Fantasy Baseball Today - A's Offense Is On Fire! Orioles Promote Chayce McDermott & Waiver Wire Pitchers! (7/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

The A's offense is the best in baseball in July (2:40), thanks in large part to Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker! ... Tyler Fitzgerald has homered in five straight games (9:33). ... News (15:14): Julio Rodriguez was placed on the IL. The Orioles are promoting pitching prospect Chayce McDermott. ... Garrett Crochet was limited again on Tuesday (25:50). ... Which of these 13 waiver wire pitchers do we like most (27:55)? ... Is it time to drop Jose Berrios (40:13)? ... Any interest in Wenceel Perez, Jesus Sanchez or Jeff McNeil (43:47)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (46:37). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. I'm not exactly sure how, but the A's have the best offense in July, and it's not exactly close. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, July 24th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers.

today on the show, we have 13 potential waiver-wire pitchers. The A's offense is on fire. Paul Skeens nearly through his first career complete game, and much more. But let's jump in. Holy Toledo. The element of surprise reigns supreme. All right, Chris, I'm going to get us started because I want to talk about this A's thing. It is crazy.

So far in July, they are first in almost every offensive category. They are first in batting average, first in OBP, first in Slug, first in OPS, first in home runs, and first in run scored. Two names that have a lot to do with that, Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker. Lawrence Butler on Tuesday here finished a single short of the cycle.

He actually got walked in the eighth inning, not intentionally, but it kind of seemed like they were pitching around. But three for four with a double, a triple, and his 10th home run, and so far in July, he is batting 4-17 with eight homers, 24 RBI, two steals, of 1420 OPS, 94.3 average exit velocity, 23% barrel rate. I mean, he is one of the hottest hitters in baseball.

There's no way around it. He's 58% rostered. I know he's probably not going to play against lefties, Chris, but with a hitter this hot, it feels like he needs to be more than 58% rostered. Absolutely. And the thing with Lawrence Butler is, one, he's put up interesting minor league numbers throughout his career,

but also, you mentioned the 94.3 mile per hour average X velocity. For this season, he's at 92.3. He's been hitting the ball hard all year. He's had pretty solid underlying numbers all year. He's a terrific athlete. And you mentioned he's not going to play against lefties. I think the A's kind of owe it to themselves to see if he can. Like, I agree that I'm not expecting it as a,

as a fantasy player because it hasn't happened yet. He started like four games against lefties all season or something like that. He's three for 23 against them. Like there's no reason to believe that this is going to happen. But the A's are playing for nothing but the future right now. And really, they're not playing for like 2025. This is a team that like is playing for 2028. And so they owe it to themselves to see if Lawrence Butler is figuring it out at the

major league level and turning into someone who can be a long-term contributor. Like Brett Rooker, who's also been red hot, he's going to get traded, I think. But if not in the next week, before the Oakland Athletics open their next ballpark, wherever that may end up being. I feel pretty confident in that. Butler, you know, maybe this is something that can be a long-term building block. So I think they do have to see if that's the case. and I would hope that they're going to let him play against lefties and at least try.

And yeah, and fantasy with how hot he is, with how good the underlying numbers suddenly look, XBA 256, X-SL 484 for the season, X Wobah 350. Yeah, I think you just have to add him and just see what happens. Let me throw a couple of your, a couple names your way, Chris. Would you drop any of these for Lawrence Butler? Jesse Winker. Sure. Yeah, he hasn't been.

playing against lefties recently, so the playing time is trending down. Unfortunately, it's not really anything Winker has done wrong. He's had a fine bounce back season, more than fine, a great bounce back season, but playing time has been trending down. What about someone like Alex Verdugo? Absolutely. What about, in a three out of the league, would you drop Josh low, who's having a down season and also does not play against lefties? I think that's fine, yeah. Yep. And lastly, Jared Kelnick, who has also cooled off recently? Yeah, I don't think, and like, at least Lowe has shown the ability to be a difference maker at the major league level. I guess Winker had four years ago.

But for the most part, the rest of those guys are just like useful when they're hot. And none of them are hot right now. And Lawrence Butler is. So I would rather take the chance on Lawrence Butler, who I think the likeliest outcome is he's at best useful when he's hot as well. But he's red hot right now. So I'd rather see what's happening there and see. if it can be sustainable. And the other name I wanted to give a shout out to,

Brent Rooker, a huge game again, one for three with a sock in the shoe, his 23rd home run, his sixth seal. And so far in July, batting 424 with eight homers, 22 RBI, four seals, and a 14.05 OPS. Overall, this season,

he's hitting 291, 23 homers, 948 OPS. And entering Tuesday, he was the sixth best outfielder in Roto, 14th in head-toeat-head points. Because of the strikeouts, but... Yeah. I know he's been streaky, Chris,

but when he is on, Brent Rooker is like one of the hottest hitters in the league. Yeah, and really, it's been, what, three out of four months so far that he's been locked in? It was a really bad June, if I'm remembering correctly, and it kind of looked like, okay, he's falling apart.

Look, I don't think he's going to hit 291 the rest of the way, but a guy who hits 255, 260 with 30 plus homers, that's a really useful, player. And it's what he did for the most part last year. I think the batting average was lower, if I'm remembering correctly. But the power is real. Yeah, he had 246 last year with 30 homers and then was kind of overlooked in fantasy again coming into this season. And it turns out, no, he's just a legitimate source of power. And I do think Rooker has a decent chance to be traded at the deadline. I'm not going to

say it to guarantee, but there's a decent chance there. You are also unfairly overlooking. I was I was going to ask you the other name. Who am I forgetting here? Yeah, the A's have three players in the top seven in Wobah in the month of July. The third one is Max Schumann, actually. You're on your Tuesday hitting 396 with three homers and four steals. How could I miss Max Schumann on that list? He's actually someone I picked up in a few 15 teamers this past week because the A's had a full week of games.

