Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/07: Worryometer, More SPs to Consider (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 7, 2019

Did Mike Foltynewicz's improved slider or Dinelson Lamet's outstanding outing make us run to the waiver wire? We've also got some "Hey, Real Quick" with the double dong dudes from yesterday like Jorge Soler and Nelson Cruz. And did MegaDud starts from Jon Lester, Jose Berrios and Zack Greinke worry us at all? ... Speaking of worried, it's Worryometer time! Aaron Judge, Josh Bell and more . And we discuss some deep league options including one you may not have heard of ... Yesterday's important SP and bullpen performances. Thoughts on German Marquez, Jake Junis, Raisel Igelsias among others ... 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 to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS sports. One, one pitch, basketball pulled and fast. Alvarez and toward the corner. 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.

Worryometer Wednesday. Well, you were worried we weren't going to show up. Zero on the worryometer for that. I know we're a little bit later today, but I wanted to put together a very thorough show. A very worrisome show where we can freak out about Josh Bell and Aaron Judge and other players like that. I got Chris Towers here. What up, Chris? Adam, you're a good man and thorough.

A thorough. What is that movie? You hate that movie, don't you? You're a weirdo. What movie? You don't like Big Lobowski. Oh, no, I don't like the Big Lobowski. Yeah, there's something wrong with you.

I'd like to watch it again. But I'll tell you a movie that I don't like that I would never watch again because it's so bad. The Royal Tenembombs. Oh, come on. Terrible movie. I hate all those movies. Like, not to be like a stereotype of my... Yeah, you are.

Gender and socioeconomic status and, you know, all that. It's a very good movie. I don't know. I mean, you don't have to... I don't know if that makes you a stereotype, but you are... Absolutely makes me a stereotype. I own vinyl and I like the Royal Tenembaum. You are a stereotype.

I'm just stuck with Richie Tenenbaum for... Halloween once. Yeah, you are. Okay. More pop culture, but also related to fantasy baseball, I think Chris enjoyed my tweet last night. Mike Talkman is greater than Tal Bachman, who sings,

She's so ha. It's a great song. You see, we're letting our hair down a little bit. All right, Tuesday standouts. Let's start with that. A couple pitchers that are owned in less than 60% of leagues. I want to know if you're interested in adding them. for your stretch run.

Mike Voltenevich improved his slider and had a good start, five and a third, three runs. Is that good? No, not really, but it's encouraging for him. And seven strikeouts at Minnesota, toughest lineup arguably in baseball. So I'll take that for Mike Fultenevich. I did not have any interest in this start.

But, you know, he worked on the slider in the minors. He came up and apparently it was better. And five and a third, five hits, three runs, seven strikeouts at Minnesota. Denelson Lemette, this is a guy who entered the game with a 509 ERA, had not thrown more than 88 pitches, had not thrown more than five innings. Seven scoreless innings at Seattle, 12 strikeouts, four walks for Lament, but his walk to strikeout ratio is terrific. And was flirting with the first no-hitter in Padres history.

So Fultenevich and Lament, what do you think? They're both owned in less than 60% of leagues. I'm more interested in Lament than I am in Fultenevich. And that, I would say, mostly just because we haven't seen Denelson Lamet fail as much as we've seen my Fultenevich. You know, even if you want to give Fultenevich a bit of a mulligan for earlier this season, you know, then you also probably have to give him a mulligan for last season when he was really good and performed at a level that he'd never been at before. But overall for his career, which is not a short amount of time.

he's been like a four ERA guy. So I'm not saying I'm not at all interested in Fulton Evitz, but give me the mystery box of Denelson-M-Met. But is he really a mystery box? Because I just, I don't know how good the MET can be unless he pitches six innings. The only thing I know I'm going to get from a meta-strikeouts, everything else is a mystery box. but I feel like it's a mystery box that's going to have a bad prize in there,

like a Mike Fultenevich? Well, Fultenevich was really good last year. Right, but his career is not just last year. And his career has mostly been defined by us wondering, man, why doesn't Mike Fultenevich get strikeouts? And then he picked it up. Yeah, it picked it up. Well, the strikeouts, I mean,

Lemette's definitely going to get more strikeouts. All right. I'll just leave it at that. Chris's answer will suffice. Any standouts for you? Oh, there were tons of standouts yesterday. I assume I haven't been on the podcast in a few days, but I assume we've talked a lot about Nelson Cruz.

You know, it's like, what are you going to say about Nelson Cruz? But I do have a hey real quick with Nelson Cruz. He's awesome. Let's do the hay real quicks for all the double dongers yesterday. There were three of them. Solair, Cruz, and Gurriel. I hey real quick, all three of them. Hey, real quick.

Jorge Saler or Yassil Pueig? Yassil Pueig. All right. Mostly just because of the stolen bases. For what it's worth. They are almost even in terms of where they rank in Roto. 17th for Solair, 20th for Pueig. But in points leagues, Solair is 18th and Puegs 29th.

