Fantasy Baseball Today - Ashcraft Dominates! De La Cruz Struggles & Michael Busch Recalled (8/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Bid on a spot in our 2024 FBT listener league- https://www.ebay.com/itm/374885098315?hash=item5748e4a34b:g:5p8AAOSwy8lkiJds Bid on a guest spot on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast- https://www.ebay.com/itm/374885021676?hash=item5748e377ec:g:P0MAAOSwA~JkiJg3 Graham Ashcraft has pitched very well over his last 10 starts (3:12)! ... Elly De La Cruz is striking out a lot in the second half (10:20). ... Aaron Judge isn't seeing many pitches to hit (13:32). ... The Dodgers recalled Michael Busch (15:19). ... How did Kyle Harrison do in his debut (19:15)? ... Is it okay to drop Jonah Heim (28:55)? ... Eddie Rosario has been hot in August (34:30). ... News (38:13): Julio Rodriguez was out with a stomach illness. ... Carlos Rodon had a solid return (49:53). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. We haven't talked about the Reds in a while, so let's change that. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, August 23rd. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White, today on the show.

the Dodgers were called Michael Bush, Scott, your old friend. Oh, yeah. Is it time to drop Jonah Heim, big name struggles, and much more. Before we get started, help us out by liking this video and subscribing on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Let's jump in. Matt Ball did have a family, Scott.

You are up, and I so graciously gave you. The Olive Garden breadstick of the night. Yes, you did. It is a red. It is not Ellie de la Cruz or anyone else who hit the ball for the Reds. It's the guy who pitched the ball for the Reds. And his name is Graham Ashcraft. Maybe one of the most discussed players on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast this year.

And for good reason. It's been a roller coaster ride. He was, I think, in most of the first. respects fantastic here at the Angels tough lineup tough matchup didn't matter when seven innings struck out 10 and gram ashcraft also had 13 swinging strikes on 94 pitches this makes 10 starts now a 10 start stretch for gram ashcraft in which he has a 236 a r a 108 whip only 6.6k per nine so not surprisingly his FIP is well over four during that 10 start stretch with the 236

ZERA. It's big reason why I've been highly skeptical of it, but I will say this makes two of three starts now in which he's gone seven innings with at least a strikeout per inning. So at least seven strikeouts in two of his last three.

And what those starts have in common is increased sinker use. She threw the sinker 16% of the time in this one, two starts ago when he had the seven strikeouts against the Marlins. Ashcraft threw his sinker 21% of the time. So 16% in this one, 21%.

2 starts to go. Normally it's like 5%. And so I think that's further evidence that when he mixes that pitch in more, like a more legit fastball because normally his main pitch is a cutter, which I guess is a kind of fastball, but obviously it has a different movement profile. So when he mixes in a more traditional fastball with that cutter, seems like the cutter plays up. So that might be a key to success here for Ashcraft.

I will also note he's thrown a lot more strikes during this 10-start stretch in which he's had so much success. So that's probably helping things too. I remain mostly skeptical of Ash crap, but my Ash crap, wow. Boydian slip there. I remain, I guess there are worse ways I could slip

in saying his name. I remain skeptical of Ashcraft, but my mind is open just a crack, especially since I was about to say the word crack. Wow, that could have came out. Extra bad for Ashcraft. My mind's open to crack. I at least see a path to success here. For a guy who, like I've said from the beginning, I mean,

when you have a 99-mile-per-hour cutter, It seems like there should be something you should do it. You're able to do with that. Well, he continues to succeed for now. So good for him. Graham Ashcraft's 73% rostered. You gave out the numbers over this 10 start stretch, so I will not repeat them. You know, the K-to-walk ratio is kind of skeptical.

But tons of ground balls during that time and doing a good job of limiting hard contact. So those two things, you know, I guess if you are going to kind of pull a smoke and mirrors here, That's one way you could do it in Graham Ashcraft. Other names I had as Waverwire ads from the night, I'm pretty sure Ashcraft is at the top of the list here, Scott. Johan Oviedo, five innings of one-run ball, five strikeouts. Josiah Gray, he walked five, still escaped with a quality start because he was facing those lowly New York Yankees.

Six innings, one run for him with four strikeouts. And Tanner Hauk made his return at the Astros. Five innings, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts. another night with some sketchy defense from the Red Sox, at least while I was watching this game. How would you rank that group, Scott? I assume Ashcraft is at the top, right? Yeah, and I think he's the only one I'd want,

except in a desperation situation. And he's only graduated to the point where I could say, I really want Ashcraft on any level. I mean, he was in my sleeper pitchers for this week, just because I need to pick 10 of them, and he was lined up for two starts. So, okay, he made the cut. cut.

But these others, Oviato has these occasional starts where he looks pretty good, but there's a reason his ERA has averaged out to 446. There's a lot of bad starts along the way, and Josiah Gray, and he's had that whip near 1.5 for a while now, and, you know, has been less consistent lately as well. I do think Hauke has some upside that he's shown in flashes,

this year. But this start obviously wasn't good enough for me to make a play on him. Interestingly, he really leaned on his sinker slider in this start pretty much through those two pitches exclusively. When normally he mixes in a lot more splitters, especially that's a very good pitch for him, cutters, regular four seamers. It's normally a more diverse mix for Hauk. so I don't know why he went so extreme with those two pitches.

You know, maybe just getting a feel for things again. We'll keep an eye on Halk. But right now, I would say Ashcraft is the only one who interests me in any real way from this group. Graham Ashcraft, as I mentioned, 73% rostered facing the Cubs next week. They are seventh in Wilba against Ritey. So it's a pretty tough matchup. I don't know that that's going to be an auto start,

but obviously Graham Ashcraft pitching very well right now. Scott, yesterday I said, I was starting to get a little bit queasy about Mike Clevenger from a daily lineup perspective. People might have used him for the two-star week. His streak of success did come to an end. Five innings, four runs, four walks, four strikeouts against a Mariners lineup, which once again did not feature Julio Rodriguez because he was out with a stomach illness here. Let's see you picked up Clevenger for the two starts.

