Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Marveling at Greatness; Trustometer

Episode Date: August 16, 2017

After touting Rhys Hoskins, we get into how much we trust Rick Porcello, Marco Estrada and Brad Peacock going forward (5:43), what's up with Aroldis Chapman (11:20) and a SP you should be adding (14:16) ... Marveling at the greatness of Joey Votto (19:20), Giancarlo Stanton (22:44), Josh Donaldson (24:08) a prodigious home run hitter and a prolific base stealer ... Injured SPs who are ready to come back (32:30), a couple of hot hitters who are worth an add (39:26), "Matt Olson or Matt Chapman" and a look at today's matchups (51:45) ... 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

What's up? Welcome to the show. Do we have a bullpen controversy with the Yankees? Who is the most boring player in fantasy? That's always a good thing to talk about on the show. We're going to marvel at greatness, get the trustometer out, and just have a good old-fashioned fun time talking about America's favorite pastime. Adam Azar, Chris Towers, and here's Scott White. I hope you're feeling better, Scott White. I am feeling better. Is your tumbling better? Scott? It's mostly better. I am going to, I'm going to go easy on it today. Some, uh, some crackers and Gatorade. Maybe a banana. No, no, like Indian food or? No, no, it's probably a bad idea. Hit up Chipotle, wrist some e-coli. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. No. Well then, we, uh, we had a great time

without you, but we're happy to have you back. And I'm going to give you, uh, I'm going to put you at lead off today. Give me a stand out from Tuesday. Somebody you want to talk about. Somebody out, well, I want to talk about Reese Hoskins. I knew it. We all knew he was going there. You already got kudos for your great call yesterday on the show for Reese Hoskins. But he homered again and he's 50% owned. Yeah. And what's most impressive to me isn't the home runs because he set a Lehigh Valley. That's the AAA affiliate for the Phillies. He set a record there for home runs this year before getting called up. He was second in the minors last year in home runs, so he was going to hit home runs. But what's most impressive to me is that he has struck out four times in 21 at bats after doing something similar to the spring.

And after showing the last two years in the minors that he's not just some all or nothing slugger. He is a good all-around hitter. And the way it's playing out in the majors, the fact that Phillies haven't sat him yet, even though he's mostly playing out of position, I think it all points to a very strong final couple months here for Hoskins. Now that he's outfield eligible, I really don't see why there's any excuse not to own him in your league. And would you rather have Hoskins or Derek Fisher? Hoskins.

I would rather have Hoskins as well. Thanks for asking Adam. Yeah, I was, thank you. Is there any recent call-up? Or any rookie who did not start the season with the big league club that you would rather have than Hoskins, would you rather have Devers? And that's the only one I can think off the top of my head that I... Cody Balcher? Oh, I forgot about him.

All right, fine. More recent... Had to be that jerk. More recent call-ups. Sorry. Yeah. No, I'd rather have Devers than Hoskins. Is that it?

That's probably it among the more recent call-ups. Moncada? Nope. Rather have Hoskins. Hoskins made such a bad play in the field. And you could have had a really good call on Mark Leiter. Because Mark Leiter got screwed. Three runs were charged to him in the first inning.

Should have been zero. And I'm going to tell you something. I am – and it's no longer – if I were commissioner of baseball, now it's I want to do everything I can to become commissioner of baseball so I can change official scoring if a player misses a routine play in the outfield because he takes a bad route, even if he doesn't touch the ball, that's a freaking error.

Should not be a hit. It's an error. Should be unerun runs. There's a better fix here. What is that? D.H. And the N.L. No way, Reese Hoskins doesn't have to actually be out in the outfield.

No, that's not going to fix the problem. It's going to fix one particular instance of the problem. It would have fixed this specific instance. It would have. But I just, I'd never like that rule. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think we should put this all on the bad defensive play. for Hoskins. I mean, Mark Leiter was bad in this start. I don't know what it is about him when he gets

to start a game as opposed to relief. Those two relief appearances were basically starts. I mean, he went more than three innings in each of them and 16 strikeouts in nine and a third inning. There's a pretty obvious explanation though, right? And I said it on yesterday's podcast. Opposing batters go into a game with a scouting report for one pitcher. That pitcher leaves the game after Vince Velasquez left his after one batter. right? I don't know. Very early in the game.

All of a sudden, you're seeing a completely different pitcher. It can throw you off your game that early, especially if it's not a situation where, like, you just beat the crap out of the starting pitch. He gave up four earn runs, eight total runs in five innings. And like I said, it should have been one run run because Hoskins cost him three runs. There were two outs.

He misplayed a fly ball. Routine fly ball. Right, but two swinging strikes. Two swinging strikes back. Two swinging strikes back. Two swinging strikes back. Two swinging strikes back. And also, you're arguing he should have allowed seven unearned runs.

Yeah. It's a big deal. You can't give guys extra outs. I think there is a point where bad luck takes over, but I'm not sure seven unerned runs is bad luck. Well, no, it should have been a total of five runs. One earned. Yeah, that's what it should have been. All right.

You know what? He's 12% owned. He's 12% owned. And I'm playing against him in the podcast. so I was happy about that. When on I'm in. All right, Chris, you're our OBP guy. You're batting second today.

Who are you nominating? We should talk about the fact that Rick Porcelo is good again, right? Ooh, the Trustometer. Skipping ahead to the Trustometer. Where are you on that with Rick Porcelo? I mean, he's given up 11 home runs in eight starts since the start of July, which is really bad. He is no longer a ground ball pitcher, which is not a great sign. But the results are much better.

He's pitching deep into games. He's really only had one bad start in his last eight. I am glad I started Rick Porcell in one of my leagues yesterday, and I am back to trusting him. I'm glad I picked him up off waivers when he was dropped. Yeah. He wasn't, he's not, he's neither as good as he was last season nor as bad as he was for the first three months of this year.

