Fantasy Baseball Today - 2020's Biggest (Positive) Surprises; Triple Dongs! (09/02 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

I know we've said it a lot recently but we had a truly wild night of baseball Tuesday! Let's get things started with the OMGG players and we couldn't limit it to just two (1:28). Who is this Brad Miller? Alex Dickerson triple dong! Is Ian Anderson THE ONE? ... Marcell Ozuna also launched three homers on Tuesday (9:18) but more importantly, it opened up a Fantasy philosophy discussion. Ozuna is a prime example of why we use underlying analytics to find value. ... On to news and notes, Elieser Hernandez left his start and was diagnosed with lat soreness (16:21). We have more prospects as Jazz Chisholm got the call and Ke'Bryan Hayes made his debut. Who would Scott rather have? ... Who are the biggest surprises of the 2020 season (23:17)? It's about time we show Willy Adames and Brandon Belt more love. Just how good are Zach Plesac and Framber Valdez? ... We hit the rest of Tuesday's action, including Michael Pineda's successful debut (41:54). Masahiro Tanaka is using his slider more recently and Andrew McCutchen is officially on fire. ... On the waiver wire, would Scott rather have Garrett Hampson or Jon Berti (52:12)? How about Josh Naylor or Victor Reyes? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

I know I say this a lot recently, but Tuesday really was a crazy day of baseball. Two teams scored at least 16 runs. We had a pair of triple dongs. I've got a fantasy philosophy discussion. Let's do this. Welcome to fantasy baseball today. On a Wednesday, September 2nd, Frank Stamphill, alongside my esteemed co-host,

Scott White. I hope you're ready to talk about the Giants box score for the next hour, Scott. In fact, this is FBT after midnight, so we could get all different kind of crazy levels of Scott White right now because he came in here, he's singing a bunch. It's going to be a fun show, Scott. I'm sweating, Frank.

I'm sweating after going through the... those box scores tonight. It's crazy. Craziness, multi-homer games, epic pitching performances. A lot to talk about. A lot indeed. Today on the show, we'll have some triple dongs.

Some of the biggest positive surprises of 2019. Tomorrow we'll do the stinkometer. So send some names in fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. And of course, we'll get to the rest of Tuesday's action. Let's get it started, Scott. Oh my goodness gracious. Honestly, I don't know how we're going to narrow this down to just two players. So if we talk about five players for, oh, my goodness, gracious, I don't have a problem.

Scott, where would you like to start? Oh, my goodness gracious. Where would I like to start? Oh, man. I guess I am going to start with Brad Miller. How's that for a starting point? Brad Miller no longer bad Miller. He continues to crush it.

Two home runs, a double seven RBI. four hits total for the Cardinales. And, man, I don't even really know what the analysis is because it's like, this is Brad Miller. What is he doing? Of course, the data looks great when you're this hot. I don't see how it couldn't look great. He's not striking out much. I mean, there's nothing I can point to and say, okay, this clearly is going to decline for Brad Miller,

except for the fact that he's Brad Miller, you know? And so that should be the presumption. But you can't dismiss them that easily either because of the data. So it's kind of just a, I think it's a right and well-it-hot situation with Brad Miller. And, you know, be skeptical, but don't fail to take advantage of it either. That's kind of where I am with him. Brad Miller, four hits on Tuesday, including a double-donged, seven R.B. three runs scored. He is 21% rostered. The Cardinals have a ton of games left this season.

I was actually going to include him in our biggest surprises segment, but I have no problem starting it there. So Scott, based on his roster percentage, 21%. What should that number be moving forward? The Cardinals have a ton of games left, as I mentioned, and people have been emailing us asking how they can take advantage of that. I think Brad Miller is one of those ways. yeah it's a he's strictly third base eligible at least in standard CBS leagues so that that limits how you can use them obviously in like a standard roto lineup league because there's the corner infield spot in addition to dh a bunch of player a bunch of hitter spots to fill it's probably easier to pick him up there and use him probably 60% is where i'm thinking that

roster ship should be for brad miller right now okay i'm going to throw a few names your way. You'll tell me if you'd rather have Brad Miller or this player as Drewble Cabrera. Brad Miller. Alec Boehm, who also went boom on Tuesday. Hit his second home run.

Yeah. I think I've got to go with Boehm there. I agree with you. Gio O'Shella, your boy. Didn't Gio go boom today? He did not have a home run. I believe it was a two-run triple where he scored on an error. So it was like an instant. It was like a little

being home run. Yes. And he had a home run yesterday. Yeah, I'm going to stick with Geo there. I think that data still favors him, even though the batting average is down at around 250. XBA is still 291. Yeah, things are still looking good for Geo. All right, a pair of names, Eduardo Escobar and Brian Anderson. I would go Brad Miller over both of those. Okay, so Eduardo Escobar is really a notable one. I felt like he was coming around. but four homers, 200 batting average. Yeah, I'm all right with that.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Brad Miller, one of the standouts from Tuesday. All right. Let's get to the triple dongs. Alex Dickerson had four hits on Tuesday. Three homers, six RBI. He is 11% rostered, Scott. Seven games next week for the San Francisco Giants.

Alex Dickerson doesn't play against lefties. I think he had four played appearances against lefties, entering tonight's action. What do we make of this? Or is this just, he had an awesome game in Cores Field. We don't really have to do anything with it. Yeah, so the game's still going on. He may end up with more than four hits.

Yeah. It's 23 to 4 right now for the Giants. Gosh. So obviously, a lot of huge performances in that game. Dickerson's with three home runs, the biggest. As you mentioned, playing time issue there. His batting average is only up to 253, with this huge performance.

