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Speaker 2The Mariners are calling up another top prospect, Lazaro Montes. Let's talk about it up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome to FPT Express on Monday, August 31st. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers. And the latest prospect getting called up is Lazaro Montes, the outfielder in the Mariners organization. 21 years old, big dude, has drawn some comps to Jordan Alvarez. Those seem very lofty, but his power is legit. 38 home runs in the Miners this year. Chris, what else should we expect from Lazaro Montes? And what size leagues would you be looking to add him, if at all?
Speaker 3You should be expecting a lot of strikeouts. Hopefully a lot of home runs. That's probably most of the profile at this point for Lazaro Montes. He is not... The Jordan Alvarez comps were earlier in his career. Physically, it makes sense, but he does not have the hit tool that Jordan Alvarez has. And that's what makes... That's what makes Jordan Alvarez so special. Lazaro Montes is tracking to be about a 180 to 190 strikeout guy. 31% strikeout rate at AAA. He's also got 38 home runs. I believe he's second among all minor leaguers in home runs. So the power's real. It's 94.7 mile per hour average exit velocity. That is plus, bordering plus, plus. It's just a question of whether he can make enough contact to make it matter. And I think a perfect... for him is what we've seen from Esmeralda Valdez this season, where he had that month-long stretch where he was like the most productive hitter in baseball. He just kept homering. It was like 14 homers in a month, something like that. It was crazy. And then everything since then has been really bad. He finishes August with like a 38% strikeout rate and two home runs. I think either end of that is on the table for Lazaro Montes. He could hit eight home runs in September and help... help carry a bunch of people to fantasy championships. And he could hit 150 and barely play for the Mariners because it's not like there's a totally obvious spot for him right now. So I think in three outfielder leagues, he's not really a name you need to know. Keep an eye on him if he gets hot, maybe. But I think Lazaro Montes is clearly just a five outfielder league guy. Roto, if you're chasing power, he can make a big impact there. But other than that, I don't think he is someone who needs to be added across the board right now.
Speaker 2Feels like a deeper name for power right now. Again, that is Lazaro Montes getting called up to the Mariners. What does not help him is that the Mariners have seven games on the schedule this week and four against the lefties. He had a sub 700 OPS against lefties in the minors this season. So I do like the schedule rest of season, like in September overall, the schedule for the Mariners is awesome, but it might not happen right away this week. I think he'll mostly just play against right-handed pitchers. Pitching lots of power, lots of strikeouts. That is Lazaro Montes. Let's talk about some other waiver wire hitters from the weekend. Two shallow league names. Luke Kieschel stayed hot. He homered on Sunday. He is having a big second half. OBP is over 400, 889 OPS. He is 74% rostered, has second in outfield eligibility. And Alejandro Kirk just wrapped up a great August. 341, five homers, 20 RBI, 946 OPS, 69% rostered. Chris, do you think these numbers need to be even higher for Luke Kieschel and Alejandro Kirk?
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, the catcher position suddenly doesn't look quite as strong as it did in the first half of the season. Injuries have played a part in that, which is always part of the thing with catcher. But, you know, if you lost Shea Langoliers and you've been kind of searching for someone, or if Adley Rutschman's not really getting the job done for you anymore, or frankly, Samuel Basayo has also slowed down considerably. You know, one catcher, I think it's probably okay to add Alejandro Kirk. Those are largely points leagues. He is a better points league player anyway. So I think Alejandro Kirk's an okay add, but he's not someone I think in a one catcher league needs to be rostered. It's just if you're not happy with your catcher, sure, you can swap him out. As far as Luke Kieschel, he's sort of turning into the guy we hoped he would be. The on-base skills have been very good as far as getting on base. Once he gets it, that's where the biggest disappointment has been this season because he's got 15 steals. I think he's been caught like eight times. So he's been super inefficient. That's holding him back because the rest of the profile, you know, 274, he walks a decent amount. He's hitting at the top of the lineup pretty regularly. He's going to get to like 12 home runs. It's all working out more or less like we hoped it would. And he's been hot for a couple of months too. But it's just the stolen base downside or the lack of stolen base. I guess is what's really holding Luke Kieschel back from being a must start player. But I think at this point, given the skill set, you should be adding him in points leagues as well. So yeah, probably must roster.
