Weekend Waiver Wire + Trade Reactions | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS sports Got a fantasy question email fantasy baseball at CBS I dot com get ready to win your lead Now here's Frank Scott and Chris hello and welcome to fantasy baseball today. I am Chris towers here with Scott light We are recapping the weekend. It is July 27th today on the show No Frank as you may have already surmised he is out this week So we will be handling things and I'm sure it will go fine We had some big names go on the IL this weekend We had our first trade deadline of the deadline see our trade of the deadline season out of the way so before we get to that Let's talk about Curtis mead for Connolly early, which is a kind of fascinating Trade of two young-ish guys. I think early is 24 Curtis mead is 25 Obviously early more recently a top prospect but Curtis mead having quite a nice breakout season for the nationals Nice job for them to get Connolly early for a guy that they grabbed from the white socks for nothing What five months ago You worked out okay, and I don't know about you Scott, but my first thought when I saw this trade was Does Connolly early not have an elbow anymore? What is? Because I like Curtis me, but yeah, it's a curious trade Yeah, so it is curious. It's rare that we see trades like this anymore and when I say anymore I mean like the past couple decades I feel like these kinds of trades that are really more about matching up needs than one team shedding salary to get prospects from another team That's usually how trades are that's how almost every trade is these days, but this is like you said these are two players With several years of team control left still and it's kind of just okay red socks have more pitching than they need Need some hitting why not nationals other way around the nationals are so loaded with hitting that even Curtis mead having this breakout season Hasn't been able to play quite every day. So Stock up for Curtis mead and we'll get into that more in a minute, but just to address your point about Connolly early He is on the IO with elbow inflammation which doesn't sound particularly Serious but it does introduce this element of uncertainty is to the red socks think there's more going on there than meets the eye But I don't even know that you have to yeah think of it in those terms to understand their side of the deal Connolly early hasn't been very good this year. Yep, even when he was healthy. I mean the results have been good Yeah, the peripherals not so much. Yeah, the peripherals not so much so the ERA has been 344 but that's what the 126 whip The stuff is played way down from last year the curveball especially is just is not missing bats at a very good rate The control has been pretty shaky these were Start in stark contrast both of that to till last year both in the miners and the majors what earned him a spot on Every top 100 list last year. He's he's kind of gone against that in the ERA Estimators are all in the mid-force So I wonder if the red socks perspective was Okay, we don't we don't trust that this player is as good as he appeared last year We better get while the getting's good. I Think from a real baseball perspective it does look like a big win for the nationals because pitching is always hard to get and Curtis Need for his as productive as he's been this year like you said cast off from two organizations already and Defensively challenged let's say the red socks are gonna play him in second But he's stretched there just like he was stretched to third for the nationals Don't mind him playing enough second base to enter next season with yes second base and third base eligibility That's right. He should have first base still so he is already eligible at all three of those positions But this trade with the red socks installing Curtis me did second base. I think ensures so be eligible at all three positions Next year too, so that's great for fantasy I say stock up for Curtis me not just because the playing time should be more consistent with the red socks Like his swing is perfectly suited for Fenway Park because he has extreme Flyball and pull tendencies as a right-handed hitter Hidden hidden fly balls in the direction of the green monster Which has fueled his power break out this year more than the actual exit velocity re-exha-villacity is a pretty normal pretty ordinary for For Curtis mead Which means he's wasting a lot of those pulled fly balls At at a typically configured park a lot of those are turning into outs Well a lot of those outs at Fenway are gonna turn into singles doubles off the green monster. I think Curtis me could go from being An average to below average batting average guy to maybe a plus in that category While still excelling in all the areas he was already Yeah, he is already 87% roster. It's not much movement there early very highly rostered as well So doesn't really change there another red sucks or the nationals called up Brady House to replace Curtis mead on Sunday I haven't seen much reason to be excited about Brady House I know he has a former top prospect, but that's one. Yeah, I'm firmly putting in the let him prove something to me category sure one thing I just want to say is I think part of the red sucks motivation also has to just be that they're really good at developing pitchers And they have faith in that as an organization, you know, we've seen Jacob and it kind of crop up out of nowhere here and become a really You know nice rotation piece for them obviously Peyton toly's been very good that Even with some injuries. This is a team that probably has more pitchers than rotation spots So they did have that surplus to pit to move from and this is They've made they made another fairly sizable trade between the nationals and red socks since the nationals Folks took over. I can't remember what it was, but There was something in there. So there there seems to be a relationship there So maybe that's much I love when you bring it up and you don't remember what I can't There's some like Andrew Alvarez I think was part of that deal There was something that they did in the offseason that was kind of moderately interesting Maybe Alvarez was there last year too, so I don't think it was entirely up. Yeah No, you may not be but I can't recall it either. I will Say like I don't want to The way I the way I just broke that down. I probably made it sound like Connolly early is Not going to amount to anything I don't know that I made like yeah, I still think it's pretty talented Yeah, it still is rookie season. He was still Terrific last year between the miners and the majors. I'm just saying I'm merely pointing out that he has not been as good as a rookie as he's probably perceived to be and that should raise doubts about his long-term viability, sure and All right, sorry Frank just texted me and anytime I'm like Live and Frank texted me. I'm like, oh god. Did I do something wrong? I didn't I think he just texted me a video of him and his brother doing karaoke, all right So I'm a Frank. Yeah, good timing. I've got a little scare and with that Let's get into the players of the night brought to you by stitch fix if you're like me and close shopping isn't your thing Stitch fix has you covered get $20 off your first order at stitch fix.com slash baseball and Let's go with this one. Oh my goodness gracious Oh my goodness gracious player of the weekend for me and I think we have to talk about him It's weird how much we've had to talk about Jacob. Is he or ask you lately? And how much it feels like we have vacillated between oh, we're worried and all there's nothing and I'm kind of after this start I'm back on there's not that much to worry about Side things he pitched against the the Rockies on Sunday It was exactly as unfair as you would expect Jacob Mieserowski pitching against the Rockies away from course field to be he allowed one earned run on a solo home run to Was a co-caric very impressive hit it off 102 mile an hour fastball Otherwise the Rockies could not touch Jacob Mieserowski One or run over five innings 12 strikeouts. He struck out the first seven batters. He saw he had 26 swinging strikes on the game And he threw 80% fastballs Yeah, it was just it was probably the best fastball we've seen from him yet Sarah Langs tweeted out He didn't throw a single fastball under a hundred miles per hour. So the most pitches of 102 miles per hour or more during the pitch tracking era in a game most of 102 miles per hour or more So this goes back to 2008 probably goes back to the beginning of the time, but we only have we only have the data we have the first Seven entries are Jacob Mieserowski He owned the top spot all time again 31. one on June 12th, 31 pitches of 102 miles per hour or more. And this started was 54. He blew away his previous high. And obviously he thoroughly dominated. Now I just have a few more. He had 23 whiffs on the four seamer. That matches the season high by any pitcher. Yeah. The previous one was already