Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/19: Weekend Roundup - Anyone Good to Add? (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

First, a thought about strategy in categories leagues. Then hitters and SPs and RPs to add. It may not be the best list of hitters but there are several that are very interesting.  ... Big news as we react to the Chris Sale news and update you on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Corey Kluber and more. We've also got even more bullpen items for you. Is Seth Lugo the NYM closer? Also, who are some SPs we're just about done with? ... A look at the Most Added list, more hitters to be aware of and finally a look at all of the relevant pitching performances from the weekend. Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Castillo, Kenta Maeda, Ryan Yarbrough, Aaron Civale, Jake Junis, Mike Montgomery and more ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. All right, we are getting ready for Fantasy Week. Scott, what is, 21?

22. 22. Okay, 22. Yeah. I am in a... Excuse me, bad fantasy baseball mood. A BFBM. Everybody's like, who is this?

Who is this new guy? Yeah, oh yeah, that's right. Chris isn't on the show today. Good call. Chris Welsh, not on the show today. I don't think he's going to be on the show tomorrow, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night, which will be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday morning.

Chris will be hosting those shows. Yeah, and I'll be kind of tagging out. That might be on some of them, you know, I'll be on next week, like a week from now, whatever. Okay, so anyway, I lost a semifinals of a league that ends very early. Finals are next week. I lost. I'm really disappointed because I had the best or the second best team.

I guess second best team, I mean, let's give credit to the guy who had the most points. But, you know, the two semifinals, I, you know, me and my opponent, my opponent and I, we crushed the other two teams. But, you know, that's how it goes. Just bad luck. I was sitting there. If I had just gotten another lousy home run from Charlie Blackman or Nolan Aronado, I would have won. But, you know, they only hit a combined three today instead of a combined four.

I don't know. I'm just disappointed. And I think I didn't even check today, but I'm assuming that our team scam was eliminated from the playoffs today. Yeah. Yeah. And I was breaking down our team earlier and kind of trying to assess what went wrong. and it's hard to figure. We got two of the hitters

who are probably going to be top five picks in this league next year, and Cody Bellinger and Ronald Acuna. It's not hard to figure. I know exactly what went wrong. What went wrong? Chris Sale. Chris Sale killed us.

Well, some weeks he did, but considering, like, he was so up and, like, so dramatically up and down, you'd figure some weeks he made us, right? Yeah, yeah. And look, we didn't have a bad team. We had around 500 team. And we're going to miss the playoffs by just a few games, I imagine.

So it's a 16-team league, and I think seven teams make the playoffs. I imagine we'll be top 10. So we got those two, obviously, for much less than they're worth now. We got Glaber Torres for much less than he's worth now. I think we were very high in all the offensive categories. Last time I looked at the league rankings. But yeah, just Our top three starting pitchers

And keep in mind, this was a 16 team league So, you know, how good could your pitching staff be really? But our top three pitchers were Chris Sam Masahiro Tanaka And Joe Musgrove And they all had kind of that That two-faced mentality going on Where even if two were great one week, Just one guy having the way the bad starts went for those three

Would be enough to wreck you an ERA and whip And that's what frustrates me about this format is a bad start does so much harm. It's just really hard to recover from. I think our team started doing better when we just went with good relievers. We didn't even worry about saves necessarily. We just, we had Lugo, Andres Munoz, Gallegos, who was bad today. But, you know, we just kind of...

And we keep threatening to do that, like, from beginning to end, and we don't do it. We always kind of, like, back into it. Well, that's the thing you don't have to start that way, because I don't think it's the most... But I don't think it's the highest upside strategy, you know? It's not. If you want to win your league, having... If Sale had been sale, I think we would have certainly made the playoffs and had a chance to win the league. But we pivoted, and you can do that in head-to-head categories leagues.

You can do that, and I'm doing it successfully right now in our 12-team Roto League. Or I've really climbed the standings. I'm not going to win. You know, right now I'm in fifth place. Scotts in sixth and Heath is in seventh. But I've gone way up since the All-Star break because I'm just not starting any starting pitchers who I'm not in love with like Max Fried, Merrill Kelly, on my bench today. Kelly had a 158 ERA today and he got a win, but he had a one-four-one whip.

He had just five strike. I start high, I start really good relief pitchers. It's really held with my ratios. And it's something that I'm going to be a lot more open-minded to in any type of categories, whether it's weekly or just rode-off. I think that might be the way to go as much potential. as home runs have to sabotage, the problem is, and I've talked about this before, by the time, like as much volatility as there is its starting pitcher, there's even more so a reliever,

because that's the way it always is. And then, you know, like a guy I've leaned on heavily in my deeper categories leagues, Giovanni Gallegos, I mean, he wasn't even on the radar. Like, it takes a while to figure out who you're going to trust, and there were plenty of guys who I thought, okay, he looks dominant. going to roll with him and then it just implodes right away. So it's not necessarily, like if you know what's going to happen, yeah, I guess it's better that way, but you don't.

You don't. All right, well, let's talk about getting you ready for week 22. Give me one hitter or, you know, several hitters that you consider adding. So there aren't a lot. I think one who, you know, got lost in maybe the Gio Orshella, Mike Talkman. Um, Aristides, uh, what was his last name? Aquino. Aquino, yeah.

