Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/06: New SPs Dominate (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 6, 2019

Aaron Civale, Tony Gonsolin and Patrick Sandoval were great last night, and we'll tell you who we are most excited about and who you could drop for these guys. Also, Adam revisits the Christian Yelich vs. Mike Trout debate (10:00), much to Scott's chagrin ... Spite drop Masahiro Tanaka (13:26)? Which SPs could face innings limits (15:00)? Plus more players to add (20:15) like J.D. Davis and Brendan McKay. And we've got plenty of news and notes including the return of Mike Foltynewicz (26:40) ... Going through the box scores with game-by-game with takeaways (31:00). We talk about Jake Odorizzi, Mike Soroka, Max Kepler, Bo Bichette, Luis Castillo and many more ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. All right, baseball fans. I don't know if you're baseball fans, maybe you're just Fantasy Baseball fans.

Welcome to the show. It's Fantasy Baseball today. Adam Azer and Scott White. Good afternoon, Scott. Hey Adam It's not quite afternoon yet Jump the gun a little Well people are listening

It's afternoon So Ah putting yourself in their shoes You know what That's smart Yeah you don't want them driving their car At 2 o'clock And it's like good morning

And they're like Dude what? You just woke up You don't want that So we've got We got some pitching performances That really stood out Savale

Was very good yesterday Gonselin Was very good yesterday Wagaspak was very good yesterday. Who are these guys? We'll tell you about them and who you need to pick up. Scott, I tried a segment yesterday when you were off the show. I should probably never do it again. It was a preview of today's matchups. And you know why I never do that segment?

Why? Because I read the wrong matchups. I was previewing Tuesday's matchups instead of Monday's matchups. Oh. Well, I guess we don't have to do that. Exactly. Exactly. So pick up Dillon's for today's start at the Tigers. Give me some standouts from Monday. I think we should start with these starting pitchers. Okay. I think the most interesting of them is a guy who I wrote off at first yesterday

and then kind of brought it back a little when I took a closer look at the numbers at some point when you were rambling on. And that's Aaron Savale, who yesterday, Six innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts, only 12 swinging strikes, which isn't a bad number,

but it's not a great number. The cutter was especially good, though. And you look at what he's done in the minors this year. Never really been a strikeout pitcher before, but that's changed this year. And two major leagues starts now, obviously separated by several weeks, 13 strikeouts and 12 innings,

with only five hits allowed. I don't know a lot about Aaron Savale, but I think given the current pitching environment, I think he's absolutely worth taking a flyer on. I mean, really at AAA is where the strikeouts became, became, they took off for him, 46 and 42 thirds innings. And we know the environment at AAA. It's probably even worse for pitchers than the majors.

So the fact he had a 213 E are there. ERA there in eight starts is pretty impressive. Yeah, he actually ended up getting the loss. But for Savale, again, he's only 41% own. And he's made two starts, six innings and both of them, one run combined. I know you might have heard some of this. 13 strikeouts in 12 innings.

And yeah, very good yesterday against Texas. And if he starts again, it would be this weekend at Minnesota and then at the Yankees. Those are his next two starts. So he better be good because at Minnesota and at the Yankees is pretty scary. I guess that will really put it to the test, right? Yeah, absolutely. But I like what I've seen from him more than what I've seen from Zacc-Ple-Sac,

or certainly Adam Plutco. Plutco, yeah. So I think Savali could take this job and run with it, depending on how those starts go. Tony Gonsolin, 7% owned, Great start for the Dodgers yesterday against St. Louis. Six innings, two hits, no runs, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Does he have a spot in the rotation?

Well, I would assume that Dustin May is ahead of him in the pecking order. Maybe I shouldn't assume that. There's certainly been more hype surrounding May, though. I'm not confident at this point that Ross Stripling is coming back as a starter, because he hasn't missed that much time with a stiff neck. like, what, a turn or two? And yet he's scheduled for only two innings in his upcoming rehab outing. So that seems a little strange.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure they want stripling back of the rotation. So I would suspect one of Dustin May and Gonsalind sticks around, you know, obviously factoring in Ryu coming back. Gonselin, I mean, was gray yesterday. Two hits and six, a shutout inning, seven strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes, nine of them on a blitter, so that seems like great pitch for him. This is, as is common this year, his numbers in the minors aren't great, you know, mostly

a AAA. But last year, between high Class A and AA, Gonsolent had a 260 ERA-114-WIP and 10.9Ks per 9, so there's clearly some upside here. And look, I think Kenta Maeda might be out of the rotation soon. Yeah, it's possible. Julio O'Reas is not going to be in the rotation. and they said they want him as a starter next year, not this year. So I guess on the excitement o-meter,

how excited should we be about Gonsolin and about Civalet? I would rate Cavale about a seven, I think, and Gonsolin maybe between a four and a five. Okay. They both deserve to be on the radar. Another one from yesterday that I'm interested in, kind of surprisingly is Patrick Sandoval. And this is,

