Fantasy Baseball Today - Brady Singer Breakout, Week 18 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (7/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Brady Singer has looked awesome over his last two starts (1:43). ... Matt Chapman has been on fire since June (7:25). ... Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani for MVP (10:55)? ... Is Kutter Crawford worth adding (14:21)? ... How should we value Xander Bogaerts (24:00)? ... News and notes (29:35): Max Meyer unfortunately needs Tommy John surgery. ... Let's take a look at the Week 18 schedule and two-start pitchers (39:56). ... Who are the top sleeper hitters (48:45)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (51:20). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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

Domingo. The Coca-Movol Friday and welcome in to fantasy baseball today on July 29th. Frank Stample joined by Scott White today on the show. Brady Singer has looked awesome over his past two starts. How, why? We'll break it down. Week 18 sleepers, two-star pitchers, and much more. Scott, did you notice anything about Kokomo Friday today?

Yeah, that was the throwback. Oh, yeah. I got a few requests. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. It's been a while. We're going to get to a point where nobody knows who Adam is when they talk about his happy place.

Who is that? Yeah. I don't know. Of course, Adam Azer, if you listen to the fantasy football today podcast, you are well aware if you've been listening to this podcast for, I don't know, more than two years. Then, of course, you know who Adam Azer is, but a little throwback for our OGs here on Kokomo Friday. Just a little heads up.

I'm like battling something right now. So if I sound nasally, if I have to like pause to sniffle, Scott, this is your show. So you're taking over. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. All right, with that. Looking forward to that.

Let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scott, oh, my goodness gracious, you are left with the Olive Garden breadstick of the night. Yes, I am going with the singing one, Brady Singer, who sang us a song against the Yankees. one hit them, the Yankees. He won, hit them over seven innings.

Struck out 10. This was his second straight start with double-digit strikeouts had 12 last time. And that's kind of weird for him. He hasn't been a big bat misser so far in his major league career. Not that he's been around that long. But it hasn't for the majority of this season either. Entered this start with a swinging strike rate below 10%, which is not very good.

So I don't know where these strikeouts and the whiffs specifically have come from for Singer. It doesn't look like the pitch selection has changed. His velocity was up in this start considerably. It was up. 1.3 on the sinker 1.8 on the slider. Those are basically the only two pitches he throws. But it wasn't up in his previous start when he struck out 12. So I'm not even sure how much we can credit that.

Having said all that, year-long stats now for Brady Singer, 351 ERA, 113-1-1-13 whip, more impressively a 330 X-FIP. I mean, you have a 330 X-FIP. It needs a pretty good, right? Maybe he's pretty good. I'd feel better if his swinging strike rate was higher. If I knew why he got double-digit swinging strikes and two straight, but I think regardless of me knowing that,

it's time to put in some claims for Brady Singer. And it just so happens. He's a two-star pitcher for next week. Facing the white socks and red socks. Going for the laundry combination there. I was going to say, that's a lot of socks. They're going to come out of the washer pink by the time Brady Singer is done with them.

Yes, potentially. we'll compare him to a few other waiver wire pitchers in just a second. You know, we were talking beforehand, Scott. We're trying to figure out, like, what is Brady Singer doing differently so far this season? The one thing that stands out to me is the control. It's much more improved. Last year, 3.7 walks per 9. This year, 2.2 walks per 9.

He's always done a good job getting ground balls. He's got a 47% ground ball rate so far this season as well. The slider has improved, just in general. I don't know if he's throwing it differently or I haven't really. looked into like the depth of the pitch to see if it's just better, but it's performing better. It's got a career high 19% swinging strike rate. And, you know, we've seen pitchers succeed with just two pitches. Normally, you know, they need to be two, you know, exceptional pitches. But if he's throwing 94-95 with the sinker and he's got this improved slider, then maybe he can

make it work. So I'm still a little bit skeptical, but it's hard to argue with two double-digit trikeout starts in a row. So I am. quite interested in Brady Singer myself. Let's compare him. I don't think he's in the same category as Aaron Ashby, right? Like, I think Ashby's kind of like the top Waverwire pitcher who might be available, right? Yes.

And then I think we get into that group of Nick Ladolo, Hunter Green, Andrew Heaney. Where does Brady Singer rank among that group? You know what? If we're going to include Heaney, I might put Heaney even ahead of Aaron Ashby. I know he's had a lot of trouble staying. healthy this year, but every start he's made has been a banger with that new slider the Dodgers have introduced. So let's put Heaney at the very top of that list, followed by Ashby.

Okay. So I think Brady Singer is probably about on the level of Braxton Garrett in terms of who I'm interested in picking up. I have considerable doubts about both, but it's, you know, they've gone beyond the point where I can continue to dismiss and ignore them. I mean, I thought I wasn't on, I wasn't on the show Thursday to react to Braxton Garrett's start Wednesday, but, you know, even though he allowed five runs, I thought, I thought it was, there were still a lot of good signs for Braxton Garrett. Like there wasn't reason to give up on Braxton Garrett. Yeah, it was a really bad first inning where he gave up four runs, but still had eight strikeouts to one walk. And I believe in line for two starts next week as well.

Yep. Yes. So that is Brax and Garrett. All right. How about compared to Reed Detmer's? Detmer's over Brady Singer? That's a tough one. It's close.

I think I would take Singer just because what you've brought up with the lack of two starts in a week. Scott, I mean, like, you're looking for something to kind of break the tie here. And for me, that might be it. Yeah, I mean, I was considering hedging my bet, you know, Singer and points, Detmer's and Roto. Because I do think, I think thatmers is better. Okay. But, you know, and he's probably looking at a severe curtailment of the

innings in the second half. So, yeah, I'm going to say Singer. All right, cool. So Singer, Detmer's, Braxton, Garrett. I think that's a pretty fair ranking there. But yeah, again, there are some WaverWire pitchers emerging here. Brady Singer is the latest. Oh my goodness gracious for me.

And I don't know, maybe this should just be for you two, Scott, because Matt Chapman, as we spoke about recently, you told people about a month ago, beginning of June, I guess that would be two months ago now, go by low on Matt Chapman. There were some good underlying numbers. He was hitting the ball hard, strikeouts weren't really all that bad. and he has been great since the start of June.

