Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/07 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Weekend Roundup

Episode Date: August 7, 2017

From Marco Estrada (6:20) to Brandon Woodruff (8:20) to Tim Beckham (14:40) and more, we tell you who stood out this weekend and who you should be adding. Plus a look at the Most Added list and some two-start pitcher discussions ... Should Fantasy owners who have been eliminated from playoff contention be allowed to make trades (11:30)? We discuss best practices ... Covering weekend studs like Danny Salazar (30:45), Hyun-Jin Ryu (31:30) and Cole Hamels (41:00) and weekend duds like Carlos Carrasco (41:52) and Sean Manaea (47:35). Plus a look at today's matchups (56:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Welcome back from your weekend. And welcome back to me, Adam Azer, back in the house. Rocking the mic with Heath and Scott. Hello, Heath and Scott. Adam Azer. What was happening on Friday? I went to Los Angeles for a wedding of a former colleague.

Oh, really? Yeah. I wasn't invited. No, you don't know. It was before your, before. B.H. Before Heath. Yeah.

Very nice time Very fun weekend Los Angeles is cool Scott have you ever been to L.A.? No, I haven't Was that your first time? No, I've been there several times It was my wife's first time

Took her to In-N-Out burger Heath have you ever been to L.A.? Oh yes at least once Maybe twice But not as an adult I don't think Oh yeah it's good It's fun And In-N-Out burger is just delicious

Oh Like I was in the Palm Springs area Wait stop it I was so, I didn't, I haven't been to Los Angeles, I've been to San Francisco, and one of the things I was looking forward to when we went to San Francisco was trying this in-and-out burger, everybody raved about. Rightfully so. It was the most underwhelming burger experience of my life. On the scale of burgerdom, it was closer to McDonald's than five guys. Well, yes, thank you that you're making my point.

People overrate in and out because it's a fast food joint, but it blows away all the other fast food joints. But no, it's not as good as five guys. Well, I didn't travel across the country to eat at, you know, a slightly better McDonald's. It's not, you're under rating it. You're underrated. Here's my question, though, because I don't know that I've had it before. Maybe I did, you know, I do a lot of things I don't remember. Is it fries like fast food?

It's so cheap. It's so cheap. Okay. Well, that's a different thing then. I'm okay with that. I get so sick of going to these burger places and $12 for a freaking hamburger. Yeah, I know. It's crazy.

All right. All right. So Scott's wrong about this. Well, he's going to be right about fantasy baseball. I want to start with this email from Ben. Actually, no, it's not from Ben. It's from Wilson's dad. Can we just put Wilson Contreras as the number one catcher now and for the foreseeable future.

Thanks, Wilson's dad. No. Buster Posey still exists. So does Gary Sanchez. I do kind of. I'm hedging on Contreras. versus Gary Sanchez, though. Not really Posey.

I mean, there's just, there's just no reason to even question Posey's greatness. Wilson Catreras has had a very good couple weeks, and it's made his season-long numbers look very good as well. But, like, I don't think it's fair to assess any player on the hottest two-week stretch of his career, especially when it wasn't so clear before that that he was even top five, you know?

Is it only... I've had him number three, I think, since the All-Star break. I moved him ahead of Salvador Perez because we knew that Salvador Perez in the second half is just a bad idea. But he's not going any higher than number three. Is it only two weeks? I mean, I know since the All-Star break Contreras has been ridiculous. And good news for him is that they kept him in the lineup. He's hit five home runs in his last four games.

But they kept him in the lineup and put him in left field on Saturday, I believe. And he homeed twice. So that's an interesting move. because Aveal is probably a better hitter than Schwerber. So you get Avella catcher, right now anyway. You get Avella catcher, you put Contreras there. I think, no, not to nitpick or anything, but I'm going back to June 16th. He's gotten 1,100 OPS and 16 home runs.

And I just know as the Contreras owner in one league, he's been great for almost two months now. Yeah, Sanchez. Yeah, Sanchez bench for defense, by the way, too. We should probably talk about that. Okay, so it was probably a little dismissive of the length of time, but still relative, in comparison to Buster Posey, I mean, the time of elite production is no comparison. And I'm not even saying, like, if Contreras stays this hot through the end of the season, I think it probably is the clear number two going into next season behind Posey. Well, he was number two for the first two months of the season. Oh, I see what you did.

Is there any concern about Gary Sanchez? Should fantasy owners be panicking here? Apparently he put on, he bulked up like 12 pounds in the off season, and that has made him less flexible, and he leads baseball and pass balls, and I believe errors, too, at the catcher position. And he sat Saturday, which was a plan day off, and he sat Sunday. Any concerns about Gary Sanchez, guys? No. Well, I don't know. You're making me where you think this on the spot. I mean, if Wilson Contreras is getting extra playing time. for a catcher and Gary Sanchez's playing time is becoming something of a concern because of his defense.

Yeah, but. Gary Sanchez has played 132 games in his major league career and he's got 52 home runs. Right. It's not that I'm worried about. Yeah, that's a lot. Completely wrong. Made the number up. Okay.

37. 37. Well, it's got it. It's not that I'm worried about how good of a hitter Gary Sanchez is. It's just if Wilson Catreras is nearly as good of a hitter and he's playing a lot more. I would not expect, yeah, I don't think this weekend is enough to tell me that Wilson Contreras is going to play a lot more than Gary Sanchez. If the Yankees decide they're not going to play Gary Sanchez down the stretch because of his defense, they're not going to make the playoffs. Well, also, they put Matt Holliday on the DL, so now the DH is free.

That could easily happen with Gary Sanchez. Yeah. All right. So I think it sounds. You all make compelling points. It sounds like you're still on Team Sanchez here. Me? Yeah.

Well, he definitely is. Yeah. I don't know. All right. Scott's not committing. What are you going to do? You're going to trade Contreras for Sanchez or the other way around? It doesn't really matter that much.

They're both awesome. Fix your ranking, Scott. All right. So let's get into the weekend. And look, I was out of town. I was at the wedding. It was fun. A lot of traveling.

So I'll be honest with you. I only made one transaction all weekend. It was in our podcast league, head-to-head points, 12 teams. I dropped Hanley Ramirez, who's a little banged up right now, but expected to avoid going on the DL. And I added Marco Estrada, who has had two good starts in a row. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to start Marco Estrada yet, but I do think at about 66% owned or something like that.

