Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/02: Big debuts and July recap (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

We break down Cole Hamels' debut with the Cubs and Tyler Glasnow's debut with the Rays before breaking down July's leaders at each position. Is the first base position still weak? Buying Kole Calhoun's big month? Your emails at [e-mail] This episode is sponsored by www.ZipRecruiter.com 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

Cole Hamels and Tyler Glass now looking pretty good in their debuts with their new teams. Chris Towers looking pretty good with the short sleeve, the T-shirt on. Suns-out guns out. It's casual day today. Is it really? I'm wearing a hat. You are. Some sneaks.

Go to the ball game. All kinds of casual wear. What color socks are you wearing? I am wearing some black and gray and tan. teal stripes. No. There's teal. There's color.

White is the only correct answer if you're doing casual day. I don't own any white socks. Wow. That doesn't surprise. That surprises me that anybody in the world wouldn't own any white socks, but... I own zero white socks. That's stupid. Okay, so...

I'm not a dad. Let's talk fantasy baseball here. Yeah, we're going to talk about all those awesome debuts. We had some interesting double dongers last night. Jake Bowers and Cole Cahoon continue to team. off. Noah Cinderguard? Is he going the Clayton Kershaw, Madison, Bumgar Rout? We'll discuss that. But how about Cole Hamill, Scott? Five innings, one unearned run, nine strikeouts at Pittsburgh, 14 swinging strikes on 95 pitches for Hamels. He's got two starts at Kansas City and home against

Washington next week. Is this anything more than just one encouraging start for Cole Hamels? I think it would be an overreaction to say it's more than one encouraging start for Cole Hamill's. I do think the fact his entire road stat line while he was with the Rangers, I think is encouraging. And this was another start that wasn't at Globe Life Park in Arlington or whatever it's called, where the Rangers play. It's been far and away the most hitter-friendly park this year. You know, it doesn't flatten breaking balls the way Corse Field does. but in terms of actual result data, it's been the worst.

And Cole Hamill's ERA was over six there and under three everywhere else with greatly improved strikeout and home run numbers away from Texas too. So how confident are you? How confident are you? Another good start away from Texas. How confident am I in Cole Hamill?

I mean, he's must own. I would probably start him more than not. I would plan to start him more than not. I want to say must start, but I think even in most one start week, so probably be worse starting. I don't know where you have him ranked, but I just, off the top of my head, I would think, like, in the 40 range. Makes sense to me. That's a little lower than that. Yeah.

But not much. He's like 54th or something. Maybe a little higher. I don't know. I can pull it up and tell you exactly instead of just guessing. That would be a good idea, right? I got you, Scott. You got him 55th.

There you go. So from one encouraging debut to another, Chris Towers, Tyler Glass Now is 15% owned, three innings, one run on two hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. And they're going to try to stretch him out to be more of a conventional starter for the Tampa Bay Race, as far as I know.

What do you think? Are you motivated to add Tyler Glass now? I am so motivated to add Tyler Glass now. But I was before this start. This start was encouraging. you know, the control was actually not a problem. It was only three innings. So we'll see.

He could have gotten into the fourth and walked four guys. And that wouldn't have been a surprise given what we know about Tyler Glass now. But, you know, the talent here is undeniable. And the question is, you know, he's got like a 14% walk rate on the season. If they can get that down into the 10% range where Blake Snell's been, I think he has the same upside, Blake Snell does. I think he can actually be a better strikeout pitcher than Blake Snell. There is huge upside with Tyler Glass now.

second half of the season and I want some exposure to that. I don't think he's worth adding in every league but he will have SPARP eligibility moving forward because he was a reliever for the Pirates. So there is the potential for him to be a really useful player down the stretch.

Okay. All right, cool. Hey, what about Jake Ferreya, Scott? 20% of us. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't as encouraging of the outing as Tyler Glass now and I make that comparison because they both pitched about three innings in the same game.

Faria walked three, and walks have been an issue for him all season. I was encouraged to see, I mean, he only threw five changeups. That's his best pitch, but he got a swinging strike on three of those five. But it was both the walks that were an issue early on, and the fact that his change-up wasn't nearly as effective early on. So that's, if you want to take something, encouraging away from the outing, that's what I'd take. I suspect, since they don't have any starters left,

at least not until Snell comes off the deal, I suspect Faria will be be stretched out to use as a starter going forward too. Okay, yeah, he piggybacked off of Glass now yesterday. More debuts, Jonathan Scope, 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. He batted fourth, he played second base, and the most interesting part of this, Travis Shaw sat against a lefty. And I think we'll give it a little more time

and see what happens. But Arnaz started against the lefty and he's got pretty good numbers against lefties for the second straight year Eran Perez.

Meanwhile, Brian Dozier had a great debut. He homered, he doubled, he scored twice, he batted fifth, he played second base for the Dodgers

and we will see what happens when Justin Turner comes back today in terms of what that means for Chris Taylor, for Jacques-Peterson, for Yassau-Pleeg, etc. But bad debut

for Max Muncie. Oh, Monsey didn't play yesterday, did he? He played, he didn't start. came in as a late inning replacement. So, yeah, that's going to be fascinating.

Cody Bellinger started at first base last night and then moved to center field. He leads the Dodgers and appearances at first base in center field this season, which is kind of funny. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens. My guess would be that Max Muncie stays in the lineup every day, but maybe not. Well, okay, I get to a Tommy fam question. We'll go to him in a second, but is now the time to sell Max Muncie, or should we hold? I'd hold. Yeah, I would guess his value's too low right now to sell.

