Fantasy Baseball Today - Add Jose Miranda, Luis Severino's Injury & the Drop-O-Meter (7/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Juan Soto doesn't suck anymore (1:00)! Shohei Ohtani for MVP! ... Jose Miranda is on fire (7:07). ... Add Eddie Rosario or Jo Adell (12:00)? ... Ross Stripling deserves more respect (17:20). ... Is it time to drop Tarik Skubal (22:00)? ... Should you buy-high on Jon Gray (27:05)? ... News (31:58): Luis Severino left his start early. Is Domingo German worth a look? ... What to make of Charlie Morton & Lucas Giolito (43:55)? ... Buy or sell Jesse Winker and Javier Baez (49:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (56:07). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. How about those Orioles and Mariners? You love to see it. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, July 14th.

Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers. today on the show, Jose Miranda, quietly on fire. I don't know how this happened, but it has happened. We are going to talk about it. Luis Severino is hurt. I have a by high pitcher and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious.

Oh my goodness gracious, Chris. Who would you like to start the show with? So I originally wanted to do Juan Soto. I think you should. It's pretty funny. Yeah, we received an email. on June 17th, uh,

during the first game of a double header, where Juan Soto, his average dropped to 220 with, uh, we've received multiple emails with this subject line now, but this was the first. This was the genesis of the infamous Juan Succo, uh, nickname for Juan Soto. Multiple people.

I want to, I want to emphasize multiple people sent in emails calling Juan Soto, Juan Succo. Uh, so since that first email, Juan Succo has played 20, games. He's hitting 333 with a 27% walk rate and 11% strikeout rate and 6 homers in 21 games. That's like a 40 homer pace after hitting two home runs today with three more walks in a double

header. One sucker. He sucks. That's that's that's the tweet. Chris he sucks man. How did this happen? Just patience relax guys. Obviously we're you know we're being facetious. I get it. Look, your first round pick is not performing. We've talked about it quite a bit. You know, it's a therapy session, I get it, but you know, you send these emails in and next thing you know over the next month, you know, things start to get going. Things, this is baseball. It's a long season, you know. I will, I do want to point out the actual, oh my goodness gracious player, show Ohani is just what a ridiculous, ridiculous run that he's on. He had 12 strikeouts today in six innings, gave up one earned run on four hits to the Astros. He just got pulled, so his game

is done. He had, let's see, 24 swings and misses in this one, 14 of them on his slider. His slider has been absolutely ridiculous. He's throwing at like 50% of the time lately. And let me find the numbers because it's like, if he was doing this in a video game, you would think the video game was broken. Over the last 34 days, 045 ERA, 58 strikeouts, 11 walks and 39 and 2 thirds innings. and he's got a 997 OPS as a hitter. I mean, if he does this for the rest of the season, he's the MVP. And if they don't give him the MVP,

then it's just because we don't want to give Shohay Otani the MVP. He's the most valuable player in baseball. He's the best player in baseball. And hey, the angels are winning 7 to 1 right now. So they'll probably win today. And you don't want to count your angels before they get their wing.

but, you know, it seems pretty good. I'll bet, you know, I was, if it looked like I was looking at my phone the whole time while Chris was talking, that's true, because I was trying to find MVP odds to see what they've changed to in the American League, because we were talking beforehand, and Shohei Otani and Aaron Judge

have basically flip-flopped over the past month. Aaron Judge, going through his first extended slump of the season, his last 17 games, he's hitting 175, still has three homers and three seals during that time, so, you know, kind of helps from a, fantasy perspective, but in terms of the batting average and the OPS, it has dropped a little bit over the past month. And you just read off everything O'Tani is doing. It's, it's kind of hard to argue that. I mean, he leads the American League in both wins above replacement on baseball reference and fan graphs. And that was before tonight's start, which will probably add another, I don't know, four tenths of a win or whatever to his, to his mark. So yeah, he's, um, truly, truly stupendous player. And you know what? Let's just, let's give him, you can get all of his stats in fantasy.

Let's, I'm down with that. You only get a first round pick and not a second round pick. Like that's, that's the only way to make it fair. Yeah. And I remember there were fantasy football leagues that used to do that with, I was reading somewhere, someone, someone was playing in a league where it was like during Ladani and Thomas

when he was out, like averaging like 470 points per season. That's why they created the third round reversal. Chris. It was because of Ledanyan Tomlinson. And Wayne Gretzky and fantasy hockey in the 80s also. There were leagues where if you got the first pick, you didn't get a second round pick. I'm fine with that. Let's figure out a way to get Shoahotani, all of his stats, but you forfeit your second round pick. Let's do that. I guess. I mean, there has to be. It would still be worth it.

There has to be some kind of stipulation. You're right. But I've argued this over and over again, just because it was so frustrating last year. I had him in my most important league in the NFBC and I didn't get any of his pitching stats and it was so so frustrating yeah but I needed to leave him in as a hitter and so I understand where people are coming from where if you play in a weekly lineup league you have to choose every week between hitter or pitcher and it honestly is a travesty if you are just leaving these hitter uh these pitching points or pitching stats on your bench because especially because he's arguably I mean he was when he was coming into the majors he was considered a better pitcher than a hitter.

And right now, he's a better pitcher than a hitter. It's just for fantasy, because you're never going to get a two-star week out of him, it's just hard for that to outmatch the hitting production that he gives you. But he's just outrageously good. You can't say enough good things about him. And look, having him on your fantasy team wouldn't guarantee that you win. Just look at the angels.

You're right about that. I mean, if there was ever, you know, if there was ever a way to prove that baseball is a team sport, just look at the Los Angeles Angels. Let us know in the comments or email us in if this is the way to fix the Otani problem, right? Like, you get all of his stats, but you just don't get a second round pick.

I don't know if that's the right answer. We might be on to something, but we've got to fix this because it's just, if this has gone on for too long, you need to get all of the stats all of the time. Oh my goodness, gracious. gracious for me. Someone, you know, not nearly has proven as Shoahatani.

Jose Miranda talked about in the beginning. Those three for four, three for five, caps off his day with a three-run walk-off homer off of Josh Hader, one of the best closers in the game, arguably the best. And over his last 40 games now, Miranda is quietly batting 331, 7 homers, 29 RBI, and his average exit velocity is up over 90 miles per hour, and he's got an 18% strikeout rate.

which based on his minor league season last year, this is the player we were so excited about. The fact that he can couple contact and a hit tool with the ability to hit home runs as well. So now he's starting to prove that over his last 40 games, and people might not have even realized because frankly, Chris, I didn't even realize.

