Fantasy Baseball Today - Bieber, Glasnow Hurt; Foreign Substance Policy & More Waiver Adds (6/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

2021 is officially the year of the injury. Let's start with Shane Bieber who went to the IL and Tyler Glasnow who left his start (1:32). Who might you be able to add to help out in their absence? ... Apparently pitchers will be suspended 10 games with pay if they're caught with foreign substances (11:26). Should you try and trade Trevor Bauer? ... Jonathan India and Joey Votto have been awesome recently (19:39). Are they must-add players? ... News and notes (24:36)! Max Scherzer will not start this week, Matthew Boyd left his start, and Mike Trout is about a month away. ... Prospect updates (29:56)! ... Where does Kyle Schwarber rank among other outfield adds (32:54)? Is Dan Vogelbach an option in deeper leagues? ... Alek Manoah, Nathan Eovaldi, and Kenta Maeda all had notable starts Monday (38:26). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers, Team Name Tuesday and your FBT Facebook questions (45:05). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris and Adam. Injuries, injuries, and more injuries. That is the theme of the 2021 fantasy baseball season. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Tuesday. June 15th, Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. And Scott, I went to the park earlier today. I was throwing around the baseball a little bit with my brother-in-law. And I think I've got to take it easy.

Next thing you know, I'm going to be on the I.O. Yeah, no, if we start going down there, there's definitely problems, for sure. Big problems. As you may know by now, if you are listening or watching this podcast, Shane Bieber and Tyler Glass Now got hurt on Monday, among many others that got hurt. So we're going to talk about all the injuries right here at the top. We could have suspensions in the near future for foreign substances,

according to Jeff Pass, and we'll talk about that. Recap Monday's action, some team name Tuesday, and I asked for some tough questions from our fantasy baseball today, Facebook group, and hopefully we get to those by the end of the podcast because there is a lot to talk about. Scott, let's not waste any time. Let's jump right in with injuries to two of the game's best starting pitchers. Shane Bieber went to the aisle with a right shoulder strain.

He will not throw for two weeks and will be re-evaluated afterwards. I think this might be the reason for some of his struggles so far this season, right? So talk about Shane Bieber. And then Tyler Glassnow was removed from Monday start with right elbow inflammation. And if you remember, Glass Now was limited to 12 starts back in 2019 due to a forearm injury. So we'll start with Bieber, Scott. there's not really much that we can add. We're not doctors,

but it seems like I would be surprised if we see him before the All-Star break. Yeah, I mean, the All-Star break's only a month away, so... Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess that would be kind of surprising because he's not throwing for at least two weeks, at which point they'll reevaluate him. And maybe at that point he starts throwing again.

It's... What was the injury class? classified as shoulder soreness, shoulder inflammation, something very vague that really gives you. Shoulder strain. Shoulder strain, okay. It really doesn't give you much indication as to the severity. So it may not be that big of a deal, but, you know, it's going to be an absence of multiple weeks. So from your first round pick, from what's probably still your number one pitcher, even though he has been a little underwhelming lately. Yeah, that's a big loss.

That's a big loss. Now, you mentioned maybe it explains some of his struggles, which relative to what we saw from Bieber in April where he was setting strikeout records, you know, five of his first six starts this year were double-digit strikeout efforts. And then he's only had one sense. So, you know, relative to that, I guess you call it struggling, though, obviously you still, what he was providing in May and June, you'd still want your lineup. Yeah, I don't know. It is weird that he went from being that dominant that first month to just kind of good after that. Right? I don't know.

I don't know how far the shoulder issue dates back, how long he was pitching through it. These are all things I wonder about. But there's really nothing to do at this point other than wait and see what comes next with Shane Bieber. Yeah, and it's very likely that you could have had Beber and Glass Now on the same fantasy team because Beber was being drafted early, now late first, early second round, most of the time. If you played in a points league, it was probably early first round. Tyler Glassnow, third, fourth round, so readily available after Shane Bieber. So if you have these two on your team, you're going to have to make some moves, some ad drops.

I do have some starting pitchers we'll talk about here. but glass now so yeah I mean you know I drafted Beaver in like I don't know a bunch of leagues right so I had to go through fortunately there was enough

time before the lineup lock that I could remove him from my lineup right I say fortunately but in one of the leagues tout wars actually my only other choice was Dylan Bundy and I hastily

decided that Dylan Bundy would be better than nothing, right? Surely he'd be better than nothing. I can say he wasn't better than nothing against the athletics. There's a second start coming up, but I don't know if that's something I should be looking forward to. I added my own insult to injury there by starting Bundy in place of nothing. The final line for Dylan Bundy on Monday, two and a third, five hits, seven earned runs. The ERA is up to 6.98. He is still somehow 66% rostered. Dylan Bundy. He gone.

He gone. He gone. You can officially drop Dylan Bundy if you have not to this point. He is completely broken in the season. Just getting back to Tyler Glass. Now, Scott, I mean, this is part of the risk with him. I mean, he was going so deep into his start. It's something we have never seen him do before. And this comes out of nowhere.

Obviously, right elbow inflammation. There could be some tie-in back to that forearm injury he had back in 2019. Obviously, all related to his pitching arm. So we don't have much here yet on Tyler Glass now, but this was always part of the risk that comes with drafting him based on what happened in back in 2019. Yeah, so inflammation, I guess this is what I was thinking of. That's about as vague as it gets in terms of describing an injury.

And my thinking is it's probably not a big deal. You know, I haven't heard anything about maybe him going in for an MRI or whatever. I haven't heard anything. His velocity was good in this start. It wasn't like one of those starts where it's like, oh, what's wrong with him? And then he gets pulled, you know? It was just, he got pulled earlier than you expect and found out afterward. Oh, inflammation in that way.

Like, that could be a very, very minor thing. So definitely don't want to overreact, but it's not what you want to see. And the concern for Glassnow all along is going to be what happens when the innings start reaching. a point that he's not familiar with because it's, I think it was 2017 the last time he went even 130 innings in a season. And then obviously he threw hardly any last year because nobody threw many last year. So a lot of questions as to how well Glass Now is going to hold up. And this is the first indication that there might be some trouble.

