Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/10: It Might Be Time to Drop These Players ... (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 10, 2018

Michael Conforto, Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre continue to take up space on your rosters. They are among the players we discuss today as we wonder who has too much upside to drop and who can finally be cut loose. But first we react to Chris Archer's bad start (4:31), Danny Duffy's great start (5:55), Stephen Piscotty's streak (10:38) and Enyel De Los Santos' upcoming debut (12:45) ... Thoughts on Buster Posey's hip (14:00) before we talk about those struggling hitters and who we can cut loose (16:23). We also ask our listeners who they are too afraid to drop right now (25:50) ... Bullpen notes (35:33), Magical Miami Marlins (37:35) and Scott's thoughts on some 2018 breakouts (39:00) like Eddie Rosario, Nick Castellanos and Aaron Hicks. Who is legit? ... 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

Scott's bombed about the humidor and pick your milk for breakfast cereal. Mount Rushmore, they'll be there for. Well, yesterday in the podcast Points League, Scott White dropped Elvis Andrews, a guy who's been a top six shortstop in that format three years in a row. He was not afraid to drop Elvis Andrews. Who are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to say there was no trepidation there.

Okay, okay. See, the problem is I went without Elvis Andrews for so long that I kept adding Elvis Andrews replacements, and I'm not sure they're not better than Elvis Andrews. I have Angelton Simmons, Eduardo Escobar, and Jan Harvest Salarte, all three on that team. And I feel like the one I'm least likely to start as Elvis Andrews. At the very least,

I figure one of them should be able to put up comparable numbers in a points league to a good case for Elvis Andrews, who, you know, the most concerning part about Andrews this year, I don't think he's stolen a base yet. He hasn't, Scott. You know, I'm trying to intro the show, and you're just going, you're getting into the analysis way too early here, way too early. I'm sorry. I am ready to defend my Elvis Andrews move. He has not stolen a base. He has no steals in one attempt so far. That's amazing.

And he's one of the players that might be a little bit too good to drop, but maybe not. We're going to ask you, I asked on Twitter this morning, who are you too afraid to drop? Because you think they might have a huge second half. I got some people that are on my mind. Scott's going to have some people that are on his mind. Not necessarily the same thing as a by-low. Like, for example, I'm too afraid to drop Adam Eaton because I think he could have a big second half. But he's not exactly playing enough right now for me to call him a bi-low candidate.

it. Also, he has not scored double-digit fantasy points in one week since returning from the DL, mostly because of the playing time. So, you know, there's a little bit of a difference that's Adam Eat and we're talking about. We'll get into that. We'll get into Danny Duffy, who's 66% owned. We'll get into Stephen Piscotti, who's 31% owned. We will talk about some breakouts. And if we're buying the breakouts from Eddie Rosario, from Eugenio Suarez, from Nick Castiano and a few others, and we will try to get to your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Now, Scott, you are free to give analysis, sir. I'm done. I've given it all already.

No, I've actually had the same thought process with Adam Eaton. And I have dropped him in one three outfielder league, but it's it hurt. It hurt to do that. I've been able to keep from doing it in another three outfielder league, but he's right there on the edge, on the cusp of being dropped if some exciting pitcher would emerge. So that's, it wouldn't surprise me if either Eaton or Andrews is a top 50 player the rest of the way. But in leagues with limited roster space,

these are sometimes the tough decisions you have to make. Absolutely. And, you know, this is really inspired by a guy like Billy Hamann. Hamilton, who has six deals, I think, in his last three games. And, you know, I own him in a Rotel League. And he has gotten me so many points recently. And it's just a reminder that you really have to be patient in fantasy baseball. Just a long, long season.

But how patient is too patient? And Carlos Santana's another guy we're going to talk about. Carlos Santana has played 89 games. I went through his last four seasons and looked at his OPS from game 90 through the rest of the year. He's basically played 150 or more for straight seasons, 152 or more. Carlos Santana's OPS from game 90, which will be today for him, through the rest of season, has been 885 or better in three of his last four seasons. That is a great sign.

But there's a troubling sign there as well that I'll talk about when we get to that segment. Let's start, though, with Monday standouts. I'll start with some good stuff. Actually, let's start with one bad standout. Chris Archer. Chris Archer, Scott. He got lit up in three innings. he gave up three and a third, three runs, six hits.

Kevin Cash called him Rusty. Can we just shake this one off for Chris Archer, home start against Detroit, or it was a road start? No, home start against Detroit. And start him at Minnesota this weekend with no concerns. No, I wouldn't start him in a week where you're making daily moves like that. I want to start him with no concerns. I'm not saying you can't start him.

It was unfortunate in a way that he was making two starts this first first. week back, again, thinking more of a weekly context, and that the first start was against Detroit, which is one of the most favorable pitcher matchups right now. You hoped he would come through with that matchup despite the rust, and then obviously have another good start against the twins. But since he wasn't able to get it done against Detroit, I think I'd wait until I saw him get it done to activate him. To put him in your lineup?

Yeah. Okay. It's Chris Archer. That doesn't really fit the profile of when Chris Archer typically struggles. If he struggles, if he struggles, it's in pitchers parks. This was just shaking off the rust. Shake it off like Taylor Swift. All right, give me a good standout from Monday's action, Scott White.

Well, let's talk about Danny Duffey, shall we? Sure, we shall. We shall. Nine strikeouts against the twins. So I'm glad I slipped that line in there at the end of yesterday's podcast. Yes, me too. Start David Duffy against twins. That was a good call by me.