also Jacob. Is he asking? Didn't there a single fastball under 100 miles an hour out of 66 fastballs? He only threw 83 pitches, which I imagine is where you were going to go. Well, I mean, that does kind of clueless into something, doesn't it? Like I still think they're being careful with them. Yeah. Now there have been conflicting reports heading into coming out of the All Star Break after his previous start, which lasted for innings about was he actually feeling something was this planned ahead of time. And I based on Mizurowski's own comment after this started. It it sounds like he was feeling something rather than it being planned to be such a short adding because he said, I felt a lot better today. I felt like I was in my legs better. Most of my Velo comes from my lower half. So it comes much easier when you have all the pieces. So that was what Pat Murphy said after that previous start as well. Yeah. Yeah. But again, there were from from Brewer's B writers that were conflicting reports. So I mean, you could take that as a positive with regard to Mizurowski's rest of season outlook. I've gone ahead and moved him down to fourth. I did the same. Yeah. I think he's the best pitcher in the world right now. I also think that. But I think I think there are going to be some headaches here the rest of the way in terms of how spaced out his starts are, how deep he goes into them. Some of them will be fine. I doubt we've seen him go six innings for the last time this year. But you know, even this one, which was arguably the best start of his career, he only lasted five, only through 83 pitches. So. And I think part of that was he was cruising and then he got to the fifth inning and through 30 pitches in the fifth inning. He labored a little bit. But yeah, I think this is like if he finishes the fifth inning with 75 pitches, he definitely goes out for the sixth. If he gets up to 85, that's probably where it's like, we don't know if we want to push him. I think that's probably the way it's going to be. And there are a lot of pitchers. I feel like Yuri Perez is kind of in a similar spot. I know he has actually been pitching deeper in the games lately. But that's because it's been a lot more efficient. But when you're talking about a young pitcher who throws that hard and has some workload concerns, I think that's like around 85 pitches is where teams will be like, I don't know if it's worth getting him out there for another inning. So it just depends on how efficient he is. Early in this start, it looks like he was going to go like eight innings on 80 pitches. But I do think there's another level of risk here because the brewers are running away with their division seemingly looking to make a deep playoff run. I wanted to make sure Mizorowski has plenty of bullets for that. I think the closer we get to it, the more we could see, the more abbreviated these starts could become. So I wish I could give you actionable advice based on that. I'm a little scared of overstating it and losing the best pitcher in the world. Okay. You've got Jacob Mizorowski. Someone offers you Chris sale for him. No. No. And I assume Chris sale is not far from like number five at starting pitcher. Probably not. He's exactly five. Okay. Yeah. He's aimed for me. Someone offers you Logan Gilbert. No, I mean, I have been around before. So let me just say the only three pictures I have ahead of him are Terrick Scoobal, Christopher Sanchez, which we might need to get into that later. Yeah. And Cam Schlippler. Those are the only three I have ahead of Mizorowski. Yeah, I do have to be a hitter thing, but like you have to get first round value for him as the point. Yeah, I agree with that. And Scott, you're all my goodness gracious player of the weekend is Roki Sasaki. He did it again. And he's only 64% rostered. So time to have that discussion again. So on Friday, I say he did it again. It's already the best start of his career. Right. And I even the thing I was referring to, which was the Velo bump, wasn't quite the same. It wasn't nearly the same. So in his previous start, the one that kind of raised our interest again, that was against the Yankees. His fastball was up two and a half miles per hour on average. And this start as fastball was up more like one mile per hour on average, but it was a partial. He partially sustained that velocity bump and ended up having that even more dominant outing. This was at the Metz. Struck out nine in seven innings, one and run allowed. Walk just two. 21 swinging strikes. 13 of them on the splitter. So the splitter was splitting out of its mind. And it's a really good pitch for him. So other than the velocity and creature, which increased, which again wasn't nearly as much as the previous start, what can we point to here as being different for Sasaki? Was it just one of those days for the splitter? Dave Roberts put it this way. He said, I do think where he is at mechanically now. He isn't thinking about that when he is on the mount like the mechanics. He isn't thinking about them. He is in compete mode. His delivery is in repeat mode. It doesn't seem like he is searching anymore. He is just trying to execute a game plan, which we know there have been a lot of, there've been a lot of hand ringing over Rocky Sasaki's mechanics and the Dodgers have been working through them a lot. And so maybe there's a lot of truth to what Dave Roberts is saying. We don't have enough iterations yet to back it up. And that makes me nervous that you make everybody nervous. But what other picture are you adding off wave or wire right now? Furthermore, Rocky Sasaki, his next matchup appears to be against the Mariners, the third worst offense in baseball or yeah, the third worst offense in baseball. So that a great matchup. Because of the way the Dodgers rotation especially works where they insert guys, Willie Nilly and Mooth pictures around, it may end up being against the Red Sox instead. But either way, it's a favorable matchup for Sasaki next time. And I think as good as he looked in this outing, I'm not just adding them, I'm probably starting them. And you feel great about that, don't you? Because the last time he had arguably an even better start. He struck out 10 over seven shot at any against the angels on June 5th. His next start, he gave up seven runs and four and a third and he gave up 22 and his next 23 paintings. Yeah. He is incredibly frustrating. I agree with everything you said basically. I think we are in one of those periods where there aren't as many interesting pictures available. We're going to talk some some way where our pictures. And I think Rocky Sasaki is kind of the only one who has must add potential. Everyone else is like, yeah, I guess. And so I think you probably have to add him. And I would lean towards starting him. But man, I don't feel good about it. He has been so inconsistent. We've seen some really high, high points for him. I think this is the most complete his arsenal has ever been. The slider, I think, still got four whips today. The four seamer, like you said, sat 98.6 miles per hour. I think he even got a couple whips. He got at least one strike out on all four of his pitches, including that slower fork ball. So, hey, if he was figuring out, this is what it would look like. It's just that's what we said a month and a half ago. And it preceded just an absolutely awful stretch that saw his roster rate drop back down to like 45%. So that's the last time we said Rocky Sasaki was a must add pitcher. I'm going to guess this won't be the last time we say Rocky Sasaki's a must add pitcher. It's just a question of, do we say that after his next start or in like five starts when he has another good one, I think either one could be the case. But that is Rocky Sasaki. And those are our players of the weekend. Thank you to Stitch Fix for sponsoring today's players of the night segment. Stitch Fix takes the hassle out of clothes shopping. Just take a quick style quiz, share your size, your vibe and your budget. And you'll be matched with a real human stylist who will send you a fixed box with clothes that fit and make sense for your life. Get started there at stitchfix.com/baseball for $20 off your first order. That's stitchfix.com/baseball. We are going to take a quick break before we do YouTube.com/fantasybaseball today. Like, subscribe. We'd love to have you join us for a live show. We do it every night almost. I guess not Saturday or Friday night. But every other night, we're probably going to do something for the trade deadline next week. We got a whole bunch of stuff coming on the fantasy baseball today. YouTube channel YouTube.com/fantasybaseball today. We are going to take a quick break and we will be right back. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball. Today I'm Chris Tarris here with Scott White, Frank Stample on vacation this week having a good time, karaokeing it up, and I am leading the charge and we are going to talk news and notes from the weekend. And we actually, there's some unfortunate, some big news this weekend we got to deal with. And first of all, Wonsoto placed on the 10 day IL with a left calf strain that came on Saturday. And I did see it as considered more serious than the one that cost him three weeks earlier in the season. It is a grade two strain and just right between the lines here, I wouldn't be surprised if he's out in September. I wouldn't be like totally stunned if Wonsoto was out for the season. I mean, any time you're talking about like a grade two kind of strain to a muscle. You know, the recovery from that can be pretty slow and obviously the meds are not going to have much to play for down the stretch, but that's speculation. For now, I would guess something more like an early September, you know, maybe more like Francisco Indor's timetable when he missed a bunch of time with a calf strain. But yeah, it's not great. What are you looking to do with Wonsoto? You got a stash him anywhere, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah, at the stash him. He was in consideration for the top of Rolpec when we did them mid-season redraft at the All Star Break. I think you're right where, you know, the length of time it's going to take him to recover from this injury and where the meds are in the standings. Everyone might just side, well, let's just pack it in until next year. I don't think Soto would do that. He's always been the sort who's wanted to beat the timetable rather than stretching it out. So my guess is we'll still have some weeks of Wonsoto contributing in fantasy, but it's going to be a wait and your season may effectively be over by the time he's back. And so that's pretty big blow. Yeah, we also lost Cody Belinger to the IL with a hamstring injury. Spencer Jones is recalled for the Yankees, but I think at this point we don't really need to pay attention to him until he does something. So some outfield replacements for both Cody Belinger and Wonsoto. AJ Ewing is still only 67% roster. That just feels low. I know there are shortcomings in his game, but that feels low. Cole Kerrig is 65% roster. That also feels a little low. I think his limitations are a little more obvious than AJ Ewing. The power hasn't been there. He's only stolen three bases and I think 41 games, but the the weird lineup stuff, I think that's going to go away with the trade deadline for the Rockies. I think Cole Kerrig is going to be playing every single day after the trade deadline. So not so worried about that. He's around 65% rostered. Steven Kwan is around 65% rostered. He is actually either first or second in the majors among outfielders in Woa in the month of July. Believe it or not. He's sitting like 420. So that's been nice to see for Steven Kwan. I'm pretty much back on board with him. Dylan Cruz showing some stuff still not great, but I think he had five hits this weekend. He's hitting the ball harder than ever. Better plate discipline than ever. I think there's something here with Dylan Cruz. And then Tommy Edmond, another shallow league guy. He is I believe 60% rostered. He's hitting the ball hard. He's hitting like 360 since coming off the IL, but you're not getting a lot of power or speed. I don't really think Edmond has like a huge ceiling. No. There are a couple of lower end guys that I like more than Edmond at least and possibly like, Arabator Hernandez versus Dylan Cruz, I think is an interesting one. And I might side with Arabator Hernandez based on what he's done so far this season. And he's only like 23% roster. Yeah, I do think he's being undervalued. Luis Laura's hit well for the Brewers Ryan Walsh mitt hasn't been playing. Hasn't been playing quite every day for the Diamondbacks, but he's he's looked better than his earlier stent. I'll also name some of the outfielders who I like their matchups for this particular week. I like I do think AJ Ewing and Col Carrick are the standouts on the way for a while. Like forget this week. If you could pick him up as rest of season fill ends, that's probably best. But this week JJ Blade has favorable splits on two fronts, a bunch of varieties, a bunch of home games. And his season numbers are still good. I know it's been more. It's still down a lot. Yeah. Stephen Quant is on this list to you mentioned. Trent Grisham still one of the biggest underperformers by the Stagcast data. And good matchups for the Yankees this week. Lane Thomas has been hot for a while now, Homer to get on Sunday. And the Royals have a series of course field this week. And then Elliott Ramos has some good matchups this week and has at least like 25 home repower available in like half of CBS sports leagues. So those are those are some options for you if you lost Soto. Can't really replace Soto obviously. But you know, hopefully you've been working to build a strong team around them and can make do with Adam. I will say I think I revert to Hernandez. He's only like 25% roster. That feels way too low. He played. Yeah. I believe his 160 second game was on Saturday in his MLB career. And he's at like 24 homers and eight steals. And that's only in 550 played appearances. So yeah, you know, you give him 600 played appearances. That's a 25 Homer 10 steel guy and the underlying numbers back it up. So I think I revert to Hernandez for the Marlins is a pretty good pick up here. Hopefully we'll get another outfielder back this weekend. I feel like we said that last weekend. Ronald Akunya. This has been a weird rehab assignment for Ronald. Can you do you have any insight into what's going on because he's working his way back from the hamstring injury. He started playing in rehab games. I think during the all star break. And it's been like 10 days. And earlier this week, it was like, well, he could be back as early as Tuesday. And then it was always going to be back this weekend. And now it's Monday. And we're hoping Ronald Akunya's going to be back on Monday. I haven't seen like any. I don't think there's been any setback. I think it's just an overabundance of caution, I guess. I want to say and I'm not fighting and also I may be wrong about this. But there were some rain issues at AAA that prevented him from playing in some of the games he was going to this weekend that would have had him ready. I do think it's going to be Monday. Like I believe he was out of the lineup on Sunday. So I assume he was driving back to join the team. Yeah. I and one of those leagues where you could change the hitters in your line at midweek like NFBC. I'd gone ahead and put Akunya in for the weekend. Obviously that didn't pan out. But I'm planning on starting him for the full week in those same leagues. Same. Another one that's been kind of weird is Edwin Diaz working his way back from this elbow thing where that was another one where it sounded like he was going to be back last week. And now he made his what is expected to be his final rehab appearance on Sunday. And he's expected to come off the aisle on Wednesday. But just I don't know. It does I'm not saying Edwin Diaz isn't healthy. It does make me think that they've just seen something on his rehab assignment that they're not 100% sure of yet. And so makes me just think maybe Tanner Scott's not coming out of that closer's role quite as soon as you might think. I don't that's just speculation on my part just from how weird this has been. What do you think? I haven't looked at velocity dead on Diaz on his rehab assignment. Have you? Because that was down for him prior to the aisle stent. And it looks like it hasn't been any better a triple A. That's been I mean slightly better, but not yeah. Not where he was in previous years. So I don't know. That's I mean, I wouldn't be so quick to drop Scott. Just until we see how this plays out, he's obviously a very valuable fantasy asset if he is closing. So yeah, something to keep an eye on there. I do have a little more into Acunia here. A little more Acunia from this weekend. So apparently on Friday, he he struck out and limp back to the dugout. This is what Mark Bowman MLB be writer for the brave said Ronald Acunia is fine. His cleat caught in the dirt during the fourth inning strike out last night causing his foot to turn awkwardly. He walked it off and was fine by the time he got to the dugout. So maybe nothing probably nothing but given his history. Yeah. It's a little concerning. I still plan to start. I agree. A little concerning about Shohei Otoni. He did not end up throwing another bullpen session as scheduled on Saturday. Continues to deal with soreness in his left knee. Continues to hit, but it does look like it might be a while before he's back on the mound as a pitcher. So that is just something to keep an eye on. But I would not plan on using Shohei Otoni as a pitcher for at least another couple weeks. We got Nick Kurtz back from the IEL on Sunday, Ron Herr Suarez also returned from the IEL. He had that great injury on Sunday, but it sounded like the bigger delay over the past week or so was an illness that Ron Herr Suarez was dealing with. And