Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/04: Trade Targets, Fun With Fangraphs, Mailbag (Recorded Tuesday)

Episode Date: July 4, 2018

It's a special July 4th edition of the Fantasy Baseball Today Podcast as we tell you who we're looking to acquire in trade and players who have been lucky or unlucky this year before we dip into the mailbag and answer your questions. 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

Mid-round breakout, OMG. No, Lasco, just say no. Carasco, say, want to. Birthday America. Happy birthday, Chris Towers. Which one's more important? You listeners out there, you can decide. If you're listening, on July 4th, we thank you so much for spending your little holiday with us.

It is Tuesday afternoon, July 3rd right now, and Chris is here. I'm Adam Azer with Chris Towers. I would like to wish you a happy birthday, Chris. I hope it's wonderful. It's a big one. 30. Finally. Boom.

Am I supposed to feel existential dread at 30? Don't you already feel existential dread? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a high baseline. But I'm talking like extra, you know. I don't think so. I didn't think there's any different. I don't know. I don't know.

There's not. There are some major moments in a man's life. When you finally get a car. That's huge freedom right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you go to college, maybe. Yeah. Or move out.

you know, first time you leave home, when you live alone for the first time, that is like huge. Yeah, I mean, I've never lived alone. Well, that's why you're such a baby. Like, I, well, I mean, no, I haven't lived with my parents. Really since I was 18. No, I get that, but you need to live by yourself. Yeah, I mean, I got married in college, so I've, I've never lived just Chris. Yeah, well, that's, that explains a lot.

I don't know, I don't know what it explains, but there are a lot of. of things that get explained. All right. So today, mailbag show, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com, your tweets, some news and notes. Um, buy low, sell high. So I'm going to say this now, just in case anybody in my league is listening. I didn't want to say it on the Tuesday show. I am in a 13 team roto league. We have fab twice a week, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. So we have it tonight. Of course, tonight's Tuesday night. You're listening on Wednesday. I am, somebody dropped Carlos Santana last week. They'd had enough.

If they had just offered me him and trade, they would have gotten a lot more. I'm going to put in a big bit. I got about $110 left out of a $250 budget. I still believe in him. The question is, do you, I believe in him enough in a Roto League? Like in a points league, nobody would have dropped him, but he's super valuable. I still think I looked at his OPS, like each of the last four or five years in the second half. I still think Carlos Santana can't.

can be really good in a standard roto league that doesn't count OBP, just batting average league. So I'm going to put it a pretty bit big. I might put it in like a $50 bit on him. I don't know that there's going to be anyone else on waivers that has a bigger impact except maybe like a Vlad Garero or something like that. And Shohei Otani's actually on waivers. But bottom line, in a deeper league, you know, this isn't about my league. This is about Carlos Santana. Do you still consider him a bylaw?

Sure, sure. Yeah. There's, he's a little context specific in that he's more. valuable in a head-to-head points league than Roto, as we say, every time we discuss Carlos Santana, because it is worth saying. I haven't seen much reason to believe that there's a drop-off in his talent. We know what kind of player he is. We know what kind of player he is both when he gets hot and just overall.

You know, you just look at the season-long numbers, and it's a good player. Even if that's all he does the rest of the season is, you know, the typical high-on base. If he doesn't have that hot streak that we've seen pretty much every year in the second half, he's still valuable. He's still worth owning. Yeah. All right. So that's one guy. I'm trying to trade for Justin Turner right now. I'm trying to trade for Trey Turner. And it's, I think, a sneaky by-low, because he's been really good. But I think he can be amazing, and he hasn't been amazing yet. So I still think there's better production coming for the entire, like, the Nationals offense has been so

underachieving. So I'm trying to get Trey Turner in Roto leagues. You know, it's just so hard to get steals. I do want to point out, like, we, I think it was this morning that we were discussing. Tuesday morning. Yeah. Tuesday morning. Excuse me. Sorry, it is Wednesday. Right. Sort of. There was kind of a discussion about, like, Anthony Rendon being disappointing. There was? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't, uh, he's been awesome. On the podcast? I think so. Uh, he hasn't, he hadn't been awesome until a few weeks ago. I think he said that he thinks Travis Shaw is better than Anthony Rendon. I think that's what I heard.

