Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Hamels, Andrus, Fill in the Blank

Episode Date: June 27, 2017

Where do Scott and Chris have Cole Hamels ranked (1:40)? Behind Jeff Samardzija? We talk about the struggling ace before transitioning to the top Shortstop in Fantasy and much more ... Our biggest Fantasy mistakes this season (12:56), a new source of steals in New York (18:22), our thoughts on Tommy Pham (22:48), Jordan Montgomery (26:51) and other Monday standouts ... Do we still have hope for Alex Bregman (34:08)? Aledmys Diaz (36:15)? Jonathan Lucroy (40:38)? We also play Fill in the Blank (45:08)! ... 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

R.A. Dickey, Stephen, like Chris, doesn't buy the hype of random number generators throwing knuckleball. Scott likes using jiffs the most. Adam loves ERA and auto tune himself this way. Paxton's regression screams Brooklyn and Mike Todd plays near Disneyland. Stats from Spring Training Daily Play. Welcome to the show, everybody. Today we're doing some Thu in the Blank. We've got a terrible fantasy baseball joke, a mediocre round of team name Tuesday. But the rest of the show should be pretty awesome. Are you hiring with ZipRecruiter.com?

post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. Try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash strike. That's ziprecruiter.com slash strike. What up, Chris Towers? Hey. You're old news. You are old news.

Scott White is new news because he was not on the show yesterday. Hello, Scott White. Hello, Adam. How's it going? Going well. Missed you, bud. I missed you too. Were you just embarrassed?

by the whooping that team scam took? Is that why you took the show off yesterday? Shut about it. No, no, I wasn't embarrassed. Never embarrassed. They need, honestly, they needed a win because they had dropped behind us in the standings. Oh, well, it was so nice to us.

I consider it a charitable act. Yeah, look at us. Nicest fantasy baseball players, you know. Hey, I'm going to start the show with this. Rank these three pitchers rest of season. Cole Hamels, Jose Burrios, Jeff Samarja. I believe, let me check, I have them Barrios Samarja Hamels. Yeah, I know I still have, well, no, I do think I have Hamils behind them actually.

But that is a tight-knit group, have to say. Could take just a couple starts the wrong way for any of those pictures to flip it all around. I guess I'm not surprised that you would have Barrios ahead of Hamels. I didn't know if you would have Samarja ahead of Hamels. But, all right, look, I like to give guys leeway with their first start off to DL. I think we all do, you know, but it's the walk to strikeouts. It's four walks, one strikeout for Cole Hamels. He gave up seven runs and four and a third.

And it's not just the first game back from the DL. I mean, it's been all year. It's been like this. Yeah, I mean, he only made five starts before the injury. But in those five starts, four strikeouts, five strikeouts, five strikeouts, two, He had more strikeouts than as many strikeouts as walks in two of his first five, three of his first six now. For the season, 16, 16 in 37 innings. I don't know.

No, but this is like a huge, like falling off a cliff for Cole Hamels. You know, I mean, I think it was like seven straight years of 200 strikeouts, 200 innings, or like 195 strikeouts and 200 innings or something like that. My goodness. From his perspective. Yeah, what should happen here? From the perspective of his season, given all the time you missed, quote, unquote, it's still early. So, you know, I don't want to bury him. I am disappointed that we started him in the same 16 team league where we just went two at eight.

But, you know, I had him low on my two-star pitchers list, so I can take some solace in that. It's just when you're in a 16-team league and you're deciding between him and a middle reliever, a two-star coal animals and a middle reliever. It's got a hard not to go with coal animals. It's also, I think Scott and I are both really high on Barrios and especially Samarja. And I know Samarja hasn't been quite as good as we hoped for, but I still see a lot of promise there. I think Jeff Samarge's ERA outside of two starts in Colorado is 375, I think. It's pretty easy to figure it out. He has kind of rush.

Do you want to know what the formula is? Well, I did the ERA formulas. I did the X over 9 equals 39 over 93.6. Just do 39 times 9. Right, divided by 93. Divided by the N. Yes, that's all it is. 3.75.

Okay, I was in a rush. I didn't know if I did all the math right. I was in a rush. I guess I nailed it. But even then, there's a couple of really bad starts in there. But most of the time, Jeff Samarge is going out and giving you a really good start like he did yesterday. at home against the Rockies. Oh, so you were saying that 375 ERA,

you were considering that a good thing. Yeah, but honestly... He doesn't have a 375 ERA, so you have to start lopping off a lot of that starts. My point is, like, I was looking at a stretch of, oh, Jeff Samar just turned his season around, seven of last nine quality starts, you know, with one really bad one in there.

But his ERA during that stretch was still a little over four. It's kind of, though, what we've seen from, like, Johnny Quedo, where each individual start on its own looks good, but it's a lot of three-earned-run and six, three-earned-run and seven, things that aren't really going to turn, you know, standing on their own,

those aren't great ERAs. Now, I'm still happy with those starts individually that I don't really care that it comes out to an ERA around four. Right. But a guy who's probably a little more valuable in head-to-head than Roto. But the whip, I mean, that's the thing.

He's not walking anybody, So his whip is probably really good. 1.14. That's really good for the amount of innings you're getting out of Samarja. And I just think that the ERA, you look at it, you look at his overall numbers. If you take out Corse Field, it's a much better season for Samarja. And, yeah, I mean, it took me a while to come around. It took you guys a lot less to come around.

And I just want to say I'm with you now. I have him right next to Michael Panetta in my rankings, which feels about right. Fair enough. Well, you've got plenty of excuse to move Panetta down in your rankings now, Chris. He's been giving you that. Oh. All right, we got a lot more to get to. Here's our joke of the day.

Hashtag bad fantasy baseball jokes from T-Bone. If a manager tells his pitcher to throw at Franklin Barreto's head, he's saying Bean Burretto. And then he put a picture of a burrito with it. Oh, okay. That is a bad joke. Okay, that's great. It needs the visual cue. Yeah, I think it's fine.