I think it's just Babbitt normalization. He was leading the league in Babbitt for most of the year and was giving up a ton of hits. And now the Babbitt's down to 332. So it's dropped about 30 points since I last look, which was probably, you know, two months ago, maybe less. And last eight starts a 369 ERA. That's probably more appropriate to Porcelo. And that's for a pitcher. with that offense backing him if he's pitching deep into games.

I mean, he's only gone three and four during that stretch, but it could be much better. And, you know, six-plus, six innings at least in seven of the eight, seven innings in four of the eight. I think, you know, he's not like a dominant pitcher. He's not a star like he seemed like he was last year, but he's useful. I'd rather have him than the guy he beat yesterday who's been better this season, Mike Leak. Yeah, well, Mike Leak's 77% in a two-star week. And we're talking about Rick Porcelo here. who is back.

What's his number on the trustometer? He's got the Yankees at home this weekend. Rick Porcells. Like a six? Is that what she said? Yeah. Specifically against the Yankees, maybe a four. Although, well, he might strike out like 11,

depending on how often Aaron Judge bats. Okay. Yeah, Judge has tied the single season record of consecutive games of the strikeout, tied with Adam done. Anyway, let's stick with the trustometer, with the trustometer, you skipped ahead.

Marco Estrada, previous three starts, seven innings in each start, and four combined run runs. Last night got crushed by the raise, six runs on 10 hits and four in a third. Trustometer on Marco Estrada, who just always seems to struggle with the raise, by the way. Before this start, it probably would have been like a six, but now I got to drop it to three.

I was thinking of three as well. This was the start I was hoping for, because he's at the Cubs this weekend. He's just hard to trust. This was the start I was hoping to be good. Even when things are going well, he's a little like Mike Fires. And the stuff isn't overwhelming, so he really needs to be on top of his game. And the margin fair is very slim. All right, how about Brad Peacock?

Brad Peacock was dominating. And then he ran into a little bit of bad luck in the fourth inning. The first batter of the inning was could tell Mark, who just sort of rolled one up the first base line, easy out. It hits first base, the actual base. It does not hyper extend its knee. Instead, it caroms into foul territory, but it was a fair ball. It was a BS single.

And the inning unraveled after that. There was another infield single later in the inning, and then he couldn't get out of the fifth. I mean, he's cruising along. I'm going to get the points for the win. Very personal today, because I thought Peacock was going to really deliver for me. And he ended up not doing so. Trust Ometer for Brad Peacock. who has Oakland this weekend at home.

Well, nine against Oakland. Sure. Yeah, I was going to say seven until you mentioned the matchup. And overall, I would go a six. He's mostly managed to overcome it since the start of July, but I worry there's a little Kenta Maeda in him and that he's just not going to consistently go deep enough into games

to consistently pick up a bunch of wins. I know he's 10 and 1. and there will be times when he just runs out of gas. I don't think that's what happened in this one, though, like Adam was saying. I mean, nine strikeouts, one walk, zero home runs. That should not yield basically a nine ERA for the contest like he had. Yeah, he may have run out of gas because the third inning was such a, you know, I don't even know what the, you know.

I'm just not even going to use an adjective because you know what I'm talking about. He faced a lot of hitters. He threw a lot of pitches. It was a pooper. There you go. But I'm going to say this. I wanted to bring up Brad Peacock because I'm calling dibs on Brad Peacock. If he's in the rotation next year, he is going to be my guy.

People are going to go, oh, Azer, good call on Brad Peacock. I think he's tremendous. I do think he needs another pitch. That's going to take him to another level. But his fastball slider combo is ridiculous. He changed the grip and the arm angle on his slider. More like grud peacock? Yeah.

Oh, gosh. So Brad Peacock will not be bad Peacock. I'm a big fan of his, and I trust him quite a bit. There you go. I called it Dibbs on Peacock, and we're going to start him this weekend against Oakland. I got to bring up our old as Chapman, guys. Chapman gave up a two-run homer yesterday. He gave up a solo homer on Sunday.

He's got, in his last three appearances, five swinging strikes on 69 pitches. Now, previous 10 appearances, Chapman only gave up one run in 10 and 2 thirds. He struck out 11, which isn't a lot for him in 10 and 2. That's terrible for him. And in 10% swinging strike rate, just something doesn't seem right, and it's not the velocity. He's throwing as hard as ever.

And he did hurt his hamstring a little bit, but they say it's no big deal. They're not even going to do tests. What do you guys think about this Yankees bullpen situation right now? Yeah, something does seem a little off on hit with. him it's been going on all year it kind of reminds me of what Craig Kimbril went through for the red sucks last year um and the the scary part is that the Yankees have like five if you include Chapman it's five shutdown relievers basically so they have four other potential closing options it would seem weird that Chapman would be anything but the closer for whatever team he's on but

they can't let him cost them games. So that's, that's something I'd be worried about if I was the Chapman owner. It's a weird situation because, one, I'm not sure Joe Girardi's the kind of guy who's, like, I think it needs to get really bad before he removes his $86 million closer out of the closers role.

And I just, the thing I always struggle with in these discussions, just philosophically, is, um, is blowing, like, Blowing a lead in the ninth inning sucks, but blowing a lead in the seventh inning isn't all that much better.

It's much better. It's a lot better. You still have a chance. But blowing a save, but like blowing a lead is still bad. First of all, you've already, yeah, it is, but you blow a save in the ninth inning, like you've already used, there are a lot of times. You've already used your good relievers. So if you go to extra ratings, you can't use them anymore. I mean, it is a huge difference.

Now, one thing with Chapman, is the first 12 games, give up one run in 11 and a third. He had 18 strikeouts. He had 13% swinging strike rate, which is a little low, I guess, for him. But then he got roughed up twice, and then he went on to DL with a shoulder injury. And it's just possible that he's just not fully healthy. And he hurt his leg yesterday. So, Batances got the save on Tuesday, on Monday when Chapman wasn't available. If for some reason Batances is available.

