Fantasy Baseball Today - 07/31: Trades! Bauer and Puig and More (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 31, 2019

Our thoughts on the big CIN/CLE/SD trade and if Trevor Bauer, Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes have gained or lost value. We also talk about Danny Salazar, Josh VanMeter and Hunter Renfroe who are affected by this deal. Then we discuss the Chris Martin trade (13:15) before getting into yesterday's games ... Yesterday's standouts (16:00) include Andrew Benintendi and Zac Gallen. Are they on the rise? And should we care about Drew Smyly (21:00)? Plus news and notes (22:30) and a very revealing bullpen night around MLB (28:40) ... Double dongs (35:40), checking in on players (36:10) like A.J. Pollock, Joey Votto and Austin Meadows, two players who are trying to regain past glory (42:00) and all of the noteworthy pitching performances from yesterday (43:10) ... 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

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. One, one pitch, basketball pulled and fast. Alboros and toward the corner. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris.

All right. Well, finally, a little action at the trade deadline. Trevor Bauer, Yasil Pui, Chris Martin, all changing addresses. Welcome to the show. This is fantasy baseball today on July 31st. It's the trade deadline day. Chris Towers is here. Chris, do you think we will have a wacky Wednesday with the trade deadline or a whatever Wednesday? Selfishly, I hope we don't. You know, Scott White works during the evening. So anything that happens before the trade deadline, I'm going to have to write about. Frankly, everyone knows that I'm pretty lazy. So if everyone could just stand, Pat, stay where they are. All your teams are good.

Nobody needs any upgrades. I would expect we won't see much action. It doesn't sound like Bumgarner or Cindergarde are particularly likely to be moved by now. Unfortunately, I think in Bumgarner's case for the Giants, because I think that would be a mistake, although it'd probably be better for his fantasy value to stay there. Well, let's talk about the trades, and then we'll get into everything that went on on the field, including a pretty, by today's standards, a pretty epic brawl in the Pirates Reds game.

I mean, wild. Yeah, and I'm happy to say this. You just really don't get legit brawls anymore. But we kind of got one yesterday. Like, remember when people, like, they were kicking each other, and they were just very mean to each other. It doesn't really happen.

Okay, anyway, here's the trade. Cincinnati gets Trevor Bauer. He can be a free agent after 2020. He's going to make a lot of money next year, but they've got him for another year. In terms of Cincinnati, Tyler Malley's on the IL, but you got Tanner Roark, Desclifani, probably not Alex Wood. One of those guys is likely leaving the rotation.

Do we know who Bowers replacing? Well, I guess Malley went on the IL for Alex Wood. So that would have been the obvious answer. At this point, I think maybe Desclifani probably has the best chance to lose his job, but I'm not 100% sure that he's done enough to lose it yet. I think Roark, you know, Roarck's got some bullpen experience could be him. He's less interesting than Dees Glefani from a fantasy standpoint, so I hope it's him. Yeah, yeah, I think maybe they just go six-man for a little while.

Okay, well, you know. It's hard to say right now. Cleveland getting Yassil Pueg and Fran Mulraeus and Logan Allen and a couple of minor leaguers, infielder Victor Nova and pitcher Scott Moss. So, yeah, I mean, Pueig and Reyes could start every day, right? This is great for Reyes. Yeah, I'm super excited about this for Reyes especially. Pueg, it's probably close to a lateral move, if not a bad move in terms of park.

But I think for Reyes especially, this is going to, and he hasn't been sitting out too much lately anyway, but I think in terms of the park factor, it's a pretty good move for him. So I like what it's going to mean for his fantasy value. And he was someone who I expected to perform better in the second half of the season anyway. He's not a 253 hitter. I think he's going to hit more like 270 with just a ton of power. So Reyes is 71% on. Framo Reyes, now you would think a pretty regular player for the Cleveland Indians.

He's been streaky all year. It's been annoying. But 255 with a 536 slugging percentage. I mean, he's really hit the ball hard. He is a five-game hitting streak with a home run in that stretch. By the way, I apologize for any audio issues we might have. We have some connectivity issues today. Yeah, would you drop Lorenzo Cain for Framo Reyes?

I think I would, but I would hope I have a player who's a little less interesting than Lorenzo Cain. Would you rather have Michael Conforto or Framel Reyes? I think Conforto will be better, but it's close. Okay. Hunter Renfro or Framo Reyes? Renfro solidified now as a starter, it seems. I think it's pretty similar in terms of their likely power output, and I think Reyes is going to hit for a better average.

Yeah, Renfro is 76% own. He has been playing just about every day. He's having a pretty miserable July. And he's going to be a streaky guy, but a 6-8. 85 OPS in July, 207 batting average for Hunter Renfro. Manuel Margo also, he had sat two of the last four games. Hopefully this gets him in the lineup more. He's three for 24.

I think now three for 28 in his last nine games. So he's slumping a bit, but still good plate discipline in that stretch. So Matt Margo... Mike's Will Myers back in the lineup. Yeah, he's been in the lineup a little bit lately, and he's six for his last 15 with a home run and three doubles. Will Myers is 51% of it. I'm just not sure that's something I'd get excited about.

He does have speed and power, but he's going to be a drag on batting average. And I don't know. He hasn't really fixed the contact issues as the season's gone on. And that's been the biggest issue for him. He was never a great plate discipline guy. But his strikeout rate for the season is 36%. It's one of the worst in baseball.

