Fantasy Baseball Today - Add Kirk and Odorizzi! Do These Players Matter and DROPOMETER! (9/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Is Alejandro Kirk a must-add in one-catcher leagues (2:07)? Jake Odorizzi projects for two awesome matchups next week. ... Max Fried, Blake Snell, and Logan Webb continue to carry your Fantasy teams (8:47). ... News and notes (12:43). Gerrit Cole left his start early with a hamstring injury and apparently Jacob deGrom has regeneration powers. ... What should you know about these pitching prospects (24:22)? ... Do pitchers like Eric Lauer and A.J. Alexy matter (29:26)? ... Do hitters like Austin Hays and Bobby Dalbec matter (34:40)? ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER for Eduardo Rodriguez, Zac Gallen and others (41:32). ... Aaron Civale made his return and Alex Bregman looks like he's ready to take off (49:25). ... We wrap up with bullpens and streamers (55:46).  'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Center field. What is magnificent? Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality.

Now here's Frank Scott, Chris and Adam. What is up? Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 8th. Frank Stiff will join by the returning. Scotty Dubbs, Scott White. Here to recap. The past couple of days in fantasy baseball, got some players. Do these guys actually matter?

Some prospects being called up. I want to ask Scott about the dropometer. We're going to fire that up as well. Thanks again to Justin Mason for joining us on Sunday night on Monday morning's podcast. Once again, do appreciate that. Scott, long weekend for your boy. How you doing, man? How was it?

Oh, I'm doing great. Doing great. Beach weekend with the family. Spent the weekend on Sanibel Island. off the Gulf Coast of Florida. So, you know, if you wonder where people who live in Florida go on vacation, the answer is other parts of Florida. That's how it works.

Oh, yeah, did some, you know, floating in the ocean, did a little paddleboarding, did a little kayaking. Are you a big beach guy? No, I wouldn't say I'm a big beach. beach guy. No, I would definitely, you know how some people are about the beach. That's definitely not me. But I can have a good time at the beach. I did. I would do it again. All right. Nice. A little bit more positivity from Scott that I'm used. I honestly was not expecting you to enjoy the beach. So happy to hear that vacationing in other parts of Florida. But we are here to catch people up on

fantasy baseball. So let's do that. Oh my goodness gracious. From Tuesday, Monday, the past couple of days, I don't know. Let's figure it out. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scott. Where are we starting? We're starting with Alejandro Kirk. Mr. Kirk. I kind of want to call him Captain Kirk, but I don't know if that's... Alejandro Kirk hit two home runs here on Tuesday evening.

His... Wait a second. What were they? His sixth and seventh home runs of the season. Yeah, I have that right. Sixth and seventh home runs of the season. And he got the start at DH, but he's been playing a lot of catcher recently. It was his second third hit game in a row.

He hit a home run in the other one as well as hitting a double. His batting average is up to 290 on the year. And entering Wednesday, Alejandro Kirk had an 11.7% strikeout rate on the year. this is a strikeout rate that compares to players like some of the best contact titters in the game let me see if I can pull up a couple examples real quick

11.7 so Adam Fraser's 11.5 strikeout rate Tommy Edmund 12.9 Michael Brantley 10.5 so you know Alejandro Kirk were right in that mix if he was a qualified he had the sixth best strikeout rate among hitters. And yet, you know, here he is hitting for power and, you know, quite a bit of power.

Those seven home runs have come in 124 at bats. He's hitting the ball hard like a power hitter. I think his average X of velocity is like 92 miles per hour, high hard hit rate as well. And it's, you know, it's somebody who's bat we were pretty excited about in spring training. Even when he got called up last year, got a brief look in the majors. Spent some time injured this year. The Blue Jays have a lot of catcher depth, so the playing time hadn't been consistent until recently.

But it looks like he's performing up to it now. It looks like he's getting the playing time, and he's performing up to what we hope to see from him. It's a pretty strong offensive profile at a position where obviously we're always longing for that. So I think it's time. I think it's time to make a move for Alej. Yeah, he's crushing the ball this year.

You're absolutely right about that. I pulled up his stackass page. Pretty damn impressive. His expected numbers, 296XBA, 527X slug. Pretty impressive for Alejandro Kirk. One of those home runs on Tuesday came off of Garrett Cole, too. We'll talk about Cole a little bit. He clearly wasn't himself.

He was dealing with a hamstring injury. But still impressive, nonetheless, to hit a home run off of Garrett Cole there for Alejandro Kirk. Scott, we're getting to that point in the year where, you know, if we play in a head dead points league or we play in any type of shallower format and it's one catcher league, I think you kind of just ride the hot hand unless you have one of the top, I don't know, three, four, five catchers. So would you be okay dropping? I'm looking over the last 28 days. Let me look. Let me find some catchers who are really, really scuffling here.

Gary Sanchez had two home runs recently, but 2.4 fantasy points per game over his last 28 days. Is that a move that you would make? Would you prefer Kirk over Gary Sanchez? I mean, that's not a horrible point per game average for a catcher. Yeah. I think I'd stop short of dropping him for Kirk, but it's close. How about Christian Vasquez, who's still rostered in 81% of leagues? I have no idea why he's rostered in that many leagues still. Just the lack of options at catcher, I guess.

But I don't know. We've been hyping plenty of others that you probably should have dropped Vasquez for a long time ago. Yeah, I mean, look, there's a ton of names that are still just rostered in a ton of leagues. Omar Narvaez, 91%, make that swap. He's okay, but yeah, I could see going with the hot hands in Kirk instead. Yadier Malina, 80% rostered? Yeah, forget him out of there. Sean Murphy, 75%.

Yeah, he's losing too many of bats now with Jan Goams in the mix. Last one here. Carson Kelly, 60%. Yep, I'll take Kirk. Yeah, I'm definitely interested there, and it's cheap exposure to one of the best lineups in baseball in Toronto. So every time I hear his name, I just want to hear the Lady Gaga song. Alejandro, Alejandro. All right, for me, oh my goodness gracious.

