Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/09 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Keuchel Concerns, Glorious Gallo

Episode Date: August 9, 2017

Recapping Tuesday's games, we start the show by trying to give a little love to a SP with a 2.98 ERA in his last 7 starts. Then it's on to the struggling Dallas Keuchel (4:40) and the surging Joey Gallo (7:05) and Odubel Herrera (11:55) ... Should you pick up Reynaldo Lopez (20:50)? How do we feel about Jake Lamb going into 2018 (26:55)? ... Zack Godley's rankings rise (34:00), Jason Vargas' questionable Fantasy value (35:28), a potential bullpen shakeup for LAA (42:00), today's matchups (45:14) and Grade the Trade (49:20)! ... 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

Fantasy baseball time. What's up, everybody? We're going to talk about everything that happened yesterday, everything important. Plus, Scott is getting into a fight with some very important media members. Adam Azors, Scott White, and Chris Towers. Am I allowed to talk about that on the air? Scott? Yeah, you can talk about it.

There isn't an actual fight. There will be. There will be. Someone's trying to start stuff because I think what's going on. Somebody's stirring up trouble. Scott tweeted something innocuous and some little tattletale when. and quote tweeted him, don't be a tattletail. If I want to at somebody, I'll add them.

Right, right. Don't, don't at them. I tweeted, I wish Braves beat writers would stop pretending Johann Camargo is a legitimate building block. Because I don't think Johann Camargo is a legitimate building block. I think he's a scrubby infielder who has started to play like one and still has a babb of around like 365, even with a lot of regression having already happened.

So, you know, I wasn't calling out anybody in particular, but somebody decided that they would call out somebody in particular via me, quote tweeting me to Braves Beat Brighter David O'Brien, who I have no problem with David O'Brien. I think he's very good at his job than I'd rather not get into any kind of Twitter beef with him. All right. All right. Crisis averted, everybody. Everything is fine. Danesby Swanson's coming back. Carmago is going on the D.L.

And we're going to start today's show before we talk about Dallas Kiko, before we talk about Joey Gallo, my goodness, 10 home runs in less than a month, much less than a month. Let's play name that player. I am owned in 32% of leagues. In my last seven starts, I have a 298 ERA and a 4-2 record. Five straight starts of seven or more. innings and a sub 3ERA in my last 7 and I'm only only only 32% of leagues. Oh, man. And I recently allowed only two run runs at the Dodgers and home against the Cubs.

Wait. Two or... Tie Block. Tie Block is correct. And look at these juicy matchups for next week at Miami. I guess that's not that juicy. Yeah, that's not a great match. Home against the Phillies.

I wish Giants beatwriters would stop pretending like Ty Block is a legitimate building block. I mean, he is a... Tie Block. He is a legitimate tie building block. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think?

Yeah, where are those matchups again? Miami on the road. Philadelphia next week. I don't make the next week. Philadelphia at home. All right, so we're looking at a guy who has struck out. Not very many people.

11.8% of the opposing batters he has faced this season. His walk rate is pretty good, but he doesn't combine the incredibly low strikeout rate with even an average ground ball rate. No. That's a really hard combination to make work. You can do it in San Francisco every once in a while, but I think the wheels are going to come off. Yeah, he has a 360 ERA even at home. and 415 ERA overall. And there have been a lot of really good starts mix there,

a lot of the two-er-run-run-seven-inning variety. But then those starts where it's gone wrong, it's gone really wrong. And considering, I think you mentioned, a strikeout percentage, K-per-9 is 4.4, if you're more, you know, you have a better frame of reference for that stat. You don't see pitchers in this day and age succeed with that.

I could give him some benefit of the doubt if he was one of these extreme ground ball pitchers, but like you said, he's just kind of above average ground ball pitchers. It's not even above average. He's 45% that's below average at this point. So nobody cares about tie block, right? You don't want to buy in? No.

Fair enough. Rest of season, Ty Block or Dallas Keikle? Well, Dallas Keikle was due for this kind of. No, there's much more than that going on right now. I watched the game last night. There was some bad luck, but you can't really blame. on that. Eight runs in four innings on 10 hits and now a 1050 ERA and three starts and is coming off the DL. His fastball does not look very good to me. I know he's not a hard thrower, but he just

looks weak up there. But more importantly, from what I saw yesterday, a lot of elevated pitches. And we know Dallas Kikell pepper's the bottom of the zone. I do think location is a big problem, but I don't know. And you could make the argument, this is kind of a less extreme version of what Chris and I have actually both been saying about Marco Estrada. Dallas Keiko, guy who sits in the high 80s, depends a lot on command. His success does. And so when he loses his command, there's not a lot to fall back on. And so I guess you could make the argument.

It was inevitable he would have a stretch like this where he just doesn't have the same command. But at the same time, considering it coincides with all the neck issues, I can't help but think the two are related. that he got a little rusty, maybe even altered something slightly mechanically to compensate for the neck pain, and now he's having trouble locating his pitches like he did earlier in the year. The stuff looks fine, I mean, in terms of velocity and everything. I think he will bounce back, but if he's doing this at the White Sox, I think it's worth sitting him, actually. Wow. He's got another start this weekend. You jump ship after.

No, this is a jumping ship. You two were saying Dallas Keiko was the best pitcher in baseball. I still think he'll get back to being a Cy Young candidate. And all of a sudden. I want to see him get on the right track. I want to see him get back on track. He's at Texas. At Texas this weekend.

So, like, if you have him in a two-star week, obviously he's locked in. But if you have him in a daily league and you can make changes at Texas this weekend, yeah, I think I would sit him. And I'm concerned. I really am. He pitched through injury all last year and didn't pitch well. So I don't know, man. I'm concerned. But I guess we can talk about it on Monday.