And I don't make much of it. He's not a bad hitter, but he's not so good, even when he's in the lineup that it's worth dealing with the times he's not. You know? So to me, it's just, this is a course, field game. And if you happen to start him in a deeper league, lucky you. Yeah, I tend to agree. I mean, even in 15-team-5 outfielder leagues,

I couldn't imagine starting him this week, unless you just wanted to take advantage of Corse Field. But even with that, the Giants only had five games entering this week. So it was kind of a weird situation anyway. I don't think many people have Alex Dickerson in their lineups regardless. All right, let's get to your brave, Scott, because it was an awesome day for both Ian Anderson and for Marcel O'Zuna. Start off with Ian Anderson, six endings of two-run ball, eight strikeouts,

19 swinging strikes on 96 pitches, eight on the change-up, nine on the curveball. He averaged 95 miles per hour on the fastball. He has three legit pitches. And I see you, you smirking, you're ready, you're ready to, you're ready, you're ready to talk about Ian Anderson. But he's got at least six innings in each of his first two. Walks haven't been an issue. Knock on wood.

Scott, I think this is the prospect that we were waiting for. The chosen one. Oh, yeah. Ian Anderson. He is the one. Mr. Anderson is the one. absolutely. In a way, this start was more impressive

than one hitting the Yankees over six first time out because of all those whiffs. I mean, my gosh, it's so, especially as a Braves fan, it's so rare to have the pitcher who misses bats like Ian Anderson looks like he's capable of doing to do it. You know, the change-up was there in his first start too,

getting all the whiffs on the change-up, but to have the curveball be responsible for nine-wigs. and I think it was basically he threw each of his three pitches a third of the time so he really mixed it up really showed a lot of comfort with all of them as you mentioned the control has been there so

we've seen impressive outings from Tristan McKenzie we've seen one from 6thos Sanchez Ian Anderson moves to the top of that list among the recent rookie pitcher call-ups I'd still

among all rookie pitchers I'll put him behind Jesus Lazzardo still, but I think Ian Anderson is number two on that list now. I agree. It's hard not to get excited over him. Again, he has the three pitches. He can get the whiffs on the two outside of the fastball and throws the fastball hard. As long as he keeps the control in check and doesn't wind up walking the world, I think that we've got a pretty damn good pitcher on our hands here in Ian Anderson. He is 77% rostered on CBS, probably not available anywhere, check your 10 team leagues, but if he is, oh my goodness, gracious. Exactly.

Jenks, you owe me a soda, Scott. But, yeah, he has to be owned. Mountain Dew tonight, Scott. Is that what you're hopped up on? No, I didn't. I actually didn't. But that's apparently what I'm known for. So that's what I offer.

I wanted to talk about Marcelo Zuna and kind of transition this into a little bit more of a fantasy philosophy conversation that I can use your expertise because I don't know if I'm going to going to explain it correctly, but I'm going to try my best. Marcel Lozuna at the Red Sox on Tuesday, triple dong, three homers, six RBI. Entering this game, he was outfieler 23 in head-to-head points leagues. He was outfieler 26 in Roto. And I want to use this as an example of where the underlying analytics were right about a

player. We received an email recently from a gentleman named Chris, where he was asking about using underlying analytics when evaluating Luis Castillo. It's a little bit different because it's a pitcher, but I still think it's relevant. Last year, Marcel O'Zuna hit 241 with a 472 slug. Stackcast said that based on his quality of contact, his expected batting average, was 291, and his expected slug was 549. So huge disparities.

He's severely underperformed. Entering tonight's action, Ozuna was batting 286 with a 556 slug. And his batted ball numbers are basically exactly the same as they were last. year. He is on par now with his expected statistics this season. So the underlying analytics are not necessarily predictive. They tell you what a player's numbers should be based on the quality of contact that they've had or what their skills are. If you're a pitcher, what your ex-fip is or your skill interactive ERA, your Sierra is going to be based on how many ground balls you get and you're swinging tricrate and your ability to limit walks. All those things are accounting.

in the ERA estimators. So now, this could be useful was drafting OZuna this year at a discounted cost. We knew that if he kept doing what he did last year, if he kept up that quality of contact,

that the numbers should have been better and they have been this season. So I think that's where we can use that as to our advantage, Scott, similar to why we think Luis Castillo has been a buy-low and if he continues to stink, we'll be a discount heading into next season.

Did I explain that correctly? I would, well, yeah, I mean, I think the expected stats or the data, as I sometimes refer to it loosely, they are a better measurement of a player's skill than obviously raw stats are. And so that makes them,

they're more predictive in that way. I mean, if the skill holds, then eventually, the players' numbers will look like this. And, you know, it's not full proof, as we saw with Marcelo Zuna last year. But I think given enough time, given infinite amount of time of a player producing at that, of a player performing at that skill level, that's eventually what the numbers are going to look like. I think it's pretty trustworthy if you're not putting any sort of timeline on it at all.

But, you know, that's hard to know exactly. how to do that anyway because how because skill level could fall off over that long a period of time. I'm not sure I'm doing anything to clarify. No, I think you are. I think you are. But yeah, I mean, the fact that Marcel Ozuna didn't

live up to his expected stats last year and he is this year while continuing, like the skills are basically looking the same across the board tells you that you know, he's had enough time now. Like over time it eventually happens.

Yeah, like there is a luck factor involved in baseball. There's just no doubt about it. It's the way that the game is played. It's, you know, bad bit. Someone can hit the ball 120 miles per hour off the bat. If it's right at someone, it's just bad luck. So sometimes these things are going to happen in baseball where, you know, it's not really explainable in the numbers

outside of looking at the underlying analytics and seeing, okay, has this player been unlucky? And that's why, you know, we bring up so many of these different tools for fantasy baseball. I hope we kind of did that some justice, but some other people have asked before as well, and I thought it was worth talking about. An honorable mention, oh my goodness gracious.

Sunny Gray. Oh, who-hoo-hoo! Against the Cardinals. He recorded two outs, five hits, six earned runs, three walks, one strikeout. That's an 81 ERA. I know it looks bad. It's pretty bad.