like, it's becoming an, it's, I don't know if the opener, the opener, baby, the opener. Well, no, I wasn't even, like he did follow an opener, yes, which we could take that as a good thing or a bad thing in fantasy, and improves win potential, though obviously not when your opener allows five runs,

this happened to Santaval yesterday, or we could take it as a bad thing because you're never going to get a quality started. It kind of depends on your scoring format. But what I was getting at, his AAA numbers were awful. And particularly when you're talking about the Pacific Coast League versus the International League with that juiced ball,

it seems like pitchers don't stand a chance there. That's kind of what made Zach Gowlin so amazing was he was doing that in the PCO. Well, hang on one second, Scott. I want to bring everybody up to speed. So far we've talked about Cleveland pitcher Aaron Savali, Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin. and now we're talking about Patrick Sandoval for the Angels.

So he came up yesterday. He made his major league debut, five innings, three hits, two runs, two walks, eight strikeouts at Cincinnati. He did follow an opener who got crushed and gave up five runs. The reason I like the opener is because for a guy like Sandoval, I don't know how good he is, but for a guy like Wade LeBlanc or Tommy and Malone or whatever, I feel like it's the only way they can pitch well. So, yeah, quality starts are not going to be there, obviously.

wins might be, but not having to face the top three hitters in the order. And I think the first inning is the highest scoring inning in baseball. I wonder if we can look that up. I think I've heard. I know I heard that. I don't know if it's true. But it makes sense, right? I think it's a big deal for kind of pitchers who are, for fantasy purposes,

kind of matchup dependent. I think it helps a lot. So the problem with the opener is you don't know when they're, like I have Wade LeBlanc in one league in which I have a starts limit, and it's almost like a cheat. to use these guys. But he started last time out, and he was dreadful, and he's supposed to start tonight. So you don't always know if they're going to stick with the opener strategy.

But anyway, let's talk now about Patrick Sandivall. He's a lefty for the Angels. He's 2% owned. Yes, he is. And he had great strikeout rate in the minors. That was the one thing that you could point to and say, okay, a lot of strikeouts, but is he any good? I mean, his whip was over 1.7.

But yesterday, it wasn't only the fact that he had eight strikeouts at five innings. He had 12 swinging strikes just on the change-up. It was a great pitch for him. And he showed a lot of upside here. I don't know if the walks are going to come back to bite him in repeated chances. That seems highly plausible. I would rank him below Gonzalyn on the excitometer. But if it's a deeper league, like for example, my 24-team Dynasty League,

Maybe it doesn't even have to be as deep as that, but I was kicking myself that somebody else beat me to Sandeval in that league. Because he looks pretty interesting. Yeah, and if he's going to be used with an opener, I'm going to put in a bid for him tonight in that league I was talking about, which I have crappy way of Blanc. Looking closer at his track record now, because I mostly just looked at the past year when I heard he was getting called up.

I mean, last year between four stops, low-A, high, A, AA, 2.06 ERA, 0.96 whip, 10.7K per night. His walk rate last year was only 2.1 per 9. So, I mean, there's... He actually had a comment after this game that his coaches at AAA were telling him his stuff is going to play up in the majors despite the way he was performing there.

And that seemed to be the case in this start. Sure. Or this appearance, I should say. And unfortunately, he was the second best pitcher in that game because it was a great start for Luis Castillo, who we'll talk about a little bit later, but 13 strikeouts, seven innings, two runs, one walk, 13 strikeouts. The walks have been down for Castillo, and that's a really big deal. All right, so those are some of the standouts. For me,

Christian Yewitch is a standout. I mean, I know he's Christian Eilich, but he has 39 home runs now. 39 home runs. We got like a third of the season left. And he has not stolen a base since July 16th has not attempted to steal since July 16th, but he still has 14 more steals than Mike So I think he might be my number one pick in Roto next year. Christian Yelich. I know. Scott hates it. Oh,

God hates it. So naive. But Trout is only 10.5 points behind him in points league. So Trout would definitely be my first pick in points leagues. But if steals are a thing, that's a big gap right now between Yelot. You know, we think Trout was done stealing bases and then he came roaring back again. Yeah. Yeah.

Didn't we? Didn't we think, well, some of us thought Mookie Betz was better than him going into this year. Some of us thought Jose Altoouvae was better than him going into last year. I guess by us I pretty much just mean Heath in both cases. Yeah. I don't know that he was alone. I think he was alone in the industry on Betts, but not on Altuve. Yeah, yeah, he was.

Because people learned the Altube lesson. It was the Harper lesson, too, from several years ago. Yeah, the Harper lesson was when I learned it. But this is back-to-back years with Christian Yewitz. He might win MVP two years in a row. That's true. He might. I mean, I think he's easily second for me.

