Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/30: 28 Days Later ... (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

Looking at the best of the last 28 days, but first let's do some "Hey, Real Quick" with Tyler White vs. Tyler O'Neill and a couple of stud OFs in 2019. Then it's on to yesterday's standouts as we discuss several "Trevors" who pitched. Anyone buying Trevor Williams? ... We've got your MLB news with a rotation candidate in HOU that you should be interested in. We'll also review yesterday's action and wonder if it's time to drop Sean Newcomb, if we're buying CC Sabathia's strikeouts, if Mike Minor's success is sustainable and which underowned hitters such as Adalberto Mondesi can help with steals. Plus bullpen updates as the PHI bullpen gets even crazier ... Standouts over the last 28 days! Looking at each hitting position and finding the gems including several who may still be available in your leagues ... Email us at [e-mail] This episode is sponsored by www.ZipRecruiter.com 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. All right. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. All right, everybody. Welcome to the show.

It is fantasy baseball today. And it was a fun Wednesday night in baseball. Wasn't it Scott White? So much fun. So much fun. I don't even know where to begin. Well, I don't know where to begin either. Like, where should we begin?

Sean Newcomb? Get rid of them? Maybe. Maybe. It's definitely been a different pitcher lately. And not in a good one. No, he has. The three of his last four starts have been terrible.

I'll tell you where we should begin. We're going to begin with some hey real quick for 2018. And then hey real quick for 2019. So hey real quick for 2018, Scott. Tyler White or Tyler O'Neill? Ooh, the Tyler's. The Tyler's. Tyler White, if he has a job,

I'm really impressed by what he's doing because he's doing it with a high walk rate. He's doing it with a BABIP that doesn't seem, you know, crazy high. and I'm not saying it's completely sustainable. I don't think he's really a 1031 OPS guy. Probably the home run pace is unrealistic, but he had an OPS over 1,000 in the miners this year, and he's always been a very productive hitter down there.

So I don't know what it's going to take to get him in a lineup in the way we're trusting in. Well, I mean, he's in there pretty much every day now. Yeah, I just, you know, there's still a lot of alternatives there, and you never know what it's going to change. Would you rather have Tyler White or Kendris Morales? Tyler White, I mean, if he has a job, Tyler White, I think he could be, I think he could be like a top 15, maybe even top 12 for basement, potentially. Okay, here's hey real quick for 2019. Christian Yelich or George Springer?

By the way, Evan Gaddis is a free agent this offseason, so that could help Tyler White's case. I will go with Yelich, and I don't have a lot of hesitation there. Over Springer? Yes. Yeah, I mean, Springer's having a down year. He really is. But Yelich, we talked about yesterday. Like, oh, what a great year.

He's having this breakout year. It all makes sense. He's wonderful. And then he hit for the cycle, and he had six hits. Yeah, it was a six-hit cycle. He had three singles. Those were the extra hits. But still, I mean, any, a six-hit games are so rare to begin with, much less with the cycle attached.

That game was crazy. Now, I'll tell you with the craziest thing about that game. I think it's 1312 or something like that. It was a nuts game. Ball must have been flying out of the park. It's really hot. I don't know what the weather was there, but I know there's some good hitting environments right now. There was a rain delay to start the game.

The craziest thing that happened in that game, Reds Brewers, Billy Hamilton hit a home run and got caught stealing. None of that should happen. But it did happen. And guess what? Scott, we have a little surprise. Two minutes into the show, three minutes into the show, the guy just said, I want to be on the show today. Chris Towers is here. Hey.

Hey, Chris. I'm here. I'm succumbing to your peer pressure. You guys have been slandering me when I don't show up. So I'm here. I'm here for the people. Okay, good. We're happy to have you.

We're very happy to have you. have you. So he's susceptible to peer pressure is what he's revealing to us now. Yeah. What other things could we get him to do? Well, we could get him to answer the hay real quick for 2019. Chris, everybody's doing it. Who would you take Christian Yewitch or George Springer next year? Ooh, I think I would take Christian Yelich. Scott didn't even hesitate. He didn't even give an ooh. He just Yelich. All right. Well, it's interesting. You know, Yellowich, of course, has that big game Springer. He's always hurt,

but he's better than this. I mean, he's definitely got, should have an OPS over 800. I will say, I will be very excited to draft George Springer next year. I don't know how far do you think he's going to fall. If he falls into the late third round, I will be very excited to draft George Springer. I think he will. I think so. Yeah. In a points league, he'll be incredible. If he's leading off for the for the astros that would be amazing value because it just yeah so many played appearances yeah i just i don't see any reason to think he won't be a very good hitter i know he hasn't been this season but he's too good the track record's too strong it's going to be one

of those things where if he just stays healthy he's going to have a monster season and you know as we've seen with junk harlostan in the past among others when that's the knock on you it's worth betting on at a depressed price. I made two transactions yesterday. You guys can approve the move. I added Randall Gritchick and dropped Greg Bird. Doesn't matter who I dropped. I added Randall Gritchick.

That's the most important thing. He had, I think, two more doubles yesterday. He's hitting well. And I added Derek Holland, specifically for his start this weekend against the Mets. I mean, they were bad before they lost Jose Bautista. I had a Derek Holland and I dropped Marcus Stroman. I don't know that we need to own Stroman in a Roto League at this point. Do we approve?