And, you know, he's only 29% rostered, so he's widely available. What do you think about Jose Miranda? Do you think he's a must add with what he's doing? he's not playing every day right I'm looking at the plate appearances by month and I think he's only a 29 July I think it's improved over the past couple of weeks just because he's playing as well as he is yeah and his expected stats aren't quite as good as his overall stats if you look at the season overall his expected stats look much worse than than then then you would think only a 308 expected woba but

that's mostly just he was awful in May in June he had a 355 expected woba in July of it's 377 before this game. So, yeah, I think if he's available in at least your 12-team rhodo leagues, I think Jose Miranda's definitely worth adding. I don't know about points leagues, but given how bad third base is, you can make a decent case that he's probably just a guy who's worth rostering everywhere. Yeah, so he has set three of the last 10 games for the Minnesota Twins. So not an everyday player yet, but I probably should be.

I think, yeah, based on the way he's, playing I think you can make a strong argument that they need him there in the lineup yeah I think look he's first and third base eligible third base probably makes more sense I don't know that he needs to be rostered in a points league I agree with that corner any league with the corner infielder I think for sure Jose Miranda should be on a team some he's not hitting right he's great so he's mashing lefties so far yeah but I mean it's actually not that pronounced of a display he's got a 722 OPS against righties 849 against lefties

presumably that's not including today Um, but he's not, he's not bad against Wright. He's not so bad that you would think he can't be an everyday player. So like he's got like a 24% strike rate against them. So yeah, I would hope he's going to play more regularly moving forward. Why is Ryan McMahon still 88% rostered on CBLS? It's probably, is it one of those weird projection things where he projects well on the site?

I am here to tell you that you could drop Ryan McMahon for Jose. I would rather have Jose Miranda than Ryan McMahon. Yeah. How about. this is an interesting one Josh Donaldson would you make that swap Chris I think that's fine I mean Donaldson I think is fine but yeah I don't think you're you're gonna regret like I don't think anybody's gonna run out and add Josh Donaldson immediately when he hits the the waiver wire so I think that's one that you can do

I know Donaldson has been better recently better still not you know great overall just pulling up his splits page to see yeah I mean even still last 15 games for Josh Donaldson, 2-11 batting average, three homers. Yeah, I'd be alright making that swap as well, Donaldson for Jose Miranda. I mentioned in the open, look, the Orioles and the Mariners, oh my goodness gracious. Shout out to what they're doing right now. 10 game winning streaks for both of these teams. And it can't be overstated the impact that Adley Ruchman has had for the Orioles.

They are, I believe I saw 29 and 20 since he's been called up. So, look, he hasn't done it all with his bat so far, but I'm sure, you know, what he does behind the plate and help calling games and overall everything that he's done. It's been great to see for both of those teams and now every team in the American League East is over 500 It's the first time this has happened this late in the season Where an entire division is over 500 since July 15th of 2012. So yeah, just that's pretty impressive goes to show this does not happen often, but Yeah, they at least is quite the juggernaut WaverWire hitters. I mean look, Runchman hasn't been great, but

But Robinson Chorinos has a 52 OPS plus. He has a 530 OPS this season. Adley Rushman has a league average OPS. So like it's one of those things where, yeah, Ruchman hasn't been amazing. Not being terrible has been a real big boost for them. So, you know. And for fantasy.

I mean, if, you know, if you're a seven. He's a starting, he's a starting catcher. Even if you're like a 750 OPS bad. I mean, that, that is probably a top 10 or 12 catcher, honestly. Oh, yeah. Waiher Wire hitters, we spoke about Miranda. I think he's probably the headliner of the day. Ramone Luriano talk about him every day.

But where does he compare with a few other outfielders, Chris? Compared him to McCutcheon yesterday. I agree with you. I would take Luriano over McCutcheon. Eddie Rosario had a big game on Wednesday. He went three for four, hit his second home run of the season. In nine games since returning, he's hitting 267, two homers, one steel, 61% rostered.

And we've seen Eddie Rosario get hot in the past. And your boy, Joe Adele, he's returned to the Angels. Mike Trout out of the lineup again dealing with that back injury, but it sounds like Joe Adele is here to stay, and he had a pretty good game, two for four with an RBI and a stolen base. How do you rank those three, Luriano, Rosario, Joe Adele?

Yeah, Rosario, I think he's probably second. I would rather have Luriano, and so Luriano is actually less rostered than Rosario, so make that swap if you have to. Joe Adele will see, man. Brain of Marsh has been pretty bad for most of the season. I think his OPS is like down around 620 now. They really value his defense though.

Yeah, no, he's a good defender, but like Taylor Ward hasn't hit well lately since like the start of June. Marsh has been awful as a hitter great defensively, but you know, we'll see. I hope Adele gets a real chance. He hasn't really gotten one this season. I know there's been a lot of strikeouts, but he's also, you know, still hitting the ball really. hard and still doing some good things. So I still believe that there's talent there. He's still only 23.

So yeah, hopefully he gets a little extended run. Not at Mike Trout's expense would be the one caveat I would put. I don't want that. Yeah, because if Trout returns and they want Martian there as a defender and they still want to play Taylor Ward, someone from the outside looking in. Yeah, it gets crowded pretty quickly. But like, he's playing. He played 140 games at AAA. He's got 36 home runs with a 271 batting average and 12 steals.

Like I, there's going to be a lot of strikeouts. I think that's just part of his game. But Joe Adele still, I think profiles is a potentially impact player if he can keep the strikeouts even to like 30%. You know, the strikeouts are a problem. But overall in the season in the majors, Adele's hitting 261. I mean, if you ask me that, there's no way I would have guessed 261 for Joe Adele. I mean, his quality of contact's been very good. He had, you know, even though he's been getting inconsistent playing time when he's got it. Like, he has a expected Wobon contact of almost 500. That's really, really good.

It just needs to. So it's really just a question of can he just be bad when it comes to strikeouts instead of, you know, arguably worst in baseball? Mm-hmm. He had a batted ball on Wednesday, 109.6 miles per hour off the ball. bat. That is what Joe Adele does. And for what it's worth, nine games in July at AAA, he was hitting 353, four homers, four doubles, an OPS approaching 1,300. And clearly the Angels need some kind of shot in the arm right now. So we'll see if he can earn more playing time. But I agree. As of now, I would rank it, Luriano, Eddie Rosario, who still isn't playing against

left-handed pitching, and then Joe Adele third on that list. Deeper leagues, do any of these players matter? Jose Iglesias had just a massive game here. three for five hit his third home run, career high, six RBI. He is 11% rostered. And then Sam Hilliard, Chris, Sam Hilliard's one of these guys where I still think that maybe he could be something. It has not surfaced. It has not happened.

