Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Hooray for Hoskins and Devers!

Episode Date: August 15, 2017

Rhys Hoskins and Rafael Devers are hot topics, and we'll get to them later in the show. But first let's talk about how much we trust Trevor Bauer (3:15) and Kevin Gausman (5:10) and some severely underowned players you can take a shot on (8:00) ... Reflecting on the great seasons of Marcell Ozuna (12:34), Zack Greinke (14:50) and Giancarlo Stanton (18:30) and what lessons we can learn from them ... A rivalry edition of Hey Real Quick (24:40), Dropometer for Michael Fulmer among others (28:00), A.J. Pollock's struggles (34:32), more from yesterday and a look at today's matchups (40:30) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm going to drink the cola, rookie, speakers, number geekers, bunch of podcast wisdom seekers, Ben and Tandy, Ben Revere. What's up, everybody, and welcome to fantasy baseball today. Reese Hoskins is in two home runs, and everybody's asking a bunch of Reese Hoskins questions, and we're going to answer them today on the show. Adam Azer and Chris Towers, I almost just said my middle name. That was weird. Like, while introducing yourself? Yeah. Or, like, as a third person within our conversation.

Oh, as introducing myself. Adam Scott Azer here with Chris Benjamin Towers. That is not my middle name. Well, it was a decent guess, and the listeners are just going to have to guess at home themselves. Are you hiring listeners? With ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash strike.

Take advantage of that. It's a really good offer. We can talk about Bauer, Gosman, some players that are owned in very few leagues that are playing well right now. Might be a little underowned. And lessons learned, perhaps, as we look at some of these unlikely stars from this year. Chris, I talked a little crap about you behind your back yesterday. Wow. Yeah.

On the air. And Scott, I said that you'd rather root for analytics than the Marlins. You'd rather you want the Marlins to fail? That's dumb. I don't know. That was a dumb thing for you to say. I don't know if I said it in those terms, but part of you wants Jeter to fail, right? No.

I would love for Jeter to sign 25 David Eckstein's and for the Marlins to win 115 games. I just don't think it's going to happen. I think, look, I mean, if you're not taking advantage of everything that you can to build your team, you are doing a bad job building your team. and that's been the issue for the Marlins. And I don't, I'm not confident that Derek Jeter's going to change that, let's say. Well, I just look at the Marlins, and I don't think they have enough heart or hustle or desire or want to. Clearly.

And then Jeter's going to help that now. Scott, on the other hand, I'm going to talk smack about him. He's sick. And unlike Scott, I work when I'm sick, but Scott's very, had like a bug or something. Scott posted an article about the Duck Tales, original Ducktails theme song. on his Facebook page last week. And it was an interesting story. I think it was a Vanity Fair story.

And I've been consumed with that song ever since. It's been in my head for a solid week now. So thank you guys. I can't say I know that song. You know, duck tails. Woo. Yeah, I don't know that song. I never watched much ducktails.

Oh, you're so young. So annoying. All right. I'm like three years younger than you. Apparently you're too young to know duct tails. And I just didn't watch duck tails. I watched all kinds of stuff growing up, just not ducktails. Well, it's a great theme song.

Monday standout. Give me a Monday standout, Chris Towers. Chris Benjamin Towers. Is it really? Yeah, sticking with the... I didn't realize the NBA connection. CPT. Chris Paul for a long time.

But, all right, let's get these two frustrating pitchers out of the way. Trevor Bauer, he's got like 35 strikeouts in his last four starts. 11 last night, 6 and 2 thirds innings. He's got. career high strikeout rate, and I still don't trust him. And he has a 475 ERA, so it's been a bumpy ride, but four great starts in a row for Bauer. Now, I gave up three solo home runs at Boston yesterday. Homers haven't been a huge problem for, I mean, 19 home runs allowed in 127 innings.

It's not great, but that's not pretty bad, actually, isn't it? Yeah, it's about 1.4 per nine innings. The control has been much improved over the last four starts. he's really cruising, only allowed six runs. In his last four starts, only five walks in that span. I just feel like we've seen this from Trevor Bauer before. He is a different pitcher. His strikeout rate is higher than it's ever been, 26.3%.

I think it's sixth or seventh in the American League. He's throwing his curveball a lot more than he ever has, almost 35% of the time for the season, although that rate has gone down a bit of late. and I just maybe he maybe this is just the light coming on for Trevor Bauer and he's pitching to his peripherals which is not something that he's done in the past but I just I have so much trouble buying it the hype has never matched reality with him and there's not an easy answer for why he's pitching better are you going to start him at Kansas City this weekend I'm not sure I'd feel great about it who's the other frustrating pitcher well Kevin Gosman you have them group in the notes and Kevin Gosman continues to pitch well. Weird thing he didn't throw his splitter all that much last night, only 16.7% of 16.1% of the time. And so that, you know, can I trust the Kevin Gosman start if he's not throwing his splitter?

I don't know. But these are two talented pitchers. They throw hard. They can get swinging strikes. We can't ignore them. I can't trust them. Yeah, well, you can't trust Gosman? I thought you liked him.

