Fantasy Baseball Today - 08/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Drop Harper? More SPs to Add

Episode Date: August 31, 2017

Find out why Adam hates himself today (1:40), whether Bryce Harper and Aroldis Chapman are droppable (4:22) and who you should be adding for the stretch run! ... We marvel at Ender Inciarte's stellar season (6:10), discuss the LAA bullpen (9:50), Jose Berrios' awesome start plus more from yesterday's SPs ... Deep league targets to consider adding (14:55). Rafael Montero? Matt Olson? Wilmer Difo? Also some "Hey Real Quick" for 2018 (33:45) as we pit Jonathan Schoop vs. Robinson Cano and Edwin Encarnacion vs. Rhys Hoskins. More from yesterday, some talk about the value of HRs and a look at today's matchups (45:03) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blake Parker looks like the closer. Bryce Harper gets some pretty bad news. And Enter NCRth is having a better year than you realize. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. I'm Adam Azer. And he is Scott White. Hello, Scott White. Hello, Adam.

Eight hit day for Ender NCRte. Pretty good. Not too bad. Two steals. I can't remember too many eight-day, eight-hit days in my baseball fandom. No, it was a pretty good day. It was obviously a double-header. but he did better than Reese Hoskins, which is really saying something.

Listen, people, are you hiring? With ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. And you can do all of that with just a single click. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. How are you feeling about yourself today, Scott? You feel good? You feel confident?

Oh, I feel good. Yeah. Been having a little more fun with the soundboard. Come on. Oh my God. This guy is crazy. This is the highlight of my job now. Scott isn't such a good mood with this thing.

He isn't such a good mood. I would like to start, I'm glad you're feeling good about yourself, because I am not. I would like to start off with a segment called I suck. Whoa. That is, we need to help you out here, man. I suck. I sat Justin Verlander for Parker Bridwell. I told you not to

You did Although I did when we When we did our You know Look ahead Daily look ahead At all the night's Matchups

It was the first time I was willing to say Anything positive About Parker Bridwell And that So I kind of blew up in my face too But That was bad

Yeah that was the Comeuppance It was the day of reckoning For Parker Bridwell And Was that your wife that just walked by? Yeah, sure was.

You gave her an eyebrow raise. Did I? I gave her a wave. I gave her a wave. You raised your eyebrows, too. That was funny. So, yeah, so I suck because I sat Verlander in two leagues, and in one league I started Bridwell over him.

I also, to tell you another reason why I feel like I suck this morning. So you just saw my wife, she walked in. We have a light fixture in our kitchen. Obviously, there are light bulbs in there, and there's some glass around each of the light bulbs. And earlier, like last week, a few days ago, she cracked one of the glass coverings. But she's very handy. Like she built the desk I'm sitting on right now, I'm sitting at right now. She's very handy.

So she bought some crazy glue and pieced it back together and did a really nice job. And we were ready to put the thing back up to cover the light bulb. It's right now we just have an exposed light bulb up there. And this morning, after wallowing and self-pity for starting Parker Bridwell over Justin Verlander, I knocked the fixed glass covering off the counter and broke it into pieces, and now it is useless junk. There's no crazy gluing that together. No, it's gone. It's gone.

How much time did you put into gluing that together in the first place, Adam? I don't know. Ten minutes? Okay. Yeah, it wasn't like an hour. But, you know, I'm not feeling good about it. But Bridwell, Bidwell's got two starts.

No, he's got one start, I think, next week. It's at Oakland. Are you done with him? Farewell, Bidwell? I never owned him anywhere. Brid farewell. He's 70% owed. It'd be difficult to say I'm done with him

because I never got started with him. Like I said, the only time was in a Daily League, if you owned him against the A's, I was willing to say, go ahead last night. It is the A's again next week. I don't think he's very good. All right, fair enough. Let's do some big news, and then we'll talk about the standouts from yesterday.

And Bryce Harper is still a long ways away from returning from a bone bruise in his knee, and he also has a strained calf, which is slowing down his recovery. So where's Bryce Harper on the drop-o meter? I guess I'll put him at one just in situations where, you know, it's a league without a DL spot, very limited bench space. I don't think it's unthinkable to drop him if it's really costing you something in the interim. But I think for most owners, there's enough places to stash him. And obviously, he's the kind of player that when he returns to the lineup, you'll start him immediately.

So worth keeping around. All right. So that is Bryce Harper, obviously. And let's just hope he gets back soon. John Lester's going to pitch this weekend. The Cubs are going six, man. Don't know how long. Do you know how long the Cubs are going six-man?

No, but not for long, I would imagine. Okay. And I'm hoping, I was hoping that they would just remove Montgomery from the rotation because I'm facing him in the podcast league in the playoffs, but it looks like Montgomery will make another start this weekend. Good, great, wonderful. And a role this Chapman had an MRI in his elbow. No issues were found.

Chapman dealing with a little elbow soreness. Bryce Harper's a one on the drop-off. meter where is chapman he might be up to like a five or six because if if he's if he's having to to rest injuries now on top of just regaining his form um that makes that makes his that you know that that's going to take even longer before he regains the role assuming he ever does Scott, let's talk about some standouts here. All right, who stood out to you at? Ender NCRte, man.

Eight for 10 with a triple, five RBIs, two runs, a walk, a strikeout, and two steals in a doubleheader. Busy day for Ender NCRte at Philadelphia. And he's batting 310. He has 19 steals. Almost no power. Ten home runs, 20 doubles, three triples. A 763 OPS. For an outfielder, I'd have a 7663 OPS.