He would be in a points league. Maybe you stash him just in case there's an injury here. But I think we've covered this. I don't know. But are we sure Batances would be the one? He was on Monday. I thought it would be Robertson, to be honest with you. But it was Patensis on Monday for what that's worth.

But no, I'm not sure. Who wants to pick up the Nelson Lemette, 68% owned? Me, me, me. Yeah, you're in? Yeah. No, his last five starts. He has like a... 237.

237 ERA and a... Got the other one there? Ten walks, 30 strikeouts, and 30 in a third. He's 4-0. It comes out to a 0.89 whip. I didn't have that. He is someone who doesn't have great control

but doesn't have bad control. It's a very good strikeout pitcher and I think he's got very good strikeout stuff. It's the home runs. That remains the issue and when he keeps the ball in the yard, and I think when he's got the right matchup, I think he's very, very usable.

Well, I don't know how many of those home runs came on change-ups, but he's pretty much ditched the change-up during the stretch, has just gone to fastball slider. And the slider is the pitch that made him everything he is today. That's his wipeout, you know, swing and miss pitch. He has.

The change-up was something. Go ahead. Yet to give up a home run off his change-up. Okay. But the pitch has still been rocked at all. Yeah. So it's probably a good thing. He's ditched at least for now.

The slider's good enough that he can get away with just having two pitches. And the thing about, he's a rookie, right? And, you know, I just wrote that column last week, pitchers whose innings may be running out. He's really not in danger of that. He's, I think, still about 30 or 40 away from his previous high as a professional. So he should be able to last through the season. And I think he's a nice find off the Waverware this type of year. Swinging strike rate that would put him, I think, in the top 15 if he had the innings to qualify.

Okay, so Denelson Lemette is 68% owned. It's time to play another round of everybody's favorite game. Which pitcher would you drop for Denelson Lemette? Or which pitcher would you prefer Limet to, whatever you want to say? Trevor Bauer or Lamet? Lamette. Wow. Chris is a Bauer fan now, huh?

No, I just, I think the home runs are, the fly ball rate is a concern for Lament in a way that it isn't for Bauer, and I think they're very similar otherwise. James and Tion or Denelson Lillette? Trevor Bauer's not that big of a bad misser, right? He hasn't been this season. Tionne or Lament? Tion. Oh, wow, Bauer's strike rate up to 10.2. Although I think his swing strike rates really low.

Who? Bowers. Sorry, this is my... Yeah, come on, let's focus here. Tyone or Lamet? Tyone. Yes, Tyone. Roark or Lamet? Lema.

Roark. Strayley or Lamet? Lema. I think they're both matchup dependent, so whoever has a home game next. Okay, fair enough. More on Dan Strelie and the lack of strikeouts. that we've been seeing for a while now coming up later on in the show. That probably covers these standouts, but we do have to talk about some of the great, great players

that are just dominating right now. Votto, Stanton, Josh Donaldson. I do have a nominee for most boring player in fantasy. I believe this guy has really performed exactly as like a number two outfielder, and he's number 23 in points, number 24 in Roto, and you pretty much never sit this guy. He's just boring. His name is, well, you tell me who he is. He's batting 291.

He has 12 home runs and 23 steals. Oh, so I don't think it's who I was thinking of. Who did you think it was? I was thinking of Christian Yellich. It is not. Yelich is... I think Christian Yelich fits this bill very well. I guess, but there's so much intrigue around Yelich,

because he's having such a, like, kind of a down year, but still fine for fantasy because of the runs. Like, we haven't talked about this guy at all. He's whatever. Since the All-Star break... Well, over's 23 steals. 291, 12 homers, 23 steals, 21 doubles. Career high, career high approaching here. 16 home runs is his career high, 28 steals is his career high.

So it's not Lorenzo Kane. It is Lorenzo Kane. It is, yeah. Good job. I thought he had a higher career high in home runs. No, 16. Yeah. Right, you just start him, right? Because he gets his steals. Yeah, he's just, he's just a solid guy. Boring. Well, the fact that he has that many stolen bases

Makes him He's fourth in baseball? Right, he's kind of a statistical oddity there Just because nobody runs that much Yeah, it's crazy In fact, Billy Hamilton still was 50th base yesterday And we'll talk about that We have a lot to talk about on today's show

Let's marvel at greatness Stad of the day Is from this guy Paul Hembekeides. H-E-M-B-E-K-I-D-E-S. I think his Twitter handle is at Paul Hembo. I think he's a statistician. And he says,

Joey Votto owns a 5-12 O-B-P in the second half over the last three seasons. That's 176 games. And Botto's O-B-P is 5-12, if you look at the second halfs of each of the last three seasons.

Number two on the list is Mike Trout at 438. It's a thing for his career, actually. His career on base percentage in the second half is 444. It's incredible. Now, you look at another staff from ESPN. Joey Vado has the second longest streak in baseball history or since 1900 of reaching base multiple times in a game. He's done it 20 games in a row. Ted Williams is the record holder since 1900.

He's on fire. Number two hitter points, number seven in Roto. Also, have you seen him just chucking baseballs out of Wrigley Field the last two nights? No. It's phenomenal. If there's a foul ball hit towards him, he will pick it up and just throw it entirely out of the stadium rather than throwing it into the stands. I love it. What a jerk.

It's pretty funny now. Joey Votto is the most interesting man in baseball, in my opinion. I know a lot of people don't think walks are interesting. They don't think his cerebral approach to the game is interesting. But there was a really interesting note about a week ago in the Cincinnati Inquirer, where he said that he noticed that two left-handed batters, strikes are being called more often on the inside part of the plate. And pitchers have been pitching him that way.