I understand. But he did go three for four with three runs and a stolen base here on Wednesday. Anything to see in the deepest of leagues? With the glacius, no. He doesn't, like, he's right now, he's just an. batting average source he's hitting 2.95 but he's giving you nothing else at all. So no, I don't think there's anything there. It's a it's an entirely cores inflated batting average that's empty. Hilliard I maybe, but he needs to start playing more. And until that happens, I don't I don't think so. And he hasn't exactly earned playing time. So hard to, hard to recommend him. I think he's just it stinks that the Rockies are so bad and there are so few opportunities. to take advantage of course field right now because you have like C.J. Crone. That's kind of it in terms of like guys that you're excited to start on the Colorado Rockies, which is.

No, Blackman. Blackman's been very good. Oh, Blackman. Sorry. Blackman as well. Although even like he's got a 798 OPS. So it's not like he's been like a world beater. Um, so yeah, I, uh, I wish they, I wish they could figure something out. Brendan Rogers, I don't mind playing him when he's in cores, but I saw somewhere that he is just dreadful on the road this season. Yeah, he's got a 569 OPS that's Brendan Rogers on the road, which was the complete opposite last year. He had this weird thing where he was hitting on the road, but he couldn't hit it home, and now it's just completely flip-flopped. So, yeah, those are your Colorado Rockies. Some waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday. Chris, great call, man.

This might be like the best daily streamers call of the year. It might be J.T. Brubaker, his best start of the season at the Marlins, which we told you yesterday. If you needed a streamer, seven shutout, three hits, two walks, nine strikeouts. He had 15 swinging strikes on 99 pitches, only 12% rostered. Ross Stripling just keeps on pitching extremely well. He's been tremendous since rejoining the rotation. He goes seven innings, two unearned runs, six strikeouts, and an end. eight starts since rejoining the rotation 2.14 ERA for him. Chris Flexen makes three quality

starts in a row, six endings of one-run ball at the Nationals, and then Brady Singer put together a solid start against the Tigers, six endings, one run. He did have a 2.0 whip because of five walks in this in this start, but also had six strikeouts. Chris, what do you think about this group? Brewbaker, Stripling, Flexon, Brady Singer. I think stripling's probably the only one that I have much interest in. Flexen, I think he's just a streamer and Brubaker, I think the pirates are done playing the Marlins. So he's just a guy. I think him and Chris Flexner are both jaggy. Brubaker does get a decent amount of strikeouts more than you would think over a strikeout per nine, but he just, he doesn't limit damage enough and he gives up

too many walks to really be much more than an average pitcher. So, you know, two-star guy, when He's got good matchups. I think J.T. Brubaker has some intrigue there, but Singer might be the toughest to figure out on this list, because I do think there's some talent there, and there are some interesting underlying skills involved. His expected stats, like his ex-FIP and his XERA are better than his ERA. He does have very good control.

He gets hit a little too hard, is really the problem with Singer. He's got a 4.06. expected Wobon contact so far this year, that's a kind of outlier for him. He had been more like average, maybe a little better than average, in terms of quality of contact before. And I wonder how much of that is a result of the fact that he is pitching in the strike zone so much more. His walk rate is down to 4.8%. That's almost half of what it was last season. So, you know, like you mentioned, he's got the five walks today. That continues to be, you know,

an on and off again issue. But I think there's not nothing there with Brady Singer. I'm not necessarily rushing out to add him, but I'll keep an eye on him. His ERA is at 4.02. His ex-fip is 3.52. So the underlying numbers kind of like Singer, what he's done so far this year. He's got a 48% ground ball rate as well. The problem, he's a two-pitch pitcher, and it's sinker slider.

I think his slider is pretty good, but you know, you can really only succeed as a two-pitching. pitch pitcher when you're like Dylan Sees, right? Or Spencer Shrider, when you have a ridiculous fastball and also a ridiculous slider. It's kind of hard to make it work outside of that. So I do agree. Ross Stripling, I just want to give him the credit that he deserves. He's been really, really good and limiting the walks.

And he's changed his pitch mix this year. Less force team fastballs. His fastball's not great. You watch it. It's very straight. He doesn't throw it very hard. And he's throwing more sliders and changeups, which has been a recipe for success. So I do like Ross Tripling quite a bit.

He is my favorite on this list as well. In deeper leagues, Spencer Watkins has been very good over his last four starts. He's only allowed three earned runs total during that span. He was at the Cubs on Wednesday, five innings, one run, five strikeouts, and he leaned very heavily into the cutter in this one. And he does have a pitch mix change this year. He's throwing a slider 18% of the time, something he did not throw at all last year. So the ERA is down below four.

Underlying numbers don't really like him. But in deeper leagues, Chris, any love for Spencer Watkins? I think even in AL only, he's pretty fringy. He just does not get any strikeouts. Strikeout rate this season is 13%. So it's hard to be effective there. Yeah. Well, you know, when you have that Adelaide Ruchman catching you

and that fantastic Orioles defense behind you, anything is possible the way that team is playing right now. And that deep left field might be the most useful thing about it. Honestly, it really does help. We're adding pitchers, we're adding hitters. What about the dropometer? Some players to drop right now.

The struggles continue for Terrick Scoobel. This time he was at the Royals. He gives up five runs. Four of those earned over six innings pitched. Five strikeouts to zero walks. The issue recently had been that he was giving up a lot of walks and home runs. Neither of those were an issue in this start, and he still wasn't good. The velocity was actually up on both the sinker and the fastball.

in this start, but overall, it's been a rough go. Really the last seven starts for Terrick Scuba. He's still 87% rostered. Chris, where is Scuba on the dropometer? 1 to 10. I think it's probably like a three or a four. I'm not rushing out to drop him, but I'm not saying you have to hold on to him. It's interesting.

His velocity was actually, I think, higher than it's ever been in this start. He hit almost 100 miles per hour, 99.9 miles per hour with his force, 99.8, excuse. me with his four seam fastball. Velocity was up 1.4 miles per hour on average, and it didn't really matter. He still got hit hard a bunch. He still gave up like seven balls over 95 miles per hour. But like I still think there's skills here. And, you know, I'm really struggling with Terrick Scoobal because he was showing real improvement early on.

you know the strikeout rate was pretty good but the walk rate was much improved and he was doing a really good job of limiting hard contact in the way he didn't last year and that has not been the case as fastballs especially have been really hitable lately and so i don't know i think he's a really talented player with some really really difficult flaws and i i don't want to give up on him yet but i get it if you don't want to stick with him i can't exactly disagree with him i can't exactly disagree with him. that I assume you're not dropping him for Ross tripling no I'd rather have Terrick scubble than Ross tripling especially like right now when you don't have to make a decision on their next start until you know 10 days from now or whatever it is so it would be one thing if like you had to decide am I starting Terrick scubal in five days or Ross stripling but you don't really have to make that decision for yeah probably what 10 days a week at least least. So I would wait.

