Fantasy Baseball Today - Aaron Judge to the IL, Nick Kurtz's Historic Game & Waiver Adds! (7/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Aaron Judge went on the IL with a flexor strain (2:18). ... Who are the top Judge replacements (5:00)? ... Nick Kurtz just had one of the best games in MLB history (14:35)! ... Michael Harris is showing signs of life (20:05). ... News (22:52): Kris Bubic went to the IL and we have trade updates. ... Shota Imanaga is the Dog of the Weekend (39:30). ... Matt Shaw continues to rake (43:22). ... Let's rank a bunch of waiver wire pitchers (49:06). ... Start or sit these pitchers (56:58)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:03). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And first pitch, Rishing. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 28th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, Nick Kurtz had a historic game. maybe the best game in MLB history. We had some smallish trades go down, weekend waiver wire ads and more. But Scott, let's just start with the bad news. Get it out of the way. The very bad news.

Aaron Judge is hurt. The top player in fantasy went on the aisle this weekend with a right flexor strain. He had this throw earlier in the week in Toronto where you kind of saw him flexing his hand a little bit and he was wincing afterwards. Of course, like the Yankees do, they still played him in the outfield, a couple of days later after that.

And he was just lollipop and throws back into the infield. So it turns out it's a pretty bad injury here. The good news is that there is no ligament damage here with Judge's elbow. He received a PRP injection and is expected to avoid surgery. He won't throw for 10 to 14 days. And then we'll get an update from there. And we'll see how Aaron Judge is doing. Obviously, scary injury.

You know, it's much worse for pitchers. We'll see what happens from this. Maybe he could just return sooner and DH because obviously you don't really need your elbow to just hit there. But it sucks. And you follow the Yankees closer than I do. So maybe I have the wrong impression here. But I was reading all the quotes about it this afternoon. And it sounds like they're thinking it'll be close to a minimal stay.

And that he'll come back in DH. And like judge's own impression is that he could have just played through it. Deaching. But it doesn't bother him hitting, he says, just throwing. And so he didn't want to go on the aisle at all, but the Yankees, out of abundance of caution, put him there anticipating a short stay, and he'll come back at DH.

So I'm hopeful, you know, obviously you can't really replace the best player in fantasy, but I'm hopeful you're only doing it for one week. And maybe it's still kind of uncertain heading into that second week, but that'll be about 10 days at that point look as the resident pessimistic Yankee fan here

Scott I am I think it's gonna be longer than the minimum stay I mean if they say that he's gonna be shut down from throwing for 10 to 14 days I just assume they'll update us from they'll update us after that

I don't think he'll just be back in 10 to 14 days I could be wrong but you're right he did want to stay on the team he didn't want to go on the IL he wanted to DH, and we've seen other hitters kind of just last year, Otani rehabbing, you know, his elbow. Of course, it was a different injury, but he was able to hit and obviously still have a historic season. So hopefully it's not as bad as, you know, I am leading on here, but the hope is that Judge could be back and maybe DHing within a couple of weeks, maybe a month, something like that.

Like you said, there is no replacing Judge in fantasy, but we have to try, obviously. Outfielders who are sleeper hitters for you this upcoming week's got. you have Ramon Luriano in there, Josh Lowe, Trent Chrisham, Chandler Simpson, so specifically just for this week. If we're looking at other names just in shallower leagues, names that we've talked about quite a bit all season, ProFar, Spencer Steer, and Austin Hayes. Scott, how would you rank those three as potential replacements? I think you've got to go, Hayes number one, and I would get ProFar the edge over steer. Okay. Some names in medium-sized league.

Tyler O'Neill had three home runs this weekend, and if it is power in particular that you're looking for, Tyler O'Neill might make a lot of sense there. Jordan Beck, Mickey Moniac, Tyler Freeman, Anhele Martinez. I'm thinking more like five outfieler leagues here, Scott, but how would you rank this group? Tyler O'Neill, Beck, Moniac, Freeman, and Anhele Martinez.

Not the strongest of opinions here. I know O'Neill has homered in three straight games, but that's basically the only good. he's done all season. Moniac's been very hot, but doesn't quite play every day. So if you're committing to somebody for the rest of the season, and look, hopefully that's not what you're doing, but Jordan Beck would probably top the list.

Hot-hand play for this week, since again, it might be just the week or two. You know, the Rockies are only at home half the week. They're not among the best hitter matchups. I don't know, maybe I see what the Orioles matchups look like. Yeah, they're pretty good. Maybe O'Neill, just because he's hot.

Yeah, I think that's fine. And then some names in deeper leagues. I mean, we're talking 15-team Roto or Deeper. These are obviously not great options, but Andrew Benintendi, Mike Talkman, Dane Myers, and Joey Loperfeito. Some potential trade options here. If you buy that the player we saw last year,

is still somewhere within Jackson Merrill, and he can kind of spark that over the final two months. It remains a by-low-type player. Mike Trout, I think, you know, still hitting for power, I think could have some success here down the stretch. It's been great since returning. Yeah. Like, legitimately really good.

Michael Harris has been much better so far in the second half. We'll talk about him in a little bit, but the overall numbers still look really bad, so you might have an opportunity to still buy there. And Brian Reynolds, who just has been a disappointed, all season, but the underlying numbers, metrics, things that we look at often are still really good for Brian Reynolds. So a couple trade options there if you lost out on Aaron Judge. Sticking with the Yankees for a second here, I think this could help John Carlos Staten get more consistent playing

time too. He has been mashing lately, two more home runs this weekend, and in July, Staten is hitting at 295 with seven homers, 17 RBI, and a 1040 OPS. Aaron Boone also added that Staten could even get some work in the outfield, which I don't think that's what we want exactly to keep staying on the field. But I think his playing time could tick up here. Well, if the plan is to bring Judge back to DH, then if they want Stanton's back in the lineup at all, it's going to have to be in the outfield. So. And it's, you know, it's, I was just doubling back on the quotes while you were talking. And so forgive me if I repeat something you already said.

But it's a situation where, okay, so let me give you the exact Aaron Boone quote. With those first few days coming off the IEL, it's probably DH mode. Then he'll start throwing. So it sounds like off the DL before, off the IL, excuse me, before he even starts throwing. With those first few days coming off the IEL is probably DH mode, then he'll start throwing and hopefully get back to the outfield shortly thereafter. So they're not even thinking like D.H. long term rest of season. They're thinking hopefully back from back to hitting, back to playing D.H. in a very short period of time.

And then once he starts ramping up the throwing, hopefully back in the outfield soon after that. So it may not be enough time for John Carlos Stan to even gain outfield eligibility, but he might make a couple appearances out there. Or maybe it all goes wrong and judge misses the rest of the season. But I'm just giving you what the Yankees are saying and they know more about it than I do. Scott, come on, man. Let's not talk about the worst case scenario right now, although it is a distinct possibility. It's just, man, things are spiraling right now for the New York Yankees.