I'm going to talk about Jake Oteresey, one of Scott's favorite starting pitchers. He didn't have a great performance. It was okay. It really wasn't eye-popping. What made me say, oh, my goodness gracious, were his projected matchups for next week. I'll get to that in just a second. Five innings, two runs, three strikeouts against the Mariners for O'Darizzi. And this one, two earn runs or less in four.

straight starts for Big Jake here. Three of those starts came against the Mariners, one against the Texas Rangers. So clearly he can beat up on bad competition. Next week, if this works out, because I mean, you know, things change and rotations get shuffled. So we'll check back in on this on Friday

when you talk about two-star pitcher Scott. But 68% rostered versus the Diamondbacks at the Rangers next week for Jake Oterese. So if that stands, and you know, obviously we're playing for lot right now. It's head-to-head playoffs are going on. Yeah. I love those matchups. Oh, yeah. You should love those matches. Those are great matchups.

As good as Oter is, he's been in his past four starts, not a single one of them have gone even six innings. So that's, I guess that's the water you can pour, the cold water you can pour on that. But you're right. I mean, the difficulty with waiver wire recommendations this time of year is that, you know, usually a lot of speculation goes into those. You're identifying ability and then you're claiming it with the hope that that ability pays off at some point down the line. Well, down the line is off the table now. So you need pickups who can impact you right now.

And I think with that two-star week, Oda Rezi, even though I don't think he has a lot of ability and I wouldn't want to put much faith in him long term. I think that makes sense. If he does end up lining up for two starts, we'll see how the rest of the week plays out. Yeah, we'll talk about it again on Friday when we take a look at some two start pitchers there. But as of now, it looks like Jake Oteresey, two fantastic matchups for next week. We don't trust the ability of Oterese, but we do trust the ability of these three starting pitchers. League winning pitchers who we've talked a ton about recently, just keep on, keeping on what they did on Tuesday. want to quickly hit these guys up at the top. Max Fried up against the Nationals, six

endings, one run, four walks to five strikeouts. He didn't have his best stuff here, but that's eight straight quality starts for Max Fried, a 1.76 ERA during that span. Blake Snell, 13 and two-thirds, hitless in a row over his last two starts before giving up a two-run single to Joe Adele in the seventh inning of Tuesday start. He finishes that start, seven-enings, one run, seven-enings, two runs, 11 strikeouts for Blake Snell. He's got a 1.88 ERA, 65 strikeouts over 43 and two thirds over his last seven starts for Blake Snell. And then Logan Webb survives Corsefield at the Rockies, seven innings, nine hits, three runs, zero walks, six strikeouts. So ultimately, a pretty good start here. Nine straight quality starts for Logan Webb. Scott, anything you'd

like to add on Freed, Snell, Webb, we talk about these guys quite a bit. I mean, Blake Snell was perfect through I don't know that he was quite perfect through six he had a no hit he was going he was perfect through six yeah perfect through six then he walked a guy in the seventh and then he gave up hits obviously or a hit but yeah I mean it just it continues for blake snail right I mean we were writing this guy off a month ago because he hadn't been able to put anything together this year or last or really the year before And then all of a sudden he's figured it out. He's figured it out.

And he looks like a must start the rest of the way. Now, it is worth mentioning that this lineup he was facing, the Angels lineup was... Very bad. And no Otani in the National League Park. Right, no Otani. The top slugging percentage in the Angels lineup was 402. Oohie.

By a guy named Jack Mayfield. It's a really bad lineup. Yes, it is. But one of what's been four, seven-inning starts in his past six, one of them was against the Dodgers. He's struck out 10, allowed one-run run on three hits. So obviously, you know, the other two were against the diamond backs. So, you know, he's not exactly, other than that Dodgers start,

which is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, Snell hasn't been facing murderers rose here, but over the last three years, this isn't the only time he's faced a bunch of bad lineups. And he wasn't doing things like this. So let's not, you know, let's not nitpick too much. Yeah. Come on. Don't poo poo my man, Blake's now, not my man. I mean, we basically wrote him off, as he mentioned, Scott.

But you talked about the seven inning performances that he's put up recently. He has thrown over 100 pitches. in six of his last seven starts. So, I mean, San Diego, they simplified his pitch mix, or he simplified it. A lot of fastballs, a lot of sliders, mixing in the curveball there. But whatever he's doing, he's pitching a lot more efficiently, and they've basically just loosened the reins, and they're letting him go. So, again, Blake's now looking like a must-start pitcher

and potentially a league-winning starting pitcher here down the stretch. Before we hit the news and notes, the NFL has finally returned, and the Pick Six podcast is your top audio destination for comprehensive coverage of the 2021 season joint host Will Brinson and company for extensive game previews and all the picks you need plus recaps immediately after Monday, Thursday, and Sunday night football games. That and much more coming this fall on the Pick Six podcast feed. Download and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever else podcasts are found. News and notes, Garrett Cole left Tuesday start with hamstring tightness per John Heyman.

The early word is that the Yankees played it safe to get Cole out before the hamstring worsened and the hope and even belief is that it's not too severe. So I don't know. As of now, we don't know if he's going to make his next start, if he's going to be skipped in the rotation, if it's going to cause an aisle stint, whatever it's going to be. But I saw that his fastball velocity on his final pitch was way, way down. So immediately my mind went, oh, God, please be okay,

nothing with the arm, but it turns out to be a hamstring injury here for Garrett Cole. The Mets from one-a-ease to another revealed that Jacob de Grom had been dealing with a partial tear of his right UCL general manager Sandy Alderson expressed more optimism on Tuesday, noting that the issue resolved itself and the ligament is still intact. I'm not a doctor, Scott, neither are you.

I don't think it really works that way. I mean, that's the impression. I was under two. Yeah, I mean, some of the quotes from Sandy Alderson or just whatever condition existed before, it's resolved itself. And, okay, so this is one I pulled off here and tweeted out because there's like a whole article from,

I think I got this from Newsday. Look, somebody goes out with a headline that it's a partial tear. That's what a bruise is. A bruise is a partial tear of the muscle, okay? So let's not go out there and write as if this is anything new. It's not. It's a very low-grade thing that has resolved itself. You know, okay.

This is a ligament, not a muscle, first of all. I don't know. I mean, he was saying it's the lowest form of sprain there is, and MRIs since then has shown that it's gone. So, I don't know. I mean, to me, the fear with Jacob de Grom is that they goof off all off season with this. They come back next spring. Oh, you know what?

