Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/20: Underachievers Day! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 20, 2018

Let's talk about some early-round underachievers, but first let's focus on the positive as Domingo German, Rich Hill and Freddy Peralta (2:10) dazzled last night. How do we rank them going forward? And how much do we like Sam Dyson (9:30) as the new SF closer? ... "Hey, Real Quick" has Jesus Aguilar vs. Brandon Belt (15:00) and Eduardo Escobar vs. Rafael Devers (16:50). We've also got bullpen news (19:40) and three players who have homered in three straight games (21:20) ... Underachievers Day features Jose Altuve (23:30), Joey Votto (24:54), Trea Turner (28:40), Bryce Harper (31:45), Giancarlo Stanton (33:06), Gary Sanchez (36:03) and Kris Bryant (36:45). Then we recap yesterday's action (41:00) as we look at frustrating SPs like Luke Weaver and Jameson Taillon, steals specialists, Mike Clevinger's strikeouts, Blake Snell's walks and a look at today's matchups (52:10) ... 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

Brothers secret starvation you, Brandon Bell, Colin McHugh, babe. We have got a new closer in San Francisco. Looks like we may have an established closer in Tampa Bay, at least until they throw us another curveball. But we got a lot more than closers. Today is Underachievers Day, and that is nothing to do with Scott and myself. We hope, yeah, we're not under. I don't think we're underachievers. Yeah.

But there are some fantasy baseball players, so they're not busts. But they're underachievers. So today's Underachievers Day. And I'm talking some high-end guys. I'm talking Jose Altuve is an under, yes, is an underachiever. Joey Vado is an underachiever. Trey Turner is an underachiever. I'm sure I got a little bit of pushback on some of these with Scott.

Scott, have you ever broken your hand punching something out of anger? Can't say that I have, Adam. I have never reached that level of rage. I have never broken my hand, but I did punch a hole in a door. Wow. That how very Andy Bernard is. Yeah, it was. It really was.

What were you mad about? Do you even remember? Of course I remember. It was 2007. It was a road game. It was Miami at Florida State. That's all I remember. Oh, it was football.

And we won. And we ended up winning the game. But we were losing. I thought we were going to lose. I punched the hole in my door. It was bad. Man. Yeah.

Yeah, so that was some brute strength. Okay, so let's get into today's show. Before we get into the underachievers, let's talk about the overachievers. Two pitchers who are 71% owned achieved greatly last night. And they are Domingo Erman, or Domingo German, as I've been calling him. And Rich Hill. Rich Hill back for the Dodgers. very well. Domingo Hermann, another great star for the Yankees.

Who would you rather have Scott White? I would rather have Domingo Hermon. This start went about as well as it could have gone after I'd been hyping him all week, and he continued to do the same. The things that were making me hype him in the first place, 17 swinging strikes in this start. It was his third straight with nine strikeouts. I believe during that, with at least nine strikeouts,

I believe during that three-start stretch, he has 28 strikeouts. to two walks. And once again, showed a really effective, diverse arsenal, three pitches that are capable of getting swings and misses.

That is such an advantage for a young pitcher. I mean, good pitchers never reach that, sometimes never reach that standard where they're getting swings and misses on three pitchers, pitches. It really opens up his options when he needs to make a big pitch,

really keeps hitters guessing. he's going to continue to pile up strikeouts, and I think is on a really good path right now. So this is Domingo Armand we're talking about for the Yankees, again, 71% owned. I guess we start talking about who we could drop for him. I guess the caution flag would be that Tanaka will be back, which in theory would bump Loisaga out of the rotation. But you know the Yankees want to add a pitcher. So I don't know what the long-term future looks like. His next start will be at Tampa Bay.

That's an obvious start for Armand. That is this weekend. Yeah, that is Sunday. But does that, when you compare him to a guy like Rich Hill, who they want to keep in the rotation? He doesn't, you know, as long as he stays healthy, he should be in the rotation. Does that worry at all just going out and maybe dropping somebody you really like for Domingo or Man? It might just be another month or so while he's in the rotation. Yeah, it really doesn't worry me.

I don't think He could run into an innings issue at some point, Hermann. But if he's pitching the way he is right now, I don't see how they take him out. And like there's no predicting what's going to happen with Sabathia, who's often on the DL between now and then. Sunny Gray, I'm not convinced he's really back. There are...

All right, you're all in. You're all in. That's fine. Armand or Tyone? I, man, that's a hard one right off the bat. But I think I prefer Hermon. I certainly prefer Hermann's upside. Would you drop Luke Weaver for Domingo, Armand?

Yes, yes. I am about done with Luke Weaver in a standard mixed league contest. Oh, I know, right? It's so annoying. What happened to Luis Castillo and Luke Weaver, man? Just so good last year. I mean, Castillo is at least still doing what makes him great. He's just kind of slipped up in other ways.

Luke Weaver, what made him great was getting ahead in the count being kind of an extreme strike thrower. And that's clearly fallen by the wayside. Another, well, 10 walks in his last three starts. And that's, you know, he's had issues with that all year. His strike percentage is way down. Yeah, he's, I don't really see it. turn around in sight here. Are you going to start Rich Hill, we'll go back to Hill, this weekend.

Oh, no, it's Monday. I guess it's a two-star pitcher next week. He's got the Cubs in the first start, and I will try to check the second start for Rich Hill. And that would be the Rockies at home, Cubs and Rockies at home. So, I mean, it's just, it is weird to see Hill available in almost 30% of leagues. Like, I'd want to pick them up. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a weird wire.

this morning. I actually wrote it late last night, but I wrote WaverWire for the first time all year, and I have Vermont and Hill both on it, as well as the next pitcher we're going to talk about. Yes, let's get to him. Freddie Peralta. Yes, sir.

