Fantasy Baseball Today - Big Night of Debuts & What to do With These Starting Pitchers? (9/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

It was a big night of debuts (3:15). ... Peralta has looked better over his last two (14:00). ... Gavin Williams showed off his ace upside (20:10). ... The Twins mauled the Tigers (24:50). ... News (27:35): James Wood is returning on Wednesday. ... Skenes vs Webb was a slobber knocker (36:44). ... What do we do with these five SP (45:40)? ... Watch out for Trevor Story (55:15). ... Nick Lodolo turned in a quality start (58:45). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:02:02).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. Hello, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 2nd. I am Frank Stanful joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had ourselves a pitcher's duel between Paul.

Skines and Logan Webb. Chris, if I told you before the season that those two pitchers were facing off, what do you think the projected total runs would be before that game started? I would set the over under for that at 24 and a half. Over. Oh, man. I thought that was a good line. It was a big night for the young bats. And what do we do with these six starting pitchers? Let's jump in You know what's unbelievable I heard this on the

Angels broadcast I did not fact check it So I hope it's right But one of their broadcasters Mentioned it so I'm gonna steal it And I'm gonna use it right now Apparently there have been 15

Rookies Who have hit Their first career home run In their debut this season 15 Doesn't that sound like That sounds like a made up number That is crazy

A lot? 15 prospects hitting home runs in their debut. I don't know. It sounds made up, but they said on the broadcast. So I'm running with it. Another one, another two who did that here. Lazaro Montes of the Mariners and Johandi Morales of the Nationals, who we spoke about a lot over the past couple of days,

but it was a fun night for the young bats. And Lazaro Montes, Chris, in Fenway Park for his debut, two for four with a walk, first career homer, 106 exit velocity 407 feet straightaway center field in Fenway not an easy thing to do we spoke a lot about him

the power is legit can he keep the strikeouts down I do remember a long long time ago there was this prospect Joshua Baez who hit three home runs in his first game and then basically struck out in every at bat since and homered again tonight as well be homer today so it'll be interesting to see

what Lazaro Montes does from here but it was a great debut Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, when he got called up, I think the comp we said was the upside is as Merlin Valdez and the downside is as Merlin Valdez. And that still feels like it's in play. There's no question that the raw power is outstanding, very close to the top of the scale. So is the strikeout rate. And one game is not going to change that one way or the other.

If he strikes out four times tomorrow, that's not going to. change the upside. Him hitting a big home run today doesn't change the downside. That's always going to be there. So I look, I don't think this changes anything. We knew he could do this. It's good to see. I'm happy that it happened. Did two players Homer in their first career games today? Yes. Yes, Lazaro Montes and Johandi Morales. That is a major league record. I just checked in the stathead play index. Is it legitimately 15 players to do it this year? Entering today, there were 13 players who had homered in their first MLB game,

which tied 2022 for the MLB record. Wow. Now there are 15. Here's the even crazier thing. The third most games by a rookie homering in their first game. Outside of 2022 and 2026 is 8. that's wild so almost twice as many

as the third most in a season right now that is wild and what's really weird is um the first eight so the there have been eight seasons where eight players have homered in their first game or more

have all come since 2014 oh sorry except for 1998 was one of them but otherwise they have all come since 2014 that's kind of fun Yeah, that is. And you know what's interesting is during that span, it feels like it has kind of turned back into like prospects getting called up, struggling, getting sent back down, and then not all of them, but, you know, some of them coming back eventually and figuring things out for the most part. So I don't know, perhaps it's just like these guys come up, it's lightning in a bottle right away. Yeah, I mean, look, last year only, it only happened three times.

Right, yeah. So it's, you know, it's. That's baseball, Susan. Yeah. There's, gosh, the names who did it last year. I don't think any of these guys are in the majors now. Zach Cole, Carson Williams, and Matt Gorski. Oh, geez.

Oh, man. Tuck that away for your trivia night. Lazaro Montes, though, again, he's 24% rostered. If you need power, five outfielder league, even if you play in a shallower, like, three outfielder head-to-head league, and you really need power, he might be one of the best power bets on the,

waiver wire right now. So just keep that in mind with Lazaro Montes, who will also strike out a lot as well. Johandi Morales of the Nationals, great debut for him also. Three for five. First career home run. Also struck out two times here, but he had three hard hits in this game. His home run was actually his lowest of the hard hit balls that he had. So 100.8 EV, 407 feet. On a pitch that was like inside on the plate, it was very easy power here for Morales. Started at DH against a right-handed pitcher. I thought that was promising for him here. So look, if he starts against a righty, he's going to start against lefties.

So I really like that. The nationals have been very platoon heavy this year. He's even lower down. He's 7% rostered, first base eligible. I would still rather take Montes. He's the higher rated prospect. But I'm intrigued to see where this goes for Morales. I still think he's mostly an NL-only name.

But, I mean, by the end of this week, he could very easily be in play for like 15. team mixed photo leagues. And that's another player. I think the Asmerly Valdez comp actually works even better for Yohan DiMorales, because they're both right-hand. Montez, I think, is a better prospect

than both of them and both right-handed. That also helps. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. A couple of their young bats who made some noise here on Tuesday night. Hector Rodriguez had another solid game. Two-for-four with a double run and RBI.

he is leading off against right-handed pitching, and over his last nine games, he's hitting 361 with four home runs. The underlying data does not like it at all so far for Hector Rodriguez, but he's a really good home ballpark, and he's getting a chance to play against lefties. He's leading off against righties. He is 18% rostered.

Just in a vacuum, Chris. Obviously, different positions here, but how would you rank those three? Montez, Yohandi Morales, and Hector Rodriguez. I think I'd go Montez Rodriguez Morales, but the difference between Rodriguez and Morales isn't huge. And I know I'm wearing an Orioles shirt today, but perhaps I should have worn my Yankees attire for this next player.

But I remain really intrigued by Spencer Jones, man. I know that there is a wide range of outcomes for this player, but he just had another big game, two for three with two walks, a sock, a shoe, two runs, three RBI, and in 36 games since being recalled in late July. 252 batting average, seven homers, eight steals, OPS is over 800, 31% K rate, actually a little bit better than I thought.

It's still bad by Major League standards, don't get me wrong. But the quality of contact is bananas, the expected stats are awesome. Chris, I really don't know what is going to happen when Aaron Judge is back. Me personally, I feel like Spencer Jones raises the ceiling of the Yankees, having him potentially in center field over someone like Trent Grisham and just moving Trent Grisham to like a fourth outfielder role. But I don't know if they're going to do that. But I am very intrigued by what Spencer Jones is doing right now.

Yeah, I think you have to be. I mean, he has held his own a lot better than I expected him to. I thought the swing and miss would be prohibitive here. And he's been, I mean, just he has raised his own contact rate from 70%. at AAA to 75% at the majors. That's a big deal. I mean, 75% is still really bad. Yeah.

But it's like... It's good for him. Well, it's fairly normal bad for a power hitter. You know, you will see other power hitters in that range, right? Like, I would imagine Rafael Devers is probably in that range. He actually might be even lower. Although I think he has improved this season. I want to give him credit for that.

