Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/03 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Godley vs. Arrieta and More Tough Calls

Episode Date: August 3, 2017

Adam forces Chris to make some tough calls on today's show, but first we wonder why Dallas Keuchel is struggling (1:40), if Carlos Gonzalez's hit streak means anything (5:20) and if you need to add Jesse Winker (9:40) and Luke Weaver (11:20) ... Zack Godley or Jake Arrieta (22:00)? Drop Wil Myers (25:45)? Kyle Schwarber (27:45)? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Reese's Pieces? ... Buy or Sell with David Price (34:00), Travis Shaw and more plus a look at today's matchups (45:25) ... 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

Brother Seagher Lackie John Wilmaia Stavis you, Brandon Bell's Colin Nick you, baby, Beck you. What's up, everybody? It is Thursday, Fire Cell today. Zach Godley or Jake Erriette, a rest of the season who would rather have, well, you know, do fun stuff like that. Bryce Harper or Charlie Blackman, make some tough decisions, and Dallas Keiko got roughed up again. And somebody's on an 11-game hitting streak, and you may not have even noticed it. I'm Adam Azar. Hey, what's up, Chris Towers?

Hey, am I the one that's on the 11-game hitting streak? Are you not aware who's on this 11-game hitting streak? I'm... Is it me? It's not you. That's my guess. And it's not you, no. Okay.

No. So, that would have been weird. You're all for one. Scott will be joining us shortly. Well, I think. No call-ups. I think so. I think he's out today.

Oh, he's out today. I think it's just me. Sorry. Why didn't I know that? You know, there's some things we have to play close to the best out of them. Can't just tell you everything. Some things are really important. Well, well, this is interesting.

All right, good. If no basis. You know what? I don't need a middleman. I can get frustrated with you without Scott here. Email us at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. And are you hiring? If you are, go to ZipRecruiter.

With ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. All right, let's run down everything we need to know from yesterday. Starting with a new segment called, uh-oh, could Kreef be right? Always. Yes, we're hoping no. Dallas Kiegel.

Five innings, seven hits, three runs, two walks, only two strikeouts against the raise. His previous start was three runs with three walks and three innings at Detroit. So this is two starts off the DL, both bad. Uh-oh. Could Creeh be right? Uh, probably. I mean, half of Creece could be right. I generally tend to assume that Heath is wrong about everything.

Um, I mean... Oh, wait. Wait, there was such a funny... Heath tweeted such a funny giff or meb or something. Oh, the Chris Taylor one? The Chris Taylor thing was brilliant. Yeah, that was good. First loss of the season for Dallas Keiko, not the first loss for me.

Look, what do you mean is Creeh right? Well, I think Scam thinks that Dallas Keikle is really good. And I won't speak for Scott. So let's just say Am thinks Dallas Keikle is a 270 ERA guy, rest of season. And, you know, you said, is he going to struggle after the D.L stint? but I said if he struggles, it would be because he's not healthy, not because he's not good. Or not because he's, you know, what he did in the first half wasn't legit. Obviously, like a sub-2 ERA is not completely legit, but I buy him as a Cy Young contender when he's healthy.

I don't think you do. Well, for me, I just look at it and I say, for his career, he's got a 363 ERA. He has a 369 fit. in his Sionk season he had a 2408 ERA and a 291 FIP so he outperformed it a little bit but there's not a lot of evidence that he's someone that's going to outperform

his peripherals by some huge degree he does limit weak contact but that would show up in your peripherals limit hard contact yeah and he's got a 348 FIP and a 215 ERA so when I say like Dallas Kichel's going to struggle it's that I think he's a low 3s ERA guy

and when you're going to six, seven innings every start, that's still hugely valuable. It's still a top 20 starting pitcher, especially in head-to-head points. But I just, I don't think he's an elite pitcher. All right. Honestly, a low 3ZRA would be fine for me. Probably a little disappointing, but very little. And I guess the question is, what do we make of these two starts?

He says, and his manager says that Keiko's fastball command is not on right now. I did read one story, a beatwriter or reporter in The Chronicle saying that the rays just weren't swinging at pitches that people typically swing at, which is interesting because Kikekall just peppers the bottom of the zone and gets people to swing at pitches that are outside of the zone. So they were laying off. But, yeah, I guess, you know, I'm going to hope it's just a command issue. And he gets back on track next week. And look, Rust is not something you hold against someone when they're coming off the DL for that long. So I think it's perfectly fine for Dallas Kuykel to struggle for these two starts, and it's perfectly fine to not panic about them.

But he's not going to be – I don't think he's going to be one of the dozen best pitchers over the final two months of the season. Well, he's got two starts next week. Kikl's at the White Sox. Hopefully he gets back on track there, and then he is at the Rangers. And I'm assuming just about everybody's going to start Dallas Kikle. Yeah, he's a must-start guy. All right, Chris, you might be surprised to know that. Carlos Gonzalez has an 11-game hitting streak.

Woo! I'm not surprised to know that, only because he told me that yesterday, that he had a 10-game hitting streak. Carlos Gonzalez got a hit yesterday, so I assume that expanded it to 12th. But he's had like one hit in most of those games. Well, he expanded it to 11 games. That's what comes after 10.

And he actually did hit a home run yesterday. His first home run for Carlos Gonzalez, First home run since June 20th. Yeah. What a shame it's not June 19th because then he could be a since my birthday candidate, but that is fine since the day after my birthday, one home run for Carlos Gonzalez. I do like the 11-game hitting streak. He didn't play on your birthday, so.

Oh. Wow, okay. Well, that's huge. So I guess he's got four extra base hits in this 11 game streak, three doubles and a homer. All four of the extra base hits have come at home. I am stashing him. He's 77% own. I'm stashing cargo in a 14-team league that I'm in first place in,

just hoping he catches fire during the playoffs. What do you think about his ownership at 77%? I think it makes sense because he's a big name, and because we've seen him go on tears before. I don't see many reasons to be optimistic, even in the midst of this 11-game hitting streak. He's not hitting the power. He's got a 385 babb up in that streak.

