Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/20: Weekend Roundup - Kopech Time! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 20, 2018

Michael Kopech and Stephen Gonsalves are up (1:25)! Who should you drop for them? We've also got a couple of hitters to add (6:06) and several SPs to add (9:15) for this week and going forward ... Any one-start streamers this week (17:31)? Would you dare trust Wei-Yin Chen? Also what's going on in bullpens around baseball (21:00)? And as we get to Fantasy Baseball crunch time, which SPs do we trust (22:00)? Luis Severino? Cole Hamels? Dallas Keuchel? ... Most Added players (32:00), hitters to know about (39:00) and so many SPs to review (40:40). Plus a look at today's matchups (53:35) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Oh, we got some exciting call-ups. Welcome, everybody. It's Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August, 26 weeks left in the fantasy baseball season.

I am Adamaser with Scott White. Scott, sunrise, sunset. Am I right? What do you mean? I don't know. Six weeks left. Six weeks. Coming up on the end.

It's a grind. Is that what you're suggesting? No, just think, you know, things end. We're almost there. Oh, okay. That's going to end. I mean, there's still like a quarter left. Six weeks.

It is actually, yeah. It really is. Wow. It's still a lot of time left. And we've got Michael Kopeck coming up to start tomorrow. And Stephen Gonzalez, probably how you pronounce his name, today for the Twins. So we'll obviously talk about that. Scott's going to give you a hitter and a pitcher to add,

although they're probably a lot more pitchers than hitters at this point. We're going to look at Scott's favorite segment, one-star streamers, and some bullpen stuff and everything from over the weekend. Let's get to the call-ups. Michael Kopeck and Stephen Gonzalez. For the White Sox and the Twins, they're actually going to face not each other, but those teams are facing off this week. And Gonzalez, are they both two-star pitcher, Scott?

No, I don't. Well, Copac has a chance to be. They haven't announced that anyone's out of the rotation, so I'm going to assume it's a sixth man for now. But Dylan Covey, you know, he could make room, and Copac could end up making two-starts. I would not approach Copac if he's a two-star pitcher, but he's obviously a very exciting.

If there's one player you're adding right now, it's Michael Kopeck, who's still available in 31% of leagues. This is a very exciting call-up. He is probably the best pitching prospect in baseball. That was the presumption coming into the season, but his control was so bad through 17 starts. It was like 6.1 walks per nine that there were people beginning to doubt. But that has completely changed over his past seven starts. total of four walks over those past seven starts. And he's striking out everybody.

It's like 12, 12 point something Ks per nine during that stretch, the RA below two. He's awesome. I think the, his stuff in terms of just how good it is, because he was once clocked at 105 miles per hour, Kopeck was. Now, obviously he doesn't sit there. He works more in the high 90s.

But I think this is the call-up with the best stuff since maybe Alex Reyes and maybe Noah Cindergarde before that. And while those two have both had injury issues, there's been no questions about the way they performed. So, Copac is definitely a rush out and at him sort of prospect. I'm going to give you some names. You tell me if you would drop them for Michael Copac. Gio Gonzalez.

Yes. Junior Gera. Yes. Marco Gonzalez. Yes. Freddie Peralta. Yes. Justin Bieber.

That actually was unintentional. That was unintentional. Shane Bieber. You might want to hang on to Justin. He's worth a lot. I would drop Shane Bieber, yes. I would guess that every owner could find somebody to drop for Michael Copac. Andrew Heaney.

I mean, I wouldn't want to, but if that's what it came. two, then yes. 13 minutes ago, we got an email from Mike, and he says, in a head-head categories league, who would you drop for Michael Kopeck? Eflin, Tyler Anderson, or Matt Duffy? Oh, Duffy. Yeah, probably Duffy. But what about the pitchers, Eflin and Tyler Anderson?

I would rank those pitchers, Kopeck, Eflin, Anderson. Wow, wow. So, you are really high on Michael Kopeck. Okay, go get them. And what about- He's got to take a flyer on the upside. And the thing is, he still hasn't reached last year's inning total. And presumably the White Sucks are going to want to exceed him so he can keep building up to pitch deeper into the season.

He should have enough innings left to make it through however many starts are remaining. I think he's what he'd line up for. He should have enough for that. And Stephen Gonzalez, what do you think about him? He's also quite a prospect. 9 and 3, 296 ERA, quite a wild pitcher as well. 65 walks to 120Ks in 120 and 2 thirds. Your thoughts?

See, I don't know that I'd call him quite a prospect. He has appeared in prospect conversations for a few years now because his numbers earlier in his minor league career were just so out of this world. Awesome. ERAs in the low 2s with a high strikeout rate, you know, more than 10 per 9. But that's kind of the only reason he was in the prospect conversation. The scouting reports were never very favorable about Gonsolva, as they considered him a back-end guy long-term. He doesn't have electric stuff. And as he's climbed the ladder, really since he's reached AAA, walks have started to creep in, as he said.

And if you're not, you know, if your stuff's already in question and you're walking guys too, I don't feel great about that. I wouldn't really have any interest in picking him up in standard mixed leagues. All right, so let's find out who we are interested in picking up in standard mixed leagues. Give me one hitter to add, Scott White. One hitter to add. If I'm adding any hitter this week, it's Malick Smith, who's number one in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. And yeah, he's been awesome in August in the leadoff spot. But I talked about him last week.

I think he was my hitter to add at this point last week. So I am going to bring up David Dahl, who continues to play for the Rockies. He has started 10 of 12 games since returning from the miners. Three of his last four have been multi-hit games, a couple doubles, a couple steals during that stretch. He hasn't set the world on fire, but we know there's a lot of upside there, and he's about to play a full week of home games. So I think particularly in five outfielder leagues, you might want to make a move for David Dahl. Yeah, and the most added hitter in CBSports.com leagues, I believe it's Taylor Ward.

