Fantasy Baseball Today - Big Pitcher Struggles, Chas McCormick on Fire & Injury Updates! (8/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

Lucas Giolito got clobbered by the Braves (2:15). ... Joe Ryan has served up 17 home runs over his last seven starts (10:45)! ... Dylan Cease just had one of his worst starts of the season (15:08). ... Chas McCormick continues to crush baseballs (18:20). ... Bo Bichette was placed on the IL with patellar tendinitis (25:15) and Shane McClanahan is dealing with forearm tightness. ... Rank Riley Greene, Lars Nootbaar and McCormick (33:10). ... News (40:33): Corey Seager is back! ... Rank Grayson Rodriguez, MacKenzie Gore and Kutter Crawford (48:12). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:00). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fancy Baseball today on Thursday, August 3rd. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Chris, the Welsh.

Today on the show, what the heck is going on? Joe Ryan, Chas McCormick continues to destroy baseballs, and we have big injury updates on Boba Shett, and unfortunately, Shane O. Mack, Shane McClanhan. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already, and if you're listening on the audio side,

download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, let's jump right in. Holy cow, how about that. Welsh, holy cow, who you got, player the night? or bad performance of the night. Yeah, mine is a little bit on that front, and I got one for you, and I think Frank like this. Lucas G. Elite, oh, no, oh no, Lucas Gialito.

Things not looking good after that trade, things nobody wanted to see. Lucas Gialito got lit up for nine earned runs in this one. He had 10 total swinging strikes. It wasn't good. Four Seam fastball, no whiffs. Slider had the stuff. Frank, I went and looked at the illustrator for, you know, his zone coverage and the balls.

I counted eight fastballs that successfully touched, like really touched the strike zone. Three others that hugged it fastballs all over the place. Sliders hit one part of the, I guess it would be the left side of the zone, sat there, change up all over the place. over the place Lucas G. Alito, breaking news. He's a mess and it's just not getting fixed. And it's been he has been consistently inconsistent this whole year. And this is the worry that you had in the pay up. This is why the price wasn't exponential for Lucas G. Alito. And the pitch mix hasn't worked. The command is all over the place. The walks have been absolutely absurd this entire year with him. And this is going to be, this is a bad trend in a lot of different

spots. And you know, we got some people that are screaming about Joe Ryan, like you said, and other places. Lucas G. Alito is putting himself in a spot that I think we really have to question how much you can trust him down the line. You know, there's going to be plenty of leagues or there's not going to be better options. But you're looking at a four and a half expected ERA, a barrel percentage that is exponentially higher than it has been at any point in his career. His walks are over eight right now. And hard hit is the hardest since his rookie year. And put on top of all of that, the walks say, hey, it's. eight, but the command is all over the place.

The pitch mix is a disaster. That changeup was bleh today. I just don't feel good about Gialito moving forward. And I just, you know, maybe this is like everybody already feels this way, but I think you're in a spot where you really have to pick and choose where you want to put him out there. And I'm looking for pretty heavy swing and miss teams that are maybe going to mask some of the walks and get some of those strikeouts. Today was pretty, pretty gross.

Pretty gross indeed. One of the toughest matchups, if not the toughest matchup for a pitcher of this. season going up against the Atlanta Braves. It's just really tough for someone like Gileto who already allows a lot of hard contact going up against a team that makes the most hard contact in all of baseball. So there have been lots of blow-up starts this year, Gileo, the third time he's allowed seven or more earned runs. This season, he's also allowed two or more home runs in four of his past seven starts. Two home runs or more in four of his past seven starts. So he puts the ball in the air, hard contact, the walks have been an issue. You highlighted all this stuff. And we were talking

beforehand, Gileto is one of these pitchers. He tinkers a lot. He changes with the pitch mix and he struggles with control and he just kind of seems like he is looking for something right now. And I don't know that you're going out there and you're dropping Gilito, but I think for the time being, I mean, next week he's facing the Giants. Not that they're like a great lineup by any means, but, you know, they're pesky at times. So I think I'm okay saying, yes, let's, bench Gileeto until we see maybe a string of good starts together here. Yeah. I mean, I was kind of implying like there might be some formats where it's like, listen, you just don't need to do this anymore. He had that June, June was great. He had a

sub three ERA. Every month since then, it has been over four. The walks have been gross. And he's a hundred percent in, I think a matchup based pitcher the rest of the way. There's not going to be any major confidence if there's a hard hitting team there. But yeah, like you said, I was telling you off air, kind of of wish there was just somebody that could take control. And I'm not saying this hasn't happened before because what do I know? I haven't been around Lucas G. Alito in every point of his life in his baseball career. Maybe there have been coaches that have sat down and really worked.

But my impression of kind of being around and just his approach has been he takes care of this. In the off season, he goes to drive line. He changes the way he pitches. You know, he is changing the way he delivers the ball. If it's inside really much or however it is, he gains weight, loses. what do you live 70 pounds or whatever insane amount of weight he just up and down he's always trying different things i wish there was someone that was like stop it like this is what you do i i feel like someone needs to take control of this clay and they need to mold it in a way that he doesn't have control of it

but that is just my perception and it doesn't help us for this year so yeah i think you got to really watch the matchups like you said giants not even the best right now because he really can hurt your ratios like sure he can get 10 strikeouts cool he has an awesome offense would show Hia Tani behind him, but I don't trust him. And he is, he's one of these guys that's single-handedly going to blow up your ratios. And I don't like that, especially at this time of the year. 97% rostered for Gileto on CBS. He's only started in 62% of leagues. So some people already started benching him. The names that we've talked about the past couple of days as waiver wire pitchers, Seth Lugo, Nick Povetta had that double-digit strikeout start on Monday. And Andrew

Heaney had 11 strikeouts yesterday. Would you drop Gilito for any of those? Oh man, would I drop? You know what? I think we're getting to the point. We do this in a lot of fantasy where sometimes it's a put up or shut up where it's just like, you know what? You just kind of make the moves.

You got to bite the bullet. I don't think the worst move on the planet is to drop him for Andrew Heaney. Do you? Like Nick Pavetta, it's getting there. Like maybe. I don't know. But like, is it the worst to go with that offense?

I know Heaney has gone through kind of a stretch, really hoping he's going to have that back. The offense is starting to get back going. Texas Rangers are finding themselves. again, do you, do you think you could pull the trigger on the Heaney one or that's that criminal to drop Gialito for him? Because I don't. I don't think it's criminal, but they seem like very similar pitchers. Yeah, I guess that's a good point. Like, you kind of, you could get the same line from either one of those guys. So then it's like, okay, if they are similar, you want the track record of Gialito or you want that offensive support of the Rangers? Yeah, I think I would just stick with Gialito there. I think the one I might do it for is Seth Lugo. I've just become the Seth Lugo stand on this podcast. Go look at his numbers, Welsh. He's just rock solid. Mid-3s ERA, a sub 1.2 whip,

right around a strikeout per inning. He doesn't kill you. He's not going to throw a complete game. He's going to give you six solid innings every time out. And I think he's one of the most under-rastered players on CBS. He's 71%. He has RP eligibility. So if you're playing a points league,

you have that spark factor as well. Look, again, if you just want a higher floor pitcher, I could see doing it for him. I probably wouldn't do it for any of those other names. One name I was going to say for later on, Grayson Rodriguez. He's up to 77% rostered. He was solid at the Blue Jays on Wednesday,

five and two thirds innings, three runs, six strikeouts, and four starts since returning, 357 ERA, 102 WIP. Would you drop Gileo for Grace and Rodriguez? Yeah, see, now you're kind of getting to where I'm starting to look. Yeah, I think I would. And I don't know if people wouldn't like that.