He's 67% rostered. Are you okay dumping him after this one? Yeah, I wasn't crazy about him in the first place. again, he did make the cut for my sleeper pitchers just because I got to come up with 10 of them and he had two starts with favorable matchos. But I think he was, I think he ended up being ninth of the 10 on that list

with a lot of qualifiers attached as I just did there. Yeah, no, I think you can be done with Clevenger. I assume you would drop him for Ashcraft, right? Yeah, sure. Why not? Would you drop Christian Javier for Graham Ashcraft? No. No.

I'm not confident enough in, Ashcraft's ceiling to pass up the ceiling of Javier. I know we talked about Javier a lot yesterday, another bad start. And we talked about some higher upside options, I think, as ones I'd be willing to drop Javier for. I don't think Ashcraft's quite on that level, at least from what we've seen of them so far. All right, well, I led the podcast saying,

we're going to talk about the Reds. We already spoke about one of them. Let's talk about the other one. Ellie De LaCruz, not a crazy game here. 0 for 3 with a walk, but did pick up his 20th steal, which leads us into an awesome stat. Took Ellie Dela Cruz 64 games to hit 10 plus home runs, 20 plus steals, the fastest player to do that. Since 1900, the previous was Barry Bonds, who accomplished that feat in 65 games. I don't know what year.

Didn't write it down. But I thought that was an awesome stat for L.A. Dela Cruz. And I wanted to talk about him, Scott, because we haven't mentioned his name in a while for good reason. He has struggled quite a bit here in the second half. 34 games played. He's got the power and speed, six homers, four steals. Okay, that's fine. He's betting 186 with a 41% strikeout rate in the second half.

He's chasing pitches. He's missing a lot. They've experimented. They moved him up to the leadoff spot. He's now batting third again for the team. I think this is totally fine because he's a rookie and this kind of comes with the territory, the ups and the downs. Is there anything that you've seen in the second half that,

makes you genuinely worried, I guess, for L.A. D.A. D.A. D. La Cruz the rest of the season and maybe into the future, 2024. No, I don't think so. I mean, this was the reason we were careful when we last did our redraft for the rest of the season. I think it was at the halfway point we were talking about. Okay, if we could redraft first two rounds today for the second half. And L.A. Dela Cruz didn't make the first two rounds for us. It was kind of an unpopular decision at the time. but this is why. I mean, there were some flaws in his game that just because they hadn't manifested yet didn't mean they wouldn't eventually,

you know, it was such a small sample at that time. And, yeah, the strikeouts have really been piling up for him. He's put the ball on the ground too often. I also don't think it was long ago where I said he'd be, I was expecting rest of season. He'd be like Jordan Walker at the plate, but with Ronald de Cunia's stolen bases.

and I mean, Walker's falling off so much at the plate since then that maybe that's not even fair to L.E. De La Cruz, but I think that's sort of how it's playing out. Still very high on him long term. He's just going through some growing pains right now. It doesn't mean he can't get hot here over the final five weeks and still make a big impact for your fantasy team. But it's no guarantee because he's striking out a lot.

And that is always an issue, which is why we harp on it so much. Doing some quick math here, just to put things in perspective. I mentioned, okay, L.A. Dela Cruz has struggled in the second half, which he has. But he is still on pace over a full season for 25 home runs and 50 steals. So the grand scheme, he still has made a massive impact for fantasy purposes since being called up. He's obviously a very fun, young electric player. and someone I think will be drafted very high in fantasy drafts next year, but interested to see how he finishes the rest of the season out,

specifically with those strikeouts. Let's talk about Aaron Judge Scott. Another player, big-name player, we haven't talked about in a while. He went 0-4 with three strikeouts on Tuesday, and in 22 games since returning from the IL, he is batting 222, with five home runs, 21 walks to 23 strikeouts. Basically, opposing pitchers are not pitching, to Aaron Judge.

And why would they? There's not really anybody else in the Yankee lineup that pitchers are really scared of at this point. And I think as a result, the past couple of games he's been trying to expand a little bit

and I think he's kind of chasing some pitches and striking out a little bit more. Anything that you're actually worried about here with Judd's guy, it wouldn't surprise me if maybe he's still kind of playing through something or, I don't know. Look, the whole team has kind of been awful over the past couple of weeks.

So it could just be this, I don't know. contagious, terrible play for the New York Yankees right now. Any thoughts on Aaron Judge? Do you know what Aaron Judge's average exit velocity is during that stretch? Oh, I saw it. 98.1, average exit velocity, which just doesn't, like, no player does that over a full season. So he's, I think he's still Aaron Judge. I don't think he's lingering effects from the injury or anything.

Are pitchers being careful with them, sure, but they would be anyway. I think he's bound to get hot sooner or later. All right. Speaking of those Yankees, by the way, they have lost nine in a row for the first time since 1982. And I also saw they have not led in a game since last Monday. That would have been the 14th. They have not led in a game in over a week.

That is pretty crazy stuff going on in New York right now. Waverwire pitchers we already talked about. So what else do we have? Let's talk about Michael Bush. Got someone I know. You are a fan of. JD Martinez was placed in the aisle with a groin injury as the corresponding move, and it sounds like he'll be out at least two to three weeks.

Michael Bush, an older prospect at this point, 25 years old, crushing the minors this year, 323 batting average, 24 homers, a 1047 OPS. He has had 17 home runs since the start of July down in the minors. So just absolutely crushing the ball. He's 16. In 43 games since he was last up with the Dodgers, 17 home runs in 43 games. He's 16% rostered. He has second and third base eligibility.

The next question, the biggest question. Will you play enough? Your thoughts? I mean, it's, I feel like I give the exact same analysis for Michael Bush that I gave for Jonathan Aronda a week ago because like their profiles and situations are so comparable, 25-year-olds, just putting a ridiculous number. at AAA with all the data you'd want to back it up and just not getting a fair shake from their teams, in part because they're limited defensively, in part because those teams are really good

and just not that motivated to get them involved. It does seem like, so basically it took Aranda till his fourth game, back in the majors, to get in the lineup, and he hasn't been back in the lineup since. Bush was in the very first game in his return, so that's good. I mean, the fact that he's replaced,

the full-time DH makes for a pretty easy opening, even if they don't trust him defensively. And I would say the biggest hole in the Dodgers lineup, well, really it's shortstop, but they seem tied to Miguel Rojas there for whatever reason. The biggest hole in the Dodgers lineup otherwise is left field where David Peralta and Chris Taylor are platooning two guys with barely a 700 OPS.

