Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/25: Buy or Sell, "Hey, Real Quick" and Your Emails (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

With only seven games on the schedule last night, we dedicate some time to your emails, trades and tweets. First let's recap Monday's games. Are we buying Jason Kipnis (2:15)? Which STL RP should you add (10:38)? Also within these discussions we chat about the state of Fantasy Baseball and how to construct your team (5:00) ... We play a game called "Which is Greater?" (15:53) as we compare Joey Votto's RBIs to Jose Ramirez's steals plus other fun player comparisons. And we've got "Hey, Real Quick" (27:30) which covers Andrew Benintendi, Clayton Kershaw and a few others ... Hot (32:30) and cold (35:00) hitters. Add Jackie Bradley Jr.? Drop Didi Gregorius? Also, are home runs ruining baseball (38:30)? Plus fringy SPs (40:40), Buy or Sell (42:40), some excellent emails (50:30), Grade the Trade (56:30) and Team Name Tuesday to end the show ... 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

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. All right, welcome to fantasy baseball today here on Tuesday, June 25th. What's going on, everybody? Adam Azer and Scott White.

What's up, Scam? How are we doing, Scott? Yeah, team scam. Big show. Big show. Big day. Heath is on vacation, enjoying Orlando, Florida. Chris is enjoying New York City. I'm supposed to meet him for dinner tonight, but I can't because we are actually recording a special episode tonight at like 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday night. We're going to have Chris Welsh from the In This League podcast on. At least that's the plan. Chris, don't back out. and Scott and I will also be on the show. How was fantasy baseball for you yesterday? How would everything go?

Oh, it was a little strange, a little different. But, you know, a lot of pitchers who I think we were expecting to get worse had experienced some normalization yesterday. So it might have been painful for some people, but it was a step in the direction that their numbers said they should go. Yeah, if you're talking about Stephen Mats, that was one that was painful for me. Because I sat there and looked at the lineup. Do I start him? Do I sit him?

I started him. I should have sat him. I didn't know his horrible history in Philadelphia and six starts in his career now in Philadelphia. Matt has an ERA. It's like north of seven, I think. It's terrible. Is a career in Philadelphia, 818. ERA and six starts. So you don't want to start him at Citizens Bank Park.

I was happy David Dahlheimer. He is striking out a lot lately. So we'll talk about that. Any standouts from Monday? The Marlins didn't play, so we can't talk about any Marlins pitchers. I'm not sure I have a huge standout from Monday. Do you have anybody?

I mean, I think it might be time to start taking Jason Kipness a little more seriously. He had a walk-off home run for Cleveland. It was his fourth home run. Since last Sunday, when he says he figured something out with his hands. I think he's referring to the way he positions them. But, you know, in the week plus since then,

he's hit about 500 with four home runs. And he's been pretty much a non-factor in fantasy for two and a half years, but used to be regarded as a must-start option. So I can kind of buy the idea that something was off for him for mechanically all that time. and he just finally figured it out. Yeah, you can buy, you can buy what?

You can buy what? You can buy that he just figured something out mechanically because it's been his OPS the last two seasons 705, 704. So I don't know that I can buy. I don't know that I can buy a two and a half year slump and that he just figured out with his hand placement. Now, I did have Kipness in the notes. I'm glad you brought him up.

do think it's worth it. I just, I think he's only like 14% owned or something. And he is red hot. But yeah, I remember reading that note about the hands. It just seems like, damn, it really took him a long time to figure that out. What have his hidden coach has been doing the last two and a half years, you know? I don't know. It's a hard game.

You know, if J.D. Martinez had figured out the proper way to hold his hands earlier than he did, he'd still be an astro today probably so all right you know and like I said I mean do you if it's probably just addressing it's probably just a flyer worth taking in deeper leagues because do you honestly need another middle infielder probably not

I find it's rare that I need an extra hitter of any kind but but nonetheless I mean it's starting to get a little interesting yeah all year long we've been talking about well second

base. It's the shallowest position other than catcher, which isn't really a position. But is second base really that shallow now with the call-ups and guys getting eligibility and such? The second base feels shallowly, or are you struggling at second base anywhere? I don't think I am. Yeah, I'm not... Maybe outfield and five outfielder leagues, I could stand to have... I could stand to have an upgrade or two, but... And the thing is, like, I went pretty hard after pitching early.

in drafts this year and I still find myself in that situation. It's just such a it's just such a topsy-turvy world. We're playing in right now Adam. What do you mean? Mattes going to be a 40 homer guy. You know, that's how did we arrive at this place? I don't know. What do you mean though? It's basically you said that you said that you've been going hard after pitching and you're still what needing pitching? Is that what you meant? Yeah and not really needing hitting. Yeah.

Like, it feels like, oh, I had a good example. I can't think of what the example was. I've heard. I wanted to use. But it's just kind of like home run, the home run output from a guy. Like, okay, so I haven't played all the Super Smash Bros. Games, the original one, though, I remember playing in high school. and there was a pickup, an item pickup, the hammer, that would, like, it was just such a powerful item that we often turned it off because anybody who grabbed the hammer could just knock anybody like off the playing field and like get a lot of victories that way in a way that didn't really demonstrate their skill.

And I feel like home runs have kind of become like the hammer in today's game that like no matter who's on the mound, no matter who's at the plate, a home run could happen. And it's become that way the last three years more than ever. And like it's creating this randomness among the high end starting pitchers. It's creating this randomness within the hitting pool where, you know, seemingly anyone in the top 15 at a position, could be top five next week, you know? It's just really hard to distinguish yourself, at least in a standard-sized league, to distinguish yourself at one of the hitter spots. And it's really all come down to pitching. I feel like how good is your pitching? Yeah, in shallower leagues, I do certainly agree with you. I don't know what we consider a standard-sized league, but if you're just starting like one

of every position in three outfielders, that's kind of standard, maybe on the small side in a 12-team league. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, you shouldn't be looking at your lineup in one of those leagues being like, man, my lineup stinks. It should be good. There are enough really good hitters to go around. I have a, yeah, my Yahoo League, by the way,

Brendan McKay, Yahoo, eligible. And starting pitcher eligible now on Yahoo. Yeah, who are eligible? Put in your, put in your claims. Here's the good news about that league. You know, we all went through that saga with me, and I appreciate your support telling me that I deserve him. At least I wish you were my commissioner,

all of you out there who agree with me. I'm in dead last. I'm in 12th place. So hopefully I have the highest waiver wire priority. I don't know. I just put in a claim this morning. But I look at my lineup in that league, and it is so good. I'm afraid to drop hitters.

