Fantasy Baseball Today - Burnes Bounce Back! Week 24 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (9/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

Yoan Moncada and the White Sox went off Thursday (3:21)! ... Can you drop slumping star players this late in the season (10:40)? ... Corbin Burnes bounced back in a big way (14:30). ... JP Sears got crushed (17:23). ... How might the proposed MLB rule changes affect Fantasy (20:50)? ... Are Kyle Farmer and/or Brendan Rodgers worth adding (29:30)? ... News (35:22): Zack Wheeler will throw again Friday. ... Which two-start pitchers can we use in Week 24 (40:35)? ... Which sleeper hitters can we target (48:08)? ... We have leftovers and bullpen updates (50:35). ... Let's wrap up the week with Fantasy Justice for All (58:21). 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. In the tough fantasy baseball today on September 9th, Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White. Today on the show, Corbyn Burns is back. He was amazing in a major way. We've got Week 24 sleepers, two-star pitchers, fantasy justice questions coming a little bit later on. Light night of baseball action, so we've got to mix it up a little bit here. Scotty, you are sporting the hometown Atlanta Falcon shirt. Did you watch any...

It's true. Did you watch any football on Thursday night? I watched about two minutes of football, mostly because this is what I did this weekend, Frank. I mean, not the whole weekend, but one thing I did this weekend was I went and got, I don't even know what to call it. I guess an antenna. But when I think antenna, you know, I think antenna, like on the roof of the house. You know, it's this white little square. Okay.

that I, you know, put in the coaxial plug on my TV and I ran it to the window. And now I get all the networks in HD for free. It's like, why didn't I think of this before? Because I did the whole cord cutting thing a few months ago, not a full year ago, but almost. And, you know, it's been kind of a, kind of a pain watching live sports, you know?

Oh, I know. But I did this so I could watch that Georgia organ game on Saturday. It was on a, can I say the network? It was on a, it was on another network. And I was able to watch it uninterrupted, clear HD. And it's like, who would have known? Who would have known you could do this? Crushing it.

That's, yeah, I, if anyone, I'm still trying to figure out the optimal way of cord cutting. I think many people probably are trying to do the same. Like I've got a few different things going on. I've got the MLB package. I've got YouTube TV, whatever. But I watch or listen to the Yankee games on my phone while I'm building the rundown. But I also get score updates.

So the score update comes through on the top of my phone before it actually happens. So it's ruined for myself. And I'm still trying to figure out the best way to consume Yankee games, but I just, I don't know how to do it. So it's frustrating. These blackouts, it's a, it's a, But anyway.

Yeah. Well, the reason I brought it up is because I wanted to make sure it was getting the game in. And it was. And so then I turned it off. All right. Fair enough. You didn't miss much because it was quite the blowout. Anyway, let's talk about baseball.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my goodness gracious. Scotty, where would you like to begin? Well, I think I have to begin with what the White Sox were doing in Oakland. And just what a launching pad, Oakland. has become. It's crazy. We talked about it yesterday.

Let me see. What are the game conditions? Okay, 89 degrees. So not crazy hot, but, you know, Bay Area. I guess that's pretty hot for the Bay Area. And the ball's flying out there. Relative humidity, this is one of the, all the places they play baseball. This is one of the places with the highest relative humidity during this time of year.

and, you know, Sarah's predicted it would see one of the biggest increases of home runs because of the widespread use of the humotaur and that seems to be happening. Now, the A's themselves kind of got Kyle right with it the other day, and this time it was the visitors taking advantage. Specifically, I'm going to highlight Yohan Mukata

because he had the biggest game of all. Went five for five. Well, it's not over yet. I guess he could add on to it still. He sure could. five for five with two home runs and a double. And it's like completely came out of nowhere. He's been doing nothing all season.

And then suddenly he has this monster game. But you dig a little deeper. Both of his home runs were hit 100 miles per hour, which is not the exit velocity. It's not, we're not used to seeing home runs hit at that exit velocity this year. that's generally speaking i'm not saying these are the only two home runs hit 100 miles per hour this year but generally speaking a 100 mile per hour hit ball has not been resulting in home runs like it has in the past and both of montcadas were hit like that uh i believe some of the others hit in this game

uh so romey gonzalez hit 1001.8 miles per hour aloy himenez hit 100 miles per hour aloy himenez hit 100 miles per hour like these are not being clobbered and by the way four of those home runs I just cited or I'm sorry three of those four home runs I just cited were hit over 400 feet yeah what being hit basically 100 miles per hour

so this is this seems like a product of the environment more than anything else and it's weird to talk about Oakland in this way but that just goes to show the effect that the humidor is having yeah I agree it's you know how much do we take away from this monster game for Yoal Moncada.

You mentioned he's got five hits and counting. The White Sox currently are winning 14 Zip and that game is in the eighth inning. So I guess they could theoretically still add on here. But even with this massive game for Moncada, he is hitting 212 with a 626 OPS for the season. He's been in and out of the lineup. Really hasn't been the same since dealing with COVID

a couple of years ago. short in season. I think he actually had COVID multiple times since then. So I don't know if that's necessarily to blame, but you know, he kind of was fading even before that too. So I don't know that there's much to do with this guy. He is 49% roster. He's got six games this upcoming week. Are we looking to add Moncada as a result of this game? My guess is probably not. It's a favorable schedule for the White Sox. Okay. And I do have one in my 10 sleeper hitters for next week. Kind of tempted to put a second in there, but not tempted to put Yohan Makata in there. Okay. So I'm assuming you'd rather have Eduardo Escobar over Montcada.

Yes. Okay. And just looking at the A schedule for next week, all six of their games are on the road. So if you were looking to stream hitters in the launching pad known as Oakland Coliseum, it looks like we will have to wait at least another week because it will not be happening next week. Let's stick with that game, the White Sox, and just take a look. at some of the other hitters that went off. You mentioned them, Scottie. Elvis Andrus and kudos to Ryan Ireland, who tweeted this at us. Elvis Andrews had two hits in this game. He hit his 12th home run of the season. It went 444 feet. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the way the ball is traveling in Oakland right now. Now his home run of the five that have been hit up to

this point in this game, his was hit 107 miles per hour. So it was, you know, he got a hold of it legitimately. Yep. But 107 feet doesn't normally, I mean, 107 miles per hour doesn't normally become 444 feet. So yes, I think it's still exemplary as far as that goes. Elvis, so Elvis Andrews is the one I'm tempted to put in to my 10 sleeper hitters because of how hot he's been.

