Fantasy Baseball Today - Add Bowden Francis! Drop Nick Lodolo? Plus Injuries & Bullpen Updates (8/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Is it time to drop Nick Lodolo (2:30)? What about benching Zac Gallen (5:49)? Bowden Francis had a huge two-start week for the Blue Jays (9:37). ... News (16:42): Freddie Freeman has a finger injury while Tyler Glasnow landed on the IL. ... Michael Wacha continues to pitch well and Jeffrey Springs is coming along (36:57). ... Junior Caminero had a nice first week (49:17). Who are some Ketel Marte replacements? ... Start or sit Gerrit Cole, Clayton Kershaw and others (55:59)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:00). 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, @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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August 19th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Sowers.

Today on the show, we have Waverwire ads and drops from the weekend. lots of injury updates, start versus decisions, and much more. But let's jump in. I don't believe what I just saw. All right, players of the weekend, looks like I'm the only positive one on the podcast because these two have some pictures that are going through it right now. Scott, we will start with you.

All right, let's go with Nick La Dolo. Nick La Dolo got crushed on Saturday against the Royal. eight runs in two and a third innings. It was really bad. Here's the thing. Been bad for a long time. For a long time. For a long time.

I feel like maybe longer than we've acknowledged. I mean, we've been talking about it, but the way we cover things on, you know, sort of a start-by-start basis, you could lose track of just how bad it's been. This is how bad it's been for Nicodolo. his last nine starts. He has a 715 ERA.

Scott, I'm sorry, you're not going far enough back. Oh, okay, okay. He has a 530 ERA since May 1st. Yeah. He has a 4.30 FIPP since May 1st. So like a little bit of bad luck there, but not much. And if you go by month, his strikeout rate is 33%. That's awesome.

22.4, 20.8, 22.7, 20.9. league average is right around 22%. So I feel like where this really started was, remember in mid-May, Nicodolo spent some time on the IL with the strained groin. It was a short IL stent and it was a groin injury. So you wouldn't think it would be that impactful to his pitching. But it has been because since returning from that, the curveball, which is his best pitch by a long shot,

one of the best curveballs of the sport when it's right. the movement hasn't been right on it. Basically, uh, that the movement profile's been different. I believe, I'm trying to remember vertical horizontal, which is down more. But one of them's down full inch. One's down like three inches. And it's been pretty consistent since he came back from that groin injury.

So something changed for him then and he hasn't been able to get it right. And since I think that's mainly the source of Nicola Dolos problems, I do think it's possible it just snaps back into place at some point. figure out whatever's wrong. The curveball starts dominating again. I think that's a plausible scenario for Nick Ladolo, but it's been a long time, like we said. And you can't use them, obviously.

And as bad as he's been, I don't think he's beyond dropping. It's pretty surprising to me, Nick Ladolo is still 90% rostered in CBS Sports League. I think after this total debacle, go ahead and move on. And if he does have that start where he's, snaps back into place. I don't think there's going to be a ton of competition

if you pick him back up again. I say that acknowledging he's still 90% rostered, but I don't know. It's just not adding up to me. Yeah, Nick Ladolo is part of a dropometer segment later on. One to 10. Scott, does that just mean he's a 10 on the dropometer or close to it? Close to it.

Yeah. Yeah. What about you, Chris? I'd say like an eight or a nine, yeah. Okay. Right. I could, like, there's got to be something worth picking up, obviously. But if there is something worth picking up, I'm not going to stop myself from picking them up because, oh, I can't lose Nicodolo.

All right, we'll get to some of those waiver wire pitchers in just a bit. I'll have one of them as my player of the weekend. But first, Chris, over to you. Zach Allen, who has 10 starts since his return from the IL. He has four or fewer strikeouts in seven. of those 10 starts, including three of the last three straight starts with four or fewer strikeouts. It's weird because like remember early when he came back from that?

It was a hamstring injury. He came back and his velocity was up, which was weird. And then it's settled in right around where it normally is. And everything physically seems okay. But his fastball especially has just been bad since his return from the IL. his whiff rate has been below 12% with his four seamer. Last season was at 19.2%, which is not elite by any measure,

but given how Zach Allen kind of straddles the line of being a strikeout pitcher and not and doesn't really get a ton of whiffs, it doesn't seem like something he can really afford to loot. And I'm not ready to just say Zach Allen needs to be benched in all formats. I'm not certainly saying you should drop him. If we were putting him on the drop meter, he'd be a much lower number than Nick Ladolo. But if I had a two-start Tyler Anderson this week

or a two-star you say Kikuchi, I'm probably sitting Zach Allen. And I would even consider it for like Kyle Harrison or Martin Perez or even DJ Hers. Yeah. In a points league just because Gallants is not giving us the strike. that we need from a must-star pitcher late. And again, his downfall has coincided, it coincided with an IL stint.

His was a hamstring strain, which again, you wouldn't think would have that big of an impact on his pitching. But he's really been searching for it since then. The velocity spikes, the sometimes weird pitch selection. I noticed after this latest start, Gallen said, I don't know if I had a great feel for anything, to be honest with you. And I feel like you could change the verb tense to I don't feel like, I've had a great feel for anything to be honest with you, because that's what I think is happening here.

And it'd be one thing if he just had a high ERA during that time, like, okay, a few bad outings inflated it, but the walks are way up, strikeouts are way down. Everything mediocre, yeah. Right. And I'm to the point where I think in most formats I would be sitting him. I don't think you could drop him because the chances of that backfiring when somebody else picks him up or too high,

a guy with his track record, but I would be looking not to start him if I could figure out a way to do that. Yeah, again, this is Zach Gallen we're talking about, and to put some numbers on it, his last nine starts, a 524 ERA, a 166 whip, 6.8K per 9, 4.1 walks per 9. So just below league average strikeout rate,

higher than league average walk rate during this time. and he's at Boston this week. So they are second in Wobug against right-handed pitching. His home road splits, he's much worse on the road this season, a 4-69 ERA. Yeah, a complete agreement that if you could find a way to get away from Zach Allen this week, I would do that. I don't know if it's related to the innings from last season. I think we were all, I think we were all collectively at least somewhat worried about Zach Allen coming into this season because between the regular and postseason last year, he threw 243 and two-thirds innings.

So that kind of workload coming off that and entering this season. It, you know, it raised some alarms and some red flags there. And perhaps that's part of the issue with Zach Allen this season. Let's go to my player of the weekend and a potential waiver wire option in Bowden Francis, who had himself quite the week. He was up against the Cubs this weekend. He threw seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 95 pitches.

It did a great job, limiting hard. contact. He changed up the pitch mix in the start as well. He more than doubled his splitter and his slider usage and both of them were pretty good pitches. The splitter has been a good pitch for him overall this season. The slider is Bowden Francis' best with pitch. Notice his velocity was also down in this one so I'm not sure if that was on purpose but it was down quite a bit. The bigger point, Bowden Francis two starts this week. He was great in both. He went seven innings in each 14 total innings, one run, 15 strikeouts. He put up 64 and a half fantasy points on CBS and I was facing him in the

Scott White Dynasty League. So that's the only reason why I know that. But he absolutely dominated me. Scott, I know you've kind of been like, there might be a pitcher here with Bowden Francis and after this week feel a little bit better about that. Yeah, I would think he's one of the pitchers who's going to be added in a number of leagues after these two starts. And I've cited before how part of the reason, really the only reason I was interested in Bowden Francis on any levels because he was so dominant last year. And I actually have the numbers here between the majors and the minors. And a lot of this came in relief. It's worth pointing out. But still, if a reliever had these numbers and then was moved to the starting rotation, we'd have interest in that. So between the majors

of the miners last year, between starting and relieving, Bowden, Francis had a 204 ERA, a 0.98 whip, and 10.9K per nine. So the guy can pitch probably. How good is he? Is he going to be somebody who we care about in fantasy long term? You know, that's, I think there's still reason to doubt that, but he throws a lot of strikes. He's a fly ball pitcher, and that can lead to a lot of outs if it's not leading to home runs. And it looks like he might have a little bit of bat missing ability, too, even though maybe the pitch characteristics on their own don't blow you away. I'm fairly interested in Bowden Francis. Is he somebody I dropped Nick Ladolo for?