They had seven games this week. So, you know, lost out on Carlos Correa in a few spots. I needed a middle infielder. All right, Max Schumann, plug them in. But like one of the best lineups in baseball right now. Why not? The A's have scored 122 runs in like 18 games, I think in the month of July, whatever the number is.

The White Sox have scored like 315 all season. Yeah. So if you're doing 122 runs scored in 18 games versus how far we? We're like about 100 games. Yeah. Gosh, that is. No, the white socks, I looked it up. they're on pace for 507 runs this season.

No team has been below 500 in a non-strike shortened season since 1969. The White Sox are a historically bad offense. And if they trade away Louise Robert, they might just break that record. They might get under three runs per game. They're sitting at like 3.1 right now. Wow. All right, Chris, let's go over to you, your player of the night. Tyler Fitzgerald, San Francisco Giants shortstop,

who became the first player. Since Barry Bonds to Homer in five straight games for the San Francisco Giants, I believe he's the one, two, three, four, five, six, eighth player in Giants franchise history to Homer in at least five straight games. The list of guys who've done it is Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, three Hall of Famers. And then the other four, we're all multi-time all-stars. And then we've got a guy who, when I said his name, 95% of the audience said who?

I don't think Tyler Fitzgerald is particularly likely to make multiple All-Star games at the Major League level. I don't think I'm telling any tales out of school there. His hardest hit ball this season is like 105 miles per hour. He doesn't have big raw power, but he's a very good athlete, 98th percentile in sprint speed. And he hit 22 homers in 2023 and 121 games, mostly at AAA, 21 homers in 125 games in 2022 and 19 103 in 2021.

So he might be one of these guys. And if you look under the hood, you'll see that he has a very small sample size this season, but he has an extremely high launch angle sweet spot percentage, which is one of those stats that we don't cite very often because frankly, I don't think it has a ton of utility apps in other contexts, but basically what it means is he hits the ball in the sweet spot as they define it in launch angle at a higher rate than really just about anyone right now. He's at 46%.

And what that tells me is while there isn't huge bat speed or power, what he does have is great back control. and maybe that can be, you know, he's got a 44% pull rate. He's got a 35% ground ball rate plus a 28% line drive rate. So it could be one of these situations where he can maximize the limited raw power he has with great back control with, you know, a high pull rate. I think the likeliest outcome is Fitzgerald's just an NL only guy, but he's got really good speed. As we mentioned, 98% percent, 98th percent usper. speed. He was a 30 plus steel guy pretty consistently in the miners.

119 games at AAA. Sacramento and the PCL, so a very inflated offensive environment, but 28 homers, 30 steals and 119 games. I think there's a non-zero chance Fitzgerald could be a useful Categories league player. And in my 15 team roto leagues this weekend, when waivers run, if I need a shortstop, I will be looking at Tyler Fitzgerald. Gerald for a low dollar bit. Yeah, I think that's all fair. I think NL only for sure. I think you know, deeper 15 team leagues where you have five outfielders, you have a middle infield spot. Tyler Fitzgerald on CBS has second base shortstop and outfield eligibility. And the Giants are a team that is pretty desperate for offense. So if they can get it in the

form of Tyler Fitzgerald, then I think he will stick around, at least for the time being. Quick reminder to sign up for the FBC newsletter. If you haven't already, I was going to say, scan the QR code, but I don't have the right QR code up. So let's change that. And we will do it right. Where is it? There you go. Scan the QR code.

That will take your right to the website where you click on the FBT logo. You punch in your email address, and it's easy as that. You'll get a newsletter delivered right to your inbox every weekday for free. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll talk news and notes right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk news and notes. Julio Rodriguez was placed on the IL with a right ankle sprain.

He was initially labeled as day-to-day, but as we said at the time, it looked like a pretty bad collision with the wall when it happened. So I don't think we're surprised, but obviously the Mariners lineup that has been bad all year. They are right there, I would say, with the White Sox, in terms of just one of the best matchups in baseball if you're just looking to stream pitchers against them.

J.P. Crawford also placed in the I.L. with a right hand fracture. Both Cade Marlowe and Leo Rivots were recalled by the Mariners. Mike Trout was removed from his rehab game at AAA Tuesday due to left knee soreness. And I just can't help but feel pessimistic, Chris, when it comes to Mike Trout. It's just everything he's been through already this year, the meniscus surgery, now leaving a rehab game. Maybe he'll just shut down for a couple days and he'll return and he'll be fine.

but I can't help but feel negatively about this. No, I agree with that. It's a bad sign that he got through two innings of his first rehab assignment game. And we were hoping he was going to be back this week. And all of a sudden, no, it's a little setback. Maybe it's just a little setback. And it'll, you know, he'll be back in a couple of days. And it'll be fine.

And he'll only be delayed a little bit. But yeah, it's frustrating. I mean, he's coming back from surgery. He hasn't been a guy who's bounced back well the last couple of years. Remember, he had that calf injury, I think was it, 2021 when he just, he wasn't supposed to miss the rest of the season. He just never got back. So that certainly has to be in the back of your mind when you're thinking about this. Can we go back to Julio real quick?

