Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/27: Mon. Recap and Players to Add (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 27, 2019

The hottest pickup in baseball is ... well, tune in! Ugly Monday pitching, but pitchers to turn your attention to, hitters to add and more. 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. One, one pitch, basketball pulled and cast. Alborated toward the corner. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris.

Well, he is Scott White. I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be talking some baseball with you. I've missed you over the last couple days. I really have. I'm growing quite fond of you. Scott. I don't know. You have to say that the feeling is probably relatively mutual from your very nice tweet that I keep getting responses on, but I'm growing quite fond of our conversations around

baseball. Well, that's good. Yes. I will extend the fondness back your way. Thanks. I mean, that was very heartfelt. I really appreciate that heartfelt acceptance there. You know, what is fun, we had a fun conversation because Scott's wearing like a jersey or something and it had 84 on it. And I was like, what baseball? I'm like, is this like an old Prince Fielder or something? And then you dropped me a Roddy White reference. And I was like, wow. We had a good football conversation off air. So I appreciate you bringing the Roddy White where I'm rocking a little Boba Fett shirt from my buddies over the R bar, the rec room in San Francisco, a little Mandalorian shout out for everybody that no one can see that I'm literally holding my shirt up for

only for you, Scott. No one else is watching. Just for me. Lifting your shirt. up for me. That's how far we've come. That's what we're having a great relationship. But I hope everybody probably knows this, but Scott, very great takes and, you know, you expressed your love of Roddy White. So I just wanted everyone to know that you, Julio Jones wasn't your pick. We were talking about favorite players. It was Roddy White. I think that says something about you. Yeah, my all-time favorite Falcons list, I'd put Roddy White ahead of Julio Jones. I mean, hot takes. Yeah, I mean, look, Roddy White was great. Julio Jones is probably better, but I don't know. I just haven't developed the same personal affinity for him.

It's totally subjective thing. I mean, Terrence Mathis might be ahead of both. I don't know. It's like the CBS audience. Like the CBS audience, like your Julio is me to them. They're like, I think I like Welsh. We're pretty sure we're into Welsh. We're not 100% sure.

I'm trying to become your guys as Roddy White. So that's all I'm trying to do for everybody. Hopefully I can be as good as your Roddy White, but we need not talk about any more football because baseball, especially people listening right now are like, Can you please stop it? I do have something for you. The hottest player in baseball right now, ish.

I'm using it broadly. How about this? The hottest pick-upable, that's not a word, player in baseball right now, Mark Kana with the Oakland A's. Three for four, I need to go check and make sure that he's still three for four, but he was three for four coming in.

Only 41% owned coming into the Monday games. on a 10-game hitting streak now, four straight multi-hit games, 370 with five homers coming into Monday in just August. And, Scott, he was the most viewed player today of any of all the players. Everybody is starting to get on the Mark Kana hype trained. And I feel like we've been talking so much about Willie Calhoun

and what a must-pick-up he is right now. What do you think about Kana? Well, there are a few reasons probably that he was, you said the most viewed on CBS. Yes. One is that he was coming off a two homer game. The other is that he was number two in my top sleeper hitters for this week. Number two behind only Willie Calhoun.

Also, this was you're doing. By the way, three for five as this game game, we got a couple games going on right now. It's in the eighth. The A's are just demolishing the Royals right now. And Mark is a part of that. Three for five, two runs. And he's doing his work.

Okay, so you had a bit to do with this. I got a little more to say. Yes, please. Please let me. Please let me. It's a light day, right? Kana has started every game but one since July 7th. I think that's what gets overlooked with him.

People, you know, he has this reputation as a platoon guy. He's been playing every day, oftentimes in center field for the athletics. And he entered today before these three hits, you know, dating back to July 6th. 7th, batting 322 with a 1003 OPS during that stretch. Ten homers. He gets on base a lot. It clearly has power. It's time to get on the Cana bandwagon.

Or is it too late? Well, 41% owned. I do you think we still have enough time? I mean, the percentages tell us, but we know a lot of people are going to be in a space where this might not be a possibility. but I think this is a must. If he is out there, kind of what you're saying right now, we got to get on the bandwagon.

How much of a must-own player is he for the people that happen to be lucky enough to be able to pick him up? I mean, he's less than must-own. He is. Obviously, we just laid out some very impressive numbers, and it's worth noting he's not as good as that. I think probably his season line is a little more reflective, of his abilities and some of the expected stats would suggest that those are too high also.

I think it's the same way we were excited about Mike Tockeman a couple weeks ago. We should be excited about Kana now. Maybe his ownership should get up to like 70%. That's probably how good I think he is. Willie Calhoun or Kana rest of season. I have more faith in Calhoun being an impact player for the rest of the season. And in Cana's case, it's more baffling that he could be this good for this long and still be so widely overlooked. Yeah, well, I feel like that is a conversation.

We all have a whole lot, and I'm guilty of it where we go, man, this guy has been way too good for this long. This has to come down. It doesn't have to. I mean, Cana has been lights out. I said four straight games of multi-hit. Five of the last six have been multi-hit. The ownership percentage has to go up one more for, well, actually two more. Cana or Chris Davis, his teammate.

I would roll the dice on Canna at this point. Me too. It's hard to find anything redeeming about Chris Davis and the fact that he's D.H only makes a very difficult fit in most lineups. He was able to find a couple hits in this route that the A's have had on the Royals, but no homer is still only hitting 2.18 on the season. So I'm with you. I'm with Canada over Chris Davis. How about this other guy, since we're just talking about some hot pickups, I'd say this might be number two.

How about Freddie Galvis? Only 44% own hit his 22nd homer on Monday, hitting 381 coming into Monday with the Reds. This was his fourth Red Home Run. So what do you think when we're talking about Freddie Galvis here? A red home run. Yes. That's interesting how that came out. Red home.