Obviously, he's been awesome himself for a while. But I do think Spencer Jones, sorry, I'm trying to stall for time so I can find that in-zone contact rate. Because, yeah, 74.7%. Look, that would be one of the five worst marks in baseball. But the bottom five are, let's throw in the bottom. Wow, okay, wow. The bottom nine are actually all pretty good hitters. Okamoto.

Warber, Rosarena, Chisholm, Hunter Goodman, Rafael Devers, right where Spencer Jones is, Garrett Mitchell, Nick Kurtz, Mutakamurakami. You can make it work. You have to hit the ball really hard. You have to hit the ball to the right parts of the field to make it work. And it helps to have a really good eye at the plate. Not all those guys do, but Spencer Jones checks off a lot of those boxes. I remain very, very skeptical. I think we are probably just seeing. a hot streak, but the skill set is not that different from Nick Kurtz

or Munitaka Marikon. With speed. Yeah, with so interesting. You know, he's on like a 20 steel pace right now too. So yeah, I remain skeptical, but I won't let that skepticism

keep me from acknowledging that Spencer Jones right now is showing legit majorly caliber skills. And yeah, I think he, what's the roster right now? 59%. It's so hard because the timing is bad,

because Aaron Judge might be back next week and we just don't know what that's going to look like. I don't think they can send him down. I don't think there's any way with how well he's played. I agree, but there is a chance that Spencer Jones just becomes the fourth outfielder, or him and Trencrichisham are splitting time against right-handed pitching with someone else mixing in

against left-handed pitching. So it could be a frustrating situation. I totally acknowledge that. The floor for Spencer Jones, the profile, the player, and the playing time is very low. But the upside, I think, for the rest of the season is actually very high for Spencer Jones, too. So pretty wide range there for him. A couple names that I would take him over right now. Max Clark, who hasn't really done much so far.

Walker Jenkins is an interesting conversation. I would take him over Luis Robert. I would take him over as Merlin Valdez. Lawrence Butler has looked pretty good in the second half, but Jones has been even better than him. I'd rather have Spencer Jones and Lawrence Butler. I think the downside is very similar, and I don't think he has the upside that Spencer Jones has. Even, like, he's hitting well, but it's only like four homers in the second half, right? It hasn't been, like, huge production.

Yeah, there's some power and speed, but, again, like, Jones has been better than him during that stretch. Would you rather have Jones or Walker Jenkins? I think that one's pretty interesting. Like, Jenkins is the better prospect by far, but. I'd go with Jenkins. Yeah, I'm not going to let my opinion of either of them get swayed that much. All right, fair enough, Chris. Let's go over to you for your player of the night.

Yeah, I think when the raise trade for anyone, the expectation is they're going to overhaul them. And if you look at just the pitch mix for Freddie Peralta, it doesn't look that different, right? Like, he's throwing his change up a little more. He scrapped the slider entirely, but he was only throwing that about 5% of the time. And the change up usage has gone up. It's about 8 to 10%. It's not nothing. but over a start like Tuesdays, that's like eight pitches, seven pitches.

It's, I don't think that's like when I looked into it, I was like, well, I don't think that's really an explanation. But then it, I remembered, I saw Lance Brzeowski point this out a couple weeks ago. I went and looked at the newsletter that he wrote, I think it was on August 18th, about how Freddie Peralta has gone from. So last season, he started out pitching out of the windup, full. time, switched to pitching out of the stretch. Got to the Mets, went back to pitching out of the windup, gets to the race, back to pitching fully out of the stretch. And it just seems to have helped him regain some explosiveness in his delivery.

His extension has been up a couple of inches. He just kind of looks a little more athletic pitching out of the stretch. The velocity was up here too. I mean, that could be like a Mets thing. He was jacked up. Yeah. But the last two starts to be. been good. He has three quality starts and six tries with the race. He only had four and 22 with the Mets.

So I don't think, look, he still has like a 46 ERA since joining the raise. I don't think this is like a sea change that has drastically altered how Freddie Peralta's outlook looks. But I think it looks better. And the results have been a little better. And especially over the past couple of starts, the results have been quite good. So are we back to trusting? Freddie Peralta trust would not be my choice of word there. Yeah. But can you use him? Yeah. And I think we were reaching a point where you just couldn't use him. He's got the at the Rangers this weekend. I know there have been a few guys we have touted who have had bad starts against the Rangers recently.

But I think on the whole, that's still a matchup and a ballpark you can target. And then I think next week it's versus Houston. Yeah. And then probably versus Boston. And then at New York. Okay, so the schedule's not going to do him a ton of help. But I like him making starts in the trough that helps with, you know, strikeout upside. So I do like that.

And it looks like the next two at least are going to be, or the next three are going to be indoors. So that should help. I think on the whole, yeah, you're feeling a little better about Freddie Peralta. He's not an ace. I don't think you can view him as an ace right now. But Arrow clearly pointing up. Yeah, not an ace. I think he's back in the startable territory back inside the top 60, maybe top 50 starting pitchers.

So someone you're thinking about using as your SP4, SP5 on a weekly base. I think most people, you know, they might have one or two aces on their team. They might have a third, you know, very good starter that they use most of the time. But then I think for the final couple spots on their, in their rotation, they're probably just shuffling through a bunch of different names. And I think Peralta is in that mix. And again, I like him against the Rangers this week. weekend, obviously not a great lineup.

And then the next two, although it's against tougher lineups, pitching in the trop does, you know, Ray's strikeout upside. So I do like that for Peralta. And the control has been really good lately, too. One walk or fewer in five of his last six starts. Again, that is Freddie Peralta. Let's take our first break. If you are listening on the audio side of things,

make sure to leave us a five-star rating and review. If you enjoy the podcast, we appreciate it. Let's take that break. And when we return, got a couple of other. big news kind of things outline headlines to hit and then we'll get into the news. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today and before we get into the news and notes again, just want to hit some other big performances from Tuesday night. And the random number generator known as Gavin Williams actually spit out an ace outcome here. And he

was awesome once again. Seven innings, two hits, one unearned run, 13 strikeouts to one walk, 23 whiffs on 97 pitches here for Gavin Williams. His velocity was up in this one. He just has starts where his Velo just jumps up out of nowhere. And he had just crazy whiffs. He had eight on the fastball, seven on the sweeper, six on the curve.

So we know the breaking pitches are great. And I feel like earlier in the season, we didn't really want Gavin Williams to use his fastball. We wanted him to use him less and use the breaking stuff more. His fastball has actually gotten a lot better as the season has gone on. realize, but the Wobon that is down to 3. The ex-Woba 312, with a 31% WIF rate on a fastball. That is insane for Freddie Bralta for Gavin Williams, excuse me. And look, the strikeouts are way

up. Tenth start with double-digit strikeouts this season that ties Jacob Izzyarowski and over his last 10 starts, 94 strikeouts in 56 and 2 thirds innings. That is a 15.1K per nine. So, massive upside for Kevin Williams. What I wrote on the rundown here is, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I think he'll be kind of an interesting picture to rank for 2027 is Gavin Williams. Absolutely. He is putting up a very similar season to Hazers-Lisardo last season. And look, we have seen Hazers-Lisardo has cut some of the bad starts out, and he's got an ERA right around three now.

