Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/24: Trade Talk, Buy or Sell, Rankings Disputes (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 24, 2018

Should you add Luiz Gohara (2:06) or Marco Gonzales (4:00)? Is it time to sit Zack Godley (6:15) or is he actually a good buy low candidate? We're covering all of the important developments from yesterday's games and talking trade on today's show ... Buy low (16:41), sell high (19:50), buy high (21:30) and players we are actually concerned about (28:15). Where do Gleyber Torres, Andrew McCutchen, Mitch Haniger and Rougned Odor fit in? Plus we have some bullpen notes (31:31) if you need an RP ... Buy or Sell (36:41)! We cover Scooter Gennett, Josh Hader (38:41) and Trevor Bauer (39:55) among others. Then we go through yesterday's performances (43:41) with quick thoughts on more than 20 players before finishing with rankings disputes (50:28) and Fantasy Regulators (55:35). Has Travis Shaw moved ahead of Josh Donaldson? How good is Eddie Rosario? ... Your emails at [e-mail] This episode is sponsored by www.ZipRecruiter.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Okay, okay, everyone. Just relax.

We will tell you what to do about Zach Godley. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. Thursday, May 24th. Adam Azer with Heath Cummings and Scott White. We got a lot to talk about from yesterday. We got buyer sell. We got trade talk. And for the first time in the regular season, Scott and Heath are going to duke it out with a good old-fashioned rankings dispute.

Who's excited? Oh, I am just so thrilled. You know how much I love dispute in my life, Adam, inviting it into it voluntarily. It's among my favorite thing. Heath, are you more excited? I'm just waiting for you to tell me what's due with Zach Guddly. I don't know. I'm going to wait for you to tell me why you don't know.

He's probably someone that we're actually concerned about. We'll give a buy low, a sell high, a buy high, and a player we're actually concerned about. That's coming up in just a little bit. Like I mentioned, buy or sell emails at fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. And I did feel bad about something that happened tomorrow. Yesterday, not tomorrow. Something that happened yesterday with a little musical snafu. So today, at the end of the show,

we'll be fantasy regulators once again, ladies and gentlemen. I heard you guys really screwed up fantasy regulators yesterday. I got a lot of tweets about Heath. You have to listen to how bad the bad choices Scott and Adam made on fantasy regulators. That's not true, is it? I did. I don't know what I didn't listen yet. Oh, yeah.

You'll get there. I thought we were very measured. We do. We were thoughtful and measured. Apparently, at least one of your takes was terrible. All right. Well, I guess we'll have to make up for it today. Let's start with Louise Gohara. He is 44% owned.

And we know he has the health situation in his family. He's going to be away for the team for a little bit away from the team. And four innings, four hits, two runs, four walks, six strikeouts. Final line doesn't look great. Third inning was a very unlucky inning. It was an infield single. Reese Hoskins appeared to be out of the baseline. They didn't call him out of the baseline.

So it was an infield single, and then Carlos Santana hit a dribbler that scored a run. I thought he looked pretty damn good, to be honest with you. But what does the future hold? And I guess let's start with this. Scott, which Braves pitcher would you rather own? Gohara or Soroka? So Roka's place in the rotation is firm. And there's a lot of reason to be excited about him.

both, you know, just the kind of prospect he is and the way he's performed in the majors so far. I would say even better than the raw numbers would indicate because he's had some instances kind of like the one you're referring to for Gohara. We don't really know what's going to happen to Gohara. We don't know when he's going to come back from Brazil and intending to his mother's illness. We don't know what the rotation picture is going to look like when he comes back. So I think there's a lot of upside there. I wouldn't be opposed to stashing him, but it's an indebted.

definite stash while Sorok is somebody who, you know, is going to make his next turn and I think going to be a regular part of your pitching staff. Okay, I think that pretty much sums it up. Heath, who stood out to you in Wednesday's games? And, you know, the thing is, I was, I planned on doing this show. All right, we'll spend a lot of time on trade. We'll spend a lot of time on rankings disputes on buyer sell. I won't get that into the nitty-gritty of what happened on Wednesday.

But I don't think that's possible. I thought Wednesday was a very intriguing day. So Heath, who stood out to you Wednesday night or afternoon? Yeah, Marco Gonzalez is someone that was on my radar before yesterday's start, because I was planning on writing about him as part of my regression alert series today. And then he just kind of made that unnecessary because he threw seven shutout innings against the athletics, his ERAs back to 405. All of his peripherals in terms of FIP, XFIP, Sierra are all better than that.

They're all low threes to mid-threes. He's had remarkable control so far this year. And his last six starts, at least six innings and five of them, an ERA of about 2.5. He's only 26% owned. I expect that number is going to climb quickly. He gets the Rangers next week. I'll be starting him.

Marco Gonzalez, I think he's a two-star pitcher next week, Texas and Tampa Bay. I think he should be a two-star pitcher. Okay. What does that mean? That he's not listed as one now? Exactly what I said. Okay, yeah. A lot could change between now and the end of the next week.

Maybe that's what that means. Yeah, maybe. All right, you either have one start against the Rangers or two starts against the Rangers and the Rays, both at home next week. For Marco Gonzalez, I'm pretty sure. I feel like he will be a two-star pitcher. Who would you guys rather own right now,

Gonzalez or Gohara? I'm not as fully on board the Gonzalez train as it seems like much of the industry is, and I definitely like Gohara's upset. So unless it's a situation where you just need that extra extra player in your lineup for next week, I think I'd go Gohara. Yeah, I think Gohara is going to be better long-term.

But I could absolutely, I mean, we don't know when he's making his next start, and Gonzalez is going to be one of the top two-start pitchers for next week. Gotcha. Scott, stand out from Wednesday. Stand out from Wednesday. is going to be... Caught him by surprise, folks.

Well, we never do this segment. You can throw these new segments in on us without telling us that they're coming. What do you got, Mr. White? Nothing good. What do you got, Adam? What do I got? Well, I guess Zach Godley.

Let's skip ahead to that. Player, we're actually concerned about. Zach Godley, three and a third, eight runs, six earns, six walks, and three strikeouts at Milwaukee. I know he has had some curveball. command issues this year, and that is supposed to be his best pitch. So, you know, that explains some of the struggles, but it doesn't explain everything.