But again, we need to know. We need to find out more before we have a big reaction to it. Yeah, that was 2017, Scott, for Tyler Glass now when he threw, it looks like 155 and a third innings for the pirates at the time. This season, he was already up to 88, and he was one of the league leaders consistently going deep into his starts. And look, we said this a couple of weeks. So actually, I think it was Chris, who said it in particular,

this is probably the hardest season of fantasy baseball ever. because given all of the environmental changes between the baseball and the foreign substances and all the ups and downs, only from that perspective. And then on top of that, you have all these injuries that are taking place. And we knew it was going to be a weird season.

We talked about this a lot in preseason, spring training, about how coming off a shortened year, there were going to be things that happened that we have never seen before. And this level of players getting hurt, I think obviously falls under that category. So the last time I looked into it, I think it was, IL placements were up 30% this season compared to the same point back in 2019.

I would assume that that has only gone up with as many players are currently going on the IL. So Scott, help me rank a few of these starting pitchers who might be available in people's fantasy leagues. And I'm going to throw two of the names in there that pitched on Monday. And they pitched very well. Alson Gombert eight shutout against the San Diego Padres at home in Corse Field. Vladimir Gutierrez, who turned in a quality start. against the Milwaukee Brewers, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts, but they join a group of Terrick Scouble, Mike Minor, Tucker Davidson, and Logan Gilbert, Scott.

So you don't have to rank him. Give me your top three of that group. Gomber, Scobel, Minor, Tucker Davidson, Logan Gilbert, Vladimir Gutierrez. Okay. I would say my top three are Terik Scubal, Logan Gilbert. and I think I'm going to lean minor over Gomper just because he's been fine at home so far as you mentioned this was a this was a home start

and he went eight shutout endings he has actually issued just four walks over his past nine starts Gomber has but he'd be defying Rocky's history in an almost to an almost universal degree that even makes sense by having a good season at Coorsfield all year long. So I still say the odds are against Gomber

even though I like what he's doing on an individual level that's just really difficult hurdle to overcome. So I would say he's fourth on this list and go with Scoobel, Gilbert, and Minor ahead of him. I think I might put Gilbert number one on this list, but there's a lot to like about what Scoboble has done

and I would take Gomber ahead of Mike Minor. I hear what you're saying, Scott. Look, it's scary. Any time we have a Rockies pitcher emerge, doesn't really happen that often anyway. But yeah, last nine starts, 2.20 ERA with 52 strikeouts to just four walks, as you mentioned, over 53 and a third innings pitched for Austin Gomberg. He's 74% rostered. So still might be out there in some shallower leagues. I think a lot of people added him for the two starts this week, and you have been rewarded thus far if you had him in your lineup. Gutierrez, I just want to touch on a little bit more. I agree that he doesn't rank in the top three or four on this list.

But I did really like what I saw. I was watching a lot of that start. And he struggled early on, really settled down, retired 13 of the final 14 batters that he faced. He is 42% rostered. Again, the name there, Vladimir Gutierrez. And if you are in deeper leagues, each of Patrick Sandoval, Tony Santion, who is the prospect for the Reds, who made his debut on Sunday. And Colby Allard are rostered in fewer than 15% of CB.

ES League. Scott, before we haven't even gotten to our Omar, goodness gracious player yet, but we do have to talk about this update that we received about the foreign substance situation. This comes according to Jeff Passon of ESPN and he wrote MLB is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will suspend players caught with any foreign substance for 10 days with pay.

That includes the widely used sunscreen and rosin combination to Spider-Tech. This will officially begin next Monday, June 21st. Well, how might this affect things? Since June 3rd, Jeff Passon pointed out, the league-wide batting average has jumped to 247. That is up from 236, which is what it was to that point in the season. So from April 1st to June 2nd, 236 batting average from June 3rd on 247. We expected batting average to improve throughout the summer months, batheep, so on and so forth. But that's a pretty big jump, 11 points in batting average. So I don't know if it's going

to get much better than that, but offense is welcome at this point. And obviously, pitching has declined as a result from April 1st or June 2nd, league-wide ERA 4.06 with a 1.27 whip from June 3rd on a 4.38 ERA with a 1.30 whip. So, Scott, what is your reaction to this update on foreign substances? And the fact that it looks like offense is coming here in fantasy baseball. Yeah, there are a lot of factors working in offense's favor, which is why I've been saying for the past several days that I really don't feel comfortable trading pitching right now, even if it seemed like you had a lot, it could dwindle quickly. I think attrition is going to become a problem, as we saw with Beaver and Glass now today. It's always a problem over a course of a baseball season, but it will be more than ever this year just because they're, These arms got so little work last year,

and they're being pushed pretty hard this year, considering every single arm in the league. Again, the hardest fantasy baseball season ever. So between that, between the natural effect of offense going up in the summer months, and spin rates going down now because of the enforcement of this rule, offense, it could really shift the balance of power in a pretty dramatic way.

I mean, if the league batting average remains two, 47 or better from this point forward. And that's a very different environment than what we were working with. Certainly in April. April was ridiculous, but also May. That's something to keep an eye on. It's kind of early to say.

It's only been, well, it's been like, what, two weeks? It may not be that early to say. Yeah. I mean, it's still a small sample side. That's ultimately what we're dealing with here. Well, it's a small span of time, but a lot of at-bats. Yep, that is fair. So, yeah, we'll see.

That's definitely something to consider, though. As for the 10-game suspension with pay, I mean, that's historically what the suspension has been for a pitcher getting caught used foreign substances. We haven't seen many pitchers get caught using foreign substances. It was allowed to slide for a very long time. I mean, I remember Michael Paneda with the pine tire on his neck, right? but that's seven years ago, I think, when that happened.

