What's Wrong With Paul Skenes? Who Is This Dansby Swanson? (7/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

[Kuulun muuut] Suuret päätökset voivat pienekauas. Siksi tarvitsein rinnaleeni kumpanin, joka ymmärtää minne ollen menossa. Nordea Private Pankingissä omasioitus johtainitua selkeyttä päätöksiin, ja pieninut askeleen edelleen. Nordea Pistefi Kotta Private Pankin. [Kuulun muuut] Otat testin Vasan 34-autoret, Brio's ja Top-Block-sambulat. Näiden myhintvistet, jos aj hitta ulpeilun. Vasan 34 gottioskattava katuroukaa. Puhutaan valtaisessa miljoona. Nyt ei olet aina koko valtaisessa. Sitten järjää, että taas järjää! Tämä on valtaisessa, koska tämän järjää! Tämä on Frank Scott & Chris. Voi, koko valtaisessa! Tämä on Thursday! Jolai, jokin. Puhutaan, Frank Scott White. Puhutaan, että koko valtaisessa. Tämä on valtaisessa. Tämä on muuta. Tämä on valtaisessa, että taas järjää! Tämä on valtaisessa! 12 games before this before today was 93 mph. Obviously, that number's only going to go up after a game like this. I did have a fun stat here as well. 26 RBI in a 10 game span. Only other hitters to do that since RBI became official in 1920. Joe DiMaggio, Jimmy Fox, Lou Gehrig did it, Back to Back seasons, and Mel Ott. So, whenever you're in a conversation with hitters like that, it's pretty crazy stuff that's going on. Legit video game numbers that Dan's been swancing. He is 77% rostered on CBS. We are dealing with some shortstop injuries right now, Jeremy Paineer, Corey Seeger, both landed on the IEL this week. Dan's been swancing pretty ideal as a shallow league shortstop replacement right now. Yeah, my guess is he's moving back up the rankings. How high will he go? I don't know, it's a pretty low to position, Scott. It is a low to position. And even Dan's base swancing in his prime, he wasn't like a stud shortstop. He was a guy who deserved to be started in every league. A guy would flirt with 2020 numbers, but never with or rarely with a particularly helpful batting average. So, I don't actually think he's the best he's ever been. One thing I want to point out too about this, at least the last two games with the five-home runs. I want to point this out because it's going to come up later. The wind in Rigglyfield the past two days, the Cubs scored 23 runs here on Wednesday. And they scored nine the day before. But with a bunch of home runs being hit, you know. The wind's been blowing out. It's probably contributed to this. I'm looking at the stats on one of his home runs. It went 397 feet while being hit, 102.9 with a 36 degree launch angle. So, that's a pretty high home run, right? Right. Am I wrong about that? That's a pretty steep launch angle for home run. That is a steep launch angle, but Stakas has a home run in 30 of 30 ball parks. Right. Because of the distance. And I'm sure that was windated. I don't know. I didn't see it. I may be presuming a little too much with that day as we swanced in home run. But like, let's see. Between the two teams, nine home runs hit in this game. And the day before, it was 23455 for the Cubs. and 67889. So nine home runs on consecutive days in that Padres Cubs series because of the way the way the wind was playing at Rigglyfield. So yeah, that's something to keep in mind too is and a reason why you don't want to go crazy in overvaluing Swanson because of the this awesome two game stretch, but you know, I can probably get him as high as 16 maybe. It's tough to get much higher than that because then you're getting into like stud territory. You got the rookie short stops and all those guys and look, Boba Shed is not a stud anymore, but you know, he's coming off a really good June where he looks like himself again. So you get into those types of conversations. But yeah, Danzby Swanson on fire right now. I think it also helps that it's just really hot around the country right now and it's like we're going through a heat wave and juice balls, right? Like juice balls are kind of back and we spoke about it extensively yesterday too. There was another tweet from Eno Saras where he followed up with with Major League Baseball to try and get more information about what's going on and yeah, they did kind of admit to like a manufacturing thing that's going anyway, there's more there's less drag on the baseball and so they're traveling further. So I'm sure that also has helped contribute to lots of home runs in Chicago, lots of home runs all around baseball. Do just want to touch on the rest of this game real quick while we're on it. They put up 23 runs as you mentioned. PCA, new month, same hotness doesn't matter. Two for four with a sock in the shoe, his 19th home run, his 21st stolen base of the season. And yeah, he's got the batting average all the way up to 287. His on bases 374. I think I moved him up to like my eighth ranked outfielder. He's back to back with Jackson Cheerio. So he's been amazing. Say a Suzuki's picking things up three for five with his 13th home run last 24 games for him. 344 six homers 23 RPI OPS over a thousand 91.2 average EV. He'd definitely had a rough stretch in there from probably the middle of May to early June but has really picked things back up. Michael Ketfordo had a huge day as well hit two home runs but he just doesn't really play enough. So I don't really think that's probably doesn't matter too much right? Scott Michael Ketfordo. Well, he might play more with a match all on the IEL match all was playing more because Moises by Astero Scott sent down. So say his Suzuki had shifted over to D H. Ketfordo has performed well when he's been in the lineup for the Cubs this year. It's it's been sparse playing time but his average ex of velocity is up over let's see it's it's up over 92 miles per hour 92.5 that's way up from last year his pull air rate up his pull air rate also way up from last year's 28% that's dark red on his baseball savant page. So like he's doing what he needs to do to power up again after really dispoening season with the Dodgers and there may be something to Ketfordo. I don't know that you need to add him in every five outfield or league but there's a path to playing with time right now and there there are some encouraging signs and then he has a two home or damn here and who started for the Padres here that would be Walker Bueller who was charged with nine earned runs over four innings four walks three homers loud his previous nine starts before this one it was a 264 ERA 117 Wippy actually had been pitching better it's not just like he wasn't completely lucky he was getting ground balls and and things but obviously just right into a buzz saw just wrong place wrong time here for Walker Bueller let's talk about Paul skiing Scott maybe the worst start of his career at the Phillies four innings eight hits seven earned runs that was a career high he gave up two home runs in this game as well had 10 whiffs on 81 pitches obviously not a great number there. For Seamer performed a performed well here had six of those 10 whiffs but also noticed the velocity 96.3 miles per hour on the fastball which according to an article on MLB.com tied for his lowest in a start in his career and on the season he's averaging 97 miles per hour on the fastball that is down 1.2 miles per hour from last year which you know if you're watching Paul skiing pitch you still