Speaker 1Baseball has always been a game of inches, now it's also a game of seconds. T-Mobile and MLB have teamed up to bring ABS Challenge to all 29 ballparks across the US. This isn't a minor upgrade, this is the most significant new technology in the history of the sport. And it's powered by T-Mobile. With every pitch thrown, ABS Challenge uses real-time precision to verify the call, giving them the support they need. No delays, no guesswork, just accuracy at the speed the game demands. Thanks to ABS Challenge, T-Mobile is helping power the moments that define the game. When performance and reliability are non-negotiable, MLB turns to T-Mobile. That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when the most innovative network in the country powers the most data-driven sport in the world. T-Mobile powers MLB's most ambitious technology, and America's best network powers your connection to baseball. Home or away, every pitch, every game, every day. T-Mobile, it's better over here. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights. Are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. T-Mobile, best mobile network in the U.S. According to Ookla Speed Test, based on analysis by Ookla of Speed Test Intelligence Data First Half 2026. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break. But not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts, so let's take a minute to go over some of my faves. Snapple real facts, 14-17. Before 18-19. Before 18-59, baseball umpires sat behind home plate in rocking chairs. Snapple real facts, 14-83. More than 100 baseballs are used during a typical professional baseball game. Snapple real fact, 2-53. The first TV remote control introduced in 1950 was called Lazy Bones. Snapple real fact, 21-05. Professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville in the off season. So grab a Snapple, take a second, and enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your life. Snapple, make your break more interesting. All right, now let's get back to the show.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasybaseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris.
Speaker 1What's up? And welcome in to Fantasy Baseball Today on Thursday, September 17th. I am Frank Snapple, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Zach Wheeler is so back. We have six hitters who are finishing strong. CJ Abrams is not one of them. Plus waiver options for the final week and much more. Let's jump in. Holy cow! How about that? And how about MVPCA? Just another ridiculous game. Three for four, double dong, triple, walk, three runs, three RBI, now up to 44 home runs, which is the new Cubs record for a left-handed hitter. It just seems insane to me.
Speaker 3Every new stat kind of blows my mind. Here's a couple of them. I believe this was the sixth game of his season where he's had at least 10 total bases. That ties Nelson Cruz for the MLB record. Wow. He has 81 RBI out of the leadoff spot this season, setting a Cubs club record. This was his 98th game hitting leadoff, and he has 81 runs. That's 134 RBI pace out of the leadoff spot. Wow. Let me find. He was hitting on May 29th. He was hitting .224 with a .314 on-base percentage and a .362 slugging percentage. He was awful for the first two months of the season, and he's not just going to be the unanimous MVP. He's putting up one of the 10 best seasons by a center fielder ever, and he just keeps getting better. He has a .1083 OPS since May 30th, and I just keep waiting for him to slow down, and every single game. Let me see. Let me see. Yeah, Matt Snyder pointed this out. Five multi-home run games since August 5th.
Speaker 1That was like six weeks ago.
Speaker 3Yeah, this is crazy. This is like not just that we all were pretty skeptical of Pete Crow Armstrong coming into the season, but for a third of the season, we were right, and then he just overcame this overnight, changed his setup. There's a really good piece from NorthsideBaseball.com. Matt Trueblood wrote it, talking about this from back in June, talking about the changes to his setup that he made. I think he brought his feet closer together in his setup and is taking a bigger step, and it's just he's become the best player in baseball. If he was just as good a defensive player as he is, that would be enough. But he is also arguably the best offensive player in baseball this season. It's a stunning, stunning season, one of the most unbelievable seasons I can remember seeing, given who we are talking about.
Speaker 4I was wondering how much Wrigley Field might be helping Pete Crow Armstrong, since it is a park that can create some strange... strange home run outputs on both ends of the spectrum. He's hit 27 of his 44 home runs there, so I would guess it's had some effect. Pete Crow Armstrong, depending how hot he stays over the final week and a half, he might brush up against 50 homers at this point. It's not a profile you would expect from a 50-homer hitter. That's not what he projects as, which doesn't take away him doing that. I just wondered how much Wrigley helped. I'm guessing it's helped to some degree. Maybe somebody who's a little better at combing through that kind of data can say more definitively, but just my cursory glance, it's probably helped some, strictly with the home run output. I mean, obviously, we knew he had power speed. The improvement in plate discipline this year, his approach has helped take him to another level. I'm ranking him second overall next year in Roto, which actually is higher than I think I swore I would. Talked about it a week ago, but I've actually—
Speaker 3It'll be significantly lower than the consensus, I think.
Speaker 4Which is one. Yeah. It'll be twice as low as the consensus.
Speaker 3I think you are the only person who's going to take anybody but Pete Crow Armstrong first next year.
Speaker 4Yeah, I'll still take Otani, I decided, presuming he comes in with a clean bill of health. It's hard to doubt Otani. But anyway, getting to my main point, this is maybe the— maybe the loudest testimonial to a point I've been making my entire career, which is you can't overvalue your own opinions. You should never be too sure of any player assessment. And I put this testimony into action this year. I was very skeptical of Pete Crow Armstrong from the beginning. Like, notoriously so. I've taken a lot of heat from Cubs fans both this year and last year for being a Pete Crow Armstrong skeptic. He was my most drafted player this year. Because everybody came in skeptical. And I was the only one who was like, well, I'm skeptical, but early in round three for the kind of upside this guy showed last year? That doesn't feel like that much of a gamble. And so, anytime I picked in the first half of the first round, I basically grabbed Pete Crow Armstrong in the third round. And he ended up being my most drafted player. I'm sure that's the biggest reason I'm going to win Tout Wars this year. My Tout Wars league. And, gosh, I've said I'm still contending for the title in three leagues. I think we've got to call it four now. Really pushing hard to take down the first place team in my NFBC league. I've been a distant second most of the year. But I've closed the gap a lot just in the last week. And I got Pete Crow Armstrong in that league, too. I drafted Aaron Judge in round one in that league. And, by the way, I drafted Ronald Acuna in round one of Tout Wars. So, like, I whiffed on my first round pick in both of those 15-team leagues. And yet, I'm going to win Tout Wars. Probably not going to win my, what is it, TGFBI league. But, you know, I've made a good run at it even though I blew my first round pick because Pete Crow Armstrong was essentially that in round three or, in the case of Tout Wars, round five, ridiculously.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. Yep. It's, you know, I've seen the comments. I know it can be annoying when we say, I don't know. But sometimes that's the honest answer. We know what we know, and we don't know anything. Yeah, like that's sometimes the answer to what is happening or what's going to happen is just, I don't know. We have an informed opinion. But, like, sometimes there are genuinely things that are just... just kind of out of our grasp and honest analysts will embrace uncertainty and nuance and scott i think that's what you're saying is that you did your analysis of peter armstrong you thought there was a lot of risk you didn't think it was a hundred percent risk and so yeah when the price gets right take a chance on any player that's absolutely the right way to approach it and i've been
Speaker 4floating this idea tangentially here but related um heath cummings who used to be a regular on this podcast is is a regular on fantasy football today now he even dating back to when he was on this podcast had a strategy that he referred to as nips an acronym for no intentional position strategy and it was it kind of was a foil with me because i was very much on the uh position scarcity band wagon and uh that's what the tears are all about i'm starting to dabble with an idea my own nip strategy except instead of no intentional position strategy no intentional player strategy because i'm not sure at least in the expert ranks there's enough differentiation in our assessment of players to say if i target this guy ahead of the consensus because that's my guy that i'm going to get an edge there like i i think the better edge to get is everybody's letting this guy slip so i'm going to take him and you know it'll be a different player in different drafts it's just whatever guy happens to slip just take him and uh i think i'm definitely gonna do