I love a great bad joke. Now, it's time for our email of the day from Pete. I planned to doing a lot of things today. Only eight games on the schedule yesterday, which is just amazing. It's like a national holiday. We can let our hair down and go off script a little bit. But here's our email of the day from Pete in New Jersey at Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. Pete says, Dear Bruce Clark and Diana.

Sound like DC, Superheroes. Hupor Seeros. Diana Wonder Woman, I'm assuming. Yeah. Yeah. Did you see the movie? I have not. Yeah, it's really good.

It is? Yeah, it's really good. Okay. It's the first of the DC movies that's been worthwhile at all. Oh, really? What are the other ones? Man of Steel, Batman versus Superman, Justice, or Suicide Squad, they're all... I assume...

Stinky Hot Garvers. The Christopher Nolan Batman series of... Oh, yeah. I'm talking about, like, the rebooting... The D.C. extended universe. Okay, okay. Here's the question. Guess who I am?

One, I am 28 years old entering the prime of my career. Two, I hit third in the lineup for a high run producing team. Three, I have been at worst ninth overall in my position since my rookie debut eight years ago. Boom. And four, Scott, Heath, and Chris, at best, have me ninth overall in their rankings at my position. So one I was thinking of is Jose Abraeu. Let me read it again for the listeners. 28 years old, hitting third in the lineup for a high run producing team.

I'm not quite sure about it. I have to check on that. I've been at worst ninth overall at my position since debuting eight years ago. Also not sure about that, but it does sound about right. And four, Scott, Heath, and Chris at best have me ninth overall in the rankings. It's not Jose Abrae. It's not Jose Abraio. He hit two home runs yesterday.

He extended the double-dong streak. Who hit... Okay, so who hit two home runs yesterday? I should know this. He is from... Uh... Oh, never mind. Never mind.

Oh, I see it here. You do? Two home runs. I cannot read my notes at all. It's Elvis Andrews. Elvis Andrews, people. Elvis Andrews, yes. Yeah.

Number one shortstop and fantasy and points in Roto so far. But it looks like... Heath has, and, oh yeah, ninth. Yeah, I guess I got to move him up. You know, 13th. He's part of this fly ball revolution. I definitely need to move him up.

I'm moving him up to, I'm going to move him to seventh. Wow. Eighth. So who do I have in front of him that, because I've, you know, I'm on board with the idea that Elvis Andrews is good, especially now that he's hitting for some power. Well, that's the thing for me is that the power started to break out a little bit last season, had his highest career ISO by about 40 points, started hitting more fly balls, so he is part of that.

And he now has his highest career hard hit percentage. So, I mean, the top six at shortstop in some order are just, you know, you're obviously, nobody's going to change those. They're Machado, Correa, Seeger, Turner, Lindor, Bogarts, in some order, those have to be the six. Okay, wait, wait, wait, but does it have to be? Because with Andrews, you get those steals. And you're not, it's weird, you're not getting home runs from Bogarts. So it's like... Yeah, but do we, can we really count on getting home runs from Andrews forever?

I'm open to the idea that maybe he could flirt with 20 home runs this year. He's already got a car high. If he doesn't hit another one rest of season, I'm not going to, that's not going to surprise me either. I would definitely count on more home runs for Bogarts going forward. Yeah, he's already got, career high in home runs Elvis Andrews, but one thing that's interesting is that he's got 18 steals. And his last three seasons, Andrews stole 27, 25, and 24.

I mean, if he steals 40 bases, then I definitely want him over Bogarts. But I don't know that. Also a big if, right, exactly. But like, this is crazy. I do think it's funny that, you know, Elvis Andrews would, like, randomly sneak in as the top shortstop, all those years when there were no good short stops.

Yeah, back when he was stealing four. like Troy Tewewiczki would get hurt, so Andrews would end up being number one. And now that there are a lot of good short stops, he still managed to find a way to sneak his way in there because he's hitting a lot more home runs and stealing more bases than he usually does. I do wonder about Zander Bogart's kind of the shortstop version of Christian Yelich, right? This year, I guess. It doesn't really stand out anywhere, especially this year with the Red Sox lineup, not being nearly as good as it was last year. hits for batting average

but that's you know the the 121 homer season aside he's kind of and that Christian Yelich's shortstop is pretty awesome compared to Christian Yeltsch at Alfield

it's just it's interesting how much more hand-wringing there is about one than the other so I have Andrew's ninth between those six I mentioned and Andrews are Gene Seguera

and Zach Cozart who's about to return I'd be fine with going Andrews' high seventh. I'd still rather have Seguera and Cossar personally. I moved Andrews to 8 with Cigura ahead of him in that same six. Yeah, I don't, yeah. I think that's perfect. I think that makes a lot of sense.

So I think that's, if you're the Andrews owner, you know how we value him, and it doesn't mean you have to sell high. I just don't expect him to be the number one shortstop in fantasy. But yeah, look, he's consistent. Every year he is a shortstop worth starting. And he's having to say that. I want to point out, fake news on this email. Why?

I had Alves Andrews 8th in Roto already. Okay. Fake news. Fake news. Fake news. Email of the day number two is Rob from New Jersey. Ooh, is Pete from New Jersey? Now, Rob from New Jersey.

You think they're friends? I hope so. Probably. Yeah. Dear Craig, John and Trevor. I have no idea. Okay, it's Craig Kimball. Those sound like.

John Wetland and Trevor Hoffman, I'd say. Sure. Yeah. Probably not. why not? Every day, I stare at Alex Bregman and I'm filled with hate, shame, and despair. I passed on Cody Bellinger, Matt Adams, Jose Barrios, et cetera, because I didn't want to give up on Bregman. It's the worst mistake that I keep making. What is yours? My worst mistake that I keep making is, oh, I actually have a...

I was thinking about this the other day. I can't think of it now. But, oh, man, it's usually the case of buying into a player over and over again and him letting you down over and over again. Matt Moore would be a good example, except I think I finally reached my breaking point with him. I gave him one last chance going into this season because it was going to be his first full season at the most home run suppressing ballpark. Fool me once, Matt Moore. Shame on you.

