Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/29: Weekend Roundup - Trades! (Fantasy Basball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

This is a fun time in Fantasy Baseball as the trade deadline approaches. Before we talk trade let's give you some hitters to add (1:50) and talk about our expectations for Bo Bichette (5:19). Then we'll give you SPs to add (8:34) like Reynaldo Lopez and Jose Urquidy ... Talking trades (15:35) as Marcus Stroman is on the move. We also discuss some trade rumors and tell you who to add now in advance of the trade deadline. Plus news and notes (26:40) and more weekend standouts (35:00) like Josh VanMeter and struggling studs (38:40) like Chris Sale, Luis Castillo and James Paxton ... A look at the Most Added list (42:55) followed by more SP talk (50:00) with some waiver wire 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. What a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Baseball time. What's going on? Welcome to the only show where we can talk about two different people named Will Smith

and not talk about that guy in entertainment. Not even a little bit. What's up, Scott White? How are we doing? Happy Monday. Yeah, I'm looking forward to a lot of Will Smith talk today. Did you see the one with him and The Ork on Netflix? No, I did not.

I did not. I skipped that one, too. I haven't seen. I'm not sure I've met anybody who's seen it. Maybe we're not giving it a chance. I haven't seen a Will Smith movie. What was the last Will Smith movie you saw? That's a good question.

I don't know. It may have been like seven pounds. I don't know. Seven pounds? I don't even know. I think I know what that is. No, I didn't see the football. I didn't see the concussion movie.

No, I didn't either. Yeah. All right. Well, anyway, I guess we did talk about that, Will Smith, after all. But the hitter is one of the most, is the most added player in fantasy. The pitcher could be traded within the next few days. We shall see. We only have two days left for MLB teams to start unloading.

loading their players. So let's get to it. You know how we do it on Monday. We'll talk about all the trade stuff. We'll talk about Marcus Stroman and Sergio Romo. Bo Bichette getting called up. That is coming up. We'll tell you some guys that you might want to stash now before, you know, the trades

happen and then they gain more value. Scott, though, give me one hitter to add. So beyond Bo Bichette, which probably is obvious. No, no, it's not. You know what? We're going to talk about him after you give him. this guy. Okay.

Will Smith. No, really, he is. He's the starting catcher for the Dodgers now. They sent down Austin Barnes, and there's really no reason why Smith shouldn't be the primary catcher. It's funny.

You know, he'd been up previously a couple times briefly for the big club. He homered in his first start since returning Saturday. He had a homer and two doubles. That was the first home run for a Dodgers catcher since his previous stint in the majors when he hit a walk-off home run and was sent down the next day.

So Will Smith, you know, like a month apart, has the last two home runs for a Dodgers catcher. And he had 20 at AAA. I mean, he's been a power hitter throughout his minor league career, but this year has really become a better all-around offensive player because the strikeouts have cut way down on them at AAA. And he's always been a plus defender. that's not a reason to keep him out of the lineup.

If he's playing two-thirds of the time in that lineup, given the power protection he has, I mean, he's going to be a top 12 catcher from this point forward. Okay, so Wilson Ramos, you ready to drop him for Will Smith? Oh, man. I mean, how bad is it? I would want to be more confident in the playing time is the thing. Okay, okay.

So I'm not sure I would. James McCann. Um that's similar I feel like you're I feel like you're bringing up ones who are pretty decent starters like I imagine somebody in a 12 team league needs Will Smith

it maybe isn't the one with James McCann But you know like James McCann was clearly playing over his head early on If you just want to go with a hot hand It's probably fine But again like if you're You drop McCann, you lose him to somebody else, and then Will Smith doesn't end up playing that regularly,

then you're going to feel pretty dumb. So I don't know. All right, Travis Darnow or Will Smith. Okay. Smith. That's pretty easy because Darno has his own playing time concerns. Darno is playing a lot. Unfortunately, only has five games this week.

But, like, they're getting admitted first base. Unless he's been playing a lot of D.H, I think. I think you're getting into D.H. He's been playing less than half. Oh, he's been playing a lot of first base. Yeah. Oh, okay. See, I overlooked that. Okay.

So I missed out on Will Smith in a league last night, and I'm actually adding Travis Darno as we speak. It does kind of suck that Darno has a five-day week, but it is kind of a light schedule this week. So you're not, you know, you might have to deal with some five-day week types of guys. All right, so you say Will Smith. I'm going to say the hitter to add is Ryan McMahon. He has 51% owned, and he has six games this week, and they are all at home. So I think that's not a bad option. Ryan McMahon had a really good week.

He's drawing a lot of walks lately. Five walks in his last six games. Eight for 18 with a home run and six RBIs on the road last week. And at home, 304 batting average, 372 on base, 507 slugging percentage. That's my guy. Now let's talk about Boba Chet. Because the reason why I don't think it's so obvious to pick him up is Cabin Bissio's been really bad.

Luis Arias has been really bad. Hell, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is finally getting going now, but he's been pretty bad overall. So considering how deep hitting is, tell me why Kevin Bichie or tell me why Boba Shed is a must add. Well, I don't know that I'd go quite as far as must add, but pretty close. You know, he's a better prospect, other than Guerrero, of course.

He's a better prospect than the ones you mentioned there. I think Baseball America gave him a 70-grade hit tool and a 60-grade power tool coming into the season. I know the home run production has been kind of lacking, but they've moved him quickly. He's had a ton of doubles, 240 double seasons in the minors. And I think it's still something we see pretty commonly, a guy who doesn't meet the full extent of his potential

until he reaches the majors, but it can happen very quickly. And plus, Pichette has 16 steals in like 60 games this year. He had 32 steals last year. So there's a reasonable change. he's a steel source too. I mean, even if you're just looking to add a steel source off the waiver wire, I imagine Bichette is probably your best bet for that, beyond what he even does with the bat.