And I was all set to sit him next week, and then I saw the home road splits, and he has been pretty good at home. 292 ERA, compared to 581 on the road with just terrible control on the road, 23 walks and 31 innings. So he's got the Reds at home next week. I'm on the fence about starting him, but I think let's just talk long-term and what we expect. And Heath, I'll let you kick it off because this was the guy that you were going to mention in your player were actually worried about with Zach Godley.

Yeah, and this seems to happen too often where I doubt a guy and doubt a guy and then decide, nope, I'm moving to my top 25 and then he just does this. But it's really four starts, and you could even argue maybe a little bit longer than that, where the control has just not been there. The elite strikeout numbers are not there. Even the ground ball percentage has been below 50% in three of his last four starts and five of his last seven. I just, I'm not to the point to where I'm, like, worried that I'm going to have to drop Zach Godley at some point, but I am a little bit worried.

Like, I don't want Zach Godley to be a guy where I'm deciding, based on where he's pitching and who his matchup is, who am I starting him this week? And that's how I'm starting to feel about him. Oh, yeah. In fact, I'd call him an outright sit right now. On the worryometer, I'd probably give it like a six or a seven. I mean, for a while there, it was just he wasn't getting the whiffs on his curveball that he did last year, and really that he has throughout his career. You know, it's not like the curveball suddenly became better last year.

He just learned to start throwing it more. But this year, he's not getting the whiffs with it. But the ground ball rate was still elite, and most of the numbers looked okay. but now the walks have kind of spiked and I don't know it seems like it's all unraveling at once for him there's still like I think the upside is great enough and it hasn't been a long enough

decline for me to like give up on him like Heath was saying like I'm not dropping him and I'm still more encouraged about him than like some of the stuff we've seen from Sunny Gray this year but it's you know I'm not without concern for a guy I was obviously very high on coming into the year and I do think it's worth pointing out that like before this start

you know obviously things have been bad recently but before this start he had a 405th 405 fifth so it's not like it's been just a total disaster either but obviously this this start was a disaster and that fifth is worse now do you get encouraged though overall when when the biggest issue

is control, and that's not really in his history? I don't know that, but it's not the only issue. It's not the only issue. But it is a huge issue right now. I mean, 29 walks 55 and 2 thirds. You know what I mean? Like, you expect him to have better control than this, so does that mean that he's more likely to turn it around, Zach Godley?

I don't think he's going to walk five batters per nine. But he's going to have to, he doesn't have, if the one, if I could look at him and say, well, as soon as he stops walking some people, he's going to be fine, then I might feel that way. I don't look at him and say as soon as he stops walking people, he's going to be what he was last year. Like, this is what this is part of what makes baseball frustrating, because it could be something very small that he changes, and suddenly he's back to normal. Look at Luis Castillo. Right. Like, and, you know, maybe his grip's a little off on his curveball.

It'll be watching videos someday and say, oh, I need to. You know, I need to alter my hand this way. And then suddenly it's working again, and he's not having to nibble as much. And, you know, he's everything we hoped he'd be. Like, those kinds of things are always going to be part of baseball and why it's always going to be so difficult to predict. Sure.

But, you know, you could not just the curveball. His fastball's down almost two miles an hour from where it was last year. Okay. So how about this? I think it was lower towards the end of last season. I think it's similar to where it was toward the end of last season. Let me wrap up Zach Godley here. Give me a few players that if you were going to try to buy low on Godley, how low are we talking here?

Let me start with Kevin Gosman. Would you give up Gosman to get Godley? I think at this point I've got to move Godley below Gosman. I'd probably do too. Michael Waka. I'd still rather have Godley. Yeah, I think so. I've been very dismissive of Waka this year, and it's verging on me looking nuts, though.

But, yep, I think so. All right. Is there anyone that comes to mind that if you want to make a... Actually, I think that kind of frames it, like... It's not that aggressive of a by-low on Zach Godley, I guess. Let's move on. We'll talk more trade in just a little bit. Coming up on the show, we will talk about Kenta Maeda and Justin Verlander and Michael Waka and Bill Murray and more important things that we need to know.

Also, you need to know about CBS Sports HQ. Please download the CBS Sports app on your connected device on your Amazon Fire, your Roku, your Apple TV, whatever it is. I watch on my Roku and watch CBS Sports HQ 24-7 live streaming channel. It is totally free. You don't have to sign up. You just sit back and you watch some great old. fashion sports coverage with experts that know what they're talking about, smart sports coverage for the smart sports fan.

I don't know. I just created that little tagline that is not given to me. Other podcasts that you might be interested in. We haven't got the off-the-bench podcast. I was listening to it yesterday reacting to the Warriors Rockets game, and it was really interesting. And Raja Bell is a former NBA player. He's on that with Danny Cannell, who's a former NFL player. And those guys are great.

and they have great insight. So check out the Off the Bench podcast. Check out the Pick Six podcast, a football podcast every morning, hosted by Will Brinson. Of course, we have Fantasy Football today. We have the Sportsline DFS podcast. If you want a complete list, go to cbsports.com slash podcast. And one thing that I don't know if people use this little feature, but I, in the description of every episode, I do put time codes in.

I don't put time codes in for everything that we talk about. But if you want to just skip around, I think that will be helped. I don't know if you know that or not, because some people just download and don't even read the descriptions. But if you do, time codes are there, so you can navigate. News and notes, Wellington Castillo is going to be suspended for 80 games for violating the drug policy, and that one stings. He's not a bad catcher. Any replacement options that come to mind? I mean, the whole position is replacement options, so I don't know, specifically him.

How available is like Tucker Barnhart. I think he's been more useful than people give him credit for. And he's hit second in the order now. Yeah. It's been pretty good on base guy. Like, you're just trying to survive a catcher if you don't have one of the big five. Tucker Barnhart is 38% owned. John Hicks has 52% owned.

Who would you rather have? Right now I'd rather have Hicks. Yeah. But there's a shelf of life on that. Okay. Devin Mazzaraco might not be terrible. He's 20% owned. Yeah, it's all crap.