So it's all about making contact for me. with him. If he can start making a little better contact, maybe he can hit 250, 260 and be a useful fantasy option. But in terms of Ray as Rentfron Myers, he's third for me by a pretty wide margin. And the Padre is also in this deal getting a minor league outfielder, Taylor Trammell, pretty good prospect. In terms of the prospects in this deal, Chris, anyone do you think makes an impact this year? No. Trammell was someone before the season who did seem like he might have had the chance to get called up, but given that San Diego already has too many outfielders

and the fact that he just hasn't been particularly good in AA, hitting just 236. Decent plate discipline, actually, but has not been the guy that we hope to see. The profile does look like it could be really good for fantasy down the line, you know, a little bit of pop, a lot of speed.

And someone that I think scouts expect to kind of put it all together. and take a leap. But I'd be surprised if we saw him this season. That's Taylor Trammell now with the Padres. Okay, so we'll talk about the Braves bullpen in a minute. But let's get a little bit deeper into this. So Trevor Bauer, I'm going to tell you, is a 448 ERA at home and 16 home runs allowed.

And a 284 ERA on the road and six home runs allowed. Of course, this is a small park he's going to. I think that this is bad. I'm not happy about it for Bauer. And I believe that if Trevor Bauer's right, it doesn't really matter who he's facing or where he's pitching. I think he's got enough great stuff to overcome it. And you look and you say, well, look,

he's not facing Kansas City, Detroit, or the White Sox this year. He struggled against all three of those teams. It's weird. So the reason I don't like it, Chris, is because Trevor Bauer this season has not been right. he's walked too many guys, and he has gotten better, deeper into games. I don't think he's going to be allowed

to throw 115 plus pitches basically every time out. He might, he might, but I don't know that he will. Because it's not like Terry Francona's just letting all the Indian starters go deep. It's really just a Trevor Bauer thing. And so, you know, if Trevor Bauer, I mean, you know, maybe what happens is when you're managing Trevor Bauer and he starts talking about how he needs to start, needs to be let go, let, needs to be let, oh my God, why am I?

Jeez, what is going on with my brain? When he starts, like, going on and on about how he needs to, you know, be let deep into games and you're the manager and you're just like, oh, I'm just going to let him do it because I don't want to listen to Trevor Bauer talk anymore, is what I would say. All right, well, what do you think, value updown of the, same. I'm a little concerned. I think it's, and it's a worse team.

You know, so I think values down a little bit for Bauer. Slate down grade, I would think it's probably a worst defensive team, although I haven't looked at the numbers for that exactly. I also, kind of like what you said, I don't know how much it matters. He's so talented

as he showed last year that he should be able to overcome that. The issue is just that we don't know if he's actually good or whether last year was just a flu. It's hard to fake what he did last year, but his whole career has been defined by mediocrity. This year looks more like every year before last year. It's not like he's had a lot of bad luck.

He just hasn't been that good. Yeah. Again, I know Scott and I are sort of on the same page on this, and you and Heath are sort of on the same page on this, which should come as no surprise. I don't really break down Bauer's career quite that, quite the same way. I look at the second half of 2017. What did he do? He introduced a slider or something like that.

He changed his arsenal. He changed his career. And he became an ace. He carried it over into 2018. That's what I think the new Trevor Bauer is. This is just weird. Like, he was terrible before that. This is like, he's a good pitcher.

He's just walking too many guys. All right. So we agree slight downgrade for Bauer. Yasio Pui, slight upgrade? He's been a lot better at home than on the road. I'm sorry. slight downgrade. I meant slight down. Lateral move. Probably a better offense given the way Jose Ramirez has been hitting and the addition of

friend Mill Reyes. They go six deep in quality hitters now, I think. But yeah, it's a slightly worse home park. It's not a significantly worse home park. I think he'll be fine. Yeah, maybe a slight downgrade for a guy like Jose Barrios, who if he has to face the Indians, is all of a sudden facing a much tougher lineup. There are two players who I think are interesting ads because of this trade. And I picked both of them up yesterday in one league. I picked one of them up in one league. You know, I was looking for both of them.

First of all, I'm looking for Reyes everywhere. Framma Reyes is available. That's who I want. But Josh Van Meter and Danny Salazar. Salazar is going to make his Indians debut. His 2018 debut tomorrow. He's going to throw about 50 pitches, ideally. So you don't want to start him.

but you might want to add him. And Van Meter, he sat yesterday. He went over one as a pinch hitter. Previous five games, 10 for 18 with three homers. He's 22% only shortstop eligible. He's outfield eligible. It might be second base eligible. I'll check on that.

But who are you more interested in picking up? Josh Van Meter or Danny Salazar? Probably Van Meter. I really, I'm a big fan of Danny Salazar's, but I'm just not sure he's going to be allowed to be a real starter this season coming back from the kind of shoulder issues that threatened to ruin

his career. I'd be surprised if he's throwing more than 85 or 90 pitches even at his most this season. So I think we're going to see a lot of four maybe five innings starts from him. Whereas Van Meter, you look at a lot of the underlying stats

do largely back up what he's done. He's not going to hit for this kind of power moving forward, but he has turned himself into a decent power hitter and you know makes enough contact that I don't think he's going to get cheated. Yeah, he's pretty interesting. What was like? Oh, his eligibility.

Let's take a look here. Van Meter, it's one word. V-A-N-M-E-T-E-R, killing time. He is a second, third, wow, second, third, short, and outfield eligible. Yeah. Drop. Go ahead. Would you drop

Scott Kingery for Josh Van Meter? I think that's a very, close one. I think they're similar players. I think Kingery's probably a little more talented but meter might play a little more. Yeah. Van Meter? I think you

just call it a meter. I'm just trying to be efficient. National Ampoons, wilder. Okay, I think that's about it for this trade. Anything else or moving on to the Braves trade? No, I think that's it. Cool. I think we covered everything. Good job.

