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[email protected]. Get ready to win your lead. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hey there. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Monday, August 10. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have more prospect promotions. We will rank the shortstop prospects in particular. We have loads of waiver wire pictures from the weekend. I have the warriometer for four pictures, two starters, two relievers. So we'll get to that a little bit later on. But let's just get things started here with yet another shortstop promotion. And this time, the twins called up Kaelin Cole Pepper. And he was having a great season in the minors this year, where he hit 271, 367 on base, 14 homers, 17 steals, and 845 OPS. Hit the ball hard, pretty good plate discipline, 23 years old former first round pick. He is 31% rostered, and he started two of three games this weekend. So Scott, what are your thoughts here on Kaelin Cole Pepper, the prospect, some expectations, rest of season. And then we'll get into ranking all these fun names. I mean, look, he's been really productive in the minors the last two years, OPS close to 850 each time, 20 homer 25 steals. Last year, it was 14 and 17 and only 74 games this year. And former first round pick. I feel like his-- when I look at Kaelin Cole Pepper and I'm ranking prospects, I always want to come in higher than the consensus. It feels like his prospect ranking has always been kind of suppressed while somebody like on Hell and now it's been a little elevated beyond what-- and I struggle to understand why. I mean, oftentimes, defense explains that. But my understanding is Cole Pepper's a legitimate defender, a shortstop, and somebody who should stick there. So I don't think that's it. The chase rate is a little high from the data we have, but not a way that raises great alarm. Strike out rates are good, walk rates good, exit velocity is not amazing, but good. And there's power speed there. And I don't know why he sat out Sunday. I don't know how often that's going to happen. It's not like they have great shortstop options the twins apart from Cole Pepper. So I think that'll be rare that he sits. But I would say any roadily he needs to be picked up. I would definitely rank him behind George Lombard. But I think between him and on Hell and now it's a closer call. Yeah, I think-- so one Lombard's already like 61% rostered Hanoi and Cole Pepper are both around 30. So whatever explanation you want to go with, Lombard is already much more rostered. And I think he probably should be. I think he should be ranked first out of this. But I think this is a situation where Cole Pepper is probably them just taking these three guys at face value. Everything we know about them, no roster rates, nothing, no team context, whatever. Cole Pepper might be the better fantasy prospect of this group. And Lombard and Hanoi are better real life prospects, I think, or at least that's the way they're ranked. And maybe that comes to defense. Or just those guys have really, really good plate discipline whereas Cole Pepper has pretty good. I think his walk rate's been around 9% 10% throughout his mind in his career. He's never struck out more than 20% of the time. But Lombard and Hanoi have been more like 15% strikeout guys, 12, 13, 14% walk rate guys. So you can talk yourself into those guys being better real life prospects. But Cole Pepper, I think his profile might have a little more juice when it comes to fantasy, at least in a row to a context. Maybe in a point-sleeve context, you can take Lombard. But Cole Pepper, I think it's 27. Let me make sure I have the numbers correct. I think it's 27 homers and 25 steals in like 133 games between AA and AAA over the past two seasons, 25 and 27. Yeah. He might just have a more five by five friendly profile than these other guys. And part of that, he doesn't walk as much. And so he's going to have more balls of play, and more opportunities. I think-- I said his exit velocities were decent, Cole Pepper. I mean, George Lombard's are better. Sure. George Lombard looks like he has the makings of a significant power hitter. Well, Cole Pepper could be a 20, 25 homer guy. Sure. Lombard hasn't hit for as much power. He's 20 when they're-- He moved quickly through the system, but just evaluating the talent. But there are things with Lombard that make me think-- he, for me at least, he's kind of more on the passive side of the passive versus patient thing. His swing rate in zone is very low. And that's one that I always highlight a little bit of just does that get flagged by major league hitters? Or major league hitters? What's the ball in the air more than Cole Pepper? Cole Pepper's got a ground ball problem. But I just think-- and also, I think Cole Pepper's going to run more. So I think the reason I would put Lombard at the hop, though, is best line with the three, best home ball part of the three. And I think the fewest questions about playing time, not that I think, now, and Cole Pepper are likely to miss much time or be out of the line up much. But Lombard is just the guy for as long as he can hack it. And if he can't hack it, then that doesn't matter anyway. But if he's really good, he's definitely playing every day at Shorestuff for the Yankees. And now we've already seen-- I mean, they're trying to shuffle guys out. It looked like when Jose Ramirez might be going on the IL. OK, that might be the path, and then we'll figure it out. Now, I believe he has played, started every game. Yeah, he has. So it's not actually an issue yet. But it could become one if he slows down. And then Cole Pepper, I believe it was two lefties, the first two games, and then a writing on Sunday. And he sat against the first writing. Is that anything? I don't know. I'm just looking at what they did. It could have just been an off day for a guy who just got called up and make sure he's not overwhelmed. But that was the one thing I flagged. His primary competition at Shorestuff for playing time is Ryan Cridler. I think it's how you pronounce his name. I don't really think that should be much playing time or competition. But that's the one thing. I would go Lombard, Cole Pepper, and Hennel in that order. But the thing that I wrote in today's waiver wire is finding waiver wire short stops all season has basically been a nightmare. Like if you've lost Cory Seeger, or you drafted her all the Prado Mo and Ricky Bats, and you just disappointed with what you find out of that line-up spot, like who has emerged off the waiver wire at Shorestuff this season? Auto-Lope has really early on. Kind of nobody else that actually matters for fame. There's some, you know, Willie Adama's got down to like 60%, and he's having a fairly normalcy. But like nobody has come from out of nowhere, you know, gone from 25% roster to universally roster. And I think all three of these guys more or less should be universally rostered. So this might be your one chance to get a short stop on the waiver wire. So I think you should be aggressive with any of them. Right now. Yeah. And what makes it a tough call is that they've all looked pretty good so far. I know it's a really small sample size for all three. I mean, Colt Pepper has only started two games, but he homeworked in his first game. Like it's pretty impressive stuff to see that. Now the twins were facing Mizierowski on Sunday. So perhaps they didn't want to expose him to the best right handed pitcher in all of baseball. So that would make some sense. But one bard already has two home runs, and he has five hits total. And now had a four hit game in his debut.
