Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/09 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Fantasy Duds, Superlatives, Week 11 Help

Episode Date: June 9, 2017

Gerrit Cole, Jon Lester, Edwin Encarnacion, Miguel Cabrera and several other struggling studs have put us in a foul mood on this Worryometer Friday (22:00)! What's the deal with these guys and will they turn it around? ... Yearbook superlatives (4:00), plus everything from yesterday including Joe Ross' great start (10:00), Edinson Volquez's explanation for success (13:16) and an underowned OF you need to add (47:30) ...Two-start pitchers for Week 11 (51:00). And we're concluding Raisins Week with some raisin team names ... Your emails at [e-mail] 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

Well, Bingo, Santana, who I want to add you to my roster in Loto, replacing Gio Soto, Gio Lido and Brito, baby, where my Fabco? Near the Florida key, there's a place in my that's way ahead of your, because he's under 30, because he's an ageist. Projectudeau scare you, but Chado. Well, happy Friday, everybody, or not so happy Friday, Scott. I actually am in a good mood, but for the sake of this fantasy podcast, I'm getting very negative today. This is a very negative Friday show.

Negative. Yeah. Is that how you want to start your weekend? negativity? Well, everybody stinks. David Price stinks. Michael Fulmer stinks now. John Lester stinks.

Garrett Cole is beyond stink. Mookie Bets isn't really hitting. Edwinner and Kurt. Carlos Gonzalez, it is usually Worryometer Wednesday, but it is clearly going to be Worryometer Friday. Wow. Come on, people. Turn your season around before it's too late. Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you.

I guess we need to put our faith in Edinson Volquez, right? I guess so, and Joe Ross and guys like that. And we will talk about those guys, and we will give you some week 11 help as we look at two-star pitchers. We try to read some emails at Fantasy Base. ball at cbsi.com. I had a thought last night, Scott, in a very negative thought, as I was getting ready for bed. And I didn't want to really think about it too much and see if I was right. So I'm just going to say it.

No research. To me, the Pittsburgh Pirates are the most disappointing MLB team for fantasy this year. They are the biggest fantasy bust of any of the 30 major league teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates. they are the reason that today is negative Friday. Hmm. Well, just going off the top of my head, what about the Mets? The Mets, you got Conforto. You do have Conforto.

With the Pirates, you have Nova. Oh, you do have Nova, yeah. I like Cifordo, but, and, you know, I think Josh Bell has exceeded most people's expectations. Whatever. There's so many first basemen that you don't. don't really need him. No, the best pirate has been Tyone, who made another rehab start. And it's no fault of his own.

He's been on the DL. But he'll be back soon, hopefully. By the way, I reject your trade offer of Gregory Polanco over James and Tyone in the podcast league. Just let you know. All right, that figures. I know you're a Polanco guy. Yeah, I'm also a Tyone guy.

But, man, okay, the Mets. The Mets are pretty good. Because they've been, like, catastrophic. It's been bad. But Marte suspended. Polanco, one of the worst regular players. it seems. McCutcheon's been a bust, even though he's coming around a little bit. Cole, oh my gosh, four starts in a row for Garrett Cole. He'll be on the Wariometer.

And that whole, like, superlative worst team in fantasy brings me to this tweet of the day from Joey. Okay, he's got a new segment idea for the podcast. I'm interested in which your book style awards you hand out in fantasy baseball at this point. Your book style awards. So I came up with a few. Let's give out some awards. Yeah, little superlatives. Yeah, little superlatives here. Prom King. Who's the Prom King so far of fantasy baseball?

I'm not sure what the criteria is for Prom King. It's up to you. You're voting. Okay. I guess it would probably be Bryce Harper because A, he's good. B, he has the nice hair.

C, he attracts a lot of attention. has kind of shown a little bit of a bad boy streak in the early going. So I'm going with Bryce Harper as the prom king. Okay, I accept. I was going to go with Ryan Zimmerman because he's been probably the best value, best free agent pickup. He's been slightly, slightly better than Aaron Judge. You don't want to go to prom with him?

Is that we said? I don't want to be friends with him. Oh, you don't want to be friends with him. All the girls want to date him, all the guys want to be in. Okay, then it is good for Harper. But Harper's married now, I think, or at least. he's engaged and Aaron Judge is quite popular so maybe he could be prompting. Maybe, maybe, yeah.

He's a candidate, sure. Okay, here's the She's All That Award, which is based on the movie, which I've never seen, but I know what it's about. I swear I've never seen it. It looks kind of ugly now, but is actually hot. Or we will soon find out how good this person is. She's All That Award. Probably Jeff Samarja. I mean, we've already started to see glimpses of it.

I don't know if that makes it a boring pick, but the numbers are still kind of skewed. I don't know that everybody's buying into it fully. And I think even the people who are buying into Samarja don't necessarily buy into him to the extent they should. Like, he could be your best pitcher in the second half. Okay, so Jeff Samarja. Scott is the Freddie Prince Jr. to Jeff Samarja. He is going to make everyone see just how wonderful Jeff Samarja is. How about a better movie?

Can't Hardly Wait Award Excited for this person to come off the DL The Can't Hardly Wait Award Hmm I guess I'm going to have to say Oh man Stephen Matt's Stephen Matt's

I don't know There's a lot of players on the DL who I'm more excited about their returns than Stephen Matt's Well but you can't say Trout or somebody like that Well that's that's what I was trying to avoid doing because, yeah, I don't want to make it too boring. But, oh, man.

Tione himself is a pretty good Can Hardly Wade Award candidate. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go with Mitch Hanigar. It's been a long time since we've talked about Mitch Hanigar, and I am getting withdrawals. So Mitch Hanigar is the person who I can't wait to come back. All right, excellent. And do you think Mitch Hanigel will be –

because I kind of thought he was a good sell-high candidate. like he'd be a good player but not this good. What do you think about Mitch Hanager when he comes off the DL? He will be a top blank outfielder. So I've had him just outside my top 40 with him on the DL. It might be hard for him to crack the top 30 right away. Let's see if he picks up where he left off. Obviously, he can get back there.