I think the top three is pretty easy. And putting Bellinger third, though, I think Bellinger is clearly third in that group. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I want to look a little bit more into Bellinger. I feel like he has been more human. Yeah, his batting average has... been sliding, but I think

I want to pull up the strikeout rate month by month because I don't think those have gotten worse. Okay. Let me check that. Yeah, Bellinger has 37 home runs and a 325 batting average. He's three home runs in his last five games. You know what? He really hasn't dropped off much at all. He's been so good.

And 69 walks to 75 strikeouts. He hasn't run in a while. He's stuck on nine steals. See the last time Cody's, Bellinger stole a bag. He stole one in June, one in July. So that's more or less gone away after stealing four in April and one in March before games. He's had really low babbips the past three months.

I guess it's a good thing. I mean, he's been hitting a lot of fly balls, which contributes to it, I'm sure. 277 in June, 259 in July, 11 in August. And the batting average has been below 300 all. Three of those months. Yeah, but the walk to strikeout rate is still really, really good. Yeah, strikeouts have gone up, but they're not, like, they're still good. Bellinger's, yeah, he's still been awesome.

All right, more stuff to talk about from yesterday. We do have a couple emails I want to read. We have some news and notes. We had an amazing moment with Isan Diaz when he hit his home run and his major league debut. Did you see that? His dad was being interviewed at the time? Oh, God, it was so bad. Yeah, they were interviewing him.

He went nuts. He went nuts. Oh, oh, is this. It was awesome. Email of the day, number one, is from Michael from a city in Texas, and he said, hey, guys, I just anger dropped Tanaka in a 12-team Roto League. Will I regret it? Tanaka gave up five runs at Baltimore yesterday.

I mean, the anger dropped. What is the anger drop? What is this? Why do people do this? I think just by calling it that, you already know the answer, right? I guess so, but control your emotions. emotional response to something that required a, you know, a more nuanced, a more objective one. And I think you'll regret it.

He's been pretty awful lately. As past seven starts as the area, he's gone from 321, where it was clear he was overachieving at that point. But it's gone from 321 to 493, again in seven starts. And the Ks have been down, especially during this stretch. The splitter doesn't seem quite right. but he's still he's better than this I thought he would regress to something

like an ERA just above four not an ERA approaching five and I think there are better times ahead for Mascarra Tanaka would you drop Tanaka for Savale or Gonsalin or Sandoval? No Okay

who would you drop for those three guys to circle back? Would you drop Chris Archer for any of them? I would probably drop Archer for Savale and that's as far as I would take that. He's been a little better lately, Archer, but not quite good enough,

especially considering it's the pirates backing him that you should feel tied to him. Okay, email of the day number two is from Ryan D. From Loma Linda, California. Chris Paddock was dropped in my league. I'm debating placing a claim for him, but I don't want to waste my pick if he's going to get shut down in a couple of weeks.

Right now he's at 104 innings, I know the Padres have been spacing his starts, but any idea if the Padres shut him down completely, completely got me wondering about other pitchers out there, too. Are there any others out there with innings-limits concerns? So this is something I hope to take a look at in the next couple weeks, and probably not going to happen this week,

talking about in terms of writing about it. I don't feel like I've seen anything super concrete, like an exact number of the Padres. have been aiming for, but there's been a general sense that he's not, you know, they're not going to ask him to go all season from the beginning. That's kind of how the beat writers have referenced it and considering he didn't even get to 100 innings last year. I'm not expecting to see him in September, really. Yeah, I sort of backed off on that because I just, his innings count is so low right now.

So if they have any expectation of him approaching like 180 next season, I think they would want to get him close to 130. He's at 104 and a third. That's Chris Paddock. So I'm thinking, you know, four more starts gets him to 130, hopefully. And that's going to take you, yeah, maybe first week of September, something like that. Yeah. Because he doesn't pitch that often.

Yeah. They space out of starts more. Yeah, yeah, right. They go six-man. They have, like, an opener or something like that. Yeah. So it helps. Yeah.

It might spill into September some, then, I guess. I mean, they might even take it to 140, but I can't see them going beyond that. Yeah. Okay. So any other innings limits guys, you want to bring up? I do, like, Kenta Maeda's going to have a limit. There's a financial incentive for the, for Maeda innings, so they're going to move them to the bullpen, right? You think?

He has been pitching all that well lately. Right. I would suspect that's going to happen again for him. You know, the Braves duo of Soroka and Freed gets brought up from time to time. And by traditional, the traditional way these are handled, it makes sense, though Alex Anthopoulos has poured water on that idea. I know at least once in the past that he doesn't really believe in that. And of course the Braves are planning to make a deep playoff run.

