Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/16: Week 22 Help, Bellinger, Ramirez & Trout (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Adam happens to be off when the Indians double the double dongs on the Yankees. Aristides Aquino was the most added player this week on CBS, but Scott says maybe ownership should be flipped with this third baseman who's only 60% owned. Bellinger is the first to 40 home runs, but Trout only needed a few hours to join him. Has Yu Darvish returned to elite status? Scott weighs in. Plus, prospect pickups, two start pitchers and Scott's defense of peeps in our modern culture.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome in. It is Fantasy Baseball today with Scott White and Twitter at CBS Scott White. I am Chris Welsh.

You can find me on Twitter. At Is It the Welsh. There is so much going on. We've got standouts from Thursday, two start pitchers, lots of news, a few emails. And today, it's just me and Scott White. Hello, Scott. I know. Adam ditched us.

Your babysitter's gone. He is. I know. I don't know what to do. I'm kind of like, I'm like a dog when you opened up the door. I'm like, ooh, do I go out the door? Do I, what do I do here? Do I stay?

You're going to be climbing up the shelves, pulling the bookcase down on you because no supervision. No adult supervision here. Yeah, it's, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that any of that's happened. either. So thank you to everybody that's tuning in here, and it'll be fun. It'll just be me and Scott. And I, of course, I'm going to interject a few prospect things as I'm a prospect guy, and Scott is obviously a great prospect guy. But let's jump right in. Favorite two-start pitchers. We're looking at guys own 70% or less in leagues. I'm going to throw this out, even though we've talked about him for a couple days this week. Yvonne Nova. Ivon Nova. Ivon Nova's got two matchups that I don't

hate 38% own. He's at Minnesota. That could be better, but also against Texas. Scott, I know you guys are not big of on Nova guys, but when you look at a list of the under 70% own, there are a couple interesting prospects that maybe have a matchup or two that's less than likely, but what do you think? I know you don't like Nova, but Minnesota, Texas? Well, Minnesota's terrible. It's a bad matchup. I get that. But Nova has been better on the road. I think almost a run better on the road than at home. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I, I, yeah, I'm imagine. I mean, obviously, I can't predict exactly how that's going to go, but that, that, that seems like a bad matchup. And Texas, um, trying to look at how they've done recently. Obviously, their season stats look better because Joey Gallo was around for much of that time and he's not anymore.

Um, they haven't been doing so hot lately. So, yeah, I mean, I'm on the fence whether that's a good matchup or a bad matchup. But the bottom line is I just don't believe in Dova at all. And like, I'm sure the moment I put him in my lineup is when it's all going to unravel for him. And I don't, the matchups aren't nearly favorable enough for me to roll the dice personally. And it makes sense. All right. So who do you got? Who's your favorite two-start pitching matchup for this upcoming week?

All right. So using the standard of a 70% cutoff. there's really only one guy who I think is a oh man he's 71 he's 71 I know I didn't pick him because he was 71 yeah I was gonna say Brad Keller um man so it's not good I mean I feel like I can give you a pass I didn't catch that one I was just say we could probably give you a pass for 71 percent but if you want to stick true to it I understand yeah well I mean people should start Brad Keller one of his matchups against Baltimore.

He has been emerged as an innings eater, ground ball specialist. So it's, you know, even his bad starts are more like of the four and run, five earn run variety

than like two and two thirds, six earn runs, something like that. So yeah, I think he's, I think he's a pretty safe option. Beyond him, though,

we have to go deeper. I kind of like Eliezer Hernandez, who's only 8% owned. So he's available everywhere. And he did he did just give up four home runs when he pitched yesterday those were the only four runs he gave up He is a fly ball pitcher matchups don't worry at all I mean Atlanta and Philly Philadelphia yeah

I think it's it's one of those Starts that I would only consider in like a points league as opposed to categories league Hernandez being RP eligible Like he's a pretty good swing and miss guy and and I don't know. I mean, it's obviously looking at a lot of bad choices here. Yeah, I know it's interesting what you said too, because if you want to take it to like a head-to-head standpoint,

under 70%, there's not a lot of great favorable matchups if you're trying to play head-to-head to start stuff. Points leagues are things you can get away with here. Right, exactly. Like the threshold, there's usually, because I write a, I do two-star pitcher rankings every week for the, for the website and I kind of have a separate cutoff

for traditional five by five category leagues and then points leagues because the threshold for a like a decent start is much lower in a points league. Like basically if you're making two starts

as long as one of them isn't such a disaster that it gives you negative points. I mean the guy still has hope of pulling out a good week. You know, a couple, yeah. I mean, as long as there's not such a disaster that it's costing you points, it's pretty much a beneficial week for the pitcher if you use him. And I think there's a decent chance Hernandez provides you with that.

Okay. Well, we'll definitely hit back on just going through some of the two-start pitchers a little bit later in the show. How about some Thursday standouts? I've got two that kind of intersect each other. You Darvish was phenomenal. Seven innings, four hits, no earn runs, no walks, 10 strike. guess what? Zero walks in his last four starts, 90 strikeouts and only seven walks in his last 12 starts. Beautamous. But it was all doomed because the lead was taken away. And ultimately,

Bryce Harper in that game had a walk-off Grand Slam, hit his 25th homer off of Derek Holland after Pedro Strope was taken out. So Bryce Harper with the big old Grand Slam. But U. Darvish is just on an absolute incredible run. Do you think, I mean, he's at, he's at a spot where you're just not going to even think about matchups anymore, are you? I think he's pretty much back to ace level. You gave zero walks in his past four starts, right? Yeah. His past 12 starts, 0.9 is his BP, is his walks per 9.0.9 and 12 starts. You, Darvish. And I mean, his ERA is actually kind of high during that stretch because of some home runs, 359 ERA in that 12-star stretch,

but a 0.8-3 whip, 11.1Ks per 9. Obviously, pitch it deep into games. He's pretty much back to pitching at an ace level, and honestly, it's validating for me because my stance, even through the awful months, was, you know, the underlying... There's some really interesting stuff going on here

beneath the surface, and if you just get those walks under control, I think he can be great. again. And, you know, it's one of those points where it starts to sound, it's one of those takes where it starts to sound stupid to yourself, the longer it's not coming through. But I'm glad it finally did. I'm not such an idiot after all. No, I mean, I was definitely buying in on U. Darvish and my league made over in this league. Scott Bogman is, oh, he's been just a U. Darvish homer forever. And it's tough because U. Darvish, he's been one of those guys you've had

to stomach through. You've had to stomach through this. And it's a huge payoff. It actually, U. Darvish reminds me right now of the pitcher version of Jose Ramirez. It's like the payoff that you're getting if you were able to stomach through the process. And it's nice to see Bryce Harper as well. Grand Slam, he's been getting hot. But what about you, Scott? You got any Thursday standouts you want to give to the audience? I just want to mention for Harper because, you know, there was a point early this season

where it was a legitimate question whether or not he was even like a high-end outfielder anymore. and a lot of it had to do with an escalating strikeout rate. Well, the strikeout rate has come down quite a bit over the past couple months. It's still, you know, it's still one of the worst of his career, but it's certainly, it's certainly passable. I mean, it's like 25%. I think it's like 26% for the season now, which is really not that bad in the 2019 context.