We'll see how he does over the weekend for Dallas Keikle. He will be facing Joey Gallo. Joey Gallo since July 19th. So a month after my birthday, which is important, Gallo's batting 295 with 10 home runs, four walks, and 24 strikeouts. He is overall the number 20 third baseman in points leagues, but number 11 in Roto. 210 batting average 31 home runs. One of the hottest hitters in baseball.

Everybody, ladies and gentlemen, Joey Gallo. I'm totally unrelated, but Jeff Bannister said today on MLB Radio on Sirius that he thinks Joey Gallo could be an everyday center fielder, which is just wild. That is wild to me. Joey Gallo is good. Is he, though? Yeah. Is he good for fantasy?

because before this stretch he was, you know, not somebody that we would have wanted to own. He's been like a top 15 guy for most of the season, hasn't he? Or he's terrible in points leagues. Yeah. Roto categories. I mean, yeah, he is what he is. He's 2-10 really hurts. Yep.

I mean, he's kind of the power version of Hamilton, Billy Hamilton, right? Like, he's so good at the one thing that, you know, in an imperfect rating system where you have to try and balance five needs and spit out one number as the roto formula does, he might show up fairly high because of how much he excels in that one category. But if you don't need that category,

he's pretty worthless. But somebody does. Well, trade deadlines passed. Probably. But he needs to be owned. And he's probably worth starting. I don't know. I mean, right now I'd start.

I'm sure he's hot, but we saw just before. this. He's got 31 homers and an 880 OPS. He's got, you know, he's on pace for right around 90 runs and 90 RBI. And what's his batting average? It's 2-10. That's the one place he hurts you. He's even got six still in bases. If he comes out of the season with 40 homers, 10 steals, 90 runs, 90 RBI, he's Chris Carter. That's a good player, even if he hits 210. You just have to account for the fact that he's going to hurt you in that one category. Well, but we're not drafting. We can't account for it right now. Right, but we're talking about moving forward.

We're talking about, like, he's somebody who is useful to somebody somewhere. If you have him on your team and you can't afford to start a 210 batting average player, and that's likely what he is, that stinks, but you're not going to drop him. Yeah, it's just weird with guys like Gallo, who's a lot like Chris Davis, I guess. It depends when you have the conversation, right? I mean, if you look at July 18th, he had an 810 OPS batting 190. It's just not really going to cut it. Now he's got an 879 OPS.

That is going to cut it. I feel like Joey Gallo is what Adam Dunn was toward the end of his career, where it's like, I guess we still have to give him credit for hitting home runs. But, man, it's not even like that. Billy Hamilton is elite in one category, but he doesn't really help you anywhere else. Joey Gallo helps you in four categories. Well, so yeah, right now, 60 runs and 59 RBIs and 102 games. Yeah, I don't know what that translates to over a full season.

It's about 90 for both. Okay. That's not bad. I think that's definitely a plus. So, well, 85 for both. Oh, look at this. I got the Joey Gallo page up. I got a very handsome, well-dressed Chris Towers and a little video.

box talking to me about Joey Gallo. CBS Sports, terrific website. Terrific website. You go to a player page on CBSPorts.com, you're going to get these little video blurbs. Like, this is 45 seconds long. It'll help you out. Okay, how about this? Joey Gallo is Chris Carter.

You think that's underselling him? That's what I said. That's okay. Chris Carter during his best year. I actually said Chris Carter first, but I know nobody heard it, but that's okay. I thought you said Chris Davis. I said both. I definitely heard Chris Davis.

Which kind of made sense, too. So I didn't, you know, didn't raise an eyebrow if you're talking about Searrest Davis. But no, I think it terms more in terms of Chris Carter. And even at the time, Chris Carter was good, you know, 40 homers, low batting average. Like, it still drove me crazy to own him because, even in a roto league, because it's like, you have to know you're going to stick with him every week, even during those week, you know, half-month-long stretches where he's doing absolutely nothing for him. You just have to trust he's going to bounce back and trust yourself to trust he's going to bounce back. And I don't trust myself that much. He's an imperfect player.

Okay, yeah. And I'm sorry, I'm looking at my tweets because I wanted to move forward to our next guy and it's Oduble Herrera. I got such an annoying tweet from Heath last night. It was like, so is Oduble Herrera good now? And I just responded, no. And I didn't even know what he did at the time. I just didn't want to give in. But he's been pretty damn good.

I'll give him that. 64% own Oduba Herrera is the number nine. Outfielder in points leagues number 10 in Roto since the All-Star break. Yesterday he homered, he doubled, and he stole two bases. And O'Dobo Herrera has 34 doubles, or 34 doubles, in 107 games. Yeah, I mean, last time we spoke about him, he had this hot streak, and it still wasn't really that impressive. But it's continued now, and the two steals were good, because he only has seven on the year.

Do you think Oduble Herrera is under-owned at 64% owned? He was my number one sleeper hitter for this week, so at least for this week. I guess I could say he was under-owned. Yeah, I mean, the hot streak's largely batting average in doubles. So, you know, that's not going to be great for everybody. Over the last 57 games, since June 1st, he's got nine home runs and 55 starts, 22 doubles. He's sitting 338. That's really good.

It's largely batting average in doubles, though. You'd have to agree. That's a 25 homer pace. Okay. Yeah. I know also in terms of where he ranks in fantasy points during that stretch, I was underwhelmed. He was only like the 30th outfielder, I think, in head-to-head leagues. Because I wanted to include that little tidbit in the hitting column.