see 97 98 you might not think too much of it but you know for other pictures we would you would point that out right like velocity is down I'm trying to figure out like what has gone wrong here for Paul skiing last nine starts to 536 ERA 140 whip his stuff plus metric is 99 on the season and last year was 110 as a rookie was 108 I don't really know what to do with that number Scott but it is a number and it exists and obviously it's much lower than where it normally is for Paul skiing so take all of this this bad start recent nine start stretch stuff plus being down velocity being down where's Paul skiing's on the worryometer oh I'd put it it maybe like a three that's as high as I'd go I was singing three or four yeah stuff plus I think it probably has value with players who haven't broken out yet but I you know it doesn't correlate that closely with performance I've found I try not to make too much of it what I see on the fastball other than it being down a mile per hour from last year on average the effectiveness is still about the same entered this start 189 batting average against whiff rate 29.5% it was 29.6% last year so like the fastball is still getting the results it needs to I the reason why I wanted to bring up the wind blowing out in regly field it is something people have been talking about it was blowing out 12 miles per hour to center field in the Cubs 23 run outburst here on Wednesday it was blowing out 10 miles per hour to center field in this game between the pirates and the Phillies in Philadelphia and who started opposite Paul schemes in this game Zach Wheeler and what happened to him well he got knocked around too true and everything else looked fine like Zach Wheeler had 22 whiffs 10 strikeouts there were four home runs hit in this game between the the pirates and the Phillies with the wind blowing out to center field three of them were hit less than 100 miles per hour and normally doesn't result in a home run so I think I think environment was in play environmental conditions were contributing to to schemes rough outing they contributed to Wheeler having a lesser outing than he should have also you know the heat was brought up as a possibility that maybe explains why schemes velocity was down a little bit it was like you said the lowest average fastball velocity of his career you know it was down half a mile per hour from a season average it wasn't it wasn't anything crazy and so you know you fix factor in the wind you factor in the temperature it just seemed like a bad day and there's still you know even if even if schemes you know isn't quite throwing his heart is his first two years the rest of the data in terms of how his pitches are playing is very strong he might not finish with an ERA and it's over 360 now okay he's still going to be really good yeah and even with this velocity we saw him have a crazy stretch just earlier this season where I think it was like a seven or eight start stretch with a one ERA or something crazy like that so we know he's still capable of doing that I do think that again it's like partially yes the the heat the environmental conditions this baseball to this kind of juice ball thing that's that's going on as well I don't know that there's much actionable if you have Paul schemes on your team I think you just you know obviously your roll amount there if you don't have Paul schemes I I would try and you know send offers 75 80 cents on the dollar it probably won't go through but doesn't hurt to try his value has never been less in fantasy than it is today yep that doesn't mean it couldn't get less potentially it could but I don't think it will I think I think this is the high point for a ZRA this season bold prediction I've said it before for other pitchers and it's been wrong yeah but I'm saying it again no no say it's got it's like saying it it's like the I don't know the jinx the bad jinx here from Scott the ERA jinx let's hope that isn't true do what do you have a shout out to man our guy your guy junior Kevin Arrow coming arrow coming arrow guy just keeps on mashing 24th home run he is home heard in six straight and now has nine home runs in his past eight games he is on an absolute heater we were uh yeah exchanging some photos and videos on x earlier regarding junior coming arrows got who knows maybe uh maybe we'll end today's podcast with uh with the caminero song I always gotta always gotta tack it on to the end and can't spare that one minute and 17 seconds mid podcast. No, no, no, we can't. We can't. There's way too much going on. It's time. Yeah, that's true. The last time you said you were, you forgot. I put a note at the end of the rundown to remind me to play at the end of the show. Before we get our first break reminder that it's got to prospects to stash our live on the website right now. Check it out CBS sports.com/fantasy/baseball or read about it on the CBS fantasy app. And we have an FBT express episode coming out later today discussing said prospect. So make sure to check that out as well. Let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. Hey, one shot. No, we haven't seen that live on this. What's the next thing you're going to do? Do you have any questions about the future? I don't know, I don't know. I don't know, I'm going to be extra virgin. Help me tell you how to do it. Motonets. Motonets. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes and out of nowhere, we learn Brent Rooker will undergo season ending surgery to repair a cartilage tear in his left knee. Trying to figure out who this would affect on the roster and the one I kind of landed on Scott for those who play in the deepest of two catcher leagues. Jonah Hyme has been playing more for the athletics. He's started seven straight games and has actually hit well with them since joining the athletics team. Shay Langley has been, you know, deaching more frequently. So I think that's probably the biggest winner, but that doesn't really matter too much for fantasy. Obviously, losing Brent Rooker who was like a top 50, top 60 pick in a lot of leagues, pretty just disappointing all around when he played. He wasn't great and then obviously season ends here with an injury. No surprise on this one, but Corey Seeger was placed in the aisle with lower back inflammation. Yesterday, I told Chris, no more. I'm done. Next year, the 80 peak of me 200 Scott. I'm done. Done. Corey Seeger done. Hmm. Okay. Yeah. I mean, there's three months to go. Nope. I'm done. No, it doesn't matter what happens in the next three months. Yeah. Is he going to play? Is he going to play in the next three months? That would be nice. I, I, I suspect he will play some, not right now, but I don't know. I don't know. You know, I'm not ready to say anything as definitive as you're saying, but that's fine. Yeah. Maybe you'll be right. Sometimes you got to go bolt. Even when he plays, man, it's like the strikeout rate is way up this year. Yeah. He hasn't been good. There are signs of, of an old Corey Seeger here. So that could be what's happening or or the regression just hasn't happened yet. Look at Dan's piece, Watson. Oh gosh. All right. Well, I will cue this up once again if we get a crazy stretch from Corey Seeger later on in the season. We figured out this, we figured this was coming as well. Connolly early was placed