That's how good my life. And I'm in dead last. My pitching sucks beyond belief. You know, I went with Edwin Diaz and Blake Trinen, and that didn't work out. James Paxson missed a bunch of time. I have Garrett Cole. That's been good. But it just, it hasn't worked out.

I can do anything to trade hitting for pitch. and I just can't do it. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like we've been having this conversation for a few years now. And what we do on draft day, you know, what we do on draft day is tough because I know I need to prioritize pitching, but I also look at, like, the pitchers who went early and how many of them have been disappointing, either for injury or for bad luck or the home runs like you talked about, there have been a lot of busts. So it comes down, I guess, kind of to luck.

Did you just, did you draft Tyler last now on Charlie Morton? Or did you draft Trevor Bauer and Blake Snell? You know, it's just kind of how it is. I feel like it takes a, you need to be committed, dedicated at every turn to pursuing upside at starting pitching any way you can find it. And understanding that there are going to be a lot of misfires along the way because pitching is the fickle mistress that we all have to stay.

on the right side of. And it's really hard to do that. It has to, it requires constant maintenance. But like if you, if you don't, then you're going to find yourself having to start Julio Tehran in a two-start week just because there's nobody, you have to fill those line of spots somehow. And look what happens when you do that. Yep. Yep. And Julio Taran, of course, got rocked yesterday. If I had to stand out from yesterday, it would be Lucas Gialito and another start that makes me less convinced that he's truly, Truly, truly an ace. I think he's going to be fine going forward because his schedule is going to lighten up after next week. But it's another start against one of the best offenses in baseball.

And another pretty bad start, to be quite honest. And it could have been worse because he left with the bases loaded and two outs. And the reliever got out of the jam for him. We'll talk about him a little bit later. We got a couple of sponsors for today's show. We got hymns. If you, I think maybe you're losing your hair a little bit. That happens to most guys.

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Fantasy is the promo code on Seat Geek. News and notes. Jordan Hicks has a torn UCL. They have not decided on Tommy John, but obviously if Hicks isn't out for the rest of the season he's going to be out for a while, but you're not getting anything at it Jordan Hicks this year, and we'll see about next year.

Meanwhile, we get a report, Scott, from Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post Dispatch that Carlos Martinez is expected to get most of the closer duties. That's what Rick Hummel said. Yes. The passive voice. You phrased it exactly right. Right.

That's exactly how we put it in the article, is expected to get the majority. Who's expecting him to do this? Is it Rick Hummel who's expecting him to do that? Is it Mike Schilt who's expecting him to do that? We don't know because he used the passive voice, which is often a clever way for people who don't want to use the first person to slip their first person opinion in there.

It's the most we have to go on. I think just based on the fact that since returning from the I.L. in mid-May Carlos Martinez has worked the eighth inning most of the time. It probably means it's him. And he was the closer down the stretch last year, less we forget. So Mike Schilt has already shown a tendency to go to him in those spots. But John Mazzelich, the general manager, who isn't the one making that call, said Sunday,

in no uncertain terms that he thought it'd be Gant. That was before Gantelowed four and runs, but still. And then there's another guy, Giovanni Gallegos, whose ratios are incredible. You could make the case he deserves the shot, too, especially for. if you don't want to disrupt things in the bullpen. So I'd go Martinez first, then Gant, then Geygos. But if you're really hurting for saves, you want to try and find a way to pick up all three of them.

Because I could see it going any of those directions. And I think they'll probably settle on one, right? It's not like they're going to... Yeah, probably. I mean, that's how Schultz's been operating. Right, right. So Martinez and Gant are 52 and 58% owned, respectively. And I don't know Gallego's ownership, but I imagine it's pretty low.

Tyler Glass Now will be shut down for three weeks. So we're, I mean, it's almost July. So I don't know that we're going to see Tyler Glass now until mid-August, maybe, at the earliest. Maybe that's a little pessimistic, but it can't be that pessimistic. So, yeah, I mean, you can make the decision on your own if you should drop them or keep them, but it's going to be a while before you see Glass now. Yahoo! Yeah, who added Brendan McKay.

That's great. Now we need to raise to add Brandon McKay. He had another good start over the weekend. Bring him up. as Drewba Cabrera will begin serving a three-game suspension today. Bryce Wilson is going to start for the Braves on Thursday, Scott. Any interest in Bryce Wilson? I think in this pitching environment, there's interest in every pitcher with upside.

His overall numbers at AAA aren't great. They're not bad either. Last eight starts, though, he has an ERA around 250 with more than a strikeout per. And really, the walk rate for him has been terrific down there. So I think he's too fastball reliant. don't have, like I would rather go advert Alzalay over him. But, you know, if you already missed that boat and want to pursue upside, I don't think Bryce Wilson's a bad pickup.

Ross Stripling will start today for the Dodgers against the diamondbacks. Julio Arias will piggyback. And maybe after tonight we'll find out who the guy to own in Los Angeles is, or maybe they'll just keep doing this. But neither guy is really stretched out enough. but you're just probably more stretched out than stripling. Noah Cinderguard could pitch on Sunday. Stephen Wright could be activated.

We'll be activated today. Stephen Wright, Red Sox knuckleballer, served an 80-game suspension for HGH. He initially will work out of the bullpen. They could use rotation help, so maybe down the line. We'll see Stephen Wright. Luke Weaver, boy, he's been on the IL for so long. We haven't been able to sing it. He had an MRI on his elbow.