he also homer over the weekend. So these guys have come up. They've hit the ground running so far. And I get why it would be a tough call. I saw the biggest bids in leagues where Fav has already run on Lombard so far in my Towers league 15 team. Brodo, he went for 275, which is like a massive number at this point in season. But I had too much money left. I saw another league where he went for 200. Another one where he was like around 100. So some big bids at this point in the year. Yeah, I don't think I'm in any fab league where I have 25% of my budget left still. No, that's that does that seems like a poor. I mean, it worked out if you really needed Lombard, I guess, but yeah, you know, usually usually by this point in the season, you have 15 to 20% left, I'd say. Scott, would you rank them the same order? Is it Lombard, Cole Pepper, Hannau for you? Lombard, Cole Pepper, Hannau. Yeah, I said Lombard, clear number one, the other two, it's harder to say I think Cole Pepper has more upside for fantasy, but I'm especially since he's saddest third game. I'm less sure about the playing time and Hannau's going to have looks like multi eligibility pretty soon here. So that's a point in his favor as well. But I think I'd lean Cole Pepper everything else being equal over Hannau. We did get some white socks, pitching prospects who were promoted as well. Looks like they're going to work out of the bullpen, so I don't think it's going to matter much for fantasy, but they were some pretty big names. Hagen Smith, who is a former first round pick, top five pick in the draft, and Tanner McDougall, Hagen Smith made his debut on Sunday, he threw two no hit innings, three strikeouts, but also four walks, and that has been an issue for him at times in the minors. Again, don't really think those guys matter, but we'll be interesting to see just what they do down the stretch and then probably, assuming there's a season, used as starters next year or in some kind of, you know, stretched out capacity. So just some names to watch for the rest of the season. And then look, the last name to mention, there's no confirmation of this yet, but got to mention him whenever we can. Kate Anderson of the Mariners, he tossed five and a third shutout innings with nine strikeouts to zero walks in his latest start at AA. And lots of people speculating that he will be up at some point this week. Again, that's not confirmed, but I think it's either August 13th, or 15th is the date when if a prospect is up from that point forward, they can maintain their rookie eligibility for the following season, which a lot of teams care about. So could see Kate Anderson later this week. I don't think you should start him, but hopefully that is the case. We'll see if he's called up next weekend. Again, that's Kate Anderson. Let's get into some of the big standouts, our players of the weekend. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, let's start with Scott. And just massive performance for Peyton Toli. And you had a pretty enticing tweet to go along with it. Yeah. So 14 strikeouts by Peyton Toli on Friday. He was facing the athletic strikeout 14, 24 whiffs on 84 pitches. And of those 24 whiffs, five were on the curveball. He threw it 18% of the time. Why am I telling you this? Because he doesn't often throw his curveball much at all. But in those starts where he throws his curveball at decent amount, 10% or more is the cutoff I used. 10% or more curveball use Peyton Toli has a 221 ERA 0.76 Whip 13.3 K per nine. That's seven of his 19 starts on the season. 10% or more curveballs. 221 ERA 0.76 Whip 13.3 K per nine. The 12 others, it's a 380 ERA 131 Whip 8.7 K per nine. Pretty me. But there's those curveball starts mixed in that obviously make the overall number's good. Give him a 14 strikeout effort like this. Two hits a loud one and run in six innings, by the way. Now I realize an observation like that while interesting isn't necessarily actionable because you don't know going in how many curveballs Peyton Toli is going to throw in a particular start. And there also may be good reasons why he throws his curveball more sometimes and not others having to do with the game plan, having to do with the opponent. It may not be just, it may not be as simple as Peyton Toli please throw your curveball more. But I pointed out mainly because I think that version of Toli 10% curveball use or more. Like it's not like he needs to make it a huge part of his arsenal. He's obviously new to this. He's a rookie. Obviously still settling into the kind of picture he's going to be long term. And when I'm thinking early on here in August about breakout candidates for next year as good as Toli's been as a rookie, I think there is another level here. I think there is genuine ace upside. And I think pointing out those numbers that he has when he makes use of that curveball. I think it shows just how high the ceiling goes for a pitcher. We know as a great fastball, but like there's more there for Peyton Toli doing lock. And I am excited about what the future holds for him. I mean, this is a lofty comp, but there's a lot of similarities between him and Cam Schlippler. Both in terms of the way they pitch, you know, fastball cutter, sinker, 90% of the time basically between the two of them. They both do that. They're both, you know, Schlippler's strikeout rate is better. It's about 11 per nine, but Toli 10.4 per nine, 2.4 walks per nine. The peripherals, not that different. Schlipplers are better across the board. And Schlippler is a better pitcher, specifically at this point in their careers, but it's a comp that doesn't do Peyton Toli a disservice. And when you can say that about a guy comparing him to likely a L.S.A. Young, am I forgetting about anybody? This point is probably probably a bit more. I'd go with Schlippler myself. Yeah, I mean, either way. I mean, very similar numbers. But Schlippler's thrown about 30 more innings. It looks like 20 more innings. So that's not nothing. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really optimistic comp for Toli. And I think it also works because they both have curveballs that they don't really throw that much. But when they do, good things happen. I mean, Toli's curveball is a 49% wifery. That's a massive number for the season. It's a 130 pitch sample size or whatever, but that's really impressive. And I think the thing for me with that is it's not just that I'll throw your curveball 10% of the time and you'll be good, but it's more he has a pivot. And I think that's important too is you're not always going to have your best fastball every day. Can you do something when your best pitches aren't working? And that curveball might give him another avenue. So I think that's very exciting as well. And if you told me rest of season, you thought Peyton Toli would perform like a borderline SP2, SP3, top 25, top 30 starting pitcher, I think that's totally fine. Again, like he's flashed upside, big upside this season. He's also, you know, there's been starts where he's been inefficient, not going deep in stuff. But I think at this point, we've seen enough to know that Peyton Toli is pretty legit. And hopefully, yeah, continues to mix in that curveball. You know, I've had some people ask about the innings limits or any kind of concern about that just based on what he threw last year. It was 108 innings total last season. He's already up to 107. Do you guys have any concern about not a shutdown, but maybe a limitation or kind of spread out? I like it. It's more than 107. He's up to 122. 122. You count the miners, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's fair. Yeah. So 122 and last year 108. Yeah. Yes, that is. And that's kind of why I framed it more about next year. I mean, I don't know how many more opportunities this year Peyton Toli is going to get to have a start like this. Obviously, the Red Sox are fighting for a playoff spot, but they also want some of the if they make the playoffs, they want Toli to have some innings available to them then. So it just seems given that he's already like 15 innings over his previous high last year. At some point, they're going to have to mitigate that somehow and you know, it might make them frustrating to deal with rest of season. Obviously, you keep starting them until you see some evidence of that, but I would have that in the back of my mind rest of season that okay, I can't necessarily count on him starting every fifth day and giving me six innings. All right, Chris, let's go over to your player of the weekend. I know that it won't make me. He can't keep getting away with it, but what if he makes a change? Okay. So yeah, that's the thing is the version of Ed Roderard Regas who will not be able to keep getting away with it is not the version that we saw on Mulvus Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Sunday, sometime this weekend. Against the Dodgers, he got 17 wins.
