Fantasy Baseball Today - Aaron Judge First Overall!? Drey Jameson Impresses & Start/Sit Questions (9/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Aaron Judge hit his 60th homer (2:15)! Should he be the first overall pick in 2023? ... Should JT Realmuto be the first catcher drafted next year (8:00)? ... Shane McClanahan is hurt once again (15:51). Could Drey Jameson be a replacement down the stretch? ... Any interest in Aaron Civale or Brayan Bello (22:20)? ... The Blue Jays and Phillies combined for 29 runs (28:20). ... Corbin Carroll have a big final week (31:37)? ... News (38:32): Spencer Strider was scratched with an oblique injury. ... Should we start Pablo Lopez, Adam Wainwright and other fringy pitchers down the stretch (45:05)? We wrap with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (52:47). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. All right. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 21st. Frank Stample here with my guy, Scott White.

Maybe he won't be my guy anymore because he looks pretty annoyed with me already. gonna gloat about the Yankees today on the show. Starters sit, some fringe starting pitchers down the stretch. Shane McClanahan, sad face, hurt once again, hitters finishing strong, and much more. But first, please indulge this annoying Yankees fan. Oh my goodness gracious! Oh my goodness gracious indeed, Scott.

There's only one place to start. I mean, what a game. What a game. I've got to walk everyone through it. in case you didn't see it. The Yankees are down 8 to 4 going into the ninth inning. Aaron Judge leads off with his 60th home run of the season. He ties Babe Ruth. He's now one away from Roger Maris's American League record, the Yankee record. And we still have plenty of games left to play later on in the inning. Base is loaded. Jarkalo Stan. Walk off Grand Slam,

his 27th home run of the season. I realize many people are going to be annoyed about what I just did, but it's got, you know, there's something about the fandom too, man. Like, that was just a crazy moment. I had the game off, admittedly. I turned it back on once Judge hit the homer. I was like, all right, let me turn it on. Let's see what's going on here. That was a crazy ending to an awesome game.

Yeah. Wish I could have seen it. Well, I'm sorry that you didn't. Anyway. Your recap was wonderful. They came back against the pirates. Very proud of them. Yes, yes.

And against, you know, All-Star closer will crow as well. So not really the biggest accomplishment, but still it was an awesome game nonetheless. I do want to talk about Aaron Judge because, you know, we mentioned him here and there. Obviously, he's accomplishing pretty awesome things here down the stretch. And it's been an amazing season for him. We're talking beforehand, Scott, and just trying to figure out how early does Aaron Judge go next season? Because clearly, this is a career year for Aaron Judge. You know, just look at the OPS by year. I was looking at it beforehand. He's got an OPS over 1100. now at this point. It's just, it's crazy what he's doing. But, you know, we will be buying off

a career season and he has been injury prone in the past. So what do you think? How early does Aaron Judge deserve to go next season? Truthfully, he should probably go number one. I don't think he will, especially in, in roto leagues and five-by-five scoring leagues because there's such an emphasis on getting stolen bases early and understandably given the scarcity of that stat in recent years. However, as we've talked about many times over the past couple weeks, I think the rule changes, some of the rule changes that we're going to see put in place next year, namely the limited number of pickoff throws are going to cause stolen bases to be a lot more plentiful.

I don't know that everybody's going to game plan for that necessarily, because I think it'll be hard to gauge to what extent stolen bases increase and how that'll be distributed. I think it's going to be distributed widely, but I don't know how that's going to play out in the rankings and where players are drafted on average. So I suspect Judge, who by the way isn't a zero for stolen bases himself, he has 16 this year,

I suspect he'll be passed over in that format, primarily for that reason, with the top pick. in points leagues where there isn't an emphasis in stolen bases because they're worth something, of course, but you don't need them specifically. You can get points from whatever a hitter contributes. I think you'll just want the player who's clearly the best power hitter in the game and has been since his rookie season when he hit 52 home runs.

So let's not pretend like this is just a one-year Brady Anderson type of season for Aaron Judge. It's not. We've known he's capable of, I mean, he's the seventh player ever with 60 home runs in the first in like 20 years. So, yeah, I wouldn't say we knew he's capable of 60 home runs, but we knew he was capable of 50 plus. And I think most of us suspected he'd do it again at some point. Here's why I think going beyond the number, the 60 home runs, the reason that the strong, the most most compelling reason for drafting Aaron Judge first overall next year is part of the reason we knew the way we could measure he was the best power hitter at the game was the exit

velocities right he hits the ball harder than anyone with the exception of maybe Stanton but he doesn't more consistently than Stanton I would say that matters more now than it did from 2016 through 2020 or even 2021 So Aaron Judge's career up to this point. It basically coincides with the juice ball era, and you didn't have to hit the ball especially hard to put up a big home run total because the ball carried better.

Now impacting the ball as hard as Judge does means more, and we're seeing it play out in the stats. We're seeing him distance himself from the pack in terms of home runs, which is probably the way it should have been all along. and I think it's the way it's going to be going forward. Personally, my main hesitation with taking Judge First overall next year is just the injury history. Is that going to be enough to steer me away?

Probably not. I think I'll be on board with taking them first overall next year regardless of the format because I, again, I feel confident I'm going to be able to find stolen bases in other ways. the one I'd be most likely to consider apart from him is Jose Ramirez for position scarcity reasons, but Alfield's looking pretty scarce too.

So I think I will go, Judge, one overall. That's my stance on September 21st, anyway. Obviously, I reserve the right to change my mind over the next several months. Aaron, Judge, also batting 316 to go along with those 60 home runs, 123 run scored, 128 RBI. He's got 16 steals,

three caught stealing, so 16 for 19 on the season. And yeah, I mean, I think you can kind of pencil them in for double-digit steals next year. Not that maybe he doesn't get this total again. It's going to be pretty hard to project his steals,

but I don't think that he's going to be a zero. And specifically... If things play out like, I think they will with the stolen bases, I predict he'll get at least 16 next year as well. I think for sure in a points league, he should be the first overall pick. It's just his plate discipline combined with the home runs that he hits.