Speaker 3that with pitcher next year yeah because the the guys i went out and targeted it wasn't wasn't ideal
Speaker 1so scott you might say that you are warming up your nips or your nips are warming up you're warming up to the nips we will have a lot of off-season time to talk about scott's uh scott's nips but uh for now you know i i kind of want to take the opposite approach and just lean completely into my own convictions because i say this at the end of every year it's like they're like the two players i really really like this year were sal stewart and cam schlittler and i just did not draft enough of them now a lot of people like those two players so you know look you're just not going to get them in every league but i wish i had them in my team i wish i had them in more leagues so i i don't know we have all off season to figure it out uh let's get into some other players of the night and i want to highlight zach wheeler because he's looking like he's back i'm thinking i'm back seven shutout innings with five strikeouts 13 whiffs on 91 pitches here against the nationals and honestly under the hood it didn't look like he had his best stuff he was a little bit wild here but he got a lot of chases out of the zone and uh overall it was a great start here for zach wheeler and now over his last four it's a 104 era a 0.92 whip 29 strikeouts to eight walks over 26 innings so there was a stretch where we were rightfully concerned about zach wheeler where you know his velocity dropped and then his effectiveness was gone there for really like a month-long stretch but now he's starting to figure things back out and he's finishing strong once again there's not really much to add to this because if you have zach wheeler for the final week you're starting him but i think it's just really good to see and we'll see how he pitches in the postseason to give you confidence to draft him as a you know top five top 10 starting pitcher
Speaker 3heading into next season he's gonna come really close to finishing as a top 12 starting pitcher if he doesn't because according to the fangraph player rater he's at 16.8 entering this start logan henderson's at 18.6 he's the number 12 starting pitcher he didn't have a great start today so i don't know if that's enough for zach wheeler to leapfrog him but it's going to be very close which is incredible because he didn't pitch until what late april yeah um like april 24th or something so it's like it's been a little rocky but how many starting pitchers haven't had a four or five start stretch where they struggle okay jacob mizurowski camp schlittler yoshinobi yamamoto that's pretty much it everybody else
Speaker 1has had at least one hiccup and um it's just especially scary for a 36 year old he's 36 years
Speaker 4old you had that your elbows or we didn't know how that return from that shoulder surgery was gonna go and it went really well at first but i think that's the reason we couldn't just brush the rough patch off for wheeler i think for most pitchers of his caliber if they had a stretch like that would be like absolutely just keep the faith because we know he's gonna come back from this
Speaker 3one thing that will make me feel even more confident about drafting him in 2027 is if he signs an extension this offseason because there was already a story about his contracts over at the end of next season and when he signed the contract he said this is it and then there was a quote a couple months ago where he was like oh well maybe not and um yeah if he feels confident enough to come back beyond 2027 not that i'm going to move him down if he doesn't sign an extension or anything but i think that i would just feel even better if he feels like this is not the end of the line for me i can keep going so that'll be
Speaker 1something to keep an eye on yesterday chris you were kind of struggling with you know where exactly will rank christopher sanchez in the offseason way too early gut check here but what do you guys
Speaker 4think wheeler or christopher sanchez for next year i've already begun that process and i have christopher sanchez ahead i have christopher sanchez in round two is it yeah firmly ahead
Speaker 1like clearly ahead of wheeler or are they i did not consider wheeler for round two but i'm going to
Speaker 4do okay um i i mean he was on the longer list of players i considered i guess but i didn't seriously consider him for round two so yeah i would say sanchez is firmly ahead it might only be by a spot or two in the starting pitcher rankings but in the overall rankings at least around i would
Speaker 3it might be four or five versus seven right yeah all right again that's uh zach wheeler
Speaker 1he's finishing strong somebody who is not is cj abrams chris you were texting earlier today you had a bunch of stats about uh how cj abrams has you know very quietly kind of
Speaker 3fallen off here in the second half yeah we haven't talked much about it and in fairness before thursday night or wednesday night when he had a double um he had three straight multi-hit games so it's not you know it's not been totally awful but i did notice while working on some stuff for 2027 um he's hitting just 190 with a 561 ops since august 1st and his strikeout rate's up to 34 now look he's still going to go 30 30 he's still setting career highs pretty much across the board i think not in stolen bases but everywhere else and so it might just be a bad six weeks but when it's cj abrams who has had a hot start and a swoon every single season of his career hmm i wanted to see him run through the finish line i wanted to see him avoid the slump and if the slump happened in june and then he got hot in august and september nobody would care and maybe that's the right way to look at it maybe the right way to look at it is cj abrams is going to go 30 30 he needs one steal in the next 10 games i think he'll get it um he has the best quality of contact stats of his just look at all that and say take it at face value but because he's had the slide and because he has not been able to avoid the slide even if it came a little later you know it was like a month later this time it does just cast a little bit of doubt on cj abrams he was the 65th player drafted on average last year he was the eighth shortstop off the board he should go higher than both of those for sure i think he's probably a third rounder
Speaker 4i got him in my second round okay 30 30 shortstop is going to be second base eligible by week two
Speaker 3presumably probably well we'll see yeah but i yeah we do have to see i think there's a an off there's a chance that the nationals trade him there's a chance that the move to second base goes sideways and frank you brought up when we were probably a contender would want him at shortstop even less but yes that's his defense is very bad at shortstop and has always been
Speaker 1um but i kind of worry about the mentals about him moving off shortstop to second base he's a guy that's dealt with some stuff off the field and so you just you there are some
Speaker 4character concerns when it comes to cj abrams oh yeah i mean he had the the casino thing a couple
Speaker 1years ago um like how would he like yeah but i said he didn't want to move to second base you
Speaker 4know because this is a familiar refrain with him because he always craters in the second half and just to give you the numbers so you don't so you understand the extent of it first half last year batting average 836 ops second half 217 batting average 633 ops in 2024 first half batting average uh 268 ops 831 second half 203 ops 586 so like this is this is the familiar rhythm for cj abrams and yet he's obviously improved his baseline he went from being a guy who topped out at 20 homers to now 30 homers is in the discussion and there are there's data backing it up hitting the ball harder pulling it in the air more like i i i think there's legitimacy to it i also don't know that it was ever reasonable to think he was going to sustain his first half pace but because this is the familiar rhythm like I don't think we should overreact to it I think look he's he's collapsed in the second half each of the previous two years and came back and had a great first half so like that's my expectation for CJ Abrams again now if I in my experience when you get too locked into a certain player's rhythm like oh this guy's a first half player this guy's a second half as soon as you start planning around that he goes and breaks the rhythm that's my experience but I think the easiest way to sum it up is just over his career he's proven full season statistics are more predictive than partial season statistics and to bring it back to Pete Crowe Armstrong big reason everybody was skeptical of him going into this season is because he cratered in the second half last year so I want to want to make that same mistake with CJ Abrams that's fair I guess my
Speaker 1biggest pushback for Abrams next year and look I haven't I have no idea where I'm going to rank him yet I mean it sounds like it'll be either in the second or the third round I don't know that I will be the one to draft him is this I've always had this kind of mental block of buying the player when they're at their highest off their peak season off their career year when we have such a long track record of who CJ Abrams was before this so I would just kind of lean towards all right him regressing towards what you're doing and I think that's a good thing the player he was before maybe with a little bit extra kind of baked in like you know some skills that have actually improved but is that worth a second or third round pick I I probably would lean no I think a third