They're both hitting about the same, 253, 256. I don't know that you can expect much better from Solair and batting average. You might be able to get better than that from Puee. Maybe like 270. Soler, 31 homers, 79 RBIs. Pueg, 22 homers, 63 RBIs. Soler has not stolen a base, and Puege has 16 of them. So I could see an argument in Roto.

I mean, I don't know. Before yesterday, I would have said Pueg, no matter what, but he's got 31 home runs, Jorge Saler. Like, that is really, really good. Yeah. but that's kind of all he does. It is. And, you know, Pueg, I think you can make an argument,

especially in points leagues that it might be closer, because Pueg's plate discipline isn't any better than Jorge Salars, really. But in a Roto League, Pueig got off to such a bad start that, you know, what he's done for the last two and a half months, maybe that's not, maybe it's not fair to just say, well, that's who he is now. But he's been so much better. really been about two months. I just...

Yeah. I'd rather have that type of player. I tend to agree. I know that the numbers don't support us, but I tend to agree. But, you know, you should value Yasseru. I mean, Jorge Soler. He's had a really good year, top 20 outfielder. Hey, real quick, Bryce Harper and his 829 OPS, or Nelson Cruz and his 1052 OPS. It's more than 200 points better than Bryce Harper. Cruz or Harper real quick.

I mean, Nelson Cruz has been objectively better this season. The only argument for Harper would be that he has outfield eligibility. Well, Puege is so there's been objectively better than Pueeg. Yeah, but you know. Well, also, Nelson Cruz is on an incredible run right now. He had two, three homer games in like 10 days or something. He doubled on yesterday. So he's really upped his standing.

What would you say, Harper or Cruz? I'm going to say Cruz. Over the last 16 games, Nelson Cruz has an OPS over 1,600. What was his OPS before these 16 games? I'm not sure. I'm looking at an article. Before he went to the injured list in mid-May, he had an 865 OPS. Okay, that's still better than Harper.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how you, I don't know how you take Harper over. In points, the plate, the walks, and the strikeouts have gone down for Harper enough that over the last, you know, month or two, that you can make an argument that his play discipline could give him an edge. And Nelson Cruz has an 1176 OPS since coming back from the aisle. Kind of crazy. So far in August, Bryce Harper's struggling. He's batting 200. It's only six games.

200 with one home run. July was fine. 259 with three home runs. 13 walks, 17, or no, excuse me, 17 walks, 25 strikeouts, and one steel. You know, the OPS is always going to look kind of high for Harper because he walks so much. But I'm more interested in the P than the O. No, the S than the O. I don't care if the P is just plus.

I'm more interested in the S than the O. I want the slugging, not the I bet. I want both, but yeah. No, but that's that is a. a fair point when it comes to fantasy is that slugging is going to lead to more RBI on base percentage

obviously will lead to more runs, but slugging will also lead to runs. So if you're talking about, you know, from a real baseball perspective on base percentage is the more valuable stat in terms of telling you a player's value, but in fantasy slugging is going to be the more

valuable. Yeah. Stat. All right. Yuleiguriel who doubled on, much to Chris's chigarin or edwardo escobar uly garrille or adrano eskabar that's one where i may take ghariel i do want to point out that his average home run distance this season is 390 feet which is below the likes of colton wong tie france jean sigura however it's also one foot shorter than carlos correa so there's the left field in houston that you have to account for but No, Yulee Gereal, fine. He's had a nice run. But before this game, he had been pretty miserable. He'd been pretty Yulei Gureale. He had been three for 19 with two doubles in his previous five games. Not a huge slough. But even before that, he hadn't homered in like 12 or something. And he was hitting like 280 in that span, but very little power. That is Gareel. Yeah, that is Gareel for you. But you'd still take him over Escobar, who we kept saying, sell high, sell high at the All-Star break. It's a big overachiever.

And look, he's batting 232 since the All-Star break. He's on base at 286, but he has seven home runs and three triples. A 5-16, nearly a 300 ISO. It's like 284 or something like that. So that's Escobar. You know, every time I see the box score that he keeps getting these extra base hits, I'm like, come on, really? I thought we're supposed to be bad in the second half.

So, all right, so what's your final answer, Gouriel or Eduardo Escobar? I think I could take Gouriel there. All right. We have a couple of sponsors today. We have Seekek. Promote is Fantasy for $10 off your first purchase. By the way, if you're listening tonight, I did see a notification on my phone that they have a 10% discount off of football tickets, I believe. So they do have those types of things, and it ends midnight.

So they do have those types of things on Seekkeek. Again, promo codes fantasy for $10 off your first purchase. Our other sponsor is ZipRecruiter. If you are trying to hire someone, go to ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Very, very cool technology. They take your job, they send it out so many people, they sort through the applications, they find the best matches for your job. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Oh, we got some mega duds, mega duds from yesterday, Chris, John Lester, Jose Berrios, and to a lesser extent, Zach Granky.