And just the fact that he's playing every day gives him such an advantage on other hitter, on other catchers. Catchers, yeah. He's now 47 percent of him. But he's catcher eligible. Right, he's catcher eligible. He plays third base. And I just wonder, like, where is Taylor Ward in your rest of season catcher rankings? Is he a top 10 guy?

I think at last update, I moved him into the top 12. Not top 10. But I moved him ahead of Chorinos. And let me check here. No, he's just behind Chorinos for me, but that's debatable. So you have a top nine, I think, that's pretty clear, including Gary Sanchez in that group. And then the 10-11 and 12 for me are Francisco Survelli, Robinson Chorinos, Taylor Ward. I think you could make an argument for Ward to be the first of that group.

Yeah, and I don't know what to tell the Wilson-Contreras owners. Because he's just, I don't know, let me check the fantasy points, but I feel like you're getting nothing from him. And I just wonder, would you start, oh boy, it's been pretty bad. Would you start, would you start Taylor Ward over Wilson Contreras? I mean, if you feel comfortable carrying two catchers, that's, well, you know what, the Angels are playing five games this week? Like, you know, for a while, Evan Gattis was doing nothing, right? and then he breaks out with this two-homer game all of a sudden. If you trust in the talent, that eventually ends.

I guess, but he's got nine home runs in 106 games. He's got Joey Votto power, most of contraris. Well, he has. He's still pretty high in terms of overall catcher production, right? I don't know. He hasn't done much lately? I don't know. I'm just taking your word for it.

He hasn't done much lately, too. No, he hasn't. I mean, his fantasy point totals for the last two weeks are four. Zero and four. Yeah, he's struggling for sure. I mean, I think he's struggling all year. 269 batting average nine homers, 41 RBIs. Yeah, it hasn't been as good of the years we expected.

Yeah, I'm surprised. He's still among the highest scoring catchers and fantasy. It's just the way the position is. All right, so those are some hitters. David Dahl, Malick Smith, Taylor Ward, pitcher to add, or pitchers to add. So Michael Kopeck. But after him. I would look into adding,

if you're looking for a one-week guy and we're pretty much to that point in the season, Mike Fires is a good two-star option to add, probably the best for this week. Derek Holland, who I mentioned last week, has pretty good matchups. We talked about the Marlins pitcher Trevor Richards. He's not in line for two starts anymore, so forget him.

Forget him. Yeah, I'll give you some guys. Three guys who are owned in 57% and 59% of leagues, so you might not be able to get them in shallow leagues, but in deep leagues, but maybe in shallow leagues. Joe Musgrove, Tyler Glassnow, and Trevor Cahill. And Glassnow I'm particularly interested in because he has the Kansas City Royals this week. But, yeah, Musgrove, Glass Now, and Cahill are owned in 57 or 59% of leagues.

And what do you think about their ownerships? Yeah, I think Cahill was the most exciting for the weekend because that's three out of four starts now where he has, I mean, it was one hit in this one. Three out of four starts where he's looked really good, like a top of the rotation sort of pitcher. And he's season long numbers between the injury. I mean, he has an ERA in the low threes. Strike out for inning? Yeah, strike out for inning. He probably needs to be owned.

And it's been a couple, I feel like, disappointing starts for Glass Now in a row now. Obviously, the result from two starts ago wasn't so bad, but it was less than 60% of his pitches for strikes after 70% those first two starts. And then in this most recent start over the weekend, Saturday, where the result wasn't so good gave it four runs in six and two thirds. Yeah, only 53% of his pitch. It's pretty good against their... I had Boston, though, that's pretty good, if you ask me. Well, I had three walks and six and two-thirds. I think he had a bad...

I honestly could not care less about what happens at Boston. Like, it's just... It's at Colorado to me. It's the same thing. Honestly, and I think they've been better at home than the Rockies have. Wow. They're amazing. The reason...

There's never any comparison for Coors Field because of the effect it has on the pitches themselves. That's true. But fair enough. It wasn't a good start. No, it wasn't. I'm not dropping him in any of the leagues where I added him, but after two really encouraging

starts, there have been two kind of discouraging starts for Tyler Glass now. Is that fair to say? Oh, yeah. You go along with that. Yeah, absolutely. You're right about the strike percentage. I wouldn't be so eager to start him if he had an even halfway decent opponent. But against the Royals, I think Glass now.

could be good for you this week. That's fine. Sure. Who do you think has the highest home OPS in baseball? Which team? Well, I'm going to guess it's not the Red Sox because that would be obvious, right? Correct. That is correct.

And it's not the Rockies. It's not the Red Sox or Rockies. Highest home OPS for a team? This probably changed yesterday. Oh. Man, who scored a lot of Red So, I don't want to hold this up. I'm going to say Cleveland Indians. They are fourth. The Yankees 830 OPS, the Red Sox 829 OPS at home. The Rockies 812 and the Indians 804.

And the Texas Rangers are fifth. So how about that? All right. So we got Musgrove. Did we talk about him? Or did we skip over him? He's at Milwaukee this week. He has the most difficult matchup of the three. I'm sorry if I... Yeah, we touched on him, right? Musgrove. Because the strikeouts are back. 59% owned is too low because he just keeps hurling good starts. Yeah, and a couple of those starts have been really weird with like one strikeout or two over seven innings. Right, right. Then he has a start like this with seven strikeouts and seven innings.

I think he's pretty good. I would be okay starting him as a one-star pitcher, even if you're not taking advantage of the relief pitcher eligibility and using him as a spark. Okay, let's go to the big news. Kenley Jansen could be back this week. I don't know if that's going to happen, but he's making progress. U. Darvish had a setback. He will have an MRI, and he may not pitch this season.

