Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/01 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Trade deadline Winners & Losers, Rosario!

Episode Date: August 1, 2017

We're reacting to yesterday's trade deadline moves with Scott's winners and losers. Don't overlook players like Derek Fisher and Brad Hand ... Amed Rosario is here! Where does he rank among shortstops? We also talk about other rookies who are thriving right now ... So much from Monday including Gio Gonzalez's gem, Corey Dickerson's double dongs, Felix Hernandez vs. Cole Hamels and a JAG alert ... 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

Straight deadlines. Last half hour, apparently. Yeah, now we got some good stuff. It's on Gray, you Darvish, bunch of closers. Fun stuff to talk about. Hey, are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? With ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click.

Get started on ZipRecruiter for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. All right, two-man show. We've plenty to talk about. Adam Azer and Scott White here. at CBS Scott White at Adam Azer, A-I-Z-E-R. Oh, why don't we start with? Oh, by the way, I'm Ed Rosario's up.

We'll talk about him. But you gave us five. Yeah, kind of a throwing news there. Yeah, right. Yeah, number one prospect, who cares? You gave us five winners and losers in your column on the website. Why don't you give us three winners and losers here on the podcast? Okay.

So one who I don't think maybe a lot of people thought about because it was a trade that didn't happen. is Brad Hand, a winner. We kind of assumed he would be on, he would follow Brandon Mauer out the door, so he didn't really hype him that much. And I know he closes for the Padres, who are terrible.

But he is like the, maybe the third best left-hander in baseball behind Andrew Miller and a Roldus Chapman. And we'll put up elite closer numbers, I think, apart maybe from saves total, that might lag a little bit. But I still think he's worth owning in much more than 50s.

56% of CBS sports leagues. And yes, folks, Scott White did just say maybe that Brad Hand is better than Zach Britain. He maybe. I did. I mean, right, Zach Britt. This current version of Zach Britton, absolutely he is. Yeah, no, I was just messing around. But you got to be a little encouraged, I guess, with Zach Britton.

He's got three straight say he hasn't blown a save. But yes, Brad Hand is a big winner. Brad Hand is owned in 54% of leagues. Would you rather have Brad Hand or the guy who's clearly the A's closer, Blake Trinon? I would rather have hand, but I do think Blake Trinen is, you know, I'd rather have them than whoever the Braves are going with. I'd rather have him than Alex Claudio or whoever the twins decide to go with, which is very much up in the air. Blake Trinan is also an exciting pickup just because of, it seems very clear he is the guy. Yeah, he's like 8% owned or something like that. Blake Trinnan in Oakland.

All right, so winner number one is Brad Hand. How about a couple more? I'm kind of working backwards up my list here because Brad Hand was among the five biggest winners and losers. He was number five. Number four, let's go with a guy who actually got traded, one of the bigger names, Sunny Gray, going from Oakland to the Yankees.

It's a big venue change, one of the best pitchers parks to one of the best hitters parks, and so that might be a little scary on the surface. but using Park Overlay on baseball savant, if Sunny Gray had pitched every game at Yankee Stadium this year and it was similar atmospheric conditions, he would have allowed three more home runs. He's not going to pitch every game at Yankee Stadium,

obviously only half his game, so it won't even be that bad, and that's not bad to begin with. You consider the fact, huge offensive upgrade behind him, a huge bullpen upgrade. The Yankees have like five. five closer caliber relievers and a better defense too because the athletics have the worst defense

in baseball according to fangraph's measurements this is a huge upgrade for sunny gray and it wouldn't surprise me he's a top 20 pitcher the rest of the way i think it's a huge upgrade for you darvish he's been rough at home last since tommy john surgery in texas and he's going to the best team in baseball right now or you know you want to i don't know how much better they are than the nationals whatever but they're clearly one of the best teams in baseball, so it's got to be good for Gray and Darvish, right? Yes, yes, it can only be good news for Darvish also. I mean, he's going to a team with like a 70 winning percentage, 700 winning percentage. So his win potential also improves with that. Do you want another winner? Do you want him to transition to closing? I think that Derek Fisher was the most unsung winner of the deadline. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he was also on my top five winners in Luebush.

losers and it was a low profile trade, Norichka Ayoki, going from the Blue Jays to the Astros, along with Teasca Hernandez, and the Astros got back Liriano, Francisco Liriano, who they're going to use as a reliever. But obviously, with the Ayoki out of the picture, that's one less outfielder in Fisher's way. It's, to me, makes it pretty clear he's going to play at least close to every day, even when George Springer gets back from injury, Fisher had already been playing a lot. He celebrated with a big game yesterday, and looks like somebody who could make an impact close to the one we've seen Tommy Fam make over the last few weeks. That's the kind of skill set I feel like Fisher has.

Derek Fisher is 31% owned. He's batting 317 with three home runs, six walks to 10 strikeouts in 11 games. He's driven in eight runs, and he let off yesterday. That won't happen, but Springerback, I wouldn't think, but he's going to hit toward, he could definitely toward the top of the order. I guess one thing to look at with Fisher is that he is one for nine against lefties, so if there's a week with a lot of lefties, I don't know, maybe you think twice, but let's see what happens. So that's a winner, and again, Derek Fisher is 31% owned.

