Fantasy Baseball Today - Adam Frazier Traded! Waiver Adds & Drops; Start or Sit!? (7/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

To nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People’s Choice podcast awards, go to podcastawards.com/app/signup/ and then toggle down the "Sports" category. Adam Frazier was traded to the Padres (3:25)! Who is set to lose playing time? Also, Rich Hill was traded to the Mets on Friday. ... We saw three spectacular pitching performances this weekend from Patrick Sandoval, Braxton Garrett, and Touki Toussaint (9:00)! Who is a must-add from that group? ... News and notes (21:44)! It sounds like Mike Trout had a setback, Jacob deGrom threw off a mound, Eloy Jimenez is returning on Monday and more. ... How do we rank Joey Votto, Andrew Vaughn, and Dominic Smith (34:04)? What should we make of Daulton Varsho's big weekend? ... Is it time to drop Zac Gallen and Tarik Skubal (43:17)? ... How do we rank Sandoval, Toussaint, Jameson Taillon, Domingo German, and Tylor Megill (48:06)? ... We wrap up with start or sit, bullpen updates, and streamers (54:13). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @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. I drive. Centerfield. What is magnificent? Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality.

Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam. What's going on, everybody? And welcome in to fantasy baseball today. Happy Monday. Frank Stap will join by Scott White and Chris Towers. and I'm not used to this, but Scotty and I are talking beforehand. You had quite the eventful weekend, Scott.

You got to tell everybody about it. Yeah, well, I actually went somewhere and I actually did something. Wow. That raised an eyebrow for young Frank. Yeah, a group of friends and I, we did an escape room for the first time. An escape room.

We escaped. We made it out. Oh, you did get out. Okay. We did get out with 21 minutes to spare. I don't know. Oh, well. Maybe we set the bar a little too low.

You know, Scott. We didn't do the most difficult one we could. But yeah, it was my first one. And I would be lying if I said, you know, I was the leader of the pack or anything. But I contributed. I pointed some things out. I was instrumental, maybe.

You were present at the very least. At the very least, I was there. And that's what I'm going for. Yeah. You know, and pretty much everything. It's just, you get that present passing grade. Have you ever done the escape room? I've never done it.

I have not. No. It looks fun. It sounds fun. I'm not opposed to doing it, but I'll have to make it happen. I have to make it happen. You know, you know, those like point and click computer games, you know, point and click adventures where you like, you put together like an inventory of items and then you like.

That was missed. the one? Yeah, like, yeah, missed, sure. Yeah, I never got in. I never could figure it out. Too much point. Yeah, missed Kings Quest. There's a lot of different versions.

It's a whole genre. But yeah, it's kind of like living, like, you know, kind of actually like living it out. It's still, it's still fake, but it feels a little more real, just a little. Very nice. All right. Scotty Doves making things happen this weekend. How about you, Chris? How was the weekend for you?

Oh, it was good. I just, I feel like I would only really be able to get into an escape. if they like maimed one person right at the beginning just to like there's to like prove their stakes i'm not saying like horribly injured just like someone loses a finger if you get the first one wrong oh my and then you know i'm not going to be able to suspend my disbelief otherwise my my weekend was fun i went to um emo night karaoke down in bushwick real hipster stuff from your guy chris towers oh we're gonna have to we're gonna have to talk about this afterwards i don't want to spend too much time on it, but I do have to pick your brain. A lot of sweaty kids screaming

songs from 15 years ago. It was great. Very nice. Very nice. All right, well, let's talk a little bit of baseball today on the show. We do have waiver ads and drops. Start or sit for some pitchers who had questionable weekends. We have some trades and players on the aisle and more. Let's start with the trade. We had Adam Frazier shipped on over to the San Diego Padres. Why would they do this? They split up the Babbitt Bandits. So no longer do we have Adam Frasier and Brian Reynolds on the same team. I was

a little sad. It was caught on, Frank. I think the answer to the question lies within the question itself. If you're going to trade someone, you probably want to make sure it's one of the guys named the Babbitt Bandits. Because that probably tells you that this is the peak

of their trade value. That is definitely a fair point. Adam Frazier to the Padres in exchange for Tuku Pete. Markano, Jack Swinsky, and Mitchell Milliano. And Chris, I saw that you did write a reaction piece, which is currently live on CBSSports.com. And I think the biggest question for this entire trade is

who loses playing time for the Padres currently? Is it Eric Hosmer, Will Myers? And do you think that Adam Frazier remains an everyday player now that he's on their team? No, I think he's probably a most days player. But I think the Padre's approach is just we're going to get as many guys who can play as many spots as possible. And we're just going to figure it out. You know, let's, you know, maybe guys will get upset that they lose playing time.

But, you know, this is a super talented team. And now they've got Frasier, Cronenworth, Kim, Profar as guys who can all, you know, really play at least in the corners in the outfield and middle infield. So they're just a super versatile team right now. I think the, I would think the most likely people to lose playing time are probably Will Myers and Eric Hosmer. Yeah. We'll see if they actually do it with Hosmer because they do have, what, four years, three years left on that contract. And that's always an awkward situation. He had already been sitting a fair amount with Kroninworth sliding over and Haasung Kim getting some starts there.

But it wasn't like every last. No, no. But like, I mean, you could make a legitimate case that he just shouldn't be playing now, given how good Adam Frazier is against Ritees. Right. I don't know if that's actually going to happen. They could also just not play Will Myers. They could make a trade at some point and clear up some of this log jam. But I think the most likely outcome is you're probably going to see Adam Frazier playing something less than every day.

And Eric Hosmer and Will Myers playing less than every day even more than they have been. And, you know, I think the only real fantasy impact here is Adam Frazier goes from what I consider to be a relatively fringy starter once his, you know, numbers normalized to, you know, really like a bench, bat or specialist kind of guy. Sticking with the Padres and talking about Hosmer and Will Myers, it seems like their 2020 shortened seasons were definitely outlier performances for both them because they've really taken a step back. this year. So I do think it makes sense that one or both of Hosmer and Will Myers will lose playing time moving forward. I pointed out on Twitter, you know, maybe Tommy Fam sits here or there against a tough righty just to keep him healthy and keep him fresh because obviously he's dealt with a lot over the past couple of years. It's not really anything talent related because he's really good, but I wouldn't be surprised if maybe he sits out a game here or there. We did have a trade back on

Friday. Blockbuster, Rich Hill traded to the New York Mets for Tommy Hunter and catcher Matt Dyer. He'll made his debut on Sunday against the Blue Jays five innings, three runs, only one strikeout, 74% roster. That number still seems too high, right, Scott? And the fact that the Rays who have a starting pitcher shortage and are more in it, I would say, than the Mets, even though the Mets lead their division, I would say the Rays have a better chance of winning the World Series than the Mets, the fact that they traded a win now piece to the Mads, I think it gives you a pretty good.

