Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/05: Worryometer, Name That Player and More! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 5, 2018

We're recapping the last two days of action which included two brilliant starts at Coors Field on Wednesday (3:14). Are we buying Tyler Anderson or Andrew Suarez? And what is Shohei Ohtani's value as a hitter right now (6:55)? There is a lot to consider ... Bullpen notes (14:00) and our first edition of Name That Player (17:00) in 2018! Heath has to try to guess as Adam gives clues about three hitters who are tearing it up lately ... Worryometer (28:00) for Clayton Kershaw and his low swinging strike rate, Kyle Hendricks, Dallas Keuchel, Jose Berrios, Bryce Harper and Cesar Hernandez. We also discuss the good (41:00), average (43:15) and bad SPs (48:35) from the last two days before previewing today's matchups (56:06) ... Your emails at [e-mail] Today's episode is sponsored by www.ZipRecruiter.com 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

America. And pick your milk for breakfast cereal. Mount Rushmore. They'll be there for America. And those of you listening around the world, happy 5th of July. I hope you all had a great holiday. We are back talking fantasy baseball here.

I am Adamazer with Just Heath Cummings today. Hello, Heath. How was your fourth? I don't know that I like the way you said. Just Heath coming is if you're letting the listeners down. It did not come out right. I felt that when I said it, and I didn't meet it like that. I just usually Scott's on Thursday.

He's not on today. I'm so sorry to everyone listening for Scott. I will do my best. I had a fantastic Fourth of July, spent hours upon hours in the ocean, just hanging out because it was too hot to sit on the beach. It was pretty hot all over the country. We had a great time as well. My one thing that I seem to be addicted to that I cannot quit is Fudgy the Whale. And we had a Fudgy the American Flag cake, and I had two slices, which is a lot for me.

I don't know what Fudgy the Whale is. Okay, it's that Carvel ice cream cake. It's got chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, the crunchies in the middle, and then some icing on top. It's the best. I just can't. Is that a New York thing? No, just go to Carvel. Go to Carvel and get a Fudge of the Whale.

I don't know. I've never seen a Carvel in court. They're around. They're around. Well, I had a wonderful July 4th, but the problem with July 4th is July 5th, because I am just, I got to, I'm in work mode now, but it took a while, so let's get going. Wednesday, we got two days of baseball to talk about. Two days. So who stood out to you on either Tuesday or Wednesday, 8th?

I'm going to go with somebody whose performance in these two days was great. again, maybe not quite standout level, but it caused me to look up his season long numbers now, which stood out to me because of how far he's come. Matt Carpenter, three more hits, including a double on the 4th of July. He's up to an 879 OPS. He's the number seven first baseman in fantasy in points leagues. Let's find out where he is in Roto leagues. That's always the discussion, because I love him.

And I've got Carpenter. Unfortunately, I own him in two leagues. neither of them are points leagues. One of them has total basis as a category, so it helps. What are we looking at? First base or second base? Well, I was going to say, this, again, illustrates the position thing.

He's the number seven first baseman and the number eight second baseman and the number 10 third baseman. Okay, so we'll just take first base for Carpenter. All right, give me a second. I'll look it up. I ran a custom report earlier, and I have the wrong date range.

I do have also a standout from Chris Towers, who wanted to let us know that Tyler Anderson is good now. And what he's done is last four starts to start throwing his cutter a lot more often. And that has led to a big spike in swinging strikes. All right, by the way, Matt Carpenter is number seven in points at first base. He's number 12 in Roto. Pretty good. Not going to complain about that. Tyler Anderson, my standout was Andrew Suarez.

So yesterday we had a 1-0 game at Coors Field. That is the 10th 1-0 game in Coors Field history. Not a lot of 1-0 games. And Andrew Suarez and Tyler Anderson faced off against each other. So, yeah, who do you like better? Because both of them can be considered standout. Suarez, in the six starts before this one yesterday, had a 262 ERA. He gets a lot of ground balls.

Now you've got to figure in like his last 7 starts, he probably has like a 2.30-ish. ERA or something. Tyler Anderson is, I think, only a one-star pitcher next week. I will confirm, whereas Suarez has the Cubs and A's at home. Who do you like better, Tyler Anderson or Andrew Swares? Both these guys pretty darn available. Pretty darn available and pretty darn similar in terms of the numbers they've given you so far this year.

Anderson with a 390 ERA's whereas at 392. And it's a tough call because if I thought for sure that there was No chance Suarez was going to move from rotation. Then I would definitely say him. I would rather have the pitcher that pitches half of his games in San Francisco than half of his games in Colorado. Yeah. But there's a lot of changes that could happen on that Giants rotation. He would seem to me to be one of the safer guys.

But when Samarja, Bumgarner, Quedo are all healthy, there's only two spots left for the rest of those guys. And so we're looking like Chris Stratton, we can get him out. Derek Rodriguez is interesting Right And then Derek Holland is also interesting I mean I would like to see them stick with Suarez But you're right there is no certainty

Well yeah My preference by far would be Stick with Rodriguez and Suarez Yes But Stratton And Holland were guys That they planned on starting Before Suarez and Rodriguez ever got a chance

So Do you think that either Suarez Or Tyler Anderson is someone that you're looking to add right now. They, to me, will, like, I need to move both of them up in my rankings, but I'm not going to move them up into this part of the rankings where I'd be looking to add them thinking,

I'm going to keep this guy on my roster the rest of the year. It's still going to be a weekly basis type thing. I haven't looked at what their matchups are for next week. I got it for you. So Suarez has two starts. He's against the Cubs and the A's at home. Remember, the A's are one of the best road teams in baseball, but it's not like they're getting a park.

Right. It's not they're getting a good park shift or anything going to San Francisco. And then Tyler Anderson, I have him with one start against Arizona at home next week. I would be much more interested in adding Suarez with those matchups on the horizon. Right. But again, just to say it, we don't know that Suarez is going to make those two starts next week. Because Quato and Samarja are making progress. Right.

All right. So any other standouts? You know, here's why, if there was a reason why I was upset about Scott not being here, I do have a game coming up later in the show notes that would have helped if you had a competitor against you, but you'll just have to play against your job. I will just play against my own incompetence. Okay. Any other standouts, or shall we move on to the news? I mean, we should probably talk about Shohei Otani picking up two hits and what his value is going to be as a hitter the rest of the year.