I don't know what that means. But anyway. We can play the color game if we want. Maybe that'll be baseball's future into making the game. more exciting. The further they go, maybe they could change colors. Maybe the baseball can be like a mootering as it flies through the air. As harder as it's hit, it changes colors. Okay, maybe. Somebody, definitely somebody quicker on their feet than I am would have done something better with that. But anyway, yeah, Galvis was actually 10th on my top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. So he's off

to a nice start too. A lot of that had to do with the fact that Reds are playing eight games. And it's basically just a hot hand situation for him. I think we have a pretty good idea who Freddie Galvis is. He is a middle infielder with decent pop, but pop is everywhere. Really doesn't contribute much beyond that and doesn't get on base. Just really, just a fill in. That's all he's good for. And he's good for that right now, but it's not anything that's, you're going to rely on rest of season. What do you think the ownership percentage issue is then? I mean, Galvis coming into Monday, it was 3% more owned than Kana. And Kana, I understand, was the highest viewed.

And we both, you know, we're smart enough to realize that those numbers are probably going to dramatically change here. But, I mean, what do you think the differential is then that Galvis coming into this, you know, game where Canada, you know, a couple more hits continues to streak. Why is he more owned than Kana? Is it, Galvis, at least, is it a need for middle infield? Is it a need for shortstop homers replacing guys like Karea? Well, why do you think that is?

I would guess not. My honest guess would be, and I'm pulling up... And why you're doing that, by the way, the only reason I'm asking the question if people are wondering why I'm digging into this, it's just Canna, the conversation we just had about Canna was like, yes, he's not a must-own, but this needs to be 60 to 70 percent. And Galvis was much more like, yeah, this is not super interest, we'll see where it goes, if it's a big need.

Like, Galvis has owned more than Cana, yet the conversation you gave around both players seemed very, very different in your excitement of them. Yeah, no, that's fair. I think it's just because Galvis has a built-in ownership base because he was hot early in the season two. It got up to about where it is now. It never dropped below like 25% when, you know, just two weeks, just last week, can I

got up to 25% for the first time. So I think that's all there is to it is just the timing. and the level of interest at this part of the year versus early on. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. But the world should know, Kana, probably the hottest bout out there right now, quick pickups. Galvis, he's going to do you good. He's been great as a red. Probably not going to have the same ownership jump as a guy like Kana, but those two,

two of the hottest pickups that are probably available for you. We got a lot to cover in the episode. Like I said, there are some games that are in progress. There's some trending news notes and injuries. But the injury, I thought that was most important. We should have jumped right at the top of the episode. I would have done it if Canada wasn't so hot. His Rockies are placing Herman Marquez on the 10-day IL retroactive of August 23rd with right arm inflammation.

More importantly, could be shut down for the season. Yeah. And that's obviously disappointing. Well, is it obvious? Because I just put a question mark on the end. He'd been pretty frustrating, right? I mean, he had the home away thing going on, and I guess we could bank on that at least.

But overall, pretty frustrating. His velocity was down a couple miles per hour in his last start. Not a couple miles per hour down from his previous season low, but from the stretch of starts he had been on. So, you know, maybe that was evidence of him feeling some fatigue. The splits are still incredible, by the way. 367 away ERA this year in 100 innings and a 6.26 and 73 at home. Just absolutely obliterated.

And I mean, we were talking about the two start thing. I didn't even want to get down with Marquez, frankly, if I have to deal with any home starts at this point, which has always made him a little bit of a problem. So really the only thing I suppose to take away from this outside of the Rockies are losing pitchers left and right. It keeps shutting down starters. Even though we haven't got the full go, there are reports out there right now that the Rockies are considering shutting Marquez down for the season.

It's only a 10-day IL stint. Are you comfortable cutting bait, even though we don't have a definitive outside of could-be shut down? Are you comfortable cutting bait at this point? I'd rather not. I always like to be sure, especially when it's a rare commodity, like a starting pitcher who is at least halfway useful. But if, you know, my IL spots were full with guys.

I didn't feel like I could drop and I didn't feel like I could afford the bench spot on Marquez. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it. My assumption is he's going to be shut down for the season because why not? I mean, basically any non-contender, they have a pitcher who gives him an excuse to shut him down. They usually shut him down. And I probably would do if I was running the organization. You've got to protect those assets. So I expect him to get shut down.

But, you know, just that 10% chance that he isn't, I'd rather not have to. to drop him. Okay. I mean, and fair enough, I think would it be fair to say that if you were to go out and see a pitcher of, you know, decent ilk, like we've been talking about Haney, how about this one? I'm going to jump a little bit. I'm about a guy like Dustin May. You know, as we're recording this right now, Dustin May, I can't jinx it because you guys are listening into the future time travelers. You already know what happened. But Dustin May is rocking a, I think a perfect game at this point into the fourth. I think he's only gone three, but three perfect endings, a strikeout, no walk. So that is perfect, duh. But he'll probably not make it through. You and I were talking about this.

We can't imagine he'd even go past the six because of the relief to the relief to starter thing. But Roberts has said that Dustin May is going to get another start. It's going to be in Arizona. He's about 74% owned right now. So, I mean, what do you think? If you had Marquez and Dustin May was sitting out there because people were really weird about dropping him because of the relief stuff, would you be comfortable with it? Would you drop him for May at least? a hypothetical scenario where May's starting the rest of the season, maybe. But the report I read is that yes, May will start again on Sunday, and then he's expected to go to the bullpen after that.