He went two for three here on Thursday with a double dong and now in 45 games since June 1st, Matt Chapman is hitting 290 with 12 homers, 35 runs, 34 RBI, 93.2 mile per hour average exit velocity, 16% barrel rate, his 150 game pace during the span, 40 homers, 116 runs,

113 RBI. in one of the better lineups in baseball, what's not to like with Matt Chapman? Yeah, what's not to like indeed? And I feel like a lot of the underlying numbers say he, like, this is who he could have been all along, maybe who he should have been all along. You mentioned that 16% barrel rate during the hot stretch,

very high. Well, your long barrel rate is 13.4%. So also very high. The average exit velocity for the year, you said it was like 93 something during this stretch for the year it's it's 92.7 which itself is 95th percentile and yeah I mean that's the biggest change for Chapman to a big changes for Chapman this year and I mean the things that went wrong for him when he mainly last year meant last year was the real disaster for Chapman and there was a steep reduction in exit velocity and the strike

were way up. It was actually a two-year thing with the strikeouts, but, you know, I attribute them mostly to the hip injury that he was playing within 2020 when the strikeout rate was first up, and then he had surgery that off-season. First year back from it last year, just didn't look the same. Now he's had more time to recover, and he's back to being Matt Chapman. We saw looking like a fantasy mainstay for the A's. did he actually reach 40 home runs one year with A's or was it like 38 or something? I don't think he's ever had 40, but I can be, yeah, he had 36 one season. 36, okay, but that was in Oakland. Very tough place to hit. How about this guy? I was just looking that up in home games this year. So in Roger Center, he's hitting 262 overall with a 901 OPS on the road 228, 673.

So Roger Center has really, really helped Chapman so far this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's not like a course field situation where there may be no rhyme or reason for that. But I think just the fact is he's in a better hitters park than he was with the A's. He's in a division, you know, maybe it hasn't translated to the away numbers, but he's in a division, the division with the most hitters parks. When the AL West has the most pitchers parks. So it was a very favorable upgrade as far as that goes.

for Chapman. But more than anything, I think he's just gotten healthy. And this is, this is who he was developing into before that hip issue came up. 36 home runs with Oakland in 2019. I mean, that, that makes him a 40-homer candidate in a place like Toronto, for sure. Oh my goodness gracious battle of the MVP candidates. How about this? Aaron Judge went one for three with a sock and a shoot. 39th home run, 10th steal. His full 162 game pace. He's not going to play 162, he's already missed time, but just for fun. 65 homers, 136 runs, 138 RBI, 16 steals. That's just, that is insane. I mean, Aaron Judge is really just having a historic season, as is Shohei Otani, who extends his double-digit strikeout streak to six starts now in a row.

He was up against the Rangers, six innings, two runs, 11 strikeouts to zero walks. I was watching it, it didn't even seem like he had his best stuff, still had 21 swinging strikes on 98 pitches. 14 of those on the slider. Speaking of the slider, the velocity on that pitch up two miles per hour. He threw it a season high 51% in this start. It's just been a ridiculous pitch for him and a ridiculous season in general. I mean, as a pitcher, Scott, 281 ERA, 102 whip,

145 strikeouts over 99 and a third innings. Nearly a 16% swinging strike rate for Shoahe Otani. It's crazy. It's, you run out of words to say. If you had to handicap it right now, Judge or Otani, who wins the MVP.

I mean, I kind of feel like any time Otani's healthy and performing like we expect him to. Yeah. It should always be him. He's twice the player. Anyone else is, you know?

I know maybe if you actually add the, add up the war. It may not translate to exactly twice the player, but it's like, I think it should be Otani. I don't know that it's going to be. Aaron Judge is having a historic season, and because obviously McGuire, Sosa, bonds, that whole thing, it may be not, Judge's season may not be getting the historic appreciation it deserves, but the famous home run chase of 1961 between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle through August. Maris had 40 home runs. Mantle had 39. That's where judges right now, 39. He's right there right on the same pace they were in 1961. Now, I don't know if the calendar lined up exactly the same way back then.

August, you know, that might not be the fairest cutoff as opposed to number of games into the season or whatever. I don't know. I'd have to go back and look. But yeah, I mean, you look at the leaderboard. Yankees, most home runs before, before August. I guess I said, was I saying through August? I guess I meant through July. Gotcha. Babe Ruth 41, Roger Maris 40, Mickey Mantle, and Aaron Judge tied for 39, and then Babe Ruth 38. That's the kind of year Aaron Judge is happening. Yeah, and he's got a couple more days to extend that before we get to August too. And going up against Royals pitching, although

Brady Singer looks great, maybe Judge has a chance to extend that before we get into August. I agree. I mean, I think as long as Otani's healthy, he probably should win it. But if Judge comes close to 60 homers, best player on best team, Yankees, they're probably going to give it to him. Waverwire pitchers. In shallow

leagues, very shallow leagues. Alex Wood took a no-hitter into the seventh inning up against the Cubs. He is 77% percent rostered. So, you know, maybe in some 10-team leagues, some shallower points leagues. He went six and two-thirds, wound up giving up two runs, three strikeouts. Overall, the strikeout, swinging strikes weren't that impressive, but hey, you take a no-hitter into the seventh inning. It's impressive regardless. The ERA remains over four for Alex Wood. Underlying number is much better. Scott, what do you think? Can Alex

Wood get it going here in the second half? Yeah, I think he could. I did have him as a sleeper pitcher for this week, so I'm glad that worked out. Yeah, the fact his ex-fip is as low as it is, he's pitched really well. He just hasn't pitched deep enough and he hasn't been available enough. This is only his fourth start in which he's gone six innings this year. And so, you know, it's hard to be an effective fantasy pitcher if you're not going six innings consistently. Of course, I feel like he's had some bad ERA luck.

Hopefully that's beginning to normalize. The strikeout rate is good. The swinging strike rate is good. the X-FIP, if we've pointed out, is very good. So, yeah, I think more likely than not, better days are ahead for Alex Wood. All righty. In medium-depth leagues, some pitchers that stood out and maybe deeper leagues. Jordan Lyles, a solid start up against the race. He went five and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts to four walks. ERA in the mid-fours. I think we kind of know who Jordan Lyles is. Usay Kikuchi made his return up against the Tigers. He went five innings, one-run,

five strikeouts, and look, he's having a brutal season. There's no doubt about it. He gets hit very hard, over five walks per nine. I'm not saying you need to add Kikuchi, but I think he's a name to watch just because we've seen him kind of get on these streaks and be hot for like two months at a time. So just a name to watch. And then Cutter Crawford, he's allowed three earned runs or fewer in five straight, and he was up against the Guardians, five and two thirds, endings, one run, only two strikeouts.

