Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Judging Judge, Adding SPs & More

Episode Date: June 13, 2017

We are constantly searching for reliable SPs and today Scott will tell you which waiver wire pitchers are your best bet for consistency (8:00) ... A lot to cover from yesterday as we compare Masahiro Tanaka and Rick Porcello (2:40), complain about Jacob deGrom's pitch count (6:00), give thoughts on the MLB Draft and discuss Aaron Judge's value in both 2017 and 2018 (17:25) ... We're playing "Buy Low or Heck No?" (29:21) and going over the latest news ... 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

Mid-round break out, O M-G. No, Lasko, just say no. Carasco sang one o'clock. Coming at you on this Tuesday morning, as we have Week 11 underway in fantasy baseball. I'm Adam Azer with Scott White, who for today gets to experience what I get to experience every day. Working from home, how great is this Scott White?

Podcasting from home. That's right. That's completely foreign to me. Yeah, it's the best. So you're getting a peek into my bedroom, Adam. How does that feel? I see some, okay, we got a heart. We got two pictures behind Scott in frames.

They're both white with a black picture frame. There's a heart. And, oh, wait, it's like a sweet. I'm not going to read it out loud, but it's sweet. It's very nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I did a lot of decorating.

I'm sure. All right, so listen, as Scott is at home, the reason for this is Scott, Scott's got something going on today, so we had to get this podcast early. It's 825 a.m. right now. This is the earliest we've ever done a show. And it was either this or we were going to have to do it late in the afternoon. So please, I apologize for any audio issues we may have. I know it's not going to sound perfect today, but it should sound pretty good.

And we're going to get to your fantasy baseball knowledge right now. And we're going to help you out online tomorrow. If you don't know what Reddit is, it's very cool website, R-E-D-D-I-T, Reddit. They do Ask Me Anythings, AMAs. And we will do hopefully one a week, and we're looking at Wednesdays. So tomorrow, I'm thinking about 2 o'clock, you can follow me on Twitter at Adam Azer, A-I-Z-E-R. You can follow Scott at CBS Scott White. Two o'clock plan on tomorrow doing an AMA on Reddit.

So you go to Reddit.com slash R slash fantasy baseball, or you can just search for the fantasy baseball page. And you will see us there. It might only be me tomorrow because we are short-handed this week with Heath out of town all week. But anyway, we'll answer a lot of your questions. Help you set lineups, help you make trades, whatever it is. Let's get into yesterday's action. We had a blown save in Washington. We have another update in the Phillies bullpen.

We've got to talk about Aaron Judge in our email of the day. The MLB draft was yesterday, at least the beginning of it. And I'm mad about a few things. I'm sure you're all interested to hear why. So let's start with this. Who are you feeling better about going forward? And your answer in the mic check surprised me a little bit. Masahiro Tanaka or Rick Porcelo.

Tanaka or Porcelo, who are you feeling better about going forward? So am I going to switch it up on you now? No, I'm going to still go with Masahiro Tanaka because I feel like I have a basic idea what's going on with him because when he's been great, he's been great, you know, he's been everything we drafted him to be big strikeouts, just a dominant front line starting pitcher, as was the case against the Angels in this most recent star,

he was locating his pitches better. Seemed like the target Austin Romine was setting up for him exaggeratedly low. It seemed like that seemed to help. So it feels like there's more upside to be had here than Porcelo, who I think has gotten some bad luck. I mean, he has the highest babb of any pitcher in baseball. You know, and it's hits mostly that have done him in,

eight plus hits and seven straight starts. But I'm just, we haven't seen a good enough individual start from him this year for me to think he's going to be any kind of ace for you. They're probably both by lows, but I would prefer Tanaka. Well, look, after 12 starts for Porcelo, I noted that he basically had the same numbers he had a year ago after 12 starts. And then he turned it on. It was amazing and won the Sai Yung with a 22 and 4 record. But now it's 14 starts. Okay, that was two starts ago.

It hasn't really gotten any better. He had one terrible inning last night, Porcelo. Tanaka, I, you know, I watched his entire start. 18 swinging strikes, and his splitter was much, much better. I'm not fully, I'm not like he's back. I'm not saying he's back. There were actually some, you know, it was a step in the right direction, but there were some hard hit balls. He gave up a home run in the first inning.

Got a little bit lucky. And just one start. I mean, we've seen these one-star blitzers. from him before. Right, and I think he's going to have another good one this weekend, at least with strikeouts with the A's. That's why I started him, and hopefully it pays off. But I don't think you're jumping back on.

We shouldn't fully jump on back. Jump back on board, excuse me. Scott's fault for making me do a podcast so early with Tanaka. But good signs, good stuff. 18 swinging strikes, as I mentioned, on only 89 pitches and took advantage of a good matchup. All right. You want to know why I'm mad?

Scott. I'm mad about a lot of things. getting up early apparently. Yeah, that's one of them. I'm mad at you. I'm mad at you for making me, making me, you did this to me. I'm mad at myself for, gosh, for Jacob de Grom.