Full me six times. Mine is, it's not a specific player, but it's, I've had a tendency to overreact to one or two good starts from young starting pitchers and sometimes it works out. I think we all agree. It's probably working out with Jacob Ferreya. Maybe not so much with Nick Povetta, who was really bad yesterday. Yeah, but did you start Nick Povetta? I did not. Right.

Because I wanted to add him, but I was, I think, pretty clear I didn't want to start Nick Povetta, and we did it. So, Chris didn't even make the mistake of starting him. I mean, I'm so smart. Yeah, you're the best. Like, I don't know that that what you're citing is a mistake is even really a mistake. You have to buy into these guys early because somebody else, somebody is going to. And you won't be the one who has that lottery ticket in your hand. I dropped Francis Martez instead of Nick Povetta, and I'm not 100%.

I mean, Martez was terrible last time, too. Yeah, both are kind of. in that same boat. But that's probably the first thing that comes to mind for me. And I just seem to always start Brad Peacock at the absolute worst times. Like, I should have known he was going to go on the paternity list last week and not make his second start. And then he had that... How did you not know?

Are he not Facebook friends with them? Come on. I mean, he's been talking about it for like nine months. Nine months in the making, Adam. I'm not Facebook friends. Basic human type biology. I'm not Facebook friends with Brad Peacock. I am Facebook friends with his wife, and she kept posting that she was about to go into labor, and I just completely...

I just ignored it. I just figured he'd pitch through it. But no, these guys, such family men these days. I don't have a specific thing in mind of a mistake I made, but I guess... Because I don't have Andrew McCutcheon, but giving up on Andrew McCutcheon on the podcast was certainly bad. We've all made mistakes on the podcast, Adam. Yeah. As people on Twitter will remind us.

Probably I jinx the hell out of the 24-0 team yesterday. I started Carlos Carrasco. I haven't jinxed it yet. Carrasco and Barrios yesterday. Burios was really great, but he took the loss, so that always hurts. All right, guys, in news and notes, not a lot. Carlos Gonzalez is on the D.L. with a shoulder strain.

Brandon Finnegan left with a strained triceps, so he was bad. and then he was hurt. Carlos Rodon is going to pitch tomorrow against the Yankees. Start or sit? Sit. Sit based on what we sell from Hamels and Finnegan, right? I guess so. Brandon McCarthy's on the deal with knee tendonitis.

He could be back in 10 days. We'll see. So I guess Kent and Maeda is back in the rotation. Yeah, who would believe that the Dodgers have a starting pitcher going on the DL for the minimum? Yeah. Eduardo Nunez could be back Friday. Hanley Ramirez is day-to-day with a knee issue, so he's been a big. dealing with a shoulder injury, he's been dealing with a knee injury.

And, you know, remember we talked about, I'm sure people remember, we talked about Carlos Santana on Friday. And I did a, you know, look at waivers. I said, all right, maybe I'll sit Carlos Santana this week. Who could I pick up at first base? And the only guy that was even worth a look was Hanley Ramirez. And I, 12-team points league, I left him on waivers. Talk about mistakes.

Andrew Ramirez has been a big mistake for me. But he could turn it around? Do you still believe in him? I mean, the bad at all data is still pretty promising, 37% hard hit rate, his lowest soft contact rate since 2013. He's not striking out much. There are reasons to be positive, but given how inconsistent Hanley Ramirez has been in his career, I don't feel great about it. By the way, Carlos Gonzalez should be back with their thinking. in 10 days with the shoulder injury.

Tampa Bay acquired Adani Hedchevaria from the Marlins for Ethan Clark and Braxton Lee. A couple of minor leaguers. I'm assuming this doesn't matter? Adani Hentraveria is barely A.L. only relevant. Okay. And Starlin Castro. I honestly haven't looked at Tim Beckham's defensive metrics. Could it help the pitching staff at all?

I think there's some thought of that, yeah. Maybe I don't know that it would be enough for us to really. Yeah, it's not actionable, but you could. expect a little better from Chris Archer moving forward. Starlin Castro left of the hamstring strain. And all exciting news, the Yankees are calling up a prospect that has 24 steals so far this season in the minors. I use the word prospect loosely.

Tyler Wade, I picked up Tyler Wade in a Roto League. We'll see if he can get on base and steal some bases, but he's having a great year. He's an 833 OPS. He's MLB.com's number 11 prospect for the Yankees right now. appears to me enjoying something of a breakout season has been like a low 800s OPS bat this season after being more like a high 600s bat for most of his minor league career

but has always drawn walks Yeah And there's you know He would have to get the same leeway on the base paths He did in the majors Well he would have to get that in the majors that he did in the minors Which isn't guaranteed It's also not guaranteed

there will be an opening for him because Starlin Castro's injury could, he would say it doesn't feel as bad as one that cost him a week of action last August. But they did put, they did put Tyler Wade on the 40-man to make this move. So that's usually a sign or it can be a sign that the injury is more serious because that's a bigger move than you typically make just for a few days. Yeah, as soon as Castro went out, they basically pulled. Wade, I think, from the game in the AAA.

Yeah. And Tyler Wade is 22 years old, so he's still pretty young. He had a good spring training. He's had a good year, and he steals bases. So, yeah, pretty deep leagues. I think you're looking at Wade, if at all. Jacoby Ellsbury returned. He's 42% owned. Probably not that interested in Ellsbury, right? No. I'm more interested in him than Wade, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, not a universe lad. Tyler Wade, by the way, is shortstop eligible, so that's also something. Matt Holliday is dealing with an allergic reaction, and it's sort of hurt his production at the play. He's been feeling very tired, and he's been out of the lineup for three straight games, I think.

So Matt Holiday, they're trying to figure that out. The National signed Francisco Rodriguez to a minor league contract. Addison Russell pinch hit. Wilson Contreras led off instead of Anthony Rizzo, and he homered Contreras. Rizzo has bad numbers against Gio Gonzalez, so I would expect Rizzo to be back leading off today. Joey Gallo return to the lineup, and he homered into Linear to Shields sat. And before we get into Monday standouts, ZipRecruiter.com is a standout website. If you want a winning fantasy team, you need top talent, you need the best roster.