It's bad. But only two hard-hit balls in this game. His ERA is now up to 3.19, which honestly, Scott, is more realistic for Sunny Gray. Yeah, I mean, regression comes for everybody, given enough time, as we were saying. And, you know, you don't like it to come all at once like this, especially if you play in a head-to-head categories league, which I can speak to that. But, you know, his ex-fip heading into this game was 294.

And now is ERA's 319. So that's much closer than the gap we were seeing before. you know. His control has been a little shaky in recent starts, and he did walk three in his two-thirds of an inning in this one. But, you know, this was the Giants, we talked about them, all the runs they scored tonight. The Cardinals were right behind them, scoring 16 runs.

So a combination of not having the best control tonight and coming up, like, coming against a buzzsaw like that, probably contributed to Sunday Gray's bad outing. I don't think it's any reason to freak out, though obviously it's very disappointing for this current week. Yeah, look, regression was going to happen. Sunny Gray, we didn't expect him to go all Dobnack on us, and he wasn't that bad.

But yeah, eventually it was going to happen. He wasn't going to pitch to a sub-2 ERA all season. That'll do it for, oh my goodness gracious. But speaking of which, one of our listeners, Brendan McLaughlin made this awesome matchup featuring all of us from the pod. Me, Scott, Adam, and Chris. take a listen Gracious

Scott White After Dark I was banging it hard Can you believe this with Aaron Judge? Yes I can't

Do your homework Sir Adam Adam I want to crush his soul aren't you kind of like a fantasy dictator Yeah It's not just for sex appeal

Fantastic I'll say it time and time again the creativity from our listeners, much appreciated. It's awesome, Scott. Yeah. I like it. It was great.

True story. Scott sang a rhythm of the night probably ten times before we got started here today. It was the rhythm of the night. Hey. All right, some news and notes. Aliezer Hernandez

exited Tuesday start and has been diagnosed with right lat soreness, which does not sound good. I don't know if there's been anything else. I'd probably expect an IL stint, Scott? Yeah, that's one of the big disappointments of the night since he was one of the most buzzed about pitcher pickups

of the last week plus, and now he may be out for the year, so bummer there. The Dodgers plays Justin Turner on the 10-day IL retroactive to August 29th with a left hamstring strain. Wouldn't be a baseball season without a Justin Turner IL stint. Stinking with the Dodgers, Cody Bellinger, was not in the lineup on Tuesday because of lat soreness.

Stop skipping the pull-downs in the gym, bro. Walker Bueller, dealing with a blister, is set to return to the Dodgers starting rotation on Wednesday versus the Diamondbacks. Trevor Story was out of the Rockies lineup on Tuesday against the Giants. Seems to be a normal rest day.

I left him in my DFS lineup, so that was not great on my part. The Twins activated Byron Buxton from the 10-day injured list was back. Adding 7th, he had two hits and an RBI. Braves manager Brian Snitker said Tuesday that Azi Albi should be heading to the team's alternate site

by the end of the week. He's missed the past month or so with a bone contusion in his wrist. Ronald Acuna was absent once again from the Braves lineup on Tuesday. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that Glaber Torres could see at bats at the team's alternate training site in the next few days.

He's dealing with an issue to his quad slash hamstring. They also activated Zach Britton off the IL, and he pitched in the eighth inning on Tuesday. Austin Meadows was back in the lineup. He finished 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Reds manager David Bell said he expects to keep Rysseliglasius in the closer's role. Archie Bradley pitched in the third inning on Tuesday after Sunny Gray's meltdown. So I tend to agree that Ryssela Iglesias is the closer for the Reds. Starling Marte was in the lineup for the Marlins, batting second.

He homered his first game. In Marlins Park, Jacoby Jones was hit by a pitch on Tuesday, diagnosed with a fractured left hand. Sorry, Jacoby Jones. More prospects. Jazz Chisholm has been called up. What is your interest level on Jazz Chisholm? Scott?

Well, it's there. There is interest. It's a very interesting prospect because the upside is high. The downside is low. High volatility player here. And obviously, we don't know what kind of progress he's been making at the,

alternate training site. After getting traded from the diamondbacks to the Marlins last year, he was the key piece in the Zach Gallen deal there. He cut his strikeout rate down from like 33% to 25% for the, you know, it was less than 100 plate appearances with the Marlins, but it was improved. And so if he can sustain like a 25% strikeout rate, I do think the skill level is high enough that he could be a real impact player in fantasy. But, We're kind of operating into blind here. And probably not a lot of listeners out there need a shortstop. But if you do, take a flyer, stash him away on your bench.

And if he does hit big, then obviously you'll have beaten the punch to him. Yeah, and I am more interested in a Roto league, a head-dead Categories League. He has a little bit of pop. He has some speed last year at AA. he only hit 220, but a 321 OBP, so he walks a little bit, 441 slug, 21 homers, 16 steals altogether in AA. The numbers, like this is not a prospect where you really size him up based on the numbers, I would say.

It's really about the skills, which, you know, I don't think it's just a little bit of pop. If he hits big, he's going to hit big. Yeah, there is big, long. long-term upside. And I think that's what the Marlins are hoping as well. Remember, this is the prospect they got in return in the Zach Gallen trade. So seeing what Zach Gallen has done so far this season, I'm sure they're hoping for big things. And it's worth mentioning that at my previous job, I worked with Craig Mish, who covers the Marlins, did a great job around the trade deadline as well.

Shout out to Craig. He had the ability to watch Jazz Chisholm firsthand throughout spring training. And he was raving about this kid. He said, tools. for days. So again, you have them in a keeper, a dynasty league. I think much better in a roto context. Anything else to add there, Scott? You sounded like you wanted to say something. No, I agree with that assessment.

I was just going to mention the name again, Jazz Chisholm, just in case you missed it the first time around. Fair enough. Cabrion Hayes made his debut, another prospect, for the Pirates on Tuesday. He had two hits, including a double, and a game-tying home run in the eighth inning. He is 14% rostered. Scott, that number should be blank. It should be higher than 14.