So it's just, okay, if this is the best, streak of Carlos Gonzalez season that says a lot. Yeah. All right. Well, it's something to keep an eye on again. Carlos Gonzalez, 77% owned. Some news and notes from around baseball. Not the newsiest day yesterday, which was good.

Greg Holland day to day, he cut his finger in the kitchen. I will say, I'm very proud of myself. I have not had a finger-cutting kitchen incident in, I don't know. I would say at least six months. I'm on a similar streak. Do you have a mandolin slicer? I do have a mandolin. We don't use it as much as we should, but it is apparently quite dangerous.

I'm scared of it. Yeah, I got one for Christmas a couple years ago, and the very first time I used it, I took a giant slice out of my thumb. Oh, really? Yeah. It's bad. It's quite sharp. Yeah.

It's probably, I do have a garlic mincer, which saves me a lot of blue apron time. I do appreciate it. Oh, wow. Yeah, I recommend it. Josh Tom went out six weeks with a hamstring injury. No timetable for George Springer's return. Julio Taran left with cramping in his thigh Andrew Miller on the DL with a knee injury

Max Scherzer is going to see a chirocractor about his neck but as of now still expected to make his weekend start I'm not sure about that but Scherzer I would bet against it at this point but hopefully it's still not something serious That Scherzer Matt Carpenter was scratched with a hip issue Gregory Polanco returned to the lineup Lorenzo Cain sat with a hamstring issue

Matt Adams sat after leaving Tuesday's game with dizziness Jose Reyes sat again, the odd man out so far for the Mets. Steven Straussberg, unlikely to pitch this weekend. Robbie Ray, unlikely to pitch on Friday as he deals with the concussion. Don't know when Robbie Ray will be back. Nick Williams was out with an illness. Aaron Altair sat with a sore hamstring. Cameron Mabin is nearing a rehab assignment.

A lot of steals for Cameron Mabin. You might want to get him. Steven Sousa sat again with a sore foot. He will undergo tests on the foot. And Josh Donaldson is homered in three straight games and four of his last six. Some idiot said his skill set was declining. Well, goodbye opportunity to buy low on Josh Donaldson. I tried.

It didn't work. The guy was demanding Machado. I think he offered me Donaldson straight up for Machado. I mean, both are due. Yeah, I would probably rather have Donaldson just at third base. Let me think about this. It was an easy decision with the whole shortstop thing. I'd rather have Machado.

Just as a hitter, rest of season? I just think there are fewer red flags in his game this season than Donaldson's. Yeah, and the biggest red flag, I think, is, I can't say he's not going to injure his calf again. He hurt his calf like three times last year. Yeah. And played, maybe I'm exaggerating. But he played through a calf injury for most of the year last year, and he's already heard it twice this year. That's, I guess, what I was getting at.

All righty, Monday standouts. Chris Towers, it's your turn to nominate a player. Well, we talked about him a little bit, I think, on Tuesday. Jesse Winker was someone who didn't hit for any power in the minors over the last couple of seasons, but had power early in his career, and now he's got, what, two home runs in seven games in the majors? Wait, didn't we talk about him yesterday? The day's all run together. Yeah, come on, Chris Towers.

That was yesterday. Two home runs since being recalled in two games. And he almost had three. He got robbed of one two days ago. Which led to us talking about him on Wednesday? It's a... 10% own Jesse Winker. Look, it's a situation where two home runs in two games,

like that could just be a fluke. Like, that happens sometimes. But this is a prospect who has a really good command of the strike zone and hit for power early in his career. We've seen the way power numbers have increased when players make the jump from the minors to the majors. so it's possible that, you know, he could be a legitimate contributor down the stretch. We'll see.

I think he's someone to put on your radar at this point. So Scott Shevler is supposed to miss two to three weeks with his shoulder, his bruise rotator cuff. That's a big issue for the long-term value of Jesse Winker. But, yeah, I mean, I guess his ownership's probably going to go up. And we'll see what happens. I mean, Shevler was struggling pretty bad, so maybe they just go to Winker out. We'll see. We'll see. He's got a chance to prove it.

Three for nine and two games with two home runs, almost three home runs, a walk and two strikeouts. So he was good. I'm not going to sing it today. I think I'm all sung out. But Luke Weaver was a fan. Luke Weaver. Oh, he went falsetto, everybody. I decided to take it up an octave.

Yeah, that's an easy way out. 33% own Luke Weaver, six and a third. Five hits, two runs, two walks, eight strikeouts at Milwaukee. his first start was a little better than his numbers would indicate five innings, four runs, five Ks against the Diamondbacks. 33% own Luke Weaver. That was encouraging. Is he a must-add guy?

Well, you know, we've talked about Luis Castillo and the really tough matchups. He's had to open his career, and you look at Luke Weaver opening up against Arizona and then against Milwaukee. That's two top 12 offenses in baseball. 12 stringing strikes yesterday. I think there's enough there to be worth adding, yeah. But Wainwright is probably coming back. That's such a tough spot because Adam Wainwright hasn't been good for two years.

Like, he hasn't been good since he tore his Achilles, which is perfectly predictable. He's old and tore his Achilles. That's an injury that tends to ruin careers. But they're not going to bench Adam Wainwright, right? No. And that's just a tough spot to be in. I'd rather see Luke Weaver stay in the rotation.

But how long does Adam Wainwright have left, he said? I think he's going to make his next start. He said he's ready to go. If it was two weeks, maybe you could say that Luke Weaver will, something will happen. But that's tough. He's not a priority to add. Yeah. Okay.