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Try it for free today. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Give me a Monday standout. I'm very excited for filling the blank later, by the way. But give me a Monday standout. Ceres Towers. This one's, this is the guy that I wish did anything more than hit for average. but you know Escobar is hitting 300 since the start of May has multiple hits in five of his last six games

And he's probably multi-position eligible, right? You know Escobar, well, let's find out of, he's the kind of guy that like I like what? I think he's just third base at this point. Okay, he's he's the kind of player though that like in a roto league if I've focused too much on power and and stolen bases and had to get some crappy hitters in my lineup I don't mind picking up, you know, Eskabar and just trying to get a little boost in my batting average every once in a while. All right. He is just their base. Okay.

And 12% owned. So, okay, cool. I like it. I wasn't expecting that. You caught me by surprise with U.N. Elkabar. Scott White, give me a little more mainstream. I guess I'll use this as another opportunity to hype Tommy Fam a little, because he's still only, like, 27% owned, which I think is pretty outrageous, given what. he's done so far. The strikeouts are beginning to pile up and you know I hate that.

But yesterday he had a great game and he didn't even do the one thing he's becoming most known for, which is hitting home runs. Two for three. Two walks, the walks have been as impressive as the strikeouts, if not more so. Scored three runs, stole a base. He's been contributing in that area as well as the power. And I think it's, you know, I guess he could always slump his way out of an everyday role. but it looks like he's a fixture in the Cardinals lineup now. So, you know, nine home runs, seven stolen bases in just 46 games. Pretty good. And you can look at, he's played 181 games in his career, but 539 played appearances.

So a bit less than a full season's worth of played appearances. 23 homers, 10 steals, 807 OPS. Like, I think he's a pretty good player, especially because last year was such an outlier in the strikeout rate. He was like a 35% strikeout rate guy last year. There's a lot to like about Tommy Fam, not a platoon split guy, so there's no obvious situation where he might lose his job. I like him a lot. I think the biggest issue with Tommy Fam is he does have a degenerative eye condition. We talked about it last time we spoke about Tommy Fam.

It's not something that is completely fixed. It's still something that he's dealing with and has to manage. Can't really predict if that's going to be an issue. Certainly hope it's not. But that has hindered Tommy Fam. So if Fam is less owned in fewer leagues than Jacoby Ellsbury, I feel like that's an easy swap to make, right? Yes, sure. They both probably need to be owned in five outfielder leagues.

But FAM's the only one I would consider owning in a three outfielder league, you know, if I happen to get left out at that position, which I understand it's hard to do. It just seems his ownership compared to a lot of other players is, you know, there's a big disparity there. He's probably less owned Randall Gritchick, right? You know what? Before you even answer that, I would guess the answer is no, by the way. But before you answer that, we have an email here that says Piscotti, no Hottie. Gritchick's actually been good coming off the DL and Fowler's on the DL. So let me ask you, who's your favorite Cardinals outfielder, rest of season? Piscotti still. Yeah, I agree. Is Piscotti? Is he doing anything Piscotti? Getting a lot of questions about him. I thought he's gotten hot recently. He has, he's not doing anything, no. But I think. like his strikeout to walk ratio is such a draw for me and obviously the track record is in his favor I mean he's got an 829 OPS in June after being very disappointing in April and May and 829 OPS is about what you're hoping for you know that's it's not necessarily all on base percentage driven either he does have eight extra base hits four homers 14 homer

RBI in 21 games. So not stellar, but not terrible either. Yeah, well, Stephen Biscotti has six homerous. If we're including Fowler in this group, Piscotti, fam, Fowler is probably a pretty close trio. I mean. Yeah. But Gritchick is last. Although, Homer did in two consecutive games since getting called back up.

Yeah, there's that. He's just, he's so unpredictable, has the worst plate discipline of the three. and he's just not going to be consistent enough. I think Tommy Pham might just be what we hope Randall Gritchick would be. Yeah, he might be. Gritchick speaking to the plate discipline during his time at AAA. Yeah, 21 strikeouts, four walks, right? I think it was 27 and 3, actually.

I thought I had written it down. Come on, Chris. It was bad. Really bad. Step it up. Well, you got power. Maybe Chris is right. Who doesn't?

Yeah, right. All right, my Monday standout is Jordan Montgomery, who just seems to be getting better. better. This was a great matchup for him. The White Sox have been brutal lately. Seven innings, one run. It was a solo home run. He struck out eight. And he's the number 35 starting pitcher in points leagues. I didn't look up where he is in Roto. It's probably pretty close. But in Roto, you have to sort through all the relievers as well. So, ran out of time. But bottom line, Montgomery, you know, the whip is still a touch high. It's

1.21, which isn't bad. But consider this with Montgomery. First five starts, he walked 14 batters. Last nine starts, he's walked 13 batters. So Montgomery's gotten his control under control. And Chris is like Montgomery probably more than everybody for a while. I just think he's a... Like, if you're playing a daily league, I don't think I'm starting him at Houston this weekend. But other than that, I pretty much just starting Montgomery all the time. There was actually a really interesting piece on him in fan graphs where he's talking about

his slider and curveball usage. It's worth checking out. He kind of... Sliders are typically you're swinging miss pitches, His curveballs are typically your pitch to contact, get ground balls, weak contact pitch. And he's kind of the opposite. His curve balls are the swing and miss pitch. It's pretty interesting.

Yeah. He's probably been even better than he's been, if that makes sense. Like, I feel like his numbers should be even better than they are, looking at, like, his swinging strike total. Yeah, swinging strike rate, 13.7%. That's one of the best in baseball. That's what I was looking up right now who's got the highest swinging strike rate. So I knew it was, and he's got four pitches. So I've liked that right from the get-go for Jordan Montgomery.