So I don't know how they're going to do that, at least without Soroka. Freed maybe they could do it without. But I don't think there will be a huge curtailing of their innings. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm prepared to do this top of mind. That's fine. But young pitchers in general. Like I would add 30 innings to whatever a pitcher pitched last year. You know, assuming it was like 150 innings or less,

the pitcher pitched last year. I'd add 30 innings to it and not count on much more than that. So that's kind of my general rule. Okay, Scott, so listen, Scott and I do shorter episodes now, nowadays, because just of stupid football and time constraints, and I'm a mess right now trying to do two shows in the morning. So before we kind of, we're going to go game by game and give our thoughts on each game. But before we do that, are there any other players that you feel like need to be added right now?

Think about it. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Scott and I will tell you some other players that are super important. You got to add them. By the way, tomorrow's Worryometer Wednesday. We will have that. I will have Kestin-Hira on the Woriometer. I will have Josh Bell on the Wariometer.

We'll take a quick break here on fantasy baseball today and talk about ads and drops. the second. Who we adding Scott White? I think we need to give more serious thought to adding J.D. Davis. We kind of talked about it yesterday. And what's funny is he was actually out of the lineup yesterday for the first

time in 11 games. But he came off the bench, home run, and a double. And the take I gave yesterday is okay, yeah, like he's hitting almost 300. It definitely has some power, some on base skills. But he's not quite this good and that'll probably go down as he plays more.

Well, his ex-WO-B-A has expected Wobah and his XBA is expected batting average, they're both actually higher than what the actual numbers are. They're suggesting he's not overachieving at all. In fact, he's underachieving a little. and I was surprised at how low his strikeout rate is. I mean, he looks pretty interesting. He looks pretty interesting. If he's going to get this chance, which I...

He will. I mean, Cano's out. Like, they... That means McNeil's going to play second base. I mean, J.D. Davis has got path to playing time. Yesterday, I... Look, I might not be... We might not be on as early in the morning,

and I might be reading the wrong days, but I mentioned J.D. Davis and Mike Talkman, I picked him up and started him in the same league in this Roto League that now Scott and I are neck and neck. I'm one and a half points behind him. Yeah, so actually, who would you rather pick up between J.D. Davis and Mike Talkman, who, Homer twice yesterday. I think Davis. Davis's numbers, you know,

Talkman, it does seem clear he's overachieving. His strikeout rate is actually pretty high. But he also has some power, some on-base skills. I'm not completely just missing Talkman. I don't think he can sustain this. It looks like there's a chance Davis can. You mentioned Jeff McNeil, so I want to just throw something about him in there real quick.

He homered for a third straight game. It was his 14th home run overall. That gives him 11 home runs in his past 40 games, which if you take that over 162 game season, You're talking about a 40 Homer pace that McNeil's been on over his past 40 games. He has a shot at 20 all of a sudden to go along with that great batting average. Like, he's looking like not just a New York media stud because the Mets beatwriters have been salivating over him all year. But he looks like he might be an actual stud.

I mean, he had for power in the miners last year, and it wasn't all at AAA. Yeah, he has missed some time. but I'd like to know I don't know if you have it handy you often do where he ranks in points per game at second base because I wouldn't be shocked if he's top like eight

I wouldn't be totally shocked if he's top five right now he is a top 12 second baseman overall in points leagues but he's played only 99 games missed a little bit of time currently dealing with calf cramps so just a day-to-day situation for Jeff McNeil but the fact that he barely strikes out and he doesn't walk really either

but barely strikes out, leads off, batting 337. I mean, it's having a heck of a year, Jeff McNeill for sure. I can find that pretty quick. I was as quick as I... I think he was platooning some earlier in the year, right? Which meant he probably came off the bench some, which might bring down the PPG. Oh, maybe.

I can double check on that. But we'll take a look. Okay, yeah, so other guys that you might want to consider adding, Jose LeClerc got a save, and he has mostly pitched well, except there was that time when he pitched on three straight days and struggled and then struggled the next time, but mostly he pitched well for a while now, Jose LeClerc. Steve Sechek might be somebody you want to pick up as Craig Kimbril goes on the IL,

but it could just be a 10-day stint. They said bullpen by committee for the Cubs, but C-shek's probably going to be the first. That would be my guess. So, yeah, those are something. I think I had one more. Oh, Brendan McKay. I'll go shallow here. You mentioned C-Shech didn't get the save yesterday, right?

He was pitching the game in the eight. No, I didn't mention that. I'm sorry. Yeah, he came in in the eighth and gave up two home runs, actually. He had to be bailed out by... I forget who. But anyway, the guy who ended up getting the save was a blast from the past. It was a one-out save because then he had to bail out... Oh, I wish I had the actual names for you.

I was just writing about it last night, but now I can't remember the names. Okay, so Brandon Kinsler bailed out Seashch in the eighth. Then Kyle Ryan... came in to begin the night and needed bailing out by David Phelps. That blast from the past. It's a total committee. I mean, C-Sheck still seems like he should be the primary guy, but... Okay.

I mean, Madden even said it's committee time. Yeah, all right. Jose LeClerc's a better option. Let's just say that. Jose LeClerc is owned in 45% of CBS. So Jeff McNeil is ninth at second base in points per game, but directly behind Whitmeryfield, who's directly behind Max Muncie.

