Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/08: Weekend Roundup - First Half Lessons and Players to Add (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

Hitters (2:15) and pitchers (7:05) to add including Danny Jansen and Dylan Cease. What about Michael Pineda? Is this year different for him? And does plate discipline even matter anymore? ... News and notes (10:00), Heath's first half lesson (18:00) and a look at the Most Added list (23:00) which includes Yuli Gurriel, Dinelson Lamet, Andrew Cashner and more. Plus bullpen notes (30:50) as we wonder if the two best RPs from 2018 are going to lose their jobs in 2019 ... Some more hitters to consider adding (36:50) and then we talk SPs (41:00) as Sonny Gray, Noah Syndergaard, Lucas Giolito, Matt Boyd and Justin Verlander are among the many names discussed ... 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 to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. What's going on? Welcome back.

Did you miss us? It is July 8th and we are back from a long weekend. Unless, of course, you watched our video show on CBS Sports H.Q on Sunday. I hope you did. Fantasy baseball today, 3 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. That's Eastern Time, the best time zone. I'm Adam Azer. He is Heath Cummings, Heath.

Welcome back, Heath. How was your extended break? It seems really weird for you doing this whole. We've been gone for a long time thing when I talked to you like 15 hours ago. Yeah. In this same room on camera. Everybody watches us on CBS Sports H-2. Everyone saw us yesterday afternoon.

It's just, you know, it's a different feel because I'm not in the, I'm in a different room than I was yesterday for HQ. So, but I didn't, you know, here's the thing about HQ. Like, I love doing the show, but I don't really get a chance to ask you how your week was, you know? I don't get to, I don't get to learn more about Heath the person. Fourth of July was awesome. We went to the beach about 11.30 in the morning. We were there until about 11.30 at night. As promised.

fireworks and live music and beers and things like that. My parents are in town this weekend, so lots of fun. Hey, everything was great. My parents are in town too. How cool is that? Wow, that's fantastic. Yesterday, I grilled about 150 hamburgers and hot dogs. Wow.

That's impressive. I made 12 hot dogs over the weekend and four hamburgers. So I'm a little behind. but I did follow fantasy baseball. We've got some players for you to add. We've got some players for you to drop. We're going to look at the most added list. And let's kick it off with one hitter to add.

Heath, who would be the hitter to add? I'm going to give you two, Adam. I'm just going to exceed your expectations. Number one, Danny Jansen at 52% owned. We got a lot of emails about him. You all tweeted us. When did I drop Danny Jansen? He was one of the worst hitters in all of baseball

for the first two months of the season. He's also a catcher and someone we had ranked in the consensus top 12 coming into the year. He's been absolutely in fuego for the last 10 days. Was it by far away the number one catcher scored twice as many points as most catchers this past week? And he's the number three catcher over the last 28 days. So I fully expect that he's just figured things out. We've talked about how sometimes it takes catchers just a little bit longer because they have so many responsibilities that don't include hitting the baseball.

And then also somebody we just haven't talked about for too long, Ramon Luriano. He's now played 139 games in the major leagues, 21 home runs, 17 stolen bases. He's red hot again. I wouldn't be too surprised we moves up in the order a little bit more. He's been hitting fifth or sixth, which is at least better than where he was earlier in the season.

Ramon Loreano is 60% owned, and over the last 40, his last 48 games, a long time now. He's the number of 13 outfielder in points leagues. number seven in Roto. We're going to talk a little bit about lessons learned, first half lessons learned, but I guess we could just go right to mine. Plate discipline doesn't seem to matter anymore, Heath. It used to be one of the most important things for evaluating hitters. I've talked about this before, but Luriano's a great example. His plate discipline's terrible. He has 18 walks

and 96 strikeouts. Usually this is not someone we'd be excited about, but I guess maybe it's just all the home runs have rendered plate discipline a little bit less useful. Um, so in those 48 games, again, 13th in points, seventh in Roto, he's going to be better in Roto because that play discipline drags Luriano down in points leagues a little bit. I shouldn't say drags him down to the 13th best outfielder in that stretch. 3.02 batting average, 11 home runs and seven steals, eight walks to 47 strikeouts. But it is weird that, you know, he strikes out so much he barely walks and he's thriving right now. What do you make of that? Well, I think it does help if you have both power and speed.

It's hard to have bad plate discipline without having either elite power, elite speed, or both power and speed. And he's got both. So I think he's a legit 20-20 guy. Also, I do think plate discipline still matters in the evaluation of players. It's just that kind of like with pitchers as well, what is normal has changed, which means really bad. I think if you, you're telling me that he's a really bad guy in terms of strikeouts, he's got to be

like 30%. He's really... He's 27%. League average this year is 23%. Just a couple years ago, it was 20%. But he's really bad, I think, in terms of walk to strikeout ratio. Because he doesn't walk much. Yeah, and walk rate hasn't really changed a whole lot. It's 8.5 just like it was last year, just like it was in 2017.

Okay. But, I mean, fine. So then when you look at Luriano, 18 walks to 96 strikeouts, how would you describe that plate discipline? Just generally speaking, that kind of... It's bad. I don't think it's terrible in today's environment. All right, Danny Jansen, so let's talk about plate discipline. He has the longest active streak, 45 straight plate appearances without a strikeout,

longest active streak in baseball. But the weird thing, Heath, is Danny Jansen is not walking. He has drawn one walk in his last 14 games. So he's not striking out, but he is breaking a little. Well, I think that kind of makes sense, though, if you think about it, because until the last two weeks, pitchers looked at the scouting report and said, okay, you get to Dan Jansen, he's the worst hitter in baseball. Just don't walk him. Maybe.

He can't hit anything. Just throw him strikes. So he's not getting, he's just getting strikes, and so he's hitting him. Yeah, maybe. Okay. So you know what? Like, I got to tell you, you know, you know the catcher I love, right? Always.