Five of his last six starts have been really good. Last night, seven innings, two runs, and six strikeouts. Now, he had a bad start last time around, four runs and five and a third. Not terrible, but not great at the Angels. Four starts before that, Gossman had two runs in 27 and two-thirds. So are you just, is it just one game where he didn't throw his splitter, or has it been going on? I mean, it's been inconsistent. He threw it a lot in the start where he got rocked.

He didn't throw it very much last night, and that's, that's throwing off my calibration. of what I think Kevin Gosman is. I'm starting him. His next start is against the Angels, who just roughed him up. But I'm going to throw him out there, Mr. God. He did get 16 swinging strikes last night. He's been getting a lot of swinging strikes of late.

I just, I want to know what it is about Kevin Gosman that makes him so inconsistent. Why he can't figure this thing out, he's been so good for seven of his last 10 starts when he's bad, he's really, really bad. It's just... Yeah, I'll take the... odds, though. At this point, I'll trust him more than Trevor Bauer, but if he goes out and gets

rocked in his next start, I won't be surprised. Okay, well, they're only in the same amount of leagues, 86% of leagues, Kevin Gossman and Trevor Bauer. They're both two-star pitchers, so you got them locked in for the week if you're in daily leagues. They both have good matchups this weekend. Gossman with the Angels. Well, I don't know if the Royals are a good matchup without Perez. I guess that's a little questionable, but the Angels are a good matchup for Gossman, and Bauer's at the Royals. I really got to talk. I'm so tired of all this Yankees hate out there, man. It's just getting ridiculous. I want to bring up our quote of the day. It's a partial quote. You know, there's been all this stuff about the Yankees and the Mets and the trades and all that. Somebody goes out and

says, quote, watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees. The foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees. You know who said that? Who? Kim Jong-un. What the hell does he have against the New York. Yeah, he was talking about America. But I just thought it was... I was like, come on. Pretty obvious. Even Kim Jong-un, hating on the Yankees?

Like, doesn't he know Aaron Judge? He knows Aaron Judge since the All-Star break. He sure does. We got some hey real quick coming up later with world dictators and also rival. It's a rivalry edition of Hey Real Quick, so I think you will like it. I want to talk about some players that are maybe underowned. Excuse me. Still a little sick.

Deep League targets. Curtis Granderson is 27% owned. And his OPS by month this year. April, 395. What's after April? May, 874. June, 1153. All the way down to 6.34 in July.

But so far in August, 1116. He's been hot. He's a streaky player. Curtis Granderson, 27% owned. You want him? He's not playing every day still, right? I think that's the issue. They just traded Jay Bruce.

What's that? They just traded Jay Bruce. I feel like he has to play every day. I guess there's still a chance Curtis Grannerson gets trade, right? Yes, there is a chance Curtis Grannerson gets traded. And so I, he's probably underowned, given how well he's hit for the last several months.

but there's also a chance he's pretty useless pretty soon. I like the idea of adding Gray Anderson in a roto league where you need to make up some ground because he could get lightning hot. Assuming lightning is hot, yeah, it's hot. All right, he's 27% owned. The rest of these guys are owned even fewer leagues. Cattel Marte, 13% own. Scott and Heath told me to start.

Trevor's story over Cotel Marte this week in a points league so far. I took their advice so far we are losing. Marte had a good day yesterday with two hits and an RBI double. 13% own. Corey Spangenberg is batting 3.30 with six home runs and nearly an 1,100 OPS since the All-Star break. Spangenberg is 17% own. Jake Junis had a good start for the Royals. We talked about him yesterday.

He's got Cleveland this weekend. He's 14% own. And Chad Bettis is 12% own. Coming back from testicular cancer, seven scoreless innings, two strikeouts against the Braves. Spangenberg, Marte, Junis, Bettis, very widely available. Do you want to own these guys? I think Marte is extremely interesting

and still very under-owned for someone who's middle-end field eligible. I'd like to see him run more. That's the one thing that he's not doing that I would have expected, but the plate discipline is what I expected when he was coming up through the minors. And I think that gives him

a pretty high batting average floor. It's just steal a base, could tell. It's 34 games. He's a single steal. Could tell me about it, right? Yeah, I think Marte is interesting. Tim Beckham, Homer, again. I keep bringing it up.

Beckham or Marte. Who are you going with? I have to go with Marte. There's just, I think Tim Beckham is a very interesting talent. I think what he's shown in his time in the majors is that he can hit the ball exceptionally hard. He has a 355 career babbip, so it's not like, you know, the batting average is totally unsustainable,

but you can't be this, you can't be successful striking out 30% of the time, unless you're tremendous in other place, and I just don't think he's there. Any interest in Spangenberg, Junis, or Bettis? Spangenberg's actually been pretty good since June, has an 800-plus OPS in that time, but another guy that just strikes out too much

to keep sustaining the production that we're seeing from him, I think. He's the second base and third base eligible. And being second base eligible definitely helps. But it's just, I don't trust the skill set enough to make him more than a deep league kind of guy at this point. Okay. So you'd rather have Marte than Spangenberg? Yes. Neil Walker or Spangenberg?

Walker. Okay. All right. Chris. Well, one thing we can agree on, CBS Sports app. It's awesome. Really is a great app. I use it every single day.