I mean, you know, the strikeout rate is now down two seasons in a row, 25%. And putting the ball in the air more than ever before, his barrel rate, I mentioned this before we started, Scott. It is 20, nearly 27%. The next closest person is Yordon Alvarez at 21%. I mean, that barrel rate is a, just absolutely insane. Again, Aaron Judge, in the running

for the first overall pick next season, and rightfully so. All right, Scott, oh my goodness gracious for you from Tuesday's action. I'm going to go with J.T. Real Muto, who went five for five, and that just continues a toured stretch.

That's basically lasted two-thirds of the season now. So five-for-five with a home run and a double on Tuesday, since July 1st, J.T. Real Muto, a catcher, mind you, is betting 324 with 15 home runs. That makes him, of course, the number one catcher in both points leagues and 5 by 5 during that time. It makes him the 26th overall hitter in points leagues,

which is pretty impressive for a catcher, the number 13 hitter in Roto during that time, July 1st. Really impressive stuff. From a guy who, before the stretch started, I said was clearly in the decline phase of his career. Now he's pushing to be the number one catcher next year, as he has been many times before. Yeah.

I think he's definitely made a claim to the throne there as the catcher one for next season. That is J.T. Real Muto. I think in Roto, Dalton Varsho is also in that category, a big, big day for Varsho as well. He only played in one of the two doubleheader games, but in that first game, he went two for five with a sock and a shoe, his 26th home run, his 11th steal of the season. And he is also finishing very strong in September hitting 286. He's got eight homers, three steals, and OPS up over a thousand during that time for Dalton Varshot. So I think JTR and Varsho, you know, 1A and 1B and Roto, points leagues, it's probably Real Muto,

and I think Will Smith deservingly should be in that discussion as well. But I think there's a pretty clear top three with at least those three, Scott. Yeah. I guess in Roto, when you're factoring into steals, I mean, Varsho and Real Muto are the only two catchers with double-digit steals this year. And of course, Varsho, even for Points Leagues, he gets a net bad advantage over most every catcher because he's primarily an outfielder.

Next year might be his last year as a catcher eligible player in fantasy. He has locked up catcher eligibility for next year, but not by much. And he hasn't started a catcher in a long time, I don't think. So maybe the last stand for Varsho as a catcher in fantasy, but he's led the position in home runs. I think it probably will play out like you're saying. where it's going to be between Varsho and Rio Muto

for Top Catcher drafted. But I think there are a lot of candidates to finish number one at the position, which means I'm probably not going to draft Real Muto or Varsho in any league. One of them, by the way, is Salvador Perez. Somebody tweeted this at me yesterday. If you project Salvador Perez's numbers

over the number... If you project Salvador Perez's stats over the number of the bats he had last year. It comes out to 35 homers in 110 RBI, which we all would have been thrilled with coming in. That would have justified the pick we invested in him. And it suggests he still has his potential to be the number one catcher in fantasy. Now, he might be the seventh catcher drafted, six, seventh, something like that. But I imagine that means I'll be drafting a lot of him, because I think the upside is still as high as you'll find at the position. And then, of course,

in points leagues because the plate discipline is so good, I think Alejandro Kirk has the potential to finish number one at the position. He's homered only twice in the second half, so that's kind of pulled them down some, but the stack cast numbers are really promising. And again, the plate discipline is amazing for Kirk.

And then, of course, you have Adley Rushman, Wilson Contreras, Will Smith, who you mentioned. I think both Braves catchers, if they're able to get them in the lineup, Travis Darnone and William Contreras, who've combined for, I think, 37 home runs this year.

They're clearly going to be behind that group, but I'd be happy with them as starters. You know? So catchers looking really strong, as strong as it has in a very long time. Yeah, so much like we said about who will be the SP1 drafted next, Next season, we said that on yesterday's podcast.

There's kind of just this big glob of like seven to eight different players in that discussion. And again, I think you could say the same thing about catcher there. Yeah, we didn't even really mention Wilson Contreras, but man, his second half has really, really not been great and dealing with this injury now. So we'll have to reevaluate there on Contreras. And Sean Murphy, who's actually been the fourth best catcher in points leagues this year, I think is part of that discussion as well. I also wanted to mention, kind of changing gears here for a minute. I mentioned how in 5x5 leagues in rotisserie leagues, since July 1st, JT Real Muto is the 13th best hitter in that scoring format.

The whole list is really interesting. So Aaron Judge, of course, is number one, followed by Freddie Freeman, the number two hitter in Roto leagues since July 1st. Number three is even more interesting. Michael Harris. And then Marcus Simeon's fourth, it gets a little less interesting

after that, but Michael Harris, third, among all hitters, since July 1st. That's pretty, it's pretty impressive. Yeah,

he has played 101 games now, stole another base on Tuesday, now up to 18 steals, 18 home runs, again, in 101 games

for Michael Harris. So, I don't know, off the top of my head, that's, it's not a 30-30 pace, but it's close to it. It's something like 27 homers,

27 steals over the course of 150 games. So I think that he is probably going to be that young, hype guy that that's going to be drafted really early in drafts, you know, like third, fourth round, something like that for Michael Harris next season. And by the way, Real Muto is 13th, as I said. You know, who's right after him, 14th among all hitters since July 1st? I don't know.

Yeah boy, Nate Lowe. That guy's a beast. And I told you before the show, so the fact you said, I don't know if shows me you weren't listening. You know, Scott. Trying to get this rundown together right before the show is one of the toughest things we do here on a nightly basis. But, yes, Nate Lowe has been fantastic. And we'll be interesting to see where we rank him among first baseman heading into next season. Before we get to the unfortunate Chano Mac injury, Scott,

I did want to congratulate you and your Braves clinching another playoff appearance. Yep. Thank you. It's good to be back. Would you like to accept the playoff berth on their behalf? Yeah, sure. I'll accept that.

I mean, kind of seemed like a foregone conclusion. I'm more concerned about the division, Frankie. Oh, as you should be. The Brewers had the Mets on the ropes tonight, and they let them off the hook. Yeah. As Dennis Green would say.