Freddie Peralta, six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, and no walks, which is the big thing for Peralta. He's got some control issues, but he is 40% owned Freddie Peralta for the Brewers. And again, in this start, 78 of his 99 pitches, were four seam fastballs. And I think that was the lowest percentage of four seamers he had thrown in any of his three starts.

So very one note there. It seems to be a great pitch. He's gotten high strikeout really throughout his minor league career. But between that, potentially catching up to him at the major league level, and look issues that you referred to. He's my least favorite of these three. But it does look like there's a path for him to stick with Zach 80s out indefinitely. I don't think this is just going to be two starts and done.

situation like last time. So I put in two bids for Peralta. In a weekly fab league, I put in a, that's twice a week, a $12 bid, and I lost, he went for $22, I think. And in our Roto League, our Memorial Roto League, $2 bid, I believe, or $1 bit, I think I got Peralta. So I guess just, I don't know. Sometimes in that league, like week nights, people don't really pay attention that

much. Although you picked up Sam Dyson, which was Dye. have picked up Sam Dyson. Anyway, we'll get to Dyson in a second. What you just said about Peralta, I didn't know the thing about the fastball, throwing almost exclusively for scene fastballs. That definitely makes me happy that I did not spend $22 bucks on Peralta. That's out of $250, but nobody has that left anymore. But I'm happy I didn't break the bank for him.

I don't believe pitchers can survive with one or two pitches. I didn't know that, Scott. So thank you. It's pretty rare. I mean, Chris Archer's certainly more than survived. He hasn't been... I know you've knocked him for that quite often, but we're comparing him to the elite pitchers in the game.

Yeah. It's certainly been a good pitcher. He certainly survived, right. But, yeah, it's definitely a tougher route. From what I understand, like, he buries the fastball quite a bit. It's not just the same every time he throws it. But it can kind of function as well than one pitch, but I'd still much rather see him have a good point.

breaking ball for me to trust that he's going to be a consistent contributor in fantasy. That's Freddie Peralta we're talking about. Okay, so he likes Hermann, then Hill, then Freddie Peralta. We got more pitchers. Would you rather Vince Velazquez or Freddie Peralta? Vince.

Okay. Would you rather have Vince, yeah, double V. Would you rather have Marco Gonzalez or Freddie Peralta? Marco Okay I'm going to tell you something about Marco Gonzalez

a little bit later I'm going to tell you a lot about Marco Gonzalez News and notes Oh man Hunter Strickland's out six to eight weeks After breaking his hand while punching a door And Sam Dyson will be the primary closer For the Giants

So one can we drop Mark Malanson I think if you're in the kind of league Where you were stashing him You need to keep stashing him Okay I was disappointed obviously this wasn't his path into the role, but I think it certainly helps. Six to eight weeks is a long time, and hopefully he proves durable during that time.

Right. Bruce Bochie's not sure that Malanson can handle that workload just yet. Dyson is having a nice year, and he's not racking up the strikeouts or anything, but he's got a sub one whip. He's got a 245 ERA, and bouncing back. It was a really nice pickup for them last year after he was just so bad at the start of last season with the Rangers. All right, so he is, Sam Dyson is 14% owned. Would you prefer him to the Blake Parker's or the Ken Giles of the world? I don't think Blake Parker.

Ken Giles, I mean, looks like the backup option per seps for the Astros right now, even though I prefer to own him over the primary option, but that's another situation. I would say he's in between this, too. Blake Parker and Ken Diles. I feel like he's not the best reliever in the Giants pen, even taking the Lanson out of the equation. Tony Watson's been a lot better. And the way it's worded, he'll be the primary closer.

It makes me wonder if he'll get every single save opportunity because the two were kind of splitting eighth inning roll, the eighth inning roll until this. Right. But Dyson's solid. I mean, he was solid down the stretch last year. He's an elite ground ball guy. he could be just fine.

Okay. Sam Dyson, 14% own. And by the way, in the Rangers bullpen last night, or the Astros bullpen last night, Hector Rendon pitched the last out of the seventh and the eighth inning then after that. And they lost that game. It was not a safe situation. Brayneumaro. Sorry, Scott. It's a tough to figure out.

It's a lot. Brandon Morrow dealing with back tightness seems day to day. Greg Holland is back for the Cardinals, but he's got some work to do to, become a closer. Steven Strasberg has not resumed throwing, but Clayton Kershaw will probably be back next week. He's going to make a rehab start this weekend, and then Kershaw could be back after that.

Marcus Strowman will start this weekend. Ooh, let's play a game. Let's guess the ownership for Marcus Strowman. I'm going to guess. I'm going to guess. I'll just say 71%, which is where Erman and Rich Hill were. So let's just say Stroman is right there.

What do you think? I'm going to say 64. Okay. We'll come back to that. Adams' slow computer strikes again. Matt Adams, I almost broke it this morning. I was punched old through the computer. Wow.

Matt Adams on the deal with a broken finger, so Daniel Murphy continues to play first base. And considering how weak first base has been, that's no small thing if he picks up eligibility there. Rugnett-Odor was benched, and Johaner Mendez was sent down for reportedly being out late on Monday night. Mike Fultenevich on track to return this weekend. So it was bad timing for Mike Soroka to struggle.

Jay Bruce is on the DL. Dominic Smith started in the outfield for the Mets. Ronald Acuna will begin to rehab assignment soon. Austin Meadows is dealing with a foot injury, so he's been out of the lineup recently. If you own Eduardo Nunez, looks like you may own him for a little while longer. Dustin Bidroa has yet to begin baseball activities. They are a little concerned about Padroia. He is not close to returning.

Archie Bradley's having a good year, and he is pitching through a cracked fingernail, which he cracked in spring training, and it apparently has hindered his curveball, and he expects to be pitching through it all season. So a little interesting tidbit on Archie Bradley. J.P. Groffered out four to six weeks with a broken hand. That should keep Michael Franco and Kingery in the lineup, I suppose. Ian Desmond, we told you he had good matchups this week. He crush his lefties.