ERA is 4.15 solid swinging strike rate 11.7% and he is 15% rostered. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Liles, Kikuchi, and Cutter Crawford? Yeah, I mean, I agree Kukuchi's worth keeping an eye on. I do think there's more talent there than the numbers would indicate.

And you're right, for stretches he's shown it. I think Chris is even more of a Kikuchi guy than I am. but I do think there's a chance he becomes a worthy fantasy option. I think he has the skill set to do that. I'm also kind of interested in Cutter Crawford. I mean, you mentioned the swinging strike rate is pretty good. It's above average.

He's somebody who's giving the Red Sox some length. He's gone six innings a couple times, I think, five and two thirds this time. That's pretty close. And he has two matchups coming up next week. One is at Houston. That's not so great. One is at Kansas City. That's really good.

So I actually have Cutter Crawford only 15% rostered among my sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week. I'm not saying he's a must-ad across the board. He's actually in the lowest tier of my two-star pitcher rankings. But he's at the top of that lowest tier. And so if you're somebody who's willing to, sell out for volume. You don't want to overlook Cutter Crawford this upcoming week. All right. And in the deepest of leagues, Spencer Howard with the best start of his career.

And I just went through his career game log again, Scott, just to make sure this was the best start of his career. And it looks like it. It still wasn't overly impressive. But Spencer Howard goes five shutout innings, three hits, zero walks. He had five strikeouts, just four swinging strikes on 76 pitches. He's having a good season in the minors. He's former top prospect with the Phillies. Now he's with the Texas Rangers. I just, I don't really see it with the Arsenal.

He throws his fastball and cutter. They accounted for 92% of his pitches in the start. It's, it doesn't throw that hard. It's, I don't know. It's just hard for me to get excited about Spencer Howard. And then Ryan Yarbrose is the other one in deep leagues. He had a season high, eight strikeouts at the Orioles. Anything here, Scott, let's say, you know, 15 team leagues are deeper.

Spencer Howard, Ryan Yarbrough. Not a lot there. I agree that this start from Spencer Howard, you know, I'd like to find something to cling to with him because I have him in the Scott White Dynasty League. I'm actually trying to trade him and nobody wants them. Just reminder, it's a 24-team league. Right, yeah.

And it's a 24-team league where starting pitching is very scarce always. Oh, yeah. But nobody wants Spencer Howard, except for, Nando. I might still trade him to him, I don't know. Yeah, four whiffs on 76 pitches in this one, against the angels, the troutless angels who have been

just a disaster offensively for a couple months now. And usually they swing and miss a lot more than that. So the fact, Howard mustered only four whiffs against them, you know, not so concerned that he threw five shutout innings, as much as I'd like to be. As much as I'd like to think this was the start of something. I'm rude for him, man. I'm always rooting for, you know, top prospects, former top prospects to come through,

but just kind of hard to see it right now. Anything on Ryan Yarbrough or just bleh? I mean, he's been usable in the past. He can be a good source of whip. He's been a good source of wins in the past, just because, you know, he's providing length for a good team. but it's been a couple years since we've seen that version of Yarbrough, and it's going to take more than one start.

As good as it was, he missed a lot of bat, surprisingly. But I'm not ready to act on that with Ryan Yarbrough. All right, let's move over to some offense. The Dodgers put up 13 runs in Coors Field. Zero home runs. Old school baseball. Trey Turner went three for four with three runs, three RBI, and his 18th steel.

Freddie Freeman went one for three with two walks, 2 RBI and his eighth steal of the season. 10 is his career high, so I have a good feeling. Freddie Freeman will have a new career high in steals this season. Will Smith went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI, and I saw in the box score, Scott, that he was going by W.D. Smith now. Have you seen anything?

Like, where did this come from? W.D. Smith? I don't know. Well, I think maybe it's just to distinguish him from Will Smith of the Braves, maybe. Like, I don't think he's going, like, that's his name, WD. Smith. You look at his individual player page. It still says Will Smith.

That's my guess. Anyway. I looked at his individual player page on MLB.com. And I think all of a sudden it shows his middle name now, which is. Probably just to distinguish from the other Will Smith. William Dills Smith. I don't know. Dills.

Dills. That's his middle name. How do you feel about Pickle, Scott? you in, out? Yeah. The dough ones. Yeah, you like pickles? Not so much the sweet ones.

I am completely out on pickles. It's, oh, come on. I hate this fad now where every chicken sandwich, fried chicken sandwich has to have pickles on it. Of course it does. Why? That adds to the complexity of the flavor. You just pick them off if you're that opposed to them. No, no, no.

I like that. Scott, you can't do that because then all the pickle juice is like sunken into the bread. and the chicken and it's, oh, it's nasty too. All right. Well, ask them to leave it off, I guess, but you're missing out. No, I'm completely out on pickles. I, like, I don't like eating just like a giant pickle. That's a little much.

You have to have to have something to counterbalance that flavor. But I am disappointed when I get a burger or, you know, any kind of sandwich. It could be a fish sandwich, and there's no pickle on it. Like, you know, I remember I went to this restaurant in the Keys. It got some kind of like hogfish sandwich or something, right? And they just, they gave me like a pickle, a dill pickle spear on the side and I just slapped that right on the sandwich because like, it needed it. It just added so much to it. Oh, gosh. That, you know, that, that little burst of sour. amid everything else.

It keeps the standards from being so one note, you know? No, I don't know. You clearly don't. I don't know if this is, maybe this is my version of an Azer take, but no, just boo, completely out on pickles.

And my wife's family, they don't support it because they're like Polish, very Polish, and like pickles are, you know, part of the culture. So I can't, I can't reveal that to them,

but I will reveal it to you, Scott, and anybody else listening. Gavin Lux, another three hits, goes three for five, with a run and an RBI in that game. Let's move over to another hitter. How to value Xander Bogarts.

It's kind of been an interesting season for Bogarts. He did have a monster game here on Thursday. A sock and two shoes. His eighths, he's now up to, eighth home run, rather, now up to seven steals. He's batting 318. But he's kind of just been empty batting average-ish.

Before this game, obviously, you know, he was sitting on seven homers and five steals. batting average is great. I think he has 55 runs. That's very useful, obviously. But I noticed the slugging, the ISO, the home run to fly ball ratio are all the lowest they've been since 2017. What do you think about Zander Bogartz, Scott?