There seems to be a Muncie panic falling over, at least my Twitter followers. Oh, yeah? Since the trade broke, that's the one everybody's freaked out about, which I think says something about how good Max Muncie is. And surely if all his owners realize it, the Dodgers do too. I mean, he's their best hitter. Oh, well, other than Machado. I guess I can't say he's their best hitter anymore when they have Machado. He's been their best hitter this season.

The question is, it was a half season. And it was completely out of nowhere for his career. But all the peripherals backed up. That's what makes Max Muncie's whole thing so tough, is did he just have an amazing two months? Maybe, but I like what we saw enough that I hope they keep giving him a chance. Yeah, and he's also ice cold. I think that's probably part of the consternation for fans. The owners, he's striking out a lot.

So bad day for Travis Shaw. I guess a bad day for Max Muncie, but we're not going to draw any conclusions just yet. Meanwhile, Tommy Fam also had a bad day. Over three, he scored a run, he walked, he struck out. And here's an email from Drew in Chicago. How dropable is Tommy Fam in redraft and keeper leagues? No more dropable than he was before the trade.

Probably less droppable than he was before the trade. All right, well, independent of that, independent of that, how dropable is he in redrafts and keeper leagues? It would depend if it's... If it's a three points... If it's a three-out-fielder league, yeah. If it's a three-out-fielder league, he's a little bit dropable and a five-out fair league.

I don't think you can. Yeah, you couldn't even dream of it in a five-out-fielder league. Yeah, and a three-out-fielder league, I wouldn't want to myself, just because we know what the upside is. But, you know, let's say it's a 10-team three-out-fielder league. I can understand it. There's always a lot of good options on waivers in that format. To some extent, you kind of always have to be cycling through the hot hand.

Cycling from one to the next in that format. Would you rather have Gregory Polanco or Tommy Fam rest of season? I would rather have Gregory Polanco, who you may be surprised to learn, has, I think he's caught up to Mitch Hanager in head-to-head points this year. Yeah, that's because Mitch Hanigur is since May 1st, I think he has like a 760 OPS, something like that. It's been... Which isn't terrible. I mean...

It's not, but it ain't great. That's for sure. If it was doing it over a full season, it'd be bad, yeah. But I think that's top... Let me stop with the eye things and just pull it up. I think they're both top 15 outfielders. So yeah, great, okay. So Gregory Palanko, we look at it.

Gregory Palacca, made up a ton of clearly. April and May, he had mid-stableness. 700s OPS and he's been about a thousand OPS guy since. So even when he wasn't doing that well, he was still hitting pretty well and then he's just been spectacular over the last two months.

And there's a lot of reasons to think he can keep at least some of it up, not a thousand OPS but a high 800s OPS for sure. Yeah, Gregory Polanco is real and he's spectacular, Chris. Trust the process. Scott got the reference. Chris, do you get

that? I got the reference. Okay, okay. Are you sure? I can't take you seriously. You look like Dan Lebitard right now. It's from that show. Doesn't he look like Dan Levitard? Mary Louise Parker. Yeah, Mary Louise Parker. Larry Louise Parker.

All right. Hanninger's 18th and Polanco's 19. Oh, the top 20. Lired. By the way, later in the show, we're going to talk about the best of July. Who are the best performers at each position in the month of July? Right now, we're going to talk about the best and the worst. From Wednesday, Wednesday's standouts.

I'm going to start with Noah Cinderguard. Since coming off the DL, not including the hand, foot, and mouth DL, but since coming off the first DL stint, he's made three starts, and he's got a 265 ERA. That's great. But 21 hits in 17 innings and only 11 strikeouts. So are we concerned? That's 11 strikeouts in 17 innings and a 10% swinging strike rate, which is pretty low.

Are we concerned? Because this is kind of like what we see from Bumgarner, low strikeout, rapid, good ERA. Kershaw, low strike outwe for him, more like a caper rating, but lower swinging strikes. You know, is this too early to get concerned about Cinderguard or what? Yeah, it's too early, and you have to remember one of those three starts, he was just, they were just figuring out he had hand, foot and mouth syndrome. So I imagine he was dealing with, I haven't gone through it myself, I imagine he was dealing with flu-like symptoms in that start.

And that was the one where the velocity was down, really yesterday. down yesterday as well. It was down like one mile, like it wasn't down to an alarming degree. It depends. It depends where the baseline is set. Is the baseline set where he's been this season? Because his velocity has been down all season. The average 97.5 on his fastball hit 99 in the game.

I mean, that's down to me is an alarm. It's, yeah, I mean, for him, it's down like one mile per hour. But one mile per hour and, you know, a start where he had a long period of rest. That doesn't really consider me. No, he averaged 99.6 miles per hour with his fastball last year. And it was only 30 innings, but it was 98.9 the year before. So his basketball velocity is down. Okay, it's still plenty good, obviously.

Well, I mean, is he a top 15 pitcher rest of season? Yes, probably. Would you rather have Cindergard or Bumgarner? Cindergarde. Okay. Other standouts. Chris Towers, got anything for me from Wednesday? No, we talked about glass now.

That was the one I wanted to talk about. It's the only person I care about. Scott White? Is Lance Lynn on the verge of overtaking Sunny Gray? Does it matter? Yeah, like maybe. And also, I don't care. Well, I'll tell you something.

It certainly matters to Sunny Gray. I'll tell you something. I feel bad because I said on the last time we talked about Sunny Gray, I don't believe in him. Two pitch pitcher now, whatever. but he had had three good starts in a row against bad teams. And he was lined up to face almost nothing but bad teams. It was unbelievable how good his schedule was going forward.

