Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/23: Week 23 Help! Plus More Players to Add (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 23, 2019

Two-start pitchers for the coming week! Can Marquez be trusted? Plutko over Musgrove for next week? We've got the answer. Top players to add, prospects to watch and we debate Kyle Tucker more than the Astros likely have in 2019! #AnybodyButTucker 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. Welcome in fantasy question. Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome in fantasy baseball today. Ah, listen to that.

There's the microphone. What happened to the microphone yesterday? Scott, you gave me a very, very nice compliment on Twitter. I was honored to get a very nice compliment late at night. You dropped a Twitter compliment about the job I've been doing. And as immediately as I read it, I was in the process of editing this beautiful podcast that we did yesterday

where I had screwed up my mic levels. And I saw your tweet and I went, man, the world just knows how to throw them all in together. You're like, oh, hey, well, we've been doing a great job. A lot of people responded. I'm like, of course, it was the day.

that I screwed something up. But I wanted to personally thank you that was very nice of you. Well, you know, my comment is Nolan void now because of that. Of course. Of course. Yeah.

Yeah. I blew it. I mean, that was the strikeout. I struck it out or I gave up the hit. I mean, it was essentially I had like a no hitter going on. I was Noah Cindergarde from Thursday.

And I pulled a Tyler Naquin with the editing. So it happens. It happens. But thank you very much. Welcome in to everybody on the Friday edition, fantasy baseball today. Not the craziest stuff going on. Lots of delays, almost perfect games,

but there's plenty to talk about to get you set up for next week. We've got to hit some two-start pitchers. We've got to talk about some of the most added. But the thing that was on my mind that I was watching was four, Mr. Noah Senegard, ended up going six, gave up two hits, no walks, no run runs, five strikeouts. He went five and one-third inning of perfect baseball. But wouldn't you know it, Thor summoned the lightning as he would, and the game was then delayed and he was knocked out of what was, I mean, in line to be one of his best starts of the season, Scott.

Yeah, and he's pretty much turned things around with the, oh, how many starts has it been now? It's been a couple months now where he basically rediscovered the slider and has just taken off from there. This probably would have been his seventh straight start of seven plus innings, which is itself, of course. Of course, the great accomplishment in this pitching environment. It ended up only being six. Oh, you know what? I'm actually looking at the wrong. He only won six innings last time.

So he did have six straight starts of seven innings. This is actually his eighth straight start of at least sixth innings. And yeah, whatever, they're pretty much all been good. Yeah, I mean, there's no, a synagogue. He's no a Cinegard. He's still a Met. He's still doing the things. He had five and one third perfect.

I'll be honest with you. I was kind of like, let's get a perfect game going. on the last show of the week. Let's have that as a conversation piece. But there are some really cool pictures out on Twitter. People want to see of, you know, just crazy lightning cracks. And it's just appropriate if you like to play the Thor Marvel game with Noah Sindegarde. But he wasn't the only good pitching performance, by the way. Garrett Cole, how many straight Houston pitchers do we have to continuously talk about that strikeout 10 and are just amazing? Because Garrett Cole went seven, gave up two hits, one walk, no one runs, struck out 12. There's nothing necessarily to talk about.

I did find interesting, Scott, was you and I, I don't know, yesterday or the day before, we were talking about the top two pitchers into 2020, and you had said Garrett Cole and Max Scherzer would be those guys. They both happened to go because Max Scherer came off of the IEL. He went four innings, gave up four hits, one run, one walk, struck out only three. He went 71, and 71 pitches. 48 of those were for strikeouts. So the top two pitchers in what you had perceived as a 2020, they were going. Scherzer was okay, but Garrett Cole was just,

as always, magnificent. Yeah, 48 of 71 were for strikes, and he, you know, considering this was only his second start in about six weeks,

he came back briefly from the aisle for one start and then went right back on it. So no rehab starts during that time, just basically six weeks off. And, I mean, that obviously,

he gets a pass for only going four inings, only throwing a seven, one pitches look pretty good considering. Look pretty good considering. And I think maybe one more start where they kind of take it easy on him. And then he's probably full go the rest of the way. And I think we'll probably emphatically state that he deserves to be the number one pitcher in fantasy still next year.

Getting up there in years, just like Justin Verlander, we talked about Furlander yesterday, 37 next year. I know, Scherz was a couple years younger than that. So my level of concern isn't quite as high. But, you know, it's a factor for him as well. And I don't think it's going to be a crazy, such a crazy notion if someone were to say, you know what, my number one pitcher next year is Garrett Cole. I was going to ask you, outside of catastrophe, like, what has to happen on both sides?

Cole just need to, you know, go seven, give up one to no runs, strikeout 8 to 12. and Scherzer needs to kind of struggle going six, giving up three. I mean, what does it look like where the blueprint happens where Garrett Cole comfortably becomes the number one? Or is there truly one outside of catastrophe? Scherzer has to struggle. If Scher's Scherzer, then it's not a conversation, I don't think, because, you know, when Scher's Scherzer, he's like, Cole, but basically an inning longer every time.

Is that like the whole way through, though, or is that like, let's say, I don't even know many starts he has left, let's call them seven. If three of them are relatively good struggles and the other four are solid, is that enough? Or does the rest of the way have to be a struggle for Scherzer? I mean, I hesitate to put an exact number on it. There has to be a feeling that Scherzer doesn't look right. Yeah. In whatever way that manifests, that would be, that would be it for me. But you know, the other factor to consider if we're debating Cole and Scherzer at the top, Cole's a free agent this offseason and Houston's kind of made him what he is today. He was, you know, kind of kind of not looking like an ace even really with the pirates

before getting shipped to Houston. So change of scenery, hopefully the things he picked up with Houston would stick. I saw, I saw one of those good old source tweets that said, you know, where would Garrett Cole most likely go if he wasn't? if he wasn't back with Houston in this offseason, and his source was Angels, Angels, Angels, Angels. So apparently the Angels are the top destination for Garrett Cole in this coming free agency.

So getting him out of Houston is less than ideal, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, he's from that part of California. So I guess if he wanted to go back home, that would make sense. And, you know, obviously that would be, you know, you'd worry about him going to Colorado or someplace like that. Just the fact that he wouldn't be under the Astros watchful eye anymore would raise some concern. I don't think enough to really downgrade him.