What got lost in, in the hype surrounding all of them last week was Willie Calhoun. And, uh, he's still only 61% owned, playing virtually every day for the Rangers, bumping chew and Pence out of the lineup more regularly. And, uh, really good strikeout rate, really good home run pace. Uh, you know, a good batting average floor because the strikeouts are so low. he hasn't exactly been hot in August, but he has four home runs already this month, and the Rangers play eight games this upcoming week. So I think if you haven't hopped aboard Willie Calhoun yet, now is a good time to do so.

Okay, and I've got a bunch of hitters who, you know, like deep leagues, I think they're more relevant. Austin Nola is really not bad, and he's like 8% owned. You can look at him. He homered today is a home run in two straight games. He's not going to win Euro League, but eight. on. Tommy Edmund is playing just about every day for St. Louis, and he's batting first or second. Marba Gonzalez is hot right now. There are some guys, like Greg Allen is playing more, and if you're, this is specifically if you're a Mercado owner. If the Indians have a lot of Ritees this

week, I don't know what the situation is. I'm not sure Mercado's going to play that much, because Alan seems to be the guy that they start against Ritees, and they face the lefty on both on Saturday and Sunday against the Yankees and Mercado had good games. But just it's something to keep in mind and Alan has some speed. He's not a very good hitter, but he's becoming a factor. And then, like, Kyle Seeger is one of the hottest hitters in baseball. Kyle Seeger last year was terrible. Two years ago was okay. The three years before that, he was like a 270-ish hitter with 25 to 30 home runs. Look, he's got, you know what? He's kind of like Kipness, I guess, in that he's having a bit of a revival. And, uh,

Worth mentioning at least. But I will say that I really have not looked at hitters lately. You know, after the Aquino, J.D. Davis, et cetera, run. I haven't really looked at hitters. And J.D. Davis is still only 58% owned, so maybe we should tout him again, although he's dealing with the calf issue. Doesn't seem like it's a big deal. It doesn't seem like an IL stent.

No, he's pinch hit two days in a row. So I assume J.D. Davis will be a player for you this week. But what do you think about Kyle Seeger? Yeah, he's interesting, like in the context of there's no one else to talk about. I feel like the ceiling's pretty low, but he has been hot lately. And a low ceiling in today's environment still means, you know, 25 homer pace in all likelihood, rest of way. So, yeah, I mean, it just seems limited to deep leagues, but he's somebody who's having, an impact, I guess, to a degree.

What do you think about Nick Ahmed? I think he's kind of undervalued, but I understand why he's undervalued. And he did have kind of a home run binge here over the past week in a way that I think is backed up by the supporting numbers. Like he started out as just a defensive specialist, and they kind of surprised with some power production in the past couple years. And it just seems to keep getting better as an offensive.

a player makes a lot of contact. We were talking last week about Fernando Tatis replacements. And, you know, I was saying, I mean, when you get to shortstuffs on the waiver wire, it still looks pretty gross, but there's so many quality shortstuffs. Like, there's a good chance you have your backup shortstop on your roster already. It's just there's a lot of good shortstuffs. They're all widely owned. But if not, Nick Ahmed is somebody you could look at, and I think he could be respectable.

I mean, he has, I think he has about 350 fantasy points. I know that's just a weird number to throw out with no context, but that's a lot of fantasy points. Yeah, he's having a decent year. Nick Ahmed is Arizona's shortstop. He's 48% own. And here's the best thing I've seen from Nick Ahmed. Pre-all-Star break, he had 24 walks to 70 strikeouts. 24 walks, 70 strikeouts since the break, 18 walks to 16 strikeouts.

So that's really something to keep an eye on going into next year. I can give you two examples of players who improve their plate discipline at the end of a season and had their best season the year after. One is happening right now, Zander Bogart's. And two, last year, D.D. Gregorius, at the end of 2017, improved his plate discipline. And it carried over at least into the beginning of 2018. I don't remember exactly how 2018 went with plate discipline, but he still had his best year. So it will be something to keep an eye on with honest.

Ahmed much, much better plate discipline since the break. And he's been a top five shortstop over the last month. So just to throw some specifics out there, five of eight games, Ahmed is homered in. That brings him up to 16, which equals his career high set last year. So I would assume he's going to hit between, finish with between, you know, maybe like 21 or something like that. Well, that's a lot for him from now to the end of the season,

considering that five of his 16 home runs have come in the last. last eight days. Yeah. What I'm saying, I feel like, what did I see? I was researching so many players here getting ready for the show. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I don't know.

I don't know what it was I saw. I'm going to take the under on 20. But I think there might be something else that, you know, might be a little bit more there. So would you rather have Nick Ahmed or Luis Arias of the twins? I'd rather have Ahmed. Okay. I also want to mention Josh Rojas. He is 14% owned.