If you were the Jordan Montgomery owner and somebody offered you Cole Hamels for Montgomery, what would you do? I'd probably still take it. But it's less of a slam dunk than it seemed like two months ago. Jordan Montgomery's fifth in swinging strike rate, by the way. How about Jimmy James Nelson or Jordan Montgomery? I think I like Nelson a little more. I think so too.

Better strikeout rate, better walk rate. Neither than pitches in Great Park. Fellas, what do you make of Cody Allen pitching in the eighth inning of a non-save situation and Camber Drozheny pitching in the seventh inning? I think it's a mess, especially the Angels situation. I have no idea who's going to get their next save. It could be any of five people, I feel like.

But, I mean, Cleveland, I still think it's ultimately going to be Allen's, but now that he's kind of opened the door to them using somebody else, because, you know, that was his suggestion. You don't always have to use me as the closer. So nice. Yeah, it really was, but it stinks for us because I think, I actually think it's going to be closer now to what I expected coming into the year, which is Allen probably getting like two-thirds of the save chances in Miller.

also getting a decent amount. I think maybe they were just trying to get him right, because he came off to D.L. and had a terrible outing, or paternity leave, and had a terrible outing. I'm not sure. Maybe they're just trying to get him a little bit of work and get Cody Allen right, and he struck out the side.

Yeah. Could be that. Yeah, I mean, he's still a good pitcher. He's not as good as Andrew Miller. Few are, Scott White. Few are. All right, let's move on to the show. Time for a new game.

It's called Aaron Judge, True or False. Do you need me to explain how Aaron Judge... No, I think I can figure this one out. All right. I think maybe the best thing to do is let's just play around and see if we've got it, see if we can figure it out. True or false? Aaron Judge has more steals than Charlie Blackman. I'm going to say true just because it'd be a silly game if it was false.

Yeah, that's good reasoning. I agree. Correct. Good job. Way to go. Aaron Judge has six steals Charlie Blackwood is five steals. How about that? True or false? Aaron Judge is the only hitter in the top 35 in strikeouts with a batting average over 300. I'm going to say that's false.

Yeah. It's still early enough that those haven't... That wouldn't have completely corrected for everyone. So we're saying false? Yeah. I'm going to say you guys are idiots. It's true! Oh. Sorry for yelling.

Interesting. Yeah, and he's batting 3.30. Mark Reynolds is down to $2.99 now. Sorry, bud. Sneaky. I think Reynolds may be outside the top 35. I think he might be like 36th, which is why I did the... Fine.

Yeah. Okay, and true or false. Aaron Judge has fewer doubles than Mike Zanino. That's probably true as well. I'm going to say that's false. He has more doubles than Mike Zunino. Both are idiots. They're tied with 11 doubles. Oh, that's a trick question.

That's surprising that Mike Tonino has 11 doubles just because he has so many home runs as well. What's the most surprising thing that we've learned in Aaron Judge True or Fall segment? Probably the Blackman part, I would guess. Five steals. I mean, I knew Blackman hadn't really done much of anything on the basis, but I didn't know. I mean, six steals is not nothing. I'm surprised Judge has run that much. He's a good athlete.

So the thing about Blackman is that he's been a top five hitter in fantasy, and he's got five steals. 16 home runs, which is not spectacular. 320 batting average, which is obviously very good. But the RBIs are coming down for Blackman. He's a lead-off hitter who at a time was leading baseball in RBI's. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say. I just think it's still

Yeah, go ahead He's still on pace for like 130 runs and 115 RBI Well, that's the thing But that's probably, you know, going to decrease Because that was an unsustainable pace And a 16 homer five steel guy right now It doesn't feel like a top five hitter I just was a little

A little surprised that Blackman's been a top five hitter The runs in the RBI's I think helped that a lot You know what's kind of crazy? It's hard to steal home And he has 10 triples He has 10 triples? He has 10 triples. He argues career high in triples.

That's pretty... He has 17 doubles, 10 triples, 16 home runs. He has 43 extra base hits already. Who is... I'm looking at right now. Who is second in baseball and triples? It's probably someone's slow and fat. It's a fast, skinny guy.

All right. D. Gordon. No, but, you know, a little faster and a little skinnier. Billy Hamilton? Yeah. Five triples. I don't know that anyone's skinny or... than D. Gordon, just to be clear.

I think Billy Hamilton might be skinnier than Degorded. I didn't know you could get a triple on an infield hit. Those are usually scored errors. De Gordid. I don't even see D. Gordid on the triples leaderboard. All right, guys, well, that was fun. Let's play, what do we want to do next? Still have hope.

Let's play a game called Still Have Hope. Tell me, do you still have hope for the following players? Alex Bregman, 82% owned. Yes, I do, because I'm a sucker. I just, I know he was starting to turn things around. Like there was the point where he hadn't hit a home run to like mid-May. And then he had a pretty decent May. He's been really bad again in June.

I picked him up in a league. But the play disciplines there. That was the thing that we liked about him coming up in the minors. I don't know. He's, he's so hard to pin down. We haven't seen the real Alex Breggman yet, I think. But the fact that he's been so inconsistent is, I think, a pretty big mark against him, because even when he's been good, you couldn't rely on it.

Let me give you all in CBS Sports.com leagues one reason to have some hope for Alex Bregman. Right now he's the number 25 third baseman in points, number 35 in Roto. But he's one game away, one appearance, one tiny little appearance away at shortstop from gaining eligibility in CBS leagues. And he would right now, as bad as Bregman has been, He'd be the number 14 shortstop in points leagues, number 20 in Roto. So if he just gets a little bit better, he could be a top 12 shortstop. You figure they'll give Correa a day off at some point.

It could just be one inning, one appearance. Like Anthony Rizzo, one at bat where he's playing shortstop, and you could have Bregman being shortstop eligible. Keep that in mind. Yes. Now, he has been one game away for like two months. It is true. But still, you know, one game doesn't take much.

