Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/05 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Catching Up On Five Days of Baseball

Episode Date: July 5, 2017

Clint Frazier's promotion (2:00), Kevin Gausman's splitter (4:53), Aaron Nola's excellence (11:03) and so much more from the last five days! ... We play "Hey, Real Quick" with Freddie Freeman vs. Josh Donaldson (19:05), Mike Moustakas vs. Justin Turner (20:26), Danny Duffy vs. Alex Wood (23:50) ... Bullpen updates for 10 teams (31:40), something you never knew about Scott White (37:20), multi-homer games from yesterday (43:00) and how worried we are about Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and a couple other SPs (50:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. It is Wednesday. Sorry we took Tuesday off. I hope you had a great fourth. And before I get yelled at, happy birthday, Chris, okay? Are you happy now? Happy birthday. Why would you get yelled at?

Because you were like, I can't believe you got my birthday. That is like classic Chris. That's definitely me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you're being so difficult. But thank you. I appreciate it. No, happy birthday.

And it was on, it was yesterday. Yes. And I tweeted it. it, I wrote on your wall, I think. I don't know. I don't know. I have so many people writing my wall at him. But you didn't give me any... I'm always amazed. Every year on Facebook, I have so many friends. And then the other 364 days of the year, nobody loves me.

I thought about writing on your wall. I did. I opened it up. I looked into it already written there. And I was like, whatever. I could just tell them in person. Well, also, it's like, there's like people that, like, I literally have not spoken to since, like, high school who just like the only interactions we've had in the last 12 years are like them writing on my wall on my birthday and I don't run on their wall for their birthday so I know it's insincere at least I'm sincere isn't at least a little flattering that they've taken some time out of their life no because Facebook tells you yeah but still they don't have they can do what I did they can think about it and not do it it's it's nice yeah it's nice that they did that and it makes

it's you're a bad person for not writing on their wall but anyway welcome to the show Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. So it's been a while. We haven't really recap baseball since Friday morning. And I'm going to propose a new segment here since I don't think we've ever gone this long without having a show, other than the mailbag, the pre-recorded mailbag. The segment is so, what do you want to talk about, Scott White? Well, probably the biggest news of the weekend, you know, I think it happened on Friday,

so it feels stale now. but Clint Frazier getting called up for the Yankees and homering in his first game. A bit of a cheapy. I mean it was a Crawford Box Homer. Yeah, I guess. Well, I don't know. It was a few rows back in the Crawford boxes. And I was impressed by it nonetheless because Clint Frazier is one of those prospects who has always been rated among the top prospects.

It was a fifth overall pick, I think. It was when he was drafted by the Indians. and you kept hearing about his bat speed, his bat speed. That home run, his bat was so quick through the zone. It didn't look like he swung very hard, first of all. It looked like he was off balance, didn't swing very hard. And I swear, the bat like disappears in his hands for a split second. It was so quick through the zone.

Now, he hasn't done much since that first time. No, he hasn't. He had a home run and a double in that game on Friday, and Clint Fraser doesn't have a hit since. That home run traveled 345 feet. I'm going to be the guy who poohoo. It's the exciting. Fair enough.

But who cares? Whatever. It's four games. He's Clint Frazier. He's a big prospect. He's 57% own. And he's going to play every day while he is up. We don't know what happens when Aaron Hicks comes back.

But while Clint Frazier's up, he's playing every day. I would imagine it depends on Clint Frazier's performance. Clint Frazier is in charge of what happens when Aaron Hicks comes back. Clint Frazier or Cameron Mabon? Maybin. Clint Frazier or Stephen Sousa? Susa. Let's see.

I move Frazier up to about 50th in my outfield rankings, and that's the same range as the guys you're talking about. Today I'm going to say Susa, but I think a big game from Frazier tonight could change that. Susa's been really good. I actually was looking at the top eight hitters since we last podcasted on Friday, forgetting about the Monday show.

Stephen Sousa is one of them. He's kept it going. How about would you drop Adam Jones for Clint Frazier? No. I might do that in like a three outfielder league. Yeah, maybe. Like the shallower the league, because Jones, I think it's pretty clear. He's a jag.

He's a jag, right? I mean, he's a fine starter anywhere, but he's not going to be a difference maker for you. Frazier probably won't either, but you feel like there's a better chance. So I could see it in a shallow way. Well, Frazier could be a difference maker both ways, right? Like he could be so overmatched that he costs you a week before getting sent down. Well, I don't think anybody needs to start him yet. I think it's clearly a pickup and stash until he proves he needs to be started situation.

Okay, so that's Scott's nominee for what he wants to talk about today. Chris, what do you want to talk about today? Kevin Gosman! Wow, what start? Yeah. He's great now. Apparently. He's about 55% owned, just like Clint Frazier.

right around there. Apparently, we just have to wait until late June to rely on Kevin Gosman because this is two years in a row now. And actually, there's an explanation. We've talked all about Kevin Gosman, how the splitter is the key for him, how he wasn't throwing it earlier in the season. Same thing happened last year. And he has talked about how he doesn't feel comfortable throwing the splitter early in the season. It leads to blisters. He doesn't have the feel for it. He threw it more than he had all season. on Sunday against the Tampa Bay raise, and what do you know, he struck out nine batters.

Usage rate has gone way up in the month of June. I think it was above 20%. And he had some big strikeout performances there, too. Yeah, I think he's definitely somebody who needs to be at it at this point. Hopefully he gets comfortable with throwing the splitter early because just imagine what his season could be looking like. I mean, we saw. throwing the splitter like this all along.

We saw last year, you know, the second half of the season, he was pretty much a low 3s ERA with a strikeout per inning, even if he's just that. Yeah, he's a must-done start. Yeah. I think the fact that he seems to be getting comfortable with his best pitch again, it's a very good sign. I would say he needs to be owned pretty much everywhere he's available. All right, that's Kevin Gosman we're talking about.

And he did, it was against the raise, right, nine strikeouts? Yeah. They are the striky-outiest team in baseball. I think that's a word. They lead baseball in strikeouts. Could also say that. All right, Clint Frazier for Scott, Kevin Gosman for Chris. What do I think we need to talk about?