Thank you. Four of his last six starts now have been dominant, Danny Duffy, in terms of strikeouts, in terms of run prevention. The problem is the other two during that six-start stretch. He allowed six runs. So that's kind of frustrating. And it's preventing his season line from getting corrected as drastically as it should. But I still think there are a lot of good stuff.

signs here. He's throwing harder than he did really at any point last year. And Velocity was a big key to his success two years ago when it looked like he was emerging as an ace level pitcher. Not saying he's going to be an ace level pitcher, but I think he's must own again. And hopefully he can avoid the six-run disasters. Yeah, and those two six-run disasters were against Cleveland and Houston. Oddly enough, in the six-start stretch that Scott talked about, six or seven innings and zero or one-run run and four of six starts, all four of those starts on the the road. And at Oakland, at Houston, at Milwaukee, at Minnesota, a couple really tough

matchups in there. The other two starts were the home starts for Duffy, and that's where he's struggled. Now, you go back a little farther, though, last nine starts, Danny Duffy has a 3070 RA, but this walk to strikeout ratio, 25 walks to 50 strikeouts in 55 and two-thirds, 11% swinging strikes, it's not great. The 3070 RA is great. I'm conflicted on Danny Duffy. I am conflict. I don't know. He's at the White Sox this weekend. I can't imagine I won't be starting him if I own him. Yeah, I don't know, man. The walk-to-strikeout ratio does not say this is a pitcher that can sustain a 307 ERA over that nine-star stretch. Well, it's partly because you included nine-star, you included a weird zero-strikeout effort over five innings. He had against the Angels June 4th,

which skews that number a bit. If you just look at his last six-star, than the strikeout ratio. How about the walks? Just the walk. 25 walks and 50. He's... He's not a control artist. That's part of the reason why I don't think there can be...

We could say he has ace potential. Yeah. And that's more something we saw earlier in his career. I guess the walks weren't there so much the last couple seasons, but I don't think of Danny Duffy. Like I see walks in Danny Duffy's lines in the box score for Danny Duffy. I don't think it's like weird or anything. I think that's part of his profile.

Sure. Okay. So does Danny Duffy and what he's doing now make you hesitant to drop Sunny Gray? Because I mean, this is, Danny Duffy sort of fits in the theme of the show. I could understand if we did this like a month and a half ago, people might be saying, well, I'm a little afraid to drop Danny Duffy's got so much potential. Does Duffy his, I guess, quasi resurgence here make you hesitant to drop Sunny Gray or John Gray or any other Gray? Gandalf the Gray?

Well, not so much Sunny Gray, no, because he's been so bad that you drop him. I can't imagine anybody's picking him up in a league of standard size. And he's been bad with the underlying numbers, too. There's like, other than the fact that his name's Sunny Gray and he's had good seasons in the past, there's no reason to be encouraged by Sunny Gray, which doesn't mean I think Sunny Gray's done for. I think we'll see a good Sunny Gray someday again, but I don't think you risk much by dropping him, and I don't think the turnaround is imminent. John Gray is kind of a different story, because John Gray has a top 12.

FIPP, he has a top 12 swinging strike rate. by every measure but ERA and I guess what if he's been dominant and it seems like there's a very specific problem with him pitching with runners on base but obviously that's something he's handled fine before so it seems like a small adjustment he'll make there during the stay in the minors if any minor leaguers ever get on base against them

which I know it's a problem at his first start but there just seems to be so much upside for Gray that is so close to being realized for John Gray. Yeah, yeah. Well, for Sunny Gray, we're not seeing any positive signs at all. All right, one more stand out here, Stephen Piscotti. Now, I didn't go back to when his hot streak began, but I actually have that from the notes from yesterday. But over the last 28 days, Piscotti, who homered yesterday, is a top 10 outfielder.

He's number seven in points. He's number 10 in Roto. Piscotti is batting 302 with seven home runs, 19 RBI's, nine walks to 17 strikeouts, and eight doubles over the last 28 days. Again, he's the number seven outfielder in points leagues, number 10 in Roto over the last basically month. So are we on board yet? Stephen Piscotti, can we add him?

He's 31% owned. Yeah, I still have my doubts that Piscotti's going to really be an impactful player for you. I don't mind him as a hot hand play. Certainly in five outfielder leagues, you could do worse. But there's not a lot of power upside here. He doesn't really have a swing geared for hitting home runs. He needs to be a pretty reliable 290-type hitter to become the player we want him to be. I'm not confident that's going to happen.

His Babbat is actually pretty normal by his standards right now. All righty, Scott. So are there any other standouts we need to talk about? We've talked about Archer Duffy and Stephen Piscotti. Well, basically every two-star pitcher we were excited about starting did not have a great start. Yeah, like Wheeler and Eflin. Really, Zach Eflin even, wasn't great. No, he wasn't.

But the standards he's pitched up too recently. So that was kind of disappointing. C.C. Sabathia. Yeah, that was very disappointing. It's Baltimore. After he was great against the raves and redsocks last two times, though. Yeah. I don't really care about owning him either way.

I'll start. I own Sabathia in one league. I start him sometimes. Sometimes I don't. I know he's not going to help with strikeouts. He's not really going to help with WIP, but his ERA is pretty good, and he could win you a game and get you a quality start.

He's fine. That's basically it. He's fine. So let's go to the big news. And he wasn't great. Oh, yeah, he was terrible. Let's go to the big news and we'll get into all that. Eniel de Los Santos is going to start for the Phillies today against the Mets.

He has a 189 ERA in the minors, 31 walks, 87 strikeouts in 95 and a third, and a 108 whip. Enel, De Lo Santos, is this just a spot start for him? I think so. I think so. I know Vince Velasquez is only missing one turn. And I'm not sure what to think of De Lo Santos. I mean, obviously, when there's an ERA that good, you have to take notice and you can't just dismiss it.

But I wish the strikeout rate was a little better against minor league kickers, less than one per inning. I don't know. It's almost one. I have some questions. It's almost, well, yeah, it's probably in the 8.6-ish range, I'm guessing, whatever that is. Yeah, yeah. It's not that far. Not that far.

All right. So, Danielle De Los Santos, they had a double-hatter yesterday, so, you know, that always throws the rotation out of whack. But we'll see what he does. Chris Bryant will play another rehab game today and be re-evaluated. Noah's Cindergarde and Jason Vargas could be back this weekend. U. Darvish played catch. Buster Posey, that's good, by the way, everybody likes playing catch. Buster Posey is going to miss the All-Star game.

