Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Weekend Roundup

Episode Date: July 31, 2017

Awesome pitching performances and some underwhelming trades headlined the weekend in baseball. We discuss who we're adding and dropping (4:04), which stud SPs we are most encouraged by (10:40), which stud SPs we are most concerned about (13:00) and plenty more ... Looking at the latest MLB trades (20:50) and which new closers we want to add ... A look at the weekend's best hitters (34:45) before we spend the final 20 minutes of the show talking SPs to add and previewing today's matchups ... 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

Trades, trades, trades. And there will be even more today. Welcome to the show. This is fantasy baseball today. This is week 18 or something like that, right? You know. Nobody knows. It's week 18.

It's week 18. It's week 17 in a lot of your leagues. It's week 18 in some of your leagues. I do week 19 in some league. I don't say how that's possible. Week 36? Week 36, yeah, could be. Well, I mean, speaking of week 36, it might be week 36 in our editorial league.

I just wanted to congratulate you at. I'm on getting to 30 and 2. That's very impressive. Are you congratulating me? Are you congratulating yourself? Only two losses all season long. That's hard to believe, really. And one of them last night, two, Heath Cummings, and I will just say we have George Springer,

and that's probably why we lost you. So, you know. I'm congratulating you on going 30 and 2. No, you're not. No, you're not. Excuses for one of those two losses. You're not giving yourself a pat on the back. Show the same sportsmanship that I'm showing to you.

And you are. deserve it, and you are currently right there in the thick of things in playoff contention. This is a big week. It's crunch time in fantasy baseball. We're going to tell you who to add and drop. We're going to look at all those trades. Not huge impact, really, except for a few closer situations, and there are other closer situations that seem to be changing even without trades.

And sports trades are scary. One person can be replaced by another exchange for money or giving away for a hypothetical future person. Once they leave your team, you can't like them anymore, even if you have their jersey. which you can't wear anymore, except at B-dubs, they won't judge, but others might. Buffalo Wild Wings, Wings, Beer Sports. Luckily, Heath kept his Moki Cabrera jersey from years past. Yes, I still have the jersey and very excited to wear it.

I'm just not excited that he's taking Jorge Bonifacio's spot, because I'm not sure he's actually an upgrade over Jorge Bonifacio. There are two other players he would definitely have been upgrade over. Yeah, he'll take Gordon's spot, right? So that actually, so they said Bonifacio's out, not Brandon Moss. Yost said that Melke is going to play every day in right field and hit in the two-hole. Okay. And that Bonifacio will be mixed in to left field and DH.

So, yeah. Okay. At lefties, Bonifacio is going to play every day. If you had Bonifacio on your roster, I think you can drop it. For Melki, he, I was a little surprised. he's actually the number 34 outfielder in points leagues, number 40 in Roto. 66% owned. Better at home than the road this year.

That was pretty even last year. But I don't know. I mean, I never was too interested in owning Malki Cabrera. Do you guys think his value goes up? Do you want to own Malki Cabrera, 66% owned? If he's batting second for a playoff caliber team in a park where we've seen him have success in the past, It probably does go up slightly. I mean, there's a clear limit to the ceiling with Melke.

He's one of those, you know, those more obvious cases of he plays a lot. He's not bad, really, so he tends to put up a serviceable number of points. But he's not, he's top 36 in a way that could never be top 24. Right. All right. So you'd still rather have the high upside guy. Aaron Altair, guys like that, Clint Frazier over Melki Cabrera. Yep.

Yeah. All right, look, I didn't think the trades were what really we should lead the show with. I thought they were, whatever. Like, come on. They were lame. Yeah, they were lame. It's been a lame trade. I mean, we still have, you know, six and a half hours to go, but it's pretty lame.

Well, we could start with the most recent trade. Which was? Oh, Lou Croy. Justin Wilson. Oh, Justin Wilson, yeah. You know what? We're going to table that because we're going to talk about closers. in a little bit. Let's talk about who we added and dropped. That was a pretty interesting

weekend, especially with pitchers. There were some very good starting pitcher performances from guys that are available in a lot of leagues, like a Brent Souter, for example. We'll talk about all of these guys. Kevin Gossman's still 58% owned. Did you guys make any ad drops that you're excited about? Not as excited as I am. Well, I did spend a lot of time on Saturday when I did most of my ad drops this weekend, and I did kind of and particularly

in categories leagues try to come away with players who I thought were about to enter the closer role. I think maybe I got Shane Green in one league. I got Kirby Yates in a few leagues. We're still waiting on Brad Hand to get traded. Well,

now it looked at, well you said we're going to get into closers later. That's all right. That's what I spend most of my waiver claims on. I did pick up Colin McHugh in one league. Oh, me too. Yeah. It was relatively excited about that. This one no one would ever be excited about,

but I also added Paul Blackburn as a two-star pitcher against two fantastic matchups. It's gutsy. You know, it's that time of year. It's go time, Adam. I woke up this morning so excited

about fantasy baseball. Everything is turning up roses. I mean, I'm not 30 and two, but other than that, last week was a really great week. Oh, good. Colin McHugh is a really good one though because it looks like this slider

that he picked up from Brad Peacock which is you know Brad Peacock sliders like Lance McCuller's curveball it's it's such a good breaking ball that he throws it half the time and and that's where

McHugh picked up this new pitch and it seems like it may have revolutionized the guy who already had a great curveball but still it just didn't seem like it was enough the last two years. So I am genuinely excited. The first start was kind of shaky in terms of runs allowed, but he got a ton of swinging strikes, and then this last start was great. So I'm also on board the Colin McHugh train. And I'll give you a pitcher that's about 30% owned. You want to

jump in there, Scott? You got more? Yeah, there was another starting pitcher I wanted to mention Herman Marquez. Yeah. Who three straight starts now. He has gotten nine strikeouts or more. and two of them were at home. And I watched this most recent start, two earn runs on three hits and seven innings, ten strikeouts, at Washington. So two of them were home and the other was at Washington. And his stuff just looks.

He's great. He's great stuff. Nah, he only 55% owned and I understand it's Colorado, but I don't know that I wouldn't prefer him to John Gray right now. And, you know, John Gray was pretty good in his last start, too. These are two pitchers who I think have the kind of ability to overcome that park that really nobody has overcome to the point of being a fantasy standout. Ubaldo Jimenez that one year. Right, which is why I'm not really sure that it's going to happen.

