Speaker 1Weekend Waiver Wire ads up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FBT Express on Monday, August 24th. I am, for example, joined by Chris Towers, and we will start off with two Waiver Wire pitchers. And Andrew Painter is coming off one of the best starts of his career against the Cardinals. Seven innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 20 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. He is 39% rostered. He has a great matchup at the Angels this week. And Jacob Lopez had another great start, this one at the Astros. Six innings, one run, nine strikeouts to one walk. He had 15 whiffs on 91 pitches, and he is home against the Orioles this week. Chris, who do you like better? I think the answer is to try and add both, but if you had to choose one, who do you like between Lopez and Andrew Painter?
Speaker 2I think if you can only go with one, it's got to be Jacob Lopez. He's been doing it a little longer. And we saw a stretch of like 14 starts at the Astros. I think it was right before his final start, he got hurt and he gave a bunch of runs. But if his 14 starts before that, it was a sub-3 ERA. It was like 11K per nine. He was really, really good last season. He was really bad early on in the season. I think there's always going to be some inherent volatility to his skill set because he is a cross-body thrower. He doesn't have like overwhelming stuff. He averages like 90-91 with his fastball. So I think the margin for error is going to be slim. His control is going to come and go. But when Jacob Lopez locks in, he seems to really lock in. And hitters have a really hard time. He gets strikeouts. He misses bats. And despite being a fly ball pitcher, he actually does not give up a lot of hard contact. So it's a lot of infield pop-ups, a lot of lazy fly balls. He's just kind of a weird, unique pitcher. There's not a lot of pitchers who look like him. And hitters have a hard time picking them up. So I think there's a lot to like about Jacob Lopez. He has eight or more strikeouts in three of his last five. He had nine strikeouts in his most recent start this weekend. If you can only pick one, I think it should be Jacob Lopez. But I do think Andrew Painter might have the higher ceiling. And I think we have to go into why that is because it's specifically based on what we saw in his start against the Cardinals this weekend. And it's not just the results, although they were excellent. Eight strikeouts in seven innings, one earned run. But it was also the fact that his fastball looked like a legitimately good pitch in this start. And that's a huge deal because Andrew Painter's fastball has been really bad all season. It's been getting hit really hard. It's had a whiff rate around 10% for most of the season. And it's because despite having pretty good velocity, 96, 97 miles per hour on average, the shape of the pitch and the release point and all that stuff that we care about now was just not very good. It was a pretty flat fastball. It doesn't have the characteristics that you're looking for. Today it did because his average induced vertical break on the pitch was up. Like two to three inches up to 18 inches. That's kind of like an elite number. And when you add it together with the velocity that he gets and the fact that he's throwing with a little more extension, so he's releasing the ball closer to the plate. The fastball played up in a big way, in a way we really haven't seen all season. He had five whiffs on 15 swings in this one. And the whiff rate on the four seamer has been over 20% for straight starts now. So we're starting to see Painter's had the solid secondaries all along. And it's just, can he avoid the fastball? Do you think a disaster? Well, in this start, he showed that not only wasn't a disaster, it might be a weapon now. And if Andrew Painter's fastball can be a weapon, like it was before all the injuries, he could be really, really good. So this was a guy who was the best pitching prospect in the world before he had Tommy John surgery. He's lost a lot since then, but this was the first time he looked like that guy. I think since the injury. So again, if I have to prioritize them, Jacob Lopez over Andrew Painter, because he's the best pitcher in the world. Because it's a more sure thing, but Painter may have unlocked significant upside in this start.
Speaker 1Yeah, I would be looking to add both of them. I agree that I lean Lopez over Andrew Painter, but there are names that you could drop at this point in the season, right? Freddie Peralta, it continues to, um, just have a rough season. It hasn't gotten better with the Rays. I'm Bryce Miller, clear, drop Nicola, dolo, clear, drop Kyle Leahy. Who's now being limited by the Cardinals down the stretch. Although he's been pitching well, I think a lot of these guys are pretty clear drops. So, uh, would, would drop any of those guys for both Painter and Jacob Lopez. Let's take a break. And, uh, when we return, we'll get into more waiver wire ads. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back FBT express. We're taking a look at waiver wire ads from the weekend. And Andy pot has suffered a fractured left hand on Friday. He's expected to miss four to five weeks. So you need outfield replacements here and some names that are on Scott's sleeper outfielders for this upcoming week, you have Zach Gellar. Off Trent Grisham, Henry Bolte, and Lawrence Butler. I know that the A's have six home games this week and, uh, some good pitcher matchups on the schedule for them. So those are some potential replacements for just this week. Other names. If you're looking, I guess, just still thinking about long-term, the rest of the season, uh, names that made some noise this weekend, JJ Bladet hit for the cycle, Spencer Jones showing off power and speed for the Yankees. Uh, and Jordan Lawler had a big game on Friday, three for five with a home run three RBI. Chris, how would you rank those? Waver wire outfielders, JJ Bladet, Spencer Jones, and Jordan Lawler.
