Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/25: Trades, Ownometer, Hot Hitters & More (Fantasy Baseball Today)

Episode Date: July 25, 2018

Zach Britton becomes the latest closer to change teams. We talk about that trade (1:50) and wonder who is next to get moved? Then it's on to Tuesday's standouts (8:22) including Homer Bailey, Carlos Rodon, Austin Gomber (12:00) and Shane Bieber ... Thoughts on Gary Sanchez rest of season (16:00), a new prospect to know (17:35) and fringy SPs to consider adding (23:25) such as Joe Musgrove and Zack Wheeler. Plus, is Eugenio Suarez a star (25:35)? ... Let's get out the Ownometer (37:14) for some hot hitters! Josh Bell, Michael Conforto, Rougned Odor and more. We also discuss more streaking hitters (46:30) like Wil Myers and Yasmani Grandal and discuss what's legit and what's simply a hot streak. And stay tuned for Grade the Trade (54:15) and a look at today's matchups at the end of the show ... 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

Jack Britton is a New York Yankee. You have lost the Orioles closer, but is it Brad Brock that you need to pick up? Who the heck is Austin Gomper? And is he going to stick around, right? I mean, come on now. And what happened to the Beams last night? Welcome everybody to fantasy baseball today. Adam Azer here.

Scott White, Chris Towers. Did you miss me, guys? Welcome back. Oh, no, you know, I can do a little better for you, Chris. There we go. To me. Well, I have a song for yourself. Yeah, I'm back.

Do you have any words of wisdom now that you're among the fathers of the world? There is absolutely nothing in the world that can prepare you for it. Nothing. It is really hard work. Is it it? Is it it? Scott? It is really hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's really hard. And I don't know that it gets easy. easier from here. Probably gets harder. Right now it's a little push button, right? Well, I think that... You have tasks to complete at certain intervals.

Yeah. But the sleep thing, the sleep thing is tough, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that'll get better. Yeah, we got a boy. He's a week old today. Andrew John Azer, wife, is doing well. And we are... Yeah, we had a good night last night. Pretty good sleep night. So let's rock and roll. Let's talk about the trade and who else might get traded. Zach Britton, from the Orioles to the Yankees for three minor league pitchers,

one of them a reliever. I guess fantasy impact here, drop Zach Britton? Yeah, he's like the ninth guy in that bullpen now. And he might not be any good. Well, the word is he's getting a lot better. I mean, he's been much better. All right, so like there's been a lot of talk about that, and I was going back and forth with people on that on Twitter.

yesterday and like he has three straight outings with no strikeouts and three walks his velocity is up from where it had been but it's still like two miles per hour down from where it was when he was the best closer in baseball so like i feel comfortable in saying zach britain may not be good oh it's the sinker he's got the sinker going right right the thing to remember about zack britain is before he had that great strike strikeout turn in 2016 he was still like he was he was a really good reliever with a low strikeout rate because his ground ball rate, as much as we talk about how Kikles is, you know, an outlier compared to the rest of the league, Britain even more so.

Like Britain has like his ground ball to fly ball rate is like doubles what Kikles is when he's at his best. And that's been, that's been really good this year. But, you know, it obviously doesn't matter for fantasy purposes if he's not pitching the ninth inning. I think I think this trade is much more fascinating from just a pure. baseball perspective because, I mean, clearly the Yankees have decided to go with the most outrageously good bullpen we've ever seen, as opposed to patching up their starting rotation, which, I mean, does that mean they go, does that mean they go the opener route like the race have done?

Is Chad Green become an opener, or AJ Cole or Adam Warren? Like, those aren't their late-inning relievers, and yet they've been really good, too. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. And they don't even have Tommy Canely. He's still in the minors. They also, so the Orioles get Dylan Tate, who was a top pick of the Astros, got traded to the Yankees for Carlos Beltron a couple of years ago. The Rangers. The Rangers. Top pick of the Rangers. Oh, the Rangers.

Did Belchon go to the Rangers? Did that happen? Yeah. Okay. That did happen. That's Dylan Tate. I have no reaction of that. Yeah, me either.

Josh Rogers and Cody Carroll. Let's go to the Baltimore bullpen, though. Brad Brock is 21% own. He got a save against the Red Sox last night. It's his 11th save of the season. And he did give up an unearned run, gave up two hits. Really has not had a very good year. But we were somewhat excited about him going into the year for the two months before Britain got back.

Do we want to pick up Brad Brock? He's 21% own. How many games are the Orioles going to win the rest of the way? A couple dozen? No, no. 27. I'm not to be sure how many games are left. That seems like too many, right?

They probably got about 60. We're almost two-thirds of the way through the season. So that would be almost a 500 winning percentage of them on that many. Probably like 20. Let's say 20. All right. Is it Brad Brock? If there is a guy, is it Brad Brock?

Yeah, it's Brad Brock. He got the saved yesterday in typically ugly fashion to three base runners in an unearned run. But my point is there's a good chance we're going to count the number of saves so he gets rest of the season on one hand. And like, meanwhile, you have all these other. exciting newcomers to the role who are struggling to get to 50% ownership. So, like, he's the last resort, closer pickup, I feel like. Yeah, I forgot to look up Will Smith's ownership.

He got his fourth save last night, and Hunter Strickland could come back, and that's the case, yeah, make a roster move, but Will Smith is 32% owned. I'm not sure he doesn't keep that job. He's been awesome this year. Not so much recently, but, yeah, for the year he has. He hasn't been? Oh, yeah, I guess he gave up a run in each of, his previous two appearances. That's okay.

He's back. Welcome back. All right. Who else is getting traded? Trade deadlines coming up just a few days at the end of the month. Let's get ahead of the game, guys. Chris, give me a player that could get traded that could have fantasy impact. Or, you know, it may be in the Britain sense. Closer gets traded, opens up a new opportunity. The obvious one's Kirby Yates, who we talked about on yesterday's podcast, as a trade candidate. it. And, you know, he's been spectacular this season and may end up being a closure for the

rest of the season, but he also may be a closer for the rest of this week. And that's the thing to keep in mind. A lot of the guys who are on the trade block, Cole Hamill, Sonny Gray, Chris Archer, it's not necessarily, they're not going to change their role. So they're going to just have to pitch better in order to have a trade make a difference. And so when you're looking at that, I think it's mostly the closers who are potentially going to make a difference. If Chris Archer gets traded to a hitter's park, are you guys going to be afraid to start him? That's a good question. I mean, where he pitches now is obviously a very pitcher-friendly park.