This is very... I don't want to talk about Scott. Steven Strasbourg will start Wednesday. That's a bacle, right? Yeah, it sucks because, you know, you kept getting these glimmers of hope with Darmish. Didn't A.Rod get in trouble for calling it a debacle? Arod got in trouble for questioning Darvish's... like toughness and desire

Oh. Okay. Who's laughing now? Yeah. Debacle. He may have said that. I don't know. Steven Strassberg's going to start on Wednesday.

Mani Machado left Sunday's game after being hit by a pitch on the wrist, but he's expected to be fine. Jose Altuve could be back tomorrow. Chris Sale is back on the D.L with shoulder inflammation. Let me tell you who my five best pitchers are on my Roto team that had a chance. We were number one for a bit. Now we're number three. It's Chris Sale

Zach Granky You Darvish And Marcus Stroman Derek Rodriguez So all that means is Granky is going to be on the DL At some point very soon Just

I am very ill He's a marked man Yes I don't know what's happened to that team Just snake bin Raphael Devers is on the DL With a hamstring strain DGRIG

Yeah D DGorgias could go on the DL He's got a bruised heel Hunter Strickland is back But Will Smith will remain the San Francisco closer As well he should Hell yeah James Paxton could be back this weekend You don't start him

It's not certain enough Daniel Ponce de Leon Will replace Luke Weaver No you wanted to say it I did I got gun shy In the rotation Any interest in Ponce de Leon Do we have a song for him

No but everybody should know that I went to the University of Miami, and we are located right off Ponce Dalyone Drive. Oh. Yeah. I just thought that's relevant. I mean, he's most notable because he took a no-hitter deep into his Major League debut. I don't think he's lost to add or anything, but if his second starts good, yeah, we're keeping an eye on Ponce de Leon. Nine walks, 10Ks in 17 and 2 thirds, mostly out of the bullpen.

Let's see. Joey Vado on the deal with a leg contusion and Scott, Colin McHugh, could be starting this week. Okay. Well, that's cool. I imagine it'll be a bullpen game because he has not been building himself up. What I understand. So maybe he'll go two innings. And maybe he can build himself up from here.

Yeah. And he's been so good, you know, 112-v-R-A, 72 strikeouts to 14 walks, sub-one whip in 56 and a third that McHugh's 29% own. If you're in a Categories league, a Roto League, he's usable just as a bullpen arm. And he's probably just going to be a better reliever than starter based on his track record, his career. His stuff probably plays up better in the pen.

But, you know, I think there might be something here. Maybe not this week, as Scott mentioned. But if he joins the rotation, I was hoping it would be Peacock, but it's McHugh. I'll have to deal with that. All right, it's time for one-start streamers presented by Scott White. Scott, I only have three names here. I'm looking at just who has easy matchups.

Anibal Sanchez is 79% owned, so he's widely owned. But if he's available, he's at Miami this week. Would you start Anabal Sanchez? Let's say, let's use Joe Musgrove as the basis for comparison. Since I already said, I'd be willing to start a one-star Muskrove. And he's only 59% own, so more available than Sanchez. I would rather start Joe Musgrove. At Milwaukee than Sanchez at Miami?

Yep. Two-star Mike Fires or one-star Anabal? Two-star Mike Fires. Matt Boyd has done. the White Sox this week. Matt Boyd, 51% owned. I would rather start Joe Musgrove. And I know you'd rather start Joe Musgrove, but what if I told you? There's a guy who's 5% owned. He's at home this week. He's got a 205 ERA at home this year, and he's way in

shed. I would say, get out of town. I don't want anything to do with that. All right, he's home against the Atlanta Braves, Wei and Chen. You know, I don't know, excuse me, a month and a half ago, saying the same thing about Armand Marquez.

He's got a road start. He's got a sub-2 ERA on the road. Yeah. I love Irma-Marquez, by the way. I do, too. I think he's a must start right now. Oh, yeah. One start at home this week, but I don't care.

Yep. It's in my lineup. 100%. And we'll get to some bullpen news in a second. I do want to tell you, though, about Seat Geek, the best app, the only way to get tickets. And I am currently, I'm in a buy-in, Scott. I'm trying to go to this Miami-Florida State game. It's just, I'm not a millionaire, so unfortunately I can't afford it.

No, you're not. But what I did, I went to Seekkeek. I go every day. within the app you can set alerts so you can get updates on the tickets and you can find out, you know, what's going on with the prices on the Seekek app. It's a very cool feature. Now, other things I like about Seekkeek. Well, it's about competition, right? You got to go to multiple websites.

You've got to find the best deals. Seek will do that for you. Every purchase is fully guaranteed so you can shop for tickets on Seekek with confidence. And I know you love saving money. So, you know, in addition to just the money, they save you by searching multiple sites and giving you a grade based on value and telling you where the best, uh, bang for your buck is, you get $20 off your first purchase on Seekkeek if you use the code fantasy. Again, that code is fantasy.

So download the Seekek app, do what I do, search for tickets. If I buy tickets to this game, it's going to be on the Seekek app because it's going to be the most affordable and the most effective and the most efficient way to get those tickets. Download Seekkeek and use the code fantasy for $20 off your first purchase. In the bullpen, nothing too crazy. A lot of guys who were like unavailable and other people in the bullpen got saves. We saw that in Philadelphia. We saw that with the Cubs.