I'm not going to lie to you. It's all crap. I'm sorry. Tyler's 11% owned. And there actually is more than five good options at catcher. You know, Wilson Ramos and Francisco Cerville kind of added on to the position. Even Jonathan Bucroy is decent again. But it's, yeah, replacement level options are pretty horrible.

Right. Losing a catcher, unless it's a catcher. like an elite guy isn't the worst thing. Madison Bumgarner will begin a rehab assignment on Saturday. Chris Davis is on the deal with a groin strain. Oakland called up Franklin Barreto. Your interest in Franklin Barreto is... Minimal.

All righty. Did you both say minimal? Yeah, we did. Oh, that was cute. Brian Dozier nearly homered, but the ball got stuck in the wall, top of the wall. Tyler O'Neill stays in the lineup. He started for Dexter Fowler a day after starting for Tommy Fam. Willie Adamas once again started a shortstop against a shortstop against a

Red Sox. He did have some more strikeouts. David Price pitched well. We'll talk about Price. Gary Sanchez sat. He's probably back on Friday. Paul Goldschmidt homered. Gene Seguer was in the lineup. That was good news. Marcel Ozuna was bench because he was late. He was late. I would be benched in a lot of podcasts. Yeah, he did. If I got the Ozuna treatment, I'd be off a lot of shows. Jake Faria could miss two months with an oblique strain, but help is on the way. Nate Avaldi could be back on Monday. Mark, Keith, did you get my help is on the way reference? I didn't really say it that well.

Scott, did you get my help is on the way reference? Nope. That would be Miss Doubtfire. Help is on the way, dear. I might have gotten it if you said it that way. Probably. What an awful movie. What?

Get, I'm Ozunaing you. Get out of here. Just terrible. Mark Trumbo is a sordie. Scott, don't even dignify it. Ryan Braun will be back today. Okay. And Matt Davidson sat with backsornis.

And I want to know who you guys are trading for. Give me a by low, a sell high, a buy, hi. And someone you're concerned about Heath, by low. Why do you go to me first? Like, you think that Scott doesn't have his stuff ready? I'm going to say. I'm curious. I'm curious.

Scott, do you have your list ready? I do not. Adam was wise. All right, Heath got it. I knew that he didn't. I just wanted to point that out. Gotcha. I'm going to go with Andrew McCutcheon.

the hated, much maligned Andrew McCutcheon on this podcast. He is really striking the baseball well. And it's not just that his hard contact is way up, but his soft contact is almost non-existent so far this year. It's really hard to look at him and say, how in the world is he hitting 237? It makes no sense at all. Yeah, the strikeout rate is up from where it was,

has been over his career, but it's not like extremely high. The bab-up's not extremely low. I think a lot of it is that he's just hit almost no home runs, just three home runs, a 6.1% home run to fly ball ratio. And yes, he's playing in San Francisco, and yes, that's a really bad park for power. But he's been in Pittsburgh his whole career, which is a pretty terrible park for power as well.

And he has a career 13% home run to fly ball ratio. He has a 47% hard contact rate, just a 10% soft contact rate, and a 27% line drive rate. That is not a 237 hitter. So McCutcheon, he's played about, I don't know, I don't know if Tom, I have been about 47 games, which is what he started out last year, 47 games. McCutcheon was awful.

He batted 205 with the 631 OPS. His next 63 games, he had an 1126 OPS. This was about the time when he started getting hot last year. Andrew McCutcheon, would you rather have McCutcheon or Hanager? Oh, Hanigur is coming up a little bit later in a different segment, and I really, really like him. I'm going to say Hanager. Okay.

All right, but you value them similarly, so that's interesting. Scott, Bilo? So I'm going to go with Jay Bruce. Oh, I tried. I tried. You denied me. I did deny you. I have a lot of confidence in Jay Bruce, eventually being Jay Bruce,

in large part because he's done stuff like this all the time. Remember when he first joined the Mets two years ago, he was treated like it was the dumbest move the Mets have ever made because it took him weeks to contribute anything but once he eventually came around

he would perform like an elite power hitter there's nothing in his batted ball profile that would suggest this is an age related decline like he's actually striking out less than ever he's actually hitting more line drives than ever his fly ball rate is

what you'd expect from a power hitter he's got a 20% soft contact rate and a 26% hard contact rate yeah but I don't I don't consider it like I don't think that's not usually what I think about when I think oh this guy's getting old and he you know his bat slowing down like I feel like that usually shows up more in other areas so I think that's more of a call um an effect than a cause

that's that you think that's he's slumping and Jay Bruce is not hitting the bar right now. Right. Okay. But he will. Okay. Very established track record here. So we got Andrew McCutche from Heath and Jay Bruce from Scott.

Heath, who's a sell high candidate? My cell high candidate is a pitcher. It's John Lester, who had another very good performance in terms of the actual results. I just don't buy it at all. He does not, like, his peripherals look like an average to below average starting pitcher. I don't think he can keep this up. I'm sorry, I do apologize. I missed who you said.

John Lester. Good, you know, I'm glad because I said that on Monday's show, right? I said, if you look at peripherals, there doesn't appear to be a more sell-high-year starting pitcher than John Lester. So I'm glad you said that. Maybe J. Garietta, but they're in the same conversation. Yeah, yeah. Like, I kind of get excited when Jake Garietta has a good start like yesterday because it's like, yes, it extends our window to sell. So is that your answer, Scott?

Jake Areeta? It can be. It's up to you. He doesn't have an answer. I just, well, I have an answer and it's Jake Arietta. Okay, it's Jake Arietta. John Lester and Jake Areetta sell high on them.

What would you guys want in return? Okay, how about this? How about this? Heath, is Andrew McCutcheon enough for John Lester? Is that just bad, that's bad fantasy baseballing, right? It would depend on your roster. I have a team where I would make that trade.

It's a head-to-head team and I have a ton of starting pitching and my entire, like I have six hitters on the deal, I think. So, yes, I'd be happy to make that trade on that team. All right. Buy high, Heath. I'm going to say Mitch Hanigur. I don't see. I put out a poll on Twitter the day Ronald Ocunio was called up.