But he's probably not. Philadelphia at home this week, this week, I think you could start Armand Marquez even in a home start. Yeah, he's got nasty stuff. The first time I saw him pitch was when he nearly threw that no-hitter earlier this year. and I was pretty blown away by it. I picked up Blake Snell, who over his last two starts, has moved to the middle of the rubber instead of all the way on the left, and he's throwing more strikes.

He's thrown 63% of his pitches for strikes in the last two starts. Quite honestly, the results haven't been great, but they haven't been terrible. And I don't know. I'm intrigued. I'm not necessarily saying I'm going to start him, but if this is what it takes to get Blake Snell to throw more strikes, just moving to the middle of the mound, then that's a sneaky guy right there. And he's 30% owned right around there.

And I dropped C.C. Sabathia for Blake Snell. So not a huge investment, but signs of improvement for Snell. I added Trevor Rosenthal. I dropped Addison Reed. He hasn't been traded yet. But either he's going to get traded or he's going to stay with the Mets and eventually J.Ris Familia is going to come back. Is there any scenario where Addison Reed stays a closer?

Well, I think he's going to – like there is a situation. where a jury's familiar doesn't come back. Or struggles. I think the Mets will really have messed up if they don't trade Addison Reed because he's going to be a free agent in the off season. And it's not like a situation with Brandon Phillips and the Braves where, you know, the playoff teams just don't need a second baseman. Everybody needs another reliever.

You can always have a deeper bullpen. Yes, they should absolutely trade him. but I probably wouldn't drop them until I see him traded. Well, Rosenthal's actually been great. His last 10 appearances have just been off the charts. I think it's like one run and 17 strikeouts. I have it somewhere in the notes. It's not even – it doesn't matter.

Trevor Rosenthal has been on fire. He's clearly the closer for St. Louis. So I had to take that gamble before somebody else picked him up. Yeah, so 19 strikeouts in 10 innings, one run, four hits, one walk. Speaking of somebody who should be traded. If you can get somebody to buy it into this recent performance, I don't know that that's true. I don't know that that's true because there was, like, Rosenthal,

it coincided with the Cardinals calling up Luke Weaver, and Rosenthal tells the story about how he was playing catch with Luke Weaver, and he saw, he kind of adjusted his motion to mimic Luke Weavers because he liked the way he brought his arm all the way back on his delivery. and it just took off with that change. So I don't think it's just, you know, he's had a streak of good luck here. I think there was a legitimate change that allowed Rosenthal to maximize the stuff. He's always had incredible stuff.

All right. So again, we'll get into closers in a little bit. Let's take a look at some of the pitchers from over the weekend. Most encouraged by Masahiro Tanaka with his 14 strikeouts against the raise, and they strike out a ton. Carlos Rodon with 20 strikeouts in his last two-star. and his start on Sunday was excellent against Cleveland. Or Danny Salazar, who has had two really good starts since being recalled of coming off the DL.

Tanaka, Rodan, Danny Salazar. Who were you most encouraged by? Well, I have to say Danny Salazar. His performance wasn't near as good as Damasiara's performance, but I had still more concerns and questions about Salazar going into this start, because we've just seen that one good start. I'm glad that he's finally got things figured out. I will be moved.

We've got one last installment of the trade charts coming out on Wednesday this week. And he's going to be another big mover this week. He was a big mover last week. Yep, he's the one with the most ground to gain. And so I would say I was the most encouraged by him. Also, Tanaka, you know, it's been on a nice run here. Obviously, doesn't get 14 strikeouts every time out, and the rays do strike out a lot, like you say.

But I think Tanaka's turned his season around and is back to must-start status. Rodon, I'm not sure what to think of him. You know, even 9th strikeouts, the 6 and 2 thirds against the Indians, that's great. Even in his last start, he had 11 strikeouts in, like, four innings. It wasn't very good start, but a lot of strikeouts. I don't know, the swings and misses weren't particularly impressive in this start. I guess he was better because he threw more strikes, and, you know, if he can keep that up, then fine. But I think there's still going to be...

I'm not as confident Rodon's over the hurdle here just because he had one good start. Would you rather have Tanaka or Salazar rest of season? Tanaka. Yeah. And would you start Rodon at Boston this week? No. I would like to not do that. Because you think it's a bad...

Go get to two-start Paul Blackburn. You think it's a bad matchup? I don't think it's a good matchup, no. I just want to look. I'm actually curious where the Red Sox rank and runs scored. I think they have the fewest home runs in the American League. I think I heard that over the weekend. I'm not positive.

Boston, they are middle of the pack in another one, two, three, four. But they're like 12th in runs. But they just added Eduardo Nunez. They do have the fewest home runs in the American League. That is insane. And Eduardo Nunez hit two of them over the weekend. Okay, most concerned about Lance McCullors, Dallas Keikle, Jacob Ferrier. I was very, very concerned about Lance McCullors before this start, and this did not

anything to make that better. The strikeouts are down, the walks are up. The velocity's just down a tick. Not a ton. Not enough to where I would think he's actually hurt. But they need to shut him down, so he's ready for the playoffs. He's making it too easy for them to shut him down. If he had no innings limit, and he doesn't have like a true innings limit,

but he didn't throw many innings last year. They obviously expect to go deep into the playoffs. They're going to want him available for that. and it just makes all the sense of the world, considering they just had to bump Brad Peacock from the rotation. It just makes all the sense in the world for them to stick him in the bullpen or even put him on the disabled list. They should call the Dodgers.

The Dodgers can teach him a thing or two about how to manage innings with the new 10-day DL. But he's given up at least five runs in his last four starts. He hasn't made it to the past, or he hasn't finished six innings since June 8th. Yeah. He did not look good. I watched that start because anytime I can watch Verlander, I watch him. But also McCullors is an interesting start and did not look good at all.