good indication of what they think about Richel. And it's been a long time since Richel had a good start. June 5th, I would say, was his last good start. You could argue June 23rd, but he had five walks in that start, so it wasn't really good. No. Yeah, I mean, I think, I'm surprised Richel is that rostered still. And, well, moving from the AAL to the NL is always, it always favors a pitcher. I just don't think

I just don't think he's shown that he can miss bats like he used to and is going to be pitching deep enough into games consistently that he's going to be worthwhile in fantasy, really. All right, and I think you might be able to drop Rich Hill for someone I'm about to bring up here for, oh my goodness gracious. The latest trade rumor we heard on Sunday was Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported the Mariners

are making a push to acquire Whitmerryfield from the Kansas City Royal. So we'll see what happens there. Probably Bobby Wet time, right? That's what I'm thinking. I mean, he's been crushing it all year. You know, strikeouts a little high at double A, but he's been awesome at AAA so far.

It was really just May he was bad. And then he caught fire. And even the strikeout rate's only been like 20% since then. So I would think, regardless of if Merrifield gets traded, but especially if he gets traded, I think that's likely. Fair enough. Let's talk about some standouts from the weekend.

Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, I'm going to kick us off here with Patrick Sandoval, who just a magnificent performance against the Minnesota Twins over the weekend, took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Finishes 8 and 2-thirds, one hit, one run, one walk, 13 strikeouts, 21 swinging strikes on 108 pitches for Patrick Sandoval in this start. 13 of those swinging strikes came on the change-up. He's 46% roster.

He's going up against the Oakland A's this week who actually struggle against left-handed pitching. Scott, would you... I think we're all right, dropping Rich Hill for Patrick Sandoval, right? Oh, yeah. How excited are you about adding Sandoval? What should this roster rate be by tomorrow

or even like midweek? What is it now, he said? 46% for Sandoval. Is there any reason it shouldn't just be 100? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's what I was going to say, double it. I mean, it's kind of a flippant answer, I guess, because I'm sure there are better pitchers that are rostered in less than that, than less than 92%.

But I mean, he's got four starts with at least nine strikeouts in his last eight, since that big 10 strikeout game against the Mariners on June 6th. And he had been actually decent before that, but yeah, he's got a 340 ERA with 64 strikeouts and 50 innings over his last eight starts. He's gone at least six and five of the eight. No, he's somebody I want on my teams wherever he's available. At this point, I want him more than like Tarek Scouble, who had a bad start on Sunday. Now, I know this start and he had that amazing 30-something swinging strike effort earlier this season,

but still, 16.3% swinging strike rate on the season for Patrick Sandoval. That would be tied with Clayton Kershaw for second in the May, second in the, in the majors if he had the endings to qualify, which, by the way, it's kind of amazing that Clayton Kershaw is tied for second in the majors because that wasn't necessarily, that hasn't been his M.O. in recent years. Scherzer, for what it's worth, his first.

Among qualifiers, I'm sure if DeGrom might not qualify anymore. Yeah, Patrick Sandoval, he just, everything that we look for in a starting pitcher, 16% swinging trike rate, 53% ground ball rate. He's got a 3.52 ERA on the season overall. 3.47 X-Fip, 365 Sierra.

Everything lines up with Patrick Sandoval's been really, really good this season. So you should be buying in. And he is the must-add starting pitcher from the weekend, right? Even more so than names that we'll talk about later on. But James and Tyone has a quality start in three of his last four. Domingo Hermann took a no-hitter into the eighth inning on Sunday. Tyler McGill, six shutout against the Blue Jays, Tuki Toussont on Sunday, seven innings, one run, 10 strikeouts.

Sandeval is even ahead of those names, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's got a 65.4% contact rate allowed. That's really, really good. It's not just, you know, he's not just getting a bunch of called strikes or, you know, like he's legitimately just been really, really hard to hit so far. So yeah, I think he should be roster. There shouldn't be a league where he's available where he's, there shouldn't be a league where he's available. That's just it. Scott, you're making a real confused face right now. A trade just went through in the Scout White Dynasty League that... Uh-oh. Uh-oh. The best...

So I'm three-time defending champion, right? Trying to go for number four here, but it's... It's looking dicey because there's another team that's really star-studded. And that team just acquired Max Scherzer for very little. Not a great call. I'm sure I could have done better had I known Max Scher. was available. That's always a bad feeling, right? When you see a trade go through that you know you could have beaten if you just knew to go for it, you know?

Yeah, that's not a great trade. Especially when it's your primary competition. I mean, I have a real shaky team. I think I might have been able to beat that one. So what he got since we're talking about, he got in exchange for Max Scherzer, who's unkeepable at his salary in all likelihood. but Tyler O'Neill, Braden Shoemaker, who's a shortstop in the Braves organization,

not very good numbers this year. And Nestor Cortez, a reliever for the Yankees, who is not a closer. Good numbers. Maybe he'll become a closer someday. But will he be kept long enough to be worth anything?

It's okay, Scott. You're tilting. You just got to move on. I mean, maybe he'll get a rotation spot because he's been like a long reliever, right? Nestor Cortez. What do you think of Nestor Cortez long-term, Frank? I'm not very excited about Mr. Cortez. I mean, he's kind of just been like a journeyman-type swingman pitcher at this point in his career.

And maybe he makes some spot starts. I don't know. He's someone that can give you a couple of endings out of the bullpen in relief. But, no, I'm in a dynasty. I'm not very excited about Nestor-Corp. We're all disgusted. We're disgusted by this trade. I'm sorry, Scott.

Dean Peterson. Calling you out by name, Dean Peterson. Patrick Sandoval. He's a must add. Scott, oh my goodness gracious from the weekend. Who you got? Who do I have for, oh, my goodness gracious? Well, since we didn't talk about it before the show,

I'm having to think of it all of a sudden here. And I'm going to go with Braxton Garrett, because that start did make me say, oh, my goodness gracious. And someone didn't look at the notes. That's fine. I've got someone else. Okay, no, that's fine.

It's just funny. Talk about Braxton, I'll look for somebody else. I want you to talk about Braxton Garrett. You're so excited about it. I'm not. Go ahead. It's funny that of all the players we could choose from over the weekend,

Scott chose the one name that Chris actually wrote down. So I do appreciate that. I'll find somebody else. Chris, so Brackson Garrett had a really solid start against the Padres. The number that jumps out is 44% cop plus swinging strike rate. That was, I believe, the 14th highest in baseball this season. Didn't actually get a ton of whiffs.