It's true. For as much as fulfilling as Mitch Hanigur was at the start of the year, there's been so many breakthroughs among outfielders since then Aaron Judge wasn't that big of a deal yet Cory Dickerson Michael Conforto that now Hanager

he's kind of going to have to regain his value I think but he's been stashed in 90% of leagues this whole time and I think all those owners are going to be able to make use of him So would you rather have Corey Dickerson or Mitch Hanager? For now Corey Dickerson I mean, Hanager, let's see what happens when Hanager gets back. All right.

He's still largely unproven. But it's exciting nonetheless. Yeah, and you got some steals with him too, which is nice. And, yeah, he, that was a big loss for me, for sure. So I am also looking forward to Mitch Hanigar. And will you start Stephen Matz this weekend in his first start off the DL? Probably not, unless it's, you know, obviously it depends to some degree on options, but I'd rather not. I think it's particularly if it's a weekly lineup, it's nice that

you get to see this one start before you make your determination for next week. The start is at the Braves. We've been hitting well of late. And they're in SunTrust Park where you can trust the ball's going to hit the sun. All right, that's going to do it for. I'm going to cut out a few of the other awards. Thank you for the tweet, Joey. There's your high school yearbook superlatives. Thursday standouts. It doesn't have to all be negative here, Scott.

Let's talk about Joe Ross. Now, if you read the recap of this Nationals Orioles game, this was a made-up game from a rainout. That no team had really any interest in playing. And I think Buck Showalter said something like, or maybe it's Dusty Baker. One of them said something like, you know, it's basically going to come down to whichever pitcher was better because implying like the hitters just didn't want to be there. Daniel Murphy sat. Mani Machado sat because he's banged up.

Adam Jones sat. A couple other really good player. I think Ryan Zimmerman sat. So Joe Ross still carved up the Orioles. 12 strikeouts in seven and a third, four hits, one run, and his previous two starts, 19 hits and 11 runs in seven innings. The start before that was great. So here's a guy who's 53% owned.

Joe Ross, you buying it? What do you think? I guess we have to make another play for him. I just wish I had a better grasp of what was going on. I know there's been some weird velocity fluctuation at times. This was actually the average velocity for the entire start. It was one of his lower velocity starts since coming back, and yet he dominated. So I don't know.

His explanation after the game was that he slowed down between pitches. He did a better job of staying calm under pressure. I don't know what kind of pressure he was under, really. But, you know, that's the kind of reasoning that particularly, a one-start sample like this just doesn't doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me, but we know he has a lot of upside. This was obviously

a ridiculously good start. He's a two-start pitcher next week which I don't know if that's good news or not because you're going to feel obligated to start him. I know I will. But yeah, I do think he needs to be out. All right, it's Joe Ross we're talking about. We are going to look at two-star pitchers later.

We're also going to try to take a look at the most added list later. looking at Joe Ross's matchups next week. He has Atlanta at home and the Mets on the road, and they might have Cespice back at that point. Atlanta at home and the Mets on the road.

So Robert says, I dropped Joe Ross for Jacob Ferreia yesterday. Raisin or Sour Grape? That's Rob in Pennsylvania. I guess a raisin would be good here and a sour grape would be bad. The raisin is the carrot now for our podcast?

I guess so. Oh, have you ever had a carrot raisin salad? As much as I love raisins, that's probably about as much as I hate carrots, so no. Oh, okay. Well, it's an awful salad. Don't ever go down that route. I don't know how it came into existence, but it should be banned from all cookouts henceforth. Anyway, I think since Perea got sent to the miners, I would rather own Joe Ross today.

But I don't know that you're necessarily going to regret adding Faria either. Like we said yesterday, not knowing if he'd get sent down, it probably won't be for long. And there's clearly some upside there as well. While we're on the subject, is Sean Newcomb going to stay up, or is he making just a spot start for the Braves? I think it depends on how he performs, because they have an opening, obviously, with Bartolo Colon, quote, unquote, oblique injury. Matt Whizzler is also coming up. Those two are going to start the two games of the Braves doubleheader Saturday. But Matt Wisler wasn't doing great at AAA.

We've seen him before. I would imagine the Braves would rather it be Newcomb, but obviously if it gets bombed, it's going to be hard to justify. Matt Wisler has some of the most underwhelming stuff I've ever seen from a pitcher that was labeled the prospect. It reminded me of Kyle Gibson. So if you were going to rank Joe Ross, Sean Newcomb, and Jacob Faria, How would you rank those three? Ross Nukumferia.

Ross Nukum foria. Okay. Thank you, Scott. Any other standouts you want to talk about from Positive Thursday here on Negative Friday? I think we do have to talk about Insin Volquez. Not that I have a lot of insight into what's been happening with him. I do. Okay, go ahead.

The best explanation I've ever heard, Don Mattingly said the ankle injury. Yeah, I did see that. Is that great? So Edinson Volquez hurt his ankle in the first inning of his no-hitter. And Don Madically said that it's actually helped him because it has calmed Edinson Volquez down and he has been able to stay within his delivery. You know, I read quotes from Volquez on the same thing. Oh, yeah?

And he said, yeah, it keeps him from jumping. He had been jumping in his delivery now and the hurt ankle prevents that. I don't know that it's kind of like Joe Ross's explanation. I'm having a hard time buying it. It feels like they're reaching there for an explanation because normally if an injury changes your delivery, that's not a good thing. I guess as bad as Volquez was performing,

there's nowhere to go up. But that's, of course, not literally true. And in fact, since coming back from the DL for a blister issue, he has five quality starts and six chances. Obviously, the last two are by far the best two and no hitter. And then this three-hit effort with eight strikeouts and seven innings. Lucas has been around a long time, and most of it's been underwhelming. There have been, there's been a year here and there where he's been a pretty good fantasy option.

And, you know, especially having such a big home park, I'm not going to rule out that this could be one of those years. But he's still behind, like, Dan Straitly for me. And I think most people would view Australia is pretty fringy. And he's behind Joe Ross then, Volquez? Yeah, yeah. All right, Vokes is 30%-0, and then he does have a 248 ERA in his last six starts. There you go. Well, I'll tell you that Indochino is always a standout.