At first inning, he just couldn't even come close to the mitt. But that is why I didn't drop Brad Peacock, you know, and it is the league. I'm 30 and 2 in, so I have some luxury there. Well, and when you made that decision, you only had one loss. That is true. But I decided to drop Addison Reed instead of Brad Peacock. It is a league where I can use Peacock as a relief pitcher. but I see a scenario because, look, Peacock came in in relief on Friday of Dallas

Keikle and was great and actually ended up being someone that was good to start. That was, you know, lucky. But my point is, my point is who knows what's going to happen. I can see a scenario where he's back in the rotation, and you want that guy if he is, Brad Peacock. Any concerns about Keikle or Ferreya? No, not really. Faria has been kind of shaky lately, but... It was encouraging, actually, that the strikeouts went back up in the start because those had been down.

That had been my biggest concern with him recently, and he's still been getting good number of swings and misses. So I think it's just a little rough patch for the rookie. Keikl always give a guy pass his first start back from the D.L. My only concern with Keiko would be, like, he, coming into the year, I think we viewed him as a number two. I may have had him a little bit lower in number two. but for the first half of the season, he pitched like an ace. And so I don't know if he's going to get back to ace level in time to save your fantasy team.

You know why he pitched like an ace, right? Because you think he has one? Because he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. Okay. I mean, if as long as he's healthy, he's going to pitch like an ace, says the guy who says the guy who... Except for last year. No, he wasn't healthy.

healthy. He came into, he had a spring training arm injury. He wasn't healthy all year. But I'm also the guy who thought Andrew McCutcheon was done. More on that a little bit later. Most likely to add part one. Kevin Gosman, Luis Castillo, column McHugh. Kevin Gosman, Luis Castillo, column Acue, most likely to add. I want to add all of them. Most likely to add is probably Castillo. There's really no good reason not to add Castillo. He's been electric. He finally got a matchup that was, you know, at Miami's still not a great match with Marlins have a good lineup. They did not have Stanton. That's the only thing I'd say. Well, the point is, it was the best matchup he's had so far, and look what happened. Yes, yes.

He had an amazing start. So a lot of swing and miss potential here. Good control he showed throughout his minor league career, so the walks are kind of high this year, but I don't even really believe that. Just so much potential here. Yeah, I guess it would be my favorite to add. And I would, like, I was excited to find Colin McHugh on the waiver wire, but he would be a level below both of these guys,

Gosman and Castillo. You know, it's interesting, though, McHugh, if you, Scott just said why he's buying into Calam McHugh, the wins are, I know that you shouldn't really chase wins, but the Reds are awful, and the Astros are the best team in the American League. And especially in a head-to-head points league, like wins and losses, a win, if a guy gets a win and another pitcher gets a loss, that's a 12-point difference.

So I don't know. Would that matter when you compare Carl McHugh to Leone's Castillo? Yeah, his matchup matters. I mean, it's one of the biggest flaws of head-to-head leagues, but you should take advantage of it. I tell you, I'd go Castillo, McHugh, and Gosman here. I know he'd had both of them ahead of McHugh, but partially because of what the Astros can do for McHugh, I'd put him second on this list. Most likely to add part two, Armand Marquez, Junjun Rieu, Adam Kemp. Conley is only 12% owned.

De Nelson Lemette. Marquez, Rieu, Conley, LeMette. Marquez, by a long shot. I'm not really interested in adding anybody else on this list. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure I am either. I mean, Riu, I think Riu deserves more credit than he's getting. How does he have a 3-and-6 record?

My gosh, the Dodgers have a 700 winning percentage. I know. They are 39 and 6 in their last 45 games. That's insane. Yeah. But Ryu's been, even with the strikeouts, he's been better than you probably think he's been. There's been a couple D.L stints there to interrupt things, and the innings haven't always been consistent. But I do think he deserves more attention than he's getting, even though I would definitely place him a step behind Marquez.

Well, I guess I can make a case for Denelson-Lamette. If you look at his last seven starts, he's had five quality starts. His two bad starts were at Cleveland and at Colorado. I completely dismiss at Colorado start. So you could basically say five of his last six starts have been quality starts. I think there's plenty of talent with Lament, but I need to see more consistency before I invest in him again, especially since couldn't be in a worse position for wins. True.

He's at Pittsburgh this week. That's what we faced on Saturday. Lament through six innings, two runs, seven walks, or seven strikeouts, excuse. me. Okay, so we'll talk about, there are actually more pitchers. I didn't even mention Brett Souter. We'll get to that and others in a little bit. I do want to tell you about Siki, because now's a great time to go to a ballgame. Summer always has great concerts, or if you want comedy or theater, get on your Seekek app. Download the app right now. It's really a great app. It's going to save you time and money, and you can save $20 with our promo code, Fantasy. Just use the code

fantasy. You're going to get $20 off your first purchase on Seekkeek. So look, Seekekseek searches multiple ticket sites compares prices finds amazing deals and that's just an awesome feature i went on seekiekeek last night is true story all right let's go to a football game looked at a monday night football game giants lions let's hope those tickets come down a little bit but see keeks always going to get me yeah it's tough going to football games in new york but seekeek's always going to get me the best value i know that i can look around i don't even do it anymore because i know seekeek does it for me stop searching multiple places let seekeg do the work for you it's the most efficient way to buy tickets.

And our listeners get $20 off their first purchase. Download the Seatkeek app. Enter the promo code Fantasy. That's promo code Fantasy for $20 off your first Seatkeek purchase. Now let's talk trade. The Mets acquired A.J. Ramos from Miami. Brad Ziegler is likely to get saves for the Marlins for now. So, all right.

In a week, who is the Mets closer? A.J. Ramos. Sure. That's the most likely. Who is the Marlins closer? I'll stick with Ziegler, though. I think he's keeping the seat warm for Kyle Bearclaw. We don't really have a timetable for Bearclaw.

So it's... I picked up Ziegler in a couple leagues, leagues where everybody who owns saves his own, even though Ziegler has been hurt this year and has an ERA close to seven. The Cubs acquired Justin Wilson and Alex Avila from Detroit for Jamer Candelario and Isaac Paredes. And who is the closer for the Tigers?

Gotta be Shane Green, right? There's nobody else there who could do the job. He's their only decent reliever. They do have Joe Jimenez at AAA. He's been labeled the closer of the future a few times. But he got called up earlier this year and got knocked around. I think there would need to be some success in the majors before they put him in the closer roll.