I'm trying to take it. Off top my head, I'm having trouble with the rest of their rotation. Carlos Marti. Yeah, I mean, Mike Leak. They're not going to kick out Carmart, obviously. Michael Waka, Mike Leak, or Lance Lynn's the only one who's not a long-term option, but unless they trade him after the deadline through waivers, I don't see where a spot opens up. How about our first two standouts potentially being blocked by veterans, Jesse Winker and Luke Weaver?

But it's not a bad idea to take a chance. You just never know what could happen. Did you see what everyone was talking about with Masa Her Tanaka yesterday? No. What happened? He's had really weird, bizarre, daylight split numbers. I know, yeah. And the biggest thing he gives up, what's that?

He had like a 14 ERA. Coming into yesterday. He only gave up two runs in six innings yesterday. But he was getting hit pretty hard, giving up a lot of fly balls. And I don't know. I don't know if I believe it. It's seven starts. It could just be bad luck.

It could be a couple of bad starts clustered. Two of the worst starts were actually in a dome in Toronto. But it's just, it's interesting. It's something that I kept an eye on yesterday that he was giving up so many fly balls. I didn't know that he was getting hit that hard. The first inning wasn't good. He pitched pretty damn well after that. He gave up two runs.

I think only one was earned. I don't know. Because Ellsbury made an error that allowed a run to score. Yeah, only one was burned. Yeah, Tanaka pitched pretty well. Tanaka, he's got, he had a 306 ERA in his previous seven starts with six walks to 56 strikeouts. And that's even lower now with one run over six innings. So we're talking eight starts and about a three ERA.

The home runs are a little concerning. I think that's going to be the issue with him. But he's, yeah. I think he's fine. Yeah. I think he's back to, he had 20 swinging strikes yesterday. 14 of them on his slider. Really? Wow.

Yeah. That's pretty deep. damn good. And he wasn't even going up against Aaron Judge. No, I know. He looked a little lost yesterday. He looked a little lost for a while. I'm glad you watched the Yankees.

Good for you. It was a day game. I watched pretty much every day game. Okay, that's good. I didn't get to watch much baseball last night because I had a very frustrating experience that I'm going. Now I've decided I'm going to tell you about it. And you know I was pissed off this morning, Chris. And you're probably like, whoa, what is wrong with Adam?

I'm going to tell you. Yeah, I can see it. In a little bit. But a couple more standouts, a few more standouts for you. Well, stick with the Cardinals because they had a great day yesterday. Weaver pitched great. Yadier Malina hit two home runs. And Molina is now on pace for 18 home runs if he plays 140 games, which is realistic for him.

He has the fourth most played appearances among catchers. He actually has the most steals among catchers, Yadier Malina, with seven. And he's the number six catcher in points and Roto. He's usually better in points because he just plays so much, but he's actually having a pretty good year now. 277 with 12 home runs. That's good for a catcher. He hasn't hit more than eight home runs since 2013. I mean, big year for Yadhi.

You know, he's a catcher. So there's that. I don't know. Anything you say about Yadda or Malina? You never really think about sitting him. You're never super excited to start him. He's not a jag, but he's a little better than that, I guess. He's not someone that I'm ever really excited about.

When Wilson Ramos came off the DL, I for sure would have said I'd take Ramos over Molina. but now I think I'd have to switch that. And Wilson Ramos is a good reminder that not everybody comes back from injuries the way Manny Machado did a couple years ago. True. But Machado came back at the beginning of a season, right? Yeah. Yeah, like had his spring training, had his offseason.

Yeah, it's tough. Yeah, it's tough. I think we sometimes tend to assume players will be more fine than they are. Yep. Yep, probably. Trevor Rosenthal, how good, are you buying Trevor Rosenthal yet? He has been elite for like 15 appearances now. Yeah, but what happened in the 15 appearances before that? He was Trevor Rosenthal. This is what Trevor Rosenthal does. No, not really.

Trevor Rosenthal is an inconsistent pitcher. Even this new, more impressive Trevor Rosenthal, because his strikeout rate is up, but he still goes through these bouts where his commanding. control are really bad. I'm buying in. I think he's a top 20 closer. I don't buy him as an elite closer. I think, you know, a lot of closers have some walk issues. They don't throw that many innings.

So, you know, if you see three point five, he's got three point five walks per nine. Yeah, that's not bad. That's not that bad, right? And 14.5 strikeouts per nine. That's like Kimberl-esque almost. He can survive at 3.5. He can't survive at 5.4, which is where Rosenthal was at 2014, walks per 9, or 2016, 6.5 walks per night. But, man, he has been amazing, and he's 56%-0. No, 62% owned, I'm sorry.

So the Cardinals are about a 500 team. They'll get some save chances. They're not bad. And Rosenthal's killing it right now. His last 11 appearances have been really, really impressive. He has only one walk in that span, But in his 19 appearances before that, he had 13 walks in 16 innings. Yeah, one walk, 22 strikeouts. I just think he's inconsistent. When he's good, he's really good. And when he's bad, he's really bad.

All right. Well, I hope you're wrong because I have me a little Trevor Rosenthal. I'm not sure, but I feel like Jose LeClerc might be the closer for the Rangers. He has pitched in the ninth inning in three straight appearances and four of his last five. They just haven't really had save chances. He pitched the ninth in a four-run game yesterday, a four-run win. So I don't know. Leclerica's 6% owned.

You might want to take a shot if you're in a league. Go Adam. Did you say, go at him? Like me? Adam. Go Adam. Go Adam. Go Adam.

Okay. But I don't know if the Texas Rangers actually have a closer. That's a guy who you talk about walks. I think he's at 6.9 per 9. that's tough. Chris, you got any leagues that are just dreadful need to start over? Sure. All right, good.

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I hope you take advantage of it. Here's a segment called Do You Care? I'm guessing no. I'm going to give you five, six pitchers who had good performances yesterday. Do you care, Chris? I'm guessing no. Andrew Cashner, Robert Stevenson, Trevor Williams, Vance Worley, Austin Pruitt, Daniel Gossett.