He does need Tommy John surgery after all. And then we're not seeing Jacob de Grom again, until the second half of 2023 when he's 35 years old, by the way. And I don't know. I don't know. somebody was asking me who I'd keep today, Jacob de Grom or Bryce Harper. I didn't answer him because he doesn't have to decide today. I mean, I'd probably keep Harper.

I'm concerned enough about it that I think I'd say Harper. You know, I mean, I guess it's possible. People sprain their ankles, you know, and that's a ligament, right, that you're spraining? I don't know. I don't know enough, clearly. but my assumption was that once you got a little tear in that elbow ligament, it doesn't go away and you can just kind of,

it can be not so bad enough to require surgery, but that it doesn't just heal, but I am not a doctor. Yeah, I mean, look, technically a sprain of a ligament, we've heard this before, is a form of a tear, right? I mean, the extent of that, I guess nobody knows, but based on this, it sounds like they're not, overly concerned, though, I mean, it's hard not to be. Jacob de Grom is throwing 101, 102 miles per hour.

He's storing 93, 94 mile per hour sliders. I mean, he's doing something that we've never seen before. I'm sure he's going max effort on every pitch, or at least it seems like he is. So, yeah, I mean, it would make sense. They're going so far, and that quote that quote I read from Sandy Alderson was what made it amazing wasn't even so much the bruise comparison, because, okay, whatever, maybe. he's saying that the reason they hadn't revealed this is because they didn't want it to be reported because they knew the reports would exaggerate what they believe the damage is just by that

combination of, you know, sprain and UCL, you know? Yeah. So like, okay, we're going to tell you now, but we don't. want you to make a big deal of it because it's not actually a big deal. I don't know. It's just it's really bizarre. Yeah. I don't feel good. I don't feel good right now as somebody, if I'm invested into Grammetta dynasty way, I don't feel good at all with this news. You shouldn't. And I mean, look, it sounds like they were just scared of the New York media like blowing this out of proportion. But I mean, what's done is done. So I mean, we'll see what

happens as a result of this. But yeah, I mean, as much as I lean into. early starting pitchers this year and elite starting pitchers and kind of paying up. It's too early to say, but my early diagnosis of the situation is that I'm going to take a step back next year, a big step back, because, I mean, there's a lot of pitchers early that have kind of dealt with injuries in the past, and I don't know, it's just kind of scaring me off stuff like this, and DeGrom, he's not the only one, it's you Darvish, this whole sticky situation. We'll see what happens in the offseason, but... Yeah, I mean, there are a few factors that work there.

for why it makes sense to to dial that back some i you know obviously i have i haven't gotten into the nitty gritty with it either yeah hit it part part of the calculus there was that hitting was so plentiful you could get you could get it everywhere it was just like the the the player pool was overgrown with great hitting and that that's proven not to be true anymore so you know how much as the riskier proposition of pitching, how valuable is it by comparison? You know, I think we need to dive back into that. Yes. We got to find those mid-round gems, Scott, those late-round gems,

and trust the process, I think, for next year. That's something that I'm really kind of figuring out now, but we have a all off-season to talk about that. Let's move on. Janjun Riu apparently left Monday start with left forearm tightness. Another one here after six scoreless endings against the Yankees. There's no word yet on whether he'll make his second start later this week. against the Baltimore Orioles, but obviously forearm tightness,

it's something that we have to monitor with Hyun Jin Ryu. We had a bunch of White Sox news, Lucas Gialito, through Tuesday at Max effort and felt no issues with his hamstring. He'll have two bullpens to throw before he is back in the rotation. Lance Lynn threw a bullpen on Tuesday, and he will throw another one on Friday. He might be able to return after that one.

So perhaps next week we see Lance Lynn. There is hope that Carlos Redon can pitch this weekend against the Red Sox. He was skipped in the rotation earlier this week due to fatigue and general soreness is what they listed it as. There's currently no timetable for Tim Anderson, who is on the IL with a hamstring injury. Clayton Kershaw made a rehab start at AAA on Tuesday, three innings, two runs, zero walks to three strikeouts. So, I mean, they seem pretty optimistic. Everything that we've heard about Kershaw, which another one, he's dealing with an arm injury, but maybe he could finish out strong here and help us this season. Don't

know what that'll look like yet for next season with Clayton Kirscho. This was a surprise to me. Fernando Tatis said on Tuesday that he does not anticipate undergoing shoulder surgery after the season where we've heard the contrary all along from beat writers. I mean, it even sounded like the team was almost on board. Not that they've come out and said anything, but it kind of seemed like we were all in agreement here. And I thought this was a pretty big surprise, Scott. Yeah, it caught me by surprise too. Tatease did acknowledge that he still needs to talk to team doctors, the front office, and make a final determination. So I don't know if he was just kind of speaking off the cuff here,

but I thought it was a foregone conclusion too. Let's run through the rest of these. Angels manager Joe Madden had no update Tuesday on when or if Mike Trout will be able to return this season. I doubt it. George Springer was out of the lineup after fouling a ball off of his knee on Monday. Tray Mancini was out of the lineup due to oblique soreness. Tony Gonsolin could be activated Thursday or Friday.

He's 45% rostered, and Scott, I know Gonsolin is someone that you really liked early in the season. He came back. The ERA was good, but struggled with control. The whip was very high. It wasn't going deep into starts. Would you be looking to re-ad Gonsolin anywhere? I'm not going to say no, but that kind of gets back to what I was saying earlier, where I think Tony Gonsolin has a lot of ability.

And if this was July or earlier, then of course, of course. I mean, you may not be able to use him right away. He may still need to stretch out. But it's September. And there are three lineup blocks left, assuming your league plays out the full season, right up through the very last week. There are just three lineup blocks left. And as much trouble as we saw, you know,

as long as it seemed to be taking him to stretch out when he came back from the aisle the first time, you know, I'm not confident he's going to give you any, even five innings starts, much less six. So I would call, he'd be far from a must add for me, even though, you know, I think he's good. I think he has the potential to be good. Tyler Clippard went on the COVID-I-L with COVID-like symptoms. They haven't said if he actually tested positive, so they could just be playing it safe here. So we will see what happens there. If he misses any extended time, I believe it was Noe A. Ramirez, who recently

picked up a save when Tyler Clippard wasn't available. So in the deepest of category leagues, even with Spencer Howard and Dane Dunning back with the Rangers, Glenn Otto is expected to start Friday against the Angels. Do I have enough time to pull this up here? Let's see what I got. 1,800 Glenn Otto. Come on. Pick up the phone. The call is free.