So that certainly is within play for Gavin Williams. And if you want to have faith that that is going to be the outcome, I think you can justify taking him as a top 15 starting pitcher. It goes without saying I'm not going to. But that's fine. Why do you hate Gavin Williams, Chris? I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of that.

And I know you're doing a bit, but there are people not doing the bit. And like I had him ranked 19th entering this start. He was the 26 best pitch. pitcher and fantasy entering this start. I don't hate him, but I don't know how high you can rank a guy who has two different months this season with an ERA over 550. And he had, so he's 94 strikeouts in 56 and two-thirds innings over his past 10 starts with a 365 ERA. Did you say that? Was that the stretch you mentioned?

Yeah. Yep. I looked it up over the past decade, there have been at least 136 different stretches by starting pitchers. with at least 94 strikeouts in a 10-start span. It's actually more than I thought it would be, but whatever. He has the fewest innings of those 136 spans, and he has the eighth-highest ERA. I feel like that is Gavin Williams in a nutshell.

He is capable of blinding brilliance, and if he ever manages to eliminate the really ugly starts or cut them in half, he's going to be an ace, but he hasn't done it yet. Yeah. And there's an insistence that he, he has to be viewed as an ace because of how good he is during his good starts. And I just, I don't think it makes sense.

Like, we don't have to ignore the bad starts. We can just take him as he is. And what he is is a high, like he's pre-2020, like six till and cease, right? Like, awesome when he's awesome. Strikeouts are great. Dependable. He's going to be out there. DRA is going to run a little high.

That's fine. Yeah. I think he's in that SP2 conversation right now. And I'm probably going to rank him somewhere there for next season. I'm sure there will be other people who will rank him as a top 12, top 10 starting pitcher. Because I think his upside is that high if you can cut out those, you know, those blowup starts. But we don't really have any evidence that he's going to do that yet. And he's he's not any more likely to like anytime you're talking about volatility,

you can talk yourself into one way or the other depending on what you want. He's not more likely to cut out to take the step forward than he is to take a step back. You know, like that's just either one could happen. I think just take him at face value. Expect a high 3s ERA and a ton of strikeouts. And I think you'll generally be pretty happy with Gavin Williams rather than like running around chasing the good and the bad and trying to find, oh, that's the real one. No, that's the. I think he just is what he is for now.

And then at some point he has room to grow or fade. You know, that could happen too. Yeah. I did have an oh my goodness gracious lineup of the night that is the twins they pummeled the tigers 15 to 2 wanted to highlight a few names here

and Cody Clemens went one for three with a walk and his 24th home run he's quietly had a very good season he did struggle in August but I just wanted to point out the underlying data for August was still very good 92.1 average EV near 12% barrel rate

the expected stats were good so I know it was a rough month for Cody Clemens but he was very consistent before that. And so I would hold Cody Clemens, who was down to 75% rostered. He's actually held his own against lefties this year too. So I'm a believer in what he's done this season. That is Cody Clemens.

Royce Lewis, three for four with a walk, his 14th homer, two runs, three RBI. And this was nice to see, Chris, because Royce Lewis was struggling his previous 16 games, 155 batting average, zero homers, just one extra base hit, 366 OPS.

The underlying numbers here, not as favorable for Royce Lewis during that stretch. But overall, since being recalled in, I think, early June, he's mostly been very good. And his roster rate has dropped down a little bit to 71%. So who do you like more rest of the season, I guess? Final month, Cody Clemens or Royce Lewis? I have a little more faith in Royce Lewis. He has more ways to help you.

Cody Clemens is one of those guys. It's sort of like a Brandon Lau, but less proven, where you're kind of just getting home runs from him. and if that dries up, things get pretty ugly, pretty quickly. Race Lewis, I think, is a better overall hitter, has a few more ways to impact the game. But I think both, you know, 75, 80% rostered sounds fine for both. I'm not sure either needs to be rostered in most points leagues necessarily, or all points leagues, I guess. Kaelin Colpepper stayed hot.

He went two for five with a double and three RBI. In his 21 games, he is now hitting three. with three homers in 866 OPS. His quality of contact has actually come down a little bit, but the overall numbers are still good. He's holding his own. He's 42% rostered. I mentioned this recently,

but I have moved him ahead of, to the top of that shortstop trio. So ahead of Lombard, obviously he was hurt right now. And on Hill now, who's been sitting out some games recently as well. So, Kael and Cole Pepper, in that middle infield mix right now, if you need one in like a roto league context,

And then Ryan Jeffers, two for four with his 13th home run, three RBI. He is waking back up. Last two games, he has three homers, seven RBI, and overall he's been a beast this season. So it looks like he is trying to finish out strong. That is Ryan Jeffers. Let's get into the news and notes. And James Wood is expected to be activated from the IL on Wednesday.

So I hope people listened and put him in their weekly lineups because you could still get, I think that would be four games from James Wood, maybe five if they have seven games as a team this week. I think it was only six. Yeah.

Yeah. So, either way, I mean, he could do a lot of damage in four games. Oh, yeah. CJ Abrams was back in the lineup after missing Monday with back tightness. Notably, he started at shortstop,

and he was back in the lineup. Interesting. Riley Green. I don't get that second base eligibility. I'll play some, but I don't think it's going to get to 20. Whenever they put him in the lineup as a second baseman, his back is going to flare up, and he's not going to play that too. Riley Green was reinstated from the IL, and he was in the lineup batting cleanup Tuesday against the twins.

Adley Rutchman was not in the lineup due to a lingering hyper-extended right elbow. And manager Chad Tracy said, this is something that Adley Ruchman will have to manage for the rest of the season. So I just think he's been up and down, but he's mostly been bad. joining the Red Sox. I think our expectations should be pretty low for Adlead Rushman rest of season. I agree. I do worry, like, does this mean he's going to play more DH or just not be in the lineup? Like, he wasn't on Tuesday because, you know, that's, they're trying to use that D.H.

spot to get all the outfielder's in now that Roman Anthony's back. Yeah. I don't know. It's something to keep an eye on. I would guess he's just not going to play as much. I would think having all the outfielders in the lineup is a higher priority than having Adler Rutchman's bat. Yeah, I guess they can against left-handed pitching, get Jaron Duran out, and they could put

Adley Ruchman in there, and then maybe some other games against right-handed pitching, use him at catcher. But I think it's a fair point on both the playing time and the performance rest of the season. One thing you cannot do is take Mickey Gasper out of the lineup. No, no, you cannot. He's the kid who only hits homers. 30, but you know. Sick mustache, too, for

Mickey Gasper. He's in the mix for two catcher leagues. You know, low-end catcher two. I think you'd do worse than Mickey Gasper. Trayasavage will throw his first bullpen on Friday. He had meniscus surgery on August 11th. Just don't think there's enough time for him to get built

back up here. The Dodgers reinstated Will Smith, Dalton rushing, and Justin Robleski on Tuesday. Will Smith will play every other day, according to Dave Roberts. Dalton rushing will only be used as a pinch hitter off the bench. He had some UCL damage in his elbow, so they don't want him playing catcher. And Justin Robleski will be used as a reliever for the rest of the season.