He's not going to miss playing time. He's going to miss the all-star game. I suppose it's possible he missed his time after the break. He needs an injection in his hip. And he's got, Buster Posey has a 125 ISO. Now, that's not that much lower than what it's been the last three or four years. 179, 153, 147, 142. That's Posey's ISO last four.

years and now it's 125. But he is, despite having the second most of bats and basically the most at bats in played appearances, he's practically tied with Wilson Contreras. Posey is the number five catcher in points, number seven in Roto. Do you think this is an explanation for it? Because, you know, I think Bruce Bochie said it might be hurting his power, but at the same time, like he hit 12 home runs last year and his ISO was 142, now it's 125. Or is he just kind of old and not that good anymore?

It could be a little bit of both. I mean, it's not a huge difference in power from a year ago, but it's enough of one to knock up down a peg in the rankings, I feel like. And one thing we've talked about with him before is just how off pace he is, particularly with like RBI. So a lot of little things are adding up to him being a disappointment. in fantasy this year. I think you can hold out hope that with some rest, if this gets better, we see a better

version in the second half. I think there's a chance at that anyway. And obviously, even at his worst right now, he's still, what, a top five catcher? So it's not like... Five in points. It's not like there's any recourse there. Seventh and roto. Right, you're not going to drop him.

And he's cold. Last 20 games, Pose he's batting 214. And usually you can count on him for good batting average. So maybe the hip injection work. and you get a 300 or better batting average in the second half. Batting 214, slugging 314 over his last 20 games. Steven Strassberg is going to make a rehab start today. On tomorrow's show will be a little negative.

It's Wariometer Wednesday. We'll also grade some trades on tomorrow's show. We're not going to do that today. Travis Shaw, Mike Mustakis, Jose Ibrahim, O'Brien, Eric Hosmer, and more. On the Wuriameter on Wednesday, they will all hit a home run tonight, I'm sure. But they'll still be on Worryometer Wednesday. All right, so let's talk about who we might be afraid to drop. Y'all play scared, Scott.

Y'all play scared. Too scared to drop some players. Remember that email last year? Oh, how could I forget? You remember the player he said we were too scared to drop? Alex Bregman. Yes, right. So we were rightfully too scared to drop Alex Braybgen.

We got an email from someone last year and said, y'all play scared. You shouldn't hang on to these guys who were underperforming. But sometimes you really have to. It was one of the shining moments in podcast history. People are naming fantasy teams after it. All sorts of callback emails to it. Well, it was great.

The guy that, you know, I want to overreact and I think it's because I pretty much was there with Sunny Gray after his start at Toronto. I was like, that's it. We're done. And now I want to break up with Michael Conforno after yesterday. He faced Eflin for a little bit. Then he faced Erandola who had a brilliant start. But he didn't get a hit. I don't believe.

I think he had a couple walks in a doubleheader. I'm just tired of it. Michael Conforto is batting 218 right now. His OPS is 707. He's actually been better against lefties, but that's because he's been so bad against righties. 208 with a 344 slugging, but a 354 on base.

He's got a career high walk rate. That's great. But the hard contact rate is way down in a year where everybody's hard contact rate is up. The ground balls are way up. am I too scared or should I drop I'm a little afraid to drop Michael Conforto What do you think I should do?

A shallow league I think it's an easy call In a deeper league what do you think? Yeah Well, I mean it depends how deep I don't think I'd drop them in a five outfielder league Three outfielder league You know standard 12 team three outfielder league I don't think I'd own him anywhere

To be honest And like it's it's one of those things where you have to you have to really understand perception and you have to understand how depth works in your particular league because there's more than enough I feel like in a 12-team three outfielder league

there's more than enough starting caliber outfielders to go around right so even if Conforto bounces back and has this big turnaround the chances are your outfields, you might not have been able to find a spot for him anyway, you know? Do you still think he has mega upside?

I mean, it's too early to say he doesn't. He's 25. This is his first year back from a significant, was a shoulder injury? Yeah, shoulder. Yeah, and maybe year two goes better. Maybe the second half goes better. I mean this year for Guiforto.

he's unstartable right now and without these obvious signs of okay I feel like the turnaround is imminent and like I just I don't know

I don't think like even in a worst case scenario you drop him and he's 900 OPS guy the rest of the way I don't know given the state of outfields

and a three outfield or like how easy it is to fill those splits but I don't know that it's something you're going to regret forever and ever. All right, that's Confordo. Yeah, I'm just, I got him in a deep league, and I might have to drop him tonight, and I'm just concerned.

But in a shallow league, yeah, it's easy call. Would you drop? How deeps the league? 16 teams? 13 teams. Roto. Are the outfielders? It's a weird league.

There's no outfield designation. You just start, like, a bunch of hitters. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. Position eligibility is meaningless. You start five infielers and five. First base slash outfield slash DH. So five, second, third, short, catcher, and five, everything else.

And you can start as many of them. I mean, that might make it easier to drop them, frankly. If you find yourself in that position I was with Elvis Andrews, you can start four short stops. But I'm looking at Conforto. I'm saying, man, he could win me my league if he goes crazy. Because his OPS in four seasons is 841, 725, 939, 707. And if you get the good Conforto in the second half, you're going to feel like a dope for dropping him.

Who's your worst sitter that you start regularly? Conforto and Bird. Right? You know, it's like... It's a close call between Conforto and Bird. I feel like birds... I feel like I'd drop Bird before Conforto. But like somebody like Conforto versus Adam Eaton,

who we were talking about potentially dropping... No question I dropped Conforto before. Obviously, I have Adam Eden in that league, too. I've Adam Eden in that league. All right, Carlos. Sanana, Carlos Santana is the number four first basement in points league, so you will never drop him there. But he's number 19 in Roto, in non-OBP Roto in a batting average Roto league. And again, so frustrating with a double header yesterday. He went one for five. He walked four times.

That's great in points. That's batting average Roto. So I mentioned earlier his OPS from game 90 on, which is what he'll be at today. In three of his last four years, it's been 885 or You can use that in any format in three of the last four years. But he had started to get going by now. It's taking a longer time. Each of the last two seasons, at least. He had already been busting out of his slump. So it's kind of like Brian Dozier.