So definitely in good company. Okay. And, yeah, all right. So there's this thing. There's this big chunk of games, 13 of them that McNeil did not start, and he must have pinched some of them. So I think that's weighing down the points per game.

Brendan McKay is 75% owned. Shallower leagues, yes, obviously. But Gianni Tureen, us on the IL. So I'd have to imagine Brendan McKay is going to be starting.

He's starting on Wednesday against Toronto. I think he's going to stay in the rotation. It's an interesting audition.

I haven't been 100% blown away by his stuff. But I think it's way too early to make any judgments. The pedigree is

obviously incredible. The minor league numbers were amazing. I was picking up McKay everywhere. I'm still very, very excited to see what he can do.

Let's see what he can do. Are you more excited about Mike Fultenevich or Lewis Brinson, both called up yesterday by the Braves and Marlins, respectively. Definitely Fultenevich, though I put it that way because I don't see any reason to get excited about Lewis Brinson at this point. Fultenevich had a 267 ERA after getting sent down to AAA, so he pitched well there, but it was with less than a strikeout per inning.

the issue for him is, at least the way he puts it is when he was dealing with the elbow issue in spring training, he came back reluctant to snap off his slider like he did last year. And so, you know, obviously his main strikeout pitch was compromised. So I don't know. The fact that he had a not-so-great strikeout rate at AAA leads me to wonder if the slider's really back. but it's a pitcher with upside, right? And I think you take a flyer on that unless you're just totally content with your pitching and who is.

Yeah, well, I'm not going to start him tonight at Minnesota. Definitely want to see... Right, you shouldn't do that. Definitely want to see what Fultenevich does in this start. He doesn't even have to pitch great, but he's 51% owned, and actually will become a two-star pitcher this week. His second start will be at Miami,

and then the Dodgers this weekend. So, you know, Daily League, and you want to use him at Miami, you could consider that. Keep in mind, he had a terrible start against Detroit earlier this year. So it's not like he's in lock to do well against Miami. Mike Fultenevich. All right, news and notes. Gary Sanchez is going to begin a rehab assignment on Wednesday. Wilson Contreras is out four weeks with a hamstring injury.

Mickey Calloway is sticking with Edwin Diaz as the closer. Robinson Cano is a torn hamstring, no timetable for his return. He was hitting great after the All-Star break. Yanni Torino's out at least four weeks. Washington signed as Drobo Cabrera off of waivers. Atlanta did the same with Lucas Duda. Cincinnati did the same with Kevin Gosman. Ready for this?

pronunciation alert. It's Anthony Santander, not Santander. Well, that's disappointing. Anthony Santander has the seventh highest exit velocity since the All-Star break. If that makes anyone... That's a strange would have... figure out because with all the offense happening at AAA, he was no good at all there prior to his promotion, although he has had some productive minor league seasons in the past. By the way,

if I may interject here, I took the time to calculate what Jeff McNeil's points per game are just as a starter, and he would be third at second base in that scenario behind just Cattel Marte and DJ Lemay. He would be third and points per game behind Marte and Lemayhew. I assume some of the guys he passed also have appearances off the bench, so it's not totally fair, but that gives you a little more perspective. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez are day-to-day. Endurance, Yardtaleft with quad tightness. Maybe this will get more at bats for Austin Riley.

That's his name. Alex Verdugo Day to Day with a back issue. Andrew Heaney's going to come off the IL this weekend and get destroyed at Boston. Zach Davies is on the IL with back spasms. Derek Dietrich's on the IL. Jonathan V.R. hit for the cycle. He's the top 10 second baseman this year. 9th and 0.7th in Roto.

He has 15 home runs and 24 steals. And Trent Grisham led off again at Pittsburgh for Milwaukee. He went one for four. He drove in three runs. All right. So there were some pitching performances like Jake Oteresee. What do you do with Jake Oterreasy? Good start against the Braves.

Wasn't expecting that. His last two starts have been good. He might be getting back on track. he was clearly playing over his head earlier in the year, but his fastball has been better than ever this year. It's always been good. So I didn't think it was fair to dump him when he was struggling either. 15 swinging strikes is the most he's had in his start since before that rough patch began.

So yeah, I mean, he's probably, if you had been benching him, it's probably worth considering activating him again. All right, we're going to go game by game. game here and just give quick thoughts. Isan Diaz, let's start with the doubleheader here. Isan Diaz goes one for seven with a home run and a walk at the Mets. 30% own, Scott. Yeah, we saw the power with the home run.