I mean, the VILO was back up again. You know, from season averages, it's up like a mile and a half. Everything was up. by a mile or more half on the overall averages. Fastball was slangin. He changed up the mix. He actually went like heavier fastball in this game. Had a 67% zone percentage on it.

And you need to get a little bit more on like outside of the zone swing. It was only 17%. But he went heavier on that today. And then he went a little bit more on like slider change up. And those became more effective. So like if your fastball is effective, he can throw more of them. And then he can punch these guys out with the changeup and slider,

which those two pitches, which I'm doing the math, equated to 34% of his usage. Those had eight strikeouts, both change up with a 33% swinging with 63 on the slider. Eight of five swings were missed. So I think the way he's trending and the way this team is trending, I would go with Grayson Rodriguez, but I'm also not going to like deny that they also might be similar players. I think the upside, though, is the highest with Grayson Rodriguez, even in this year, because I don't think you're seeing any cap type of stuff.

But he also just might be like the younger, sexy, or sleeker version of what Gialito has been in the past. And maybe he could be, but he's not showing any signs of it. So that's why I'm kind of anti-Giolito right now. All right. Well, let's slide over to another pitcher who's been struggling. Joe Ryan. Looks like he is just broken right now. He allowed four more home runs at the St. Louis Cardinals here on Wednesday.

He allowed seven runs total over four innings pitched. Still got a bunch of whiffs. He got the strikeout. That's what he's been doing. But lots of hard contact. We know that he puts a lot of balls in the air. air, lots of fly balls here for Joe Ryan pitching up in the zone. But all of a sudden, he has allowed 17 home runs over his last seven starts.

17 home runs in seven starts. I mean, it sounds like a home run derby, right? Pete Alonzo would be like, please, I need you as my BP thrower, please. It is crazy stuff. And all of a sudden, the ratios on the season for Joe Ryan, 443 ERA. The whips still look solid at 1.13, but 1.1.3. 0.8 home runs per 9. That's fifth most among qualified starting pitchers. Welsh, what do we do with Joe Ryan? The problem here is next week he's in line for two

starts at the Tigers and at the Phillies. A lot of times we say look if you can't start a pitcher in a two-star week where one of them is against the Tigers, you probably shouldn't even roster that pitcher. Yeah, that's like put that on the gravestone. You're like if you can start against the Tigers, I'm probably I'm probably still going to throw him out there. You know, I mean, from a season total perspective, the walks are still low. He's got a full run better expected ERA than that ERA is. This game is weird. I would be curious about like what was going on from a pitch usage standpoint. The fastball has been 57% split finger, 28% with sweeper 10% on the year. But this game, he went heavy sweeper. But here's my problem. It was ineffective. It had a

14% whiff rate on it. And he had that more than the splitter. Like the splitter has maybe just like come down a little bit as well, 21% CSW percentage. It wasn't sitting in the zone. And it had a 9% outside the zone swing percentage. This is sometimes what you worry about guys that are going to rely heavy like on splitters as well. This was my Casey Meyes thing from a long time ago. If you're dependent on that and guys aren't swinging at it, you have to be effective in other places.

Obviously the splitter is not effective right now, 9% outside of the zone swing percentage. So he's going to his other pitches, which are not flying. It's one of those fastballs we all kind of make excuses for a little bit, and the sweeper just wasn't doing anything. It's at a 34% whiff rate, highest of any pitch on the season. But yet, as I just told you, today it was 14%. No one was swinging at that. No one needed to swing at the split finger. And that just leaves a fastball to be kind of messed up.

So can he fix it? I don't know. He's been a good pitcher on the totality of the year. So I tend to want to lean on that. But you do have to question a little bit. It's just those matchups next week are, it's pretty decent. You know, strikeout guys in Philly and Detroit, like you said, you got to do that. This might be do or die.

You know what? Let it be do or die the first week in August to make your decisions if he is going to be someone that, I know some people are freaking out and cutting him, but if you need to start worrying about matchup plays with him and making moves like that, let this be the decision instead of it being in a month from now. When it's playoff time, it's critical, critical time for your ratios and stuff like that, for getting into playoffs or whatever it is if you're in your rotospot. Let this be the determination

if he is broken for the rest of the year and there's no more time to fix it or if this can get fixed. I'd love to see the splitter be a little bit more effective. Those are the things I'll be looking for this week. I will start him just out of spite to see if it works. At the Tigers, man. In Comerica, as a fly ball pitcher,

it does not get better than that matchup. At the Phillies, you know, if it's a warm day, the ball flies out there too, but that's a lineup that's struggled for a lot of this season as well. I think I'm with you. I think it's one last try last last try last week. Let's see what happens with Joe Ryan but one last hurrah baby we're we were just talking this way not not to this extent about Framer Valdez though right like his previous five starts before this he had a seven ERA and then

what happens he comes out and he throws a no hitter granted he's more established he's a different pitcher he gets ground balls I get it it's not apples to apples here with Joe Ryan but let's not forget what Joe Ryan did earlier in the season as well he was super dominant so I understand the frustrations. I say let's throw them out one more time next week with those two starts at the Tigers and at the Phillies. And if he lets us down, then we're really making some tough decisions here on Joe Ryan. The last name of these three that struggled big time on Wednesday, Dylan Cease. He was crushed at the Texas Rangers.

One and two-thirds innings. That's right. He recorded five outs. He gave up seven hits, seven runs, three walks to one strike out here. And the ERA has ballooned up to 461. He's got a 1.4 whip on the season now. Still well over a strike operating and he had that stretch from May to June where it looked like it was coming together, but he's been inconsistent once again. Over his last six starts, we're looking at a 637 ERA for Dillon Cis. Babbip is up over 400, allowing lots of hard contact. The problem here as well is he's got two starts next week. He's facing the Yankees and he's at home against the Brewers. Well,'s your thoughts on Dillin Seas. Not feeling great about it.

This is, you know, like any of these other guys, you know, looking at this last start, not a ton of anything outside of a fastball sitting inside the zone. His slider, dead red middle. If he was throwing a slider for a strike, it is right in the money zone. And then when he's throwing this knuckle curve, kind of same thing. Right in the zone. Fastball all around. And then everything else is just like a, it's a, like an artistic, you know,

I'm going to cover my eyes and throw paint against the wall. That's what his paint pitch mix looks like right now. And it's like Gialito. It's like a better version of Gialito with that same mix. He can go 10. He can lose it. He seems to be losing it right now. You and I were kind of anti-Dillin C skies going into this year.

And best thing that could have happened to him is if that Dodger rumored trade could have ended up happening. And they could have worked through and fixed him because of White Sox, I mean, look at the mess that they're spreading around the league. The cancer of players that are moving around. And Gialito is taking his stuff to the. angels and God knows where Lance Lynn is going to look like long term for this. So I don't feel optimistic about Dylan C's. I don't feel what was the matchup again? The two.

