Fantasy Baseball Today - Bieber/Rodon Concerns, Prospect Awards & Weekend Sleepers! (10/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Congrats to Scotty and the Braves for winning the NL East (1:30)! ... What happened to Joe Ryan and Alex Cobb (3:30)? ... How concerned should we be about Carlos Rodon and Shane Bieber (12:00)? ... News and notes (18:05): DJ LeMahieu left early, Yu Darvish went on the IL and more. ... Prospect awards (24:45)! When might we see Adley Rutschman and Spencer Torkelson? ... We have sleeper hitters and pitchers to stream for the final weekend (35:00)! Trevor Story, Pete Alonso and Byron Buxton are finishing strong (43:40). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens, and Fantasy Justice (52:15)!  'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome into fantasy baseball today presented by Lining Cougalls. More on their great variety of beverages later on in the podcast. Frank Stample joined as always by Scott White on our final Kokomo Friday of the season. So you know what that means? I had to jam pack the rundown, baby. An hour and 15 minutes. Here we come. Come on.

I don't know if we're actually going to go that far. Hopefully not. But we will talk about some strong finishes. got some prospect awards that I want to talk about. There was a great article written by our own R.J. Anderson on the MLB side of the CBS Sports website. And I've got some sleeper hitters and pitchers for the weekend. Scott did not have anything to do with this. I put all my Scott White Hat and I looked at the best matchups and I figured out which hitters I want to pick up

if you are streaming in a daily lineup league for the final weekend of the year. With that, Scotty, congrats. And on the Atlanta Braves, clinched. the National League East and making it to the postseason. How you feeling? They clenched. Just like I'm doing with my fists. Ah.

Clenched four straight division titles. Four straight division titles for the Braves. They're going to do so with fewer than 90 wins this year. So, you know, whatever. Their run differential is by far the best in the division and is up there with some of the other playoff teams. And I look at the way their personnel stacks up. They got a top three of Charlie Morton, Max Fried,

and Ian Anderson. That's pretty good. Pretty good. We have a deep lineup with a lot of power. And, you know, the bullpen's been pretty good. Will Smith, the closer, has been kind of shaky. But, you know, actually look at the numbers over the course of September. The numbers actually come out.

It just seems like he's had a lot of close calls with blown saves and a couple of blown saves and whatever. The point is, they have a chance to be competitive. They have a chance to get past the Brewers in round one, who of course have a great top three themselves. But I would definitely give the Braves lineup the edge. And I don't know. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I think it's a testament to the Braves, Scott.

They went through a lot this year. They lost Ronald Acuna. Obviously everything that happened with Marcelo Zuna. they go out and make a few trades. At the time, we didn't really know what they were going to get from the pieces that they got back in Jorge Solair and Eddie Rosario. And these guys have played very well. And you know, as of now, the time we are recording this podcast,

the Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers have the exact same run differential in baseball, plus 129. So it could be a nice little first round matchup there in the MLB playoffs. Let's talk about some standouts from the past couple of days. Mostly bad. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scott. You've got some explaining to do, buddy.

Yeah, yeah. It would have been a good week to ignore my sleeper pitchers because numbers one and two on the list were Joe Ryan and Alex Cobb. They both pitched here on Thursday. The other of them pitched well. Joe Ryan allowed six earn runs in four and two-thirds innings to the Tigers,

and Alex Cobb allowed five runs in five innings to the Rangers. Now, there are some weeks where there really aren't sleeper pitchers to get excited about. I have to come up with some anyway, but, you know, it's just not, I'm not giving them my full-throated endorsement, but I was not there with these two. I thought the way they had pitched recently, certainly the matchups. I didn't think you had much to worry about with them, but they both flopped pretty hard here in this final week.

So that sucks. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I will point out if you're worried like, oh, Joe Ryan, he is a big phony. And what he had been doing up until now, obviously he was exposed here. You know what the average exit velocity off him by the Tigers was in this start?

79.7 miles per hour. All right. So he gave up a couple home runs, but that's about as low as you ever see for average exit velocity, under 80. So, you know, that's baseball season. Yeah, I did mention, I did proceed with some caution coming into the week on Joe Ryan. Just because he had had some good matchups. I didn't really understand how his fastball was succeeding,

though he succeeded with it in the minor leagues and to this point in the majors. Just a little bit. Um, yeah, but no, it's a good point that you bring up about the exit velocity. I mean, of course, he gave up the two home runs, but, uh, outside of that, it seems like he might have got babbipped a little bit here in this spot. And, uh, I will kind of, I will give a shout out to this person because they, they yelled at us in our Facebook group, uh, but a gentleman named G. Skip Cormier, thanks for the Joe Ryan recommendation. There goes my finals.

I'm sorry, bud. Um, but if it makes you feel any better, I started Joe Ryan in two of my head-to-head matchups as well, right? So, I mean, we put our money where our mouths are. We tell people, or at least I do, the advice that we give out. I didn't start Joe Ryan anywhere, Frank. What are you talking about? Oh, wow. Probably because somebody picked them up before I did.

I don't think it was an option for me. Yeah, but basically, my point is, like, whatever we tell people to do, Scott, it's what I do myself. So if something goes south that we recommended, more often than not, it's going south in my lineup as well. So I will just point that out and let everyone know that full transparency.

That's what's happening here. And I was going to debut the segment a little bit later on. And these two names were actually on that list, Alex Cobb and Joe Ryan. And it was in honor of the new Sopranos movie that's coming out on Friday, The Many Saints of Newark,

and I called the segment, What are you doing? And basically it was just big name pitchers slash sleeper pitchers that let us down this week. And of course, Joe Ryan and Alex Cobb were on that list. But a few other notables here. Garrett Cole got crushed on Wednesday.

day gave up five runs over six innings pitch ten hard hit balls he gave up two home runs in five starts since his 15 strikeout game he's got a 6.15 ERA and a 1.59 whip so it seems like we've had a few of these stretches this year where Gary Cole just kind of melts down and he loses it and I think that's probably a result of sticky substances for the most part he's still been pretty good but yeah I'm not as good as bring the second half as ERA's over four his whip is over over one, two. So the strikeout, I think it's like 12 per nine or something, 12K per nine.

So, you know, it's not like he's gone back to Garrett Cole of the Pirates or anything like that, who really wasn't a big strikeout guy back in those days. And I still have him as my number two starting pitcher. I guess number one, if there's reason to move Jacob de Grom behind him. but I think given that there is a level of concern there even for my number two starting pitcher, that

goes to show you why I'm not so keen on drafting pitchers in the first round next year. Well, one of those other pitchers that is in the running for the second starting pitcher off the board is Max Scherzer, who also got crushed in his start this week up against the Padres, five and a third,

11 hits, six runs, five of those were earned. He gave up 14 hard hit balls in that game, including two home runs. He's allowed 10 earned runs over his last two starts. Of course, his previous one before this was in Corrie's field. So we give Max Scherzer a pass for that one. But the Dodgers broadcast on Thursday put up a graphic for the NL Cy Young Race.

