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[email protected]. Get ready to win your lead. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Alex Bragman, not one, not two, but three bombs. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Thursday, August 13. I am Frank Samphold Jolent, five. Scott White, today on the show, we had a Bragman barrage. Zach Veean is back with a bang vintage Luis Castillo. And what's going on with these four pitchers? We shall discuss. Let's jump in. Holy cow, how about that? All right, Scott players of the night, and we are going with the Chicago two-step. And we are starting with Alex Bragman, massive game, reach base five times. And clearly, he was listening to last night's podcast. And he said-- I'm thinking I'm back. That's right. Three for three with a triple dong. Seven RBI also had two walks in this game. All three home runs hit between 96 and 98 miles per hour exit velocity. So not the most mammoth home runs of all time. But Alex Bragman is Red Hot, updated numbers, last 36 games. I'm sure there's all different kind of stretches of games that you can find out. But I just gave out his last 35 last night. So I will just update these. And his last 36 games, he is hitting 293 with 10 homeers, 34 RBI, and OPS over 900. The barrel rate, the expected stats still not great. They're usually not great for Alex Bragman. But the quality of contact is creeping up 90 mile per hour average EV during that span. And all of a sudden, he is up to 16 homeers, 69 runs, a 759 OPS. The genesis of the conversation last night, Scott was a buyer cell. Alex Bragman is back. And Chris and I both sold it. We were like, yeah, we think he's better. He's going to be better than he was in the first half. But he's not back to the player that he was before. Even the player he was last year with the Red Sox before he got hurt. So where are you on this whole Alex Bragman heating up conversation? I think I'm where you guys were yesterday, where I don't think Alex Bragman is going to be the same in Chicago that he was in Houston or even Boston. And I mean, this goes back to why I called him a bust prior to the season. He's doing his best to salvage that now and maybe he will. But this three homeer game on the road, which means he now has 11 on the road compared to just five at home, where he has a 6.51 OPS at home, to 17 batting average. I just don't think it's the best environment for him. You pointed out the three home runs were hit less than 100 miles per hour. You don't see a lot of home runs hit less than 100 miles per hour. So that's kind of the knock on him. I think you need a little extra juice to get it out of Wrigley Field most days. And Bragman always had the assist of short close outfield field fences specifically in Houston and Boston. That's not the same anymore. It is new home. So he might be the same on the road. But I think the home numbers are going to continue to bring him down. Yeah. If we look at just the updated first half, second half, there's no doubt. It was obviously a very rough first half. New player, new environment. You pointed out many times about Wrigley Field you just did. But 2.41 batting average, 6.95 OPS, first half, and the second half, 3.13993 OPS here for Bragman. So it looks like he could be in for a much better second half could salvage these numbers. What can he get it up to? You know, he's at 16 home runs now. Maybe he can get up to around, I don't know, between like 23, 22 and 25 home or something like that. Which I think would be an OK season for Alex Bragman. But yeah, not the player that he was back in Houston certainly. And before he got hurt last year with the Red Sox, he was amazing. He was like one of the top five or six third baseman in fantasy. And then obviously the injury kind of derailed his season. So I think he's getting better. I think he's getting acclimated. And obviously hits in the middle of a really good Cubs lineup. Like obviously they have an MVP candidate leading off with PCA, but even the other surrounding players. This is a very, very good Cubs lineup. So I would expect him again to be better, much better than he was in the first half. But not all the way back to the player that he was in previous seasons. But I sold him a little short last night. Maybe he's more like a-- maybe he's like an 800 OPS hitter in the second half of the first half season. Yeah, that would be pretty good given that I think, you know, he's at a disadvantage at home. I'm trying to remember if I actually put numbers down when I wrote about him as a bust. I-- doesn't look like I did, but I probably voiced them on the podcast before. I was thinking he'd be something like a 245 hitter with 18 home runs. And for a while, that was looking pretty good. You know, he entered today with 13 home runs. But now he has 16 home runs. So he got more than-- closed more than half the gap between 13 and 18 on this one day. So it might be harder for him to do that. Look, last year, I had an 821 OPS. So if he can do an 800 OPS between now and the end of the season, he's essentially back. I'll take the under on that, but probably not by much. All right, Scott, let's go over to you for vintage Louise Castillo. We said Chicago two step here. I get Breggman. You get Castillo. He might be back. He might be back to the version we saw in Cincinnati. So we're a revenge game here, taking on the Reds. But not only that, he brought back the Reds version of Louise Castillo. And what I mean by that really emphasized the change up. If you've been playing fantasy baseball for a long time, you've been listening to us for a long time. You know this used to be the story of Louise Castillo when he was a borderline ace for all those years in Cincinnati. His change up was deadly. It was-- he threw it more often than his fastball. It was most thrown pitch for a few of those years. And then he goes to Seattle when he is kind of slowing down in Cincinnati. They sold him at a point where it looked like he might be on the decline. He gets rejuvenated in Seattle, partly by altering his arsenal, throwing less of the change up, more like two versions of the fastball emphasizing slider a little more. Works for a couple years. But then he-- you know, it's the speed bump again and winds up with the white socks. So here in his second start with the white socks, he strikes out 10. The most strike outs he's had this season. He gets 22 swinging strikes. The most swinging strikes for any white socks pitcher this season. And they've had some pretty good pitching performances. Sean Berks had a lot of good pitching performances. Nobody's had as many whiffs on that staff as Luis Castillo had here on Wednesday. Eight of the whiffs came on the change up, which he threw nearly 20% of the time. And apparently this was the game plan. Castillo said it was about time for me to start having confidence in that pitch. Coming into the game that was the plan, throw more change ups. And it was effective today. And I would be a little more skeptical of it being just a one off, if not for that version of Castillo, we saw early in the career, who dominated with the change up. I think this might have staying power. Now it is just a sample of one. And so I don't want to go hog wild bidding on Luis Castillo on the waiver wire. But if you have a spot to play with, this was clearly deliberate by a deliberate change by an organization that targeted him. And it worked really well here against the Reds. Yeah, it did look like vintage Castillo. You mentioned the 10 strike outs were a season high. He didn't have more than 70.