in the aisle with left elbow inflammation, apparently dealing with something on the back side of the elbow here. It's got if you play in leagues with limited aisle spots or no aisle spots, do you think Connolly early is a drop? That's hard to answer definitively. Elbow inflammation, that's pretty vague. Sometimes, it can be a quick turnaround. An early had been pitching better. And I think he's good in a general sense. And you know, if you can never have too much starting pitcher help, I guess if you don't have aisle space and it's 12 teams or fewer, let's say. So there's decent talent on the way for wire. Might be able to justify dropping them then. But as a general policy, I'd rather not drop him. Mostly because I think do offer aisle space. So hopefully you could just dash Connolly early there. This one sounds bad. Ryan Hellsley felt something in his elbow while warming up in the bullpen here on Wednesday. Craig Albernass said, "Hellsley will undergo further testing." And it's especially scary because he went on the aisle with an elbow injury earlier this season. So, Scott, if you had to speculate right now, is there someone you would add in the Orioles bullpen? Last time, Hellsley was down, it kind of felt like it was a mishmosh of different players. Rico Garcia's numbers this year are really good, but they just, they wouldn't commit to him as the closer. No, they treated him more like the leverage guy. And so, you know, it's kind of helpful since we got a trial run of being without Hellsley and we have a better idea what to expect. The other thing is Garcia, yeah, his overall numbers are great because he got off to that great start. But in Juni, he had a 690/70 RI. So I don't know that they're going to treat him with the same prominence that they did. The last time, Hellsley, with her, was hurt. I'm just checking here because I know Yanir Kanau had been their best reliever in June, but that ended on the 29th when he gave a four runs to earn. So I don't think there's an obvious front runner. I think it'll be mixing and matching if, if, if, if Hellsley is down and it sounds like he will be. If I had to bet on one guy, I guess Garcia, but that's not with much confidence at all. Yeah, I'm looking through their June numbers now for all the relievers. Despite that bad outing, Kanau still had a good June. Kitchridge had a good June as well. Kegan Aiken was money, but it feels it looks like they use him in like a multi-inning role. It's probably going to be a mix match of like Kitchridge and Kanau. Maybe someone else. Tyler Wells has been pitching really well and it's been racking up holds has 11 of them. True. But I doubt he's just becomes the closer. Yeah, I think it's going to be a mix. All right, Moody Batch was scratched on the lineup with right wrist soreness. Byron Bucksen has missed three straight with that right hip impingement. Vlad Jr. returned to the lineup after missing Tuesday with back tightness. Christian Walker left early with lower back stiffness. I noticed he slowed down in June as well. So perhaps doing the reverse Christian Walker from last year. Really good second half. Not good in the first half this year. He was really good the first two months. Perhaps he could bounce back, but yeah, bad over the past month or so for Christian Walker. Matt Chapman was placed in the aisle with an abdominal strain. Christian costs was recalled by the Giants. Sticking with San Francisco, Willie Adamus has missed three straight with lower back spasms. Will Smith will remain on the aisle through the All Star break with that neck inflammation. So more playing time here for Dalton rushing. Brendan Nemo has missed three straight with that AC joint sprain in his left shoulder. The arrangers are expecting Nemo to avoid the aisle. Vinnie Pasquantino will continue his rehab in Arizona to begin July with the hope of embarking on a rehab assignment. Before the All Star break, he went, he underwent Hamay bone surgery on June 14th. So starting a rehab assignment before the All Star break would be pretty aggressive for Vinnie P, but probably should expect him back sometime in like late July, maybe early August there with Vinnie Pasquantino. The Blue Jays place George Sprayer on the paternity list, he will miss one three days. Sounds like Hurston Waldrip will start on Thursday for the Braves and he's 21% rostered. Scott, what is your, how much of a priority is it to add Hurston Waldrip? Maybe before this start, before if he has a good one, could be, could maybe cost you some money or you might miss out on it, you know? Yeah, I mean, in a 15 team league context where the waiver wire is always so scarce, obviously it's a much higher priority, but I would say for the majority of listeners, it's pretty low priority. Wasn't encouraging the way Hurston Waldrip finished last year. I do think there's some upside there, but prior to his promotion this year, the little bit of time he spent in the minors 11 walks and 15 and third innings and then he had four and the two innings he pitched for the Braves. So I think he's still going through some stuff and I'm not expecting these first couple outings to go particularly well for Hurston Waldrip. I think it'll be, you know, if he does become usable in fantasy, it'll be a slow buildup to that. All right, Chris Babich was scratched from his rehab start and will return to Kansas City for further evaluation. He's been battling shoulder elbow stuff setback. So it doesn't sound good for Chris Babich. Matt McLean made his first career start and center field on Wednesday and the Astros are planning to activate Christian Javier on Friday and the plan is for him to pitch out of the bullpen. Let's continue on with the worryometer here, Scott. We had a, we had a trio of rough outings outside of Paul Schien's Freddie Peralta, man. He is going through it as well. Another rough outing at the blue chase, four innings, seven hits, five runs, three walks in this one as well. The fastball velocity was up nearly two miles per hour. It did not matter. It got hit really hard. And over his last nine starts, 665 ERA, a 163 whip. Where is Freddie? probably like a six. He might be of all the established pictures who've struggled this year. He might be the one who's confidence. My confidence in him is depleted the most. Because I mean, for a few reasons, he hardly throws the slider anymore. And that was, you know, was recently is two years ago. That was his outpitch, you know? It worked okay from last year, mixing in some other things instead. But, you know, this year is showing that may not be the right approach long term. But I don't know that he brings it back. And his outings tend to be short. He's walking a lot of batters. He always has. I mean, it's not like it's the worst walk rate than, than it's typical. But one thing you could always count on Freddie Peralta for again, leaning on that slider was over 10k per nine. It was a great strikeout pitcher. Let's send a strikeout per inning this year. So short outings, lots of walks. Underwhelming strikeout rate. I just don't see a lot here that's worthwhile. I haven't buried him in my rankings. But I believe he's outside of my top 40 SP rest of season. Yeah. Which is definitely the lowest he's been in several years. Yeah. I updated the rankings earlier today. I dropped him down to SP 42. That was even before this start. So the names I have just behind him, Yuri Perez, Casey Meyers, Reid Demers. Would you move Peralta behind any of those three? Yuri Perez, Casey Meyers, Reid Demers. I would still keep him ahead of those three because they have their own question marks. But I think that's the right range. All right. Let's talk about Peyton Toley who had a rough outing here against the nationals. Three innings, seven hits, six runs, three walks, two homers allowed in this one. And the nationals against lefties outside of kind of early the day before actually pitch well against them. But yeah, they own lefties and they did that again here against Peyton Toley. Last time out, he was amazing against Yankee. So I was going to say this is a one off. But you know, there have been a little things that popped up, you know, inefficiency and things like that. It's got overall, I think the arm town is still really, really awesome here for Peyton Toley. But where would you put him on the worryometer right now? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe maybe like a five or six. I don't know that it's quite on the level of Peralta. But it's it's it's enough to comment on, I would say. And it's less about this start against the nationals than the general trendy was on. Now he, you're right. His previous start against the Yankees was very good. He had a three ERA for for the entire month of June. And you looking at the game log, you could say this was maybe his third bad start this year. Like he's been pretty, pretty reliable. But dig a little deeper and he's become far less dominant recently. Peyton Toley had a 13.8% swinging strike rate in his first eight starts dominant 9.7 K. Prenon. Good, you know, that was the first eight starts last five starts. That swing strike rate is down to 9.1 well below average. And only 7.7 K. Prenon, which is also below average. So I don't know why Peyton Toley isn't missing bats like he used to, but I think he has to miss bats to be effective. And he was kind of getting away with it in June. I felt like. So I, you know, we'll see if he has starts as bad as this moving forward. Obviously it was against the top offensive baseball and the nationals. But I have some concerns for Toley, not enough to drop him or anything. Yeah, no, definitely still. But there are some concerns. Would you start Peyton Toley at the white socks next week? He's 70% started. I would prefer not to, but it would probably have to be a pretty shallow league where you can realistically decide to do that. I meant to ask you the same question for Freddie Peralta. Of course, like this usually happens coming off a terrible start. He lines up for two next week. He gets the royals and the red socks 62% started his Freddie Peralta. What do you think about that? And those are two really good matchups. I have a hard time believing there's a league where I'd set Freddie Peralta. All right. Last name on this list is Mackenzie Gore who really just had one terrible inning against the Guardians. It was the second inning where he allowed five runs. That was all the damage against him five runs over five innings. Did have seven strikeouts to one walk 15 with on 92 pitches through 63% of his pitches for strikes. You know, you dig in like the whiffs. He threw strikes to average. Evie was all right. But I mean, it's just more of frustration from Mackenzie Gore. I don't even know what else to say about him. Scott, but where would you put Mackenzie Gore on the worryometer? Should he be on the drop-o meter? I don't know. He is the original Charizard and he burned you today and that's that's all the analysis I care to do on Mackenzie Gore now unless he loses velocity. I guess that would change the equation. But yeah. You know, any other little changes that seem it's encouraging or discouraging it never lasts for long. And I don't know. Is Mackenzie Gore the original Charizard or was it Eduardo? Eduardo, I'm sorry. It was Edward Cabrera. I think it was Gore. I think Gore came first. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. 92% roster. Should that number still be that high for Mackenzie Gore? I mean, probably not. But it shouldn't be much lower than that. Obviously, the roster rate for pitchers varies a lot by platform. So I don't know how meaningful that number is to anybody unless they're play exclusively on CBS. But I had just relative to pitchers. I value similarly. It seems a little high. Yeah. He's 66% started for next week. Mackenzie Gore. He gets to Angels to good matchup on paper. I said the same thing about the Guardians. It could match up on paper. But really just comes down to Mackenzie Gore himself. And is he on that day? I don't know. You got to wait till that day to find out. Let's check in on some waiver wire starting pitchers, though names that we keep talking about. A lot of those names were here pitching on Wednesday and a specific trio who we brought up last week. Troy Melton, Joey Cantillo and Tatsuya Imi. We'll go from best to worst got Troy Melton. Great outing here. Six and a third shut out. Seven strikeouts against Yankees 12 whiffs on 84 pitches. And he didn't have the whiffs in his first four starts. But over his last three, it's now a 14% swinging strike rate for Troy Melton. Joey Cantillo. He was erratic but picked up the win here against the Rangers. Five innings, two runs, five walks, four strikeouts. There will definitely be starts where he struggles with control. That's always kind of been an issue for him. But he did still continue to throw that curveball a lot and the velocity remained up. So I think overall still mostly positive there for Cantillo. Tatsuya Imi. This is where the positivity ends got awful, awful, awful. He is the new age charizard. He is taking over Mackenzie Gore because from one start to the next got I have no idea what I'm going to get from Tatsuya Imi. I don't think there's a wider range of outcomes from one start to the next on player performance then with him. If someone tweeted at me today and said it's like you're either going to take up your gromm or Chris Paddock. There's like there's no in between with Tatsuya Imi. But he had nothing. He recorded four outs, gave up five runs, five walks, two homers allowed. I think he moves all the way to the back of the waiver wireless right now. Yeah, he went from being one of the most exciting pickups to a I think I think it'd be justified dropping him after a start this bad in most leagues. Obviously if it's if they're if it's hard to get any pitching talent off the waiver where you got to give a little more time. But yeah, familiar problem in this one. He went from issuing just one walk combined in his previous two starts. Oh, finally, turn the corner here with the control to five walks and is one and one third innings. He threw 40% of his pitches for strikes, which is I don't know that I've ever seen a number that low. Yeah. And you understand why you give the couple home runs if you're pitching behind in the count that much. So I think there's plenty of talent there for a my. But you know, I've been saying with Trey his average that he can only beat himself. My is like an even more extreme version of that. He he if as if he doesn't beat himself. I mean, there's a lot of upside there's a lot to like. There's