Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/08: Glasnow, Leg Kicks, Emails and More (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 8, 2018

Tyler Glasnow was awesome but can we trust him going forward? What do we make of Jameson Taillon's complete game @COL (5:10)? What is Shohei Ohtani's value (12:00) ... Some interesting deep league hitters (16:50) including one who eliminated a leg kick and is raking now. Also a round of "Hey, Real Quick" (20:30), a deep analysis of Khris Davis and Justin Upton (25:30) and debating Roto vs. H2H (29:05) ... More from yesterday including hot hitters (32:00) and a lot of SPs (34:01). Dallas Keuchel and Madison Bumgarner have some concerning peripherals, while Andrew Heaney may be hitting a wall. We've also got bullpen notes (45:30), a lot of emails (47:30) and a look at today's matchups (52:30) ... 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 Wednesday show. Getting you over the hump on fantasy baseball today. Scott White is here. Tyler Glass now, more like Tyler Glass. Wow. Am I right? That's right. I'm excited.

I'm excited, too. I was a little worried because I thought I looked at his schedule, and I thought that his next two starts after this week were going to be against Boston. But I think only one of them will be. And that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't have it. but that kind of took a little bit of the shine off, but I think only one will be. He had a great start against the Baltimore Orioles. James and Tyone through a complete game at Corse Field, but was it a good start?

I'll let Scott tell you about that. We got a soundbite of the day. We got an email of the day. We got a lot of your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. It's just me and Scott today. Scott, you didn't pick up Tyler Glass now in our podcast league. I picked him up in three leagues last night after four in. innings of one run ball with no walks and nine strikeouts.

And that brings it up to 14 walk, I mean 14 strikeouts versus one walk in seven innings as a Tampa Bay Ray. I hoped they would be able to write whatever was wrong with him, but I did not expect it to be immediate. And we still don't know. Right. I mean, this was against the Orioles, who it's basically like a AAA, like. a AAA lineup right now.

But regardless, from that first appearance to the second, I've gone from intrigued to excited. And I think he needs to be picked up. I mean, maybe it goes wrong from here. Maybe he goes to walking everybody in sight, even though he's thrown like 70% of his pitches for strikes in these first two starts. I don't know that he's usable, at least in a points of league context, until we see him go five innings, but it seems like he's on the path to doing that.

And, you know, if the walks, if he starts walking everybody inside again, you just drop him. I don't know that just because you don't feel like you can start him yet doesn't mean you shouldn't be excited and doesn't mean you should be moving to pick a, you shouldn't be moving to pick a bottoms. Well, Glass now should get the Blue Jays on the road this weekend. And I plan on starting him in the league that I just, I got to look for him in my Yahoo league.

I forgot about that league. It's also a daily league. I plan on starting him there, and he threw 61 pitches yesterday, 13 swinging strikes on 61 pitches. And for the year, 86 strikeouts and 63 innings. In a categories or a Roto League, you pretty much know you're going to get strikeouts from Glass now. Let's just hope we get the rest, and maybe he gets up to five innings. He went three innings against the Angels, four innings against the Orioles. We know they want to stretch him out.

But next week is at Boston, and I don't think, no matter how well he does at Toronto. I'll be starting him there, but we'll go forward after that with Glass Now. So I dropped Sunny Gray. I mean, that was an easy one. Yeah. You picked up Joe Musgrove, who you put in a claim for him a few days ago, and then he sort of forgot to check. But, you know, because Glass Now was available. Who would you rather have Musgrove or Glass Now?

I would rather have Glass Now. I don't think I had the waiver priority looking at how these processed. Well, your claim was first, so I kind of feel like you did that. Well, it was the second guy I claimed yesterday, so it couldn't have been first. You got your first two guys were Musgrove and McCullors. Yeah, I had McCullors as the higher priority, and I would have picked up McCullors over Glass Now. But regardless, yeah, I'd rather have Glass Now than Musgrove because even though Musgrove has been pitching deep into games, there have been a lack of strikeouts that's inserting. and I'll roll the dice at upside of glass now at this point.

There is plenty of upside to be had there. And if these first two starts are any indication, I mean, the thing is, like, I know it hasn't been a starter's workload, but he was working in relief for the pirates before this trade, so it's not like he was going beyond three or four innings at a time then. It was rarely getting that many, and he was still walking more than a batter every other inning. So it's not like as he gets deeper into games, that risk of walks is going to become greater, you know?

It seems like something's different here. Scott, did James and Tyone have a good start last night? A complete game, two runs allowed at Colorado, but only three strikeouts. Yeah, you know, I'm not the James and Tyone fan here. His last three starts now, he has 10 strikeouts in just 22 and 2 thirds. innings. It's not like there's a lot of swinging strikes we could point two to say

that's kind of fluky. I mean, pretty much all season. The strikeouts and swinging strikes have both been just kind of middle of the road. I mean, he's fine. He's fine as like your fourth starter in a 12-team mixed league.

But I don't think he's must start and I don't think he's having some kind of big breakthrough. All right. Well, Chris Towers bowed out of today's show. Otherwise, we'd have a nice little debate here. Of course. Any other standouts for you from Tuesday?

I mean, Glaxna was, of course, the biggest one. I'm still kind of interested in Tyler White. He's only one person owned. Yeah. But he had a home run in triple yesterday. Figure he's probably going to see more playing time with as many injuries as they have. It seems like they're only playing at the first base, and that means when he plays Yuli Gerea has to play second.

