Fantasy Baseball Today - 09/20: Championship Week Help! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

Kokomo Friday! Rizzo and Kimbrel return to different results! Pitching matchups for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two-Start pitchers for the final week of the season, and a cautionary tale of final week two-starts from Scott. Hitters to add, bullpen questions and some 2020 questions from listeners. 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

Domingo. Fantasy baseball today starts right now on a Kokomo Friday. Scott White, this is the final Kokomo Friday of the regular season. How does it make you feel deep down inside? It's wistful. To make it feel like you want to go to get away from it all? I just want to get away from you and go to bed because it's actually Friday. It's 12-11 Eastern time. This is the latest we've, ever podcasted before. You are right. And this is the links you push me to. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I mean, I was a little hurt there for a minute where you're like, I want to get away from you. And I was like, well, you are right. I did push us the longest because I was out at the Arizona Fall League seeing everybody's favorite Mr. Joe Adele, who I think many of us listening would love to

be seeing in the major leagues, but he is out here doing work in the Arizona Fall League. And I've been doing that all week. It is super, super hot. But we will plow through on this beautiful Kokomo Friday. You are, I mean, I know you're tired, but you also did say you might be at peak energy from Mountain Dew to microphone. This might be peak time. No, no, this is post-peak. This is post-peak. Oh, I got you on the downturn. I usually enjoy my Mountain Dew, my Code Red Mountain Dew, or other caffeinated beverage in the hour leading up to the podcast. And now it's, you know, it's three hours past at this point. Well, okay. I mean, to be fair, I think it's good for all of us to be on our toes and be ready for anything, just like we have to be in the fantasy playoffs.

We have to be ready for a curveball at any time. Code red or not, Scott. That was a segue. That was a segue. I was a segue. I did that. All right. Thank you. Well, we got a whole bunch to cover on this beautiful Kokomo Friday.

Lots of two-start stuff. We got a ton of your emails. And I know your fantasy playoffs, they are in maybe a firm grasp or maybe slowly slipping. Some guys that definitely helped you out here, at least on Thursday. Mike Clevenger went six, no earned runs, struck out six. You had Masahiro Tanaka pitch a very nice outing. Seven, one-earned run with six strikeouts. Jordan Lyles, who we talked about, this is a dicey one because he didn't qualify.

He just missed the qualification, you know, had it been. Four and two-thirds gave up one-er-run run, but he did have nine strikeouts. Joe Musgrove, who I have to, you know, just press Scott White. He begrudgingly has to talk about him, went five, two-run runs, and six strikeouts. And Jack Flaherty, eight with one-earned-run and eight strikeouts. Of those players, though, do you have any worry? Let's take a Tanaka for a second. Any worries about Tanaka against Texas next week?

I wouldn't be an automatic start for me. He hasn't been an automatic start all year. The splitter, he at least got results with it in this one. It was responsible for over half of his swinging strikes. And that's been kind of issue for him all year. he's been better of late but not the Tanaka we've seen in the past I think it would depend on the strength of your pitching staff

would depend on how many starts you need but he wouldn't be automatic probably but he wouldn't be automatic yeah I mean and it's going to be relative you know luckily his starts going to come like later a little bit later in the week for your you know you'd be able to dissect where you're at if you play into the final week I thought this is an interesting one and I'm curious

before I bring the mood down here in a minute. Anthony Kay with the Toronto Blue Jays, he didn't start the game. There was an opener. Fonant went two innings on the opener. But Kay then went four innings, tour and runs with three strikeouts. He ended up, you know, he got the win. And I feel like a lot of people are going to Kay because they see him out there. They know the prospect, pedigree, whatever you take from that.

And people want to start him. I had a lot of questions about Anthony Kane. And it kept being like, nah, blah, don't do that. But he's got Baltimore next week. If he's in this same situation where they only going to use him for and they use an opener in front of him, do you think it's worthwhile at all if you're even in desperate need? I don't. I don't.

I don't trust him, even with that matchup. I don't trust the role he's filling right now. He had a lot of walks in the minors, especially later in the season. and I think it could go disastrously for you with a limited ceiling because he's probably not going six so I don't think I'd do that. Well, while guys like Flaherty and Clevenger and even Tanaka were doing all the wonderful business,

these guys might have killed your playoff hopes or set you back pretty pretty bad. Andrew Heaney, five innings, six earned runs, eight strikeouts, but three walks. He's got Houston next week. Aaron Nola killed me. Five innings, nine. hits, five earned runs, two walks and four

strikeouts. He's got, that was against Atlanta. He's three of his last four, by the way. He's given up four or more earned runs, and he doesn't have a win since August 20th. He's got Washington next week. Kyle Gibson, his name was popping up, one and two thirds, three earned runs with four strikeouts.

Kyle Hendricks gave up four and five and one third with six strikeouts, and Mike Montgomery only went four, giving up five earned runs with three strikeouts. How about Aaron Nola actually, I mean, Haney and Nola, Both don't particularly have matchups that I love. Nola is obviously, you know, in a different category here,

but he's got Washington. Heaney's got Houston next week. Are either one, I mean, I bet I could answer the Haney one for you that he's not an automatic. In Houston, he's actually probably almost a definitive sit. But is Nola an automatic against Washington for you? Yeah, Nola isn't automatic. It's the same thing we were saying about Trevor Bauer

and Jungen Riu earlier, who, by the way, both turned things around. And Nola hasn't even been, hasn't even quite sunk to their level, you know, in terms of struggles. What I'm seeing with Nola is it's not like he's regressed to what was happening early in the year where his arsenal was just ineffective. I mean, he's, he's been getting plenty of whiffs still during this rough patch. I think it's just, I think it's just a rough patch.