But it's another factor to consider. Like, he's not going to be entirely worry-free like nobody is. Yeah, exactly. We've got some games that are in progress. We're recording as we're recording, it's about 1120 Eastern PM for everybody. Two games were in delay. As we mentioned, the Mets game, Indians and Mets was in delay. It's back on.

it's around the seventh right now. Also, the raise and Orioles was in a delay. They're in the mid-six. Cardinals and Rockies are about to wrap up, but we've got A's and Yankees and Dodgers and Blue Jays. That's in the fourth. Yankees is in the six. So just keep mindful.

We'll try to go through that. Before we get to the rest, like I said, we're going to go through two-start pitchers. We're going to go through a lot of must-add stuff. We've got a bevy of things to go through. But any standouts, anybody that you would like to put a little spotlight on for your Thursday standout? Well, I think the biggest story,

and if I can be plunt, maybe the only interesting story from Thursday is what the Astros have decided to do now that Carlos

Correa is back on the IL. Correa, by the way, sounds like they sound pretty confident he'll be back for the last three weeks. It should be a short

IL stay, no structural damage or anything like that. And that was from the Astros GM saying on Thursday that Correa will be back and Correa is super positive as well.

Yeah, but maybe more significantly, or maybe not, they called up Abraham Toro, third base prospect, pretty high in their prospect rankings, especially considering how deep of a, they're always replete with prospects. Abraham Toro, good numbers, as you'd expect. Only got 16 games at AAA, so I wasn't really counting on him getting the call soon, but he hit 424 in those 16 games for the season over 300. I think just shy of 20 home runs. Low strikeout rate. Pretty good hitter. Pretty good hitter. It sounds like he's going to get a chance to play third base every day while Coray is out with Breggman sliding over to shortstop.

He went 0 for 4 today. But just the fact that he's going to be installed in that lineup. I mean, I think it's at least interesting in like a Josh Rojas sort of way. and, you know, obviously that hasn't amounted to much in fantasy yet, but if you play in a deep enough league, you know, it's worth a look. I understand third base, like third base is probably the deepest position. Gio Orchella, who I buy into completely, I can't even get them in the top 20 in my rest of season rankings. So Toro is probably going to be outside my top 30 or 35, but it looks like there's some,

there. Yeah. Abraham Toro hit 324. I don't know if you went through the exact numbers. 324 in between AAA and AA, over 400 OBP, 17 homers with four stolen bases in about 442 at batts between the two. He was out here. I believe it was this last year in the Arizona Fall League. He never stood out to me.

Definitely a good presence. I mean, this is a contact hitter. It almost reminds me, he reminds me of kind of the things you want from Luis Arias, you know, just like a little bit more power, even though Arias is maybe even better batteball. Wait, or Arias. Aras, not Luis and Yorius.

Yeah, yeah, the twins. Yeah, we got to say the name. Because otherwise, I just assume the names being, but we got to say the team. Otherwise, I assume it's just a mispronunciate. I do love every time that we have brought him up, this comes up. It's actually becoming my new favorite thing.

But I argue, I, I don't argue, but he's one of those guys. I have a little bit of a disagreement long. term with, frankly, because he's also one of those kind of like not overtly crazy high prospect skills yet he's just done a good job. And James Anderson from Rotowire and I, good buddies, and he joins me on Prospect 1 a lot. We'll kind of go back and forth about those. You and James are probably a little bit closer on players like this, why I look and I see a season like this. I've seen him in person. He doesn't overtly impress me, but he gets the job done,

similar to Luis Arise, who I would have said the exact same thing, great bat to ball skills, I don't know where the counting stats are. So I'm a little bit questionable about Abraham Toro, even though I know a lot of people see him, you know, if you count prospect ranks, let's say, you know, your top 100 and you care about the next two or three years. He's like a top 100 prospect. But the bigger story, even in this to me, is what I deem hashtag anybody but Tucker for the Astros. They will bring up anybody but Kyle Tucker. And I tweeted it today and somebody was like, well, they need infield. All right, man, well, they got Miles Straw.

They can move all these guys around. Uly Gareel can play third base. Cal Tucker has been playing first base. I know Toro has been solid. It's literally anybody but Kyle Tucker. And you had him in your Five to Stash article here again. It's unbelievable to me. All season, Kyle Tucker.

You might set a record, I'm telling you, Scott, you might set a record at the end of this season by having a guy in every single article and him never getting at bats. It's possible. He's getting called up in September. Brian McTaggart, the Astros beatwriter for MLB.com sounded supremely confident he's going to be up in September.

Tucker will. I'll believe it when I see it. And I think there's a decent chance he plays consistently in September, just because, I mean, it doesn't sound like the Astros' division title is going to go down to the wire or anything. They've got a comfortable lead there. They're the favorites in the AL. Josh Reddick has been horrible.

The right fielder has been horrible in the second half and is old and doesn't have that much of a ceiling. So I could see them auditioning Tucker for the playoffs by playing him a lot down the stretch. I'm not losing hope and Kyle Tucker. But yes, it is frustrating to see someone else get the call over him, especially a 22-year-old with only 16 games at AAA. Yeah, I'm going to throw this one last thing in here. And this is, again, this is my opinion. I tend to skew a little bit longer term so people should always understand that,

which is actually a good mix between Scott and I, because Scott, you have a really great eye on the season ahead of you where sometimes I skew to like a little bit of a longer term look. But I'm actually not optimistic about Kyle Tucker this year, even if he gets the call up because they're not calling him up. They obviously don't trust him at first base. They're outfield. They don't want to mess with. They've got Jordan Alvarez at DH. They've got Redick Springer.

Michael Brantley is on an absolute tear. This is the opportunity to get him out there and get him all those at bats. I don't know why an arbitrary September 1st would be the time for him to come up and then to give him regular at bats. Even though I think Tucker has a higher probability of coming up before Gavin Lux, I would rather take the risk on Gavin Lux at this point. I know he's a better prospect statistically and just maybe overall right now. But I don't have a belief even when Tucker's up that the Houston Astros are going to feature him enough for him to be worthwhile. That's where I'm at. And the Toro thing kind of sparked a lot of this as well.

