Fantasy Baseball Today - Braxton Garrett Breakout, Week 14 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (6/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

The Braxton Garrett breakout sure seems real (1:43). ... Should we finally buy in on Bryce Elder (7:47)? ... Maikel Garcia is doing some interesting things (16:28)! ... We got some big injury news on Shane McClanahan and Bryan Reynolds (20:57). ... Mitch Keller had a strong start but has slowed down recently (24:00). ... Joe Ryan and Blake Snell had amazing starts on Thursday (26:38). ... News (37:15): Wander Franco is out through Friday as he works on his frustration. ... What's the Week 14 schedule and two-start pitchers (40:53)? What about sleeper hitters? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:30). 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

And tough fantasy baseball today on June 23rd. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. It's been a while since we've had all three of us here on a Friday. Today on the show, the Braxton Garrett breakout is real. Blake Snell is on one of those runs, big injuries, and our week 14 preview. 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. We really do appreciate it. Chris, welcome back to a Friday. Yeah, I'm realizing it's been a long time since I've heard Kokomo. So it was good to hear that. It was nice to bop my head. And now let's talk about some Miami Marlins.

Yeah, let's. Miami Marlin, I guess. I love that you're rocking the old school Florida Marlins. Oh, yeah. That's great. Let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. Add a girl, Susan.

Oh my goodness gracious. The Yankees got destroyed. Anyway, Chris will go right back to your player of the night. Yeah, it's Braxton Garrett, who had 13 strikeouts over seven innings against the pirates, who it's worth noting have been pretty bad for a while. Was it nine straight losses for the pirates or nine out of their last 10 something? It's been a pretty rough stretch for your Pittsburgh pirates. but yeah, Braxton Garrett has been pretty incredible of late.

This is, let's see, six of his last seven starts. He's allowed to earn runs or fewer. 13 strikeouts, this start, eight, the previous one, nine in the start before that. It's been a pretty remarkable run for a guy who I think we've all kind of pegged as just fine. you know, not someone who we've thought there was much reason to get excited about. But even still, we've all liked him. You know, we've all thought he was worth adding. But at this point, I mean, he's like 71% rostered.

And after a start like tonight, I don't think it's a stretch to say that that's probably 29% too low for Braxton Garrett. Now, I don't think he's going to keep, you know, certainly not double-digit strikeout efforts going. but even, you know, his overall dominance lately is probably overdue, over, over his head. But I mean, his sliders are really, really good pitch. It's 46% whiff rate. His curveball has a, no, sorry, his changeup has a 39% width rate this year, 31% on a new cutter. And so you add it all up. He's throwing his four seam fastball a lot less too, which got crushed last season and it's getting crushed this season.

and I don't know, this guy's got 90 strikeouts in 76 and two-thirds innings. He's got like a 2-8 FIP. He might just be pretty good. I don't know. Where are you guys at on Braxton Garrett? Well, yes, I agree in most respects there. So he has a 2ERA, a 0.8 whip at 12.4K per 9 over his last 8 starts. That's obviously not something he can sustain, but it is 8 starts with dominant ratios.

And I will point out last year Around this time we were getting pretty Or at least I was getting You know what? It actually started a little later than this In the summer months last year Braxton Garrett went on a run That made him relevant in fantasy also Made him somebody we were talking about

As a potential pickup for weeks at a time Began July 4th actually of last year Eight starts at a 291 ERA With more than a strike upper inning And that's when the slider first started to pop and we're like maybe there's something here. As people who've been listening to this show regularly this year, know my main issue with Braxton Garrett during this great stretch

that has now peaked with this 13 strikeout effort was that he was getting pulled early from games. His first 12 starts, he only once did he go six innings. And I believe he had just two wins during that. stretch. So as well as he was pitching, as much as the Marlins as were winning as a team, Garrett was not joining in that. He wasn't collecting that most valuable of statistics for pitchers to win in fantasy.

It's the most valuable one. It's not always the most predictable, but it's the most valuable. And so, you know, I wondered if he was really worth pursuing for that reason, particularly if you're talking about leagues, 12 teams or fewer. But all of a sudden, he had his second six-inning start last time out, and now it's a seven-inning start. So all of a sudden, that seems like a non-issue. And this is the difficulty in playing that workload game,

doing workload analysis. Is it could change very suddenly, or it could not? And I do think it is an important aspect to determining how valuable a pitcher is in fantasy. It's really hard for guys who don't go six consistently, unless they just have overpowering ratios. It's really hard for them to make a significant fantasy impact. But teams can develop more trust in pitchers. They can start leaving them in games longer. And usually success is what brings this about.

Garrett, of course, has had lots of success recently. So in a way, it's not surprising, but it's not a guarantee to have. either. So I guess if you missed out on him because I said, ah, he's never going to get your wins, I'm going to back back a little on that now. And so I'm sorry you missed out on him based on that. Still don't know that he's going to start going six innings with regularities just because he's done a two starts in a row. But I think it, like, it seems more possible now than it did those other times we talked about Braxton Garrett. As we mentioned, Braxton Garrett, Gareth, 71 percent rostered. So it could be out there in some

shallower leagues. Does have a tougher test next week at the Boston Red Sox who are fourth in Wobah against left-handed pitching. And we've got decisions to make. If we want Braxon-Garrett to be 100% rostered, I moved him up to a range in the rankings,

which is right around guys like Emmett Sheehan and Gavin Williams. Scott, would you take Brax and Garrett over either of those after this dominant outing? Well, that's the right range. I think I'd slot him right between those two. I think I'd go Williams 1, Garrett, 2, Emmett Sheehan 3.

But Emmett Sheehan could change that very quickly. He's made one career start. And there were good points and there were bad points. So, like, I really need to see more from Sheehan to know what we're working with. But that's where I'd slot him right now, right, between Williams and Sheehan. All right. Oh, my goodness gracious. We'll slide over to you, Scott.

Who you got? I'm going to go with Bryce Elder, who just kept doing. typical Bryce Elder things in this start Thursday through seven shutout innings against the Phillies. And, you know, obviously we've been calling him a regression candidate basically from the start of the year. I think most everybody who analyzes fantasy baseball has. And it kind of looked like maybe it was starting his first couple starts in June, four runs in six inning, five earn runs in a third innings. Here we go.