And that, I mean, that, even if a new opening emerges between now and then, like, just the fact that they're, like, shifting him back and forth, I think he's going to be like a four-inning guy, the rest of the way, regardless of what role it's in, probably like working three or four innings at a time and really not providing much use in fantasy. Now, maybe somebody who's,

well, I guess about the same ownership as May, Mike Fultenevich, who I think has looked pretty good since coming from the miners overall. His start Friday, I think it was, was his first really good start in terms of the result. But I feel like the stuff has looked better and he's looked more comfortable

with the slider and I'm willing to run him out there again. You know, if push came to shove, I dropped Marquez for him. Okay. I still think there's probably somebody lower I could drop, but maybe not. I mean, there are a lot of, a lot of people listening play in shallower leagues than any of mine. I think there's a tendency for everyone in the industry to skew deeper when most people play shallower. And I get so excited, by the way.

I get so excited when I'm playing like a 12-team league. I play in so many 16. When I look at a 12 team, it's like walking into the chocolate factory. Willie Wonka's chocolate. I'm like, look at all of these players. All these players are for me to stream and pick up. It's amazing. And you know, the thing is, and this is I know a point of contention,

I assuming it's a 12-team league where everybody's active, which the shallower league you play and probably the less like there's max activity just for reasons that are probably interrelated. But assuming everybody's playing with equal intensity, I feel like it's more rewarding in terms of your actions impacting the result. I feel like in deeper leagues there's an element of luck that can't be avoided just because the deeper you go, the less likely you are to find a worthwhile replacement on the waiver wire when something goes wrong. And I mean, a lot of times something goes wrong in like a luckway injury, you know, somebody gets injured, your big player gets injured. I mean, nothing like that is going to emerge on the waiver wire. I see what you're saying.

The playing field is leveled a little bit when in a 12 man. Like everybody's got a little bit better rosters. Like one pickup might not necessarily put, you know, a team over like it might in a 16 team. I get what you're saying. That's actually an interesting psychological, like, is it more rewarding to play in 12? I do tend to, I play actually like long-term league has always been a 12 league and it's actually kind of been the one I've been locked into the most and I predominantly play 16. So there is something to that. And all those beautiful players I get to pick up all the time, which I get all excited about. So how about a couple Monday standouts real quick? I got one for you while you're picking ears together. I am just continuously thoroughly impressed with Brian Reynolds with the Pittsburgh Pirates. 84% ownership right now. Six game hitting streak. Three straight months. multi-hit games. He's hitting 341 coming into Monday. He is battling for a batting title right now. He is in the qualifications. The guy's above him. You've got Michael Brantley, Jeff McNeil, DJ LaMayhew,

and I believe he is tied with Yelich and Rendon, though he has absolutely the highest babb of any player, a 404 Babbup, which is about almost 20 points higher than the next qualified player, which is David Dahl. Regardless, I saw Brian Reynolds in the AFL recently. He look so bad. Will Craig, who's a Pittsburgh pirate prospect, looked way better than him, just hitting bombs. Reynolds wasn't making contact, wasn't lifting the ball whatsoever. And I kind of got out on him. Next thing you know it, he's up. He's making every bit of his opportunity count. He's making good contact. He looks like the prospect when he was with the San Francisco Giants, who was near the top of list in like 2016. So I just wanted to say, you know, Brian Reynolds,

we don't have to have it here. I think he's a fascinating case in conversation for 2020. Because what he's done this season, to me, has been nothing short of amazing. And if he's going to take those bat to ball skills and he's going to start to progress and start to make or progress and make some adjustments, this could be a guy. I mean, I don't want to put a yellage type of thing on him. But if you start making the right adjustments with that type of contact, you could be putting up some serious power if he can find it. So I just thoroughly impressed with Brian Reynolds. Yeah, I was curious.

I was looking up as you were talking about him. He basically became an everyday player on, I think of it as more when Cory Dickerson got traded, but it actually came a little before that. It's June 27th is what it looks like in the game log. And since then he's batting 294 with an 867 OPS, and that's with the 364 BABIP, so still a high BABIP, but not over 400.

And look, he profiles as a high Babbabab guy. He high line drive rate, high hard hit rate, goes the other way a lot. Mid 300's Babbit might be something he can sustain. His XBA on the season is 297, so that's right around 294 during that stretch as a full-timer. And that's probably closer to he is, to the player he is. It still looks like a pretty good one. He is two for five. And that was a big thing I forgot to even mention.

Two for five here on Monday, which led to the four straight multi-hits. only 13 homers to go with 54 RBIs, but this is just one of those guys with those contact skills. If he can find those adjustments, puts on more body mass. Next thing you know it, he goes from 15 homers almost winning a batting title to a guy that maybe brings his average down closer to 300, but maybe he's hitting 28 of them or 30

and becomes 100-100 run an RBI guy. I mean, it's lofty stuff we're talking about here because the babup is really inflated, but a super impressive player, and it just jumped to my mind seeing the Monday performance. I will take the bat skills guy adding power as opposed to the power guy adding bat skills. Which is probably true in any era, but never more so than this one. Yeah, exactly.

What about you? You got a Monday standout? Yeah, for the wrong reasons, I am going to call Reese Hoskins my Monday standout. He went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. and I feel like we had just gotten so comfortable with Reese Hoskins that we hadn't really noticed or at least haven't discussed just how long he has been absolutely abysmal. I'm trying to even find a good starting point for it.

It was basically early May. I mean, he's like a 200 hitter since early May for the season, his batting averages down around, let's see, it's 233. And he's so like flyball oriented that he's not like he's like a low Babbabab guy. You know, he profiles for a low Babbabit. It lowers his batting average ceiling tremendously. And we've always known that about him.