Well, if you'll remember, Frank, back when I was first contemplating what the widespread use of the humidor and the more consistent use of the deaden balls would mean, I highlighted a few players whose power production might suffer in this new world we were entering into. And among those players was Xander Bogart's because his exit velocities relative to his home run production is, you know, kind of suspect. Kind of suspect. This year, 88.4 miles per hour.

That's the lowest it's been. But he's usually like 89. It's definitely like a, you know, somebody who's around 50%. middle of the pack in terms of how hardy impacts the ball. Now, the environment's improved over the course of the season we've talked about. I haven't taken inventory recently of what it's looked like, you know, like in July specifically, because once things started picking up in June, I just kind of stopped worrying about it. It is down a little bit compared to June, Scott.

I looked at it just yesterday. Okay, so it hasn't been consistently getting better, I guess. Yeah. So I don't know if that's entirely the reason. why Zander Bogartz has disappointed with the power. The fact that he's done everything else, Zander Bogart's like, I think makes a pretty compelling case for that. You know, part of the issue,

part of the reason I have a hard time caring about Zander Bogart's disappointing output is like that's kind of been the whole shortstop position, except for Trey Turner. and a couple other guys who we weren't really expecting that much from to begin with, you know? Yeah. Corey Seeger's picked it up. But like, Corey Searsen. Yes, Danzby Swanson has been, you know, great all year.

Yeah, no, Corey Seeger, like, I recently moved him up to, I believe, second in my rest of season rankings for points leagues. I may have Tim Anderson ahead of him in categories leagues. unless there's somebody I'm forgetting, but I moved him way up because he's, he's, so few short stops have lived up to expectations this year. I mean, I was looking at Francisco,

Francisco Lendor's numbers recently. Because remember early on, it's like, oh, Francisco Lendor's back. And, you know, looking at it recently, his season's kind of playing out

the way I thought it would, too, where it's more like a 20 to 25 homer pace with a batting average in the 250, range. It's like relative to other short stops, it's yours going fine, but like relative to what our expectations were coming into the year, or at least what the general public's expectations were coming into the year. It's not up to that. Before we hit the break, I want to remind everyone to subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. For those listening,

YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. We usually go live around 1215, 1230. Eastern time, that's AM, by the way, every Sunday through Thursday, Sunday a little bit earlier, like 11 o'clock. It's very late, but we got away for those West Coast games. You know, obviously we have fun on here, so if you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. And just another reminder that Sunday is the final day to nominate fantasy baseball today for the best sports podcast category in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. The link to help us out, podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up, and then talk down the sports category.

If you are watching us on YouTube right now, we do have a QR code in the top right corner, which you can take out your phone, scan that, that'll take you right to the link, click on it, and then again, the sports category. Help us out, nominate fantasy baseball today. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes, the biggest and very unfortunate news

from Thursday was that Marlon's pitching prospect, Max Meyer, will indeed require Tommy John. surgery, which means he will likely miss all of next season as well. So hoping for the best, maybe beginning of 2024 season. We see Max Meyer in the Marlins rotation. A lot of things can change by then, but obviously rooting for him to come back strong. Luis Robert reported to AAA on Thursday to begin a rehab assignment. He's on the aisle with lightheadedness. It's kind of a, I don't know, a weird, unknown situation. I'm not really sure what's going on there, but Hopefully he's all right.

Rafael Devers, who is on the aisle with a hamstring injury, is on pace to return when first eligible on Tuesday. Good news, get him back in your lineups. George Springer left Thursday's game and is being evaluated for elbow discomfort. So watch that closely. Trevor's story is still experiencing discomfort in his right hand and remains without a timetable. Bobby Witt, Jr. has missed four straight due to a hamstring injury. Brian Reynolds was placed on the paternity list and we'll miss a few days here with the Pirates.

we had another trade. Not really a big one yet, but I have a feeling some of those big trades are coming. The Mets acquired both Tyler Naquin and reliever Philip Deal. I would imagine that Naquin and Marcana move into a natural platoon there. Scott, I mean, overall, I'm not very excited

about Tyler Naquin. I was gonna say you could pick him up in NL only, but he was already in the national league. Unfortunately. No, I don't think, I don't think this is good news for anybody. I was just checking.

Canas actually hit much better against Ritey's than Lefties this year. Interesting. He's getting on base nearly 40% of the time against Ritey's. So I don't, that shouldn't be what the Mets do, platoon those two. But we'll see.

We shall see. Now, I'm trying to figure out if there's any beneficiary from the red side of things. Like maybe they call up Jose Barrero and give him a chance to play. I haven't seen what he's doing in the minors recently, so I have no idea. But formerly a top prospect for the Reds

and maybe he'll get a chance to play in the second half. The name there is Jose Barrero in Deepleys. Joe Barlow will begin a rehab assignment over the weekend and could be back soon. He's 52% rostered. Scott, would you look to re-ad Joe Barlow if he was dropped anywhere, considering that Brett Martin has struggled recently?

Well, I mean, they didn't remove him to, insert Brett Martin into the role. They removed him because they wanted to take stress off him, which is a weird reason to remove a pitcher who is otherwise performing well and the closer roll. I kind of wonder what was going on behind the scenes there. It's possible Joe Barlow gets it back,

but it's just as possible they turn to somebody like Matt Bush, who's been pitching pretty well of late. So I don't know that it's a high priority in the 15-team Roto Leagues. It's probably not a bad idea to stash a prospective save source, but it's a leap, I think, right now to say Joe Barlow is going to be the closer again.

Dustin May made another rehab start on Thursday and will require at least one more before rejoining the Dodgers. He threw 46 pitches, striking out six over three scoreless innings. And Dustin May, again, could be good to go early to mid-August. He's 65% rostered.

And Scott, I know he's someone you've talked about adding and that you're excited about. But what happens with the Dodgers rotation? Obviously, these things can work themselves out. Maybe someone gets hurt by then. But if not, do you think they go six-man or, I don't know, what do they do? I think there's a good chance they go six-man or maybe not strict six-man. Maybe like skipping Tony Gonsolin for a turn here and skipping Tyler Anderson for a turn there.