He's someone that you can take a look at. He has the Yankees at home this week, and I won't start Estrada in a one-start week. But hey, you know, could be him getting himself out of a funk, which is exactly what he did last year, although this year was a longer and much worse funk. Any interesting ad drops for you guys? I added Paul De Jong.

DeYoung. In what kind of league? In a points league. I had Addison Russell go on the disabled list. No, 12 team points league. Had Add Add Addison Russell going on the disabled list. Needed a short stop. I don't really believe that he can keep this up, striking out 31% of the time and not walking at all.

but he had six more hits over the weekend. Like, I don't, there's no reason really to doubt him right, especially a shortstop. I added Ian Kennedy this morning because he got bumped back yesterday and has now a two-start pitcher against the Cardinals and White Sox. Oh, the White Sox are just so bad. And I think one of the Strata good starts was against the White Sox, but the other was against the Astros, which was nice. But the, yeah, I mean, any, anytime you see a pitcher facing the White Sox, they are full. Yeah, I think one start against the White Sox is an excuse to start most pitchers. If you get two starts and one of them's against the White Sox, you're a must start no matter who you are almost.

All right, so Kennedy, DeYoung, anything else? Interesting. I added Brandon Woodruff in a couple of leagues after his very successful Major League debut on Friday, I believe it was. Yeah. Against the raise at Tampa Bay, actually. six and a third, shutout innings with six strikeouts. And a guy who had very impressive numbers in the minors, 2016, this year was spent at Colorado Springs, AAA Colorado Springs. So like, you know, closest thing to course field in the minor leagues, numbers weren't as good, had an ERA over four. But I think you have to view that performance through, you know, special lenses and recognize that there is definitely talent here.

I am about as excited about Woodruff as I would be about Luke Weaver had Luke Weaver stayed in the rotation. So not saying I'm adding him everywhere, but I found in a good number of my leagues he was the most attractive starting pitcher available. He is 13% owned, Brandon Woodruff. He debuted for the Brewers, and yeah, a great start against the Reyes, who do strike out a lot, but still was very encouraging, 13% owned. I had a two-start Dylan Bundy to start as a spark against the Angels

Athletics. Good matchups. Chris, Team Kreeh, after getting pummeled in the For the People League this week and falling back out of the playoffs, added Matt Chapman in our 16 team for the people league. Oh, you know, we added another, Adam and I added the other athletics corner infielder in that league. Matt Olson, the Oakland Mats led the Waverwire today. Both were added in a 16 team categories league. Both for power, hopefully, and probably not much else. Chapman has been a top nine third baseman over the last month?

Chapman, yeah. He actually put him in the hitter section. So Matt Chapman is 17% owned over the weekend. He went four for 10 with three doubles. Last eight games, 321 batting average. Two homers, three doubles, and six walks to four strikeouts for Matt Chapman. So that guy's 17% on. Scott, why do we pick up Matt Olson?

Scott is running the team right now. by the way, I will concede. I don't know what, like, you guys made a trade. I almost reversed it. What? Because you're out of it. What are you trading for? Obvious collusion.

I'm obviously still trying to win, Heath. We traded Cody Allen for Tommy Fam. We needed offense. What? We did? Yeah. Why? That one category a week saves that we may or may not win versus Tommy Fam could help us in four.

Apparently, five, actually. Your best friend in the league needs. It's obvious clues. You don't think Tommy fans more valuable in a category is league than Cody Allen? With Andrew Miller, I'm not sure. Okay. I don't know how that makes a difference.

With Andrew Miller, Adam, he might be worse, because they might use him in non-save situations, apparently. Yeah, I guess they could. We have one closer now, right? Oh, no, do we have zero closer, Scott? We have one. We have Trinan. All right.

Okay. Clearly not Trinning to win that category. No, I'm not Trident in that league at all. Adam's not trying to do anything at all. We have really big offensive issues, and I thought Tommy Fam. I thought you were on board with Tommy Fam, Adam. I like Tommy Fam. If you could get this trade at all.

I like closers. I'm in the same place you guys are in in our podcast listeners league, which I think is my third year in a row of being absolutely awful in that league. And I just quit. I don't. I don't respect that. I don't respect quitters. No, doing the league of service would be playing out the string trying to give people. people who are fighting for a playoff spot just as much of a chance as the people who are ahead of them had early in the year.

Oh, I'm still setting my lineup. He's right. Yeah. But I'm not making trades to try to help teams. You've got to play as hard as you possibly can. I do think it's kind of an interesting question because I did institute a rule last week in the editorial league that we're in that we're only, we had one week left before the trade deadline and two weeks left before the playoffs started. We're starting early. You were not allowed to make trades unless you were in playoff contention, which was almost all of the league anyway.

But, you know, that didn't factor into the decision. So what about in real life? Like, trades happen all the time. And I understand they're thinking about future seasons, but it doesn't always play out that way. I mean, the twins had Jaime Garcia for the week. The White Sox got Tyler Clippers. He's clearly not a future piece back in that Yankees deal. The twins had Jaime Garcia because they thought that they might be willing to go for it.

All right. What about Tyler Clippers? Tyler Clipper, they had to have someone in there in their bullpen. They gave away Robertson and Cainley. They had to have someone respectable. They had players they could call up. They could have still said a lot. Look, that's like a Dynasty League, Major League Baseball, where, of course, I would

allow anybody to make trades at any time. If Tyler is not a long-term piece. If Major League Baseball had to start over with new rosters every year, then I would think they shouldn't let people not get into make trade. I just can't disagree more. You've got to have players on your roster. I mean, you've got to, you're trying to be competitive. So make add drops

You can't just quit being competitive Because you're not going to make the playoffs You're still not being competitive You're giving saves to another team in the league First of all I did this We're taking a lot of offense from them And Tommy Pham Like I could understand if this was an obviously

Lopsided trade that You know we were just Trying to help the guy win It was collusion basically But that's not it I made it with the intention of We're going to have a better chance of winning games With Tommy Fam on our roster than Cody Allen

I did this by the way This policy one week before the trade deadline. Okay, I didn't, it's, you know, I didn't do it in, uh, on July 15th or something like that. Yeah. I mean, honestly, if you, I think better than just like, certain teams can't make trades and certain teams can, which is obvious discrimination, like, just make the trade deadline earlier. And then you don't have to worry about it. That's, if that's, if that's, if you're really that concerned about some out of contention team blowing up your league with a bad trade, no, not even with any trade. Not even with a bad trade. Yeah, with the trade deadline earlier.