Now, this is, like, it's interesting, because these are two prospects. Jazz Chisholm, keep Brian Hayes, for whom the hype definitely exceeds the production. In different ways, because Hayes puts the bat on the ball a lot in the minors. There just was no power on under 400 slugging. percentage for his minor league career. It has been over 400 the past two years, but not impressive. I think his career high in home runs in a minor league season is 10. So, you know, he debuts and doubles in homers right away.

Of course he does. But like, there have been predictions of him eventually becoming an impact player with the bat. The defense is there. The contact skills are there. You know, if that happens, then he, he, could become a fantasy asset really quickly. That's sort of the development path Francisco Lindor took, for instance.

So I don't think it's a rush to Adam situation, not rush to Adam, but you know, rush to add him situation. I was going to say Azer? Rush to Adam? Yeah, I didn't want anybody showing up at his door. But yeah, I don't think it's a rush to add him situation for either Jazz Chisholm or Kibrian Hayes, but it's definitely a watch this closely situation because there's more than meets the eye for both of these players.

If you have one roster spot available in a deeper league and you want to just take a shot on a bat, which one do you take? Cobraean Hayes or Jazz Chisholm? Hayes, it's a safer profile. And would you take Hayes or Brad Miller? Both play third base. Brad Miller.

Fair enough. The biggest surprises of 2020, we already spoke about Miller. I've got to come back to the well, Scott. It seems like we might have a bit of a Kyle Lewis situation on our hands because we keep bashing Willie Adomis, and it seems like we're not giving him credit where it's due. He went three for three on Tuesday.

He hit his fifth home run of the season. He is now batting 316 with a 970 OPS as a shortstop. I think that Willie Adamas has been one of the bigger surprises thus far, Scott. Yeah, and three straight multi-hit games home runs in his last two. So obviously the batting average and OPS look great now because that's still what happens when you go on that kind of run. at this point in the season. Yeah, I mean, the line drive rate is up,

which is going to make for a better Babbitt profile. The harder contact, the hard contact rate is up, which is going to mean more power. But the strikeout rate is untenable still. Like this reminds me, this start for Willie Adama reminds me of the kind of start Brandon Lau got off to last year. and then he faded pretty quickly. It doesn't mean there isn't any skill level here.

It just means it's not, he doesn't have it all figured out yet, Willie Adomas. And, you know, I don't know if there's going to be enough time with about a month left in the season for the numbers to regret. I don't know.

That could happen pretty quickly too, but I wouldn't be, I still would be reluctant to invest in him as anything more than a hot hand type of, of play. All right, so let me ask you in a in a Roto League. Would you rather have

Willie Adamas or Jorge Palanco? I would rather have Jorge Palanco. Let me double check because I haven't really looked at his numbers much this year's. Hasn't been providing much power. But yeah, I still think I'd rather

have Polanco. How about Willie Adamus or Ahmed Rosario? And this is more so for a middle infield. I would go with Adamas there, but I've never been a big Ahmed Rosario guy. Willie Adamas or Elvis Andrews who just returned on Tuesday and homered off of Ryan Presley. Definitely not an Elvis Andrews guy, so I'll go Adamus there.

All right, so it seems like he's, once you update these rankings, guy, he'll probably slot in somewhere in the 20 to 25 range at shortstop. I think that makes sense. And maybe he'll just continue to... I don't know. That sounds a little low. Like, I could put him ahead of, like, Gene Seguera. Would you put him ahead of DeYoung, Paul DeYoung? That's what I was thinking about.

I don't think so. I want those Cardinals games, man. They just have so many games left to play. And DeYoung hasn't been bad. He also has barely played. Right, right. He's barely played because he was out even when the rest of the team returned. So I think he has a couple multi-hit games in a row. like he might be starting to heat up.

I could put, yeah, I guess it only comes to about 20th in those shortstop rankings, though. Shortstop is a good position. Let's say the 15 to 20 range for Adomis instead of 20 to 25. Yeah, shortstop is a good position, man. You're not going to take him over Danes v. Swanson. You're not going to take him over. I mean, David Fletcher has an injury next to his name.

I don't know what's going on with him. Yeah, it sounds like a day-to-day thing, but maybe not. D.D. Gregorius. I'm sorry? Didi Gregorius has been really good. Yeah. So you can't do that either. Look, sometimes it just takes a little bit of time.

Willie Adomas was a former top prospect. I think, you know, it's not really surprising to see eventually, both him and Danesby Swanson, kind of breaking out in the same season. So it's interesting. He has been a very big surprise. Robinson Canoe also a big surprise the season. Two more hits on Tuesday. He hit his seventh home run entering this game.

He was averaging 3.4 fantasy points per game, which is fourth among second base. I don't know that there's really much actionable advice that we can give regarding Robinson Canoe except if you picked them up and you're riding the hot streak, I think you just continue to go with it. Yeah, that looks like more than a hot streak and we talked about it earlier in the year. He then went on the aisle with a groin injury,

ended up missing only the minimum 10 days, I believe. So people may have kind of cooled on him. But three home runs in his last four now, batting average has been high all season. He looks great. He looks like, he looks like, He looks like Prime Robinson Canow. Which is crazy because he is 37 years old.

And I think last year the combination of returning from the PED suspension the year before, dealt with some injuries, I think Robinson Cano is back. Someone else who, I'm not going to say he's back. He might just be the best version of himself that we've ever seen before. And it's really come out of nowhere, Scott. But Brandon Belt, three more hits. And hold on, let me check the box score to make sure that he hasn't improved on that. By the way, Alex Dickerson has picked up a hit since we've talked about him.

Five hits. Yeah. You sure you don't want to add him, Scott. Do you want to add Brandon Belt, who three hits, including two doubles, at least three runs, his hard hit rate, his ex slug, his ex-wo, and his barrel rate, according to Stackast, are all in the 93rd percentile or better. He has six multi-hit games in his last nine. The Giants play seven games next week.