Yankees and Brewers. He's not a guaranteed must start in a two pitch. That's not a guarantee. I don't know if I want to start him in either one of those. Brewers, the strikeout numbers could get really big if I'm chasing that. But I don't like that Yankee matchup. Yeah. I mean, the Yankees lineup has been pretty bad.

But if there's one thing that they can do, it's hit home runs when they get hot. We saw that here on. You know, Wednesday, Stanton hit a home run, Volpey hit a home run. Judge is back. We'll see if he's still here by next week. But, yeah, the difference between Dylan Sees and Joe Ryan is that we didn't, we haven't seen him be great this season.

We saw Joe Ryan be great this season. Dylan Seas was great last year. We haven't really seen much of that Dylan Seas so far this year. Again, there was a short stretch in there, but walks a big issue, fly balls, home runs, hard contact. This makes Dylan Seas and someone like Lucas Julito very, very volatile starting pitchers. So I would say of the three,

probably more so because of the matchups than anything. I'm probably going to start Joe Ryan, but Dylan Sees and Gialito, man, I think I'd be all right just not dropping, but I think benching at least for the four-seater. But if you had to drop one, I think it would be G-a-Lito. Yeah, I think so.

Oh my goodness gracious for me, 20 minutes in, but it's all right. We had to talk about these pitchers because they're on everyone's mind right now. Chas McCormick, two for three with two socks in a shoe. That's right, two home runs and a stolen base in this game. He's up to 15 homers, 12 steals on the year, also batting 286 with a 922 OPS, and over his last 46 games. This is nearly a two-month stretch now.

Chaz McCormick batting 323, 13 home runs, eight steals during that time. The walk rate, solid this year, 10%. Strikeout rate, a touch high. His average exit velocity, it's solid. what he does is he barrels the ball up. 12% barrel rate. That is very strong. 79th percentile this year.

He is a right-handed batter who plays in Houston. I know last time I said this, he doesn't just pull everything. He actually does hit some home runs up the middle into the opposite way. But as a right-handed batter with those Crawford boxes in left field,

it's something that he could take advantage of. Still only 73% rostered. And I am a man that could admit mistakes, Welsh. I can admit when I'm wrong. The YouTube channel, a couple of weeks ago, they were all over Chas McCormick. They were yelling at us every day. Talk about Chas McCormick. Talk about Chas McCormick. And I'm like, ah, come on, man. This isn't real. It's Chaz McCormick, whatever. But man, he absolutely looks like the real deal right now.

So shout out to those who are on him. You know, I'm kind of late to the party here. 73% rostered. I think he's absolutely a must add. If he's out there, even a three outfielder league, even in a points league, I mean, if he's out there, you got to get McCormick on your team. You know that I told you guys about that new kind of format that I was playing around with where to try to keep people, the league mates that we had interested, our home league, interested the whole year, you know, I'm losing, I don't care about my roster anymore. We split it into half the first season was Roto, the second season was head to head. So you got a playoff run.

Keeps everybody excited. We redrafted. Chas McCormick was not a pickup. He was a full draft player for me. And early on in the season, that early attempt, especially the Astros' broadcasting was talking about how he's had the green light and he's running more, running more. Then the power started to pick up. And I've got like, I should have gone and looked beforehand, but I have a pretty big bench.

I took a shot on like, you know, the Jorge Polanco's. I think I had Tyler O'Neill and I got a couple other guys in that redraft here. I cannot take Chas McCormick out of my lineup to exactly what you said. I'm actually trying to look right here what the roster is. I can't get him out of this lineup if I wanted to. Yeah, I can't even pull this up. I can't even find this bad boy. But to say the least, yes, the chat, you guys owe you owed a lot of credit here.

And Chasm McCormick has been awesome. There's a lot of sustainable stuff. I love the barrel rate. I actually found it here. So it's like I got James Outman, Lioti Tavares. Those are the other two that are on the bench. I can't put either one of those guys in. And both are double-digit Homer and stolen bases right now.

I can't get those guys in. I have Josh Lowe, Henry Davis, Brian Reynolds. Chas McCormick is my second best outfielder, maybe arguably right now the best outfielder on that team. So he is a absolute must-play the rest of the year. And lo-key is going to be massively valuable by the end of the year. I've got four names written down here, Welsh, that are all still rostered in more than 85% of CBS leagues. They're rostered in more leagues than Chaz McCormick.

Would you drop any of these for old Chazzy Boy? Teosker Hernandez. Thoughts? Yes. I think so, too. Yep. Alex Verdugo has really slowed down since the start of July. What do you think?

Bye. Bye for Dugo. Bye. This one might be a little bit tougher. He hit a home run here on Wednesday, his 10th home run of the year. He's been kind of up and down since getting recalled Jordan Walker. Ah, man. You know, I'm going to say Jordan Walker, but I would have been more confident if they would have moved one of those outfielders. I was so assured like Tyler O'Neill was going to go, Dylan Carlson didn't go.

So there's still kind of a dirty mess out there of play. years. It might be, Chas McCormick might be the right answer. You know what? Nope, screw it. Chas McCormick. I'm staying, I'm sticking. I'm sticking with Chas. He, I'm trying to get the, I'm trying to get the comment. I have no idea what the YouTube has been saying about me this whole season. Trying to get him on my side. Get you guys on my side. Let's go. Chaz McCormick. Who's the fourth one? I'm picking him. The last name here. Juan Succoe. We go Chaz McCormick. Let's go. Josh Lowe, sell 87% rostered. Um, he is really struggle. I mean, the split

stuff. I'm gonna go Josh Lowe. Doesn't play every day. I know. I'm gonna go Josh Lowe. I'm not even look at it. I want to look at anything else and change my mind. If I go with Josh Lowe, it might not be right, but please still love me for taking Chas over the other guys. I'll take, I'll take Chaz over Josh Lowe. I will do that. I mean, the playing time is so sporadic. And look, Chaz is giving you power and speed too. It's not like, you know, Josh Lowe is giving you this crazy skill set that Chaz can't give you the way he's played. So 73% rostered. Get them on your teams, three outfielder leagues, points leagues, CBS players out there, please go get Chas McCormick. The chat was right. You guys killed it. And I was wrong. Let's take our first break in when we

return. We'll talk about all those injuries. Bobauch, Chas McCormick, not Chas McCormick, Shane McClanahan. He is just on my mind. Don't you. Don't do it. Don't you. If you, if you, if Chaz is down tomorrow, you're done. I apologize. All right, let's do that right after this. Welcome back and let's get into those big injuries from Wednesday. And both, Boba Chet, we already knew he was dealing with something. He was listed as day-to-day on the trade deadline, leading up to the trade deadline. They acquire Paul DeYoung, and all of a sudden I start freaking out.

