Fantasy Baseball Today - Buy Clevinger? Sell Lopez? Waiver Wire Hitters & Drop-O-Meter! (7/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Do we sell-high on Pablo Lopez after his awesome start (1:34)? ... Hunter Greene was solid while Mike Clevinger looks like a pitcher to buy (9:00). ... Drop Cody Bellinger for Hunter Renfroe in shallower leagues (16:55)? ... Rank Jose Miranda, Ramon Urias, and Nolan Jones (19:15). ... Is Steven Kwan a must-add in H2H points leagues (23:50)? ... News (31:56): we have an update on Fernando Tatis. ... How do we rank George Kirby moving forward (38:36)? ... Is it time to drop Taylor Ward, Nelson Cruz and Patrick Sandoval (44:00)? ... It's been a weird season for Michael Kopech (51:15). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (54:50). 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, July 27th. Frank Sanfell joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. Pablo Lopez was awesome.

Let's talk about some waiver wire hitters that we just keep talking about. Maybe your minds have changed. Probably not. Players to drop and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious. Also, I didn't mention this on yesterday's podcast. I'm sure nobody cares at all.

But obviously that clip, famous Susan Waldman, she was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. So shout out to Susan. And shout out to my Bronx bombers getting beaten down by the New York Mets here. Game one of the subway series. Anyway, oh my goodness gracious. You know, I wanted to start with Pavel Lopez, who's my player, but I don't like when I talk for so long without you guys talking. You got me listed first, and it doesn't make sense to do the less impressive of the two pitchers in that game.

It's true. So you should just go first. I will. Scott say something, anything, so that you get a word in, and then I'll go. Hello. Scott's here. All right, let's talk about Pablo Lopez, who tied a career high with 11 strikeouts at the Cincinnati Reds, and he was pretty jacked up in this start.

Seven innings, two hits, one run, 11 strikeouts to zero walks, 18 swinging strikes on 94 pitches, the velocity up across the board, 1.6 miles per hour on the fastball, 1.4 miles per hour on the curve, 1.5 miles per hour on the cutter as well. Kind of change up the pitch mix in this start through his curveball, a season high 14%. And in a very limited sample this season, it's been a very good pitch for him. I'm wondering if maybe this can be a third offering for him moving forward.

I know it's been a pretty inconsistent pitch for him so far in his career. Pablo Lopez kind of needed this start because his previous eight starts before this, a 4.60 ERA. Where do you guys land on Pablo Lopez as of now? He got off to this great start. Then obviously this most recent eight-star stretch, not great. And then an awesome start here. So I think we're kind of at a crossroads.

Like, do you kind of buy what we saw here on Tuesday? or do you look to capitalize and try and sell high before your trade deadline? Scott, you're up first. Well, he hasn't gotten hurt yet, so you can make a sell high case just from that perspective. Yeah, it's been a while since he's been a bankable fantasy pitcher. You mentioned that eight-start stretch. Seven of those eight starts were less than six innings. So he's about at his normal innings total.

now because he has avoided getting hurt so there may be a workload even if he manages to say healthy in the second's half there may be some workload considerations at play to preserve his health I presume he's a possible trade target I think you mentioned that frank

so you know that's up in the air as well anywhere he goes would probably be a more hitter friendly environment so you have to take that into account too and you know just the fact that prior to the start he was at less than a strikeout per inning. So there are a lot of

ways you could criticize Lopez. I still think he's a good pitcher. I mean, I just look at the fact that he has you know, he throws strikes consistently. He has a very good swinging strike rate. He has a at least

one plus pitch in the change up. I think in the long run, it will be wise to start Lopez. But yeah, I mean, there's this question of exactly how good is he and is now a good time to sell. You know, I would say see what you can get. If you can get a clearer, like, top 20 type pitcher. I mean, I don't know how likely a pitcher for pitcher trade is, but that's kind of how I'm seeing Pablo Lopez right now. He's on the outside of the top 20

looking in. Yeah, I think Pablo Lopez, he's probably more of like a top 25, top 30 starting pitcher than the top 20 pitcher that we've had him ranked like for most of the season. He has that exquisite change up, which you mentioned Scott. I think his fastball is fine, but Chris, it's, you know, trying to find that third offering. He mixes in the cutter at times, the curveball, and both of those pitches are kind of inconsistent for him. And, you know, I think if he can kind of get what he got from his curveball in this start moving forward, then, you know, maybe there is higher upside for Pablo Lopez. So what do you think about him? Sell high or keep the guy? Yeah, I mean, the curveball's not really a pitch that he's used all that often, really since 2019.

And it hasn't been a great pitch for him historically. So it kind of makes sense. Like he, it's been a really good pitch this season. The results have been really, really good. 53% whiff rate is outstanding. 0.71 expected Wobah is both of those are unsustainable,

but still, you know, just indicative of how good the pitch has been for him. But yeah, I don't expect that to like unlock some new level for him. I think Pablo Lopez is what he is, which is a load amid three ZRA guy who has some innings. concerns. And that's a very valuable player, but, you know, there's always the chance of that

injury coming back. You know, he's missed time to have the last three seasons with shoulder issues. Last season, significant time with the shoulder issues. So yeah, it's, it's a real concern. It's always tough knowing how to evaluate these kinds of players because we can't predict injuries. You know, like past injuries are the best indicator of future injuries, but try as we might. we can't actually predict when injuries are going to happen. In the long span of time, Pablo Lopez will get hurt again at some point. I wish he wouldn't.

I don't wish it on him, but it's just an inevitability. That's true of all pitchers, but especially pitchers with his injury history. So, yeah, I think there's always room to sell high on him. And I think right now is probably your best opportunity

because it's probably going to end up being his best start of the season. So, yeah, consider it. but it's not a must. Like, I've got him 25th, so right around the same rank that you guys mentioned. And the guys behind him are like Lucas Gialito, Charlie Morton.

So there's, you know, it's a kind of... Charlie Morton over him at this point. I think I would as well, but it's kind of a squishy range at starting pitcher. You know, I think he's glob-ish to use that term.

Well, I mean, to speak to the glob, but, you know, I just moved Gialito down to 40th. So, yeah, there's a, there's a, you know, a lot of different ways you could go with that range of pitchers. All right, I have one hitter and I have, I have one pitcher and a couple of hitters. Would you sell Pablo Lopez for, for Jacob de Grom right now, if you could? I mean, what is Jacob de Grom's trade value?

I don't know. Like, I'm looking at the rankings and we all have DeGrom around like SP20, so maybe you could pull it off. I don't know. Yeah. Well, that's. I don't know how much I want to. Exactly. Let's make it a league size issue.