Only 9 on 85 pitches. It's about 11, 12%. But, you know, had the command going really well in this one. Actually, if you look on his player page on CBS Sports, he has the M next to him. He got sent back down to the minors. That was with Sandy Alcantari. coming back from the bereavement list. I would guess, given that the Marlins are down several pitchers that we won't have to wait long to see Braxton Garrett.

He is a former first round pick, seventh overall, who's dealt with injuries. You look at the minor league track record, what he's done in the major so far, it doesn't look special. But given the track record of injuries, given the fact that he only pitched 15 innings before having Tommy John surgery, you know, it could be that he's just kind of developing late. And so given the performance that he had against a very good Padres team, worth putting on your radar. Yeah, that performance, seven innings, two runs, 10 strikeouts, just one walk in this one. And I didn't watch the game live, but I caught highlights of the start here. And the umpire was definitely very generous in some of those called strikes. Yeah, I'm pretty suspicious.

I mean, he doesn't throw very hard. He used to throw pretty hard. For a left, he used to throw low to mid-90s, and now he's pretty much 90-ish. Maxed out of 91, yeah. Yeah, and pretty good ground ball skills, but 10 strikeouts is really what stood out, and I don't think he's going to be that kind of pitcher.

Could be wrong. Marlins have made a lot out of Zach Thompson, who looked like he had even less to work with. All right, Chris talked about his team's pitcher who had a seven-inning 10. 10 strikeout effort. I will talk about mine who had a 7 inning 10 strikeout effort. And I think this one is going to be of greater interest to mixed leaguers. And his name is Tuki Toussaint.

Tuki Toussaint. Yes, he did it again. Remember, his last start was a quality effort. I forget who was against. This one was against the Phillies. His last one was a quality effort. But we said, you know, he's done this before. He's had this kind of fake out start before. And you look at his overall numbers, though, obviously he never could sustain it. Now he's done it twice in a row after two great AAA starts before getting called up.

The overall AAA number is not good. He's rehabbing from injury. And the last two ones were really good. This one, he really showed off the bat missing ability. Remember, we talked after his last start that his velocity was down from where we had seen it before. It was back up in this one. He got 16 swinging strikes, eight on that jift-tastic curve ball that he's always had. his delivery is noticeably different this year.

It's much simpler. He says he's more direct to the plate now. That's usually a good thing for locating pitches with more consistency. And he may finally be putting it all together. I mean, he has an impressive arsenal. It's just didn't seem like he knew what to do with it. Maybe he does now. Maybe he does now.

I think after two consecutive really strong starts here to begin his 2021 season in the majors, time to pick him up. Tuki Tucson, currently. 38% rostered and is going up against the Milwaukee Brewers later this week. They're 19th and weighted on base average versus right-handed, right-handed pitching on the season, though they have been much better over the last month or so. The biggest thing for me, or Frank, whoa, what's going on? Your voice broke. Oh, yeah. I mean, I went to a boxing match on Friday, which is like completely random, but my buddy is in the NYPD and they were doing like a charity boxing event.

So I was wondering if it was like an underground like fight club kind of scene. Yeah, honestly, that's basically what it was. He broke the first rule if it was. Yeah, that's true. It was inside of an amphitheater in Coney Island. Like, I don't know. It was super weird, but there was a lot of screaming and I think my voice hasn't really recovered. So that's where I'm at right now.

Anyway, Tuki Tucson, I think the biggest thing for me in this start, 10 strikeouts to zero walks. He only has two walks now through his first two starts. Obviously, those two came in his first start against the Padres. 38% rostered, Chris, who would you rather add? Patrick Sandoval or Tucci Tucson? Oh, Patrick Sandoval, definitely. I mean, we've seen Tugie Tussont pitch. He might have more innings in his career than Patrick Sandoval at this point. And for the most part, he's been pretty underwhelming. These two starts have been very impressive. But

you know, there are some things that stand out. You know, most notably his fastball velocity towards the end of the start especially was it's not that it was low. They were just like it was really inconsistent. One pitch was 91. One pitch was 94. And so, you know, I think there have kind of always been questions about whether he'd be able to stick as a starter. You know, I think that still exists.

Whereas, you know, I like what Sandoval's done a lot better. All right. Before we hit the news and notes, the NBA playoffs have wrapped up. And that means it's the NBA draft season. CBS Sports HQ is your home for Thursday night's event. We'll have pick-by-pick coverage, including, grades and expert analysis for both rounds. How to Stream HQ. You can watch on the CBS Sports app on your phone. It even pops out so you can have it play while you're scrolling through Twitter. You can

also watch using the CBS Sports app on your connected TV and you can watch on your computer via our NBA draft tracker, which will be easily available on the CBSSports.com homepage. And it's all free and featuring our good friends, Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander, Avery Johnson, Bill Ryder, and Rip Hamilton. So don't forget, NBA draft coverage tips off at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time on CBS Sports HQ this Thursday. And also just one more reminder that we'll be doing a live Q&A mailbag stream on our YouTube channel Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Come hang out, bring your questions. We'll talk some trades, whatever's going on in the 7 o'clock games at the time. We'll have some fun. I'll do something special with my hair since I believe this is the last live Q&A that we'll be doing. for quite some time

because I'm on vacation the following week and then obviously things are kind of ramping up with football and stuff so taking on some more responsibilities. So come hang out on Monday. This will be our final live stream Q&A for quite some time. News and notes from the weekend, Angels manager Joe Madden said that Mike Trout has been, quote, feeling something in his trained right calf

while running recently and will return to Los Angeles on Monday to be evaluated by a doctor, including this season. I did a little bit of math. Mike Trout has now missed 20, 26% of his game since the start of 2017. So, look, not all the injuries. Actually, I believe none of the injuries are related.

But at some point, I mean, he's, I guess he's injury prone, right? So I don't know what this does for his draft value for next year, but I think he's, I look forward to drafting an injury discounted Mike Trout for next year. I'm just saying he misses time every year, Chris. So it's, it's been true. And he's going to be. There's no denying that. He's going to be 30 years old going into next season as well, so I don't know.

I don't know either. I mean, obviously, we don't have, we have even less of an idea when he's coming back now. And so, you know, if he finishes the season strong, probably still a first rounder, right? Yeah, regardless. Like, I can't imagine I'd pass him up in round two. Will you pass up Mike Trout in round two? Well, that's the thing is he was having his best season offense, well, as a hitter. He was having his best season before he went down.

Obviously, it was only 36 games. he was outrageously good. You know, obviously 4.56 Babbap, okay, that's not going to be sustainable. But it's also Mike Trout. So it's not like you looked at it and thought, well, things are going to get real ugly for Mike Trout soon. He had a 422 expected Wobah too. So I just, I don't know.