in this start, 11 of them on the change up. You had 11 whiffs on 20 swings against the change up. You had a 37% called plus swinging strike rate on the change up. Yeah, if that's what Eduardo Rodriguez wants to do moving forward, okay, yeah, he's gonna be awesome because he struck out nine over seven innings. He was awesome in this start. And it wasn't just he did what he typically does and happened to get better results this time. It was his fast wall velocity was dead on where it usually is, 0.1 mile per hour down. His change up was down three miles per hour. That was different. And he was getting like a different, you know, more drop on it as well. And so you're talking about a guy who's suddenly going from getting around six miles per hour difference between his four seamer and change up to getting about nine miles per hour on it. And the pitch is moving differently. And so if that's real and that's sustainable and he can miss bats the way he did in this one, then yeah, sure, I'm open to Eduardo Rodriguez being good. But that's a different question than what we've been talking about for months, which is can the guy who's striking out three to four batters every start keep running up a low two ZRA? Obviously he cannot. He will not. At some point, that's going to fall apart on him. If he can build on what he did in this start and continue to generate huge swing strike numbers and, you know, okay, yeah, then I'm open to it. But I suspect this was just a one start thing. And he will go back to being a very poor strike out pitcher after this. And I don't know, call me a hater, whatever. I don't know. I know someone the other day said I hate the time of acts. No, they just have two pitchers that I don't think are very good who are getting good results right now. Nothing personal. It doesn't have to take it personally. Chris as long as I've known you. I've always seen you see over the diamond bags. So you know, I'm in back. Chris, you love the name. Chris hates the D bags. Scott hates the Cubs. We know. I do always think every time I go to Phoenix for first pitch Arizona, I always think of the king of the hill episode where Bobby calls it a monument to man's hubris when he goes outside in the in the sun. So maybe I do hate Phoenix. I don't know. No, Phoenix is fine. I had a good time. Yeah, look, if he can, like this is a guy who had a five year A the previous two seasons, if there was some magic skill he had that helped him out perform his peripherals, why wasn't he doing it previously? That's that's not the answer. The answer is just he's had a string of really good luck. And he's pitched really well and that's fine. But it's not going to last unless the changes he showed in this start are sustainable. I doubt they are, but it makes me more interested in him than I have been. Let's move on and give a shout out to Jake McCarthy, man. Just what a monster game he had on Saturday and what a monster year in general, four for five with two homers, two steals, four runs, three RBI. And on the season, he is the fifth best outfielder in Roto, the 12th best outfielder in total head Ted points. And 3.3 fantasy points per game is tied for the eighth best outfielder on CBS leagues. So just a massive year, want to give a shout out to Jake McCarthy. That's crazy. Yeah. All right, let's take our first break. Make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel. If you're watching at this point in the season, you haven't subscribed yet. Like, what do you do? Just subscribe. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball. Today, let's hit the news and notes. And we do have some pitching injuries up top to address. Hunter Green was diagnosed with a partial UCL tear in his right elbow and will undergo surgery this week. We don't know exactly what kind of have surgery he's having yet, whether it's Tommy John surgery internal brace both. But the expectation is that he will miss a large majority of next season. So that is very, very unfortunate news for Hunter Green and the Cincinnati Reds. Joe Ryan was officially placed on the aisle with a left glute strain. So I don't think it's a season ender, but he's going to mess at least the next couple of weeks here. Griffin Jacks was placed in the aisle with right elbow discomfort. Obviously, this one is more worrisome than Joe Ryan. And I thought in a couple of leagues, like, if I really need the roster spot, should I drop Griffin Jacks? What do you guys think about that? The two leagues where I gave that thought, some credence were also two leagues that are points leagues. And if he's back and he's a spark and he's pitching as well as he was before, I can't take that risk until I know for sure. So I did. I think I kept him out of my drop bids, but I definitely gave it some thought, yeah. Yeah, I think it's-- you may not want to drop Jacks, and that's fine if you have the aisle space for it. I think the odds are against him coming back this season. It's obviously not definitive. I mean, you just even think about like a relatively minor injury like Carlos Roddons. He's missed like a month already, right? Yeah. And probably won't be back in the majors for another couple of weeks. So you just start to do the math there. We have seven weeks left. Yeah. There might not be enough time for him to get built up. And he does have experience as a reliever. So if they don't have enough time, they could just say, hey, we're going to put you in the bullpen. And we'll use you as a starter again next year. So kind of a tough spot there with Griffin Jacks. Kyle Harrison, who left his previous start with calf cramps, is listed as the probable pitcher Tuesday against the Padres. So I think you're good to get Kyle Harrison back in your line-ups. O'Neal Cruz started a rehab assignment on Friday. He's been out since June 7 with a fractured left hand. So he's been out a while. The pirates are also kind of scuffling so they need his help. I think he'll probably be back at some point this week. If you play in a weekly lineup league, unless it's a deeper five out through the league, I don't think that I would risk it with O'Neal Cruz. Obviously, if you play in a league where you could set your lineup on Monday and Friday, like in the NFBC, he might be back by Friday. And if you know by then, then you could just put him back in your lineup. So. Interested to see what they do with their outfield. Because Mangum has continued to play very well. Valdez has gone completely cold since he got hit by that pitch. He's like three for his last 28 or something. I think he has one hit in August as Berlin Valdez. Yeah, it's something like three for 40 since his last home run or something. Yeah, it's been really bad for the last two weeks. I think they have a spot either way right now. Because remember, they lost Ryan O'Hern. He's not coming back anytime soon or does he been ruled out for the season? He's not ruled out unlikely. Not ruled out for the season, but they also released Marcelo Zuna, which opens up a spot. Yeah, yeah. So D.H. on Ross de Risseau's currently shows Ronnie Simon or Ronnie Simone. I'm not actually sure how to pronounce his name because it's not particularly relevant to anyone. So yeah, I think, I think unless they just think as Merlin Valdez is struggling so bad that he needs some time in the minors again, but I don't think the return of O'Neal Cruz is gonna force that move. All right, Adley Bruchman kicked off his rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. And there is a chance that he is ready to make his Red Sox debut this week. I saw that he's traveling with the team and they're gonna make some determination. So we might know that on Monday, I am trying to pull up the schedule to see if the Red Sox play and my computer is frozen. So I will not be able to tell you that, but yeah, I think in two catcher leagues, if you don't really have a great second catcher, you might wanna just risk it and put Adley Bruchman in your lineups for this week. Blake's now will make his return Tuesday against the Royals. He got up to 73 pitches in his last rehab start and he is 18% started. Would you guys use Blake's now against the Royals this week? - So I was just looking that up and my worst picture in my starting lineup in Tout Wars is probably Luis Castillo. - I think I probably-- - He is a little over Castillo. - I do snow over Castillo, yeah. - Yeah, probably. The thing about Blake's now is, like you don't know which version's gonna show up because like he'll, that the M.O. on him really for like four straight years is half the year he looks like a Sion candidate and the other half of the year, he looks droppable. And so it's a good match up in theory Royals, but that's not really the point with Blake's now. It's just sometimes he's on and sometimes he's not. And so it's a gamble and you just have to run that assessment. Like as what Luis Castillo likely to give me, am I gonna miss it if it helps with Blake's now and get it back to time? - It helps with the point's league. - Yeah. - So I feel better about Castillo getting sick innings than I do, snow coming off an injury. That would be the main thing holding me back from starting snow is it's just, he could throw 80 pitches in four innings. - Yeah. - He could throw 80 pitches in seven innings. Like he's perfectly capable of it and look Castillo is not a guarantee to go deep in his starts either, but I do think he's probably got a better chance to pitch deeper into his start than snow in his very first one. So that would be the only thing. And plus I'd have to drop someone if I activate snow. So yeah. - Well, that's yeah, you might as well use it as a freebie and just see the first week. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, especially next week should be a two-star week. So unless it's a seven game week. - Yeah, I guess so. - Yeah. - Now they're running at six man. So Michael Soroka is expected to return on Monday, which makes him a two-star pitcher.
against the Rockies that started in Arizona and at the Atlanta Braves, he got up to 57 pitches in his latest rehab start. So probably 70 to 75 in the first start, I would imagine. He was having a great year, 307, ERA 109 whip. He's still 89% rostered. So we can't tell anyone to add Michael Soroka, but what do you guys think about potentially using him as first week back? So I added them to the point sligh only section of my two start pitcher rankings behind Jacob Lopez and Bryce Elder ahead of Christian Scott, who has two matchups, but bad ones. And Cody Bradford and Andrew Painter. So that's where I've slotted in Soroka. I think the only reason you even consider starting him after all that time is just because he lines up for two starts and the first being the Rockies on the road. So, you know, definitely points sligh, I have to consider it otherwise probably not. All right, Carl Swardon made his first rehab start at AAA on Saturday. He went two and two thirds innings, three hits, three runs, four strikeouts at two walks, but his velocity was down quite a bit and he's coming back from an elbow injury. So it's a little scary. Let's see if it builds up, but his fastball was down almost two miles per hour. His slider was down slider and change up for down almost three miles per hour. So something to watch there with Carl Swardon. Kyle, Kyle Stowers left Sunday with left handstring discomfort. He's kind of a fringe player anyway. So if you have a better option, you might want to go in a different direction. Max Meyer, who's on the aisle, the next strain will be re-evaluated this week. We do have some Padres rehab updates. Nick Pavella had his