may have been something to it. - I will not be surprised if we learn Cowrally's gonna have some kind of surgery at the end of the season. - He's still 97% rostered. My other clues, by the way, second in MVP voting last season that would have given away. And my last one, I've taken a big dump this season. So that was my last clue there for Cowrally. - How 97% rostered, I dropped Cowrally about a month ago in a shallow head to head points league 'cause I had Liam Hicks and I just didn't wanna invest the roster spot on the second catcher anymore. - So you can't drop him in a two catcher league, but I mean, I've moved him, I've moved, - You could. - And Cisco Alvarez and Salvador Perez ahead of him and I don't know. - Man, and the underlying numbers are all significantly worse. Like the overall profile, like the bad and ball profile, the strikeout rate, like it's all a little worse, but it's not so much worse, but he's lost, you know, two miles per hour in average, ex of velocity, his max ex of Velo is three miles per hour lower than it's ever been. - Yeah, I don't know, he's gonna be a tough one to rank for 2020. Seven, I'm probably gonna draft a lot of him, but because of the price, just an absolute disaster. - And honestly, thinking more about this, if you have Cowrally on your team, that means you probably use a second round pick on him. You're probably out of it at this point in the season for P&O. - Well, yeah. So, moving on, we have next up, last 30 days, I am hitting 181 with two homers, 31 strikeouts, a 517 OPS. On the season, I am hitting 226 with 24 homers. - Yes, Shism. - No, 71, RBI and a 731 OPS. - I in half. - Nope. - I am 95% rostered. I have first and third base eligibility. - Oh, no, not him. - First and third base. - Last year, I did not play in the majors and had just an 11% K-rate. This year, I have a 31% K-rate. - The one and age last year. - Guy who made a ton of contacts. - No badgames. - Not in the majors. - Yeah, not in the majors. - Boat batting average. - That sounds like power. - My name would rhyme well in Kokomo Friday. - Was that the easy one? Was that the giveaway? - That's last one. That's last one I've counted. - Oh. - It stopped us on this one. - Alec Bo? - No. - First and third. - It's not a bad guess though. He has first and third eligible. - All right, I played in the majors last year. - All right, I gotta give you guys this one 'cause we're having-- - How many homeruns did you say, Adam, this year? - 24 homers. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. - Cosmo Commodo, yes. - Yes, all right, it's got to get that one. - I just kept thinking prospects. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cosmo Commodo has slowed down a lot. - Yeah, it's someone in the chat got a couple minutes before we did, yep. - He is still 95% roster. Should that be the case? - I didn't know it was your space eligible. That was fun. - I just realized today, updating the rankings. - Because he's third base eligible, probably. - Yeah. - He probably should be rostered still. It's-- - I could see, dumping him in a shallow points league just keeps strikes out so much. And just riding a hot hand there. But-- - Like, if you swap them out for Caleb Durbin a couple weeks ago on a points league, I get it. - Yeah. - I mean, I-- - I think I would-- - I think Lewis is pretty widely rostered by now. He's up to like 80% now, but like-- - Gelloff? - Gelloff, Bryce's stop. - Aaronado's been good over the past one. - Yeah, I think any of those are fine. It's not necessarily like I'm excited to make those swaps, but at this point in the season, you don't have a ton of room for Okamoto to turn around. And it's been, you know, there were stretches where it was pretty fun, but there have been some really big red flags all season. - Yeah. - So-- - It's mostly the pull air raid that's carrying. And it's very, very red. - Yeah. Scarlet red. - Actually, why? I have eight hitters on this list. There's no way we're getting eight hitters. So let me see who I would like to-- who makes the most sense. All right, let's do this guy. Last 30 days, I'm hitting 176 with one homer and a 540 OPS. On the season, I am hitting 240 with a 370 on base. Seven homers, 65 run scored, and a 707 OPS. I'm 75% rostered. How field only? I have-- - How field are who walks a lot? - I had 36 homers last year. This year, I have seven. - Oh, Taylor Ward. - Taylor Ward. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Last clue, I recently traded out Birdwatching for swimming. Super joke. - Yeah. - 75% rostered. Where is Taylor Ward on the drop-on meter? - I can't see. - I think it's a 10 and three outfielder leagues, and probably about a 1 and 5 outfielder. A little higher than a 1 and 5 outfielder leagues. - You know, I think he's cooked in Seattle as we talked about at the trade deadline. I don't think he's gonna work out there. - I think that number's higher in a 5 outfielder league. Zach Veean getting called up. I would drop him for Zach Veean in a 5 outfielder league. - Still the playing time issue there makes me hesitate. - Like, I try not to be too confident in any take, so even though I sound really confident that Taylor Ward's not gonna work out in Seattle, he might. You know? - Yeah. - It's a bad environment. He has a bad history there, but he's also Taylor Ward, and he's been solid contributor for a number of years. - Yeah. All right, let's get to who got that one? Scott got that one. All right, it's two to two. All right. Next up. Last 30 days, I'm hitting 151 with four homers, four RBI, 27 strikeouts, two steals, two caught stealing, very weird line, 586. - It has. - Not even half. Overall, I'm hitting 218 with a 332 on base, 20 homers, 777 OPS. - Still sounds like you're not. - Still sounds like jazz chisel, come here. - 62% rostered, outfield only. - I gotta get my mind somewhere than other than E and half. - I have 20 homers in 92 games, which ties my career high from two years ago. - Hmm. - Oh, bridge. - All right, Chris, look down at your jersey. I was the fourth overall pick by the Marlins in 2019. - Oh gosh, that should give it away. Who did the Marlins pick high, and now he's pretty good, but not that good. - Oh, JJ Blade. - Yup, it is JJ Blade. - Yeah, it's JJ Blade. - He is 62% rostered. - Yeah, has completely plummeted. Where is he on the drop-o-meter? - 9, 8, 9, yeah. - Yeah, that's where I was going to. I, the reds have eight games next week and five of them are at home, where he's been better as many reds hitters are. Still couldn't justify putting JJ Blade on my sleeper hitters list. - How many lefties did this schedule Scott? I don't know if you have that handy, but. - I do three of the eight are lefties. - That's not great. - He still plays against lefties, but he's worse against them. - Yup. All right, last one. This is for all the marbles. You guys are currently tied up. - No, I think I'm up three two. - Three two. - Yeah, Chris got it. - Oh, all right. - Well, we can play two more. We can play two more. We can and just have like an hour and a half podcast Get to come on all right last 30 games to 24 batting average zero homers six steals 28 strikeouts 5 87 opus Sounds like he's been bad overall overall 259 Seven homers 16 steals 721 opus only 81 games played so seven homers 16 steals and 81 games Is it Carson binge it is not Carson bench 70% rostered outfield only AJ Ewing it is AJ Ewing Well that one last two clues. I had some of the biggest fat bids as a waiver add the season I have the same last name as a New York mix legend God I got it Got that fly just with this I just it was on my monitor. I just did this thing this little fingernail got it Hey Taylor word could work for that last one too Yeah, that's true Charlie Ward Taylor Ward York next legend. That's right AJ Ewing has slowed down a lot he's 70% rostered where would you put him on the drop-o-meter? I just wish he ran more and there was a stretch where you know Rage alive where it looked like he was starting to run more But only 15 steals in the 81 games. I mean look that's a 30 steel pace you'll take that and Overall it's a 15 home or 30 steel pace like that's pretty awesome But I don't know I I'm not inclined to drop him but in a point's league It's probably like a six and then in a road o league. I think it's probably like a one Okay, yeah, that sounds good. I you know we got this hunting I'm still really high in Ewing overall, but he is a rookie and he's gonna have his ups and downs and I think if five outfield or the easy should still feel really secure with them. Would you drop him for exact mean? No, I probably wouldn't know All right, that is gonna do it for name that player Gradskris you took it down You are the winner All right, let's wrap up here with some leftovers from Thursday south steward had himself a big game Two for three with his 26th home run and four runs scored He is having a pretty big second half so good to see that from south steward Caleb Durbin huge game three for five with the grand slam and five RBI Last 66 games updated numbers 309 11 homers 43 runs 44 RBI 10 steals again that is Caleb Durbin Kyle Schwarberg a double-dong One of them aided by Luke Keishel so thank you for that two multi-homer games in his last five He was struggling but has picked things back up over the last say games Mike trout three for five