Is he better than Lewis Brinson going forward? Yes, yes, I'd rather have him than Brinson. I mean, Brinson has the kind of talent that he could get hot, and it could seem like he. He's the better pick-up at that point, but as of today, I'd rather have Fisher. So let's talk about the losers. And if you want more winners, if you want more losers, you can read Scott's story on CBSports.com slash fantasy. Who are the big trade deadline losers?

So Jordan Montgomery, you boy. Actually, all of our, we all like Jordan Montgomery, right? 15th best swinging strike rate in baseball. Yeah, yeah. He needs a little sabbatical. Yeah, he's been rough lately. and he's going to get that sabbatical because the Yankees acquired both Sunny Gray and Jaime Garcia. I think Montgomery is a better pitcher than Garcia, but Garcia is going to give them some length,

and they're not going to demote him to the bullpen right after acquiring him. I think Montgomery's out for the time being. Kind of another under the radar pick here related to the Dodgers acquiring U. Darvish is Kinta Maeda, who now, you know, I guess it's between him and Tianjin Ryu, who's the fifth guy. I feel like the Dodgers have treated Maeda like the fifth guy since he returned to the rotation. We've already seen him be the odd man out before.

He's pitched well, but five-innings starts. And Clayton Kirshaw and Brandon McCarthy are both on the DL with injuries that won't sideline them for more than a couple more weeks, I don't think. So I would guess Maeda's stay in the rotation is, is going to be short now with you Darvish on board. Well, I feel like he's been better than Ryu. Similar. Riu's been pretty good, but part of that, yes, he's probably,

Maeda's probably been better than Ryu, but A, Ryu's been pretty good, and B, it just seems like the Dodgers aren't interested in stretching out, Maida, and they seem to like the idea of having him as this long man in the bullpen when he was there briefly. the injuries kind of forced them to abandon that plan. I think they would like, I think they would prefer to transition Maeda to that role than Ryu.

Well, that could be. I think, you know what, we've got a little bit of an audition time here for those two guys. It would be premature, I think, to drop Maeda. Well, unless you're just going to drop them, you know, before the trade. So I guess we could just wait and see what happens, but it is certainly something to keep in mind. Who are other losers? Who do you think the Nationals closer will be?

I mean, I've read, is it going to be Kinsler? Because I'm not sure that he's better than Doolittle who got another same. Oh, he's not. He's not better than Doolittle, but that's obviously not our call. It's Dusty Bakers. And Dusty Baker's from an era where the proven closer was a big deal. And Brandon Kinsler is more proven in that role than Doolittle. And what may be even a bigger deal is that Doolittle throws left-handers.

The Nationals now have two right-handers available for the end of games, Kinsler and Madsen versus one left-hander. So even just from, you know, logical perspective, it would make sense to preserve a right-hander for the ninth inning. Doolittle got a save last night. I think he's up to four saves with the Nationals. So maybe that's enough to win Baker over and he doesn't want to make a change there.

But I would be worried as a Doolittle owner and I would not be in a hurry to drop Kinsler. Yeah, who the heck is the Twinskler? So our suspicion, Chris, Chris Towers and I were talking about after the trade, and we were thinking Taylor Rogers, who has been the twins eighth inning man. It would, you know, normally the new closer comes from that role. Right. But Rogers has been shaky lately. Everybody in the twins bullpen is shaky.

I saw some talk that Matt Belial might get the shot instead, who's been better than Rogers recently, but has like a 450 ERA. on the year. I would invest in Rogers if I had to invest in somebody, but I'd rather not. Like, I'd rather go for Trinan or or Rodus Viscayino if any of them are available. I realize in some leagues you don't have a choice,

but that would be my preference. This is where an 8% owned Blake Chinon comes in, comes into play for sure. All right, cool. So those are some winners and losers. I think we should run down all the trades, at least briefly here. Boston acquired Addison Reed.

So there's another, closer, potentially, like J. Re's Familia might be available. It's either going to be Ramos long-term or it's going to be familiar, right? Like, if Familia either has to not come back or fail for it to be Ramos in New York. Right, right. It's certainly going to be Ramos for right now. All right, so the Yankees get Sunny Gray. This was a pretty good haul for the A's.

Dustin Fowler, Jorge Mateo, an outfielder, and a guy who Moteo can play either outfield or center field or short, and James Caprillion. Sorry, I talked over the names there. So it was Fowler, Mateo, and James Caprily. I mean, it's a haul if you consider only the upside for those players. But considering the prospect names we heard bandied about over Sunny Gray, I was a little underwhelmed by this return. I mean, Dustin Fowler had that rupture Patella.

That's a potential career-altering injury. James Caprillion's coming back from Tommy John surgery, after almost missing all of last year with a separate injury. And then Jorge Mateo had that spat with management last year, was suspended for a while because he demanded that he move up a step in the minor league ladder. And he's really just, I mean, a pure speedster, basically. He's not going to be a guy who contributes the high OPS we normally like from players and even fantasy players. So if he comes up, if Mateo comes up as a shortstop, then he will at least have eligibility there.

