Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/15: Weekend Roundup (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 15, 2019

Hitters (3:00) and pitchers (6:45) to add including Nate Lowe and Daniel Ponce de Leon plus a look at two-start pitchers. We've got a lot of news (16:00) to get to as two of the best players in Fantasy are hurt, Robinson Cano may have an excuse for his underwhelming season and BOS and OAK acquired SPs (21:25) ... A look at the Most Added list (25:30), Chris Sale's struggles (31:40), hitters to add (35:40) and bullpen notes (40:40) ... SP talk (43:10) for the remainder of the show. Are Mike Soroka and Domingo German really sell high guys? Are Yu Darvish and Jon Gray must start options? ... Email us 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. With fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. All right, here we go. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today.

It is Monday. It is July 15th. We are ready to rock and roll. I am Adam Azer with Heath Cummings and with Scott White. Welcome back from your weekend, guys. How's fantasy baseball treating you so far? This week. Okay.

Well, this week. This extended week. But, you know, the whole week. We're off to a good start after the break, I would say. Although, I should point out that if you looked at my top 10 sleeper pitchers for the shortened week 16, if you happen to play in a league that uses the short week, it was basically, I would have basically better off not writing it. Because every single one of them had a bad start. I think except for my number 10 pick, Brett Anderson, he had a pretty good start.

But yeah, that was one of those where you look back on it and think, man, I just, I did people more harm than good with that one. Which is why, by the way, I'm not particularly fond of one-start sleepers as a general rule. Well, okay, but here's the thing about the one-start sleepers for this previous three days. Like, almost every pitcher of that pitch. Now, that's an exaggeration. But many, many of the pitchers that pitched over the weekend are high-end pitchers. So it happened to be a really bad week for one-star streamers. The one guy I recommended was Danny Duffy.

I saw his line at like three in the morning on Saturday morning. And I was like, oh, crap, I gave terrible advice. But it turns out he was actually pitching very well. And then he bruised his hand. No, this is true. This is a legit excuse. We are off the hook on Danny Duffy. He was pitching well.

He heard his hand. He stayed in the game. and he struggled and then he finally was removed. But we are blaming the injury for that one, Scott. You are off the hook for Danny Duffy. Yeah, I'm not sure that's going to fly with people who picked him up for that one and only start. It's not our fault.

Just keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you sleep at night? Hey, Heath, I didn't hurt his hand. I got nothing to do with that. Yeah, I won my only matchup that was a three-day week. It's in one of Scott's league, so I'm happy. Okay. It's a good week.

I'm still out of the playoffs in that league, but there's only seven teams for six spots to have a chance, so hopefully I'll get one of them. Okay, great. And I would have won almost every week if I had played the short week, but I'm not playing any short week, so I'm sure it will end up being a horrible decision on my part. Now, we have hitters and pitchers to add.

We've, I don't know if we'll get the emails today, but we certainly will throughout the week, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. I'm pretty excited about the pitcher that I'm looking to add. In fact, I'll get to do it later. And all right, let's start. Keith, who you got? Give me a hitter dad. In the words of the immortal, Lil John, get low.

Nate Lowe. Red hot over the weekend. Eight hits. And listen, he is someone we were excited about it to getting a year. He came up earlier, got sent back down. I'm not so sure that he won't get sent back down again at some point. But for right now, I think you should add him and probably start him in most leagues. Yeah, and he started against three straight lefties.

And Nate Lowe is 29% owned. He's batting 299 with five home runs. He's been decent against lefties. He's three for 15 with two home runs. It's a 200 batting average, but, you know, it's not bad. And since being recalled on July 4th, batting 3.45 with five home runs. So that was actually the hitter I had in the hitter to add section. Scott, how about you?

Nate Lowe for me and Heath. Anyone for you? Yeah, actually, another Ray, who I might even be more excited about the Lowe, who I think could stick around G-Man Choi is, you know, he just came back, but Lowe's been getting more consistent playing time.

Mike Brasso, who is, as of now, only 9% owned in CBS Sports Leagues. He started, I think, looks like, four of the, five of the last six games for the race.

Actually, you go back even further than that. He's been playing close to every day. at either second or third base. And he homered three times over the weekend. This is a guy who I had never heard of before 4th of July weekend. That was when his name first came across my radar, Mike Brasso. But you look at what he did in the minors this year between AA and AAA. So, no, I was actually all at AAA.

He had 317 with 15 home runs in a 9-98 OPS. In a way, I can kind of understand how he's 9% owned because he is such a no-name. and who really needs another second and third baseman. You have to be in a pretty deep league too, probably. But I think you should pick them up if you play in one of those deep leagues or you have a need because, you know, playing time might get iffy with Brandon Lowe coming off the I.L. Next week, probably.

But I do think there's room for all of them if the Rays want to go with a more consistent lineup. Maybe stick Lough at D.H or something like that. Okay. So that's weird. we have two raised players that are widely available. Nate Lowe at 29% own and Brasso at 9% on, I think Scott said. So go ahead and think about these guys. I was thinking about dropping J. Bruce for Nate Lowe.

Would you guys do that? Unfortunately, Nate Lowe is already owned in the league in which I was going to do it. But hypothetically, would you drop J. Bruce for Nate Lowe? You can find J. Bruce anywhere. Do it. Okay, cool. Okay. You would not.

Scott disagrees. Scott says no. No, I wouldn't. I mean, Jay Bruce has been, I think, more productive than people give him credit for,

especially since joining the Phillies. He's been, I don't know if he's slowed down recently, but I know his, like, point per game average is still very high. He has slowed down quite a bit, but if you look at his fantasy point total, it's pretty bad.