I know we talked about this recently, and we said that we would still give it to Scherzer. But, I mean, I think it's even closer than we thought, right? Like, Bueller, Burns, Scher, Julio Reyes, Zach Wheeler, all having fantastic. seasons in the National League. So it's a close race. I think it is a close race for the National League Syong. And then potentially our AL-Syong winner,

he got crushed on Thursday. Robbie Ray, going up against the Yankees. Five and a third. Four hits, five runs. He gave up four home runs. And he ends his season with a 2.84 ERA, 104 Whip. League leading, 248 strikeouts,

and the tightest pants that you have ever seen on a human being. So, any concern here to end the year, Scott Scherzeren? And Robbie Ray? No. Not really. Not really.

That's baseball season. Yeah, no, I mean, look, this could happen in the middle of the year, and we wouldn't really bat an eye at it, right? It's just like a pitcher having a bad start. It just so happens that, you know, these pitchers and these teams in particular are under a microscope because they're dueling it out for wild card spots. So obviously. Yeah, I will mention something we haven't really talked about much with Robbie Ray is like the fly ball rate for him.

Pretty extreme. Pretty extreme. It's a little surprising his home run rate isn't worse than it is considering. And I pointed out because he gave up four home runs in this start on Thursday. But at the same time, his ex-fip, which accounts for flyballs rather than home runs. So, you know, theoretical home runs as opposed to actual home runs. The ex-fip, I think, is still around 3.30, which is still a really good ex-fip. So, you know, he's going to be an interesting one next year.

I have him, I mentioned on the previous podcast that he's kind of like a dividing line for me in the starting pitcher rankings, or at least what I imagine them to be this early on, where, you know, the first and second round types, you got like, obviously Cole and Scherzer, but also Brandon Woodruff and Zach Wheeler. and then after Wheeler, it's like Robbie Ray a little later, and then you get to like the Lucas G. Leto's, Sandy Alcantara, Kevin Gossman, Julio Reyes. I think that groups a little further back from Robbie Ray. So, you know, I'm thinking like third round, Robbie Ray, fourth round for those other guys.

But, you know, we got plenty of time to figure that out. Obviously, that's just kind of where I see Robbie Ray. is kind of in that purgatory between the first and second tier at starting pitcher? Yeah, I think that will be a consensus. I think that he'll probably settle in somewhere around that range. And look, it's October 1st. I'm not going to cross anybody off my list for next year. And this isn't anything against Robbie Ray.

He's had an awesome year. And it's really cool to see him finally to put it all together. But just general draft philosophy, not drafting players coming off of career. years, especially when in the past their floor has been as low as Robbie Ray's. I don't think that I will personally be investing a third or fourth round pick in Robbie Ray next season. But again, a lot can change before next year. Oh my goodness gracious for me, I wanted to bring up two pitchers as well. And ones that I don't really know what to make of this, so I want to get your opinion, Scottie.

Carl Sordawn made his final start on Wednesday. He went five shutout. He had four strikeouts against the Cincinnati Reds. We know the velocity has been down for Carl. Carlos Rodon, but it was like really down, like way more down than we've ever seen this season. He averaged 90.9 miles per hour on his fastball in this start compared to 95.4 on the entire season. So I know he's going through like some shoulder stuff right now, set to hit unrestricted free agency. I think that this is going to scare a lot of teams off of potentially paying Carlos

Rodon. I don't know what he's going to get. Maybe he gets like a one year prove it off or somewhere. I want him to get paid. You know, I want every player to get paid, but I really don't know how this is going to affect his offseason status. And then Shane Bieber is the other ones. I'll tie these in together, Scott, and you could talk about both. Bieber at the Kansas City Royals, he goes three innings, he gives up one run, only has one strikeout, whatever, three swinging strikes on 50 pitches.

All five of his pitches were down at least 1.5 miles per hour, and his spin rates. Listen to this. Fastball down 145 RPM, slider down 2.10, has not. Duckel curve was down 553 RPM. Now, Beaver got hurt back in June right around when the crackdown on foreign substances was about to happen. I think he actually got hurt right before they started doing the checks on all pitchers.

So obviously, like, he's coming back from a shoulder injury, and it's, there's kind of like this chicken or the egg thing where if his VLO is down, then that means his spin rates are down. I think it might work the other way, too. I really don't know. but this is scary. This is pretty scary, Scott. So Carl Sordawn and Shane Bieber, what do you think?

All right, well, let's work backwards. Let's start with Shane Bieber. All right. I had a feeling if he came back before the end of the season, it wouldn't really, all he could do is lower his stock for 2022. If he was awesome, it wouldn't make a difference. But if he had any, if there were any causes for concern, that it might scare some people away.

Now, personally, I don't make much of it. Obviously, it was a long layoff, a hurried buildup to get back. And the spin rate specifically, what pitcher has experienced a drastic drop in spin rate right now because of the bin substance thing? They're going to wear a bunch right away, but who still is? They all seem to have figured it out, right? Yeah.

I mean, Garrett Cole's become a little less consistent. We're kind of attributing it to that, but it's not like his spin rates are still lagging, you know? No, I don't know how they figured it out. That's something for somebody else to look into. I will throw this out. Nick Pollock at Pitcher List on Twitter. We're actually on the same softball team together, and we were talking about this. And he said that he thinks that pitchers have kind of learned.

to pitch with rosin more. So we know that, you know, the rosin and sweat is something that they were cracking down on. But I guess learning how to pitch with rosin again and using it to your advantage, like it could explain some of it. So that was his theory.

I'll throw it out there. So because everybody's spin rate more or less corrected itself, I think in time we can expect Shane Bieber's too as well. Like I don't see how he would be the one guy, you know, who's impacted by this long term that just seems unlikely to me.

And like I said, I don't really worry about the velocity. So I have him in the first tier among starting pitchers for next year, actually just ahead of Zach Wheeler, who I mentioned was the last in that tier. I have Shane Bieber as like a second round pick. And I don't think I'm going to move off that unless we hear some discouraging reports this off season.

Now, Carlos Rodon is the more difficult one, because the White Sox are being so vague, and Rodon himself is being so vague. and we really just don't have a good idea of what's going on with him. Obviously, the velocity is way down, and that's scary. But what makes it all the more confusing is that his production has been just fine while this has been going on. He's been, let's see where are the numbers. So in 4 September starts, Carlos Rodon had a 2ERA, a 0.89 whip, and 11Ks per 9.

wasn't going that deep into games, but still, he was doing fine with it. And there was some fluctuation in his velocity over the course of this season when he more or less pitched great. So will teams be scared off by this? I guess we'll see. It's certainly a possibility.