But it's like fall, drop, it's fallen to a new low now. His XBA is 219. It's one of the worst 10 in baseball. all. And I think in this environment, you know, he walks a lot, which helps, but a power hitter who doesn't really provide anything in the way of batting average and is going to have these extended slumps. I mean, how valuable is he really? Is he the elite player? I assume most people still think of him as being. I think it's interesting because also he's one of those guys. He's super inflated this year by the OPP. I think a lot of people play the six by six or they were played

OBP with average and he's getting more of a pass. But he's becoming more Joey Gallo and Joey Gallo is becoming more Reese Hoskins at this point, which is, you know, odd turnarounds here. No, I think that's a good one. I think it's a good conversation piece because I've still seen a lot of defenders out there and there should be more conversation about this is not the player that we ever thought he was. But again, OBP, you get a pass. Let's go ahead a break real quick right here on fantasy baseball today.

We come back. We will see if any of those in game or progress, games in progress are of a note. and then we've got a bunch of news, notes, injuries, pitchers, hitters, all that stuff to get to. So a little break here, fantasy baseball today. All right, Scott, nothing of note for us to hit outside of that. The perfect game is over. I just, I wanted you to know the perfect game is officially over. I'm sorry, I jubst it.

I love perfect game, no hit updates. Like, get through seven, you know? I think seven, maybe six, but like, how many hitter, how many pitchers have gotten pulled with a no hitter in the six? inning this year. And I feel like that's, that's like a non-story itself these days. Like, I just look in the box score. Oh, the guy had a no-hitter going. Oh, probably more. And it's not been really a headline anymore. Actually, probably more guys pulled in the six with a no-hitter than actual no-hitter's pitch this season. Oh, for sure. Yeah, that's got to be accurate, right? How about this one real quick? Speaking of the games that are in progress, the Diamondbacks and Giants,

diamondbacks are up three to one, bottom of the six right now. And I just, I continuously am crazily impressed with Alex Young. He's one of those, just one of those players that defies any expectation, at least I had for him, but also Tyler Beattie. So Alex Young versus Tyler Beattie. Young went five and one-third as we are talking right now, walk two, four strikeouts. He's now sporting about a three and a half ERA on the year. Really impressive. Tyler Beattie, five and two-thirds. He's out of the game, six hits, one run, four strikeouts, no walks. Beattie Young, who do you got to own? I mean, Young, I think, is more owned here.

Maybe the better question is, is either worth holding through the rest of the year, or are they both extreme streaming pitchers? I'm going to say extreme streamers at best. And Beattie, I mean, he hasn't given us reason to look into him in probably over a month. I mean, his previous six starts, which is just a miserable stretch. And, like, he's, I don't know. He's annoying because I feel like there's potential in there. Throws hard, former first round pick. And he's just had so many arsenal changes over the course of his minor league career.

He never really could get a firm footing. It's pretty good at AAA this year. Thought maybe he was discovering something, but he's been wildly inconsistent and mostly bad. But what about Alex Young? I mean, a bit dismissive when he's pushed over 50 innings with a three and a half year on the year. I mean, nothing he does is overtly. impressive, but he does have five wins right now. He's not a big strikeout pitcher, but he's going deeper into games, and he's maintaining.

I mean, after this game, he'll have a sub four whip, or I'm sorry, a sub four ERA. Yeah, I just don't think it's going to last. I feel like he's, my guess for him is he's getting by on a gimmick. His slider is his most thrown pitch, and it's been basically since he got called up, and that's an oddity, you know, breaking balls are harder to get hit than fastballs, but you had a 609 ERA at AAA, difficult environment to pitch, but still. I mean, 517 ERA in the miners last year doesn't have impressive stuff by the look of it. So it just looks to me like one of these atypical pitchers who catches the league by surprise at first,

but it's going to unravel. I really don't have much reason to believe otherwise. Okay. Trending, what's going on, news notes, injuries. Mike Mustakis, he left the game today, or at least on Monday, left the game with left, with left wrist, soreness and some pain. And I'm looking here, and it looks like x-rays have already been done, and they came back negative.

So you can probably day to day, miss a game or two, a little bit of a sigh of relief. You might have dodged one. Scott Kingery, abdominal soreness. He was taken out of the game. That is a little bit unfortunate. But also it doesn't look like, at least at this point, it's going to be a major thing, though we are waiting for some results. But here is a bigger one.

Jean-Carlo Stanton could take batting practice on Tuesday. I could also lose 50 pounds by the end of the year. So what do you think, Scott? I think. Which is more likely. I lose 50 pounds or Stanton goes on the practice field. And just remember, I complimented you very nicely at the beginning of this episode. Well, how hard are you trying to lose 50 pounds?

I mean, the goal of yours? It's, sure, it is a goal for sure. The way I weigh right now, 50, getting the, 50 pounds off. It's not that hard, probably, if I commit, I think. I think I got a better chance in Junckerloste and actually getting back on the field. I hold no hopes. I hold no hopes on Stanton the rest of the year. Even if he comes back for a short stent, I don't feel positive about it. But I know I think every Scott in my life feels different about Stanton. How many Scots are in your life? Enough, enough, enough Scots. Enough that I do podcasts with. I was just noticing I'm in like,

you know, I'm in a couple leagues where there's like three, four other Scots with me. And I'm like, what in the world? I've never met as many Scots in my life. And I think when we were naming, we're going through the baby names, you know, thinking about what we're going to name our two boys. You know, I just get curious and start looking up names. And Scott is a very untrendy name right now. It's like 400 something.

But are they all about, okay, but that's now, though. Like, are all the Scots the same age? Are you guys all in the same range? It wasn't when, you know, in the 80s. Yeah, so early 80s, Scott was popping. Pretty soon, Scott is going to be like, you know, it's going to be expiring. It's going to be like, I don't know. Mildred?