How about this? Four games ago, he had a stretch of three homers in two days. great. That was pretty, that was it. So Jay Bruce, he has had three good fantasy weeks in terms of points all season long. Three weeks all year with more than 17 fantasy points. That's weird. Because I thought he was a little bit more productive, but I don't know, when you have him on your team, it's like,

you're not really that productive, dude. So, uh, anyway, let's go to the pitchers to add. I'm excited, guys. I found the fountain of youth. And I'm the youngest one on the podcast when Chris isn't here. Daniel Ponce de Leon is 28% own, and all this guy does when he starts is pitch well. Six and two-thirds, one-run, seven strikeouts against Arizona on Friday. He is a 199 ERA.

Ponce de Leon has 38-Ks to 11 walks and 31 and two-thirds. Last year as a starter, he had a 279 ERA with 22 strikeouts and 19 in a third. He's got the pirates this week on Wednesday. He's got every chance, Daniel Ponce Delione, to stick in the Cardinals' rotation. him in three leagues. Who else is excited about Ponce de Leon? Yeah, normally, when you get to be 27 years old and you haven't really accomplished anything in the major leagues, I'm pretty skeptical, but it seems like he may have discovered

he may have discovered something here. Strikeouts are up. Very good. It's mildly exciting. I would rather add, like, if you're asking me for one pitcher to add and we're using the 70% cutoff. I would much rather add Dylan Sees than I would. Daniel Ponce still

he owned. He's still 68% owned. But I think that's a fine, he's a fine name to throw out there. Okay, yeah, I agree with that. So Waka's going back to the bullpen? Is that how they're keeping punts? That's what it seems for now. I mean, look, if he's terrible on Wednesday,

things could change. But he's clearly a better fantasy option than Michael Waka. They have enough bad pitchers to do this, yeah. Yeah. Well, Waka's the one, I believe, right now going back to the bullpen. So,

so that's my guy right now. He went up 20%. He went up from like 8% to 28% over the weekend once the news came out and he had that good start on Friday. Anyway, Scott, who are you picking up? Which pitcher are you going for? Well, first I want to point out this stat on Jay Bruce

because he has averaged more fantasy points per game this year than Jose Bray, Daniel Vogelbach, Trey Mancini. He's not playing enough. Then some first baseman that we think of as must start. He's not playing. I know he wasn't playing regularly in Seattle,

but he has been for Philadelphia. So I'm still, I don't know. He sat against the most recent lefty they face. He doesn't face every lefty. But not the one before that, not the one before that. You know, come on. But the one before that and the one. one before that. He probably sits against

50% of lefties. They hadn't faced a lot of lefties lately. I don't know. Look, I mean, the thing is, if you go to his player page, and this is a tool that I actually use a lot. CBSports.com slash MLB slash players. You go to a guy's player

page, you can see his fantasy point by week. His fantasy points by week. It's bad. It's just not usable. If you're in a daily league, maybe it's different. but I don't know what to say to that points per game thing. It's a pretty interesting stat. But he's hitting 235 and he just hasn't been that productive.

I will say over the last 28 days, he's the number 25 first baseman in fantasy. In points. What is he in Roto? Maybe he's better in that format. I'll look for that. I would say he's probably a little better, but like for the season, he's right around number 20 to 25 in points. It's not bad at first base.

I mean, consider who you have ranked in the 20 to 25 range of first base. It's guys who probably, I mean, Tray Mancini's probably pretty close to 20th for me. All right. He's 23rd. He's 23rd in Rodo over the last 28 days. Look, yeah, no, that's fine. Top 20, but the question was not, is Jay Bruce bad? The question was, would you drop him for Nate Lowe?

And that's where we split. He'd said yes. Scott said, no, I was going to do it. whatever. Scott, who's the pitcher to add? So my favorite two-star sleeper this week is Michael Paneda, who since coming back from the IEL

in May, I believe it was, he's throwing harder. And his change-up has been more effective. Change-up's always been the third pitch he's struggled to develop, but probably getting more differentiation on the fastball has helped. And his numbers since they're pretty good.

I mean, good enough that even if it It wasn't a two-star week, I'd probably consider adding Michael Paneda. He's up to 74% ownership. Got picked up in a lot of leagues over the weekend, but I was contributing to that. Yep. Okay, great. Yeah, I mean, Paneda met S and A's this week. We didn't really talk about two-star pitchers at all, actually, on Friday.

We usually do. But rotations were a little iffy, and a lot of people were playing a long week. So Paneda's a good one to add. Maybe we should take a look at it now. Dylan C's at Kansas City and at Tampa Bay. that your guy, Heath? Yes, 100%. Okay.

Anyone else? How are we feeling about Alex Young? Kind of a rough schedule. At Texas and home against Milwaukee. No, thank you. Still seems kind of gimmicky to me. Numbers were so bad at AAA. Just the fact that he leads with a breaking ball,

I think is throwing major league hitters for a loop the first couple outings here, but I don't expect it to last. How about Bryce Wilson at 13% owned at Milwaukee and home against Washington? We had a choice in the For the People League, which we are in a major battle with you guys for the last spot in the playoffs, I believe. And we have three mediocre brave starting pitchers on our team in that league. And we sat him for Dallas Keikle and Max Freed.

So I'm not starting him in a 16 team league. Bryce Wilson. Okay, okay. Well, right now, scam is at first. 5, 4, and 1 for the week. Creeth is at 5 and 5. So you better watch out, my man. And we're up like, I think we're up three or four games on you for the seven seats.

How many teams make the playoffs? Seven. Okay. Out of 16. It's very strange, by the way. Scott decided that we're punting saves in, which hasn't really worked out because Wade Davis is actually having a very good week, of course. But Scott decided, yeah, we're not going.

We have a glacius. When your closers are. Do you have any relievers at all? We have Wade Davis and Riceella glaciers, but we just sat there. No, I mean starting. Yes. Yeah, we have two relief starting. We have Gallegos and Sam Dyson.