10-team league, yes, I will shoot for the stars with DeGrom. 12-team points league. 12-team points leagues, which is kind of medium-depth. I would lean toward, yeah, trading for DeGrom, going for the upside. You only have so many lineup spots in that format. If it's a deep league, like a 15 team or 16 team, I'd be more likely to play it safe. To whatever degree,

sticking with Lopez is playing it safe. Yeah. All right. That's a tough one. I have three borderline top 20-ish outfielder's right now. Whitmeryfield, Brian Reynolds, J.D. Martinez. Let's say you need a hitter. Do you think that's fair value for Pablo Lopez?

I think I'd probably need a little more, you know, especially for Maryfield at this point. Right. But none of the like Martinez I think is the closest, but he's been Kind of just okay for a while and banged up similar to last season Yeah, you need more in exchange for Lopez is what you're saying. Yes, yes. I'd be more to give up Lopez. Yeah, go ahead top 70 is over all players Yeah, I think that's fair. Oh my goodness gracious Chris for you on the other side of that game. Yeah, we'll look on the other side of that game and and Hunter green who look, it's the Marlins, but you're happy anytime a guy with his potential puts together a good start.

And he did. A six strikeout, six in the third innings, two run runs, one walk. He had loading the page up, 18 swinging strikes, 11 them with that slider. That remains a very, very good pitch. Velocity was up to 100.3 miles per hour. He remains arguably the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball. It's actually kind of funny. I was looking at Pablo Lopez.

you know, had one of the highest velocity starts of his season, 94.4 miles per hour. He was the softest tossing player in this Marlins Reds game, a game between two of the worst teams in baseball. Or two bad teams, I guess, which is just baseball's nuts right now. Yeah, Hunter Green. He's going to continue to be aggravating, but I can't give up on him. I didn't realize his roster rate was down to 75%, which I guess makes sense when you look at the overall. all numbers for Hunter Green. He's got a 5.5. He's got a 5.59 ERA. Like, I can't defend that. He also has 119 strikeouts. So, I mean, that is very valuable. He's got a great swinging strike rate. But, you know, the ERA, the whip, it hurts you quite a bit. And, you know, how many wins are you going to get?

Pitching for the Cincinnati Reds? It's, you know, I get it. He's a fun pitcher, but it's his, I feel like this is weird to say because obviously he has a ton of upside. But his upside is kind of capped right now, just kind of pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. I, yeah, I mean, I think he's generally trending in the right direction. You know, it helps his last three starts, the velocity has been up as much as it has. But, I mean, a part, a big part of the problem with green from a rest of season perspective is that, like,

his season's likely to end before most other pitchers. True. Since the Reds are last place, like, you don't need a bunch of 100 mile per hour fastballs used up for a last place. you know, like that you don't need to put that kind of, get that kind of mileage out of his arm right now. And, you know, I think by the time he gets to 130 innings or so, it'll probably be a pretty hard cap for Hunter Green.

Scott, your microphone was kind of doing that weird thing again. I don't know if you're, like, bouncing around or anything, but it just happens every now and then. I don't know why. Does it sound better now? You do. It sounds great. I'm saying Hunter Green's going to run out of innings,

and they're going to shut that guy down. It'll happen. You know, it's probably, yeah, that's probably early in September. He's about 10 innings shy of where he finished last season. And obviously, because he didn't pitch in 2019 and 2020, because of injury and the pandemic season, that's his career high. So I would say he probably has like 40 more innings left in him. I think that's a decent number. And the way he's throwing, you know, that could be eight more starts.

But, you know, there's no hard and fast rule. with any of these. And Hunter Green, given his history, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if the Reds wanted to push him to say 140 innings, 150 innings just to have that base to build on. But it's impossible to know. He's kind of been treated like a workhorse, though, this season in general.

This is his sixth start. He's starting a lot of pitches. Sixth start of over 100 innings, 100 pitches. And he has a few, like near 120, which is pretty surprising. So more on Hunter Green. in a little bit. I'm going to bring up the workload issue a lot because I just wrote about it. The 18 starters that I think are at risk of a, not necessarily a shutdown, but a slowdown, at least, where, you know, they do the skipped turn. They do the, oh, we're pulling you after four effective innings kind of thing. And Hunter Green's on that list. All right. And, you know, just continue to mention it's got. But if you haven't already, go check it out on the site. Of course, cbsports.com slash

fantasy slash baseball. All right, Chris, uh, rather Scott. Oh my goodness gracious for you from Tuesday. All right. Almost 15 minutes in.

We got our third, oh my goodness gracious. And I can't even remember who I picked. Who'd I pick? Mike Clevenger. There you go. Mikey. Yeah,

I just wrote about him, uh, too, but I wrote about him in a different context because he is not going to run out of innings. Even though it's his first full year back from Tommy John's surgery, he's missed so much of it with various ailments unrelated to the elbow. He's had three separate IEL stints in the first half.

So he is free to roam here in the second half. And trending the right way as far as workload goes. So he went seven innings in this start against the Tigers. It was an effective start. I mean, it was against the Tigers. Two run runs. Five strikeouts is an unimpressive number. 10 whiffs on 92 pitches, whatever.

But it was a good start. Now four of Clevenger's last five starts have been six innings or more. And if there's no bay being of him that I'm not sure what there is not to like here because I look obviously small sample because of all the time he's missed, but I break down Clevenger and it basically looks like Mike Clevenger. The velocity's been down a little from its peak. but that three-year run of Clevenger being a high-end fantasy pitcher, I believe it was 2017 when it started,

his velocity is still higher than it was at the start of that run. Like there had been some fluctuation with his velocity, and we've seen him be effective in spite of that. So I think his velocity is good enough for him to be a reliable pitcher for you down the stretch. The swinging strike rate looks good. He's not walking a bunch of guys. And as I pointed out, he's, he's giving you a legitimate

starter's workload right now. The Padres just cut down to a five-man rotation after being six-man for most of this year. So there's a lot to like, I think, about Clevenger going forward and because he's kind of a forgotten man with all the time he's missed, I think it presents a good buy-low opportunity. One thing I will point out is

he did go seven innings in this start, like you mentioned six innings or more. in four of his last five. He's only thrown more than 94 pitches once in that span, and that was 98. So his pitch counts are 86, 98, 83, 94, and then 92 today, even though he went seven innings. So, you know, the pitch counts haven't been like super high, given how deep he's pitched in the game. It's a good sign that he's been effective and efficient. And, you know, in this start, it was interesting.

He didn't have a swinging strike, I think, until his 42nd pitch of the night. and then had 10 in his final 50. So that's a pretty good sign. But yeah, I don't expect Clevenger to be, like, I don't expect him to average six plus innings per start moving forward necessarily. But I do think he's always been someone who's outperformed his peripherals. He's always been someone who's, you know, been a little better than you would think, at least in terms of run prevention.