I think Gonsland mainly is the is the pitcher in the rotation that they most need to be concerned about the workload so they may just use Dustin May's return as a way to kind of give everybody a breather I mean Tyler Anderson is probably the low guy in there well I don't know it could be Andrew Heaney I guess

but Tyler Anderson has I think a little more experience as a reliever I don't know that either has much But Tyler Anderson just had another great start today is what I was getting around to say. Right. Yeah. I think he threw a pretty decent amount of endings last year. Yeah, 167 for Tyler Anderson.

So he was most, yeah, he was just a starter. 31 starts last year for Tyler Anderson. I think going six men would kind of benefit everybody in that rotation. I just don't know if it's something the Dodgers want to do. I guess I'll find out. It's not like Clayton Kershaw is known for his durability. Exactly. Andrew Hini's, you know, been hurt most of this year.

Arias kind of surprised me with the workload he took on last year. But I mean, the Dodgers are running away with the West right now. So they can afford to play things cautiously in the second half if they want to. Once Dustin may return, Scott, where do you foresee kind of throwing him into the rankings? Will he be ahead of that Ashby Andrew Heaney group? Will he kind of jump ahead of Redetmer's and all those other guys we talked about earlier? Well, let me see where I have him in the rankings right now, because I totally butchered in that shortstop discussion, how I have them ranked. You have him 68th.

Yeah, while he's still rehabilitating. So that's pretty good. That's ahead of Redetmer's already. I have him eight spots behind Aaron Ashby. I have him 14 spots behind Andrew Heaney. So, yeah, I mean, probably, probably maybe just right outside the top 50, maybe right about where Andrew Heaney is, is where Dustin May will start out for me. And, you know, if I knew he was going to be leaned on and making full starts,

six-innings starts regularly, I might put him even higher, but I don't know how cautiously the Dodgers will play it with him right away. True. All right. Mariner's reliever, Diego Castillo, was placed on the aisle with right shoulder inflammation.

Matt Brash was recalled. Tyler Wells was placed on the aisle with left side discomfort. And, Scott, do you think we could see D.L. Hall, one of the top pitching prospects in the game

as a result of this Tyler Wells injury? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's the Orioles rotation. They could have made a spot from any time they wanted to. Maybe they'll use this opening,

you know, maybe it leaves them with no, not much of a choice. I don't like that Hall's last start, he allowed six runs and two-thirds of an inning. And it was especially disappointed because he had been on a roll before that. Like, he had overcome a pitch-tipping issue and was, like, striking out two batters per inning over, like, a five, six-start stretch. The walks were down. I mean, he's always going to walk a lot of guys. but I mean, this is a left-hander who hits triple digits, and we don't see many of those in baseball history,

at least not in a starting role. Like, Shane McClanahan is arguably the hardest throwing left-handed starter of all time, but D.L. Hall is going to be right there with him when he gets the call. Obviously, it's gone well for McClan. Hey, if D.L. Hall turns into Shane O. Mack, I would love it because I have him in the Scott White Dynasty League. I would bet against it, judging by the walk rates in the month, minors, though McClanahan's minor league walk rates weren't great either.

True. So it's not a, you know, D.L. Hall's stuff is great. And when your stuff is that good, like, it's really controlled. That's the only hurdle for him. And that's one that we've seen a lot of these young hard throwers, especially left-handers. We've seen them clear that hurdle pretty early in its career. I mean, Clayton Kershaw himself walked a fair amount of players. the minors and stopped doing that pretty quickly once he got to the majors.

All right. Andrew Benintendi was batting leadoff for the Yankees in his debut, though DJ LaMayhew was out of the lineup. Not exactly sure what they're going to do once both of those guys are in the lineup. Maybe it's LaMayhew Benintendi Judge at the top, but they do like to bat judge second, so not sure. Paul DeYoung will be on the taxi squad and could rejoin the Cardinals' active roster this weekend against the nationals. He was batting 249 with 17 homers in 51 games in the minors.

So look, NL only name to watch, Paul DeYoung. Scary moment Thursday as Marlins pitcher Daniel Castano was hit in the head with a 104-mile-per-hour line drive. He underwent a CT scan, which thankfully came back clean. He's been diagnosed with a mild concussion. So all things considered, I think that's a pretty fair result for Daniel Castano. Trade rumors are heating up. Apparently the Padres are the frontrunners to land Juan Soto, but I've also

heard the Cardinals mentioned quite a bit. Just the ideas guide of Fernando Tatis and Juan Soto in the same lineup is bonkers would be so fun, but we shall see. With Manny Machado. It's crazy. John Heyman is reporting the Angels

are listening to offers on Shohei Otani. I think the asking price was all four of your top prospects. regardless of what organization you are, but I don't think anything's going to happen there. I would imagine some organizations' top four prospects wouldn't quite meet the threshold. I agree, yes.

That sounds about right. It also sounds pretty likely that Luis Castillo will be moved, which makes a ton of sense. Week 18, you know, Scott, it's been a while since we've been able to do one of these previews where we take a look at everything that's coming up in the next week. but now we finally get our chance.

Week 18 preview, we'll take a look at the schedule, which is all spread out. Once again, one team has five games, the lonely Oakland A's. Don't think you have to start anybody from their team. They do have the worst hitter matchups. But yes, who would you be looking to start anyway? I guess Luriano is the closest one, but...

Sean Murphy. Yeah. Yeah, and it's who catcher league. I guess you could still start Murphy. 13 teams have six games. 13 teams have seven games. and three lucky teams have eight games next week, the Rockies, the Mets, and the Padres.

Before we get to two-star pitchers to add, let's take a look at some of those fringe options. This guy's not a fringe option, but I think it's just worth mentioning that. Jacob de Grom, if he returns on Tuesday, is in line for two starts at the Nationals versus the Braves. Obviously, if he's back, we're starting Jacob de Grom. Josiah Gray is going up against the Mets and at the Phillies.

What do you think there? I lean yes on that. I have him in the second tier of my two-star pitcher rankings. So not quite must-start. Obviously, he's vulnerable to the long ball, and those aren't the most favorable matchups. But I think I'm to a point now where I'm always going to lean yes

whenever Josiah Gray's in line for two starts. All right, Lucas Gilito, the ultimate wild card, up against the Royals and at the Rangers. So I have them in that same tier with Josiah Gray, but behind Josiah Gray. It's obviously risky, but those matchups are very favorable. That is the reason why I'd be willing to consider it even in a Categories League.

