Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/12: Weekend Roundup - Aquino! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 12, 2019

Believe it or not Aristides Aquino is NOT the best hitter on waivers. Find out who we're recommending and also SPs to add (8:55) with two-start pitcher updates (19:24) ... Bullpen news (22:40) as ATL can't figure out what to do and Jose Leclerc and Emilio Pagan look like smart adds. Plus news and notes (28:00) and a look at the Most Added list (31:00). Is Jason Kipnis legit? ... The noteworthy SPs from the weekend (40:00) including Masahiro Tanaka, Kenta Maeda, Brad Keller, Aaron Civale and more ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. What a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. How good is RSD's Aquino? He's so good that his three homer games make Jordan Alvarez's three homer games practically not exist.

Nobody even cared. Back page. Yeah. Back page. Back page. And not one of those good back pages, like, you know, the New York Post being on the back page is a good thing, you know, for sports. One of those, like, bad back pages. I meant bad.

Bad back page. Bad. And he's 66% owned, and I'm starting him in the playoffs. 66? That jumped like 60% in one day. No. Not that much, really? In one day?

I exaggerating a little bit. Yeah, well, don't do that. He went from 2%. Owned last week to 68% owned this. Oh, 68%? Aristides Aquino. How about that? Is he the most added player?

Yes, he is. Mike Talkman is two. It's New York flavor after that. Talkman, Urchella, J.D. Davis. All right, so welcome to the show. Scott and I here at night, but not like so late where we're going to be goofy. It's 9.30 p.m. Eastern time. And there's a game in progress.

I'm going to go ahead and make a bold prediction and say that Jake Arietta just made his last start of the season. They're going to shut him down, put him on the IL, just a guess. But, you know, he's getting crushed. He's already gotten crushed and he's out of the game tonight. But you're hearing this on Monday morning. So good morning to you all, or Monday afternoon or whatever. We're here to help you set your line up here to help you pick up important players. And let's get started. Scott, who's the hitter to add? The hitter to add, I can go a few different directions. If you want, okay, if you want the hitter to add, who is the hitter, I believe in most, because I'm sure.

sure we'll get to all of these guys today. You know, I'm not even going to do Gio or Schella because he's 75%. And I'm sure we'll get to him too. But the one I'm going to say is J.D. Davis, Mets left fielder, who homered twice over the weekend, Friday and Saturday, and obviously has been on a nice run since joining the starting lineup as an everyday player. Is X? Yay. All right, first of all, let's just talk about batting average and OPS, right, for J.D. Davis this season. 308 batting average OPS of about 900. And he think, okay, he's on a hot streak, right? It's a small sample size because he's been a reserve most of the time. Well, his XBA and X Wobah are actually both higher than his batting average and Wobah. Like, he's under retirement.

according to those stats. Guy who hits the ball, all fields, doesn't strike out much. I'm very excited. Very excited about J.D. Davis. Yep. Third base and outfield eligible, Jady Davis. And he is on a lot of my teams. What is his ownership percentage?

44. 44. Wow. 44%. Okay. And, you know, at this point, are you ready to drop Justin Upton for J.D. Davis? Or R.S.D. Zekino, who is the most out of player. Are you ready to drop Lorenzo Kane for these guys?

I would be ready to drop Kane. I feel like Justin Upton given his track record and how much time he missed. I don't know. I'd feel better about starting Davis right now. So if it comes down to being not a bench spot, I guess I might make that move. Aquino, I mean, look, I'm not saying anyone shouldn't pick up Aquino, who is now up to 35 home runs this year between the majors and minors. And have you seen him? I'm sure you've seen him by now.

He just had a three homer game. I'm sure you've seen the highlights for at least that. Yes. Like that. He's the punisher. Wide, wide open Tony Batista stance where he's like facing the pitcher head on. Yeah. It's fun.

It's fun. But like there's actually like that's that might be a key to the break because that just changed from this year when he was just kind of a middling, you know. Who's that guy in the Jorge, Bonifacio, that Royals outfielder that nobody cares about. That's who Aquino was before this year when he became monster power hitter. Getting a good look at the pitcher. As the ball comes in, I mean, it might be as simple as that. But it's a 30% strikeout rate, and he might have that Austin Riley situation going on

where it gets the rug pulled out from under him at some point, or maybe not. But I think he's scarier than J.D. Davis, so I'd rather have Davis. I think for this week, you know, Mike Talkman is so interesting. It's seven games. They're all at home, and he's got the Orioles pitching staff for three of those four games. And then he does have the Indians, but no Shane Bieber, which is nice. He has Plutko, Savale, who's no picnic, Pliczak and Clevenger. But, you know, Gabriel and Noah, John Means, and Dylan Bundy, the first three games of the week for Talkman.

So seven games, all at home. in that short right field porch and three of them against Baltimore who he homered. What are you homer? Like three times against Baltimore this past week? I think so.

Yeah. I mean, talk, Tompman. Three times. Yeah, I mean, I don't think Akino is because let me look at his matchups. Oh, sorry, I just moved away from the mic.

That's okay. We heard. The worst matches are fine. You know, he probably could be among the top ten sleeper hitters. Who Akino? Obviously, yeah, obviously I wrote it before.