He homered off a lefty yesterday. And that's been a bigger split for Ian Desmond than Home Road. So if you are in a daily league and you own you in Desmond or he's available, that's something to keep in mind. And I think there are a couple more lefties on the schedule for Desmond this week. Kevin Keirmeier, 24% own. He led off. He went 0 for 5, but last year he had 15 homers and 16 steals and 98 games. So I am a little disappointed to myself for not picking up Keirmeier in a deep roto league last night.

I saw someone pick him up. I said, ah, crap. I should have added him. He's been awful this year, but he's okay. And Franchi Cordero had a setback. won't be back anytime soon. And Scott White, Marcus Stroman, you win,

although you did go over. So if it was close without going over, we both lost, which makes us underachievers on Underachievers Day. Not prices, right rules. Strowman is 60% owned. Do you have interest in picking up Stroeman? Do you want to build a Stroeman?

Yeah, I mean, he probably deserves to be more owned than that. He was obviously having a terrible season, but you have to wonder, since the shoulder was something that dated back to spring training, how much he was impacted by that. Obviously, he's been a quality fantasy option in the past. I think especially in points leagues I'd like to own him. Sure.

Hey, real quick, Scott White. Hesu's Aguilar or Brandon Belt? Brandon Belt. Brandon Belt was basically must start before getting hurt. And I don't know why we'd change that now. Aguilar's been great. It deserves to be more than 75% owned. and, you know, it's clear that, like, he's probably the brewer's best hitter.

So they're not taking him out of the Lone and much with Thames back. But they are taking him out some, and that hurts his value. They have a very similar OPS, and they have a very similar batting average. Aguilar's batting 298, Belt batting 296. Aguilar's had more pop. He's got a 580 slugging percentage, belt of 534 slugging percentage. But belt gets on base a little bit more, 395. OBP, 390, and that's not a fluke.

Like, Bell gets on base. And Aguilar is a 363 OBP, very, very respectable. And how about that this is so weird. Jesus Aguilar is the number 15 first baseman in points leagues. He is the number three first baseman in Roto. And part of that is just plate appearances. He's only at 188 at bats. But he's the number three first baseman in Roto.

A strange year for first base. It really is. That's a big. You don't see gaps that big unless you're talking. talking about Carlos Santana. Right. You know, somebody whose skill set makes it very obvious. I'm not sure what the difference would be there.

Yeah, I think it's just plate appearances. That's one thing that often affects that ranking, because in points leagues, if you don't have the plate appearances, it's hard to rank high in Roto. I know he's on pace even with the lack of played appearances for 100 RBI, but I guess maybe like the doubles are lacking in the runs, probably. Well, 20 walks isn't great. 11 doubles isn't great.

But yeah, I mean, he's been really good. Hey, real quick, Scott. I think I read that Eduardo Escobar leads baseball and extra base hits. He had a couple more doubles yesterday. Escobar or Raphael Devers. I mean, I've been saying it, Adam. He's on pace for more extra base than Mike Trout. I would much rather have Eduardo Escobar.

It's not even close to me. Have you noticed Devers lately? He's heating up. He's got a hit in 12 of his last 13 games. eight for 21 in his last five. But you know he's not doing, he's not walking in that stretch at all. Right. It's still kind of a hollow, you know, apart from the occasional home run.

It's kind of hollow the hits he's getting. He's not, it's not a wide enough range of contributions for me to think this is him really breaking out in the way we hope. All right, so you're tired of having Raphael Devers on your team. Here's the good news. You don't ever have to have him on your team. team if you play on draft. You could if you want. If he's got a great matchup or you're just feeling good about it, you need an infielder,

and you're on the draft app and you're drafting, okay, take a chance on Rafael Debris. But cool thing about draft is that, well, there are a lot of cool things. One of the cool things is that you've got a new team every single day, as many times as you want. Drafts start at just $1. They don't take long. You're drafting five players. You've got 30 seconds on the clock.

You can play against one person. You can play in drafts up to 10 people. You can play baseball, basketball, football, golf. You can play hockey on the draft app. You can play DFS for so many sports. And you can compete against me and win my money. I did come in second place in the latest contest that I did. It was out of three people.

But you know what? I did pretty well in that contest. But didn't do quite well enough to win. That was two nights ago. Yesterday was my birthday. Scott didn't wish me happy birthday. That's fine. But I took the night off from draft.

I'll be back at it tonight. FB Today is the promo code if you want to compete against me or just play in a free game. You get into a real month. draft for free if you use the promo code FB Today. And I know you're going to love draft because I know you listen to this podcast because you like fantasy baseball. So play more of it and use the code FB today when you sign up on draft or on draft.com. Scott, I'm very disappointed in you.

What are you supposed to remember your birthday? Go on Facebook. We're Facebook friends. I didn't see it on Facebook. And I was noticing someone else's birthday. Well, that just hurts even more. I don't know why. Well, are you sure that you have your birthday plugged into Facebook where it shows up for everybody?

Yeah, I'd say so. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten that many wall comments. Happy belated birthday. Yeah, whatever. Rings hallow. I expect this from Kreeh, not from you. Well, I forgive you, Scott. Let's move on.

It's almost time for Underachievers Day. First, bullpen notes. Jordan Hicks for the Cardinals threw an inning in a 30. I think he gave up the inherited runners and blew the save, but then he got it. got the win because he pitched the ninth after the Cardinals took the lead in the top of the ninth. But Norris had pitched two straight games, so I think that's why he wasn't used. Sir Anthony Dominguez was used as a closer.

He gave up a solo home run, though, in a tie game in the top of the ninth at home. Still, these are their best reliever. Sir Anthony Dominguez. I mentioned what happened with Hector Rondone. He threw an out in the seventh inning and two outs in the eighth, gave up a run on two hits. Blake Parker pitched two innings and got the save. He did give up two runs, though, in the ninth inning. I kind of forgive it when they pitched two innings, and the first was scoreless, but still, Parker, not great lately.