That's all it is. And nobody you can find out of the waiver wires is capable of matching what he's, what he has a chance of doing against Washington or against anybody because he's that caliber of pitcher where when he's going, well, you don't pay a second thought to the matchup. So I'm not going to hear either with my season on the line. Heady,

yes, absolutely. Take him out. Astros. You know, tons of fly balls, seven home runs in his past four games, just way too dangerous and hasn't shown any kind of consistency for you to trust him. Hendrix is probably more in the Nola

class. I don't think he's as good as Nola, but he's been so reliable. I'm not, you know, one four earned run start isn't going to steer me away from him. Oh, okay, that's good. So, I mean, he falls in line with that range where you're not going to be scared off at least. Yeah, I mean, if it was, if it was

longer term struggles from him, I don't think, yeah, he's not quite of the Nola class of pitcher. He's just behind that. He's more in like, what's a good comparison? Maybe like the Zach Wheeler range for me of pitcher. But he's, He's fine.

I mean, one so-so start and a four and runs in five and a third inning. That's just a so-so start by today's standards. That's not really the kind of disastrous start we see all the time for good pitchers. I think he's fine. Your preparation for next week starts right now, whether that's going to be prepping into this weekend, whether it's going to be getting ahead for you to try to get your two-start pitchers. We are going to cover a lot of that kicking right off with you, Mr. Scott White. Where are you out on your two-start pitchers?

I've got a list here of some other things we're going to look at with two starts, but I know there's at least one name on the list that is not going to counteract here. So give me a couple of your top two start pitchers for the final week of the season. There are only two sleepers using a cutoff of 70% let's say. I think they might even both be owned. No, I think 70% has to be the cutoff. There are only two that I would be willing to recommend across all formats. One of the ones. One of the ones. of them is Denelson Lamett coming off that 14 strikeout effort Wednesday at Milwaukee where uh yeah he made he made the breakout case for next year a little more obvious than that start I feel like because he just showed the extent of his bat missing ability which has been the rate of swinging strikes has just been across all 13 starts that first it's been tremendous it's been a lead first matchup against the Dodgers doesn't worry you though uh it's this When you're talking about a sleeper, I don't think there is a perfect sleeper. So I would always go for skills over matchup.

And I think compared to the other pitchers of that same ownership range, Lament's skills are, there's no comparison. No, you're right. Yeah, the Dodgers are the one of like, you know, maybe two teams where I see them come up and I'm like, you know, that's how I was with Blake Snell. I was like, I don't want to do that if there's a question. But you're right. he falls in line with that high strikeouts. It is the Dodgers, but at least it is a home game. Okay, so who's number two then on that list?

I like that Lamat one. Alcantara. I'm sorry, Alcantara. Let's say it right for once in our lives. Let's go. Sandy Alcantra, you're loving that. I mean, I just, I love it. Of course.

And it's not even that the matchups are that special. It's just been he's just that he's really stepped it up in terms of innings and strikeouts and like particularly from a points league context if you're just looking for somebody to give you a lot of volume. I there doesn't seem to be much indication the Marlins are going to shut them down early and limit them and cut that two start those projected two starts down to one. I don't know. The Mets and the Phillies next week which those are fine.

Those are fine matchups. Nothing too too worrisome. Yeah. Now I do want to before we go any deeper into the two start discussion. Because there's nobody else who's really going to excite me there. But I do kind of need to give an overarching statement on how this is going to work the final week of the season. Beautiful. Things are going to happen that you don't see coming until the day of.

And it's going to happen a lot. You mean this guy not getting the start, this player is now pitching in this game, that type of stuff. Yes, probable starters, they're mere suggestions. And that's always true. That's why they're probable starters and not set in stone starters. But especially this week. And point one is that you shouldn't, you really shouldn't be targeting any two-start pitcher

with the assumption he's going to make two-starts. You need to target him comfortable with the eye, idea that he may only make one and that that second start would just be a nice bonus for you. And so if you're not comfortable using a pitcher, if it was a one-start week, you probably shouldn't be using him just because he's projected for two starts this week. Because it's a very good chance he doesn't end up making two starts. And that goes on the high end too. Right now, uh, pitchers like Garrett Cole and Max Scherzer are projected to be two-star pitchers. Well, I think there's almost no chance the Astro start Cole on Sunday

because they're going to be setting their rotation up for the playoffs. You have seen at times over the years just because it's their day to throw like a side session, they may make like a two-inning start, a two-inning tune-up start, and still line up to start the first or second game of a playoff series like Cole would do. That may happen. He may technically make two starts. But there's a chance they just skip them all together. And the same goes for sure if the nationals.

lock up that first wild card spot, you know, if it doesn't go down to the wire, then they're going to want him ready for, presumably, that one game playoff as opposed to having him pitched Sunday. So, you know, you're going to start those guys, whether it's one start or two, but it's something to keep in mind.

You shouldn't really count on two starts from Cole or Scherzer. In fact, you should probably count on them not making two starts. Jake Oteresey, you know, he's kind of, a little fringier, I think, in terms of when he's only making one start than those other two. But considering that first start is at Detroit, I think you go ahead and run him out there. Just don't expect him to make that second start at Kansas City. And I think those are the main ones. Patrick Corbyn's scheduled for two starts, but I think there's a pretty good chance he ends up making both

because he would only be the Nationals number three option, presumably. So yeah. I think it's good because it is a volatile time where people get worked up, you know, because it is a playoffs. Tensions are high. You said it was a two-starter. Well, you know, also maybe, always my little caveat,

you play to the end of the season, you're playing with a little bit of fire. You know, when you've got so many guys on the rosters and you've got playoff matchups that are in hand, they want to, teams are going to start setting up their playoff run and moving pitchers around. So you are right that you have to proceed a little bit with caution if you are in heavy reliance of two-start pitchers.

So I think that was a good public service announcement. that you gave us here. So with that, now I'm going to throw some two-start pictures at you that you have to tell me, I want you to pick one because you got Sandy in there who was a part of my two starts part one. So I'm going to give you two names on each of these. You pick and then I'm going to go with a Hail Mary. And this is obviously subject to change for everybody. But as I look at the matchups, they might not be the worst thing in the world. Two-start part one, because Alcantra and Lamette are your big guys this week. Alex Young, who's got St. Louis. Lewis and the Padres or Zach Eflin, who has got the Nationals and then Miami. So neither one of them's first matchup may be particularly fantastic. The second one obviously looks a lot better. Alex Young or Eflin for the final week of the season, if you were two starting it. They are very close in my rankings. I do believe I have Eflin ahead because I trust him to, if he pitches well, to pitch

deeper into the game than Young. but it's close. It's basically a toss-up. And neither of them, I think, are of the caliber. I mean, especially since the good matchup is the second start. I don't think either is of the caliber meets the standard of you have to be comfortable with them only making one start to slot them in for this particular two-start week.