Speaker 2I'm kind of inclined to go Jones Lawler and then Bladet last, just because as good as he was early on in the season, he's been pretty bad for multiple months now. And one game doesn't really change that. It was a really good game. Awesome game. Fourth player to hit for the cycle this season, but he really has not done anything for the last couple of months. So I'm going to go with Jones at the end of the season. At the top, I think there's a little bit concern about what the playing time is going to look like with Cody Bellinger back, but Jones is starting to do some stuff and he's got the strikeout rate in the month of August down to 33% now down to 33%. You know, that, that tells you how high it was earlier, but he has such good power and such a good eye at the plate and so much athleticism that he might be able to make a 33% strikeout rate work and be a viable major leaguer the way we've seen like Munataka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto do. Um, so I would put Jones at the top of the list and then Lawler has just been really productive in a very small sample size when he's been healthy. He's played, I think five out of six games in center field since he came back. I'm kind of pulling for Jordan Lawler here and, and I think he could make some noise in the, in the final month or so of the season if he stays healthy.
Speaker 1All right. A couple of their waiver wire hitters from the weekend. Tim Tawa continues to make stuff happen. Two for four with his seventh steal on Friday, two for four with his eighth home run on Saturday, he had two more hits on Sunday, last 38 games. He's hitting 298 with seven homers, six steals, OPS over 800 and hitting the ball really hard during that stretch, 23% rostered, he has first, second, third and outfield eligibility. I, I just feel like that number should be higher, Chris. Tim Tawa feels like a useful player right now who is only 23% rostered.
Speaker 2Yeah, there are a handful. Of players who their primary appeal is the ability to just kind of slot them in a bunch of different places. And I think Tawa fits there. He's first, second, third and outfield eligible when you're trying to stream starting pitchers or, you know, play the matchups, having one guy on your hitter bench who can fill in basically everywhere, like an Ezekiel Duran is really valuable, even if that, you know, I don't. Think Tim Tawa is like a huge difference maker, but even if he's just kind of average ish across the board, that's a really nice player to have because you can kind of make the rest of your bench, very pitcher focused and take advantage of his flexibility by, by keeping him on your hitter bench. So I, I agree 23% rostered, probably too low for Tawa. Um, even if I don't necessarily think he's a great starting option everywhere.
Speaker 1And then a couple deeper names here. Tristan Peters had a nice weekend. He home. Word on Saturday. He had a sock in the shoe on Sunday. He has six games this week. Only one lefty on the schedule. So that's good for the playing time for Tristan Peters this week. And Pedro Ramirez had a huge game on Sunday for the Cubs three for six with his third home run five RBI. He has started eight straight and 10 of the last 11 with Dan to be Swanson on the IL. He has 13% rostered has second and third base eligibility to deeper names. Chris, you have any interest in Tristan Peters or Pedro Ramirez?
Speaker 2Yeah. Pedro Ramirez. I, I think you know, it's unfortunate that he's slumping at the exact wrong time because he really hasn't done much over the past couple of weeks, but despite finally getting, you know, the opportunity we've been hoping for with Dan's response and going on the IL, but he is a talented young player who's shown something at the major league level, you know, seven, seven, seven 67 OPS to 85 batting average. There's some speed. There's a little bit of pop. You know, you look at a full season from Pedro Ramirez and you could get something like 15 homers at the high end, maybe 2025 stolen bases with a good batting average. That's pretty useful, especially for a guy who's eligible at both second and third base. So I think Romero has only 13% rostered. That's a little too low. Peter's he's a platoon bat. You know, maybe the matchups work out that there's a bunch of righties coming up and you can start him, but I don't, I think he's just a guy.
Speaker 1All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full lane podcast, fantasy baseball today on Spotify, apple podcast, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express. And we will be back again later this week. Bye-bye.
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