It showed some improvement, but there's still no timetable for Luke Weaver's return. Ian Desmond, day-to-day with a lower-half issue, but he is expected to start today. Jake Bowers is day-to-day with a sprained ankle. At Alberto Mondes, he should be back this weekend, and Mike Soroka's status still uncertain for the upcoming weekend. And I've got him in a lineup, so let's get yourself on the mound, Mike Soroka. Some baseball stuff. I mentioned David Dahl. He's homered in two straight games, but now he has seven strikeouts in his last three games.

That was after he dramatically cut his strikeout rate. so I'm kind of obsessed with him and I'll keep monitoring it. Cleveland is 15 and 6 in June. That's the best record in the American League. Yoan Moncada hit his first home run off a lefty yesterday this season. That was off Eduardo Rodriguez.

But I will say like, Yoan Montcada's done a lot better against lefties. He's batting 271. Obviously not a lot of power. But that's a big batting average improvement for Moncada against lefties. Giancarlo Stanton hit his first home run of the season in his eighth game of the season.

but I just think it's crazy. June 24th. Look at that shot on video. Oh, my gosh, she crushed that ball. June 24th, John Carlos Stanton's first home run. All right, Scott, let's play a game called Which is Greater. Are you ready? I think so.

Okay. I think so. Let's do it. I give you two things you tell me which is greater. Robinson Cano's home runs or the Mets starting rotations home runs, as in like the amount of home runs, the starting pitchers have hit. Who's hit more? Canoe?

Well, it's, I imagine you're asking because the second number is greater. Well, close. Close. Close. That's, Metstaff's home run. You are correct, Scott Light. The Mets starting rotation has at five home runs. Robinson Canoe has hit four home runs this year.

And he is just having a dreadful year, batting 2.23. He has one extra base hit in 52 at bats against lefties. The batted ball data looks pretty similar to last season. So I think, you know, you've heard Kreeh talk about how Knoe could bounce back. What do you think about Knoe? Is he even worth owning at this point? Like I said, I mean, do you have a need at second base? If you do, then I guess you could take a chance that Knoe figures it out.

But he's, I don't know. Like in terms of strikeout walk rate, those are worse, basically than they've ever been before. So is it declined at age 36? I think it may well be. They're not drastically worse. I don't think it's unreasonable to think you could bounce back. But that's just not how I want to use my roster space right now. So I have cut Robinson Canoe in all but like the 15 team leagues where I've drafted them more than an lonely leagues where I've drafted them.

And I haven't missed them so far. So would you cut Canoe for Bigio? Yes, I would. I think we're seeing clearer signs of production from Bigio. How about for Kipis? Yeah, I was thinking that. I was thinking that. Would I do it for Kipness?

Certainly if I had a lineup spot to fill right now and was fine just playing with the hot hands, fine just playing the hot hand until until something more stable emerged there. I think I would be willing to go with Kipness over Kanoe right now. But I do think there's a better chance Kanoa is more useful in the long run. I'm just not sure it's... I'm just not sure it's better than a 50-50 shopper either.

Yeah, and we're going to talk about that a little bit later with some emails. We have emails, we have buyer sale, we have grade the trade, we have team name Tuesday. We have a lot of listener interaction today. You know, you're at the point of the season where you might not have the luxury of waiting for a guy to come around if you think he's going to come around. You have to make decisions to win right now in some of your leagues. So, like, I can't sit here and tell you to hang on to Robinson Canoe. It's just, you got to win, you know? Like, there are enough good indicators, I guess, in the batted ball profile that maybe he could turn it around.

But, you know, you got to win now for many of you out there. We got more, Which is Greater coming up. We also have some hey real quick. A busy show today. So let's take a quick break here. And we'll come right back on fantasy baseball today. Scott, which is greater? Joey Votto's RBI's or Jose Ramirez's steals?

I guess it's Jose. Am I ruining the game here by saying the answer? I don't really think it is. Jose Ramirez and steals? You guess whatever you want, man. Jose Ramirez's a Steal? The only reason I think you're asking is because the surprising answer would be Jose Ramirez's. How bad do you think I am at this game?

I'm a better game show producer than that, Scott. Joey Votto has more... Joey Vado obviously has more RBI as than Jose Rerbato. Ramirez has steals. Joey Vado has 19 RBI's, and Jose Ramirez has 18 steals. Come on. Come on. Now, listen, I want to talk about both these guys. Joey Vado, you may not realize that people, in his last 24 games, he is batting 356 with a 972 OPS. And guess what? He's not even a top 20 first baseman. That is amazing. I don't understand that. Only three home runs and 11 RBIs

with that 356 batting average in his last 24 games. There's also a lot of players who are first base eligible that you'd be playing at other positions. A few second base eligible guys as well like Max Muncie and whatnot. But I do think that's interesting. This is Votto's

hot streak. 356 batting average, 972 OPS, but there is so little power and so little run production that he hasn't really made that much of a mark even in this stretch of 24 games. what do you think about that? What does that mean to you going forward?

Yeah, I don't think he's must own anymore. I think he could still get hotter from here. I think he could start to hit home runs at a faster pace. I mean, we've seen him be a good home run guy in the past, but at his age, I don't think you can assume it. It honestly depends on how deep your league is, how you're willing to make use of your bench spots, But, you know, getting back to what I was saying earlier about pitching,

if you're really pursuing upside at pitcher at every turn, I mean, you're adding Adbert Alzley over him because there's an upside arm. Zach Gallen, you're adding him over him. Jesus Luzardo, hoping he gets called up soon. I don't know if I'd go as far as to continue to stash somebody like Fultenevich in the hopes he figures things out of AAA over Botto. But, I mean, that's along the same line of thought. for me is just you hope something sticks at pitcher.

And do you need, like even if Votto bounces back, how comfortable are you with who you have at first base? Probably pretty comfortable. I mean, probably, you know, you haven't had to resort to somebody like Ian Desmond there. You have somebody actually reliable and good. All right. So let's talk about Jose Ramirez. Now he's batting 217.