I suspect if they're going in to sign Carlos Rodan, they're going to know a heck of a lot more about what's going on with him. him than we will. And so I kind of feel like we should follow their cue. If some team offers him a four-year deal for big money, maybe we shouldn't be that worried. If he gets a one-year prove-it offer, you know, maybe we should. Yeah. And he'll need to pass a physical to go to whatever team he signs with, even if he resigns with the White Sox, he's going to have to pass a physical. So that could be very telling also for Carl Sorda. Before we hit the news and notes, just want to let everyone

know that on Saturday, the SEC on CBS features an outstanding top 20 matchup between 12th ranked Ole Miss and number one, Alabama. The day begins with State Farm Drive to Atlanta at 2.30 Eastern and then catch you up on the action around the country on State Farm College Football today leading up to kickoff at 3.30. Saturday afternoon, the SEC is on CBS. Some news and notes, DJ LaMahue left Thursday's game early with right hip. Soreness, U. Drew Darvish was placing the IL with a hip impigement ending his season.

I saw a bunch of names get thrown on the IL at this point in the season. What? What's the point of that? I just, I couldn't figure it out. I'm sure, like, there's some weird technical reasoning for it. I just don't know why. Just to get a new player on the roster, they didn't have to in past September's because the only player you could call up for a

10-day I-L stent is somebody on the 40-man roster, and those guys are all eligible to go on the roster. September anyway. So you only saw 60 day IL moves in the past. 60 day IL. You get a new man on the 40 man roster. Right. You can, they go on your active roster. So, you know, now that's not the case anymore in September. Rosters are only expanded to 28 rather than 40. So that's why. That makes sense. That is honestly a very logical reason. Why. Marcus Semyon hit his 44th home run of the season on Wednesday, breaking the record for most home runs hit by a second basement in a single season. So we've now broken the record for two different positions this year.

Second base and catcher. Of course, Salvador Perez played a bunch of his games at designated hitter this year, but primarily he was a catcher this year. So pretty cool stuff there for both Marcus Semyon and Salvador Perez. Zach Rankie allowed one hit and struck out two across two scoreless endings Thursday for AAA Sugarland, which remains one of my favorite AAA team names. Nolan Aronado announced Wednesday that he won't exercise his opt-out clause after the season, and will remain with the Cardinals for 2022.

Scott, have you grown to like Nolan Aronado any more since we last spoke about him? No. No, he's a low OBP power guy. That's just who he is now that he's outside of Colorado. And that made sense. I mean, that was kind of what we feared he would become. I don't think any of us were predicting like a total collapse or anything. I think he's fine as like the third.

third or fourth hitter on your roster, thinking like a 12-team context. But, you know, obviously in Colorado, he was the hitter you built your team around, and that's clearly not the case anymore. And it looks like we're probably going to have to figure that out for Trevor Story heading into next year, too, because all indications are that he's not going to resign in Colorado. So we'll be fun to figure out Trevor Story's outlook on whatever team he ends up with. Wanderfranco's on Bay Street ended at 43 games and it ends in a top. with Frank Robinson for the longest streak by player under 21 years old.

Shohei Otani will not make another start as a pitcher this year. Edward Cabrera was removed from Thursday's game against the Mets with a blister on his right middle finger. And we really, I know a lot of prospects have struggled this year, but like we haven't seen anything from Cabrera to really give us hope. It's a very small sample size. So I think in the long run, hopefully he's, he's all right. They've done a really good job developing pitching with the Marlins,

but yeah, we've seen nothing from Edward. I mean, frankly, this was the best we've seen from him. He didn't. He still had two walks and three innings, but we've seen worse control from him. Yeah. And he gave up some home runs early. I like that he got 11 whiffs on 56 pitches

because he wasn't even doing a very good job of missing bats at the beginning. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think he's going to be a trendy sleeper next year or anything, Edward Cabrero, but certainly he has the pedigree for you to take a late round flyer on him if he's in the mix for a rotation spot. I suspect he will be. Hazu Sanchez left early on Thursday with right hamstring tightness. The Marlins hope to start Pablo Lopez in Sunday's season finale against the Phillies. Luke Voight landed on the aisle with left knee inflammation. Daniel Lynch went to the aisle with a right hand contusion.

Nico Horner went to the aisle with General Sornis. Chris Paddock received an injection in his, what are you laughing at over this guy? I just, I don't know. Somehow I got it in my head years ago that General Sornis sounds like a person, you know, a military officer. So when people say it in certain ways, it just puts a funny image in my head. Like he went on the I.O. with General Sorness. Yeah, like General Sornis.

Yeah, was the one driving him to the IL. Yeah. That's pretty good. Chris Paddock received an injection in his right elbow earlier this week and is expected to make a full recovery from a slight UCL's brain in six to eight weeks. And I think this is a good reminder. Obviously, it seems like he's pitched through some kind of injury, at least this year. I don't know about last year. But how quickly things can change from a dynasty perspective for starting pitchers?

Because Chris Paddock, the year he first came up, we were talking about him as like a top 10. I wasn't on the podcast back then, but I remember the industry. in general, talking about Chris Paddock as like a top 10 starting pitcher for years to come, and everyone was so excited about him. And he was basically living up to all of his hype. And he's fallen a long, long way since then. So I think it's just a reminder on pitching in Dynasty Leagues. Adam Wainwright will start the National League Wild Card game on Wednesday and deservedly.

So it'll be a fun game, regardless of who he faces between the Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. I had one prospect update here. I wanted to talk about Ronesi Contreras's debut. He was going up against the Cubs. He went three shutout. He gave up three hits, one walk. He had four strikeouts. Six swinging strikes on 46 pitches.

That is a 13% swinging strike rate. He averaged 96.3 miles per hour on his fastball. And he basically threw three pitches. 63% fastball, 24% slider, 11% curve. And he threw a change up 2% of the time. What did you think of his debut? I mean, I thought it was great. Obviously not great for fantasy purposes,

because it lasted only three innings, right? But I thought he looked really good. And what stood out the most for me for Roanzei Contreras, the spin rate on his fastball, 2,467 RPM. That would be like league leader type stuff on that fastball. So, yeah, definitely interesting. Definitely somebody who, who I hope we see competing for a rotation spot next spring.

All right. Potential late round flyer here with Roan Z. Contreras for next season. And speaking of prospects, I did want to talk a little bit about this article that R.J. Anderson wrote on the MLB side over at CBSSports.com, and you can go read it right now. He gave out 10 awards for 2021 minor leaguers. And starting with Adley Ruchman, who was his hitter of the year. Obviously, there were a lot of hitters that you could throw in this conversation.