Mildred, sure. Yeah, Mildred. Okay. I kind of agree that I, I mean, I expect him to take Braden practice Tuesday. And I think he's going to come back, but I'm not sure he's going to have enough time to win me back outside of. like a five outfielder 15 team league, you're probably activating him as soon as he comes back. But anything shallower than that, you're going to want to see some production first and feel confident he's not going to go down with something else.

Yeah, exactly. Well, so everybody be on the lookout for that. We'll obviously be reporting as we get stuff if he actually gets out there. Another piece of news, this is the prospect one. It's just a dominant piece of conversation here. But according to Ken Rosenthal of the athletic, the Dodgers are considering promoting Gavin Lux in September. So as the wheel turns here,

every other day, it's a different story with Gavin Lux, though he's just been a beast. He's been better in AAA, though it's a PCL than AA. He's hitting 407 in 44 games in AAA, 12 homers, 18 doubles,

four triples, 31 to 39 walk to strikeout ratio, even through a couple stolen bases in there. He has been an absolute man on a mission. He has worked at second base a bit with the Dodgers. And, you know, I kind of thought they might hold him back. It seems like, you know, it looked like a collective plan, almost like what the White Sox want to do with Louise Robert.

But, I mean, you've got to be cloud nine right now because Gavin Lux looks like he is to the majors in September, at least according to reports. Well, considering, I mean, that's such a, that's a cowardly report, Ken Rosenthal. Come on, considering. Of course, the Dodgers are considering it. I don't know. I don't know if this changes the likelihood of it. I really don't know. Where's your percentage on him?

I think it's 50-50. I agree with you still. Maybe that's a cop-out, but I, you know, I think it's a genuine toss-up. Because he makes them, he would make them better, I think. You know, there's a chance he's just overmatched and not ready, and he moved quickly and he's young. And, you know, who knows? Okay, so follow me on this. Okay, follow me on this.

September 1st hits. Gavin Lux gets called up, and he's going to play regularly for the Dodgers. Jean-Carlo Stanton has not got into any major hitting programs outside of hitting, you know, just like he's going to do, you know, hitting some batting practice on Tuesday. Gavin Lux is up. You have to drop Stanton to get Lux. You do it? Yes. Okay.

I would find a way to pick up Lux, I think, in any league. I mean, he is really impressive. Like the bat speed, the way he whips the bat through the zone. I mean, my goodness. He just looks so impressive when he's hitting beyond just the numbers. and I have a hard time believing, you know, you obviously got to allow for the possibility because I thought Aloi Jimenez was going to be a huge success right away.

That hasn't happened. Vladimir Guerrero hasn't been a huge success right away. He's been a, you know, he's been pretty good. But yeah, I think Gavin Lux, that's the kind of prospect. If he gets called up, you find a way to get him on your roster by whatever means necessary. And I think it makes a lot of sense for, to them at least to try them out as their everyday second basement

in September with very little to lose. I mean, they're running away with the division. Probably going to win best record pretty easily. Why not? And, you know, if it doesn't work out, then you obviously know what to do in the playoffs. But if it does, he might be the piece that

puts them over the top. And you'd hope at some point we're going to get out of the whole service time thing. Like, that's just something the Dodgers don't need to worry about. And for everybody to realize only 40% owned in C-V. V.S right now is Gavin Luck, so maybe preemptively get on it. The Phillies, they activated Bryce Harper from the paternity leave list. He went out and dropped his 28th Homer on Monday. That's good. Adaberto, Mondiisi is expected to be activated from the IEL on Sunday. So it looks like we're going to get him back here. Monassie, nearly a week into the rehab. He had gone three for 17 over five games, though. I thought that was interesting of note. And then finally, the Marlins activated Pablo Lopez from the 10-day IL. Did not have a great. line, though, on Monday. Went five, gave up five hits, four earned run, three strikeouts, 86 pitches in, 53 for strikes. But we were never, Pablo Lopez had never been more than just a extreme streamer,

if you will. Does that sound about right? I think you're underselling of a bit. He was looking pretty impressive leading up to the shoulder injury. And, you know, I know Chris Towers especially very high on him. He's a Marlins fan, but, you know, he's the sort of fan who, everything his team does is bad so um yeah i mean his he has a good change up he they were letting him pitch deep into games i i think basically my takeaways from this for lopez uh were that his velocity looked the same as before the injury coming off a shoulder issue that's very good sign uh he had 10 swinging strikes was on 86 pitches is a decent enough number you know this is shaping up to be a two-star week so the next one of the

He might only have one more of those left, but if you're hurting for pitching, I think he's, I think he's a reasonable pickup. Washington, though? Well, yeah, I mean, probably, I probably want to run him out there for that start now. I was thinking more two-start week in like a weekly context. You have him stashed away, and I don't know what his matchups look like the rest of the way. I imagine he'll have a decent one at some point. I would rather have Sandy Alcantara over Pablo Lopez rest of the year, but I don't think you agree. No.

Okay. No. That's okay. We can agree to disagree, but Alcantara's been pretty dang good lately. Let's hit a quick break right here on fantasy baseball today. Coming back, a little bit of emails. We've got to talk about everything else that's going on here on the Monday slate of games. So fantasy baseball today, right back at you. Mike emails. Scott, hi guys. I often give Scott Flack on his rank. He says a flack, by the way, but I'm going to say Flack. Often give Scott Flack on his rankings, but wanted to give some love for his number one ranking of Rendon in the third base. ranks. I feel like this guy gets slept on every single year, even though he is as good as

anyone in the league on a per game basis. I've seen some other early 2020 rankings, and he's sometimes down in the third round when he should definitely be right there with Aeronado and Bregman. He's routinely behind Devers, who's been great, blah, blah, blah. Well done, giving an underrated guy the love he deserves. Also, Rendon is a free agent. Is there any place you would prefer him to land, or does it not matter at all for a stud of his caliber? So this is almost a, where is he 20-20 and does his landing spot truly matter for you? I don't want him to go to San Francisco. I think of the teams that could reasonably make a play for what's probably going to be the top free agent this off season, right?