That was a good call because he gave him four runs. We're outing this week, I know. The problem is a lot of times I feel like when you decide your punting saves, you end up punning ERA and WIPP as well. Well, that's like whenever I go, and this is why I've had a hard time going with a reliever heavy strategy because when I find a reliever, Okay, this guy has good numbers. Like, the numbers quickly turned very bad.

Like, I know that happened to me in one league with Trey Wingentor, the Padres reliever. You know what you guys could use? You could really use Taylor Rogers. Yes, yes, yes. Of course we could use Taylor Rogers. You know who else we could use Denelson Lemette? Denelsa Lemaid is a one-start pitcher this week. He's at Miami, and I think there's a, you know, a good possibility for a good start.

He has made two starts so far. De Nelsa Lemaire has gone five innings and both of them. He gave up four runs against Atlanta in his most recent start, three of them in the first inning. He gave up three runs at the Dodgers in his first start, but he struck out seven in both starts. And look, Denalso Lament has faced arguably the top two lineups in the National League in his first two starts. The Dodgers and the Braves. I do think innings are going to be an issue. I think you're going to get a lot of five-innings starts, but I think you can do worse than Denelson

Lamett at Miami this week. He is 66 percent owned. Today's sponsor, if you want to go see to Nelson-Lamette at the Marlins, you know, the $10 discount you could get on Seek I don't like you could probably buy $5 seats for that game so I don't know that you need it for that game but I am going to probably go to a Yankees race game this week

and I'm going to use Seekek and if you haven't used it use the promo code fantasy for $10 off your first Seatgeek purchase fantasy you'll hear more about Seek in a little bit golf we love golf I don't actually love golf but a lot of you love golf and the fourth and final golf Heath loves golf you love golf right

Heath? Love hate relationship Okay. The fourth and final golf major of 2019 is here, and the first cut podcast is set to break down. The Open Championship all week long. That's the first cut podcast with Kyle Porter, Mark Emelman, and Chip Patterson. They'll have you covered with a preview podcast on Tuesday

and post-round analysis after round two on Friday and following the final round on Sunday. So subscribe to the first cut podcast for coverage of Royal Portrush. I hope I said that correctly. All week. You guys watch Wimbledon yesterday? It was pretty sweet. I did not.

Tennis is mega boring. Tennis makes baseball look fun, but it was really good. It was excellent. All right, the big news. Perhaps the two best players in fantasy are both injured right now. Max Scherzer's on the IL with a back strain,

and Mike Trout's going to have an MRI on his calf. They keep saying it's precautionary. It's no big deal. But he's having an MRI. I apologize to all of the listeners. and Mike Trout owners out there. Is this it? About a week and a half ago,

I wasn't going to be on the podcast for a couple of days, so I moved Mike Trout to number one overall for the rest of the season, all but ensuring he would suffer an injury, and Mookie Betts would be better than him rest of year. I thought about you with this injury. That was one of your arguments, I think, of putting bets ahead of Trout.

He's been a little injury prone, but hopefully he can avoid the IL here. I was on the podcast Friday with a couple chuckleheads named Adam Azor and who is that other guy, Adam? Dane Martinez. Dane Martinez, and they were both saying Charlie Blackman, they'd take Charlie Blackman over MookieBad. How do you feel about that? Categories League, not points, Categories League, Blackman.

I don't think I agree, but I don't think it's outrageous. Blackman's been awesome and gets to play half his games, of course. This course field thing. One of the bigger reaction he'd disappointed me. No, this course field thing is crazy. I mean, these games are insane. as many Rockies as I can get. Like, I understand that they are terrible on the road,

but, you know, Blackman's not terrible on the road. Well, actually, I feel like he kind of has been terrible on the road. I'd still start them. But now, this, the Corse Field is just ridiculous. All right, thank you, Heath, for not being too against it. Anyway, Scherzer, I think should be back soon, right? Is there a chance he starts this week? Which Scher is?

I'm not led to believe it's a long injury this week. I think I, I'm not sure. I haven't done the math on the days. You can tell I'm not a Max Scherzer owner. Well, he's definitely eligible to come off this week. Because, you know, we had the All-Star break. He could return as soon as Saturday. So that's a risk when you're setting your lineups.

It may be worth it because waiver wire pitcher is liable to do zero for you anyway. Negative. Make a negative impact. But if you have, like, you know, Michael Paneda on the Waver Wire, then maybe you start him over Shurzer. John Carlos Stanton is not close to returning to baseball activity. Brett Gardner's been hitting pretty well recently for the Yankees. If you need a hot hand play in a deeper league.

Luis Severino needs six or more weeks to return, and Severino could come back as a reliever. So they want him to be a starter, but I think you should have pretty low expectations for Severino if you're still stashing him. Tampa Bay sent Brendan McKay to the minors after a very good start, five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against the Orioles. But McKay will be back, right?

At some point. Yeah, I don't see why he wouldn't come back. They do have a seven-day week. So if they considered him part of the routine, you know, it's not like he's the fifth guy and they're skipping him. See, he was up only for the double-header, right? Yeah, he was the 26-man. And he had been sent down like six days before that. So I wonder if the 10-day clock or the 15-day clock goes back to the first time that he was sent down.

Because he was called up as the 26-man. It doesn't count. I wonder if they can send it back. down and then pull him back up in like five days. They can. He can rejoin the team over the weekend. And I think there's a good chance he does. So I just don't know. It's probably just to get a reliever or whatever.

They're just playing chess. Yeah. He's 82%-0. The best of playing checker. I hope he pitches more than five innings, you know. But I don't know that he will. I'm going to be a lot of pitchers like that. I don't think he will often.