People really like that jingle, by the way, Scott. So good job by you. Nick Mavetta has tested positive for COVID and went to the the IEL, the Red Sox really dealing with a COVID outbreak here in their team, on their team. And I know that Zander Bogartz is working his way back. A few others, Matt Barnes and the COVID-I-L. So yeah, another one there with Nick Pavetta. Kwonghan Kim will move back to the bullpen and Jake Woodford is expected to start on Thursday. Cabert Ruiz has sat out three straight games with a knee injury, though he did pinch hit on Tuesday.

Kyle Lewis has a bone bruise in his right knee and is being shut down for the rest of the 2021 season, the year of the setback continues. John Gray is set to return Wednesday against the Giants. I would not want to start John Gray in any of my daily leagues. So the Giants are swinging a hot bat in Corpus Field right now. I would not want to do that. Connor Joe recently received a PRP injection. He landed on the IL over the weekend with a mild hamstring strain,

which causes us pain, Scott, because we were very excited about Connor Joe. Yeah, that one hurt. That one hurt. Something that does not hurt, especially your Braves. Martin agreed to a one-year contract extension, and that means that we'll have him for at least one more year in fantasy, and he's been really good, so I don't know.

Just off the top of my head, I mean, probably a top 20, top 25 starting pitcher heading into next year. He's pitched really well with the Atlanta Braves. Some prospects, Scott, I wanted to ask you about Luis Heel will make his return to the Yankees and start on Wednesday. And I don't know if this means Nestor Cortez

will be moving back to the bullpen, but looking at the roster resource page, they slotted Luis Heel into Nester Cortez's rotation spot, so I don't know if that's the plan as of now, I didn't actually see anything on that, but Luis Heel is 39% rostered and pitched really well in the majors

and has pitched well in the minors recently also. Yeah, it was Cortez's turn, so I understand why Roster Resource did that, but you know, Roster Resource doesn't have any insights, really. They're just reacting to news the same way we are.

And there's no indication that Cortez has lost his job in the starting rotation. There's no reason for him to. It's not like Luis Heel could possibly be more reliable than Cortez was. So my suspicion is that either they're just giving Heal one turn to give everybody a day rest or that they're planning to go six-man for a while. Maybe it kind of depends on how Heel performs. But I wouldn't be so quick to drop Cortez because of this. news. Well, would you be looking to add

Luis Heel? I guess it also kind of depends on the extent of this Garret Cole hamstring injury because if he has to go on the IL, then you know, that means heel is probably staying and so is Nestor Cortez. Yeah, uh, not super motivated to add

heel yet. Uh, kind of, you know, it would make a difference if he performs well on Wednesday and doesn't get sent down right away. Then I'll be more. interested. You know, if you have a roster spot to play with, it doesn't have, it doesn't hurt to add him in case that comes to be.

I mean, the little bit we've seen him in the major so far has gone pretty well. A few other call-ups I wanted to ask you about Mike Bowman with the Baltimore Orioles. Someone I believe Nando is in on, I think he's on his team in your Scott White Dynasty League. And then Josh Lambert, I think that's his first name. Josh Lambert with the White Sox. He was called up and he was at the Oakland A's on. Tuesday, five innings, one run, two strikeouts.

Anything to see here with Mike Bowman or Josh Lambert? I really hope that's his name. Jimmy Lambert. Jimmy Lambert, Josh. It's pretty close, right? It starts with a Jim. Jimmy. Jimmy, good old Jimmy boy.

Yes. You know, they're not nobody prospects, but they're not particularly high end either. Mike Bowman had particularly good numbers in 2019. 10.3K per 9 between high class A and double A. His numbers this year, between three levels, you know, barely a strikeout per inning, 344 ERA 115 whip.

Pretty good fastball, pretty good slider. I don't know. I can see it going either way for him. It's not like he's, it's not like he has anything really like eye popping in his arsenal. but at the same time, good enough that he's worth monitoring. I have less hope for Jimmy Lambert, really. His strikeout rate, at least this year, was pretty good in the minors,

but doesn't have quite the same pedigree as Mike Bauman. So, yeah, his start against the athletics on Tuesday was pretty good, but two strikeouts at five innings. I believe he had just three, four swinging strikes on 70 pitches. So I don't know. Nothing that's really making me jump out of my seat for Lambert either. Yeah, and if Lance Lane or Lucas Shelito or both of them return, then we probably don't have a spot for Lambert in the rotation.

But a few prospects there, let's monitor them. Again, Luis Healed the highest profile of the names here. So let's see what he does on Wednesday. Let's take a quick break when we return. Do these pitchers matter? Talk about it. Fantasy baseball today. Let's start with Eric Lauer, who was up against the Phillies on Tuesday, seven shutout innings with five strikeouts to just work.

one walk, that's back-to-back seven-inning starts against the Giants and the Phillies. So, I mean, two pretty good offenses there. Eric Lauer is 24% rostered, and a lot of what we're going to do now is looking at next week. What are the matchups say? And as of now, it looks like Lauer is at the Detroit Tigers, which is pretty good. Does Eric Lauer matter, Scott? Because of the matchup, because of the time of year, I guess he does. Now, prior to these back-to-back seven-innings starts, Lauer had gone five-enings

for less or less in six starts. So this is a very new thing, him going deep enough that we even care about him. He does have a 318 ERA on the year almost to strikeout per inning, but also a 430x fib. So I don't really, if we're just grading lower on ability,

I don't think there's enough there, but if you need a hot hand, this time of year with a good matchup, then I guess he matters. How about AJ Alexia? I probably could have included him in our previous segment talking about a few prospect pitchers being called up. But he made a start on Monday against the Angels.