One of my first thoughts here as well, just sticking with the team for a second before we get to other fantasy things, was that they could call up outfield prospect Spencer Jones, who we just talked about. on Friday's podcast, 13 home runs in 19 games. He's been awesome. But that has been shot down. He's also apparently dealing with some back spasms. And it's just weird timing because it's trade deadline week. And I guess there's still a chance that he could be moved.

I'm starting to lean towards like they're not going to move him unless they get some kind of crazy trade. But yeah, I don't think it's going to happen for Spencer Jones unless we find out maybe it's a longer term injury? You don't think a call-up's going to happen on any team or you don't think a trade's going to happen? If he stays with the Yankees, I don't think he's going to get called up this week, at least until we get up to the trade deadline.

If they don't trade him away and Judge is still out, I think maybe it could happen at that point, assuming that Spencer Jones is healthy, this back thing isn't an issue. If Judge sounds like he's kind of getting better and he's trending towards like a minimum IL stay, I don't think that the Yankees would call him up. call Spencer Jones up with the potential of sending him back down a week later. You know, I think if they want to call him up, it's probably for like a long-term thing. Well, or if he gets traded. A September call-up situation where they just let him get some, let him get his feet wet, basically.

Yeah, I don't see Spencer Jones getting traded either. If he does get traded, it's a good indication the Yankees don't actually believe in him. And think he just, he's just exploiting. minor league pitching and major league pitchings are going to be able to take advantage of his size and his tendency to swing through pitches in the zone and all of that, all the reasons why he was left off top 100 lists coming into the season. But I think the surge he's been on has put him in a category of prospect that just isn't getting traded realistically. Given the two deals we've already seen go through the Josh Naylor deal and we'll talk about this shortly I'm sure the

Ryan McMahon deal this offseason no minor league or value was given up in either of those deals so I just don't see what player would have to be coming back to the Yankees for them to say sure we'll part with Spencer Jones the biggest headline grabbing prospect right now yeah I think we're in agreement there. So I just, I don't really see how it happens for the Yankees unless, again, Judge's injury is kind of long term because they do have this glut of outfielders and the DH spot is going to be filled either with Judge or Stanton. So it's just kind of a tough situation for Spencer Jones potentially getting called up this year with the Yankees in particular. Again, Aaron Judge to the IL this weekend with a right flex or strain. We're hoping for the best.

Maybe it's a minimum IL stint. But as we learn more, we will let you know. Let's quick hit our first break when we return. We'll get into the players of the weekend. Nick Kurtz, my goodness. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's get into the players of the weekend. Four times.

One of the best games you will ever see came from a 22-year-old rookie in Nick Kurtz. Six for six, four homers, six runs, eight RBI, 19 total bases, youngest player ever with four home runs in a game.

Scott, Nick Kurtz, might just be a stud. Yeah, I think that's fair to say at this point. So this was arguably the best game a hitter's ever had, the best Major League game a hitter has ever had, because not only did he have the four home runs, which of course equaled the Major League record, he also scored six runs, which has only been done.

done nine times since the 1800s. Since, you know, since we reach what we tend to refer to as the modern era, a 1900 and beyond, only eight other players have scored six runs like Kurtz did. So it's an even rare feat, you could argue, than the four home runs. It easily could have been five home runs because one of the two doubles Nick Kurtz hit was in that part of, I'm forgetting what they called Astra Stadium now. Is it still Minutemate?

It's not Minuteman anymore. Diken, Diken Park? Something like that. Okay. Whatever. That place. So you got the Crawford boxes and left.

And then it goes back. It goes way back once you get past the Crawford boxes. And the line for a home run goes way up the fence, right? And he hit it. just below that line. And so he came that close, like within a foot of the first time in major league history. And he's doing this as a rookie. And I think the conversation, I mean, there's a lot of conversations you could have about this.

Obviously, Nick Kurtz Stud must start in fantasy. I think that's the least interesting angle. But one, This is why you show patience with these guys. If they are a prospect, a hitting prospect, high pedigree, big time contributor in the minors, as Kurtz was, remember, he zoomed to the majors. I think it was an even fewer games than Wyatt Langford because he was so dominant down there. But you'll remember his first, it was about a month in the majors, Kurtz was slashing 208, 259, 299. He was slugging $2.99.

His strikeout rate was 36%. And that was after nearly a month in the majors. And I know we told you to hold on to him. I didn't think necessarily it would come as quickly as it did. But I think from the perspective of people who rushed out and picked up Kurtz right away, it didn't come quickly. It took a lot of patience. And so, you know, it's just a reminder of how quickly for somebody, who's this talented, the learning curve, extremely difficult when hitters get to the majors.

But for someone who is this talented, it can turn on a dime and they can suddenly look like one of the best hitters in baseball. And maybe, maybe the best first baseman in fantasy. I think the other thing we could talk about here for Kurtz is, has he now put himself on a path? Still two months to go. I understand. A lot of things can happen in those two months, but has Nick Kurtz now put himself on a path to be the top first baseman drafted next year? Because you look at the state of the position right now,

Freddie Freeman, getting very old. Bryce Harper, he's not young anymore either and pretty injury prone. Matt Olson, you know, has his issues. He's good, but he's a little frustrating and maybe doesn't quite have. that first round-up side you want from the top player to position. Pete Alonzo started out great this year, but it's falling off pretty hard here in the second

half. Vladimir Guerrero, always a moving target. You never know exactly what you're getting from him. Maybe Nick Kurtz is just the guy now, not just for next year, but for the foreseeable future. That is possible. And it is an interesting talking about. Obviously, you have to see the way the rest of the season plays out here. if you take just what he's done thus far, and it's only 67 games, his full season pace, Nick Kurtz, 55 homers, 166 RBIs. So he is just insane right now, the pace that he is on and what he is doing. Obviously, that pace went up tremendously after a four homer, eight RBI game, but I mean, even before that, he was selling it before that. Yeah, he was crushing it before that,

too. So worth mentioning Kurtz out of the lineup Sunday due to lower body soreness slash fatigue, obviously going six for six and four-home runs and takes a lot out of you. But hopefully he's good to go early in the week here. I think every team plays on Monday, so we should know right away if Kurtz is in the lineup. But I think you just obviously have to roll him out there and hope that he's back in a couple days because obviously he's must start. He's amazing right now.

All right, my player of the weekend is one of your Atlanta Braves, Scott. And he's finally coming around. Maybe it looks like it. Michael Harris, some signs of life here. Two for three with a home run on Friday. And then four for four with a homer, two triples, and a double on Saturday. He finished a single short of the cycle, which you don't see that every day. Looking much better so far here in the second half, hitting 412, three homers, 12.