a lot of strike up potential. But he so often beats himself and you know, it's. It was such a big step back after those two big steps forward kind of for races. It was such a big step back at races two steps forward. How about that? How about that turn of phrase I just came up with on the spot? I think that's fair. Thoughts here on Troy Melton and Joey Cantillo. So Melton, yeah, he missed a lot of bats again, 12 lifts on 84 pitches, seven strikeouts and six and a third. And that's what he was lacking early on, even though he was succeeding. He was a huge batman, sir, and the minors. Would that ever come around? Seems like it has the last two starts with strange about this start. The velocity was up on everything a little like half a mile per hour. And remember, that's what we were crediting Melton's previous start, all the whips he got in now was, oh, the velocity was way up, but it was way up in that start. It was up like two to three miles per hour on some pitches, only up half a mile per hour on his pitches in this start. So he didn't sustain those velocity gains, at least not completely, but he still got the whips. He's still got the strikeouts against a good Yankees line. That excels against left-handed pitch. Or did I do the thing? They are historically bad over like the seven-game losing streak right now. They are slumping. Falling off the face of the earth. I was just wondering if I did the thing where I was built. Yeah, I did it. I did it. And now I'm telling on myself, I was about to call Melton the left-hander, non-left-hander, he's a righty. I caught myself, but then I told on myself, so does it really count. We appreciate the transparency, Scott. Yeah. I'm dumb. Anyway. Jeez. Who would you rather have between the two right now? Troy Melton or Joey Cantillo? I know you said the other day, Cantillo must, must, must. Yeah. Then he walked five. But what's encouraging about Cantillo? Even though he walked five, he was walking more than four per nine coming in. So he walks, guys. He didn't his previous two starts, but that there's no reason to think that was going away completely. What he continued in this start against the Rangers was spamming that curve. Ball 39% of the time wasn't quite as high as the previous two, which I believe were 50 and 45%. But he continued to lean on that curve ball. It was still up more than a mile per hour. His top three pitches were all up more than mile per hour. So it was throwing harder, leaning on that breaking ball. I think those, I think it was continuing the very encouraging trends for Cantillo. And he just walked a bunch of guys and that's going to happen sometimes. So you were asking, Cantillo, were you asking as far as Cantillo? How about you just rank these four? These kind of feel like the four that have emerged lately. It's Trevor Rogers, Cantillo, Cade Cavali and Troy Milton. I'm still going to put Cantillo at the top of the list because I think you can sink, there's more to sink your teeth into there. Like there's something you can point to saying, okay, this is why he's getting better. And I always trust that more. So Cantillo one, but Melton has closed the gap quite a bit. We'll put him to. I think I'm going to go Rogers three because I really don't know what's going on with Cade Cavali. Why his fastball was so dominant in that recent start when it was a bad pitch for him. Preview, like a bad pitch. And that's part of why he had been so inconsistent. If we come to find out, you know, next time Adi dominates with the fastball too. It might have to change my thinking. But for now, I'm pretty skeptical of Cavali still. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, I have a few other waiver our pitchers to ask about. We'll do fun with arbitrary endpoints for a bunch of hitters. We'll do that right after this. [Music] [Music] Welcome back fantasy baseball today. And you know what's got to kind of confuse me that JT Ginn is just not universally rostered at this point because he just beat the Dodgers. Despite walking five, I know walks have kind of crept up here every now and then he has three different starts with five or more walks this season. JT Ginn, but over his last 11 starts, 248 ERA, 121 Whip, doing a good job avoiding hard contact, getting a lot of ground balls, 70% rostered. I don't know. I feel like he should just be rostered everywhere. Do you agree? I like him. Yeah, I feel like he's slipped a little from his peak in what was it late May early June where he was getting a ton of strikeouts to go with all the ground balls the weak contact. It's looked a little more ordinary here in recent terms, but it's still getting the job done. I think he needs to be rostered. Yeah, 70%. That seemed to way too low. You're right. Gotta get that up. I'm wondering who he faces this week because I did not. I have him at the Tigers next week. Oh, it's a pretty good matchup. It might need to add again to the sleeper pitchers. Honestly, I didn't think he qualified. I thought it was too roster. That's what I thought too. Yeah, but here we are. JT Gain is pitching well. Some two interesting names and I think could be like beat the waiver wire options here and just kind of get out ahead of this. Ronaldo Lopez looked good. Velocity up here got whips against the Cardinals back in the Braze rotation. He's only 17% rostered and he's a spark for those who play in points leagues. Shane Drowin, this is a name that we've told you about a few times now where 5 and 2/3 to run 7 strikeouts. 17 whips on 78 pitches. That is a 22% swinging strike rate in this outing. He's also a spark. Looks like he lines up for two next week. I know the brewers have either been using a six man Logan Henderson's coming back soon. I think they also have eight games next week, though. So probably have two starts anyway. I don't know. Scott, what do you think about getting out ahead of Shane Drowin and Ronaldo Lopez beat the waiver wire? I do like Drowin. I like that nine of the whips came on the fastball. That's something I've been pointing out with him this whole time. How good of a bat misser his fastball itself is. And I think that is the strongest indicator of upside with the pitcher. If you're going to do the single factor analysis, then can he miss bats with his fastball? Are planning on pitchers that don't? But if you can do that, you got a lot of upside. It's a 30% whiff rate coming in on that pitch. So really it's just about, does he get the link? That's been the main thing for me with Drowin. Does he offer enough length to be of real use and fantasy? He went more than five innings in this star, only through 78 pitches. And it's not often you're going to get through that many innings on so few pitches. So I don't know that he's cleared that hurdle yet. But does line up for two starts as you said. And with the eight games very likely to make them. So I like Drowin. And I would consider him more of a priority than Renaldo Lopez, who's also in line for two starts. It was encouraging for Lopez. Average 95.1 on the fastball. Remember two years ago when he had the ERA below two was averaging 95.5 on the fastball, I believe it was. So it's right there. He got that fastball up right to where it was in 2024. Here's what Walt Weiss had to say about it. Lopez basically did a pitch last year. We loved the trends