Speaker 420 30 guy if he regresses to being the 2030 guy he was the previous three years I don't think you're going to regret that with a third round pick so if you think he could be better than that and obviously at second base by week two yeah I think I I would be very surprised if his ADP winds up being below round two especially since Lindor's out you know so many of the shortstops we had counted on in that range Lindor Gunnar Henderson are have now disqualified themselves from
Speaker 1that range oh I I'm not I'm not disagreeing with ADP I'm just saying where I am going to draft him for this season all right Scott I know you wanted to talk about Luke Keisha we'll save that for a little bit later on because we talked a lot about PCA I do just want to mention up at the top man like this whole thing that I do X team does not have a closer and they never will ever again I obviously it's just a fun bit but I think the Marlins actually live by that and whenever Pete Fairbanks is on the IL they do not have a closer and they never will ever again and our latest example enter Sandman Sandy Alcantara in for the save two days after throwing 101 pitches Chris what is going on
Speaker 3he was scheduled to throw in the bullpen today anyway apparently he told the pitching coach before the game I know the bullpen's been gassed there's been a lot of three inning starts lately if you need me I can go out there and I think Ryan Gusto pitched three innings today yeah four and a third and yes Sandy Alcantara went out there for the ninth inning I felt like I was losing my mind watching it happen
Speaker 4I like what the Marlins account tweeted the Marlins account your sleep paralysis demon is Sandy Alcantara coming out of the bullpen and recording his first career save
Speaker 3throwing a hundred miles an hour almost giving up two game tying home runs I don't know if you guys were watching but the first one was like caught at the fence I think the second one was hit 394 to dead center and then the game and then the game ends on a stolen base that had to be challenged so it's like the most anticlimactic ending to the game the umpire just has to come out and be like yeah he's out game's over I think part of it was the Marlins are like seven and a half games out and so you might be thinking why would you why would you do this when you're seven and a half games out but there was a quote from Ryan Gusto here where he was like look he's the captain he's the heart of the team he's like we were so excited to see him get that and I think you see that sometimes when teams are playing out the string they look for it's just a fun thing yeah it's a fun thing and so like Clay McCullough looked extremely excited when the game ended Sandy was beaming like it was it was very weird it was also like I wouldn't remember that game otherwise and I'm going to remember that game now
Speaker 4so here's the thing it's not just a fun thing for people who are facing Sandy Alcantara who was widely started because this was a two-start week and it sounds like it's still going to be a two-star
Speaker 3Clay McCullough came out after the game and said he's starting on Sunday still
Speaker 4two starts and a save in the same week is very clutch though he's got to come through in the second start he didn't really in the first start
Speaker 1yeah so that is a fun part of it not if you're going against him but if you had him in your lineup it was bad for a start oh gosh Sandy Alcantara he's struggling but now he gets you a save so you know helps kind of even out the week here for Sandy Alcantara very fun stuff let's take our first break and we will get to the news and notes right after this
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Speaker 1fantasy at baseball today let's run through the news and notes and a very scary moment here on Wednesday Aaron judge left early and there was video of him wincing after a check swing so me Yankees fans everywhere obviously the sky is falling we think that he's re-injured his rib turns out that he left with right lower leg tightness so he will get treatment on Thursday during their off day and they'll see how he's feeling on Friday I mean it's still not great it's just yet another kind of injury to pop up here for judge at least it's not the rib that's what they're saying that's what he's saying but yeah we'll see how he responds on on Thursday and Friday Blake Snell was removed in the first inning due to left groin tightness and it would really be something if emmett Sheehan winds up back with the Dodgers and makes the start this week after all I don't think that's going to happen but it would be funny after the game Blake Snell said that he anticipates making another start before the postseason we'll see how he's feeling in the next couple
Speaker 3days but that's really good because look when people draft him as a top-20 starting pitcher next season like they always do not me it's gonna look really really stupid if he doesn't get to at least 40 innings this season. So he's got it. to get to 40 innings and then everyone drafting him as a top 20 starting pitcher will make total sense and it won't be a bad pick
Speaker 4the groin by the way is something he's had a lot
Speaker 3of issues with which three different IELTS stints before
Speaker 4maybe like maybe maybe work to his advantage here because the way he describes it he felt like he was trending toward that happening again and so he went ahead and removed himself before it did I don't know how good he is at self-diagnosis but like you know obviously he has experience and so he may have made a different decision than he did in the past but like you just hate to see that recurring problem continue to recur if you're hoping that he bucks the trend of being injury prone next year
Speaker 1somewhat related to Blake Snell's injury Roki Sasaki threw a 48 pitch bullpen here on Wednesday we don't exactly have an update on when he's going to return what role he's going to return to but he seems like he's pretty close that's Roki Sasaki Chris sales next start has been pushed back from this weekend to next Tuesday against the Reds and it is a rough go for those who started him in a weekly lineup league because you get nothing nothing for you from Chris sale unfortunately where I am in my home league dang battling my dad for the championship and Chris sale was one of the pitchers in my lineup so in the
Speaker 4podcast I'm not podcast league where I'm we're in championship week I started both Chris sale and Blake Snell one inning between him this
Speaker 3week congrats to whoever's winning the podcast I mean I'm
Speaker 4winning so far I got a nice cushion but like it's it's it might not be enough of a cushion by the way Blake
Speaker 3Snell has been on the IL four times with growing issues in 2021 2022 2024 and then again in 2024 so I don't know I don't think that's that's not
Speaker 1great hey Blake Snell man you gotta you gotta stretch a little bit I wonder if he knows that you gotta stretch out gotta get everything ready to go before you go out there I did want to mention this earlier in the week but I'm happy you you brought it up now the finals are set in the podcast league so I just wanted to give a shout out to some people here Scott is in the finals here against excuse me if I mess up this name but Pedro Ardenas so that is the podcast listener league the head of the head points league that's the final there and then on the other side unfortunately Scott you will not be not be repeating as champion you did make it to the semifinals but it is Josh Lloyd who hosts the locked on fantasy basketball podcast and his son who are sharing a team they are going up against the Kokomo Friday fanboys and I should probably look up the actual name of this gentleman so we can give him a shout out here in the finals and that is the head of the finals John Greenstein so shout out to everyone
Speaker 3Scott did very rudely knock me out of the playoffs in the podcast league yeah that was I think I think I made the playoffs in all of my points leagues except for the Dynasty League that's a yeah it's a different thing and I lost in all
Speaker 1of them yeah I mentioned that rivalry week a couple weeks it's probably a month back at this point but Chris actually beat me in the consolation round of the of the Dynasty League too I wound up with 13th pick in the rookie draft which is I think I got a lot of I got my highest pick I think I'm seventh that's pretty good yeah that's not bad but yeah not the greatest picks somewhat related I guess rivalry week I I saw this in my notes I was like wait what I wrote serial bet on my calendar for September 27th that's the last season Scott versus Chris okay Dylan cease minus ten and a half innings versus Jesus
Speaker 3Lizardo oh remember that bet wow that's a good bet oh Lizardo was I probably running I think was gonna win so I yeah Lizardo has 12 more innings than Dylan cease I don't remember who had which side of the bet though I might have to it had to have been yeah and I had to have had Lizard yeah I was higher on sees he was higher on Lizardo had so Chris you
Speaker 1needed Lizardo to have 11 more innings in what you needed cease to have 11 more in Lizardo he's
Speaker 3probably got two more starts maybe he can throw 23 innings across alright I won that bet I want it I'm gonna be looking up exotic cereals yeah exactly right baby that's a cereal out cereal in New York City so expensive I'm gonna have to find a wholesaler in the Carolinas to send yes just