and strikeouts in any other start this season. So I opening here for Luis Castillo with the 22 whiffs on 104 pitches and it wasn't just the changeup, right? Like the changeup and fastball played well off each other. He had eight whiffs on that fastball as well, even five on the slider. So really had everything working. And I know his first outing with the white socks was not a good line. It was five runs over four innings, but he did have five strikeouts over those four innings and he had a bunch of swinging strikes in that start as well. So now in two starts with the white socks, he has a 19% swinging strike rate, which is something we have just not seen from Luis Castillo in a very long time. And again, it's a very, very small sample size. I don't want to overreact and I will remind everybody that over his previous four starts, he had a 729 ERA in a 171 whip. He's also losing T-Mobile Park, right? Which is generally an amazing place for starting pitchers to beat. So there are kind of things playing for him, things playing against him here, but it is very intriguing with Luis Castillo. He is 46% roster. It looks like he lines up for two starts next week, home against the Metts at the Cubs, have a pretty good feeling. He'll be featured in Scott's sleeper pitchers for this weekend. But other names have emerged recently too. Scott, there's Jackson Job, there's Sean Monaya, there's even Tyler Malley, who will, I mean, we can talk about him now, but he just had another great start with the Braves. Where would you rank Castillo among that group? Castillo, Monaya, Job and Tyler Malley. - So it seems like a close corollary to Sean Monaya where we have one dominant start that was reminiscent of a past version of that pitcher. That, okay, I could see this working because it's so familiar, but we're really just banking on this one time him doing it and it could just be a mirage, obviously. So I think maybe give a slight priority to Monaya, especially since his start's coming up sooner, his next one, but Castillo's right behind him probably. The others, I guess I have to put Job ahead, but it's a real question how deep he's gonna be allowed to work into his starts and even if he pitches well, how useful is that gonna be? I don't think it's a certainty, he'll go max five innings every time, but it's possible. And then Malley's a tough one because this is now three in a row that have been really good. Whatever has changed is pretty subtle. He has faded the cutter a little bit. It's not a drastic change during this time and really gone fastball splitter. And the velocity was up the first two of the starts, not so much this third start and yet he still got a good result. So I think Malley, I don't have a high level of trust in him. I gotta be honest, I probably slot him behind Monaya. Do I want to slide him behind Castillo? I don't know. It's really close between those three. Yeah. I can make a more convincing case for Monaya and Castillo, but Malley's done it three in a row. So I guess I'm gonna put Malley right behind him, but it's close. Yeah. And I know you mentioned the last three for Malley have been very good, but even if you go back a little bit further, his last six starts, that's his final four with the Giants and the first two at the Braves, 252 ERA, 0.98 with 36 right out's over 35 and 2/3 for Tyler Malley. So he is pitching much better. And it's an interesting, not including Job in this group, but an interesting trio of veteran pitchers that we've seen have stretches of looking very good. And obviously in Castillo's case, like he was an ace back in the day, but he is getting up there in age. So yeah, it's an interesting group to kind of sort through there with Castillo, Malley and Tyler Malley. Do you wanna give a shout out and a welcome back to Zach Vene, who is on the board. One for three hit his first home run and two RBI, 104.7 EV, 407 feet, and he did have another bad at ball over 100 miles per hour. He started in right field against a right handed pitcher. Lots of talk yesterday about, you know, where's he gonna play? Is there gonna be enough playing time to go around? I think he will at least start against right handed pitching. Cole Carrick started at shortstop in this game. They-- - Yeah, that was interesting. - He now has shortstop eligibility on CBS, which is interesting too for Cole Carrick. They wanted to get good men at DH, 'cause it was a day game after a night game, and obviously they had the backup catcher in there as well. But I think they can find ways, at least against righties, to get Zach Vene in there all the time. Lefties, that's a different conversation. Once if Charlie Condon is up, that's another conversation as well. But Zach Vene is 23% roster. You weren't on you sort of Scott, but your thoughts, your expectations here for Zach Vene. - Well, I'm really hopeful. I think this is a different version of Zach Vene than we've seen in the past. And he has a well-cronical to pass. I understand he was only a briefly last year. So those who aren't big into the prospect scene may not know the whole backstory with Zach Vene, but he was drafted very high. What, five years ago? It was a while ago. And was immediately a highly regarded prospect and then had a strong start in the minors and then hit some speed bumps that caused his prospect stock to plummet, dropping him off most top 100 lists for at the last, wanna say, three years. I was one who held on a little longer than most, but I left him off my top 100 list this year for the first time. And then he comes out this spring and talks about how he struggled with alcohol and marijuana use in the past. And he gave those up and was really recommitting himself to baseball, was in much better shape physically, had a huge spring, and then it's gone on to have a huge season at AAA. So I think this is the Zach Vene we were promised from the beginning at 24. He still has time to salvage his career certainly because it's a crowded situation in Colorado, which is funny to say, but it's true. At least in Outfield, he's gotta hit the ground running here, I think, he can't perform like he did last year, but so far, one game, a home run, so far so good. - Two tough questions that Chris and I were kinda struggling with yesterday. I was getting this one a lot. Would you drop as Merlin Valdez for Zach Vene? Who has slowed down? I mean, it could be just part, he was always gonna regress, he was always gonna slow down. It could be, hey, he got hit with that pitch on his hand. Would you drop Valdez for Zach Vene? I don't blame anyone for doing that. I don't think I want to because of the playing time disparity. The odds are against Vene making a significant impact in fantasy as long as he's sitting against left-hander is only starting what, two thirds to three quarters at the time. It's hard to do. If he gets red hot, then obviously we'll have to reassess, but for now, I think I'd stick with Valdez over him. And would you hold on to Vene or the other top outfield prospects who could be up as soon as this week, right? We just don't know. Guys like Joshua Baez and Walker Jenkins, what do you think about those three? Like hold Vene because he's already up or kinda hope that those other two get called up very soon. 