So I started him yesterday. I started Stroman yesterday in the same Roto League. I had a terrible day, obviously. It's not good. And I don't care about the matchups anymore. Now, he got a little unlucky in this start. He did. There was a bunt single because Glaver Torres forgot to cover first base.

In the five-run inning, there was one extra base hit, and it was because of bad outfield positioning. But still, I have very little faith in him. He might lose his job. Lancelins been so bad, so I can't see any interest there. I would have no interest in Lanselan in a standard 12-team mixed league if he got into the rotation. You're hoping for wins and strikeouts, but he's not a very good strikeout pitcher, and he's going to kill you an ERN whip.

Last year, he had a 343 ERA, but the peripherals were dreadful. And this year, the peripherals are just as bad. Eddie Rosario was a standout to me. Yeah, sorry Scott. No, you're not. No, I'm not. Eddie Rosario, like, he's so frustrating. Eddie Rosario is the number eight outfielder in fantasy still.

And in his last 33 games, he has two home runs and a 633 OPS. Should we just assume that he's this really streaky hitter that's going to finish hot? Or are there concerning signs for Eddie Rosario? Adam, you know my answer to that specific question? No, because you know what? we don't really know who Eddie Rosario is. We're still figuring this out. I feel like he's, we know he's pretty darn good.

I mean, look at his last 365 days. That's a pretty good indication of who he is, I think. Okay. And his last 365 days, 29735 homers 8602. Also, just ignore the streaks. And he's been a 290-2-97 hit in the last two years. with a slugging percentage right around 500. You know, that's two full seasons.

Frustrating guy to own, he's just about it like... Sure. I just want to say this about Lance Lent. Last 13 appearances, 12 of them starts 350 ERA. Now, the walks are still way too high, but everything else looks good during that stretch. So you get the walks under control. But there's no reason to believe he can.

Well, I mean, he's... Like, I just... It's an outlier for his career how many guys he's walking. So I think there's I just like I said With Eddie Rosario you know you look at the last two seasons and he's got a like an 860 OPS or something

Last two seasons with Lance Lynn The ERA was good last year like I said But everything else was really Really really bad And so I just like last 30 starts But they're much better this year Except the wall

They're not last 13 starts His PIP is like 4.5 Why don't we wait until he actually gets in the rotation. It's mostly the walks, though. The home runs are low. The strikeouts are high.

It's mostly the walk. All right. Let's wait until Lance 13 starts is a 413 FIPP. I just like, who cares? All right. Let's just wait.

Let's just wait. How owned is he? I imagine some people care about Lance Lynn. We talk about players less relevant than Lance Lynn all the time. So just how does miss of you guys are being as a little mind blowing to me.

I don't think he's universally owned. In a 12, like I said, like I said, a 12 team mix league I have no interest in him. Well, he's not even in the rotation yet. I mean, they move him to the bullpen, for God's sake. We don't know that he's in the rotation yet.

That's why I'm being dismissive. Let's wait until they actually make an announcement. Okay. Did you see what he did yesterday? I did. He was much better than Sunny Gray yesterday. And he did it out of the bullpen. So maybe his stuff is going to play up better out of the bullpen.

And the Orioles came into the gate. Like, you see this sometimes where the Orioles come into the game with a scanning report for a different picture. I don't think he's great. I just think he's much more relevant than you guys are letting on. I think he's bad. He's probably, all right. Okay, well, Tommy Malone.

Is Tommy Malone relevant? He's made two starts. He's given up four runs and 12 innings with 15 strikeouts against the Mets and Marlins. Tommy Malone, 1% owned. I have no idea what to make of Tommy Malone. There's nothing about him having two good starts, even just two good starts, makes sense. I guess he's throwing a slider now. So that's different.

maybe that's the key. Maybe Tommy Malone just needed to throw a slider all this time. But the good news is Steven Strassberg should be back soon. So we won't have to think about it for much longer. Okay. Tommy Malone is less relevant than Lansflin. Agreed.

Of course, he could overtake Jeremy Ellickson. But, uh, all right. We'll, uh, we'll argue about Tommy Malone at a later date. Here's something that we can all agree on. Hiring is a pain of the butt. It takes a long time to find the right applicants. And you don't really know how to go out and get those applicants. They're out there and you have no way of reaching them.

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ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's how you can try it for free. ZipRecruiter.com slash STR-I-K-K-E. One more time, zip recruiter.com slash strike. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. News and notes, Johnny Quato needs Tommy John John surgery. Bummer. Robinson Kanoe, still in the Dominican Republic. He could have started a rehab assignment yesterday. He hasn't. But he's been working out at first and third base, according to John Heyman. You know, I was surprised to see this, but I didn't really think he was having that good of a year. 287 with four home runs and 39 games.

And indeed, Canoe was only the 11th best second baseman in standard roto. But he was sixth in points because 21 walks to 23 strikeouts, 10 doubles in 39 games. That's a great pace. So right now he's kind of looking like a point specialist with the, you know, lack of power, the good plate discipline, maybe some doubles. But he's 65% owned Robinson Canoe. Scott, what should his ownership percentage be? Should it be higher or lower than Lance Lens?

It already is higher than Lance Lens. It should be... If he's unowned in your league, you should probably pick him up now. Maybe that's not true in a 10-team league or less, but anything standard size or deeper, it's time to pick him up. Because I think, you know, even if he continues his home run pace from before the suspension,

which, you know, he's obviously capable of better than that. He was still 11th best in Rota, like he said. And Rota's the format where you need a middle end field spot to fill. So I think he'll be basically must start down the stretch. All right. Trey Turner has six steals in his last four games. And he is the still number six shortstop in fantasy, but he had that little drought.

