Fantasy Baseball Today - Big Pitching Performances, Peraza vs. Julien & DROP-O-METER! (7/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

Nick Pivetta was awesome on Monday night (3:08)! ... Griffin Canning racked up a bunch of strikeouts against the Yankees (5:45). ... Luis Severino did some interesting things (8:32). ... Shane McClanahan and Grayson Rodriguez made their returns to the mound (12:10). ... Where did Christian Encarnacion-Strand bat in the Reds lineup in his debut (16:37)? ... Jeimer Candelario continues his fine season (21:52). Oswald Peraza or Edouard Julien? ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER for Emmet Sheehan, Josh Lowe and others (29:25). ... News (40:00): Rafael Devers was out with calf tightness. ... Logan Gilbert has been inconsistent (42:23). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (46:15). 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. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, July 18th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White.

Today on the show, we had the return of Grayson Rodriguez, and Shane McClanahan. We're going to fire up the dropometer, team name Tuesday, and much more. 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. Scotty, sick shirt, man. Matlanta? Now you're all in? You're all in. You're all in on metals now? Mattlanta. It depends if you're talking about

from a fandom perspective. or from a fantasy perspective or a versus Freddie Freeman perspective. I am in on, though. I'm in on Matt Olson from one of those perspectives. I mean, I did have him as a second rounder in my redraft. So, I mean, to a certain extent, I guess I'm in on him as a fantasy, from a fantasy perspective, too. But no, I mean, look, I feel like I have a responsibility

to have a certain number of baseball-themed shirts to wear on this podcast. So that it, you know, I don't have, I don't have the baseball decor behind me. I have my grandmother's living room behind me. It's not really my grandmother's living room. That's just what people call it. It's actually my own living room, believe it or not. But because of that, I have to, I have to make it, you know, festive in other ways. And that's with the occasional baseball-themed t-shirt.

Shout out to roto wear. Yes, for sure. I paid my own good money for it, but they make a good product. They sure do. No, they actually do. And I was talking with Kenny Cashman, who runs Vertal wear. He does a great job. I was talking with him out at First Pitch, Florida. And he's a great dude. And I had a lot of fun talking to him. And, yes, support his product because I think he does a great job. Scott, I, too, am wearing a baseball shirt. You might not realize it. It just looks like a tie-dye shirt. But there is a team logo just below where you can see. Would you like to guess what team this is? The New York Yankee. No, it's not the Yankees. Oh, it's Yankees colors. It's very boring for tie-dye. It's like a black tie-dye shirt, you know?

Completely random. Colorado Rockies. I don't know why. I saw it somewhere on the internet. I get sucked into these like Instagram ads, and then I'm like, yeah, that's a pretty cool shirt. I just blind up buying it. So, anyhow, that's where we're at.

Let's jump in. All right, Scott, my oh, my goodness gracious, player of the night. I guess I have to go with Nick Pave. Vettta here, the Olive Garden breadstick of the day. 12, not 12 no-hit innings, that would be crazy. Six no-hit innings against the athletics in Oakland. Struck out 12 in those six no-hit innings. Interestingly, it wasn't a quality start because it wasn't a start at all.

He followed an opener and gave the Red Sox six no-hit innings with 12 strikeouts. Pretty amazing there for Nick Povetta. some of the other stats, 18 swinging strikes on 87 pitches, very impressive, eight of them on the fastball itself. You know, I always like that. His last four appearances,

none of them starts, but the shortest of those four appearances was three and a third inning. So he's kind of become like this bulk reliever basically providing starter workload, but technically not starting. In his last four appearances like that, Nick Povetta has a 245 ERA,

a zero, 0.76 whip and 16.2 k per 9 I tried to figure out what's going on what's changed for him I didn't seem much. Velocities up a little

specific most notably on the slider but even that hasn't been consistent terribly consistent over those last four appearances and yet the production has been really good you know you go back a few years and Nick Povetta was the kind of the trendy breakout pick in fantasy, the mid-round starting pitcher,

back when he was on the Phillies, the mid-round starting pitcher that everybody had to have. So maybe he's starting to live up to that long-loss potential is Nick Povetta. I'm very skeptical, but you got to point out what's going on with them because it's been pretty impressive. Indeed it has. I know it's obviously correlated here with his move to the bullpen. mentioned he's been throwing a few more innings recently he's gone four plus innings in relief in his last three outings so getting a few more opportunities he

allows a lot of hard contact but lots of strikeouts lots of swinging strikes recently for nick pavetta he's 25% rostered I'm just trying to figure out what's his utility for fantasy at this point right Scott it's a wait and see we're a wait and see unless you play in a very deep league yeah so it's probably a L only maybe a 15 team mixed rhodo league some of something like that. But outside of that, it's,

let's see where it goes from here, Nick Povetta, but obviously it was a fantastic outing here against the A's 13 strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes for him. As was Griffin Canning,

a great outing up against the Yankees. Well, mixed outing. Let's go with mixed outing because lots of strikeouts, but, you know, it wasn't the most efficient, I guess you could say,

five and two-thirds innings, two runs allowed, three walks, 12 strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on a career high, 120 pitches. The Angels bullpen apparently has been used a ton

recently this past weekend. So they needed to ride Griffin Canning. They left them out there, threw a bunch of pitches, also got a bunch of strikeouts against, you know, a lowly Yankees lineup right now. It's without Aaron Judge, they obviously have not been very good.