What I uncovered the other day is that he has a career 470 ERA at the other four A.L. East Parks. versus 343 ERA everywhere else. I didn't break it down, Hitted Park versus Pitcher Park. Obviously, there are a lot of, it's not just the venues, it's the quality of the line-ofs he's faced from those other four teams.

You know, for most of his stint, the Blue Jays have had a good offense, the Orioles have had a good offense for most of his time there. I think if it gets traded to any NL club, I'm going to be excited about it, you know, except for maybe Rockies. Right.

Yeah, no, I feel that. It's a great point. It's a great point. It's a tough division to pitch in, Archer's actually been better at home than the road About a run better is ERA No, he's been better on the road than at home this year But that's unusual for him

But it's a good point Get out of the ALEs could be great for Chris Archer It's not by any means of certainty That he's getting traded Anything else or should we move on? I say we move on Okay Tuesday stand up

Yeah Here's the driver again It feels good to be back in the driver's seat You've probably been in the passenger seat lately I would imagine Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm not sure who's driving. I don't know if it's the kid or the wife, but I've definitely been the passenger.

Maybe you're in the backseat. Yeah. Let's start off with Scott White. Give me a standout for Tuesday. Okay, standout from yesterday. I'm going to go with Homer Bailey, who did something I didn't even imagine him capable of doing anymore, which was have a genuinely dominant start. And I think what's most interesting about it is it was his first start since May, since missing an extended period of time with knee inflammation.

And so any time you have a pitcher who's been absent for a long time, and I mean, you just, you don't, you don't really know all the changes that have been taking place behind the scenes in terms of mechanics or in terms of how much the injury was impacting him before it. He's been absolute for four years, though. So tell me why this is something to get excited about for Homer Bailey. Well, I don't know that in and of itself it is, but it's by, like, it's the only good start he's had this year. And maybe the only good start he's had the last two years. I didn't check last year's game log, but I know it was ugly then too. And it was, it was really, really good to earn runs in six and two-thirds innings with eight strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes. And the velocity for all his injuries has not really gone away.

He's still averaging mid-90s on his fastball, and that was true even during the struggles. So I don't know. We have to see more obviously, but I'm willing, like, I'm excited to see what the next start looks like now. Just put it that way. Chris, I don't know. I'm surprised that Homer Bailey was the standout from Scott. What do you got for me here? I was going to go with Homer Bailey just because it was such a standout performance.

It was a standout performance. It doesn't mean it was a fantasy relevant performance. My position on Homer Bailey is if he wasn't under contract, he probably wouldn't be in baseball anymore. It's pretty harsh. I mean, Shelby Miller's still in baseball. Right, but Shelby Miller's like 27. Yeah, but Robert Bailey looks like Christian. A hundred years old.

Give me another standout. Crow's heard on. Yeah, 75% of it. We've mentioned this a couple times that the Angels may just be bad against lefties and so that could be your explanation, but 7 and 2 thirds innings, two hits allowed, three walks,

eight strikeouts. Just a really strong start from a guy who has not yet put it all together, but we're seeing flashes of what he could be so far this season. And coming back from, you know, the shoulder

13 strikeouts in his last 15 innings over two starts for Carlos Rodan. Those two starts were against the Cardinals and at the Angels. Rodon's 75% owned. There were a few players yesterday that just continued their hot streaks, and you probably need to check if they're available. Rodon's the most owned. He's 75%. We're going to talk about these other guys later, but Michael Conforto has been hot.

Stephen Piscotti's just been unbelievable when he homered again. Rood Nador has been pretty good. He's had a really nice July. So we'll talk about them. There's also Josh Bell. that we should talk about. Maybe a little Steven Sousa, Jack Peter,

Jack Peterson. Oh, boy, my Rooney voice is way off. You know, we were up really late two nights ago. Baby was freaking out. And there was a Ferris Bueller documentary on. And unfortunately, it was on mute. But it looked really interesting. We kept muting and unmuting it.

But apparently it was like almost three hours long or something on the first cut. And they had to edit a lot of it. And I think there were other Bueller siblings that they had to cut from the movie. So see if you can find that documentary. All right, my standout is Austin Gomber. You got, I mean, you get me, you give me, what? Who? That's his name, right?

Did you make up a name? That's what I thought. This isn't real. Am I just delirious? Austin Gomber for the Cardinals. That's my favorite Wonka candy. Six in a third. Two runs, six strikeouts.

Pretty good minor league numbers. 342 ERA, but in the PCL, more than a strikeout per inning. 5% owned. Ponce de Leon, Gomber, terrific names in the Cardinals' rotation. Do any of them stick? And they both had no hitters working deep into their first major league starts.

I think both against the Reds too, right? I would guess neither of them sticks in the rotation is my thought. All right, yeah. So that was useless, but now, it's good to get that out of the way. No, I mean, it's worth discussing. It's worth acknowledging their engagement. existence. And I think Ponce Leone probably has shown a little more upside in the minors, but, you know, I said it yesterday.

If someone's good enough, a rotation spot will open. And so for me, it's just a question of, like, Jack Flaherty didn't have a rotation spot for the first month of the season. But, and we were like, well, should we hold on to Jack Flaherty? But he was good. And eventually, with pitching, it works itself out. You know, occasionally you'll get through a season where a team doesn't need another starter or just can't find room. But for the most part, someone's going to get hurt or become ineffective, and there's going to be a spot open for one of these guys. But that probably requires two guys getting hurt long term for one of these guys to have an opportunity. They both will get another look at some point. You know, obviously Ponce de Leon was sent down after his start Monday. And partially because they need it to clear a spot for Gumber.

But at some point, they'll get another chance. I don't know. You know who else has had great minor league numbers is John Gant. You know? And I don't think he really has a lot of high ceiling either. And obviously, he has dibs at a rotation spot over those two. So, I mean, if you're not excited about picking up John Gant, I don't know that you necessarily need to be excited about picking up either of these other two.