Six shutout only gave up one hit, two walks, seven strikeouts. He had 11 swinging strikes on 85 pitches. And he was having a great season in the minors. Between AA and AAA, a 166 ERA 102 whip, 76 strikeouts over 65 innings pitch. He's 13% rostered. early look at next week I think he's at home against the

Astros so you don't love that but you do like to start no you don't love that matchup I agree that stinks because I do like I do like Alexi this is one I'm pretty excited about actually

you mentioned the great numbers he had in the minors this year between two major league starts now combined 11 innings he's allowed just two hits he has in this most recent start fastball three different pitches

fastball slider I believe in change up he threw at least 19% at the time so to come in and have three pitches that he features that prominently is pretty good pretty good speaks well to his state the stage of development he's in and the swinging strike rate has been decent since

arriving in the majors as well the walks have been high five and eleven innings and the walks were an issue in the minors well. So, you know, that's something to monitor. Also, he's a bit more of a fly ball pitcher than a ground ball pitcher, which is dangerous. But A.L. West is the division to do that in. So I can see things continuing to play out nicely for AJ Alexi, but I agree. I don't know that against the Astros is really the time to test it. That said, if he does have a good start against the Astros, you know, you really have something here. Yeah, for sure. I mean, they have so many

pitchers coming in and out of the rotation right now for Texas that I don't know that they'll ever have the ability to have a two-star pitcher, I mean, rest of season. So that obviously limits his upside for AJ Alexi. But yeah, very good start on Monday. Excuse me, let's see what happens there moving forward. Pagie Norton, who is that guy? He was at the Padres on Tuesday. Five shutout with five strikeouts. He had 10 swinging strikes on 72 pitches. First start completing five innings. does Packy Norton matter, Scott? Not on my team is where I would put Packing Norton.

No, I mean, 490 ERA in the minors this year. Really, no part of his stat line is good. And I just, the stuff doesn't look particularly impressive. I think he's just a guy. All right. Last one here, Drew Rasmussen. He was at the Red Sox on Monday, five innings, one run, and two strikeouts over his last five starts,

he has a 165 ERA. Does not give you many strikeouts, but the ratios have looked pretty good during that five-star stretch. It doesn't go more than five innings, but I mean, it's probably more for like deeper roto category leagues. He's just providing ratios. Does Drew Rasmussen matter?

You know, I spend a little bit of time trying to figure this out because one and runner fewer in all five of his starts since joining the race rotation. He came over with J.P. Fire Ice and in the in the Willie Adama trade with the Brewers. Good ground ball rate, but not like an amazing Ranger Suarez groundball rate that would allow me to overlook the low swinging strike rate and not so great strikeout rate either.

So I'm not really buying Drew Rasmussen. But, yeah, I'm not really buying it. I get that there's been a string of success here, and he pitches for the raise, but that's kind of a double-edged sword, right? Pitching for the raise because you never know when they're going to yank you around either. Yep, definitely fair there. Do these hitters matter? Let's start with Austin Hayes, who went one for three with his 16th home run of the season on Tuesday,

and over his last 15 games, he's betting 358 with 3.5. with three home runs. He's 32% rostered. Scott, does Austin Hayes matter? Are you interested in adding him? So his playing time has been less than every day. And I know his splits favor lefties. And let's see, were they facing a lefty here on Wednesday? They were not. They were going up against Jackson Cowar. And Hayes' home run came off of Jackson, Coar, so. So I think there were five lefties scheduled for the Orioles this week, and I thought about including Hayes among my sleeper hitters, but I did not.

The playing time has been more consistent lately. Yeah, he started in nine straight games. But I don't know. I don't really think he matters, because even though he's, you could make the case, okay, his splits are better against lefties, so he's a good matchups guy. They're still not that good against lefties. So, yeah, I just don't think the production. is quite enough, even if, apart from having 16 homers, I mean, he's batting, he has a 299 on base

percentage, you know? Yeah, doesn't walk very much. He's right around a 250 batting average for the season. He's been better the past month or so for the Baltimore. So I think probably in five outfielder leagues, maybe he matters there if you're desperate, but yeah, anything shallower than that, probably not the case for Austin Hayes. How about Lorenzo Kane? Two more hits on Tuesday. 31 games since coming off the IL. He's betting 281, 4 homers, seven steals. Problem, similar to Austin Hayes,

before this recent stretch, is that Kane sits out every third or fourth game, usually. He's only 20% rostered. There's only five games on the schedule next week. So those things are playing against him, but when he's been on the field, he's been productive. Yeah, it's just too much missed time.

Yeah. You know, Hayes has been playing a lot more consistently recently, but Cain has started six of ten for the brewers. And it's just really hard to make it impact when you're doing that, especially if you're not like this monstrous power hitter or really prolific base dealer. You're just kind of a... You know, you're just somebody who's kind of pretty good at a few things.

I just... 15-team leagues probably is all you're talking about for Cain. Bobby Dahlbeck pinch hit in the eighth inning on Tuesday. The Red Sox were down 12 to 1, so they get some of their stars out of the game. He pinch hits for Raphael Devers. Hits two home runs in two in two innings, Bobby Dahlbeck does. And he's now started eight of the last 10 games for them. Over his last 30 games, overall, 3.41 batting average, nine homers for Bobby Dahlbeck.

He is red-hot, 40% rostered. What do you think here, Scott? Yeah, I mean, he's finally hot when they're not making an effort to play him with a great amount of consistency. Eight of the last 10 games he started, I mean, that's better than it has been, basically. Yeah, but Schwerberg got another start at first base. This was his third start since coming over to the Red Sox.

And you feel like those are going to have to happen more often. I don't know. I guess, I guess if you're just looking for home runs, you could do worse than Dahlbeck. But I don't know. It's been a little inconsistent the playing time. It looks like for next week,

three games against the Orioles, three games against the Mariners. Not really scared of either pitching staff. I don't know what it looks like in terms of how many lefties their schedule to face for next week. But just in terms of pitching staffs and pretty good matches there for Bobby Dahlbeck.

I did want to bring up Ian Hap once again because we've, Talked about him quite a bit recently, but I feel like his roster rate is still lagging behind. He went three for four again on Tuesday, added another home run. He's now up to 20. And over his last 30 games, Ian Hap is betting 321, nine homers, two steals. His last 15 games is betting 400. So, I mean, the guy is hot right now.