He had a three homer day. But Talkman is, J.D. Davis is, Urchella. I mean, he was number one on the list, and clearly people responded to that over the weekend, as they should, because Urshela is just, I think he's a stud. Might be. He's really, he's got a very good profile. Now, I don't want to talk about him because, you know, it's just been a whole week of talking about Talkman and Urchella and J.D. Davis and Aquino.

So those are definitely guys you could pick up. Has it been a whole week? We haven't talked about Aquino that much. Chris and I have. Oh, okay. And you and I have. But, no, a keynote deserves it. I mean, he hit those three home runs.

I think the question now is really who do you drop for these hot hitters. So, like Lorenzo Kane, I dropped. Elvis Andrews, I am dropping in a points league for maybe J.D. Davis or somebody hot. I can't remember. Obviously, I'm going to plug somebody in in shortstop. But look, look, we're at the point in the season where right now matters. This is a playoff week. Elvis Andrews in a points league has been

mostly useless for about a month so there are a lot of struggling guys that I think I'm ready to pull the plug on I don't know if any other names come to mind for you Scott like Chris Davis would you drop Chris Davis for any of these guys I think I may have just dropped Chris Davis in the podcast Points League

I'm not sure if it went through or not I may have another claim going through tonight though it's for a pitcher Yes I think I would drop Chris Davis for all of these guys Okay Yeah I mean it's time to it's winning time

So yeah I mean the fact that he's DH only makes him Pretty unstartable I think If you're like if you're a competitive And I imagine those are the only people Really listening and make you move still And you're in you play in a league With you know standard head to head lineup

so that DH spot is really precious because you know anytime you have an extra player at any position that's where you're that's the only place you can put them. Yeah. Like you obviously have somebody good in that spot if you've gotten, if you made it to this point and you're still competitive, you know? Yeah, for sure.

Okay, pitchers to add. Oh, another hitter to add is Ian Hap, by the way. He's going to be second base eligible on Monday. Made his fifth appearance there today. So that's actually who I dropped Elvis Andrews. Yeah, and he's not striking out nearly as much as we remember him doing. That started in July and the miners. I don't know exactly what changed for him, but he stopped striking out so darn much.

Started four or five at second base, and he has only four Ks in those games. And I think it actually looks better if you go further back. But yeah, four home runs at seven games for Ian Hap. Yep. Okay, Scott, pitchers to add. Who do we got? So the pitchers aren't as exciting. as the hitters.

Yeah. There is Mitch Keller, who's coming back up for two-star week, I guess, unless he just totally bombs on Monday. I'm enthusiastic about picking him up because, like, he's a pitcher with upside. He's been considered one of the best pitching prospects for years now, even though the numbers are kind of, they don't blow you away. AAA, obviously, this year is very hitter-friendly, so you got to factor that in. He had 12 strikeouts in his most recent AAA star. Obviously, we've seen him before this year, and it didn't go well, three awful starts. But, you know, he's looked pretty good since getting back to AAA.

So I wouldn't be picking up to start him for two starts, but to add him, I think that's fine. Aaron Savale was good again on Sunday, five strikeouts in six innings, so he's right out of strikeout per inning between his three starts, 18 strikeouts, and 18 innings after a good showing at AAA, again, a very difficult place to pitch. Not exactly sure what's made Savale so successful this year, but it's been a long enough pattern that, and, you know, options of pitching are so limited that I think you've got to make a play for him, too. Yeah, I watched the start today, a lot of it, against the Twins. It was at the Twins, and he's going to be at the Yankees this week. I was certainly was afraid of Aaron Savali's

matchups, but, okay, fine, even with the Twins without Nelson Cruz, it's still a brutal lineup. The Yankees, on the other hand, are really not that bad of a lineup. Yeah, I mean, they get Sanchez back today, but, I mean, they got, they're not the same.

So I don't know, I'm on the fence about whether or not I'd start Savali, but my impression is, you know, it's not, it doesn't look like unbelievable stuff, but it looks like he's got enough of an arsenal to keep people off balance. and kind of changes locations, changes pitches.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seems like a good pitcher. I was pretty impressed. He really had them, seemed like very fool today. Six innings, one run, five strikeouts on Sunday at Minnesota. So he's definitely a guy I'd be picking up. All right, so I'm going to put a third name out there. And this one, he's only 5% owned, which means people have not reacted in the way I've reacted.

They probably know better. they're probably smarter than me. Hold on, Scott. Let me see. I'm going to go to my deep league section here. It's not, it's not saying, oh, oh, I can't get behind it. I try to pick him up in every league. I can't get behind it.

The state of pitching. You got to pursue upside wherever it reveals itself. And sometimes it reveals itself with a 30-year-old journeyman by the name of Mike Montgomery. Now, I'll preface this, as always, when just because you pick up a guy doesn't mean you have to start him, right? I mean, even if you're, you know, fighting for your playoff life right now, you know, you may get to the next round. Mike Montgomery has another dominant start, then what? But what he did on Saturday? Granted, against the Tigers, probably the worst lineup in baseball without Castionovs, 12 strikeouts and seven shutout inning.

with 20 swinging strikes. Not an isolated incident because his last timeout, five and a third innings with 13 swinging strikes, a very high swinging strike rate two starts in a row. And what he said after that start was, you know, getting out of the bullpen, getting back in a, you know, multi-inning situation, you really get to make use of your full arsenal. The cutter is something he wasn't throwing out of the bullpen for the Cubs.