Is there anybody? Bumgarner, Wheeler, but I think Rendon would be above those guys. Well, Garrett Cole. Garrett Cole might be at the top. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Cole's probably going to be one than Rendon, too.

But yeah, you know, otherwise I don't think it. I think the places he would go would be more likely to improve his standing than lower it. And yeah, he's really, he's taken a step forward this year in terms of power production. And he's always been a great on-base guy. You know, last year he was actually, in terms of head-to-head points per game, obviously, that's being on-base guy. That's his better format of the standard ones on our site. he was actually ahead of Nolan Aeronado had a head points per game last year

number one at the position and distant number one this year obviously with the improved power I don't know that I I'm going to be able to justify ranking him number one at third base going into next season but I imagine

he will be with somebody I have a lot of shares in because obviously he's proven he can be that good I think it's I think third round is probably a reasonable point to expect him to go, maybe late second. Yeah, that's probably pushing it. By the way, from Elias Sports, Nolan Aeronado, this was, I think this happened yesterday, early today.

Nolan Aredano became the first third basement in MLB history with 30 or more home runs and 100 or more RBIs in five consecutive seasons. I read that and I went, what? In history? Yeah, I mean, and it's a good time in history to be set up records, obviously. But that's always my thing. with Nolan Arenado. There's a good chance he's not going to be the number one third baseman this year or next year

or any year, but he's just always exactly what he is. And there is no, like it's kind of like trout, but on a half a step back from that. It's very profound, by the way. That'd be like his new player's jersey,

is what he is. That's like, is what it is what he is has become such a, or is what it is has become such a cliche. People hate that cliche. It doesn't mean anything. I swear to you, the first time I heard it, it was like my mind was blown at how profound of a statement that was.

I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard. And that hasn't totally diminished, even though everybody tries to ruin it. Yeah, I'm 100% with you, actually. Like, all anybody wants to do is just crush that as just an absolute crutch of a statement. It's like, I don't know. Sometimes it is what it is, guys. It is what it is. I don't know what to tell you.

Get over yourself. Yeah. It is what it is. It is what it is. It's not anything more. It's not anything less. It's exactly what it is. I like it.

One more for 2020, just because it's on my mind. But the only reason I'm also doing it is because I was looking over just the absolute mud stomping that the A's are doing. As we're doing this bottom of the ninth, the beating is almost over 19 to three. The A's are up on the Royals. But Marcus Simeon is walking away with his. 23rd homer. He had seven RBIs. I mean, the performance he had

justifiably should have been probably a little bit closer at the top of the episode. But seven RBIs is coming off of a seven game hitting streak. He hit three homers in that streak. Completely back at it. For 2020, Marcus Simeon,

who's going out, or Paul DeYoung, who was one for two, two runs, three RBIs, and hit his 24th homer. It's not even close. It's Simeon. Okay, good.

I just wanted to make sure because there's a DeYoung camp out there that I think would crush this as like, well, it's close, but DeYoung, I'm with you that it's not even close at Simeon. Yeah, I mean, Simian, he gets on pace so much more than DeYoung. He strikes out less.

It just makes for a much higher floor. And I don't think the power ceiling is, you know, I think this year has proven. it's not dissimilar. I mean, what do you think the high range of Simeon is next year? Like a top 120. I don't want to say top 100 because I don't, we're not there, but top 150, top 125 overall player.

125 always seems like that range where people are like, all right, I got my core. Now I'm building into some of these players that I think are ready to, you know, these are my sleepers, these are my secondary core, the team I'm going to build around, these must have guys. And I feel like that's that 125 range that Simeon could be in.

Well, I want to see what he is right now because I have a feeling it would shock people. Oh, I'll shock you. Okay. If you're talking 125. Are you doing points? I am not, though, that I wanted to look up five by five because I think it stands to reason that, uh, that, yeah, uh, that Simeon would be more valuable in points and I knew how, you know, awesome he's been in there. So I'll give that one first. points leagues because he's such a good plate discipline guy, Marcus Simeon, and understand

though he's always been a good plate discipline guy, he's never had a year where he's been this. So it's 3.42 head-to-head points per game, which puts him in terms of per game production between Carlos Correa and Glaber Torres for the year among short stops. Boy, I wanted to ask a Simeon versus Correa like based on their rounds, but all right, keep going. So obviously we're talking elite production in that format I don't I've never come up with a good way to do per game production in Roto or 5x5 categories which is why I don't cite it as often So you know obviously the fact he stayed healthy plays into this but simians 54th overall

So do you think he touches top 100 player overall next year? Easy I mean I get what he's doing this year But, I mean, 96% owned, I believe in CBS, 87% start rate, by the way, which maybe there's some deadness to that because he should be 100% out there. But I don't know. I mean, 100th is like where Reese Hoskins is. Ooh. Hoskins or Simeon next year. I feel like I should say Hoskins, right?

No, I thought. I want you to say Simeon. That's what I want to do. All right. It was a good conversation around an incredible performance on Monday night. Seven RBIs as the A's kind of completely well. went crazy. Somebody asked us a little while back, hey, this is the Josh Van Meter oh meter. Well, how about some deeper hitting ads out there? And how about Josh Van Meter, who's 36%

owned? He was the third most viewed player on Monday, and he had a couple hits in the Monday game. Tommy Edmund, three for six, hitting 305 into August coming into Monday, a homer and a couple stolen bases, only 23% owned. And Mr. Harrison Bader was two for five, couple RBIs, four game hitting streak with four RBIs in that time, only 12% owned. What I'm asking you here is do Edmund or Bader cross the Van Meter O meter to own? And does Josh Van Meter cross the onage meter? I mean, Van Meter is the one I want most. I just wrote about Jose Ramirez's replacements yesterday.