So the Braves traded Kobe Allard for Chris Martin, minor league pitcher Kobe Aller. He's had some big league time too. Martin's just straight up having a better season than Luke Jackson, who was awful yesterday in a non-save situation. Chris Martin's 10% owned, Luke Jackson's 75% owned. What do you think happens going forward? I didn't see anything regarding this. I did see, I think their GM said, like, I'm going to let the manager. I'm going to let Snicker figure that out.

But what do you think? this is this is another one where it's such a big outlier for chris martin's career what he's doing this season that it's it's hard for me to buy into what he's done he has changed his pitch profile a little bit but not necessarily in ways that would lead me to think he would get a lot more strikeouts so i don't buy him as a very good reliever and you know it is worth noting that luke jackson for a long time was the best braves reliever and then things kind fell apart on him. So there's no guarantee that what Chris Martin's doing right now

will hold over and he does have a for-fip. So I wouldn't be rushing out to add him. No, I will see what the Braves decide to do with the ninth inning. I'd rather let them figure that out before I try to add somebody. Yeah, I mean, Anthony

Swarzek is, I guess you could still say in the mix, but I'm guessing Luke Jackson gets the next save chance unless maybe if it's tonight, it won't happen. But seven runs in his last six appearances for Jackson. His ERA's risen almost a run from 266 to 360.

We got some standouts. Andrew Benintendi's hot. Zach Gowan had a second straight, awesome start. And people are asking about Drew Smiley. Does Drew Smiley matter? We'll talk about it after this quick break. Enough about the trades. Let's talk baseball.

Chris Andrew Benintendi has 13 hits in his last five games, I think. he's homering a lot lately. One of them was stupid. It was a stupid pesky, stupid poll. He's currently the number 28 Alfield are in points, number 35 in Roto, but he's hot. And are you encouraged?

Or it's just a hot streak? You're probably asking the wrong guy. I'm just not a big Andrew Benintendi believer. And the underlying stack cast data is really, really not in his favor. He has an expected batting average of 250, expected slugging of 432. So it's actually saying that he's probably overperformed a little bit this season.

That's a really bad sign given how disappointing he is. But still plays in that great park, still gets a lot of counting stats. I think it's probably just a hot streak. I haven't seen much that he's changed that would make me believe that there's something new going on. The counting stats, to me, aren't great. It's 110 runs plus RBIs in about 100 games. Yeah, they haven't been great this season. Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.

One thing that's interesting about Benintendi is that his numbers, his slash line is better against lefties than righties. So that shocks me. And that, you know, that's probably a recent development. Might be this hot streak. I will say this about Ben and Tendi. He had 16 home runs last year. 10 of them came in a 27 game stretch.

So I hope it's not just a hot streak. Well, I kind of do because I don't own them on any teams, and I root against the Red Sox. Other than that, I hope, you know, for your sake, Ben and Tendi owners, I hope it's not just a hot streak. Zach Gallin, seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts against the twins, 14 swinging strikes. His first five starts, Gallen did not go more than five and a third in any of them.

Now we're talking two straight, seven innings starts, with 17Ks in 14 innings. Very impressive. Yeah, what do you think about Zach Gallant, 71% own? And he was pitching really well yesterday, and the best thing about it was they let him go to 105 pitches. He had been previously capped at 99, and there were some concerns that he was only going to be a 90 to 95 pitch guy most outing. So the fact that they let him go that deep is a very good sign. He was uncharacteristically wild early on in his major league career, and that had never really been an issue for him in the minor.

So the fact that over the last two starts now, he has four walks and 14 innings to go with those 17 strikeouts. That seems to me more like what we should expect from Gowan moving forward. Pretty good control, good strikeouts. And if you dropped him, you're probably regretting it at this point. He is a, I think an extremely talented pitcher who deserves to be added. He's 71% owned right now. I think that's probably a little low. Would you drop Jake Oterese

who he faced last night for Gowan? What was Oterreze's final line yesterday? He pitched well. It was like five in a third, one run, something like that? Yeah, I think... It was five and two thirds, four hits, one run, five strikeouts. He had an 844 ERA in his previous six starts, and next week he faces Cleveland.

I'll get Kansas City this weekend. I'll get Cleveland the following week. Yeah, I don't have much interest in Oteridge. I think I would take a shot on Gallowin. Yeah, I think I would, it's one of the situations where I would hope I have someone who's done a little less than Otorizi this year. And I'm sure Scott White would say, no way, because I think he's still really buying Odareezy. But the strikeouts have gone away lately. I think three or fewer in four of his last seven starts.

Wow. And his high in that span is seven. He hasn't gone six innings in any. of those starts either. So, yeah, I'd rather have Gallin than Oda reason. How about Julio Taran, who has a 148 ERA in his last five starts, Tehran, who by

the way, is at Miami next week. I would rather have Galen. Okay. I have Julio Taran in a segment called LOL. Like, if he just keeps doing this, that's fine. Whatever. We'll live with him continuing to outperform his peripherals by

a run or more. And we'll just have to look stupid because he didn't do it last year to this extent. I don't know. It's dumb. 128 whip for Tehran and a 330-a. My last standout

is Drew Smiley. He's made two starts for the Phillies, six innings one run, 8Ks at Pittsburgh, seven innings, nowhere in runs, 5Ks against San Francisco, 20% owned any interest in Drew Smiley who just has not been a good pitcher for a long time.