Now, I'm no expert, but you guys tell me this is what we have listed on CBS Sports.com. What do you think is a skinnier person? Six feet 160 pounds or 511, 171 pounds? I'm going to go with the first one. Yeah. It's Billy Hamilton. Skidier than D. Gordon. If we believe then. Everyone lies. Did you guys ever see the picture of D. Gordon and Justin Bore wearing each other's clothes? No. It is from spring training. They wore each other's uniforms. It is hilarious. It is phenomenal. I need to Google right now. Do you have faith in Aledmus Diaz, 80% owned?

I'm losing faith fast. We talked before the season about how everybody, everybody was too down on the Ledmus Diaz, and we were the only smart people in the world. It turns out we're the idiots. Yep. Yeah. This is a reminder that you can't necessarily trust one good season,

even if the underlying numbers are there, the underlying numbers, the hard hit contact, all that stuff seemed to be in his favor but you know that stuff fluctuates too yeah he's a player who I've dropped

in a few leagues even though he's already eligible at shortstop where we're we love for bregman to get eligibility yeah but that kind of shows the difference I think in pedigree I mean Alex Breggman was the second overall pick in the draft two years ago and eleadness Diaz was like where did this guy come from

uh okay so Sorry, I was watching a video of D. Gordon and Justin Bore switch clothing. It's fantastic, right? It's you oversold it. Oh, come on. It's a fat man in a little baseball uniform. Didn't Aaron Judge do the same? Weren't they the first to do it?

No, I think they did like a photo shoot in like April. Yeah. But Bore and D. Gordon did it in spring training. Oh, okay. When Aaron Judge hits home runs, Ronald Torres, who's like my size, he stands on the bench to give him a high five. It's very funny. Is that who it was who he switched with? pretty sure.

Javier Baez, you still have hope in him. He's been hitting pretty well lately. He has four doubles in his last, or he's five doubles in his last eight games. Javier Baez, 71% owned. Well, define hope because he was the one who everybody else was high on, and we were like, you guys are idiots. And I guess we've not been the idiots in that case, because he's been pretty lame. Yeah, I mean, he has held his strikeout rate.

consistent from last season, which is a good sign. He's hitting for a decent amount of power, but... I thought Javier Baez was going to be what Ian Hap has been. That's how I thought his career would go. And, you know, when he first came up, that's kind of what it looked like, but he struck out 45% at the time or something, and it seems like he's lost a lot of power in an effort to correct that. So, I mean, he's eligible everywhere,

and that's always going to have value in larger lineup leagues. But he doesn't play enough. He doesn't play enough. He does with Zobr's playing a lot now. He has been playing. Zobrists has been out. Zobriss has been out. And Russell's out.

But Russell pinch hit yesterday. Zobras will be back. Honestly, Javier Bias is one of the most over-drafted players in fantasy. Yep. And he's 71% owned. He's done nothing to justify that. Incredibly fun. Made another great play yesterday.

Two great. Which one are you talking about? I'm talking about the leap and grab on the Bryce Harper. Line drive? That was incredible. Yeah. That was incredible. And then he made a sliding catch in foul territory later in the game.

Yeah, Baez is a tremendous athlete, but I just, like, I don't own him. And if I did, he'd be the first guy I cut to get somebody on my team. By the way, to answer your question, Scott, you said, define hope. It is a feeling of optimism or a desire that something will happen. Okay. On the subject of the sliding catch, are you guys ever that impressed by a sliding catch? It depends. Like a lot of the times you'll see these like ridiculous ones where the guy catches it and then like jumps and that's not as impressive.

But if you actually like catch it on a dive, not a diving catch, a sliding catch. Look up Javier Baez's catch. I will send you the link and I would like your reaction. This was a diving catch. No, it was feet first. I'm talking feet first versus head first. Because I just wonder what, I kind of wonder whenever I see one, considering when you slide, obviously, your glove is way back on your body.

Like, did you even need to slide? Why couldn't you just caught it standing up? Yeah. Why are you hating Javier Baez right now? No, I just wondered about the sliding catch. It always seems unnecessary. Look, sports are supposed to be fun, Scott. Yeah.

Jeez, Scott White. All right, finally, actually, two more. Real quick. Do you still have hope for Jonathan Lucreux? That's beginning to fade a little, too. I mean, the plate discipline is as good as ever, but Robinson Chorinos has been so productive with the power that Lucroix never seems to start more than three games in a row, and even that's not consistent. And I just wonder if he's able to get hot enough to reclaim the everyday role he had in Milwaukee. He also just kind of has a bit of a statistical profile of someone who is having to cheat to make contact.

Like his hard hit rate has gone way down. And I just, I wonder if he's lost too much for contact. Oomph in his bat. And he's having to sacrifice. Only 22 strikeouts this year for Lucroy, but only 10 walks. So he's a top three catcher for everybody. But is it time to consider moving anybody like Salvador Perez, McCann, anybody ahead of Lou Croy? I'll give it a little while still.

All right. And do you still have hope for Byron Buxton in a Keeper League, in a Keeper League, Byron Buxton? Again, it depends on the definition of hope there. I already know what it is. You said it. You don't want me to look it up? I mean, if it's like a keep-em-for-the-minim-stituation, maybe. but I mean

he's not running as much as you'd like He's got 13 steals in I don't know it's not great but 13 steals in 70 games By the way Adam You sent me the link to these bias catches As if I hadn't seen him Them

Oh I thought you hadn't from yesterday No I've seen them The first catch The dive on the Harper liner was amazing And the second catch It's not like it wasn't good I just I was just commenting on the concept

Of the sliding catch in general Because it's like You know in this particular particular case, since he was coming up on the wall, you know, kind of a low railing. He didn't want to go flipping into the stands. He may have had to go for the slide just to slow his momentum. But when you see a sliding catch made in the middle of the outfield, where, you know, he's basically catching the ball by his shoulder. It was the slide really necessary? Couldn't even just run under the ball? Yeah. Like when some guys make leaping catches at the wall and they clearly

didn't have to jump. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, Chris, if you want the verb, it's the action of wishing or desiring that something will occur. That's hope verb form. Okay, good. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I have very little hope in Byron boxing at this point. Okay. There's also a character named hope in Days of Our Lives. We could, if you want to talk about that. Sure. So I think it's time for fill in the blank. But first, we need a very mediocre round of team name Tuesday. Paul from New Jersey says,

What's up with all this New Jersey? Is this the same guy? I don't think so. Mabin, I'm amazed. That's good. Yeah, not bad. And I'm amazed. He's stolen other base.