If I needed to use a pitcher right now, I'd rather use Francis. Yeah, I mean, I think there are two-star pitchers, I'd add, ahead of him, but if we're talking longer term or in a Roto League where two-star pitchers have a little more boom-bust potential, Yeah, I think I'd be open to that. The one thing I would add that, Frank, you alluded to is to set splitter, which is a new pitch for him. He didn't throw it last season. And when you look at Bowden-Francis throughout his minor league career, and especially in the high minors, what you see is a lot of strikeouts, 286 strikeouts and 256 in the third innings. Decent control, not great.

3.4 walks per nine. That's fine. 1.7 home runs per nine. That's how you get to a 460 ERA. at AAA. And when you look at that was this year at triple? That's his overall AAA. Okay.

And that's not. I mean, the International League is a tough part for pitch or tough league for pitchers, but it's not the PCL. But that splitter has a negative eight degree average launch angle and a 235 expected Wobah. That is the best pitch he has in terms of contact suppression. And that could go a long way to helping cover up for what has been,

Boden Francis's biggest problem. And so, yeah, I think he's a pretty interesting talent and someone who I think I'd be open to dropping Nick Lodolo for. He gets the Angels next week does Bode and Francis.

That's pretty good matchup. Yeah. Yeah. They're kind of middle of the pack against right-handed pitching, but overall, not a lineup that we're scared of. And Bodef Francis, widely available, 27% rostered on CBS. So if you are looking for a pitcher right now, Waverwire pitcher, I think he's in the mix. And yeah, if Nicololo's your worst pitcher on your team,

I think that's totally a fine move to make there with Bowden, Francis. Want to give a shout out to Richard Love Lady. You were right all along, Chris. He picked up a four-out save on Saturday, and it looks like P. Fairbanks is going on the aisle. So maybe Love Lady can get even more looks for saves moving forward, but we'll talk about that in just a little bit. I mean, it was a five-run lead.

I think he came in with the time run on deck. Don't rain on this parade. Come on, Scott. I'm just saying there are a few relievers from the raised. Then I would pick to replace Fairbanks over Luff lady, okay? I don't want to mislead anybody who's going to tune out for the rest of the show. Why would they tune out? Stick around.

You know, people, they got a lot of podcasts to listen to. That's true. And speaking of which, we'd like to welcome a new podcast to the CBS Sports Family. a new NFL podcast, by the way, pushing the pile with Mike Renner and three-time pro bowler, Kyle Long. You can watch along on YouTube at YouTube.com

slash at NFL on CBS or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're watching on YouTube right now, you can scan that QR code and that will take you right to the YouTube channel. Let's take our first break and when we return, news and notes, lots of injuries from the weekend.

We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in news and notes. and the biggest news of the weekend came from the Dodgers. We have two big injuries. Freddie Freeman exited Saturday's game due to a jammed finger and x-rays came back negative, but he was out of the lineup on Sunday and is slated to undergo a CT scan on Monday.

Also expected to miss a couple more days at least. So the fact that he's going for another scan and they've already said he's going to miss a couple more days, you know, if you play in a shallower league, I think I would want to have a replay. replacement ready for Freddie Freeman. Absolutely, yeah. Yep. Yep.

Well, the other injury with the Dodgers was Tyler Glassnow, who was placed in the IL with right elbow tendonitis, and MRI revealed no structural damage. Apparently Glass now made his case to not go on the aisle, but the Dodgers wanted to play it safe. And what I read is that they did want to rest him here a few weeks and then kind of unleash him down the stretch and heading into the playoffs, although the NL West is a legitimate race all of a sudden. So I don't know how much, you know, much they can afford to just rest him and say, oh, yeah, we're going to still win the division at this point. But yeah, it's a big loss,

Tyler Glass now. He has, oh, no, he actually hasn't. He's four and a third innings away from his career high, which he set last year. And presumably the Dodgers are anticipating a lengthy playoff run. So I can, I can understand them, giving them a couple weeks off here. Some good news for the Dodgers is that they are expecting time. Tommy Edmund and Max Muncie back on Monday. Edmund is 55% rostered. He has not played all season. I can see having interest in him,

obviously just getting some kind of cheap exposure to this Dodgers lineup. But he hasn't played all season. I think it's going to take some time for him to shake some of that rust off. So I think you can add him and just kind of keep him on the bench for now. I don't know that Tommy Edmund is someone

you want to throw right into your lineups right away there. Some other pitcher injuries from the weekend. Hunter Green, this one out of nowhere, went on the aisle due to, right elbow soreness and he is awaiting the results of an MRI. Comes at a terrible time. We've, I believe all three of us pushed him inside of our top 20 starting pitchers and Hunter Green's been great over the past two months or so and this is another one where it's a pretty

big loss. Yeah. And the way they've talked about it was super sketchy. I don't know if you saw, but initially they were like, it's a total precaution. We're not worried at all. And also he's going to have an MRI and we don't know. Like, how can you say it's a precaution if he hasn't had an MRI on his sore elbow? Like, those two things don't, don't add up.

That's not how that works. I've noticed the word precaution or precautionary gets thrown around a little too much these days. Yeah, that seems like damage control. Yeah, more than anything. So that was annoying. A couple other, I'm very annoyed. A couple other pitcher injuries, Jose Soriano went on the IL due to right arm fatigue. and Zach Lattel with right shoulder fatigue,

it kind of just feels like we're at this point in the season, you know, entering late August, about to hit September, where innings are adding up. And I think we're starting to see that kind of take its toll on the Glass Now's Hunter Greens and obviously other pitchers we've mentioned. Well, last week I wrote about 16 pitchers who could be facing innings limit concerns.

And three of these four pitchers were on that list. Tyler Glass now, Hunter Green, and Jose Soriano. In fact, Jose Soriano is now 31 innings above his previous high, which was several years ago because he spent the more recent years in relief. So the angels might just want to shut him down for the year, frankly. Because if he's healthy, I presume if he's healthy and they don't bring in a big name in the offseason, you know, I'm probably looking at Soriano being their opening day starter next year. Yeah.

And actually, we got another report right after Sunday Night Baseball kind of in relation to this. Terrick Scuba will get extra rest in between starts for the final six weeks of the regular season. He's already... He was another one. He was another one of the 16. He's already up to 155 in a third innings on the season. He threw just 95 total innings all last year between the majors and the minors. So I highly doubt that we will get any two-star pitch, two-start weeks from Tyler.

Terrick Scubel, excuse me, rest of way. Fernando Tatis has been participating in some baseball activities, including long toss as he continues to rehab that stress reaction in his right femur. Even with that, he remains without a definitive timeline to return. It's kind of been a mysterious injury, Tatee. I mean, Kyle Tucker, we're just not getting much information on these guys, at least in terms of a clear timeline

for either one of those guys. Pete Fairbanks, which I mentioned earlier, is expected to land on the aisle with a last. strain and it feels like they'll play some matchups, you know, tongue and cheek with Richard Love Lady, but some options here, Edwin Yuseta, Manuel Rodriguez, and they've got two lefties, Garrett Clevenger and Colin Poshay. Do you guys have a feel at all? They could go with any of them or they could go with a combination of them. Manuel Rodriguez has been their eighth inning guy since trading away Jason Adams.