I forgot to set my lineup. And I usually, I usually don't get so mad about fantasy, but when I forget to set my lineup, like, that's just inexcusable. And I really need a win this week in this league I'm struggling in, DeGrom's on my bench.

Hanigur's on my bench. Now, it's a daily league so I can get them in for their next, you know, for Hanager today for DeGrom this weekend. But that sucks. I miss a complete game from DeGrom. And you know what else I'm mad about with the Grom? One day for Hanigur. Four run day for Hanig. I know.

Four for four for a six. That sucks. DeGrom threw 116 pitches yesterday. I'm mad about that. I knew you weren't going to like that. But what the hell? Like, be smart. He threw 118 pitches three-star.

His next two starts, he threw eight innings and gave up like a million. I have the numbers. Eight innings and 15 run runs. So I didn't like that, Scott. Yeah, I mean, correlation, causation. We don't know that one, they're one and the same. In this case, the pitches have been consistently high for DeGrom. He has had only one start in his last,

Oh, what is it? One in his last 10 starts As he had fewer than 105 pitches. I know, it's crazy. So, you know, 11 more, I don't know that that's necessarily a breaking point. It's not a nice number to see, 116, especially for a young pitcher who throws as hard as he does,

but I don't know that I'm just going to... Overall, I'm taking this start as good news, even with that pitch total. All right. I mean, look, he did have... DeGrom had four walks and six strikeouts. It wasn't the best start ever, but complete game one run against the Cubs is pretty good. You're going to take it, and he's in your lineup unless you're me.

I'm mad because my printer jam this morning, and it delayed me a little bit, so that was annoying. And I'm mad about pitching in general because, like, Mike Fultenevich. Why did I start Mike Fultenevich? What the heck was I thinking? I mean, two-star pitcher, right? Was it a points league? No. You know what I was thinking?

What were you thinking? My pitching has been so bad in that Roto league that I was like, he probably can't hurt me anymore. I can pretty much only go up and whip an ERA. No, I started him. You can't hurt me anymore. I started Matt Albers, lost three points in Roto yesterday. But I want to know from you, who are you going to be the reliable pitchers? Okay, because we got Dilsen Lameded, we got Dan Strayalied, we got Jung, Riyud,

We're getting, Ferrea, he's getting called up, he's a two-star pitcher this week, we got Sean Newcomb. We talked about some exciting guys yesterday. Who's going to be reliable, Scott? Well, I actually wrote a column for the website yesterday. It's up now, kind of gauging just that among some of a dozen pitchers, a dozen young pitchers who've caught our attention on the waiver wire recently. And, you know, I can't answer that question definitively. You kind of just have to take your best guess, and if it doesn't work out, then switch to the next guy.

Hopefully there's still some of that group still available when that time comes. But I listed the pros and cons for each, and I organized them in the order I'd prioritize them, you know, without naming. Not all the pictures you name there were among the 12, because I mostly focused on younger pitchers. but Sean Newcomb was very high on the list. Jacob Ferreya was on the higher half of the list. Mike Fultenevich, he wasn't on the list at all,

because I mean, the strikeouts haven't been consistent enough for me to believe that what he was doing in terms of ERA was totally legit. And now that ERA has risen to 437, went from 348 to 437 in this start, so, you know, the season-long numbers don't even look that great. was such a crooked line. But it seemed like it was a long time coming too, since he wasn't necessarily getting the dominance numbers that we look for with young pitchers.

Now, with Faria specifically, him coming back for a two-star week going today and should go Sunday, provided today is not a disaster. Now, you and I actually chose to bench him, even knowing he was making two starts in our 16-team categories league because we looked at the matchup what the other person was starting at pitcher

and decided, you know, we have a good enough chance of winning in this league, it's quality starts instead of wins, quality starts and strikeouts that we didn't want to jeopardize ERA and WIP because we really thought we had those two in the bag. But in points leagues, any points leagues is where I own free, I went ahead and started them.

And obviously there's those distinctions between the two formats when you're not protecting ratios in a points league, you can take bigger risks. Yeah, yeah. And I started Faria in a Roto League as well. And this is actually a pretty cool column. Everybody should take a look at it. Sean Newcomb is up there, as Scott mentioned. Zach Godley is up there.

We just don't know if he's going to start this week, do we? Nope. And that was among the cons I listed for him. Now, Joe Ross is on there as well. And Ross is going to start tonight. And he has a two-star week. And I decided to sit him because I thought about it. And I said, I think with Joe Ross,

I'm looking at his last start, which was absolutely brilliant against Baltimore. And I'm really just – I'm taking the – Baltimore just didn't want to play. It was a make-up game. I don't think they had Manny Machado. And it just seemed to me like that had more to do with Baltimore in the matchup in that particular case. But we'll see. That's why I didn't start Joe Ross in this start. He was terrible before that.