I don't know. I don't have a problem with what I did. Heath, did you have a problem with what I did? No, I didn't even notice what you did. He didn't even read the email. Thank you. All right, let's take a look at the most added list. Let's see who the people out there are putting on their teams.

Most added player is probably a two-star pitcher. No, it's Shane Green, a closer. Followed by James McCann, who is 37% owned. James McCann did not even realize James McCann was hot. Is he? He's not that hot, I guess. But I am looking for a Wilson... He's an everyday player now.

He was... I mean, I would say that James McCann's recent performance may have less to do with that than Salvador Perez's injury. He was just the catcher that most people picked up when Salvador Perez went down. I'm looking for a Wilson-Ramos replacement. I'm not sure I would go with James McCann. I think I'd rather just take a chance that Ramos turns it around and gets hot. We picked up Sorvelli for Perez in one of our leagues. That's a better option than McCann.

J.C. Ramirez is a two-start pitcher who is R.P. eligible. Has Baltimore at home in Seattle on the road. He's the number three most added player right now in our leagues. And he's been on fire. Yeah, 131 ERA in his last three starts, but only 11 walks, 13 strikeouts. Well, J.C. Ramirez fire. J.C. Ramirez fire. Jordan Zimmerman is on the most added list. He's at Pittsburgh and home against Minnesota this week. Those are pretty good matchups for Zimmerman. but it's a little dicey. Would you go with Jordan Zerrim? This could be like for the playoffs this week, you know?

People are going to stream a two-star Jordan Zimmerman. Would you do that? It depends. Like I have made some decisions in one league where I'm playing two teams that are both better than me and I have to go two and O this week. You've got to shoot for the moon. So if you need a win and you think you're an underdog, I would shoot for the moon. All right.

I want to go back to this for a second. I can't stop thinking about it. You think it's more courteous to lay down and give the teams you happen to be facing over the last few weeks an easier road than the teams you faced early in the season. You think that's more courteous than... Who's anything about laying down? I'm still setting my lineup. No, but if you're not trying your hardest to win, you're basically laying down. No, there's something right in the middle of those two.

I don't think... Yeah, no, I agree. He's not laying down. He's setting a lineup. think you should at least do some ad drops. I mean, you do some ad drops, just not ones that might interfere with what a contender might want to do. No, you're taking this, I think, a little bit too seriously. Like, you know, I'm taking it too seriously. You sign up for fantasy baseball. It's a commitment. It's like your parents always tell you. You made a commitment. You're going to see it through

to the end. He is seeing it through. It's just, like, it's just human nature that you... He basically said he quit. I think those were the word. That was the actual word he used. My season's over. I haven't won in a month. I'm not going to. going to win the rest of the year. I do think you owe it to your league to set a responsible lineup. You're not starting any injured players, stuff like that. But I can't really tell. But you're not trying as hard as you did early in the year, which is discourteous, I think.

But it's human nature. It happens all the time. To the teams who you're not facing it. Well, we're not making a human nature argument. We're making a should you be allowed to try as hard as you can until the season's over, until your season is over. You've played your last game I think it's just when your season

is over is the debate of board I think when I got to 4 and 10 my season was over Well but what are Again go back to the real life I mean certain team seasons are over And they tank They don't tank Oh yeah tanking is very prevalent

Not in not among Okay first of all Probably not Second of all Certainly not the on field product is tanking Players aren't purposely Like managers aren't purposely sitting their best players. There are arguments in September every year between teams in the same

division because a team over the final week of the season doesn't play any of their best players and another team gets into the playoffs because of it. You know what you call that? Discourteous. Okay. But that does happen in Major League Baseball. It's factual. Probably for injury reasons, probably for we have this young player, we want to see reasons, not just for the sake of losing for the sake of losing. I don't know. I don't know why they're doing it. Look, I would be upset if somebody did not set a complete lineup, you know, just completely gave up, stop paying attention to the league.

I think that's wrong. I think, like, Scott, in an ideal world, everybody would play as hard as they do as hard as they can for as long as they can. I just, from years of playing fantasy, it just doesn't work that way. and I know Heath has like a million leagues and football starting now, so I just can't blame him for not. I know this might sound like a bad thing to say. I can't blame him for not putting a full effort forth in a league that he's been eliminated from. That's fine not to blame him, but don't, but give credit to the ones who actually do.

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, the reason I made that policy of don't trade if you're eliminated is I actually looked at the one team. that was eliminated. Well, I looked at one team that I wanted to trade with, and I saw that his team was terrible, and he wasn't making any moves.

He was starting, like, three injured players, and I would never make a trade offer to somebody like that. And I would veto any trade that that occurred with a team like that, because if you're not paying attention to your league, you don't get to make trades. So I just thought, like, look, if people are quitting right now and not really trying, then you're not allowed to make trades. That's why I instituted that policy. You know

But no I mean in the case of Scott He is trying every week In the For the People League That we share That Scott and I share that team And he should be allowed to make trades Absolutely

Trying my darndest and losing anyway Yeah What do we? We were close this week Did we win this week? Did we win? We were up like seven to two Going into Sunday

Oh we were? We were But then it was like five to four When I looked That's an afternoon It would be true There's just this whole point of contention between...

We won 5-4-1. We're trying, we're trying, we're trying, and then you look at the standing, and it just keeps getting worse, and so it's hard to know what the difference is between trying and not trying. Well, there, okay, so that's the issue here. All right, back to the most added list here. We have a bunch of two-star pitchers, obviously. Tim Beckham is 43% own, and Tim Beckham on the Orioles is Brooks Robinson.

He has an OPS over 1,700 in six games with the Orioles. he's eligible at second base and shortstop. 14 for 25 with three home runs. Wow, and it's not the first time Tim Beckham's gotten hot, but it's really good right now. Keith, you picked up Paul DeYoung. Would you rather have had DeYoung or Beckham? I chose DeYoung over Beckham,

but I did put Beckham in the waiver wire column. I think it's, he plays shortstop. It's worth writing out this hot streak. He had one of those earlier this year in Tampa. and I don't know that his talent has necessarily been what's kept him from succeeding in the big leagues. I mean, terrible. Strike zone judgment, right?

That's part of it. What I thought was weird, and I pointed this out on Friday's show, he has three doubles during this six-game stretch with the Orioles. He has eight doubles all year. So, like, the home runs are one thing, but for being an every-day-year, player most of this year even when he was with the race, the fact that he's now nearly doubled his double total in this six games with Orioles tells you probably unsustainable.