And that's why he's hitting for more power this season. And there has actually been, Eno Seris on Fangraphs did a study and noted that strikes are being called on the inside half of the plate to left-hand of batters more often. And like, Joe, does he just realize these things?

Just like, he's just picking up on it. It's amazing. This guy is so interesting, so cerebral. He's a phenomenal hitter. May he reign for all of eternity. When are you going to draft Joey Votto next year?

I think he's a borderline first rounder. Yeah, borderline. He's, when push comes to shove, I think I'll probably let him slide to the second round just because at 34, he turns 34 next month. He'll be by far the oldest first round pick. And with that, comes injury concerns. It comes with decline concerns, although he'll, he just, he's having his best season ever. And just the last three years have been unbelievably good. for him.

It's not really, this is arguably his best season ever. Well, I think for fantasy purposes, just because of the home run increase. And the RBI. Yeah. He's on pace for a career high in RBI. That's Votto. Let's move on from Joey Votto and go to John Carlos Stanton. Marvel at Greatness.

He is homered in six straight games, approaching the record of eight, which is held by a few people, including his manager, Don Mattingly. John Carlo Stanton has 23 home runs in his last 35 games. Only two players have hit more homers in a 35 game stretch. Sammy Steroids in 1998 and Steroids Bonds in 2001. Did I say their names incorrectly? I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much.

Sammy Sosa is Barry Bonds. Yeah. Are you one of these people who thinks John Carlos Stant is chasing the quote-unquote real home run record? Well, that's what he said. This is the dumbest thing in the world Didn't he say he was chasing 61? Okay, then he's, then that's dumb. No, it's not.

Like, that is the home run record. It's not. I appreciate. The home run record is 73. Okay, but if he hit 62, I do think a lot of people, I do think a lot of people recognize him as the single season home run record. That's a whopping dang lot of long. It is not the record.

I mean, people didn't recognize Roger Maris' record for how long. People are dumb. But they do now. They just don't. like, they don't like old records falling. The John Carlos Stanton is, I mean, we talked about him yesterday. He's real good. People should probably stop pitching to him.

Who would you rather, who are you going to draft first next year, Votto or Stanton? Votto. Votto. All right. Josh Donaldson is homeward in three straight games. Marvel at his greatness. Yeah, that may be my worst take of the season. When I correctly acknowledged that his skill,

set seemed to be declining because it did. And he just happened to turn that around immediately after I said that. This is the next big hurdle, I think, in analytics, figuring out when, when batted ball tendencies are a reflection of the way a hitter is performing or the other way around. I think they're not, we get into, and I wrote about this with Justin. smoke earlier in the season, we get stuck in thinking that what a player is doing based on batted ball, exit velocity, all these things, is reflective of skill. And we think that because these are quote unquote skill-based signifiers, that they're less prone to regression, that they're less prone to flukiness, that they're less prone to, because we

think they get closer to a player's true talent level. And they do. They get closer to a player's true talent level than batting average does. We are better off trusting those than we are just looking at their overall production. But sometimes when it's like, okay, this is Josh Donaldson. Skill level fluctuates. I think that's the thing is that skill level fluctuates the players during the course of a season two.

Some players get locked in, players get on slums. These are things that happen, and, you know, it's illustrative of that. But you understand, like, all the arguments we had that these great players, they're going to go on their tears. It's a straight up guarantee. Okay, but usually. It's not a guarantee. It's a guarantee. Bad seasons happen all of the time, Adam.

Miguel Cabrera will have a hot streak maybe next year. Adam, how many times did you trade for? Josh Donaldson before I tried I tried nobody would give them up because they were smart enough to know they were smart enough because you lowballed because you weren't going to put your money where your mouth I made I made good I made good offers for Josh Donaldson the first round pick I made offers for Josh Donaldson the guy who's having a crapy first half of the season I probably made I probably made offers for Josh Donaldson the third round pick you know right I probably made third but you don't you don't overpay you know so you weren't willing to so you weren't willing to

Put your money where you're about this topic. I was. I'm not willing to be a stupid fantasy owner and overpay. I'm not willing to be a stupid fantasy owner and overpay. Oh, my gosh. Why would you pay face value for somebody who's not performing? Because you're guaranteeing. No, never.

No, no, cold, underlined italics. False. Guaranteed. False. The star players. It's such bad logic for some, just such a smart person. I don't understand. You just said guaranteed, Adam.

I was joking, obviously. I was joking. No jokes. No more jokes. No more jokes. All right, Marvel at greatness. Marvel of greatness from two players who are not necessarily great. Joey Gallo, G-A-L-L-O has a 1334 OPS in August.

He's homering and homering and homering and homering. He's actually hit very well against lefties. Is this a breakthrough for Joey Gallo, who's number 18, third baseman in points, number 12 in Rodo, or just an extended hot streak a la Chris Davis, a laxas, a la Chris Carter. I'm sure Rob Deere had months like this. I think Joey Gallo is an extremely talented power hitter who has enough holes in his game

that you shouldn't expect him to hit anything more than 2.30. Okay, let's move on. Billy Hamilton, Marvel at his greatness. He stole his 50th base. That's impressive. And for the year, Hamilton is 29th at Outfield in Points League's 17th in Roto. In categories formats, he's one of the most difficult players to really put a true value on

probably depends on how many roster spots you have and how much damage he's going to do to you in the other categories. Which is a lot. Well, it is. It is if you have a three outfield or a league with no corner infield and no middle infield, but you add four or five more hitters, it's not that bad.

And he's single-handedly... He's helping you in runs. But he's single-handedly... He's just four about 95 runs. Winning you steals most weeks. And he probably takes you from eighth place to first place in steals and roads. by himself.

Yes. And if you're going to be bad in a category, batting average is probably the one to be bad at. Why? It's worth... Because there's so many played appearances to make up. He's terrible in three categories, though. Home runs and RBIs is terrible.

