Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/04: 2020 Round 2, Trade Talk, Mailbag (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 4, 2019

Recording Wednesday night, we bring in Frank Stampfl from the FNTSY Sports Network to talk trade and read your emails. Frank has some Buy Low and Sell High guys to discuss. Meanwhile, Scott gives us #13-24 in his 2020 rankings and we talk about Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, Chris Sale and more from Wednesday.  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

Yeah. Welcome Americans to your 4th of July special on fantasy baseball today. It takes like a minute or so to get to the chorus, so there's going to be a lot of music at the start of the show. That's living with a hernia, right? Living with a hernia by Weird Al. Absolutely. Okay. Camp And over. I'm Adam Azer. That's Scott White. We're recording this on Wednesday night.

We get loopy at night. At least I do anyway. And I am in total four-day weekend mode, except we are doing video Sunday for CBS Sports HQ. So check that out from 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern on HQ. So we got a special guest today. We have Frank Stamphl from the BFFs of the Fantasy Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter at Roto underscore Frank. And Frank, welcome to the show.

Welcome to America. Thank you. Wait, shut up, Frank. Thank you for having me. Shut up. Don't talk over James Brown, Frank. Oh, I'm sorry. I told Frank to shut up.

He's a guess, and I just told him to shut up. The reason why, it's actually no, Frank. And he's been listening to our show, he said, for 10 years, which is crazy. Because I think we've been doing it for 11. So I actually really have wanted to have you on for a while. Welcome to the show, man. And thanks for coming on tonight. Appreciate it, buddy.

Well, I appreciate that, Adam. Yes, first and foremost, I am a fanboy of this show. I've been listening to it since I was in college, so it's pretty awesome to be joining you guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Ah, yeah, it's awesome. And we're not going to talk about too much of Wednesday's games. We will talk about Dylan Seas.

Chris Sale had another bad outing. That's three in a row. We talked about Danny Jansen on Wednesday's actual show, you know, the one that aired on Wednesday, and he homered off Chris Sale. U. Darvish was bad again. It might be time to cut ties with U. Darvish and Sunny Gray. Last I checked, eight scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts against Cincinnati, against Milwaukee, pardon me.

So we'll try to keep you updated on some of the important stuff from around baseball. Let me get through some news and notes real quick. We'll read your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Scott's going to give us his second round of his 2020 draft. He gave us round one. Yeah. Been waiting a couple days for that. Yeah, I know.

A lot of anticipation. So Tommy Lestella has a broken leg and the angels are calling up. third baseman Matt Thice. And Tommy Lestell is out, I think, 8 to 12, 10 to 12 weeks, he's out for a while. Scott, does Matt Thice interest you at all? And you know what? Two for one.

The Cubs are calling up infielder Robel Garcia. Do either of these guys seem fantasy relevant to you? Not in a standard mixed league sense, at least not right away. Thice has been a good OBP guy in the minors. What he's lacked really is home run power,

but how many times have we seen the guy get called up and suddenly there's a new skill that manifests in its home run power. So I'm at least keeping an eye on him. A little surprising they didn't go back to Taylor Ward again. He's having a good season, but he's been playing a lot of outfield to AAA. We'll see how Thais does. And not Robel Garcia for the Cubs? No, not really.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's Addison Russell playing second base. There's Bodie playing the infield. Yeah, I'm just not sure. I'm not sure. Like, they're not, it's not in response to an injury, right? I mean, he has shown a lot of power. No, it's, it's a response, it's in response to the Cubs, like,

acting as if they're the worst team in baseball, and Theo Epstein basically threatening all these changes. So that's what it's in response. What about you, Frank? Any thoughts on these guys getting called up? Fice for the Angels, Robel Garcia, for the Cubs? For the most part, I agree with Scott. I don't know that these guys are relevant in your standard 12-teamers.

anything deeper than that, like a 15-teamer, like Thice might be fine option there because he's probably going to play most often at third base. So that's what they're doing today. They move David Fletcher back over to second. So he does have some good OBP, a solid contact hitter in the minors, a decent power as well. And Robelle Garcia, yeah, it's an interesting one for the Cubs because I saw Chris Bryant was scratched today from the lineup. So maybe they just want some infield depth there.

I just don't know where the playing time is going to come for Robel Garcia. He did have 21 home runs so far in the minors between AA and AAA, but I think in deeper leagues I would be more inclined to lean with Matt Thice, because I think at least he's going to have some consistent playing time for the foreseeable future. And I think a lot more team name opportunities. His last name is spelled T-H-A-I-S, but Thice, Thice, Thice, Baby, Vanilla Thice, just a lot of opportunities there. Joe Thysman. Joe, oh, that's great. Domestic violence charges again. against Oduble Herrera were dropped, so he's currently on administrative leave.

His situation will be re-evaluated by MLB on Friday. Rich Hill's on the 60-day I-L with a forearm strain. Blake Trinin's off the IL, and Willie Calhoun has actually worked out at second base. So that could be an interesting way to get him in the lineup. We'll see what happens. Frank, let's get you caught up on Scott's first round before we get into Scott's second round. You're also going to give us some trade candidates, but Scott, do you have your first round handy? I do. I do. I will rattle off the names real quick since we already kind of analyzed it a couple days ago.

First is Mike Trout. Second Christian Yelich. Third, Cody Bellinger. That's pretty easy. Those three. Four, mooky bets. Five, Nolan Aeronado. Six, Matt Scherzer. Seven, I think, is the first controversial one, especially since Adam's trying to claim he's had three bad starts in a row. Chris Sale. It's true. Yes. It depends on what you think of as bad, I guess. They're bad.

The 13-run runs and 16 and 2-thirds over his last three starts. Yeah, I mean, his last start was 10 strikeouts in six innings. Seven total base runners allowed one home run. How many runs? Five. Get out of town, Scott White. Yeah, I just... It's all about strikeouts.

I think you're, you put up that line. It's rare that you're going to see five runs scored. But it happens. Just a. Frank, we deal with theoretical stats here. Yeah, no, I get it. But, you know, the numbers are the numbers. Exactly.