Band of Misfits with the Chicago Cubs, Frank Schwindell, Raphael Ortega, Patrick Wisdom. These guys are all performing pretty well. Does Ian Hap need to be rostered in more leagues? Is he a must-ad Ian Hap? I wouldn't go quite so far as the same must-add. Like, three out-fielder leagues, certainly not points leagues with as much as he strikes out. 52% rostered is where he's at right now.

Yeah, I mean, it's low for as hot as he is. He is still striking out way too much. Yeah. And, you know, his bab-ip is through the roof during this stretch. But we know he could put, we know he could send balls out of the park and he hadn't done so enough this year until this this recent stretch of having hit nine home runs in 23 games so definitely falls into the category of the hot hand play and there's no shame in rolling with that this time of year

so I would say that he is being a bit undervalued because of that but again if we're talking long term, I'd be less enthusiastic about him. Scott, what would Ian Hap compare against these outfielers in shallower leagues? Because Tyler O'Neill, he's 74% rostered, but he's coming back around. His last seven games, 11 hits, two homers, one steal. Anthony Santander, his last 30 games. We talk about Santander quite a bit. He's been performing well.

277 batting average, eight home runs. He's 59% rostered. How would you rank Santander, O'Neill, and Ian Hap? So Santander, if you go to the last 30 games, the numbers are still pretty good, but he's cooled off the last couple weeks. He's gone ice cold again. The thing about a no-walk guy like Santander is when they're not hitting well, they're doing nothing for you. So he's third for me here. O'Neill's first.

O'Neill's first, half-second. Santander third. O'Neill still has, you know, strikes out way too much, but just incredible. stat-cast data otherwise, how hard he hits the ball. His expected slug is 566. It's almost 50 points higher than his actual slug. And for as much as he strikes out, his expected batting average is right in line with actual marks.

So he's pretty much doing what he's supposed to be doing from what we can tell. All right. Let's fire up the dropometer here on a Wednesday. I mean, we're getting to the point of the season again, where you can pretty much drop anybody unless they have a good matchup. But Eduardo Rodriguez, he does what he does. He reels me in, he reels me in,

and then he just drops one of these right on my head. A good old stinker. Up against Tampa, gives up six runs, over three and two-thirds. He is 88% rostered still. What is the dropometer on Eduardo Rodriguez? I mean, I don't like throwing around tens, but this time of year,

I feel like I can throw around a lot of tens because I just I don't feel like you could trust him and it's been a year-long frustration because his ex-fip even after this start is 347 I mean it's pretty good I want to say that would be top 10 among qualifiers

this is a pretty good ex-fip but there's just been I feel like there's something we're missing here some some yet to be discovered analytical tool that could help explain what's happening to Eduardo Rodriguez this year

because the performance just hasn't come anywhere close to that. The previous four starts prior to this one were quality starts, but this one was so bad, it just negates all the good, you know? And the thing is, I would imagine many people had Eduardo Rodriguez on the bench for those starts, right? And then you throw them back in for one like this, where last time out he performed well against Tampa, and then he puts up that standard. thinker, but hold your horses here, Scott. It looks like he's in line for two starts next week

against the Orioles and the Mariners. Oh, gosh. So, should we turn that 10 back into a zero? I didn't know, you're going to get me the sneak attack here. I didn't know either. I just looked up his matchups. I just looked up his matchups. I don't lead with that.

Gosh. I don't enjoy analysis this time of year. I'm trying to have my usual level of enthusiasm, but it just feels like, just feels like you're throwing darts, you know? Yeah. Those matchups are so freaking good, and there's two of them.

I think in points leagues you probably have to hold on. I don't know that I could trust them in a categories league unless the categories I was chasing were wins and strikeouts. Yep. But I think in a points league, you have to hold on. So we'll drop that 10 to a 5. How about Terrick Scouble? He only threw three innings on Monday,

which there was no indication that they were going to do this. And, I mean, they've done this now with some of their younger pitchers in the rotation, but he only threw 50 pitches. He's still 77% rostered. If you're looking to add one of these starting pitchers that are emerging here late, Scott, would you be okay dropping Terik Scouble?

Yeah, I wish I knew what the plan was for him. Yeah, there was, like, they didn't say anything about it. like why they did it, I would have to assume it's just the tigers are out of it. They're limiting their younger pitchers. You have like names. You could give me some more specific names here. That you match up against scuba.

Yeah, sure. Well, I mentioned, would you do it for like Eric Lauer, who we mentioned before? No. Would you do it for, let's see, let's put it up the most added starting pitchers. Man, the Bailey Ober thing is so annoying

because they piggyback Michael Paneda with him and he was pitching well. So obviously you can't add over now, but that's frustrating. Would you drop scuba for Joe Ryan? No, no. How about, I mean, Ranger Suarez is still out there in like a third of CBS leagues.

And it looks like his next two matchups since that's the game we're playing here now. Ranger Suarez's next two matchups versus Colorado versus the Cubs. Ranger Suarez, I mean, I've been saying it for a few weeks now, Ranger Suarez. I would take over most any pitcher you'd consider dropping, but that's especially true looking at those matchups.

All right, so that's a slam dunk, right? We'll drop scuba for them. Yeah. How about, would you do it for Jake Oteresey with those two starts next week? If that was the way to get Oterrezi's two starts on your roster. Yeah, I could do that. All right, last one I'll ask you about Adrian Houser threw a three-hit shutout over the weekend.

Would you drop Terrick Scouble for him? I would not because that was such an outlier. Innings-wise, for Suarez. I had no idea he was capable of going more than six. How about Zach Gallen? He was at the Rangers on Tuesday, six and two-thirds, three runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks. That looks all fine and good.

Only 10 swinging strikes in this start. Fastball Velo down 1.9 miles per hour in this one, curveball down 1.6 miles per hour. so 85% rostered is Zach Allen early projection for next week at the Dodgers at the Astros yikes yeah

bad matchups and I still really don't know what's going on with him obviously this ranger's matchup this rangers lineup he should have been able to carve up and he barely came away with a quality start it was looking pretty rough early on actually so he has had four decent starts

in a row. I'm not ready to put my faith in him, though, yet, especially with those matchups. So if you're not starting him in a two-star week in a points league against, in those matchups, which are tough matchups, would you just drop him? The case could be made, though it's because he's Zach Allen and because, like I said, the last four starts have been pretty good,

and maybe he is back on. on track and I'm just I'm just too worried about him having a sprained elbow kind of like we were talking about with Jacob de Grom earlier I worry about him falling into the wrong hands and then beating you as he's Zach Allen

you know I'm reluctant to drop him I don't think it's it's not unthinkable I actually have dropped them in a league you know one of my shallow shallower leagues already this year but it's not something I'm eager to do where to put him on the dropometer

Okay. Let's go with four. All right. Last name here, Kyle Freeland. He was up against the Giants on Monday. Gave up seven runs over four in a third. And it looks like the wheels are kind of falling off here for him. He's dealing with the hip injury.