Nobody's dropping Dozier. I could see people dropping Santana in a Rotel league. It's strictly in a traditional five-by-five league. Yes. That's the only format you could make an argument for it. I'm not there yet. But am I playing too scared? No, I think it's a bad argument.

You can make an argument for it. I think it's a bad argument because obviously the track record is so well established. Other than batting average, he's doing everything the way he normally does it, and the batting average you could explain simply enough, he has a 2-14 Babbitt. It seems like regression the good kind is coming there. Come on, bring it on. Yeah, I'm glad you're on the show today because I can say how I feel about these guys that I think Carlos Santana could hit 280 or 270 in the second half.

Because I know Chris would never think that he'd hit over his season-long average. But I do think that, you know, I think he could actually kind of help you in batting average in the second half because he could go so nuts. Like, he just made up for lost time. I mean, it's possible. I wouldn't count on that. He's not going to 300. But, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, you know. He's had a lot of fly balls, which should help home. I mean, his rates are a little off. The line drive rate is down, which kind of explains the low bad bit. But that's one of those things where I don't necessarily feel like it's permanent. Like, it's one of those, what's the cause, what's the effect things? And I think the line drive is just as like rate is just as likely to correct as the bat of it.

Okay, so the last guy, not the last guy, but one of the last guys will be, Elvis Andrews. Elvis Andrews, I mean, really, zero steals. He's batting 248. He's having a terrible year. And the last two seasons, Andrews has hit around 300, which was a bit surprising, given what he had done in prior years. And right now he's hitting 248.

Obviously, the big power tick last year is the biggest surprise ball. But even without the power, if he had just hit eight home runs, stolen 25 bases, and batted around 300, you've got a must-start player. none of that is happening maybe the eight home runs he's got two home no he's got two home runs in 31 games whatever alright so is Andrews just not

not the same by the way Carlos Santana last three months of last year about a 297 so anyways Elvis Andrews just not worth it anymore is he just not Elvis Andrews it's really tough because I don't feel like in a league

where you start only nine hitters so the traditional head-to-head lineup I don't feel like you can start him right now. He's too big of a liability. It's not doing enough for you. At the same time, he's only played 31 games this year. Through 31 games this year, Jose Altuve had, I think he had just one steal. Oh, wow.

And he's up to 13, which, you know, yeah, through, he got a second steal on game 39. He's up to 13 now, which still is off. paced by his standards, but it's by 2018 standards, it's still a pretty good total for this point in the season. So, like, it's, it's one of those things where steals can come in bunches. It's odd that it's really odd that he's only attempted one and all the time that he's played, especially since he's obviously not the hitter, Jose Altuvae is. I don't know. I mean, like, I think there's a good chance he's fine, but if you have another option of short stuff that you can start more, it's tough to keep that backup shortstop on your,

roster no smaller leagues. Yeah, I don't think people are at the point really where they're dropping. Andrew Scott had sort of a different circumstance, but let's see who people are too afraid to drop. I asked on Twitter, and let's see if you agree. Just going to read some of the answers here. Too afraid to drop in fear of, you know, missing out in a big second half. Byron Buxton.

No, get him out of there. Yeah, I don't agree. Chris Taylor. I mean, Chris Taylor's been good enough to start. He hasn't been as good as he was last year. But every league where I owned Chris Taylor, he's starting for me. Yeah. Yeah, Chris Taylor had a pretty good June.

I think it was kind of like the beginning of June was good. Second half, not so good. July he's batting 344 with a 563 slugging. Two walks, 15 strikeouts, not good. So I don't know, you can't drop Chris Taylor, really. Marwin Gonzalez. It has to be a really shallow league, I think. And none of my league, like, you know, 10 teams are fewer.

And if you don't have a spot for him in those, I guess you could make the argument. I'm not, let me say this. I'm not confident Chris Taylor is going to be the guy he was last year. That might be his career year. But he's still okay as he is now. How about Marvin Gonzalez? No. No, that Astros promoting Kyle Tucker, I think, is a signal that they're not trusting

Marvin Gonzalez to bounce back themselves. And they shouldn't. I'm getting a lot of high-end names on Twitter, like Otani. I'm cool dropping Otani the pitcher. Fam, Kintana. Nobody's dropping Fam and Kintana yet. But look, I mean, it's not crazy with Fam, I guess, but I don't think anybody should drop him yet.

No, I mean, I think it can make an argument for Otani to hit her as well as the pitcher. But that's one where you're mostly just gambling. Nobody else is eager to pick him up. Because the truth is he hasn't been especially productive. He's had some big home runs, but in such sporadic playing time, that it hasn't made a big impact. You mean since coming off the DL? No, just overall this season.

Like, if look at his week-to-week breakdown as a hitter, he hasn't done much. Well, but we expect him to hit a lot more now than he did then. So I can't really... We hope he plays more regularly. Yes. But so far, I don't think he has. He had an injury. He started four of six games since returning.

He sat against the lefty, but he also had an injury, and then he hit like a pinch hit home run in the game. He had an injury. All right, well, anyway. This one I don't agree with. I am not too afraid to drop Adrian Beltray. Yeah, I'm not afraid to drop him either. He's not an everyday player anymore.

He's old. They're looking for opportunities to, get jerks of pro far in the lineup. Yeah, I think that's fine. And everything is league context matters, you know? Like, I'm not dropping Beltray in a 30-man roster roto league, like one that we have. But I don't really think he's going to be great. Maybe in batting average, but I don't really think much else.

I was looking for a way to sit him in a 15-team roadal league I'm in, and I finally found a way Jed Lowry picked up third base eligibility, and that was my ticket to sitting Belchray and I was so happy to do it. Joey Gallo. I think he's undropable in Roto. But I think he's plenty dropable in points. Domingo Santana. Oh, come on, you got to drop Domingo Santana.