It's such a weird situation. Yes. So Otani has now played two games. He went 0 for four with three strikeouts in the first game. Yesterday he had two hits. He scored two runs. I think he had a double. I do have an email here from Josh.

Where is Otani as a batter? Is he must own? Should I drop Brian Dozier or Nick Marquakis for Shohei Otani? I would not, if I'm just picking up Shohei to Otani, the hitter, if it's one of those kind of leagues. It is. And the problem with Otani is that, like, obviously the angels are hoping a month from now he can pitch again. If he does, that's going to destroy his value as a hitter again. Because he's only going to hit three days a week probably, maybe four of the most.

Yeah, you're right. It's a good point. And is there also a possibility that Otani still has Tommy John surgery? Absolutely. Right? So, okay, let's think about this. If he has Tommy John surgery, they're going to reevaluate. He made his elbow in three weeks.

Now, to put this in fantasy baseball terms, I talked about this league with Chris yesterday. It was Tuesday. It aired yesterday. I'll talk about it again real quick. So we have a $250 budget. I was down to $108. It's a Roto League. I picked up Carlos Santana.

Somebody dropped him. I picked them up for $35. I put a $17 bid on Shohei Otani. I also put a higher bid on Otani, but that was only going to go through if I didn't get Carlos Santana. But because of the uncertainty, like, maybe Otani's a better hitter if he's just hitting all year compared to Santana in a Roto League. Not in a points league. But because of the uncertainty, I did knock him down quite a bit in terms of what I was willing to bid. Because it's possible in three weeks.

They say, you need to have Tommy John and you're out for the year. However, if he does need Tommy John, maybe they can just wait until close to the end of the season. But I don't think so. In order to get him ready for spring training 2020, because he has Tommy Johnny's missing all next year no matter what. But in order to be back for spring training of 2020, I feel like they have to have that Tommy John surgery fairly soon. I don't know that they can wait until October. Yeah, I don't know. Like, if you had that in September or October even, you've still got 18 months until the start of 2020.

I guess you're right. I guess you're right. So the worst case scenario then might be, oh, he's good enough to, he's healthy enough to pitch. Exactly. And that's actually the best case scenario for Otani. Right. That's interesting. All right, so, I mean, definitely you're not dropping Brian Dozier.

You also would not drop Nick Marquakis for Oton. I would not. Okay. That's interesting. Glaber Torres is on the deal with a hip strain, but he might be back around the All-Star break. They don't seem to think it's a huge deal for Torres. Tyler Skaggs is on the deal with a thigh strain, but he only misses hopefully one start. He should be okay.

You got to keep an eye on Zach Eflin, who at least looks like Must own right now, and he's owned an over 80. percent of leagues and had a really good start and actually left it early. He threw like seven innings and threw less than 90 pitches against the Orioles, but he has a blister. He says he's fine. It's no big deal. Eflin did struggle with blisters last year, so just keep an eye on that, but Eflin's pitching well. Are you more or less buying Zach Eflin? I am more interested in Zach Eflin than Anderson or Schwarz. Chris Archer could be back on Monday. Walker Bueller could be back next week, but where's the opening in the rotation? Oh, Rich Hill left with an injury yesterday.

And it was just neck tightness for Rich Hill. He's finally putting together some good starts. Heath, I don't know what to say about the Dodgers rotation. I don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, you do. This is going to continue to happen. You think, well, I don't know that Rich Hill isn't going to make his next start. Someone will always be ready when someone is ready to take a break.

Alex Woods probably do up in the next month or so. And Paul the Young could be back this weekend. So some trade stuff. Jim Bowden works on CBS Sports HQ. You should be watching CBS Sports HQ. It's on the CBS Sports app. I watch on my Roku. You can watch on Roku.

You can watch on Amazon Fire. You can watch on Apple TV. You can watch on any connected device. CBS Sports HQ on the free CBS Sports app. Jim Bowden, former GM, said he's been talking to some teams who are interested in Manny Machado. And he calls St. Louis and Philadelphia, probably the front runners for Machado. And he does not think that the Dodgers are really in it right now. Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal said Arizona and Cleveland are the most motivated suitors for Machado,

who says he wants to play shortstop, by the way. You got St. Louis, Philadelphia, Arizona, and Cleveland. And Cleveland's the only team with a guy who's probably not going to move from shortstop. But yeah, do you care where Manny Machado goes? I mean, obviously, this is bad, bad news for anybody that has Manny Machado in an AL-only league, because the only team that we've talked about in the AL is Cleveland, and that seems to me like least likely fit. Yeah.

The other thing that's kind of tied to this is Mike Mastakis, who apparently the Phillies and Cardinals have both been inquiring on him. I assume he is kind of the consolation prize, but he's probably gone from your AOL only league in the next month as well. Actually, Bowden gave eight teams that were interested. I only mentioned St. Louis and Philadelphia, but he said seven of them are the NL. Philadelphia, St. Louis, the Cubs, the Dodgers, who remember he said they're not really all that into right now.

Cleveland, Atlanta, Arizona, and Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Miami is thinking about offering J.T. Ray Almuto a contract extension. Does that mean that they wouldn't trade him, or does that mean that they're going to do it to make him a more attractive trade target? I think he was one of the guys that they wanted to build around. It's just going to come down to whether he wants to be a part of this. I think they'd be very happy to have him be a cornerstone that's there for five years. I don't really understand. It's kind of like the Royals of Salvador Perez.

I don't think I would choose my catcher to be somebody to build around because what are the chances his knees still work five years from now? Yeah, the report from Barry Jackson and the Miami Herald says, The Marlins want to keep catcher J.T. Raamuto, who is under team control through 2020. Now, I think Rayamuto is having a great year at home. Last night checked he was But going into this year He was so much better on the road He's kind of bad at home if I recall

Kind of like Christian Yewitch But even more extreme So I really wanted to see him get traded And I think his owner should too There's just no way he could be in a worse situation Than Miami's Like worst lineup in baseball in a bad park You know

All right in the bullpen Heath Let's talk about some bullpen notes Tyler Klipper got a one out save Do you think he's the closer for now? I think he's the most likely guy to get the next save opportunity, yes. Sir Anthony Dominguez got a save on Tuesday. Then Victor Irano got a save on Wednesday. Thoughts on the Phillies?

