Fantasy Baseball Today - 09/05: Thurroymeter and a Wed. Recap (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 5, 2019

Pitchers going down in flames in the playoffs! Which pitchers to pivot to and which hitters to add. Some Thurryometer checks, emails and tons more for your playoff push! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome in, Friendos. It is CBS Fantasy Baseball today with the one. The only.

Scott White. I am Chris Welsh. And I don't know if it's possible. Can you jinx a no? hitter when everyone is hearing it in the future. But technically it's going on right now. So I can jinx it right now, right? I'm not.

I'm not much for jinxes, to be honest. So maybe I'm not the person to ask. I was about to say, maybe we'll test the boundaries of jinxing. Because as we are doing this episode right now, which is a good old 1130 p.m. Eastern Time, the Diamondbacks, my team, are in the bottom of the six. And Mr. Zach Gallen has gone six beautiful no-hit innings. He did walk a batter, I believe in the last inning.

I was watching that. But he has gone six, struck out six, walked one against the San Diego Padres, in which is a really good pitching matchup, by the way, of Chris Paddock versus Zach Allen. And I think the combo between them have given up four hits and they've got a 13 strikeout run in 11 combined innings right now. So it's a night of underwhelming performances, one that is beautifully, beautifully given to all of our fantasy playoff runs with Paddock and Gallen.

Do you have any of them going right now? I'm an idiot because I told people to drop Chris Paddock two starts ago when he was on his worst run of the season and was running out of innings, clearly. And he has bounced back with two of his best starts of the season. So good for me. Good for everyone to listen to me. And now, you know, now he's pretty much right up on 130 innings for the season, which seemed to be kind of what they were hinting at.

I don't know if the fact he's turned things around, maybe they extend him a little further. I don't know. This might be it for Chris Batic, but it might not. I think he's got to wait for confirmation with the way his changeup has come back for him here. I think it could be the end.

He's been taken out five and one third, four hits, zero earned runs, two walks, eight strikeouts, 90 pitches. He went in this game as Zach Allen is 88 pitches into going into the seventh inning with this no hitter. So I don't know. I don't know if they let them go. I mean, we'll see.

People will know before we do. Yeah, you guys are all time travelers. You know exactly what happened. You know if I jinx my own team or if not. Though it's not appropriate maybe to do it right here. But, you know, with all of the mock draft stuff, you've been toying around with it. I've been doing the two early mocks and some stuff over on in this league. Zach Gallin's 2020 value is absolutely fascinating to me.

And we can do that maybe a little bit of another time. But, you know, he walks away with this no hitter. You look at his results season long. And it is quite impressive for someone that I don't think had the wherewithal for prospect people to be like, this is an absolute stud. He just dominated the PCL this year. And he moved. Well, I mean, he dominated the PCL to an incredible point where I, he was the guy. I kept being like, nah, it's not going to keep going.

Zach Allen's not going to keep going. It's okay stuff. He's built around, you know, being able to pinpoint with command. But, I mean, I'm completely wrong. I mean, you want to talk about you with Paddock, I've been completely wrong about Gallen. He's been nothing short of spectacular. He had a 177 ERA in the Pacific Coast League over 14 starts. Insanity.

He's always had good command. He changed his arm slot in a way that seemed to help him take off prior to this season. But the reason that's so significant, 177 ERA in the PCL, I saw a stat from Jason Stark yesterday. if you set a minimum of 130 innings, only three pitchers in the PCO have an ERA under five wild. And Gallens was 177 for half a season. I mean, it's incredible.

Like I said, the problem with him, like, you know what, 2019 is chock full of these type of things where you look at a guy, you know, you look at scouting reports, people see him in person, and you say, yeah, there's number three, number four upside. His stuff doesn't jump out, but his command plays up.

Same thing with guys like Aristides Aquino, you know, where you look, you're like, huge power can't make contact. All of a sudden, these guys check in this year. They have big results. Everybody questions the results. They come in at a major league level, and they absolute dominate, absolutely dominate. Yeah, and Gallons have been getting a ton of swinging strikes, too. So it's not like he's just been this finesse guy.

I mean, he's dominated. And really, the walks have been worse. than I think people were expecting on the whole. So, like, I had a column out a week or two ago, 30-bowl predictions for 2020, and one of them was Zach Gallen establishes himself as a frontline pitcher. He's going to be, I think, one of my favorite breakout picks next year. He feels very beaver-ish, and I think I've said that multiple times. It feels very Bieber-ish, if you're looking at him.

Now, not everybody was Zach Allen and Chris Paddock, and really the headline story to jump into was, The absolutely heart-wrenching performances while you're in your playoffs from some really key pitchers that you needed. That went down on Wednesday. Erin Nola gave up five after two innings. I have him in an incredibly important league where I think I squeaked in at eight. I'm playing one and I'm beating the top seed right now. And Aranola is a core of my rotation.

It wasn't a good start. He ended up being able to get through a little bit of it, but he only went four, gave up five. three walks, six strikeouts, but he had four quality starts before this. A couple other poor performances. Jose Brrios, five innings gave up five, struck out six. Madison Bumgarner gave up six and five, only struck out two. And Trevor Bauer, went five, gave up four, struck out six. Bumgarner, Bauer, Brioz, Nola.

I mean, these are those guys that you kind of must start. Though I did put some shade last Friday on our episode about Jose Brioz, and even though he was a two-starter, boy, the matchups looked really gross, and we don't like to get cute, but if I was getting cute, that was someone I might consider sitting. Any moving forward concerns with, I believe Bauer has kind of held that,

Bumgarner, Brioz, or Nola? Bauer, it's four or five starts now that have just been awful. And... Looks like he has Seattle up next, by the way. It looks like he's in a skip Arizona. Right, right. So that's the thing. And kind of what we were saying heading into this start is...

I mean, this is one of the pitchers who you've been relying on all season. Not just that you've been relying on him all season, but at a position where there is so little that is out there to rely on starting pitchers. So, you know, I'm kind of live or die with Trevor Bauer. And it's getting harder to say that. I mean, obviously, if you've survived to this point through the struggles, you still have, you know, maybe you haven't. But if you have, you still have this option.