And the cutter has been very effective for him since moving back to the rotation. He's thrown it a lot. And it seemed to make every pitch of his a better, a better swing and miss pitch. And so two starts in a row that have been like really eye-opening. And for a guy who, I mean, it's ancient history now. But Mike Montgomery was considered one of the very best, like top 20 overall prospects. when he was coming up through the Royals organization, and it just, you know, he got to the majors and didn't go anywhere.

He got moved to the bullpen pretty quickly and whatever. But I don't know. I don't know. I'm intrigued enough to pick it up, pick him up and see where it goes because there have been bigger, a big, I mean, like when Mike Miner was hot at the start of the year. Yeah. You know, a lot of people were just like, whatever, it's Mike Minor.

and look at look how that's gone. Lance Lynn, same situation. Like sometimes, sometimes they come out of nowhere. Mike Montgomery has the amazing Mets this week in a one-star week. So he's 5% owned. Cal Quantrel is 28% owned. Who would you rather have Cal Quantrel or Mike Montgomery? Montgomery.

Montgomery, yeah, I'm not really sure what's made Quantrel effective. He's certainly not getting strikeouts, so I'm not trusting in that. Okay. So Scott gave you Mitch Keller as a guy to pick up and not necessarily start, even with his two starts at the Angels and the Cubs. Aaron Savali, one start at the Yankees this week, and Mike Montgomery one start against the Mets. So I'm not sure we're starting any of these guys,

but you know, you could do worse, at least in terms of stashing right now and seeing where it goes. Aaron Sanchez is like 75% owned. I'm not shocked. He had a good start against the Orioles. Five innings, one run, three walks, but six strikeouts. That came after a six score. list innings two to walk six strikeouts starting in Seattle.

Aaron Sanchez will be at Oakland this week so you could add him. Jeff Samarge is also 75% of he's been awesome. He's got a 195 ERA in his last eight starts. I'm kind of interested in Mike Fultenevich. I know that his ERA hasn't been very good in his two starts since coming back, but he has 14 strikeouts and 11 in a third. Yeah, that first start, the slider definitely looked like it was back, and that was the key.

I think I wasn't on Wednesday's show, what do you think? talked about it. But that was kind of the key to... I talked about that, yeah. Yeah, he got 10 swinging... Of his 15 swinging strikes were on the slider, which he threw more than when he was up before. Seemed to get the confidence back in when he said he didn't trust him. He didn't feel comfortable throwing it anymore after losing a lot of spring training to an elbow injury. Oh, I got a guy.

It wasn't quite as effective this time out, at least in terms of the numbers. I didn't watch it. It was actually blacked out for me, so I couldn't watch it. It was blacked out? Yeah. The Marlins are the own. team I can't watch. You don't have cable? You don't have cable?

No. I mean, I have some cable, but not the way to broadcast the Marlins games locally. Scott's a cord cutter. Scott is a cord cutter. How about that? All right. So here's another. Let me give you two more guys who are all owned right around the same range.

Fultenevich, Chris Bassett, and Ryan Yarbrough, all owned in about 66% of leagues. Bassett starting to pitch pretty well. I mean, for the year he's a 356 ERA and a 1-18. team whip. Four straight starts of six or more innings. And unfortunately, he gets Houston this week. And Ryan Yarbrough, almost through a complete game shutout today. He went there Sunday. He went eight and two thirds, three hits, no runs, eight strikeouts. And he gets Detroit this week. I don't know if he's going to be starting or coming in as a reliever. But Fultenevich, Bassett, and Yarbrough, who would you be interested in there? Who would you be interested in there?

So Fultenevich is the upside play. You're hoping to get, you know, strike goal. with him. Yarbro is the, he's not bad, he's pretty handy, being relief pitcher eligible, a lot of win potential since he often follows an opener, probably needs to be owned. And then Bassett's the guy I just don't believe in it all. Yeah, he's been, he's been good lately. That's for sure, four of his past six starts, quality starts, with about a K-per, not far below that. But, you know, low-swinging strikes. Not like, He's a good grump ball guy. I'm not seeing that continuing, even though I say that, acknowledging that Mike Fires has now thrown.

Oh, gosh, Mike Fires. 14 to 15 quality stuff. He's just like, it's just, I didn't get. No idea. No idea. It's now 17 starts where Mike Fires is 9 and 0 with a 212 ERA. and 71 strikeouts in 110 and a third. I don't want to be there when it all catches up to him.

Houston. His deal with the devil runs out. Houston this week, he's already in this stretch. He's had two quality starts against Houston and two quality stars against Minnesota. But I'm so nervous about starting him against Houston. I'm glad I don't own Mike Fires and I don't have to make that decision. Any changes to the two-star pitchers for this upcoming week when we talked about them on Friday? It was a pretty bad list.

Mitch Keller becomes more interesting than most of the guys on the list. already said we're not quite ready to throw him into the fire. Were there any changes that you saw? Into the, okay. What, what's so funny? I just were talking about fires, and then I thought, I thought you did that on purpose. No, I didn't. When I said it, I felt like I was trying to make a pun, but I actually, I wasn't.