We saw that with Minnesota, with Hildenberger. But Josh Hader, Scott, got a save. He's now gotten three straight saves from Milwaukee. He got a one-out save, and Jeremy Jeffers pitch two innings, seventh and eighth inning. I luckily am not, I have a buy in the podcast league. But if I did, I'd have to drop Jeremy Jeffers at this point and look for someone else. Yeah, I think so. That was kind of the opposite roles we expected them to fill. Hater's been pitching multiple innings all season. Jeffers hasn't. I don't know where this came from. It's very confusing. But yeah, there hasn't been a lot of momentum for Jeffers getting saved yet. It's very strange. And Jeffress is owned in fewer leagues than Hater. Hater is 84% owned. Jeffress is 33% owned. And honestly, I was all about adding him.

You could still add him because he's really good. But if you're specifically adding him for saves, you know, it's not really good. You can still add him and you can still add him. Yeah, I could. Correct. Yeah. J. Frey got a save on Sunday for the White Sox. A.J. Minter blew a save.

Cota Glover is just not doing anything to inspire confidence. He's probably had his last chance to because I think Kelvin Herrera is supposed to return Tuesday. Oh, very nice. Yeah. Okay. Pick him up then. Tuesday or Wednesday. Scott, let's do a Billy Joel segment.

A matter of trust. How much do you trust these guys? Trust is important right now, Scott. I need to know if you were standing up and these pitchers were standing behind you and you closed your eyes and you fell backwards into their waiting arms, would you trust them to catch you as you fell?

Luis Severino at Baltimore this week. This is a different exercise. I trust him to pitch well against the Orioles, yes. He faced the White Sox a couple turns ago and was great against them. And, I mean, this last start over the weekend, it was better than he's been lately. He didn't, he wasn't efficient. I think 100 pitches in less than six innings had to be removed after that, but it was a solid outcome. Yeah, it was better.

And, you know, I mentioned that his slider wasn't as good. I don't know, people might not believe me. I feel like Chris never believes me when I say things. But Mike Petriello of MLB.com studied it very in-depth, and he had charts and graphs and colored lines and things like that and showed that Severino was getting a lot less drop and less downward tilt on his slider in his previous seven starts before Saturday, and there's no update as far as I know on how his slider was.

But it seemed a lot better. So that is encouraging and a step in the right direction for Severino. Cole Hamill's pitching great. He didn't have his best stuff on Friday, but he got five double play balls, and he threw seven scoreless innings at Pittsburgh. Do you trust Cole Hamill's against the Reds this week? Yes, I do. I would trust him to catch me, and he's been getting him out of Texas

seems to have made a world of difference. Okay. Do you trust Noah Cindergarde? Hasn't really been that good since coming back from hand, foot, and mouth disease. Do you trust Noah Cindergarde? He has San Francisco this week. Yeah, I think you have to. He hasn't been very good.

He hasn't been bad. But he's given up more hits than innings pitch this year, which is kind of shocking. Yeah, also his career Babbup is shocking. His Babbab has been between 336 and 3.45, three straight seasons. Now, it's not such a big deal when he's striking out a ton of hitters, but it's been kind of a middle of the road strikeout rate since returning too. So he hasn't quite looked himself. But he's down a little.

I mean, he's still averaging close to 97 on his fastball, so it's not anything concerning. It's been kind of disappointing, but at the same time, he's Noah Cindergarde, and I suspect the start you choose to bench him is when he'll strike at 11 in seven innings, and you'll feel stupid. Jake Areetta, do you trust him? He's got a 274 ERA in his last eight starts. He's at Toronto this week. Jake Areeta.

Yeah, I kept waiting for the collapse, and it still hasn't come. So good for Jake Areetta for reinventing himself as a ground ball pitcher. It's worked out. Matchup's good. Yeah, I'll trust him. He will be on everybody's bus list next year. Also, I'll say this about Areietta. His last eight start, okay, his first 16 starts.

On baseball reference, he had a 1.29 ground ball to fly ball ratio. That's pretty high on baseball reference. His last eight starts, 0.89. Actually, more fly balls than ground balls based on the way. And I think they consider line drives fly balls. So keep that in mind. That's not great. No, he's actually getting...

It's almost like the next guy we're going to talk about. Now is Kikl, where the results have been good, but the methodology, I don't know, the way he's going about it, not what we want to see. Kiko actually had a bad start over the weekend, but last... The eight starts before that, he had a 180-80 already. but not his typical ground ball rate. And he's at the Angels this week. Do you trust Dallas Keikle?

I trust him the least of this group. In fact, I don't know that there's much reason to bother with him in a categories league, unless you're – well, if it's like a roto league and you're chasing wins, maybe. But otherwise, I don't think there's much good he can do for you. there's more risk that he'll bring you down an ERA and whip and probably with not a lot of strikeouts. Well, that's the thing about Keiko is like when he's at his best, he's actually a great whip guy, you know,

or a good, good whip guy, even with all the ground balls. But I don't know if that's really been the case. I know it hasn't been this year, but in this, you know, nine-star stretch where he's been pretty good. I don't have those numbers. I don't have his whip. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a little harsh, Scott,

because he could give you a good ERA and get you win, but he is not going to win. He could. He could, but I mean, I don't think the reward justifies the risk, I guess, is how I'd summarize it. Okay. Scott, boy, we, uh, why don't I call you that? I don't know.

I meant to call you Scotty boy. That would have sounded more normal. Scotty boy, I made some interesting transactions over the weekend. I'm sure you did as well. We made the playoffs in the podcast league. So did Heath. Chris did not.

But the regular season is over in the podcast points league. Kreeh, by the way, they're going to make the playoffs in the Rejects League or the For the People League. Scott and I probably not. Well, there's still two weeks left, right? Yeah, I think so. I thought it was one. But if there's two, then we have a chance. Yeah, I think there's two.