It's one of the things I look forward to on Fridays. That's why it's a happy Friday. I get to tell you about Indochino. Look, you're a grown man. It's time to get yourself a real suit. one that fits you perfectly, one that you can customize every single detail of. And if you go to Indochino.com, look, suits like this, they're usually about $800. But on Indochino.com, I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O-C-I-N-O-C-N-O-C-N-O-T.

If you enter F-B-T at checkout, you get 50% off the regular price of a made-to-measure premium suit with free shipping. $379 bucks on Indochino.com with our promo code F-B-T for any premium suit. Again, that's $3709 with free shipping. I've got my Indochino suit. I look forward to wearing it. It is the only piece of clothing. Seriously, the only piece of clothing that I have that I can't wait to wear because it fits me amazingly.

I absolutely love it. I get compliments every time I wear it. I picked every detail of it. I got this cool monogram. ASA invented swagger on the jacket lining. So I'm really cool. You should be cool, too. Go to Indochino.com.

Get any premium suit for $3.79. when you enter our promo code FBT at checkout, Indochino.com. All right, the big news, it only gets worse for starting pitchers. Dallas Keikles on the DL with a neck injury. He's already been on the DL once with a pinch nerve in his neck. Now, the Astros are calling up Francis Martez. Martez, don't know, sorry. Martez, thank you.

He will pitch out of the bullpen, so we're not really interested in picking him out. He's their top prospect. Right. He is expected to pitch out of the bullpen, but there's some question as to whether or not he will because it's kind of tied to Joe Muskero's return. And right now they're calling it more of a piggyback situation than a full-fledged relief appearance,

meaning they both go like four innings. And that obviously opens the door from Mertes to enter the rotation full-time. But for all the upside, he's a 21-year-old who just put together a 5-29, ERA and 2.1 whip at AAA. PCL, but still, that's not very encouraging. No, no. So that's Francis Martes, and Musgrove could pitch on Monday. So we'll see about Kuyahel, but that's a tough break, obviously, for no longer the Syong frontrunner. No longer. And like, since you already missed that start with what they called an illness, I originally thought, okay, well,

You know, they've already skipped a start. They're trying to get an extra arm in here. This is clearly just a minimum 10-day DL thing. But, no, it sounds like there's legitimately something going on with his neck. He got sent back to get checked out by team doctors, and they don't have a timetable for him. It may end up being just the one term, but it may not, too. So I'm a little concerned.

Yeah, totally sucks. Kyle Hendrix is on the DL with hand tendonitis. Mike Montgomery will start today, and the Cubs called up Seth Frankoff. But Hendricks, this could be shorter term, right? Yeah, this does sound like just a minor issue, one term sort of deal. Cespitus resumed his rehab assignment, could come back next week. Right now, Addison Russell's been out of the lineup.

You probably saw the news. He's denying domestic abuse accusations. So he's been out of the lineup. You dropped Addison Russell because of this or just because, you know, 12-team league, sort of shallow and no middle infield. you dropped Addison Russell. Both. I knew I wasn't going to be able to start him this upcoming week,

or at least I thought there was a good chance I won it, and don't really feel like I'm going to miss him anyway in that format. Someone spent $26 bucks on Chance Adams in our auction league. What are the in the auction league? So that's a 12-team, Roto, 30-man roster, so 360 players owned. It's not a shallow league, but that's... Is he coming up? That is...

No. No. Not yet, but there's a lot of speculation with Tanaka's issues. Yeah, that's the thing. If Chance Adams is coming up, if Chance Adams is coming up, he'll have to replace Masahiro Tanaka in the rotation. So that's... It would be a long-term thing, no. Yeah, right, exactly.

Who else is in the rotation? Paneda... Jordan Montgomery would be the only candidate. And he's been good. Yeah, no, he's... There's no reason to replace Jordan Montgomery. No. Even if we heard today that Adams was getting called up, this seems like too aggressive of a bid.

I mean, he does have great numbers in the minors, but he hasn't, you know, he doesn't have a lot of, hasn't gotten a lot of prospect hype. And it's kind of a question mark. Okay, that's Chance Adams. I just thought I missed something, $26 bid. That was crazy. Alex Wood will pitch tomorrow. Bryce Harper literally hit the cover off the ball.

He fouled the ball off and the cover ripped off. It was pretty cool. Probably more the ball's fault, right? Probably. There was something wrong with that ball. Oh, yeah, you'd think so. Trey Turner, he stole three bases yesterday. He now has 21 steals.

He has the most steals at shortstop. He has the third most run scored. And believe it or not, Trey Turner is the number five shortstop in points leagues, number two in Roto. So the combination of runs and steals give Trey Turner a pretty high floor, I think you could say. Yep, yep, yep.

That was part of the reason I was so confident in him coming into the year. Even if it went wrong for him as a hitter, he contributes in so many ways that you're just not going to regret having him around. Matt Carpenter, they've moved him into the lead-off spot to give, first to give Dexter Fowler a little bit of a break, and then they kept him in the lead-off spot, and now he's homered in two straight games. So he's had history as a lead-off hitter. Maybe this will spark Matt Carpenter. And Scott, let's say happy birthday to Paul Robinson, who's been asking for a shoutout. Today is his 34th birthday.

Happy birthday, Paul. You are older than me and Scott, you old, old man. Yeah, you shouldn't be requesting birthday shoutouts on Twitter, Paul. Too old for that nonsense. Oh, but you're never too old for the good old Worryometer. And later on in the show, just to preview what's coming up, I want to talk about some interesting splits for a couple of starting pitchers. Jason Hamill had another good start.

Eric Sogarde Scott has 15 walks, six strikeouts, and a 4-14 batting average. That is something. Eric's so good. Yeah. Yeah. But is he? More on that. More on that later.

We'll talk deep. And Domingo Santana's only 61% owned. He's the number five outfielder in the last 21 days. And it's, oh, it's Raisin Team Name Friday. We have Raisin-inspired team names. This will conclude Raisin Week. But it's been a lot of fun. National Raisin Week, everybody.