Speaker 4get it all off Amazon you'll be fine let's continue on
Speaker 3dollars for a box of cereal
Speaker 1man inflation man cereal inflation Hunter Goodman has missed two straight with that thumb sprain every time he's going to get a box of cereal every time the Rockies have a full week of Coors Field something happens to Hunter Goodman the Cardinals activated JJ Weatherholt he let off and went over three Kyle Harrison will start Thursday in Pittsburgh he has been terrible lately he's been terrible on the road this season and he was terrible in his last appearance at the bullpen so do not use Kyle Harrison yeah Samuel Basayo was back in the lineup as he works through that lingering shoulder issue he looked pretty good went two for four with his 18th home run Jackson Holiday was back in the play was placed in the aisle with left wrist inflammation if you're wondering it was the right hand where he had the hammy bone injury earlier this year so not the same hand wrist that he's on the aisle with now but his season ends with 98 games played 229 batting average seven homers eight steals a 640 OPS we are now over 1200 played appearances into his career 229 batting average 654 OPS he's still 22 years old don't want to write him off completely I can't imagine many people were excited about Jordan Walker at this time last year heading into 2026 but it's it's been a bad start to Jackson Holiday's career there's no way around it
Speaker 4and the underlying data hasn't yet in inspired nearly as much optimism as Jordan Walker's has I mean Jordan Walker's optimism still ran out but it made more sense to keep it I think than in Jackson Holiday's case I'll just
Speaker 3say the same thing I was saying about him priest before this season when I think there was some optimism around him I wish there was something to point to yeah like there's just what skill can you say Jordan Jackson Holiday has that you can really count on daddy I mean like yeah like he was the number one pick and his name but like he he doesn't hit the ball especially hard he's not a great athlete his plate discipline has not been what it was supposed like it's just there is if it comes together for him it's not impossible but man there's really not anything like Jordan Walker at least crazy athlete hits the ball hard you know you don't have that with with Jackson Holiday it's it's it's not impossible but it seems real unlikely Kyle Bradish who was
Speaker 1placed in the IL Sunday with an abdominal issue was diagnosed with a sports hernia Trey Savage will throw a bullpen this weekend and is on track to return either Sunday or Monday he threw just 34 pitches in his loan rehab start so I can't imagine he'll be very stretched stretched out for the start and I would not recommend using him chase the water has missed two straight with that renewed wrist soreness the twins place Kaelin Culpepper on the IL with a left hamstring strain most likely ending his season I guess there's a chance he could be back for I don't know like the final game final day of the season but 31 games with the twins 275 three homers one steal 737 OPS and he's got a pretty good sleeper candidate next year Colson Montgomery left early after being hit by a pitch on his left wrist x-rays came back negative Joshua Baez left early due to left side tightness Connelly early's first rehab start with the Nationals went poorly one inning of work two hits three runs two walks two strikeouts velocity was down around one mile per hour across the board the Dodgers activated Chris Bubich whom they picked up at the trade deadline he will work out of the bullpen and good news for next season both Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker are going to be hitting progressions neither will return this year but it is good news for 2027 once again and I think the A's could have a pretty sick lineup next year if everyone's healthy in no particular order but Henry Bolte Nick Kurtz Shay Langaliers Tyler Soder Shrum Brent Rooker Lawrence Butler Zach Geloff Jacob Wilson one of Tommy White or Corota Grauer that's either at second or third base and then eventually Leo DeVries will be in there taking that spot so it is a good chance to get a really really good A's
Speaker 3lineup on paper did DeVries have he had
Speaker 1surgery right yeah okay I could be he could be out all the way until May of
Speaker 3next season I always get him and Sebastian Walcott confused in my mind because they're like the same age they're both in the ALS and so like anytime something happens with either one I'm like wait which one was that the A's one or the Rangers one but yeah I think DeVries is he's out like eight months so it's probably probably gonna be second half of next season for him but very exciting prospect if he's right
Speaker 4they've locked up a lot of those guys long-term already they've got a new GM coming in yet to be yet to be chosen right but they've got a new GM coming in and they're not this upcoming year but the following year is when they start in Las Vegas right yep so next year is our
Speaker 1last year to take advantage of Sacramento
Speaker 4I mean they need some pitching beyond maybe Jacob Lopez but I like Gage Trump
Speaker 3yeah yeah I know there's not a ton to talk about him in the moment but and they got uh super talented and Jamie Arnold Jamie Arnold
Speaker 4Jamie Arnold, that's his name. Yeah, he hasn't had a great season, first season in the minors, but obviously a big prospect. Two Jamie Arnold mentions in two days.
Speaker 3Two days in a row. Look at this pod. We are a prospects podcast.
Speaker 1I think Luis Severino's still on their contract too, but not very good. He is a name. He'll be in the rotation. Yeah, based on the money he's making, I think so. Some waiver wire hitter options for the rest of this week and for the final week of the season. And I have three outfielders up top. Henry Bolte homered on the road. How about that? It was his 11th home run. The rest of this week, he's still on the road. Six home games next week in Sacramento. Yusei Kikuchi, Walbert Arreña, Peter Lambert, Wesneski, Hunter Brown, Christian Javier. Seems pretty good there for Henry Bolte. So I like that quite a bit. Scott, you can jot that one down for your sleeper hitters for next week. AJ Ewing is finishing strong. He went two for four with his 24th steal. Last 15 games, 389, three homers, three steals, OPS over 1,000. He has four more games this week against Aaron Nola, TBD, Andrew Painter, and Christopher Sanchez. Six road games next week. Gore, Rocker, Quantrill, Alvarez, Irvin, Jackson, Kent. I think those matchups are pretty good for AJ Ewing. And then Jacob Marcy, dude stayed red hot. Two for three with a sock and a shoe. His 11th home run is 23rd steal. He has been basically great since the start of August. And looking at his schedule for next week, Gosman, Imanaga, Clay Holmes, Grant Holmes, Martin Perez, some lefties on the schedule there, but not really pitchers I'm scared of by any means. Scott, how would you rank these three for the final week? Bolte, Ewing, and Jacob Marcy?
Speaker 4Well, without having the matchups right in front of me.
Speaker 1They're on the rundown. They're on the rundown.
Speaker 4Are they on the rundown?
Speaker 1I just read them. They're on the rundown.
Speaker 3Okay. Well, let me. The one thing, I think, that I'm going to bring, did you mention in the news and notes, Chris Sale? Yeah, he's being pushed back to Tuesday. Yeah, so he is lined up for next
Speaker 1weekend for Sunday, but if the Braves are locked into their seating, they're not going to start Chris Sale next weekend.
Speaker 3Yeah, they're going to save him for game one of the wild card.
Speaker 4I'm going to say, this is hard to process in the moment like this. It's a lot to process.
Speaker 1I think Bolte, just with the home games, I think he's clearly at the top. I guess it's Ewing versus Marcy.
Speaker 4That's kind of my gut feeling, too. Yeah, I think exactly how you list them here. Bolte, Ewing, Marcy, but I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow when I put the official list together.
Speaker 1I think it's nice to see from all three of them that they are finishing strong as, you know, young outfielders that have some, like, power, speed upside, and all three have looked really good here lately. That's Bolte, Ewing, and Jacob Marcy. A corner infielder, Christian Encarnacion-Schrand hit another home run, his 10th of the season. He has homered in back-to-back games. And in 51 games, he's, the power production is actually very good. 10 home runs, 35 RBI. I know a lot of that is against lefties. He also has massive home road splits. He's awesome on the road. He's terrible at home. His full season pace is 32 home runs, 111 RBI, so he's been good. I may have missed on some starting
Speaker 4pitchers these last two weeks, but I nailed the sleeper hitters this week. And Encarnacion-Schrand did this against a righty. So, I mean, the main reason he was on the list was all the lefties. He has a big game against a righties.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4It's looking like a good week for him.
Speaker 1I'm looking at next week, and they have Scherzer, Cease, Will Warren, Freed, and there's like two TBDs as of now, so it's kind of hard to project out. There's at least one lefty on the schedule, but I don't know. But he is playing every day, right?
Speaker 3Close to it, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4Close to it. He and Mayo both, not quite every day, but pretty close.