But did a few things differently in this one. He faded his change up, mostly four seam, fastball, and slider for Griffin Canning. His last two starts before this were not very good. You know, this is a great, start, Scott, but I don't know how actionable it is because you look at the grand scheme, right, for Canning and it's a 452 ERA and a 123 whip. He's up over a strikeout per inning. You know, he gets swings and misses, but I think he's probably just in that matchup streamer category

for now, unless until we see more consistency at least. Yeah, and a difficult one says he's in a six-man rotation. I noticed, I think our own site had him listed as a two-star. I guess it depends what you mean is by our own site. My two-start pitcher rankings that I published did not have him listed as a two-star pitcher since he's part of a six-man rotation. But if you look at the little ball indicators on the Seth lineups page,

they did show Griffin Canning as a two-star pitcher. And so you may have started him. And if so, it worked out because he delivered this good start. But I don't think he's making a second start this week. I do love a good swing strike rate. That is something Griffin-Camping. has long showed a knack for, but otherwise, yeah, I mean, not providing a lot to get excited about.

Otherwise, you know, nine base runners in five and two-thirds innings, even in this, started a very high whip for all those strikeouts that he got. So I agree. I think there is a potential outcome for Griffin-Canning that's worthwhile, but he hasn't shown enough this year for me to make him for me to move in on him despite this 12 strikeout performance yeah we've talked about him a few times this year where you know Griffin canning kind of pops up here and there with these pretty good starts but overall he is allowing a lot of hard contact this season so when he's not getting whiffs he is

getting hit hard I didn't want to quickly look into his pitch mix yeah slider is really good but everything else is kind of Blah. All right, we'll watch it. We'll see where it goes from here with Griffin Canning. Wanted to quickly touch on the pitcher on the other side of that game. And it was Luis Severino. Just wanted to point out some things that I thought were kind of interesting in this one.

Obviously, it's his best start in a while. Six innings of one-run ball, three strikeouts to three walks. But he had 13 swinging strikes on 98 pitches. And five of them came on the slider, which I thought was interesting because we've talked about how the slider has been really bad for, Luis Severino for most of the season. And he used that pitch more. He nearly doubled the slider usage in this start. Mentioned the five whiffs, a 45% whiff rate, 38% CSW on that pitch. So I think it's just kind of a wait and see for now, Scott. 71% rostered. So some people are out

dropping Luis Severino, which I think is fine with how bad he's been. But if this slider continues to, well, we told everybody to do that for Gray's and Rodriguez. Yeah, yeah. And I think rightfully so. But if the slider, you know, continues to work out over his next couple starts, then maybe Severino could get, you know, back into a groove here, I guess. Yeah. So what was interesting about his pitch selection and usage was the cutter because normally it was up 2.7 miles per hour, just in terms of individual pitch characteristics. That was the biggest difference I saw for Luis Severino in this one, nearly three miles per hour up on that cutter. And also the spin rate was much lower, which is interesting because usually when velocity goes up so to spin rate when velocity goes down so to

spin rate but they went opposite directions way up on the velocity way down on the spin rate the spin rate the new spin rate on that cutter very close to matching the slider still a separation on the velocity even more because the velocity was up on the cutter as I said but I wonder if those changes that he made to the cutter made it look more like the slider And that helped the slider to play up. So of the 13 swinging strikes, Severino got, five came on the slider, four came on the cutter, nine of the 13 on those two pitches.

And so maybe that is, maybe that's something that can fuel the turnaround for Severino. I agree. I'm not looking to get him back at my lineup yet. It's previous seven starts, a 948 ERA. But this was, you know, the most encouraging start we've seen from minimum long. time. And Luis Severino is slated to face the Royals this weekend. So as we've mentioned many times,

right-handed pitchers, really anybody against the Royals have performed pretty well. So if he makes it two good starts in a row, then who knows? Maybe we're, you know, slowly gaining a little confidence here in Luis Severino. I guess let's just stick with that game and kind of get all of it out of the way. Shohei Otani clutch to run home run late in that one. And Scott, did you have the pleasure of watching the bat flip on that home run yet? No, that just, that like just happened, right? It was, yeah, maybe 20, 30 minutes ago, something like that, but just do a quick Twitter search because that bat flip was tremendous stuff there. Game is currently tied in the ninth inning, so we'll see what happens between the Yankees and the Angels.

Got a lot of vertical, a lot of rotation on that bat flip. Good stuff there. It wasn't like a, it wasn't like a Jose-Bautista, you know, which was more like a bat spike, you know, like he was spiking a football. It wasn't that kind of bad flip. No, it was the one where you kind of take the knob and you flip it backwards. Yeah, like you're a baton twirler leading the parade. Good stuff there. From Otani, his league leading 35th home run of the season.

Let's talk about some pitching return, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk. Here comes the money. Shane McClainahan turns in a quality start in his return at the Texas Rangers, six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts, and zero walks. He had 11 swinging strikes on 69 pitches.

Before the start, his manager Kevin Cash, said that Shane McClanahan would not be limited, but they only let him throw 69 pitches. They got their six innings out of him. I guess they were just pleased with that. The velocity was up in this one, fastball up nearly one mile per hour. The curve was up two miles per hour. The slider was up three miles per hour. So all in all, Scott, I would say this was a pretty encouraging return for Shane O'Mack. Yeah, I was happy to see it. And, you know, the fact it came at Texas and their juggernaut of a lineup, I think, makes it all the more impressive. So, successful return.

And I imagine you got them back active anyway, but this is all the more reason to, if you haven't yet. Speaking of that Rangers lineup, before this start, they ranked second in all of baseball in Woba against left-handed pitching. So yeah, this was a very tough matchup, and Shane McClanahan looked great in his return. Could the same thing be said for Grayson Rodriguez? Let's talk about it. Five plus innings pitched. He got left out there into the sixth inning,

and at the time he allowed two earned runs, and he left with two runners on base, and unfortunately, Orioles reliever, I think it was Brian Baker, would later give up a grand slam. So the final line for Grayson Rodriguez, five plus innings, four runs allowed, four strikeouts,

We have 10 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. The good here, the velocity was up across the board. His fastball up 1.2 miles per hour. His slider up 2.4 miles per hour. Spin rates also up across the board. The bad here still allowed a lot of hard contact. That was a very big problem for Grace Rodriguez earlier. Along with the lack of control,

it was a lot of hard contact. He gave up eight hard hits in this game. 91.9 average exit velocity against. did manage to throw 65% of his pitches for strikes. I think that was encouraging for Grayson Rodriguez as well. Scott, overall, your thoughts here on the complete package in his return against the Dodgers. Well, I hoped for more. Obviously, you always hope for the best.