So that's something to keep in mind. Two starts part two. This might be an easy one. Brett Anderson, who has got the Angels and then Seattle, or Adrian Hauser, who has got two, road games. These are both under 45% owned, but they're since at Cincinnati and at Colorado. So is this an easy Anderson? It's an easy Anderson who's been pretty bankable this year. I guess boring is the term I keep using. Like if you're looking for a boring pitcher in this environment,

somebody who is going to give you five or six innings without risk of a lot of damage, I think you look for the elite ground ball guys, you know, the ones who aren't obvious studs. because, you know, so much offense, just in general, so reliant on home runs. So like Anderson doesn't give up home runs. And he's been, you know, boringly reliable, boringly. I think I just made up an adverb there. I like it.

I'm in for that. I'm in for making up words. I do it all the time. How about the deep to start Hail Mary Pass? Colby Allard, who has got not good matchups, Boston and New York, but they're home games. Or Spencer Turnbull, who's got Minnesota and then the White Sox. Hail Mary pass. Allard of Trunball.

Yeah, so if you're having to go this deep, I don't think Turnbull's a bad play. Obviously, you're hoping he actually makes that start against the White Sox since he's a tiger and obviously they're not resetting their rotation. I think there's a pretty good chance. But his past two starts, the whiffs have been up closer to where they were at the start of the season, closer to what he profiled as coming up through the miners. and I know his manager Ron Gardenhire talked about that rough I think it was a 13 start stretch just leading up to last start

where he'd ERA of like 750 and how he was kind of like trying to get more movement on his pitches and not just being reliant on the stuff and kind of went back to what he was doing more at the start of the season

which just trusting his The natural movement he has on his pitches to help his stuff play up. And I was pretty excited about Spencer Turnbull earlier this year. So hopefully he can put an exclamation point here on 2019. Obviously, it's a risky play, but I think there's some upside to it. And that's why it's a Hill Mary Pass. Hey, this part of the podcast is brought to you by our friends over at Indochino with the promo code FBT. Indochino is the world's most exciting made to measure menswear company.

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I want to get weird here. You didn't want to get weird with Anthony K. You want to get weird with Ross Stripling? He followed up Caleb Ferguson last, his last outing, and he went to, could he possibly get into two games this week, where he comes in, maybe the third or fourth, lines up for maybe two wins this week, and is a sneaky play because he doesn't show up on those two starts.

Well, I actually did move him into my two-start rankings, though. Will they be actual starts or will they be, you know, entering in the second, third inning? The way the Dodgers have been managing their pitching staff, it's anybody's guess. But yes, I do expect him to pitch two chunks of two or three innings. Maybe he stretches it to four. And the matchups are good. San Francisco and San Diego, I believe. So that's

I mean You could do worse It's not an advisable play Because of that role he's filling It's not one I'm going to suggest across all formats Do you like him over like say that Brett Anderson play I do not looking at my two start pitcher rankings In fact I have stripling behind even Spencer Turnbull

But it kind of depends on what you need Right? I think if you're not necessarily angling for a win you're looking for ratio help. Stripling would probably be a better bet in that case. But there's a chance he does get a win, even if it's a short stay. It just depends who the Dodgers decide to lead with on the days he's pitching. Yeah, and if he's effective, that's where you could have a guy go two or three on the front end,

then he could go three or four and he could line up for the win. That's what makes him interesting, especially because the guy you could go slot in if you play in a relief pitching type of a spot, you can go slot him over there for some different formats. We did have some games going down on Thursday. got a standout for you and I'd be curious if you've got one. This dude has been on an absolute run in September and you want to talk about the ups and downs of rookies overall. We've spent a ton of time and we're going to talk just a little bit more about, you know, a bunch of the good prospects that we've been adding as of recent. This guy got that run but then tapered down because

of average. But Kevin Bigio went two for five with three RBIs, hit his 15th homer on Thursday, was hitting 333 with two homers and four stolen bases plus eight RBIs coming into Thursday in the month of September. He has been a really solid play that we haven't talked a ton, ton about after hitting for the cycle just the other night for everybody in their playoff run. And a lot of people are going to take Cavendizio with them in their brain walking into 2020 for what he did in the playoffs for them. Yeah. And because of some of the players losing second base eligibility next year, at least in CBS leagues, the most notable of them being Javier Baez and I can't remember the other guy. somebody high end.

Gavin Bizio checks in 14th in my first edition of the second base rankings for 2020. That's aggressively optimistic. I like it. Well, I'm saying second base starts to look thinner than you think it does. Yeah, because I have Gavin Lux 13th. I have Ryan McMahon 15th.

And then, you know, Robinson Kanoe checks in at like 18th. And you know, I'm not fond of Robin's. Evans and Canoe right now. But anyway, back to Bigio. I've noticed a couple things about him during this hot streak that's forced me to take a longer look. I was under the impression that his high fly ball rate, though good, though helping his power production,

was part of what contributed to the low batting average. He actually has a 306 Babbitt, though, league average Babbitt, basically, and not what you'd expect from somebody who's being hurt by his fly ball rate. So what's really hurting it is just the strikeout rate, which is very high. But he has at least a couple days ago when I was looking. Bizio would have the second best walk rate and baseball behind only Mike Trout.