No. That's what I thought. I mean, you know, I'm looking at Andrew Cashner, and he's actually been continued to pitch really well. Five straight quality starts. He's got 55 strikeouts in 107 innings with 43 walks. There's just no way he can keep this up. And I know someone's going to say the next time Andrew Cashner has a good start,

You idiot, you said he couldn't keep it up. But like, look at Jason Bargis. He's starting to fall off. These things tend to happen eventually. Like, you need to get strikeouts. You need to not walk people. Those things are important. And if you don't do those things, it's really hard to pitch well.

And Andrew Castro is just not doing those things. Yeah, he's getting a lot of ground balls, though. Yeah, even then, like that you can, you know, The Rangers have actually had a lot of guys like this over the years. Martine Perez is a great example. It's just like they'll go through stretches because they get a lot of ground balls. They'll get some weak contact, but it blows up before law. All right.

So we don't care about Cashner, Stevenson, Trevor Williams, Worley, Pruitt, and Gossett. Let's make some tough calls here. We'll do some buy or sell a little bit later. All right, tough calls. Zach Godley or Jake Arenda rest of season? I have neglected Zach Godley. I need to move him up a lot. But I can't put him above Jake Arieta right now, can I?

I don't know. Arieta does have, okay, he had a 225 ERA in his five starts before last night when he gave up one run in seven innings. He actually got 12 swinging strikes. That's his most highest total of swinging strikes in two months for Arietta. During that five-star stretch with a 225 ERA, seven swinging strikes. But there's no denying he's been pitching better. Godley, though, has, I mean, Godley's got a 286 CRA in 94 and a third with 96 dragouts. And nothing about it seems unsustainable.

Yeah, six home runs. He gets ground balls. He's top 10. Yeah, not as many ground balls, Chris, as he was getting in the first month. But it was crazy then, but still, like, this isn't encouraging stuff. For the season, I believe, I believe Scott White tweeted this out yesterday. He has top 10 in swing strike rate, top. 10 in ground ball percentage. And he's got a 26% strikeout rate, which is really good as well. I think Zach Godley's a top 30 pitcher.

Yeah, but he's not top 20 ahead of Areetta. No, I'm redoing my rankings right as we speak. I'm moving Godly up to 27. That's a big jump for him. I'm moving Jake Areeta to 23. So they're close. Okay. All right. Tough call. Eduardo Nunez or DJ LeMayhew? Nunez, one game away from second base eligibility. Eduardo Nunez or DJ LeMayu, and I will just say, Nunez on a per game basis has been a lot. Significantly, fairly significantly better than LeMayu. 10% better. Fair, yeah. I just, there's no question for me that DJ LeMayu is going to play every day down the stretch, assuming health for both.

I can't say the same for Eduardo Nunez. I would expect if Dustin Pajoria gets healthy soon, Eduardo Nunez is going to be a super utility guy. He's been playing every day since getting to Boston because I think Bogart was out with the hand injury and then Padraoia goes down. And maybe it's a situation where he just assumes someone who has that kind of flexibility in his position

will just find somewhere to play every day. Yeah, especially in Scott brought this up, DH for Nunez. because Moreland is not that good. And Hanley can play a little first base now. I would probably say Nunez. Yeah, I mean, look, especially in a category. Now, Nunez is batting 321.

I think, and Lamehue is batting 318. Probably going to say LeMayhew is a better bet for batting average. But Nunez is definitely a better bet for steals. Nunez is on a 40-steel pace. He's played 81 games. He has 20 steals. And LeMayu has five. He's not stealing.

He's not hitting for any power. He hit for some last year. The Mayhew is just batting average to me, and he'll get to some runs and runs, yeah. I mean, yeah, the question is whether he can be as good as he was last year. He hasn't had quite the Babbitt block that he did. So, yeah, I'm fine with that. All right, tough call.

Would you drop Will Myers? You ready to drop Will Myers? He is the number, oh, come on. I didn't put, he's the number, oh, number 24 and point. Points number 21 in Roto. There you go. First baseman, Will Myers. Drop him?

He just seems to try harder. Yeah, I mean, he struck out 30 times in every month this season. And that's a lot of strikeouts. He's not, yeah, he's a pretty good power hitter, but he's not an elite power hitter in this league context. So he might be just a guy at first base. Yeah, it's interesting. Last year, Will Myers was the number, I think, nine first baseman in Roto,

number 12 in points, something like that. This year, no, he was number six in Roto, number nine in points. This year he's outside the top 20. Just everything's worse, you know, 28 steals last year. He only has 10 so far this year. He just came off a stretch, Will Myers, where he homered four times in six games. He only had six hits, but he homered four times in six games.

Now he's got two hits in his last seven games. So, yeah, somebody asked me, do you drop him in a 10-team league? And I think I said not necessarily if you need the steals, but he doesn't even do that all that often. Yeah, he's got 10, which is good for a first baseman, but you're not going to miss it, especially, you know, rest of season. Maybe you get four? Yeah, I don't know.

All right. Meyer's kind of a jam right now. I'm moving Justin Smoke ahead of him. Ooh, there you go. I'm moving Will Myers back to 15 at the position. I'm still respecting the talent that he's shown. But, you know, clearly the home run derby ruined him. All right, another tough call.

Player who's 84% owned, the home run derby absolutely did ruin Will Myers for a year and a half now for a full year. Kyle Schwabber, are you ready to drop Kyle Schwabber, 84% owned? Sure. Yeah, I'm fine with adding him when he, You know, looks like he's going to play every day, but he's not playing every day. I still believe in the talent. Like, Jock Peterson's been really good after a rough stretch. I think Kyle Schwerber has similar talent to him, but, yeah, I'm fine with that.