Brandon Belt is 30% rostered. That seems criminal, Scott. Yeah, it needs to go up. I don't know what's changed for him. His line drive rate is like 35%, which is as high as you'll ever see. You'll never see that over a full season. And it may just be one of those situations

where he's so hot that it's breaking the data. he has talked about how coming off of knee surgery last year, the strength in the knee wasn't back yet. And so that's why he had such a terrible year. But still at 32, we've never seen anything like this before from Brandon Belt. He's back to playing every day lefties and righties and doing well against lefties.

So I think, yeah, I think people are definitely sleeping on Brandon Belt at this point. Oh, he's actually not doing well against lefties. He's two for 12, huh? But I still think people, are sleeping on Brandon Bell and as long as it's not loaded with lefties the matchups next week, then

that's somebody you'll probably want to get in your lineup if you can. All right, Brandon Belt or blank. Christian Walker. Who would you rather have? I,

man, Christian Walker's looked really good too. Like, he's kind of lagging in the home run department, but everything else looks so strong, including the kind of hard contact he makes

that I feel like there are home runs to come for him. And I will say Christian Walker. Brandon Belt or Jesus Aguilar? Well, Belt at this point, yeah. Yeah, I got to go Belt there. Brandon Belt or Ryan Malkestle, if you just picked him up. I will go with...

That's probably matchups dependent. I'm kind of leaning belt right now, unless it's loaded with lefties. He has, because I'm wondering, how is he starting against lefties and he has only 12 of bats against him? It's only the last three lefties he started against, so that's a recent development.

I think he homered off of a lefty recently. Yeah, well, that's one of his two hits against lefties. It's, you know, two for 12, obviously doesn't tell us anything, but it's a stretch to say he's good against lefties now. All right. I've got to ask, Brandon Belt or Josh Bellska? I mean, let's see how the rest of this week goes, but I'd probably play the hotter hand

between the two of them, or at least look at the matchups there too. I mean, Belt is in the discussion, is the bottom line. He has put himself in that discussion. He is now on the borderline of being started in a mixed league, and at the very

least, a matchups play. Zach Plessack. Also, a huge surprise in 2020. It wasn't really on anyone's radar, but he is reinvented himself. in his second season. I guess it's, I don't know if that's the right way to phrase it.

But he was going up against the Kansas City Royals in his return, six innings of one-run ball, zero walks, six strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 90 pitches. He entered the start, averaging the second most fantasy points per game among starting pitchers behind only his teammate, Shane Bieber.

He's back like he never left, Scott. Yeah, no, it was encouraging to see because I wasn't sure what getting sent down like that would do to his mental state and, you know, if he kind of might just lose his approach from that time away with the team. But he did have more fastballs in this game. It was the most fastballs he's thrown in any of his four starts so far. But he's still leaned.

It's more because he didn't throw his curveball much than because he didn't throw his slider and change up a lot. He still leaned on those two secondary pitches. a lot more than we saw from him last year, and it still led to a big swinging strike total. So very encouraging start from Zach Plesek. I would say he's back to being a must-start pitcher if you didn't have him active already.

Yeah. The few weeks where I have him, I didn't put him into the lineup just because I wanted to see him do it first. And it just sucks that I missed out on this. But this is exactly why we told you to hold on to Zach Pesak. I know it was tough the entire time, but we talk about,

You use your bench to stash upside. Apologies. Just got hit with a calendar update. This is why we told you to stash Zach, please, because his upside is exactly what he showed here today. So hopefully you listened and you held on to him. His teammate, Fran Mill Reyes, I had him as a breakout candidate,

and I don't really know if this counts got, because he's doing it in a way that I didn't expect Fran Mill Reyes to be a breakout this season. He went five for five on Tuesday, including he hit his eighth home run of the season. He's betting 323. And I think that could be even better. His ground ball rate is 54%.

And this is something that I did have pause entering the season on because he has always typically hit the ball on the ground too much for a quote-unquote slugger. But he's been great. He got off to a slow start in like the past three weeks or so. Fran Moraes looks like the breakout candidate Yeah, he does. And I mean, he's overachieving his expected batting average by hitting 323 now.

But the expected batting average coming into the day was 286. So it's really good expected batting average. Like you said, the ground ball rate is really high. He's always been a guy who hits a lot of ground balls. I'm surprised he has this kind of batting average and such a low line drive rate. Like I expected that to be higher than it was when I looked at it. So I'm, you know, if he, I don't think, I don't think it's wise to approach Fran Mill Reyes as if he's some kind of batting average specialist. I don't think he's going to be a liability there necessarily, but we, more than anything, you really want the power from him.

He's still hitting the ball very hard. Is he hitting it in the air enough that he's going to be the kind of power hitter we want him to be? I have some questions there, but there's no reason to bench him just because I'm a little skeptical of what he's doing. Oh, yeah, I mean, absolutely. He's a must start. I would say even in a points league

where it's not really his preferred format because he doesn't walk all that much and he strikes out a decent bit. But yeah, Fran Milraeus has been great. Someone else has been great this season. Framber Valdez got off to a bit of a rough start on Tuesday and then bounced back, wound up going seven innings,

three earned runs, eight strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes on 94 pitches, nine ground ball outs. He has now gone at least seven innings in four of his last five starts. Again, that's Framber Valdez. And the skills line up with him, too. Entering Tuesday, he was averaging more fantasy points per game

than Zach Grinke, than Garrett Cole, to Nelson Lament, Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbyn. It might be time to get Framber Valdez inside our top 30 starting. pitching pitcher, Scott. It's a really difficult threshold to break into. I did move him up. I've been working on the rankings today. I know I've done starting pitcher already, and I did move him up. I can tell you to 35. I mean, like I said, really tough group to break into there. I am pretty much buying into Framber Valdez fully, though. His ground ball rate is the sort that would

lead the league as he's shown every chance he's gotten in the majors. It's really just, you know, he's not killing himself with walks anymore. He's still not a great control pitcher, but he's good enough with that kind of ground ball rate. And, you know, it's rare to get the kind of strikeouts he does with that kind of ground ball rate. Usually if you're succeeding like he is in two of the three legs of the fifth triangle, unless you're just awful in the third, you're going to be a good pitcher. And that's where I think Framper Valdez is.