Well, it's definitely unsustainable. But like you said, I mean, shortstop playing the hot hands. And it's a better hitting environment. Yeah. Okay, we got Brent Suter, 67% owned. Would you rather own Suter or J.C. Ramirez? Souter. Yeah. Souter's all Also a two-star pitcher at Minnesota and home against Cincinnati. Good matchups for Souter. Also on the most added list, Christian Vasquez, Boston catcher. He played like seven or eight games in a row because Sandy Leon was dealing with something. But I think that's resolved now.

So I would expect it to be closer to 50-50 playing time between this point forward. He is hitting. Well, would you rather have McCann, James McCann or Christian Vasquez? McCann. Yep. Kevin Gosman is 80% owned. He has been awesome lately. Matt Garza.

It's a chance probably. Yeah, probably. Four straight eight strikeout efforts for Gosman with two run runs allowed between them. And Gosman and Nola are two guys who had been dropped in a lot of leagues and now added in a lot of leagues. And Nola is a complete stud. And Gosman is pitching great. And that's sort of what I'm hoping for for Marco Estrada. I just hope he can.

I don't know. I don't care if he's as good. those guys that just get to the point where everybody wants to add him again, and maybe now's your chance to get him before that happens. Yeah, I think it's playing out. I know Chris was with me in voicing this, just like his skill set, because he throws high 80s, it depends so much on, like, pinpoint command, and you could tell it wasn't there. The walks were way up, and then he was getting hit a lot harder. But I think the walks are what made it clear that

it wasn't a loss of stuff. It was a loss of command and he seems to have gotten it back here the last couple starts. So I'm hopeful of a strong finish for Estrada too. I just always doubted him, so I'm going to keep doubting him. This is the only time I've got to enjoy Marco Estrada in the last three years. Well, congratulations.

It took a long time, but it's a moment. Hey, look, we just launched the new version of our CBS Sports app that's going to be perfect for you fantasy owners. It's the only sports at with box scores that show stats like OPS, OBP, WIP, and fantasy points even. So just swipe right on the box score like Tinder. Just swipe right on it. Or do you swipe left on Tinder?

Swipe right. It probably depends. I think it depends on whether you like what you see or not, right? Scott White being the one of us that understood how Tinder works was the biggest upset of the day. I've actually used Tinder, you know, very briefly. Oh, so you should know. Most of all.

Yeah, except I never really, I never met any. I was on it for like two weeks. But yeah, I think you swipe right. But swipe right on the box score. Download the CBS Sports app at CBSports.com slash baseball. CBSports.com slash baseball. It's actually a really cool app. And yeah, it's got a lot of good stuff for fantasy owners.

News and notes. Here we go. J. Rees Familia could return in about two weeks. Chase Anderson's going to make a rehab start tomorrow. Seattle acquired Yonder Alonzo from Oakland for Outfielder Boog, Powell, who is in every trade. And the Mariners just kind of felt like they hadn't made a trade in a little while. They love to trade.

So they get younger. This is a good move for them. I mean, Alonzo's value have been slipping in fantasy. The home run's been down recently. And it'll probably slip even more with this move because Danny Valencia, who had been playing first base for the Mariners, has always been great against left-handers. Alonzo, not so much. So I think that's going to be a strict platoon.

But it helps the Mariners lineup for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Uh, let's see. We've covered a lot of this other news. Salvador Perez could miss up to a month. Let's call it two to four weeks. Avi Garcia could return Tuesday.

The biggest lineup decision I'm going to make, do I start George Springer? He could come back on Tuesday. We don't know. We probably won't know until it's too late. Gonna have to roll the dice on that one. There's a lot of, like, there's not very many games today, though, right? Seven. So I think there's a good chance in most of my leagues I have someone that's playing on Tuesday.

The thing is, I want to get Springer off my DL so I can make that decision tomorrow. Yeah. So I've moved him to the bench, and I have, luckily, an outfielder on most of those leagues where you can make the change tomorrow. Oh, right. So you have to move him off the DL first. Don't leave him on the DL, though. All right. Good call.

Miguel Sino is going to have an MRI on his hand today. Evan Gattis is on the seven-day concussion DL. Felix Hernandez is on the DL with biceps tendonitis. Alex Wood. Do you guys feel comfortable starting him? He had a little fatigue. His velocity was down, but he had a bullpen session. Alex would adjust at his mechanics, and he will start Wednesday at Arizona.

I don't love the matchup. I don't think he's must start, but if it was clear, he was one of my five best pitchers, and under normal circumstances, even with that matchup, I think I'd go ahead and use him. Woods had problems with consistency in his delivery in the past, right? Yep. I do not. The question was, do you feel comfortable starting him? I don't feel comfortable at all.

But it's really hard to find a team where you've got five starting pitchers better than Wood this week, too. Okay, that's Alex Wood. It'll be at Arizona. Hanley Ramirez, as I mentioned, expected to avoid the DL. Two Brewers, you should keep an eye on. Domingo Santana left yesterday's game after being hit by a pitch. Travis Shaw was supposed to sit yesterday, but he came in to replace Santana in the lineup, and he's a little dinged up with a neck injury.

Matt Shoemaker, unfortunately, out for the season. He could miss all of next season. as well after arm surgery. Did you see the Travis Shaw play? I didn't. I didn't see much this weekend. It was awful. He was trying to steal second base.

He did steal second base. The throw, the shortstop or middle infielder missed it entirely, and it hit him in the neck. Yeah. Yeah, that stinks. It looked terribly painful. Your boy must have hurt you, you know? What's that? Heard Travis Shaw, hurt Heath Cummings.

He's tough, though. It's tough. Call-ups and emotions. Only one call-up. Detroit, the Tigers, are going to call up Jamer Candelario today, who they got in the Justin Wilson deal. Is that it? Yeah.

Yes. And, yeah, he played with the Cubs earlier this year, didn't do much. Any interest in Jamer Candelario? It sounds like it'll be a short-term thing. Jose Iglesias is on the bereavement list, and that's why Candelario is coming up. He's the third base. basement, obviously, they have one of those already.

So I already had him stashed in a deep A-l-only league, but I'm not really looking to add him anywhere else. Jake Junis, is it, Heath? Did I pronounce that right? Yeah. Huge start yesterday. Dominates Seattle and then gets sent back down to the minors. Do you think we would see Kansas City starting pitcher Jake Junice back anytime soon? If the Royals have another double-hutter.