But to be fair to Lester, he gave up 11 runs, but only 10 of them were earned. And Jose Brillo gave up nine earn runs, and only has a three-two-year-olds. 24 ERA after and a 115 whip after that shalacking against the braids. Are you okay dropping John Lester, 446 ERA, two horrible starts in a row, 141 whip? Well, what was his ERA before the last two starts? Probably pretty good, right? I'm going to guess it was 380s. I'll find out for you.

Yeah, I want to, there was a tweet going around earlier that I can't find, but it was basically John Lester has one of these starts at this. time of the year every year. And it was like seven straight years where like, really? The first couple of weeks after the All-Star break, he has like a three innings, nine earned runs or ten earned runs kind of start, which is kind of interesting. But I don't know how valuable it is. I think you can drop him. I'm not saying you should though. Okay, he had a 363 ERA. He was nine and six. This is before his last two starts. Yeah. 110 strikeouts and 114 innings and I will calculate the whip 125 plus 26 divided by 114. Yeah, he's always had a high

whip this year, 132. One thing I do want to point out about Barrios is he's been outstanding this season, really has, but he actually has a worse Sierra this year than he did last year, and his FIP is only slightly better. Yeah, you've always been, you hate Barrios. You hate his guts. I love Burrios. Sure you do. I just think he might be a little bit overrated for fantasy. Well, I was really, you know, harping

on the fact that he was going to take advantage of easy matchups, but the Indians are no longer an easy matchup for what that's worth. You know, he should have a good record. He should be better than 10 and 6. He's 10 and 6, Burios. He gave up nine runs, two homers against the Braves. And

I love the whip. One 15 whip, that's really good. You look at recent starts, though. He's only had two quality starts, I think, in his last six. And they were at the White Sox and at Miami. So he comes back from those two, which are really good. Gets crushed by the Braves. He gets the Indians this weekend.

And then he's at Texas next week. We'll see how he comes out of those. I mean, I'm going to be higher on Burrios than Chris always. You know what? This is one of those things. We're like, what the heck are you going to do? You're going to start them. You're going to start them matter what.

Yeah, no, and that's also my argument. It's never been that, like, Burios is benchable, but just that, you know, he might not be an ace. Zach Granky, six innings, five run runs against the Rockies. It is Houston debut. Nothing to see here, right? No, I don't think so.

I mean, maybe they, maybe there's something about the Astros that makes them able to turn Aaron Sanchez into a good pitcher, but they'll ruin Zach Rankie. That seems unlikely. to me. Okay, that's the top of the show.

We got a lot more. The Worryometer is coming up next. We've got news and notes. Another Yankee gets injured. And we're going to read some emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Worryometer's up next after this break. Oh, Chris, you worried?

You worried on this Wednesday? Almost always. Stereotypical. Josh Bell, he is now the number of 12 hitter in points league's number 18 in Roto, batting 279 with 27 home runs. Jorge Salara's more home runs than Josh Bell. He hasn't homered since the All-Star break.

In his last 50 games, Josh Bell is batting 202. He is walking. He is, you know, in those 50 games, he still has nine home runs, all of them before the All-Star break. But since the All-Star break, it's just been awful. 176 batting average, he is walking.

A $2.99 on base. But a 230-slugging percentage. four doubles. Yeah, zero to ten, Worryometer on Bell. Gosh, that, I don't know, because you shouldn't have expected him to be as good as he was in the first half.

This was something that was probably always going to happen, not to this extent. However, he's better than this. So, no, I would say five. Yeah, I want to believe in him, so I think trade deadlines are over for a lot of people, but I'm in a league that's still going. I might put out of Josh Bell offer.

Here's something interesting. So his ex-woe before the season is 3.79, which is in the top 9% of baseball. So it's still very good. In April, it was 387. In May, it was 459. And then in June, it was 334, July 3.47. And then in the very early going in August,

he appears to have earned every bit of his struggles. but what we're seeing is maybe Josh Bell not as an elite hitter, but maybe more as like a 350 to 360 Wobah guy in which translated to OPS is probably like mid-800s, which is very good, but not necessarily the early round stud that we thought he might be. Okay. Bell, by the way, is going to get a few days off to sort of refresh. Garrett Cooper. Heard his hamstring on July 31st.

in his last 15 games, well, he went two for three yesterday at the Mets, but in the 15 games before that, Garrett Cooper was batting 128 with one extra base hit and one walk to 16 strikeout. That's a lot of ones. That's not good. By the way, he has just a 20% fly ball rate this year and a 29.8% home run to fly ball rate. So, one, how worried are you about Cooper, zero to 10?

And two, why did y'all keep telling me that Garrett Cooper was so good? he makes really good contact. He doesn't necessarily, like you said, hit a lot of fly balls. 20%, my goodness, that's really bad. Yeah, and so he was always more, like, why was Garer Cooper so good? Well, what does that mean?