Yes. It's a high ankle sprain, which was my concern when I saw the injury initially because he was grabbing kind of more up his. calf than the ankle and high ankle sprains are less of a thing in baseball in particular, but you see them a lot in football and they're really worrisome in football because their type of injury where, you know, an ankle sprain, you might be back the next week in football, but high ankle sprains typically are multi-week injuries. There aren't a lot of examples of them in baseball perspective. This is recovery track board, or dashboard.

It might just be that they don't classify them that way as often, but there are four players in the past five seasons with a high ankle sprain. They have missed 23, 18, 98, and 23 days. So I'm not saying the 98 day, that's the clear outlier there. But this is definitely one that because it's a high ankle, sprain, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than the minimum for Hilar Rodriguez. And it could affect his skill set, right? I mean, the one thing Julio has provided this year is speed and when he returns, it, you know, might

slow him down a little bit. So keep that in mind with Julio Rodriguez. Royce Lewis expects to play two rehab games with AAA before being activated from the IL on Friday, assuming no setbacks. Yeah, I mean, until he gets hurt on Saturday. I mean, that's the way season has gone for this kid. I'm hopeful. I'm optimistic. I think anything you get from him is gravy, though. Yeah. I don't want to be the Debbie Downer here, Chris, but it's not just this season. It's really been his whole career. No, yeah. It's been his whole career. And it's, it's a shame because he's clearly one of the brightest young talents in the game. And I'm, I'm rooting for him at this point more than just about any player in baseball. Max Scherzer will start

on Thursday against the White Sox. He left his last start due to arm fatigue. Austin Riley was placed on the paternity list and will miss up to three games. Luis Renhifo was activated and back in the Angels lineup batting second. Jorge Mateo was removed Tuesday due to a left arm injury. X-rays came back negative, but he will

undergo an MRI. I had this whole thing written out about how all right, it might be Kobe Mayo time. And then Chris, I saw you retweet something about Connor Norby joining the team. Yeah, he's, getting called up, but he's not being officially recalled is the way they're putting it. So, yeah, I mean, look, Norby's a really interesting player in his own right.

Yeah, he's got a 900 OPS at AAA this season. He's got 30 plus Homer Power. He's not Kobe Mayo, but we also saw him come up playing four games and get sent back down last time, Jorge Mateo missed time. So unless this ends up being a long. term injury, it probably doesn't matter either way. You know what? Yeah, you're right. I'm probably selling Connor Norby short a little bit here. At AAA this season, batting 297 with 16 homers, 13 steals a 908 OPS. So maybe he's a name

that could matter there in deeper leagues. Speaking of the Orioles, they are promoting one of their pitching prospects, Chase McDermott, who is likely to make his debut Wednesday in Miami. And he is a 25-year-old former fourth-round pick this season in the minors, a 390. ERA, a 143 whip. Lots of strikeouts, 129 strikeouts, over 91 innings. The problem walks.

5.3 walks per 9. But man, Chris, if he could figure out a way to throw strikes, there's... I think he's a really interesting player. Like,

it's one of these ones where you have to have fate. Like, he's a fly ball pitcher. I think his ground ball, his fly ball rate, or his ground ball rate has been like 35% in AAA.

But he doesn't give up a lot of home runs. So I'm assuming that's a lot of weak contact in the air. So it's one of those things where the biggest thing is just can he avoid walking everyone? And sometimes guys get up to the majors and they're not working on stuff as much and they just get to pitch. And that improves. He's got a five pitch arsenal. The change up slider and cutter all have whiff rates above 40% this season. The fastball is at 31%.

It's got that, like, you know, high induced vertical break that we're always looking for. So, like, there's a lot to like here. It's just can he have mediocre to bad control rather than disastrous control? He's had, I think, 13.5% walk rate this season. That's totally untenable. You can't succeed in the major league level like that unless you're just Blake Snow, basically, is the only guy. So we'll see. I'm excited to watch him pitch,

but not someone you need to run out an ad yet. I think Luis Heel has kind of given us this recipe, right? How it could work even with lots of walks, being a fly ball pitcher, limiting hits allowed, limiting home runs, and obviously racking up lots of strikeouts. So that's maybe,

obviously, that's a really high-end comp, but if Chase McDermott hits, it might look something like that. Jared Jones is hoping to be ready to throw a bullpen by this weekend. He threw on flat ground Tuesday for the second day in a row. He's working his way, back from a grade two right last train.

Stalling Marte progressed to on field running on Tuesday. He's been out since late June due to a right knee bone bruise and is not expected back until August. Jose Miranda will begin a rehab assignment Wednesday and could return as soon as Friday. Tigers manager, AJ Hinch, said that Reese Olson's right shoulder injury is considered mild after the pitcher underwent further testing. Christian Scott placed in the IL with a UCL sprain in his right elbow. I wonder if this is something he might have been pitching with.

Maybe that's affected some of the production overall, but he goes in the IL. Hopefully it doesn't lead to anything bigger because a lot of the time those injuries do. Kodi Senga will take his spot in the rotation and start Friday against the Braves. Speaking of the Braves, they sent Herson Waldrop to rookie level Florida Complex League

to begin a rehab assignment. He's been out more than a month with right elbow inflammation. Thai France cleared waivers Tuesday and was outrighted off the month. the Mariners, Tyler Locklear was recalled, and in their lineup, batting sixth. Both Ryan Weathers and Brax and Garrett have been cleared to play catch. Weathers is working his way back from a left index finger strain while Garrett has a strained left forearm. One prospect update, Jason Dominguez took live batting practice Monday and is expected to join AAA to play in games within a week. This was surprising. Yeah, I had kind of mentally checked out on Jason Dominguez. I had assumed he was going to be.

you know, maybe back in August or something. And now it sounds like, I mean, if they don't make a big trade at the deadline, I feel like there's a chance we could see him at the major league level within the next couple of weeks. Yeah. Early to mid August, you know, get some AAA plate appearances in there just to kind of get your timing down. But man, it's no surprise. This Yankee lineup is scuffling. Louis Severino.