In fact, he made an appearance here on Tuesday, and he served up a home run to Joshua Baez. Aaron Boone said Will Warren could be used as a piggyback reliever with Max Freed this weekend. Freed still is not built back up, and that's a close situation to watch for Max Fried, because his velocity was down. That was his first start back from the hurting his elbow again. He has a history of elbow and forearm stuff,

and so I feel like it's not going to end well for Max Fried, but we'll just see how he looks in his next couple starts. George Lombard Jr. has missed three straight with right knee inflammation. It is still possible that he lands on the IL. Davis Martin will return from the IL and start Wednesday against the Astros. You should not use him. He was pitching very poorly before he went on the... injured list. Corbyn Burns will throw a bridge game on Thursday. He's still building up his pitch

count before he returns to the debacks. Another one, Chris, where I don't know that there's enough time. Like, if Corbyn Burns returns, is it just as a like multi-enny reliever type? Yeah, uh, he threw 17 pitches over the weekend, I believe, uh, on Sunday. Apparently you looked really good, but yeah, he didn't get any strikeouts, but there was, I think it was just a bunch of ground balls. Um, you start to extrapolate that. Maybe he gets up to 40 the next time, 60 after that. And it's like, even that's kind of aggressive, and that might leave him with room to make one start at the end.

Maybe they're, you know, if they're building them up to get him up into their postseason rotation, that would make sense. I mean, they have to make it first, but that could be the case. But for fantasy, I think it's unlikely we're going to see Gordon Burns make a lengthy start this season. Let's check in on the National League wildcard picture, and the debacks are half a game behind the Padres. It's really coming down to just like a four-team race for three spots. Technically, the Marlins are only three games out.

The Cardinals are four, the Pirates are five. But you've got the debacks and the Padres battling for that final wild-cart spot, and the Phillies and Cubs look like they're just kind of locked in there. Yeah, I think they're in. As the top two teams in the wild card. Next up, Eugenio Suarez missed Tuesday, and we'll also miss Wednesday to take the United States naturalization test.

So he is becoming a citizen. That's cool for Eugenio Suarez. Pete Fairbanks began throwing off a mound Thursday. He is on the aisle with that nerve issue in his right hand. The Orioles option, Kate Povich, after his spot start on Monday. The Dodgers optioned Alec Thomas to AAA. The plan is he used Tommy Edmund and Enrique Hernandez in center field. James and Tyone is in line to rejoin the Bluejohn.

and Star Friday in Kansas City. Carlos Estevez will undergo season ending surgery on his right shoulder next week. Adrian Houser was transferred to the 60-day IL with that right forearm strain ending his season. We did get some other promotions here. The Orioles were called Heston Kirstad. The White Sox called up Tanner McDougal. The Orioles called up Luis de Leon.

The last two are both expected to work out of the bullpen. I don't really see enough playing time here for. Kirstad. So... Yeah, and he had like an 800 OPS at AAA. He's 25 or 20. I don't think. Yeah. I don't really think it's going to happen for him. I think they're all semi-interesting names, but not really anyone I think can make a fantasy impact this season. And some non-fantasy news, but the angels are being sold to I think it's Stan Kronky. Is that how we say his name? Kronky? Kronky? For a record. Yeah, it's just a weird spelling of the name, but I feel like I've heard it a million times in my life. Stan Cronkey, I feel like that's it.

For a record $4 billion, and he also owns the Rams, the Nuggets, the Avalanche. I think he's either a part or, I don't know, some kind of owner of of Arsenal in Premier League as well. So, dude's got money.

There's no doubt about that. The reign of Artie Moreno is over, and I thought this was an interesting quote from Mike Trout. I mean, you kind of felt that way. It was needed. No hard feelings to Artie, but I'm super excited. The guys are excited. There's a good vibe around the clubhouse, vibe around the stadium. I saw somebody describe Art Moreno as like the guy in your fantasy league who always finishes in last place, but is like makes as many moves as anyone, always pays his league dues on time.

He's just bad. And that's kind of the owner that Artie Moreno was where like he does stars and scrubs in an auction. He spent money. Yeah. Like that. He was not one of the owners who was not spending money. He just spent it really poorly. And it is amazing that he bought that team seven months after they won the World Series in 2000.

They won the World Series in 2002. He bought them in May of 2003. They have just been a joke for 23 years. Yeah. They had Mike Trout and Shohei Otani in their peaks and they didn't make the playoffs at all with those two guys. And he sold the team for $4 billion. He bought it for like $180 million. Yeah.

So he made about $3.8 billion. I'm really glad we're going to potentially not have a season next year because the owners are having such a hard time making money. I'm really, really glad that's the case. That's awesome for baseball. And a hard time spending money too. Again, you can't say it about Moreno, but those are the arguments that other owners make,

It's whatever, spending money and that the whole argument, you know, for a salary floor, salary cap, all those things. So we will have all offseason to talk about that. But, you know, it feels like there are changes coming here for the Angels and potentially very good ones. So Cronkies teams have been very successful. Yeah. Over the past couple of decades. So, you know, sorry St. Louis Rams fans. I know that you might not like to hear praise for him because he's the guy that moved the team.

but yeah. He's had a lot of success as an owner for sure. Yeah. Let's get into this Paul Skeens versus Logan Webb, a pitcher's duel because, man, 25 runs scored in this game. Paul Skeens, another step backward coming off of, you know, what was a good start his last time out.

But, and especially against this Giants lineup, man. If you look at this Giants lineup, it's like, Raphael Devers and what else is in this line? Like, if you want to count Bryce Eldridge as a major league hitter, I think you can. That's fair. But other than that, it's a bunch of quad A guys. I'm sorry, I don't want to be like rude. But like, there's not another guy on that team that you look at and say, that's a major league starter.

There is something to be said for. I think a lot of times when players like this get their opportunity, like obviously they are going out and giving it their all because, you know, this is their loan opportunity to prove themselves. But yeah, Paul Skeen's another rough one. Four and two thirds, eight hits, five runs, three walks, four strike. strikeouts, only six swinging strikes on 95 pitches. The velocity was mostly in line with his season long averages, which is down from previous years. He's still just not right, Chris. I don't really know what else to say about this. I check for quotes after every start to see if there's anything. The control obviously is a problem. He has three or more walks in four of his last six starts.

He has four walks in three of those. And over his last 12 outings, it's a 555-ERA 148 whip. 3.8 walks per 9. The ground ball rate is down. The hard contact is up. The hard contact in the air is up. He's just kind of broken right now. And I don't know why. And he's at the Cubs next week.

So I don't really want to use him there. You know, like the way that Wrigley is playing. Yeah, the way that team is hitting. That the Cubs are hitting. Like, no, man. I'm going to wait to see who's on Scott's sleeper pitchers list and probably use a couple of those guys over Palski. If he goes out and averages 98.5 miles per hour with his four seamer and blows guys away against the Angels this weekend, like it looks like he's turned it around. Okay, I'll start. But no, not right now. No, I need to see something drastic to be able to trust Paul Skeins against the Cubs. It's, talk about hard pitchers to rank for 2027. If this keeps running through the end of the season, I have no idea what to do with him. I will probably, it's so hard to.

say. I mean, it's impossible. There could be an injury that comes out between now and the end of the season. But the first two and a half years of his career was the best start to a career since Doc Gooden. I have no idea what to make of it. He is

ostensibly healthy. I don't think he can be, but ostensibly he is. Yeah, I don't really have anything to say. Certainly nothing new to say. If he just finishes out the season similar to this, the rest of the way, We don't get any news of an injury or anything.