He's in the miners. I want to drop you. Yeah. He's in the minors, right? Yeah. I mean, I understand the spirit of Domingo Santana. It's another one of those, like, there's a good chance we see a good Domingo Santana. again, but

I mean, there's got to be there's got to be somebody else on waivers who you're just as excited about the outside who's obviously doing more right now. Miguel Seno. Yeah, get him out of there. Okay. How about

Oh, I know you're going to disagree with this one. Luis Castillo. Are you too afraid to drop Luis Castillo? I think I'm beyond the point of being too afraid to drop him. Because it's just it's kind of like Sunny Gray where it's been so bad

that you know nobody's going to pick them up and even if they do you're they're probably going to drop them soon because he's done nothing in terms of actual results to

compel anybody to stick with them swinging strikes have been good it's been an elite swinging strike rate but the strikeouts haven't even been there to go along with it unlike, say, John Gray. So I still have a lot of confidence in Louis Castile long term, but for this year, it's beginning to wane.

Are you too afraid to drop Andrew McCutcheon? Yeah. We've seen some big hot stretches from him. And I thought he was going on one, but he sort of tailed off from McCutche. And it's one of those situations where, like, he's been okay in a points league context. He's outscored Maxxie. Kemp. He's outscored Chris Taylor. He's been okay, just as he is in that format. And then you talk about roto format. Well, usually that's five outfielders. So obviously that makes

me easier to stick around. And the three outfielders, five by five league, I think maybe you could have the conversation, but I'd still rather not. Well, we always say, you know, roto five outfielders, but anybody playing, you know, away from our website that plays in like a head-to-head categories league, the one I'm in on Yahoo, you know. That's where, you I think you could talk about it. Yeah, you can talk about dropping McCutche in there. But he does have a history each of the last two years of going kind of nuts in the, you know, in the mid months of the year. So I'm not quite there, but I get it.

And remember all the people... Go ahead. I want to mention something about Aaron Hicks, just as... It caught my attention because McCutcheon scored about the same number of points as Aaron Hicks. But I didn't want to mention that because I feel like the game... Yeah, I mean, the game total is so different between the two. And something I was noticing yesterday when I was putting together what I envisioned the first two rounds of next year's draft being. That was a column I put together last night.

Good thing to look at the midway point of the season. Okay, fun. Aaron Hicks, I think, has like the seventh most head-to-head points per game among outfielders. He's in the top ten for sure. That's two years in a row he's doing that. It's the strangest thing. You know, Hicks, okay, Hicks is in the, are you buying the breakout segment? which is coming up.

Let's finish up this segment here. Some other players that are fantasy owners are too scared to drop. I don't agree with this one. Mark Trumbo. Although his OPS is now over 800. It's in the low 800s. Mark Trumbo. I don't even want to add him.

What's his ownership? I think it's like, I think it's actually around 50%. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty low. And he's been on my sleeper hitters list the last two weeks. And thankfully, it seems to be paying off this week, home run already. but I mean even at his best all he does is hit home runs and we haven't seen his best since 2016

so I don't know why you'd be scared to go without him like everybody who has an everyday role in the majors has some degree of upside you can be scared of everybody having a big year I guess but you kind of draw the line somewhere and trumbos

you know it's been a long time since we've seen it be mixed league worthy let's go through yesterday's action for some news and notes. Jamer Candelario sat with an illness. Yasio Pueig is on the DL, and he's going to miss an extended period of time with an oblique injury.

They called up Tolls yesterday? Yep. You got the game when he hit, I think. Yeah. Do you care about him? Is he relevant? Andrew Tolls? I don't think he's going to play every day,

and I don't think he's going to do great with, like, home run, stolen bases. I could see him pay for average. I could see him having a lot of doubles. but it's just, no, it's, it'd probably just be deeply relevant. Sandy Leone could be catching a lot more for the Red Sox. Christian Vasquez is going to be out six to eight weeks. Also, you'll see Blake Swihard in there.

But is Leone now a two-catcher league guy? You're not good. Probably not. Irvin Santana could be back after the All-Star break. I don't know what his velocity is lately, but I know he was having some serious velocity issues in the minors in his rehab outings. How interested are you in adding Irvin Santana?

Well, I don't think the latest one was good either. Every couple weeks, I do a top 30 DL stashes piece, and he's in it. So, you know, leagues with two EL spots or more, he probably's worth owning at this point. But that's partly because we've seen a lot of big-name players come off the DL recently. Like, this was the thinnest group of DL stashes I've done all year. There's a chance he's... a decent contributor, but with the reports about his velocity and everything else, I'm not holding out a lot of hope for him. That's Irvin Santana, and the Yankees are reportedly showing interest in Manny Machado.

Interesting. All right, in the bullpen, Victor Arano got a one-out save. So he pitched both games in the doubleheader. He blew it in the – he didn't blow a save, but he gave up a game-winning home run in the first game. And then – In the 10th inning of the first game. In the 10th inning, yes. After Dominguez pitched the 8th in the 9th.

Right. in a tie game. And then in the second game, you figured Dominguez was unavailable because he had pitched two innings earlier. They were trying to get two innings out of Tommy Hunter. They got an inning in two-thirds, and then Hunter started struggling.

He gave up a hit batsman, a double, and a walk, and then Arano came in and got a one-out save. I don't think this proves that he is the closer. Do you? No, I don't think so either. But it's three in a row now that he's gotten for the Phillies in a short period of time. you have to really convince somebody listening out there

that he's not the closer because just that alone makes it seem like he is. But I think it's still undetermined here. The fact that Dominguez pitched the 8th and 9th, like it just seems like these safes keep falling in Arano's lap, less so than Kepler designing the situation for him. And Fernando Rodney in the Twins' bullpen He's been struggling a bit lately.

He had been really, really good, but last six appearances, nine hits three runs, three walks, seven strikeouts. I don't think he's in danger of losing his job. But I do think Rodney could get traded, and if that's the case, please keep an eye on Trevor Hildenberger, who is having a very nice year, and he's 3% own. He is a 286 ERA, 13 walks, 40 strikeouts, and 44 innings. And he was good last year, too, Trevor Hildenberger.