I'm like, what's wrong with Boba-Shed? This might be actually a pretty big deal. He was placed on the IL with Wright-Peteller tendonitis, and the Blue Jays would not offer a timeline on the injury. So that makes me a little bit worried there about Boba-Jet. Paul DeYoung was in the lineup, batting 8th on Wednesday. So if you do play in a deeper league,

fucking, you know, 15 teamer. I went and checked earlier today. He's available in that league. So if you lost Bobichet in a league that deep, you might just be looking at Paul DeYoung as a replacement for him. Do you want him? Do you want him? I mean, he's going to play, right? He's going to play for the Blue Jays. How about this? Paul DeYoung or Heraldo Perdomo? I probably would take Perdomo. Yeah, it's a little power and speed there. I think the only thing with Perdomo is he's like rostered in a good amount of leagues now, I think. Let's see. He's up to he's 49% DeYoung

DeYoung is 13% So yeah I mean DeYoung's out there But there's a reason he's out there Yeah Because he's like he gets cool that he hits homers But it's not it's not good Like I'm not gonna

I don't know if anyone has an argument to make for him like Knock yourself out But he hit 300 in April Otherwise he's hit like two 30 or under For the most part It's disgusting baseball savant page He's not breaking any I just

I'm not into it cool Maybe he'll have a couple more more homers and stuff like that, but I could do better than a 230 batting average shorts. Not that Predomo's amazing, but OBP, 380, 13 stolen bases, maybe points league that doesn't matter quite as much. But I guess it's like, it's cool that he's there, but maybe there's other options that don't like feel as sexy because you're like, ooh, you know, DeYoung is a Blue Jay. I'd rather Perdomo than him.

Yeah, strictly deep leagues on Paul DeYoung. Ezekiel Duran, DeRan, people look like they're dropping him here because he's down to 70% rostered. Feels like he's kind of, you know, falling off a little bit recently, but the stack has data was really strong for a lot of the season and plays in a really good lineup with the Texas Rangers. So that's, you know, in shallower leagues, 10, 12 team leagues. I think if Duran is out there, you can go ahead and add him.

I'm looking at, you know, other names under 70%. Three names in a row here. Orlando, Arcia, Ezekiel Tovar, the aforementioned Pardomo. Welsh, how would you rank that group? Arcia Tovar, Podomo. Um, okay. I think I need to look at Tovar here because I'm gonna go Arcia purely based on that offense. I mean, RCA has been decent, but I'll do that easy. We actually did that. Didn't we do that on the show like months and months ago? You asked me, Orlando Arcia versus Prudomo. I remember that one. Tovar, maybe a little bit of a wild card. Got up to 10 homers. Good. Five stolen bases. Not great. expected batting average is about in line. I'll go Arcia Tovar Perdomo. That's how I'm going to rank them. Maybe if I need stolen bases,

maybe I prioritize Perdomo over Tovar, but I'll put Rcia at the top. Yeah, I think that's the right ranking as well. So I would go Arcea Tovar Perdomo. If for some reason, Duran is out there in your league, go ahead and add him. And if you play in a deep league, you might have no choice, but to go with our good friend Paul DeYoung. Oh, buddy. Shane O. Meck, the unfortunate news here, Shane McLean, experienced tightness in his left forearm during Wednesday's start against the Yankees. He'll head back to Tampa on Thursday to be checked out by a team doctor, at which point more details regarding the severity of the injury will be available.

He has struggled for quite some time here, Welsh. You know, since going on the aisle with the back injury, returning has not looked like himself, giving up home runs. It's not really like him. It's just, he hasn't been himself for a while now. And, you know, the same thing kind of happened last year, right? He, you know, second half of the season, those endings start to add up. And he was dealing with the shoulder.

This year it's a little bit different. It's the back. And now it's the forearm. What's your concern level here on Shane McClanahan? I think it's got to be pretty high. You know, interestingly enough, too, everything was up today with, you know, we want to play correlation. Like, hey, it's hurting.

Well, fastball was up half a mile. Slider was up almost three miles per hour. Maybe that had something to do with it. I don't love that. I obviously I don't love it. I'm a huge Shane Mclanahan guy. I was like, number one. pitcher, love the team context. He gets wins. He's a bulldog out there. I think the way he attacks

the zone with his arsenal is like matched only by striders ability to just pump fastballs by anybody even though you know what's coming. But the injury history is becoming a massive problem. I think it's got to have some effect on the dynasty value long term. This is obviously, you know, part of the reason that the raise were aggressive in getting a guy like Aaron Savali. But also there's a trend here. Like how many of these guys? are going to get hurt and we don't look at the team organization who is very hands-on who's very touchy touchy with these guys like hey we don't want you to throw as many fastballs we want you to do this um you know they had sent taj bradley down a while back for losing velo on the cutter

it's a very velo based team that is also adjusting arsenals is it's something that they're doing when you lose three-fourths of your rotation to i guess mcclain is not like a serious injury yet but we could argue with the amount of times this is going on it's getting to the point where it's like if this is serious, we're not going to be shocked. And then you've lost Springs, Rasmussen, and him. So, yeah, I'm concerned from a dynasty value perspective. And this is a huge blow if this is anything more than like a normal stent for the rest of your playoff run. Yeah, so I'm looking at the last six starts here for Shane McClain,

including Wednesday night, a 7.36 ERA. And I think even if everything works out here, hopefully it does for him. And he's healthy this all season and he's healthy going into draft season. And like you said, I think this is something we have to factor in. You just have to kind of, I think, assume at this point that Shane McClanahan's body is not going to hold up over the course of the season until we see him do it. We haven't seen him do it yet. So I think until we see that, we do have to be skeptical. Like you would have said prior to this end, like prior to like the struggle, Shane McClan was like a top three SP and dynasty, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right there. Like if you were, we can also just talk about like redrafting to next year. I know some people it's not helpful but we can talk about next year

and like what that looks like can you put them in the top five like the production's there but like can you start to argue the Zach Allen's like how many guys

are you very comfortable right now putting over him McClainahan Strider clearly Strider Gary Cole Yep Cole Kevin Gosman Okay

Okay And I think knowing what we know right now I like my top five I'm looking at it It has Corbyn Burns and Zach Allen. That rounds out the top five.

Okay, so McLeanhan's out. He's out of that top five. And would you say that a decent part of the reason is because of the missed games that you're worried about with them now? Because a healthy Shane McClanahan. Though you do, like, you've got to figure out where the correlation is between the struggles that he's having

and then breaking down. Like, you can look and be like, you know, he's been struggling and he's starting to throw harder and then he got hurt. Is that him trying to find himself again? If that is what keeps happening, he's going to just keep getting hurt. But a healthy Shane McClanahan, you would probably at least put them three on this list.

So yeah, I'm answering your question with your answer to say like, yeah, I think I completely agree with you. His injury history is absolutely affecting the value right now. And it's actually turning. It's a little bit of a turnoff for Dynasty stuff, which I think he, he's a guy I always want to try to buy in Dynasty because he's elite of the elite. But I don't right now because this is a massive problem. And I'm a little bit worried the raise might be a decent reason behind this. All right. Well, let's slide over to some waiver wire hitters.

And I've got two outfielder's up top here, one that we talked about earlier in the season that we were very excited about. Riley Green, he went one for four with his ninth home run. And in 20 games since returning from the IL, he is batting 333 with four home runs, 92.5 average exit velocity, 14% barrel rate, tons of line drives,

doing exactly what we wanted. From earlier on in the season, we said, just lift the ball, man. More line drives, more fly balls. Riley Green has done that, and he has been awesome. He's up to 79% rostered, so this is really shallow league stuff, 10-team leagues, points leagues, things like that. Lars Neupar went 2-4 with his 11th home run, and so far in the second half, 18 games.