Well, you gave up five runs. Focusing on ERA matters. Scott, who else? Who's next after Chris Sale? All right. Sale is 7th, 8th, Francisco Lendor, 9th, Garrett Cole, 10th, Freddie Freeman. I'm going faster through the harder part. 11th, Ronald de Cunia, which might be low for some, I'll point out.

And then 12th is Trevor Story. So again, real quick, Trout 1, Yelich 2, Bellinger 3, Betts 4, Aronado 5, Scherzer 6, Sale 7, Lindor 8, Garrett Cole 9, Freeman 10, Akunia 11th, and Trevor Story, 12. Yeah, I like it. Frank, you like it? What do you think? Yeah, I like it. I almost wonder if more people are going to lean on those dependable aces. I'm sure we'll see some of those guys in the second round. Just because the landscape that pitching has been, you know, so far this season, it's been god awful. So I think if there are any other pitchers that you can trust earlier, then maybe you see those guys sneak in the

first round. But outside of that, I mean, I can't, I can't really, you know, make any arguments against those guys. I think that's going to be the consensus top three next year, too. You might be able to swap Yelich and Trout, but yeah, I think that's the top three for sure. All right, let's get to round two then, Scott. All right, round two. Kicking off round two is somebody who I liked a lot in round one this year, Alex Bregman. And I think you could maybe move him up a couple spots if it's a points league scenario. More walks and strikeouts.

That helps a lot. But, you know, I feel like he should have a higher batting average than he does. Low Babip. you know, he's been really good and I think he's underperformed what he should be. So he's 13th. 14th is a guy. I actually forgot when it was first published

and then like an hour into it being published. I suddenly had this epiphany. Oh, I forgot J.D. Martinez. So I shoehorned him in there at number 14, which I, you know, I think he's underperformed. his peripherals and could have a monster second half that earns in top five consideration next year, but him being 32, you know, that's going to make it

that that's going to be a detraction in and of itself. He'll be 32 next year. 15th is Aaron Judge. 16th is an exciting name, Fernando Tatis. Ah, yeah. All right. Okay. Now, I've mentioned a few times on the podcast, I feel like,

Well, I mean, it goes, he's got like a 460 pass. So it goes without saying the batting average is going to come down. And I think a lot. But he's also 20 in doing what he's doing. So forecast any growth there. Yeah, I don't think this is a stretch. 17th, we get to our next pitcher. Last one was Garrett Cole at 9.

17th is Justin Verlander. Okay. Obviously downgraded because he'll be entering his age 37 season. that's kind of risky. 18 is Trey Turner. Probably drop him a couple spots in points leagues. Maybe even drop him out of the second round in points leagues, but he is still the most prolific steel source

who contributes something other than steals. All right, let's stop there. Let's do six at a time. Frank, let's get your take. 13 through 17, or is it 18? 13 through 18, pardon me. It's too late. It's 945 at night, everybody.

I'm exhausted. Alex Bregman, Jady Martinez, Aaron Judge, Fernando Tatis, Justin Verlander, and Trey Turner. Bregman, Martinez, Judge, Tatis, Verlander, Turner. What do you think? Yeah, I don't have any huge issues with it. I mean, Aaron, Judge, I'm going to, you know, hopefully you can stay healthy in the second half.

We'll see what he does there. I mean, it's, you know, a lot of the names that, you know, I was expecting to be here in the second round are pretty much guys that have stayed healthy. but yeah, I almost forgot about Aaron Judge. But yeah, you can't deny the bad of all data what he does. Obviously, when he's healthy, but can he stay healthy? It seems like him and John Carlos Stanton are almost too jacked for their own good. I don't know if that's like a real thing.

But when it comes to baseball, it might actually be a real thing. So that's something that I would pay attention to. But, yeah, Trey Turner absolutely should be in there because, I mean, his stolen base upside, you know, freak injury that he suffered earlier on in the season. For Ano Tatee's, I think that's, you know, probably the name that sticks out the most. because, I mean, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to ruin anything that's going to come here in the second half of this second round. But a comparable player to him, Javi Baez, he's done it for a couple of years now. So I think that's a pretty interesting scenario.

But, yeah, I mean, look, you can't argue with what Tatis has done. I know a lot of the stat cast numbers, the expected batting average and the expected stats say that he is going to regress. But you watch the kid play and you almost have to throw those numbers out the window because he just, he does phenomenal things. again, that power speed combination that he possesses and what he's doing at his age, you can't really argue with it. So, yeah, I like all those. I don't have a problem with it.

Scott, are these points or roto? They're neither. They're non-committal. I point out in the write-up that certain players might be a little higher or lower depending on the particular format. Yeah, because there's one guy in a points league that I think maybe should be off the board

like right about now. And we'll see if I get to him. Yeah, I anticipate. I think I know who you're talking. Yeah, I anticipate he'll be, he's, I'm going to guess he's 20. But let's see who 19 is first. If it's who I think it is, he is 20. All right, let's go.

19 is Jacob de Grom. Okay. I would move him ahead of Trey Turner in a points league. 20, who I would also definitely move ahead of Turner, is his teammate Anthony Rendon. Yeah, that's the one. He's so good at points leagues. He's so, so good at points league. Yeah, I mean, he's been, he's 29 and going above and beyond power production he's ever shown before.

So that in and of itself is, I think reason you have to downgrade him looking into next year. But, you know, obviously I'm not that much. 21st, Charlie Blackman, who will be 34 next year. Now, interesting about Charlie Blackman, his fantasy points per game, which again is a one-sided way of looking at. things format wise, but his fantasy points per game. I believe last I checked, it was second only to Christian Yelich. Wow, and he has an OPS under 700 at home.

On the road. On the road. Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's kind of unfair because we're kind of assessing him at the end of an unsustainable hot streak, but nonetheless. Okay. Interesting note there. Josh Bell.

Checks in at 27. There you go. Josh Bell. All right. exciting new name. All right, 23rd, because I had some trouble settling on who should be the sixth starting pitcher off the board after Scherzer, Sale, Cole, Verlander, and DeGrom. I decided it should be Walker Bueller. Whoa.