Did get his eighth save. Parker's 53% owned. Sergio Romo, once again used as the closer. He's only 8% owned, Scott. I feel like that's low. You know, closers are closers, and it looks like they have Romo in that role. Look, he blew it badly two nights ago. They came back to Romo last night, and he got the save at Houston.

Yeah, saves are saves, and it's been very consistent. of late, three of his last four appearances, saves or the blown save. So, or actually, all four of his appearances were either the saves with blown save. So, yeah, I mean, he appears to be the closer, and that deserves to be more than 8% owned. Now, he's probably the worst closer in baseball,

so it doesn't deserve to be 68% owned, you know? Right. But more than 8%, sure. And he probably, if they have a save situation tonight or today, I don't know when they play, I probably won't get it because he's pitched two straight days, so don't freak out. And Brad Hand has struggled two outings in a row. I don't think that's a thing, but we'll keep an eye on our hand. These guys homered in three straight games.

That's the title of this category. Aaron Hicks, Matt Carpenter, Oduble Herrera. Scott, Aaron Hicks, Matt Carpenter, and Odubill Herrera, they homered in three straight games. Wow. We talked about Carpenter a lot yesterday, and still very encouraging to see that. I think there's a chance. I think there's a chance he's an elite player the rest of the way. The bad at ball tendencies had just been,

had hinted of so much more for so long, and it may be finally making good of it. And always, he's, you know, he's not far removed from being that type of player anyway. Herrera and Hicks, I mean, I don't think it really changes much for me. Herrera's been kind of a number three outfielder of fantasy all season. Hicks has been more like a borderline four or five. I guess maybe it puts us that much further away from seeing Clint Frazier take over for Hicks.

Oh, he, by the way, has been called up. I should have mentioned that. Yeah, he's up in the majors right now, but obviously there's no spot for him. Yeah, it's Brett Gardner insurance, but Gardner's probably back today. Yeah. Yeah, Hicks. I mean, I think they like his defense. and 67% owned. You look at his point totals, and he's usually like 16 to 18 points.

I think Aaron Hicks is a good player if you have an injury and you need someone in a three outfield or league or something. He can do a respectable job, that kind of player. And for whatever reason, he's been much, much better on the road,

just hitting 196 in Yankee Stadium, which is strange for Aaron Hicks. But every time I think, like, you look at the walk-to-strikeout ratio and the home ballpark, and he's very good against lefties, I guess if he were better against, Ritey's that would help.

Every time I think Aaron Hicks might take the next step, I think I've kind of given up on that dream. I think he's just sort of what he is. I guess we could call him an underachiever, but he's not an underachievers day. Scott White, are you ready for almost exclusively first and second round picks who have underachieved? Sure, let's talk about this. Good.

Jose Al Tuvei has underachieved, despite hitting 341 and being the number two second basement. But he is the 11th best hitter in points leagues and 13th best in Roto. And, you know, I think for a lot of these guys, the underachievement is simply in power numbers. And that's what it is without Tuve. I mean, he's on pace for 10 home runs. And he's had two straight seasons with 24 home runs. He's on pace for 23 steals. But that has ticked up recently. He's had two straight seasons with 30 or 32 steals. So it's just a little bit of a down year for Jose Al Tuvei. He hasn't performed like the number two overall player. He's performed as more like a back-end

first-round pick. So, yeah, what do you think? Any concerns I had about him have been relieved in the last, over the last month. Basically, nine of his 11 steals have come then. So now that that's back on track,

obviously I wish he had it, was on a better power pace, but the bat-a-ball data is all identical to last year, so it's not like he can't get back to that. just as quickly as he got back to running like he has. I think he's more or less the same player. I do prefer Jose Ramirez now, but that's mostly because Jose Ramirez has been ridiculous.

And Jose Attauva actually sat yesterday, which is like breaking news. He pretty much doesn't do that, and he pitch hit. Joey Votto. Now, of course, I already had this segment plan yesterday, and then he goes out and hits a grand slam, so that was annoying. And you want to talk about a big split in points versus Roto.

This one makes a little more sense. So Aguilar was like, what I say, 15th in points, third in Roto at first base. Votto is basically the opposite. He's third at first base in points, and he's 11th in Roto. Now, if you play in a Roto League with OVP, I bet he's higher. But, you know, 302 batting average, very good. But he always is like a just ridiculous stud in OVP. Seven home runs, including one yesterday.

36 runs, 36 RBIs, 52 walks to 44 straight guys. Again, it's just. power, he's hitting a lot of line drives, 34% line drive rate, career high, career high hard contact rate, which as we noted last week is the case for a lot of players, so we don't know what that means. I don't know, man, like seven home runs, but we know what he can do post-all-star break. Do you think he gets to 25 home runs? Do you think Joey Votto hits 18 home runs rest of season, which would be a pretty nice pace, pretty damn good pace?

It would be. I would bet against him at this point as far behind it he is. I mean, I think it's pace will improve the course of the season, but I don't think, like, I don't think it's a sure thing that he's going to be the power hitter he was a year ago, which is kind of an outlier for his career, by the way. Like, he's normally been more of, like, the five-homer guy than 35-hundred-old guy. How many did he have last year? He had 36 last year, but the 25-homeer guy than the 35-holmer guy.