You'd think when he does come up for a year or whatever, he's going to steal a lot of bases. He's been very good since that spat you were talking about. I don't know. Look, this could go either way. Like a 750 OPS. Very good. I mean. Well, just no power, but he's hitting for good average, right?

Not great on baseability. And here's the thing. You say if he comes up as a shortstop, he probably won't because they have Marcus Simeon, they have Franklin Beretto, they have, they had been the Yankees organization, they were playing Mateo in center field. So I don't know that he is going to be a shortstop. Right. I don't know how the eligibility works. I mean, I know if Mateo came up today, I'm assuming he'd be a shortstop. That obviously is not going to happen.

If he comes up next year, would we change his eligibility? I have no idea how that works. It would depend on, for a player with no major league experience, it would be the position he played the most in the minors the previous year, which would probably be shortstop. But he may catch up in the outfield. I'm not sure how many minor league games are left or what the A's plans are for him. All right.

Moving on to the Darvish trade, Willie Calhoun is the prize here. But Darvish is a rental. Gray is under team control for two more years. Willie Calhoun, second base prospect going to Texas, along with A.J. Alexia, a pitcher in. shortstop Brendan Davies. I think people were a little underwhelmed by this return, were you? Yeah, I mean, for as much as I poohed the A's return for Gray, this was a worse return than that.

But you, Darvish is a rental, you know? Yeah. So you would expect a team to pay less for that. I was still underwhelmed. I thought Darvish, again, we heard some really big prospect names thrown around, considering Glaber Torres got traded for a world as Chapman. Last year's trade deadline and the prospects traded for Andrew Miller. It just seemed like teams were loosening up on their prospects a little bit based on previous standards.

But apparently that's not the case. Now, Willie Calhoun, I think, could be a pretty good player in fantasy, good power throughout his minor league career and makes a lot of contact for a player with that kind of power. There's a question of whether he can really handle second base. And so he may be better off with an A.O. Club if he ends up being a D.O.E. DH-only type. You know, obviously that's a much higher threshold to meet offensively. But Willie Calhoun is close to Major League ready and somebody to keep an eye on. All right.

So the nationals get Kinsler. The Red Sox get Reed. The Astros are turning Liriano into a reliever, which I think is pretty dicey. Their bullpins, it's kind of rough right now, I think, in the middle. But they're going to get Luriano to come in and face lefties. But Brad Peacock back in the rotation, right, with the McCuller. McCuller's on the D.O. with the back injury. Brad Peacock will, I believe, make a start this week, yes?

I started him. He better. I read that he will. Yeah, I would think he should be rested enough when that turn comes up that I would suspect he would be back, yes. And this, I mean, we kind of, we kind of had been. Yes, brilliant call by fantasy baseball today. Yeah, we said don't drop Brad Peacock. Right, right, because, I mean, even if it's,

Maybe McCullors is legitimately hurt, but they needed to preserve his innings. They needed to figure out some way to do that anyway. Yeah, if that doesn't win us a podcast award, I don't know what will. And here are the trades that were a huge waste of our time. Thanks for nothing, baseball. Arizona acquired infielder Adam Rosales. That's with Chris Owings on the 60-day D.O. With a broken finger.

Cotel Marte is on the bereavement list right now. So, yeah, Rosales going to the Diamondbacks. Cleveland acquired Joe Smith from Toronto, a reliever. Milwaukee got Jeremy Jeffers back from Texas. Kansas City acquired Brandon Mauer from San Diego. The Dodgers got, oh my gosh. You know, sometimes you just do something stupid in your mind for half a second. I read that the Dodgers got Tony Watson and Tony Singrani.

And in my mind, I'm reading, they got Felipe Rivera and Reissel Iglesias. And I'm like, oh, my God, biggest fantasy trade ever. They just got two closers and made them not closers. But no, the Dodgers got two. relievers that are not closers. And the Orioles are going for it. They got Tim Beckham. They're still in the wild card race.

So the Orioles got Tim Beckham. These trades are a huge waste of time. Thanks for nothing. Baseball. The CBS Sports app, by the way, if you don't have it, is awesome. It is now, we launched a new version of our app that'll be perfect for you baseball fans. It's the only sports app with box scores that show OPS, OBP, WIP, fantasy points. Right there in the CBS Sports app.

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You'll like it. So here we go. News and Notes. And today's obviously a pretty different show than what we usually do on a typical weekday. We will talk a little bit about yesterday's stuff. Corey Dickerson, Double Dong. Devers and Zimmer doing very well. Joe Gonzalez nearly through a no-hitter.

We have a Jagalert coming up. We do have team name Tuesday. We'll talk Felix Hernandez and Cole Hamels and Michael Fulmer and Mike Clevenger and Alex Cobb. But first, Ahmed Rosario. He will start today. Dominic Smith will be up soon, by the way. Here's an email from Cooper, Scott. Ahmed Rosario or Angelton Simmons?