If Mike Trout makes it the second round, just consider yourself really lucky next season because you may have gotten the best hitter in baseball for a second round pick. Oh, no, I was going to say, I think he's probably still a late first round pick. I don't know that he's going to fall out of the first round. Probably. There's some stuff in the batted ball data.

I mean, 42% ground ball rate is by far a career high. I don't know. I mean, we'll have a lot of time to talk about Mike Trout. You can find nothing numerically that's going to concern me about Mike Trout. Nothing you could say. Nothing you can say, Frank. Don't even try. 28% strikeout rate, career high.

Just saying. Jacob de Grom threw off a mound on Sunday. He still does not have an official. timetable, but he's been throwing and no reports of a setback. It does sound like he's going to make a rehab start from what I saw. All right. So we're trending in the right direction for Jacob de Grom. Eloy Jimenez will join the White Sox on Monday and is in line for seven games this week, though. I wouldn't be surprised.

Don't freeze through that, Frank. That's big, that's big news. Eloy Jimenez? Yeah. Yeah, I was just about to ask you if we throw them right back in the lineup. Of course. Well, maybe not. Maybe not in a three outfield league.

But he's had a long rehab assignment. He's been down there for like two weeks. 12 games total. Yeah. I doubt he's that rust. Probably even a three outfielder leagues. Get him in there. Get him in there.

You've been stashing them all this time. Or maybe you haven't. Maybe you were like me and were able to pick him up in some league because people were worried he'd missed the whole season at some point. This is best case scenario in terms of timing coming back. And the fact that he's already withstood two weeks in the minors without suffering a setback. Feeling real good about old Eloy these days.

He's pretty young, actually. Yeah, I'm throwing him at 30 in my outfit rankings for now, but if he looks good, there's no reason he can't go higher. Of course. Yeah, I think he's inside my top 40 right now. But yeah, I mean, now that he's healthy, I've got to move him up even further. Again, that is Eloy Jimenez returning on Monday.

We do have some rehab updates. Carlos Carrasco at AAA on Sunday, three innings pitched, two hits, zero walks, three shutout endings by the way, two hits, zero walks, six strikeouts. He threw 32 of 38 pitches for strikes, and then Chris Sale at AA, three and two thirds, six hits, two runs, zero walks, nine strikeouts, Chris Sale got all the way up to 64 pitches. So Chris Sale is gonna, it seems like Chris Sale is Chris Sale,

it seems like he's okay. Like obviously that doesn't mean he's gonna be able to throw 100 pitches in his first start, it doesn't mean he's, going to be able to stay healthy, but the numbers he's putting up in his minor league rehab assignment are exactly what you would expect Chris Sale to do against minor league players. He's got, I don't know if this is including the most recent one, but he has 20 strikeouts on 43 batters face so far. That's like a 46% strikeout rate.

Those poor, poor hitters. Yeah, it sounds like he has just one more rehab start left, by the way. And I would guess Carrasco is done after he bounced back from that awful rehab start last time. I suspect Carrasca's next turn will be in the majors. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing about Carasco. 38 pitches. I think the first couple of times through the rotation, maybe it's only four or five innings, something like that, but Carasco could be on his way to the New York Mets. Max Scherzer was scratched from his start this weekend with right triceps discomfort. Scherzer threw off flat ground Sunday and is expected to throw a bullpen

session early this week before the nationals determine whether he's fit to make his next start Thursday against the Phillies. Maybe that's why he went for a discount. AKA, he could be traded at some point this week, and maybe the Nationals just want to keep him healthy. He's already been traded, Frank. That is true. Joe Ross will return on Monday, which means he'll have two starts against the Phillies and the Cubs.

It's kind of suspicious to me because just last week, we had a report that he did not feel well after throwing, so this seems kind of soon. But interest level in adding, Joe Ross for these two starts. He was pitching really well before the injury. I mean, he had like an 8 to 10 start run. I'm not sure exactly what the numbers were, but he was pitching really, really well.

Over a strikeout per inning. I want to say he had his best start right before injury. Yeah. I remember the velocity had been up for Joe Ross, which was especially good for him. Scott, would you rank Ross behind both Patrick Sandoval and Tuki Tucson? uh definitely sandoval definitely behind sandoval yeah i mean i don't have a lot of trust in joe ross but i have a little more in tucson it's and tucson clearly has more upside so it kind of depends what you're going for i mean if if joe ross gets crushed twice this week we might not see him on fantasy

rosters again this year you know yeah and he's got to make it through these starts healthy too again, I'm just very skeptical of the entire thing. Steven Trasberg experienced neck discomfort again in his most recent bullpen. He'll visit a specialist on Monday. We finally had some confirmation on Freddie Peralta's workload. He went just four innings on Friday, and then manager Craig Counsel said the Brewers will continue to deploy tandem pairings to pitch games for the rest of the season

in order to keep starting pitchers fresh. Notice, they didn't just say this about Freddie Peralta. They kind of said it about just their starting pitchers. I don't know that they're actually going to do this with Woodruff, who kind of just seems like a workforce. I would guess it's not Woodruff, yeah. But, I mean, maybe with Corbyn Burns, he had a six-ending start over the weekend, too.

So just keep that in mind. Alex Bregman will report to AAA Sugar Land to begin his rehab assignment on Monday. Jack Flarety will begin his rehab assignment Tuesday at AAA Memphis. Clayton Kershot through a bullpen session Saturday and we'll pitch in a simulated game on Tuesday. Corey Seeger has been swinging and moving around.

Nice. I move around. manager Dave Roberts said Sunday that Seeger will most likely require a rehab assignment before being reinstated. Alec Menoa will not return on Monday, which was previously reported. Instead, he will throw a 60 to 75 pitch simulated game. Luis Severino tossed two simulated endings and totaled 38 pitches at Fenway Park on Saturday. Luke Void is doing significantly better with his knee injury and could return the first week of August. Lucasim's first rehab outing is coming Tuesday this week. Do you guys think that Sims hops right back into the closer role?

It's been a mess all season. Heath Hempry's been okay, I guess, recently. He's been pretty good, actually. I mean, it's overall... His overall numbers aren't great, but neither are Lucas Sims. So I... It's...