And so I think the strikeouts, and I was actually reading an article that suggested the same thing, the strikeouts are more about him being too patient than just struggling to make. contact. In fact, his swinging strike rate is in the upper half of the league in terms of being low. So it's not like he's swinging and missing. He's just taking too many pitches and that's something that seems pretty solvable. I wanted to jump in there because this is really interesting. Before the show, we were talking about, because I was like, all right, I'm here, I'm here. After going out to the fall league, and we were talking about that. And Scott, you said something interesting to me. You're like, do you find that helpful? You know, that I go out to a lot of

minor league games. You're like, do you find it that it's more helpful or is it more funny? you're just kind of like weighing which one it was. And I was going through some of the motions of telling you about like, yeah, I get to see a lot of intricacies about players when I see them a whole bunch. I get to see things that, you know, the stat lines might lie about. And I've been talking about what you're saying right now about Kavana Bizio for the last year because what was so interesting to me when he was out here in the fall league last year is I saw an at bat that lasted for probably it felt like, I mean, it felt like two minutes. But he didn't, you know what? it might have been all three at bats, he never took the bat off of his shoulder. Whether he was getting strikes or whether he was getting walks, he is the most, I don't

even know if I want to say patient as much as it is stubborn player to get his pitch. It reminds me of kind of like old school, like Carlos Santana, where you'd see the high walk rates, you'd also see the strikeouts. It is exactly the player that he is. He's tooled out. He's multi-positioned. I don't know if the patience breeds that he's got an incredible eye for the ball long-term. he's seeing the pitch is so great. I think he's actually always going to be a guy that

hits for a lower-ish average. But you're right. You absolutely nailed it. He is a guy that it's not so much that he makes poor contact is that he just waits and waits and waits for his pitch. And if it results in a walk or a strikeout, that's ultimately where he's at. So it's kind of leveled off his, I think it kind of levels off his future output a little bit, unless he makes an aggressive change to that, unless he starts deciding to get more aggressive. And we have to see if that happens. He has so much to work with, though, that if that's the only thing holding him back and from what I can tell it is, I think that's a very positive sign.

Yeah, that's a really, really great point. I like that you pulled that one out. You got any Thursday standouts? Anybody that jumps out on the page for you? Not really a performance. Well, yeah, let's go to Eduardo Rodriguez because he has been, he's turned to up a notch here. He had been on a long run

of lowering his ERA. Now in his past 15 starts, 221, his ERA and 15 starts. It's past seven starts, it's one. The ERA for Eduardo Rodriguez. And more recently, his past four

starts, he's suddenly missing a ton of bets. He had 10 strikeouts and six scoreless innings here on Thursday. 21 swinging strikes. Three of his past four starts have been among his four best swinging strike starts this season. I'm not seeing anything different in the arsenal, but this is closer to the Edward or Rodriguez we've come to know than the one we've seen for the majority of those 15 starts where how is he

pitching this well when he's allowing the sort of contact he is. I wasn't totally trusting in it. And I still don't really know what to make of it because it's a lot of conflicting data all over the place, but what it's led to is he has a shot now. You look at his overall numbers. You've got to figure he's making two more starts this year. He has a shot of, if he does make two starts, I should say. He has a shot of reaching 20 wins, okay, 200 innings and 200 strikeouts. Now 20 wins, obviously very valuable in fantasy, not something that we're normally going to predict for anybody. But 200 innings and 200

strikeouts, those numbers stand out to me because that was kind of my rough my rough definition when I was kind of defining what an ace could be this preseason. That's what I kept referring to. Somebody who has a reasonable shot at 200 innings and 200 strikeouts. And now

Eduardo Rodriguez might meet those thresholds. Now, I don't look at the rest of his numbers and think of him as an ace, but I mean, it's really, the final stateline's going to be pretty impressive. You know, if you take the injury-proneness out of the equation with him that's always been there, I don't know.

I don't know. He's somebody who I think might get a lot of love in drafts next year. Yeah, he was one of those sleeper guys coming into this year that now it might be a big breakout conversation. A hey, real quick email. Mitch says, hey, Welsh, the, I'm in the championship at my six-by-six head-to-head category League, thanks in part to a savvy trade for Darvish at the deadline. And I have one transaction left to use on a streaming pitcher. Who should I go for? Now, one of the reasons I bring this up to, I'm going to give you the names. We did it in the last episode. I think it's valuable for this

being one of the two final shows. I want to look at the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday options at pitchers, and we are going to do that. And these guys line in here. So here are his options for his one streaming pitcher. Drew Smiley, which is Friday. at Cleveland, Austin Voth at Miami, Trevor Williams at Milwaukee, Cal Quantrell against the Arizona Diamondbacks. You've got Asher Wojahowski versus Seattle and Jordan Zimmerman versus the White Sox. You have one. Who do you pick? I'm punting. I don't want any of them. I don't love it. I love the answer. I think all of them present too much risk of just destroying you. And I'd rather not. I mean, if you have to use that transaction on somebody to fill out a lineup spot. It's a weekly, I'm sorry, it's a daily lineup

situation. I mean, you pick up a reliever instead, I think, somebody with good ratios. I don't want to, I don't want to put my faith in any of these guys. Maybe Ross Stripling is out there because he wasn't starting. Maybe someone cut bait. But okay, so, well, I do think that's pretty, that's, that's pretty telling thing for you to see all these options. And you don't even have a guy, you're like, well, if I had to, it's just, no, this is a firm punt. But I think it tells you where you need to be, right? Yeah, I think so I mean, if you're going to force me to pick one I would say Trevor Williams

But it's at Milwaukee Which even without Yelich I mean obviously it's a tough place to pitch And he's just Didn't do so well last time Yeah Like he's just too contact prone And not reliable enough

And I'd be I'd be afraid I'd be afraid to do it Be very afraid Our buddy Trent says Hey guys I am in the championship At My 10 team head to head points league and I have one start left this week. Pitchers are a high priority in this league, I'm sure, my friend.

So there really isn't a lot to choose from. My only decent choices are Tyler Alexander versus the White Sox, Ryan Yarbrough versus the Red Sox, and Lance Lynn versus the A's, and he puts if he actually starts. I'd prefer to start Lynn, but I'm seeing a lot of conflicting reports on if he actually is starting Sunday or on Tuesday next week. Any insight, if he is not starting Sunday, would you prefer Yarbrough or Alexander?