I wasn't. I was thinking of a story a few years ago where I was having dinner with my wife's family and her grandmother, who is no longer with us, but that's neither here nor there. It's that. I don't know why I threw it. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. She was talking about how she went with her friend to see her friend's grandson pitch.

And I was, you know, thinking it's some no name or whatever. And she goes, and what was his name, I say? And she was like, Mike Fears, I want to say. Your friend's grandson is Mike Fier? Really? Yeah. That's so weird. Yeah.

Wow, that's a pretty cool story, yeah. Yeah. That actually is a good story. I didn't mean to make an abrupt segue, but are there any two-star pitcher updates? Yeah, there are some two-star pitcher updates. I don't have them prepared. That was brought to you by Bill Lumberg. Yeah.

So I'm trying to for what they were now. Oh, the Diamondbacks go from Mike Leak being a two-star pitcher. Obviously, he started Sunday. It was horrible. Meryl Kelly is now, but one game's at Colorado. I'm not super excited about that. Mitch Keller, obviously, is two-star pitcher. I guess you mentioned that at the top of the segment.

And Matthew Boyd's a two-star pitcher now, but, you know, that's... You see two balls next to his name. Obviously, you're starting him. Yeah, nothing that interesting. And any sleeper hitters you want to tease. Please read Scott's sleeper hitters column. Very, very useful. Sleeper hitters, I want to tease.

Pretty much the whole Yankees lineup because they have a lot of, like, castoffs and retreads in there right now because of all the injuries. They're all hitting well, and they play eight games this week. Four against the Orioles. Four against the Indians, but they miss Shane Bieber. They do get Clevenger, but still. Yeah, I can't support Mike Ford, but other than that, I don't think I can support Cameron Maven. Orchella, of course, Togman, of course.

Brett Gardner. Cameron Maven, yeah, Cameron Maven's actually 10th on the list. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, he's playing every day. He didn't play Sunday, but that was a rare day off. He's playing every day. Okay. And hitting well.

You know what? I don't buy a long term, but hot hand with those matchups, why not? Interesting. Well, Sanchez is back now, so that's going to at least probably be a at least one D.H. All right, all right. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Today's sponsor is Seekekek.

Please check out SeatGeek. Use the code Fantasy for $10 off your first Seatgeek purchase. Seekek is a very dedicated sponsor of ours. They sponsor a lot of our shows, not just the fantasy shows, but great sponsor for CBS Sports Podcasts and a great app, and I am on Seatgeek,

basically every day right now, monitoring tickets to a football game, and I will be purchasing them on Seatkekeek. You can use the code fantasy for $10 off. A lot of bullpen news for you here. when we come back on fantasy baseball today, stick around. Well, the Braves might have a new closer by the time you hear this, like from Sunday night to Monday morning.

I don't think it'll be new. It'll be one they've tried before. Sean Doolittle had a horrible outing on Friday. What a cool series that Mets National Series was. But he bounced back out of his Abe on Sunday. Ken Giles thus far has avoided the IL. It was looking like they might have to put him on the IL, but so far he's off it.

They've been, I think, a little encouraged based on Sunday. So Derek Law might be the guy. He got a four-out save on Saturday. Has 11 straight scoreless appearances entering Sunday's game. I don't think he pitched on Sunday. So I think it's still Giles, but if Giles does go on the aisle, take a look at Derek Law if you're desperate. Meanwhile, Mark Malanson was the closer?

Is he still the closer? He gave up four singles and four runs at Miami on Saturday. I got a little excited about this when obviously Shane Green, been terrible through his first four appearances, a blown save, a loss. And they said, okay, Mark Malance, we're going to go with him. His, he was on, like, a good run for a solid month there.

But then the first chance he gets against the Marlins, foreign runs. Shane Green actually came in and technically got the blown save, but obviously. Poor guy. Yeah. Yeah. So then they turned to Luke Jackson Sunday,

and he allowed three hits and probably shouldn't, have gotten the save, but he did. I don't imagine Luke Jackson's going to be the guy next time out. I've no idea who it's going to be. It's Melanson. It's Melanson. I would think it's Shane Green again.

Well, he came up four singles. I feel like there's a little bit of Melanson. I feel like there's a little bit of bad luck there. Here's the issue with the Braves, because all three of their big acquisitions, Green, Melanson now, and Chris Martin, too, have been just awful in the short time since they've

come over. And so, you know, their bullpen looks worse than ever. And I think this is just kind, this is kind of summing up what it is to be a closer, I think, in this environment. Because you have the true lockdown relievers, like the eroldest Chapman's type, their strikeouts are so awesome

that you know in the long run they're going to be dominant. And then you have the pitchers that are obviously just bad. You know, they're one, they're not handling any high leverage role and they're going to get to send to the miners soon enough. And then you have all the pitchers in between that the ratios are like, yeah, they're good enough that they might do fine

in the closer role. And all three of those guys they acquired are that kind of reliever, as is Luke Jackson himself, by the way. And it's just such a crapshoot, I think, with that caliber reliever in the environment we're in now where they might go on a,

a good run, they might have an awful outing. It's just, who knows? And in the long run, the numbers will probably be fine, but how many games are they going to blow on the way there? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we've seen that

from all but like those 10-11 guys at the top of relief pitcher rankings, right? Well, yeah, RP's been wild, for sure. Yeah, I will see how many people we actually trust.