Oh, interesting. Didn't see that coming. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you kind of take out the address. adjustment period last season, and you take out what was essentially his spring training since he skipped spring training this April. And his numbers are absurdly good. And the Dodgers haven't been careful about letting him pitch into games. They're letting him go as deep as he's able to. I can't argue it. I can't argue it. Yeah, he's been really good. And I think he could, you know, he's still so young, you could get better. And then 24th is, you know, I kind of, I kind of made Bueller 6th instead of who I have 24th here because I was scared from all the Blake Snell backlash, but I do have Blake Snell 24th, rounding out the second round. All right.

So, Frank, the last eight for Scott after Bregman, J.D. Martinez, Judge, Tatease, Verlander, Trey Turner. We have Jacob de Grom, Anthony Rendon, Charlie Blackman, Josh Bell, Walker, Bueller, and Blake Snell. What do you think? Yeah, it's hard to argue with this, too. Javier Baez does not sneak into the second round here for. Scott. I think that's interesting. I think him and Fernando Tatis are similar players. They both strike out a lot. Tatez probably has more speed. But, you know, Javier Baez, man, the power has been there now for, what, two straight seasons. So that's interesting. But, you know, Blake's Nell can't, look,

the skills are absolutely still there. I, you know, I have a feeling we're going to get to him a little bit later on. But with Walker Bueller, I agree 100%. I mean, you look at that first month of the season, basically March and April. And that was his spring training. a lot like Chris Sale, because both guys went deep into the postseason. They pitch into the World Series. And, you know, basically since May on, he's pitched like, you know, one of the five or six best starting pitchers in baseball. The skills have been there.

The swinging strike rate is up. So, yeah, I can't argue with that. I agree 100%. I actually did, like, a rest of season rankings for starting pitchers. And I had Walker Bueller as my sixth ranked starting pitcher. So I can't argue with that. Maybe the one thing is I would try to get Javier Baez somewhere in there. But I understand, you know, with.

pitching the way that it is. If you want to have Blake Snell in the top 24, I can't argue with it. Yeah, and that was kind of my thinking, too, what you were saying when we were talking, when we were recapping the first round is that I tried to make a conscious effort to get more high-end arms there because I'm finding that's all I really want to trade for. There's so much, there's so many duplicates at all the hitter positions, you know, redundancies, I guess is a better word. But yeah, I did in the column form of this, I had a notable omission section with eight names.

One of them was Baez, the main reasons I left him out, five for ten and stolen bases this year. So that, I'm not confident that's really going to be a part of his game anymore. And the other one is he's losing second base eligibility unless he suddenly starts playing there. It hasn't played there at all this year. So that hurts his value too. The other notable omissions, I'll just list them. and if you want to comment on any of them, that's fine. Pete Alonzo, Jose Altuve,

Shane Bieber, who would probably be my seventh pitcher, Joey Gallo, that was a tough one. Cattel Marte, Gary Sanchez, and George Springer. Oh, yeah, Sanchez, I think, is really interesting with that position, scarcity, and just putting 2018 behind him. I'm surprised at Alberto Mondesie was not an omission, you know, noteworthy omission,

because he has 27 steals with an IEL stint. He leads baseball in steals. He's definitely not a second round pick in a points league. But in a roto league, I really think there's a very strong case to be made for Mondesie. Quite frankly, the way Elvis Andrews has been playing, he's got 19 steals and a 309 batting average. That's mid-third round probably. But Mondesey...

Yeah, that's... It's hard to say... It's hard to trust that Andrews is going to be this aggressive of a base stealer. going forward. Mondesies a different scenario. But, you know, it just, it just becomes a case where there's too many high-end hitters. And also, if you're going to emphasize pitching, I mean, I only included Shane Beeper among the honorable mentions because, you know, I only wanted to include, I listed a bunch of other potential candidates with them. But if you're going to, if third base ends up being a popular round for starting pitchers, which it often is, then I have a hard time.

yeah well this would basically be what we're talking about you said third base you said third base sorry yeah third round sorry uh yeah then then i think it's going to push somebody like mondesi out maybe not in a roto league if we're doing it rhoda specific maybe you could make the case he's there i made the case you belong there this year but i i would have a hard time these eight names and then you throw a few more pitchers on top of it i would have a hard time taking monadice over any of them yeah i Frank, I'll get your take on this. I think by the end of the year, you know, Bieber's got a lot going for him. But I still feel like Nola and Bauer could easily be that seventh pitcher.

I'm sure there are some guys I'm forgetting, too. It just feels weird that Jane Bieber would be the number seven pitcher in rankings. What about Hyun Jin Ryu, by the way? Throwing that out there. And what about Lucas Gine? Gilito. Man, look at Gialito's better than Shane Bieber.

Well, come on, Adam. He might be. Why not? It's close. It's close. Yeah, it is close. I just feel like the skills for Bieber, man. I'm looking at it right now. Like the swinging strike rate, the chase rate for him, over 11 case per nine is his walks per nine are under two.

I think that's where Bieber edges out Gialito is that you still have these games every now and then where Gialito gets in trouble with the walks. You don't really have those issues with Bieber, whereas, you know, know, like last year, you know, Bieber was pitching a little bit too much inside the zone. It seems like he's, he's right at that. And he's getting, you know, opposing batters to chase pitches more outside the strike zone now. And it's led to a huge uptick in strikeouts. And his, you know, his ERA indicators, too, like his ex-fip and his Sierra are both, you know, sub three, two, five.

So, yeah, he's pretty legit. I think it's close between Bieber and Gialito. But I agree with Scott. I think I would lean slightly with Bieber here. Okay. Yeah, man. If Strasbourg, I'll never trust him to stay healthy, but he's another guy that if he does stay healthy this year,

maybe he has just like one minimum IELston or something like that. People might be tempted to take him because he's obviously really good. He had a great start tonight. Okay, so let's move on. It's definitely going to be a longer show than I anticipated. But, Frank, you got some buy lows and some sell highs, and then we will – oh, let me talk about Dylan C's – real quick, guys.

55% owned in CBS leagues. I watched a lot of his start. and I had a very, very big wave of emotions. This was very angry. I was rooting for him. I started him. Very angry in the first inning. Like throw strikes, dude.