He's the right call if he is starting Sunday, and I don't have him among my two-start pitchers for this upcoming week, so I'm assuming that means I'm projecting him to go Sunday. But obviously, you can wait to find that out. Yarbrough would be my second choice. I mean, when you're making the alternative Tyler Alexander, I don't think there's any debate to be had there. I understand the matchups talking different colors of socks opposite ends of the spectrum,

but always go with the skills over the matchups because a lack of skills you're just asking for luck. It doesn't matter who they're facing. I completely agree. We've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday pitching to take a look at for all of you that are dragging and you're just like, come on, help me, help me. But first, we've got to go take a look at our friends over at Seat Geek. Seatgeek promo code, fantasy. Searching sporting events, live music, comedy, and more has never.

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All right, Friday picture. I know this is different. Audience is still adjusting to these. We don't usually do this from a day-to-day breakdown. I just thought it might be a little chancel. There's not many days left. There are so little days left and so little shows. So Friday pitchers, I put together a list of five that I'm curious at your take on.

You've already kind of hit Drew Smiley, who was 16% owned in CBS. He's got Cleveland. I did find an interesting 20Ks and only four earned runs over his last three starts, but we've already covered that. Annable Sanchez, a very, very favorable matchup, one of my favorites. 66% owned, though, so he's right at that threshold. He's got Miami. Jordan Zimmerman, who popped up a bunch, and you did also give your answer to.

8% owned, he's got the White Sox, and here's two more. Eric Lauer, who's going up against the Arizona Diamondbacks, 29% owned. If you don't count his start at Colorado, he's gone six in his last three and struck out eight or more twice. And then Dylan Cease, 43% owned versus Detroit. his last start, five innings, one-earned-run with five strikeouts and three walks. Those are some talkable pitchers here for Friday that we could get into that aren't, you know, 70-plus percent own. So what do you think about that crew? You've already kind of eliminated Zimmerman and Smiley.

So Sanchez, Lauer, Cease, anybody gets you excited, like someone you got to get out there for Friday? I think because of the matchups, and it wouldn't be a got-to-get-get-them-out-there situation. It would be, I have to get somebody out there or I'm finished. I would go with Annabal Sanchez, whose skills I don't totally trust, but he's been fairly reliable this year, and Marlon's obviously a good matchup. Dylan Sees, who's looked a little better of late, Tigers is obviously a favorable matchup.

But if it is a shallower situation where maybe you don't even have to look this far down, I do want to point out Mike Fultenevich is facing the Giants, and Merrill Kelly, who's put together a few good starts, is facing the Padres. I think there was one more, too. Let me see here. No, that's probably it. Those two would be my preferred options of a ready piece. Would it be Mike Fires versus the Rangers?

No, it wouldn't. You're not going to start Mike Fires. No, Mike Fires has turned the corner and is going to set fire to your ratios if you start him. I put it on here. I was like, can you start him? I just wanted to hear what you had to say. So, all right, so what's the order? Is it Sanchez and you go, is Cease 2 over Lauer?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, I, I, let me see Lauer. I'm going to tell everybody I'm picking up Lauer for a Friday start here. He's been decent as of recent. The Diamondbacks, which is nice little rhyme. The Diamondbacks have just kind of been, they've been blah for the last two weeks.

There's a lot of stuff going on with their lineup. So I'm putting Lauer out there on, unfortunately. Friday because I need it. Probably without Catele Marte. Yeah, he's still sitting. Yeah, I mean, it seems like a desperate situation, but I guess Lauer would be third if we're just ranking the pictures you've listed here, Sanchez, followed by C's followed by Lauer. For the Friday starts. Oh, by the way, I'm not sure if you caught this.

And I just caught it a few minutes before going on, but there was a report this morning. It sounds like Mookie Betz. I only bring this up because I mentioned Cotel Marte, who's not officially out for the season. Well, Mookie Betts isn't either. It sounds like he could be ready to go this weekend, Betz. And that's a big deal. Actually, when we get to the news and notes, there's a guy that I thought was done for the season that played today, played on Thursday.

Yeah, that happens sometimes. I mean, you don't have to commit to putting these guys on the IL, which expanded rosters. That's the case. It's one of those unexpected pleasantries of this part of the season where at this point with the final two weeks, I see any big player get hurt. I'm like, they're done. They're just done.

They're going to shut the guy down. And then you get this pleasant surprise where a guy like Anthony Rizzo does not, and he gets back in there. So Mookie Betts could be a big deal, especially for you guys that play two starts. I'm glad that you mentioned that. Going into the Saturday starters here, I have got three for you. Now, one is a little bit cheaty, but I want to start with Justice Sheffield, who's 35% own. He's got Baltimore, four in one-third, five earned runs, though, but eight strikeouts in his last start versus the White Sox. Johnny Quedo, who's up to 50%.

He's going against Atlanta, though. But he's been really good. Ten innings, only given up four hits across those two starts, nowhere in runs and six strikeouts. And then the oft talked about Zach Plissac. He is 76% owned, but he didn't get the two starts. He's getting the one start versus Philly coming off of that complete game shutout where he struck out five.

So Sheffield, Plissac, Quato, how would you rank these guys on Saturday? Quedo. And then I guess Sheffield. I don't feel great about Sheffield or Pliessac. Quedo is the one I feel good about. Quedo, I could get behind, even though it's the worst matchup, Atlanta. Now, what about Saturday? Do you have any worries on any guys that might be, like, take, you know, Kintana,

who's going up against the Cardinals, hasn't been necessarily fantastic. You could, I mean, I don't want to say all the names for you here, but do you have anybody in the Saturday matchups that you have a worry about? Look, if you're debating police act, I'm sorry, if you're debating Kentana, who hasn't been great lately, like you said, if you're debating him and somebody like Justice Sheffield, you go Kentana. I don't think he'd get cute with that. But if, you know, if you're not forced to start Kentana, then it might be better to steer clear of him. I wanted to bring up Manaya, but I mean, I think he's so owned and so valued at this point. It's a great matchup at home versus Texas on Saturday. No, Manaya is up there with Fultenevich in terms of, you know, they haven't quite gotten to universal ownership yet, but I'm more or less thinking of them as must start. I'm more or less. Yeah, I'm with you. Now, Sunday, this is the interesting one because, again, I mean, Scott has given you the good caveat of like, hey, listen, everything can change.