And obviously a really blatant case. So he got suspended 10 games for that, and we haven't seen a lot of that otherwise. The question is, is it enough of a deterrent for the pitchers who really benefit from having that sticky stuff? Are they, you know, if they can hide it better than Michael Paneda did, for example,

seven years ago, is it going to be worth it to them to continue doing it with that penalty? And I don't know. I mean, I would guess for a lot of them it would be, especially since you're still going to get paid. What's going to be interesting is what kind of stigma gets attached to getting busted for this, you know, because obviously the PED stuff, the stigma has been enormous, you know? And I think enough of it, like, you're allowed to play again. but you kind of that hangs over you for the rest of your career

and if you have a Hall of Fame case that's really going to impede your chances of getting in the Hall of Fame. It's a major stigma, the PED thing. I don't know if the stigma for this is going to be as great. I suspect not. But I don't know.

For some reason, in baseball, these things seem to get blown out of proportion relative to other sports, you know? Yeah, I mean, in my opinion. There's kind of a sanctimony among the fans in the media in baseball that doesn't exist in other sports. And so maybe that'll be a deterrent even more than a suspension. I assume, Scott, people are going to want me to ask you,

oh, does this mean that you want to try and trade away your Garrett Cole or your Trevor Bauer? But my follow-up to that would be, what are you going to get? I mean, if we're going to see pitching as a whole take a step back, I would assume that foreign substances or not, I don't know if this is a fair thing to assume, but the elite starting pitchers,

they're going to further separate themselves the rest of season, Scott, versus that mid-tier of pitchers that has overperformed to an extreme level to this point in the season. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's,

I suspect the gap between, the gap at starting pitcher will be, will grow. Like you said, the gap at starting pitcher. I don't know if it'll be as extreme as 2019, but I think that's on the table. So,

you know, Bauer is the one specific pitcher that I have the most concerns about because, you know, it was really clear what he was doing and when. I don't think he automatically becomes this kind of average or slightly above average pitcher

because, I mean, you look what he did in 2018, for Cleveland still. In my opinion, he was the best pitcher in the American League that year. And if he didn't get hurt late in the year, he probably would have won the Cy Young.

That was the year, Snell won. So, you know, there's still an outcome, there's still a very high-end outcome for Bauer, even if he loses something by no longer using those substances.

And I'd be reluctant to sell low on him. But, like, if you could trade, Bauer for like, I don't know, like a Lucas Gialito or something like that, that's something I'd have to consider at this point. Yeah, it's just like just a just, you know, kind of a slight downgrade from Bauer. Yeah, but the thing is we've talked about that before and it's kind of hard to pull those kind of trades off because people start thinking, well, you know, why are you trying to make this kind of trade? And if anyone's actually following baseball, they're going to know that something could happen to Trevor Bauer moving forward.

Not that it's definitely going to happen. But yeah, you can shop him. And I think if you can get full value, sure, it's something that you could look into doing, but don't just sell low on Trevor Bauer based on what is happening right now in baseball with these foreign substances. And for anyone who follows me on Twitter, shameless plug here at Roto underscore Frank, I recently made my Twitter picture

Trevor Bauer over my body with his face. So I've been kind of a bad luck charm for anyone that I have put as my picture. Scott, I had Jared Kelnick before this. That didn't work out. Corey Klobber, I put up with the Terminator eyes after he threw a no hitter.

We know how that ended. He's on the IL for at least the next month or so. John Carlo Stanton, same thing happened. Guy was red hot, goes on the IL. So, Scott, if there's anyone that you want to slow down, just let me know. And I'll put them as my Twitter picture. All right.

I'll think about that. Keep that in your mind. All right, oh, my goodness. We're only 20 minutes in, but there was a lot to talk about. So let's do it. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scott, let's talk about some of Monday's action. Who would you like to highlight first?

I would like to highlight Jonathan India, who we've talked about a little bit recently, but he had a great game on Monday night. He pretty much filled up the box score, three hits, a double, a stolen base, which have been a part of his contribution, stolen bases. He had a walk, so he was on base four times. and as I've said about Jonathan Indy a few times,

just later in the show, most of the time he's come up, he's been really good since mid-May. So entering tonight his past 27 games, Jonathan India, hit 287 with four home runs, three steals, an 881 OBS reached base at a 410 clip.

He's, you know, obviously good on base skills. He did show that throughout his minor league career. He's back batting, lead off for the Reds. There's enough power, enough speed there that I think he's going to be a useful player in all formats if he can continue this pace. And, you know, most of the bad numbers came in April where pretty much every header was bad,

right? Or at least the vast majority of them. So maybe this is Jonathan India's truer form. It's what he was showing in spring training. It's what we were hoping for from him. And now he's delivering on it. Scott, how would you rank these potential second base ads? Jonathan, India, Josh Rojas, who the batting average has slowed down tremendously.

He's still hitting for power, but his last 15 games of 148 batting average. And Brendan Rogers, India, Rojas, Rogers. How would you rank him? Yeah, I'm close to moving India ahead of Rojas, though. You know, we've seen Rojas go very cold before and turn things around. So I don't want to bury him now. but I think it's very close between India and Rojas. I'll lean India right now.

And then I'll have Rogers third. Rogers probably has the most outside of the three, but obviously has a lot to prove still. And he was out of the lineup today for the Rockies. So he still has a playing time issue to overcome as well. Yes, that always an issue for our Colorado Rockies. But I think a lot to like about Jonathan India. And I think there's a lot to like about Joey Votto as well.

So let's just talk about both the Reds here at the top. And Votto went two for four with a home run and three RBI on Monday. He has three home runs in seven games since returning from the IL. He is 52% rostered. And I received two questions on Twitter earlier, Scott. Would you drop Reese Hoskins for Joey Votto? No, I want to drop Hoskins for him. I did drop Josh Bell for him. I don't know if that's notable. I was waiting to move on for Bell for a while and a number of leagues. And Johnny, Joey Votto finally gave me that opportunity. I almost called him Jonathan Votto.

So much I have India, Jonathan India on the brain. Well, that was the next question. Someone else asked me, would you drop Josh Bell for Votto? So you're cool with that one. I'm cool with that one. Oh, you know what? This is even more notable. I dropped Eric Hosmer for Joey Votto in one league.