We got an email that said, Jose Ramirez is officially hot. I don't know. So now it's like 11 games where he's batting over 300, but with one home run, two steals, one double, two triples. If this is a hot streak, I'm not exactly blown away. He hit two doubles just yes. Okay, so I'm sorry, okay, that one double in the 10 games before that. So it's three doubles, two triples, one home run,

and a batting average over 300 in his last 11 games. Yeah. It's okay. It's all right. It's good. It's a step in the right direction. Yeah, it doesn't mean he's back necessarily. I think he has one strikeout during that stretch,

but of course strikeouts haven't been the problem for him this whole time. That's right. He does have... I think if... You know, based on some of the breakdowns I've seen on what might be happening for him, if he does bounce back, it's probably not going to be with the home run production we've seen from, certainly not last year, maybe not the last couple years.

Like he's going to have to get back to being, you know, high average guy who might be able to hit 20 homers, which look, would still probably make him a highly regarded fantasy asset because of how often he steals bases and points. Leagues obviously of lack of strikeouts. But yeah, I don't think, I'm pretty much over the idea that we're going to see 2018 Jose Ramirez again. Yeah, and I'm just getting, I'm starting to get over the idea that I drafted basically, when I drafted Jose Ramirez with the third overall pick, I basically drafted Billy Hamilton with the third overall pick. 18 steals. I hope it's better than that still. No, but so far, he's batting 2.17 with five home runs and 18 steals.

Like, that's insane. All right. What's greater, Scott? Buster Posey's runs plus RBI's or Christian Yewitch's home runs? Runs plus RBI's for Posey or Yellich's home runs? I'm going to say Yelich's home runs. You are wrong, Scott. Posey, 36 runs.

us RBIs. See, you think I'm so predictable. And Yelich only has 29 home runs. All right, we talked about, you said Votto is not must own. What about Posey? Like, he has been terrible. But before going on the IL, he wasn't completely terrible. Since coming back from injury, he's 5 for 33 with a double.

I dropped him for Josh Feigley in our points league. I'm kind of done with Posey. because his plate discipline's not even that great anymore. Well, I just don't know that Josh Feigley is the guy. Like, I got to understand if, particularly since Posey went on the IL, if you happen to build that catcher spot with somebody who we now think is pretty good at there. Like Carson Kelly? Yeah, Carson Kelly would be a good example.

Mitch Garver's been kind of banged up recently. since he came off the aisle. So I don't know that. But that's the kind of player I'm thinking, where we now have, you know, we value them on a higher level than we did before. It's going to be pretty hard to remove him. I don't think carrying a second catcher in Posey

in the hopes that he becomes something more is a great use of roster space probably now. But I would think in a 12th team league, even a one catcher league, somebody in your league probably should be taking a chance on Posey because I don't think there are enough of those catchers still to let him say. it.

All right, Scott. Finally, what's greater? Hjongin Riu's ERA or Trevor Bauer's whip? Better, the better number is Trevor Bauer's whip. So it's actually lower than Reu's ERA. You're correct. Rue's ERA is greater than Bauer's whip,

greater as in higher, 127 ERA for Riu. 1-18 whip, mostly because of walks for Trevor Bauer. Trevor Bauer might be among the league leaders in opponent's batting average, like lowest. He has been hard to hit, but he hasn't been very good. All right, Scott, we're going to move forward here. So I want to get to those emails and the buyer sell. So let's do some hey real quick.

Hey, real quick. This one's so easy. I should have picked a better outfielder. Maybe I'll pick a better outfielder. Andrew Benintendi or Michael Brantley was the hey real quick. What would you say? Benintendi or Brantley? I would say Brantley.

Yeah, it's too easy. So I need someone better than Brantley, like worse than Brantley, actually. Andrew Benintendi or John Carlos Stanton John Carlos Stanton Damn it I don't know who to go with here Well like what about like David Dahl Yeah John

Andrew Ben Nentendi I think that's more at the point We're evaluating Andrew Benintending or John J Okay let's do Dahl Who would you go with See I would still side with

Ben and Tendi there because Dahl the fact that the BABIP is so high the strike rate has come down a good bit but the Bavib is still too high to believe and you have to think there's some regression coming there but yeah I'm not super confident Ben and Tendi's going to get that much better from here

in which case I'm not even sure a normalized doll is worse I would take that chance now but not with great confidence I feel like Ben Intendi who by the way is the number 28 outfield or points number 43 in Roto. I feel like he is sort of dependent on the Red Sox lineup. He's not that much worse in terms of home runs, steals, batting average than he was last

year. Because he's not that good in any of it. He's not bad. But the Red Sox are seventh and runs scored this year. Last year, I think they were first. I'll double check right now. Yeah, they were first by a lot, 25 more runs than the Yankees, which is a lot. So, you know, the counting stats maybe get better if the Red Sox lineup gets better.

Let's go to our next one. Hey, real quick, both guys pitched last night. Lucas Gialito or Clayton Kershaw? I will go Kershaw. I think that's how I had them even before Gialito's kind of, he's kind of going through a rough patch here. In terms of control, yesterday he had four walks and five and two-thirds innings. That was really the main problem.

The start before that, he just got knocked around it every way. But that's 11 walks now over 16 in his past three starts. and that was something that he dealt with in April too when the season first started and it wasn't clear he was such a breakthrough pitcher. I feel like by now it's clear the stuff is so much better than it's ever been before that we can deal with these growing pains. But he hasn't totally whipped the control issue, it appears. Right, and that's Kershaw's strength right now.

I mean, Kershaw has a 107 whip. Geo Lido also has a 107 whip. But Kershaw's walked just 15 batters and 85 innings. What I like about Kirshaw, he's pitched six innings or more in every start, and he hasn't given up more than four runs in any start. He has been remarkably consistent. What I don't like about Kirshah is his strikeouts are now 75 strikeouts and 85 innings. But his swinging strike rate is actually back up this year to closer to where it's been for most of his career.