He is batting 3.49 with six home runs, two steals, and an 11-22 OPS. Welsh, who would you rather have, Riley Green or Lars Newpar? Come on, buddy. What are we doing here? The answer is both. It's absolutely both right now. I think Riley Green offers probably a better safety net when you start piecing together some of the underlying stuff.

He's a high batting average guy who's got a really good hard hit rate, which is in the 87th percentile. He's got a barrel percentage over double digits, which is something obviously I'm looking for. But I'm going to say Lars Newpar. I'm going to say Lars Newpar here because Lars is absolutely connecting into everything that this is this was the hope and um you know the stolen bases are a little bit more of a force here i think long-term season and i'm a i'm a large new bar guy you know the walk

percentage is up there it's low k's he's getting the barrel percentage up a little bit more and you know he worked so hard in the off season to you know last year was about barreling and this year was about lifting those barrels he's healthy he's comfortable they're committed to him through the rest of the season i think this is like one a one b i'll personally go nuepar but like Riley Green, this isn't a thing against Riley Green. Batting average is great. I just think maybe the counting stats lag a tiny bit behind Lars Neupar rest of season. I was going to say the same thing too because the Cardinals are 12th and run scored.

The Tigers are all the way down at 28th. So that is a massive difference there. Against right-handed pitching, Newpar has been leading off. So it just opens up the possibility for so many more counting stats. And you know, it's funny. The more things change, the further we go throughout the season. Things fluctuate. they go up and down, the more they change, they stay the same.

Because coming into the year, breakout picks, Riley Green, Lars Nupar, who do you want between the two? And here we are. It's August 3rd and we're talking about the same thing, right? So it's like, it's just funny. And like, what, like a month ago? Everyone's like, man, how stupid was everybody for liking Riley Green and Lars Nupar? Riley Green's hurt and Lars Nupar, it's not working. And yeah, it's a full circle we play with this game. Let me ask you one more.

Chaz McCormick. Come on. Stop it. Where does he factor into that mix? Over the past two months, he's been the best of the three. He might be, I know I gave a lot of dead air there, apologize. He might be the answer. I think it's Chad.

I don't want to say Chad, I don't want it to be, but I'm really looking for approval. But no, it's also Chad. I think it's Chad's. Like the stolen bases are a little bit of a better degree. I want it to be Lars. And I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know if I personally would pull the, if I had Lars Newpar and Chas McCormick was on the wire, I don't know if I could even make that move. finding someone else to do it. I'm going to find anybody else to cut. But yeah, I think like if you,

you don't always want to, you can't, especially at this point of the season, you can't just play the like, well, this guy's going to be good to rest. You can't always play that. Chas McCormick has been good and he's been good consistently. He's stealing bases at a better clip than both of these guys. Arguably, maybe not arguably, he's on a better offense where they're going to let him keep going. It's Chas McCormick. I just didn't want to like easily say it. It's so close with Newpar, man. It's so close. Wait, no, don't say it.

Say someone else. So the chat's on my side. I want to say Newpar, man. I'm just a sucker for Lars Neupar. But they're all in that right range. I'm going to update my rankings on Thursday. They're all going to be top 40 outfielders. Again, these are guys that if they're available, if you have a struggling to Asker Hernandez

or Josh Lowe in a points league, yeah, go out, drop those guys and pick up one of Riley Green, Lars Neupar or Chaz McCormick. Some catcher updates here, Gary Sanchez, three. for four with a double dong enjoying his time here in Corr's field, has 14 home runs on the season with a 780 OPS, two multi-homer games in his last four outings for Gary Sanchez. Cow Raleigh, also starting to get hot, one for four with his 17th home run of the year. Yiner Diaz, two for four, and has started four of the past five games, even with Yordon Alvarez back in the lineup, which is something I wanted to watch because that was a concern.

Once Alvarez is back, how does Yainer Diaz play? Does he catch more and they sit Martine Maldonado? We know that they value his, you know, glove behind the plate there. And obviously, I mean, they're not going to, I don't think they're going to rush to throw Yorda Alvarez out there in the outfield, but they're finding away right now. Welsh, how would you rank those three, Raleigh, Sanchez, and Yiner Diaz? I was about to say, I'm like, you're going to ask me to rank these three, aren't you? That's the job.

I know, I know. It's going to be Gary Sanchez at the bottom. I'm, you know what, I'll go Diaz, Raleigh, and Sanchez. I just think it, but like, cool. You hit two homers every eight days or every 10 days, Gary Sanchez. You get no hits in between. I can't stomach that. And I'm not here for that.

I'll take Yanor Diaz in that offense. Again, like focusing on that offense. The homer totals are great. The underlying stuff works in his favor. They're trying to get him playing time. I'll go with Yanir. I don't know if you feel different. I mean, obviously, Cal Raleigh might be the mix between these two.

But I'll take the batting average guy. I think Raleigh might be the safest just because of the playing time. while Yiner Diaz is playing a little bit more now, I still do kind of worry, like, is he going to find enough playing time? But that's just me, I guess, splitting hairs between him and Raleigh. I do like Diaz,

but I'll go Raleigh, Diaz, Sanchez, in that order. Let me ask you then, do you think, because we're having this conversation, we really should be thinking that we're living in a world where we're streaming catchers? Like, I feel like you're asking the question,

rest of season. But do you think if these are the options, these are rest of season options? Like, this is the guy? or this is more like, give me the guy that's going now if they're really that different because I would rather go with the hotter guy and that would probably be Yonnier right now.

I'd rather take that risk and then if he stinks, you just move on because this is probably a big, you could probably find like six or seven other catchers that live in this little space of guys that you just pulled out and maybe you're just better kind of streaming, not to like turn the question or whatever, but just also pointing out these might be,

this might be more about streaming catchers than it is holding onto a guy rest of season. Yeah, this is. This is purely, if you play in a one-catcher league and the back end of the top 12 is kind of sketchy. I mean, Dalton Varsho has been an absolute disaster. Look, we're four months into the season. If you told me you wanted to drop Dalton Varsho and a one catcher league for one of these guys and just ride the hot hand, I can't say no.

He's been abysmal and there's not really anything that shows that he's going to get better. Kabor Ruiz, Tyler Stevenson, that's who I have at the back end of my top 12 rankings. If you just want to ride the hot hand with one of these three names, I have no problem with doing that. So there's going to be at least one team or two teams in a 12-team league that are struggling to find a catcher right now. So let's hit some news and notes quickly here. Corey Seeger skipped a minor league rehab assignment and was activated on Wednesday out of nowhere. Love it. I mean, I wish we had some kind of indication because, you know, if you're playing a weekly league, you're just going to miss out on these stats.

But what do you know? He homered in his first game back. So welcome back, Corey Seeger. Max Fried is on track to return Friday against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He's been out since May 9th with a left forearm strain. Joe Musgrove, some bad news here as well. Scratch from Wednesday's start due to minor right shoulder soreness. For the time being, the Padres don't view Musgrove's shoulder as anything too serious

and believes he will avoid the IL. Cross your fingers. Marcus Stroman. You sure about that? Marcus Stroman placed on the IL with right hip inflammation, which might explain his recent struggles. The Cubs have already said Stroman will be ready when first eligible. I think if anything, this kind of feels like a clear your head, IEL stint. You've been really bad recently.