You're going to say Carson Kelly. I think the problem for Carson Kelly is I wouldn't expect him to play as much as Danny. I was about to say, I think I got to go with Danny Jansen right now because since Avila got back, they're alternating games. It must be a defensive thing, but it drives me crazy because Carson Kelly is having a great season at the plate, great season. But he's played every other game. He's played three out of seven games since Avila came back. So it's something to watch. Let's give Alex Avila some credit.

he's got a 900 OPS. Did not even realize that. Did not realize that. All right. So that's another strike against Carson Kelly, I guess. Pitcher to add. Pitcher to add. I'm going to go with Dylan Seas.

And when he was called up before he made that start, there was some questioning, why are you so excited? Why are you guys excited about Dylan C's? I may have been the most excited. And it was just because, for one thing, his ERA and AAA was like a run and a half higher than his FIP. He has a little bit.

control problems. But that doesn't bother me as much in young pitchers when you have the high upside of the ability to miss bats. Now, we've seen that go the wrong way with a couple of guys that got hurt and Carlos Roda and Danny Salazar. We've also seen it go the right way with somebody like Blake Snell who just turned into one of the best pitchers in baseball once he figured out the control stuff. The upside four Cs, there's just not that many leagues that I wouldn't want to have that

on my bench, just to make sure. I do think if he figure things out, and he, Really, in his first start, the control problems were really just the first inning. I think three of his four walks were in the first inning, right? Yes. Yes. Dylan C's 62 percent, I'm surprised by that. I feel like people were sleeping a little bit on this.

I understand the line wasn't very good at the end of the day. Five innings, four hits, three runs, four walks, six strikeouts against Detroit. But as far as, as Gaga, as people go over pitching prospects, as I mentioned last week, we're more or less out of pitching prospects. This might be the last guy with immense upside, at least until Lazzardo, if he comes back at all. I agree. I'm surprised he's only 62% only if Dillon sees.

Should be higher. Yeah, I have not been making a lot of ad drops lately, but those are certainly guys that I would be looking at. I keep seeing what Wade LeBlanc is doing in a relief role. and he had another low strikeout rate, but six and two thirds, one run. It's pretty crazy. He's 12% owned.

So I haven't picked him up, but I think some people probably should, only 12% own. Yeah, I don't, I think Pineda deserves some talk to. He's 6.61% owned. That's the guy. So Penaida, Sunny Gray, he's about 80% owned.

We'll get to those guys. But Penaida's interesting, because we talked about him on HQ yesterday, and if he really is throwing a change up more, because he was really a two-pitch pitcher with the Yankees and the Twins, fastball, or the Mariners, fastball,

um, slider and made a lot of mistakes and a lot of balls left apart. But if he could throw that change up, then that could really be a game changer for Michael Panetta, who's on a nice little run here. Later in the show, we're going to talk about some struggling guys like Noah Cinderguard and Zach Wheeler.

And Matthew Boyd, is he struggling? Well, his strikeout rates through the roof, but the home run rate is through the roof as well. So he's interesting. Ross Stripling with kind of a disappointing start, although Dave Roberts said he pitched well. Got a little unlucky yesterday. Anthony DiSclophony will probably talk about it.

I want to read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. But the hitters and pitchers that we've spotlighted so far, Danny Jansen, Ramone Luriano, and Dylan Sees. News and notes. So Carlos Carrasco, we have now learned he has leukemia. Seems like he's doing well in his fight against leukemia, and he still plans on pitching this season. I think he or someone said something about,

about July. I don't know. Should we hang on to Carlos Carrasco right now in our fantasy leagues? As long as he says that he's planning on coming back this year, I'm trying to hang on to him. Jose Alvarado could be out two to six weeks with an oblique strain. Ray's relief pitcher, Jose Alvarado, and they will get Diego Castillo back right after the break.

So Pagan got a save over the weekend, but Castillo maybe he gets some saves for a little while. Jake Arietta has a bone spur in his elbow. You know, his last seven starts, Arietta has a 663RA. Bonespur or not, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a stretch like that, because we just don't really think he's that good,

but he might be affected by this injury. Jonathan Lucroy was carted off the field yesterday after a scary collision with Jake Mariznick, which, you know, I'm hesitant to throw the word dirty around, but it was an illegal play. He should not have done that. I wouldn't say it was dirty. It was definitely ill-advised.

Well, it was illegal. You're not allowed to do that. You're allowed to hit the catcher, but you're not allowed to go out of your way to hit the catcher. If the catcher's standing on home plate and you have nowhere to go, you can hit him. But he kind of bounced over to his left. Just slide. Just slide.

Yeah, but he wanted to crush Lucro, and he did. Milwaukee promoted Mauricio Dubon. Dubon. And I think, I'm going to look it up. Maricio Dubon, Honduras. I believe he is the first, yeah, he is the first major leaguer who was born in. and raised in Honduras. That's very cool.

He has been very good in the minor leagues. It's all been in the PCL, so it's kind of hard to tell what it means. But in 168 games in AAA, a 20-20 guy, the 300 average, I don't think there's enough room for him to play regularly. Yeah, yeah, I think so. But that's Mauricio DuBond, so a historic day for Honduras, good stuff. C.J. Crohn's on the I.L. with a thumb injury. Austin Meadows.

He sat two days in a row, both. against lefties. He had faced previous two left-handed starters, but obviously he's cold and now has taken a little bit of a breather. Would you drop Austin Meadows for Ramone, Luriano? I don't think I'd go quite that far. They are definitely moving in opposite directions towards each other, but in my rankings, I'll do a rankings update today, but I don't believe Meadows will get behind Luriano. Yeah, I just, it's funny because some people are like, you don't have a choice. You have to make those decisions right now. You have to start dropping good players with long-term upside

if you are fighting for your playoff lives or something like that. Yeah, I think I'd still rather start Meadows this week, next week, than I would, L'Oreano. Okay, okay. Nick Senzel sprained his ankle, which really needs to be watched. This was on Sunday, so we don't know the severity right now, but he missed a lot of time at the beginning of the season with a sprained ankle. Nick Senzel.