97 OPS, incredibly small sample size. Totally get that. It's only been nine games. Just wanted to bring this up because we know that Michael Harris is a talented player for as streaky as he is, you know, first couple of years in the league to be a near 2020 player with a good batting average, great defense right from the jump. We know that he's a talented player and, you know, usually winds up figuring things out eventually. Just check to see if he was dropped in any leagues, any shallow formats, because he's down to 79% rostered, could have been dropped in a 10-team league,

a points league, something like that. And I still think, you know, he's going to be a shrieky player, but maybe you're kind of catching Michael Harris on one of those really, really. really, really good streaks that we've seen in the past from him. But it looks like it might be happening, Scott. It's, uh, it's been a great second half thus far. Yep. I agree. It, it was going to happen at some point.

And look, only 10 games. I don't know if you get the numbers you gave were 10 games. What I wrote down was 10 games worth of numbers with a 95 mile per hour average exit velocity. So it's, it's only that long. But we saw him blow up last September. We saw him blow up in 2023 after getting off to a very cold start. And like you said, it's not what he did his first three years in the majors is not something a player can really fake for three years.

So I think given how young Harris is, given that track record he's already put together, it was inevitable that he'd come around. Maybe it's happening now. if this does not turn out to be it, if he doesn't just search to the finish line here, I would still, I would still be pretty high on him going into next season. All right, just a few things to promote here. Trade deadline is later this week on Thursday.

If anything crazy goes down, we will be around for emergency pods. But my guess is we'll probably go live with a trade deadline bonus recap podcast. Thursday, around 6.6, 3, 7, something like that. Scott, I know you might, be busy around that time, so it might be Chris and I, whatever, we'll talk about that behind the scenes. But, you know, if there's a lot of action on Thursday, we'll have a bonus podcast that comes out to recap all of that.

And big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube as well. Let's get into the news and notes. And it was a rough weekend for pitcher injuries. Chris Bubich was placed in the aisle with a left rotator cuff strain. And that definitely could explain the recent struggles. also a good way to protect those innings, which we've talked a lot about.

Last year, didn't pitch very much, and obviously we've seen a huge increase year over year for Chris Bubich. So left rotator cuff, Scott, that sounds like a pretty scary injury for a pitcher. Could potentially be long term. In leagues with no IL spots, would you be okay dropping Chris Bubich?

I mean, I think we can give it another couple days. We're going to know more than and I'd just be afraid of, I'd just be afraid of, you know, doing it prematurely, and then I end up giving him to somebody else. That's probably what you're going to end up doing is a very good chance this injury effectively ends his season. Because even if it's, you know, a six to eight week injury, that's, you know, eight weeks is about what we have left. So, and how much are you going to trust a pitcher coming back six weeks from now, especially since Chris Boobich wasn't pitching,

that great the last few adding. So you're probably going to end up dropping him, but I kind of want to just wait and see what the de-examination turns up so I can drop him. I can feel a little more secure in dropping him. Boobich wasn't the only pitcher we lost. Grant Holmes went on the aisle with right elbow inflammation. He also has had a big jump in innings this season from 68 and a third to 115. And recent waiver wire ad, Brandon Walter went on the aisle due to left elbow inflammation. That one sucks because obviously looked like a pretty intriguing pitcher for the second half of the season, but obviously now we have lost Brandon Walter as well, and we will talk about some

Waverwire pitchers a little bit later on. Alejandro Kirk was... I want to say with Holmes, the Braves initially put him on the 15-day I-L, and then the next day they put him on the 60-day I-L. So he is basically done. Grant Holmes, you can drop. Mm-hmm. Alejandro Kirk was placed on the seven-day concussion IL, and if you need replacements for this week in particular, Yvonne Herrera in the shallowest one-catcher leagues, he's still just 79% rostered.

And between the two Braves catchers, Scott, those feel like the next two names up. Who do you like more between Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy? I like Baldwin more. Baldwin, now that he's playing close to every day, or at least as much as the typical catcher. He's probably, you should probably just roster him over Alejandro Kirk anyway. I think it's a closer call between him and Murphy.

Maybe I give a healthy Kirk the edge over Murphy in points leagues because of the low strikeout rate. But in categories leagues, I think I'd prefer Murphy's power. So, yeah, if roster space is tight and you don't feel like you can roster multiple catchers, Kirk, it might make sense just to drop him for one of those two. And some replacements in two catcher leagues. Francisco Alvarez, who returned recently 32% rostered Kyle Teal at 22% and Victor Karatini at 26%.

One more injury here. Jack Caglione went on the aisle due to a left hamstring strain. Yeah. Hopefully it's not a long one because Caglione, if you're like, okay, I missed out on Nick Kurtz, how can I make up for this? Caglione would be the best bet to do that. He's the high-profile rookie hitter who's come up and struggled. Closer to, I think, what's the typical timeline now of two months.

Again, Kurtz was only more like one month. But Caglione was coming up on the point where, okay, he's going to start to get going here soon. I can feel it. You know, the strikeout rate's not that bad. He's hitting the ball plenty hard. It's coming. But now we've got to wait for this hamstring injury to play out. and that might take a few weeks.

We had some trades this weekend. Nothing too crazy. The Yankees obviously were busy. They first acquired Ryan McMahon from the Rockies on Friday for two pitching prospects, Griffin Herring and Josh Gros. McMahon, I feel like there's a little give and take here, Scott. Obviously losing out on Corse Field is bad for batting average. McMahon already had a bad batting average.

He strikes out quite a bit. And he's more of a, you know, fringe player, corner infield type player anyway. But he hits the ball hard and he's going to Yankee Stadium with the short portion right field. So maybe some of those things can offset for him. Maybe. Let me share a couple facts with you. His career numbers away from Coorsfield. I make sure.

Okay, maybe I didn't look at it up right earlier because these don't look quite as bad. But they're bad. His career numbers away from Coorsfield, Ryan McMahon is batting 216 with a 666. OPS. But now it's not fair to do that with a guy who spent his entire career with the Rockies because playing in Cores Field consistently, it kind of desensitizes you in a way. Like breaking balls are flatter. And so you get accustomed to seeing those flatter versions.

So then when you go on the road, it's like more extreme just because you're, you're, Your mind's kind of been warped in that way. Get you out of Coorsfield so that it's not what you're accustomed to. And, you know, we see it all the time with hitters who leave the Rockies. They go on to be fine hitters still with other teams. But with Ryan McMahon specifically, left-handed hitter, a Yankee Stadium. Sure, you like that in theory. He's run pretty low pole air rates in his career.