But then the last two starts, one in a run and six. and then you have the seven shut outings in this one. His ERA for the season now is back down to 240. Yeah, 240. 240, Bricelder has after 15 starts. So half a season, and it's taken him to a 240 ERA. And this, by the way, is following a stretch at the end of last season. Let me find it exactly.

his last five starts last season, Bryce Elder had a 165 ERA. And I feel like that's always even more telling if a player is able to carry over the success from the previous year. I don't know. That always feels like it has more staying power to me. And yet for half a season,

I've continued to assist, okay, he can't keep this going. But after this time, you know, it may be time to include, conclude that he's just a unicorn. And in fact, there was a tweet today by a data analyst, a contributor to baseball prospectus by the name of Robert Orr. And I'll just read the tweet to you.

If you are wondering how Bryce Elder has a sub-3ERA while sitting 89 to 90, this is it. It's nearly the steepest sinker in MLB. So it constantly gets beaten to the dirt. And then he goes on to say it has, very little wiggle. I don't know exactly what he means by that. But it doesn't move side to side.

It just basically dive straight down. Okay. So it's a sinker with unique properties. And, you know, sometimes what gets lost in these exit velocity discussions with pitchers or I guess hitters too. Because, you know, in addition to not getting many strikeouts, Elder has, he gives up hard contact. So like everything, it seems like everything's working against him. he's going to have to collapse. But if you're giving up ground balls at the rate he is,

which is now I think up to 57%, and they're a certain kind of ground ball that gets beat straight into the dirt, so it loses its velocity very quickly, then the exit velocity doesn't matter. Ground balls in general produce a higher exit velocity than fly balls. And when they're a certain characteristic of ground ball, they lose that velocity more quickly.

And I think that may be what's happening here with Bryce Elder. And again, like I said, we're talking about a 20-start stretch that's continued from one start to another, where he's just been excellent at run prevention. And I think I'm done doubting it. I'm not saying he's going to finish the year with the 240 ERA, but are we going to be talking about Bryce Elder at any point, about dropping Bryce Elder at any point?

I don't think so unless he gets hurt. think he's here to stay. Yeah, and I was looking into him on Thursday. I was updating my pitcher rankings, and I kind of came to the same conclusion that I think we just kind of need to trust it, right? He gets so many ground balls, as you mentioned, Scott, and he has two secondary pitches in his slider and change-up

that are both good enough. I don't think that either one is great, but entering the start, his slider had a 162 batting average against with a 33% whiff rate. That's a very good pitch. It's not a great pitch. His change-up, 205 batting average against 29% whiff rate.

It's a solid pitch. Probably helps him get lefties out. I think all of that combined with the sinker, it's probably enough. And he pitches on one of the best teams in baseball too. So should get some run support and obviously lots of wins there as well for Bryce Alder. I moved them up to SP 44.

Might be aggressive, but with everything he's done this season and just kind of looking into him a little bit further, this was the conclusion that I came to as well. And I'm pretty much buying it. Chris? I can't move him that high, but he's 56 for me. Maybe I can move him a little higher than that.

I think, like, we have to calibrate what Bryce Elder is for real means, right? Because he's got a 240 ERA. And I would probably, if you added a run in a quarter to that, I think that would probably be a reasonable rest of season approximation of what he's likely to do. that being said, but what's that? I'm going to add less to it than that, but go ahead. I mean, a 365 ERA is really good.

I don't know like that's, I'll put him in a 320 ERA the rest of the way. That might be a little bit ambitious. He's probably a top 10, maybe top five, Cy Young guy if he has a 320 ERA the rest of the way. And maybe he'll be that.

Look, I have no idea, but like this is not just a doubting Bryce Elder thing. I have similar concerns about Marcus Stroman. that's not to say I don't think they'll be useful moving forward, but I don't think just because they've put up sub 2-5 ERAs so far means they're likely to do anything close to that moving forward. And while, yes, Bryce Elder does seem to be an outlier, one, as a general rule,

you're not going to go broke betting against outliers. Just that's a useful heuristic to approach fantasy baseball with. You're not always going to win, but generally speaking, you're going to go, right more often than not. And as good as he's been, as much weak contact as he allows, all that stuff, like, that's baked into the various stats that we use. And those various stats aren't always perfect.

Kyle Hendricks outran his peripherals for years. But Bryce Elder does have a 391 XERA right now. So that takes into account as best as we can approximate the quality of contact that he's allowing in addition to the other metrics that we look at. So, right, but I'm giving him more credit. I'm giving him more credit than that. No, I'm saying 360 ERA. I'm being perfectly fair to Bryce Elder, I think.

But it's still just to say that like, I still think he's an obvious sell. Hi, Canada. And I, the comp I would use, not necessarily like a perfect player comp, but in terms of the results would be Martin Perez, who at a similar point last season, I was looking very dumb about my skepticism of Martin Perez. And he ended up being a pretty good pitcher for pretty much the entire season. He had a 220 ERA as of June 27th.

It was his 15th start. Bryce Elder made his 15th start today. Martin Perez had a 350 ERA last season. Now, the offensive environment is a little different. There are more runs being scored this year. And so a 350 ERA last year is probably more like a three. 70 ERA. So again, I'm giving Bryce Elder a little more credit than that. But it's just he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. He's got good but not elite control. He's got a lot of

ground balls, but not necessarily elite quality of contact suppression. And so I added all up. And it's just, I remain skeptical of a sub three. That is a different thing than I think he's bad. Yeah, you're wanting to give him a high three ZRA though. I don't know. We've spent enough time talking about the guy who's universally rostered probably so we can move on. But I still think I will take every opportunity to sell high on Bryce Alder that I can. Okay. Well, put a bow on this because we've done the thing now where we've talked about two players in a matter of 20 minutes.

But I move Bryce Elder ahead of names like Chris Bassett, Lucas Gilito, Luis Severino, who's lost right now, and Sunny Gray. And if you look at the expected ERA for all of those guys, it's also not really good. So I think that's just the range in the rankings where it's close. Like you're, you know, it's, you're picking nits again. But I just think with what Bryce Elder has done so far. And again, even if he's like a mid to high three ZRA, he's probably in a similar range of skill level with those other pitchers I just mentioned.

Quick, oh my goodness gracious for me is Michael Garcia. I spoke about him the other day and I wanted to give him a little bit more credit. He had a great game here on Thursday, two for four with three steals, two runs, and an RBI was his first time leading off the season for the Royals. And over his last eight games, he has 13 hits, a home run, and five steals.