I will probably rank him as an SP2, somewhere in the like 13 to 24 range. Yeah. I won't draft him there. Yeah, I was thinking high end SP2. I will rank him there out of respect for Paul Skeens. I will not be the one draft. I have no idea. Logan Webb on the other side got destroyed.

Two plus innings. He came back out for the third. It didn't matter. Nine hits, nine runs, two walks, one strikeout. Six whiffs on 65 pitches here. nothing too different with the velocity or the pitch mix. He did struggle with control. Only first pitch strikes to 8 of 18.

That's a 44% rate. And it's tough because he only gave up like five hard hits in this game, Chris. But if you look at the individual expected batting average, it feels like all the hits that he gave up were deserved. So it's just been a weird season for Logan Webb, which now has his ERA at 421 at this point. Yeah, well, it's weird in a couple ways, because he also has his best whip since 2023.

Yeah. Which is very weird. His control still looks awesome. He's still getting a lot of ground balls. He had a 270 babb entering this start. It was like 330 last year, I think. He routinely runs pretty high babs. Yeah.

I don't really... I don't have a great sense of what's happening, but there is one thing that I noted, or I noticed someone said, let me see, it was, I think just a random Giants fan who popped up on my timeline for some reason. But it was, he said, I wonder if something happened around May 2026 that potentially caused a shift in Logan Webb's pitch usage. And he points it to a graph of Logan Webb going from throwing about 16% combined fastballs and cutters, four seamers, to throwing closer to 30%. since the start of June.

And yeah, I don't know. That is when they traded Patrick Bailey and he's throwing his two worst pitches a lot more. And his four seamer has been a lot less effective than it was last season, probably because he's throwing it more because Logan Webb has been, the last couple of seasons especially,

he saves his four seamer almost exclusively for two strike counts. And it was a very effective putaway pitch for him. I don't know if it's a good enough. pitch to justify throwing in other counts, and that's what he's doing now. So that's the best explanation I've seen, that he's just throwing his worst pitches too much. And you probably shouldn't do that. Yeah. That is, you know, not to oversimplify. I know this game can be a little more complicated than we make it sound sometimes, but don't throw your worst pitches a lot. Seems like good advice, and he's doing that right now. Yeah. And additionally, I mean, this could be,

as a result of him throwing different pitches, but the strikeouts are just way down this year for Logan Webb, too. So the swinging strike rate down from 10.7% to 8.7%. I mean, that is very clearly below league average, and his K-per-9 is down from 9.7 to 7.2. So I always thought that his strikeout rate would just come down this year. It seemed unsustainable last season, but it is down a lot.

So more balls in play just could lead to more hits and things like that happening. So Logan Webb, he gets the Mets this weekend. He's 88% started. He gets to Padres next week. I think it's similar to Skeens. He hasn't been as bad as Skeens recently. But I would like to see at least a quality start against the Mets. And if he does that, I'm probably just still throwing him against the Padres next week, which is at home in Oracle.

I agree. It's also worth noting it's just really rotten circumstances for Logan Webb. You know, he had the best defensive third baseman in baseball and a pretty good defensive shortstop. behind him and now he does not have those guys. And he lost his catcher too. And he lost his all world defensive. I think Patrick Bailey is the best defensive catcher in baseball. So yeah, I don't think the team around him is doing him any favors.

And I do think Logan Webb is probably not one of those pitchers he can overcome poor circumstances consistently. So that's the other part of it. Yeah. Let's take our final break. When we return, what are we doing with these starting pitchers? We'll talk about that right after. this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. What are we doing with these starting pitchers?

And up first, I have Brian. Woo! Quality start on the road. How about that? At the Red Sox, six innings, two runs. One of those earned seven strikeouts to one walk. The velocity was up in this one, but still just didn't look very dominant. It was only nine whiffs on 99 pitches. Last start out, it was six earned runs over four innings. That was his first start back from the shoulder soreness. But his last three starts on the road have been very good. 17 innings, three runs, 17 strikeouts to three walks. He's 77% started. Chris, what are you doing with Brian Wu next week at the athletics in Sacramento? Yeah, that's the second worst place he could pitch. So I don't love that. I'm probably still starting him. I know that the road numbers over the season have been

very bad. They've been better lately and I just Seattle's a much better place to pitch than anywhere else in baseball and so all of their pitchers do benefit from that. I do not believe Brian Wood can't pitch away from T-Mobile Park. I just, I don't think that. I think he's too talented for that. I know it's been a frustrating season, but there's still a lot to like in his profile. The ERA is inflated, but the peripherals are still very good.

I tend to think there's just been some weird blowups and I'm not too worried about it. I can't say I'm starting with 100% confidence at the athletics, but I'm not scared of it. We got a Troy Melton regression start here at the Twins. Five in a third, seven runs. Five of those earned. Two homers allowed in this one.

Only four strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 96 pitches. His velocity was up in the start. It didn't really matter. He gave up seven hard hits. And I think the lack of strikeouts is starting to catch up a little bit here. Five strikeouts are fewer in eight straight. and 13 of 17 starts and over his last four

a 484 ERA 148 whip only 15 strikeouts over 22 and a third with all of that being said his two starts next week are against the twins again don't love that but gets the Rockies in Detroit so I kind of feel like

you've got to throw Troy Melton next week yeah I'm probably just starting him but I do think the thing to keep in mind here is just if you're not a great strikeout pitcher that doesn't mean you can't be good but you can't give up home runs and you need the defense to help you. And if one of those things goes wrong, things can get pretty ugly. And I think we're starting to see that a little bit here with Troy Melton.

He gave up two home runs today. And just his peripherals have not been nearly as good as his actual results. And that kind of goes without saying when you have a sub 2ERA as he did entering this start. But it still doesn't mean you should just ignore it. He has, you know, his first. FIP is closer to four than to three now. And I think he's probably a true talent level high three ZRA pitcher who was just running hot for a while. And you're probably still starting him in a two-start week, but I would not be surprised at all if the ratios weren't very good there.

And additionally, if you aren't going to miss bats, you need to find ways to keep hitters off balance to limit hard contact. And that has not been the case. The average EV is over 91 miles per hour in three straight outings here for Troy Melton. Over to Sean Burke, who once again walked too many, but he did keep runs off the board here. At the Astros, 5 and 2 3rd shutout, one hit, four walks, six strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 104 pitches. The velocity was down in this one. Previously, when he was going through that awesome stretch, it was like the velocity was going up every star. Now it's starting to taper back for Sean Burke, who over his last four starts has a four.