Maybe a day after Ronald Ocunio was called up. and said, who would you rather have rest of season, Mitch Hanager or Ronald O'Cuna? The results predictably were very in favor of Ronald O'Cuna. Mitch Hanigar's been a lot better. Mitch Hanigar looks a lot better. I think I'd rather have Mitch Haniguer. I'm Mitch Hanigar ahead of Ronald O'Cunia. I think in that talking about Acuna and I was able to basically sell him for Anthony Rendon a couple weeks ago,

I think it'll work out. I'd do it again. Me too. I think Juan Soto is a guy you might want to put some offers out for right now. You mean trying to trade? Yes, try to trade him as a sell high. And again, you've got to get somebody like Anthony Rendon that maybe an owner is down. Like, I would trade Juan Soto for I win Encarnacion.

That could come back and bite me. Maybe Edward Encarnacion's done. He struck out twice more yesterday, but I think that's a risk of taking. There's that elite potential with Juan Soto that obviously had us racing the Waverware Has us very excited, but like There's elite potential for Edwin and Carnacion too And I'd have to consider it higher probability potential

At this stage of their careers Scott, who's a buy high for you? The buy high for me I don't know how much I want to get into it Because I know you want us talking about it later But Labor Torres Ah, you know what? Why don't we go into that rankings dispute right now. And it's weird. Torres, you guys are fairly similar in your ranking of

Glaber Torres at shortstop. But at second base, Scott has Glabert Torres' 10th, and Heath has Glabre Torres' 18th. He home-run again. It's a big difference. Yeah, it is a big difference. Torres has five home runs in his last five games. Okay, I ran the numbers yesterday, and he was like, or two days ago, maybe. I ran him again today. Where is he now since being called up on April 22nd? the number eight shortstopping points, number four in Roto. And I'll just repeat what I said on the Tuesday show. Yeah, that's because Scott wasn't on. Why, he's lower than you would think based on the slash line.

He's batting 323 with eight home runs, yet he's only the number eight shortstop in points. Fourth in Roto. Fourth makes sense in Roto. Why so low in points, despite being incredible, he bats ninth, doesn't get that many played appearances, and that is hurting him a little bit. So, all right, but that said, Scott, you are buying high on. Glaver Torres. Yeah, I think

this is kind of what I expected from. Obviously, it was an optimistic way of looking at it, but just given his pedigree and the improvements he made in the minors, I thought he would follow that pattern we see from a lot of prospects where

the minor league numbers don't blow you away, but then they get to the majors and it's magic. And that looks like what's happening with Glaver Torres, the power. is really playing up at the major league level. And the Babbup is kind of high, but not insanely high, especially considering the quality of contact he's making.

He's not striking out a ton. There's no red flag there. And shortstop is still a position where you get beyond the true studs, and there's not a lot of true standout at the position. So it's, you know, there's more of those at second base. It'd be harder to play him there. So I kind of understand why there's that discrepancy at that position. But, like, he's looking like a must-start option.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time figuring out how good I think he's going to be because he's not going to be this good. I don't believe he's going to have a 350 badpip, just because I don't really believe anybody's going to. and I certainly don't think he's going to have a 30% home run to fly ball ratio. So he is one home run away from tying his professional high, I believe. Did he ever hit double-digit home runs? Oh, he did have one year split between High A with the Yankees and High A with the Cubs where he had 11.

But that was last year, right, when he missed half the year? That was 2016. Okay. He had seven last year. Okay. Well, you look at the guys you have ahead of him And tell me if you're going to be moving Torres up Because the dual eligibility is actually pretty nice

I mean, we can talk about shortstop all we want Second base isn't looking great You know, it's not bad Actually, it's pretty good But still, the dual eligibility is nice So you have guys that you have ahead of Torres That Scott does not In Rodo

Moncada, DeYoung, Odore Kinsler Cesar Hernandez Eduardo Nunez, I think you might have to drop him When Padraoia is back, maybe as soon as tomorrow Maybe as soon as tomorrow. Nunez will fall below him. I'm not, there's no way I'm moving Cesar Hernandez behind him.

The O'Dor one, like, I still think he's probably going to have a month very soon. We're just like, oh, crap, Ruegna O'Dore's awesome. You got to put Torres ahead of Kinsler, right? What about DeYoung? DeYoung's going to miss, what, six to eight weeks? Yeah, I dropped him from eight. to 12. I had him, I think, 8th at second base before that. I expect when Torres and DeYoung are both playing,

DeYoung is going to be better in fantasy. I mean, this might be... If you have this kind of confidence in Odorstel, I think we can work out a trade in the Dynasty League. Well, I'm not trade... Scott's trying to basically trade a bunch of non-prospects for Mitch Hanneger. No, no, no, I don't need Mitch Hanneker. I think we can work out of trade.

He's going to be only a $10 keeper in that 24 team league that's obviously a building block. I think we can work something. My main thing with Torres is hitting at the bottom of the order, and I don't think that's really almost no chance that's going to change. I don't know once everything normalizes if he can be like anything more than a low-end starting option at the very best. I guess the difference is I don't know how much is really going to normalize. The home run to fly ball rate, yeah, that needs some normalization.

But, like, I see him as a 25 homer guy at shortstop over a full season. Yeah, I would, I would, I'd say probably closer to 18. Okay. Scott, who's a player you're actually concerned about for Heath that was Zach Godley? How about Rognette O'Dore? How about him? How about Rignette O'Dore? This has been, you know, basically a continuation of everything that's gone horrible for him.

That went horrible for him last year. We talked about it a little yesterday. how these players with horrid play discipline, like, if there's any slippage in their batting ability, it's just an all-out disaster. And, like, his line drive rate is 8.3. Like, a bad line drive rate is twice that. He is hitting the ball hard,

but he's also hitting the ball soft a lot, too. Like, there's just, there's not, a lot to look at in the bad of ball profile and say, okay, this is why I still believe in rude dead outdoor. This is why he's going to turn it around. And there's so many options at second base. Like, I don't really think it pays maybe except in a keeper context where he's still very young or, you know, leagues of great size where you get kind of beyond that depth at second base. Like, he's outside my top 20 now at the position. I just, I just, the only thing I'll argue against, I won't argue about anything this year. He's been dreary.