This is from Darren in South Korea. He wants me to sing the first one. Free a mind! That's good. That's awesome. That's a great one. That's good. And for Canadian fans, Raisin the Ruff.

Like, raisins and then rough, you know. That is a fantasy baseball. Well, today's specific team name. I would say so. This is from Jay, Delino, De Witch, and De Wardrobe. It's good. I don't like that. Better than I thought.

Jay also wants to know who you like better rest of season in a Categories league. Mazara or Conforto? Conforto. Still pretty easily. Yeah, it's been frustrating lately. I hope he's not pulling the same act he did last year except just to an even greater extreme. Yeah. But I think he's going to come out of this soon.

And when he does, then the playing time will be a non-issue anymore. Matt in Milwaukee, Thames hit different day. Sure. It's good. It's almost profane, but it's good. And Alexander Watkins, two Wong's don't make a Wainwright. Sure. Cardinals specific stuff.

All right, fellas, Phil in the blank. from Mendel. Starling Marte is blank in this year's outfield environment. Ineligible. He is still an elite player once he gets back. And I know some people are probably worried that he might not be as good after failing a PED test because he won't be on PEDs. Don't be. It's pretty safe to say that that's not a concern.

Look at D. Gordon this year. So I still think he's probably a top 10, top 15 outfielder. I'm going to say my blank is underwhelming, but probably still necessary in a Categories League. Is that too long for a blank? No, that's okay. I think in a points league, I'm not even sure he was a top 10 outfielder in points last year. His plate discipline isn't very good. In points, yeah.

But in a Roto or a Categories League, yeah, I mean, you need those steals. Matthew says, I would spend blank of my Fab if Eric Thames were on my waiver wire. 20%. I was going to say 25, so we're in the same ballpark. Who was the closest without going over? Who just prices? I think it was Chris. Chris.

You won. Good job. Chris, but you know, that's not the way Fab works. True. I would be the winner of Thames. Yeah, that's true, Scott. But we're clearly playing Price is right. You knew that.

Okay. I forgot. Marte only played 129 games last year, but the year before that, he was number 17 in points, number 11 in Roto. That was only with 30 steals.

He stole 47 last year. But the home runs were down. I mean, PG, points per game. For those who don't know what that means. PPG? PPG. I'm down with PPG.

It's always pretty underwhelming for Marte. It's not really his format. I mean, it's just not. but he's fine in that format and he's really good in categories normally I think in this outfield environment that drops a little denelson lemette will finish the season as a top blank pitcher it's going to be pretty low because he's probably not a top 150 pitcher right now right all rest of season denelsa lehsle met is a top blank pitcher 60 starting pitcher uh yeah that's i might have him ranked a little outside the top 60 but i think

dropping him like everybody did after those two terrible starts was premature, and he probably needs to be owned everywhere again. And I'm going to... I overstated Starling Marte's lack of relevance in points leagues. He was about... Among qualifiers, he was about 13th in points per game last year. Okay. Jesse Burrill.

Yonder Alonzo will be blank in the second half. dropped in a lot of leagues. Really? Really? I'll say he'll be fine in the second half. I'll say he'll be about 70% owned. Doesn't sound like we're feeling Yonder Alonzo right now. He was the first one, too, Yonder Alonzo, too.

Yeah, but I think you have to still, to some extent, look at the track record and say he's probably not this good. And then you look, okay, if he's not this good, that's probably a 70% owned guy in, at first base okay this is from the welsh who's from the

in this league podcast very funny guys cable guy is the blank movie and we always argue about cable guy me and the Welsh because I hate that movie sixth best Jim Carrey movie I can't think of a good

like word to describe it but I feel like cable guy is one of those movies that like the hole is worse than the sum of his parts maybe. Like, there are some... Movie sucks. Pretty good scenes.

It's not as funny as the funniest Jim Carrey movies. It's probably not as good as some of the better, like, serious Jim Carrey movies. It's no Truman Show. It's no Trouman show. No. I mean, the serious Jim Carrey movies are, by and large, pretty good, right?

I mean, I don't know if the Truman Show... Is that kind of a serious movie? I think that straddles. the line the best. Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Line is very good. Yeah. A little overrated among my cohort, I think. Yeah, the movie 23 is

one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I've never seen that one. It's worse than cable guy. Maybe I just have selective memory on a serious role. Mr. Popper's Penguins. Obviously a very good serious movie. All right, Donovan Miller says the next big call-up will be blank.

The next big call-up. I haven't had a great He'll be young. So far. I'm going to go with Ahmed Rosario. It's got to happen at some point. The Mets can't keep doing this. They've already said they're starting to sell parts. They're going to fire as Drubal Carrera into the sun at this point, I think.

They have to call him up. Yeah. I agree with that. It's probably been... I probably would have said that for the last six weeks. Yeah. Throw on the blank from Edwin. Madison Bumgarner will be the number.

Number blank starting pitcher, second half of the season. Bumgarner, number blank. He's moving up to AAA this Friday, we should mention on his rehab assignment, so he could be back soon. Number nine, pitcher. I'm going to go higher. I'm going to one up you. I'm going to three up you. Number six.

All right. We love Bummy. Adam Hammond, I should blank Jonathan V.R. Forget about. Stash. Yeah? Forget about's probably too strong. I kind of forgot about it.

Actually, I think I'm stashing him in the DL. But once he comes off, if Franklin Barreto is good, I would be dropping Jonathan V.R. I should be prepared to move on from Jonathan V.R. I have these really long blank. It's fine. This actual blank that the listener provided was longer than the other ones. So it's fine.