You know how on Twitter it's National Some Food Item Day every day? No, actually, I didn't realize that. I don't, I haven't seen a National Raisin Day, but we've turned it into a whole week. I would say we've made an international Raisin Week based on our listenership, so thank you for that. Okay, Wariometer, zero to 10, zero, not concerned at all. Nobody here on this list is getting dropped except maybe the last hitter we talk about. Aledmas Diaz. But, so forget about drop.

Ten is like, I'm very worried. He's just not going to be that good this year. Carlos Gonzalez. I am at about a, maybe a, between a five and a six. I'll say six. Okay. Just because it's been so long and there's been so few glimmers of hope. But I, you know, nowhere near dropping him.

Yeah, I didn't think that this would be the case with cargo, but over the last 28 days, he's actually been a lot better in points leagues. He's 31st at outfield in points leagues, 47th in Roto, because 14 walks to 19 strikeouts. So actually, Carlos Gonzalez has a career high walk rate, and a lot of these guys are still walking, which gives you hope. And it's what we said about Jose Baltista earlier in the year, But, Bautista's turned it around for about a month.

These guys haven't. So you're a six on cargo. Where are you on? I'm looking at some of the names ahead. I'm going to give myself a little more room for some nuance with these next ones. So I'm going to go five on cargo, lowering it to five. Five on cargo. Edwin Encarnacion, 34 years old.

He's the number – Edwin Encarnassion is the number 36 first baseman in points leagues, number 41 in Roto. And he's got a bit of a hip issue right now. The K rate is up dramatically. The ground balls are up. But the career high, hard contact rate for Edwin Incarnacion, Worryometer on Edwin Incarnacion. Yeah, I'm going to go six on him. Okay. Because, like you said, the K rate up dramatically.

After already rising dramatically last year for a guy in his mid-30s, that is a worrisome trend. Now, we've seen Jose Batista turn that trend around in a pretty dramatic way. So that's why it's only a six. But I am, if somebody was willing to pay for Incarnacion, like he's a top 10, I'll say 10 because first base is so deep. Like he's a top 10 first baseman, I'd have to listen just to avoid potential heartache. Would you still take Encarnacion over the Justins? Yes, they're both a good bit outside the top 10. They might not even be top 15 yet for me.

But as much as I liked him, I mean, it's a really deep position. Miguel Cabrera, Scott, 0 to 10 on Miggy. I'm going to go more like a three there, I think. It might creep up to four, but a couple years younger than Incarnazion. He's hitting the crap out of the ball still. It's just not yielding good results, and he doesn't have the plate discipline issues we're seeing from cargo. Right.

So I think there's less reason to worry with him. Yeah, the peripherals say that Cabrera, as you said, is destroying it. He's got 31.5% line drive rate. Last year it was 22.7% and a career high, hard contact rate. Home run to fly ball ratio is very low. What's weird about the peripherals is that Cabrera is always a high BABIP guy, and he's always a high batting average guy. But he's a 320 Babbup this year, and he's only batting 271.

Now, it wouldn't be surprising to see him have like a 3-5. 50 babbip, but I don't know, like, I don't get that. How do you have such a high hard contact rate, high line drive rate, and a 320 Babbap, and somehow Cabrera is only hitting 271? Well, part of the issue is he just hasn't homered at the rate we're used to seeing, and we went through this last year with Jose Abraeu. Remember, first half, we were asking what's wrong with Joseabreou, and based on the way peripherals looked, it's just he needed more home runs to get his numbers right.

And eventually he started hitting them. I think the same is going to happen to Cabrera. Okay, cool. Good comparison. Mookiee Betts. Moogie Betts is actually the number seven outfielder in points leagues and number 22 in Rodell. And this is where, like, points leagues, I think, are pretty close to perfect when it comes to hitters. I think they're a little flawed with pitchers, but with hitters, they're great.

However, sometimes I feel like plate discipline gets a little bit too much weight. There's not much you can do about it. Like, Betts. Waxer, Wachser valuable hits. Betts is not a top seven. There's no way that the Moogie Betts owner feels like he has the seventh best outfielder in fantasy. I disagree. I think he's legitimately a really good hitter.

Yeah. Despite his batting average. And I think the Poyne's League is rewarding him fairly. My worry, his place on the Worryometer for me might be zero. Okay. 25 walks. One, because maybe he doesn't quite match the last. last year's home run total. Let's say one. But, you know, he's a stud.

Well, okay, like if you're in a standard five-by-five categories league, Betts has 17 doubles, which don't count. I mean, you know, they don't count as a specific category. And he has 25 walks to 24 strikeouts, which is tremendous, doesn't really count. So, you know, in a points league, maybe Betts is a zero, or an OBP league is a zero or something. I have a league that rewards total bases. But in a standard five-by-five categories, a Roto league, is bets anywhere on your worryometer? No, he's still. I'm going to give him the same rating

because the plate discipline is so good. I trust the numbers to come around. Early in the year we were worried about his home run pace too, and then he had this two-week binge that actually put him ahead of last year's pace. So I think we're just kind of catching him at the end of a down stretch, and he's about to get hot.

All right, Mookie Betz. Zero. Jonathan Luchreoy, number 16 catcher in points leagues, but number 35 in Roto, plate appearances have a lot to do with that. The peripherals aren't very good for him, except he's just not striking out a lot, but eight walks, 14 strikeouts, 256 batting average with three home runs and 10 doubles.

Lucroix's been terrible. Zero to 10 on Lucroix. I mean, I value plate discipline as a predictor above, probably still above everything among what we look at with hitters because even things like hard contact rate, line drive rate, those can sometimes be less a cause than an effect, I guess is the

right way. I think I said that's the right way. Is this plate discipline? Because he's not walking. I mean, I know he's not striking out, Lou Croy, but he has eight walks. He's D.D. Gregorius. Yeah, but in a way, when you're talking about a slumping hitter, the strikeouts, I think, are more telling than even the walks. Okay. So, I don't know. I mean, line drive rate is way down.

Groundball rate is way up. Fly ball rate is down quite a bit. Moriometer. He's not making contact in the ways he needs to to be successful. Give me a number. But he is making contact. I'll go three. Is Jonathan Lucroy still a top three catcher for you?