with a run and RBI first time with back-to-back three hit games since May of 2018 How about that Mike trout max Muncie a pinch hit three run homer He is now the all-time leader in home runs at Dodger stadium which Seems Crazy to me wild, but hey look credits max Muncie man. He's he's had a very good. Oh, he's been a very good hitter for a pretty long time Yeah, yeah Last name here. He actually was also on the list of name that player But we didn't get to him Brandon Marsh two for two with two walks a sock in the shoe his 17th home run his 11th steal His previous 35 games before this he was hitting just 160 with a 426 OPS Still 83% roster man that number seems very high for Brandon Marsh. A lot of names here any thoughts One I think Brandon Marsh is still pretty much playing every day against lefties right And that's a problem and I think that the fillies are doing a disservice to him Because he has a 38% striker rate against lefties this season like he Historically has just been a true platoon guy and he probably just needs to be a true platoon guy And I think that's probably hurting him Uh anything else on these other names the Caleb Durbin stuff is crazy man. I yeah, it's I don't really have a good explanation for it Just because he was so bad early on that it was like because like when he got traded to the red socks you could see You know, you can see the case for Caleb Durbin as a as a pull heavy hitter at Fenway and then we got What two and a half three months where it was like oh no, that's not working no abort abort and then It ended up it's gonna end up working about how we all hope by the end of the season and his road numbers are actually a little bit better Than his way numbers so the home run he home run today was on the road. Yeah So it's not even look he was productive in the miners and and Yeah, it's in a way that didn't put him high on prospect list and it was less about power like a lot of it was speed and walks and that sort of thing stolen bases and walks but I don't know is Obviously going well enough for long enough that it's like all right a weak position no less I don't really care to say anything bad about Caleb Durbin other than to I'll just say I'm a little skeptical of it but Not enough to act on it. I think the biggest thing is just I look at the overall numbers and it's like You know like kind of a 15 15 Homer 20 steel pace with a 732 opus and maybe hope for a little better than the 253 batting average But if he was like 265 1520 That's pretty reasonable that that's not far off from what I would reasonably expect from Caleb Durbin I don't think he's as good as this stretch, but He's clearly not as bad as he was early on and sometimes it just works out that way Hey, man at third base just Keep on riding it with Caleb Durbin because again, it's just a bad position Brandon March by the way has only started against one of their last four lefties So perhaps they are trying to they are starting to figure that out. He's 83% rostered Where would you guys put Brandon March on the drop oh meter? 10 I don't I mean three-outfeel they're obviously 10 Five-out fielder. It's still be pretty high. I'd probably go like seven and a half All right some pitching leftovers here. We had two good two bad and one in between Parker Messick took a tough loss at the Tigers five and two thirds two runs with six strikeouts max freed Also tough loss five innings one run four strikeouts against the Mariners The bad ones here Kevin Gossman got walloped at the nationals four and two thirds six runs allowed seven strikeouts His previous three starts before this look like he was kind of getting back on track But rough one Taj Bradley got beat up by the Phillies in that field of dreams game four innings five runs loud four walks three Shrikeouts two homers allowed And he gets the braids next time out so it's kind of a tough matchup And then the in between is Roki Sasaki who struggled with control. He did manage a quality start six innings two runs Five walks to two strikeouts also 13 hard hits again. So Men Roki Sasaki the experience is just his four starts before this were awesome And obviously we've been talking him up. Well, I mean in terms of actual results this start was still good. Yeah, it was a quality start It's just you know the ERA yeah five walks and 13 hard hits. Yeah, three array 150 whip as see it's not the sort of start that if You know it happened in isolation. We'd be saying. Oh, yeah, Roki Sasaki pick him and I get it's not I do think You're not starting next week though Who's he got next week at Colorado. Yeah, no way. Yeah Yeah, I I think the four starts the previous four starts being as good