McKay, Lament. You just hope for five good innings. Other news. Let's see. Brad Peacock had a setback with his shoulder, so that's a shame. He was supposed to pitch today. Not going to happen. Corey Kluber could throw a bullpen session within weeks. Eliezer Hernandez pitched out of the bullpen.

Do we have anything definitive on the Marlins rotation? Yeah, I saw Craig Mish reporting Hernandez was going to the bullpen. So that's kind of unfortunate because he'd probably been, at least in terms of ratios. I guess Yamamoto has a claim. But Hernandez had been better than Zach Allen. So that was an interesting decision. His ownership never rose above 20, I think, in CBS Sports League, though. Kind of sneaky news.

I saw a quote from Robinson Canoe. He homered in two straight games over the weekend against the Marlins in Miami. And he said, I think after the first home run, he said, I don't want to use it as an excuse, but I've been hit by a pitch on the hand twice this year, and my hand finally feels good. So it's something to keep an eye on or hand to hide. and Robinson

Maybe he should use it as an excuse. He was using it as an excuse. He was just saying, it sounds like he is for sure. 100% was. I'll find the quote. Ken Giles has elbow soreness, and I think it's pretty clear

that Daniel Hudson's going to be the closer if and when Ken Giles gets traded, assuming, you know, Ken Giles doesn't ruin his trade value with elbow soreness. And Carlos Corre is now on the 60-day IL, so he cannot come back until July 26th. Guys, we had two trades over the weekend.

Boston acquiring Andrew Cashner and Oakland acquiring Homer Bailey and what if anything did that do for you guys in terms of Cashner Bailey? Nope. I don't think either are very good still. Obviously their circumstances have changed

especially Cashner. He's a two-start pitcher with a very good team now. But yeah, I mean, I don't, he has a decent ERA, but I don't really think the numbers back it up. Okay. And less important news, Heath, why don't you go ahead and read this so I can find the Robinson Canoe quote.

Wilson Contreras has a foot soreness. Is that what I wrote? No, I did not write that. I wrote foot sorens. Yes. Eddie Rosario could be back Tuesday. Jesse Winker left with an injury. Danny Duffy bruised his hand.

That's right. Dillon Bundy. Oh, I did write that. Wow. I did put a D. The thing is, like, these notes that you gave me, I feel like could have just been something that you forgot to take out of notes from a show a month ago. Every single one of these things sounds like something that happens regularly.

Except Contreras with the foot soreness. He played only one of three games. But yeah, the rest of it could be. Here's the quote from Canoe. I don't know if you've noticed. Why are you doing this computer? I don't know if you've noticed. But I've been hit twice in the hand this year, and that's not an example.

excuse. Even if it's bothering me, I would never say anything. I always like to go out and be able to contribute anyway, anyhow. I would never use an excuse like that, but right now my hand feels really good. That is such an excuse. That's so funny. But it's interesting, right? It would have been more helpful if he used that as an excuse weeks ago, and we could have been like, all right, well, we just won't play Robinson Canoe until he says his hand feels better. And maybe, you know, maybe it's not, it's just a coincidence, you know. It may not fully explain it just because he homered twice in two games, but it may. It might.

You know, so I had dropped Canoe, I think, at every league I had him. I don't know what his ownership is down to. I think so that about 75%. I think I'd be more inclined to add like Mike Brasso right now, though, than Canoe. Oh, but you wouldn't drop Jay Bruce. No, I'm just kidding. Well, come on, Jay Bruce is 24. runs. I don't think that's...

He's a top 50 outfielder, Adam. You can't drop top 50 outfielders just here and there. Kanoa is 57% owed. Wow, he's really down. You know what? Look, I think it's an interesting note. It's an interesting quote. It's a great excuse by Robinson Kanoa. Maybe it's kind of stuff makes it different. We haven't really talked enough about players to add and drop.

So let's get to that. But just other cool stuff, the Angels threw a combined no-hitter honoring Tyler Skaggs. It was really special. So that was amazing. And Tampa Bay nearly threw a combined perfect game. but Hanser, Alberto, broke it up with an incredibly weak base hit near the shift. AJ Pollock homered yesterday. He might be excited about it. It was a three-run homer, I believe.

It was 326 feet, I believe. It was about the shortest home run you can get in baseball near that stupid pesky pole in right field. And Fernando Tatis had an awesome slide. Look it up on CBSports.com. When we come back, we'll talk about the most added list. We'll be right back on fantasy baseball today. Most added players in CBS Sports Leagues.

I think Ponce de Leon's number one. He is, and he's 30% own now. It's just climbing. Alex Young, we already talked about, probably want to avoid that, 39% own. Danny Salazar, 40% own. So Chris is pretty interested in Danny Salazar. Heath, how about you?

I'm trying to see if I can rekindle my fondness for Danny Salazar. We fought over him a lot. I was always on his side. I would love it if he came back. but we're in July he's not thrown for what two years and he's up to an inning in two-thirds it's going to take a little more than this before I'm ready to add him okay you really just don't sound enthused at all by the way when you said you had to rekindle I was like is this a pun because Heath always makes puns it's like does Danny

Salazar like have a kindle or something like I didn't know but I don't think it was a pun at all Scott, you're looking at the most added list. Is there anyone there that, you know, that we haven't talked about, that you are excited about? Because I'm not really feeling it right now. Well, I mean, Roberto Perez seems underowned, especially considering he's a catcher. He plays very regularly for the Indians more regularly than the average starting catcher.

And he is hit for good power this season. I think his OPS is mid-800s. He's on about a 28 homer pace. Probably deserves to be more own than he is. Yeah, and I would say, like, we've talked about him plenty, but we haven't talked about him today. Danny Jansen, in my opinion, is still underone a 67%. It just looks like he's figured it out.