But there's enough encouraging here that I'm not going to abandon ship if I picked up Grayson Rodriguez. As you mentioned, the velocity was up significantly across the board. let's see fastball and change up really he he mostly threw fastballs and changeups between the two pitches 82% yeah

and the velocity was up 1.2 miles per hour on both his third most used pitch was a slider which was up 2.4 miles per hour he only threw it eight times though and I think that might that might be an adjustment he needs to make because he has a deep arsenal I know one of the things he was sent down to work on

was the shape of his breaking pitches that may have been something that suffered with the lat injury that he suffered last June. Remember, I mentioned yesterday, until that return stint in the minors in this June, he hadn't looked like himself since that lat injury last June. And he basically said the same thing after this start. Grayson Rodriguez said he felt a little more confident coming into the game

and that that time back at AAA Norfolk helped him get back to the pitcher that I know I am. but the pitcher that I know he is can throw the slider a lot more than that. I can throw a curveball too, and that might help to reduce some of the hard contact. That said, it was his first start back. He might have been taking it a little easy, not wanting to do too much, just wanting to get, you know, to find his comfort zone in the major, something that he hadn't found yet. And he was facing a really good Dodgers lineup.

So, like I said, enough positive fear from Grayson Rodriguez that I definitely want to see more. But it wasn't the best case scenario, clearly. Yeah, we are obviously a hold on Grayson Rodriguez. Let's see where he goes from here as well. Let's talk about all those other prospects, which we mentioned on yesterday's podcast. The Reds game, unfortunately, got suspended in the eighth inning, but we did get some at bats. Obviously, we got a lineup card out of the Reds. What happened with Christian Encarnacian-on-Tran in the lineup?

Spencer Stier got the day off. Thought that was interesting. L.A. Dela-Cruz moved up to lead-off in the lineup. Matt McLean was batting third. Jonathan India was dropped to fifth, and then he went three-for-three with his 14th home run. So nice little outing there for him. And then Encarnacian-Tran was batting seventh in this one.

He was the DH, and he went 0-4-4-4-4-velocity. He had a ground ball out, 93.4, exit velocity, and then a lazy fly ball. But I thought it was interesting, Scott. I wonder if kind of what I said about yesterday, where maybe Stier gets one day off a week, Votto gets a day off here or there, India gets a day off,

and it'll just be a rotation just so that they can get Christian and Carnaccio on trend those at bats, obviously. Yeah, the player who complicates the picture is Will Benson, who's come on recently and performed well, gotten on base a lot, hit for power, 862 OPS. That was the third highest OPS in the Reds lineup today.

I don't know that I believe in Will Benson long term, but there was a time not too long ago where I would have said T.J. Friedel was about to fade hard, and that still hasn't happened. I think what Will Benson has done so far earns him, at least to semi-regular role for the foreseeable future. And so that's what led to specifically, Spencer Steer being bumped from the lineup in this one.

I don't think Spencer Steer's out of a job or anything like that. I think there's going to be a lot of mixing and matching until somebody gets hurt or fades. Again, I think Benson is the most likely candidate to fade, but it hasn't happened yet. Does that mean incarnation Strand himself doesn't play quite every day? I imagine so. I imagine he'll be the one out of the lineup sometimes.

But as usual with this situation, If he performs like we expect him to, then that'll stop. And he'll just be playing a ton. Yeah, speaking of this red situation, it kind of makes me think of the Orioles too, because we've been receiving some questions. And they just have a glut of players right now, too. Jordan Westberg hasn't started the past two days. Colton Couser only started one game over the weekend as well.

So they kind of have their issues, too, with Ryan O'Hern coming along. He's been playing well. Aaron Hicks has been playing well. They have a lot of dud bats, though. They have players they insist on starting, even though I don't see the justification for it, unlike in the case of Will Benson. But yes, they have crowded out some interesting bats,

even if it isn't as deserved as in the Reds case. Yeah. How did the Pirates prospects do in their debuts? Not so good. Andy Rodriguez was batting seventh in the lineup. He went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Leover Paguerro was batting ninth for the Pirates. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.

That's actually not Pugueros debut. He debuted last year, but first time we've seen him this year. And Quinn Priester, he started well and then fell apart, unfortunately. Up against the Guardians, five in a third inning, seven hits, seven runs allowed. He gave up two homers. He had seven swinging strikes on 73 pitches. He threw six different pitches in the arsenal here. Curbball had a solid spin rate.

I know that's been touted as his best pitch, but obviously he's got a pretty bad outing, and I don't think we're doing much with Quinn Priester after this one. No, I wasn't that interested in picking him up in the first place, and this obviously didn't change that. I would say the most interesting of those three by far is still Indy Rodriguez, and there are major questions for him, too. But one question has seemingly been answered here. His manager said that he will get the majority of the starts behind the plate,

and that Austin Hedges is only going to start a couple times. week. So Andy Rodriguez appears to be the Pirates catcher for now. If it hits so poorly, he's not a great defender, as I understand. It's certainly not good at controlling the running game. So he needs to hit to stick around. And as I said, that was an issue for him at AAA this year. But he's shown the ability to hit well in previous minor league seasons. And the Pirates are obviously hopeful. Not a good debut, but in two catcher leagues, I would say, Andy Rodriguez needs to be rostered. All right, let's take our first break.

And when we return, we'll talk about some waiver wire hitters, the dropometer, and much more right after this. Welcome back. And the attacking third started out in the CBS Sports podcast family. And this week became a full-fledged show on the CBS Sports Galazzo Network. If you want all the latest in women's soccer, including comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Women's National Team in the World Cup, tune into attacking third. times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the Galazzo Network.