I mean, Hamai Jones was hitting. Now you pronounce his name? To my Jones. Jemai Jones, yeah. But Luis Svarino was the leadoff hitter. Luis Svrino was right, man. He said they only have two hitters in their lineup. He is.

No, I saw someone on Twitter who was like, I don't mind this lineup. It was a Yankees fan. Oh. And I was like, well, I mean, I have, there are seven problems with the lineup. But it's not really the lineup's fault. Like, I don't think the order that you put the guys around Judge and Soto matters right now. It's just they don't have any guys. Yeah.

Everybody stinks. And a lot of the players in the lineup, you know, not all of them, but some of them, these are proven hitters that are just having terrible seasons or are in extended slumps, right? Like, Verdugo should be better. Labor Torres should be better, but it hasn't happened. And so. Let's go get jazz. Let's get jazz on the Yankees.

Please make it happen. I saw Jose Konseko, not that. I'm not sure we care much about Jose Kinseko's opinion, but he, quote, tweeted the lineup today, and he said, this is one of the worst I've ever seen. I mean, it really, like, outside of those two guys, it's, I mean, it's about as bad as the white socks and Mariners. Yeah, you're not wrong. The latest trade rumors, the Dodgers are apparently very interested in Randy a Rosarena, which would be awesome for his value. And we would get a pretty big name and only leagues as well. And let's hope that Garry Crochet gets traded because this is now three starts in a row where he has gone four innings or less.

Now, he did get up to 74 pitches in this one. So not the most efficient start for him. But, Chris, I think for us to get that league winning player rest of season, he's got to be on another team. And it's not just to get away from the White Sox. If he remains with the White Sox, I think they're going to do a lot of this the rest of the way. And if he goes to another team, maybe he doesn't go six, seven innings, but at least five innings to qualify for a win, you know? I think the bigger thing here is you look at the pitch counts for those three starts. It was 93, I believe, and then 28 or whatever it was in the last start before the All-Star game. And then this one was 74.

So one of them, he just didn't have it, right? Like you go four innings, you throw 93 pitches. Most pitchers are getting pulled at that point. Most teams aren't going to let guys throw 27 pitches per inning or whatever it is. Today, though, is a sign of, I think what we're likely to see moving forward if he sticks with the white sucks. was just a very slim margin for error. He could have gone five. He could have gotten to 90 pitches and thrown five innings,

and that would have been fine. But because they want to limit his innings, and I think especially they want to limit stressful innings, there are going to be times where there are going to be times when he gets through six innings and 85 pitches and they pull him. And that's fine. But then there are going to be starts like this where he's not as sharp, doesn't get through the lineups as efficiently,

and he's going to get pulled after four innings. That's my biggest. concerned. Not that he's just going to throw four innings every time out, but just that there are going to be starts like this because the margin for error is going to be slim. Come on, somebody pony up, Dodgers, Orioles. Trade for Garrett Crochet. Let's get him off the White Sox, please. Let's talk about some waiver wire pitchers and lots of names here that stood out. Are they superstars? I don't know that I'm overly excited about any of these names, but let's run through the first group. John Gray had a strong start up against the White Sox, seven and two-thirds innings, one run with five strikeouts.

He had 14 whiffs on 80 pitches. His first quality start since June 22nd. Jordan Montgomery was solid in his return from the IL. He was at the Royals, five innings of one-run ball with two strikeouts. He did have eight whiffs on 67 pitches. That's about a 12% swinging strike rate, which is fine. We just need that pitch count to get built up a little bit. Colin Ray, solid at the Cubs.

He threw five shutout innings with eight strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 93 pitches. Normally, I think I would be dismissive of a Colin Ray start. He did throw sweepers and splitters more in this one, which would be the recipe for more strikeouts. So I do kind of like that he did that. And on the other side, James and Tyone, a strong start up against the Brewers. Seven and a third, one run, three walks, three strikeouts.

Last eight starts, a 247 ERA. 0.94 whip, 43 strikeouts over 51 innings. Chris, how would you rank Tyone, Colin Ray, Jordan Montgomery, and John Gray? I think I'd go Gray Montgomery, Tyone, Ray. Yeah. But I think they're all just guys for the most part. I do think John Gray, like there's a probably decent chance he gets traded. I don't know if he's specifically been mentioned in trade rumors,

but there's been a lot of talk about the Rangers kind of doing a soft. reset and coming back next season and I could see him getting moved. But yeah, for the most part, I think these are streamer types. I don't think any of these four guys are likely to be players that you stick in your lineup and just don't think about it the rest of the way. So good starts for all of them. They all have, you know, maybe Montgomery has a little more upside than that just because we've seen it the past couple of years.

but he's rarely been a true difference maker for fantasy, even that. He was the one I was going to point out because the overall numbers, it's just been an abysmal season, 611 ERA, 161 whip. But we saw this from, you know, his counterpart, Blake Snell, who also signed late, has been terrible for most of the season. And now he's kind of come on of these names. I think Jordan Montgomery is the one that we know he's better than this. And it wouldn't surprise me if he goes on a little bit of a run.