I believe he stole a base today. He did. And I think that makes him one for two. Yeah, he's one for two in seven games. So if you need some steals, Josh Rojas of the Diamondbacks. Okay. How about a pitcher to add,

or some pitchers to add, Scott? I mean, there's more interesting stuff happening at closer right now then emerging starting pitchers. There were a couple of exciting pitching performances over the weekend, and we'll get into them, I'm sure. But the pitcher I'm adding most aggressively right now is Mark Melanson, who got to save both Saturday and Sunday. And it looks like the Braves bullpen is beginning to stabilize.

Shane Green struck out the side in a perfect eighth on Saturday to set up Malanson. Martin, Green, Melanson, each worked a perfect inning on Sunday. And, I mean, Malanson should be fine. I'm not going to say he's never going to be at risk of imploding and losing his job to one of those other two again. But it's just kind of a dice throw. When you're talking about a reliever who's not like 12K per 9 in this environment, like anybody's susceptible to getting mashed one week

and suddenly his job's in jeopardy again. I don't think Malanson's any more or less susceptible than anyone else in that regard. Yeah, but the same ownership percentage are very similar. Would you rather have Seth Lugo or Mark Moulanson? I mean, Seth Lugo just gave up five earned runs, two outings. Yeah, but he's been so good. Three outings ago, Malanson was terrible. We were wondering who was going to get the next save.

Now, Lugo got a save on Saturday. Edwin Diaz was most likely unavailable. He had pitched two straight days. Diaz pitched again today, and Lugo did not. So I think it's clearer. I think if you're going to say, like, who is the closer? Melanson is clearer, you know, more clearly the Braves closer than Lugo is the Mets closer. Yes.

And I think he'll be in a better scenario for saves. Yeah, that's probably pretty close. But regardless, I would definitely take Malanson between those two. Okay. Now, what might be an interesting conversation is Melanson versus Emilio Paghan, who is more owned, but still only 67. I take Pagod. Yeah, I think I would too. It's, even with everybody healthy again, it's looking like Pagan is the guy.

Yeah. But I have less, I still have less confidence in that than Moulanson being the guy. I just think he keeps pitching well. I just think he's a better pitcher than Malancet. He is. Yeah. Yeah, he actually has 12K per 9. He's really good.

Okay. So those are some relievers to add. I think it's time to add Chris Bassett, if you haven't already. He's 70% oh, and that's pretty high. but he's having a really good year. I mean, 361 ERA, 112 strikeouts and 119 and a third, and Bassett has San Francisco at home this week. So, you know, look, the Giants have obviously been better since the break,

but they're still not a great lineup. So I like Bassett, and then there were three guys who are barely owned, and a big, big kudos to Scott White for one of them. Three guys who were barely owned that, I think, are worth a look. Tony Gonsolin, who went four and struck out only two at Atlanta today, but gave up one run and was great the previous start. And Dustin May's out, so it looks like Gonsolent's going to have that spot for a while. Dustin May is in the bullpen.

Logan Webb, he is at Oakland this week, and Logan Webb, so he's on the Giants, and he gave up one earn run, two runs, one earned in five innings with seven strikeouts, and in the minors, you know, 185 ERA at like four stops this year in 64 and a third. So there's Logan Webb. Only one of those starts was in the PCL, I should point out. But nonetheless, very good ERA for Logan Webb with a little more than a caper inning. And Mike Montgomery for the Royals, six innings, one unearned run against the Mets. Only eight swinging strikes on 80 pitches, only three strikeouts.

But he is at Baltimore this week. And these guys, Gonsolins, is 12% owned. Logan Webb is 8% owned. Mike Montgomery's 14% own. Kind of interesting. Now, Gonsal and I will say, has the Yankees at home this week, so keep that in mind. But kind of interesting. Yeah, I'm probably...

Montgomery is the one you were giving me kudos for. I'm probably most interested in Gonsolent at this point. I don't know that it's clear Webb is going to make even one more term and take even one more turn in the Giants' rotation. Sean Anderson's coming back from the I.L. We'll see. I mean, it's not like Sean Anderson's anybody. They have to give a spot to.

So we'll see how that plays out. Mike Montgomery, though, after two starts with good strikeout rate, high swinging strike total, kind of came back to Earth in both regards. It was a good start, but three strikeouts in six innings, single-digit swinging strikes. Most of the swinging strikes were on as cutter. Again, that was a pitch he wasn't really throwing in relief, and it looks like his best pitch now. So that's reason to be encouraged. but in terms of interest level, even though it was another good start,

he takes a step back for me with this one. Okay, well, he does get the Orioles, almost said the Ravens, but he gets the Orioles. I didn't drop them in anywhere I picked him up. Mostly because those same leagues, I have Asher Wojahowski, and he was easier to drop. Yeah, true. I'm not, I wasn't exactly encouraged for Montgomery.

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Chris Sale is on the I.L. With elbow inflammation. He may not pitch again this season, and he's going to see Dr. James Andrews. You know what, Scott? You know what's interesting? I didn't draft Chris Sale because I was worried about how his elbow would hold up.

I only drafted him in one league, the one that we share. But I had very big concerns about how his elbow was going to hold up. And I was right, baby. He's on the IL. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not really sure. And we don't know the severity of this yet.

I mean, it doesn't sound good second opinion with Dr. James Andrews, but there's a lot of different directions. It could go still. And I'm sure a lot of people are patting themselves on the back today. Yeah, but I, like, in terms of the measurements we care most about, he was as dominant as ever this year. I mean, elite ex-fip, elite fip, strikeout rate was, I think last year was the only one time he's had something better.