And, no, Anthony Rendon's awesome. He is, but he's another guy who's, I think, better in a points league than a category league. Sure, because he never, yeah, he doesn't strike out very much. But I'm having trouble getting steals and getting steals from guys that do anything but steel bases. I do think Kevin Kiermeyer is an interesting player in deep release. But are there any values out there, like any by-low guys that you'd want to get? Even though I think you have to give a lot for Trey Turner, I still think he's a buy-low, because I think he could be in the second half.

I think he could be one of the five best hitters in fantasy, five most valuable hitters in fantasy. I think that's definitely true, and he was someone that we talked about. You know, Heath had him as the number one overall player in Roto. I think that was over a little too much. But I think he was a consensus top five guy. And, you know, if we're looking at by low,

I think maybe the most obvious one that comes to mind is probably Gary Sanchez, who on the DL, no idea how he's going to come back from, is that a groin injury this year? I don't remember. It was a leg injury. I think it was a groin. And he's going to be awesome whenever he gets back.

There's a chance that the injury derails him, and I know he wasn't, quote, unquote, that good before, but he was. He was really good before he got hurt, and he just had some bad luck. He had a 194 Babbab. So that one to me is the most obvious. I know we were kind of down on him coming into the season, living up to his potential or living up to last season, but Jonathan's scope feels like a good by low candidate to me as well.

Even if he's never as good as he was last season, he's a lot better than he has been so far. And he's been getting dropped. I think Joey Gallo is still a by low candidate. He's been dropped in a couple of leagues that I've been playing in. I still think the talent's there for a big second half. Okay, I mentioned Justin Turner. I know I said Trey Turner, but Justin Turner is also a guy that I tried to buy low for yesterday.

It didn't work. And Anthony Rizzo, and some of these guys are obvious, but it's not just that they're by lows and that they're going to be good players. I think they could have big-time second-haps. I think John Carlos Stanton, for example, could be the best player in fantasy in second half. I'm not going to rank him that way or anything. But, you know, I think it'll – well, it's a different philosophy between me and Chris, but I think there's a lot of production to be made up for. And even if that's not the case, even if he's just like normal John Carlos Stanton, he hasn't really been that yet. So I'd still pay up for normal John Carlos Stanton.

Totally agree. All right. Yeah, I mean, that's mostly how I view it. It's just like, I don't know if Anthony Rizzo has a big hot streak coming to make up for his slow start. But if he's just Anthony Rizzo and I can get him at a discount, that still makes sense to me as a by-low. the guy that I think you could get as a by-low that people would actually be worried about, because I don't know that anyone's worried about Rizzo, is Vado. You know, like, people might see Vado as a great average guy, but his power is gone. You know, and maybe that's the case. But that's the one guy.

Like, I don't know how, put it this way. I think Votto's price tag is probably lower than Rizzo's. What do you think? Yeah, probably, yeah. And like when we look for things that would lead to you to believe that skills are diminishing, it would be stuff like an increase in contact rate. Well, I haven't really seen that. It's down from last year.

It was 86% last year. It's 85% this year. But that's not really worth talking about, especially when it's the second highest of his career. He has what I would imagine is the low. soft contact percentage in baseball at 7.3% I haven't looked, but it's hard to be much lower than that. 33.9% line drive rate. I think all signs point to Joe Evada still being, you know, still deserving to be in the discussion for best hitters in baseball. I'm not any lower on him

than I was coming into the season. And I'm glad you gave like Jonathan's scope because I know my by-lowers were pretty high-end, but there's probably some, other ones I can think of. I think Keirmeier is a sneaky one because he's going to lead off and he's going to steal bases and he's going to hit some homeowner. He's not a great player. But Keirmeier might be better than a lot of guys on your team right now if you play in a deeper four or five outfielder league.