And that's a very good. disappointing and that's remain a game up yeah so got to knock them off let's talk about Shane McClanhan unfortunately left Tuesday start with what was deemed as left neck tightness and spasms which sounds like it could be a compensation compensation injury caused by his left shoulder impingement which he was previously dealing with which he was on the IL for so those two things could be related obviously we'll wait for more information but doesn't seem great for Shane McClainan He gives up five runs over four innings pitch.

He did give up a three-run homer to Jeremy Pena. The CSW wasn't there. The control was not there. He walked four batters in this one, gave up some hard contact. Velocity still looked fine. He has been throwing more fastball since returning, so I don't know if that's related to the injury, potentially throwing less breaking pitches.

But alas, you may need another waiver-wire pitcher now that Shane McClanahan. I assume we all threw him back in the lineup. So we're going to need someone over these final two. Two weeks, basically from here on Outscot. And the name I wanted to bring up was Drey Jameson, who we were a little bit skeptical. You know, his first start was, it was very good. He didn't get a lot of whiffs or anything.

But now he does it again, and he does it at the Dodgers. He goes six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts to just one walk, 14 swinging strikes on 94 pitches, 10 on the slider, three on the fastball. And he did lean into the slider more than the start. He threw it 35%. and that's just about double the percentage that he used in his first start. So now two starts in the books for Jameson, 13 innings pitch, two earn runs allowed.

He's only 6% rostered. Looks like he'll have the Giants again this weekend and then at the Giants next week. Not really an offense. I'm that worried about Scott. What do you think? Drey Jameson, should we pick him up for his final starter two? I don't think I'd be willing to do it. encouraging stuff. I mean, very reminiscent of

of Ryan Nelson, right, comes up first two starts, exact same two teams. San Diego and the Dodgers and shuts them both down. But then in his third turn, he was facing one of those two teams again. Which one was it? Was he facing the Dodgers again or the Padres again? And this is third start. In Ryan Nelson's third start? Yeah.

I believe it was the Padres again. Yeah, the Padres. And it was a struggle. And both of these guys were, you know, they had terrible numbers in the miners. They have ability. Terrible numbers in the miners, tough places to pitch. So obviously that didn't help them. But there's just, there's enough reasons for concern not to stake your entire season on him, I would say, after two major league starts.

I get it. I mean, it's just, you know, we're kind of, I guess we're running out of names here with, you know, We need someone to pick up if Shane O. Max heard or dealing with anything else. Plus, he might be one of the few pitchers you could pick up who's only making one start next week. Final week of the season, it's a 10-day scoring period if your league plays all the way through to the end. Most pitchers will be making two starts, and he looks like one who won't be. That is true. All right, so that is Drey Jameson.

Looks promising so far, but probably don't want to pick him up for redraft leagues. Scott, I just have this terrible thought in my head. Of course, doom and gloom. You know how I roll. I included Drey Jameson in a trade, in a dynasty trade in the Scott White Dynasty League. Just kind of threw him in there because I needed to free up a minor league spot. I traded him to RJ White, who is now in the finals in the Scott White Dynasty League. I gave up Drey Jameson and Clayton Kirshaw and I got D.L. Hall, who, you know,

on paper is a better prospect than Dre Jameson and I think like Luis Arias and I think another young player or whatever. But I just have this terrible feeling, Scott, that Drey Jameson is going to turn out to be really good. and this trade is this going to look absolutely awful for me. Yeah. I kind of dynasty philosophy here. I don't have enough confidence in my ability to parse between prospects. People, ones who everybody recognizes are prospects, but how much more likely is this one to hit than this one,

not hit in the baseball sense, but hit as in emerge. And so I kind of, you know, unless we're talking about the most elite prospects, which neither D.L. Hall or D.L. Hall

or D.L. Almondson would fit that description. Obviously, I value those more, but you get to a certain point in the prospect rankings. I don't know exactly where it is probably beyond the top 25 or whatever.

They're kind of, I mean, I rank them because I have to rank them for the job, but they're kind of all like, they're all just kind of lottery tickets, you know, and how much better is the probability of one versus another? Not so much. I mean, I wanted to get,

I didn't get Spencer Strider in my top 100 prospects at all. And I was one of the highest on him. And I wish I had. I certainly thought about it, but I decided to leave him out of the top 100 completely. And obviously, if I'd put him 26th, I would have looked a lot smarter.

Yes, indeed. All right. So that's Everdredred. Jameson, hopefully doesn't make me look too foolish, but a new potential hire for the Diamondbacks who's getting it done, which brings us to the fact that these days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helps find the right people for your team faster and for free. It's really easy

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slash FBT. That's LinkedIn.com slash FBT to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Let's take a look at a few other waiver wire pitchers could be available here down the stretch. And it was a pretty successful return for Aaron Savali at the White Sox.

He went five innings, two runs, two strikeouts in that one. Curve velocity was up 1.6. miles per hour in this start. And he's shortened up his pitch makes. At times in the past, he's thrown five, six pitches, just focusing on four pitches here in this start for Savali, and it seemed to work well for him.

Scott, I realize these starts are all kind of spread out. He's dealt with some injuries. But if you just look at the last five starts for Savali, he's pitched pretty well. 3.46 ERA, 25 strikeouts, over 26 endings pitched, 10.7% swinging strike rate. He is 41% rostered. at the Rangers this weekend, so you're probably locked in.

But he does get the Royals next week, which is a really good matchup. What do you think about Aaron Savali? Is he going to just make one start rest of the way? That's what it looks like. I don't want to use him. I don't. Not enough reward for the risk.

All right. Well, I have a feeling you're not going to want to use any of these pitchers then Scott. Brian Beahoe gave up a bunch of hits in this start, but did limit the damage. He was at the Reds. Five innings. One run allowed with five strikeouts. He gave up eight hits and two walks, so a 2.0 whip, not great for Brian Beyo, but 15 swinging strikes on 84 pitches.