And if you miss that, don't worry, that show is still distributed to all your favorite podcast platforms. Let's talk some waiver wire hitters here, Scott, and we'll start off with Jamer Candelario, who went two for four with his 14th home run after missing the previous three games with a thumb injury, and he's quietly put together a solid season, 263 batting average, 14 home runs, five steals and 826 OPS for Candelario, 66% rostered. Do you think that number needs to be higher? Because at that point, we're probably just looking at a must roster player in Candelario. I mean, I don't have a lot of confidence in it continuing. I still see him as more of like a corner infield type in Roto leagues than somebody I want as my third basement. And so that

roster rate is, I guess, appropriate considering. For instance, I'd rather have Christian Incarnacion than him, and In Carnacian Strand, I was only, I think I got him like 18th in my third base rankings rest of season. Like, it's, it's kind of a crowded position, you know, for all the concerns over the how shallow it was coming into the year. It's definitely been the deeper of the two-corner infield positions.

Yeah, that's fair. I moved Candelario up quite a bit last week, and I still only got him up to 24th in my third base rankings too. So yeah, I agree. I've got Incarnatio and Strand at 19. I mentioned yesterday just behind Matt Chapman, but, you know,

if you wanted to take Encanoccian Strand over Chapman, I think that's totally fine to do. The fact you have Matt Chapman 18th. Yeah. He's been bad. I understand he hasn't hit many home runs since April, but still he's Matt Chapman. Yeah, yeah.

It's just ripped the aim off the back of the jersey at this point in the season, right, Scott? It's just, you know, you got to go with, whoever's performing. And someone who performed on Monday was Cabr Ruiz, who went three for three with his 11th home run. He is batting 235 with a 679 OPS.

Frankly, more power this season than I thought he was going to provide. He only has a 9% strikeout rate this season, which I think has fueled these expected stats, Scott, because the XBA 277, that looks very good. The X-slug, 451, that looks great for Cabot Ruiz. But I think those numbers are inflated because of how, how low Cabrit Ruiz's strikeout rate is. This is now two seasons in a row

where he's vastly underperformed these expected numbers. He just might be one of those players. Does that make sense? Are you buying my theory here? I mean, he makes some weak contact. And I was saying on yesterday's show, I'm to the point where I think quality of contact is the most important single measure in a hitter.

It's not the only measure that matters, but it is the single most important. So I think, you know what, his quality of contact isn't quite as bad as I thought, 50th percentile for max exit velocity, 36th percentile for average exit velocity. I mean, it's not good, but it's, you know,

a third of the league is worse in terms of average exit velocity. That's what percentile rankings are. I guess I'll just put it this way. Kibbert Ruiz is a fine emergency choice at catcher in points leagues because of how little he strikes at. And obviously, he's worth rostering in two catcher leagues just because there's a lot of catcher spots to fill.

Yep. I'm looking at the rankings now. You and I both have Cabot Ruiz ranked exactly at 16 at catcher. So he's a high-end catcher too, but I don't know that there's much upside, at least now for Caber Ruiz. Two middle infielders that performed quite well on Monday, Oswald Parraza, we mentioned, recalled by the Yankees on Sunday. He got the chance to hit lead off. And last, I saw was performing quite well. He had a hit. He had three walks and his fourth stolen base of the season. He's 18% rostered.

The other name is Edward Julian, who went three for four with a walk and his second steel. Currently banning the quietest. 298 with an 898 OPS does strike out a lot. Yeah, look, he's been really good against Ritees, but that it kind of, I guess the analysis kind of ends, starts and ends there because the Minnesota Twins, they're not going to play him against lefties. They probably shouldn't,

based on how bad he's been against lefties and the minors as well. But when he plays against righte, he's really good. He's kind of like, Jock Peterson at the second base position? I don't know. Is that...

Who did you rather have, Scott? Edward Julian or Oswald Piraosa. I'd rather have Julian. I've been the loudest supporter of Julian. And yeah, the strikeout rate is very high, high enough that I'd pretty much pointed out for any other hitter. but look as far as lefties righties you know how much will he strike out he's he's a rookie let's

not forget i understand he's been up multiple times just this year but he's a rookie and his career could go in all sorts of directions from here we don't really know this is an encouraging start to it though he's providing power and uh and on base skills at second base and because of those on base skills he's batting high in the lineup against righties maybe maybe the strikeout rate if it continues will sink him. But as things stand now, Edward Julian looks like the best hitter the twins have. So that's only going to increase the pressure

to keep him in the lineup as they tried to hold on to first place in the AL Central. So I think he's pretty good. I think there's a chance he gets even better. It would be hard to improve that batting average and OPS, but he gets better. he improves in other ways that make that batting average and OPS more believable, I guess is how I put it.

Yeah, probably in terms of like quality of contact and things like that. Right, and how much contact he makes. Paraza, I mean, the fact he was batting leadoff and starting at third base and the report today that Josh Donaldson might be out for the season, those are all good signs for his value too. I mean, he looked like the big walks guy today

with three of them, right? Actually, update four walks for Oswald Paras. So he's the French emperor of walks. The name doesn't really work as well for him as for Julian. And he brings an element of speed that Julian doesn't really. I think the, I know he hit for power in the minors did Paraz. I think it's more questionable whether he will in the majors. But I certainly understand the incentives to pick up Oswald Paras at this point.

If you need speed specifically, he's probably your guy between the two. Overall, though, I would say I like Julian more. And I hope I'm wrong about Julian because, yeah, I'm being a little bit harsh on him. If he's this good against righties, then it really might not matter what he does against left-handed pitching. So we'll see where the playing time goes for him. I think as a result, I would probably lean with Parazza because I think I trust the playing time a little bit more. And obviously, he comes with some prospect pedigree as well. But both guys look like they're going to be pretty good moving forward.