And it's just like, that's not impressive. I'm not going to include it. But I don't know. I still see him as like a match-ups type. In a league where out – in a year when outfield is deep. Yeah, well, if you start stealing, that would change things. But only seven so far for Herrera. And Austin Pruitt is the last guy I wanted to talk about today as one of my

standouts. I picked him up in a couple leagues. I don't really know why. I didn't drop much for him. But Pruitt, with two good starts in a row, six innings one run, five Ks against the Red Sox. Previously, it was six and a third scoreless with three strikeouts at Houston. Pruitt but he is R.P. Eligible. And again, he's 5% owned. And I guess I just felt like making a transaction last night because I only made one over the weekend. Anybody interested in Austin Pruitt raised starting pitcher? Not really. Only as an RP. as a spark, which the bar's pretty low there. Yeah, it is.

Man, I'm looking at his game log right now. Swinging strikes are nowhere to be found. He was really good at AAA this year. Minor league career, though, is pretty spotty. Okay, well, if you want to learn more about Austin Pruitt, you want to see what these guys are doing, make sure you get our CBS Sports app. Go to CBSports.com slash baseball.

CBSports.com slash baseball. It'll direct you to download the app. It's got OPS, it's got OVP, it's got WIP, it's got fantasy points. Swipe right on the box score. You're going to get some really cool features. CBSports.com slash baseball. I do see some very interesting tweets. Chris is just not going to apologize for the Manny Machado stuff.

All right, so here's the dumb thing about that. It's dumb. It's dumb. It's not that dumb. Manny Machado has been my number one shortstop every single day this season. There has not been a single. day when I have moved Mani Machado out of my top spot at shortstop. He's had a great 11 games because he's Mani Machado.

He's one of the best hitters in baseball. Exactly. That's the point. But was it a coincidence? But you didn't trade for him 12 days ago. Was it a coincidence? That's a different argument. But was it a coincidence, Chris, that you skipped the podcast the day after Machado's Grand Slam and came back the day after Keiko got lit up? No. No. Because, Josh Donaldson had a good game yesterday, and I'm here.

He did. I'm here, I'm ready to take it. Okay. We won't mention that Andrew McCutcheon had another home run yesterday, Adam. I mentioned my, I mentioned by the mucchin failures all the time. I own that. I own the McCutcheon failures. No, I missed yesterday's podcast because I lost my wallet was stolen. What?

On Monday. And I had to go to the DMV. And then my wife's car wouldn't start yesterday, so I had to drive back home. It was a mess. Oh, man. I am sorry to hear that. It was a mess. That is worse than being wrong about Mani Machado.

That's never wrong. Yeah, exactly. Let's do a segment called five guys since Scott crapped all over in and out burger. He loves five guys, presumably. Here's a segment called five guys. I want you to rank these five guys rest of season. How would you, you know, if you were making a trade chart, how would you rank Chris Sale, Corey Klober, Josh Donaldson, John Carlos Stanton, and Aaron Judge, rest of season.

Chris Sale, Corey Clover, Donaldson, Stanton, and Judge. Would you like to go first, or should I? I will go. Sale, Cluber, Stanton, Donaldson, Judge. Maybe Judge over Donaldson. Yeah. I'm going to go judge ahead of both Donaldson and Stan. I'm going to go SayleClover, Judge, Stanton,

though that line between Judge and Stanton is microscopic, and then Donaldson 5th. Not that I'm down on Donaldson. I mean, these are just five really good players. You asked us to rank. We are seeing the entire breadth of Aaron Judge, the entire possible landscape of Aaron Judge. Yes. He was unbelievable early on in the season, best hitter in baseball.

It was unsustainable. What he's doing right now is probably. unsustainable, but that's what scares me. But there's a chance that he's Joey Gallow. Yeah, it scares me. But that is within the realm of possibility. Yeah, Stanton and Judge are back to back in outfield standings right now, four and five, depending on the, or three and four, depending on the format. Stanton has like one more fantasy point. Judge slightly better in Roto, and Judge still has 20 more points in batting average, but that is just falling by the day. One thing, though, for Judge is that he,

He has walked 81 times. Stanton has walked 56 times. And since the All-Star break, Judge is batting 175 with five home runs. He has 37 strikeouts and 23 games. He has a Yankees record 25 straight games with a strikeout. But he also does have 20 walks, which is encouraging. Although I seem to remember being encouraged by the same sort of stat for Eric Thames. Like, well, he's still walking.

And that hasn't really gone well. Like, I'm surprised that Scott has – I would have had Judge last. I'm surprised that Scott doesn't. I mean, my thing is when we drafted the first two rounds for last year during the All-Star break, Aaron Judge was the 13th pick, I believe. You're doing. I don't want, sure, but it wasn't like a controversial. No, no.

There wasn't. You know, I think he went ahead of like. Chairs weren't thrown. No. I think he went ahead of like Rizzo and a couple others. I might have taken ahead of him, but he was someone we were taking in the first two rounds. And he still is. I think he is basically John Carlo Stanton.

I think he hits the ball a little harder. I think he strikes out a little more. At this point, he strikes out a lot. Sure, I mean, yeah. You know, what we've seen from Stanton this year is a change in his approach. And early on in the season, it was a change in his approach that was a leading to less power. Now we're seeing that he's making a lot more contact. He's chasing fewer pitches outside of the strike zone.

And he hasn't had to sacrifice the power. He actually has the highest slugging percentage of his career. So why are you surprised, Adam? Because I know how much you hate strikeouts. And because Stanton is more proven than Judge, no question. Stanton did have this kind of stretch. I don't know what the strikeout numbers were, but, God, he was so bad last year for a pretty extended stretch.

But, man, Judge has just lost at the plate right now. It's very frustrating. Okay. I think it's an overreaction to just bury Judge all of a sudden. Oh, no, I'm not burying him. there's a chance that us including him in the first two rounds wasn't overreaction to the first three months. That was such an outlier compared to his minor league career. I'm going to stick, I don't remember when you asked us last, it was like a month or six weeks ago, something like that.