So I think that'll continue. I think he is a by-low candidate. I agree with that or just a buy in general. And he is in a contract year. So perhaps looking to cash in on a big second half. I kind of buy into those narratives. I think something you could pull off here, just in general, sell high by low,

is Pablo Lopez for Mike Clevenger and another piece. Like if you're someone who needs depth on your team, I think that's something that you can look into doing right now. Let's move over to some hitters, the waiver wire hitters. And I mentioned, like, it's just hitters we've been talking about a lot recently because they keep playing well. So we'll start off with Hunter Renfro. He went one for four with his 17th home run.

He's now up to 73% rostered. So more of a shallow add, you know, maybe a head-to-head points league, something like that. Would you guys drop a Cody Bellinger for Hunter Renfro? Bellinger hit his 13th home run of the season on Tuesday. I have no good reason to say no. Yeah, that's that's it. I mean, I think we're at the, we've crossed the threshold where

you have to if you're just talking at redraft league where you have to weigh upside versus what they're doing for you right now I mean you're always going to weigh it to some degree I'm not saying you know you drop a a slumping Kyle Schwabber

for some guy off the waiver wire but you know what I'm saying like Bellinger's done nothing all year at his best he's probably better than Renfro but you know at this point I'm kind of done holding out of it I don't even know if he's like, because I don't know what Cody Bellinger at his best looks like anymore because the best we've seen from him in his last thousand plate appearances was when he had a 788 OPS in 2020. I mean, we're going like literally we're about 50 plate appearances away from it being a thousand played appearances since his MVP season, 700 over the past two seasons where he's just been not useless for fantasy because he's on like an 1818 pace or something. but very bad, very, very bad Cody Ballinger

with underlying numbers to back it up. I mean, he's right at his expected Wobah right now. 280 to 281. That is dreadful. I can't give you a good reason to not drop Cody Ballinger. I can't say that I would be actually able to hit the button myself, but I think that probably highlights a flaw in how I play fantasy. baseball. I think in a points league, I'd be

alright doing it. And Categories League, it is a little bit tougher because the 11 steals he has on the season, but I mean, you're right. It's been a long time now, and overall, 647 OPS on the season, what are we doing? Yeah, I agree.

All right, let's move over to the third baseman that we keep talking about. Jose Miranda, another big game, three for four with a double, two RBI, back-to-back, three hit games, and now has the overall batting average up to 271. He is 45% rostered.

Ramona Reyes does it again. He went one for three, hit his 11th home run, and it was pretty long way. It was a bomb. It was like 425 feet. It was like over there, whatever you want to call the Great Wall and left field, whatever they're calling it. But he has 11 home runs in 66 games. That is a 25 home run pace over

150 games. Again, that is Ramona Reyes. He's just having a massive July. Chris, how would you rank these three if you need either a third basement or corner infielder, Miranda Arias, Nolan Jones, who hit his second home run of the season on Tuesday. I think I would go Miranda Jones or Reyes.

Miranda, we still don't know what the playing time's going to look like. That would be the biggest concern, but Miguel Snow was back in the lineup today. I think it was his first game back, right? I believe so, yes. And Luis Araya has actually sat against the lefties. So, you know, it was Miranda in the lineup. up with Sanoe starting. So I don't know what that means moving forward. It's one game. Who knows,

but that's a good sign. And it'd be hard to take him out of the lineup right now. And he's, you know, got some pedigree. So I really like what we're seeing for Miranda. And he would be the top guy for me. Yes, it was. Indeed, Miguel Sino's first game back. Scott, how do you rank these three? Miranda, Aureas, and Nolan Jones, who, by the way, the strikeout rate has climbed, as you predicted. It's not like unbearable. I think it's like 26%, but it has climbed a little bit for Nolan Jones. Yeah, but the the walk rate has been great. The quality of contact has been great. So I think if as long as those stay that way, and I have faith in the walk rate, especially, looking at his minor league track record, as long as those stay that way, he can, he's a guy who

you can afford to strike out at a near 30% rate, I think. Questions of playing time there, too. The Guardians face so few left-hander since he got called up that I still don't think we have a clear idea how that's going to go him being a left-handed hitter. Did he make a Monty comp when he got called up? Did anybody make it? No, I don't think so.

Maybe you did, actually. I can't remember. I don't remember anything you say, Chris. Yeah. Kind of a three-stop. true outcomes guy, I guess. But yeah, no, I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't buy this Arias thing very much. His quality of contact is pretty good.

Like the, I'm not, I don't think it's nothing. Like, I think Aureas is worth picking up. I would just, I would rather have Miranda especially. I think Ares and Jones is closer, but I do think the overall skill set for Miranda is a little strong. Yeah, I ranked them the same way Miranda Jones and Ria's. Reyes kind of reminds me of like, remember when Freddie Galfi's was useful for a couple years there? Like, he'd eke out 20 homers with a not terrible batting average. Like, maybe that's what Ramon Arias could be.

Aureas's underlying numbers are better than that, I think. You know, the 73rd percentile on average, Xag's velocity, 90th percent on hard hit rate. You know, there are some things to like, given that he's a pretty good contact hitter as well. So I don't want to downplay him too much. I picked him up in a few roto leagues where you've obviously got the middle and the corner infielder and I think having his versatility and the skill set that he brings right now, you know, hitting for a decent batting average and decent pop for I mean, let's call it for what it is. The Orioles are playing pretty well right now. So I mean, they are not in last place. It's July 27th and the Orioles are not in last place. That's remarkable. Yeah. Shout out to them. So by the way, I'm not sure if you mentioned this, Frank, but Jose Moran, has, well, he entered today batting 315 since June 1st. And so with another three hits, he's probably up near 3.30. I don't know. I haven't done the math.

But like, that's how hot he's been. I know the overall stat line doesn't look great for Miranda still because it took him a while to get going. But, you know, and that's with average exit velocity is near 90 miles per hour during that stretch. The strikeout rate's about 20%, you know. And he's putting the ball in the air a lot. maximizing his power. So that's all good signs for Miranda.