That was Arano's first save. And that was a two-inning save for Arano, I believe. Yes, it was. I don't, nothing has changed. It's a very messy situation. They do not believe in a traditional closer. Sir Anthony Domingas is their best reliever. will lead the team in saves.

And should be owned in all categories leagues is borderline in points leagues. 70% owned, that is Saranthony Dominguez, has eight saves now. So he's definitely getting the lion's share. And I also think that they could add an arm the Phillies. Yeah. Yeah. But Aronno is also having a really good year. They just got Nishik back.

We talked about him on Tuesday, I believe. We look at Houston. You know, here I am on Tuesday. I see Hector Rondone gets the save, his sixth. Rondon's 42% owned. He's now recorded a save in each of his last, I think only his last two appearances, but Rondone had the last three saves for Houston entering Wednesday, and then Ken Giles got a save Wednesday.

But Rondon did throw 35 pitches on Tuesday, so he probably wasn't available. All right, what percentage of Houston saves do you think Rondone gets, And what percentage of, this is really an impossible question, so I apologize. Oh, good. I appreciate these. What percentage of saves does Rondon get? What percentage of saves does Giles get?

I will give Rondone 60% and Giles 30%. Okay. So, Rondon's 42% owned. I think Giles is more owned than that. We've got a fun game coming up, Heath. We are going to play some name that player. I give you clues. You tell me who I'm talking about.

That sounds out. It's kind of like the reverse of America's favorite game. Which is the feud? No, who does he play for? Are you getting ready for that game? I was just thinking maybe we could have a little tit for tat. Yeah, I'm fine with you stumping me. That's fine.

Yeah, listen, everybody, hiring used to be hard. Multiple job sites, stacks of resumes, a confusing review process. But now it's easier. Much, much easier. It can be easy, and you only have to go to one place to get it done. ZipRecruiter.com. And our URL for you to listeners to use it for free is ziprecruiter.com slash strike. ZipRecruiter sends your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards.

You don't have to do it. ZipRecruiter does it for you. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. And then they don't stop there. They're really good at finding great candidates for you. ZipRecruiter scans thousands of resumes to match people with your jobs. And it's so effective that 80% of employers, who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate through the site within the first day.

Unbelievable. So you might not need to hire now, but you might need to hire at some point. And when you do, you go to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike, the highest rated hiring site in America. We're all about America this week. Our listeners can try it for free at our exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That is ZipRecruiter.com. slash S-T-R-I-K-E-St-R-R-E-Stry. ZipRecruiter,

Smartest Way to Hire. Here we go. Let's name that player. B-A-R-B-B-B-B-B-B-M. All right, I am a 23-%-owned infielder. 23% owned infielder. You have it yet? I, no.

Wow, you're struggling. Since Adam's birthday on June 19th, I have an OPS over 1,000. batting 375 entering yesterday now three home runs since June 19th I am from Panama I have a question

Do you also Have you also played in the outfield Occasionally? I don't know Do you have two first names? No Okay I am from Panama

And I have nearly as many walks As strikeouts All right so I'm a hot hitting infielder Good plate discipline year. My slash line is 260, 363 on base, 463 slugging percentage.

Between Adam, Scott, and Heath, I am on one of our favorite teams. Yohan Kamargo. Yeah. All right. Good job. Yoan Kamargo. You know, Scott really wanted to pick up Yoan Kamargo in Team Scam in the 16

team league, and we have him. I don't think we're starting him, but he really liked the on-base percentage. It's been good all year. He said he's got a very low babbitt. Camargo, you Look, he had actually a pretty nice rookie year, like a 780-ish OPS, I think. And he's hitting pretty well right now, and he gets on base. Do you see any value in Johann Camargo? In a really deep league, yes.

He's not somebody that I necessarily want to own in any 12-team leagues, but if you're talking about for the People League where it's 16 teams and it's a little bit of deeper format, then sure. All right, yeah, Camargo, keep an eye on him, especially if you're in an OBP League. All right, name that player number two. I'm going to give that one to Heath. I think he did pretty well. I am having a career season.

I was once the MVP of the All-Star Futures game. I am the number 7 third basement in fantasy in both points and roto. Number seven-third basement in both formats. I am batting 309 despite having 22 walks to 80 strikeouts. Batting 309, 22 walks to 80 strikeouts. count. And in my last 11 games, I've had five home runs and four doubles, increasing my slugging percentage from 483 to 525. Nick Castiano.

You have got it, sir. My full name probably has more letters than most players in MLB. Nicholas Castellanos. I don't know what his middle name is. But yes, Castianos, you know, can he be a 300 hitter with the bad plate discipline? Do you buy this recent power, sir? This guy is really great. He's gone from good to great over the last couple of weeks. Is that legit for Castellanos? Castellanos has been a guy who was hard to evaluate because partially of the questions about batted ball data coming out of Detroit. And because he's been a guy for the last couple of years whose batted ball data looked like he should be better than he was.

But the plate discipline is pretty terrible as well. I do, I'll answer the questions with two different answers. No, I don't really believe that he can be a 300 hitter over a full season. He shouldn't be. He's got a 369 BABIP right now. It's not completely outside of the range of possibilities that it stays at 360 for the whole year. And then we'll just say he's a regression candidate next year. The second thing I'll say is, yes, I do buy the power breakout if he can just continue lifting the ball.

Yeah. Launch angle has been a bit of a problem for him. But this is two years in a row with a hard contact rate over 40%, and a line drive rate of at least 24%. He's been at least 24% for three years at line drive rate. The problem was for quite a while, that was coming at the expense of fly bowls and not at the expense of ground balls. So Nick Castiano's is who we're talking about. Would you rather have Castellanos or Matt Carpenter?

I'll still take Carpenter for sure. Would you rather have Nick Castiano's or Max Muncie? I think I'd rather have Muncie, if only because he's got that second base eligibility as well. I mean, Castiano's has third in the outfield. But I think they're very close, but I'd rather have Muncie. Okay. All right, last one. I'll name that player.

Okay, let's see. I am in my mid-20s and I am 75% owned. I'm batting 231, the 12 home runs and three steals. But I have a career high walk rate, but also a career high K rate. So mid-20s, 75% own, batting 231, 12 homers, three steals. Career high walk rate, career high K rate. I have an 864 OPS against left-handed pitchers. 864 OPS against lefties.