So that's encouraging to see. my standout for Thursday I'm going to bring up Corey Seeger here because he homered for the third straight game and I feel like I feel like everybody like I don't know what his start percentage actually is

versus his ownership percentage I'm sure he's widely owned still but everybody's kind of been keeping them around not really knowing what's going to come next because I feel like the plate discipline's been great all year he he was getting hot right before going on the aisle with that hamstring injury um but he just hasn't hit the ball with the same authority this year that we've seen from in years past obviously first year back from Tommy John surgery I'm guessing that has something to do with it but um and to your point 93% own but only a 68% start rate there you go there you go I think I I can definitely

I definitely envision a scenario where he just takes off over the final six weeks and looks like Corey Seeger of old again and everybody's happy to have held on to him. Another, like you were saying with Jose Ramirez and U Darvish, where, you know, the weight was justified. One other standout. Ahmed Rosario, five hits, two doubles, a triple among them. And he looks like the leadoff hitter with Jeff McNeil out. I don't think Ahmed Rosario is a great offensive player, but there is some speed, there's a little bit of power. Not great on base skills,

but anybody who's batting at the top of the lineup, it obviously, like, it increases the potential impact of that player. And I feel like Ahmed Rosario might end up being a productive, pretty productive fantasy option while McNeil's out. Yeah, he's always been a speed option. The power was in question. Ultimately, the bat was in question. And the funny thing about him was he was like the perfect testament to the age old, like, how do I balance prospect lists that are not based around fantasy and ones that are based around fantasy?

Because Rosario is one of those guys that you would see ranked, you know, like four or five overall. But he was just more of a defensive player. And it's, you know, we're just looking for the ultimate payoff. And it's starting there. There's speed. And he's leading off and he can make contact. He's going to be worthwhile. Injury news notes.

Max Scherzer could return on Sunday. I mean, if he gets pushed also, he could be one of those two starts if they wanted to go that route. Very, very good to get Max Scher back. Joey Votto was scratched with back tightness. It's just brutal to talk about Joey Votto at all in this season. I haven't been around the whole season, obviously. What has been your take on Joey Votto as far as rosterability? Is it still something that is a, if he's not hitting well, you put him on the bench,

or have you been comfortable cutting bait? At this point, I mean, it's mid-August. And whatever glimmer of hope we've seen has been short-lived, yeah, I think it's time to cut bait. Maybe permanently. I'm not, you know, after the way last year went, I was giving him a pass. He's Joey Fotto.

Obviously, he finished the year hot. But following it up with this year, a guy in his mid-30s, I think we may have seen the last of him is, Anything beyond like a deep league option. Yeah, it kind of hurts. Javier Bias sat with an illness. It ended up moving David Bodie over to shortstop and Ian Hap was able to get in.

Ian Hap, interesting. We'll probably talk about him on here. And how about this one? The New York Yankees expect Jean-Cardos Stanton to return in September, according to MLB.com, Scott. Sure. I'm sure he's going to return. I mean, yeah, he probably will, right? I don't.

I mean, they want them ready for the playoffs. I think they do, but do you think it's in time, it's going to be with enough time for anybody? I mean, I think Stanton to me has been one of the more difficult decisions. Obviously, if you have an IA, you just throw him on there. But there are people out there that are going to have problems. They're going to look and they're going to say, well, Stanton is in place of, you know, where I could make some moves,

but he's so talented. He can stack up the stats at such an extreme level. he's one of those guys you don't want to cut but ultimately I question that he comes back and yeah it's possible he doesn't come back will he come back with enough time

to gain your trust I'm sure people in three outfielder leagues who are you know those are usually head to head leagues so you're talking about you know you have to make every lineup you set count from this point forward because one bad week could ruin everything for you. So will he have enough time to gain people's trust in that format? I mean, they all probably have pretty good outfielders as it is, if they're in contention.

And I don't know. I do think there's a pretty big distinction between three outfielder leagues and five outfielder leagues in terms of how much you hope Stanton can do for you down the stretch. because a five outfielder league, I imagine there's a lot of people who would plug them in almost immediately. You extend the need for outfielders out that far. It makes a pretty big difference. Yeah.

Robbie Ray hit the I.O. with back spasms. And we talked about this yesterday, and my call ended up being right. John DuPontier is going to be called up. Looks like he's going to be taking that spot. Got a 4.38 ERA in 25 major league. innings this year and a 9 to 24 walk to strikeout ratio. So Duplanteau, is that somebody that, I mean, he kind of falls in line with a lot of these other guys we've been talking about

earlier in the week, maybe the Dylan Peters, the Calquant Trills. I mean, is Duplanteer a person that you would potentially want to get out there streaming? Maybe only matchups? Well, that's interesting. When is he going to make his first start? Because I think Robbie Ray's turn was due up for Yes. For two starts this upcoming week. You are right about that. I'm going to guess the first one is going to be at home against Colorado. I haven't seen any official announcement outside of DuPontier is going to be the one that's getting called up.

So I'm assuming he's going to be slotted into Robbie Ray's spot, which I have on here on CBS, August 19th, at home against Colorado. That being a Monday. And then the second would be against the Milwaukee Brewers. Ruars, which isn't good. I mean, I'm interested fresh back, you know, fresh up from the miners

where I don't think he had more than a four-inning start in a couple months because of the injury he was dealing with. You know, I'm not that hopeful from an impact. I like him as a talent. I just think it becomes another matter of how much time will it take for him to earn your trust.

and like is he going to come up and throw six innings right away? I doubt it. And it's hard for any starting pitcher to make an impact in fantasy if he's not doing that. So it's more of a keep an eye on it situation, I think, than a rush out and add him situation. Yeah, I agree with that. Unless you were in deeper leagues or, you know, again, points leagues,

things like that where you might want to do it. He's more of a watcher here. Dodgers pitcher Justin May's role is not necessarily guaranteed. They're also talking about him potentially going in the bulls. bullpen, but Roberts is kind of wishy-washy on where that stands, which that's a bummer. Yeah, I mean, I assume Kenta Maeda is headed toward his annual August demotion to the bullpen, right? Yeah.