And I pegged Aaron Judge as a late second rounder, and that's still what I think he ends up being. Fair enough. Let's dig a little bit deeper. Also, I think it's also noteworthy that Chris Sale and Corey Kluber were number two for both of you guys. guys, right? Put the pitchers first? Yep. Yeah, but I think all these guys are mid to late second rounders. Chicago White Sox, they're calling up Renaldo Lopez for Friday's start. Who's excited who wants to pick up Renaldo Lopez? Yeah, I think he's probably worth picking up, given the need for starting pitching pretty much everywhere. I put him, I slotted them just outside the top 70 at starting pitcher, so maybe some 10-team leagues. You know, you wouldn't,

need to go that deep into the pitching pool. But obviously there's the upside for him to rise from there. Fastball approaches 100 miles per hour. I think he has some things in common with Luis Castillo, and we've seen how his ownership percentage is risen. He's up and owned in more than 70% of leagues. Now, obviously, Lopez will have to deliver to stay on rosters. But a player with that kind of upside at a position of need,

you roll the dice and reassess continually from there. Yep. So you'd rather pick up him than Austin Pruitt, easy, right? Absolutely. And you'd rather pick up Ranaldo Lopez than Tie Block? Absolutely. Would you drop Sean Newcomb for Raynaldo Lopez? Yes.

Probably. Would you drop Lance McCullors? No. Okay. Clayton Carshall is making progress. That's good. Michael Brantley is on the D.L. That's bad.

Sprained ankle. Is there a timetable for Michael Brantley? They are going to see how he responds to treatment and make a determination whether or not to DL him after that. Okay, I'm looking at a league that I own him in, and it says DL. Yes, he has been put off DL. Okay.

Dudes on the DL. But it's not a killer injury, which was the concern. He was playing so well. I need Michael Brantley. And this could help Bradley Zimmer. Bradley Zimmer's been sitting against lefties, And now that Jason Kipness is back, Kipness has been leading off, and Zimmer has been batting like seventh. So hopefully this gets him higher in the order.

Hopefully this gets him in the lineup more often. We shall see. Andrew Miller could miss more time than expected with a knee injury. Felix Hernandez is out three to four weeks with shoulder brisitis. Probably going to drop. The Seahawks are the Seahawks. The Mariners love making trades. They acquired Ernesto Freire from the Rangers, and they paid $1.

$1. All right. So like three or four Ernesto Friarius could get you one delicious double in-and-out cheeseburger. Just let you know. What about those gross fries with all the crap on them? Animal style? It's delicious. Yon Carmargo left with the hyper-expended knees on the DL and Dansby Swanson expected to be recalled.

Detroit sent Jamer Candelario back to AAA. C.C. Sabathia left with a knee issue. Alex Cobbs on the D.L. with a toe injury. Blake Snell is going to pitch tomorrow. Guys, we talked about a couple of outfielders who are back, Cameron, Mabin, and Dexter Fowler. Let's talk about two more. Aaron Hicks could be back this weekend, and Avi Garcia returned yesterday. So who are your two favorites in that group of Aaron Hicks, Avi Garcia, and Cameron

Maven and Dexter Fowler? Two favorites. Mabin and Fowler. Yeah, and it's a different favorite depending on the format. Fowler for the points leagues, Mabin for the Categor's Leagues. I'm interested to see what happens with Aaron Hicks with playing time and also, man, he was having a really great breakout season.

Yeah, he could leap to the front of that group if I was sure he was playing every day, but I'm not. Fair enough. A few more notes for you. Hanley Ramirez could play today. Two players made ridiculous catches yesterday. Adam Engel made an amazing catch. Billy Hamilton made an otherworldly catch.

It was so much better than Adam Engel. Adam Engel's stupid pathetic catch compared to what Billy Hamilton did. Bill Hamilton's was like the second best of the last eight days. What was the best? Come on. Forget already? The Justin up, uh, the Jackie Bradley one? Austin Jackson, right.

Yeah. In Fenway. I should probably reconsider my stance on whether or not that's a home run if you fall into the bullpen. Yeah, that was a bad take at him. All right. Here's the thing. Everyone's saying that, well, if you catch it and you fall into foul ground, it's still an out. But foul ground is already, there's no difference between foul ground and the seats.

Those are both out of place. That's actually a good point. A home run. No, I mean, every home run that's ever been, what about the Indy Chavez catch where he clearly reaches over the fence? He doesn't, but the ball comes back in play. Yeah, it ends up in play. Well, it ends up in play too once he climbs back over the fence. No.

That's not how it works. So if Indy Chavez fell over that taller fence, you would have said that was a home run, too? Maybe. Yeah, I don't know anymore. All I know is I'm thinking of proposing a two feet in bounds rule. Is a hot dog a sandwich? No, a hot dog is absolutely not a sandwich, and everybody knows it's not a sandwich. So don't know.

It's not. Neither is a burger. A burger is a burger. A sandwich is a sandwich. I don't know. Shut up, Chris. Tommy Fam. So I was reading about Tommy Fam's eye issue.

It is apparently improved. We were wondering about that. It seems like that has been a big reason for Tommy fans' fantastic year, so that's interesting. Chris Bryant, we were talking about Chris Bryant a lot yesterday. We forgot to mention, I think I forgot to mention. He's been playing through a finger injury, and that could be slowing him down a little bit. Keone Kell is on the deal with a shoulder injury, and Daniel Murphy sat with a sore knee, and just a few lineup notes.

Trevor Story batted ninth at Cleveland. Gregory Polanco has sat two of the last three against lefties since he's come off the deal, and Eduardo Nunez stayed in the lineup. He led off. He went three for five with two doubles. Dustin Padroia was back. He batted second and DHed. Woo, I'm out of breath.

