Speaker 1Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break. But not just any break, this is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts, so let's take a minute to go over some of my faves. Snapple real fact 1417, before 1859, baseball umpires sat behind home plate in rocking chairs. Snapple real fact 1483, more than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple real fact 253, the first TV remote control introduced in 1950 was called Lazy Bones. Snapple real fact 2105, professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville in the off season. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting. Alright, now let's get back to the show. Baseball season is in full swing and there's no better place to be than Calchi. America's number one prediction. Atlanta is currently trading at 7% to win it all, meaning a $100 trade pays out over $1,200 with a win. On Calchi, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. And as the odds move, you can buy in or out anytime throughout the postseason. Download the Calchi app and use code FAN to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. K-A-L-S-H-I, Calchi, trade on anything. 18 plus only. Actions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Calchi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calchi.com slash regulatory. Here we are. Let's preview the final week of the season. Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Saturday, September 19th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White. And let's start things off. With the schedule. Two teams with seven games. The Yankees and the Rays. We have 28 teams with six games. What about the Rockies? Well, they have a split week to end it all. They have three at home against the D-backs and three on the road. Starters sit these fringe two-star pitchers. I have a bunch of names. Kevin Gosman, the random number generator. He is home against the Marlins and at the Red Sox.
Speaker 2So. I don't really want to start a random number generator with everything on the line. But I'm looking at the two-start slate for this week. It's not pretty. And furthermore, we probably have to just lead off with this whole thing. This is the last week of the season. Obviously, teams are going to clench. Many are going to clench. Their playoff spot is going to be set before the week is done. And the second straight. Start for every two-star pitcher is obviously at the end of the week. So how many of these pitchers are actually going to make that second start? Particularly for playoff bound teams. Who, if they do clench their spot, are going to be more focused on resetting their rotation for the playoffs. So that's the first thing. The second thing is. Even if you assume all the scheduled two-star pitchers are making their two starts. There still aren't a lot of good ones. And so Gosman comes in sixth. He ends up being in the advisable, in most cases, tier of the two-star pitcher rankings. It's almost by default. But if you don't want to start him, I get it.
Speaker 1All right. Up next, we have Nick Martinez, who's mostly been solid. We've been waiting for him to fall off all season. He is at the Yankees and at the Phillies. So two tough-ish spots there for Martinez.
Speaker 2Again, this is another playoff bound team. I don't know how high in the rotation Nick Martinez would rank for them. Probably. You know, I'm not even sure he'd be in the top four as good of a year as he's had. But even so, they might choose to rest him for that second start. I have him seventh right behind Kevin Gosman in the two-star pitcher rankings.
Speaker 1All right. Next up, we have Mike Sirocco, who looked good in his second start off the IL. But he's at the Rockies and at the Padres. So Jekyll and Hyde matchups here.
Speaker 2Yeah. And. His start return from the IL. I guess it wasn't his return from the IL. Second start back. It looked pretty good. But with a start at Coors Field and still some uncertainty how deep Mike Sirocco is going to go into his starts. I think I would save that one for points leagues.
Speaker 1What about Sean Minaya as a, I guess, potential spark here at the Rangers at the Nationals?
Speaker 2I don't mind it. Well, you know what? The Rangers are actually pretty good against lefties.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm starting to mind it more.
Speaker 1So are the Nationals. Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah. The lefty thing could be a deal breaker there. So I think you could do worse in a points league, but I'm not especially eager to do it.
Speaker 1What about Robbie Ray, who is at the Dodgers and home against the D-backs? Pretty tough matchups there for him.
Speaker 2Yeah, pretty tough matchups. And I think a lot of ratio risk for categories. But he's the sort of pitcher who could give you high volume in a two-star week. Again, he's on another team that might be looking to reset its rotation for the playoffs by the end of the week. So maybe the best way to deal with that issue, though we don't really know if anybody's going to make a second start issue, is you got to feel comfortable getting just one start out of them to do it. Yeah. As long as you're comfortable. If it only ends up being one start and treat the second start hypothetical one as gravy, fine. But if you want to play it safer and not chase the extra start, I think that's valid, particularly for some of these pitchers on playoff bound clubs.
Speaker 1Shane Boz and the Orioles, I don't believe will be in the playoffs, but they face the Blue Jays and they're at the Yankees. He left his last start. He took a line drive off of his right arm. I don't know. What do you think about Shane Boz?
Speaker 2I think in a week with a few two-start options, you could stretch to use him in a points league. But you certainly don't have to.
Speaker 1All right, the last three here. Jake Bennett, home against the Guardians and the Cubs?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's the same situation. I don't really trust him normally. I wouldn't want to use him. But if you really need that extra start in a points league, I get it.
Speaker 1Foster Griffin is at the Red Sox and at the Royals?
Speaker 2I'm going to pass. Pass on that. It's been a long time since we've seen anything good from him.
Speaker 1And Mackenzie Gore, the OG Charizard, home against the Mets and at the Twins?
Speaker 2Pass on him as well.