So they need it. I mean, they have Tony Gonsolent hanging out at AAA. He had a good spot start the last time we saw him. The Dodgers at this point should just take all of their pitchers and just go through a opener at this point. Just three innings here, four innings for the other guy, just control them in that fashion. I mean, they could really put out some crazy lineups if you think about it with Aureus and May and Gonsolin. Like a piggybacking scenario. Yeah, exactly. Like almost take four pitchers to create two, you know, eight inning stretched pitchers where May and Orius and then

Gonsolin and I don't know, they got a guy in the minors right now, Mitchell White, who's pretty interesting. I mean, they just have a lot of guys out there that they could ring out. Yeah, that's a good point. Garrett Cole should be able to pitch next week. That's positive news for everybody. Now, how convenient was this that Adam just wasn't on the show that the New York Yankees got absolutely shalacked? 19 to 5. The Indians beat up on the Yankees.

Here's a few things. We had a double dong from Carlos Santana. Jose Ramirez, we talked about, also double dong. Perez, Greg. Allen. A couple of Yankees got in the action. Chad Green didn't make it out of the first inning. I believe he gave up five. It's obviously just happenstance here, Scott,

that Adam wasn't here for this show, right? No, that's such an azer move. Agreed. Agreed. And Jose Ramirez, just for whatever reason, ever since I've been, you know, coming on with you guys, Jose Marius has just been on an absolute tear. I mean, we've already kind of talked about it,

but he's just, he's the gift that's going to keep on giving for fantasy owners that have been able to, pull through. And it interestingly makes that question we had earlier in the week of Jose Altuva versus Ramirez. As we go, it's becoming more fun. It is. Yeah, I mean, Jose Ramirez has been the strangest player to analyze, possibly in the entire time I've been doing this. Really? Which is over a decade. I don't know. That's probably an overstatement. But it's weird to think about a decade of fantasy analysis too because it's so much more sophisticated now than it was in those early years.

May not even recognized how weird certain performances were in those early years. But yeah, it's been really weird for Jose Ramirez. He has, but he's been on a nice little tear. Obviously, we'll be looking at most added. Most viewed guys, there's a couple that are interesting here. Stephen Mats was near the top of the list, 69% owned. on Wednesday he went six struck out five got a four three three ERA seven and seven record and two or fewer earned runs and four of his last five starts I mean is there easy

competition those four good starts were San Francisco a complete game against Pittsburgh Miami and then Atlanta I mean a lot of people are out there viewing Stephen Mats right now Scott and he is a two-star pitcher and he would probably be you know, he's right there around Eliezer Hernandez and how willing I am to give him a chance probably just a points league scenario. There's a 60% difference in ownership there. Mats is 68% owned.

The thing about Mats is there are a lot of ups and downs. In the end, the numbers tend to look pretty good, but in a way that I don't really buy into that much, it's kind of like a Julio-Toran situation. where I'm not sure the skill level really backs up the numbers,

and yet the numbers tend to be decent. And that's happening again this year. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want him other than like a spot start, you know, stream the two-star pitcher situation. But he's, you know, he seems like an okay choice. He's a monitor. The number one guy that I saw viewed when I was taking a look earlier was Josh Rojas, who we've been talking about with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He started three of the four games since being called up. He did sit versus a lefty. Six games next week. He's got a home against Colorado and Milwaukee. And as it's scheduled right now, probably only one lefty in there, if that's what the Diamondbacks are doing if they're sitting him versus lefties. He also is in the lineup on Thursday. Doesn't have a hit where he's been pretty solid there.

But he was hitting two in between Dyson and Escobar, which is pretty fun. I feel like Rojas is, I mean, how the Diamondbacks are using him in this short term, I don't think it's all about David Peralta in the injury. I think it's really to get like a really big, solid look at him, but he is in right field tonight. Rojas continuously is a player that I'm comfortable trying to plug in down the stretch, where needed, of course. Do you agree Scott? Yeah, it's pretty, I think the fact that they're batting him second shows how excited they are about him. how they seem to feel like there's a lot of legitimacy

to what he was doing at AAA. And my favorite stat right now, he's up to 12 plate appearances, and know how many strikeouts he has? Ooh, I'm going to do the Doctor Strange thing. Hold up just one finger. That's all it is. That's it, only one?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think he walked more than he struck out in the minors this year between AA and both stents AAA with the Astros and the Diamondback. So, I mean, he already proved himself to be a very patient hitter, doesn't strike out a lot, and he was a counting stat monster. I mean, I don't know and have a hard time believing what he's been doing at AAA

is going to translate at the major league level, but he sure does have all the little checkpoints you're looking for for those type of breakout players. And I've heard Jeff McNeil is a comp of, like, production that you might see, but maybe even a, maybe even a better hitter, Scott. Maybe, yeah. I mean, if what he was doing, a AAA translates, I mean, he's, you know,

top five batten fantasy. So it doesn't need to. It just needs to be like, you know, 60% of that. And he's a pretty valuable option. That's right. That was the number I was thinking of as well.

All right. Let's hit a break real quick. We come back. We've got in-game, some in-progress games we want to take a look at. There's a whole bunch of ad information that we got to hit to more pitchers, hitters, plus there are some emails out there.

So taking a little break right here on fantasy baseball today. All right. Let's take a look, Scott, at a few, just real quick, before we get into all these. We've got some in-games going on as we're recording this. What is it, like 1130 Eastern as we're going. We've got the Diamondbacks and Giants going, Astros and A's and Angels and White Sox. It looks like there's a half-decent matchup going on with the Angels in White Sox. Andrew Haney, I think, was going no hit for the first three innings.

At this moment, five innings, five strikeouts, two earned runs, where Rinaldo Lopez has struck out five and five and one-third with two earned runs. Both of those guys look like kind of those, you know, solid, fringy options, and they're playing pretty well against each other. I like Andrew Haney a lot. I feel like we haven't seen the best from him yet. Last year he came pretty close. And, you know, obviously he's done with, dealt with a ton of injuries in his career.