So that's kind of a defensive predicament there. But if he does end up playing every day, I'm still kind of interested in him. He walks a lot, obviously has the power of a corner infielder. So he's on my short list, even though he don't feel like you can add him yet in standard mixed leagues. C.C.'s a bathea. That was a crazy start. Yeah, well, so Tyler White was the first guy. Scott talked about 1% own Astros' first baseman with a 9-05 OPS Sabathia has

five straight non-quality starts he cannot get to six innings he hasn't been pitching very well he struck out 12 white socks yesterday they strike out more than any team in baseball and actually I was wondering with this Sabathia start and like personally I'm fine dropping him

I picked him up and I started him yesterday I might start him against Texas this weekend in a categories league depending on what I need but I know he's typically going to kill my strikeouts Does this start, and you deserve to talk about this guy, does this start from Sabathia take some of the shine off of Lance Lynn, who had a great start on Monday at the White Sox? That's a fair question to ask.

I mean, this was far and away Sabathia's most overpowering start this year. 12 strikeouts 22 swinging strikes both season highs. I mean, there is. is I would I feel like there's more potential

to be reached for Lin like he hasn't come as close to his ceiling this season then we could say for Sabathia

oh yeah yeah I mean I guess it's not really so much comparing the two because I understand why you take Lynn but this has put Lynn's start

yesterday in perspective I think it probably has to a little bit it's fair to wonder if it was you know it's kind of like with Glass now it's it's a two appearance stretch for the Yankees

I know one was relief appearance but it was like four to third inning so basically a start for Len where he's looked like he's overcome the problem he had with the twins which was walks but it like Lewis Glass now it's not long enough

to say that conclusively it's just encouraging to see so I mean Yeah, I mean, I wish it wasn't against the White Sox for Lynn. I wish it wasn't against the Orioles for Glass Now, but there's enough reason for optimism there that you pick them up, especially Glass Now, you pick them up and you hope that when they get some tougher matchups, it keeps going. All righty.

Well, Scott, you missed something yesterday on the show that people seem to get a kick out of. It happened at about the 55-minute mark, so if you missed it, I'll let you know what you missed. Here's our email of the day from Joel in Amesbury Mass. I am a father of a two-year-old and a four-year-old. It's pretty close to Scott White. What are you, a three-year-old and a one-year-old? Scott? Yeah, about.

Yeah. Noticing how hard it is to come back to full-time work from paternity leave in a sleep-deprived state. I pay attention to athletes who come off paternity leave. I found their performance suffers in the weeks after their bundle of joy is born. One example off the top of my head is Chris Stratton from this season. His start right back from the paternity leave. fraternity leave was particularly dreadful. I think I'd like to call this phenomenon the Aaron Hank phenomenon.

So what is the Aaron Hank phenomenon? Well, if you missed it from yesterday, it was one of the, a very funny moment, I think. I'll just, I'll play the clip, pardon the diminished audio quality. This is from yesterday's show around the 55-minute mark. Next up from Matt, dear Paul, Rogers, Sorkin, and Hank. Aaron's? Aaron, yeah. Who's Aaron Hank?

I don't know that we were right about that. What? Are you, you're serious right now? Oh, Hank Aaron! Oh, boy. Oh, my God. I blame my baby.

No sleep. Oh, that's incredible. Yeah, that was legit. I was like, who's Aaron, Hank? I just didn't get it, Scott. So that's the paternity. He's one of those last names is a first name situation. Yeah, well, he gave four people named Aaron, but they were all like first name Aaron, and then he goes,

Hank Aaron, and yeah, threw me off, threw me off. So I hope everybody enjoyed that. I certainly did. News and notes, Chris Sale is going to come off the DL on Sunday. Marcus Stroman had a, you know, good start against the Red Sox, and he left with a blister. He's optimistic about making his next start, but Stroman said he's been dealing with the blister for a while. Scott, the Marlins removed Kyle Bearclaw from the closer's role. Steck and Ryder, Conley, Javier, they could all see save chances.

I believe Mattingly said Javier used to close for him in Los Angeles. But what is your take on the Marlins' closer situation? I can't believe he'd go with Javier. If he did, it wouldn't be for long. Guy has an ERA near six. Drew Stegger's the one I'm interested in here. He has a 307 FIP on the year, 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings. Obviously, has been doing it all year, so it's not like a small sample-sized situation.

And I think he could be good. I think there's a reasonable question to be made, even if we just write this off as a slump for Bearclaw, that Steck and Ryder might be a better pitcher. All right, and Shohei Otani is going to throw a bullpen session. So he's progressing. We talked about him yesterday. None of us really seem too optimistic that, look, clock's kind of running out.

They're out of contention that Otani's going to be much of a pitching contributor. It's almost a bad thing, Scott, because he's hitting well now and he is five steals, Shohei Otani. Like, I kind of want him to just stick as a hitter. Well, I can kind of understand that. If you look at the week-by-week point breakdown, though, This week, or I guess it was last week. He only has basically one good week as a hitter.

So I don't know if it's... I think he's playing more now, isn't he? Yeah, I mean, he is, but it still hasn't translated into a lot of fantasy productions. So it's not like... I own him in one league and I haven't been starting him. I think it's more like you're in a daily league. You start him when he's in there.

Because I agree. Yeah. Weekly headpoints league. I mean, that's the same way it was when he was pitching, you know? Yeah, but now more. And I think when he was pitching, he wasn't running. I'm not sure if those two coincide, but I could see them coinciding. I would think that Otani be less likely to run if he's also pitching.