I would prioritize Lux over Tucker, because I think, you say September 1st is arbitrary. What is an arbitrary about it is they get more roster spots, right? Like, it doesn't affect the roster composition. And they have some tough demotions there to get anyone on their roster, and maybe just fitting in another outfielder doesn't make a lot of sense for them. but Lux Lux I don't even think he's on the 40 man yet so that would be a difficulty for the Dodgers

but I think the Dodgers are giving Lux a chance they're giving they're looking for an excuse not to call him up there's there's no rush for them they're running away with the division favorite in their league just like the Astros so there's no rush you know they don't want to have

Like if they have good reason to think he's not ready, they want to know it. And then September 1st, when rosters expand, that's when they're going to be like, okay, well, he's still batting 415 or whatever at AAA. He could be a big help for us in the playoffs if he's legitimately ready. Let's install him at second base and see how it goes. I don't, I think like a historical comp would be Miguel Cabrera. I don't remember exactly what time of year he got called. up for the Marlins, but, you know, gave them a huge boost that ultimately led them to a

World Series title unexpectedly. I mean, Dodgers would be favorites going into the playoffs right now, but, you know, they've lost the last two World Series. So I'm sure they're, they would like an extra boost to get over that hump and Lux could provide it. Yeah. I guess, again, my argument just, it ends up coming back to it's August 22nd, you know, if they didn't, if they're not worried about their spot, they're not worried about losing

games or anything like that, why not get Tucker up here now if you're going to play him regularly? I use the idea of it being arbitrary to September 1st, like the rosters will expand, but it doesn't seem like they have any desire to play him out there regularly because they've got their set lineup and Toro fits a need for third base so they don't move Gueriel, which that's another thing. If they're not willing to move Gariel off of first, that's another negative to Kyle Tucker. It's all going to solve itself in a week or two. and when you're playing the prospect speculation game, it's not to come off of it or anything like that.

I just feel less optimistic about Kyle Tucker than I ever have before, which is lame. Super lame. I don't like feeling like that. All right. Let's stop for a little announcement from our sponsors. We come back. We're going to do injuries, news, notes.

We've got the two start pitchers, maybe a check in on the games in progress. And I want to look at some of the most added players. So let's take that break. All right, taking a look at the games that are in progress, by the way, are up on the Orioles 4 to 2. Willie Adamas hitting some bombs.

Meadows hit his 22nd. We have got the Yankees and the A's. A's are putting it down there. Everybody's got a hit essentially, but Chris Davis, I believe. And the Blue Jays are up on the Dodgers. And the Mets are still holding pretty strong in the 7th to get Noah Cinegard that win.

Some other news and notes, White Sox, they activated Yohan Moncotta from the 10-day IEL, hit his 21st home run. You know, I was curious. When I was looking at him, I immediately thought of you, Scott, And I was thinking of that clump conversation of the middle infield. Is he solidly in that clump of like really good middle infield players you consider?

Are you a non-believer of Moncada in the skill change he had in 2019? I believe in Moncada. He did what I thought he needed to do to become a standout player in fantasy, which was cut his strikeout percentage from like a third to a quarter because he has the high bad bit profile. He's somebody who can strike out a lot and still be very good. can't strike out like a league leading amount like he had been doing. So I think it's played out exactly like I hoped it would. It's just that, you know, now you got Catel Marte and Jeff McNeil and so many others who are,

just everybody has that kind of upside. You know, it's you're, if you're not a first round hitter, then you're just part of the clump. And Moncada deserves to start for somebody, but he's in the clump. Well, and call it the Ricky Bobby effect. If you're not first, you're last, essentially, at this point. Speaking of Jeff McNeil, he's going to begin a minor league rehab assignment with AAA Syracuse on Thursday. I went to look to see, like, did people freak out about Jeff McNeil? Proud to see, still 95% owned in CBS.

I just, I'm always curious about the trigger-happy people with injuries and stuff like that, but Jeff McNeil holding pretty tight, as everybody should. Blue Jays placed Ken Giles on a paternity leave. He should miss a couple games, and it looks like Justice Schaefer might be in, line if there's any safe chances for Toronto coming up here. Rays manager Kevin Cash announced Thursday that Brandon Lau is going to miss a remainder of 2019 with a strained left quad. He's the next tier of that clump,

don't you think? Were you as impressed as I was with him continuously defying expectations? I mean, he's a back-in-middle infield clump, but he's way after Moncotta, but is he somebody you're going to target next year? So Brandon Lau was one of my favorite sleepers coming in, And I put that out there to preface what I'm about to say, which is he's actually been pretty disappointing to me this year.

And it didn't get a chance to fully manifest because he went on the IL, but I wasn't liking the direction his season was trending because his strikeout rate was so high. He was striking out like Joey Gallo. And while he certainly has power, he doesn't have that much power. I mean, this is the first year we've really seen Joey Gallo overcome that to the point that he's not a massive, massive batting average liability. So Lau has managed to hit 276 this year. I don't think he deserves to be a 276 hitter. I can look up right now what is expected batting averages according to baseball savant. But I got a feeling it's not good.

237. Yeah, I mean, he's not sustainable at 237. He's sustainable if he's a 250 hitter, you know, because then you're looking at a 20, I mean, but he's just nothing more than average, I guess, if that's the case. An unsustainable BAPIP, you know, that brings him down to 250, you're a 20 home or maybe five to seven stolen bases long term. And would the raise really be committed to a player like that? They got Vidal Bruhan who is looming around.

I just, to your point, that's actually a really good point. I'm not sure he's sustainable long enough to hold value because of the other players that the Raves have in the wings. Well, and he could get better, too, is the other thing. That was always the, you know, I'm hoping this strikeout rate goes down and then I can get fully behind him because I want to like him. But just the play discipline in general, the strikeouts have been bloated. He hasn't walked as much as I thought he would.