This year he was doing, he's been doing a lot of the right things when he's been healthy in terms of missing bats. Even tonight, 14 swinging strikes on only 68 pitches. I mean, that's an incredible rate. But he's gotten burned by the long ball so much. Beyond a point that I think is reasonable to, you know, he's a fly ball pitcher. I get it. It's a homer friendly environment. but it's, you know, he's, it's been kind of ridiculous how many home runs he's given up,

especially early on when he was healthy, when he was at his healthiest. So, yeah, I mean, three and two-thirds innings in his first start back from the aisle last time out. He's already up to five now. I mean, considering he's at 68 pitches, it'll be interesting to see how Deepi ends up going. If it's like, you know, if he goes six, seven innings, probably, he probably becomes an interesting two-start pitcher. for next week. If you can trust him to go deep into games again. He's only 51% on at Texas at Houston.

That's not great. But skills-wise, I think he's better than any of the other pitchers we've been talking about as potential two-star choices. And it looks like you got Fires and Aaron Sanchez going up against each other and looks like this might need to update because it's showing me that Fires has given up four earned runs

but the board hasn't updated. I think that's, oh, there you go. Something just happened. Someone just hit a, oh, Michael Brantley just hit a homer. So vintage Astros. Yeah. Fires getting pounded finally?

He's five in one third, four earned runs, one walk, only two strikeouts. No quality start today, Mikey. Bye-bye. And Aaron Sanchez, four earned as well, three strikeouts. So no quality starts. A lot of homers, though. Matt Olson, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, Carlos Correa, just a little in-game progress look. Are you a Judd-Apital fan?

I'm neutral on Judd-A-Apatow. Well, this is 40, but it's Cody Bellinger's. This is 40. That was my setup there. I wasn't sure if we would get there. But Cody Bellinger hit his 40th home run, four RBIs, and five stolen bases away from setting career highs in all of the standard 5x5 categories,

and it's mid-August. I mean, I don't need to be the one to tell you the year Bellinger's been having, but he was the first one to hit 40. And he's, like I said, four, I mean, he's one good game away from getting that RBI total. Still on bases, he got a little bit to go. But Cody Bellinger, an absolute beast. And Pete Alonzo, it is 39th homer post-all-star break entering Thursday, though.

He was 181 with 40 strikeouts and 19 walks. He had a couple doubles in there, and he had an eight homers. So Pete Alonzo and Cody Bellinger, a combined 79 homers between the two, Scott. It looks like Trout's the second to 40 You're in the lake games Oh you're right you're right Trout hit it right after He joined the club

What a group What a group I think Cody Bellinger by the way Is not the de facto Number four people have to look in fantasy Next year especially because League formats will dictate stuff Where Scher is

But like the top three is Some combination of yellow chakuna And Trout For the most part Again I want to point out Like in points league Shurzer might be in there Do you at least say

that Bellinger is in that top five? Well, no, that's, I've been saying for weeks that it's going to be Trout Yelich Bellinger, so I was putting him ahead of Acuna. Over Akunia. Obviously, Akunia's closed the gap during that time, and maybe I should be giving him more, you know, more consideration considering he's

looking like the most reliable steel source of that group now that he looks like fixture in the leadoff spot now Brian Snitker I'm not gonna use the exact word he used but he called himself an idiot for for not batting a cunia leadoff I think he's a little hard on himself that's a little weird there's some valid arguments to make for not batting a cunia lead off but the point is it sounds like he's not going to mess with that anymore and just based on the tendencies acunia shown he runs a lot more from the lead off spot so that does look like a contribution we can count on

from him going forward. And yeah, that's going to be something to consider. What's interesting for Bellinger is his batting averages, the month by month breakdown of his batting average, it doesn't look so good for him lately, and yet the strikeout rate is still weighed down.

I'm not sure I'm totally buying that. I think Bellinger could have just such a crazy September that he puts that debate to rest and is pretty clearly the number three option next year. But we'll see. Yeah, and I think the most interesting thing will be how there might not be a consensus at the top for most people like there have been for so many, many years. We kind of talked about this, but, oh, brother, that was the title.

Corey Seeger, he had homered in three straight games as we talked about, and Kyle Seeger got in the action. And two for five with a double three RBIs, a run and a K at Detroit. We've had a lot of good brother action is been the big key. He had three homer game on Tuesday and a nine game hitting streak. Cal Tucker is, I think somebody, yeah, I've got him in this hitter list here. So let's talk about the most added players, and we can talk about him there. The two most added hitters that I saw Scott were, probably no surprise. Aristides Aquino, who is up to 88% up from 15% owned, just everybody going massive on him.

And Aristidesa Zankeno is more owned than Mike Talkman, who is 72% who is up from 36. So, I mean, that is a massive line for McKeonio. It's been fun, this kind of, this group of hitters that have suddenly emerged as very attractive options and fantasy all at the same time. It's not just those two, but J.D. Davis, his ownership's gone up 34% in the past week. Giorchella, of course, 31%. It's amazing to think it was that short, that recently that he was only 55% owned. And I think it's great to see that a kino can go from 15 to 88 in mid-August.

I wasn't even sure that many people were caring about fantasy baseball anymore for his ownership percentage to rise that much. See, this is one of those where, like, if I was a little bit more concerned with Jean-Carlo's Stanton, like, you know, if let's say I had no I L spots and I needed the roster spot, dropping a guy like Starrul. Canton for for Aquino would be, I think that would be tough, but I don't long term believe in Aquino. So that's the big thing. He was hitless tonight. He had a walk. I think it cools down. I love seeing it. I mean, I probably believe actually in Mike Talkman more than I do Aquino. And if I had to choose between the two, that's the guy I'd want to be out there starting outside of this nice little hot streak that's going on. Yeah, I'm not sure who of those two, I believe in more. I think they're, I think Talkman has a more well-rounded skill set while Akuna's, I keep calling him Akunia.

It kind of looks like, yeah. I mean, his name is Aristides is Akinio. Like, we get it, man. It's tough. Yeah. Akino is pretty much just all power. And that's, that's a difficult profile to really have play up in this environment. Just because home runs are so easy to come by. But the guy who I think is, people may still be sleeping on of this group is J.D. Davis. Like his production, I think, is the most, maybe even compared to, like,

Urchella, who I think is great. Davis is the most sustainable, I feel like. I think you're right. That's our better ad section. J.D. Davis up to 60%, and he's up from 26%. And I believe he's on a nine-game hitting streak where he's getting 448 in that period, which is just unbelievable.

Willie Calhoun, by the way, just adding a couple more better ads and if we get some more takes from you on J.D. Davis. Willie Calhoun, 58% up from 51 and Ryan McMahon, 62% up from 59. I put the three of these guys together because their percentage is relatively around the same. J.D. Davis was obviously much more picked up than the three. But Willie Calhoun did hit a homer, his 11th, I believe his 11th on Thursday night. Is this JD Davis as a big runaway if you were deciding between Calhoun, McMahon, and J.D.? Yes.