Two years before that, Votto hit 29 home runs in 2015 and 29 home runs in 2016. I'm not sure he's going to get there. And I think the really only thing that concerns with Vado is that he's getting up there in age. And this is the first time that I see the first time I can remember, I didn't check every year of his splits. But he doesn't struggle against lefties. And this year he's hitting 198 with a 326 slugging percentage against lefties. And that's also what's held back Matt Carpenter recently. He's been bad against lefties each of the last.

two years. So that, you know, I guess we're going to talk about if we have long-term concerns about these guys. And I know Votto can be really good. I don't know if that lefty thing is a real issue now and if that's going to change what kind of hitter he is. Well, it's always difficult to assess him in particular because we've seen him have just dreadful extended slumps at the beginning of the season. And then he's the best hitter in baseball for the final four months or whatever. We're kind of deeper into the season than we usually see him

turn it on like that, but he also has been good, so it's not like he needs to turn it on quite that much. I think it's possible the fact he's 34 and hasn't always been the most

reliable source of high-end power. And the fact he's hitting fewer fly-ball this year, I think it's possible he's just worse. but we're still talking, you know, high-end first baseman. Where do you rank among first baseman? About where I did at the beginning. Mostly because nobody's past him.

I had Goldschmidt dropped behind him for a while. Goldschmidt's back ahead. But it's still, the top four is still the same as it was coming into the year. You can't be in the same order. Freeman's got to be number one, right? Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, he is number one. Yeah.

So Freeman, Goldschmidt, Rizzo, Votto. Is that how you rank it? Votto Rizzo. Votto Rizzo. All right. Trey Turner. He's having a nice year, but he's the number six shortstop in points. Number seven in Roto, which is surprising since he has 20 steals.

39 runs ranks just eighth at the position, only eight home runs. And you don't think about Trey Turner as having power, but he can be a 20 homer guy. He's not on pace for that this year. You know, 14 doubles in 71 games. He's on pace for 18 home run. Yeah. Not far off. 18.

So how many home runs did he have last year? Maybe I sold him short with 20. Last year he had 11 in 98 games. I guess I did it then. Similar pace to this year. So what is it? It's just the batting average for him at 267. Is that the big issue here?

For rote of purposes, yeah, that's probably it. It's kind of surprising that he's only on a 90s. 90 run pace, having played every single game batting near the top of the Nationals lineup. You think he'd be on pace for more than 90 runs? Absolutely. I mean, eighth most runs at the position. That's strange. Now, their lineup can do a little bit better, but he did bat sixth yesterday.

They moved Juan Soto up to second. I hope that doesn't continue. I don't want Turner batting sixth. But, I mean, part of it is just shortstop has been at the high end. it's been one of the better positions of baseball this year. So he has a lot of, like, Gene Seguerra is a top 10 points league hitter this year. I don't think any of us expect that to last, but I mean, Bregman's top 15. So you got Turner.

I mean, it looks like, I'm just eyeballing it here, but it looks like Turner's still been a top 20 hitter overall in points league. So the fact he's that low in shortstop is more a commentary on how shortstop's been this year. Do you think he goes crazy and gets that batting average up around 300 and has like a really, because he's been cold. I mean, last 24 games Turner has a 640 OPS. I think there's definitely a chance. I thought he profiled as that kind of hitter coming in. The bad bit doesn't have a lot of progression in it, but, you know, it's not like it's high. It's pretty close to average right now.

The issue is like he's, for the second straight year, he's been. a bad line drive hitter. And if you're a bad line drive hitter, you're probably not going to have a high bat bat. He's a big ground ball hitter, right? I mean, not a lot of fly balls, and he's so fast, you think he'd be hitting better than 267. Yeah. He's Willie Mays hitter.

But line drives, even accounting for his speed, line drives are better than ground balls, and he's just not hitting that many of them for the second straight year. So I think it's possible he raises the batting average. I'm not necessarily counting on it. I would love to get me some Trey Turner right now. I'm not sure how people bat. I don't know if people are, if his owners are, like, disappointed. They probably aren't, but I'm optimistic for him.

I think the lineup's going to get better, you know? I think the runs go up, or the RBIs go up if he's batting later in the order. But I really hope they keep him toward the top. All right, Bryce Harper, I mean, he's a big part of this. He's the number nine outfielder and points number 16 in Roto. Bryce Harper does have a history of just being, like, the best player ever in April, and then not being nearly as good after that. And gosh, he's so cold right now.

What kind of slump is he? Last 53 games, he's batting 185 with a 691 OPS. So, all right, how worried are you about Bryce Harper? Do you still consider him a first-round pick? Yeah, I do. I did drop him behind J.D. Martinez, but that's as far as I've been willing to go with it. And as Chris Towers brings up every time we talk about

Rice Harper, his Babbit is 209. Like that pretty much sums it up right there because it's not like doing, he has a fine line drive, right? It's not like a Turner situation. And even that low of a Babbat would be ridiculous for Trey Turner, you know? Right. I think he's fine. We did talk about Harper, though, and that he is grounding into the shift more and that

is hurting his batting average. It shouldn't be hurting it to this extent. Sure. I think I'm going to make a, because somebody in my league is selling Bryce Harper, and I don't want to give up Chris Sale. I will offer him Zach Granky for Bryce Harper, I think. I don't know if it's going to go through, but we'll give it a shot. John Carlos Stanton, are you concerned about him?

He's like the number 25 outfield or points. He's like 20th or so in Roto. And just the worst walk-to-strike-out ratio of his career. He's seven for 16 with two home runs and a double in his last four games. But, yeah, I mean, a ton of strikeout. Not a lot of walks. And I was wondering if his D-Hing was bothering him, but Stanton's been better as a D-H than an outfielder.

Are you concerned about Stanton? He got off to miserable start with the strikeouts that you might be tempted to think. It's felt like the overall rate is still, there's a thing over from that. But I'm just pulling up the stats to be sure, because I think this is the case. I don't feel like,

I think he's been bad with the strikeings consistently, like all year. Yeah, looking at Foxxby month straight down, that seems to be the case. That he has been, or he has not been bad with the strikeouts? He's been bad with the strike at all year. It wasn't just, there was a ton early, and so the number so looks bad. And that's disappointing because that was a big reason. I was so excited about him coming into the year, the improvements he had made in that area during his MVP season.