But he's thrown a hundred pitches. I think there's a possibility there's more strikeouts. I guess, but he's thrown 100 pitches per start. So, like, no, he's not throwing 100 pitches per start. He's maxing out at 100 pitches. So I don't, you know, but, you know, but at the same time, he's not walking anybody, so he's still pitching fairly deep into games. I guess I don't know what his strikeout upside is.

I'm assuming that he's not going to really help me that much in strikeouts. Kershaw. By the way, since Kershaw debuted on April 16th, he's 13th in point, 17th in Roto, So, seven and one record. So he's averaging six and a half innings per star, which I think has got to rank pretty high. I mean, I don't know of a leaderboard that shows average innings per start, but it's, you know, six innings per start is good. And he's six and a half. Yeah, that's good.

It's good. Right. But, yeah, all right. All right. We'll see what happens with those strikeouts. Let's get them back up. We'll talk about some hot hitters, some cold hitters. Recap yesterday's action and get to your questions and your buyer sell.

right after this quick break and this message from Seekkeek on Fantasy Baseball today. Well, Scott, Jason Kipness is one of the hot hitters I wanted to ask you about, so you already ruined that for me. Let me ask you about two other hot hitters. Christian Walker, he's back to hitting pretty well right now. Last 24 games, 329 batting average with six home runs. And Jackie Bradley, his first 38 games, he had a 421 OPS. You hear me?

421 OPS in 38 games. They stuck with him. And in his last 33 games, he has a 1034 OPS with three steals. You know, he's been really good. So if Christian Walker and Jackie Bradley were both available to you right now, who would you prioritize? Definitely Walker, who I have remained infatuated with even throughout some of his struggles because he hits the ball so hard.

And obviously has really good minor league numbers, especially in more recent years. I wrote about him as one of my four pickups in the Waver Wire column today. And I was surprised at how few RBIs and runs he has. And I think it's just because he wasn't a starter at the beginning of the season. He probably made a lot of – like his games played is pretty high, but he probably made a lot of pinch hit appearances. And more recently, Kevin Crone's stolen starts from him.

Kevin Crone's back in the minors now. I think with Walker on a nine-game hitting streak with three home runs, we're going to see him play more consistently. And I think he put like, like, I'm more interested in him than somebody like, like I'd be, hmm, I guess probably my interest level is about the same as Joey Vod, actually. Don't think he's quite must own, but I think there's a chance he gets better from here. He's also hitting just 224th runners in scoring position. That could be hurting the RBI's.

And Walker, yeah, all right, so, oh, he's been better against Ritey, than lefties, which is good because right now playing time's not an issue. When Jake Lamb comes back, maybe it is, but it shouldn't be. And Jackie Bradley, 32% on. And, you know, I wish I had picked him up in a five outfielder league, but I missed my chance. Chris Towers picked him up and ride this hot streak. You know, Chris liked Bradley before the season started because he thought, you know, there was going to be a swing change.

And Chris's theory is that, yeah, it just took him a while to sort of adjust to his adjustment. and maybe he's right. All right, let's take a look at a couple of cold hitters that are both owned in 84% of leagues and tell me, Scott, are they dropable? D.D. Gregorius, 241 so far with one home run, two walks, 10 strikeouts, and 14 games. And Alex Gordon, in his last 20 games, he's batting 205. He's been a little hotter recently, but 205 batting average for Gordon in his last 20 games. Basically, that's all of June.

Didi Gagorius and Alex Gordon are either of them dropable. I never really bought into Alex Gordon So I'm comforted to see that he's come back down to earth here Five outfielder leagues you may not be able to do better for that fifth spot But anything shallower And he's definitely dropable And Gregorius I think it comes down to format too Like I think there's a good chance

That he's top 15 the rest of the way But there's so many redundancies there like everywhere else I mean if you drafted D.D. Gregorius thinking you'd stash him until midseason and make do a short step in the meantime, you've probably found Jorge Polanco since then, Dance Be Swanson,

even like a Marcus Simeon, at least in a points league, I'd feel more comfortable rolling with him than waiting out this period from Gregorius where it might take him a while to get back to playing every day? I mean, he's played more regular recently, I guess, but to regain his stroke,

I mean, look at how long it took Corey Seeger coming off Tommy John's surgery to start hitting, like we know he can. It was basically just beginning to happen before he heard his hamstring went on the IL. Yep, it's a good point. Okay, and the plate discipline's been bad, and that was something for Gregorius. He made big strides

on last year. Those are some cold hitters. And yes, Scott is a mean man for saying that he has comforted Alex Gordon slumping. Don't think that we didn't notice that, but don't think that I don't Well, not everything is gone topsy turvy, thank you. Like, I still don't.

Yeah, the home run issues, frustrating me. I mean, you've got Cattel Marte, who was projected to be like an Ender-N-C-R-T type coming up through the Mariners system. He's on-paced for 40 home runs. And yet like, that's

become so commonplace. It's not like people aren't losing their minds over it. It's just kind of, oh, T'em-Marte, how about him? And it's just weird that we've got to that point. Tommy Lestella has five more home runs than the past five years combined. Now, that has gotten more headlines, but even so, it's still, it's still ridiculous.

It is. And baseball knows it, and they're trying to fix it. I do like the fact that... Are they? I think so. I mean, I like the fact that they're not like, oh, there's no, there's nothing wrong with the ball. Like, they're acknowledging there's less drag on the ball, and I think they're trying to fix that. They don't want to see this many home runs. Yeah, and it is certainly changing the game. I don't really mind it, though. Ken Rosenthal, I believe... Was it Ken Rosenthal? Gosh. It was somebody wrote for the athletic

about how basically the game was being ruined by all these home runs. It was obviously, it was either Rosenthalal was one of their very well-known, old, you know, not old, like, established, might have been Jason Stark, maybe. Might have been Jason Stark, like a Hall of Fame caliber writer. And I just don't agree with the premise. Like, I don't mind it. I still get excited for home runs.

I wouldn't mind if there were fewer of them. But for some reason, It's like, I still think, are people complaining, maybe they are, but are people complaining that there are too many three-pointers in basketball? It's still an exciting play. Some people are. Some people are. But I don't think it's ruining basketball.