rehab paused after leaving his first outing with elbow tightness and Joe Musgrove. He made his first rehab start. I believe on Tuesday or Wednesday made another one on Sunday where he threw three and a third, one run allowed. And his fastball velocity was up quite a bit. He averaged 94.7 miles per hour. And the last time we saw him in 2024, he averaged 93 on the fastball. So I think he's getting pretty close. I think in deeper leagues, I'm kind of interested in stashing Joe Musgrove. I think anywhere you have IEL space, you should stash Joe Musgrove. I mean, is it worth Griffin Jax as well as he was pitching? I mean, we know Joe Musgrove is good. I was making a sleeper case for him before the season, before he wound up suffering that setback and spring trading. Numbers comparable to Max Fried during the years when he's healthy. And now, you know, a couple of recent tabs starts in. He's pitching well. Would you rather stash Musgrove in an IEL spot than Griffin Jax who just went down and seems unlikely to return this season? I think so. I think I'd make that swap. Yeah. Next up, George Springer has missed two straight with left shoulder tightness. And he has been better over the past month, but obviously a big let down this season. So could be a good reason to get Springer out of your lineups. Cooper Pratt was placed in the IEL with a right hamstring strain. Endy Rodriguez has missed three straight with left hip discomfort. It's just so frustrating because I feel like whenever he goes on a little bit of a run and we tell people to add him, he immediately gets hurt again. So it's kind of annoying for Endy Rodriguez. Vinnie Pascuantino could begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. He's been on the IEL since July 29th with right wrist soreness Matt Chapman will undergo season ending surgery to address a hernia and the Padre signed Austin Hayes after he was released by the White Sox. And he made an immediate impact. He had a pinch hit to run Homer on Sunday night baseball against the lefties. So probably not going to play that much. Probably doesn't really matter. Wave or wire pictures from the weekend. I'll just quickly start off with two day two shallow league names. I know we've talked a lot about, but they could be out there and some Yahoo leagues or if you play in a 10 team league. Roki Sasaki, another solid star six innings two runs five strikeouts, just one walk through 66% of his pitches for strikes. And he has looked much better in the second half so far. He gets the brewers this week. It is a tough matchup and Ian Seymour, a strong outing at the Mariners six innings one run seven strikeouts he had 16 whiffs on 98 pitches. And he gets the Orioles this week. He's also a spark for those who play in points league. So do you guys have a definitive answer on who you prefer a rest of season Sasaki or Ian Seymour. I mean, I want to say Seymour now again. I think Seymour is better. He kind of, the wind came out of the sales a little bit during that those those two rough outings back to back. And then the race were having him follow an opener and wasn't clear where this was headed. But you know, he's looked really good again. This is one out three appearances after those two back to back rough ones. I think he's really good. And I hope the race think he's really good. And hopefully we're past that wondering about the role. Sasaki though. I mean four starts in a row where he's been good where the velocity's been up. I think he's got the mechanics figured out now. I know that's something the Dodgers have been working with him on since last year. So they're both they both need to be added everywhere. But I have more faith than Seymour sustaining this than Sasaki Sasaki. I think there's more that can trip him up. Ian Seymour, by the way, on the season including today, he has a 20% K-Walk rate. Among pictures with 90 innings. That is the 18th best mark in all baseball. So it's comparable to Sean Burke, Noel McLean, Chase Burns, Brian Wu. So he's Seymour's good. He's you know, we've told you this for a while. He's legit good. Welcome back to Jackson Joe. We looked very good in his return at the Giants five shutout innings one hit one walk four strikeouts. He had nine whiffs on 71 pitches. And his velocity was up quite a bit compared to last year. He averaged 98.3 on his fastball. He touched 100 miles per hour. And this first start back, he looked good on his rehab. He's 47% rostered. Chris, I'm kind of excited about Jackson Joe. How about you? Yeah, I mean, my biggest concern would be that they're going to chair Jones him and just limit him to like 75, 80 pitches every start moving forward. I think that's probably more likely than not. But it's not guaranteed. You know, every team handles their guys differently. I will say the four Seymour looked awesome. Five whiffs on it. Everything else didn't get that many whiffs, which is kind of the Jackson Joe experience. He runs up these massive spin rates and you know, the stuff looks really good on camera. Looks like he gets a ton of movement and then doesn't actually miss all that many bats. But you know, if the fastball is going to sit up, you know, a mile and a half two miles per hour, then that matters less. You know, if he can be a 30% whiff rate guy sitting 97, 98, then maybe the fact that the slider or cutter, whatever you want to call it doesn't miss all that many bats can. Doesn't matter as much. I think there's a lot of ifs in there. But yeah, I think it's worth being cautiously excited about what we saw from Jackson Joe here. Yeah, not only was the fastball up in velocity, but I saw a tweet from somebody. I can't find it now. I think it was somebody on the tiger's beat. They said that he was throwing it from a lower arm angle to. I can't verify that on baseball. So, I think they need a few few appearances before they give you an average arm angle there. But he used to have a really high arm angle. Did Jackson Joe, but apparently it's lower now. According to that one tweet that I can't cite. So that's something to consider too. It might just be a very different fastball and a more effective one than we've seen in the past from Job. I was, you know, I wouldn't prioritize him over Seymour or Sasaki, but, you know, I'd prioritize him over some of the other pictures we've been talking about recently like Jacob Lopez or Grayson Rodriguez who had a bad start Sunday, but there were some good signs in it still. I'm not totally out on Grayson Rodriguez. Yeah, I would, I believe Jacob Lopez is a two-star pitcher this week. Yeah. So I would prioritize him over Job just for that just because who knows what two weeks from now will hold. Well, yeah, but I mean, I don't have so much faith in Jackson. Like, to me, it's like, and he's high on my sleeper pitchers list this week, the two-star Jacob Lopez, but it's I'm starting them with a lot of a lot of stomach cramps, you know, like I don't, like, that could go that could just be doubly bad. The two, the two-star week rather than a benefit. Yeah, Jackson Job is the second most added starting pitcher on CBS right now. The three that are right around him. Hayden, Wes Neskey, Cody Bradford, Jacob Lopez, and all three of them line up for two starts this week. So, yeah, would you take Job over all I would take him over all of them. Okay. Lopez is the only one that's questionable names between 60 and 70% rostered who pitch well this weekend. Bubba Chandler, a strong outing against the Met six shutout innings with five strikeouts for him through 68% is percent of his pitches for strikes, which is always a key for him. He gets the red stocks this week. Shane Bos took a very tough loss at the Rangers eight innings of two-run ball, nine strikeouts to one walk and updated numbers last 15 starts to 93 ERA also comes with a 121 whip. He is at the twins this week. Brandon Fott, who we mentioned already, he did it again this time against the Dodgers. It is very impressive. Seven shutout innings two strikeouts for Brandon Fott, who has turned in four straight quality starts. Zero earned runs in three straight. He also has four strikeouts or fewer in seven of eight starts since returning. He's at the braves later this week. [BLANK_AUDIO]
And JT Ginn, another quality start this one at the Red Sox. 16nings, three runs, one of those earned. Only two strikeouts, but he had 11 swinging strikes. So it feels like maybe he deserved better than just two strikeouts. He also gets the Rangers this week. Scott, how would you rank these four? Honestly, if you just wanna go week by week at this point, I'm fine with that. I do have all the matchups here in the notes. It's JT Ginn against the Rangers, Brandon fought at the Braves, Shane Baz at the Twins, and Baba Chandler, home against the Red Sox. Well, I think whether you're talking about this upcoming week or rest of season JT Ginn would be my top choice. It feels like a very high floor pitcher. He keeps coming through with quality starts. But I don't think I'd let him go on rostered in any of my leagues. Shane Baz would probably be my second choice, particularly if he keeps doing stuff like he did this time out. I don't know, it's a little bit like Edwardo Rodriguez where it's like, even when he does well, you don't understand why he does well. Obviously he hasn't, but as good as Rodriguez this year, but he's been somebody who comes up with quality starts with some regularity. So yeah, I think Shane Baz is fine. After then, I guess I'd go Chandler over fraught 'cause I have no faith in fought whatsoever, sort of like Chris, but to me, those are the two where it would take some extraordinary circumstances for me to start either one. Yeah, I want to buy in on Chandler and even Baz to a certain extent. I want to believe there's something here. And Baz, I think it's nine of his last 15 starts have been quality starts. I don't really get it. It feels a little Trevor Rogers-y where it's been going on long enough that I do have to believe it to a certain extent. Like the peripherals aren't terrible. You know, it's not a brand and fought or Edwardo Rodriguez situation, but do I believe these are different makers that I can count on for, you know, the six innings and two earned runs or seven innings and two earned runs we've been getting pretty much every time from them. No, I don't have a lot of faith in that, but I don't know. It's, it's not nothing. I just, I don't have a ton of faith in it. Yeah, Shane Baz does feel like kind of a high floor picture. Feels pretty good and appoints league. He's given decent volume this season. And during that 15 start stretch with the 293 ERA, it does come with a 292.5 and a 379 XERA. So to a certain extent, like the underlying numbers do buy some of what Baz is doing. Well, it's like a 5% home run rate. Yeah, the home run, it seems like Baz deserves to have given up more home runs than he has because the contact is hard and very little of it's on the ground actually. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, that's kind of always been a big issue for him. Yeah, man. The next tier of names between 25 and 55% roster, Sean Monaya had an awesome start on Sunday at the pirates, seven innings, one run, 11 strikeouts, the zero walks. His velocity was up like two miles per hour on his fastball and that pitch was amazing for him in this one. He gets the nationals this week. They are really good against lefties. They're also without James Wood, Zach Thornton, solid outing at the pirates, five shout out innings, three strikeouts. He is managed to keep runs off the board, but I don't really buy it. He just doesn't get whiff. He doesn't really get ground balls. Tyler Malley looked great in his braves debut at the Yankees, six shout out innings with nine strikeouts for him. He gets the Mets and Grant Holmes had a nice start on Sunday against the Yankees as well, six shout out innings, two strikeouts. He has looked better as of late, not in a completely believable way. He does get the D-backs later this week. They're really bad against right handed pitching. So Chris, a mix of like Sean Maniah, I'm kind of intrigued by the upside on what he showed here. The other names kind of just feel like streamer types, I think. When Maniah, we've seen, you know, a big midseason turnaround from him in the very recent past. I believe it was the 2024. 2024. He was, I don't know, a top 20 starting pitcher in the second half probably that season. He was incredible. If I could go through the history a little bit on Maniah here because so it was it's second half of 2024. He adopted Chris sale delivery. It was inspired by Chris sale. He watched him pitch one day and he's like, I think I could do that. So he lowered his arm angle and he basically put up numbers like Chris sale over the final two months of 2024 with that new arm angle. And what also happened during that stretch is he ditched the sinker. The sinker used for the season in 2024 was pretty high. But those last two months he basically didn't use it with the lower arm angle. Then last year 2025 happens. He still has that arm angle. He's injured a lot of the year. He struggles when he's healthy. But he still gets huge strikeout numbers. And then coming into this year, I don't know if he felt like he needed to bring that sinker back since 2025. Didn't go so well because he was throwing it like 20% of the time again until this start. He basically ditched it. They recorded 2% sinker use in this start versus the usual 21%. And what happens? He strikes out 11 and 7 innings. Has to start very much like those final two months of 2024 when he first adopted this of Chris sale delivery. So I mean, I haven't seen him comment on the sinker at all. But I wonder if just that pitch had a 341 batting average against this year, the sinker. It's done him no favors. And so he ditches it. Like he did those final two months of 2024. I don't know. Has it best start? Maybe there's something here for Maniah. Definitely be interested in taking a shot again. Would you guys rather add Maniah or Jackson Job? Job. Chris? I have a little more faith in Maniah being useful right now. I think so too. Just because I don't-- I think Job, the pitch counter, going to be pretty limited. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously, this is just a-- I'm hopeful Maniah can keep doing this. But it's one time. And so I didn't have any faith in him prior to this start. I think I had him as a two-star sleeper this week, because the matchups were pretty good. And so that worked out well. But the success he was having prior to this start, there didn't seem to be much to it. And this is the first star where I was like, wow, if you can do this. I also want to mention Tyler Malley here, because back to back, nine strike out efforts for him. Similar velocity increase in both the fastball and splitter were up about one. And fewer-- you also threw fewer cutters in this latest start by a little bit. It's his worst pitch. If the fastball and splitter are harder and he emphasizes them over the cutter, I think Tyler Malley may be halfway useful. I don't think it's going to be this kind of strike out rate from here on. But there may be something to Tyler Malley, too. Yeah. I like the matchup a lot from this week, too. Going up against the Mets. I know their lineup has been a little bit better as of late, but they are 30th and Wo-Bug against right hand to pitching. Just don't know once I know. Yeah. And his teammate, Grant Holmes. Like, I don't buy what Grant Holmes is doing at all. But he gets the debacks, and they are 29th and Wo-Bug against righty. So if you need a deeper streamer, I think Grant Holmes could be all right. I just want to remind people of the upside for Gage jump because he had a massive start as well. Six innings of two run ball with 11 strikeouts at the Red Sox, the team, like the hottest team in baseball over the past month. And he had 19 whiffs on 100 pitches. I think we need to see a little bit more to kind of like regain trust. I don't even know if trust is the right word in Gage jump. But yeah, he was struggling, Miley, but obviously this was a massive start for Gage jump. I mean, you know what it is for him. - Throwing strikeouts. - He's a well-da, but he also has a 616 ERA at home, and a 260 ERA on the road. All right, use them on the road. Here you go. And Mike, you know what I mean? The problem is, like you're saying, it is also throw strikes. It's not all just giving up home runs in Sacramento, but that's been a pretty consistent trend in the small sample size so far. His best starts have almost been exclusively on the road. - He did a couple other different things in this latest start. So he's had three good starts in his last eight, two were against Boston. He said he reviewed the tape from his previous start against Boston because it went well and came up with a game plan based on that. He kind of expanded his arsenal, leaned more on his lesser pitches, but getting to what you and I said, Frank, he threw 69% of his pitches for strikes, and he said my plan was to just flood the zone and know where I'll get chase. And you might as well do that every time, dude. - Yeah, exactly. If you have that much control over it, like do it. - Yep. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver wire hitters. We will fire up the worryometer for a couple of pitchers. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's talk some waiver wire hitters. And Jackson Holiday is a name that we have not really talked about. He hasn't really done that much. So there's a good reason for that. But on Saturday, he hit his six-tone run. On Sunday, he had his sixth stone base. He had two hits in each of those games as well. And he has hit third in the Orioles lineup, three games in a row now. And I just noticed he has been walking a lot more this season. He has 31 walks and 217 played appearances. It's a 14% walk rate and has contributed to a 350 on base percentage. The stack has stuff is not good, but I thought it was worth mentioning, at least like the walk rate and the plate discipline Looks more.
for this year, like it was in the minors. And there has been a little bit of power in speed. So hopefully he's still only 22 years old. Like we do get a lot of late top prospect bloomers. Hopefully it's something that he can build on. - Yeah, I mean, it's there, you can look at it from two directions, right? 22 is not old at all. How many players do you really see breakout after being pretty bad and honestly mediocre at best through their first like thousand played appearances, which I think is around where we're at with Jackson holiday? It's not nobody, certainly. Her older progoma broke out after like 2000 played appearances or something. - Do you wanna walk her? How many did he have? - Yeah, probably not that many fewer. But-- - Luis Garcia. - It's not, yeah. - But-- - It's not the norm, but-- - It's the except-- - It used to be the norm. - Yes, it used to be-- - Go back 30 years. - Yeah, 30 years. - The aging curve was flat up dead. Now it's kind of, guys, a lot of guys, lead prospects tend to enter pretty close to their peak and hold steady for a while. It's a different aging curve. And so when guys don't hit the ground running, it is a little alarming, I wouldn't say it's always, but 1,100 played appearances into his career. I'd like to see a little more impact from Jackson holiday. - Yeah. - What we really, like, if he's a 15, 15, 260 hitter, that's useful. That's a useful middle-in-fielder, but-- - It's like when Jake Ronan were these to be. - Like nobody's all that excited about, I don't know, even Bryson Stodd, who steals a lot more bases than that, is pretty 70% roster guy. - He is the prototypical middle-in-fielder. I think every year in every run a league, I just try to get Bryson Stodd as my middle-in-fielder. - Yeah, yeah. - That's fine, like he's a useful player, but not much more than that. - Yeah, so-- - Jake Ronan worth never stole that many bases. - No, thanks. - Jackson holiday is 57% rostered. I don't think we need to do anything with that. - Right? - No, that sounds about right. - Yeah. - All right, well let's see where it goes. Clearly they have some level of confidence, hitting him third in the lineup, and they probably just wanna see what he could do for the final six or seven weeks of the season. Steven Kwan, three for five with a homer on Friday, and over his last 22 games he's hitting 414. He also has four steals during that span, an OPS over 1,000. He's back in the lead-off spot. He is 71% rostered. Do you guys