I don't really believe in him, though. So to this point, I'm resisting. Maybe somebody will get injured over the weekend. It'll have an open spot there at the back end of those 10 sleeper hitters. And so Elvis Andrews will creep in there Sunday when I do the update. But as of now, he's on the outside looking in. 19 games now with the White Sox for Elvis Andrews. He is betting 291 with four homers and one steel.

He has let off in nine straight games for the White Sox. he's 18% rostered. So if nothing else, if you need a middle infielder in a deeper league, you could look at Elvis Andrus there. Romy Gonzalez, he had four hits in this game, including his second home run. He added three runs, three RBI. He has started eight of the White Sox last nine games,

and he's batting 3.45 with an 871 OPS in 15 games played with the team. A lot of that was helped out in this singular game, so I will point that out. He's hitting the ball hard. 93 mile per hour average exit velocity. the problem is a lot of that has been on the ground. 51% ground ball rate for Romney Gonzalez. He is 1% rostered, second, third base eligibility.

And I know he had a strong minor league season last year, Scott. Any interest in very deep leagues, Romney Gonzalez? Not a ton. He is playing a lot. The White Sox tried Lenin Sosa to fill their second base need, a younger guy who's had a big, a more productive minor league season than Roman Gonzalez, frankly. And Gonzalez has performed a lot better than Lennon & Sosa did.

So I think he's going to continue playing. But I don't know. I don't know. I think you can do better. I see Spencer Steer out there. I see who else is out there. That's middle infield. Oh, I've got middle infielders coming up, scatty.

Nick Gordon is only 24% rostered. So I think you can do better. Okay. let's just say you're in a deep league. Would you rather stream Andrus or Romi Gonzalez next week? Andres. Okay. And then Eloy Jimenez went one for three with his 11th home run.

He now has three homers in his last six games. And we got an email from John. And this is going to sound like a ridiculous question. But I think a lot of people are going to wind up in spots like this guy, where they're just trying to drop big name players who might be slumping because they're entering a championship week. And this is his email. Going into the fantasy.

Championship. Sounds crazy, but would you drop Yordaun Alvarez to pick up Eloi Jimenez in a points league? Or would you keep using Alvarez? He just doesn't seem healthy, but I feel like I can't let him go. So Alvarez- You can't let him go. No. Alvarez has not homered since August 10th, and in 18 games since then, he's betting 258. He has just three extra base hits. Still hitting the ball hard, but 52% ground ball rate. He is not healthy. He is very clearly not healthy. He's dealing with, I think he's had injuries to both of his hands, but he's not healthy right now, Scott. If it's the championship and the other person cannot pick this player up and use them against you, just for one week, or I guess maybe it's a two-week championship, would you do that?

Would you drop Yoron Alvarez for Eloy Jimenez? I mean, that's the number one fear is that you, the weapon gets turned around and used against you. Okay, first of all, let's let's, uh, let's, let's, uh, Let's address the most obvious aspect of this, which is it's a very shallow league, right? Aloha Jimenez, who's 97% rostered in CBS leagues, is available in this league. So that's the only reason the topic of dropping Jordan Alvarez or even benching Jordan Alvarez is coming up because shallowly. Okay.

So having prefaced it with that, I guess it's okay. I mean, the white socks and the Astros both have good matchups next week. I like the Astros a little better. But Aloy Jimenez has been the more productive one recently. He's a good player in his own right. Alvarez, yeah, I mean, the Astros or Dusty Baker, I think, has been pretty clear that Alvarez isn't healthy right now. So you can understand the struggles being related to that, possibly. And I think it's fine as long as the problem.

person you're playing can't pick him up. Yeah. If he can, you know, obviously you can't start everybody on your roster, so find somebody else to drop, you know, to pick up a little AMAS. Right. But it just speaks to, I guess, a broader strategy question, right, this time of year, where if someone can't be picked up and used against you and you just want to roll with a player who's hot or has much better matchups, you typically would be okay dropping a slumping

player for someone who's presumably more productive in the coming weeks? No, I think Alvarez is a very specific case because he's playing hurt and we all know he's playing hurt. Who's another

really good player who's bumping? John Carlo Stanton comes to mind, right? It's a very similar situation to Yor Don Alvarez. I mean, I don't know how good John Carlos Stanton really is at this point. There's a line somewhere. I don't know exactly where to place that line, but there's a line somewhere where it's just like, I don't care how much

this player has struggled recently. He's too good to sit. If I'm going down, I'm not going down sitting this guy, you know? And I think in like a three-outfield league context, John Carlos Stanton is on the side of the line where that's, that's, I don't put him in that untouching category, you know. All right. Fair enough. Oh my goodness gracious. 15 minutes in, but we've got to talk about Corbyn Burns, who was just absolutely fantastic, had been struggling recently, and we needed to see a start like this. And that's exactly what he gave us. Up against the San Francisco Giants, he puts up a season high, 14 strikeouts over eight innings of one-run ball. He had 26 swinging strikes on 100 pitches, 12 on the cutter,

seven on the slider, four on the curve, three on the change-up, just had everything working 49% CSW, just ridiculous stuff here from Corbyn Burns. Velocity was up across the board, up 1.3 miles per hour on each of the cutter, the changeup and the slider. Was there anything else, Scott, that you saw here that helped Corbyn Burns get back on track? No, I think we said after his last start that it looked like something was just a little off. It didn't seem like he was, there were no obvious signs of health concerns or really even effectiveness concerns, he just kind of was a little off.

And seeing him bounce back as dramatically as this is encouraging. I want to follow up on what I just said a minute ago, because I'm imagining some of the tweets I'm going to get in response to that. The reason I say that that there's a certain threshold of player that I'm just not going to sit, even if they've been slumping, is because like every hitter goes through slump. And then just because he hasn't hit well for three weeks or whatever doesn't mean it won't turn on a dime this next week. I mean, the reason those players are so highly regarded is because, you know, they're going to bounce back from the slumps that inevitably come. It's almost, and I know it doesn't literally work this way, but it's almost like, like they're due, right?