Justin Upton expected back after the All-Star break. Hunter Pence won't be ready right after the All-Star break, but hopefully not long after. Madison Bumgarner, he left after being hit by a pitch, hit by a comebacker, I believe, on the elbow, and he should be able to make a start on Saturday. Kyle Gibson pitched only one inning on Sunday. That was as planned to give him an inning to kind of bridge the gap between a long break between starts for Kyle Gibson. Max Kepler has been playing through a knee injury, and Christian Yellich is out of the home run Derby Heath. Really wanted to see that, but he has a back issue.

and he doesn't think he'd be able to do all those swings but he said he's going to play in the All-Star game but I want to, you can be honest I'm not going to watch the Home Run Derby tonight. Tonight's my anniversary, so I'll be going out not watching, not making my wife watch the Home Run Derby, but I would like... I'll definitely watch it.

You will watch it? Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, Josh Bell's going to win, right? I will probably not... Like, we will have a little draft in our house where we'll all pick a couple of players so we have somebody to cheer for. That's fun.

And Josh Bell will not be early on my draft board. I don't anticipate. Do you like the home run derby? It's mostly fun, yeah. Yeah, it's fine. I don't really enjoy it anymore. I watched the slam dunk contest. That was my next question.

Do you like the slam dunk contest? Yeah. I like that. I like the three-point contest. I like the three-point contest. Okay. Yeah, whatever. They're fine. Hey, would you trade...

I'm thinking of offering this. Would you trade Mike Trout for Matt? Max Scherzer in a Roto League? No. No. I would not. What if you needed pitching more than hitting? Yeah.

I mean, I'm not going to say you're dumb for doing it. I just would not. You know, our Roto League Memorial Magazine, like, there's no chance I'm winning. No chance. Right. Your season's over anyway, so you can do whatever you want. Right. But why don't you trade Mike Trout to me?

But the guy who owns Scherzer's in first place. So I think that at this point, I'm going to look at Max Scherzer. Okay, let's see. His last nine starts. He has a 0.84 ERA. He has 94 strikeouts in 64 innings. And I can't even calculate the whip, but it's microscopic. I think he might be the most valuable player in fantasy going forward, given pitching and the state of pitching.

I'm just saying if you're going to trade the best. player in baseball and you're out of contention, I would like you to trade him to me. I'm probably out of contention as well. You have like one more point than I do in that league, so you were both out of contention. Then we should make a trade. Everyone will love it. Who's your best pitcher? I have no idea.

Well, you're not getting Trout for him. But, like, the reason you take Trout over Scherzer, I think, in drafts is there's like a safety factor that Mike Trout is, you know, he's, whether he's the best fantasy player or not, He's the best player in baseball pretty much every year. At least, yeah, he's the best player in baseball, right? So, but Scherzer, he's older. He's a pitcher. Pitchers get hurt, all that stuff.

But now, like, we know. He's fine, even though he's skipping the All-Star game. He's been playing a little beat-up, whatever. He's amazing. I think there's a case to be made that if we were redrafting today, Max Scherzer should be the number one player taken. I think my best pitcher is Shane Bieber. Oh, okay, I'll give you Trout for Bieber.

I'll give you about... No, I got J'N-Rew. I'll give you about Tuvae for Bieber. Yeah, I don't know about that. That's a fun trade. It is a fun trade. It is a fun trade. I need to see where I'm at in the standings in terms of pitching and hitting.

All right, you think about it. You think about it. Let's take a quick break here. Everybody head home. Think about Altuve or Bieber. Who would you rather have? We'll take a break on fantasy baseball today. When we come back, first half lessons learned, and some bullpen stuff.

Bullpen stuff's pretty interesting, actually. Some hitters, some pitchers to know about, and your emails fantasy baseball to see We'll be right back. Lessons learned in the first half. All right, we talked about this on HQ yesterday. So Heath, what you said was pretty interesting about age, and it doesn't really seem to matter for starting pitchers, does it? Not so much this season, at least.

The top three starting pitchers in fantasy baseball so far, all 34 years old or older, Verlander, Scherzer, and Grinky. Eight of the top ten starters on the wrong side of 30. Maybe it's something about needing to be a little bit crafty to survive in this juiced ball era, but there are not a lot of young pitchers in the top 10. It's kind of interesting from a dynasty outlook, you know? Right, like when would you take Max Scherzer in a startup dynasty league? Well, and I think if you think about it and you think about the prospects that have come up that have been starting pitchers, they've struggled a lot more out of the gate than the hitters have. I got to think Scherzer's probably got three years of dominance left,

and so I wouldn't have any problem taking him in the second round. He is going to be 35 years old in a couple of weeks. So I think, you know, and that brings us to Chris's lesson. What you just said about hitters coming up and having more success, Chris said that the juiced ball is making this job harder than ever, right? Is that basically what he said? Yes. I agree.

And I think when it's going to be really hard is next year, when we're doing our preseason rankings. We don't know what ball they're going to use. Exactly. And even if they tell us they're changing the ball, we don't know what kind of effect that's going to have. So evaluating these power breakouts is just going to be really a Ketel Marte. You know, it's just going to be really difficult.

But, yeah, obviously, I mean, it's easier for a hitter to come up and be good than a pitcher. Maybe just being older and being well. Weiser, right, you know, is kind of helpful here. My lesson learned was about plate discipline. We already talked about that. Actually, the lesson learned that I gave yesterday was about the sophomore slump. The sophomore slump is real. So I looked at Raphael Devers, Cody Bellinger, and Luis Castillo as three guys who have the sophomore slump.

I thought it was interesting that you chose guys that were bad last year and ignored the sophomores that are just awesome this year. Well, that's the thing. There hasn't been a sophomore slump this year. And so why would your lesson from this year be that sophomore slumps are real? The sophomore slump. Ronald Acuna is not having a sophomore slump. No, that's the thing. It's not, the sophomore slump isn't required, but it happens.

And it can even, if they're, okay, if a sophomore has a great season, then he just, that he's just great. If a sophomore had a bad season, then it was just a sophomore slump. That's all. That's the lesson, he's. Okay. Now I get it. Yeah, okay. Good.