We've seen him, though. It's easy to forget that he missed time until basically he's had a month worth of baseball, and we've seen him have terrible months in the past. When you talk about a continuation of what he did last year, in Roto, he was a top eight second basement last year. Wait, two years ago. Rognette O'Dore. Maybe.

Yeah, I may have been looking at 2016. Yeah, two years. The batting average was so low. Top 14 second basement last year. Last year. Okay, because he'll give you some power and some steals. Oh, you had 30 home runs and 15 steals. That goes a long way.

That does. Yeah. How many steals this year for Odor? Zero. He hasn't been on first base, has he? All right, yeah, that's got to change. Now, the Texas Rangers, they might need to hire a second basement. So if you're listening, Texas Rangers, once you try ZipRecruiter.

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That is ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. One more time, ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire. All right. I knew going in, we weren't going to be able to get to everything I wanted to get to. That's fine. In the bullpen, Ricello L is on the DL, and he has a strained biceps in his non-throwing arms.

So do we think this will be a short-term thing for him? For Gleacius? I expect so. Is there anyone you'd pick up in the Reds bullpen? No, but I would pick up Nate Jones. He's only, I still like 30% owned and got another save two nights ago. But you know who's also 30% owned and got another save? save Blake Parker

It was ugly He was awful Four base runners But that was his first Earn Run allowed in 10 appearances No I hear you But you know how Mike Sosha is Like

So sure Even if it was a clean inning He'd be liable to go with someone else tomorrow So Nate Jones or Blake Parker Nate Jones Yeah Nate Jones Really I mean

The team is just so much better If Parker can run away with that And I think he can, I think he, I think he can, based on how good he can be compared to the others. I think we're a long way from that happening. All right. Others are tried and failed just as miserably. But like Justin Anderson was great the inning before Blake Parker pitched. Jim Johnson was great the two innings before that.

Yeah. All right, all right. Tyler Clippard struggled again. What do we think about the Blue Jays? I mean, they have a lot of former closers who've pitched pretty well this year, and Tyler Clipper got the first chance. I don't know that he has any real job security. Son 1-0 was our favorite, I think, before they decided on Clippard,

and he had a scoreless inning in this outing in this same game. So I wouldn't be surprised if a change happens. Ryan Tepera is still pitching the 8th. They bring in Axford and O earlier in the game. It seems. But they're all capable. Except honestly, I think Clipper does... I'm not surprised that he's struggling.

But Naur has struggled. But Boud Nore has struggled in his second inning of work. He just didn't record any outs. Felipe Vazquez has blown two saves in a row, and J. Rees-Familiar has blown four saves, three of them for Jacob de Grom. So that's annoying. Are we concerned at all about the job security of Bud Norese, Felipe Vazquez, or J.

Riz Familia? Not really. No. Okay, great. I have to correct something I said about Bill Murray. Clearly forgot about Stripes. Stripes might be his best work as a lead actor in a comedy. So my bad.

I don't know. I mean, that's one of those movies that I'm not sure I've watched from start to finish. I've just caught, you know, back in the day when TV, like cable TV was our best method of viewing these things. You might just flip to a channel one day and a movie would be 30% over, but you're like, I'm going to plant myself in front of this and see how I feel about it. And that's my Stripes experience. It didn't do much for me. And like looking how it's rated compared to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day on like IMDB.

I don't think I'm alone in that regard. He's not the lead in Ghostbusters. That's all I'm saying. Oh, come on. It's not a Bill Murray movie. It's not a Bill Murray movie the way Stripes is and the way Groundhog is. Who is the lead in Ghostbusters? There really isn't one.

You think it's an ensemble cast. Yeah. Who has... Like, Bill Murray, like, dominates every single event. If there is a lead, it is him. But I just don't... I consider, like, Scrooge, Groundhog Day, Stripes are the three movies that he, like, is the guy. What about Bob? Oh, yeah, I'm forgetting about What About Bob.

That movie sucks. People got to stop with What About Bob. Like, there's no way you'd enjoy it if you watched it today. It's a good movie. Unless it were just nostalgia. Space Jam? Exactly. All right.

Yeah, he gets top billing over with Michael Jordan. And last thing, we got an email, kind of a strange email from Derek that thinks Scott is moonlighting as the Bluetooth voice in his car. So if we could get Scott to say this, it would be great. Let's hear if there's similarities. Waiting to pair. Can you say waiting to pair, Scott? Waiting to pair. Waiting to pair.

Waiting to pair Waiting to pair Waiting to pair You are a Bluetooth moonlighter Scott did just change his schedule Not too long ago So I mean Awesome

All right We still got to get to Kenta Maeda And Michael Waka And Michael Fulmer and Jake Junis And I'm gonna tell us scags And Tyson Ross is still available In 22% of leagues

And see if we can get to rankings Disputes I'm growing doubtful that that is going to happen. Buy our cell. Let's try to turbo it up. Let's go to ludicrous speed. Buy our cell from Matt.

Jose Altovae is a top five pick next year. Bye. Bye. In fact, an article's coming out today. Top two rounds if we were drafting today, and I still have him third. Behind who? Behind Trout and bets. Trotts.

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. From Eric, buy ourselves. Scooter Jeanette will now be better than last year's Scooter Jeanette. So I'm going to buy. I'm going to buy. You'll obviously have a much longer time as the starter. So I think the totals will be better.

Scott, would you rather have Jeanette or Torres, just as a second basement? If it was just, like, if it was just a second basement and we weren't considering Torres's shortstop eligibility at all, I'd say, Jeanette. But that is a fictional world. All right. Brandon Frey, buy or sell. Glaber Torres will move up in the lineup and outscore Xander Bogart's. of season. No.

He might move up in the lineup, but I don't think he's going to outscore Pogart. Chris Nowak, by herself. Phil Hartman was the most underrated SNL actor. Is he underrated? That's why I'm going to sell it. I don't think he's underrated, but he was amazing. See, I'm not, like, this was part of the, like,

I honestly have no idea what Bill Murray was like on SNL. So that conversation started, who's your favorite SNL cast member? Like I don't even, in really any era of SNL, I haven't watched that much SNL. I'm mostly assessing these people on their movie work thereafter. Well, Phil Harmon was not underrated. Yeah, he was incredible on SNL. Colon Blow was a great serial. Cameron, By herself.