Oh, all right. I don't think there's a play. But I can't see them. If Trevor Cahill has a couple more starts where he can't even get through the fifth inning, they may decide. But Junis is not a guy that's going to make a big difference. Well, Junis, at AAA, it's a PCL affiliate. I mean, it's hitters league. 292ERA, 10.7, ERA, 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Which, you know, it's easy to look past that when he pitches like he did as early. or stints this year, but then when he turns in a start like this, an eight-inning gem with a lot of strikeouts, I don't know, who probably needs to be stashed in those same kind of leagues where Candelario is. Adam Wainwright's off to D.L. Yeah, A-L-only for Jake Junice. Adam Wainwright off to D.L. So Luke Weaver was sent back down.

Blake Snell was sent to AAA. They had to give their bullpen a bit of a boost, so Blake Snell sent down. And the Yankees sent Jordan Montgomery down, even though he's probably better than Jaime Garcia, and we're all very frustrated by it. Send him down after what was maybe his best start of the year. Not in terms of, like, you know, he didn't pitch deep into the game, but he threw 68 pitches and got a ton of strikeouts. Yeah, he dominated.

Yeah. Jordan Montgomery to AAA. Okay, weekend standouts. Danny friggin Salazar since coming off the D.L. 1-0, 135 ERA. 8 hits, 28 strikeouts to five walks in 20 innings. Like all of a sudden he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. What's going on here with Danny Salazar?

I am really looking forward to our annual March arguments over Danny Salazar, where I can quote these short sample sizes and his ace potential, and Scott can tell us how he's never thrown 200 innings, and he never will. It's going to be awesome. You know, they're both going to be valid points. I mean, if he dominates like this over his next six starts, you know, like he has this last three, it's going to be hard to. It's going to be hard to be anywhere, but firmly on Salazar's side heading into next year.

The potential is evident. Who wants to pick up Hyunjin Ryu? Riu with another really good start. Seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts at the Mets. He threw 96 pitches. Start before that, seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against the San Francisco Giants on 85 pitches. So Riu with 14 innings, 15 strikeouts, no runs, no run runs over his last two starts, and he's only 50% owned. Last six starts with a couple DL stints in there.

2.080, R115 whip 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings. So he has really become a very effective pitcher again in a way that's, you know, may have gone unnoticed because he's been absent so often. But Dodgers are down to a five-man rotation right now. Brandon McCarthy has yet to begin a rehab assignment. I suspect when he does begin a rehab assignment Well, I don't really know what the Dodgers are going to do

Kenta May I just roll us up in there they could go back to six men I don't know I think Ryu's in the rotation for the foreseeable future and yeah I am looking to add him I think he's mixed league relevant again Would you rather have Kevin Gossman or Junjun Riu Gossman Okay J.C. Ramirez or Riu? Riu. Riu.

Let's see who Riu's got this week. Because, you know, you might have to choose between a two-start Ramirez or this one-start Riu. Who do you have Riu? San Diego. I like that. That makes it easier. I probably would have chosen Riu anyway. I feel like Ramirez two-starts is not enough incentive to take that plunge.

Well, I can't imagine a much better pitcher to go add right now. that's available in about half our leagues or more. Or, yeah, then Junjin Ryu, 53% now. It's gone up 3%. But San Diego at home this week, you know they're going to win. They're 44 and 7 in their last 51 games. Yeah, that might be the safest. Like, you can never predict baseball on a day-to-day basis,

but that might be Dodgers versus Padres as safe as you'll find. Yeah, actually, that's how I... Now, of course, they're going to lose. That's how I felt about the White Sox Red Sox series this weekend. Like that was the most obvious four-game sweep. It was a joke, except one game went to extra ratings. But gosh, what a mismatch. Matt Belial got the save for the Twins on Sunday against Texas.

Taylor Rogers pitched the eighth. Belial has 14 straight scoreless appearances. Rogers has given up at least one-run run and six straight appearances. So Belial's been better lately. He's 4% owned. Do you believe that we should be picking up Matt Belial? Paul Mulleter said after the game he's still playing matchups So I don't know

Maybe he will maybe he won't I don't think managers who set out to do that ever stick with it for long And Belial's been better recently I would be going after Just about any other closer ahead of him I'd be going after Blake Trinan ahead of the twins guy I'd be going after Probably Brad Ziegler

Arroda Space guy you know is still not even 40% out of Yeah, so. Yeah, he's 4% owned. If there's no other choices of saves out there, then sure, Belial. But there are a lot of closers who are greatly under-owned right now. Team name Tuesday on Monday, but Lyle Lovett. Okay. Like Lyle Lovett, remember him?

You remember Lyle Lovett? Yeah. Yeah. He was married to Cindy Crawford, right? Yeah, but he was married. He was married to someone very attractive. Sure, Cindy Crawford. He was a country music star.

That's right. Actually, he had like two good songs. That I couldn't tell you. That would be all Middle America, Heath Cummings. All right, thank you. Those are your weekend standouts. You guys could nominate other players in just a second, but I do need to tell you about Seat Geek.

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Again, you get $20 off your first purchase with the promo code fantasy. That's promo code fantasy for a $20 discount on Seekek. A great app. I use it all the time, and I recommend you do it as well. And again, the promo code is fantasy. So I'm going to give you four pitchers that are mostly owned. But this time of year when you have people like Heath who aren't paying attention in their leagues. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. You get guys that... I'm still paying attention. Guys that slip through the cracks. Guys that slipped through the cracks. So would you make sure in all of your leagues that the following pitchers are owned? Mike Fultenevich. That was actually who I wanted to pick is my weekend standout.

Perfect. Because I'm seeing some real reason to be encouraged here. His first 15 starts. He recorded double-digit swing. striking strikes in three of them, three of 15. His last six starts, he has recorded double-digit swinging strikes in five. His slider appears to be becoming more effective, and I think I said a week or two ago, like you get a guy who throws 98 like he does, and all it takes is developing the right

secondary pitch for him to take off. That may be what we're seeing happen here right now with Fultenevich and his slider. So you would make sure that he's owned in all your leagues? Not all. Not all. But I, given that I've been dismissing him all year, this is, I want to note the turnaround. Okay. How about Kevin Gosman? Clearly. Kevin Gosman, I would like to see owned in all of your leagues. Yes, 100% of them. Me too. Carlos Rodon.