I'm glad you understand. Also, I am so excited to call out Heath for this. This is just terrific. So yesterday we did on HQ on the show, which I really should watch it. It's very fun. We did MVP, fantasy MVP for the first half. So Heath just decided to take the player who scored the most fantasy points among hitters and pictures. Seems like that player would be the most valuable player.

The most, now Chris and I determined that the most valuable player should probably include some draft value as well. And I was okay with that because the word value was in that award. But when you started trying to make that case for the Sy Young Award for pitchers, I didn't get it at all. Well, because it's a fantasy award. The Fantasy Sy Young Award winner should include the one who scores the most points. So Heath just went with the highest scoring player, which was Justin Verlander. Chris went with Junjin Ryu, which is the best pick.

And I went with Charlie Morton because Chris had already taken Junjun Riu. But this is where it gets fun. Keith must have submitted his answer on Friday because now if you look at the fantasy points Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are tied for the most fantasy points among starting pitchers and Scherzer has been slightly better in our Roto format he is the number five overall player

and Verlander is the number seven overall player I'm just glad you figured that out now now I can call you out yes now I can call you out Max Schurzer is my side young winner now He came back on Saturday night and took the award. There we go.

Okay. You know what? Now I'm satisfied. The most added players in CBS Sports Leagues, and it's been a while since we've talked about this. We haven't really had a live podcast since Wednesday, so a lot has happened. Denelson Lemette, he is the number one most added player. And he is 52% owned, as in Danny Janssen. De Nelson Lemette, pretty interesting debut.

A lot of strikeouts. He faced the Dodgers. Let's see if I remember the line. I'm going to look up the line, but I'm going to guess. It was five innings. That's correct. Three runs, two walks, seven strikeouts? I think that's all correct.

Six hits? Oh, three hits. Three hits. Oh, how about that? Okay, yeah. So 52, 52% owned for a guy who had an outrageous strikeout rate as a rookie two seasons ago. What do you think about Lamette? I'm a little bit more skeptical than everyone else seems to be,

but he is a starting pitcher who does have strikeout upside. So I'm not going to blame anyone for putting him on this list and adding him up to that percentage. I would rather have Dylan Sees, but there aren't any other pitchers on... Well, I'd rather have Sunny Gray. I'd rather have Michael Paneda. Most of the pictures on this list, I'd rather have than him,

but they're all a little bit more owned than him. So it's okay. Yeah, and his first start was, oh, no, I'm sorry. He's only had one star. I'm going to the next pitcher on the list. So that's Denelson Lemette. Let's go to the next pitcher on the list.

Oh, wait, I wanted to say one more thing about Lamet. Based on the Padres, how they've used their starting pitchers over the last few years, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of five-inning starts from Denelson Lamett. Coming back from Tommy John? Does that make sense? Yeah, and based on how he's performed, I wouldn't be surprised you he gives up three runs in a lot of those five-inning starts.

But I think he's going to strike out a ton of guys. Well, I think he has a chance to anyway. So I get why he's the most added player. I think he could be like a poor man's Robbie Ray. Okay, yeah. Jose Erkitti is on the most added list, and it's time to drop him, right? Dreadful start on Sunday against the Angels. He never got up to the level of ownership where I'd necessarily say that.

I have not heard for sure that the Astros are sending him back down he still struck out a ton of guys and his peripherals like it's really weird because yes he was a disaster but he made up at an outing at Scorsfield he got rocked by the angels and his peripherals

look like a good starting pitcher yeah I don't know if everyone's going to be back and ready but I'm probably holding on to him in like a 15 team league. I'm definitely holding on to him in an AL-only league. So he probably deserves 20% ownership. He's 29 now, so a few people should drop him, but not many.

Okay, so obviously Brad Peacock needs to come back, but who else? I mean, I don't think they're putting Colin the Q back in the rotation. So maybe your key, he can stick around. Does Framber have a chance? Yeah. I mean, I just think there's a chance Orkidi gets another start, and he is interesting. So I would hold on to him in most of those leagues where he's owned.

28% owned. Andrew Cashner is 48% owned. Andrew Cashner has been pitching very well lately. Let's see. So he's seven innings of one run ball at Toronto. He had a 144 R.A. And the four starts before that, not a lot of strikeouts. Are you buying into Andrew Cashner at all?

No, not at all. This is, to me, less believable than what was going to be. on with Zach Davies. Wow. It's similar to what's going on with Brett Anderson. If you're getting these points

out of these starts and writing it, then I'm happy for you. I think it's going to end really, really poorly. It's about time we talk about Yuleiguriel. He's now 84% owned. Where is he on? 83% owned for Yuleiguriel.

For the season, he's a top 201st baseman, 17th in points, 19th in Roto, but he's at number 12 third baseman. in points, number 15 in Roto. Guriel is typically going to be a little bit better in points leagues because his strikeout rate is so low. But his last 11 games, he has a 15-16 OPS,

batting 400 with nine home runs. And only a 265 babit, by the way, because all the balls are leaving the park. Yuli Guriel, 400 batting average, nine home runs in his last 11 games, only two strikeouts. This is the best stretch of his career. It has to be.

And he's like, both of the guerrilles are taking baseball by storm right now. The thing that's really hard for me to figure out with Yuli, at least, is like, yes, I know that he got off to a not great start. His launch angle is up, but virtually every other measurement, according to baseball savant, is worse than it has been for most of his career. His expected batting average is right at or worse than is expecting slugging percentage is, worse, his expected Woba is worse. I think he's a fine corner infielder, and you could possibly use him as a utility when he's hot, but I don't think it's going to stick. I'll throw him in with Al Tuvei. I have him in that. Altuve and

Gurriel for Bieber. We're getting closer. You might get five players for Bieber by the end of the show. So, yeah, the other thing about Yuli is that two of the home runs, I believe, came at Coorsfield, but whatever. It's still an amazing hot streak. But before this hot streak, like 12 games ago, he had like a 640 OPS or something like that. Terrible. So I guess he was due for some regression, but, boys, it's happening all at once.