The drought is over. Trey Turner leads baseball with 28 steals, three ahead of Marte, Jose Ramirez, and D. Gordon. Oh, I thought Washington was a little harsh with Sean Kelly, but you never know what's going on behind the scenes for slamming his glove on the mound and that blowout loss and he got DFA'd. That's weird.

Yeah, it was weird. Nick Kingham seems likely to lose his spot in the Pirates rotation after another bad start, Nick Kingham. The Cardinals released Greg Holland. Mike fires left with a bruised shin. Stephen Mats is going to have his forearm evaluated. Yeah.

Uh-oh. That's a concern. Yep. Dun, done, done. Are the Braves going six-man, Scott? It sounds like it. They, I mean, they're skipping fires this time through with the Gosman acquisition, and then their game got reamed out yesterday.

So I don't know. I don't think it's going to be a situation where they're one through six every time through. But fires hasn't gotten sent down yet. So it looks like if you like. him and you play in a deep enough league, he'll still be somebody who contributes. Who? Freed?

They say fires? Freed. Okay. Fires actually got hurt yesterday. Mike Fires left with an injury. I think I may have mentioned that. Tampa Bay DFA to Daney Etch of Aria. And now Willie Adomis is going to be their everyday shortstop.

And he homered yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. So they're hoping maybe this kind of settles him in a little bit. We'll see. Meanwhile, Scott, I think I made the right call dropping Kyle Tucker for Eloy Havanais. Kyle Tucker set to AAA. Yeah.

Feel better about it now. Who do you expect to be better in AAA the rest of the season? I think they'll both be up. I would, I think they'll both be up again. I mean, obviously the results were bad for Kyle Tucker, but he only struck out like 20% of the time and had a really low Babbip. And, you know, part of it was just George Springer is hurt, and I think they wanted a more, somebody they feel more comfortable with

and center field in Jake Mariznick. Okay. Ryan Healy sat with back tightness and Springer still day-to-day with that shoulder soreness. And guys, let me just say, da-da-da-da. Justin Turner. Today.

Andrew Miller. Maybe tomorrow. Corey Dickerson. Saturday. Blake Snell. This weekend. and DJ LaMayhew today. And I think it's good that...

That was fun, right? Isn't that fun? That was very optimistic. You know what's weird? Just a weird cultural artifact? What's that? The theme song for Welcome Back Cotter was the number one song in America

for a week in 1976. Really? Can you imagine that happening today? A song specifically written to be the theme song of a television show? being the number one hit what's the best one recently i can't think of anything the only one i can even think of is the big bang theory that's a good one lady song now um was that was that was that was that was that was written to be the theme song to that show or did they they just adopt it for that

show yeah yeah the uh the theme song to the OC I don't know if you guys ever watched that was California but that wasn't written for the I know but it's a great I mean it's a great song I feel like they're mostly just, you know, there's no singing in the theme songs that are. Yeah, opening credits. Opening credits are done now. It was written for the Big Bang Theory. Oh, cool. French had a really good one, but it wasn't a song.

Oh, you and your fringe. That was written by JJ Abrams himself. Everything's always about fringe with Scott. Let's talk about these guys. We've talked about it in years. Yeah. Cole Calhoun and Jake Bowers, just in case you missed it. They homered again, and they're both 60% own, Cole Calhoun and Jake Bowers.

Chris, you didn't talk about them yesterday. Talk about him today. Hard to argue with what they're both doing, especially, we've talked about Bowers enough over the last month, that if he's not more owned than this by now, there's nothing we can do about it. So it's just people don't want to buy into a guy with a 244 batting average, but we really like him. We love what he's doing. But Cole Hauhoun, since he came back from the DL, he reworked his batting stance, and the results have been spectacular.

It's so dramatically different, his whole setup. And it's not just the results. I mean, they're all results, I guess, but it's not just the number of home runs he's hit, his OPS and everything. The line drive rate is up. The fly ball rate is way, way up. So it seems like the sort of change. that could propel him to new heights. And let's not forget, before this season,

he was one of the guys, we haven't mentioned it, I think, at all. But he was one of the guys that we thought would benefit most from lowering the walls in Angel Stadium. That's just mean, because I did mention that last week, jerk. Well, I wasn't on that episode. And I didn't listen to that one. No, you're right. We did. It hasn't really mattered where he's been.

He's home run. Four home runs in his last six games. Calhoun had a 7-59 slug. Pugging percentage in July. Like, I don't know, you know, it's tough to buy into guys had just kind of a middling career, but damn, you got to buy into a guy this hot, both of them. Yep. He was like, he had kind of gotten into a place in my outfield rankings where I just never bothered

to look at him anymore. He was like 97th or something. I moved him up to 42nd yesterday. So that's pretty close to needs to be owned everywhere. Cole Calhoun. All right. Just in case you missed it, they homered twice. Glaibre Torres, Yasmani Grandal,

Marwin Gonzalez, and Jose Reyes. We can ignore Reyes, right? Yes, although first player in like 30 years to give up two home runs in a game and then Homer twice in his next game. That's pretty cool. Marvin Gonzalez is still 61% owned,

and I just don't get it. He now has eight home runs this year. He had two yesterday. Yeah, he's been over-owned all season. one decent major league season and we learn that sometimes that is a breakout and sometimes it's just a good season yeah and i get frustrated every time i see him do something well now because that means you know it's bad news for kyle tucker coming back it's bad news for tyler white who was out of the line up yesterday i even like tony kemp more than marwin godzales at this point

Yeah, Tony Kemp led off yesterday. I got to figure that was because Springer was out, but Kemp's been all right. The other two are much more interesting. Glaver Torres and Yasmani Grandal. Scott, why don't you talk about one of these fellas? Glaver Torres, two home runs. He has a 902 OPS as a rookie. And Yzmani Grandal is the number two catcher in points, number three in Roto.