Like, okay, I've already endured this rough stretch. Let me not make it worse by then benching them for the week. where they hit three home runs, you know? Right. But that's why, like you said, I think Yoron Alvarez is a pretty specific case because it's not just that he's playing poorly. There's a reason for it.

He's playing through injury right now. It's, you know, if you have a slumping player, for example, Corbyn Burns, right? Like, just kind of stick with it and you get rewarded with like, like, with a start like this, where he's, you know, just absolutely ridiculous. And I, and to further,

I just keep, I do, I, I just feel like we keep finding ourselves in stepping on landmines here on the verge of it. Most of the people listening should not sit Jordan Alvarez. We're talking that's a shallow league context, 10 teams, three outfielders, something like that. I'm not even saying universally in 10 team three outfielder league should you sit Jordan Alpharez. But it's at least possible when your alternative is somebody as good as Eloy Jimenez. Honorable mention for oh my goodness gracious, J.P. Sears was the one who started for the Oakland A's, and he was crushed, obviously. He gave up six runs over two innings pitched,

and his ERA jumped from 2.37 to 3.33. His underlying numbers were not great. He wasn't getting whiffed, so I guess it's not all that surprising, especially considering the environment in Oakland right now and the fact that the White Sox are really good against left-handed pitching. More than anything, Scott, I just wanted to bring him up because I have a new nickname for him. Are you ready? Yes. The department store. That's it. J.B. Sears.

Every time I read his name, I want to combine J.C. Penny and Sears from back in the day. And so we get J.P. Sears. So he's the department store. All right. All right. I don't think Sears is still around, is it? It might be somewhere.

I don't think so. I don't know exactly because, because remember, Kmart went bankrupt and yet there were still like a few Kmart locations around. So I don't know exactly. exactly how that works, but I know Sears certainly isn't as prolific as it once was, as widespread as it once was. Okay.

According to Google, which I'm not sure how accurate this is, there are roughly 20 full-line Sears stores left in the mainland United States. Okay. So not completely gone, but clearly fading and fading fast. Okay, so J.P. Sears was the guy who suffered from that onslaught, in Oakland, entered with a 237 ERA. I think I said yesterday when we were doing streaming pitchers that he was at least going to be a high floor play for you.

So, whoops. How was the dumb thing to say? It turns out, but that's why I don't like streaming pitchers. I mostly just wanted to bring him up to talk about the nickname. And there's probably something more clever in there. So if anyone wants to tweet at us or email us, let us know. but I just always think of those departments when I read his name.

Let's move over to some other middle infield waiver wire hitters, Scott, who may be available in your league. They're really not that exciting, but there wasn't much going on here. So we're going to talk about these names. You tell me if any of them matter, Scott. Kyle Farmer went two for four with his 10th home run,

and over his last 26 games, he is batting 303 with four homers, 13 runs, 12 RBI. He's been fine, he's been solid. Like if you picked him up as a middle infielder in a deeper league. He's, I think, giving you everything that you've wanted. The Reds do have nine games next week, which we'll get to a little bit later on. So I think it's worth mentioning Kyle Farmer for that reason. C.J. Abrams went two for five with a double, two runs and an

RBI. We're looking for anything right now, Scott. Signs of life from C.J. Abrams. And over his last nine games, he is hitting 355 with nine runs scored, hitting the ball hard, but not really doing anything else. He's not running. He's not hitting for power. But he's got a run. I mean, I don't think he's going to amount so much in fantasy if he doesn't, if he isn't a significant base dealer. Yeah. Look, if he's hitting the ball hard, even if he's putting it on the ground, it should result in base hits, but you're right.

If he's getting on base, he's got to steal bases. By the way, I don't know if we were going to get into this today. I went on a tweet storm about it, but. Uh-oh. Did you see the news? What news? I hope I did. The rule changes for next year.

I've read a little bit about it. I didn't have it included in the show, but yeah, if you want to vent or bring them up, feel free. So they still need to be voted in, but it seems like they're going to be voted in. It sounds like that's just a formality. And so next year, MLB is going to adopt a lot of the rules that were implemented throughout the minor leagues this year.

Pitch clocks is a part of it. but I think for our purposes the main things are the banning of the infield shift and specifically we knew that was coming but the specifics are four fielders have to be on the dirt

and two on each side of second base and that's about what we were expecting it's sensible it's fine I think the more surprising development and perhaps more significant for the fantasy game, is that they're going to implement a rule where pitchers are allowed only two pickoff throws per plate appearance. So you can imagine how that's going to play after they make the second pickoff throw

and they have none left. Yeah. The batter is going to be able or the base runner is going to be able to get a, a huge lead and we've seen it in the minor stolen bases go up

they're also increasing the size of the bases which will also help with stolen bases though not as much as that pickoff rule now it's

it's not as crazy as it initially sounds because I'm thinking all right the pitcher throws over twice that's it the runner can walk halfway to second base

you know like it's just an easy stolen base at that point the pitcher can make a third pickoff throw and if the runner's out, he's out.

But if the runner's not out, it's a balk. So it's like, if the pitcher throws over that third time, it's either the runners get into the next base or he's out, you know? Right. So it's going to be,

there's going to be some interesting dynamics there because I imagine there's going to be an incentive, well, it seems clear there's going to be incentive for the base runner to encourage two pick-off throws, really invite the pitcher to make those two throws over. And the pitcher, of course,

is going to be trying to resist throwing over because he only has two throws to work with, you know? And so I imagine we'll actually see more players picked off first base because the runner's pushing the limits trying to encourage to throw over, you know? But I do think we're also going to see a potentially significant increase in stolen base. And I bring this up, I bring this up because, of course, C.J. Abrams, fast runner guy, stole a lot of bases in the miners, just because he hasn't been stealing bases this year.

You know, there's going to be more stolen bases are going to be incentivized next year. And he could be somebody who, you know, we still don't even really know what kind of base stealer he's going to be. We don't know what kind of base dealer anybody's going to be. It's another huge paradigm shift that we're going to have to account for next year. year going in, you know, feeling like we're blind going in because the distribution of stolen bases is going to change completely. I do think for the fantasy game in the long run, it's a positive development because specifically for rotisserie leagues, the value of stolen bases had been, had gotten to be so inflated that it was completely, the fantasy game had become completely disconnected from the real game in that way. and I think the experience of playing rotiss re-suffered because of it

is just all the stolen base guys, you got to draft them early because there are only so many. Yeah. And hopefully this will create a democratization of stolen bases, kind of like we saw a democratization of home runs during the juiced ball era, where you can find them in more places, and it's not so, it's not what's driving. hitter values completely because there are enough out there to go around.