we were seeing presumably at the bullpen. And then as his pitch counts started to climb as a reliever, he became a feasible option to start. And again, that looked like 2024 to meet tonight. So the brave seem excited. They seem like, they seem to think Lopez has recaptured his form. I'll just say we did this. Earlier this year, he had a good start and the velocity was up and we were thinking, maybe he's back. And very soon after that, he wound up in the bullpen. So I don't want to get too comfortable with it. I think we need to see him sustain it over a few starts. But it was it was a it was an encouraging sign for Lopez. It's got to have an interest in streaming Michael McGreevy next week. Six innings of two run ball three strikeouts here at the Braves. He has a quality start in five of his last six outings. I know the underlying numbers do not buy it at all. But it seems like he's been a pretty high floor pitcher. If nothing else is season. And he makes two starts. It looks like it against the Brewers and the Braves next week. Yeah, I would consider the Braves a favorable matchup for opposing pitchers right now. They've fallen all the way to the middle. it'll put it all the packet runs scored because their offense was so bad. June. Brewers, you know, they, they remain a really tough matchup. So we got one good one bad there for McGreeby. He's a quality start machine. I think he's a good choice in points, leagues. But, uh, yeah, I, I think there's too much ratio risk there for, for categories, leagues probably. Two deeper names got any interest in these two, uh, Dean Kramer, who look good in his return. You know, whenever he has that splitter working, he, he can generate a decent amount of whiffs. And Trevor McDonald, a great outing here at the D-backs, was definitely struggling before this. No, I, I look at his individual pitches and they seem pretty good. He gets a lot of ground balls. It, it has not resulted in much success so far. But I don't know. I remain like wildly interested in Trevor McDonald, uh, deeper names. But what do you think about Dean Kramer and Trevor McDonald? Yeah, I share your interest in Trevor McDonald. And I don't want to overstate it because I'm not looking to pick him up anywhere right now. But there are some, there are some good indicators there. Uh, so, you know, a couple, the last couple of years, I think the two of us were saying that about JT again. And now he's become a worthwhile fantasy option. So maybe one day Trevor McDonald will wind up there. What I like about him, even prior to this start, 58% ground ball rate is very high. Uh, and what he did in this start was throw a much harder and more effective change up. Six of the 10 whiffs came on that pitch. It was up to miles per hour. So maybe figure something out there with the change up. He already gets ground balls at a good rate. Let's keep an eye on Trevor McDonald. That's as far as I'll go with it for now though. Yeah. Uh, I will just point out. With Kramer too. I don't want to keep an eye on Kramer too because you mentioned the splitter. He's been thrown away more this year. And it has been a very effective pitch. He continued to throw more in this first start back from the aisle. So we'll see if that continues for him. If you are in a deeper league and you're in a pinch for next week, it, it is risky. But Trevor McDonald looks like he lines up for two against the blue jays and the Rockies. Both starts in San Francisco. So I don't know that matchups are good. Pitcher himself. Not sure if he's good. Matchups are pretty good. All right. Let's do some hitter fun with arbitrary endpoints and trade turner man. He is coming around two for five with his 10th home run last 14 games for Turner. He's hitting 350 with three homers 18 runs scored two steals and OPS over 950. Scott is trade turner back. Probably. Before I pat myself too hard on the back for getting Dan's B Swanson in that trade and the Dynastie League I should note I gave up trade turner. It was a very big trade. Involving many pieces. Swanson was hardly the top thing. The top prize I was looking at there. But yeah, Turner. It's sort of like Swanson. When you, when you looked under the hood there, sure he's old and maybe, maybe there are things going on there age wise that are harder to quantify. But when you did try to quantify what was going on with Turner came up pretty empty. He seems like the same guy. And so I suspect this is regression at work for him too. Three risers with arbitrary endpoints. Sam Antonacci last 22 games for him. 338 for homers. Three steals and OPS over a thousand. I have moved him inside of my top 30 outfielders. Brandon Marsh last 28 games. 322 10 homers for steals OPS over 950 also comes with a 32% strikeout rate. But I have moved him inside of my top 40 outfielders in both formats. Frodo and head to head points and Carson Benj last 30 games for him. 286 seven homers 20 runs two steals 850 OPS. I have been inside my top 40 outfielders. Got any thoughts on these three risers Antonacci Marsh and Benj. I just wonder if I moved him up to the same range of my own outfield rankings because I don't really disagree with any of your assessments there. Okay. I got Antonacci 33 so little behind you. Brandon Marsh. I'm expecting regression there but like especially now that the strikeout are back up. But there are only so many quality outfielders. He's in my top 40 as well. He's 38 so looks like you have him. Yeah, of each of those guys about five spots ahead of where I do. Benj, I have 45 though I suppose Rooker is one of the one is one outfielder. I have ahead of him so he's obviously going to have to move up one spot because of that. But it's you know I got George Springer ahead of him. That's a little questionable. Spencer Steers definitely questionable. Jared Durand is the one I don't know what to do with right now. I feel like just dropping him way down but it is risky because you know we know what the upside could be even if his upside is not what he was two years ago. He still was a useful player just last year but I thought I did drop him down a bunch. Man he's in two of three months he has an OPS below 500. It's bad. That's really bad. I don't know if the I don't know if the tool saved correctly because I feel like I lowered him or maybe not maybe I just blame technology when the fault is mine. I still have 24th you have him 40th but I don't like where I haven't had a burlison at least in Roto. You know I think I moved him down a lot more on points than Roto and it was a little hesitant because of the steals in Roto. That's probably what happens. Three players since returning that have looked two of them have looked good. It's a very small sample. Noel V marté. It's kind of a mixed bag but he hit his fifth home run 22 games since returning to 25 five homers three steals. He's hitting the ball hard and has started 10 of the past 11 games so it looks like maybe the reds starting to show a little bit more trust in Noel V marté. Chase the lottery in four games since returning has eight hits three runs four RBI in a steal and Elliot Ramos in his four games since returning four hits two homers four runs and three steals. It's got how would you rank these I guess waiver wire alphillers the lottery is not really available in too many leagues but the lottery