With that said, the most added starting pitcher on CBS right now is Robbie Ray. I think I'd rather take a shot on his upside over all of these. Absolutely. One thing that I've noticed, and I don't know if you guys talked about this yesterday, but in looking at Robbie Ray's numbers because he's making his debut today, as we're speaking, I guess it's after midnight. You're listening to this after midnight also. He threw, it's kind of similar to Garrett Cole and Gavin Williams, not a cutter, but his slider in his minor league rehab assignment was not being used as much as he typically does. It was like 35% the previous years before the injury.

He was using it like 10, 15%, but he was throwing his curveball a lot more. And the curveball has actually been historically just as effective for Robbie Ray as his slider, even though the slider has been the kind of premier pitch for him. So that's an interesting wrinkle. It might not matter. You know, it might be that he can just kind of use them interchangeably. the curveball can be the go-to pitch. But it's also like, well, what if he starts throwing both of them, like 25% of the time and just racks up huge amount of whiffs?

These were both like 45% whiff rate pitches prior to the injuries. So that's an interesting thing with Robbie Ray. I think there's obvious bust potential, but I think there's also much more upside there with Robbie Ray than any of these guys we're talking about here. Let's get into Waverwire pitchers part two. Jose Soriano had another great start. This one at the Mariners. Again, great team to stream your pitchers against right now. Seven and two-thirds innings, one run with five strikeouts.

Jose Cantana was solid at the Yankees. Five innings, one run. Did walk five, but had six strikeouts. 14 whiffs on 94 pitches, but as we pointed out, a pretty bad Yankee lineup. Simeon Woods Richardson, a strong start up against the Phillies. He threw six shutout with five strikeouts. And Lance Lynn, he was okay. At the Pirates, he threw five shutout innings.

Three walks at two strikeouts. I did see that he now has 2,000 career strikeouts. So shout out to Lance Lynn, the sixth active pitcher to get to that mark. Chris, any interest in these names, Lance Lynn, Simeon Woods Richardson, Jose Cantana, and Jose Soriano. I keep like wanting to find reasons to be interested in Simeon Woods Richardson because he'll, he's had a few pretty good starts this season, but I just don't really see it, right? He doesn't have like a go-to-wif pitch. He's got a decent four-pitch arsenal,

but none of them really plays up as anything more than a decent pitch. He does a good job of limiting hard contact. He does a decent job of limiting walks. But on the whole, I just can't find a reason to get excited even though I'm looking for one. And then Soriano, I mean, I think he's kind of interesting. You know, we've talked about him, you know,

making some like, I wanted to say Dallas Keikle, but that's the wrong Astros left-handed ground ball pitcher. Frambervaldez. He's kind of got some Frambervaldez in there where he's got this elite ground ball rate and the control is improving. And like, there are some legitimate swing and miss pitches in the arsenal.

The splitter and the curveball both can be pretty good swing and miss pitches. So I think Soriano is probably the most interesting of this group. But it's also like, man, I'm trying to think of which pitchers I wouldn't stream against the Mariners right now. With Julio out? I mean,

who in that lineup scares you right now? I think I saw Jorge Polanco was batting cleanup for them. It's... Yeah. It's a rough go. I mean, look, Cal Raleigh is obviously a slugger,

but he's also batting like 220 on the season. Victor Robles hit second. It's... Josh Rojas hit leadoff. It's a bad lineup. It's really bad. It's really bad. Stream against the Mariners right now.

Jason Vosler. Who? Legitimately don't think I've ever heard that name before. He was on like the Giants and Reds the past couple of years, but kind of a journeyman bat. Yeah. I mean, that tells you everything you need to know. Yeah.

Last point on these names, if you're looking for Sparps in a Head-Dead Points League, Jose Soriano and Soryano and Simeon Wood's Richardson, both do have that RP eligibility. So could help you out there as a bit of a cheap cheat code. Some names in deeper leagues, Chris, do any of these pitchers matter? for fantasy. Randy Vasquez, six shutout innings with one strikeout. DJ Hurst made his return.

He was solid, five innings, two runs, four strikeouts. Cooper Criswell just had the best start of his career in Corse Field, so not sure how much we trust it, but seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. Osvaldo Bito, who pitches for the Oakland A's in case you were wondering. Solid start up against the Astros, five innings, one run with six strikeouts, and Landon Nack pitched well up against the Giants, five innings, one. run six strikeouts. Anything here, Chris? I mean, all right. So I have Randy Vasquez in one league and it's a 24 team dynasty league. So I think that tells you everything you need to know there. DJ Hertz, it has certainly shown some upside at the major league level. He has two starts with 10 strikeouts and

no walks. Yep. And he's just had really inconsistent command and control throughout his career. And that's always been the thing with him. The stuff can play up at times. And so only two walks today. That's a good sign. We'll see how he carries it forward, but not someone I think you need to be aggressive in adding. And Landon Nack is interesting.

You know, I don't think he's great, but obviously he's in a great situation with the Dodgers, good defense, great lineup backing him up. I just don't know how long he's going to stick in the rotation. You know, is this a situation where Tyler Glass now is back this week?

Clinton Kirshall is back shortly after and he's just gone? Or, you know, is he ahead of River Ryan? Do they both get sent back down? I think it's likely or at least possible to land and act not long for the rotation. So I don't think there's a huge necessity to go out and add him. Yeah, so once Glassdown and Kershaw are back, you have to assume those two in stone. Those are just the three that are in there, in the rotation.