He's batting 287 now on the season. The plate discipline is okay, about an 8% walk rate, 21% strikeout rate, expected numbers look fine. And he hits the ball really hard. A average exit velocity, a 52% hard hit rate. And he's 68th percentile in sprint speed up. Michael Garcia had 39 steals in the minors last year. I just think that he is really under-roastered,

at least for what he's shown over the past, like, couple of weeks, 9% rostered. I think if you play in a deeper category league or even a 12-team Roto League, you might have some utility for this guy, either as a corner or a middle infielder. He's providing some batting average and speed, has third base and shortstop eligibility.

I am pretty interested in what we've seen from Michael Garcia, are either of you. Not really. I know. I brought him up the other day. You didn't like him either, but I don't know. I'm interested. Yeah.

Not really. The weird thing is how much of his values coming from stolen bases when he doesn't, he doesn't rate out as a particularly fast base runner. I think you said 60 something percentile in sprint speed, 68th percent on sprint speed. And like, he's got 10 steals in, what is it, 51 major league games for his career. 10 of them in 42 games this season. He had 16 and 64 games at triple. I mean, I guess, I don't know.

He might just be a... Yeah, he had 39 in the minors last. Yeah, might just be a better base runner than his sport speed. Functional speed than maybe pure speed. And maybe he'll continue doing that. But I feel like Mikel Garcia is from the Luis Arias, Ramona Reyes, basically every infielder named Arias Vane. where he's going to have stretches where he's usable,

but in the long run, the numbers are going to be pretty mediocre. He's going to steal more bases than those guys, but he's probably going to hit fewer homers. Yeah, I think that's probably fair. Definitely fewer homers, but I'm pretty confident he hits the ball harder than those guys as well. So maybe it could lend itself to a higher batting average

than anything we've seen from those players. But if he's leading off, I think obviously that can add to his value as well, with the run scored and volume of plate appearances. So again, if you do play in a Categories league, you need some speed or batting average. The name there, Michael Garcia. Wanted to give a shout out to Byron Buxton, who we've been waiting for a while to see some kind of positivity. And he did exactly that on Thursday.

Two for four with a double dong. He's up to 13 home runs. His first homer of the day, 112.2 exit velocity, 466 feet. His second homer of the day, 11.9 exit velocity, 465 feet. that's not normal. That's really impressive stuff. Now it's putting it together more consistently, staying on the field.

I mean, these are the things we talk about a lot for Byron Buckson. I believe this is the first time in the Stackast era that a player has had two home runs of at least 460 feet. That would not surprise me. Yes, it is an amazing feat. But now we just need to see it a little bit more consistently from Firembuds. And he's not healthy.

There's been some. candid quotes from Rocco Baldelli where he just, they straight up said he's not going to play the outfield this season. He's not physically capable of playing the outfield. So I, I think there are going to remain, uh, it's knee issues still from the offseason issues that he had. So that's frustrating, but, you know, he is what he is. A very good player. All right. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll get to those two big injuries from Thursday right after this. Welcome back. And a quick reminder to download and follow our five minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball, Day in Five.

If you're watching us live on YouTube, pull out your phone, scan that QR code. It'll take you right to the podcast where again you can download and follow. We talk about the biggest headlines, biggest players, waiver wire moves for that day in just five minutes. So we do appreciate it. Let's talk about the big injuries of the day. Shane McClanahan exited his start due to mid-back tightness and could potentially be a big loss. We don't know the full extent of of the injury yet, but he was entering Thursday the SP1 in both Head Dead Points Leagues and in Roto this year.

The fastball velocity was down 1.6 miles per hour in the start. Kevin Cass said he hopes McClanahan will be okay after receiving treatment on his back and the other injury, Brian Reynolds. We knew about this for the past couple days. He was out of the lineup, excuse me, and then was officially placed on the IL

with lower back inflammation on Thursday. And he has been a top 20, one. That's a weird number. He is the outfielder 15 and head to head to fielder 21 in Roto this season. That is Brian Reynolds. I don't know if you guys have anything to add. Obviously, we could talk about some replacements here, but two potentially, you know, massive losses in Shane O'Mack and Brian Reynolds. Yeah, I think one takeaway here. We might be back to streaming again. It's the Pirates. They had a nice little run, but

yeah, that lineup looks pretty stinky right now. Henry David, did hit his first major league home run today, and he's started every game since getting called up. Three of them at right field has not appeared at catcher so far. That's actually a good thing for his fantasy value, so happy to see that. But, yeah, Jack Swinsky's been, he's hit a couple home runs, but yeah, he's hitting 163 in the month of June after hitting 207 in the month of May. So I think we're back to him being a little bit of a pumpkin. and yeah, Pirates lineup is pretty stinky. Hopefully, Shane McClanahan is fine.

That is the bigger takeaway. Yeah, I mean, when he left, we didn't know exactly what the injury was and his velocity being down, your mind went to the worst possible place. But if it's a back issue, maybe he goes on the IL, it's probably the standard, like four to six week injury. It's not something that's going to keep him out forever. So I don't think that's the worst possible outcome.

And look, maybe it's not even that bad. But I'm saying like if that's the worst it is, then it could have been a lot worse than that. And if he does go on the IL, I don't know that I would completely freak out because the All Star break is coming up. So to give him a little bit of an extended absence to rest and recover and get ready for the second half,

it wouldn't be the worst thing. Hopefully by the time we're back on this podcast, it's like, all right, he's good to go. And there's no issues. So wish, thinking there on Shane. He could miss four weeks and probably only miss like three turns in the

three or four turns in the rotation. So, you know, the timing for this is never great, but could certainly be worse. And again, if you're looking for replacements for McLeanahan, we spoke about Braxton Garrett earlier, 71% rostered. We'll talk about a few other waiver wire pitchers in just a little bit.

And I wanted to talk about some big pitching performances. Obviously, Garrett was one of the bigger ones of the day. And I want to mention on the other side of that game. We did have ourselves a bit of a pitching duel. I got some good feedback from it, so I'm not going to overplay it, but hey, if we get a few pitching duels, you will get more Yu-Gi-o in your lives. Mitch Keller, at the Marlins, seven innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts,

only six swinging strikes on 107 pitches. His velocity down a little bit in the start, the sinker down 0.7 miles per hour. The cutter was down 2.6 miles per hour, and he has had single-digit swinging strikes in four straight. So this is kind of weird because this was a great performance, but I'm using it as an opportunity to talk about how Mitch Keller has kind of been mediocre recently. His last six outings, a 5.2 ERA, a 135 whip, right around a strikeout per inning.

Walks have been an issue again. Scott, any concern here on Mitch Keller? It looks like he might be slowing down a little bit. Not major concerns. I will point out, like he hasn't been as big swinging strike guy all year. He's been like a 10% swinging strike rate guy. So below average, or at least average.

