Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Buy Low, Sell High

Episode Date: June 29, 2017

We're talking trade on today's show! First, we wonder if one of the coldest hitters in baseball is still a good buy low candidate (2:20) before Heath and Chris give you a plethora of buy low and sell high players (23:23) ... Sam Dyson, Trevor Rosenthal and more from the bullpens (5:34) as up to six different teams have closer issues at the moment. Plus, we had a number of call-ups yesterday. Do any of them matter (12:00)? ... Oops, I homered again! Curtis Granderson (47:03), Robinson Chirinos (48:20), Travis Shaw (49:10) and more. Oh, and we reveal our Mt. Rushmore of breakfast cereals ... 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

Sell High. We're going to give you some players to trade for and trade away on this episode of fantasy baseball today. And listen, sports trades are scary. One person can be replaced by another, exchange for money, or giving away for a hypothetical future person. And once they leave your team, you can't like them anymore, even if you have their jersey, which you can't wear anymore. Except at B-dubs, they won't judge, but others might. Buffalo Wild Wings, Wings, Beer Sports. Heath is like the resident Buffalo Wild Wings fanatic.

expert. Yeah, and I'm a big fan too. I love it's a good place. Yeah, as a reminder, because we've got a lot of new listeners, and maybe they never knew this. You go to Buffalo Wild Wings, and you order first the wings, so make sure they have bones in them, so they are actually wings, and then you get the dry rub buffalo.

Buffalo dry rub. They have lots of good flavors, but a lot of people just stick with all the sauces, and they're good. but go over to the dry rub side. Get the buffalo, life-changing. I like a boneless wing. Even though it's not a wing.

It's just a nug. We all like chicken nuggets. It's okay. Nugs are great. Who doesn't love a Nug? But if you're going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings, you should get wings. Yeah, Buffalo Wild Nuggets, on the other hand.

You know wings for lunch today, aren't I? So if you guys take a look at the notes, I'm not sure we've ever had the potential for a more informative and incredible show. I don't like to put pressure on you, but based on the rundown I've created, and I know I'm going to deliver on my end, if you guys deliver,

we may have the best show we've ever had. I don't feel comfortable with this. Undersell, always, Adam. I plan on having the best show we've ever had, but I always plan on that. I bring my A-game 110% every time that I'm on the podcast. You plan on having the best show ever every time? Every time.

Just keep raising the bar, Chris. Man. Well, we're not off to... I know that's probably hard for me. Yeah, I don't like failing every day. We're not off to a great start, so let's get going. Let's play a game called Guess Who, which I did play this weekend with a four-year-old kid, and it was fantastic, and I won't.

I know the answer. All right, well, then you don't get the guess. Last 10 games. Three... Damn it. All right, well, let the listeners have, like, five seconds to think about it. Oh, got it. Three for 37, three for 37, with one double, three walks, and seven.

17 strikeouts. Three walks, 17 strikeouts, three for 37. Ooh, that's bad. Eric Thames. Yeah, you've brought up... No, it's not Eric Thames, is it? Oh, it's Eric Thames. Okay.

I only know that because I did a video on him yesterday and said he was three for his last 33, and then he went over four yesterday, so it's pretty easy to keep up with that. I knew it because on Tuesday's podcast, you brought up his last eight games. On Wednesday's podcast, you brought up his last nine games, so I figure...

We've been building to this all week long. Wait, you knew it, Chris? You just got it wrong. You just said it's not Eric Thames. I was looking at his baseball reference page and it hadn't updated yet. See, I didn't. I just used my brain. Me too.

Travis Shaw now has a higher OPS than Eric Thames. Sure. And Heath, you have Eric Thames as a by-low. So convince me. He's in a funk. And it's really the first funk that's been concerning, I guess. because the last time that he went through one of these extended cold streaks, he continued to walk.

The strikeout numbers didn't really go up that much. So this one is a little bit more concerning. But I just look at his upcoming schedule. And yes, he's facing the Reds right now. They have the worst pitching in baseball. It's sad that he hasn't broken out of it yet. He gets to go home next week and face the Orioles and the Marlins, two of the worst starting pitching staffs in all of baseball.

Then he gets to go to Yankee State. after that. Eric Thames is breaking out of this very, very soon. Okay, but if he doesn't, I mean, you can't rule out the possibility that the league is just figuring him out, right? Yeah, it would be weird. There was a piece of Vangraps about how he's struggling with fastballs since about the start of May. So that's something to keep an eye on. But I agree with Heath and him being a by-low just because he was so good in the first month that the person who bought him.

him probably thinks, I got a stud. I'm the smartest person in America. And then this extended slump that he's been on, and especially recently, I think there's the potential for too much over correction in response to both him being really good and then the slump. Okay. So Eric Thames, by-low candidate, more by-low and sell high a little bit later. But yesterday was a really interesting day. We've got some potentially new closers. We do have some, one actual new closer, and we had some call-ups that we need to talk about. I will go through some of the big news with Chris Bryant, potentially needing a stint on the DL.

We did the Reddit AMA yesterday. I came away with the five most interesting questions from Reddit. I think you will enjoy those. We will get into Heath and Chris's by-lows and sell highs. I have fun with fan graphs in the notes, but don't know if we'll get to it because we have to talk about stuff like this. New closers. All right.

Mark Malanson's on the DL. Sam Dyson will close, even though Hunter Strickland got the save yesterday. Dyson wasn't available. Your level of interest in Sam Dyson, 1 to 10, 0 to 10. I mean, you have to have some interest just because the opportunity is going to get, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hunter Strickland has as many saves as Sam Dyson does over this stretch. I don't think Sam Dyson's good. I think Sam Dyson's fine.

I think we saw the absolute worst stretch of his career to start the season. but he'd been really good for what three years before that. The big thing for me is the giants aren't exactly giving a lot of opportunities for saves. Nope, that's true too. So it's entirely possible that Mark Melanson misses three weeks and Hunter Strickland's one save is matched by Sam Dyson. But I would say he's relatively low on the closer scale, but that's still relatively high for waiver wire in general. Great. So I asked you guys to give me a number. I already told you that you need to step up your game if this is going to be the best show ever.