He's, I don't think he's necessarily a top 20 hitter in fantasy. He's top 30 still. All right, so here, here's my take. He is going to go berserk. You know, this happened two years ago. He had, he had a terrible stretch. I mean, like, what's wrong with John Carlos Stanton? And then he was like nine something OPS, 900 something OPS.

I just think he's too good, you know. I know the strikeouts are bad, but he's the kind of guy that the data could tell you nothing relevant because he could get hotter than any hitter in baseball. John Carlos Stanton we're talking about. And I want to believe. The next set out of my mouth was going to be, I could still see him leading the majors and home runs. But I don't think he's the player he was last year. No, no. I mean, yeah, he was, that was probably his best season, right?

I mean, that was an amazing season last year. I mean, maybe he's not old. I won't have another season like that fast then. He's got to strike out less. I just don't know if we have any real by-lose here. I think maybe Harper, because some people really are worried about him. Stanton, I'm not sure. But there are genuine concerns with Stanton.

He might hit 250. That's going to hold back his value. But I feel like a run is coming, and he's just going to – he's still hitting the ball hard. You know, he plays in a great park. He plays in a great lineup. They'll settle in. Gary Sanchez.

I mean, I rank him much higher than he's performed today. So just from that perspective, you can call it by low. Yeah, I just wonder what his perceived value is. But Gary Sanchez, I try to make some plays from trying to make some offers for him. It doesn't seem like anybody wants to give up on Sanchez yet, but he's now behind Buster Posey. He's fourth and points, sixth and roto. In his last 19 games, Gary Sanchez is batting 100. He really has struggled for much of the year.

I don't know that he's hit higher than like 223 for much of the year at all, maybe the very, very beginning. Do you have genuine concerns about Sanchez or do you think he turns it around? It's another Bryce Harper situation. He has a 199 Babbitt. Now, the line drive rate is low, but 199 Babbitt is ridiculous no matter who you're looking at. All right, so Sanchez will turn it around. So, Scott, the last second round pick, or maybe late first that I want to talk about is Chris Bryant, number nine third basement in points, number 11 in Roto, and he is batting 282 with nine home runs.

He hit six of his nine home runs in an 11-game stretch. So he's really had almost no power for most of the season, almost no home run power. And on the year, 20 doubles, pretty good in 63 games. Do you think Chris Bryant has the potential to be on like a, you know, he had 39 home runs one season? That was 2016. Do you think he has the potential to be that kind of home run hitter again? Not that he'll finish with 39, but rest of season beyond that kind of pace. I'm beginning to doubt it, to be perfectly honest.

And it's just because it's been so long where he's fallen short of that kind of home run potential. Like he really seems to have evolved into a different kind of hitter that isn't necessarily worse. But for fantasy purposes, it seems to be worse. And just looking at the raw data, maybe it's crazy for me to think that way because the fly ball rate is still what you expect to see from an elite power hitter. But the results have been underwhelming now for like a year and a half. So where is Chris Bryant in your third base rankings? I still have him higher than his actual performance to date, but I've moved him behind Bregman. Wow, really?

Yeah. Interesting. Do you think there's a big difference between Chris Bryant and E. E. E. E. E. Hano Suarez. Yeah. Hmm. Because I'm thinking... There hasn't been this year. Right. Like, I'm thinking, like, if you don't think there's a huge difference, then if you're the Chris Bryant owner, you say, here's my Chris Bryant and my Miles Michaelis.

Give me your E.ohenio Suarez and Jose Barrios or something like that. And you make a big upgrade in another position and a small downgrade at third base. if you think that they're fairly close. It's a gutsy move. And I mean, I don't necessarily think it's a bad move. It's probably not a move I would endorse for most people. Right. I think you've got to hold out hope of first round potential for Bryant still.

If you made that kind of investment in him. We go a little higher than Ehuyaheus Juarez than perhaps. But you want to watch A.ohenio Suarez, Chris Bryant, all these guys. You can do that on Roku. Roku, you're tired. I'm so sick and tired of paying for cable. It's absolutely ridiculous. I have a Roku.

I have, in fact, have two Rokos. One in the living room, one in the bedroom. I watch a whole bunch. I watch everything on there. It's live streaming and on-demand channels. You plug a little box right to your TV, and you get all this stuff right there on your TV, including the free CBS Sports app.

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RokU.com. Roku. I've bought one of these for my mom. She loves it. I'd buy them for you. If we were friends, listeners out there, I'd buy you a Roku. They're cheap, man, $299, and they're awesome. Roku.com. Learn more and start streaming today.

I thought you were saying if we were friends like you and me. Oh, well, we were friends, and friends remember people's birthdays. I want to clarify on Bryant. I had the wrong aster. I moved him behind George Springer. And I've also moved him behind Andrew Ben and Tendee. I have not moved him behind Alex Bregman, though. we're not far off from that.

Tomorrow I want to look at some mid-round underachievers like Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, and Anthony Rendon. And again, for Rendon, let's just get a little more power here. You got six home runs in 51 games, my friend. But he's getting hot, just not hitting it over the wall. All right, Scott, I want to talk about some pictures from yesterday. Are these guys just okay? Are they just okay?

Or are they great? Or could they be great? Kenta Maeda, Marco Gonzalez, James and Tyone, Luke Weaver. Could they be great? I don't think they're going to be great this year. And I think the ones with the best chance of being great are Tyone and Weaver, but obviously Weaver is the one I want the least right now.

So we're really not taking short term, or could they be great? Yeah. The other two are Maeda and Marco Gonzalez. Maeda, Gonzalez, Tyone, and Weaver. But I want to ask you about Maeda. Because before he went on the DL, you were very encouraged by some of the underlying stats. he's come off the DL and had two bad starts. Yeah, that's disappointing.