Last name on this list, and we spoke about him a lot recently. Just wanted to mention what he did once again on Monday. Dane Myers went three for four with a run scored. Back-to-back, three-hit games, and he now has multiple hits in six of his first 10 games with the Marlins here. 15% rostered. Again, the name Dane Myers, someone you can look at in deeper five outfielder leagues. So if you want to add players, who are we dropping, Scott?

It's time to fire up the drop-o meter. 10 on the dropometer means you can drop this player in all leagues. One, you want to hold in all leagues. So let's see where we fall on some of these guys. Emmett Sheehan. Do we need to hold on to Emmett Sheehan? He was at the Orioles. He allowed four runs over five innings pitched.

He had more walks than strikeouts, three walks to two strikeouts, only four swinging strikes. And at this moment, he's made five starts, a 491 ERA, a 1.17 whip, 6.3K per 9, 3.9 walks per nine, 10% swinging strike rate. So I know we had those first two starts, Scott, that were really good. It was the first one was six no-hit innings. Still 70% rostered. How are you feeling about Emmett Sheehan? Not great, Bob.

Agreed. I expected a lot more swingingness. And as I was saying for Edward Julian, he's a rookie. His career could go in so many different ways from here. I think it's unfair to, to judge the kind of pitcher, to judge based on what he's seen so far, the kind of pitcher Sheehan's going to be for like the rest of his career.

So in Dynasty leagues, I'm not suggesting you bail on him or anything like that. The Dodgers obviously hurried him to the big leagues because he was so dominant at AA and very briefly at AAA, right? He just had a quick lay over there before coming up to the majors. I think the clincher with Sheehan is that he is, he is already at kind of a breaking point with the innings. I was actually writing about pitchers with innings concerns just earlier today.

So this is fresh on my mind. I've just done the research. So he's already at 74 innings, is she-hand between the majors and minors this year. Last year he threw 68's his career high. So he's already exceeded his career high innings, and we have almost half a season to go still. if they want Sheehan to be part of their postseason plans, the Dodgers,

they're probably going to have to move into the bullpen sooner than later. So between that and the lack of strikeouts we've seen, I would give Sheehan, let's call him a five on the drop o meter. I may bump that number up depending on how I score some of the rest of these players. It's hard to calibrate it right off the bat. Would you drop him for Grayson Rodriguez? Yes. Okay, Grayson Rodriguez is up to 73% rostered.

He was the second most added pitcher from the weekend. Another starter coming in just a little bit that I'll ask you about, but I'm going to wait on that one. Josh Lowe went two for three with his 13th home run. That was just his second home run since May 22nd. So it's been kind of a power drought here for Josh Lowe. During that stretch, 40 games played, only batting 2.30, the two home runs, 10 steals, obviously that helps, but the strikeout rate has climbed to 32% over that 40 game stretch.

He's still 91% rostered. Should he be? Where is Josh Lowe on the dropometer? Obviously lower in five outfielder leagues, I feel like you have to give two separate scores at this position. So five outfielder leagues, I'll put it at a three, which is not nothing. I was going to say two, but yeah, that's, that's. And in three outfielder leagues, I'll put Josh Lowe at like a nine. I mean, he could get hot again like he was earlier this season

and everybody's picking him up, but playing for the race puts him at a real disadvantage. This was only his fourth start in July. I know there was something going on. I think he, bereavement list or something like that. He was away from the team for a little bit. Okay. Yeah. He does sit more.

regularly than you'd like though either way right and so uh okay i'll i'll make it more like a eight in three outfielder leagues then but need to see a lot more of this to uh to get interested in starting can begin in that format the most added outfielder on cbs is jaron derren would you make that move i know he's heated back up but he also is not playing every day yeah right and i i do think I like low skill set overall more. I mean, if it was a question of, I need somebody to start this week, should I,

should I drop low for Duran so that I have somebody to start for this week? Okay. But if it's just who's going to have, who's going to be better rest of season? I'll bet on low still. McKenzie Gore has been struggling for quite some time now. He went into Chicago facing the Cubs, six and a third innings,

five runs allowed, did have six strikeouts. also gave up two home runs in this game. His fastball velocity was actually down 1.2 miles per hour, which is not good for McKenzie Gore because he relies on his fastball a lot. More than 60% of the time has McKenzie Gore thrown his fastball this season.

And over his last seven starts, he has a 647 ERA and a 1.5 whip, still 74% rostered. Scott McKenzie Gore on the dropometer. That's pretty much a 10, I would say, five runs or more in four of his last seven starts. The RA's high, the whips high. He's going to come up on innings issues soon himself.

So I do think there's potential there. Obviously still early in his career. It's shown a lot of strikeout ability, but not much faith in McKinsey Gore right now. Would you drop McKenzie Gore or Emmett Sheehan for Matt Manning, who has thrown two strong starts in a row. He was at the Royals on Monday, five and two thirds innings, two unerned runs, only three strikeouts. What do you think, Scott?

Would you drop Gore or Sheehan for Matt Manning? You know, I actually wouldn't, but it has less to do with Gore and Sheehan than just a lack of interest in Matt Manning. Okay, so he had a good start against the Royals, you know, as a right-handed pitcher, in which he struck out only three. But six no-hit endings against the Blue Jays. Yeah. It's a fluke. All right, so we're not making that move. I tried, Matt Manning, if you're out there listening.

Last name on this list on the drop-home meter, Lars Neupar. We haven't talked about him in quite some time. 22 games since coming off the IL. He is batting 253 with two home runs and a 24% strikeout rate. The problem for Neupar this year has been ground balls. He's hitting way too many ground balls. 54% last year, 44% ground ball rate. And Nupar has kind of been banged up all season.