The guy I am starting to trust again is Hector Neres. He's really turned it around. I certainly... But he's probably in that group where... Okay. Yeah, he's on a nice run right now. I don't... I think that maybe.

I think that after he got demoted last year and he came back up and he was freaking awesome. And he was awesome the year before, I think, 2017. So I feel like he's a good pitcher, but he's clearly pretty streaky. All right. Who else? Emilio Paghan, I trust.

I think if you want to pick up a closer, Pagan is getting so many of the save chances for the raise, including a one-out save today. Yeah, four straight saves he's got for the raise in five of six. Jose LeClerc, I think, is pretty much worth picking up. He's 50% owned. Seth Lugo, so here's, okay. So the Seth Lugo comes in and pitches the eighth. The Mets on Saturday.

The Mets go ahead and take the lead, I believe, in the bottom of the eighth, and they leave Lugo in to pitch the ninth. And Mickey Calloway says, well, I knew that Lugo wasn't going to be available for us tomorrow, so I just decided to give him a second inning. Edwin Diaz is still our guy. But if Edwin Diaz is your guy, you probably use him in that situation, especially since he was very well rested. So today, of course, Lugo wasn't available.

They were pitching in the night. They bring in Diaz to pitch in the ninth inning, in a non-save situation. He's losing by two or three runs at the time. And he stinks again, and he gives up a home run. I don't know how much longer they can continue to stand by, Edwin Diaz. And Lugo's been so good, and I've said it so many times, he's worth picking up even if he doesn't get saves.

But Diaz, now look, he hadn't pitched in six days before giving up a home run today and a walk, so maybe that had something to do with it. But it's just clear who the best reliever in that bullpen is. But I think if you're desperate, like if you don't want to work, about a Braves closer. Oberg's definitely the guy, although they never win. Pagan is... Well, and he had a terrible showing Friday, I guess it was.

Oh, I missed that. Where he gave him foreign runs in a non-safe situation. Oh, okay. I missed that one. Paghan is the guy. Paghan is definitely someone I'd look at. He's 44% owned, and LeClerc is 50% owned, and those are some options for you. Okay, good stuff.

News and notes. Mitch Keller is going to start against the Angels. I think, have we told you that yet? Nelson Cruz is on the IEL with a wrist-stststststststrand. which he might try to come back and play through Scott a pretty serious sounding injury for Nelson Cruz yeah it's worse than just a strain actually it's a ruptured tendon but there there seems to be some hope he can play through it so we'll see about that obviously that would be a big loss because that's somebody you're happy to have in your dH spot even in a head-to-head format the smaller

lineups because he's so good Nelson Cruz, yeah Christian Yelich did pinch hit on Sunday He's been out for a little while But he was able to pinch hit That's a good sign Alex Verdugo is likely out

Two weeks with an oblique strain Max Scherzer felt much better And should throw I think a bullpen session On Tuesday Ross Stripling Likely to return as a reliever But not set in stone When he comes off the IL

Ross Stripling Yadier Malina Rich Hill apparently is returning As a reliever Oh Rich Hill also Yeah Who the heck going to be in their rotation.

Dustin May. Dustin May. Yeah, they still leaves one, though. Riu, Kershaw, Bueller, May, and Maida for now. I think my Ada, I think my Ada is one start away from like a $1.5 million bonus. I mean, he picked a good time then to have a great start over the weekend because that was the first time he had even gone, I think, five innings in like a month. He said that he had a mechanical issue. mechanical issue sounds like it's his car.

He had an issue with his mechanics, not the guys are working on his car, and that he fixed it. So good start for Maeda. We'll see what happens there. Let's see what else. Yadier Molina likely back on Tuesday. Griffin Canning could make a start this week. Luis Severino threw a bullpen session.

Right now, positive trends for Severino. Yandy Diaz almost certainly out for the season. The Marlins may use a six-man rotation down the stretch. Johnny Quato pitched he threw 92 miles per hour. That's pretty good. In the minors. In the minors, yeah. Dee Gordon's back.

Mitch Hanager is going to be a rehab assignment on Tuesday, Mitch Hanager. Juan Soto day-to-day with an ankle strain. X-rays were negative. But that just happened on Sunday, and that's definitely one you've got to keep an eye on. Jose Martinez left his shoulder discomfort discomfort. Chris Woodward, the manager for the ranger, said that pitching prospect, Joe Palumbo will get called up at some point, Scott. Hmm.

Well, can't go worse than some of the guys they've been using at the back end of that rotation. But I would not be terribly enthusiastic about that. Okay, that's Joe Palombo. Brian Dozier. They've used them a couple times already this year. If you start, Brian Dozier, just be aware he, his wife is about to have a baby and he could be going up paternity list. Oh, man. Yeah.