It took a long time, but he's been awesome for just about a month now. Suddenly it feels like there's a catcher surplus. Yes. Because the thing about catcher, is nobody's going to roster two, unless it's a two-catcher league, obviously. Nobody's going to roster two catchers because nobody would ever start a catcher utility

or any other position where they might be eligible. So there doesn't need to be that many for the spot to be completely filled in a league. And we may be getting to the point now where there's more than enough decent options to go around. It is almost certainly no big deal, but Danny Jansen did have a minor injury over the weekend. He sat on Saturday.

He played again on Sunday. So it's probably 100% fine, but just something to check. Check the player news if you're picking up Danny Janssen. Brett Gardner has a 1,200 OPS in his last 11 games with four home runs and two steals. So I don't really, I'm not really moved by it. It's not like he's leading off or anything like that,

and he only has eight steals on the season. But what's his ownership percentage? 52%. Yeah, I don't know. That's approaching shallower leagues. probably not. But yeah, what do you guys think about Gardner? He does play for the Yankees.

Yeah, he's a fine fit outfielder choice. I think they should retire his number. What do you think? Probably not because they're going to run out of numbers if they start retiring the Brett Gardner's of the world. But I am surprised that he has over 40 career war on baseball reference. I mean, that's not Hall of Fame level, but I would put Hall of Fame levels at like 60s, so he's like two-thirds of a Hall of Famer, Brett Gardner.

There you go. And that's kind of surprising. Liam Hendricks is 76% owned. He's on the most added list. And Blake Chiron was bad again over the weekend. Hendricks has a solid grip on that job. Ramon Laureano, we haven't talked about him. He's 72% owned Heath as the guy who loved Ramon Laureano.

Are you surprised at how good he has been? No, this is pretty much exactly what I told everyone he was going to do. Yeah, I'm a little surprised. But again, he's basically for his career now, a 2020 guy with a 270 average, and I think that's what we talked about him being a couple of months ago. So I don't know that we've seen the very best of Ramon Luriano, and I think he should be owned in more than 72% of leagues. I'd be starting him just about everywhere.

Emilio Pagan got a one-out save over the weekend for the raise. He's 34% owned. I mean, they had a three-headed monster. now it's down to two. But Scott, who do you think leads the raise in saves for the next five weeks or so? This is not a guess being made with much confidence, but I have a feeling it's going to be begone

because he's been so much better than Castillo now. Castillo was getting roughed up pretty regularly before going on the IL, do you Castillo was. And his season-long numbers don't look that good anymore. like Pagan has been a better pitcher. But at the same time, I mean, how much of those struggles were tied to the injury, I can't say the Rays have a better idea than I would. And just because they're the Rays and have been going this committee route all season,

it wouldn't surprise me if they continued to. But I feel like Paghan deserves the chance to be the guy. Well, if the Rays viewed their best pitcher as the person they should use in the ninth inning, and I think they maybe more than any other team in baseball don't. So the fact that, like, I feel like it's more likely if it's the eighth inning and it's a tight spot that they bring Pagan in because he's more likely to get out of it. And so I would call it a coin flip, but I have added Diego Castillo in a league or two. Okay. So it's borderless going to do it for the most added list here.

Yeah, we're done. Sale fail. Let's talk about Chris Sale. A lot of high-end starting pitchers over the weekend. And most of them did pretty well, I'd say. But Chris Sale did not. Four and two-thirds, seven hits, five runs, one-walk, seven strikeouts. He is now three and nine with a 427 ERA.

160 strikeouts of 27 walks and 111 and two-thirds. That's amazing. But in his last four starts, Chris Dale has a 759 ERA. Yeah, I mean, it's been a bad season and another bad stretch. Basically, it's like one terrible stretch to start the season, then 11 amazing Cy Young caliber starts. and now four bad starts in a row for sale. So, Scott, where are we on Chris Sale?

I still think he's a good pitcher. And if you are approaching him as he's not, I think it's going to be a big mistake because, yeah, 11-Sai Young-Calibur starts. Like, bad pitchers don't do that. Maybe bad pitchers can have an 11-start stretch with a low ERA, but not where they go 10, 14, 17, 10, 5, 10, 12, 10, 8, 10, with their strikeouts.

That's just absurd. And even in this start, I'll point out that, his average exit velocity was 81.5, which his season average is 88.2. The league average is like 87. Like 81.5 is really low. He was not getting hit hard in this start. Interesting. Yeah, I'd love to buy.

I would definitely buy low. Definitely. I would definitely buy low. I think he's definitely been unlucky. I do think if you look at the peripherals, they show you a worse pitcher than, he has been the last couple of years in Boston. He's been a sub-E-R-A, three-E-R-A guy in 2017 and 2018 in Boston. His FIP, X-FIP, Sierra are not below three.

And, I mean, last year, his BIP was 1.98. So I think there's reason to think he's not quite as he's good as he's been in the last two years. And there's reason to be a little bit concerned about the innings. He's well below six innings per start so far this season. He was below six innings per start last season. Yeah. I think there's reason to worry about him being top five the rest of the way, but I feel good about him being top 12.

One other thing. It's well documented now, and it's the reason why the Red Sox approached sale this year the way they did. August and September are his worst months. He usually is like superhuman. Maybe he's going to, maybe this is going to work He's going to peak in August now. It could be, but I just want to bring that up because, you know, usually he's like superhuman for four months and then he's like fine.

Like above average must start, but not Siong caliber for the last two months. They're trying to avoid that this year. Yeah, I don't know. So would you rather have sale or Zach Rankie? I'd rather have sale. And I want to mention since Heath was kind of comparing sale to sale. years past. You know, the X-FIP

sale has this year, 3-10, his fifth in baseball. He's the fifth-loest ex-fip in baseball. I mean, Heath was saying he still views him as the top 10,

so it's not that big of a disagreement, but just trying to add a little context there. Yeah, in a points league, I think I'd rather have Grinky. Okay. I want to look up Chris Sales, ERA by month. Here we go, ready?