But, you know, five steals in limited bats. That's actually pretty good. Josh Donaldson could begin sprinting soon. I don't know if you saw Felix Hernandez strikeout Adrian Beltray on a 78 mile-per-hour curveball, but they both shared a hearty laugh on the mound for Felix and in the batters box for Beltray. It was pretty cool. Bad news, though, Chris Bryant still has not swung a bat,

so he doesn't appear all that close to returning. Nick Chopiano is on the DL. Max Freed is on the DL, so the Braves back to five-man rotation? I would think so. I mean, Colby Allard relieved Max Fried in that game and just got crushed. 20-year-old.

I mean, it doesn't seem like he's ready. So I don't think he'd just assume freed spot. I do want to mention Otani's already up to 15 and a half points this week after scoring 21 and a half last week. And he had 18 and a half the week before, which isn't bad. That's good. A decent three-week stretch here, but still not like a huge week. Maybe this week ends up being the first two-week week.

We'll see. Brandon Belt could be back next week. Ben Zobris left with a hip injury, but he expects the play today. Brandon Drury broke his hand. Raphael Devers is going to be coming off the DL today, Rafael Devers. Zach Davies could be back soon. Minnesota starting pitcher at Alberto Mejia left with a wrist strain. He is in the notes.

He's been pitching well, at least in ERA. Will Myers could be back when first eligible. Max Muncie sat and David Dahl started with Charlie Blackman back. So we have some Dahl questions later. We talked a lot about him yesterday. It's getting a little worrisome. It's sad again. And your emails are at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

Scott, here are some random achievements. You can give a 10-second reaction to each, up to 10 seconds. That is your limit. Bartolo Cologne became the winningest pitcher born in Latin America in baseball history. Still not going with the Hall of Fame. Angels catcher Francisco Arcia has 12 RBIs in his first three home starts. That is a record. for any player in his first three home starts, 12 RBIs.

And that will make him a footnote in history, and that's it because it's not very good. Oh, man, Scott White, throwing fire today on Cologne and Arcia. Jose Abrae, who is the 18th player in baseball history with at least 20 home runs in each of his first five seasons. Hmm. What are you going to say negative about that one? I want to say I'm surprised there's not more. I guess I am. I'm surprised there's not more.

I would say that's what happens when you start your career in the middle of your prime. And C.C. Sabathia is the first pitcher, 38 years or older, to strike out 12 in a game since Randy Johnson did it in 2008. I think he probably will go to the Hall of Fame. It's an interesting case. It's an interesting one. Yeah. It's definitely in the discussion, more so than Colorado. I think the deep league pitchers are really, really interesting, Scott, or hitters, rather.

Let's start with Fran Mill Reyes. He got rid of the leg kick, the dreaded leg kick. He changed his mechanics, and he is the hottest hitter in baseball since coming back to the majors. That is two games in which he is five for six with two home runs. Fran Mill Reyes for the Padres. He is 5%, 6% own. I mean, we saw him before in the majors, obviously, and he showed good power than two. He has like a 40% strikeout rate, so, you know, that first didn't go very well.

We're probably going to be quick to dismiss him now. But he wasn't a guy who struck out a lot in the minors. You look at his AAA numbers, got on base a ton in addition to the big power, and the strikeout rate was only like 23%. Not bad at all. So I don't know I mean this is the first I've heard of the Eliminating the leg kick but if it

If it helps him put the bat on the ball more I mean it could be huge I still think there's a lot of potential here All right Framo Ray is 6% own Less than thuse about this guy Devin Travis But he is 8 for 22 with two home runs in August Devin Travis is 5% own

Yeah I'm less enthused about him too Though now there's going to be less playing time concerns with Drury going on the DL. I need to see a lot more, though. Cincinnati outfielder Philip Irvin is batting 309 with two home runs and 36 games. Both those home runs came in his last five games. Philip Irvin is 3% owned. 309 batting average 379 on base, very little power.

Yeah, he's a former high draft pick whose minor league career got off to a very good start, but the later years haven't been so impressive. and I mean, I can't really point to any one thing he does well. I think, first of all, we need to see him play every day, and second of all. We need to see him play well. Chicago Cubs, third baseman, David Bodey, two for three with a triple, three runs, three RBIs, a run scored, and a walk yesterday. He's batting 344. He's got three steals and six attempts in 30 games.

He has two home runs. But David Bode, is he something? He would be if he played more often. Well, I should not say it even that. I don't know that he would be. Obviously, the numbers look good, but he started three of the teams past eight games. So that kind of eliminates him right off the back. And that's with Bryant on the DL.

So when Bryant comes back, Bode might get sent down. And then Tyler White was the other guy I was going to talk about. Tyler White and Fran Milraeus, both 6% or owned or less, 1% own for White. Are they the two most exciting here? Yes, they are. And I would definitely take Reyes over White, as much as I like White. There's a clearer path to playing time for Reyes. So, yeah, he'd be the one I take.

Do you have any interest in pitchers at Alberto Mejia or Brad Keller? Keller's kind of interesting because he's an extreme ground ball guy, and we've seen a couple of pretty good strikeouts from him recently. The season rate is still really low. but when I see his name in the box score I take a close look at what he's done I haven't added him anywhere yet

but he's kind of interesting all right Scott and let me do a hey real quick with you buddy hey real quick Daniel Murphy or Jerksson pro far I think Murphy has really come around lately has you though

profar's fine I have no like I think I talked about him at the midway point, how he could be a second half breakout because the bad bit is so low in a way that's not easy to explain with the bad of ball tendencies. So that's still true. He's been productive in spite of that. But Daniel Murphy looks like he's back to being a stud. I forgot a news item, by the way, that I'll get to in a second.