We obviously want Austin Gomber to get traded at the Yankees so he could be a Bronx Gomber. That would be terrific. And remember Carlos Martinez is on the DL. He could be back on Monday. All right. So two other standouts, two pitchers that are both right around 80% owned. Tell me if they should be 80% own. Shane Bieber, Tyler Anderson, very, very different starts yesterday.

Bieber gave up seven runs in an inning and two-thirds against the hottest team. baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates. And Tyler Anderson was really good again at home against the Astros, and he now has a 2080 RA in his last nine starts with a strike operating. Do Bieber and Tyler Anderson deserve to be 80% owned? Yeah, all of a sudden, Shane Bieber has allowed at least four on runs and four of his eight starts. So, not looking so great.

I mean, the peripherals actually aren't bad. These number of strikeouts, no walks at all, but I wonder if he is just falling victim to working in the strike zone too much. He has been getting hit hard. It's a very high babup against him, and probably too high, but it looks like he may profile as a high babbub guy. That being said, neither of these players are available in any of my leagues. Now, maybe Bieber start was so bad yesterday that I see him dropped in a couple this morning. morning, I don't know. I'd probably be willing to take a flyer on him if he was. I probably have a pitcher I'm less excited about on every single one of my rosters.

All righty. The big news for you today, Gary Sanchez is on the deal with a groin strain and a lack of hustle. Carlos, did you guys talk about that yesterday? I mean, it sounds like the lack of hustle was a result of the groin strain and not the I hope so. I hope so. I think. I, yeah, I think he's been unfairly maligned personally. Oh, okay. Well, do you have, do you still have high hopes? Because he's having a really bad season, I'm sorry to say.

For Gary Sanchez, rest of season. He's, he was a top five catcher before he got hurt, even though he's batting under 200. He's batting under 200 within outrageous too low Babbitt. Yeah, it's entirely the Babbitt. Okay, but he is, I mean, but he is having a bad year. I mean, he's hitting under 200. Yeah. He's been a bust, and he's been hurt.

Like I said, he was the top five catcher, even batting under 200, which maybe his commentary on the position itself. But nonetheless, he was very useful. So this second stint on the DL, I would suspect it might last longer than the first, which itself lasts a month, right? So I've obviously had to move him down and catcher rankings. He had been a fixture at the top for me all season. Now he's like fifth. But, you know, I'm not dropping them anywhere. Carlos Martinez, could be back on Monday.

Yuenas Cespittus is on the deal with heel issues. He could miss the rest of the season and a lot of next season. The Mets called up infielder Jeff McNeil, who is raking in the minors. And the Phillies called up starting pitcher Ranger Suarez. I mean, you have to get excited about that name. He will start tomorrow for the Phillies. Jeff McNeil for the Mets, Ranger Suarez, for the Phillies. Any interest, Skywhite?

Jeff McNeil's numbers are are incredible. I mean, OPS over 1,000, and AAA is Las Vegas for them, so you say, oh, it's PCL-Aated, but he was just as good at double A. Basically, one walk to one strikeout between the two levels. He's 26 years old, and so that's why, like, I wonder how this guy snuck up on me. I write a prospects report every week. That's why he had never done anything in the minors before this year, but it's such a startling contrast that I have to feel like, He made some kind of adjustment. I don't know if he's a flyball revolution guy or what.

But he'll definitely be somebody worth monitoring if he gets a chance to play for the Mets. Didn't play yesterday. So we'll see if that happens. Jeff McNeil. I think Ranger Suarez is just a spot start for the Phillies. Chris Bryant has a sore shoulder, and he's been dealing with this season. So, Chris, you see this. He missed yesterday's game, Chris Bryant.

He's probably going to sit today. Does this give you a little pause in expecting a big second half from Chris Bryant? Absolutely. You know, the peripherals this season aren't super great, at least in terms of the hard hit and soft hit rates. Soft hit rate is highest it's ever been. Hard hit rate's actually a little higher than last year, but, you know, with the soft hit rate being so high, I think that probably tells us a lot more. Yeah, I think there's a lot more.

chance that he just doesn't hit for power for the rest of the season, or at least doesn't have the big power breakout that we were hoping for, and ends up being like a 20 homer guy this season. All right, that's Chris Bryant. James Paxton could be back by the end of the week. Guess who's coming back tomorrow? Oh, today, today it's Irvin Santana. Irvin Santana.

Anybody want a little Irvin Santana in their lives? A little. Yeah. Could probably find a spot for him in most leagues. If we're talking about the guy we consider dropping today, Shane Bieber, I'd still rather have Bieber than Santana, personal. Would you rather have Musgrove or Irvin Santana? If it's a points league where you can start Musgrove at Reliever,

I'd rather have Musgrove. Otherwise, I'd rather have Santana. I think I'd rather just have Musgrove. Okay. I feel like the things we don't like about Santana are also present for Musgrove, but obviously Santana has a track record we can get behind. Yeah, but not coming back from injury, Irvin Santana struggled in his rehab assignment.

He did get better as it went on, but even the good version of Irvin Santana was a worse strikeout pitcher than what Joe Musgrove's been in his career. How much of that? as the bullpen for Musgrove, though, because he's low 8K per 9, right? Yeah, yeah. Maybe Irvin Santana gets back to being a 7.5K per 9 guy or something, but I would be skeptical. Like, I'm hoping he can be a slightly above average pitcher.

I would expect Joe Musgrove will be better than that, and I think there's a lot more upsides. Musgrove, I will be starting him. I just picked him up last night, actually. I will be starting him this week. weekend in a daily league against the Mets. I don't think I'll start him next week against the Cardinals, but Musgrove against the Mets this weekend, I like it.

Even though Michael Kidfordo is a red hot. So we're going to get to those fringy starting pitchers, but we should compliment the Miami Marlins on the MVP chain. Okay, yeah, obviously, it's the rip-off of the turnover chain, but it's dedicated to Jose Fernandez, and it's really cool. And Starlin Castro wore the MVP chain, I believe, yesterday. So good job. Good job, Martin.