I think the fact that it's Seattle next buys him at least one more chance to get on track and if you're still in it. We'll reassess after that. Yeah, if you're still in it. That's the problem. I mean, that's ultimately, I've been having this conversation with a lot of these guys.

You know, we're going to do a check back in off of our Wariometer Wednesday with Ryu. But it's like a lot of these guys at this stage, you just, you got to live or die by it. You got to get them out there. And if they get blown up, you might not have a next start. You know, Jose Brio, could have cost you. Madison Bumgarner could have been a huge cost for a lot of fantasy

matchups. And Trevor Bauer was the only one that I think was giving people pause and he continues to give people pause. Interestingly enough, too, 96% own rate, only 72% start. So probably some people worried about the most recent performance and not getting him out there. Yeah, I still have questions about how good Jose Berrios actually is. Because now, I mean, he's having his own rocky stretch here. Past six starts as the RAs gone from 280 to 378 so full run up. It is X-FIFs 439.

It entered the day 439. It might be worse now. And that's, you know, it's been over for basically all season. And I think Briel's has the Yankees, if I remember next. I thought it was Boston and New York that was making me go, ooh. He's a great control pitcher. He tends to pitch deep into games. These are important things.

But he overachieved for most of the year. And it's maybe coming back to Biden in an especially brutal way right now. You know, I don't know, I don't know that it's realistic to consider sitting him, but I wouldn't have great confidence in him right now. And both, I think Breos and Bauer are going to, they're going to bring up some serious conversations about how you can move forward with them. And it's going to have implications into 2020 because anybody, you know,

any of these pitchers that we're counting on as our SP2s or 3s that we can't consistently put out there, we are going to start putting into major questions about their viability of paying a high cost. Now, two guys you may have strained. That really screwed you. How about Annable Sanchez? 68% went five, gave up seven, walk three, two strikeouts, gave up three homers, and he's got Minnesota up next week. And then Yvonne Nova, who we've chatted about a bit about Yvonne Nova.

He's officially on unleashed mode. He has completely unraveled. That's a better word for it. He went four in one third, 11 hits, six earn runs, struck out one. He had given up nine earn runs in his last eight games prior to the previous one, where his previous he went eight, gave up four, struck out two. So he's now essentially given up 10 runs and only struck out three batters in his last eight and one third inning. So you and Adam had kind of, you'd kind of put this out there that like Nova is going to break up.

Annable Sanchez was bad. Both streaming options, people probably wish they could take back, right? Yeah, if you were relying on Ivan Nova right now, you obviously weren't listening to this program, or you think we're full of crap, what are the other? But at least in this one instance, we were not. And Anabal Sanchez, yeah, I don't, I've never had a lot of faith in him. He has an ex-fip over five, and really is just, I mean, he's had good home run luck this year, I feel like, and that's been driven a lot of his success. But, you know, he gave him three home runs in this one, and that's, that may be it coming back to. him. By the way, curses are real because it only took 10 minutes of us doing this podcast

that Zach Allen has now given up a hit. So he's got six and two thirds, one hit, seven strikeouts at 100 pitches. I imagine he is going to come out after this seventh here. Yeah, if he makes it through the seventh. If he makes it through the seven. So I was skeptical they'd let him throw the pitches anyway, but now it's a moot point. So are you very, are you anti, you're anti-magic? is what I'm getting from you? Anti-magic. You don't believe in the magic of the world, like cursing players or putting hexes on them

or Billy goats or anything like that? No. I am zero percent superstitious. What's your weird? Do you have any, any superstition whatsoever besides peeps is good sugar for coffee? Is that a superstition? I don't know.

I feel like it is. I don't think that qualifies the superstition. Do you have any? I don't think so. if I do it's a mistake I am I'm not about that life at all I mean

I don't know that I don't know that I'd call myself a man of science as opposed to a man of faith but I you know I put my faith in things that I think are worth believing in and random forces at play are not are you calling me stupid

are you calling me a dummy for believing in my magic there are a lot of superstitious people out there. I'm not that. And, you know. But I did absolutely just ruin Zach Allen. Let's not pretend or beat around the bush. I absolutely just ruined his no hitter.

There's no denying that. Can we at least accept that? Okay. Okay. See, look, I got you to relate. If it makes you feel better, I will give you that. Thank you. I appreciate that.

All right. Annable Sanchez, Yvonne Nova, they put you in a bad spot. I want to throw out some options. I've got two pitchers who pitched on Wednesday and two that have got some pitching. performances coming up. Relative range. I want to say 50% or less owned. Brenna McKay's a cheat. He's 51%. But let me give you these four guys and get your take on them as maybe options if

Annable Sanchez or Von Nova hurt you or even your studs like Nola or Burrios hurt you. Trevor Williams, who was only 49% owned. He went six, gave up two earned runs and struck out six, his third straight quality start. But San Francisco, then the Cubs are his next starts. Jake Junis, who we've been talking about. He went seven, gave up three, struck out four with no walks. Those are the two guys that pitched on Wednesday, some pretty solid performances, both under 50% as Junis is 47, versus Brendan McKay, who has been called back up, 51% own. He's going to pitch Friday against Toronto. He's only had one start where he's had under three runs given up.

It was that one amazing start. Everyone after that has been not really deep into games and at least three earned runs given up. or Colby Allard, who is the least owned of all the players, 30%. He's going Thursday against Baltimore. His last start, he went 5 and 2 thirds, gave up 2 earned runs with four strikeouts. And his previous start, 6 and 1 third with no earn runs and 8 strikeouts. So again, Trevor Williams, Jake Junis, Brenna McKay, Colby Allard.

What do you think? Where are you going? Who do you like? Do you have Junis' next match up here? I don't see it in the notes. I will pull it up. What a horrible co-host. I did not put that up on there.

But I will get that for you as you are talking, as you are waxing some poetry across these guys. I mean, I'm a little surprised that the rays are continuing to run McKay out there, considering he has been bad and he's already set a career high innings this year. Though by less than I thought, he's just barely... Or has he? No, no, no. Wait. he's at yeah and yeah just barely set a career high in innings and he's about to lose prospect eligibility coming up and by the way Chicago white socks for Junis so just clearing that white socks will take the next one I would probably put Junis first on this list then um over McKay I like that oh McKay's last I don't have anything to do with McKay I think that's really important then that you talk about that especially when you look at McKay who's 51% to a Colby Allard who's 30.