Bush himself has played some left field. And even if the Dodgers would prefer him at his natural position, second base. They currently have a natural outfielder playing second base and Mookie Betts, so that would seem like an easy switch. It seems really easy to get Bush in the lineup if they want to. I did see an interview with Dave Roberts, manager, earlier tonight, and he was already committing to not having Bush in the lineup tomorrow, Wednesday. Let me check the matchup. Against a righty. So that's unfortunate. And not a good. sign doesn't help that Bush struck out twice in this game and went hitless, right?

Yeah. It saw him after three at bats. Oh, for three with two strikeouts. Yeah. So, the playing time is a major question mark just like it is for Ronda. But there's a little more hope, I think, for Bush on that front than for Ronda. Not saying he's a must add across the board, but like if he builds some momentum at the play, if he gets hot and it gets them in the lineup, then he could, his ownership rate could very quickly spike because I think there's tons of potential here at the bat. No speed really at all, but an on-base machine,

that was true even prior to this year, every stop. Every stop, he's been an on-base freak, he's been a huge power hitter. It's really the surge in batting average we've seen this year, which was always like in the scouting reports for Michael Bush. It seemed like he should be a player who hits for average as well. Highline drive rates at every stop. tons and tons of offensive potential here for Bush.

So I hope he does get the chance. Again, that is Michael Bush, 16% rostered. Looks like a deep league play or maybe someone you scout for now. I had some people asking me on Twitter about daily lineup leagues. I think that's fine. I mean, if you have just a roster spot to mess with, you could pick him up, gives you access to one of the best lineups in baseball with the Dodgers.

So that's fine. Just plug him in in daily lineup leagues whenever he's in the lineup, if you're on top of it enough. But as of now, I think we wait and see on Michael Bush. Let's talk about some of these other recent rookie promotions. Kyle Harrison made his first career start. And of course, in Giants fashion, he was limited to just 65 pitches at the Phillies. He went three and a third innings.

He allowed two runs, five strikeouts to one walk. I thought that was a good sign. Only one walk here. Of course, he only recorded 10 outs total. One walk and more than 66% of his pitches were thrown for strikes. That's pretty good. Good sign there. For Kyle Harrison.

He had 14 swinging strikes on 65 pitches, 11 on the fastball, three on this slurve type pitch. Did give up a lot of hard contact, relied heavily on the fastball, 72% usage, which he threw around 95 miles per hour with that fastball from the left hand side. He threw a slur of 23% of the time. So mostly a two-pitch pitcher here, Scott. What did you see from Kyle Harrison? 38% rostered. I just, I don't know.

On the Giants team, it feels like there's not. not going to be enough utility because they're going to limit him quite a bit. Yeah, I think that's the biggest concern. And based on the way this first start played out, it doesn't alleviate that concern. He didn't even make it through four innings. You mentioned he only went five once in the minors all year. So if he's not allowed to do that with any consistency, it's going to be hard for him to make a major fantasy impact.

he does have the kind of strikeout potential though where in categories leagues at least you know if he's if he's able to go four innings and give you seven eight strikeouts he still might be worthwhile so on the one hand i'm discouraged by the workload for harrison but i am encouraged by the strike throwing and this is something i pointed out at the call-up even though he had more than six walks per nine in the minors this year zero walks in his last two appearances there and through 71% of his pitches for strikes. So it seemed like maybe he had turned a corner, and I noticed reading up about it after the podcast,

both the Giants manager and GM both pointed out that they liked what he did in his last two outings in particular. So they may have seen something there that inspired this promotion for Harrison, and maybe the control isn't going to be as big of a concern as we fear. Obviously, we need a much larger sample to determine that, but there's reason for hope, at least along those lines. I still don't know that he's worth rostering in the standard 12 team league because of the major workload issue. But, and I hate to keep saying, you know, we'll keep an eye on it.

But that's kind of where we are with a lot of these late season promotions. Yeah. And we might say that for a lot of these other names as well. Some of the hitters that recently got promoted, Parker Meadows, went two for three with a triple, a walk. Two runs scored. He picked up a hit and a walk off of Drew Smiley. Lefty on lefty. I thought that was encouraging for him.

Oslavis Basabe, two for four with his first career home run, a grand slam. First eight games now with Tampa Bay, he's batting 303 with one home run, eight RBI, eight runs scored, and an 846 OPS. Wilière Abraeu with the Red Sox, he came in for Alex Verdugo, who got ejected in this game. Abraeu went two for three with a double and a run scored. Noelvi Marte went one for four with three strikeouts, did pick up his second stolen base, So I think that's a good sign for him.

They're letting him be aggressive and run and he's been successful so far at it. And then the baby bombers, the Yankees. Nothing here. Everson Pereira went 0 for 3 with a walk. I watch these at Bats very closely. I want to see if the Yankees have anything in these kids. And he didn't swing and miss a single time in this game,

which I thought was encouraging for Pereira, seemed very poised, had a good feel for the strike zone. Oswald Parraza went 0-4 in that game. Scott, anything here that. I don't know, entices you, Parker Meadows, Oslavis, Pasaabe, Williara Abraeu, Noel V. Marte, and the Yankees? I mean, nothing that really changes the opinion I've given on all of those guys so far. I mean, how could it? It's just one game.

Right. I do think, as you said, it's encouraging Meadows was playing against the left-hander, and I liked that he hit a ball. The triple that he hit was 108 miles per hour, basically. It was very hard contact. And the sort of contact not everybody's capable of. So that was encouraging to see from Parker Meadows too. I noticed a lot of people on the Tigers beat were commenting how fast he made his way around the bases on that triple.