Four. Thank you. Heath? No. Edwin Diaz, do you think he could, on the likely to lose his jobometer, Edwin Diaz is a zero to ten? Three point six seven. I don't think he should lose his job. I don't believe the Mariners have someone that we'd be. better at his job than he currently is.

Even if he does lose his job, I think he'll get it back shortly. Three. Three. Three point five and three for Diaz on the likely losing job. That was a three. Six seven. Three point seven. Whatever it was.

Last three appearances, seven runs, three earn runs. And before that, he had given up one earn run and 13 appearances. So Scott Service said he is likely sticking with Diaz as his closer. If you were going to pick up anybody else in the Mariners' bullpen, who would it be? I guess Nick Vincent We guess Nick Vincent Yeah I'm less excited about him Than I would be about Sam Dyson

All right, fair enough Trevor Rosenthal Got the save for St. Louis But he allowed a run He had two wild pitches I think there may have been some walks in there He was terrible And he has been terrible now for

For a while Rosenthal looks like Rosenthal now Who do you think is the closer for the Cardinals? I expect to be some sort of a committee with several guys struggling, but sung 1-0 would still be my favorite Cardinals reliever to own. Yeah, that's probably the case for me. Trevor Rosenthal, like you said, looks like Trevor Rosenthal again. The control's gone away from him.

He's got a 628. He had a 628 ERA in his last 17 appearances before last night. And he gave up a run, and like I said, two wild pitches. It was a mess. So that was good for the O owner, even though he didn't get the save. Cambert Drojan, one of the better questions, actually got this a couple times on Reddit, I think during the AMA yesterday, was who is the Angels Closer? But Trojan blew his second save and five chances yesterday. He gave up a home run to Yasmani Granda in the ninth inning.

Bud Norris making his way back from the D.L. Who is the Angels Closer? When Bud Norris is healthy, I think it's going to be Bud Norris. Yeah. Okay. Do you think you should hang on to Bidrojan just in case? I would not drop Bidrojan for any of these speculative guys we've talked about so far in this section. I would drop him for someone like Fernando Rodney.

We all agree Cam Bidrojan is the best reliever in that bullpen. I think he is the most talented reliever in that bullpen. I don't know that he is 2016 Camber Drogens right now. He has been Well, not right now Not since coming off to DL Okay But you know

This kind of happens with closers They get sort of usurped Speaking of which Well, let's move on Cody Allen Cody Allen Another bad one A non-save situation

Give up another home run That's three home runs Aloud in his last four appearances He still has a 290 ERA Only one blown save Uh Zero to 10 Wuriometer on Cody Allen You know

If a starting pitcher gave up three home runs and four innings, we would be like, wow, that's bad. But we wouldn't necessarily be worried. But because it's a closer and it comes over the span of like a week and it's four appearances, I think we tend to view it a little differently. And I'm not sure we should. Cody Allen's very good. I'm not worried about it. I will, I'll put it at a four.

I don't think he's going to lose his. job to Andrew Miller because it makes a lot of sense the Indians are correct in the way they're using Andrew Miller and they should stick with it. Okay. Yeah, Cody Allen is an elite player. He does this every year. And the thing is, it would almost, the way I believe the Indians are viewing this and the way I think all teams probably should view this, Andrew Miller's current role is more important

and valuable to the team than Cody Allen's. Yes. So I don't think Cody Allen. can perform poorly. And Andrew Miller will be moved out of a more important role into Allen's role so that the worst pitcher pitches the more important role? No. The Indians are ahead of most of baseball.

Allen's going to stay putt. Yeah. Cody Allen, I mean, he had a 690-70 R a in April last year. And then he was one of the best closers in baseball. And he, in the postseason,

13 and two-thirds innings, no runs, 24 strikeouts. And finally, Cody Glover has severe inflammation and two separate strains in his shoulder, coat of Glover, not coming back all that soon. Who the heck is the national? I don't think they've had a save chance in forever since maybe Matt Albers blew one like almost two weeks ago.

I don't really remember, but who's the closer for the Nationals? The Nationals do not have a closer. Yeah, it's someone on like the White Sox or Marlins. Matt's maybe. Addison Reed might be the Nationals closer. Who would you own? I think I would own Albers, if anyone. Yeah.

Yeah. He's the best, the most likely guy to get a save tomorrow, I think. Okay. Well, that does it for an underwhelming round of new closers. Now, let's talk about call-ups, which I think also might be pretty overwhelming. So the Cubs called up Victor Caratini, a catcher. They DFAed Miguel Montero. I wonder why.

The Diamondbacks called up Cate, who's been ripping it up at AAA. The Yankees called up Miguel Anduhar, and he set a Yankees record with four RBIs in his major league debut. And Tyler Austin's about to go on. on the DL, it seems, so it looks like Dustin Fowler and outfielder is going to be called up. Jake Yuan Wang was called up for San Francisco. Interesting story here. This guy was very good in Korea.

Came to the miners, struggled early. He was trying to hit a home run every time up. Chains his approach, had a great month of June with a 424 on base in the minors, and Jay Giong Wang homered for San Francisco yesterday. And that was against a lefty, by the way. much better against lefties. And the Royals called up Jorge Soler. All the guys that got called up yesterday

or are about to get called up in the case of Dustin Fowler. We're talking about Victor Caratini, a catcher for the Cubs, Cotel Marte, a couple of Yankees, Jake Yon Wong, and Jorge Soler, interested in picking up any of them. In a standard 12-team league note. The ones I'm most interested in would have to be Cotel Marte and Jorge Saler, just because we've seen them in the majors before.

they've got some kind of track record and I still think Catell Marte can be a useful fantasy shortstop. I do too. The problem is they put Nick Ahmed on the DL, they bring up Marte and he doesn't, I don't even think he's going to start. He didn't start. He bring up as a utility guy.

He didn't start, but look, they can use Owings in the outfield, which I would suspect. I'm thinking the next game that Marteis playing shortstop and Owings is in the outfield. Chris Owings has been pretty bad at shortstop this season too. But here's the problem. AJ Pollack coming back maybe next week. He has Monty Tomas coming back maybe next week.

So he's just going to have to straight up play over Chris Owings. And I'm not sure that's happening for Ketelmarte. If there's a guy that has the best chance of just playing most every day for the rest of the year, it's still there. But he came back yesterday and went one for five with two strikeouts. So he's going to have to actually hit, which he was in AAA. Brandon Moss has been one of the worst hitters in all of baseball. There's a path for Solair. He would be my favorite on this list.