Somebody on Twitter asked me if I would drop scoble for John Gray. And that one gave me pause. Yeah, I mean, John Gray could have very well been a, oh my goodness gracious player today. He had seven shutout innings, nine strikeouts himself. So, yeah, that one would be easier to justify. I think I might drop scoble for John Gray. I think I would as well, but it is very close. More on John Gray in just a little bit. Austin Hayes went four for five, but he has been scuffling recently. You know, honestly, since we had that conversation, Chris, I think it was like two or three weeks ago. We were like, wow, Austin Hayes has been really good.

Is he going to keep this up? And, you know, we were kind of skeptical. Last 15 games, he's betting 183, just one home run. Where does Austin Hayes fall on the dropometer? I would be fine dropping him for Ramon Lariano for sure. And, I mean, honestly, maybe even Joe Adele. If we get a sign that Joe Adele is going to hang around after the All-Star break, I would be fine doing that. Yeah, I don't think I would do it for Adele.

I think I can get behind you on Ramon Luriano. Luriano, I think, is an easy call. Would you do it for McCutcheon or Rosario? Those are like the other two that have emerged the past two days. I think they're kind of fringy, but I'd be fine with that. Okay, so did you give me a number, one to ten, Austin Hayes? What do you think? Seven.

All right. Last one here, Paul Blackburn. His last nine starts, he has a five. Okay, fair enough. 5.50 ERA. He's still 80% rostered. You're kind of waiting for the wheels to fall off for poor Paul Blackburn. I mean, All-Star.

Yeah, that's true. Look, it's, he did as much as he possibly could pitching for the Oakland A's in the first half of the season. So we'll give me. He's not terrible. I just, he just doesn't get any strikeouts. and the league has caught up to him of late. So I 10, that's overstating it.

Maybe seven. I would drop him for shripling. Yes, that'd be fine. I would also... Very similar players, I think. Yes. So, stripling is fine. Stripling is just on such a much better team.

So I would do it for Ladolo too, who's still less than 60% rostered. Yeah, I think that's fine too. All right. You didn't like read Demers. Yeah, I mean, Detmer's is really interesting. We'll see what his next start looks like.

Well, it's actually, by the time you're listening to this on Thursday, he's making his next start on Thursday against the Astro. So it's a really tough matchup. But, I mean, if he shows us anything there, you know, throwing this harder slider in his most recent start, it was very, very optimistic for Reed Demers. We'll see if he can carry it over. John Gray, I mentioned I wanted to get into him

and that I had a buy high pitcher. John Gray is that pitcher. He gets back on track after two subpar outings. Obviously, facing this Oakland A's lineup will help seven shutout he allows one base runner one hit zero walks nine strikeouts 16 swinging strikes on 95 pitches all 16 of them came on his slider 36% CSW overall in the start and he threw his slider a season high 48% of the time in the start and i like that chris i think we all like that right you know throw your better pitches more you're you're not so great pitches less and that's what

he did here. And I'm going to be curious to see if he does that even more moving forward. You know, like around a 50% slider usage rate for John Gray. It might even unlock another level. His ERA is 3.71. His underlying numbers are much better, well over a strikeout per inning. He's 84% rostered. Could still be out there in some 10 team leagues. And look, I even got a question about adding him. So it could be out there. But even still, I would be looking to buy high, Chris, if I can, in a trade and a deeper league, whatever it might be. I really like what John Gray has done with the Texas Rangers. Yeah, I think he's in the top 50 starting pitchers now rest of season.

So should be rostered everywhere, any format. And yeah, I'm believing it. It really makes you wish he had gotten out of course field early on in his career when he was arguably, you know, I think he's still very talented. But, you know, when he was throwing harder and had, you know, more potential. to grow. And I'm happy with what we're seeing. That slider is an outrageously good pitch. It's kind of his only standout pitch. So, you know, that always makes me a little wary, although his fastball is getting good enough results. You know, he's not getting hit, like, overly hard with his fastball.

So I think, yeah, I'm definitely buying John Gray as, like, a top 50-ish starting pitcher moving forward. If you can still sell, like, the early season success of Joe Ryan for John Gray, Is that something you would do? Yes, absolutely. I'm looking at the rankings now. I had already moved John Gray into the top 50. I think 44. I'm considering 43 with Lance Lynn.

That's the one that I'm, I've got Lance, Zach Allen at 40, Adam Wainwright at 41, Lance Lynn at 43 or 42. And I think I'm going to move Lance Lynn below Jacob deGromm and John Gray. I'm looking at a similar range. for me, SP48 is where I'm looking at for John Gray, which would be just behind Patrick Sanneval, Nathan Avaldi, Luis Garcia of the Astros. And that would be also just ahead. John Gray

would move just ahead of Terrick Scobal, Joe Ryan, Tyler Anderson, Blake Snell, who Snell's doing some interesting things recently. But I always have my concerns when it comes to Blake Snell. All right, let's hit a break before we do that. Just want to remind you that we are a nominee for the best sports podcast category in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. We appreciate all your support and hope that you'll nominate us to advance to the final round to nominate fantasy baseball today. Go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up and then toggle down the sports category. The whole process takes less than a minute.

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Yeah, vote for us. Vote for FBT. This is the better podcast for sure. Let's take a break and we'll return right after this. The news and notes. We mentioned it earlier, but Mike Trout was not in the lineup Wednesday and is not expected to require an IEL stint. Hopefully it remains that way.

Kevin Gosman finally confirmed that he will start on Thursday against the Kansas City Royals who will be missing nearly their entire team. 40% of their roster. Literally 38% of their active roster. 10 players. Incredible. 10 players for the Royals will be ineligible

to play in Toronto because of vaccination status, including Whitmeryfield, who probably wasn't going to play anyway because he's banged up. MJ Melendez, Andrew Benintendi, Brad Keller, Hunter Dozier, I think Michael Taylor, among others.

but fear not. Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pass Quantino will be out there. Who else? I cannot tell you, but those two guys they will be playing. The big news from Wednesday, unfortunately, Luis Severino left his start with right shoulder tightness, which is

pretty scary because he's dealt with some shoulder and lat injuries in the past, and even if you look at his past couple of starts, the swinging strike rate has been down a little bit. He hasn't looked like himself. He definitely did not look like himself in this start, He allowed back to back to back home runs three in a row to the Cincinnati Reds of all teams.