He has put up some good steals totals in the miners. So there may be some hope for Parker Meadows at some point being a five outfielder league contributor. We'll keep an eye on it. and Williore Abreu, he also hit a ball very hard, that double basically 109 miles per hour. And that was coming off the bench because of the ejection for Alex Perdugo. Alex Perdugo, yeah. So he wasn't able to get in the lineup, but I did see some comments actually writing the latest prospects report about Sadane Raphaela

Or is it Seidon Raphaela? I think it's the last you said it was Seidon. Seidon Raphaela, yes. C-E-E-D-B-B-A-N-N-E. Not exactly phonetic, but Seidon Raphaela. Great defensive centerfielder. Why wasn't he called up when when Jaron Duran went down?

Why was it Willier-A-R-R-R-U instead? And apparently a big reason why, because of Brayubats left-handed, and they wanted that left-handed hitter like Duran was, to pair with the right-handed hitter, Adam Duvall. That's what they're saying anyway. Obviously, Raphaelah is a higher-end prospect, and he's younger, and maybe they just don't want to get his clock started yet.

But the reason they're giving is Abrae-O-Bet's left-handed, which would suggest to me if they want that left-handed, right-handed division with Adam Duvall, that Abraeu would get a decent amount of playing time. That's usually how it goes with lefty-righty situations. So if he ends up playing more than I thought, then he might have some low-end five outfielder appeal as well. As we already pointed out, put up some good power numbers in the minors this year. So, yeah, Abraeu, I'd say good first showing for him.

I thought it was interesting that Abraeu did not stop. on Tuesday as a left-handed bat against a right-handed pitcher and Justin Verlander. But obviously, that's a pretty tough matchup for a rookie to come in and play. So maybe they didn't want to expose him to Verlander right away. But regardless, he got into the game because Alex Verdugo got ejected. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll talk about Jonah Heim. Is it a time to drop Jonah Heim doesn't look like himself since coming back from the IL.

We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back and a quick reminder to follow us on Twitter. You can follow Fantasy Baseball Today at FBTPod. Follow Scott at CBS Scott White. You can follow me at Roto underscore Frank. And if you're watching us on YouTube, you can scan the QR code in the top right corner that will take you right to the Fantasy Baseball Today Twitter account.

Let's talk some catcher decisions here. Scott, I had some people on Twitter asking me, is it time to give up on Jonah Heim? It might be the right time because we've got all these interesting catchers emerging, emerging lately. Jonah Heim went over four with three strikeouts here on Tuesday. He is two for 20 since returning from injury. Doesn't sound like he's completely healthy. He's sitting out every, yeah, he's sitting out every other third game right now. He's still 91% rostered. I think in a one catcher league, Scott, I'm okay dropping Jonah Heim. It was an awesome

season, not taking anything away from him, but I just don't think he's healthy. So he's playing with a torn tendon sheath in his wrist. So it's kind of a wonder he's playing it all. And I'm actually surprised. I'm looking at the game log here yesterday, Monday. He got a start against the left-handed pitcher. And I say I'm surprised because part of the reason he is making an effort to play is because he's a switch hitter. And there was talk that he wouldn't bat right-handed the rest of the year.

So apparently he did. Apparently he did on Monday getting a start against the left-handed pitcher. But that doesn't mean he's going to perform well. As you point out, there are a lot of catchers emerging. for all our optimism about Yiner Diaz yesterday. Yep. He was pretty, we've talked them up as basically the best option on the waiver wire, apart for maybe Kiber Ruiz in a points league.

But that was based on the idea that he had a lot of runway at first base, Jose of Brayu, there were no signs of him returning. Well, suddenly there are signs of him returning. In fact, Dusty Baker's talking like he could be back in the line at Thursday. tomorrow, if you're listening, on Wednesday. That's how the days of the week work. But that means that where else Yonair Diaz going to play henceforth. Are they finally going to turn the page on Martin Maldonado?

Well, they probably should, but there's no reason to believe they will based on past behavior. Jordan Alvarez was scratched with a finger injury here on Tuesday. Now, hopefully it's not serious. We'd rather have Yordan Alvarez in the lineup than Yiner Diaz. I speak for all fantasy players of the world when I say that. At least all the ones who have Jordan Alvarez. But if that does turn out to be a more serious thing, I didn't see anything more specific than that, right?

finger injury? What does that mean? I think he got it caught in a door or something like that. It was like a freak injury or something. So it's swollen and turned purple. That could be a multi-day absence, right? Maybe. I don't know what it actually looks like.

I'm just guessing. If you get a finger shut at a door, it usually swells and turns purple. In my experience, I don't know about yours. Have you ever shut your finger in like a car door or a trunk or anything like that? I don't know if I've definitely done it in just a normal door. I don't think in a card door, though, thankfully.

Happened to me several times as a child. Ooh. Several times. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened since. I guess I got smart and stopped putting my fingers in bad places. I don't know. But yeah, it's not, it doesn't feel good. As well as in turns purple, Frank.

Yeah, no, I do believe that. Getting back to the Astros, trying to figure out a way for Yiner D.S. to play, it's just, I don't know how much his bat is a priority for them when they have so many great bats already because they sacrifice some defense if they play Alvarez in left field and put Chaz McCormick in center field, which is an option.

And then they could just D.H. Yainer Diaz, but I don't know, maybe Jose Abraeu just won't be an everyday player. He obviously wasn't very good before he got hurt. Does this change? How much does this change? Scott, would you put K.bert Ruiz and Cal Rale ahead of Yainer Diaz now based on Abrae U. Yeah, I kind of got sidetracked talking about fingers there. Sorry about that. No, I do think, I do think that moves Yiner Diaz down the pecking order, and I would put him behind those two, Ruiz and Rale. And I prefer Ruiz to Raleigh in both scoring formats. Definitely in points leagues, but even in Roto leagues, because Raleigh is almost certain to be a drain on batting average, I'd take Diaz over him, or not Diaz.