All right, so let me just kind of give you my concern with Murphy. Last 11 games, he's batting 361 with two home runs. Both of those home runs came in a 25-4 win against the New York Mets. Everybody homered that day, Scott. So I don't know if that – I don't know. It's not necessarily a negative, but it's interesting. He didn't Homer Al-Fose-Rays, though. They were legit pitchers.

They were. I think it was the same pitcher, actually. Yeah, I know how legit that pitcher was. I don't know, but he was an actual pitcher. It's somebody whose name I didn't recognize. I remember that much. But, no, like, the fact that he struck out only less than 10% of the time has a really high line drive rate. I'm not going to nitpick.

He's been hitting well lately. Robert Stevenson, this is the note I forgot to get to. The Reds are calling him up to start today. Robert Stevenson, he's going to face the Mets. Any interest in him? I haven't seen the minor league numbers, but until he gets those walks down, not a ton of interest. He did finish last season on kind of a nice run, though, that had me flirting with the idea of calling him a sleeper this preseason. Yeah, walks are still high at AAA.

Quite high. 57 walks and 113 innings for Stevenson. Good numbers outside of that, but all right, just wanted to throw that out there. So it looks like there's a lot of waiver wiring going on. There's a new closer. There's going to be a new closer in Washington now. Is it going to be Ryan Madsen? I would assume so.

Okay. Yeah, Herrera's getting it. Has he been put on the DL yet? He's getting an MRI on the shoulder. Last I saw. Has he been put on the DL? I don't know. But it seems like that's going to happen.

Yeah. So, I don't know. That got removed from my notes. Again, I apologize for that. Paternity. The Yupp, by the way, wasn't me confirming he was on the DL. Just agreeing that he looks like he's going to be out for a while. All right.

So Ryan Madsen, in fact, I was looking at that league. I was trying to pick up Tyler Glass now. He was already added. Ryan Madsen was also added in one of my leagues and makes some sense. We're going to get to a lot. We're going to get to a couple of outfielders that are going in opposite directions. More hitters who are widely available that you can consider adding, and a lot of pitching from yesterday's games. Madison Bumgarner and Dallas Keiko went head to head.

They both pitched well. Sean Newcomb had another good start. Is Andrew Heaney perhaps hitting a wall? We've got to take a look at the innings. that he's putting up and the decrease in strikeouts, those types of things. And like I said, a lot of your emails later.

But you know, we love to save you money on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. And we're going to help you out on lightstream.com. Lightstream.com. I've been to the website. It's a very interesting website. It could be very helpful for a lot of people.

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Rate includes a 0.50% auto pay discount. Terms and conditions apply and offers are subject to change without notice. Visit lightstream.com for more information. information. All right, it's got two outfielders on opposite paths. Are we just catching them, one in a hot streak, one in a cold streak, or are we seeing, you know, season-long trends? Chris Davis has homered in three straight games.

A is Chris Davis. He is the number eight outfielder in points, number six in Roto. That would be his highest finish. He's been more like top 13 to 15 in the last two years. Chris Davis, since the All-Star break, is batting 290 with a 790. 37 slugging percentage and about a 1150 OPS. So Chris Davis is going up. Justin Upton, he homered yesterday, but he just looks like he's kind of down.

He's got a 790 OPS. He's having a very similar season, Justin Upton, to what he did in 2015 and 16. And right now it looks like 2017, a 901 OPS, is the outlier. Upton's also a ground ball hitter this year, way up in the ground ball rate. So, you know, these guys were valued pretty similarly, Chris Davis and Justin Upton, and Davis is having a much better year. Maybe we're just catching him at the right time. Maybe Upton just the wrong time. But Upton's been down for a while now.

What do you think about these two? Yeah, I think they're both pretty streaky. And so, you know, it's unfair to assess one in his hottest, one in his coldest. I do prefer Chris Davis to Upton, but it's, you know, It's a marginal difference. Upton. Let's see. Let me look at the ground balls because that would be something I haven't noticed yet.

Oh, you don't trust me, Scott? No, no, I wanted to see exactly what the difference was. Yeah, it's pretty extreme. Yeah, it's, it's definitely, well, he did have, back in his Diamondbacks days, he did have years where his flyball rate was this low. It's not like, you know, Eric Hosmer low. You know, it's not like, how does this guy hit for power low? But it's, it's worth noting. Still making a lot of hard context.

A lot, yeah. So, Scott, I had this beautiful. Babbitt's similar to his career line. I think he's still okay. I had this beautiful narrative on Justin Upton, and he destroyed it yesterday. And it was, or last year, he destroyed it last year. It was Upton still a streaky guy, but he's just not as good anymore. So at the end of the day, like, you're going to get your hot streaks and your cold streaks.

but at the end of the day, you're just not going to get great production. Last year, Upton goes out and was the top six outfielder. And he had 15 steals. He's not going to get that this year unless he goes on a nice run, so to speak, at the end of the year. So I just look at OPS last four seasons, 790, 775, 901, and now again, 790. I feel like last year was the outlier. He's going to get hot again. Last year is the outlier.

but I wouldn't be binging Justin Upton or I wouldn't I wouldn't take a low ball offer for him. The numbers are always there at the end. Last year, yes, that was kind of an outlier. He was in my preseason bus column, I think, for that reason. But he's always starting caliber. The numbers always show he is at season's end. Would you rather have Gregory Polanco or Justin Upton?