So Shane Green, assuming he is the one, he is probably my favorite newcomer to the closer role because the Tigers are still going to have a decent enough team to earn him some opportunities. Do you consider Trevor Rosenthal a newcomer, and if so, Shane Green or Trevor Rosenthal? Yeah, okay. Yeah, Rosenthal ahead of Green.

I was thinking more from like a trade perspective. Okay, no problem. Colorado acquired Jonathan Lucreoy. How about that? By the way, Alex Avila, value destroyed, and Justin Wilson as well. But Jonathan Lucroy going to Colorado. Lewis has an email at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Lucreoy or Gattis rest of season?

I'll go Lucre. Yeah, yeah, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. I mean, this is the best thing that could have happened to Luke Roy at the trade deadline. We still have to see, considering Tony Walter's back. That's left-handed. We have to make sure Bud Black doesn't do anything funny with the playing time. Because I think what may have contributed to Lucroy's downward spiral is just that Robinson Chironos wouldn't get out of the way at the start of the year. So hopefully he plays every day, and that's the best environment for Lucroy to resuscitate his value.

I think how thin catcher is he needs to be picked up in any league where he may have been dropped. And Cherinos, you know, two catcher league, this is a break for him. Should get more play. Yesterday, I would think. Maybe even some one catcher leagues. Yeah, he's had a nice year for a catcher. This was like Christmas for me. This was amazing because the podcast league, I have been suffering through this Jonathan

Lucroix garbage all year. What a great train. So happy. Oh, the Four of the People podcast league? No, no. You guys have Lucroi there? No. That league folded.

That league doesn't exist anymore. We did have Alex Avila there. I thought that was our email of the day. What was the email of the day? Oh, God. We've got it right here. It said Team Kreeh moves up to fourth in power rankings, while Scam gets walloped for a big zero and falls to the bottom. What, a big zero?

Yeah. You guys did not win a category this week? We did not. We lost. Oh, but we did tie in one. Oh, so I guess it's pretty much okay. We did a total loss. Since it wasn't really a shutout if you got a tie.

I agree. I mean, we just lost Clayton Kershaw a few days after trading Corey Kluber, which I mean, we got Altuve back in the Kluber deal, but our offense is so bad. It's not enough to save it. Now we don't have the pitching strength going for us either. So there are going to be a lot of losses for team scam to close out the year. Best league ever.

It's no good. But, hey, other podcast leagues, Scott and I are both playoff teams right now. Just to say. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, we are. I don't really keep up on that one. Oh, I see.

I see. I'm sorry how that works. Washington acquired Howie Kendrick from Philadelphia for a minor league pitcher McKenzie Mills, who has a really cool name. We don't care about this trade, right? Nope. Value up down to the same for Jaime Garcia, going from Minnesota to the Yankees. Got to be up a little, right?

Just barely up. Yeah. Barely. Not enough to make him like, I want him in mixed leagues, but. I kind of like what the Yankees are doing with their pitching staff. They have the most Homer-friendly park in baseball. So they're getting these groundball, extreme ground ball pitchers like Garcia and maybe Sunny Gray. Yeah.

That would make a lot of sense. If they get Sunny Gray, that's probably putting Jordan Montgomery, I don't know, minors or bullpen, but he's been bad. So just keep an eye on that. Kansas City at Melki Cabrera, we talked about that. And the Orioles acquired Jeremy Helixen for Junsu Kim and left-handed pitcher Garrett Clevenger. And Jake Thompson started for the Phillies on Friday. This doesn't really matter, right? Hell, it's under the O's.

No. No. I'm really sure why the O's did that. Yeah. Because he's a free agent. Yeah. I don't get it. They're pitching, I don't know.

I thought about that, too. Like, their pitching has just been so bad. Do they just need someone to be respectable? That's what I read. Saving face. No, they are just trying to find someone to facilitate the game for the rest of the year. Because they don't have enough pitchers to do that. And they gave Lepiansu Kim, who they weren't playing anyway.

Yeah. Now let's talk about the new closers. I'm just going to give you a team and you tell me who's closing for them. And I'll fill in the blanks what we've already talked about here. The Mets right now, I guess if they had to save this morning, it'd be Addison Reed, but should be Ramos soon and then maybe familiar in a little bit. Detroit, we're looking at Shane Green. How about Atlanta?

Jim Johnson, demoted. It would have been Viscay. if he had had a save chance yesterday, is a Rota Spisgiano the guy to get? Yes, yes. And he might do well enough to keep the rest of season. I still think Jim Johnson, just looking at their pips, is the best reliever the Braves have. So I don't know that he's completely out of this, but eight blown saves. I mean, they can't just have him keep giving away games like that.

San Francisco, Mark Melanson, we'll be back soon, so he should reclaim that role. St. Louis, it's Trevor Rosen, 3rd. all white socks White Sox? A clipper? No, it's not clipper. It can't be. It's, it's, it's, it's, I would guess, I would guess four different relievers, no, three different relievers get three or more saves.

Okay. And what are the names? Don't know. Clippered one of them, I guess. I don't know. It could be clippered, I guess, but they didn't really, they didn't really use Clippert as a close this weekend. I think the most shocking part is that Scott thinks that they're going to get like nine more saves the rest of the year. That's why I started with four and dialed it back to three.

They have maybe Aaron Bummer. No way. They just called Bummer up. That's a bummer. I guess Clip, oh, man, why they stink. Like you were pretty so certain that it wasn't Clipper just a moment ago. Radical idea. They call up Reinaldo Lopez and say, James Shields, give it a shot. Ninth inning, baby. David Holmberg?

Is he a pitcher on their team? I think so. This is not really closer stuff. We're not going to submit this to the Fantasy Awards show this second year. Greg and Fonte? Oakland. Is it Blake Trident in Oakland? I think it is.

He was another pitcher. particularly in those deeper rotisserie leagues that I was making a move for this weekend. He's been great since joining the athletics, and Santiago Cascio was not being reserved for the ninth inning all weekend. They didn't have a safe chance during the weekend, but I think yesterday's game, they won a one-run game in extra innings. Casia pitched the eighth, trying to pitch the ninth. So that is normally a spot where a team would use a close.