Cody Bellinger is not a top 15 first baseman by year's end. So. Dan Turville, By herself, Mitch Hanigar's a top 15 outfield the rest of the season. It's not quite there for me He's more like top 20 So I sell I don't have ranked this way But I don't always go by that

Bye Oh all right Hanager top 50 Andrew says Josh Hayter has more than 170 strikeouts this season By or sell I mean he's on pace for

197 When I checked yesterday Which is amazing Why Here's an amazing stat Remember how Chris Archer Like The argument I've made a lot

is like, well, yeah, the ERA may not be great, but he's going to carry you in strikeouts. Like, just for that alone, he's great. Yep. Right? Prior to Chris Archer starting yesterday and getting six strikeouts against the Red Sox, Josh Hader had more strikeouts this year. Then Chris, yeah, Chris Archer. Bye-bye.

From Rob, Tim Anderson is dropable in a roto league. No. Sell that. How many steel sources are out there? I understand he hasn't done much lately, and I've lowered him. of our rankings, but dropable, you're gifting someone else a bunch of steals, probably. All right, Tim Anderson. From Clay, buy or sell.

Heath had inside information about Philly's players preseason, i.e. Oduble and Sazar. Cesar. I buy it. Bye. Yeah, definitely. From Ryan, buyer's sell. Now is the time to sell high on Trevor Bauer. I actually considered him for the buy high.

Yeah, I completely agree, Scott White. I am all in on Trevor. of Bauer. Yep. I sell this. Do not sell high. I'll buy it. So what concerns you about Bauer?

Just the track record? Nothing about this year particularly concerns me. And he did it long enough last year that I think he's going to be good. But he's currently got a 2-3-5 ERA. You may, the way he's pitched as of late, you may get someone to value him as a top 50. top 20 starting pitcher, I'd sell him for that. So now is the time if you're going to do it.

I mean, he has a 290 Babbitt, so it's not like he's been lucky there. Right, but guys don't always regress because they've been unlucky. Sometimes they just regress because they're pitching better than they ever have. This is a continuation, obviously, for Bauer. I know what you're saying. I mean, he's not this good. But top 15 actually sounded kind of like reasonable for Bauer. he's not on my top 15

who's 15th for you probably somebody is that Grinky well I would rather Grinky than Bauer I'm surprised he's that Granky's that low yeah like Blake Snell is top 20 for you guys

he's 24 for Heath he's 19th for Scott I think I'd rather have Trevor Bauer right behind him yeah you're back the 4th and Bauer 25th I think I'd rather a Bauer than Archer I'd sell Bauer for Archer

That's a close call I don't think you're crazy to feel that way Archer's down to 20th for me So it's the same range Okay All right I have James Paxton 15 Here's what we're gonna do

I'm sorry Scott yeah I'd definitely rather Paxton than Bauer Here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna say a bunch of names And you're gonna give me quick thoughts on them We've never done a segment like this I don't think Eh we probably have

But if you recall It's the whole show Adam No, no, no. Quick thoughts. We need to define quick for Scott, but that might make things slower. No, not two words, but like... Eight words. Two to three sentences, I'd say.

Okay. We're going to see how we do. We could have done two players by now. Well, we also got to talk about draft. I can tell you how I did last night. As I look it up, I think I know how I did. Yep, I came in third, but not out of five out of three. Have you ever won?

Yes, I have won. And I, why three out of three, not five? Because did the late games last night. There were only two of them, I think. It was the Dodgers-Rockeys game and the Oakland-Seattle game. It was quite a challenge. And I had Kenton Maeda, but I also had Nolan Aronado and Gene Seguer and Stephen Piscotti and Herardo Parra and those four combined for three damn fantasy points.

So I did not win despite having Kenta Maeda and his 12 strikeouts and his win. But still a lot of fun. Still loving it. I know you are too. Join me on draft. compete against me, compete against other people, take their money, take my money, play for a buck or up, depending on what kind of stakes you'd like, and get paid out the next day. And when you sign up on draft, use the code FB Today.

FB today to play in a real money game for free just for using my promo code. FB today, that's right, my promo code. FB today, when you make your first deposit, go to draft.com or the draft app, and it's FB today for a free entry into a real money draft. I think you're going to love it if you haven't played already. You get to play more fantasy baseball and you get to do snake drafts. All right, Christian Vianueva is 62% owned. He is hitting pretty well right now.

Scott, give me two or three sentences on Vianueva. Mostly crushed his lefties. Batting average will suffer because of the strikeouts. Salvador Perez, Heath, since coming off to the Yale, he is the number two catcher in fantasy, basically tied. with Gary Sanchez as really the number one catcher in fantasy. Give me your thoughts on Salvador Perez. One of the best catchers in baseball, hope he stays healthy.

Royals lineup is not bad enough to hurt him. And he has been bad four years in a row after the All-Star break. So keep that in mind. Jurex and ProFar, 26-0. And Scott, you weren't really too enthused about picking up ProFar yesterday. Has anything changed today? No, I still don't think there's... he's demonstrating enough power potential to really stand out in today's environment.

Decent on-base guy, but that's it. And time for our seven-man rotation. Heath, Justin Verlander is the number one starting pitcher in fantasy. And I sat him yesterday because I forgot to set my lineup in time. You are a bad fantasy baseball owner. Justin Verlander is a very good fantasy baseball pitcher. Why was the default that he was out of the lineup? How did he ever get out of your lineup in the first?

It was a daily league, and he had taken him out to put somebody else in, because they had to start that day. Right, exactly. Okay. So annoyed. Jake Arietta, Scott. Really? Swing and strikes.

Swinging strikes. 15 of them yesterday. Yeah, swinging strikes way down. K-per 9, way down. It was bad last year. It's way worse this year. But it was good in this start against the Braves. Seven strikeouts.

It was his best swinging strike performance of the year. Okay, so as Scott said earlier, sell high on Jake Arrieta. Heath, Jacob de Grom is a 150, 4ERA. Yeah. Imagine how good he would be if Jerry's familiar didn't blow all of his wins.