So if I'm going to speculate on anybody, I'd speculate on Manuel Rodriguez, but it's not with a ton of confidence. Yeah, and I don't think it's entirely necessary just because there have been so many other saves options that have become available in recent weeks and just ones that we're more definitive, right? Where we know

that they are the guy or we're pretty we feel pretty good that they are the respective safe source for their team. Make sure Ryan Walker isn't available in your league. Yeah, I mean this is deep league stuff. You have 15 team roto, A.L. only league for the raised bullpen there. Or the biggest closer riser

from the weekend, Michael Kopeck. Yes, who, I mean, normally you get to bullpens at the end, but I guess we could just mention it now. He picked up two saves over the weekend, and since joining the Dodgers, eight games for Kopec, eight and a third shotout innings, one hit, one walk, 10 strikeouts. Knowing Dave Roberts, I feel like this could still flip at any moment, but he's 34% rostered, and he might be the closer on one of the best teams of baseball. I do just have a little bugaboo about the. way everybody's talking about Michael Kopeck right now because everybody's doing the like Dodgers did it again they worked their magic

and like no this guy was throwing 80% fastballs at 103 miles per hour long before he got to the Dodgers none of that has changed and he actually had his final five outings he's actually gone I think 13 straight outings without allowing a run he's allowed like two hits one one three walks total in that stretch as well so

I just want to Michael Kokech was very interesting before he got to the Dodgers. You could do things to fix a pitcher other than change his pitch selection, though. I just don't think they did. I just think I think I think I think I could find eight and two thirds innings where he looked like this in Chicago too. Yeah, but the timing is, you know, they could have cleaned up his delivery so he's more consistent with it. They might have. And I don't, I don't know.

I don't know how to look for that. But there are all kinds of things. things they could have done and just the fact that they're with all their with all their closer caliber relievers the fact they've chosen him and in back to back appearances right yeah um and meanwhile daniel hudson's kind of kind of been falling apart so i don't know that i know he's set up for co-pack in sunday's game right but i i think he's i think he's pretty much removed himself from the closer conversation so i'd be dumping a lot of fap on copac personally oh yeah no i i I'm not disagreeing with that.

Everybody like trips over themselves to be like, look how smart I am. I agree with the Dodgers and rays. And it's like, they're not magic. Sometimes they just, they like, I don't know. It's my own thing. It's my own thing. You're too online, Chris. Maybe.

Let's continue all with the news. Ranger Suarez is likely to return next weekend to start against the Royals. Not completely finalized yet. But any way you start Suarez or wait for him to get one start under his belt. Against the Royals, it depends. If it's a deep league, I probably start him. If it's a shallow league, I'd probably have somebody else I'd rather start. Where's that one at?

That one is, hmm, I didn't write down where it was, but I think it's home. Okay. More likely to start him in Philly than Kansas City at this point, actually. Okay. Austin Riley left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch in his right hand. He's set to undergo further evaluation. after initial x-rays and testing were inconclusive, which I'm not a doctor,

but that does not sound very good for Austin Riley. Yeah, just got Michael Harris back, and now Austin Riley. And if it is a fracture, you're probably done with him in fantasy. I would imagine he'd make it back for the playoffs if you care about that sort of thing. But for fantasy purposes,

I think that would effectively end his season. But we'll see. you know, let's wait until the tests come in. People try and try and drop somebody as early as they possibly can. There's no reason for that. Let's see what actually comes back. But I agree it doesn't sound good. That Ranger Suarez, start, by the way, is in Kansas City next weekend.

Cotel Marte returned to the lineup Saturday after missing three games with a low-grade ankle sprain. He was then out of the lineup on Sunday, but appeared as a pinch hitter. And it turns out that was a bad idea because he aggravated the ankle injury. and this is another one that's kind of up in the air right now, but I would expect him to miss at least a couple of games. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you guys saw it, but I think he injured it just on a swing. It wasn't like running the bases or anything.

I think it was a check swing. Yeah, he just stepped and kind of went down. So that was concerning, certainly. Yeah, I think I would look for a replacement for Ketzel-Marté if he can do that. Jazz Chisholm will rest in rehab, his left. UCL injury following consultations with multiple doctors. He was spotted taking grounders at third base prior to Sunday's game and is expected to resume swinging a bat soon.

Alex Bregman missed all three games this weekend due to right elbow inflammation. He said that he slept on it wrong and hopes to miss only a few days. What are you guys doing with Alex Bregman this week? He's been so hot. I probably start him. The few games, the few days have passed already. and they actually, I think they did an MRI and ruled out anything structural, even though it was just a slept on it wrong situation.

Yeah, I'd lean towards starting Bregman. As a result, the Ashurst promoted one of their top prospects, Shea Whitcomb, who we actually spoke about on our five-minute podcast, FBT and 5 this weekend. He's a little bit older at 25 years old. He was having a huge season in the minors, 25 homers, 26 steals. He's only 12% rostered. He started Saturday and Sunday. Scott, the only thing here with Whitcomb is if Bregman's back in the lineup,

is there a spot for him to play every day? Do you have any interest in fantasy? He can play everywhere. He can play outfield where they have needs. So it's possible. I'm not saying they will play him there, but I could see playing time being available for Whitcomb if the Astros are motivated to give it to him.

And yeah, huge power speed numbers each of the last two years. Two years ago, it was with like a 30% strikeout rate, and this year it was with like a 19-year. percent strikeout rate. So major improvement. And he doesn't show up on any prospect list, really, does Shea Whitcomb. But I think he deserves I think he deserves your attention, if it's not time to pick him up yet. Hassan Kim exited Sunday with a jammed right shoulder. Bo Bichette has resumed baseball activities. He'll ramp up at the Blue Jays spring training complex before he starts a rehab assignment.

Yandy Diaz left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his left forearm. X-rays and an MRI, both came back clean. Jason Dominguez was added to the Yankees roster as the 27th player for their game in Williamsport, where the Little League World Series is going on. Each team gets an additional player for this game. And then he was returned to AAA after the game, and Aaron Boone was interviewed during this one and said they wanted to get another right-handed bat in the lineup against Terek Scoobel.

I think it's a little bit telling that he was the name that was called up. I think if there's an injury or if they just have enough of Verdugo, they can call it to Mingas up, but not just yet. I think they will have had enough of Alex Verdugo in about 14 days. I think like if he plays every day and gets about three and a half at bats per game, I think he can retain rookie eligibility after like October 3rd, I think is the date. So because that's the playing the the the service time doesn't matter here. They've got the extra year of club control no matter when they call him up.

So now it's Ken, I think he needs 99 played or at bats to lose rookie eligibility for next season. And they wouldn't be able to be eligible for draft pick compensation. If he wins rookie of the year or finishes top three in MVP voting next season, which that's all kind of pretty unlikely. And so I think. I actually look this up. It's not, if he wins rookie of the year, yes, or if he finishes top three in MVP voting. Either of the next three years. Any of the pre-arbitration years.

Yeah. So it's, you get several shots at getting an extra draft. Those are all extremely unlikely. And so I think it's kind of silly, but I understand. That's, that's the motivation. He'll be up. I would guess, whenever the AAA season ends, I think it's end of August. maybe they make the playoffs.

I don't know where the Scranton, Wilkesbury rail riders are in the standings, but I think he's a couple of weeks away, unfortunately. A second opinion on Joe Ryan's shoulder showed a grade 2 terrorist major strain, which confirmed the original diagnosis. It seems unlikely that Ryan will pitch again in the regular season, but you never know. Welcome back to Tristan Kossis, who returned on Friday and started all three games, even Saturday against the lefty.