Like 20th best first baseman, 45th best for outfielder? You know, he was being positioned on this podcast as a must-add player. I mean, yeah. The 20th best first baseman. Baseman, if he's available everywhere, is probably a must-add player. Okay.

Well, do you think he's going to turn it around? Yes. Not to the extent he was before, but, yeah, I believe in his hitting ability. Gary Cooper, Worryometer. Four. Aaron Judge Worryometer. What are we worried about? Since the All-Star break, he has three home runs.

Yeah, but like... 25 games. You don't have any home run. It's a zero. Zero for me. Yeah. So like 10 on the Worryometer for Adam Azer. Oh, for me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aaron Judge, zero, though. I'm sorry, what was his injury? It was a hand injury, right? He was oblique. Okay, oblique injury. That is certainly a worrisome injury, but he's still hitting the ball literally harder than anyone in baseball.

His average average axis of velocity is 97.5 miles per hour, so I'll say zero. Okay. Justin Upton. He homered yesterday, drove in three, he walked twice, but for the year, Justin Upton's been terrible. 213 batting average, 303 on base, 393 slugging percentage. Six homers in 34 games, one steal.

Upton had one hit in his previous six games before a good day yesterday. Wariometer on an 82% own Justin Upton. Yeah, I think it's got to be like a 7 or an 8. His average exit velocity is down to 87.2 miles per hour. He'd been between 89 and 91 in the previous four seasons during the stat cast era. he's another guy who has earned pretty much every bit of his struggle so far. This isn't bad luck. Maybe that toe is still bothering him.

So yeah, seven or eight. Would you drop Justin Upman for Tall Bachman or Mike Talkman? Not for Tall Bachman. Probably not for Mike Tockman. How about for Adam Duvall or Robert Duvall? No, I don't think I would for either. Trent Grisham or John Grisham. No.

Okay. How about Willie Calhoun or... That's getting a little better. Yeah, or Willie Nelson? I think I might do it for Willie Calhoun, but I'm a big Willie Calhoun fan. I believe in him a lot, and you might not get the same answer from everyone on this podcast. Okay, fair enough.

All right. That's... Oh, one more on the Wariometer. Stupid. I thought he was in a much deeper slump, but I don't think it's that stupid. but actually. Last nine games, Kestin-Hira is batting 1-25 with two-doubles, or two walks, rather. One-double. Two-walks, 12

strikeouts for Kestan-Hara. So he has cooled off. I was always a little bit worried because the plate discipline was so bad. Yeah. So, yeah, 0 to 10 for Hira, who, remember, at one point, a few weeks ago, he had been the number one second basement in fantasy since his call-up. And he's come on tough times,

Kestan-Hira. Yeah, I think I still view him more in the second half of the top 12, if that makes sense. But four or five, yeah, the plate discipline is really bad. He strikes out a ton. But it could be a situation where he's a little bit like Fernando Tatis,

and it just doesn't matter. Right. Yeah, Tatis is, I think, I think doing exactly what we expected. Like, the batting average is falling. He's still striking out. But he's still like homered yesterday. So he was a cell high, but he wasn't like, oh my gosh, he's going to be terrible if you keep him. We just wanted you to get some great, great value for Tatis.

Hopefully you did for Hira as well. Would you rather have Keston Hira or Jeff McNeila? You're in a mood. I think I might rather have McNeil. Yeah, I've been really weird lately. Kestin Hira or Daniel Murphy? Hira. Okay.

And injuries, news and notes. Glaber Torres left with a core issue. He might have to go on the IL. I should probably check the headlines because this is all from last night. So I'm going to do a quick search, see if there's any updates. Alex Verdugo is on the IL.

He has an oblique strain. And I just feel like this is another way to get Gavin Lux up. I don't know if they are interested in playing Lux at second base. But you move Muncie to first. You move Bellinger to the outfield. And we're in Lux.

Yeah, and I'd like to see that. His profile is really impressive. It looks a little bit like Willie Calhouns when he was in the minors, except Gavin Lux apparently has improved enough defensively that people can envision him at least as a shortstop long term. Tony Gonsolin, who we talked about yesterday, he was sent to AAA, but he could be back soon. However, it might be as a reliever. It doesn't seem like the Dodgers exactly know what they're doing with their rotation. We'll get Hyun Jin Ryu back on Sunday, most likely. A couple of bullpen items. Jose LeCloric appears to be the closer, but Sean Kelly is back based on some comments from Chris Woodward. It seems like Jose LeClerc has that job. Yeah, I think that should be the expectation moving forward. Meanwhile, Arizona DFAed Greg Holland.

So I think Archie Bradley is going to get the bulk of the saves there, but my guess. Yeah, that's pretty exciting. No, Archie Bradley has not been as good this season, but we've seen him pitch very well as a reliever in the past. And I think the fact that they might use him still for two innings or more than one inning probably limits the amount of saves he could get. Sure. But still, Bradley is someone to pick up. Tim Beckham suspended 80 games for a PED violation. Cubs reliever Brandon Kinsler's on the IL in case you were looking at him for some stopgap saves.