And then you have two spots for Justin Robleski, River Ryan, Landon, Nack, if either of Walker Bueller or Bobby Miller are back at some point. So I think it will come down to how they pitch, Chris. If River Ryan or Landon Nack, they continue to have solid starts, they'll probably just stick around because the Dodgers are desperate right now. And you know what? I want to see Brent Honeywell get a chance. I saw he was throwing a screwball today.

Yeah, that was. That was his pitch. That was back when he was like, I mean, this is like five or six years ago now when he was a prospect with the raise, but he was, he was bringing the screwball back

and now he's thrown at like 28, 30% of the time since getting to the Dodgers. It's two appearances, but I'm rooting for it. Yeah. I wanted to see what color it was on statcast because I think it's like a lime green. It's lime green.

Yeah. Because I've never seen anybody else use that pitch. There was another guy who throws a, There are two screwballers in the majors right now. I can't remember who the other guy is, though. Yep. I don't know who it is because, again, I have not seen that pitch used often in recent years.

Let's take our final break. Noah Davis, sorry. Noah Davis of the Rockies. Yeah, there you go. Also throws a screwball. He threw five of them today. We'll take a final break. And when we return, let's talk about Jose Burrios.

Is it time to drop him? Eh, I think so. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Jose Burrios, incredibly wild up against the Tampa Bay raise. Four in two-thirds innings, three runs. Six walks ties a career high with five strikeouts. He only had six whiffs on 97 pitches.

Lots of hard contact in this one. Last eight starts for Burrios, a 644 ERA, a 141 whip, 11 home runs allowed. And entering this start, he had a career low 7.9% swinging strike rate. Chris, Berrios is 94% rostered. Can he be dropped? Yeah, because even when Jose Berrios is going well, it's not like he's a 12K per 9 guy. He's usually like an 8K per 9 guy who puts up a mid 3s ERA

and is helpful, but usually not a star. And so that's a fairly easy guy to get away from. The thing that makes analyzing Jose Brrios tough is just that when things are going well and when things are going poorly, it never really makes a lot of sense why one is happening and the other isn't at any given time.

And it's sort of like Blake Snell in that way. Except Blake Snell grows through periods where his slider is his best pitch and then he goes through periods where his slider is useless. And he goes through like, Brios, it's the same pitches. Like he's going to attack you with 30 to 35% sinkers and 25 to 30% percent.

percent slurves and, you know, he'll throw the change up in there. And the one thing that does stand out this season, that cutter is a disaster. He doesn't throw it very often. He threw five of them today. No whiffs. I don't think he generated a single swing with it. Didn't generate a single called strike with it. It has a 3% whiff rate this season and a 490 expected Wobah against.

Scrap the cutter. It's not, it's not doing. anything for you. But other than that, I don't know. He will have a stretch where he puts up a 360 IRA over eight or 10 starts and is very useful. And so if you want to wait on that, that's fine. But it's usually not such an impactful contribution from Jose Brrios that you're

going to sorely regret dropping him. He's usually in the 40 to. 60 range starting pitcher for me. Would you drop Barrios for Robbie Ray? Sure. Yeah. I think it's fine to take a chance on that up. I mean, like, Brios has like an ERA north of four and a half,

maybe up to five since like the start of May. He had a 470 ERA in May, 485 in June, and then 778 and July, things have just fallen apart. But he really hasn't been very useful consistently since that amazing April. Yeah. And, and, And he's got a 408 ERA, but man, his underlying numbers of 521 FIP. It is just, it's been honestly impressive that he was able to keep those numbers down for as long as he did before everything started imploding here for Jose Burrios.

Even that 119 ERA in April was 25 strikeouts and 12 walks and 37 innings. So it's like, ERA was the only thing you were getting from him early on in the season. Now you're not even getting that. Yeah, and you're probably not going to get many wins either because the Blue Jay's having a down season as well. So, yeah, I think Jose Brios could go. Let's talk waiver wire hitters. Not much going on here. Three names that stood out, Wenzel Perez of the Tigers had himself a big game.

And he has been heating up in July, one for four with a sock and a shoe, his seventh home run, his ninth steal. And so far in the month, 250 batting average, four homers, 13 runs, three steals, and a 773 OPS. He does have second base and outfield eligibility. Hesu Sanchez continues to hit for power so far in the month. 321 with five home runs and a 1041 OPS. The quality of contact for Hesu Sanchez, it is great, man. 96th percentile average exit velocity, 84th percentile barrel rate, but he plays for the Marlins.

He's not going to play against lefties, so obviously those are the downsides of Hesu Sanchez. And Jeff McNeil has randomly turned the power on as of late, two for three with his ninth home run. He's homered in back-to-back games, and over his last seven, he's batting 364 with four homerers, 11 RBI, and one steel. Chris, do any of these names stand out? I mean, probably more for deeper leagues,

but McNeil, Hazieu Sanchez, and Wenzell Perez. All right, so McNeil, I wanted to take a look under the hood and see if there was something there. And his average exit velocity is up to 88.5 miles per hour in the month of July, which is up. from his average, but it was 88 in June and he wasn't very good. His average launch angle is identical. He is pulling the ball more.

I think his pull rate is up to like 49% in July. So maybe there's something there. But I think the likeliest out of the explanation for what we're seeing from Jeff McNeil is just he's not quite as washed up as he looked early on in the season. I mean, really the first three months. And he has something left in the tank. but I don't think that means that Jeff McNeil is someone that you need to run out and add anywhere. And kind of the same thing with Perez and Sanchez. Perez has some appeal in deeper categories leagues.