Well, you know what? We've got a whole show of notes coming up. So we'll get to it there. Let's do a quick round of emails and tweets at fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. What we really have to talk about is bullpens, because my prediction was somehow wrong. There was not a major trade. Jason Grilly.

the move to Texas. Huge news. But not really. We'll talk about bullpents. We'll catch you up on a lot of them. St. Louis, Atlanta, Alic Colomé struggling, Cleveland, Los Angeles, of Anaheim, Baltimore, etc. Okay, here's a fantasy hot take from Kyle. Fantasy hot take. Joe Ross is Garrett Cole on a better team. Also, Garrett Cole is the most overrated pitcher in baseball. Hmm. I'm more comfortable with. the second one than the first one, actually. Garracol at this point might just be a little bit overrated.

He's not the strikeout guy who was earlier in his career, and he doesn't do enough else well to make up for it. I think he's more like a high 3 ZRA guy than the high 2 ZRA guy he was in that breakout 2015 season. But is he the superlative? the most overrated of all the overrated. Because I mean, somebody tweeted me about Chris Archer calling him, I think you put it just average,

which I don't agree with that, but I do think Chris Archer is kind of overrated too. Yeah, but I'd rather have Archer than... Yeah, no, no, for sure. I'd rather have Archer than Cole. I'm just saying there are probably a bunch of overrated players we can come up with. For me, Joe Ross is Garrett Cole without the ground balls,

which means he's a worse version of Joe Ross or Garrett Cole. And, you know, Joe Ross, he shows these flashes, but I don't know. Is he a must own? He's on a nice little streak here, Joe Ross. Is he a must own? Mostone's probably going a little far. He probably, I don't know what his ownership is up to now. 80.

80? Yeah. It could probably stand to go up a little from there. So he's pretty much a mustone. I do think there are some legitimate adjustments he has made throwing the change up about 10% more often, which has helped make him not a sitting duck against left-handed pitchers. He also credits Dusty Baker has him running a lot more, something Max Scher does, and him losing his stuff in the middle of games. You know, tiring halfway through the game has gone down since that started. So two big adjustments that I feel like combined are making him an effective pitcher again.

Okay, that's Joe Ross, whose ERA is right around three over his last six starts, had a good one against the Mets, who didn't have Cespotists or Curtis Granderson in their starting lineup yesterday. Emmanuel Mara, should I drop Lucroy for Tyler Flowers or Wilson Ramos? Should I drop Luchroy? Let's just get rid of flowers for Wilson Ramos. I don't see the upside to that. I mean, Ramos has been okay. hey, he's got two home runs, but for the most part, he's actually not hitting.

And he's not playing that regularly. Yeah, he's only played six times in, what, 12 days since getting called up or returned from the DL? I don't know exactly. But I mean, Luc Roy, that's his problem, too, mainly is not getting the regular playing time. We're used to seeing from him, and that we expected to see from him. There is, I mean, obviously there's some hope for both. As Ramos gets further and further away from his DL stint, you think he'd play more as long as he'd forms and then

Luke Roy there's word that the Rangers are apparently shopping him I guess they feel like you know after it's funny after that drama you know with the Indians thinking they acquired Luke Roy but him blocking the deal and the Rangers getting him he was like this prize commodity and now he's just a spare

part for the Rangers I imagine if he does get traded it would be to be some team's primary catcher and that could go be Yang Goams backup who's backup? Young Goems I don't think that was that was the controversy for last year. Okay, so that's don't draw Blue Croy for Wilson Ramos.

George from Canada are, have Aaron Nola and Stephen Mats reached must-start status in head-to-head 12 team leagues? Aaron Nola and Stephen Mats. I got a better hot take. Okay. This is a question. Stephen Mats is the best sell high candidate in baseball right now. Okay. How's that for a hot take?

That's. Boy, you guys... Again, I'm hesitant to apply the superlative without considering everybody, but I... It's the only one, Scott. It's the only one, okay. If you don't strike people out, then Chris and Scott are just going to hate you.

Well, it's... Yes. But he's doing it, like, he's doing it intentionally, and this is like, well, last year with Chris Sale, when you said Chris Sale was pitching worse because he wanted to throw more innings, pitch deeper into games, and pitch to contact more. That's what Stephen Matt's is trying to do.

Fine. But we're comparing... Chris Sale to Stephen Matt's. Chris Sale, when he's not trying to strike guys out, is still striking out over a batter per inning. Stephen Matt is striking out 16.4% of opposing batters. He's at 5.8 per nine innings. And it hasn't led to an improved walk rate. And it's five starts. You know, one extra walk could change that entirely. But I just, if he's not throwing his slider and he's not, he's got a 5.7% swinging strike rate. Now, that's not everything.

There are guys who can be effective with relatively low swinging strike rate. Stephen Matts has actually been one of them, only 8.9% for his career. But I just, he doesn't have a swing and miss pitch. And I just, I struggle to see how you can be effective in this era of baseball without a swing and miss pitch. Yeah, the quality of contact people are making now. Conversely, and I thought you were going to talk. about Nola since you're the Resoninary Nola skeptic.

Presently a little skeptic of Nola. I've always been the Nola skeptic. Yeah. I'd go so far as to call you a Nola detractor. Skeptic. No love for Nola. Four really good starts in a row for Nola. And he's one of those guys who doesn't

have a high swing strike rate, but he has a really high called strike rate to help make up for it. and he's been getting strikeouts lately he's been pitching deep into games the walks have been limited he is probably a pitcher like we've talked about with marco astrada

where the command has to be so fine when it is he's you know legit looks like a front line pitcher but when it's not he can get pounded so it's I don't think he's totally out of the woods yet Nola but um I would call him must start at this present time I trust him more than Matt's moving forward

but I'll admit I just have like a mental block on Aeronola I can't figure him out he's just so different from everyone else in baseball really and that's it's it's hard to figure out who he is even just within his own career you know he has these stretches of absolute brilliance and then he has these stretches where he looks like he doesn't belong in the major it looks like he couldn't get college hitters out and I just kind of think that's going to be who he is I think he's going to be inconsistent Can we legitimately go fast on this one, please? This is what's supposed to be a quick round of emails?