This year is the best it's ever been. It's shy of 20%. So it's more like in the pink area than the red area on his baseball savant page. But usually it's blue. You look at his expected home runs by ballpark. Not so great at Yankee Stadium because he's not taking advantage of that short porch with his normal pull tendencies, pole tendencies. So I don't know. I'm skeptical he's going to do amount too much with the Yankees.

but I don't want to just react to his career numbers away from Cores Field because that's not a fair way to do it. And the next part of his value, Ryan McMahon, is that he might not play against lefties because on Saturday the Yankees acquired Ahmed Rosario for Clayton Beater and Brown Martinez. And it sounds like they are planning to use Rosario as a short side platoon with McMahon at third base,

potentially, you know, using him in some pinched run situations, things like that, maybe defensive replacement. But yeah, it seems like perhaps Ryan McMahon is going to be slated for just a strong side platoon role as long as he's with the Yankees. The Royals acquired Randall Gritchick from the D-backs for a minor league reliever. Don't really think there's much there. The Mets acquired reliever Gregory Soto from the Orioles, so he is no longer an option for saves in Baltimore. What that does is pretty much free up Sir Anthony Dominguez as the top saves option. for the Orioles as long as he remains on the team,

which perhaps all the relievers in Baltimore will be traded by Thursday. Yeah. Nothing to add. And your Brave Squad, Scott acquired Eric Fetty for a player to be named later, which is obviously not exciting at all, and I don't think there's much fantasy now. I mean, it's just now that Grant Holmes is down, And this move was made in conjunction with Holmes being shifted to the 60-day IL.

So I thought that was the bigger news item for fantasy is just, okay, no more Holmes, clearly. But yeah, this is just they got to have somebody absorbing these innings because they can't just throw a bunch of minor league arms out of. Somebody's got to eat the innings. Doesn't have to be good necessarily. And I don't think Fetty is that good. But now they have somebody who can eat the innings. All right. A roll of this Chapman was removed Sunday with back tightness.

Jordan Hicks converted the final five outs for his second save of the season. Doesn't sound like a serious injury, but, you know, in those deeper leagues where we are always looking for saves, you know, Jordan Hicks is only 7% rostered. So just a name to look at there. Byron Buxton underwent an MRI, which revealed rib cartilage irritation on his left side.

Yet there's no structural damage. Manager at Rocco Baldelli said Bucson is day to day. Scott, what are you doing with Bucksston this week? I'm probably sitting them unless it's a really deep league and you'd have to start some scrub in the outfield instead. Sounds like the sort of injury that could linger and I'd be especially concerned for somebody with Buxton's injury history. Turns out that Seth Lugo is off the trade market because the Royals have given him a two-year extension. I believe there's a Vesting option for 2028.

So Seth Lugo will remain in Kansas City for the foreseeable future. Austin Riley returned from the IL on Friday. Nacho Alvarez was sent back to AAA. Joe Boyle will enter the raise rotation Tuesday against the Yankees. Scott, does that make him a two-star pitcher this week? Yep, lines of up for two starts right away. And now that it is confirmed, I have moved Boyle higher on the sleeper pitcher list for week 19. Which got a lot worse over the weekend, by the way.

It wasn't great to begin with, but then Landon Rup went on the IL, and then Michael Walker's matchup got changed from Atlanta to Toronto. So I felt like I had to replace both of them with not good pitchers. Aaron Savali is on the list now. That's where things stand. Whoa. Yeah. It's not great.

It's not great. It's a total joy in life to have to choose every week, which bad pitchers may not be as bad as usual. Michael King will throw a simulated game on Monday and is expected to return at some point in August. Adley Rutchman is returning from the aisle on Monday. Scott, are you throwing at Ruchman right back in your lineups? I'd be fine with that.

It is possible in shallower one-catcher leagues that you picked up Avon Herrera or Drake Baldwin or somebody like that instead. And I'll let you know right now, Frank. in one league where I picked up Ivan Herrera as my Rushman replacement. Can't stash Rushman in the IL anymore? I'm dropping Rushman.

Whoa! Yeah. It makes me a little uncomfortable because I think Rushman could be good, but I already have a good thing in Yvonne Herrera who's been, it's a points league. So on a per game basis, he's averaged more than a full point per game

more than Rushman this season. So it seems kind of silly to drop him of Van Herrera instead of Rushman. All right. E Sok Paratus will receive a second opinion on his right hamstring next week. Turns out that it's a little bit more severe than we had projected. No surprise there with the Astros. They always have weird injury things going on. Aronolo will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday.

Dylan Cruz will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. Carrie Carpenter was reinstated from the IL on Sunday, so you can get him back in your five outfielder league lineups. Jacob Wilson has been playing through a bruised hand for a few weeks and was out of the lineup on Sunday. He's also just having a really rough July. Scott, are you okay benching Jacob Wilson for now? Yeah, sure.

If you got a decent alternative and shortstop's pretty deep, so it's a good chance you do. All right, Luis Robert, return to the lineup Sunday after missing two games with a sore groin. And then he got hit by a 101 mile per hour fastball on his right forearm. X-rays came back negative. Just keep this guy healthy for a couple more days

so he can be traded somewhere. I think maybe a change of scenery, going to a competing team. I still think the Mets Astros Phillies would all just be great landing spots for Luis Roberts. So let's make that happen. Blake Trident was activated

and could work his way back into the Dodgers saves mix with Tanner Scott on the IL. Who do you think gets the next save opportunity, Scott? Blake Trinan, Alex Vescia, Kirby Yates. What do you think? Oh, man. Draw a name out of the hat.

I'll say Trinen with about 33.5% confidence. So take that for what it's worth. All right, Giants pitching prospect Carson Wizen Hunt will make his major league debut on Monday. Land and Roof went on the I. as you mentioned, and Hayden Birdsong was recently sent down. Wisen Hunt is a prospect of note, but the numbers in the minors this year, not great at AAA, 442 ERA-133 whip, less than a strikeout per inning.

Only 9% roster. It's got any interest here in a Carson Wisenhunt. I mean, not really. It does feel like, just because he is a name in prospect circles, that I tell you, I don't see anything good here in the numbers, then he goes up and does well. Like, that just seems like the sort of thing that would happen to me. But I don't see anything good in the numbers, really.

So he's kind of a two-pitch pitcher. He's added a slider this year, throws it about 15% of the time, but it's mainly fastball change up. And, yeah, it just hasn't missed that many bats. It's gotten hit pretty hard. I would wait and see with Wizz and Hunt. All right. With Ryan McMahon traded, the Rockies promoted prospect,

Warming Burnabelle. He's 23 years old. 75 games at AAA this year, hit 301 with eight homers, five steals, and 806 OPS, rarely strikes out, just a 12% strikeout rate. Average exit velocity is abysmal, but his max XXE velocity is 110.1. So I don't really know what to do with that, Scott.

I mean, this is a very deep league name, NL only, but any thoughts on warming Burnabelle? I don't like it. I don't like it. I mean, yeah, I have, I often talk up max exit velocity and think it doesn't get as much attention as it deserves relative to average exit velocity because it does really show the extent of a player's power in a way average exit velocity doesn't. I mean, just by virtue of being an average. But that's when a player has like an 88 mile per hour average exit velocity. warming Bernabelle is 84.

Like it's bad. And not only that, but the main reason for his success at AAA, the 301 batting average, the main reason for that is he struck out just 12% of the time. But he did that with a chase rate of 36%, which is very high. And I just don't think those two numbers can exist together against Major League pitchers. So, yeah, I don't think there's enough power and I don't think there's enough discipline for Burnabelle to be of much interest in fantasy.