But before this year, when the Bron was still on the East Coast, like the ratings were great. I don't think home runs, I don't think that the problem with baseball is that there are too many home runs. I certainly don't think people are like, nope, I don't want to watch baseball. There's too many home runs. That is not the issue at all. Home runs are still the most exciting thing in baseball. I don't think that's true at all. I think balls in play, whether it's runners racing around the bases

or balls in play allowing a fielder to make a great play. I feel like that's more exciting. Home runs used to be more exciting because they felt like a major accomplishment, but they don't anymore. But they still impact the game more than anything else. Saying it ruins the game is taking it too far. I still enjoy it, obviously. But there have been times when I could sit down and watch a baseball game and felt more entertained by it than I do now.

Yeah, I think baseball has always been really boring. Yeah, it was Ken Rosenthal. It's not baseball. It's bludgeon ball. And what's the rest of the headline? And the frequency of home runs is nothing short of numbing. I don't feel that way. Like, I respect the opinion.

who might argue with Ken Rosenthal, but I don't really feel that way. I have no problem with all the home runs. I would like to see a little more batting average, but baseball is like, go watch an old baseball game. It's freaking boring. You either love baseball or you don't,

but it's not an exciting sport. I'm sorry to say, I love it. But you got to love the intricacies of baseball. It's not going to, like, hit you over the head with how exciting it is. All right, end of Rands. Fringy starting pitchers. Tell me who you want on this list, Scott.

Let's do this quick. Stephen Mats. Why quickly? Because I want to get to all the emails and stuff. I want to get the listeners involved. Stephen Matt. All those he. Adam Plutko and Brad Keller were both having good starts yesterday before the rain delay. So we crapped on Plutco, but he had one run on one hit in four innings. And Keller was good, too. C.C. Sabathia struck out nine Blue Jays. He threw 100 pitches for the first time this season.

Drew Pomerance is the other one. Pomerantz had 11 strikeouts against Colorado. He's been better lately, but, you know, he's Drew Pomerant. And he's 8% own. He's in a different category. Matt's, Pletco, Sabathia, Keller, Pomerans. You think any of these guys are, like, good? No, these are the kind of guys I'm talking about where if you haven't been consistently pursuing upside-at-starting pitcher,

you probably have to start somebody like this. And it went very poorly for Matt's. Keller was one I liked because he had two really good matchups. And it had been on a pretty good run. But I don't think he's reliable in the long run. a lot of hits given up. I'm more of a pitch-to-contact guy. And I mean, I think maybe Sabathia might be the most consistent

in terms of what he's going to deliver because he has a great lineup backing him. The strikeout rate is still decent, but even him, I think of him more of the match-ups type. Sure, yeah. And he so rarely pitches six sittings now. I mean, he's been doing three of his last five starts, but like they just, that is a guy that they will not extend into deep into games,

but he did manage to get through six. Yeah, I mean, he's 38 years old, right? Yeah. I wouldn't say there's upside there. It's just, you can survive better with him than a lot of these other guys who we don't really perceive as having much upside. Sabathia doesn't kill you, but he does kill your whip, so just keep that in mind. He has a 136 whip this year.

He might have two starts next week. Yankees' rotations kind of. juggling around. They might have an opener today. They only have five games this week, but Sabathia might have two starts. All right. Let's do some buy or sell.

Buy or sell from M.G. Mitchell. Buy or sell, Bo Bichette will be up before the All-Star break. I sell that. That's All-Star Bigs two weeks from now. So I sell that. Okay. All right. Good start.

Buy or sell from Rockhead Fantasy Sports. Domingo San Francisco. Sanana finishes the season with 30 homers, 20 steals, and 200 strikeouts. How many players have ever done that? 30 homers, 20 steals, and 200 strikeouts? Well, I'll tell you what, it's not going to be Domingo Santana

because he only has five steals. But he probably will have 30 home runs in about 200 strikeouts, Scott. There's a good chance, yeah. There's a good chance. I'm more confident in the strikeouts, I think, that the home runs. But he's on pace for more than 30,

more like 35, so he's on. pace for. Yeah, he's definitely been a good draft pick if you picked him late. From Little Rojo, by herself, Junjin Ryu will finish top five in NL. Sayyung voting. Hashtag, happy belated birthday, Adam. Thank you. Somebody cares. I think with Ryu, there's always the threat of injury, but if he doesn't get hurt, then yeah, I would, top five, I don't think is too hard of a standard to meet. So I would buy that. Rest of season, would you rather have Ken or Ryu? Ken or Ryu?

Did you say Ken? I said Ken. Yeah, these are street fighter characters. Ken and Ryu. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's also Ryu, Ryu.

I don't know. It could be Ryu. Ryu-Huyubasa from Ninja Guiden. Oh, is that his name? Okay, good to know. And his dad's name is Ken. That's got to be like an homage, right? Okay, this is from Henry.

Buy or sell Charlie Morton at the top 10 starting pitcher rest of season. I sell that. I don't rank him that way. He could be, but I think there's always a threat of injury with him too. Buy herself from Zach. Justin Verlander is the number one starting pitcher in 2020 drafts. Next year, Verlander number one. I sell the hell out of that.

He's got to be about 30. 38 next year too. So that's a sell for me. I don't know why. He's been better than Max Scherzer this year, but Max Scherzer is closing that gap pretty quickly, and he's a few years younger, and I don't see what advantage Verlander has over him.

I guess he may be supported cast, but that's not a huge margin. And a lot of people are going to take Garrett Cole over Verlander, as they seem to be doing this year, based on the emails we've gotten. Brumroto run, buy or sell, Jose Ramirez, ends the season with more than 50 home runs plus steals.