So I'm going to let you guys speak. About the double-dongers from yesterday. Justin Turner, four home runs in his last three games. Two yesterday. Jake Lamb. He's, you know, he's been okay lately, but he hit a grand slam against the lefty yesterday. Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario are owned in 32 and 14% of league's respect. collectively, they both double-donged yesterday.

Justin Turner, Jake Lamb, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario. Anything to say about these guys? Jake Lamb, quite good. We've talked a lot more, I feel, about Travis Shaw this season. But Jake Lamb's been just as good as him this year. Yeah, I was actually trying to figure out, before the two-homer game, Lamb was ahead of Travis Shaw and head-to-head points, and I was trying to figure out why, because a huge difference in batting average

Shows over 290. LAM. Jake Lambs walked a lot. Walk like a lamb. Yeah. Right off the top of my head. Nailed it. Okay.

No respect. I don't even know what that is. Walk like a man. Four seasons? Oh. Okay. Sure. So, Scott hits me.

Can I finish my point? I guess so. No. So basically, Jake Lambs. regressed to a 268 batting average and he's still ahead of Travis Shaw. He's still, I think, third in third base points. And that's what they now normalized VABIP.

Remember, we were worried early in the year what happened. What would happen when is batting average normalized? Well, it has. Shaw's a little bit, I think, one spot higher in Roto because of the nine steals probably. And the batting average difference is a big deal too. But Lamb has more RBI, walks more. So that explains the head-to-head.

but they're both top five third baseman this year. And they're both very good. Yeah, I do get concerned with Lamb. I'm not going to draft him next year. Unless he totally slumps at the end of this year and people are down on him. It's hard to be that bad against lefties and to be this good in general and fantasy. The walk rate being way up is very encouraging. He has as many walks this year.

He actually has one more walk this year than he had last year. he's played 106 games compared to 151. But, I mean, this guy is terrible against lefties. He did Homer against the lefty yesterday, but I mean, he's got to be one of the worst hitters in baseball against lefties. And I don't see him as like a top five round pick, which I suspect he might be next year. That's fair. And a good example of how good you have to be against Ritey's to make up for that is Max Kepler's

very good against Ritey's. you know, 288 OPS above 860, but he can't hit lefties and doesn't play every day. And Lamb is hitting 152, but he plays regularly enough against them and has a 630 OPS because he's hit for some power and he walks a decent amount, that he's at least useful. Like, he's not, he's not so actively harmful that, you know, he can't be. He's not Kyle Schorber against lefties. Right. And he's batting, Jake Lamb's batting 2.14 over his last 28 days. Still giving you power, though.

So those are really good OPS. I guess it's largely yesterday. Max Kepler has a 356 OPS against lefties. So that's pretty much your difference. Okay. Fair enough. One more little Minnesota tidbit. I just, I love seeing this every day.

I always track the Robbie Grossman O.B.P. versus slugging percentage. Because Robbie Grossman walks a lot. He has a 3.72 on baseball. percentage with a 245 batting average. Robbie Grossman has a 372 on base percentage and a 371 slugging percentage. Quite funny. I think Luis Castillo did that for his whole career.

Wow. Oh, yeah. He had a 368 career on base compared to a 351 slugging. Wow. Wow. Yeah. All right, guys, next category. Interesting middle infielders.

Interesting middle infielders. I'm going to give you, I think I have four names here, and I want you to tell me who your favorite middle infielders are. Josh Harrison, Jed Jerko, Jose Porella, four hits yesterday, and Jan Herva Salarte. Josh Harrison, Jed Jerko, Jose Porella, Janherva Salarte.

Favorite? Like, the ones I'd want to own most? Or the ones you'd like to hang out with the most. Yeah, who'd you like to own most? Harrison and Jericho. Because I think Pirela is kind of fun. Perel and Solarte. Well, I just want to point out that Harrison and Jerko have been

They've been pretty cold for a while. Yeah. Jerko did finally Homer yesterday. It was his first and 21 games. I also walked three times after having seven during the previous 20 games. So I don't know. He was definitely cold, but he's also been the most proven of this group. He is the one who is shortstop eligible. Yep.

And I think that makes him the clear Victor. Harrison seconded to me. What did you say? You said he's the victor, and he corrected you and said Jed, is his first name, Jed Jericho. Oh, okay. Yeah, I see. Full of jokes today. Yeah.

All right, fine, if you were going to rank them as second baseman, ranked him as second basement. Harrison Jerko, Porella, Salarta. Oh, that's a hypothetical that doesn't need to be. Okay. I think I'd still go Jerko Harrison Perella No Jerko Harrison Salarte Parella Yeah

Exactly It might depend on what my team needs So Perella at 12% owned Now he was 8 yesterday He's 12 now What do you think? It's gonna be 16 tomorrow Chris Towers

I think 12's not owned enough Yeah I think he probably needs to be 50% note. Okay. I have more from yesterday, and I do want to, uh, all right, let's get this out of the way. Let's get this out of the way. Let's peel the band-aid off. We are going to be switching times for the podcasts.

All right. This is my least favorite decision every year. When do we swap baseball and football? We don't have two hosts. We have one host for both shows. And it is clearly fantasy football season, and, uh, you know, I'm not going to lie. We have a lot more fantasy football listeners at this current. moment than fantasy baseball, but we still have a lot of baseball listeners, and we still care very, very much.

So we're going to be swapping times with fantasy football going forward, except tomorrow, and Mondays. Mondays will do baseball in the mornings, and you'll get your baseball shows that when you normally do. Tuesday through Friday, you should expect baseball around, I'd say 1 p.m. Eastern? Yeah, I'd say around 1 p.m. Eastern for baseball on Tuesday through Friday. And I'm sorry. It sucks. I hate it. I know people are going to tweet me and they're going to be mad and I get it and I will accept that. It's just a decision that we have to make and I apologize. All right.