as they were for Roki Sasaki in pretty much every way We'll give him a pass for this one. Obviously The next start being where it is in Colorado. You can give him a pass by having him on your bench, which makes it even You feel a little more even better about giving him a pass Um But you know if he has a bad start at Colorado got to probably got to give him a pass for that one too So hopefully he doesn't and then better about the next one I think I mostly give Kevin Gosman a pass. I would like to see him start missing more bats So he did this one and he was terrible. So I guess I doesn't really fix it but the strike out right has him in great lately But I mostly give him a pass for this one Todd Bradley, I mean, I just had so much trouble embracing like you know the the circle of trust idea I know he's been awesome all season. I don't know if Todd Bradley could ever be in the circle of trust for me I just think he's too inherently volatile. It's just not a picture. I can ever get to trust With um, but hey, I he's also starting to look a lot more shaky lately I think it's more walks and strikeouts than two of his last three Walk rate has been way way up lately. I think it was like 5.1 Per nine since the start of jala me see I had this stat 5.2 walks per nine over his past six starts for Todd Bradley that's And unfortunately Todd Bradley does not have an extensive track record of success. He basically has the first like three and a half months of this season. So I'm definitely worried about Todd Bradley Does that mean I'm not starting him next week against the praves? I would hope I have better options. I think so too. Yeah It's just a shame that This was the game without stack because if Nola has an uncharacteristically great start, and Tosh Bradley, based on the season as the whole uncharacteristically bad start, and we can't do again. - This is the whole intro to tomorrow's FBT newsletters, me lamenting the fact that I can't really take anything from these two starts because we don't have any of the good data. - Yeah. Brooks baseball, guys. (laughs) - I don't know. - That won't be available till tomorrow. - Yeah. - Too late. - Everybody's past it then. Everyone's beyond it. - The call to the bullpen for the Tigers, Kenley Jansen, a clean ninth inning for his 15th save for the Mariners, Andres Munoz, Sharkout 2 for his 21st save for the Dodgers, as I mentioned. - Yeah, they're in the lead a little bit there. - Yeah, as I usually just go in order of the games, but the Dodgers mentioned it up top. Edwin Diaz blew another save. He was charged with three runs on four hits, took his fourth blown save. The Dodgers actually lost the game too. And I just saw this quote come out from Dave Roberts. Roberts went asked about potentially moving Edwin Diaz out of the closer role. "Give me another option. I can't just say change to low leverage. I have to have another option." - Tanner Scott. - Unless I-- - The guy you gave huge money to be your closer last year. - Like what the fifth largest relief pitcher contract in MLB history, Tanner Scott. Like that guy. Am I missing or standing his quote? Like maybe he's saying, - Like what do I do with Edwin Diaz? - What do I do with Edwin Diaz? Because the word is weird. I can't just change to low leverage. - I understand what he's saying. In that, like it can get awkward when you remove a guy from that role. But one, that's your job. You make a lot of money to do that. Like that's-- - I mean, it wouldn't be the job it's to figure out how to handle that. Like, sorry. - It wouldn't be the first time Edwin Diaz was demoted from close. - Yeah, this has happened like twice in the last five years with Edwin Diaz, where Edwin Diaz had to do this for Tanner Scott last year. - So like I actually don't understand that at all. He clearly can't be in the closer role right now. He has an 1157 OPS for this season. Actually, that might have been before, to 1157 ERA. 1157 OPS allowed maybe. Hey, two 49 whips. - Jesus, dude. Tanner Scott is a priority. He's 56 years. - I have center officer. - Yeah, I think Tanner Scott has to be viewed as basically a must-ad pitcher right now, because look, I can't say for sure what they're going to do. This is the whole problem with talking about closures. It's not just who's good and who's bad, but who will get the role. Tanner Scott just looks like a better pitcher right now. Edwin Diaz has been awful all season when he's been healthy. - Yeah. - And he had surgery. So yeah, I don't know. He might figure it out. We have seen this before from Edwin Diaz, but I think the way it's gone, you have to add Tanner Scott if you're looking for saves. - On the other side for the brewer, Trevor McGill picked up his 20-second save. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we have clay homes against the Cardinals, Boba Chandler against the Red Sox, Jackson Job against the White Sox, Brendan Fought at the Braves, Seth Lugo at the Angels, Grayson Rodriguez against the Royals, Kumar Rocker at the Athletics Skage Jump against the Rangers, and Landon Roup against the Rockies in San Francisco. - Landon Roup's the easy one, and even he's been bad lately, but I'd still call him the easy one. - Rockies have actually made us look bad for streaming against them lately too. - Gage Jump and Grayson Rodriguez, I think, have big upside against Texas and Kansas City, respectively, but they also have big downside, just because they've been highly volatile, even of late. So they're my second and third choices, but I don't really need it. I don't hate clay homes to good match against the Cardinals. I know the first start back from the I.L. was bad, but I still think that defense is going to be very good for him. I don't hate Seth Lugo, and I don't hate Jackson Job. This is not the worst night you've ever seen. - He's trying to hate him. You know, it's not the worst night for streamers in baseball history, what I'm saying. - Well, then what about Saturday? It's actually not so bad. Anthony K at the Tigers, Michael McGreevy at the Cubs, Sean Manaya against the Nationals, Brady Singer against the Marlins, Joey Cantillo against the Padres, Hayden Wasneski against the Mariners, Connor Prelyp against the Phillies and JTGN against the Rangers. - Again, again, I always like again. Brady Singer against the Marlins. I know the Nationals have been good against lefties, but no James Wood, I think Manaya is good against them. - Yeah, maybe. - I don't mind Cantillo against the Padres if you can take a little whip hit. They have the best in the second half. - The best with offensive baseball in the second half. I have no idea how. - Oh, well, that's fair. - Luis Renifo, that's how. - Yeah, well, no, I think both their catchers have like 900 OPS in the second half, too. I got it like the reason why is the biggest reason why is Machado, Tatees and Merrill, all three. We're all full in the first half and now they're performing like they should have been all long. So I kind of have to tie France, Luis Renifo. - Yeah. - You've been getting all kinds of good seasons or good stretches from scrubs. It's weird. - Then on Sunday, we have Brendan Young at the raise. Patrick Sandevolts had the pirates, Christian Scott against the Nationals, Andrew Painter at the Twins, Dean Kramer against the Phillies, Hunter Dawins at the Cubs, Cody Bradford at the Athletics, Jacob Lopez, home against the Rangers. - Just one thing to note there is that does mean Brandon Young will not be a two-star pitcher next week, which was something we talked about earlier in the week when considering adding him. So that's a little frustrating. - Wait, are we sure he's starting Sunday? Because when I was going through the two-star pitcher list, granted there were conflicting sources, but the majority said Brandon Young wasn't going Sunday and he would be a two-star pitcher next week. - Well, then I guess we probably should not suggest Brandon Young. - I might have pulled that from ESPN, which is that's more of a passing game. - Yeah, ESPN has a roster. - roster resource has Young going Monday. I believe CBS has Young going to. - Who are they going to? Bassets coming back. Chris Bassett was pretty good. - Okay, okay, good call. Good call. Good call. All right, nope. - Anyway, Brandon Young probably is a two-star pitcher next week then. Tampa Bay twice. - Yeah. - Jacob Lopez versus the Rangers is my favorite. - Yep. - I don't love anyone else, but Kramer and Dawins are. I like what Painter is doing lately. - Yeah, he's ditched his splitter. He's throwing a true change up now. He's been throwing his sweeper a lot more, I think. So that's interesting. I'm not ready to trust him, though. So Lopez would be my favorite by far, and I don't really like anyone else that much for pitching, but as people, I'm sure they're great. - If I had to choose three, I would go Lopez, Painter, and Christian Scott. - Yeah, I agree with you three. - Oh. - Lopez is a distant number one. - Right, we are going to wrap there for Scott, Chris, I and Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. - Paramount podcasts. Hello, and welcome to Pluto Fall. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, the Matrix, Transformers, Rise of the Beast, or Mean Girls. - That is so effects. Just stream it for free on Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.