I agree. Look, I get it. It's tough to move him up because then you start getting into the Hazers Luzardoes of the world, to Nelson LeMet. Like, you know, those are, that's a really good group of pitchers, but Framber Valdez has earned the praise

that we've given him to this point. And, you know, like Zach Plesack and Ian Anderson, you have these guys, just continue to write them out. Aaron Nola, last name all mentioned. I don't know how surprising this is. I think it's surprising that he's kind of dominating the way that he is dominating is almost better than where he was at two years ago when he was a Cy Young contender. He was against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, eight shutout innings,

nine strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on 113 pitches. The change-up, I think, has really been the key for Aaron Nola this season. He's throwing it about 11% more this year than last, and I also believe that that has helped his fastball play up because it's really not a great fastball. It's like 92 miles per hour, and the curve has really been usually his go-to pitch. But I think this inclusion and expansion of the change-up

has helped the fastball play up, Scott. Yeah, I think so too. And today's start especially, like, this number of swinging strikes he got 2012 coming on the curve ball. Like, it's encouraging in that way too, because the change-ups really been the dominant pitch for him this year. And for him to have a start like this, where we see the curveball dominate to the extent it did,

shows that everything is really rounding into form for Aaronola. And I think he's going to be, I think he is positioning himself to be in the Sy Young discussion at season's end. Yeah, and the top five pitcher. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes next year. I don't think it's an overstatement. I think I would take him over Walker Bueller if we're just drafting now for next season.

I don't think that's crazy to say. Well, that's a different conversation. I do have him ahead of Walker Bueller for the rest of this season. I have Nola 5, Bueller 10. It'll be close. It'll be close, provided nothing changes performance-wise between now and then. It'll be close.

I might be able to talk myself into drafting Aaronnola over Max Scherzer, but let's see how Max Scherzer closes out the rest of the 2020 season. We're going to take a quick break. Just want to remind everyone that the fantasy football season is almost here. Join the FFT crew for a six hour. That's right. Six hours. Fantasy football draftathon today.

September 2nd supporting St. Jude, Adam, Dave, Jamie Heath, and Ben will be joined by industry experts from the NFL network. Yahoo and more as they provide non-stop fantasy advice and analysis. Watch it live from 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on CBS Sports HQ. I've mentioned it before. You can download the CBS Sports app on your Xbox, your Roku. You can watch it online. You can watch it on your phone wherever you want to watch it.

Again, CBS Sports HQ from 6 to 8 p.m. And then a nightcap from 8 p.m. to midnight on Twitch. That is the fantasy football draftathon. Twitch.com slash FF today. All right, when we come back, we'll touch on the rest of Tuesday's action. I got some deeper waiver-wire ads

I want to ask Scott about, and then we have to stream or not to stream for Wednesday. We'll do that here. Fantasy baseball today. Hey, Scott. Michael Panetta was back on Tuesday. He made his debut.

And he looked pretty damn good. Six innings of two-run ball, four strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 81 pitches. 53% rostered. His next two starts are against the tie- and the Cleveland Indians.

53%. What should this roster percentage be on Michael Paneda? 80, probably, at least. I don't want to have to put him in the 10 sleeper pitchers for the upcoming scoring period again. I want to have to do that. He was great, obviously, he was. But not in the way, like not in a way that fit the narrative

I was building that, ah, he finally figured out how to use the change up. And that's why he took off those last 11. starts last year with an ERA below three. Well, they threw six changeups in this start. So that clearly doesn't apply to the analysis of this one. But, you know, 16 whiffs on 81 pitches, the fastball and slider basically just stuck with those,

and it worked out for him. Tigers next time out, an AL central pitcher. Yeah, this, it could go very well for Michael Panetta to close out the season. Scott, would you drop Frankie Montas for Michael? Peneda? Yeah, I think so. I would have said no prior to this start, but I think this start is enough to win me over

because I really down on Frankie Montas at this point. Doesn't seem to have the splitter that made him such a success last year. And I agree. And I am the Frankie Montas guy, and I agree. I would drop him for Michael Paneda. How does Panetta rank against some of the other names we've talked about recently. Would you rather have him or Dane Dunning?

I definitely would have said Dunning before this start, and I think I'm going to say Dunning still. How about Tristan McKenzie? I would rather have McKinsey, but this is like, this is basically the 45 to 50 range in my starting pitcher rankings, and it's a tight cluster there. I'm looking at the exact range for mine as well. How about Dylan Seas? Would you drop Dylan C's for Michael Paneda? I would, yeah. Would you drop Rich Hill and Hermann Marquez, who are both bad on Monday? I would drop Rich Hill for Michael Paneda.

Sure. Come on, Scott. Come on, Scott. I think it's an overreaction to drop Herman Marquez, though. Kind of in my gut, I feel like Michael Paneda is going to have better numbers from this point forward. I'm trying to look up quickly what the schedule is like for Marquez the rest of the season. Talk about something, Scott. What did you do today?

What did I do today? All right, hold on. I'm just kidding. I got it right here. Okay. His next start is at the Dodgers. That'll be part of his two-star week if you started him. And then he's at home against the Angels. And then his next start would be at home against the Dodgers.

I'm dropping him. I'm dropping her mom, Marquez. for Michael Pineda. Pineda. Most people shouldn't have to. I think you'd be surprised, Scott. Masahiro Tanaka. Now two starts in a row, he's been pretty good.