That's fine. Yeah, they're fine. They're fine moves. Yeah, Gritchick's been... Looking at his bat-a-ball profile, I was looking at it last night, and I feel like maybe I didn't give him quite enough credit when we were talking about him yesterday. he's done what he's done with really bad bad bit luck and you know it's it's he looks like he should be a huge power hitter and lately he has been so yeah i think he probably deserves to be

more owned than he is yeah he's still available gritchick i don't know he's like 30% owned or something like that i forget what it was but uh somebody might want to keep an eye on in your elites all right uh wednesday standouts what do we got chris how you feeling you got a Wednesday stand out for the people? I mean, we probably have to talk about Trevor Williams, right? Oh, yeah. It's three earn runs over his last eight starts. Combined three earn runs.

Yeah, and of course, I think the eight starts directly prior to this stretch, he had a 720 ERA. So obviously he was due. Exactly. Now you're getting it. Good for you. I mean, the fun thing is that, like, if you go, game by game, I'm looking at eight game stretches throughout the season.

His FIP has never gone below 3.72 for any eight game stretch, and for the most part, it hasn't gone above 4.5. There have been just a few that have gone over. He's basically been a low to mid, low fours to mid to high three's ER or true talent guy. And he's just been super inconsistent. So I don't think I buy it, but I mean, I don't. Wyatt. Yeah. Yeah, I don't buy either. I'm not, I'm not really sure what he's good at. Even, even like weak contact, soft contacts, I mean, he's better

than average at that, but it's not like he's you know, it's not like he's a real standout. And that's not a skill that I think is especially trustworthy either. Like a pitcher has to do several seasons of that before I'm really buying it as My take on that is mostly that it's a fine tiebreaker. It can help you outperform your peripherals a little bit.

But generally speaking, like if you don't do the other things that we accept as the defense independent pitching stats, the foundation of those things, you know, limiting home runs, limiting fly balls, really. Striking guys out, limiting walks. if you don't do at least two of those things well, I don't really care that you limit hard contact unless you're a knuckleballer or something. All right, so that's Trevor Williams. And guys, I'm going to give you five seconds to answer.

How many Trevor's pitched yesterday? Four, at least one. You both are, well, I mean, Chris is technically right, because that's annoying. Three Trevor's pitched yesterday. Well, starting pitchers. Trevor, name them. Trevor Williams, Trevor Richards, and Trevor.

Well, Trevor Hiltonberger did pitch, but he's not a starting pitch. Oh, okay, so Scott was right. Four Trevor's pitched. Sorry. Well, there might be, I don't know how many believers in all, so I can't take credit. Trevor Cahill. Trevor Cahill did pitch, and he's got a 702 ERA on the road now. Yeah, I feel like such a sucker for Trevor Cahill.

because this is the second year in a row. It's got me excited. Look at the ground ball rate. Look at all the swings and swings and misses he's getting. And just like when it all fell apart for him after he was traded from the Padres to the Royals last year, it's just not holding up. Suddenly he's not getting the swinging strikes anymore.

He's walking a ton of guys that happened. And yesterday starts six walks. And I mean, you can't trust him, obviously. You can't, it's September. But what about at home? Basically. He's got a point, he's got a point 85 ERA at home and a 702 ERA on the road. He's got two home starts next week.

And the thing there is he walked six yesterday. He walked 11 in the month of August total. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, I mean, it's so annoying. And I like, no, I don't, I don't necessarily trust him more at home. I understand it's a favorable environment, but he's such an extreme ground ball pitcher. It's weird.

That I don't feel like the positioning of the fences should make that big of a difference. And it's not like. it's just like, oh, he gives up a lot of home runs at home or on the road. He doesn't strike people out on the road. He has a 16.5% strikeout rate away from home compared to a

29.7% rate on the road. He basically becomes Justin Verlander at home and Trevor Williams on the road. It doesn't make any sense. Although we wish he was Trevor Williams on the road. All right, so he's got, Kahill's got two starts next week. They're both at home.

They're the Yankees and the Rangers. I don't think you can trust them. All right. It's easy to say that now, but when I'm straining to find a sleep or two-star pitcher for next week, I have to imagine he'll probably be pretty high on that list. Yeah, all right. Well, we'll go through some two-star pitchers mostly tomorrow. Today we're going to look at who's been the best at each position over the last 28 days as we wrap up the month of August.

News and notes for you. David Price left after taking a comebacker off the wrist. X-rays were negative, but we have to see what happens there. Could be a DL stint for David Price, but it does look like a serious, serious injury. Kent and Maeda got a save for the Dodgers. He gave up a run. He got a save, but Dave Roberts said Kenley Jansen is still the closer. It was not available yesterday.

Andrew Miller is on the DL with a shoulder impingement. Charlie Morton is on the DL with shoulder discomfort. So this is a guy who has had trouble staying healthy. He made it 5-6th of the season. They're putting him on the DL. Do we have a timetable for Morton? And do we know who's replacing him? I saw he was just going to miss one start.

Oh, okay. All right, good. Then don't worry about his replacing him. Well, I want to say that because I'm still not. They have a pitcher, a 25-year-old, there was 100 miles an hour, has led all minor leaguers with at least 15 starts, I think it is, and strikeouts per nine innings.

I mentioned the age because it's like, if you're 25, you need to start, like your team needs to start capitalizing on it. And his name's Josh James. I'm really hoping he gets called up in September. And if he's not, you know, obviously maybe it's not the Morton turn he's taking, but the Lance McCuller's turn he starts taking. All right.