Speaking of high batting averages since June 1st, Stephen Kwan went 3 for 5 with his seventh steel, and since the start of June, he is batting exactly 3.30, the 10th best batting average during that time, only a 9% strikeout rate, which kind of makes you think if you play in a points league, this guy might be pretty good. Well, you're right. Last 28 days, and this is before his big game on Tuesday. He is a top. top 10 outfielder over the past month in head to head points leagues. Stephen Kwan is. So, you know, obviously a lot of it has to do with that plate discipline leading off,

getting a good amount of plate appearances for the Guardians. He's 49% rostered. I don't think that I would make this move, but someone on Twitter asked me if I would drop Taylor Ward for Stephen Kwan. And like, in a shallow league and a points league, I might do it. What do you guys think? Yeah, I don't think they're there yet. In spite of what I just said with the Bellinger Rentrow comparison earlier,

I mean, that's Bellinger. As Chris pointed out, hasn't really been good since 2019. Taylor Ward was the best player in fantasy for two months. And has cooled off quite a bit, but, you know, showing signs of coming around recently. And there's just like, there's just no next year for Kwan. You know, like when he's hitting 30. Scott, move around a little bit.

it's happening again yeah like here's here's a good example of of the limitations for kwan is since june first he's hitting 3 30 which is the 10th best batting average in baseball as frank said he is on an 83 run 48 rbi i 3 home run 14 stolen base pace so like that's when he's hitting 330 yeah i just yeah he just he doesn't do anything that that's the the pro like the steals are are okay but you know I think we made the David Fletcher comp you know last time we talked about him last we're on Sunday show or Monday show and I just kind of think that's what he is like the batting average I don't want to write it off you know the 330 batting average that's going to help your fantasy team no matter what but if he hits

290 is still a really good batting average but if he hits 290 he's probably not worth using I don't think that he's that's the difficult thing. It's hard to say it's a must add in a points league because it's so shallow. You only, you know, starting probably, you know, 40 outfielders if you factor in some utility bats. But, I mean, it's, you know,

top 10 over the last month. It's hard to argue with that. So, you know, the numbers are what they are. So if you're desperate for an outfielder in a points league, I think Stephen Kwan is definitely worthy of an ad there. What size league do we add, if any? I brought up Jamer Candelario on, I think it was yesterday's podcast. He went two for five,

hit his 10th home run, his third homer in two nights. And he's having a good July. 268 batting average, five homers, 12 RBI, 923 OPS, 13% bowel rate in the month of July. And that's before this home run here on Tuesday. So that number is only going to go up. He's 21% rostered. Is this like a 12-team roto thing, Scott? Or is it, you know, does it have to be deeper than that? What do you think for Candelario? I mean, I think it's desperation, you know? I understand why you keep bringing him up. because we have to talk about somebody who's available, right? And I think it's just, you know, most of the players who are available at this stage of the season just aren't very good.

However, I mean, maybe you lose your third basement and you have to sort through those options. Candelario appears to be a hot hand play, and he's been useful for stretches before. Had a good second half last year, though mostly manifested as doubles, I would point out, which aren't useful. and at least not directly used full in five by five leagues. So, you know, that's as much as I think you're going to get from Candelari. I don't think there's a breakout happening here or anything. You know, I made the argument to Nando Defino once. We were talking about like Roto versus head to head points.

And he was trying to tell me why Roto was the best. I'm like, but doubles don't count for more. And then, of course, his response was, well, you're closer to scoring a run. So. Yeah. I mean, there is an indirect impact, though. I mean, it's kind of like on base percentage. Like, you know, it's not really impact.

Not really impacting a player's fantasy value and it probably should, but you know. Right. Yeah. Well, in points of leagues it does. It depends what format. Yeah. Yeah. But in Roto, yeah.

Unless you score a run, a walk doesn't really help. I guess if you factor in. It proves your chances of driving in a run too. If there's a guy on base, it's better than a single. Fair. Some hitters in deeper leagues that kind of popped up here, you know, recently in general. Luis Renhifo, I feel like we spoke about him recently, Chris. We just kind of like laughed it off.

He's been pretty good over the past month. I'll pull up his July numbers. I meant to do that, but didn't write it in here. He went two for five with two RBI. He is 6% rostered. Chad Pinder hit a grand slam in the month of July. He's hitting 308 with four homers, 17 RBI. And Victor Robles had two hits and his 12th steel of the season.

He has led off the past two nights for the nationals, and in July, he's hitting 280. Two homers, five steals. So, I mean, that could be 15-team league worthy. Chris, what do you think about these three names in deeper leagues? Renhifo, Pender, Victor Robles. Robles is the most interesting of them, which tells you how uninteresting this group is. Because Robles is, you know, pretty hopeless at this point. It's good to see him batting at the top of the lineup.

and if he's going to have value the rest of the season in a Roto League, it'll just be from eking out a decent batting average and stealing some bases. I don't really think there's room for him to do much else. You look at the underlying numbers. Still looks like one of the weakest hitters in baseball. And so you're just hoping that the Nationals lineup is so bad that he hits lead off regularly, hits 270 is probably the most optimistic I would be. and maybe steals 10 bags for the rest of the season.

You know, that would be a success story for Victor Robles at this point. Before we hit the break, if you would be so kind, leave us a five-star rating on Apple. Feel free to drop a question or a team name Tuesday in the review. If you listen to us on Spotify, you can leave a five-star rating there as well. And as I've mentioned, and I'm going to continue to mention, this is the final week that you can nominate fantasy baseball today for the best sports podcast category in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Again, the link to help us out is podcastawards.com

slash app slash sign up and then toggle down the sports category. We have a QR code if you're watching us on YouTube. It's in the top right, right next to Scotty's head. And pull out your phone, you scan that. That'll bring you right to the link as well. The link can also be found in the podcast and YouTube description. We're going to take a break and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes.

Fernando Tatis took batting practice with his teammates on Tuesday, first time he's done so since injuring his wrist, and he could face live pitching a couple of times next week before going on a rehab assignment, which kind of makes me feel like mid-August is a realistic timetable, assuming that we get no setbacks here with Fernando Tatis. Julio Rodriguez did indeed make his return to the Mariners lineup on Tuesday, and I think he's fine because he hit his 17th home run of the season. He looks like Julio Rodriguez. Mani Machado tweaked his ankle a little.

little bit in extra innings. So something to watch there. Hopefully he's all right. Chris Bryant, who missed Monday's game due to a foot injury returned Tuesday as a designated hitter. And it turns out that he's dealing with plantar fasciitis. So I am between that and the fact, it's, no, it's this guy's beat up. Just get a cold beer bottle and rub it under roll it under your foot. That always helps me. Are you're speaking from experience, Chris? Yeah, man. It's a, it's a real issue. That's why I had to stop skateboarding. I know Chris Bryant comes here for medical advice, so I'm glad. I'm glad you're here to provide it.

I'm not saying it's medical advice. It's just, you know, he's starting to get into his 30s. I'm just, you know, trying to help a fellow geriatric millennial out. Chris, how far did you get in your skateboarding career? I'm sure everybody's dying to know. I, I all eat a five step once. What does that mean? Like, you know, five sets of five stairs.