Okay, because, you know, we figured out the formula. It's just starting pitching as usually. useless in that league. It just took us too long to figure it out. Oh, by the way, are we starting Mike Trout this week? Should fantasy owners start Mike Trout this week? So he's supposed to be back. Is it the weekend? Is he out until the weekend? What did I see over the weekend? Well, he was eligible to come up to the L, and then he had the death in his family.

Yeah, so he's not expected to rejoin the Angels until next homestand. So yeah, it's going to be, you know, you're only going to get half a week from him. Okay. Our condolences to Mike Trout, tough time. And very sorry to hear the news. All right, so let's go over who we added and dropped. Always an awkward transition on a fantasy podcast. I apologize for that.

Well, I added Miguel Seno. Just take a flyer on someone who's heating up a little bit. Dropped Randall Gritchick, so I'm not dropping anyone great for him. But you never know with Miguel Sino. I probably like him more than anyone else, just in general. But I added him in the podcast points league. Also added Stephen Gonzalez, just to see what happens. I have a first round by, even though my team wasn't very good.

But when you're good at keeping points off the board like I was this year in the podcast league, very low points against total. That's the secret to winning. So everybody tried to be better at that. Yeah, all right. So, Sineau is somebody I think worth thinking a shot on. Any interesting transactions for you, Scott? I didn't add a hitter in any league this week.

Isn't that amazing? That is, it makes sense. Because at this point, you know, you really want to take advantage of matchups with pitchers. At this point, you know who your horses are in terms of your hitters. But it is a little surprising. And that's not true. You are actually lying right to our face. Who did I add?

You added Jake Bowers and you added David Dahl. the Roto League. Okay. And you dropped Scott Alexander and Fran Mill Reyes. Hashtag bring back the leg kick. Well, there you go. I forgot about that one league in the moves I made there.

I in that league, and this is a pretty deep league, I added Neil Walker. So even without the injury to Dini Gagorius, which I'm thinking will, I don't know what's going to happen. I probably could read an article about it. guessing Glaver Torres plays short,

Neil Walker plays second. You might see some Ronald Torres in there. But Neil Walker is first, second, third, and outfield eligible. He has been not that good lately, but I think he could be better. And it is strictly deep leagues. He's 8% owned with a ton of eligibility.

By the way, since you mentioned Glaver Torres possibly putting some shortstop? Yep. Is that just your speculation or have you seen something? I'll try to read about it right now, but that's my speculation. Well, you know who actually has played shortstop recently is Dee Gordon? Yes. Yes, he has.

With Gene Segura on paternity leave. So he is, I don't think he's eligible there yet in fantasy, but he's very close. He's made two appearances, I think, at Shortstop. So I thought, maybe three. It's up to three now So two more to go Also Will Myers is eligible now at third base Because he has been

Playing there for the most part Since coming off the DL So that's interesting Yeah it is So he's third base first base And outfield eligible It helps you know It helps to have this different eligibility

Who else did we add We added Mullins For the Orioles Cedric Mullins Yeah he's pretty interesting Yeah in our 16 team categories league he's leading off good obp he's getting on base a lot what do you think about mullins he is he hasn't struck out very much um i'm trying to think of a good comp because i don't feel like

he has a lot of power i don't feel like he has a lot of speed and yet i feel like he could be useful regardless uh i mean maybe the maybe the player most like that right now now is Jerks and ProFAR, although ProFAR obviously is quintuple eligible, and Mullins isn't. But, you know, pro FAR is also universally owned. I'm not saying Mullins needs to be that owned. I just think in five outfielder leagues or in deeper leagues like a 16-team league, probably worth a shot. I guess we can take a look at the most added list then.

See who everybody's adding, not just us. Austin Gomber is number one on the most added list. He is RP eligible. And, right? He is RP eligible, yes. Two starts this week at the Dodgers and at Colorado. It's a little scary. Yeah, he is below the threshold for me in terms of two-star pitchers I'm willing to recommend.

I think he is just below it. Taylor Ward is, we talked about, Brett Anderson, two-star. against Texas and at Minnesota. People, this could go very, very wrong. And I know Anderson has been good. He's got a sub-1 ERA in his last three starts. Man, Scott, I don't know. Brett Anderson scares me.

As well, he should. As well, he should. He has not been a good pitcher for a long time. And even then, he wasn't good. Like, he didn't give a lot of strikeouts even when he was good. I do want to mention one thing about Cedric Mullins. Okay. He was 21 out of 22 in stolen bases in the minors this year.

Now, he's only attempted one in the majors, so he needs to get on that. But there is more speed there than I gave him credit for just a minute ago. So another reason to think about adding him. Yeah, good to know. Michael Kopeck, 71% on. Mike Fier is 79% own. Harrison Bader is 49% owned. How do you feel about Harrison Bader right now?

Yeah, it needs to be higher. I almost went with him instead of David Dahl among my hitters to add. He is, I feel like what we hoped Kevin Kiermire would be coming into the season, and Kevin Kiermire obviously hasn't been. But 2020 potential, the batting average is inflated by a high BABB, but, you know, 260-ish, 270-ish hitter in the long run. Derek Holland is a two-star pitcher, and he has the Mets on the road and home against Texas. And Scott kind of said, yeah, you could go with Derek Holland. You don't have to, but he's not the worst option as a two-star pitcher.

We got Junjun Riu on the most out of list. He's 78% owned. He's more owned than Michael Kopeck. Who would you rather have for you or Kopeck? Oh, Kopeck. No doubt. Stephen Gonzalez, 21% owned. Koda Glover, 19%.

That might be 19 too many. Marco Estrada is on this list. It's a lot of two-star pitchers, a lot of streamers. By the way, Scott, good call on Brad Keller last week. You said he was your favorite of the Deep League two-star pitchers. So nice work. Yes, sir. Are people buying into Lucas Gialito?