Josh James, good name. Albert Pujol is out for the season. Mike Soroka will not be back this season. The Braves acquired Lucas Duda from Kansas City. How far down in your rankings did you move Freddie Freeman after this trade? L.O.L. Very funny, Adam. James Paxton will start Saturday.

Stephen Dugger likely out for the season with a shoulder injury. Matt Carbender left with nausea. We hope he's okay. Herald-in digestion upset stomach diarrhea, right? Yeah. Jose Al-Tuve has struck out six times in his last two games. I got that. That was Pepto-Bism.

First four-strike-out game of his entire career. I was trying to find that out. Okay, glad we established that. Altuvian took up. Maybe. Oh, you're making that up? No, I saw it on Twitter. Okay.

But I didn't verify it myself. I just believe everything that I see on Twitter. It's like Wikipedia. How could it be wrong? You won't believe what Warren Buffett's been saying. Josh Donaldson could get traded and Andrew McCutcheon could get traded. We have the trade deadline, the non-waiver trade deadline tomorrow, so keep an eye on it. Those are two big names that could be on the move.

All right. So I don't have a typical yesterday kind of recap. I just have some hitters, some pictures I want to talk about, but I do mostly want to focus on what's going on in the last 28 days. And I want to tell you all about ZipRecruiter. Today's sponsor is ZipRecruiter. We want to thank ZipRecruiter for supporting our show. And, you know, actually, I have this email that I have saved here, and it's from a guy named Nick,

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Not a promo code. It's a URL. ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. All right. Let's talk about some pitchers. How much do you trust Sean Newcomb and Jake Areietta? I was just looking up Sean Newcomb's stats.

I'm glad you asked Adam. So, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. How far can you throw him? He's big. He's like 6'7. I'm not even sure I'd be able to get the kind of level. I would need to throw him. Maybe in the pool I could throw him a few feet.

But for the most part, I'd just be pushing. So it just depends how far he fell. Looking at his rolling 10-game averages, it's bad guys. The Major League average swinging strike rate for a starting pitcher is 10.1%. He has not had a 10-game stretch higher than that, dating back to June 22nd. He has not had a 10-game stretch with a strikeout rate above the Major League average for a starter since June 22nd. He has not had a FIP below 4 over a 10-game stretch since June 27th.

He's been bad for months now. Yeah, and just you mentioned three of his last four starts were terrible at him. Five of his last 10, he's given up five earned runs or more. and the walks have been higher during that stretch in addition to the strikeups being lower. It's concerning. Now, you know, trying to figure out what's gone wrong for a newcomb other than just the results.

One thing I've noticed for him, and this goes back to, like, May, is he kind of fell out of love with his curveball, which is supposed to be his best pitch. It's the pitch that was hyped coming up through the miners. presumably the pitch that, I mean, I know it doesn't have a high swinging strike rate this year. Maybe that's why he's falling out of love with it, but it's supposed to be the pitch that generates the swings and misses. So one positive I take from yesterday's start is that it looked like his curveball got the best results it has all year. And he did strike out a lot of batters yesterday.

But to me, at this stage of the season, that's not enough to really save him. I think. So this is Sean Newcomb here. Scott, are we dropping Sean Newcomb? He's got two starts next week, but one of them is Boston. I mean, let's point out the last time someone on this podcast said drop Sean Newcomb. He damn near had a perfect game. Yeah.

Was it a no-hitter or a perfect game? Yeah. I think it was a no-hitter. You faced the minimum. Okay. I mean, I don't think I can drop him. I don't think I could start him next week. And if you're not starting him next week, what's the point?

Drop them. Yeah. All right, what about Areietta? Arieta's got the Mets and the Marlins next week, so I don't want to lose that week. You're starting. Yeah. Yeah, he's not good, as we've been saying all year, but the fall hasn't been as pronounced as Newcomb. He's had a couple bad starts in a row.

For the most part, he's been pretty reliable. So, yeah, definitely stick with him. All right. C.C. Sabathia, quality starvation. start against the White Sox. Wasn't a great start, but six innings three runs. Thought it would be a little bit better. Twelve swinging strikes.

He's just, he's got a lot of strikeouts over his last four starts, Sabathia, 33 strikeouts in 23 and two-thirds. Now, two of those starts were against the White Sox. I think that does help. But I don't know, Sabathia never struck me as a guy who should be 80% owned. But he has a 336ERA. Not in a long time, anyway. And like, what, 8.4K per 9 for the season?

Yeah, I mean, it's really gotten up there, but it's been those last four starts. It's been those last four starts. I feel like it may be another Trevor Cahill situation where, like, the track record suggests I should know better. But it's all logical unto itself. And I mean, I'm totally fine with riding the hot hand at this stage of the season, especially. 43Ks in 31.1 inning since the All-Star break. Yeah, if you take out the White Sox start. No, I mean, even without eight, look, he's got Seattle and Oakland next week.

So it's not the easiest week. They're both on the road. You've got to start Sabathia at this point. But, you know, the thing I would say about Sabthi is like, you could always start him in a points league, whatever. He'll get you some quality starts, got a good ERA. But in a roto league, categories league, and I own Sabthi in a Category's league, Not a great whip

It's 1.27 I wasn't expecting a good strikeout rate So You know He's almost kind of Strowman-like or something Maybe format specific But if he's getting strikeouts I just don't buy the strikeouts

I guess is what I'm trying to say That's reasonable Yeah Could be an old fool Jew Could be a fool Jew How do I not have that? Fool. All right, let's move on.