Congratulations in advance. And look at the most added players, the ones that we haven't talked about. Kino, Talkman, Urshela, J.D. Davis, Aaron Savale, Mike Voltenevich, Mark Malanson. Okay, here's one. Jason Kipness, up to 43% owned. If he's on a hot streak, yeah, he is. I did not know about it. And I do not care about it, because this is the second time he's been on a hot streak. Am I going to have to argue with you again, Scott? Is it not just one long hot streak? Let me see. Because that's how I've been categorized. then he wouldn't have been owned in like 20 something percent of leaves well except he's

joe kipness and his season long numbers are still jason kipness not joe kipness what did i say jennel kipkis stanley ipkis right that's what his name always reminds yeah i would say he's on a three-week hot streak so entering sunday cold streak 45 games 317 batting average nine home runs 933 OPS for Jason Keptis. And that started when he said he figured something out with his hands to shorten up his swing. Right? You're making that gesture. Because there's a three-week stretch in there.

That's pretty bad. Now, I do have to check now and see if maybe one of the reasons why it's bad is because it was the All-Star break. And that's why the fancy points are in. I'm not into it. I'm not into it. I'm sorry. Well, you probably don't need a second basement. but if you do,

I think Joe Kipp... Why am I calling him Joe? He's been around as long as... That's terrific. He's been around since 2011. I was writing about him as a minor leaguer before that. Here's your hot streak here, 45 games, 933 OPS. Joe Kipp.

Joe Kipps. Oh, with me. That's really funny. No, it's not funny. It's sad. All right, so... I keep like... calling my kids the opposite names.

Oh, I think a lot of people do that. Well, I feel like you should be older than I am before that starts. No, no, don't be so long as yourself. Like, without fail. It's like I more often call them the wrong name than the right name. Yeah, all right. He had a 17-game stretch within those 45 games where he had a 623 OPS. He slugged 317.

So it's been hot, hot, hot, pretty cold for, that was surrounding the All-Star breaks. That was 17 games. Not so bad. And then he's picked it up again. You can have him. I don't want him. You can have him.

He's too Joe Kipness for me. Next up on the most added list, Aaron Sanchez. Yeah, so are you buying Aaron Sanchez? 75% own. New Astros pitcher? Not completely, but it's, you know, under the same header of, hey, look,

a pitcher showing upside. Maybe. And, yeah, I will point out that the second start with the Astroster. again there were more forcing fastballs there were more curve balls there weren't as many as the no-hitter

or yeah the no-hitter combined yeah combined no-hitter but they were up again a little bit okay Willie Calhoun 54% owned actually I would be willing to drop him for Aquino would you Willie Calhoun

yeah it's not by a huge degree that I prefer Aquino. I was still putting in claims for Calhoun this weekend more than I was dropping him for somebody else. But if push came to shove, I'd drop him for

Aquino or J.D. Davis or certainly, Or Shella, he's still out there. Calquantrol is now up to 34% owned. Trent Grisham is 31% owned. He hasn't quite panned out. But not, I mean, not terrible. Okay.

He's been doing already. Yeah, they're not terrible. And he's been playing a lot. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much just five outfielder leagues where I've had a reason to add him. But he hasn't been bad. Did you hear my update on Gavin Lux? Did you see my tweet? No.

An ESPN.com story on the Dodgers said Lux's, they don't see him up this year. I got to disagree with him there. I think he's a Dodgers writer. Was it the Dodgers writer quoting someone in the organization? Or was this just his opinion? It's just like your opinion, man. I'll read it for you. I mean, I talked about this on Friday's show, but I'll pull up the quote for you.

That's a look at the most added list, other hitters. Teoska Hernandez over the last 28 days going into Sunday. He went 0 for 4, I think, on Sunday. But Teoska Hernandez, over 28 days was the number 18 outfielder in Portland. points league's number nine in Roto, batting 299 with 10 home runs and three doubles in that stretch. So do you think Teoscar Hernandez should be more than just 15% owned? Not a lot more. There's just, he'll hit some home runs, but there are many more exciting options out there.

Someone asked me a tough question, he said, would you drop Will Smith or Travis Darno for Wilson Ramos? Wilson Ramos is catching fire. He's been great in August so far. And Will Smith homered on Sunday, his previous seven games, he was four for 21. I think Darno's cooled off a bit. So what do you think? I mean, this is tough choices you have to make, riding the hot hand and then the established guy where, if we asked you this question two months ago, you'd keep Ramos for sure, but what about now?

I don't think I would move on from Will Smith. He's slugging like 750. and there's just no reason to do that. Darno's playing time has really gone down since they acquired Aguilar, which is a curious decision on the Ray's part, but nonetheless, that's what's happened. And without that playing time advantage,

Darno is not that special anymore. Yeah, agreed. Where's my note on Gavin Lux? tweets, Scott. Read my stinking tweets for once. How many tweets did you send out over the weekend? You're not a prolific tweeter. No, Chris Towers.

No, I'm not. It's on Friday. It's on Thursday, I think. Thursday night. Go look at my tweets. Josh Bell, Homer twice on Sunday. His first home run since the All-Star break. Would you start Josh Bell this week?

Control F for Lux. Oh, here we go. All right. You just have ESPN colon, so it's the network saying this, apparently. The Dodgers don't just. see Lux as a long time contributor for their franchise. They see him as an instant leader in the clubhouse, but they do not see him

as an option for this year's postseason run. See, that sounds like he has insider information. He or she, whoever this person is saying this. Yeah, right. It sounds convincing. Yeah. But sometimes people speak a little beyond their breadth.