FIPP. The ERA was high. I mean, even the home run rate wasn't, it was high, but it wasn't like crazy high given some of the home run rates around the league. So, yeah, it was, I don't know, other than the fact that velocity was down, and of course there was reports that was at least somewhat by design. I don't know that there was a clear tip off of an injury here. And maybe it just happened.

I'm not blaming the injury for his performance. I just, you know, there's got to be something to the fact that he had such a bad ERA. It couldn't have just been bad luck, you know? I mean, it just couldn't. He got off on the wrong foot clearly. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, a lot of that ERA is the slow start he got off to because they were intentionally holding him back.

to keep him healthy for late in the year. So, I mean, I get that. All right, enough on Chris Sale. Fernando Tatis is likely out for the season. The Padres did call up Thai France, and I did pick up Thai France, but, you know, so far he hasn't really done anything in his call. It's been very brief.

But, you know, how interested are you in France? As we're looking for hitters to add. I've been hyping France, I feel like, for a couple weeks now. I didn't really see this as his path to the lineup, but, like, this is even a more sure-fing. fire one because it's not like he has Luis Erius breathing down his neck. He's just starting alongside him. Really interesting because he was like a 400 hitter France at AAA this year with almost 30 home runs, like just unbelievable numbers for. I won't say a non-prospect,

but pretty close. Like he's old. He wasn't really showing up in even like a top 10 list for the Padres deep system, but still, uh, not off to a great start. And we saw him, of course, earlier in the year in like mostly a bench roll and didn't do much then. But a guy puts up those kind of numbers. I don't care. PZL or not.

He deserves a chance. And, you know, deep leagues, I would be, I'd be taking a flyer on him, for sure. All right. So that is Ty France. Give it a look. I picked him up in a 12-team, 30-man roster, Roto League. Corey Klober left a rehab start with abdominal tightness.

Yeah. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will not need to go on the IL. Max Scherzer is expected to start on Thursday. Johnny Quato nearing a return. Nelson Cruz could be back on Monday. Sean Doolittle and Scott Oberg are both on the IL. Are you picking up a replacement in either Washington or Colorado's bullpen? Well, Wade Davis had the red carpet rolled out for him and gave up three earned runs without recording it out tonight. Yeah, I know. It's ridiculous. That's not good.

Carlos Estevez pitched two innings after him got the win. Also in that bullpen. They could go to Jake McGee, I guess, but it's not a great scenario. There's nobody I love there. Oberg's out for the year. I don't know if you mentioned that. He's gone. He's out for the year.

Nationals, this, now, Dave Martinez made it clear that when ever do little is ready to go again, he's still the closer. Right. I know he's been horrible of late. They have a lot of potential alternatives, and since it might just be a short-term absent, I don't know that there's really anybody worth sinking our teeth into Hunter Strickland, Daniel Hudson, Wander Swero, I believe, S-U-R-O. I would get, if I had a guess, I would think it's Hudson.

That would be my first instance. Well, and then there's Fernando Rodney, who has been most consistently working the ape. And he has been actually pretty good. His ERA is terrible, but he's been pretty good lately. finds his way and to save chances. It's crazy. Like he's going to be 50 years old doing this.

Yeah. Yeah, but hopefully that is short term. But Doolittle needs a little bit of arrest because he got rocked this weekend. Other bullpen news. Oh, two other news items real quick. Chris Woodworth, Rangers manager, hoping to have Joey Gallo back for the last two to three weeks of the season. And if Carlos Carrasco returns this year, it will be as a reliever.

Carlos Carrasco. Speaking of relievers, just wanted to tell you that Felipe Vasquez has two saves since the All-Star break. That's no good. Taylor Rogers and Sergio Romo,

who's the closer there? Romo got a save on Friday. Rogers got a save on Sunday. And Rogers on Friday, he did pitch the 8th, and he faced the best hitters in the lineup. And then Romo got the save on that night. So who would you rather own?

Rogers or Romo? Oh, Rogers. I mean, he's better. but it might be total matchups thing like it was early on between Rogers and Blake Parker, even though Blake Parker was clearly inferior and ultimately got DFAed. If you want some saves and you're in a deep league,

look at Matt Albers. He's barely owned, and Josh Hader's just been rough lately, man. He's got six blown saves, and he has a 1050 ERA in his last seven appearances. Albers could get a save hero there. Okay, Scott, here's a segment called Guys, I'd consider

Consider dropping. Like, I'm not going to consider dropping me yet, but I will consider starting to consider it. Yes, okay. Max Fried, Joey Lucchese, and Chris Paddock. Okay. You want me to talk about it? I wouldn't even, like,

I'd be fine dropping Luke Casey, who had a pretty good start today. But, you know, I think like six swinging strikes, and it was only a second, six-start effort in... Six-inning, yeah. Second quality start in his last seven starts.

And he has Boston this week. Scott and I've never really been a big Lucasey guy, and quite frankly, I haven't quite understood why his ownership percentage has been so high for most of the year. Lucasey's 84%-0, and he has a 420 ERA, a good but not great strikeout rate, and he usually goes five innings, so I don't get it.