Let's move on. Derek Rodriguez is 80% owned. I'm looking at two guys who are exceeding our expectations and are no longer doing so. And they were Marco Gonzalez and Kyle Gibson. And I meant to say this yesterday and I didn't. But I was going to say, I fear Derek Rodriguez is next on this list to kind of let us down and not be nearly as good as what we've seen. Now he obviously has a bigger drop because he had such a low ERA. It's only 247 now.

But I'm not starting him next week at Colorado. And I'm nervous about Derek Rodriguez. Quite frankly, I just don't think his stuff is that good. And I think it's, yeah, I don't know. I just don't have that much faith in him. I don't blame you, my friend. Oh, thank you. On the other hand, this is exactly the kind of pitcher who gets a benefit from pitching

half of his games, or roughly half of his games, in AT&T Park out in old San Francisco. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The decline is inevitable for Derek Rodriguez. It's gone on long enough that I am willing to write it to the bitter end. And although yesterday's start was his first non-quality start in months,

Basically, since, like, his first major league start, right? You know, it wasn't bad enough for me to stop starting him. But I know this isn't as good as he's going to be. I don't know what the eventual landing spot is. Certainly the home park helps, like Chris said. But I suspect we won't be drafting him as a top 50 pitcher next year. And I won't start him next week at Colorado. But I do think you're right.

I mean, playing in this ballpark is going to help. I'll probably start Rodriguez. But if you need a win next week, you can drop them, I think. I don't want to drop a guy with a 2470 area. But if you can't use a guy next week and it's the playoffs or something, and there are only a few teams left in the league, and you might have to make that tough decision. All right, let's do some rankings.

Let's rank Sabathia, Rodriguez, Cahill, and Peralta. I'll go Rodriguez first, then Sabathia, then Cahill, and then Peralta. I wish Freddie Peralta made more sense, because I really want to like him. I'll go, yeah, I'll agree with that. Rodriguez, Sabathia and Cahill Peralta. All right, let's rank this next group. Michael Fulmer, Trevor Williams, Mike Minor, Danny Duffy, Joey Lucke, Miner Williams

Hey, before you do that, take a look at what Mike Miner's been doing lately. He's pitching a lot better. Fulmer stunk yesterday. He's been good at home. He's been terrible on the road. I know we don't like Trevor Williams that much. All right, so fine. Does anybody that you do want in this group, Minor, Duffy, Lucchese, Fulmer, Williams?

There's nobody who, like, I have to have. Their ownership percentage just makes sense. like minors can stand to be higher probably but at the same time he's pitched over his head recently I don't I don't really understand how he's succeeding I think it has something to do with him

being a naturally low babbip guy because he's such a big fly ball guy but of course that can come back to bite him sometimes with the home runs minor is 46% of all these guys are basically like around 50% on except Trevor Williams is 71%. So Mike Miner has a 288 career Babbabb, which is low.

During the post-all-Star break stretch where he has a 278 ERA, he has a 174 Babbup. Yeah, that obviously can't last. Yeah. Cannot last. But his overall BAPBF for the season is about what it was last year. 15 points lower. 272, 257. 250, like, even 257, even for him is too low, I think.

And that's come out to a 433 array. All right, do you want any of these guys? Rinaldo Lopez, Trevor Richards, and Jason Vargas. I mean, Trevor Richards might be the most interesting of all these pitchers, and he's 14% owned. Five-stri-line quality starts, though. I mean, he just doesn't ever get to six sittings, pretty much. Whereas Lucasey has done at three of his last four starts. After never doing it.

After never doing it. Yeah, he had two in April, and then he's had three in his last four starts. Yeah, I mean, if I was ranking all of these pitchers, and I was excluding Miner's Relief pitcher eligibility, because that's obviously the most interesting thing about him. I would go Fulmer 1, and I wish I understood him better, but I think there's a lot of talent there. Fulmer 1, followed by Richards, followed by Luke Casey.

I heard a crazy stat about Trevor Richards. On Twitter? It took him, no, on the Marlins broadcast last night, right before the Red Sox opened up a ginormous can of... An 11 run inning, yeah. I don't think they got an out for like eight of those runs. It was nuts. You know that one player made all three outs in that inning. It was Andrew Ben and Tendi.

He had a double play and like a fly ball out or something. Yeah, I think he tried to bunt. one point. It wasn't a great inning. Okay, go ahead, go ahead. Sorry, Trevor Richard. What an embarrassing inning for Andrew Benintente, Benintente, Benintente. So you know how Jose Fernandez was an amazing pitcher right out of the gate.

Trevor Richards got to 100 strikeouts faster than Jose Fernandez. Wow. He got to 100 strikeouts in 97 innings. It took Jose Fernandez 99. How about that? That is wild. Yeah, that is wild. Now, part of that is Trevor Richards just isn't as good, so he faces more batters per inning.

Jose Fernandez's strikeout rate was much higher, but still, Trevor Richards. A lot of strikeouts. That change-up is a legit weapon for him. All right, I'm going to go through some hitters, and you're going to give me your reactions. Robinson Canoe, since returning from the suspension, he is batting 259 with one home run and three doubles. He has a 6.57 OPS. Is he still a must-start, Robinson Canoe? I think with the standard rhodo lineup, all the extra hitterspots to fill, I'd call a must-start in that format.