That bullpen has been anybody's guess basically since Amir Garrett lost the job in week one. Yeah. And I don't think that changes. I think... I wouldn't be so quick to drop. Pembrie if I picked them up. The Padres are targeting in early August return for

to Nelson Lemette and he's most likely to work out of the bullpen as a multi-ending reliever upon being activated. Nick Solac was demoted to AAA after batting just 192 this season. Michael Fulmer could return to the Tigers on Monday and that's another one where I'm not so sure that he just jumps right back into the closer roll. Gregory Soto has pitched very well for them recently. These players went to the IL this weekend. Mookie Betts finally with that right hip inflammation. He did get a cortisone shot over the weekend, but I guess he did not respond well to it. So he's eligible to return until August 3rd. So get Mookiee Betts out of your lineup. Same thing with Nick Castellanos, obviously with that micro fracture

in his right wrist. Trevor Rogers, this kind of came out of nowhere. Maybe it's actually an injury, lower back muscle spasms. It could be a way to limit his endings pitch. So Trevor Rogers sucks. Obviously he was a top 25- I think he's good, Frank. Trevor Rogers is awesome. This injury sucks. He included some words in that sentence he said. He said Trevor Rogers sucks.

Trevor Rogers does not suck. Oh, man. I'm just, I'm banged up, guys. Josh Rojas dislocated his left pinky. He's on the IL. Luis Arise with right knee discomfort and Colin McHugh with arm fatigue. We do have some players that are

currently questionable for the start of the week. So how do you feel about starting any of these. Aaron Judge joined the Yankees on Sunday and reports indicated he could join the team against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. Get him in the lineup? Yeah, I would say so. How about Cody Bellinger who was out Sunday with the hamstring? He's also just been very bad. Yeah, I think it's fine to sit him. I have no idea, man. Yeah, I just want to sit in regardless. Yeah, regardless of health, you know? Yeah, I don't blame you. Javier Bay has suffered a lower body injury in the eighth inning Sunday, but remained in the game.

Sounds like he'll be all right. If it was something to be worried about, given the fact that they may trade everyone, I feel like they probably would have pulled him. Yeah. Fran Mulraeus was out Sunday with back spasms. What do you think? I'd start him.

It'd have to be a shallow league to sit up, yeah. And the last one, Alex Cobb left Friday with a blister, though. He was pitching pretty well. He's up against the Oakland A's this week. What do you think? Yeah, I don't think you can take that chance. I had him. I had them in my sleeper pitchers article for this week, but I took him out.

I mean, too likely he just misses the start or gets removed very early. Yes, investors are scary. We are going to take a quick break, but when we return, we're going to talk about some hitters. It's about time. We'll do it next here on Fantasy Baseball today. All right, so let's rank some Waver Wire hitters, and we talk about Joey Votto, which seems like every day. He had another very solid weekend. Five hits with two home runs.

He is 68% rostered, but Andrew Vaughn is also playing. playing very well. He has eight hits over his last four games, including one home run. He's 69% rostered. Dominic Smith is another similar player to these two, where Smith and Vaughn both have first base and outfield eligibility. Obviously Votto only has first base eligibility, but Dom Smith has been hot for the month of July. So, Chris, how would you rank these three? Votto, Dom Smith, Andrew Vaughn. I think I would go Votto, Vaughn Smith. Boo. That's what I'd do. I'm right there with.

you, Chris. Oh, Vaughn, even Vaughn over Dom Smith? Yeah. Vaughn since mid-June, since June 15th, not including today's game. 318 batting average 926 OPS.

And the strikeout rate is like 20% during that time. 318, 926 OPS for... There have been, I mean, there have been like up and down in the battee, like the batte ball numbers have been,

you know, they'll alternate between like looking really good and not. not being as impressive as you would think, but for the most part, he's hit the ball really hard this season. That's been one thing that's been consistent for him. And so now we're starting to see the contact skills

that we talked about a lot coming into the season. I also want to say for Votto, like his roster rate has been stuck at two-thirds first too long. Yeah. Like it's ridiculous. He, since coming back from a fractured thumb, June 8th, again, not counting Sunday stats. His slash line is 296, 398, 521.

He hit his ninth home run during what's less than a two-month span since returning from that fracture thumb. He had his ninth home run Sunday. I mean, he's not just must roster. He's must start, Joey thought it. And the thing about it was, you know, even when he wasn't hitting all that well early in the season, the underlying numbers were all really, really impressive.

and we saw this second half last season, you know, the last month or so where he started trading contact for power. And, you know, that's been, he's striking out 24% of the time, his pace since coming back from the IL is like 170 strikeouts. You know,

he's not the guy he once was, but he's crushing the ball. He's 92nd percentile on average exit velocity, 91st and max exit below, 87th and hard hit rate. he's just been awesome this season. Yeah, and someone else who's been awesome this season, and I brought his name up last week.

Let's talk about him again. Harrison Bader, six hits, including two homers this weekend, and he is only 20% rostered in CBS leagues right now. The overall numbers, he's up to 289 batting average with an 866 OPS. Plate discipline is much better than we've ever seen from him in his career. 16% strikeout rate currently represents a career best.

where do you guys think Harrison Bader should be added? What level of leagues? Five outfielder. I added him in Memorial Magazine League this weekend. It's a 12-team, five outfielder. Granted, my team is embarrassingly bad in it. I could probably use whatever outfielder emerges, but no, I mean, really, the fact that his strikeout rate is half of what it was last year.

And there's power and there's speed for Harrison Bader. It obviously missed a lot of year this year because he's hurt. But if he hadn't, I mean, we might be talking about him as like a top 30 outfielder right now. How would you rank these? Go ahead, Chris. I don't necessarily buy the power that he's hitting for so far, but, you know, he's always been someone who could go 2020. So it's not out of the question that he can play at that pace rest of season with a much better batting average that we've seen. Yeah, we've seen twice in Harrison Bader's career where he had double-digit home runs and steals.

in the same season. So how would you rank these outfielders? They're all rostered in less than 50% of CBS leagues. Jock Peterson had four hits this weekend, including a home run on Saturday. He has eight games this upcoming week, and Jorge Saler had a double dong on Sunday. He's only batting 212 in the month of July,

but he is doing that with five home runs. So Bader, Jock Peterson, Jorge Salar, how would you rank those three? You just did. Sweet. Let's talk about a few catchers. Max Stassie went three for four with a triple and hit his eighth home run of the season on Sunday.

He's 48% rostered. How would you rank these three catchers? Mitch Garver, Eric Haas, Max Statsy. They are all rostered in 50% or less of CBS leagues. I think I'm going on Garver number one. He had that two homer game when he first came back and then immediately went on paternity leave, which I was thrilled that he went on paternity leave

for reasons I went into on Friday show. But yeah, I think I'd still go home number one, He was so good, like, the last month leading into getting hurt. And, you know, I think he has the most upside, clearly, of this group. Max Stasi number two and Eric Haas three. Okay, I agree with that. Let's talk about these in two catcher leagues. Dalton Varsho, all of a sudden, don't look now.

Nine hits over his last five games, including three home runs. He's 25% rostered. And he actually let off on Sunday for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Alejandro Kirk returned over the weekend. He had two hits on Sunday. We know that if things are going well for him, He can provide some batting average from the catcher position. All of these names are rostered in 25% or less of CBS leagues.