Gialito is 40% owned. He's a two-star pitcher at Minnesota and at Detroit. I'm not. Yeah, man, you guys are playing with fire. Yeah. Man, okay, Kevin Gosman, 88% owned. Let's see who else is interesting. Ahmed Rosario is pretty interesting, Scott.

He is 37% owned, and he might be the most added shortstop at this point. And if you need a D.D. Gagorius replacement, and I'm not guaranteeing that Didi's on the DL, but it didn't look good. Your thoughts on Ahmed Rosario. And you love Ahmed Rosario. I do? Seems like it. You keep bringing him up. Well, he keeps doing stuff. Chris likes him a lot, I think.

Does he? Yeah, I think so. I don't. I don't. I imagine if you get in a certain depth of league, he's probably the best you could do. I still am kind of shot. Ketelmarte is only 54% owned, so I would definitely turn to him first. He has been really good since the start of June, I want to say. Like at OPS around 900. So he would be my preference there. All right, let's do some more news and notes and then get into what we missed over the weekend. Jeremy Helixen is on the DL. Remember, we talked about Joe Ross, maybe having a chance to contribute for the Nationals in September.

And while I'm thinking about this, I forgot. The fact that the White Sox are calling up Michael Kopeck, does that give you hope that they'll call up Eloy Jimenez? A little bit. Yeah, I don't think it's a lock. You know, I feel like, because we always can talk about the financial. ramifications of calling up a guy now versus middle of April next year, you get a whole extra year of team control if you wait it out, and obviously that makes sense. But there still needs to be a culture of you do what you're supposed to do and you get rewarded for it. And I feel like it was like Kopec, the instantaneous turn in the control happened when

he was frustrated about a start where an umpire was kind of squeezing him. He was losing the borderline calls. He was angry at the umpire. And the pitching coach at AAA just kind of laid into him. And like, look, you don't put yourself in three, two counts. That's not going to happen. And then it was like, it changed overnight.

So it was such a clear response to coaching that I feel like they wanted to throw him a bone. And maybe they'll do the same for Aloi Menace. I don't know. Marcus Stroman's on the deal with a blister. Marco Gonzalez had his start pushback from Sunday to Wednesday. The Mariners are trying to limit Marco Gonzalez. follows his innings a little bit. Wellington Castillo is eligible to return from an 80-game suspension on Thursday.

Castillo violated MLB's drug policy. Is Wellington Castillo on your radar at all at catcher? He probably should be just because there are so few options worth rostering there. I would imagine he'd be in the top 24, top 20, but when he comes back. Adrian Beltrade avoided the DL. Irvin Santana is back on the DL. This finger injury never went away. Yassio Pweed could serve his two-game suspension.

this week, so keep an eye on that. Scott mentioned Will Myers is third base eligible. Avi Garcia is playing through a knee injury that will require off-season surgery. Mark Trumbo's on the DL. Danny Duffy could start this week. Don't start Danny Duffy. And Eduardo Rodriguez, keep an eye on him. He's making a rehab start today.

Scott, I didn't find anything specific on the Yankees infield except that Glaver Torres did slide over to play shortstop when DEDY left with the injury, and Ronald Torres came in to play second base. I think Neil Walker was already in the game, probably play. playing. I don't know where he was playing. Maybe he's playing right field. All right. Hitters, you know what? Let's not get into this because we can save this for tomorrow. I will say that Max Muncie Scott continues to sit against lefties, sitting a lot against lefties. Yep.

So if you have Muncie and you look at their schedule and you see they have a lot of lefties on there, you might want to pump the brakes on Max Muncie. I still like the upside, and I'd still like to roster him. Somebody dropped him in a 10-team league I'm in, and I just couldn't. He's still out there. He has at least two lefties out of six games this week. Now, if Pueg gets suspended, maybe that changes things for Muncie. Billy Hamilton is batting lead-off.

He has a hit in 10 of his last 11 games, so he's back to the lead-off spot. And Hunter Renfro continues to hit pretty well, Scott. He's 24-per-owned. What do you think about Renfro? I think he probably needs to be added in five outfielder leagues. There's a lot of power there. In deep leagues, we already talked about Cedric Mullins. Are any of these guys interesting to you?

Miami outfielder Rafael Ortega, Tyler Austin for the twins, Ryan O'Hern for the Orioles, and Jose Batista for the Mets. No, really not. I mean, Batista still has a high OBP for hitting about 200. So that's probably the most interesting guy. All right, let's go to the pitchers. Studs being Studs Part 1. Two guys in this segment.

Both of them are just pitching out of their minds. Jacob de Grom, he's the MVP. He's the Siong. That's it. Oh, wow. You're awarding it to him already. I mean, he really have to fall apart down the stretch. But 171 ERA.

Clayton Kershaw won the MVP with a 177 ERA. And 10.8 strikeouts per 9. Grom's at 10.9 strikeouts per nine. Come on. Give him the MVP. Forget about the Siam. Give him the MVP. Carlos Carrasco also been great.

Carlos Carasco last nine appearances. Eight of them starts. 173 ERA. 16% swinging strike rate. That's crazy. Six walk, 65 strikeouts. He's had a very favorable schedule, but he is pitching great. Carrasco's at Boston this week.

Let's see what happens. Yeah. I believe him, he used to be an ERA Matters guy for you, right? Absolutely. You were railing against Carlos Carrasco. Got to pay attention to what he's doing. He's pitching better than he ever has. No doubt.

Studs being studs part due. David Price, Walker Bueller, Jameson, Tyone, Mike Fultenevich. Are these guys studs, Price, Bueller, Tyone, and Fultenevich? I, well, I mean, what do you consider a stud? I think price is pretty close. Must start, no questions about it. Let's start with that. I'm not sure any of them are that.