He had back-to-back multi-hift. games five hits total in three games only 37% started I think it's totally fine to get Tristan Casas back in your lineups let's make it 87% started at least everybody made fun of him for doing dry swings with his mind but it worked he came back fully ready rinal bonco has been cleared to start tuesday against the red sox he reported finger soreness after his previous start rinaldo lopez will return and start tuesday against the fillies he's been out since july 28th with right with right with forearm inflammation. He's only 18% started. Scott, does this make Ronaldo Lopez a two-star pitcher? And would you use him this week? I don't know if it makes him a two-star pitcher because we don't know

what happens to Grant Holmes at this point, who had a great start last time out and this generally looked good. They have to preserve Spencer Schwellenbach's innings at some point, but they've they've given no indication that they're removing him from the rotation yet. So I could see. I could them just going six-man for now. But since I don't know the answer to that, and since this first time back from the aisles against the Phillies, I would avoid starting Lopez. Jacob de Grom Grom threw another live batting practice Saturday and hopes to begin a rehab assignment later this week. He's 69% rostered. Justin Verlander is slated to return Wednesday against the Red Sox. He threw 57 pitches over four innings in his latest rehab start on Thursday. He's been out since June 9th

due to a neck injury, and I do not think you should start Verlander probably throws somewhere at 60 to 70 pitches, and it's a really tough matchup against the Boston Red Sox. Max Scherzer threw another bullpen on Sunday and is scheduled to pitch again on Wednesday. Matt McLean has been cleared to resume baseball activities. His recovery from off-season surgery on his left shoulder was derailed in early August when he sustained a stress reaction in his rib cage.

Jared Jones will make at least one more rehab start before returning from the IL. Jorge Soler has missed three straight with mild left hamstring strain. Esoc Paredes was scratched Sunday due to right shoulder discomfort, so pay attention to that. You might need a first or third basement in his place. The Tigers were called Spencer Torkelson on Saturday. He was starting to pick things back up at AAA last 21 games in the minors. 256 batting average, six homers, seven doubles, 21 RBI, a 934 OPS.

32% rostered. Chris, any interest in Spencer Torkelson? Yeah, some interest. I'm not saying he's a must roster player, but remember, he had a really bad first half last season, got red hot down the stretch, and ended up hitting 19 homers after the All-Star breaks. So I think you'd prefer it if he had been really good at AAA and really outside of the past few weeks. He had been pretty bad. So maybe he was trying to figure out maybe that's why they called him up when they did. I think 32% rostered is probably too low either way.

Nolan Jones was reinstated from the aisle on Sunday he's been out since before the All-Star break with a lower back strain he's 55% rostered the Rockies have all road games this week I don't think you have to add Nolan Jones maybe if you have a spot on your bench you can hold on to him but yeah I mean I'd probably add him if he's out there in a five outfielder league

he did have a really productive rehab stint and like the slash was ridiculous. I'm trying to look it up real quick, but I'm not sure I'm going to get there in time.

Oh, 333, 455, 733 with four home runs and 13 games. So there's a chance he could be impactful down the stretch.

He certainly was last September. Yeah. Again, that is Nolan Jones. And lastly, the Rockies released Alias Diaz

on Friday. Jacob Stalling started two of three games this weekend and could be a streamer whenever the Rockies are at home. Let's take our final break

and when we return, we'll get into the Waverwire options right after this. Welcome back in. Let's take a look at Waverwire pitchers from the weekend and some names in shallower leagues. These are between 70 and 80% rostered on CBS. Luis Severino, a complete game shutout

up against the Marlins, four-hitter with eight strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 113 pitches. Michael Waka, great once again, at the Reds, six shutout innings with nine strikeouts. Ben lively bounced back from two rough outings in a row. He was at the Brewers, six innings, two runs with five strikeouts, and on the other side of that game, Colin Ray, also bounced back from a bad start. He had a great one up against the Guardian, seven shutout innings with five strikeouts.

I feel like Colin Ray and Ben Lively are the same exact person, and I don't really know what to do with them in fantasy. I guess you just streamed them in the right matchup. But Chris, how would you rank these names? Colin Ray, it might be based on the matchup if you want to take a look at that, but Colin Ray, Ben Lively, Michael Waka, and Luis Severi. Colin Ray is next to start to the Padres and Diamondbacks. Don't love it.

Can't say I have a ton of interest in either of those. We were including Lively, Texas. That's not a terrible one. Michael Waka gets the Phillies. They're cold right now, but have been very good overall. And Luis Severino, the Padres. I think I like Ben Lively the best out of those because he has the best matchup in his next game.

And with all four of these pitchers, I think that's pretty much all I care about. Waka might be the exception. He might be a little bit above the streaming tier, but not someone that I think is a must-start pitcher by any means. I was going to say Waka is the exception. I think he should probably just be rostered at this point. He's been so reliable. And, you know, has the track record to back it up. I understand the underlying numbers aren't that impressive.

but this is the third straight year now where he's just been money in fantasy regardless of that. Let's move on to... I'll go ahead, Scott. Well, I was going to comment on Louis Severino since it was an awesome start. I don't think there's anything to get excited about. Yeah, I mean, four and runs plus in his previous three.

He has been using his sinker a lot less recently. Remember, he kind of was reinventing himself as a ground ball pitcher early on, and he was actually having more success when he was doing that. But he seems to be phasing it out. And apart from this one start, it hasn't been to his benefit. So I think you can ignore Luis Severino.

The next group includes Jeffrey Springs, who has had two strong starts in a row. This one up against the debacks, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 76 pitches. Brian Beaux had a strong start at the Orioles, six innings one run, with six strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 97 pitches, six starts. in the second half for Beio. It's a 344 ERA and a 124 whip. J.P. Sears has been pitching well this time up against the Giants.

Seven and two-thirds innings, one run with nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 105 pitches, 14 of those on his fastball. And he has turned in four straight quality starts, seven innings in each for J.P. Sears. And we spoke about Bowden Francis earlier, who was part of this group. Scott, how would you rank Francis, J.P. Sears, Brian Beow, and Jeffrey Spring.

Well, by and large, I'd say this group is more interesting than the last one. Yeah, agreed. Springs is obvious number one. I would say he's must roster at this point. The velocity actually took a step back when he was already behind where he was when last healthy. But the change-up was awesome again, and that's his best pitch. And if it's piling up whiffs, maybe the velocity on the fastball doesn't matter that much. I have him as a sleeper pitcher this upcoming week.

he gets Oakland. And I have a lot of confidence in Jeffrey Springs delivering good numbers for that one. So he's number one, number two. Yeah, I mean, we might just play the matchups game with these guys too, in which case I'm going to go with Francis against the Angels, then J.P. Sears, then Brian Beaux. I do want to point out with J.P. Sears that he's got kind of a Ryan Nelson thing going on where when he throws his fastball a lot, it goes well for him.

So three of his last four starts, he's thrown his fastball close to 50% of the time. It was 48% in this latest nine strikeout effort against the Giants. So I'm counting that as close to 50%. Three out of four, he's done that. All of them were seven-ending outings with great results. He's had a whiff rate over 33% in four straight starts, I believe, which all of those starts have been at least seven innings.

it doesn't look like the kind of fastball that should be getting the results it does, but it's been super effective for him. He is the one out of these four that I'm fine going with him when he's hot like this, but two things. One, two of those four starts were against the Giants, and those were the nine strikeouts. He had nine strikeouts combined in the other two, so it might just be he has their number for whatever reason.

And then I will just say, this is the one that feels like when it goes wrong, it's going to go really wrong, more so than the other ones in this group, I would say. Again, that was J.P. Sears we were talking about. The next group includes Michael Lorenzen, who had a solid start at the Reds, five and two-thirds innings with one run, only three strikeouts. He gets the Angels this week, which is a good matchup. Ryan Nelson fired another strong start at Tampa Bay, six and a third innings, one run, six strikeouts.

and over his last eight starts, a 273 ERA and a 0.95 whip. I think he's out of the rotation, though. So I don't know where Ryan Nelson goes from here. Aaron Savali, back-to-back quality starts. This one up against the Guardians, six shutout innings with four strikeouts. And David Festa has quietly pitched well

since being recalled by the twins. He was at Texas this weekend. Five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 81 pitches, five starts since being recalled. it's a 238 ERA and a 115 whip for David Festa. Chris, any interest in this group, Festa, Savali, Ryan Nelson, and Michael Lorenzen. So I will say credit to the Royals for making significant changes to Michael Lorenzen's approach.