Oh, I saw that. I think that was in the podcast Points League, right? It was. Yeah. Hosmer is slugging under 400. now this season. He's clearly gone back to being old Eric Hosmer. And yeah, I think Joey Votto brings more to the table at this stage of the game. He homered for the third time in seven games since returning from the fractured thumb. Remember, he had a very strong finish last year. I believe it was

eight home runs in his final 28 games, something like that. And he talked about how he had kind of changed his approach to hit for more power because he realized he couldn't get away with selling out for contact and still have the home runs come at his age. So he figured it out last September. He talked about it this spring. The power's been there. The batting average is lagging, but the expected stats suggests he's been underachieving in that regard.

He deserves better than he's gotten. So I think Joey Votto could be a must-star player the rest of the way if things go right, certainly in points leagues, but maybe across the board. All right, some Cincinnati Reds there that you can add to your fantasy baseball team. And before we hit some more news and notes, entry related, of course, it is U.S. Open Week, and the First Cut Golf Podcast has all your needs covered as the world's best golfers travel to Tori Pines. They are on the scene in California all week to give you daily fantasy advice, the best picks,

and props and round by round analysis. Listen to the first cut wherever podcasts are found, or you can stream every episode on YouTube. News and notes from Monday. Max Scherzer's groin is improving, but he will not start on Wednesday this week. Matthew Boyd exited Monday start with left arm discomfort,

and the last I saw, it sounds like he is likely bound for the IL, and if anybody is wondering about Tiger's pitching prospect, Matt Manning, he currently has an 8.07 ERA over seven starts at AAA. So I do not think Matt Manning will be an option. Both Rob Ref Snyder and Michael Paneda went to the IL for the twins.

After another examination, the Angels believe Mike Trout is about one month away from a return. So that sounds like right after the All-Star break, we should get Mike Trout back. George Springer started a rehab assignment at AAA on Monday. Eloy Jimenez was cleared for baseball activities. He had surgery on his torn peck back in March. If all goes well, Eloy could be back by August. I think it's pretty hard to stash Eloy at this point, Scott, just because there's so many injuries going on right now.

But what do you think about that possibility? I mean, it's encouraging, because remember when he suffered the injury, it wasn't clear he was going to be back this year. And, I mean, we've seen enough set back, and not even really setbacks, we've seen enough injured players, long-term injured players suffer new injuries

that we shouldn't have assumed anything for Oloi Jimenez. I mean, frankly, it's been ridiculous between Luke Voigt and Carlos Carrasco and Mike Soroka and that just Luis Safferino most recently. Can't assume anything, but this is a very positive sign. I think I have not been that motivated to Stash Jimenez up until this point. Now he becomes an attractive stash. I mean, at least up there with somebody like Carasco, probably ahead of somebody like Soroka, if you want to make that move and are able to.

Eloy Jimenez is currently 58% rostered on CBS, so he might be out there in some leagues. And speaking of Mike Soroka, the Braves are optimistic now that he could return in late August. He had a second procedure on his Achilles tendon back in May. Of course, he tore his Achilles last August, and I think it was always pretty optimistic that he was going to be ready for the start of this season.

So he had that setback, and even if he returns this year, I don't think he's really going to provide you much. IMO. Andrew Benetendi was placed on the IL with a right rib fracture. Edward Olivaris was recalled for the Royals. Cody Bellinger will not return before Wednesday, and there's a chance that he goes back on the IL. Mike Mustakis will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday.

Luis Severino is scheduled to meet with the Yankees team doctors to receive further evaluation. his right groin. Stephen Matt's tested positive for COVID and we'll miss at least the next two weeks. We have a bunch of Mets updates. Michael Conforto is expected to start a rehab assignment by the end of this week.

Jeff McNeil started his rehab on Sunday. Brendan Nimmo took batting practice and could begin rehab soon. Michael Former was activated by the Tigers. Scott, if you had to guess who gets the next save chance for the Tigers? My guess would be Cisnero.

that would be my guess but it could be Fulmer obviously there hasn't been much consistency there I just think Jose Cisnero has been really since about

the start of May he's been very effective and obviously is a more natural fit for a closer role than somebody like Michael Fulmer but we'll see whenever the Tigers have a safe chance

again we will see yes one injury update that I don't think you had in here, Frank. Byron Buxton, did you see what's going on with him? What's up with Bucks? The Bucks. So, still residual soreness in that half after his rehab

after his rehab assignment. So he hasn't been activated yet. He's going to work out Monday and Tuesday, then be reevaluated, and they think he'll probably be ready to go then, but you've heard that before. So, yeah, I mean, he's probably locked in for this week already for you, Buxton,

but can't be totally sure he's back yet. And this is always the issue with him, too. It's especially unfortunate because he finally looked like he was breaking out and becoming the player. You know, we all thought he had upside, maybe not this much, but he looked great earlier in the season. So this is really unfortunate for Byron Buxton. A couple of new news items, Mitch Hanigur and Javier Baez remain out of their respective lineups on Monday.

Javier Baez is expected back on Tuesday. Luis Araiz was activated by the twins. Kwong Han Kim is cleared to start Tuesday against the Marlins. Max Muncie's IL stint is expected to be the minimum 10 days. G. Man Choy was reinstated from the IL. Jonathan Skope returned to the lineup on Monday, and Brian Anderson was transferred to the 60-day IL by the Miami Marlins. A few other prospect updates.

Red Sox, Jeter Downs, had a double dong on Sunday. Jaron added a home run himself. Those are two of their top prospects in the organization. June has not been kind to these two gentlemen. Vidal Bruhan is batting just 200 with a 629 OPS this month. And Hazu Sanchez with the Marlins is batting just 239 with a 740 OPS. And Scott, why do the raise love the last name low? So much low, Lao.

I guess everyone pronounces it differently. But they have another outfield prospect named Josh Lowe or Lowe, who is batting 307 with nine home runs and six steals at AAA. OPS over 1,000, too. So he's been awesome. He's one of their brothers. I can't remember which. I mean, this is becoming too much, Scott.