Upton? Upton. Max Muncie or Upton? Muncie. Yeah, Max Muncie. All right, let's read a couple more emails. Email the day number two is from Tim. I'm in second place in a Roto League.

For years I've been trying to get my commissioner changed to a head-to-head league. It's my belief that more teams would stay interested for a longer period of time. There is no doubt about that. Yeah, I don't even have to read the rest. You are 100% right about that, Tim. Yep. I mean, I can just say for myself, you know, I still make moves. I dutifully make moves in all my leagues till the end of the season.

But, you know, I'm not paying much attention to the Roto leagues where I'm, you know, in fifth or sixth place at this point. Like, I'll make my moves when the time comes to make them, but I don't really look at it beyond that. And, you know, people probably aren't doing, making those moves as dutifully as I am. So if I'm losing interest at this point. Right. And fifth or sixth place. I mean, if fifth or sixth place in a head-to-head league, that guy's going to be very interested still because he's right on the...

He's in the playoffs, sure, yeah. Yeah. And you know what? I do know that, by the way, Scott, we keep our, we're going to keep our run going in the scam league. We're off to a good start. But I know some leagues have rhodo leagues where they have. have, you know, like, Roto for the first 20 weeks or something like that, and then playoffs. It's kind of a hybrid.

You could do that. But yes, playoffs are more fun. People engaged. Email of the day number three, which may or may not be true from Blake and Santa Barbara. All right, let me give you a peek at my thought process here. We get this great email, really interesting from Blake. I have no way of verifying it. If it's not true, we're talking about a baseball player.

something that never happened. But it's nothing bad. I did a little bit of Googling. I think there's a good chance it's true. I'm running with it, Scott, all right? Okay. This, uh, okay. I don't know that I trust your judgment on these things.

Here's Blake. Here's Blake and Santa Barbara. I used to do radio play-by-play for a collegiate summer ball team, the Santa Barbara Forrester's. Jeff McNeil of the Mets was on the team as a skinny, goofy, bumbling 17-year-old kid that could have easily been confused for the bat boy. On road trips, we had a lot of laughs picking on him. He put up with it.

He didn't even play baseball his last two years in high school because he was a scratch golfer, and they needed him on the links. Anyway, one day I'm interviewing our hitting coach, the late former cub, Gary Woods. And when I ask about McNeil, he says, quote, someday you're going to be telling people you knew Jeff McNeil, end quote.

We had a ton of D-1 players and some future MLB players on those squads, but that was the only time Woods ever said that about somebody. Woody was right. Baseball is awesome. Little Jeff McNeil is going to get me some points before this season is over. And I googled Blake from Santa Barbara, his full name. He was with the Santa Barbara Forrester's. Jeff McNeil is from Santa Barbara.

I could see this being true. I was fine running with it. That's, yeah, that seems believable to me. Cool story, right? Yeah, definitely. All right, back to baseball. Four up. Tell me if you want to add these hitters.

They're not quite as unowned as the Fram Bill Reyes group, but they're pretty available. Ryan Zimmerman. And maybe at the very least, you want to get him to start against lefties in a daily league because he crushed him last year with a 654 slugging, and he's crushing him again this year. Ryan Zimmerman.

Nick Williams, 32% owned. Jackie Bradley Jr., 31% own. He's been solid lately, about an 870-ish, P.S. in his last 33 games, Jackie Bradley. And Manuel Margoe, improved plate discipline this year. Good game yesterday. Hasn't really put it together, but he's, you know, he's been okay. Ryan Zimmerman, Nick Williams, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Manuel Margo.

Scott, anybody there that you think is underowned? No, not really. I feel like Zimmerman should be, like, because of the lefty-righty thing and splitting time with Matt Adams. He probably shouldn't be the most owned of this group. But I don't know that any of them need to be like 50% owns. They just have too big of a hurdle to clear. But, yeah, I mean, Zimmerman, the numbers against lefties really did catch my eye. I mean, Daily League's like, did, maybe Daily League scenario, that's fine.

I am kind of surprised Nick Williams is up to 16 home runs. That's why I slow down my take there. I mean, part of the problem for him is he doesn't walk much. But even that's better than I was a good. expecting. Yeah, I mean, Dick Williams may be entering the mixed league discussion. Definitely in five outfielder leagues. All right. So Zimmerman, Nick Williams, then we're not so interested in Bradley or Margot. So we got some pictures from yesterday to talk about. We got the good rotation and the bad rotation. The good rotation, Dallas Keikle, Madison Bumgarner, and Sean Newcomb. Still would like to see more ground

balls from Keikle in his last seven starts of 1970 RA. It's hard to argue that. But 30 strikeouts in 45 and two-thirds and not exactly his classic ground ball rate. Yeah, that's weird. I know. The results are there. It's like a third of what his ground ball-to-fly-ball ratio normally is. That's, I mean, that's... A third or two-thirds?

No, it's like it... You put here 1.25 ground ball to fly ball during that stretch, right? Yeah, so that's on baseball reference. He wouldn't be over three on baseball reference. Oh, okay. They can calculate it differently in fan graphs. I think they include line drives or something like that. But it would be higher than that on baseball reference. You know what I'll do?