Okay, dokey. Let's go through quick news and notes. Brian McCann's out four to six weeks with a knee injury. Max Dassey is 20 percent owned. He's been very cold. Last 17 games is batting 173. But respectable OBP of 283, at least respect. a respectable walk rate because his batting average is 173.

Slugging percentage 3.46. I've seen worse slumps before. Seven walks, 18 strikeouts. Three doubles. He had a 929 OPS before that. I saw Chris say that Max Stassie has to be owned in all two catcher leagues. Would you rather have Max Stassie or Tucker Barnhart? Barnhart.

Would you rather have Stassie or Tom Murphy? Murphy. Matt Chabins off the D.L. Steven Strasberg threw a bullpen session. And Chris Towers, follow him on Twitter. Jorge Faber Gas Anthem What is it? Jorge Faber Gaslight Anthem

Adam It's pretty funny That's the new one Actually that's the old one I need to come up with some I'm going to start coming up With some fantasy football one soon But I'll get another fantasy baseball one in there

Why do you always defend the NBA Why do you defend the NBA like it's your child? I'm just I'm just defending it against bad takes That's all People are pissed off about the Warriors getting cousins I'm pissed off. I think it sucks.

I hate it. I'm unhappy that DeMarcus cousin signed with the Warriors. My point, though, is if you were a fan of the NBA, if you thought the NBA was amazing during the Jordan years, you can't hate this. No, I don't agree. You just can't. I don't agree. Like, fine, but that's... It would be like if...

It's into... It is intellectually inconsistent. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I mean, there's one thing in, like... The Bulls won six finals and 60s. But they didn't have a super team.

Like, they really didn't. I mean, that was so amazing about them. They won six finals in six years. Oh, they were amazing, but... They had two consecutive... But you know what? People didn't hate the Spurs. You know, the Spurs, they didn't get every superstar.

They were not a team of superstars. They were a great team. Same thing with the Bulls. The Bulls had two superstars. We do have to be... like, Buggie's not a superstar No,

Marcus Cousins is not a superstar. Okay, fine. He's coming off the worst injury that a professional athlete can come off of. There's a 30% chance that he just like is not an NBA player anymore.

But still, it's, I think it's still the Durant thing. I mean, it's annoying. I'm not saying anybody shouldn't be upset about the Warriors. It's not the same.

I'm just saying you cannot pine for some mythical time in which the NBA was just this wide open league where every team had a chance. That's all. That's all.

I mean, be consistent. Your birthday, I'll give it to you. Let's have fun with fan graphs, then we'll finish with emails and tweets. All right, let's take a look first at the Babip leaders. All right, so the guys who have been a little bit lucky this year. Just going to get that going here. Babib leaders. What do I have to do?

Hit batted ball data? Yes, probably. Oh, no, there it is. It's right there. Babbip leaders. It's on the dashboard. I probably should have done this before. Well, I did, and then I pulled up the, I pulled up the Trey Turner page.

So here we go. Bapit Bleeders on Fangraphs. We've got Scooter Jeanette at 386. Does that ring an alarm bell for you? No. Scooter Jeanette? Not necessarily. Scooter Jeanette is not going to hit 336 the rest of the season.

I will take the under on that for sure. I think he's probably more like a 285, 290 kind of hitter. Okay. That being said, Scrutage Net's really good. He has, I think, been one of the players who has benefited from the juice ball the most. But he's also just changed his approach. He's become a more complete hitter. He hits the ball in the air a little bit more, and he hits the ball harder than he used to.