Yeah, yeah, that one's fine. Paddock, we're very close to... He's at a guess. He's out of guess. Yeah, he's, man, I have such great stats, but I just have so many notes

from the weekend that I'm not finding them in the moment. So, yeah, his last five starts, his ERA has gone from 270 to 344. Only two of those five starts were terrible. But still, he doesn't have many innings left, clearly.

And he's got Boston this week, so you can't start that. Yeah, you're probably not going to use him then. I mean, if you were really pressed and needed an extra something off the bench and just had nothing, he felt like, I guess I could see it,

but you don't, you'd hate to have it blow up in your face, somebody else picks it up, he throws like a seven-inning nine strikeout gym or something against you. Sure. That'd stink. Max Freed's the one I really don't, like he's,

he's over his previous career high in innings, but the Braves are not really showing any signs of shutting him down. And he's been, he hasn't been, the results haven't, been great, but they haven't been bad. Like, his last four starts, you know, they're not the kind you regret having in your lineup. Yeah. And I still feel like, like, Max Fried is going to be one of my top breakout picks next year,

because the peripherals are so much stronger than the actual numbers. I love him. I like him, but I think he's a whip killer. He's a 137 whip. So, you know, just keep that in mind. One-37 whip a strikeout per inning. And, yeah, if I had to drop him, it'd go Lucch-Catig-Feed in that order.

Freed would be last on the Consider-Consider-Dropping list. But just want to let you know what I'm considering, considering. Okay, now you know. Most added. Gone through a lot of this. Joe Ross and Yvonne Nova are the two most-added players, Scott. You don't really believe in them? No.

I hope my opponent is starting Joe Ross or Yvonneova this week. Yeah, and somebody pointed out to me on Twitter that Nova has good matchups down the stretch. Not surprising. I could not care less. Yeah, it doesn't matter for a pitcher like him. Aristides Aquino is number three on the most out of list. He's almost 100% owned at this point. But something that's very important with Aquino, Scott, in his last six games, three walks, two strikeouts.

It's only six games, but it's encouraging. It's encouraging. That is interesting, yes. I don't know that it means much, but it's interesting. Glad you pointed it out. Emilio Paghan, Luis Arias, Mark Malanson, Dylan Peters. Another guy you don't really believe in, right? Correct.

Correct. That is correct. Yeah, in his case, like, the success hasn't just seemed like a lot of Babbitt stuff going on. Like, he's actually pitched well, I feel like, but no history of it. One guy who hasn't pitched that well, but in terms of two-star pitchers who does have good matchups, Kobe Allard for Texas,

traded from the Braves. He gets the Angels on Monday and the White Sox later this week. We have that start as Friday. There's no way that's true. It's got to be Saturday. But Angels and White Sox for Kobe Allard. And, yeah, what do you think?

Would you roll the dice? He's still, he's only like 25% owed. No, he's not. he's not tiered among pitchers I would recommend in my two-star pitcher rankings for this week. I do think he's kind of interesting and it might be my brave's bias

showing a little here because he's been a prospect who I followed pretty closely since he got drafted, former first round pick. But he's just kind of taken an interesting path because he lost velocity in the miners and his breaking ball seemed to get worse, but I don't know. Like, his numbers

were pretty good throughout. And the strikeout rate came up at AAA this year. The velocity came up a little bit more recently. And he looked okay. I'm

not using him yet. I just think he's interesting. All right. Is there anybody else on the most out of list that jumps out to you? Stephen Matt says two starts, but they're Cleveland and the Braves. So that's a little tough, but you know, you could do worse, I think. I have not noticed that Kevin Pilar is doing well, but he's on the most added list.

He had a two-homer game. Yeah, he's been hot. Every time Kevin Pilar gets hot, he will let you down. You will not see me adding him. Adrian Houser had a good start. Mike Yistremski had a three-homer game. Yeah. Was I the only one who had this kind of like...

No-oh. Bizarro, trippy feeling seeing Yostrinsky hits three home runs, like those headlines. Like, I felt like this is what it might be, this must be what it would have felt like to be my grandfather. I mean, yeah, you are the, yeah, yeah, you're the other one. Although, Carl Yistrinsky only had one three-homer game. Interesting. So now they have equal number of three-homer games. Like part of the thing too is like

Somebody has the three home break game And it's just like whatever Yeah exactly No but but actually Ostremski Hasn't been I think he's been pretty good For a little while now now

Let me see if I have some notes on him Especially when they're on the road Yeah no since the all-star break Going into Sunday's game He had a 312 362 664 slash line So an OPS over a thousand Since the All-Star break

That's better than I would have thought. Yeah. I think he sits sometimes against lefties, though. Well, I think his numbers are definitely better on the road. I mean, it's hard to be a left-handed power hitter in San Francisco. So those would be, you know, outside of a deep five outfielder league, that would be the only time I consider using him. They have five road games this week at the Cubs, at the A's,

and two of them left-handed starters for most. Mike Ystremski. I'd rather pick up Ian Hap, I think. See where that goes. Yeah. I'm more into him than you are. So I'll give you a guy that you probably should not be into this week. He could have carried you one year a week this current week, but, well, we're doing this on Sunday.