Because of the name guys, all of these guys are boring names except for Brennan McKay. So I think, you know, no shock that Brenna McKay is the most owned off of name value. But to your point, and I completely agree with you, this is a guy who has not put it together so far, is that an innings cap isn't going to go deep into games and has had one of his starts where he's gone three earned runs or less. He's gone under three earned runs. So I actually kind of agree that I think he's at the bottom of this list. And I think Allard has to be third.

just because, you know, he's not granted quite the same leash, Junis and Williams are. I don't have a lot of faith in, I mean, I don't have a lot of faith in any of them. Williams, I don't think he's very good, but he's, he can get on a run. He was on a run basically all of last year. And, you know. Would you say Junis is maybe in a tier of his own over those guys, or are they all in least than desire, less than desirable matchups?

or ownership. I feel like Junis has these moments where that slider is really working for him. He's throwing a lot of strikes and he can look like he's about to turn the corner. But then when you pull back and see the overall numbers, they're bad. So I've had moments when I've gotten excited about Junis

more excited than either Williams or Allard. But I probably shun it. I don't feel like he really belongs in a separate tier when you take everything into account. Okay, so Junis Williams Allard McKay. That's the order from Scott White, if you are trying to backpedal off of some of those really, really bad performances

on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, how about some standouts? I'll give you a second because I've got one, Scott, but I want to get yours next. How about Michael Lorenzen? Two innings pitched, gave up an earned run, struck out a batter,

and had a blown save. Well, how is that a standout? Well, he got it. the win. He also had a pinch hit two-run home run. And I think a thousand million people on Twitter tweeted about this, but I saw it from my friend Ryan Spader. Michael Lorenzen is the first pitcher to win a game during which he also homered and played a defensive position since Babe Ruth of 1921, June 13th. That is quite a stat that I don't know what it means, but it sure. shows the flexibility of Michael Lorenzen

and kind of talks a little bit more about where I think the future of baseball is slowly headed with the multi-positioned players of not just a utility guy, but a super utility position that's being created of pitchers and hitters and it is the slow burn and Michael Lorenzen are players like that

that are benefiting from it and that is a wild stat. Not that I would have guessed anybody else had done this. Like maybe Micah Owing's, if you remember Micah Owing, who played for the Diamondbacks and the Braves. Like maybe that would have been someone I thought could have done that. But wild stat win, defensive position, and Homer, first person to do it since Babe Ruth in 1921.

Yeah, there was also Brooks Kishnik a while back. But yeah, no, that's, I mean, obviously, Otani's opened a whole new world to this. And maybe Brendan McKay will follow suit once his, hitting catches up to his pitching if the race allowed to. Yeah, there is a host of them in the minors too, man. There is going to be a

rule started next year where I think you can only have one player designated as a two-way player on your roster. I think is how that's going to work. Well, they almost took fantasy baseball allocations where it's like a guy has to have played like 20 games at a position, defensive position

and pitched a certain amount of innings for him to qualify as a dual eligible player by a Major League Baseball standards. So I'm not sure if they're going to limit to one dual eligible, but there are standards that are going to have to be met for them to be able to do that. That was the rule I read like two months ago. But how like based on the previous year? Yeah. Like I think that I think a guy like Shohei Otani is going to be grandfathered into it because he's pitched and then he couldn't pitch due to injury. So it'll be based off the previous seasons. Well, that sounds very messy.

It all sounds very messy. It sounds very messy. It sounds very fancy. It sounds like some specific sites I can think of that we're trying to make workarounds about using Shohei Otani and fantasy and absolutely failed. Well, it's different from fantasy because fantasy has an independent entity that they're reacting to. Like, you know, the real club can pay the guy wherever you want, and then fantasy bases eligibility on that. But if MLB is doing this and the only, you know, it's not like a. it's reacting to something else. It's how is somebody earn eligibility that they don't have if they have to earn the eligibility in the game they're actually playing? Does that make sense? Yeah, no, absolutely. Here was what I saw here. To qualify for two-way designation, here's the official thing

that was released this year. A player must pitch 20 major league innings and have 20 games played as a position player or designated hitter with at least three played appearances in each of those 20 games in either the current or previous MLB season. That is according to MLB.com and their glossary of who gets the two-way player designation. 20 innings, 20 games played with at least three played appearances in those 20 games. But how are you, how do you get it? Like they say you could do that in the current season. Or the previous year.

Or the current. Yes, or the current. But how are you able, if you're not designated a two-way player, how are you able to enter the game and do the pitching in the first place to get the necessary appearances. I mean, I'm not baseball, so it's a great question. I'm just reading MLB.com's glossary of the rule. The idea behind it would probably be the Shohei Otani or Brendan McKay rule where guys aren't doing the same thing in a single game.

Brennan McKay's rule in the minors was he pitches, then he has an off day, then he hits for three days, then he has an off. day before his start and then he pitches. So a player could simply be designated as a hitter to get that and then they pitch their normal games instead of having like there's a guy with the Angels right now who I think leads the minor leagues and homers, Jared Walsh, who is like a two-way player. The rays have multiple of them, this guy named Tanner Dodson. So those are the type of guys, you know, and the Michael Lorenzans.

These are the players that the two-way rule really applies to outside of a guy just strictly being a hitter one day and a hitter the next day. I am not MLB, so I hope I'm clarifying it in some capacity. But your questions are great to this. Yeah, it still doesn't, I still don't totally get it. But we don't have to figure it all out right here and now. We don't. But we do need to figure out who your Wednesday standout is.

So who do you got as far as a Wednesday standout? So I had a poll this afternoon talking about who should be the number one, second baseman. in fantasy next year. I voted on it. Who you would rank number one at the position heading into next year. Only four choices

because Twitter limits you to that number of choices. There were a few right-ins though, including a couple suggestions of Colton Juan. As the number one second basement? I don't even know that they were willing to go that far with it.

They just kind of wanted to use it as an opportunity to talk about how great Colton Bolton Wong is. And I think... Did they have like the Cardinals logo in their Twitter handle? No. No, they...