Maybe Price. I can't get away. I know you don't really love Tyone, but I can't get away from what he's doing. He's safe, you know? He's safe. He never really kills you. Sure.

Yeah, it's never a problem to start Tyone, but if I have a bunch of two-star options and he's a one-star guy, then I probably would sit him. Studs being duds, part one. Tell me if you're worried about any of these guys. Verlander, Rich Hill, Zach Godley. Oh, man, Zach Godley, four walks.

What's up with that? Sean Mania and Andrew Heaney. Verlander, Rich Hill, Godley, Mania, and Heaney. Did we end up losing, yeah, did we lose ERA and Whip in the Four of the People League because of Godly? I don't know. That would suck.

We start all those relationships. Leavers and lose ERA and Whip? Come on. I got to check that now. But yeah, that was lame because he's been on such a nice run. And the walks, the improvement of the control was a big part of that. So hopefully this is just a blip. We lost WIP.

We lost WIP, but we won ERA. We won ERA. Gosh. Eight nothing and saves. Wow, we could get two wins for that. Yeah, we would have crushed this guy if Mike Trout had played. Okay, we lost by one run. we had six home runs to his eight.

We would have crushed some if Mike Trout had played. We would have gone seven to three. Is it worth half a week? I don't know. I don't know. Half a week? I'm worried about Andrew Heaney, though. Okay.

I think, you know, the innings might be catching. It's totally speculative. But he's just barely pitched in recent years. And he's got a 502RA since the All-Star break. He has Houston at home this week. And Heaney's been amazing at home. home. But not his last home start.

His last home start was rough against the Tigers. I sat him this week for Kopeck. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't think that's a terrible idea. You know, it's not a bad theory that maybe the endings are catching up to him. Four of his, because he used All-Star Break as the cutoff. Oh, wait, I'm counting one pre-All-Star break there. Well, I don't do that, Scott.

Three of his six starts since the All-Star break have been good. Cheater. Yeah, I'm not counting the one before the All- Well, you were going to I was going to You think you have a little bit of integrity Just a little bit I know you're worried about some of these guys

Studs being Duds part two Sean Newcomb Robbie Ray How about this? Who's dropable? Sean Newcomb Okay, we're going one by one Yeah

He's dropable He's dropable I'd rather not but he's dropable Robbie Ray Same thing. Dropable if you have to. Nick Povetta. I guess maybe the standard is I would drop this guy for Michael Kopeck if it came to it.

Well, I'm going to say no just because he's already 71% owned, so owners may not have that luxury. Like, how about a two-star- So you want to aim lower than that? Two-star Mike fires. Well, then the answer's probably no. Okay. So we'll just keep it more general. I think Povetta is the least dropable of this group.

How do you like that? I haven't said Lance Lynn's name yet. Newcomb Ray and Povetta. Lance Lynn is the most droppable, right? The most dropable, yes. Lance Lynn's the most dropable, Povetta is the least dropable. Start or sit, Newcomb at Pittsburgh. No, sit.

Robbie Ray against Seattle. Sit. Nick Povetta at Toronto. Probably start. Lance Lynn at Baltimore. Probably start. Yeah, that's a one-week sleep, I guess, except he's 85%. owned.

I'm going to just give some more names here. Armand Marquez is 71% owned. It's criminally low. Yeah, it is. I should hope that's because, well, you don't hope for this, but I should hope that's because enough owners have just tuned out. Yeah. The leaders in the league have just scooped up all the good pitchers and don't have room for Marquez.

Armand Marquez should be 171% owned. Whoa. Luis Castillo is 66% owned. Great start over the weekend against the Giants. He's at the Cubs this week. What do you think? Now that was somebody who on Twitter somebody told me that was his low guy. That's who he'd have to drop for Copec.

And I said, go ahead and do it. But at the same time, I mean, there's a lot of upside there. And two of his last four starts have been 9Ks, I think. So hopefully he's trending the right direction. Trevor Williams has Atlanta this week. Trevor Williams has a 0.75 ERA in his last six starts. He does. He has been getting a lot of weak contact.

That's not something I like to put a lot of faith in. But so far it's worked for him. I don't have a lot of trust in him. But, I mean, you know, you could do worse. All right. How about these guys? Desclafani, Matt Harvey, and Edwin Jackson. Any interest?

No. No. I mean, Desclafani's put together three good seven-in-starts in a row. but not in a way that inspires a lot of confidence. And we should point out, this guy doesn't start, but you might be able to use him in a category. He's like Jalen Beeks. Scott talked about him after his relief appearance for the raise.

You know how they do it. At the Yankees. Well, now, last two times out, at the Yankees and at Boston, he's done very well. And four appearances now for Jalen Beeks. 19 inning, seven hits, five runs, seven walks, 18 strikeouts. and he might have to face the Red Sox this week, but Jalen Beaks could help you out for ratios.

I want to read some emails, and then I'll let Scott White get out of here. Scott, this is from Tyler, 10-team categories league. Should I drop DJ LaMayhew for Rugned Odore? In categories? Yeah. Yeah, you should probably do that. Ooh, all right.

Rosendo said, I asked my three-year-old daughter if I should trade Robbie Ray, and she said yes. Do you guys agree? I mean, if it's a season-long league And I just said Robbie Ray's drop the ball Then I mean, I guess you could see what you could get for him

Rather than dropping him If it's a long-term keeper league Dynasty League where there isn't much roster turnover I think I'd hold on for the upside Now doesn't seem like a good time to move him Andrew from Toronto Dear Jerry, Andy, Sergio and Jeff Jerry, Andy, Sergio, and I don't know

We'll have to look it up I successfully added Michael Kopeck, but I will have to drop somebody when Encarnazion comes Encarnacion comes off the DL. Who should I drop? Povetta, Gausman, Fires, Newcomb, Hill, or Williams? Probably Williams. Fires is fine, too.