So that's what I'm hoping happens. Obviously, it remains to be seen. So that's the one, that's probably the biggest takeaway, but, you know, the banning of the shifts is worth touching on again. Batting averages, I think, as a whole are going to go up, especially for left-handed hitters who are the most shifted on. And for some hitters, I think it could be significant. I think, you know, obviously we'll have to break it down for specific hitters.

But I think for some players, it could be as much as a 50-point increase in batting average, you know. I have so many thoughts, Scott, right now that my brain is about to explode. But obviously, once we know for sure what's going on, we'll do either an entire podcast just dedicated to this and how we think it can affect the fantasy baseball environment moving forward. Regarding the steals, I agree with you. I think that we will probably see more players wind up with 10 plus steals than we have seen in the past. So like those fringe guys, we don't really know what they're going to do from a year to year basis. I think we're going to see more of those now.

I think we're going to see more 10 plus steel, maybe even 20 plus steel guys. Just like how in the juice ball era, we saw way more 20 plus home run hitters. As a result, you're going to need more steals to compete in rotisserie leagues. not necessarily to win the category, but if you want to just kind of wind up in the middle, you're going to need more steals, but there's going to be more available. So if that makes sense.

And then trying to figure out batting average, it's going to change the way that we project players too, because talking out loud about this now, guys who have just sold out so long for, like left-handed batterers who just pull the ball and put in the air, like the Joey Gallows and guys like that, do they maybe now change their,

approach a little bit because they know that they can hit for more batting average with the shift being banned. So maybe I'm just overthinking it, but you're also going to need more batting average to compete in rotisserie leagues as well. I think the flyball revolution was a direct response to the increase in infield shifting. I mean, at the time that really began to be so widespread, you heard a lot of hitters saying, well, you know, they'd be ask, well, why don't you just go the other way, take advantage of that open hole and that that hole on the other side of the field? And it's like, well, I'd rather just hit it over the shift completely, you know, was their response. You heard that response a lot. I heard that response directly

because I talked to a lot of these guys. I happen to go to the All-Star Game in Cincinnati about the time that was happening. And that's the reaction I got from a lot of them. Mark Tashire in particular stands out. And Mark Tasharo is a guy you look at his batting averages before the shifting started and after and it was a big decrease. He really suffered from that.

So, I don't know that the changes and for every player will be immediate. I mean, partly this is going to be a gradual thing, but it's,

if all goes according to plan, and with big changes like this, I always worry about the unintended consequences, but it's going to return the game to a more familiar aesthetic, one that the game is subscribed to for more of its history and

for and for most of our lives, where it's less three true outcomes. You're going to have more men on base, you're going to have more action on the bases, and that's going to make for a more entertaining product, I think. And it's going to make for a more balanced game and fantasy, too,

because sometimes it feels like it's just a question of how many home runs you get, how many stolen bases you get, and there's not a lot of variety between the players. I think the variety between players will return if it all goes as planned. We've got all off-season to figure that stuff out,

but it's a really good conversation. So apologies for the diatribe, but I think many people are probably going to like to hear about that stuff. Let's quickly just touch on a few of these waiver wire hitters, Scottie, and then obviously pre-requent. review next week's action as well. I mentioned Kyle Farmer. I mentioned CJ Abrams. Two other ones. Brendan Donovan went three for three with two walks, a double, two run scored. Over his last 18 games, he's hitting 358. Pretty much empty batting average, however, the Cardinals do have seven home games

next week. And then Isaiah Kiner Folefa, he went two for five with his 18th steel. And over his last seven games, he's hitting 360, two homers, three steals. The problem, the Yankees only have five road games next week. Anything with these four, Scott, middle infielders, Kyle Farmer, C.J. Abrams, Brendan Donovan, IKF. No, not a lot. Brenda Donovan has gotten hot,

and we talked about that with Alec Berluson getting the call the other day. Burleson was in the line at first Major League debut here Thursday, went 0-4 with a walk and a run scored. It sounds like the plan is for him not to play that much, maybe some D-Hing against Wright. being used as a pinch hitter.

That's how the Cardinals MLB.com beatwriter put it. So I imagine that means Brendan Donovan's going to keep playing a lot. And I do like the Cardinals matchups for next week. They have seven games. Four of them are against the Reds. So I think Brendan Donovan, with all his versatility, is somebody you could think about using next week. week, though he doesn't quite make the cut for my top 10 sleeper hitters in part because the

Cardinals do have so many choices there. Okay. Would you take either Andrews or Romi Gonzalez over Brendan Donovan for next week? It's a close call between Donovan and Andrews. Probably, if we're just talking about for next week, it probably give Andrews a slight advantage. But I do trust the sustainability of Donovan a little more. If you need a catcher in two catcher leagues, we mentioned Eric Haas yesterday. Yaddeir Malina went two for four with a double don, which brings him to a whopping four home runs on the season. He's only 21% rostered. As I mentioned, the Cardinals have seven home games next week. I picked him up in a deeper two-catcher league where I had Wilson Contreras, just super desperate for a catcher. So happy to get this production, but not overly excited about it. Scott, if you need one for next week, would you go with Yadir Malina or Eric Haas? I would go with Molina.

All right, fair enough. And I don't think that this player matters, but I will ask anyway, just to be sure. Alex Kohl went four for five with his second home run, five RBI with the Nationals. However, he's only started two of their last seven games. Anything? Nah, I wouldn't worry about it just yet. He had a pretty good year in the minors, got on base a lot, but 27-year-old rookie is not playing all that much. Okay.

Same thing with these Waverwire pitchers, light night of action once again. I don't think they matter, but we'll quickly run through here. Luis Sessa for the Cincinnati Reds had a season high eight strikeouts at the Cubs over five and two-thirds endings of two-run ball. Adrian Sampson turns in his first quality start since August 7th.