Sorry, I'm sorry. This is from Jeremy. What is Orlando Arcia's dynasty outlook? Is this hot streak the last week something to buy into for Orlando Arcia? Well, I have a lot of thoughts on Orlando Arcea. I'm going to carve out about 15 minutes. No, you go. Yeah, I think he's...

The fact that he's a shortstop helps. He's a little less jaggy at shortstop. shortstop, but I'm not, I don't see a ton of reasons to think that he's a, a must-own shortstop in the long run. But it might be different if you're thinking from the dynasty perspective, because suddenly his numbers are looking very encouraging. He's batting average is up to 295, and with the 339 Babbitt that doesn't seem out of this world high, eight home runs in... Which already matches his career high. Yeah, so he's looking like, you know, it's about a 15 homer pace. 16-homber Pace with a good batting average for a shortstop, a 22-year-old shortstop with the top prospect pedigree.

I mean, I'm encouraged by what he's doing. And I do think if you lost Trey Turner, let's say, he's one of the top choices off the waiver wire right now. But he's still behind what we think of as the mixed league class of startable shortstop at this stage of his career. Who would you rather have? Would you rather have Arcia or VR? VR. Yeah, I think I'd still rather have V. I wasn't keeping up with his playing time over the weekend, but assuming he's still playing with fairly regularly,

I'd rather have VR. Well, Sogarde's a little banged up, so I know VR, I think he led off yesterday and struck out three times. Or maybe that was two days ago, I don't know, but Sogards day-to-day with an ankle injury. All right, thank you for a quick round of emails. It's time for Tuesday's standouts. And I'm just going to say America.

America was a standout yesterday. Happy birthday. And I love this country. Way to go. USA. Yeah. I'm going to give you two guys who are, you know, relevant. There you go. That's what I always do.

Stephen Vote is 25%-0. Six games with Milwaukee. Stephen Vote is 5 for 15 with three home runs. Are you excited about this? Are you ready to, like, do the wave over Stephen Vote? No. No, I question the playing time still. He'll probably start against most of the game.

of the right-handers, but it hasn't been every right-hander since he's joined the Brewers. Manny Pena, is it Pina or Pina? Pina, I believe. There's no... Mani Pina. There's no Enya.

Yeah. Has played just as often against right-handers since boat came over. So that's still, you know, borderline top 25 status at catcher. Yeah, he's a two-catcherly guy, not even

worth looking at it, one catcher leagues. Zinino or vote? Zunino. Zunino. Trevor Cahill is 55% owned, came off the DL and threw four and a third scoreless innings at Cleveland. I imagine he was on a pitch count. He struck out four and still has 55 strikeouts now in 45 and 2 thirds and a 296 ERA.

Trevor Cahill, 55% owned. He certainly was more owned than that before he went on the DL. Should we be picking up Cahill? Needs to be picked up. Everywhere you can pick up, pick up. Trevor Cahill. I have expressed my affection for Zach Godley a few times on this podcast, and everything I like about Zach Godley, Trevor Cahill was doing to a higher power before he went on the DL. Elite ground ball rate, as he's always had. But now with a, you know, much higher strikeout rate, emphasizing

his breaking ball more, as Godley also has done. And it led to a high strikeout rate before going on the D.L. Obviously bad supporting cast, but still, the upside looks really high for Cahill. Hodgers have some interesting pitchers, and they all kind of follow the same exact, like, path. They're all elite ground ball guys, Trevor Cahill, Luis Perdomo, and I guess that's the extent of the list, but... Like, Shasine, every time Shasine starts at home, he does well. You know, I know, he's not, I think he might be a little, I don't know if he's under owned Shasine, but just, you know, if you have dead.

desperate for a starter in a daily league or something, and Yelisha Seen has a home game. His ZRA is, I'm almost positive under two at home. It might be under like 150. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right, that concludes our Padres talk. Let's do some hey real quick. We'll get to the big news, which include injuries to Ian Desmond, Carlos Correa, call up in St. Louis. We'll talk about bullpens a little bit later. But hey, real quick, guys, Freddie Freeman, who's going to be third-based eligible pretty soon. He's back. He played third yesterday. You figure he'd be third base eligible soon.

He needs four more appearances. Freddie Freeman or one for 26, Josh Donaldson, one for his last 26. Who would you rather own Freeman or Donaldson? Well, I know Scott and I have been much more all in on Freeman's breakout this season and the second half of last season than Heath was, at least. And I'm going to say Freeman. I have some concerns about his... ability to continue hitting for power coming back from this fractured wrist, especially coming back so soon.

Because that's, that's what it all comes down to. Freddie Freeman's breakout is all about him developing into an elite power hitter with an elite power hitter's profile. We'll see. But assuming he's the guy he was before the injury, I would take him over Donaldson. And it has nothing to do with Donaldson's slump. Like, I just legitimately feel like Freeman as a hitter has surpassed Donaldson. at least that's how it was looking before he got hurt. Oh, okay. We're done?

Yeah. Okay. All right, cool. Who would you rather have real quick? Mike Mustakis and his 24 home runs or Justin Turner and his 384 batting average. Mike Mustakis or Justin Turner? Turner. Yeah.

Turner. Because we know he's a pretty good power hitter too. Got off to a slow start in that area. but he actually he and Daniel Murphy were like the the founders of the fly ball revolution before it became the cool thing to do they emerged as these

power hitters out of nowhere and Justin Turner has picked up the power production of late yeah started to make up ground in that category and I think he's going to be he's not going to overtake Mustakis and home runs at this point but he's going to be the much more well-rounded hitter and better overall

and his plate discipline has been phenomenal this year. Yes. What, three more walks than strikeouts now? No, one more walk. Do some math, Chris. 26 walks, 25 strikeouts in 60 games. Fine.