That's fun. For the fan base, right, Chris? MVP chain. Yeah, plus, unlike the University of Miami Hurricanes, who did the turnover chain, the Miami Marlins haven't embarrassed themselves in their last game at the Orange Bullseight. You suck, dude. So coming up on today's show, coming up on today's show, we do have at the very end, a school theme song for you. I'm just a bill Yes I'm only a schoolhouse rock

We have great in the trade We're really stretching We are really I'm so I was tired You thought there were a lot more school songs I need to like actually take some time I'm sure I could think of some

And I just haven't given it any thought People have sent some suggestions in But I don't know those songs And I feel bad using them Like a steely Dan song about school I don't know But we do have grade the trade coming up I'll work on my game

I'll step my game up at that set Oh, rock and roll high school by the Ramones Yeah, rock and roll high school That was suggested, okay, we'll have to use that We'll have to use that Yeah, just stop Stop embarrassing me Just keep revisiting the classics

You know? No, you don't want to read Wikipedia List of songs about school Fringy starting pitchers we got We'll talk about Zach Wheeler And Junior Gera and Andrew Suarez And Mike Minor and others Bullpen stuff

Rotation, Garrett Cole, great at Colorado Masahiro Tanaka, Complete Game Shutout. Jose Barrios is the new Masahiro Tanaka. Great starts, bad starts. We'll look at today's matchups. And let's talk about Fringian starting pitchers. All right. A lot of interesting ones out there.

So I'll put Bieber back on here since he's 79% own. He's under the 80% mark. Zach Wheeler, who has been... He's given you seven or more innings in four of his last six starts. Zach Wheeler, though, has the toughest matchup in baseball this week at the Pittsburgh Pirates. Shane Bieber,

Junior Gera, just having a good year. 313 ERA, 100th, 1003 and 2 thirds, a little bit of a high whip for Gera, 1.26. He had a good start against the nationals yesterday. Joe Musgrove, Andrew Suarez,

Drew Pomeranz is back, did not pitch well against the Orioles. Jordan Zimmerman, Mike Minor, and that's it. All right, we got Wheeler, we got Beaver, we got Gera, Musgrove, Suarez, Pomerans, Zimmerman, Minor, a lot of names.

Who do we like? I would still put Beaver at the top of the list. I'd probably put Zach Wheeler second. And I mean, I don't have a problem with anybody rostering Junior Gera. The strikeouts have actually been pretty good this year. I don't have a lot of faith in him personally. I think Suarez is in the mixed league discussion at least. don't like Pomerans.

His velocity wasn't any better coming back. It's down two to three miles per hour from last year, and that was true before the DL stint, too. So it's kind of no wonder he's getting throttled. Yeah, 691 ERA. Are we still interested, are we at all interested in Jordan Zimmerman at this point? I have not been able to get interested in Jordan Zimmerman. How about Mike Miner?

No. No, okay. Let me have a spark and little. more. So Scott went with Bieber, then Wheeler, then Gera, Musgrove, Suarez. Well, I mean, Musgrove would probably be third on the list for me. I didn't mention him. But Gera and Suarez, I think, are also mixed league relevant. All right. You want to just play the matchups? Beber has the Angels next week.

And Suarez, I don't have his matchup, so I'm sorry. So that was useless. All right, moving on. Here's a question. Is E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hanyo, Suarez, a star. Talk about it. He's a top 50 player for me. Top 50. So if that makes him a star. Top 50, he has been better than that, Scott White. He's been a top 20 hitter with a DL stint this year.

Top 50, shame on you. Okay, I thought it was high braids. Fair enough. Well, no, if that's what he is, that's what he is. I think a star is probably more like top 30. Is he that? So over the last calendar year, He has 31 homers, 88 runs, 106 RBI.

He's hitting 287. He's pretty good. He's pretty good. Is there anything to doubt with A. E. Oh, Hanyos Juarez, who's batting 306 this year with 21 home runs, a very respectable walk-to-strikeout ratio, and he missed some time. He's only played 84 games. Teams have played about 104-ish games, I think. Early this year, his strikeout rate was very good. It was a big improvement over previous years, which fueled a lot of my enthusiasm.

It's kind of come back down recently. He's had a lot of strikeouts recently. It's still better than last year, but it looks like it may be normalizing, which would obviously impact the batting average. But he walks a lot, the power's legit. I think he's – I was updating my rankings last night, and between Suarez, Max Muncie, and Max Muncie and Max, Carpenter, you know, I had a real dilemma with those three. So that's kind of the range I'm

thinking of. I think I ended up putting Suarez last of them, at least in points leagues. But he's in that same range of fantasy asset to me. I haven't had this trade proposed to me. I was thinking of proposing it myself in a Roto League. Would I be crazy to trade Matt Carpenter? Would I be crazy to not trade Matt Carpenter? would I make crazy to not trade Matt Carpenter for Trey Turner? And Rotel League? Yeah, like I have Carpenter and I was thinking of offering him. I think you have to do that.

Yeah, I think you have to do that. We do need to talk and have a discussion. We need to talk about Trey Turner, though. Yeah, he got benched yesterday. I don't know that it was for lack of hustle. It was. It was explicitly for a lack of hustle. All right, fine.

He'll be back today. But, like, he hasn't stolen a, based since June 29. He's attempted five steals in that demand though. Like I don't even know... Doesn't that seem fluky though? Because he never gets...

Those are like his only caught stealings all year, not his only, but close to it. Right, but yeah, it could just be random. But it's bizarre. Yeah. Like, is there... That just makes me think maybe there's some kind of injury that we're not talking about or something.

And that is what has... prevented me from giving up a stud for Trey Turner because he has been injury prone thus far. So I don't know if I should really hold that against him. I love him as a by-low. I just don't know if Carpenter is low for Turner. Well, how are you doing in stolen bases? Because obviously that's the thing he brings to the table more than anything. Yeah, I need help in Steels for sure.

Yeah. I think you have to do it. I understand your hesitation, especially to kind of run Carpenter's on. But in Roto, I feel like Trey Turner is still a top 15 player. Yeah, I mean, I've obviously been the guy on the podcast that's been like, well, look, Matt Carpenter's great in a points league or an OBP league. But outside of that format, if you play in a standard 5 by 5, which is what this particular Roto league I'm talking about is, you know, he's not a great player. He's like a top 15 guy at his position. That's what I had said.

That's what I had said. Obviously, he's crushing the ball. And he's just been amazing. So I don't think of him that way anymore. I think of him as a stud. But I also, I go back to three years ago before he had the oblique injury. He was maybe the MVP frontrunner. He was amazing.