He's gone much more curve and sweeper heavy, a lot fewer fastballs. That's a good idea given his approach. But I don't think he really matters very much. I think he's just a streamer. Nelson, Scott mentioned it earlier, but that fastball, he's been throwing that fastball up in the zone a lot more lately and it's been a really effective pitch for him. It's just, it doesn't seem like he's got a spot in the rotation. And that may, I mean, look, these kind of things when you're talking about pitchers, you only don't have a spot in the rotation for the next turn in the rotation. And then something can happen.

And something often happens with pitchers, but I can't exactly justify making him. him a high priority waiver wire ad when he doesn't have a rotation spot. So I would say Fest is the most interesting of this group. I think he's probably the most talented of this group. The problem is the twins have just been really, really hesitant to let their young pitchers pitch deep into games. It's been a lot of five innings starts for him, Simmy and Wood Richardson, Louis Varland when he's been in the rotation.

So it just there seems to be a ceiling on how good, how valuable these young twins pitchers can be. but I think Fest is the most interesting of this group. I think there's a lot to like about him. He gets huge extension. He like has some of the best extension in the game, which makes his stuff play up. I think there's a legitimate pitcher here in David Festa.

Some names in deeper leagues. Osvaldo Bito, who pitches for the Oakland A's, was up against the Giants. He threw six shutout innings with six strikeouts. And he has turned in three straight quality starts. Over that stretch, 18 innings to run 17 strikeouts for Bito. So Andre Palante had a strong start up against the Dodgers, seven innings, two runs with five strikeouts. And Albert Suarez had a strong start up against the Red Sox, six shutout with six strikeouts.

He had 16 whiffs on 99 pitches and last three starts for Albert Suarez, 17 and two-thirds, shutout innings with 17 strikeouts. Scott, any interest here in deeper formats, Suarez, Palante, and Osvaldo Bito. Well, with Albert Suarez, I don't even know that it has to be that. deep of a format and I hate to be a yo-yo with him but he's now been back in the Oreo's rotation for three turns has yet to allow a run or at least an earned run. I think a run at all in those three appearances. 13 hits and three walks and 17 and two-thirds innings so a whip below one if you want to do that math real quick about a strikeout per inning. He got 11 whiffs on the fastball today, but it's not like any of his pitches is a standout on its own and the walk rate's

kind of high and the strikeout rate's kind of low. So I don't really understand why Suarez is having so much success, just like earlier this year when he was. But he's come back around and he has the Orioles backing him up. So I think he's of interest in fantasy again. And he's certainly more interesting than these other two. Bido Bido. Osvaldo Bito. Yep. He's been doing the Ryan Nelson

J.P. Sears thing have thrown his fastball a lot more, and that's why that coincides with his last two starts being amazing. But that's not enough of a trend for me to really buy into yet. Just something to note with him. Yeah. If you are desperate in a deeper league, Bito gets the raise this week. They're 27th in Woba against right-handed pitching,

So yeah, if you're really desperate, I can see that working out well for him. And of course, as soon as we buy in on Spencer Arroghetti, he has a clunker against the White Sox of all teams. Five and two thirds innings, four runs allowed, two homers allowed. And this one, interesting pitch mix usage. He threw more cutters in this start, which isn't a good idea. His four seam and his cutter, they get hit hard. His curve and his sweeper are his best pitches. So kind of just feels like he should use those secondaries a little bit more.

and fade the fastball in the cutter. But if you guys picked up Spencer Aragutti recently, would you just hold on to him after this bad start, or you'd think he's a drop after this one? I'd hold on to him. I mean, you hate that this happened against the White Sox. And in retrospect, I should not have started him over Aaron Nola. I thought about that when I was making the rundown today.

Not that Nola was amazing, but, you know, it went against my better judgment, and that's why it's called Better Judgment. Let's fire up the dropometer. Garrett Crochet had a dominant start, but again, it was only four innings. At the Astros, four innings, four hits, one run, nine strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 55 pitches. I mean, this was incredible stuff. It's just we're never going to get a win.

We're never going to get a quality start from Garrett Crochet. He's 87% rostered. Where is he on the dropometer? I was trying to come up with a pun for like with Crochet and I'm at the end of my rope. There's something there. I'm trying to spin a yarn, something like that. Yeah, I think he's a 10 on the dropometer. Like, if he's going that well and he's that efficient and they're still going to pull him after four innings,

he hasn't gone more than four innings since June, there's no, there's nothing here. Like, they're not going to let him. I think it's a 10 on the dropometer. It's unfortunate. I can't wait to see what he does next season. Yeah, you could say unraveled. The other name here is Bobby Miller, who returned to the Dodgers, and he was not good. 10. Yep, 10. Scott?

Who are we on? Bobby Miller. Yeah, that's a 10. All right. Let's talk some Waverwire hitters, and so far, so good for Junior Camerro through five games. He has six hits, including two steals, which is one more than he had in 59 games in the minors this season. So I thought that was interesting. Camerero, 75% roster. He's got seven road games this week, including four against A's pitching. If you, you know, if Austin Riley has to miss any time in a shallower league, Caminero is available.

I know Berger was out there, but now he's too rostered. So there are some third baseman available in shaller formats. Some outfielders, Josh, go ahead. I thought this was encouraging for Cominero. If you hadn't picked them up already, I think this is an excuse too. Yeah. I am still in the belief of Burger over Camerero. I don't know if that has changed for either of you.

I think you were both Caminero over Burger, though, right? I rank Cominero ahead of burger rest of season because I do think burger will cool off at some point. Is he more startable than Cominero right now? I think you could make that argument. Yeah, Cominero's matchups are better next week for what it's worth. Nobody likes a cold burger either. That's not good.

Yeah. All right. Let's talk about some outfielders. Josh Lowe looks to be picking things up recently. He had a steal in six straight games. entering Sunday, and over his last 16, he's betting 333, with two homers, seven seals, and OPS over a thousand. Masataka Yoshida has been very solid for nearly two months now.

This weekend, he had six hits, one homer, four RBI, and since June 30th, Yoshita is batting 323 with six homers, 30 RBI, and an OPS over 950. Chris, if you play in a shallower three outfield league, who would rather add between? between Lowe and Yoshida. Well, low in categories,

Yoshita and points. And most three outfieler leagues, I would guess, are points leagues, so probably Yoshida. Yeah. All right. Scott, agree? It might be Yoshita anyway.

Well, I guess it is a lot of steals for low. Yeah, I agree with Chris. Okay. Some can tell Rete replacements in shallower leagues, Brandon Lau, who we talk about quite a bit, He added two more homers this weekend. 56 games since the start of June 278 batting average with 15 home runs and an OPS over 900.

He's 75% rostered. How about if you play in a slightly deeper format? 12-team Roto leagues or deeper. Gavin Lux continues to hit 2 for 4 with his eighth home run on Friday and he's having a big second half. Jorge Polanco has hit well recently. He had a home run on Friday and last 22 games, 272 with 7. home runs and an OPS over 900 for Polanco. Isaiah Kinear Folefa has hit well since joining the Pirates, 281 with one homer, three steals,

and a 773 OPS. And Whitmerryfield has been doing some things with the Braves, one for four with a sock and a shoe on Saturday. He added another steal on Sunday. Scott, 12th C. Merto Leagues are deeper. How do you rank these Catee replacements? Gavin Luxe, Polanco, IKF, and Whitmerryfield.

Hello, Polanco, IKF, and Maryfield. Exactly how you listed them. I do want to stress again for Brandon Lowe that he is my number six second baseman rest of season. He's been last I looked number four since June 1st in points leagues. And I imagine, if anything, it's gone up after his big weekend. I retweeted Foolish Baseball, that Twitter account. highest career OPS plus by second basements since integration minimum 2,000 plate appearances. Highest career OPS plus for a second basement.