Speaker 3Yeah, they've, it's increased. It had, like, before it was like they were really only starting against lefties, and then like half the time against righties, but they've earned it. Like, they've both, Mayo and Encarnacion Strand, have earned the right to play down the stretch for a team that doesn't have anything to play for.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think as a corner, he's fine. If you are one of those demons in a daily lineup league that really is playing, like, left- right splits, and if you're on top of it, man, like, just play CES or Kobe Mayo every time that they have a lefty on the schedule. Do you think there's any chance that... Do you think that Encarnacion Strand has worked his way into the Orioles' plans for next season? He's still young enough. I'm asking for a friend, a friend who plays in a Dynasty League and has CES on their roster.
Speaker 3I think there is a good chance of that. Yeah, I would assume he's still under club control. Yeah, he's only going to be, he might still be arbitrary. He might not even be arbitration eligible next year.
Speaker 1And they picked him up for nothing, right? I think he was, like, either
Speaker 3DFA'd or... He was still making, he's still making the minimum, so it probably wasn't DFA. It was probably... Non-tendered or something? Yeah.
Speaker 4I don't know what it was. He always produced in the minors, was never a big prospect because it's that really difficult profile, right-handed, hitting corner man with bad on-base skills. And a lot of those guys, they just never find their footing because it's hard to make room for them in a lineup. So, you know, you can understand the Reds giving up on him.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 4But he may have found his footing now with the Orioles.
Speaker 1Yeah. I do want to see how he has graded out defensively. I know he's played a decent amount of third base for them, but grades out well, weirdly. Yeah, I mean, StatCast has him as, like, pretty much average in terms of outs above average and arm strength, so... Yeah, for a guy who I think
Speaker 3was supposed to just be a first baseman, that's not terrible, yeah.
Speaker 1Yep. Couple middle infield options here. Cooper Pratt has been solid, two for four with a run, RBI and his 14th steal. Last 16 games, he's hitting 327, four steals during that stretch. Jonah Cox is running wild for the Giants right now, three for four with a walk, run, RBI, two steals. He has started 11 straight over his last 23 games. He has actually been awesome. Jonah Cox, 329, three homers, 18 runs, nine steals. He is second in outfield eligible, and then Anthony Volpe continues to just make some things happen here. Two for five, two RBI, his 11th steal in seven games since returning. He has eight hits, a homer, seven RBI, and four steals there for Anthony Volpe. Chris, a lot of these guys, they seem pretty similar. It's mostly just, like, some batting average, but I think they have a lot of coverage and some speed, maybe the occasional home run, but how would you rank these three, I guess, for the final week? I have the matchups written in there, too, and I get that it's like hard to kind of process all that, but Pratt, Cox, and Anthony Volpe.
Speaker 3I would like to say Cox, because he's been so good, and the steals have been so good. He has a 37% strikeout rate at the major league level. I did not realize that. Which is wild, because he was only like a 16% strikeout rate guy at AAA, and he's been really good at both levels this season, but he hit four 15 in the minors this year, Jonah Cox. He was a 24-year-old at AA for most of it, but yeah, he's been super productive, but it's just, man, those strikeouts make it really hard to have faith in it. I think just because Pratt and Volpe, I think, are so, like, you know, I might just go with the mystery box of Jonah Cox there, but I think it's ultimately just kind of a three-sided coin.
Speaker 1Yeah. It probably will just come down to the mystery box. to the matchups here for those guys. I think, yeah, the playing time seems pretty safe for all of them. I did just want to pull up who Jonah Cox is scheduled to face at six home games next week, and the pitchers that he has on the schedule are Bailey Obers, Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley, Scooble Yamamoto, and Blake Snell. I don't know if Snell will make that start, but either way, yeah, it's kind of tough matchups there for Jonah Cox.
Speaker 4For what it's worth in a 53-year game sample, worse at home than on the road, as you'd expect.
Speaker 1Yeah. So that doesn't really play out very well there for Jonah Cox. Looked at, Volpe has seven games in the final week. Nick Martinez, Rasmussen, Ian Seymour, Peralta, Trevor Rogers, Brendan Young, Shane Boz. So Rasmussen's really good. Everyone else is kind of, you know, mediocre. So I don't know. I think it could potentially work out for Volpe there full week, the final week of the season. If you need a catcher, Rafael, Flores continues to hit for power. His ninth home run. He has started seven of the past eight games. He has seven home runs over his last 28. He also has an 860 OPS during that span. Yainer Diaz has been better since the start of July. I looked into this last 50 games, 316, nine homers, and 878 OPS during that stretch for Yainer Diaz. If you need a second catcher, who are you guys leaning towards? Flores, Yainer Diaz?
Speaker 4I need to see the match. Because actually, I was surprised. I just put together, I'm almost done ranking catchers. I'm about 40 in. I was surprised how good Yainer Diaz has been since his IL stint. I think he's batting around 300, just going off the memory there. But Flores has been so hot in providing power, which is more valuable. So I would lean that direction unless the matchups are bad. But far apart.
Speaker 1The one thing I will point out for Diaz, Scott, is that he has four games in Sacramento next week.
Speaker 3And also three in Seattle. Yeah, but three in Seattle.
Speaker 1Actually, no, I think it's three in Seattle, three in Sacramento.
Speaker 3Yeah, so that's kind of...
Speaker 1Yeah. I mean, kind of second best
Speaker 3hitters park in baseball, worst pitchers park, best pitchers park in baseball. Yeah. It's a middling schedule.
Speaker 1Kind of evens out.
Speaker 3I would say Flores' schedule
Speaker 4looks better.
Speaker 1All right. And I just wanted to give a shout out to Flores. Now to Ethan Salas, he is on the board. for next year it doesn't really matter for for this season but yeah two for four double dong three rbi welcome to the bigs welcome to chorus field you're gonna get a lot of games in chorus field assuming you stay with the padres uh but yeah this was uh first big game of his career for ethan salas the first two home runs of his career still just 20 years old he was a top prospect yeah uh very interesting skill set in the minors this year sarah lang said youngest
Speaker 3catcher to homer in a game since yvonne rodriguez youngest catcher to homer twice in a game ever so yeah it's pretty good he's like as a 20 year old yeah we'll take that yeah yeah i think he's got to be drafted as a number two catcher next season even no matter what he does the rest of
Speaker 1the way i have 19th in roto that sounds right all right let's take our final break when we return i've got some uh waiver wire pitchers some hitters who are finishing strong luke kieschel is on that list and we'll get to that right after this baseball season is in full swing and there's nothing to be afraid of no better place to be than calci america's number one prediction market platform atlanta is currently trading at seven percent to win it all meaning a one hundred dollar trade pays out over twelve hundred dollars with a win on calci you're trading against other people in a live market no house no odds makers and as the odds move you can buy in or out anytime throughout the postseason download the calci app and use code fan to get up to five hundred dollars in bonus credits when you trade twenty five dollars k-a-l-s-h-i calci trade on anything eighteen plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors calci products are not available in all jurisdictions prices values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see calci.com regulatory i've always
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Speaker 1welcome back fantasy baseball today some waiver wire pitchers for the final week of the season jared jones scott's favorite mixed out of the game and he's going to be talking about the starting here against the brewers five innings three runs did have nine strikeouts to one walk he had 14 whiffs on 91 pitches and uh yeah under the hood everything looked pretty good in this start i only allowed five hits 87.2 average ev i kind of felt like he deserved more uh deserved a better outcome here but brewers tough matchup eight plus strikeouts in three straight lines up for two starts the final week i don't know if he'll make both anything could happen the final week is like the wild west but it looks like he's going to be a little bit more of a matchup like the cardinals and the tigers for the final week here for jared jones
Speaker 4like that didn't like him against the brewers but i like him for those two even if he ends up just baking one i'd like him because those matchups are tasty enough i would say for a guy who has 26 strikeouts versus four walks over his past three starts and just like that scott is back but unless you just needed strikeouts it was correct not to start him against the brewers because he's going to be a little bit more of a matchup for the final week here for jared jones