Mostly due to injury, but it was terrible, was released by the Rangers. Yeah, he had not been a pitcher for a long time. Hadn't pitched in 2017 or 2018 was miserable with the Rangers. But, you know, it's interesting looking at how he's pitching in the two starts with the Phillies. He's largely abandoned his fastball. He's always been a 55% fastball guy usually. He's down to 38%.

He's throwing it a little bit harder, but for the most part, it's just a lot more cutters and a lot more curveballs since getting to the Phillies. and that's interesting because he's been a guy who doesn't have a great fastball and has always been victimized by long balls, I think, in part because of that. So I'm interested. He's definitely well below Gowan. I wouldn't drop Oteresey for him. I might rather have Tehran than him.

But it's definitely interesting what he's doing. In the deeper league, I'll look at him for sure. Would you drop Tyler Beattie Little Eyes? for Drew Smiley. Yeah, he's turned back into a pumpkin, unfortunately. Yeah. I mean, I have no faith in Drew Smiley. I understand what you're saying.

Oh, same. So at your own risk. But yeah, if you want to drop a low upside guy for Smiley, then sure, some leagues are deep enough. You need some Drew Smiley. Any standouts for you, Chris? Let's move on to the injuries, news and notes, Adam. Yeah, and I think it was.

was a really revealing bullpen day, too. So we'll talk about the bullpen. But news and notes, yeah, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, that was a pretty legit brawl. Really, me or Garrett went crazy. That's not someone I'd like to fight, by the way. No, no, the like six-foot-nine guy who throws a 95-mile-hour fastball,

definitely not at the top of the list of guys that I'm looking to get into a scuff with. Although I wouldn't say there's anyone I want to fight. No, I don't want to fight anyone. If there were one big leaguer that I think I might be able to take. Oh, boy. This is a really ridiculous conversation. But I would just go with the smallest one I can think of, which is Ronald Terreas,

who, of course, would destroy me. Yeah, he would kill me. He would pick you up and toss you. He would, yeah, he would kill me. Tim Anderson is back. Ken Giles had a cortisone shot in his elbow. He won't throw for two days. Luke Voight could likely be headed.

I shouldn't have said the word likely, but he could be headed to the IL. He's having an MRI for a core muscle injury, which he already missed some time with. Ramone Luriano is on the IL with a stress reaction in his shin. By the way, that sucks, by the way. But if Luke Voight goes on the IL, I imagine a little more steady playing time for Gio or Shella, who's got like an 830-ish OPS. Yeah, I can't make sense of it, but yeah, that's probably true. Yeah, like I would imagine LeMay who plays first base.

If LeMayhew himself doesn't go on the IL, he's hoping to play today. Yeah, Loriano on the L, stress reaction in his shin. That is a tough, tough break. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully it's not a long-term thing, but the problem with stress reactions is they're the kind of injury that you really do just need to take the entire time that it takes to heal off.

And if you try to come back too early, it can just get worse because a lot of it is, you know, because of this repetitive stress that's causing the injury. more news and notes Yoam Moncada day to day Gary Sanchez won't come off the IL this weekend we could have an update on Lou Geweaver soon

we haven't sung that in a while Brendan McKay could be called up today or tomorrow to start at Boston I am not going to start Brendan McKay at Boston not not at all probably not can we just let him stay up like you just lost Blake's Nuss

can we like can we make this for good and I'd like him to be used with an opener personally. I'm fine. I think he's talented enough that it wouldn't matter. I think using Oper would make him better,

but I think it would make most pitchers better. Maybe all. You think Chris Paddock is really going to get shut down? He's at 103rd right now, and he missed all in 2017. He threw 90 innings in 2018. So, I mean, I feel like getting up to 130 would really benefit them

to unleash him for 180 next year. You know, so he's got two. months left. No, I don't think he'll be shut down entirely. Because, I mean, if they fall way out of the race, because they're still technically in it, maybe they shut him down in September. But, no, I would still expect we see, you know, gosh, it might only be seven or eight more starts, though. Because even eight starts. I don't know about that.

I was thinking more like five to six starts. Yeah. But they spread him out. I believe. Yeah, but he's averaged. He's been at four starts per month, pretty much the entire season. Four starts per month, that's spreading out, yeah.

Yeah, it'd be tough to get him to 130 innings, even spreading him out without shutting him down. So if it does happen, it won't be until the last couple of weeks of the season. Okay. Yeah, so I'm less likely to trade him in my Roto. I think he's so much better in Roto than he is in points.

Okay, thank you, Chris. Good insight there. I'm just trying to look at their rotation. Yeah. So, like, they, they, since the last time, Paddock pitch, they went Lamette, Lauer, Lucchase, Quantrell, opener, and then Paddock. So he pitches, you know, every six or so.

Yeah. Yeah. Where am I? More news and notes. Still, oh, Corey Klover is approaching a rehab assignment. that's good. Garrett Cooper left for the hamstring injury. That's bad.

Jose Altovae was caught stealing. That's good and bad. He's running. That's good. Kevin Kiermeyer should be back today. Dee Gordon could be back soon. Ross Stripling's injury appears to be a short-term one. Julio O'Reas did not do well on his start yesterday.

Not surprising. Two runs on six hits and two-and-two-thirds at Colorado. Yeah. It doesn't sound like Stripling's going to make his next start, though, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Sean Mania should make his 2019 debut soon.