We'll see what he does tonight. And then you have Jordan Montgomery. I think that Montgomery – oh, man, looking at all the pictures. on this list. I won't say all the names because I want people to go read the column. I think Jordan Montgomery, who's about 66% owned or something, might have the highest floor. I think he's a pretty safe pitcher. If you're just looking for like quality startish stuff and good chance for a win, respectable ratios and whatnot, I think Jordan Montgomery is pretty safe. Yeah, I agree. And he's in the upper third of the list, right? I have him fourth. the month 12.

In part because we've only seen, I think, one genuinely exciting start from him, and that was the last turn. But top 20 in swinging strike rates, so there are hopefully more of those in his future. All right. Now, here's another reason why I'm mad. So I try to help the listeners out. I try to help the fans out. I said, my official stance on Joe Ross is he took advantage of a tire,

disinterested Baltimore team in his last start, and I am not starting Joe Ross this week. That was a tweet. Somebody retweeted me and put it. Put Joe Ross in the damn tweet. Oh, I hate when they do that. Why would you do that at It's Not Punch? You stink.

Why would you do that to me? They're trying to hold you accountable at him. They want to unleash the fury because I'm sure Joe Ross can give a completely nuanced and fair interpretation of Joe Ross. Yeah, no, I'm sure he doesn't care at all either. Anybody stand out to you yesterday? Sometimes that's happened and the players gotten involved. See, that's not cool. At least I didn't say he stinks or anything like that.

I just said him out starting him. All right, so any standouts for you yesterday in Wednesday's games? I do want, or Wednesday's games? Too early, Scott, you did this to me. Too early. Monday's games. We are going to get to some emails at Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com and sort of let the emails guide the show a little bit today.

I think before I get to your standouts on Monday's games, Matt Albers blew a save. I was watching this, and the national broadcaster seemed to think he was overthrowing, which might make sense considering, you know, he was getting his save opportunity. You know, this is Matt Albers moment to shine. And he was throwing a lot harder than he usually does, according to the broadcast. And that was a sign that he was overthrowing, and he was very wild. And he was absolutely terrible, and they're going to make a move.

They have to. And there's that. And then Pat Nyshech pitched the seventh inning. So if you picked him up, that might be a total. waste for the Phillies there. Pat Nyshek pitched the seventh. And that's your closer update, Scott. Who stood out to you? So I'm going to say Josh Harrison stood out to me because he has, he hit his eighth home run, which puts him on pace for close to 20. His batting average is up to 311. He's on a hitting streak right now. I compare it to his 2014 season, the one where he was a fantasy mainstay,

kind of underwhelmed the two seasons that followed. He hit 315 that year versus 311 this year, and a lot of the batted ball tendencies he's showing this year in terms of hard contact rate. It's his highest hard contact rate since then. The line drive rate is very high. I think there's a chance Josh Harrison is close to a fixture in mixed league's lineups.

Now, obviously, versus 2014, that the whole hitting landscape has changed, the threshold for a mixed-lead caliber hitter is even higher. But the fact that Harrison is, I believe, triple-eligible, second, third, and outfield. I am not going to call him a cell high, let's just say. Yeah, that's interesting. All right, so this is what's so tricky about fantasy baseball. Yeah, Josh Harrison, I would say that he could have fit in the one-hit wonder segment we did a few shows ago. based on his 2014 bat at 315 with 347 on base and 490 slugging.

And his slugging percentage, the next two seasons, has been 390 and 388. And unless you're a massive base dealer, which he hasn't been, if you're slugging under 400, you're not good for fantasy. Maybe if you're a short stop, I don't know. So, yeah, I don't know. Really? It's just like it feels like he should be his cell high. candidate. By the way, Harrison is the number seven second basement of points

leagues, number 13 in Roto right now. What do you think? You're, I mean, you already said. I mean, I just think he's useful. The multi-eligibility thing, I don't, I could see, like, I don't, I don't see his, his, his, his, his percentages improving from here. So, you know, if, like, I wouldn't be afraid to trade him if, I felt like I was getting face value for him, but in certain leagues where that eligibility is especially value, certainly valuable, certainly daily leagues,

it's just going to be hard to replace that specific player that Josh Harrison is. So I don't, like, I'm not actively shopping them in those formats. All right. Harrison is, by the way, another one of these players with more fly balls this year and a higher home run to fly ball ratio, which is something I noticed a lot from last year that, you know, just like random players, and again, you can never remember off top of my head, but it was always like, oh, fly ball ratio up,

home run to fly ball ratio up, and it lasted for a season with those guys, so maybe Harrison who's got eight home runs can give you more than 15, and that would be nice. All right, let's read an email of the day. It's from Jake. Thinking about the Aaron Judge Love so far this year,

Are we in for a repeat next year of what happened with Trey Turner coming into this season? I remember constant debates on whether Turner is a first rounder or not, followed by him not living up to the hype and people freaking out. What are the odds we go through this with Aaron Judge if he keeps up the pace this year? And by the way, Judge is the number two hitter in points leagues behind Paul Goldschmidt, and now he is the number one hitter in Roto after a two-run, Apo right center field blast to decide the game last. night. Hooray for the Yankees.