Andrewton Simmons. He's been must start all year. I don't know why you'd mess with that. I think Ahmed Rosario is more for the owner who didn't stumble into an Andrelton Simmons, though it doesn't hurt to pick him up for your bench and maybe for trade bait. We probably only have like a week of that left in fantasy. But even so, if he gets off to a hot start, maybe you can dangle Simmons out there. Let me ask you a personal question.

Personal about me, not about you. Do you think I have Marcus Simeon and Dede Gargoreas at shortstop in middle infield and I have Rosario on my bench? Do you think I'm okay at middle infield and I should trade on me? Ed Rosario with Simons, with Simian and Dedi? I assume this is a Roto League. Oh, yes. So Simian, that probably makes

Simeon a little more valuable with the power, but I don't know. Simeon's interesting, but he was pretty fringy even with a big home run total last year. I think I'd want to hold on to Rosario and see what happens. I don't know

how big the return would be in a trade anyway, he's owned in like two-thirds of leagues still. Well, available in one-third of league still is probably the better way to put that. Yeah, Rosario, who do you think will steal more bases? Rosario or Simeon? I think Rosario will. Okay, yeah, he's a good, he's a potential steal source here. So Rosario is 66% owned.

Is he a top 12 shortstop in your rankings rest of season? I don't think he will quite crack that to start out. No. let me see where that would put him. That would put him ahead of Simmons, actually. Simmons is my number 12 shortstop. Now, that includes Carlos Correa and Trey Turner in my top 12,

and obviously neither of them are useful at all right now. Zach Cozart as well. So among healthy short stops, he would probably, Rosario would probably be barely top 12, I guess. I would say that if you own Ahmed Rosario,

you should try to, and you don't need them, that you should try to trade him to the Tray Turner or the Carlos Correa owner, but, man, if you have a, maybe in a Rotel league, that's fine, but if you're in a head-to-head league and you've got playoffs, like, those guys might not be back in time. We just don't know.

It's not a bad idea to try to trade for them just to stash them if you don't have plans to play Rosario. But I don't know, man. I wish we knew more about when Correa and, And what's his name? Trey Turner, we're going to be back. Yeah, because they might miss the rest of your fantasy season. They might, yeah.

Shane Green is the Tigers Closer. Stephen Piscotti will be back today. Mark Trumbo's on the DL with a strained rib cage. Dustin Bidroia could go on the DL with a knee injury. Lance McCullors is on the DL with the back injury, like we said. Yohamongata is 82% owned. He collided with Willie Garcia in shallow right field. He's day-to-day with a knee contusion.

Garcia was hit in the head, so we hope they're both okay. But Moncada, 82% own. You're ready to cut bait? I mean, I'd rather own Rosario if it comes down to that. But, no, I'm not eager to drop Moncada because he's off to a slow start. I don't think it's unthinkable in shallow release, but I'd rather not. If I had some ominous music, I would cue it up right now, as I tell you that Johnny Quedo left a rehab start with forearm tightness. Oh, done, done, done.

Yeah. Not just blisters, huh? Or should I say done, done, done? Oh, hopefully not. Hopefully not. Hopefully he's okay. I don't, I, you mentioned Shane Green is officially the Tigers Closer, and I don't want to gloss over that.

We did talk about it a good bit yesterday, but, you know, for those who weren't yet listening yesterday, he actually was my singular biggest winner at the trade deadline, the player whose value, I think, improved the most going from non-closer to closer. And it's not because he's this electric talent, you know, Brad Hand-level talent, but he's a good enough talent to, I think, keep the job for a team that should still be respectable to close out the season. It's not like the Tigers completely purged their roster. I think Shane will have a decent save total and be a decent option at a position where there's a lot of neat. By the way, we should point out, more trades will be made.

They just have people have to pass through waivers now, but we're not completely done with trades, but we're done with the bulk of them. Aaron Sanchez is close to returning to the Blue Jays rotation. Starlin Castro is not close to returning from a hamstring injury. Scott White, I am not convinced that Clint Frazier is going to get sent down when Aaron Hicks comes back. Last week I said, so high on Frazier, you know, he's going to be sent down. That's what Brian Cashman said. I am not convinced this kid is really good.

He hasn't been great in points leagues. His walk-to-strike-out ratio is terrible, but I have been super impressed. He's very talented, and if they're serious about winning, they need to keep him up. There is so much power here. His bat speed is just, it's the kind of bat speed you can actually see when he swings. And the way the ball jumps off it,

he's been an extra base machine. Again, like you were saying with a strike-out-to-walk ratio, I don't know that there's a lot of practical use. for him in fantasy, really in either format, because so much of the power is manifesting his triples and doubles, as opposed to just home runs. But it might change. It's an exciting future, and he's at least, he's at least, you know, passable in fantasy right now.

All right, that's Clint Frazier we're talking about, but I think you'd have to drop him for Derek Fisher, right? Yes. Okay. And Josh Tomlin is on the deal with a hamstring strain. Mitch Hanigur expected to miss two weeks. Oh, you probably didn't notice, but Leonis Martin was caught stealing yesterday. Look, he's not that good.