Joe Morgan is number one. Jackie Robinson is number two. Jose Altuve's number three. Brandon Lau is number four. You know, there have been injuries. There's been some sitting against left-handed pitchers. But the guy's stinking good. And he's been good for a while this year.

surprised. His roster rate is only 76%. I think people have Brandon Lau fatigue just because he's been hurt so much over the past couple of years, but when he's on the field, he's still really good. It's not to the same extent, but it's kind of a Christian Yellage situation. When he plays, he's still really good. Again, that's Brandon Lau. If you need a catcher, a name we continue to talk about is Joey Bart, who went two for four on Saturday. He added another home run on Sunday, and he is one of Scott's sleeper hitters for this upcoming week. Two names in deeper

leagues. Dylan Carlson had a big game on Friday, two for four with a sock into shoe, and then he added two more hits and another steal on Sunday. He has been performing since joining the raise. And the other name is Diron Blanco, who plays for Kansas City. Huge weekend. Three for five with a double dong, seven RBI on Saturday, and then a sock into shoe on Sunday. I think he only plays against left-handed pitching, but Chris, anything here, Deep Leagues, Dylan Carlson, Diron Blanco. I did consider picking up Dairon Blanco. I did consider picking up Iron Blanco in an AL only league because he does have 21 stolen bases.

That is the only reason I would pick him up. He barely plays his 111 played appearances on the season, 138 last year. One of the true outlier performances of the season. He was swinging a yellow crayon bat. What was up with all the crayon bats? That was the players weekend. Yeah.

So you got to use bats that looked like, You got to use fun bats. That was the like, and they had their numbers on the side of their hat. Is that? I think those were the two fun things. I saw the Jackson Merrill's lightsaber bat. That was pretty cool. I didn't see that one.

I got to check that one out. Yeah, you should check it out. It was pretty awesome. This is probably a terrible take and people are going to get mad at me for saying this. I kind of liked the players. I loved it. The weekend. It was great.

The jerseys when they would like put their nicknames on the back. The problem with the jerseys was they were all monochrome. and it looked terrible. That was a bad idea. They went with like, the Cardinals wore red uniforms with red logos and red, like,

that looked bad. But like the, the having nicknames on their shirts, that was fun. Yeah. For just one weekend, it's, yeah,

it was dumb, but it was fun. Yeah. Shane Bieber's nickname on his back said not Justin. Yeah, that was awesome. Loved it.

It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Let's bring a back. Rich Hill. D Mountain. Phenomenal stuff. Yes. He signed with the,

the Red Sox by the way, Resigned with the Red Sox for, I believe, the ninth time in his career. Minor league deal. How about that? Starters sit these starting pitchers. Garrett Cole has looked a lot more like himself recently. He was at the Tigers. Well, yeah, at the Tigers this weekend. Six shot-out innings with eight strikeouts,

13 whiffs on 95 pitches, and he is home against the Guardians this week. What do we do with Garrick Cole? So this is one where, like, the results two starts ago were really good, and the process looked like Garrett Cole. His slider was awesome. He got a bunch of whiffs on.

He threw it a bunch. This one, Slider wasn't really the pitch. It was the four seamer and the curveball were the primary ways he got whiffs in this one. And I want to check myself and make sure that I'm not doing the thing where I'm saying he doesn't look like Garrett Cole. And I hold that against him. And it's to say that like, I don't think Garrett Cole is Garrett Cole yet. But he's still showing enough that I think he's pretty useful for fantasy. It's probably not someone that you expect every time out to go out and strike out 10 and, you know, give you seven shut outings like we might in the past.

But he certainly looks like a starting caliber fantasy option moving forward. And he could become. Yeah. He could become 10 strikeout guy. Yeah. Yeah. Look, the guardians overall, they've been much better this year offensively than we ended. anticipated, but they are 21st in Wobah against right-handed pitching, so I think it's totally

fine to use Garrett Cole this week. A big bounceback for Christopher Sanchez, who threw his second complete game of the season. He was up against the Nationals, two hits, one run, four strikeouts, only had nine whiffs on 99 pitches. I think it's even more impressive because it looks like his change-up was not great in this start, and he still threw a complete game on just 99 pitches. Scott, I know we've been trying to figure out, like, Christopher Sanchez. He goes on these runs where he looks really good, and then his previous run, he did not look great. What do you do this week?

He's at the Royals. I'm so tired of Christopher Sanchez, because he just doesn't make any sense. This is, so he had four strikeouts in this complete game effort. That is five of six with four strikeouts or fewer. And given that they weren't all great starts anyway, I'm shying away from Christopher Sanchez still. I'm not saying he's unstartable.

But in most leagues I think I could do better. What was interesting, his previous seven starts before this, a 663 ERA and a 166 whip. The strikeout rate is abysmal during that time. It's still a 367 FIP and a 368 XFIP. The control's been great. The quality of contact suppression remains very, very good. I think I lean towards more starting him

than sitting him on the hole, but at KC, I could see that going really poorly. So I'm fine sitting. He has bad home road splits, so he's 553 ERA on the road. Yeah, I don't think you have to start Christopher Sanchez,

even though he's coming off a pretty awesome start. By the way, I wanted to confirm one thing, which Cleveland's been bad since the All-Star break offensively. They have the fourth lowest OPS in baseball since the All-Star break, which I felt,

was true, but I wanted to make sure before I said it. So that's one thing with Garikol, that that matchup suddenly looks a lot better than it did early in the season. Haven't they just kind of been bad overall since the All-Star break? I think that, yeah, the Twins are only two games out of the division. Royals are only three. Wow. Wow. I mean, yeah, pretty much every division race is suddenly really close, right? I think outside of the NL East and the NL Central. Yeah. And I'll least seven games. Maybe that'll tighten up after this Tuesday through Thursday series.

We'll see. Maybe a little, we can get a little sweep going. It is wild. Like the Phillies have been like kind of stinky for like, yeah, three weeks. And the Braves have gained like one game on. Let's talk about Clayton Kirshall, who turned in his first quality start of the season. He was at the Cardinals. He threw six shutout innings.

Only two strikeouts, only four whiffs on 70 pitches. But overall, he's been trending up. He's been better. He's 70% started and home against the raise this week. What do you guys do with Kershaw? So I said at the start of the week that this was going to be a maker break week for Kershaw because it would, two starts. So you had to start him.

But probably the last two start week. And so if he didn't show he could go five, six innings, then it's going to be hard to trust going forward. Well, he went, what, five and two thirds in the first one? And then six in the second one. So you think, okay. Coast is clear, but here's the thing. It was just 83 pitches in the 5-and-2-thirds inning, and then in the six-innings outing, it was just 70 pitches.

You're not going to make it through six innings on 70 pitches very often. His season high remains only 83 pitches. He equaled it in that 5-and-2-thirds inning, but we still haven't seen him exceed that. So I don't know. I don't know if I don't think this week gave us any more clarity about, if the Dodgers are willing to turn Clayton Kirshall loose just because the pitch counts happen to be so low. I don't think they are.

You don't think they're going to turn them loose? No, I think it's going to be max 85 pitches the rest of the way. I'd be surprised because it was pretty similar down the stretch last season as well. Look, he can still be useful. He's a shoulder injury then, which is. But I just, I think this is a team like, yes, they're not running away with division, but they're going to make the playoffs. and so everything remains October or bust here.

I mean, if they want to do well in the playoffs, I don't know that's starting Clayton Kirshall's the way to go about that. I don't think they're going to not start Clayton Kirchall, though. Yeah. And so they'd rather have him be at his healthiest at the end of the season than, you know, yeah, I'd be surprised if we saw a 90-pitch start from Kirchall. Maybe if he's like really rolling in one and he gets to. like seven innings.