Just throw strikes. Because he walked two or three in the first inning, and he hit a batter. And then he gave up a stupid two-run single. And then he pitched really well. And the home run he gave up in the fifth inning was wind-aided. It was not a well. It was an okay hit ball by Candelario, but the win took it out. C-Sends up going five innings, getting the win, striking out six,

13 swinging strikes on 101 pitches, only 61 strikes, four walks and a hit batsman. Yeah, like his stuff is really good. His fastball is like 97. But boy, he has trouble finding the strike zone. So, Frank, what are your expectations for Dylan C's going forward? I like him a lot. I know he wasn't performing well at AAA so far this year,

but you look at all his other minor league numbers throughout his minor league career before this season. really impressive stuff. You know, that fastball, as you mentioned it, it was, you know, it was upper 90s today. He's got a, he's got a wipeout slider as well. Had the 13 swinging strikes today. Yeah, I think he just, I think he had nerves in the first inning.

I think he really got caught up there. He had the three walks, the hit by pitch. His next four innings after that, he only allowed three hits, one run. That was the home run, one walk, and six strikeouts in his next four inning. So really settled down here. I think he needs to continue working on that curb ball changeup,

developing, you know, those third and fourth, pitches. Right now his bread and butter is that fastball and that slider. But I think he's going to get every opportunity. I feel like the White Sox needs starting pitching. I don't know how much Yvonne Nova is going to help them down the stretch. So I think that Dylan Cs is going to be in their rotation. And I feel like he should be owned in 12 team leagues or deeper. I worry a little bit about the whip, but I think that the strikeouts are going to be there for him for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I, this this start was enough for me. If he was still available in my league, I'd be picking a bop.

I mean, it wasn't flawless, obviously, the walks, which we knew could be an issue, were an issue, but also, you know, first major league start. I think for first major league start and as good as the pure stuff looked, you're definitely buying in at this point if you hadn't already. I think the strikeout rate is going to be really good for Dylan Cs. I think it could be a paddock scenario, except a little bit worse because his control isn't as good. We might get a lot of five-inning out.

with six strikeouts or something like that. And that's, at the end of the day, not going to be great. But I don't have one league in which I'd let him be unowned. That's, you know, I think we all pretty much feel that way. I don't play in any 10-team leagues. But as Frank said, 12 teams deeper, you've got to get yourself some Dillon C's. I'm going to guess Scott's not worried about Chris Sale. He gave him three home runs, nine hits, five runs, and five and two-thirds.

So, Frank, are you worried at all about Chris Sale? Not really because, I mean, the skills are still phenomenal. this year. The swinging strikes have been great. The strikeouts are there. I mean, he's not walking as many guys. The velocity still fluctuates at times. But, I mean, his underlying numbers, his ERA indicators are phenomenal, too. So I would expect him to be better. I feel like we say that about a lot of pitchers so far this season at some point that they do actually have to perform and put up the numbers that we expect them to. But yeah, I would expect that from Chris Sale in the second half. I mean, before these past three starts, he went on like a 10, 11

start stretch where he was probably the most dominant pitcher in baseball again. So I'm not overly worried about it. No. Okay. It's time to pick up Sunny Gray. If he's not already owned, he's 71% owned. It really hasn't been that great for fantasy, but it seemed like you just looked at the numbers, and he could certainly be better.

And he goes eight innings, does not give up a run. Four hits, one walk, 12 strikeouts against Milwaukee. Scott, are you ready to drop you Darvish? He struggled against the Pirates. That game's still going on. but he and Chris Archer are both out. I mean, Archer, eight strikeouts, but, you know, like, you know, it's Chris Archer. But Darvish, look, no walks, that's great.

Six and two-thirds, seven hits, four runs, six strikeouts, two home runs allowed, Scott. Drop or hold, you Darvish. I'd be more likely to drop Archer than Darvish because it feels like this is how good Archer is when he's good now. You know, five innings, good K-rate, high whip. what is that really worth well i don't know according to you you know as long as the strikeouts are good

you know well i mean pitching for the pirates no adam you're you're oversimplifying i know i know i know just like you were on the other end too arguing that chris yeah anyway um i mean i i i i don't think darvish you have to roster him like i don't think it's Like if he was your worst player

And you know dropping him was your way to pick up Dillon C's You know I don't think You know I think that's something we're doing But I would rather hold on to him Because it feels like something is just a little off there Like it feels like in terms of having the ability To overpower hitters with this stuff He can still do that.

And I feel like it could just click for him one day, and then he's an ace. And, you know, investing a bench spot in him in the meantime is a small sacrifice to make for the most, potentially what's the most coveted asset in fantasy baseball this year. Yeah. All right, that's you, Darvish. Just final thought. Mike Clevenger is having an excellent start against the Royals. No walks, nine strikeouts.

I think scoreless through six. innings for him, something like that. Frank, let me give you two minutes. I'm going to put some pressure on you here. Two minutes to talk about four by-low candidates. You think you can handle that? I will try my best. All right. If you don't do it, like, I'm going to play you off with music. Go ahead, sir. You're on the clock. All righty. So, yeah, I have four prime by-low candidates for the second half. First one being JT. Real Muto, I know a lot of people who drafted J.T. Real Muto probably invested in early round picking him,

so it might be kind of hard to pry him away. I would probably try a two-for-one scenario where I'm giving up a lesser catcher and maybe like an extra hitter or pitcher, whatever the Riyomuto owner needs. But his underlying numbers, his stack cast numbers, his expected batting average, expected slugging are all much higher than his actual batting average and slugging right now. And I would expect his numbers to be better in Citizens Bank in the second half, especially because considering he's left Marlins Park and his numbers this year are worse than they were last season. So I expect Real Muto to be better in the second half in that Phillies lineup. The next one is Matt Olson, obviously of the Oakland A's, hit a home run again last night.

Another guy who just makes a ton of hard contact and hits a ton of fly balls. The average exit velocity is actually up this year for Matt Olson. And his expected batting average the past couple of seasons, he's been around like 240, 250, which is like right in line with his batting average normally. this year it's up around 270 so we might actually see some positive regression in the batting average department and he still has 17 home runs and he missed like six weeks out of the season so I wouldn't surprise me if he has like this monster second half where he hits 20 home runs or something like that Blake Snell, I feel like everyone thinks Blake Snell is a buy low candidate right now, especially, it's going to be harder after his last start where he went out and dominated, had a double-digit strikeout performance. But his skills are basically the same as they were last year, except last year he was really lucky in the BABIP department.