So it looks like he's back to that. And yeah. And this was, you know, I'll admit my faith was shaken a little bit, but we're going, even dating back to last year, we've talked about how great his bad at ball profile is. He's top 10 now, and I don't know how much it's risen with his recent hot streak, but he's top 10 in both line drive rate and fly ball rate as well as hard contact rate. I mean, that is the perfect recipe for a hitter who hits for both average and power. So it's hard to – it's hard to say this is illegitimate, even though it's kind of happened all at once. Hey, real quick, Chris, I'll go to you first.

Matt Carpenter or John Carlos Stanton rest of season? Stanton. As amazing as Carpenter's run is, I'm pretty sure John Carlos Stanton has a thousand OPS since the start of June, we're right around there. It's been a quiet hot streak. I think you guys talked about him yesterday, right? This is a good example of something that I don't know if we talk about enough, but it's true, I think, in all sports, but guys who get off to bad starts, opinions tend to calcify about them, really early on, like the first month, especially if it's an outlier for your career, tends to calcify for a lot of players.

And then Stanton's case, it was the first two months. He was not good. He had a 786 OPS by the end of May, which is passable, but certainly not great. And I think people were just like, well, I guess John Carlos Stanton's not having a good year, and we're just never going to talk about him again. And he has a 976 OPS since June 2nd. Yeah, he's been really good. And, you know, I got something else that's really good for you, something that you absolutely need to have.

It's in my freezer right now. I'm pretty sure we're going to grill out this weekend. Obviously, it's been kind of a hectic week for me, having a baby and all. But it is time to open up those Omaha steaks, fire up the grill, and have an unbelievable, not just a meal, a feast for $39.99, for 80% off. You can get so much food at Omaha steaks.com. If you type in the search bar, FBT. So I think we're going to go to an in-laws house and get like 10, 15 people there, and everybody's going to be able to eat because there's what you do. You go to Omaha Steaks.com.

You type in FBT in the search bar. It's not Omahasteaks.com slash FBT. It's not an offer code at checkout. It's typing in the search bar FBT. Two fillets, two top sirloins, four juicy, boneless pork chops, four boneless chicken breasts, four. all beef burgers, four kilbasa sausages, four jumbo francs, a seasoning packet, and four made from scratch, caramel apple tartlets. All of that for 40 bucks for $39.99. That's 80% off. I need you to go to

Omaha Steaks.com and type in FBT in the search bar, and believe it or not, all that meat, I think the hot dogs are actually my favorite thing, but it's all really, really good. So if you want to grill out with your friends and your family, now's the time. Your brand new baby. Oh, my baby's going to love the fillets. Go to Omaha Steaks.com. Type FBT in the search bar, FBT. Scott, you have kids. I'll tell you something.

I do. We're ways away from this. But if my little boy, if Andrew does not grow up, preferring medium rare, I'm going to be really personally disappointed. Like, that's just, you got to be a medium rare guy. That is the only acceptable way to eat. You failed as a parent if your son's only eating well-done sticks.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I don't go medium rare myself. Well, medium-er is perfect. It's perfect. What do you do, Scott? I don't like it. I don't like the visual. I'm sorry.

What do you? What's your book? I do medium now. I've come down in the last 10 years. I used to just default to well-done just because I didn't want to have to worry about it. You didn't want to taste anything. Or snake, I'll go medium. I might ask for a burger medium well still.

No, I mean, who wants flavor, right? That's what I'm saying. I want it red. All right, let's do some news and notes. So, Trey Turner was benched. Jesse Winker sat with a sore shoulder. Glaibra Torres will return today. Welcome back, Glaibre Torres.

Carlos Correa had a workout yesterday, and he texted his manager, A.J. Hintz, and Carlos Correa said he felt sexy. So that's good. He's on the comeback trail. Same. I could have definitely put a musical interlude there. a little I'm too sexy, bringing sexy back. James Paxson could be back by the end of the week. Irvin Santana will start at Toronto today.

Mentioned that. Keone Keough blew his first save in 24 chances. I don't want to get traded. How about this stat? Oh, yeah, we should have mentioned Keone Keller. He definitely could get traded. Who would close for the Rangers? I haven't even thought about that.

There are no great options in most of the situations where the closer could get traded. Exceptions include the tigers who have Joe Jimenez, the Marlins who have Drew Steckenrider, assuming he's not the one traded. And, oh, who was the third one I mentioned yesterday, Chris? Jose Alvarado. For the Rangers, for the Rangers, it would probably be,

I mean, the best option is Jose LaClerc. I don't know that it would be him. I feel like we'll see a lot of either committees or if not outright committees, situations like we've seen from the Blue Jays since they've been without Ozuna, where they try one guy who's not very good, and then he blows one. So they try another guy who's not very good, and then he blows one.

So they go back to the other guy. I think we'll see a lot of that from most of these. I mean, we don't know how many of these guys get traded, obviously. But I'm not super excited about any prospective closers. Hey, real quick, rest of the season, Matt Carpenter or Craig Kimbril? Kimbril will get more saves. Well, who's more valuable? Because, I mean, an elite closer is more valuable now than he's ever been.

In a points league, I would definitely prefer Carpenter. In a roto league, I mean, obviously it depends what you need. They do very different things. I think you could make the case that if we're redrafting today, Kimbril would go ahead. Roberto Azuna, by the way, is 55% owned that he is due back August 5th. I don't know that he comes back and is the closer, but Roberto Azuna, August 5th. Yeah, he's out on his rehab assignment right now. Jose Alvarado got a save two nights ago, a four-out save with Sergio Romo ill.

And the raise are actually like a 500 team. They're not that bad. I don't know that if they trade Sergio Romo, that that changes. So maybe Alvarado 10% own. You take a look there. How about this stat? Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte, and Gregory Polanco. Those top three hitters for the outfielders for the pirates.

In their last five games, they are batting 382 with nine homers and 24 RBIs. Dickerson left with a hamstring. issue yesterday, he says it's not serious, and Jesus Aguilar returned from a two-game absence, and Eric Thames came off the DL. Let's get back into Tuesday's action. The Ono Meter, zero to 10. Zero

is, they should not be owned at all. Ten should be 100% owned. Five, they should be 50% owned. Where do you put Josh Bell on the Onometer? He is currently 68% owned, and he is hot, hot, hot right now. Josh Bell. Probably about a 7. So I guess

his ownership's about right. He's hot now. He has six home runs all the year. So, yeah, why is he a seven? I was actually surprised by his ownership percentage. I thought it was kind of high. 68% Josh Bell. Yeah, and this is a guy who before the season was talking about elevating the ball,

and he did it in spring training, and then he got into the regular season and just stopped, and he hasn't hit for power. The batted ball profile is just okay. He seems like the definition of a drag at first base. Even last year, he was pretty Jackie. And I think 68% isn't appropriate. Like that's mostly deep leagues where he's rostered.