think that number should be higher? I kinda think, I know three outfielder points leagues, like that's a high bar to meet, but I mean, Steven Kwan kinda looks like Steven Kwan. - Over the last month. - Historical, it's his best farm hat, right? - Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. You might have your team with three really good outfielders, in which case it doesn't matter, but like, let me think, I've got one league where I did lose James Wood recently, and who is my, I don't think I have anybody good there. I had to start Kyle Stowers this week. He just got hurt. Yeah, if Steven Kwan was available in that league, I would be happy to start Steven Kwan over those guys. - Yeah, I think even in a points league, like the way Asmurlan Valdez has been kind of slowing down and striking out. - Sure, let's go ahead and use Kwan over Valdez and like that. But yeah, in points league, that's his best farm hat, and he's looking much better. Names in five outfielder leagues, Jake Mangum, another big weekend, three for five with a steal on Saturday, two for four with a home run on Sunday. We did talk about his playing time, how will it shake out if O'Neal Cruz returns this week. I think Mangum has played well enough where he's kind of earned that opportunity to stay in there. And Cliff and Konaim had a big game on Sunday, two for four with a double-dong, three RBI. In 52 games, he's got 12 homers and 893 OPS. He's going to play against Rides. They have six games this week. There's one lefty, there's one TBD in there. Who do you guys like more in a five-alpha league, Jake Mangum or Griffin Konaim? - I think it kind of depends what you need. Mangum is probably more bankable. He's certainly more bankable. He's been doing it for longer. He plays every day. Konaim's platoon and it's been a more recent development. But there's definitely power there for Konaim. I have Konaim as a sleeper hitter for this week. And if that's what you need more of right now, I think it makes sense to give him a shot. - He's been really good since he came off the I.L. and like late June, I think. So yeah, there's M.O.B. talents there for sure for Griffin Konaim, yeah. - One very deep name is Oslavis Basabe of the Giants. He has the good since being called up. It's only eight games, but in that span, he's got three homers, eight RBI in a steal. And he has started all eight for the Giants since being called up. He's five percent rostered, second and shortstop eligible. I think in all of my 15 team leagues, my NL only leagues where waivers have run already, people like Basabe was like added in all of them. So I think in leagues that deep, I he's playing and he's doing stuff. - Yeah, I don't, I don't think there's much behind it. I mean, you'd look at what he was doing at AAA in 75 games, 268 batting average five homers, 12 steals, 732 OPS. The average ex of velocity was pretty low. He peaked pretty high with the EV. So there's some raw power in there, but. Particularly in San Francisco with that supporting cast, I don't think you should treat this as anything more than a hot start for Basabe than only Adam and desperate situations. - All right, let's fire up the worryometer for four pitchers. I have two starters here and two relievers will go one to 10 on the worryometer. And Zach Wheeler is first up. He's just been off lately. This time against the Blue Jays, five and a third, seven hits, four runs, five walks. He still had 16 whips on 116 pitches. The good news is that his velocity was fine. I know there was a start recently on July 27th where his velocity was down quite a bit, but he has a 784 ERA and a 194 whip over his last three starts. Chris, where is Zach Wheeler on the worryometer? - Three. There was, this was a weird one because. Did you guys see the drama in this start? Apparently Zach Wheeler doesn't really pitch legally. You're supposed to have your foot on the rubber. It looks like he's a couple inches off the rubber off to the first base side. And the Blue Jays said something and he got mad about it and he had some pretty mean comments after the game if we're being honest. But anytime stuff like that happens, it's always like, how does that affect these guys? Pitchers are such creatures of habit that if you have to start thinking like it's kind of like we talked about with Noah Cameron when he's now starring his own pitches and it's like maybe that just kind of like gets him in the right mindset. And that matters a lot for pitchers. So anytime something like that happens with a pitcher, it's like, is that part of why they struggled maybe? But I think for the most part, I don't see anything too alarming, especially since the velocity has been back. - One thing to make note of is that Wheeler threw 116 pitches in this start, which is the most he's thrown in a start since 2021. - Wow. - Jeez. - And. - I'm gonna guess a lot in the sixth inning then. You don't love that with him having just come back from a pretty serious surgical procedure, which I guess is kind of redundant surgical procedure. But yeah, you don't love it. Hopefully he'll be fine. He's obviously been somebody who piles up innings for a long time and can probably take it on. But it's worth noting since it had been five years since he had done something like that. - 32 pitches to record one out in the sixth inning. That's rough. - Next up, we have Justin Robleski, another rough one at the D-backs. Three to third, six hits, four runs, three walks, three strike outs, he did allow a homer in this one. The velocity was actually up here, but clearly didn't have his best stuff. Shardow to throw strikes. And over his last three starts, a 10 54 ERA 190 whip for Justin Robleski. Scott, did we get duped? Where is Robleski on the woryometer? - I mean, the turn for the worst happened right about the time when the underlying number started to look halfway decent. And I said, I basically changed my stance on Robleski and said he might actually be good. Well, three bets starts in a row. The velocity was down in the first one, but that hasn't been the case in the last two of the last two, basically been fine. So I don't think there's much to that. Beyond who Robleski is a pitcher, how good he actually is. I think there's ample reason to be worried here just because the Dodgers have a bunch of pitchers coming back from injury. They just got Tarek Scubull and now they're getting Blake's nail back. And Tyler Glass now should be back for too long. And by the way, they have other pitchers in the organization perfectly capable of making a star. - Bobby Miller pitched in a game recently. And Robleski's getting to a point where he needs his innings managed to based on how many he's thrown historically. So I think there's ample reason to worry here. I'm not saying you should drop Robleski, but I'd probably put him at about a six on the worryometer. - I agree, yep. - And he gets the brewers this week. They are worse against lefties than they are against righties, but obviously,
they're a good team and a good lineup. So I would try and my best to get away from Justin Robleski for this upcoming week. Next up are Lever Edwin Diaz. Got the ninth inning on Friday with a one run lead. He allowed a walkoff homer to Ryan Walshmit. And then on Saturday, he got the ninth with a one run lead. He allowed a run on a walk into hits. He took his third blown save. He did back his way into a win in that one. But his velocity is look fine. Coming back from the arm injury. It could take him a little bit of time to find like his command and stuff. And maybe that's why he's getting hit here. But Chris, the problem is that there's a really, really capable reliever behind him in Tanner's God. So where is Edwin Diaz on the worry on there? What's going to be really fun is the Dodgers are going to sign whoever the best phrase and closer on the market is this off season. And then Edwin Diaz is going to be awesome as a set up man. No, I don't know. The sample sizes here are so small, but he hasn't been good at all. Yeah. Since he came back and because he had a single like clean appearance. Since he came back, I don't think he has. And his rehab assignment was I think the results were okay, but they just kept pushing him back like they weren't satisfied with the way he was pitching or something. That's just speculation. But it's been a while since we've had something positive to point to with Edwin Diaz. So I don't think the the worry on it or can be zero and I don't think it can be five. So I'm going to say seven. The Dodgers have been willing to take high priced, high powered closers and take them out of the role. If they think it gives them the best chance to win. How worried are they about that? I don't really know. I mean, they've they've been pretty bad for a while now. I mean, a while like nine days and they're still seven and a half games up in the division. So Diaz has made five appearances since returning from the IEL. He's allowed at least one or and four of the five appearances. He's made 12 appearances this season. He's allowed at least one or run in seven of them. Yeah. So it's been rough. Now, and he had surgery, he had almost surgery. So one example that comes to mind is David Bednar at the start of last year where he had a stretch where he seemingly couldn't have a clean ining and then he went on a run of a lot of clean innings, rice oliglea he has last year as well. Like the turnaround can happen quickly. And so I, you know, I'm not I don't want to be so quick to write off Edwin Diaz. But as you say, Frank, they have Tanner Scott right there. He was having a great season, perfectly viable closer and it might just be the least stressful to put him in the role. Yeah. So if you have Edwin Diaz, if someone else dropped Tanner Scott, you might want to kind of handcuff that situation. Or if you didn't drop Tanner Scott yet, don't because perhaps he could work his way back into the ninth inning. Chris, I just looked up the highest paid reliever who will be a free agent this off season is rice oliglea. Oh, good. You could just I think a glacius and bednar both the guys I just mentioned. Oh, yeah, yeah, I think it is better. Yeah, bednar is free agent too. So there you go. Yeah. Why not just sign both. They're both going to be just a