Yes, but he's the clear third now. Sanchez is overtaking him. both formats. By the way, I sold Lucroix short by comparing him to Dede Gagorius, who strikes out a lot more than Luke Roy. Okay, last one. Aledmus Diaz, zero to ten. A leadmus.

Let's give him a five. Five. I don't think it's crazy to consider dropping him in a shallow league if you were the one who, you know, stumbled into Cozart or even I guess it's possible you could have drafted Led Mastiaz and Elvis Andrews it's still so hard because shortstop like what else are you going to do there if you give up

on a Led Misteas but the fact he's not walking at all not really hitting for power other than a few home runs early with a questionable minor league profile as far as that goes I think there's legitimate reason for concern But at the same time, I like that he makes a lot of contact, I think. That helps make up for that in some small way.

Okay, five for Ledmus Diaz. Let's go to the pitchers now. Johnny Quato. Johnny Quedo has a 431 ERA, 22 walks, 81 strikeouts, and 81 innings. Velocity down a little bit compared to June last year, about a mile per hour. It's just not giving you great starts lately. Johnny Quato, zero to 10. Yeah, I'm really

Okay, so I'll go two on Johnny Quedo But I dispute that he's not really giving you good starts And I understand the ERA The cumulative ERA is a bit on the high side There were a couple of really bad starts That helped contribute to that But I look at the game log And like most of his starts

I'd be thrilled if any one of my pitchers getting me back I mean the innings are still high The strikeouts are still high All right, first of all, first of all, if you're going to dispute something I say, you've got to make sure I actually said it. Because what I said was not giving you a lot of great starts lately. At least I'm pretty sure that's what I said. What you said is that you dispute that he's not giving you any good starts. So one, you change great to good and two, you left out the word lately.

So I mean, want to run in six in six innings with eight strikeouts? That's not great. That's a great start. That is a great start. Even three earn runs in six with nine strikeouts, I guess it's a little short of grave. That's a good start at the Phillies. That's a good start. He's six innings or less, five straight starts.

Before that, yeah, you were getting some great starts. But his last five starts, it's like you're hoping for a quality start. And he's only given you two in his last five. Yeah. Quedo. I mean, compare his line to even like Jake Arellettas, and I come away impressed. I know. And Arieta is somebody who we still have no.

question, he's a top 15 starter. That's because the bar's been lowered, not because he's still great. The bar has been lowered, but be that as it may, you know, okay, so the bar's been lowered, and Johnny Quedo has been able to clear that bar pretty handling. Okay. Next up, John Lester, 0 to 10. I've been watching Lester. I didn't watch him yesterday.

He gave up a three-run homer, and other than that, he was pretty good, but still. There's always an excuse with Lester, it seems. And I don't know. I am a little concerned because he's not throwing very hard. Not that he's ever been like a fireballer. No, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know that the velocity is really that big of a deal for him. It's not down that much.

I'm going to go two on him also. It's been a little frustrating. I'll give you that. but I know his first year with the Cubs started out pretty frustrating too, and he ended up having a normal John Lester season. It may be that he raised the bar to an unrealistic level last year, but I can't, like with Quo, I can't really come up with 15 names that I trust more than Lester. Garrett Cole, 0 to 10.

I will go, this is probably the highest one so far. I kind of want to go eight. I'll go seven. I'll be a little more conservative and say seven. Because I don't have a clear understanding of what's wrong. But particularly paired with last year's results, it's pretty clear something is wrong. Okay, so I really regret not being more vocal about this.

Cole is just someone that I've been very interested in this year because I think he was, well, Palanco was my player that I love. loved. Cole was like my runner-up. And the pirates, as I've said, have, you know, they've pooped in my cereal and they have... Gross. That's an expression. The raisin brand? Because that might be, you know, a little hard to pick out. Yeah, they've really put a damper on fantasy baseball for me, even though I have no Polanco, but I do have some Cole. And so I've watched a lot of Garret Cole. And I just, I just don't think his breaking pitches are that good. I think this guy, when he loses velocity, could become a bad pitcher.

And all he is is like a hard thrower. He says that Cole says that his, he's not getting the downward tilt on his pitches and things are elevated. But I'm not blown away by his secondary stuff. Now, the only reason why I wasn't more vocal about is because I'm not a baseball scout, number one. There I guess two reasons. One, I'm not a scout. And before this dreadful four-star stretch, Cole had a 284 ERA. And only 12 walks and 57 innings.

So he looked like an absolute must start. Yeah, yeah. About the time I declared he's back and I'm not worried about him. But I just don't think he's that great of a pitcher. Now, this is the same thing I felt about Justin Verlander a few years ago when Verlander was struggling. People were so focused on his velocity and I was like, I don't really think his breaking ball is that good anymore. Maybe it's because the fastball wasn't as good. So this seems like something that could be corrected.

But right now, right now Cole looks to me like a one-pitch pitcher, and hitters can hit 97-mile-per-hour fastballs now. So he's like a no pitch. I'll say this much. I was his quotes after this start, you know, trying to sum up what's wrong. He doesn't sound like a pitching savon.

Like, you know, some pitchers like, you know, Zach Granky can be this way at times. Justin Verlander, both pitchers, really, who are great, they can talk about the craft of pitching in a really clear way that makes you feel, reassures you they know what they're doing. And Cole, like he has no answers. He just kept saying, I'm going to try hard. Maybe he's just a guy who likes to keep things close to the vest and, you know, is skeptical of the media.

But he wasn't inspiring much confidence. He came off as very downtrodden yesterday. So you do wonder if there's a confidence issue. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. And look, they have race erage, so we know he's a pitching savant. I'm holding Garrett Cole. I don't think there's much of a market for him.

I don't really, I guess he's a by-lo because I don't expect him to have like a 5-ERA. But I don't know how good Garrett Cole is. And I just, for me, I think the best thing to do is just maybe sit him and just wait it out and hope you get like a high-3 ZRA guy rest of season. and be pleasantly surprised if it's better. I mean, I do think it's worth shopping him. I would... I think I still have him ranked ahead of... No, maybe I did move Robbie Ray behind him,

but, you know, obviously a deal like that, I don't think it's crazy to think that you might be able to pull that off. Maybe if we get a little lower than Robbie Ray in a points league, I don't know that it'd be crazy to trade him straight up for several. Even knowing Severino might have some innings concerns later, just, you know, you can cross that bridge when you come to it and you breed yourself from the coal concern.