Yeah, his velocity was way down like three miles per hour and Yeah, it's scary. Remember, I think before he had Tommy John surgery, he basically missed that entire previous season. I think it was the 2020 season. He missed that entire season because of the shoulder injury, if I'm remembering correctly. I think the timeline is reversed, Chris. I think he had Tommy John and then the surgery. Then trying to come back and then he kind of ramped up too quickly and he heard his shoulder.

and then he tried to ramp up again and he hurt his lat muscle and yeah it was it was an entire mess which it sucks because he's having this awesome bounce back season and you know he's been performing like a top 20 starting pitcher so probably gonna have to drop him down the rankings quite a bit yeah we don't have any further news yet but I would imagine he's gonna land on the I L doesn't seem good maybe the Yankees go out and this kind of pushes them to make a trade Luis Castillo Montas is hurt right now too so I don't know about that but I just did want to bring up a name, Chris, to watch.

Domingo Hermann. I know he's been in and out of the rotation in the past couple years, but he's flashed some upside in the past, and he's on a rehab assignment right now. He's made four starts in the minors. He's got a 0.63 ERA, a 0.43 whip down there right now, and he's only

12% rostered. So, do you have any interest in Domingo Hermann? He's a name to watch for sure, but I think he's pretty... maybe this is unfair because at least one of them pitches for the Yankees, but I feel like he's pretty J.T. Brubaker-e. Like, I would have similar expectations for them,

except, you know, obviously we've seen Domingo Raman pitch not that deep into games consistently and end up with a 403RA and somehow have 18 wins in a season. So pitching for the Yankees can do that. So, you know, that obviously, if J.T. Brewbaker is kind of just a guy and just a match-up streamer guy, then Armand can be a little more than that because of the team we plays for. I was trying to think there's a player that's in my mind,

but I can't remember exactly who. Maybe you can remember, Chris. Someone who always has fantastic swinging strike rates, but it doesn't really amount to anything. You know, it might have been Andrew Heaney, actually. That might be who I'm thinking of. Ian Anderson's kind of like that right now. But if you look at Domingo Hermann for his career,

13.8% swinging strike rate, I mean, just this season alone, that would rank like a top 15 qualified starting pitchers. You know what might be a decent comp for him is just a mirror image of Jordan Montgomery. I mean, not this season, because Montgomery's not getting strikeouts, but like what Montgomery has been over the years,

which is... That's fair. A decent-ish pitcher who pitches for a good team but isn't like an impact player. The only other pitcher I would have mentioned that could fill in the rotation would be J.P. Sears, who pitched in long relief tonight

in relief of Luis Severino, and he's pitched very well in the minors this year, but I saw that he was the option back to the minors after Wednesday's games. They don't need anyone for another 10 days or so. But, yeah. Mike King is done as a starter. He's been so good as a multi-ending reliever for them. I could see maybe they use him as like a bulk reliever,

or maybe they start a game where he throws like two or three innings to start, and then they go to someone like J.P. Sears You know, that could be like a short-term fix, but yeah, we'll see what happens. I think Domingo Hermann, only 12% rostered is a name to watch. Eloi Jimenez, stop me if you've heard this before. Was removed Wednesday with an apparent leg injury, and I saw it happen live. He had to run quite a bit to make a catch, and then he came up limping right away, and I knew immediately, I was like, all right, well, you know, this is probably going to end pretty poorly.

He needs to DH. The problem is the White Sox have, like, three players that need to DH as well. So they're throwing Eloy in the outfield, but he should not be playing the outfield. Yeah, just a weird, poorly constructed roster that I think is probably going to have to get reshuffled at some point this offseason. Do you see this rivalry on Twitter, Chris, between like John Heyman and Tony Larusa and Ozzy Gehan? Ozzy Guillen, yeah. I don't know what's going to happen between it. Yeah, it's like, I think Ozzy Guillen called Tony Larusa a glorified Rick Rentorian.

or something like that. John Heyman referred, yeah, he called Ozzy Gann out for a comment he made about Tony LaRouca. Yeah, I think he said he's like a glorified rich renteria. And they've had a back and forth, which interesting stuff. Very, yeah, interesting to say the least. I, you know, I've got to stop coming on here every preseason and picking the White Sox to win the World Series because I don't think that's going to happen. What's happened to them this year is what I thought was going to happen to them last year when I picked against them and got a bunch of White Sox fans mad at me because it's just

It's a weirdly constructed roster that just doesn't have any depth They've just done nutley. It's just like they've got like ten guys like nine guys and they're like all right, that's it Let's hope nothing bad happens or else Adam Engle is gonna have to play every day So it's like yeah I I like the team I like the guys on the team I like the guys on the team And I hope they can figure something out. But yeah, it seems like they've got a, I mean, they've got a 35-year-old Jose Ibrahim who has to play first base every day

because they just can't play him at DH. By the way, Jose Abraeu, I saw this earlier. His last 30 games, he's batting nearly 400, which is awesome. The power hasn't been there. RBI total is surprisingly low because Jose Abrae is usually great at driving runners-in. But maybe people just haven't been on ahead of him. The Red Sox are hoping Trevor Story will be able to return at some point this weekend against the Yankees. He's dealing with a bruised hand after getting hit by a pitch.

I believe that happened on Monday or Tuesday. Frankie Montas will not pitch against the Astros this weekend and will instead throw two side sessions before rejoining the A's rotation post All-Star Break. Yeah, that was per his request, I believe. It was originally announced he was going to join the rotation and then he said he'd rather throw a couple side sessions. before doing that. So yeah, rest up, get healthy. Start the first series out of the break and hopefully make one start and then get traded. Yeah, put together a couple of good starts and hopefully find yourself somewhere else. Justin Verlander did not accompany the Astros to Anaheim as he tends to a family issue.

The hope is he'll be able to start this weekend against the A's, which frankly would work out quite well because the A's are terrible. Kenley Jansen was officially reinstated from the IL and pitched Wednesday against the Mets. Joe Barlow was placed on the IL with a blister, which just further entrenchedes Brett Martin as the team's closer. He's just 18% rostered, widely available if you need saves. 12-team Roto League, 15-team Roto League. Brett Martin looks like the guy right now for the Rangers. Speaking of saves, Tana Rainey was placed on the 60-day IL.

This one came out of nowhere due to a UCL sprain, and Kyle Finnegan has consistently been used as the eighth-ending reliever for the nationals this season. He's only 5% rostered, another one widely available. I don't think he's very good. He's got a 3.89 ERA, 1.30 whip. 10.6K per 9 is pretty good there, Chris. But if you had to choose one, would you go with Brett Martin or Kyle Finnegan? I think I would go with Martin.