I don't know how much he's going to play. But if you need some cheap steals, Leonis Martinez is 5% owned. He had really good numbers in AAA. I think it's worth mentioning. He went down there and kind of forced his way back into the picture. But I agree. It's a long shot. And Jose Al Tuve.

That had 4-85 with a 1250 OPS in July. Good for you. Jose Al-Tube. Ready for a new segment? Absolutely. I did it all for the rookies. Come on, the rookies, come on. Raphael Devers is batting six now in the Red Sox order.

That was cool, but he's also batting 4-17 with three walks, five strikeouts, two homers, two doubles in six games. Bradley Zimmer is 62-owned. Devers is 74-owned. Zimmer is 62-owned. Since the All-Star break, Zimmer's batting 281 with a 509 slugging percentage, three homers and eight steal since the All-Star break. He has, though, sat against two of the last three left-handed starters, and he batted ninth against the other left-handed starters.

So Devere's 74%, Zimmer 62%, and of course Derek Fisher, who we've already talked about, 31%. These rookies shined yesterday, Scott, like Limp Biscuit would be so proud of them. And, yeah, how would you rank Devers Zima Fisher? I would rank them Devers, Fisher, Zimmer. Even though Zimmer's twice his own as Fisher. But I do think all three of... You know what? Let's put Clint Fraser in there.

Why not? Why not? Okay. He'll be at the end. Okay. There you go. Easy enough. He'll be fourth. I think all of Devers Zimmer and Fisher, their ownership needs to go up. I like what I've seen from all of them. I think Devers... I mean, certainly the idea that Eduardo Nunez is going to cut into Devers at Bats,

I think that's put to rest. There's enough opportunity. Even when Destin Petroy comes back, there's enough opportunity with the DH, but they're not going to remove Devers. Will he play against left-handers? That's still up in the air. We haven't seen a lot of that yet.

But he looks like, unlike Yohan Mukata Devers is living up to the best prospect and baseball type pedigree, which, you know, it was certainly in that discussion before the promotion. Zimmer, he steals a lot of bases. I don't think he gets enough credit for that. but I do think Fisher might be a little more consistent.

That's why he's second. You know, I feel like it's changed with what we expect from rookies when they get called up. I expect a lot from hitters at this point. Not to say that I think, you know, that Moncote is a failure. He's never going to hit. But I do expect guys to come up and be good, and I think it's worth stashing hitting prospects now. And I know we talk about pitching prospects a lot, and I'm stashing Brent Honeywell in one league, and Luke Weeel.

of course is interesting now that he's up. I don't expect that much from pitching prospects right now, you know, as rookies, when they just first initially get called up. It's just tough, you know, it's tough for them to make an impact. My personal theory is that Major League Baseball is going to change the ball next year, and we will have less home runs. I think that they're probably embarrassed by what's going on right now. But, you know, unless until that happens, I think hitting prospects are worth stashing.

And definitely pitching prospects are worth stashing. I just don't have the same type of expectations as I did even a few years ago. Yeah, no, the deck stacked against them, not only because it's a difficult offensive environment, but the way teams handle their rookie pitchers, they're so careful with them. It's become increasingly so over the last three or four years. So it's hard for them to make an impact in fantasy.

But sometimes it happens. I mean, Luis Castillo has been great. Herman Marquez, he's technically a rookie. It's taken a while, but I think now he's a regular part of mixed league. For now, I think you might be, I don't want you to get too excited about Marquez. Like, he pitches in Colorado. I know he pitches in Colorado, but I think the talent level, I mean, we haven't really detracted too much from our John Gray enthusiasm because of that.

Yeah, it's always a mention. But it's not like we've ever said John Gray was anything less than mixed league material. I don't think Marquez's talent level is that far behind. But he hasn't really had – I mean, he's having a good stretch right now. I know. He hasn't had that good of a year. No. Thanks a while sometimes.

Yeah. Castillo's been pretty darn good. I don't know how useful. Yeah. I don't know how useful he's been for fantasy. Those matchups have been so rough, but he's encouraging for sure. Okay, Scott, let's move on here. We talk about Monday standouts. First, though, look, it's really important for any of you out there who are hiring now or maybe hiring in the future.

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One more time, try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Well, you know, yesterday I talked about Andrew McCutcheon as a major Azer Fail. O. Gio Gonzalez would be right there on the Azer Fail All-Star Team with him. Never bought into it. He nearly threw a no-hitter yesterday, and he is the number six starting pitcher in points, number 10 in Roto, 266 ERA. Somehow only 9 and 5.

The bullpen has blown some leads for Gio. 115 whip, amazing season for him. What do you have to say about Gio Gonzalez? I mean, you basically must start, right? I do think the ERA is going to go up some, but we've been saying that for three or four turns now, and it seems like he just keeps doing what he's been doing all year. So I don't have any major concerns over Gonzalez,

like the bottom falling out for him. I think there's going to be some subtle regression but not enough for you to really care. Gio Gonzalez for Michael Fulmer the rest of season. I'll take Fulmer still. Gio Gonzalez for Danny Duffy. Big strikeout gap between the two. I know.