I jumped down it. That's like decently impressive, I would say. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't do it now. I'm barely, my wife won't let me. I've talked about it when that Tony Hawk remake came out last year. I talked about buying a skateboard and my wife rightly talked me out of it. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I could land a kickflip right now.

Ooh. You know what I've always... It's just a question of whether I would hurt myself before I landed. I was never able to do a kickflip. I had some skateboarding days. I was not good. Definitely did not Olly down like five steps or anything. Well,

I wonder like what gives, speaking of somebody who's not very coordinated or daring, I guess, like what motivates you to try that in the first place? Like, what makes you think, I can do that. The release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

That's the entire reason. For me and millions of other people. I get that would make you want to be able. to do it, but what makes you think this is not like... I was 11? Okay. When I was younger, I used to use it as a form of transportation.

I mean, that was one of the legitimate reasons. And then, you know, I mean, being able to land any kind of trick, it's a pretty cool feeling, but... Yeah, it's pretty cool, man. Yeah, I wouldn't... That's great. That's great. A tray flip? Ooh, boy. But I imagine that the first time you try it,

it doesn't go successfully. Oh, it's just endless hours of frustration and pain. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. No pain, no gain. Come on, Scotty.

I don't remember how we got here. Don't mind it. Anyway, John Carlos Stanton was placed on the IL with left Achilles tendonitis, which kind of came out of nowhere retroactive to Sunday. I don't know. Maybe this affects their trade deadline plans, pushes them towards an outfielder. We'll see. Bobby Witt Jr. has missed two straight due to right hamstring tightness.

Mitch Hanigur moved his rehab assignment to turn. AAA on Tuesday and should be back soon with the Mariners. Speaking of which, George Kirby was recalled and Matt Brash was optioned back to AAA, more on Kirby in just a bit. Hazers Lizardo will make his third minor league rehab start Wednesday at AAA. He's 72% rostered. Could be out there in some shallower leagues. Mackenzie Gore was placed on the IL with left elbow soreness.

Not yet clear what the exact injury is. So once we find out, we will let you know. Garrett Cooper was placed in the IL with a right wrist contusion. Lewin Diaz was recalled by the Marlins and I believe starting at first base here on Tuesday. Max Kepler has been diagnosed with a mildly displaced fracture of his right pinky toe. There is a chance that he'll be able to avoid the IL. Francisco Mejia was placed in the IL with a right shoulder impingement, which should help the playing time of Christian Betancourt.

Apparently the Tigers are shopping everybody, including Terrick Scoobel, which actually comes as a bit of a surprise. Obviously, he's like young and kind of good, kind of exciting. So I don't know if anything will come. It has a lot of control left, which is normally what front office's value the most. So that's, yeah, that is. I imagine they need to be blown away to move Scoople. But yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, probably won't happen.

But speaking of trade rumors, apparently the Mets and Cubs have talked about a deal, including both Wilson Contreras and reliever David Robertson. Also, Josh Bell is a priority for the Houston Astros, which... I'd be pretty good. I think would be a nice little boon to his value. This one was really unfortunate. The Diamondback's first round pick, second overall pick in the MLB draft, Drew Jones suffered a shoulder injury during his first batting practice with the team on Monday,

and sounds like he will not play any pro ball this season. And in fact, I saw a report that he might not even be ready for spring training next year. They've had like really bad luck with their top prospects, right? Scott? Like didn't Corbyn Carroll miss a significant amount of time with the shoulder injury and yeah. Yeah, I think he missed Ron luck. Most of last year, Corby and Carolyn, you know, to his credit, he's returned this year and looked phenomenal. So yeah, it certainly hasn't hindered his development, which you would expect it to. I mean, the fact that he just crushes every level despite having played so few games in the minors.

Like he's Corby Carroll shaping up to be in my number one overall prospect next year. was my number one mid-season prospect. Yeah, I think that makes sense. He is having a monster season in the minors. Speaking of Drew Jones and just the MLB draft, if you haven't, go back on demand and listen to the podcast that Chris did with our buddy the Welsh last week. It was, you know, recap of the first round

and first-year player draft rankings. Obviously, you know, the value of Drew Jones has changed quite a bit, but I thought you guys did a really good job. So anyone who plays in Dynasty League, go check that out. More first-round pick news. pitcher Kumar Rocker has officially signed with the Texas Rangers one year after he was not offered a contract by the Mets, the team who drafted him last year. Waiverwire pitchers, not really the best night for this on Tuesday, but George Kirby could be out there in some shallower leagues, and he returned to the mound for the Mariners, and he was solid. Five shutout innings, two hits, one walk, four strikeouts, only through 51 pitches in this start, had six swinging strikes,

changed up the pitch mix a little bit. He did not throw his change up. which he uses about 10% usually. And he threw a new sinker, 14%, which we've also seen from his teammate Robbie Ray, just incorporating a new sinker. So I thought that was kind of interesting for George Kirby. Scott, how would you rank these four? Shallow leagues, waiver-wire pitchers,

Kirby, Lazardo, Andrew Heaney, Hunter Green. They're all between 70 and 75% rostered. I would rank them this way. All right, say the names again, sorry. I thought I could find them in the notes. Kirby, Lazzardo, Haney, and Green. Yeah, I would rank them, Hini, I think. Heaney, Luzardo, Kirby, green, I would say.

And they're all, like, I feel like Hini, Luzardo, and Kirby, the first of those three are pretty close to must roster. I know they're available in some leagues, so they aren't literally must roster, but they, like, if they're out there in your league, you should try to make a play for them. However, I will point out in Kirby's case. Like, he might be the clearest candidate for a shutdown of any pitcher. His 91 innings, well, prior to the start, it was 91. I guess now it's 96.

The most he's ever thrown as a professional is 67 and 2 thirds. So, you know, he's already almost 30 over his previous career. high. So I got to think like 120 might be as hard as they push him. I know they're fighting for a playoff spot and he's contributing to that. I presume they're going to acquire another arm at the deadline.

So, you know, that really shouldn't impact your thinking as to whether or not to pick up Kirby. Because like, you know, if he runs out innings, who cares? You can enjoy him in the meantime. But I do think he'll run out of innings at some point. It's got a random prospect question,

but do you think we will see Emerson Hancock at any point this season, a pitching prospect for the Mariners? You know, I haven't really... He's been very good. He's doing... 2.15 ERA, 107 whip, 11 starts at AA. But he is 23 years old. Yeah, and he's thrown only 46 innings.

I know he missed some time with injury earlier this year. I mean, it's possible. Sure. I mean, I don't think... Like, if the Mariners find themselves with the hole in their... rotation and they're still very much in the playoff mix. Like I don't think they're going to they're going to stop themselves from calling up Hancock to help if they think he can help.