Speaker 1he was he hurt you and everything but strikeouts he did technically in fact you are right i think
Speaker 3on the whole this was a promising start if not a great one for fantasy in the immediate sure yeah missed a bunch of bats curveball look good yeah but scott's not wrong could you see
Speaker 1yourself streaming any of these four in the final week zebby matthew shut down the yankees six shutout innings with eight strikeouts here and he is at the giants the final week i'm not really sure what to do with the giants anymore because we told everyone to use andre pilante against them and he got crushed i still think their lineup is crap and liberator was
Speaker 4pretty good yeah liberator was good what are we doing man what are we doing christian baseball
Speaker 1season christian javier solid outing here he took the l against the royals five and a third two runs three walks two strikeouts the whiffs came down uh looks like he lines up for two next week at the mariners at the athletics so got those jekyll and hyde matchups for him chris bassett revenge game against the giants and he's at the giants five and a third two runs three walks two strikeouts the mets six and two thirds one run six strikeouts 14 whiffs on 95 pitches uh his velocity has been up pretty consistently since he came back from the il in mid-august and uh guess what he gets another revenge game against the blue jays next week that is chris bassett and max scherzer solid against the tigers five i guess that's a revenge game too five innings one run three walks three strikeouts and uh look he's been very up and down over the past month i mean this is you know 40 i don't know how 42 year old 43 year old max scherzer looks like he lines up for two orioles and reds next week i have pretty solid matchups but he's max scherzer i don't know can you see you guys uh can you see using any of these four in the final week of the season look
Speaker 3ultimately i i think you know your situation and you know how desperately you need to roll the dice and i think that's all it comes down to no i don't want to start zebby matthews i don't want to start max scherzer i don't want to start chris bassett and i think that's all it comes down to chris and javier i don't want to start chris bassett i was gonna not name all four of them but then once i got two of them i was like whoa but does he want to start christian javier it's like no i don't so awful uh but some of the matches are kind of interesting yeah no he's got a great matchup i don't think you can ask for a better matchup than san francisco i don't think you can ask for a better matchup than at seattle uh bassett or scherzer's got two good matchups so they could all go well but i don't think that any of them are great pitchers
Speaker 4yeah and against my better judgment i had to put you say kikuchi in the sleeper pitchers list for this week because he wasn't in there originally but so many players i had to take out at the last minute that kikuchi wound up in there because he was coming off three good starts and facing the mariners i definitely uh what's the word i'm looking for it was a recommendation that within the text it's actually important to read the text and not just scan the names i said don't really want to do it you know i don't there's a good word for that but i can't think of it right now reticent yeah sure that's not the word i'm thinking of but sure you get the idea um and uh so i was you know i was right not to start on myself but he actually was among the sleeper pitchers that's that's kind of where we are with these guys where i'm probably gonna facing the giants coming off the start he is going to have zebby matthews on that list but they're all 50 50 at best his previous two starts he allowed a combined nine earned runs yeah i don't feel great about it i don't actually want to do it but i'm giving you names in case you have to resort to that it should be a last resort
Speaker 3but the job is what'd you say you kind of got cut off there the job is to list 10 pitchers
Speaker 4the job is to list 10 pitchers because some people need them it's just
Speaker 3always want to use all 10 of them sometimes maybe but yeah i would say during the season
Speaker 4it's really just the top two or three that i want to use and i'm not even sure it's going to be that
Speaker 1many this week very deep name i don't think anyone is using them using him outside of an only league potentially but i just wonder if there's anything here with anthony melina as like a deep deep sleeper for next season five and two-thirds shutout innings at the cardinals here and uh five games since rejoining the giants 391 era 104 whip he's right at a strikeout per inning anything here at all anthony melina i mean i
Speaker 4thought it had ended in his previous start i think he allowed seven or runs but this is now three of five with the giants where he's gone at least four innings and allowed two hits or fewer and is getting strikeouts so there may be something to it i just haven't figured out what yet he had only 7.7 k per nine in the minors this year anthony melina so i think the burden of proof is very high uh and he hasn't reached it yet how about that how about that little courtroom
Speaker 1language for you we'll we'll take it i object sustained i was gonna say granted i don't think that's something that a judge says but you're out of order six i hold you in contempt six hitters who are finishing the season strong and scott we finally make it to your player of the night that is luke kieschel who went three for five with two runs and his 18 stolen base i have a bunch of numbers here but i have a feeling you also have a bunch of numbers here so i will let you talk about luke kieschel
Speaker 4I have a couple numbers. I wouldn't say I have a bunch. Seven. 27? Luke Kieschel, big game, 3-for-5 with a steal. Since July 1st, since July 1st, that's going back a ways, Luke Kieschel has been the best version we could have hoped for. He has hit .324 with seven home runs, six steals, OPS over 900. That was the dream outcome coming into this year. Nico Horner with a little bit of pop. And he's lived up to it, finally, after a very slow start. Such a slow start that I'm not sure many people have noticed. And I think it's legitimate. The exit velocities are still pretty much basement level. But he hit for power in the minors and became the prospect he did because he pulled the ball in the air so well, Luke Kieschel. And he's greatly improved his pull air rate during this stretch, starting to live up to where it was in the minors. So I don't think he's going to ever be more than a 20-homer guy. He's going to eke out 20 homers potentially in his best years. But with steals, with a low strikeout rate and a high walk rate, one of my bold predictions, that article that came out last year, is that Luke Kieschel ends up outperforming Bryce Durang last year. I think there are a lot of similarities between the two. Obviously, Kieschel would have to sustain something like this half-season pace over a full season to outperform Bryce Durang. But I think it's in the realm of possibility. And I think he's going to be... I mean, we'll see. Maybe everybody sniffs it out. But I think Kieschel's going to be a nice bargain at second base next year. Notably, it might be the last year you can start him at second base because he's been a good player. Because he's been a full-time outfielder since late June. But he has second base eligibility for now, Luke Kieschel.
Speaker 3And he's batting at the top of the lineup. I think that's going to continue. Walks a lot. Gets hit by pitches a lot.
Speaker 1He has let off every game since August 17th. So he is just firmly entrenched in that role.
Speaker 3Yeah. No, he's a good little player. I just... I want to see it be more like 25 to 30 steals next season. I think that'll be the...
Speaker 1I don't think his sprint speed is actually good, though, right? No, it's 86th percentile. Okay. Better than I thought.
Speaker 3Yeah. And he's just been a really inefficient base stealer this season. But overall for his career, he's like 77%, which is pretty close to the break-even point. So, yeah. Just if he can be more of a 30-steal guy, he's basically Nico Horner. Might be a little better than Nico Horner, even. Yeah. Because Nico Horner, pretty bad season. And he's no longer hitting leadoff.
Speaker 1Yep. The five other hitters I have here finishing strong. Chandler Simpson. Last 73 games. I mean, this is a while now. This is going back to mid-June. But since mid-June, he's hitting .357 with 28 steals and nothing else. But if you like batting average and speed, Chandler Simpson is for you. Cal Raleigh, last 28 games, .274, 10 homers, 23 RBI, OPS over 1,000. So, look, it's a lost season. But nice to see that he's finishing the year strong. Alex Bregman remains on fire. Last 48 games, .330, 16 homers, a .1080 OPS. And he entered Wednesday as a top 5 third baseman in both Roto and total head-to-head points. So, it's kind of commentary at the position, but also how good Bregman's second half has been. O'Neal Cruz, 25 games since returning from injury, hitting .300, 5 homers, 6 steals, 9.11 OPS. And Ellie De La Cruz just remains scorching hot. Last 23 games for him, .424, 8 homers. 4 steals, .1273 OPS over a 23-game stretch. Chris, anything to add here on Ellie, O'Neal, Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh, and Chandler Simpson?