And the power's been there, but that's about it. So I'm not considering how high I had him coming. into this season, I don't think I'm going to be any higher next year. I'm sure others will have him elevated, but to me he's going to be borderline, just borderline draftable in a 12th team league. Yeah, on the back end there. A couple of the news and notes, Marcus Stroman said he expects to make his next scheduled start on Tuesday versus the Cubs. Not the best matchup, but it is good news for Marcus Stroman, as I was definitely kind of being like, ah, who cares? You know, Marcus Stroman at this point, you know, what's the worth if he can go pick up guys like

Andrew Heaney and whatnot, but looks like things are good. Not good. The Pirates place Chris Archer on the 10-day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Bye-bye Archer. I know we've already talked about this. Have we talked about the I'm so done with Chris Archer? I know I am. I know you want to believe, but I could not be more done with Chris Archer.

Like I'm out, out. Wash my hand, do the poker, both sides of my hands. I will not have shares of Chris Archer again. I'm officially finished. I mean, that's a firm stance to take. There was a time where I said that about Cole Hamels, and then he got treated to the Cubs last year, and suddenly he looks like a pretty good pitcher again.

So I've definitely lost a lot of faith this year, because I lost very little last year. I couldn't really find anything that had changed for him in a way that supported the drop statistically. But, you know, now it's basically been two years of that. I think the one thing that, you know, I can't get quite to the level you're at with Chris Archer is just that, like, everybody sucks. Everybody sucks. Like, everybody's good who hits and everybody sucks who pitches.

Unless you're a top 25, top 30 type arm, you're part of, what's the word you're. use glob or the word yeah the clump the clump yeah you're part of the clump on that end except in archer's case he has track record and you know well he'll be a bad he strikes out a lot of hitters relative to the number of innings he pitches but it's a track record of sucking i i listen i was a chris archer guy forever because i love strikeouts i have blinders sometimes to uh er a whip is always something i'm trying to monitor but i always have blinders to strikeouts cares about the wince. Give me those strikeouts.

Archer's just not good. He's a better analyst at this point than he has a pitcher. And that hurts to say. And that's, by the way, he's a great analyst. But I just, I know. Because he had a couple years with an ERA barely over four, people say he suck.

Like he had 233 strikeouts and 240. You look at where he ranked in the starting pitcher rankings those two years. He was top 25, you know? And that was with a bad win loss record. I just We're chasing the past, Scott We're chasing the past man Well no, that's fine

But like it It only started last year That Chris Archer started sucking It feels like 12 years My humble opinion Okay Well it feels It feels like I was just getting out of college

When he was good And that was a long, long time ago Last little note Eloy Jimenez was scratched From the White Sox lineup on Thursday against Orioles They sat down with the team And it was deemed that he had Mild Right

hip soreness. He is day to day. So monitor that with Mr. Eloy Jimenez. And actually, it makes me think of your article too, because in your latest article, you brought up one of my personal faves and someone that I have been, I was staunchly for when people were trying to get off the train is Luis Robert. And Luis Robert has just been absolutely killing it. Yohan Montcotta was just at, I had a listener email me. They're like, I'm at this game. Nick Madrigal, Yohan Montcotta and Luis Robert are the one, two, three right now. And I was like, like, well, that's not fair to any minor leaguer. That's ridiculous.

And Yoan Moncato, when he left, said Luis Robert is ready. I think he said it today, actually, on Thursday. He said, Luis Robert is ready for the majors right now, but the white socks have other plans. So I would love to sit here and say if Eloy, if this thing were to go from day to day to an IL stent, maybe Luis Robert would be an opportunity, but I'm not optimistic. I know you're a little bit more optimistic, aren't you? No, I wouldn't say.

I'd put the chances maybe it won and four. obviously, that's just an arbitrary stat I'm throwing on it. But that's reflecting my level of confidence. I think if you're stashing, like, he's still among my top five prospects to stash. Because like if he's incredible. If he does come through that one and four chance, I mean, stashing him will have maybe been the best move you made all year. But the difference between him and like a Gavin Lux and Kyle Tucker is the White Sox,

obviously aren't trying to win a World Series title. And, you know, In that position, it might just make more sense for them to take the financial benefit of waiting until two weeks into next year to call them up. And they have a track record of it. They did it with Elohimenez. Hey, how about two-start pitcher talk? Let's do a little bit of that before we go to break because I think this is appropriate. Now, of course, there are plenty of names.

And I want to talk about obviously the big names. If anybody jumps out to you, you know, the big 985 plus percent guys. If anybody jumps out to you is like, ooh, maybe those are matchups you want to avoid. but I know we don't like to get too cute. But I put together three guys that I think are serviceable for people to maybe get, you know, under 75% owned right now that are in line, at least according to CBS on the two-start pitcher website, that are in line for two starts next week. I'm going to throw three at you, and I'd love to know your take on if all of them,

none of them, or how you would tier them. Number one, Mr. Brad Keller, who is 74% owned on CBS. He has got Oakland and Baltimore next week. Qual-Quantrille, who's got 63% own. He's got The Angels, and then he's at San Francisco. And then Joe Musgrove, who's 71% own, two road starts at Philly and then at Colorado. So I feel like I know how the latter's going to go there. But what do you think about those three guys?

Are they anybody that you are going to take a shot on for some two starts next week? Brad Keller, I think, is a must. In fact, in my two-start pitcher rankings, I believe he's like ninth for this upcoming week. is a little shy a must start because the kind of pitcher he is, you know, he might hurt your whip in a roto league. But he's been, you know, six of his last eight quality starts, consistently pitching deep into games. And, you know, in a believable way,

since he's such a good ground ball pitcher. One of those starts is against Baltimore. Definitely, definitely go with Brad Keller. Cal Quantrell, I'm willing to call a sleeper in a points. league context where the threshold is lower, you know, you're not guarding ratios the same way you would be in a categories league, you're just looking for volume as long as it's not terrible. And that's basically who Quantrell's been.