Career ERA. March and April. It's... 32. May, 269, June, 256, July, 268, August, 316, September and October, not including the playoffs, so basically September, 378. And we're moving on. Hitters. Are there any other hitters you guys wanted to talk about? Can we talk about Ulyguriel? Six home runs or six hits and two home runs over the weekend, continuing this amazing hot streak. Is anybody buying into Uli Gereal? I think he's, he probably is a better power hitter

because his ground ball rate is way down this year. And that's been true since the beginning. What's, what really happened here this month is home run to fly ball rate has just gone through there. I mean, he said a lot of home runs. I don't think that's surprising to say that's gone through the roof. But it was way down earlier this year, his home run to fly ball rate. He was underachieving in that regard.

So I think he was probably, I mean, he's obviously overperforming now, but I think he was underperforming earlier, and particularly in points leagues where you're not losing points for the strikeouts, he's starting to get to be a pretty interesting option. Max Kepler-Homer did five straight-atts versus Trevor Bauer over two starts. That's incredible. Kevin Newman, I'm going to say some names and you tell me your interest in picking them up. Pirates infielder Kevin Newman.

Unfortunately, he's not leading off every day. He's only leading off against lefties at the moment and his Adam Fraser is leading off. But what's your interest level in picking up Kevin Newman? When I wrote about rookies and ranking the rookies the rest of the season, I had a lot of Pirates fans get upset about having Brian Reynolds ranked too low because he was hitting like 360. I'm more excited about Kevin Newman's potential batting average

than I am Brian Reynolds. I do think at 52% ownership, he is very, close to as owned as he should be, so I'm not particularly interested in picking him up. How about Scott, Danny Santana? I just feel like if they wanted to play Danny Santana every day, they easily could for Texas. He's batting 309 with 11 home runs and 11 steals as a part-time player. It just keeps producing. Danny Santana, 35% own.

Yeah, they could. They are kind of feeling a pinch there. because, you know, of course, Gallo's back, and so finding Willie Calhoun at bats has been a challenge. But, you know, as Droble Cabrera is not that good, Ronald Guzman, I think, is just plain bad. So they could find more bats for Santana. I'm hesitant to think they're going to.

Jason Hayward, 383 batting average with five home runs in his last 16 games. No, thanks. I feel like he's been, I feel like he's been better. than we give him credit for this year. I mean, he obviously isn't like Jason Hayward at his best, like we saw during some of those Atlanta years. But, I mean, he's become an okay power source again

for a guy with great plate discipline. I think he's at least good enough to consider in a fifth outfielder spot in a Roto League. And, you know, head to headlines are so small that it's hard for him to fit in there. But I don't think you're embarrassing yourself if you have to start Jason Hayward, especially if it's a week where he faces a bunch of righties.

I don't really buy the increase in power. He's got an 18% home run to fly ball ratio. His career is 11.2. It was 6.2 last year. The hard hit rate per fan graphs is up a little bit. I think it's like 34%, but it's still below average based on the current environment. And that 18% home run to fly ball ratio does not look real. Why does it not look real?

Yeah, because he's probably, Probably had that before. It's nearly double what he's been for the last three or four years, and there's not been a corresponding increase in how hard he's hitting the ball to make me think that's real. Okay, but he's, I mean, he is hitting the ball a lot harder. He's hitting the ball harder. He's hitting the ball a little harder. Last year he had a 30% hard contact rate.

He's at 34% this year. That's an increase. Two years before that was 25%. Look at the soft contact rate, how much lower the soft contact rate is. That has gone down a little bit. Yeah, I mean, 18% is probably a little high. His career high previously was 17%, but usually it was like 13, 12, and then got to the Cubs and really bad. Okay, fine.

But, you know, it's interesting. Like he's having, Jason Hayward is having us a nice little year. 275, 359, 474. That's not bad. And if he was having this year in 2015, I probably would have said something different. Right. It's just not like, again, go to his player page and look at his fantasy points. And he's, it's just, he's strictly a deeply guy.

Well, based on what he's done. Is he a top 60 outfielder? I'm going to say yes. I'm going to count. Okay. You do points and I'll do Roto. Meanwhile, Scott, you see my notes on the bullpen? In the notes I sent you?

Your notes on the bullpen. Yes, I see the notes on the bullpen. All right, while we count Jason Hayward and where he ranks at outfield, why don't you talk about any bullpen developments that might have been interesting from over the weekend? Okay, so AJ Minter got a save for the Braves on Sunday. Luke Jackson worked on both Friday and Saturday and was pretty shaky, as he's been for a while now.

The problem is I don't think AJ Minter has been much better since returning from the minors didn't have a strikeout and recording the Save Sunday. So I'm not sure any change is happening there. I still think Jackson's the Braves best option. Hector Nerris has been shaky himself, a blown save on Saturday. And has been given up some home runs lately. He bounced back. He bounced back nicely on Sunday, struck out the side and got the win.

I was getting a little worried about Hector Nerris. I'm still a little worried about Hector Nerris. I don't know. And the thing is, if it's not him closing, it's probably a committee, because the Phillies were kind of leading the charge before they settled on Narris. Yeah. So we all should be rooting for Hector Nairis. Unless David Robertson comes back in a few weeks.

weeks and they give him the job. But you're right. Let's refer to Harris. Emilio Pagan, we talked about him. He got the safe Sunday. And I think he's probably the first choice, but that's not saying much, given the way the rays have handled their bullpen. Daniel Hudson, Adam mentioned that he would probably be the choice to replace Kyn Giles if he goes on the IL or if he gets traded.