He went six innings, one run, one strikeouts. Not much there. And then Jake Junis worked as the bulk reliever, but pitched very well at the Brewers. He went six innings, two runs, four strikeouts, and that one. It's got anything here with these three. I guess it would have to be a deeper league play,

but Sessa, Samson, Jake Junice. Sessa and Junis are both kind of interesting because they throw a slider a lot and it's a pretty good slider so they can get a decent number of whiffs at times. But they're pretty volatile and I wouldn't count on them except as a kind of a low-end matchups play. Yeah. For Junis, he's going up against the Braves next week. Just one start. So I think I'm out on that. Luis Sessa is going up against the Pirates and at the Cardinals.

so don't love the Cardinal start. Obviously, the Pirates one is pretty good. You'd have to be really desperate, but NL-only deep 15-team leagues, Luis Sessa, I think a name you can look at. Yeah, he was not particularly close to being among my 10 sleeper pitchers for this week. I don't blame you.

Yeah. All right. He's making two starts. Before we hit the break, just want to remind everyone, we are doing four podcasts per week throughout the month of September, and I guess first week of October, final week of the season.

But for next week, we will not be around on Monday night. So if you're looking for YouTube live streams, we'll be around Sunday night to recap the weekend, then Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, which means you will have a podcast in your audio feed on Monday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, and Friday morning. So just a heads up for there. Let's take a break and we'll hit the news and notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes.

Zach Wheeler played catch on Thursday for the second time this week. He's expected to do the same again on Friday. And if he responds well, it's possible that he could return next week without a rehab assignment. But we are awaiting more news on that. Freddie Peralta left Thursday's game with a, with an injury. I haven't seen the injury, Scott. Was there anything that came out regarding Freddie Peralta? I haven't seen what he suffered from either. Oh, well. His velocity. was again down. It's actually right here. Freddie Peralta told reporters that, oh, no, Craig counsel told reporters that Freddie Peralta will be placed on the injured list

with something regarding his shoulder. Shoulder fatigue is what I see it as here. Okay. Yeah, and his velocity has been down since coming back from the IL. It was, what was it today, over two miles per hour on the fastball.

So that makes sense. seemed like something wasn't quite right with him. No, yeah, for sure. And look, last week on this very podcast, our Friday podcast, I told people, please do not play Freddie Peralta. I was worried about Corrhus Field. They pushed them back. Also, I was worried about the velocity,

but hopefully you listened and did not play Freddie Peralta. Wilson Contreras's MRI on his ankle came back clean. He's expected to rest for a few days before resuming baseball activities. Wander Franco will meet the raise in New York on Friday, and could be activated for this weekend series. Obviously, it's a massive one. Tampa Bay is chasing the Yankees.

I believe they're four and a half or five games out, so really big series, Wander Franco could be back. Juan Soto said he will, quote, definitely be ready to play on Friday against the Dodgers. John Carlos Stanton has now missed three straight with that foot injury. He did get in a pinch hit appearance on Thursday. The team is unsure whether he will play on Friday or not.

Speaking of the Yankees, DJ Lamehi was five. Finally, placed on the IL with toe inflammation, retroactive to September 5th. He has completely taken a nose dive over the past two, three weeks, and basically playing through injury a lot like Yuron Alvarez. Not that Lemayu is the player that Alvarez is, but yeah, as a result, his numbers have really, really taken a dive. Caber Ruiz, this is painful for our, I would say predominantly

our entire audience listening here. not all of them, but most of them. He exited Thursday after getting hit in the groin by a foul ball, and he was sent to the hospital due to swollen. What's the right word that I could use here, Scott? I wrote... I don't think there's anything wrong with using the anatomically connect. Yeah, I'll say family jewels, all right?

He went to the hospital with swollen family jewels. So that is what Cabert Ruiz is dealing with. I hope he's all right, because obviously sounds very painful. Bailey Ober will continue his rehab at AAA and make another start this Sunday. He's 20% rostered for those in deeper leagues. And Twins pitching prospect Louis Varland, who we spoke about on yesterday's podcast, was sent back to AAA here on Thursday. All right, Scott, week 24 preview, it is crunch time, which I think I said the same thing last week,

but every week from here on out is crunch time. So I'm just going to keep reminding everybody of that. Bunch of crunch. Bunch of crunch. Do you like those? I'm trying to remember what it is. It's just kind of a name that came back to me. The Nestle's...

Bunch a crunch. Bunch of crunch. Bunch of crunch. They were always... Oh, that's like the little cluster candies. They were always available in the movie theater, but there was always so much better candy in the movie theater that I never got them. I'm a big fan of Goober, Scott.

I mean, goobers are like top-notch. It's pretty simple, too, right? Like chocolate covered peanuts, there's nothing to it, but they are amazing. So whenever I went to the movies, I got goobers. You got goobers, huh? I don't often, I don't, I can't think of too many times I've bought candy at the movie theater. Like if I'm going to spring for something, I'm going to spring for the popcorn because it's, you know, it's popcorn you can't recreate in many places. True.

But the candy, no, I don't know. You know what I've decided is really good. Those, that's simple like that. The chocolate covered pretzels, the flips. So good. So good. Like, why is this so good? It's just a pretzel with chocolate on it.

But like it's beyond what it. It's good beyond what you would believe. It's like it's crazy good. I don't understand it. I'm not going to say that you could put chocolate on anything and it will be good, but pretty close because, man, chocolate cover pretzels, chocolate cover peanuts. They're both amazing. And plus it's that sweet and savory combination, Scott, you know, salty and sweet. weed. It's so good. I know that. I love that. I love it. I had a

Frank's M.O. right there. I had a brownie on Thursday night and it was topped with sea salt. Oh gosh, it was ridiculous. Anyway, let's talk about week 24. The schedule, it is a wacky one next week. We've got seven teams with five games, 11 teams with six games, six teams with seven games, five teams with eight games. That includes the guardians, the marlins, the Pirates, the Blue Jays, and the Rays. And I'm not done yet. There is one team with nine games, as I mentioned earlier, the Cincinnati Reds.