And he holds his own against lefties. I think he's made legitimate gains since the start of last season. I'm, yes, there is Babbitt progression coming, but I think he's still very good. Murah Jr. is number two, Jose Altuvase 3. Nick Castellanos has the fourth highest Babbib in baseball. Gene Seguera, Matt Duffy, Matt Kemp, Brandon Crawford. That's a pretty interesting list. Gene Seguera, Matt Duffy, Matt Kemp, Brandon Crawford. All with Babbs with 369 to 372. What do you think? Yeah. Gene Cigra is probably the one I'm least concerned about just because 2016, 353,

2017, 339, 2018, 372. There's a bit of one of these things is not like the other, but like last year's 339 is just as much an outlier from the last three-year average as the 372 this year. So that to me just establishes the range. I think he's probably going to be, you know, a very high babbit guy, whether that's 330 or 330 or 390, you know. I expect him to hit 300.

He's one of the guys in baseball that I think is a true talent 300 hitter. I do not buy Brandon Crawford at all. And he keeps doing it and making me look bad, but that's a guy I would try to sell instantly. He's been a bad hitter for too long now, and he has the eighth-highest Babbup in baseball. I just don't see how it's happening. It's in a bad park.

I just don't get it with Brandon Crawford. Yeah, I mean, really high line drive rate. He is hitting the ball on the ground less often. He's a 29% line drive rate and also a 41.8% ground ball rate, which is the second lowest of his career. So he's hitting the ball in the air more. He's hitting the ball with authority more. But yeah, he's not going to have a, he's not going to hit 311. He's not going to have a 370 bad.

I don't think he's as good as Scooter Jeanette. Right. I don't know. I don't think he's that good. Maybe I'll be wrong, but I, Crawford is not a guy that really should have been drafted, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's unowned at some point or barely owned. I wouldn't be stunned, no. All right, so let's take a look at who the hardest hitters are.

Who's hitting the ball the hardest in baseball? Matt Olson is number one. Ehio Hano Suarez is number two. Matt Carpenter, J.D. Martinez, Joey Gallo. Matt Olson, A.ohanio Suarez, Matt Carpenter, J.D. Martinez, and Joey Gallo. hardest hitters. That's a, that's a really interesting list. You know, you're not surprised to see J.D. Martinez there. You're not surprised to see Joey Gallo there. The surprises are Matt Carpenter, A. E. E. E. E. E. Housena Suarez, and to a certain extent, Matt Olson, has a ton of raw power.

So it's not necessarily shocking to see him there, although number one is a little shocking. Suarez, kind of like Scooter Jeanette, though, it really does look like he's taken a big step forward when you take into account what he did last season, what he's done so far this season. I hesitate to call him an elite hitter, but certainly a must-start fantasy option at this point, right? Oh, Suarez, yeah.

And... What I notice here, Chris, is that Matt Carpenter is a big-time fly ball hitter now. His ground ball to fly ratio is the same as Joey Gallo's, and they're both hitting the crap out of the ball. Carpenter's batting, I don't know what his batting averages, but it's much higher than Joey Gallos. Yeah, his is $255. I mean, they have a fairly similar hitting profile here, but Gallo obviously strikes out so much more, which is not part of this exercise, but needs to be considered. Same with Olson. Yeah, and, you know, with Gallo specifically, there were signs.

early in the season that he was making improvements in his contact rate that could allow him to take a step forward. He's mostly lost those. He's, you know, career high contact percentage, 62.1%. Career low swinging strike rate, 17.9%. But it's still among the most swing and miss prone players in baseball. So, yeah, the batting average, there's a ceiling here. I still think, like, he has a 240.

one Babbitt, but I still think there's plenty of room for improvement there. But the ceiling on his batting average is probably 2.30 moving forward, and that's disappointing. If I look at soft contact leaders here, I see two guys on this list that are pretty into three. Pretty interesting in the top five. Wilmer Difa, whatever, Eduardo Nunez, whatever. Jonathan's scope is number two in soft contact. Yassio Pueg has the third highest soft contact percentage, and Oduble Herrera is fifth. Oduble Herrera's soft contact and hard contact are even at 26.4%. Scope, Puege, and Oduble Herrera are hitting,

have a higher soft contact rate than Billy Hamilton. Which, frankly, that's a bad sign for Billy Hamilton, too, just because he's someone who you actually want hitting the ball soft. Well, he's sixth. Right, yeah. It's certainly not a good sign for, uh, for Yassiel Pueig that he's struggling that way. And, you know, it's, to me, that that suggests just an inconsistency in Yassiel Pueig's game, which big shock, right?