I mean, Swarber had a 940 OPS in July. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was pretty good since coming back from the... But if he's not going to play against lefties, it's... He's probably just a guy. Yeah. Irvin Santana or Cole Hamels? Ooh.

Tough call. Has Cole Hamels increased his strikeout rate at all? A little bit, I believe. Yeah, I guess he's increased it a little bit. He's still at five per nine. And in the month of July, he had a 20% strikeout rate. That's pretty good. I'll still go with Cole Hamels.

I'll still go with Hulk Camels. Cole Hamels? Whole Camels? All right. Santana's been so weird, man. Since May 1st. He has had five, like very good to great starts. He has had seven terrible starts.

And one start that was like whatever, six and two thirds, four runs. That's Urban Santana. I mean, another complete game. He was fifth complete game of the season yesterday. That's nuts that he has five complete games. He has five starts of nine innings. I think they're all complete games. I'm not sure if any of those were extra inning games.

But five starts at nine. He has five complete games. Five complete games, okay. Final tough call for you, Chris Towers, on this Thursday. Bryce Harper or Charlie Black. Blackman. Bryce Harper. All right.

Let's do one more then. Charlie Blackman is outrageously good. All right, let's do one more. I don't care about Charlie Blackman anymore. Yesterday I had a legit tough call.

Was that Bed Bath and Beyond with the wife? Love it. Love Triple B. Get those coops? We were returning a couple of items. And I do like Triple B, but not necessarily with the wife. I joke with her that if we never fight,

but if we ever did, it would be at a bed bath and beyond because that's like toys of rust for her. She just sees so many things she wants to buy, and I'm like, can we please go home? I'm like the husband whose wife is trying on like 10 different pairs of shoes and just want to sleep. But instead it's blenders. Tough call.

I said you have to pick two candy. They had a candy display. Two of these items. What would they be? So I'm trying to remember we had peanut butter cups, Reese's pieces, you know, the pieces. Yeah. Snickers, Toblerone, regular M&Ms, peanut M&Ms. And I said, choose two.

What would your two be? All right. First, full disclosure, when I'm eating my candy, I prefer a fruit candy to a chocolate candy. It's fine. But I love the peanut butter. so I'm taking some Reese's pieces. Reese's pieces or Reese's peanut butter cups? Okay, yeah, all right.

I prefer the little ones, but I'll take the Reese's cups. And I'm going to go with a peanut M&M. Dude, you and I pick the same candy. There we go. She went peanut M&Ms and Reese's pieces, which she prefers the Reese's peanut butter cups, which I really felt like I didn't even know her anymore when I found that out. Have you seen the Reese's cups to have Reese's pieces in them? What the hell did you just say?

There are Reese's cups. cups that have Reese's pieces embedded in the peanut butter. It's an amazing time we live in, this bountiful, the bountiful goods that this country provides. That is incredible. Yeah, okay, I need to find those stat. Hey, are you hiring? Because it is an incredible time to be on ZipRecruiter. That's where you post your job to find the best candidates.

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It goes out and finds them. In fact, over 80% of jobs posted on ZipRecruiter get a qualified candidate. just 24 hours. It's really quick. It's painless. It's a great website and a great tool for you. If you want the best results and you want them quickly, try ZipRecruiter. And our listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. For free, just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Buy or sell from Paul Robinson. Buy or sell, Justin Verlander gets traded. after post waivers. Sell.

It so rarely happens. Nelson Reed, buy or sell, we should carry Carter Caps. Sell. I'm not sure he would get the saves over Brad Hand anyway. Buy our cell from Matt Bryant. Texas and Miami have different closers by the end of the month. Kella and Bearclaw, respectively. I will buy both of those.

And you think it'll be Kella and Bearclaw? I think so. I'm not sure about Kella. They just haven't been using him the way they'd use someone who's going to be the closer. Yeah, and I get that. But I think there's still a chance that they're just working him back in from the DL. Okay. Donovan Miller, buy herself, David Dahl, will be called up in September.

Bye, there's no reason not to call him up. He is on, and this is some new news, he is on the minor league DL with back spasms. That's a good sign for someone who missed three months with rib and back injury. I think it was back spasms. Yeah, so David Dahl, I will see. Even if he gets called up, I don't know that's going to mean anything for your fantasy team. September call-ups usually just don't do much. They've got too many outfielders without him.

Yeah. Shane Gully, buy or sell. David Price is just a jag. No, you can't say just a jag. That's repetitive. Just the guy? Come on. He's just a jag who goes to the ATM machine.

I don't get that. Automated teller machine machine. Oh, I got you. In number. Oh, nice, Chris. I like that. All right, buy or sell. David Price is a jag and can be dropped.

Come on, sell. Don't overreact. Just because he was mean to Dennis Eckersley. Byer's sell from Kev. Mani Machado plays like super Mani Machado for all of August. Sell, he plays like Mani Machado. Okay. I'll buy it.

Ten year rebuild. Byersel, Travis Shaw's last five games. Two hits, eight strikeouts. I'll buy. I don't see any reason why he would be lying about those numbers. You know what he means. By or sell Travis Shaw is slowing down? Sure. I think he's probably played a little over his head this season. There have been reasons to believe that he would slow down,

specifically the fact that he's been hitting for so much power with such a low ground ball rate, or such a high ground ball rate. But I still think Travis Shaw is very good. And by herself from Mike, Justin Smoke, sell high on Justin Smoke, in a 12-team 10-keeper dynasty league? You're almost certainly keeping Justin Smoke in a 10-keeper league, but I think it now is a perfect time to sell high on Justin Smoke. I think what he's doing this season is legit,

but we have such a long track record that I think there's a very good chance he's going to disappoint next season. He's on a 50-homer pace. He's not that guy, I don't think. All right, that's Justin Smoke, and that's by herself. Thank you all for participating in that. We had a milestone yesterday, Chris. Okay.