We'll see you in two weeks. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reports that Andres Munoz is in line to serve as the Mariners' primary closer, following the trade of Paul Seawald. And that's what we suspected on yesterday's podcasts. But it is nice to hear from somebody else. And then what happened here on Wednesday, Munoz struck out two for his third save. They used him in the ninth inning. 54% rostered.

Absolutely. The biggest must add player in fantasy baseball right now, regardless of format, Points League, Categories League, 54%. Only 54% really. Get them on your team. Wow. I'm surprised there wasn't, I'm surprised we didn't see a lot of proactive pickups. I would have been interested, I probably should have done this, look at like the seven-day pickup line on CBS, which by the way, I think is like one of the most helpful pickup tools if you'd like to pay attention to, you know, the movement around leagues. You know, because everybody else is behind on CBS as far. Usually the percentages are higher.

But I'm surprised there wasn't a lot of proactive moves going into the deadline, especially with the Mariners talking about moving and the rumors of Seawald and stuff. I'm actually shocked that it's under 70% on Munoz. That's crazy. So yeah, pick the big, maybe the most obvious pickup that is available in leagues. That's crazy. Yeah.

To be totally honest, I heard the rumors that they could move Paul Seawald. I didn't believe it. I didn't really think that they would actually go through with it. but I mean, here we are. So yes, go add Andres Munoz if he's available in your league. Trevor's story won't be activated off the IL Friday.

He expressed a desire to remain at AAA to continue rehabbing. Jordan Rom- I guess he might... It's very Eduardo Rodriguez of him. Like, nah, I don't want to go. Nah, I'm not. I really like it here.

I'm going to hang out. Yeah, I'm going to hang out with my friend Chris Sale and we're going to cut up some jerseys or do something crazy. Jordan Romano played catch on flatground Wednesday. the first time he's picked up a baseball since landing on the IL with lower back inflammation. Speaking of Chris Sale, he's scheduled to make his next rehab start Sunday at AAA, and if all goes well,

could return to the Red Sox after that outing. We haven't heard anything about O'Neill Cruz in quite a while, but apparently he could begin a rehab assignment later this month. He had surgery back on April 9th to repair his fractured left ankle. Frank, let me tell you something. The TGFBI leagues, I was down a little bit. I have made a wild run in my league. I'm second in my personal league. I was like in the low 300s in like May. And I have right.

Why? Because I proactively picked up L.A. Dela Cruz, Christian and Carnacianneuxan Strand. Got guys like Lars Neupar, Chasmacormick. I've made some good pickups, some good pitchers. But I drafted O'Neill Cruz. I am just like, please give me O'Neill Cruz for this last little push to make a big run because I didn't cut him. But I am really worried in that.

What that optimism was, you know, back in May that we could get him for, you know, if you play in head-to-head like playoffs, is looking a lot less likely we're going to even get him for that run. Maybe a small little run in Rota. Just the impact is not going to be there. It kind of bums me out because I know he was throwing a couple weeks ago. But I have to imagine there's a full stent of rehab in front of him. So if we don't get that going in the next week, it's going to be pretty tough to even get him into early September. So that's a bummer. Liam Hendricks underwent Tommy John's surgery Wednesday, which means he won't be back into late 2024, if that. And it's obviously rough news for somebody who's overcome so much this year.

So hoping for the best there with Liam Hendricks. Ryan Helsley faced hitters in live batting practice Wednesday. He's eligible to return from the aisle next week, but still might need a rehab assignment. Domingo Hermann, kind of crazy story here, placed on the restricted list after agreeing to voluntarily submit to inpatient treatment for alcohol. whole abuse. Hermann has been at the center of quite a few all-field issues in the past, so hopefully he can turn his life around. It sounds pretty serious there on Domingo. J.NALER has missed two straight with right side tightness. J.D. Martinez has missed two straight with left hampshirt tightness. Brandon Nimmo has missed two straight with quad tightness. J.T.

Rulamuto, old friend, has missed two straight with a cut on his right hand, and Justin Turner has also missed two straight with a left heel contusion. Nestor Cortez set to return this weekend against the Astros. Luis Severino is listed as the probable pitcher on Friday against the Astros as well. Jack Flaherty will make his Orioles debut Thursday against the Blue Jays. Buxton was scratched with right hamstring tightness. Logan O'Hoppy on track to begin a rehab assignment next week. 25% rostered.

If you're playing a two-catcher league, go stash Logan O'Hoppy. I'm also hoping it's here because I think he's been training here in Phoenix. It wouldn't be atypical for him to not play a couple of games. If he does, I'm going to run out and try to get some video. But yes, he's a huge pickup right now in those catcher leagues. All those stupid catchers we talked about. I'd rather I'd rather stash Logan O'Hopi. You know what?

Janir Diaz, run him out for a week, stash Logan O'Hopi, so when Diaz struggles, you can throw him back in the lineup, and you'll be, you know, it'd be happy. It'd be super happy. Let's try to say an analogy. I'm horrible with analogy. I'll say, as happy as rain, but that's not analogy.

What would it be is your... You know what I'm saying? Like, there's an analogy, in there, you'd be as something is something, and I don't know what it is. Are you an analogy guy? Not really, but the first one I came to mind was happy as a pig in, and I'll let you finish time. Yeah, okay, that's a good one, yeah, but there was something with rain. I couldn't get there, but we'll take yours. Yours is good. Ben lively was placed in the I.L. with a right pectoral strain, and people were tweeting, asking, well, is it time to stash Connor Phillips?

Because with Ben lively on the IL, maybe he can get a shot. So far in the minors this year, 292, ERA, a 134. for whip, 143 strikeouts over 92 in a third inning. He's 11% rostered. Well, should we be stashing Connor Phillips? Yeah, I think this is a really good stash. A hundred percent. He's got to be on that line. They actually got Connor Phillips, you know, coming from the school of the Mariners pitchers. He's had a great run this year. The, the whip numbers you do need to pay attention to, you know, 292 ERA is great, but a one three four whip does show some of the volatility that's out there. So a Reds pitcher, a home run centric with bad whip, I'd worry that the, you know,

the ratios might fall apart. So just don't immediately assume because he's had this great minor league run, he's going to be Andrew Abbott. But yeah, sure, he's a good stash because if it does work, big strikeout numbers. Connor Phillips is a good one of those probably top 10, probably a top 10 prospect to focus on if you're looking to stash right now. All right.

Let's take our final break. When we return, Rapid Fire. We've got some Waver Wire pitchers, leftovers, all that fun stuff right after this. Welcome back. Let's talk Waver Wire Pitchers. We mentioned earlier, Grayson Rodriguez. as he's at the top of the list here.

Other names, Mackenzie Gore turned in his first quality start since June 3rd. That's right. It only took him two months to get it done. But six innings, two runs, five strikeouts for him. Velocity down across the board. Feels like that happened to McKenzie Gore last year as well. Does look like he's in line for the A's and at the Phillies next week. So some pretty good matchups there for McKenzie Gore.