Six-man rotation. Is there anything that we haven't covered so far that you think is like an absolute must cover? The six-man rotation. Yeah, good. Here we go, that six-man rotation. Zach Godley was good enough against the Dodgers. He gave up two homers, eight hits in six and two-thirds, but three runs against the best team in baseball. Meanwhile, Jose Cantana was disappointing against the Giants.

He only gave up three runs and six innings, but three K's. Kintana has a 420 ERA with the Cubs so far, but a lot of strikeouts. Who'd you rather have rest of season? Godly or Cantana? Kintana. I would rather have Godley. I think I have Godley 19th than my starting pitcher rankings now. Doctor.

Just think he's a total stud. I like it. I like it. Do you have Godley ahead of Severino? No. I have Severino like 11th. Okay. And Paxton, you also have ahead of Godley, right?

No. I have Paxton ahead of Gottly, yes. Sorry, I'm trying to communicate with Nick Costos through the door, and I don't know exactly what he's asking, and I don't know how to communicate my answer. I think he's asking, when are you guys going to be done with your podcast so we can get in and record the Pick Six podcast or the In This Corner Wrestling podcast.

You should check out all of our shows at CBCB. Bsports.com slash podcast. But believe me, I already sent the note. I told them we'd be done at 1230. So crisis averted. Yeah, I think he was asking to come in in five minutes. That's not going to happen. Jason Vargas.

Drop him. Drop him. I want to drop him. No, I'd keep him around for the two-star weeks. But I think you've gotten, it's time to recognize you've gotten the majority of his usefulness out of him and no longer play the one-state. start game with him. Well, this is this two-star week. He has the white socks on the road this weekend. So you'll probably start him there. But then you might be able to drop him. Yeah, I think because

at that point, if we're saying he's only worth using in two-star weeks, you might use him one time for the rest of the season, maybe twice. That's Jason. Definitely not for the next two weeks. I mean, I think that's worth keeping him around for. Really? How many addable two-star pitchers are there in a given week? Two, maybe. I'm, I'll just say in our next segment we have Herman Marquez who's 73% owned. I would rather have him than Jason Vargas. Well, you didn't ask me that. Well, but that's like, I'm not saying every single person should drop Jason Vargas,

but he is clearly too highly owned at 95% or 96%. I think he is someone who in a two-start week can be owned in 60% to 70% weeks. Okay, maybe a little. I think it's more of a case of Marquez being underowned though. I just, I don't. think Jason Vargas is any good. I think he's a mid-4-V-R-A guy. What's the lowest point in your starting pitcher rankings that,

because like top 60 pitchers are all pretty much, they should be owned everywhere, right? I have him 73rd. Okay. Yeah, you've been pretty consistent with that, Chris, so it's not like how you're wrong about the Machado thing. Like, you're looking good on this, Fargus. Number one shortstop, every single day of the season.

But what I don't understand is, when I say Mani Machado is going to go on a hot streak because he's due, and then he goes on this hot streak and you just go, of course he went on a hot streak. He's Mani Machado. How is that any different than the argument we had last week? How is that different? Because you're saying you know when he's going to go on a hot streak. No, I never said that. Scott, did I say that? No. I said it's going to happen. Scott has no idea what you said. Scott has constructed, Scott and I had this whole Twitter argument the other day about what he thinks you said. Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad I wasn't part of that. Scott doesn't listen. I feel like somebody's being obtuse here in refusing to bridge the divide. I don't know exactly who it is, but I'm tired of it. Fair enough.

And are these next three players must-starts? Michael Waka, J-Hap, Kenta Maeda. Not must-starts. You can sit them against tough matchups. They're all must-own. Yeah, Maida, interesting. Maida, again, will not throw more than 94 pitches, apparently. And he has a 133-R-A in his last five starts, but he's only gone more than five-innings once.

And we know the deal with Maida. 93% started, or 93% 0 and 78% started. But even with the limited innings, 4-0 in that five-start stretch, 133-yard. Low-ceiling, high-floor pitcher. Yeah, high-floor, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's harder to justify in a points league where you just expect him not. to get you a quality start ever.

But, um, roto leagues. I mean, he's helping in all the, the ERA and whip and. Strikeouts. Can he just throw fewer pitchers? If you get six strikes from a pitcher,

that's a good week. Yeah, he has, uh, 24 strikeouts in his last 27 innings in those five starts. But maybe like, maybe get through five innings with 84 pitches

instead of 92. Like, just try that. Try a little harder. Yeah. He's not trying hard enough. That's his problem. Fringy starting pitchers.

Not, not, not, all that fringy for some of them. but who do you want from this group? Armand Marquez, Ariel Miranda, Julio Taran,

Jeremy Helixen, Parker Bridwell, and Chad Kuhl. Marquez is the only one that I think needs to be owned in more than 60% of leagues at this point.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's time to move on from Tehran. Yep. There just hasn't been, like even as good starts the strikeouts,

There weren't any. He's at 101 and 130 in a third innings this year. And the bad starts have outnumbered them, and they've been recent. And, yeah, I just... The roto world write-up on Julio Toron last night was great. It was something like, while it feels like Julio Taran has given up five earned runs in every single start this season, this was actually the first time he's given up exactly five earned runs.

He's had some with six, some with seven, one with nine, but none with five. He's been terrible. Yeah, he's trying to win one of those contests where you have to score every amount of runs. And he has a 525 ERA, and it was just crazy. Earlier this week, I'm looking at one of my Lee's 14-team league, the waiver wire, and Julio Tehran is there, and I didn't pick him up. And I said, wow, not picking Julio Taran up in a 14-team league. That tells you something.