But in a head-to-head lineup, No, I still want him around, but I don't think he's my start. Adam Eaton is finally getting some extra base hits. In his last 12 games, he has a 296 ISO, which is outstanding. He has two home runs, five doubles and a triple in his last 12 games. Does that encourage you with Adam Eaton, who's 79% owned? And he got a chance to start against a lefty recently. He had been sitting against them pretty consistently.

my like I always even when Adam Eaton was considered you know fairly high end outfielder strong fantasy asset I just didn't think there were enough counting stats there and I think it's a problem for him still he gets on base a lot he bats in top of what should at the top of what should be a good lineup and you'd think that'd be enough to carry him

but I don't know over the last 12 games he has and that's the last 12 games for the nationals. He has started 10 of them, and he's appeared in all 12. So that does make me feel a teensy bit better. He's started 21 of 27 in the month of August. So, you know, I think it's going to depend if he plays six out of every seven. Yeah, I think he's a must start. If it's like four of every seven or five of every eight, it gets a little ifier. If you project out his numbers over a full season, it's like a 10-home or 10-steel pace, you know?

That's really the issue. I don't think he's ever had 20 of either in a season. No, but he's more like a 15-steel, 18-homer guy, I think. Usually. He's having a bad year, but he's finally getting some power. That's what I'm saying. He, you know, his batting average and on-base percentage look normal. His home runs, his power numbers were way down.

He had an ISO under 100 last time we spoke about him. That was like a week ago. But his... Now he's finally getting some extra base hits. I think it just comes down to whether his... Whether he's healthy. You know, like this is a guy who's suffered a fairly catastrophic knee injury last year and hasn't been healthy this year.

And it turns out your legs are very important when you're trying to hit 95-mile-an-hour baseballs. Career high and home runs is 14. Career high and stolen bases is 18. Oh, I switched them around. I switched them around. Might be. All right, so then these other guys, are you interested in picking up CJ Crone or Tray Mancini? They've been hitting the ball pretty well.

Mancini has three homers in his last four games. Crone is batting 366 in his last 11 games with three home runs. Crone or Mancini, if you saw them on waivers, like would you pick them up over Randall Gritchick or Tyler White or Tyler O'Neill? Here's the thing about Crone. He started two of the race last five games. Oh, wow. So he may be hitting well, but not. Yeah. I also like even when he's good, he's like a 65th percentile home run guy at first base and he doesn't really do anything else well.

So, no. So like even if he's an everyday player, I think he's like the 27th best first baseman. And things could get really crowded here for the race in a way that might impact not only him but Jake Bowers. Maybe some others too, because Malick Smiths on the DL with an illness. You don't imagine that's going to be long. Actually, I think it's an infection, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be a long stay. And then I'm pretty confident Austin Meadows is going to get called up when rosters expand. He's been red-hot.

Yeah, he's done better in the Ray's minor league system than he ever did in the Pirates minor league system. And if you're looking for some speed, some steals, Joey Wendell, Adel, Alberto Mondesie, and Roman Quinn, Wendell has four steals in his last four games, and he's batting 333 in August. Mondesie is starting to hit a lot better. Three straight, two-hit games, a home run, and two straight games. And he, in the last 28 days, is the number 11 shortstop in Roto. Number 21 in points, he doesn't get that many at bats.

And Roman Quinn, that's Adelberto Monashie. Roman Quinn is 6% owned. He has led off two of the last three games for Philadelphia. He doesn't play that much, but he's starting to impact Odubo-Herera's playing time. and he has six steals in 27 games. He plays a lot more than I ever would have imagined, started six of nine for the Phillies. And Jose Bautista was in the lineup yesterday.

I don't know why they feel the need to mix in these other players when they already have good players in their outfield. But yeah, I guess Quinn, if you're looking to catch up in steals, particularly in a five outfielder league, he's not totally irrelevant. He's hitting well, too. I mean, yeah, 369 batting average is obviously too good to be true, but I suspect that's why he keeps getting starts. Since Heath is not here, I'll throw a cape on for Alberto Mondesie who might just be good.

He's starting to show some real flashes, and he is stupid, aggressive on the base paths. I'm not using that as a pejorative. I'm using that as an exclamation. He has been on base 50. He has 53 stolen base opportunities. That means that he was on base when the base in front of him. was open. He has run 21 times. That is really, really high. He's been really aggressive. He's taken the extra base when it's been available 69% of the time. And he's been effective. He's not

getting thrown out on the bases. He's showing some power, which he has done in AAA before. I'm very intrigued by this guy. He's going to be a, I think he could be a breakout candidate next year. That's Ed Oberto Monash. Strikeouts are much lower. I don't know if you mentioned that, but he's not. It's a respectable strikeout rate. Any interest in Joey Wendell, guys? Joey Wendell, yeah. Go ahead. What was that song supposed to be?

That's Mr. Wendell by Rest of Development. Remember, I played it for you. It's like the best song. Tennessee. No, Mr. Wendell's better than Tennessee. Tennessee is the one I know. Well, now you've got to know Mr. Wendell. Any interesting, Mr. Wendell?

He seems like the kind of player who I'd like to have in an AL-only league because he plays a lot and his stats are decent, but he's not. There's not enough upside there for mixed leagues. I didn't realize they cloned Brock Holt. In the bullpen, Cody Allen pitched the seventh and pitched poorly. So, yikes. Jeremy Jeffress pitched in a tie game in the ninth, and then he stayed on in the 10th, and he gave up a home run.