Like, if, when is the Carnacion coming off? Is he coming off today? I don't think so. I think like midweek, maybe. Yeah, if you could get your lineup locked in with the two starts for fires and then drop them. them after that. That sounds ideal. I mean, not that I, you know, Williams fires as a toss up, just generally speaking, but, you know,

fires, you're not getting two starts again from him for a while. By the way, Jerry, Andy, Sergio, and Jeff are Garcia's. Garcia's. From No Name, would you drop any of the following from Michael Kopeck? Tanaka, Godly, Flaherty, or John Gray? Tanaka, Flaherty, Godly, or John Gray. Well, congratulations. You've found a scenario.

Oh, Scott's cell phone makes an appearance. There it is. Every show. That is funny. What do you think? You wouldn't drop any of those guys? That's just, yeah. You found the scenario where it can't happen.

Andrew in Canada. Please rank these closers for the playoffs, my playoff run. Roberto Ozuna, Osuna, Corey Canable, Strope, Will Smith, Leclerc, Shane, Shane, I'm going to go LeClerc, who just had a huge week. Yeah. I think it's the best combination of security in the role and good ability. Will Smith would be second.

Good ability. What? Did you say good ability? Oh, oh, like good ability. I thought you meant like you were creating. Good ability. Like it turned it into a word. Yeah.

I mean, why not? So Leclerc, Will Smith. then I guess I'd go strope It's going to lose the job at some point you think But he's done fine in it And Maro Maro Thank you. That's wonderful. There we go

We just finished Scott You have to bounce I will stay on and answer some more emails And go through today's matchups And hopefully not make a fool out of myself Scott White, thank you Thank you, Adam. See you later, sir.

All right, Uncle Adam is here to help everybody. Here's an email from KG from KZ. Dear Aaron, Brett, Bart, and Lynn. I don't know if those are boons. They might be boons. So you need three to start. John Gray against San Diego, Lance Lynn at Miami, Walker Bueller,

potentially a two-star Dylan Bundy, and potentially a two-start Michael Kopeck. The easy ones here are Bueller and John Gray, and I think, no way am I going with Bundy. So it's Kopeck or Lynn. I've got to be a little bit patient with Kopeck. I'm going to go with Lance Lynn as my third guy, only because he's at Miami. Jason in Michigan. Which two should I roster for my offensive playoff bench spots?

Will Myers, oh, this is a Categories League. Will Myers, Travis Shaw, Canoe, and Soto. I'm going to go with Soto, and I would ordinarily say Shaw over Myers, but I would say this, considering Shaw doesn't play every day, Myers and categories is much better than Myers and points. If you need steals, if steals would help you, keep Myers. You just need a bat, Travis Shaw. Sam and Denver has a question about who he could pick up now for his second round playoff matchup.

And I think that's a good topic for tomorrow's show. So, you know, I need some time to look into that. And I'm hoping to get to that on tomorrow's show. I just want to give you a heads up there. We got the Braves and the Pirates, and we got two tough calls, Kevin Gosman and Chris Archer. So I'm going to stubbornly start Archer. And Gosman, I just, I don't really believe in him. So I am going to sit Kevin Gossman

But I understand if you want to start him He's had You know Very good run prevention for four starts in a row But the strikeouts have been down For three of those four starts So that could be dangerous I'm going to sit Gossman

But you know I get it Orioles at Blue Jays Andrew Cashner at Marco Estrada And no thanks Lucas Gialito at Stephen Gonzalez Yeah we're going to have to wait And Zovas We're going to sit those guys

Derek Holland and Zach Weaver. I understand the appeal of Holland in a one-start week, or in a two-star week, rather. You know, I finally bought into him, and he killed me a couple starts ago. Pull up the game log for Derek Holland. Six and a third, ten hits, four runs against Pittsburgh. But, you know, now that I think about it, it wasn't that bad. Four runs, but the ten hits stand out. The next start for him, four-and-two-thirds scoreless, four-walk, seven strikeouts.

I'm thinking no. I'm thinking we're going to sit Holland in a one-start week. It's a two-star week, but for this one-star week, but for this one-start, we'll sit-em. Definitely starting Zach Wheeler, the guy's been awesome. We are not going to start anyone in the Royals' Rays game. We are going to start Kluber and Porcelo. Nice series there, Indians at Red Sox. Homer Bailey is at Chase Anderson, and I'm going to go with No on both.

Bartolo Colon is at Mike Fires, and I would start Mike Fires. Although I do fear that Rangers lineup, but I'll start fires. No Cologne. Not a Cologne guy. Garrett Cole at Felix Hernandez. Yeah, obviously we start Cole. We said Felix Hernandez. And then Gomer at Alex Wood.

Wood for sure. Wood is like the easiest six innings, two or three runs, quality start, five strikeouts. Gomer, yeah. If Machado's out of the lineup, I think I'd go with him. Otherwise, I'm hesitant. I don't think he's a, I mean, a guy with 19 walks at 32 strikeouts at 37 and a third, I think you've been a little lucky with what you've gotten. So I'm probably going to play it safe.

Two-star week, sure, start Gohber, one-start week, I'm thinking no. If Machado doesn't play, I would probably start Gomba. And I just wanted to take a look at fires and see if he has faced the Rangers. Yeah, last time you faced them six innings, one run, six strikeouts. Go with Mike Fires. Go for it, everybody. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow on fantasy baseball today.

I'm Adam Azor for Scott White. Peace.