It's got to be a familiar feeling at this point. DeGrom is number nine in points, number eight in Roto. You buy him as a top ten starting pitcher. Yep. Scott, David Price, had a really good start at Tampa Bay with nine strikeouts, and that's coming off a complete game,

two-run outing with eight strikeouts against Baltimore. What do you think about David Price? His velocity was down. in this star, but it's been pretty normal this year. There were only nine swinging strikes in this start, but he's always been kind of a below-average swinging strike guy relative to his strikeout, so he's weird. I'm not, I'm reluctant to make any big moves with David Price by or so. All righty.

Let's go to Chris Archer, Heath. Pretty good, yeah, very good outing, I'd say, against the Red Sox. Strikeout rates a little bit down this year, but still good. What do you think? Archer. Yeah, I still think he's a top 20 starting pitcher, maybe even top 15, and your opportunity to buy low is probably shrinking. Scott, now's your chance to talk about Kentomaiata and his big outing against the Rockies.

So I'm trying to remember everything I said about him after his last outing, but I think it boiled down to the BAPIP was low. I'm sorry, the BAPB was high. Basically, every luck indicator indicate that he'd have been a bad luck pitcher so far as an elite swinging strike guy. And I think we're beginning to see the correction here. Like, even the innings thing. Like, he's at his best the third time through the lineup. So hopefully the Dodgers let him pitch deeper.

Has any starting pitcher ever faced an easier schedule in the history of baseball? Yeah, Kevin Gosman this year. Rocky? No. Rockies? which we know how terrible they are on the road, Marlins, Reds, Padres, at San Francisco, Marlins, at San Diego.

Pretty bad. Diamondbacks, giants, giants. But what's going to change? I mean, well, that's a lot of division games, so maybe the next few months won't be that many divisions. Well, he won't have any more starts against the Marlins. They've already played them all the times they're going to play them. That's true. That's true. That's a good point on Maeda.

Are you looking to sell high he? I don't necessarily think that his 3-3-E-R-A and the low innings is something that's going to change, but I don't think he's going to strike out 11.7 per 9, and I think now might be a good time to sail high just because he has 20 strikeouts in 14 and 2-thirds and no runs allowed in his last two starts. His ERA is suddenly down to 3-3. Like, that's how much ground he's made up just in 2-star. 3-3-8s.

Because it's crazy to think we could call him a buy high, given where he was, you know, a week ago or a week and a half ago. All right, I want to do some rankings and disputes. We really are basically out of time. Let's start with a third baseman then. Okay. Just tell me if there's any pitcher that you feel like, if I see him on waivers, I must add.

Tyson Ross. What the hell is Tyson Ross doing not being 100% owned? Yeah, okay, thank you. Aaron Sanchez? Nah, gross. Jeff Samarja? I can't do it anymore. He's kind of become gross himself, all the walks.

I picked up Kyle Gibson for two starts next week. It should be okay. I think it's like Kansas City and Cleveland. I might start him over Zach Godley. Kyle Freeland? I'm not. I mean, I like it better than Gibson at this point. Chad Cool?

No, no, Chad. He throws hard. He's been a better result lately. Actually, yeah, I would give him a little bit more credit than it. just dismissing him. Dan Straeli? A good couple starts. You know, this was a guy who we thought was usable at times last year. I don't think he's any better than that prognosis.

Totally dependent on who he's facing the next week. That'll be, actually, I don't know. Sorry. Nico Goodrum, he's a hitter. I'll come back to him. How about Adam Plutko? No. No.

Brent Suter. I don't think he's going to be in the rotation anymore. Dylan Covey. No. No. And then hitters, Nico Goodrum and Ronald Guzman. I mean, Guzman's homered in three straight games. Yep. But he's struck out a ton, and that's like, if he's going to be good,

it's because he's a better contact hitter than the average first baseman. So no. Okay. Scott has Josh Donaldson 7th and Travis Shaw 8th. Heath has Josh Donaldson 7 and Travis Shaw 5th. at third base. Heath, you've got Shaw over Donaldson. Yeah, I don't think I'm the controversial one here.

Travis Shaw is awesome. He's been unlucky. He's going to be even better than he's been so far. He's hitting 243. He's hitting 243 because he's been unlucky. I mean, I tend to agree. I think I'm very happy that I own Travis Shaw. I wish I owned him in more leagues.

But we saw Donaldson struggle last year and then get hot as heck. and just like he had a 51 game stretch with 23 home runs. Scott, why do you still rank Donaldson one spot ahead of Travis Shaw? I mean, he was your third round pick this year, right? Like, considering he's been injured much of the first two months, I don't know why we're going to downgrade him so soon. I mean, Travis Shaw is really good, but like he said, Josh Donaldson after a slow start last year

and ended up being the MVP caliber player we presumed he was down the stretch last year. So I think that could happen again. All right, this one, Heath, do you want me to give you like 10 seconds to change your rankings before we get into this catcher dispute? I'll tell you what's happened.

There won't be any dispute. Okay, I had Buster Posey as the number one catcher in points league at the beginning of the year. There have been a couple of times, and I've updated my rankings, I thought, yeah, is it time? and I'm like, I'm going to give it one more week. And that was what happened yesterday. And I thought, well, Sanchez's got this calf thing.

I'm going to give it one more week. You still have Posey ahead of Sanchez in points. I have not changed that. It needs to change. Let's just change it. Like, he's so far ahead of the packet catcher Sanchez is, and that's with a 224 babb it. Yeah.

And a 228 batting average. And, you know, he's actually 22 walks of 40 strikeouts. It's pretty good. He has more walks than Buster Roes. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, there's a lot of correction going to happen with the batting average, and yet he's still a distant. He's waving by to everyone else behind him at the position. Well, there's got to be some correction in his batted ball profile for the bad bit to go up, any.

He's got more infield fly balls than he does line drive. He's not going to hit 2.28, though. And even if he does, he's still number one with a bullet. Yeah, still a distant number one. We'll see how this calf thing works out. Scott has Eddie Rosario as his number 28 outfielder, and Heath has Eddie Rosario as his number 47 outfielder in Roto. Boy, is Rosario just a streaky hitter?