We didn't know that about Yossiel Pueg. It says to me that the talent is still really impressive, 35.6% hard contact rate. you know 79th in baseball and barrel rate which is you know pretty good because that's out of 280 so that's in the top 25% probably but there are very bad things that happen as well

you know there there are times when he just gets under the ball too much 18% infield fly ball rate that's really bad I think it's just this is all screaming that Yassi L Puig is still the guy that we've always known him to be which is a frustrating player who will show signs of absolute brilliance. And then follow it up with just looking lost.

And there kind of is no rhyme or reason to which version of him is going to show up at the park any given day, week or month. What about Oduble Herrera having the fifth highest soft contact rate in baseball? And last thing I just want to check real quick. Soft contact rate leaders last year. Let's see if there were any good players on this list. Jose Parraza, Jose Reyes, Manuel Marguer. go Janhervis Salarte, Billy Hamilton, D. Gordon, D.D. Gorgorius, and Odubo Herrera.

Yeah, O'Doobo Herrera just doesn't hit the ball. He is one of those players that it's just kind of hard to make sense of, like nothing about him looks sustainable. He has a 354 career Babbip. Had that one year where he walked a bunch, but it was really just like one month early on. But you look at like this is one of those cases where we have all, The whole point of this exercise is to talk about skills, not production, but skills.

And we have all these skills-based metrics, and Oduba-Hara just doesn't make a lot of sense within the context of them. Do you think he's good? The skills-based metrics would suggest that he's not a very good hitter. Do you think he's good? Because I really don't think he's been a very good hitter until this year. I mean, he had a seven-s, very good, or that good. Fantasy-relevant hitter. Yeah, okay.

Fantasy-relevant because he doesn't hit a lot of home runs, probably better in points. leagues, but not great in points leagues because he doesn't walk a ton. Yeah. Doesn't really steal. Not a great fantasy hitter, sure. But now, I think that's fair. But he has been a very good fantasy hitter this year, and he's done it in streaks, was great early, slumped badly, came back strong. I think he's cooled off a little bit now, Oduble Herrera.

I don't know what to make of him. I really don't. It's not a guy I would want to... I think he's a fine fifth outfielder. Yeah, he's not a guy... Oh, yeah, yeah. He's not a guy that I would want the success of my team to, you know, know, depend on.

Sure. And it shouldn't. Based on where, you know, he wasn't really being drafted as a starter coming into the season. All right. Let's take a look at some pitchers now. And left on base percentage, strand rate. So there are going to be good, really great pitchers on this list because they put

runners on. They get out, they get out of it. But here's a guy who's leading it. Blake Snell. Blake Snell, 87.1% strand rate. And his ex-fip, his FIP and X-Fib. are 344 and 354 respectively. Blake's now is a 224 ERA.

So he's got a little bit of John Lester going on. Not quite, because John Lester's much worse. The thing there is, unless your first name is Max Clayton or Corey, any time you have a 224 in the ERA column, there's regression coming. Nobody sustains that unless you're a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher. And as good as Blake Snell is and as good as, you know, we'll get to Charlie Morton. We'll get to Mike Fultenevich is another one in this group that like, yeah, they're not Hall of Fame caliber players.

They're not in the discussion. Blake Snell is not yet in the discussion for best pitcher in baseball, nor should he be. But he's really good. And if that really good translates to a 3.4 ERA and 10 strikeouts per 9, while consistently pitching pretty deep into games, you're going to be very, very happy with Blake Snell. If I get a 344 ERA from Blake Snell rest of season, I will be a little disappointed.

Well, I don't think you should be. That's probably who he is. Now, what that says is if you can trade Blake Snell for, God, who's a good example, though? That's the problem that I run into. If I could trade Blake Snell for Zach Grinke, I would probably do that. Really? Yeah, I mean, okay, okay.