I mean, nothing, there's not a lot of, in the underlying numbers, that's exciting about him, but he's been okay, and he has a start at San Francisco this upcoming week, so fine. you know if you're really wanting to get an extra start in your lineup as long as it's a points league i think that's fine you know head-to-head i'm actually i'm not so against head-to-head i mean his last he has not given up more than three runs since june 14th is the last time that he gave up more than three runs in a start he's gone one two three four actually uh no yeah earned runs uh he's got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven straight starts, and he's only given up one of those three earned runs. The strikeouts aren't crazy. He's got a nine strikeout in there as a recent,

but, and by the way, I'd throw in, there's a Dodgers in there, there's a Cincinnati, a Tampa Bay, the Cubs are thrown in there. I actually think Cal Quantrill head to head is good to go. Yeah, I just don't have confidence in the skills is what it ultimately gets down to. So, you know, sure. I have an easier time rolling the dice in points than Yeah, let's not, let's not talk about Cal. Let's trash Joe Musgrove, because I know that's coming. Let's do that. Yeah.

Yeah. Musgrove. Let's hear it. Trash him. At Colorado, at Philly? Absolutely not. I mean, if it was anywhere other than Colorado that second start, maybe we could talk about just rolling the dice in points leagues that you get good Joe Musgrove instead of bad Joe Musgrove.

But I feel fairly confident you're going to get bad Joe Musgrove there. And if you're already committing to a bad Joe Musgrove. start. I mean, yeah, he's just been, when he's been bad, it's been horrible. I wish everybody could see your face right now. I can see your face. I wish everybody could see your face as you're trying to muster up the right words to talk about Joe Musgrove. You're just like, he's so bad. You're so disgusted with him. I love it. I am disgusted with him because he keeps faking me out. And I'm tired of it. And you're not going to take it anymore. Don't take it. It's, he's been such a polarite, Like his starts have been so polar,

and it's, it's, yeah, it's just, it's just miserable. It's just miserable. The Joe Musgrove experience is a miserable one, and I want out. All right, well, maybe we can get you out, because on the other side of this break, I've got some deeper two-start pitchers. They are not owned exclusively high in CBS, but maybe one of them you might drop Joe Musgrove for

and just cut loose with one of those guys. Plus, we'll go through some of the most added guys, some other notes around, look at the in-game stuff, and try to get to a few of you're eating. emails. So, sponsor time right here on Fantasy Baseball today. Deeper two-start pitchers to potentially speculate on. I've got a list of three for you. How about Sandy Al-Contara, 25% owned in CBS, went seven, three hits, no earned runs, walked two, struck out seven. This was on Thursday. Three straight quality starts. In fact, he's got three straight going seven innings.

He has got Cincinnati and then at Washington. He's got a 4-15 ERA on the season, just under 1-4 whip, not super great, but 25 starts. Adam Plutko, who moved from 18 to 28% owned over the ads and drops over on CBS over the last week. He's got Tampa Bay and Detroit, both are road starts. And then kind of like what we talked about with Keller, Mike Montgomery, who's only 37% owned in CBS, he's also got Oakland and Baltimore. So these are all under 40% owned guys. do you like any of them

and do you like any of them over Joe Musgrove? Over Joe Musgrove, yes. I would start Mike Montgomery with having a Baltimore matchup in there. I would start Adam Plutco having a Detroit matchup in there.

I would start either of them over Musgrove. Like with Quantrol, I don't think I'd roll the dice on Montgomery or Pletco outside of it points league because I don't have a lot of confidence in the skills

and they could just you know, they could just have a disastrous restart in there and it would have felt like you knew you should have known better if you let them wreck your ratios in that way but um you know they've been they've been steady and everybody sucks and sometimes you just got to you just got to cross your fingers and hope for the best i'm willing to do that with uh guys with good matchups who've been on a nice run please do an article called everybody sucks that would be i did i kind of did early last year

I mean, I'm all for that article. I absolutely, but what about Sandy? You skipped over Sandy. Are you disinterested, even though he's got three straight quality starts? Uh, yeah. Oh. Yeah. Um, yeah.

I am. I mean, he pitches for the Marlins is one thing. He's not getting to whacks. And I just think he's bad. I mean, Pleco at least, he doesn't walk anybody. Montgomery, at least, um, you know, he seems to have a good cutter that's really helped him since moving into the rotation spot, but Ocantara, I don't know.

He doesn't miss any bats. He walks too many guys. He's just not a good pitcher. Okay. I mean, that's good enough for me. I will take that. I want to open it up to you here in just a second. Well, no, let's start there.

And then we'll go through a few others. What about the two-star pitchers next week? You got anybody else that's on your mind, whether it's, you know, an 80% own guy. I keep looking at Mike Fires, and I look and I see he's got Kansas City and then at New York, and I'm curious where you are with that. But, you know, any guys that jump out to you as two starts, whether you're not starting them, whether it's a lower-owned guy that people should be looking at, like a Homer Bailey, a Jason Vargas.

What do you got on two starts for the coming week? Yeah, you named two of them right there. So basically the only one I could justify calling a sleeper across the board, we mentioned it earlier's Brad Keller. He's 74% out, so not much of a sleeper, right? But, you know, maybe in some leagues he's out there. Anyone else, if you squint hard enough, you could make a case for them in a points league. There's a chance that they could give you two starts that aren't disasters.

In most cases, they have at least one really good matchup. We mentioned Quantrell, we mentioned Montgomery, we mentioned Pletco. You just mentioned Vargas, who gets Pittsburgh and the Mets. And Homer Bailey, who gets the Royals and the Yankees. Homer Bailey. I mean, and then Tanner Roark today is having a great start. The A's just kind of, I'm sure their home park helps, but it doesn't seem to be like that's the only thing going on. They take these kind of scrubby pitchers and turn them into something halfway decent. And they may be doing that with Homer Bailey too. So those five are highly available

and, you know, I'm basically just talking to the points leaguers out there. But Cal Quantrell, Mike Montgomery, Jason Vargas, Adam Plekko, and Homer Bailey, I think are all usable this upcoming week. Okay, then let me turn it on you for a second. By the way, Rourke went six and one third. He's pulled. I think he just gave up Homer to Glaver Torres, who had his 30th. But Rourke went six and one third, gave up tour and run, struck out seven did not walk about her.