not really surprised that he only threw 64 pitches, four innings, he looked good, six strikeouts, four hits scattered over four shutout innings, but only 64 pitches, he looked good, his velocity was down a little bit, but I think on the whole, all systems go with Suarez for his next start. - Yes. - That's the way I'm viewing it. - Yep. - Joe Ryan did not start Sunday against the athletics due to arm fatigue. He will likely start either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday this week against the Royals. So it doesn't sound like the twins are too worried, but I don't wonder if it's, you know, we're working the phones trying to trade him over the next couple of days and get him out before the next start in case anything goes wrong. There's a little speculation there, but it's that time of year where you have to ask those questions. Spencer Ergeti was placed on the 15 day IL with right foot nerve irritation after he left Friday's game after just 33 pitches. I think you should just take this as a sign that you can drop Spencer Ergeti. Daniel Palencia threw a bullpen session Saturday and seemed to do well, he'll do an up and down session, and then face live hitters this week could go on a rehab assignment sometime next week. Nobody has really stepped up for the Cubs as their closer. I think, yeah, Gavin Hollowell got the save on Friday, but Caleb Dealbar worked the ninth when it was tied before that. So he got the win. I think this is a situation where I kind of just want, Caleb, Daniel Palencia to just get healthy because it hasn't really been a bullpen worth chasing when he's been out. So hopefully Palencia is okay soon. Cory Seeger looks like he'll go on a minor league rehab assignment this week. He's did one more live VP session on Sunday and assuming all goes well, he could be back next week. Josh Young was placed on the 10 day IL with a left calf strain max months. He was sent back to AAA, the athletics version, not the Dodgers one. Zach Galen has been cleared to throw after imaging showed no structural damage in his elbow. Blake Snell is expected to throw around 60 pitches on a third rehab outing on Wednesday. I would guess there's at least one more appearance after that. Maybe two. Max Meyer won't throw for at least the next two weeks as he recovers from a next strain. That's one that once you start doing the math on that, we probably won't see Max Meyer until September. And the Marlins haven't won a game, only slightly exaggerating to say they have not won a game since June. They've lost 12 straight. My reason point where Max Meyer doesn't have anything to pitch for and just kind of comes back, makes a couple of starts and then shuts it down. So that's something to be concerned about. He was on your pitchers with any limits. You call him last week, right? He was and that made turn out to be a non-issue. Yep. Were you saying something about Snell? I was going to say something about Zach Galen because he said he's been cleared to throw after imaging showed no structural damage in his elbow. Yeah. Hasn't he had structural damage in his elbow for years like did it go away? What else? No new structural damage. Okay. I just-- Same structural damage. I wondered if that was implied or-- Well, it's one of those things where, you know, I feel like they always say, if you do an MRI on every pet year, they'll show something. Yeah. It's just, is it something to be concerned about? You know? Okay. Carlos Rodolfo-- It's not Zach Galen hardly matters anymore. Yeah. So it's not important. It just made me do a double-tick. Carlos Rodolfo faced hitters for the first time this week after getting through two simulated innings on Saturday. So he continues to recover nicely from the elbow inflammation. Tyler Glass now faced live hitters for the first time Friday as he works his way back from a back injury. Addison Barger will undergo season-ending elbow surgery to repair a torn UCL. It will either be Tommy John or a internal brace or possibly both. Either way, these things tend to be a little quicker for hitters than pitchers. So it's possible he could be back by the start of next season. It was a disaster season for Addison Barger, but I feel still think there's some potential there. Cars and Wizard Hunt was recalled to start Sunday against the Angels for the Giants. His change up is awesome. 15 whiffs on that pitch. Everything else is bad. And his velocity was down, and he gave up five foreign runs and five innings. His change is really good, though. If he could give that to someone else, that'd be great. I call someone, "Garmory Miss Sunday's Game" after filing a ball off of his shin in Saturday's game. Unheld Martinez was activated from the 10-day IEL Friday, Trevor McDonald diagnosed with a moderate UCL strain and is set for a second opinion. Jack Heigley owned Return to the Line Up Saturday after missing three games with a shoulder injury. Bruce, DFA Lance McCullers, the Athletics, Sontalis Keikle, to a minor league contract. Whoa. He hasn't pitched in the major since 2024. Has he been pitching anywhere? I would assume so. I would assume he has started somewhere in the last two years. I don't even remember him pitching as recently as 2024. So that's the White Sacks? The Brewers, apparently. Okay, sure. He has been, well, he pitched for the Royals Triple A affiliate last year. I'm sure you remember that actually, yes. Yeah. All right. International or the some Atlantic League stuff? Not that showing up on his baseball reference page. All right. Andy Rodriguez began a rehab assignment Friday and could be back from his glued injury this week. That's nice to see because we could use a little infusion of catching talent, I would say. Actually, did I skip something? Oh my god, I did. Shaling Lears went on the IEL. That was one I missed earlier. Sorry about that, folks. He has a torn meniscus in his right knee and his season seems like it's probably over, which is a pretty big deal because Frank and I were talking, I think the other day. And we both had Shaling Lears still in that second tier of catchers after Ben Rice and obviously not anymore. So if you're in a shallow league, who would you prefer out of Dalton rushing for Francisco Alvarez or Alejandro Kirk? Not Kirk, probably Alvarez right now rushing has been pretty cold since the first month, since like the second week of the season or something, he hits seven home runs right away and has like four cents, something like that. In Deeper Lears, you got Joe Mac and you run Regas, who reminded me of this. I think if he's available and you don't need one right now, I think any run regas would be my favorite. But Joe Mac's been really good lately. He has been used at 10 home runs since the start of June, hitting like 270. And it doesn't look totally fluky. So I like him. Harry Ford is another deep league name to watch, but he hasn't done enough to justify an endorsement yet. And just a note, for week 19 on Monday, there is a game at 2.35 p.m. on Monday between Seattle and Texas. So make sure your lineups are set before 2.32.30. We've five minutes before the first game. Yeah, don't want anybody to get caught off guard by that one. And we are going to take one more break and then get into all the performances and stuff from this weekend. We will be right back. [MUSIC PLAYING] [SPEAKING SPANISH] Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball. Today I am Chris Towers here with Scott White. And we are going to recap all the action from this weekend. We are talked about the top pitcher to add from this weekend. That was Roki Sasaki, 64% rostered. Here's a question though. Scott, if Roki Sasaki and Jared Jones were both available in your league, who are you adding? You can only add one. Jones. He had another great start this weekend. Six innings to hit, one in run, one walk, five strikeouts. 