It's the only sports app with box scores that show stats like OPS, OBP, whip, and fantasy points. So it's perfect for you fantasy owners. Swipe right on the box scores on the CBS Sports app and download it at CBSports.com slash baseball. Not MLB, CBSports.com slash baseball to download that app. So I want to talk about some players who stood out yesterday and have really stood out all season. We haven't talked enough about this guy. I'm calling him this year's unheralded breakout star. Marcel Ozuna, number 10 outfielder in points leagues, number eight in Roto.

He is slumping a little bit since the All-Star break. 808 OPS. It was worse before he homered yesterday. That's a slump. Yeah, but it was worse before he homered yesterday. But he did the same thing last year. I think it may have been injury related, though. Great start, then he got hurt, and then he trailed off.

And now he's broken out. 303 batting average, 27 home runs, 43 walks and 107 strikeouts. And actually the walk-to-strikeout ratio even better during this post-all-star break slump. You know, I guess we could lump him in with Jake Lamb, guys that got off the really good starts last year and then got hurt, and their production really went down. Now, unfortunately, Gregory Polanco was the other guy I was giving as an example of it. that and he's been horrible all year. I don't know. I think we are more lessons to be learned about the next two players we're going to talk

about, but is there anything to be learned about Marcelo Zuna? And just in general, do you buy Marcelo Zuna as a stud? I think he is the Marlon's second best player. So, and I think that's probably true for fantasy. I think he's better than Christian Yelich at this point because he does, Christian Yelich doesn't really stand out anywhere. Marcelo Zuna really does stand out as a power hitter. He's not an exceptional power hitter, but he's going to finish with 35 homers and 110 RBI at this pace.

There's a lot to like about his skill set. The strikeout to walk ratio has improved. He's not going to hit 300 forever, although we're deep into the season with him hitting 300. I do, I've had trouble buying it, but at this point, I do think the second half of last season is the outlier at this point based on his last two seasons. Yeah, and it may have been injury related, which is something that we should keep in mind next year. If somebody's playing through an injury and not playing that well, second half, maybe it will influence their, well, you know, in a positive way, next season's stats. All right, that was the unheralded breakout star. This year's unheralded bounceback star is Zach Granky.

Zach Granky is the number four pitcher in points league's number five in Roto. He has the best walk-to-strikeout ratio of his career. He has a 301 ERA and he's 14 and 5. He's striking out a ton of batters. But this is weird with Granky. Career high home run to fly ball ratio. It's almost identical to last year, maybe slightly higher. Career high hard contact rate, up 5% from last year.

And last year was a disaster. 437 ERA, he was so bad. He had a 127 whip. So he's given up more hard contact. As many home runs to fly balls, I don't think the ground ball or the fly ball rate has changed significantly. Nope. So Granky has certainly bounced back. The peripherals maybe are a little confusing with him,

but he's a top five starting pitcher right now. Well, one thing I would point out is, and I've said this a couple of times before, but I don't necessarily care all that much about hard hit rate for starting pitchers. I just haven't found it to be a particularly predictive thing. We see good pitchers with high hard hit rates. We see pitchers who give up a lot of home runs

with low hard hit rates. So it's just, it doesn't necessarily, it's not necessarily something that factors too much into my analysis. I, he really does look very much like the same pitcher that he has been. I think he's back to getting a lot more called strikes. He's inducing fewer swings overall and especially fewer swings in the zone. He's actually gone a little, uh, Aaronnola. in that regard and in the way that he's going Zach Granky now i mean eri arnola is ridiculous but you know that's he is getting more swinging strikes but the velocities down

there's there's a lot of contradictions in Zach Granky but i think he's someone that even though he's 33 about to be 34 the track record is so good that just bet on the elite talent you know right yeah i probably i probably whiff i mean we all did a little bit to agree, but I definitely did not want to draft. Zach Rankie, I didn't really believe in his stuff, his velocity, you know, because he is. And the velocity's down again. I know. And I don't, I don't know.

I don't know. I had the same argument about Felix Hernandez, like year after year, and he always proved me wrong until he didn't. I'm not, I will say I'm not going to draft Zach Rankie as a top five starting pitcher next year, and I don't think I've ever had him as a top five starting pitcher in my rankings. but you're going to have to draft him as a number one starting pitcher next year. Yeah, be interesting. Like, I would take Chris Archer over Zach Rankie next year.

I mean, I guess because you just assume Zach Rankie's going to be a little bit worse. I don't think Chris Archer's a 380RA guy. I really don't. Well, it's two years in a row of it. It's two years in a row, but the narrative, the storyline that I crafted was, It was three years in a row of like a 320 to 330 ERA. Yeah. And then one bad half of season, first half of 2016.

And he was back to himself in the second half. So I figured, all right, he had one bad half a season. Archie'll go out and have a 330 ERA again and a ton of strikeouts. It has not happened. I don't get it. I think that's, you know what, looking at the numbers, I think that's probably fair. And you assume he'll get, I think there's a pretty good chance he gets traded at some point in the next year, in which case you would expect him to be in a veteran.

I don't think that's unfair. All right. Let's go to our next star. This year's finally healthy star is a guy who has homered in 20, 22 times in his last 34 games, a staggering number. John Carlos Stanton is the finally healthy star. I am going to start taking more risks on injured players because when they get that healthy season, they can't get hurt every year.