And be the number 22 out. fielder in both points and Roto. And Roto, huh? Yeah, that surprised me. I mean, the steals with 19 of them, the batting average is really good with 310. There's no way. I don't have your rankings in front of me, but I know for a fact that nobody has Ender Enciarte in their top 25.

Right. What do you make of this? Is he just really underrated or benefiting from leading off and playing every day? Like, what is it in Carte? Well, part of the ranking. I'm like he's not a big home run hitter obviously only has 10 on the year but it I feel like it's even worse than that because five of those home runs came well four came in April and I guess another one came in early May so there was some even the little bit of power he has shown it was front loaded but you know he doesn't strike out much which obviously helps him in points leagues it means he hits for a high batting average as well which helps him in roto there are things he does well and I I think he's steady enough that it's never really a bad thing to start him. But at the same time, there are so many players behind him with more upside on a week-to-week basis

that it feels like a resignation of sorts to play in Ciarte. And that's why we don't rank him as high as he actually shows up. But those players probably have more downside, too. They probably do. Yeah, they probably do. but um would you rather have any eddie risario two home runs yesterday but you know he was kind of cold before that but he was kind of hot before that you know but uh like he doesn't have that many weeks of 20 fantasy points edie risario which surprised me right who would you rather have i would

rather have enciarte actually i think that's getting low enough into the outfield pool that i'm willing to go with ncarte instead uh but that's about the range i'm talking about for NCRte, how valuable he is to me personally. Even though you look at some of the players he's outscored this year, I just have the points league's rankings open. So it's Lorenzo Kane, Corey Dickerson, Adam Jones, even like, well, Tommy Fam. I know he doesn't have nearly, Pham doesn't have nearly as many of bats as NCRT, so maybe that's an unfair comparison.

But it's some big-name players. Tommy Fam double-dong as well. And Pham, by the way, says that he hits his home runs and bunches. So let's hope that's coming for Tommy. Fam. Blake Parker, 15% owned. Fourth save, four outs. He's really good.

Yep. And it needs to be owned in more than 15% of leagues. Do you have any doubt that he gets the next save for the... Well, I don't know how many pitches he threw, but let's say there's no save chances tonight. There's a four-out save, so... I don't know if they're playing tonight. But do you have any doubt that he's their closer, Blake Parker? Oh, yeah, I have doubt.

I mean, just the way Mike Sosha's managed that bullpen all month. He's faked me out enough times already to think he could be doing it again. But there's three saves in a row for Parker dating back to Saturday. He's gotten the last three angel saves and has done so in very impressive fashion. One of the options has been removed. Bud Norris is on the D.L. Kambid Rosian were to the sixth inning in this game, as has been typical of him lately. He hasn't really been working.

the late innings so much. So Parker's been the Angels best reliever all season. 214.8.5 whip, 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings. That's closer stuff right there. It would make total sense for him to be the guy now, and I'm glad Soch has finally given him the opportunity. I think it's likely enough that I'm prioritizing Parker over some of those bottom feeder closers,

like Brad Ziegler, Hector Neris, Blake Trinen or was this guy. You know, I would take Blake Parker I would drop a roll this Chapman for for Blake Parker. That's bold. Why not? Not saying it's wrong necessarily.

If you only have so many roster spots to devote to relievers, Parker's clearly doing a lot more for you now than Chapman is. Absolutely, yeah. It may be true the rest of the season. Very good chance of that. I feel like Chapman, we have a four weeks left in the season

once Monday comes around. I feel like Chapman is a week and a half at earliest the way from getting that closer's job back. First of all, he has to pitch better. Secondly, he has to pitch. He's not pitching that much lately. He's got an elbow soreness. Yep.

So, yeah, I mean, makes sense. Go out and win right now. Even in Roto, I think Parker gets more saves than Chapman rest of season. That's the bottom line. All right. Email of the day is from Jordan from Salmon Arm, BC, British Columbia.

The subject was Scott's song. My initial reaction was of Gabe in the office When he creates soundscapes on his keyboard A moment in time expanded to his song Wow That is Yeah Do you remember that?

Not the best company But fair enough I had to look up the clip I didn't remember the reference It was very funny It's a good episode too So you are Gabe Congratulations

Were there any other standouts You wanted to talk about from yesterday Like the worst character from the office Well the worst He's a great character but he's not someone you want to be, no. No, I... Okay.

I don't know that he was a great character either. What? He's awesome. I kind of felt like he was shoehorned in there. I loved him. Didn't mesh with the rest of the cast very well. I wasn't even really sure what he stood for most of the time, but... Neither did he.

Neither was Gabe. He was... He sucked. He's like me this morning. He's just terrible. Who else... He was like me yesterday, apparently. Who else did out?

I am not. Gabe. That is true. You know who stood out was Mark Leiter? Actually, he didn't stand out. It was a pretty lackluster start against the Braves. I think it was technically a quality start, but three and runs on nine hits in six and two-thirds inning, six strike gets one walk. And not a standout star, but 16 swinging strikes for Mark Leiter. It's actually a season high for him. And that's what makes him so interesting. That split-finger fastball of his has been piling up the swinging strikes when he's willing to lean on it. And while it didn't necessarily prevent hits

in this start, those two long relief appearances, back-to-back appearances, four and a third innings, nine strikeouts, five-innings seven strikeouts, and then, you know, his previous start, obviously August 23rd was one hit and seven shutout innings. So 26-year-old without much of a prospect pedigree, but I feel like his splitter went overlooked. It looks like it could be a game changer for him. I think he's going to make two starts next week.