Now, speaking of walks, so Chris said Stephen Matt's best-sell high candidate in fantasy baseball. What about Mike Mustakis? This guy has walked 15 times. He has 14 doubles in half a season. It's not terrible, but it's nothing special. He, I guess, is sort of reminding me of Scott Shebler last year, or Adam Duvall. Adam Duvall last year where it's like all he does is Homer. And I guess there's no reason to think that's necessarily going to stop,

except we don't see Mustaka hitting 48 home runs this year. But if it does stop, like he's not a batting average guy. He doesn't walk. He doesn't double, at least not now. He's got the, Mastakis is the fewest walks of any of the top 13, 13. basement, is Mike Mustakis a sell-high candidate? Yes, but I don't know how many people are buying it, you know? Yeah, I don't know that I'd be motivated to sell high on him.

Because he's not, yeah, I mean, I guess it just depends what. Maybe I'm just approaching it from the perspective like Chris was saying that I don't know what that even looks like, what would you'd get back, that would be high enough. Could you see him having a dreadful second half, a la Adam Duvald? I definitely could. It's possible, but he's, like, there's a very good chance he gets traded, too. And if his home park isn't Kansas City anymore, that obviously improves his odds of sustaining elite home road production.

And it is worth noting this breakout, as far as it goes, did start in 2016 before he got hurt. He has, going back to the start of 2016, he's played 101 games. He has 30 homers, 63 RBI, only 66 strikeouts. He doesn't walk much, but, you know, there's legitimate power breakout here. Yeah, I think it's, like, his batting average is low because he hits so many fly balls, which is why he hits so many home runs. But he doesn't strike out at, like, a duval rate. He doesn't strike out like you'd expect a guy on pace for 40 home runs to do.

So, like, even if that fly ball rate was to fall some, I think he'd make up for it in batting average a little. And I don't know. I don't feel like the floor is that low for Mike Bustakis. Hey, real quick, Danny Duffy or Alex Wood? Alex Wood. Yeah. Okay, fine. Alex Wood is this year's Danny Duffy.

Like, that's, I think we were saying that earlier in the season, and it's held true. He's sustained the velocity gains since showing in the rotation, and it's made him unhittable. Okay, then. So Alex Wood, Danny Duffy or Luis Severus? Severino. Severino. Severino. Really?

Yeah. Severino's great. Severino's really good. I think Duffy... I still like Duffy. Duffy's fine. But there were some warning signs even before he went on the DL

that he wasn't the same pitch. He made a mechanical adjustment. He was starting to pitch better before going on the DL, except the last start. You know, then he got crushed and then he went on the DL. But he was starting to pitch better.

His velocity went up, according to what I had read. He made a mechanical adjustment and it helped the velocity. I don't remember if it helped the strikeouts or not. I don't believe it did. This first start back for the DL was actually a little on the low side as far as velocity goes. Well, you know, his last two starts before going on the DL were two of his better strikeout performances.

So maybe there is something to the mechanical adjustment, like you were saying. But it's nothing compared to what Severino's been doing with the strikeout this year. All right, hey, real quick, Harry's Razors or any of those other horrible razor companies that aren't nearly as good as Harry's? Harris. Okay. Harris. I agree, guys. And you all should go to harries.com slash F-B-T, H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com slash F-B-T for a free trial shave set.

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All right, the big news. Marcus Stroman left Monday start with a blister, and he is angry about it. He says, come on, MLB, stop turning a blind eye to this blister thing. He may not make his next start. It's going into the all-stop break. Shouldn't be a huge deal,

but, yeah, there are a lot of blisters, and they say the ball's not juiced. They say the seams aren't different, but I don't know if the seams were different. Who says? Baseball. Okay. Justin Verlander had some quotes about the seams as well.

He basically said they're non-existent at this point. Which I, both Justin Verlander and Marcus Drummond, I think, doff protest a bit too much in this instance. But there's definitely something different with the baseball. Ian Desmond's on the deal with a strained calf. Anybody interested in picking up Rymel Tapia? Only in deeper. I mean, he's interesting, for sure. He looks like he could be a ridiculously good contact hitter in a, you know, obviously a place where his home park already makes for, like, high babids.

He looks like he could be a batting title contender someday. Isn't he just Herardo Parra, though? No, I think he's better than Parra. I think he's going to have more power in the long run. And I think he's an even better contact hitter than Parra. right now he may not be any better than parra at this stage of his career yeah that's what i mean right now yeah yeah okay rymel topia carlos care a day to day with a jam thumb the cardinals called up luke voight he is two percent owned he is seven for nineteen they call them up a little while ago he's

played nine games but uh hometown hero luke void anyone care about luke voight of course he's he's hitting well after nobody's ever heard of him because this is what the cardinals do he'll probably win an MVP award at some point. You know, the best, the extent I care about Voigt, Luke Voight, is the extent he has Matt Carpenter playing second base. Which, I mean, maybe says something about the Cardinals' confidence level in Voight, but at least against left-handers, it looks like Void is going to play first and Carpenter is going to shift to second, and hopefully that'll add up to 20 appearances at second base for Carpenter, so he's not just first base only heading into next year. Yeah, and actually I was watching a Cardinals game like a month ago. Who the heck was doing the game? You know, that guy, Rick Sutcliffe.

And he thought that they should move him off of first base because he felt like it was affecting his hitting. And we shall see. But that would be nice if he could hit a little bit better. Mike, Matt Carpenter, Mike Trout's going to begin a rehab assignment soon. Logan Morrison does not think Gary Sanchez should be in the home run derby. Lobo said, quote, I remember when I had 14 home runs, that was a month and a half ago. You know what all this made me think?

What? How obnoxious Logan Morrison would have been if he'd actually been good for any of the last eight years before this? It was like you have two good months all of a sudden you're going to spout off. Come on, man. Well, I could see him going into the Home Run Derby ahead of Gary Sanchez. I think that's fair. Who cares? Does anybody want to see Logan Morrison in the Home Run Derby?

At least Gary Sanchez is fun, plays for a big market team. He's better. But that's not fair to, Logan Morrison, Chris. Logan Morrison's not being fair to Gary Sanchez. Gary Sanchez is a catcher who missed a month of action. And, you know, he's already going to be in Miami for the All-Star game. That's true.

Plus, Logan Morrison hated Hanley Ramirez when he was with the Marlins, so he's an enemy of the state. Logan Drive there. When do we find out who wins the final vote? I don't know. I haven't voted yet. Who did you guys vote for? I have not voted yet. But Anthony Rendon definitely should win.