Not really a milestone, but you know what? I'm getting clever with the segments here. Miguel Sinoe hit his 25th homer, equaling last year's total. And he did that in 18 fewer games. Sineau has not been quite as good as he was in his 2015 rookie season, but he's been very good this year. Despite hitting more ground balls and fewer fly balls, he does have a higher home run to fly ball ratio compared to last year.

But 267 with 25 home runs in, In 98 games, only 13 doubles and a pretty bad walk to strikeout ratio. 48 walks, 145Ks. It is better than last year. What's your overall take on McGill also knows 2017 season? You know, you look at it and you think the 376, 374 Babbitt has to come down, and the batting average is going to collapse. Maybe he's more of a 236 hitter like he was last year.

He has a 361 Babbitt for his career. He hits the ball so freaking hard that I think he's going to be a very high Babbab guy, and that can keep him from the Joey Gallo levels of batting average. He can be playable. I think he's probably never going to be more than a 250, 260 hitter for a full season. But I think he's playable at that range, and he's probably never going to be the elite guy that we hoped he could be. But I think Miguel Sino is very good. Would you rather have Miguel Sano or Travis Shaw?

I believe I have Travis Shaw one spot ahead. All right. So in the standing, Shaw is fifth in points. Sano is eighth in points. And there's a pretty good amount of separation. There's about 45 fantasy points separating them. That's big. In Roto, Shaw is third and Sano is sixth.

And they are separated by only 16 spots. It's not nothing, but it's not that much. So obviously Snow's going to be better in Rodo. The 13 doubles really surprised me. That is a low total. I don't know what to make of that, but that's a bad sign. That if he's not homering, he's not doing anything. Yeah, he's never hit many.

Well, last year he had 22, so that put him on about a 30 double pace. I don't know. I'm not, that's not something that stands out. out to me as something to be concerned about. If he had 22 homers and 15 doubles, it would look a little, or 16 doubles, it would look a little better. He's probably never going to hit 40 doubles in a season. No, I don't need 40. I mean, he's going to hit a bunch of homers, but he's on pace for 20, about? Yeah. That's pretty bad.

It's not great. Suno, all right, that's Miguel Suno. Let's go to two-up, none down, and we'll talk about some more from yesterday. Adam Duval, since the All-Star break, he's batting just 2-14, but he's turned it on recently with four home runs in his last seven games. I'm going to take a slightly different angle here than you might have thought on Adam Duvall since he is two-up. I'm a little concerned because his little streak here reminds me of what Will Myers just did. Will Myers hit four home runs in six games. But those basically his only hits. And same with Duval. He's not really getting that many hits lately. And after the

All-Star break last year, he had a 740 OPS. He's got a really bad walk-to-strikeout ratio. He could be prone to a big slump, and he's been bad since the All-Star break until this seven-game stretch. So I'm not all that fired up right now about Duvall. You think his power is going to be good enough to keep him as a must-start option? I think he's a poor man's Chris Davis. That's not good. Oh, with a K.

And I think that's still... With a K. With a K. That's better. Chris Davis with a C walks too much. I think Adam DeVall is just going to be an all-or-nothing kind of power hitter, but I think he is still going to be useful. I think he's probably someone you want to start more often than not. I think the big difference between him and Will Myers, he mentions, Will Myers strikes out a lot more.

Okay. Trey Mancini is 60% owned. He's two-up number two. He's having a really good year. 302, 351, 524 slash line. Mancini, again, 60% owned. he's been okay since the All-Star break, but not terrible. Pretty good walk-to-strikeout ratio for him, six walks, 13Ks.

And I don't know, just a solid season. Is there anything that separates Mancini at 60% own from other outfielder's that might be on the waiver wire? Like a Bradley Zimmer, not on Miss Princeton anymore. A lot of those guys are going to be players that just don't quite play every day, but Trey Mancini has pretty much been. He's been, there's not a lot to knock in his game right now. But he's not someone that I'm running out to add either.

Trey Mancini, yeah, to me he's like, if I just lost an outfielder, like I just lost George Springer, I'd be okay putting Mancini in just for... Is he owned more than Tommy Fam? I don't think so. 60% own for, you can look up fam. 60% own for Tray Mancini. But would you rather have... Fam is 83%.

Yeah. Would you rather have Winker or Mancini? Mancini. Okay. Okay. None down. It was a good day yesterday. Let's be positive.

Except for the person I had to yell out on the phone last night. That's why I'm in a bad mood today, Chris. All right. I'm sorry. People probably don't want to hear about it. Maybe they do want to hear about it. We'll save it to the end. Three-man rotation.

Anacca, we talked about him. J-Hap, Jason Vargas. J-Hap, good, Jason Vargas, bad. Can we say that for most of the rest of the season? J-Hap good, Jason Vargas, bad. I think that's okay. I especially feel okay about saying Jason Vargas bad. I'm not sure I feel super comfortable saying J-Hap good, but J-Hap fine.

J-Hap fine. It was the White Sox. They're terrible. Seven innings, ten strikeouts, one run. Okay, yeah, he had a 5-ERA in July. Hope J. Hab turns it around. I assume he's going to have two starts next week. Vargas is 95% own.

I know you'd be okay dropping him. I know you would. Vargas. Yep. Yeah. Fringy starting pitchers, you want any of these guys? Brent Suter, roughed up by the Cardinals. J.C. Ramirez had a good start against Philadelphia,

only three strikeouts in eight innings. Jordan Zimmerman was great against the Yankees. Jeremy Helixen was very good against the Royals, but only three strikeouts and seven innings. Suter, Ramirez, J.C. Ramirez, Zimmerman, and Jeremy Hellickson. I think absolutely all of these guys are two-start options when they have good match-ups, but I can't get excited about them. I was actually fairly impressed by Jordan Zimmerman yesterday.