And it's surprising who is winning. I don't really know what to do with Duffy because he was, he hasn't been bad, but the things that made him good last year haven't really continued. And then there's the whole relief pitcher eligibility thing, which factors for some formats. I probably, you know, if relief pitcher doesn't matter to you, I guess it probably should be Gio over Duffy,

though I know my rankings don't reflect that right now. All right. Another Monday standout I had was Blake Trinan. We've talked about him. Another Monday stand that I had was Kurt Suzuki, who's 3% owned, and he is a slugging lately. He's got 12 home runs on the year.

Kurt Suzuki's been a pretty bad hitter for several years, but he's 3% owned. I don't know where this has come from because he had eight home runs in July. Whoa, really? I think he played 11 games. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Is he even going to start playing?

Because I think he's played two of the last three games, but you go back farther than that. They're still going with Tyler Flowers a lot. They're kind of switching it up, I guess. Is Kurt Suzuki going to be a two out of every three-day catcher going forward, do you think? I don't know because Tyler Flowers has been good too. The Braves catching tandem has probably been the best catcher in baseball, but they split at bats so evenly that neither is a standout on his own. Did you know how good the Braves were at catcher, people?

Sneaky. Last week when we were arguing about, who we argued about Santan? Oh, Bregman. I was looking at just some points league standings, and Tyler Flowers at the time was the number 12 catcher in points leagues. Yeah, probably surprised you, right? Yeah, I was like, what? Who?

Could it be even higher if he played regularly? Yeah, I don't know. It's been a great tandem, but probably more useful in real life than fantasy. Flowers is, I think, the best pitchframer in baseball, too. So that's another reason why it's hard to say, or Suzuki's just going to overtake him now. Everything's coming up roses for him. Ah, I do what you did there.

Zing! With your two lips. There you go. Oh, nice. Okay, so those are some of my Monday standout. Did you have anybody that you wanted to chat about? Let's see. I got plenty.

I got plenty. Okay, go ahead. All right, let's do a Jag alert. I got some guys that have been either, you know, solid all season or one's red hot right now. Are they Jags? Can you drop them? You don't have to, but could you? Ender Enciarte and Lorenzo Cain.

Both of them are top 26 in points leagues and top 32 in Roto. Having, you know, similar seasons, Ender and Ciarte is second in baseball and plate appearances behind Mookie Betts. Lorenzo Cain bat's second for the Royals. He's got a five-game hitting streak with 10 hits. So Enciarte and Kane, would you be hesitant to drop either of them if there was somebody you really liked on the waiver wire. Devers.

Sorry. NCRte is the name I was looking for. I would not be hesitant to drop him. I feel like he's kind of what we were saying about Milky Cabrera yesterday, and that he's always going to be fine. He's never a bad fallback option. But not a standout either. You can live without him.

I have part of the reason I like Kane more than NCRte is because I don't really buy the power. NCRte has produced this year, and it's probably been similar, but it was front-loaded the home runs for NCR-T, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Kane, we know he has some power. I think he's probably a more reliable base stealer, too. What's the comparison?

He's got four more steals in the same amount of attempts. Kane has four more steals than NCRte. Right. Yeah, I couldn't drop Kane. So I think Kane's better all around. But I guess, like, in a three outfielder league, I suppose I could drop Kane. Maybe not in categories because of the steals. He is on my podcast league team, and one of the three starting outfielders has been for probably a couple months.

Oh, congratulations. I did get him off the waiver wire, but I've never been tempted to drop him. Congratulations on your win this week. Oh, you're already throwing in the towel. Oh, my gosh. I had a really bad fantasy day yesterday. I had Alex Cobb in the podcast league. I'm losing 48.5 to negative 11.5.

But I have two more starts, so I guess it's not going to. completely over. Yeah, so, oh, you had Charlie Morton and I had Alex Cobb. That didn't go very well for me. No, it didn't. I had Fultenevich, Ozuna, and Claudio in our Roto League. Lost a couple points there. That sucked.

Oduble Herrera. So he's been on the Jagler list several times, and I am not an Oduble guy, but Heath is, I know Heath's not here. This is kind of why I'm not Oduble guy. Over the last two months, he's batting 333 with eight home. runs and 20 doubles. Like, that's very good. 333 with 8 homers and 20 doubles in two months.

He's the number 26 outfielder in points, number 25 in Roto. Sure, like, that would be great, but he ain't going to hit 333. Right. And he doesn't steal bases, and his plate discipline is terrible. So, yeah. I'm just going to keep dissing O'Doble Herrera. He is a total jag for me. I agree.

Not enough power potential in this environment, particularly since. He doesn't walk and he doesn't steal. Like he'd need to do one of those things with the kind of power he has to really stand out. Otherwise, he's just another player who... Just another guy. You're just a guy, exactly. Take that, Heath. No chance to defend yourself.

You lose. All righty. Uncontested victory. Oh, I forgot about this guy. My favorite kind. Yeah, it's the best. I forgot about this guy in the Jagalert. Chris Davis with a C.

Chris Davis is batting 223 with 17 home runs in 76 games. Wow. We're going to call Chris Davis a jag? Well, let me tell you something. You give him his fantasy. This actually surprised me, Scott. His fantasy point per game average. He's played 76 games.