83 pitches, so a little more rope. But I still think that's basically the same as his previous innings limit. It was just 83 this time instead of 77. But I don't know. It's still a little frustrating. I keep waiting for a 90 pitch outing to really make me feel like Jared Jones is going to get treated like all the other kids. But he's pitching really well right now. He has two or fewer walks in every start this season. That is very impressive. His walk rate is like 7% or something. Yeah, against the cubs, it was six innings, one in run, over six innings, one walk, two hits, five strikeouts. He's been great. Like in inning for inning, he's been great, especially this month, especially his last three starts, two of which six innings are more. I think he's back. I think he's better than ever. It's just, is he going to be treated like a real boy? Or is he going to be a starting pitcher in name only limited to 75 to 80 pitches every time out, in which case, you can't expect him to be so efficient that he's going to give you the five in six innings he has. And this last three starts. And so that's the only hesitation between him and Sasaki is there a. a hard, hard limit to Jared Jones's ceiling this year. - Right now, yes. - Well, but is it harder? Is it one that could soften over the course the next two months? And I wish, I suspect, yes, it's softened. It's a soft ceiling rather than hard ceiling. But I don't know. And if I did know that the answer was, yes, this is as many pitches as he's ever gonna be allowed to throw, then I might side for Sasaki for the upside, but clearly there's a lot more downside for Sasaki. - All right, some other and Jared Jones is 80% rostered. So for most of you, he's not available. - And by the way, Sasaki himself should have innings issues at some point. - Yeah. - Even in Japan, he never threw even-- - I think 129 was his career out there. - Yeah, never got to 130 in his season. So he could face workload restrictions himself in the coming weeks. - Yeah, that's a good point. Some other way of our starting pitchers, these guys are all in the 50 to 60, maybe 65% range, but Ajupolate had a really good start against the reds, seven innings, shut out ball, eight strikeouts, one walk, Dustin May, also very good against Cincinnati. Maybe there's a recurring theme there. He had eight strikeouts in six innings, one on run, 14 whiffs, looked good, looked normal. He had a 766 ERA in six starts since that complete game before this one, that was Dustin May. Brandon Young, six strikeouts in six and a third, one earned run. Splitter was good, so was the slider, five whiffs each. He's got a 265 ERA in his past 11 starts, 380 X ERAs. That doesn't quite match, but you'd still take a 380 mark. And then Noah Cameron was exceptional against Detroit, I think on Friday, seven innings, two hits, no earned runs, three walks, eight strikeouts. He had a 797 ERA in his previous seven starts. Pitcher mix was mostly the same. I don't really buy it, but I don't really buy it for any of these guys for the most part. I think they're all streamers. Scott, do you think anyone in this group has risen above the level of streamer? Yeah, I think so. I think Palante is a little bit better than a streamer. 3X ERA was surprising. He's a quality start machine. He is often among my streamer pitchers. He doesn't miss bats, but he. Let me make sure I'm not mixing him up with another Cardinals pitcher, because they have three that are pretty similar. Palante, I think, is the most ground ball. Yeah, he's producing up to 55%. Yeah, 55%. That's incredible. So you can get away with not being a big strikeout pitcher if you're getting a lot of weak contact on the ground. So Andre Palante, not especially high upside pitcher, but I think he's more than a streamer. And I think Brandon Young, he's already at his career high in innings. So we got to watch for that the rest of the way with him, but the slider is a Drew Batmesser, and he's put together a nice run here. I think he's at least interesting enough that if you're already beyond the point where Jared Jones, Sasaki, or guys you're talking about picking up, I think Brandon Young might be the most exciting for this weekend. I also need to highlight a couple things here for Noah Cameron, who we need to see a lot more of this before I move to act on him because he's mostly been awful this year, but all of his pitches were up one to one and a half miles per hour. Mm-hmm. And the explanation for this, according to the Royals beat, was he called his own pitches for the first time in this start, taking that responsibility away from Salvador Perez to ball-move cotton. And he threw with more conviction because of that. That's the line they're using, why he was up one to one and a half miles per hour. Let's see if he keeps throwing with more conviction. I'm always skeptical of an explanation like that, but I'm glad to know it, I guess. Yes. Yes. Some lower end guys on the Waiver Wire Cal Lehi, nine strikeouts on the other end of one of those games, six innings, two-run runs against the Cardinals, only 10 whips on 102 pitches, velocity with either normal or down a bit. I kind of get the sense he's just like a good matchup sky. And when the matchups are good, you can use him, otherwise. He has a spark, so there's some value there for Cal Lehi, but other than that, I don't think this is a guy worth getting excited about, right? So I mentioned the Cardinals have a lot of pitchers that are similar. Yeah. Lehi in his last seven starts, do you give these numbers yet? Lehi in his last seven starts has a 169 ERA and a.91 whip and a.7 K per nine. Apart from that, he's walked 2.2 per nine innings in those seven starts. That's compared to 3.5 per nine before. So he went from have back control to good control and those seven starts also went from having a ground ball rate 43%, which is not a particularly good ground ball rate, to a ground ball rate of 51% in those seven starts. So throw it a lot more strikes, fewer walks, getting a lot more ground balls, ERA during that time 169 with a low whip and about a strikeout per inning. I don't know, he might be developing into something more. I want to put him on the same level as Palante or Brandon Young, who we were just talking about, but I'm wondering if Lehi might, if you picked him up for this past two start week and you delivered four, you might just want to hang on to him. You might want to. - Right, I was pretty impressed by Connor Prelipp. May they start Sunday against the athletics coming off the IL, five and two thirds innings, one or and run, five strikeouts, one walk. It was weird that he only got one whiff on his slider 'cause it's usually his best swing and mispitch. He had three on the four seamer, three on the curve ball. This is more one, he's 19% rostered. This is more one I'm putting under weight and sea on Connor Prelipp. I think he's an interesting pitcher, but I need to see more. And then-- - A lot more sinkers in this start. - The expense of the slider, which I wonder if that was an effort to get him to throw more strikes. It obviously worked this time. Well, worth bringing up in Prelipp's case. Because he throws more strikes, there might be something here. - And then Ronaldo Lopez had a good start, five and two thirds innings, shut out ball against Baltimore, six strikeouts, one walk, only five whiffs and his velocity was way down on everything, like two to three miles per hour, which that was what basically got him pulled out rotation. Earlier in the season, was his mechanics were all screwed up, his velocity was way down, and they had to kind of send him to the ballpen to rebuild him, and now he's velocity's back down again. I don't think the braves have the luxury to pull anyone out of the rotation right now. There have been stretches this season where the braves rotation looked really good. And then there have been stretches where it looks pretty bad. And I think it doesn't look great right now, given all the injuries especially. So they're probably just gonna have to have him work through this, but it did not look good. I'm not excited about Ronaldo Lopez seeing his velocity on that much. - No, I mean, it was a very good line. But more than a strikeout per inning, about a one whip, obviously a zero ERA. But yeah, I mean, that's a big drop in velocity. And the increase was what we were excited about. He was throwing 95 on average, and now he was down to like 92 on average. So I, maybe I was just a one off. I don't know. Obviously his previous start wasn't that great, and he had the velocity then. - Yeah. All right, let's move on to some way for our hitters. And we'll start with Chandler Simpson, who is 70% rostered. And at first glance, that feels a little low. I think it's probably right though, right? I think so. - I think so. - Because it's just, he's pretty fringing a point to me, even when he's hot. - Even when it's a two point per steal league. Like CBS standard scoring is, and we're using CBS roster rates here. So that's probably accounts for most of the head-to-head points leagues, but fully customizable. A lot of people go with the one point per steal. And if your head-to-head points league is like that, there's no reason to bother with Simpson at all. For the most part, I think you're just, you're leaving him for categories leagues anyway. - He had a good weekend, seven for 12 this weekend. Only scored two runs, no steals, but he's been running a lot lately. So that kind of got away from him. And his roster rate got down below 50% of one point when he stopped running. So he's one that, as long as he's running, he's a must-roster player in Roto. Flod as he is. Dylan Cruz, five for 10 with three walks this weekend. Also hit a home run. 3.30 expected, Wilbert is a career high. He's got a pretty solid 22% strikeout rate. 90.6 mile per hour average, ex-philosity. Prime Minister's not actually hitting that well yet. There are some positive signs to take away here, but it's a 2.33 batting average. And I believe 295 OBP in the month of July and not hitting for a 200 ISO yet. So he's 55% rostered. I like Dylan Cruz. I think there's some potential here, but still need to