Speaker 2All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back, FBT Express. We are going over waiver wire ads from the weekend. I have three more hitters in midsize leagues. Pedro Ramirez, he is turning things up lately. He hit a three run homer on Friday. He had two more hits on Saturday. He's playing every day for the Cubs since D'Angelo Swanson went down with injury. 33% rostered, second and third base eligible. Heriberto Hernandez is heating back up for the Marlins over his last eight games. He has four homers and a steal. He has started 15 straight. The Marlins have seven games this week, three lefties on the schedule. That is good for Hernandez. And Kobe Mayo having a big second half. And the Orioles just have fantastic matchups this week. In course field, some lefties on the schedule. Mayo crushes lefties. Chris, any thoughts here? Any interest in these three? Pedro Ramirez, Heriberto Hernandez, and Kobe Mayo.
Speaker 3I think Pedro Ramirez is very under rostered at 33%. He's second and third base eligible. I think the skill set is very conducive to hitting for a high batting average. He's hit 285 so far. You know, maybe it's more like 280, 275, but I think that's the right range. There's a little bit of pop, a little bit of speed. You know, it's probably more like 15 homers, 30 steals over the course of a season. But if he's hitting 280 playing every day in the Cubs lineup, I think you want him in your lineup. So I do think Pedro Ramirez is under rostered. And then Kobe Mayo, I don't think the medium term, which is all we care about at this point in the season, matters too much. But if you're looking to stream a first or third baseman this week, week 24 specifically, he leaves the majors and home runs against lefties right now. I believe he's tied with Matt Olson, which what a season Matt Olson's having. Leads the league in homers against lefties. So he's got the... Three games of course field and he's got three games against lefties. So that really helps Kobe Mayo's case. I don't have a lot of faith in him in the long term, but for this week, I think he's a great streamer.
Speaker 2Over to the waiver wire pitchers. And the biggest performance of the weekend came from Max Scherzer, who turned back the clock seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts here and got good results in August 362 ERA 105 whip. He is 14% rostered. Chris, can I interest you at all in Max Scherzer? Who is at the Royals this week?
Speaker 3Yeah, it's not a terrible matchup this week. I don't have a ton of faith in it. Like a 362 ERA. Well, seven shutout innings is going to carry a lot of weight. I would guess his ERA was well over four before this start. He wasn't getting a lot of strikeouts. He had 18 strikeouts in 25 innings before this 11 walks. So awesome start. Amazing that he's still capable of that. He's still capable of these kind of starts. You know, it makes me think of, I think it was Dwayne Wade talked about the difference when he was younger versus when he was older. And he said, it's not the dunking that gets hard when you get older. It's the landing. And that's kind of like, you can still do it, but there's consequences. And I think with Scherzer, look, amazing start. I don't think it's something you can expect him to do more often than this. But he's still a major league pitcher. And major league pitchers can still do stuff like this, even if they're not great overall.
Speaker 2Some shallow league pitchers who had great starts this weekend. Jake Bennett. I'll just mention their matchups this week. Jake Bennett is at the Orioles. Tyler Malley is at the Phillies. Will Warren is at the Padres. And Andrew Painter is at the D-backs. Chris, how would you rank those four for this upcoming week?
Speaker 3If you're just talking about starting for this week, I probably have a little more faith in Tyler Malley than Andrew Painter. Just a little bit of a longer track record. And we have seen Tyler Malley, when he gets in these grooves like this, can be very effective for stretches. The entirety of 2025, when he was healthy, he was excellent. And so I think the Braves have found something here. He's throwing his splitter a little more, and it all looks good. So I have some faith in him. Painter certainly has more upside. It's a lot shakier as far as whether he'll actually live up to it. His fastball was better in his most recent start than it had been before. four but the start before that was much better so didn't sustain that all the way i think he's working through his arsenal still talented have a little bit of faith in him but there's definitely risk in starting painter i don't bennett like a high floor guy don't love the matchup against
Speaker 2the orioles though all right for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage listen to our full podcast fantasy baseball today on spotify apple podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found thanks for listening to fbt express and we will be back again later this week
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