74, ERA 158 whip, 15 walks to 15 strikeouts over 19 innings. He's 92% rostered. He's 75% started. He's at the Cardinals next week. Chris, what are your thoughts here on Sean Burke? Yeah, this is him and his teammate Davis Martin are a good example of something I talk a lot about where when you are talking about when pitchers are having breakouts, but there's not a super tangible thing that you can look at to point to like a, a, uh, big pitch mix change or big velocity jump, there have been mild pitch mix changes for Sean Burke,

but for the most part, he doesn't look that different than the guy he was last season. And the biggest change is just he's pitching a lot better. And that's especially true when we saw this midseason turnaround, which started around early July. I think that's starting. Technically wasn't a start against the Yankees, but the amazing start he had against the Yankees when he struck out 11, I think.

there was a little bit of a lot of a velocity jump for about three starts and then it came back down and he kept pitching really well and it was like I think he's just lost and that is hard to sustain it is really like great pitchers do it but everybody else guys just go through hot streaks and sometimes you're just really locked in and you're really feeling it and that can last for a couple of months but it usually doesn't last forever and that's the that's the thing with both Sean Burke. I think it was more true for Davis Martin. Older doesn't have as good of his stuff. But when I look at Sean Burke sitting on a 320 ERA this season, let's say he finishes the season as a 320 ERA pitcher. I think a lot of people are going to take it as a big breakout. And I think it's a mild breakout. I think he's clearly taking a step forward. But I'm not going to buy Sean Burke as a 320 ERA pitcher next season. I think he's probably more like what his peripherals say, which is more like a 375, 370 ERA pitcher. It's still good. Still much better than he was before.

It's not really a difference maker. And I think there was a month or two months where he looked like a difference maker. All right. Continuing on, what do we do with these pitchers? McKenzie Gore was, meh, against the athletics, five and a third,

one run, four walks, four strikeouts, eight whiffs on 95 pitches. He has four walks in back-to-back starts after a stretch of 13 with 2.3 walks per nine. So, yeah, the location in control is now regressing once.

again for McKenzie Gore. I liked him this week. Two starts at home. He has really drastic home road splits this year. Next week he's at the D-backs. They are really good against lefties, and he's not as good on the road. So I totally fine benching McKenzie Gore.

And honestly, if you really need the roster spot, I don't think it's crazy to view him more as like a streamer at this point in the season. He's got a 431 ERA and 129 whip, and he always does. Yeah. Like for as much as we have talked about McKenzie Gore

over the last three or four seasons, the numbers always end up being pretty mediocre. This is another one where you can focus on the good, but I think the bad comes up often enough that he's never a guy you want to be linked to

long term. I think he's a high-end streamer with really high ceiling, but not someone you can ever trust. Yeah. Last name on this list is Kyle Bradish, who had another mass start.

This one in Cores Field, so you can't really hold it against him too much. But five innings, two runs, two walks, four strikeouts. And over his last seven outings now, it is a 571, ERA 173 whip for Bradish. On the season, he has a 142 whip. He's 83% rostered. He's 48% started. He gets the Red Sox this weekend. He's at the Blue Jays next week.

It's actually a good matchup at the Blue Jays next week, but I feel like, I'd rather chase volume or find like the flavor of the week who has like a really good matchup instead of Braddish at this point. Certainly in a points league, any two-start streamer over Cobrash, I think is reasonable or at least any viable two-star streamer. And even in a Roto league, it's not like you're protecting your ratios by having Cobrattish in there. It's not like you're getting a lot of strikeouts from him. He hasn't had a big strikeout game since like June. I'm pretty sure. I don't think he's had, I don't think he's had more than five strikeouts in the start since June.

this is one of the most disappointing pitchers of the season, maybe one of the most disappointing players. Well, I don't know. There's a lot of disappointing players. But certainly for pitchers, what we expected, there have not been many more disappointing, healthy pitchers than Kyle Bradish. And there's really nothing positive to take out of this season. I guess he hasn't gotten hurt yet.

I don't want to be too negative. But that's it, right? Like, that's the extent of the positives you can take out of this season for Kyle Braddish. Strikeout rate has regressed. Walk rate has regressed. Yeah. It really doesn't do anything well right now. I don't know why this has happened because he had been so good for three years before that. But I really don't have anything positive to say about Calvrattish at this point, unfortunately. You were spot on, by the way, Chris, has not had more than five strikeouts in a start since June 27. Yeah, he had like two or three

starts in a row with like eight, nine strikeouts. And then look, we, I distinctly remember we're like Cal Bradish is back. Yeah. He is going to be an ace moving forward. And it's just like not, not like there's been a dramatic change in his pitch mix or the, it's just I have no idea. I have no good explanation for it. But it's just not good. Let's wrap up here with some waiver wire names from Tuesday's action. It is a very, very small sample size with Trevor Story. But he does have multiple hits in three games since returning from the IL. He went two for four with a double here. And just a reminder, like,

he was bad early this season. He was very good last year. He had 25 home runs, 31 steals. There is a chance that he just gives a decent amount of power and speed to close out the season. So I'm keeping a close eye on it. I still would favor someone like Kailin Cole Pepper over him,

but I would take story over Lombard or Hennel right now just because one's hurt and the other one is starting lose some playtime. It's really hard to recommend Trevor Story as an ad when Kaelin Kohl-Pepper is rostered in fewer leagues. Correct.

If you are in a league where Kaelin-Kalpeper is rostered and Trevor's story isn't and you need a shortstop or a middle infielder, sure. Go ahead. I agree. He was so good last season that I'm not going to write him off entirely. Some deeper names here. Jeff McNeil is doing some things. Two-for-four with his seventh home run.

And in the second half, he's hitting 3-46, four homers, six deals, and 8-72 Opeer. Yes. He is 26% rostered with first second and outfield eligibility. Six home games next week. Five righties in the schedule. So you like that. Joey Ortiz of the Brewers, two for four with his eighth home run, two RBI. Last 42 games, I didn't realize

this guy's hitting really well. 331, six homers, four steals, OPS over 900. During that stretch, he is 11% rostered, shortstop and third base eligible. And then Mickey Gasper, who we spoke about, he just cannot stop hitting home runs. he has seven home runs on the year.

He has hit all of them in his past 13 games. And a two-catcher league, again, if you need a catcher, Mickey Gasper. Chris, any deep league interest in a Jeff McNeil or Joey Ortiz? Oh, McNeil as a streamer next week, seems fine at home. I like that setup for him next week. I had a little bit of interest in him as a very deep sleeper coming into the season, and obviously he was a disaster in the first half. But there were signs that he wasn't completely finished.

at the end of last season as well. I think he's closer to finish than not, but I don't mind him as a streamer with Jory Ortiz. It's remarkable. He's been arguably the Brewer's best position player in the second half of the season. That's crazy. Which I did not expect,

and I can't imagine anybody did. I don't have a lot of faith in it. The underlying numbers aren't particularly good, but it's been really good for them because some injuries and some, some underperformance have forced him into a bigger role

and he's stepped up. And I just want to point out Mickey Gasper, seven home runs in his past 13 games. Do you know what his career high for homers is at any level

in a season? It's 12. I was going to say 10. Darn it. He hit 12 home runs in 2024. He hit 12 home runs in 2025. He has seven in his past 13 games.

Now he does technically have 16 home runs. on the season now. He was crushing the minors this year. Yeah, he has nine homers in the minors. I mean, he's 30. So my guess is that this is just a crazy hot streak. But, you know, he's playing every day right now

with Wilson Contreras on the IL. And he's red hot. So as a hot hand play for a second catcher, you can do worse, certainly. Some waiver wire pitchers here. I will just mention that Nick Lodolo turned in a quality start, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. His curveball looked very good.