But yeah, like, let's look ahead to the future here with Aaron Judge, and I have a cool stat about his strikeouts. But what do you think, like, do you project him to be a first-round pick next year? No, not right now. He is in my top 10 outfielders who's been for a while. I think there's going to be a lot of variance with him from year to year because of his strikeout tendencies, because of his size. Like, it's, his profile, I think, is the most.

similar to John Carlo Stan, and we've seen that from John Carlo Stanton, too. Some years he looks like no questions asked first rounder. In some years, you know, he's, he's kind of frustrating. He kind of lets you down, given where you chose him. And I think we may see some of that through, from Judge throughout his career. I'm not interested in selling on him now because, like, he has, If we're just looking at in terms of exit velocity on individual hits, individual batted balls. Oh, does he have the five hardest hit balls? Five of the six. Five of the six?

My goodness. Yeah. Yeah. And John Carlos Stanton, of course, is the other one because John Carlos Stanton were used to seeing dominate that category. Did you see Aaron Judge's home run on Sunday, the 495 footer? I did. Oh, my God.

It was incredible. Yeah. And that was a day after he had the highest exit velocity in recorded history, in Stackcast's history, on a home run. And usually the highest of high exit velocities aren't even on home runs. They're on line drive singles, you know? So, yeah, an impressive two-day stretch. And then he added on another home run yesterday. So there's no doubting his power potential.

And I think he hits the ball so hard that he is going to have. high enough babbip, sustain a high enough babbib so that he's not, you know, his batting average isn't going to plummet. But is he going to have some cold stretches at times? Yeah, probably one is upcoming this year. And next year, you know, just because the hype is, assuming he maintains his pace, just because the hype is going to be so high, it'll, it'll probably be hard for him to live up to it. But if we're going to further the Trey Turner comparison, I mean, Trey Ternor. Turner's numbers haven't been nearly as good as last year, but he's still been a really productive player.

Yeah, I mean, I'd still say he's been a little bit of a fantasy disappointment, but at the same time, that's the good thing about steals, is, you know, speed doesn't slump, right? And you knew he was going to steal you a lot of bases. Judge his five steals, we don't expect him to be that. So, you know, if he does slump next year, it's not going to be, there's not going to be the safety net that Tray Turner has with steals and runs. I think the safety net is how hard he hits the ball, his exit velocity. All right, but listen to this, Scott. So right now, Aaron Judge, if the season ended today, he's the MVP.

He's clearly the rookie of the year, and he's probably the MVP. He would be the third player in baseball history. I know Ichero, I read it this morning. I think Fred Lynn maybe, rookie of the year and MVP in the same season. But it's the batting average that really stands out for Aaron Judge. He's batting 347 with 22 home runs, and he has the 10th most strikeouts in baseball. So I looked at batting average and strikeout leaders last year and this year. This year, there are three players in the top 40 in strikeouts that are hitting better than 288.

I think Sanoa is hitting 288. Three players hitting better than that in the top 40. They are Aaron Judge is batting 347 and two guys on the Rocky. And we know Coorsfield does a lot for your batting average, Mark Reynolds and Charlie Blackman. So in other words, if you're in the top 40 in strikeouts, you're probably not hitting 300. Last year, the top 40 in strikeouts, only one hitter hit 300, and that was Freddie Freeman. There were a few hitters who hit around 290. And by the way, in these top 40, there are a lot of terrible batting averages.

I mean, there's your Kyle Schwabers, there's 220 hitters, there's 2.30 hitters. And then there's Aaron Judge who's hitting 347. So what do you think a realistic batting average for Aaron Judge is rest of season? I would probably put it at 275. Okay, like going forward, rest of season, 270. Yeah, rest of season, I'm going to peg him as about a 275 hitter. And that might be a little, it might be a little on the optimistic side. I'm just, like, I'm trying to pay more attention to how hard the player hits the ball

and what kind of line drive rate he has precisely because of Freddie Freeman, who I kind of too long underrated because of his strikeout rate. And Aaron Judge really excels in those two measurements. I think high Babbitt is going to be the norm for him, and 275 should be sustainable. Okay, then. And, Scott, you have anything to say about the MLB draft, which was yesterday? Anybody who's close to coming up that we should know about? I wouldn't...

No, I mean, nobody's jumped out to me yet. I probably need to dig into it a little more. But there were a couple of interesting collegiate players taken in the top five, Brendan McKay for the race, who's kind of a two-way player, and it's not 100% clear that the Razor committed to him just doing hitting or pitching. But it seems like they mostly want him for his bat, which should allow him to speed to the majors pretty quickly.