So maybe some two catcher leagues, but between Varshow, Kirk, Luis Terenz, and Cal Raleigh, who are both on the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners have seemingly three catchers that are going to find ways to get in the lineup between those two and Tom Murphy. How would you rank that group, Varsho, Kirk, Terenz, and Raleigh? I think I want to take a flyer on Dalton Varsho right now.

He's showing signs of coming around. He has seen what he did on Sunday. He only got one hit on Sunday, but four straight two-hit games before that, including a couple home runs. And clearly he's getting, oh, three home runs, three home runs. So four straight, two-hit games,

three straight with a home run, leading into Sunday. And clearly getting consistent playing time now, Stephen Vogt being out of the picture. I think I'll take a chance on the upside there with Varsho. Yeah, he is playing almost exclusively catcher right now. I do wonder if maybe Rojas' injury might get him a look in the outfield. He started at center field on Tuesday, on Sunday.

There you go. So, yeah, that, yeah, that alone, I mean, if he's playing seven out of every 10 games, that probably gives him an edge in playing time against most catchers and the fact that he's got some pop and some speed. Yeah, I think he's definitely the one worth taking a flyer on. I do want to mention, though, Luis Torrens, who as you mentioned, Frank, has a lot of competition behind the plate for the Mariners.

Since coming back from the miners, because he struggled early on, got sent to the miners, in 28 games, 10 home runs. In 28 games, it's coming back from the miners. I'm not really sure where that came from. He wasn't. he had one year in the miners where he hit for power but otherwise he didn't

so I don't know I have hard it's it's a stat that's been a head scratcher for me since he came up but certainly like two catcher leagues if Torrance is out there you need to make a play for him because why not I do want to throw out let's not overlook Alejandro Kirk who has a very very good minor league track record

and it's only 22 years old. He had a 923 OPS, AAA. This season when he played there, 829 so far in the majors. You know, this is a guy who makes a ton of contact. And if the playing times there, I think he's a useful fantasy catcher as well. Yeah, I think all these guys are pretty interesting. And specifically with Kirk, I mean, it's cheap exposure to one of the most exciting lineups in all of baseball.

So yeah, I'm definitely interested. Again, these are names that could be available in two catcher leagues or if you play in a deeper one catcher league, some interesting names there in Varsho, Kirk, Terence, and Cal Raleigh. Before we get back to some pitching, I just want to remind everyone that it's the final week. We are finalists for the sports category of the People's Choice Podcast Awards.

We appreciate all that you do for us. And we hope that you enjoy our show enough to nominate us to advance to the final round to nominate fantasy baseball today. Go to podcastawards.com slash app slash signup and then toggle down the sports category. We've included the link at the top of the episode description as well. The dropometer, let's fire it up. And let's get some questions this weekend.

I think it's time to talk about it. Zach Gallen at the Cubs, four innings, six hits, three walks, seven earned runs, the ERA up to 4.80. The whip is at 1.40. And he's pitching through the UCL damage. remember that he's you know he has the elbow injury he's still 86% rostered Zach Allen where is he on the dropometer I can't imagine dropping I'm really I'm concerned I don't want to I don't think I really want to start him right now

I know his previous start was pretty good results wise but I don't I I'm not sure I was fully back on board even after that one so I'll also drop ometer I'll I'll say two I don't think it's quite a zero because in a like a 10-team league I could see doing it. The tough thing is that you would almost feel, you would feel better about dropping him if his velocity had been significantly

impacted, because that would be a sign that, hey, there might be something that's actually wrong besides the fact that he's pitching through UCL damage. But that it was like really affecting him physically, and maybe it's just the case that he's trying

to overthrow as a result. of not quite having all the arm strength there, and it's making him pitch poorly. I'm in a league where I probably should drop him. Him and Chris Paddock have just been deadweets on my roster for a long time. And I haven't done it yet, but I probably should. So you guys wouldn't drop him for Patrick Sandoval? That's close because obviously we've raped about how awesome Sandoval.

If it came down to it, I probably would. I just imagine I have somebody I could drop. easier for Sandoval. Yeah. Well, let's do the same thing for Terrick Scuba, who was at the, I was about to say Chiefs. Every time I see Casey, man, that's, that's like a mental block. Terrick Scuba at the Royals this weekend, five innings, five runs, zero walks. That's good news. Four strikeouts in that one. His velocity was actually up, which, okay, 1.7 miles per hour on his fastball. It was up 1.1 miles per hour on his slider. Terik Scouble is still 79% rostered. Where is he on the dropometer?

five take him or leave him at this point he still seems like a work in progress he's made progress this year but i would prefer not to yeah i think i'd be more on the four side of five um just because how good he was the 10 starts before that 323 are before the last four sorry before the month of july um where he's given up 14 earned run in four starts. He had a 323 ERA, 76 strikeouts, and 55, and two-thirds innings over a 10-star stretch. And that coincided with him, I believe, using his sinker more and swapping out the splitter for a change-up. And it really seemed to have made a big impact for him. And even this month, he's got 19 strikeouts only two walks. So,

again, my preference would be to not drop him, but I understand if you have to. Next up we have Patrick Corbyn, who I bring up a lot. on the dropometer, but he's still 79% rostered. And this weekend, 5 and a 3rd, five hits, five runs. His velocity was way up. Slider was up 3 miles per hour. Fastball was up nearly 2 miles per hour for Patrick

Corbyn. Where is he on the drop ometer? I don't give out 10s much, but it's a 10. I don't really... I was going to say on the 10 side of 9. All right, so Corbin, get him off your team. Last one here, Zach Thompson,

up against the Padres, five innings, three runs, only three strikeouts. The velocity was down. Cutter was down almost two miles per hour, a fastball down, 1.8 miles per hour. He's still 58% rostered. Going up against the Yankees this week is Zach Thompson,

but there's a lot of exciting pitchers emerging right now. So would you be right dropping someone like Thompson, Scott, who I know you like for maybe Sandoval or Tuki Tucson? I would drop him for Sandoval for sure. For Tuki Toussaint. I mean, he... I'd be fine with it. Thompson has RP eligibility, so in points leagues, I think I would definitely prefer him.

On the dropometer, I'm going to give Thompson a... I'm going to recalibrate. I'm going to join Chris and giving Scoobel a four so that I could give Thompson a five. Because I don't want to quite go six on Thompson, but... You're on the... If it was between dropping scubal and Thompson, I would drop Thompson. You're on the five side of five with Thompson. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking, Chris.