That's pretty solid. So let's put your category hat on for just a moment here. Looking at a few matchups, how about Marcus Stroman, who they say is going to be good, but he's got the Cubs and then he's at Philly. If you're thinking categories, I know he's 92% owned, but is that a player that, like, are you comfortable with both starts with Marcus Stroman if you're playing the categories game? Because points, you know, points sometimes gives us a little bit of an out. You know, I don't want to call it a crutch or anything like that. But it's just like your literal game with points is let's make sure we don't have an eight earn run, you know, one and two thirds game. Otherwise, we can accumulate some points here. But categories, a guy like Marcus Stroman going up against the Cubs and then Philly, that's a guy. That could wreck your final week going into your playoffs there. Are you comfortable two starts, Marcus Stroman? I wouldn't say I'm comfortable.

No. I would consider what your priorities are in a categories league, which categories you're chasing, and make a determination based on that. I kind of have four separate tiers when I do my two-start pitcher rankings. There's must-start across all formats. There's sleepers and questionables. There's, you know, points of leagues on. only and then there's no thanks.

And Stroman is a tier above those other guys we just talked about. I could at least consider using him in a categories league, but he's he's among the sleepers and questionable is obviously being a questionable among that. I've got one for you then. This will be the last one. Herman Marquez,

two home starts Boston and Pittsburgh, 97% owned. I mean, no, right? I absolutely would start him in a points league, and I'm pretty sure I would not in a categories league, unless I just really needed wins and strikeouts at the expense of everything else. If you're like really going for it. If you're like, I would have to be desperate at this point. I don't want to mess with that, especially the Boston start.

You know, maybe see how the Boston start probably put you in a space where you can determine where you want to be with the Pittsburgh one. with the Pittsburgh one, yeah. But I'm all out on that one. I mean, it is worth pointing out. His last two home starts have been his best home starts at the year. Like, they've both been good.

So, I don't know. Like, one of the reasons I was so high on Marquez coming in and totally buying into the breakthrough and all of that is because even though the season-long home numbers were bad for Marquez last year, like once he got good, he was good. It didn't matter where. Like his last 11 starts at home or ace-like.

So I don't know. Maybe you can have a strong finish at home again. It's off to a good start. That'll get everybody back in. I would love it. It'll just reel everybody back in. I want to like him. I got them in some keeper leagues too.

I went and took a look at some of the most viewed, the most added. I kind of like this as a Friday thing. Interesting, or maybe not even interestingly enough. The most viewed player, Brendan McKay on Thursday, Scott, moved from 83% owned down to 69% own. Now, there's not a ton we need to. necessarily talk about here because obviously he was optioned and he's been less than desirable. But let me throw this at you. The top dropped non-injured player because the top like four were guys you'd expect like Scott Oberg and John Gray and stuff. The top drop player over the last week,

Dustin May, he went from 76% owned down to 58% owned. McKay makes sense. Could you make an argument of speculation coming back that he can write it for September, September call-ups? He should come back to a rotation. So maybe you can make a call there. But is the preemptive drop of Dustin May, should that be corrected? Should that be righted? Pick him back up because he is going to get a starter to? Yeah.

I mean, the Dodgers, like, I'm not wrong about this, right? They gave us every impression he was moving to the bullpen. Yeah, Dave Roberts. I think Dave Roberts said they're moving to the bullpen. But then in the next breath, he said he is going to get a start after, I believe, the current road trip. Oh, he did say that. Okay.

I don't know if I just missed that detail. Maybe a lot of people did. Because obviously, if he's not going to start the rest of the year, then that made perfect sense to drop him. Yeah, well, and I wouldn't have brought it up had that been the case. I have more confidence in May being a viable fantasy contributor than McKay. I mean, McKay's innings, he's well over his high, career high in any. I mean, I'm setting a new career high, obviously. It's been terrible, as you mentioned.

I think he will be up this upcoming week to take a turn. He's eligible to come back next Saturday, and they'll need another starter then. So I assume he'll be back up, but I don't want anything. Okay, so let's look at this. I suspect when Blake Snell is back, then we're not going to see anymore. Brendan McKay, he'll just get shut up.

You're probably, well, if we see Blake's now. By the way, I think we said this yesterday. It was Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, and I love how Roto World still has this mistake up, and no one's fixed it. They call him Dustin Roberts. and that's still up there. Told reporters on Wednesday that Dustin May is going to return to starting soon.

They said he's going to make relief appearances on the current road trip and then will likely make a start before the end of the road trip. So both of those guys are under 70% owned. Which one are you picking up? Dustin May or Brenna McKay. May. Okay. It's May Day.

Perfect. The most added player over the last week, Luis Arias, with the twins from 24th. from 24% to 52% owned. That is quite a large margin of ads here. So better ads, Scott White. Luis Arias, who is now 52% owned, sporting a 341 average, three homers, two still and bases, more walks and strikeouts, 24 to 17 and 211 at bats.

Or Mike Yistrimski, who went from 35 to 53% owned, 282 average, 17 homers, 47 RBIs, and just around 260 at bats. or Mr. Nick Ahmed, who went from 39% owned to 58% own. He's got a 271 average, 17 homers, 70 RBIs, seven stolen bases in about 439 at bats. I know we have briefly talked about these guys through the week, but looking at the ad totals, they're all right under 60%. So what do you think?

What would you prioritize here? So all things being equal, not specifying for format, not specifying for need, whether positional or categorical, my interest in them would go, Mike Yistrimski, followed by Nick Ahmed, followed by Luis Arias.

But they can do very different things for you. I think Mike Yistrimski, there's just a chance he's a good bat that anybody would want to have starting in their lineup the rest of the way. I'm not saying it's a high percentage chance. I just think there's a chance of it. I think Nick Ahmed, if you lost a short start,

stop and you know, Corre owners, Renando Tatis owners they have recently, among those that are widely available in fantasy. And I would still, you know, ownership percentage of 58, but it's still pretty available.

He's the best out there, clearly. Yeah. And then Arias, I mean, he looks like a legitimately good source of batting average. I'm not saying he's going to hit 340 rest of the way like he has so far,

but, you know, he's low strikeout rate. Just, you know, kind of like in the same way, Jeff McNeil was last year just seems perfectly tailored to help in batting average. I don't have any hope he develops power the way McNeil has, but that's what a rise does for you.