They have seven games. One of them for Leiter is at the Mets. The other would be at Washington. If he only makes one start, it would be at the Mets. That might be better than two starts. Lighter's 30% owned. Yesterday we talked about some exciting pitchers to pick up. Jake Junis, Jack Flaherty.

Where's lighter with Junis and Flaherty? It's funny. Those are the three I'm leading the Waverwire column with today. And I would put him last of that group, but Flaherty may only make two usable starts for you, you know, because debut Friday, you're probably not going to actually start him then. If it goes well, then maybe you'll start him after that, but I don't think he has the innings to make it all season. I think eventually Wainwright will replace them. So you can make the case for lighter over Flaherty. I just think I'll trust the talent of Flaherty right now.

Okay. Boy, are we getting a lot of emails lately? Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We're going to do our best to read as many as we can later on in the show. But there's just a lot to talk about here. If we want to stick with players to pick up, we'll go over to the deep leagues here. I'm going to give you players who are owned in very few leagues, and you tell me if they should be owned in more.

Rafael Montero is 8% owned. The Mets wanted to throw strikes. Well, he walked four batters at the Reds, but he gave up no runs on three hits in eight and a third and struck out eight. His best start. And he's got two starts next week against Philadelphia and Cincinnati. That's Rafael Montero, 8% owned. Ryan Merritt had a good start at the Yankees.

He's 2% owned. Those are two pitchers, Montero and Merritt. Four hitters that have been doing well lately. Mitch Morland, he's hot right now, but he still sits a lot. He's 28% owned. Matt Olson, for the second time this month, Matt Olson, owned an 8% of leagues, has homered in three straight games. And he sits against lefties, and he has two on the schedule next week. This is funny with Olson.

Last 28 days, he's the number 31 first baseman in points leagues, but number 15 in Roto. He's got an OPS over a thousand. Actually, I think it's a thousand on the nose, but he sits against lefties, so that hurts him in points league. And he has like seven home runs during that stretch? Probably more than that in 28 days Because he has seven home runs He has probably seven home runs in his last two or three weeks, I'd say But I don't know what he did before that

Seven home runs in his last 16 games Yeah Which is the span of 19 days, 20 days Yeah So that's Matt Olson, 8% owned And then here's a shortstop Since the All-Star break

The number of 15 shortstop and points Number 11 in Roto 17% owned Do you even know who I'm talking about right now? He's batting second fairly regularly for one of the best teams in baseball. He's on an eight-game hitting streak, batting 3-94. He's not going to play Shoresup anymore because the guy he's replacing just came off to D.L. Oh.

Wilmer Diffo. Yeah. Wilmer Diffo of the Nationals. Yeah. You know, it was funny. I was looking at him this morning. he has a better batting average and on-base percentage than Trey Turner himself now. Yeah, he's batting 323 since the All-Star break with four homers, six steals.

Now, he's got an eight-game hitting street batting 3-94, but where's he going to play? Yesterday he played second base. That's not going to be a regular thing. Daniel Murphy's stat. Could play a little bit of the outfield. Yeah, he played the outfield the day before. Yeah, Defo could play the outfield. He's shortstop eligible.

but ultimately, I don't think he is going to be able to play every day. He will play more than the average bench player. But I wouldn't get too excited about him

because there's just not a regular spot for him. It's not like he excels at any one thing. I think as an everyday player, he might be one of those who is not really bad at anything. So altogether it ends up being a useful fantasy player, but with less than regular playing time, I just don't think Defo is going to matter.

Defo, how about this stat from the AP? The Nationals are 25 and 6 when Wilmer Defo starts and bats second in the order. So, yeah. Very interesting. Make Wilmer DeFo happen. Does anybody really interest you? Rafael Montero, Ryan Merritt, Mitch Morland, Matt Olson, from a deep league standpoint. Well, from a deep league, I mean, depends how deep you want to go.

All right, like our 16 team crappy team scam categories league. A categories league like that, Olson with the power, intrigues me. He'd have to be a matchup play since he sits against left-handers. So that's one. I expect him to keep homering at a high rate. And, you know, pretty good at walks, too. but otherwise like Rafael Montero

has a 277 ERA over his last five games but a 135 whip he's walking you know he's walking so many that it's hard for me to buy into anything he's doing and I don't know

who else was on there Ryan Merritt and Mitch Morland yeah yeah Whatever. No. All right, cool. Well, look, if you're looking for players to add,

you can read the Waverwire column from Scott. He's going to talk about Matt Leiter and Jake Junis and Jack Flaherty. Other guys, you could add, I guess, Matt Olson in Deeper Leagues. We gave you Wilmer Defo as a shortstop. And there are obviously some more players. Tomorrow we'll take a look at the most added list. Eddie Rosario is still underowned. I think it's 68%.

Yeah, it is. I don't know that he needs to be owned in three outfielder points. leagues. I mean, some probably sure. But, you know, it might be hard as somebody who doesn't walk much for him to crack that threshold. But otherwise, he's probably to the point of being must own. There was an interesting stat on the Twins official team site this morning about his swinging strike, his swing rate against pitches outside the zone over the last three years. And don't have to be. I don't have to be. I don't have to be. He's swing rate against pitches outside the zone over the zone over the last three years. And don't have to have the exact number of front of me, but it's dropped from like 45% to 40% to about 35% this year. That's pretty significant change from year to year. He's just learning what his pitch is and doing damage with it. So that's, I think, legitimate development. For a guy, he's still in his mid-20s. I mean, just entering his prime. Eddie Rosario, we're talking about here. He's 68% own. Now, this is the time where you really need to look at schedules. Because Rosario, it's not that he's bad against

lefties, but he's got 20 home runs, I think, this year, and 18 to, have come against Ritees. Seven games next week for the twins, three lefty starters on the schedule. They are Blake Snell, Eric Skoglin, and Jason Vargas. So not exactly the best, and there are still going to be,

they're going to be relievers coming in for Skoklin and Vargas. For sure. So, you know, I don't know that I'd shy away. Four right-handed starters on the schedule. And Rosario could be a good one for you. It's 68% owned. Let's take a look at the rotation from yesterday.