Bobby Witt is another one. But I think he was looking overall at like the strikeout to walk ratio. 83 strikeouts to 76 walks near one-to-one ratio. That's awesome to see from a former top pick in the MLB draft in Adley Rutchman. And he finished with 283 batting average 23 home runs. Scott, when do you think we see Adley Ruchman next year? I think pretty early. And I don't know how much incentive.

the Royals will have to call them up that early we don't expect the Orioles to be good next year obviously but he's going to force the issue and as a former number one overall pick you know

the banging gets even louder when that guy is knocking on the door and you know at some point they need to start they need to start making some headway. So I think it'll be pretty early. And in fact, in putting,

I've started the ranking process for 2022 already. I'm going position by position, publishing my top 20, complete with my rationale for each player at each position, going top 20 at each position. Catcher's already out on the site. And you'll notice number 20

in my catcher rankings for next year is Adley Rushman, because I think he'll be up early enough that he'll be worth stashing from the get-go, at least in two catcher leagues, obviously. Not many leagues. You're going in your draft as far down as the 20th catcher. But in those leagues where you are,

I think Rushman will be somebody worth stashing from the start. His future teammate, Grayson Rodriguez, was given the award for pitcher of the year in the minor leagues, and I think it definitely makes sense. Based on what he did between single A, between high A and double A this year, he had a 2.36 ERA, 161 strikeouts, over 103 innings pitched. He's only made 18 starts at AA, so he hasn't even hit AAA yet.

I don't think that we see Grayson Rodriguez next year, Scott, though. I wouldn't completely rule it out, but yeah. Yeah, I think we do. All right. I think if we see Rushman next year, we see, we will see Rushman next year, barring an injury. I think Rodriguez will come later, potentially several months later, than Rushman. But yeah, he's arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball.

At this point, I would inch Shane Baz ahead of him because Boz has already shown us he's capable against Major League lineups. But Grayson Rodriguez is right there, and he has made incremental improvement the past few years. Really has a strong secondary arsenal now to go along with a great fastball. and very exciting prospect for sure.

All right. The biggest riser on the hitter side is Anthony Volpe with the New York Yankees who has only played at single A and high A ball. So this is more so if you have him in Dynasty, you should feel really good about Volpe. I don't think we see him for a while, at least not with the Yankees. Maybe he gets traded away somewhere else.

But he finishes his season, 294. Actually, yeah, his season's already over. 294 batting average, 27 homers, 33 steals. and I know that he is someone that you've talked about in the past. Yeah, I love Anthony Volpe. I think it's possible he's a top 10 prospect going into next year, depending on what publication you look at. Just does everything well.

423 on base percentage in addition to the power and the speed. And mastered high class A is a 20-year-old. Yeah, he's still 20. He won't be 21 until April. So he's getting it done as one of the youngest players at his level. And, you know, if he begins next year at AA, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility he could get called up. If he makes quick work of that, moves up to AAA.

Yankees might have a hard time slowing him down. And obviously, we expect them to be in contention. And things are kind of murky for them at shortstop. right now. Yeah. And they have another prospect in Oswald Parraza who had an awesome year

in the minors too. It's a good problem to have for them. The one thing I'll point out about the Yankees, obviously watching them for years, for decades, is they're usually not very aggressive with their prospects.

They gave Glaber Torres a shot and obviously he hit the ground running when he first got called up. But in years past, I mean, they've been pretty hesitant with prospects and throwing them right in. Obviously, they're always competing.

So I think that has something to do with it. Yeah, they don't have to be aggressive with prospects. Yeah. Typically. But how often have they had a prospect as high end as I think Volpe is? I'm saying maybe top 10, more realistically top 20. But I think, you know, it's kind of a fine line at that point. Yeah, I guess Glaber was that guy, right?

Like he was regarded as a top prospect in baseball. So, I mean, to your point, they were aggressive with him. But like, Clint Frazier, they kind of just like, messed around with him year after. I don't think he was on the same level. That's true. Top 100 guy, but not like top 20. Yeah, no, that's fair. I mean, they've got a lot of names coming. Like, Jason Dominguez is years away. He's super young. He's only 18.

Actually, Clint Frazier, didn't he come up at 21? Obviously, they sending him back down. They never really gave him a shot, you know? But maybe they didn't give their other prospect chances because they just weren't that good, right? Like, we always kind of put this Yankee tax on prospects, or not we, but someone does. But they've got a lot of names in the system, man. Like, Trey Sweeney was their first round pick, and there's a lot of hype around him. He's years away.

But there's him. There's, like, Alston Wells, who's a catcher, but he can play outfield. So they've got some names. Everson Pereira, too. Like, not just saying this because of whatever, Yankee fan, but, like, listen to Prospect podcast, and people are excited about a lot of these Yankee names here. Frazier was 22 when he got. called him. He was a couple months from turning 23, so he was a little bit older.

All right, let's talk about the biggest riser on the pitcher side. That is Taj Bradley with the Tampa Bay race, someone who was pitched at single A and high A ball. He's only 20 years old. So he's still far away, but what do you know? The Tampa Bay Rays have awesome pitching prospects. They do. Yeah, no, it makes sense. He has been a big riser. His name is has been on my radar. I don't think I ever ended up addressing him in the prospects report. you know, definitely looks like he has good stuff. And wouldn't surprise me if he's top 100 guy on some publications. All right, let's quickly run through the rest of these.

The biggest surprise, Matt Brash, obviously pitcher with the Seattle Mariners. We spoke about him a lot recently and he was called up, expected to be used out of the bullpen here the past couple of days, the next couple days for the Seattle Mariners. The biggest disappointment, Jeter Downs, who is a middle infielder for the Red Sox. He came over in the Mookie Betts trade. he's had an awful season, Scott, all around, striking out a lot. And he spent most of his year in AAA. The Redstocks are a team that is competing. So they're not going to call this kid up unless he's ready and he can contribute.

And right now, he does not look anywhere close to that. Yeah, it's dreadful year. Dreadful year hit under 200. I believe his strikeout rate was way up as well and played discipline with something he showed. A lot of in previous years, is he the biggest disappointment? I mean, McKenzie Gore might get that nod for me, but Jeter Downs, you know, we haven't talked about him as much and just how much he's, how much he's fallen short of expectations this year. So it's worth bringing up. That's somebody that I'd be tempted to buy low on in a Dynasty League just to see if it was a total fluke.

But it may not have been, you know? Yep. his comeback players of the year, players, that includes two royals, catcher M.J. Melendez and first baseman Nick Prado,

though they do have Vinnie Pasquantino, who we've talked about before as well. So the Royals do have a lot of names, specifically, well, they have both hitter and pitcher prospects that are coming. So we'll see if those guys

can make an impact as soon as next year. And the last names I wanted to mention the best debuts for a 2020 draftee. He provided one hitter and one pitcher. Spencer Torkelson with the title, and Max Meyer with the Marlins. Do you think we see either or both of those names in 2022? I think we see Torkelson.