We'll get to sleeper hitters in just a little bit, but let's start off with the pitching side of things. Start or sit these fringy to start pitchers. Joe Ryan is going up against the Royals, and he's at the Guardians. I lean yes on that. Those are pretty good matchups. I talked about the Guardians as kind of a middle of the road matchup recently, but they're actually in the bottom 10.

in terms of runs scored. And they're terrible against lefties. I know Ryan's not a lefty, but they're the second worst in OPS against lefties. So they're not, they remain a pretty favorable matchup, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And of course,

the Royals are a good matchup. I know Ryan's been kind of inconsistent, but Eileen yes on that. Jeffrey Springs at the Blue Jays and home against the Rangers. So it makes this tricky is Springs and Yanni Chorino's piggybacked in Springs last start

and so he only got three innings and if that's the plan going forward it's going to be tough ever to use him but the Rays are one of those teams with a double header next week they're playing eight games total so I imagine Chorinos and Springs

are each going to get a separate turn so I think certainly in points leagues it's worth it's worth rolling the dice on Springs in that RP spot for the chance he makes two starts but it's it's tough it is it's it really is

because you just don't know how much he's gonna throw I have a championship coming up next week and I dropped Jeffrey Springs for Jose Suarez who oh yeah it's it's a two week period

so you know you've got Jose Suarez for two starts so it's just like I'm not messing with Jeffrey Springs let me let me go with Suarez instead Alex Cobb is the next one up he's pitched well over the past two months

but he's going up against the Braves and the Dodgers. Yeah. Might do it in a points league where volume is paramount, but certainly want to do it in a Categories league with those matchups.

I agree completely. Nick Povetta is going up against the Yankees and the Royals. I'll probably pass on that one. I think we can view the Yankees as a good matchup, at least for the time being too, because the lineups they're throwing out there

right now are just, they're barons, There's nothing there. There's no Rizzo. There's no Lamehue. Stanton's in and out of the lineup. Isaiah Kinehufo is about and clean up for the Yankees on Thursday. So if you see the Yankees on the schedule, I wouldn't be very afraid of them right now.

Last one, I've got Eduardo Rodriguez up against the Astros and the White Sox. He just hasn't been good enough. Yeah. Since returning, he doesn't look crisp enough, doesn't look effective enough. So no. All right. Two star pitchers to add and stream for next week. Who do you have?

Hunter Brown. Hunter Brown. Who knew? I wish I'd hype this guy more if I knew he had matchups coming up against the Tigers and the athletics. And that athletics matchup is in Houston, by the way.

So he doesn't have to deal with that launching pad. Yeah, that's really good. It doesn't sound like Justin Verlander's going to come back next week and interrupt it. I know the Astros are going six-man right now, but it's a seven game schedule for them. And Hunter Brown's scheduled to go Monday. So he should safely be in line for those two starts. And I think everybody's got to play him with those matchups.

And the way he looked in his debut, Trevor Rogers gets the Rangers and the Nationals. One of those matchups pretty good, one really good. So I'm on board for him. Bailey Falter, kind of iffy, Miami. That's great, especially since Falter's a left-hander. but then Atlanta, who hits left-handers especially well, might just be a points league recommendation there,

just purely, if you need the volume, look to Bailey Falter. And since you just mentioned Zach Wheeler, there's a chance he could come back next week, then maybe Falter doesn't make that second start at Atlanta, which may be for the best. I agree. They're one of the best lines in baseball, but they especially crush left-handed pitching.

So I would be pretty nervous about Bailey Fulter myself. And I'd be nervous about any of the names we're about to mention as well. Fortune favors the brave, two-star pitcher of the week. This time of year, you really don't want to mess around. But there's a lot of injuries right now. Maybe you're really desperate. And you're just chasing the volume.

So my fortune favors the brave two-star pitcher will be Ryan Nelson, which is actually spelled R-Y-N-E if you're trying to find him on the waiver wire. But you shouldn't because his matchups are against the Dodgers and the Padres. He faced the Padres in his first start, so they've already got to look at him. I typically don't like that, especially for young starting pitchers. So unless you're really desperate, I would say don't do it.

That is very brave. My fortune favors the brave pick is pick up the phone. The call is free. 1,800, Glenn Otto, Glenn Otto. Marlins, Rays, two good matchups for our boy, Glenn Otto. Is he a good pitcher? No. But he might be good enough to take advantage of those matchups if you're feeling brave.

All righty. Single start streamers for next week, Scott. And this list actually looks pretty good. Who you got? Yes, I do like the one-start streamers. Some clutch matchups for them going into this week. Nicola Dolo gets the Pirates. Of course, that's an amazing matchup.

and I've been hyping him for the last few days as a sleeper down the stretch. Patrick Sandoval, I just mentioned how bad the guardians are against left-handed pitchers. They're OPS against them is second worst only to the Marlins who we're constantly picking on.

So not only does that benefit Patrick Sandoval, but also Redemers and other lefties going up against them, Jose Suarez, who just talked about, Frank, left-hander going up against them. All three of them look like good plays this week. Hermann Marquez, who's been piling up quality starts recently.

He's at the Cubs. Feels like a good matchup there. Debating whether to keep Kyle Gibson on this list, because he's at Miami, but he just faced the Marlins here on Thursday, and it did not go well. Three of his last four starts have been bad. So that's a really good matchup,

but I may swap him out. Let's see who's the best candidate to swap him out for, David Peterson against the Cubs. I don't know, Dean Kramer at the Nationals. Not bad. Is that better? You would you rather have Gibson at Miami than those guys? I don't think so.

I wrote one down here, Scott. Marcus Stroman is home against the Rockies. So, you know, you get the Rockies on the road. It's not bad. I didn't look at the Rockies. Yeah. Yeah, they're obviously a favorable matchup when they're not at Cores Field.

Yeah, I may do that one. I may swap Gibson out for Strowman. It's a good call. Yeah, let's do it. Let's move over to the hitter side of things. The best hitter matchups for next week are the Reds with those nine games, the Marlins, the Mets, the Astros, and the Blue Jays, the worst hitter matchups, the Brewers, the Giants, the Nationals, Phillies, and Mariners.

With that being said, Scotty, your Sleeper hitters for Week 24. Sleeper hitters. So the nine game schedule for the Reds I'm really leaning into here with three highly, highly available hitters, Jake Frailey, who just had another big performance on Thursday. And let's see, since returning from the IL, Jake Fraley in 33 games, 305 batting average eight homers, two steals and OPS near 1,000,

pretty much only starts against Ritey's, but seven of the nine matchups are against Ritees. So like him, the Reds leadoff header against Ritees is T.J. Friedel. Don't see a lot to get excited about their long term, but he's hot right now. And I also like Spencer Steer with those nine games. Good chance he ends up starting all nine of them.