Sunny Gray and Michael Panetta are on the list. Plan on talking about them a little bit later. Alex Young, starting pitcher for Arizona, was removed with a no-hitter yesterday. And his managers heard it from the fans for a long time. But six innings, no hits, one-walk, three strikeouts against Colorado. and so far so good for Alex Young, who's only 13% own, he's a lefty for the Diamondbacks. Again, not a guy who strikes a lot of players out,

but would you rather have Alex Young or Jose or Kiti? This one is so difficult because we're talking about a guy who threw 54 in AAA this year with a 609 ERA, through 80 in AAA last year with a 596 ERA. Right. And yeah, the peripherals are a little better, but he was just awful at AAA. I think I'd still rather have her, Kiti.

Okay. That's pretty much going to wrap it up for the most added list. Christian Vasquez. Christian Vasquez is a top five catcher. He's 80% own now. But gosh, who saw this coming? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, man.

Any thoughts on Christian Vasquez? I'll throw him in the trade. I have him in that league. Altuve Vasquez and Gurriel for people. Wow. Wow. This is getting really, really interesting now. Yeah, like you stammered and stumbled through Christian Vasquez.

What I can say is the peripherals look pretty, like he looks like an elite hitting catcher this season. He never has at any other point in his career. So it's not necessarily that. unsustainable for him to be a top six or seven catcher the rest of the way based on what he's done. It is still a small sample size

compared to a career where he was a relatively mediocre hitter. Yeah. All right. So from the most added list to the bullpen, and I just want to confirm one thing. Last year, 2018, Edwin Diaz and

Blake Trinidin, yeah, they were the top two closers by like a mile. Edwin Diaz was nearly 50 fantasy points better than Blake Trinen, and Blake Trinan was about 60 fantasy points than number three, Craig Kimball. The two of them combined for quick math here, 96 saves, 95 saves. Are Edwin Diaz and Blake Trinan both going to lose their jobs? I don't think Blake Trinan is going to lose his job.

I don't think either of them are going to lose their job. I do think this is, and I'm not tooting my own horn here, this is a good reminder, that when a reliever, I mean, another guy, the Rangers, LaClerc. And a guy has a year that is just so much better than what he's done in the past.

And he's a reliever, and you're talking about it with 60 or 70 innings. Just remember that's like a third of a season for a starting pitcher. And we don't change every opinion we ever had of the guy

over that third of a season. But who are you referring to? Trian and Diaz or both? because I don't think that applies to Diaz personally. I don't, like, Diaz is a little bit differently. He was mostly just that good because he got 175 saves last year. I didn't chase Diaz because of the save total. I know that's pretty hard to predict.

But Edwin Diaz, he really looked like he was becoming the new, like, best reliever in baseball. You know, his strikeout rate is exceptional. 17 walks to 124 strikeouts last year. And it's two out of three seasons because as a rookie in two, 2016, he was outstanding. In 2017, he got off to a bad start, but his last 50 appearances, he was great again. So I really felt like Edwin Diaz was just the new Kimbril, Jansen, Chapman. Like, I just thought he was great, you know?

I understand that you felt that way, and I'm not saying it's totally wrong, and I don't, I think he's good still. I'm not saying he's bad, but I will say that 2018, his ERA was 8 tenths of a run lower than it ever been, even than his rookie year. 2018, his whip was below 0.8. It had been 1.16 or 1.15 the two years before that. So, like, it was entirely different than what we had seen from Edwin Diaz in the past, and it was 73 innings.

Right. But two of his three seasons, Edwin Diaz had struck out more than 15 batters per nine. So, like, so even if he had, like, a 250 ERA this year. He struck out almost 15 batters. for nine this season. Yeah. So what's interesting about Diaz, let's see, that's great.

And his control hasn't been the same. I think he's probably fine. Just he threw, he got a save on Saturday. He threw exclusively fast balls. So that's, I think, 15 pitches all fastballs. So I think he's just having trouble

locating his slider. But Mickey Calloway actually talked about removing him from the closer's role. I think if that happened, it would be temporary. and you know who they said might get saved? Stephen Matt's. So again, I think Diaz is their best option. Seth Lugo maybe has been their best reliever.

But I do think that it was justifiable to take Edwin Diaz as the first closer. It may have been justifiable to take him as the first closer. I mean, it sure doesn't seem like it was now. But it was never justifiable to take him a round and a half, two rounds before any other closer. And that's where he was going. I think what was interesting about it was like who were the next best closers. All of them had question marks. It was a weird year.

Kenley Jansen. Yeah, question marks. A roll of Chapman. Brad Hand. Well, but not in ADP. Okay. Well, they should have been. You can say that now.

Yeah. I know you like both of those guys quite a bit. But Jansen and Chapman and Kimbril deserved based on their careers and what they had been doing. They deserve to be the next guys off the board. I think Brad Hand's in a different category than Trinand-Diaz or Jose LaClerc because Brad Hand's been awesome for three years in a row. Brad Hand's clearly a stud. He's clearly a stud.

There's no question. If you're drafting again today, who's the first closer off the board? I think it might be hand. I got a rankings update today, so I'll tell you tomorrow. Off top of my head, I would have to say, hand, OZuna chat. Jansen. I can't put Will Smith there because he's going to get traded. I think you, like the first relief pitcher off the eligible player is Woodruff.

Yeah, right. I've got Woodruff, Janssen, Hand, Yates right now. Yeah, Kirby Yates actually has outscored Brandon Woodruff. Right now the top five, oh, Josh Hader, forgot about him. The top five in points leagues are Yates, Woodruff, Will Smith, Bradhand, Josh Hater. Where's Ozuna? He's like 10th. He only has 19 saves.

Kirby Yates has 30. How about that? He's got to pitch for a better team. It's a fun. Liam Hendricks, though. Do you think Liam Hendricks needs to be added right now? I own Leon Hendricks in a couple of categories leagues. If you're in a categories league, the problem is I don't know how much longer it's going to be before Trinan's ready to just take the job back.