I don't know exactly what average is for swinging strike rate, but that's worse than you usually think of a pitcher with his strikeout rate having, a high-end pitcher having a 10% swinging strike rate. So that number specifically doesn't bother me with Keller. I think it's better just to ignore the swinging strikes with him, more or less. He has given up some more runs lately. His ERA estimators still look great. I mean, he is underperforming all of his ERA estimators.

And he's still getting strikeouts. So yeah, I'm not that concerned. He was, you know, he started, he had a 244 ERA at the start of this stretch and was bound to have some correction from there. I think this is just kind of the ebb and flow of the season, though. And I'm not panicking over Mitch Keller. The one thing I would say is he might just be more like a strikeout printing guy than a truly high-end strikeout pitcher. But given what else he does well, particularly with regards to hard contact and, and the improvements he's made in control.

I think you live with that. It's just maybe he's not an ace. Maybe he's more like a top 25 starting pitcher. And I think for the most part, that's how we've been treating him. He's right around that 20 to 25 range in all three of our starter pitcher rankings. Just want to point out the league average swinging strike rate

is 11% because I haven't looked it up in a while, Scott, and I guess I wanted to 11. That's what I thought it was. Yeah. But yeah, I hadn't looked it up in a while. either. Two other massive pitching performances from Thursday. Joe Ryan bounced back with the first complete game, the first shutout of his career. Up against the Red Sox, he only allowed three hits, zero walks with nine

strikeouts and 16 swinging strikes on a whopping 112 pitches. They really let Joe Ryan go here to try and accomplish this and he was fantastic. He's down to a 298 ERA, a 0.91 whip over a strikeout per inning and Like Mitch Keller, his last four starts before this, a 608 ERA. The whip was still really good during that time. So, you know, maybe it's just some natural regression. But Chris, I mentioned earlier, I was updating the pitcher rankings. I moved Joe Ryan up to SP 13.

It might be aggressive, but I just feel like we've seen enough at this point this season where like everybody else in that range kind of has some issues. So I'm buying in. I moved them up. Yeah, I think that's probably a little aggressive. but I've got him 20th and, you know, guys like U. Darvish and Shane Bieber are still ahead of him and I could easily jump in him ahead of those guys.

So the range isn't, you know, outrageous to me. I just don't quite have him there. But yeah, he's clearly very, very good. It's sort of a very streamlined two-pitch approach. And, you know, the four-seeing fastball is a very, very good pitch for him. So it all works. I think because it's such a very strong, a limited arsenal, I could see there being a point where opposing hitters start to catch up.

And, you know, obviously that new, not new splitter, but, you know, refined splitter, I guess. That's become his number two pitch clearly, you know, is maybe catching hitters off guard. And, you know, maybe there will be some regression moving forward. I would bet on that. But I think he's going to be very, very good moving forward, obviously, having a top 20 starting pitcher that's pretty valuable. He went back to emphasizing the fastball on this start, which he's been doing a lot. lately, two-thirds of his pitches were fastballs.

They got the vast majority of his swinging strikes. The splitter was actually down a bit in velocity, which may have been intentional. It may have helped the fastball to play up. So I have Joe Ryan's 16th. I've had him there for a while now. You said 13th, Frank. That whole range, like 12 to 20 at starting pitcher,

has really been tough for me to figure out because it's a lot of, like, guys I'm afraid to move down. and then there are guys below them that I'm afraid to move in like a Merrill Kelly for instance or Nate Avaldi especially with the way he's been going recently

and actually Christian Javier is part of that range and he's right in the thick of that because I had a little back and forth with Eno Seris on Twitter the other day because he was talking about some concerns he had about Javier and was talking about dropping him to like 40th

in a starting pitch pitcher rankings. And I'm like, I was like, you know, is it possible we're overreacting here to just a few underwhelming starts from Javier? He started the year strong, et cetera, et cetera. I did move him down to 20. So we talked about this on yesterday's pot. I moved him down to 27.

So I'm somewhere between the two of you. I looked at it again and I kept them at 13th. But like that's a perfect example of what I'm struggling with at this range of starting pitchers. Like after you get past the Aces who themselves haven't been as done. dominant as we're used to saying that. I think every range of starting pitchers is kind of a mess right now. It's not to say that it's bad, but it's one, just a different environment. ERA is up like a quarter of a run, I think, from last season, if I'm remembering correctly.

So like there's just been a little bit of a change in how pitching works. And also there haven't been a lot of guys who have been consistently great. And so I look at like every range of starting pitcher. and it's like, you know, 25 through 30s, like Pablo Lopez, Logan Gilbert, Christian Javier, George Kirby, Julio Reyes, Tyler Glass now for me. And it's like, I don't feel confident any of those guys, not necessarily that I don't feel confident in any of them. I don't feel confident that I have any of them ranked correctly. And it's like that at every point. And like, I'm a bigger Blake Snell skeptic than I think you guys are right now, but I've got him 32.

That's higher than me. I know. So I mean, and then after today's start, maybe I should move up that high myself. And this is the thing. There should be 12th in my start. But I think this is the thing is that like pitching, especially in season is always really fluid because pitchers production and success fluctuates wildly. And then this year, it just, it feels like I don't really have a good sense of anyone, except like Clayton Churchill.

He's awesome. He's probably got an I-L stint coming. And I've probably got him ranked too low at 18. Yeah, I moved them up to SP15, Chris, for that reason. He's like one of the pitchers that is consistently pitching well this year. But yeah, you do have that risk of injury at some point. I was going to say the cutoff at least for me, I feel pretty good about the top 30, 32, if you want to include like Hunter Brown in that mix. But after that, to me, it's the Wild West.

If you told me you wanted to have Bryce Elder as your 33rd pitcher or Blake Snell, I have no issue with that. It's, then we get into, at least for me, it's Lazzardo, Zach Eflin, Justin Steele, Marcus Stroman. To be clear, like, I feel pretty good about Hunter Brown, who I've got in like the 40 range and Tony Gonslin. And it's not that I don't feel good about any pitchers. I don't feel good about the order of them. That's what I'm struggling with this season, more than anything.

Yeah. Well, like James Paxton. Should he be a top 35 pitcher right now? Oh, you could. He looks awesome. Yeah. I mean, if he stays healthy, he's probably a top 20 pitcher the rest of the way. But you have to factor in a certain amount of injury risk there.