And the first time we really saw his slider Excel. He used it 32%. And the pitch had six of his 15 swinging strikes in this start. And in six starts since returning, Brian Beow has a 2.69 ERA over a strikeout per inning, 51% ground ball rate, 14.5% swinging strike rate. but he's at the Yankees this weekend and I think he only has one other start at the Blue Jays so I'm encouraged Scott I think we should remember this when we're thinking about

late round sleepers for next year but you probably don't want to use Bayo at the Blue Jays next week yeah I agree with that assessment and I noticed you left out the whip when talking about his numbers and six starts since returning because he's giving up a lot of hits

it's too hard to calculate whip Scott really it's walks plus hits divided by innings pitch Come on. Three numbers you need. I have an ERA calculator that I have open. You know, it's pretty hard. We've never talked about this,

but I think an advantage that Adam used to have when hosting this podcast is that you guys would do it the next morning. So you would be able to like use the Fangraphs game log to calculate the most recent start from the night before already. But now when we do it, Scott, it's the same night.

So we either have to use an ERA calculator or, you know, you could do it by, hand, but it's going to take forever if you do it for every start. So it's kind of hard for me to calculate whip the night of, but yeah. I do like... A lot of times the stats weren't updated early enough the next morning. Oh, really? Okay.

To be honest. All right. That, you know, take back everything I just said then. Maybe they are these days, but, you know, back in those days, it was still a struggle. All right. So, yeah, the whip has been high for Brian Baye, which you would expect. He, you know, does give up a decent amount of hits and walks, but I've been very, very encouraged by what I've seen. Yeah, the stuff is, the stuff is, you definitely see the ability there,

especially with the swinging strikes. And he had more whiffs on the slider than the change up in this start. So, you know, not totally reliant on that one pitch for those whiffs. So encouraging stuff from Bayo, but not worth using him yet, I would say. And I don't think it will use any of these other ones, Scott, but I'll just throw them your way and you let me know if you're maybe excited about any of them for next season. JP Sears gets back on track after two terrible outings. He was up against the Mariners where he went five innings. He only gave up one hit, one unearned run with seven strikeouts in that one.

He's 17% rostered. Joey Wentz, he pitches for the Tigers. He's looked pretty good over his last couple of starts. At the Orioles, five and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts in that one. And his minor league season, the numbers are solid. 3.04 ERA, 1.14 whip over a strikeout per inning. He is only 5% rostered. And we brought this gentleman up last week, Scott.

Luis Ortiz, a prospect for the pirates. He looked good against the Yankees. In Yankee Stadium, making just a second start. He goes five innings, two runs allowed, just one of those earned with five strikeouts. He had 10 swinging strikes on 74 pitches. Basically just a two-pitch pitcher, but he throws a fastball really hard,

nearly 99 miles per hour on average, and seemingly has a pretty good slide. that he uses as well. So anything on these three, Luis Ortiz, Joey Wentz, and J.P. Sears. Yeah, I think Luis Ortiz might be something. Obviously, the odds are against it. It's not some high-profile prospect or anything,

but if you play in a really deep dynasty league and you want to pick up somebody for free, I think Luis Ortiz might be worth it. He has a lot of spin on his fastball, so that itself is an effective pitch. His minor league numbers this season aren't great overall, but he threw six no-hit innings in his final start there before the call-up.

And in the minors, he threw 66% of his pitches for strikes. That's very good, and he got swinging strikes 14% of the time, also very good. So some of the underlying numbers were better than the front-facing numbers, I would say. All right, that is Luis Ortiz, once again, just a name to remember in obviously deeper leagues for next year, and I'll only, hopefully he'll have a shot in the opening day rotation for the pirates.

I don't see why he wouldn't, because obviously they're not very good and they're moving towards this youth movement. Before we get to some Waver Wire hitters, Scott, I just want to highlight the hitting game of the night. The Toronto Argonauts defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 18 to 11. It's basically a football score, Scott. That's why I'm going with those teams. Man, the ball is absolutely flying in September, man.

29 combined runs here for the Blue Jays and the Phillies. The Blue Jays put up 18 runs on 21 hits. To Oscar Hernandez has been scuffling quite a bit here in the second half, but he goes four for five with two doubles and three runs scored. Matt Chapman went two for four with his 27th homer, three runs and three RBI for him. Danny Jansen stays hot. He goes three for six with two doubles and two RBI,

28% rostered. And he remains a catcher that you can add if you were just kind of streaming the position back end of the top 12 could be out there, I guess, in some two catcher leagues based on just 28% rostered. And then for the Phillies, they put up 11 runs on 15 hits. J.C. Rolumuto, Scott spoke about earlier,

went 5 for 5 with another home run and a double. And Kyle Swarber went 2 for 5 hit his 40th Homer. 3 RBI, 2 runs scored is there as we get a strong fist pump from Scotty for the beef kick. That's right. That's right. I was predicting 40 home runs for Schwerber going in this year, and he came through. His batting average is still so bad, though.

It's hard to have fathom that he's hit this many home runs, and he's batting 215 on the season, which. Yeah, and I haven't looked into the numbers, and frankly, I'm not sure. I'm not sure that I'm confident what I can glean from them when I do, but I will mention that Jason Stark of the athletic wrote his assessment of the rule changes and the kind of impact they're going to have on the game next year, something I did earlier this week. But Jason Stark did a couple days ago,

and he had talked to Kevin Long, the Phillies hitting coach. And Kevin Long is a highly respected hitting coach. He's been around, been with a lot of different teams, worked with a lot of different players. And he named some players who he thought would see a big increase in batting average because of the restrictions on infield shift. And Kyle Schwerber was one of the ones he mentioned.

Now, Kyle Schwerber is a Philly, but he mentioned some non-Phillies too, and Schwerber was among them. So just thought it was worth mentioning. Some of the other players he mentioned, I know Anthony Rizzo was one. I can't remember who else. They were all left-handed hitter. With Schwabber, I will point out the batting average again, very low at 215. His babbip is 239, which is not a career low, but it's close to it outside of the shortened season.

He has put the ball in the air a lot this year. 51% fly ball rate is by far a career high. So that would correlate to a lower babbip and a lower batting average for Schwabber. So a few less fly balls I think we could take for better. batting average, but overall, the 40 home runs, obviously you will take that for the beefcake, Kyle Schwerver. A couple of waiver-wire hitters, Corbyn Carroll went two-for-four with a double and his first career steal, and at the time, he was betting 293 with a 903 OPS. I think he got a few more at bats in that second game, but 68% roster, Scott. He was dropped in a few leagues.