And I think it is Trinin's job. It is, but Trinin's been really good. You should have added him two weeks ago. He's been really bad, though. Play Trininin. Trinin? Yeah. He was bad in his rehab outings.

He was bad coming back. I don't know that he's right. So I think Kirby Yates is perfectly fine to own right now, but you have to do it with the thought that he's not. You mean Liam Hendricks. Who did I say? Kirby Yates. Oh.

I think Kirby Yates is perfectly fine to own right now as well. Yeah, sorry. I was looking at the standings. Yes, Liam Hendricks. But obviously he might not keep that job. Okay, hitters. See which hitters I want to talk about here. Talked about Gueriel.

How about Yassiel Pueg? Yalsill Pueig certainly bounced back. Last 23 games, he's batting 390 with nine home runs and four steals. He has the worst plate discipline of his career. But remember we said, hey, who's got the best chance of bouncing back? Puee Gervato. And I said Pueig, because of track record. You guys laughed at me.

But who's laughing at that? Well, it was a dumb argument. It was a great argument, but as portly stated. I do think Pueg has bounced back more. No question about it. Both have been better than they were at that point, for sure. Yeah, Vano's been better, but he's really just still not hitting for a lot of power. And obviously, he doesn't steal.

I mean, Pueg gets that OPS over 800. We'll really have to take him serious. Hey, he's the number 14 outfielder in Roto. That's amazing. He's number 28 in points. But in Roto, he's much better, because, again, the plate discipline. But 20 home runs and 13 steals at the All-Star break. That's pretty good.

Chance Cisco has started four of the last five games. Chance Cisco or Danny Jansen. I'll take Jansen. Chance Cisco or Carson Kelly. I'll take Kelly. Matt Olson is crushing it. He's 80% owned. I think we've seen now he's settling in as like a 250 hitter.

Yeah. But here's his slugging percentage in three seasons. with very similar batting averages. Matt Olson. Slugging presented, 651, 453, and now right in the middle, 565. Yeah, I think he's an 850-ish OPS guy, maybe a little higher, with, like, over a full season. And that's the interesting thing, is last year he only hit 29 and played 162 games. You look at his other two seasons, and he's got 43 home runs at 117 games.

Wow. So I think he's more of a 40-45 homer guy. I think he's got a little bit of Joey Gallo potential in him without quite as many strikeouts. Would you rather have Matt Olson or Luke Voight? Olson. Really? Okay.

Olson or a little higher then? Carlos Santana. Santana. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Heath. Three more hitters real quick. I'm going to throw him at you here.

Jamer Candelario. Went down to the miners, hit well. Since being recalled, Jamer Candelario has an 1160 OPS, four home runs, and a 350 batting average since June 26th. Any interest in Jamer? Not really. Any interest in Evan Longoria? He batted 429 with five home runs last week.

No. I would rather have Longoria in my lineup than Jamer Candelario. Any interest in Jose Martinez, 39% own playing every day for the Cardinals. Yeah, yeah, that's all he needs is to play every day. I wish he would get traded to an American League team so he didn't have to go out in the field. But all he does is hit. He needs to be in a major league team's lineup every day. And if that happens, he needs to be in a fantasy lineup every day.

The power hasn't been quite as good this year as it was the two years before. But I still think he's a borderline 300 hitter with an 800 open. P.S. in most situations. One more quick break on fantasy baseball today, and then it's pitching, pitching, pitching, and emails, emails, emails, right after this. So let's look at some of the best pitching performances from the last five days. Domingo Raman, I was pretty impressed with what he did coming back off the IL, and basically when he's been healthy, he's been really, really good.

When he's pitched through injury, he's been pretty terrible. Sunny Gray, we talked about a lot. I have a lot to say about Sunny Gray. Jordan Yamamoto for the Marlins very good. 3-0 with a 194 ERA, only 11 hits in 29 innings, but 15 walks, 30 strikeouts. Michael Paneda, 55% own. We talked about him a little bit earlier. And Dallas Keikl, I say now is the time to sell Dallas Keikl.

I don't know if Heath agrees. But those are the guys that just kind of stood out to me, Domingo Ormond, Sonny Gray, Jordan Yamamoto, Michael Paneda, and Dallas Keikle. How would you rank them? I would rank them Hermann Gray Paneda Keiko Yamamoto

This was a nice bounce back start for Yamamoto I'm not sure he's going to stick in the rotation when everyone's healthy but and he has not really peripherally been as impressive

as Alicia Hernandez but they have to get some guys healthy before that's really going to matter also and he's mostly been good in terms of actual production. When you talk about Eli Azer Hernandez, do you not say his name properly because it has Azer in it and you're just trying to diss me?

No, that's not it at all. I may subconsciously have like an aversion to saying your name. Right, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, I think it's all subconscious, though. It's not that I'm thinking about being rude to you. It's just that I dislike you that much. Okay, so talk to me about something. Sunny Gray. I understand that

you just look at the raw numbers, strikeout rate, whip, ERA. Looks like he should be a really valuable pitcher, but he's outside the top 50 at starting pitcher because he has rarely pitched deep into games and he's getting crushed third time through the lineup.

Absolutely crushed. Should be noted that in his most recent start, his best start of the season, 8, scoreless with 12 strikeouts against Milwaukee, he did not throw a slider or a change-up. He threw his curveball, 53% of the time. So he changed his pitch arsenal there.

But yeah, talk to me about Greg, because that's somebody you spotlighted on our HQ show yesterday. Yeah, he has the highest strikeout rate of his career. He has the lowest FIPP since his rookie season. The innings are a little bit of a problem. He's been a little bit unlucky in terms of wins. But he is arguably the best version of himself that he has been. and I don't think there's any argument that he should be

80 like he should be 95 96% owned even a top 50 starting pitcher is somebody that needs to be owned but do you see sunny gray is more like a top 30 starting pitcher going forward no I think he belongs in that like there's a pretty solid 35 36 37 I don't imagine when I do my rankings update he will crack my top 40 but he belongs in that 40 to 50 range. Okay. And then the worst of the last five days. Got two sections here.