Week 21. But week 22 won't be as good for Ryan McMahon. Ryan McMahon has nothing but road games. And on the road this year, he is slugging 360. four homers in 49 games. So, yeah. Really came through at home this week. Oh, yeah. My goodness.

Oh, yeah. He was awesome. And you know what? It's not a bad idea to pick him up and bench him because after this week, he's got a full week of home games in week 23. So, you know, you don't start McMahon this week, but if you want to pick him up and stash him and then get him back in your lineup, you know, that might work for you. All right, that's the most added list. Other hitters that I wanted to mention include Adam Eaton.

He's 78% owned. He has been just out. standing. This last 35 games, he's been great. Only four homers, but seven steals in that stretch with 12 doubles and four triples. He's doing exactly what I was hoping Adam Eaton would do, but a little bit better. This is the hot streak, but a lot of doubles and triples, getting on base, and stealing base is seven steals and 35 games. That's more than I would have anticipated. If you need a catcher, Danny Janssen's been better lately. James McCann hit two grand slams this past week and he's a six-game hitting streak, and I am done talking about those hitters.

One more break here on fantasy baseball today. We'll finish up the show with the starting pitchers from the weekend. We'll be right back. Well, there were 45 games that gave us 90 starting pitchers. So let's talk about all 90, Scott. That's a depressing way of putting it. Yeah, it's a lot of notes, man. The Monday show, a lot of notes.

Studs being Studs Part 1. Matt Boyd, Very nice bounce back start. And Lucas Gialito. So Gialito was great. What are you laughing at? The way he said Gialito. Gilito.

Gilito has 182 strikeouts and 142 and two-thirds. He has a 114-1-ERA. He's terrific. But he tends to struggle in tough matchups. He will be at Minnesota this week. The last time he faced the twins, he gave up seven runs. The first time he faced him, he threw five scoreless innings. Second time, he gave up seven runs,

and he gave up three home runs to Nelson Cruz and four total. Do you trust Gialito in a one-star week at Minnesota? Yeah, I know I wouldn't be able to do any better. Any ace-tier pitcher just outside of that, I just don't even mess with those. Okay, what about Matt Boyd, anything to say about him? He's also at Minnesota. episode this week, it seems. Yeah, I mean, he hasn't been on the great run.

It's basically been four dominant starts in a row for Gialito, which makes it easier to endorse him and Boyd. Got throttled the two starts before this one. And home runs have been a really big problem for him. Of course, the twins hitting a ton of home runs this year. I think Nelson Cruz will be back. Yeah. It's a little scary.

I still, like, I'm not going to do it for, to start sleeper dejor, you know. I'd have to have a deep pitching staff to consider benching Boyd. But I have one where, you know, I have six pitchers of more or less that same stature, Trevor Bauer, Lucas Gialito, Zach Granky.

Boyd's going to be the odd man out in that league this week. Man, the twins must be one of your favorite teams this week. Nova, Ronaldo Lopez, Gialito. Well, I guess it's not that good. Nova, Ronaldo Lopez, Gialito, Matt Boyd, Edwin Jackson, Spencer Turnbull. I had nine teams with good matchups

this week, and that's one of them. Their next their next 13 games are either against the White Sox and the Tigers. So that's fun. Studs being Studs Part 2. Masahiro Tanaka,

six and a third, two runs against Cleveland following up eight scoreless at Toronto. But where the heck are the strikeouts for Tanaka? He's got 116 strikeouts and 144 innings. He has 6Ks in 14 and a third in his last two starts. He's just not striking guys out. John Lester had a good start.

He had six scoreless innings, but he did walk five. And John Gray, eight shutout innings with 7Ks against Miami at home. Anything to say about Tanaka, Lester, and Gray? I don't really trust Tanaka because of the strikeout issue, and it doesn't seem like the splitter's really working for. him. I would trust somebody like Max Fried over him right now. I would be

looking for someone else if I had been consistently filling a rotation spot with Tanaka. I'm not saying I wouldn't like having him around for two start weeks, but it's not ideal to be starting him. I think you're playing with fire there.

Lester, the walks have been an issue for him lately, and obviously this was a good start in terms of results, but it It has been a really rough stretch, and so the fact that he walked five still, not sure he's turned over a new leaf there. The Cubs pitcher I'm most interested in is Jose Cantana, who had another dominant start today, a game going on right now,

the night game, seven strikeouts and seven shutout innings after a huge strikeout game last time. And really, it's been like how many good starts in a row? It's been three or four, I think. Four just awesome starts in a row. I wish I, you know, I don't have really many details on this yet, other than he pitched well again. But that's encouraging. Okay, Studs being Duds, part one.

James Paxton, four runs in five innings against Cleveland, and he allowed two more in the first. His ERA is over 11 in the first inning, and Paxton is at the Dodgers this week. I do not think I could start him. I really, well, I guess I would, but I wouldn't be thrilled about it. James Paxton.