I know we told people that he had really tough matchups this week. They were facing a bunch of lefties. He's basically not playing against left-handed pitching. They've got two lefties this weekend, the Diamondbacks, and when I looked at their projected pitchers the rest of the way, I didn't see any other lefties on the schedule after this weekend. So, what I'm saying is, it could be a pretty strong final nine or ten games after this week for Corby and Carroll. Would you maybe look to pick them back up? Yeah, if he, so how rostered is he 68%? Yeah. Obviously in the five outfielder leagues, I'm going to assume he's already rostered then. but I would say

if that's true if that holds that he's not going to face any left-handers the rest of the way or even if he faces like one or two and you'll probably see him in the sleeper hitter's article for the final week let me see how he's doing

in terms of a bat so he has only had 60 at bats he's safe from reaching like I don't think the Diamondbacks have to worry about him exceeding 130 if he's not even halfway there yet. I think they've done a good enough job preserving those at bats. Yeah, I was going to save this for later on Corbyn Carroll.

I think they've almost played it too safe that Diamondbacks have. I just hope that they don't have like this platoon thing in their mind for the start of next season because obviously Corbyn Carroll is one of the top prospects in the game. Just like let the guy play and let's see what he could do against left-handed pitching. but Gunner Henderson he led off against a left-handed pitcher here on Tuesday he went two for five he hit his third home run the home run came off of a right-handed reliever

so I don't want to give him too much credit against the lefty but he had four hard hits in this game two over 105 exit velocity he is now up to 69 at bats with 15 games left this is Gunner Henderson he has averaged 3.7 at bats per game to this point

a few times that by the 15 remaining games they have, that is 55 at bats. 55 plus 69 brings him to 124 at bats for Gunner Henderson. So even if he plays every game from here on out, he still would be clear of the 130. And I think the Diamondbacks just kind of played it a little bit too safe down the stretch. It is what it is. But I just kind of wish that they were giving Corby and Carroll more playing time here against left-hand pitching. Yeah. I mean, he had gotten, I think his first two games in the majors, He got a combined 10 at bats, so that might have forced them to slow their role a bit.

And obviously, they're not playing for anything. And the Orioles sort of are. They've more or less been eliminated now. But they were in there for a while. They were in the mix. A few other WaverWire hitters got, I've got four names here. I think more so for deeper leagues than anything, but perhaps you have different thoughts on that.

Groschins. I've mentioned a few times. He's playing well with the Marlins. He came over in a trade from the Blue Jays. He went two for three with an RBI. He's now betting 348 in his first seven games. He's only 9% rostered. Harrison Bader made his Yankees debut. He was batting seventh in the lineup. He went two for four with three RBI. He's 44% rostered. A gentleman named Nate Eaton, who we have not talked about at all, is a he was a top 15 prospect in the Royals organization. He has a stolen base in four straight games and he's getting a chance to play some third base for them. So he's kind of got some interesting numbers. 285 batting average in the minors this season.

13 homers, 23 steals in 823 OPS. And the last name, David V.R., who I believe was a sleeper hitter this week coming through early on, he went one for four with his sixth homer. And over his last 15 games, batting 319 with five home runs. That is David VR. Scott, what do you think about these four? VR, Nate Eaton, Harrison Bader, and Jordan Groschens. I think the most interesting are VR and Harrison Bader. Bader only for five outfielder leagues, specifically five outfielder roto leagues,

and I hope he gives you some steals down the stretch. VR's hit a bunch of home runs this year between the majors and the minors. I don't know if this one today makes it 33 or 34 or something like that, between the majors and minors, eligible as second and third. in CBS sports leagues so you know that that's that's helpful let me see if I can

pull up the giant schedule to see but they're looking at the rest of the way I think it's pretty favorable so I'll put it up for you here Scott so next week they will have six games against the Rockies and Diamondbacks

pitching staffs and then the final week they'll have a three game set against the Padres So over the final week and a half, they have nine games against the Rockies, Diamondbacks, Padres. That sounds pretty good. He might be on the sleeper hitters for next week. All right. That is David VR. Before we hit the break, just want to remind everyone to join our fantasy baseball today, Facebook group. If you haven't already, obviously the offseason is coming up. So I'm sure there'll be a bunch of discussion about offseason trades, dynasty things, whatever's happening. Hot stove related.

so it's a fun community and make sure to join up. Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today or just search Fantasy Baseball Today on Facebook. Let's take a break and we'll hit the news and notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes, Spencer Shrider is dealing with a sore oblique and will be pushed back a few days as a result. He might not make a start this week, but I think more importantly, the Braves have a series coming up with the Mets next week.

So they need Spencer Shrider for that one. if nothing else. Julio Rodriguez was back in the Marlins. Marlins, that would be weird. Mariners lineup on Tuesday after missing three straight with lower back tightness. Tim Anderson could return

to the White Sox lineup sometime this week. He underwent left hand surgery in early August. Scott, what do you think that would mean for Elvis Andrus, who had another big game on Tuesday, went two for four, now up to 14 steals on the season? Do you think they would, I don't know,

maybe slide Elvis Andrews over to second base or something like that? Yeah, I think so. They haven't had much going on at second base, and I don't see why they take off of Sanchez out of the lineup. So this makes it six steals and six games now, right? As if he wasn't doing enough already. Now he's running like crazy.