Not as sure about Meyer, but it's certainly possible. It's just, you know, the innings built up could get him and cost him, especially since we don't expect the Marlins to compete next year. But yeah, I mean, that was the first hitter and the first pitcher drafted in the 2020 class. So I guess they're living up to the billing so far. It's nice when things work out the way that they're supposed to, especially with prospects, because very often that is not the case.

Let's take a quick break when we return the final weekend sleepers here on fantasy baseball today. The final weekend sleepers presented by lining coogles and put on my old Scott White Hat. This is not actually a hat that Scott would ever wear. But sleeper hitters to stream this weekend if you're chasing stats in a daily lineup league. I found the teams with the best hitter matchups, my opinion, this weekend,

and that included the Reds, the Reds, the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, Cleveland, the Royals, and the Diamondbacks, they are all facing teams that are bottom 10 in collective ERA this season. So for the Reds, I'll throw some names out there, E. E. E. E. E. E. Horese and Kyle Farmer, for the Red Sox, Enrique Hernandez, though he has struggled mightily in the month of September. Do not look to use Bobby Dalbeck because they're in the National League facing the Washington Nationals. The Blue Jays... Fernandez did just Homer Thursday. Yes, he did.

FWIW. For the Blue Jays, they're going up against the Baltimore Orioles, and you might remember what the Blue Jays did last time they faced the Orioles. They scored, I think it was 22, 28 runs, something crazy in just one game, and they just scored a bunch of runs that entire weekend. So all of their best players are obviously already on rosters, but Corey Dickerson is a name that I'll throw out there. He's been playing pretty consistently for them.

For Cleveland, Miles Straw, if you need some steals, Bradley Zimmer in a deeper league for the Royals, Andrew Benintendi. He got dinged up on, I believe it was either Tuesday or Wednesday, but he was back in the lineup on Thursday. Nikki Lopez is the name we talk about a lot. Hunter Dozier, I think is one in a deeper league. If you need a catcher, then Dalton Varshot with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And obviously, if you're just looking for teams that are competing and playing for something, the Yankees and Mariners are still playing for wild card positioning, as are the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. but I throw a few names out there on those teams. Jared Kalnick, Abraham Toro hit a home run on Wednesday. Gio Orshella has been playing better recently.

Brett Gardner hit a home run on Thursday. So those were a few names that stood out to me. Scott, any that stand out to you here? Maybe that were on your sleeper hitters coming into the week or just anyone else that I mentioned that you like? Well, Enrique Hernandez and Kyle Farmer were both on my sleeper hitters coming into the week. As I mentioned, Enrique Hernandez, Homer.

My sleeper hitters for this week are doing better than the sleeper pitchers. Frankie two hits did it again. Oh, I mean. Two hits on Thursday. We're going to get into Frankie in just a little bit because Scott said something crazy to me before the podcast that we've got to talk about. Yeah, well, I think I may agree with you that it's crazy. That's why I brought it up. But yeah, we'll get into it in a minute.

All right, let's do to stream or not to stream earlier. These are going to be some pitchers that will look to stream for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Let's look at Friday first. We have Nesser Cortez at home against the Tampa Bay Rays, Tyler McGill at the Atlanta Braves, Elijah Morgan at the Texas Rangers, Eric Lauer at the Dodgers, John Gray at the Diamondbacks,

and Willie Peralta at the White Sox. Who do you like there, Scottie? Oh, McGill got pushed back to the Braves, huh? Don't do it. And Lauer got, no, we knew Lauer was going against the Dodgers. Yep. I don't like anybody, Frank. If I have to pick somebody,

it's probably Nestor Cortez against the raise, but his last two starts haven't been great, and that's a tough matchup, obviously. That's fair. I think if you're just chasing the matchup, it's risky because I don't think he's a good pitcher, but Elijah Morgan is at Texas, and John Gray is at the Diamondbacks.

So I know the Diamondbacks are, in general, they're pretty cold. They're lineup right now, so I'll throw the name out there. He's not in course field, obviously. For Saturday, we have Shane Baz at the Yankees, Jordan Lyles versus Cleveland Antonio Senzatella at the Diamondbacks John Lester versus the Cubs

Josiah Gray versus the Red Sox and Jesus Lazzardo versus the Phillies And you know, earlier in the week Scott I was thinking about you Because Josiah Gray was cruising in Corus Field He was pitching really well And then kind of unraveled late in his start there But for the most part

I think he did get a win though He looked pretty good in that start I think he did get a win and I only recommended him for points league So that's a tally in my favor Yeah, Shane Baz, sorry, at the Yankees, even though it's a tough matchup, tough park, all of that, I feel perfectly comfortable starting him. He was my number three sleeper pitcher for this week.

So hopefully he does better than numbers one and two did. But yeah, I mean, he just looks overpowering. He did it against the Blue Jays lineup. Obviously last time Marlon's lineup, but still, I would roll the dice. on him at the Yankees. What about Senzatella at the Diamondbacks? I feel like you...

Yeah, he was in my 10 sleeper pitchers coming into the week. So if you're looking to stream a guy, you know, I'm never thrilled to start Sentatela, but if you're... Right. I'm speaking to the... I'm speaking to the streamer-spammers out there. The heavy-duty streamers.

Streamers spammer. Look, we're getting some crazy questions on Twitter right now, Scott. People are looking for, I mean, even the worst names to pick up in stream. So people are desperate. You know, the dumbest thing is a points league with daily transactions and lineups. It's just, you're on a treadmill all year, basically, right? Just picking up and dropping pitchers constantly because in points league is obviously

the downside to starting a bad pitcher isn't, you know, it could score you negative, but it's not as bad as in a category's league. So like that just sounds like a miserable setup to me. I feel like you wanted to say rat race there, Scott. And that's exactly what I was thinking, right? It's just a race. It's a race of the waiver wire. That was the first term that came to mind.

But, you know, I wasn't, I was about 90% confident. I knew what rat race meant. I didn't want to misuse it. Oh, no. So, you know, it would be something if I was writing, I just Google it real quick to make sure I'm using it right. No, no, no. I'm not thinking it's an urban dictionary.

kind of thing. Oh, well, that's the first thing I'm looking at right now because I got to make sure. There's probably something in there because there always is. But yeah, I just, I just, I didn't want to sound stupid by using the expression incorrectly. So I pivoted to something else. All right, that's fair. It was also a movie. So let's, let's stick with that. Yeah, it was kind of, kind of a fun movie, kind of obviously a dumb movie, but I don't, I don't hate the movie rat race. Well, you know, look, if there's a dumb movie out there, I've seen it. So a Sunday to stream or not to stream, Jake Woodford versus the Cubs, Tyler Alexander at the White Sox, Tyler Anderson versus the Angels, a gentleman named Reaver San Martine at the Pirates

and Michael Waka at the Yankees. I don't, I don't love this group. I don't love it either. It's even worse than the first group that I was balking at. Tyler Anderson, against the Angels. You know, San Martin, how do you say the first name, Ray, Revere? Yeah. San Martin. That's, yeah. Of the pirates. Yeah. Or against the pirates of the Reds.