You read my mind. Waver Wire starting pitchers, part one. We've talked a ton about Patrick Sandoval already, but Jameson Tion was at the Red Sox this weekend. Seven innings, three runs. Only one of those was earned. He had four strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes on 100 pitches for James and Tyone. He has a quality start in three of his last four.

Domingo Hermann took a no-hitter into the eighth inning on Sunday. Seven plus one hit, one run. Ten strikeouts to just one walk. Tyler McGill up against the Blue Jays on Friday. Six shutout with. five strikeouts to just one walk, and we spoke about Tuki Tucson as well. So, how would you guys rank this group? Sandoval, Tyone, Hermann, McGill, Tucson? Sandoval, I guess, Tyone, but I'm pretty unenthusiastic about both Tyone and to an even more strong degree, Domingo Armand.

But I do like them better than the other two, so. I feel like Tucson's come. I'm not Tucson. I feel like Tyone's coming around. Two very French-sounding T-names. So he had the nine strikeout game against the Mariners, nine strikeouts in seven innings. But before that, obviously, he had been thoroughly mediocre for a long time. And the three starts since then, 11 strikeouts and 18 in a third inning, seven walks. I just, I don't know.

Maybe. Like, I guess it's entirely possible that the underlying numbers, yeah, are better than the, the face value numbers, but I just, I don't see it. He had a lot of, what day did he start, Tyone?

He had a lot of swinging strikes for not having many strikeouts. 15, 15 swinging strikes, yeah, in this latest effort, even though he was struck out four. Seven in the previous start. Yeah,

I know. I mean, it's, he was a guy in, you know, he was a pretty good pitcher with the pirates, even though he wasn't

much of a strikeout pitcher. He's somebody who could get away with that. And I don't know. He just, maybe I'm just being too results. oriented, but I've believed in Tyone all year, and now he's getting the results.

And so I kind of want to stick with him. So, Sandevald-Tayon, I'll go to Sont over Hermann. I'm not really sure what's been going on with Hermann lately, but this is... He hadn't thrown more than five innings. He hadn't even finished five outing since June 6th.

Eight appearances. Eight appearances, less than five innings for Hermann, though three of them were in relief, for what it's worth. But yeah, this was a really good start, obviously, in every measure. But I'll go him fourth after Toussaint, and then I'll go McGill last. McGill's look pretty good, but the swinging strike rate is meh.

The ground ball rate is okay. I'm not sure about McGill yet. Also, I'm sure Frank doesn't agree. Losing a start where your starting pitcher has a no-hitter into the eighth, and you have a four-run lead is. That's hilarious. I don't want to talk about it. I mean, I, I,

open Friday's podcast with like a tirade because, I mean, just what happened Thursday and then Sunday, I don't know. Someone tweeted at me, tweeted at us on Sunday. And they were like, check on, check in on Frank. And I just, I sent out the GIF like, I am dead inside Michael Scott. And it's just, that's, that's exactly where I am at this point. But who cares about that? Anyway, for Tyone and Domingo Hermann, they are both at the Minnesota, uh, at the Miami Marlins this week. So great matchups there for both those guys. We have like five to 10 minutes left and there's a lot of stuff to talk about. So let's really make it brief here. Waiver Wire pitchers, part two.

Who do you like most from this group? David Price, Ryan Yarbrough, Tristan McKenzie, gave us a quality start over the weekend. Merrill Kelly, his last seven starts, he's got a 2.62 ERA. Josiah Gray up against the Rockies. Only went four innings, six strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes for Josiah Gray.

So Price, Yarbrough, McKenzie, Merrill Kelly, Gray. Who's your one or two favorites? If I can only pick up two, definitely picking up Price, going to stay in the rotation. It sounds like it's stretched out even more. And McKenzie, I mean, two of the starts have been awesome. One's been terrible since he got called back up, but the walks have been low throughout.

I just dropped him in a league before the start. But I would pick him up over Gray just because I don't think Josiah Gray is going to stick around for long. But definitely some interesting stuff from Josiah Gray. If you do need streamers this week in deeper-ish leagues, deeper than of Points League. Marco Gonzalez is going up against Texas and Ross Tripling is going up against the Kansas City Royals. These are very deep waiver wire starting pitchers. Anyone that stands out here, Chris Bubbage, six innings, one run, four strikeouts. Daniel Lynch was recalled on Sunday against the White Sox eight shutout with only four strikeouts. His spin rates were down like over 300

RPM, which I don't know. I don't really understand the start. And then Kyle Freeland at the Dodgers this weekend, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts. He's got a 2.06. ERA over his last six starts. So very deep leagues. Boobich, Lynch, Freeland. Anything? I might go with Lynch

just because he is the best pedigree and just hoping he figured something out, but I don't really think he did. I mean, he was... Yeah, triple I numbers are awful. Really mediocre. Awful. And they didn't get much better

leading up to this promotion. So, yeah. I got my doubts about this start from Daniel Lynch. I also just want to go back to Marco Gonzalez for just one second. I'm not saying you shouldn't stream him this week, but it's just something I've noticed. He has like the

worst XERI I've ever seen for a pitcher in the statcast error for a starting pitcher. He's at 786 XERA. Howie. That is, he has a 303 expected batting average and a 602 expected sling percentage allowed. That seems mathematically impossible.

It's to have an XERA that high. Yeah. It's so, it's weird. What will that say about the Texas Rangers when he delivers six innings of shutout ball against them. Well, yeah, that's very bad. Definitely worth noting there. Starters sit this week, and I have, wow, a bunch of names here.

But they are all kind of questionable right now. Zach Plessack at the Chicago White Sox. Let's assume a 12-team league. What if he's just not good? Definitely possible. His peripherals are awful across the board. And the White Sox are very good against Ritees, and they're getting Eloy Jimenez back.

I think you said them. I'm with it. Tyler, I might drop him for Tucson if it came to it. Oh, well, I guess that means you would definitely do it for Patrick Sandoval if he's available.

Of course. Tyler Malley this week, he is at the Cubs. He has three plus walks in four straight starts. I mean, the Cubs could have like one major league player in their lineup by that point. I would probably start him.

All right. Joe Musgrove is going up against the Rockies in San Diego this week, his last four. starts before a quality start that he had this weekend. He had a 7.36 ERA. Yeah, to start him. Yeah.

Junjin Ryu, starter sit at Boston. He gave up 10 hits and three runs to the New York Mets this weekend. I'm fine sitting them. Yeah, but I'm fine starting them too. I'd lean towards starting. I know the strikeouts haven't been there lately, but he's still been... You're on the start side of sit. Yeah.