Speaker 4If I could jump in real quick and just say, because this was something that became a talking point on Twitter recently with O'Neal Cruz. I released my initial rankings for the first two rounds next year. And there seemed to be a lot of surprise. There seemed to be a lot of surprise and skepticism over me, including O'Neal Cruz, in those first two rounds, at least for Roto. He was 24th, but, you know, he was there. I just think it's gone underappreciated, under-observed, maybe because he missed two months with a broken hand. That he has had the big first-round breakout this year that everybody had been waiting for and had given up on prior to this. He's had it. He's performed at a 30-homer, 50-steal pace this year, approximately, with a respectable batting average. No, I think he's overperformed, which is why I'm not ranking him as a first-rounder. I'm ranking him as a late second-rounder. But it's one of those things where I think you can get tunnel vision for your own players and maybe not notice what's going on with the rest of the league. And O'Neal Cruz has a reputation of being a disappointment. He's been anything but this year. He's been a monster.
Speaker 3No, 100%. I've been... I'm maybe more skeptical than anybody. And I think I will maintain my skepticism for 2027. And I don't think I'll be able to get myself to rank him in the first two rounds. But I don't think you're wrong to do it. It's a really, really narrow type that he has to walk to remain this productive. He is putting up a 5.03 expected Wobon contact, which is... Is anybody doing better than that? I'm not sure. That's a pretty bonkers number. Jordan Alvarez is at 5.15. But that's the kind of area O'Neal Cruz is inhabiting this season. James Woods at 5.46. But O'Neal Cruz's strikeout rate has also moved in the wrong direction along with 34%. And so... And against lefties, it is... He has 49 strikeouts and 125 played appearances against lefties. He's been good against them despite it. But... It's really hard to do a 40% strikeout rate and remain productive. But he's doing it right now. Like, he's outperforming his expected stats a little bit. But it's 354 expected Wobon versus 364 actual Wobon. It's not that much. It's just... What if he falls from 99th percentile quality of contact to 90th? That might mean he's as bad as he was last year. Like, that really is. Like, if he's just really good... If he's just really good at hitting the ball hard rather than arguably the best in baseball, he might be a 700 OPS bat. That's how narrow the margin for error is. But he's also on a 50 steal pace, so it might not matter that much, too.
Speaker 4And like I said, I'm downgrading him from this year's numbers by putting him late in round two. But this is hard for me because I have long been skeptical. I have a bias, I think a very fair bias, against... High strikeout hitters, which Cruz certainly is. But so is James Wood, and so is Nick Kurtz. There are a lot of players that are going to be... Jordan Walker. So there are a lot of players that are going to be drafted in the first two rounds that are in the blue. Deep blue on their baseball savant page for K-rate. And maybe Cruz has the worst of all of them, but they're all bad at strikeouts. And at some point... At some point, you have to be willing to take a little bit of a risk on that. And I think I've downgraded all of those guys slightly from where they deserve to be ranked based on past performance, in Cruz's case, this one year. But even so, for the kind of upside he's presented, Cruz, maybe I could drop him to mid-round three, but that's, I think, the absolute lowest I could go for that kind of upside.
Speaker 3It is worth noting there have been at least one IL stint in three of the past two rounds. In the past four seasons as well. So, yeah. And he's had some trouble staying healthy, too.
Speaker 1They are all different players, but it feels similar to how we were skeptical of PCA and James Wood entering this year.
Speaker 4I made that exact same point. Like, this is how people are going to react to drafting O'Neal Cruz in, let's say, early round three. He might end up being my PCA next year, which doesn't mean he's going to go to have an MVP season. Right. The odds are certainly against it still. But it's going to be the same sort of situation where he's shown that the upside is enormous. And I have my doubts, but if everybody is just writing it off completely,
Speaker 3I'm probably going to end up with a lot of them. Which is surprising because I feel like there's been so much excitement about O'Neal Cruz over the years, including I thought he was overdrafted this year. I was clearly wrong. But it felt like there. There was still plenty of excitement. And maybe this is just that thing where sometimes guys who get hurt a lot, you get a lot of people writing them off. Yeah.
Speaker 4It could also be that I'm making too much of a half dozen responses on Twitter from people who may have not paid any attention to what he's doing this year. And so this may end up being a moot point. But the initial response to me ranking him in round two surprised me.
Speaker 3If you if you say any player is good, If you say Barry Bonds was a good baseball player, you'll have someone on Twitter who's like, what are you, crazy? No, he wasn't. It's a little oppositional defiance disorder there.
Speaker 1That's why I only just tweet out stats because you can't argue with them. I'm just telling you what the numbers are.
Speaker 3Yes, they can, Frank.
Speaker 1Just throw numbers out there. Do with that what you will. Some leftovers here on the hitting side. Brandon Lau, he is up over 30 homers. To this 31st, that's back-to-back seasons with 31 homers. And he is a top six second baseman in both Roto and total head-to-head points. Big, big profitable season here for Brandon Lau.
Speaker 3Second, third in a row, I think, that he's been super profitable. And I don't know. He should be a top 100 pick next season. Based on the way people view him, I don't think he will be. But he absolutely should be a top 100 pick next season.
Speaker 1Landing spot will be interesting, too. Contract year, so free agent. We'll see what happens with Brandon Lau. Pete Alonzo hit another one. His 37th home run. He continues a big second half. Gabriel Moreno hit his 15th homer. And Josh Naylor, he had two more steals. He's hitting for good batting average in the second half. Just no pop at all. He has two home runs in the second half. Both of those home runs came in the same game. So he has only had one game with a homer in the second half of the season. And his slug is just way, way down this season. So weird year overall for Josh Naylor. Scott, going back to Gabriel Moreno for a second. Yesterday, Chris and I kind of debated Moreno as a top eight catcher in ADP. It sounds like you're working on your catcher rankings. But I said yes, top eight. Chris sounded, I don't know if you actually said no, Chris, but you sounded skeptical. Break the tie. What do you think? Top eight for Gabriel Moreno.
Speaker 4I mean, top of mind, I probably would have balked at that idea. But he's coming seventh for me.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 4And you know who eighth is? Eighth is the real shocker. Big dumper. Leonardo Bernal. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1All right, all right, calm down. Scott, do you have Ethan Salas third on your list?
Speaker 4I have Herrera sixth for what it's worth.
Speaker 1Leo Bernal at eight.
Speaker 4I have Cal Raleigh 11th.
Speaker 3Contreras behind them? No, Contreras has got to be ahead of them. Dingler? Nope. Adley Rutschman below? Langeleers?
Speaker 4Langeleers? Okay. Do I just go through the whole thing?
Speaker 3Well, I just said top 10. Hicks has got to be behind them then.
Speaker 4Yes, Hicks is down at 14th. And Rutschman is 15th. Top five is Hunter Goodman, Drake Baldwin, Shea Langeleers, William Contreras, Dylan Dingler, Yvonne Herrera, that's six. Yvonne Herrera sixth, Gabriel Moreno sixth, Leo Bernal eighth, Carter Jensen ninth, Samuel Basayo 10th, and then Cal Raleigh 11th. And then you get into like the Ryan Jeffers, Liam Hicks, Adley Rutschman types.
Speaker 3Dingler, I don't know. I just don't know. He's been a disaster in the second half.
Speaker 8Yeah.
Speaker 3Like unplayable.
Speaker 4That top 12, by the way, is very different in points leagues. About as different as I've ever made a position in within the top 12. So that makes sense.
Speaker 1Well, I mean, I think we can bookmark it now. It's September 17th. We're still, what, five months out from Valentine's Day. Scott's player he loves. Leo Bernal. - Leo Bernal, yeah. - Number eight catcher, my goodness.
Speaker 4- I mean, everybody I listed behind him is very flawed. That's part of it. - Yeah.
Speaker 1- It's like, yeah. - I mean, Sam Basayo with a full year of no Adley Rutschman, there's still massive, massive upside.