He had a thumb injury back in April, a back injury which landed him on the IL in June. And as we've seen with guys like Christian Yelich, back injuries can affect your launch angle and could affect your ability to lift the ball. So I wonder if maybe that's something that's kind of lingering for Lars Nupar. He's down to 62% roster. It's got where is Nupar on the dropometer?

So in a five outfielder league, probably like a two. I'd be more likely to, would I be more likely to drop Josh Lowe than him? I guess I shouldn't be. We'll downgrade low to at two in five outfielder leagues too. All right. So Newpar in three outfielder leagues, I guess I'll give him the same.

Yeah, I'll just give him the same score as Josh Lowe all around. Eight and three outfielder leagues, two in five outfielder leagues. I do think he's more startable than Josh Lowe right now. He's actually had a strong month of July so far. Entered Monday batting 289, two homers, 11 runs scored in 13 games. So he's been better recently, and there's still a chance he comes around

and lives up to our expectation. By the way, I was talking about how a few years ago, Nick Povetta was the mid-round target at starting pitcher that everybody had to have in fantasy and it didn't work out. This year, remember the mid-round targets everybody had to have in fantasy. We're like Vinny Pasquantino.

We kind of got pushed into the early rounds even. Yeah. And Lars Neupar. That's true. And neither of them panned out. Now, I still have, like, I'm definitely going to be in on Vinie Pasquantino again next year.

As for Newpar, you know, we'll see how the rest of the year goes. It's not like I'm abandoning them. But this, I have been wanting to make this point for a long time. so now's when I'm choosing to do it. They are exactly why you don't reach for your guys. Because I was not, I was very high on both coming in, Pasquantino and Noop Bar. So was everybody else it turned out.

I was frustrated that I was never able to draft them. I got Pasquantino once in an auction league. I think I got Newt Bar twice across all my leagues. And I was targeting them every draft. I was hoping to give them every draft. It was just like, there was always, I wasn't willing to pay up for them. I wasn't willing to reach for them to get my guys. And I mean, look what's happened.

Good thing I didn't. And so, like, you know, that's something I try to abide by. When you're considering all the ways you can help your fantasy team, all the tools in your toolbox for building a fantasy team, player evaluation, which is what we spend most of our time on, right? Is this player good? is this player bad? How good is he going to be this year?

Where does he rank? All that stuff. That's not nearly as important as process. So we spend way more time on it, but it's not nearly as important. And I feel like personally, and I imagine most people are this way, when you're just guessing on how a player is going to perform this upcoming season, you're going to be wrong a ton. And so, like, you shouldn't be so set on specific.

players that you end up throwing out process. And like I said, Noobar and Pasquantino are cases in point. Let's quickly hit some news and notes. There wasn't much going on on Monday because everything happened over the weekend. Raphael Devers was out of the lineup

due to right calf tightness and is considered day to day. Cedric Mullins has missed three straight due to right quad tightness. Doesn't sound like he'll need an IL stint, however, that's the good news. Salvador Perez has been diagnosed with a grade one plus left hamstring strain.

It sounds like the Royals are optimistic. He'll avoid the IL, but will likely miss the next couple days. The Cardinals plan to activate Tyler O'Neill from the IL on Tuesday. Manager Oliver Marmole also said that O'Neill would be the team's everyday left-fielder, which sounds like it's bad news for Alec Berluson and Dylan Carlson moving forward. Wade Miley was placing the aisle with left elbow discomfort. Colin Ray is the likely candidate to make a... Miley's next scheduled start Tuesday against the Phillies.

Hunter Harvey was placed in the aisle with a right elbow sprain. Kyle Finnegan is likely to step back into the Nationals' closure role. In fact, he picked up a save here on Monday. Yandi Diaz is back from the paternity list, which of course meant Jonathan Arrondo was optioned back to AAA, and Josh Donaldson has been diagnosed with a high-grade strain in his right calf that could keep him out for the rest of the season. Let's take our final break.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, real quick. Jonathan Aranda has started coming into Monday, Jonathan Aranda had started four of the race past five games. And he was optioned twice during that five game stretch. Like, just keep them around. You obviously want to play him. It's so stupid. Welcome to Tampa Base.

These are the issues constantly with that team. Let's take our final break. when we return, I've got an email from a listener named Scott, but it's not Scott White. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back and a quick reminder to join our fantasy baseball today Facebook group. It is free and you can find it at facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today or just log on to Facebook and search up fantasy baseball today and you'll be able to find it. You can hop in, ask your question, whatever it might be, waiver, wire, trade, dynasty keeper and interact with some of the listeners of the show again, our fantasy baseball today, Facebook group for free. Make sure to join up.

We got an email from a listener named Scott, and he asked, can you guys discuss why Logan Gilbert is so inconsistent and why his home road splits are making him borderline unstartable at home? He's been so good when he's dialed in and on the road, but becoming very frustrating. So let's talk about Logan Gilbert, who faced the Minnesota twins at home. Obviously, he allowed two runs over five innings pitch, gave up seven hits. and one walk, five strikeouts, only eight swinging strikes on 94 pitches. But a, I would say pretty consistent problem for Logan Gilbert in his career, nine hard hits allowed, 93.7, average exit velocity.

The claim about the splits, his home splits aren't so bad, actually. 421 ERA in eight starts at home. It's obviously not egregious or anything. But Scott, I do think that he is inconsistent. Logan Gilbert is because it's something crazy. Chris talks about a lot with George Kirby. The Mariners, I think, just want their pitchers to throw strikes and throw a lot of them. And as a result, yeah, you'll keep the walks down, but you're going to give up a lot of hits and you could fall into giving up a lot of hard

contact. And that's what we've seen from Logan Gilbert. I mean, look at his fastball this year. 297 batting average against 516 slug. All of his secondary pitches are under a 200 batting average this year. So I don't know why he doesn't just kind of use the secondaries more, but your latest thoughts on Logan Gilbert and his inconsistencies. Well, I mean,

I'm not going to I'm never going to begrudge a pitcher for throwing strikes and avoiding walks. I think that's, like that's, that's, that's something I want to see pitchers do too. I think there's a fine line, though,

at time, Scott, you know, like, if you get two strikes, you don't just have to pour one in there. Obviously, you can try and get them to expand the zone a little bit, but... Well, I mean, maybe his pitch selection could improve because he has four pitches that he throws about 15% of the time or more. It's a pretty deep arsenal. And apart from the fastball, the other three pitches all have a batting average under 200.