Pedro Strope is back, but he will not be in the mix. for saves while Kimberl's out. Christian Yewitch sat with a back issue yesterday and could sit today. Lorenzo Kane is day-to-day. Max Scherzer's not really making a ton of progress right now. It's something we've got to keep an eye on. Yeah, that's actually, so what odds would I have to have given you before the season to get you to take Clayton Kershaw innings pitched in 2019 over Max Scherzer?

Oh, boy. Three to one. Only three to one. I was thinking more like 20 to 1 with the way people were talking about Kershaw and the way we were talking about Max Scherzer. Yeah, pitchers could always get hurt. He's only four behind. Yeah, he has pitched six innings in all 20 of his starts.

He's averaging six and a half innings per start. And this was what I was saying before the season when comparing him to Walker Bueller, because Bueller, there was just no way he was going to get to 200 innings. They were just not going to let him do it. Kershaw, whenever he was healthy, they let him pitch deep into games last season. He was fourth in the majors innings pitched after the All-Star break last year. Wow. And I think he's close to the top 10 over the last calendar year.

He's been awesome. And strikeouts have been really good lately at least, right? It's going to be really interesting what we do with Clayton Hirsch on next year. Yeah, it is. The Rangers are going to call up starting pitcher Colby Allard to start at Milwaukee on Friday. Interested? He had some work with the Braves and it didn't go well. Yeah, I'm moderately interested in him.

He was someone who was a top 50 prospect, I believe, in baseball at one point. Just kind of fell off prospect maps as he's struggled to get strikeouts in the high minors. So we'll see. Definitely not someone you want to ignore. Yeah, Kobe Allard now with the Rangers. Ken Giles is not going to pitch back-to-back nights until further notice. Bo Bichette became the first player in MLB history to get 10 extra base hits in the first nine games of his career.

That's from the Associated Press. Quite a start for Bo Bichet. And Jay Bruce could be back this week. Okay, we got some Deep League guys. We got Mike Tockeman, 25% owned. We talked about him yesterday, but he had another good game. He has 10 home runs. He homered yesterday.

He has five hits and three homers in two games, all three of them at Baltimore. So all three of the home runs, both of the games. 299 batting average, 371 slugging, or on base, 563 slugging, 10 homers, four steals, and 60 games, crushing lefties, and he's a lefty. Do you want to talk about Mike Talkman? Yeah, that's the tough thing because I think he's more of a, I feel like he's more of a daily league's guy because of how good he's been against lefties. But he's a lefty. Yeah.

So that's what's hard to get your mind. around. I don't think he's someone who's must add in all leagues, but definitely in daily leagues when he's in the lineup. He seems like someone you should be adding. Yeah, I tried to add him in a 13-team Roto League last night. I got outbid. I added him in a 12-team Roto League on Sunday. And what part of it was at the O'Reals and at the Blue Jays this week, the matchups were great, so I'm not surprised he's having this good of a week. You've got to figure there's a slump coming. at the same time, you don't have to worry as much about playing time right now because, one, he's hot, and two, Aaron Hicks is out.

So that's a good thing for Tockeman. I don't know that he'll start every day against Ritey's necessarily, but against lefties, I mean. Yeah? He has a 600 bad against lefties. 600? That's, 600's pretty good. That's high. He's been very good against Rite's.

So I would expect, yeah, looking into it now, I would expect him to be a lot better against Wright. He's moving forward. He's hitting for more power. And, yeah, that's where I'm at. Okay, Mike Talkman. Now, Travis DeMert, Tigers... What's that?

Good talk, man. Good talk, man, yeah. Travis DeMert, Tiger's outfielder's 5% owned. He has stolen two bases in six games. Anytime somebody comes up and steals like that, you've got to take a look. His career high in the minors was 17 steals in 2016. but demerit only four steals in 96 games in AAA this season.

So I'm not quite sold that he's going to be a steel source. Meanwhile, there's a guy named Aristides Aquino. Yeah. He's big. His nickname is the Punisher. He destroyed a ball yesterday to center field. He's batting 438 with an 813 slugging percentage in six games. Five of them are starts.