Yes, JD is a big runaway. I mean, the season numbers look great. And then when you consider his expected batting averages in his XBA, the actual stat, and his expected Wobah are both higher than what they actually are, I mean, good grief. This guy looks like a natural hitter. Calhoun is, Calhoun's interesting, though. I mean, I think he's been undervalued for a while now, too, getting every day at best. more than Hunter Pence, more than Shinsu Chu.

And the Rangers play eight games this upcoming week. They're my team with the number one, number one in the hitting matchups, the Rangers. So Calhoun, at least for week 22 is what we're going into. Definitely somebody to consider putting in your lineup. Yeah, and Willie Calhoun went two for four on Thursday night. He's had hits in three of his last four games, and I believe this is his second home. in the last four games. So Willie Calhoun has been pretty fun.

Do you think, if I were to say, is this an accurate statement, I guess, J.D. Davis underowned, Aristides Aquino, overowned. You think they should be flipped in percentages? Like 60s should be Aquino and J.D. should be up in the 88s? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, in terms of how much I believe in them, I believe in J.D. Davis more than Aquino. You know, if you're talking, should Aquino be 80s? percent owned. I think that's yes. I mean, whenever somebody makes this kind of impact, like you have to take a flyer on it just to see what happens next. You know, I've been wrong enough in my life to know to do that. Yeah. But yeah, in terms of how much I believe in them, J.D. Davis

should be, yeah, J.D. Davis should be higher. All right. Here's some deeper league hitters, deeper-ish, about 35% or less owned. Luis Arias, not Yorius. Remember, we're getting that right, 24% up from 17. Ian Hap is at 33%. He's up from only 14% the previous week. Kyle Seeger, 31% up from 26%. And Jason Kipness up to 35%. You have a look on your face like Ian Hap's percentage is much higher than what I just said.

Okay, I was making sure I had the right guy again when you talked about Arise. We're talking about... Arrias. Luis, yeah, Ariris. Who plays for the twins. He does not play for the twins. The Padres. And I love looking at their names, too, because it's just so ridiculously different.

But as soon as our mouths open, it just sounds like the same player. So, Arias, Hap, Seeger, Kipness, all between 24 and 35% owned in deeper leagues. Who's the guy that you take the flyer on out of these four? Kipness. It's easy. Oh, yeah, Joe Kipness, right? Joe Kip. Yeah.

Now, Jason Kipness, who has been a different player. since how far back is it going now? I think June, right? That sounds about right. To, yeah, mid-June. So, like, that's like, eh, it's not quite half the season today. But anyway, yeah, 48 games now entering tonight,

so the numbers are even better now with another home run. 307 batting, average nine home runs, 898 OPS. I mean, that's, if that's his season line, nope, everybody has them in their starting lineup. And, you know, a 32-Babbitt during that stretch. So it's not like he's having this crazy good luck or anything. I think he's fixed. I think he's fixed.

You know, it wasn't too long ago. We considered him a stud. And what about Arias? Arras hit his third homer. He's not known as, he really reminds me, anybody out there that's listening. I know there's a bunch of you guys that are still prospect people. If you look at a guy like Luis Garcia with the Washington Nationals who's like, you know, supposed high hit tool

but he just doesn't loft the ball at all. He gets the ball on the ground a whole lot. This is who, like, Luis Arias was. He's just a big singles contact hitter, not a lot of power, but he did hit his third homer. I mean, over Hap and Seeger, would you take the flyer on Arias over those two? Or does the percentages mirror probably where people should be,

where Arias should be behind Hap and Seeger? I might take a flyer on Hap over him because I feel like the impact with his power potential is greater. But like Arise is a safer bet to be a contributor on some level. Part of the problem with Arise is he's not quite playing every day. He's starting like three out of four with Jonathan's scope still factoring in there. But I like a guy that makes a lot of contact,

particularly because I feel like power is such an easy skill to cultivate at the major league level right now. You're so far ahead of the game if you're able to make contact at a high rate. And I'm not saying I think Arias, there's a great chance he becomes a 20 homer guy, but Tommy Lestella did this year. You know, like it could happen. Good things happen when you make good contact. That's, I think, the big key there. And Luis Arayas is one of those players. How about some deeper league pitchers, is deeper-ish league pitchers?

It's not quite the Azer qualification here. But three guys when we were looking at the ads. Dylan Peters is up to 29% owned up from four. He was only 4% last week. Joe Ross, 33 up from 9. And Cal Quantrol, 45 up from 26. How would you rank these three as far as your interest? It's pretty low for all three.

I might go Peters, Quantrol, and Ross. Okay, but you're not really interested. These aren't guys that you're taking. taking the flyers on. No. Peters and Ross are both two-star pitchers for this upcoming week, but I have them ranked under the header. No thanks.

So even with the two-star week, I mean, they just have so much to prove. And even though they've pitched well recently, not in a way that leads me to believe there are some new skills they're tapping into. Okay. Bullpen. Mark Malanson, 43% up from 4.4.

I believe he was in the top five of most added. Emilio Paghan, 59 up from 42, and Archie Bradley, 49 up from 39. Paghan kind of solidified himself the other day where Alvarado struggled. Archie Bradley struggled with a blown save, and Atlanta is Atlanta. So you're obviously fishing for saves here. Rank your bait here. How do you fish if you're fishing for saves on these three?

Who goes on the hook first? gone and I don't think it's still I don't think it's totally decided whether or not he's just the closer now for Tampa Bay but I mean he looks like the sort of overpowering reliever who could just

you know be be great in that role looks like Alvarado like what Alvarado was supposed to be yeah yeah I mean like 12K per 9 and whip below one all of it looks great And then I probably go Melanson over Bradley.

I don't know how confident I am in either to really hold down the job. But Atlanta, I think, is a better situation to be, you know, in a better situation to pick up a high number of saves than Arizona is. So I would go Malanson over Bradley. Yeah, and I agree with that one too. I think that's astute there because, you know, Lavello has not been locked to Archie Bradley as a closer. They just like to keep him back in those roles.

Yon Lóon Lopez, to me, is still a future closer for the Diamondbacks. He's got the swagger, the attitude, have been around the, you know, in the back fields and the clubhouse, that type of stuff. Horano is not someone they want to put in that role. I think Archie is not locked for this for the rest of the year where, ironically, Malanson, maybe one of those guys. Now, I added this one. This was a me one because I wanted to talk of little prospects here. And if you've got any others, please throw them in here. but I went and I dug through on the ad sheet

and I went and looked at prospects who had not been up at the major league level who people were trying to add the preliminary ads here and the three guys that showed up were no surprise especially I think it's 100% Scott White influenced here especially with the third guy

Hayes Lizardo up to 53% own Gavin Luxe 37% own that doesn't need I mean anybody is going to be on on those guys but Thai France 4%. Those were the big percentage ads this week here. Where are you at on these guys? And do you have any other preliminary prospects you might want to pick up coming into week 22 just in case?