He might be. He was last year. Scott, you have Rosario in your top 30, and Heath has him 47th. Let's talk about it. Go ahead, Scott. This might be close to where we had them at the start of the year, so maybe it's just an initial impression that has had. no reason to change sort of thing.

I got a little worried after that April Rosario had that may be the elite production we saw from him over the final three or four months last season. He basically was elite during that stretch. I mean, it was. So he was, Rosario, but I think if you kind of look at it by week, his fantasy points in the last eight weeks of the season were 49, 22, 15, 27, 15, 14, 4. 42, 13, and 13. So four bad weeks, two incredible weeks.

It's a very good week. It's not a bad week. 15 is a bad week for an outfit. No, it's an... Come on. 15 points these days? He just had how long was that? How many weeks was that?

And he didn't have a single one in single digits? I mean, 15 is a bad week. 15 is a bad week. If he has a season of 15s, then he's not in the top 80 outfields. No, I'm just saying he does it because he's very good. He's not good against lefties usually, and he's great at home. and last year he was bad on the road. So it was just kind of up and down, kind of streaky.

And this year, you look at Rosario, he's a top 18 outfield. There's 18th and points, 15th in Roto. It has been entirely based on a 15-game stretch where he had seven of his nine home runs. Other than that, he's been terrible. So that's all I'm saying. It's kind of an up-and-down player. I have a hard time getting a re-on-resor. That's true of anybody who doesn't walk much, though.

I mean, in a points league especially, when you don't have – when your bat isn't doing loud things, there's not a lot of production to fall back on. That can go for anybody who doesn't walk a lot. So you feel good about, you feel good about Rosario? Top of 30? I think he's going to hit for a high average in 25 to 30 homers. Okay.

Heath, 47th? Yeah, I have a hard time getting a read on him, and some of it's because of that streakiness. But I think he's just a little bit below what Scott said. I'm not sure what the run production numbers are going to be. I don't really think he helps you in steals. And I expect low 20s in home runs. So he's just kind of a...

I mean, you're starting him. All right. With that said, let's regulate. The fantasy regulators are back, baby. This is from Zach. Hey, Michael, Paul, David and Ken. Those are Yankees broadcasters.

Ten team, six-by-six league with holds and OPS. Two players made a trade. of Howie Kendrick for Chad Green. While the transaction was open for review, Howie Kendrick was injured, and now he's out for the year. I'm the commissioner, and multiple owners call for me to cancel the trade, but I believe it should have gone through because it was fair at the time the trade was made. Also, the person who would be getting Kendrick is my brother and the co-commish,

and it can easily look like collusion. What is the right call? Does the trade go through even though Howie Kendrick got hurt while it was open for review? I don't know why. Why do you have the period of review? I don't know, but leagues do it, but so let's just say it's there. I think this is an excellent opportunity, Zach, for you as Commissioner of League, to take the lead here and say, guys, there are a lot of reasons why Commissioner Review is bad.

This is one of them. We should get rid of Commissioner Review. I'd also probably say that since you have Commissioner Review, I'm probably I'm keeping the trade The trade stays The trade through The trade stays

No no I just put it through He was healthy when they made the trade The trade stays Yeah I don't Yeah Like obviously If there wasn't that review period

That would be true Like there But the trade Hasn't actually gone through Until it's gone through And I mean The owner's saying

He doesn't want it anymore All right So No But that's not like, I don't think the review period is for the owners to consider the trade. The review period is for the league to voice objections. I personally don't think injury is a good enough reason. Well, now one of the two owners who made it has an objection.

But no, but it's not, but that's not the point of the review. It's not really for the two that made the trade. It's for the rest of the league. And it is stupid. Now the rest of the league is saying they have objection. But I don't, I personally don't think injury is a good enough reason for it. But all right, fine. So I'm saying put it through.

Scott is saying don't. Heath. Put it through and never review a trade again. And we've regulated. Let's go to JR. 14 team, 20-man roster league, 5-start minimum, 10-start maximum on starting pitchers. So there's a pitching max. The league is set up.

So the 5-start minimum applies to ERA and WIP, but not K-per-9. Many in the league feel that if you do not hit the 5-start minimum, you shouldn't be awarded that stat just because you had some relievers pull a couple of Ks together. So that's K-4-9. The spirit of the minimum is to prevent managers from stacking relievers to win whip and ERA. But shouldn't the same standard be applied to K-per-9? What are your thoughts? It's kind of strange. They have a five-star minimum, but it doesn't apply to K-R-N-A-R-N?

For 2018, I would just like to read back your words to you. The league is set up to the five-star minimum applies to ERA and WIP, but not K-per-9. So for this year, I think it's already been decided. For the future, I think you should just get rid of the minimum, but if you're going to have it, it should apply equally to all stats. Okay, yeah, I agree. Well done. regulated.

All right, Jesse from Oregon. He says not Oregon. I guess that's how I say it. Thank you for regulating my pronunciation. I've signed up in a random cash league this year on a different website, and boy, does it need regulation. Five trades have been vetoed this year. Five.

They've all had perceived value for both teams. And it only takes four in a 12-team league to overturn a trade. Four people are spite vetoing. The problem is that it's likely the commissioner is one of the spite vetoers, is doing anything about it, please give my league a sound off on why these B-holes are ruining the league. Could we say B-hole? Yeah, they're but-holes. We can say B-hole?

We can say but-hole? I think we can say butthole. What? B-hole? At the 59-minute mark, I think we're good. The kids have fallen asleep by now. I just hope so. Listen, B-holes, you cannot spite veto.

That is not the point of fantasy baseball. Hey, how about you just don't let them veto? That's the problem with veto altogether is people do it in a self-interested way. If you give people a right to veto, you cannot tell them why you can veto or why you cannot veto. You have given them that power. You should not do that, but if you do it, sucks for you. Sing it, Heath. Heath Dog.

All right, we're out of here on this Thursday. We'll come back on Friday. And, you know, it's a light day. It's only eight games today, so I think we'll be able to get a little mailbag going. That should be fun. Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com for Heath and Scott. I'm Adam. We'll talk to you on Friday shows.