Ruiz over him in that format as well. Yeah, so I think for me right now, I was updating Catcher Ranks on Tuesday. I have it Ruiz at the top, then Cal Raleigh, then Yiner Diaz. That was even after the Abraeu stuff. Then M.J. Melendez, who we've talked to a lot about recently,

I like what he's done over the past month. And then you get into like Mitch Garver and Logan O'Hoppy. Would you take those two names over Jonah Heim right now as well? Yes. I think so, too. Yes. I really don't have. much optimism for Hime at all.

That's a serious injury he's attempting to play through. And it hasn't gone well so far, as you pointed out. By the way, Mitch Garver, two for four with his, two for five, rather, with his 10th home run on Tuesday, he has started eight straight games for the Rangers and has batted either fourth or fifth in the lineup in each of those games. 37% rostered for him. And Logan O'Hoppy picked up his first hit since returning from the IL, and it was a home run, 32% rostered.

So if you're looking for catcher help, there's a lot out there right now. You go ahead, drop Jonah Heim for either of those names. Let's talk some other Waver Wire hitters. Guy don't have many names on the list here. I think probably the most high profile one is Eddie Rosario who went two for three with his 20th home run. He's always been pretty shrieky in his career. You'll look at the past three months for Eddie Rosario. In June, he hit 325 with an 1115 OPS.

In July, 164 with a 499. OPS. Now in August, once again, batting 339 with a 974 OPS. Is that enough to make... It's probably still just five outfielder leagues, right? Scott? Like, well, I mean, I don't... Since we don't do... Focus on Daily League so much on this show, sometimes it's easy to... There's a tendency to overlook them when it comes to platoon players like this, too. I mean, if If you do have a big enough bench that you can afford to mix in a platoon bat as matchups warrant, then I think Eddie Rosario has earned his place in that format too. But the bottom line is you're going to want to pay close attention to the brave schedule the rest of the way

because you're not going to want to start them at times when there are too many lefties on the schedule. He just never plays against them. And his numbers are pretty good against them. But I think just to keep Kevin Pilar's bat involved. Brian Snickr uses those occasions to give him Pilar, summit bats instead of Rosario, which is unfortunate. But hey, I think the Braves have had the most consistent lineup of any team in baseball. So they do this kind of stuff.

Every Sean Murphy, every Sean Murphy investor in the world is screaming right now that they don't do it with him. And they don't. But they, you know, statistics. Specifically speaking, one through nine, the Braves have been more consistent than any other team. I'm just seeing this now for Eddie Rosario. His schedule for next week and early look ahead, seven games, three of them in Corse Field. The problem is that two of those stars in Corse Field look like they're going to be against lefties. Things can change, but it looks like

Austin Gomber and Kyle Freeland will start two of those games. So not sure that Eddie Rosario will start, but that's a pretty awesome schedule. Full week, seven games, three in Corse Field. Lots of like there with Eddie Rosario next week. Three names in deeper leagues. Brandon Belt went one for four with his 14th home run. He has three homers over his last two games. And having a big August as well, betting 321 with six homers and an 1155 OPS, another name that fits in perfectly in a daily lineup league there with Brandon Belt.

Josh Rojas went one for four with his second home run, two runs, two RBI in this game. Over his last three games with the Mariners, he has six hits, a homer, and two steals. and Cole Calhoun, he plays with the Cleveland Guardians now. Maybe he didn't know. He went one for four with his second home run. And in 12 games with the Guardians betting 306, two homers, and nine RBI. Kind of very deep league stuff here, Scott. Brandon Belt, Josh Rojas, Cole Cahoon.

Any thoughts on those three? I mean, I think I'd be okay never hearing Cole Cahoon's name again. Jesus. To be honest. Oh, gosh. No, I mean, Eddie Rosario is clearly better than these three. Right. And the only one who I think has any utility is Brandon Belt.

Again, if you're in a position in your league, daily lineups, enough roster space that you can be very particular about when you start him. He might be able to make an impact. And just that style of play really isn't for me. All right. Let's talk news and notes. Julio Rodriguez, I mentioned earlier, was scratched on Tuesday due to a stomach illness. Mike Trout was activated and in the lineup batting second for the Angels. Wander Franco was placed on administrative leave Tuesday by Major League Baseball

under the Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Child Abuse Policy. He had been on the restricted list before this. We still have no idea when or if we'll see Wander Franco again. but as we said yesterday, Scott, I think especially with a move like this, we're moving closer to dropping him in redraft leagues. Yeah, I would not blame anyone for dropping him in any league at this point.

I don't know what's going to happen either, but I would be surprised if stashing him paid off. All right, Twins, manager Rocco Baldelli said he expects Joe Ryan to make his next start in the majors, it sounds like he'll return this weekend against the Texas Rangers. Joe Musgrove is set to play catch on Friday. It will be the first time he's done any throwing since he landed on the IL at the beginning of this month with right shoulder inflammation. He's just throwing now. It's probably going to take him a couple of weeks to get ramped up.

Padres could be out of it by then. It doesn't look very good for Joe Musgrove, I don't think. Nathan Avaldi faced batters during a live batting practice session on Monday. He also remains without a timetable but is obviously much further ahead than Joe Musgrove. Shane Bieber extended his throwing distance off flat ground to 120 feet as of last week. He's been out since early July with right elbow inflammation. His teammate Trista McKenzie has yet to resume throwing off a mound but has increased his throwing distance off flat ground to 105 feet. He's been out since June with a UCL spring in his right elbow.

Scott, of all the names I just mentioned, Musgrove, Avaldi, Shane Bieber, McKenzie. Which of those names do you expect to make an impact, I guess, again this season? I think Evaldi has the best chance in Musgrove's right behind him. I'm going to push back a little on Musgrove because he may only need a couple rehab starts. to be ready to pitch in a major league game again since his last start was July 28th, you know, not really that long ago. It's not like one of these guys coming back from a three, four month injury where he's going to need a lengthy rehab assignment. So I think there's a good chance you get four or five starts out of Musgrove still.