Yeah. Okay. What did you have for dinner last night, guys? I had a... I had duffies. Okay, boring. Chris? I don't want to talk about it.

All right, boring. I had pork chops over barley with a delicious sauce that had some honey, some vinegar. I had sauteed carrots and a cucumber salad last night. That's what I get with Blue Apron. Three times a week I'm cooking and eating delicious meals with fresh ingredients. Why don't you do yourself a favor, people? Please go to Blue Apron. slash fantasy baseball for three free meals, blue apron.com slash fantasy baseball. You'll also be supporting

our show, which would be wonderful. Let me tell you why you should get Blue Apron. It's affordable. Less than $10 per person per meal. There's variety. You can customize your menu. New recipes every week, and I love that. I eat so much food that I've never tried before. I do that all the time with Blue Apron. It's easy. Step-by-step instructions, the exact amount of each ingredient you'll need. And it's fresh. It's so good. It arrives at your door. How easy is that? And check out this week's menu. Get your first three meals free with free shipping by going to blue apron.com slash fantasy baseball.

That's blue apron.com slash fantasy baseball. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. The big news. Chris Bryant left with an ankle injury. He's going to miss at least two games. It may need a D.L stint. Is that the most frustrating injury? He just stepped on the freaking bag after catching a pop-up.

It was just so nonchalant. Yeah. Darn it. D.L. To heck. Chase Anderson's on the D.L. with an oblique strain. That stinks.

He did this while swinging a bat. I think we can all agree that pitchers hitting is stupid and we should institute the D.H. All teams should have the D.H. There's no question. It's better baseball. Good. Glad we agree. Corey Seeger could be back today or tomorrow.

And Noon Aronado and Scott Shevler made ridiculous defensive plays yesterday. Shevler saved a three-runner. Homer, which instead was a sack fly, kept two runs off the board for Luis Castillo, who's only 19% owned. So before we get into the rest of the show, the buy low, sell high stuff, is there anyone that from yesterday, we talked about the closers, we talked about the minor leaguers coming back up or coming up, anyone that you felt, I need to go pick this guy up. I'm extremely interested in Luis Castillo and what he's done in his first two starts. I didn't realize he throws this hard. He's like Luis Severino velocity, 97.2 of

this fastball, 98.1 in his first start. And has a really good feel for his change-up, which is a really surprising thing for a young pitcher who doesn't have a big pedigree. I had 18 swinging strikes last night. I think he's someone that definitely needs to get picked up. 19% on Luis Castillo, staying in the rotation for now, I believe. And, you know, look, it wasn't a great start. If that ball goes over the wall, Schepler doesn't make a great.

catch to rob Stephen Vote of a home run. It's four runs in five innings, as it was two runs in five innings. But, yeah, there's potential here. And again, the control should be better. He had good control on the minors. So, you know, we talked about that on Monday. But Luis Castillo is someone that you might want to pick up. Heath, I picked up Sam Dyson.

You know, I had Melanson in one league. Heath, anyone for you? Well, I will say that Carlos Rodon is still available out there in leagues. And his first start was a little bit rusty. It wasn't awful either. I'm pretty encouraged and expect him to be a top 40 pitcher. And the velocity was fine for him, which is a very good sign. Four swinging strikes for Carlos Rodon, who's in our lack of control freaks.

You've heard of control freaks. These are lack of control freaks. Rodon and Blake Snell walked 11 batters combined in 10 innings. They both went five innings. Snell gave up six runs. Rodon gave up none. So he actually, yeah, he settled in and pitched okay. But, you know, last 12 starts last season, Rodon, 22 walks and 73 innings, 345, the RA.

So we won't judge him too harshly on this one star, right? Yeah, I think, look, we always say don't start guys in their first game back from a long deal stint. I think that was the case here. You shouldn't have started him. He's rusty. And there's a chance he's not very useful for a little while as he figures things out because he still, you know, change up to field pitch. And he doesn't have a great feel for the change up to begin with. So he needs to develop it.

And that's going to be the key for him. Most interesting Reddit questions. Who would you rather have in a Keeper League for the next three seasons, assuming the contracts are equal? Aaron, Judge, or Cody Bellinger? I think it probably still has to be Judge. You're getting his 25, 26, 27 seasons as opposed to Ballinger 22, 23, 24. And Judge has been better. Yeah.

The fact that you're qualifying it over three years means it's judge. Like if you're saying who's better over the next 10 years, then it's probably a Villanger. But that doesn't matter. You can't project 10 years from now anyway. What is your cereal Mount Rushmore? My cereal. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Reese's Puffs.

Captain Crunch. Oh, God. And those are really the only cereals I ever eat. I guess a special K. berries and yogurt. That's one big cereal? Do you? I don't like cereal.

We talked about this earlier. Cereal is dessert. It's not breakfast. Captain Crunch is on my most overrated cereal Mount Rushville. So what's not your actual cereal about Rushville? I'll agree with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Everybody has Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

It's the best cereal. Yes. Apparently. I'm a pretty big Frosted Flakes guy. They're great. They are. The bad. I really, really, and I eat it a lot now.

Chris always says cereal is not a breakfast. This cereal is a breakfast. It's the Cheerios protein with like clusters of nuts and protein. Really good. Oh, O's. Take out the special K. Put O's in there. I love some O's.

And then I'm going to go with fruity pebbles. Okay. Interesting. That's my favorite dessert cereal. My Mount Rushmore that I said yesterday on Reddit was Golden Grams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Raisin Brand, which, you know, obviously, Raisin Brand. What? I love life. Life is so good.

I mean, life is great. We could talk about baseball at times. But yeah, Raisin Brand drew a lot of skepticism, but, uh, not on Reddit, but, you know, privately. Yeah, raisins are terrible. No, they're not. But everybody has cinnamon toast crunch. Scott's Mount Rushmore of Cereals was the worst I've ever seen. Worse than what Chris just said? You wait to you hear this.

Crackland oat brand, Frosted mini-weets, Great grains, raisins, dates, and pecans and synovantz-crumch. It's like you're trying to make a stupid Mount Rushmore. Who's going to see that Mount Rushmore? That's pretty awful.