see more. - Yeah, every time he has a big game, I think. - Yeah. - You expect the numbers to be better. - Right, I go and look up what he's been doing recently. And it's just, these big games and isolation it seems like. So cruise a other than five outfield or leagues. I don't think he needs to be rostered. Yeah. They're still upside. Then yeah. Right now. All right. Luis Laura, 30% rostered. You mentioned him as a potential replacement. He went three for nine with this weekend, five RBI three runs. So, you know, I think still not quite playing every single day, but there's some paths there for him. And then I had, okay, sorry, I put Christian and Karnassian strand under the outfielders. He is not an outfielder. He is first base and third base eligible. He's looking pretty good for the Orioles. He went for for 11 this weekend with a home run and five RBI. He is nine for 22. Nine for 24. Excuse me with three home runs in six games since his promotion. He had like a 110 WRC plus at AAA. I don't really think the post type breakout is happening for Christian and Karnassian strand, but he is a player we were excited about at one point. And he is still fairly widely available. I mean, well, I think by what was that you cited WRC plus 18% RL? Yeah. That's not very good number for player triple A, but I presume it's deflated quite a bit by the low on base percentage he had there. Yeah. Christian and Karnassio's strand, not a guy who walks much. He had 19 home runs in 71 games there. It was 70. Yeah, he was tons of power, around an 850 OPS. And we know he has power. I mean, we've seen him, he hit, see what was the most he had in the majors. I guess he didn't have a full season. He's never had a full season in the majors, but when he first came up, it was 13 home runs in 63 games. That's what got everybody excited. He had 32 home runs one year in the minors and 122 games. So like there's power here, and he's been playing third base, and it's not like Kobe Mayo was doing that much. So I think in Karnassio's strand will get extended run here for the Orioles. And has enough power to catch my attention. I mean, you shouldn't count on him being the savior right now, obviously, but in the 15 team road o leagues where, you know, you can't count on much of anything ever being on waivers in Karnassio's strand this weekend was to me, the standout player that was available across all the 15 teams. Like that was the top waiver wire choice that was available among all of them. So I think he's back in the discussion for fantasy, third base is weak, and he's got a lot of power. So showing a sign of life right now, showing a sign of life exactly. I remain moving on. I remain a little surprised that Bryson Stott is still as widely available as he is. I believe, let me make sure I have this right. His roster rate is only 61%. He's been really good for like two months now. He had three hits versus the Yankees on Sunday, including a home run and five RBI. He's hitting 293 with a 473 slugging percentage in the month of July. Very similar numbers in June. Only one one steel in July. I think it was four in June. So that slowing down is worry some for Bryson Stott because he's someone who needs to do a little bit of everything to really matter. But I think 61% feels a little low for Bryson Stott. Well, that probably covers all road o leagues, right? Yeah. And then some. So you look at second base just going down who scored the most fantasy points at that position this year. You got Aadolopas Bryce Tarrang, Sal Stewart, Katel Marte, JJ Weather, Halsi Albies for Nandotatis, Luis Arise, Xavier Edwards, Brandon Lau, Luis Garcia, KC Schmidt, Nico Horner. That's 13 right there. None of them have an injury tag next to their name. And that's not counting Trans-Mazona who got called up or there's another guy. Curtis Mead. Curtis Mead added second base eligibility. Sam Ansonacci. Sam Ansonacci. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't think in the leagues that don't require that extra middle-end field spot. Yeah. That don't have that. I just don't think there's much reason to turn to Stott. Well, that's fair. I think Royce Lewis, 56% rostered is too low. He went for 10 with three stolen bases this weekend. He's about 10 for 10 on steals this season. And since his return from Triple A, it's like a 28 home or 28 steel pace. He's only hitting like 245 with like a 740 OPS. So he hasn't been destroying the ball. But I think Royce Lewis, any road o league, somebody probably could use Royce Lewis gets a little bit of out of position speed. Cooper Pratt finally starting to show some things. He went, he had six hits this weekend, including a home run and a steal to second home run. And that's really the thing is, is he going to be able to hit for any power at all? If he does, then I think he'd be pretty interesting because he thinks he's going to get on base and he's going to steal some bases. But Cooper Pratt needs to at least be a an 8 to 10 home or guy, I think to really matter. I wanted to ask Scott your thoughts on Pedro Ramirez, who had went five for 12 with the steal. Is he starting to play enough for the Cubs to matter? He's 6% rostered. The biggest problem for him is just, I think he's an interesting player. I just don't know where he's going to play. Probably not in Chicago in the long run. He has been up for long enough that I was surprised to see this was only his 17th start on Sunday. And no, it's three straight all at DH or actually started third base today, right? Because Pratt has got a day off. Is that right? That sounds right, yes. Yeah. So, you know, Breggman is the third baseman, Nico Horner's the second baseman. They're hardly ever sitting. That pretty much just leaves DH for Ramirez. And while the Cubs don't have a dedicated DH, you know, they like to mix in other guys, like Michael Conforto there. So, I don't think we're to the point where we can look into Pedro Ramirez and even Rodo Leaks yet. But I like the upside. I hope that changes at some point. I hope he gets traded, frankly. So, he can play every day for somebody else. I mean, they got a trade one of him, Matt Shaw or James Toronto's and probably two of them, probably given how much overlap there is in their skill set and how little there's really no short or medium term opportunity for any of those guys. Like everybody at any of their positions is locked up long term. Breggman's there for five more years. Porter's there for six more years. How long was that contract extension? It'll probably work out fine. It's early in it. I know that. Dan's Beasts wants and still got a bunch of years left. Yeah. So, I think any of those guys are going to matter only if they get traded, unfortunately. How you Lee of the Tigers, I think he's kind of interesting five for 10 with the home run. He's only three percent roster. Ryan Creedler of the twins is also only two percent roster. They both had decent weekends. I don't think there's anything here. But maybe with how you Lee, I think he's got a decent minor league track record to go back on. And then Ty France kept on hitting six hits this weekend, three RBI, only 31 percent roster. I think that's got to go up. It's kind of like the problem with Bryce and stop, but even more so because Ty France is only first base eligible. And there are legitimately like 30 good hitters at first base right now. It's been yeah, a weird time at first base the last few years. It's been historically weak. I want to say the WRC plus for first baseman last year and the year before were like the two lowest in the 25 years. The fan graphs has tracked just by position production. So it's been really bad, but it's been a lot better this season. So that's the thing holding Ty France back. But even so, 31 percent roster for how good he's been for the last two months. It's too low. Well, it's going to close double links since the last time we talked about it. So that's the good news is among my top sleeper hitters for this week. The Padres have favorable matchups. You know, even if you just got a struggling bat at your utility spot or you want to plug somebody else even in the short term, it's not a bad time to try out Ty France. All right. Let's move on to some more weekend leftovers and one question at the top. Are we sure Terrick Scoobal isn't back to being the best pitcher in fantasy again? I know you mentioned Christopher Sanchez as your top starting pitcher. I didn't know. I'm putting Christopher Terrick Scoobal back at the top. I I mentioned the three pitchers. I have ahead of Mizorowski. Scoobals, my number one, too. 12 strikeouts in seven and a third innings. He has a 270 year A and 12.5 K per nine and eight starts since coming back from surgery. And he's gone seven innings in two straight starts and six plus in four of his last six. So they were being careful predictably early on. Not anymore. He's fine. Paul skiing. Man, this was a weird start for Paul schemes. He was bad again. Five on runs in five and a third innings. Six hits, two walks, 