He's 56% owned, Bo Bichette. He was 46% owned before the news. So give me batting average home run steals, what you expect for the next two months. Oh, expectations. Well, I am going to say he hits trying not to, I tend to think in terms of best case scenario, but I'm going to try to dampen my own expectations here.

I'm going to say he hits 270 with 10 home runs, 12 steals. Would you drop Elvis Andrews for Bobeschet? No. Would you rather have, let me get a list of short stops up here. Bobeschet. Cool name, by the way. Beau Bichette or Lordus Gereo. I'd rather have Gereo, yeah.

D.D. Gregorius. I mean, you gotta stick with D.D., right? He's coming out of it. He's been pretty good. I was actually thinking maybe Bichette there. No, he didn't have... So, D.D. is three for his last 16, but he did Homer yesterday. All right. Yeah.

to feel like those numbers I gave may have been, at least in terms of home runs and steals, may have been a best case scenario for two months left. Let's bring it down to eight home runs and ten steals with a 270 average. How does that sound to you? That sounds fine. Is that better than Scott Kingery? Would you drop Kingery? Yeah, I dropped Kingery.

Okay. Drop it. Okay, cool. Let's go to pitchers to add now. It's going to be a similar list to last week, which means we did pretty well with the pitchers to add last week. You got Asher Wojahowski, you got Ryan Yarbrough, you got Jose or Kiti. These guys are pretty available. They probably shouldn't be.

Wojahowski, I mean, I'm still going to be a little skeptical late in his career. But I like him against Toronto this week. I mean, that's a great matchup. Sure. No, it's reasonable to be skeptical of Wojahowski. I just feel like, there's not a lot to lose by taking a chance on him because he's

if he was anybody but Asher Woodhiausky if he was just complete no name like Andy you know Andy Green Andy Wilson or something Andy Green Wilson sure Andy Wilson getting called up

and doing this then we would be understandably excited I mean the swinging strike rate's really high He's gone seven innings and back-to-back starts. I think he looks good, watching him pitch. Good shape on the breaking ball. The way the fastball, he throws that rising fastball, gets a lot of swings and misses on that. And, you know, nine appearances now,

majors and minors included over his last nine appearances, is 11K per nine. I think he's figured something out. And, yeah, I mean, given the state of pitching, I don't think there's... You probably have somebody on your roster at that position who's less interesting that he is. Is he the one free agent starting pitcher that you'd really be looking at? Arquitis's high up there too.

So who do you prefer? And then I'll throw Ronaldo Lopez on there, who's got two starts against the Mets and at the Phillies. And he has been on fire lately. How would you rank Ronaldo Lopez, Jose Orquite, and Asher Moujahowski? I have interest in all three. I would probably rank them. I'd probably rank them Rikidi first than Wojahowski and Lopez. Lopez, yeah.

And I mean, Erkidi, a lot of that has to do with supporting cast. I mean, even if Wojahowski continues to pitch great, he might struggle to win games pitching for the Orioles. And, I mean, Lopez could have a similar problem for the White Sox. And Lopez, I'm not really... Like, his fastball velocity is up since the All-Star break, so that's good. And obviously, he's been getting better results,

not just in terms of, you know, preventing runs, but strikeout, swinging strikes, all of that. I'm not... Other than the spike in velocity, though, I'm not really sure what's changed for him. He says it's a matter of focused. He's more focused on every pitch. Well, you know, the thing about focus is

It's something you can ramp up temporarily, but sustaining it is the real issue, and I'm not sure. I'm not sure I buy it in the first place. So, you know, but again, given the state of pitching, we know there's some potential there. Maybe he is breaking through. I just wish there was a little more to point to in terms of explanation for Lopez. Oh, okay. I thought there was a bit of an arsenal change. What do you see?

I don't, I just, I can't remember exactly what Chris said, but Chris said. but Chris has been pretty high on Ronaldo Lopez the last couple of weeks. I scoffed him and then Lopez went out and dominated Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever the heck it was. It was Wednesday. Yeah, month a month it looks... I mean, he did start throwing a curveball more,

but that was before he started getting better results. So the curveball's been much better this month. Yeah, I don't know. It's mostly been the fastball. I mean, the fastball's seen a huge increase in swinging strikes and he's been thrown at harder. And I just want to say one thing about Rikidi. I mean, they'd probably have to add two people to their rotation

for him to lose his job. Because let's say they trade for Tyler Boyd. Well, we don't know if Brad Peacock's coming back in the rotation or the bullpen. So you just have to be a little bit aware that Rikidi has a chance to be out of the rotation. But right now their rotation has four guys in it. Verlander, Rikidi, Gary Cole, and Wade Miley.

Unless I'm missing someone. So I hear, Kitty Kitty. Yes, exactly. Okay, and if you're interested in the matchups, or Kiti is at Cleveland this week, which is not so easy. Two starts for Lopez, I think Mets and Phillies, I said. And, yeah, Mets at home at the Phillies. And Ashrovo Jahowski has Toronto at home.

Ryan Yarbrough is another guy. I think he's going to be at Boston this week. which is tough. But in his last seven appearances, six of them out of the bullpen, one start for Ryan Yarbrough, 1-10 ERA, three walks, 28 strikeouts, has not allowed a home run in 32 and two-thirds. Considering a 9% swinging strike rate and no home runs allowed, he'd probably been a little lucky,

but Ryan Yarbrose pitching very well. I mean, just the ERA would tell you he's been lucky, right? 110, yeah. No, he's been a little lucky this season, but not, you know, I think his ex-fips low four. which is a pretty good ERA. He is good at preventing home runs. Probably not as good as he's been, but he's good.