This one against the raise, six innings of two-run ball, seven strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 88 pitches, 11 of those whiffs on the slider, which he threw 48% of the time in this start. That is now two starts in a row, where he has pitched well,

and he has gone very heavy on the slider. Entry tonight, he had a career high 41.9% whiff rate on that pitch. His next two starts are against the Baltimore Orioles. I'm kind of buying back into Tanaka a little bit here, Scott. I think he's working his way into that top 50 starting pitcher circle of trust, which is not really a circle of trust, but, you know, it's getting there.

The ARA is solid for Tanaka. He's had only one bad start all season. He's had a lot of short starts, though, and hasn't regained the splitter, really, which was what held him back all of last year. So, you know, his ex-fip is still over four. I'm still pretty skeptical of Tanaka. Not that he's going to be useless.

He's definitely among the more useful pitchers outside the circle of trust, but I'm not letting him in yet. Would you drop him for... Would you drop him for Paneda? Yes, I would. Interesting. Would you drop him for Dunning? Yep.

And Tanaka's 95% rostered, so... All right, those are some moves that you can make if those names are still available in your league. Over the past 19 games, over his past 19 games, Scott, did you know that Andrew McCutcheon is batting 305 with five homers, 19 RBI, and 14 runs scored? He's 78% rostered. so I'm not really sure that you can add him anywhere,

but I'm here to remind you that if you added Andrew McCutcheon, that you should feel pretty good about it. His stat cast numbers look great too, Scott. Yes, coming into today's game, a 291XBA, a 494X slug. His walk rate is down significantly this year, but the strikeouts are down, and perhaps more notably the ground ball rate is down for Andrew McCutcheon. So the way he's impacting the ball is going to lead to more success,

like we're seeing now. So I kind of poo-poohed him last week, but I'm definitely converting. I'm now on the Andrew McCutcheon bandwagon. There's only a matter of time, Scott. It was only a matter. Oh, actually, I didn't even plan this. Look at this.

Cutch is clutch. He doesn't play for the Pirates, but this is my old Andrew McCutcheon player shirt. I told you, I was a big fan. Specifically. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Cutch is clutch. Yeah, that's right.

That's why you need to subscribe. YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. So you can see Frank lift up his shirt. Yeah. These are the kinds of things you're missing. Yes. I mean, at times you can see Scott Singh. You can hear Scott yell at me about movies that I haven't seen,

which, by the way, some mixed reactions on Twitter today about this whole running list of movies that I haven't seen. Can email me and send me some more movies that I need to watch because I'm sure you can think of the classics that I haven't seen. remind people. What was it? Jurassic Park, Terminator. What else was there? It was like any of the Terminator. You haven't seen any of Terminator. None of the Terminator. None of the Jurassic Parks. None of the Lord of the Rings movies.

You haven't seen the original Matrix. I haven't seen the original matrix. I'm sure like you can think of movies. You put out your 10 best Christopher Nolan movies today. Memento was awesome, by the way, Scott. A movie that I only has 10 movies. I ranked all 10 of his movies. Oh, that makes sense. I've only seen five of them. And I think, I think three of them were Batman movies. So that makes sense. Did you see the Batman trailer, by the way? The new one?

I have not. With, what's the gentleman's name from Twilight? Robert Pattinson. Who is also in Christopher Nolan's new movie, which is why I ranked Christopher Nolan movies today. The new Batman looks pretty good. I'm sure Jim Brockmeier would have given me grief over that. Sky, can you do a Jim Brockmire impression?

I'm not going to put, You don't have to do it right now, but if you want to work on it and bring it to the table in like one of the next couple of episodes, I would, I'm all for it because I love Brock Meyer. It's a fantastic show. It's funny that you said that because I just watched Brock Meyer. I just finished it, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. And I found myself talking in a Jim Brockmeier voice for like the next several days. So I don't think I could conjure it out of thin air, but there may be some. something coming together there, sure. All right, so this is Wednesday's podcast. Over the next two days, by the end of the week,

Scott will hit us with a Jim Brockmeyer impression. No guarantees. Kwong Yun Kim was at the Reds. He was on the other side of that sunny gray meltdown. Five innings, five shutout innings, four strikeouts. His last three starts, 17 shutout innings for Kwong Hyun Kim. I'm not sure how long he could keep to subskide. He doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, doesn't miss a lot of

bat. Next two starts are at the Cubs and against the Reds again. I think he should be owned, but I think we're going to get like a Randy Dobnack blow up at some point out of Kim. I think you're being a little unfair to Randy Dopnack too, because, I mean, Dobnack has... It's true. I am. He has one exceptional skill. Kim's, the main, the thing Kim does best is, is the same. He gets ground ball. though not nearly, not at nearly the level Dobnack does. And I mean, Kim for having put together three straight, zero earned run, three hit outings, I think it's pretty notable that his ex-fip stands at $494.

So that's reason for skepticism right there. I mean, the strikeout rate is horrible, which is no doubt contributing to that. I yeah I think in the long run if he's not missing more bats than this it's going to fall apart he's behind all the names that we've mentioned as waiver ads right

he's behind dunning he's behind pinata and yet I don't blame anybody for using them using him yeah he had a two-star week this week so it made sense if they have no choice I mean there aren't enough decent starting pitcher options to go around so you may have to go with an indecent one

sometimes if you know what I mean I know what you mean. I know what you mean. All right, some waiver wire names. You knocked your boy and then he knocked the ball out of the park twice. Garrett Hampson, double dong on Tuesday. Next week, he has six games total. Three of those are at home. He is 49% rostered. Let me ask you this, Scott. If you need an outfielder in a Roto League, 12-team roado league, five outfielders, would you rather have Garrett Hampson or John Birdie, who was a name that I've brought up recently. He went two for two on Tuesday with his second homer of the season.