And I think there's a chance Brad Ziegler ends up being the Marlins closer again after a few trades. and he has been pretty dominant since June. He had a 115 ERA in June. He has not given up a run in July, so he doesn't do it with a lot of strikeouts or anything, but Ziegler seems to be back on track. And, I mean, we're talking NL only pretty much, but he might get some saves in the second half. Or he might get traded. Who knows?

Those Marlins, those magical Miami Marlins, let's talk about Starlin Castro and Brian Anderson. Castro has been red-hot. He has a thousand open. P.S. basically in his last 21 days. And he actually, Sarlene Castro is the number 14 second baseman in points and number 12 in Roto. And yet I have zero interest in owning him. He's 66% on him.

Brian Anderson is the number 12 third baseman in points and number 15 in Roto. So they're both top 15 at their positions in both formats. They're both top 12 in one format. Castro and Brian Anderson. Am I being stupid here? Do I need to buy into these magical Miami Marlins? No, I don't think you're being stupid. They both have played, like, they haven't missed any time.

I know Castro hasn't. And Anderson. They both played 92 games. Yeah, yeah. So they both stayed healthy, which is a big part of that. They're both forming at, like, their peak level. And I'm sure a lot of the players behind them are ones we're still waiting to come around. So, like, they max out of boring.

They max out is just usable. They max out and boring. I like that. Yeah. That's it. Okay. It's almost time for Team Name Tuesday. In fact, I think we'll do buying the breakout first.

Then we'll do Team Name Tuesday. Scott, are you buying the breakout? I'm going to give you some guys who are breaking out. Eddie Rosario, top eight outfielder. Kind of cold right now. Go ahead. You look at his last 365 day numbers, and I'm sure you'll come away and pressed because this is basically who he was down the stretch last year too,

which is part of the reason why I ranked him so high compared to the rest of the industry. I kind of chickened out when I saw nobody else was ranking that high and lowered him a little. But I want to say I was buying it first, even though I have zero shares. You rank, you're all rank scared, Scott. You rank scared. I did. I did. I need to stop doing that.

Is it crazy to take... He keeps coming back to bite me. Eddie Rosario? I mean, I think the answer is yes. but Eddie Rosario over John Carlos Stanton. What do you think? I don't think it's crazy. I don't do it.

But I think I have like Stanton 11th and Rosario 13th among outfielders. So it's not like they're far off. If this version of Stanton, like I don't think it's crazy to think this version of Stanton is the one who sticks around all season. If that's the case, Rosario is obviously better. Not that much better. We know the upside of Stanton. Are you buying the breakout from A. E. E. E. E. E. E. Haneo Suarez and Nick Castiano. They are six and seven in the third base rankings so far. A. E. E. E. E. Hennio, Suarez and Nick Castellanos.

Do you know who is the highest scoring third baseman on a per game basis? Fantasy points per game. You know who's number one? Well, I'm guessing it's Suarez. I know he missed a little bit of time. Well, no, it's Jose Ramirez. But number two is Suarez, which means he's ahead of Nolan Aronado, who's having a great year. He's ahead of Alex Breggman. He's having a great year ahead of Manna Machado. Suarez is number two. And the numbers

jive. I don't know that I can really buy he's quite that good, but I buy that he's top six or seven at the position, like he his total show. Castellanos I think is more or less doing what he's supposed to too, but I would still take some of the guys he's outscored over him. Such as

well Matt Carpenter and points league. Travis Shaw. How about it? How about it? How about it? How about it? Would you rather Carpenter or Castianos?

In Roto, I would take Castianos, I think. Okay. It's a good source of batting average. It's hard to fill. You like Suarez better than Castianos, then, it sounds like. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Do you like Suarez or Bregman?

Bregman. Bregman. Bregman's in the first two rounds for next year. Ooh. All right. How about Eduardo Rodriguez? Do you buy his breakout? 362 ARA.

He's 11 and 3. 105 strikeouts in 99 and a 3rd. He has a 1-25 whip. Only six quality starts all year for Eduardo Rodriguez. It's not that hard for him to have a breakout because, you know, he hasn't been that good in his career. But you think there's something here with Eduardo Rodriguez? Because I'm kind of feeling sell high. Well, the fact he's 11 and 3, I think you could make a case to sell high based on that.

With his other numbers, it's going to be difficult for him to sustain that win-loss pace. And obviously, that is a big part of the player's fantasy worth, just how many wins he's gotten. It's annoying as it is. But otherwise, like 362 ERA, there's been some correction in that ERA recently that makes it easier to say he's legit. I mean, he's had a big strike rate last year just like he does now. His FIP is pretty close from one year to the next. I think he's pretty good. I don't think he's great, but I think he's pretty good.

Okay. So that is Eduardo Rodriguez. Top 40. Ooh, for Eduardo Rodriguez. Would you rather have Eduardo Rodriguez or Jamis and Tyone? Eduardo Rodriguez. I'm going to make Chris defend his Jamison Tyone take tomorrow. You saw it on Twitter?

Yeah. Yeah, I saw it. I get where he's coming from. I do. At the same time, I think he's totally wrong. He thinks that Tion and Jose Barrios are basically comparable. I look forward to having this argument with him. Very excited. I mean, there just, I'll save it for tomorrow. Yeah, let's save it. We'll save it.

You got to let the guy defend himself. How about Zach Eifflin? Are you buying the breakout? He's got a 315 ERA. He's got a 108 whip. Are you buying a no bad start yesterday? Not terrible. Three runs and five innings. That wasn't terrible. Yeah, yeah. But it wasn't great. Less than quality. What do you think? Buying it from Eflin? For the most part, the last part. velocity's up, strikeouts are up, swinging strikes are up, basically all the ways we think a pitcher gets better, has gotten better at. And, I mean, he's probably performed a little over his head in terms of ERA, and certainly in win-loss record, he's a guy who's gone seven and two in 12 starts, which is just a high rate of converting good starts into wins, higher than expected.

So he's not going to be quite as good as he's been recently all year, but he should be good enough to own and start more often than not, two-thirds at the time, probably in a standard 12-team league. How about we're talking about Zach Eflin? Eflin or Edwada Rodriguez? You know, it's interesting. Eflin has a 301 FIP, even lower than his ERA. It's kind of interesting.