Well, I guess if there's one thing that would be encouraging is that coal is giving up a ton of home runs this year. And even when he's been bad, he hasn't been a home run guy. So maybe he really is elevating his pitches too much. He just has to refine it mechanically, get on top of the ball a little bit more, get more sink. Because he should be a ground ball pitcher, right? Yeah. So maybe that's the issue. That's a big part of, you know, even at his best, he's been just kind of a so-so strikeout guy.

But, you know, it plays up because he's so good at avoiding the home runs. So he needs to get back to that. Okay. And just to wrap it up, are you worried at all about Michael Fulmer or David Price? Fulmer's had two clunkers in a row, and now only 6.8 strikeouts per nine, and Price just cannot pitch against the Yankees. Yeah, I'll give Price just a pass for this isolated incident, and he does have a history against the Yankees. Fulmer, you know, it's two bad starts in a row, but it was his fifth in a row with seven-plus hits, and he did bring up on his own after the game the possibility that maybe he's tipping his pitches,

Because I think at this start, one strikeout, three total swinging strikes. And this is the troutless angels, who Buck Farmer just shut down the day before. Something seems kind of screwy there. So hopefully it is a pitch-tipping situation and you can get it figured out. I'm not that worried yet. It is time for Raisin Team Name Friday. Here we go. Andy on Long Island is Raisin the Plouf.

Nice. Remember all the ploof puns from, what, three, four years ago? Oh, yeah. The plo is on fire. I said what it was mine. I think mine was the ploof is in the pudding. That was the go-to, yeah. Yeah, but the ploof was on fire was pretty funny, too.

Adam does not have a raisin team name, but since it's team name Tuesday on a Friday. Oh, double Herrera. Okay. He doubled again yesterday to extend his major league leading total. Okay, yeah, no, that's good. Adam also says raisins ruin cookies, and that's hard to do. hashtag team no raisins. They don't ruin cookies.

That's ridiculous. Oatmeal raisin cookies. They're not my favorite cookie, but they're still delicious. Come on. And then Dan from Rhode Island says, how awful is it when you think it's a chocolate chip cookie? You bite it and it's a raisin. No, no.

That is disappointing. You like to know what you're biting into. Okay, sure. And they do look deceptively similar at times. But if you're prepared for it to be an oatmeal raisin cookie, I maintain it's not a disappointing experience. Yeah, I'm fine with it. There are some raisin team names.

Raisin Helixen, Raisin, Cain. Yeah. Those are both pretty good. Wilson Contreraizen. That was interesting. That's a little stretch. And finally from Jim, Raisin bets, like raisinettes. According to Jim.

According to Jim. Raisin bets. All right, real quick. Sorry, Scott. Real quick from yesterday. Double dongs. Gary Sanchez and Derek Norris. Hooray for catchers.

Yep. Okay. Yeah. It's hard to get excited about Derek Norris the kind of year he's had, and he has his own domestic abuse allegations being looked into. Yeah. It's not really making a move to pick him up.

Wilson Ramos coming back as well. Don't forget that. Sure. Sure, yeah. As far as Gary Sanchez goes, this is his second two-homer game in his last six, I think. In-between, he went two-for-17 with a walk. and six strikeouts.

But Paul O'Neill actually did a pretty cool breakdown of his little mechanical flaw in his swing. He's opening up his hips too early. So hopefully it could be corrected and Sanchez can get hot. Splitsville, a couple pitchers with interesting home road splits. One is surprising. One, not so much. Michael Paneda, a little surprising. One 96 ERA at home, 596 ERA on the road.

And nine home runs in 25 and two thirds on the road for Paneda. And he was great against Boston yesterday. changeup looks like it's getting better. The Angels on the road next week. Do you have any issues starting Paneda on the road? Not at all. Okay. And then Oteresee, 311 ERA at home, a 450 ERA on the road. He had a good start, not a great start, but a good start at home against the White Sox. I think for a guy who's 90% owned, I might consider sitting him at Toronto next week. Jake Oteresee. One start week? Yeah, I think he's always somebody you could sit in a one-star week. But he's also somebody you could start

in a one-star week and there are not many pitchers like what in a standard mix league setting there are there are you know it's a limited number of pitchers you really feel good about starting in a one-start week ever you know there are some you always do no matter who they're facing but there are some you kind of never want to start in that scenario and odorese is at least better than that yeah

and deep leagues any interest in Jason Hamill, who's coming around a little bit, Ben not as attractive as Blake Lively, R.A. Dickey, Christian Bergman. Those are the pitchers. Hamill, Ben, not as attractive as Blake Lively. R.a. Dickey, Christian Bergman. You know, when I first learned who Ben Lively was, which was a couple years ago, he had a crazy year in the California League that made it seem like he would be a bigger prospect than he was.

I wanted to get him in every dynasty league and I kept calling him accidentally kept calling him Blake lively because you know Blake's more often than not a boy's name and be lively I don't know I have no idea that you keep making these Blake lively connections also Well I have no idea what Ben lively looks like I just know that he's not as attractive as Blake lively

You should see that movie where she's trying to escape the shark quite attractive. Do you have any interest in Hamel, Lively, Dickie, or Bergman? She's trying to escape a shark? Yeah, it's a good movie. The shallows, it's called. It's just her against the shark. I want to think people don't normally put their best foot forward in that scenario, right?

What do you mean? Well, typically people aren't going to look their best when they're fighting for their life. She's in a bikini, like it's surfing. Yeah, she looks great. All right, no. I haven't seen it. So I'll take your word for it. What were you asking again?

Hamill, lively, Dickie Bergman. No. The one who I can probably get most excited about is R.A. Dickey, which says a lot. Really? Just because he's a knuckleballer, and knuckleballers can sometimes go on these crazy runs that are good enough to compete for the Cy Young Award just out of nowhere. Yeah, not going to happen. But I'm not really, like,

expecting that from Dickie, you know. Chris Ioneta, Jose Porella, Eric Sogarde. They are all 3% owned or less. Chris Ioneta, Jose Porella, Eric Sogarde. Ioneta is up to what, eight home runs and less than 100 of bats. Yeah. Through this 7 RBI game. So I wish he'd play more.