Parker Bridwell, guys, he's at Seattle this weekend. Are you going to start him at Seattle? Bridwell's got a 3-ERA and a 6-1 record for the Angels. Yeah, I've been pretty vocally opposed to Bridwell. Well, who now has five, five of his last starts have been quality starts, but five strikeouts are fewer in all but one of those five quality starts. So it's in a way that appears unsustainable to me. Now, as minor league strikeout rate was actually okay, it was better than eight per nine. If he was doing closer to that, I'd be a little more willing to look into him, but I think this is just totally unsustainable.

$4.65 FIPP. No way Okay Let's go to the bullpen Greg Holland You know I don't think we'd have to really worry about Greg Holland Having two bad addings in a row Except doesn't this coincide with him cutting his finger

Yeah So you know don't cut your finger buddy And hopefully you're okay But otherwise we wouldn't be worried about Greg Holland Tyler Klipper got his second save Six straight scoreless appearances for Tyler Klipper He is 17% home Would you rather have Tyler Klippard

or Matt Belial of it? I would rather have Matt Belial. I would rather have any one in line for saves other than Tyler Clippard. Yeah, he's a mediocre pitcher who gets saves on the worst team in baseball. He could have been the Yankee Clippard, though, if he had gotten saves for the Yankees. Would have been fun. And Kenyon Middleton. Who?

Yeah, he got the save. But Norris may have been demoted later. and gentlemen for the Angels. And Blake Parker gave up three run runs in his last appearance, but he's probably the best reliever in that bullpen. What's your take on the Angels bullpen right now? Well, Middleton gave up a solo home run. Fortunately, it was a two-run lead,

so he was still able to convert the save. But his numbers on the year, basically I don't think it's him. He hasn't been 425 ERA 136 whip, more than a strike-up winning, I guess, but the Angels have so many pictures in their bullpen who we've looked at all year and said, ah, this guy could be a pretty good close. They're too bad Bud Norris is doing so well. So just because Cam Bedrosian and Blake Parker happened to have some bad outings recently,

I don't think, I think it would be crazy for the Angels to decide that they're not worth closing. They're not worth having clothes either. I think Parker's the guy I'm pursuing. day, even though he wasn't asked to pitch in this game at all. He, you know, I don't know if they were just giving him a break because that last outing was so bad. It doesn't look like he needed a day off, but his strikeout rate has been off the charts. And prior to that bad outing last time out, he had a 205 ERA.

Yeah, Blake Parker with 62 strikeouts and 49 innings, only 32 hits and 14 walks. So that's a sub one whip. I just will point out that his strikeouts have gone down, basically month by month, to the point where he's, you know, June, 13 strikeouts in 11 innings, July, 10 strikeouts on 11 innings. And so far in August, one strikeout in two-thirds, but still, he's having a great year. So Blake Parker is somebody 6% owned. If you're desperate for a closer, not a bad place to look.

And the angels aren't bad, you know, so there's that. A few guys in deeper leagues, I want to get your first. your thoughts on. I bring this guy up all the time. I know he's not great, but he's 8% owned Brian Goodwin leading off for the nationals. Leonis Martine, Martin, since being recalled, Leonis Martine has a 303 batting average and a 303 on base. He hasn't walked. Nine games. He has just one steal and two attempts, but we know he has some speed and he homered yesterday. So there's Brian Goodwin, Leonis Martine, Martine, and a 3% owned pitcher, Vance Worley, who has had two good starts in a row against the Nationals.

I wish Brian Goodwin stole bases. It would be easier to be interested in him, but without that, I just, I can't. Okay, you don't have to. Thanks. But he scores runs because he leads off for the Nationals, so I think you could do worse than Brian Goodwin. And since the All-Star break, he is batting just 227, but he's 29th in points and 39th in Roto. And that's not bad. three steals since the All-Star break.

11 doubles for Brian Goodwin. Okay. I'm off my Brian Goodwin thing here. Let's take a look at today's matchups, and then we will end the show with Grade the Trade. Still have trades coming in, and the games have already started, so you have missed your chance to get some starter sit advice

on the Rockies, Indians, and Rangers' Mets games. But Mariners A is Yovani Gallardo and Jarrell Cotton. I don't think I'm starting either. I would rather not. Kevin Gosman, yep, and Troy Scribner. Kevin Gosman, sure. Let's trust Kevin Gosman. Four straight starts with eight strikeouts.

Okay, Scribner making a start for the angels. Then I picked up on that. Kyle Hendricks at Madison Bumgarner. Start of both. I will start them both. Adam Conley at Gio Gonzalez. Gio? Not Conley.

Masahiro Tanaka at Nick Teppish Tanaka not Teppish Rick Porcelo at Jake Oterese Oterese's first game back from the deal Yeah first game back I'd probably prefer not to start him I don't think I'm starting either Corsella is not a terrible option

How about Ivan Nova at Justin Verlander? Let's start both Okay Nova only in a points league Travis Wood at Asher Wojikowski, Padres at Reds. Nope. Yeah, move on to the next game. All right.

Phillies at Braves. Jared Eichoff, Sean Newcomb. I think both are interesting options in deeper leagues. I would like to start Jared Eichof. They have some, yeah, I mean, they're interesting in deeper leagues, but I'm not starting either. Twins at Brewers, Bartolo Colon, and Brandon Woodruff. Uh, no. I mean, I picked up Woodruff in a number of leagues, probably the same kind of leagues I'd be looking to add Renaldo Lopez right now, but I'm not ready to start him yet. All right. Would you rather have Woodruff or Ranaldo Lopez?