Yeah, it's terrible. I mean, look, Scott's a 60-year-old man. What can you say? What is Great Grades, Raisins, Dates, and Peacands? Nobody born before 1957 has ever eaten a date. No, side of prune juice with that, Scott. They wanted to know about... I've actually eaten dates. I've had dates. Sometimes they're in the Blue Apron meals. They're actually pretty good.

There's a restaurant by my house that does bacon wrap dates. Ooh, bacon wrapped anything is pretty good. The Reddit people wanted to know about the Angels Relievers. We talked about that. And I'll skip this one because it's a long one. But how about this one? Adam, in all honesty, do you enjoy fantasy baseball or fantasy football more? I enjoy whatever... season is upcoming most. Whatever is...

Whichever season starts you... Right around the corner. So right now you're into football? Yes. The social aspects of football are what give it the edge for me. There's just not... There's not as many opportunities for trash talk in fantasy baseball or the... Have you seen Team Scams record in the Four the People League?

That's basically what I said. I actually like the actual game. of fantasy baseball better than fantasy football. But fantasy football is more fun. You got more action on one day. Everything's on Sunday. People are more into it. It's not as long.

I appreciate the quick pace of fantasy football as well. Yeah, well, that tends to keep people more interested. Right. I think that's the benefit. But I think fantasy baseball is a better game. What? Nothing. I don't even want to know what's happening there.

Let's do some by-low and sell high. And we'll start. You each gave me three of each, so this is good stuff. Chris, three by lows, please. Well, one of them started pitching pretty well last night, Massaher Tanaka. I'm also going with Manny Machado and Cal Siger. Manny Machado might be a bit too obvious, but I just, I keep seeing people freaking out about Manny Machado, and I just cannot bring myself to be worried about him even a little bit. Okay. He's still my number one shortstop. Okay. Is there a reason why? What is it that means? that is making you completely unconcerned. Career high, hard hit percentage at 40%.

Rest of his batteball profile looks pretty much similar. Line drive rate's a little low. His isolated slugging percentage is right where it's been over the last two seasons. The only thing is that his Babbup is 70 points lower than it was last season. And I just, I don't see any reason to think that's going to sustain. I think he's going to have a very big stretch. at some point, I think he's going to hit like Manny Machado from this point on.

Okay. Now the other two, Kyle Seeger and Masa Hiro Tanaka. Yeah, this works out because Kyle Seeger hit a home run yesterday and Masa Hiro Tanaka pitched well. And I just, Tanaka specifically, I haven't really seen any specific reason to think that he's just lost it. Like, his swinging strike rates still very strong. actually career best, one of the best in baseball. And I just, he's giving up too many home runs, but you're talking about relatively rare events over the course of a season.

And I just, I don't know if the 12, the 18, 21 home runs that he's given up this season are indicative of some kind of new skill set, especially when he's still giving up fly balls at almost exactly the same right as he always has. It's kind of interesting that they were talking about in the broadcast yesterday with this whole, you know, fly ball revolution, uppercut swing. And I had been saying, I had been complaining about this for a while, that Tanaka was just throwing down in the zone way too much, or more like he wasn't throwing up in the zone enough.

And maybe he should, you know, because, and they were talking about this on the broadcast, maybe he should pitch up in the zone more because, you know, hitters are now conditioned to hit low pitches with that uppercut swing, and that could lead to a lot of home runs. And I think we're going to see him start using his four-seem fastball more. He's throwing like 96 miles per hour.

last night, which I don't expect, but good velocity. And he threw his four seamer 22% of the time, which is a season high. He threw it 12% of the time against Texas in a great start last week, which was second most all season. So I think you're going to see more of an effort of him throwing his four seamer up in the zone a little bit more. And I do think that's really going to help Tanaka. The interesting thing about that is there's been some data posted, and I don't remember who posted it, so you don't get any credit story on Twitter. Who's me?

About which pitches have led to home runs the most this year, and the four-seamer leads by a pretty good margin, like per pitch. All right, that's, I mean, that's interesting. I just think in this particular case, it's a guy who needs to pitch more up in the zone. So it's maybe less about the four-seamer and more about the location, and that's the pitch he would use to change the eye level, in my opinion, you know? Yeah, I... Go ahead.

Pretty much, I just don't worry too much about this kind of home run. jump when there's not anything else underlying it, you know? Okay. And Kyle Seeger, just to sum it up, very consistent player and like a same argument as Machado, right? Pretty much, yeah. Like, he's become a little more fly ball heavy and that could be part of his issue, but it's not like he's hitting a bunch of infield fly balls. That hasn't been an issue for him, which is something that we have seen with some of the

Fly Ball Revolution guys still has a thing. 37% hard contract rate actually has the lowest soft contact rate of his career. I just, I don't see any reason to think Kyle Seeger's not going to be exactly what he's been. I guess my question with the Kyle Seeger one is, if he's a 260, 265 hitter with a 780-ish OPS, is he a starting third baseman in fantasy? Yeah, probably. I don't, I don't know what he is. A what LPS?

seven before like last year he was 859 but the three years before that 764 788 779 no but so i don't think i would expect him to go back to that i would hope that because last year had a had a crazy amount of home runs and this year's following it up that kyle seeger would have a better ops than pre-2016 yeah that's that's basically my thought is that well but we're saying we're going to go back to what he's always been sure okay it just expected him to go back closer to what he was last season. Okay, yeah. Like what he's always been, but adjusted to the new environment?

Does that make sense? Sure. Yes. Okay. Heath, I'm going to ask for your buy lows here. Eric Thames was one of them, and then you have two Texas Rangers to buy low on. And then we're going to, instead of going to the cell high, I forgot to mention somebody else that I added that we should probably talk about, because, you know, it's my team

at all. But, yes, for sure. Thank you. So other than Eric Thames, two buy low candidates, please. I guess we'll start with Rugnett-O-Dor, and people are dropping. helping him an alarming rate, so picking him up may just be the by-low portion of O'Dore. But I don't see enough different from what he's done in the past to suggest anything other than, and Chris won't like this. He's not any more likely to have a hot streak because he's been so awful.