Mania or Salazar, who would you rather have? I'd rather have Sean Mania. I think Salazar might be better on a perning basis, but I think we'll get more from Mania. And it was really weird last season. He had his best results ever, 359 ERA, but the strikeout rate collapsed. But before that, he had been a guy who

got pretty good results from his secondary pitches in terms of swinging misses. He was a decent swing and miss pitch. pitcher who just didn't get the strikeouts. And, you know, it always seemed like just a little bit better distribution of his pitches could make him a better pitcher. If he's going to be in the rotation, I'm interested to see what he can do. And yeah, I'd be willing to add him. All right, that's Shaw Manaya.

Would you rather have Sean Minai or Zach Galen? Galen. Okay. And Vladimir Guerrero has hit two grand slams in his last 10 games. That's nice. and finally Marcelo Zuna began a rehab assignment. That is also nice. It's bullpen time.

All right, so I do think it was a revealing day. Archie Bradley got a save. Yep. Taylor Rogers got a save. Sergio Romo pitched the eighth. Emilio Paghan got a four-out save. Rowanus Aaliyas has now five straight scoreless appearances and he got his 14th save. Liam Hendrix blew another save.

He's been bad lately and Blake Trining got the win in extras. and Freddie Peralta pitched in the eighth and ninth inning. He gave up a home run. Josh Hader took the loss in the 10th. And Edwin Diaz struggled again. He blew his fifth save of the season. He walked two, gave up a run. You sound exasperated.

It's just unbelievable. Yeah, terrible year. Terrible year. And let this be a lesson. No, no, no. No, no, you're wrong. Don't pay for the best closer from last year. because this is what happens unless you're talking about a guy like Pete Kenley Jansen or Craig

Kimber who has done it for five or six years because the thing with Edwin Diaz was it wasn't like I thought he would be bad this season but in order to get him you had to reach probably around earlier than any closer was going he didn't just have to be good he had to be unbelievably good yet again to justify that cost and we see this every year there's always a guy who breaks out as a closer because we're talking about 65-inning samples. And when we're looking at starting pitchers, the guy is a good, you know, we're not looking at Lucas Gialito as the best pitcher in baseball because he had a really good 65 innings in April and May.

No, I disagree, though. I think it's, I think that your argument's fine, but in my opinion, not with Edmund Diaz. I do think going into this year, there was plenty of reason to believe that Edwin Diaz was the next Kenley-Jansen type. the next elite closer that was going to be that good year after year after year. And whether or not he finishes the number one relief pitcher probably would just depend on the save total. But in terms of ratios, ERA whip and strikeouts, you know, you had to figure Diaz was going to be one of the best. I'm surprised to see him pitching this poorly.

And I also think, Chris, that the next group of relievers that went, Chapman, Kenley Jansen, who am I forgetting? Blake Trinon, they all had question marks. Chapman and Jansen are on the back end of their career. So I thought it was just, look, none of us took Edwin Diaz because, yeah, I agree, like having to take him around earlier felt a little rough. But I just think you're going a little bit too far. I think there was justification for treating Edwin Diaz like that. My thing is, it's not like, oh, you shouldn't have taken Edwin Diaz.

You should have taken the next group of elite closers. I just, if we're learning one thing and we're learning a lot of things every day on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. But over the last couple of years, it's really, really hard to justify investing a lot in closers. I just, even more so than in the past, because there are so many more injuries,

there are so many home runs, there are so many teams who aren't willing to stick with guys through thick and thin, that it just makes it really tough to justify. Yes, Diaz hasn't lost his job, so a lot of that doesn't apply to him. But it shouldn't be a complete surprise given the fact that he wasn't that good in 27th. Yeah, it's true. I sort of dismissed 2017, because as I recall in 2017, he wasn't very good. He got removed from the role.

He took a little breather from it. He came back, and he was good once again. Very good. I took a different approach to relief pitcher this year because it was the first year. year where it seemed like only half of the jobs were settled. And we kind of bought into the notion that managers were going to use matchups a lot more. I don't really think that's happened. I would say they've used matchups a little bit more.

But I think most teams have a closer. Yeah, I don't think they use matchups, but they have a closer for a couple of weeks. The leash is a lot shorter these days. Well, that, yeah. Yeah, but I think we were sort of expecting like a raise. situation. The Razor are a true, at least when everybody's been healthy, Alvarado Castillo Pagan, a true bullpen by committee. There hasn't really been that much, including the Phillies. Now, if

Robertson didn't get hurt, I don't know what would have happened. A lot of their guys got hurt. Tommy Hunter got hurt. Like a lot of their guys, they just fell off. But they committed to Nairis. I do feel like most teams, maybe it took them a little while. But the whole bullpen by committee was probably a little overblown and probably will going forward. because I think when push comes to shove, most managers are going to want guys to have roles that they are familiar with, can have expectations for a routine. Sports coaches are cowards. I mean, it's easy to say when you're not actually in it.

But if you know the personalities of your pitchers and they want to know what their role is, then that matters. That counts for something. Sure. All right. So what about Archie Bradley? Inning in a third for his first save. I would love if he was the closer.

I think he's the best pitcher in that bullpen. I don't buy what Yon Lopez has done this season. Blanking on. They have Toronto, yeah. His control hasn't been as good this season, and it makes him a little shaky. I would love to see Archie Bradley really get that opportunity, but I think it'll be matchups.