He has a 263 batting average in 19 homers right now, and he has been scorching hot since, what is it? Does it matter? Whatever. He's very hot. Yeah, he's the number two catchers. No, I was going to say, oh, he has a 1st. He has a 1st. My goodness.

Wow. Yeah. So are the rookie of the year frontrunners right now? I guess it would be Juan Soto and the NL. Would it be Glabor Torres and ALs? Is there somebody I'm forgetting? No, it's definitely Glabert Torres. Yeah, he's...

Highline drive rate. Like the power... it's kind of a weird situation because the power pace has been so good the home run pace has been so good that's probably been too good to be true but at the same time really good bad at ball profile

in terms of line drive rate and hitting enough fly balls to be a power hitter obviously he's striking out more and walking less than I'd like but otherwise I don't have too many concerns about just making him

my starting shortstop the rest of the way Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because Torres, it doesn't really do anything. Remember, we talk about who could have the second year, the sophomore slump? I'm going to be wondering about Glaber Torres because his play discipline is not anything special. He doesn't steal bases. He doesn't double. He just homers. You know, it's a little bit of a scary profile, isn't it?

It just depends how early he's going next year because he's like right around 12th in my shortstop rankings. So I think there's enough good. it and he won't even be shortstop eligible next year it doesn't look like it'll probably just be second base but it looks like there's enough good players at both of those positions that he's not going to be like an early rounder i could see him being in like the top 50 though yeah it might be it might be another rachel devours situation where you look at what he did as a 21 year old and you obviously look at the pedigree and you're like wow this guy could be could have a breakout like could break out even more from here i'm not saying the home run pace will improve but just

just all around production. Yeah. And then maybe he does take a step back like Devers did this year. But thinking more long term, it's been a very encouraging start to the career. For a guy who I think the most questionable part of his skill set coming out of the miners was how much home run power will he provide. That question has been answered pretty definitively. Chris, what do you think about Tasmania Grandma, the best auto-correct for Yasmani Grandale? He is quite good.

You know, we've seen stretches like this from him before. All right? That was a legit auto-correct in the spring trading. I mean, like, was it 2016 where he was the number one catcher until he hurt his shoulder? It was, yeah, 15 or 16. He's been number two this year, right? He's two and points, three in Roto, yeah. Yeah, in terms of overall.

All right, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Yasmani Grondal or Wilson Contreras for rest of season? Contreras hasn't really turned it on the way we hope, right? No, he's like nine home runs, I think. He's homered yesterday. I'd probably still go Contreras. But I don't know.

That's a tough one. That's a tough, you, Adam. Per game, I was looking at this the other day, and I think it's Rio Muto, Wilson, Ramos, and Gary Sanchez are the top three. Gary Sanchez, believe it or not. Wow. But I mean, Grundal is clearly one of the few catchers who really does provide something for your fantasy team.

I wouldn't rank him second like he's been in terms of total production this year, but he's top six or seven. Yeah, Grunzal's also pinch hit a number of times. I was just looking at the game log, probably like eight times. So that's going to hurt his per game production. All right, let's go to the rest of yesterday so we can talk about the best of July. Real quick, Randall Gritchick is 23% owned. Is he under-owned?

Maybe a little bit. He's decent. Okay, great. Nick Castiano is 5 for 42 with no home run since the All-Star break. Castianos is the number 10 third basement in both formats. Scott, is it just a slump for Nick Castianos? Yeah.

For the most part, he's still pretty close to must start, whether it's third base or the outfield. Okay. Rotation time. Five pitchers yesterday who are owned an 84% of leagues or more. And some good, some bad. Actually, you know, all of them were pretty good except for Kyle Freeland. That was Keiko, only two strikeouts, but after a July in which he had a 165 ERA, he gives up three runs and seven innings. It was fine.

I guess it wasn't that good of a start. It really wasn't, now that I think of it. I mean, three runs and seven innings is pretty Dallas-Kichael E. Yeah, I guess, but only two strikeouts, that's low for him. Nine base runners and seven, whatever, it's fine. Carlos Carrasco, on the other hand, was dominant. Seven and a third, four hits, no runs, ten strikeouts at Minnesota. Sean Mania,

I, okay, sure, Sean Mania. Keep on doing it with 98 strikeouts and 141 in a third. Better strikeout rate recently in his last three starts. Chase Anderson, got a 2080RA in his last eight starts. And then Kyle Freeland is 84% owned, and that sounds a little high to me. I said, Kyko, Carrasco, Manaya, Chase Anderson, Kyle Freeland, I will turn it over to you guys to talk about this group of pitchers. Manaya, like you said, his last three starts, the swinging strikes have been

among his best of the season. They still haven't been what you expect from a front line pitcher. far of it is last five have been fine. Doesn't have more than five strikeouts in any of them. He still has one of the lowest babips in the league and one of the lowest swinging strike rates among qualifying pitchers. So I still feel like, even with a slight uptick in that category recently, don't feel like he's performing over his head.