And John Lester, we know he's been very lucky. He's got a 416 FIP, a 451 XFIP, and a 225 ERA. He's second in strand rate. The rest of the list is largely aces. But Fultenevich is on here with a 202 ERA, 83.2% strand rate. He's got a 3FIP and a 346 XFIP. I mean, that's lower than Snell. Am I to think that Fultenevich should have a lower ERA than Blake Snell going forward?

That was surprised me. I would be very surprised by that. But I've also just kind of been wrong on Mike Fultenevich. He's been pretty close to an elite strikeout guy all season, and I didn't think that was going to sustain because his swinging strike rate is just okay. He's changed up his pitch rapporteur a little bit. He's relying more on the four-seem fastball, more on the slider. But I still look at him and I see more like a league average pitcher than one who's taking a big step forward.

So if you asked me whether I would have Mike Fultenevitz or Blake Snell, the answer is obviously going to be Blake Snell. Right, yeah, of course. All right, last, but Fultonov is pretty good, I guess. At least the metrics seem to indicate he is still a good pitcher, not completely lucky or anything. Yeah. Last category here. Maybe you can help me find it. I want to go a little more old school.

This used to be a really important category. Still is, but it doesn't get talked about as much. How about, I got it. How about strikeout to walk ratio? This used to be one before we got into all this really advanced data. That was super important. Corey Klober, Justin Verlinter, Max Scherzer, Zach Granky, Chris Sale. They are one through five.

And then you have a pretty low strikeout guy who's number six, Miles Michaelis. But he's obviously a super low walk guy. So Cluber, Verlander, Scherzer, Granky, Sale, 1 through 5, and walk to strikeout ratio, then Miles Michaelis and Alex Wood, Jacob de Grom, Patrick Corbin, Severino. What do you think about Michaelis and Wood being on that list? Well, Alex Wood is, I think, easier to figure out, even though his career has been marked by inconsistency. But, you know, we have a long enough track record where we mostly know what Alex Wood is. there have been ups and downs throughout his career.

But overall, he has a 328 career ERA and a 33-fip and a 344 X-FIP. This season, he has a 339 FIP and a 340 X-FIP, so essentially identical to his career rates. And he has a 384 ERA. What that tells me is I would expect Alex Wood moving forward to have a low 3s ERA, whether that's 3-0. He'll be in that range. Less than a strikeout per inning, most likely, because he has lost some of the stuff that fueled his breakout last season, but he won't walk anyone.

He'll limit hard contact. He's pretty good. That's a valuable pitcher. It's just there's also injury concerns. All right. Let's read some, yeah, in a crowded rotation. Emails and tweets from Matt and Duhar or Devers the rest of season. I'll go Devers.

They have been basically identical in fantasy production. You look at where they rank since And Duhar became the regular third basement on April 5th. They are both around 17th in points and about 13th or 14th in Roto in that time. And I just think Devers has more upside. That's where I come down on it. For sure. Travis from Houston, 10-te-to-head categories league. Would you trade Treyas for Ronald Ocuna and then pick up Andrelton Simmons?

So we'd rather have Claibor Torres? Did I say Tlaver Torres? Yeah, sorry. Glaver Torres for Acuna. This was an easy one to answer before the season, wasn't it? Yeah. This was really easy back when we definitely knew who the best fantasy rookie would be.

For sure, no question. The best rookie in years. And it wasn't Glaber Torres. Is he the best rookie in years? No, probably. I mean, I don't know. But Ronald Rukinia was supposed to be. He was supposed to be can't miss.

He was. Yeah, this is a tough one. And he hasn't missed. I want to be clear. No, he hasn't missed. He's been a little disappointed. He's been, yeah, Brian, he has been a little disappointing. He homered, uh, he had a 361 foot homer.

Yeah, it was a Yankee Stadium special. Ridiculous, stupid stadium. I loved it. Uh, and. I hate it when it happens for Yankees players. I love it for the opposition. Torres or Rucunya? Who do you want?