And it sounds like they want Greg Holland to be back in the role anyway. at some point. Yeah. Bradley's only 15% owned, so there are worse flyers to take. Yes, I have him in a 15-team league. I thought Freddie Peralta's usage was interesting yesterday. Again, he pitched the 8th and the 9th.

He gave up a home run. I think in the 8th and then a scoreless 9th. I could see him getting some saves. And I do think he's going to be a pretty good reliever. So, okay, moving on. He'll play up in the bullpen. Yeah, exactly. It's just weird.

I think Josh Hader had two home runs allowed to lefties in his career before this season. He's got four after Matt Olson's walkoff. So let's take a look at it. There could be a stat that could be very fun. It is the amount of hits Josh Hader's given up and the amount of home runs he's given up. Let me come back to that. We have more to get to. The Braves' outfield is very interesting.

and Josh Hader Josh Hader has given up 24 hits and 10 of them have been homers That's kind of loud He's a regular Joey Gallo He's probably given up a sacrifice fly though unlike Joey Gallo Okay double dongs from yesterday

Adam Duval went yard twice And he's batting 529 in four games Since replacing Nick Marcakis And Corey Nicknickerson went yard twice That gives him four home runs this year but 18 doubles in 43 games. Dickerson does sit against lefties. He's 32% owned.

Duval is 13% own. Anything here, Chris? You'd kind of hope Cory Dickerson gets traded. And I would think there's a decent chance the Braves acquire an outfielder and Duval isn't playing every day anyway. He'll find out today. We don't know if hit for power.

Yeah, he's a 240, 250 hitter with pop. Yeah. Not necessarily an everyday. player, but we'll see. Let's check in on some other guys. Give me your quick thoughts on these guys and their ownership percentages. Christian Walker, 55% owned. He's got a 9-13 OPS in June, homered yesterday. One thing about Walker that you should know, though, since David Peralta has returned to the lineup, he's sat two of five games. They have moving parts. They have Cotel Marte who can play the outfield or second base. Eduardo Escobar who played second base or third base. Jake Lamb,

can play first or third. So, you know, David Peralta, even though he's an outfielder, it affects Christian Walker. 55% own, Chris. Yeah, I think that's about right. I wouldn't say he's someone I'm running out to grab if he's available. But, you know, we can know he can hit for power. It's just $2.50 with power is what everybody seems to do now. Yeah, yeah.

Austin Meadows is 96% owned. He has a 532 slugging percent. percentage in July after a 299 slugging percentage in June. He has hit three home runs in July. They came in consecutive games. He's been all right other than that. Austin Meadows, 96% on. He is not as good as he was early in the season.

He's definitely not as bad as he was in June. I still think he's probably not as good as his overall season line. But, you know, if he's more of a 280 hitter than a 290 hitter, there's nothing wrong with that. You wouldn't drop Meadows for Van Meeter, would you? No. How about for Renfro? I mean, sorry, how about for Reyes, Framo Reyes? No, probably not.

Let's check in on D.D. Gagorius. He's 89% owned. He's batting 276 with seven home runs. His plate discipline is not nearly as good as it was last year. 38 games, by the way, for Didi. But he's, you know, he's been streaky within these short sample size. like some really big games, then like a two for 15 kind of thing? Whatever.

De de Giorius. He's always been streaky, so that shouldn't be surprising. You know, you've gotten the notes that he was a top 10 shortstop each of the previous two seasons. I'm not sure if he repeated those seasons he'd be a top 10 shortstop this year. That's my concern. It's just maybe the position has kind of passed him by. And if he is, you know, last year he did have better play discipline. but for the most part he's been kind of an all or nothing power hitter.

And if that's all he is, I don't know if that stands out. Yeah. And as far as the top 10 goes, I mean, two straight years of D-Dee being a top-10 shortstop while playing less than 140 games. So I do think if he played 155 games as what he was last year, it's probably top-10, because that's a 30-holmer guy with good counting stats. That's my guess. I might be a little off on the numbers.

Let's check in on Yulee Gouriel, since his inside the park home run that just made Chris Towers furious. He does not have any homers. He has one extra base hit, but he is 8 for 19. Yule. He makes a lot of contact. He's going to get a lot of hits. It was never about that for me. It's just I don't buy him as a power source.

Even moving forward, I was viewing him more as like a 20 homer guy over the course of a full season, because that's mostly what he's been. It's a little better than what he's been for his career. But the argument for Yuli Guriel has always been a steady source of good to great batting average and good counting stats in that lineup. And I think that's still who he is. All right, let's check it on Joey Vado in his last 53 games, about half his season. Joey Votto is batting 311, but just six home runs, 14 doubles, and 844 OPS.

I think we can pretty much give up on him being a power. hitter even though he homered yesterday. But do you think Joey Votto is a plus 300 hitter? Yeah. I mean, it's come with a 356 babb, which is probably a little higher than you would expect from him moving forward. So maybe it's more like 295, 300 than 310. But yeah, I just, you know, it's kind of like the last time Miguel Cabrero was good, where it was a good batting average but not much pop. and, you know, he's probably maybe closer to Yule Griel. I think he's probably better, but not that much. Joey Votto.

And finally, let's check on A.J. Pollock. He homered at Corse Field on Tuesday. Before that, he had been super cold. He had been two for 24 with a walk and seven strikeouts. A.J. Pollack's 88% owned. Does that feel justified to you? Yes. Yeah, it does to me.