But he's rude at O'Dore, and that's what he's done his entire career. I expect in the month of July or the month of August or July 15th to August 15th, he's going to have one of those stretches where he's one of of the three or four best second baseman in all of baseball. I hope you're right, my friend. Could really use that from Rue Nettador. He is popping up too much. He's got a 21% infield fly ball rate, which is weird because his flyball percentage has actually gone down from where it was in 2016. It's gone down.

It was really high in April. He was getting under the ball way too much. Yeah. But he's like the contact numbers all look pretty similar, a little bit more soft contact for O'Dore. Were expectations too high for Rognito Adore? Yes. But he has a hot month, two months, maybe even just into the season coming. Because that's the type of hitter that he is.

It just hasn't had the hot streak yet. I do have to point out how much I love that, like, he has a 33 homer season, 89 runs, 88 RBI, 14 stolen bases. So clearly expectations weren't too high for him last year. Well, they were because our expectations were a top four second basement. He lived up tech. Not a top four second baseman. He lived up to expectations last year.

But he was not a top four second basement. That's where he was ranked. He wasn't in points leagues. In Roto leagues is probably pretty close. But I can actually tell you that right now. Expectations were not too high for Rueenna at a door. He was awesome last year. If we ring a guy fourth and he finishes ninth of the position.

You're claiming victory 15 months later. He was 11th in points and seventh in Roto. And we had him ranked as a top four. He lived up to expectation. So where he finishes doesn't matter. there were some second baseman who finished ahead of him that nobody expected to. He probably, he lived up to expectations. If you drafted him as the number four second baseman, and he was the number seven instead,

he lived up to expectation. But in points leagues, he was number 11 and he didn't. And in points leagues, you do have to value him a little bit differently. His plaintiff kills you. By the way, his Rooteney's baseball reference nickname, which I don't see it right now on the site, but it used to be there. It was stinky. And so, you know, there's that.

That's what he's been this year Yeah, sure is. Your other ranger to buy low on is Cole Hamels The first start back from the disabled list was not good at all But I think that's really going to cause people To have even more concern about Hamels And they probably should at this point

He took two months off It's okay to be a little rusty in your first start back I would be very happy to buy him As a top 30 starting pitcher the rest of the way. So I agree to a certain extent, but it's not just the first start back from the DL. Like he had 15 strikeouts and 12 walks in his first 33 innings of the season. Yeah, and Coleham also had a one-three-one whip last year. But, you know, as long as he gets within 50% of where we had him ranked, he's fine.

But like, okay, so I hope you're right. I mean, that would be big for me, but like, like, If somebody offered me Cole Hamels for James and Tyone, I almost feel like I'd have to do that, but I wouldn't feel good about it. Yeah, I don't know that I would do it, actually. I would do it, maybe happily. Chris, you wouldn't? I definitely wouldn't, no. All right. Now that we are done with the by-lose, let me tell you who I added yesterday in a 12-team points league.

Kyle Schwerber, I forgot to talk about this angle here with the Cubs. Does Kyle Schwerber come back and catch a little bit now that Montaro is off the team? It's possible, but he's going to hit first. He has not yet in AAA. Caught or hit? Either. He's got eight strikeouts in, or seven strikeouts in 11-plated appearances so far, and he hasn't caught yet. Geez, what is with this guy?

Get a hit, my friend. Kyle Schwerber is owned in 81% of leagues, but... That's too high. Yeah, am I going to have to drop him again? Great. Okay, let's do some so highs. Heath, you can go first. Three sell highs.

Well, the nice thing about when you asked us for Bilos or sell highs, there's like a free square, and I decided to take that one with Salvador Perez. You've got another two to three weeks of top five catcher production before Salvi gets tired, and you've got to sit him down. So, yeah, I'd definitely be looking to sell high on him just because we've seen this every year of a square. Okay. And two more. I think maybe there's a little bit more excitement about Malick Smith than what I have.

And so if you can get somebody to buy him as like a must start type outfielder, I don't think, I don't expect him to be anywhere close. Like he's going to have speed, but I don't expect him to be anywhere close to this offensive level of production the rest of the season. Malick Smith. All right. Salvador Perez, Malik Smith. And your third, so high, this one warms my heart. Oh, it's a typical he thing.

Because I was telling you at the beginning of the season that you were too low on Gio Gonzalez, and I liked him. But now the perception, I'm afraid, is shifting the other way. He's got one of the best DRAs in all of baseball, despite the fact he's got some of the worst control numbers. Right. So, yeah, if I could get Gio – like, maybe you can sell Gio Gonzalez for Cole Hamels. See, that I would do without hesitation. Chris, how about you? Would you give up Gio Gonzalez for Cole Hamels?

Yeah, definitely. But that means that obviously you and I like James and Taya and Ben. than Gio Gonzalez. Yes. How about you, Heath? I have them in a very similar range. I don't understand. I don't understand.

You don't understand what? I just don't understand the gap in how we view James and Tyone. I just don't understand. You're expecting him to morph into something that he's never been. Okay. I think he was last year, though. Like I said, I mean... Was he the top 20 starting?

He didn't pitch you last year? He didn't pitch that much, but low ERA and low whip, you know, that's good ERA and low whip. I think, what were his numbers last year? Let's see. James and Tyone. Anybody got it? Who wants, there's a race. Yeah, I think it's got to be Chris because everything is.

Yeah, everything's going really slow. I got it. 338 ERA, 1.115 whip in 104 in 104 innings. I mean, if you do that for 200 innings, that's a really good pitcher. But I know he'll only 7.4 strikeouts, but it's up to 8.1 this year. And the whips up to 1.34 this year. Yes, because he's walking 3.2 per 9, but that's the thing. And I think he's basically stopped walking people.

That was kind of an early in the season thing, James and Tyone. So I guess to keep this conversation going, I would view him as a by-low. But I just have a lot of faith in him and not everybody else does. I don't, like, I don't view him negatively. I've definitely got him as a top 50 starting pitcher. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I just like, I don't see why he's not higher than Gio Gonzalez. I think Gio Gonzalez has more upside than Tion.

I expect Gio Gonzalez to probably throw more innings than Tion. I expect Gio Gonzalez to get a lot more wins than strikeouts to Tion. Okay. Like, the innings maybe, it's not like, Joe Gonzalez is like routinely going 200 innings because he's pretty inefficient. Right. But the wins for sure. The strikeouts, yeah, but not a huge gap.