A seven-man rotation. First of all, Stephen Strasberg dominated the Marlins and Robbie Rory. dominated the Dodgers. Very impressive stuff. Not sure what to say there. Just kudos to them. Jose Berrios. Seven scoreless with 11 strikeouts against the White Sox. His last start was against the White Sox, and it didn't go very well. Five and a third, four hits, three runs, three walks, but nine strikeouts.

Now, he's got two road starts next week, Scott, Jose Berrios. And he's got a 512 ERA on the road, 254 at home, at Tampa Bay. at Kansas City. How are you feeling about Barrios after last night's gym? A little better. A little better. I mean, it was against the White Sox, and so we expected him to do well in that outing, but I didn't expect him to do quite that well after the way his last couple months have gone.

I think those matchups are favorable enough that I would be trusting him, even in categories league, since it's two-star week, I would trust him to do more good than harm. Okay. Jose Barrios. He's been better lately, too.

I mean, that was the second seven shutout inning performance in his last three. And the other was Arizona. Yeah. Dallas Keiko, bad. Six innings, six runs against Texas.

I'm assuming, whatever. Like, we don't really care of that much. Yeah, it was kind of weird the way it unfolded because all six of the runs were in the fourth inning. And he ended up pitching six total.

He said there was a bad call on a Joey Gallo pitch that led to a walk. He thought it was a strike, and he kind of lost his concentration after that. Oh, come on, Dallas, Keikle. You're better than that. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm sure he would say the same thing. Yeah, and he is better than that, and he'll be fine. Carlos Martinez, just kind of a strange-ish year for him.

Strikeouts are way up. Carlos Martinez didn't have a great start yesterday against Milwaukee. He gave up six runs, only three earned, but 10 hits. Carmart is the number 13, starting pitcher in points, number 17 in Roto. He is 10 and 10 with a 352 ERA. This is a guy who had a 301 and 304 ERA in 2015 and 16, so it's up about a half a run. But the whip is down, 121 whip. But the home runs are way up.

But the strikeouts are up. So it's just been a different kind of year from Carlos Martinez. Not as many ground balls, more strikeouts. Ultimately, I don't know if it's worse. It might be a little bit better because the whip is lower and the strikeouts are up. up, but the ERA is up about a half a run. So I don't know. Yeah, like I said, 13.

And the ground ball rate is down. He's still been a ground ball pitcher overall. Yeah, that's true. It's not as high as the last two years, so I guess that explains the home runs to some degree. Still seems like you may have had some bad luck there, as much as we can call home runs luck. It's looked a lot like Carlos Carrasco this year,

which, you know, still a most start pitcher. You're still great, but I think it's a slight step back. for a pitcher who's still only 25 years old, and we probably haven't seen his best yet. All right, Carlos Martinez, and if this is not his best, it's still pretty darn good. Hey, Trevor Bauer was good, Scott. And in his last eight games, seven of those are starts.

He has a 2-11 ERA. And he was a little off yesterday. Not his best stuff. Apparently doesn't like day games very much. Trevor Bauer gave up one run on four hits, but four walks, four strikeouts at the Yankees. So how much faith? have in Trevor Bauer.

He is two-star. He has probably been the weirdest pitcher in baseball this year. Two starts, though, at the White Sox home against Baltimore. Yeah, you're probably going to have to use them for those, if only for the White Sox match-up. But, you know, Orioles could be worse. So, yeah, I mean, probably going to have to hold on to him at least for that week, and then hopefully never use him again. Bauer or Riu rest of season.

Well, I mean, I'd rather own Bauer for next week. So, you know, we're kind of going week by week now. I guess I have to say Bauer. I trust Riu more, even though he had a bad start yesterday. But definitely want to start Bauer next week. Ryu also is a two-star pitcher next week, but I don't know. They're not good. Arizona and Colorado at home.

But Kershaw comes back Friday. Wood comes back Sunday. Yeah. I don't know that Ryu makes two starts next week. Yeah, I might get pushed back. It's true. Yeah. Maybe if they have seven games, he would, but six, maybe not. So we shall see.

Chase Anderson, 84% owned. Good start last night against St. Louis. Bauer or Anderson rest of the season? I will take Anderson. Not even close. Okay. Bauer or Gossmann? Gossman.

Bower or Porcelo, who's also in the rotation. Yeah? Yeah. You trust Porcelo with two starts, Toronto and Tampa Bay. week. Yeah, those two starts, sure. I mean, this most recent start, it's one of his best of the year on Wednesday, and it came against the Blue Jays.

So I kind of wanted to look up his numbers exactly how much better they've been of late. Last 10 starts, 378 ERA, 14 walks, 58 strikeouts. I might be wrong. It might be more like a 3508 ERA. It's a 340A. In his last 10 starts, with about a strikeout per inning. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it's just the bad bit luck is normalized. During that 10-start stretch, it's 280, which is not so low that you're thinking he's overachieved,

but it's definitely much lower than it was earlier in the year. Interesting thought here, because Porcelo we're talking about last 10 starts, 34080 RA. However, he still has given up 13 home runs in 64 and 2 thirds. If you have his game log in front of you, how has Porcelo done against the raise? Because they hit a lot of home runs. And I'm going to start him in a two-star way. I don't know in him, but if I did, I'd start him against Toronto and Tampa Bay next week. But the raise might be a bad matchup for him.