And this year he's basically really unlucky in the BABIP department. He's basically just, you know, been hit with a bunch of softliners, some bloopers that have fallen in. I feel like he's just had some bad luck. basically the opposite of last year, but the skills are still there. So I trust Blake Snell. I'm sure Scott does based on his two-round mock draft heading into next season. And then Brandon Woodruff, I just don't think that Brandon Woodruff gets the respect that he deserves right now. He has a high-3s ERA.

It wouldn't surprise me if it gets much. Oh, sorry, dude. Yeah, that's two minutes. Wow. No trade for Brandon Woodruff. No, sorry. You can finish your thought on Brandon Woodruff. I'll just be a patriotic today.

I just, I really like his arsenal. I like his swinging strikes. I like his underlying skills as well. I know that he pitches in Miller Park, so it's not the best pitching environment to be in. But I feel like he's a little bit undervalued right now. I feel like he should be valued more like a top 30, maybe even top 25 starting pitcher rest of season. So I really like Brandon Woodruff. If someone in your league is not buying into as good as he's been, I certainly am.

Scott, what did you think of that? That was pretty good. Yeah. I am as high on all of those players as I think Frank is. So that's cool. I co-sign to that list. Rayamuto, Matt, even Matt Olson, that was the one that I thought maybe you wouldn't be. Well, it's a deep position.

I think he could be one of the most prolific home run hitters at the position, though. You know, kind of a one-note player in that way. But, yeah, I don't know. Did you say a certain range for where you think? Olson's going to end up, Frank, in terms of like first base rest of season. Because I know I have him like, I think he's probably outside of my top 15 just because it's such a deep position. But, you know.

Yeah, it is a deeper position. But I would, I think that he's capable of going on one of these. I mean, we've seen him do it. You know, the first year that he was called up and he went on that crazy run. I'm not expecting that. But we know what he's capable of. So it wouldn't surprise me if he goes on like a 20 plus home run streak in the second half of the season.

So power is up. that means you need more power to compete. So I think Matt Olson is someone who's capable of having that monster's second half. So, yeah, I'm buying. I think he's probably like right around that top 12, you know, maybe slightly outside of that, but 12 to 15 range. I think that makes a lot of sense. All right.

So, yeah, just, all right, we'll get to your cell highs. Olson, just a lot better than he was last year. Same batting average, but the slugging percentage is more than 100 points higher. It's actually been a lot better than I've been. realize, but he's a tricky guy, and he's on a heater right now. All right, I'm going to give you, since there's only three guys on your cell high list, I'm going to give you a minute and a half, and you know I'm going to play that music. So a minute and a half, Frank, you are on the clock right now.

Go. So if anyone was following me before, I've joined this podcast here, I was very frustrated with Daniel Murphy earlier on in the season because he was not getting everyday playing time. I'm pretty sure it was because he was not completely healthy, but he has been playing more recently, but I still feel like the numbers are a little bit fluky so far this season. He hasn't given you the batting average that you were hoping for, only 277, only six home runs. And his expected batting average this year is actually 228. The past, the previous three seasons, his expected batting average was over 300.

So if anyone's still buying into the name that is Daniel Murphy and the fact that he plays in Coors Field for the Colorado Rockies, I would try to sell him for someone who I think is a little bit more consistent who we don't have injury concerns about or age concerns, I guess, for that matter when it comes to Daniel Murphy. This next one really pains me to say because I love watching Luis Castillo pitch, but I feel like these walks are going to catch up to him at some point. He's averaging four and a half walks per nine. That's pretty much Robbie Ray territory. And he pitches in Great American Small Park in Cincinnati. And if that home run rate just regresses a little bit closer to where it was last year with as many batters as he's walking,

I think that we're going to see a bunch of two run, three run, maybe even like Grand Slam home runs coming against Luis Castillo. So those walks just really worry me when it comes to him. And then with Trevor Bauer, you know, you saw it yesterday, too. He's just massively inconsistent. I'm really starting to think that last year was the outlier season for Trevor Bauer. Because if you look at every other year, he's basically been the same pitcher. Uh-oh, I'm in trouble again.

Sorry, Adam. I Rick Rolled you. I Rick Rolled you. I can support that. Well, you know, like, if you've ever seen the Oscars or whatever, they hear it, they acknowledge it, but they keep talking. They do keep talking about it. This is, like, super loud. This is a lot louder that the Oscars are.

Oh, okay. All right, so, I, like, I barely even paying attention because I was so excited to Rick roll you, and I was, like, looking at your pace. And I was like, oh, he's good. He's going over totally. No, I actually was paying attention. The walks are weird for Castillo. The inconsistency is annoying for Trevor Bauer. Um, I don't know that this is time to sell high.

though, because I feel like maybe last start would have been, but I do feel like it's sort of a start-to-start basis. I'm not sure what I could get for Bauer. And I don't know, I don't know, Frank, if you meant it quite this way. But I feel like people to say, oh, 2018 was an aberration for Trevor Bauer. They forget how bad he was before Trevor Bauer. I mean, he basically had the second half of 2017 where he was good.

But that's it. He was just not a good pitcher before then. And he's been good this year. And, like, I feel like his inconsistencies, apart from, like, Justin Verlander and certainly Max Scherzer's come around, or just the best of the best starting pitchers. But even among, like, the ace tier, I think Bauer's inconsistency has been shared by many in a season where, like, any pitcher can just get blindsided by a bad home. run start and everything gets inflated.

Right. Well, that's why I think just Shane Bieber as your SP7 and not even being outlandish is just proof of what we've seen at this position. It's been a really weird year. I'm trying to see where Bauer ranks in Roto. He's actually 15th

in points at starting pitcher. He's not going to be quite as good. I think he's going to be outside the top 20 in Roto. I'll look that up now. A couple things I want to promote for you, though. Thank you, Frank. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I did it for comedy. I did it for comedy. That's fine. I appreciate it. Okay, so the World Series of Poker is going on right now, and you can watch it on CBS All Access. It's actually now through July 16th. It's the 50th year of the most popular poker tournament in the world.