Was it at home? It was at home. Yeah, I guess the managers are different on that one. Well, you know, but Cascia pitched the seventh on Saturday, and he pitched the eighth on Sunday. So it looks like they're making changes there in Oakland. And let's get to the big news. Sunny Gray had his Sunday start push back to Monday, but, I mean, you're probably going to start him anyway because he'll make one start. But we don't know that he's going to make two starts this week.

We don't know which team is going to make them for. Robbie Ray was hitting the head with a line drive. that was scary, but he's okay. He's on the concussion deal. Good news for David Price. Well, at least according to him, Price says he does not have as much inflammation in his elbow as he did when he heard it in spring training. We'll see what happens there with David Price. It was not a good thing. We had that news kind of break on Friday during our podcast, but obviously concerning. Clayton Kershaw played catch. That might move his timetable up quite a bit, so that's good news for Kershaw. Mark Trumbo has a sore back. Keep an eye on him. Here's a name that you might need to know. Cattel Marte. Chris Owings has a broken finger. He's going to miss some time. And Marte is starting to hit a little bit.

Five-game hitting streak with two home runs. Seven walks to 14 strikeouts in 25 games, but not that many real games. Because a lot of like one-to-back games, a lot of pinch hit. But Marte, 7% own deep leagues, you know, just put him on your radar. Right. He's a guy we've liked in the past. And he added a new trick in the minors this year. He started hitting for power.

So he already was good contact hitter with some speed And well, you know Not a lot of home runs at the miners But a lot of extra base hits and shortstop eligible I think I once said that he was better than Gene Sagarra But maybe he'll be right Who knows Nah, probably not now

And I once said that Andrew McCutcheon was done So here's the email of the day from ERAL in New York I would like to thank you Adam for declaring Andrew McCutcheon done a couple of months ago I appreciate you P.S. Please settle in our between me and a buddy of mine. I believe sprinkles is the most overrated

ice cream topping. Curious what you guys think of my hot take, keep up the good work. Sprinkles, I've had some really good sprinkles recently. I don't know what brand it is, but in the past I probably would have agreed. They don't have a lot of, like,

I've had sprinkles that just kind of like they just, they don't have any substance to them. They just kind of crumble in your mouth, and they don't have a great crunch to them. They don't have add much flavor. They're just color. But if you get really crunchy sprinkles that actually taste like candy,

it puts the ice cream over the top. I would agree with this, and I love food hot takes. So I would agree, except maybe whipped cream. Oh, geez. I don't know what the point of putting whipped cream on your ice cream is. I don't know what the point of you are. You put whipped cream on pie. Put whipped cream on something else.

You know what the point is? Whip cream is delicious. Yeah, whipped is very good. Ice cream's delicious. I'll give you a topping that I like when it's not a topping, but I don't like on ice cream. And I don't agree with this take on sprinkles, by the way. I like sprinkles. Gummy bears.

I don't think gummy bears are good on ice cream. They're too hard. Yeah, yeah, they harden. Get some good ice cream and just eat it. They have them on all the frozen yogurt bars. They have gummy bears there. I don't get it either. No, it's not.

It's like I love gummy bears. but not with ice cream or yogurt. No. Thank you for the email. McCutchen, what can we say? Three home runs. He's on Sunday. He's now the number seven outfielder in points leagues,

number eight in Roto. I will take my L on this one. And it kills me when he does well because, man, the Twitter comments, they're funny. I think they're all adjust. Do you think maybe he's the best outfielder in Pittsburgh? Yes.

He was, he's the pirate's best player again. I was doing a thing because Adam said he was going to be like the third best out. I'm sorry. I wasn't looking at your face. I didn't see the heath smirk on it. No, but I could see in Roto League's people, like if we were drafting today, taking Starling Marte over McCutcheon. We could see that.

No. They would be wrong to do that, I think. Yeah. Yes. But maybe they would. I have to give in. Please slump over the last two months. Hey, podcastawards.com.

We have one more day. Today's the last day. Please go and nominate us. I would appreciate it. nominated fantasy football today. We'll also accept a fantasy baseball today nomination. Podcastawards.com. Last time I'll tell you about the nomination.

Hopefully I'll tell you about voting, though, pretty soon. And Buffalo Wild Wings is a great place to be right now during the summertime. Because whoever invented summer was obviously a sports fan. They didn't even try to hide it. Playoff hockey, playoff basketball, the opening of both soccer and baseball. It's a clear display of favoritism. The other seasons didn't stand a chance. With three months of clutch playoff drama and the awakening of new seasons,

it's clearly the work of a sports fan. And they might as well have called it sports season. In fact, at Buffalo Wild Wings, they do call it sports season. So don't ever call it summer, because that's not what it is. It's sports season. They're just waiting on the legal change. Buffalo Wild Wings, Wings, Beer Sports. Let's get into the rest of the action from over the weekend.

Hitters, double dongers, Corey Seeger, Aaron Altair, Michael Conforto, Eduardo Nunez, Ruegner, for the second straight week, two homers on Sunday, to salvage his week. Albert Pujols, 73% owned. He was hitless, I think he was 0 for 24 before his two-homer game Sunday. And Ryan Zimmerman, four home runs in his last three games, two-home runs on Sunday against the Rockies.

Seeger, Alteric, and Fordo, Nunez, O'Dor, Poo-Holl, Simmerman. Anything to say, guys? You know, I think it was Ryan Zimmerman's two-homer game Friday. Was it Friday or was it Thursday? Thursday. We talked about it on Friday. Yeah, that inspired you to say you don't care about two-homer games. Do you care about two-two-homer games in the span of four days? I guess so.

Was it Zimmerman or was it Schwerber? I think it was the Schwerber two-homer again. You're right. It may have been Schwerver. Yeah, he didn't have a very good weekend. No, look, how could you not pay attention to Zimmerman after how hot he got at the beginning of the year for a long time? I think he's about to take off again.

Well, Scott will enjoy this since he had so much angst over me picking Zimmerman up for $6 earlier in the year. I didn't start him this week I thought you were going to say you dropped him, at least you didn't drop him. Just deserve. I didn't start him this week. Did you win?