How many strikeouts? He had three strikeouts in that seven at bets, which isn't good, but it's one day. The fact he started both games of the doubleheader clearly shows that Marlins expect to play him a lot. He was batting second, which is another indication of that. So if you need second base help, I think he's worth a shot. Garrett Cooper is 0 for August. He will be on the Wuriometer tomorrow, as he has really cooled off, maybe injury-related,

because he missed a little time. Yeah, he's been banged up. Yeah. Okay. So second game of the doubleheader, Michael Conforto homered. Like, you just can't give up on Michael Conforto. He's just so damn streaky. but now he has an 862 OPS, solid numbers,

and yeah, 23 home runs, 258 batting average, and he's been pretty good since the All-Star break, Conforto, two home runs in his last three games. Yeah, I can accept that he's probably just a solid hitter, and maybe not much more than that. That's about where I am with him. Now, Seth Lugo did get a two-inning save, and even though they're sticking with Edwin Diaz,

the Mets are all of a sudden in the playoff picture. They are above 500. They're the hottest team in baseball. And Lugo's really good. Like, you should own Lugo just for the ratios. He's a .93 whip. He's got a 259 ERA. If Diaz continues to struggle, they will change it.

Like, if they're in the playoff picture. By the way, 72 strikeouts of 13 walks, my goodness. So, all right, that's all I got on the Mets and the Marlins. I think he's allowed Lugo just one hit in his past 11 appearance or something like that. I'll find the exact number.

That's terrific. All right, let's go to our next game. How about Milwaukee and Pittsburgh here? Two home runs from Christian Yelich, Jordan Liles, an uninspiring star, but they did use him as a starter. And he gave up one run, but only one strikeout, two home runs allowed.

So one earn run, three runs total. Not really so interested. there. Mike Mustakis. I was going to put him on the Wariometer. He homered yesterday. I feel like we haven't talked about Mike Mustakis in forever, Scott. Have you adjusted your have you moved him down in your rankings? He's now got nine hits in his last five games, but really has trailed off Mustakis. He's been pretty bad for a little while now. Yeah, I mean, he had a lot of ground to give. He's, you know, I was looking at the top second baseman in points per game, he's sixth still.

So, yeah, not really. He was having, he's still having a career season, right? Moose, yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. No, I think the fact that he's picked it up again should relieve any concerns that may have been there. One base runner allowed in his past 12 and two-thirds innings, Seth Lugo. Wow. Two base runners loud.

hit by pitch too. And you know, I don't know if anybody reached on an error or anything like that. But one hit, one hit by pitch and the last 12 and two, there's innings. You know, if you go ahead and look at a player's player page on CBS, CBS Sports.com slash MLB slash players, you can see fantasy points by week.

Little bar graphs here. And I'm looking at another guy from this game, Brian Reynolds. Brian Reynolds has been so unbelievably consistent. He had three more hits yesterday. Three for five. Homered. Drove in a run. or solo homer, two runs scored.

Brian Reynolds has a 932 OPS and a 337 batting average. Only 10 home runs. But his production's amazing. Who's going to win rookie of the year of the National League? I'm sure it's a really obvious answer. I can never think of this stuff. Probably Pete Alonzo's in the lead, though Fernando Tatis and Mike Soroka certainly have a case. So does Reynolds.

I don't think he's going to pass. Either any of those three. I wonder if he has a higher OPS than Pete Alonzo. Probably not, but it's 932. It's close. I think Alonzo's like 949. Okay. Well, I mean, do you buy Brian Reynolds?

You think you can rely on him rest of the season? I'm buying him more than I have been, you know, the times we've talked about him in the past. I do think he definitely profiles as a high BABIP guy. He hit... He was hitting 367 at AAA. This year has been a 300 hitter at every stop in the minors. But 417 Babbap, even for a high Babbap guy, is not realistic. We have talked about the Yankees and Orioles game with Masahiro Tanaka and Jonathan V.R.

so let's go to the Angels and the Reds. Mike Trout Homer, that was predictable. And, yeah, we mentioned... So one stupid thing I did was I started Shohei Otani this week, and he obviously didn't play. He pinch hit and went over one with a strikeout, but NL Park, not a good thing. But Luis Castillo, Scott,

like, I don't think... I was never on the cell high on Luis Castillo thing. I don't think you were either. No. No. No. I was thinking there would be skills of... improvement to

specifically with the walks. I thought he could cut back on his walks and that would fix the gap there between X-FIP and ERA. And that seems to be happening. He's only issued eight walks in his past six starts. And this start was just incredible in every way. 13 strikeouts, 26

swinging strikes, 18 of them on the change-up. It's great. Again, Josh Van Meter did not start. So that was disappointing. And that was with Sandoval, Not starting, but yeah, pitching. That could be an issue for Josh Van Meter. Red Sox and Royals.

What do you make a... Brandon Workman got to save, by the way. So would you rather have Workman or the clerkman? I would rather have Workman, I think. I actually... I wrote about both in the Bullpen report. It may already be up this morning. And I actually led with Workman.

And it's how it looks like what you've been saying is right at him. I think he's just the guy for the Red Sucks now. He's gotten three of their past four saves. And the one he didn't get, he was trying for the two-inning save and couldn't quite make it. Got five of the six outs. So, you know, Barnes has fallen off. Avaldi hasn't been good.