And maybe he will get hurt. Maybe he will. But they can't get hurt every single year. Nelson Cruz eventually had healthy seasons Adrian Belcher had healthy seasons The big thing with Stanton and I've said it a couple of times this season is it wasn't like it was one injury

You know if it's the same injury over and over I think that's when you can look at it and say Okay this guy just can't stay healthy Yeah like this is this is an issue for him That he needs to either get fixed or it's never going to solve itself With Stanton it was like He had knee surgery four years ago And then he got hit in the face with the pitch

and then he broke his hand. I think he got hit by another pitch a couple of years after that, I think in 2015. And then last season it was a groin injury, I think. And so it was like, if it was never the same injury, how much of that is just rotten luck?

Yeah. And maybe he just has low pain tolerance. I don't know. I'm not going to pretend to know. I'm not a doctor. But when I look at, you know, stand with someone before the season when I was going through my,

breakouts. I was trying to I wasn't just looking at guys who have never done it. I was looking at guys who were going to produce more than their ADP. And I thought Stanton was a really good example of that. And I got voted down by Heath and Scott. And they said he doesn't count. He's been too good in the past. But I just thought this was an obvious situation where if Stanton stays healthy, that's the only red flag, I think. And you should definitely keep his health in mind. I don't know that he should be a first round pick. but if he plays a deep position, which outfield is always a deep position,

it's especially deep this year, and you can replace him, you know, then you take a shot on Bryce Harper, you take a shot on Giancarlo Stanton, because when they're healthy, I mean, Stan might hit 60 home runs this year. Even in an era where home runs are plentiful, if he hits 60 home runs and drives in 130

and scores 125, which he's all on pace for, I mean, the upside here is gargantuan. He's actually made real changes to his game. He's become more contact oriented. He's closed his stance dramatically. There was a piece of fan graphs about that. Well, I think getting hit in the face,

it made him, as I was reading on ESPN, actually, getting hit in the face a couple years ago, made him a little shy at the plate. And he was, he's, you know, made, he's long been a guy who kind of pulls away and it's made him, it's made it hard for him to catch up to break, breaking balls, especially outside of the zone.

and now he's kind of up on top of the plate, and it's helping him reach out for those pitches. And he's so strong that he maybe doesn't need to swing as hard to drive the ball out. His home run distance is actually down, but there's 43 of them. Well, look, it's crazy what he's doing. He's in 70 games batting second in the order since they boomed the second. He's batting 2.99 with a 716 slugging percentage. Just stop starting the ball to.

And pitchers actually aren't. I was looking his rate of pitches inside the strike zone since June is like 35%. Is that a lot? And he's still hitting like this. Oh, that's not a lot. No. No, that's really low. Pitchers are just not throwing him anything and he's still crushing it.

All right, John Carlos Stanton, you are the Manton. Injuries, news and notes. No one Aronado, let's just forget I ever made that pun. No one Aronado expects to miss another game or two with the hand injury. Kyle Barraclaw is coming back soon. Do you think he will be the closer for the Marlins or will they stick with Ziegler? I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the job, if he can show, especially that the control is better when he comes back from the DL. All right, Carl Barraclaw, keep an eye on him.

Barclough is sort of the... Bearclaw. It is Barraclaw. Brian McCann's on the DL, so now they have Juan Centeno and Max Stassee catching for Houston. Hopefully Gattis will be back soon. Robbie Ray is going to start a rehab assignment on Thursday. Scott Shebler, start a rehab. assignment today. Devin Mazzaraco has a fractured foot. He'll be out a little while. Bad luck for him this year.

Shaw Mania will make his next start. Bob Melvin wants Mania to work through his struggles. Melvin said, quote, right now he's missing location quite a bit. His slider has not been effective for him, which has made him a two-pitch pitcher, and he's had trouble pitching inside. And that slider was the key to his breakout a couple of months ago. I wrote about that. He was throwing it a lot more, and it was much more effective than it had been. So that seems to be a legitimate. issue for Sean Mania. Addison Russell, not close to returning from the DL. We're going to talk about shorts app was sitting very well lately, Javier Baez.

How about this weird note? Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez all hit their 40th career home runs yesterday. Took Aaron Hicks just a little bit longer. Yeah, a little bit. Miguel Cabrera sat again with back stiffness, and David Price appears to be nearing a return. And if you want some talent like you do in fantasy baseball, you're hiring, you're looking for the best talent for your company? Why don't you try a ZipRecruiter?

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In fact, over 80% of jobs posted on ZipRecruiter, get a qualified candidate. it in just 24 hours. They make the process so easy for you. And we'll tell you how you can do this for free, by the way. But again, you want your job out there on social media sites, more than 100 job sites with just one click. It's ziprecruiter.com. And here's the offer that businesses of all sizes should be using here. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's how you do this for free. For free, go to ziprecruiter.com slash strike. One more time, try it for free. Go to ziprecruiter.com slash strike. Hey, real quick, Chris Towers, the rivalry edition.