11 strikeouts. Velocity was down to 96.3 miles per hour. That continues to be an issue for Paul schemes. He had 11 whiffs on the four seamer and 22 whiffs overall and only 85.1 mile per hour average. I've always seen this one. I know the paris defense is bad, but man, the underlying skills still look really good for Paul schemes. And then And it's crooked numbers every time out in a way that we've never seen from him before. I know everybody's freaked out because the velocity's down and I don't know. The skill set doesn't look that much different. No, it doesn't, but I hate to bring it up, but I'd also hate that I didn't bring it up if it comes to pass. I feel like so often in my two decades of doing this, whenever there has been a picture who has uncharacteristically struggled and you're struggling to explain why. It's not long before an injury is revealed. I hope that's not so in Schien's case, but like it's a matter of time for every picture. Maybe this is the start of it. Hopefully not. Maybe. Maybe. It's possible. I'm not going to say there's nothing there at the velocity's down. I think his arm angles changed a little bit. There's something different here, but I just, I don't know, man. If he was hurt or if it was really just some other flaw in his skill set that's being exposed now, I just think it would show up more. It's not showing up anywhere except earn runs allowed. That is the one we care about. I want to be clear. I understand why it's frustrating. I just don't know how much it matters. I mean, base runners too. But I'm saying like I've observed that many times before. It's like, well, he's still missing a lot of bats. But he just isn't as sharp. And maybe that's maybe there's some little mechanical thing going on. It could be that. But it's frustrating. I just, you know, guard your heart. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Any similar concerns about Christopher Sanchez? He's got a 665 ERA in the month of July after giving up. This was actually a decent start. Three on runs and six endings. But it was like one beginning in a way that is happening more frequently. He walked three. It was actually his first start with more than two walks since April 30th. But he's been a little shaky. Yeah. I mean, I guess it would be inconsistent not to have some health concerns there. It's a little different from schemes for me because schemes was always the one thing and it was the best thing. And so it kind of makes it more alarming because his success was unversed on scale. Yeah. Sanchez has had his ups and downs. And, you know, he's been a fantasy ace for a few years now, but there have been ups and downs along the way. I think the fact he walked three in this start suggests he's going through a stretch right now where he's not commanding as well. And like his control on the whole is usually amazing, but there have been these stretches where it was less than that. And maybe he's going through one of those now. I don't know that he still needs to rank. He still needs to be one of those pitchers ranked ahead of Mizorowski. For me, I might drop him behind and Mizorowski three after the way things unfolded Sunday for those two. But Sanchez is still an ace. If you can take advantage of this blip to buy low on him, I think that's a good idea. All right. Kim Schletler, just typical dominant, struck out 12, no walks against Philadelphia. He did add four whiffs on his curve ball, which I just think it's worth noting that that's a fun wrinkle. And if the oops all fastballs approach ever lets him down, I think the curve ball can still be a good pitch for him. So that was worth noting. Dylan C's was incredible. 12 strikeouts and 9-1 hit innings. 20 whiffs, 12 on the slider. His velocity was down across the board, 1.8 miles per hour overall, 3.4 on the changeup, and it didn't matter at all. I know he's been up and down lately, but I think Dylan C's is awesome. Any thoughts on Dylan C's? So as I understand it just from reading the recap, he was averaging 93 on his fastball on the first inning, which is down more like four miles per hour, and it got better from there. He said, "My body was cranky early, so I was just working with what I had and making sure I threw strikes when we got to the fifth and I've got a new hit or going. My body was loosening up a bit by the end. I had the kill and sight. I was just going for it." So I don't think you should be too worried about the velocity. It sounds like just a little hitch early on that he strained out. All right. What do we make of Hunter Brown finally having a great start? Seven strikeouts and the key. No walks over seven innings. He had 20 whiffs. Velocity was up across the board. He had 22 walks and 29 of third innings since coming off the aisle before this, but the stuff has looked good. So I have kind of been inclined to believe that Hunter Brown will just figure it out at some point. Do we think he figured it out? I think you have to guard against it a little bit, but I'm just starting Hunter Brown this week, right? Yes. He's, I got a lot of quotes for you today. Good. Love a quote. I feel like my stuff has increasingly gotten better over the past couple of weeks. Hunter Brown said, even versus Baltimore when he had a career high six walks and two hit by pitches, I felt good about my curveball in that start. The way that my fastball was working, I just simply lost too many hitters. I knew I was kind of trending in the right direction. I know I wasn't too far away and I was kind of able to iron that out and turn it into a good outing today. So yeah, it really seems like it was just a matter of throwing strikes. Combined 15 walks in his previous three starts, that would sink any pitcher. But the stuff was there. He felt like it was getting better. He felt like this was inevitable. Yeah, I'm back to a point where I think Hunter Brown's turned the corner. I'm willing to start him again. And Hunter Green was bad. He's headlining our disappointment segment. Sixer and runs and five and a third innings, three strikeouts, two walks. First start with less than a strikeup or inning. The velocity was fine. He, I don't know. He hasn't been good yet, 706, but nothing looks too alarming. Yeah, that one awesome start, right? Yeah. I think you had like a 11th strikeout start. I don't know. When the velocity is down more than a mile per hour, as was true in this start. But it's back to where it was in 2024, right? When he was still awesome. Maybe I didn't look into that. So maybe. I don't know. I'm a little concerned. I'm a little more concerned about Hunter Green than Hunter Brown. I mean, obviously Hunter Brown just had a good start. I don't know why I have to contrast the hunters like that. But now I've got some concerns about Green. I don't know that I'd be starting him until he had another good start. Are we starting Treya Savage? We just, this was a weird one because it was three and runs and four innings, nine strike outs, only one walk and hey, that's been the problem for Treya Savage, it's the walks. And it wasn't a problem here. Yeah. It's a kind of nine strikeout starts, but also six or in runs and ten innings across the two starts. So I don't really know what to make of Treya Savage right now. I mean, three of his previous four work quality starts. So he's had enough six innings starts in there. Yeah. That's, I'm not going to call him a start, but I'm not going to shy away from him too much either. I think if, if he's clearly one of your five best starters for the upcoming week, one of your six best, depending on the format, you know, I think there's been enough good in there that you kind of, yeah, you kind of grimace at the bad stuff and wish it was a little more consistent. But I think eventually it will be. There's a high level of skill here for Treya Savage. Where are you at on Braxton, Ashcraft and Bryce Miller who both had another disappointing start for each. Bryce Miller is five in runs and five in a third innings. So strikeouts, one walk against Texas, fastball velocity continues to tick down and he had zero whiffs on 39 fastballs in this star. Then Braxton, Ashcraft, six innings, four in runs, no home runs, which I think that's a good sign, but I'm still not sure what to make of either of these guys right now. Yeah, me neither. I'm especially worried about, well, I'm worried about both, frankly, but I think I'm especially worried about Bryce Miller. I have a better understanding of why things have gone wrong for Bryce Miller in a way that makes it more concerning, I feel. His fastball needs to be elite or him to be good. And when he's, when it's elite, he's elite. But he's had enough health scares, including this year that when it, it's not playing as elite, it definitely raises concerns and zero whiffs on 44% fastballs in this one. That's not, that was a clear one. It's not going to work. It's going to work. And so I think Bryce Miller is a sit for now. Ashcraft might be as well. well just because it's been a long time. I think he's