Aristides Aquino is a Reds outfielder. his stance to now a wide open stance. He had a closed stance before. And really wasn't so great in the minors, but had a 992 OPS in not in the PCL, but in the international league this season. So this is an interesting guy at 5% owned. Yeah, looking at it, he looks like someone who was just kind of an all or nothing power hitter throughout his minor league career. And, you know, as you move up the minor league ladder, that can, you can start to get exposed a little bit. And he had a 678 OPS in his first stint at

AA, 754 in his second. But then he gets to AAA and they're using that. Even in the international league, home runs are way up because they're using that major league ball. It's juiced and it's going to go a little further. And maybe that can be the difference for a fringy power hitter like Aquino

where if... What's that? Akeeno. Akeeno. If he's a pretty good power hitter but with a middling skill set otherwise, but all of a sudden he's hitting 10 more home runs every year, that can make a big difference. Yeah, all right, so that's Aristides, Aquino, 5% Owned, Outfielder for the Reds,

A-Q-U-I-N-O. Oh, wonderful. Let's take a quick break. That was such a weird, wonderful. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, three-man rotation, fringy starting pitchers, bullpen updates, and your emails. on fantasy baseball today.

Before the show started, I said, Chris, you got to stand out. And he said, I think I got to stand out. How about Zach Wheeler? It's like, no, no, boring. But now you can make him a standout. He did stand out. Eight scoreless innings, five Ks against Miami. Yeah, he's actually been, you know,

an issue for him, especially early, was the control. He hasn't, I believe he hasn't walked more than two batters in his start since April, which is pretty stunning. And since the All-Star break, he has been outstanding 19 strikeouts, one walk. 19. Is my math off there? No, that's right. 19 strikeouts to one walk in 20 and a third innings.

And even going back towards the end of June, his last six starts, he has a 287. ERA, 41 strikeouts, only six walks. That's really impressive for a guy who has always had kind of middling comming. command and control, but he's gotten even better than his breakout last season in that regard. I think there's a lot to like about Zach Wheeler. He was someone who was on my second half by Lowe's at the All-Star break, and he's really coming together. So, Wheeler, it's a three-man rotation tonight with Wheeler, or today, with Wheeler, Michaelis, and Erman Marquez. So I'm going to ask you to rank them. And if you went back to Monday's show

when I tried to preview Monday nights games, but I actually preview Tuesday nights games. I said start Armand Marquez at Houston, start him on every road start. He had a 320 ERA on the road before that starting, and had a great start at the Yankees, had a great start at Cincinnati, whatever, and just shut out the Dodgers over six innings at home.

Michaelis, I was very iffy on, and I think at the end I was like, I don't feel comfortable telling you what to do on Miles Michaelis, which is, I'm sure, exactly what you wanted to hear, on a fantasy podcast. Michaelis was very good. Six and a third, two runs, seven strikeouts at the Dodgers. Marquez was bad, five innings, five runs, two homers at Houston. So how would you rank Wheeler, Michaelis, and Marquez?

Wheeler, Marquez, Michaelis. Okay, I agree. I think most people agree. But some people are going to want to drop Arm Marquez. It's like, if you can't use him on the road, then when can use it? But I think you can. This was, what, the first time he's been bad on the road? I guess he wasn't great in that start at Arizona and John in the beginning of July, but before that, it had been since June 5th that he'd allowed more than two earned runs in a start on the road.

So, no, I'm, you're still starting him everywhere when he's on the road. And Armand Marquez is going to be someone I'm going to be very, very excited to draft next year. Because there's no way he can be this bad. and your expectations should be more like an overall 4ERA rather than a 480 ERA. Fringy starting pitchers. Dylan Cease was good enough, got the win, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts at Detroit.

Anthony DiSkofani was not good enough. He gave up two home runs, he gave up four runs and five and a third against the Angels. Asher Wojahowski were probably done with him. Two brutal starts in a row. And next week, not the worst matchups for Asher. Asher Wojahowski, at the Yankees and at Boston. He could be at Colorado and at Boston.

Yeah, not the worst. In all honestly, the Yankees lineup is not special right now, but still, they're the ones who just destroyed him yesterday. Jake Junis, Jake Junis is on a heck of a run. 323 ERA in his last six starts, more than a strike out per inning. And he just did great at Boston last night. 40% owned Jake Junice, 42% own Brett Anderson, who I know Chris is not buying.

But I said Dylan ceased, Anthony DiSkofani, Asher Wojahowsky, Jake Junis, and Brett Anderson. Of those five, are there any that you'd be wanting to add right now? Yeah, Dylan Sees for sure. Struggled mightily with his control in his first four starts, but he's got 12 strikeouts to three walks over his last two. At Detroit, obviously, that's maybe the best matchup in baseball. but the Mets, you know, right now especially, are hitting the ball very well.

So him for sure, he's starting to show that potential. And one thing that's really nice is they are letting him go deep into games. He's thrown at least 98 pitches in all six of his games, and he's gone over 104 of six. They're letting him throw a lot of pitches. But they're not, but he's not getting deep into games. Well, but that's a good thing. They are letting him theoretically get deep into games if he can get there. Right.

He needs to be more efficient, Dillen-Cease. because he has thrown 98 or more in all six starts, but only twice as he pitched six innings. So what about Fultenevich versus Fultenevich and Lament versus Cise? I guess I'd rank them Lament Fulte Fulte cease. Okay. But I'd kind of be hoping Fulte is owned in my league, so I don't have to go at him.