Luis Castillo was bad. really bad. Lance Lynn was bad and Zach Wheeler was bad. I'm getting kind of tired of saying, by low, Zach Wheeler, because now it's almost September. He's a 440 ERA. It's been just two up and down. Paxton, Castillo, Lynn, and Wheeler.

Castillo's got to be the best in this group, right? Yeah. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So how would you rank Paxton, Lynn, and Wheeler? Lynn, Wheeler, Paxton. Really? Yeah. The walks have been up for Lynn lately, which is a little concerning, but this was his first bad start in a while, and it was still three in runs, you know?

So Lynn's pretty close to the ace tier, I feel like Wheeler, like you said, very up and down. But that's just kind of the normant starting pitcher. And you know his ups are really high up. Would you start Paxton at the Dodgers or Wheeler against the Braves, both with tough matchups? are they starts or sits for you? I would probably start both. I'd be more likely to sit, I'd be more likely to sit Paxton than Wheeler.

Studs being Duds part two, Miles Michaelis, two terrible starts in a row after a good nine-start stretch with a 267 ERA. Michaelis does get Colorado at home this week. That's good. And Kenta Maeda, you know,

I thought maybe he turned things around with his last start. He said he had a mechanical flaw and he adjusted it, but four and two-thirds, five hits, three runs. Four walks, nine Ks at Atlanta. Pretty bad start. He will either get Toronto at home or the Yankees at home this week. Never know what they're going to do with their rotation. But Michaelis and Maeda, are they starts or sits for you?

I'd rather not have to start them. I'd rather not have to start them, but they're in the mix if that's the current state of my rotation, where I have to turn to guys I'd rather not start. I mean, they are among the higher end of that group. Right. I just have no idea what they're going to do. one start to the next, and they could be virtually useless one week, or they could turn in a really good start.

And that's frustrating, but that's what the majority of the starting pitcher position is like. All right, Fringy starting pitchers part one. And this is actually going to be Fringy starting pitchers part one, part one, because we're going to separate them into two groups. Ryan Yarbrough, Zach Plizak, Mike Fultenevich, and Chris Bassett. Yarbrough, who's just been amazing lately, Plizac, Fulte, and Bassett, how would you rank them?

And, you know, they all have... Fulte, like Fulte, probably you can't start them against the Mets. But Yarbro, Pleazzock, and Bassett all have good matchups this week. Thoughts. Yardro's won. Yep. Easily. The way the strike gets picked up with the change-up,

I mean, that's just... That's just... another reason to like him the main reason to like him is just so good at throwing strikes i think he has five walks in his last 13 appearances i say appearances because a lot of times he follows an opener but you know basically starts i think i have that right five walks on his last 13 um good ground ball pit like he's he's really good and he's more reliable than most of what you'll find out there so definitely number one fultenevich two Really?

Yeah. Basset 3, Pleasack 4th. See, I trust Plesack against Kansas City. I don't trust him against the Yankees. He was terrible against the Yankees. I don't trust him against Boston. But against the Royals,

I actually do think he's had one terrible start against the Royals. I remember watching it. It was on July 4th, and he was dripping with sweat because it was hot as hell. Yeah. I don't trust...

I still don't see what he does well. Yeah. Well, Fultonovich, I mean... You know. Fultonovich hasn't done anything well all year. I understand and like he's fringy. Like he deserves to be called fringy.

But you know the slider was effective again and so basically the first start where he got good results. And the third start swinging strikes were high slider was effective. The middle start not so much. Like there's enough there

that unless I'm just completely set at starting pitching I'm going to hold on and see where it goes and I know there's more upsides. here for you know, Polisac or Bassett Bassett's kind of the same thing as

Pleasack. I don't really understand what he does well. I understand it's been a good run here. But it kind of reminds me of Merrill Kelly where he had a good run like that earlier in the year and then just you know, a string of disaster starts followed and I think that's very likely to

happen for Bassett. It may already be happening for Polisac. There just isn't enough it isn't enough supporting what when they're going well. I got you. All right. Frindy starting pitchers part one, part two.

Joe Musgrove, Rick Porcelo, Denelson Lamett, and Jeff Samarja. Musgrove, Porcelo, Lamett, Samarja. See, I would take Musgrove and Lamett over most of the previous group, not over Yarbrough, but they're right in the same range as Fultenevich for me. Musgrove You know, said he made some adjustments In terms of pitch sequencing

Leading up to this start Obviously he's had it rough recently There's been some talk that maybe he throws too many strikes But he varied it to great success And I think at his best he's been really good So Musgrove I'm still interested in Lamet would actually have I believe the sixth best swinging strike rate

If he qualified, he would be right in between Lucas Gielito and Shane Bieber. And, of course, the guys above that are like Garrick Cole and stuff. Right. But he's a five-inning pitcher. Well, not on Saturday. No, twice this year he's at a quality start. I think in eight starts.

Coming back for Tommy John surgery, yeah. I mean, that's how the Padres. But that's the Padres. I mean, that's like, I feel like that's how the Padres treat their pitchers. It's exactly what I expect them to do with Lamat. because I'm such a genius. So, uh, Frimji starting pitchers part two.