I think they're probably pretty similar pitchers in terms of the results, and at least Martin's on a slightly better team. All right, fair enough. Christian Yellich's back is improving, but he's now missed two straight with that injury. Brian Reynolds has yet to resume baseball activities. He landed on the IL with a right oblique strain on Monday. Aaron Savali was removed from his start due to right wrist soreness after pitching just one inning.

Matthew Liberator was optioned back to AAA, which likely foreshadows the return of Stephen Mats. And just some actual MLB news. The Blue Jays fired their manager, Charlie Montoyo, and named John Snyder as their interim manager. I believe Montoya was exactly 500 in his career as the Blue Jays manager. It was like 236 and 236. They are currently 47 and 42 this season, and they're battling for the final AL wildcard spot. Yeah, classic, we just want to get a spark.

Yeah. Firing. And the home run derby field is nearly said, and it's pretty loaded. This is awesome. Pete Alonzo, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna, Albert Pujols, which I just find hilarious. Kyle Schwaber, Jose Ramirez, and rookie phenom, Julio Rodriguez. One spot left. Chris, are you throwing your name in the hat?

I did give up two home runs in softball today. Legitimate, like, over-the-fence shots. I told the team after the sale, they were back-to-back. I told the team after the second one that's not fair that they did that because we don't have anyone on our team who can do that. So I don't think I would put on much of a show. But you know who I want to see. in the home run derby.

John Carlo. Oh, yeah. Let's get one more. He still hits the ball harder than ever. His home run derby in Minneapolis was one of the most fun ones in the last decade. That one was great. There were some rumors, too,

that he was considering it, so we'll see. Also, was part of my favorite home run derby moment ever when he fed Justin Bore a donut during his epic battle against Aaron Judge back in, like, 2018. So that's where I think. thought you were going when you said, you know what I want. Let's bring Justin Borback.

Oh, no, I thought you were going pure beef here. Like someone, I look, Alejandro Kirk doesn't fit the molds of a home run derby participant, but. I mean, Rowdy, Rowdy, Routy, yeah. Routy Teless would be. Dan Vogelbach. I'd be down for Routy to Les. Yeah. Dan Vogelbach.

I saw someone approach O'Neil Cruz and ask if he would do it. He was like, I would, but no one asked me to do it. Oh, man, that would be. That would be pretty fun. That would be fun. You know, maybe next year or the year after. All right, let's get. Justin Bore has a 982 OPS this year in the Mexican League.

I thought you were going to say, shouts to a legend. 982 OPS in his career in the home run derby, which did he ever do it? Probably not. No, he did. Oh, he did do it. Okay. When it was in Miami, he went up ahead to head against Aaron Judge and like nearly beat Aaron Judge. He hit like 16 home runs in that round or something.

Right, right, right. Yeah, that was awesome. Geez, Aaron Judge. Yeah, that was great. What do we make of these outings? Let's get back to Wednesday's action. There is no player, Chris, in Fantasy. this season that has caused me more harm.

Anger, pain, whatever you want to call it. Charlie Morton, he stunk again against the Mets. Five innings, five runs, three walks, six strikeouts. He did allow three home runs as well. That's the story here, Chris. Three walks and three homers. Just an absolute killer. He allowed a bunch of hard contact,

94 mile per hour, average exit velocity, randomly used his cutter a season high 27% in the start. There's just these starts this year. year, Chris, where he just does not have his fastball or curveball. Usually it's one or the other. And this one, he didn't have either one. So he had to go with the cutter, which is something he never usually does. I will point out his previous five starts were very good. 1.6-0-E-R-A, 0.77 whip, 42 strikeouts to eight walks, 12.8% swinging strike rate. But that's what makes it so frustrating is that we know what he's capable of, Chris, but we still are getting these clunkers.

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like he's still pretty solid. I don't want to overreact to the one start, given how good he'd been recently and how much he had turned the corner. So I think it's like, if it wasn't for the first couple of months and how frustrating that was, we would just write this off as just a bad start, which happens, even for very good pitchers.

So I think Charlie Morton's a very good pitcher, and my assumption is this is just one. bad start. So hopefully he can shake it off and I'm not too concerned moving forward. All right. What do you think about these three? Lucas Gilito now has a quality start in three of his last four outings. He was at the Guardians. He went six in a third. He gave up one unearned run, five strikeouts, but he only had seven swinging strikes and his velocity was down across the board, you know, just over a mile per hour on basically all of his pitches. We had Zach Allen. He got back on track. A quality start at the Giants, but he, he,

has not been great, really over the past two months. Last 10 starts, including Wednesday for Zach Allen, 5.32 ERA and less than a strikeout per inning. The swinging strike rate has really plummeted during this time. And Christian Javier, he recorded 11 total outs, weird line, three and two thirds innings, three runs, three walks, 10 strikeouts. 10 of his 11 outs were via strikeout, and he had 19 swinging strikes. So he just, he's just kind of a confusing. picture Chris. Javier, Gallin, Lucas Julito. What do you have on these three? Gallin, I would still be trying to sell and I've been saying that for most of the season when things have been going well. I think he'll be better than he has been over the last 10

start, but I don't think he'll be as good as he was, you know, over the first seven or whatever it was. And I still think there's just a lot of injury risk there. So, Zach Allen, I think it's fine if you have him on your team. I think he's a fine pitcher. You know, he's in that 40 to 50 range for me, but he's definitely someone that I would be looking to move before, you know, I think the bottom could really fall out. Gialito,

I know it's been a frustrating season, and the velocity being down is a little, it's noteworthy. I don't want to say concerning because he did pitch well in this one. But it's just something to watch, and hopefully it's just like, you know, he's got one,

it was his last start before the all-star break. He gets a little break now. I think he's going to pitch a lot better than he has been. so far. You know, he's still as frustrating as it has been, he's remained in my top 30 starting pitchers, and like the expected stats are a lot better than the underlying stat or the surface level stats,

and I think he'll be very good moving forward. Javier, like you said, he's kind of weird. Even when things are going well, you know, it's not exactly the mold that we typically see starting pitchers succeeding in. He's very fastball reliant. He gets a lot of swinging misses on his fastball. He generates a lot of weak contact with the fastball. But generally speaking, I think Christian Javier is going to be good moving forward.

I do wonder, is there any reason to be worried about innings with him? He threw 101 last season. He's up to like 81 at the All-Star break. So, you know, I think he's probably okay. You know, you could project him for another 50 innings. but he's never going to be someone who consistently goes deep into games. And I think you have to understand that about him, even in spite of the two seven-inning starts he recently had.

I said this recently about Javier. I think he's going to be a good strikeout pitcher, but it's going to come with inconsistency because he does struggle with control and he allows a lot of fly balls. So those two things combined. I mean, you're just going to be prone to giving up home runs with runners on base.