Anthony Rendon from the NL and Elvis Andrews from the AL, and I don't really have to think about it that hard. Not that the other four choices from each league aren't also deserving of being all-stars. I mean, kind of the problem this year is, you know, there are way too many all-star caliber hitters. DJ Lemieux should not have made the all-star game. That is a disaster. Yeah, that's, but like who would be the backup second baseman in the ALA? Anthony Rendon can play second. He certainly can.

Or I pitched the idea. De Gordon would have been a better choice than DJ LeMay. Put Anthony Rizzo on the roster to play second base since that's the position he plays now. There you go. Speaking of the Cubs, they are interested in Justin Verlander and Alex Avila. Avila, by the way, is only 65% only 0. He has a 9.92 OPS and he's caught four of the last five games. And he mostly sits against lefties.

But Avila, it might help you out. I don't think it would be good if he went to the Cubs because he probably wouldn't play nearly as much. Yeah. Miguel Cabrera left with hip tightness. He's expected to play tonight. And David Price left with a finger injury. He had a great start. It doesn't seem serious.

Closing time. Let's talk about bullpens. So I try to sum up. Let's see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten bullpens. Wow. That's good work by me. That's a lot of work.

All right. Where to go, Adam. My summary of the Nationals bullpen is just UG, UG-H. that UGH? Is that the correct spelling? Yeah, that's the proper spelling. I don't even know what to say here. They don't seem to be getting many save chances lately. They're just killing everyone.

But Matt Albers has had a shot at it. He's stunk. Yeah. Quick thoughts on the Nationals bullpen? Your guess is as good as mine. The closer in three weeks is probably not currently on the roster. I think that's still the expectation. All right.

Texas. Matt Bush. Is that a long time. Did you mention that? Cote Glover is out a long time. a long time. Yeah, he's not close. Texas, Jeremy Jeffers activated from the DL. He's had a bad year this year, but he had been good in previous three seasons. And, you know, LeClerc is in the mix, I guess. Matt Bush,

not necessarily out of it, but who's best guess in Texas? Bush is still in the DL? No, Matt Bush is fine. It was Keone Keely. It looks like he was about to overtake Matt Bush, and then suddenly he wound up on the DL. It doesn't seem like a long-term issue, but It buys Matt Bush some time, and I would still bet on Matt Bush in the long run because of that. Kayla's worth keeping close, but it doesn't seem like the Rangers have a great deal of confidence in LeClerc and high leverage roles. Unless something's changed recently, I'm going to open up his game. I'm sorry, Scott. You would bet on who in the long term?

I'd still bet on Bush, Matt Bush. All right. Yeah, I dropped him in a two-closer, in a 12-team. points league, but I have Zach Britton coming back. He'll be off the DL tomorrow. That brings us to Baltimore. They're going to ease Zach Britain. Actually, coming off to the DLTA today.

They're going to ease Zach Britain. Basically been a seventh inning guy. We'll ease Zach Britain back into the closer's role in Baltimore. Let's go to Atlanta. Jim Johnson has blown six saves and 24 chances. Do you think Jim Johnson is in any danger of losing his job? I can't say zero. There are pitchers on the braves with relievers on the brace with lower ERAs

and a rosa vis guy, you know, is one of them. but Jim Johnson has by far the best FIP in their bullpen. And believe it or not, a continuation from the second half of last year, he also has the best K-per-9 in their bullpen. It's 11.3. So, you know, extreme groundball pitcher doesn't allow many home runs. I think it's just been some bad timing, some bad luck there. There's a chance he gets traded again, right?

There is a chance he gets traded and probably not to serve as a closer. So that's something you have to keep in mind. Certainly in like deep leagues, the only leagues I own this guy, you know. But I don't think Johnson's actually on the verge of losing his job. At least not if I was managing the Braves. Best guess in St. Louis. Singwano. Oh.

Yeah. Yeah. He gets another chance. And I don't have a lot of confidence in him, but I think he gets another chance. If Trevor Rosenthal could stop tripping on his own. feet, he'd have a chance, but he's just not very good. They both pitched yesterday because they hadn't pitched since July 1st, and

it was a non-same situation they lost, but Rosenthal pitched the 8th and O. Pitch the 9th, and they both threw a scoreless inning. Best guess in the Angels bullpen with Bud Norris off the D.L. Bud Norris. Yep. Bud Norris, okay. Best guess,

well, not best guess. Is there any chance do you think Alex Colome could lose his job? His last five appearances, Colome has given up 10 earn runs. Brad Boxburger pitched the seventh yesterday. Tommy Hunter pitched the eighth. These guys are good players with track records. Alex Colimate, do you think there's a chance he could lose his job?

I don't think there's a chance in the near future that he's just going to be removed in, you know, like the way we saw with Sam Dyson earlier this year. There may be a pull him away for half a week or a week. And the fact that this slump is coming in June or July rather than April. really helps. But this is like 10 runs in five outings. This is five in a row. It's been ugly. And he hasn't had that good of a year when you look at the walk-to-strikeout ratio

compared to last year. It's not even close. No, not compared to last year, but compared to everyone else in the raised bullpen. There's no closer in waiting in the raised bullpen. They want Colomé to figure it out because he's clearly their most talented reliever. Okay. Next up, we've got the A's. Santiago Casilla blew his fourth save.

He now has a 402 ERA. You think you could see a change in the A's bullpen? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think adding Sean Doolittle is a bad idea. All right. Let's move on to Cleveland. Cody Allen. He pitched, he got a one-out save Sunday. He pitched yesterday. They were losing one to nothing. Corey Klober with an amazing start, but he lost. And he struck out the side at the Padres. There's nothing actionable at all in Cleveland's bullpen. Like you just, you have to ride it out. Cody Allen's going to lose some save opportunities at times, but he's not going to lose the job. And finally, Jayreys Familia could be back in about a month, early August. So there's that. So relieved, I unloaded Addison Reed in my dynasty league.

So relieved. Yeah, all right. It's time for our discovery of the day. I couldn't believe this. Absolutely blew my mind over the weekend. Scott White has an unbelievable singing voice. Unbelievable. It's incredible.