So yeah, it's possible. I'm not necessarily counting on it. And I don't know how high the upside is anyway because like he hasn't been a strikeout for any guy in the miners. He's more of like a high floor prospect rather than a high ceiling prospect. But yeah, it's a name to keep in mind Emerson Hancock. All right. Chris, Kegan Thompson, are you looking to add him anywhere?

He actually had the longest outing of his career here on Tuesday. Up against the Pirates, he went seven innings, two unearned runs. He had seven strikeouts to zero walks, 14 swinging strikes on 97 pitches, and he leaned more on his four-scene fastball in this start, and he doesn't throw it very hard, but it's a very high spin-rate fastball, 91st percentile in terms of spin rate, and Keegan Thompson has a 3.16 ERA on the season, 55% rostered, and he's SPARP eligible. Chris, what do you think about Keegan Thompson?

I've had a hard time getting excited about him. He's one of those guys who just kind of, he's kind of average at everything, like all the skills that we look for at starting pitcher. He's like average or maybe a little bit below. And so I like 55% rostered, that sounds right. I can't imagine there are too many leagues where I would think Keegan Thompson needs to be added. he's definitely behind Kirby, Lizarro, Hini, and Green for me.

Although the Spark eligibility, you know, that helps. In deeper leagues, Jose Suarez just wanted to point out he had a strong start at the Royals, five and a third shutout, three hits, one walk, three strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 78 pitches, that's a pretty good ratio,

completely changed up his pitch mix in this start through his slider 44%. that was 10% entering this start. And he threw his sinker 24%. That was 8%. So just completely changed everything here. Scott, the overall numbers are not great. Though the swinging strike rate is kind of intriguing.

What do you think about Jose Suarez in deeper leagues? Yeah, I think you basically said it. The swinging strike rate is kind of intriguing, but that's about it. And I, you know, that's not enough. I sat him in the 2014 Dynasty League this week. Right. And that kind of tells you.

That's a pretty deep league. So I just I want to pay attention to this pitch mix because it's just such so drastic a change. So again, this is just for like the deepest of leaks. The dropometer. These are among the most dropped players on CBS right now. And I mentioned his name earlier, Taylor Ward since May 21st. Why the date May 21st? Mike Curland, who we have had on this podcast before, pointed this out on Twitter that that was the day after Taylor Ward left with neck slash shoulder issues and hasn't really been the same since.

So in 43 games, 231 batting average, four homers, one steel. He's still 84% rostered. Scott will start with you, the dropometer on Taylor Ward. So who was it I said I preferred him to earlier in the show? Stephen Kwan. Yeah, okay. Because I don't think, I don't think, and I'm glad it was somebody's low end as that, because I don't think Ward is beyond dropping, particularly in like a three outfielder

league, obviously five outfielder leagues. There's just so few outfielders to turn to that you kind of want to hold on to anybody with impact potential. But, yeah, the track record for Ward isn't great. And the second half of his season so far has been utterly useless. So I can understand moving on to like a Hunter Renfro or something like that if you play in a three outfielder league. All right.

Let's move over to. Patrick Sandoval, yes, Chris, you will get Patrick Sandoval. He's got a 3.64 ERA. His whip is 1.51. One of those things is not like the other. And in the month of July, he's been brutal. 7.11 ERA. Still over a strikeout per inning.

The swinging strike rate is solid, but the walks, the hits, big, big issues for Patrick Sandoval. And as we mentioned with other angel starters, he's virtually never going to give you two starts in a single week. Chris, I've got some questions recently about Patrick Sandoval. Where is he on the dropometer for you? I'm not going to be able to bring myself to drop him, but it's one of those situations where I couldn't necessarily give a good articulation as to why someone else shouldn't. You know, it's interesting. The thing that he's changed in the month of July, he's gone away from

the four-seem fastball. He has almost not thrown it at all after it being his most used pitch. I don't want to say his primary pitch, but his most used pitch. And the sinker has actually not been a bad pitch for him in the month. 2.91 expected Woba, 15% whiff rated, whatever, but it's better than the four seam fastball. The concern I have is just that what if the shape of the sinker relative to the four seam fastball makes his other pitches less effective? His slider's been getting hit really hard so far this month. So, you know, that would be the concern for me, but I still think there's just so much talent here that I can't go away from him.

But yeah, it's been a frustrating and disappointing season for Patrick Sandoval to say the least. Scott, would you drop Patrick Sandoval for any of the names that have emerged recently? Aaron Ashby, Reid Dettmer's Nicola. I think I would drop Sandoval for Ashby. I just think the ceiling's higher for Ashby, and, you know, if there are immediate concerns for both, I'll take the ceiling guy. Not that Sandoval doesn't have a good deal.

See, I think Sandoval ceiling is still so, the swinging strike rate is so high. He just, like, needs to figure out how to not die with his time. Ashby is higher, right? I think it is. They're very similar pitchers, actually. Both lefties, they get lots of strikeouts, but they struggle with control, both of them.

Yeah. I would, you know, I don't think either of us have actually given a number for the dropometer. I'll go five on Sandoval. I'll go six on Taylor Ward. All right. Yeah, I'll go three on Sandoval. Five on Taylor Ward.

The injury is like, the injury is sort of robbing us of the ability to have known whether there was anything sustainable about what he was doing in the beginning of the season. I tend to think it was a fluke, but, you know, now I can't say for sure.

I mean, look, he was performing like the best hitter in the game, Right, right, right. I'm, yeah, when I say fluke, obviously what he was doing was unsustainable, but even like being a well above average hitter. Whenever he's been healthy, he's played pretty well, Taylor Ward. So I think he could have maintained being a top 30 outfielder. It's just, again, it's kind of hard to judge now because how healthy is he actually.

Nelson Cruz is batting just 231 on the season. He only has eight home runs. The ground ball rate is way up. The expected numbers have dropped over the course of the season. he has not hit a home run since June 25th, and he's down to 69% rostered. Scott, 1 to 10, Nelson Cruz, dropometer. Let's say, I'll go one higher than Ward, I think.

Yeah, I'll go 7. I mean, mostly that's because outfield is a scarce position, and DH is, you know, by definition, in the least scarce position because you put any hitter there. And so, like, it's just, it's hard to squeeze in Nelson Cruz. And so that,

I think that makes them pretty replaceable. It wouldn't surprise me if you went on to have a more typical Nelson Cruz second half. But, you know, we're at a point now where we can't necessarily count on that. Chris, you get a double dose of starting pitchers. Jordan Montgomery did not have it here against the New York Mets.