Aaron Judge or Andrew Benintendi? Judge. Yeah, all right. He's going to pull out of this at some point. Is it 31 games in a row with a strikeout now? I think so. I think he's five away from the record. Adam Dunn holds the record.

Look, that's what's going to happen. And maybe we have to consider that Aaron's Judge is just Adam Dunn. But if he hits 48 home runs this season, I still have to take him over back. and Tendi, who I still really like. Yeah, Benintendi's batting 425 with five homers and five steals and five walks and six strikeouts in August. Hey, real quick, Javier Baez or Yohan Moncada, north side or south side? I'll still go with Yohan Moncada for the upside.

Baez has upside in his own right, but the fact that Asson Russell's not anywhere close to coming back does help because that keeps him in the lineup. But he's still a platoon splits guy. I would rather have Munkata for the upside. All right, all right. They're both 77% own. Bias has 18 home runs this year. He's pretty good.

Yeah, I mean, his plate discipline is terrible. But nearly identical batting average, nearly identical walk-to-strikeout ratio as last year, but a lot more power this year. And a big August so far. But he's taken Munkata, ladies and gentlemen, who's also having a good August. All right, what is this, the Beltway rivalry,

Nats and O's? I think that's what they call it. Daniel Murphy or Manny Machado rest of season? Manny Machado. Okay. He still do. 999 OPS in his last 34 games. That's not enough.

I need more. All right. Well, look at August. It's been even better. Grand Slam yesterday? They're both exceptionally good players. They're both. Mani Machado is still a first round pick for me.

So I think they're fine. Let me tell you something about Daniel Murphy. Having a brilliant year, right? 3.30, 20 home runs, 78 RBIs, 75 runs. He's only the number 12 hitter in points and number 17 in Roto. Why? Because every player that ranks ahead of him in Rodeau and probably in points has more home runs than Daniel Murphy. Home runs, and he's not like he's not hitting, he's got 20.

Yeah, he's going to end up with 25 to 30. There's only one player, actually, there's one exception. One player has fewer home runs that's actually been better than Murphy, and that's Jose Altovae, who has 26 steals. The point, home runs still rule the world. Yeah, and Murphy is... He's just very good in three of the categories, and he's only elite in batting average,

and batting average is probably the toughest category to make up ground in, so... Well, well, well, well, he's not going to be very good in runs and RBIs. He's got 75 of them. That's what I'm saying. He's very good. Oh, he's not elite. He's not elite.

Elite. Yeah, he's an elite batting average guy, and he's very good in power runs in RBI. It's just... RBI's. RBI. There are other guys who, you know, are elite in one or more categories. And so I guess that might be, but Daniel Murphy's awesome. I'm not, like, it's not a situation where I could possibly be disappointed with what he's done. For sure. All right, you can be disappointed with the following three players. Let's go to the dropometer here. and let's talk about Jackie Bradley,

who has a 196 batting average with six walks, 40 strikeouts, since the All-Star break. Corey Dickerson, who's been just a little bit better, 214, batting average with five home runs. Bradley only has one home run since the All-Star break. Dickerson at least has five...

Oh, no, that's not since the All-Star break. That's in his last 40 games. That's longer. But Dickerson's got a 615 OPS in his last 40 games. And Michael Fulmer, ugh. Bad start off the D.L. Yesterday. Maybe the lack of strikeouts.

are catching up to him. He's got the Dodgers this weekend. Drop o meter for Jackie Bradley, zero to ten. Ten is an instant drop. Six. You know, what's interesting there is you put the pre-all star break numbers in there, and that is totally misleading. Because he was dreadful to start the season,

and everyone was super worried about him, and then he got super hot, and now he's been bad. Jackie Bradley's just a streaky guy. He's just streaky, and he's going to be streaky. And he's probably going to go on a hot streak at some point. Make up for it. He's just streaking. Corey Dickerson.

You can't rely on him. Corey Dickerson, zero to ten. I never quite bought Cory Dickerson the way I know Scott did for sure. I would say five for him. And Michael Fulmer? One. Pitching's still too valuable, and he's still proven to be too good. Maybe he's running into a wall, but I can't give up on someone who's shown this upside.

Double dongs from yesterday, Rafael Devers. Woo! He was in a little bit of a slump, and he is out of it. He homered off Chapman. Real impressive. And two home runs so far, he's 81% own. Reese Hoskins with two home runs at San Diego yesterday. He was 0 for 10 to start his career, and now he's batting a robust 176.

And Edwin Encarnacion homeward twice yesterday. Edwin Encarnacion is now number 11 at first base in points leagues, number 15. at first base in points leagues, number 15 in Roto. He was slumping too, but he now has four home runs in his last four games. Do you have anything insightful to say about Devers Hoskins, who's only 49% own and Encarnacion? I mean, go get Hoskin before he's available and stick him on your bench. Don't start him yet, but he's got talent for sure. And when Encranoscion, it looks like he's just going to, you know, he's not going to end up providing surplus value on where you drafted him,

but he's still going to end up being very good over the course of the full season. Would you rather have Reese Hoskins or Aaron Hicks? Hoskins. Reese Hoskins or Miguel Cabrera? Miguel Cabrera. Reese Hoskins or Melky Cabrera? Because he's going to be first base and outfield eligible, this gentleman. Reese Hoskins.