Brazier's out of the picture entirely. He's in the minors. So I think it's workmen. Yeah, it's... Everybody else has been so bad in that bullpen, basically. Devers. another homer. Andrew Benintendi's been hitting really well, and we got an email that there was apparently a swing change. He went back. He looked at some old film and worked on his mechanics,

and he doubled twice yesterday. So Ben and Tentney's been red hot. That's something to keep an eye on. What do you make of this good start from Porcelo, six innings, one run, five strikeouts, to lower his ERA to 554? I think the blind squirrel found a nut. Okay, so not interested in Porcelo, who has given up six or more runs in four of his last seven starts. Lucas Gialito had a 450 ERA in yesterday's start, but overall it was a good one. It was six innings and three runs at the Tigers. How confident are you in Gialito rest of season?

He still has ace-like numbers. The ERA, I guess, is a little on the high side. So, you know, I'm confident in him in that I would have him in my top 20, but he's been sliding when at one point I think I had them in my top 12. Right. Understood. And a lot of that was tough matchups. He just had a stretch of tough matchups, Lucas G.

Alito, so I expected a good start, and other than, you know, $450 is not a good ERA. But it was a very good start yesterday. And seven innings, one earn run, nine strikeouts against the Mets last time out. In fact, three of his last four stars have been pretty good. And four of his last five have been quality starts. So I think he's a matchups guy. His next start's going to be Oakland. And they're kind of like...

Well, matchups guy in that you only play him with the right matchups, because that seems... If he were starting at the Yankees, which he won't be, or at the Twins, I might... Yeah, I would probably set him. I know you wouldn't, but... No, I wouldn't. I think that he's been bad enough against those good teams. His last starting against Twins was five-inning seven runs. Don't worry about the one before that, which was five-innings, no runs.

It's too small of the same. And, like, it really comes down to who are you going to start in his place? because if it's, you know, waiver, Y, or pitcher, X, it's clearly not worth it. Yeah, most likely. All right, how about the Rangers and the Indians? We talked about Savale. We did not talk about Mike Minor.

He bounced back. He had a nice start. Yeah, he needed it. He'd been, it was his first good start in six, actually. And his ERA had risen close to a run during that time. It still looks awfully good, though. Framer Reyes is playing a lot, but he's not playing well right now. No, he's not.

He'll get hot. Okay. Toronto, the Blue Jays, they won two to nothing, pardon me, over the raise. Charlie Warden pitched great but lost. Jake, uh, Jacob, we're friends. Jake, let's just say. Jacob Wagaspak, Wagaspak, six innings. You had to look up the pronunciation.

before this show. I did. Me and Jake. Some friend you are. He's six scoreless innings and four strikeouts. He's got a four ERA, and I think he's been all right lately, Jake Waggis back. Jacob Waggis back. Yeah, the last two starts have been good, six innings in each, but only six

strikeouts between them, and I don't see a lot to get excited about here. The one to get excited about from this game is Bo Bouchet. Bo Bichette. Wow. He can Bo Bouchette, man. First of all, he set a Blue Jays record for most hits in his first, like, seven games or something. And he homered and doubled yesterday. He's got a 12.95 OPS.

Where's Bo Bichet in your rest of season rankings? I'm going to be working Tuesday's the day where I work on those most extensively. So you're catching me a little early. Obviously shortstop's a heavy, deep position. Like, it's so deep, he might barely make it in the top 20, but that's high praise. that's high, like, he should be an option for your utility spot at this point. Would you rather have Elvis Andrews or Biggio? Elvis Andrews has been pretty cold, right?

Yes, but he's still running. Yeah, I mean, he's like one of the few heavy base dealers. That's heavy is not the right word for that, but you know what I'm saying. Big time base dealers. He's not heavy. He's very light. Yeah. So in a Categories league, I don't think you could sit him. You might go with the high handbichette over him in a points league, though.

Okay, Scott, let me get last game here. I want to get your thoughts on. So I got to let you go, and I'll stick around for a little more. Marcus Simeon, Homer twice. He's having a really good year. And Chris Bassett, 380 ERA, quality start, six-innings, two runs. The hound. Yeah.

That should be his nickname. He's only 68% owned. He doesn't get a lot. a ton of fantasy respect. So, Simeon and Bassett, your thoughts? I mean, Bassett's been pretty solid of late. Four or five, good.

Three of them, six innings or more, which is kind of, I feel like unless you're dominant with the ratios, you've got to be able to go six innings plus to really matter to me. You know, it's not, I'm not rushing out to pick him up or

anything. The swinging strike rate isn't good. but he's been better than he's probably gotten credit for, as you were pointing out, Adam. Marcus Simeon or Cabin Biggio rest of season? Simeon. Okay, that's something. Simian's been probably better than he's gotten credit for too. He really has been.