Yeah. If you have enough hitters, then there's other bats to make up for it. But, like, basically, batting average, I feel like, other than stolen bases, which there just aren't that many of, in the game today. But batting average, I feel like, is the most difficult hitter category

to make up for latent drafts or off the waiver wire because anybody who excels at batting average and still provides power or speed is going to be drafted early. Right. So, like, unless, if you, you know, getting into team construction, if you want Hamilton on your team, that means you have to know to skip certain players like Stanton, like Edwin and Cardassion, in the early rounds, because you can't afford to have that many people dragging it down in that category. It also helps because you can draft Billy Hamilton and not worry about stolen bases from any other player. Yeah. Right.

It might be overkill, though, if you... No, but, like, because someone's going to have a 10-steal season. You're going to have a couple of guys who you didn't target for steals, who just steal-bases anyway. If you draft Josh or Paul Gold. in the first round and then Billy Hamilton, that's probably enough to get you to third or fourth place. It probably is enough, but if you've happened to pick up 15 to 20 steals with a few other players along the way, then you really don't even need Hamilton. Like, the harm he does is, he does more harm than good at that point. But I'm saying, like, at that point, you just, you target, just you don't look at best steals at all.

I mean, it's probably a situation where, and again, this is more of a preseason discussion, probably. But whether or not you target Hamilton isn't something you preconceived going into the draft. It kind of depends on the way your teams come together. Maybe, maybe, yeah. Okay, then, that's it. We're marveling at greatness. That was a lot of fun, guys. Lots to marvel at.

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Get back to the notes. We got news for you. Chase Anderson is going to pitch this weekend, but you're going to sit him because he's at Colorado. But you're going to add him anywhere he's available, which is 24% of CBS sports league. Oh, hot damn, really. I got to look at all my leagues for Chase Anderson.

I like it. He really looked like he had broken through before going down with that oblique injury. His last seven starts, 130 ERA, 0.7 whip, 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings. The fastball velocity was up. He was using his best two swing and miss pitches more. Definitely. Fastball velocity way up this season.

Yeah. Nearly two miles per hour on average. Okay. And we've got some more pitcher news to get to. But Gregory Polanco is on the DL with a hamstring strain. Oduble Herrera has a hammie injury. He doesn't think he'll need to go on the O'DL for Oduble Herrera. Trey Turner's on the 60-day DL now, but it shouldn't change his timetable.

You might see Trey Turner back in about two weeks. Andrew Miller could be back Friday. Andrew Heaney is on track to return this weekend for the Angels. Recovering from Tommy John surgery. Yeah. Would you rather own Heaney or Tyler Skeggs? Uh, Heaney. Yeah, yeah, I would rather own Heaney.

He has had a very good minor league rehab assignment for whatever that's worth. It's tough to say what it's worth, because when you have a bad minor league rehab assignment, that makes sense. And I think you kind of expect that. Right. Because you're working your way back from Tommy John surgery. You do. But he had in six starts, a 260 ERA 119 whip. and, you know, 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

So now it's interesting you compare him to Tyler Skaggs because a year ago, Tyler Skaggs had the best minor league rehab assignment I've ever seen. He was recording like double-digit strikeouts every start, and it obviously didn't translate. And we haven't really seen Heaney be a great pitcher in the majors yet. He's sewn some signs of being pretty good. I mean, yeah, 350 ERA and 105 innings. He's not going to be a strikeout guy,

He can get to, you know, close to league average. He can be James and Tyone. Okay. All right. So, we'll see. I mean, I have trouble just, like, going out and adding a unproven pitcher coming back from Tommy John, but he's a name, Andrew Heaney. We got Noah Cindergarde throwing off a mound, and he said he felt great.

Matt Harvey's going to make his second rehab start today. I can't wait for Matt Harvey to come back. I just love talking about him. We're missing that dynamic on the podcast. Yeah, right? It was so fun. I want to know the size of his shoulder muscle, his right shoulder muscle. Why?

Because supposedly that was the problem. Remember, it was like half the size of the left shoulder muscle? I didn't know that. Because he didn't rehab it properly and coming back from the surgery he had this offseason that I forget the name of now. Thoracic outlet. Thoracic outlet surgery, yes. You know, Scott, you've never admitted that you were wrong about Matt Harvey. Are we going to get that at some point?

He obviously did not recover from that procedure as well as I thought he would. I think that's fair to say. So, yes, I was wrong in that prediction. I'm just trolling, Scott. I'm just trolling. I think there's still some hope for the future. I don't really have much hope for this season. But, I mean, if his right shoulder muscle is half the size of what it should be,

you would think that would affect his velocity and effectiveness in everything. everything else. Yeah, well, how come you didn't notice that, Scott? I don't know. I'm just kidding. Who on earth would notice that? Greg Byrd was going to begin a rehab assignment today. Stephen Vote will be back soon, and Andrew Benintendi left after being hit by a pitch on

the knee. Meanwhile, Devin Mazzarocco is out three to six weeks with a fractured foot. Steven Strasberg, looks like he could start this weekend. Johnny Quato through a bullpen session, and here are some lineup notes. All right, I really am holding Scott and Heath responsible for the fate of my... podcast league team because you told me to start Trevor's story over Catelle Marte. Cate led off yesterday. You went two for five.

He had a very lucky hit and a run. But Trevor's story with the ding-nong leads Cotel Marte 7 to 5.5 right now. So so far, so good. Yeah. Good job. Jonathan V.R. guys, this is pretty interesting. Are we getting a comeback from VR? They had Keon-Brockson on the bench.

They put VR in center field. And this is with Arcia out with back spasms. VR in his last five games is 8 for 21 with a home run with two steals. There was an explanation for it. Oh, okay. What was it? The Brewers wanted to get as many left-handed batters into the lineup against Yvonne Nova as possible. Gotcha. Okay.