Speaker 4- Oh yeah, there is massive upside, which is why I have him ahead of Cal Raleigh. But like, he hasn't actually been that good this year. - I don't know if no Adley Rutschman actually...
Speaker 3- He hasn't been that good this year. - Yeah, I don't know if no Adley Rutschman actually helps him. You know, 'cause like he's getting first base and DH reps. Anyway, so I don't know how much.
Speaker 4- He hasn't played as regularly as you'd expect. - He's been very beat up.
Speaker 3- He's dealt with a lot of injuries this year, yeah. - He's been super, like shoulder and wrist injuries, I think, in that time. - And he has something like degeneratively wrong
Speaker 1with his wrist. I was reading about that earlier this season. - Oh, that's good. I love to hear that. - It doesn't seem good for... - For... - For him to be better. - Yeah. - Hopefully. Just, you know, rub some dirt on it. You'll be all right. Some pitching leftovers. Parker Messick, a quality start against the White Sox. Six innings, three runs, eight strikeouts for him. Carlos Rodon, a quality start, but no run support here at the Twins. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. And Shota Imanaga, great outing against the Braves. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts. 20 whiffs on 100 pitches, 14 of those on his splitter. Anything to add here on Imanaga, Rodon, or Parker Messick?
Speaker 3- Imanaga is a free agent this off-season. Let's get him somewhere spacious. Let's get him somewhere big. - San Francisco. - Yeah. Yeah. San Diego. - Both teams have been pitching too. - Any of the Saints. St. Louis, I mean, that's just a decent ballpark. Great defense. - True. - So, yeah, any... Let's get Shota Imanaga with any of the Saints. I'm down with that.
Speaker 1- Get him out of the NL Central, though. We don't want any starts in Wrigley Field again.
Speaker 3- Yeah, you gotta manipulate the schedule to make sure he doesn't pitch there. - As for Carlos Rodon, he's just, it feels like he's been gutting it out the whole time. Like, it just, it has not really seemed like he's been at his best at any point in the season, and he's still been pretty good. - Yeah, 295 ERA. - Yeah, the whip's a little higher, a lot of walks, but I would love to see a healthy, normal off-season for Carlos Rodon.
Speaker 1- I already told you my theory on this, Chris. I think the Yankees, they all know that the end is coming. - Yeah. - Like, all of their arms are gonna fall off at once. They're gonna give this one great last shot in the post-season this year, and then I feel like Freed, Rodon, and Terrell, like, everyone's arm is gonna fall off next year, so. Hopefully it does not happen at the playoffs.
Speaker 4- I like Rodon for next year. The whiffs have been good. I think he's gonna be undervalued.
Speaker 1- Yeah, probably, but he also, you know, had like two cleanup procedures on his elbow in the past 12 months.
Speaker 3- It's clean now. Clean as a whistle. - It's true. Once you clean it, it never gets sturdy again. - Sturdy again. - Is it a Seinfeld bit where he talks about how he never washes his towel? 'Cause when he gets out of it.
Speaker 4- No, I think you're thinking of Nick Miller from New Girl.
Speaker 3- That's, yeah, he's just like, why would I clean my towel? - It's very funny. - I come out of the shower clean. That's how--
Speaker 4- That's honestly how I felt about washing cars throughout my adult life.
Speaker 3- I never wash a car. I hate it.
Speaker 4It's such a waste. - I mean, I run it through the automatic car wash every now and then, but like, spending significant time getting it immaculate,
Speaker 3like, it's gonna last two days. - You live in South Florida. It's gonna rain every day for three hours. You're gonna wash your car ever. Come on. Grow up.
Speaker 1- The call to the bullpen for the Guardians. Cade Smith picked up his 37th save for the Giants. Dylan Smith got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs. He took the blown save. The Giants took a two-run lead in the top of the 10th. And then it was Joel Kuhnel who got the bottom of the 10th, 10th inning, and picked up his eighth save. Previously with the Athletics and the Brewers, I don't think he's very good, but neither is the Giants' bullpen. For the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien got the top of the 10th inning with the game tied. He gave up two runs, one of those earned. He took his ninth loss. Updated second half numbers, 556 ERA, 163 whip. I think Riley O'Brien's kind of playing his way out of the closer role for next season. I don't know who they're gonna bring in, but it's been a rough second half.
Speaker 4- He doesn't have it.
Speaker 1- Yeah, fair enough. For the Twins, Yoendris Gomez got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs and took his first blown save of the year. That is outstanding for Yoendris Gomez. For the Yankees, David Bednar got the 10th and the 11th, both times with a one-run lead. And both times, he allowed the Manford man in to score. He took his fourth blown save. Technically, he should get two blown saves for that. And the Yankees lost in extra innings. And I think their hopes of winning the AL East are officially done. For the Blue Jays, Louie Varlin picked up his 34th save. For the Rays, with Brian Baker unavailable, Cole Sulcer got the ninth with a one-run lead, and he picked up his third save. You know, if I could expand on this a little bit longer, it has been such a frustrating year. Every time the Yankees win, I look up to see what the Rays are doing, and they also win. They win every single day. And it's really especially annoying when you look at the--
Speaker 3- That's not true.
Speaker 1- When you look at the Pythagorean win-loss, or expected win-loss record on MLB.com, like the Yankees are far better than the Rays.
Speaker 3- I noticed that today. The Rays are outperforming by like nine games. But that's not true, Frank. - So frustrating. - Sometimes, sometimes-- - The Rays never lose, Chris. - Sometimes the Yankees lose and the Rays win. So that also happens. It's not always that the Yankees win and the Rays win. Sometimes the Yankees also lose like today. - Gosh.
Speaker 1What a, ah. All right, well, Yankees, Red Sox, wild card round. That should be fun. For the Brewers-- Trevor McGill picked up his 28th save. He's had a great season, too. Shout out to Trevor McGill. And for the Phillies, Yohan Duran picked up his 31st save. To stream or not to stream on Thursday. I only have four names, so choose wisely. Brady Singer against the Dodgers. Jeffrey Springs at the Rays. Revenge game. Seth Lugo is at the Astros. And Walbert Arrena is home against the Twins.
Speaker 3- Walbert Arrena, clearly the best choice. But I kinda talked myself into Jeffrey Springs. - Jeffrey Springs is gonna die. - He's gonna dominate on Thursday. - I think-- - Oh, no. - I don't care about the revenge game factor, but you know, whatever. - Oh, you do. - But I think pitching a Tropicana's gonna work. for him he's gonna get a nice little stuff bump quality start guaranteed rays aren't great godspeed to you sir i think jeffrey springs we're gonna say i'm not gonna go quality start i'm gonna say five and two thirds two runs four hits six strikeouts two walks i'm gonna look up what his
Speaker 1uh outs recorded prop is for thursday i'm taking the over whatever it is there you go on friday dustin may is at the orioles zach thornton is home against the phillies tyler malley at the astros connor prelip is at the angels grayson rodriguez is home against the twins nick pavetta home against the marlins and peter lambert is home against the braves i don't hate these i think
Speaker 4even though it's a tougher matchup it's not a horrible matchup tyler malley at houston just because he's been so bankable of late i think it's gonna run out but i i also think they're some talent there um but nick pavetta against the marlins seems okay peter lambert against the braves malley's opponent seems okay i think thornton and prelip are okay yeah prelip's
Speaker 3definitely risky but i think there's more upside there with with him than some of these guys
Speaker 4and dustin may might be okay he feels kind of like a random number generator but sometimes
Speaker 3it's a really good number yeah yeah he's been pretty bad since getting to the brewers but yeah there's been a few good starts in there yeah yeah jeffrey springs 14
Speaker 1and a half outs so he just has to go five innings but lock it in lock it in t guaranteed all right we are gonna wrap there for scott chris i am frank thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on apple or spotify and we will be back again tomorrow bye
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