Yes, yes. Rognadoor, yeah, I guess he hadn't had a very productive week, but there have been more hits along with the home runs recently. Guys, the most important one here is clearly Eduardo Nunez, batting second. Now, Petroia has been out. He's missed two or three straight. But he's batting second,

Nunez, he's D-Hed one game, and Devers has been very good, but he also committed an error, and I know defense is a big issue for Devers, or was in the minors. So I guess I feel like Nunez would be a priority for Boston over Devers if it came down to that. I don't think it will come down to that. I think they can find somewhere for Eduardo Nunez to play about every day. Destin Padraea certainly does not need to be playing six games a week. Well, just the idea that Mitch Morland, that was the easiest guy to kick out of the lineup, but I'm not sure most of us even consider, oh, Nunez can just be their D.H.

now because Hamley can play first base again. True, true. And I don't think you cite defense as a reason to get Eduardo Nunez on the field. I think he'd be better than... He's been atrocious this year at every single position he's played. All right. He made an error to this. Yeah, and I don't know that, like, I'd read some good scouting reports on Devers.

defense recently, too. I just think it's a lot of errors. I'm not saying he's a bad defender. Okay. But right now, yeah, I think that's an issue. It was in the minors, I'm pretty sure, and he made one this weekend. Costly one, you probably saw it, Heath, against your precious royals. My precious royals.

Did you see, did Lorenzo Kane, no joke? Did he hit the shortest home run of the season? It was like 300. Not that I know of. It was like 303 feet or something. It was a pesky pole. Ridiculous home run. Well, shame on him for hitting it.

Yeah, Eduardo Nunez in 2017 has played 90 innings at shortstop and been worth negative four runs, 400 innings at third and been worth negative three runs, 19 innings at second and been worth negative one run, and 163 innings in the outfield and been worth negative four runs. Now that you have had time to look that up, you can look up if Lorenzo Kane hit the shortest home run of the 2017 season. Okay. Okay, wonderful. I got fantasy points for it. I just know that.

Yeah, other hitters. Lucas Duda. Scott picked him up. I should say we picked him up in the Scam League, although I'm giving up. That is a Scott White project now. Yeah, can you guys like let the teams that are still playing for something? No.

Enjoy. No. Like, man. I think there is value in remaining competitive. Agreed. In trying to have the most respectable finish you possibly can. I don't. like quitter, Steve. I don't like it.

You fight to the end. He's right. You hear that, Adam? I don't like quitters. I hear a computer as well. Well, I was trying to look up Lorenzo Kane. It was the shortest home run since at least 2015. Ooh, how about that? Slug early year. All right, so Duda is off to a good start. He homered Friday and Saturday. Now, keep in mind, what's his name? Logan Morrison's been out. He's been pinch hitting. Might be able to start on Tuesday.

Adam Duval got hot, three homers in his last four games. I'm still a little concerned, though, because batting 197 with four walks, 23 strikeouts in 16 games since the All-Star break for Duval. But he got the power back. That was good. Matt Davidson had three hits last week. They were all homers.

He's 18% owned. Mikey Matook is 4% owned. He's hitting very well right now. Would you be interested in Mikey Mottock in an AL-only league? I mean, I'm interested in anybody who's playing in an AL-only league. I'm not over the moon for them. All righty. Let's talk about pitchers.

You might be over the moon for some of these guys. Studs being Studs, Part 1. Madison Bumgarner, a buster only wrote an article about Bumgarner. And the Giants pitching coach, Dave Rgetty, right? Still him. He said that Bumgarner may not get his velocity back this year. He kind of seemed to think like he wouldn't maybe ever get it back. It was a serious injury.

And, yeah, he may not. get his velocity back this year, but he might not need it because he's bum garner. Well, it's all ready back a little bit. Yeah, it's not down dramatically, though. According to the article, it was. The very first start, it was down, like, I'm pulling it up right now. The very first start,

it was down, like, three or four miles per hour, which is a huge deal, and he just can't be good, if that's the way it is. I think he was, like, 88. But now it's down, it's a little hard to tell because they were splitting

his two seamer and four seamer in a way that they don't in this Brooks baseball I'm talking about they split it in his last start in a way they don't normally split it but the two seamer was harder which is also weird I don't know it looks like he's averaging about 91 on this basketball yes and he was at 91.8 in April this year he's basically at 91 over his last three starts and not if he's lost an eighth of a tenth of a mile an hour forever

I think else will be pretty good. What was Bumgarner last summer? Last summer. Yeah, because I don't look at April velocity necessarily. You know it's going to go up from April. Okay. Well, just one moment and let me get that for you. Thank you.

You're very good today with this. I'm just trying to contribute. Let's see. Let's go with June on a start-by-start basis, 91.7, 91.6, 92.1, 92.1.91.3. All right, whatever. So, also, we have Justin Verlander. Justin Verlander. I'm worried about it at first, but I think it's okay.

I think he's fine. You guys feel like Verlander's a must-start guy rest of season? Yes. Who do they face this week? I don't know, but he just did well against Houston. Right. I wouldn't quite go to the extent of must-start, but I wouldn't have started him in that start. So did you start him against Houston?

Well, he was a two-star pitcher. Oh, okay. Well, it was easy then. Yeah. Yeah, he did. walk three, so there is that. He's still walking batters a little bit. Garrett Cole, great start against the Padres.

John Gray had a good start. You know what? Let's go to this group. John Gray, Michael Waka, Jason Vargas, and Dan Staley. They were studly enough this weekend, at least in terms of run prevention. Gray, Waka, Vargas, Staley.

Anybody really jump out there? Vargas is just walking this tightrope. and I mean, you've got to keep starting him. I'm not as excited about starting straley. Waka's kind of in the same range as far as for us for me. Do you think Waka's walking a tightrope? He's been getting, his swings and misses have actually been going up,

getting a lot more strikeouts. I just don't necessarily see, like, I don't know that I necessarily see Waka just keeping this up. I put him in the same range. It's not the same range. It's not the same type of thing, no. I think he was mostly fastball changeup earlier, and he's kind of fleshed out his arsenal with more breaking balls.