He actually looked pretty good. I know, yeah. I don't buy it. Souter's probably the most interesting of this group, His peripherals are actually very strong. I'd be okay dropping Jason Vargas to add him. Well, Souter's got good matchups next week. At Minnesota and home against Cincinnati.

Yeah. Vargas has St. Louis and at the White Sox. So he also has good matchups. I mean, St. Louis isn't a great matchup, but at the White Sox would be a great start for Vargas. So you don't have to drop him with the two-start week coming up. You know, Luke Weaver at Kansas City and home against Atlanta. If he makes those starts, just taking a quick peek at next week.

week. Yeah, I would definitely want Luke Weaver if he makes those two stars. If he makes them, yeah, that's the problem. Jordan Zimmerman's at Pittsburgh and home against Minnesota. Those are solid matchups. Trevor Cahill also has good matchups, St. Louis and at the White Sox. I don't know what kind of matchup St. Louis is. It's an okay matchup.

But at the White Sox is great. Cahill, I have concerns about just because his career has been so bad. But I think everybody likes him more than I do. All right, that tomorrow will obviously go deeper into the two-star pitcher well. In the bullpen, Erotus Visayano got a save. Looks like he's the Braves closer, 23% owned. Steve Pierce and Joanne Camargo are owned in less than 10% of leagues. Would you be looking to add them in deeper format?

Steve Pierce, Yon Carmargo, excuse me. Steve Pierce is only first base and outfield eligible? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, because in years past, he's been really interesting and really useful when he's gotten that second base eligibility, but it doesn't look like he's going to. And because he's outfielded in first base, there's a little bit of flexibility, but not enough to make him more than a deep league guy. Yeah, Steve Pierce has hit two walk-off grand slams this year, so that's cool. Yes, within like a week.

And he's been very good since the All-Star break with a 271 batting average and five home runs and four doubles in 19 games. Pierce does not play every day, but pretty close to it. We'll take a look at today's matchups before we read some of your emails at Fantasy Baseball at C-E. CBSI.com. Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. All right. So Thursday, August 3rd. Let's see what we got on the schedule. I think 13 games, including a few that started around 2 o'clock Eastern. Michael Waka and Matt Garza. I will start Michael Waka. Diamondbacks at Cubs, Zach Granky, Jose Cantana, start them both. Start them both. All right. Mets at Rockies. We're going to sit Rafael Montero. Are you going to start Armand Marquez?

Man. I would really rather not start him at home, but he's been good there at times this season. I would try not to. Reds at Pirates, Sal Romano, Chad, Cool. Nope. Tigers and Orioles. Matt Boyd, Chris Tillman. Nope.

All right. Yeah, let me just see what, I know Boyd's last start was really good. Three straight quality starts for Matt Boyd since coming back to the Bigs. and only one of those starts that he have good strikeout numbers. Yeah, I mean, strikeout numbers have been okay, but no, I'm not willing to start him yet. Okay.

Back to the matchups, and we've got the white socks and the Red Sox. Miguel Gonzalez? No, but Rick Porcelo against the socks. Yeah, okay. Sunny Gray, Corey Klober. Start him both. Alex Wood, Sean Nuckel.

I would obviously definitely start Alex Wood, even though he hasn't been super great lately. Newcomb, I just don't love the matchup. Yeah, I think the Dodgers are going to nuke him tonight. Ho! A.J. Gryffindor and Adaberto Mejia. I would not start those guys. No? All right.

Raise at Astros. Ooh, Blake Snell. And Colin McHugh. Yeah, I can't start Blake Snell Against the Astros. Even though he's been a little better lately. No. Colm McHugh is actually interesting

Against the Rays. I don't mind that. Yeah, if you missed what I said about Snell on Monday, he moved to the middle of the mound two starts ago, and since then his control has been a lot better. So I do like him. I picked him up in one league that Snow is available, but I'm not starting him in that league.

It's a daily league, and I'm sitting him again at the Astros. Seattle and Kansas City, in KC, it's Yovani. Guyardo and Trevor Cahill. I will start Trevor Cahill. Let's see what Cahill does tonight. I'll be interested to see it. And the Phillies are at the Angels, Jared Icoff and Parker Bridwell.

Bridwell's been very good so far, 5-1, 283, ERL, ERA. Would you start Ikoff or Bridwell? Bridwell's not the worst option, but only because the match-up's pretty good. And it's really not that good, especially if Nick Williams and Aaron Altair are able to play. I would prefer to avoid it. I think what he's done is a lot of smoke and mirrors. And I cough, I just don't think the matchup's quite good enough, even though it's not bad. I think the Angels have scored six runs in like five straight games.

They're hitting a little bit better right now. A's at Giants. Kendall Graveman. I didn't even know he was coming back today. How about that? And Ty Blach. I would prefer not to start Kendall Graveman immediately back from the from the DL. But it's a very good matchup in a very good park.

If you're desperate, I don't mind it. The Angels have scored five or more runs in five straight games. And those are today's matchups. Let's read some emails, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. We are flying through the show today. We even talked about candy and just flying through it. Chris from Connecticut, which young guy should I value the most? Ahmed Rosario, Marwin Gonzalez, Yuli Guriel.

It's worth pointing out Yulee Gereal is like 12 years older than I'm at Rosario. I didn't even realize that. He's not young. He's 31, I believe. I think Rosario. Okay. And Austin wants to know, could you break down Addison Russell's struggles? His batted ball profile is very similar to last year, but even less soft contact.

Russell is striking out less, but he's also walking less. It's not Babbup-fueled what gives. Yeah, he actually didn't have a good Babbitt last year. He's actually been pretty much. much the same guy. Like last year he hit 238, this year he's hitting 241, last year he's slugged 417, this year he's slugging

417. I think the bigger thing is the Cubs lineup's not as good. Like he drove in 95 runs with a 740 OPS last season. That was, that's really hard to do, and now you're seeing that come way back down to earth.