Still worried about him even as two-thirds of the season is behind us. The swing striker is not that bad, is it? 10.4% is above average. Let me look it up. He's got a 425 FIP and a 330-R.A. It's not a huge, huge gap, but remember, like, John Lester had a huge gap,

and that has certainly come back to bite him. He's been bad. I'm waiting for struggles, for sure. Sean Mania. It was it wasn't the swinging strike rate. He was he had heading into this start. He had the fifth lowest K-per-9 among qualifying pitchers. Fifth lowest among all qualifiers.

He is someone that I think could probably benefit from throwing more pitches outside of the strike zone. I think he's just like the stuff is decent and it always has been. He's always gotten a decent amount of swinging strikes with his breaking balls. It's just I think he's. he's flirting with disaster with the way he pitches. And I'd like to see him try to get more chases. Okay.

So Carasco, who's been red hot lately, is number one on this list clearly. Keiko, Mania, Anderson, Freeland. Who's two? Keikle. Keikle, yeah. All right, then Mania and Chase Anderson, who would you rather have?

Mania. Yeah. Chase Anderson, it's weird, because his velocity is mostly back to where it was last year. at least at the end of the year. I could talk myself into him over Manaya. Freeland's got to be last, right? Yes.

Yeah, he's had walk issues recently, and if you're not going to be a Cape running guy, can't have that. Now, Kyle Freeland is a 245 ERA at home, and he's got two home starts next week against Pittsburgh and the Dodgers, and I'm terrified. Yeah.

Right? I'd start him in a points league, not Roto. Yep. All right, Kyle Freeland. Marcus Stroman and Luke Weaver. Strowman, look, I think sometimes he gets single to death, and he had five innings. He gave up 11 hits and seven runs.

He said his stuff was really good. He gave up two doubles at Oakland, nine singles. Is this just something we have to accept with Stroman? Because since coming back, eight starts off the DL, a 399 R.A. Six pretty good starts, two terrible starts. And I think, you know, I know yesterday it was singles. I think it may have been the same with the Mets a much, the Mets start. You know, what do we think?

Because I was really pissed off about this start. But sometimes it's a groundball pitcher. It's going to happen. Yeah. I haven't changed my opinion on who Marcus Schroeman is, really. As long as he's healthy, I think he's pretty good. And this will happen sometimes. And then Luke Weaver.

Do we drop him? Well, you know, I'm a little worried about him losing his spot. But, well, I guess not so much anymore with Carr Martinez on the DL. But Weaver is at Miami and at Kansas City next week. Ooh! Please make those starts Yeah, I mean if he makes those starts I think you have to start him

But he's been a massive Disappointment this season You can't exactly argue it's been bad luck He just hasn't pitched well I would hold You probably do have to start him I would be holding my nose and starting him though Because I recall past instances

Where I thought it was a slam dunk matchup for him And he got he had to start like this one And this was the concern Totally unreliable. This was a bigger, I think looking back, we should have been more concerned about him as a, he was going in the top 100 on draft day. And he was really good in 60 innings last season, but he had never struck guys out like that with the exception of one stint in double A. His triple A strikeout rate was good, but not great. And now we're seeing that the stuff just may not be good enough.

He did it. He had all those strikeouts with a below average swinging strike rate. too. He's somebody who needs to get ahead in the count to have success. He needs to be an extreme strike thrower. And he was last year. He hasn't been this year. In the bullpen, Brad Hand got a five-out save. Cody Allen had pitched each of the previous two days. And Cody Allen himself has five straight scoreless appearances. Maybe they'll both get saves, but it does seem like Allen just wasn't available. And Alex Cobb is 16% owned. He's got three quality. starts in his last four. Do we care about Alex Cop?

No. No. Okay. It's time for the best of July. Who stood out at each position? Guess who the number one catcher was in July? Tasmania Grandma. Tasmania, Grandma was. But not by much. Salvador Perez actually close behind. So, Grandal, Perez, Reaumuto, Yadier Molina, Evan Gaddis, and Mitch Garver was sixth. Austin Hedges, Chorinos, Wilson Contreras. Yeah, I think you see pretty quickly where the catching position gets ugly in that list. Yeah, Buster Posey behind them, but I think top 10, right around 10.

Yeah, I'm not sure there's much here with catcher. I think let's move on to first base. I'm just using points, by the way. Carpenter was the number one first baseman and not even close. He had almost 30 more points than number two, Reese Hoskins. Number three, Will Myers. Paul Goldsmith, Edwin and Carnacion, Jake Bowers, Yonder Alonzo.

Anything really jump out so far? Carpenter, Hoskins, Myers, Goldsmith, Encarnacian, Bowers, Alonzo. Where was Goldschmidt? Goldschmidt was fourth. There were some concerns about Hoskins in May, right? He was striking out a ton. Yeah.

After a hot start, yeah. Right. He's really, he's quietly. It hasn't been the loud way that Carpenter's done it, but he's quietly gotten back on track and looks like an elite player in fantasy again, basically since he missed that time with a broken jaw, right? And even just the overall numbers, like he's got like an 880 OPS for the season. He's on like a 33 homer pace. He's very good. That's Reese Hoskins. Also on this list of top first baseman. I think he's number. eight or nine overall, Whitmerryfield. And maybe we know what Whitmerfield is now. Power, okay, not legit

from last year, but he's batted at 320 with seven steals in July. And he won average in steals? You've got Whitmerifield. Even in a points league, he hits a ton of doubles, he doesn't strike out much. He's a little Gene Segura. Yeah, sure.