So I don't know where this came from, but I'm just thanking my lucky stars for it. Scratch that off your 2022 fantasy baseball bingo card. Elvis Andrus winning people championships Did not see that one coming If all goes well in Friday's rehab start Tyler Glass now could make his 2023 debut Next week in Cleveland

And that might be even more likely now With Shane McClanahan hurt once again So much for Drew Smiley as a sleeper pitcher He is experiencing shoulder fatigue And will not start on Wednesday against the Marlins Marcus Stroman will start in his place Which obviously we couldn't see coming And it stinks

Chris Bryant is still receiving treatment and participating in activities, but there remains no timetable in place for his return. He's been out since July 31st with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Frankie Montas was placed on the IEL with right shoulder inflammation. He recently received a cortisone shot and is hopeful to make one more start in the final week of the season. Seems very optimistic. I don't know if that will happen. As a result, Domingo Hermann will start on Saturday against the

Red Sox. Sunny Gray was placed on the I.L. with a right hamstring strain. DJ LaMahue took on-field batting practice Tuesday and could be activated during this week's homestand. Garrett Whitlock has been shut down from throwing and will require hip surgery next week. The expectation is that he'll be ready for the start of spring training. And we didn't have to wait long to see what they would do in the bullpen, Scott, because they had a save opportunity here on Tuesday. Matt Barnes was pitching in the eighth inning, John Schreiber recorded the final two outs for his eighth save. Do you, if you had to guess who gets the next save, do you think it would be Barnes or Shriver? Well, I did just guess. I wrote my last edition of the Bullpen Report for 2022. It came out

Tuesday. And I actually think Barnes has the best chance of getting the most saves from that bullpen the rest of the way, but I think the reliever to roster is Shriver because it's not, it's not by a big enough margin that, you know, I just, I'd just rather have the better pitcher. And I think it is worth pointing out that even though Barnes did get the two-out save, Matt Strom came in to begin the ninth and had a lot of problems. So Shriver was kind of bailing him out. It wasn't, it wasn't like it was Shriver's inning from the beginning.

Well, I think they had a four-run lead at that point, Scott. Oh, okay. So they tacked on a few runs, and then I think Strom let two runs in the ninth. Strom did get the previous save for the Red Sox. So yeah, it's, there's kind of three names floating around there. And I'm not even counting Garrett Whitlock at this point. Yeah, but obviously, you know, Whitlock dealing with the injury. So he's shut down.

Yeah. So, yeah, you know, look, the Red Sox aren't. great either, but I think it's probably Shriver or Matt Barnes. Those are more of deeper league plays if you are chasing saves at this point. Mackenzie Gore will make a rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. He threw 57 pitches in his previous rehab outing. The MRI results on Brendan Rogers's hamstring were good, according to Bud Black. Eric Lauer will start Friday against the Reds, his first day eligible to come off the IL. And it sounds like it will be a short outing. So even if you have Eric Lauer, I don't know that I want to play him in his first start back.

Graham Ashcraft is set to return Saturday against the Brewers. I'm guessing we don't have much interest in him, Scott. No, no, I don't think we're going to have time for him to regain our trust. Not that he ever, not that we had much trust in him from the beginning, but he has had some good starts this year. I just don't think there's going to be time for us to be confident. We know what we're getting from him. All right.

This doesn't really affect fantasy, but the Canadian government plans to drop the COVID vaccine requirement by the end of September. So all players will be eligible to play in Toronto throughout the playoffs, however long they are playing in the playoffs. And lastly, I do have a prospect update. The Giants promoted Marco Luciano to AA for their playoff run. And he's kind of lost some of his prospect, Luster Scott. Marco Luciano, still 21 years old. But this season in the minors, 269 batting average, 11 home runs.

in 817 OPS, zero steals. I think more than anything, power is the tool that we're looking at most for Marco Luciano, but I don't know, he's kind of lost some of it. How do you feel about him from a dynasty perspective? Yeah, we're still waiting for him to find that next gear, and it seems like the prospect hounds.

They still, they remain bullish on him. So I would have liked to see more production by the time he's reaching AA, but part of the reason he's reaching AA is because that's the only place left for him to play at this point. That's the highest level, left for him,

the lowest level, I should say, left for him to play at this stage. So they want to give him some more bats. I want to be looking to sell in Dynasty at hold out. All right. Let's move into some starter sit for some fringy starting pitchers over their last few matchups of the season.

Pablo Lopez now has back-to-back quality starts since getting rocked by the New York Mets. He was up against the Cubs. He went six and two-thirds, one run allowed, six strikeouts in this one, and it looks like his last two matchups are at the Mets and at the Brewers. So that would make him a two-star pitcher for next week.

But there's going to be a lot of two-star pitcher, Scott, and I don't like those matchups. What do you think about Pablo Lopez? Yeah, it's a big risk playing him. I'm not going to say for sure don't. It just have to weigh your options. He has had, you mentioned two quality starts in a row. Four of his last five have been two earned runs or fewer.

But then in the middle of that stretch was the eight-runn disaster against the Mets. So he's been trending the right way overall, but still a little scary. Yeah, if you were making a Pablo Lopez sandwich, Scott, it would have the best bread that ever existed, right? And then just inside of the bread. Like just some nasty meat, some nasty cheese. Veggie mite. Oh, geez. Man, you just went straight for it, man.

You just... Yeah, all right. So that's the Pablo Lopez sandwich, and man, I'm kind of worried about these matchups on the stretch. Nicolodolo only gave up three hits here on Tuesday, but the problem is that two of them were home. runs and he was up against the Red Sox five endings three runs seven strikeouts in that one you know overall I know he's been better recently but still a 3.9 ERA 1.27 whip for Lidolo strikeouts have been awesome for him his last two

matchups look like they're up against the Brewers and at the Cubs got I feel like you mentioned he was gonna get the pirates in there at some point but when I was calculating it it didn't look that way to me like you think he's only gonna get one start next week? No, no, I think he'll have two. I don't think he's facing the pirates at all. Oh, okay. Yeah. It may have, it may have gotten a little off.

Yeah. So what do you think about those last two? Brewers and Cubs for Lidolo? Oh, so the Cubs twice the final week then? Something must have got pushed back. Oh, you know what it is? I think it's because Graham Ashcraft is returning over the weekend, Scott. So I think Lidolo will get pushed back a start. So he will only have one start in the final

long week at the Cubs. That's what it looks like to me. All right. Well, we'll confirm in a couple days, but if that's the case, then it's going to be harder to use them. Obviously, in a week where a bunch of pitchers are starting twice, presuming it's a weekly lineup. But I do like both of those matchups.