Just a few more items here. Bobby Miller is transitioning to a relief role at AAA. He's mostly been a starter in the minors this year, but it was a 558 ERA and a 163 whip. Just one of the crazier things in recent memory, Bobby Miller coming up as a rookie and looking pretty impressive and then just career just getting completely derailed after that.

So I know he had a shoulder injury last year. Perhaps that is just the root cause of everything that's gone wrong with Bobby Miller. Other players placed in the aisle this weekend, Jorge Solerer with lower back inflammation, Hassan Kim with a lower back strain, and Marcelo Meyer with a sprained right wrist. Before we get to our final break, let's talk about Shota Imanaga, Scott,

because with what looked like a great matchup on paper, the white stocks have been doing damage lately, I guess give them credit where it's due. But my goodness, three innings, 12 hits, seven earned runs, three homers allowed in this one for Imanaga. 15 hard hits allowed, 97.5 average exit velocity. The velocity overall on his pitches was down across the board in this one. It's just been a weird season for show to Imanaga.

What do you make of this? Do you keep him in the lineup this week at the Brewers? It ran into a buzz. saw that's what I make of it the white socks lineup was looking real dangerous for a while there I don't know how things went for them Saturday and Sunday because this was Friday right yeah I don't I don't know if they kind of came back down to earth in the days that followed but really they were they scored one run on Saturday and four runs on Sunday okay but they were they were hot there for a while they had four double digit scoring games in the span of seven and then they also had a seven run game and an eight run run game during that stretch. So they were the hottest thing in baseball. And Imanaga happened to go up against them at that time. The loss of velocity probably contributed to the struggles as well,

down one to one and a half on all of the pitches. If that holds for I'managa's next start, then I'll actually be concerned. But the fact he came up against the buzzsaw after having two really awesome starts before then. I'm mostly inclined to write this one off for Shota Imanaga, even though he is the dog of the week. Do you still consider Yemanaga a must-star pitcher?

I know he had mostly good starts leading up to this. It's just been a weird season for him. I think in most cases I'd start him. I could see if I had a stacked pitching staff and always was struggling to figure out who to start every week. And sometimes you do have a fantasy team like that. Maybe I'd play it safe and sit in. I'm in a lot of this start, but I don't think most people who have him are going to have that luxury.

Let's take our final break when we return. Waverwire ads from the weekend. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's first take a look at the Waverwire hitters here. And three names that could be out there in medium-sized leagues, Matt Shaw, Red Hot, started right away after the All-Star break, hitting 4-44, four homers, three steals, and OPS over 14. in nine games so far in the second half.

Extremely small sample size, not really hitting the ball hard, but the results have been there for Matt Shaw. Tyler O'Neill, we spoke about earlier. He homered three straight games and good matchups this week. So in five outfielder leagues,

if O'Neill is available, he's an option. And Colson Montgomery homered once again on Friday. This home run came off of a lefty as well in Imanaga. So I think that's pretty impressive. That means home runs in three. straight games for Montgomery, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. We spoke about O'Neill earlier, Scott, but give me your latest thoughts on Colson Montgomery and Matt Shaw. Yeah, Matt Shaw is hot.

There's no denying that since the All-Star break, but you said it, not hitting the ball that hard. Average exit velocity during that very hot stretch for Matt Shaw, 85.7 miles per hour, which is terrible. It's been an issue for him all season. He's even lower than that for the season. Could he be another Isok Perides? Well, his pull-air rate isn't quite that exaggerated. It's not bad.

But those are the kind of home runs he's hitting right down the left field line. What's funny about that, though, is Isok Periddez wasn't even Esak Perettis in Chicago, in Wrigley Field. Like, it ruined them because it's so deep in the corner. there. And that's obviously where Matt Shaw is playing half his games. So I'm not sure even if he is. Isaac Paredes.

It's a path to success in that uniform. Yeah, hard to buy in. Hard to buy in with that low quality of contact. Colson Montgomery, I talked about him at the end of last week. I like most of what I'm seeing here. And it's with some trepidation because he just had a really tumultuous into his minor league career. Last couple seasons, at least at the AAA level, were rough.

And he got sent down to rookie ball earlier this year to kind of fix his swing because that's how bad things were going. Now, sometimes that happens, and the player goes on to have a great career. That happened to McKinsey Gore in his minor league career. Huge pitching prospect fell apart toward the end of his minorly career. had to get sent way down to fix everything mechanically and has turned into a pretty good major leagher. So it's a bit more sudden in Colson Montgomery's case.

But there's talent here. And the average XIVa velocity is only fair. It's not great for him either. But in that Friday game against, actually the one against Dimanaga, is the only one I took notes on. all three of his batted balls Friday were over 105 miles per hour. So, like, it's in there for sure.

And he's kept the strikeouts under control on the majors. And I don't know, he's looking pretty good. Now both eligible at both shortstop and third base. So there's plenty of use out for Colson Montgomery out there, particularly in deeper fantasy leagues. All right. Speaking of deeper leagues, Andrew Vaughn continues to rake for the Brewers. He went two for four with a home run on Saturday. had two more hits on Sunday.

13 games in Milwaukee. Vaughn is hitting 3.41 with three homers and a 1076 OPS, also hitting the ball much harder during that stretch. Andrew Bennett-Tendee quietly do with some things here, two-for-four with two home runs, four RBI on Sunday. Last 23 games, he's hitting around 250 with five homers, 15 runs, and a steal. And Ronnie Maricio had himself a huge game Sunday,

but he's just barely playing. It's been a problem for a couple of the Mets infielers. here, but Maricio went four for four with five home runs. I think there's some upside here, some power, some speed. It would be nice to see the Mets make a trade where they free up some of these infielders, whether it's on their own team or going to another team where they could play. But any deep league interest gotten in Andrew Vaughn, Andrew Benatendi, or Ronnie Maricio. Did you see, because he brought up Louise Robert as a trade candidate earlier,

Did you see that Mark Vientos for Luis Robert rumor going around? Yeah. Which I saw Inos Sarris commented on it. I'm not sure I saw the genesis of the rumor, but I saw Enosar's commenting on the ruler. And he's like, there's rumor. He's like, there's no way I trade Mark Viantos for Luis Robert. And I was like, really?