And he's a really good control pitcher. And following an opener, most of the time, it makes him a better source of wins. You know, when he's removed from the game, he's leaving less to the bullpen in terms of preserving the lead. And it's the past two years, it's made him a big winner. Obviously in quality starts leagues, he's not as valuable, but wins are, like in our standard points leagues, wins are still better than quality stars.

Scott, let's talk about some trades. Marcus Stroman going to the Mets for a couple of pitching prospects, Sergio Romo to the twins, Eric Sogarde to Tampa Bay. We will talk about all of that right after a quick break on fantasy baseball today. So the big one is Marcus Stroman. What do you think? I saw the Mets, the Mets not very good at converting ground balls. They are bad defensively.

But a value up down to the same for Stroman. I would say it's slightly up, not as far up as we wanted it to be, if you went to an actual contender, like the Yankees or the Dodgers or the Braves. I mean, he's having a career season. Six and 11 records really holding him back. but, you know, obviously going to a contender, hopefully would have flipped that from this point forward. Mets are better than the Blue Jays.

I mean, I know they're a national laughing stock permanently, but they're, you know, they're a middle of the road club, so they should give him a better chance of winning games than the Blue Jays did. And obviously going from ALE East to NLEs, that's an upgrade too. So the stock is up. Just, you know, it's kind of disappointing, given all the places where we thought, Stroman could have gone.

Yeah, you know, it's funny. I was on Chris Welsh's podcast yesterday with Scott Bogman. And I was thinking about the trade. I said, yeah, he doesn't have to face the Yankees of the Red Sox anymore, so that's better. But it does have to face the Braves, the Nationals, and the Phillies. Still, no DH every time through. That's true. It's true.

The thing about Stroman is that I kind of feel like we all expect them to be a little worse just anyway going forward. Sub 3ERA, right? I don't think any of us think he's going to be that. and I don't want to pin it on the trade if he does worse. I just feel like he probably can't be this good. That's how I feel. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, look, if you just,

if you want to throw the ex-fip number out there, he's outperform that. So, yeah, I mean, there's validity to what you're saying. But in terms of actual impact and fantasy, I will take the improved chance for wins. And, you know, I mean, hopefully that the league change negates some of that. I mean, if you look at his career

InnerLeak for his career, he has like a 290 ERA. So he's been somebody who, I mean, you see the evidence of them performing better against NL lineups there. Okay, that's good step.

Thank you, Scott. The twins acquired Sergio Romo. Do you think there's a chance Romo closes for the twins? I hope not. I mean, they stuck, they kept throwing Blake Parker out there, you know, kind of platooning him and Rogers,

even though Rogers would clearly the superior pitcher, to the point that once they moved Parker out of that role, they DFA'd him. So if they were willing to platoon Rogers with him, I think it's possible they would, Romo, too, but I hope not, because Rogers definitely better. there's still a chance they add to their bullpen from here and even better reliever that that makes Rogers not the closer anymore.

So, I mean, I am not totally sold on Rogers being a closer. And it's something to watch over the next couple days here. Romo is, he has 17 saves. So there are opportunities now in the Marlins bullpen. Did you pick up anyone in the Marlins bullpen? Yeah, Nick Anderson is presumably the guy who's going to be. going to take over for him. He's not, it's not totally clear that he's closer material, huge strikeout rate, but allows a lot of base runners. And, you know, obviously Sergio Romo for being

the guy for the Marlins, it's not like he was a, a highly sought after fantasy asset himself. So you're talking pretty deep leagues where you're taking a flyer on Nick Anderson, but it does seem like he's going to be the guy. Let's see where those 17 saves rank in baseball, shall we? Sure. Let's do it. Yeah, kind of interesting. Interested.

Because I know, like, look, his numbers aren't that good, so he's not going to be that high in the closer rankings. But 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 12, 13, 14, 40, 30. 16th, right in the middle of the pack, Sergio Romo. Now, that's for an entire season. I mean, Hector Neris has more. Luke Jackson.

has the same amount. Blake Trinen has one fewer. Most of the guys, though, that are ahead of Romo have not been part-time closers. So, yeah, they've all been full-time closers. So, yeah, 17-tap's not really that bad. So Nick Anderson, check him out. He is 14% owned, 68 strikeouts to 16 walks in 43 and a third.

A lot of hits, though, 40 hits, which is a lot, I'd say, for a reliever. But, cool. All right, that's the guy to get, think in the Marlins bullpen. Other trade stuff. So Tampa Bay acquired Eric Sogarde from the Blue Jays, which led to the Blue Jays calling up Bobauchette.

Do you care about this Eric Sogarde trade? He's having an okay year. Yeah, I mean, if there's anything else the race needed, it was another utility player who is going to throw their light up into chaos. I don't know what's going to happen here. I imagine Eric Sogarde ends up playing less himself. I imagine Mike Brasso might be out of luck. Not that his ownership ever got that high,

but he was doing some interesting things. I don't know how committed they're going to be just playing Travis Darno at first base. I mean, they've already gotten Nate Lowe and G. Manchoy, and now Sogarde is going to, you know, maybe when Yandi Diaz is healthy, he's going to force him to first base more. I don't know.

It's just, they have so many, versatile pieces and they're not at all opposed to changing their lineup from day to day. So it's just an already messy situation got messier. Washington is interested in Jose LeClerc, who pitched for his third straight day on Sunday and blew the save with Sean Kelly on the IL and Chris Martin a little dinged up, but just day to day. But Washington interested in Jose LeClerc, there's no way he's going to be a closer in Washington. Cleveland acquired a reliever Hunter Wood. It does not matter. The Cubs acquired Derek Holland.