I mean, obviously, everybody knows the Cubs are a favorable matchup, but the Brewers are especially bad against left-handed pitchers. I wish there was a better result in this start. Obviously, it wasn't a disaster, but it could have been better, and he didn't get a win out of it. But still in his previous 10 starts, 295, ERA 105,

with 11.1K per 9 for Nick Lodolo. The trend continues for Charlie Martin, who pitched well at home. He went five and a third, one run allowed, nine strikeouts, with 19 swinging strikes, now has a 2.89 ERA at home this season, 5.38 on the road. And unfortunately, his next start, is at the Phillies this weekend. If you're playing a weekly league,

obviously you're locked into that one. And then he'll only have one start in the final week against the Mets, a team that he has a 4.67 ERA against in three starts this season. So I don't know, Scott, don't really love that one. Charlie Morton against the Mets,

what do you think? Yeah, I'd probably pass on that. All right, fair enough. Let's move over to Patrick Sandoval, who was okay at the Rangers. He went five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, with 17 swinging strikes and over his last six starts he has a 1.9 4 ERA is getting a bunch

of ground balls a bunch of whiffs but no quality starts he's gone less than six in three straight that is Patrick Sandoval and it looks like his last two matchups are both against the A's so one this week and one next week or both next week I think they're both next week that's preferable yeah it's pretty damn beautiful probably look to use them in that case Adam Wainwright, not too great, once again. He was at the Padres, six innings, four runs for him, only one strikeout, and over his last four starts, Adam Wainwright has a 5.57 ERA, eight strikeouts over 21 innings pitched.

That is quite bad. He's at the Dodgers this weekend, only one start next week, but it is against the Pirates, Scott, so you kind of have to weigh. You're not getting much volume, good matchup, but Wainwright's pitch is bad. I don't know. Yeah, I think I'm out on Wainwright for the rest of this season. Yeah, I can't blame me on that one. Last one I've got is Mike Clevenger, who turns in his first scoreless outing since June 29th.

He goes 5 and 2 3rd shutout against the Cardinals with three strikeouts. And this one, his velocity was up a little bit across the board on all of his pitches. His previous eight starts before this one, a 6.57 ERA for Clevenger. He's at the Rockies this weekend, which, and if you, You started him in a two-star week. God bless you because I wouldn't have done it. In fact, I dropped him even in a 15-team league. But he gets the White Sox next week for one start, which I think I'm out on as well.

Yeah, not willing to stake my season on Mike Clevenger. I agree. Do not do it. Hitters that are finishing the season strong, we mentioned Dalton Varsho and what he's doing. Justin Turner went three for four with a walk and a run scored. Post-all-Star break. now he is hitting 359 with five homers, 15 doubles, an OPS up over a thousand.

Willie Adamas continues his tear. He went four for five with two doubles and two RBI. Now batting 320 over his last 30 games. And Carlos Correa, he's trying to get paid again. He went three for five with two RBI. And in September, he's hitting 377 with six homers and a 1097 OPS. Scott, I think Willie Adomis is probably the most interesting of this group because the power has been there for him all season.

30 homers from the shortstop position is great. But it feels like he's just kind of been underperforming his batting average all year long. What do you think about Willie Adamas? Yeah, it's nice to see him get that batting average up toward the end of the season here. If you just look at the second half. So, you know, after the All-Star break, Willie Damas is batting 271, which is something we take over a full season. And I mean, we, even those numbers as they are, with the low batting average, I think it's been, he's been well worth your draft pick where you, where you picked them.

And he might, he might be one of the top 12 short stops drafted next year. In fact, I'd say there's a good chance of that. Ready. So, just quickly calculating two, four, six, eight, ten. He is the 11th ranked shortstop in points. leagues as of September 21st. I don't have any of my Roto leagues pulled up, so I can't tell you about that, but yeah, I would imagine he's either top 12 or close to it in Roto as well. That is Willie Adamas. Let's get into some pitching leftovers. If you started Adrian Samson,

consider yourself lucky, Scott, because this one looked bad early on, and he managed to settle down, but lots of hits, he wiggled out of some jams as well. At the Marlins, six innings, six endings, eight hits, one run, three strikeouts in this one. Three straight quality starts for what it's worth for Adrian Sampson. And it looks like, I can't tell if he's going to pitch at the Pirates this weekend, Scott, because now that Drew Smiley is out of the rotation, even if Wesneseki pitches on Thursday, I think he will, right? I think Samson will have that second start this week. if they've gone back to five, yeah, I think so. Yeah.

So that's the hope. Yeah, with Smiley being scratched, they're going to go back to five. So Samson will get a second start. I mean, it would make sense. Which is good for this week. If you started him as a spark or whatever it might be, I'm just saying like he's only going to have one start next week against the Reds. So like after this week, you can drop Adrian Samson basically.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, if you're not in a weekly league, if you're just thinking about, oh, should I stream? I'm in my next start. I would still say no. I don't trust this guy at all. It's one thing when he lines up for two starts

and they're both good matchups. And okay, just for the volume, I'm going to do it. But when you're going a start at a time, I don't care really what the matchup is. I just don't think you can trust Samson. There's not enough skill there. The final two pitchers here,

Christian Javier, a little wild, but a solid start at the raise. He went five shot out. One hit allowed, four walks, six strikeouts. He had 17 swinging strikes. 13 of those on the fastball. It continues to amaze me how Javier can get as many wists as he can

with his fastball. But, man, kudos to him. He does have just one quality start in his last five outings, so they've been shorter starts recently. And then Dillon Seas turns in another quality start up against the Guardians.

He went six endings, one run, three strikeouts in this one. Only five swinging strikes, which is kind of weird for Dillin Seas. But regardless, a solid start here for him as well. Anything on these two, Scott Seas and Christian Javier? No, but there's one picture you conveniently left out of the rundown.

Uh-oh. One who we've been hyping for a while now and certainly recommended for this week. And that's Ross Stripling. Oh, yes. He letting everybody down. He was on the mound for that Blue Jays outburst in Philadelphia. or sorry, that Philly's outburst in Philadelphia. Five and runs on nine hits and four innings after having six straight quality starts. Yeah, I guess he was due.

I guess so. Yeah, disappointing that it happens. And in his two-star week where he was probably widely activated. It feels like so many pitchers have just been getting rocked recently, Scott. I don't know that for certain, but it just every time I look up in my head-to-head match, It seems like my pitchers are doing pretty poorly. I had Carrasco going in a few spots today, and he was terrible, too. So I don't know.