Maybe they do it, but yeah, I think he's a, a fringe starter. Against the Cardinals, you could do it. It's not a must. I think he's home

against Tampa Bay this week. Tampa Bay. Okay, well, that's even better. Yeah. You could do it, but it's not a must. Ryan Pepio made his return

from the IL, and he pitched well up against the D-Backs, five and a third innings, two unearned runs with five strikeouts. And he is at the Oakland A's this week. Only 28% started what do you do with Ryan Pepio? I'm pretty happy with the way this went,

and he was pitching well before the injury at Oakland. Yeah, I could see doing that. I'd be more likely to start Pepio than Kirschol. I agree. Okay. Let's get into some leftovers, and we'll try and breeze through these because we do have lots of bullpen updates as well.

But pitching leftovers part one. I'm just going to read off the names. Chris Sale, Framber Valdez, Pablo Lopez, Blake Snell. they were all great again this weekend. Chris, anything to add on that group? Yeah, I mean, the only question with Chris Sale after he showed that he's Chris Sale again was how is he going to hold up? And at this point, I don't have any questions.

Framber Valdez, I think, is one of the most interesting pitchers in baseball for the stretch run because he has, let me get the numbers over the past. Seven. Seven starts. That's about when he started throwing his curveball 40% of the time. 40% of the time. Yeah. On July 10th, he threw his curveball. Then season high 38% of the time hasn't been below 37% and he starts since then. He had maxed out at 32% prior to that start.

So that's the cutoff. In that stretch, he has, he had 10 strikeouts in that start. He's gone 5 and 0 with 50 strikeouts in 39 in the third innings with a 2.29 ERA in that span. We've always viewed him as like, yeah, he's a fine SP2 or, three. Suddenly with this curveball first approach, he's looking like a lot more than that. He's looking like he's pitching like a top 12 pitcher right now and it might just be a hot streak. But because it's tied to the curveball usage, if he keeps this up for the next two months,

then we're going to have some really interesting conversations in the offseason about how high to rank Frambervaldez. And I think you can make a case for him as like a top 12 starting pitcher if he keeps this up. That's a fairly big if over the next six weeks, but it's something to watch for sure. Yeah. I did want to mention with Blake Snell, by the way, 10 more strikeouts. He has double digit strikeouts in four of his last five outings. And since returning from the IL on July 9th, eight starts, a 103 ERA, a 0.69 whip, 70 strikeouts over 52 and a third. He's just going to win siling again. What's crazy is at this point in the season, his FIP and his ex-FIP are better than they were last year

when he won the Siong. This is pretty crazy. Pitching standouts part two, Paul Skeen's, Aeronola, Hunter Brown, George Kirby, and Brady's, five names there. Scott, anything you'd like to add on that group? Well, it was a relief to see George Kirby

get back on track. Not that I was particularly worried, but obviously that was pretty abysmal last time out. He looked like himself again. And hopefully he will, moving forward. forward. The main thing I want to point out with this group is Paul Skeens. Haven't had a chance to point this out his last few turns, but the trend continues. Not getting nearly as many whiffs as he was at the start. His first date starts a 15% swinging strike rate.

His last date starts an 11% swinging strike rate. 15% is amazing, you know, one of the best in baseball. 11%, a little above average maybe, not particularly special. and given that he is a rookie obviously and has now exceeded his innings total from last year in college. It's a high innings total for a college pitcher, but he's exceeded it now. And the Pirates, I think, pretty soon

are going to be playing for nothing. Paul Skeens was among those 16 pitchers with innings concerns, and it wouldn't surprise me if a shutdown came at some point. So one thing I would point out in that regard is the the whiff rate has held mostly steady. It was 33% in May.

It's been around 25 to 26% in the other three months. The swing percentage has gone way down. I think that's probably the biggest change is he wasn't generating, for the most part, a ton of whiffs per swing. He was just generating a lot of swings

and batters are being a little more patient against him. And I think that probably, explains it. I'm not sure what that says about him moving forward. He's getting a lot of called strikes still. I think he's still an ace of aces. But yeah, I'm not sure. Like, we all moved him into our top 10 pretty quickly. I think rest of the way he probably doesn't belong quite that high. Like, I'd rather have Blake Snell the rest of the way. Yeah. Yeah, I made, the move Snell over Skeens, but I didn't move skeins down. Mm-hmm.

And part of it's just because there aren't that many pitchers I want in my top 10 right now. And we just lost another candidate potentially in Henter Green. So I do think there's a good chance Skeen's to shut down at some point, but until we see clearer indications of it, he's probably going to remain in my top 10 rest of season. Yeah, I think the point you were making, Chris, about the lack of swings against Paul Skeens. You see that in the control as well. So I think opposing batters probably are just not chasing as much

because he had four walks in his start this weekend, which was a season high, and he has three plus walks in three of his last four outings. So that has also affected Paul Skeens' numbers recently. Did want to mention Corbyn Burns, who got destroyed up against the Red Sox, four innings, eight runs allowed, two homers in this one.

He gave up lots of hard contact. I think it's one of those things where, like, okay, this happens to pitchers every now and then. I mean, his three starts in August overall have been pretty bad. But the numbers on the season are still very good. I don't know. Anything worrisome here with Corbyn Burns? His cutter is not that elite pitch anymore.

His whiff rate in 2021 was 32%. It's gone down steadily every year since. Last year it was around 22%. Still pretty good for a cutter down to 17.4% this season. I still rank Corbyn Burns as one of the five best. pitchers in fantasy, but that's more because his floor is so high. And he pitches on such a good team and then he's going to get so many wins and all that stuff, rather than where he used to be, which was one of the best pitchers in baseball,

and what I hoped he would bounce back to. Now, I think it's still on the whole a very good season for Corbyn Burns, and you're happy if you drafted him. But it's going to be real interesting to see what his free agency looks like, this offseason because there are a ton of trends moving in the wrong direction that suggests that he might just be more of a good pitcher than a great pitcher. And he's going to be looking for like 200 million this off season. I don't know if he's going to get it.

Yeah, definitely something to watch. And he's a Boris guy, right? I don't know. I assume every big name free agent is a Boris guy, but I don't know. Maybe not anymore. He is Scott Boris agent. Yeah. Very interested to see how Scott Boris performs this offseason.

I mean, he does have Juan Soto, obviously. So look, Soto's going to get his money. I think he's going to get about $500 million worth of contracts, no matter what. Yeah, that sounds about right. But very, very weird offseason last year for Scott Boris agents. Hitters who have picked things up lately, I'm not going to read off all the numbers, but Cody Bellinger has hit well since coming back from the IL. Vinnie Pasquantino having a big second half.

all of a sudden he has 92 RBI on the season, which is like awesome. Corby and Carroll has been very, very good since the start of July. James Wood, I saw a stat or a tweet somewhere that he hasn't. Entering Sunday, he hadn't pulled a fly ball yet, and guess what? He pulled a fly ball and it went really, really far. 417 feet, 107.5 exit velocity. And Adoles Garcia is having himself a great August after just a miserable May through July. I don't really know how to explain it, but, Scott, anything you'd like to add on Adolice Garcia, James Wood, Corbyn Carroll, Vinnie Pee, and Cody Bellinger.

Well, I mean, I guess other than pointing out how they perform, how they've been performing lately, that's the main thing. I did happen to look this up ahead of the show, so I'll share it now, Corbyn Carroll. I think last week I pointed out that since early June, he's been pretty solid, batting 248 during that stretch, which is underwhelming. but in terms of home runs and extra base hits in general, stolen bases. He's been productive. And I looked up just how productive. Since June 6th, which is going back in over two months, Corbyn Carroll in head-to-head points league's the sixth best outfielder

with that 248 batting average behind only Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Jaron, Anthony Santander, and Jordan Alvarez. Right next is Corbyn Carroll. And it just, you know, I... Is this just... Every time, maybe that Jose Ramirez season, where he was just terrible in the first half? Yeah.