Two and a third innings, five hits, five runs. Four of those were earned. And over his last seven starts, Jordan Montgomery has a 4.97 ERA. Strikeouts, swinging strike rate still looks pretty good. He's still 91% rostered. And then Nick Povetta had a solid start on Monday, but in four July starts, he has a 9.95 ERA. All the regression hitting at once here for Nick Povetta.

Chris, where do you rank those two? Montgomery, Povetta on the drop-o-mute. I'd go like a six I don't I'm not really married to any of them I would drop any of them for any of that Luzardo Haney who would the other

Hunter Green Kirby George Kirby I would I drop any of either of them for any of those four guys like I I think I think Povetta's totally replaceable never really bought into what he was doing I think Jordan Montgomery is a good solid pitcher. I'd probably take those guys over him to Chris. I don't know about Hunter Green. I might

rank Montgomery over here. Sure. That's fine. Given the key team context. But like you know, if we're doing Montgomery versus like a Jose or Kiti like I'd rather have Montgomery. I think he's going to be steadier. I think the strikeout the strikeout the strike out potential is definitely higher. He actually had like a swinging strike rate is nothing. It's always been pretty high. He's one of those guys I feel like he doesn't like he's got good swinging strike rates. But but he doesn't have like a great putaway pitch. Or if he doesn't like finish guys off well, it's always been the case that he's put together.

He's got like multiple good looking pitches, but like the overall strike rate tends to be a little underwhelming, I think. Yeah, no, that's exactly right, Chris. I was watching the game on Tuesday here. And it was like foul ball after foul ball and two strike counts, like just could not finish batters off. And he's got a really good change up. He's got a really good breaking pitch.

but like his fastball, his sinker are just, they're so mediocre and they get hit pretty hard. So it just kind of limits the upside of Jordan Montgomery. I think he's a high floor player, which is fine. It's just he's never like his swinging strike rate is always going to leave you wanting more and thinking that something will come. But it never really happens for Jordan Montgomery. I get that. But having said that, you know, he's at what, 7.4K per 9 this year. The previous two years, he was more than a strikeout per inning.

So like I do think he could. be better than he's been as a strikeout pitcher. I have more hope for him doing that than somebody like or kitty. All right. Let's get into the leftovers here from Tuesday. What do we make of Michael Kopeck's season? It's been a very weird one. And by weird, I kind of mean bad. Michael Kopeck at Corse Field, solid start here, five point five and a third shutout, six hits, three walks, four strikeouts. He had 12 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. The overall ERA is great. 3.16, but you look under to the hood. He's got an ex-fip approaching five, less than a strikeout per inning, nearly five walks per nine. His swinging strike rate is below 10%. Obviously, the fastball velocity has taken a nose

dive compared to last year when he was pitching out of the bullpen. Scott, what do you make of Michael Kopec's season? It's been a weird one. It has been weird, and I'd be pretty discouraged about Kopeck in a dynasty league if I've had them, you know, if I've stashed him away since his days as a top prospect, finally get a chance to see. is a full-time starter and this is how it's gone. Like the stuff has played down. The walks have been,

you know, the walk to strikeout rate is terrible. It's, I mean, that's why his ex-fip is so high. So, like, I'm pretty concerned about his future at this point.

And I wonder if the white socks won't come to the conclusion that he's probably better as a bullpen piece. I think it's premature to say that and from where I sit. But, I could just see it playing out that way

because he looked great in that role last year, right? The proof is in the pudding. Yeah, I'm pretty worried about him. So, 177 pitchers qualify for the minimum on the slider leaderboard on stat cast pitch arsenal stats. So 177 pitchers have thrown at least

X number of slider. I don't know what it is, but that's a large number. Would you like to know where he works? ranks in slider with rate among that 177. I'll say one 70. 174. Wow.

Three pitchers this season have a worse swinging or whiff rate with their slider than Michael Copac this season. The slider with rate last year was 36% this year. It's 18% of what it was. That's really bad and he doesn't really have a change up to speak of. He's just he's got a lot. of development that he needs to do to be able to make it as a starter. But like Scott said, it's an incredibly, incredibly discouraging season for him so far. A few other pitching

leftovers, two of our favorites, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. Shane McClanahan makes it 13 straight quality starts. This one at the Orioles. He only needed 81 pitches to go seven endings. He gave up two hits, two runs. seven strikeouts. He had 22 swinging strikes. 14 of those came on the change-up, and I thought this was pretty interesting, too. He has allowed four hits or less in eight straight starts. Guy is just unhittable. He's ridiculous. It's crazy.

His ERA actually rose in this start to 1.76 for what it's worth. Spencer Strider was also great. He bounced back with a quality start at the Phillies. Six innings, three hits, one run, six strikeouts, leaned all the way. into the fastball on this one through it 78% of the time. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Shane O'Mack and the quad father, Spencer Strider. So I referred to those 18 pitchers who might have workload concerns here in the second half. Both of these two are on it. I think Strider might be okay because of that time he spent the bullpen early on. He's still about 20 innings short of what he was last year.

And, you know, I'm thinking every pitcher has roughly 65 innings if they stick to their usual schedule, roughly 65 innings left. So, you know, that would put him 45 over last year's mark, which is, I think, a fine increase. You know, kind of depends what role the Braves plan to use him in, the playoffs. Maybe they move them to the bullpen lay. But, you know, I'm not so worried about it with Strider.

I'm more worried about it with McClanahan because he's basically right at his career. high already. And, you know, I found a quote from Kevin Cash saying, yeah, we're at the point where we're going to have to start to limit his inning somehow. That's not a direct quote, but that's more or less what he said. And then, of course, right away, McClain-Had throws another seven-innings start. So, like, the Rays are a very cautious franchise by nature.

They guard, they protect their assets as much as any club because, you know, they it's all they've got they can't afford to make mistakes as much as other clubs do can so you know

I feel like I feel like they're gonna have to skip turns with him have him go four innings every now and then in the second half especially since they're probably going to be

in the playoffs and want to you lean on him then I just don't see any way around it like he's too important to their future so he is is he is somebody worth shopping right now.

Now, what would be an appropriate return for McClanahan, who's been the best pitcher in fantasy so far? Like, you have to get another ace caliber pitcher and then some, I think, to make it worth doing. But you want to try to do it now before it becomes apparent to everybody that the rays are having to pull back. Yeah, like, this might be the perfect start

because he threw seven innings. So if you're just looking at it, well, okay, there's nothing there. But only 81 pitches. You know, he could have challenged for a complete game on a, you know, in a different circumstance. But, you know, that's kind of, I think, indicative. It hurts my heart to say this, but I have thought about chopping him in the leagues where I have him, especially, like, 15-team Roto leagues, you know, you have holes in other places. You could turn McClan into, like, two viable pieces in deeper leagues.