Yeah, it's, it's just starting pitcher this year. I mean, starting pitcher every year, but starting pitcher this year. Yeah. I use K-minus Walker A lot when I'm updating my rankings. And I put the threshold to 30, minimum 30 innings pitched. James Paxton is third in baseball in K-minus Walker and Sierra. He's been amazing. I moved him up to SP45, but again, he's one of the tougher pitchers to rank, as is Blake Snell,

who is on one of those crazy runs right now. He was at the Giants, six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts, 22 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. He had at least four swinging strikes on all four of his pitches in this one. And he's down to a 322 ERA, a 123 whip, 104 strikeouts over 81 innings pitched. And over his last five starts, he has allowed one earned run with 50 strikeouts and a 17.8% swinging strike rate. So the earlier part of the season when we said, hey, you know, something like this could happen for Blake Snell. We've seen this kind of play out too many times in the past. And yeah, it just kind of seems like Blake Snell is back to where we had him ranked before the season.

It's just a lot of up and down to get there. So at what point do you cash out? Are we there? It's a good question. What could you get for Blake's now? I can't imagine a better three-start stretch by a pitcher this season. I mean, not even that. He has a 0.50 ERA over his last six starts,

which is the lowest of his career. I mean, that's not to say this is the best Blake Snell has ever pitched, but the results right now are just to be. as good as we've ever seen over a month. So who knows what to make of that? But, you know, it's pretty good. And the last two years, once he found it, he pretty much sustained it through the end of the season.

But one of those years, he got injured well before the season was over. And another one, both times, it was later in the year than this. So I don't know that we can just assume that's going to happen again. But his last six, I'm wondering around a last. in his last six starts three straight with double digit strikeouts. And yet, he has a 455X IRA also for the season, which is like a run in a quarter worse than his actual ERA. And then the other thing that makes it really hard to figure out is last year,

it was spam the slider. That's the answer, Blake Snell. We figured it out. We know how to make Blake Snow good. He just has to throw his slider a ton. And that's the exact opposite of what he's doing during this stretch. His slider has, what was it today? His slider was his third most used pitch.

It's been below 20% pretty much every start during this stretch. And it's just confounding. Yeah. Is that the right word? Yeah. That sounds like the right word. I think so. Somebody in the chat asked trade Snell for Sandy Alcantara.

I would definitely do that. I was going to bring that name up exactly. Yeah. No, I'd do that. And I moved like Alcantra is in that range. of 12 to 20 where I'm not sure exactly what to do with them, but I still think they're too good to drop out of the 12 to 20 range. So I get why that's possible.

And that is the sort of deal I would be looking to make with Blake Snell right in it. Like if I could trade Blake Snell as if he is a presumed ace the way Sandy Alcantra is, then that would be enough for me to cash out. If you can't get that return for Blake Snell yet, then let's see how long he can keep this going because another more, another couple more. starts like this and you probably can't. I was trying to look for a hitter that made sense.

It's, you know, Michael Harris' season line is, I know he's had a great June, but the season line still doesn't look great. It's, if you could turn Blake Stellant to Michael Harris, would you do that? I'm not. I have a lot of faith in Michael Harris, so maybe I should say yes. But, like, I don't know that you

necessarily have to do a buy, low, sell high combination. I mean, we brought up the Alcantra example, which is that. But I, like, you may just be able to trade snow, for a really good shortstop or whatever. It's worth looking into. All right. Well, let's quickly hit some news and notes.

And we will, wow, there's a lot of stuff on this run. We've been talking a lot. How about that? Interesting news as race manager, Kevin Cash, said Wander Franco will remain out of the lineup through at least Friday due to the way he's handled frustrations this season. Wander Franco is still just 22 years old. Sounds like he's got to work on some maturity there.

But this was, I don't know, I guess a pretty weird eye-opening report here from Thursday. Yeah, there are not a lot of details, but he basically said something along the lines of he's not being the kind of teammate we want him to be. There's something going on behind the scenes. They said he's not going to play. Didn't play Thursday. Won't play Friday. I would guess he's back Saturday and is back to playing every day. And it's a non-issue.

And it's a bump in the road. but you know, he's 22 years old. I didn't handle everything in my life well at 22 years old. I'm sure none of us did. So just a reminder of how young this dude is. Yep. Aaron Judge has progressed to pool, balance, and strength work. That's the latest update.

We still don't have a timetable. Walker Bueller threw a bullpen session on Thursday. His first since undergoing Tommy John surgery last August. He is turning a targeting, September return for this season. Sean Murphy appeared as a pinch hitter Thursday, but won't be ready to start Friday's game just yet. He's been hampered by a tweaked hamstring.

Lance Lynn was reinstated from the bereavement list and will make his next start Saturday against the Red Sox. Lamont Wade has missed three straight with right side tightness. Alex Verdugo was placed on the bereavement list and plans to rejoin the team Tuesday against the Marlins. Trevor Rogers remains shut down from throwing and he was recently shut down with discomfort in his non-throwing shoulder. Will Brennan was out of the lineup with left shoulder sorenness.

The Mets option Tyler McGill to AAA. No word yet on who will replace him in the rotation. The Red Sox, I missed this yesterday. They promoted infield prospect David Hamilton on Wednesday. Then he made his first start on Thursday, and he has a lot of speed. This season in the minors was betting 255 with 11 homers and 27 steals.

He's 25 years old. He had 70 steals in the minors last season. Scott, is there anything to see here with David Hamilton? There might be. I imagine it would be in a Michael Garcia sort of way, if there is. In that I don't think there's a ton of upside. Enrique Hernandez, their usual shortstop has been terrible this year. So I could understand.

I see a path for David Hamilton to become a, at least a semi-regular player for them. He bats left-handed, which doesn't help with regular bats. Mainly, I'm not convinced he's a good enough hitter to make a fantasy impact. 25 years old, you know, was hitting 255 at AAA. I spent some time in independent ball, so it's not like he was, he's followed the conventional development path. But he's fast, and we'll see how much he plays.

And they have said specifically that, like, Enrique Hernandez is no longer their everyday shortstop. So it could be that they're searching for. an answer there. It's a sad, sad day as Willie Calhoun was placed in the aisle with a left quadrane. Willie, we'll always remember you. And one unfortunate prospect note, Zach Veen underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left hand and will miss the rest of the minor league season for the Rockies minor league affiliate. Let's take our final break and when we return our week 14 preview here on fantasy baseball today. Let's get into our week 14 preview and start things off with

schedule thankfully zero teams with five games next week 24 teams have six games and six teams have seven games next week that includes the white socks tigers Mets angels Brewers and Rangers as for the Rockies they do have six home games next week three against the Dodgers and three against the Tigers starters sit these two start pitchers we'll go all the way to the top Sandy Ocansara at the Red Sox and the Braves. Scott, we know he's struggling

and he's got two really tough matchups next week. What say you? Well, I have him out of the top tier, out of the

obvious must start everywhere tier, but he's still in that second tier where you're probably going to start him everywhere. I would.