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Please listen to us on Spotify. Help us kind of move up the Spotify rankings. And, yeah, check it out. The State of Combat podcast is the big one this week because it's a big week in MMA. College football, gearing up, college basketball, NFL, our pick six podcast, and obviously fantasy football today. And I'm sure, oh, golf. We have the first cup podcast.

I think three times a week. Covering golf. All right, let's read some emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. From Lewis. Has anyone written to you that they've tried out the Dodgers starting pitcher strategy you talked about at the beginning of the year? I just remember that I saw Hill stripling and Arias on the waiver wire.

I actually do think someone wrote that and it's worked out. Chris wrote about that just like draft nothing but Dodgers starting pitchers, basically. And it's a brilliant strategy. They've all been good. Yeah, pretty much, right? And I think it probably has worked. Yeah, I mean, I guess it just depends on how you're interpreting this. Like, if the interpretation is if you happen to end up with only Dodger starter, your staff is going to be pretty good.

But to ensure you get every Dodger starter would have required some reaching because, you know. Why do you say that? I don't think so. I think that was the cool thing about it. But the thing is, if you just miss out on one, then the strategy, you did not follow the strategy, right? To ensure you hit on all of them, it's going to require you to go to the extra. And maybe I'm, you know, being a little too strict on the other end and like, oh, well, I got three, the four, four, the five, whatever, that's good enough. Yeah, the Dodgers have a lot of good pitchers, and you want good pitchers.

So, I don't know. Well, it was just, it was, you know, because Kershaw had the injury, so he got pushed back. Stripling was out of the rotation. Rias was out of the rotation. Rich Hill always falls because of injury. Riu always falls because of injury concerns. Maeda, I'm not really sure, like, he's kind of the, he's 175th overall in ADP, right ahead of, right behind Rich Hill.

So they just, for as good as they were, because of injury concerns, I think, All of them were pushed down, except maybe Walker Bueller. But then he got hurt, right? In spring training, you got it. Yeah, yeah. So I think it made it kind of possible. Let me get Franken on the next email here. It's from Brendan.

Rank these pitchers rest of season in a points league. Jack Flaherty, Jesus, Lazzardo, Griffin Canning, and Zach Gallen. Oh, man. This one hits close to the heart because I have multiple shares of Jack Flaherty. this year. And after last night, I mean, it's just been an absolute disaster. I think it's his last six starts. He has a 7.12 ERA. That's that's not going to cut it. But I would, I would rank it. I would actually, I would put Griffin Canning first on this list. I know that his ERA estimators are a lot higher than his ERA, but the swinging strike rate is extremely high. I really like what I've seen from

him. And I know it's a points league, so you want innings, but, you know, Jack Flaherty isn't going all that deep into games either. He's just been, he's struggled so much with walks and home runs. So I would probably go canning, Flaherty, Gallen, and then unfortunately rank Luzardo last because he got hurt last night. You know, I was really looking forward to him getting closer to returning. He was pitching well in rehab,

but with him getting hurt, I would rank him last on this list. So Canning Flaherty, Gallon, Luzardo is the ranking for me. Okay, yeah. What do you think, Scott? How would you rank him? I think I would do the same. And Luzardom, and look, Flaherty only drop.

I would have had Flaherty. first prior to yesterday's start, but it's, you know, it's been a little too much badness to continue to justify that. So I would have the same order. Luzardo, we don't know the extent of the injury, but it's, you know, it's a lad injury. So it could be something that sidelines him the rest of the season, or, you know, he might not miss his style. Like, we just don't really know. And I think I'd play it safe right now and put him last. From B. B says that we glossed over Joey Lucasey, he has been dealing, he plays in the perfect park. I would make a bet involving Joey Lucasey versus any pitcher that you pick,

excluding Max Scherzer post All-Star break in my fantasy points in my ESPN points league. Just let me know who your pitcher of choice is, and I'll take Lucasey and we'll talk bet parameters later. I'm thinking that there is some weird scoring system in his league where, like, Joey Lucasey for whatever reason, gets four times as many. points as everyone else because he's obviously not going to be the second best pitcher. I don't know that we've really just like glossed over him. He had a really good stretch.

Okay, what's your level of interest, Frank, and Joey Lucchese? I like Joey Lucchesee. I feel like he's being a little bit overvalued here. Maybe this guy's a Padres fan or maybe it's Joey Lucchese himself emailing in here. But, you know, almost a strikeout per inning. The walks have been down this year. so that's good. You know, a 391-E-R-A-1-3 whip in this environment of pitching.

I mean, that's certainly viable. You know, if he's your SP-5 on your team, SP-4, I think that's perfectly fine. I like him. I don't like him more than Max Scherzer. No, yeah, it probably are. He's unfortunately back to not going deep in the games. The last two starts.

It was a nice trend where he was going six innings. Last two starts, five innings and five in a third. So I think that's going to really kind of determine his value. All right, let's go to our next one. This is from Bill. Dear Balke and Cousin Larry, I'll leave it to you to determine which is Adam and which is Scott. Yeah, I don't really know a lot of perfect strangers, right? That's what this is.

I've never seen it. Frank's too young. Frank doesn't know perfect strangers. I have no idea what this is. I mean, I feel like I'm too young. You're my age. I know. But you were watching, like, grown-up shows when you were six. I was, yeah.

Well, my brother's 10 years older, so 9 and a half years old. I'm Balke. I, Balke's the weird one, I think, that's me. I have an upcoming, I could be wrong. I have an upcoming roster crunch when Correa comes off the IL in a points league. Darvish, Flaherty, John Gray, Canning, Gallin, Lazzardo, Strowman. Who do I drop? Darvish, Flaherty, Gray, Canning, Gowan, Lazzardo, and Strowman.

You're definitely not dropping John Gray, or Griffin Canning, I guess. I guess Lazzardo, if he's hurt, is the easy one. But let's say it's not that, like, who's the guy to drop Scott? Well, it's a points league, so that makes it easier to hold on to Stroman, I feel like. I would be inclined to say Gowan. Well, even though I just ranked him ahead of Luzardo two emails ago. But I took that. Yeah.