He just he's so talented. We can still see it. but he hasn't been able to put it together yet. At this point, I think he's pretty jaggy with upside. All right, that's Addison Russell. Here's an email from Josh. Would you drop Luis Castillo for Noah Cindergarde

in a 10-team head-to-head categories league? Drop Castillo at Cindergarde. What's the latest on Cindergarde? I know he started throwing a couple weeks ago, but I haven't really heard much since. I have not either. if he comes back, it's going to be pretty late in the season. Yeah, and there's no way.

If Cindergard was coming back in a month, maybe. But even then, let me just read this. Let me just read this because here's the headline, Cindergarde, Harvey, Familius. He's playing long toss. That's it. That's it? Yeah, the update earlier today, he's aiming for a September return. Playing long toss in Florida, there's no reason to believe he won't come back this

season. I disagree. Yeah, if he's not throwing off a mound by now, you're still talking about several weeks. And they have nothing to play for. And there's a chance he just comes back as a reliever. There's no way I would drop Luis Castillo for him. Okay, that's Noah's Cindergarde. Okay.

Hey, real quick, Piscotti's back. I have to activate him. Do I drop Piscotti or Chew Matt Adams, Matt Holiday, Cesar Hernandez, Bradley Zimmer or Dubele Herrera. Matt Holiday, Matt Holiday, Matt Holiday. Yeah, I think Matt Holiday's the guy. I do, too. One more.

What are the Yankees going to do with their outfield when Aaron Hicks comes back? Well, if Holiday keeps struggling, it's it him? I don't think Clint Frazier's going anywhere. I think Ellsbury is a bench player, Hicks, Gardner, Judge, Frazier. Got a lot of guys. They're just so good, Chris. They're just so good. Clearly.

Yeah, but I don't think Frazier's going anywhere. All right, this is from Michael. A trade was just completed in my 10-team points league. Team A gave Corey Dickerson. Team B gave Manny Machado. I'm not one to police trades, but Team A is in a playoff race, and Team B is mathematically eliminated. The owner of Team B is also the commissioner. There has to be some kind of punishment here.

So Team B, out of the playoff race, gave up Manny Machado to get Corny. Ray Dickerson to a playoff team, team, a playoff race team. What would you do in this situation? I mean, do you, if it's a non-keeper league, and even if it was a keeper league, that trade wouldn't make any sense for the team that's out of the playoffs, um, yeah, I don't know. Maybe you make it so that if a team's mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, they can't make trades. That's what I did. I just sent out an email last week, said trade deadlines coming up.

If you're mathematically eliminated, don't make a trade. And oddly enough, in a 14-team league, there was one team that was mathematically eliminated. Yeah, that's a tough situation. If you don't have a rule in place beforehand, you're kind of screwed. But, you know, not a great move from the commissioner. That's why you should play with people who have scruples and also play keeper. At least then people have something to play for when they're eliminated. All right, Chris, we're done for today.

Want to hear why I'm mad? Yes. All right. So I'm going out of Los Angeles this weekend. I will not be on the show tomorrow. And I booked a hotel room, and I booked a rental car, and I booked a rental car through price line, and those are not refundable. Due to bad weather, I had to change my flight from tonight to really early tomorrow

morning. So I knew I lost money on the car. It's not that much. It was like $25. Whatever. Did not realize I booked a hotel room that was a non-refundable rate. When I went to the website, I saw one rate. Only one rate.

That's it. I didn't see a much lower rate. Then I would have realized, okay, this is clearly non-refundable. I tried to cancel the room last night. They told me, I can't get my money back. This is over $200. It's like $200. It's a lot of money, okay?

Yeah, that's... I'm livid. So this hotel I just booked my hotel My wedding block at this hotel I got them like not this particular one But the same chain in New York I got them like 25 to 30 rooms

I booked the freaking suite there for me and my wife For two nights Okay I'm the type of customer That you should do a favor for I made an honest mistake I would tell you I would tell you It was an honest mistake

Maybe they think I'm lying to them I didn't know this was a non-refundable rate. Give me a little bit of a break. Give me the money back. It's not going to kill you. I got on the phone with the manager. She would not budge. She offered me instead of a Thursday night room, a Friday night room.

I don't need a Friday night room. If I needed a Friday night room, I would have booked a Friday night room. I'm staying with my friend on Friday. Like, I just think it is really rude and bad business. And I called corporate. I'm waiting for the general manager and the owner of the hotel to call me back. Wow. And I am going to go in there first thing after I land on Friday.

I am driving to that hotel. I'm going to look that lady in the eye because she hung up on me last night because I cursed. I cursed. I cursed she hung up on me. I didn't curse at her. I just cursed. And I was yelling. So I understand why she hung up on me. I'm going to make her tell me to my face that she won't give me my money back because it's not right, Chris.

I made an honest mistake. I should get a refund. Yeah, sure. No, you tell me honestly what you think. I booked a non-refundable room. I did it accidentally without realizing. Do you think I should get my money back? You think they should be nice to me?

I, you know, I don't, I'm not sure. What would you do? What would you do? Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm a very meek person. I don't, uh, I don't like to get into arguments with strangers. So I would definitely just swallow it and not get my money back. Yeah. Come on, man.

Like, I, I, I just think it's the right thing to do. I just think it's the right thing to do. Like, you're a huge corporation is a big major hotel chain. Like, give me a break. Give me my money back. It was a, it was a mistake. Things happen. It's stupid.

And if I go online, I book a non-refundable rate, you got to tell me in big red, bold letters, this is a non-refundable rate. Do you understand? I said to her, I was like, look, I didn't read all the fine print. It's like updating your iPhone. You don't read that crap every time you update your iPhone. That's how they get you. Yeah, they got me. Congratulations.

I'm not going to let this stand. So, thank you for letting me vent. Anytime, madam, anytime. Sorry to the listeners, but you know what? We're out of time anyway. Goodbye.