I put him in there as a possibility. He was in the top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. he does have a problem against lefties. He tends to sit a lot against them, but the Reds have enough players down that there seem to be letting him play even more van meter. So good on base skills and at least decent power. I think he's usable.

And he was one for four, two runs with a walk on... The hit was a triple, by the way, on Monday, just for FYI for everybody. And I think it's more upside than any of these other two. Edmund is not much of a hitter, but he's between majors and minors this year, he's 18 for 19 and stolen bases, which isn't nothing. I mean, nine of them have come at the major league level. But, you know, it isn't nothing, but it's, it's, you know, unless you're going with, like, a Gerard Dyson or a Delino DeShield, like you're not going to make up ground and steals with the guy. Like it's too sparse and they're too scattered and it's not a big enough number to really know that it's going to make a difference for you in that category, you know?

Yeah. Like it's one of the better bases in baseball, but it's still not that impactful. This is a who for you. Who are you? Seth Brown, 27-year-old first baseman who actually played the outfield for the Oakland A's was called up in the minors. He was hitting 297 with a 352 OBP, 37 homers in a row. Eight stolen bases, 29 doubles. He started in right field.

He was two for six in his debut. So, Seth Brown, or how about Mike Ford Tough? Only 1% owned in CBS. Double-donged. Eight homers now. Second straight night with a homer. Third, well, actually now it would be the fourth since August 21st. Mike Ford or Seth Brown, if you.

were just deep dogging it. Man, I was just going to say, I'm surprised they continue to give Mike Ford starts. But yeah, two home runs tonight. I guess that's going to continue. I'd rather them not come at the expense of Talkman, which seems to happen sometimes. But Seth Brown, I think is pretty interesting. I don't know what his playing time looks like. At AAA this year, he hit 297 with 37 home runs, a 986 OPS.

if, you know, he's one of the top two or three in all the minors and home runs. And he's had a 30 homer season previously, so it's not just a new ball at AAA phenomenon. I mean, the guy has power. 27, I mean, like if there's any organization that during a playoff push would give a guy like this, regular opportunities, it's the A's. That's a good point. So I'm not rushing out to pick up, but I'm keeping up. an eye on Seth Brown. And it's interesting too, because they've got some guys in the system. I mean, they've got a guy like Shilden Noisy, who's been just absolutely murdering balls, and he's a big

power guy. But, you know, opportunity is where it is. And Seth Brown, Mike Ford, both doing some stuff, hardly owned it all. The rotation. Well, not much to talk about with Sunny Gray, though. He was good. Six innings, two hits, two and runs. Five walks, though, and six strikeouts. How about this? He tied for most walks in a start this season for himself with five. So there's two, five here. walk 19 in his last five starts yet only given up three earned runs in that time. That seems astonishing that you can walk 19 in your last five starts and you've only given up three earned runs. Yeah, it does. And it's a little concerning because Command was part of Gray's problem with the Yankees last year.

Pitch selection and command kind of worked in unison to bring him down. and he's kind of bettered both sides of that equation this year and it's led to really impressive numbers. So I... And look, there's a difference between walks and command and maybe the fact that he's getting so many strikeouts suggest he's still commanding pretty well. But I am discouraged to see the walks.

Definitely would like those to go away. It's a lot. A couple other pictures in the road. Joe Musgrove only we talked a lot about him last week. 70% own went six, gave up five hits, two and run, no walk, six strikeouts. Only his third quality start, though, in his last seven. It doesn't have a win since July, and his next start is at Colorado. So hard pass?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's the most frustrating pitcher in fantasy right now. I didn't start him this week for the two starts. I don't see how you could. Yeah, well, especially not with the Colorado. The Colorado one, enough was enough to say, No thanks if you're in a weekly league. Homer Bailey, 51% own, went five, gave up three earned runs, didn't walk any, but only

Stark out one. And his next start is in New York. And let me see if that updated, if he's got any other stats. But what about the New York start if you were putting Homer Bailey out there? Yeah, you're not. No, I don't trust. He's been better since Johnny the A's. They've all been better since Johnny the A's Roark.

Obviously, Fires has had his thing going on all year. But I don't buy it for any of them. Yeah, and he finished with a little updated here. He finished, went six, gave up three earned runs, eight hits, three strikeouts, no walks. He did give up a homer. He went six. AJ Puck, by the way, came in, went two, struck out two to follow up with Bailey, as Bailey got his 12th win. But New York, again, that's kind of a nay on the horse.

front. How about a couple ugly starts here? Gio Gonzalez, who was 43% own, went five, gave up nine hits, got rocked for seven, walked four, struck out five. Last start, though, went five, only gave up one and run, but did walk another four,

and struck out six. Next start against the Cubs. Thanks, but no thanks, is where I would go to that one. Brad Keller, Brad Keller, got all the run last week. 79% owned. He got Schallacked,

went one and one third, three hits, Fiver and runs, walk three, got a strikeout, and the news before the game came out that he's only expected to make two to three more starts before being shut down. I believe he's at like 164 innings, now 165, and they didn't want him to go past 180. So at best you got two more starts than him after that stinker. And I'm kicking myself because my big article, I think it was last week, maybe two weeks ago. I don't know, but I looked at the pitchers most likely to be to have innings concerns down the stretch, and for some reason, he slipped by me.

But yeah, he's a definitive one now. And beyond that, he's not going to throw 100 pitches. He's not going to be allowed to throw 100 pitches in any of the starts he has remaining. Are you done? Are you out? I think so, yeah. Okay, because I'm trying to look if this will load here. Next start, though, Baltimore.