Yeah, I feel like such a sucker. I feel, yeah, he did have a hip injury that he was coming back from. And so we don't know exactly how much that impacted him in this start. But, you know, been saying over and over, Can't trust Kyle Freeland. Rocky's pitcher. Not enough of a badmiser. You know, too much of a fly ball pitcher.

Can't trust him, can't trust him, can't trust him. After a dozen starts, a dozen starts where Kyle Freeland did this. He succeeded. He had like a 250 ERA over that 12-star stretch. Finally said, okay, I guess maybe now you can use him. And then, of course, this happens. So I don't know what lesson to take from that. Just be totally obstinate and never change your mind about a player,

no matter how many good starts he puts together. I don't know if that's the right lesson to take, but man, that stinks. That's annoying. Yep. So are you cool dropping him? Yes, 10. Oh, right. Some odds and ends from the last two days.

Aaron Savali made his return, and he was up against the twins, four and two thirds, one run, six strikeouts to one walk, eight swinging strikes on 78 pitches. Velocity down a little bit across the board. Nothing overly worrisome here. What did you think of this return first volley? I thought it was great. Happy getting back in the lineup.

Yeah. We're running out of trustworthy starting pitchers here, so it's nice to get one back. Marcus Simeon went two for three with his 38th home run on Tuesday. He now has six home runs over his last six games. I want to talk about someone who's going to be fun to rank for next year. Marcus Semyon is one of those players. Stephen Mats was at the Yankees, six endings one run.

He had six strikeouts to zero walks. He only had six swinging strikes on 93 pitches. He gave up 12 hard hit balls. So it seems like he was a little bit lucky in this one. But over his last five stars, he's got a 161 ERA. Swinging strike rate is abysmal. He's getting ground balls. He's limiting hard contact.

He's still 84% rostered. So I don't know if there's much you could do. here, but I don't know. Are you buying any of this guy? No. No. I feel like Kyle. Kyle Freeland all over again, not only is the swinging strike rate bad for Mats, but 18 strikeouts over 28 innings during that stretch. I just don't think in the long run, that's a formula for success. And this is, even as a hot hand play, I don't feel prepared to trust Mats. Mike Zanino had a double done on Tuesday. And basically having the year that we wanted Gary Sanchez to have. Sanchez has been okay, but nothing crazy.

Zanino, 29 homers on the year, 2-11 batting average in 867 OPS, 73% rostered. So maybe he's floating around in some shallow leagues, but he's still not very exciting. He's very home run dependent. Nelson Cruz, he's getting hot at the right time. Four for five with a double dong. He's now up to 30 home runs. He has four home runs over his last four games. Ozzie Albi is also hot right now, two for three with his 27th home run, has five homers over his last seven games. Last week, foul the ball off of his knee, had to get carried off of the field, crossing our fingers that he's okay and that he could return for the weekend series in Coresfield. He did just that, and that man is hot, Ozzy Albies.

Wade Miley, bounce back performance at the Cubs, seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 21 swinging strikes. I didn't look this up, but I'd be willing to bet that that was a season high for Wade Miley in this one. Yes, yes. His previous high was 15, and so 21. Now, it was against the Cubs who, you know, it's kind of their lineup is kind of a quadruplea all-star team right now. So keep that in mind.

But I would venture to say it's a career high swinging strikes for Wade Miley, though that would take even longer to look up. Yeah, definitely possible. He was fired up for this one. I mean, his velocity was up between 1.3 and 2.1 miles per hour, on all five of his pitches that he threw. So, yeah. He was fired up for this one.

It's nice to know he's still among the trustworthy. Christian Yellich went three for five with a double and two RBI. Over his last 26 games, he's betting 340, two homers, eight doubles, one steal, a 21% strikeout rate, 29% line drive rate. So putting the ball in the air more, he's hitting a line drives. It's just kind of empty batting average. I mean, it's nice to see the batting average, but it's good in like a David Fletcher kind of way, I guess.

So I didn't think we would say that about Christian Yellich this year, but here we are, September 8th. Aaron Nola, he still stinks. He was at the Brewers, five innings, six hits, three runs. He had six strikeouts. The velocity was up about a mile per hour on four or five pitches. He threw a cutter eight times in the start, which is the most.

He's thrown that pitch since his second start of the season. So it seems like he's just searching for anything right now, Scott. So, I mean, to pull the cutter out of nowhere, I mean, I think he's just searching. Like, his family, this wasn't a terrible start. I mean, it wasn't good, though. Three runs over five innings. I don't know. You could get a win out of that star, potentially.

Yeah. I mean, I'm let down by it if I have Aaron Noah. Here's the thing. We're with most of September. Okay, so a guy has a 113 whip. And with most of September still to go, 192 strikeouts. How are you feeling about that guy?

Well, I noticed... That's all you know. 113 whip and 192 strikeouts at this point in this season. I'd feel very good about that. I'd say he's probably a top 15, top 20 starting pitcher. It's just that darn ERA for Aeronola, bringing him down. But no, it's the same thing we've been saying all along.

You still see a lot of ability there. And I continue to say I'm going down with the ship. Going down with the ship. Ride Nola till the end. I have a feeling, Scott, that Aranola is someone that you'll be looking to buy the dip on in next year's drafts. If we do get them at a discount, which, as of now, I think that we will. Alex Bregman went three for five with his eighth home run in the season. It was his first home run since coming off of the IL.