And same is true for Avaldi. The same may be true for Bieber. Just given that I think he's I think he's earned the role. right to have a more aggressive buildup to kind of set his own pace as far as that goes. McKenzie really not counting on him again this year. There's there's a chance but it wouldn't surprise me if the guardians just decided nah, let's not let's not mess with this anymore. Sal Freelick was originally in the Brewers lineup and then scratched with that lingering right hamstring soreness. Nick Ladolo was diagnosed with another stress reaction in his left tibia and is out

indefinitely, which kind of makes me feel like we won't see Nick Ladolo again this season, Scott. I would doubt it, which is unfortunate because he is the cover boy for my latest article on CBSSports.com. Clutch pickups for the stretch run. Jeez. Never mind. Never mind for Nicodola. That's unfortunate. I don't know. I don't know.

I'm going to have to ask an editor to change that photo, though, clearly. Sounds like the perfect time to get John Means' face up on the website. This was a matchups-based exercise I was doing here. Let me see what the Orioles pitching matchups look like down the stretch. Not great. Not great, Bob. I mean, like it's not all matchups, obviously. I think John Means is just a good pitcher, and so he might be a fine.

pick up, but I was trying to keep this exercise matchups based primarily. All right. Anthony Santander has misfortune with a back injury. Apparently, he is improving, but isn't ready to start just yet. Tyler Wells was promoted from AA to AAA, where he'll pitch out of the bullpen. He's still 47% rostered. Is Tyler Wells a drop at this point? you know I'm actually been I guess I guess if the plan is they're going to keep them in the ballpen which is what this is implying right that's how I read it yeah yeah um I guess so I had been picking them up in some 15 team roto leagues where I'm just desperate to make up ground in pitching categories in the pitching categories so that's why I'm hesitating but those are

obviously deep leagues and unique circumstances and if this if this if this report does mean he's just confined to the bullpen rest of season. Then obviously it was a waste of time. Anyway, Jaron was officially placed on the aisle with a left toe sprain. As we mentioned earlier, Dusty Baker said they hoped to activate Jose Abraeu on Thursday. Came out of nowhere.

Ryan Pepio could be recalled to start Thursday for the Dodgers in Cleveland. He threw five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts last weekend. Does have some prospect pedigrees. Got any interest in, Ryan Pepio, 16% rostered. Yeah, I'm pretty interested because, like, if you had been stashing Nicola Dolo and are looking to pivot to somebody else, I do think John Means is a fine choice, but the Dodgers have even better pitching matchups down the stretch. Not as much confidence in how Pepio is going to perform, but he has big strikeout potential.

Last year in his nine major league appearances had 10.4K per nine. the problem was he had 6.7 walks per nine. But in that appearance, it was five innings. It was basically a start, but it was technically in relief in the doubleheader against the Marlins last week. Pepio walked just won in those five innings of work. And I believe that's been going on in the minors for him as well since returning from injury. Yeah, he has a total of five. walks in his six minor league appearances this year.

So that may be something, that may be, he may have been improving in that regard. And if that's the case, Pepio has a lot of strikeout potential, obviously a great supporting cast there on the Dodgers and could be really clutch pickup down the stretch. He's on that same list that Nick Lodolo is on,

clutch pickups for the stretch run. Oh, right. Pepio. Put a little Pepio in your Stepio. Let's go. John Means is targeting in early September return. He's made three rehab starts so far and has a 6.14 ERA and a 1.09 whip. He had one bad outing, basically.

The other three have been pretty good. Again, we should see John Means in September. Ryan Helsley was cleared of any structural damage in his right forearm Tuesday following another MRI. He's been out since June with right forearm tightness. Paul DeYoung signed a major league contract with the Giants after being released by the Blue Jays. Matthew Liberator was placed on the IL with lower. back tightness. Zach Davies is set to return Saturday against the Reds and some actual baseball news,

which we don't talk about too much, but the White Sox fired executive vice president Ken Williams and senior VP and general manager Rick Haunt. Any thoughts there, Scott? I don't know that this has a huge fantasy impact. Obviously, it'll depend who they bring in and, you know, what that person's, I don't know, ideas are for the future in terms of like bringing players in the offseason or maybe they want to rebuild and they'll trade some guys away. I think it's pretty wide open right now. Yeah, they're kind of a mess. So it's understandable that they're making a big change. I mean,

kid Williams was there forever going back to there. He was the GM for their 2005 World Series team. I think I read he was there since 1992. Oh my goodness. I was. Are you even alive? One year old. one year old. Wow. I didn't know it had been he'd been around that long. So I guess

he stopped playing in 1991. He went straight from playing to being in the White Sucks front office. I guess that could happen. It's not even 60 years old. It's a long time to work in a front office. Yeah, it is. Maybe we're not.

Well, yeah, I don't know what the White Sucks are going to do, but it doesn't surprise me that they have to make, you know. I always wonder, Is Jeff Luno going to get another chance? And AJ, AJ Hinch did. Yeah. I don't know.

I guess. I guess it's a possibility. Like, I'm just going to throw his name out there anytime there's a front-off his opening. One other prospect update with the Yankees calling up Everson Pereira and Oswald Paraza. They also promoted Jason Dominguez to AAA, where previously he was batting 254 with 15 home runs and 37 steals at

double A. He got off to a terrible start this year, but really has been great over the past month or so since the start of July. Jason Dominguez has looked very good, so who knows? If he hits well in AAA the rest of this season, he could be in line for an opening day job with the Yankees next year. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll stick with the Yankees. We'll talk about Carlos Rodan's return. I've got some other standouts. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back. Quick reminder to like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's talk about Carlos Rodon's return and it was a solid start against the Nationals. He went six innings. He allowed just one run with one strikeout, just one strikeout to zero walks.

That's the good news. The walks were down here. Only three swinging trikes on 68 pitches. I guess if you're looking at a class half full, the Nationals have the second lowest strikeout. rate against left-handed pitching this season. So obviously do not swing and miss very much. He did allow some hard contact. Velocity was fine here for Carlos Rodan. Scott, your thoughts on his first start back. It was pretty good relative to everything else he's done. Yeah, it is true. It's his best start of 2023, but that's not saying much. And he had only one strikeout, had only three swinging strikes. So he doesn't look like Carlos Rodan yet. And that That's reason for me to keep him out of the lineup.