Justin Smoke has more fantasy points than Anthony Rizzo in July. Rizzo only hit three home runs. That's surprising, because Rizzo since they moved him into the lead-off spot, and I don't know if he stayed there, but there was a stretch where he was absurdly hot. Well, he had three home runs in July. They all came July 26th, 27th, and 29th.

So he's hot. But we're still waiting for Rizzo to get white-hot. 12 walks, 15. I mean, everything looks good for him. Just hasn't quite happen yet. I think that's... Basically it. Let's see.

Joey Votto, one home run. One home run. 19 walks, 19Ks. It's coming. Yeah, all right. Nine home runs all year. Would you say he's due, Chris? Is he going to get?

He is due. Certainly hot. He is due. You will abandon your convictions for Joey. I will abandon all of my convictions for Joey Vado. Because Joey Votto is the human personification. of my convictions. So even if I do that, I'm still sticking with my convictions.

Carlos Santana batted 190 in July. He had 19 walks, 19 strikeouts, but he batted 190 with two home runs. We are still waiting for Carlos Santana to erupt. How about second base, the best second baseman? Jose Ramirez, number one, no surprise. Matt Carpenter, number two. Avi Baez, Jonathan Scope.

And there's Rognette Odor. Number five. Actually tied with Jonathan Scope for number four in points. And then this is a little surprising. In July, Brian Dozier was the number six second baseman. He had 247 with five home runs. He stole three bases. A ton of RBI and runs.

21 RBIs and 19 runs. It's a lot, but it's not like a ton more than the other elites at the position. Yeah, it's good. It's very good. The Dodgers get going for that RBI guy. Yeah, how about that? You know what's kind of interesting, though? I don't think I realize.

this. Well, I definitely didn't realize this. I don't know if you guys realize this. But Daniel Murphy had a 979 OPS in the month of July. Well, he had the two homer game on July 31st. He was good overall, though. Didn't strike out at all, 8.4%. He might be, might be okay. I did a new trade chart for Roto yesterday. And I think he's back in my top 125 players overall at least 150. So he's, yeah, he's climbing the rankings again.

Obviously, we talked about scope and Odour and how much they've turned their seasons around, so it doesn't surprise me their fourth and fifth. You just kind of glossed over the fact that Ramir has outscored Carpenter in July, even though Carpenter outscored the next first

basement by 30. You didn't think anybody could be Carpenter. Well, that kind of tells us what's been happening all year has continued. First base hasn't been that good. Not at the top. Ramirez has outscored Carpenter by 24 points. That's incredible.

Carpenter has outscored the next best second baseman by 25 points, and that's Javier Baez. So between one and three, there's 50 points separating Jose Ramirez. Jose Ramirez was like two points better per game as a hitter. That's nuts. It's crazy. He should go third overall next year. in both formats. Yep.

Who's number two? Altoevee, bets. Betts. Betts. And Lindor might not be far behind. In the new trade chart, he's fourth. He's fourth. The top four is trout bets, Ramirez, and Lindor.

Yeah, Lindor and Ramirez over the last 365 days have both been 40 Homer, 290 average with like 30 steals. Okay, so third base, best third baseman of the month of July. Hey, it's Jose Ramirez and Matt Carpenter, one and two. Alex Bregman, just half a point better than Mani Machado. They both hit 300 or better with six home runs. Machado actually stole, this kind of snuck up, but Machado stole four bases in July.

He has nine this year. That's cool. That's good to see. Yeah, he had nine last year in the entire season, 156 games. He had zero in 2016. And then he had 20. He had 20 the year before that. Baez's familiar names, Nolan Aronado is up there.

A. E. E. Haneo Suarez. So third base was good. So who surprises from this list? Matt Chapman, 322 with three home runs. 11 walks to 20 strikeouts and nine doubles. And I think those nine doubles, yeah, for Matt Chapman, tied with Javier Baez for the most at the position of the month of July. What do we make of Matt Chapman? We've got to have a talk about Matt Chapman.

He might be really good. Like, first of all, he might be the best defensive play. in the universe. He made a play on a bunt attempt the other day that was absurd. And also, he has cut his strikeout rate down from 28.2% last year to 23% this year. He was like a 25% to 30% guy in the minors. You put that together with the good pop. This might be a legit, this might be a legit breakout for Matt Chapman.

Scott, anyone else? Michael Franco is right after him, then Muncie and Shaw and Brian Anderson and Anthony Rendon. Michael Franco, do you buy what he did? 330, 3.70, 578, 593 with seven home runs in July for Franco. I don't buy he that. He could be, he could be, you know, a pretty good third base option, rest of way. 270-ish hitter with pretty good power. I like Chapman Moore.

Chapman Moore? Okay. And let's look at short stops now. The best short stops in the month of July. Lindor, Bregman. Lindor, way ahead of Bregman. He had six steals and seven home runs and more walks than strikeouts. Manny Machado, three. Machado and Bregman have basically put up the same totals, like I said.

Javier Baez, four. And you can see how interchangeable all the infielders are. They have so much eligibility. We haven't talked that much about Zander Bogartz, but he's been really good. And concern. Got hit by a pitch yesterday or the day before. Yeah, the day before.

It may not be in the lineup. And I think MRIs and X-rays came back negative, but we remember how good he was last year before a hand injury just ruined his season. He kept playing through it, but he wasn't the same hitter. And it's disappointing because it's been, I would say, I don't know if the numbers are that much better than they've been, but I think this has been a legit breakout for him as well this season. Yeah.