I'm curious how he's done against them. Well, I mean, the thing about home runs is, you know, a bad start in terms of home runs is two. Probably giving up two home runs is bad. And when you're dealing with numbers that low, it's hard to differentiate. So he had one start. During that 10-star stretch, he started against the raise twice. Zero home runs in one of the starts, two home runs in the other. So I don't know what to make of that.

All right. Fair enough. Then we will get more into the news and notes. Double dongs. Got some hay real quick for 2018. Some more hopeful or hopeless. Today's matchups. That's all coming up. Let me tell you about ZipRecruiter.

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Go to ziprecruiter.com slash strike. Here are your news and notes, Scott White. You've been asking me about them all show. Houston's going to return home and play three games against the Mets this weekend. They'll play a doubleheader on Saturday and then one on Sunday. So that is great. Addison Russell had a setback in his recovery from a foot injury. He might not be back this year.

They don't need him. Javier Baez is better. It appears that way, yeah Byron Bucks then left with a hand injury Dun, done, done, we'll keep an eye on that. Seems minor. Seems like, because he finished the abat, he played the outfield the next inning, and they had a big lead, so they took them out.

Scott, I just got an email. Just got an email five minutes ago from Andy. Wow, hot off the press. Do you think I should drop Harper with only three weeks left to play in the season? Well, we already answered that. No, we didn't. We answered with four weeks left in the season. And I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you.

I'm going to respond to Andy. I'm going to say, yes, I do. But Scott says no. So I'll let him decide who he likes better. You can decide who you like better. Yeah. Make it personal. That's always smart.

That I'm going to put in caps. Me or Scott. P.S. I have the more authoritative voice out of. Make sure you listen to today's podcast at the 30-minute mark roughly. Okay, he'll enjoy this. All right, next news item. Yuli Guriel left with knee soreness.

He's day-to-day. James Paxson and Felix Hernandez are expected to throw bullpen sessions this weekend. Lonnie Chisinaul should be back within the next few days. Jared Eichoff left with an arm injury. He's a velocity was down. Ikoff was struggling, and he might have to go on the DL or just... Another reason I like Mark Leiter. He seems like he has a firm job now.

Dustin Padroa should be back today or tomorrow. flowers on the deal with a risk contusion. Buster Posey should be back today. And Scott White freak out Jake Lamb, sat again against a lefty. He faces four lefties in six games next week. Ah! Jake Lam...

That was my freak out. That wasn't even an effect on the mixer. No, that was just my natural voice. Jake Lamb, start or sit. You'd have to think about sitting him, I think. Yep. I don't know. how able you are to carry a second third basement or what the third baseman would be.

But I definitely think about setting him as good as he's been this year. All right, Jake Lamb, could be riding the pine. Double Dongs from yesterday. I think we actually talked about half of these guys. Tommy Fam, who's only 80% owned. He might be available on some of your leagues. And he's, like I said, he said they come in bunches. He's hit five home runs in his last 12 games.

Eddie Rosario, Homer twice. He's 68% own. Schwerber. Last 21 days he has six home runs. He's batting 226, which is like a miracle for him this year. But still only the number 41 outfielder in points, number 31 in Roto.

Kyle Schwerber, 81% owned. What do you think about that ownership? I think it's too high. Despite the two-homer game, that matched his hit total from like the previous six games. So he's not really coming around. I mean, he's been homering on occasion all year.

up to 24, right? So, you know, it's not like he, it's not like we ever worried about him hitting homers, just doing anything else, and he's still not doing anything else. And Albert Pujols. I was just scrolling through ESPN.com today, and I saw a 538 article with the headline, Albert Pujols is the worst player in baseball. I didn't read it, but that headline is out there. But he homered twice yesterday, and he is 70% owned, and that should probably be closer to

7% owned. Wow. Okay. Closer. I guess closer. If you're going to be on the spectrum there. I mean, basically all he does is hit home runs. Nothing else good.

And he only has 21 of them. It's not like he's not many. By this year's standards, that's not an exceptional total. You know what? Let's find out, ladies and gentlemen, where 21 home runs ranks amongst hitters this year, while we do that, I'm going to give you a hey real quick. Okay? Okay.

Hey, real quick for 2018. Jonathan Scope or Robinson Canoe? I, hmm. I might go scope. I might go scope. I feel like maybe I should know better because he's having a year, much like Ruegnett-Odor had last year, and clearly the follow-up hasn't gone well there. Plus, I've written Kano off before, and he turned around and had this amazingly redemptive season last year.

But the age difference is significant, and I don't think either will be drafted in the first five rounds next year. It's not like you're going to be overpaying for scope, I would presume. So, yeah, I'm going to say scope. Albert Pooleholz with his 21 home runs is about 70th right now amongst hitters and home runs. That's amazing. Yeah, so like you said, the Root Net-Dor comparisons, they're interesting because Scopes hitting 306 this year. His previous career high in batting average was 279, and he has 31 walks to 120 strikeouts, but 30 homers. So last year, there was a record for players who hit 20 plus home runs in a season.

I think the record was 104. Does that sound right to you? What was that? 104 player, what? Hitting 20 home runs last year? No idea. No idea. Well, anyway, it was somewhere near that. Right now we're already at 85 with a month to go. So, I mean, if we look at the players 15 or higher, that's 139.