So I write a prospects report weekly on CBSSports.com. I just wrote it last night for this week. And basically the way it breaks down is I have five on the verge and I have Five on the periphery. Five on the verge are the five who I think are most worth stashing in redraft leagues. Not strictly just because how close they are, but also, you know, what kind of impact I think they could make. And then the periphery are just guys who I want to talk about for whatever reason. So Luzardo and Gavin Lux are both in the five on the verge.

They're both in the five you need to stash. and I know there have been some Dodgers beat riders who've kind of been pouring cold water on the idea that Lux could get called up and you know there was a report that he might be with the team in September but just kind of like to go along for the ride not actually to be on the active roster and play

but and that's the part of the report that got aggregated everywhere but if you read the full full report, they're not ruling out him being on the active roster too. Like I still think it's a perfectly reasonable scenario that he could come up in September and become the primary second baseman. Muncie playing a lot of first, Bellinger playing a lot of outfield, especially with Alex Verdugo dealing with an oblique injury.

Like, it's not like they would have to bench Jack Peterson in that scenario, you know? So yeah, I'm still very much on board with the idea of Stash and Gavin Lux, who, of course, is hitting like 430 with a 1,300 OPS at AAA, just completely absurd. Yeah, go ahead. Luzardo, I think he's going to have a rotation spot for the A's in September. He's made enough progress in his recovery from his latest injury, a lat strain. He's actually making his first AAA rehab start today.

I'm not sure how that went or if it's still ongoing. But his previous rehab start seven strikeouts and three hitless innings. I mean, he looks, he looks like he's well on his way to making a bag. So everybody needs pitching. I think you got to stash him. France is one who's not in my five to stash, but he would probably be like number six or seven. So people need to go read the article. They need to be, they're off.

They need to go and look at your article and they need to get on it, get those right ads. I'd also throw AJ Puck in there, by the way, as well. AJ Puck is also in, in Vegas, I believe it, is AAA. And the thought process kind of mirrors Hazers. Lazzardo, that AJ Puck is going to give in an opportunity. Though, if I had to choose Puck might be put more in a relief role, just monitor A.J. Puck. You don't need to go to roll on him. Yeah, that's what I've seen that would probably come back in a relief role.

But, you know, he was the A's pitcher. Everybody was excited about last spring and then needed Tommy John surgery. So, yeah, he's definitely a name to keep in mind. If not for this year, then for, you know, future years. Exactly. All right. Let's hit a break. When we come back, we've got.

We've got more. We'll try to see if we can get to some emails. We got a whole bunch more, so don't go anywhere more. Fantasy baseball today, right next. So a little in-game look here, Scott. It's not getting better for Fires because it is we're top of the seventh, Astros 5A6. So Fires are still, they're still giving up runs over there.

Heaney does look like he has got a little bit more of a cushion and he's in line. Heaney is 5 and 1 3rd currently six strikeouts to earn. It is the bottom of the six. No, actually, you know what? Quality start now that it updated for me. Quality start for Andrew Heaney with those six strikeouts.

And it looks like he's in line for the win as they're up five to two if they can hold. So Andrew Haney continues. That's good news. Maybe you need to pick him up for a two-star week. So I'm going to look at. The rotation, we already talked about you, Darvish. Walker Bueller had a less than beautiful start. Four innings, five hits, five earned runs, three walks, six strikeouts at Miami,

was rolling, 10 and 3-3-1-E-RA, 26 walks to 166 strikeouts and 140. 41 and one third. But hit up a little bit in Miami, Scott. Yeah, surprising time for that to happen. I get really tired of talking about these great pitchers having bad starts because it's just like, what are you going to do about it? You know? Sure.

They're probably going to be fine. Yeah, you can't really play matchups of these guys. Well, here's a fine pitcher who had a great outing, Sunny Gray. He went five, gave up one hit, walk three, but struck out 10. against St. Louis. He's got an 8 and 6 record, and he went under 3 on his ERA. He's got a 2.98 ERA, 50 walks, 154 strikeouts, and 132 innings. And his last three starts, 18 innings pitch, seven hits, zero runs, 11 walks, and 24

strikeouts against the Cubs, the Nationals, and the Cardinals. And guess what? He's got the Padres next week. Love it, right? Yeah, Sunny Gray, I mean, like, I tweeted this. out, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. Like, what must the experience of owning Sunny Gray in a dynasty league be like? Has anybody in a dynasty league stuck with him through all the ups and downs?

Because, like, there's been nobody over the last five years who goes from looking like a Cy Young contender to, like, totally dropable as many times as Sunny Gray has. That's really funny, too, because I know he's kind of befriended. Eno Seris if people follow him because Sonny's kind of latched on to a lot of like other analytical stuff. Maybe a portion of it you ever want to get good stuff there. But I totally agree with you.

Like Sunny Gray is one of those dynasty guys where you're like, yeah, I owned Sunny Gray four years ago. Too bad he's doing good now. Like no one actually even owns Sunny Gray anymore and Keeper a dynasty. He's a myth. Caleb Smith, who is 93% owned but only 48% starting, went five, struck out four,

gave up one earn run against The Dodgers won 106 pitches, currently up to 131 strikeouts in 111 innings. His previous two starts, he went five, struck out four against Tampa, and went four and two thirds, but gave up six against Atlanta, and he's got Atlanta again next week. So monitor the Caleb Smith, and Marcus Stroman, five and one third, gave up three runs, but two earned, walk four, five strikeouts, and had two homers allowed against Atlanta. currently has got a 7 and 11 record, a 3-3-E-R-A, and Marcus Stroman, that's another one of those

that I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around. Yeah, I thought we'd get more immediate returns from him joining up with the Mets. His win-loss record was so bad with the Blue Jays. Obviously not at all his fault, and it really held back his fantasy value. but it's been three shaky starts in a row with the Mets. Do you see Calloway's comments, too, by the way, today?

I didn't, no. Just another thing where they were talking about analytics and what role, and he said, we probably do stuff about 85% against what analytics do. That's just what we do. It was just another one of those complete and utter anti-analytical arguments where sometimes you want to be like, all right, so I know you say this is your way, but do you also see that your way hasn't been working? So why are you digging your heels in?