It's a tougher call in Roto, I'd say, and points, it's a no-brainer, even with the tough matchups. But I think even in

those Roto leagues, I'm going to come down on the side of rolling the dice on the ERA and whip to get a lot of innings and hopefully at least one win in those two matchups. All right.

Sunny Gray has been slowing down recently. As we mentioned yesterday, he is at the Braves and at the Orioles. Chris, what do you think about Sunny Gray for next week? I would start him, especially with it at Baltimore. That's a good place to pitch. So, yeah, he's slowing down, but I still think there's quite a bit to like about him. Scott, for people who play in deeper leagues, they might look at Paul Blackburn as somebody who has, he's pitched okay at times.

this year. He's up against the Yankees and the White Sox. He is in the no thanks tier, the fourth of the four tiers, which, you know, means I'm probably not going to consider him. But he is the very first pitcher in that tier. So it's kind of, it's kind of borderline in deeper points leagues, I'd say, whether you consider Paul Blackburn or not. Okay. Well, let's get into the two-star pitchers that you should consider. The ones that we want to add in stream are

whom, Scotty? So I was talking about Ranger Suarez is a two-star pitcher. last week and I guess because of the rainout on Wednesday he's now a two-star pitcher next week. So it's a good thing he came through in that one start against the Braves or else there would have been a lot of mad people.

His matchups this week, Ranger Suarez are better at the Cubs and against the Nationals. So that is a really good play. Garrett Whitlock, also in line for two starts. He has been incredible in his last three starts

and is trending up for me. versus Miami at the Blue Jays. That's good enough for me. Gavin Williams. His debut was a mixed bag, the way so many of the pitching prospects have had mixed bag debuts this year. But there was enough promising there,

I think, to go ahead and run him out in a two-start week, especially given the matchups at Kansas City and at the Cubs. Julio Tehran is kind of, you know, Bryce Elder Part 2 here.

And he has two starts at the Mets at the Pirates. I'm going to go ahead and give him the thumbs up for this week. And then these are my... I don't think I could do that in a Roto League. Well, that's what I will say. Maybe I'm just a coward. Pretty good a match-up, so I like it.

Yeah. No, it's fine matchups. Obviously, the main thing to Ron has excelled out. is run prevention. So if you have any faith in him at all, I don't. You know, it's not a situation where it's a big strikeout guy who's going to wreck your ratio stats, you know? Right.

That's why I'm saying I don't have faith in him. Okay. Just on a skill level. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, so then these are two options that I have in the points league only tier. Read Dettmer's going against the White Sox and the Diamondbacks coming off his best start of the season. but if he wasn't making two starts,

I don't think I'd consider him at all, just given how blah, he's been apart from the strikeouts, and then Martin Perez, always a good, a good streaming type when he's making two starts because he tends to work deep into games.

And one of his two matchups this week is against the Tigers. All right. White Sox and Diamondbacks are both kind of middle of the pack, like 15th and 18th in Wobah against left-handed pitchers. So I would go with Debt

Detmer's. I would have him over Tehran for sure. And then the single-star streamers for next week. Four names. Brian Beow up against the Marlins, Braxton Garrett at the Red Sox. Taiwan Walker, whose velocity has been up recently. He's been pitching well at the Cubs. And Brian,

at home, against the Washington. We haven't talked about Wu yet today, have we? I know. I was going to bring it up right now. Brian Wu up against the nationals. He's allowed two earn runs or fewer. In three straight, he was at the Yankees on Thursday. He went five and a third shutout, two hits, three walks, five strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes. And he's had 11 or more swinging strikes in each of his past three starts. Chris, any latest thoughts here on Brian Wu? Solid matchup next week. Yeah, 23 strikeouts in 14 and two thirds innings. Both the fastball and slider look like at least pretty good swing and miss pitches. So I think there's a decent amount to like about Brian Wu. And he's kind of kind of

gotten overshadowed, I think partially because his first start was really, really bad. What was it? Four runs and two innings or something. I'm pretty sure that was against the Rangers, too. Yeah. Last three starts have been actually quite good, two or fewer and runs in each. A lot of strikeouts, a lot of swings and misses. So I like him against Washington.

I think, I think he's worth picking up. So that's a, he has a 509 ERA on the season, but he entered the day with a 260 expected ERA. That's got to be one of the biggest. disparities in a favorable way. Enter the day with a 16% swinging strike grade, too. His last two starts, which have been his best two now, he's de-emphasized the fastball, throwing it less than 50% of the time,

which is probably a good formula because he has a full enough arsenal with that slider, like Chris pointed out. And, yeah, he's gotten good results. So with that matchup, I think Brian Wu is a good streamer for this week. And maybe somebody you just hang on to after that. By the way, do you notice I have Braxton Garrett in there as a sleeper pitcher even against the red side? Yeah, that's the problem, though, is Boston's bottom five in strikeouts against lefties

or strikeout rate against lefties and top five in Wobah against lefties. So it's real tough, but ultimately, I think the pitcher has deserved the right to start even with an unfavorable matchup. I think that's fair. Let's slide over to the hitters. Best matchups for next week, the Brewers, Dodgers, Rockies, Tigers, and Rangers. the worst hitter matchups, giants, pirates, angels, royals, and the nationals.

Scott, with that being said, your favorite sleeper hitters for week 14. So I'm a little underwhelmed by this group overall, especially since we have a full week at Cors Field. I was hoping there were more hitters who could take advantage of that that were available enough to mention here. But my top two both play for the Rangers. I think they're two of the most under-roastered players right now.

You mentioned the Rangers. 100% agree. Best matchups. and they are Laudy Taveris and Ezekiel Duran. Duran, you can play at three different positions, third base shortstop in the outfield. And he continues to play most every day. Tavaris.

I don't know why it's taken so long for Tavares to get picked up. His strikeout rate's low enough that even in points leagues, even in three outfielder points leagues, I think he's somebody worth starting. That's just fatigue, right? That's just like we've known this guy's name for like six years and he's never done anything? Yeah, maybe.