Yes. Making his second career start. He looked pretty good in his first start. That was one of the pictures somebody was asking us about on Twitter. Do I start this guy or Dane Dunning? Oh, well, I guess the guy making his second career start because he's not Dane Dunning. And he's going up against the pirates. Right.

What can go wrong? It's, you know, just the final day of the season. And we're streaming a guy named San Martyr. So, yeah. Proceed with caution on Sunday. So there you have it. Your final weekend sleeper is presented by Lion and Cougals. And would you believe it's already cold in New York?

It's 57 degrees right now. Like, what is happening? I understand it's October, but it's gone. The warm weather is gone. I miss the summer already, and that's exactly why. I'll be grabbing a Lion and Cougal's summer shandy this weekend. The smooth blend of beer and refreshing lemonade that hits just right when enjoying a baseball game. and we have a lot of baseball to watch this weekend,

a lot of important baseball to watch. And the summer shandy isn't all they offer. They also have a Session Hellas, which has all the flavor of a crisp German-style beer, but it's only 99 calories, and do not forget about their lemon haze IPA. It's a well-balanced hazy IPA that blends hops with delicious lemonade.

So no matter what type of beverage you're craving, lining kugles has you covered. Just head on over to linie.com. That's L-E-N-I-E-D-com, or follow Lining Coogles on Instagram or Facebook. for more information about all of the delicious beards that they brew. Let's talk about a few strong finishes to the season here, specifically for some hitters.

Trevor Story went four for four on Wednesday with a walk and three runs scored. And he is having a pretty big September. 280 batting average, nine homers, two steals, a 915 OPS. The fly ball rate is way up, the ground ball rate is way down. And if you're asking, well, what went wrong this year for Trevor Story? It's exactly that. career high, 37% ground ball rate. His babbip has plummeted this year.

I think a lot of that can be pointed to the ground balls. But he also just hasn't performed as well at home. 296 with an 880 OPS in Coors Field this year. That's still very good for most people. But for his career, he has a 972 OPS in Coors Field. So when looking into him, that's what stood out to me, Scott. The ground ball rate too high didn't perform well in course field. Yeah, I, that does partly explain.

his struggles. I mean, the big issue for Story, I'd be happy to write off this year for Story and have him as like a second round pick next year, just based on track record, based that he's still a power speed threat and those are hard to find.

Except he's going to be leaving Colorado, we presume. They didn't see fit to trade him at the deadline, so I guess we can't rule anything out. Maybe they're going to offer him a fat $300 million contract or something. No chance, Scott.

They just won that compensatory pick. That is completely, that's exactly it. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. How's he going to fare outside of Colorado? Well, we see how it's gone for Nolan Aronado. I have even bigger concerns for Story because Aronado was an exceptional contact hitter,

and that's not something you can fake at Colorado. Story is not. He's kind of an average contact. hitter. So, you know, and then he's not going to get the big bad bit boost that comes with playing at Coors Field. I'm worried about him. I would probably still take him in the fourth or fifth round of a Roto League,

especially the fifth round. I'm still working my way through that. I'm kind of just throwing out numbers, round numbers with only, you know, a half-baked idea. of how that's going to play out. But that's kind of what I'm thinking for story at this point, and I'm thinking, you know, don't expect them to help in batting average. Will the power and speed numbers be there?

Hopefully, but it's not a foregone conclusion. Yeah, I do wonder if we see some kind of musical chairs with all the short stops that are free agents this year, where maybe if the Astros miss out on bringing Carlos Correa back, do they bring in someone like Corey Seeger or Trevor Story, or vice versa, if the Dodgers miss out on bringing back Seeger, do they look to sign a Trevor Story or Carlos Correa? So there's a lot.

And the Dodgers already have their contingency plan in Trey Turner. True, yeah. And by the way, Corey Seeger's had a huge month. Four home runs in the last four games in September. I mean, you look at his season percentages now, and it's like, oh, yeah, looking like an MVP caliber player. Again, it's all happened at the very end tier. You know what?

Trevor's story, if he bounces back, in terms of skill, like we think he possibly will. Like, this might be a sneak, who he's been this year might be a sneak peek of who he's going to be next year when he's, you know, not struggling anymore, but that's just what his numbers translate to outside of course field. I think if you just assess story on his numbers this year, that's probably a good idea of what you can expect

from him outside of course field. Yeah, you know, it's funny you bring that up. That's exactly what I was thinking. 250, 2020, maybe he's, 25 home runs, but maybe if he moves somewhere else where he's not hitting as much power, he runs a little bit more. So that could be a possibility as well. Boba Shett had a double dong on Wednesday.

He's now at 28 home runs. He stole another base on Thursday, so he has 25 steals. Very proud that Scott got him in the first round of his two-round mock draft for next year. Aaron Judge hit a double dong on Thursday. He's now up to 39 home runs. And like Stanton, I mean, they're both carrying the Yankees. They are carrying fantasy teams right now as well. Scott, do you think Aaron Judge gets number 40 this weekend?

Yeah, I think he does. I think he reaches the 40 milestone, the 40 Homer milestone. And he'll be part of an interesting cluster in drafts next year. I was wrestling with this group of names in the third, fourth round range next year. Judge, Jordan Alvarez, Matt Olson, who, might be playing the weakest position of the three. I think Paul Goldschmidt is an interesting name to include in that group because he has a little bit of a speed element there.

I'm not really sure how to sort out those guys yet, yet, but they're all in that like mid-third to mid-fourth round range for me in Roto. Do you have, well, this person is not going to steal any bases, but do you have Nick Cassiano's in that mix too, Scott? He's a little behind them. Okay. At least, you know, I haven't looked that closely at him yet, but that's my impression right now, is that he's going to be a little behind them.

And all indications are that he, I believe he has an opt-out. So he might not be back with Cincinnati. It's obviously a great park to hit in. So keep that in mind as well. Pete Alonzo had a double dong on Thursday. He's now up to 37 home runs. And we've referenced that industry mock draft, way too early mock draft that's going on right now. And Pete Alonzo lasted until the ninth round.

I don't think that that's actually going to happen, but he is having an awesome second half. And if you actually put his second half side by side with Matt Olson's, they're basically the same player. In fact, Pete Alonzo's been a little bit better than Matt Olson in the second half. Yeah. Well, Matt Olson hasn't been as good in the second half. Yeah.