Cutter Crawford, solid start at the Mariners. Five shutout innings with five strikeouts for him. and two deeper league names. I'll save those for later. Welsh, how do you rank this group? Grayson Rodriguez, McKenzie Gore, and Cutter Crawford. Right is rain. That's what I was trying to say.

Right is rain. Doesn't make any sense, but right is rain. All right, McKenzie Gore, who is my other one? Was it Grayson McKenzie Gore and Crawford? Is that what you gave me? Yep. Grayson. Cutter McKenzie Gore.

McKinsey Gore is still a very young pitcher. I actually would take the opportunity in Dynasty Leagues while he is on a struggle bus to buy because I've loved a lot of what he's done this season, but the wear and tear, full season run, I think he's kind of coming to a close. I like what Cutter Crawford's been doing, especially from a strikeout basis,

but it is like Grayson, and then it's Cutter and maybe Gore in like their own little tier. All right, and with Cutter Crawford, two starts next week. It looks like he's in line for. It does not get better than this. Kansas City and Detroit. So if Cutter Crawford is in the rotation

for both of those starts, Tanner Howke and Garrett Whitlock are getting ready to start rehab assignments, I don't think they'll be back by next week. But man, if Cutter Crawford gets both of those matchups, it doesn't get better. So, yeah, if you're just trying to beat the waiver wire for a two-star week, the name there, Cutter Crawford. Two pitchers in deeper leagues, Dakota Hudson pitched well against the twins,

seven innings, three runs with seven strikeouts and has had some fantasy value in the past. It's been, you know, pitching to contact, not a lot of whiffs, so I don't know how much faith we want to put in him. Cole Regans, who is on the Royals, he turned in a great start up against the Mets with a very bad Mets lineup. I mean the back half of this lineup. They had names in there. I didn't even know who they were. So it's it's pretty bad. But a good start for Cole Reagan, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts and 13 swinging strikes. I know he's had all kind of crazy strikeout numbers down in the minors, but also lots of walks as well. So we're talking

very deep leaks here Welsh, but any interest in Dakota Hudson or Cole Regens? And the best rapid fire I can give you no like really not. Definitely not Cole Regens on that team. So, Diff, a definitely huge note. To go to Hudson, if it's against, like, if it's a really good matchup, maybe. But overall, if I can pull my Scott White, no interest.

Yeah, and the matchups for both of those two next week. Hudson at Tampa Bay, Reagan's at the Red Sox. Doesn't look good for either of those. Pitching leftovers, Dane Dunning does not want to leave the Rangers rotation. He refuses to do so, actually. Stood.

Because he was amazing against the White Sox. Seven and two-thirds, innings one run, 11 strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes. And he's had some really big performances this year. I know a few seven, eight inning outings there from Dean Dunning. He's kind of defying the odds, not many whiffs pitching a contact, but the overall numbers this year really, really good. He's still 80% rostered. I don't know that there's much actionable here, Welsh, but do you think this will be enough for Dane Dunning to stick around in the Rangers rotation? Yes. And I think you could maybe

make arguments of Dane Dunning or Lucas Gialito based on matchups. I think that's where you're at. Though I will say this, I would love for someone to find this. Find me a lower whiff percentage on a pitch that is used 30% or more in an arsenal because Dane Dunning Sinker has a six and a half with percentage. I don't know if there's a lower width percentage on a pitch used that much in all of baseball. The strikeouts are anomalies. You know, I think his prop was three and a half today. that's where he lives. He's just not as big strikeout option, but it's a good offense. He can pitch to contact and he can make it work for himself. But he also has a 4-8-7, I believe expected ERA, which is a run and a half higher than he is.

So you're always worried it's going to blow up. But maybe he's just going to define the odds all year. I do like me some Dane Dunning, but please, somebody find me a worse whiff pitch with that type of usage in baseball. It's back-to-back starts here with Andrew Heaney and Dane Dunning. Both of these guys kind of shoving all in. And, you know, they don't want to get the boot from the rotation. Next up, Martin Perez. Let's see what you got, man.

Because if he struggles, he might be the one on the outside. No, he's the one. He's the one that goes for sure. Yeah, I think so. Some other pitching leftovers here. Eduardo Rodriguez, quality start at the Pirates. No L.A., no problem. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts for him.

Zach Wheeler, quality start at the Marlins. Six innings, two runs, four strikeouts there. Garrett Cole gave up a first inning home run and then settled down quite a bit. Seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts against Tampa Bay. and you say Kukuchi, he is on a role right now, facing a tough offense in the Orioles, six innings, one run, three strikeouts, he's got the ERA down to 367. The whip, still pretty high, 127 there for Kukuchi,

but he's pitched pretty well. Welsh, any thoughts here? Kukuchi, Garrett Cole, Zach Wheeler, and Erod. I'm getting annoyed with Erod. There's something has changed in his game. He really lacks what he had early on in the year of, like, aggressive two-strikes. strikeout stuff like he's just not he's pitch I feel like he's pitching to a lot more

contact he never hits the over on the K prop he gets out early it just muddies and then he gets one or two and I just feel like especially when the ball count comes up so let's say he gets to oh and two then he's pitching to contact and then it gets to a three two count he's not looking for a big strikeout he's looking to just pitch the contact and I don't know like I just don't feel like that's awesome sustainable I would love for him to have a bigger strikeout numbers obviously don't want him to give a big run. So it's, you'll play safe and sometimes you have to pitch your contact.

I'm just not in love with that. The rest of the guys, I think it's a pretty standard where we're at. Cole. Wheeler's probably a cool buy-in fantasy. If you still have your trade deadline in front of you, that would be someone I would try to buy on whatever low he's being sold at right now. I agree 100%. I think Zach Wheeler, I still haven't ranked as I think my seventh starting pitcher rest of season. I think we could see a big final two months from him. Last name I wanted to mention here, Kodai Senga, who goes into Kansas City. It's supposed to be a good matchup. He gives up 11 hits, three runs, over 5 and 2 thirds innings,

and still got a decent amount of strikeouts and swinging strikes. The velocity. Fastball V-load down 2.3 miles per hour. The cutter down one mile per hour here as well. Well, any concern here on the velocity on Kodi Isenko. I am a little bit worried. Similar to like going back to that splitter thing. I mean, the forkball for him just works,

but it's kind of now the inverse, where he had 17. swings on the fastball, donut on the whiffs. No whiffs whatsoever. There were some called strikes which got to the CSW percentage up to 21%. But as top used pitches, that cutter and that fastball, they just ain't doing it. Had it outside the zone swing percentage of 13% on the cutter. So between not getting whiffs on the fastball, no one's swinging on the outside of the zone on the cutter, you're just back to just throw in this fork. And I don't love that. And maybe some of it is like adjusting to, you know, the full season MLB baseball. And,

wearing down a tiny bit and trying to, you know, hit zones a little bit more and not trying to strike out 12 every at bat. But I don't like the VLO dip. Watch that. I'm going to monitor that because that is worrisome, of course. We all know that is. And immediately, this is me overreacting and jumping to conclusions, but the Mets clearly, they were sellers. They're not playing for much here in the second half. This is a prized possession that they have for on a five-year contract. You know, by the time we get to September, you know, it's, do they shut them down at some point or they maybe move them to the bullpen. I'm not wish casting this, but I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. It wouldn't surprise me if something like that happens here. Yeah, you can see