I don't know what it is. Okay, so the Tigers are one of the two teams at visiting course field this week. They have the fourth best matchups overall. From their lineup, Javier Baez has been heating up. So I think he's a fine play. Also, Carrie Carpenter, especially when you consider that there is only,

there are two lefties on the schedule for the Tigers, but in seven games. So he'll have five games against righties. Tommy Pham has been on fire for the Mets. He might be part of what's keeping them from calling up their prospect Ronnie Maricio, who's been playing left field at AAA recently. But Tommy FAM has been hitting so well that what are you going to do? You've got to just keep playing FAM if you're the Mets until he cools off,

which I think he eventually will, even if you look at his, even though if you look at a stat-cast page, it's like blazing red. You know, we've been down this road with Tommy fan before, including just last year. But he's hot right now, and the Mets have good match-ups. So he's a fine play, only 13% rostered. I like two players from the Reds because they have only one lefty on the schedule. Jake Fraley and T.J. Friedel, they pretty much only start against Ritey's, but they are producing right now.

And should play a lot this week. Let's see. Guardians have pretty good matchups. Ahmed Rosario's been hot, so he's on here. Ezekiel Tavar is the only Rocky who is available enough and good enough that I was able to pick out to include among the sleeper hitters with that full week at course field. And finally, I like Jake Berger this week. I liked him last week, too, and he's done like nothing.

It seems like one of those players who's going to be either very, very good or horrid. hopefully he'll be very, very good this week. The White Sucks have seven games. They're facing the A's pitching staff in three of them. And he has huge power. So Jake Berger, pretty good start. All right. And where are we using Shohei Otani?

I mean, I think the way he's hitting right now, it's not really a choice, but he did just come off a double-digit strikeout pitching performance. And the Angels have seven games next week, Scott. Otani doesn't have two starts next week, right? No, he's projected to start Wednesday. Okay. So I think that will come against the White Sox. Probably comes down to what stats you need on your team.

Let's wrap up with some leftovers here and we'll start with some waiver wire hitters. If you lost Brian Reynolds, somebody who still might be out there, surprising. He's only 61% rostered. Is Marcelo Zuna, who went one for four with his 14th home run. And since the start of May, 40 games played. He is batting 306 with 12 homers, 30 RBI, and a 15% barrel rate. So, again, just 61% rostered and should be able to provide a similar skill set to Brian Reynolds. Obviously, no speed there.

Like, he might be the most under-rastered player. I know I mentioned those two Rangers. He was so bad in April batting 0-something. 0.85. It's taken a while for his full season. stats to look decent, but they do now because he's been so hot for so long. And he doesn't seem to be slowing down. He had three balls.

He had the home run, of course, on Thursday, but he had two other balls hit more than 100 miles per hour. One had an expected batting average of over 800, but it was an out. So, like, he's still, he's still doing great, moved up to clean up today for the Braves. I mean, started 40 of 45 games in that stretch. So, yeah, or played 40 to 45. I don't know if he started all of them. I can't guarantee Marcel Ozone is going to keep it. going forever, but I don't think it's just a flash in the pan. I think he seems to have

rediscovered himself at least for now. And of course, other Brian Reynolds replacements, the names that Scott mentioned, Lioti Tavares, I think is a good one out there. Eddie Rosario as well. And in deeper leagues, you mentioned Tommy FAM, who I notice is playing well. And Alex Thomas is back up for the debacks and he's also been playing well for them. Who would you rather have between Kibrian Hayes and Royce Lewis. Kibrian Hayes went two for four with his fifth homer on Thursday and in the month of June he's betting

365 with three homers, two steals, a 933 OPS and the highest pull rate of any month this season. So you see how those things correlate, right? I've said this for a while. Brian Hayes, he needs to pull the ball more if he wants to tap into that hard contact

and he's been doing it this month and obviously the results have been pretty good and then Royce Lewis went two for four with his first deal. He's batting 319 with an 816 OPS. Chris, two third base eligible players here who would you rather have Key Brian Hayes or Royce Lewis. One thing I want to point out, there's a really good piece on

fan graphs two days ago on Wednesday about Brian Hayes and just the changes that he's made to his skill set so far this season. I don't necessarily know if they qualify his improvements because the problem is he hits the ball really hard. But when he hits the ball hard, he tends to only hit it on the ground. And so he still hasn't figured out the, he's elevating the ball a little bit more, but he tends to hit the ball soft when he elevates it. He hits the ball hard when he hits it on the ground. So I would go with Royce Lewis. They're, you know, he's not playing quite every day yet.

And I think they're going to continue to manage his reps. But I, uh, I feel pretty good about Royce Lewis moving forward. All right. You mentioned earlier that Henry Davis hit his first career home run on Thursday. It was 407 feet. And Gary Sanchez has slowed down a little, a little bit recently. but he went three for five with his seventh home run in just 22 games played with the Padres. Scott, one catcher league. If you've been looking to stream, I assume we're going with Henry Davis over Gary Sanchez. Yeah, definitely Davis. They're not even close in my rankings.

You say Gary Sanchez has cooled off. He was 0 for 18 prior to this three-hit performance. But still, I mean, that never seemed like it was going to have much of a shelf life. Now, I was just looking into Key Brian Hayes' bad. batted balls from Thursday. And his home run was 97 miles per hour off the bat. He had two other hits. A ground out, which was 104.

So again, that kind of feeds into the theory. And a double that was 106.7. That was 14 degree launching. So probably more of a line drive. But yeah, seems to check out, Chris, based on what you said. A few other waiver wire pitchers here. J.P. Sears has gone seven in back-to-back starts.

He was at the Guardians. He allowed two runs with eight strikeouts and 12 swinging strikes on 106 pitches. And we already spoke about Brian Wu. Scott, do you think J.P. Sears needs to be more rostered than 29%. Yeah, probably more than 29% given the need everybody has for pitching. Now, his biggest issue is he pitches for the A's. And as I said a lot recently, the win is the most valuable pitching statistic in fantasy, at least in typical scoring formats.

And so it's going to be hard for him to win much with them. But his last eight starts now, J.P. Sears has a 293 ERA, a 0.91 whip, 8.2K per 9. I'm not saying he needs to be 99% roster. What did you say was? 29%. Yeah. Doesn't need to be 99% roster, but maybe 59% rostered. I would say there's one bigger issue. He has a 57% fly ball rate.