Okay, so those are a little low. Those three are a little lower on my sleeper hitter list, though. The very top is Josh Young. I'm going for it. First game. Hasn't made his major league debut yet, but it's coming Friday. Expect them to play more or less every day. And the Rangers have good matchups.

for the most part, five lefties on the schedule, so he's a right-handed hitter that should help ease him in too. I like the twins matchups this week, even though they weren't among the five best. Part of the reason they're not among the five best is just there's so many teams with nine and eight games, right? Twins have seven, but they're against the Royals and the Guardians. They get Bieber in that Guardian series, but that's it. Easy matchups otherwise.

So Jose Miranda's a good play. Nick Gordon's a good play. You mentioned Eduardo Escobar has been hot and the Mets are my third favorite matchups this week. So he's in here. Markana's in here. And while I wasn't able to squeeze Elvis Andrews in here, I do have his teammate, A.J. Pollack for favorable slate,

three games against the Rockies, three games against the Tigers. Three of the six pitchers are lefties and A.J. Pollack has crushed lefties this year. So he rounds out the list here for me. Fair enough. Let's wrap up the rest of Thursday's action. We do have some fantasy justice questions I want to get to as well. And we'll start with some pitching performances. Dylan Seas was great at the Oakland A's.

Obviously had a ton of run support. He went six shutout with nine strikeouts, including 15 swinging strikes in that one. Nester Cortez made his return to the mound. He only went four innings. He gave up two runs with two strikeouts. And the last one is Sunny Gray. He is now allowed two earn runs or fewer in five straight.

He was at the Yankees. He went six innings, two runs with seven strikeouts. The ERA is down to 3.09 on the season. Scott, anything on Cis, Cortez, and Sunny Gray. It was a short outing for Cortez. He threw only 58 pitches. He didn't have any kind of rehab assignment being out for over two weeks with that groin injury. So you can understand why I was sure.

He looked good enough for you to get back to using him as you did before the end. And Sunny Gray, his numbers continue to exceed expectations. He does not throw many pitches when he pitches. So it's a little worrisome how deep he's going to go. He's got to be pretty efficient to go six like he did in this one. But he's done well enough for you to continue to use him. Sandy Alconso returned into quality start, but he has been slowing down a little bit recently, Scott.

He technically gave up five runs over six innings pitched. Three of those were earned. Seven strikeouts to zero walks. But, you know, I didn't write down how many starts this is. Past six starts, he has a four-70 ERA. There you go. Is there anything to it? I mean, I think he might be tiring down.

It would make sense. He's already at 196 and two-thirds endings pitched. What do you think about Sandy? Yeah, that might be it. I mean, obviously he's taken on a huge workload going beyond. beyond seven innings a bunch, four complete games this year. I mean, I don't even know who's second on the list would be, but I doubt anybody else has three.

So, you know, on the one hand, to make sense. On the other hand, he threw over 205 innings last year. So he should be, it's not like this is unfamiliar territory for Sandy Alcounter. I don't really know. I mean, obviously you just start him and hope he turns it around. I've noticed the quality of content. is up against him. Strikeouts down a little bit, swinging strike rate down a little bit. So just might be fading a little bit, but I agree. You remain, leave Sandy Alcantzor in your lineup.

A few hitting leftovers, Jonathan India went three for five with an RBI. And I've mentioned this from time to time quietly over his last 49 games. He's hitting 304 with seven homers, 33 runs, 24 RBI, only one steal. I wish he ran a little bit more. But that's a 21 homer pace over 150 games, which is basically what we were expecting from Jonathan India. So he's been pretty good. All right, I just looked it up. Sandy Alcantara has four complete games. Two pitchers have two.

Okay. What I guess who those two pitchers are? Aaron Noah? Yeah. He's one of them. The other is... Another guy known for volume. I know he's given a lot of quality starts, but...

I thought I heard the sound coming out of your mouth. Uh, no, you're about to say it. No, you're about to say it. No, I wasn't. I was going to say, I was going to say, Framber Valdez. That's the answer. Oh, it is. All right.

Yeah, good job. Yeah, look at me. All right, so Tadadana, India has been good, and they've got nine games next week. So obviously, we're excited about him. Sayas Suzuki went two for four with his 12th homer. He has two homers in his last three games. And Carlos Correa went one for four with his 18th home run. He has three home runs in his last five games.

I did just want to mention, I know recently, we talked about Garrett Mitchell and we were so excited for him. He has really slowed down. He's not playing every game. He's batting 154, only one homer, a 48% strikeout rate. And obviously the Brewers have pretty bad matchups next week. So in shallower leagues, if you picked up Garrett Mitchell, I think obviously you can drop him for one of those sleeper hitters for next week. The call to the bullpen for the nationals. They had a three-run lead in the eighth inning. And that is where Kyle Finnegan pitched. the Nats tacked on two more runs.

Jake McGee started the ninth, and then he was replaced by Carl Edwards. So, I don't know, maybe Carl Edwards starts to see more save opportunities moving forward. For the Cubs, Brandon Hughes pitched in the seventh inning with a one-run lead, and then Rowan Wick entered in the eighth. He had runners on first and third in a one-run game.

He walked to and gave up the lead. So the Cubs bullpen is pretty bad, as is Rowan Wick. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz, recorded five outs across the seventh and eighth innings. He wound up with the win. Ian Gibbot. I don't know if that's how you say his name. Gibo. Maybe it's Gbeau if it's like French or something. He struck out two for his first save of the season. For the

Brewers, they had two save opportunities across their double header. Devin Williams picked up one of those for his 11th save. Taylor Rogers struck out the side for his 30 first save. For the Phillies, David Robertson entered in the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on two hits a walk and an error. He takes his seventh blown save and third loss of the season. It's a hard G. Ian Jebo. Jabeau. It's a pretty cool. G-I-B-A-U-T. Ian Jabot. But you don't need to, you don't need to know about him. Fair enough. And then for the twins, Jorge Lopez entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead.

He recorded two outs and gave up a run. He was relieved by Caleb Thielbar. And then Michael Fulmer recorded the final two outs for his third save of the season. And I thought maybe Lopez was not getting safe opportunities recently. It's just that the twins haven't had many save opportunities over the past two or three weeks. So I do think more often than not,

he is still there. Their main go-to reliever, that is Jorge Lopez. Oh, I said the wrong thing. Soft G is the J sound. Hard G is the G-Sound. My bad. So it's a soft G. Jebeau.