It probably has to be Torres, doesn't it? The thing is, like, He doesn't do anything but Homer, basically. I keep waiting for a slump because the plate discipline isn't that good. He doesn't steal. He still bats ninth sometimes. You know? Right.

The idealized version of both players, Akunia's better. But, you know, contact has been a bit of an issue for him. He's not running, like, crazy. And he's batting six now, so I don't know if that's going to affect his, his run. running Acuna. The other thing is like, how could you, unless this is a Keeper League, which doesn't say it is, you got to get more for Glabar Torres. Trading Torres for Acuna, we don't know who's going to be better. All we know is that Torres has more trade value right now than Acuna. So I think that's true. I think you're losing on that deal. All right, this is from Grando, Dear Magnum and PIs. Best TV

theme song ever is Busom Buddies. It's My Life by Billy Joel. I bet you guys didn't even know that was the theme song. It should be Heath's theme song. You can speak your mind, but not on my time. I like that. I did not know that that was the theme song for Bousam Bodies. I went on YouTube and I watched the trailer for Bousin Bousin Buzzy, or the intro. I never, ever, ever want to watch Bousin Bodies.

I hope that never happens. Oh, my goodness. Wasn't there like a relaunch of that a couple years ago or something? I hope not. Is that the Tom Hanks one where he's like dressed as a woman? tends to be a woman? Yes. What the hell?

Yeah. No, not great. All right. From Seth. Rare misstep for America's sweetheart Tom Hanks. From Seth. I just got offered Charlie Blackman for Blake Snell in my Dynasty Roto League.

Snell is a lot cheaper in keeper price. What should I do? Give up Snell for Charlie Blackman. The Dynasty. I still think Charlie Blackman's quite a bit more valuable in a vacuum. even with the somewhat slow start to the season. But that keeper difference could be enough.

But I would be hesitant to make that move, unless I'm just not competing right now. So you'd rather have who? Snow or Blackman? Snow much cheaper. All right, black women. From the nature boy, I traded Brad Hand and David Price for Robbie Ray. How did I do in a Categories League?

Hand and Price for Robbie Ray. How many series are left against the Yankees? Three. Okay. Brad Hand and David Price for Robbie Ray, that seems like a C to me. Yeah, I think it's basically your trading price for Ray because Hand's going to be useless soon. Well, you don't know that. Yeah.

Yeah, but you're not rostering him, I don't think. You don't know that. I forgot who it was last year. We were like, oh, he's going to get traded, he's going to get traded, he's going to get traded. Kelvin Herrera. Yeah, could have been Hand or Kelmer. Robin Herrera never got treated. So you never know.

But would you rather have David Price or Robbie Ray? Robbie Ray. And Andrew says, please rank these guys in a points league. Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Max Muncie, Brian Anderson, and Aaron Hicks. Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Max Muncie, Brian Anderson, Aaron Hicks. Justin Turner, Max Muncie, Aaron Hicks, Chris Taylor, Brian Anderson. This is from no name here. What do I do with Nick Povetta?

Should I drop him for Max Fried? Joey Lucchasey, Matt Harvey, Danny Duffy, or Carlos Rodon? Nick Povetta. The only one I could even consider dropping Povetta for is Rodon, and I don't think we've seen enough from Rodon. We've seen a lot more from Povetta. From Ross, rank the following second baseman rest of season. Kipnis, Kinsler, Odor, Paraza, and Hap.

Kipnis, Kinsler, Odor, Paraza, Hap. just me or are Odor and Hap heating up? I haven't noticed Odor or Hap heating up. Odor has been doing well in his last like six games with home runs and a couple of steals. Like three homers, two steals in his last six games or something. Half I haven't noticed. That's... Do I have to rank those guys?

Yeah, you do. Even though it's your birthday. Who's number one? I don't even know who's number one. I guess Kinsler? That's where I was like. He was someone who I, you know, meant to mention or thought about mentioning as a by-low candidate just because the Babbitt has been super low and the skill set.