Noel V marté Elliott Ramos how would you rank those three? I probably would have to put marté third. Let me double check this here. Yeah I think I'd have to go marté third. I don't trust the playing time even though it's picked up recently. There's upside there for sure but I'm going to put them third for now. The other two I'd be part of the reason I'm putting marté third also is because I like Ramos's matchups next week so much. I have him as one of my sleeper hitters giants have the second best hitter matchups so marté has a lot more upside than Ramos I think I guess I guess it's fine if you prefer him over the long haul. If you play in a daily lineup league Ramos has three games in course field this weekend too so if you want to use him for that. There you go. Deloiter I was wondering if you know I was trying to think okay he missed time with the bruised ribs was that something that was lingering it doesn't seem like it was it was a collision with the outfield wall on June 13th he suffered that injury. I just I bring it up because he was struggling for so long before going on the eye on he comes back and he's hitting well again but I don't know barely apparently isn't tied to health. All right some other waiver wire arbitrary endpoints here. Cody Clemens keeps on hitting for power hit his 14th home run last 31 games 252 10 homeers and OPS over 850 and he's hitting the ball really hard has expected stats really good during that span 56% rostered first second outfield eligible Dylan Cruz stole his fifth base and last 20 games for him 278 three homeers four steals 90 mile per hour average EV. Other names are a little bit deeper down but I guess I'll just stop there for seconds got Cody Clemens and Dylan Cruz just five alphila leagues for now on those two. Yeah for now I guess Dylan Cruz I think is trending really well. I don't think the power production has been such that there's a lot of urgency to Adam in three alphila leagues but I do like the trendies on I think he could get there soon. One name I want to mention that I've seen you don't have in the rundown and he's he's been widely rostered in CBS leagues all season but I think that's kind of an aberration it's it's Mickey Moniac who went three for four double triple home runs so missed was a single away from the cycle Mickey Moniac and he had been struggling since coming back from the I L but there was a good article in MLB calm about how he had gotten in some bad habits contending with the ankle ten to night is that put him on the I L it was his right ankle that's his front foot when he's hitting and he had been the way he was shifting his weight had changed because he was favoring that ankle and went into the process of trying to get out of that bad habit and seems like he got out of it with this huge game on Thursday or sorry Wednesday. So the Rockies are on the road all of next week after a full week at home. You may not want to use Moniac 5L leagues though you probably do. Yeah, and it's a good point you bring up about other websites with Moniac. Only 36% rostered on Yahoo, and I think that is probably the best place to use them because a lot of those are head-to-head daily line up leagues and you know you play Moniac whatever he's at home or even on the road against the right hand of pitcher like maybe you use them but you know having that optionality with Moniac and a daily lineup league just feels like the best way to to utilize his skills. Three deeper names here. Got Nassim Nunez. He is on the board. His first home run of the season. Might be the first home run of his career probably is. Last 23 games. 333. A Homer 10 steals OPS over 850. I don't know. He's hitting. Cedric Mullins. Last 35 games. I feel like I bring up Cedric Mullins every other day. I don't know why. 280 seven homers, five steals and OPS over 800. And Trevor Larnick. Last 13 games for him. 431 two homers, 12 steals. 12 RBI. Not 12 steals. That would be crazy. He leads off against Ryan Pitchers. He does not play against any lefties at all. These are deeper names Scott, but do you have any interest in the scene? Nunez, Cedric Mullins or Trevor Larnick. Only special situations. I would say you know Larnick. Larnick I've always liked the skill set. It just hasn't translated to enough production to count and fantasy. Any hardly plays against left handers. So I think this far into his career there isn't much we can cling to here. Nunez obviously a steel specialist and that's it. And Mullins. I guess Mullins strikes me as the most useful. But I can't say I have a lot of confidence and I'm even though he's been hitting well lately. Nunez, I must apologize. Hit his first home run of the season. He had four home runs in 39 games last year. Where did that come from? What's not expecting to see that? That's baseball season. That is scrolling on down, getting into the left overs here on the hitting side. James Wood looking a bounce back in July after a downed June. He went two for four with his 20 second home run. He is on pace for 40 homers, 138 runs scored, 100 RBI and 23 steals. That would be awesome. Ozzy Albe's two for four with his 13th home run. Solid season for him. I wish he would run a little bit, but I'm getting getting a little greedy there with Ozzy Albe's. And new month. Same hunter. Goodman hit his 27th home and now has six home runs in his past six games. Anything on this trio. Nothing much to add really. All right. Pinching left overs and we mentioned earlier, Zach Wheeler. He's human after all. Four and two thirds. Nine hits, four runs. Still had 10 strikeouts, 22 whiffs on 104 pitches. Anything to see here, Scott, or just bump in the road, weird weather, wind blowing out situation. Yeah, that's it. I think we basically covered it. He missed so many bats that I could give him the pass for everything else on top of the sort of the oddities of the game there again. That was Wheeler facing up head to head with Paul Schienz and we went into. We went into that already. Yeah. And just to highlight how weird it was, it was a season high 10 strikeouts for Zach Wheeler, also a season high nine hits in that game against Zach Wheeler. So just kind of weird all around there for him. Course field. Speaking of weird Max Meyer took his first loss of the season here. Six innings, five runs, only one of those was earned. There was an error behind him in the fifth inning, which extended the inning. Then following that, there was a two run triple, a two run homer. So I mean, at least the runs were unearned here. Scott, but yeah, first loss of the season for Max Meyer, I kind of just think it's a mostly a course field thing here. Yeah, he's really good. And I'm not concerned to bounce back. Shane Oh Mac. I do not have his sound drop loaded up. Sorry about that. Shane McLeanhan looked great after the extra time off six shutout innings four strikeouts as year of walks. He did that at the Royals. Don't get fooled by the six innings. It was still just 69 pitches here for McLeanhan and Will Warren five and a third to run seven strikeouts as year of walks. Notice the pretty big change in this one. No pun intended. He used his change up a lot more. And it was it was really good for Will Warren. Anything anything on him and Shane Oh Mac. Yeah, the change up thing with Will Warren caught my attention as well. You