So I can buy that actual, you know, a semi-breakthrough has happened here for Waka. And I think, you know, I think Vargas and Straitly, they're fine. Vargas, his ERA, is probably going to go up before season's end, but I think he's still going to eat a lot of innings, probably win some games. And I like Straeli and Marlins Park. Yeah, I don't know if I'm able to be able to say that after today, but we shall see. We'll see. I mean, there's plenty of incentive for the Marlins to keep them, too.

So studs being duds, these guys are all owned in 80% of leagues or more. Are they dropable? Jordan Montgomery. Yes. Yvonne Nova. Really thought about it in a points league, too, which is a better format because of the reward for the innings, the not so great rewards for

strikeouts, but I'm still going to say no for Nova, but I'm close. Nova's got the Padres this week? Yeah. I'm probably starting him this week, because I'm not dropping him. He just struggled against the Padres this week for what it's worth. Eduardo Rodriguez, is he dropable?

I'm not looking to drop him, but I wouldn't say you can't. Yeah. Yeah, I have to drop him in one league just because of roster limits. And I traded him last week. So yeah, good for me. I don't know. He hasn't really been right since coming off to D.L.

A lot of walks and a 300-foot homer to Lorenzo Kane. Certainly made his line worse. Tanner Roark, he had been pretty good in his previous two starts, but got roughed up against the Rockies on Saturdays. Roark dropable. Yeah, he's just frustrating me. I don't want to. I don't feel like I can trust him.

When will I be able to trust him at this point? Jay Hap. Jayhap is, I would say no to dropping him. I feel the same way about Jayhap. Scott feels about Tanner O' arc, so. Yeah. Julio Tehran. I'm not dropping him.

Yeah, for some silly reason. I still have faith in Tehran. Well, here's why. He let us down a lot. I don't really want to start him. No, but this is what's happened with Julio Tehran, right? So he gave up eight runs on Friday. Previous four starts, he had a two-fours.

45 ERA. But the start before that, he gave up seven runs. The three starts before that, he had a 266 ERA. But the start before that, he had seven runs. So he just keep... This borderline pitcher has had good and bad stretches. I actually watched this to run start, and he had allowed just one run going into the fifth inning

and became completely unraveled. He gave up a home run to Altaire early that inning and, like, slammed his glove on the ground after giving it up. And just, he kind of checked out mentally after that. give up a lot more runs. So I don't know if... I don't know if that's been a recurring issue for him, where he just kind of...

You know, if he gets... If he realize he's beaten, he just stops trying. But, I don't know. It's not that Tehran has had bad stretches. It's that he's usually been good, but then every now and then he gives up seven or eight earn runs. And that's, you know, and then three good starts in a row after that.

So, all right. Anyway, are you concerned about any of these guys? Alex Wood... Kyle Hendrix, Taiwan Walker, I shouldn't say concerned, but Wood, Hendrix, Taiwan Walker, Rick Porcelo. Did anything change with these guys over the weekend? Alex Wood, Kyle Hendrix, Taiwan Walker, Rick Porcelo. Not for me. Rank them?

Rank them? Yeah. I still put Wood at the top. Distant first for me. Because I don't probably go Porcelo second. Hendricks just, he's not giving them any, any lengths. Not giving the Cubs any length, not giving you any length. I need the length.

Well, he's still working his way back. But he wasn't before the injury either. I had more questions about Alex Wood turning into an ace than Scott did when he made his ace turn. And I kind of felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. and he's now giving up 13 runs in his last 11 innings. Yeah, this wasn't really that bad of a start. I think he had a shutout going through six. One run through six and then gave up three in the seventh.

Well, four. You have four runs. Yeah. Oh, okay. One and then three. Yeah. It wasn't that bad of a start. I mean, four runs and seven innings, no walks, five strikeouts.

It was against the Giants. I'm not as worried about Wood as I am as McCullors, but I feel differently about Wood than I did a week ago. Yeah. All right. and let's see what else we got here. More pitchers. First, some news and notes real quick. Two lows on the DL.

Josh Tomlin left with a hamstring injury. Keep an eye on Dustin Padraea. Leonis Martine is up for Seattle in AL-only leagues. He's replacing Mitch Hanager. Not sure he's going to play every day. Matt Kemp's on the DL. Gregory Polanco should be back soon. Keep an eye on Logan Morrison.

I think you're safe to start Lomo. He's been pinch hitting and could start on Tuesday. Stephen Piscotti expected back on Tuesday. Kendall Graven could start this week. Johnny Quato will make a rehab a rehab start tonight, excuse me,

Josh Harrison left with leg discomfort. Okay. Fringy starting pitchers part one, Rankum. Mike Leak, John Lackey, Louis Castillo. I will go. Luis Castillo.

Leak Leak. Yeah. Yeah. Lackie. Leake for me. Castillo Lackey Leak for me. I'm with you, Adam. Yeah, Leak had a 430 ERA in June, 476 ERA in July. He doesn't strike batters out. Lackey's been better since coming off the D.L. Not great, but better. All right, whatever. Castillo's the gem there. Fringy starting pitchers part two. Zach Davies, Trevor Cahill, Kyle Freeland, Kevin Gosman, Ariel Miranda, Colin McHugh. Zach Davies, Trevor Cahill, Kyle. Kyle Freeland, Kevin Gosman, Ariel Miranda, Colin McHugh. Cahill, Gosman, McHugh. Yeah, those are the only three that matter to me.

How could you be, well, I'm not saying you are, but how could you not be concerned about Trevor Cahill? As last two starts have been terrible and his career has been terrible. I mean, I'm a little concerned, yeah. I probably drop him behind McHugh. I really like McHugh right now, though. What about Gossman? I mean, it's close between him and Cahill.

There are Bobbby's sleeping. I like what Gossman's done recently. I think that varying the speed on his fastball thing, there's some legitimacy to that. But, you know, he still has, what, a six and a half ERA on the year? No. 537. Okay, sorry.

Now, put him on Team Scam. Damn, he'll have a six and a half ERA. All right, the next group of fringy starting pitchers, part three, owned in 30 to 49% of leagues. This was the standout group this weekend. This was a terrific group. We've said some of the names. Seth Lugo was actually bad, and he's the most owned in this group.