If those things swapped next year where, coming into this season, I wanted Matt Olson at his value because I didn't see a big difference between him and Pete Alonzo. and Alonzo was going two to three rounds earlier. If those things are swapped for next year, then I'm going to have a lot of Pete Alonzo. So just keep that of mind. Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam on Thursday.

Keeps up this big September, and I've talked about him recently. I don't want to overreact too much to just one great month because a lot of everything else has been pretty bad for him this year and obviously dating back to next year. I'm really interested to see where his ADP settles in

because Lindor is someone that I could see being in on if he comes at the right value. Last name I wanted to bring up here, Byron Bucks in a double dung on Thursday. His last six games, dude is red hot again. Four homers, three steals reminding us of that power speed combination, just getting a ton of hits as well. And he is not a free agent yet.

They keep talking about a contract extension. He's arbitration eligible for one more year after this season, and then obviously he would hit unrestricted free agency. So I think they're trying to get that contract extension down. But as of now, he's still under contract with the Minnesota Twins. And he's another one that's top. have to figure out Scott because he just cannot stay healthy. This was the year where he finally put it all together talent-wise, but just can't stay healthy. Yeah, that's true. That is,

that is the rub on Byron Buxton. And it's, it's nice that he has been able to get it going here in the final week or two because, remember, he was, he was slumped pretty badly when he first came off the IEL and his, his season-long numbers, because, you know, he wasn't healthy for very long before, they kind of started creeping into a more ordinary range so that it wasn't clear that he'd be worth putting up

with all the injury concerns. But now he's separated himself against statistically. So I think that'll, he's ending the year on the right note to maximize his value for next year. He has played more than 92 games in a season

once in his major league career. That was back in 2017. He played 140 games. I will point out, one of the injuries he suffered this year was he got hit on the hand by a pitch and he broke his hand. Like, obviously, that's not his fault. That's just bad luck. But it remains true that Byron Buxton has not been able to stay healthy. Some leftovers from the past couple days and we'll start with Wednesday where Franks Vindel had, that's right, two more hits. And he actually added a steal. We hopped on here beforehand, before start up the podcast. And Scott goes, what if I told you Frank Schmendell is a top 10 first baseman for next year?

I said, Scott, I thought you didn't drink. Yeah, I'm still putting together my first base rankings, and there may be somebody I'm overlooking. And look, I don't think he, I don't know that he's going to be 10th for me anyway. But first base is looking really ugly for next year because there's not going to be, you know, Austin Riley's not going to be eligible. Chris Bryant's not going to be eligible. Kyle Schwerber,

Eduardo Escobar, they're not going to be eligible. And C.J. Cron, we don't know if he's going back to Colorado, so how good is he really? And it all adds up to right now. Frank Schwendell is very much in the mix to be a top 10 first basement for me.

Other names I could consider there are like Jared Walsh, Josh Bell, Tray Mancini Ew I don't know Jesus Aguilar Brandon Belt

Yikes Who are the names that you have ranked ahead of him right now Scott if you actually have that I don't know how far you are into the rankings So 1 through 9 appears pretty good

Okay 1 through 9 Vladimir Giroux Freddie Freeman Depending on whether it's Points or Roto some order of Matt Olson Paul Goldschmidt

Max Muncie Pete Alonzo Jose Abray Joey Votto, Jake Croninworth. That's one through nine. Okay. So I haven't mentioned Yuleiguriel yet, but there's been like no power from Guriel

since I think he has like four home runs in the last four months or maybe four or five home runs, something like that. Because he doesn't strike out much, I'll have Yuleiguriel ahead of Schwendell in points leagues. I'm pretty confident. But in Roto leagues, do I really want to do that? I don't know.

Like, you tell me. Alex Kirolov, if you want to get creative, maybe he could be the 10th first basement. Andrew Vaughn isn't going to be eligible there anymore. And he stinks. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously it would be an upside play. Right. But, um, interesting.

I mean, look, those top, those top nine names are, are pretty good. But yeah, once we, uh, once we get to the back end there, that's, that's pretty rough. Oh, somebody in the chat's mentioning Bellinger. Oh, you know what? Bellinger's made four appearances at first base this year, so he's not going to be eligible. And he stinks too. There may be somebody further down like that that I'm missing

that's just not very high because I'm going off, I'm working my way down fantasy points, leaderboard. But Anthony Rizzo, I didn't mention him. That's a possibility. But I don't think it's a clear, oh, you got to take Rizzo before Spendell. That guy stinks too. I hit a home run on Thursday, pretty, pretty, pretty, big home run, I must add. But yeah, I mean, he's been pretty pedestrian in the past two years,

and he's getting up there in age. He's a free agent. We don't know where Anthony Rizzo's going to wind up either. So, all right. First base, the back end there, not too hot. Not too hot right now. J.D. Martinez went three for four with his 28th home run on Wednesday, and it will just quickly give you his OPS by month this year. 1175 in April, 801 in May, 788 in June, 806 in July, 787 in August, 866 in September. Kind of sounds to me like J.D. Martinez is a low 800s

OPS kind of bat at this point. Max Freed was up against the Phillies, seven innings, two runs. Only one of those was earned. And he finishes his year with a 304 ERA, a 109 WIP, career best 2.23 walks per nine.

Scott, fill in the blank. I want Max Fried as my SP blank next year. I want Max Fried as my three or four. I'd still want to have a good pitching staff, so I'll say four, but I think he'd be fine as a three. All right. Jorge Polanco, legitimate five category contributor this year. 271 batting average hit his 32nd home run, 95 run scored, 94 RBI, and 11 steals.

Shohei Otani added two more seals on Wednesday, 45 homers with 26 steals. Salvador Perez hit his 48 home run. The Dodgers hit six homers on Wednesday, including four in the eighth inning to take the lead against the Padres. Two for AJ Pollack, one for Mokey Betts, Max Muncie hit one, Cody Bellinger hit one, and Corey Seger, who we mentioned is Red Hot,

also hit one of those on Wednesday. Moving on to Thursday, Fernando Tatis hit his 42nd home run of the season. I was watching this game. The ball left the ballpark, not just like, okay, it landed in the stands. It left the park. It was hit out of Dodgers Stadium,

467-foot moonshot. For Fernando Tatisi, he also has 25 steals. It was a monster day for Raphael Ortega. He went two for four with a home run and two steals. Dylan Carlson had a double dong, has 18 home runs on the season. He's had a good second half, but I dug a little bit deeper. The bat of ball data is pretty uninspiring for Dylan Carlson.

Oh, I found out a name to round out the top 10 at first base. Oh, I think so. I think I have it right here too. Ryan Malkassel. No, that wasn't going to be it. I don't know if he has 10. Let me see. I don't know if he has enough starts at first base.

He does. Yeah. Oh, all right. So he's in this discussion with like the Jared Walsh's of the world. But the name I was going to say Reese Hoskins. Okay. Yeah, that's a good one. I do think personally, as of now, Ryan Mouncastle,

I would definitively have a head of Jared Walsh and Frank Schwendell for me. Okay. Yeah. Maybe I will too. I need to look at them more. Yeah. All right. Brandon Lau hit his 36th home run of the season,

and it was a great turnaround for him after an all. awful start to the year. And then Austin Riley, I'm going to be interested to see, Scott, when you rank your third basement, how high Austin Riley checks in there because he hit his 33rd homer,

and it's truly been a breakout season and then some for Austin Riley. You know what? You know what I'm... Particularly once you start taking out some of these multi-eligible guys, and I know we're coming up on the clock here, but what we experienced in fantasy this year

with us getting burned at hitting in some cases. I think we're going to see a lot of what I'm seeing at first base here where there's really not enough quality options to round out 12 lineups. Because I know shortstop is like that, right? That's always been the knock on shortstop. A lot of studs, but it drops off quickly.

I think third base, like, I might not be able to get Riley in my top eight at third base, but at the same time, we know third base. falls off very quickly as well. So that doesn't mean Riley's not a high-end option. It just means there are the high-end guys around the infield, and then there's everybody else.

Yeah. And then you'll have the position scarcity argument to answer there too, because it's like, do you reach for someone like Austin Riley at a position like third base, or do you try and grab a first basement or a shortstop, one of those quality options before you miss out on all those So that'll be.

And by the way, maybe I will have Riley in my top eight. I was just kind of picking a number off the top of my head. But that if it's not him who's eighth, it's going to be Bregman, or it's going to be Aronado, or it's going to be Bryant or somebody like that, you know. Yep. The call to the pen, a few bullpen updates. Not much going on here. I did want to mention Camilo DeValle, who a lot of people who are talking about right now

in the fantasy industry, and rightfully so. He got a second save of the week. And since he's returned to the Giants bullpen back on September 5th, he's pitching 13. games. 12 on a third shutout, five hits, three walks, 16 strikeouts. He's got a 15.8% swinging strike rate. He throws 98 miles per hour, 87 mile per hour slider gas, straight gas. Some people are asking, do we pick them up and stash him potentially as the closer for next year for the Giants? I don't know about that because Jake McGee is still under contract through 2023. So he, he signed, I believe it was a three-year contract before this year. So he will be with the Giants and he's

shaky, but they kept going back to him this year. Would you look to add Camilo Duval right now, Scott, in Dynasty Leagues if he were available? It'd have to be pretty deep. I could see, you know, us towning him as a closer and waiting early next year, but I'd be surprised if he overtook McGee as the closer from the start. All right. Kenley Jansen picked up his 37th save on Wednesday. The dude has a 2.26 ERA's got. And like, we keep waiting for Kenley Jansen to fall off, and it feels like we have these stretches where it looks like it's about to happen and we get nervous

because the Dodgers have a few other pieces in their bullpen that could obviously close. And then you look at the final season numbers and he's having an awesome year. So, will you finally not call Kenley Jansen a bus next year? I probably won't unless the Dodgers bring in a true challenger for him.

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's just, it's so hard to find a reliever who is that secure in the role and isn't sharing the role in any way, you know, it's getting harder and harder to do that. So those, the ones that do really stand out, even if there are some things to quibble about skill-wise. Last name I wanted to mention here for the Texas Rangers, Joe Barlow picked up his 11th save. He's got a 1.55 ERA, 0.83 whip. He throws mid-90s. He has three pitches, but I will caution some people 11.7% swinging strike rate, a 4.55 X-FIP for Joe Barlow.

And these are some of the things that I'll be looking into. I guess he has a chance to open up as the Rangers closer next year. I don't think they're going to be very competitive. It obviously depends if they sign somebody. But I'm one of these like madmen, Scott, who does draft and hold drafts throughout the fall, October, November, draft champions over on NFBC. And saves are one of the categories. So trying to figure out.

Trying to figure out bullpens in October and November is not very easy. Look, I don't see why the Rangers would shell out for a free agent reliever who's going to overtake Barlow. So I think in that context, Barlow is somebody worth investing in. All right. Last thing we'll hit on for the end of the regular season. I mentioned we have a fantasy justice on our last podcast. And let's finish up the week and the year with this. Yeah, yeah. All right, make it a good one, Aaron.

Admittedly, I didn't read it beforehand, so I hope it makes sense. We have a Keeper League, and the championship week ended yesterday. He actually sent this in on Monday, so it ended last week. The championship winner picked up a bunch of possible keepers for next year this morning, even though the season has ended. This is new to us because usually we play until the end of the baseball season, but for the first time this year, we set it up to end one week early to avoid big-time pitchers resting up for the MLB playoffs during our championship.

week, which I think makes sense. I think that's fine. I was unaware, insert provider, fantasy provider here, that's not named CBS, would even let you pick up players after the championship game is over, but they have some strange setups. Please provide fantasy justice and advise if I should reverse his, quote, offseason moves. Does your league... Okay, so when championship week... ends, or really when lineups lock for the last time, your league's off-season has begun. So if you've never allowed moves in the off-season in the past, I don't think these moves should

count. Yeah, no, I'm with you. So normally, look at it like where, say you play the season out until the final day. Like, let's say two years ago, back in 2019, you played out all the way until the end of September, the final day of the season. Would someone be allowed to make a pickup up on a player the day after that, let's say, while a wildcard playoff game is going on, can someone pick up a player then and keep them for the next year? If the answer is no and has always been no, then no. These moves should not count, and you should reverse them. That seems straightforward to me, and he may balk at it, he may not like it, but yeah, tough. All right, well, this is actually a pretty good question. I could see some other people dealing with something

there, but justice has been served. We did it, Scott. We almost went an hour and 15 minutes as well. The regular season is in the books. This is my first full season at CBS, fantasy baseball today and fantasy baseball today in five. And it was good. It was a fun one.

I mean, obviously, it's a super long season, and experiencing this with football combined is admittedly pretty tough. But I feel good. I think we're in a good spot here, Scotty. Yeah. And we'll still be around twice a week and off season, right? we sure will.

Don't tune out people. We have more fun in the off season. We can play it fast and loose. We can, you know, talk about dumb things. Yeah. And I'll try my best

to not go an hour. I'll try my best to not go an hour in 15 minutes in our, in our offseason podcast. We've got some fun stuff planned for next week as well. Scott's writing an article about season award winners.

So we'll talk about some of that. And actually on our Tuesday podcast next week, we're just going to look at league leaders, right? at each category that actually matters and some season trends and compare it to our last regular season, which was back in 2019. So for Scott, I am Frank.

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