When I first saw Gialita was a two-star pitcher, I was like, yeah, maybe just for points leagues, but those matchups are so good that if you're looking to catch up in strikeouts or wins, you might consider it in a Categories League too. Yeah, I hear you. I think points league for sure, but it's got to be the right set of circumstances in a Categories league where, look, if you have G-Lito and you've been starting him, your ratios are probably shot anyway.

So, yeah, if that's the case, you just need volume, then go for it. But if you want to protect your ratios, I'm pretty worried about G-Lito. Cal Quantrell, you know, he's kind of been a mixed bag. He pitches to contact. He's up against the Diamondbacks and the Astros next week. Yeah, I see him as points league only. you know, he's RP eligible, which is, of course, points leagues are the format that matters in. So you could do it in that, but not highly recommended.

Nathan Avaldi, a lot like Lucas Celito, not pitching very well right now. He's at the Astros and at the Royals. Yeah, I mean, even worse than Gialito, because his velocity has been way down since coming back from the IL, and he's just been getting pummeled. So I am a pass on Nathan Avaldi this week, even in points leagues. do it. Okay. Two-star streamers for next week, Scotty. Who do we have there? We have a couple players we've mentioned already. Andrew Heaney's my favorite. All five starts he's made this year have been bangers. And he's got the Dodgers backing on

matchups for what it's worth of Giants and Padres. But I don't think it really matters. I'd be starting a two-star Hini anyway. Braxton, Garrett gets the Reds again and then the Cubs. Those are two pretty good matchups. Brady Singer, we talked about at the top of the show, White Sox, Red Sox. They're coming out pink. And then there's a big gap before you get to Cutter Crawford, who I mentioned earlier, only 15% rostered.

One of his two matchups is against the Royals, and he's been pitching deep enough into games and getting enough swinging strikes that if you're wanting to sell out for volume, I think that's okay. A couple others who you could pick up, and I don't hate, are Michael Kopeck. He's 76% rostered. He gets the Royals and Rangers, just like Gialito does.

Marco Gonzalez gets the Yankees and the Angels, so those are some polarized matchups for him. Makes it a little tough. Domingo Hermann looked pretty good in his last outing. He gets the Mariners and Cardinals. Kyle Gibson gets the Braves and Nationals. matchups on the opposite end of the spectrum there. And Kegan Thompson gets the Cardinals and Marlins.

So those I just mentioned, Kopec, Hermann, Gibson, Thompson, Marco Gonzalez. None of them are in my sleeper pitchers for this week. But I don't hate them and they're making two starts. Domingo Hermann, I will point out, if the Yankees acquire a pitcher, he's probably the one that gets to boot from the rotation. So just keep that in mind.

That's a good point to bring up, actually. Like, this is a week where, you know, it's one thing to say here on Thursday, oh, these pitchers are going to pitch on these days. But particularly with the trade deadline about to happen, it could take a wrecking ball to these pitching matchups. So that kind of just makes it in general a time you're going to want to play a little safer with your pitching staff and maybe not go all out for the streamers. Fortune favors the brave and the bold.

You don't want to start these pitchers, but if you are destined to. and you want to take a shot, then these are some two-star pitchers that you can look at for next week. Scott, who you got? Man, I probably used it up with those names I rattled off at the end there. I mean, I kind of want to just say Cutter Crawford

because he's such an obscure name. But no, he's on the official sleeper pitchers list, so I will pick somebody deeper than that. How about Spencer Howard? Ah, you stole my answer. We saw what he just did against the angels. Didn't look like he pitched very well, but the result was good. This week, he gets the Orioles and White Sox.

Those are two favorable matchups. And you're kind of dumb if you use them. But that's the whole point of this fortune favors the brave segment. Look, I think you'd have to be pretty brave to start Gileo and or Nathan Avaldi right now. Again, it depends how desperate you are, what kind of position you're in. I probably would not want to start either one, but you'd have to be pretty brave right now. Single-star streamers next week. Who you got?

So some good ones here, too. George Kirby goes against that awful Angels lineup, and I think he's going to be able to get more whiffs against it than Spencer Howard did. Reed Detmer's gets the Mariners, and of course he's been on a nice run since returning from the miners with that harder slider and everything. Cole Irvin, who has had. an amazing July. He's got his ERA just barely over three for the year.

And none of us really buy it. But very successful at home as a fly ball pitcher. He's not at home this week. But he's at the Angels. It's another big park. And again, a lineup that's really struggling. So Cole Irvin, I think, is a good streamer for this week. Hunter Green gets the Marlins.

He did this past week, too. and it was an okay start. He gave him nine hits, but he missed a lot of bats and the Marlins have just, you know, they're about as bad as the Angels right now offensively. Chris Flexen gets the Angels and has been pretty reliable this year.

Jeffrey Springs gets the Tigers who still are technically the worst offensive baseball, and he hasn't been pitching deep into games recently, but the ratio still look good, and with that match up, I'll include Springs here to round out the list. Yeah, Jeffrey Springs made his first start in a while. Yeah, four in a third innings.

Last Sunday. Yeah, he went four in a third. But even his start before that, July 5th, maybe he got hurt in that start and that's why he left, but he only went four innings and that start too. So, yeah, it's kind of tough in a points league right now at Springs, but that is a really good matchup. If you want to go a little deeper,

and he just started against them today, it was technically a quality start, but a little iffy. Am Ashcraft gets the Marlins again. Ugh. I just like anybody against the Marlins right now. Yeah, that's fair. I think is a viable streamer. And Ashcraft, you know, gets a ton of ground balls and throws very hard.

So it could go okay for him. The best hitter matchups for next week. The White Sox, Blue Js, Astros, Rockies, and Brewers, the worst hitter matchups, the A's, the Giants, the Reds, the Braves, and the Nationals. That being said, Scott, your favorite sleeper hitters for week 18. Well, you'll notice you didn't mention the Mets or the Padres among the best hitter matchups, even though they have eight games, facing a lot of tough pitchers in those eight games. The Rockies you did mention, and they have eight games as well,

but even that's kind of dicey because they're on the road all week, and that's usually not a good time to start a Rockies hitter. So it's really not a great week. for hitters in general. It's just the way the schedule lines up. But I will give you some sleeper hitters regardless. Hunter Renfro, of course, has been hot. The Brewers have the fifth best hitter matchups.