Man, 11 strikeouts and no walks. Carlos Rodon with no walks is a top 15 fantasy pitcher. Yeah. And so this was a great start at Boston, 7 and 2 thirds, two runs, no walks, 11 strikeouts, and the start before that for Rodon, six and two-thirds, one run, two walks, nine strikeouts against Cleveland. I think the start before that, he struck out 11 Cubs but had a bad start. But man, like 11 and 4 and two-thirds innings or something, right? Yeah. That's a lot of strikeouts.

And two good starts in a row. I would say Rodon needs to be must-owned. My level of trust isn't as high in him as it is even somebody like Gosman, but got to invest in that upside. Okay. And I was going to put Estrada in here. I don't think he's a must own, but Nope. We talked about him enough. Rajay Davis. Just so you know, Lyle Lovett won four Grammys. There you go. And his best hit was Cowboy Man, which climbed to number 10 on the charts.

Of course. Love Cowboy Man. Love it. Rajay Davis stole three bases on Saturday. Anybody care? That has not been an even distribution of stolen bases for him this year. Unless you're committing to starting him every week the rest of the season, he may well give you one or two steals. Double dongs over the weekend, Brian Dozier, Stanton, Daniel Murphy, Tyler White, Nelson Cruz, Wilson Contreras, Chris Young. I didn't really think it was that interesting of a weekend for hitters.

I thought it was mostly a pitchers weekend. I was curious if it counts as a double dong, if you have a double header, and you dong in both games of the doublehead. W hit Merrifield, no. Okay. No, I don't think it does. But he continues to be awesome. It's amazing.

Let's talk pitchers then, no? Sure. Let's talk pitchers. Studs being studs, part uno. U. Darvish makes his Dodgers debut and dominates the Mets. Ten strikeouts in seven scoreless innings. Also 10 strikeouts in seven innings with two runs for Justin Verlander at Baltimore on Friday. Cole Hamill's complete game, one run.

Five strikeouts, no walks. Jacob Ferrea bouncing back from some minor struggles, six innings, four hits, one run, two walks, nine strikeouts. And Aaron Nola at Colorado was terrific. Nine straight starts allowing two or fewer run runs. So I gave you Darvish, Verlander, Hamels, Faria, and Nola in Stud's being Studs Part 1. Anything jump out at you? Verlanders turned it around again. The second half turnaround, he's throwing harder than he has, I think, all year.

and maybe harder than he did last year. It's ridiculous. He was terrible. Now he's good again. Scott, any way for you? You want to talk about Cole Hamill's, maybe? Complete game? I mean, do you want to compare

Cole Hamels and Felix Hernandez's numbers side by side? No. Okay. No. I wish Hamels was throwing a little harder. I wish he was getting a few more strikeouts. I think Scott's trying to take back his,

I'm sorry, I was wrong. Cole Hamels is the same as Felix Hernandez. now say he was right after already admitting that he was making a faulty argument. That is kind of what I'm trying to do. Love the honesty. Love it. Yeah. Outstanding.

It seems to me from the responses I've gotten on Twitter, people only remember the more intense portion of that conversation when I defended Hamel's honor versus Hernandez. And now their numbers are vastly different. Hamels actually has a 107 whip on the year, 359 ERA. I am concerned about him still, like the lack of dominance, but at the same time, I have a hard time sitting him. Yeah, last seven starts for Hamill's 298 ERA, eight walks. See, the walks being low is very encouraging, but 37 strikeouts and 48 and a third is not what you expect. And he's been leaning on his change up a lot more recently, and that was always.

always his best pitch. I don't know why he got away from it. Definitely got away from it last year when the walks went up. So there's reasons to be encouraged while also noting the reduced velocity and swinging strike totals. Studs being studs part two. Taiwan Walker, six innings three runs at San Francisco. Walker's been pretty consistent. He's had an ERA under four each month of this season, except technically August, where he gave up three runs and six innings. Kyle Hendricks had a pretty good start. Not great, but pretty good. Tanner Roark had a pretty good start at Texas over the weekend.

Alex Cobb, Eduardo Rodriguez, John Gray, Charlie Morton, Dan Strayley was fine, and James and Tyone bounced back. Of course, it was against the Padres. So look, these are studs because they are owned in more than 80% of leagues. They're not all necessarily studs. But Taiwan Walker, Kyle Hendrix, Tanner Roark, Alex Cobb, Eduardo Rodriguez, John Gray, Charlie Morton, Dan Straeli, James, and Tyone. Who stood out to you guys?

I think it's encouraging to see Kyle Hendricks go seven innings is probably the biggest thing here. And the second one is, yeah, you're right about Taiwan Walker. Chris has poo-poohed him a lot this year. And there have been some things peripherally that did not look very good, but he is quietly having a pretty good year. He is. I still think 88% is overowned. For Taiwan Walker?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, he's usable. I think he's must own. I mean, it's a 360 ERA. Which is like a half run better than league average. Sure. But, you know, with a so-so strikeout rate,

with, you know, some not consistently pitching deep into games. I think he's just kind of a marginal mixed leaguer, and I would expect those types to be owned in less than 88%. But I'd rather have him than Alex Cobb, probably. I think the interesting one is Kevin Gosman, because we both agree that Kevin Gosman is must-owned and what Kevin Gosman has done has been just absolutely awful and really good. And absolutely awful and really good.

Yeah, I think he made the necessary adjustment, his decision. But he's got an ERA that's like two. two runs higher than walkers right but i don't i'm i'm more concerned about what they're going to do in their next start not what they've done in their first whatever well at 20 the most indicative thing of that would be what they've done for the year i don't know that that's necessarily true maybe maybe in the macro sense it is but on a case-by-case basis i mean i pay attention to adjustments pitchers make and recent trends they're on and i think gosman it lines up perfectly those two.

You know, kind of basically started using his fastball as both a fastball and a changeup by varying the speeds on it and it's just taken off with that. So throwing the split finger more, that's always been his best pitch. And I think Gosman's going to be fine, rest of the way. I could agree with the fine part, exactly. I don't think he's going to be a zero or one run per start guy like he's been his last four. I see him as kind of a mid-3-ZRA starting pitcher. Okay. Which is what Walker's already been.

All right, all right. So studs being duds. How about some struggling studs? Carlos Carrasco, this is two bad starts in a row. Now, Carrasco did allow noor runs. He actually had a shutout through five. And then he gave up five run runs in the sixth. And apparently was hurt by his right fielder just misplaying a Jacoby Ellsbury triple.