Otherwise, still looks okay. Praz, if you need steals, I guess. I don't love this list, though, and I'm not going to rank them. Ian Hap has been heating up, by the way. He had a huge week. It's not enough, quite say he's hot. Is he still playing? Like every two days

They had Chris Bryant's been out So I don't Yeah hard to say Yeah it looks like he's mostly been in the lineup But Chris Bryant's been out So This is from

Henry from Philadelphia Grade the Trade Clark Bruce Diana and Barry Marvel Yeah No that's the Justice League Isn't it Yeah

Is that not Marvel? No that's D.C. Clark Kent Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and Barry Manilow. Give up Miles Michaelis, get back, Shamaniah. Steve. C-minus. I don't like it.

P.S. Captain America's birthday is also July 4th. Does that mean Chris Towers is Captain America? Among other things, I think it means that, yes. One of many things Cap and I have in common. From Kevin. First name basis. From Kevin. Oh, sorry, grade the trade.

Dear Carson, Nick and Nate. Those sound like Eagles? Oh, yeah, yeah. Grade the trade. Give up Nick Marquakis, get Josh Donaldson. B plus. From Matt. Who are some good D.L candidates to stash for the second half?

If you go to CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball and go to Scott White's player per writer page, I guess, is the correct term. He does this every week. He might have another one coming out tonight, but for sure, there was one last week where Steven Strasbourg, Noah Cindergard, and Gary Sanchez were the top options. I took out Carlos Carrasco because he's no longer on the DL. But those would be mine. Yeah, that's Jimmy Nelson?

Sure. I've been stashing him in a bunch of leagues. I'm waiting for him to come back. There's been, I think, fits and starts as far as his recovery goes from a very serious shoulder injury. but he was one of the best pitchers in the National League last season. Yeah, kind of interesting. The other ones are obvious. I mean, Donaldson are stashing, Darvish are stashing.

I'm sure there are some that are not obvious, but I can't think of them right now. And finally, we'll read two more. Is Chris Bryant a top 30 hitter in Roto anymore? That's from Philip. The same way that I said Oduble Herrera, like all the stat skill-based indicator, suggest he should be a lot worse than he is, all of the skill-based indicators suggest Chris Bryant should be a lot better than he is, and it's really, really, really hard to say why he's not.

Finally, Chris? I think he is a top 30 hitter, yes. Top 30 is pretty low bar. He's got to be top 30. From Jay Biz, just a little exercise. Your answer will not be held against you. Game 7 of the World Series, who would you rather tow the rubber, Luis Severino or Madison Bumgarter? Heath asked me this one earlier today, so I am prepared.

My answer is I'm an adult. I don't believe in fairy tales or magic. And I think Louis Severino is a better pitcher right now than Madison Bumgarner. So the answer has to be Louis Severino. Because the only argument in Madison Bumgarner's favor would be magic. No. Yes. No.

Yes. Did you see what Luis Severino did against the twins in his first postseason start last year? I assume he was great. He did not. He got one out. He recorded one out. And why? He was a little too amped up. He said it.

He was too amped up. He did not know how to deal with that situation. You know who knows how to deal with that situation? Adam. Madison Bumgarner. Adam. What? How many outs did Madison Bumgarner get against the twins in his first postseason start last year?

Big old goose egg. Boom! What does that mean? That means nothing. That means nothing. Oh my gosh. I'll take Bumgarner. Over Severino.

Maybe. I'll take Severino. I'll take Severino. I agree. Greg Bird or Madison Bumgarner. You need one hit in the playoffs. Are they facing each other? Oh, wait. They're both kidding.

Greg Bird is pitching to Madison Bumgarner. And Matton Bum Garner is pitching to Greg Burt. If it's a lefty, I might have to take Bumgarner. All right, we're out of here. Jerk. Happy birthday, Chris. Happy birthday, America. Talk to you Thursday, everybody.

Thanks for listening to our bonus show. I mean,