According to my Wikipedia page, My nickname is L. Coffee. And so it's not Scott Shebler. It's not Scott Shebler. I think he fits most of those categories. 48.7% fly ball rate is a career high, 11% higher than last year. Adam Azer used to love me, which probably explains why I haven't been that good. And here's her last 10th.

864 OPS against lefties. Previous three seasons, I had a 624 OPS against lefties. So a left-handed hitter, nicknamed L. Coffee. According to Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia. Use the really struggle against lefties is crushing them this year. Nine starts in a row, including five against lefties, in a four-man outfield. It's not Jock Peterson, is it?

It is not Junk Peterson. He is Gregory Polanco. Ah. Gregory Polanco is 75% owned and is hitting, has a lot of it. in 864 OPS against lefties. And he keeps starting against them. He has started nine straight games. What do you think?

That's interesting. I also loved Gregory Polanco and was very disappointed by his start to this year. I'm going to have to look a little bit deeper, but I'm probably going to buy back in. Polanco was my Greg Bird next year. So I am looking to second half of 2019 for Greg Bird now. Okay. And I also loved Garrett Cole last year. So I'm thinking good things for bird next year.

Are you ready for the reverse version of this game? We're done with the game? I got to give you a few Polanco Ores. Oh, okay. Polanco or Peterson. Polanco. Polanco or Star League Marte. Marte.

Polanco or Eddie Rosario. Rosario. Yeah, there's a too high end. Polanco or Michael Conforto. That's a good range right there. I think I'd still say Conforto, just we've seen his upside demonstrated more. All right. Polanco or Aaron Hicks?

Polanco. All right. Yeah, let's do the reverse of the game. Also, I have to tell everybody what's coming up on today's show. Not sure we're going to get to emails today because we did a lot yesterday on the mailbag. And we'll have, well, eight game slate for today, for Thursday. So probably have time for emails tomorrow. All right, yeah, let's do.

Also, we have Thoriometer Thursday. Sorry. We're going to put Clayton Kershaw and his low-swinging strikes on the thoriumator. We're going to put Bryce Harper on the thoreometer, which is Wariometer on Thursday. We are going to talk about a bunch of pitchers from the last couple of days. All right, hit me with it. Heath embarrass me. Well, this first one should be easy because of your favorite NFL football team.

Matt Scholl. Oh, Matt Scholl. I just, no. Oh, I know Matt Skull. He's not on the San Francisco Giants. All of these hitters have hit at least one home run this year. I just, because of my favorite... Oh, you mean the Vikings, that's funny.

Skoll. Matt Skoll, I know, is on the Cubs. You were so close. He is a Chicago White So. Okay. So good effort on that one. Thanks. Nate Orff.

Oh, I just read about Nate Orff. He is on these He had a good game yesterday He's on the Is he on the Reds? No Where the hell is he I can remember the recap right now

I'm reading it Cincinnati Reds Right division wrong team He is in a Milwaukee Brewer Yep Damn it Yes We got a couple more left here

Some great names In baseball this year Nolan Fontana No I have no idea Nolan Fontana plays for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. No idea. Let's see. I'm just trying to get the really good names.

I don't want to just give you some random dude. How about Jesm... I can't even say that. I have no idea. Valentin. Jesmule Valentin. He's on the Twins. He is a Philadelphia, Philly?

I actually knew that. That sounds familiar now. Richard Uranus. I knew that. Richard. Urania. Oh, the Marlins have all the Uranias. They have one of the Uranias, the other ones in Canada with the Blue Jays.

Ah, oh, I see. One more. All right. We'll try to make it a little bit easier. I'll give you a guy that has a few more plate appearances this year, maybe. How about Peter Cosma? Please don't be on the Yankees. Peter Cosma.

Peter Cosma. is on the Oakland Athletics. That is incorrect. He is a Detroit Tiger. Detroit's usually my go-to for players, I don't know, because they just have so many, like, nobodies. Yeah, I almost went with Dixon Machado, but I thought that was. No, I would have gotten that one. And Peter Cosmo was in the Yankees system in 2016.

Yeah. Well, yeah, that doesn't count. All right, Thuriameter Thursday. Let's see how worried you are about these players. Clayton Kershaw, 0 to 10. How worried are you? He struck out two pirates with eight swinging strikes. He has an 11% swinging strike rate this season.

It's the same since coming off the DL as it was before going on the DL. He still has a 286 ERA, but he is not exactly Clayton Kershaw right now. Where are you on the Worryometer? This is an extremely hard one to calibrate. But I will say that I am a three on Quayton Kershaw. I'm still starting him every time that he starts. my worry comes from and it's almost less of a worry and just an expectation that he will not be Clayton Kershaw for most of this year. Would you rather have Garrett Cole or Clayton Kershaw?

I would rather have Garrett Cole and Justin Berlander. Would you rather have Madison Bumgarner or Clayton Kershaw? I will take Kershaw. Okay. Kyle Hendrix Worryometer. Okay start against Detroit, but six-ending, three runs, but only two strikeouts. and he's been struggling lately. Kyle Hendricks, Wariometer, theriometer.

Yeah, again, the calibration's always hard because I never had expectations anywhere close to Kyle Hendricks that I did for Clayton Kershaw. But try to keep these all the same. I'll say five. Well, I mean, I think it's, I think it is like your concerns about him relative to your expectations.

But also like, let's say you were doing a radio interview and somebody said, Heath, are you worried about Kyle Hendricks? What would you say? A little bit because even though he's never been a good strikeout pitcher, that's even down from the past. And I'm a little worried that there's a range of possibilities on Kyle Hendricks. And he's shown us a high threes ERA in 2015. I'm not as excited about that pitcher. So, yeah, he's, I could even see a situation where there was somebody on the waiver wire and Kyle Hendricks was your worst.

pitcher and you had to drop him. Wow. All right. Dallas Keikle. Now, this was a great start for him. Seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts at Texas. He had 10 ground balls to four fly balls. That's what we wanted to see. AJ Hinch said Keikle probably had his best breaking ball that he's had all year. But before that, his previous four starts, you know, actually you look at his starts, right, and you take the two against the Royals, and it doesn't look so bad lately. You take the Royal starts out, you know what, why don't I just simplify it? Dallas Kikl's not had a good year.