I want to know more about Luzardo's entry. I don't want to have this investment in him and then, you know, get scared away too early. So I would say Gallen. I'm not confident he keeps his rotation spot when Caleb Smith comes back. And he's pitching for the Marlins. So, you know, there aren't going to be many wins there, even if he's great. Frank, this one's for you. Dear Francis, Malcolm and Dewey, you know them, right?

That's right up your, that's in your wheelhouse. Is it true? What is that? Francis Malcolm and Dewey? Come on. Oh, man. Which of those three names is in the middle between Francis, Malcolm, and Dewey? All right, I got this.

Okay. Malcolm is the middle. That's fair. There was four of those. Reese. Reese, right? Yeah, because this question is about Reese Hopkins. Oh, clever.

Do you see a second half surge vaulting Reese Hoskins into the elite power hitters, Frank? I think he's going to be quite similar to. to the player he's been so far, which, I mean, if you'd kind of just double his numbers so far, 19 home runs and 55 RBIs, he's on pace for almost 40 home runs and over 100 RBIs. I feel like that's pretty much what you were expecting from Reese Hoskins, maybe a few more home runs. But, you know, he's hitting a lot of fly balls again this year. His hard hit rate is up.

So, yeah, maybe once we get into July and August, you know, a few of those starts to fly out a little bit more in Citizens Bank Park. But I feel like for the most part, we've gotten what we've expected for me. Reese Hoskins so far this year. So I would say he probably finishes the seasons somewhere between like 36 and 40 home runs. So I don't know if that helps at all. I think he's probably just going to be like the same player he was in the first half, if anything. The problem is 19 home runs, that's 31st in baseball right now.

There are 30 players who are on pace for around 40 home runs. That's just. And there might even more because of, injuries. But there are a better way of saying is there are 30 players that going into Wednesday night had hit 20 or more home runs. Holy cow. Back to the emails. From Matt, oh, wow. It says, can I drop him in a 14-team rodeo league? He's so mediocre. However, the subject line of the email was the name of the player that he's talking about. And I didn't include that. Now, I know who he's talking about. Can I drop him in a 14-team rodeo league? He's.

so mediocre, I paid $19 for him in an auction. All right, he's a left-handed pitcher that had sort of had a career revival recently, last three years, basically. This year he's been pretty bad. Jayhap. Jayhap, yeah, yeah. Scott wins. Can you drop Jayhap in a 14-team Rotel league, Scott?

Yes, I've dropped him in a 12-team Roto League. Well, that's not as hard as doing it. I sounded so confident That was dumb What a dummy Yeah Yeah I still think it's justified Bottom line is I just don't have any faith in him anymore

He's an old guy, he's not getting strikeouts I would be comfortable dropping him for Probably in a roto league a reliever Who's going to give me good ratios Somebody like Austin Adams Is that name right? The Mariners guy

Up and at them I'm having trouble thinking about the Yankees rotation right now, but I feel like when they trade for a pitch or Jay Haps out of the rotation. That's my guess. Austin Adams is right. Okay, good. James Paxton, Arman, Hap, Tanaka, Sabathia, yeah. Next email.

This one's from Nick. Oh, it's for the fantasy regulators. Frank, are you familiar with the fantasy regulators? It's a newer segment of ours. Oh, of course I am. Oh, good, good. Well, can you talk for a second while I cue up the regulators music? Regulators!

Thank you. Okay, there we go. From Nick, would you approve of a requirement that anyone who objects to a trade must identify himself and give a reason for his objections, or else I, as commissioner, will disregard the objection? I have pretty much outlawed. the ability to vote on trades in my league. So this doesn't come up. However, the last time I had a league like this,

I proposed this exact same thing. Like, it's so easy to just, eh, I wish I could have made that trade. I'm going to say no. Like, not even really putting that much thought into it. Just click no. You know, like, this forces somebody to think about, you know, whether it's truly so egregious that it deserves to be overruled.

And I don't know that the commissioners should necessarily judge the merits of the case, but everybody reading it who hasn't voted yet is going to be judging the merits of it and possibly basing their decision on it. But mostly it just forces the person to actually think about it instead of so recklessly clicking no. Yeah, I'm in favor. Frank, you good? Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with Scott. I wouldn't want vetoes in my leagues at all, but yeah, I mean, there's a lot of times where people just veto trades because, oh, I don't want the team ahead of me to get better.

That's not a good reason to ever veto a trade. So, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Okay, well, I'm glad that you are familiar with the fantasy regulators. Still listening. That's really cool. Thank you, man. Are you familiar with the Heathside? Oh, of course.

I actually heard Scott's sigh earlier in the show, and I was going to say that sounded a lot like Heath. But you've got like the most recent heat sigh, the one that people are now using, like legitimately people are making their ringtone. Have you heard this one? Oh, yes. Okay, yeah. God is that creepy. I heard it on the football podcast, too. It's great.

Oh, yeah. I'll put it all over the place. It sounds more like a relieved sigh, though. It was not. It was a sigh of, what does it sound like? See. Yeah, it does sound like it. I can picture I'm doing it.

It does sound like a something. Yeah. It was an open. He has the open mouth side and the gritted teeth side. That was the open mouth side. Awesome. Okay. Let's do some grade the trade here.

From Isaac, grade the trade in a points league. Now, Frank, I know you already know the rules. But C is average. Anything better than a C? You win the trade. Anything worse? You lose the trade. Points league.

Give up Gialito, Bumgarner, and Starling Marte. Gileito, Bumgarner, and Starling Marte Get Clevenger and Snell Yeah, I like it I would say in a points league That is a B minus Yeah, that's what I was going to say It might be more than

It might be, it might be an A Starling Marte is not special in a points league Scott, what do you think? Clevenger and Snell getting them for giving up Gialito, Bumgarner and Marte Um I don't feel like I don't feel like that's a clear

I mean you're giving up two pretty good pitchers on Giolea like is like if we're ranking all these pitchers what is it? It's Snell Gialito Clevenger Bumgarner and you can make an argument Snell versus Gialito at the top I feel like so the person getting Snell and Clevenger I don't think

is a huge victory over Gialito and Bunggarten and then you throw in Marte I think it's at best to see it may be worse Oh. No. He's not. I don't want to kill it.