at his career high and it is now too. - Oh, yeah. - I'm guessing it's the workload catching up to him is the biggest issue there. You mentioned the home runs, none in this one, but it had become a problem for a pitcher who started out with a really good ground ball rate. It's kinda gotten away from that. So I think there are some questions in terms of pitch selection there for Ashcrafts and maybe he's tiring out and I don't think we're anywhere close to dropping Ashcraft, but I would prefer not to start him right now either. - All right, let's talk about a couple of weird starts. You already Perez, seven innings, three on runs, give up I think one or two on runs in the seventh inning. That was kind of frustrating. Only two strikeouts, which was weird. Only seven whiffs. He's usually even when he's not pitching well, getting a ton of whiffs. So that was weird and then Foster Griffin, I noticed only two strikeouts in this one. Two or fewer in three of four starts in the month of July. I believe the other one was a 10 strikeout start. Nine strikeout. - So it's funny. So now it is for Foster Griffin. It's three of four with two strikeouts, but three of six with nine strikeouts. - It's either two or nine. - That's normal. I have not really had a good feel for Foster Griffin all season. So I don't really know what to make of this. What do you think? - I think he's good. I think he's the kind of good that could very quickly turn bad. - Sure. - You know, like it's Seth Lugo's career. - Yeah. - He's still in margin for error. A lot of different pitches. There's everything like 15% of the time. - Yeah. And so for now, I'm willing to trust that he's good because I think he has good right now. But it's just not, it's not at the most durable skill set. And so, you know, it's not just that. Some days he gets nine strike. That's the reason he survives even when he does it is because he gives up a lot of weak contact. Most of it in the air. And that's a good combination. I mean, weak contact's always good, but in the air it translates to even more outs than it does on the ground. Well, of course, I'm saying it wrong. He actually has a better crop all rate, the fly ball rates. I must be thinking of somebody else, but it's weak contact is the point and great control. And I think, you know, tends to work deep into games. He's in his 30s. So I think the nationals are gonna write him if they don't use him as trade bay. And I think you can trust him as like a number four type in fantasy until you can't. - Here's a weird one. And it was not a weird start. Sean Burke was awesome. Ten strike, that's the six innings, two on runs. He continues to just look outstanding. He had 19 whips including 10 on the four seamer. And his velocity is back down. You know, he's not sitting 96, 97 like he was when he was really breaking out, but he's still managed to be outstanding. 15 strikeouts to two walks in the last two starts. What do you make a Sean Burke right now? To me, it's kind of like what you said about Foster Griffin. I think he's just good. I could see going sideways. But I believe in him. - Yeah, it's really just the last two starts that are hard to reconcile with everything else. So we've seen from Sean Burke this year because there was that stretch of five starts where the velocity was up. And okay, you could understand why his fastball was playing up while he was missing a lot more bats 'cause he's throwing a lot harder. But then these last two, it's kind of gone back to normal and yet he still continued to miss all the bats. And so, okay, but how, it's great that he's done that, but how do you explain why he's done it? Because before the velocity jump, he wasn't doing that. So we were crediting the velocity jump with everything. And if that's gone now, how much longer can he fake it? Is he even faking it? - Yeah. - I mean, I'm happy to use him for now, but again, it's with the velocity where we've seen it from Sean Burke the last two starts. It's hard to trust in it fully. All right, we are going to move on to just one stud being a stud, CJ Abrams, three home runs, four runs, six RBI and a steel this weekend, five multi-hit games in a row. He is not slowing down, that was always the concern. He's just been awesome all season long. I guess June wasn't great for him, but then he's bounced back, which is really good to see for CJ Abrams. James would also home her twice on Sunday. That life is pretty good. Very unexpected. - Sure, it's turned out that way, unexpected. I mean, the nationals player development has just a complete 180 and one year. - I think they've just gone from like really, really bad to pretty good. And that's a big jump. - I mean, the hitting is obvious to see they've been the best offense in baseball. And they got something out of Curtis Meade, finally after all the other organizations couldn't, but even the pitching side, I don't remember the specifics, but I know they've made some changes in their approach there. And you get foster Griffin coming in. How much of that was just carrying over what he did in Korea? Obviously, the success is far surpassed when anybody expected and Cade Cavali, him breaking out finally this year. I think the nationals might be a force to reckon with in the years ahead. - All right, let's do the call to the bullpen. Mason Montgomery got the save for the pirates on Sunday. Gregory Soto got the previous save, but it wasn't extras in Montgomery work day tied night. So I think I'm leaning Mason Montgomery for as long as the pirates don't trade for a closer, right? - I guess it's a very, not much of a lean at all, but you get to lean somewhere, yeah. - All right, the Rockies, Jordan Romano got the save for it. He's a bad pitcher on a bad team, the worst ballpark from baseball, but if you're really desperate for saves, I guess you can do it. Kenley Janssen got the save Friday his first since July 9th. Hogan Harris got the save Friday his second in the past week. So I guess he's the A's closer. Alex Lang got the save Saturday, then Stephen Cruz got it on Sunday, Lang didn't pitch, not sure if he was available. I think he only pitched Saturday. So Cruz does have two of the past three saves for the royals. He also has a 462 year A. So I'm gonna need to see more, but that would be bad if that was just a full pen by committee. - Certainly, 'cause none of those guys are very good. - I mean, it's been very rare Lang working anything, but the ninth, but he should have been rested enough. He threw only 16 pitches Saturday. - I hadn't pitched until I since like Tuesday, I think, before. - And his two easy saves in a row, like letting into Sunday for him. So, I don't know. - I mean, Lang's still the guy to have in the royals' bullpen, I think, but that is a head scratcher by they used Cruz instead on Sunday. - And then Clayton Beater got the save Saturday and Sunday. He has two of the four saves in July. I don't know if the nationals have a closer. If they do, I guess it's Clayton Beater. And let's do a quick to stream or not to stream, unless you have something else to add. - Nope, that's fine. - All right, to stream or not to stream on Monday, Kermar Rocker versus the Mariners in Texas. Marrakelli at Pittsburgh, Kater Monterey versus the Orioles, Slade Sikoni at Cincinnati, Zach Thornton versus the Braves, David Peterson at the Gardenals, Tetsu E. May at the Angels, Walbert Arrania versus Houston, Brandon Sprote at San Francisco. E. Mayan Arrania? - I really don't like the idea of using a May. - But it could go really, really well. - Yep. - Or it could go really, really poorly. - All right. And what did you say with the other one, Eurania? I don't, Zach Thornton against the Braves might go, okay, too. - Brandon fought on Tuesday versus Pittsburgh by the Chandler versus Arizona, Christian Scott versus the Braves, Shane Bieber at Washington, Anthony K versus Yankees, Jake Bennett versus the Red Sox. - Oh, Jake Bennett wouldn't be facing the Red Sox. - Oh, no, he wouldn't be. I got that wrong. - Yeah, I think Christian Scott against the Braves is probably okay, but I'm picking on the Braves today, I don't know. - And of course it's the A's. - Bennett versus the A's that's still fine. And in fact, I prefer that to Scott against the Braves. Third choice, I really don't have a third choice. - All right, we'll leave it there. For Scott, I am Chris. Thanks always for tuning to Fancy Baseball today. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye. (upbeat music) - We'll hear about podcasts. - Every rep can disrupt lives, but some cause catastrophic injuries that change everything in an instant. When your life has been dramatically changed, you need a firm with experience handling catastrophic injury cases. At Morris and DeWitt injury lawyers, we have the experience and resources to handle catastrophic injury claims, and help real people move forward after life altering events. Real cases, real injuries, Morris and DeWitt injury lawyers. 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