That's why I'm not really hopeful he can be great. But one of the things that encouraged me was, well, the strikeouts, I mean, that's always been encouraging from him. But the fact that third time through the lineup, he's been, like, has been his best time through the line. That's not something he struggles with. So in theory, the Dodgers should allow him to pitch deeper into games. But it's theoretical. I don't know that they will. Okay.

And then what I wanted to point about Marco Gonzalez is I really think he's a match-ups guy, and he's at Boston later this week. So it was a terrible two-star week at the Yankees and at Boston. I mean, that's certainly proven to be true this week with the first the Yankees game. Like, he had allowed six home runs all year, and then he allowed three to the Yankees yesterday. Yeah, it's such a tough stadium to pitch in. But I think it's more than just that game. I mean, I looked at basically every tough matchup he's had, and he's usually done poorly.

Four and two-thirds, three runs against Houston. Six innings, two runs at Cleveland. Great start. That was on April 29th. Honestly, it was probably cold. Cleveland was hitting very poorly at that point. Six innings, four runs against the Angels. Seven scoreless innings at Oakland, but Oakland is bad at home.

They're very good on the road. They're a bad home team. They have the 22nd most runs scored. 20-second and runs scored at home. Five innings, three runs against the Angels last week. Six-in-a-third runs against the Yankees. So I like Gonzalez, but I don't know. just don't trust them in tough matchups.

And then, all right, I wanted to talk about DeLyodor Shields and how you feel about him. He's 50% owned. I don't really have much need for him unless it's a Steel's specialist situation. So that sounds a little low, maybe, but not much. And he's batting 9th recently since Andrews came back to the line order to Shields. You know what I realized, Scott, like, man, the Steel Specialists, almost all of them have been just terrible.

terrible hitters this year. I mean, hey, go out, pick up Malik Smith. Go out, pick up Gerard Dyson, Delano to Shields. These guys have been awful in every category. Kiermeier is not on the same level. Oh, Billy Hamilton, by the way. Byron Buxton, right? Yeah, the ultimate example. The Shields might have the best chance of being an all-around player of those guys, unless I'm forgetting someone. But gosh, the steel specialist. I mean, that's why you, that's why it's nice to pay up for steals and drafts.

Dee Gordon's been fine. Yeah, yeah, I don't know if I considered him because he's so good at batting average. I guess I'm talking about like the late round picks or the free agent guys. Yeah. They do nothing but steel. They've been especially bad. I mean, the reason they're steel specialist is because you figure that's a possibility. that that's the way the hitting is going to go.

Sure. But it's been kind of universal that it's gone that way this year. And I meant to bring this up. You know, people think that Billy Hamilton could get moved. I think Buster Only was writing about it. If Billy Hamilton gets traded, Scott, I feel like he gets traded and becomes a pinch runner. I think that's at least possible. But let me ask you this, Adam.

If he gets traded and becomes a pinch runner, are we sure that lowers his fantasy value? Because we're almost, he's almost certain to be on base once a game, right? Yeah. Which is more than we can say now. Yeah. Like it probably improves.

Like if you're a pinch runner and you're, like that, a pinch runner who's known to be that fast, you're getting inserted to run, to steal. Like I think he may actually be a better situation. He's not draining your batting average anymore. he's giving you a ton of steals. I think it's a better situation if he continues to be this bad.

If he goes back to being the normal Billy Hamilton, which is a bad player but not one of the worst hitters in baseball, I think being a pinch runner is a downgrade. Yeah, if he's normal Billy Hamilton. Yeah. Whatever that even is anymore. All right, rotation. Mike Clevenger, beautiful start.

Seven and two-thirds, one run. Ten strikeouts against the White Sox. Ooh, Blake's snail with seven walks. That gives him 11 walks and 12 innings in his last two starts at Houston and at the Yankees. So last night was at Houston. Do you realize that Blake Snell has given up 64 hits in 94 in a third innings and has just a 1.06 whip? But I don't think that you could sit there and not be a little concerned about the walks. And then Cole Hamels was really good last night.

Everybody's very good against Kansas City. But Hamill's 36 walks, 92 strikeouts, 18 home runs allowed. He didn't give up one yesterday in 92 and a third. Clevenger, Snell, Hamels. Obviously, Snell's number one. Who's number two on that list? Clevenger or Hamels? Clevenger, who's really gotten back on track with the swinging strikes after,

a little concerning with the strikeouts early on. We weren't sure he was going to be that big time badmester he was a year ago, but nine of his last 10 starts, he's been double digits and seems fine again there. Why, can I just throw a little caveat there? Because swinging strikes I didn't look at, but just in terms of strikeouts, the White Sox, he's based the White Sox three times this year. And those have been three of his best strikeout rate games. So especially the last two starts, he's had 21 strikeouts and 14 and two thirds, both against the White Sox. So I feel like that's...

I mean, if you have an elite swinging strike rate, though, which he has during that stretch, the strikeouts are going to come. Okay. Blake Snell, it's a little concerning. guess that a third of his walks for this season have come in his past two starts. And obviously that was the key for the breakthrough, doing away with all those control issues. But at the same time, like, it's two starts. That's the biggest takeaway here. Two starts, let's not freak out. Just be aware of it. If things go wrong for him, that's where it's going to be.

Yeah, I want to check his schedule going forward. I don't know that it matters, but, you know, there could be a lot of Yankees. he's in Red Sox on there. Fringy starting pitchers, Scott White. We've talked about some of them, but Vince Velasquez, Mike Montgomery, who has a 3-11 ERA, and as a starter, he's been really good, four straight starts of exactly six innings and exactly one-earned run for Mike Montgomery. Mike Soroka did not pitch well at Toronto.

Carlos Rodan has gotten through the brutal stretch of his schedule. He's faced the Red Sox and then the Indians twice in his first three starts and has one of his highest strike rates of his career, 62.4%. However, 3.9 walks per 9, pretty high for Rodon. And Matt Boyd, one quality start in his last six starts. We don't really like Matt Boyd. So we'll put Boyd last on this list. Velazquez, Montgomery, Soroka, Rodon, and then Boyd.