And look, two more hits today. Second half, he's batting about 375. Yeah. With a few homers, a few steals. I don't know. It's mostly Babbitt driven. And he's made some changes, it looks like,

or he's not selling out for the... He's not trying to hit first. much power, it looks like. The fly ball rate has fallen. Line drive rate has gone up. That's going to help probably a player like him. But I just, you know, if you're looking at him collecting all these multi-hit

games and thinking that he's going to be some kind of transformative player for you, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. I think it's a good one. I'm going to put you to the test with Colton Wong here in just a tiny bit. He is a good standout because he did get his 20th stolen base on Wednesday. It's unbelievable that

anybody would feel just the need to talk about Colton Wong when you're asking who the number one second basement is. That is wild to me. And I saw your poll. I voted on it. Two guys were kind of hitting the lead. It was Glaber Torres and Jose Al Tuvei were kind of up there, but they're very good options and a very good poll. So I will put you to the test with Colton Wong, though. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we've got news and notes. There's still some of those games in progress. And Zach Allen did finish the seventh. So I'm guessing his night is going to be over going seven one hit eight strikeouts we'll take a look at the rest of those emails and a whole bunch more right here on fantasy baseball today so we've got the the three

major games that we're going on the dodgers and rockies the diamondbacks and padres ayes and angels of note i just have to bring up tanner rourke who you brought up last week six four hits six innings, four hits, two walks, no one runs, six strikeouts right now. And what is looking like, it is working up to be a very good start for Tanner Rourke. And I believe you were very bullish on him last week. I was pointing out that he might be one of the few pitchers who could rightfully be called boring. And I mean that in a good way. Like, he's not somebody who's going to be universally rostered.

you might actually have a shot at getting at streaming him. But, you know, and you're going to be able to stream him without risk of him completely imploding on you. There are very few pitchers, I think, who meet that criteria in today's landscape. And Roark might be among them. It was the face of them, actually. That's a good point. And he also, what was really interesting about that part of that conversation was that Rourke was one of those boring guys in favor of going nuts about going and taking these rookies who keep it. imploding.

You know, I mean, Dylan C's to strike out 11, but the idea of risking it with a guy like Cease with the upside or going with the boring option of Rourke, Rourke is paying off. He is. He's been especially consistent since joining the A's, and they have a way of doing this with kind of boring pitchers that, you know, they get for cheap, and then they become rotation mainstays for them. I mean, Rourke has a pretty good history. Let's not forget.

It's always been a little dubious. the successes he had with the nationals. But, you know, he's, he has a pretty good track record. And we also got a nice little double-dong night from Jock Peterson, who is 31st and 32nd Homer after leaving or wasn't in yesterday back in the lineup. We'll come back to the pitcher matchup there because I've got a little thurreometer conversation to have as a little bit of a follow-up. Some news and notes, though, around baseball. Max Kepler left Wednesday's game against Red Sox with soreness in his upper chest area. The twin said it was precautionary saying he's day to day.

He has been fantastic. So you're going to have to monitor that. More of concern, which we talked about in the last episode, though, was the Astros saying Wednesday morning that George Springer head and neck do that injury may need a couple days, a day or two, which would be the open signal to this week of any of the weeks being a good time to test out Kyle Tucker. You actually might get a full run of Kyle Tucker the rest of this week with Springer out. I'm not optimistic we get it through the rest of the playoffs, but if you want to experiment,

you're good with experimenting on Kyle Tucker the rest of the week. Yeah. I mean, if that's, was he in the lineup today? They see. I don't think they were playing today. Yeah, I guess they weren't. Yeah. Not often a team has a Wednesday off,

but the Astros apparently had today off. Because I remember going to look for him, and I was like, no, they are not playing today. So we're going to see that on Thursday. That's why I say Thursday, Friday, maybe Saturday. You're probably going to get three of the four games with Kyle Tucker the rest of this week. And there's just a million questions. and people centered around Kyle Tucker right now

because he was the best probably available asset that people were fighting for. Yeah, I mean, I noticed that Ramon Luriano is out there in like 35% of CBS sports leagues. He's due to come off the IL after six weeks absence later this week. And you're hoping to get Luriano-type production from Tucker. So if there's that choice, you're weighing.

Obviously, there's no reason to cross your fingers on Tucker, both in terms of playing time and performance. I don't know exactly what Luno's comment means regarding Springer, need a day or two. I don't know if that's literal or if that's his way of suggesting it's going to be a few days. It seems like it's going to be a few days. Did you see the injury? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It's just such a bad, like, because when he goes back to the warning track, he falls on his butt and then he starts the winning. you fall and then you get that trajectory backwards and then it goes backwards into the wall and the snap of the neck. And the back of his head against the wall. And with his track record, you got to imagine this is like, I wouldn't be counting on spring or the rest of this week.

And that's why Tucker has a good run. But to your point, I would drop Tucker for Luriano because you're right. Best case scenario Tucker gets you is who Ramon Luriano is. Yeah, I mean, pretty much. I do think the ultimate upside for Tucker is higher than Luriano, but it's not realistic to expect that based on... dynasty thing. Right.

Yeah. It's more of a dynasty thing. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think they've ruled out a concussion for Springer, but they've said initial tests are positive. Whatever that means. I think the region won't really know what it means. Yeah, it sounds very concussiony to me. That's what that sounds like.

Robinson Canoe, he was back into the Mets lineup, starting at second base, hit fifth on Wednesday. He had a game. 11th home run, three for three, two RBIs. I was able to sneak him back in the lineup. You know, I should have looked. The only thing I didn't go look and see what the ownership percentage was on him, and I'm going to see if I can pull that up real quick. Because I want to say that it was only 40%.

Is that, do you think that's incredibly underowned for him? I mean, he hasn't played since October 4th, or I'm sorry, August 4th, which he had had four straight multi-hit games before the injury. Now a month later, he's back. He has a tremendous restart. 40% owned 11% start rate. Is that a jump and go pick up Robinson Canoe? I mean, he's had such a bad year, and it's not, like there really isn't room for any, even marginal infielders with the depth.

You know, obviously you're getting a deep enough league, and that's probably why he's 40% owned as opposed to 15% owned. But I think the average fantasy player, the average person listening to this, they can probably keep moving. I mean, okay, he's been dealing with a wrist injury lately. I was going to say my old pal Joe Kipness. It's only 37% owned. Your boy, Joe. All right, let me pair of these guys over quick then. To your point, these are all going to be middle in-field options.