know, it's 29% usage versus 9%. So it was a very minimally used pitch. And it got so many of the whips in this start entered with a 171 batting average against. So it was just screaming to be used more and Will Warren used it more and snapped out of a pretty rough four-start stretch while doing that. So hopefully, hopefully it's a key to getting his season back on track. Would you start these two next week? Will Warren at the raise and at the nationals and Shane Oh Mac home against the Yankees home against the Mariners. I think McLeanhan everywhere. Since these last two starts were so good, Will Warren probably just points leaks. And last name on this list, where are you on Taj Bradley? Five innings of one run ball, 11 strikeouts here against the Astros, but only had 10 whips on 97 pitches. It still gave up some hard contact in this one. The velocity up that that was kind of interesting, but where are you right now? The last three starts have looked better for Taj Bradley. I am skeptical big picture. Smaller picture encouraged. If that makes sense. The main thing that encourages me is he's gotten his splitter usage back to where it was before the IAASD and when he was getting such great results, he was throwing that splitter closer to 20% of the time, came back from the IL and had a 607 ERA in his first, I didn't know how down how many starts it was. Tantful of starts had a 607 ERA. It was thrown that splitter only about 10% of the time. So cut its usage in half. Last two starts has gotten it back up. Actually, it was 23% in this one. It just seems like it's kind of a linchpin forum. It was certainly the results back it up. I still think his best starts are a little too good to be true, but I think Taj Bradley got to have him rostered again with the way he's looked to the last couple of outings. I think he's someone that you would want to use next week against the Guardians. I'm going to keep picking on that matchup. Didn't work from Mackenzie Gore. It's funny. Taj Bradley is definitely in that Charizard category too. He is someone that could go on and have a huge start. He can also just rip your team apart. He could. Yeah, that's true. That's where that's what the game log shows. There may be a method to the madness though with this blitter usage. So that's what part of what makes Mackenzie Gore so frustrating is like it just comes out and nowhere. And it doesn't seem like there's anything behind it. Just some starts. He's great. Some starts. He's not the call to the bullpen for the Tigers. Drew Anderson was going for the two innings save, but he ran into trouble in the ninth. He gave up two runs to tie the game. He took his fourth blown save. Interestingly enough, they opted not to use Kenley Janssen. And I saw Janssen warming up in the 10th inning of that game. So he's he's coming off. I think a blown save or a loss in extra innings. Kenley Janssen and he just hasn't been as good this year. So something to watch with the Tigers bullpen. Kair Matsero wound up with the win. He threw two hitless innings in extras with three strikeouts for the Brewers Trevor McGill got the ninth with a two run lead. He allowed a hit but struck out one for his 12th save and he just looks like the closer for the Brewers once again. He's like inside my top 15 relievers, I think in category leaks. Rightfully so. He's looked really good for the Rockies Jimmy Jimmy Herget got the eighth inning with a three run lead facing the heart of the Marlins lineup. He threw a clean inning. It was the left the Brennan burner Dino who got the ninth and picked up his first save of the season. Rockies bullpen. And then for the Jans Caleb Killian, struck out two for his in the ninth inning for his seventh save. Despite that recent blowup, they just keep going to Killian. So I'm just going to keep thinking it's him for now. Yeah. I mean as much as the Giants have any closer. Yeah. What size leagues do you think Killian needs to be roster in? It's got like 12 team category leaks or deeper as like a third closer. That's probably the shallowest I would be rostering Killian in. Yeah. Would you take him over any of yo injuries Gomez or Alex Lang? No. I agree. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have Jared Jones at the Phillies Slate. to Coney against the white socks. Hurston Wollachup against the Cardinals, Ian Seymour at the Royals, Stephen Colock against the raise, Walbert Arania at the Padres. Nope, Walbert Arania at the Mariners. And Rokie Sasaki is home against the Padres. He faced them last time out. I know it's a good matchup, but he was really, really bad in that start. So what do you think about streamers on Thursday? Seymour's number one. It's putting a lot on his most recent start. There was a lot to like about it, and we're picking from bad options here. So we're going to go with Seymour for sure. Is Sasaki the best choice? I didn't want to put him in my sleeper pitchers, you know, the weekly article. I think I would put Seymour and Arania ahead of Sasaki, but he's probably third on this list, I would say. Yeah, I agree. On Friday, we have Andre Palante at the Cubs. Trevor Rogers is at the Reds. Anthony Kay at the Guardians. Christian Scott at the Braves. Jake Bennett at the Angels. Jack Perkins against the Marlins. I think I would go with Jake Bennett at the Angels. Hope he gets a lot of strikeouts against that lineup. One else is a stretch. Probably Jack Perkins against the Marlins though he hasn't been very reliable in Anthony Kay at the Guardians though. I don't think he's very good. What about Rogers? Trevor Rogers. Oh, yeah. Since it's an alley, Cincinnati is not hitting right now. Obviously it's a scary place to pitch, but I think I would be able to. Yeah, probably have to do Roger's second behind Bennett. Yeah. I think so. I think I probably go Bennett Rogers and then don't love any of the third options. I want to pitch well, but Cubs lineup is on fire right now. Probably would choose Anthony Kay as a third, but don't feel great about that one. All right. We are going to wrap there. Scott, I wish you a happy Fourth of July. This is your last podcast. I won't see you again before the Fourth of July. So I hope you enjoy it. Any big plans coming up? What are we going to do? Same to you. Same to you. We are as a family, the four of us. We are going tubing and brevard North Carolina. Nice. Yeah. I'm trying to, I don't even know what River it is. It looks like Googling it now. Looks like the French broad river, which I didn't even know was a river. I went tubing once in Helen, Georgia, in my youth with my family. I was probably like 11, 12, something like that. I was the Chattahoochi River. I'm not into a lot of outdoor activities when I was young because I was in Boy Scouts. But the interests never really took off for most of them. But that was one of the funnest trips I remember going on with my family as a kid. Was that tubing trip in Helen, Georgia? I'm looking forward to it. My oldest is about the same age I was then. And hopefully. Hopefully we can make some memories. Very nice. Very nice. All right. We are going to wrap there for Scott. I, Frank, thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Vaseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Take it away, Caminaro. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]