He doesn't even start half the time for the Diamondbacks. Pretty much just an NL-only option because of that. Okay, but what about Sogarde? And what about Porella, the Padres called up? Like, do you see Team League appeal? Yeah, I guess we should address Sogarde. He has started for a five. Sogarde sits against lefties.

So who does he start? He just starts all over the place against righties. He starts at either second or short and they sit VR or they sit Arcia. Yeah. It's kind of scary for VR. I mean, we don't really care about Arcia in standard leagues, so who cares where they go with him. But VR, I mean, VR is still pretty valuable, just because. because he runs so much and he's not without power.

So you'd like to see him keep playing, but he is a better fantasy player than a real-life player, so I can see this becoming an even worse issue. That's really all I see Sogard as right now is an annoyance. He has some NL-only value while he's playing, sure, but he's not going to be an impact player. Okay, I think we're at about 45, 46 minutes. By 50 minutes, we should be at two-star pitchers,

so we'll probably end the show with that. Now that I put the time codes in the descriptions, I think it's helpful. I hope people are appreciating that. I hope it's been helpful for them. You can skip around a little bit more. But obviously, you read those descriptions every day. We cover a lot more than what I can write in four sentences.

So these hitters I do want to talk about. Domingo Santana, 61% own. He's the number five outfielder over the last 21 days. Nick Castiano has a seven-game hitting streak. he's batting 400 with two homers and three doubles. And Eduardo Nunez is not, you're not picking him up, but he's the number eight shortstop in points, number five in Roto, and he is on fire.

Last 22 games, Nunez is batting 374 with nine steals. So Domingo Santana, he might be under own people. Like, he's walking a ton. He steals, he homers. Good for him. The thing that really caught my attention with Domingo Santana, because I haven't liked the plate discipline. He is walking more, but he strikes out a lot.

He profiles with his line drive rate, I mean, he is among the highest line drive hitters in baseball, which means high babit, probably. So I'm not even really that concerned about the strikeouts, not to the extent that I thought I'd be. And I think he probably is under-owned at 61%. It's time to start looking into him. Even in three outfielder leagues.

Like if you made a play for Stephen Sousa when he was at his hottest, it's time probably to make that switch. Okay. Domingo Santana. I'm seeing where he ranks in line drive rate, to put it in perspective. He's 12. Wow. Oh, exactly the same line driver rate is Steven Sousa.

I know. Susa, I really, I wasn't really happy that you supported him. earlier this week. Sorry, Adam. I just think he's going to let you down every time. Well, when the line drive rate is so high, like, that's, Freddie Freeman, like, this is one of the things I've really caught on to

just this year. Figuring out why Freddie Freeman is such a good hitter, even though the strikeout rate is kind of bad. And it's because he is a ridiculous line drive hitter. So I'm starting to pay more attention I almost said that word again. I'm starting to pay more attention to that, because not every hitter who strikes out a lot is bad,

and there are reasons for it. And being able to making the kind of contact that most often yields a hit is how you overcome it. And Santana's doing that. Stephen Sousa has done that this year in a way that he hadn't done previous, I don't think. Well, he was a pretty good line drive hit her last year, too.

Yeah, jury's still out on him. But Santana, I'm starting to buy into. Hooray. Let's go through the two-star pitchers. See if there are any big news items we need to get to. Joe Girardi said Aaron Hicks is going to have an increased role when Jacoby Ellsbury comes back. Kevin Kiermeyer left with a hip injury. He was on crutches.

Justin Padroyo will be back tonight. Good news for Eduardo Rodriguez. He's making good progress. Things looking up there. Chris Heston is now on Minnesota. He was on Seattle. He threw that no-hitter a few years ago. Now Chris Heston was claimed by the Twins.

Everybody needs to know that. Nelson Cruz expected back today. Salvador Perez should be back in the lineup today, and Joe Musgrove could start on Monday. Your two-star pitchers for Fantasy Week 11. How is it overall? Good week for two-star pitchers that we could potentially pick up? It's a pretty good week.

There are actually tiers of sleepers for this week. The high-tier sleeper I like is Jimmy Nelson, who I feel like should probably be universally owned by this point, but he's not. And then mid-tier, at least heading into, at least as of last night, Joe Ross was only about 50% owned. It's probably changed some, but did you have it in the notes here? Yeah, I think he's 60. Oh, no, no, no, Joe Ross, he's 54%. Yeah, so he's available in a lot of leagues.

And, again, I'm not super confident in him, but if you want that extra start, you're not going to find another pitcher that available with that kind of upside. And then the low-tier pitcher pitcher who I'd be excited to add for two starts is Alex Meyer, who's only 13% owned. Gets the Yankees first time, which is obviously a little scary, but Kansas City second time. And been getting a lot of strikeouts, a lot of swings and misses on that curveball lately. All right. So Jimmy Nelson, high tier, Joe Ross, mid-tier, Alex Meyer, lower tier.

Would you start or sit Jacob de Grom again? the Cubs and the Nationals. I would start him. Okay. Mike Leak, Milwaukee at home, Baltimore on the road. And he's started to see some regression his last three starts. I'm going to, okay, I just want to say that I watched the two starts to go against the Cubs. And he pitched great.

And they may have left them in a little bit too long, and he had a bad inning, and he gave up a grand slam to Kyle Schwerber. but it may have been six scoreless innings or six innings one run before that. So I think that the last three starts for Leakey is a 530 ERA. I don't think it's nearly as bad as that number would indicate. I just want to say because people are going to get off the leak bandwagon pretty quickly. I don't know that you should. Well, I mean, his FIP is mid-3s, so he's overachieved this year, and he still hasn't regressed all the way to that.

But points league absolutely start him. I think Roto, because Milwaukee and Baltimore, they're both good offenses. I might shy away from it there. All right. Now, here's the thing about Odo Rizzi. I thought he was a one-star pitcher, but he's apparently a two-star pitcher, but they're both on the road. But they're at Detroit, at Toronto and at Detroit. He's just not that good on the road.