Sanchez can be really useful in like daily lineup leagues, but he doesn't play against lefties. The overall underlying numbers are really, really good. And he's starting to catch up to them lately. But he's still like, I think it's a seven. 24 OPS for the season or something.

Yeah. And it's really just power. Like he'll hit the occasional home run and that's about it. So, um, yeah, none of these guys are super interesting to me. Yeah.

Sanchez would stand out in a deeper daily lineup league, but I don't know how many of them, how many of those actually exist, right? Yeah. Most daily lineup leagues are 12 team headhead categories, three outfielders. So,

uh, yeah, someone like Sanchez wouldn't have much value there. Let's get into some other pitching standouts from Tuesday, and Luis Heel, solid once again, up against the Mets, five innings, one run. He had six strikeouts, continues to lean on that slider through it 44% of the time,

and last three starts, a 153 ERA, a 0.85 whip, only two walks for Luis Heel. Paul Skeens pitched into the ninth inning, but actually took his first career loss, a tough luck loss up against the Cardinals, eight and a third, two runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He had 11 whiffs on 104,

pitches. I did notice that Stackcast now classifies the splinker as a sinker and not as a splitter anymore. So if you're looking at the data and wondering why, just something I noticed. Zach Wheeler, great start at the twins, seven shutout with seven strikeouts. That was his first start since coming back from that back injury. So nice to see the results. The velocity was there. And Logan Gilbert, a weird start up against the Angels, six and two thirds. He gave up five runs, was only charged with more.

one of them being an earned run. He had eight strikeouts. He had 15 whiffs on 92 pitches. And since the start of June, Logan Gilbert has a 202 ERA, a 0.69 whip over a nine-star stretch. So he has been awesome. Chris, anything to add on this group?

Gilbert, Wheeler, Schemes, and Louise Heel. So Wheeler, I think the biggest thing is just he looked like himself. You know, the results were good, but more importantly, everything looked fine. He probably got a little lucky. He gave up some hard contact in this one. I think it was like four batted balls with an XBA over 500,

including a couple that were like 720 and 850, and only one hit on those. So he had like 114 mile per hour lineout allowed in this game. So the results could have gone worse, but I don't care about that because it's just, coming back from the IL, did he look like himself? He did. Louise Heel, I think you can make a case for him as a sell high candidate coming off these last three starts.

It's weird because like now all of a sudden he's throwing this slider a ton. It's been like 30 plus percent usage. I think his last three starts and it's been really good. He's been much better. Is that sustainable, you know, as far as his control? I don't know. I hope so. But I think the bigger thing is he's up to, I think, one point one inning shy of his career high now.

And so we're starting to get close to uncharted territory here. I wonder if the Yankees are going to start limiting his innings the same way we've seen the White Sox do with Garrett Crochet. That would have the frustrating thing or I think the thing that's tough, I guess, is the way to put it is back when Clark Schmitt got hurt. That like was right when Garrett Cole came back. and the Yankees were the best team in baseball. And it would have been a lot easier to limit his innings if Clark Schmidt and Garrett Cole were there and they had this big lead in the division.

Well, all of a sudden, that leads evaporated. They're not, are they leading the division now? No, I think they had a chance to tie the Orioles here, but they lost. Yeah, so they're a wildcard team. And, yeah, they're 1.5 behind the Orioles right now. Schmidt isn't, has he started throwing yet? He has started throwing. started throwing, but he's not on rehab assignment.

So he's probably a little ways away. So it's how can they limit Louise Heels' innings? It's going to be a really tough needle to thread. And, you know, that might be a good thing for his fantasy value. But it also, you know, I could see things going kind of sideways as he hits an inning's level he's never reached before. So I think it remains a very high variance profile for Louise Heel. But look, if you can't get top 25 starting pitcher value from him,

in a trade, I think it's perfectly fine to just keep relying on him until, you know, hopefully it doesn't fall apart, but there is some risk there. Again, that was Luis Heel. What about some hitting leftovers? Stephen Kwan continues his breakout season, two for three with his 10th home run. He now has 10 home runs in 74 games this season. He had 11 in 305 career games entering this season. So, you know, as we've talked to,

all season, the Guardians power being up and that wind tunnel in progressive field, it's obviously been awesome. He kind of needed this one though. Yeah. He'd been, I mean, look, he's hitting 278 in July. So like the slump is still pretty good, but he hadn't been as hot lately. Only, you know, the three home runs, that's still pretty good. But like eight runs, four RBI and two steals in the month of July. It hadn't been a, uh, a particularly good month. So it was good to see from, from Stephen Kwan there. Jose Ramirez, you could say a lot of the same things. Not that he's been scuffling, but the fact that he has just had this huge bounce back season, two for five with his 24th

homer. He has 24 home runs, 82 RBI in 97 games. He had 24 homer and 80 RBI all of last year, 156 games. So another one where he's just, he's really kind of tapped into the power. The The counting stats have bounced back, and we talked a lot about Jose Ramirez. Jazz Chisholm has run a bunch here in July. He went two for four with two RBI and two steals. He has seven steals in the month, but is also batting 203 with a 661 OPS. Vlad Jr. continues his tear, one for three, with his 17th home run. And I'll give you a haircut update.

27 games since cutting the hair for Vlad Jr. 327 with 10 homers, 30 RBI, and an OPS over a thousand. You know what? I got a haircut on Monday, and then in softball Monday night, I had my best hit of the season. I hit an RBI double, so maybe there's something to it. Here we go. Here we go.