How about Jake Junis? I just don't buy it. He hasn't been this kind of strikeout pitcher before. I sincerely doubt he's going to keep this up. It's a nice run, but guys have nice runs. He's so homerprone, Jake Junis, that it doesn't take much for things to go south. Or really, I guess they go north because, you know, they're home runs. Well, I don't know what direction Kaufman Stadium is facing.

Although, to his credit, he has the same home run rate this year that he has. had last year, which is always a good thing in this environment. But it's 1.6 per 9 last year was outrageous. How's 1.6 per 9 this year? Still, it can't be good. Not good, yeah. Bullpen notes, Shane Green stunk again. I don't know what to say at this point.

It was a non-save... This, no, no, not this. Non-save situation at least, but... His career is not good. But it's not that... Like, he's had a good year before. sure he's had a single good year before but this was his second good year kind of it was his second good half season but we're talking about he had thrown what

38 innings before getting to the Braves like that's that's that's that's what junez has thrown in his last six inning his last six starts actually one less inning yeah so this is something we have to keep in mind with relievers when we're talking about half seasons or even when we're talking about full seasons is i know i know i know i know i know We don't have to go through this again. All right, Changre, I don't think he's going to lose the job, but it won't be Luke Jackson. No, I would, if you were speculating on anyone, and I just don't think that's worth it right now, Mark Malanson would be the guy.

Okay. Reisel, yeah, what's his name? Swarzac pitched the eighth yesterday, but it was a blowout win. It wasn't a save situation. Riceel Iglesias is hopefully turning things around. Last seven appearances, six and a third, three hits, no runs, no walks, eight strikeouts. No earn runs, at least. that's Iglesias and Matt Albers got a save for Milwaukee

yesterday I wouldn't expect that to keep happening but he does have one earn run allowed in his last 10 appearances it was yesterday. Josh Hayter threw an inning in a third on Monday yeah there are probably going to be some openings for saves in Milwaukee just like what I talked about with Archie Bradley

you know they use Hater for more than one innings or whatever Freddie Peralta I'm pretty sure it was terrible last time out whatever I don't think we need to talk about this anymore but that would be Matt Albers So I want to read some emails here. I got to tell you, I'm really surprised and flattered. About the amount of emails we've been getting lately.

So let me see. This is from Dodger fan in the bay. So funny that the Giants didn't trade anyone and now are plummeting out of the wild card. Yeah, I know. Who didn't see that coming? Like that is the, oh. Why do you guys automatically dismiss Ahmed Rosario whenever someone gives you a list of who to add or drop.

Mostly Adam, I've noticed. Yankees versus Betts thing? No, I just don't think he's that good. Why are people adding Ahmed Rosario? That's what I want to know. There was the hope. I mean, he, yeah, there was the hope that he'd be running more this season. I don't know.

Is he doing, he's hitting the ball well lately. He has a 962 OPS over the last 28 games. so that's why. But it's come with a 397 Babbip. It's come with decent plate discipline but not great and not enough power where you think, okay,

he's really taking a step forward. So now, he's fine to add, but I don't think he's in the top 15 or 18 at shortstop. Okay. Adam, I hope that... Add him, not Adam. I hope that was good enough

This is from Benjamin. Dear Sherlock, Monk, and Colombo. Okay. I rank them Monk, and then I don't care. Monk is one of my all-time faves, top five show for me. I love the BBC Sherlock. Big fan of that. Stereotype.

Any insight on whether Kyle Tucker will ever be called up again? It's so weird because there were a lot of reports. You know, our Jim Bowden had talked about it on the fantasy baseball today. video show that we did for the last like two months and he mentioned it a couple times that there seemed to be an indication

that the Astros had soured on Kyle Tucker. That Hinch. He's not a Hinch guy. Hinch doesn't love Tucker like the front office likes him but maybe there's some work ethic made untouchable

at the All Star Break according to report. So that's that one's hard to square a little bit. So I'm not 100% sure what to make of that. Yeah, I said work ethic. I don't know that it was

specifically his work ethic. I should walk back on that, but it's just something like he's not a all-out baseball junkie. Gosh, this is actually quite irresponsible of me to not remember for sure, but I think that's what was said. No, I think the general gist was that Hinge just wasn't a fan.

Whatever the specifics were, that seemed to be the case. And I don't know, he's still hitting, but you know, he has an I.030, OPS at AAA. He had 989 OPS last year. Given the juiced ball, he's actually hitting worse this year relative to the league. So that's a little concerning. Yeah, I think we'll see him eventually. But you're probably going to need to see at least one injury in the outfield. Good news is he's still only 22 years old. Okay. Next email is from Casey. Do you think Domingo Armand is going to get shut down? I was just offered Luis

Castillo for Fultenevich and Hermann, do you think I should accept? Yes, yes, yes, yes, get Castillo. Yeah, I'm fine with making that trade, but shut down. He's not going to get shut down. Something's going to happen. Sure. Yeah, I don't know about shut down, but I don't think he's making every start. I don't think he's starting every five or even six days.