And, you know, obviously, that's going to affect your pitching line, but it's also going to affect how deep you can go into your starts, which is basically Christian Javier in a nutshell. Would you be looking to sell high on Javier right now, Chris? No, I don't think so. I don't really think people are going to give a ton up for him. Especially, you know, maybe a couple of starts ago

when he had the no-hitter and the other seven-inning start. But I think, you know, coming off these last two starts, there's probably a lack of enthusiasm there. All right. By or sell these recent hot stretches for hitters. Jesse Winker returned from his suspension with a bang. He hit two home runs across the double header, and hopefully this is something that can further get him going.

But over his last 15 games, he's been pretty good. 302 batting average, four homers, 11 RBI. Chris, buy or sell. Jesse Winker. It sounds like the suspension, this is a weird thing to say. It sounds like the suspension that Jesse Winker got for getting into a fight came at a good time for him because he came back from it with a slightly reworked setup in his swing. He was a little more upright, a little less noisy. I think he

has a kind of exaggerated batwaggle typically. I don't think he had that today. So, you know, he talked about, I think, you know, needing some time off and getting his swing right. And spoiler alert, I guess, for next week's podcast, which we recorded today. but we did mention Jesse Winker as someone to potentially buy low as a second half breakout. So this was a good sign that will be out of date by the time you hear. Yes, indeed. Javier Baez went two for four with an RBI. His last 30 games, 252 batting average, six homers, two steals in 809 OPS.

And I remember when Ozzy Albies went down with injury, Chris. We told people like, if you're desperate for a middle infielder right now, Javier Baez is the name, which makes sense for you. And basically since then, the past, month, he's been Javier Baez. Are you buying it? Yeah, I mean, the, the, the, the fun thing about it is, uh, what is it the last 29 games, you said? Last 30 games. Last 30 games. Okay. So that means that that was right around game 56 or 57. So right around the, the length of time that the 2020 season was, which we said at the time,

Javier Baez had an awful 2020 season. It was as bad as he looked in the first two months of season and then he came out and was really good in 2021. So he's just the kind of player who has wild swings because of his fly ball heavy approach and his pull heavy approach and his incredibly aggressive approach at the plate. It's going to lead to times when he just doesn't look good. But I don't think those times tend to beget more bad times. You know, I think he just kind of, you have to live with the ups and downs and know that the bad times will end. and Javier Baez will have some good times in the future. You know, I hadn't realized this, Chris.

His home road splits this year are massive. He's hitting 167 with a 454 OPS in Comerica Park, which kind of makes sense. It kind of makes sense. He is someone who, you know, I believe, I'm looking up his spray chart right now, but I think he's always, you know, gotten a decent amount of, you know,

the home runs to the power alleys. Yeah. I think it's all fields, all fields approach for me. Yeah, Nick Castiano famously struggled to hit home runs out in courts in Comerica. So, yeah, that could be, there could be something there, especially with the overall changes to the ball and not traveling as far and the impact that that's had on balls hit to center and the power alleys. So, yeah, there could be something there.

He could just be particularly ill-suited for his new home. And I know you could probably pick and choose, like, which players this works for and which players doesn't, but it feels like more often than not, especially when a player changes league, first year, new contract, maybe... 100%. That's 100% a thing.

Hitters especially when they change leagues tend to struggle. That's not to say they all struggle. But hitters tend to struggle more when they switch leagues because hitters tend to do better the more they see pitchers. And when you switch leagues, you're seeing a different group of pitchers. you know, obviously there's interleague play, but you generally see different pitchers.

And so that's actually a thing. There have been studies that have shown that. So basically we're going to be drafting Javier Baez next year, depending on what he does. Yeah, I think so. In the second half, Marcus Semyon went 0 for 3 with a walk, but he picked up two more steals. He now has 16 on the season, which is a career high already. We're not even at the All-Star break yet. He's on pace for 28 steals over 150 games.

Chris, are you buying? the speed in particular for Marcus Simeon? Well, he's already done it. I'm buying the 16 steals that he already has. I don't know if he'll keep running because, you know, one thing that you'll often see is when players are hitting well, they'll stop running, when they're not hitting so well, they start running. It's kind of been the opposite for Simeon.

He's actually been running a lot since he started hitting well, although he had six steals through the first two months, so he was on a pretty good pace already. But yeah, the fact that he, he's still running while hitting well. I think that's a pretty good sign that, you know, for whatever reason, the Rangers are letting him run. All right.

The last one here. Ahmed Rosario, not as, you know, highly regarded as the other hitters we've mentioned, but he went two for four. Now has three straight multi-hit games. He got off to a slow start this season, but since May 9th, this is a pretty big sample size. 57 games. He's hitting 320 with four homers, eight steals.

That's not tremendous. tremendous, but it's pretty good. That's a 10-homer, 21-steel pace, over 300 batting average. He's 77% roster, Chris. He could be out there in some shallow leagues. You might be able to just buy him in, like, deeper category leagues, just because people probably don't trust how good he's been, but he's been very good.

You know, I'm in Rosaria. This is obviously not everyone can just do this, but he's the kind of guy who, like, I wish he wasn't trying to slap at the ball so much. because I think he's a better hitter than he gives himself credit for, if that makes sense. Like he's such an aggressive hitter and he's just trying to put the bat on the ball. But he actually like has a 73rd percentile max exit velocity. And like routinely he has max ex ofelos in the 11 to 110 mile per hour range,

which is above average. And then his average exit velocities are typically pretty middling to pour. And so I think there's a better hitter there waiting to be unlocked. But the speed is elite, and the guardians are letting him run more. So I think he's fine. I don't know if anybody's buying him in a way that makes him worth trading. So I think he's just, you can kind of keep him around. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers.

Pitching first, the good, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Here we go. Here comes the money. Shane McClanahan makes it 12 straight quality starts, six and a third, one run, six strikeouts against the Boston Red Sox hit 18 swinging strikes on 85 pitches, and he is now on pace for 197 innings pitched.

I don't know what is going to happen, but I will take the under. I do not think that Shane McClanhan will get there. And Chris Bassett has turned in five straight quality starts, six innings, one run, six strikeouts at the Braves. He had 17 swinging strikes and lowers the ERA to 3.79 in five starts since allowing seven runs to the Padres back in June. He's got a 2.44 ERA during that stretch. Chris, anything on Shane O'Mack and Basset.