He really has been. All right, that's going to do it for Scott. I will hang around and talk about the rest of the games. Right after this break. Scott, thank you. Sure, let's do it again. We will. All right.

And we'll be right back. Good news, everyone. If you're a Futurama fan. Or just a Scott White fan, he's decided to stick around. What a guy. Braves and twins, five three twins get the win. Max Kepler is amazing. But let's talk about Mike Soroka,

who went seven innings, gave up three runs, three strikeouts. And he's still not, like, this is somebody that I could have seen as a good sell high. But he really hasn't been. He's pitched pretty well. What do you think about him? He's thriving on ground balls right now.

His ground ball rate is one of the best in baseball. And his ex-fips, for not having a very good strikeout rate at all, is ex-Pips 384. So, I mean, obviously much higher than his 245 VRA, but also still good, you know? I think he's good. I think regression is coming, but not so much that you're going to be benching him or should look to sell high if your trade deadline hasn't passed yet or anything like that. I mean, you could, I guess you could try selling high, but it would have to be really high. Who would you rather have Max Kepler or Eddie Rosario? Rosario, though, they're very close.

All right, Phillies and Diamondbacks, 7-3 Phillies win. Vince Velasquez, we didn't really talk about him. How would you rank him with, you know, Gonsolin, Savale, Sandoval. He's 49% owned, Vince Velasquez, seven innings and two runs, three hits, three strikeouts, excuse me. But seven innings is impressive. You don't see that for Vince Velazquez. No, you don't, and that's one reason why he's not as exciting as certainly as Savale. And I might put him behind Gonsal and too because it is a rarity for him to do that.

And he only had three strikeouts. So I don't think, you know, strikeouts have been higher in the past when he hasn't gone deep into games. I don't know. It's not enough for me to win me over. All right, Vince Velasquez. Yeah, he's fooled us before in the past. Let's see, anything else? Merrill Kelly.

Okay, is that the kind of guy you drop for Savale or Gonsolin or Sanibald? Yeah, Kelly's the kind of guy who I feel like you roster because he's capable of delivering a quality start any time out. He's efficient. When he pitches well, he goes deep. But he's not somebody who you're really staking your season on. It's not a lot of upside there. He's just serviceable when you can't do any of. better.

All right. And Scott Kingery, Homer, he is 76% owned, and three multi-hit games in his last four with two steals. So it's interesting to see what happens there. I know I told a lot of people to drop, Scott Kingery,

he's been kind of bad, especially in points leagues. It's been kind of bad, but maybe coming out of a slump. All right, Scott, we've got two more games. We got the Nationals and the Giants, 4-0-Nats. This is a really crappy start for Jeff Samarja. Four innings, one run.

It could have been worse. It could have been worse. Five of his previous six were quality starts, so compared to that. It was disappointing, I guess. You might have taken a flyer on him in a two-star week. Four innings, yikes. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't good, but it's not like he got shelled.

I don't know. I mean, he's definitely fringy, but the fact he's on the fringes, fringes again is a credit to the way his season's gone. I don't think this really changes anything. Oh, I got a question, by the way, about Johnny Quato. And if he comes off the IL from Tommy John and is just used out of the bullpen, will he have starting pitcher eligibility next year? No. No, we wouldn't be like, well, actually, he's a starting pitcher. No, we don't. We have objective standards for awarding eligibility at the start of the season, unlike some of those Yahoo sites out there.

Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. And then finally, St. Louis, our last game, St. Louis at the Dodgers, 8-0-0 Dodgers. And would you rather have Bigeo or Paul DeYoung? I would rather have Bidio. Michael Waka with a terrible start. Gonsland with a very good start. And Jack Peterson, he homered.

Yeah, trying to stave up. Gavin Lug. He sure is. He's trying. He had been awful lately, Peterson. He's not very good. He entered this game one for his previous 23. Yeah, he's not very good. He's a very good test case of, you know, guys who have good splits against Riteys or whatever. You go to their final numbers and they're good, but they don't feel like they're having any impact on fantasy.

It's because he's the type of guy that gets it all in a little spurt, but is largely useless, I think. That's just my opinion. I think Chris would probably disagree. Finally, Scott, would you rather have Bigio or Corey Seeger, who did go two for four yesterday with a double? I think I'm to the point. Whoa. I am surprised I was not expecting that.

Wow. I totally am still leaving the door open for Corey Seeger to get hot and be a stud the rest of the way, but it seems like the chances are just as good Bigeo. Bishio, or wait, no, Bichette. Yes. I was thinking Bichet. And I said Bigio for the Lafford de Young, too.

But I meant Bichet. You meant, but see, I knew what you meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. No. No. Bigio, Cabin Bigeo is behind all these guys. Bichet is at the front of the list.

Okay, okay. I'm sorry about the Bidio Bichet confusion there. At least I didn't say Guerrero. Okay, that's Scott White. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. We'll come back tomorrow with Wariometer Wednesday.