Jordan Yamamoto, not bad at Colorado this weekend. Alex Wood, pretty much done with him. Griffin Canning had an amazing start on Sunday against Texas. Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts. Texas is in a funk. Unfortunately, Canning has one start this weekend. It's at Houston. Annabal Sanchez, I'm pretty much done with him.

Two quality starts in his last six. Aaron Savale is pretty interesting. Um, four straight starts of six innings and zero to two run runs. against Detroit, Texas, at Minnesota, and at the Yankees. I don't really get it with him. He's got a low swinging, really low swinging strike rate. Not a big ground ball pitcher, but the results have been good for Savala. Well, he hasn't given up a home run yet for not being a good ground ball pitcher.

That makes me nervous about Savale, the fact that he's back under a strike upper inning now. I don't know. I've, you know, I've touted him after his previous starts because there was nobody else to tout and I needed pitching too and okay here's this guy pretty decent numbers in the minors this year doing well but the more I see of him the less optimistic I am sure all right Savali so is there anyone you like Yamamoto Alex Wood Griffin Canning Annabal Sanchez Aaron Savali Tanner Roark I mean canning's let us down a lot but I still like the skill set and you know he's down to 51% ownership, which is surprising that it's

fallen that far. Should it be that low? I mean, I just put in a claim form in one of our leagues. Okay. I'm not over. Alex Wood. Obviously, I don't think you should use him right now. But what's been the problem for him is home runs, and that's not really what should be the problem for him.

He's a good ground ball pitcher normally. And so, you know, he gets that figured out. I think he's going to be okay. and maybe he doesn't get it figured out but there's more upside there than I think a lot of what you could replace him with. Right, I would be much more interested in him in him, you know, in June.

It's just kind of tough right now. Yeah, I understand. And I feel bad because I just feel like I'm not helpful, really helpful, because I feel like I don't like any pitchers. It's just, maybe it's just been a thing lately where there just haven't been the ones that I get excited about, but

I just can't get behind some of these pictures. I don't trust them. No, I think that's the right approach is like, first of all, put yourself in a position where you don't have to, but few people can do that. Certainly now the trade deadlines passed,

I mean, that ship has sailed. Every single one of them is just you're hoping to avoid getting, you're hoping to avoid, You're hoping to avoid them getting sabotaged by home runs, just blindsided by a massive home run game. It just feels random at times. Fringy starting pitchers part three, these guys are 30 to 49% own.

Dylan Sees, Merrill Kelly, Mitch Keller, Anthony DiScliffeani, Jake Junis, Yusei Kikuchi, and Vince Velasquez. Velazquez is at Miami this week, so that's nice. Kikuchi just threw a complete game shutout at Toronto, and that's who he gets this week. They will hopefully have Vlad back for this matchup. Jake Junis, Anthony DiScoffani, Mitch Keller,

Merrill Kelly, Dylan, Seas, anyone you were interested in there? Not really, I mean, Jake Junice, six of eight quality starts. That's impressive, but I don't see much evidence that he's a better pitcher all of a sudden. Yeah, at Cleveland, too.

Not really feeling that. Yeah, I mean, there's still, you know, Keller, Mitch Keller, has upside. But we just, you know, we haven't seen enough of them to really know how it's going to go. But it's been very up and down the little we have seen of him. I like the stuff. I was watching a little bit tonight.

I was watching a little bit last time he started. You know, again, if it were June, I'd be pretty interested in Keller. I actually still am going to stash him in at least one league. But there's no way I'm starting Mitch Keller. I'm interested in seeing how you say Kikuchi finishes the season, because he's been so bad this year, obviously. Two of his last three starts have been great. And, you know, the one in between was a terrible start against the Tigers.

So, you know, I don't know that it necessarily means anything that two of the last three have been great. But he's made some changes recently. He eliminated the double leg kick. And just, you know, I do think there's ability there, obviously. It's just learning to pitch in a new environment that's really hard for anybody. to pitch in. I can imagine that. It has something to do with his struggles.

Okay. Let's go to the deep leagues. That was the change you made. Let's go to the deep leagues. By the way, very mad at Anthony DiScoffani for getting a win the other night and knocking me out of a fantasy league. Owned less than 30% of league,

Sandy Alcantara, Mike Montgomery, Tony Gonsolin, Logan Webb, Stephen Brault. Very nice starting against the Cubs on Saturday. Adrian Howser, Jacob Wagaspak, and Patrick Sandeval. Yep.

Yep. I'm kind of interested in Gonsolin, kind of interested in Montgomery, kind of interested in Logan Webb, if he sticks around. And not totally disinterested in Patrick Sandoval, who I think has a good change-up, but obviously his last two outings didn't really do much for him. So definitely talk in deeper league context here, with the exception of maybe Gonsolin, and at least in a points league where you can take advantage of his relief pitcher eligibility, maybe not, maybe Montgomery.

Well, thank you for letting me fill in on Chris Welsh's show. Very much. No, actually looking forward to getting Chris back. He's doing an awesome job. I really enjoy the Friday podcast. It was excellent. So good job. Kudos to Scott and Chris there.

And thanks so much, everybody, for listening. It's good to be that. I will talk to you tomorrow. And so will Scott. Until then, have a great night, everybody. Or actually, you're listening in the morning. So have a great day, everybody. See you.