These walks have been so good. I'll take Eduardo Rodriguez. I think he's more overpowering, and that's the number one thing I look at. Eduardo Rodriguez, or rather, Zach Eflin or Vince Velasquez or Nick Povetta. Well, Povetta has definitely dropped to last of that group. I'll take Eflin over Velasquez at this point. I think he has the least upside of the three, but he feels the safest of the three. Okay.

And finally, are you buying the breakout from Aaron Hicks, who is 33rd and points, 27th, and Roto, at outfield, but he did have a brief D.L stint. I don't know how I feel about him. I feel like he's streaky, and he's just hot right now. I feel like he swings for the fences every single time he's up. But I also love the plate discipline two years in a row. And he was off to such a great start. In 60 games last year, he was batting 290 with 10 home runs,

37 walks to 46 strikeouts, and then he had an oblique injury. And we've seen oblique injuries derail players, so maybe that was the problem for Hicks. I don't know. think about Aaron Hicks? Is this a legit breakout? The crazy thing about Aaron Hicks is he has a 267 Babbat for as productive as he's been, it's still a

really low Babbat. He's never been like a high Babbat guy, but even last year he had like $2.90, you know? So it's, I've been very slow to come around to him. That revelation yesterday that he's been top 10 on a per game basis

in points leagues, I think definitely makes me think twice. It's like you said, I mean, he just had a three-homer game. It'd be interesting to know, like in the last week he's picked up 100 points in OPS. It'd be interesting to know what his point per game average was before then. But with great play discipline like that and at least decent power, I have a hard time believing he's not a top 40 outfielder at least. And I know I haven't ranked as like barely top 60.

Are there any Reds outfielders you'd rather have over Aaron Hicks? I don't think so. Nope. I thought maybe Billy Hamilton in a Roto League, but not with his bad as his numbers of look this year. What about Andrew McCutcheon or Aaron Hicks? I think they're comparable. I would rather have McCutcheon. Okay. I would rather have McCutcheon, but it's close.

All right, we got some team name Tuesday for you. I think we've had this one before, but Soto Popinsky. Soto Popinsky. Love it. Soto Popinsky is the most fun character to play against on Mike Tyson's Punchout. We've got some 80s themed team names. Stairway to Blyleven. I'd like that.

It's not me. It's Kourou. Quisenberry Beret. Quisenberry Beret. How do he pronounce his name? Quisenberry? Quisenberry. Quisenberry.

And Honeycut, I Shrunk the Kids. Those are good. All right, Scott, you got to back me up on this one. Show hey, that smile again. Oh, sorry, I didn't come at the right time. Show Hey, that smile. That's all right. Upton Funk.

And the submitter of Upton Funk said, very appropriate because he's in another funk. Somebody already had Mookie Betts, just got trades for Darvish and Cespitas. So now his team name is You Betzioenis. that's good can you snell what LeBlanc's cooking that's not bad

and then that's not bad for a two name said in an extremely Jim Carrey voice smoking for Justin Smoke

you know Scott I'm you'll see Ace Ventura on TV sometimes you'll see Dumb and Dumber

on TV just about every day I'm glad we never see the mask on TV I really have no desire to ever watch

the mask again. Wow. Yeah, that's true. You know, that was one of the movies that I think I watched most often when I was, there's like five movies that my siblings and I just watch over and over and over again, and that was one of them. I have way too much knowledge of the mask. Now, I used to, I used to watch a movie like that all the time, all the time, and I just watched it again last weekend for nostalgia. purposes. It was the wizard with Fred Savage. I've never seen that. I know what you're referred, what it is, but I've never seen it.

Yeah, it's very Nintendo-Rific. It's good. Yeah, it's fine. It's a nice little movie. Fred Savage needs more work, by the way. He was on that show, The Grindr with Rob Lowe. Uh-huh. That was canceled after one season, sadly, because he was phenomenal in it. I never saw that. Yeah. All right, back to baseball. It's canceled. By bad.

I'm going to give you three players and their ownership percentage. You were going to tell me if they are under-owned, over-owned, or if their porridge is just right. Scott Shebler, 49%. Maybe a little under-owned. I wish there wasn't that four-man glut in Cincinnati because Shevler's doing some exciting things, as Winker is. But they're all kind of getting in each other's way. Yeah, Shebler, 49% owned, maybe a little under-owned. Goodrum, 18% owned.

That's so low that I could say he's under-owned. He's mostly a doubles hitter, a lefty masher. But he should be more than 18% out. Nico Goodrum. Steve Pierce, 5% owned. No, it's interesting. He had another great game yesterday. He's been great since joining the Red Sox.

And he hasn't, I don't think they faced the left-handed pitcher since he's joined the Red Sox. He's just cutting into the best of vets. No, they faced only two. The first game he was on the Red Sox. He faced Sabathia, I think, and yesterday, Mike Minor, was the second. He's started against a few right. He has, he has. He's made five starts and two against us.

Over that all-star, Mitch Morland. Red Sox don't even think he's an all-star. He made the All-Star team? He made the All-Star team. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I'm in not place now. Are you kidding?

Oh, that is awful. Now, to be fair. No. First of all, the players need to stop voting for reserves Because that's at least when a manager did it He could kind of strategize these things And it just didn't end up just this You know, puke fest

But to be fair, there isn't a good AAL first baseman this year Not one. Jose O'Bray won the popular vote And that's fine, but he's not having a good year. Like if it probably, like if a manager was picking He probably just wouldn't have taken a backup first basement stick some stick a catcher there or something, whatever.

Greg Bird, I would have put Greg Bird. Of course he was. Is Steve Pierce underowned at 5%? Yeah. I mean, he's not going to play every day. He's only going to play like half the time, but 5% is, come on, he's better than that. One more guy.

Two more guys. Mike Miner and Andrew Suarez are both 50% owned. What do you think about Minor and Suarez? I don't think they're over-owned. They're probably a little under-owned. Okay. Who do you like better? I don't love Minor. I think I like Swar as more than Minor right now. I'm not really sure how Miner's doing what he's done recently here.