I think I have Woodruff one spot ahead of Lopez, and it's because he's made an appearance this year and it was effective. And that's like, that's like what moves him ahead of Lopez. A much better supporting cast. There's that too, yes. Astros at White Sox, Colin McHugh, Miguel Gonzalez. McHugh for sure. Uh-huh. We got the Royals and the Cardinals, Trevor Cahill and Mike Leak.

I would... Take a leak. I would prefer to not start either of them. If I have to, I don't mind starting you. This is Trevor Cahill's last stand for me. You need to show me something, Trevor Cahill, even though I don't own you in any leagues. His last stand. 58%.

own. Make it count, Cahill. Dodgers and Diamondbacks, do you trust Alex Wood at Zach Granky? Ah, I'm glad you brought up Alex Wood because I saw the O.C. Register reported that he regained velocity with the mechanical adjustment he made during a bullpen session, which, you know, he made reference after his last start to, there's a mechanical adjustment I need to make. And I guess they were clocking him during the bullpen session, and it was back. So yes, absolutely. I start Alex Wood.

I will start both. I'm a little more skeptical of the magic bullpen theory, but we'll see. Magic bullpen? I'm interested in seeing. I love it. Okay, I have a bold prediction for tonight. I think I should start doing this every night. Bold prediction.

Justin Verlander will strike out 11 pirates in eight innings with one run. Woo! All right? You're very specific and bold. Eight innings pitched. Boldly specific. One run run. 11Ks.

Sure. Love it. Here we go. Let's grade some trades. Trade deadline ain't here yet. Tyler from Minneapolis. Last week I accepted a trade. I gave up Kiko and Kimbril for Alex Wood and Danny Duffy.

Gave up Kiko and Kimbril for Alex Wood and Danny Duffy. I'm curious how you would have graded that trade last week and how you would grade it now. Give up Kiko and Kimbril, get Alex Wood and Danny Duffy. I think that's a... C. I would have given it a D-plus last week and I'll give it a C-minus this week. I would have given it a C-E-N-Bose-Times. I have Alex Wood higher than Dallas-Kichael at both intervals.

I would have hated it last week. Hated it because I don't really see how you could put Alex Wood ahead of Dallas-Kichael before now. He's been better. You did. Has he been better? I mean, Kikl's ERA, like, even before the last three starts, Dallas Kikl's ERA wasn't that much better. And Alex Wood's giving you a bunch more strikeouts. I would guess, though, and I don't have it in front of me, and it would take too long to look up.

But I would guess just in terms of innings per start, Kikel's actual fantasy production was... Maybe a little better? They both were, like, basically undefeated for a while. Yeah, like Alex Wood was 13-1. Keikl's 9-1, something like that? Keikl was 9-0. Now I think he's 9-2. Yeah, I think they were probably pretty close.

Yeah, probably. Okay, I wonder what the strikeout, what's the strikeout rate for Alex Wood? Because Keikl... It's 9.7 now. Before the All-Star break, I mean, he had 69 strikeouts in 75 and 2-thirds. It's not like he was hurting you in strikeouts. But fair enough.

Fair enough. A low strikeout pitcher for an ace, but not just like a low strikeout pitcher in general. Yeah. All right. Kyle from Grand Rapids, 10-team Keeper League. A lot of guys here. Give up. Justin Upton.

Ian Kinsler and Robbie Ray. We're giving up Upton, Kinsler, and Robbie Ray. Three players who have at one time been associated with the Tigers organization. Upton, Kinsler, and Ray. Get, Yelich, Wade Davis, Carlos Carrasco and Brian Dozier Yes What are you doing Adam

B you gotta throw seven names at us Without putting it in the notes A minus B plus Scott's cranky today Is this because of the Braves B-rider thing It's an A It's my internal clock's all off Doing this podcast later

I'm sorry I can't deal Brendan from the North But no I can't keep up with that trade What are you doing? I know it's an A Don't worry about it Brendan from the North

Hey Seymour Homer Clancy and a poo. We know them. Give up Chris Bryant. Get, get back. You Darvish and Matt Carpenter. Chris Bryant for you and Carpenter. B. Chris Bryant for you and Carpenter?

Okay. B sounds good. Yeah. And last one is a six player trade. Three teams. Let me get a pen. Okay, get a pen. I got a pen. From Caleb in the air capital of the world. I don't know where that is.

The air capital of the world? Yep. A.I.R. I think everybody has air. Yeah. Druidia. For those of you who get that joke. Head to Head Points League, Dynasty League.

Giving up. Giving up. Jacob de Grom. Starling Marte and Jose Ramirez. All right. We're giving up to Grom, Marte, and Ramirez. Good players. We're getting back, Carlos Carrasco,

Charlie Blackman, and Eduardo Nunez. So you go from DeGrom to Carasco, you go up from Marte to Blackman, and you go down from Jose Ramirez to Eduardo Nunez. What are we doing with this trade? I get to see. Blackman's clearly the best player in the trade. And normally I prefer the side with the best player,

but I think Jose Ramirez to Nunez is nearly as big of a downgrade as Marta to Blackman is an upgrade. And DeGrom, I think, is better than Carrasco. So, yeah, I'll give it a C. I agree with that. I think it's fine. It's sort of pointless. Switch it up a little bit. All right, guys, thank you very much.

Wichita is the air capital of the world. That's druidia. You don't get the druidia joke? You ever see Spaceballs? No idea what that's a reference. Space balls? Fould you? Yeah, fooled you?

Oh, okay. They steal the air from Planet Druidia. It's really... Okay. What you got is what we need and all we do is dirty deep. I love that song. I love that song. I can't quote that movie quite as well as you guys.

Yeah, I'm pretty good with that one. All right, so I've had a weird podcast. I hope it wasn't too weird for all of you. I hope you enjoyed today's show. Back in the morning tomorrow. For Chris and Scott, I'm Adam. See you later.