There's so much here. This could be, I play leagues that end this weekend. I know some of you go on to the two weeks, but this could be make a break here. Here are three names for you. John Means, I know we talked about earlier in the week, 67%-owned versus Seattle. He was 5 and 2-thirds, but 5 earned runs in his last start against Detroit. Pablo Lopez, who is only 30% on. He's got the nationals, and he was pretty good against the Diamondbacks recently.

Six, three-earned runs with six strikeouts, and Adam Plutco, 44% own, went six, two-earned runs with six strikeouts against Detroit last. So Plutco-Lopez Means, how do you rank them? Probably Pletco won because I give him a much better chance of getting a win than Means. Though Means versus Seattle, I think that's a good enough matchup that I could get behind playing him too. I don't know about Lopez against the Nationals. I don't think he's significantly better than Plutco or Means, neither of whom I'm particularly fond of it, particularly trusting in the skills. And obviously that Washington matchup, yeah, particularly since he's on the Marlins and there's not much.

hope for a win anyway. I don't think there's enough upside to justify the potential downside there. Now there are two really interesting names that are going Sunday that I think there'll be a lot of questions about. You kind of touch on it last episode, but let's make sure we're honed in here for Sunday where Brandon Woodruff, who is going, who is lined up to pitch on Sunday against Pittsburgh, and then Garrett Richards, who his last start in his return, three and two-thirds, three earned runs, but five strikeouts. So Woodruff, Garrett Richards, those are bigger names. that aren't getting the full run. What do you think about, and I'll even open it up if you want to take a look at like

the Saturday starts and whatnot. Do you see if you felt Garrett Richards and Woodruff were just, their talent is so high and they could be in line for the start, it's worth overgoing Plutco. It's worth overgoing Johnny Quedo. So what do you think about those two? I don't think so. I mean, Woodruff, I'm not even sure there's a case to be made for Richards in terms of that. I mean, he wasn't, he hadn't quite reached that ace level before having Tommy John surgery.

You know, significant injury he's coming back from the minor league rehab assignment was pretty shaky. And his first start back from the I.O. was pretty shaky. So there's no reason to bother with him. Woodruff, at least, he was an ace before getting hurt this year. He basically reached that level of usage and fantasy. And really strong in two innings when he returned. It's just three innings is all, like, give him a chance of going against Pittsburgh. So other than a ratios play, I don't see the point.

Well, maybe not so much the desperation plays. Anybody on Sunday you're worried about that is of note that you want to note to people, you look at it and you're like, I mean, Dallas Keiko had been reeling a little bit, he's going up against the Giants. Trevor Bauer. I know Trevor Bauer is clear of it now, and he still is in that line, but there's always a little bit worried. Martine Perez, good matchup, but, you know, he is who he is. Any worries or no? No, I don't think so. There's also a lot of...

Len, I feel good. Lynn's been kind of shaky, Lance Lynn, but I pointed out after his last start that the skills still seem pretty impressive for him. Kikell, it was just a one-start, rough patch. Not even a patch, you know, I just had a bad start last time out, so not worried about him. And, yeah, I don't think so.

I think, you know, Matthew Boyd against the White Sox. if it was any team other than the White Sucks, I might worry about using him just because he's been so vulnerable to the long ball here in the second half. But I'd be okay with it. I'm seeing Ryan Yarbrough against the Red Sox, who I recommended earlier when the alternative was Tyler Alexander.

Yeah. But I think if your main goal is to preserve ratios as opposed to get strikeouts and wins, then you might think about sitting him. And maybe just punting the whole thing. Because remember, that guy had Alexander, Yarborough, or Lynn, and if Lynn didn't go, instead of trying to put one of those two in,

you just say, thanks, but no thanks. Unless you're just, you know, desperation. Sunday's it. It's all over. Yeah, I don't. I want to go as far as saying Yarbrose is a desperation play against the Red Sox. It just depends on what you need.

Certainly if you need more points in a, like points league context, fine, stardom. It's Categories league, though. And you're mainly concerned with preserving ERA and WIP. It's probably better to go with no one as opposed to Yarbrough against the. the Red Sox in that case. We have a good bullpen email, but let me set the stage on the bullpen for Thursday

because a couple interesting notes. Craig Kimbril was back in action. I thought it might take a couple more days. He returned, but he picked up a loss. He went two-thirds of an inning, gave up an run. In the same game, Carlos Martinez probably destroyed some people this weekend or coming into this weekend as he blew the save for Flaherty. So the Flaherty owners got hit.

Then if you had Martinez, you got hit. Yep. Yeah, he went to really use that win from Flaherty today. He went one third of an inning and he gave up three earned runs. A couple other interesting notes. Keone Keller, who we talked about because of the Vasquez situation, he ended up pitching the ninth. And I just wanted to note that he pinched the ninth, pitch to the ninth, but they were

going into, they were tied up and they were going to extra innings. He had a fine inning. He gave a bunch of hits. One inning gave up three hits, but he got out of it clean with one strikeout. We saw Eric Swanson. He got his first save with three strikeouts and extra inning. for Seattle and Mark Melanson got his 12th save. But it takes us to the email where our friend O says,

Good afternoon, gurus, my closers were Hand, Kimbril, and Vasquez. So essentially, I have no sources of saves currently, and the gap is closing in the standings. Guys like Lugo, Kella, Workman, and Malanson are available, however. There you go. Who do you like to try and get a few more in the last week? Thank you so much. I put a couple other names out there.