But he got the win. Jace Fry got the save. He has two saves in his last three appearances for the White Sox, who are playing pretty well right now, surprisingly. This is the interesting one. Tommy Hunter got a two-inning save for the Phillies. Sir Anthony DeVingos pitched the seventh. Is it time to drop Dominguez?

By the way, Pat Nishak faced one batter and he got on base in the eighth. Hunter got a two-inning save. Yeah, everybody. All the prospective closers pitched in that game. Aronairus, Dominguez, Neshik, they all pitch. I had only one pitched the ninth, and it was Tommy Hunter. He was the only one who pitched the 8th, too No, that's actually not true

They had three pitchers pitch in the 8th. He's the only one to record it and out in the 8th. Oh, okay, there you go. We haven't seen the last of Dominguez getting saves, I don't think. But this is like, this is just the way the Phillies conduct their bullpen. This is a guy I don't buy it all. The more concerning thing is that he seems to be running out of gas. Dominguez?

Yeah. And then Ken Giles was used in a non-save situation yesterday, Unbelievable. One or three. Unbelievable. Yeah, he's given up one run in same situations this year. And like a hundred in non-save situations. It's ridiculous.

I don't understand. So stop using him in those ways. Yeah, well, I tell the Blue Jays that, right? The Blue Jays have been pretty good about it. Maybe they just wanted to get him some work. But it's just funny. I mean, it didn't really matter. They lost the game anyway.

He has a point. Is it not like it's it's either a total fluke or he has some major concentration issues. He has a 0.50 ERA in save situations with a 0.67 whip. In non-save situations, he has a 993 ERA and a 1897 whip. And it's just the one run he's given up in save situations? Yeah. He has 22 strikeouts in safe situations on 65 batters. face. He has 22 and 112 in non-safe situations. It's ridiculous.

This is very strange. Very strange. And you know what, Giles, I wonder where he ranks over the last 28 days in points leagues among RP eligible because he's been, he's been, oh, we have a new feature? Chris, are you aware of this? New feature, best available? I do not. Look at this. I'm looking at our leagues right now. best available it tells you if you go to our leagues and do our stats page

usually it just has stats and projections and the projections help you figure out who the best available is but now it has a tab that says best available and it tells you all the

it got four catchers here uh four first baseman very cool stuff I don't know yeah they label it with a red window that says new feature exclamation marks

ooh that must be a a football season thing that they just migrated over. That's great. Cool. I wonder what the criteria is. Oh, wait a second. It's the best available players, Scott. I know, but I wonder how they figure out of the best available.

Scott, why don't you just get out of here? We don't need your attitude, okay? I just don't know. I just, I'm just curious. I like to know how things are figured out. Well, it doesn't matter because you have to go anyway. I do. So Chris and I will handle the rest of the rest of,

the show. I'm going to look at the best performers over the last 28 days. Thank you, Scott, for joining us today. All right. Thanks for having me. All right, that's Scott White. Let's look at the best of the last month. First, we'll start with head-to-head points leagues and the catcher position.

Last 28 days, color me shocked. I don't know how, really? How is Yadier Molina, the number one catcher in points leagues over the last 28 days? he has by far the most of the bats. I would that probably. This is amazing. He never strikes out and, you know. This is amazing with Molina.

He is batting 228 and slugging 346 over the last 28 days, and he is the number one catcher in points leagues. Is that, do you have the filter set, right? Is that all players or free agents? That's what I was checking. But he is, he's like. No, it's all players. He's like 12th in Roto.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. To just highlight how bad the catcher position has been over the last 28 days in rotissory scoring leagues, the number one catcher is, of course, Austin Hedges. He ranks 193 overall. So the catcher position has been a disaster, and it makes sense. Buster Posey's out. Gary Sanchez is out. So, you know, it's not super surprising. J.T. Rammuto has really fallen on hard times.

Well, no, but he's, yeah, he has struggled, actually. He's petting 202 with three home runs in the last 28 days, and yet he's the number three catcher in points leagues in that stretch, not as good in Rhodo. It looks like not even close. So plate appearances make a huge difference with catchers, huge difference. And that's why I'm going to shorten the window. I'm going to go to the last 14 days, and let's find out where Taylor Ward is.

He hasn't been very good. No, he hasn't. Oh, gosh, he's way down. He's been awful. But here's my point. If you just get the plate appearances and he's average, he's going to be a really good catcher for you in a points league, I'm sure. Yeah, it's looking ahead to next year,

it's going to be really tough to know what to do with catcher. Like, I still believe Gary Sanchez is far and away better than the field at this point, but that's now two seasons in a row with significant injuries. and including the scoring injury that just didn't go away. So it's, I don't know if Gary Sanchez will be drafted in probably the fourth round next year, I would guess. I don't think any other catcher deserves to be drafted in the top 150. If J.T. Raamuto gets traded. Sure.

Then he could be, because he, you know, not this year, but typically he's bad at Marlins Park. He's a really good player. Salvador Perez is like genuinely having a good month. 240 batting average. He does not a good batting average guy, but five home runs, 12 RBIs. He looks like Salvador Perez, which is interesting because he's always bad in the second half, but he's missed a lot of time, so maybe he's fresh. And then, yeah, we should talk about Austin Hedges.

We should talk about Tucker Barnhart. He's up on this high on this list, too. Matt Weeders is up here. He's having a nice month. The list is dreadful. Is there anyone that stands out, though? Kevin Plowicki is third in Roto. Is Hedges at least, you know, interesting?