Why don't you talk about Bum Garner? We'll come back to Kikell. Bumgarner with a good start, seven scoreless against the Astros, seven strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. Honestly, a good matchup. No Gattis, no Altovae, no Springer. In my opinion, a good matchup. But whatever.

He's got 30 walks. He's got 3.7 walks per 9. It's a new issue now we're talking about with Madison Bumgarner. Is that concerning the 1.25 whip and the 3.7 walks per 9? Yeah, I mean, walks up, strikeouts down. Like you said, this is a pretty good matchup. Derek Rodriguez shut the Astros down the day before. So I'm not looking at this result and breathing aside for Madison Bumgarner.

I mean, it's not. it's not like a problem you're starting him or anything. I don't think there's impending disaster here, but I don't see him getting back to the Madison Bumgarner we'd come to expect before last year's shoulder injury. All right, back to Kichel. 1.25 ground ball to fly ball ratio on baseball reference in his last seven starts. During that time, a 197 ERA, 30 strikeouts in 45 and 2 thirds.

That's very low. Last year, so 1.25 ground ball to fly ball, ratio. Last year, a great year for Kyko, it was 2.12. Okay. Definitely a different calculation there that I'm used to seeing. Yeah. So I overstated how far down the ground, how much the ground ball rate is dropped. But it's a lot still. But yeah, I mean, it's, he's gone from the outlier ground ball pitcher to just another good ground ball pitcher. And it's a little concerning. I mean, the results have been so good lately that

you know he's still pretty close to must start but I don't think he's on the verge of making his way back into the top 20 which is what we drafted him to be. Are you looking to sell Kiko or Bumgarner or just hold? I mean the problem

is pitchers who go seven innings as reliably as they do are so scarce and then to do it with their track records. I don't think the bottom's just going to drop out for either. It's not what I've been warning all season about Jake Areetta, and really that hasn't happened for Arelletta even.

So you need to, like, unless you're just loaded at starting pitcher, I wouldn't feel confident trading them without getting a pitcher in return, and who's trading a better pitcher for either of these guys. Like maybe a situation where you pair Keikle with a pretty good outfielder for, or Blake Snell, who's just back from the D.L. or Charlie Morton or somebody like that. But I don't think there's a lot of – I don't think you're going to have a lot of success, quote-unquote, selling high on either of these two. What do you think about Sean Newcomb?

Last guy in the good rotation. Newcomb had six innings of one-run ball and six strikeouts at Washington. And his previous two starts, 14 and two-thirds, two runs. one of them a near no hitter. Two starts in a row with low walk total. What do you make of Sean Newcomb, who will be facing the Brewers this weekend? I mean, maybe we were a little...

Maybe reports of his demise were exaggerated. I don't know about greatly exaggerated, but this is two encouraging starts where he's kind of veered away from some of the trends that had us concerned. Okay. So you're going to start Newcomb against the Brewers? Not necessarily, but I don't think it's a bad idea.

And a bad rotation. The bad rotation. Andrew Heaney, five earn runs in five innings against Detroit. And his last four starts, 13 earn runs in 25 innings. Only one really bad start, it was yesterday, but 20 strikeouts in 25 innings. and he threw, Andrew Hini threw about 50 innings last year between the majors and the minors. He is up to 127 and a third.

Are you concerned about Hini right now? He's at two starts next week at San Diego and at Texas. I think the innings will become a concern at some point. And I guess it's not crazy to think they could be a concern now given how little he's pitched the last couple years because of injuries. His career high in innings is, well, it's higher than I thought. He was over 160 back in 2014. And you know what?

He was over 180 in 2015. So it's just a couple years since he's been what we think of as a full-time pitcher, the Major League level. I don't know that we can deduce a lot from the strikeout rates because you look at his game log in June. he had a complete game with four strikeouts. He had a seven-inning start with four strikeouts. In May, he had a sixth-in-sting start with two strikeouts,

five-innings start with three strikeouts. The strikeouts have been up and down for him all season long. I think the fact this is his first terrible start, and, you know, five-runs in five-in-s. You could argue that's not even so bad. Pretty bad against the Tigers. I don't call it terrible. We'll call it terrible.

His first terrible start and seven starts. I know last start was four and runs in six innings, but, you know, that's not so bad. All right. And then the five before that were all quality starts, a couple with ten strikeouts. So I'm not really worried about things going wrong for Hini yet. All right, more on the bad rotation. Rich Hill had kind of a bad start. I'm going to sit him at Colorado this weekend.

Chase Anderson was terrible. Previous eight starts was great, though. Two-o-80-R-A and about a strikeout per inning. Shaw Manaya, two and two-thirds, three runs, three walks and a strikeout. So, yeah, I've been waiting for something like that from Mania. That was against the Dodgers. Yeah, but not like three walks and two-and-two-thirds innings. That's not what we were expected to go wrong, you know?

That's true. I was just waiting for a bad start. And then Zach Rankie, his last three starts, he has just 15 strikeouts in 20 innings, and he has faced three teams that strike out a lot. The Padres, the Giants, and the Phillies. All of them are top eight in strikeouts per game. Two of them, I think, are top five. So, you know, I don't know if there are any Granky concerns.