Worryometer on Dallas Kikl. I'm less worried about Kikl than I am about Hendricks, I believe. So I'll say a four. I'm pretty much at the point, like there are teams that I would sit Kikl against, but for the most part, I think I'm just starting him. Man, I wish I felt the same. Like, I want to trade him now.

I want to trade Kiko after this start. Yeah, I would like to trade him. Much more in a category's league than I would in a points league. Yeah, okay. Of course, in the back of my mind, there's always the, well, what if Dallas Kikell writes the ship and becomes the player that I think he, you know, I always bought his performance more than you did. Well, and I think it's important to recognize that I did not buy his performance as much as you did, but I do think with the type of pitcher he is, if he goes on a stretch for a month and a half, two months where he's got a sub three ERA,

I'm not going to be all that surprised. He's got the white socks this weekend. So that should be a good start. Oh, for sure. Jose Barrios, two, well, one really bad start, and then this last one, only three strikeouts and three homers at Milwaukee. Those were the only three runs he gave up. Worryometer on Jose Barrios.

Zero. I don't really have any concern. You gave him the free pass on his, not his last start, but the one before that because it was just too hot outside. I gave the free pass because he admitted that he was struggling with the heat. Right, and yeah, the strikeouts were not good in this start, and maybe he's going to go through a little bit of a rough patch. But you go seven innings and you give up three runs at Milwaukee.

That's a good start. Worryometer on Bryce Harper, who right now is the number nine outfielder in points leagues, because he does walk so much. But he's number 16 in Roto. Bryce Harper is batting 2.15. He does have 21 homers and six steals. In his last 50 games entering yesterday when he went over 4 with two strikeouts, so baseball reference wasn't updated.

But 50 games before yesterday, he was batting 191 with 299 walks to 65 strikeouts, and Harper had a 713 OPS, and a 234 Babbitt with a 191 batting average. What's your Wuriometer on Bryce Harper? I am very concerned. Like if the expectation is he's going to give you. you first round production, I'm probably a seven at this point. Wow, okay. But I have a hard time getting too concerned because I still think he's going to give you

probably early third round production. So you think, okay, what would your projection be for Harper? Because the home runs have been great. He's still on like a 40 homer pace. And the BABBs have been really low. So is it just bad luck? I mean, you're not thinking that he's going to hit like 260 with 20 home runs rest of of season?

Be awesome. I think there's a very good chance. that he does just that. I don't think we're getting, like, two of the last three years coming into this year, he'd been a three, better than 300 hitter. He hit 330 in 2015, 319 last year. Right. That does, it's not going to happen because it's not just the bad bit, and that is part of it.

And I think you can expect over 250 just if he's doing exactly what he's doing right now. Yeah, but, okay. But the 280, 290 doesn't exist because he's striking out. almost a fourth of his plate appearances. And the shift is killing him so much that Scott Boris is complaining that the shift is unfair to left-handed hitters, which is pretty hilarious. Did you see him? Well, no, the shift is, I don't want to say unfair, but it unevenly discriminates against left-handed hitters. I mean, I guess.

That's just true, because teams can't do to right-handed hitters what they do to left-hand hitters because they have to keep a first baseman close to the back. Right, right. Well, that is true. But he also said, like, there are more right-handed pitchers than lefties, and they're throwing sliders that break in and cutters that break in, and how are these guys supposed to go? I mean, he's got – if somebody else said it, I'd be like, that's a pretty interesting point. I mean, Scott White wants the shift to be banned. Scott and I both want – Scott and I both think it would be a good idea to have a limit – like you have to have two fielders on each side of the base.

Yeah, I'm team freedom, so, of course, I'm anti-this. Plus, I think it's really cool when teams play five infielders or four outfielers. That kind of stuff's good. Bryce Harper is just going to have to get a little bit better at beating the shift. I can't remember which game I was watching. It must have been a Yankees Red Sox game. I don't remember who was the Fox game or the ESPN game, but you had some great analysts on there.

One of them was talking about what they're going to do with the shift, and a suggestion was that you have to have to have at least one, foot on the infield grass? Maybe. Yeah, I don't like that at all. Well, they're going to do something. They're going to change something. I don't know what it's going to be.

Cesar Hernandez is the last guy on the Wariometer on Thoreometer Thursday. Why Cesar Hernandez? Because he's been struggling and I couldn't fit him in any other categories on this show. So he's on the Worryometer. He's not as high end as anyone we've talked about. But look, he's 93% owned and got off to a great. start since May 19th, about a month and a half. Cesar Hernandez has been the number 19 second baseman in points, number 24 in Roto.

What's your Worryometer on Cesar Hernandez? I think he is as high end as Kyle Hendricks. You think so? It wasn't drafted that way, but... That's true. That's definitely true. I don't... This is a bad stretch.

I don't see anything that causes to me to be that concerned. He's still walking 15% of the time. He's got 13 stolen bases. his BABIP is 30 points lower than where it's, or 25 points lower than where it's been for his career. I think Seza Hernandez is going to be good in the second half. I'll take two. You know what reminds me of?

It reminds me of Ender in Ciarte, who, what they really share in common right now is that they lead off for, you know, good enough lineups. And I don't know that Seza Hernandez needs to be 93% owned. Heath has always been a Seizor Hernandez guy. And, you know, I think maybe like, like 75, 80% owned was probably 10-team league, you know, I don't know. But dropping lead off hitters is a scary thing because all they have to do is be like, okay. And their fantasy production is going to be much better than what they do on the field.

And he's good. You know, he's good. He's just not great because he doesn't really hit for any power. But the steals are nice. The runs will be nice. What's he got? How many runs is he? He has 58 runs in 84 games.

So I know he's been struggling, but, you know. And he scored 85 last year in just 128 games. Yeah. So he should really help you in runs and played appearances, and even in points leagues. Like, obviously you're owning Hernandez and categories. And my expectation is he will help you an average rest of the season. He's hitting 263 now, which is pretty much a – I think if you look at the average, that's probably pretty much a push in most fantasy leagues.

He's not helping or hurting you. I would expect he'll help you rest of season. and he'll help you in steals as well. He's a three-category contributor. That was the other thing that reminded me of Encearte. Because they're both, Hernandez is batted $294 each of the previous two seasons. And Encearte had a really cold stretch, but we knew he was a better hitter than that. All righty.