That doesn't matter. And then Oakland acquired Jake Deekman. That doesn't matter. But if we look at players to stash ahead of the trade deadline, guys that could gain value. Again, this name was brought up on the podcast I went on last night, in this league podcast. John DuPontier, you know, could join the rotation if Robbie Ray

and or Zach Granky get traded. What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, he was kind of interesting when he got, when he was up in the majors before getting hurt. Yeah. To the point we were talking about him is maybe an ad. But I don't think his ownership ever got that high. John DuPontier, he'd be RP eligible, obviously, for the Diamondbacks. Clint Fraser's a guy that I think, I don't know if I actually won the claim.

I bet I did. I put in a claim for him in a five outfielder league. I could definitely see the Yankees putting him in a package to get a starting pitcher. or somebody, and Clint Frazier deserves to be playing. So if he's up and he's starting, Clint Frazier's definitely a five outfielder type of guy. It's not maybe a little better. He might be the most likely player to get traded,

if I had to guess. The most likely player. The impending free agents, Madison, Bumgarner, and Will Smith seemed obvious, but now it sounds like they're going to hold on to them. Ridiculous. I hope that's posturing for their own sake, because who's the Giants best hitter?

I mean, who is it? I hope it's not Buster Posey. He's got like a 700 OPS. Alex Dickerson or Strebsky or something. I mean, statistically, it is Dickerson, but he only plays half the time. You know, they got Pablo Sandoval batting in the three hole. And that's just the lineup.

Look at their pitching staff. Who do they have after Madison Bungarter, Tyler Beattie? I mean, maybe Jeff Samarja, he's gotten the ERA below four. It's awful. Like, how they've, I don't know how they've managed to pull together, this hot strike, but there's zero percent chance they're winning the World Series. Zero. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. Their bullpen's been really good, obviously. Maybe Noah Cindergarde is the most likely to get traded. But another guy that could get traded is Edwin Diaz and Seth Lugo is just having a terrific year. And he got a save filling in for Diaz. So, you know, that's somebody I'd certainly be more excited about Seth Lugo than anyone in the Marlins' bullpen. So that's someone you could stash. Is there anyone else?

I mean, you've got to start looking at the Giants relievers in case they do trade Will Smith, but they also could trade Sam Dyson, you know? Yes, yes, if they do decide to trade. And again, I think it's possible that this is just getting out there, that, oh, yeah, we might try to compete to maybe drive up offers because they weren't satisfied with what they're getting. It's also possible that, you know,

it doesn't seem like impending free agents have been going for much over the last few years. Front offices it seemed like thing to all think the same these days which makes trading harder too. It's possible that they're just not getting good enough offers compared to the compensatory

pick they would get by giving them a qualifying offer and then seeing them sign elsewhere. Not that that worked out very well for I guess the Red Sox with Kimball and the Astros with Kiko this offseason, but even so. Yeah.

By the way, Seth Lugo, he struggled in June, the 485 ERA. In July, Seth Lugo has thrown 12 scoreless innings, three hits, one walk, 16 strikeouts. And nobody really pays attention to him. He's 13% owned, but it might be someone you want to add. Okay. There's anyone else, Scott, player, you want to add before the deadline? I, you know, I mean, the backup closers in the spots, they're I mean

Yeah they're just not That interesting It's not like there are closers in waiting That we can't wait You know we're hoping they finally get a chance To take that role Bichette It seemed like an option

But now that's gone by I mean Clint Fraser himself might be Because I presume if he gets traded He becomes a starter right away That's what I said I think you've pretty much named them Okay and then the other two that had come with the mind Aaron Bummer for the White Sox

And Hudson Daniel Hudson for the Blue Jays. So moving on. We got a lot of baseball to talk about. Max Scherzer has a back strain. And he's probably not going to start on Wednesday or Thursday when he's slated. I don't think you can put him in your lineup, right? You've got to sit Max Scherzer.

Yeah, it sounds like he is highly unlikely, very unlikely is what Dave Martinez said to start Tuesday. So I think another I-L stint is in the offing here. Now, Ross Stripling's on the IL with a stiff neck, and this will increase Julio Aureas' role. That's the good news. The bad news is, one, we don't know how long stripling will be out. It's just a stiff neck. And two, Julio Reis is at Colorado.

So that sucks. Like, I've been waiting and waiting for Aureas to get this opportunity, and now it's at Colorado. So I don't think I'm going to be partaking there. Ronald Acuna left with neck soreness. I heard that, but I didn't read that. I heard that on the broadcast of the Yankees game last night. Is that true? Did he leave?

Is this confirmed? Yeah, there was on a stolen base. I think it was a successful stolen base. He was sliding into second head first, of course, and caught Gene Seguerra's knee. Ah, yes, yes. So I guess it's fortunate it's not a concussion. Gene Segarra also left the game because his knee was hurting. So, yeah, Acuna says he plans to play today.

So I'm thinking he's okay. Trevor Bauer threw the ball over the center for your wall. It was interesting. That was interesting. That was, yeah, that was fun. That was fun. I do, like, you obviously can't do that just for safety reasons, right? Like, I mean, I guess it was great that he threw it so accurately for.

from that distance. Yeah, it was a strike. Yeah, to the center field where nobody was sitting, but it seems like from that distance you can miss pretty easily. Oh, it was crazy. Meanwhile, DJ LaMayhew has the groin issue. Kevin Kiermire should be back on Wednesday. Tommy Fam expected to play on Tuesday.

Dominic Smith is on the IEL. That's a bummer. I was liking Dominic Smith. He's got a stress reaction in his foot. Ben Zobris plans on returning at some point. Jeff McNeil, day-to-day with a bruise shin. C.C. Sabathie is on the IL. Eliezer Hernandez is replacing Trevor Richards in the Miami rotation.