So, like, you know, maybe he's just grooving a fastball and a better pitch would work better in certain circumstances. There's a lot to work with here. I think overall Logan Gilbert's had an encouraging follow-up season. And, yeah, I wouldn't sweat the home-away thing so much either. I mean, part of it's just he's one-and-four at home versus six-and-one on the road. And if you play in a points league, you feel those wins and losses a lot more. And so that makes it worse.

but the whip is fantastic at home, the strikeout rate even better than on the road. Like you said, the ERA is not that high, not so high that you think something weird's going on, as opposed to just being happenstance. So, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't sweat Logan Gilbert so much. A lot of people have much bigger problems on their pitching staff than him.

I agree that if you just look at the strikeout to walk ratio, you kind of feel like his numbers should be better. And certainly all the ERA estimators, XERA FIPP suggests his numbers should be better too. But they're not. His actual ERA isn't that far off. I think he's fine. For the most part, Logan Gilbert has been, if you just look at the macro level view, 365 ERA 101 whip, almost a strikeout per inning, that's a quality pitcher.

So I know, you know, inconsistency. are frustrating for fantasy, but for the most part, he's been a useful pitcher this year. That is Logan Gilbert. Let's quickly talk about three players we haven't talked about in a while, Scott, and just kind of acknowledging what they're doing this season. Josh Naylor continues to hit very well, two for five with his 13th home run. He's betting 310 with 69 RBI and an 8.56 OPS. He's hitting the ball hard this year.

The expected numbers look great for Josh Naylor. He is currently the fifth best first baseman in Roto, averaging. 3.2 fantasy points per game tied for seventh at the position. I don't know that either of us saw this coming, Scott, but it has been a huge leap the season for Josh Nailer. I mean, he's been such a slow burn

in terms of development. Like, I remember when he was an exciting call-up for the Padres, but it was like, so long ago. And now he's gotten to this point where he's a must-star first basement, which is great. I mean, I've had trouble reacting to this

because I've known so much disappointment with Josh Naylor over the years. But it's time to move him ahead of like the Anthony Rizzo's and the Nate Likos in my first base rankings, get him up into the top 10 at that position where I've talked about it's hard to find good talent. He's starting against left-handers.

He's performing against left-handers. His expected stats are basically in line with his actual stats. strike out much. Yeah, it's hard to find. It's hard to find much to complain about with Josh Naylor at this point. Speaking of moving up the rankings, Logan Webb, before the rain delay, had a strong start at the Reds, seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts in this one. And he is at a 311 ERA, a 108 whip, just over a strikeout per inning. Great control this year. The walks are down. The ground ball rate looks fantastic. And without even talking about it, Scott,

we both moved Logan Webb up to our SP 14 recently, and it's certainly deserved with how well he's pitched. We did not confer on that. Yeah, now he's just been so reliable, you know, and we've talked a lot this year about how even the high-end pitchers have not been reliable, by and large. So, you know, it feels a bit reactive to say, oh, well, he's done well and keeps doing well,

so I'm going to trust him more. But here we are. Here we are indeed. Last name on this list. Brian Reynolds, remember that April he had where he was amazing? Well, since the start of May, we're talking about 53 games now.

Brian Reynolds is betting 232 with four home runs, three steals, still hitting the ball hard. He went on the aisle with lower back inflammation in June, so I wonder if that's something that's maybe hampered him for quite some time now, Scott, But I mean, this is a pretty big sample.

We're talking about a third of the season now where Brian Reynolds has hit 232. It's time to maybe push him down the rankings. Yeah, maybe it's not so impressive that Jake Fraley's out scored him in points leagues, huh? Yeah, I don't. It's been a frustrating player over the past few years. And I don't know what more insight to offer on him than that.

Obviously, we've seen Renal's a lot. to be better than this in the past, and maybe he can get back to that, but I don't feel like he gets a lot of benefit of the doubt at this point. And I'm not saying you drop them, even in three outfielders leagues, I want to drop Brian Reynolds, but if you want to bench him,

I'm fine with it. Completely agree, not benching, I mean, not dropping Brian Reynolds. Would you consider him a buy low if you could? I mean, just looking at the stack has page,

so as expected batting averages 283, that's really good, versus an actual 261 mark. expected slug 495 versus an actual 438 mark. Right. Hard hit rate is 91st percentile. I mean, it's a lot of red on the stack has stage for Brian Reynolds. I don't want to oversimplify it.

But between that and his history, I'd say it's more likely than not he does bounce back, which is why I'm suggesting don't drop him. So, yeah, buy low. but you should be able to buy pretty low at this point. All right, that is Brian Reynolds, and let's wrap up with just got one left over here, a pitching left over. Dane Dunning.

He joins Charlie Morton in their revenge tour for me calling them busts in the second half. Seven innings of two-run ball with four strikeouts up against the Tampa Bay Rays. Still allowed a lot of hard contact in this game. He does not get whiffs. I don't really know how he's doing it, Scott, but Dane Dunning is doing it.

two earn runs or fewer in five of his last six starts. Well, and the most impressive thing to me is that three of his last five, he's gone seven innings or more in three of his last five. I think four of the five, it's been six or more. So even when he was pitching well earlier, it was still easy to write him off because he wasn't giving you enough lengths. But now he's giving you both. It's a long second half.