And I want to, I obviously want to get your opinion on them, but now I want to compare them against Robinson Canoe. You talked about Colton Wong, who's 55% owned, got his 20th stolen base. He was 12 for his previous 24. which is incredible, but you only had a homer on two still and bases in that time frame. Rugnit Odor. He is just, you know, you thought you were out and they'd pull you right back in. That's what he keeps doing.

Went two for four with his 22nd homer on Wednesday. He was out on the third, but he had started the previous five and he'd had just three hits in those games. Just the important note here is 51% owned, hit a homer and the team is trying to get behind him. The Jorickson Profar, who hit his 19th homer on Wednesday, third homer in. in the last six games, and he has 61% owned. So, ProFar, Odor, Wong, Cano. How do you deal with that ownership? I'm halfway expecting Odor to lose his job.

I dropped him finally in the 24th Team Dynasty League. You got it? Who did you cut him for? I dropped him for Austin Adams, who I'm hoping. That hurts. Steps in as the Mariners Closer down the stretch. that really hurts to hear by the way

you dropped Ruegnit Odor for that guy Yeah I gave up a lot to get Rugnett Odor in this dynasty league too Oh really? And that was back when we thought he was going to be good Let's see Who else are we talking about here?

We had Wong O'Dor and ProFar versus Canoe I would say Wong It would be between Wong in Canoe and yeah I would probably I would probably

I mean Wong's hot right now and I don't think let's see how the rest of this week goes for Canoe assuming it's a weekly lineup league I think right now I'd have to lean Wong but if you know if Cano builds off this big return and has a couple

other multi-hit games it's another homer or two then obviously I think the pendulum swings back toward him I think it's fair to say then by these standards that Kanoa is underowned right now for everybody. 40% owned. Those guys we were talking about were between 50 to 60% owned. And if Kno is number two, there's some people out there that could definitely make use of him.

But go for Stanley Ipkes first. Yeah, Joe Kipness. Yeah. We want our guy Joe. Orhees, whatever he is. Do you say Jason Voorhees? That's good. Juan Soto undergoing X-rays on his right elbow after getting hit by a

pitch in Tuesday's comeback win over the Mets. So that's what was going down on Wednesday. I haven't heard anything about that. I mean, cross your fingers for your second round pick in 2020. Chris Bassett had his start push back to Saturday against the Tigers. And that was, I believe, the start was set

for Thursday. Bassett's wife gave birth to a baby on Wednesday so that he did not make... Yeah, that's what it was. He didn't make his scheduled start on Thursday versus the Astros. So he was pushed. Mitch Keller, who we talked about, was able to play catch on Wednesday, throw a bullpen on... He's going to throw a ball pin on...

open on Thursday. And if he's able to be good with that, he could be able to make his next start. That would be this weekend. Would you dare put Mitch Keller out off of this injury? No. Okay. I won it. He's been wildly

inconsistent and coming back from injury, it's just it's not a risk you need to take. Rather have Junis than Mitch Keller. For sure. Nick Sinzell was scratched from Wednesday's lineup due to a sore right Shoulder be on the lookout for that. General's general manager, Jerry Depoto, announced that J.P. Crawford is going to be out for the next two weeks. Essentially, if he was an option for you, he's not now. One guy that might have been an option, Gregory Polanco is going to receive a PRP injection and is expected to miss the remainder of the 2000, 2019 season. There were hopes that he might be able to come back sometime in September, but that has dwindled away. And everyone's favorite, Jean-Carloz Stanton is heading to the Yankee Spring Training Complex.

on Wednesday to begin facing live pitching. You're holding out a little bit of hope for Stanton? Oh, just a microscopic fraction. I like how you referred to him as everybody's favorite in your best Elmer Fudd, though.

That was... I did, I totally. That was a fine impression. I thought, well, and it was completely unintentional. It was just stupidity, but I was hoping we could move past it without not acknowledging.

But at least we acknowledge the elephant in the room. That's all that I'm hoping for. Fun note about Stanton did not get drafted in the first four rounds of the hashtag too early mocks that I'm doing Justin Mason put together. He went into the fifth round. So no standing in the top four rounds.

And it still seems too early to me judging by some of the players I see who haven't been draft. I've been following along here. It's, I don't know. It's kind of wacky. It is. We might talk about it in here in a little bit because I'm, you have been, I like following your daily kind of investment in the 2020 first four rounds.

And I'm now through five picks in the tour early mock. So maybe we can talk about that here in just a little bit as we dig deeper. You are coming to terms with the fate of what 2020 might look like and second guessing yourself too. That's always part of the big question. Oh, it's going to be months of second guessing myself, months and months and months. Because all hitters are good and all pitchers are bad. And what is it mean? Well, spoiler, I've gone four hitters of my five picks in the tour early mock because the hitters are so good.

And that is something I'll be dealing with when first pitch comes out here in Arizona, the first pitch conference. But let's go hit a quick break. When we come back, we are going to, I got a thuriometer email, and I want to do a little check-in. We've got a whole bunch of more ads and then maybe a little check-in to that 2020 stuff we were talking about. So quick break, fantasy baseball today. Thuriometer email. Again, as I am told, it is the worryometer. but for Thursday.