'Cause they're up to, I think, JD Hire once they're up, you know? - Yeah, I think Jenkins would be the priority for me among the three, 'cause I feel most confident that A, he'll be up and B, he'll be a prominent fixture in the lineup and C, he'll be good. Baez, I'm less confident in all three of those letters, particularly the he'll be good part. And Vene, he is already up, but he's the biggest blank time concerned of the three. And in the theoretical scenario where Jenkins and Baez are up, which is of course not guaranteed. So because I don't really have any confidence Vene's gonna play against lefties, I do think I'd prioritize both Jenkins and Baez over him, but Jenkins is the easy one. - All right, before we hit our first break, if you listen to us on the audio podcast, make sure to leave us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify if you enjoy this show, it really does help us out a lot. Let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes and Freddie Freeman left after taking a nasty spill into the royals dugout while trying to catch a pop-up in foul territory. He actually stayed into finish the inning on defense and then he left the next half inning when he was due up to bat. And so if we hear anything on the podcast, during the podcast, we'll let you know on Freddie Freeman. But I don't know if you saw this guy, it was pretty scary. He was in foul territory, he's reaching, he's reaching, he assumed he was about to hit the dugout railing and just kind of lean over it, but it was the area where the stairs are and he just kind of stumbled down them and like nothing broke his fall. He just like, traded a face planted.
So it was pretty scary, but he got a long fall. He got up on his own will and he stayed in for a little bit. So I love to see you with Freddie Freeman. That was a pretty scary one. Riley Green was placed in the IEL with a right hamstring strain. We'll talk about a few wave or wire outfielders a little bit later on. But obviously we just spoke about Zach Veean. So if you're playing a five outfielder league and you lost Riley Green, I think Veean is a worthy replacement there. Obviously not as good as Riley Green, but could be a serviceable replacement. Jackson manager Derek Shelton said Byron Bucksen might be activated from the IEL on Thursday. He's been out since late July with a right hip impingement. Jackson Cheerio started Wednesday despite battling thumb soreness. He went over five with two strikeouts. And on Tuesday night, it was actually a misspeak by their manager Pat Murphy. He said that it was Bryce Tarrang who was dealing with some thumb soreness, but it actually turns out that it is Jackson Cheerio who was dealing with that. Oh, really? That was a misspeak. Yeah. I wondered. I didn't catch that for Tarrang. I would like Jackson Cheerio is dealing with the same thing. Hell, hell, odd. Yeah. Okay. So then was Cheerio on the lineup today? Both Cheerio and Tarrang were in the lineup. Okay. Yeah. It's all Tarrang was in it. Okay. Yeah. All right. But Cheerio went over five with two strikeouts. So perhaps that thumb was not being so great. Cody Bale and Joran the bases again on Wednesday his second day in a row. He is working his way back from a hamstring injury. I think he could be back within the next week or two. Salvador Perez left early with right elbow aggravation. Jose Alcube was out of the lineup after leaving Tuesday night following a hit by pitch on his left foot. Max Meyer received a quarter zone shot to relieve discomfort in the rib area. He originally went on the aisle with a neck strain on July 20th. I don't want to speculate, but I guess I'm about to because I'm kind of throwing that prerequisite in there. But a neck injury and then a quarter zone shot in the rib. Normally whenever those things are intertwined, it's like a thoracic outlet that I don't even want to speak it into existence, but I'm just going to throw it out like normally neck rib stuff like that. It's sometimes leads to a thoracic thing. So hopefully that is not the case for Max Meyer. Will you Thomas left early due to a back injury Tony Vittello said, Adam for what it's worth part of the update there with Max Meyer was that they do expect them back in a starting capacity this year, even within getting this quarter zone shot in his rib. So that would suggest the Marlins aren't thinking along those lines, but maybe, maybe it just hasn't been diagnosed yet. Will you Thomas left early due to a back injury Tony Vittello said, Adam should be able to avoid the I L. Josh Nailer returned to the lineup after missing Tuesday with a sore right wrist Kyle caros was placed on the seven day concussion I L. So that does open up one more spot. They recently called up Connor Norby. So my guess is he'll just fill in a third base for now. Spencer Schwelambok is still not feeling 100% and will have his throwing progression slowed. So I don't think there's enough time for Schwelambok to be built up as a starter. Maybe we see him as a reliever that won't really matter for a fantasy, but obviously it could be a boost for the braves. I just I don't think there's enough time. Yeah, I mean, if he's still feeling it this far into his recovery. Yeah, I'm I'm not hopeful of him contributing at any capacity at this point. I'm not saying Schwelambok won't matter next year, but I think I think there are probably better uses of an I L spot at this point. Speaking of the braves, AJ Smith, Chauver is apparently on the cusp of being recalled from AAA and in seven rehab starts. I believe two were at single a or complex level and then the other five have been at AAA 157 ERA 0.98 with 10.7 K. P9 54% ground ball rate 13% swinging strike rate. So AJ Smith, Chauver doing a lot right during his rehab. He is 20% rostered. Scott, would you rather stash AJ Smith, Chauver or Joe Musco right now? I think man, that's tough. I think Smith, Chauver, if it's in a bench bot either way, obviously Musgrove has the advantage of being on the I L. If that matters in your league. But I guess when in doubt with the window to contribute being so small at this point, I know what the healthy guy. Yeah. I know it looks like Musgrove is coming back. He's on a rehab assignment, but how often do we see pictures pulled from rehab assignments? Yeah. And we probably need one to two more starts from Musgrove. I would imagine before he's back with the Padres and it sounds like, you know, AJ Smith, Chauver could be, I don't know, as soon as like next time to the rotation. So we'll see. Andy Rodriguez has missed five straight with left hip discomfort and the blue Jays claimed Paul Seawald off waivers from the D backs. Let's get into some of those other waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday's action. We spoke about Castillo. We kind of talked about Tyler Mallee. The final line there was six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, zero