It's weird because he got such a good reputation. I think deservedly with the Indians as their pitching coach. And some of the changes he made seemed analytically driven. The biggest one I point to is he got Corey Klooper and Trevor Bauer throwing their breaking ball a lot more. And both saw a surge in production. I think that was, did Cory Kluber end up winning the Sye Young that year? Or he was at least... I want to say that he did.

That sounds right. Has he won two Siong Awards? That sounds right. Let's see. We're going to... We'll see who gets there first. Yeah. So the second Scy Young Award, that was that season,

where it took him back from being just another ace to, you know, one of the preeminent aces. And that was also the second half when Trevor Bauer's production shot up. So, like, I mean, he did some great things as the Indians pitching coach in a way that seemed a lot smarter than he tends to sound when he talks. So I don't know. Doesn't sound too smart when he talks. Yeah, he doesn't. Julio Tehran got lit up one in one third, eight hits, six earned runs, three walks and two strikeouts against those Mets, by the way.

Seven and eight record, 371 ERA. He's got Miami next week, four starts versus Miami. He's got a two and no record. 0.36 ERA and 22 strikeouts to six walks and 25 innings. So regardless of this light up, I mean, maybe some people are going to cut bait on Julio Tehran, relatively favorable matchup next week with Miami. You're still comfortable with Tehran? Like these little blowups aren't going to move you away from a good matchup like that?

Oh, I don't know that I would ever describe myself as comfortable with Ron. I mean, it's got an ex-fip over five. but I like I am willing to you know see the glass half full with him because he has so consistently outperformed his ex-fip in his career and you know a lot of things contributing to that ex-fip

are a bloated walk rate which seems like it's gotten better more recently and the fact he hasn't given up many home runs despite being a fly ball pitcher I think is contributed to that, which maybe he's just good at preventing home runs.

I don't know. I think he's, I wouldn't, like, if I had him in my roster, I wouldn't be dropping it based on this start, like any pitcher is susceptible to a bad start. And he only gave up one home run, so it's not like that was the issue. But, yeah, I'm not, I wouldn't say I'm comfortable with the run.

Okay. Let's kick back to the two starts. Let's just take a little look. I'm going to throw some, out to you, see what your take is if you like both the starts as two start guys, not just in the deep, deep ones. And then I see if you've got a couple other, if there were any others that shine out to you. A couple interesting ones, how about Cole Hamels? Cole Hamels, you know, he had that blow up the other day. He's got two starts, one at home against the San Francisco

Giants and also at home against the nationals, where he's lined up against Steven Strasbourg. I mean, obviously his owner percentage is very high, 96, but start rate has only been 60. What do you think about Cole Hamels in both of those starts next week? I do it. I try not to overthink these things because that's when you end up, you know, that's when you end up with the most regret, or at least I do. And it's a situation where, like, if it goes well for Cole Hamils, like he's of a caliber where he could just carry your pitching staff that week,

and you don't want to risk missing out on that. Okay, what about a guy like Brennan McKay then? Brennan McKay has got the Mariners and then he's at Baltimore. I think very favorable matchups for the most part. 83% owned right now, but he's been a little wishy-washy. Are you going to string him out for both those starts next week? Yeah. And to be clear, I'm thinking more of a weekly lineup situation

where you're wanting to maximize two-start options. I mean, there's a good change. neither of them is a quality start, but because both of the matchups are saved, so favorable, I expect the ratios to be good, and hopefully he can sneak a win out in one of them, you know? So, yeah, I'd start it.

Chris Archer, 78% own. He's got the Nationals and the Indians. Now they're both home games. Those are not great. Your boy, Chris Archer, what do you think? Yeah. I wouldn't say he's must start, but I probably start him.

Certainly in a points league I'd start him. Would you not start the Nationals one and maybe start the Indians one if you had to pick between the starts? Or is that just not even option? Just let him go out. And Reds. I'm sorry. I said Indians. Yeah, Reds.

I'm sorry. Yeah. You probably saw Trevor Bowers name. I was 100% looking at Trevor Bowers' name and that's why I said it. When we were talking about you Darvish earlier, I opened up the Rangers box score. I do that all the time for you Darvish. I still have that too because my very first time I ever. saw him was out here in Arizona at spring training.

It was a Rangers game and I was just like mouth open, you know, just in awe of him. And I always think of him as a Ranger as well. Yeah. All right. But good with Archer. Any others? What about any others jump out to you on this list that of note, hey, maybe, you know, even though the owner percentage, ownership percentage is solid.

Kyle Gibson, you know, is that one 90% he's up against the white socks and the tigers. That actually seems relatively solid. Right. The matchups are so good. I think he's, I think he's an automatic start even though he's been. Kind of up and down. Yeah, no, I mean, pretty much the highly owned guys deserve to be started, I think. We've talked a lot about the lower guys, too.

Haney, Elias, or a couple of those guys on the lower end that people might want to stream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not a great week for two-star pitchers. Like half of the list for me is just, I don't want anything to do with it. with them. But, you know, on the high end, I don't think there's any, I don't think there's any real dilemmas at the top. Any massive concerns. A couple emails. You guys can send in those emails, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. From Chris from Salt River Fields. I look at this one and I'm like, is that me? Like, this sounds like I'm sending the email. I am Chris and I go to Salt River Fields.

But Chris says, the Welsh will like this one. Scott, not so much. Louis, and this has to do with, I brought up in the, I think of the very first show about play. players just owning teams. So this is another one of those. And I love that you guys have followed the trend all week. Luis Gonzalez owned Greg Maddox and 123 at bats. Gonzo batted 325, slug 618 with a 998 OPS. Gonzo hit more home runs 10 than any other player versus Maddox.

And Gonzo's career took off after he opened up his stance a la the Punisher. P.S., I like that. P.S. The Welsh is doing a good job on CBS. longtime listener of both ITL and CBS. Thank you very much, Chris. I like that he threw in the open stance adjustment as well, just like Aquino. So does that want to hit you home a little bit because of Maddox? Yeah, it hurts.

It hurts. Maddox had that, you know, there were a few players who hit Maddox pretty well. He used to have a term for guys he couldn't get out. He called them hackers because they usually were impatient hitters. I mean, Tony Gwyn hit 415 off of him. and Tony Gwynne, great hitter he was. He wasn't known for being patient. Yeah, I could probably find a few more here.