them even go and be like, hey, let a little bit off. Don't worry about that. Let a little bit off if you have to. Don't overstraining here. Don't pull a McClanahan. Don't try to add two and a half on your slider right now. Just take it down a little bit. Yeah. We don't like that. Do not like it. Some hitting leftovers here. Welsh, I'm just going to list off a bunch of things. Feel free to jump in wherever you want to. The Braves, they just keep on mashing. We mentioned what they did to pour Lucas Sheolito. Ronald de Cunia went three for four with his 25th home run, Austin Riley and Matt Olson. They went back to back. 25th for Riley, 37th for Matt Olson. Michael Harris stays hot, three for four with a double two RBI and three runs scored. Two days in a row now,

the Cubs clobbered the Cincinnati Reds. He scored 16 runs on 16 hits. Ian Hap has been very mid, as the kids would say, for most of the season. But, you know, he's had a big game here two for four with a double dung christopher morel two for five with his 17th home run danesby swanson one for five with a 16th home run i think that's now six homers in 11 games since coming back from the iL uh and jamer candelario back to back four hit games to begin his cubs career looking like a great acquisition so far has on kim's shoulder looks to be just fine he went two for three with his 15th home run the dude has turned into a complete stud here welsh 284 batting average 838 o p o pats 15 homers, 22 steals, stud.

Yeah, and this is like, I do, you know, I'm gonna take all this victory laps, but like the way I had him ranked in my first year player when he was coming out back then, feel very vindicated. I've lost some, Victor, Victor, Mases, and you win some, and sometimes it takes a long term. I meant to say this earlier, last 30 days. A couple names I wanted to throw at you.

Lars Neupar, eighth best war in baseball, hitting 322, five homers, two stolen bases. Number five, Chas McCormick in war. Fifth best war in baseball over that period of time. Six homers, three stolen bases, 329. Where are we going? The fourth best war, Hassan Kim.

Hassam Kim has been a monster. He has four homers, nine stolen bases, a higher walk percentage than strikeout hitting 3.49, out 3.45 slash over the last 30 days, monster. Yeah, I just looked it up. Hassam Kim has the sixth highest war in the National League this year. On the year. I just gave you 30 days. Wow. On the year. The only names ahead of him. Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Juan Soto and Corbyn. Wow. That's crazy. By the way, in the last 30 days, top four in war all in L. So there you go. Interesting.

Juan Soto, by the way, we just mentioned his name, enjoying himself some Corse Field. Two for five with his 23rd home run. He now has three home runs over his last two games. Huge game for Anthony Volpe. I was thinking about this as a Yankee fan. I don't really care. what they do rest of the year. I don't have many high hopes or expectations for them. The one thing I do want to see is Anthony Volpe play well. Yeah, I'd like to see What would you do if he ended the year with a 240 batting average? I mean, you would like go out celebrate. You're buying rounds if you could get a 240 batting average because that means dudes probably hitting 290 the rest of the way. That is exactly what you need. That's what I want to see because those counting stats are crazy. You just want to see that

batting average come up and pull two months or six weeks of consistent contact. Good barreling and good decisions the rest of the year so we can go in and make him a sleeper next year. 14 home runs and 20 steals. The batting average is abysmal, but he's on pace for like a 20-30 season as a rookie, which is pretty crazy stuff there for Anthony Volpe. Jordan Walker hit his 10th home run.

I mentioned that earlier. Freddie Freeman, three more hits for him. Just crazy season for him. 339 batting average, 21 homers, 14 steals, and a 10-0-4 OPS. Some bullpen updates here, and there were some wacky ones, Let's get into it.

The Tigers, Alex Lang started the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He struck out the first two batters, and then walk, single, walk, walk. He was relieved by Tyler Holton, who got the final out and picked up his first save. The Tigers have been oddly, you know, loyal, I guess, to Alex Lang this year. I just wonder if maybe they'll give Jason Foley a shot. I'm saying that because I have Jason Foley stash in a few deeper leagues. So let's go, Jason Foley. For the Brewers, Devin Williams.

old friend of the Welsh is here. Entered the ninth inning with a one-run lead. First batter reached on an error, and then a single walk, and two-run scored on another error. So not really Devin Williams' fault, but third-blown save and third loss of the season. Still kind of forgettable. I mean, I'd argue.

So it might be kind of, for Devin-Williams kind of forgettable off that performance, Frank. No big deal. Yeah, for those who saw Fantasy feud last week, you know exactly what we're talking about. For the Astros, Ryan Presley struck out two for his 26th save. The Phillies, this one was kind of, Interesting.

Back and forth here between the Phillies and Marlins, for some reason, they go to Gregory Soto in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. Craig Kimbrel should have been available. Maybe they went with Soto because Louisa Rice was leading off.

Maybe they wanted that left-on-left matchup. Regardless, Soto gave up a game-tying home run to Jorge Salare. So there goes that. And then the Phillies took a two-run lead in the 10th inning. Craig Kimbril comes on for the save. He gives up two runs.

And he takes the blown save. The Phillies would eventually lose. lose the game. On the other side for the Marlins, David Robertson pitch in the top of the 10th inning with the game tied, he gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Marsh. That's now back-to-back games, giving up a home run, rough start to David Robertson's Marlins career. For the Blue Jays, in their first save opportunity without Jordan Romano and with Jordan Hicks on the team, it was Eric Swanson, who got the ninth inning, picked up his third save. Jordan Hicks pitching the eighth inning in that one. For the Cardinals, No More Jordan Hicks. They had a four-run lead. Jojo Romero

pitched in the ninth inning. He struck out two. Not a save opportunity, but I just thought it was worth noting that he pitched in the ninth inning instead of Giovanni Gallegos. And for the Giants, Camillo DeVall, 30-second save of the year ties the league lead with Alexis Diaz. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Thursday here. And looking up and down the list, I'll go Michael Lorenzen I'll take the debut against the Marlins I think with Michael Lorenzen I think that's fine

there's not really anyone else I really like Do I say Brandon Fott Against the Giants Giants been a little eh Brandon Fott kind of finding himself a little bit It is a big ballpark to pitch in How many home runs

How many home runs will Brandon Fott Give up in Oracle Park tomorrow I don't know I don't really I might go those two I don't really like any of it. I like Lorenz and I think he's fine, but. Isn't that sad that we can't do like a woo?

Like we're not wooing anymore. Yeah, Brian, it's like a woo at the Angels. Yeah, I guess if you need a third, but I don't really love it. On Friday, Kyle Hendrix has pitched really well, but the Atlanta Braves pitching to contact, no way. No way, I can't, I can't do it. No. Maybe Zach Lattel against Detroit? Troy?

At the Tigers, yeah. I might do that. Ashcraft has pitched well. He's facing the nationals. Logan Allen versus Chicago, maybe. I might go Allen and Latel. Those are my, and I'm kind of staring at Reed Detmer's, too. Those are the three I'm staring at.

I will go Letell, Ashcraft, and Detmer's. Those are my three for Friday. But it sounds like the Welsh here is taking Logan Allen as well. We're going to wrap there for the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.