Mitch Morland is dealing with back spasms. Marco Estrada could go on the D.L. If you're in an NL-only league, be aware. Martine Prado and Garrett Cooper could be back today for the Marlins. Freddie Freeman got hit by a pitch. He left yesterday's game, but he expects the play today. The Braves called up Louise Gohara. pitched out of the bullpen yesterday.

We don't need to stash Louise Gohara, do we? Unfortunately, no. I was pretty excited about him. I still think he has a bright future, but the Braves don't seem like they want to use him as a starter this year. Brian Dozier was robbed of a home run. You know, I haven't seen the Keon-Brockston catch. I'm going to try to look it up.

Apparently it was amazing, but he robbed Brian Dozier of a ninth-inning home run yesterday. Zach Wheeler, we were worried about this. He is not going to make two starts this week. probably still worth it for that one start because it was solid. But his second start will be pushed back to Monday. So Wheeler should be a two-star picture next week, I believe. His teammate, Noah Sunset Fads, which is what my phone auto-corrected Cinderguard to.

Noah Sunset Fads is going to make a rehab start on Sunday. And Mike Mustakis could be back tomorrow. He's missed two straight games with back spasms, and Yuenessipis will resume baseball activity today. I got a quick category called Still Holding Out. And I only have two players in there. We already talked about one. One is Michael Conforto.

He's just having a dreadful season. And one is Willie Adamas. He is just having a pretty dreadful season. Are you still holding out hope for Michael Conforto, 69% owned? Or Willie Adomis, 27% owned? I am holding out hope for the long-term future of both of these players. The only one I'd really be holding on to in a fantasy league is probably Conforto. And I'm getting close to not.

his 69% ownership tells me he's probably been dropped in most 12-team points leagues, or at least half of them. I don't imagine I would be holding on to him in a 12-team points league. In a Categories league or a five outfielder league, he's one of the types of guys I'd like to have on my bench. I just don't, like, we were hoping Adamez would be one of those players that's been a top prospect, and everybody's told us he's going to be good, and he comes up to the majors, and all of a sudden his batting starts to look more like

what we were hoping. it hasn't and until it does I'm not going to roster him unless this is it's keeper or dynasty league right because the minor league numbers for Adamas is kind of what he's alluding to not really anything special and we've seen a lot of players where that didn't matter sure and so we generally trust the guys that are ranking these prospects

but with him that transition has not happened Keon Broxton that's Willie Adamas we're talking about Keon Broxton his catch was awesome wow he got up there that was very impressive I'm going to watch it one more time must see Oh, man. That ball's like almost two feet over the wall.

That's awesome. Good for you. The good rotation, the just okay rotation, and the bad rotation from Tuesday and Wednesday. The good rotation, Patrick Corbyn. He has been crushing it lately. His last three starts, 19 innings, two earn runs, three walks, 23 strikeouts. For Patrick Corbyn, I definitely was a little concerned about him because of the lack of fastball velocity. He's answered some questions over the last three starts.

I know everybody's going to start Corbett in a two-start week, but if you haven't met a daily leader, you're going to start him at Colorado next week? Probably not. Because that is a beginning of the week's start, right? Yes, Monday or Tuesday. My general take on those things, and maybe I, I, in Daily Leagues, evaluate my matchup. And so I have a lot more information on Thursday, Friday, Saturday as to what I need. I don't want to take a chance of putting myself in a huge ERA hole on Monday or Tuesday.

All right. So that's Patrick Corbyn. Chase Anderson. Are you getting more interested in him? He is 81% owned, but he's been pitching pretty well lately. Yeah, I think he's probably appropriately owned. He's been, for me, kind of right there doing a dance with Danny Duffy, where one of them has a couple of good starts and moves ahead of the other one.

I would rather have him and Duffy and those kind of guys more than someone like Julio Taron. Okay. He's in the bad rotation. That's Chase Anderson. He's got two starts at Miami and at Pittsburgh next week. Eduardo Rodriguez, a very good start at the Nationals. Six innings, no runs, and six strikeouts. He's got 384 ERA, 100 strikeouts, and 93 and 2 thirds, 126 whip for Eduardo Rodriguez.

He's been very Eduardo Rodriguez, right? Pretty much. Like, he's going to be a high, threes, low fours, ERA. going to get quite a few strikeouts. He's probably going to go on the disabled list for a month. Well, he already did. Right. So, good start.

I don't know what else to say about it. I think Scott buys into Rodriguez more than you do. Yes, I think Scott has him as a must-own, must-start starting pitcher. I'm not quite sure about the must-start part. You have Rodriguez 79th, Eduardo Rodriguez. He has him 38th. I'm a little low. He's a little high. Okay.

The just okay rotation from Tuesday and Wednesday. These guys were just okay. Garrett Cole. Garrett Cole has given up four run runs in three of his last five starts. Are you worried? I'm starting to get a little, like, I don't know. Because I didn't expect Garrett Cole, like you should never expect any pitcher to be as good as he was early in the year. But this stretch is starting to get too long to ignore where he's not only.

not been fantastic, but he hasn't really even been particularly good. Well, he hasn't been that bad, though. I mean, I don't know that he's given up more than four-run runs in any start. You've got to still say that Coles must start, right? Oh, without a doubt, yes. Yeah, yeah. But the top 10 ranking is starting to feel less comfortable. Yeah, I could see that.

The Just Okay rotation continues with Jose Cantana, who gave up two runs in six innings, but three walks for strikeouts, against the lowly tigers, and he gave up two homers. Kintana's last five starts. He has 12 walks, 17Ks in 27 and a third at San Francisco next week. He's just okay right now, Jose Katana. Yeah, and you start just okay pitchers at San Francisco. Yeah, but do you start him regardless of matchup,

or is Kintana not exactly matchup-proof? I would not say that he's entirely matchup-proof. Being in the NL eliminates a lot of the possibilities for where you would sit him. Yeah. So I'm like I'm starting him against probably 90% of his matchups, but he's not matchup proof. Oh, not Jose. Sean Manaya, there we go. We're going down the list, not staying in the same spot.