It's year after year with him. Yeah, and Tampa's a great place to pitch. Probably another points league versus Roto or Categories League. I would think about sitting him in the latter. In shallower leagues, would you pick up Jimmy Nelson at St. Louis and home against San Diego or Sabathia at the Angels and at Oakland? I'd pick up Nelson. I like those Sabathia matches. The 73% ownership makes him, like, he's already so widely on.

I'm surprised he's that widely on, frankly. Me too. That it makes it hard to get enthusiasm because the level of sleeper he is, probably doesn't justify that ownership tag already, but if you want an extra start and he happens to be out there, those are two good matchups, and he's been on a roll. Fultenevich, I... At Washington, home against Miami,

I think I'm going to sit, Fultenevich. I'd be happy to start him in a points league. Yeah, I have him in a Roto League. I'm not going to start him. Yeah, it's harder to justify there. I thought he was a two-star pitcher this week. I guess he got pushed back because they're breaking up Nukum. but that's a i don't know yeah no that was that was he did he did get listed as a two-star pitcher

on our site but that was if you looked at my two-star pitcher rankings you would have noticed i left them out because that was a weird situation with the double header where something got kind of screwed up there Trevor bower dodgers at home twins on the road uh i avoided dropping him in the podcast league i have very little confidence in him but he was the only two-star pitcher on my roster. Well, I guess he still is. So I'm going to roll with him there. Wouldn't do it in a roto league or categories league at all.

Brandon McCarthy is 75% on. So if you're in shallow leagues, Nelson, Sabathia, McCarthy, they might be good for you. But if we look a little bit deeper, how about Kyle Freeland, J.C. Ramirez, Wade Miley, Tyler Chatwood.

and I think you're going to put Joe Ross ahead of those guys but Kyle Freeland J.C. Ramirez, Wade, Miley, Tyler Chatwood. Do you like any of them this week? Maybe Freeland. He's been pretty good on the road and the home starts against the Giants.

Good ground ball pitcher. I don't think he's bad. I mean, the thing about two-star pitchers like it for most of the time in fantasy, we can make this distinction between, well, this guy isn't great, but he's fine for deep leagues.

But when it comes to two-star pitchers, if they're bad pitchers, even in a deep league, you're not going to want badness twice over, you know? Right. So it's just, it's rarely, you're rarely going to recommend these guys even for those formats. The thing about Freeland and Chatwood is that they're at Pittsburgh and home against San Francisco. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I overlooked Chatwood. But Chowwood might actually be more exciting than Freeland, actually.

They're both fine for deep leagues. And then after that, Jared Ikoff, Jared Icoff has tough matchups. Jarrell Cotton, he has not been trustworthy. Christian Bergman, Luis Perdomo, Alex Meyer, who's got likes in deeper leagues. Joe Musgrove, 35% owned. He's got Texas and Boston at home. Adaberto Malheia, Ben Lively, Alecashir, Mike Palfrey, Guyardo, Chad, Chad, cool, Royal Gibson, yeah. I mean, no, no thanks.

So Meyer, if you need someone, is the one that Scott highlights. And let's finish depressing Friday with some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Hey, Alex, Nomar, and Derek. Those sound like the short stops of the early 2000s that were competing for all-star appearances. That would be them. In a 10 season... By the way, I don't have a name for this. In a 10-team Roto League, three outfielders, two utility slots.

It's a shallow league. Is it worth it to pick up and stash Starling Marte for the next six weeks or so? Ten teams, three outfielders, two utility. No. Too shallow. Okay. I think, you know, in a few weeks, maybe. Yeah.

And look, if you're having a great season and you don't need the spot, then you can always pick them up. But not a must. This is from Florian. I have Lucroy Posey Gattis for my catcher or backup first baseman. I want to shop Lucroix for a starting pitcher. What starting pitcher could I aim for from Lucroix? I mean, it's a really bad time to trade him. I don't know that anyone's going to be eager to jump at that.

And obviously starting pitching is in high demand right now. I mean, in theory, you should be able to get a borderline top 25 guy, I think. You know what, I actually, with Chris out, I actually put together the trade chart for head-to-head leagues just yesterday. So I could give you a pretty clear example of what I think Lou Croy is worth. I have him just behind Michael Fulmer on the trade chart. and Luis Severino is in that range as well. So that's what you should be able to give for him. I don't know that you actually can.

Scott, the listeners are hearing your computer right now. You should probably close that page. Oh, you could hear that? You sure could. Well, sorry. Let me mute my computer so that doesn't happen. That's all right. We're almost done.

Nobody's listening. It's Friday or an hour into the show. Nobody cares. Nobody's listening. Where else are they going to get hot raisin takes? Come on. I know. Real quick.

Jake in New York. Well, Jake wants to know why you don't like Adam Wainwright. Scott, you kind of turned your back on Adam Wainwright after that bad start yesterday. I wasn't buying into it before the bad start. I mean, he had avoided allowing runs, but not in a way that indicated he was really a dominant pitcher again. So I'm not convinced he's mixed league material anymore. Doug from Illinois wants to know what you think about picking up middle reliever Michael Givens. I feel like you can do it.

a little bit better than that. He's good. Yeah, I mean, just bringing that question out of nowhere without understanding the full context, I can't get behind it. Yeah, I feel like there are really, like he has a one,

he's a one-one seven whip, a strikeout per inning, a 270 ERA. Like, he's having a good year, but he's not, no, he could be better than that. He's not even the backup backup closer op. Like,

he's not even the backup closer option while Britain's out, which makes him not even the backup backup closer. And I wanted to to read the drop the mic email from mike and rockaway beach but we are out of time mike so i'll try to read it next week so thank you for that all right scott have a great weekend sir talk to you on monday yeah thank you you don't care but talk to you monday i care i want you to have a good weekend sure

no that's we'll talk about it monday i'll ask you i'm going to see book of mormon i look forward to reporting back okay for scott white i'm adam azer we're getting chris back next week everybody to get excited. See all you. Have a great weekend. See you.