And Richards is currently in the bullpen, but is also on the block. Eliezer Hernandez did not do so well over the week. No, he actually did okay. I think he was probably on a pitch count. Well, you like Eliezer? Adam Eliezer Hernandez. I do. Yeah, I was getting excited about him when he was in the rotation earlier,

and just somebody had to go. He was the odd man out. Certainly pitched well. but Pablo Lopez is gearing up to return so we may face that situation very soon here again all over again okay Nick Castiano has abdominal tightness

oh Greg Holland's out of the closers role Scott they're going committee yeah which isn't pretty I was kind of surprised they pulled him from the role I mean I know he blew a save and his last opportunity in the blown safe count is kind of high, but yeah, I just, I don't feel like, you know, looking at the game log, it didn't look like he had been quite so bad so recently to justify this move, especially

since they don't really have anyone else who is of closer caliber. The guy who got the first save was Yon Lopez. And he has a good ERA, but very low strikeout rate. So is there anyone that you would take in the diamondbacks bullpen. I mean, I guess Lopez, Yon Lopez is the front runner, but mostly I would just hold on to Holland.

And they acknowledged it might just be a short-term thing. Okay. I think that's more or less it for the news and notes. Corey Klob is getting closer to return. Tim Anderson can be back on Tuesday. Hesosuzardo is going to pitch in a simulated game this week. We'll follow that.

Email the day number one from Moshe and Brooklyn. Dear Hugh, Christian, Scarlett, and Michael. Hugh, Christian, Scarlett, and Michael, I don't know that one. Is that the prestige? Oh, yeah.

Yes. Scott's favorite movie, literally his favorite movie of all that. The 2006 film, De Prestige. I have a huge... Moshe says, I'm a huge fan of your show and a big sports fan in general. I'm not a big movie person. I'm especially bad at knowing actors' names.

So when Scott, imitates Michael Kane on the podcast. I never knew who he was imitating, but I still found the voice very funny. Someone at work recently told me to watch the movie, It Push Stage. And I'm only a few minutes in, and when I heard Michael Kane's character talking,

I immediately started cracking up and thought, that's who Scott must be imitating. I checked to see if Michael Kaye was that character, and it was. Thought I would share that with you guys. Now I will go resume the movie. Yeah. Yeah, I recommend it.

It is literally my favorite movie. Yeah, it's one on the list. It's pretty good. I think it's not great. I think the ending is kind of stupid. Oh, come on. It's so stupid. What do you mean?

I don't want to ruin it. But do you know how many movies could have a plot twist if they just did, if they just did like what the prestige did? Like, oh, it's just that happened. Well, it's not like that it was just random. obviously the evidence points to it. You didn't quite know what was going on. But it's such an easy thing to make, like, the twist.

It's such a cop out. What? It's such a cop out. It was a well-executed twist. I don't know what you're talking about. I thought it was kind of silly. Bullpen stuff. Josh Hader got a save on Friday.

Freddie Peralta pitched the ninth and the 10th on Saturday got the win. I think whatever the case may be, saves or not, Peralta's probably going to be pretty good in relief. Craig Kimbril Craig Kimbril has a 675 ERA He's mostly been good He's had a few really bad outings

But he's already given up Multiple home runs twice in the same season I think I read that he had never done that before But I could be wrong So you probably shouldn't listen to me Nate Avaldi Is not the guy Brandon Workman is better

So Workman should be owned in more leagues than Avaldi Sorry to say it But it's true You Evaldi truthers Hunter Strickland's back. He pitched the eighth inning. It was his first appearance since March 29th. That was on Sunday.

Rowanus Ali is still working as a... In that closer's role, I guess. We'll monitor that in Seattle. Diego Castillo got a save. He actually pitched as an opener and as a closer over the weekend. I don't know that Emilio Pagam was available on Sunday when Castillo got to save. Pagan through 29 pitches the day before.

Liam Hendricks starting to struggle a little bit. Two bad appearances in his last three. Blake Trinon has five straight appearances. without an earn run, but still a lot of walks. I just think it's worth mentioning Scott. Liam Hendricks has not had a very good career, you know? No, he hasn't. It was strange the way this played out yesterday

because he blew the save in the eighth inning. It's true. And Blake Trinen pitched the ninth. He didn't get the save. He got to win. So I wondered what that meant in terms of how the athletes, Athletics are approaching those two pitchers. Now, I mean, Trinan hasn't been very good since returning from the IL,

just like he wasn't before. But I do wonder if they're having some second thoughts there about Hendrix in the ninth inning rule. All right. The days will probably be pretty active the next couple days. We'll see if they add any relievers. All right, Scott, yeah, we're going to look at the most added list. But just to kind of open up the conversation a little bit. Is there anybody that really stood out to you over the weekend that we haven't talked about?

While you think about it, I'll let everybody know. Okay. We had four. Four straight games. Four straight days with a three homer game. Unfreaking believable. Mookie Betts did it on Friday. I'm forgetting one of them.

It was Kano on Tuesday. Bet's on Friday. I'm forgetting two of them. Who are the others? I don't remember either. They're triple-donged. Really? This happens too much to care.

I guess so. I mean, I talked about it so extensively on Friday. And now I can't remember. I mean, I have the Google machine right in front of me. No, I'll figure it out, Scott. You think about who stood out to you over the weekend. Oh, I know who stood out. Okay.

Who was it? It was Josh Van Meter of the Reds who started four straight games. homered in three of them, got on base three times in the other. Now, they were moving them all around. He got to start at third base, start at second base. Two starts in left field, and that might be the opening for him, because, as we all know, Jesse Winker has been a massive disappointment this season.