I'm now maybe on the wrong. wrong person to ask because I'm the AJ Pollack guy. Yes, you are. I'm inclined to believe in him, but just looking at what he's done since coming off the the IL, he's hitting 270 with an 880 OPS. That's pretty good. I think he is a legitimately above average power source at this point in his career, which is surprising because he wasn't for a long time and he's older, but the thing is

it's come at the expense a little bit of his batting average and he's not going to run. so, you know, expectations should be lowered for him overall. Yeah, I think Pollack, it's a shame. Those numbers since coming off the aisle are good. It's a shame that it happened in such an intense hot streak. 406 batting average four home runs in his first nine games off the IL, and then a two-for-24 slump before homering at Coorsfield yesterday. Chris, here's a segment called These guys used to be good.

It used to be very fantasy relevant, and they're both owned in fewer than 30% or less than 30% of leagues. Ender Enciarte he sits against lefties but he's basically replaced Austin Riley in the Braves outfield Ender in Ciarte and Kyle Seeger

who's on an eight game hitting streak with a 355 batting average and an 1168 OPS Do you think Ender in Ciarte and or Kyle Seeger could get back to being fantasy relevant? Probably not unless the Braves send down Austin Riley

but even then I wouldn't be surprised like I said with Duval, if they add an outfielder who could cut into both Duval and Enciarte's playing time and they just, we know the Braves don't let guys run when they're not batting leadoff. It's weird, but it's been true for years.

And Enciarte we saw last year, you know, ran a lot more when he was batting leadoff than when he was batting lower in the lineup. I think that's the thing you should expect when he's not batting lead off, is he not going to be a big steel guy and he doesn't really do a lot else. He can kind of give you an empty batting average, hopefully.

All right, let's move on to talk about some of the pitchers from yesterday. When you look at, man, some great performances, Verlander, Bieber, Cindergard were great. Darvish was really good. Oh, we're going to talk about the Justin Bieber matchup last night? That was very good. I like that. Justin Verlinder versus Shane Bieber. Yeah, they were excellent.

Verlander was better. And then you got you Darvish, who seems to have turned his. season around. David Price, who's really struggling, and I don't know that I would start him at the Yankees this week. That is House of Horrors for David Price. You got anything here? Yeah, Darvish definitely has turned his season around.

We haven't seen. Actually, he hasn't had to start with more than one walk since June. Yeah. And he hasn't had to start with more than two walks since June 5th. And he hasn't had to start with more than three walks. Fox. It's May 9th. All those are very good.

And his strikeout rate is, it's not quite the elite game-changing U-Darvish levels that it used to be, but it's still very good. Yeah, I think he's back. And someone that you're starting pretty much every time out, I agree with you on David Price. He's had an interesting season because he's been good,

but man, that guy doesn't go deep into games. No, not at all. He's averaging, like, right, around five innings per start. Yeah, you probably sit him at Yankee Stadium. I'm not sure I quite believe he can't mentally pitch there, but he's just kind of a...

He's a little bit more matchups oriented than he used to be. Well, you sit most pitchers at Yankee Stadium. Now, if they don't have... They're not going to have Gary Sanchez. They're not going to have Luke Voight. So they're not going to have Stanchez. Anthony, obviously. They might not have

Lemayhew. If LeMayhew's out and Voitz out and Sanchez is out, then it's a different conversation. But otherwise, you know, Price just isn't pitching that well right now. And he said he has some stuff to figure out before his next start. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence

going to the Yankees. Not a lot of confidence going into a start against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Didn't matter for Alex Young yesterday, of course. Fringy starting pitchers. Who are your favorites? De Nelson Lament,

Rinaldo Lopez, Chris Bassett, Tyler Beattie Little Eyes, and Griffin Canning. My favorites, and I think three of these guys are legitimately interesting. Lopez,

Canning and Lamet in that order. Yeah, yeah, I think that's the order I would go. And Lopez, that's what, four good starts in a row now since the All-Star break? This one wasn't quite as good

as the previous ones, the Four Walk. definitely a little bit concerning, but he's been getting swings and misses, he's been getting strikeouts, and for a guy who throws his hard, that had kind of always been an issue for him. I had such an argument about Griffin Canning

with a co-manager yesterday who wanted to drop him, and we still would have gotten his start, but wanted to drop him, you know... He's a really frustrating pitcher. Well, I think he's fairly predictable. You just... He's a match-ups guy, I mean, for sure.

I had no problem. starting Griffin Canning against Detroit, and he fired six scoreless innings with seven Ks. I was foolish enough to start him at Texas a few weeks ago, and it was awful. I sat him at Houston, and it was awful. And then he went out, he had a terrible relief outing in an extra inning game against Baltimore. I'm not really going to hold that against him.

What I expect is in the midst of all these games, I expect a lot of starts like what he did at Seattle a few starts ago. Five innings, two runs, six strikeouts. Maybe it's more like five strikeouts. that's an okay pitcher. You don't need to own Griffin Canning. And quite frankly, I don't know that I'm starting him at Cincinnati. I'm definitely not starting him at Boston next week.

Yeah. But at Cincinnati in a daily league is where I own Canning, that's going to be iffy. That's going to be if. I think I would. Yeah? No Puege. That helps. Offense has gotten a little worse.

But that's pretty borderline for him. We got some emails, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Oh, and by the way, to continue what I was saying, The argument I got into was like, you know, my co-manager was like, Griffin, he never pitches six innings, his ERA is terrible. Now, the ERA thing, I think you can explain with matchups. The six innings thing, we just talked about Denelson Lemette, Chris Bassett, Griffin Canning, Rinaldo Lopez.