walks. He had 15 whiffs on 93 pitches. Again, the last six starts have looked very good. And it looks like he is at the twins at the Brewers next week. So twins are kind of middle of the pack. The Brewers are tough. So it's about the best matchups for Mallee next week. And then Dustin May had a great outing at the Padres. His second here with the Brewers and seven innings of one run ball, six strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 83 pitches. And he is emphasizing his cutter more. And perhaps this is something that the Brewers identified and part of the reason why they wanted Dustin May because that cutter was awesome in this start. It had eight of his 13 whiffs, a 47% whiff rate, a 40% CSW. He is 71% rostered. Looks like only one start against the Mariners next week. But obviously, honestly, that's a pretty good matchup. So if we lump these three in together, you mentioned Castillo and Mallee just behind him. What about Dustin May? Where would he rank among those three? Number one. Dustin May. Okay. Yeah, I just think he's going to be the most reliable, good supporting cast, good matchups down the stretch. I read an article about that earlier this week. You know, how many of these pitchers, Dustin May being another example, they got acquired and immediately their new team went about changing them. Don't try to change me, baby. Actually do because it seems like it's for the better in every case. And yeah, excited about this direction for May. The cutter is interesting that that being the change because for the year, the batting average against is over 300. But obviously it's worked in these last two starts. And I think we can trust the Brewers know what they're doing with pitching. They last few years are pretty good track record with that. Yeah. So Dustin May over the other names as well, right? Over Manaya, Jackson Job. Yeah, I think so. Some streamer types who pitched well, Kyle Leahy was okay against the Phillies, five innings, one run, six strikeouts, the zero walks. And he over his last eight starts to earn runs or fewer in all eight, one 52, ERA, point nine, nine whip for Kyle Leahy, who is a spark for those playing point sleeves. And he's at the reds and at the Phillies next week. Zach Thornton turned in a quality start at the braves six innings, three runs, but only two strikeouts. I don't really see it here. I know he's kept runs off the board, but it's three strikeouts or fewer in three straight. And he gets the Padres next week and that lineup has been the best one in the second half. So not exactly sure I want to use Thornton there. And then Eric Lauer, a quality start against the Royals six innings, six in a third, excuse me, two runs, one earned six strikeouts, 19 whiffs on 112 pitches, man, they just, they let Eric Lauer go here. His velocity was up. He got a bunch of whiffs. And since joining the Dodgers, he has a 348 ERA and a 110 whip. He usually does not get any strikeouts at all, but he's got a great defense, great run support behind him. The problem is he's at the Rockies next week. So I don't think we want to do that. It's got any thought on these three streamer types, Leahy Thornton and Eric Lauer. Yeah, I'm really interested in Leahy and I've talked about this the last few times he's pitched. Do you have the numbers over his last eight starts? I go back 11 starts because that's where I saw, that's where I see the clear improvement in control. So his last 11 starts, Kyle Leahy has a 180 60 R.A. 103 whip, 8.9 K per night. So he's basically right at a strike out per inning. And that's with 1.7 walks per night prior to those 11 starts. It was 3.5 walks per night. It's not a very good rate. He's cut in a half. He's gone from not very good to really, really good in those 11 starts. And along with the improved walk rate, the ground ball rate has gone from 43%, which is pretty mid to 50% during this 11 start stretch, which is quite good. And so just looking at the last 11 starts, obviously we don't know, we don't have much of a track record for Kyle Leahy before then. So if we're to assume that these last 11 starts are what he's morphed into, I'm not saying he's a 180 60 R.A. guy, but you're
at the high ground ball rate, you look at the elite control, and still pretty good strikeout numbers, almost a strikeout per inning. I mean, that's the kind of trifecta that first got us excited about Christopher Sanchez. Now, Christopher Sanchez has gone on to become so much more than that. He's become a big strikeout pitcher, not just an okay one. But if you can miss bats at a decent rate with elite control and good ground ball skills, you got a really high floor at that point. And I think that's where I'm at with Kyle Lehi. I don't mean to evoke the name Christopher Sanchez to suggest he has near the same ceiling. But, you know, that's what first caught our attention with Christopher Sanchez was the floor more than the ceiling. And I think Lehi, he might have a high floor. By or so, Kyle Lehi is the most valuable cardinals pitcher rest of season. So that would include McGreevy, Palante, and then like liberator and Dobbins. Do you think he's better than Palante and McCreevast? I think he probably is. I imagine I don't know that when I wrote the article about the ennings, I was caring that much about Kyle Lehi. So I didn't look into him if his workloads creeping up on him. Looks like so 112 and a third. Well, after this start, 117 and a third ennings. Couple, well, gotta go back to 2022. He threw almost 150 last year, not even 100. Yeah, 88 last year. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he is already 29. So it's not like it's not like they probably feel like they have to baby him so much. Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna say yes. I'm gonna say Lehi is the most valuable cardinals pitcher rest of season. All right. Would you take him over any from the previous group? The Mally, Dustin May, Castillo, Monaya, and Joe. Just take Lehi over any of those. I don't think he has quite the same buzz. I think he is the most bankable of all of them, like the floor argument. I think he probably has the highest floor, but you know, I'm in most fantasy context. I'm gonna shoot for sealing. And I will, I think all of those guys probably have a higher ceiling and are generating more interest right now. So there's probably more agency to add him. So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say no, but I'm tempted to take Lehi over Mally, but I'm gonna say no. All right, some deep league names. And the Angels pitching prospect George Claus and he actually looked pretty good here against the Rangers. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts, only one walk walks big problem with him and the miners. And he threw 69% of his pitches for strikes. He had 14 whiffs on 87 pitches. He also gave up 10 hard hits in this game. So it's a very deep league name. Looks like he lines up at the Astros at the Rangers next week in those 15 teamers or even deeper. Can you see yourself being interested in George Clausen? I'm open to the possibility a little more open than the last time we talked to him. I wasn't confident deep pitch well at all, but he's he he showed some good qualities in his first start. Obviously struggle with walks. And then in this latest one, he had a good result emphasize the slider even more. It's clearly his best pitch. If he can limit the walks, I think George Clausen could be useful, but he does have the misfortune of pitching for the Angels. Yeah. Two other deep league names, you're very deep. Adrian Howzer, a strong outing against the Astros, six shout out innings with five strikeouts to just one walk. His last 10 games, nine of them being relief appearances. He has a 170 area and a point eight seven with, but we have a pretty long track record of Adrian Howzer. And Janssen junk, a quality start against the pirates, six innings, two runs, one of those earned only two strikeouts, only two swinging strikes. He lines up for the Nationals and at the Philly's next week to very deep league names. Got, but any thoughts on Janssen junk or Adrian Howzer? I think they should remain deep league names. I actually don't have a lot of confidence in Howzer. His strength used to be his ground ball skills and those have gone by the wayside. Now, maybe it's intentional because he is pitching in a good place to be a fly ball pitcher, San Francisco. So maybe he's adapted as Arsenal for his environment and maybe he's smarter than me. But I don't know. When a guy has one strength and he forfeits it for something else, I think it's reasonable to be wary of that situation. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, I do have some waiver wire hitters to ask about four pitchers who have been a little off lately. What's going on? We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today and sliding over to the waiver wire hitters. And I do have two shallow league outfielders. Dom Canzone hit his 19th homer. He has started in 21 straight games and in a small sample against lefties this year, he's actually been really good. He has a 942 OPS against lefties. He is up to 72% rostered and Trent Christian looks like he might be waking back up three for five with a double dong, three runs, four RBI. He has three straight multi hit games. He has four homers in his past eight games. He's 61% rostered. Scott, who do you like more in a shallow league context? Dom Canzone or Trent Christian? Canzone. Canzone was high on the the article. Ranked high on the article. I wrote earlier this week about players, hitters and pitchers with the best matchups remaining. And Canzone playing every day as we've talked about a lot. It seems like he's kind of fallen off since he started playing every day. Had been struggling, but it's not because he's now facing left answers. This splits against left answers remain terrific. So I don't think that's going to impact just playing time. And now he has a big game. I think he's going to get back on track. His data is very strong. Grisham's is strong too. Grisham, we've talked been talking all season about how he's one of the biggest underperformers by the data. And so maybe that finally is beginning to write itself. But ultimately, I think Canzone's upside higher. And like I said, he has the better matchups remaining. Next up, we have Zach Gelloff who hit another homer to for four with his 13th. And in three games since returning, he has five hits, two homers, five runs scored. And he's been great this year. Whenever he's played, he played 70 games overall to 80 batting average 13 homers, 46 runs scored, eight stolen bases and 833 OPS, 64% rostered. He's second, third and outfield eligible. And, look, clearly he is the most helpful at third base, which has just kind of been a wasteland for most of the season. And I'm just trying to figure out, I'm going to update my hitter rankings on Thursday. How high to get Zach Gelloff. And I could see getting him inside the top 15, third baseman's guy. I mean, again, he's he's hot again. He's just returned and he's pretty much been good whenever he's played this year. So I will take that at third base. So I think probably ahead of names, like Boba Shed, Austin Riley, Colson Montgomery. That's that's higher than I'd go. That's higher than I'd go. Not that much time left, guys. I know there's not that much time left, but it's not like Gelloff is that established. And I mean, Riley's really been hot lately. We did just see a home run from Bichette here on Wednesday as well. Montgomery. He hits on runs. We say that about him for sure. I know he's been the average is lagged the last couple months. But I think Gelloff belongs behind that group. Okay. Would you take him ahead of either Roy Lewis or Caleb Derbin who we've talked a lot about at third base? No, I want to put him ahead of those either. Would you take him ahead of? I guess the next group would be like Tommy Edmond and Nolan Aranado. Take Gelloff ahead of those. Yeah, I could take Gelloff ahead of them. Okay. You mentioned Austin Riley, by the way, he hit his 15th home run. And in the second half, he's hitting 292 with six homers, 16 RBI and 890 one OPS also comes with a 37% strikeout rate for Austin Riley. So he's kind of selling out for power. He's hitting the ball really hard 94 mile per hour average EV. But he has sacrifice making some contact there with Austin Riley. Some very loud outs to. So he mentioned the average. Exit of velocity is very high. Yeah, 37% strikeout rate is hard to overcome if that's what it remains. But I think based on where he was at the halfway point, it's hard not to be encouraged. The guy with his track record hitting the ball that hard and doing some damage again. A utility player type that you can move all around in your lineup. Will it cash throw? He's quietly been very good. Two for three with a double a walk and his eighth stolen base here in the second half. Two
21 games, he said 282, six homers, two steals on 952 OPS. He is eligible at every position except for catcher. And he's 50% rostered, trying to figure out where he fits among. There's this group of, they're just eligible everywhere pretty much. It's him, Ezekiel Duran, Jose Caballero, Mauricio Dubon. I probably would rank him second behind Duran on that list. Does that check out? I'm fine with it right now with Willie Castro being the hottest. I know Gell-Off doesn't have quite that much versatility. He has triple knowledge, Paul. Yeah. So, you know, I maybe put him in a different category, but I would take Gell-Off over all of them as I think you would too. Over Duran as well. I know he's been, he's been good over the past month. Yeah, I would take Gell-Off over Duran. I think so too. Royce Lewis, another one. He has first, second and third. I guess where would he, I think I would put, I would put Lewis at the top of that list. Lewis, Gell-Off, Duran, Castro. I would be inconsistent with my past answers this podcast if I did put Lewis at the top. Two names and five Alphuiler League Spencer Jones went two for four with three RBI and a stolen base. And he was moved up to third in the Yankee lineup. They're trying to shake things up. He has started 13 straight and since being recalled on July 22nd, this is 17 games. He's only hitting 196. He has three homers, four steals. The K-Rate is only 26%, which I think is encouraging for Spencer Jones. And his expected stats during that span are much better. It's like a 250 XBA 543 X-Lug. So perhaps a little unlucky