subseason. Speaking of rice oliglea. See is he is the last name on this list. And he got the ninth inning on Friday with a two run lead. He allowed two runs on a walk and three hits. He entered the game on Sunday with the game tied and he looked much better. It was a clean inning. He struck out two. The brave took a one run lead in the tenth and it was Tyler Kinley who picked up the save. But Scott rice oliglea has been struggling for the past month or so. Where is he on the worryometer? And is there any name to watch in that bullpen? Is it a Diddy Fwentis or a Tyler Kinley? What do you think? Well, definitely not. Kinley. He's had his own struggles. Fwentis has been good. Dylan Lee has been good. But you know, worryometer for rice oliglea. See if you'd asked me yesterday. I would probably would have put it like a seven. But he did look a lot better in a very big spot on Sunday. Struck out two. And you know, I tried to figure out what's been going on with him during this rough stretch. I haven't seen much to explain it. And you know, he had a much longer bad stretch early last year, as I said, and recovered and was dominant for the last several months of the season. Has had a very consistent career. There was a specific explanation last year. Yeah. The slider was a problem for him. And once he ditched it last year, but it's he has started to incorporate that a little more recently, but it hasn't gotten hit hard. So I don't think that's the problem. And overall his slider usage is still very low. So I don't I think he's going to be fine. I don't think they're going to make a change there. If you want to stash Dylan Lee and or Diddy or Fuentes in a league where saves their scarce, I think that's fine. But it's probably a waste of a roster spot. All right. Let's move on to hitters moving up and down, trending up and down. And look, I have a bunch of arbitrary endpoints that's here. I'm not going to read them all off. I will just mention the names. And if you have a thought, you can go for it. But Fernando Tati's junior, he has three home runs in his past five games. He's looked awesome in the second half. Jackson Merrill, basically since the beginning of June has been great, sockin to shoe on Saturday. And he had another home run on Sunday. Jackson Trio, he had a stretch where he really struggled late June into late July. But he has looked much better over his past 14, 15 days or so. Jack Caglione, a double dong on Saturday, four hits neck game, four RBI. He's picking things back up. He's been really streaky this season. That might just be a part of his game because he chases a lot of pitches out of the zone. Brandon Nemo, having a great second half so far, looking much better at home as of late. And Boba, at a five hit game on Sunday, three runs in three RBI, he's hitting three 21 over his last 20 games. That also comes with one homer. So not sure how much he's trending up. And that one homer, you go, you said last 20 games. He's had one homer, just one homer since June 24. So there has been no power here from Boba, and I am unmoved by this five hit game considering. Yeah. Do you guys have anything on Nemo, Kags, Toreo, Merrill or Tattis? So Caglione, the launch angle is back down to about seven degrees in both July and August. But in July, the average ex of velocity was down to 90 miles per hour. It's back up to about 94 in August. And the whiff rate is way down. I think he's only struck out twice in the month of August. So anytime you could say the exit velocity was down to 90 miles per hour. I think the takeaway there is he's just streaky. Yeah. And until he figures out how to not be streaky, it might just be frustrating. But you know, you look at what he's doing overall. And I think the numbers are going to end up somewhere that you're pretty happy with. You know, it's a seven 97 OPS 20 homers. I guess you'd like closer to a 30 homer pace. But with how hot he's capable of getting, he's not too far off that peak to get there. You know, 265 batting average, the runs in RB. I mean, that's just that lineup has been pretty bad all season. I know it's gotten better. But yeah, I think he's probably just streaky in like a true way. Like he's still trying to find his level, like figure out where his talent level sits. But on the whole, I think you're pretty happy with it. And then Fernando Tati's someone screwed up his swing early in the season. I don't know who it was. Maybe it was just him. But Mike. The fact that happened to Manny Machado too. And he went on and Jackson Merrill. That was awful for two months. And it's been really good for two months now. So I don't know because they didn't fire anybody. Like there was no shake up in the coaching staff or anything. I don't know. But Mike Petri Hill of MLB.com posted earlier today a graphic on Twitter. In March and April, Fernando Tati's stance angle for his batting stance was 10 degrees open. And May it was 15 degrees. Since then, it's been like 35 degrees, which is where it was last year. He just changed his swing for some reason. And he was really bad. And then he went back to the previous swing that he had. And he's been hitting like Fernando Tati's ever since. He's on like a 25 home or 30 steel pace since the start of June. That's basically what you hoped for from Fernando Tati's. Yeah. You can't say he won't mess with his swing again. But hopefully some lessons have been learned here. Yeah. What's annoying about it too is that he's not going to get all the way there based on where he was drafted. But you know, can you get to 17 18 homeers and like 35 steals? Like that's a possibility. Again, it's still a let down based on where he was drafted. But yeah, since the end of May early June, he's basically been for an Indo Tati's some names trending down Kyle Schorber massive game over the weekend. He ended the home run drought. But man, he was going through it. It was two homeers in a steel. He had four RBI hit three walks. It was his first home run since July 18 17 games between homeers. He was hitting 175 with a 557 OPS and a 38% K rate. Josh Neller had a two home run game on Saturday night. That was his first homeers since June 12 43 games between homeers. He hit 261 with a 644 OPS and a 3 17 slugging percentage. Ian hat Homer on both Saturday and Sunday. His previous 30 games before that. He was hitting 167 with a 531 OPS. The strikeouts just way up this season out of nowhere for Ian hat and could tell Marta
he homered on Sunday as well, but his last 30 games, 175 with a 559 OPS. So it's got anything here you'd like to touch on or anything that actually worries you with Marta, Ian Hab, Josh Nailer and Kyle Schwilber. Marta still has an excellent expected batting average of almost 280 as is the norm for him. So I think he'll bring that number up. It's been going on a long time him underperforming that expected batting average. And he has had full years like that before, but he's also had years where obviously he's been an excellent source of batting average. And I think he's about the same. Schwarber Strike Out Rate has been way up all year. And at his age, you got to worry about that being a sign of decline. However, normally it's most visible on the fastball. And when you look at his splits against four seamers specifically, it is worse than last year, but he was especially good against four seamers last year. He's having a year more in line with most of his career in terms of how he's hitting or whiffing at fastballs. Plus he's still working with Kevin Long and Philadelphia. And those two have been together for a long time. And he's like the Kyle Schwarber whisperer. And I think that's probably half the reason he's the filly sitting coach. And so did it surprise me to see Schwarber get back on track like Sunday. I think of the long run. He'll be fine. And it's just kind of a weird year for Strike Out for him. But you know, he's still really good. Marta, I just wanted to look and see if maybe there was an injury because I know he had a couple of minor things that didn't end up being serious across the season. But the timing doesn't really match up. He had a hamstring injury at the beginning of June. He was awesome in June. And then he had a back injury at the like July 23rd. He was bad in July before that. So I don't really think that that explains it. So I probably want to chalk it up to just stuff happens, I think. Back over to the pitching side. We had four pitchers with new team debuts. And Kevin Gosman pitch very well. Seven innings to runs four strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 96 pitches and has looked better over his last three starts. Jose Soriano. It was a mixed bag in his blue J's debut. He was at the fillies. It was only four and two thirds innings, three walks, three strikeouts. But I had 18 whiffs on 94 pitches. Robbie Ray, very wild in his Padre's debut, five innings, four runs, five walks. And you guys did warn of regression on our trade deadline special. And Clay Holmes, he was rusty in his first start off the aisle, also his Cubs debut, four innings, four runs, two walks, one strikeout. But this was his first start since May 15. So I kind of feel like we just give Clay Holmes a pass here. He's never, he's not going to maintain a 286 year. But I still think he'll be good. Just bad first start back. Chris, any thoughts here on Clay Holmes, Robbie Ray, Jose Soriano and Kevin Gosman? I believe Clay Holmes would be more apt to say dusty. Clay Holmes wouldn't real on metal in there. He's in sand. No, Gosman, he threw his splitter more in this one. It's always interesting to see when a player pitches changes teams and given how good that pitch is and how likely it would be to generate ground ball contact, especially, probably not a bad idea with the Cubs defense behind him. So like to see that, Soriano, I just think it's so funny because at the beginning of the season, Soriano broke out and it was like, it's so smart, guys, he's throwing a four seamer now. He's missing bats. And then in this start, the reactions I've seen is like, it's so smart. Jose Soriano is not throwing his four seamer as much now. He's on the blue jays. And it's like, I feel like we just really, really want Jose Soriano to be a thing because the good parts are so good. And maybe switching teams will get him there. I know the angels are widely regarded as a laughing stock for good reason. I don't know if the blue jays are necessarily the, well, switching that I think has a great track record for figuring out pitchers. What I read about that is a couple of things. Obviously, the results weren't that good in his first start with him, but it does seem like they acquired him with a plan in mind because the blue jays beat writer wrote about using using Pete Walker, their pitching coaches work with Dylan Cease as a model. They think they can get Jose Soriano to be more consistent, particularly in terms of strike throwing. That's what they're working on with him. We did see it a little bit of a change in the pitch mix there. I don't know if it's a permanent one, but part of the success Cease has had is just balancing out his arsenal a little bit. And I don't know, something to watch going forward, but the initial returns were nothing to get too excited about. With Robbie Ray, would you guys drop him for like Sean Monaya or Jackson dope? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't love Robbie Ray against the blue burrs this week and I don't love Robbie Ray when he's not pitching in San Francisco. I guess Peco is a very good ballpark as well, but I don't think it's quite as good as San Francisco. And I think he's just not very good. Obviously, Ian Seymour and Sasaki over those two. Yes, but yeah, I would be fine dropping Robbie Ray for anyone who gets me excited on the way for wire. Robbie Ray by the way, just say 9% K minus walk rate the season that is fourth lowest among qualified starting pitchers. So he has been getting away with it for quite some time. Pitching leftovers, I have a bunch of them. I'm just going to read off names. You guys tell me if you have anything on these guys, but there was a lot of really good pitching this weekend. The first group includes Hazus Lazardo, Cam Schlipler, Max Fried and Drew Rasmussen. It's got anything you'd like to know on Rasmussen, Fried, Schlipler and Lazardo. Lazardo's a guy telling you, it's a young candidate. It's 17 whiffs on his sweeper alone. He's really good. He's beasties. And then occasionally he's really bad. Yeah. So two turns ago, he had a really bad start, but even counting that last 11 starts to 0.04, he already 0.95 with 12.2 K per nine. Yeah. Which Slitler, I'll just mention that coming off a bad start, his velocity was up. And obviously he was amazing. 11 strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 96 pitches. But it just seems like whenever he has a bad start, like, bad on that next start because he's really good at bouncing back from bad starts. Next group, we have Parker Messick, Garrett Cole, Sandy Alconzra and Jacob DeGrom, who bounced back. He's kind of been going through it. Chris, anything on DeGrom, Sandy, Garrett Cole and Parker Messick. Garrett Cole mostly looks like himself. I know the swinging strikes have been erratic. There was a stretcher. They were really good. The last couple of starts have not been so good. But I think on the whole, he just, he mostly looks like himself. And the fastball has been missing a lot of bats over the past five starts. So I think you feel very good about Eric Cole. I think the most interesting one is probably DeGrom, just because it has been a slightly shaky season. I think he's kind of maybe aged out of being a tracer. But then you look at all the, a lot of the peripherals. I mean, 10.9 K per nine, 2.3 walks per nine. He's getting hit really hard. And that was kind of an issue last season. He had some, some home run issues as well last season. But man, I feel like there's not a lot of time left. I would definitely take the under on a 387, the rest of the way for Jacob DeGrom. And if he had a sub three, the rest of the way, I would not be surprised at all. The one thing that does worry me is that he was dealing with that glute type injury and that force him to miss a start in early July. And he really just hasn't been the same since then. And he hasn't gotten more than five innings since June 30th. So I just kind of wonder if that is affecting him. And you know, at his age, more susceptible to injuries, like definitely could be a problem there for DeGrom. Last group includes Logan Webb, Michael King, Kyle Brannish, Matthew Boyd, and Troy Melton. So I said there were a lot of names. God, there's five names here. Is there anything that you would like to touch on with this group? So I will point out that Milton, the whiffs have actually been really good in his last two starts, but still less than a strike outperinning in each. It doesn't seem to matter how hard he throws, how bad he misses, how he strikeouts, he gets, he just, he's good regardless. And I feel like, I feel like the very best version of him is one that he could bring out more consistently if he needed to, but he's, he's doing fine just as he is. I'm seeing, he's, I'm seeing Jared Jones isn't on the run down. So I wanted to touch on him real quick. We to a point where we consider dropping Jared Jones. He just had unfortunately was a two-star week, but both of them were really bad. And the velocity has now been down three straight outings. Just one mile per hour on both the fastball and slider, but when that's all he has, I think it's, it's sort of like Spencer Strider where a small drop in velocity could make a huge difference. Yeah, and I just, I also just come back to, it's still the pitch count. Yeah, he's not going to pitch well that on top of the track. Yeah, well, he just, he has to pitch exceptionally well to, to be good for fantasy. He has to pitch really well to be useful. And so when you're talking about that slim of a margin for air
Yeah, I think it's, you know, three-yard runs and six innings. Not a great start, but it's not a bad one. Three-and-runs of five innings, pretty bad start. So I think that runs in three innings, like you had on set. That's bad no matter what. Yeah. Yeah, I think I have to drop Jones. But like. I would drop him for Joe or Maniah just to see what's up with those guys. Definitely Joe and Maniah. I do. Maybe Maniah too. I do view Joe versus Jones as kind of. You're just kind of holding out the Spider-Man meme and you're just hoping you get a good Spider-Man for two months out of one of them. But I don't think there's that much difference between them. I think they're both really talented. They're both likely facing limitations. And I'm not sure either of them is good yet. But Joe has proven less that he's not good right now. So sure, go ahead. You know? Yeah. All right. Next up, the call to the bullpen for the weekend for the Nationals on Friday. Clayton Beater got the ninth with a two-run lead. He picked up his 12th save. The Nationals do not have a closer, but I guess the one most likely to get a save is Clayton Beater for the Angels on Friday in a safe situation. It was Ben Joyce who pitched a scoreless eighth inning and then Jose for meme got the ninth. And he picked up his first save. Sammy Naterra Jr. pitched on Thursday and he threw 23 pitches. So I would still bet on either Naterra or Ben Joyce getting the next save for the Angels. For the twins on Friday in a safe situation, Jeff Hoffman got the seventh. Andrew Morris got the eighth and Yoendress Gomez got the ninth and he picked up his 16th save. And then on Sunday, Gomez got the 10th inning. The Manfred Man on second. He allowed a run on a walk and a hit and he took his second loss. But I still think there's like a decent lead, decent leash there for Yoendress Gomez. For the Cubs on Friday, Jacob Webb struck out two in the ninth inning for his seventh save. He backed on Friday, Brandon Garcia entered with one out in the seventh. It was a tie game, two runners on. He allowed a single and then got a double play to get out of it. He also got the eighth inning where he allowed a solo homer to Andy Pahes. And then on Sunday, Garcia was unavailable. Kevin Ginkgo picked up his first save. It was just interesting because we had only recently seen Garcia in save opportunities. But if they view him as their highest leverage reliever, I guess it's just he's not just their set closer. He could pitch really in the game. What's frustrating is I don't think they've had a safe situation since he got those back-to-back saves. So we don't really know yet. Yeah. I mean, lean in his right on Sunday, but Garcia was on. Okay. Yeah, that was. I wrote that before the end of that game. But Garcia wasn't available. So I still definitely have a strong lean towards Brian Garcia, mostly because I just think he's the best pitcher in this bullpen until Justin Martinez is healthy. Even then, you never know how a guy will come back from Tommy John. Yeah. For the Giants on Friday, Dylan Smith got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He picked up his second save. He's only 3% rostered and Scott kind of looks like Dylan Smith is the guy. So deep relief, save option. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's the Giants have been bad. Well, they're bad and a couple outings in a row. So guy will get a save and then they'll use them in the fifth inning next time. And I just don't have a lot of trust in that. My user must as an opener. I feel like they've done that a few times this season. Yeah. I want to mention with Brandon Garcia, he appears to be the only lefty in the Diamondbacks bullpen other than Philip Abner, who looks like he's more of a more of a mop up roll kind of guy. Yeah. But Garcia has not really been used as like a luge or anything. If anything, early on, he was being used more in like multi-anning rolls. And I don't know if they had another lefty previously. I honestly don't know. It's just usually, you know, usually when there's a couple lefties coming up, you want to have some guy you can turn to. I continue with the bullpen for the athletics on Saturday. Hogan Harris got the final four outs for his tenth save. And then on Sunday, he picked up his 11th. So the A's still kind of mix and match. But Hogan Harris is at the top of the list for them. He is 21% rostered. And then on Saturday, he's got the three run lead. And then he's got the three run lead. [MUSIC PLAYING] That is so a fact.
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