I would expect Tyone's going to have a much lower whip and probably a much lower ERA. Okay, let's move on to Chris's three sell high candidates. Go. Wait, just go back real quick. Why a much lower whip and a much lower ERA? Because he has a one, three, four whip right now. Because he has much better control. and he's a ground ball pitcher.

It's just, and there's not a big, and there's not a big, problem, but it's been fixed now. Yeah, we're talking about 50-something innings where his walks per nine is a little bit, like he has six or seven more walks

than you would expect over this stretch. Like I, he had fantastic control on the miners. He has, he had fantastic control last season. He had a seven-start stretch this season where his walks were a little high. Like he basically walked one batter per start,

more than you would expect based on everything he's done in his career. And I still think he's 25, but he's still relatively early in his developmental curve because he missed those two seasons with Tommy John and then a completely unrelated abdominal injury. I do think one of the reasons his walks seem low in the month of June is because he's throwing five or six innings. I mean, two walks in five innings is not James and Tyone controlled. There's two walks in six inings. We don't expect him to be a three walks per nine guys.

No. And if he is, he's not, he's not, so it's not fixed. It's not fixed. I didn't, I didn't say it was fixed. I said, yeah. No, it's not fixed. But I, I believe that Tyone would get there. I just don't think it's representative of his skill set. I don't think it's representative of who he's been throughout his entire career. Chris's three sell high candidates. I don't feel great about George Springer as a sell high candidate, but I'm going to do it because I have to be consistent. He has a 30. 33.3.3% home run to fly ball ratio. And I just don't see how that's sustainable. He's going to have a high home run to fly ball ratio because he's a pull hitter who plays in Minutemade Park. But he probably should have more like 16 to 18 home runs. And that's a much different player. Like we're not looking at George Springer quite the same way if he hits, you know,

16 home runs and the RBI and runs are lower as well. He's got what, 24, 25 home runs? 24. So Springer's on like a 50 homer pace, 73 games, 24 home runs. And he had 29 last year in 162 games. Yeah, he's on a 50 homer, 130 run, 110 RBI pace right now. And a home run in three straight games. Okay.

He's going to score well over 100 runs if he plays all season. Yeah, if you sell high on him, it's got to be, it's got to be. it's got to be like top top five to ten hitter or ace pitcher ace pitcher maybe yeah that's that's the target that I'm looking for I'm looking for maybe a hitter who's been a little disappointing Chris Bryant might have been a good example before yesterday I don't know of that now many machado I think is a great mani machado yeah I would rather have mani machado than george springer yes me too I'm sure we all would isander bogartz is another sell high candidate so Zander Borger's just continues to defy the odds.

Last year he has the 21 homers. This year he only has five. But he's made up for it by hitting 316 with the 373 Babbip. That's something he did two years ago in 2015 when he had 372 Babit with a 320 average. But he's got a 20% infield fly ball rate. And you just can't sustain that kind of Babbip while giving away that many outs. I think he's probably going to come back to around a lot. 3.30 babb, and if the power doesn't turn around, then you're looking at probably a 280

hitter who doesn't hit for power or steal that many bases. Let me give you a little bit of an argument. This is one of my favorite arguments. It's the he's good argument. Sure. I like it. Two players that come to mind with the he's good argument to different degrees. One is Jason Kipnis, who just seemed to be like a different player every year. And at the end of the day, he's still, he's good. So he, so he, he, He was a good second baseman for you. And the other was Brett Gardner. One year he steals a lot of bases.

One year he doubles a ton. One year he homers. This year he's homering. But he's just a good player. Bogart's probably more talented than both of those guys. So it's like so far in his young, young career, yeah, Bogart's is hard to figure out who he exactly is. But you're getting production at the end of the day.

Isn't that what matters? So his infield fly ball rate, that's the percentage of his fly ball to turn. and infield levels. And he has an exceptionally low this year fly ball rate. Yep.

Down to 26.7%. I guess the issue I would have is we did see in 2014, but still he had, where he didn't really have the great average or the great power. And he didn't have great power last year, but he hit 294.

I don't know that I see his babip coming down a lot unless he starts hitting more homelands. Because the hard contact is actually better than it was last year. He's just hitting, 74% of his batted balls on the ground or on a line drive. And so you're going to have a really high badbib.

I love how I try to take it to like the most basic baseball level, not get into anything advanced with Zander Bogart's with the he's good argument. And you guys, well, I'm the infield fly ball right. No, I agree with all of those things, except that in 2015 when he had the similar batted ball profile, a lot of line drives, a lot of ground balls. He had 14 infield fly balls all season. He has 13 already. It's just really hard to sustain a 370 BABB. Right.

But is his infield fly ball rate over half of this season when he's not hitting very more fly balls more sticky than what we've seen over his career? Do we just expect him to keep hitting a lot of infield fly balls at here? We've seen him be a high infield fly ball rate guy in his career anyway. It's 14% for his career, like 19% over the last two seasons. So, yeah, I think Xander Bogartz is probably someone who's going to hit more infield fly balls than your typical hitter, which means he's probably going to be a lower than 370 babb-up guy. That's not to say he's going to be a bad babbub guy.

I'm just saying he's probably going to regress to 330, 340, which is a very, that's his career rate. But it's regrets. What are you selling him for? What do you expect Bogarts to be? If I could trade him for someone like Francisco Lindor that people are probably worried about right now, I would absolutely do that. Okay, well, that's fair.

Now, before we get to Chris's selling high. Before we get to Chris's third sell high, I just need to tell you again about Buffalo Wild Wings and sports season because whoever invented summer was obviously a sports fan. They didn't even try to hide it. Playoff hockey, playoff basketball, the opening of both soccer and baseball. It's a clear display of football.