All right. Reese over Melky, but not over Miguel. All right, let's move on to some of the pitchers from yesterday. Ooh, but we have team name Tuesday. Actually, we're not ready for pitchers. I have more hitters to talk about. Team name Tuesday. This is from Adam, the owner of an Indochino suit that I purchased with my money that I won winning my league last year.

So thanks. Good stuff. Dear Tuxedo, Blazer, and Doublebreast. The only good team name I've ever come up with. It's all about McHugh-U-Kanow. Okay. Yeah. I got it.

Not bad. Not bad. And from Jonathan, I'm pretty sure we've had this. but gives me a chance to sing. Pour some seger on me. Yeah. He had both seagers on his team last year. Corey and Corey's brother.

Corey and Corey's brother. Jonathan in the email, he writes, pour some seagre on me. And then in parentheses, he writes, pour some sugar on me. Thanks, John. We wouldn't pick up on that one. If I didn't know that,

then you could stop listening to the podcast. Because that would be embarrassing for me. Jonathan also writes, I wrote an email last week and mentioned how Dunkirk was a terrible movie, but also forgot to say that half my league went to see that movie opening weekend, and they all missed out on picking up Raphael Devers because of that movie. Just awful. Idiots.

Who goes to the movies? It's been a while since I've been to the movies. All right, three up, one down, and then we'll get into the pitchers. Three up number one, don't have to say much, I don't think. But Chris Bryant has reached base safely in 16 of his last 20 played appearances. Remember when he was disappointing? He still has been disappointing. He's probably like a top 15 hitter now, right?

I would be surprised. Okay. But let's find out. He definitely is not in Roto. But let's see if Bryant is in points leagues. And honestly, like his owners have been waiting patiently. We deserve the Chris Bryant ridiculous hot streak. We deserve it.

I deserve it at least. I don't know about the other ones, but I do. Uh, ooh, he is, what did I say Murphy was? 12? Yeah. 14th in points. Okay. Okay.

All right, other two in three up. Scooter Jeanette, 72% owned, had a 244 batting average with a 627 OPS in a 21 game stretch, and it probably looked like it was safe to drop Scooter Jeanette. Last seven games batting 286 with two home runs, so he's been a little bit better. Do you think Scooter Genet should be 72% owned, more or less? I think it's fine. At this point in the season, there's enough dead leagues that is probably not going to get much higher than that. Pirella or Jeanette?

Jeanette. Marte or Jeanette? Marte. Ooh. Jeanette. Okay. Genetic Leaks gives you the power. All righty.

And Aaron Hicks, I've been talking about him a little bit. 68% owned. He's having a good year 284 batting average Eight steals What's his playing time Looked like Since coming back from the DL

As long as Clint Frazier's out He's playing every day Okay Clint Fisher's got the oblique injury They've got Obviously three outfielders They could easily DH Judge

Frazier Hicks or Gardner He ain't coming out of line up Very often Aaron Hicks He's right now One of their best hitters Because they've been struggling So 6,000

68% might be a little low. I think it's probably fine, though. All right, fair enough. One down. Take a look at the OPS for A.J. Pollock. 777 OPS. He's been slumping with a 146 batting average in August. Sits about once a week.

Are you down on A.J. Pollock? Sure. Yeah, he's been very much a disappointment. And it's not like the 274 batting average for the season is the result of some bad luck. He's got a 321 Babbap. It's 324 for his career. So it's not like you can point to anything and say,

with 100% certainty, that's why he's struggling and will likely improve. He just doesn't look to be quite the same player he was in 2015. You need this deal from A.J. Pollock, because you're not going to, he doesn't have the power that the elite outfielders have. And Pollack is, he has 15. steals in 72 games.

So that's not bad. I mean, it's a 30 steal guy. It is unfortunate a 6th. The way he's played this season, he's not been as good as Andrew Bennett in 10. You know, he's been cold, though. I don't know if we would have been saying this about Pollock two weeks ago. But it is frustrating. Maybe.

I own him in a league and he's just been a black hole. Like, okay, I didn't realize this, but Pollock in July hit 307. 373 on base, 600 slugging, with six steals. Or three steals, three steals. He's been dreadful in August. Yeah, he had an 852 OPS at the end of July, so he looked pretty good. Yeah. So it could be an overreaction to a slump, but, you know, I think it makes more sense to look at the overall picture at this point, and that's where it is.

Who would you rather have, Pollock or Benintendi? I'll still take Pollock, but I think it's close. Okay. One man rotation from yesterday. Jose Kentana, five innings, four hits, two runs, only one earned, but four walks, four strikeouts. It's just been kind of bleh. Yeah. He's just been just a little bit disappointing with the Cubs.

Like, we expected him to turn things around. That first start was so good. And he's got a 386 ERA and six starts. the swinging strike rate really low. I mean, there's nothing you can do about it. Okay. So you just keep starting Kintana. And it's not like he's been bad.

Yeah, he just hasn't blown you away. Well, I was blown away by Julio Tehran yesterday. I'm playing against him in my win-in-your-in podcast league points league battle this week. And you don't deserve... Worst case scenario. You don't deserve, like, to my opponent, I'm not sure if I should say your team name on the air. It seems a little dicey. So I'm just going to say to you, opponent, you don't deserve this.