I was sitting... He posted a video on Facebook of him singing to his kid and it was like a rock concert. You killed it. It was amazing. What song did you sing? The Cat Came Back?

I don't know. I think that's what it's called. Is that as Led Zeppelin song, Scott? I have no idea. I heard it from Lori Berkner. It's not. I'm just kidding. It's like a little kid song.

But there are a few different versions of The Cat Came Back. It's a song about a cat. And he starts the video. He starts the video. the video, it's like a three-minute video. He starts a video like on his cat in the kitchen. And then he goes on and he starts singing the song.

He starts singing like the bass line of the song. And then he goes over to his kid, Everett, who's eating at the dinner table. And it's amazing what Scott does. Scott sings the whole verse so that I guess during the chorus, they're supposed to make a cat sound. So Everett makes the cat sounds. It was a great heartwarming, heartwarming video. But Scott has pipes. He killed it.

It's the best thing you've ever done, Scott. Oh. Thank you, Adam. You're very welcome. I don't... Well, thank you. I'll just leave it that. Thank you.

All right. Good job. I loved it. Let's see. What else do we got here? More news and notes for you. Very sad to see that Dan Shulman will not be doing Sunday night baseball next season.

Mark Trumbo left with a bruised calf. He fouled the ball off his calf, so it's not like one of those strained calves or anything. Yasmani Tomas had a setback. He's going to be out for a little while now. He's still on the deal, but he had a setback with his groin. I don't AJ Pollock will be back soon

Like I don't think this gets Catele Marte in the lineup Does it? Well Pollock is back now Pollock's back? He's off the DL I missed that Wow I guess I was partying too much Yeah Pollock came back yesterday

The Pollock came back And he went one for four with a double So what was the question What is the Cite Cich Well he hasn't been playing playing very much, so I would guess they're going to send it back down at first opportunity. It's been disappointing to me how little he's played after the kind of season he had at AAA. Yeah, he got to start at third yesterday.

Oh, they sat Jake Lamb against Kershaw. But he's only started three games in about nine days up, so that's not a good sign. I do like Cattell Marte in the long run as a guy who should have good plate those. discipline, but it just doesn't seem like the opportunities there. All right, guys. Next note, Junjin Ryu is on the DL with a sore foot. Dodgers, add it again. Jason Hayward's off the DL. Albert Pujols, homered for the first time since June 17th. You think that's bad. Christian Yelich at his first home run in 32 days.

Yeah, but it was probably only like his fourth fly ball in that span. So if you think about it that way. That's not bad. Hey, Chris, you get my, you think that's bad reference? reference? Uh, no. You think that's bad? It's like, remember the time I had lunch in Mexico with Gary Coleman? It's a terrible impression. Okay. Yeah, that's South Park impersonating, or family guy impersonating South Park or whatever. I think it was South Park, impersonating family guy, yeah. Yeah, uh, Yonder Alonzo told Franklin Barreto during yesterday's

game that Barreto needed to be more aggressive. So he did, and he was, and he hit a triple in a home run. So we'll keep an eye on that. I love that. I love that as the, panacea of all things just be more aggressive every sport every player just needs to be more aggressive meanwhile franklin bretto has a 40% strikeout rate so maybe he needs to be a little is that the way you pronounce that panacea i don't think so i always said panacea but i i i only know it from like yeah that might be like the third time i've ever said it out loud i'm gonna go panacea no i think it's panacea how many how many how many players Who's the last player to begin his career where the first three extra base hits he had were two home runs and a triple?

No doubles yet. No, but the thing with Barreto is that he kept falling behind in the count. It wasn't like... Panacea. Panacea, yeah. He kept falling behind in the count. So Yonner said, go up there and be more aggressive, and he did. David Robertson's on paternity leave.

Corey Kluber, five straight games with double-digit strikeouts, Cleveland record. Danny Salazar will make a rehab start tomorrow. Charlie Morden and Aaron Sanchez look like they're going to pitch against each other on Friday. Also, Brad Peacock may not make his second start this week because Musgrove's starting today. Morton on Friday. So it's either going to be Peacock or Francis Martez on Sunday. I'm hoping it's Peacock because I don't own Martez and I own Peacock. Aaron Sanchez could start Friday.

Oh, I said that. Scooter Jeanette sat against the lefty yesterday, but then he hit a pinch-in-home run. Then he's homered in two straight games at Colorado. Scooter Jeanette just keeps on, keeping on. Starling Marte is going to be back on July 18th. And he will be playing left field. Yes, Andrew McCutcheon. The great Andrew McCutcheon will stay in center.

Even though he's been really bad in center. Matt Shoemaker could return after the All-Star break. Brian Dozier Day to Day with back tightness. Kyle Schwerber could be back this week. He's turned it around at AAA. And the Angel sent Alex Meyer to AAA, but Meyer will be back. You're going to see guys go to AAA with the All-Star break coming just to get work in. So that's what happened with Alex Meyer.

Double Dongs from yesterday. Yonder Alonzo, Eric Thames, Andrew McCutcheon, and Andrew Bessendi. Yonder Alonzo, 77% owned, hit two home runs against the White Sox. His previous 20 games, Yonder hit 194 with one home run. He had been terrible. And by the way, Franklin Barreto told him to hit two home runs, so he did. But more teams should do that. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

So what do you think, like, is the Yonder Alonzo Magic? I know we hit two home runs yesterday, but are you guys concerned that it's done? He's certainly dropable in shallower leagues just because there's so many good first basemen. I don't think we've seen the last of him, though. No, I think he's clearly an improved player, but he's not as good as he looked a month ago. Yeah, I actually dropped Justin Boar in the 12th team points league That version of the podcast league And I would say the same for him

I don't think we've heard the last of him is a Valuable mixed league option Just they're kind of interchangeable in that format and shallower I'm gonna lose the Heath this week That is so just embarrassing Just stinks Well, okay Andrew Benintending you didn't just double dong

He went five for five. He did. I'm quite surprised that Andrew Benintendi is the number 18 outfielder in points league's number 21 or Roto. I'm even more surprised at the Roto thing because I know he walks a lot. But top 21 outfielder for Ben Intendi, I don't know what it was before this two homer game with six RBIs. But I don't know. 50 RBI's and 43 runs certainly helps for Ben Tendi. Over the last month, his OPS hit a season low of 707 on June 3rd.