And it's it's unique in today's environment. Okay. Better pitching ad. Here are three pitchers, whom, by the way, were the second, third, and fourth in order most viewed players on CBS as I looked on Thursday. Number one, who is the second most viewed, Adrian Hauser, 9% owned to 32% own. Mike Montgomery, who went from 11 to 37% owned or just as Sheffield. He didn't have a big margin. He went from 22 to 29% own.

Second, third, and fourth most viewed. Obviously today, people are going to see what Sheffield is made of here. Better pitching ad. Hauser, Montgomery, Sheffield. Sheffield's the upside play. And nine times out of ten, I'm going for the upside. Montgomery, I could understand if you want an extra two-star pitcher, we just talked about him.

He has the matchup against the Orioles next week. And, you know, you might be able to, you might be able to sneak one by your opponent by starting Montgomery. And like Adrian Houser, because he has the ability to get a lot of ground balls, I don't think he would be unusable in the right circumstances. Like if he was the two-star pitcher with the one extremely favorable matchup, then I might be talking about him as a, you know, league points league ad but as things stand now for him i don't see much reason to pursue him

sheffield is the one i'm most excited about by far even that obviously is not a is far from a sure thing that he's going to help you this year yeah uh some bullpen ads amelia pegon went from 60 to 74 percent owned way up there now interestingly though nick anderson who is the third most you know closer-ish type of bullpen ad went from 12 to 17 percent own so people are speculating as we talked about yesterday. And Mark Melanson is now up to 56% owned and on Thursday he ended up getting a win. So something to monitor. Do you think Melanson should be owned over Pagon?

No, no, I don't. Malanson's interesting, though. He's interesting. He's walked like two batters in the last two months. And just has been better overall with a couple of really ugly out. things in there so the ERA isn't great and the season long numbers aren't great. I so basically this is where things stand it closer because we're in such a

we're in in such an age of extremes and and and polls and polls meaning P-O-L-E-S, poles, polar, you know what I'm getting at. Like extremes, yeah. So there are about a dozen closers that are legitimately

stand their skills are so good that you don't really worry about them right they miss so many bats they're locked down closers the Chapman group I think you could put Pagan in there obviously he has different concerns that the race just the way they manage their bullpen

but you know he's he's of that talent level well Lansing clearly isn't but two thirds of the guys occupying closer roles aren't is he significantly worse than anyone else there I don't think Is he significantly worse than Alex Colomay? I don't think so. And he's with the Braves, and he's currently the closer.

So that's pretty appealing. It could end in a disaster. He could lose his job next week. But I feel like all, you know, that two-thirds of closers that aren't really exemplary in terms of skills, like any of them are at risk of just getting up a bunch of home runs one week and they're out. Sure. Yeah. No, that's a good breakdown.

Hey, prospects to add on the ad list. Two guys, we've been mentioning them. I just wanted to give everybody note. Hazis Lazzardo moved up a little bit, up to 56% own now. Kyle Tucker, now 46% own. So you can see, you know, we talk about it. Scott drops the articles. People are slowly making the moves.

Those guys are going. But I wanted to list out the four guys that we've given a decent conversation about over the last two weeks, the lower prospects. Josh Rojas of the Diamondbacks, up to 15% own from 12. Nick Solac, who got another hit tonight on Thursday, from 3 to 8%. Frealy from 3 to 6% and Thai France up to 7% owned. You can only pick one. Deep League ad, or even if you felt differently, if it wasn't deep league,

Rojas, Solac, Freli, or France. Which one do you pick? I would pick. I'm finding the names here because I couldn't. Okay, so Rojas, Solac, Freilly, France. I would pick Rojas. He presents that speed element. He has the good on base skills.

Like, there is nothing in his minor league line to object to. I'm not saying he's going to be a success because of that, but none of these guys are like can't miss prospects. So I'm going to stick with Rojas. Yeah, I'm with you. Freely is super interesting. The way Nick Solek is hitting that 8% next week could jump up to 30. If he continues this, just I would everybody keep monitoring.

If he keeps getting starts and he keeps getting hits, he could keep going. But Rojas is the guy here from his skill. set standpoint for sure. The games that are in progress, by the way, the Mets game is delayed again. So maybe as you're listening to this, the game will still be delayed. I don't know, but it's in the eighth. It's delayed again. And oh, what do you got? Not to sidetrack us, because I know we're running up on time. Yeah. In the, on the subject of games that have to be picked up at a later date, I was thrown for a loop because I saw Billy Hamilton. Yeah.

He was in the Royals box score today and had a stolen base. And I honestly went on like five minute, 10 minute Twitter search trying to figure out what was going on. Did he wind up back with the Royals? I did the same thing. Someone tweeted we might have been on the same tweet. Someone's like, what is happening? And I was like, well, this is ridiculous.

They're looking at the wrong date. I did the same thing. And it was the August 7th makeup. And it was tied, I believe, in the 10th. And then Brock Holt got a hit and just ended it immediately. I think that's, that's funny. that you bring that up for sure. Vladimir Guerrero hit his 15th Homer just a just a few ago. So Vlad up. All right. Um, rotation. Just a couple notes. Mike Soroka, magnificent. Seven

innings, five hits. Two earned runs. Five strikeouts on Thursday. Kyle Hendrix went seven, struck out seven. No earned runs. No walks. Just, I mean, just no walks for Cubs pitchers lately. Samarja went seven, an earned run, a walk, and four strikeouts. But there were some pitchers that had better days. Michaelis, six, gave up five, only struck out three. We talked to, I think we talked about Marquez. Marquez went five and one third, gave up six hits, four earned runs, four strikeouts. And Masahiro Tanaka turned what looked really ugly to start into, still ugly, but okay, he went six, but he gave up five, I think, in the first two innings, walked two, struck out five. So better days on all those guys, but, I mean, I already told you, I'm not starting

Marquez next week. Anything to concern with with Miles? Not just the same stuff we've been seeing all year for him. Okay. Where, you know, the ratios in terms of like ground balls, walks, the things he really stood out at last year are the same. He's just the pitches that are elevated. They're just getting out of the park more. That's just a product of 2019, I think. Oh, I forgot.