I don't know that that's a bad. thing, though. Well, he doesn't, it'll help him suppress Babbitt some, but he also, he has a two home runs per nine, which is not a fluke, I would say. Not based on that fly ball rate, but playing at Oakland, man, that definitely could help mask it. Yeah, yeah, 14% home run to fly ball ratio and two home runs per nine is like, that's not an outlier home run to fly ball ratio. That's probably earned. Yeah. Yeah. He'll bring this. circle. He's not Christian Javier in terms of suppressing batting average with all the fly balls. But I do think that is the key to the degree that J.P. Sears is good. I think that's the key to it is he doesn't allow a lot of hits on contact.

But the tradeoff is there'll be a fair number of home runs. All right. And one other pitching note here, Domingo Hermann has allowed 15 earned runs over his past two starts. His ERA is 5.1. He's gone? Yep. Yeah. I mean, there are plenty of leagues where you can still roster Domingo Harmon.

I'm not saying every 15 team league he should be dropped, but most leagues, I have no interest in rostering him. Domingo Hermon, Hawk Harrelson says, He gone, he gone, he gone, and he go on. He gone. He gone. He gone. He gone.

That's pretty long. He gone. I didn't realize how long. I didn't realize how long I made that. That was something I made, I think, the first week I was here on the job, and I don't think I've ever played it. So that was a really long compilation there. But the point of the story is, Domingo Haman, you are gone.

What do we do with Jared Kelnick? He went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in a game that the Mariners scored 10 runs. And I've got to say, that is one of the worst feelings in fantasy. You go to check a box score. You see a team scored all these runs that one of your players is on. He goes 0 for 5. with three strikeouts. Since the start of May,

43 games for Kelnick. He is betting 225 with a 36% strikeout rate. He's still 89% rostered. Should that be the case? Yeah, his strikeout rate is up to 36% since the start of May. Just said that, Chris.

I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. That's, uh, so I don't know. I, I'm having a hard time. saying you should drop him,

but I can't make a particularly compelling affirmative case for him. It would be a format specific thing for me. The only reason I say 89 might be too high for Jared Kelnick is I'm thinking about three outfielder points leagues where you just don't have to go that deep at the position and the strikeouts do so much to suppress Kelnik's value anyway. Like swapping out Kelnik for Marcel Ozuna in that format, for instance.

Like that's something I'd be okay with. And obviously, I don't know what the future holds, but my hunch is, you know, as bad as he's been the last two months, Jared Kelnick will have another huge month before the season is over. Like, you know, we, just because a player is performing a certain way recently, and this is kind of the point I would have made about Christian Javier if I was on yesterday's show, like, doesn't mean that's who he is now. Oh, of course. There is an ebb and flow to the baseball season. and everybody has peaks and valleys. And just because he struck out 36% of the time over the next two months,

doesn't mean he's going to strike out 36% of the time moving forward. The counter. 30% of the time. But, you know, it's, there. The counter there would be with regards to Jared Kalinick, as he's had exactly one good month in the majors. Sure. Yeah.

But it was a really good month. And that is no, but it's no longer the most recent month. And his season long expected stats are still very good. Yeah. And yeah, I don't know what the future holds, but that is my hunch with Kalnick, is that we haven't seen the last of him being good.

Let's wrap up with some bullpen updates here for the Diamondbacks. Miguel Castro got the final out in the seventh inning. Andrew Chafin pitched in the eighth, and then Joe Mantiply started the ninth inning. He gave up two runs, and Scott McGuff came in, got the final two outs for his fifth save. That's his second save in as many days. He's 24% rostered.

And I think if you're playing a 12-team Roto League or deeper and you're desperate for saves, I think McGuff is probably the ad for you right now. I've been picking him up and shallower than that, Eve, there, even. I mean, I think he's got the last three saves for them now. He has four of the last five, I can say for sure. And he's finished each of his last six appearances has been to finish out a game, all in which a closer would be typically used.

And his numbers are phenomenal. I think Scott McGuff might be like a true dominant closer. As, you know, he was showing signs of that this spring. He was a closer the last two years in Japan. And it seems like it's all coming together for him. So I am, I think Scott McGuff is being severely overlooked right now. And I picked him up in the Scott McGuff Dynasty League. So I'm hoping that it does work out.

Please become the closer for the D-backs. For Tampa Bay, Jason Adam got the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and three hits. Pete Fairbanks came in in the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a run and took his second loss of the season. For the Royals, Scott Barlow struck out two for his ninth save. And for the Marlins, the team of destiny, I have dubbed on Twitter. A.J. Puck pitched a clean ninth for his 10th save.

And yes, I got some responses like, what about the debacks? What about the Reds? Okay. Yeah, those teams are good too. No, but if you say something good about one thing, it means you think all other things. related to that thing are terrible. That's the rule. Everyone knows it.

The way that I think about a team of destiny is like one that has all these late game comebacks and these like one run wins and the Marlins have done that this year. There's no there's no rational explanation. Right. Like the rays are super talented. It makes sense. The Reds have a ton of young talent. The Marlins are just pulling stuff out of their pinees.

Yes, they are. So I think we're an agreement there. The team of destiny. Miami Marlins. Let's get into to stream or not to stream for Friday. And yes, if I recall, Friday is a pretty good day. I like Brian Bayo at the White Sox. Emmett Sheehan versus the Astros.

Smith Schaver at the Reds, I think is fine. He looked pretty good in his last start. Yeah. The velocity ticked up, had 17 swings and misses. It's sort of a sneaky tough matchup now, but I will say this. If he does well in this one, we're going to be rushing out to add him this weekend. And I think we even mentioned, he's already 73% runs. Oh, I see, I thought it was lower than that. Okay.

Yeah. Dane Dunning at the Yankees, I think is okay. It's okay. Yep. On Saturday, first time I'm looking at this list and not as fun. Yeah, wouldn't be surprised. Like, I wish Griffin Canning was not at Colorado because I think that'd be a good one on the road. are at home.

Yonichurinos against Kansas City is not a bad one. That chart that Scott was referring to about Bryce Elder, Yonitrinos was right next to him on that. I noticed that too, yeah. And Kansas City is a disaster. Reese Olson against the twins, I don't mind. Would not be surprised if Dean Kramer was good at home.

Yep. Those were the ones I was looking at Olson, Kramer, and Yanni Chorinos. Josiah Gray at the Padres. is eh. Yeah. On Sunday, uh, not actually,

I think it's okay. Seth Lugo versus the Nationals, I think is fine. That's fine. Johano V. Ato at the Marlins is okay. And Aaron Savali versus the Brewers,

I think is fine. Yeah, those are the best ones. I actually like Lugo the least of those three. I don't like any of them very much, but that's fine. Wow, what would they do to you, Chris?

All right. They know what they did. to get enough strikeouts. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again next week.

Bye-bye.