He did not have much else working at all. He gave up 11 hard hits. You should not do anything with this, but it was nice to see. Nicolodolo had a good start. His matchups next week at the Dodgers and at the Brewers. You should not do anything with that. No, thank you, Nicolito. Grayson Rodriguez struggled with the long ball,

but he did rack up some whiffs here against the Yankees. Six innings, four runs, seven strikeouts, two homers loud, 18 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. he gave up back home runs in the first inning, but then did settle down after that. Euse has changed up a lot more against a... The Yankees throughout like eight of their nine starting hitters

were lefties in this one, so it was very left-handed, heavy, and his change-up had 10 of the 18 whiffs. So I thought that was encouraging. And over his last seven starts, 349 ERA 122 whip over a strikeout per inning, he's at the Red Sox at the Nationals next week. So the matchups,

are scary, but Gracer Rodriguez has looked better lately. Fortune favors the bold. Yeah. You got to be real bold to trust it, but that's a good way to put it. Look, I'm just some idiot. So, like, who cares?

But I just when I look at Grayson Rodriguez pitch, all I can think is like, can we get this man a cutter or something? Or just like, because his change up was awesome today. That's great. It tends to be his second best, or his best pitch probably in terms of missing bats. But you look at the velocity and it's 97 with the fastball,

84 with the changeup, 81 with the curveball, 86 with the slider. Like there's just nothing in between. You know, it's like, it's all, it's half his pitches are 97 and half his pitches are 84. And there's just like, I feel like he is like a great candidate for like a harder gyro slider or a cutter or a cutter or a hard. harder change-up, something like a splitter, something. Because it just, it feels like there's just,

there's only two velocity bands in his profile. And I feel like that that would be a way that he could add some deception into his arsenal. I feel like there's just too much velocity separation there for a guy who throws 50% fastballs, especially. I think those are fair points. Again, honestly, I just, I just want to see any type of. of success here from Grays and Rodriguez. Oh, sure, absolutely.

What he's gone through the past couple of years, you know, the arm injuries being traded for one year of Taylor Ward, who just completely tanked this season. Four months of Taylor Ward. So we'll see. We'll see. It looks like he's finishing strong, but yeah, tough matchups next week for Grayson Rodriguez.

Do you have anything on Tyler Phillips? Or we could just keep moving. I think we can keep moving. Yeah, the matchups next week, just one matchup against the Dodgers. So, unfortunately. Yeah. Look, he's not a terrible pitcher, but from a fantasy perspective,

he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, he doesn't pitch deep into games, he pitches for a pretty mediocre team. It's just, you're kind of hoping for two-run runs over five innings in any given start. Yeah. Some hitting a leftover is we got two more home runs from Fernando Tatis, the updated second half numbers, 293, 14 homers, 34 runs, 34 RBI, 8 steals, 987 OPS. He is awesome.

And I see you have a note here about the, about Tatis. Among the top 30 players, hitters in ADP entering the season. So among the hitters who were in the top 30 in ADP, only junior Kamenaro has been worth more than Fernando Tatis this year, according to the Fangraphs Player Rader. Isn't that crazy?

I'm assuming, so he was a half dollar behind Shoha Otani today, but I assume two homer game will give him a little bump ahead. You can make a case. that Fernando Tautice was the best first round pick in fantasy this year. Which is wild because he was awful for two months. He didn't hit his first homer until May 30th. His line actually looks where it should at this point, right? Like 282-19 homers, 31 steals, OPS right at 800.

He's going to get to close to 25 home runs, 35 to 40 steals. That's what you wanted from Fernando Tatis. 80 RBI, 100 runs, 35 steals, yeah. It's an awesome season. He's hitting 282. He is also now, this is incredible. He is tied for fourth most multi-homer games in the majors. Wow.

He didn't hit his first multi-homer game until like June 28th or something. He has three multi-homer games in the past two weeks. Wow. It's wild what Fernando Tatez is doing. Yeah. So let that be a lesson to all of you out there. if your first round hitter, especially a guy we've seen Do It

for years, is off to a terrible start next year. Don't throw in the towel just yet. It's a very, very long season. And it has been a big old season for Randy Rosa Rana, who hit his 22nd home run. He has homered in back-to-back games. And normally, Randy

is very inconsistent from month to month. He's like a very streaky player. This year, it's the opposite. His monthly OPS has been between 769 and 884 each month. So he's actually been very consistent this year. Ozzy Albi is looking to finish strong after a very rough August. He hit his 21st home run, but he hit a sub-600 OPS in the month of August.

Christian Yelich hit his 10th home run, and he has looked better as of late. Last 12 games, 333, two homers, 9 RBI, 1 steel. If you haven't dropped Christian Yelich yet, I would just hold on to him. He's playing better now. Brandon Nimmo had himself a big game, 4-4-5 with a double and 5 RBI. He's been consistently mediocre. this year, he just really has underperformed his expected stats. I think a lot of it is playing his home games in Texas, unfortunately.

Rafael Devers hit another home run. He has six in his past 12 games. Big game for Brandon Lau, four for six with his 29th home run. It's been just great season for him all around. He is the fifth best second baseman in Roto, the eighth best in total headset points entering Tuesday's action. O'Neill Cruz has looked very good since returning from the IL, 311, three homers, three steals,

970 OPS. Chris, you'll enjoy this. 162 game pace for O'Neo Cruz. 36 homers, 112 runs, 119 RBI,

51 SEALs. Yeah. That's fun. It's a bonker season. He's another one. I have no idea what to do with for 2027, because we're going to end up

getting, what, like 110 games out of him? No, not even. He's played 76 games. We're going to get around, I mean, 95? Maybe close to 100 games.

I will set his off-season ADP at 36.5. Yeah, I think it's going to be – because Pekker Armstrong was right around 31 last year. Very different player, obviously, but I think it's going to end up settling around there. Third or fourth round pick, I think. And that's going to be a real tough call. I genuinely have no idea what to do about it because you also have to keep in mind. He has missed significant time, I think, four of the past six seasons going back to the minors. Actually, I think he's been in the majors now for most of that time.

one what this year was a fractured hand yeah no it's been like some freakish stuff there was the the fractured ankle on a play at the plate i don't know that you can take anything from that necessarily this was a fractured finger um it's tough but yeah we hold that against players sometimes we don't but yeah i i it's going to be really interesting to see i'm going to guess the consensus is going to be higher on him than i he's running a 382 babbip. He's still striking out 35% of the time. There are still... That much, huh? 35%.

I think he's up to like 35%. And look, he might have the skill set to keep a... Yeah, 34.4%. He might have the skill set like 387, by the way. You know, you would think he's a high babbitt player. His career babbitt's 321. If the batting average was 40 points lower, we're having a different conversation about O'N O'Cruz.

It would still be an awesome season, but I think the flaws would be a little more obvious. So I think he's going to be a really hard player to figure out for next season. I'm going to guess I'm going to be lower than the consensus on him. But I would also guess he'll be ranked around, or his ADP will be around 30th overall. Yeah, he is a tough one indeed. A couple other names here.