He's hitting 314 with a 9-54 OPS in that time. Is that, is a lot of that on base percentage? I'm just asking. 396, he's got a 5.58 slugging. He's got 10 extra base hits and his last 22 starts. All right. So he's pretty good. Yeah, he's just a good hitter.

I think he's, you know, just good. Who do you think I'll have a better year going forward? Eric Thames or Andrew McCutcheon? I have McCutcheon higher. I have Thames higher. But, yeah, I'm losing confidence in Thames. Hopefully that little two-day period he took to kind of clear his mind. I don't know.

It said it's something he would work on in Korea. Kind of a meditation thing. And he's come back with three home runs in two games. So, I don't know. I need to see a hot streak from Thames soon. It's more confidence in McCutcheon for me than lack of confidence in Thames. Okay, ready for that? this. I was sick of this Andrew McCutcheon stuff.

Like, okay. Isn't he, this can't continue. Andrew McCutcheon has 16 home runs. These are his home runs in his last four seasons. And two of those seasons, he was really good. 21, 25, 23, and 24. And we're basically at the halfway point of the season right now for just about every team. So McCutcheon's on like a 30-home or pace, maybe 32.

He's played 81 games. And I looked at the batted balls. He's not hitting more fly balls. But. What? the laces are lower I mean I guess that's true but I just feel like right now McCutcheon is

relative to the league he's not really seeing that big of an increase in power well he is over the last you know five weeks right I just I think you you take the at this point in the season you take it as a whole I agree you got 81 games it doesn't 81 games is a small enough sample size

where once you start slicing and dicing and trying to say well this is who he really is or this is who he really is or this is who he really is with these kind of arbitrary endpoints. It's just like, just take Andrew McCutcheon's numbers for what they are. You know, low strikeout rate, high walk rate, hitting for decent power, but not elite. I think that's pretty much who he is now. I'm going to have the last laugh on Andrew McCutcheon. I might be laughing at myself, but one way or another, I will laugh. Why not? Laughter's good. Let's talk about pitchers from yesterday. Wait, I skipped a very important section here because I'm an idiot.

It was the best and the worst of the last five days. Do you even see it in the notes? No. Did I delete it? Yep, you probably did. It was an idiotic thing to do, Adam. What the heck? Why did I delete that?

I don't know. What else did I delete? Probably some major trade. All right, fine. Let's talk about rotation and fringy starting pitchers. Why don't you rank these guys for me? Jimmy James Nelson. He's been awesome.

J-Hap, very, very consistent lately. Yep. And the strikeouts are up. I don't think the swinging strikes are up, though. No, it's not. James and Tyone, who said, he threw five scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, and then he said something that made Scott and Chris cringe, said, quote, I'd rather go seven innings with four strikeouts.

Well, he's that kind of pitcher, too. He's a bit of a ground ball pitch to contact guy. Yeah. All right, Nelson, Hap, Tyone, Lance Lynn, who's had two good ones in a row. This was a better start than the final line. And Brad Peacock, who had, I think, his second quality start. And since Brad Peacock made his first start, eight starts ago, he's been the number 40 starting pitcher in points leagues. I don't know in Roto, it's a little harder to calculate.

Probably higher, I would guess, just because he throws so few innings. That's going to drag him down in. points. Yeah, and the strikeouts are so good. Yeah, probably. The whip is high, too. Pretty good. 40th with only two quality starts.

Yeah. And the only reason he has two is because of innings, not because of run prevention. Yep, Jimmy Nelson, J. Hap, Tyone, Lynn, Peacock. Who you got? That's the order I'd rank them. Nelson Hap, Tyone, Lynn, Peacock,

with the caveat that in a shallow league, let's say 10 teams or fewer, I might give Peacock the edge over Lynn because I don't know that Lynn's upside. is enough for him to stand out in those shallower leagues. But normally I'd go the safe route with Lynn over Peacock, and I think you have them ranked right here. I have Tyone at the top, obviously.

Nelson, well, we know, my love of Tyone is well established at this point. Tyone, Nelson, Little Gap, Hap, Little Gap, Lynn Peacock. Okay. Jimmy Nelson, man, what a surprise. It's been fantastic. What a year. 112 strikeouts and 104 innings. Other starting pitchers.

Oh, I didn't put the Worryometer in either. I feel like I lost a page in the notes. Go back from the NOS document. Do you see the Wariometer in your notes? Nope. I guess I just deleted it. What are you doing, Adam? Justin Verlander, John Lester, Chris Archer,

they were on the Worryometer, and Felix Hernandez was on the Wariometer, and I just think he should be on the dropometer. Yeah. Well, maybe. I'm not saying he's a 10 on the dropometer, but it's worth discussing dropping Felix Hernandez. I think we've seen enough between this year and last.

Would you drop Felix Hernandez for Luis Castillo, who struck out five at course field, or struck out nine in course field, excuse me. Yeah, and the walks were low for him, which is something he did in the miners, and we were waiting to see. I'm very impressed by this Louis Castillo kid. Yeah, I'm really glad the Marlins trade. him.

I might wait on dropping Felix Hernandez for him because I feel like I can wait because there hasn't been, there have been good signs from Luis Castillo. He hasn't exactly had a good start yet. And I have confidence

he will, but let's see just a little more from Felix Hernandez before we make that switch. Yeah, Felix is 93% old. People really still have faith in him. Adam Wainwrights almost that own. Yeah, I personally don't have that much faith in Felix, but...

No, it doesn't have the stuff anymore. Yeah, would you drop Felix Hernandez for Trevor Cahill? I'd be more likely to do that, I think, because I have a lot of confidence in Cahill. And it's possible that time away just completely crushed his momentum, and he'll never be able to regain what he was showing before the injury. But I would not want somebody else to benefit from Trevor. K Hill. If he does pick up where he left off, I want it to be me.