You started Julio Taran when he was pitching like crap in a two-star week at Corse Field. You don't deserve it. Seven scoreless itings, four hits, three runs, eight strikeouts, no Nolan Aronado, but still. And he said, Taran said he felt like he had gotten back to himself yesterday. He has Cincinnati this weekend and Tehran is 78% owned. What does this start at Corseville do for you, Chris Towers, for Julio Taran? Just makes me mad. Same here.

Because, like, why couldn't you have just been bad? Right. Why do you have to be a jerk and ruin it by pitching well? It just, it really does, it complicates things. It's one start, yes, but it's one start in the most difficult offensive environment for any pitcher to pitch in. And it's such a drastic change from what we've seen from him so far this season.

You know what really grinds my gears? This start. You know what really grinds my gears, Chris Towers? This start from Julio Taran. But also, he had a three-start stretch not long ago, about a month ago. Quality starts at Washington, home against the Cubs, at the Dodgers.

Pitching well. Next three starts, 16 earn runs and 14 and 2-thirds. And two of those starts were against the Phillies. So I don't trust who it. Julio Taran. I wouldn't go out and add him. And to my opponent, may you get a just dreadful start from Julio Taran this weekend? Because that's what you deserve.

Jake Oteresey is 74% owned. Good start at Toronto, home against Seattle this weekend. Thoughts on Oteresey, 74%. I think he's just a guy. Yeah, usually a guy who's better at home, but not necessarily this year. Collin McHugh, 78%. Is he just the guy, or is he more than that? I'd prefer him over Jake Oteresee.

Okay. Jared Icoff, 69% owned, didn't quite deliver yesterday at San Diego, at San Francisco this week. Just the guy that you want for those two starts this week, Ikoff? Yeah, I remain intrigued by him at his best, but he just hasn't been there. I can't exactly say we told you so with Ty Block, because I think Scott and Heath, Heath especially, was like willing to start him this week, but he had a terrible start yesterday at Miami. Yeah. You're hoping he does much better against the Phillies this weekend.

Yeah, I like, I'm pretty sure I was anti-Tie Block. I'm just going to go ahead and say, yeah, I was anti-Tie Block. It's just always a risk when guys give up so much contact. Yep. And don't have a great track record, not that he has an extensive track record. But look, you had a 290-ERA and 7 starts going into last night, and guys get, you know, even the best pitchers get roughed up. But Block did not deliver for you, and we don't love him.

Delam Patansus got a save, but that was definitely just... No, not definitely, but probably just Chapman being unavailable. Joe Girardi said after Sunday's game, Chapman is his guy, so... Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that they're looking to make a change. All right, with that said, let's take a look at today's matchups. We got a 340 game, Eastern Time, Astros at Diamondbacks. Peacock and Banda on the run. Yeah, I'll start Peacock.

Tyler Skaggs, Gio Gonzalez. I'll start Gio Jacob de Grom Sonny Gray We'll start both of them Blake Snell Marco Estrada Let's see something

From Blake's Nell I know Marco Estrada's starting to show signs of life And Blake's now actually Has been two But not It's not like there's been a ton of upside there yet So If you're desperate you can start Blake Snell

I think it's okay to start Marco Estrada Bumgarner and Strelie We'll start Bumgarner Start Strelie against the Giants Yeah, definitely. Mike Leak at Rick Porcelo. I would rather not start Mike Leak against this matchup. I would rather start Rick Porcelo than him.

Ivan Nova and Zach Davies. I would rather not start either. Justin Verlander and A.J. Gryffindor. Definitely starting Verlander. Reds at Cubs, Luis Castillo, Kyle Hendrix. I just picked up up. Would prefer to not start Luis Castillo against this matchup. Interesting. Yeah, I guess so.

I just picked up Castillo. I'm very excited about it. but I will probably sit him in this daily lineup league. And then... Hendricks. Hendricks, whatever. It's not a bad matchup. It's not a great matchup.

He's not a bad pitcher. He's not a great pitcher. It's fine. Danny Salazar, Bartolo Colon. Go ahead and start Salazar. I know he's rocky again, but I trust him against this matchup. Sean Newcomb, Kyle Freeland,

in Corres now. I would prefer to not start either. Jason Hamel and Chris Smith. I would be okay starting Jason Hamill if I'm desperate. Mark Leiter, who Scott really liked as a deep league pickup. He's at the Padres facing to Nelson Lamet. I'm going to try to watch this one tonight, 10 p.m. Eastern.

I mean, anyone can be good against San Diego, but I don't think you can necessarily expect him to be good. All right. Lighter has come in and pitched in long relief twice recently, and he's 16 strikeouts, no walks, one run, and nine and a third. I just wonder how much that's You go into a game expecting to see one pitcher And a different pitcher comes in

And it's completely like I don't know how predictive that is as a starter I'm Miguel Gonzalez is facing Alex Wood tonight White Sox at Dodgers We'll start Wood, no Gonzalez And Wade Miley at the Mariners Facing I'm looking up his name right now

But do you know Andrew Albers Did you know his first name? It is right here on the page. He has a 441 ERA and 79 and two-thirds career innings. 42 strikeouts, 15 walks. I will not start him. Or Miley? I would much prefer to not start Miley either.