And let me give you this home run stat, actually. So I had this yesterday. It might be a little bit different today, but very little. teams are averaging 1.27 home runs per game, which would be an MLB record. Teams average 1.17 home runs per game in 2000. That was obviously a big home run year. And teams are scoring 4.66 runs per game this season, which is just 35th all time since 1900. So to summarize, most home runs per game ever, but only the 35th most runs per game.

Reach your outcomes, baby. Yeah, and going into yesterday, in points leagues, eight of the three, top 10 hitters had 30 or more home runs. Al Tuve and Muki Betts were the only ones that were the exceptions. They both steal bases. And in Roto, Al Tuvei is the only hitter in the top 12 with less than 28 home runs. Home runs are still the kid. I know that home runs are common, but the best home run hitters are still among the best fantasy players.

Still the king of stats. So we had 111 20 homer guys last year. It was higher than I thought. But still, that number would appear, that record would appear to be in jeopardy also. All right, so you went, hey, real quick, you went scope over Canoe for next year, for now. Hey, real quick, Edwin Encarnacion or Reese Hoskins in 2018? It's going to depend a lot how the last month goes. If I had to decide today, I'm going to say Incarnacion, who's, his batting average is lower than we expect,

but otherwise he's doing everything well. I mean, the strikeout to walk ratio was off early, but he's walked a ton in the second half. Yeah. And still looks like he has a lot left in the tank. So I'm going to lean in Carnacium, but if Hoskins has a big September, I doubt it could be as big as August,

but if it's a big September, then that would change things. I'll give you some stats on Encarnacion. Because, you know, last year, the strikeout rate was up, and people were saying that could be the sign of the real decline. And this year, it's up again. But it really depends on, like, you and I would probably be more forgiving of the strikeouts being confined to the first 37 games. When he was terrible, batted 198 with five home runs, 46 strikeouts and 37 games. Chris and Heath would probably say, well, look at the season long totals.

But over the last 92 games, since the middle of May, Encarnassione has a 937 OPS, and he has just 69 strikeouts to 63 walks in 92 games. 265 batting average, but a 937 OPS, I mean, that's an elite player. And that's been the case for 92 games. So, yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see what happens over the last month. He's basically become a rich man's Carlos Santana. Maybe he always was, but it feels even more like that this year. And finally, hey, real quick for 2018, Routenet O'Dore or W hit Merrifield. You know, I don't have much reason to doubt what,

Maryfield's doing. When you look at the underlying numbers, they pretty much all support it. Now, if baseball changes the way they manufacture balls next year, which I think you and I both feel like there's a good chance of that. I don't know if Merrifield would be one of those hitters to suffer significantly. That's going to be difficult to figure out, I think, who exactly is affected by that. But, you know, basically a 2030 season is what he's looking at now as a second baseman with a high batting average, and the batting average might be the most believable part. And that's what we're doubting for O'Dore.

Long story short, I'm leaning Merrifield right now. My goodness, O'Dore has been so bad. 214 batting average this year. Now, obviously his walk-to-strikeout ratio is terrible all the time, but he has been a 259, 269, 271 hitter in his career. So I don't think he's one of those 30-ho... I don't think he's Chris Carter at second base.

But, man, bad year for him. I just picked up Starlin Castro in a daily league. You know, and this is the time of year where guys like that slip through the cracks. And I'd have to decide every day now do I start Castro or O'Dore. And I usually just play the matchups. But the one thing O'Dor does give you is he's got 14 steals. So that helps. Not compared to Merrifield, it's nothing.

Maryfield is 26 and 28 attempts. All right. So did you give an answer, by the way, or just an expert? Yeah, I said Maryfield. Okay. All right, Scott, another round of hopeful or hopeless, but I'm giving you a third option, since it's kind of like, what if they're in between? So I just have the word maybe.

I don't really know, like, what else to say. Hopeful, maybe, or hopeless? They're all going to be maybes now, Adam. I put this guy on there yesterday. You said hopeless, but he homered again. Who's straight now with a homer? Hanley Ramirez. I'll stick with hopeless.

Jose Batista. I will stick with hopeless. These are repeats. You just want the maybe in there? I don't think Batista was. I mean, maybe he was, but he's 91% owned. It's ridiculous. He's batting 205 and slugging 374.

Goodbye. Chris Davis with a C. I mean, relative to first baseman in today's environment, pretty hopeless. I think I moved Trey Mancini ahead of him recently. Julio Tehran. Maybe. I said hopeless earlier, but that was a good start. against the Phillies yesterday and has been better lately.

I just don't know that I'll combine seven earn runs in his last four starts. That's what I mean by better lately. I don't know that I'll get to a point where I trust him again before September's done. But, you know, he's been a good pitcher for a long time prior to this year. Well, maybe. Tehran, first of all, not only in those four starts, 233RA, but also 27 walks and 27 innings, Two of those starts were against Colorado. One of them was at Colorado.

And he was a streaky pitcher last year. Taran had four bad months, four months with an ERA over four. But in May and June, he had a sub-2 ERA. So I don't know. Maybe he'll go on that run. And the thing is, you've got to figure it out right now because Taran is 80% owned, and he's got two starts next week. Texas and Miami, not necessarily good matchups,

and they're both at home where you can trust the ball to hit the sun, and he's been bad this year at home. Yeah. I think that's, he was really bad early, and I think that's kind of worn down over the course of the season. In a points league, I think I'd roll with him for the two starts, not in a categories league. Let's look at the fringy starting pitchers. Jay Hap is 89% own, but we consider him pretty fringy. He had a pretty good start.