So that was the explicit explanation for why Jonathan V.R. was in. so I'm not sure it leads to anything. But, I mean, we have seen this guy be really good in ways that weren't totally sustainable, but also weren't totally fluky either. There's talent here. Let's see. Yeah, okay. And Ken, Broxton's not very good.

Miguel Cabrera returned to the lineup. He went 0 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts at Texas. Here's a segment called Told You So. Andrew McCutcheon is 2 for 16 in his last five games. and he's batting 244 and slugging 333 in August. Told you so. All right. Oh, that's not good.

You just won't let this go, will you? I'm just hoping for the collapse. Just like every time I check the Pirates box score, I'm hoping for something bad for McCutcheon the same way. I know it. Same way that Chris Towers is hoping for something bad for Manny Machado whenever he checks the O's box score. Not at all.

This is ridiculous. See, that's the difference is I had Manny Machado as my number one shortstop. You would have kicked Manny Machado. Andrew McCutcheon out of Major League Baseball. Probably. Yeah, probably. Very different thing. So I have some other stuff in the notes, but we haven't really talked about that many players that people can go and add right now.

I don't, there wasn't, well, look, we talked about Denelsso-Lemette. I think if Luis Castillo is still available, it's an absolute no-brainer to go get him over Lamette, right? It probably has like three starts. If we could put them together and make Denels Luis Castilemet, that would be the best pitcher in baseball. baseball. Might be. Castillo slider sucks. Lamats changeup sucks.

Put them together. I really don't. Like, I haven't seen anything from the Reds, but if they at all care about preserving his arm, he probably only has three starts left, and one of them's at the end of this same week. So I don't know that it's absolute

no-brainer to pick up Castillo. But look, maybe the Reds don't care about preserving his arm, and I'll just let him pitch until it falls off. I have one league where I own two players that I think are worth looking at right now. One, look, Wilson Ramos has been terrible. But anytime a guy who was, I think, the number three catcher in fantasy last year, I know he got hurt at the end of the year, but still had a tremendous season with an 850 OPS. He's homered in two straight games.

He missed so much time, Wilson Ramos recovering from the ACL injury, that maybe he was just rusty, maybe he's knocking it off. Wilson Ramos is 48% owned, and he's a catcher for goodness. his sake. And Dexter Fowler. I did pick him up earlier in the week. And especially in a points league or an OVP league, he's walking so much. Dexter Fowler, just want to see the ownership percentage. He's 69% owned. Might be able to help you out. He's been playing very well since coming off the DL. Anybody else that you guys think needs to be added right now? Maybe Wilson Ramos, who's homered in back-to-back games now, three hits yesterday. Did you just

mention him? Sure did. Well, that's why I had that pause. I was waiting for somebody to react, and nobody did. Yeah. Who was in the waiver wire column today? Yeah, I will point out a potentially meaningful but likely meaningless note that Wilson Ramos did say he had a very good batting practice session two days ago before the game and thinks that that might have gotten him on track. Yep.

It's out there. Now, I said it. Corey Spangenberg is triple-eligible, Antis Homerd, in, what, five times in his last four games, I think it is? He's been really good. He's 19% home.

We did talk about him yesterday, but since the All-Star break, Spanjaburg's been out of this world. And he's, what, second-homer's in his last three games. Second-base eligible for the season. Also, not a bad base dealer. I think he might be kind of a poor man's witness. Maryfield right now.

Okay. With Maryfield, I think, with his 21st steal yesterday. Kyle Bearclaw pitched yesterday in a non-save situation. They were trailing 6-4 at the time. He gave up a home run, a solo home run struck out too. Still might be Ziegler, but I saw Scott did pick up Bearclaw on a couple leagues on Sunday night. And, okay, we'll see if anything else comes up. More from yesterday.

Let's play a game. It's called, oh, crap. Don't look at the notes. because you have all the answers. That's what it's called. That's a weird game. I forgot to delete this from your version of the notes. Do we have like a theme song? Don't look.

Can you... Oh, crap. Don't look at the notes. All right, so I put it in the notes for me, and then I send it to you guys. I was supposed to take this section out, so just don't look. Or just tell me if you already looked

and know the answers. The game is, in honor of my pathetic flub on Monday, where I kept mixing up, Matt Olson or Matt Chapman. We are going to play Matt Olson or Matt Chapman. Okay. Who homered yesterday? Matt Olson.

Who doubled yesterday? Matt Chapman. Correct. Who is owned in more leagues? Matt Chapman. Correct. Who has hit more home runs? Matt Chapman.

False. They are tied with eight. A trick question. Who has... Who is more RBIs? Matt Chapman. That is correct. He is 22.

Olson has 16. Who is a higher batting average? Matt Chapman. Chapman? Chapman. The box score. Well, stop cheating. It's Chapman 222 to 215.

Who has a higher on base percentage? Okay, I'm not looking. Olson, Chapman. Chris cheated. 296 to 295. Chapman wins. That's by one point. But one of them.

has hit four home runs in his last five games, and Matt Olson is 7% owned. I think Matt Olson's better than Matt Chapman. He has struck out a ton since getting called to the majors, but his strikeout rate at AAA really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. It's not like he was Joey Gallo down there,

and he has big-time power. He actually hit for a respectable banning average at AAA, and, yeah, he's first base instead of third base, but I think his bat is more projectable. Not sure either is that useful right now except in deeper leagues, but I do have more hope for Olson going forward. Okay. Double dongs from yesterday, guys.

We had Carlos Santana, who is now the number 12 first baseman in points leagues, number 21 in Roto, and he is batting 248 with 18 homers, and Howie Kendrick. Howie Kendrick has a 1140 OPS and 14 games with Washington. So much of that is the last two games during which Kendrick has three homers. He also led off yesterday.