Speaker 1All right, let's take a quick break. When we return, we'll get to the rest of the Week 27 preview right after this. Baseball has always been a game of inches. Now it's also a game of seconds. T-Mobile and MLB have teamed up to bring ABS Challenge to all 29 ballparks across the U.S. This isn't a minor upgrade. This is the most significant new technology. In the history of the sport. And it's powered by T-Mobile. With every pitch thrown, ABS Challenge uses real-time precision to verify the call. Giving them the support they need. No delays. No guesswork. Just accuracy at the speed the game demands. Thanks to ABS Challenge, T-Mobile is helping power the moments that define the game. When performance and reliability are non-negotiable, MLB turns to T-Mobile. That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when the most innovative network in the country powers the most data-driven sport in the world. T-Mobile powers MLB's most ambitious technology. And America's best network powers your connection to baseball. Home or away, every pitch, every game, every day. T-Mobile, it's better over here. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. T-Mobile, best mobile network in the U.S. According to Ookla Speed Test, based on analysis by Ookla of Speed Test Intelligence Data First Half 2026. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Welcome back in. FBT Express previewing the final week of the season. All right, Scott, who are some two-star pitchers that you are looking to add and train for the final week?
Speaker 2Well, Jarrett Jones is the easy one. There aren't many on this list that I'm that excited to start, but he is certainly one facing the Cardinals and the Tigers and coming off a three-start stretch with, I believe it's 26 strikeouts to four walks. He's been really good. So great time to use him. Just trying to confirm that I had those numbers right. But yeah, no, it's been good. I also like this week much less than Jarrett Jones is Christian Javier at Seattle. It's a good place to pitch at the Athletics. Not such a good place to pitch, but a strikeout prone lineup. Javier's velocity is the best it's been since his one great season, which I believe was 2012. And he's had some success recently. I think he could do worse as a two-start option. And then Bailey Ober. Don't really trust him, but he has been surprisingly useful. And he is at San Francisco, obviously a good place for a fly ball pitcher like him in a very weak lineup. And then he gets the Rangers, who are not so great against right-handers. We also have at the very, very, very bottom of the list, Yusei Kikuchi, because he's at the Athletics and at the Mariners. Seems like a pretty favorable two-start slate. But he was not very good in his previous start. Was pretty good in the three before that. I don't want to have to put him here, but I need to come up with the 10th name, and Kikuchi is that name.
Speaker 1All right, who are the one-star streamers? It looks like you have six names here listed for the final week.
Speaker 2Tyler Malley against the Reds. I feel like he's startable against anybody, but the Reds, even more startable against them. A couple of pitchers that are at Sacramento. Again, not a great place to pitch, but I think a lineup that you can start good pitchers against. Walbert Arania is one who has looked especially dominant of late, pitching deeper into games, getting more strikeouts, and he's a ground ball pitcher, so I don't think Sacramento would hurt him as much as it might some others. And then Peter Lambert has been pretty reliable on the whole. Just kind of a solid starter. I'm really willing to use him at Sacramento. Ryan Johnson just came off a great start at the Mariners and just been on a good run for a while now. As long as you don't need strikeouts, he's been a good ground ball pitcher. He's facing the Mariners again. Andrew Alvarez, a good ground ball pitcher. I think a good high floor pitcher. He gets the Mets, who aren't very good against lefties. And then Zebby Matthews coming off arguably his best start of the season. He's at San Francisco, which is a favorable place to pitch.
Speaker 1We move over to the hitter side of things. The best hitter matchups for the final week. We have the D-backs, Blue Jays, White Sox, Rockies, and the Mets. Worst hitter matchups, Phillies, Giants, Orioles, Rays, and Guardians. Scott, who are your sleeper hitters for the final time this season?
Speaker 2All right, let's see if I could get through this real quick. We got Ty France at the top just because he's awesome. And sincerely, I can't think of any other waiver wire hitter I'd rather start. It's not even a matchups thing. It's just he remains undervalued, and he's been great all year, more or less. Three athletics hitters to take advantage of their full week at home. Henry Bolte is my favorite. He's been the hottest. Lawrence Butler is my second favorite, particularly with only one left-hander on the schedule. And then there's Zach Gelof, who also has really good numbers at home. Favorable environment. Take advantage of it in this final week. Nolan Aranato is my representative from the Diamondbacks, with them having the most favorable hitter matchups, including a series at his old stomping grounds in Colorado. We know his power plays there, and it's played lately anyway. TJ Rumfield is the one Rockies hitter I'm recommending since they only have half a week at home. He is one of their better hitters on the road, and he's been hot lately. A couple more hot hand plays here. Both for the Marlins, whose matchups are kind of middle of the road. Certainly not prohibitive are the Marlins' matchups this week. Javier Sanoa, who's been pretty awesome for like six weeks now. Good contact hitter with a little bit of pop and speed. Startable basically anywhere. I think he's a good choice. Jacob Marcy's been red hot of late, so he's also a good choice. AJ Ewing has been hot of late for the Mets, actually a pretty similar stretch to Jacob Marcy. And the Mets do have the better matchups between the two teams. Four lefties on the schedule hurts Ewing a little bit, but he's okay against lefties. He's playable against lefties. He'd be higher on the list if not for all the lefties, though. And I think just one more here. Brett Bateman, the Blue Jays' leadoff man. Good on-base skills, some speed. They have the second-best hitter matchups. Highly available, more than 80. Available in more than 80% of CBS Sports League. So a good deep league option there in Brett Bateman.
Speaker 1All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye! ♪ music playing ♪ ♪ music playing ♪
Speaker 2Paramount Podcasts.
PodcastTranscript AI