Sometimes, yeah, people are wrong about that stuff all the time with prospects, all the time that happens. Where are we, Scott? More hitters. Matt Carpenter sat against a lefty on Sunday. Tim Edmund's been playing every day for St. Louis. Tim Edmund deeply.

He's not hitting very well. Luis Arias is playing about every day for Minnesota. He's 18% own. He's batting 350. This hits a bunch of singles. And he might sit against Lillazes. It's different from Julio Rias. They pronounce their names differently.

It's spelled A-R-R-A-Z. Oh, that's some... Sorry. I was thinking of the Padres. No, no, yeah. The guy in the trends, Luis Arias. He's not, I don't know. Look, I'm just kind of looking for hot hitters and deep leagues here.

And Josh Naylor's been better. He's homered three times in his last six games. He doesn't really start that often. Josh Naylor, he's 4% owned. Start more often than Myers, though, Will Myers. Yeah, yeah. But they've got four guys for three spots. All right, we'll take a break.

When we come back, we'll talk about pitchers right after this. Studs being studs Trevor Bauer Seven innings one run 11 strikeouts against the Reds No he pitches for the Reds Who did he face against the Cubs I believe Yeah

Lucas Gialito 13 strikeouts in six innings two runs And took the loss Against Oakland on Sunday And Mike Minor eight shutout Innings on Sunday at Milwaukee With 11 strikeouts Scott what are you drinking

What are you drinking What is that? it's barks root beer barks root beer yeah this is my favorite part of the can you see that no it just says it's good it's good

look at the back of the can how many grams of sugar 45 you got to stop drinking that stuff man no man it's too much sugary drinks are like murder only if you're not responsible with it you got to drink responsibly One of them a day is irresponsible.

No, it's not. If you limit your sugar intake, otherwise, I have a plan. I have a sugar. Says the guy who dips peeps into his tea. Yeah, there's seven grams of sugar in a peep, and I'm using one. That's my low sugar caffeine alternative to a soda

when I've had too much sugar for the day. Okay. I put a peep in a tea. It becomes seven grams of sugar instead of 45. I know what I'm doing. All right, all right. Okay, so Bow, Bow, Gialito Minor. Look, I'm going to speed things up. We're going to start these guys. Studs being studs part two.

How many of these guys do you feel comfortable starting? Robbie Ray, pretty good start at the Dodgers. Kenta Maeda, we talked about. Masahiro Tanaka, eight shutout innings, only four strikeouts at Toronto. Swinging strike rigs been pretty down lately for Tanaka. And Armand Marquez, who's home against Miami this week. Who do you feel comfortable with Robbie Ray? Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka. Armand Marquez. Just thinking about all the tweets that I'm going to get before you even brought that up at him. Now some people just think I'm so unhealthy. I didn't hear words you said.

What are you asking me? Robbie Ray, Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka, and Armand Marquez. Do you feel comfortable starting these guys? Marquez, I think we're still on the away from home plan, absolutely. What about home this week against the Marlins? Yeah. Yeah, I'd roll those dice. I mean, unless I had a great alternative, but I probably don't.

Okay. The others, Robbie Ray, sure. Well, Colorado or at Colorado or San Francisco this week. That makes a big difference, doesn't it? Yeah, I can see what. I struggle sometimes, you know, right now, sometimes teams go six-man. Sometimes teams throw in an opener, like a bullpen day or something to stretch people out. It's not ideal in any of these cases.

I wouldn't be afraid to do it in any of these cases. I would rank them in terms of likelihood to start them. Marquez, Ray, Tanaka, Naida. Okay, so he's scheduled to face Colorado on the road, Robbie Ray. So obviously that would be bad. Studs being Studs Part 3, are you starting these guys? Mike fires against Houston, Marco Gonzalez at Detroit. Julio Taran, probably against the Mets.

I would rather not start any of them. I'd start Marco Gonzalez at Detroit. Yeah, that seems like the best one. I'm not sure he's not the worst pitcher of these three, but none of them are good. Julio Taran's weird, though, because unlike the other two, his strike at rate's actually decent. His FIP is above five.

It's, you know, partly it's because he's a fly ball pitcher who doesn't seem to give it many home runs. And it's kind of a longstanding thing in his career consistently outperforming his ex-fip. I think he has by like 0.65 career ex-fip versus career ERA. So, I mean, to run might be better than we're giving him credit for, but I'd still rather not do it. Studs being Duds. Miles Michaelis was on a nice run.

He got lit up by the Pirates on Sunday. Miles Michaelis. He's at Cincinnati this week. Kyle Hendricks got crushed by Aquino and the Reds on Saturday. He's at Pittsburgh this week. John Lester did not have a good start at Cincinnati on Saturday. He's also at Pittsburgh this week. And Caleb Smith got roughed up by the Braves on Friday.

And where is Dallas Kichel? Oh, he was on Thursday. He was on Thursday, not Friday. I guess I just wanted to talk about him struggling again. Yeah, any thoughts on Michael? Hendricks, Lester, or Caleb Smith, do you view any of them as less than must start? I view Smith is less than must start.