It's a clear display of favoritism, and the other seasons didn't stand a chance. With three months of clutch playoff drama and the awakening of new seasons, it's clearly the work of a sports fan. They might as well call it sports season. And in fact, Buffalo Wild Wings does call it sports season. Don't ever call it summer. That's not what it is. It's sports season. They're just waiting on the legal change.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Wings, Beers, Sports. Chris, give me your last sell-high candidate, please. It's Robbie Ray. I know he's been great. 2.870 R.A is fantastic. The whip has come way down, but it's almost all because his BABIP is 270. His walk rate's actually higher than it was last year,

and he's up to 11.2%. Now, the strikeout rate is elite. He's an elite strikeout pitcher, but I don't see any reason to think that he's just fixed the issues. and, you know, maybe he's not the 4-9 ERA pitcher anymore, but he's probably closer to the 36-fip or 379 X-FIP guy that he is. And that's a useful pitcher. But somebody might be viewing him as an ace right now,

and I think that's a good time to sell high. Robbie Ray. Would you rather have Tyone than Ray? No. Okay. The Bailos and Sell-His that we gave you. Chris says Bailo on Tanaka, Machado, and Seeger. Heath says Bailo.

on Thames, Hamels, and Odor. Heath says sell high on Salvador Perez, Malick Smith, and Gio Gonzalez, and Chris says sell high on George Springer, Zander Bogarts, and Robbie Ray. We got news and notes and the rest of yesterday to get to here, so the news and notes. Yankees and the Red Sox are interested in Martine Prado, according to Bob Nightingale. I would love to know why. Bob Nightingale, please tell me.

Not that I don't believe you, but why. Detroit could be looking to shop Justin Verlander. according to Yahoo. Drew Smiley will have Tommy John surgery. Michael Confordo remains out with a hand injury. The Yankees are concerned that Greg Byrd won't be able to play this season. That's according to the Yes Network. Chase Anderson, oh, did I mention that?

Actually, I think I skipped whatever. Chase Anderson's on the deal with an oblique injury. That's things. Oh, we talked about that. Yeah, we mentioned it. Yeah, DH. St. Louis sent a Ledmas Diaz to AAA. Yonder Alonzo left after fouling a ball off his knee.

He thinks he could play today. Avi Garcia. is going to have an MRI on his knee. MRI could mean DL. Steven Strasberg left with back spasms, but should be fine. He had a great start. Addison Russell could start today. Ben Zobris will begin a rehab assignment today. If you're looking at Alex Avila, hasn't been playing all that much lately.

I'm not sure what the split is going to be, but they've faced a lot of lefties. And it's pretty clear that Avila is going to sit for James McCann against lefties. So I'm hopeful, because Avila homered yesterday, I'm hopeful that Avila will play more when there are more Rides on the schedule. Brandon Finnegan back on the deal with a tricep strain and Zach Cozart should be back in the next few days. Let's go to the next segment. Oops, I homered again. Curtis Granderson homered again. React.

Can't stop playing him. He's been really good for a while now. It's weird. Hopefully they trade him. He stole Michael Conforto's powers. I guess so. But last I checked, he's about 30% own. Would you drop Stephen Sousa for?

Curtis Granderson. I would not. I probably wouldn't. Okay. Every time I tell you who homered, I want you to say something really, really insightful. Elvis Andrews homered again. Elvis Andrews has been better than Francisco Lindor over the last calendar year. I posted the numbers on Twitter, I think yesterday or the day before.

He's hitting like 300 with 15 homers and 30 plus steals over the last 365. I think we just have to buy into Elvis Andrews as like a legitimate breakout. I completely buy into Elvis Andrews as a 300 hitter. I completely buy into him as a 30 steel guy. I would set the overrunner on his home runs the rest of the season at like five. He has 10 now, I think. Robinson Cherino, 6% own has a home run in four straight games. Because he doesn't play that much, he's 20th and 1.

points, but Chorinos is the number 11 catcher in Roto, and Chorinos is 6% owned. Something insightful about Robinson Chorinos. Should be more than 6% owned. Okay, great. Chris Davis double-donged. Chris Davis is the best Chris Davis. There you go. Miguel Cabrera has three home runs in his last seven games, a home run in two straight games, but only six hits and 24 at bats in that stretch.

I mean, earlier he was hitting the ball really hard and not getting much power to show for it. Now he's getting power and nothing else. I think Miguel Cabrera is going to be just fine. Miguel Cabrera is still a very good first baseman. Travis Shaw has homered in three straight games, and he has a new career high, 17 home runs. Travis Shaw is pretty good. Travis Shaw and my mentions on Twitter is my favorite way to wake up in the morning. Is Travis Shaw a better option at first base than Matt Carpenter?

No. He is not, but I would take him in third base over Kyle Seeker. Josh Bell has three home runs in his last seven games, and Tommy Joseph has three home runs in his last six games, and neither of them are top 24 first baseman this year. I believe in Tommy Joseph more than I do Josh Bell at this point. I believe in Josh Bell more than I do Tommy Joseph at this point. Very helpful, guys.

Scooter Jeanette is 42% owned. He has nine home runs in June, four of them in one game. But look, Jeanette's hitting great. 306, 12 home runs this year. 42% own Scooter Jeanette. I believe in both Josh Bell and Tommy Joseph and Curtis Granderson and Elvis Andrews more than I do in Scooter Jeanette. Okay, well, he's hot and he can't hit lefties still, but, you know, maybe daily. He's probably expensive and daily, but good against Wright.

He's Scooter Jeanette. Josh Redick, 42% did not homer, but still gets in this. What is he doing in this section? Because he is three doubles, one triple, two home runs, seven RBI. and two steals yesterday, at least, two steals since coming off the seven-day concussion deal. I think only two steals in that stretch, but two of them were yesterday, both of them.

Reddick's been great, and not only that, his manager, AJ Hinch was like, he is so good, he does something every game, just raved about him, and he's having a really good year, but not that good in fantasy because he sits against lefties enough. Reddick. He's a must-start in a five-outfielder league,

and he's probably not useful in your three outfielder league because of that not hitting the lefties. Okay. Do you have anything to say about Steven Strasbourg or Marcus Strowman? Steve Strasberg's very good. Marcus Sturman's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Stroman is, man, one of these days he's going to have a stretch

where he's just like this for a half a season or something, and we'll look at him like Dallas Keogel. Okay. Right now he's a little frustrating. Yeah, because he just came off his worst start and had one of his best starts, Stroman. The next four pitchers, I want you to tell me if you think they are must-owned, or if you could see yourself dropping them for a two-star pitcher, for a hot outfielder, like, whatever it is. Rick Porcelo, Felix Hernandez, Stephen Mats, Zach Godley.