And D.D. Gugorius is five. That surprised me. It feels like, or six, rather. So it's Lindor, Bregman, Machado, Hobby, Baez, Bogart's. Didiagorius, six. She feels like he hasn't done that much since that first month. But he's kind of been solid lately.

Yeah. And Nick Ahmed is seven, Scott. Nick Ahmed. Yeah, it's been surprisingly good with the power this season. hasn't really offered much beyond that. I don't, you know, he had a good month. It kind of reminds me of Freddie Galvis' season last year. After Nick Ahmed, Jose Paraza, batted 337 with one home run, which is not surprising.

Three steals. Yeah, that's the one that, like, if he had stolen six bases, I would be excited about Jose Paraza, but for some reason, he's not running. Eight walks, 10 strikeouts, pretty good for Parraza. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's just bad bit because he doesn't give you any pop. Well, he's been, like, this is a guy that people were drafting, like, a top 150 player at the start of 2017, and then he was awful. But in 2016, he looked like a guy who was going to put the bat on the ball and hit for average and steal like 40 bases. And he's done all those things, except he's only going to steal like 25 bases.

And that's not nothing, but it's not much. Top outfielders now in the month of July. Chris, I think you know the top two. Christian Yellich and Cole Calhoun. Correct, and Yowich was only four home runs compared to 10 for Calhoun, but Yowich batted 400 in July. Unbelievable. 500 Babbat.

But listen, five walks, 25 strikeouts for Yelich as the number one outfielder. What does that mean to you? 11 doubles, by the way, very good, two triples. When you're hitting 400, you don't have to walk. But the strikeouts are high. they're a little high, but it's 22.3% as opposed to, I think he's like an 18% guy. So that's like a three strikeout difference over the course of a month. It's nothing concerning for me.

All righty. So yeah, which is great, Calhoun, two, Chris Davis, three, batted 323 with nine homers. Mookie Betts four, Gregory Polanco, five, Trout, six, Hoskin, seven. And even in a points league, Starling Marte was eight with 341, seven home runs and seven steals for Marte. Big month. He had a monster month. He's been awesome. And that's a good reminder that next season,

Robinson Canoe should be fine. Like, we tend to, I think, overreact to guys coming back from PD. Robinson is just getting worse as a player. Sure. If he declines, it'll be because of age. But I think people might be wary of him as like, oh, well, he's not on steroids anymore. And that's not a thing, really. Who do you feel like did definitively drop off?

is that. Milky Cabrera maybe. I don't think so. He was still good after that. I think most of the evidence points to guys coming back from steroid suspensions and still being the same guy they were before. D. Gordon had a down season when he was suspended, but then he bounced back last year and was the guy he was before. Nelson Cruz has shown no signs of decline ever and maybe never will. Well, they're all. So, yeah. I was going to make a terrible joke, but I'm not going to make it. Outfield is a lot of the guys that we've already talked about,

but yeah, I don't really know. Remember when Charlie Blackman was struggling? He had a 441 Wobah and like 1040 OPS, so he's fine. Yeah, Carlos Gonzalez is actually even a little bit better than Charlie Blacker. Yeah, he's up to $2.90 now for the season. He's playing every day. Probably somebody we need to look into again as a mixed league option. 74% own Carlos Gonzalez, and at the very least, own him in a daily league, start him in home games.

And finally, we'll do starting pitcher, and then I am so sorry, everybody, I do have to go. I have a pediatrician appointment. Are you feeling okay? Yeah, you know, I have diaper rash. Zach Granky was one in July, Trevor Bauer, two, and Jake Arenda three. with 28 strikeouts and 35 and a third. Chris Sale 4, Kiko 5. Win loss is very heavily weighted here

when you look at just a small sample. Yolisha Seine was number 6. Do we need to care more about Yolisha Seine? You know the answer to that. He keeps getting this babid luck that's going to run out eventually, even if it's been going on for a year and a half now. Don't buy it.

Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Aaron Nola, Marco Gonzalez. How much are we buying Marco Gonzalez? He's good. Yeah, pretty much, but he's good. Completely. It's top 40 for me. Okay.

Do you like Marco Gonzalez better than the guy right after him? Kyle Gibson. I do not. I actually, oh, okay. I have Gibson one spot ahead of Gonzales. All right. Gibson was not in the top 30 and fit. Oh, no, sorry. That's not true.

Move on. That's going to do it. That's going to do it for the best of July. I apologize for cutting this show short and not getting to today's matchups. Actually, you know what? I owe it to the listeners. I will get to today's matchups. Let's do that. You guys deserve it, you listeners. Your baby deserves you, Adam. The baby will be fine. The pediatrician can wait. Andrew Heaney, we're going to start him at the raise.

Sinsatella at Michaelis. Mike? Yeah. But not the other. Brad Keller at Ronaldo Lopez. I would start neither. Tyler Malley and Max Scherzer. I would start Max Scherzer. Pablo Lopez at Nick Povetta.

I'll start Povetta. Fultenevich at Vargas. I'll start Fulte. Sabathia at Brian Johnson. I would prefer to start neither. Yep. Robbie Erlin at Mike Montgomery. would prefer not to start Erlin,

but I could start Montgomery. Not me, but yeah, it's a good matchup. Andrew Cashner at Yovani Gallardo. No. Nah. No Vonny Garado. Yolishasian at Clayton Kirshah. Well, definitely Kirshah.

Probably not just seen. Probably when it starts she's seen. Baumgartner at Granky, yes. And how about Brandon Compton at Felix Hernandez? No. No. That's it for the show. Thanks for listening, everybody.

Back on Friday with some fantasy regulation and getting you ready for week 83. See you later.