Sean Manaya, seven innings two runs. That's great. One strikeout against San Diego, and they strike out. He's got a .96 whip, Sean Mania. He's got a 333 ERA. He has a very low strikeout rate. 78 strikeouts in 113 and 2 thirds. How is he doing this?

How is Sean Minaya doing this? Can he keep doing this? He is starting to look more and more like a pitcher that's just going to outperform his peripherals all year and is going to make my regression alert call him at the beginning of 2019. I don't believe the way he's going about this is sustainable. I think his ERA should probably be almost at least a half run and probably closer to a full run higher than it is. So I would sell high If I could get a top 30

Top 35 starting pitcher for Manaya I'd take it in a heartbeat Would you rather have Kentana or Manaya? I think I'd still bet on Cantana being better rest of the year I'm not sure I think you can get more than Cantana for Manaya though Shane Bieber was just okay Six innings, nine hits, four runs

One walk, two strikeouts Actually, when it's all said and done It's actually not a very good start He did allow all four runs in the first two winnings at the Royals, then Bieber settled in. He has two starts, home against the Yankees, home against the Reds and Yankees next week. That'll be an interesting decision, I guess. Shane Bieber, what do you think?

I think you have to start him when he has two starts, especially when one of them's against the Reds. Who are fine. They're not the type of match-up you target, but they're also- In June, they may have led the NL and runs in June. Is there a way to look that up? Yes. Would you like to do it? I'd be more than happy to give you the National League run leaders in month of June.

Yeah, because I think I heard that the Reds were one or two in that category. I would believe that. I still don't think they're going to be one of the best offenses the rest of the season. No, it's not great timing, though. Yeah, Bieber, do you mostly buy Bieber? I think I kind of do. I don't really, I buy him more than I buy Freddie Peralta. I view them pretty similarly, but I am more.

more interested in Beaver. Yeah, okay. And Garrett Richards, this is a pretty good start. The only reason why I put it in the Just Okay was Richards only went five and a third. But he gave up two run runs. This was his first start off the DL. So two and runs, both homers at Seattle. He struck out eight.

Looks like the Reds were third in the month of June with 146 runs. The Rockies and Diamondbacks both scored more runs than they did. Gotcha. So Garrett Richards, I think, is really having a very interesting up and down. confusing gear. Do you trust Garrett Richards? I don't. I don't. I don't trust him to pitch deep into games on a regular basis. I don't totally trust him to stay healthy. But on a start-by-start basis, I'm going to trust him more often than not in my starting lineup. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so. And he's got two starts against Seattle and at the Dodgers next week. How would you rank Kintana, Manaya, Beber, Garrett Richards? You may have just done it. Hey, now. Okay. Kantana, Mania. You know what?

I'll take Beaver over Minia. Kintana, Bieber, Mania, Richards. Yep. The bad rotation from the last two days. Tanner Roark, ew. He's been pretty rough lately. last nine appearances, eight of them starts. Tanner Roark has a 692 OPS.

Yikes. But he is at Miami this weekend. Hopefully Roark can turn around. Sean Newcomb and Julio Tehran both fell victim to Yankee Stadium. What concerns you the most here? Roark, Newcomb, and Tehran. I mean, it concerns me that Tehran's still 80% owned. But we'll just forget about that because you all know how I feel about that.

I'm not like I hate the whole thing with Sean Newcom. and he had two starts and one of them was at Yankee Stadium and I was terrified and now he's still got one at Milwaukee and I'm not sure that's going to go great. I still think he's going to be a must-start pitcher for the rest of the year. Roark is getting to the point to where I'm starting to get more worried. He needs to turn things around against the Marlins this week. All right. So that's Roark, Newcomb, and Tehran. But to be clear, I'm still starting to enter Roark against the Marlins this week.

Sure, sure. Are you starting Sean Nukem at Milwaukee? That's late enough in the week where if it's a daily, League, it's going to be, I'm not if I'm on the border in WIP and ERA. Fringy starting pitchers, interested in any of these guys. C.C. Sabathia. Marcus Stroman. What the heck was that, Marcus Stroman?

Zach Wheeler. Tyler Anderson. Mike Minor. I'll throw Andrew Suarez back on this list. Jeffrey Ramirez, 1% Own, had a nice start for Baltimore yesterday. So I got Sabathia, who's the most owned. Strowman, Wheeler, Tyler Anderson, Mike Minor, Jeffrey Ramirez. I would say Strowman is still my favorite on this list, even after a bad start.

He said his location was bad. I'll let him have one bad start. We'll see how he does against Atlanta this week. But he's my favorite. Minor in a points league is still extremely valuable. And when you can start him as a spark, he has two starts next week. One of them is at Boston. I'm fine with that, though, because he's a relief pitcher.

I just need one of those starts and the other one's at Baltimore. Baltimore, which is awesome. Mike Miner? Yes. So Mike Miner is the one I'd second most want to own in a Points League. I'm getting more interested in Zach Wheeler, too, and especially, like, I'm sorry we missed the two-start week this week, but this start was good enough, and now we get a two-start week next week. You and I are going head-to-head in the podcast Points League.

I have lost three starts since the beginning of the week. Oh, wow. Including, I don't even think I mentioned Joe Musgrove's on the DL. Joe Musgrove, I lost. Zach Wheeler I lost, which I sort of expected, and Tyler Skaggs. How was our matchup going? You had Stroman, so I am winning by like 40 points. You have an extra start.

I have a terrible team in that league. Yeah, I do too. Race to the bottom. Although we're both in contention. We're in a terrible division. So you and I are just... Thankfully, I have a Jacob de Grom start coming, so I think I'll be fine. One of us is...

My DeGrom. Thankfully, Paul Goldschmidt, who you traded. to me. For DeGrom, hit a three-run homer off Jack Flaherty, which was an awesome at bat. Flaherty looks great, by the way. Man, he's got some filthy stuff. But he just had that one bat at bat. Yeah, so this is what I wanted to check for Zach Wheeler.

His last start, he averaged 97. I mean, he's always been a hard thrower, but he is throwing really hard. He's throwing 97 with the fastball, averaging 97 and a half miles per hour. And that appears to basically be a career high in velocity for Zach Wheeler. So he's doing some good things. A couple of hitters, three hitters I want to talk about. Avi Garcia, Brad Miller, Cole Calhoun. Garcia is 57-0, Miller's 8%-owned.