He was the fourth overall pick, so that's Brendan McKay. And then the Braves took Kyle Wright out of Vanderbilt number five. And those Vanderpilt pitchers tend to move quickly, David Price, Mike Minor, Sunny Gray. So we're not talking this year for those two, probably not next year either, but they are going to be very high on my list of targets in dynasty leagues. Okay, hey, speaking of playing both sides of the field, we've got to pay attention. I'm looking at his eligibility and it's not showing up, and I guess that makes sense. But I believe you pronounce it Jimenez, Chris Jimenez, the backup catch.

for the Minnesota Twins? I think it's, I think it's him and it's, but I'm not, I'm not 100% confident. Same guy, though. He has made five appearances at a new position, Scott. You know what position that is? Pitcher? Relief pitcher, yeah. Oh, goodness.

Can you believe that? Already. I know, it's crazy. They've given up. I honestly didn't know he even had one, so. Yeah, no, I just read it yesterday. I read it in the box in the recap this morning. So if you're looking for an RP, Chris Jim.

Yeah. No, he's not eligible. Probably shouldn't do that. Very funny. All right, news and notes. Tyson Ross, likely to start against Seattle on Friday. Kyle Hendrix hopes to return this weekend. Yueness Espitt is left with a heel injury, and he says it is not serious.

His teammate, Michael Conforto, was scratched with a back issue. He could miss another game. He could play today. We shall see. We mentioned Jacob Ferreya being called up to replace Matt Andrice in the rotation. He'll start tonight at Toronto. Chris Davis left with an oblique strain, Chris Davis of the Orioles. And that could definitely be a long, you know, a month, let's just say.

Could be. And Baltimore moved Trey Mancini to first base, put Junsu Kim in the outfield. I think regular playing time for Mancini now? He had pretty much been getting that anyway. playing a lot in left field. I don't know how exciting that is. Clearly, he has some power, 10 home runs already. And so at least in deeper leagues, we need to pay attention to him.

But bad strike-out-to-walk ratio, and there's just so many good hitters, particularly at those two positions, first-based and outfield, that I'm not particularly moved to add Mancini. Okay. Lance McCullors is on the D.L. with a back injury. It could be a 10-day stay.

Francis, I believe I heard it pronounce Francis Martez will start for Houston on Wednesday. He made his major league debut out of the bullpen. And Brad Peacock is going to pitch today on three days' rest, so I'm not going to start him. What would it be other than Francis Martez? No, it's going to be him. No, no, the pronunciation.

M-E-R-T-E-S-M-E-S-M-R-T-E-S? Francis Martez? That's how I heard it, I thought. Okay. So Martes. So Martez as opposed to Martes. Yes. Is that what you're saying?

Or Marties? You know, I heard that pronounce Marty's. Mani Machado returned and he stole his fourth base space of the seasons. As your fault, guys, too early. Gene Seguerrero took infield practice. Ryan Zimmerman sat again. He could play today. Jake Arrieta has a cut on his thumb, of course.

But too many, blizzes, like, what is going on? They changed the baseball or something? Pitchers are doing something different that's causing all these blisters. They're cheating. a friction cut to Joe Madden pointed out it wasn't like he cut his thumb making a sandwich it was it split open from pitching so it's it's along the lines of a blister and it's it's annoying I'm glad you mentioned that because I used to cut myself a lot like when I got to start getting the blue apron I cut myself um no I don't know once uh every few weeks I've gone months I need one of those signs like it's been six months since my last kitchen accent I'm doing much better with that Oh, man. She's very uncoordinated idiot in the kitchen. A whiz in the kitchen.

Adam A good to see you on Iron Chef. Camber Dojan will make a rehab appearance this week. Bud Norris blew, I think it was a blown save yesterday. I'm not sure. I know it was a tie game. But he took the loss yesterday. Actually, I don't think he took the loss, but whatever.

He gave up the home run. Josh Reddick has a mild concussion. That could mean more playing time for Marvin Gonzalez, who's 85% owned and has an OPS over to Carlos Gomez could return this weekend. I hope that doesn't mean Delano to Shields will lose playing time. More likely it'll be hoeing. Amir Garrett's going to start tomorrow.

Addison Russell, 77% own. He is homered in two straight games, so hopefully he's coming out of it a little bit. Yep, I was able to get him back in the league where I dropped him. Outstanding. Now, today is team name Tuesday. We have some emails. We have a lot to get to and not that much time because I have to let Scott go early. So this is going to be a bit of a shorter show.

So let's do a segment real quick. Then we'll do emails and team name Tuesday. Buy low or heck no, Scott. Buy low or heck no on Gregory Polanco. I just, I have no interest. Heck no. I actually, like I said yesterday, I was going to drop him in a 12th team three outfielder league. I ended up trading him for a player I dropped the next day.

So it was basically the same thing. Good enough. Yeah, he's just like, even if he gets back to where he was last year, what is that like in this year's outfield landscape? Oh, it's very good. If he gets back to what he did. I don't think it is. If he gets back to what he did pre-injury last year, like, there's definitely a great player there, definitely. Yeah, but that's a big if.