Low, Lau. Yeah. The pronunciation would depend on whose brother he is, right? Let's see, he is. Well, that's weird, right? because they, he's a brother of Nate Lau, so they traded him out of the organization, but Josh Lau, I guess, remains.

Nate is low. Nate is not Lao. Oh, God. Brandon is Lau. I just completely messed that up. How low can you go? How low can I go? Do you have anything you'd like to add on Josh Lowe?

No. All right. Ask India shall receive. I mentioned the Nationals pitching prospect, Cade Cavalli. He was their first round pick in 2020. He had three straight double-digit strikeout performances in high A. I said, who knows?

Maybe he'll get promoted to AA. Guess what happened on Monday? He got promoted to AA. I don't think. I'm pretty certain we're not going to see him at all this season. But maybe by 2022, Cade Cavalry is a name that should be on your radar. We are going to take a quick break. But when we return, I have a few more waiver-wire names to talk about.

Some notable pitching performances. We'll do that next here on. fantasy baseball today. All right, Scott, so let's just say you saw Dominic Smith on your waiver wire. What would your excitement level be? If I saw who now, Dominic Smith? Yeah, good old

Dom. My excitement level would be very low. Low or low? Uh, low. Okay, Dominic Smith went two for three with a walk and his fifth home run of the season on Monday. And in case you wanted to know what is going on with

Dominic Smith this year. His quality of contact is down across the board, which might explain his home run to fly ball ratio, which is more than cut in half this season compared to last. It is at 9% this year. Last season, it was 22%. The strikeouts are also up a little bit for Dom Smith. So I don't think that he's a must-add player by any means, but when he gets hot, which we saw last year over a two-month span, he can carry fantasy teams. So just keep that in mind if he starts to turn things on here. Patrick Wisdom basically has never slowed down. He just hit his ninth home run

in his first 20 games here with the Chicago Cubs this season. So Scott, if you were ranking Dom Smith, Patrick Wisdom, and Joey Votto, just as first base waiver wire ads, how would you rank that trio? Votto, and I think I'd go Smith, the head of wisdom.

I probably would depend on how shall the league is shallower. I might just go with the hotter hand there. Although I will say, you mentioned wisdom hasn't really slowed down. And he is batting 333 still, but six games prior to today's, he had gone just three for 18.

So that's a 167 batting average over the six games. Just six games, but, I mean, he's obviously going to regress some. It's just a matter of if he continues to Homer consistently enough to justify that lineup spot. So yeah, back to your original question. I'll say Votto Smith and Wisdom. Some other waiver-wire decisions that you might have.

Kyle Schwerber hit his fourth home run over the last three days for the nationals. He is 75% rostered, so more of a shallow league add. Over his last 30 games, Kyle Swarber is batting 264 with 10 home runs. Scott, how would you rank Schwabur, Justin Upton, and Alex Kirolov, who also hit a home run on Monday? I would go Upton, then Keehawber. Kirillov than Schwabr. All right. So no love there for Shwurbs.

Well, maybe I just have a lot of love for Upton and Kirillov. That is definitely a fair possibility. I think Schwab is pretty one-dimensional is the thing about him. So outside of Roto leagues, where you're trying to make up ground at home runs, don't see a lot of utility for him. but that's just me. Schwabber and Upton are actually pretty similar players, I guess, at this point in their career.

They strike out quite a bit. They're leading off for their respective teams now. They both walk a good amount as well. So very, very similar players. But Justin Upton has been even better than Kyle Schwerber recently. I think he's better. All right. Some names that may be available in some deeper leagues got Trevor Larnick,

who I feel like we talk about him quite a bit. He's still only 19% rostered on CBS. He had two more hits. on Monday. He might have added more. Let's see what he's got. No, two for four with an RBI. And he is batting 276 overall in the season, but what I thought was awesome to see from a young player. He's batting 304 with a 925 OPS against lefties. Of course, he is a left-handed batter himself, and he was batting cleanup on Monday against Marco Gonzalez. So I really like that. The other two names I wanted to throw in here, Aristidesis Aquino, he was just activated off the 60-day IL with

the Reds. He would have to be. one for four with his third home run of the season. He's 4% rostered. I don't know if he's only going to start against left-handed pitching. I guess that's a possibility. It's kind of crowded. And then Dan Vogelbach has started

seven straight games for the Brewers. He has three home runs during that span. Hits the ball pretty hard. He's not, you know, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or anything like that. Nobody is, obviously. But Dan Vogelbach does walk a ton

and his park is great for left-handed power, Scott. So, uh, between, coming, you know, he spent most of his major league career up to this point in Seattle, which isn't known as a favorable place to hit. I know

one spring training, especially, he had a huge performance, and his minor league track record is great. I mean, he's late 20s now, so it's kind of old news what Vogelbach did in the minors, but you know, last year after joining the

Brewers in 19 games, he hit 328 with four home runs at 987 OPS. And now He's hot again playing regularly with Kestan Hurah out of the picture. Vogelbach's basically taken over first base. So I added him in my 2014-Dinacy League. I mean, that's so deep. Why wouldn't you add him?

But I added him in a 15-teamer as well where I needed some help. I think I prioritized like Bobby Bradley over him. So that's kind of the depth I'm talking about here. But it's possible Vogelbach's best as a major leaguer is still to come. All right. Especially in Miller Park. I think, well, it's not Miller Park now. I forgot what they changed the name to.

But in Milwaukee, it's a great place to hit for left-handed power. Some notable pitching performances from Monday. We'll go down the line here. Alec Manoa at the Red Sox turned in a quality start. Pretty good one. Six innings, one run, five strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes on 93 pitches. He did throw a season high 30 sliders. He had seven whiffs in particular on that pitch.

and the one thing I've noticed, Scott, is that his fly ball percentage is going to climb over 45% after this start, which is not a great recipe for Manoa's home park in Buffalo, which I guess could change to Toronto at some point. Yeah.

What kind of... I'm not sure, actually, whether he was more... I mean, he made so few minor league starts, right? Yeah. Whether he was more of a groundball. So he was more of a flyball guy the miners too.