Luis Arias, I think, is worth using for that reason as well. I thought about Rowdy Tellez, but three of the pitchers on the schedule are lefties, so maybe steer clear of him. I also like Laudy Tavares this week. you know, middle of the road matchups, but three games against the Orioles staff, so that's pretty good. Nate Lowe for the same reason I have him on here.

Yon Moncada, has cooled off a little in recent days, but I was hitting well before that, and the White Sox has the very best hitter matchups of any team this week, going against the Royals and Rangers rotations. I mentioned Luis Sirius already, also Ramon Urius of the Orioles,

who we've talked about a lot this week. They have good matchups, and he's been hot. Yandi Diaz, the Reyes leadoff hitter, has been very hot for a long time now. It's kind of, you know, he doesn't provide much power speed, so a better points league option than Roto, but I like him this week.

Rays have pretty good matchups. And a couple of Diamondbacks I have here as well. Josh Rojas and David Peralta. Peralta specifically because six Ritey's on the schedule for the Diamondbacks and his numbers against Ritees and being a left-handed hitter are actually pretty good. OPS over 800, I think the batting average is around 280. And he's been performing a little bit better recently. So that's, you know, he's only 23% roster.

That's kind of the deep play, I guess, David Peralta. All right. Let's wrap up here. Some leftovers from Thursday's action. we had a nice little pitcher's duel between Logan Gilbert and Jose Urquite. Gilbert at the Astros, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. He had 13 swinging strikes. Did allow some hard contact in this one.

I noticed his last two starts. Fastball usage is down a little bit, throwing more sliders and curves, which those technically have gotten better results than his fastball this year. So just something to watch for Logan Gilbert. And Jose Orkitti on the other side makes it eight straight, quality starts, he goes six and two thirds, two runs, only three strikeouts. During that eight-star stretch, a 2.60 ERA, 165 bat up against. I don't think that is sustainable for Arquite, though he does allow a lot of fly balls.

What do you think about these two, Scott Gilbert and Orkidi? Yeah, Orkidi is in that same territory as like Chris Flexen of the Mariners who, you know, It's where Nick Povetta was earlier this year before falling off, where they keep delivering quality start after quality starts. So it's like, eh, well, I guess I got to keep using them, but you're waiting for the bottom to fall out there. So that's what I think is going to happen with Rikidi eventually. I understand why he'd use him now, though.

I mean, Gilbert's just been great. I think there's a good chance they curtail his innings in the second half. He was among the 18 pitchers I wrote about early this week. Could be looking at an innings limit. but he wasn't in the the most concerning category for that. And obviously he's a big part of getting them to the playoffs. So I think there's a good chance his starts begin to shorten up a little bit at some point. But for the most part, I think he can count on Gilbert to be there for you.

So if you can sell high on Jose or Kiti right now, we have your approval? Yeah, he's a sell high for sure. All right. Some other pitching left over, Zach Wheeler now has a seven-inning quality start in four of his last five outings. He was at the Pirates. He goes seven. Two runs allowed. Eight strikeouts in this one. Fastball velocity down one mile per hour. Just something to keep an eye on. Jameson-Tyone ties a season high with eight strikeouts up against the Royals. He goes six shutout. Four hits, two walks. The aforementioned eight strikeouts. His last 10 starts, however, including Thursday. 5.39 ERA for James and Tyon. And Tyler Anderson makes it five straight quality starts. This one in Coresfield, where he does have some familiarity from earlier in his career.

He goes seven shutout with four hits, zero walks, only four strikeouts. A 2.61 ERA on the season for Tyler Anderson. 19 walks in 17 starts. That is awesome. Anything else you'd like to add on these? Got Wheeler, Tyon, and Anderson. I didn't even think of it.

about that, Rocky's connection for Anderson. They were probably thinking, like, where was this when you were here? Because, yeah, Tyler Anderson's career got off to a bumpy start, as it always does for Rocky's pitchers. Yeah, his strikeout rate, his K-per-9, Tyler Anderson,

is only 7.4, like, not good. And he's never been known as a strikeout guy. But it's interesting because his swinging strike grade has been great this year. It's been a career. rear high by far. And so it's just been a little weird that there hasn't been a rise in strikeouts to go along with that.

Although clearly he's been very effective. And with the Dodgers overseeing him, I expect that to continue. Yeah, no, it's a good point on the strikeouts. But even when a pitcher is lacking in strikeouts, I look for a couple other areas to see if they're excelling. Obviously, control. Tyler Anderson has been fantastic. And he's not allowing much hard contact at all.

No. I mean, his X-FIP because of that strikeout rate, presumably, is 394, not very good. But the XERA, which is more a measure of quality of contact, it's right around three. Yeah. So, yeah, that. And I do think, I do think XERA is the best of them at explaining how we, like, at explaining what's already happened. I think XERA is going to align closest to ERA, but maybe X-FIP, at least in recent years, I feel like it's the better at predicting what's going to happen going forward. Now, in Tyler Anderson's case, I think he's just an oddball pitcher

who doesn't really fit the X-Fit formula very well. But that's kind of my take on how those two compare. All right, some hitting leftovers. Trey Mancini went two for four with an inside-the-park home run, which was very cool to see for Mancini, maybe one of his final games in Camden. I think they'll hold on to him.

Obviously, they're playing well. But Scott, did you see this play? Yeah, well, I'm getting a little tired of the whole inside the park thing in general. How was that not ruled in error? I don't. Josh Lowe was parked under the ball, fly ball to left, right field rather.

Well, all three of the inside park home runs we've seen recently were similar situations where the outfielder, like, should have had it. Yeah. In the case, you know, this time, Josh Lowe very clearly lost it in the sun. Couldn't see it. It hit off of his face. Yeah.

But the same thing happened on the Josh Smith home run inside the park home run for the Rangers, where the center fielder should have had it. And there was someone else recently, too. Rimele Tapia hit the Grand Slam. Right. Jaron Duran just had no idea. Sharon Duran lost the ball and then it chased after it. Right.

And it was bouncing around on the boarding track. Yeah. So like very, like you watch all three of those plays and you're like, does the guy really deserve a home run for that? I don't think. All three of them, you know, but I guess I'm not really sure. I don't know. I don't know how the scoring works on that, to be honest.

If a player loses the ball in the lights, does that mean it? It's not an error by definition. The player loses it in the sun or in the lights or whatever. I guess they're pretty consistent with that though, right? Like, just kind of talking it through now, it seems like they usually allow those to remain hits. Yeah, even though they certainly don't look like hits. This one was just so much, I don't know,

like the ball hit off of Josh Lowe's face. I just, does it have to hit his glove in order to be an error? I don't know. It just seemed to weird. There was a time where I feel like I knew this. I don't anymore. They change rules and stuff. You know, you lose track eventually.