here for Spencer Jones and Griffin Kona. He is doing his thing. Two for two with three walks, three runs. His 13th homer, he has 10 home runs in his last 28 games. Three true outcomes for sure with Griffin Kona. Not going to play against lefties, but the data is very, very good for Kona. So I think kind of similar players, Scott, who do you like more Spencer Jones or Griffin Kona? Ah, that's a tough one. I think probably Jones because he's actually has been playing against left handers, right? Yeah, and he's actually been performing against them too. He had two hits against Chris sale over the weekend and the week before that, he homer off of show team in August. So and he could tribute stolen bases and Griffin Kona doesn't. So yeah, I think I'm going to say Jones. The reason I hesitate is because Kona has been better lately. I mean, he's on a hot streak while Spencer Jones has been good enough to keep us interested. But I, I, I stopped short of calling him hot right now. Agreed. But yeah, I think I lean Jones. Would you take either of those over Cam Smith? Who I know you, you raved about the other night. And he's another one of those hitters with great matchups over the, the, the remaining six weeks. So I think my preference would be for Smith. All right, a middle infield type. We have Chase Mydrauth, who went two for four with his 12th homer. And I did not write down the, I think it's like last 24 games. 318 five homers, 19 RBI and OPS over 900 here for my draw 42% rostered. That number sounds right to me, Scott. I know he's hitting well, but I just. He's one of these niche players where he's just, he's better in a deeper head to head points league. If you play in that type of league or in an OBP league as a middle infield type. Chase Mydrauth, that is. Yeah. And that's a small segment of fantasy baseballers out there who play in either of those formats. So even head to head points leagues, he's, he's at 2.47 points per game is Mydrauth. Would you believe Colson, my gummeries better than that in points leagues, even with all the strikeouts? Yeah, I mean, just 2.5 is really not that good of a number for Mydrauth. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it would be better to be honest, but yeah. It's not, it's not Willie Castro's in that same range too. And Brian Roqueo, Willie Adalmanse actually is not having a very good year. But that's, that's the kind of company Chase Mydrauth is keeping even at a points league, which is his better format. So yeah, I don't think he needs to be 50% rostered. One deeper name I want to quickly mention here is Dylan Beaver's who hit his third home run, and he had three RBI. I think Post-Tray deadline, he will play consistently against right hand of pitching. And he was a former top prospect. And I mean, as recently as last year, we were semi interested in Dylan Beaver's. I don't think you need to act on this yet, but I could see a world where he starts to get hot. And we're, we're talking about picking up Dylan Beaver. So just a name to pay attention to there. Four starting pictures who have been off lately. What is going on? Oh, man, I'm back with Adam Azar. What is, you know, we had lunch with Azar the other day. It was a good time. So he was rubbed off on you. He was asking about you, Scott. So it was a good time. That's sweet. What did you tell him? We were like, you know, Scott, a Scott. I don't even know what that means. What is up with Zach Wheeler? A rough outing here at the Cardinals, five innings, five runs, four earned, five strikeouts to one walk. He was actually cruising and then, you know, fell apart in that final inning of work. But velocity down around one mile per hour on each of his pitches. And over his last four, it just doesn't look right. 763 ERA 176 whip. You know, he had that five walk outing. He had another outing where his velocity was way down, like two to three miles per hour. I don't know, man. What's, what do you see here? What's going on with Zach Wheeler? I've kind of with you. I can point to things that have been off each time, but it's not really like a common thread. And so it's a little bit worrisome given that he was coming back from a serious procedure that not every pitcher comes back well from. He looks so good for a couple months that we got comfortable with it. And you know, maybe it's just a rough patch. Every pitcher has those at times, even the grates. I'm a little concerned though. Yeah. I was updating the pitching rankings earlier on Wednesday. And I just didn't know what to do with Zach Wheeler. It was right while that game was going on. So I'm like, all right, another bad one. I left them at SP five overall, but I, I can hear an argument for him to drop down a little bit. Maybe behind like sale Yamamoto, Cesar, Lazardo, like those guys are all just, I know Cesar's coming off a bad start, but obviously everything before that was really, really good. So I don't know. We're kind of in a holding pattern right now with Zach Wheeler. I looked for quotes after that game. I couldn't really find anything for Zach Wheeler either. Ranger Suarez. He was okay at the blue jays five innings one run, but only two strikeouts, six whiffs on 81 pitches. And he's another one. Just hasn't looked right since returning from the injury on July 26th. He has a 378 ERA 132 whip, but he, this is his first time even completing five innings during that stretch. And he has three strikeouts or fewer in three straight. So what's going on with Ranger Suarez? I think he's probably fine. I think you should probably stick with him. This was a step in the right direction, obviously. And there was an injury in the middle of that rough patch that obviously accounted for at least one of the short outings. It's reminiscent of a stretch Dustin May had earlier this season with the car nose right after he threw. I think it was a one-hit shutout against the Padres. And then his next four outings were very sure and there were some, some extenuating circumstances that made them that way. But then he's, he's come out of it strong. And I think Ranger Suarez is even better. I do think just given the history of Ranger Suarez, what we know about him is he's never as good as he appears at his best. And so he probably was due for some regression anyway. But I do view him as a high floor pitcher who more often than not is going to give you starts at least as good as this one he gave you Wednesday. And I think that's good enough to keep starting. And this will probably be an obvious statement for any pitcher. But Suarez especially, he strikes me as someone that once an injury kind of pops up, he needs to be fully healthy like in the zone. And when he's doing that, when he feels right, he obviously performs very well in the mound. But I think anytime any kind of injury just kind of pops up a little bit, it just really, really throws him off. Like he's had the back injuries the past couple of years and he'll go through stretches where he looks like a, you know, top 24 starting pitcher. But then once that injury pops up, it's like it really kind of throws things off. So hoping that we could see more whiffs in the near future for Ranger Suarez. Foster Griffin, not his best at the Tigers. Five innings, three runs, only one of those earned. But only three strikeouts, he had just three swinging strikes on 83 pitches. And he gave up nine hard hits in this game. He has three strikeouts or fewer in five of his last seven starts. What is going on with Foster Griffin?