I'm thinking, well, Goodwin's a little dinged up right now. Good one's on the D.L. That's right. It's very dinged up. They called up Alejandro de Aza. Oh, okay. So Kendrick, 20% owned. Let me give you two guys here.

Howie Kendrick, although he's, you know, you can use him as a second basement. So just generally speaking. or a player who's the number 26 outfielder in points, number 23 in Roto in the last 21 days, 5% owned Matt Joyce. I know we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here. Did Matt Joyce or Harry Kendrick rev your engine at all? I would rather have Matt Joyce, which is not, that might be damning with faint praise. Yeah, probably. I mean, it's hard to overlook the fact that Howie Kendrick's batting, what, 315?

for the year. Obviously, it's been an injury shortened year. But I don't think that's particularly sustainable. And I do think Joyce has more power. I guess Joyce. All right, we did two up. Two up was Wilson Ramos and Dexter Fowler. Let's go to two down.

C.Riss Davis is 73% owned. How do you feel about that ownership percentage for Chris Davis of the Orioles, who was batting 192 with a 288 slug. percentage in August? I think it's appropriate. I'm surprised it's that low now because I just figure most Chris Davis owners, a large percentage of Chris Davis owners would have weighted him out to a point that they just gave up. But 73% shows people are paying attention, and I think it's about right, given the state of first base, given the state of Chris Davis. Would you drop him for Reese Hoskins?

Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Okay. Malick Smith, sorry, Malick Smith is two down number two. First of all, Kevin Kiermire began a rehab assignment. Secondly, since the all-star break, Malick Smith is batting 191. He has not stolen a base in August.

Steels tend to come in bunches, but he's been ice cold. Is the Malick Smith, he's only 22% owned, but you are using him for steals. Is the Malik Smith fun about to end? I've been using him in the one league I own him for just stolen bases, just trying to make up for the loss of Trey Turner. and this is the last week that I will be using him. Okay, that's Malik Smith. Let's go to the rotation and talk about five pitchers from yesterday.

Gio Gonzalez is like legitimately a Cy Young candidate. He has a 249 ERA, 113 whip. But look at the swinging strikes in his last two starts. Six, two starts ago and one yesterday. He said four starts this year with six swinging strikes, but that was his season low before one yesterday. Does that matter at all to you with Gio Gonzag. us.

He's been really difficult to figure out. He's been difficult to figure out for about three seasons now because by many measurements, strikeout rate and ground ball rate included, it looks like he's a worse pitcher than he was the previous two years. And yet he's gotten much better results. The BABIP this year is really low. It's 241. And this is not someone who has historically been.

an extremely low Babbab guy. So, I'm starting him everywhere I own him, but I'm kind of keeping one eye open, if that makes sense. Yeah. Is he just having his Rick Porcello season, and next year is going to be pretty bad for Gio? Yeah, I look at, like, the peripherals are not good. This is someone who, for the course of his career,

has pitched to his peripherals. his ERA is a run and a half lower than his FIP right now. So I have to be consistent. I didn't believe in it when Jason Vargas was doing it. So I'm not going to believe it with Gio Gonzalez. I think things are going to take a turn for the worse. Okay. Been waiting patiently for that.

That's why I'm just kind of like riding with it. The gap, yeah, I'm not saying bench him, but the gap between his peripherals and his ERA, like when he was, when he had a load of mid-3s-easy, RA. I was like, all right, he can keep this up, but this is going to take a turn. His FIP is 392. It's the second highest FIP of his career. The highest was his rookie season with the A's. All right. Danny Salazar was great again. I think he's a must start right now. Alex Wood, are you guys comfortable with Alex Wood right now after he had his little brief struggles?

He's been great last three starts. Yeah, velocity hasn't really gotten better, but I think he's good. Okay, Kyle Hendricks, why, he went six innings? That was shocking, but he walked four, he struck out six against the Reds. Do you pretty much just start Kyle Hendricks every time? No. No? I think he's a match-up guy with an 85-mile-hour fastball.

He never does badly, though. He does have two ERA since returning from the D.L. He never does badly. This was his second time going six-in-hour fastball. or more since May. Yeah. Well, second time going, he missed a lot of time since May. Yeah.

Yeah. But what I said is technically true. Yeah. I think second time in seven starts is what that comes out to. First start of the year, he goes seven innings, and it's like, first time pitching more than six innings since November. Dan Straeli. Dan Staley's had a nice year. He had an okay start yesterday.

Last 10 starts, he's a 437 ERA. Only 37 strikeouts in 55 and 2 thirds for Strali. But at 11% swinging strike rate, which should probably get you a lot more than 37 and 55 and 2 thirds. Not that it's a leap, but it's not bad. What do you make of the lower strikeouts from Dan Strelies? He's been pretty pedestrian for 10 starts now. That combined with the fact he's barely, he's hardly ever going six innings. I just don't think there's a lot to like.

here anymore. There was a time when it looked like he was turning the corner. It seemed like he was in the perfect part for his skill set. The strikeout rate was up. But he's he has all the problems of Kyle Hendricks

but with the addition of being vulnerable to home runs and not having as good of a supporting cast just not that interesting. I think he's Marco Estrada. Is he dropable Stan Straitrely? Like not saying you have to drop him? but you could.

He's dropable. Well, like I said, I'd rather have Lament. I'd like to use him at home, just like I'd like to use Lomet at home. I don't know how many pitchers I can really fault for not going six innings anymore. If I'm just looking for streamers, it's like... On the streamer level, yeah. I mean, I don't know that sixes should ever, can ever be an expectation. But among those 84% owned, I still think it's an issue.

Sure, sure. All right, let's take a look at today's matchups with the Pirates at the Brewers. I'm going to skip the 1 o'clock games, go to the 2.10 p.m. Eastern game. Garrett Cole, Jimmy Nelson, start him, right? Yep. Danny Duffy at Paul Blackburn. Royals at A is. Danny Duffy at Paul Blackburn.