How would you rank Velasquez, Montgomery, Soroka, and Rodon? I go Velasquez, Soroka. for Rodon. Rodon's still mostly about stashing for the upside for me. I haven't really been compelled to use him yet. Sorok, obviously, a bad start yesterday, but it's kind of a stash for the upside situation, too, I guess. Just we've seen a little better from him than Rodon at this point.

Velasquez is going to be inconsistent because he's mostly fastball dependent, but he's pretty good. And Montgomery, I don't trust at all, but because, you know, this success is built on a ridiculously low babb. He doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, but how many sparks are getting quality starts consistently for a contender? You know? Yeah.

That's, he's useful right now. Just don't get too attached. To Jordan Montgomery. And in Deep League, Scott just loves Johann Carmargo for the Braves. He's got a pretty... To Mike Montgomery. I said Jordan Montgomery? My bad.

Just say George Montgomery. Yeah, my bad. Mike Montgomery. But Scott loves Johann Carmargo. He's 13% owned. Matt Duffy continues to hit well. He's 21% owned. Randall Gritchick is hitting pretty well.

He's 19% owned. How would you rank Camargo, Duffy, and Gritchick? I would rank them. Camargo, Duffy, and Gritchick. Now, Gritchick has more upside than Duffy, but I don't necessarily trust him to make good on it. Camargo, I really think, is underowned at 13%. He has a 259 BABIP this year. That's 100 points lower than last years.

Last year's was probably too high, but the fact is there's a lot of BABB correction coming. And he has had a top 20 walk rate this year. He's on what would be a 20 homer pace. Like, I think at the very least, Comaro profiles is another young hair of his Solarte. And there's a possibility he's even better. that. So if you like Salafonte, if you wish you had him to plug in at all those positions,

Camargo's a good bet to join him, at least a shortstop and third base. Do you have any interest in Eric Lauer or Derek Rodriguez? Not really. It would take a situation like we saw with Rodriguez this week where not only two starts, but two of the best matchups you'll find, Miami and San Diego. It would take that for either of them to really enter the mixed league discussion for me. I mean, Rodriguez has had one dreadful start at Washington, two and two-thirds, five run runs. And his other four appearances, three of them starts. 24 hits and 21 innings, that's not good.

Six walks, 20 strikeouts, and a 33 ERA at Colorado, home against Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami. So 10% own it. I'm just not making the case for like standard mixed leagues. But San Diego this weekend, if I need a, if I am in a daily league, and I am, I'm in one. And I can pick up Rodriguez and I need a good start on Sunday. I might take a shot on him. So that's a home game against the Padres.

Scott, let's take a quick look at today's matchups. Michael Fulmer at Tyler Malley. I'll go with Fulma. That's fine. And a ball, Sanchez, at Jay Hap. I'd be good with. Sanchez, I still don't trust, even though the matchup is kind of favorable. It's too risky.

Michael Waka, Jake Garietta. I will start, I'll start both. Even Arelletta. All right. I'm fine with that. And White Sox, it is Rinaldo Lopez at Corey Klobber. Obviously, Cluber, what about Lopez? I think it's just Cluber.

Okay. No, Lopez has done fine, but it's just awful peripherals and the Indians have an amazing lineup. We're going to start Ross Stripling. We're going to start John Lester. Frankie Montas at Joey Lucasey, who's off the D.L. Not Lucchase. The athletic struggle against lefties, right?

But he was kind of overwhelming before the DL, and I'll take a pass brush off the DL. Montes against the Padres is interesting. The underlying numbers are all not good, but the performance apart from last start has been good. And the Padres are a great match-up. I think I'd lean yes if you can afford to roster him. All right, let's speed it up.

Let's speed it up, my friend. Okay. Montas leaning, yes. Jose Urania at Derek Holland. No. Also, don't discount. I just called you my friend, okay? I've forgiven you.

Felix Hernandez at Jonathan Loisica. I'm going to only know on Loisiga for now. Need to see more. Definitely no on Felix. Brent Suter at Chad Cool. Oh, man. No. Cool's not bad, but I'd rather not.

Andrew Cash. At Gio Gonzalez. Start Gio. Nate of Aldi at Charlie Morton. Start Charlie. That's it. David Price at Lance Lynn. Just Price.

Yeah, just Price. Austin Beavins-Durks at Jake Junis. I think I'm going to... I think I'll start Junis. I know he's gotten rocked the last two times. The fact that it's a home start helps. And we're going to sit Seth Lugo and Chad Bettis at Colorado.

All right, I think we're just about done. I can read a few quick emails. Brian wants to know who you'd rather have rest of year in a head-to-head points league. Brandon Nimmo or Miguel and Duhar? Nemo. Okay. We got a hay real quick from Scott.

Should I drop Godley for Hermann? I would not go that far in my Hermann love. Godley's shown some signs of a turnaround lately. I want to stick with him a little longer. Okay, we've got Eddie Rosario or Christian Yellich rest of season from Landon. That's actually become an interesting comparison. I'm going to lean Yelich for now. It's kind of a legacy advantage that he has in that comparison,

because they've been doing, like, there's reasons why you might prefer him to Rosario, to Yellich, if he's everything. He's shown himself to be this year. And Trey Turner or Chris Bryant? I mean, probably Turner and Roto and Bryant in points. Okay, and I think that's about it. We will talk to you tomorrow. I'm good with that. Yeah, we'll talk to you tomorrow. It's going to be awesome. Some more underachievers on tomorrow's show, maybe some overachievers.

You never know. You never know how I'm going to be feeling. So send us your emails, fantasy baseball, at cbsi.com. For Scott White, I'm Adam Azer. your Thursday.