I don't have a great answer either. It could be that he's crashing. I mean, I think I want to say he even has a workload concern if I remember correctly. Obviously he was pitching overseas prior to this year in Japan last year. He threw just 89 innings. So he's well in excess of that. Yeah. That could very well just be it. Yeah. He's already up to 138 and a third. So, or it could be a lot of things. I mean, he's in. When he was going well, a lot of what he was doing backed it up, but he's unconventional clearly by modern standards. Does a lot of things in a way that's atypical for a good pitcher. So it could be any one of those things, frankly, that's caused him to come back down to Earth, workload being one of them. I think it's probably fair to plan a modern bench for the time being until we see him have a good starter too. I don't think I drop him, but benching him seems like a good choice. And as soon as we say that, I tell you that Foster Griffin lines up for two starts next week. And against the Giants, one at the Rockies. So, Jekyll and Hyde matchups. I'd probably start him in a point slag, especially with relief pitcher eligibility, but that's it. Yeah. And I will point out his first 19 starts of the season 11.2% swinging strike rate. His last five, six percent swinging strike rate. So the whiffs have really, really gone away here for Foster Griffin. And the last one up is Bryce Miller. Another rough one at the Yankees, six innings, eight hits, five runs, five strikeouts to one walk. And he did have 13 whiffs on 89 pitches here, 11 on the splitter. And look, the splitter was awesome. He really leaned on that pitch. He threw it 46% of the time. But his fastball was not good. It gave up five hard hits, 96.7 average exit velocity against. And the last six starts for Bryce Miller, six 12 ERA 152 whip. It's 22 strikeouts over 32 in a third inning. So what's going on with Bryce Miller? Are we having the drop conversation? Is that a thing? Yeah. I think it's a conversation because I think what this start tells you more than any of the others is that he's losing faith in his fastball. He's not confident that it's going to snap back. And I think he really needs it. So you mentioned he leaned on the splitter a lot, 46% of the time basically swapped the usage of the splitter with his fastball, making that splitter his primary pitch, but also threw a lot more sinkers than usual. Just trying to make something work without having that dominant four seamer. And it still didn't work that well. So I have very, very little faith in Bryce Miller. It's going to be the most shocking thing ever if one of these starts at any point, at any point, the fastball's back. But he hasn't had it for a while now. And I'm not sure how capable he is without having a dominant fastball. Next question. Would you drop him for any of the waiver wire pictures we've talked about tonight? Luis Castillo, Manaya, Joe Mally, Thusome. Yeah, I'd probably drop them for any of them. What do you think? I think I would do it for Dustin May. Castillo and Manaya, man. That one's, because it's just such a small sample of those guys looking so much better. But we have a larger sample of Bryce Miller just being completely useless. So I think I would do it for Manaya, Castillo and Dustin May. I don't think I would do it for Mally or Joe. So kind of in the middle of that group. Okay. So it sounds like I have Joe buyer than you do though. I like Joe, but I'm intrigued. I'm just a little worried about that workload for him. Sure. Yeah. You know, in the Towers Champions League, it is a 12 team head-toed category as daily lineup league. I picked up Luis Castillo today to stream him. Obviously that worked out amazingly. But I was now looking to pick up another streamer for Thursday and I had Luis Castillo as the drop. I think I'm going to drop Bryce Miller instead of Luis Castillo. So there you go. I get it. Yes, sir. I do have an update here on Freddie Freeman. Dave Roberts said Freeman is considered day-to-day with, quote, "total body soreness," which I think is a pretty fair evaluation of his injury. Hip lash after a car accident. I mean, that was, it was a long fall. It really was. Yeah. But he got up and I don't know, look on his face. I was trying to read it. It was almost like embarrassment, I think, kind of like sheepish. Yeah. A sheepish kind of look. But it's also a terrible feeling. I don't know if this has ever happened in you, Scott, but it's like when you're moving without looking in a certain direction and you all of a sudden either hit something or fall down a step, it is a very scary feeling. Oh, yeah. This is, you know, I remember playing whatever football in the street. You know, it's a kid back in the day. And there were times where I would just be looking at the ball and I would just run into cars, like parked cars, obviously. Oh, yeah. And it was a terrible feeling. Oh, my God. I remember this one time in fifth grade, we were on the playground coming back in from recess and we were passing by portable classrooms, trailers. And one of them had like an awning or something that was on poles, you know, poles. And I asked somebody to toss me the football coming back in from class. I was just going to turn around and run with it after I caught it. The pole was right there. So I just turned around and ran straight into the pole, like it's like something out of a cartoon. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. It was, I was seeing stars that day and went to the clinic I know, not that they could do much for me. I was fine. Yeah. But it was, it was a shocking impact for sure. It's like it in football. They got to pull the blue tent over you and you go through a concussion protocol after something like that. It's, it's scary stuff, man. So what we'll see what happens with Freddie Freeman. Some leftovers here on the pitching side, another crappy outing from frambervaldez against the guardians, five and two thirds, four runs allowed, five walks to three strikeouts, five walks while throwing 63% of your pitches for strikes. That seems impressive. This is kind of a new, a new low, a new, a new weird for frambervaldez, I guess. I, I finally gave in and I dropped them down the ranking sky. I moved, I moved them down to like SP 55 and if someone told me they wanted them even lower, I would not argue against it. And Jose Soriano a nice outing here his second time out with the blue jays. He was facing the red socks six innings one run four strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 90 pitches. He really lean on that sinker in this one and it was actually very good. It had six of his 12 whiffs. Any thoughts here on Soriano or Valdez? Yeah, I guess I'm with you on Valdez there just hasn't been enough reason for optimism. Still an innings eater I guess, but not much hope for a turnaround at this point at least not this year. Soriano, very different pitch selection than his first start with the blue jays and I know they're trying to follow the