No hair, no problem. Cotel Marte continues his just huge season. You know, one of the best of his career. Two for three with a walk and his 21st homer. He's homered in back-to-back games. Since the start of June. Ketzal Marte is betting 336 with 11 homers, 32 runs, 32 RBI, 5 steals, and an OPS over 1,000. Tyler O'Neill also had a huge game in course field, 2 for 5 with a double dong, 3 RBI.

One of the homers was 112.9 exit velocity, 465 feet for Tyler O'Neill, who one of the most interesting stats I've seen all season, Chris, 20 homers, 38 RBI. Yeah, I hadn't noticed that because it's, it's not like he's a leadoff hitter. He's hit like fourth or third or fifth all season. But yeah, I wonder if he's just been, it's not even he's been bad. He hasn't even been bad with runners and scoring. This is just entering today, 12 of his 17 home runs, 12 of his 18 home runs were with the base is empty. That probably explains most of it.

And another reminder to that counting stats could be fluky. It's not like the Red Sox are a bad lineup, and Tyler O'Neill hits right in the middle of it. So it's not really to describe it. Kind of like what we saw with Carlos Correa a couple years ago or Jose Ramirez last year. Yep. Some bullpen updates for the Cardinals.

Ryan Helsey struck out the side for his league leading 33rd save. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Class A, pitched a clean ninth for his 30th. For the Marlins, Tanner Scott struck out two for his 17th save. And AJ Puck pitched two perfect innings

with three strikeouts to set up Tanner Scott, and I do assume that when Scott is traded, not even if, when he's traded, AJ Puck would likely take over as the team's closer. For the raise, Pete Fairbanks pitched a clean ninth inning for his 19th save. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz was unavailable. Jake Deekman got the ninth inning with a one-run lead.

He walked one, but picked up his fourth save. For the twins, Yawain Duron entered in the ninth with the game tied. He gave up three runs on two walks and two hits. took his fifth loss of the season. Do you have anything on Duran? It just hasn't been quite as sharp. Velocity, I think, still down a little bit overall. So, you know, it's a little frustrating,

but I still think he's one of the elite closers. For the Phillies, Jeff Hoffman started the eighth inning with the game tied. He walked two and struck out to. Gregory Soto got the final out of the eighth. And then once the Phillies took the lead, Matt Strong came in for the ninth. and he struck out two for his first save.

Jose Alvarado was completely bypassed in this outing. He last pitched on Sunday. Maybe giving him a little bit of a mental break here because he has struggled recently. For the Rangers, Kirby Yates got the final two outs for his 18th save. And in the Dodger game, Alex Vescia started the ninth inning with a four-run lead.

He gave up one run on two walks and a hit. And he was relieved by Evan Phillips, who got the final. out for his 15th save. Daniel Hudson had pitched, I think, three of four games so far in the second half, so it was not available obviously here, but

you know, Phillips coming in and getting it done, Chris, it kind of, I don't know, maybe things kind of swing a little bit back towards him. Yeah, hopefully. This is still a situation where I could see them trading for a high leverage reliever.

But if not, yeah, it's I would think Phillips 55% of the saves or 60% of the saves, and then some combination of Hudson and Blake Trinon would factor in a little bit. Maybe Vesia as well, but I do still think Phillips is likely to get most of the saves moving forward. If they don't make a trade for a closer, I was going to say,

I was going to flip-flot that, actually, Chris. I was going to say, I think Daniel Hudson might be the leader in the clubhouse for now. And obviously, if he, you know, it's all in his control. If he pitches well, he'll stick with it. But I think it's a lot like the Phillies where it was Alvarado for most of the season. And Jeff Hoffman kind of took a backseat. I think just, you know, my prediction is that Daniel Hudson might take over as like, you know,

getting the majority, but then Evan Phillips is kind of like the backup guy there. But obviously things can change. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have, uh, well, no. Robbie Ray is making his season debut, but I don't think we want to use him at the Dodgers, obviously. Yeah, that's tough. Michael Waka is facing the D-backs. I don't love the matchup, but he has pitched well.

Yeah, I think that's okay. I mean, Sean Mania, a lefty. Who's to say they don't go back to Jemai Jones and Jada and Jada Davis in Yankee Stadium? I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if Manaya had a good start, but like Juan Soto and Aaron Judge are enough to scare me off of Sean Mania. I don't mind Yario Rodriguez against the raise. He's pitched pretty well lately. I think Mitchell Parker is okay.

Yeah, that one just don't expect a lot of strikeouts, but I could see a decent start. I actually wouldn't be surprised to Chase McDermott had a good start. It's a really nice landing spot against the Marlins. We talked about the stuff being pretty good last week. That's where earlier in this podcast. I don't know why I said last week. It's late.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a good outing. Yeah, I think that's fair. My top three are going to be walk-up. And then I think Mania and Parker, but if you want to take the shot on McDermann, I do think that's fine. And then on Thursday, smaller slate, lots of TBDs as of now,

but Gavin Williams against the Tigers. I know he hasn't pitched great, but it's a pretty good matchup. And if I have to choose one, I guess Mitch Spitz. at the Angels, but I don't love it. Yeah. So,

Kershaw, you know, he's like 80% rostered, but, you know, I don't, I don't think I'd want to start him there.

Um, if I could avoid it. But if we're talking streamers, I, I assume Severino and Morton are both in like the 85 to 90% range. So that wouldn't count either of them. I think you can make a case that they're both probably over-rostored, but that's a different discussion.

So, yeah, I don't love the Thursday options. Boy, yeah, I think Gavin Williams is probably the best option, and I don't feel good about that. All right, we are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.