I wouldn't back off of your second half bus prediction yet. That's true. That's why I need you. ground Scott because you keep me grounded you keep me in check because sometimes I just get these crazy thoughts in my head and I overreact too quickly but on a put on a Colorado Rockies tie-died t-shirt yeah well yeah they took two out of three against the Yankees so I'm a Rockies fan now don't changing allegiance that's how that's how reactive you are yeah it's speaking of the Yankees there they're so

bad man they they lost of the angels and extra innings it's I don't want to talk about it all right the bullpen updates the call to the bullpen for the Dodgers, Evan Phillips was unavailable. Ryan Brazier picked up his second save of the season. For the Rangers, a Roldus Chapman struck out the side with the game tied in the ninth inning, and he wound up with the win. For the Cardinals, Jordan Hicks gave up three hits, but picked up his eighth save, 58% roster for Hicks, so still could be out there in some leagues.

For the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan recorded the final four outs for his 12th save. He struck out three, and he's pitched well for some time now. He's got the ERA down to 332. Kyle Finnegan, 33% rostered. Could make for a good pickup, assuming he's not traded away from the Washington Nationals. For the Tigers, Alex Lang, struck out two for his 15th save,

and he's also below 70% rostered. Scott, how would you rank Jordan Hicks, Alex Lang, Kyle Finnegan? I'm going to go Alex Lang number one, and then Hicks 2 and Finnegan 3. Finnegan, a distant third. Okay. Let's wrap up with to stream.

or not to stream and we will start with Tuesday and I think we said Brian Wu versus the twins Logan Allen is making his return to the Guardians he's at the pirates think that one's pretty good do you want to chance it with a James and Tyone versus Nationals or Carlos Carrasco versus White Sox probably not you know I don't like to to chance it much to begin with but if you're making me pick a third that would be the third Tyone or Carrasco Carasco okay on Wednesday I think Aaron Savali at the Pirates that stands out I like that quite a bit yeah I think Christopher Sanchez has pitched pretty well and he's going up against the

Brewers I think that one's fine oh Kentamayda I don't trust them Kentamai at the Mariners that's pretty good yeah yeah I wonder if I wonder if he's going to hold up again. I know things kind of took a turn for the worse in his last start, and he's just been very brittle over the past couple years. So I'm a little worried about Maida. But at Seattle, I guess I'd go with it. Yeah, I like Savali the best here.

I'm kind of afraid to even say it. I think I know where you're going. Dean Kramer against the Dodgers. That's exactly where I thought you were going. Win number 11, baby. Oh my gosh. I mean, if Grayson Rodriguez couldn't do it, well, we know. Maybe Grayson Rodriguez going to do it, but Dean Kramer can.

His former organization, revenge game. Ooh, you know, I like a good revenge game, Scotty. Yeah. All right, you'll take Dean Kramer. I'm not taking Dean Kramer. I'll take it Savali. I'm taking Kemp to my Ada. I'm going to take Kramer over my Ada.

How do you like that? I don't like it at all, I hope it works out. And I would take Christopher Sanchez up against the Brewers. Team name Tuesday. We'll finish up with this. And this one came from Garrett on Twitter. And this is a red hot chili peppers reference here, Scottie. Bayo, listen what I say, yeah.

It doesn't, it's supposed to rhyme, but that is the song, Snow by Red Hot Chili Peppers. You should check it out. It's really good. I really like it. From Trevor, return of the McLanahan. I guess that's supposed to be a return of the Mac. Yeah, these aren't so good so far.

All right. Greg Bird is the word. I mean, it's a classic, but kind of outdated at this point. I wonder if Adam Azer's ears are ringing in his sleep right now when we're talking about Greg Bird. You would catch a trout. You would catch a trout. with you Darvish, Alex Wood, and Mike Trout.

No, that's dumb. Yoshida Island. Is that like Yoshi Island? I think so. Okay. Wu is on first. All right. You could probably do better things with Wu's name than that.

Steer the Flying Rutchman. That's not bad. And strass of a bad batch. Strand by your manning. Did you notice, by the way, just going to ignore the team name. Incarnacion Strand is just going with Incarnacion on the back of his jersey. Really? I did not notice that. Interesting choice.

I wondered, you know, I've wondered with the hyphenated names that get so long. Yeah. And I've long wondered, what happens when hyphenated names start hyphenating with other hyphenated names? And it becomes four names hyphenated together. Are they just going to do like a spiral of name around the number on the back of the jersey? I would like to. Maybe not. Maybe they just arbitrarily choose the name, which whichever parent they liked more, I guess.

I guess. Yeah, I wondered if we were going to get the maybe almost a full circle out of Encarnacion Tran on the back of a jersey. So. But you say he's going with Incarnacion, huh? Yep. Interesting. I don't, I mean, I think he's still officially listed as Incarnacion's Tran. but just Incarnazion on the back of the jersey.

All right, let's finish up these team names from Alex. Get Up, Strand up. All right. That's apparently a Bob Marley song. From Carson, Mickey Moni. That's a Billy Joel reference. Sure. From Raymond, Wham, Bam, thank you fam.

It's not bad. From Todd, the curious case of Byron Buxton. Kind of a stretch, but okay. From Doug, House of the Rise and Snell. Mm, doesn't work. From Corey, Morton Sears-A-Woo. Too many names, but I kind of like it. And from Matthew, cabbage, braddish, and carotini farmer.

Cabbage, radish, and what kind of... Carrots? What kind of produce is carotini? It's supposed to be like carrots. I guess. It doesn't quite work, but... You know, especially given the fact that Farmer is a baseball name. There's a couple of them.

Kyle Farmer, Buck Farmer. Yeah. Yeah. It almost works. All right. Well, Scott was very unimpressed by this week's team name Tuesday. So we're going to need everyone. Yeah, we need people to come with the fire next week.

So make sure to send those in. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks, 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. We'll be back again. tomorrow. Bye bye.