That's an if on top of an if, I feel like it. Well, not if you're me. Not if he was your favorite player preseason. I'm overloaded in outfielers in three outfielder leagues. Now, maybe in a five outfielder league, you know, if somebody, you sense somebody's on the verge of dropping in there, I guess technically we call them a by-low, but I'm just not that motivated. I think Polanco is a good Hail Mary, you know, like, you really need to shake things up, and you could get him as a throw-in in a trade. You want to train me James and Tyone for him. Well, that's crazy.

Putting your money. Put the money. No, that's crazy. Like, I would... Come on. Tion? Tion is a time. top 40 starting pitcher, no?

I don't have him in my top 60. You should. Okay. Don't you think so? Don't you think you should have him in your top 60? I'll look at it again today. I'm going to, Tuesday's usually when I have my big rankings repair. I guess I go through it all player by player.

I don't look at it again. Obviously he'll move up some just coming off the DL, but, you know, he hasn't been a big that bat misser in his career so far, I think there's still a lot of uncertainty with him. Yeah. I'm trying to think of who I would trade for Gregory Palong. That doesn't matter. Let's move on. Bilo or heck no?

Ian Kinsler. I'm going to call him a buy low, and that's even acknowledging that I had him on my preseason bus list for like the fourth straight year. But that one-to-one strikeout to walk ratio tells me this isn't a case of a guy

just getting old. I mean, he's still making contact at a high rate. Yeah. Like our expectations may have gotten skewed a little because he hit 28 home runs last year, I think. But even when he hit 11 the year before, he was still a fantasy asset. So I think it lands somewhere in between those two and be a top 12 second baseman when all of said and done.

And that's Ian Kinsler. It reminds me a little bit of Dustin Padrella, who, you know, we looked at the walk-to-strike-out ratio. and thought maybe he was just unlucky, and he's been good since coming off the DL, and Kinsler's actually been pretty good since coming off the DL. Bailo or heck no, Trevor's story. I'll call him a Bilo.

I think what we're seeing we've seen this year is mostly a result of the profile and how much swing and misses in his game. I guess we can tie it to what the downside is for Aaron Judge. And, of course, Trevor Story, it seemed like he had a pretty good safety net with just playing half his games at course field. But, you know, the season's not over. I think there's a lot of correction coming.

He still may underwhelm based on preseason expectations, but he'll be among the very best short stops in terms of home runs. And I'm going to guess he gets that batting average up over 240, 250 by season's end. All right, that's Trevor Story. And by lower heck no on Mark Trumbo. Strikeouts are way down for Trumbo, but you know what? The fly balls are down. The hard contact is way down.

The home run to fly ball ratio is way down. But it's almost like career low levels of home run to fly ball ratio and hard contact, which means like it's probably, I mean, I feel like he's going to snap out of that. He's not going to have his worst season. Right. Or one of his worst. Yeah, something seems a little fluky here. And I'm mostly been enthusiastic by the,

improved, about the improved plate discipline. Yeah, the batted ball stuff, we're citing it more than ever this year, and we're starting to get a better grasp on what it means, but it's still not entirely clear to me how, whether it's the cause or whether it's the effect, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, he has performed poorly in terms of power this year, so of course, he's, it's going to, it's going to, you know, it's going to. the show he's not hit the ball as hard, but, you know, is... But he's not hitting the ball. I mean, this is Mark Trumb, but we're talking about, like, he's just not hitting the ball hard. That's why the home runs are down. But is, is it just, oh, well, he's off to the slow start, so he's not hitting the ball as hard,

or is who he is? He doesn't hit the ball hard anymore, so he's not going to hit home run. Like, that seems like a stretch. Obviously, we can't answer that, but it just doesn't make sense that he would stop hitting the ball hard. Right. No, I agree. I'm going to call him a by-low. All right, Mark Trumbull. So the only one that Scott said, heck, no, on is Gregory Polanco. And let's read some emails. But first, it's team name Tuesday. This is from Brendan.

Sean Newcomb coming up. A lot of people have been suggesting this. Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem. Do you remember playing Nukem in PE class? Scott, I have been, I have every show we've talked about Sean Nukem. I've been like, should I ask about Newcomb? I thought it was the only one.

I didn't know this was like a thing. No, I actually asked Jorge Andres, one of our video hosts about it yesterday. He had heard of it too. I think he's from the Washington area originally. So, yeah, it seemed made up, right? Like this derivative of volleyball. Right. But you catch it and what?

Throw it. Oh, you never actually played? No. Oh, okay. So, Newcomb, yeah, Nukem is like, you set up just like volleyball, but there's no bopping. You just throw it.

You catch it. You try to throw it over and find a blank space and the other side. It's the easiest game. It's a ridiculous game. Like nobody would ever as an adult get together to play a game of Newcomb. It would be the worst game you've ever played. It's for kids. I remember being fun in, like, you know, third, fourth grade, though.