Because I think Robert's a much more interesting player. He's obviously had more success in his career, too, than Viantos. but he's been bad for longer consecutively here, so I guess people are just losing faith. I still think there's a strong change of, I still think he's a strong change of scenery candidate to tap into that potential again, and since the Mets do have this infield glut

and are starting Tyrone Taylor and center field, I don't know, maybe. Maybe if Enosaris' read on this is better than mine, they would need to give up a little, the White Sox would need to forfeit a little more than Robert for Vientos. Maybe it's just a total red herring. But that kind of made sense to me. Some waiver wire pitchers from the weekend, shallow league names up top here,

Jose Soriano turned in a quality start against the Mariners. Six innings, two runs with five strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 87 pitches. Through that splittermore, which we'll always welcome that. It's got a great whiff rate there for Jose Soriano. Trevor Rogers, another great start this time against the Rockies in Baltimore. Obviously, great set up, but seven shutout innings, one hit, one walk, five strikeouts. The ERA is down to 149 for Trevor Rogers. Ryan Nelson continues to pitch well this time at the Pirates, six shutout innings with four strikeouts for him.

And Max Scher had himself an interesting start at the Tigers on Sunday. Seven innings, three runs, 11 strikeouts to zero walks. The 11 Ks were a season high. And he has allowed three earn runs or fewer in six of seven starts. So all these names got between 70 and 75% rostered. How would you rank Soriano, Trevor Rogers, Ryan Nelson, and Max Scherzer? Hmm, that's tough. I like them all.

I want them all, Frank. So I think Scherzer has the most upside, but I probably rank. him forth because that's how little I trust him to to stick around stay healthy I mean it's hard to it's hard to pick against Rogers at this point because he's got a 149 ERA and a 0.79 whip through eight starts and well that's obviously too good to be true it's thrown harder than a year ago he's got a decent swinging strike rate again haven't seen that from Trevor Rogers in a few years there may be something to it so I think I'll put him one Nelson what's the magic rule for Ryan Nelson.

Fastball. Magic. If he throws his fastball, at least what? Is it 70%? It's 60% of the time. You know what he threw it in Pittsburgh over the weekend? 61% of the time. So, of course, he had a good start.

And he's had a lot of good starts recently. He feels like the most stable of this group. So I'll go Ryan Nelson second. Jose Soriano, I think there's a lot of upside there. Just too inconsistent with the strike throwing. but Jose Soriano good start over the weekend and he threw I think it was a good strike rate yeah 65.5% of his pitches for strike so it's probably going to be good when he does that he's third and then again Scherzer

fourth all right let's rank some more pitchers and how do you rank these young somewhat exciting starting pitchers Emmett Sheehan a solid start at the Red Sox five innings two runs five strikeouts only six whiffs on 78 pitches here. You obviously would like to see more of that. Zebby Matthews had a great start against the national. Six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. 12 whiffs on 81 pitches.

Velocity was up a little bit more. I'm not sure I want to see even more velocity from Zebby Matthews who had a shoulder injury just like a couple of weeks ago. But it was a great start, obviously. Kate Horton had himself a strong outing at the White Sox, six and a third shutout innings with three strikeouts. And Jack Leiter had a shot. strong start against the Braves, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 100 pitches.

Scott, how do you rank lighter, Horton, Zebby Matthews, and Emmett Sheehan? I'm going to go Zebby number one, and in fact, I think I'd rank Zebby over the entire previous group, too. I think I want him more than Trevor Rogers. I think he's really talented. Obviously, this was a total gym against the nationals on. Friday. The start before that was shaky in Colorado,

but he had 17 whiffs on 77 pitches, which is an incredible rate. So I think Zbby Matthews is really good. And this might be the start of the big breakout. Number two would be a distant number two. I guess I'll go Sheehan. He's been kind of disappointing, but he still pitches for the Dodgers,

which is a good thing. Horton has had a couple good starts in a row now, I believe. And you like to point out the two of his pitch have awesome. Two of his pitches have awesome whiff rates. Curiously, he just had six whiffs on 84 pitches in this good start against the White Sox. I don't know what happened to the whiff rates there.

But three of his last four have been scoreless. The strikeouts only 6.6 per nine during that time. Clearly a mixed bag here for Horton, some good signs, some bad signs. So I'll go number three for him. And then rounding out the list, Jack Leiter at four. I wondered if this was his success here against the Braves on Sunday was the typical case of a bad control pitcher just suddenly having good control. But no, 62% strikes in this one. That's right in line with the season number for Leiter.

I just think the Braves lineup outside of Michael Harris, the Braves lineup just seems totally dejected right now. Like it seems like there's this realization has said in that, oh, this isn't going to turn around. Season's over. We're just playing out the string. And yeah, they're in a malaise. I feel like they're one of the best matchups. I've been a good matchup for opposing pictures all year, but now they're even better. Any interest in these three?

They all feel like streamer types specifically for this week. If we're looking at the matchups, Jeffrey Springs had a quality start this weekend. he gets the Mariners this week. The Rockies are so bad. They manage to make Tomoyuki Sugano look good once again here. He is at the Cubs, so I don't think we want to do that. And Brady Singer bounced back with a great start

against Tampa Bay, seven and a third innings, one run, eight strikeouts. He gets the Atlanta Braves this week. So I don't know, maybe you do like a Brady Singer. Scott, what do you think about Singer, Sugano, and Jeffrey Springs? He is one of the pitchers I added over the weekend as a replacement for one I had to remove from the sleeper pitchers.

So at the very least, I like Singer for this upcoming week against the Braves. I like Springs probably most of all. Not for this upcoming week, but just rest of season. And then Sugano. Look, all of his pitches were up like one and a half to two miles per hour. So it wasn't just that he was beating up on the Rockies. He legitimately looked better. Got a bunch of whiffs on,

the splitter and the sweeper. So I don't know if that's like if he could just continue throwing harder like that, maybe there's something for Sugano to salvage here. But I remain skeptical. So rest of season, I'll go Springs, Singer, and then Sugano S's. All right. Two deep league names, very deep league names. Mike Burroughs and J.T. Ginn.

They both had strong starts this weekend. Scott, did you see anything here from Burroughs? Or Gin. There are some good signs for Burroughs, enough that I think he's a priority to roster on such a bad team, no less. No, but I think there's enough here that I, Burroughs might have a future as a fantasy asset, just not much of one right now. And again, for being an extreme groundball guy, and he'd have a top 10 ground ball rate if he qualified. And that's, you know, throughout his minor league career, J.T. Gin, very high ground ball. rate. He misses a good number of bats for a high ground ball guy, and that's interesting.

That's, I could see him turning into a fantasy asset too, but it's way too early to call him that now. All right, starter sit these pitchers this upcoming week, and McKenzie Gore's control continues to be a problem this time at the Twins. The final line was okay, five innings, one hit, one run, four strikeouts, six walks, only through 54% of his pitches for strikes, and now has three plus walks in five of his last six starts, does McKenzie Gore? 63% started. Are you using him at the Astros this week? I think it would probably depend on my alternatives. I'd rather not, but I'm not going to start some scrub over him. I don't think I'd start like a Brady Singer over him either. That's a close

call, but probably not. So in his last six starts, McKenzie Gore 6.2 walks per 9, 59% strike rate. previously it was 2.4 and a 64% strike rate. So yeah, it's definitely been a turn here for Gore. He had some interesting insights, so I want to read you the quote. I haven't sequenced well the last month or so. I think that really comes down to one, you've got to command the ball better, but two, I think you've got to throw better pitches in certain situations,

which creates more chase. So there's a lot of easy takes right now, as in the batter's taking. There's a lot of easy takes right now, which kind of becomes a walk. One easy take could be the difference in a walk and a ground out. So he's blaming it on sequencing rather than him just, he's lost control. He's not getting the chases he normally gets because he's not sequencing properly. So that's encouraging, I guess. And he did just allow one hit to the twins.