Yeah, especially when, as of now, it looks like he will only make one start next week against the Houston Astros. So it doesn't sound too great there for Carlos Rodon. Some pitching standouts, and we'll start with this first group. Justin Verlander set a season high with nine strikeouts against the Red Sox. He went six shutout innings, allowed six base runners, had 16 swinging strikes on 96 pitches. Jesus Lozardo had a very strong bounceback at. the Padres. He threw six shot-out innings with seven strikeouts and 14

swinging strikes. His previous four starts before this, Lazardo, a 10.59 ERA and a 229 whip. Blake's Snell, another quality start against the Marlins, six innings, three runs, with eight strikeouts, 22 swinging

strikes on 96 pitches, and he has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in 17 straight starts this season. Blake's now. Zach Gallen also had a great start against the Texas Rangers. He allowed one run over six innings with 11 strikeouts and 16 swinging strikes. Keeps allowing a lot of hard contact, but I don't know.

Somehow, Zach Allen kind of works around it, get some strikeouts, and it looked awesome in this start. Any thoughts here, Scott, on Gallin, Snell, Lozardo, and Verlander? Yeah, a lot of troubling trends reversing themselves here. Luzardo, just the overall performance was very troubling. He had rendered himself unusable in fantasy. So he needed a bounce back like this. And this was a very strong bounce back, really in every respect. I don't know what changed for him.

I feel like since he was well over his previous high innings, maybe he was just not as sharp, getting a little tired, worn down, lazy with his delivery. And so his pitches weren't playing. up like they used to. I don't know what change, but that clearly wasn't the instant,

that clearly wasn't the case in this start. Luzardo looked more like the pitcher we've come to know. So are we back to starting him? Two starts coming up next week. I think, I think probably so.

Blake Snell, he reversed the troubling trend of, remember he had that eight-start stretch while he was continuing to keep runs off the board, an eight-start stretch with 7.1 walks per nine. And so it seemed like danger was on the horizon. Well, back-to-back starts now with just two walks for Blake's now.

So instead of collapsing, he seems to have righted the ship there with the control. And Zach Allen, I pointed out after his last start, that he was in the midst of an eight-start stretch with just an 8% swinging strike rate. Again, the performance was good, a 320-E-R-8 during that stretch, but wasn't missing bats. 16 swinging strikes on 90 pitches in this start against the Rangers of all teams. I think I think Zach Allen is fine.

All right. Pitching standouts. Part two. Grayson Rodriguez turned in a quality start against the Blue Jays where he allowed three runs over six innings.

He had five strikeouts and 11 swinging strikes. Looks like he did not have the feel for his slider at all. He had zero whiffs on the pitch. Zero called strikes or whiffs, actually. So I thought it was

a testament. He was still able to make it out of the start with a quality start against the Blue Jays. Bryce Elder, back-to-back solid. outings after two bad ones. He allowed one run over five and a third

innings against the Mets. And Bailey Ober went five innings allowing two runs with three strikeouts at the Brewers. And you know it's a solid start for him, but he has not completed six in a start since July 23rd. And that might be by

design. I think the twins are purposefully trying to limit Bailey Ober moving forward. Any thoughts on him, Elder, and Grod. Yeah, because like Luzardo, he's over his previous high and him over. Otherwise,

yeah, not a lot more to say here. So two good starts in a row for Elder, each of them, though, three walks versus three strikeouts, so you can't be impressed by that. In these back-to-back starts, his slider was his primary pitch, which usually isn't the case.

But I noticed in this start, his combined two-seamer and four-seamer use was basically the same as always. So maybe he's giving up some sinkers for four seamers. There's a bit of a trade-off happening there with those two pitches. But it doesn't seem like he's going slider-heavy necessarily

just because it shows up as the top pitch in terms of usage. These last two starts, they weren't the best, but did get a ton of whiffs. So I thought it was worth mentioning Bobby Miller. Perhaps he was left in a little bit too long in this start where he did get into the seventh inning. He went six and a third. He allowed four runs with five strikeouts,

had 20 swinging strikes on 97 pitches against a Guardian's lineup that... I know I wrote this down somewhere. I think I did. Where do they rank? They are very low. Maybe I didn't write it down. I think they have the second lowest

strikeout percentage against right-handed pitching. So I thought it was notable that many whiffs for Bobby Miller. And then Lucas G. Alito, the victim of some bad dude. defense behind him. He allowed four runs over six innings. Only one of those runs was earned. He had nine strikeouts with 22

swinging strikes. Any thoughts here? On the whiffs. Bobby Miller, Lucas Gilido. So, Gilito made some pretty major changes to his arsenal here in this start. Through his fastball, just 28% of the time, instead of the usual 45% of the time.

It's a big drop. And that meant more change-ups and sliders. Both pitches were up more than a mile per hour. So he was throwing them more, he was throwing them harder. They combined for 20 of his 22 whiffs. So right now it's just an isolated event.

It's not a trend. But if it becomes a trend, it could be a game changer for Gialito. And Bobby Miller's swinging strike distribution was also fascinating. if I could find the breakdown because it was spread among a bunch of different pitches. So of his 20 swinging strikes, Bobby Miller got seven on the fastball, four on the curveball, four on the changeup, three on the slider,

and two on the sinker, five different pitches with two whiffs or more for Bobby Miller. And that's a typical for a rookie pitcher especially. A lot of times, you know, a rookie pitcher who throws 99. A lot of times these guys come up and they're featuring just two pitches. Bobby Miller's running five out there. And that's pretty exciting, I think. I think so too. You know, Bobby Miller, you watch him pitch,

he's got fantastic stuff. It's kind of odd to me that he hasn't had better results this year, but just thinking out loud for the future. I think Bobby Miller, maybe everybody will be excited about him next year, but I think he's someone that I'm going to like quite a bit for 2024. A few hitting leftovers, Bryce Harper went two for three with a walk and his 11th home run.