So it's something I'm probably going to try to do. It hurts, but. It should be more than viable. Like, if you're doing it right, like, it should be two. I mean, it should be two great pieces. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hitting leftovers from Tuesday.

Sayas Suzuki went two for four with his eighth home run, a monster shot, 436 feet. 18 games since returning from the aisle. He is hitting 328. Four homers, two steals, a 903 OPS, 17% strikeout rate, which is very encouraging because what we saw from Sayas Suzuki right before he got hurt was he looked lost and he was striking out a crazy amount.

But he is really, really returned and, He's looked very strong recently. Michael Harris went two for four with his ninth home run, and he picked up his 11th steal on Monday night. So he's also batting 292. His 150 game pace, 25 homers, 31 steals. Michael Harris has just been amazing. I grouped these two together because I recently moved Harris

and Suzuki back inside my top 35 outfielders. Does that sound right, Scott? I think definitely for Harris. Suzuki. Suzuki's been awesome, man. I know. He has been recently, and the strikeout rate has been,

like the strikeout rate has fluctuated so much this year that, like, I think, I think his success hinges on that, and I just don't really have a great feel for how much contact say you Suzuki's, say a Suzuki's gonna make. But Harris, I think, definitely belongs

in that high-end outfielder group. With Suzuki, he's not swinging and missing very often at all. His whiff rates in the 60th percent his chase rates in the 93rd percentile. So I think there are reasons to believe that his 26% overall strikeout rate might be inflated a little bit. He's very patient. I don't know if it's patient or selective or passive.

You know, those are all kind of different versions of the same thing. But I think it's mostly good from what we've seen from him. O'Neill Cruz went one for three with his sixth home run. 111 miles per hour off the bat and he now has a modest six-game hitting streak, progress. Aaron Judge had a sock and a shoe. 39th home run, 10th steel of the season. Big night for the Blue Jays sluggers.

Vlad Jr. hit his 21st home run. George Springer went three for four with a grand slam which was his 18th home run and I also wanted to include Alejandro Kirk in here but I didn't write it down. So I'll pull it up and I'll let you know what he did. Cedric Mullins went one for three with a sock and a shoe of his own, his eighth home run, his 21st steal. He now has the batting average up to 263 overall.

Stalling Marte went two for four with his 10th home run, and he has really come on recently. Last 15 games, he's batting 390 with three home runs and three steals. That is Starling Marte. Alejandro Kirk went one for five with his 12th home run of the season. Byron Buckson hit another one as well, his 24th home run of the season. Call to the bullpen for the Cubs. Rowan Wick pitched in the eighth inning. Michael Givens pitched the ninth for his second save.

And we last saw David Robertson on Sunday. Do you guys think maybe they're just kind of holding out until they trade Robertson? You know, maybe they don't want him to get hurt so they're not pitching him. What do you guys think? Yeah, I mean, to a degree. Like, they can't go a week without pitch.

Like, we're still, what, five days away from the trade deadline? later than usual this year. It's August 2nd at 6 p.m. Eastern time. So we're several days away from the trade deadline still. What is that? Seven days? Seven days away. Okay.

So, yeah. So like, you know, unless they're planning to trade them tomorrow, they will have to use them some. But I have the same thought, too. They must not be using them because they just don't want a risk injury right now. Right. For the Marlins, Tanner Scott struck out one for his. 13th save. Still kind of hoping out, holding out hope that Anthony Bass will get a chance.

He pitched anything. I'm not. I have a lot of Scott. Thank you. Nah, definitely doesn't have to do with the name or anything, right? No. Orioles. Jorge Lopez gave up a hit, but picked up his 19th save for the Braves. Kenley Jansen recorded the final two outs for his 23rd save. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz, Deez recorded the final four outs, all via strikeout. He has been amazing. I believe he already has as many strikeouts as he did all of last season. It's crazy. His 22nd save of the season. I don't know if you guys saw the game.

Aaron Boone, which I have no idea why he did this, he pinch hit Joey Gallo in the eighth inning of this game. It was against Adam Ottavino at the time. And Buck Shawalter's like, no, you're going to face Edwin Diaz, and he's going to strike you out immediately. And that's exactly what happened. So poor Joey Gallo, I guess. For the Padres, Taylor Rogers entered with a one-run lead,

and he gave up one-run on 10. two hits and a walk. His last 21 outings, he has a 7.61 ERA. Chris, do you think there's a chance anyone else could step up here for the Padres or maybe they make a move? Luis Garcia pitched in the eighth inning of this game and he's been solid this season. What do you think about the Padres? Yeah, I could definitely see them making a move. They're always aggressive in trade. So it wouldn't surprise me if they did that. But, you know, we haven't seen them moving away from Rogers so much yet. So I'm not expecting. it. But I don't know. If you wanted to speculate on Luis Garcia, go ahead.

For the White Sox, Liam Hendricks gave up a solo homer but converted his 19th save. For the Mariners, they had a two-run lead. Paul Seawald pitched in the eighth inning. He gave up two runs on one hit, two walks. That's now two games in a row where Seawald was pitching in the eighth inning. You know, he's basically their high leverage guy. They don't have a closer there. And then for the Rangers on the other side, Brett Martin entered with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on two hits. and two walks, and he has looked pretty bad recently. So maybe the Rangers are close to going to someone else.

Maybe they make a move. I don't know what they're going to do, but it's not really working with Brett Martin right now. To stream or not to stream for Wednesday, we've got Brad Keller versus the Angels, Cole Irvin versus the Astros, Marco Gonzalez versus the Rangers, Brax and Garrett at the Reds, Domingo Hermann at the Mets, and Tyler Wells versus the Rays. Yep, I'd try out Garrett at Cincinnati, see if you. if you can do it against somebody

other than the pirates. It's basically what I said yesterday. I'm saying it again. All right. Consistency. We like that. Yeah. On Thursday,

Graham Ashcraft versus the Marlins. This will really test it. Can you pitch anybody against the Marlins? Jordan Lyles versus the race, Brady Singer at the Yankees. Ashcraft's not the worst pitcher we mentioned in this segment. He's been pretty bad recently.

He's not the worst pitcher we mentioned it in this segment. That's fair. Typically. Cutter Crawford versus the Guardians and Justin Steele at the Giants. Graham Ashcraft. Ooh. Yeah. Ooh.

I think Cutter Crawford. I'm going to do it until the Marlins make it look bad. I've got a bad feeling about Graham Ashcraft, Matt. No, I don't know. I don't feel good about it, but. We also don't feel good. We also don't feel good about the Marlins. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris.

I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.