So that's why I remain pretty sanguine about Gore. even though it's been rocky lately. Logan Webb is going through it right now. He had a rough one against the Mets. Four innings, eight hits, six runs allowed, 12 hard hits allowed in this one, and it's four plus earned runs in three straight. And over the last seven starts for Webb,

it's a 523 ERA of 150 whip. I've continued to point out the whiffs continue to trend down, 9% swinging strike rate over that seven-start stretch for Logan Webb. but he gets the pirates this week, Scott. So I assume we're keeping Webb in the lineup for that matchup, but he's kind of regressed here. Yeah, so it looks like the cause of the whips, the whips, the cause of the whiffs drying up for Logan Webb

is the sweepers just not sweeping right now. Sweeping less, he's using it less, obviously, because he doesn't have a lot of trust in it at the moment. So that is concerning, but I'd still start him against the Pirates and hopefully has a good start and relieves all of our concerns. Next up we have Gavin Williams who has looked much better over his last four starts during that stretch. It is a 225 ERA 104 whip 10K per nine, but still four walks per nine during that stretch. 85% rostered, only 58% started gets the twins this week.

That feels like an okay matchup. Scott, how do you feel about Gavin Williams? I mean, it could go either way. I feel like he's less a matchups play than just to put him in your lineup and cross your fingers type of play. It could just be the last two starts have been good because he's throwing a lot more strikes. 66% in this latest start against the Royals. It was 69% in the previous start. And that's much better control than Williams has been showing in general. But, yeah, just because he's done a two starts in a row doesn't mean it's going to be a new fixture for Williams.

And so I'd be a little wary of starting him against the twins. though I can understand if you decide to do that. And Jack Flaredes bounced back with a strong start against the Blue Jays, six shutout innings, five hits, one walk, seven strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 106 pitches. The velocity was up on the breaking pitches here, had everything working slider, fastball curve, and it's good to see from the fastball and slider

because those pitches have been a problem for Jack Flarety this season, who is at the Phillies this week. I don't think that's just a set it and forget it. What do you think about Jack Flaherty? Yeah, I don't love that, especially in Roto leagues, because kind of like I was saying for Gavin Williams, Jack Flaherty. In a way, they've both kind of been Charizards this year, right? Oh, yeah.

But I will point out to Flaherty's credit, even though we feel like it's been kind of rough lately, seven strikeouts or more in five of his last six starts. So consistently getting a high number of strikeouts. He has a 373 ERA during that stretch. It looks a lot better because he just threw six shutout innings, but still, if you started him all that time, he would have given you a 373 ERA, which isn't terrible. And you would have gotten a lot of strikeouts.

So I don't know. I don't think he's a terrible start against the Phillies, but he's not must start, certainly. All right, let's run through the rest of the leftovers from the weekend. We have some recent hot streaks for hitters. Kyle Schwerber enjoyed his weekend in Yankee Stadium, two home runs on Friday. two more hits on Saturday. And in July, 11 homers, 27 RBI, a 1087 OPS for Kyle Schwabre. Shea Lange Lears has been raking since coming off the IL.

He homered each game this weekend, 20 games since he's returned. 293, seven homers with an OPS over 900. Julio Rodriguez continues to mash two home runs on Friday, another homer on Saturday. Last 13 games for J-Rod, 333, seven homers, five steals, an OPS around 1,200. Randy Orozarena is now up to 10 home runs in July, and I heard on their broadcast,

the first time a Rosarena has had a 10-homer month in his career. So he is red-hot, and Zander Bogartz, quietly has been much better since the start of June, where he is hitting 291, four homers, five steals. You know, it's not great power and speed, but the batting average is up. It's an OPS around 800, so nice to see him get back on track. It's got anything here on Bogarts, Randy, J. Rod, Langaleers, and Kyle Schwaber.

They're hot. I'm curious, yeah, Bogarts is 93% rostered still. That's, that's kind of amazing. I think it's mostly like a name value thing probably for him. Yeah, could be. Did it ever draw it? What's the lowest it got to, 91? It's just interesting that, oh, why haven't I been able to talk about Bogart's as a sleeper hitter?

because he's remained almost universally rostered this whole time. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I mean, Julio Rodriguez, we've talked about it a few times, how much better he is in the second half than the first half historically and seems to be following the same pattern. Rosarina's had a really nice year. I mean, he made the All-Star team, so I'm not the first to point it out, but I think he's quietly had a very good year

after raising some concerns with his performance last year. Though it was one of those seasons, terrible first two months, great final four. So people who dug into the numbers probably would have felt a little better about drafting a Rosarana coming into the year. Schwabers awesome. Langaleers is who he is. It's about it.

All right, some heating leftovers. Tasker Hernandez looking to wake back up, hit two home runs this weekend, some signs of life from Francisco Lindor, who went three for five with a sock and a shoe on Friday, and, man, his season has really taken a dive since suffering that broken toe back on June 5th. 43 games for Lindor, 2.06 batting average, six homers, six deals are nice, but a sub 650 OPS during that stretch. Cow Raleigh, the first hitter to 40 home runs this season. He homered both Saturday and Sunday. He's now up to 41.

Michael Garcia looking to pick things back up, four for seven with a home run across the doubleheader on Saturday, hit another home run on Sunday. Boba Chet, continuing to rack up the hits five for five with two RBI on Sunday. And a huge game for CJ Abrams here. Two for three with his 14th home run and added three stolen bases in that game.

Scott, anything to add on this group. Have you heard much about Lindor's Toe lately? because that was... I just assume it's still bothering him if he's been this bad. I mean, it's eight weeks ago. It shouldn't be broken anymore. I don't know if playing on it is inhibited healing, but like it feels like it takes...

Feels like it would, yeah. A typical broken bone, you know, not a surgical thing, but just typical broken bone six weeks to heal. It's been well more than that. And obviously it wasn't a serious enough break that he couldn't play through it. It may not even be that,

it's hurting him anymore. It may just be that to compensate for the pain he was in, he got into some bad habits mechanically. And now has to work through those. But I, you know, he still must start, obviously. I think better days are ahead for Lindor. Yeah, Bo Boshet.

Bo Boshet now. Let me share the number I wrote down, since you don't have it written down here. Last 32 games, He's batting 336 with five home runs. How about that? Bo Bichette, we knew it all along. Boom. Batting average is great.