Yeah, something to keep in mind. I wish the strikeouts were higher for Manoa. The whiff rate, the strikeout rate, they've both been, I guess, a little above average. But, you know, not, he hasn't been so far this amazing bat misser like he was in every other situation that we've seen him. So you combine that with a high flight ball rate in all likelihood.

And there are warning signs there for Minoa? That said, he's probably been the most effective high profile call-up so far. So don't want to bash the guy too much. It's the best we got. Opposing Alec Minoa on Monday was Nathan Avaldi, who just got shelled his last time out against the Astros. And he's running into a team that just scored 18 runs. They hit eight home runs on Sunday.

And he goes six and two-thirds shutout, four strikeouts, only eight swinging strikes. So not a great start by any means. But what I noticed is he changed up the pitch mix in this one, Scott. And he basically scrapped his curveball. He threw a season high, 18 splitters and 17 cutters, which tied a team high. So maybe the change in pitch mix helps Nathan Avaldi, but it's not like he got a ton of strikeouts here in this one. Yeah, I mean, he might be somebody who benefits from just kind of mixing things up from start to start because he has a lot of weapons to work with now that he's developed two breaking balls,

curveball in the slider over the past couple years. But he's basically performed right in line with his ex-fip. The one thing I will say is of all the, I feel like he's had good home run luck so far in that he's only given up three. So that's a little worrisome. At the same time, looks like he's had bad Babette block. So maybe those two will cancel each other out. Like I said, basically right in line with his ex-fip so far.

Alex Wood, he was up against the Diamondbacks. Much needed quality start. His first quality start since May 21st. Six-innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. He had 17 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. Scott, anything you would like to add on Alex Wood? I'm relieved because I was really enjoying what he was doing when he was going well.

But he has last three starts had raised his ERA from 193 to 379. So that's rough. That's a rough three-start stretch. But, I mean, the overall track record for Alex Wood is still really good.

And he has one of the highest groundball rates in baseball this year. Yeah, I think he'll be glad you held on to him. Kenta Maeda returned from the I. on Monday against the Mariners, four innings, three hits, one run, three walks, seven strikeouts,

had 12 swinging strikes on 76 pitches, Scott. What would you label this start? Encouraging, me? I would label it, I would label it more encouraging than not. It could have been a lot worse. Obviously, the three walks. I mean, that's the most he's had any start this year.

And again, he didn't. go that deep, which has been a problem for NIDA all year. But it was his first start back from injury. So, you know, and this started to be expected. It was also kind of weird that he didn't throw his splitter at all. Remember, that's a pitch we've been fixating on with him because it hadn't appeared as effective this year as it was last year. And it started to increase its effectiveness, you know,

in terms of how many, what percentage, what the width rate was looked like for it. leading up to that IL stint. So it's weird that he went away from it in this start. But now he got seven strikeouts in four innings. First start back from the IL. I'll take that as a positive sign. I wonder if all these pitches that they labeled changeup, Scott, are actually splitters because I know sometimes the pitch tracking

kind of gets messed up. All right. So what was the whiff rate on that changeup? It was he had four whiffs on, he threw 24 of them. 44% whiff rate. Okay. That would be good. If that was the splitter,

that would be an encouraging sign in and of itself. Yeah, I have to go back and see how baseball savant usually tracks his splitter if they call it a change-up or a splitter.

Yeah, he doesn't have a change-up. So, yeah, you're probably right about that. That was probably the splitter. The last one I wanted to bring up here, Scott, Tony Gonsland had another clunker. It's only his second start of the season, but against the Phillies, three and two-thirds,

one run, three walks, so the control continues to be an issue. Did have five strikeouts. Building up, he got up to 81 pitches in this start, but all of a sudden... He keeps building up and falling short of four innings. That was what's happening in the minors, too. Well, we have pitchers emerging, right, on the waiver wire. So would you drop Gonsolin for any of the names I brought up earlier? Gomber, Scoobel, Minor, Davidson, Gilbert, Gutierrez?

No, I mean, Scoobel might be kind of. tempting, but I got to give him more than two starts. I got to give Gonsolin more than two starts. He's somebody I've loved for the past couple of years, and this is the clearest chance he has to break through as a full-time starter. Obviously clunky out of the gate here, the walks make you scratch your head. But if there's any organization that's going to straighten him out, it's the Dodgers. All right, so Monday leftovers, and I say leftovers, right, and I'm about to lead it off with maybe the best hitter in baseball right now. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

hit his 22nd home run of the season. He's just not fair right now. He is on a different level. He hit it off Matt Barnes, who was one of the best closures in baseball entering that plate appearance. So Vlad can do it against anybody right now. Tim Anderson went two for four.

He is batting 3.41 in June with one homer and three steals. Overall, in the season, he has 12 stolen bases, which puts him on pace for 34 steals over 150 games. That would represent a career high if Tim Anderson does get there.

Lance Lynn turned in a quality start with eight strikeouts. The ERA still stands at 1.51 with a 0.93 whip. We had a bunch of rays do some stuff. Brandon Lownd, Lowett, one for four with his 12th home run. He also has four steals.

So he's making things happen, 12 homers, four steals. Still only batting 202. If he can get the batting average up to his experience, expected batting average, 224, like that range,

230, I think you can live with it based on the power and the speed that is giving you, but yeah. I mean, he might,

just knowing how streaky is and how the, the league environment is changing all of a sudden may change in his favor. Austin Meadows hit his 15th home run of the season.

Scott, did you know that Austin Meadows now has 50 RBI? When I saw this, I was like, hold on a second. 50 RBI?

Where did that come from. I know he was hot, but 50? It's crazy. He's tied for second in baseball with Raphael Devers. And behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. actually. Adam Wainwright turned in another quality start. He has been money at home this season. He had a 2.62 ERA at home entering the start. We already mentioned you can drop Dylan Bundy. Scott, can you drop? I was surprised. The Nelson LeMet's roster rate is still this high. 88%. He has not gone more than five in a game this year. And against the Rockies on Monday, four

innings, one run, three strikeouts. I just don't think that they're going to push Denelson Lemitt very much. Well, the pitches have been going up. The last two starts were around 75. And the previous one, he went five innings, went four in this one.