I mean, he gave up one run, but four walks, two strikeouts against Boston, up and down this year. Two starts next week for Hap, at Boston, home against Detroit. At Boston, home against Detroit. more than Tehran still, so yeah, I think I'd start him. Would you drop a two-start J-Hap for a one-start, Luke Weaver? Let me get you the match-up. Since I know you're going to whine about it,

let's the matchup. Excuse me. I'm just kidding. Do I sound like a whiner to you? Oh, my God. Actually, I don't know what the matchup is. It's not displaying here on the page. Sounds powerful.

It feels so powerful when I turn that on, Adam. Yeah, well, you have the power to annoy me, that's for sure. So, what would you do? Luke Weaver's, I mean, you probably can't pick him up anyway. But who would you rather own Happer Weaver? Well, that's a tough one. I mean, if we were, if this was a month ago, and we had twice as many weeks to work with, I'd say Weaver.

He's got Pittsburgh. Because I like him better. Pittsburgh, one start next week. And that's, you know, it's a decent matchup. I think if you are on the fence about whether or not to start hap even in a two-star week, then you go ahead and drop him for Weaver the better pitcher. But if he's automatic Hap in a two-star week, then just stick with him. At least this one week, maybe find somebody else to drop for Weaver or just hope.

I mean, look, Weaver's like 80% own now, so. Yeah, right. It's pretty rare that somebody would face this situation anyway. It's true. And Andrew Cashner, Andrew Stinking Cashner, at the Braves home against the Yankees next week, 35% owned.

When are we going to buy into Andrew Cashner? Never! Okay, fair enough. I mean, the strikeout rate is so bad. So if you're going to buy an ERA-29 whip, I understand, but gosh. I just know the most. moment I put him in my lineup.

Yeah. When it all comes crashing down. Hill Parker Bridwell, you were going to buy into one of these three pitchers. Cashner, R.A. Dickey, Mark Leiter. Who would they be? Cashner, R.A. Dickie Mark Lider. It would be lighter. Followed by?

And probably Dickie second. Okay. All right then. That takes care of yesterday. Let's take a look at today's games. There are ten of them. And they start with the Mets and the Reds. DeGrom and Stevenson.

Okay. Start DeGrom. Is Stevenson a sleeper? Not, no, no, he's not. All right. White Sox are at the Twins. We got Miguel Gonzalez and Bartolo Colon. I'm not so motivated to start either.

I mean, they both had good starts of late, but I don't know. I feel like I was a little too loosey-goosey yesterday, and it came back to bite me. So I'm saying no. Rangers at Astros in Tampa Bay. Nick Martinez, Colin McHugh. I'll take McHugh. Dodgers at Diamondbacks, Maida and Granky. Both C's.

Marco Estrada at Jeremy Hellixon. Oh boy, the Orioles are. I don't think either. Orioles are piping hot right now. Yeah, I mean, I kind of like Estrada lately, but no. The Orioles have scored, holy crap. Seven or more runs in five of their last seven games. All wins.

Piping hot. It wins, yeah. Like a hot pocket fresh out of the mic. This is a tough one for me. Eduardo Rodriguez at the Yankees against C.C. Sabathia. I am starting Rodriguez tonight in a daily league, but I don't love it. Yeah, I don't love it either. I don't know that C.C. Sabathia is really in really a different boat.

No, no. I don't know. He pitched great last time. He's a streaky pitcher. Also, I will say that I just feel like I'm going to look it up right now. I feel like Eduardo Rodriguez does well against the Yankees every time out. He's only faced him once this year, and it was a great start. And both of Sabathia starts since returning from the D.L. were really good.

At Boston was the first one, two and runs in six innings. So I lean no on both Rodriguez and Sabathia, but they're both better than any of the other knows I've said. Rodriguez started against the Yankees three times last year. Two of them were great. seven innings one run, but one of them terrible. So three of his last four have been very, very good. So I'll start them.

I'll start them. Philly's at Marlins. Ben lively, Odrysima, Despagne. Nope. Sean Nukem at Kyle Hendricks. Start Hendricks at Newcomb. Michael Waka at Madison, Bumgarner. I will star Bumgarner, but...

Waka's been bad. The Giants are bad. I'm going to lean. Yes. Yeah, I'm starting him. in the same Rodriguez League. This might not be a great night for me. Well, the morning started out so great.

Oh, God, can I start Waka? He's been so bad lately. I know. I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can do it. He's been too bad. I'm going to take him out of my lap up. He's going to Verland.

Yeah, that's a tough one. He's going to kill it now. All right, Nationals at Brewers. Geo Gonzalez, yes. Zach Davies, yes or no? Lean and no. With a better matchup, I could talk myself and do it, but the nationals are not that.

No, they've Wilmer Defo. You know what? I guess Wilmer Defo, who has been filling in for Harper? Because with Harper out. Well, they just got Worthback, too. Just keep that in mind. He's worthless. No, I mean.

But he's going to play. He's going to play sometime. When did they get Worthback? Like three days ago. Michael Taylor. Oh, there he is. Yeah, he's played. So he sat once for Devo.

Yeah, Kendrick's been playing left. Boy, that Brian Goodwin thing ended pretty quickly. He's on the DL. Oh, I didn't. Sorry. That's okay. Okay, well, that's why it ended. But it's not coming back, I don't think.