Give Chris Davis of the Orioles 100 games. He's the number 35 first baseman in points leagues. And I know he's better in Roto, but I know he's better. I guarantee you. He's not top 20. He's probably not top 25 on a per game basis. Oh, at least if you give his averages over 100 games. I guarantee Chris Davis is bad in both formats.

And last year, he had 221 with 38 home runs. He was the number 17 first baseman of points, number 16 in Roto. Is Chris Davis a general? No, I mean, look, 16 in Roto, that's not so bad. Yeah, I mean, certainly startable, but not. You know I've never been. a Chris Davis guy. You've been acknowledging he's had a couple really good years.

I think a lot of people overlook the downside with him, and that's what we're seeing now. I think there's probably... I think his numbers are going to go up before the end of the season, but there are so many other first basemen out there that, like, unless you're just selling out for home runs and trusting he'll get hot, and make up ground there.

I don't have a ton of use for him. I think he is close to being a jag. I have a much higher or lower jag threshold. Not than me. I don't think so. I think you and I are more or less on the same page. Okay. Like it would be a little painful to drop.

I know Chris Towers wants to call everybody a jag. It would be a little painful to drop Chris Davis with a C. Cres Davis. Right. It would be. In a points league. I have no problem with it. I know a lot of people have power.

Chris Davis still has some of the best power in baseball. Yeah. But he hits 220 now. He's Chris Carter now. You know, three of his last four seasons, he's batted, including this year, 223 or worse. And that's just a huge drain. All right, that would be your Jagalor.

I got a team name Tuesday for you. This is from John. I, McHugh, McHugh-McCuse you. Ah, a little Ralph Wiggum. Yeah, I just, I don't like it, John. I know you're a loyal listener. You email a lot. You're the man.

Big fan of you, John. Adam doesn't like the Simpsons team name. Well, okay, first of all, this is one of my favorite Simpsons references. In fact, I was wearing an I Choo Choo Choochoochoo Choochoo's-you-T-shirt yesterday. Whoa, when you read the email, that is. I read it this morning. That should have blown your mind. But, but, Shih Tew is a baseball player.

Like, just use his name. You know? What name did he actually use? Call it McHugh. I McHugh-B-Q-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Doh. Come on, John, you're better than that. Double-Dongs yesterday, just one player, which is actually surprising. Corey Dickerson, we only had nine games.

I promise there would have been two or three if we had 15. Corey Dickerson was batting 236 with a 670 OPS in his previous 38 games. He hit two home runs yesterday to give him 21 on the year. Anything to say about Cory Dickerson? I don't think you should. at him. It's easy to say after a two-homer game, but he was due for a hot streak, and I think we're about to see one. Still started in 84% of leagues, Cory Dickerson. To the four-man rotation, Felix Hernandez versus Cole Hamels. They squared off yesterday. Felix didn't do so well.

Hamels did better. Six innings, four runs, three of them earned. One walk, seven strikeouts. I know you like Hamels better than Felix, and it's well-documented. You don't trust Felix. You call them a dressed-up Adam Wainwright or something like that? something like that. Now, Hamils... I think it's kind of bared out over the last two starts after that... I don't know. He had a couple of decent strikeout games that got everybody excited.

Oh, Felix is back. Well, he had a 325 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 36 innings in six innings in six innings. In six innings, since coming off the D.L. But Felix's last two starts have been, let's see, 11 innings, eight runs on 10 hits, so nine strikeouts. Not very good. You know what? Felix Hernandez.

Jack? Jag. Jack. Jack. I never wanted anything to do with him. I was always with you on that. Hamels, though, you and I probably disagree on, because you did strike the optimistic tone on Hamels.

Then you discovered the velocity issue. Look, soured my tone a little bit. He's got a 366 ERA in his last six starts. One terrible start in there. Four quality starts. But 32 strikeouts at 39 and a third. I don't know. I think I just sort of see him as like a low-ed number three,

high-ed number four starter at this one. point Cole Hamels. Yeah. And I've had a hard time, kind of like Danny Duffy, I think I've actually had those two linked together. I've had a hard time figuring out exactly where I want them in my rankings because I sense some, because I feel like there's a group of pitchers there in the 30 to, or maybe 35 to 70 range, who all are, you know, kind of.

unreliable, but you see some upside, and in the case of Hamels and Duffy, the upside is their past, which I do think counts for something. But when push comes to shove, I probably value Cole Hamels about on the level of like Drew Pomeran's right now, who, you know, if I own Drew Pomeran's, I'm going to start him whenever he's making two starts, has good matchups, whatever, but not really a big deal to me either. That's what I did. I mean, I didn't start Hamels last week in a one-start week. And I did start him this week in the two-start week. So the four-man rotation today is Felix, Hamill's, Duffy, and Fulmer.

How would you rank those four? I would rank them, Fulmer, clearly number one. Duffy, Hamill's, Felix. Fulmer, Duffy, Hamils, Felix. Next segment is called Love them or Leave them. These guys are owned in more than 80% of leagues. Widely owned players.