So slowly they're building him up, but he just, he hasn't been that impressive as they've been building him up. know, so I don't know that it's really worth waiting him out either. At least not to the extent that he is being weighted out, 88% roster. That surprises me that that's that high too. Carson Kelly added two hits, including his eighth home run.

He is batting just 169 in 18 games since coming off the IL. So a little bit of a slow bounce back here after returning for Carson Kelly. The call to the pens and bullpen updates. For the Nationals, Brad Hand picked up his 12th save. And Scott, I noticed his slider spin rate was done. down 184 RPM. So, R-R-R-R-Roe. I don't know if that matters,

but I will let you guys know about it. For the Red Sox, Matt Barnes allowed that home run to Vlad. He took his third-blown save, but wound up with the win, actually. For Cleveland, James Carrenchak, entered in the bottom of the seventh with runners on first and second

in a one-run game. He recorded the next four outs, and then Emmanuel Class A was used in the ninth for his 10th save. That recently, I was looking at it. I think it's the last four starts. Two have gone, last four saves, excuse me.

Two of them have gone to Class A. Two have gone to Karen check. So it's kind of a mix and match for Cleveland right now. For the Blue Jays, Raphael DeLis was used in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied. He wound up taking the loss. Charlie Montoyo said that Romano was available,

but they were saving him in case of a safe situation. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz, his 13th save for Tampa Bay. let's throw a bunch of names in a hat and whoever you pick out, that is who's going to get a save opportunity next for the Tampa Bay raise.

JP Fire Eisen pitched in the sixth and the seventh innings. Diego Castillo was used in the eighth to face the top of the lineup. And Pete Fairbanks was used in the ninth. He picked up his third save. He has two of the last three saves for Tampa Bay.

He is 16% rostered. JP Firecin does not have a save since May 31st. So is there any rhyme reason to this bullpen scout or is it just purely matchups? Well, it's a shame Castillo got heard because that just seems to have thrown a wrench

into everything here. I would still say he's the number one choice but it's annoying to see him go the 8th and Fairbanks the 9th and I guess Fairbanks is the number two choice now. Fire Eisen is fading.

I hadn't noticed this before. Fire Eisen's walked a ton of guys since joining the race. He's been walking. He's been giving up walks like you'd expect a pitcher to give a pits. So maybe that has something to do with it. For the Cardinals, Alex Reyes got his 17th save

for the Rockies, Daniel Bard, allowed a two-run home run to Trent Grisham, but picked up his ninth save of the season. And then for the Giants, this game just went final. They won 5 to 2. Jake McGee got his 13 save. Tyler Rogers was used

in the eighth inning. And don't really have enough time here to look up who was coming up in the lineup. Oh, look it up. That's annoying. Gosh. Thanks, Scott. I appreciate it. I, you know, that... I felt pretty good saying, okay, Rogers is the guy now.

And then they do this. So, Rogers was facing Eduardo Escobar, Christian Walker, and Carson Kelly. He also faced Pavin Smith. and then in the ninth that would represent the middle of the lineup three four and five not a very good lineup

you're right Stephen Dugger I can't even tell who this oh no that was playing center field okay sorry that's the job okay so Nick Ahmed David Peralta and uh...

that looks like Ildamaro Vargas okay yeah yeah I don't know I don't know if that I guess I guess that tells us that Tyler Roger was working in the higher leverage situation, though it wasn't an especially high leverage situation. Yep.

So who knows? The Oakland A's game just went final as well. They won eight to five. Lou Trevino picked up his 11th save. Jake Deekman was used in the eighth inning. He picked up his seventh hold. I feel pretty confident in saying Trevino is the guy for Oakland right now. He's been used.

Yeah, I mean, just by virtue of him being the right-handed pitcher, yeah. It's probably going to be more often than Deakman. but there will be some deekmen, I'm sure, still. To stream or not to stream for Tuesday, Scott, Andrew Heaney at the Oakland A's, Shane McClanahan at the White Sox, Mike Miner at the Tigers, Tyler Anderson at the Nationals, Jordan Montgomery at the Blue Jays, and J-Hap at the Mariners.

What I say yesterday, I think I said Minor, Heaney, and I may have said Montgomery yesterday at the Blue Jays. Man, the Blue Jays offense is so good. Yeah, I'll stick with it because I don't know what's going on with McClainahan right now. Yeah. Put a little asterisk next to Jordan Montgomery, and that means basically don't use them. To stream or not to stream for Wednesday,

Terrick Scoobel at the Royals, Keegan Aiken at Cleveland, Griffin Canning at the A's, Cole Irvin versus the Angels, Brady Singer versus the Tigers, and Merrill Kelly at the Giants. I hate doing the singer thing over and over again. Definitely Terrick Scouble at the Royals.

I'm... This will be the fourth, time that Singer has faced the Tigers this season. I think I'm going to go, if I had to choose, I would go Canning over Singer, Canning at Oakland. Canning's whiff rate is, you know, pretty close to elite still and like for him to have more consistency, but I think he's more talented than Singer. All right. Team name Tuesday.

These are from Griffin, Winkerbell. Okay. Which actually marries Jesse Winker and Josh Bell, but also his manager, David Bell. So that's kind of interesting. Folefa risotto. Okay. Yeah. I know you usually like the food one, Scott.

I do. So, do those two terms go together? Maybe I'm not understanding what the dishes here. Phlefa risotto? I don't know. Let's find out right now. Or something like that? Filophil?

No. Well, yeah, I was thinking falafel and risotto. Oh, yeah, there is, hold on a second, falafo. But maybe there's a, maybe there's a more

specific dish that we're overlooking here that would make it funnier. I don't know. I don't know. I think there's something called a falafa? I don't know.

Whatever. I failed. These are from Jack. Stassie's mom has got it going on. Boom. Yeah. This is a good one.

yee me, yee me, give me a save after midnight. This is a pretty good one. Go forth and Mantiply. Mantiply? What? I think he's a reliever on the Diamondbacks. Matt Manti was a reliever a long time ago.