And so, yeah, I feel like that's pretty appropriate. All right. So Josh Bell is a 6 or 7 on the ownometer. How about Rootnet O'Dore? He has 66% own. And in July, O'Dor is batting 356. With a 426 on base, I guess he's drawing some walks. Three homers, five steals, four doubles.

and 21 walks so far in 72 games for Rue Nettador. That's actually, like, pretty incredible for him. 66% owned. What should he be, Rugnettor on the Oenormitre, Chris Sowers? 6.7. You think he's appropriately owned? He is slightly underowned. Okay.

I could be talked into a 7.1. Michael Conforto, 63% owed. What should he be? Nine. I just, I still think there's so much potential. here. I think if you're looking for a guy who could be a difference maker in the second half, he's one of them.

He's extremely talented. Every time he's been healthy before this season at least, he's been really good. And maybe he just wasn't healthy in the first half, and maybe he's starting to get his strength back. Maybe not. I mean, maybe. I think he's the least usable of the three right now. Sure. Wait, wait, between Josh Bell, Runeiador, and Confor.

You think Confort is the least usable right now. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, the other two, certainly hot hand plays at the moment. Rugnet O'Dore, I think, has not as much upside as Conforto, but top ten upside at his position. So, you know, if you're just talking about a bench spot, maybe you could go Conforto. But personally, I would consider him the least rosterable just because he's the least usable right now. That's, okay. How about Stephen Piscotti?

1% own right now. 0 to 10 on the Onometer for Piscotti. 7. I might go 8. He definitely looks like the player he was during his best season, which is what 2015

with the Cardinals, when he had 22 homers and a bunch of doubles. He looks like that guy again. Now is that is that somebody who's going to start in a three outfielder league? I don't think automatically. But when he's as hot as he is right now, yeah, he's definitely at the discussion in five outfield of the leagues, he probably should be starting basically all the time.

So since May 15th, which was when he came back from his leave of absence, he's hitting 271 with an 860 OPS. 12 of his 14 home runs have come in the last 59 game stretch. That's a 33 homer, 102 RBI, 94 run pace. This is Stephen Piscotti we're talking about. Piscotti too hoti, I'd say, right now. Would you rather have Conforto or Piscotti? I'd rather have Piscotti. All right, let's go.

Two more outfielders. Jack Peterson sits against lefties but leads off against righties. And Yasil Pui coming back this weekend could complicate things a little bit. Although Justin Turner's on the DL, so that means Machado plays third, freeze up a spot, Chris Taylor, I don't know. Yeah. A lot of guys. Jack Peterson.

As long as somebody. on the DL, then it's status quo with the Dodgers lineup, I feel like. And right now they have two somebody's on the DL, but Pueg coming back, they'll still be Turner, obviously. Yeah, you know, I mean... Peterson, zero to ten. Jack... Jack Peterson, I feel like, is much more valuable in leagues where you set a daily lineup and you can move them in and out based on the opposing pitcher. True.

In standard points leagues, where you set your lineup once a week, I don't think you can use them at all because of how often he says. Sets. Roto, five outfielder leagues. You know, I'd play matchups from week to week. See how many wimpses. The Dodgers are based. 4.3. I mean, I'd go six. And finally, Stephen Sousa, who last year was the number 31 outfielder and points, number 35 in Roto. Sousa is 36% owned 0 to 10 on the Onometer for Sousa.

Probably like a four. I'm the least interested in him. You'd rather have Peter. and Susa? Yeah. All right. If Stephen Susan was going to give you a call, what would he use? What would he use?

His Stephen Suza phone. Okay. What the heck is that? It's the marching band version of a tuba. Steven Susaphone. Yeah. Okay. I think I'm too tired to understand that joke.

Let's read some emails. Fantasy football, fantasy baseball, see, at CBSI.com. These are rankings emails. Fantasy baseball at CBCBest. BBSI.com. From Brent. Rest of season, Beber or Burucky? Bieber. Yeah, I gotta go with the bebes.

From AB. Hey, real quick, John Gray or Nick Pivotta, rest of season. Oh, that's... Pfeita. Gray has more upside, but... Both. Drop someone else. They're both in my top 60 starting pitcher, so they... Yes, they both should probably be owned.

From Andrew. Dear Kemp, Enrique, Roberts, Seagre. Junjin, Austin, and Walker. Those are Dodgers. Yeah. Can you please rank these guys rest of season? My gosh, he gives us eight names. We're going to pick our top three or four.

Matt Kemp, Marcel Ozuna, Justin Turner, Yassil Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Pueig, Puee, Puee, Chris, Chris Taylor, Jake Bowers, McGill and Duhar. Kemp, Ozuna, Turner, Pueh, Taylor, Bowers, and Duhar. I'll be very interested to know who you guys put first on this list. Who is it? I think I'd go Kemp? And then Ozuna and Taylor? I finally did move Ozuna down a lot yesterday,

but I didn't drop him behind Kemp. He's still first on this list for me. And then I... Kemp, Taylor, and Bowers, I'm not sure exactly how I have them ranked. They're all in the same range. But that's a clear top four, I think. Zuna, Kemp, Taylor Bowers. All right.

Yeah, Bowers, obviously, very interesting. Oh, Zuna, I mean, I'm benching him. I'm just straight up in our three outfielder points league. He's on my bench. No thanks. I understand. Last two more. Paul from Chicago.

Dear George, Mitch, and Hannibal. Stand-up comics, right? Who's George? Carlin. Hadberg and Burris. Yeah. Yeah. Good job, Chris.

Please rank the following players rest of season. Brandon Belt, Jose Martinez, Jake Bowers, Carlos Gonzalez. Brandon Belt, Jose Martinez, Bowers, Cargo. Bell, Bauer, Martinez, and Cargo. Cargo is a distant last. Martinez obviously is third because of the playing time concerns. Yeah, I mean, if we get to the trade deadline and he's still on the Cardinals, he's probably last. Belt Bowers Martinez cargo or maybe Belt Bauer's Cargo Martinez.