But Gonzo might be the biggest of all. Yeah, that was a pretty good one. All right, we'll burn through a couple more here. Brian from Madison says Jordan Alvarez, I almost said Jordan, I almost did it. I haven't talked about him in a couple days. But Jordan Alvarez or Bryce Harper, Categories OPS League, Scott. Alvarez. I'm not really

I'm not really having too many doubts about Alvarez these days. Probably going to regress some. But I mean, he looks like just a total stud. Okay. I'm going to stick with Harper. I've always been a little bit off on Jordan Alvarez and he's just going crazy, but I'm still a believer. Zach from Houston, dear Nick, Schmidt, Winston, and Jess. Welcome, Chris to the podcast.

Can't wait to hear your insight. and unique personality going forward. As soon as I get this all down, that's probably when it'll come out, right? A lot of good stuff here. Do you have any concerns about Josh Hater? He has recently been giving up a lot of home runs, and the brewers have given other guys save opportunities

in his stead from time to time. And by the way, greeting answer characters from New Girl since Chris is new to the podcast. Okay, I would have had no idea, never seen. Oh, you didn't watch New Girl? No, never saw New Girl. So I would have never ever had that. It's good.

I recommend it. I'm in a best. Better than Euphoria, according to Adam Azor. So, Hater, I think we've been concerned with Hater. We've been talking about that this week. Yeah. Has Zach not been tuning in? I mean, we had a long conversation about Matt Albers yesterday.

Yeah, go back and listen. You're good. We're concerned. Yeah, I don't even think it's so much the performance is just what the Brewers want Hater doing. And they've never really, I was kind of surprised how often they turned to them for saves at the start of the year because it went against the way Craig Counsel has always,

talked about using him and they seem to have fallen away from that. I think in terms of all the home runs allowed, that's just a location thing and he'll eventually get that sorted out. But I am worried about him as a potential safe source going forward. Okay. From Greg, Adam, Chris Scott, grade the trade head-to-head points league. Give Aaron Judge, Will Smith, and Miguel Sineau. He says he has Gary Sanchez a catcher, get Aronado, Voight, and Kluber. He says, I should make the playoffs, which start in three weeks. So... Will Smith the catcher he's giving out.

Will Smith... So it's essentially... If you wanted to cross-cancel Judge and Aeronado, Voighton Smith... I mean, Kluber's the big second get he's getting here. Yeah, and I have... I prefer Aeronado, I think... I want to just cancel him out,

comparing him and Judge. I think that might be a first-rounder versus a third-rounder there in my mind. So, yeah. I definitely prefer what he's getting Aronado Voight, especially Kluber. I mean, any chance you can get an ace caliber pitcher without giving one up. Assuming Cluber's going to be healthy here. So I will give it a...

I'll give it a strong grade. I'll give it an A-minus. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with the same grade. And even if just for arguments sake, you canceled out Aronado and Judge, Cluber, you're going to do Cluber. You will take Cluber for Will Smith and McGelsonow every day all day, and you don't even need Voight.

So that's a-to-A-to-a-a-minus. for me. Two more real quick. From Chris, everyone's name Chris today. With Corey Klouber eyeing a return soon and his rehab start going so well, what do you think we can expect of him the rest of the way? I'm debating whether to put in some trade offers for him, and I'm wondering what you think it would make sense to offer and who some comparable pitchers might be the rest of the way for comparison purposes. So many comparisons, Scott. What do you think? What would you do with Kluber here as far as trading, if you're putting some offers out to trade for him? Well, it'd be easier to get fully behind the idea of Kluber as an ace if his April had gone better.

But I don't really put much stock into that either. I mean, he's old and there were some skills. There were some underlying signs of some skills regression last year. So I think it's possible. He's just not so good. He's just not great anymore. It's not an ace anymore. But I don't think that's the most reasonable conclusion.

to draw from his April. So I think he's probably going to be a must-start option down the stretch. The kind of injury he's coming back from a broken forearm, you know, it's not like it's, it's not like something, you know, something to his elbow, something to his shoulder. I think the way his rehab assignment's gone, you know, you don't really worry about the injury impacting who he is. So I forget what the specific question is. I mean, it was kind of all over the board.

Like, how do you feel? But then also, I mean, it's just. get a little bit more in depth, like, what are some offer, who are some comparable pitchers? I mean, you probably don't want to pay 100% if you could pay 90 cents on the dollar of that type of a player. That's probably where you want to go, right? Let me see where I moved him in my rest of season rankings, if I can pull that up quickly enough, because I just updated that on Tuesday and everything is freezing up on me. It's not loading fast enough.

But I'm going to get there very soon just away. Would you offer Flaherty for Kluber? I'd rather have Flaherty. So I have Flaherty-25th. I have Cluber 31st. And I could probably be talked into moving Kluber up to his high as like 27-26. So right there behind Flaherty. I think that's probably a good range you picked there.

So yeah, I have Sunday grade 26, Flaherty-25th, Zach Wheelerer, 24th. that is you know if you want to take a more optimistic stance with flooper that's about where I'd put him in my rank okay so maybe the high is Wheeler if you really wanted to you know be comfortable with Clover and you really are in and all in

like maybe the high is you sell on Wheeler even though you have them a little bit higher yeah okay last one was just a screenshot of Peep's cereal and Azer said you need to talk about this so I don't know what this means outside of I did hear this means two things in my world and they both have to do with

the Scots in my world. One is my buddy Scott Bogman having to eat peeps until he got sick because he lost a bet. And the two is I heard that you dip peeps in, is it coffee? Tea. Tea? I just add some of that before the show as I'm showing you now. Would you have peep cereal? I would. Yeah. I'm down to try any. cereal. My take on peeps I've become known as this guy who loves peeps. People like to send me all kinds of like, oh look there's peeps on pizza. Like just anything peeper-related, people send me

because they think I'm a huge peeps fan, which isn't true. I have a strong take on peeps, though. And it's that I don't understand why everyone is so disgusted by peeps. It doesn't, It doesn't make any sense to me. It's a sugar-covered marshmallow.

It's a perfectly fine candy. It's not my favorite candy, but I'm not repulsed by it the way. And I don't even feel like it's legitimate. I feel like it's just one of those things where somebody famous, acting totally grossed out about peeps once upon a time. And then people who didn't really have a strong opinion about peeps just sort of adopted that opinion because that seems to be the way our culture works right now. And so it's become like this meme.

Peeps are obviously icky when, I mean, their historical, you know, their presence historically would suggest otherwise. I think eating a peep with some jelly beans is fine. Putting them on top of your pizza is atrocious. It's disgusting. That is disgusting. You want to put it in your tea? It's totally fun. It's all good.

We're not judging here over on fantasy baseball today. But that's all we got. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next week right here. Fantasy baseball today.