And Josh Van Meter's pretty interesting. His minor league numbers had an OPS around 1,100. Didn't it show much power previous years in the minors? It was one-year thing. Some people wondered if it might have been because of the introduction of new balls, new baseballs at AAA. But now he's doing it at the majors, it seems like,

with more consistent playing time. And I think that's very interesting. So he's pretty unowned, Josh Van Meter. He's, what, 14% or something? I think it might be wrong. Josh Van, where are you? How old is he? He's less than 20% owned last I saw, which was yesterday afternoon.

So, yeah, widely available. And that's kind of, you know, it's easier to take a flyer on somebody like Asher Wohia housekeeping than somebody like Josh Van Beter, just because the needs are greater. Right. It's hard to get excited about a hitter who puts together a few good games in a row. and isn't like a top prospect. That's why Mike Brasso never got widely picked up either. There's not much need there at those positions.

But if this becomes a longer stretch for Josh Van Meter, the way, you know, Lordus Gurriel eventually forced his way into the mixed league picture, you know, it's possible it could happen for Van Meter. Would you rather have Van Meter or Robelle Garcia, who led off the last couple days for the Cubs? I think Van Meter shows skills beyond just hitting the ball out of the ballpark. So I'd rather take a chance on him. You know, obviously a deeper league where at bats, you need, you know, you need somebody.

You know, you're having a hard time just filling a lineup with guys who play regularly. Then maybe you go Robo Garcia, who, you know, Addison Russell's been sent down. So it looks like a full-time start at second base. But I think Van Meter potentially has more upside. By the way, so Robinson Canoe did it, Mooky Betts did it, the other two, one of them was on the twins. Yeah, Nelson Cruz. One of them was on the Cardinals. Who did it for the Cardinals?

Oh, it was DeYoung, right? She was the young, yeah. Yeah, randomly. I'll tell you who stood out to me, some stud pitchers who were crap. James Paxton, James Paxton has just been awful in the first inning. That is his big issue. I don't have a hard time starting him in a one-star week again. the Red Sox after they just took him yard four times on Friday and roughed them up for seven runs and four innings.

Pax has been bad. Luis Castillo had a bad start. I know everybody's expecting regression. I still like Castillo, but he did have a bad start. Chris Sale, Chris Sale had another bad start. What are you going to do? Walker Bueller had a bad start? Yep.

That was a first for him. That was the first time in eight starts. He allowed more than three run runs, excluding a start at Corse Field. But, you know, I've got my eye on Walker Bueller. This is about the time of year when Louis Severino completely fell apart last year. And Severino was basically just as good, and he might have been a little better. I don't remember. It was very comparable to Walker Bueller first half of last year compared to Bueller first half of this year.

And I was worried about the innings from day one. And that's why I avoided Bueller, which looks like a stupid idea so far. One bad start is definitely not a cause for concern. If he has another one, I'm going to start taking my victory lap. I mean... Just kidding on that. But no, but seriously, it's something to keep in mind. His season, he's been on a nice stretch lately,

but his season's been littered with bad starts, right? So it's going to take more than a couple for me to really be concerned. I get what you're saying, but... What about Paxton and Bauer, who was bad, and Sale? Sales got a 426 area. It's getting really... annoying. Well, Bauer still has the arm strength, and we know. I mean, Bauer had been on a really good run himself.

His previous four starts, he had a 230 ERA, previous 12. He had a 309 ERA. So that seems like nothing to worry about. Paxton's getting annoying. He's getting annoying. But he did have 18 swinging strikes. Aaron Boone said stuff-wise, he thought he was electric. But he gave up four home runs. And that's the way it goes in 2019. sometimes. Just home runs happen, regardless of how good or bad a pitcher is. Yep. Yeah. Start him or sit them against Boston. I think I'd start them unless I just had an unusually deep pitching staff. I'll take a look at it and listen just a moment. Let's take another quick break on fantasy baseball today.

We'll be right back. Going to do a mailbag for sure tomorrow. Only seven games on the schedule tonight. So we'll read your emails tomorrow. I was away all weekend, so I did not really have a chance to respond to a lot of emails, and I apologize. I'm going to try to do that. It's obviously football season, so I got a ton of football emails to respond to. But I don't want to leave you guys hanging, but I did take a very unrelaxing little getaway this weekend.

Stayed at a hotel that had the worst, the worst service I've ever, ever experienced. They were just awful, and shame on them. It was pathetic. Holy cow. Plus, I brought the baby with me, Scott. So it just was not relaxing. Yeah, that's not relaxing. Not at all.

No. Baby, taking care of a baby is a job. Yeah. You did a job this weekend. Which I guess you do every weekend, right? Yeah, absolutely. And you were on HQ on Fantasy Baseball. Today was our last show of the season. But, you know, it was a success.

So thank you all for watching. And if you didn't watch, you better watch next year. Most added list. Will Smith is one, Rinaldo Lopez, 2, Jose Arkiti is four, Asher Wogahowski, is 5, Travis Darno is 6. Who else? Anthony Santander is 40% owned. He's the third most added player. And Angels pitcher Jaime Berea, what the hell are you guys doing?

He's 40% owned. He's 31% owned. Sorry, Santander's 40%. Berea is a two-star pitcher. Detroit at home and at Cleveland, but I'm sorry. I can't do it. I can't get on board with this. Yeah.