And finally, he has started, what, I think three games in a row, four games in a row. Like, they've been very wishy-washy about this. Yeah, I started four games in a row of first base. So, I don't know. Well, wait, they've cooled on Jet Jerko again. Isn't Jerko on the DL? No, Wong is on the D. Oh, okay.

Gotcha. Sorry. But Jerko hasn't been lifted. But Jose Martinez has been lifted for a defensive replacement in each of those games. He hasn't had more than three played appearances. So even that. I'm sorry. I'm going to skip the next question.

It's a lot about closers. We talk a lot about closers today. All right. Let's see. We've got about 15 minutes left. We've got to make time for grade the trade. So let's look at some hitters who are on hot streaks and somewhere on cold streaks. Is this just a hot streak, or is this something else?

Four, Will Myers, Salvador Perez, Yasmani Grandal, and Jonathan Scope. Let's start with Will Myers, continuing to crush it. He has a 924 OPS. It was right around 800 each of the previous two seasons. Is this just a hot streak for Will Myers, or is this going to be the best version we've ever seen of this man? It's just a hot streak. I don't think there's any reason to believe that all of a sudden, Will Myers has discovered some new potential.

He's not doing a lot differently. Okay, that works for me. Salvador Perez and Yasmani Grandal, Scott. Both hot right now. Grandal, two home runs yesterday. He has a seven-game hitting streak with four homers and five walks. Grandal is having an amazing season, top four catcher. And Perez has now four home runs in his last nine games.

Is there something here, Scott, with Perez and Grandal or just a little hot streak? I mean, yeah, I mean, Grundaul, there's, he's been. so good already that I don't think he has another plane of goodness to ascend to. And Perez, he was due for some correction. So I still think he's a top eight catcher in fantasy. And this is going to get back there. What do you do with Salvador Perez when you know that he is really good? Every year he's like a top five catcher, basically, top seven maybe.

and every year he's terrible in the second half. So it's like, yeah, he's probably going to put up some numbers because he's really good. But he should have done that in the first half and he didn't. Now here comes the second half and Perez is playing well. You start him. And that you do. He hasn't been overworked to this year, which was always... Well, remember, he was coming...

He came back from the knee injury. Yeah. Right. So he missed a lot of April. He's been playing some first base lately. getting some time at DA. I think he started two games at first base recently, which probably tells you more about Lucas Duda's glove

than anything else. But yeah. Oh, Jonathan Scope. Jonathan Scope was hitting 360 with five home runs before homering and driving in three yesterday. Those are his July numbers. So he's got six home runs in July. He's been really good.

And Jonathan Scope, what do you think? He was due. He was due. Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing I could say about Ruebeded-Odoer, where when those guys who don't walk struggle, they are positively useless to you and you think they're never going to be good again. But over time, it corrects even for them. But that's just kind of the danger and investing in that sort of player. Sure.

Adam, can I throw one out here? Oh, yes, yes, yes. last 18 games Joey Gallo has seven home runs a 352 on base percentage and a 607 slucking percentage Would you like to know what his batting average is? 2-10

179 Would you like to know what his babbip during that stretch where he is a 959 OPS is? Yes. 11 He has 10 hits in his last 18 games. seven of them are home runs. And he's actually not striking out that much.

Have faith in Joey Gowler. Now, Chris, give me the start date. He's not striking out much. He's got like a 33% strikeout rate on the year. Oh, no, in that stretch, I mean, it's like 30%. Give me the start date for that stretch. Hey, hey, if Joey Gallow strikes out 30% of the time, he's an MVP candidate. Chris Towers.

Yes. Give me the start date for that stretch. I think it's... I just close. I don't want to know what you think, Chris. I want to know the start date. The start date was... I'm looking for it.

All right. You know what? We'll save the cold streaks. It's June 29th. June 29th. I'm going to look up where he ranks at third base and first base since June 29th. I would guess it's pretty low. I don't know about that.

I don't know about that. The 175-9 batting average is pretty bad. But what I'm telling you is, look, Matt Carpenter, get it. Gregory Polanco did it. Trust the process, people. I don't know what, I don't feel like Joey Gallo has all the skills that Matt Carpenter has, though. I'm not saying he's Matt Carpenter. I'm not saying he's Matt Carpenter. Okay.

But he's not a 228 Babbitt. Right. But he was $250.50. It was $250.50. Does he have the upside for much more than that? Because he's his so fly ball. Like anytime he hits the ball and it doesn't leave the yard, it's going to make it out at an unusually high rate, which is what a low bat bat pitter is. And I think that's what, like, yeah, his babbitt should be this low, but it's going to be low. Right, but like even 250 would be the lowest career babbip ever.

So if he's a 270 bad bit guy, all of a sudden you're looking at a 240 hitter the rest of the way. And if Joe Gallo hits 240, he's like, he's like, most start stud. Sure. I still think that's a big if, but fair enough. If he hits 240, he's just done. So in that stretch since June 29th where Joey Gallo is batting 179 with seven home runs,

a 607 slugging percentage, he is the number 12 third baseman in points leagues, number 15 in Roto. And that Roto is batting average, not OBP. I imagine to be closer to 12 in an OVP league. So, yeah, I mean, it hasn't been as good as I thought. And that's with a 11-babbitt, though, my friends. Why is he going to have a good babbitt? He's going to have a bad. I'm not.

Nobody's saying he's going to have a good babb. Yeah, but that's also with a 600. He's going to have the worst. Literally the worst babbib. He's not going to have a 600. He's not going to have a 600 slugging percentage either. He might. He won't.

He might. Okay. He might have the lowest babbub in the history of baseball. Okay. Anyway, how would you rank these three pitchers? Kenta Maeda, Masahiro, Tanaka, Jose Barrios. Maeda, Tanaka, Marios. Barrios.

Tanaka. Yeah. Burrios is in a different class from the other two. Nice to see Tanaka start yesterday, but it's just so... So, like, I know you were saying he's kind of the new Tanaka in terms of having good starts and bad starts, but, like, I feel like Tanaka is more like Julio Taran in that way, where the bad stuff. starts are just so such an eyesore that is really hard for him to have an ERA below 4.