Oh, you have played it. Okay, I'm sorry. No, I've played Newcomb. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right. Well, Duke Nukem.

or just play Newcomb is the team name there. Chris suggests, oh, I don't know if I should read this, but I'm going to read it anyway because it's early and I can't, I have no sense, no judgment right now. Chris wanted to share his wife's team name, degromenatrix. Degromenatrix. Okay, we'll just let that one marinate. Andy suggests Lester is Mower,

but it kind of looks like more Lester is more Mauer. It's a stretch. It's a stretch. This is a really terrible day of Team Name Tuesday. Kristen Denver says, bat out of Helixen, and he attached a picture of the meatloaf album. So, you know, A for effort, F to the listeners, you better come strong next team name Tuesday because this was a major letdown. Time for some important emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

This is from Anthony. Is Kyle Schwaber getting close to dropable? Yeah. Now, in leagues where he's catcher eligible, I wouldn't even dream of it. But he hasn't started against, like, the last dozen left-handers the Cubs have faced. And for that reason alone, regardless of performance, I think he's pretty fringy in mixed leagues, even, like the upside. Now, obviously, he could get so hot that they start playing him against left-handers again. We'll see a few steps before that actually happens.

So I'd be comfortable dropping in the leagues where he's just outfield eligible. specifically three outfielder leagues. I may have already dropped them at that point if I owned him anywhere. Kyle Schwerber is like the last guy that I've held out dropping, and he's next. He's next. Because he didn't start yesterday. He didn't start Sunday,

and I know they didn't face a lefty yesterday. I don't even think they face a lefty Sunday. And when he bats, he bats ninth, and he stinks defensively so they could take him out late in games. You're going to lose in a bat there. Yep. So Schwerber, it is getting close, but there is so much upside.

Here's a grade the trade from Wesley. Give away Kershaw get Kluber and Paxton. Kershaw for Kluber and Paxton. I'll give that a C. I mean, Kluber's in my top five, and you're getting another top 20 pitcher along with him. I'm usually prefer the side getting the best player, and that's clearly Kershaw.

But I think it would depend Deep League versus Shallow League for me. shallow league, I'd probably lean Kershaw, Deep League, I'd take the extra arm. Yeah, I think we talked about that a couple weeks ago. If you're going to trade one of those aces, do it for two good pitchers. And this would be an example. Another one

is a trade proposal sent to Brent from Beer City USA. Scott and I have no idea where that is. And he's got two crisp sale offers. He has sale. He'd give up sale. He'd get Arietta and Quato or Arieta and Strasbourg.

that one feels a little, like, feels a little risky because you got some injury risks there. You got Arieta's got the blister. You got Strasbourg, who's Strasbourg. But giving up Sale to get either Arieta and Quedo or Arieta and Strasbourg is pretty interesting. What would you do? Or Strasbourg and Quato. So any combination it appears of Areetta, Quato, and Strasbourg for Chris Sale. Yeah, it's similar to the Kershaw example.

It's a little worse. I shallow league, I don't think I could see myself doing it at all, where it might depend, the Kershaw example, it might depend somewhat on need. I would prefer of the two arms I'm getting back. I guess I'd prefer Strasbourg in Arelletta still, but I don't know that I have a clear preference between the three, honestly. I mean, Strasbourg got pounded yesterday. Granted, it was against the Braves who kind of always had his number.

But... But would you do this? Would you give up sale to get two of these guys? Yeah. I'm going to call that a C-minus. There are instances where I'd do it, but I don't love it. Gotcha. John in Boston, rank these utility players in a head-to-head categories league. Jerko, Ernan Perez, Baez, and Miguel, no.

Marco Gonzalez, Chris Taylor. But, Marvin. Marwin. Jesus, what the heck is me? Scott, this is your fault. You did this to me. It's too early. All these multi-eligible players.

See, this is the guy who would love to have Josh Harrison. All right, let me read them again. Jerko, Arnaz Perez, Javier, Jirko-Gonzalez, Chris Taylor. All right, so I'm ranking them. I am going Jerko, Gonzalez, Baez, Perez, Phares, Taylor. Jerko, Gonzalez, Baez, Perez, Taylor. How about Jed Jerko, Scott? Pretty solid year, okay?

He's batting 3-551, really? No, he's batting 307 on base 351, 864 OPS, and he's kept it going. Jed Jerko. Yeah, he has. I remember early in the year, because he's always been a low strikeout player. He's always been just looking at the strike at Ray, a guy who should hit for higher average than he does. And he has continued to hit balls the opposite way at his highest rate ever. Now, I don't know if that's cost him some home run potential.

Eight home runs at this point in this particular season, isn't that? impressive, but certainly a useful package overall. And he's slumping right now like you look at the last 18 games. Jerko's batting 269 with one home run. It could be worse, I guess, but we'll keep an eye on it.