And he is hot in August so far, hitting 324 with six home runs. Trey Turner went one for five with a two-run walk-off single and his last 16 games since he got a standing ovation in Citizens Bank Park. He is betting 359 with four home runs, 10 runs, 13 RBI, and one stolen base. Might be coming around. C.J. Abrams went one for four with his 13th, home run. Obviously, he had that fantastic July. I did notice in August for Abrams. He still has three home runs, eight steals. It's very helpful. He's batting 216. So we're probably still going to

see a lot of, I guess, fluctuation in CJ Abrams's batting average for the time. Yeah, but the biggest thing is that he's running because that's something. He has 24 steals since the start of July. I mean, that had to be part of his profile for him to be a fantasy asset. Yeah. And he just just wasn't doing it for so long. So it's good to see that continuing, even if he's not hitting as well. Marcel O'Suna went three for three with a walk and his 27th home run.

He had three hard hits in this game, including a single that was 11.1 exit velocity. Ronald de Cunia went two for four with a walk and two more steals. He is up to 58 stolen bases and 113 run scored on August 23rd.

Wow. Yeah. Dalton Varsho. We haven't talked about him in a while. Two for five with his 16th home run. He had an awful July where he hit 171 with a 441 OPS. But he has bounced back in August, batting 281 with four homers, three steals, and a 928 OPS. Still is not hitting the ball hard in the month of August, but lots of fly balls.

So he's just kind of overcompensating by putting the ball in the air as much as he is. And, you know, look, all. of a sudden, Varsho has 16 homers, 15 steals. The batting average is low at 224, but this is probably what we wanted, right? You know, a 2020, 25, 25 kind of guy, and he's on pace for close to that, Scott. So, yeah, I mean, still terrible numbers at his home park. It seems like a bad place for left-handed batters, and he's not going to be catcher eligible next year. So overall, I'm still pretty down on Varshot. Marcel O'Zuna, to give you the updated stats, since April ended, and remember, he had like

080 in April. So that's really dragged down his season-long numbers this whole time. Since the end of April, O'Zuna is batting 287 with 25 homers and about a 900 OPS. So as of last week, his roster rate was only 67% in CBS sports leagues. It's up over 80 now. It took a long time to get there. But it is fully justified. And then I will mention for Ronald Acuna.

So you said 28 homers, 58 steals. He's practically 30-60 already. You know how many 30-Homer 60 steel seasons there have been in MLB history? Probably less than a handful. Zero. Wow. That would be the first one. And what's the limit, though?

I mean, he can go 3570. Yeah, I mean, he probably won't go 40-40, which was what everybody was asking at the beginning of it. He could. He'd 12 home runs away. That's possible in over a month's time. But 30-60 is rare. And as you say, it could be more like 3570 when all is said and done. There have been 2.30 Homer 50-50 steel seasons in history, which Acuna technically hasn't reached yet. He needs two more home runs. Barry Bonds and Eric Davis, the only two to go 30-50. Wow. Insane. Just cement that in for next year. First overall pick, Ronald Acuna Jr. Call to the bullpen. A few updates here for the Tigers.

Good call, Scott. It does look like the Tigers want Alex lying back in that closer roll because Jason Foley entered in the eighth inning with one out and a one-run lead. He did get the final two outs of the inning. and then Alex Lange came on for the ninth. Did give up a hit but picked up his 19th save and now has the last two saves for the Detroit Tigers. For the Giants, Camillo DeValle got the ninth inning with a one-run lead.

He gave up two runs, took his sixth blown save and fourth loss. For the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan walked one but converted his 22nd save. For the pirates, David Bednar picked up his 27th. For the Braves, Reiselaglacius converted his 25th save. For the Blue Jays, Romano, his 31st. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz,

entered with two outs in the ninth, a runner on first and a three-run lead. He struck out Luis Robert for his eighth save so far. And for the Reds, Alexis Diaz, his league leading 34th save of the season. For the Oakland A's, Trevor May, picked up his 13th save for the Marlins. A nice bounceback outing for David Robertson,

who picked up his 18th save. and then for the D-backs, Paul Seawald did try and make it interesting. He allowed three base runners to reach with a three-run lead, but closed it out and picked up his 27th save of the year. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday. And no surprise, Cole Reagan's at the Oakland days. I think we're all in on that one. Fully on board.

Seth Lugo versus the Marlins, I think is A-OK. Yep. And I think... I mean, two are the best streamers we've had all year, I would say, are Reagan's and Lugo with those matchups. So, of course, they'll give up seven and runs in four innings. No, positivity, Scott. Don't at me. I think McKenzie Gore at the Yankees, I think.

Yeah. Yeah, coming off the start he just had. I mean, you always got to be careful when you're messing with Charzard, as our friend Ash Ketcham knows. but hopefully he doesn't char you. He chars the opposition instead. Which right now seems very likely for the New York Yankees. On Thursday, it is a smaller slate of action. I think the Brandon's going up against each other.

I think either one is okay. Brandon fought. You say that like everyone knows who you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, come on. They're clearly the two best Brendan's in the game. Just kidding. Brandon Woodruff is out there. But Brandon Williamson at the debacks

and Brandon had fought at home against the Reds. They are much scarier than any of the last three we mentioned. Yes. So, I mean, I'd much rather stream on Wednesday with Reagan's, Lugo, and Gore than with Fott or Williamson. And frankly, I might prefer Dean Kramer against the Blue Jays to fought in Williamson on Thursday.

He's like the the quintessential RNG pitcher, meaning random number generator. So it could be terrible, but it could be, you know, seven one red innings with a good offense backing them up.

So not crazy about starting Kramer, but if you're just, if you're just trying to pack in as many wins as you can, he's, I think, an okay choice. I think you could take that exact analysis, add more strikeouts, and the result is Andrew Heaney at the Minnesota Twins on Thursday as well.

So you don't know what you're going to get, but obviously it has a great offense backing him, a team that strikes out a lot in the Minnesota Twins. I think all four of those names are fine. But again, I prefer the Wednesday streamers to the ones on Thursday. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple.

or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.