Porcelo, Felix, Mats, Godley, are they must-own players? I cannot see myself dropping any of these players in a 12-team league or larger. Zach Godley does need to be owned. He's only 84%, but he's getting strikeouts. He's avoiding walks pretty well. He's getting ground balls. I think he needs to be much more than 84% owned. So I couldn't see myself dropping Mats or Godley.

But the first two, believe it or not, Porcelo and Felix. Like, Porcelo, I guess I wouldn't have the guts to do it, but I don't know what we're waiting for at this point. He's a 506 ERA, a 151 whip. Felix doesn't have one game with more than 10 swinging strikes. He has been in the strike zone a lot more this year. He's barely walking anybody. He's giving him 52 hits in 38 and 2 thirds.

He has a 1.5.3 whip. I feel like it would be a little gutsy because Felix is widely owned. I feel like I would cut him loose if I really wanted someone. I'm just, I'm not sure I'd rather have Porcelo. I look at them very similar. I mean, he's had two starts back from the disabled list and both were quality starts, right? Who? Felix? Yeah, six innings, three runs against Philadelphia, six innings three runs against Houston.

And that's not the barometer of a great starting pitcher, but if you do that every time out in today's environment, you are pretty close to must own. I mean, let's say Carlos Rodom were out there. And Felix is the worst pitcher on my team. Could be. Yeah, maybe your team. He's not good. He's not good.

He's got a 153 whip. He doesn't get swinging strikes. He gets hit a ton. He wasn't good last year. Yeah, but I just... Oh, God. I don't know. The 370 bad.

is just, it's too high. He's got a McCutche. He's about the McCutche in me. I shouldn't have said that. Yeah, I think he's probably, like, he's not, he's not King Felix anymore. But he can still be like the crown prince of Felix. Well, he's got nice matchups next week. So I think you got to keep Felix, even if you think I'm crazy. I'm going to add him to the by little.

I'm going to try to trade for him. And it's worth noting on Stephen Matt's. None of us really expressed any skepticism. He has a 4% swing strike rate. far. Yeah. And you know what, Chris, it seems to be somewhat intentional for Steven Matts because he's not throwing a slider.

He wants to stay healthy. And he's trying to pitch to contact to get deeper into games. And that's good. That's great. Stay healthy. But you can't be an effective pitcher with a 4% swinging strike rate. That has to go up. And if he can't do that without throwing a slider, then he's not going to be an effective

pitcher. Felix Hernandez has Oakland and Kansas City in a two-star week next week. So you have to start him, I'd say. But Heath, tell me, like, what about him makes Felix Hernandez a by-low? The perception of him and how bad he was last year, I think. Yeah, I mean... It's worth noting he was bad, but he wasn't a disaster. Like, he had a 3-90RA last year, right?

Yeah, but look at the strikeout rate last year. Yeah. We combined that. What was his whip? I'm just saying he wasn't like... I'm asking. How do you not know this off top of your head, Chris Towers? I don't have it.

in front of me. He wasn't... No longer the best show ever. He wasn't, like, a disaster on the level of, like, say, every Rick Porcelo season before last year. Yeah. He had a one-three-two whip and a 382 ERA last year. Like, Felix Hernandez last year would have been Rick Porcelo's best season before 2015, or 2016, right? Second best, I think. I think he did have one year better than that, but the point stance. Let's finish the show with some emails here. from Brian No, I read that yesterday

That was a great the trade How are we going to have the best show ever When you're pulling this junk From Bob Drop Josh Bell for Eric Hosmer In a Dynasty League In a dynasty league I

Yes You'd rather have And I say this is the Hosmer Skeptic, Hosmer's an idol What do you hate about Josh Bell He's not that good Like he just hasn't shown us anything in the majors?

He walks. He's going to hit 30 homers this year. Okay. He's 24 years old. Okay. He's got 775 OPS last year and 773 this year. Uh-huh. He's basically Kyle Seeger.

Okay. In the old environment. All right, next email. Next email. You guys disagree there. Josh in Iowa, how much longer do I wait for the bum, for the bum likes of Carlos Santana, Routenet Odor, and Gregory Polanco in a 10-team categories league.

You go down with the ship, man. Yeah, I think I've actually dropped Polanco in a 10-team league, three outfielder. And Carlos Santana in a 10-team categories league, I think you can get away. Unless OVP is a category. Yeah, yeah, you can. I guess. And Odor is not one of my top 10-second basement. So I guess, actually.

I guess it depends on what the rosters look like, right? How many bench spots you have? But if it's daily light-up changes. And if you're playing two corner infield, middle-end field, D.H. Right, right. Like, they're not must-drop guys. No, but they're not must-own either. In a 10-team categories league, yeah.

This is a keeper head-to-head categories league question from Shytown. Chytown Ron. Chai or shy? I always never, Chitown. Chicago? Yeah, Chicago. Yeah, but is it Shah or Cha? Chicago or Chicago. So it's Shytown, is what you're saying?

Yes. Thank you. For 2017 and beyond, would you guys drop Yelich or Jackie Bradley, Jr. for Michael Conforto? Yeah. I would drop Bradley for Conforto. I dropped Bradley for Conforto. This is Lou in Connecticut.

Would you drop Junior Guerra for any of these guys? Danny Salazar, Ryu, Corbyn, Norris, and Pelfrey. Salazar. Yep P.S. Oatmeal versus Farina has been a fight between me and my brother since we were born. Team Oatmeal for sure. Where does Malto Meal fall in this? Don't know what that is.

You made that up. That's not a thing. No, Malto Meal is most definitely a thing. I just don't know which of the two things that you guys are talking about it is. There is Malto Meal in my house right now. I just don't. I have never heard of it. Malt O. So it's like Malt O meal, like three words.

Yes. This looks more like a Farina to me. Really interesting stuff. So now it's officially the best show we've ever done. Thank you. And Heath and Chris, good job. We will talk tomorrow. Get people set for Fantasy Week 14.

Holy Cow. Talk to you guys. I don't know who's on this show tomorrow. I don't care. Talk to the listeners. Best show ever tomorrow. Talk to the listeners tomorrow. See you.