Tell me if you're starting to get a little worried about Justin Verlander, who has now allowed 26 home runs. And in his last six starts, Verlander has a 481 ERA and 12 home runs allowed. Chris Sale, he's very frustrated. His last three starts, 13 run runs in 16 and 2 thirds, and he says he just hasn't been good enough, Chris Sale. Noah Cindergarde, like when is it going to turn around for Cindergarde? 468 ERA right now, just under a strikeout per inning, and the career lowest swinging strike rate.

And Zach Wheeler, just when it thought it was starting to turn around, maybe it has, but it was a bad start on Sunday against the Phillies, six runs in five innings for Wheeler. The three previous starts were at the Cubs, at the Phillies, and home against the Yankees, and it was four runs in 19 and a third. So I'm mostly encouraged by Wheeler, and obviously he's lower in the rankings than Verlander's Salem-Syield, but are you concerned about any of those four studs? I wish you had just inserted the Heath's side drop here and then we could get Scott White to come on for a special appearance

and say, do we really have to act like worried about these guys every time they have a bad start? Verlander and Sale, I don't have any concern about. They're both top seven or eight starting pitchers for me for the rest of the season. Wheeler and Cinderguard are just not in that range right now. I'm not going to be surprised when they have a bad outing or two because they've had several of them.

Yeah, but no. They're top 30 starting pitchers. Cindergards had several good outings. He's had a lot of bad ones, you know? Cindergards having a bad year. Sorry to say it, but Cindergars having a bad year. Like peripherally, not peripherally, but production-wise, he and Wheeler have been almost identical this season.

Yeah, Wheeler has 29 more strikeouts and a lot more innings, right? 14 more innings. Okay. Yeah, but the thing is the expectations were different, right? They both top 30 starting pitchers, but. I'm not dropping them. No, no, but I mean, look, valuing Zach Wheeler as a top 30 pitcher is it news.

He was, you know, around 30th, probably in ADP. Valuing Noah Cindergarde, who was top 15 in ADP, as a top 30 starting pitcher is big news. You know, is he just not going to be what we thought he was going to be? I does not feel like he is, no. And again, it can change with the, blink of an eye, but Aaron Nola figured it out a few starts ago. And it's just been one of the best pitchers in baseball for almost a month now.

And I think Sendergarde could figure it out, but he's lost right now. The worst of the last five days, part two. Lucas Gialito got crushed by the Cubs. And really, when you look at it, it's just he just hasn't been very good against the tough teams. And he's faced them pretty much all consecutively. So it's making me wonder a little bit about how good Gialito is. Matt Boyd, we talked about him earlier. 12 home runs allowed in his last six starts with a 603 ERA,

but also five walks to 54 strikeouts. Griffin Canning crushed over the weekend. Max Fried, crushed by the Marlins. Yikes. Ross Stripling, four in a third, four runs. I think two of them scored when a reliever gave up a home run. And Zach Plyzac, 58% O. And he'll be back after a brief minor league stint.

I believe, but I think he was having trouble gripping the ball as I was watching that game on 4th of July. He struggled in the third inning. He had to have the trainer come out and give him a towel because, you know, it's hot as hell. So there are a lot of guys. There's Gialito, Boyd, Griffin Canning, Max Fried and Stripling and Pleasack. Why don't we start with Gialito and Boyd, who, you know, two of the primary breakouts this year? Do you have concerns about them going forward? I am concerned I moved Gialito into the top 15 a little too soon.

I had kind of held off on moving Boyd up too much. He was in that 20 to 25 range, I think right behind Cinderguard, but right ahead of Wheeler. I'm a little bit worried that GILITO maybe deserves to be in that Cinderguard range himself, maybe just a little bit ahead of that group. But he may not quite be an ace yet.

Okay, and Boyd, you still still the same rankings area. I'm just going to leave Boyd in the same spot. He has the fourth best Sierra in all of baseball. He's been awesome. You got hit hard lately, but I'm not that worried about it. All right, so Griffin Canning, Max Fried, Ross Stripling, Zach, Plyzac. Your thoughts on that group? I don't think any of these guys are super must-own.

I know Scott and I have kind of differed on Canning. There are some things that look very good about him, the swinging strikes, one of those things. But he just doesn't have very many good starts. He's got a lot more mediocre and bad starts. Stripling, I'm probably just going to keep running out there. I'd like it if he'd have a little bit. bit more success. Kind of the same thing for Pleasac?

Freed I'm really worried about. Pleasak, though, you know you're not going to get strikeouts from him, so that seems like a guy who doesn't have a ton of value right now, but he's also the lowest own. Stripling, there was a ball that was lost in the sun. There was the bullpen giving up some runs that were charged to him. He hasn't gone deep into games yet. I'm wondering what to do with Julio O'Reas right now.

He pitched one inning yesterday. He's almost impossible to drop an impossible. possible to use. So yeah. If he pitches three innings, then, you know, then I do see some roto value in him. Because he's scoreless almost every time. He's got a crazy streak going. I don't know, crazy.

He's probably got about 18 scoreless innings in a row. And he strikes out about a batter per inning or so. So he's good. You know, if you can get three scoreless eight, three innings, one run with three strikeouts in a week, that's not bad in a categories league. And I anticipate they're not going to use Arias as a one-ending guy going forward. All right, let's read some emails here at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This is from Andrew in Toronto.

Rank these rookies rest of season. Austin Meadows, Austin Riley, Austin Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. I think this is different depending on format. It's categories, five by five. Categories. I might go Meadows, Riley, Vlad. How can we not put Ryan? Like I kept, you know, Austin Riley, sell high, sell high, sell high.