Cole Cahoon is 18% owned. Dude, I don't get it. There's nothing about Avi Garcia that makes sense to me. Last year he had this really high batting average that we didn't buy because the Babbitt was really high. He batted at 3.30 last year. He only hit 18 home runs in 136 games. That's terrible for an outfielder who doesn't steal bases. This year, he's got seven home runs.

but he's got two walks of 31 strikeouts. There's nothing that says to me I should buy Obisail Garcia. I agree. We talked about him a lot last week. I do think when he was 40% owned, he was a must-add in a lot of different leagues. I don't think he's bad. He's just not somebody you should get excited about, and he's doing something unsustainable for the second year in a row.

But, like, we said he couldn't hit 3.30 again, because he had a 390. BABIP last year. Now he's hitting 289 with a 330 Babbip. That seems pretty reasonable to me. So if he's a 280, 290 hitter that's hitting in the middle of the White Sox order every single day, he's probably going to give you decent counting stats. All right. Avi Selle Garcia.

If you want to know what he actually does good that causes some of this, he hits the absolute crap out of the ball. I haven't got a chance to say this yet, so I'm going to say it now. For whatever reason, I end up seeing a lot of White Sox games. Apparently David Polka hits the ball extremely, extremely hard. So he's in... I believe he has the fifth hardest hit ball this season. Yeah, I mean, David Pawka is not fantasy relevant, but hey, maybe...

You never know. You never know who emerges is fantasy relevant. So just something to keep in mind. Brad Miller, are you getting to the point where you're buying him a little bit more? 8% owned, Brad Miller? I wrote about Brad Miller last week in WaverWire, and my opinion has not changed. We've seen middling players go to Milwaukee and just be awesome for a short stretch. I don't think Brad Miller, when we get to September, is going to be leading off or playing shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers on a daily basis.

But in a Categories League or a league where you start a middle infielder and a utility, you should probably pick him up and ride this for as long as he's in the lineup. He batted in the middle of the order yesterday, but he has let off a lot. Eric Thames let off yesterday, but Miller, yeah, Miller's been hitting at the top of the order a lot. Cole Calhoun has been leading off. He has led off four of the last five games for the Angels. He sits against lefties. But since coming off the deal, he's been better, and he homered yesterday. Cole Calhoun is 18% owned.

He was one of my favorite deep sleepers coming into the year. Of course, I dropped him everywhere that I drafted him because he was just so dreadfully bad. I didn't ever think he was quite that bad. He still has a 208 Babbip on the season, but if he's going to not play against lefties, he's going to have to be awesome to be fantasy relevant. Cole Calhoun. I haven't heard anything about the impacts of the wall being lowered in Los Angeles, which is probably why Calhoun was a sleeper of yours. They lowered the right field wall. And I haven't heard much about the humidor lately either.

Well, the humidors had an effect. I think that's just been settled. Yeah, I just, we haven't really followed up on it. You never know with the early season data. Right. I could try to have something on that soon. Yeah, if you want, sure. Not before this podcast ends.

Okay, that's fine. You already gave me the National League runs leaders in June. I think you've done your part. I appreciate that. Now you have to tell us who to start and sit tonight. The Marlins are at the Nationals. Pablo Lopez at. Jeremy Hellickson.

No, thank you. Rangers at Tigers, Guyardo at Boyd. No, thank you. White Sox at Astros, Rodon at Verlander. I'm obviously starting Verlander. Rodon is a borderline one for me. I still think he's got plenty of upside, and the Astros have, they're one of the best offenses of baseball, they're the best team in baseball, but they've had their struggles

at times against lefties this year. They're the best team in baseball That's what I said Do you believe that? That's yes What am I missing? A couple of teams in the AL East The Indians

The Cubs I think the Astros are the best team in baseball If I had to bet my life savings On one team winning the World Series It would be the Astros right now Yeah I have to agree The rotation is pretty ridiculous I don't know

You know, I know this whole lack of parody is not great. You've got a lot of super teams. And I'm sorry, I left Seattle, Atlanta, Milwaukee is in first place. All the NL West teams out. The Dodgers are really good. I think they're the best team in that division. But it's going to – the playoffs could be really, really incredible. They really could be very interesting.

You're just going to have some absolute juggernauts. Okay, moving on, moving on. Sorry, we got bogged down and baseball talk on a baseball podcast. Orioles of Twins, Cashner at, uh, why don't you guess his first name? His last name appears to be Sleggers. Aaron. Did you know that? Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like you cheated. No, the only thing on my computer is a GIF of Michael Scott saying thank you from a listener. Oh, okay. Aaron Sleggers. We're not starting these guys. Max Freed at Jolishasin. Yeah, I would put in that same Carlos Rodon category, where I think there is a lot of upside for a good start.

And if you're in a daily league, you know your weekly situation better than I do right now. But if I'm looking for upside, I would start Rodon or Freed. If I'm trying to secure some leads that I already have, then I probably wouldn't. Eric Lauer at Shelby Miller. No, thank you. Jaime Berea at Marco Gonzalez. Oh, yeah. Gonzalez's going to be a tough one for me.

Yeah, I'll start them. Both of them? I think so, yeah. Okay, I'm probably going to sit. I don't think either of them are going to hurt you. Well, it depends how tough of a matchup you think the Angels are. I think they're pretty tough, especially with Otani. Like, he just has not been good in bad matchups.

So look at this three-start stretch for Marco Gonzalez. Five innings, three runs against the Angels. Six and a third, six runs at the Yankees. Six innings, five runs at the Red Sox. So I don't want five in a third I mean the seven strikeouts were nice All right That's a borderline for me

I have him in a daily league And I don't know what I'm going to do And how has there been Lately against lefties I have no idea Luke Weaver at Johnny Quato Oh Quato's back today I didn't even know

Congratulations Luke Weaver at Johnny Quato Will Johnny Quato Will Johnny Quato score more points tonight Than Adam Eaton as Since he was off the deal Yeah I'm going to start quato weaver all put in that rodon freed category rodon freed category that sounds like a

game show just for your information otani has a 32 percent strikeout rate and is hitting 125 with a 399 ops against lefties wow i wonder if he sits all right that could impact the decision on marco gonzalez we are out of here thank you for listening happy fifth of july We'll talk to you tomorrow.