Not that that's particularly exciting, especially since the Blue Jays. I've had a hard enough time giving Giles save chances, but Daniel Hudson, named to know, in leagues where saves are scarce. All right, well done, Scott. You guys done counting yet? I will point out that Hayward has averaged more fantasy points per game this year than Ramon Luriano.

So whatever that's worth. I owe him an apology. He is a top 40 outfielder in points, and he has been better than Jay Bruce this season. I apologize Jason Hayward. Well, look, plate discipline is a big deal in points leagues. He has 40 walks to 61 strikeouts. He is 46th in Roto

at outfield. Just behind. Nomar Mazzara and Fram O'Reyes. He's no Alex Gordon or Cole Calhoun, but he has been on a per game basis. That's surprising because he's not scored as many fantasy points as Ramon Luriano this year.

He's played eight fewer games. He should play more. He should, right? Let's talk about some starting pitchers. Yeah, right now. Here we go. I was going to take a break, but let's just keep going. Studs being studs, part one.

These guys were studs over the weekend. Noah Cindergarde at Miami. Aaron Nola, he did walk four, but he continues a really hot start. 0.76 ERA in his last five starts, a hot stretch for Aaronola. Mike Soroka had one of his best starts. Seven scoreless with nine strikeouts.

Padre strike out a lot. But Soroka got him nine times. Nine times. Domingo Armand. I'm telling you, this guy's really good. Domingo Aramon. Cindergarde, Nola, Soroka, Armand. Anything on those fellas?

Fellas? So Cindergarde, and he talked about how his slider was the best it's been all year, the numbers back that up. He had a season high 20 swinging strikes, and a lot of it had to do with that slider. If that's a pitch he rediscovered, then hopefully that can get his season back on track the way Aaron Nola's gotten his season on track.

That's probably the biggest observation I have. Soroka, I mean, he struck out nine in seven innings. If he can do that more consistently, then I think we'd be reluctant to call him a sell high, as we were calling him last week. I was just going to say that the market for Mike Soroka and Domingo Hermon just got a little better. I would be trying to sell both.

I understand why Soroka. You made the case for Soroka. You know, you don't expect the strike. 82 strikeouts and 96 and a third. He's groundball. Pitcher, blah, blah. Can we talk about Armand? Because he had three bad starts

during which he was pitching with a hip injury. Every other start, 227 ERA, rest of season. You take those three bad starts out for Armand, which, by the way, is slightly higher than Mike Soroka's 224 ERA. So, you know, what is it about them that's saying cell high? Yeah, I was actually about to ask Keith

what his grape was with Hermann because I don't, I can understand Soroka as a cell high too, but Hermann. seems pretty good to me. I worry about Hermann's innings on a per start basis. I worry about Hermann's innings for how he finishes

the season. His peripherals show him as more of a like if you're saying is he a mid 3 ZRI pitcher, I think he is. But I do think there are people out there will say, man, he was so good at the beginning of the year. He's been so good lately. This guy might be a borderline ace.

And I want to try to take advantage of that. because I don't believe that he is. I think he's a five to six innings starting pitcher with decent strikeout numbers and not a lot of innings. I think that makes perfect sense. I mean, look, let's just be obvious for a second. If you can trade Domingo or I'm on for Chris Sale, you do it. If you can trade Domingo Ramon and like Michael Ginforto for Chris Sale, you do it. You know, I get that.

Matt Boyd. I'd trade him for Matt Boyd. I'd trade him for Clevenger or Wheeler. I do think the innings are interesting. They talked about if the Yankees acquire another starting pitcher, would that bump or my... That was written just in an article. Would that bump or mine out of the rotation?

That was an insane thought to me, but he is coming up on last year's innings total. Like, he's one start away from last year's inning's total. So I could see him missing starts at some point. I saw a Yankees beat ride. I referred to him earlier this year as the team's de facto ace. But I guess if innings are the thought there about potentially bumping him, maybe that would be the case.

But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, if you can aim that high with Hermann, I wasn't thinking that high. I was thinking, you know, a little behind Zach Wheeler in terms of where I rank him. But sure, if you want to aim high for him, the fact he has an 11 and 2 record, I think, helps in a lot of ways. I do think he's going to be. I think you possibly trade him for Herman Marquez. in some leagues. I would rather have

Vermont. Right. I would do. I'd rather have Hermann Hermann Marquez. I'd rather have Domingo Armand than Armand is wrong. Is it?

I mean, I'd rather every guy could start all the time that a guy can only start to have his starts. And Armand probably has a better K-rate. I would start Marquez. I mean, I would rather have Marquez.

That's interesting. Okay. More studs being studs. Part two. Part two. Oh, how about this? Let me get the exact stat up. This is the mesmerizing stat.

John Gray versus Sunny Gray on Friday. They both did great. We'll talk about Sunny Gray in a second, but Studs being Studs Part 2. John Gray, Jose Kentana, Robbie Ray, who has six quality starts in his last eight starts after one quality start in his first 10 starts. Robbie Ray is on fire.

And U. Darvish had a great start against Pittsburgh. Six scoreless with one walk and eight strikeouts. And that's six straight starts with two or fewer walks. So, be a lot of home runs, but the walks are down for Darvish. John Gray, Jose Cantana, Robbie Ray, you Darvish. What are your thoughts on that group of four? Is John Gray the Rockies Ace again? Who else would have?

Oh, Dermon Marquez. Hermann Marquez? I'm proud of me. I mean, I'd rather have Marquez. But John Gray has certainly gotten his season back on track here. I was disappointed that not more was made of the Gray-Gray matchup. It was... On Friday.

That's what I was trying to get, because it was historic. It was like... It was the first matchup ever of Gray versus Gray, and it was the first matchup... Instead of guessing, let me just find what it was, because it's pretty cool. Please talk about this group as I scanned. Yeah.