So it's a 30ometer. 3iometer. Liam and Denver says, Hey, guys, what's your current take on Danny Santana? Texas is clearly not playing for the playoffs. And Santana's stats, sadly, including average,

are in severe decline. Are you liking Daniel Murphy ahead of him for rest of season? He said, thanks for both of you for keeping up the Marathon of Season podcast. Boo Heath and Adam. Baseball over football, he says,

by the way, Danny Santana went 0 for 4 with 3Ks on Wednesday. So are you, disenchanted with Danny Santana and would you cut him for a guy like Daniel Murphy? I mean, I think Daniel Murphy is a high end enough option to consider doing that. I mean, we're not talking about

a league of great depth here if Daniel Murphy is sitting out there on waivers. I do think that Danny Santana was due some regression in batting average. I don't think I don't think he's going to slump like this just the rest of the season. I think he has some legitimate bat skills

and he has some speed. He doesn't have large quantities of anything and so over a short span of time you wonder how much of an impact he's going to have really. But I would be fine with that exchange, particularly I don't know where the Rockies are next week

but I think they are at home that makes a difference for all their hitters, especially Murphy. Yeah, I'm looking here. It looks like next week they are at home again they've got san diego on a road trip this weekend they're off on thursday san diego on a road trip they're off monday as well and then they have um two straight homestands st louis and san diego for the rest of the week so that's pretty solid for dania mergers

it is if you're looking for him all right so and i was wrong about well kind of wrong about dany santana he was one of those guys i think it was when i did a hit on cbs uh the hq the sports Q, I had kind of designated him as someone that I was selling. It was right around the trade deadline just because it looked like super utility trade option where he would maybe potentially go to a team where he would be blocked by playing time. Sure enough, he stays. He keeps hitting. But then all of a sudden you have them not giving up on Rugi.

And then you also have Nick Solak performing well, as well of a bunch of other bats. So it just doesn't work in his favor. Now, here is a three checkup for you on Riu. We talked about Riyu yesterday. I put him on the Wuriometer to kind of have a bigger. conversation about, you know, what do we do about the, the high performance type of pitchers that could have bad matchups like we talked about earlier with Barrios, but I said we were kind of stuck with Ryu because if he has a great start, you know, cancel all the concerns moving forward,

he didn't have that. He was doing good early on, but then things kind of came unraveled. He only went four and one third inning on Wednesday, six hits, three earned runs, four walks, and five strikeouts. So just kind of piggybacking off of yesterday's conversation now that we have it, thuriameter on Ryu. I mean, it's got to be like a seven at this point. Four straight bad ones. I mean, I, he's just such an oddity the way he's put together as a pitcher in terms of like, doesn't have, you're laughing. It was just like a funny, it was a funny anecdote of like how he's put together as a pitcher. And then I thought about him and I was like, yeah, he doesn't look like, everything about him is kind of different. Yeah, sure. Yeah. No, I wasn't thinking so much in terms

of shape, but in the way he goes about his success and the way he comes about success, you know, not missing bats like most even, even the average pitcher does in today's landscape. So yeah, I don't know. I think philosophically, I would have a hard time benching him for the same reasons we've talked about with Bauer. Like, am I going to bench him for a Jake Junis who is halfway liable to give you a start like this himself? You know? Yeah, true. I mean, I still think Rio is a good pitcher.

I think he pitched over his head most of the year. And, you know, maybe the regression's hitting all at once here. I don't know. But I think I would stick with him. Who do you have more confidence in or rate these three? Bauer, Berrios, Riu. Confidence, I guess, what is it? One is the most confidence, three is the least confidence.

Man, that's a tough one. That's a tough one. I can tell you who I think is best. Riu? No. Bauer? Bauer. Okay.

I think he's best. I think Barrios is the second best. I think Riu is the worst, actually. But weren't you just defending Riu yesterday? Or am I making things up? I don't know. I mean, it's relative to what? I don't know.

I thought we were talking positive. I mean, we weren't because, you know, you did relent that there was a decent amount of worry. You know, the worryometer was up there. I don't remember the number you gave, like a five or something like that rest of season. But I thought there was a conversation about, you know, going, maybe it was about 2020 that he's going to be relatively high up in the ranks. But, I mean, I'm with you. Regardless of any of that, I could have, I could just be making that all up. I'm with you that he's at the bottom of those three.

Oh, he's going to be my lowest ranked of those three next year without a doubt. In fact, one of my bold prediction was that he would, I can't remember how I worded it, but he'd be a disappointment. And it may be happening sooner than that. I don't know. But yeah, I mean, it's just, I feel like, I feel like that caliber of pitcher because there just isn't new options emerging at starting pitcher. Like we see at hitter.

I mean, we're getting, even this late in the year, we've gotten Markana, we've gotten J.D. Davis. Every week there's a couple more guys, Anthony Santander. Okay, these guys are respectable startable options, and we're just not getting that at pitcher. So I feel like you're stuck. No matter, you know, if it's a guy who's carried you, there's no alternatives at this point.

You just got to ride it out with them and hope for the best. I mean, if you happen to have a deep pitching staff and some alternatives that are nearly as good, fine, but I don't think most people do. Well, yeah, and you're probably more the anomaly than anybody else. Of note, too, we didn't talk about, but it looks like Hazardos is not going to even be given an opportunity. I think they are leaving, just this made me think of like the options that could be out there.

Lazzardo would have been one of those guys. And it looks like the A's are going to keep him with the minor league club through the playoffs and they're not going to press him. And I believe he's going to be given an Arizona fall league spot because they've got a couple of them and they didn't bring him up. So that's actually like a major disappointment. maybe one of the bigger prospect disappointments of the entire season. I mean, Whitley, Luzardo, Kyle Tucker, those are probably like the top three

2019 minor league disappointments. Would you agree with those top three? Luzardo, who were the other two? Forrest Whitley and Tucker, just based on like draft expectations. All those guys were being drafted in leagues. Maybe not Tucker as much, but Whitley and Lazzardo 1,000 percent. Right. And Luzardo's was injuries.

I mean, I guess he's healthy now, but it's so late. and their rotation is overloaded as it is trying to fit Sean Minai in there. So I can kind of understand, even though I don't think any of those pictures are as good as Luzardo. I think it's going to give a good 20-20 cheaper price. I think it's going to push to a little bit of a cheaper price because people are going to feel so burned that he's probably going to become, I mean, I don't want to speak for you, but I feel like probably for you and I, he'll become more of a target than probably for most. I assume he'll be up in late April of next year, and I think he'll be great. I think he'll be even more impactful than Chris Paddock has been this year.

I would say that if you are looking for pitching help, probably the best options on waivers are, is a guy like Sean Minaya. Maybe I think Johnny Quato, he had a start this week at scratch because of a back issue, but he's throwing a bullpen this weekend. So I think there's a decent chance he starts next week. and I mean, he might be one of the better options out there too, but those obviously aren't bankable options. I mean, Sean Mania has been,

I don't think he's shown the full extent of his upside in the majors, but he's been a pretty average pitcher in the big league so far. What's interesting over on CBS, too, the top three viewed pitchers right now are Manaya, McKay, and Logan Webb. That seems like quite a motley crew of players that people, are trying to dig around. Yeah. Yeah, it's not good.