Yeah, okay, Defoe's playing time still a big question mark. Yeah. Yeah, because they've all, I mean, I don't think they should just sit worth, probably. But Howie Kendrick's been good, too. Yeah. Okay, anywho, let's read some emails, Scotty Boy. We got a lot. Actually, we can save some for tomorrow, but see if we can fire through some of these.

Okay. Head-to-head points Keeper League. What do you think about the season ending a month early? Guesses. Kreef says yes, scam says no. This is from Matt in D.C. I am a big believer, and I know I'm in the minority on this. I mean, a month might be excessive by everyone's standards,

but I even like to include the last week. I feel like you're drafting a player for his season stats and the whole season should count. In a standard, like a head-to-head league? And a roto league, I agree with you. Even in a head-to-head league. Now, I also like to set up my playoff matchups in a head-to-head league so that they're two weeks long instead of just one,

which helps drown out a lot of the flukiness. during a baseball season, including some of the things we see that final week. But, no, I think it's a fun challenge, frankly, the championship game. It forces you to think on your feet a little more, really explore the full spectrum of your fantasy manager ability. I am fine with the season ending any time from now until the end of the year, whatever you decide is best. Unless it's season-long roto, then you've got to play it all out. but if you want to end it now, I have a league that's ending next week,

like in 10 days. I like it. I like it, actually. I prefer it, but I also think two-week playoffs are very important, and that would really shorten the regular season if you do that and end your league like now. Yeah.

So, I think for me, I think the happy medium would be to end the season two weeks early, middle of September, and have three rounds of two-week playoffs. And I still think at that point you'd get like 18 weeks of the regular season. Yeah. So that's enough to me. All right.

Here's one from Brian. Pick a spot starter for tomorrow. Clevenger at Detroit. It's a Roto League. Clevenger at Detroit. Gossman and home against Toronto. Shawmaniah at Seattle. I will pick Gossman.

Yeah. All right. I'm just going through the emails here. It's taking me a while to read them. It's because they're just in my inbox. So I apologize for that. This is from Matt. 14 team head.

head categories league. I need counting stats. Shebler, Olson, Chisholandhall, and Peralta are available. Shebler, Olson, Chisthinhall, and Peralta? Are any of them worth adding over Healy or Kemp? No, I don't think so, because

all of them are going to have playing time issues while Healy and Kemp won't. They're locked into everyday roles. I guess Kemp just to preserve his health sit sometimes. But you need counting stats you want players who are going to play. Here's an email from Dave in Canada. He needs a Delino to Shields replacement. Hanley Ramirez, Kevin Kiermeyer, Scott Shebler, or Nick Williams.

I guess it's not Steel's specific, by the way. Hanley, Kiermeyer, Shebler, Nick Williams. My favorite of those right now is, man. You know, I'd probably play the matchups week to week if you're forcing me to pick one, I will pick Hanley. Jacob from Cincinnati. Who would you rather keep? Rees Hoskins or Ronald Acuna? Categories. Well, I mean, Acuna's the higher end talent, the better prospect. So if it's one of those, if you're keeping, if there's little roster turnover and you're keeping these players for a very long time,

I'd have to give the edge to Acuna. Yeah, I think he is. I think he's keeping him for like five or six years. This is from Dominic. Points League. I have two moves left for the week, and this is the finals. Ooh. So who should I grab? Davies against Washington. Lester against Atlanta.

Godley at the Dodgers. Hellickson against Toronto. Fires against the Mets. Montgomery against Atlanta. Junis at Minnesota. Wait, for what week is this? This week. I don't know how Lester and Godley are available,

but Lester against Atlanta. Godley at the Dodgers? I thought Godley was at Colorado. Okay, so maybe... Anyway, Lester. Maybe it's next week then. It must be next week. So pick two.

Oh, pick two. Well, then Lester and Godley. I think they're on their own in terms of ability. Everyone else is on the outside of that group. So even though Godley has a tough matchup, he'll be my second choice to Lester. From Brian. Is Ryan Merritt a must start? No.

No, he's not. No, I don't even think he's good. He's the next Parker Bridwell. His walks-to-strike-out ratio is just dreadful. Yeah. If Chris is on the show, if Chris is on the show, ask him for a fantasy basketball take on the Cavs Celtics trade.

Scott, why don't you give us that? Well, I think that Kyrie Irvin's fantasy value goes way up, probably a first-round pick now. His name is Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving Yeah is it Now I'm questioning

I made you question it Kyrie Irving yes Kyrie Irving I think he's a first round pick now That seems like good advice right And you know Isaiah Thomas will have to see about that hip But you can expect a big drop in production

Sharing the ball With James and love We call them James by the way Yeah nobody Nobody All right this is from Melky Non Zero Chance I have to drop one of the following in order to make space for Kershaw.

Josh Bell, Rugnett, Odor, or Ian Desmond, Categories League. Josh Bell, Rugnett, Odor, E... I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Yeah, Bell, Odor, or Desmond in a 10-team categories league? Who do you drop? If I needed steals, then I would drop Odor. If that wasn't such a priority, I'd drop Desmond. Steven Sousa or Starling Marte? Who would you rather have?

This is from Jacob. It's kind of the same answer. If you need steals, Marte, if you don't, probably Susa. And he said, Dear Andrew, Cornelius, John, and JP. These are the men who built America. Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan. Okay. All right.

Interesting. That's us. Fair enough. I mean, we're like titans of our industry, just like them. Sure. Fantasy baseball didn't exist without us. We speak with Echo. I mean,

we are Titans of the industry. Atomiza. There it is. That's Scott White. I'm Adam Azza. Aza. Aza. See you later.

See you tomorrow.