Lopez might be the only one who's going to give you any length. You're like, you never get six innings from LeMette. You're lucky to get it from Canning. Bassett, you're kind of lucky to get it. from him. I mean, you're lucky to get six innings from... David Price. All but about 20 starters at this coming.

You know, that's something that like Blake Snell last year, didn't go deep into games all that often. Partially because he was, they were keeping his pitches low, but partially because he's... This is not an era that selects for

efficiency for pitchers. It's an era that selects for the ability to get swings and misses and the ability to get strikeouts. And you're going to have to go deep into counts to do that. And all these guys that we're talking about pretty much, with the exception of Beatt, are that kind of pitcher. Lamette and Canning and Lopez especially are trying to set guys down with swinging strikes. And it's hard to go deep when you're throwing that hard and with that much effort and trying to get strikeouts. And managers are not cowards because they understand

the analytics about pitchers going through the order the third time. All right, some emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This is from Dan in Grafton. Hi, Tommy, Dutch, Johnny, and Bobby. I have no idea. Cobra Kai.

Cobra Kai villains. Okay. And the karate kid. I was hoping you could do a segment on the show for us Dynasty League guys who are out of the running this year and are looking to improve our team for next year through trades before the trade deadline. Can you identify

some players who are underperforming this year that have little value to their current owners that you expect to have good years next year? Yes. I can't. So I might be alone on this, but I like Max Fried. I think you could have a nice little career.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that. One of the first things that came to mind for me was Zach Wheeler. Not someone that fantasy players are particularly enthused about right now. You might be able to get him for a relatively cheap cost, especially with the injury. And yeah, I think he's a lot better than his ERA suggests.

I don't think he's going to be as good as he was last year, but a mid-3s ERA with a lot of strikeouts is still very much within the realm of possibility for him. So that's one particular name. And I don't know if this fits the question quite, but Noah Sindergarde is another guy that I think will be significantly better moving forward than he has been. And maybe it's a good chance to buy low on Hermann Marquez. There might be a perception that Carlos Correa isn't a great player.

And I don't really believe that. I think when he's healthy, he is potentially a 900 OPS guy. So it depends on your league and how the Correa owner values him, but shortstop's pretty deep. So I wouldn't mind. Like Bogart's doesn't really steal bases or anything like that. He's having an amazing year. I can see Correa being even better than Zander Bogart's going forward. Sure.

So that's one guy I take a look at. Let's read some more emails here. I've got to dip into the inbox here. Okay, how about who to drop for Van Meter in a 10-team Roto Dynasty League? This comes from Michael. Scott Kingery, Scooter Jeanette, Brandon Lau, Lorenzo Cain, Lordeus Coriel, or Ryan Yarbrough? I think it might be loud just because he's not, it doesn't sound like he's particularly close to returning from his shin injury. He said shin.

I know it didn't sound that way. Keeper League here from Lyle. Who do you think has the better season rest of year? Will Smith or Travis Darnow? Smith. Okay. This is from John. What is Kirby Yates's trade value right now if an old.

owner was to seek a hitter in a keeper league with prospects? In a keeper league? That's an interesting question because Kirby Yates was someone that the Padres were reportedly considering moving this season. He's having the best year of his career. He's arguably been the best, he's probably been the best reliever in baseball for fantasy purposes. But he could go somewhere where he's not necessarily the guaranteed closer. So I think trying to sell him right now in a dynasty league makes a lot of sense. We should answer this question tomorrow, I think. That's true.

Because he's on the block. He might get traded today. But he's good enough to be a closer. He should not be a set-out man. But I would say trading relievers in dynasty is probably a good idea. True, true. Here's a grade the trade from Timothy. Give Chris Paddock, get Kyle Hendricks.

See? Okay. Here's a grade the trade from Josh. All right. It's a complicated one. Okay. Give up Darvish, Brad Hand, and Eloy Jimenez. Okay.

They are worth a combined $49. Okay. Darvish Hand and Eloy Jimenez for 49. get Max Kepler, Zach Gallen, and McKenzie Gore for $20. So you're going to save $29. You're going to give up Darvish, Hand, and Eloy. You're going to get Kepler, Gallen, and McKenzie, and this is a McKenzie Gore, and this is a keeper league. I think that's a B.

I think you're winning that one. Presumably you're kind of punting on the rest of the season a little bit there. Losing Eloy does hurt. That's the one place where you're really giving up a potential long-term piece. But I still like the overall return a little bit more. Yeah. All right. And last one is from Brandon.

You haven't talked about the ACEs metric much lately. Are you still tracking it and hasn't been helpful? We had a mid-season update. And one thing that we have seen so far is some of the guys that we talked about, who we liked because of it, haven't been. You know, I think Zach Laffin's a really good example of someone who we liked as a sleeper largely because of that. And then he came out and just wasn't throwing as hard.

And the stuff wasn't as good. And so, you know, that's something that you always have to keep in mind with, with something like Aces, with something like ex-Woba, with anything like that, skill fluctuates too. And not everybody can hold on when they, make gains. That's a tough thing to have to grapple with. But as much as we know right now about baseball, there's still the human element in a very real way. These are human beings. They're not just going to throw 97 miles an hour every single time. It's a range. Right. All right. Well,

Chris, I'm done for the day. Thank you very much. Thank you all for listening. Hope you enjoyed it. We will to you tomorrow. Oh, boy, this is a bad outro. It's a bad one. It's pretty typical. Yeah, it's typically bad. It's, uh, all right, it needs to end. Bye, everyone. Now it's even worse. Now it's worse. Bye. Talk to you tomorrow.