Isn't Berrios the anti-Tanaka? Or maybe the new Chris Archer? His home roads are... Oh, he does. You're right about that. He does have interesting home road splits. Are you going to start Jose Burrios at Boston this weekend?

He has a 418 ERA and this season away from home with 7.4K per 9. That's weird. What's his home? That is weird. Split. 10.3K per 9, 299 ERA.

I don't buy that. I think that is a fluke. For his career, is a 372 ERA at home and a 517 ERA on the road with a 7.6K per 9. Away from home, 9.6 on the road. We got to get moving.

We got a great trade. Here's the problem with this segment of... Have you gone with ABC yet? Yes. Who's the problem with grade the train today, other than this song. Schoolhouse Rock. I forgot to put grade the trade in the notes. So we're just going to go through the inbox here.

I mean, if it makes you feel any better about the songs, Adam, next week is probably the last week. Oh, good. Good, good. Then I'll have to do something really good. Maybe another week after that. Were you on grade the trade last week, Scott? Because it was vitamin C, the graduation song.

I thought that was the low point, but I've outdone my song. I don't remember if I was on last. No, you weren't. No, I wasn't. I wasn't. All right, here's a trade from Groobes. It's a Roto League. Give up Stanton.

Oh, this is terrible. This is terrible. Please don't do this. Give up Stanton and Elvis Andrews. Get Kimball and Boxburger. Now, he needs saves. but Stanton and Andrews for Kimbril and Boxberger. I mean, if you have a gigantic lead in hitting categories

and you desperately need saves, maybe, but that's the only context in which this makes any amount of sense. It was Stanton and who? Andrews. She's starting to hit and run a little bit, by the way. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't quite as bad as you were making it sound, but I'd give it a D plus.

I feel so bad because he says, congrats on becoming a father. I feel terrible. This is an A minus trade. Never mind. Who's going to say, he's not going to say, congrats at him. That's true. It'd be a real sick of.

What do you think about this trade? Well, people go out of their way to do it. Give up, this is from Lori. Give up Daniel Murphy, get Chris Archer. That's great. B? Yeah, I'll, sure. B plus.

All right, this is from Ryan. Dear Joel, Ben, and Markell. I know them. They're Sixers. Daily League. categories, total bases, OBP, they're all categories. No home runs, no batting average, no wins.

All right, so total basis instead of home runs, OBP instead of average, quality starts instead of wins. Give up David Price and Jose Paraza. Get Max Muncie and Michael Conforto. Price and Paraza for Muncie and Conforto.

I think it's an A. I really like that. I definitely like Muncie more than Price. I could see how it might be kind of needs-based, but absent context, I'll give it a B. Yeah, if I'm trading Monty, I need a lot more than David Price. A trade from Brian from New Hampshire. Give up Norris and Mania.

So I'm guessing that's Bud Norris and Mania. Get Abraeu and Jake Lamb. Yeah, I mean, Abrae is the best player there. Yeah, B. I'll go, yeah, B sounds good. I mean, that's really is a good by-low. He's so unsexy. Yeah.

You know, Jose Abraeu, do it. And finally, from Kyle in a 10-team points league, give up Seguera and Ross Stripling. Ooh. Get Manny Machado. Segura and stripling for Machado. Yeah, that sounds like a good way to consolidate talent, which is usually in a standard-sized league something you want to do, two-for-one trades be on the one side of that.

I don't think it's a grand slam or anything, but I'll give it a B. C plus. I'll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law. All right, let's do today's batchups. Today's matchups brought to you by me. Here we go. Yankees at raised Louis Sessa at Nade Avaldi.

Nope. Yeah, I'd probably pass. Clayton Richard and, uh, Corey Oswaltz. Clayd Richard The Coriose Mons. I mean, I don't think Richard's terrible against the Mets, but I'd rather not.

Yeah. Walker Bueller at Jake Arelletta. Fine with both. Yep. Jack Flaherty at Sal Romano. I will definitely be starting Flaherty. And definitely not Romano. Chemesson-Tay-Oen at Trevor Bauer. Very excited to watch this out of you.

Yeah, one of a game. Nice one. with both seats. A lot of day games today. My goodness. Tanner Roark and Frederick Peralta. I'll start Peralta. Yeah, you can't

touch Roark right now. I don't know that I'd start Peralta, frankly. I don't think I'd start either. Yeah, Bryce Harper had a stomach virus or something. I don't know. He sat yesterday. I don't know if he'll play this today.

Roark is 3 and 12? Wow. The Nats are 49 and 51. Yeah, but 312. I know he's been horrible recently, but that's, I would have never imagined that was his win-loss record. Tigers at Royals, Matt Boyd at Danny Duffy. I think you can start Duffy. Oh, yeah, start me up.

Robbie Ray at John Lester. I think you probably start both, but. Why start Ray? He's got a 537 ERA. I'm not ready to start Ray yet. He's better than this. Yeah, I know. It is, but...

I like to see it. He's going to have 12 strikeouts in five innings and walk four, and you're going to feel like an idiot for benching him. That's why. Email of the day comes from everyone tomorrow. Can I drop Robbie Ray now? I'm already predicting the future. Ervin Santana at Sam Gavillo.

I will not start either. What's the Gavileo? No, I'm not starting either. Gavili, no. Derek Holland and Mike Leak. Yep. Yeah, pass. David Price at Dylan Bundy.

I guess you can start price, yeah. Edwin Jackson and Martine Perez. No. Charlie Morton at John Gray. Ooh. Yeah, let's give Gray. Let's see him have another start like last time. Yeah, I think I passed on both.

Yeah, Morton. Not running out there. You're passing on Morton? At Coors? I didn't even think that was a question. At Coors? I'm not so scared of Coors that I'm going to sit at top 20. pitcher there.

James Shields at Tyler Skaggs. We are definitely going to Tyler Skaggs. Yep. In this matchup. I will Tyler Skaggs. And there was a stat. I just deleted it from my phone. The Rangers, they lost.

They were up by like seven runs. Yes. Here we go. They were up 10-1, I think. They were 471-0 when leading by eight or more runs in the seventh inning or later before last night. Chew on that. There's your stat of the day.

An hour and two minutes into the show. I am glad to be back. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with the regulators. See ya.