And that scored, I think, three runs. And that was a basis loaded hit. So Carasco, though, you know, he just is prone to bad start. more than you would expect from a guy with his kind of stuff. Danny Duffy struggled over the weekend. Rich Hill wasn't that bad, but I put him on here anyway. Because he has only one star, let's see, failed to pitch six innings and three of his last four starts, Rich Hill. And Shaw Manaya has been pretty bad lately.

Three of his last four stars have been pretty bad. So Carasco, Danny Duffy, Rich Hill, Sean Minia. Are you worried about any of these guys? I've always been a little worried about Duffy because. For the same reasons, I've been worried about Hamels. Velocity down, strikeouts down, how long can he be this borderline, frontline pitcher? And I'm not sure it's over now because of one bad start, but those concerns remain. I watched the Carasco start.

I mean, that was just bad timing at every sense. He was three hitting them through five innings and was looking awesome. And then bullpen just kind of messed him up. Well, the bullpen and his defense kind of ruined him in the fifth inning there. And the Yankees. I mean, I'll take your word for it. I'm not they should have caught that ball, and the inning would have been over with no run scored. Right, right, right, right.

I'm not worried about Carrasco being a top 15 starting pitcher. I'm not really worried about Duffy being a top 30 starting pitcher, and he's much higher than that when he can be a spark. I wanted to talk about Mania, though, because I was kind of amazed that his ERA and whip have risen to the the point that they have. After looking like he had turned the corner a couple months ago and was emerging as this frontline pitcher there, ERA's over four now, the whips over one three. And I was surprised to see that the FIPP was also near four because I was struggling to reconcile his peripheral numbers with the main five categories that we all pay attention to in fantasy.

I know he had a lot of walks early in the year. It doesn't seem like those have come back to bite him. I feel like lately it's been bad Babib luck, but his babbip is right around 300 for the year. My trust in Manaya has gone down, but I don't know. He might be in the place Jose Berrios is in right now, but Berrios also had a bad start this weekend on Sunday

where I still feel like his ability is good, and he's shown enough with it that I'm not just, I'm not worried about dropping him or really even benching him across the board. But I'm just not as confident as I am when he takes the mound as I used to be. Right. And I feel the same way about both those guys, Mania and Burrios. In fact, Studs being Duds part two was Mike Fires, Burrios, Adam Wainwright, and Brad Peacock. And all these guys are owned the more than 80% of leagues, Fires, Berrios, Wainwright, and Peacock. Who would you start to consider dropping at this point?

Fires. Yeah. And Wayne Wright should never been owned in this amount of leagues. How dropable do you think Mike Fires is? Seven. He goes right to the meter. The dropometer. Sure.

I had him in a 12 team mixed league and I dropped him and I didn't think twice about it. I was willing to drop him for the best thing I could find on waiver wire. Wow. I would drop him for Ryu or two-starry and Kennedy this week. I'd drop him for Woodruff. Whoa, Mike Fires, man. Two, like, great months, basically, and three bad starts now. We've been down this road a couple times before.

Yeah, I know. But he made an adjustment. He made an adjustment. He changed his arm angle, and I think he started throwing his slider instead of his curveball or something. Now the league made an adjustment. It's like Marco Estrada, except now it's swinging the other way. Okay, all right. Fringy starting pitchers part one.

Who you like? Stephen, Matt's. John Lackie, Patrick Corbyn, Luis Castillo, Zach Davies, Trevor Bauer. Stephen Mats, John Lackey, Corbyn, Castillo, Davies, and Bauer. Who are your favorites there? There are only two pitchers on this list that I care to own in a mixed league. And they are Luis Castillo and, want to guess the other? Patrick, Patrick Corbyn.

Oh, really? Okay, so we're all on the same page here. Mm-hmm. I thought Patrick Corbyn might shock some people. I think Lacky's, you know, since coming back off the DL, Lacky's been pretty solid. He had a 327 ERA in July. Yeah, he's been solid. If he didn't have the supporting cast he does, it wouldn't be solid enough for me to care.

He's matchup dependent. He's the NL version of Ian Kennedy. Yep. When we start looking at the Cubs is just not great anymore. Are we there yet? I still expect him to go on a stretch where they win. like 20 of 25 games. They started doing that. They have been on such a stretch.

No, no, they're not that long. They just had a bad week, I believe, a bad homestand. I mean, they lost two or three to that. I don't know, take a look. But they were only a half game up on the Brewers. Right. But they were like two weeks ago, they were five games back, right? Yeah. Yeah. And the Brewers were awful. No, they're five and five in their last 10. Yeah. They just started struggling again.

I'm never going to look at that roster and say now they're just not very good. No, but, but I mean, the Nationals come in and take two out of them. the three and I think the last two games weren't really all that close right here's what here's what I was in July they went 16 and 8 the Cubs did yeah yeah they got hot no doubt so now you know since the beginning of July they're 18 and 12 but are they are they as good as Washington and the Dodgers nobody's as good as the Dodgers right now are they as good as the Washington as Washington and the Dodgers I think with Arieta backsliding um No, they're probably not, but they're good enough to beat them in a short series.

I was wrong, by the way. So first game was 4 to 2 Nationals. I think they got to Wade Davis in that game. Second game was 7-4 Cubs, and then Nationals won 9 to 4. At Wrigley, I can't figure out how the Dodgers are this good. Like, am I the only one that feels like they're better than the sum of, the whole was better than the sum of their parts? Well, now they've got a playoff rotation of Kershaw. and maybe Alex would.

Yeah. And if Alex Wood, and Rich Hill. They can't figure it out. They get Rich Hill. Darvish helps. But these pitchers don't go that deep into games. I mean,

the Darvish edition does make a big difference. The hitters, though, like I look at their lineup, and I guess it's just like Chris Taylor is such a shock. Bellinger, oh, he just hits for home runs, basically. I don't know. I don't, I feel like their lineup isn't that great.

But it is. I agree with you the holes better than the sum of the parts. I feel like, How many years in the row have they made the playoffs now? Because I feel like that's been true for the Dodgers for a while. Like heading into the season, I'd never want to pick them. But then they're always there. Like Justin Turner still leads the NL and hitting, right?

Right. And it's a thing. You look at Justin Turner in the lineup where he's hitting, and he might not strike fear in you. But he's having a great year. Corey Seeger's obviously having a great ear, Chris Taylor. Even Puege, that's toward the bottom of the order. and he's having a really respectable year.