And Adrian Hauser's had his day, but like, yeah. Does he go six innings ever? I, you know, it's pretty, it's just bottom of the barrel. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel if you're looking for a pitcher, and you really don't want to have to do that. I don't think a four-start rough patch for Ryu is enough

to inspire me to do that, as much as it's bringing you down right now. Like, sometimes, I don't know, what am I trying to say here? Sometimes your number, you feel like you just got to get away. Bop, pop, run away, I got to. All right, I know what you're saying. You make the best of what you have and you lose sometimes. Like, only one person can win your league.

Do you want to put your faith in Ryu or do you want to put it in Jake Junis? I know what I wish is there. But it's no wind to hold them. All right. Rotation. Let's talk about some guys that had a couple of deep performances. And actually, I'm going to dig. You're talking about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There were two bottom barrel guys on Wednesday that were interesting. But Zach Wheeler went five, gave up one, struck out three on Wednesday. Your guy, Shane Bieber. I'm now just completely associating you with him for some reason because you have him at like five. He's good. Yeah, he's really good. If he's good, he can be mine. Yeah, you don't want like, you don't want like Edwin Jackson or something like that.

No, you want Shane Bieber. Shane Bieber went seven, gave up two, struck out nine. Lance Lynn went five continuing that season, gave up three earned runs, struck out seven. And Eduardo Rodriguez went seven, struck out eight with four walks, but no earned runs. But deeper league performances. I talked about Edwin Jackson. One percent owned, he did go five, gave up four and struck out three. That was semi-interesting.

But this is the one that I wanted to hit. Robert Duger, 2% owned. We talked about him in his last start because we were laughing because we're like, this is the guy you don't pick up because then he blows up because you're getting too cute because he went seven, three hits, no earned runs, one walk and seven strikeouts in his last start on Wednesday, went six, gave up to two strikeouts and he's got Milwaukee up next. There's no world where you can get too cute with Robert Duger, right? There's no world where you can think about using,

Robert Dugger. No, that's a bad, bad idea. Are we sure it's Dugger and not Dugger? It could be Dugger. I think it might be Dugger. Yeah, I mean, don't listen to me. No one's listening to me on that anyway.

Like I said, it's become a drinking game. They just check it off. And there's one for you. I'm only giving you one this episode. How about some almost sold, but not quite? Guys that haven't hit the 70% ownership range that I got four of them

that I think are interesting. They all had some nice nights on Wednesday. Starting with your guy, J.D. Davis, 64% owned. He went two for three. He is now up to 305 on the season. Guy hit eight homers in August. Now back-to-back multi-hit games in September. Versus Amade Rosario, he went two for five with a stolen base.

That was number 16. He hit 333 in August, but pretty low as far as counting stats. One homer three stolen bases. Oscar Mercado, who's the most owned, 66% had been very quiet. Only three for his last 29, but he went three for four with an RBI on Thursday. And then Kevin Pilar, who is having one of the quieter, more productive seasons. He is 63% owned, less than all of the guys I just mentioned.

He hit his 21st homer of the year. He's now 21 homers and 11 stolen bases. Pilar, Mercado, Rosario, J.D. Davis. are there must-owns in this? Because people are almost sold, but they're not quite. I think J.D. Davis is must-own. You said he's my guy. I've been touting him for several weeks.

He hasn't really slowed down. And the supporting numbers, the expected stats on baseball savant, suggest he's not going to slow down. He is legitimately this good and perhaps even better with the quality of contact that he makes. So he is the guy.

of this group. I really, it's regrettable how streaky Oscar Mercado has been because I think when he's been good, that's closer to the true Oscar Mercado than when he's been bad. But he's had some really, really link these slubs here in his rookie season. So let me ask you this then.

Who can you freely cut? J.D. Davis is not in that. Polar, Rosario, Mercado. do you think any of those are, or maybe all of them, are easy cuts for streaming options out there? Or would you put, would you want to take Pilar out of that and say Pilar and J.D. Davis, and you can cut Rosario Mercado at will? No, I wouldn't want to want to take Pilar out of that.

I have no, I have no loyalty to any of those three, Rosario Mercado. Pilar, obviously, if they need a need for you, they meet a need for you. But if they're just extra guys you have, I don't think you risk. forfeiting that much by letting them go. I don't I don't buy this power search for Pilar. I don't know how he's suddenly more powerful with San Francisco than he was with Toronto. But it's not something I'm going to bank on. Rest of way.

Digin really deep Wednesday performances. Nick Solac is only 20% own, went two for four. He's now three of his last seven games. He has multi-hits. And Starlin Castro, who's 30, 2% own, went 3 for 4 with a couple RBI, hit his 17th homer got a 7 game hitting streak

with 4 homers in that span. Do Solac and Castro need to be more owned, or is it just right? Solac especially needs to be more owned. I might own him more than Pilar. I might own him more than

we were talking about those middle infield options earlier owned between 50 and 60% of leagues. I'd rather have Solac than Odore. pro far I'd rather have him than Colton Wong I may be wrong but I'd rather have him more than Colton Wong

Solac over Wong yeah okay that's a pretty good headline I like that and Castro regardless of what he's been doing as a recent not he doesn't move the pendulum

no he's not it's fine it's fine yeah it's fine he's certainly he's 17 home runs that probably doesn't mean anything but I'm surprised to see it nonetheless Yeah. Playoff push. Just some notable guys for you. Mookie Betts, double dong, 24th and 25th of the season. Four RBI's second multi-hit home run game in his last five. He's been a fascinating 2020 conversation guy. Aaron Judge, 20th home run of the season, seven homers in his last 12 games.