It's 660 OPS in his last 18 games. I feel like a Jed Jerko slump is usually worse than a 269 batting average, but you know, one home run. Jed Jerko seasons worse than normally worse than a 269 batting average. But only one home run. So it's something to

Keep an eye on. All right. A few more here. Chris in Minneapolis. What is your take on Eric Thames's current slump and your rest of your forecast for Thames? I was offered Shaw, Thames, and Chapman today for Nelson Cruz. You got to take that. Yeah, you got to take that.

I prefer Cruz. I think he's the better player, but I don't think Thames is so far behind. He's had a bunch of leg issues in May. and didn't he have an illness at the point? Yeah, it's strep throat. Like it was kind of a screwy month for him. And I still like what we're seeing from a peripherally with all the walks,

and I still like the batted ball profile. I think he's going to get hot again here really soon. All right, we haven't done a Thames watch in a while, so we are due. Old man Paul Robinson wants the Wurriometer We won't put a worryometer on everyone, but who are you worried about from his pitching staff? Dylan Bundy, David Price, Michael Fulmer,

Jacob de Grom, Stephen Mats, Noah Cindergarde, A roll of us Chapman, Zach Britton, Robbie Ray, and Tanner Roark. Bundy, Price, Fulmer, de Grom, Matt's, Cinderguard, a lot of Mets. Chapman, Britain, Ray, and Roark. Any worries there on this pitching staff? Well, I think we've been

on the same page about Bundy calling him a sell high consistently just because we're not convinced he's missing enough bats to remain as reliable as he has. Yeah, so I was going to say, like, I want to be done worrying about Dylan Bundy. And maybe that's because I watched his last start and it was one of his better ones in terms of strikeouts. So I can't... Yeah.

You know, I have to remember that. That he still only has 59 strikeouts at 82 and 2 thirds. what I don't understand. I'm not sure. There's going to be regression. It's kind of like what we've been saying with Irvin Santana, though. I'm not confident. The bottom's going to fall out, and he's going to become useless all of a sudden.

But I do feel like some correction is still coming for Bundy. Otherwise, though. Roark. I mean, Matt's, he only had five swinging strikes in that first star, but we'll give him more time. Yeah, Roark. Roark is the other one who concerns me. because it looked like he got back on track there for a two-star stretch toward the end of May, and he made an adjustment on his grip.

He said he had been gripping the ball too tight and had two great starts. But then he's followed it up with a couple really shaky ones, more like what we saw from him earlier in the year. And I'm just not – you know, he had a profile that looked like it was hard to sustain last year. We gave him – at least I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he had had that profile previously in his career. but it may finally be catching up to him. He will absolutely.

Tanner Roark will have a 265 ERA next year, so look forward to that. It might be out of the bullpen, though. And finally, we'll end the show with this. Tyler from Minneapolis, looking ahead to a potential Ahmed Rosario call up, where might he rank as a corner infielder? And would you drop Brandon Drury for Ahmed Rosario? Well, I don't think he'll be called up as a corner infielder, first of all. I think when he gets called up, it'll be to play shortstop as Drewbler Cabrera is bad.

He's had a bad offensive year. I guess he homered twice yesterday, but still. Yeah, he also, I think he made an error yesterday. He's had an even worse defensive year. Just per defense alone, the Mets need to go ahead and bring up Ahmed Rosario. I guess hypothetically, if he does become a quarter infielder, it'll be harder for him to factor. Just rank him as a middle infielder because jury's a middle infielder too.

Okay. He'd be ahead of Drury for me. I mean, you know, it's hard to remove the fact that he's shortstop eligible and Drury isn't, and that's clearly the weaker position of the two. But I do think Rosario, when he gets called up, he will be right up there like a Chris Owings level for me. Okay. And if Brandon Jury, if they ever do get the humidor in Arizona, he might be one of the most affected. He has been terrible on the road this year.

Brandon Jury is batting 183 with a 247 slugging percentage on the road. And he's got like an 1,100 OPS at home. So keep that in mind. That is good to know. Yeah. And I'm looking at last year too. and he same thing.

I mean, not nearly as bad on the road but still very bad. OPS like 640. And at home, OPS around 920. So, or 9.30 or something.

To your trend, that's even more. I've been frustrated picking Brandon Drury in my top 10 sleeper hitters for upcoming week X. But now if he's got a home week. Right.

Now I know that's the key. The key to picking him. Not just good matchups, but is he home? There it is. All right. Thank you, Scott. I know you didn't have to do this. I really appreciate it.

It was a pleasure being in your bedroom. Oh, God. It's awkward ending. Love it. You did this to me, Scott. Screw me up. Morning is crazy. Hey, thanks for bearing with us today.

We'll be back with our normal setup tomorrow. It'll sound much better for you. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today for Scott White. I'm Adam Azer. Send in those emails, Fantasy Baseball at CBS. We'll talk to you on Wednesday.