What does he think? No, he's not happy about it. He's not happy. When Scott does something good, but... Yeah, I didn't deserve it there. He's not getting it there. All right. Bad Scott.

From... Scott he doesn't know. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that works, right? All right, how about grade this trade from Devin? Give up Blake Snell, the pitcher, Brendan McKay, and Zach Wheeler. Snell, McKay, and Wheeler for Judge, Nola, and Strowman.

Catapleys. I would give it a... I would give it a B. You're giving up more pitching in Snell and Wheeler than getting back Nolan and Strowman, and that's a difficult thing to get up. But it's the... You know, the third player, Judge, over McKay.

There's such a huge difference there that I would rather be on the judge side of it. Especially with Noel. That's what I was thinking as well. I was thinking B, exactly, especially with Aaronola. His past three starts have been, you know, the Aranola that we were expecting coming into the season. And you get a borderline first round pick and Aaron Judge. Yeah, I think B as well.

That's what I was leaning with. Cody in Biloxi, Mississippi. There's a movie called Biloxi Blues, Frank. You're not old enough to know it, but it exists. 260. I believe you. Yeah, I don't remember it at all. I just remember we had a tape with Biloxy Blues.

cassette tape. You know a cassette tape, sir? Like, VCRs? I have a lot of those in my parents' house. We basically used to record every wrestling paper view ever known to man. That's VHS, right?

That's not. Yeah, that's VHS, I was about to say. VHS, not cassette, not cassette. Yeah, not the old cassette. What do you guys think about this in a dynasty league? $4, give up a $4. Jack Flaherty, get a $1, cabin Vigio.

I'd still rather have it. the pitcher. I haven't really lost faith in the skill set for Flaherty from like a dynasty standpoint. Like he clearly hasn't put it all together yet. But there's still, the underlying skills still make him out to be a dominant pitcher. And that's, I like Bizio, but the, you know, a good pitcher is much harder to find. Okay. Yeah, I agree with that. I would, I would rate it a C minus, only because Kevin Bigio is going to be much better in OBP leagues, which this is. So that helps him. But yeah, overall, I agree. I think, you know, Jack Flaherty is going to end up being one of those pictures that you get at a steep discount next year.

And that's going to have my interest. All right. Last one. Nathan says, grade the trade. He says, Dear Bill, George, Lou, and Chelsea. Did you hear I met Bill Clinton? Frank? I did not. Oh, he missed that one. I missed it.

Yeah, I showed a picture of it. I told a story about it. Scott was like, God, you ego maniac. I just imagine people listening to the show, think we meet famous people all the time, which of course we know. What? Why would anybody think that we're fantasy baseball hosts?

I don't know. You don't think people listen thinking we're celebrities? I don't think so. If they are, they're probably not very good at fantasy baseball because they're very wrong about us. Give up Lance Lynn, get Hunter Dozier. See? I think it's a pretty fair trade.

I really like what I've seen from Lance Lynn so far this year. He's gone through this, you know, renaissance of a season. He's using this cutter slider more this year. He's normally a very fastball predominant pitcher, but he's been using that breaking pitch a little bit more this year. I really like what I've seen. I didn't expect that with him going to Texas, but Hunter Dozier has been really good as well.

So you need a third baseman. You have to give something to get something. I think it's just a fair trade all around. So average, it's a sea. From somebody who likes Hunter Dozier, I think it's bad. I give it a D plus. I want the picture in pretty much every scenario. And I could understand a case for selling high on Lance Lynn, but this ain't it.

This isn't a sell high. All right. Well, this show was literally twice as long as I expected it to be. So let's do one more segment. It's called Let's Be Frank. And this is where we learn about Frank Stample, who's joining us for this awesome episode on this His 4th of July. What do we want to know?

Scott, what do we want to know about him? All right, what are your, what TV shows you currently watching? Well, I'm very excited for Stranger Things. Yes. It comes out tomorrow. Oh, that's right. Holy Cow. Today.

Stranger Things Day. Wait, is it out at midnight? It comes out at 4 a.m. technically because of the West Coast, too. That sucks. A bunch of binge watching tomorrow, basically. But, yeah, Stranger Things. I was watching Game of Thrones. which just ended and I

did not love the ending obviously What else am I watching right now? I just started True Detective Season 3. Oh, it's terrific. Yeah, I mean, I only watched the first episode so far but I really enjoyed it. Season 2 is so bad. Season 3 is redemption. But I have great advice for you. Great advice for you with True Detective.

Put the closed captioning on. I cannot understand a word that the main character is saying. He's a whisper. I watch everything with closed captioning on. Yeah. I'm too, like, OCD with my TV watching. Like, I don't want to miss a thing. If I'm devoting the time, I want to know everything that is said.

Yeah, I don't blame you. Well, a true detective, you would certainly need your readers for. What else, Frank? What else? What else am I watching? Yeah, no, that's enough. What's your, like, top three bands or artists? Top three bands.

Well, I'm all over the place with my musical taste. Number one is Metallica. I've seen them live like seven times so far. Interesting. Hmm. I guess next up, I like a lot of metal and then hip hop randomly too. So I'll throw Kid Cuddy in there and then Max Miller. That's my top three.

It's pretty much all over the place. Sorry, my iPad was freaking out there. I just put a voiceover mode on, which just always takes me about 10 minutes to figure out how to take this off. I don't know who those other people are. I only know Metallica. I'll send you some songs. Kid Cuddy's like kind of a meta reference, because remember my Kid Cody mishap from a couple years ago?

No, I don't. Do you, Frank? I don't. I'm sorry. I guess. Fair question, though. I overestimate what our audience thinks of us, clearly, in a couple ways. Frank, did I keep you way too long today?

because I totally lied to you about how long the show was going to take. No, I mean, let's do another hour, man. I'll sit around. All right. Scott and Frank are coming at you with another hour of fantasy baseball today. Now, seriously, everybody, thanks for listening. Please enjoy your 4th of July. Send us your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

We'll be back on Monday with another edition. Frank, thank you for joining us. It was great to have you. Oh, thank you guys so much, man. This was a fan boy experience for me, and I'm happy you guys fulfilled that. And he is at Roto underscore Frank on Twitter, and he's on the Fantasy Sports Network on the Fantasy BFFs. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Talk to you Monday.