Chris Sowers, I'm going to empty out the inbox a little bit here. We got some time to read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. This is from Bill M. Bill likes to use the waiver wire in a 10-team league. He's got Miguel Cabrera. He's got agency. Jay Pollock, when is it okay to drop players like Bogarts, Cabrera, and Pollock in a 10-team league when, you know, when Shallow League gets this late in the season? Would you think about dropping Bogart's, Cabrera, or Pollock in 10-team leagues?

I guess because you're not worried about them hurting you on a different team, the downside is a little less risky, but I, you're asking the wrong guy. I'm still the guy that's going to defer to the long-term track record, even this late into the season. So I don't think any of those guys are dropable. All righty. Another email. This is from Coco. It's a very strange email.

I've never seen anything like this. Just a lot of strange words. He goes, yo, webay, Slim Charles, and Prop Joe. Don't know. What to do? 14-te-to-head points league. I'm hard-charging into the playoffs. I've been totally in love with Tommy Fan the past few months,

but somehow Devers is still hanging on the waiver wire. I got to dump Fam and grab him, right? Right? R-I-T-E-R-I-T-E. So he's asking, Coco is asking, should I drop Tommy Fam for Raphael Devers? I believe these are fellas from the wire, We-Base, Lynn, Charles, and Prop Joe, and yes, I would drop fan for Devers.

Well, now I'm bored, because that shows mad boring. Lou in Connecticut, hope you're feeling better, Adam. Thank you, Lou. I am. I was banking on Starling Marte being a stud. Is he worth dropping of the war? right waiver wire pickup presents itself, or is Marte going to pick it up and be good once the fantasy

playoffs get here in a few weeks? I think that probably depends on what your league looks like. If you're in a head-to-head points league where his value is much lower, I think it's entirely possible that he's worth dropping, but I have a hard time saying that you should, especially in Roto where he is still stealing bases at a pretty good clip. All right, that's Starlink Marte. This is an email from Matt. Thank you, Scott White, for recommending Reese Hoskins this week. I appreciated the multi-homer game last night.

Scott won, Heath Zero, Chris, never present on the show since Donaldson has gone on a tear. Aw. I'm so sorry. That's true. From Nick, I can't quite catch the first place guy in my OBP Roto League. Which two of these players will be best down the stretch? It's also a Keeper League. Give me two players who will be best down the stretch.

Castellanos, C.Riss Davis, Byron Buxton, we should probably talk about him, probably tomorrow. Eddie Rosario, Reese Hoskins, Dominic Smith, and Derek Fisher. Castiano. Hold on, hold on, huh. Castiano, Cirrus Davis, Buxton, Rosario, Rees Hoskins, Dominic Smith, Derek Fisher. Assuming you don't need any specific categories, I would go see Chris Davis. and I would take the flyer on Reese Hoskins.

From Bill, 10-team head-head categories league. I have Andrew Miller coming off the D.L. on Friday. I have Smoke, Myers, and Reese Hoskins at first base. Which one do I drop? Smoke, Myers, or Hoskins? I mean, it probably has to be Hoskins, right? Yeah, I think, yes, I think so. He wants to drop Myers.

And I get that. Myers has been very mediocre this season, But I just, I'm not ready to say Reese Hoskins better than him. Reese Hoskins has his own red flags as a prospect, too. Should I make this trade from Tim? Give up Rizzo. Porcelo and Chris Taylor. Rizzo, Porcello, and Chris Taylor get Springer and Bundy.

I have three first basemen in my roster. I'm in fourth place at a nine-by-nine categories league. So he's deep at first base. He gives up Rizzo, Porcelo, and Chris Taylor. He gets Springer and Bundy. So you're giving up the better position player and I think the better pitcher and you're throwing in Chris Taylor who, whatever,

be something. I don't think you do that. Well, I'm not sure he's giving up the better position player. I think it's close enough that I don't think it's worth it. I mean, he probably is, but it's not like a no-douder. Rizzo to Springer. Rizzo to Springer. Yeah, if you're going to give up Rizzo Porcelo and Chris Taylor to get Springer, you need to be like Springer and...

Yeah, it needs to be somebody more than Dylan Bundy who like continues to show flashes of upside but is not someone that you're going to rely on. Yeah, it's hard to trust them even after the last few starts. All right, so we say you should not make that trade. And we say goodbye, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. It was fun, Chris. I enjoyed it. Thanks. It was fun, Adam. Thank you for having me on.

I may or may not have a very exciting announcement coming right now. Wow. Just wait. I'm waiting. Damn it. My breath is baited. You know, oh, yes. We got it.

PodcastaWords.com. Fantasy baseball today and fantasy football today are nominated in the best in the sports category. Yeah. Fantasy football today is nominated. in the people's choice category. So now you all have to go out there and vote. Thanks for voting for us. Yeah, thank you all.

Nominating. Now it's time to vote. Go vote now. Can't wait to bother you about that. All right, for Chris Dowers, I'm Adam Mazur. Hopefully Scott back tomorrow. If not, Chris and I will rock it again. See you.