For the remainder of the season, and even then probably not, because we're probably going to see Francisco Mejia when Ross should expand, right? I... Yeah. I don't know. All right. He's got power, but that's about it. Yes, Monagherndal is batting 141 in the last 28 days, 141.

Let's go to first base. In Roto, Anthony Rizzo is your number one first baseman. And how about this? Cody Bellinger is number two. He's got four steals that helps. He's tied with Whitmeryfield for the most among first base eligible players, I think in steals, unless there's someone I'm missing. Nope, it's them too.

But Bellinger, what a weird, quiet season for Cody Bellinger. Not a bad year, though, just weird. Yeah, I mean, overall, he's played in exactly as many games as he did last year. so that that's helpful. Fun. He has 18, 18 fewer home runs. Wow. Wow.

Yeah. Like, there was some regression coming, but I'm stunned by that. His home run to fly ball rate has fallen from 25% to 14%. Cody Belliger is the number. He's somewhere who I think will have a bounce back. He's the number nine first basement in fantasy. Yeah. Bad position this year.

Other guys on this list. Goldschmidt's three. Gallo is four. Merrifield is five. Merrifield's had a really good year. And nice power in the month of August. Five home runs in his last 28 days. Tyler White is sixth among first baseman.

Marwin Gonzalez is seven. Jose Abrae was actually eight, even though he's missed some time. And Matt Carpenter is nine in Roto. I'm sure he's higher points. Ryan Zimmerman is 10th. And Kendris Morales is 11th. And Jose Martinez is 12th. Zimmerman, Morales, and Jose Martinez.

Who's your favorite there? Okay, so Zimmerman, Morales, and Martinez. I would probably go with Martinez. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. Let's take a look at second base.

Go back to points leagues. Last 28 days, Rugnet Odor in points leagues with 15 walks to 24 strikeouts. Yeah. That's been really interesting. to watch is his development as more of a patient hitter. I'm not sure I buy it because it's so abrupt, but it's really interesting to watch. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Oduble Herrera had that stretch like two seasons ago.

He had a month where he was a great plate discipline guy, and it has not been since. But this is interesting. Something to watch in September, Root Net Odor. How does he do with the walk-to-strikeout ratio? Matt Carpenter's two with Merrifield's three. Jose Ramirez, Jonathan VR. Let's check his ownership percentage. He is 44% owned.

Jonathan. Hit him 278, but eight stolen bases leads their second at the position. That's over the last 28 days. Yep. Who's first at the position? Oh, I believe it's Adelberto Montessi.

Nine steals. Marvin Gonzalez, Joey Wendell, Jed Lowry is having a good month. Javi Baez, 286, six homers, two steals. How about this guy for a sleeper for next season? He plays it on the same team as your boy Joey Wendell. Willie Adamas.

The number five second base or shortstop, no, second basements, sorry. Over the last 28 days in Roto leagues. Not even close in points. I wonder why. He's striking out a bit. Well, but nine walks, 23 strikeouts doesn't feel like. Not a ton of runs or RBI. Yeah.

It's got to five steals. That helps. Only three doubles. Four home runs for Adomas. Not quite as many plate appearances as some of the other guys. But he may have led off yesterday. He batted toward the top of the order. Yeah, Adamas has had a good year.

Got to own him. Would you rather own Adamus or VR? VR. Similar power, similar batting average potential. More stolen bases for VR. Adamus or Mondes. or Mondesie. Probably Adomas.

He's a better overall hitter. Back to Roto, your top five, your top ten, we'll see how many we get to. Short stops in the last 28 days. Trevor Story, number one. It's running again. Eight steals in 28 days. It's wild.

He's running wild. Yeah. Yeah, he's having a really good year now. Yep. And he started to get it done on the road, too. Ahmed Rosario is number two. Two in Roto. He's running wild.

Sevenths. He's on the wild. Four caught stealing, but seven steals. Yeah, I don't think he's quite this good. I mean, number two shortstop over the last 28 days. No, but it's showing he's not the number two shortstop, obviously, but it's showing that this guy's super young, and he struggled a lot last year.

He struggled early this season, but he's not without talent. Don't give up on him. Don't forget about him next season when you're drafting. Don't, don't, don't. Don't forget about him. Rosario has nine hits in his last five games. That was the synth line from that song. Was it?

You were making a reference to... Yeah, I know, but that didn't sound right. It was. You sure? The Simple Minds, is that who sings that song? Uh-huh. Yeah, that was right. It was right.

Breakfast Club. Crap movie. Mani Ochatto 3. Marvin is... Will was right about you. When did you see Breakfast Club? I don't know, once every year and a half for the last 15 years or so. I watched it as like a full grown-up.

I mean... It wasn't very good. It's great. Marvin Gonzalez 4. We keep hearing him. Willie Adama's 5. Sandra Bogart 6. Alex Bregman 7.

How is Alex Breggman with a 3.49 batting average? 452 on base. 546 slugging only 7. I'm counting. stats aren't there. Only 16 runs, only 15 RBI, three homers, two steals. So he's slowed down a bit, but also 15 walks and seven strikeouts. He's probably a lot higher in points. I wonder if he's number one. I'd say he's seventh in Roto in points. Over the last 28 days, Alex Bregman is number one. And Bogarts is number two. All right, other interesting short stops

here that have performed well over the last 28 days in rotisserie formats. Chris, you've seen anything Anything you like? Jose Parraza. 317, that's not surprising. He's a good contact hitter. But four home runs. That's four home runs and 11 extra base hits all told. He's only three extra base hits behind Hobby Baez in that stretch.