Jose Ramirez, okay, let's see what he has right now. I think he has five home runs and 18 steals, and we're about halfway there. Yeah, so that's 23. Is he going to get to 50? Yeah. If he doesn't, then it's a terrible. It's a sad day for Jose Ramirez owners,

because like he said, he's on pace for about 45 right now, And that's with terrible start to the season. Okay, next one is from Billy, Buy or Sell. Flipping Judge, Aaron Judge, for Josh Donaldson and Lordus Gurriel in a 10-team league. I have outfield depth. So he gave up Judge. This is a grade the trade in Buy or Sell terms. I am selling this trade.

I would not give up Aaron Judge for Josh Donaldson and Lord of Scuriel. Yeah, neither would I. No, that's... Neither would I. I don't think in a 15 team league where the lineup spots are harder to fill. Could I make that argument? And this is a 10 team league. Yeah, no.

I did sit Aaron Judge this week, though. I will say that because he sat. I knew he sat yesterday, and that meant he had a four-game week, and he's been cold since coming back. So I sat judge, but no, I am not selling him for Donaldson and Guerriel. Come on now. Zach Nelson. Lordus Gariel, home run yesterday.

He looked pretty good. Zach Nelson, Glaver Torres, hits 35 home runs this season. and buy herself. I don't even know. He's on pace for that, right? And I don't think this is the state, right, at second base and shortstop,

where he's not like an obvious top five player despite this great power production, a 285 batting average, a great lineup. And I could barely get him in the top 10, I think, at either of those spots. Maybe not even top 12. I'm inclined to buy this because I don't,

really think anything he's doing is unsustainable, and yet how valuable is it? Yeah. Yeah, it's a great point. So I just want to see where he ranks at second base, Glaver Torres. Let's see if we can figure it out. I'll get back to that in a second. Let's go to our next buyer cell from Zach. Kyle Tucker and Jordan Alvarez, Jordan Alvarez, are both must-starts by August 1st. Tucker and Alvarez. Yeah, I would be pretty, pretty bummed out if Kyle Tucker's not up by August 1st. And he's been... He's a really slow start at AAA,

but since about May 1st, he's been putting up Alvarez-like numbers down there, but with good stolen base production, too. So it didn't go well for him early last year, but I imagine it'll go better the next time around. So I'll buy this. Okay. And one more.

Buy or sell from Drew. Austin Riley and Pete Alonzo Just in general They're similar in terms of profile I haven't looked at Austin Riley's ratios In a while But part of the reason I was willing to kind of sell high on Riley early on

Is because it would take Pete Alonzo levels Of Kind of being an outlier For him to produce with the strikeout rate he had For him to produce Must Start fantasy numbers Let me Yeah, I think

I buy Alonzo more than Riley at this point But so far Riley has still Been an outlier In terms of how Hardy hits the ball In terms of line drive rate And if you can continue that Then he could survive a 30% strikeout rate Glaver Torres is the number eight

Second Basement in points And sixth in Roto How about that? He really is having a good year And he hasn't even faced the Orioles in a while All right, thank you for your buyer's sell. And now we'll read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

Only seven games yesterday, Scott. Wasn't that nice? Nice little respite. It was lovely. It was lovely. I do enjoy that. I intended to start watching Evil Genius on Netflix.

I heard good things. But I fell asleep at like 9.30. So it didn't exactly work out. Hmm. Man. I've heard no things. I haven't heard of Evil Genius. Yeah, my cousin. recommended it. I heard good thing about

evil genius. Dear Juan Nacosio, Corey Klober, Jason Witten, Aerosmith, and many more things that Adam has been wrong about. This is from Ryan and St. Louis. As a lifelong Cardinals fan who spent my teens in early 20s watching Albert Poole Holst at a Cardinals jersey, I want to know

what Adam A's, king of all etiquette for baseball fans, would have done if after 2009 Derek Dieter left the Yankees for a national league team, and eight years later, he made his return to Yankee's stadium for a weekend series. Is the Highness Adam Azer saying Yankees fans would not have given him a standing ovation for every single at bat?

Oh, please, get off your Iron Throne, Adam. With that said, I still love you. I still love you too. Adam's on the Iron Throne. Wow. Yeah. Might have been a better ending than... Maybe.

It ended up there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that they would have given him a standing ovation every at bat. But they probably may have. And I probably would have been pretty annoyed by it. So your point is taken. That was a fun little discussion we had about Cardinals fans.

We had a good response about it. Speaking of Cardinals, here's Code from California. Who would you rather have rest of season, Scott, Haseleu Lizardo, or Jack Flaherty? Jack Flaherty. I don't really have any objections to what Flaherty's doing. I think maybe people got ahead of themselves in terms of breakout or no breakout. I mean, he's still like getting

his swinging strikes are similar to last year and really good but he's still not a finished product yet. In this pitching environment, I think it's hard to take him out of your lineup but, you know, he hasn't had the breakout so I think people are disappointed.

Jesus Luzardo, he could be better, but he could be useless too. So I would rather go Flaherty. Okay, from Rob. Dear Jack, Janet, and Chrissy. I don't know them. Categories League, when Yandy Diaz comes back,

should I keep Diaz or go with Todd Frazier, Freddie Galvis, or Jason Kipnis? I would keep Diaz, unless Kipness keeps this going for another week or so. But yeah, I think Diaz has slowed down after a hot start, but he's still been productive enough that you could use him. and not be at too much of a disadvantage either of the position for he's eligible.

Okay, I know I just looked up who Jack, Janet, and Chrissy are, and I'm going to see if you know it. I'm going to have to play the theme song for you, but give me a moment. Is it three's company? It is. I've been not going to do. Good job. All right, this is from Scott in Portland. Dear Adam, and really only Adam. Subject line, did you finally?

find your outro. In the past, I feel like I've heard you lament that you don't have a good way to sign off the show. Then last Monday on June 17th, I thought you nailed it. Quote, everything else you need to know on fantasy baseball today, tomorrow. I thought it was great. Go back and listen. I think you should adopt it as your closing line.

Good stuff. All right. I'll give it a shot. I'll give it a shot today. I'm going to put it in bold. Yeah, it's right up there with Sea Crest out. Seacreds out. Good line.

It wouldn't work on a Friday, though. That's true. have to do Azer out on Friday. From Matthew, I'm listening to today's episode. I literally pulled over, or yesterday's episode, I literally pulled over to write this email. I'm born and raised in St. Louis. I'm a huge Cardinals fan. I visibly cringe every time someone in my social media feed remarks about Cardinals fans being the best in baseball.

And this weekend nearly hospitalized me with cringe. I think every fan base has the same general mix of great people and jerks. And no one fan base is better than the other. Except Philadelphia sports fans, those people are jerks. Okay, good stuff. I agree with everything there. From Brendan. Okay, go ahead.

You want to weigh in? The two fan bases that I've noticed have a prevailing attitude that's different from the average fan base, which is mostly made up of the same kinds of, you know, the same ratios of people, as this guy's saying, are Yankees and Mets fan. What do you mean? One is, like, the Yankees fan response to anytime they're less than the best is just different than you see from any other fan base. And the Mets fans are in an eternal state of woe. They weren't in the World Series that many years ago, but they act like, they act like nothing good ever happens for them.

I sort of agree with them. Like, even, I said it at the time. when they went to the World Series it was the worst thing that could have happened to them because they lost because all of their pitchers pitched way too many innings

and they all dealt with some type of injury or bad regression Harvey Sindergarde deGrom like the year after for DeGrom was rough it was just like if you were extending your pitchers this much you better win that World Series and they didn't this is from Brendan

Trey Turner doesn't get talked about on the show a lot just wondering where you would rank Trey Turner among shortstop's rest of season and where you'd rank him in Dynasty Leagues? I would, I rank him pretty much where I ranked him coming in. Higher in Roto, because of the impact of the steals there, is greater than in points leagues. But I think I haven't been in my top 30 overall in both formats, probably top 20 in Roto. And dynasty leagues, I don't think it'd be wildly different.

Most of the, most of the high-end players, with the exception of maybe the pitchers, or young. So it'd be about the same. Yeah, Turner stole three bases on opening day. God is so excited that he was going to, you know, just steal a ton. And he's got how many 13 steals in 38 games. It's really good. But obviously, the pace is slowed a bit. Okay, that'll do it for the emails.

We got grade the trade and team name Tuesday to end the show. So here we go, Scott. Just want letter grades here. Diego from San Francisco. Not to be confused with Francisco from San Diego. grade the trade, give up Hobby Baez and Josh Bell, get Chris Sale and Ronald Acuna. I like it. Yeah, I like it.

B plus. I'll give it a B plus, yeah. There you go. I'm just speaking for Scott. From Josh, 5x5 Dynasty League, categories, Dynasty League. I give up Acuna and Bueller. Ooh, in the Dynasty League where you keep 10. Acuna and Bueller and Bueller, I get Eloy Jimenez, Michael Conforto, and Lucas Gialito.

Not enough. Yeah, C-minus D-plus? Yeah, D-plus. Sean from Toronto. I need pitching. I give up Jose Ramirez and Alex Colomé. I get Brandon Woodruff. Yeah, I think that's pretty good,

particularly if you have access at third base. I would give this a B. All right, this is from Sean in Ontario. I give 12-team Categories League. give Granky, Pueig, and Eloy Jimenez. Granky, Pue, and Eloy, and Eloy, and Juan Soto. Okay, so slight downgrade a pitcher from Granky to Castillo, but turning Pueg and Eloy into Soto, I think more than makes up for it.

I'll give it a B. B. 16 team roto league, this is from R.B. and Maine. Give Scherzer and Clint Frazier. 16 team team, league remember. Scherzer and Clint Fraser, get J.D. Martinez and Aaron Nola. Wow, it's going to come down to Nola. And how he pitches.

I know I rank Scherzer and Martinez about the same, but it's just so much harder to get the pitch. It really comes down to how much you trust Nola, which my trust has been wavering, even though he was great last time out. So I'll give it a C. I'll give it a C. It's really hard to give up Scherzer, but that's a pretty good return for him. This is from Peter at the Jersey Shore, Dear Robert, John, Jimmy, and John. This is Led John Jimmy John This is Led Zeppelin Scott

They sing that song Come and knock on our door 18 points league Grade the Trade Give up a Kuna Sale and Soroka Get Harper, Strasbourg and Kershaw

I do not Think I like it Give up a Kuna, Sale and Soroka get Harper, Strasbourg and Kershaw C minor. Giving up the best pitcher, I think, in sale, but you're getting too, I think you can really bank on his

Strassburg and Kirshall health. With Soroka, I mean, he's not quite there yet in terms of totally trusting him to be great for you rest of season. It is a downgrade Harper to Ocuna, but I do like it. I'll give it a B-minus. Oh, all right, all right.

And we finish the show with Team Name Tuesday, not a great round. Pretty fly for a Scott White guy. Pretty fly for a white guy Offspring Oh, I know Yes, I lived it, but It's fine, sure

Me as a team name, that's fun Column A or Column B Column B, right? Yes They might be Bryant's Not bad Okay, yeah, not bad Shurzer, hardly newer

Okay Moncada, be kidding me That's not bad and Mancini in a bottle. We've had that a lot, but it's good. Mark in Kansas City has Billy Joel themes. Upton Girl. We do also get that one a lot.

Oh, this one's very good. Sing us a song, Luriano Man. That's very good. Yeah, that is good. Always that Erman to me. That's okay. Only the good to young, that one we've had. You may be Wayne Wright.

No, I don't like it. Yeah, I don't like it. You may be wrong. You may be right. is the name of the song. You may be Wayne Wright. Oh, you may be right. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. This one's good. It's still, still Garrett Cole to me. It's good. Still rock and roll. Yeah, not bad.

Not bad. We have the black eyed SPs. Like black eyed peas? Oh, SPs like starting pitchers. Yeah. Uh-huh. And strumming on the old

young ho. Stramming on the old young ho. Okay. Hey, we're out of here, everybody. I want to thank Scott White. I have to scroll up and find my outro. I'm Adam Mazer. Thanks for listening.

Everything else you need to know on fantasy baseball today, tomorrow. Goodbye.