Well, like, he just keeps homering. Right, but he's been, other than the homers, he's been pretty terrible. Has he? Oh, yeah, wow, you're right. As of late, yeah, I'll pull up the numbers. Yeah, you're right, you're right. He's been striking out just an absurd amount. I don't think anybody that sold high, like, let's just go back.

to a random date a few weeks ago. July 17th. I was going June 23rd. July 17th is still like 10 days from now. June 17th. I don't think he has any homers in that span. No. From June 23rd, he has a 167 average of 40% strikeout rate and a 660 OPS.

Okay. Yeah. All right. So good. So high. We were right. win. From Chris, can you do an in-depth look at, well, let's save this for tomorrow. Chris, I'm going to copy and paste your email for tomorrow's show, an in-depth look at Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

From Ted, who should I hold on to these three rookie slash prospect pitchers? Brendan McKay, Zach Allen, and Jesus Lazzardo. I think right now, McKay has to be at the top of the list to hold on to, and Lazzardo has to be on the top of the list to drop. Luzardo is on the minor league I.L. now. They wanted to get him up to 100 pitches before they brought him up to the majors. I would not expect to see him before August. Okay. What do you make of the lack of strikeouts for Brendan McKay, six and two starts?

It's weird because it's not like you can say, yeah, but he's still getting a bunch of swinging strikes. It could be just that his stuff hasn't been quite as sharp in his first couple of starts and it's not anything to worry about, but that needs to improve or he's not going to keep putting up good performances. I don't love the fact that his second best pitch or, like, I think it might be his best pitch, is a cutter. Doesn't really feel like a swing and miss kind of pitch. Now, McKay has faced the Rangers and Yankees so far, and he's been okay.

You know, he's great against the Rangers. He was okay against the Yankees. Actually, I thought he was actually pretty kind of crappy, but got lucky. They hit a lot of balls hard. But I just want to look at his Brooks baseball data and see the usages. Yeah, four seam, curveball, cutter. I don't know. Kind of wondering if he's going to be a strikeout pitcher this year.

But he struck him out in the minors. All right, next up. From no name. Dear, Sandler, Ledger, Khan, and Hemsworth. So that's Adam Heath. Scott Can, Kahn? Who are these people? Scott C-A-A-N.

This is good. Do you know who that is? He's an actor. Oh, I know him. He was in Hawaii 5-0 on CBS. He was in Varsity Blues. Great show. I think he was in Varsity Blues.

Where's the question? Give up Gray the Trade in a Categories League. Give up Garrett Cole, Yandy Diaz, and Hansel Robles. Garrett Cole, Yandy, D.S. and Hansel Robles. Get Adelberto Mondeci, Jose Berrios, and a bum that I would drop her Kestin-Hira. I love it. A minus. What a nice trade.

Good job. A minus. All right. Great, the trade from John. Give up Danesby Swanson. Get Jose Ibrahim. I have Kingery to replace Swanson. And Correa on the I.

L., which I think is important. Because if you didn't have Correa, I wouldn't like it quite as much. But I'll give it a solid B. Chris wants to hear your thoughts on Wade Miley. Is Wade Miley undervalued? Again, this kind of goes back to like, There was some speculation because it's the Astros that they were going to do something with him to turn him into a pitcher that's actually good.

I don't believe that's actually happened. He's just doing a great job of outperforming his peripherals for the second year in a row, but if you look at the innings, it's really only about a full season's worth. If he had put up the last two seasons across one season, he would be the headliner for my regression alert column. I don't have much interest in Wade Miley at all. Well, all right, let me do some pick-your-date range math here. Since May 9th, so this would be 11 starts.

This is what's encouraging to me about Wade Miley. 63 strikeouts and 62 and a third. You know, it didn't happen right from the get-go with the Astros because his first seven starts, he wasn't a strikeout pitcher, but I don't know what to make of it, because it is now 11 starts with a strikeout printing, only a 10% swinging strike rate, though, in that stretch. See, there's just not enough there for me to actually believe it.

Like, if you want to use him against a good matchup, I don't think it's a bad option. He is going six innings more often than I really expected him to. But I just don't really believe it. I think it's totally dependent on the matchup. He's a streamer. The last time Wade Miley allowed more than four earn runs in a start. was 2017.

So keep that in mind that he didn't pitch that much in 2018 or so far 19, you know. But he doesn't kill you. That's good. Two of his last four starts are five innings, four runs, four and a third inning's three runs. It's not like that means he's been really good all of those starts. To his last four starts, you said? Yes. Those are like his two worst starts of the season.

I'm just saying that's a misleading thing to say he hasn't done that since 2017 when he's had bad starts in the last month. He's had three bad starts this year. He usually goes out and gives you a respectable start, Wade Miley. He's had more than three bad starts. Oh, yeah, let's count them. Four innings, three runs in his third start of the season. The two you just mentioned and maybe the Seattle start. I'll give you that was a bad start.

Four bad starts this season. Five innings, three runs, three walks, six strikeouts. It's kind of a bad start. Okay. All right, we agree. Last one. Gray the trade from Addison in Tampa. Give up Jose Ramirez.

No, give up Andrew Benintendi, get Jose Ramirez. Wharf. Like, I know Andrew Benintendi has been disappointing this season. I'd do this. I'd rather have Jose Ramirez, I think. I'd rather have Andrew Benintendi. Is Jose Ramirez coming around a little bit? He is.

He is. A little bit. I don't, the power just doesn't seem like it's there anymore. No, but I don't think that, I don't think Andrew Benintendi's going to have more power than Jose Ramirez. Andrew Benintendi might sit sometimes against lefties,

and Jose Ramirez has 19 steals, 18 steals. I would take Jose. You say no way, Jose? I'll take Benintendi. So I'm going to give that a C-minus. He had a great June. He had 216 in June. That's awesome for Jose Ramirez.

2-16? Yeah. Yeah, good for him. And he slugged 3.30. He is not really coming. I guess he's coming around like the last two weeks because he's batting 273 in July. That is a hot streak, ladies, gentlemen. All right, thank you so much to Heath.

We'll be back tomorrow with another edition. Up Fantasy Baseball today. We'll talk to you there.