Bryce Harper 4-4 with a walk run and RBI. Last 30 games, 356, 5 homers. an OPS near 1,100 for Bryce Harper. Jordan Walker putting the finishing touches on a monster year. His 28th home run and got off to a slow start coming out of the break. And I instantly think, wow, Chris was wrong again. You know, the home run derby ruined another player. But the last 30 games, 301, 6 homers, 4 steals, 834 OPS for Jordan Walker.

Lots of names here, Chris. Is there anyone else you'd like to touch on before we hit the pitchers? Harper 900 OPS now for the season. That's pretty great. I didn't think he had another 900 OPS season, to be honest. And then Walker, you know, he has not sustained the first half pace. What do you have? Or the first month pace, really?

Was it 12 home runs in the first month or whatever it was? He's putting together a really nice season, though. And as long as your expectations are something more in the low 800s OPS range, I think that feels reasonable for Jordan Walker based on what we've seen. You know, maybe like a Randy or Rosarena with a little more pop kind of profile. You know, that could be a reasonable expectation for Jordan Walker. And it does feel like there's a lot less discussion about him

than certainly when there was early in the season. But I do wonder, you know, a relatively quiet second half, what kind of impact that's going to have on the way he's perceived because he's been mostly pretty good all season. He's been stealing bases consistently. The counting stats have been pretty good. And I feel like there might not be as much enthusiasm for him as there could be. So I don't know.

I'm intrigued by where Jordan Walker's price is going to end up for 2027. because if it's only like a top 50 pick, you know, in the 50-ish range, I think that feels like a pretty reasonable price for him. That first NFBC draft that happened, he went eighth overall. Oh, okay. Then I don't know what I'm talking about. I think eight, eighth or tenth. He was a first round player.

Wow, that's wild. Okay, then maybe everything I said is not true and I will be out on Jordan Walker next season because, yeah, I can't. I mean, that's a sample of one. I have no idea. Yeah. Well, and I think as we get further. moved, like as Aaron Judge gets on the field, right? And, and like, as some of these disappointments fade or as some of the injured players come back,

I think we will probably see a little reversion to last year's first round and second round players. Like, I think there's going to be, you know, maybe, especially in season, because some of these guys have been so disappointing, maybe an instinctual, like, get them away from me. But, yeah, if it's a top 15 price for Jordan Walker, I'm not going to be able to justify that. No, I don't think. On the pitching side of the leftovers,

we have Jesus Lazzardo with another strong start, six and two thirds, one run, six strikeouts at the debacks. Garrick Cole faltered late here at the Angels, five and a third, eight hits, three runs, five strikeouts. He allowed a two-run triple in the sixth inning that really kind of messed up the line here for Garrickle. But he also gave up a lot of hard contact. 12 hard hits allowed in this one for Cole.

And Eduardo Rodriguez took a step back against the Phillies. Five innings, eight hits, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts. His previous four starts before this, 140 ERA. 0.90 whip over a strikeout per inning and all the

ERA estimators below 250. So he legitimately was pitching better as of late. Chris, any thoughts here on Erod, Gerichol, and Jesus Lazardo? Yeah, watching this start I didn't really get why Garrett Cole was throwing his fastball as much as he was. It wasn't particularly effective.

It was getting hit hard. He wasn't missing bats and he threw it a lot. I feel like he threw it a lot in two strike counts, especially, which this didn't make sense. So I don't really, I don't know, I don't think there's much to take forward there. I think he's really good, you know, back in the top 12 SP discussion. But that was the one thing I noticed while watching. The call to the bullpen for the.

the Reds. Emilio Pagan got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He allowed a solo homer but picked up his 20th save. For the Marlins with a three-run lead, Calvin Foshae was used in the sixth inning. He allowed a hit but picked up his 13th hold. The Marlins added more runs on, so it was not a save opportunity anymore. But Chris, I thought it was interesting that Calvin Foshae was used in the sixth inning with no Pete Fairbanks. It feels like they are back to not having a closer and they never will ever again. Yeah, it's weird that I guess the amount of money P. Fairbanks was getting paid mattered a lot more

than how poorly he was pitching because his role has never been in doubt at any point this season when he's been healthy. And otherwise, they've reverted right back to what they were before. It's a very odd situation. For the Rangers, Jacob Lats came on to get the final two outs. He struck out both for his 28th save. For the Rockies, Jordan Romano got the ninth of the two-run lead. He struck out two for his 14th save.

in 19 games now with Colorado a 2-ERA 111-1-Wip 18 strikeouts over 18 innings for Jordan Romano. So he is 19% rostered. I think this could still end very, very poorly, but I also think that roster rate is just too low for someone who

is the closer for his team. And for the Pirates, Mason Montgomery got the 9th with the game tied. He gave up two hits, but picked up his third win as the Pirates walked it off in the bottom of the 9th. To stream or not to stream

on Wednesday. We have Grant Holmes at the Nationals. Jacob Lopez at the Rangers. Cody Bradford home against the athletics. Andrew Painter at the D-Backs, Patrick Sandoval, home against the Mariners. Landon Roop at the Pirates. Jared Jones, home against the Giants.

Griffin Jacks in his return against the Mets. I don't know what the pitch counts going to look like there. Joey Cantillo against the Blue Jays. Dean Kramer against the Tigers, David Peterson against the Brewers, and Hayden Wisniews, home against the White Sox. Yeah, I think from a talent perspective, Griffin Jacks is the best guy here, but he threw, let's see, 42 pitches in his loan rehab game.

That was 10 days ago. So I assume there was a bullpen in there where he probably worked a little more, but that is not a great sign that he's going to go deep. It's the race, so you can never trust him to go deep anyway. So my hope would be to avoid Griffin Jacks, but I think he's. He's the best pitcher here. Otherwise, it's Andrew Painter, Jacob Lopez, and I think David Peterson,

we said yesterday. Yeah. I think Cantillo against the Blue Jays could work. They are 29th in Wobah against left-handed pitching. So I would put Lopez at the top of the list. I would put Painter second. And then I would choose Joey Cantillo.

But I could see any of Peterson, Weske, or, you know, the Mariners' bats are hot all of a sudden. So I'm going to say no on Patrick Sandoval, but I could see Peterson or Wiseneski having good starts as well. On Thursday, Blade Tidwell is at the Pirates. Luis Castillo at the Astros. Quinn Matthews at the Dodgers, Bubba Chandler home against the Giants. Brendan Young, home against the Red Sox.

Cal Quantrell, home against the Rays. And J.T. Ginn is at the Mariners. I think J.T. Ginn is my favorite. I know Cal Quantrell has been very important. effective lately. I have zero faith in it whatsoever. You do like that that start is in Texas, though. Yeah, it's fine. I just don't think he's very good. I'd probably put Bubba Chandler out of Quantrell. I think Ginn and Chandler.

Yeah, maybe Brandon Young as well, though the matchup is tough, and I'm not sure he's particularly good. I mean, all of a sudden that Red Sox lineup, they did get Anthony and Storyback, but they lost Contraris and Adley Rutchman's banged up, so. Yeah, Ginn is I think the only one I would start with any degree of confidence, though. All right, we're 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

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