Yeah. Every time we talked about, oh, Scott, are you moving Corbyn Carroll down in your rankings? And I was just like, I don't think I really want to move him down. And I didn't have a great explanation for it, and that kind of bothered me. But since June 6th, the sixth best outfielder.

So if anything, I had him too low, you know, if we're talking rest of season rankings. So this is just, sometimes intuition, sometimes intuition is all you really need. That's all I'm saying. It just, I under, like, there were people who were like, drop Corbyn Carroll. Like, I dropped Corby. And like, I get it.

You're frustrated. And it's, and like, I will just say I would rather have, and I don't think I had Corby Carroll on any of my teams this year. But I would rather have sat with Corbyn Carol. Robin Carroll on my team and taken the horrible stats he was giving us, even if it lasted all season. I would rather have had that than dropped him for whatever flavor of the month outfielder we were talking about back in June when people wanted to drop him.

And because none of those guys that you were adding have this kind of upside. And I don't know if he's going to play his way back into the first round, but he might already be doing that. I don't think so. Probably not first, but someone asked me on Twitter. I said I think third or fourth round, but I could be wrong. That's kind of what I'm thinking. What if he does it for the next six weeks, though?

Well, yeah, I mean, we'll see where the final numbers end up, but I imagine, like, if the season ended today, Jaron's getting drafted ahead of Corby and Carroll next year, right? I think they might go. I wouldn't do it. I think they would go in a very similar spot, honestly. Okay. But, yeah, I could be completely wrong about that forecasting this far out.

Some other hitting leftovers from the weekend. Ian Hap continues to produce two for four with a shot sock in the shoe on Friday. He added another home run on Saturday. The Jackson 3, they all hit triples on Friday, which was pretty awesome. That is Jackson Holiday, Jackson Trio, and Jackson Merrill. Luis Robert confirms that the Jackson 3 is the name

when they all hit triples on the same. I think so. Luis Robert had a big game on Friday, four for five with a double dong, four RBI. So hopefully he can use that to build on. down the stretch. Muki Betz has looked completely fine since returning seven games, 357 with two home runs, one steal, a 986 OPS. Shohei Otani added two more homers and two steals this weekend,

and he's up to 39 homers, 37 steals. He is on pace for 51 and 48, respectively in those categories. Marcel Ozuna, another big weekend, three for three, with his 36th home run on Saturday, entering Sunday. He was the eighth overall player in Roto, 10th best hitter, head to head to points. Gunner Henderson's power is back. He has homered in four of his last five games. And just wanted to mention Josh Young, what has he done since returning from that IL? Not great. 17 games batting 239 with two home runs and a 604 OPS. Some bullpen updates for the

Cubs on Friday. Hector Narras got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up three runs on four hits. He took his fifth blown save. And then on Saturday, it was Jorge Lopez, who got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a solo homer but picked up his third save. He has closing experience. Naris has not been good this season. It wouldn't surprise me if the Cubs go in a different direction.

Jorge Lopez hasn't been very good though, hasn't? No, no, he is not. Yeah, he's several years removed from being a viable late-inning option. Well, 0.83 ERA with the Cubs, it looks like. No, he's a 245. He's been much better than I thought. How many appearances with them?

19? Yeah, 375 at FIP. More than I thought. He still feels pretty shaky, but yeah, he's been better than I thought, yeah. Okay, so that's just a situation to watch there with the Cubs. For the Pirates on Friday, we were wondering, all right, is David Bednar over? Are they going to go with Chapman? But Bednar got the ninth inning with a three-run lead.

He gave up a run on two hits, but picked up his 21st save. And then on Saturday, Bednar was perfect for his 22nd save. So, still David Bednar for now. For the Phillies on Friday, Carlos Estevez got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs on three hits, took his fourth blown save, but the Phillies walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. For the debacks on Friday, Ryan Thompson entered with one out in the eighth, a one-run lead facing the top of the race lineup. He gave up three runs on four hits, took his seventh blown save. The raise actually came back and they tied it.

Justin Martinez then got the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a run on a walk, a single, an error, took his third loss. And then Martinez took another loss on Sunday and extra innings. Kind of feels like some stuff that's out of his control, but... Yeah, it wasn't a great weekend. I agree it wasn't all his fault, but Paul Seawald's been pitching well, so I could see them going back to Seawald. I'm not saying it's time to drop Justin Martinez,

but I don't feel nearly as confident in him as I did it this time a week ago. For the Orioles on Friday, Craig Kimberle got the seventh inning down two runs, and he gave up three runs on two homers. It is not happening right now for Craig Kimbril. And then on Sunday, Sir Anthony Dominguez got the final four outs for his fourth save of the season. Kimbril is still 82% rostered. How low does that number need to be? Lower, 30 percentage points lower?

I don't think he needs to be dropped everywhere, but if he's just Roto leagues maybe roster him. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I don't think you need to have Kimberl in any head-to-head points leagues, honestly. For the White Sox on Friday, Chad Cool, got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a solo homer, but picked up his first save. That was the White Sox's first save in the second half. I don't think that really... Cool story, bro.

It doesn't really matter much. For the Dodgers, we spoke about Michael Kopeck, who was only 34% rostered and picked up two saves this weekend. For the Angels, on Friday, Ben Joyce recorded the final five outs for his second save. and he is 37% rostered. Are both of his saves, five out saves? Ben Joyce. Yeah, have they, like, had to stretch him just to get him those two saves?

Four out save was the previous one, yeah. For the Marlins on Sunday, Calvin Foshe got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two hits, but picked up his third save. For the Royals on Sunday, Lucas Ersig entered with one out in the seventh inning. Bases loaded, a three-run lead, facing two, three, and four in the Reds lineup.

He struck out both Ellie Dela Cruz and Spencer Steer. Erseg also pitched a clean eighth inning. The Royals would tack on some more runs. It was James MacArthur, who pitched the bottom of the ninth inning with a seven-run lead. I bring all this up just to say, I think Ersig is probably just going to pitch in the highest leverage situations,

and it might not always be the ninth inning. But it'll usually be the ninth inning. Yeah, we hope. But yeah, probably. For the Rockies on Sunday, Victor Vodnik bounced back with a clean ninth inning for his ninth save. For the Brewers, they had a save each day this weekend, but if you remember, Devin Williams pitched back-to-back days on both Wednesday and Thursday.

So despite the Brewers playing well and winning games and getting saves, Devin Williams only had one of those three saves this weekend. Of all the names and bullpins we've mentioned recently, is Kopeck now at the top of that list? Or would you still take someone like Ryan Walker over him? I'd take Ryan Walker over him, but Kopeck's probably second. Yeah, so you'd take Kopeck ahead of Erseg, Justin Martinez, Sir Anthony Dominguez? I would, yeah.

I think I would have a really hard time picking between Martinez, Kopec, and Erseg. But yeah, I think he could be second for sure. To stream or not to stream on Monday. and let's see here we have Kyle Harrison up against the White Sox Zebby Matthews is at the Padres Kyle Harrison against the White Sox is the one

Yeah that's by far the most interesting Yeah Jonathan Cannon at San Francisco Might go okay if you want a second one But I don't love it Yeah Like Zeb Matthews I'm excited to watch But

Given how much he throws in the strike zone And how much contact the Padres make. I just, I have a hard time seeing a lot of strikeouts in that one. What about Tuesday? We have Eduardo Rodriguez at the Marlins. DJ Hers gets the Rockies in Washington. We have Cody Bradford gets the pirates. Martin Perez gets the twins. Yeah. I like Martine Perez, probably most. I like DJ Hertz. Probably second. Eduardo Rodriguez versus Miami at Miami is fine. And I like Cody Bradford and Joe. OESDus versus Tampa Bay are also fine.

Bradford's pitching well. Yep. I agree with all that. Okay. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.