But Rich Hill, Chase Anderson, Shamaniah, Zach Granky, anything other than just a bad start from these guys? Like I said, I mean, Shamanaya, he did give up five hits in two and two-thirds innings, but I think there's still a lot of Babbab correction to come. More bad starts to come from Manaya. Yeah, I've been saying that all season, but I'm going to stick with it. The others, I think, are fine. I mean, we know where Rich Hill's issues are. Chase Anderson, there's been some modest enthusiasm for him on this podcast lately.

The strikeouts really haven't been that good lately. Velocity's not what it was last year still. He's a middling option to be. And obviously, middling options have starts like this sometimes. Yeah, I mean, I definitely wanted to start Chase Anderson against the Padres. But if I had known about the Fran Mill Reyes leg kick thing, I wouldn't have even considered it. That would have stopped.

I know Granky's number one on this list. Who's number two? Heaney, Hill, Anderson, or Mania? Heaney. See, yeah, I think I'd go Hill. But you don't like Rich Hill. He hurt your feelings. I just don't expect him to last.

Yeah, it's fair point. He never does. Fair point. But at this point, but at this point, I don't see Heaney pitching the rest of the season. You know, I think they shut him down at some point. Like you said, the end. innings could become an issue eventually. Eventually.

He's still only at 127 right now. Yeah, I mean, maybe after five more starts, I'll start to worry about innings. Okay. Would you drop anybody in that group? Not Granky, obviously, not Heaney. Rich Hill, Chase Anderson, or Sean Minaya, would you drop them for Tyler Glass now? I would drop Anderson, I think. He's 91% own.

So that's, yeah, that's the one guy I would drop. All righty. Fringy starting pitchers, C.C. Sabathia, Marcus Stroman, Nick Povetta, Rinaldo Lopes, Mike Montgomery. Sabathia, Stromen, Povetta, Lopez, Montgomery. Who do you want? Definitely Povetta. Povetta should be more owned than Chase Anderson. And I think I rank him ahead of Rich Hill, too.

Second start in a row. Really good start. his 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings on the season now versus 2.5 walks per nine. That is a terrific ratio. It's no surprise he has a 347 FIPP on the season considering. And even some of the bad starts, obviously, that preceded these last two, which were great. So many swinging strikes. He looks like he's really good and has had bad bad ERA luck.

Well, he's hitable, though, right? He has been. Nick Povetta. Yeah, but is that... I guess I was right saying bad Babbitt luck. You know, it's funny. I had this conversation, I think, with Ethan Chris. Maybe you were on the show, actually.

I don't remember. We look at a guy who gives up a lot of hits sometimes, and we just say, oh, bad Babbick luck. But maybe he's just hittable, you know? Maybe, but I would expect the hard contact rate to be higher, the soft contact rate to be lower, and the line drive rate to be higher. than it is for Nick Teveta.

All right. It's a good point. He's fine in all those areas. And Stroman and I also, I think, we're pretty interested in, much more so in points leagues. But, you know, he had his terrible start last time out against the A's.

He gave him seven runs in five innings, and we pointed out it was almost all singles. So a good start for him, and he'll get Tampa Bay this weekend if he makes his next start, Marcus Stroman. In the bullpen, Hector Rondone, got a save. Roberto Azuna did not pitch. Rondo has a save in two straight games.

What do you make of it? I'd be reluctant to drop Hector Rondone. I still think it's going to be Ozuna eventually, and they're just easing him in. But I can't guarantee it. And I think with every save Rondone converts, it makes it harder for A.J. Hinch to pull the plug. Now, it seems like the Blue Jays were saving Ken Giles for a save situation. But Ryan Saperra crapped all over that plan in the eighth inning. But then Giles came in and gave up five runs in two-thirds of an inning.

in extras and gave up two home runs. I thought of you last night when I saw this line for Ken Giles, because again, a non-same situation. He's still scoreless in save situations, but anytime he's in a non-save situation, forget it. Ken Giles is the worst. That might be the stat of the year, frankly, that this guy who can't hold down the closer roll It's funny, yeah. Has been untouched in the closer roll. It's true.

I don't know, though, you know, in practicality, it's still a terrible outing for him. It does seem like he's, you know, kind of going through a minefield here and just missed all the landmines. But it's still amazing. It's amazing stat. Do you see a reason to own Ken Giles outside of like really deep leagues? I mean, I assume he's still technically in the frontrunner for saves. There's still the Blue Jays closer. So, yeah, I mean, I'd rather not start him.

He's not a number one or number two reliever for me. But, you know, anybody who's in that role has value. Yeah, I guess. Yes, anybody in that role has value. All right, Scott. Let's read some emails. I got eight emails. I'm giving you four minutes to do it.

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This is from George. You are on the clock. Right. Now, George says 12 team head-to-head categories. Who would you rather have rest of season? OPS is a category, by the way. Carlos Santana, Matt Olson, Jake Bowers or C.J. Crohn?

Carlos Santana, Matt Olson, Jake Bowers, or C.J. Crohn? It's definitely one of the first two. I think with OPS, Yeah, you know what, I think it's Olson in this format. All right, this is from Scott, Dear Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde. Are those the ghosts in Pac-Man? I want to say that the ghosts in Pac-Man. Yeah, I think you're right.

Who would you rather own rest of season? Rondone and Osuna or Strope and Morrow? I would rather own. Strope and Morrow for me. Because one of them is going to be the guy, right? Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I feel like there's more predictability there. From Andrew, grade the trade. Give up Scooter Jeanette. Get Lorenzo Cain in a points league. I don't know if Scooter Jeanette's shoulders bothering him again. He did have three hits yesterday, which is encouraging. They were all singles.