Taiwan Walker gave up. Up six runs against the Blue Jays. Obviously, it's a really tough matchup. 11 earned runs over his last two starts. Start or sit versus the Braves this week. I'm on the sit side of start. I've been way... I didn't want to like poo it when it was happening,

but I've just been kind of waiting for things to go wrong for Taiwan Walker. He's been pitching over his head all season long. I'd probably sit him. I feel like him and Joe Ross, it was like... I don't really buy... this but it's getting hard not it's getting hard to talk him down yeah it's it's it's regressing here for Walker some regression also for Kevin Gosman over his last five starts he has a 4.97 ERA and a 1.50 whip six walks per nine during that stretch he's

going up against the Houston Astros this week that are third in weighted on base average versus right-handed pitching starter sit start I'd still start I'd still start him, yeah. All right. John Means, start or sit at the Tigers this week. He has allowed nine earned runs over 11 and 2 thirds since he came off the IL. I'd start them.

Against the Tigers, yeah. I think so. I've got I'm pretty concerned about John Means at this point, but keep giving, you keep feeding him these great matchups. Detroit Tigers 10th in weighted on base average over the last 30 days, just saying.

Yeah. Scott ain't buying it. Sunny Gray got destroyed on Sunday. Three and a third, innings pitched, eight hits, eight runs. Curveball, spin rate was down 432 RPM in this one. Start or sit at the Mets. Sonny Gray.

I'd still start them. Yeah, but that match up, yeah. Framber Valdez had six no-hit innings against the Texas Rangers, but it did come with six walks. He now has five or more walks in three of his last five starts. Framber Valdez.

Starter sit at the, Giants this week. I'd start and I'll point out that his opponent in this start in which he walked six was Kyle Gibson who walked eight. Yeah. So there's a Twitter account that's like gives out scorecards for umpires every game

based on how close they were on balls and strikes. And I meant to look it up, but I just wondered if the umpire had a bad game that day. Yeah, but it's still, you know, 11% strike walk rate for the season now. It's not quite where it was pre-2020. but, you know, 2020 is increasingly looking like the outlier. Last one here, U. Darvish, which seems obvious,

but four starts in July, 7.32 ERA. Start or sit versus the Rockies this week. Start. He's had three bad walk starts from Berraaldez, and the rest have been fine. And let's not forget, I mean, the first six starts he made this year, we were loving him. You were like, yeah, I was all about it.

I haven't ranked inside my top 30, starting pitchers. So I've probably been the most vocal about Framber Valdez. Right. I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying, I'm not saying there's no reason for concern with the walks, but I'm definitely still, I'm definitely still leaning toward Framber Valdez is really good. It's just true that last year looks like the outlier with his walk rate. That doesn't necessarily mean it is true. It just appears to be true on July 26th. I did want to point out, Frankie Montas and Yousay Kikuchi both had fantastic starts over the weekend. Quality starts, six endings, three runs, 10 strikeouts for Frankie Montas. He's got a 2.89 ERA over his last three

starts. Splitter usage is way up as well. And then Yusay Kikuchi changed his pitch mix, like completely changes pitch mix. Yeah, he had a career high changeup usage, right? Yeah. So coming into that start, 38% cutter usage, 10% change up usage for the season. and in this one, 31% change-up, 7% cutter. So he basically swapped the cutter and change-up usage,

and he was fantastic. They were both great, Montas and Kakucci. Nine strikeouts on the change-up. Yeah. Montas threw his splitter more, like it's always been a good pitch for him, but he'd throw it like 15% of the time.

He threw it like 50% of the time, at least according to Stackcast. And obviously, you got a lot of whiffs with it. A few names that we're not going to, to be able to expound upon, but we're very good. Nathan Avaldi against the Yankees, Luis Castillo's last 10 starts. He's got a 1.71 ERA. Aaron Nola finally gave us a start that we needed to see.

Eight and two-thirds shutout with nine strikeouts. He credited this performance to working on his fastball in bullpen sessions recently and basically the command of that pitch. So kind of helped everything else play up in this one against the Braves. And then Tony Gonson, who didn't really have a studly performance, but definitely was a good start and something we needed to see. Five and a third shutout

with seven strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies. The call to the pen, some bullpen updates from this weekend for the Royals on Friday. Scott Barlow was using the eighth. Greg Holland got his seventh save of the season. And then on Saturday, Greg Holland was Greg Holland. And he gave up a two-run Homer. In the ninth, he was relieved by Wade Davis,

who recorded the final out for his second save of the season. For the twins on Friday, Taylor Rogers got his ninth save. got his ninth save. Hansel Robles has been pretty bad recently. For the Rockies on Friday, Daniel Bard, allowed a run, but took his sixth save for the Mariners on Friday. Kendall Graveman, 10th save. For the Yankees,

the oldest Chapman gave up a hit and a walk. He struck out two and earned a save on Saturday. For the Orioles, Dylan Tate got his second save of the season with Cole Sulcer and Paul Frye. Unavailable. Heath Hembray, we mentioned, has pitched much better recently. He got his eighth save on Saturday. Brad Hand recorded just one out on Sunday.

He gave up two runs. He took his fourth blown save for the Phillies. Ranger Suarez recorded just one out for his fourth save on Sunday. They keep talking about Craig Kimball as a possibility for the Phillies. So that would crush all of Ranger Suarez's value, though he has pitched pretty well for them. For Cleveland on Sunday, James Caronchak pitched in the eighth to face two, three, and four in the lineup. With Cleveland down one run at the time, they took the lead,

and then Emmanuel Class A got his 12th save. And then the Dodgers with Kenley Jansen unavailable, Joe Kelly got his first save of the season. And they're another team where they can go out and make a move for a reliever. Apparently, that's what Buster only said on the Sunday night broadcast. Anything you guys would like to add on these bullpins?

Karen Chack's been a little shaky since the sticky substance ban. Correlation does not equal causation, but he's got 11 walks, 16 strikeouts, and 15 innings, 360 ERA. So it was just something. something I noticed the other day. Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream for Monday. Kyle Mueller at the Mets,

Joe Ross at the Phillies, Mike Minor versus the White Sox, Michael Paneda versus the Tigers, and Matt Manning at the Twins. I'm going to go Kyle Muller at the Mets. I'm going to go Michael Panada versus the Tigers. And if you need a third, I'll go Joe Ross at Philly.

You'll go Ross, Mueller, Ross, and then Paneda. All right. For Tuesday, we have Spencer Watkins versus the Marlins, Tyler Anderson versus the Brewers Brett Anderson at the Pirates the Battle of Mr. Anderson's Austin Gomber at the Angels

Jordan Montgomery at the Reyes and Shane McClanahan versus the Yankees I think I'll go McClanahan one I'm never I'm never opposed to starting Jordan Montgomery so I'm okay with him at Tampa Bay

and Austin Gomber at the Angels I'm fine with that too I feel okay about all of those yeah I like all three of those guys All right. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.