They are two-start picks. Are they more than just two-star streaming options? Love him or leave him, Charlie Morton. He's a little more than that, yeah, well more than a strikeout per inning now. Those percentages are coming closer to what the peripheral suggested they should be, so I think he's trending up.

Charlie Morton, love him. Alex Cobb, love him or leave him. Wasn't even clear we could trust him in a two-star week, and so far, that's, that's, played out. Yeah. Eight runs and three innings. We had been saying sell high on Alex Cobb,

but I don't think you'd drop him after this. Not necessary. He's got Milwaukee this weekend. We knew Houston would be tough for a Cobb. Mike Clevenger, love him or leave him. Two straight, bad ones. Yeah, I was suspecting some regression here, too, though not quite as severe and immediate.

His ERA rising by, like, a full run over the last two. I think he's... I think he's probably... back to being a streaming guy. There's some upside here, and you know, he wasn't even close to being even a streaming guy when he first inherited the role, so he still gained some value, but I don't have a lot of trust in him right now. Mike Clevenger, and finally, Mike Fultenevich got roughed up at Philadelphia. Love him or leave him.

Yeah, you know, I never bought the Fultenevich hype, at least not this year. Okay, so look, last thing, I know we have to wrap up early today. I have to get on the air for a fantasy football podcast soon. We got a late start unfortunately today, but Marco Estrada is 68% owned. He's going to get crushed this weekend at Houston, I guess, so you don't have to get him. But he had a good start against the White Sox. It was a, you know, was the White Sox. Right. I still haven't completely given, I haven't dropped Marco Estrada, the one league I own him. Yeah, neither of I. I feel like his skill set is the kind, like he's, he relies so much on

command, like pinpoint command, that when he doesn't have it, a guy who throws high 80s, he gets crushed. But I think that's going to be, you know, that's going to come in stretches. And hopefully the turnaround's coming. I don't know that I trust him after just this one start. But he threw a lot more strikes in this start, kind of like he was doing the first two months of the season when he looked like a Cy Young candidate. Marco Estrada. Okay, Marco Estrada, Jose Urana, Paul Blackburn. Is Estrada the only one you're really interested in?

Yes. In the bullpen, I thought Alex Claudio was the Rangers closer. They used them for two and two thirds yesterday. That doesn't sound like a closer to me. No, it doesn't. That's a head scratcher. Yeah, he hadn't pitched a couple days earlier, but only one inning thrown by Claudio in the previous eight days.

In deep leagues, any interest in Nick Povetta, Obaldo Jimenez, or Chase Headley? No, I mean, I'm still watching Povetta. the strikeouts have been pretty good consistently for him, but the runs have been up and down, and I'm not ready to buy into him after one good start against the Braves. Chase Hadley, by the way, batted 333 in July, and because he hit for no power, one home run,

he was not even a top 20 third baseman, Chase Headley. But in Daily Leagues, he's pretty good against Ritees right now, so you could think about him as a cheap play. Emails, I mean like Daily Fantasy DFS. Scott, we got like one or two minutes for email. So real quick, Patrick is in an 18-team Dynasty League. Should he trade Ahmed Rosario for Travis Shaw? He has Seguera.

He could use Shaw at utility. Would you trade Rosario for Shaw? No, you wouldn't. I could see it in your face. Well, if you're keeping them for the same cost and you're trying to win now and you have a chance to win the league, I think it's doable. But, you know, Rosario is exactly the kind of prospect you hope to give.

in the Dynasty League. In a Yahoo Dynasty League, this email is from Seth. Can you tell me if Mani Machado will still be shortstop eligible next year? Doesn't look like it. I don't think he's made a single appearance there, and you need 20 to carry it. No, that's in our leagues. And Yahoo, Yahoo, is a little bit more lenient. But I actually own Machado in a keeper Yahoo League,

and I'm not banking on him being shortstop eligible. Not a single appearance, so it would have to be some super lenient eligibility rules. And, you know, maybe he gets one before the season's over, but none yet. Like, last year I had David Ortiz's my first baseman all year in a Yahoo League. They just don't really care that much. So I don't know, but I'm not banking on it. From Ryan, dear Bruno, Borat and Ali G. If you're a commissioner, how strict are you on the trade deadline?

We usually have it on midnight. Sometimes trades go through in the early a.m., and people find that unfair. Give me your thoughts. 24, 3 and 3 against Scam and Kreef in 2017. Oh, thank you for Ryan for destroying us in the People League. I don't understand what the point of having a deadline is. Deadline is deadline. Deadline is deadline.

Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make sense. And Brando in San Diego has Carpenter, Jose Ramirez, and Whitmerifield, plus Starlin Castro. Who is your least favorite in that group? Carpenter, Jose Ramirez, Whitmerryfield, Starlin Castro. Well, it's obviously not Ramirez. It's Starlin Castro.

It's Castro. He's a ways away, like I said earlier. It is cast. Yeah, even if he was healthy, he'd be my least favorite. That is it for today's show. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry to cut it short. That wasn't that short, I guess.

And we'll talk to you tomorrow. Recapping everything for Tuesday, Scott White on that amazing.