He's been terrible since the All-Star break. And he's kind of contended with the shoulder issue all year. I think it's, I want to say it's an even swap, but, like, because I'm factoring in that shoulder injury, it's an even swap, see. Otherwise, you prefer Jeanette? I definitely. All right, Matt from Connecticut, dear Greg, Harold, and Dan. Greg Harold and Dan. That feels easy. Like, we should get that.

Greg, Harold, and Dan. It feels like we should get it. It does feel that way. Oh, I think they're MLB Network. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm content with that.

So have you seen the new Dick Sporting Goods commercial? They use the Welcome Back Cotter song, but only for the Welcome Back lyric before switching to some new age song with the advertisement. It's false advertising because I get geared up to your 15 seconds of the song, but I get nothing. Thanks for always giving a satisfying amount of Welcome Back Cotter. I don't think that's how false advertising works, but fair enough. I'm glad we do a better job than Dick's sporting goods of meeting that need for you, Matt. All right, next email is from Jay in Boston. Odor or Muncie, rest of season in a points league?

Muncie. I'm going to stay the course on Muncie. He has sat a couple times since they brought Dozier on board. Dozier himself is sat once, so it's still too low of a number of games to really know how this is going to play out. I imagine the fact that Muncie's slumping contributes to how much he sits, but at his best, he's still seems like he could be a top 20 hitter. And have we reached our four-minute market? Not yet. This is from no name. Dear Sean, Sarah, and Anthony, apparently they're from the Swamp. Swamp. Who is the best outfielder rest of season in a points league?

Cole Calhoun, Matt Kemp, or Max Kepler? Cole Calhoun. Ooh, all right. From Vince. Max Muncie is the exact type of hitter that can be adversely affected by the home run derby, a guy that has to alter his swing for it. Did he have to alter his swing for it? I don't know.

I mean, this is Vince. I trust Vince, don't you? Could have verified. one too, Adam. I have no idea if he altered his swing. But I'm going to ease. I didn't hear anything along those lines. I'm going to go with it.

I'm going to say, home run derby, jinks, Max Muncie. You're the worst. Well, I mean, it is interesting. Sometimes it does affect players. That isn't real. That is real. But sometimes, most of the time it doesn't. It's made Harper.

Harper's back because the home run derby. Because of the derby. From Ryan, grade the trade. Give up Carpenter. Get Granky and Rendon. Oh, my goodness. That is. That is a way to capitalize on Carpenter hype right now.

Holy cow. I know, but Carpenter's like really. That's a great deal. I would rather have Granky for Carpenter straight up. The fact you're getting another must-start third basement in addition, this is a solid A. Are you sure you'd rather have Granky than Carpenter straight up? I am sure I'd rather have Granky than Carpenter.

I think that took about four and a half minutes. I will allow it, Scott White. We're going to take a look now to finish the show. at today's matchups. Wednesday, which means we got a lot of day games typically. And yeah, here we go. Robert Stevenson is at Jacob de Grom. Start DeGrom, not Stevenson.

DeGrom's getting a win today. Marco Gonzalez at Yovani Gallardo. I'll start Gonzales. Chris Archer at Erman Marquez. Oh, man. I just picked up Marquez last night in a daily league. I don't know if I have the stones to start. I mean, do you have the stones to start Archer?

No, definitely not. Okay. I worry about Archer and Camden Yards. I'm not going to start them in Corr's Field. Yeah, I lean no on both of these two, but they are, I wouldn't, I'd do it with some hesitate. I'd bench them with some hesitation for sure. Vince Velasquez is at Patrick Corbyn.

Start both. Blaine Hardy is at Jaime Baria. Start neither. I just clicked a link that I didn't mean to click And I have been taken off the scoreboard page I'm back everybody I'm back Fultenevich at Tommy Malone Start Fulte

Brian Johnson at a Blue Jays pitcher That I've never heard of before Mike Housechild I'm gonna go with neither Twins at Indians, Odarezies at Clevenger I'd only start Clevenger Cashner at Faria Oh

Ferrea is making a starting and good. Its first appearance was in relief, you may remember. I do. I'm not going to start him. You may remember him from such relief appearances as last week against the Angels. John Gant is. Hey, you, Troy McClure.

John Gant is at Trevor Richards. Neither. We've got Yolishas-Cene hosting Brett Kennedy. Oh, Brett Kennedy. They're actually somewhat excited about him. The Padres. Are they? Yeah.

I start Shasin with that matchup. Yeah, I will start just seeing. Kennedy, keep an eye on him. Luis Severino at Lucas Gialito. Oh, man. The matchup, you got to go with Severino. Any other matchup I don't, I think I'd said him, but that matchup's too good. Jose Cantana at Heath Fillmeyer.

I will start Kentana against the Royal. Sure. Kershaw at Fires. Just Kershaw. I don't want to do Fires. First start with the A's, and he wasn't taken. terrible with the tigers, but I'd rather not. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the Wednesday show.

Thank you for humping with us. Yeah, I know. I knew it when I said it. I did it on purpose. Deal with it. You did it on purpose. Deal with it, everybody. Yeah, you deal with that.

You know, pretty soon I want to talk about Scott White's top two rounds for next year. I'm supposed to talk about that like three weeks ago. And I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgotten. I'm sure it's completely different. We'll get to. Stanton's going to be back in there. That's my prediction.

We'll talk to you all on Thursday. Have a great day, everybody.