Yeah, I think they're really, really good with really, really good players. But they don't feel like a World Series team to me. They just, and that sounds crazy. Yeah, I don't know how they could be more of one. I don't know. You know, like the Nationals, or not the Nationals, the Mariners won 115, 16 games and didn't make it to the World Series that year. They didn't have Kershaw, U. Darvish, Alex Wood, and Rich Hill, right?

I don't think they had three or four They had three of those guys I don't remember They didn't have ridgill Anything can happen in the playoffs This is I know All right

This is This will be the fifth straight year The Dodgers Win their division They're deep And they always Have all these pitcher injuries And it never matters

They have so much depth though Yeah They're Them and the Astros both They're among The They're kind of leading This new

Trend We're seeing In baseball of shorter starts, but so much bullpen depth that it doesn't matter. And it actually becomes a benefit because the starters aren't facing the lineup the third time through. I don't know that that's something everybody in the league can emulate because I'm not sure there's

enough reliable relievers to go around to make that work. But the Astros and Dodgers have put it together. And actually, the Astros bullpen's been kind of shaky recently, right? Oh, yeah. Yep. I think they'll bounce back. I I think there's plenty of depth there, but that kind of throws off the formula. Really, when one or two of those guys struggle, it kind of puts a knot in the line and puts a knot in the hose and kind of blows everything up. All right, tell me which pitcher you want from this group.

Jason Hamill, Denelson Lemette, Paul Blackburn. I want, I guess to Nelson Lamet, but I don't really want any of. Okay. What did you say? I'll say Hamel. I at least trust. I think his next start is against the White Sox. Oh, that's nice.

And he's been pretty good. Yeah, he's been consistent, you know, fine, consistently fine, Jason Hamill. So if he's got to start against the White Sox, there is a sneaky one-start stream this week, everybody. Make sure about that. It could be against the Cardinals. That would change things.

All right, let's look at today's matchups. We've got, let's see, Chris O'Grady for the Marlins at Max Scherzer. I think we know what we're doing here. You trust Scherzer? You trust Scherzor, by the way? What? You trust Scherzer?

Yeah. Yep. All right, Jordan Zimmerman and Trevor Williams. Zimmerman's been good three of his last four starts. I don't care. Not interested? Nope. Nah, I don't really want to start it.

Yolisha Seine at Tim Adelman. Padres at Reds. Nope, nope. Nope. Brent Suter at Irvin Santana. I can start both. Definitely Santana. Yeah, probably Santana.

Carlos Martinez at Ian Kennedy. I understand if you have Kennedy at a two-star week, you're starting them. Yeah, I don't really want to start them to get some Carlos Martinez, though. I will start Martinez. Well, I mean, if you're going to roster Kennedy, you'd rather, like, if it's Kennedy versus nothing, you'd rather not take Kennedy? Well, again, we get into this thing, like, most of our two-start discussion for the week is about points leagues. Sure. And most of these leagues are, like I wouldn't have rostered Ian Kennedy yet.

I might roster them later in the week if it's a daily league for the White Sox start. But in a category as league, I'm not. Probably depends whether you need strikeouts or wins versus ERA Whitmore, right? Which is a tough thing to know on Monday morning. If it's a season-long role league. I guess I was thinking in terms of roto, yeah. But I think most of the daily lineup are weekly category leagues. Right, right.

Yeah, I wouldn't start. I don't start them. If I had them in my weekly category league, I wouldn't start in Kennedy. But I would start them later this week against the White Sox. That's where I'm at, too. Right. Dylan Bundy at J.C. Ramirez. Start Bundy.

Really? Yeah, all right. No, Scott? Not feeling it? His last start was good, right? It was. Yeah, no, I'd rather not. Not start Bundy.

And Jake Areeta at Matt Moore. Definitely Arieta, definitely not more. Yep. But more fantasy baseball talk. We'll read some emails to finish the show. Fantasy Baseball at Cbsi.com. From Seth, buy or sell Machado, the number one shortstop rest of season. Bye.

I also buy. No, I'll take Corey Seeger. Why even risk it, right? Seeger's been so good. Wait, I thought Manny Machado. Yeah, he is. He's already started it. I hope he does, but...

He's already started making up for it. Don't you have to play it safe and go with the guy who's having a MVP-cala season? I don't know. You tell me. I never said take him over Corey Seeger. I just said, like... I'm on your side on this argument anyway. I just... You know what bothers me about the argument?

I just can't get enough of it. It's filled over onto Twitter and, like, ruined one of my nights. I'm going to talk to Chris about this. This is what bothers me about this argument. If he goes on a tear, you know, I could say, I told you so. and Chris would just say, quote, regression to the mean. And we'd be talking about the same exact thing. But he would put it in the stat-head terms. No, if he goes on a tear, Chris would say sample size or anecdotal evidence.

He would say regression to the mean. It's not regression to the mean because regression to the mean would be him doing what he... I'm writing to this. All right. I'm fine. Sorry. From Petey. Hey, Paul, Kevin, and Cody.

I think those are, I don't know. Looking to trade one of the following closers. Who's the most tradable? Doolittle, Britain, Viscayano, Alan, Green, or Hand? Doolittle, Britten, Viscayano, Alan, Shane Green, or Brad Hand. Who's the most tradable? Like in fantasy? Yeah.

Probably Allen. Alan has the most value. I'd say Britain might be the best to trade. Yeah. He might have the most value. Maybe Britain. Like, my concerns about Britain, I imagine, will be hijacked by the person you're trying to take. to trade him to, even if that person doesn't necessarily share them.

He's just heard about him, so he's going to use that as leverage. But I actually rank Britain higher than Allen. I just feel like nobody's going to worry at all about Alan, so you could trade him pretty easily. By the way, it does appear that Sean Doolittle is, in fact, the closer even after the Brandon Kinsler deal. And finally, Bill from Palm Desert, California, every place in California sounds so nice. Do you think Kenta Maeda will make two starts this week? I had him out of the list when I originally, the two-star pitcher rankings, when I originally put it together Friday, because I thought Brandon McCarthy was going to come back midweek and make it a six-man rotation again. But then I saw McCarthy still hadn't gone through a rehab assignment, so I don't think that's going to happen now.

I added Kintamaiata to the two-star pitcher list. So my answer is yes, I think he will. Rejoice. All right, that's Scott and Heath. I'm Adam. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow.