Fantasy Baseball Today - Big Bounce Backs for Paul Skenes & George Kirby! (8/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Jacob deGrom is either hurt or old (3:20). ... Gavin Williams took a big step back (10:38). ... Paul Skenes finally turned in a strong start (19:20)! ... George Kirby bounced back in a big way (23:45). ... Welcome back, Tyler Glasnow (28:19)! ... News (30:45): Aaron Judge is getting closer. ... Luis Robert is having a nice August (39:43). ... Aaron Nola or Clay Holmes (49:47)? ... Hold or drop these pitchers (57:40)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:05:39).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday. August 26th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Chris Sowers.

Today on the show, we got some big bouncebacks on the mound. I've got some buy or sell, waiver ads, and should we hold or drop these struggling players? Is it time to hold them or fold them, Chris? Oh, like the song. Chris knows the words. It's a great song. Every word to this song. He was singing it while we were setting up.

It was great. It's the gambler by Kenny Rogers for any way he doesn't know. It's a great song. It's a great song. RIP Dolly Parton. Yes, of course. Penny Rogers, uh, song partner many times, one of the greatest to ever do it. One of, I'm going to go ahead and say it, one of the greatest Americans of all time.

Top 10 American. Put her on Mount Rushmore. Dolly Parton, absolute legend. Love her. R.I.P. Fair enough. Well said. That's what I said.

I cannot say a, I cannot add anything else to that. Let's talk about baseball. All right, Chris. Player of the night. Are we going good or bad? Hmm. There were some good options today. I'm sure we'll talk about a bunch of them.

Gage Jump was good. Todge Bradley had an immaculate inning while also not having a great start because that's kind of the Todd Bradley experience. But we are going to go negative today and we are going to go with, we'll focus on Jacob de Grom, but I'm sure we'll talk about another frustrating pitcher. And Jacob de Grom, boy, he gave up eight runs and three and two-thirds innings against the white side. today. He gave up six hits, five walks, only two strikeouts. That is wild stuff. When you dig into the numbers, it does look like maybe he got babbiped a little bit because 15 batted balls, only two of them were hit 95 miles per hour or harder. He had an 83 mile per hour average exit velocity. But I do think it's worth noting that like the, the,

First inning, when things were really bad for him, he gave up hits on 71.3, 78.1, 71.5, and 69 mile per hour batted balls. And a 74 mile per hour batted ball for good measure in that first inning. Four of those five hits were on batted balls with an expected batting average of at least 400. So he didn't get hit hard. But I'm not sure it was actually terrible luck either. Especially when you look at the five walks in three and two-thirds innings. And then when you look at the pitch chart and you start to see where, well, there is a big cluster of four seamers right smack dab in the middle of the strike zone. And that's not what you want to see. And he had a lot of pitches in the strike zone overall. It just didn't seem like Jacob deGrom had it on Tuesday. but it kind of increasingly feels like Jacob deGrom doesn't have it.

Doesn't it? He's got a 720 ERA now in the month of August. He had one amazing start, 10 strikeouts over six shutout innings. He had another pretty good start, 5-1-run run innings with nine strikeouts. The three other starts have been pretty brutal. One of them he left with an injury. But he has two starts now in August with more walks than strikeouts. That is not Jacob de Grom.

And I don't know if it's because he's not healthy. I do know that he dealt with, what was the injury in July? It was a glute. Yeah, okay. And then it was a triceps in August. Yeah. So it sure seems like he's not healthy because he had a 348 ERA at the end of June. He has a 421 ERA for the season now.

So the whole thing with Jacob de Grom has always been, well, he's going to be dominant when he's on the mount. And that was mostly true last season, but it has not been true this season. And he's 38 years old. And while, you know, the stuff still looks very good, the command is clearly not where it needs to be. I'm hoping that he just isn't healthy right now because the alternative is he's lost a lot. And that's not something I want to consider right now. What's so interesting, too, is according to Fangraphs, Stuff Plus and Location, Plus metrics.

His previous six starts in the second half before this one. It was a 108 stuff plus 110 location plus. And those are awesome numbers. Yeah, those are incredible numbers, yeah. It's very weird what's going on here with Jacob de Crom.

Yeah, I think those are like the main two possibilities here is that he either is not healthy. He had the glute in July and he had the tricep in August here. Even though his previous start out, so frustrating. So frustrating as a Jacob de Grom owner in multiple leagues

where I had him in the lineup for the start. He left after two innings with the tricep injury, took him out for the start where he had the six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts because he didn't know if he was going to start that week or not. And then you put him back in the lineup for this one, and he gets absolutely sheled. So just really, really frustrating Jacob de Grom experience here. And I do want to credit the White Sox too because

they had a clear plan and were very disciplined. They had just a 15% chase rate against Jacob de Grom in the start. So his zone percentage actually wasn't bad, but his strike percentage was terrible. It was only 52% because they did not chase any of the secondary pitches outside the strike zone. And in fact, his slider was not good at all.

It had zero whiffs. And typically, that's wild. The slider is amazing for Jacob de Grom. So I think, there is something wrong. It's either, I think he's kind of pitching through some stuff that is just kind of built up over the year, or he's 38 years old and things are just starting to add up for Jacob de Grom.

So I did have a buy yourself for later on. Buy yourself, Jacob de Grom is not an ace anymore. I think you have to buy it. And it's not just a reaction to this start or this recent run because you look at the overall line. And while, look, the strike guy rate is still 30%. walk rate 6%. That's amazing. What you are seeing when you look past that, though, is he's been getting hit hard all season.

Yeah. 90.7 mile per hour average exit velocity. That's bottom 6% in the entire league. 398 expected Wobon contact. That's 390. That's bottom 10%. He up a lot of hard contact last year, too. Yeah.

And it's gotten worse. And so, you know, the one thing that I do wonder with Jacob deGrom, and we've seen this for really most of the past like eight years with him is he has become primarily just a fastball slider guy. That's not entirely true. He throws the change up and curveball about 18 to 19% of the time typically. But for the most part,

he's throwing primarily fastball slider and the change up and curveball still look great and still get great results when he throws them. And I do wonder, is there a world where he starts to sprinkle those pitches in a little more now that we're seeing this approach isn't working, or he's just not healthy, and that'll solve itself one way or the other.

That's all I can think, yeah. With all of that being said, two starts at home next week for Jacob de Grom, and they are against the athletics who have all those injuries and Tampa Bay, who is a pretty good lineup. They make a lot of contact. but Jacob de Grom's home road splits this year. 267 ERA at home, 586 on the road.

It's been a weird year for pitcher splits. Just like DeGrom, Brian Wu. I feel like there's a few other pitchers that whenever I... Gage dump. I've looked at their... Yeah, I mean, I guess that's kind of expected with the athletics guys, but yeah, I feel like a lot of... Normally, pitchers are better at home,

but I feel like there's a bigger disparity between home and road splits for a lot of big-name pitchers this year. So, with all that being said, I think you're still using Jacob. DeGrom with two starts at home next week. But I think we just, we have to kind of like pull back the expectations for Jacob deGrom at this point. Let's just get the two buyer cells out of the way here.

The other one I had was Gavin Williams, who had his shortest start of the season. He only recorded four outs. He gave up five runs. He gave up two homers in this one. So weird. He gave up only three hard hits. His average EV was 83.6 miles per hour. But on those three hard hits, he gave up two home runs.

So you can't really say it's bad look. He made two bad pitches and he gave up two home runs, right? And we know his previous eight starts before this. He was tremendous. 335 ERA.87 whip. 14.5% 14.5K per 9 there for Gavin Williams. The buyer sell here was he's just back to being a random number generator, which is what he was for most of the season before this eight start stretch.

I'm as tired of talking about Gavin Williams as the, audience is of hearing me talk about Gavin Williams. And this is one of those situations where I wish this wasn't a Chris and Frank podcast. Nothing against Chris and Frank. Love Chris and Frank. But we need that Scotty perspective. I just, he's not an ace. He looks like an ace sometimes. But we have seen throughout Gavin Williams' career that he is never quite as good as he seems when he's at his best. And that's true for every pitcher, but it feels especially true for him because he just goes through these stretches where he's absolutely untouchable. He had that stretch of five starts with 11 or 10 or more strikeouts. He only had three walks in that stretch. And then in four starts since then,

he has like an 8 ERA. He has, let me do 10 walks in four starts. He did have one 11 strikeout start, but he's also had two starts with five earned runs or more. I just, look, he's a top 20 starting pitcher on the season, probably. He was 16th coming into this start. This might drop him out of the top 20, but he's right around there. And I think that's about where I have him ranked, and I feel pretty comfortable with that. It's just the, there's an insistence when he has those good stretches that that's who he actually is. And I just don't think that's the case.

I think he's always going to be frustrating. You look at who he's been the past two seasons. It's been a very different pitcher between 2025 and 2026. But the one thing that's been sustained throughout there is the inconsistency. And, you know, I know he had the run late last season that got his ERA down, but there were a lot of struggles along the way. And he has bumped his strikeout rate up to 32% this season. That's an elite mark.

His walk rate's down to 7.7%. That's really good. and he has the fourth highest expected Wobon contact of any starting pitcher. He's just, he has not figured out, maybe he'll get there, but he has not figured out a way to put everything together all at once. Yeah. The strikeout rate's better, the walk rate's better. He gets crushed when he does give up contact.

And I think he's just a high 3 ZRA guy. You know, maybe it's not 398 like it is right now, but his XERA coming into this start was 389. Yeah. You know, I think this is just who Gavin Williams is, and you just have to live with the ups and downs and accept that you're going to get a ton of strikeouts. And it's just going to come with, you know, probably a higher ERA than you'd hope. Feels like a pretty clear tradeoff too. And we've talked about this a lot this season where it's like, if you're throwing more strikes, you're in the zone more. You're just bound to give up more hard contact. So, and look, it's a, I guess it's a trade. off you're willing to take because the whip is much better this year for Gavin Williams,

although the ERA obviously is elevated. So that is kind of, that is the tradeoff here. It's like his whip is better, but the ERA has taken a step up. But the strikeouts have also gotten a lot better this season as well. So I still think this is the best version of Gavin Williams that we've seen. But it, that's just part of his profile is that it's going to be a higher ERA for this reason. It's just annoying that it's clearly been a breakthrough season for him. Yeah. And he also has a. 39080. All right.

Yeah, I'm looking at my rankings, and I'm going to update my pitcher rankings on Wednesday. I don't know who deserves to be the number 10 pitcher, because I'm going to drop Zach Wheeler down with how he's looked lately. And then the names that I had at 11 through 14, Chase Burns, Gavin Williams, Paul Skeens, Jacob deGrom. I don't think Chase Burns can be there.

And if Zach Wheeler is at the top of that list, I think the top nine, in some order is Mizzi Yarowski, Terik Scoobel, Christopher Sanchez, Cam Shletler, Chris Sale, Yamamoto, Dylan Sees, and Jesus Lazzardo,

and Logan Gilbert. I don't really know who deserves to be number 10. I mean, you can make an argument for, like, Garrett Cole? Nolan McLean?

Drew Rasmussen? Those are the next names I have up. Yuri Perez? Parker Messick, Yuri Perez, Cade Cavali, Peyton Toley?

I don't know. Yeah, Blake Snell is probably in that mix. Drew Rasmusman. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's kind of, to me, there's a clear top nine right now. And then the next tier is kind of like 15 names that you can rank in almost any order from 10 to 25, basically. Yeah. No, it's tough because I was on vacation last week, so I haven't updated my rankings in two weeks now. And I'm going to have to do a big one tomorrow. But just looking at, I mean, a couple of guys have gotten hurt, but also like, Shoddy Minago was in that like 30 to 20 range for me. I don't think he belongs there. Ranger Ron Harris-Wares, no, Braxon Garrett, maybe. Sandy Alcantra might be a top 25 starting pitcher now. I think Logan Henderson's in that mix, too.

I don't know if Kyle Harrison can be in that mix. I'm sure we'll talk about him later, but it feels like he's good. It seems like the concerns are gone, but he hasn't done more than 90 pitches since he came back from the IL. He's been limited. His velocity has been down a little bit since coming back. Yeah, it's an interesting time for the pitching landscape, I would say. Absolutely, yeah. All right, let's take our first break. If you are listening on audio and you enjoy the podcast,

make sure to give us a five-star rating and review on both Apple or Spotify, wherever you listen. We really do appreciate that. Let's take a break. And when we return, we will get into some big bouncebacks here from Paul Skeens and George Kirby. What did they do differently? We'll talk about it right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy at Baseball today.

Let's dive into these big bouncebacks starts here from Paul Skeens and George Kirby. obviously two names we have talked a lot about as well. Paul Skeen's like every time he pitches, we are all over it, seeing what's going on here. And this was his best start in a while. Six shutout innings, three hits, four strikeouts to zero walks. Four strikeouts, not great,

but he did have 13 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. That is a very good rate there for Paul Skeens. The velocity was mostly fine. The fast bowl was up a little bit. Average 97.2 miles per hour on that pitch. It did dip down in his five. ending of work here. But the main change I noticed here, Chris,

is he just uses force team a lot less than to start. 29% usage. It was 42% entering this one. The four seam and sinker were both good. They had four whiffs each. And it's an interesting change because the velocity has been down on his fastball. But the ex-Woba and the whiff rate

are still basically right in line with where it was last year. So it's an interesting change. What do you think of? about this change for Paul Skeens and how much confidence, I guess, did you build after a start like this with Paul Skeins again? So to answer the second question first, he's got, I believe, let me check. Yeah, he's got like a dream to start week next week. He's got the giants and angels, I believe. That's pretty awesome. I mean, I just want to make sure, because I did write about

this early. Yeah, Giants and Angels at home, you can't ask for two better matchups, really, in a two-star week than that. I do think you have to start him for that. And I do think it's worth noting that for the people who are insisting that Paul Skeens must be hurt, and maybe, I don't know, but this was his best fastball velocity start since May. 97.2 miles per hour at the four seamer. It was only up 0.4 from his previous start.

He had one at 97.1 recently. So it's not like a huge outlier, but, you know, that's a good sign, I think. It was a good start. It wasn't dominant. It wasn't like vintage Paul Skeens, but he threw strikes. He got 13 whiffs on 87 pitches. He limited hard contact. He did most of the things you wanted to

except for get strikeouts really. And so is that enough to make me confident in Paul Skeens the rest of the season? No. Is it enough to make me confident in starting him next week? Yeah, given the matchups and given how he looked today, I'm definitely going to start him next week. That doesn't mean he's going to be good. But I think you have to start him given that matchup.

As far as the tweaks he made, you know, throwing the four seamer less sinker and slider more. I don't know if throwing either one of those pitches is necessarily the thing that I would think of to fix Paul Skeens. But it's interesting that he's trying different things. I don't know.

I don't have a good sense for where he's at right now because I haven't had a good explanation for why he's been struggling. Beyond, well, he must be hurt. and with the velocity taking back up, it's like, well, that theory is kind of harder to make sense of. So I don't know.

I'm really, I'm struggling. Paul Skeen's is searching. We're all trying to find, we're all trying to figure out who did this. And I don't know. I hope my uncertainty about all of this is shining through because I'm really not sure what to make of Paul Skeins at all right now. I mean, you did give people what they need to hear.

and look, they're probably going to start him no matter what. I mean, he's your first or second round pick. You probably just go down with the ship with Paul Skeens. But, I mean, obviously coming off a start like this, where things did look a little bit better. And again, we needed to see a start like this. Oh, yeah. And the matchups for next week.

I think there has to be at least a little bit more confidence based on where he was at to go out there and use him in that two-star week. Again, that is Paul Skeens. What about George Kirby? A big bounce back against the Phillies here. seven and two thirds innings, one run, nine strikeouts to one walk, 21 whiffs on 92 pitches,

and 12 of those came on the fastball. And he did make some changes here, like changes in velocity, pitch mix, pitch movement. So the four seam, he threw it 42% in this one. It was 28% entering. The V-Lo was up 1.3 miles per hour, up to 97.9. It also had two more inches of induced vertical break. and again it had 12 of his 21 swinging strikes.

So it was a really, really dominant fastball. And then his change-up was very different. The velocity was down 1.5 miles per hour, and it had seven more inches of drop. It had three of his 21 whiffs. So George Kirby is not shy about tinkering, but I feel like these are pretty interesting changes in terms of velocity and pitch movement

just being very, very different for both the fastball and the change. which could play off of each other very well. Yeah, there's there's something weird going on with the pitch effects and I'm guessing that they're just their grouping his splitter and change up together because I'm looking at it right now

and I'm seeing he didn't throw any changeups and it was all splitters. But I hate when that happens. I think you're right because the splitter spin rate is registering at up 224 RPM which probably means that some of those splitters are changeups. It is still, I guess, noteworthy that he threw the splitter and change

up 14% of the time in this start. That is usually a combined 7.5%. So he did double the usage. Yeah. Part of that is it was a very lefty, heavy lineup for the Phillies. 73 of his 92 pitches were against lefties. He'll throw the change up and splitter more against those. But even there, he threw 18 percent splitters and changeups against lefties. Typically, it's about 10.9% against lefties. So there was still a concerted change. What, you know, because the data is a little wonky right now, you know, it wasn't more splitters than changeups.

For the season, it's been more change ups and splitters. So, you know, we'll see. But there's something going on with the data that makes it harder to parse right now. But either way, he did make some changes here. And that's noteworthy because things haven't really been working all that great for George Kirby this season. And so making some changes is probably in his best interest. How sustainable is this? I don't think you can ever count on a 50% whiff rate for a four seam fastball moving forward.

That's unsustainable. The velocity, I mean, look, if he's going to average 98 miles per hour with the four seam, and get 15 inches of induced vertical break instead of 13. Okay, yeah, maybe. Maybe that'll work. But that's probably not going to prove sustainable. So I think the best you can say is great start, great execution from George Kirby.

I don't necessarily know if he's fixed, but probably going out with a two-star week for him next week, too. Probably keeping him in my line up there. Yeah, I checked earlier. Actually, I don't know if it's going to be a two-star week. It looks like one against the Red Sox in Boston. And you... Yeah, if he had that second start versus the A's,

that would be a lot more promising. But it looks like Gilbert's getting the two-star week next week. This won't surprise you, but he has a 321 ERA at home and a 519 ERA on the road for George Kirby. And he could be facing a Red Sox lineup that has Roman Anthony backing it by next week as well. So, don't exactly love that. But I do love, again, the fastball velocity being up and getting whiffs with that pitch. Because when George Kirby has been at its best in previous seasons, he is getting big whiffs on his fastball.

The whiff rate has been down on that fastball all season long. So I think that is a really, really encouraging sign here for George Kirby. I wouldn't say that he's just a must start, like set it and forget it in the Red Sox. But I think he's kind of like on the fringe. And if you don't have better options, you probably could use him in that matchup. but not with the most confidence. Do want to welcome back Tyler Glassnow, who was okay in his return at the Braves,

five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He had 15 whiffs on 89 pitches here. Chris, what did you see from Tyler Glassnow? Did he look like himself, mostly? I think for the most part he did. This is another instance of a lot of weak contact, especially early on. There was a lot of runners on base early on,

but it was only, I believe, two hard hit balls in the first inning, a bunch below 82 miles per hour. So I think that, you know, the kind of shaky first inning, one, a little bit of rust and two, just a little bit of bad luck. But otherwise, I mean, seven strikeouts, zero walks, 15 whiffs on 89 pitches. He got up to 89 pitches in his first start back, so they're not babying him. I think it's more or less all systems go for Tyler Glass now moving forward. And, you know, much like Blake Snell, when he's out there, you're starting him.

Yeah. So, you know, if you kept him on the bench for the first start back, I always think that's reasonable. I always think it's reasonable to sit a guy in his first start back from a long layoff. You never quite know what they're going to look like, although he was very good on his minor league rehab stint. But I always think that's a reasonable enough call. if you did, you're getting him back in your lineup next week. Is he a two-star pitcher next week? I don't think so.

Actually, it's not even worth trying to parse their rotation right now because the Otani of it all, I have no idea how they're going to handle that because Otani's likely to return sometime in the next week. So I think that would make it a six-man rotation. Yeah. When I saw... He's probably not going to be used as a full starter,

so they may piggyback him with someone. I have no idea. I think it would be Eric Lauer is what I saw. It would be Otani as an opener and then Eric Lauer as a... Yeah, so it'll probably be one start next week versus the Cardinals it looks like. Yeah, you're starting him for that one. Yep. Again, that is Tyler Glassdown.

Just a reminder of what he did in his four rehab starts, 132 ERA.51 whip, 13.2K per 9 there for Tyler Glass now, who... You know, the final line here, not amazing, but, you know, still had the seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 80s on 80s. pitches. I would say overall pretty encouraging return there for Tyler Glass now. Let's run through the news and notes and Aaron Judge did some cage BP work on Tuesday in addition to running and he's also throwing at over 100 feet. So, you know, we got to get him facing, you know, real pitching and things like that and then, you know, it'll slowly continue to build up. But my rough estimate would be like mid-September, I think, at this point. I think it could be quicker than that

because I don't Look he's been out so long He's been out since like late June right Early June I think Early June Yeah It might require A rehab assignment

But I wouldn't be surprised If he just comes back Without a rehab assignment I think that's actually more likely And they'll use his games Back with the Yankees as his rehab Just to kind of like ramp up for the postseason

And maybe he's deaching more often But I think it's not going to be like once he's cleared he's got to go on a rehab assignment. I think once he's cleared, he's going to be in. And it probably won't be by next week. But I do think there's a chance this moves a little quicker than you might think just because, you know, obviously you want to make sure he's still healthy for the postseason. You don't want to rush him back. But you also want to make sure that he gets the reps in that he needs before then.

Yeah. There was a date thrown out there by Joel Sherman. I don't know how. I know Sherman is like pretty connected and stuff. He's kind of plugged on, yeah. But he threw out September 10th as a potential return date for... Basically, two weeks exactly from now. And it would be...

That would be one day before. I think they have a series... The subway series with the Mets starts on September 11th. So perhaps they want him back for that, you know, whatever. They're going to sell tickets anyway. It's a subway series, but obviously lots of fanfare involved if Judge could get back for that. So I would say that's probably... probably the target, but you know, we'll just update you with everything that we learn about Aaron Judge.

Max Free threw a four-inning live BP on Monday and could start one of the double header games this weekend on Saturday against the Red Sox. So they said all along, Max Frieda said it too, that they think this could be a minimum stay, 15 days in the IL. I'm not sure how smart that is, but perhaps they were just really being really cautious about this. and perhaps it's not as bad as a previous injury, which is what they've said all along for Max Fried. Byron Buckson left Tuesday night in the seventh inning with an apparent side or back injury. He's been dealing with that hip a lot this season,

so my guess is that it's either just his hip or the hip has kind of led to some compensation injury for some other part of his body. But this is unfortunately the Byron Buxden experience for most of his career. He's still really, really good when he's played. this year, but he has just missed a lot of time once again this season. Maybe this is the impetus to get Walker Jenkins up.

That could be, yeah, if Buxson goes back on the IL, they are in that mix for the wildcard spot, and they, oh, they lost. They lost here on Tuesday. It's a bad loss, bad loss against the athletics. Roman Anthony could return Friday against the Yankees. Great, perfect timing against the Yankees. Love that. Roman Anthony went two for four with a homer at AAA.

on Tuesday and he's looked pretty good in his rehab game so hopefully he is, hopefully he's back this weekend for fantasy. Don't really want to see him crush my Yankees because I just I just know he. Don't be selfish. He's going to be a Yankee killer for the next 20 years. There's no doubt in my mind. He's going to own the Yankees for his whole career, definitely.

Pete Fairbanks was placed in the aisle with nerve irritation in his hand and there was a beat writer who mentioned three names, Calvin Foshe, Michael Peterson, and Josh Eckness. if you play in a really deep league where saves are scarce and you lost Pete Fairbanks I would still lean

Calvin Foshe of the three but it wouldn't surprise me if they just kind of mix and match there with the Marlins. This one came out of nowhere. Shane Bieber coming off maybe his best start of the season went on the aisle

with a right terrace major with right terris major inflammation so that is like the right under the shoulder right it's kind of like the armpit area there so Another unfortunate arm injury for Shane Bieber, who really has not been able to stay healthy since coming back from Tommy John surgery last year. Adley Rutchman was out of the lineup due to right elbow irritation.

And he's dealt with a lot of stuff too. He had the wrist previously. He's been on the aisle multiple times a season. And hasn't really looked so great since joining the Red Sox. But maybe they just, he just needs to get healthy. And then we can see Adley Ruchman get back on track. He's no Mickey Gasper. Mickey Catherman.

Who is that guy? Bonkers. Double Dong here on Tuesday's last eight games. I think he has like four home runs, five home runs. Five home runs. He had zero home runs before that. Yeah, guys, he's crushing it. Chase DeLauder has missed two straight

with left hamstring's tightness. He did not start on Tuesday, but he came on as a pinch hitter late in that game. So hopefully that's good news for him to play in the next couple days. Hunter Goodman was activated from the IL and he returned with a bang. one for four with his 35th home run of the season.

Jack Caglione has missed two straight with right ankle soreness. Will Smith was scheduled to catch five innings at AAA on Tuesday. I did not actually look that up, so I'll look it up during the break. I'll check, yeah. But yeah, that is Will Smith. He's working his way back from that neck injury. Elmer Rodriguez is likely to start for the Yankees on Wednesday with Max Fried and Ryan Weathers in the IL.

The Yankees are obviously in some need of pitching help. and his last five starts at AAA. Elma Rodriguez, 138, ERA, 115 whip, 10K per nine, 2.8 walks per night. So he's looked very good. I mean, I think he's kind of done everything he can in the minors. So the question remains, can Elmer Rodriguez do it in the majors? And so we will see on Wednesday, if he can against the Astros. By the way, Will Smith did play.

He seemed to play five innings and then was replaced. He had a home run. Nice. All right. It was not like a shot. It was only 92 miles per hour, but he did have a 104 mile per hour line out and a 91 mile per hour fly out. So,

you know, draw whatever conclusions you want from that. That would be, you know, get them back for all September. That would be pretty nice boost here for those in two catcher leagues. And Carson Wisenhunt, unfortunately,

was diagnosed with a torn UCL in his elbow. And surgery has been recommended. If that's the case, likely misses all of 2020. The third young pitcher having Tommy John surgery for the, or a UCL tear for the Giants in like the last two months, right? Who else has that been? Oh, gosh.

I should know this before I say it, but it was definitely multiple pitchers. Oh, gosh. They had Hayden Birdsong and Trevor McDonald also had Tommy John surgery. Yeah, that is pretty rough there for the Giants. Let's take our final break when we return. I have a bunch of waiver-wire names. I have a bunch of names.

Do we hold these guys? Do we drop them? They've kind of slowed down a little bit. We'll do all that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's run through the Waver Wire hitters from Tuesday's action. And two shallow league outfielders. Luis Robert is making some stuff happen.

Two-for-four with a walk in his 10th homer. He has four home runs in his past six games. And in August, he's hitting 305, six homers. 985 OPS. It does look like he's sitting out every third or fourth game. They're probably just trying to keep him healthy. 68% rostered on CBS.

And Max Clark, homered off of a lefty here in Ian Seymour. It was his second home run overall. And in 23 games, he's sitting 247. Two homers, three doubles, two triples, a steel. Just a 704 OPS. So not really doing too much yet. 65% rostered. Do you think either of these numbers need to be higher for Robert or Max Clark?

I don't think so. And in both cases, I think it's because they're not running very much. And in Robert's case, you have to imagine that's just we don't get hurt. You know, like there's just no point. And so as good as he can be as a hitter, given the regular time off and given the fact that he's not running. It limits his appeal in both formats. I think he's a very fringy starter in a head-to-head points league.

And even in a roto league, I'm not sure he's much more than a fifth outfielder because of the lack of speed. So that's where I'm at on Luis Robert. Yeah, I can't interest you in him in like a three outfielder category league, right? I feel like there's still too many other options. Maybe, but there's, yeah, there's probably 36 guys I'd prefer.

We got a huge game from Yiner Diaz, the Astros three for four with a double dong three runs, three RBI, his first multi-home run game of the season. His playing time, I hadn't realized, has kind of fallen off. He's only started seven of the last 15 games for the Astros. I don't really

blame them. He's a bad defensive catcher. The offense is just kind of mid. He's like between a 700 and 750 OPS the past couple of years. The hard contact is down. The ground ball rate is way up. So 38% rostered for YinerD

I think he's just a two-catcher league guy. Yeah, I don't even think I would look at, I don't even think he's like a hot hand name in a one-catcher league. Yeah, as much as I'd like it to be the case, I don't think. I think Jarned-Diaz has to do more, and specifically it's the playing time.

If he can, you know, if this leads to them playing him more, maybe. But he's been pretty unremarkable for two straight years now. So I'm, I'm kind of done there. Yeah, I agree. A couple of their names here in five outfielder leagues.

Ryan Walshmidt, one for one with a pinch hit, walk off two-run homer in the ninth inning of that game off of Jacob Webb. He has looked better since being recalled and didn't start this one, but it was playing pretty consistently. He started 19 of the last 21 games here for the D-backs. He's 26% rostered. And I'll bring his name up again. He just keeps on homering.

That is Tristan Peters, who went three for three with two walks and his 11th home run. He has homered in four straight games and in August, 322, five homers, two seals, 1081 OPS, seven games next week, all against right-handed pitching. So I am kind of interested there in Tristan Peters.

What do you think about these two, Chris, in five outfielder leagues, Walshmet and Tristan Peters? With all the right, he's on the schedule, sure. I think Tristan Peters is a fine streamer. I don't think he's someone who you need to look at

as a must start player. But sure, with five or with a full week of Ritey's scheduled to face, I think that's okay. That being said, the average X velocity in August is just 85.2 miles per hour. Now, for Peters? For Peters, yeah. Yeah, he's a big, pulled air raid guy. He's a pulled area guy. And his ex-Waba is 361 in this month.

So there's, I'm not, that doesn't mean there's nothing there. It's just, you know, I think the talent. level is pretty limited overall, and obviously, you know, the playing time isn't 100%. Walt Schmidt, he is definitely hitting better since coming back in early to mid-July. It was like July 10th. He's hitting like 289 entering today. The problem is this was just his third home run. I think he only has one or two stolen bases in that span.

Strikeout rate is down to like 25% in that stretch, but that's still too high for a guy who's not hitting for much power. So it's kind of an empty Babbitt fueled batting average in a way that I remain intrigued by Ryan Walschmidt in a long-term sense. But not even in like five outfield or 12 team leagues doesn't need to be rostered completely. Yeah, I think I'd rather roll the dice on like a Tristan Peters hot hand approach with those matches that he has next week. And even someone like Henry Bolte, who has his own warts, but there's been a little bit more juice there with Bolte. in terms of just like power and speed. Walschmidt hitting better as you mentioned,

but we just really haven't seen enough power and speed from him aside from this game where he had a pinch hit home run. A couple deeper names here, Christian Encanaccio and Tran's train, two for five with his seventh home run, three RBI. The Homer 111.8 exit velocity, 450 feet, and he hit it off a lefty. He is crushing lefties. So if you see lefties on the schedule,

he has a 1068 OPS against lefties, only 576 against righties. for Encarnacian Strand. Von Grissom, 2 for 5 with a double dong, 3 RBI, but he was struggling big time in August before this one. And then the Mickey Gasper, who you mentioned earlier, two for two, double dong, two walks,

two homers, two runs, two RBI, eight games since returning to the Red Sox. He is 10 for 21 with five homers and 12 RBI. However, I don't really see how he's going to play once Roman Anthony is back for the team because they have three outfielders and then a DH and then also Adley Rochman catcher. Yep. I think it would have to be like Ruchman goes on the IL with this elbow thing.

But there's not, as we're speaking, there's no indication of that. And he has not caught since he came back. So it's been exclusively DH. And he was pretty, I think pretty heavily used at DH before this as well. So I don't think they love his defense anyway. I mean, look, he's got five home runs in, what, eight games since coming back from AAA. He's making it very, very hard for them to take him out of the lineup. But absent an injury, I just don't see any way that he sticks around.

So this is purely, if you want a very short-term hot hand play, pick up Mickey Jasper. And maybe he sticks around when Roman Anthony comes back. But I don't think he's going to start a lot when Roman. Anthony comes back. Maybe you just start him ahead of Connor Wong. Like that's your number two catcher, but I don't think that's, even that doesn't seem particularly likely.

I know they like, I know they like Connor Wong. Encarnazio and Strand, by the way, the schedule for next week. Seven games. Three are in Colorado. Okay. Four against the Red Sox

who have three lefties on the schedule. So three lefties plus a chorus field series, that is pretty. Remo for Encanso. Yeah, that might be a good sleeper hitter for next week. Yeah, I don't have a ton of faith in him overall. But yeah, with that context, a bunch of lefties and games of course field, you know, if he starts five or six of those games, that'd be great.

Yeah. Yeah, even if we only get two games and cores and then you get the three, you know, lefties the way he's hitting them. It's pretty interesting as like a deeply corner infielder there, Christian Ancarnacio Tran. Hold or drop. Sam Antanachi is someone that you and I in particular, Chris, we were very excited about Antonacci, and for good reason, he had a big game here,

but he has slowed down. Two for four with a double, a triple, a walk, RBI, three runs scored. His previous 44 games before this was hitting just 213. Three homers, five steals. That's still okay, but a 623 OPS, not hitting the ball hard at all. The expected stats look really bad, and he has struggled big time against lefties, just a 582 OPS, and he has sat out against five of the last 10 lefts. lefties that have been on the schedule here. So Antinacci has second and outfield eligibility. He's still 81% roster. Do you think that number should be that high still for Antinacci?

That does feel a little high, yeah. Because that means he's rostered in a decent number of points leagues. And if he's not playing quite every day, it's really hard to justify that for a guy who's probably not a difference maker. I still think he's a pretty good hitter overall. And I think this is probably just the ebbs and flow. of the season. I mean, you look at... Of a rookie season at that. Of a rookie season. And you just look at Nico Horner, who's a very good established player, but of this same archetype, right? He had two

months where he was practically useless for fantasy. Like, that just kind of happens for guys sometimes. So I'm not giving up on Sam Antinacci, but yeah, I think 81% probably still a little too high. Whenever you hear Chris's cat feeder go off, you know that we started very late on the podcast. I mean, yeah, The cafe you're going off 45 minutes in. That's, that's real late. It's usually like maybe right at the end. But now that, yeah. It's 2 a.m. on the East Coast.

Here we go. Hey, that's August for you. You know? Yeah. August, you know, we're tired. It's late in the season. And six West Coast games on a full state. And it's like, come on.

Who did this? I didn't really start writing until like 11 today. So, yeah. Brutal, brutal stuff. Some waiver wire pitchers on the Shouse. The lower end here. Arindola, a quality start at the Mariners. Six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts,

12 whiffs on 92 pitches. And really everything looked pretty good here, except for his four seam, which got hit hard. That is usually the case for Arindola. His last six starts. He is a 260 ERA, a 124 whip. 41 strikeouts over 34 and two-thirds innings. He is 75% rostered,

and it looks like at the D-backs and home against the Braves next week. So two-star pitcher. The other name here is Clay Holmes, who was great at the debacks, seven shutout, innings, two hits, two walks, five strikeouts. He had 12 swinging strikes on 93 pitches. And his first start back from injury was rough. I think it's fair to just kind of write that one off,

like rusty, whatever he hasn't pitched since May. But his next three starts with the Cubs, 19 innings, one run, only nine strikeouts to five walks. So he's not getting whiffs. He doesn't usually get a lot of those. but a 65% ground ball rate during that spend. So that is very helpful, especially with that defense behind you.

So Chris, who do you like more here from a very shallow league perspective? Nola, 75% Clay Holmes, 72% roster. Probably Nola. What's tough is this big stretch that he's on, 41 strikeouts in 34 and 2 thirds. Innings over his last six starts. There have been some mild tweaks to the Arsenal.

You know, he's throwing the change, up more. It's mostly about command. There was a piece on Philly's Nation on Monday from Tyler Brown that talked about, went into the numbers about how much better the command has been. And if that sticks, then he can make it work. He's clearly making it work right now. But command is very, I don't know what the term for the opposite of sticky would be slick.

Yeah, it's very slippery. And so anytime we're talking about players who are improved but because of improved command, that's not to say it's not real. Those command improvements are real, but sustainable and real are similar, but different words when you're talking about moving forward.

And so my guess is this is going to get pretty ugly again at some point, but he's got a two-star week next. week. I think it's okay to use Aaron Nola for that one. You know, the problem with Clay Holmes is he's so defense dependent, right? And that's really tough too, because you can only, like, we like guys who get strikeouts because that's what's in their control. And Clay Holmes is about as defense dependent as any pitcher in baseball. He's got, you know, even with Danesby Swanson out,

the best defensive. You know, maybe still the best defense in baseball, even with Danes B Swanson out. So, you know, he's at Miami versus Milwaukee next week. One really good matchup, one not so great one. I think both these guys are pretty good two-star pitchers for next week. I think there's probably a higher ceiling for Aaronnola because of the strikeouts. Yeah.

Clay Holmes probably a little more dependable. That's exactly. So just kind of look at what you're looking for. That's exactly where I was going as well. I think Clay Holmes higher floor. I think Nola higher ceiling. I think Nola wider range of outcomes where the high end could be much better, but the low end is that he can,

I still think there's a little like volatility in there where he can have some blow up starts for Aaronola. And it kind of depends what you need too. If you're in a Roto league at this point in the season, you're chasing strikeouts. I think Noah's got to be the one. I think if you're chasing, you know,

perhaps wins and ratios, like it makes more sense to go with Clay Holmes. So consider those two things. In a points league, I think they're pretty similar. I think Clay Holmes is more likely to go deeper into starts, just because he's like pretty efficient.

But, um, yeah, I don't know. I think that one's pretty close. Yeah. It is close. Because Nola's such a workhorse. If he's pitching while,

he's going to go deep into games. True. It's just, you know, those two things have to go together for him. Two other names here in shallow leagues. I just, I don't really trust it with either one of them. Zach Thornton, solid outing here against the Brewers, six innings, one run, four strikeouts to zero walks. And we know he is a pitch to contact.

He entered this game with a 485XERA, but he does have three earned runs or fewer in all nine starts since being recalled on June 26th. He gets the Astros this weekend and then the Giants next week at home. So that's a pretty good match up there for Thornton. Decent one-star streamer, yeah. And then Bryce Elder, quality start here against the Dodgers, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts to zero walks.

Did have 12 whiffs on 98 pitches. Three earned runs are fewer and seven of his last eight outings. The one where he didn't, it was seven earned runs over five innings. He gets the Rockies this weekend in Atlanta, and then he's at the Phillies next week. So I probably would just lean Thornton against the Giants over Elder at the Phillies, right? Yeah, if you want to drop Elder

after this two-star week, I think that's perfectly fine. A couple of deeper names, a little bit lower down the list. Gage Jump! We haven't been able to play that soundtrack in a while for Gage Jump. But he had that start against Boston a couple weeks ago. Yeah, sure. I didn't play it then, I should have. but he had a good start here

6 and the 3rd 2 runs 2 walks 9 strikeouts he had 13 whiffs on 94 pitches interestingly enough 0 whiffs on a slider but everything else look pretty good here for gauge jump

he gets two starts on the road at the Rangers at the Mariners that is pretty intriguing for gauge jump and then there's Chris Bassett here I don't know I think we know

Chris Bassett is but he had a good start here 6 and 2 thirds 1 run 5 strikeouts to his credit the velocity was up quite a bit across the board like between one and a half and two miles per hour on all of his pitches and in three starts since returning 306 IRA 130 whip and it looks like it's just one start against the Red So I think gauge jump is infinitely more interesting

Yeah I mean just from a talent perspective I think gauge jump is super talented and it's just a question of How long is it going to take him to take these flashes like what we saw tonight nine strikeouts and six and third innings? He had the 11 strikeout start against Boston, I think four starts ago or five starts ago, something like that. In between, I think he gave up 10 runs

and 10 innings or something. So he's clearly not a finished product. It's super risky to start him at Texas, at Seattle next week. But those are two really good matchups. It could go really well, and you could get, I don't know, 18 strikeouts and a 3-ERA over two starts for gauge jump,

and it could be super impactful. but if he gave up 10 runs next week, it wouldn't surprise me either. So that's a really risky one. I think just in terms of talent, he's by far the most talented of any of the waiver wire pitchers we've talked about today. It's just a question of how long is it going to take for him to even get to the point where it's two out of three good starts instead of one out of three, you know? Yeah.

That's just where he's at right now. hold or drop these four pitchers. Tosh Bradley, a mixed outing here at the athletics, four runs allowed over six and two third innings, but he had 11 strikeouts and he tossed an immaculate inning, which is awesome for Tosh Bradley. The final pitch of that inning, I'm not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best pitches I've ever seen.

It was 100 miles an hour, just clipped the bottom of the strike zone by like the smallest, like the seam of the baseball. It was just, absolutely unhittable. Man, when Tage Bradley is on, he can do some absolutely bonkers stuff.

And he gave up four and runs in six and two-thirds innings. And it's like, yeah, that's kind of the full Tage Bradley experience. He's kind of like a poor man's Gavin Williams. Yeah. In that way. I mean, they're kind of having the same season

right now. Williams Whip is a lot better. He probably has more strikeouts, I would guess. The biggest difference between them It's just the walk rate this season between Tosh Bradley and Gavin Williams. Yeah. But I think he's pretty good. Again, I don't think he's ever as good as he looks at his best.

Five starts in August, a 540 ERA 158 whip here for Tage Bradley. Is he someone that you would just continue to hold on to? Probably, but we are late enough in the season that if it happens to work out, I don't know what the schedule is. I'm going to look right now. If the schedule is not favorable in the next couple of weeks, you could avoid him, but it looks like next week's going to be two starts

versus the Tigers at the White Sox. Those aren't incredible matchups, but they're not terrible. And then it's probably versus Cleveland. Then it looks like it's going to be at the Angels, then maybe at the Giants. It's pretty good. That's a pretty good run to close out the season.

Now, Taj Bradley is one of those pitchers where the matchups don't matter quite as much as how well he's pitching at any given moment, but still, I think you probably don't want to drop him. All right. Next up, we have your favorite pitcher, Chris. Brandon Fott, not great here against the Cubs, six and two-thirds, four runs, two walks, three strikeouts, only had six whiffs on 103 pitches, and he has given a four-plus earned runs in back-to-back starts. The weirdest part is that he had a 15% swinging strike rate in the two starts before this,

but it was just 6% in this one and it looks like he lines up for two next week home against the Phillies and at the Astros so the matchups are I would say more I would say closer to bad than middling but what do you think about holding on to Brendan fought for those two?

You know what I'm gonna say I would drop him like if you want to hang on to him in a points league okay sure and it's far up yeah but in a roto league I you are already here at the point where he's at risk of undoing all the good, whatever good he did for you with that crazy run,

because now he's had consecutive starts with four plus earned runs. It feels like we are teetering right now, right? Yeah. Like this is, we did this with Bryce Elder, right? Like the IRA is up over four or right at four now for the season. Remember how good he was for two months to start the season. You don't want to You don't want to mess around with found money

You know? Like it's fine to ride it while it's hot I don't think Brandon Fott's particularly good Even in the two-star week He does not strike out enough guys To justify it in a roto league, I think Easy drop for Andrew Painter and Jacob Lopez Yeah, I think both of those guys are way better, yeah

Both are still sub-50% rostered on CBS by the way Walmart or Rainia, big control problems here against the Guardians, three and two thirds, five hits, three runs, five walks to three strikeouts. He was spotted a five zip lead and could not get through five innings in this one. The velocity was up. I don't know if that's a good thing because obviously it affected his ability to throw strikes. His last four starts, it's a 529 ERA, a 153 whip, 12 walks over 17 innings.

So I feel like around this time a month ago, we were like, hey man, Walbert-Irania deserves more respect. And then he's just kind of falling off since then. Yeah, and this is, you know, we talk a lot about like the strikeout walk,

ground ball, or contact, quality of contact suppression skills. And he's decent at strikeouts, maybe average-ish, maybe slightly above. He's got terrible control, and he's got really good quality of contact suppression.

That means, he's probably a fringy pitcher. You know, you probably want at least two of those skills to be above average, and he's at like one, maybe one and a half. So I think when things have gone wrong for him, this is another one where it's probably okay to drop him. I still think he's super talented. I still think the final month of the season could go really well for him.

But he relies a lot on his defense. And when the control is this bad, things can go really wrong really quickly. So I think he's another one that's pretty easy drop for Painter and Jacob Lewis. Yep. Again, that is Walbert Arania. Last name that I'll mention here, it's Ian Seymour who had a mixed outing. He was the bulk reliever at the Tigers.

Look, we all love Ian Seymour, but I just wonder if maybe we're overvaluing him a little bit. On the season, he is just, he's given up too many home runs, too many barrels. He gave up another home run in this one. It was to Max Clark, a lefty off a left. 50. 1.6 home runs per 9. That is pretty high. He entered this outing with a 10% barrel rate. His K-minus walk stuff is great. He's going to grade out really good in terms of ERA estimators because of that. But he does give up some loud contact in the air, unfortunately. And if you play in leagues with quality starts, like now they're messing with him as a bulk reliever again.

So I don't know, Chris. I mean, I haven't ranked so high, but I just, I don't know. Are we overvaluing Ian Seymour? Maybe, where do you have him ranked? I guess that, because I have him around 50. Oh, I have met like 31. Yeah, so maybe that's the distinction. All right, so the question is, am I overvaluing? Yeah, I think ranking, well, in a points league because he has a spark, I do think that helps.

But the bulk reliever thing is always going to be a little bit of a hindrance because you don't get that, what, three points in CBS leagues for quality starts. you can still get the win, it probably gives you a better chance of getting a win, actually. And so there is some trade-off there, and the wins are worth seven, so that's more valuable. But there's some trade-off there.

I do think he's very good. And, you know, this is another one. He's not dissimilar to Gavin Williams. He's just, he's got like 29% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate. That's pretty much exactly where Gavin Williams is at. It's just that usage and the fact that he plays for the raise, you're not going to get a lot of seven-inning outings out of Ian Seymour.

You're not going to get very many quality starts out of him. So there are maybe some poor man's Gavin Williams vibes here. But I still think he's good. And of these four, I think he's clearly the one. Well, him and Tage Bradley are actually very similar. So I think those are the two that I wouldn't drop. If you want to drop Auburnor-Rania, I can see it. If you want to drop Brandon Fott, yes, you should drop Brandon Fott.

All right, let's wrap up with some hitting leftovers here. And Jaron Duran had a huge grand slam in extra innings. It was his 18th home run, updated numbers in August, 263, five homers, three seals, 839 OPS. Luis Garcia Jr. had a massive game, 4-4-5 with his 27th home run and 3 RBI. he has homered in three of his last five games and all of a sudden his numbers with the Yankees look pretty good.

18 games, 284, 4 homers and an 860 OPS. Francisco Lindor, 2 for 4 with a walk in his 13 home run he has looked pretty good in the second half. Vinnie Pee! Baby! Vinny Passed Guantino. He is making stuff happen since he returned 1 for 3 with 2 walks and his 5 stolen base. Don't know how he has 5 steals.

I believe he's one of the slowest players in all baseball, but maybe he's been watching Josh Naler, and so that's what he's doing. But in eight games since returning, he is 11 for 29, with two homers, a steel, and an 1195 OPS. Pete Alonzo is red hot right now,

4 for 4 with his 31st homer. He has eight home runs in his past 15 games. Ian Hap hit his 23rd home run, three homers in his past five games. Looks like he is getting back on track. It was a pretty rough stretch there for like a two-month span for Ian Hap.

but hopefully getting back on track now. O'Neill Cruz homered off Mason Miller, the first player to do that this season. I mean, can you imagine a more electric duo, right? Like Mason Miller throws a million miles per hour. O'Neill Cruz hits the ball a million miles per hour. So that was pretty cool to watch, unless you're a Padres fan, unfortunately.

Cal Raleigh picked up where he left off from Monday. He hit his 18th home run. He has six home runs in his past nine games. And Stephen Kwan, shout out to the guy, five for five with a walk, RBI, and three runs scored. Last 36 games, he's hitting 383, five steals, and OPS over 900. So Stephen Kwan looks to be back.

Lots of names here, Chris. Feel free to touch on any of them. Okay, that's a lot of guys. Luis Garcia's going to be really interesting for 2027. We talked about Jared Duran in that context yesterday, but Garcia, like, is he going to be the Ben Rice of next year where we're just hoping the Yankees trust him enough against lefties to really maximize his value? I don't really think that's going to happen at this point in his career, but he's just having an awesome season. He's going to end up with 30 plus homers, probably 100 plus RBI.

For a guy who doesn't play every day, that's crazy. But even a full season as a strong side platoon in Yankee Stadium that. Yeah. Seems pretty intriguing. Yeah, no, I think it's going to be, I mean, first base is, you know, we talked before the season. First base has kind of been historically weak the past couple of seasons. That has really changed this year. The WRC Plus for First Baseman this year is up to like 117.

Last year it was like 108. That is a huge, yes, a huge change. Wow. So that's going to be really interesting to dig into what's exactly going on there. I wonder if they would try him at second base. Jazz Chisholm is a free agent. Yeah, that's... I mean, look, he's bad defensively there.

There's no doubt, but I wouldn't put a pass. That's a good point. Yeah, that's an interesting one. Or do they revisit, like, Ben Rice at Catcher? And maybe they just play Garcia at first. There's no way. There's no way. I mean, Stanton is probably done, right?

Yeah, I think Stan's done. So they have the D.H spot. They could just do Garcia at first and Ben Rice at D. Does he have the arm for third base? Probably not. I don't know if he's ever. played third base. I think he came up as a short stop. I think McMahon still has another year on his

contract. Okay. Not good. Luis Garcia's going to play every day against Reddy's. It's just a question of where but he's going to be really interesting to rank next season. Probably not going to be a top 12 first baseman just because the position's so loaded

but a really interesting one and then O'Neill Cruz, he continues to hit really well. That's looking like a bad call for me even with the strikeout issues. that's going to be a fascinating player to rank next season because we're going to end up with about 95 games of O'Neill Cruz having a breakout season,

and I don't really know how to value that. He might still go 2530 in a very partial season. That's wild. So, yeah, I don't know. And then Stephen Kwan, he's been awesome for like two months now. So he's looked like himself. This was one where a lot of the defensive metrics were still pretty good in a way that made me think he wasn't quite as done as he looked early on. And then now he's turned it around.

So I do think you can more or less just view Stephen Kwan how he've always viewed Stephen Kwan, which is a good but not super impactful fantasy option, but a great source of batting average. Pitching leftovers here. Michael King was great against the Pirates. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. 15 whiffs on 98 pitches. His velocity up around like one to one and a half miles per hour on all of his pitches. He got a lot of chase in this one and he threw first pitch strikes to 24 of 26 batter's face. That is awesome for Michael King. Payton Tolley just missed out on a quality start, five and a third, two runs, seven strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes. on 97 pitches.

And Kyle Harrison, who we mentioned earlier, he was solid five innings, one run, five strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 90 pitches, but has not thrown more than five innings in each of his four starts since coming off the IL. One earned runner fewer in three of those four, and then it was eight runs in the other one. Only three of those were earned.

So any thoughts here on Harrison, Peyton Toley, and Michael King. Yeah, in Harrison, it's sort of a good news, bad news. like he he had that one disastrous start where I believe his velocity was down and we were kind of panicking. Two starts since then have been very good. I think it's 13 strikeouts to three walks in that span. I think he's only given up one earned run.

That's all awesome. He hasn't thrown more than 90 pitches, I think, since May. No, June. Sorry. He hasn't thrown more than 90 pitches since June. It's like eight starts. So it's not a huge sample size. But he's been five innings or less, as you mentioned.

I just, I think that's. probably going to be the case for him moving forward, which just puts a cap on how good he can be. I still think he's going to be good, but, you know, when he was at his best, Kyle Harrison looked like a top 20 starting pitcher. With that limitation, it's probably going to be more like top 30, top 35. Call to the bullpen for the Tigers. Kenley Jansson picked up his 17th save for the Rockies. Jordan Romano got the ninth with a two-run lead. He walked one, but picked up his 13th save. he's up to 65% rostered.

I still think we could have some implosions coming here in Corrus Field, but... It certainly shouldn't be much higher than that. I don't think he's a guy who needs to be rostered in like every points league or anything. He's just the guy, though. He is the guy for the Rockies. For the Braves, Reisel O'Glasias got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a lead-off triple to Otani, but was able to pull off the Houdini here for his 28th save. For the Astros.

He has been pretty shaky. lately. He was shaky, but I feel like he's settled down again in his most recent games. So he hasn't given up a run in his last three, but he has seven walks in 10 innings in the month of August, and he has a walk in four of his past five outings as well. And only three strikeouts in that span. Yeah, that's fair.

He's kind of getting away with it a little bit right now. Again, that is Reisel Aglesias. And moving on here for the Asheras, Josh Hader got the final four outs for his 19th save. He has been ridiculous since coming back from injury. 0.81, ERA, 0.72 whip.

44 strikeouts, over 33 and a third innings. For the Mets, Kodaisengo is unavailable. Would have been his third game in four days. Austin Warren got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a run on two hits and two walks. He took his second blown save, but the Mets wound up winning. in extras. For the White Sox,

Grant Taylor entered with two outs in the ninth. The bases were loaded. A four-run lead. You got the final out for his eighth save. For the athletics, Hogan Harris, entered with two outs in the seventh, and he allowed a hit, but he picked up his 12th hold. Elvis Alvarado

wound up picking up his fourth save, and he has two of the last three saved for the A's. He is four-person rostered. So in the deepest of leagues where you need saves, I kind of I feel like they're going back to Alvarado here. I think they want him to take over the role.

He throws really hard. He's an electric arm. And obviously, he's younger than someone like Hogan Harris. So I think they could kind of build off that, but it'll be up to Alvarado to see if he could take advantage. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz picked up his 24th save. For the Giants, Dylan Smith was unavailable. Carson Seymour.

Got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed a solo homer, but picked up his first save. and then for the Cubs, Daniel Palencia got the eighth with a four-run lead. He gave up three runs on a walk and two hits. He only recorded two outs. Jacob Webb came on. He got the last out in the eighth, and then he stayed out there for the ninth,

and he gave up a pinch hit home run to Ryan Walschman. Took his sixth blown save and a fourth loss. I kind of felt like this could have been a nice win here, a feather in the cap for Jacob Webb, with Daniel Palencia struggling in the eighth inning, but then Webb went. out there and struggled too. So I kind of feel like we're back at square one.

Yeah, I mean, look, Palencia struggling does at least make it a little easier for Webb, but he's got to get the job done too. And I think Palencia is the better pitcher. So in the long run, I do expect it'll be him if he's healthy. Then we had the Battle of the Masons in San Diego. Mason Miller got the ninth with the game tied. He did give up that solo homer to O'Neil Cruz. And then Mason Montgomery on the other side, walked one.

He struck out two for his sixth save. And he is the dude for the pirates right now. He is 43% rostered. And maybe two of the most, two of the best, two of the most electric relievers in baseball right now? Mason Miller and Mason Montgomery, there might just be the two best. You know, the place my mind went is,

that trade is looking awesome for the pirates this season, right? Who did they give up to get Mason Montgomery? they only gave up Mike Burroughs, I believe. It was a three-team trade. And so I believe the Ray's got Mike Burroughs. The Ray's got Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito from the Astros. The Astros got Mike Burroughs. And the Pirates got Brandon Lau, who's having typical awesome Brandon Low season,

Mason Montgomery, who looks like one of the best relievers in baseball. And Jake Mangum, who's been an awesome outfielder for them. So that is a great trade. Yeah, that's a pretty awesome trade for them. Wow. It's kind of a really bad trade for the race. Really bad trade for everyone not named the Pirates. Yeah, yeah, kind of, yeah.

You know, trading for Mike Burroughs, I'm sure that didn't help Dana Brown keep his job, unfortunately. No, no, no. But yeah, that's, you know, I'm not, the Pirates probably aren't going to end up making the playoffs anyway, right? No. No, they really fell off to start the second half. I don't think they will. Yeah, they're four games under 500.

I really wanted to see the Pirates make the playoffs too. Yeah, well, maybe maybe next time don't make Ryan O'Hern your big free agency splash. Maybe actually, you know. I mean, try. To be fair, Ryan O'Hern was really good. Okay, they spent money on Marcelo Zuna too,

and O'Hern was good. That was, yeah. I mean, the other player they were linked to was A. E. E. Hennio Suarez, which... Yeah, wouldn't have been much better, yeah. You know, they should just threw the bag of Kyle Swarber and, you know, I think they'd probably be in the playoffs if they had Kyle Schwerber right now. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday,

we have Nick Ladolo at the Giants, Landon Rube, home against the Reds, Joey Cantillo at the Angels, Grayson Rodriguez, home against the Guardians. Bubba Chandler is at the Padres, Michael McGreevy, home against the Orioles, J.T. Ginn, home against the Twins. I thought this was better when we did this yesterday.

Ginn and Cantillo And then there are like I could talk myself into Grayson Rodriguez I could talk myself into Bubba Chandler I probably can't talk myself into Landon Roup I think Gin and McGreevy are the highest floor options Yeah And then I think Cantillo and Grace and Rodriguez are kind of the

Upsidey variance plays on Wednesday On Thursday It's a pretty short slate we have a couple at TBD, so there's not many options as of now. But Hayden Wesniewski is at the Yankees. Jake Irvin gets the Rockies in Washington, Spencer Aragetti against the Royals and

Sean Mania home against the Brewers. I'm going to have to do a little fantasy feud or something on Thursday. Only seven games. I'm already thinking about it. If there's anything that you, the listener, would like to hear, tweet at me and maybe we'll come up with something on Thursday, right? I would

maybe go with Sean Mania. Probably not anyone else, yeah. Yep, I agree. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

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