That's surprising. I don't think he's a power hitter. But if he can become, and what we've seen this year is he just, he needed to become a little bit less of a slap hitter. He needed a little more bop. And if he can be a 110 ISO guy, which is still pretty bad, it makes the whole thing work a little better.

I wish he was running better. Only three steals, four cot ceilings in that time. He's got 30 to 40 steel potential. But we're starting to see the guy that people were kind of hyping as a breakout candidate two years ago. That's Jose Paraza. And one more guy, Aledmus Diaz. You know, he's been okay as both second base and shortstop, like top 20-ish. Deeper league, you might be able to use him.

And Tim Anderson, last guy. Tim Anderson, you know, you never know when the production's going to come. Like, at the end of the year, he's going to have some homers, it's going to have some steals. A good amount of them. You know he's not going to help you in batting average. Right now, Tim Anderson has 17 home runs and 25 steals. He gives you a lot of bad weeks, but I think if you're in a roto league or a Categories League, you almost have to start him because, you know, you don't want to miss those big games, that big production.

And let's finish with third base here. and go back to points leagues. And Justin Turner is back, ladies and gentlemen. He's batting 396 with five home runs, 10 walks, 14 strikeouts, 11 doubles. He is the number one third baseman over the past 28 days with a 703 slugging percentage. My goodness. Yeah, and that's the thing with wrist injuries. Sometimes it can take an entire year.

Sometimes it just takes a couple months to get the strength back. You know, don't be surprised if Aaron Judge comes back and struggles. Yep. But also don't necessarily discount him next year because of it. Miguel Ann Duhar has basically been exactly as good in both points in Roto as Justin Turner. They're one and two, and they're basically tied. Matt Chapman, Matt Carpenter, Alex Bregman, Joey Gallo. How about Todd Frazier, Chris?

He's got six home runs in his last 28 days and an 880 OPS, Todd Frazier. I feel like he has like three home runs in his last four games or something. So it's a lot of recent production. But another guy that he's not done, but there's no way I'm ranking him in the top 15 at third base, I would imagine. He sucks. Three home runs in his last seven games, five RBIs yesterday. I have no interest in Todd Frazier. He's 41% of it.

I can't believe that. I can't believe it. Yeah, I'm not excited about it. I'm not going to go out and ask. him. Okay. And all right, that's, I think that'll suffice. Because a lot of the third base, we've already talked about at second base, shortstop. You guys have so much position eligibility. Outfield, back to Roto. Akuna, Martinez, Yelich, Peralta, Betz, Bellinger,

Hunter Renfro, 299 with nine home runs and 26 RBIs, four walks, 22 strikeouts in his last 28 days. Hunter Renfro is corrupt. question it. Yeah, and he's showing a little bit of signs of improving, not striking out as much, not swinging and missing as much, becoming a bit less of an all-or-nothing guy. And, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to make this comparison because it's unfair. He's arguably the best power hitter in baseball, but Chris Davis was a similar-ish career arc to Hunter Renfro. Came up with some hype. struggled, struck out way too much, eventually found a happy medium where he still strikes out a lot. He doesn't have good plate discipline. He never will. But that you strike out just rarely enough that you can allow your power to flourish.

Maybe we're seeing a poor man's version of that with Hunter Renbro. I must be exhausted because I just figured out you were talking about Kris Davis. Khris Davis. And not C.Ris Davis. Yes. All right then. So let's finish up with the. matchups, I suppose. See what we got on the old Skedge today. Going to skip Brewers at Reds, this podcast will not be published by the time that game

starts. Jake Oteresey's at Mike Clevenger, Twins and Indians. Jake O'Reesey at Mike Clevenger. I will start Mike Clevenger. I don't know. Were you not paying attention? How was that hard? I was looking at something else. Excuse me. Okay. Excuse me. Francisco Liriano at Jay Hap. Hap.

Pirates and Cardinals. Joe Musgrove at John Gant. Musgrove. Yeah, you sure? Yes. Okay. Mike Montgomery at Mike Fultenevich. Fulti. Andrew Heaney at Justin Verlander.

Verlander. I'm not starting Haney. I sat him in a couple leagues. Rick Porcelo at Lucas G. Alito. I was talking about how Lucas G. Alito looks better. It's probably going to look worse after tonight. I'm not starting him.

Rick Porcelo. And, you know, Rick Porcelo, given how he pitches, could give up seven runs tonight. We've got Frankie Montas and Wade Laplace. Blanc. No. Two more games. Rockies at Padres, Armand Marquez, and Eric Lauer. Definitely, Armand Marquez. No on Eric Lauer. Robbie Ray at Richie Hill. Rich Hill for sure.

Are you Robbie Ray? I don't. I don't get it. Are you Jimmy Ray? You don't know that song? Good for you. I don't know that song. You're a better man for it. Robbie Ray, I mean, you've got to be kidding me. if you start Robbie Ray. Yeah, but you can't. And he'll, he very well may go out and strike out 10 in six innings.

Yeah, and give up eight runs. He has five straight non-quality starts. It's been rough. Well, then, we're done for the day, and we'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy football today, baseball, and we'll give you two-star pitchers and a mailbag. We're going to read a lot of your emails at Fantasy Baseball. at cbsi.com. For Chris and Scott, I'm Adam. See ya.