Lester certainly is less than must start. Michaelis is less than must start. I think the only one I view is must start right now is Hendricks. I agree. All right, studs being something in between studs and duds. Marcus Stroman, four runs and six innings on nine hits and three walks, but he did have nine strikeouts. It's actually pretty dudley.

It's a whip of two and a bad ERA, but nine Ks. is good. He's at Atlanta this week, Marcus Stroman. So not a great two starts with the Mets for him. You Darvish, this is a pretty good start, but he gave up three homers. So, you know, we don't want to see that. He'd given up six home runs

in his previous six starts. Darvish gave up three on Friday, six innings, four runs, nine Ks. Jake Oterese, five and two-thirds, six hits, no runs, four-walk, six strikeouts. Actually, not bad, but didn't get the quality start, walked four, and he left a runner in scoring position

every inning, Oderese. So got maybe a little lucky against the Indians. Anything to say about Strowman, Darvish, and Oteresee, how would you rank them? Darvish, Strowman, and Oteresee is how I would rank them. Oteresee for three straight starts now has been better, not pitching deep, but better, not just in terms of result, but like swinging straight has been up again.

And, you know, he was clearly not the guy he was earlier in the season, but I think he's an okay matchups play. But Darvish, I think, is just must start right now. And Stroman isn't far off, frankly. His first two starts with the Mets haven't been great, but nonetheless. Okay. Fringy starting pitchers, part one. If you see him on your waiver wire, who would you pick up?

Chris Archer, Brad Keller, Aaron Sanchez, Joe Musgrove, Jeff Samarja. Chris Archer, Brad Keller, Aaron Sanchez, Joe Musgrove, Jeff Samarja. Keller in a points league I would pick up. This last start wasn't very good, but 280. 7 ERA and his past 7 starts 6 of the 7 6 plus innings. So in a points league that plays, for sure.

Lewip's going to be high because the kind of pitcher he is, but if he was out there, I'd pick up Musgrove. Not to start, but I still think there's something to like there, as awful as

he's been lately. And Archer, I'd probably pick him up. I mean, Archer's a guy who I've dropped some, and I've picked some just depending on my needs. Like, I think he's at least to a point where he's usable again. I mean, this last start was definitively good. Two and runs in six innings with nine strikeouts and no walks. And he's sticking to that fastball slider playing.

89 of his 100 pitches in that start were one or the other. Fringy starting pitchers part two. You saw them on your waiver, who would you pick up? Tanner Roark, Ronaldo Lopez, and Mike Leak. Well, none of them, like, automatically, it would be filling a need. Lopez is the best here, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Though, I mean, that little run he was on where he looked like he might be making a leap is, he's since come back down to Earth from there in terms of the strikeouts, and I think the velocities dropped back again to a normal level. He's the best. Rorak's not bad. I mean, two good starts with Oakland. Obviously, that's a good environment for a pitcher. Yeah.

I like them better than fires. I like him better than Bassett, I think. Okay. Okay. Fritzing starting pitchers part three. Andrew Heaney, Vince Velasquez, Jordan Lyles, Adam Wainwright, and Gio Gonzalez. Yeah, I would... I'm kind of interested in Lyles.

This start Sunday was very good. And really, it's been three good starts since joining the Brewers. It's just... This was the first one. where he gave any length. He had nine strikeouts in seven innings. Well, this is also the first one where he had good strikeout numbers. Yeah, that's true.

That's true. Yeah. So not to the point where I'm adding him. He's had good strikeout numbers all year. I mean, Lyles is still 104 strikeouts at 99 and a third. The best stretch he ever had in his career was with the Brewers last year. Yeah. It's mostly in relief, but still, they may have a good read on what he needs to do.

Right. I'll keep an eye on it. And in deep leagues, There's Sandy Akintara, there's Asher Wojahowsky, Devin Smelzer, who did not do well on Friday. Mike Montgomery, who's got's fame in the world. Adrian Howser, Patrick Sandoval, Sean Reed Foley, Wade LeBlanc. What do you think about Sandoval? I mean, it's not surprising that he got crushed at Boston this weekend.

But I think... Yeah, I'd like to see that. I mean, four walks and four and two-thirds innings. That had a lot to do with it. Sure. Sandeval, his first start, wasn't a start, actually. first appearance was five innings, three runs, two hits, five, innings, three hits, two runs, two walks, eight strikeouts at Cincinnati.

I wouldn't mind them using an opener again with Sandoval, but he's got the White Sox at home this week. So five percent own, four percent on, something like that. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a very desperate situation if you're turning to him, but I'm not totally disinterested. The change-up, even in the short stint, it showed the, it looks like a great swing of this pitch, the change-up. Okay.

Control issues were president. President. It's almost that type, Scott. The root beer. It's not good. Presidents, I love it. Wow. Present.

Present is what I was trying to say. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. Okay. I don't even know what was. Yeah, he had control issues in the minors too. Control.

All right, that's Scott White. After Dark. I'm Adam Azer. Send us your emails. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We got a big surprise for you on Monday night show that's going to air on Tuesday. Big, big surprise. Get excited.

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We'll be back on Tuesday. Monday night slash Tuesday. We'll talk to you. See you.