Yeah, so few strikeouts. He's one of the best sparks, and in leagues where that matters, he matters. I might consider picking up Mike Miner for a start this weekend if you're in a daily league. He's at Baltimore. Baltimore has the third worst OPS against Lefties. And Miner's hot, but 37 and a third inning's 26 strikeouts in his last six starts during which time Minor is a 265. A. Suarez is his next matchup is home against Oakland, which isn't terrible. But he's been pretty good in his last six as well.

He's been all right this year. He's got 375 ERA. We're going to put Clayton Kershaw on the Worryometer tomorrow. He's kind of looking a little bit like Madison Bumgarner, not getting the swinging strikes or the strikeouts we're used to seeing, but still pitching well. He was not in my first two rounds for next year. Oh, really?

Wow, we've got to talk about that. All right. That's a segment. That's a segment tomorrow. I like it. We have not read enough emails lately, so let's do that. So I'm just going to try to go through my inbox here and find some emails because I did not have time this morning to put them in the show notes. Scott?

Great. This is from Seth. I've been offered Charlie Blackman and Rick Porcelo for Blake Snell. Did I already answer this one? In a Dynasty Roto League. I may have already answered this on the air. Would you give up Blake Snell for Blackman and Porcelo? I think we answered this, Seth.

Yeah, I'd definitely do that. Double emailer. That's a great trade for it. I'd probably do, I mean, it might depend on Need a little, but I'd probably do Blackman for Snell straight up. In a Dynasty League? Dynasty, though. Okay, that does change the equation a bit. It sure does.

But it's still a big enough return to two players together. I mean, Porcel is pretty awesome pitcher. It must-start pitcher in his own, right? Yeah. From Kevin, 10-team points league. Povetta or Velasquez. Who should I add? Velasquez.

All right. So from CJ, I have a great rotation. Seale, Paxton, Martinez, Skagg, Stripling, Corbyn, Beber. But this week, a few teams dropped Godly Castillo and Velasquez. Should I be jumping on Godly, Castillo, and Velasquez? Who's the priority? I have a couple of bum hitters that I could drop, no problem. The priority is probably godly.

Velazquez probably needs to be owned too. If you have multiple bum hitters you can drop. I mean, it's not wrong to own Luis Castillo just because I'm comfortable dropping of at this point. So it depends how bummy those hitters are. But I would say at least godly and Velasquez should probably be owned. George says, Dear Robert, Jimmy, and Keith. Does feel like Led Zeppelin?

I don't know who Keith is. Yahoo has Matt Olson as outfield eligible. where would you rank him at outfield, Matt Olson? So Matt Olson would probably be a top 40 outfielder. You know what? Look where I have Joe Gagalor ranked in the outfield and put Matt Olson just ahead of him. Okay.

Olson almost made my too scared to drop league. He's like 90-something percent owned. I would say he's been dropable, but I am kind of... I mean, not in a category's league. He's provided not as much power as he hoped for, but good power. Right? How many home runs does he have? He has like 20 home runs.

Yeah. But I would say Joey Gallo is dropable. They've been pretty similar except, what, like 40 points of batting average. Which is what I said when we talked about, Gallo. Yeah. I think Olson's a better version of Gallo. Yeah. Yes.

I'm sure Chris would argue otherwise. From Joel. What is your, hey, Michael, Danny, Charlie, and Scott. And those are NBA players who gave baseball a try. Michael, Danny, Charlie, and Scott. All right, Jordan Ward, Scott. Who are Danny and Scott? I don't even know if I'm right.

I don't know. Danny Canal, maybe. Byron Buxton, what is your question on Byron Bucks? What is your feeling on Biron Bucson in a Dynasty League? My feeling on Biron Bucston in a dynasty league? is it would have to be a pretty either large dynasty league or a dynasty league where you keep just about

every player for me to be invested in him still. I just think he's too far down the pecking order to have a tight grip on him. I mean, there's upside. But the twins clearly don't feel like he needs to be a part of their team

right now, and that's not a good sign. So I don't think it's obvious he's going to meet that upside at this point. And Aaron emailed us, said, Dear Coincidence, happenstance, non-correlation, and anecdotal evidence. I'm guessing those are things that we say on the podcast. I don't know. He said, on behalf of fantasy owners everywhere, no! And he has a screenshot of his phone telling him that Max Muncie is going to participate in the home run derby next week. Yeah, I don't really want Max Muncie to participate in the home run derby.

He's hitting way too many home runs. His home run pace is, like, ridiculous, right? I mean... I don't care about this. Like, every year, it seems like there's one guy who hits fewer home runs in the second half, and everyone's like, see, it's because of the home run derby. Except Aaron Judge has pretty much acknowledged that the home run derby was a bad thing for him. Well, that's fine if he feels that way.

but the number certainly corrected themselves in the end, right? They did, but I mean, gosh, you was ice cold. I mean, whatever. Whatever. I don't. Trade him. I mean, what do you want to do? It's nothing you can do, but I don't want anybody on my team to participate in the home run derby.

That's fine, but I don't think it's a death now. Like, I don't think you need to do it. Maybe you can scream no with one-oh. You don't need 11. We don't need all those exclamation points. Yeah. Danny H, by the way, that's the Danny. Danny Hage. He played in the majors.

Danny Hange played for the Blue Jays in the 80s. How about who's Scott? Is it with two teeth? Yeah, and I mean, maybe it's misspile. I don't know that Charlie Ward is the right guy. I know he got drafted. I don't know that he actually played. I'm not sure.

Well, what are you doing for? I'm not sure. I just had a hunch Danny Hange was it, so I was it. able to confirm it that way. But I'm not seeing a Scott here. Well, you're useless. All right. I'd like the answers.

Whoever sent this email, sent us the last names. Yeah, yeah. Let us know. That'd be great. So today, apparently, is Cow Appreciation Day. I just saw that on Twitter. And take that with you the rest of the day. Oh, it's Chick-fil-A.

They're celebrating Cow Appreciation Day. Free sandwiches if you show up in Cal Gear. All right, I know where I'm off to. Bye, everybody.