Well, yeah, there's a lot of offense happening in September, of course. Some pitchers have to bear the brunt of that. For what it's worth, Stripling's remaining matchups, so he gets the Braves. No, I opened the wrong team. I don't know why I keep it. He's at the raise this weekend to complete a two-star week, and then he'll have the Red Sox for one next week. So you could probably drop tripling after this week, I would imagine.

Yeah, if it's a weekly league. Yeah. All right. A few hitting leftovers. I mentioned what Gunner Henderson did earlier on. But Brian Reynolds had a big game. He went four for five with his 24th homer. The Mets sluggers powered them to victory quite literally.

Pete Alonza went one for four with his 37th homer. And Francisco Lindor hit a go-ahead grand slam in either the seventh or eighth inning. It was pretty late in that game. It was his 25th home run of the season. C.J. Cron, a little home cooking. He went three for four with his 29th homer, but has slowed down considerably here

in the second half. Regardless, you know, Scott, a phrase I haven't brought up in a while. The profit pocket. C.J. Crone has provided profit over the long term of the season, obviously. Even though the second half hasn't been great. But I'm trying to remember everyone who was in it.

Reese Hoskins has had a good year. A good year. Josh, Josh Bell was going well, but not since getting traded to the Padres. Yeah, he's been terrible. All downhill since then. Joey Votto was awful.

CJ Cron has been good. Luke Voight. Luke Voight was a late edition. He's like, he's like that band member who, you know, is just like he gets thrown in later on, but he's not really part of the initial group.

Yeah. Like when Pinsky replaced Michael on Salute your shorts. What? do you say? Someone out there will get it. All right, fair enough. But I'll take a...

I don't know. What are we going with there? Scott, three for four, three for five in the profit pocket? I don't know. Maybe that's me to myself too correct. Yeah, two and a half. We'll go with two and a half.

The call to the bullpen for the Dodgers in game one. I assume Craig Kimberl was unavailable because he pitched on Monday night. Chris Martin struck out two for his second save of the season. For the Cubs, Brandon Hughes struck out one for his sixth,

His sixth save, I almost said 16, but he's 16% rostered. So that's where that number comes in. If you do need saves down the stretch. For the Astros, Ryan Presley recorded the final two outs for his 29th save. For the Tigers, Gregory Soto, pitch to clean ninth for his 26th save. For the Yankees, they cannot figure out the back end of their bullpen right now. Clay Holmes entered in the eighth inning with runners on first and second. They were down five to four at the time, so they're trying to stop the bleeding.

and Clay Holmes gives up a three-run homer to Rodolfo Castro. And Clay Holmes has just been really bad for quite some time now. So I can't tell you who the next save opportunity to go to, we'll go to because I rolled his Chapman pitched a ninth, and he looked really good. So maybe it is Chapman. I don't know, Scott. Yeah, that sounds pretty messy.

I wrote about it in the Bullpen Report as well. I kind of think they need to get somebody right for the postseason. So I'm thinking Boone's going to keep going back to Holmes, but maybe not. Maybe he will. This was Chapman's second appearance off the IL. And maybe he'll go back to him finally. But obviously, hasn't looked good when healthy for most of this season. Yeah, there, I mean, there's really no one they could turn to right now.

Loisica's been up and down. And Ron Maranaccio, he's had some good moments, but it's not working out. Lou Trevino, like, oh, God, don't even. Can't even mention his name. For the Pirates, Will Crow entered in the ninth with a four-run lead. As we mentioned, he gave up five runs on four hits and took his 10th loss of the year.

For the Braves, Kenley Jansen gave up an unearned run but picked up his 36th save. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz, sound the trumpets, recorded the final four outs for his 31st save. For the Angels, Jimmy Hergut gave up a hit but picked up his sixth save, and that was his first since August 31st. The previous two for the Angels went to Aaron Loop

and Ryan to Perra. So I don't really feel good about the Angels bullpen right now. Scott, what do you think? Yeah, it's definitely a committee as committee of a committee as you can get. But I do think if you have to pick one, it's Hergett just because I think he's the best. Yeah.

But man, Angels and Red Sox, you probably don't want to get involved if you don't have to. For the Royal, Scott Barlow recorded the final five outs, three of those via the strikeout for his 22nd save. For the Giants, Camillo DeValle was unavailable. Junior Marte recorded the first two outs in the ninth, and then Harleen Garcia got the final out for his first save. And then for the A's, very late into the night,

Domingo Acevedo struck out one for his third save, widely available if you do need saves here down the stretch. To stream or not to stream for Wednesday, we've got Bryce Elder up against the Nationals, Marcus Stroman at the Marlins. Matt Manning at the Orioles, Jordan Lyles versus the Tigers, Rwanzi Contreras, at the Yankees in a revenge game. Bailey Ober at the Royals and Hermann Marquez versus the Giants in Coorsfield.

So Bryce Elder's a new addition. He is filling in for Spencer Strider. And his last two spot starts for the Braves. I'm double checking this. I think they were both. Really good. Really good. Yeah. So there are both.

both against the Marlins, it's worth noting. But it combined five hits allowed and 13 innings with 16 strikeouts. Not a big strikeout guy in the minors was Zelda. But the nationals obviously make for favorable matchup. So if you're feeling really gutsy, you could do that. My favorite choice here is obviously Marcus Stroman at the Marlins. Yeah. And, you know, you could think about Bailey Ober at the Royals,

but I think that's also a really gutsy one, and not one I probably do. On Thursday, we have Josh Weinder at the Royals, Mitch Keller versus the Cubs, Hayden Wesnesty at the Pirates, and Hunter Green versus the Brewers. So Hunter Green against the Brewers is my favorite. Obviously, his return from the IEL was amazing,

career high, 11 strikeouts. Also broke his own record for most pitches of 100 miles per hour or more in that game. He broke his own record by 8. Uh, so, you know, if you're chasing strikeouts, certainly you could do that. I think it's still a little risky if you're not, but better than any of these other choices. My second favor would probably be Hayden Wissnicki, West Nesky against the pirates. But again, that's probably too big of a gamble for my liking. All right.

We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. Just a reminder that we won't be here tomorrow, but we will be back again. on Thursday night with a live stream and obviously an audio podcast in your feed on Friday morning. We'll see you then.

Bye-bye.