Me. You. Selfish. Selfish Scott Wade. That's how Rick Grimes says me. Me. Who's Rick Grimes? Who's Rick Grimes? Yeah, that's what I said. Walking Dead.

Oh. He ended a lot of sentences with me. I know, Rick. From me to me. Me. Carl! A lot of repressions today. I like it. Man, we are rested and relaxed.

We got to take more five-day weekends or four-day weekends, Chris Towers. Make that happen. I got you. Thank you. I mean, I'm taking a whole week off next week, so there's that. You'll be arrested. And you'll be deleting everything the next day. Deleting?

Yeah, from the notes. Oh, yeah. Geez, I can't believe I did that. Delete your mind. At least I know them somewhat off the top of my head. So while we're on that subject, how worried are you about Justin Verlander, John Lester, and Chris Archer? I'm not particularly worried about any of them. Pitchers are just so inherently inconsistent that when you see these stretches like

Justin Verlander just actually had probably the best stretch of his season. And then has this awful start on Sunday. I think it's like the first time in many years that he's had to start without a strikeout. That's worrying, but he was looking so much better before that that I'm not particularly worried about him. I mean, there will come a point where we're going to have to stop apologizing for Verlander, but I don't think we're there yet either because there were some encouraging signs. I mentioned Archer might be a little overrated at the start of the show. And, you know, to clarify that, because a lot of people, when they hear overrated, they think bad.

Chris Archer's a must-start pitcher. I mean, he's one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game. But he's not so great at run prevention. He's not for all the bad teams. is he can be pretty hitable. He has control issues. He's kind of like I think we should expect

an ERA closer to four than three from Chris Archer going forward and on the Rays that might not I don't know man. He might continue to struggle to have a good win loss record. Is he like maybe just a better version of Robbie Ray? First of all the Rays

are a wildcard team right now. They're like 44 and 41. They're not one of those. those, like they're in, if the season into today, they'd be in the wild card. They're not, they're really not bad. I mean, with Lomo and Dickerson having this kind of a year, they're not some, like, I'd like Chris Archer's win-loss potential more with the Yankees because the offense he'd have backing him. Sure.

Yeah, except the Yankees can't win anymore, but. No. They had Chris Archer. They could. The, what the heck were we saying? Oh, Archer, like, so going in. the year, you know, he had been consistently like a 3.30 ERA guy, and then last year he had a bad first half. And then second half, it was more like 320 or something as ERA. So I just figured that

he, you know, had one bad half of a season, and he was like a 330 ERA guy, which is still a little high for someone with his strikeouts. But you think more like high threes for Chris Archer? I'd expect something in the mid-3 range. All right, but Scott said high threes. I said closer to four than three. I mean, it might be like 3-6. 351 is closer to 4. It is, yeah. Technicality.

I mean, the badbib's a little on the high side for Archer, I guess. He's normally like 295, and right now he's 328. So, you know, maybe I'm overstating it a little, but this seems to be an ongoing issue for him where he's just not quite the ace we wanted to be. Let's finish the show by looking at today's matchup. Start or sit, Marco Estrada at Michael Paneda. I'll start both hesitantly. I'm not starting Estrada.

Yeah, I would not either. I need to see a good stretch of starts from him to trust him fully. Blake Snell at John Lackey. I would not start either. Neither would I. Mike Pelfrey at Sunny Gray. Sunny Gray. Definitely start Sunny Gray.

Yeah, let's run him out there. Garrett Cole at Ben Lively. I will start Garrett Cole. I would too. Yep. Jacob de Grom at Tanner Roark. I want to see what the Mets lineup looks like. I don't hate the idea of starting Tanner Roark,

given the guys they're missing. He's been abysmal. I wouldn't trust him against the Padres right now. But I would absolutely trust DeGrom. How about we're not going to start Jason Aquino, or Matt Garza, so no. Luis Perdomo at Trevor Bauer. Uncle Bauer, sure.

Yeah, Bauer's a good streaming option. Tie Block at Daniel Norris. No. Pass on both. Joe Musgrove at Jaime Garcia. Pass on both. Yeah, no, yeah, neither. I hope you didn't start Sean Nukum in a two-star week this week.

He had the worst matchups in baseball. He had the Astros, and he's at the Nationals this weekend. He's not good. Yeah, I was a little worried about him. Luis Castillo was at Colorado at Arizona. It might be worse. That might be worse. I don't know, actually.

Astros are incredible. Oh, we didn't mention. No humanor this year. No, we mentioned that, yeah. Oh, okay, on Friday? Yeah, yeah. Red Sox and Rangers. Doug Fister, Andrew Cashner, no.

Neither. The Red Sox are back, by the way. Like, I sat Jacob Ferreya this week. One-star pitcher against the Red Sox, not interested. Parker Bridwell, Irvin Santana, Angels of Twins. Starting Santana. Volquez at Mike League. Starting leak.

Yeah. Scott Feldman at John Gray. This is in Colorado. We're starting John Gray. I'd prefer to sit both if I can. Yeah, probably sitting gray and certainly Feldman. Though Feldman's been okay lately. Wouldn't expect it at Colorado.

John Gray, that was a start we didn't talk about. That was, I think, Friday. He was amazing coming off the D.L. He's real good. Zach Godley and Alex Wood. All right, we're going to start them both. Are we going to start godly at the Dodgers, just to confirm? Yes.

Yes. All right. And Jason Vargas at Ariel Miranda. What do you think, Chris? You're starting Vargas? You have to keep starting Vargas, and at some point it's going to blow up in your face. And I don't think Miranda's bad with this matchup either. I think I're both.

Vargas definitely starting Miranda. If I already had him on my roster, I'd absolutely start him. All right, fellas. Thank you for a good show. It's good to be back. catching up with everybody. Ooh, I got four starts today in my Yahoo League. I need some big ones.

I need some big ones. You guys told me to start all of them. What are you doing playing on Yahoo, Adam? Ah, this has got one big. Get out of here. You know, it's frustrating? Like, I can't take AJ, I forgot. I can't take AJ Pollock off the D.L. right now and have him play today.

He's not eligible to play until tomorrow. Weird rule, that is. But I digress. Goodbye, everybody.