Is there another man? Yeah. Another pitcher like that? Joe Mantiply. He pitched. Okay, okay. There's a pigeon named Mantiply. All right, that works then.

Sorry, I hadn't heard of him. Diamondbacks pull pins pretty bad. Yeah, it's for the, Diamondbacks are pretty bad. The Goodrum, the Bedou, and the Ugla. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's not bad.

If Enoa went to Nebraska, he'd be a corn, Huasca. I like the corny ones. That's a Heath. That's a Heath team name right there. 100%. These are from Mark. Duran Duran. Pretty standard.

Sure. Hungry like the wolf. The Smiths. I guess that could be a bunch of people. be a team name in any sport, right? That is, that sounds about right. This is from Jake. I've got Brian Hayes and Jazz Chisholm

rostered in my Dynasty League, and I think I'll have this name for years to come. Key got the Jazz, which I believe is a reference to a tribe called Quest. And this last one is from Jason. Dunning, Dunning, Dunning. You definitely need

a logo that that tells people. that that's how they're supposed to say it, but I like it. And, man, I have all these questions from Facebook. How many of the, let's try and do a little rapid fire, see how many of these we can get to, Scott. What would FBT do? This was like a whole segment that I had planned,

but then all this stuff happened on Monday, but we'll answer some of them here. This one's from Michael Smith. What is Trevor Bowers' fantasy trade value, which we kind of answered, and should you look to actually trade him? Bauer entering Monday was tied for 12th among starting pitchers in fantasy points per game.

So you would look for maybe drop off a little bit, but still, you're still looking for a top 10, top 12 is starting pitcher, if you want a pitcher, that is. Right, and you know, now, I mean, with things up in the air for glass now, I couldn't trade him for glass now. But I plan to move him behind guys like Brandon Wolf.

And I guess... Brandon... Scott, you just said, Brandon Wolf. I did, didn't. Brandon Woodruff. as do I meant, of course. Brandon Woolf. I'm looking for a few other pitchers in this range.

Would you do it for Aaron Nolo? I think, I don't, I don't think I would. That's like right at the line, though. Would you do it for, I think this is a good one, Zach Wheeler. I cannot imagine the Zach Wheeler fantasy manager wants to trade him

for Trevor Bauer right now. Yeah. You're probably right. That decision is probably made for you. I think I'd do it. I think I'd trade Bauer for Wheeler if the opportunity presented itself. I may regret saying that,

but I think that's where I am. Last one, would you do it for his teammate, Clayton Kershaw? Kirschaw has his, I believe, his highest-swinging strike rate since, I want to say it's 2016, which is when he was in his prime. I mean, Clayton Kershaw is in such a weird spot

because he's as reliable as any pitcher out there, but he just doesn't get the strikeouts at a rate that compares to those others at the same range. You're right that it's up this year, the strikeout rate. 16.4 swinging strike rate, Scott, is a career high for Clayton Kirschaw.

We're talking about one of the best pitchers ever. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. I don't know if I would do it either, though. I don't think I'd do it, though. That's close. If you're really worried about Trevor Bauer, I think as long as Kirchow's healthy on the mound,

he's going to be really good. So take that for what it's worth. This one's from Corey Joseph, not the point guard in the NBA. Christian Yelich or Trent Grisham, rest of season. Christian Yelich entering Monday. In 23 games since returning from the IL, he was batting 194 with a 27%

strikeout rate. Trent Grisham is now batting 290 with seven homers and seven seals on this season. He hit his seventh home run on Monday. This is close, Scott. Yelotts or Grisham? Yelich's numbers look a lot better over his past 15, 16 games. I mean, it's still like a 250-ish

batting average, but he may be climbing out of it. I just think Grisham's so high ends that why mess with it? I mean, obviously Yelich's ceiling is much, much higher. I get that, but I think you're right to be scared of him right now. So I'll stick with Grisham.

Okay. I guess if you have Yelich and you have the opportunity to make that swap, then you should take it. This one's from Randy Spears, Dylan Seas, Alec Manoa, Shane McClan, and Jackson, Cawar. Which of these have the best chance of succeeding? Which is kind of a loaded question,

but... Sees. Just in general? I know you like him quite a bit. Sees appears to be on the verge of being a finished product. He's about there. And, you know,

if you're talking like a dynasty context, I want that. I want the finished product more than the theoretical thing, whatever it is. And the three we're comparing him to, I'm not sure any of them have more upside than cease anyway. So even if you want to talk an upside case, I think it's easy. I think the answer

here is easily cease. I still really, really like the idea of trying to trade for Shane McClanahan right now in Dynasty leagues. That's fine, but you shouldn't use Seas to do it. No, I agree with that. Yeah, I would take, I would take Seas over him, but if you're just talking about like pure whiff rate and stuff, Shane McClainahan, I think, is probably right there with C. Scott. He just has to find a way to clean it up and get to that finished product level, which Dylan Seas has approached. Obviously, this season and Shane McClainanan is not yet, but that's expected

since this is his first taste and Dylan Cease has been around for a little bit longer. So I agree with you on Cease, but I think McClanahan is maybe not a close second, but he is second for me on this list. This one's from Frank Neal. Would you trade Isaiah Kinerfaleff for Chris Paddock?

Both are $4 for the next two years. Roto 5x5 with $300 salary caps. Isaiah Connor Folefa is having a great season. 2.94 batting average, five homers, 15 steals. And he's only 26 years old. Chris Paddock had a really good start over the weekend,

but obviously the overall numbers are still not where you want them to be. ERA is over four, so what do you think, Scott? Same price for the next two years. I actually don't think I'd do it. It being a roto league, and you needing steals, you're needing a lot of hitters spots filled out for you.

I think I'd stick with kinder-falefa. It's kind of amazing. It's kinder amazing. All right, that seems like a good place to end today's podcast. We do have a few other questions, so I'll save these for tomorrow. We have some fantasy justice that we need to get to as well. But we'll wrap there for Scott. I am Frank.

Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.