All pitchers suck. I forgot. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I forgot. Deep Leaguers. a couple that didn't suck. Stephen Bralt 8% owned went 6, gave up 2, struck out 4. His last start, he went 7, 1 earn run,

one walk, and 8 strikeouts. And I believe he has 2 starts next week, and Ross Detweiler went 6, struck out 8, gave up one earn run, season high in K's and only 1 start with no earn run. So I mean, that is desperation. Points League with Bralt with the 2 starts, maybe, or no?

No, I'm not willing to do that, though. You know, he has been, he has been on a pretty good run, and in particular, the slider's been working well for him. So it's something to keep an eye on, but he's just, it's just too little in a track record of just being entirely useless. I'm not willing to roll the dice on that yet. Okay. A couple emails. Thank you guys. As always, you can send your emails into fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Send those in. I will gladly have them on the show, and we'll talk about them.

Trent and Austin says, who should I keep? Ten team head-to-head standard points league. I can keep five, and I'm torn by recent developments with Sale. The choices. Scherzer, Sail, Snell, Beber, Clevenger, Rendon, and Trey Turner. And he's emailing because of the sales stuff. So what do you think? Scherzer, Sale, Snell, Turner, well, Turner and points.

How do you do this? Where are you going with it? Because it's hard to, I think, Bieber, Snell, Sale, Scherzerzer, and then the fifth is difficult for me. Yeah Yeah, that's Man, because there's so many good Like Rendon Did you, Rendon's obvious

I feel like Um Yeah, I mean You're ironically It's clearly been the best third basement In that format this year And you're keeping them over Standard Points League

I get weird Of the stolen base stuff with Rendon Are you keeping Rendon and Turner And kicking Bieber to the side? No, I mean, Bieber's going to be like my non- number six pitcher next year, I think.

So I can't imagine sending him back. Scherzer is obvious. Rendon is obvious. Bieber, Scher. And then that leaves two of Sale, Snell, Clevenger, and Turner. I'll kick Clevenger out of this. I think it's between Sales, Snell, and Turner at this point.

See, I think I might take Clevenger over Snell. Really? I'm going to Snell. And I hate throwing, man, this is tough. I know, it is tough. I kind of want to throw Turner better. just because I know there's so many good short stops out there, and it's not like assuming standard points scoring two points of steel.

Like he's a stud, but there's so many stud short stops. That's tough. I think I'm throwing back Snell and Turner, Snell just because he has a lot of, you know, I think he's going to be an ace next year, but he has more issues going on than these others. Yeah, I'm going to switch.

I'm going to keep Snell, and I'll take Clevenger out there. But hey, maybe pair a couple, and you can pair them down a little bit. trade it to multiple guys. Ryan, next week I potentially have to fill in my shortstop for injuries to Correa and Gariel Jr.

And my 12th team head-to-head OBP League. Which waiver pickup do you recommend for next week? As Drewbel Cabrera, Chris Taylor, or Freddie Galvis. What do you think, Scott? I recommend. Let me do a quick look at my top hitter matchups for this upcoming week. I'm going to go with, by the way, I'm going to just jump right in. and I'm going to say as Drubal Cabrera.

We talked about it yesterday. As dribble Cabrera has been really solid since he's been with the Nationals. He's hitting 324, hit a couple bombs in there. He's getting starts. He's getting lots of hit 12 hits and 11 games. As dribble Cabrera is my pick. Well, the Nationals have five games. And the Reds, who Freddie Galvis plays for, have eight games.

So I think I'm going to go Galvis. Taylor, I mean, I don't know how much he's going to play. So he's out just based on that. Okay. Well, I can't, you know what? I can't argue with the eight games. if that is the case. Kyle and Grand Rapids,

Hey, prospect gurus. Can you please discuss the following four prospects for Dynasty? Victor Victor, Victor Mesa, Nick Madrigal, Carter Keeboom, and Nate Pearson.

Thanks, fellas. Well, I'm out on Victor, Vesa, pretty hard, and I was pretty in. So, egg on my face. Nick Madrigal, I love, even though he doesn't hit bombs, incredible bat-to-ball skills.

I'm a Carter-Kee-boom, Homer, because I think he's got one of the prettiest, most prototypical swings that can hit 30. homers and Nate Pearson is a freak of nature. Top 10 prospect fantasy pitcher for sure, maybe top six, five in some people's arguments there. What do you think, Scott?

I think that's a pretty good breakdown. I mean, Victor Martinez, Victor Martinez, Victor, Victor Mesa. Yeah, he's been a huge disappointment. And I can't imagine he's going to be high in anybody's rankings next year. He's already 22, so things are not looking up for him. I think Kibum It's obvious why you should be excited about him Madrigal is weird

Pearson may be the least well known among these but you know he's got a really good fastball didn't pitch at all last year I pitched like a third of an inning or something because he was injured and he's like gotten promoted twice this year already at AAA

so he's exciting like you said Madrigal's just weird because like it's just such an odd skill set. He's basically Williams is a studio but a middle infielder and a hyped prospect you know? Yeah. Like that's what you're talking like never ever strikes out and you just wonder can

when he when he reaches this major league environment can he have enough power? Can he develop enough power to go along with those amazing contact skills to to then become a stud? That's that's what I wonder with him. Obviously, I'd bet against it, but I can't rule it out. Yeah, I'm kind of betting on it, but your, you know, discussion of what a stud is and power. Like this is a guy, Nick Madrigal, I think, can steal 30, hit 12 to 15.

You know, like a, I don't want to do the whole Altuve thing because I think it's played out. But there's a similarity of, you know, the guy is a good exit velocity for a smaller guy, high launch angle. He's got a swing that dictates towards it, huge bat to ball skills. I just want to bet on the talent of who he is. And I love Mick Madrigal. But he doesn't fit a lot and people question it because, you know, he's the same thing with Xavier Edwards for, you know, prospect people who huge, huge bat to ball skills. But the guy literally just hits the ball on the ground and just beats everything out.

So I had a couple other questions, but you know what? We're going to get out of here for the weekend. We'll try to pick up a few more of those when we come back. Thank you to everybody. Good luck into your weeks. Hope you guys have a great weekend. Make those playoffs. Make your runs.

get all the points, do what you got to do for Scott White. I am Chris Welsh. You can find us on Twitter at Isit the Welsh and at CBS Scott White. We are out of here. Have a great one. Talk to you next week.