Jason Hamill, actually not so bad. He had a good, you know, good-ish start against Boston, seven-innings three runs. His previous 10 starts, 367 ERA for Hamel. Junjin Ryu we talked about. Vince Velasquez. Three good starts in his last four. Ari Dickey, been pretty good for like eight starts or so. Armand Marquez, you guys like.

De Nelssohn Lament. He's all right. Jared Eikoff. Sean Newcomb, Blake Snell, Francisco Liriano, Brent Suter, Jaime Garcia. I really said a lot of names. I'll say him again real quick. Lugo, Hamel.

Riu Velazquez. Rai Dickey. Marquez, Lament, Eikoff, Nukum, Snell, Luriano, Suter, Jaime Garcia. Who are some of the guys? Yeah, a lot of the names.

A lot of names. Who are some guys you'd be looking to pick up? I think Marquez tops the list for me. I'll just go with guys then that I am more excited about than Marquez. Okay. I would put Velasquez in there. I would put Newcomb in there.

I think I'm done with Sean Newcomb. What's that? I feel like I'm done with Sean Newcomb. I understand. The class start was a step in the right direction. Three walks and five isn't great, but the rest of it was... And then I would not say that I'm more excited about Hamel or Ikoff, but I would be more likely to start those against a normal matchup than I would Marquez at home.

Telling you, man. You've got to watch the highlights of Marquez. He's got... It might have been some of the best stuff I've ever seen. Lights out. This sounds a lot like the Josh Bell home run story. No, he does have lights out stuff. It's true.

But he pitches in Colorado. It's tough. It's really tough. I understand. But we're talking about pitchers who are 30 and 40% owned here. Let's give Brent Stuter a little love, guys. How do you feel about him? 240 ERA?

Um, I have a hard time. Like, he has... He has to go further to win my trust than the average pitcher because he throws 88 miles per hour. And it's not like he has the stellar minor league track record to back it up. I watch him pitch and he looks awfully deceptive. I feel like there could be some legitimacy to this, but I'm not ready to make a move for him outside of deeper leagues. Cool. That is Brent Souter. And I still think Blake Snell, even if you don't want to put him at the top of the list,

I think there's something to keep an eye on they would play Snow, 30% own. And Deep Leagues, owned in less than 30% of leagues, Parker Bidwell, Andrew Cashner, Matt Boyd and Adam Conley, Parker Bridwell, Andrew Cashner, Matt Boyd, Adam Conley.

Anything here that you like? That Boyd's always kind of interesting and had great numbers of AAA. I don't think he'll ever be a big batmisser in the majors, but I think he could be good enough to round out a mixed league staff potentially. In fact, he's only 60% own means and you don't have to make a move for him yet in those formats,

but somebody to keep an eye on. It's not really breaking news, but we mentioned this name earlier on the podcast, and something has happened with it since we mentioned it. The Tigers have called Joe Jimenez up. Oh. So I don't know if that changes who the closer is going to be in Detroit, but he is on the team.

Cool. What's his name? Jimenez. Joe Jimenez. Joe Jimenez. All right, all right. Still going Shane Green, right? I think Team Scam is going to go add Joe Jimenez right now.

Team Scam or Team Kreef? Team, well, I don't know. Maybe Team Scam if they'd beat us to it. You guys like this. We don't have anybody to drop for that setup, man. Yeah, I know. You've got a lot of good players on your team. I mean, he got let, he, I don't know what the Tigers are going to do.

Maybe they're so devoted to next year that they want to already break in Jimenez as the closer. But he hasn't. He got a chance to pitch in the majors earlier. it did not go. I think I saw that he had like 20 consecutive scoreless in AAA before he was called up. He's not allowed a run in his last 16 appearances. Okay. And John Hicks also coming up, but you probably don't care.

Also, my weekend was really good. Thank you. You probably don't care about that. Today's matchups. Today's matchups. Fultenevich at Povetta. I'll take Fulte in that matchup against the Phillies. That's the 1230 game, right?

The Phillies are favored in this game? It's at 1230. I don't like it. Braves are going to win. Danny Duffy at Ubaldo Jimenez. Start Duffy. Yep. Michael Fulmer at Luis Severino.

Start on both. Yep. Mike Clevenger at Boston facing Doug Fister. I don't want to start either one of them. Yeah. I'd be, if I own Clevenger, I'd be more likely to start in the knot, but it's a dangerous matchup. Geo Gonzalez at Jose Urana.

Start geo. Yep. Felix Hernandez at Cole Hamels. Ooh. Start of both. Got to watch this one. The battle for Scott's heart. The battle.

The battle to earn a spot in my rankings. Earn a higher spot in my rankings, yeah. So Scott's, he's going to start both Felix and Hamels, Scott, you agree? I guess so. I mean, I have more faith in Hamils than Hernandez, but I think you'd probably start both. Alex Cobb at Charlie Morton. This is a tough call. Tough call on Alex Cobb.

He's been so good. In a two-star week, I'm probably going to start him, but I'm not sure yet. Yeah, I'd probably, I'd start Morton. Yeah. I don't think I'd probably start Cobb. I would start Cobb in a points league, but all, the reason I struggle with this is all of my daily lineup choices leagues are categories leagues.

Yeah, yeah. I think most are. Yes. All right, yeah, I probably wouldn't start, you know, but no Correa and no Springer. Are we still fearing that Astros lineup? Yeah. Not as much.

A few more games here. We got Marco Estrada and James Shields. No, thank you. Matt Kane and Sunny Gray. Well, Sunny. Assuming he's not traded because I don't think he's starting tonight if he's traded. Yeah, probably not. Yeah, all right.

So you should be prepared to not be starting sunny gray tonight, but we shall see. I think he's going to stay. I don't think they're going to trade him. Yeah, I get that feeling too. I don't think they're, well, we'll find out soon enough, but I think the huge move we're hoping for isn't going to happen. All right. We're going to read some emails tomorrow.

Just one today, right, real quick, from Paul. Would you drop Yonder Alonzo to add Nick Williams? No. No. No, I mean, I like Williams better this week, but I think it'll be happier with Alonzo in the long run. Alonzo said he was pressing, trying a little bit too hard, and not using the whole field. So he had a good game yesterday. Let's see if he can pick it up.

For a heath and Scott, I'm Adam. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll talk to you on Tuesday on Fantasy Baseball today.