Robbie Ray, his last eight starts, his BB per 9 is down to 3.9, which is not a good rate. But for Robbie Ray, the past two seasons, 3.9 per 9. I mean, you'll take that. That's how we can end up

having so many quality starts and with as many bats as he misses, if there's any pitcher who can survive four walks per nine at 10, it's just when it gets into five walks per nine territory that I think you have, you run into issues.

You, Darfish was very impressive in this latest start. And I know I've gone back and forth on him so many times. I think I'm about to the point where I probably just want to leave him in my lineup. Last eight starts a 394 ERA, whip below one with more than a strikeout per inning. Now, he doesn't have a win during that eight start stretch, but I got to feel like that's not his fault. It doesn't help from how you feel

about you, Darbush, if you have been owning him and starting him, because wins are the most valuable thing a pitcher can give in fantasy. But he's pitching like a guy who deserves to win some. So, So I think he's good enough to be in lineups again. I think this is a really interesting group. And I'm going to do a pretty massive rankings update today. But I think this is a really, really interesting group to rank rest of season. Go for it. I would go gray, Ray, Darvish, and Kentana a distant fourth.

That's how I have them currently ranked. I'm tempted to put Ray ahead of gray. and I think Darvish could be knocking on their door any moment now. Let's not forget, Darvish was the player I loved in the preseason. So if I have to wait four months for him to be good, I'm still going to claim victory. This was the first game ever between two grays, who spelled their name the same way,

but two grays regardless, I believe. And it was the first time since 1933 that two pitchers started against each other with the same color as a last name with the same spelling. Jumbo Brown versus Lloyd Brown of the Yankees Red Sox rivalry back in 1933. So,

amazing. What is that? Studs being Studs part three. Eduardo Rodriguez dominated the Dodgers. Ten strikeouts, seven innings, one run. Marcus Stroman, I'll call him a stud. He struck out seven Yankees, gave up three runs in six innings.

Brendan McKay, Sunny Gray. Sunny Gray, I mean, seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts at Colorado. Amazing. Yanni Chorinos was also good. So we had Eduardo Rodriguez, Marcus Stroman, Brendan McKay, Sonny Gray, and Yanni Chorinos. That group, guys. I don't have a lot to say.

Like I said, I think everything I had to say about Sunny Gray last week. I'm excited about Yonni Chorinos and Brennan McKay. Marcus Strowman just kind of is what he is. The guy that's just so maddening is Eduardo Rodriguez. because you know he's going to do this on a semi-regular basis, and we should fully expect his next outings going to be five innings with five to six runs allowed. I have no idea what to do with Eduardo Rodriguez,

and I just mostly don't want to have him on my team because I feel like I'm always going to start him at the wrong time. Okay. Yeah, I mean, by all the ways I evaluate pitchers, you know, I'm ignoring ERA, I'm ignoring sort of the traditional. additional stats and just try and do assess them on the underlying stats. Eduardo Rodriguez should be great. He has an elite swinging strike rate.

He had 22 swinging strikes in this start. But yeah, it doesn't back it up. It doesn't pitch with enough consistency to treat him as anything more than a fringe option. So he's kind of the outlier in this group, especially since Sunny Gray has been going deeper into games. That's really been the one issue for him this year, but it seems to be turning around. Rodriguez is Is that a 10 and 4 record he has, though?

Is that what that bottom number is? 10 and 4 record? It's so dumb if it is. He does. He is 10 and 4. He does. Chris Sale hasn't been good. Chris Sale has been better than what are I keep Rodriguez.

Yeah, okay. But they both like, I mean, yes, that's true, but Chris Sale has not been good. Yeah, it's weird. It's annoying. You Darvish cannot get a decision to save his life. Like, he never gets a decision, especially at Wrigleyfield. Yeah. And Eduardo Rodriguez is 10 wins.

That's hilarious. All right. So I think we're pretty much done. Let's talk about like three more guys. Finally, Studs being Studs Part 4 is two guys. Mike Fires and Julio Taran. Mike Fires. This is like 14 good starts now.

This is 14 starts in a row. Or his last 14 starts is the RA is under 250. And then Julio Taran, I just needs to be brought up. Because, you know, it's fun. It's fun for Heath to say things that. Who would you rather have? I think Fires is better than Julio to Run. Wow.

Wow. I don't know. Fires is annoying in the opposite way. Eduardo Rodriguez is annoying because by every metric I used to evaluate pitchers, apart from like ERA. He's really, really bad. Ex-PIP over five. Fires or to run?

Well, I guess both, but Fires, you know, Fires is averaging, I think, less than 5K per 9 during this incredible quality start streak he's on. Like, he's going to get pumbled here very soon. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think hopefully tomorrow we can talk about Dallas Kikell and Matt Boyd, who, you know, 10 more strikeouts, but four more runs in seven innings. It seems like we're still like Matt Boyd quite a bit. Kikle, making me look bad. three straight starts of seven innings, or seven in a third, combined fiver and runs.

We'll see what happens at Milwaukee this week. We'll see what happens. The list has gotten shorter. Do we have time to do the quick list of pitchers with the worst ex-fifth than Julio Taran? Sure. Reynaldo, Lopez, Aaron Sanchez, Mike Fires, Trevor Richards, Sandy Alcantara, Marco Gonzalez. Well, then you have to take back what you just said. You cannot say Mike Fires is better than Julio Toron.

You can't do it. You're right. We're both terrible. All right, thanks a lot for listening, everybody. I'm sorry we didn't get to more pitchers. I'll try to... I have three more pages of notes. I try to get them in tomorrow's show.

For Scott and for Heath, I'm Adam. We'll talk to you tomorrow. I'm Fantasy Baseball tonight.