I like that name. It's cool. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we've got Drew Smiley. up against the Giants, Rwanzi Contreras against the Cardinals. Brian Beo at the Orioles, Austin Voth versus the Red Sox, Ross Stripling at the Rangers,

Nick Ladolo at the Brewers, and Hermann Marquez versus the Diamondbacks in Colorado. Ladolo, for sure. Ross Stripling's pretty good. Hermann Marquez, I don't mind. Okay. On Saturday, we have Marcus Stroman versus the Giants, Adrian Martinez versus the White Sox.

That games in Oakland. Matt Manning at KC. Jonathan Heasley versus the Tigers. And then Adrian Houser versus the Reds. Am I going to say Matt Manning? No. Stroman probably over Manning. Neither of them are that great.

I agree. And then Sunday we have Jose Cantana at the Pirates. Mitch Keller versus the Cardinals. Marco Gonzalez versus the Braves. Yuck. Tyler Alexander at the Royals. Kentana is fine Kentana

Pittsburgh pretty good but he might only go five innings because that seems to be what he does All right well I tease that we have fantasy justice questions

it's pretty late but you know what we're gonna do it anyway these come from our Apple podcast reviews so we do appreciate any five star ratings if you have a question

or a fantasy justice situation please throw that on Apple and we'll get to it on a future podcast Dear Rob Bud and Fay those are commissioners.

That is correct. And this one's from Stonecutter O-1, by the way. After you helped me with some fantasy justice last year, I decided to get rid of the voting process for trades and decided to approve or veto all trades myself as commissioner. I have not had to even look at vetoing anything thus far. Last week, you served some fantasy justice, probably two weeks from now at this point,

involving a trade that the commissioner of the league was involved in, and it got me thinking, What is the best way to rule on a trade if I were to make a deal as the commish? P.S. Scott, give us at least one Michael Cain appearance before the season ends. We'll think about that.

This is an idea I've come up with for the Scott White Dynasty League that hasn't had to be used yet in however many years it's gone on eight, I think. Have a three-man. committee of people you trust whose opinions you trust and have those three vote on whether or not the if if if the trade if the trade gets an objection like somebody obviously there's not an official voting process for an objection but if somebody complains about the trade

and then somebody else joins in complaining about the trade so you get two gripes about public gripes about the trade, then let the committee rule on it and let those three people who you trust, whose opinions you trust, decide whether or not the trade should go through. And hopefully they'll decide yes, but that way, you know, nobody is accusing you of, you know, that way, what am I trying to say? You as the commissioner, you've let other people decide and it's not, you know, nobody's going to accuse you of impropriety that way.

We do have another two fantasy justice questions from Freudi 1-2201. His first question, Points League, where the commissioner has all power for trades. In week three, one manager traded Garrett Cole for Jack Flaherty. Seems bad. Cole was the third overall pick and Flaherty went in round nine. The commission told me there was no evidence of collusion, and if a person wants to make a bad trade, then they will be punished for it during this season.

Any insight is appreciated. In week three, that's a long time ago. You're digging up old things here. Yeah. I mean, Jack Flaherty was hurt at the time, and we knew he was going to miss a long time. I don't know what the incentive would have been to make this trade. It's pretty bad.

It is pretty bad. You know, I've been playing Caton online a lot lately, and I've noticed, I know we're like going way over, but I've noticed that sometimes you'll just get it. And these are random people I play with like, I don't think I've ever played the same person twice, and I've played like 60 games or something like that. And just sometimes there'll be just this random agent of chaos who makes, you know, Katan, there's a lot of trading in it. And he just makes these ridiculous trades for no reason, it seems like, but to mess with people. And that's frustrating. Yeah.

And I guess probably there are times when that happens in fantasy leagues, too. I think it would probably be less common if you guys are playing with over and over. Because if you notice there's an agent of chaos in your league, you're just going to kick them out. If not mid-season, then you're not going to invite them back next season, right? Yeah. But, yeah, I think your commissioner was right to rule this way. but if there was anything else funny going on with this guy the rest of the season, just don't invite him back next year.

I agree. Daily changes 12 categories league. As a commission, I made a rule that all teams must roster a full team each day for their hitters. When winning most of the pitching categories and hitting categories of runs, home run, steals, and RBI, members have been ignoring this rule on Sundays

in an effort to lose the categories of hitter strikeouts and batting average, which I guess in this case if you lose them, you win them. Obviously you want less hitter strikeouts, is the point. Members countered saying sitting hitters allows their opponents to gain four hitting categories on them. Thoughts on this.

Okay, so sum it up for me real quick. So basically, there's a rule that you must roster a full team each day for hitters on your roster. Some people are choosing not to roster, not to put out a full roster of hitters on a given day towards the end of the week when they want to win the strikeouts category

so something that would accumulate that would be bad or like if they have a high batting average they don't want it to drop basically so they just bench their hitters but you're saying they're not allowed to do that well I mean I guess there's maybe there's no way to actually enforce it

on whatever website they play on outside of just hoping people listen to you but that's my guess Yeah, I don't know what website you play on. Of course, on CBS, the default rule, if you have a lineup said illegally, you just don't get anything for that day. And I've always treated that like, okay, it's more, like, and head-to-head league, certainly,

I don't allow anybody to take, get like a free win. So if somebody has an illegal lineup going into the week, they're not accumulating any points. I say, okay, let's. Let's fix it to make this legal. And the way that's most disadvantageous to you, but let's make it legal so this other team isn't getting a free win and screwing up the standings in that way.

So I've always treated that as, okay, an illegal lineup is going to keep you from getting away with something illegal, but it's also to like, so you'll let the commissioner know, hey, I'm set up for an automatic, like it alerts everybody to it if you got a big zero there for the week. if you don't play on a site that catches it on its own like that, I don't know. I think if you're going to have a rule like that,

you've got to be willing to enforce it is the thing. And if you're not willing to check up on everybody's rosters all the time, maybe it shouldn't be a rule. Yeah, I think in the off season, probably vote because it sounds like some people in your league don't agree with the rule. So, you know, if most people don't agree with it, then I guess they should have their voices heard.

But, yeah, talk about it in the off season. And then if you actually do want, want the rule to be there for following seasons, then you have to enforce it. But even if it might be manually, it's what you've got to do. And as a result, Scott, I feel that fantasy justice has been served. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this very long edition of fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.