Workman who got his 15th save on Thursday. and Hiro Diaz was the most added closer on CBS. So I thought that was interesting. So what were you adding? Lugo, Kella, Workman, Malanson from his list. I would probably go, let me see how many games each of these teams are playing next to me. Boston has seven, Atlanta has five. Okay, that answers my question there.

I'd go Workman over Malanson. And so we're thinking based on the way he was used today. Keller is definitely the guy for Pittsburgh. I mean, I'm assuming he pitched the night. Ninth in a tie game, which I thought was positive. He was kind of next in line with the experience. Home game for Pittsburgh, so it would make sense for them to not save the closer for a save situation. In that scenario, they have six games, so Kella would be third.

So again, Workman, Malanson, Kella. And then I would go Lugo with Haro Diaz bringing up the rear. Okay, there you go. There's some little bit of pitching help. One more quick break. We've got to go through a few news and notes. some hitting and maybe even a few 2020 emails. So quick break right here on fantasy baseball today. Bo Bichette was removed from Thursday's game against the Orioles for a precautionary

concussion test. Bichette was hit by a pitch on the helmet in the sixth inning. He remained in the game, though, to run the bases and then he was pulled in the seventh. It looks like it's on the safe side, but that would be a brutal blow to what has been a really just solid back half of the year for the rookie who has vaulted up his 20, you know, his 2020 ranks. I know you're going to have him pretty aggressive. So be on the lookout for that, but where are you going to have, where do you think he's going to be as far as shortstop ranks for

2020? Well, it's a pretty deep position, a lot of high end hitters. I haven't done it yet. I've only done first second. I mean, I've only done catcher first and second. So I can't say for sure, but I would guess

he's in my top 20. I'm sorry. Definitely in the top 20. I meant to say 12. I don't know why 20 came out probably because it's one of a log in the morning. That was less. That was climatic. So top 12. Yes. I have him ninth rest of seat, whatever that means rest of seat. Sure. Well, you know, put him a lot lower because he might miss a game or two. Colton Wong was forced to leave Thursday's game against a cub with a left hamstring injury. The problem here is that was what caused him to miss time. last year. So this could be one of the situations where he's been a fun pickup, but you might need to make a quick move. Don't wait around. I don't know why you would either way. A couple of the returns

we were teasing or talked about it. Anthony Rizzo, to my shock, surprisingly was in the lineup. The guy was in a boot the other day. He ran around the bases and they put him in and sure enough went one for three hitting his 27th homer. And then Giancarlo Stanton had returned on Wednesday. He was batting fifth on Wednesday.

He went one for three on Thursday night. They hit him second. he went 0 for 3. So, I mean, both are just shocks to me at this point. I do wonder, I still have been looking at the Stanton one and going, man, it's going to be really brutal for people that might still be in it, that have Stanton that are putting him in his lineup. And imagine if he just goes O for the rest of this way through.

You waited all this time. You put Stanton in immediately. And then you just get absolutely nothing out of him in this last final run. I'm going to say he's not going to go over. I mean, he did have a double first game back, right? Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. I guess I was picking on tonight.

Yeah, that seems a pretty pessimistic view. But the Yankees do have five games next week. And they're actually my second worst matchups for any team next week. So I think three outfielder leagues, you're probably better off just leaving Stanton where he is. Five outfielder leagues, I could see using him. Domingo Hermann should be probably done for the year. He's got some nasty allegation stuff. And there's a whole bunch of weird stuff with it.

but, you know, Yankees, if you were depending on him, I probably wouldn't the rest of the way. Lorenzo Kane exited Thursday's game against the Padres in the fifth inning. Look for that. Cole Hamels is not going to start on Sunday against the Cardinals due to fatigue in his left shoulder, which is brutal for people. A couple quick hitting things. We might get to an email or two.

I know we focused a lot on pitching, but I felt that was probably more prevalent for us to hit, you know, get a lot of pitching stuff in because I don't know how you guys are going with hitting. But over the last week over on CBS, no shock at the three hitters you would expect. It's the same guys that we've been talking about. It's all rookies. Kyle Lewis, Sean Murphy and Nico Horner in that order

with the top three most added hitters. Kyle Lewis continues to just be on a thing. He was one for two with a walk on Thursday, but on Wednesday he hit his fifth Homer. He's been crazy. But I have got two guys I want to get your take on. One is very small, one is very little owned. The other is in almost the 50% range.

and I ask you the first one, Tommy Edmund, 49% owned. He's got 300 average with five homers, four stolen bases in September coming into Thursday, and he went two for four on Thursday. Does Tommy Edmund need to be owned? Or is Tommy Edmund underowned for this final week? Yeah, I can say he's underowned. He's in my top 10 sleeper hitters for the final week, in part because he's a hot hand, I think, with a high floor from week to week.

I don't particularly love the Cardinals matchups, but they're not bad. The Mariners have bad matchups. So Kyle Lewis, I don't know. I'd be uncomfortable using him. Maybe in a five outfielder league. He's still your best choice. But I'm not going to call him asleep. I'm not going to call.

Did you name the other guy yet? Shed Long. Yeah, that's my other guy. Yeah. So that's interesting because you just said that about the Mariners. Let me just throw Shet out here. Shed my guy who, you know, in Reds camp when he was in the Reds when I'd be out there, they call them big league shed because he's got a big old power bat questionable defense.

He's like a skinnier Willie Calhoun as a way to kind of mentally wrap your head around him. He went three for five with two RBIs on Thursday and he's on a seven game hit streak. Six of those seven games have been multi-hit. Two homers, five RBIs in that time and he was in the leadoff spot. He's got Baltimore this weekend, no game on Monday, and then Houston and Oakland. So I just wanted to throw all of those out to see if from a really deep league option, Shed did anything for you. The Baltimore matchups are solid.

I love him in the lead off spot. He's on an absolute tear right now. There might be some dead weight on some rosters where you could take a shot at Shed Long for at least a Baltimore weekend. But you don't seem optimistic about the final week. No, I mean, it would have to be a deeper league, I think, where you consider that. He hasn't. He did show some power in the market.

and 4 and 112 at bats. I mean, that's okay, I guess. But the, like, the way his batted ball profile has looked during his time in the majors, it doesn't really look like that of a power hitter. His ex-wobe is 267. And he's been getting some multi-hit games recently, but the strikeout rate isn't great. I'm not super encouraged by what I've seen from Shed Long, though. He does have some upside.