And in 11 games since returning, he's betting 357. He only has three strikeouts in 11 games. I know. I noticed that too. It's crazy. And he's hitting the ball extremely hard. Lots of line drives, lots of fly balls. We might be in for a really strong finish here from Alex Bregman. So if you've held on or if someone dropped him in your league and you picked him up,

everything, the underlying numbers say that big things could be coming for Alex Bregman. Pete Alonzo, a double dong. He's now up to 32 homers. And over his last eight games, he has 15 hits, and he has three home runs over his last two games. So a strong finish looking like for Pete Alonzo as well. And Zach Wheeler, bounce back on Monday, six shutout, five hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts. So we've been waiting for a nice little bounce back here for Wheeler, and we got it. It was really nice start.

Call to the Bullpen, some bullpen updates from the past couple of days. For the twins, Alex Colomey has two saves over the last two days. He's now up to 13 saves for the last three saves for the last. the season. Let's check in on what his roster rate is, but I know it could be ugly at times, but this, I mean, he is getting saves. Alex Kalamese. He is. 46% rostered. I think that number needs to be higher, given the situation. For the Pirates, on Tuesday, David Bednar pitched in the eighth inning to face three, four, and five in the lineup. In a one-run lead, Chris Stratton came in for the ninth. He picked up his third save. David Bednar picked up the save on Monday.

So is it just Bednar is the highest leverage? He's going to face the heart of the lineup whenever they're coming up kind of thing? Yeah, I think so, because they keep going back and forth with using him in the eighth, him and Stratton flipping back and forth. It's annoying because they're not getting

that many save opportunities to begin with. Yeah, for sure. Bednar's good, though. I think he's a good pitcher. I mean, you watch him. He's got some pretty filthy stuff, so I like the guy, but the pirates, it doesn't look like they're going to lean on just one pitcher for now.

For the Reds, a team that has been all over the place all season long, Michael Lorenzen gave up two earned runs in the eighth inning on Tuesday. Michael Gibbons picked up his sixth save and he has their last two saves, but do not trust David Bell as far as I could throw them. Is that the same? Trust someone as far as they could throw them? Something like that, right? Well, David Bell, I mean, I'm not all that strong.

So I don't think I could throw him very far. Well, that's that's the point of the saying. I'm happy that we I'm happy we explained it. Anyway, the point of this is that the Reds are super frustrating, as are the Seattle Mariners. On Tuesday, Drew Steckin Rider in the seventh in a one-run lead, Diego Castilla was used in the eighth.

Paul Seawald in the ninth inning, in a two-run lead. Paul Seawald has been awesome, right? He gives up a two-run home run to Alex Bregman. Who gets the next save opportunity for the Mariners? A second rider, I would guess. I think Diego Castillo got to save over the weekend too, so I don't know. The Mariners, the Royals. Well, the Royals have been pretty consistent now with Scott Barlow,

but the Mariners, the Reds, ay, aye, aye, I mean, it's been a mess. And you know what else has been a mess? The Boston Red Sox, I wasn't really expecting this. On Monday, Adam Adivino was using the seventh inning in a two-run game. He gave up an RBI single, cuts the lead down to one. He's now been used in the seventh inning in two of his last three appearances

for the Red Sox. Garrett Whitlock came in the ninth in a one-run league. He gives up a game-tying inside the park home run, of all things, to Austin Meadows. And he actually picked up a save over the weekend, Garrett Whitlock. So do you have any feel for what's

going on with the Red Sox right now? Well, I know that Adam Ottavino had an ugly blown save on Friday, I believe was Saturday. So it doesn't surprise me that they're now trying other options looking into Whitlock, it seems like.

But I don't know how firm that is. And obviously at some point Matt Barnes is going to come back from the COVID-IEL and muddy the waters further. So, you know, I thought Adamadovino, I hoped you'd have the job on lockdown until then, but it seems as if that's not the case. Yeah. I mentioned in my home points league, I picked up Ottavino over Columet last week. Colomé is still available. I'm definitely going to make that swap. So, yeah. If you play in any make that change. Make that change. If you play in any shallower leagues to movies should make.

To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday. I didn't write these down. So bear with me. I'm just going to run through some scheduled starters for Wednesday. All right, what do we got here? Tyler Anderson at the Astros. No. John Gray, we already said no. How about Luke Weaver at home against the Rangers? No. How about Mitch Keller and Matt Manning, who are going up against each other, the Tigers and the Pirates? No, no.

All right, maybe this one, Rich Hill at the Marlins coming off a six-enning start. I mean, that's the best one so far, but I don't want to do it. Oh, right? Mike Minor at the Orioles? That might be better than hell. I don't know. I think I would go with Rich Hill, but I mean, whatever. They're like old lefties.

I don't like either. I mean, yeah. Luis Heel at home against the Blue Jays? Seems pretty risky. Yeah, it does. Tuki Tucson at home against the Nationals? I mean, I know his last start at Colorado was pretty bad, but this might be the best one.

Vladimir Gutierrez at the Cubs. He's been pretty shaky all of a sudden too. Pretty shaky indeed. And it was against the Tigers and the Marlins. So, yeah, I think I'll pass on Vladimir Gutierrez. Oh, I completely whiffed on this one. Joe Ryan at Cleveland. Cool with that?

I mean, I don't know how deep he's going to go. And obviously, he's just made the one star, right? Yeah, five innings, three runs. Yeah. I mean, it's better than a lot of them. Yeah. I think Tucci Toussaint would be my first choice.

All right. Yeah, I mean, Tuki is out there. I like the matchup for Joe Ryan. I like the matchup for Rich Hill. So if you're in a deeper daily lineup league, those are some names I would look at. For Thursday, let's see who we got here. Rinaldo Lopez at the A's.

Probably not. No. How about Randy Dobnack at Cleveland? Mm-mm. Probably not. How about Jesus Lozardo hosting the Mets? Sounds okay. How about Slam Dunkier, Ranger Suarez hosting the Rockies?

Ding, ding, ding, ding, that's the one. Ding, ding, let's do it. How about Carlos Hernandez at the Orioles? Yeah, that's pretty good, too. Well, hmm, ESPN still has Nestor Cortez starting on Thursday against the Blue Jays. I don't know if that... is actually going to happen. But if it does, would you use them there?

Probably not. Yeah, I would agree with that. All right, let's wrap up there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Friday. Remember, there's no podcast on Thursday. See you then.

Bye-bye.