Dylan Ceece model with him. I don't know that his, it's as clear what his best pitches are as it is for Ceece, which, you know, I bring that up because it's not like Ceece's selection has varied a ton from start to start. I don't know that his, it's as clear what his best pitches are as it is for Ceece, which, you know, I bring that up because it's not like Ceece's selection has varied a ton from start to start, but he's emphasized a third pitch, a fourth pitch on like he did in his previous stops. On the hitting side, we had Liam Hicks with a big game three for five with a double, his 16th home run and three RBI in eight games with the raise. He's hitting 308 with two homers, nine RBI and OPS over a thousand. So nice start there for Liam Hicks. The power and speed has been there for Corbin Carroll in the second half. The batting average has not. He went two for four with a walk, a triple, a home run and in the second half, he has five homers, 21 runs scored and six deals hitting just two 12 in the second half is Corbin Carroll. So I don't know, it's kind of a weird season for him. You know, you always expect the lower batting average, but 243, that's probably a little lower than we were expecting, probably like in the 262, 65 range is the expectation for Corbin Carroll. And then, he made a two walk, two deals and a run scored and in the second half for him, 295, 402 on base, seven homers, five deals and OPS over a thousand. So he is back for an otatsi.
back anything on him, Carol or Liam Hicks before we wrap it up. I don't think so. Yeah, I mean, Tatis is back. I would agree with that. We talked about Riley already, the turnaround of the second half was still with the high strikeout rate. I'm not sure I have anything to add. All right. The call to the bullpen for the twins, Yohendras Gomez got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a solo homer and a walk but picked up his 17th save for the Rockies. Jordan Romano got the ninth with a two-run lead. He walked one but picked up his 12th save. Perhaps the most volatile, volatile, convert combination that you can have toward a Romano with the Rockies. It's, it's working for now. I don't know that it will forever, but it's working for now. For the Astro's Josh Hader picked up his 17th save for the Blue Jays, Louis Varlin got the final two outs for his 26th save for the Guardians Kate Smith. Got the final four outs for his 31st save and four of the angels. I'm just seeing this now. Ben Joyce got the ninth inning with a three-run lead and he picked up his first save of the season. Sammy Natera Jr. did not pitch there. My guess is I know he pitched the night before. He might have pitched two nights in a row and perhaps he was just unavailable because of that. But let's see. Yeah. He worked each of the two previous games two days before the Sammy Natera. So he was unavailable. Ben Joyce gets the save. I think Natera is talented. Scott, I mean, you look at the Kate of Walk stuff and just his, his actual urine is good. The peripherals are great too. I could still see the angels kind of mixing, mixing and matching here between Joyce and Sammy Natera. Yeah. They weren't very committed with anyone else. They've had this season. Maybe Natera is the most talented they've had. I suppose some would argue Joyce is the most talented they have for as hard as he throws. But we've talked before about how that might be a bit of a deep, what's the word I'm looking for? A fake out. That's not really the word I'm looking for. But you get the idea. It's been not a particularly effective fastball or arsenal in general for as hard as he throws to stream or not to stream on Thursday. We have Kate, Kate, Kate, air Monteiro against the guardians, Tyler Phillips against the pirates. Andrew Abbott is at the Red Sox. Max Scherzer gets the Red Sox. Aranola is at the twins. Walbert, Arania is home against the Rangers. Shane, drawing at the Dodgers. I do believe that Aranola start is actually in the field of dreams of field. I think that's what's playing out here on Thursday. So don't know how that plays. I got to be honest. I don't think we want to use Aranola regardless. So yes, I will instead go with no one. No, Walbert, Arania against the Rangers. Yeah. Should be good. Maybe Kate or Monteiro against the guardians. Drawing is tough. We all like drawing, but he's at the Dodgers. Yeah. It could be without Freddy Freeman. So that that'll be the third choice because the people demand a third choice, but it's a distant third, I'd say. What about Andrew Abbott against the White Sox? No interest there. And seems kind of dangerous to me. Yeah. He hasn't been so so good lately. And the White Sox are eighth in Wilbugans lefties. So yeah, I'd probably stay away as well. I agree. I'd probably go Arania, draw in and Kate, air Monteiro in that order, but Arania is the only one I actually like on Friday. We have clay homes against the Cardinals. Bubba Chandler gets the Red Sox Anthony K at the Tigers Jackson Joe against the White Sox. Brandon Fatt is at the Brewer. Nope. At the Braves. Shane Bieber gets Yankees at the Lugo at the Angels. Grayson Rodriguez against the Royals. Kumaw Rocker at the athletics. Cage jump against the Rangers and Landon Roup gets the Rockies in San Francisco. I think I got to go with my boy Roup. I know the last couple of outings have been tough, but Roup Badoop. Roup Badoop. Rockies on the road. Man, there are, this is a gut check here with Cage jump and Grayson Rodriguez with favorable matchups, both of them, but I could see it going either really well or really poorly. Whether or not you decide to go for it, probably depends on the situation you're in. But Cage jump would probably be my second choice against the Rangers and Grayson Rodriguez against the Royals as my third choice. And I won at mind using Jackson Joe against the White Sox. I think. All the Taylor is pitching better, but he gets the Red Sox. I don't know about that one. Yeah. It isn't home at least, so that kind of helps. I don't think I'd be ready to do that. I think Clay Holmes is ultimately going to be useful, but it first start with the Cubs coming off the IL long absence. Yeah, it was bad. It was bad. So I don't think I've ready to trust him against the Cardinals. I can't interest you in Brandon Faw to add the Braves. Can I not me? Yeah. I would go ROOP and then Job and Third would be Gage Jump. Very risky would jump. I totally get that, but coming off a double digit strikeout start and the Rangers lineup is pretty bad. I mean, George Clawson just pitched well against him. So yeah, Gage Jump, Third on the list. We are going to wrap there for Scott. I Frank thinks it's always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will do that again tomorrow. Bye-bye. [Music] [Music] [Music] Paramount Podcasts. Hello, and welcome to Pluto fo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. We're all your bloodbusters favorites are landing all summer long. Catch anchor man, the legend of Ron Burgundy. Fantastic. The Matrix trilogy. Welcome to the real world. Mean Girls. Side up. Tite and ink. From the key in the world. And so much more for showtime. Press nothing. They're free 24/7. That is so fast. 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