No, he's not one who is in the recommended portion of my two-star pitcher rankings this weekend. He's only 31% own, so it's gone up a lot, but it's not like... Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have used the word hell. Yeah. What on earth are you guys doing? What do you think about Anthony? What do you think about Anthony Santander, 40% of it? He is in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this.

week because the Orioles have good matchups. They're one of just a handful of teams with seven games. But I don't really believe in how productive he's been recently. He wasn't getting it done at AAA, and that environment is just Homer crazy. You know, former Rule 5 pick, so it's not like he's, you know, has this great prospect pedigree. the Indians let him walk to the Orioles,

let him go to the Orioles for free a few years back. So, yeah, he had it 726 OPS and nearly 200 at bats at AAA this year. So, yeah, I have doubts he's going to be able to continue this. Okay, so that's Anthony Santander. We're not really feeling it. Other guys on the most added list, it's a lot of two-star pitchers,

but Alex Wood is not a two-star pitcher. He's 50% owned. And he was, you know, he was okay. His first start of this season. Four and two-thirds, seven hits. That's not great. Two run runs, one walk, four strikeouts. It was against the Rockies.

Alex Wood has never had an ERA over 384. That's amazing. He's at Atlanta this week, and he's 50% on. What do you think about Alex Wood? I think he needs to be added. I mean, he is kind of boring. Time has shown him to be, but boring is something you'll take in this pitching environment.

He's good at preventing home runs. He limits walks. occasionally he'll surprise with a high strikeout game and there was nothing in this first start to either you know ramp up the excitement or quash it so I think he needs to be added in more leagues than he's owned in okay so Jose or Kiti Alex Wood what do you think I would probably go

it just depends how deep the league is a shallower the league you sell out for upside more. So probably standard 12 team I'd go where Kiti, and I'd probably go Wojahowski over Wood, too, but Wood would probably be third on the list of available pitchers to add for me. I'm guessing you'd rather have him than Kevin Gosman.

Yes. Stephen Matt's complete game shutout. Or Alex Wood? Wood. What do you think about Cal Quantrell on the most added list, 18% of it? He's pitched okay. He's pretty good, ground ball.

guy, but not a lot of strikeouts. He's been rumored to maybe be a trade ship for the Padres. So we'll see how that turns out. And, you know, he doesn't have a firm grip on a rotation spot as it is. What's his ownership up to? It's low, 18% count watchful. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's hard to say he should be added in less than league, less leagues when he's already that, you know, already that low. He probably needs to be added in more leagues, frankly.

I'm pretty satisfied with our look at the most added list. Julio Arias is 52% owned. It's pretty interesting. I don't love him this week as mentioned. But I do love Julio Arias in general. I just, I don't know. It's so hard to know what his status is going to be going forward. I feel like there are some starts coming.

My preference would be they use him with an opener. they get four good innings out of him and we can use him in those roto leagues where we just get like ratios and wins basically so he follows an opener

you're saying so he has a chance to get the win yeah yeah I mean I think that's more likely than him being a traditional starter going six innings at a time you know this year I mean it's just they're so invested

in keeping his innings down it seems like yeah Julio Arias. And then the last guy on the list that I want to talk about is Miguel Sano. Miguel Sino does have a hand injury. He left Sunday's game with a hand injury. If he's okay, I am thinking about trading Chris Paddock for Sano. It's a pretty deep league.

There's really nothing on the waiver wire. I'm pretty encouraged by what Sino's been doing. And I'm going to like the counting stats because, you know, the Twins lineup is just amazing. He's hot. I know he's going to strike out a ton. I don't expect them to hit better than $2.50. But Miguel Seno can thump. I mean, how desperately do you need hitting?

That trade sounds terrible. What if Paddock's done in a month? What do you mean? What is Paddock done in a month? No, what if he's done in a month? What if he's done in a month? Okay, you had a rotation ship for another month, and that took you that much further.

Like, I understand the idea of selling high on Paddock before they shut him down. I tried to sell him. That's not so high. That's underselling. I tried to sell him for Eminen Carasio, and I was told no. You could have Miguel Seno. Because people know that Paddock's done. You can buzz off then.

Just enjoy Paddock if that happens. I mean, how badly do you need another hitter? I need upside. This is a winner-take-all Roto League. I need... On paper, it's probably not a good trade. But I'm in sixth place. within striking distance of fourth,

like a point in a half back of fourth. I need lightning in a bottle. And I think Suno could be that lightning in that bottle. I'm... Yeah, I mean, he could definitely hit a lot of home runs and not much else. But there's just so many home run hitters out of there.

I don't know that he's a significant improvement over, like, Renato Nunez. I don't know if he's out there in your league, but he's on a 40 homer pace himself. He's not. Okay, so let's see what else we want to talk about from over the weekend. Obviously, it's going to be pitchers here. We'll have some leftovers for tomorrow for sure.

Robbie Ray. So Robbie Ray, he's just been cruising. He's got the walks down, but he's giving up so many home runs. He's a really interesting pitcher, and kind of hard to gauge, and he seems like he has a good chance to get traded. Buy or sell Robbie Ray? I will buy him, I guess.

Yeah. I mean, it's mostly good signs, right? Ten of his last 11 starts have been six plus innings. That was after only two of the first 12. So two of the first 12 were six innings or more, 10 of the last 11. consistently pitching deeper into games. And I think six innings is the minimum.

You know, officially five innings is the minimum for a win, but I think six innings is the minimum where you can reasonably expect a win. And also during that 11-star stretch where he's going deeper, only 3.1 walks per nine, probably related. Yeah. And look, that's not a great walk rate in a vacuum, but it's great for Robbie Ray.

And with the bats, he misses, you'd think it'd be a great thing in terms of his performance. But his ERA is actually high during that stretch. Yeah, I know. We haven't been able to enjoy all of the improvements he's made. We haven't been able to enjoy it fully. But the ERA is high because the home runs are way up, way up in this stretch.