Selfishly would like a little bit more power, but it's been a good season. It's not really his game anymore. A 20 homer guy. He can be a 20 homer guy. I don't think we're ever going to see another 30 homer season from Bobo. Right. Let's get it to the pitching side of things.

We had ourselves a pitcher's duel on Saturday. It's time to do. Kevin Gosman, up against Terrick Scoobel, Gosman, six shutout innings, one hit, one walk, 10 strikeouts, 21 whiffs on 96 pitches. Velocity was down here for Gosman, but clearly did not matter.

Last two starts now, it's 13 innings, one run, 18 strikeouts there for Gosman. And Terrick Scubal, just doing his thing, six shutout with seven strikeouts on the other side. He's down to a 209 ERA.84 whip on the season. Anything to add on a little pitch. Dwell here, Scott Gawzman and Scoobel. You know, he's thrown his splitter slower.

His last couple starts, it's been down a couple miles per hour. And they've both been awesome starts against awesome lineups. So I don't know, maybe that's the trick. Maybe he's figured it out. He's been kind of a head scratcher for the last couple years now. But two, like, really good starts in a row against the Tigers and Yankees. So, yeah, I think Gosman back to being somebody you can't take out of your lineup. And I don't know that I have anything.

I don't know that I have any new insights on Terrick Scoobal. He's Terrick Scoobal. All right. And then a couple of their pitching leftovers here. We got great starts from Garry Crochet, Paul Skeins, Ranger Suarez, Andrew Abbott, and Brandon Woodruff. So five names there, Scott. Did anything stand out for that group?

Uh, yeah, I wonder if I wonder if Swars is losing it again. This is, this would be the third time in his career that he's followed this pattern of looking like Greg Maddox for a couple months and then giving it all back in a short period of time. Um, I say that because even though he got a good result against the Yankees, velocity was down one and a half to two and a half on everything. Um, and obviously. the previous starts, he was having a lot of trouble throwing strikes. So I wonder if he took a little off intentionally to have a higher strike rate. And it worked out against the Yankees, but that's a lot of velocity to forfeit. So I'm not necessarily taking this as a good sign for Ranger Suarez.

If people's trade deadlines haven't passed yet, would you be looking to sell high on him? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a really good idea. And I think because the top line result was good in this start that improves your chances, you know, obviously high. The emphasis is on the high when you're selling high. If you're selling medium, it's not worth doing. If you're selling low, it's definitely not worth doing.

But if you get a really nice return for Ranger Suarez, sure. I'm down with that. Bo, not Bo, Brandon Woodruff. Everybody's bow. I got Bo Bichet on the mind. Brandon Woodruff. I thought I had something cool to mention on him. Apparently not.

He threw a lot more sinkers than this one. But that's boring. That's not interesting. Let's move on. Brandon Woodruff continues to make us look dumb. All right. And then we have some bullpen updates here for the debacks on Friday. Kevin Ginkle got the bottom of the 11th with a one-run lead.

He picked up his third save. For the Rockies on Friday, Seth Halverson, got the ninth inning with a one-run lead, picked up his 10th save. For the Dodgers on Friday, Alex Vessia got the eighth with a three-run lead facing the top of the Red Sox lineup. He struck out two, and then Ben Casperius got the ninth inning. He allowed a double and a hit by pitch, but picked up his first save. Kirby Yates was not used in that game on Friday.

He did struggle with walks on Wednesday, so I guess they were just giving him a few days off to kind of reset there. But we mentioned Trinan's back. It kind of feels like maybe Trinan Vesia, Kirby Yates is the pecking order moving forward. But with Dave Roberts, you never know. For the Orioles on Sunday, Sir Anthony Dominguez got the ninth. Got the ninth with a four-run lead. He closed it out.

So my guess is he's probably next up for saves as long as Felix Batista is out. And until the Orioles trade away, Sir Anthony Dominguez. For the Cubs on Sunday, Daniel Palencia recorded the final four outs for his 14 save. And just wanted to mention Robert Suarez became the first pitcher to 30 saves this season. He picked that up on Saturday against the Cardinals.

To stream or not to stream on Monday, we have Eflin up against the Blue Jays, Slate Cicone against the Rockies in Cleveland, Eduardo Rodriguez at the Tigers, Cam Schlittler against Tampa Bay, Edward Cabrera is at the Cardinals, Palante gets the Marlins, Montas at the Padres, J.P. Sears, home against the Mariners.

I think I would have to You know what? I have Edward Cabrera as the top sleeper pitcher for this week because he lines up for two starts But since we're just doing a one-day stream thing here I think I would go Sikoni against the Rockies Obviously that's in Cleveland

And so I think I would go him as the preferred option Also should mention this for Slate Sikoni Even though he's starting on Monday Doesn't look like he lines up for two starts it looks like the Guardians are going to have to insert a sixth starter because of a double header they had over the weekend. And that's going to make Sikoni just a one-star pitcher this week. But the start is against Colorado, so he is still high among sleeper pitchers for the week. But just for Monday, Cabrera, I still like him against the Cardinals.

And anyone else? Anyone else? Don't really love anyone else. Don't really love anyone else. Maybe Andre Palante against the Marlins. He lines up for two starts with favorable matchups, so he got added to sleeper pitchers over the weekend. Sorry to keep going back and forth between weekly recommendations and daily recommendations. But, you know, got to fit those little nuggets in wherever I can.

And then on Tuesday we have Eric Lauer at the Orioles. Charlie Morton on the other side against the Blue Jays. Brendan Fott is at the Tigers. Logan Allen gets the Rockies. Joe Boyle at the Yankees, Soroka at the Astros, Falter at the Giants, and Verlander up against the pirates.

Morton's looked a lot better lately, but so is the Blue Jays lineup, and they are the least strikeout-prone team in baseball. And that's the main thing you can hope to get from Morton. So I think I'd pass on him in this start. Long story short. Honestly, Joe Boyle's my favorite. Lauer. Lauer at the Orioles.

Yeah, Lauer's my favorite. You're right. Lauerth, the Orioles is my favorite. Joe Boyle is my second favorite. But mainly if you want strikeouts, that's what I like most for him. And then Logan Allen against the Rockies, I don't hate it. Mike Soroka at Houston, I don't hate it. Even Justin Verlander against Pittsburgh doesn't seem like a terrible idea,

though he's not very good at this stage of his career, obviously. That's it. Pretty good. pretty good streamers on Tuesday. Yeah. Overall, I think a solid day there. And it's interesting, Monday. We got a full slate of games, man.

15 games on a Monday. Man, what's going on here? So we've got our work cut out for us. Scott, we'll have some fun. Really light Thursday. Man, really light. There is three games. Okay.

All right. Well, Scotty doesn't know. I don't like to do it back-to-back weeks. So we'll see. Maybe I can think of some other things. things that we could do on Thursday, but we've got some time. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank.

Thanks as always... It is the trade deadline. You know what? Maybe we don't need a trade deadline bonus podcast. We'll just save that for the nighttime, you know, something like that. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I have Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

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