He's a 30% rostered, four different eligibility, and the Marlins play nine games next week. John Birdie or Garrett Hampson? I'm inclined to say Birdie today. Let's not get ahead of ourselves with this Hampson stuff. Maybe he saved his job with this two-homer game. Maybe. But he was only in the lineup because Trevor's story wasn't.

We think Trevor's story's okay. He just took a day off, but Hampson started his shortstop. Kevin Pilar, newly acquired Kevin Pilar, started in center field and batted second. Hampson himself hit eighth. There are ways they could still fit Hampson into the lineup if they wanted to badly enough. Maybe he's established himself as the hot hand, getting the only two hits off Kevin Gossman, who actually pitched quite well at Coorsfield. but there are still more questions than answers with Garrett Hampson and I'm still not sure how many games he's going to end up starting from this point forward

so I'm reluctant to recommend him as a start next week so John Birdie over Garrett Hampson that's what I said yeah that was the first line out of my mouth all right right all right I know you're always catching me with you know dodging the evading the question, like a politician. That's my job. That's why I get paid the big bucks, Scott. Yeah.

Deeper leagues. Would you rather have Josh Naylor, who went two for five with an RBI, two runs scored in his first start with Cleveland. He is 5% rostered. Or Victor Reyes, who had four hits, hit his third home run of the season on Tuesday, and drove in five.

He is 18% rostered, and he's been starting quite consistently for the Tiger. So Victor Reyes or Josh Naylor in deeper leagues. I would go with Reyes. I do think, however, that Naylor has more upside. Reyes looks like a batting average specialist. He has a good contact rate. He keeps the ball out of the air, not a lot of fly balls.

A lot of line drives, a lot of ground balls. That's going to lend itself to a high batting average, especially if you're making consistent contact. It will limit your power potential. But I'm not sure that there's much of that. coming for Reyes anyway. So, you know, he's been solid this year, and I think he can remain solid.

He kind of reminds me of like, I don't know, and in his prime, Melchie Cabrera, who, that's going way back. I don't know how many people listening played fantasy during Melchie Cabrera's prime, but, you know, he was, he was a solid,

solid player in fantasy, not a stud, but not someone that you, hated either. Yeah. I mean, it was hard to get excited over Melki Cabrera. He just made a lot of contact.

High batting average. Almost empty batting average at times. But yeah, I could... You know, a few homers, few steals. I could see the comp. I can see that. Yeah. Some bullpen notes,

not really much from Tuesday unless I missed something. Fresh off of a game where Taylor Rogers allowed three unearned runs. The twins went to Matt Whistler in the ninth inning for the save. Sergio Romo. pitched the eighth. I was searching on Twitter to see if there was anything about Taylor Rogers.

All I found was a bunch of Minnesota Twins fans that were happy that they weren't using Taylor Rogers. So I guess he's kind of built up a reputation among the fans there. Scott, do we do anything with this? I think Taylor Rogers was only used yesterday or two days ago. So it's not like he's been overused. Do you make anything of Matt Whistler getting the safe here? I mean, he did throw 33 pitches yesterday.

So that... That is fair. I mean, that might have justified an automatic. day off. It was interesting that if he was unavailable they didn't hold Sergio Romo back for the ninth who's been getting

all the saves that Taylor hasn't been getting. They saved Matt Whistler for the ninth instead having Romo pitched the eighth. So that was interesting. And look, Whistler has good numbers this year. The twins have a lot of relievers with good numbers. One of them is not Taylor Rogers. But

I don't really make anything of this independently of everything. I don't make anything of it yet. Ryan Presley allowed a lead off home run in the ninth inning to Elvis Andrews. And Presley has actually been pitching well recently,

so not really much to see here, right, Scott? Yeah, not much to see there. A couple other people who picked up a save on Tuesday. Our oldest Chapman is first save of the season. Brandon Kinsler is now up to eight. Raphael Montero picked up his seventh save, and Kenley Jansen just locked down his 10th.

Wednesday to stream or not to stream. Let's get started with this. Scott, would you use Kyle Freeland at home against the Giants? It's a little bit tougher after seeing the Giants put up 23 runs. No, thank you. No, thank you. I assume that means you don't want Michael Waka or John Means. What is, how about Tyler Malley?

At home against the Cardinals. I'd be okay with that, sure. Yeah, let's take it. Even though the Cardinals just scored 16 runs, let's take a stab at that one. How about on the other side, Johann Oviedo, who is at the Reds? Ovei, no.

Jun-Gin-Riu is a must-start. Sixtho Sanchez, I guess is a must-start? Like, you're using him, right, Scott? Yeah, I am. Kyle Hendrix at the Pirates, I assume we're using him. Look at that. Joe Musgrove is back. Who knew?

Would you use him in his first start back against the Cubs? That is news. I would not use him in his first start back against the Cubs. Maybe I'm not the one to be asking, though, Frank. 6.75 ERA, 0 and 3. I will pass on Joe Musgrove, but a start that I am watching. Let's see how he does. Max Scherzer must start.

Zach Wheeler on the other side against the Nationals, must start. Charlie Morton, his first game back at the Yankees. You fire him up? Ooh. Hmm. I wish it was against somebody. else. That seems a little dangerous, especially since he was having velocity, a velocity shortage before going on the I.

I'd play it safe and sit him, I think. Jordan Montgomery on the other side against the race. No. Spencer Turnbull at Milwaukee. No. Adrian Houser at home against the Tigers. Yeah, let's do that. Tristan McKenzie at the Royals.

Yes. Jake Junis versus Cleveland. Nosa. Christian Javier versus Texas. Sure. Jose Barrios is a must start against the White Sox. Zach Gallen is a must start against Walker Bueller. Both of them are must starts.

De Nelson Lamette. I don't know that everybody would say Barrios is a must start there, but I agree. I'd start him against the White Sox. Okay. De Nelson Lemette is at the Angels. He's a must start. And Julio Tehran, I assume you are not starting against the Padres. No way. No way. Alrighty, that'll do it.

He's Scott. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.