So it's like he's throwing the ball over the plate more and they're leaving the yard. I don't know if it's a coincidence or what. He's always gotten hit hard, like giving up hard contact. That's always been a third. thing for him. And, yeah, it's, it's, look, I think, I think if he's a six-inning pitcher, he's still pretty close to must-start, even if you're going to expect an ERA around four. But, yeah, it's, it's a question if you can rely on him for the innings rest of season,

just because he's done it more recently. I want to spend the rest of the show talking about pitchers we can add or drop. These guys are all over than 80% of leagues. you cool dropping them for some of the guys who talked about the Alex Woods the Jose Orkidis

the Asher Wojahouskies of the world Chris Archer Jose Kintana Zach Davies and Max Fried Am I okay dropping them for like the Wojahowski class

you're saying? Yeah or maybe step it up to the Urquitie class Yeah Archer Kintana Davies and Freed Well Davies

definitely Davies is junk Davies his ex-fip over five guy and the last two starts have been disastrous. I think I'm willing to draw Max Freed too. His whip for the year now is one-for-one.

Yep. Yeah. Not good. No. Archer, you know, I could understand it. I don't have a lot of hope for Archer becoming a must-start pitcher this year. year. I think he's

there's still a chance he's pretty useful, but he's not going to be somebody who, you know, you're having your lineup every week, and maybe, maybe Erkiti could be. Maybe Wojahowski could be. It's possible. I'm not totally sold on that, but maybe. And Kentana, I think he's probably still too useful to drop, you know,

in a shallow league where you just want upside, and there are other Kentana types out there, and maybe you could do it. But for the most part, I'm probably not dropping Kentana. Fringy starting pitchers part one. These guys are 65 to 79% owned. Who do you want? Jordan Yamamoto?

He's not really going deep into games at all. In fact, he doesn't throw five innings you're lucky to get from Yamamoto. I was terrible his last two starts, so of course he wasn't pitching deep then. Yeah, but he had last six starts, only one start of more than five innings, and he has the twins this week. So, Yamamoto, no. Yeah. Martine Perez gets Kansas City this week. Four quality starts in his last five for Perez.

Michael Paneda at Miami this week, you've got to pick him up. If he's available, Michael Panetta, 75%. Oh, Dakota Hudson was terrible against Houston this weekend. He'll try to rebad at Oakland this week. So if we don't want Yamamoto, do you want Martin Perez or Panetta or Dakota Hudson? Paneda, I'm still interested in. His velocity after the spike, and this is part of the reason why I'm not fully on board with Renaldo Lopez. Paneda's velocity appears to have leveled off again.

But he's continued to get swinging strikes. Like his secondary pitches have continued to work in spite of that. And I think he's, yeah, I think he's worth owning in all leagues right now. Yeah, especially for a one-star week against the Marlins. Seems like a very good candidate for a win. Fringes Part 2, 50 to 64% on. Adamal Sanchez! I was so upset because his start got moved.

from Colorado at home to the Dodgers at home, and all he did was throw seven innings of one-run ball. Last 10 starts, Annabal Sanchez has a 258 ERA. He will get the Braves this week. Chase Anderson has a 272 ERA in his last seven starts. He's like a five-inning pitcher, though. Andrew Cashner was okay against the Yankees. Trevor Williams was okay against the Mets.

Jepsa Marge has been all right. Alex Young was good. Zach Plyzak was awesome. but I'll tell you why I'm not picking up Zach Pleetack. And Dylan Sees has been awful and I just can't really deal with it anymore. All right, so Anibal, Chase Anderson,

Cashner, Trevor Williams, Samarja, Alex Young, Zach Plyzac, Dylan Seas. Yeah, not a lot of interest in any of them. Of course I like the upside for Seas, but 12 walks and 21 innings. It's not getting it done. Might be time to move on there. Otherwise, I mean, Trevor Williams,

he was more than just good. He had, I believe it was, it was certainly a season high in swinging strikes, 18 of them, but we need to see a lot more of it than just an isolated start to believe he's a new pitcher. Okay, so Pizak, you know, 310 ERA so far,

he has brutal matchups coming up. Like, I had it in the notes and I somehow deleted it, unfortunately. But I know I tweeted it out over the weekend, but Zach Plyzac's last, next four starts are going to be, oh, here we go. Houston, Texas, at Minnesota, and at the Yankees. That's rough.

And the thing is, because somebody mentioned to me that it looks like Asher Wojahowski's schedule won't be good the rest of the way. I know he's facing the Blue Jays next time, which is good. But the difference is, like, I have no reason to believe Dan Plasex. please sack's a good pitcher. Zach plays Zach.

Yeah, Zach please sack. Thank you. I don't know about Dan either, but definitely Zach. He had, like, I wasn't sure how he was succeeding in the first place, other than maybe keeping walks down. There wasn't a lot to point to suggest it could continue, and then he had two awful starts before the All-Star break, and okay, it looks like he's falling apart here.

But then he's come back strong, but yeah, I just don't. buy it when you know rojahouski there's a chance he's a good enough pitcher that you know genuinely good pitchers can overcome bad matchups it's really the fringes where you're so concerned about matchups at least me i mean outside of maybe yeah that's exactly how i feel especially guys that don't strike out a lot of batters yeah like please act so i just don't trust him and i don't trust him against tough matchups he's got nothing but tough matchups coming coming up so all right scott we're done for the day thank you very much I appreciate your patience, everybody.

As you know, we're recording our show a little bit later now than we used to. I'm still going to do my best to try to get it out as early as possible. And we're going to do some shows at night. So not every show is going to come out at this time. Some of them will be super early in the morning. So for Scott White, I'm Adam Azer. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you on Tuesday on Fantasy Baseball today.