They seem to be concerned about the innings. Even Aaron Boone said we're going to have to address it at some point. Mm-hmm. So something's going to happen. So if you can get Luis Castillo for him and Fultenevich, yeah, I think you'd do that. Yeah, no, I'm getting Castillo, is this a keeper league? No. Getting Castillo for Armand, straight up?

Yeah, I don't get it. That's an easy win, even if Armand was going to pitch the rest of the season. Yep. From Carl, because Fultonevich isn't making that big of a difference in that trade. From Carl, I give up Trevor Bauer. I get Chris Bryant in a points league. Which side do you like? Give up Trevor Bauer, get Chris Bryant.

Yeah. Probably just depends on whether you need pitching or hitting. I'm sorry, that's not helpful. I'd rather have Bryant. If I were drafting right now, I'd draft Bryant first. Probably. This is from Kurt in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. Apparently I say Toronto wrong.

I think it's supposed to be Toronto. Like T-apostrophe Rano. It's letting everybody know. I've definitely heard that. Yeah. Hello to the denim boys, because it's all in the jeans. Can you talk about what to do with Eloy Jimenez and or Fran Milreya? Should I cut bait on one or both to use bent spots?

He could get, oh yeah, like you've got to drop one of them for Boba Chet. Other guys he could pick up are Willie Calhoun, Talkman, J.D. Davis, Sinello, Kingery, Savale, Patrick Sandoval, St.Eval, Dustin, made Brendan McKay. You know what? If you don't need them,

how do you feel about this? If you don't need E-Loy or Fram Il Reyes, I would cut them for Bobaichette and Brendan McKay. I would rather have Reyes than Jimenez at this point. And, yeah, you drop Jimenez for Boba Chet. McKay for,

Fran Mill, it depends on whether you need pitching. I still believe Frammer Rice is going to be very good. So I feel like Eloy was actually getting pretty hot before getting hurt. Let's check in on that. Yeah, I would say so. I'll go about a month. Okay. From June 9th to July 16th, 947 OPS, 10 home runs.

Yeah, he was really good in June. Jimenez. Yeah. It was his best month. Then he got hurt and things have been sidetracked. So look, the fact is I love Bo Bichette and I really like Brendan McKay.

Obviously, he's pitching, he's going to be pitching before most of you hear this against Toronto, Toronto. So that could alter things. Yeah, the thing for me is with Bichette and Jimenez, if both were prospects right now, Bichet might be the more highly ranked of the two.

And also, like, with you. Eloy and Fran Mill Reyes, because a lot of owners are probably frustrated, you're not dropping him for Mike Talkman. You're not dropping him for J.D. Davis. You're not doing it for Patrick Sandoval or Anthony DiScliffeani. It's got to be someone that you love. Got to be someone you think can make a difference because there's still the chance that Eloy Jimenez can be a difference maker.

Oh, man, I don't have music for this. I wish I had the regulators music. All right, fantasy regulators. A big debate in our league regarding how divisions should be structured. Two divisions of six teams or three divisions of four teams. You shouldn't have divisions. What's the point? You don't have to account for travel like they do in real sports,

which is the only reason that divisions really make any sense anymore, is to consolidate the amount of miles that teams have to travel during a season. I'm just realizing now this is a football email, but I think it works anyway. Yeah, I don't see much point in having divisions. It just kind of further exacerbates the, like, oh, you got lucky because of your schedule, which I don't mind in general, but once you had divisions in there and like a team makes the playoffs because they happen to play in a crappy division, that I'd rather not do.

But two teams of six if you really have to. I like divisions. I do. I like to divide people. Yeah, you're trying to keep us divided. Yeah. I don't trade that. That's what I would do.

All right, one more email here. Grade the trade, Dynasty League. Head to head, 10 team head to head dynasty league. Give up. Carlos Correa and Nelson Cruz. Get George Springer. I hate this trade. I'm telling you now.

I hate it. George Springer, Marcus Simian, Jose Abraeu, and Sean Doolittle. He needs an outfielder, so I get it because you're getting Springer. but the next two players like Correa and Cruz and then you're getting

Simeon Abray and Doolittle for Correa and Cruz you're also getting the one thing is if you're passing on if you're keeping Nelson Cruz you've got to like be a championship contender this year or next year.

Yeah. So that's the only thing that would make me like if you're if you're fringy this isn't going to make you a contender probably unless you've got someone awesome at D.H. you can replace

cruise with. But I think I would pass if you're competing right now. All right, Chris. We are done for the day. A wonderful Wuriometer Wednesday for you here. We'll come back tomorrow with another edition. Thank you so much for listening, everybody.

Your emails, by the way, fantasy baseball at cubsi.com. Send them in. For Chris Towers, I'm Adam Azer. Talk to tomorrow.