Oh, okay. From Matt Cave, Die Hard is a Christmas. Blank. Don't answer that. It's a leading question and it's wrong. From the fantasy football dope, baseball is the worst sport of all blank. The worst sport of all, comma,

psych. Yes. That works. That works. From John, Noah Cindergarde will pitch blank games and blank your fantasy team. Seven and hell. I will say four and help. Only four?

Only seven? Like he's not going to have two full months? I mean, right now we're probably three weeks away from him being cleared to throw. And then we're probably another three to four weeks away from him pitching in the majors. I think they're going to be like now that they're basically tearing down, it sounds like, and they should. I mean, the five playoff teams look as decided as. any can be in June for the NL. I think they're going to be

extra, extra cautious, but not so cautious that they won't want to give him a chance to end 2017 on a good note. Rockies have lost six in a row by the way. Uh-oh. Done, done, done. Could anybody catch them? Yeah, I mean, Central's got some

way to say, are you saying the five playoff teams and you're just assuming the Cubs are going to win the Central? Yep. Yeah. All right. All right, that's fair. All right, guys, we have some time left, so just tell me real quickly, how do you feel about these pitchers? Gio Gonzalez. Maybe you could start being bad, Gio, please.

Zach Granky, Carlos Carasco, who got lit up yesterday, and Rich Hill at a good start, finally. Pretty good start. Gio, Granky, Carasco, and Hill. Say something smart. Boy, that's asking a lot to say something smart. I'm not worried about Carlos Carasco, and I'm not buying into Rich. Hill yet, but it was very encouraging to see him actually pitched easily. Yeah, he in Rick Honeycutt worked on simplifying the mechanics.

This was his first start beyond five innings this year. Yeah. And it was two beyond five innings, so that's cool. I still say, like, if you look at Rich Hill start by start, every start that wasn't a disaster, which is like, you know, five or six, helped your ERA and whip. So it's like, I don't know. I still think they're like I understand the track record for him. It's easy to say, well, last year was just a fluke.

But I just feel like flukes with that kind of swing and miss ability are just like normally when you're talking to fluke, you're talking about he locked into a good ERA. And that's obviously not what happened to Rich Hill last year. So I still believe and think dropping him is too is not something you should consider. I totally agree. However, I will say that you just gave the. most... I wouldn't say optimistic, but like the most positive

spin on Rich Hill's season. If you take out the half of his starts that are horrible. These are pretty good. They've helped Rear and Whip for five innings. You get what I'm saying. Like, there...

Okay. But let's say Carlos Rodon is available in about 25% of leagues right now. If Rich Hill was your worst pitcher, would you drop him to pick up or not. I would rather have... I would rather have...

I guess probably Rodon, but I don't. I don't know that I could look at any of my... And I don't Richel in a lot of leagues. I don't know that I could look at any of my teams and say he's my worst pitcher. All right. Then let's finish the show with some emails and tweets from J.J. Cabrera.

Is now the time to sell high on Bellinger, but in a keeper league, Blackman for Bellinger. Three-year keepers. It's just three years. Yeah, it's hard to find anybody who's, I mean, the player Blackman's been the last two years. I mean, that's first-round production. I don't know that you can hope any prospect is going to be a first-rounder if he hasn't already established himself as such. So who would you rather have in a three-year keeper?

Blackman. If we're just talking about three years, then I'd rather have Blackman. All right. So he doesn't get traded because. Blackman at home this year is batting 390 with an 816 slugging percentage. 816 slugging percentage at home so far. He's not going to get traded. Rocks are good now. The buddy was.

His home away splits were pretty much dead even last year. I'm going to save Joe's email for tomorrow because it's a very good one. So Joe from the podcast listeners league tomorrow. Eric from Royal Oak Michigan says, first I'll start with grape nuts. Grape nuts contain neither grapes nor nuts. they are basically cereal clusters and are typically served with blueberries. They're mostly a Midwest Michigan thing. And my question is, in a 12-team six-by-six categories league, I have Poo-Holes, Malik-Smith, Josh Reddick.

Ryan Braun coming back, who do I drop for Braun? Poo-Holes, Malik Smith, or Josh Reddick in a Categories League? I would drop Smith. No, no what? I would drop Reddick. Poo-Hawls. Yeah, it would probably depend on what the rest of my team looks like. Poo-holes is really replaceable at first base.

Is he even in your top 25 at first base at this point? I don't think he's in mine. But, I mean, Smith and Reddick aren't even in my top 60 outfielders. Yeah. But it's just, if I need stolen bases, I'm having trouble dropping Smith. So that would be the thing for me. All right. Next email from Doug, grade the trade.

Give up Josh Bell and the rights to Tristan McKenzie and Jesus Sanchez. Josh Bell, Tristan McKenzie, Jesus, get Cody Bellinger. I think that's, I mean, I can't say I know a ton about Tristan McKenzie and Hazu Sanchez, so maybe Scott will come in with his prospect knowledge

and smite me. But that one seems obvious. Cody Ballinger is already good. They both look like high upside prospects, but they're not even 20 yet. So there's a lot of potential hurdles. And I assume, I assume if this is a league that rewards the

keep that where prospects are being kept that it's you know not every busy being kept on equal terms here i imagine bellinger is a cheap keeper which makes it an easy call if he's not he's just as expensive as anyone else you'd keep um it's less than automatic but i'd still probably take it okay here's uh brian from atlanta getting ready for the monday podcast enjoying some raisin toast and just ordered my free trial from harries thanks for the tip thank you it's actually really cool everybody do it harries.com slash FBT, I believe it is. I'll double check on that. Ten team roto. Schwerber just got dropped. Yes, it's harries.com slash FBT. Ten team roto, Schwerber got dropped. Would you drop Ian Desmond to pick up Schwerber?

No. Only if it's a league where Schwerber's... You know what? That's not even true. No, I would not do that. And I don't think in a 10-team league, Schwerber needs to pick up under any circumstances unless it's one where he's catcher eligible. All righty. That's it for today's show. Oh, I love eight game days. That was tremendous. Back to 15 today. So we'll have plenty to talk about on Wednesday's show. Plus, we'll grade some of your trades.

Goodbye, everybody. See you.