I hear you. Kyle Swobber went two for five with his 32nd home run. Nick Cassiano's went three for five with an RBI and a run scored. Hopefully this can get him going. Alec Bohm, who I think I've mentioned on every podcast this week, he went two for five. Now has five straight multi-hit games. He had three batted balls over 105 miles per hour, exit velocity.

So it's kind of empty batting average right now, but he's playing well. Alec Baum. 51% rostered. He's got six home games next week. Not home games. Six games in general. Four of those are against the Nationals pitching staff,

which is very favorable. Jose Ramirez went one for four with his 20th home run, and Alex Bregman went two for four with his 13th home run. The call to the bullpen for the Orioles. Jorge Lopez, unavailable. Felix Bautista recorded the final four outs and struck out three for his third save. For the Reds,

one day after I talked him up, Hunter Shrickland turned back into Hunter Shricland. He entered the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He was charged with three runs on a hit, a walk, and a hit by pitch. On the other side, for the Marlins, Tanner Scott gave up a run on two walks and a hit, but picked up his 14th save. He is 51% rostered. For the Phillies, Sir Anthony Dominguez recorded the final two outs for his sixth save, 45% rostered.

Scott, those two are pretty close. Tanner Scott and Dominguez, who would you rather have? Well, Scott is doing his best to lose the job. And I think Dominguez is kind of pulling away from Brad Hand a bit. Yeah. Though it's only a sixth save. So obviously, it's too small of the sample to say for sure. I think I trust Dominguez more in terms of how well he'll pitch.

But the Marlins have been really consistent turning to Tander Scott. So I am going to say I'd rather have... The way things are trending, Dominguez. I agree. Yeah. I know you've got Tanner Scott. I've got Anthony Bass in a few spots, so I'm rooting for... Well, I got some Dominguez, too.

It's... I began this year in Tout Wars 15-te-Roto League with no closers. And I eventually picked up Tanner Scott when he got moved into the role, and he became my first closer. When was that? Like late May. or something. And then I picked up Sir Anthony Dominguez.

And just this past week, I moved out of last place and saves, thanks to those two. Nice. So, and now ahead of me in the save standings, there's like this cluster of teams that are only like three or four saves ahead of me. So I could gain like five or six points very quickly there. Let's go. Both Scott and Dominguez, they're able to hold onto those roles. Now, I also picked up Brett Martin. thinking he could help me out too, but that's not going so well.

Were you in Tout Wars this year, standings-wise? I'm in fifth place of the 15 teams, and one and two are so far ahead that I don't think it's realistic. I could win the league. I am trying to finish third, though. Fair enough. Which would make, I think, for top three finishes in six years, I believe,

that'd be pretty good. That's pretty good. If you remember off the top of your head, who's in first and second? Adam Ronis, who wins a lot. Oh, gosh, Adam Rones, man. I used to work very closely with Adam Ronis. He's a good player. He's a really good player.

I think he's actually in second, though. I think Mike Giannela's in first. Oh, nice. Shout out to Mike Gionella. I know he listens to the podcast quite a bit, and we DM from time to time. So nice, good. Shout out to him. For the Royal Scott Barlow entered in a tie game.

He gave up that solo homer to Aaron Judge. He took his third loss. For the Blue Jays, Jordan Romano recorded the final four outs for his 22nd save. The Red Sox, Tanner Houtt, Tanner Halk, likely unavailable. Garrett Whitlock pitched the final two innings for his third save.

He is 44% rostered. I think we're kind of getting closer. I don't know if they're going to do it, but Hauk hasn't been great recently. Whitlock has looked pretty good. I don't know. We'll see. The Astros, Ryan Presley, gave up a hit.

Shruck out two for his 21st save. For the Rangers, Brett Martin pitched two days in a row, I assume unavailable. Matt Moore picked up his second save and has pitched very well for the Rangers this year. And then for the Giants, Camilo DeVall gave up a hit, but struck out the side for his 13th save. To stream or not to stream, Friday. Jose Cantana versus the Phillies, Madison Bumgarner at the Braves, James Caprillion at the White Sox, Marcus Stroman at the Giants, and Alex Cobb versus the Cubs.

I am going to say I think Alex Cobb he's kind of in the same boat as Alex Wood the Alexes for the Giants both look like they should be better than they've been and the Marcus Stroman at the Giants I think is okay

tough matchup obviously but as I pointed out after his last start it was really just that one ugly start before going on the IL if you remove that he's been like a 320 ERA guy this year. All right. On Saturday,

Zach Crenke at the Yankees, Ross Tripling versus the Tigers, Johnny Quato versus the A's, Ranger Suarez at the Pirates, Mitch Keller versus the Phillies, Dakota Hudson at the Nationals, Jacob Junis versus the Cubs, and Reed Detmer's versus the Rangers.

Reed Detmer's against the Rangers, I think is the gimmie here. But Ranger Suarez at Pittsburgh, his last couple starts, he's looked a little better, and obviously Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh. Ross Stripling against the Tigers, that could go okay. And I think that's all I do.

Dakota Hudson at Washington's tempting, but I think that'll be his first start back from the IL. So let's take a pass on that one. Quato, I think, is fine, too. Don't love it. Oh, yeah, Quato against Oakland. Yeah, I overlooked that one. Yeah, he's, him and Stripling are probably on the same level. I think the top two are Deadmers and Suarez.

Sunday we have Aaron Ashby at the Red Sox J.T. Brubaker versus the Phillies, Nick Ladolo versus the Orioles, Jake Oterizzi versus the Mariners, Dane Dunning at the Angels, and Adrian Samson at the Giants. So as much as I like Ashby, I'm a little hesitant to run him back out there after that good start against the Rockies just because he's been so volatile. I kind of want to see him settle in to being what I think he can be before he really has my trust. Over him, I would prefer Nick Ladolo against the Orioles, just because that matchup's so good

and coming off a dominant start against the Marlins. Let's see if he can do it against somebody else. And would Ashby be my second choice of this group? Probably. Yeah, I think so. Ladolo going up against the Orioles, they are 23rd in

weighted on base average against left-handed pitching. So it's a pretty good matchup for Lidolo. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.