I just don't think it's going to be of much use right now. And the only thing I would counter is there's definitely power upside in the future. The thing that is going to not allow him to tap into it is if he continues to get beat. If he's going to continue to have poor pitch recognition, he's never going to tap into it. But Shedlong, 100% is a 20 plus homer potential guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't steal bases like he used to. So he's just one of those guys where it's like, all right, where does 20 homers, middle infield, without stolen bases and risk of a poor average, what does that really do?

for you. That's his struggle, but he's really on a heater right now. That's why I wanted to point him out. Sure. I'll point out also that Sean Murphy and Nico Horner, like Tommy Edmund are in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. They're actually both ahead of Edmund on that list. Go check out

that list. Where can people, when can people get it? Are you tweeting that bad boy out? Is that out already now, or is it coming up here on Friday? It'll be up on Friday morning, I assume, unless they have to get some Facebook football stuff first, but at some point Friday. Okay, we'll be on the lookout for that for all your hitting needs.

Quick, a couple quick ones. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. There's only one more show, so get whatever you need for the final week. And if you got some 20-20 takes, we'll probably do some of those. Let's just do two here. Dear James, Kirk, Cliff, and Lars. Is that Metallica? Because of Lars?

I think it is. James Headfield would be the same. Yeah, I'm confident this is Metallica. Very good. I feel like we don't hear much about Charlie Blackman, considering how he's gone from number 25 preseason rank to being tied for 54th in home runs this year and possibly finishing with fewer home runs than last year, even with everyone's favorite ball. He was a centerpiece of my home run game this year in a 5x5 rotor keeper league as

elite power was mostly absent in the draft. I can keep him one more year at a price that was higher than the average auction value, but considerably lower than my league average inflation for a top 50 player. So what say you? I was essentially asking, is Charlie Blackman worth the overpay because he seems to have underperformed? his eyes. Yeah. Not my words. That's amazing that he's that low with 29 home runs.

He's that low. 55th. He says he's tied for 54th. I mean, I'll point out he has the same number of home runs as Javier Baez, Reese Hoskins. You know, it's just one behind Manny Machado,

two behind Miguel Sonno. I mean, you know, it's not going to take much to move him from 55th to 30, to 25th. So I don't know. You have to consider the full spectrum of production if you're just assessing him on home runs. I mean, he's basically a surefire 300 hitter who's going to score 100, 10, 120 runs for batting at the top of the Rockies lineup. I've actually been surprised how low he's going in early season mock drafts because I still view him as like a second round type hitter.

Yeah, I got him in the third of like round four. Yeah, I got him in the third of, I think my ITL early mock third or fourth. really is going lower right now. I mean, I'll take perceived value being lower. I do think it'll adjust, though. Two quick hitter ones. Flaherty hit 200 strikeouts this weekend and Bueller has also hit 2K. In my opinion, I would want to draft Flaherty over Bueller. Can we have your take on both starting pitcher, Scott? I guess that's, I'm fine with that. I mean, obviously, ultimate upside I think is very similar. Bueller, we've basically seen him dominate at that level for a year and a half,

while Flaherty's been more like half a year. So just from that standpoint, I would lean Bueller. We've seen a lot more of these like 14 plus strikeout games from Bueller than we've seen from Flaherty too. So I think maybe Bueller's best might be a little better. But they're going to be basically in the same tier, I think, next year. So it's not a huge difference.

I only want to throw this last one. And even though I said there was only going to be two, it's just because we talked about this guy. Padres pitcher, this is from Russ and Maine, am I crazy to consider keeping Denelison Lamet over Chris Paddock? Lamet is $5, Paddock is $19. And I love his last part where he just says,

I miss Adam. Sorry. I'm not so sure you would have to pay much more than $5 to get Lamet back. Would you have to pay much more than 19 to get Paddock back? Absolutely, you would. I wonder what kind of format this is. But I mean, he didn't give us enough of the info. But you have to imagine what Aces are probably, if we just want to talk standards, what are Aces going to go in the 40s?

So there's got it at least, I would say Paddock is going for between 25 and 35. Lemette's going between $1 and $8. And he's probably one of those guys that ends up being a back end of an auction cheaper priced pitcher. Well, it gets tricky when you factor in everybody's keepers because, you know, presumably they're keeping guys who are undervalued. so that leaves more money out there to be spent. So auction values get inflated. I mean, what's Paddock going to be in my starting pitcher rankings next year? Like 30th, probably, something like that.

Really? Yeah. Okay. Unless I'm forgetting something. Maybe more like 25th. Yeah, I would say I'm going to probably have them in top 25 range. I can't imagine I'm going to have 25 pitchers valued it more than $20. But whatever.

Paddock. Yeah, I'm taking Paddock as well. And I'm sorry you miss Adam. There's a great one where someone tweeted, Hey, I hadn't listened a little bit. Where are you, Adam? And Adam's like, I'm, you know, doing this. But the Welsh is on.

And then the guy's response, this is all the guys' response. Are you coming back? My favorite thing. I was like, hi, I'm right here. But it's all good. Well, you guys probably only have to endure me one more show because we've only got one left. It is on Sunday or Monday, actually technically for you guys. It's the Monday episode.

We will prep you for the week. So we're going to have to kind of get that all in line here. We will take your questions, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. whatever you got for the week or whatever you need for the 2020 season. I have a feeling we'll be able to probably touch on some 2020 stuff a little bit more than usual. We did okay in the last episode. I'd like to at least get a handful of these. So feel free, send those questions in, Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com, and we got you back.

Thank you guys for everything. Good luck to every single one of you this weekend. I hope everything we talked about in the episode is going to help you. Get moving on to the next round or pulling in a championship. Until then, Friendoz, we will talk to you on Monday for the final one. to me and Scott White, but we're out of here.