Aristides was one for four, two RBIs with his third stolen base. He just continued. I keep seeing, like this is an interesting one. And maybe we already did this. But like Eli Hemenis, who's 89% owned, he went, two for three. He's now got six of his last, six of his last, seven games are multi-hit, I believe that's what it is. But I was getting a Aquino versus Jimenez in 2020 conversation. And Aquino is really making this a much closer call than it probably should be. Is that, do you think that's off base, or do you agree with that? I agree with that. If the season ended today, I would take Aquino ahead of Aloi Jimenez. And look,

Loy Jimenez could have a huge breakout next year. You know, look at Raphael Devers, look at Josh Bell. They weren't really showing signs of being on the verge of a breakthrough, but that pedigree came through. And obviously they've done great things this year,

and that could be Loy Jimenez next year. But I think that's the kind of gamble you take when the players who have already shown the ability to carry a fantasy team are already off the board. I mean, I don't totally buy into Akeno, but the strikeout rate has been much better than I was expecting. And, you know, the longer this goes on, obviously the easier it is to at least mostly believe. Yeah. Over on the bullpen, Reisel Iglesias got his 29th save of the season tied for second most saves over the last 30 days. eight just for you guys to know.

Sean Doolittle came in the ninth, but it was a eight four game. They were down. He went one inning, walked one, didn't give up any earned runs. Maybe have note that he's closing in on some save opportunities. Ian Kennedy got his 26th, that is four saves since August 28th.

That's a very nice number. And then a couple interesting ones. Seth Lugo came in the seventh and eighth for a hold situation for the Mets. Two innings, one strikeout, two hits, and Jeff Wilson was. the guy that came in the ninth, but it was a non-save situation. I thought that one was interesting.

On top of Jose Urana, who was given the closer opportunity, blew a save after we putting in the roll, didn't get out of one at bat, three hits, three earned runs, one walk, no strikeouts, home run, given up. So, Urina out. Lugo. The Mets situation just seems to be so ridiculously unfluid that we can't even predict it. Yeah, it does.

And I, like yesterday, apparently, somebody tweeted this to me that Lugo, the Mets were thinking in terms of a two-winning, say, for Lugo yesterday. Remember, he came in in the eighth, but then they expanded the lead, so they took him out. I mean, I wasn't watching the game, but that stands to reason, seeing the way everything unfolded. So the fact that we then follow up with Lugo pitching two innings, but prior to the ninth, I don't know what it means. I don't know. I mean, Mickey Calloway was obviously defending Edwin Diaz yesterday after the game. Maybe he's pretty much back on board with Diaz as the closer. I don't think we have any way of knowing that, except that it doesn't look like Lugo is the for sure ninth inning guy right now.

Yeah, there's a lot of instability and a lot of guessing games, which is really unfortunate. And we're going to end with this today. We've got a couple emails that we will push over to tomorrow. But I just wanted to mention this in what I'm considering or calling the amazing feats of glory in 2019. Pete Alonzo hit his league leading 45th home run on Wednesday. Now, I need to look here because this is important. Okay, this person has not done it. I got on a weird thing, Scott, where for some reason, every time Pete Alonzo, I felt in my mom.

I felt like every time Pete Alonzo hit a homer, like Mike Trout followed him. And I just felt like they kept, because every time I'd be like, hey, Pete Alonzo, he's the leader. And then Trout would hit a home run. So I decided I needed to spend at least like whatever it was 10 minutes today. And I went and I tracked every home run that Alonzo and Trout hit this year that were on the same day. I want to ask you, just take a guess. How many homers do you think Alonzo and Trout hit on the same? the same day this season.

Mind you, you know, obviously Alonzo has 45. So 44 potential homers out there. How many do you think they shared days of hitting home runs? Ugh.

Hmm. It's a complete nonsensical thing, but have fun. Uh, 20? Ooh, I mean, that would be a crazy, crazy anomaly.

I went too high. You went a little too high. Yeah. 13. Okay. 13. I mean, does that,

am I making something bigger than it is, 13 times. They hit homers on the same day. They hit three the same in April, one in May, one in June, but they had three in July and four in August, and then September 3rd, they both hit homers together. All right. 13 homers. So they have about as many, they have about a third and, a third as many home runs as games

played, right? So 33% chance of then homering on a given day. so the probability of both of them homering would be 33 times 33. Is that how that works? You tell me, it was 29%... 0.33 times 0.33. 29% of the time they hit home runs on the same day was the math that I ended up with.

So is that special or is it not? I don't know. But I was fascinated. It's been too long since I've taken a statistics or any kind of math class. All I was assured was Mike Trout was going to hit a homer. And it's the bottom of the 8th on Wednesday here. And he has not.

Also, Jorge Salel. hit his 40th homeruner on Wednesday, which is the first 40 home run season and franchise history. And another interesting note, this was from Sarah Lang's. The 40th homer was hit at 115.7 miles per hour, which was the hardest hit home run by a royal since stat cast was tracking. So Jorge Soler is an incredible conversation. We don't have time for it. I did want to get into it. But we'll talk about it tomorrow.

When you start talking about those 2020s, he's not in the first four rounds. but I think I said it yesterday. Jorge Salere versus Chris Davis is a very fun 2020 debate. Do you agree? Jorge Saler versus Chris Davis? Yes. A's Chris Davis.

I don't know. I feel like it would be Saler. I don't disagree with you, but I never, maybe I don't discount name value more than other people, but I dare

you to find the person that's not going to make the case for Chris Davis next year because he had four straight constant years and this was the off-brand year. That's why I think it's such an interesting debate. And Jorge Soler, you know, Royals 40 home runs. I think it's one of, it's one of the quiet, most incredible seasons of 2020 is what Jorge Soler has done with Kansas City. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's been a breakout season for him and he's not studly, but he's on the fringe of that. He certainly must start. And if you buy into it. If you buy into what he's done this year, then the best Chris Davis can accomplish is being that. So that's why I think it's Soler pretty easily. But maybe you don't buy into what Saler is doing. I don't know.

That's where the question is. Marte hit his 30th as we're leaving here. Looks like the Diamondbacks are in good position. Marcus Simeon hit his 26th. And as we said, Jack Peterson, has got the two. All right, we are going to get out of here. Maybe some 2020 talk tomorrow as Scott White has been digging deep. and I've got lots of questions on what he is finalizing, or at least where his takes are. Plus, we're going to hit two start pitchers and everything to get you prep for this weekend and into your next round of the fantasy baseball playoffs.

So don't you go anywhere? More Scott White, Chris Wells, right here in fantasy baseball today coming up tomorrow, but until then, peace.