Shane McClanahan's really good. He's very good. He might be a sell high candidate just because like you said, I think there's probably going to be some kind of innings restriction at some point. I don't think they're going to shut him down. obviously, but like there could be more starts like this where he could have gone another inning and they pulled him at 85 pitches. We talked about how he's, I think he's only hit 100 innings or 100 pitches once. He's thrown like 94 or fewer innings and all but two or three

of his starts. So there could be more situations like that where he, you know, makes it to 85 or 90 pitches and gets pulled when, you know, some other pitchers might have been able to go deeper. and if he doesn't pitch quite as well as he has, you know, if he doesn't have a two, a 171 ERA with even peripherals that mostly match it, you know, he probably won't be able to pitch as deep into games and there might be some five-inning starts and he'll be a little less valuable. You'll only get nine strikeouts out of him or whatever it is, but he's awesome. He's a, he's a freakishly good pitcher. hitting leftovers from Wednesday. Francisco Indore went one for four with a three-run homer, his 16th of the season. He has three homers over his last six games.

Austin Riley went two-for-four with his 25th home run. Yesterday we had a question about dropping Catelle-Martee, and then he goes two-for-four with his seventh home run of the season. He's listening. Teoska Hernandez had a double-dong. He's now up to 11 home runs total, and let's update the numbers from yesterday's podcast. Last 41 games, 321, 9 homers,

30 RBI for Teoska Hernandez. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went one for three with his 20th homer. Chris, did you see this home run? Yeah, it was silly. It was like a spitting image of his father. It was crazy. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. just like flicked his bat out, a ball below the zone off of Zach Wheeler, by the way, you know, no big deal. And it flies out. I have no idea how he did it, but he did it. And it was his 20th home. Like a hundred miles an hour, too. It wasn't You know, he didn't exactly get cheated out on it. So it's, yeah, it's interesting. I thought it was like a lazy fly ball to left field.

It turns it to a home run. Yeah, he's real good. Luis Robert went three for four, back-to-back three hit games. He's now betting 296 on the season. Cedric Mullins went two for four with a walk and a run scored. Since the start of June, 37 games, he's hitting 301 with two homers, 14 doubles, and seven steals. Freddie Freeman went three for three with a double and a walk. He is now 11 for 15 over his last three games.

11 for 15. Aaron Judge, we mentioned earlier. He's going through an extended slump his first of the season. The call to the bullpen. All right, I always have to take a breath, breathe a little bit, because there's a lot of bullpen things going on right now. A lot of stuff. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald recorded the final out in game one of the doubleheader,

picked up his 11th save, and then in game two, he gave up a run, but did pick up his 12th save of the season. 64% rostered is Paul Seawald If you need saves For the... Should be more roster than that. For the Brewers,

Josh Hayter entered in the ninth inning In a tie game, does not record an out. He gave up that three-run walk-off homer to Jose Miranda. For the Royals, Scott Barlow struck out two for his 15th save for the Diamondbacks. Mark Melanson enters in a tie game.

He gives up a walk, three hits, and a run. He takes his eighth loss of the season. His ERA is up over five. It feels like his ERA should be higher, Chris. Mark Moyne. That's, yeah, I don't know. How is it only

5.28? I get that like, Jomantipli, there are reasons to be skeptical of what he's doing and whether he can continue to do it, but like, I don't know, give him a chance, right? He finally walked a batter, I think. Yeah. I hadn't walked

anyone all year until like a few days ago. I've noticed it's happened this week. It's like, first time all-stars get named as relievers. and they just struggle out of nowhere. Clay Holmes had his worst outing yesterday, and then Joe Mantiply walked a couple of batters yesterday. It was his first walk, I think, since opening day.

And then he gave up a game-tying solo home run on Wednesday. So it's just kind of weird how these things work. The Pirates and the Marlins, the Battle of the Blown saves. Tanner Scott entered in the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two walks in an RBI double, and then David Bednar had a two-run lead in the 10th inning. He gave up three hits, a walk, A wild pitch, three runs scored.

He takes the blown save and the loss. For Tampa Bay, Jason Adam entered in the seventh inning to face the heart of the Red Sox lineup. Then Colleton Pochet pitched in the ninth inning, three-run lead, converted his sixth save of the season. That's kind of a mess right now,

but I would say the leaders are Adam, Pochay, and Brooks Raleigh, in that order. For the White Sox, Liam Hendricks struck out two for his 18th save. For the Reds, Hunter Strickland pitched a clean ninth in a tie game against the Yankees. Alexis Diaz allowed the ghost runner to score on a wild pitch in extra innings,

and he winds up with the loss. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley, working three of the past four days, was unavailable. Giovanni Gallegos gets the call again, one-run game. He gives up two runs on three hits against the Dodgers, takes his sixth blown save and fourth loss of the season. Speaking of the Dodgers, Craig Kimball, he pitched in the eighth inning, with the team down by one run at the time. So I guess that would be normal usage

if you're losing, right, Chris? And you're the away team? Yeah, I mean, I don't know who he was facing. Let me check. It was the bottom of the line. I was the bottom of the line up. Boll is Corey Dickerson and Lars Newpar. So I don't know.

He's been, you know, he had that back injury. So, you know, maybe it was get him some work in an easy situation. that was also important, relatively speaking. Yeah. And then Garrett Richards recorded one out for the Rangers, Garrett Richards recorded an out for his first save. Brett Martin worked for the past five days. They've used him a ton recently.

It was Evan Phillips who picked up the save for the Dodgers once they took the lead off of Giovanni Gallegos. To stream or not to stream? We'll start with Thursday. Chris, let's see if you can keep it going. Who will be J.T. Brewbaker on Thursday? Will it be Zach Tompenter? at the Marlins in a revenge game.

Braxton Garrett versus the Pirates. Carter Crawford at the Rays. Johnny Quato at the twins. Keegan Thompson versus the Mets. Marco Gonzalez at the Rangers and Reed Detmer's versus the Astros. You are muted. Yeah, Zach Thompson has one good pitch.

So he could be good against the Marlins. I think both Braxton Garrett and Zach Thompson could be good in this one. Marco Gonzalez, obviously, we don't know how he's doing it, but he continues to pitch well. So, you know, we'll see if he can. continues to do that. But yeah, I think both sides of Miami, Pittsburgh could be good. Again, actually, they were both pretty good today. I am starting Braxton Garrett in at least one 15-team Roto League. So I hope it works more than he's been decent lately. On Friday, we have Kyle Gibson at the

Marlins, stream everyone at the Marlins, Tyler Wells at the Rays, Devin-Smelter versus the White Sox, Cole Irvin at the Astros, and Andre Palante versus the Reds. Yeah, I mean, I don't know of any of Jorge Salara, Jazz Chisholm, or Garrett Cooper will be back by Friday. But if they're not, Kyle Gibson. The Barlins are just a truly, truly terrible lineup right now. Yeah, let's do it. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank.

Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball. Today will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.