That's what we talked about last week. It was the Oakland, Baltimore back and forth that we really liked. But yeah, that's true. Did I just reel you back in? In a daily league, I think you got to hold on to one more Baltimore start for a guy who's been mostly effective. I don't know if he was pouting over his inning's limit in this one or what. But yeah, he's been pretty good of late. All right.

Jason Vargas, 47% own, win six, gave up four, had four strikeouts with a walk. It's not a huge stinker. but four of his last eight he's had quality starts and he's got the Mets next. And then this one was interesting because as I was writing this, in the second inning, Hap with the Yankees was having what was building up to be a stinker because he'd given up three, two hits, a walk and three strikeouts into the, I believe, for the bottom of the third, it was in the second inning. Though now he is up into the six, let me pull this up here.

He is gone five innings, struck out seven, but he's walked three and given up three earned run. So where are you on, I saw a lot of frustration on Twitter as well on HAP right now, whom is 78% owns. Ooh, so Keller or Hap? Yeah. Oh, definitely Keller. Hap is hapless. That's it?

You can't drop that and then nothing else. You got to keep going. I don't have a drum sound effect. That was amazing. It was a great pun and then you ended on the pun? Well, yeah. Got to end on a high note, right? I couldn't do any better than that.

All right. No, you know what? Fair enough. I do agree with you. How about some deep pitching? He's at it again. Tim Melville. Only 5% own, but would you know, he went five, gave up five hits, no earn run, three walks, six strikeouts. Last game, which we talked to you guys about. Seven innings, two hits, one run, struck out four. But he's next at Cores. I'm sorry, he's at Cores versus Pittsburgh. This was at Cores versus Atlanta. What the heck, Tim Melville? Can you do it?

Can you pull the trigger on a 10-Melville start? 16 swinging strikes was, I mean, you have to look a little deeper when somebody does something like that. He threw 62% sliders in this start, and it was a really high rate of sliders. Like I talked about Alex Young throwing primarily sliders, but that's like 25%. This guy's Timelville's just cranking sliders in there. And that's, I imagine it's a new look that hitters aren't used to, but the minor league track. record suggests there's nothing to get excited about here. And I'm still going to side with that, especially for a Rockies pitcher. He's one of the worst, too, because this is what gets people.

And I would caution everybody, don't fall into the trap because here's what happened. He did the first one, and everyone's like, clicking view. They're like, hey, what's up with Melville? All right, all right. Next start, he does it again at Cores. People are like, well, listen, I might have to get in on this. I don't want to miss out. Here's what I promise you. You're going to pick them up. You're going to put him in your lineup. He's going to go two and he's going to give up nine. Don't do it to yourself. Everybody else is worth the shot, not Tim Melville.

No offense, of course, to Tim Melville. I'm the guy who made a case for picking up Asher Wojahowski and for picking up Mike Montgomery. And I'm saying don't do it with Tim Melville. So that says enough. What does that tell you? Yeah. Over on the bullpen, the biggest note here, I think, Ryssel Iglesias, he came into a non-save situation. He did give up a run just for everybody to know nothing to go there.

But this one was interesting. Manager Bud Black said on Monday that he's not ready to anoint a new closer, but he said that Hiro Diaz and Carlos Estevez are going to get the safe chances for the remainder of the season. Well, on Monday, Estevez came in the eighth inning, had a nice clean inning. Diaz, who's only 2% own, was given a shot, and he blew it. He went one, gave up a hit, gave up an earn run, a walk, two strikeouts. He actually ended up getting the win. But you have to assume this.

is now going to go to Estevez for the Rockies moving forward, right? Whatever that means. I don't know. It wasn't that bad of a blown save. I think it's going to be a committee you know, basically those two. Well, then who do you pick up then? You're picking up Diaz or Esther? Because I'm picking, I put a waiver comment on SEDES.

I mean, yeah. And Diaz is a lefty, right? Um, I believe so. Yeah. We should double check that because I don't think. I think you just agreed with me because you didn't know either. No, that's not the case. at all.

Who do you take me? Who do you take me for? He's a writing, so I'm glad I looked it up. Okay, anyway, yeah, no, I would definitely pick up as to viz if I had to pick up one of them, and I understand sometimes, you know, leagues of a certain depth, you've got to get saves wherever you can. I'd pick up Matt McGill over either of these two, because it just seemed like a clear scenario there for the Mariners after he got three saves last week.

He's only like 10% owned. Matt McGill. All right, I like that's a good one for all your bullpen needs. Now, we are leaving you as games are still going on, of course. Dustin May, I just want to see where Dustin May before we leave if he has gotten out of the game. Still going strong, five innings, 67 pitches in five innings. And two strikeouts, a walk and an earn run. I'm very encouraged.

Boy, do I wish Roberts would let him go beyond that one start, but probably still not the case. If he did, though, I would be all in on Dustin May rest of season. But you know what you guys could maybe put your hopes to? Maybe a Jesus Lazzardo pickup in September. If you got your one more, Dustin May start, maybe you can turn it over to a guy like Lazzardo. And what I would suggest to you is make sure you're tuned in later in the week, not just to the episode,

but lock in as Scott's going to give you the five to stash. And there will probably be some pitchers as we get into the September 1st call-up. So we will lock you in with that. All right, that is all that we got for you here today. Thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for putting up with me, of course. You can follow me on Twitter at Is It the Welsh. You can get Scott over at CBS Scott White, the company man that he is.

And we will be back. I actually will not be back tomorrow. It'll be Adam, so Joyce and cheers around. But I'll be back here on Thursday. So until then, have a good one, everybody. Peace.