I will definitely start Danny Duffy. Me too. Ubaldo Jimenez, Marco Gonzalez. I'm not going to start either of those. And will you start either Nick Pavetto or Clayton Richard as the Phillies and Padres tangle? No, sir. I don't hate the idea of starting Povetta if I'm totally desperate. Jaime Garcia for the Yankees tonight against the pitcher that I drafted more than any other player.

I had him in four or five leagues, I believe. So sorry. Robert Gisselman. That's entirely my fault. Gisleman. Start either of them? No. Jacob Ferrea, Marcus Stroman.

Start both. Lance Lynn at the Red Sox facing Edward. Rodriguez. I'm going to say start both. Yeah, I don't think you can sit, then. Annabal Sanchez, Cole Hamels. Give me the whole camels. Yeah. And not the Annabal. Homer Bailey, John Lackey. I thought you were just calling me a Homer there for a second. I'll start Lackey.

Okay. Sure. Start Carasco, sit Kyle Gibson. Taiwan Walker at Charlie Morton. I feel okay with Morton. I'm going to say no to Walker. Astra's too tough of a matchup. Yeah. Okay.

Mike Fultenevich at John Gray. Of course, field, I'm going to take neither. I will definitely start John Gray against the Braves. All right. And Carlos Rodan at U. Darvish. All right. Darvish, yes. Rodon at the Dodgys.

What do you think? That's a really tough matchup. But they changed their names, Scott. I didn't make that up. I don't think you can sit Rodon with how good he's looked at the last few starts. Oh, I agree. These are the last three starts. Six and two-thirds, one run, nine strikeouts against Cleveland.

Seven and two-thirds, two runs, eleven strikeouts at Boston. Eight innings, two runs, four strikeouts against Houston. And by the way, Houston, I think... And he struck out 11 at the Cubs to start before that. It's a bad start, but 11 strikeout. Yeah, he's got at least nine strikeouts in four of his... eight starts. Houston, I believe, has the few with strikeouts in baseball?

I believe they do. They have been among the leaders for most of the season, as well as in home run. By a lot. By a lot. 808 strikeouts for Houston. The next is 849 Cleveland. That's amazing. Last year, they were like a guarantee for strikeouts.

Yep. Let's finish with a few emails here. Jason from Ottawa. rest of season, Tim Beckham, Eddie Rosario, Aaron Hicks. Rank Beckham, Rosario, and Hicks. I will go Hicks, Rosario, Beckham. I will go Rosario Hicks, Beckham. This is from Ben.

Rank these guys rest of season. Burrios, Rodon, Reinaldo Lopez, Luis Castillo. Burios, Rodon, Reinaldo Lopez, Luis Castillo. Rodon. And then it gets tough. I mean, on a start-by-star basis, I'd go Castillo second. But, again, I don't know that he has too many of those left. So I'm going to put him forth by default.

Rodon, Berrios, Castillo, Lopez. I'll move Lopez ahead of Castillo, but sure. All these rankings emails. This is from West in Arizona. Rank these short stops. Chris Taylor, Cattel Marte, Jonathan V.R., Ahmed Rosario, Trevor Storrivor. Chris Taylor, Catele-Marté, VR, Rosario, and Story.

I will go, Story, Rosario. Was that one of them? Marte. And who is the other? Taylor and VR. And Chris Taylor. Well, VR fourth. Okay, if we're going to call Taylor shortstop, which is not in standard CBS leagues, then he would be first.

Sure. So who was second for you, Scott? Story. Story. Chris? Yeah. I agree with Scott's ranking, and I won't belabor the point. From Craig in Middletown, Delaware.

Someone dropped Shaw Mania in our league. Is he worth an automatic pickup or more of a wait-and-see for Mania? It depends entirely on what you have to give up. His really strong run, starting at about May, coincided with him throwing his slider more and getting better results than he ever had with it. He's lost that. They were, manager was talking about that yesterday. So I think that it depends on who you have to drop.

I'm fine with adding him, though. Okay, that's Sean Manaya. And our final email is from Joseph, dear Clint, Aaron, and Brett. Boone's. Oh, wait, no, no, no. Who's Clint Boone? Clint, oh, Yankees outfielders. Sorry.

There you go. Head to head point. Wow, I went to Boone. Boones before I went to Yankees outfielders. I lost Wilson Contreras in a points league. I picked up Tyler Flowers. He seems to be losing playing time to Kurt Suzuki. Any recommendations on a fill-in catcher for the stretch run?

Wilson Ramos. Alex Avila. Who is, you know, obviously Contreras is direct replacement for the Cubs. How about somebody definitively better than Flowers? How about someone who just hit their first? home run of the season last night, who we have not mentioned. Jorge Alfaro? First career home run.

Jorge Alfaro. He's not playing a lot. He's played three of the last five games for the Philadelphia Phillies. Before that, he hadn't played in five games. But three of the last five, for sure. Okay. It's about as much as Flowers play. Look, he's very strikeout prone, but he's also a former elite talent

who has been a top 100 prospect for a long time. Didn't have a great season in the minors this year, but has big pop for a catcher. Yeah, that home run year was a screamer. It was the hardest. Since during the stat cast era, it had the highest exit velocity of any Philly's home run. Oh.

Line drive to center. I mean, it's not necessarily the toughest competition there. It's not like they've had Aaron Judge. Oh, Cameron Rupp has a lot of... But, you know, it's... That made me think of the baseball tonight graphic from the early 2000s of the ball screaming. Let's go. Let's go.

We got to go. We got to make way for the In This Corner Wrestling podcast, the Wednesday edition. Make sure you check it out in this corner. It's a wrestling, MMA, and boxing podcast. It's very awesome. So we'll talk to you later for Chris and Scott. I'm Adam. See ya.