Fantasy Baseball Today - Buy or Sell? Waiver Wire Pitchers & Ranking Young Outfielders! (9/4 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Reid Detmers returned with a great start against the Dodgers (2:50)! ... David Peterson dominated the Red Sox (6:34)! ... Kyle Schwarber triple dong and Ben Joyce threw 105.5 MPH (11:35)! ... News (16:58): Corey Seager will see less playing time down the stretch. ... Add Jeffrey Springs or David Peterson (21:57)? ... Josh Jung is starting to pick things up (38:26). ... How do we rank Jackson Chourio, Wyatt Langford, Colton Cowser and Lawrence Butler for 2025 (42:18)? ... Buy or Sell (49:45): Francisco Lindor still has a shot at NL MVP? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:53). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 4th. I am, for example, joined by Chris Towers today on the show.

We did have some pretty interesting. pitchers pop up on the waiver wire, ranking young outfielders for 2025, some buy or sell scenarios, and much more. Chris, I know you had a pretty eventful Labor Day weekend. How was that? It was good. I just hung out with my friends from college all weekend and stayed out way too late and I'm not a young man anymore. So I'm feeling the effects of that. But I'm good. You know, Let's let's let's go Red Demmers Is that where we're starting?

Is that where? Hold on, hold on. Let's jump in. The impossible has happened. All right. Now you get your, your Red Demers. Let's go.

Yeah, I wasn't really in a, I'm not really in a vamping mood. So I'm just going to get down to brass tax here. And we'll start with Redetmers, who was terrific in an extremely tough matchup in his return to the majors, going six innings, allowing two. Two earned runs, 10 strikeouts, two walks, three hits against the Dodgers. I was kind of shocked watching that game that they left him in to face.

I think it was Freeman to Oscar Hernandez and Will Smith again. Third time through in the sixth inning, they let him face the top of that order three times. And he was really good. And he went with a lot of different approaches throughout the game. early on he was very curveball heavy. He started throwing a lot of changeups the third time through the order. Slider was working really well for him, eight whiffs on 20 swings,

and that's the place to start. It kind of always has been for Reed Detmer's because it's a pitch that when it's looked good, it tends to look really, really good like it did today. And he's also just never seemed to settle on the type of pitch he wants that slider to be. Sometimes he throws a slower, loopier version of the pitch. pitch. Sometimes he throws it a little harder. I did notice in this game, the velocity was up 1.2 miles per hour on his slider. And that does not seem to be a mistake.

In talking to reporters after he got recalled from AAA recently, he said that he started throwing his slider the way he used to. And what you see at the end of his run, his overall numbers at AAA are pretty horrible. I think it was a 554 ERR. in 14 starts. But his final three starts at AAA, remember it's the PCL, 29 strikeouts, seven walks over 21 innings, only three earned runs allowed. Now, I know what you're saying.

We've done this before, this Redemir's thing, and we've all hated it for the most part. He's been, I think, one of the more consistent disappointments for fantasy over the past couple of seasons, career ERA, 468. So if you want to be skeptical of Reid Detmer's, I think that makes a lot of sense. You should be skeptical of Redetmers. I am skeptical of Red Demers. And I say this as someone who does think Red Demers should be added in at least some CBS Fantasy leagues.

But we've also seen stretches from Redetmers where he's been really, really good. And we know the upside is really, really high here. So when I see a start like this against a team like the Dodgers, I'm willing to give Reid Detmer's the benefit of the doubt because if that works out, it could work out in a big way. Yeah, I mean, especially the matchup. We've been kind of giving some pitchers a pass because they're facing the fully loaded Dodgers lineup

with everyone back healthy. David Peterson just comes out here, excuse me, Reed Detmer's. I'm kind of foreshadowing a little bit, jumping ahead. But Reed Detmer's 10 strikeouts, 18 whiffs. against that Dodgers lineup. So he's 20% rostered. Looks like the next matchup is up against the Houston Astros.

I think in deeper leagues you can pick Detmer's up, see how that next outing goes. And if that one's good, maybe you have confidence for like the final two or three starts of the season. Maybe it's even a situation where you're in a keeper or a dynasty league. Redetmers is still just 25 years old. And we know that there's big strikeout potential there. So maybe you pick them up in a league like that.

And it's kind of more of a forward-thinking move for years to come. but you read off the career numbers. The ratios have been very high, but strikeout potential is still tantalizing there with Redembers. Let's talk about David Peterson. Maybe it's time to take Peterson more seriously because we've cited how good he's been, we've read off all these numbers,

and it's two earned runs or less in 15 of 17 starts this season. But for a large majority of that, it hasn't seen sustainable, and the underlying numbers don't really back it up. this performance was a little bit different. Up against the Red Sox, six innings, one run, 11 strikeouts with 20 whiffs on 89 pitches for David Peterson. 14 of his 20 whiffs came on the fastball here.

He avoided hard contact. Obviously, that fastball was amazing. I kind of wonder if this is just an outlier performance for that fastball, because it's not like, you know, it gets a decent amount of whiffs, 24% width rate, but it also has a decent amount of hard contact. against on that fastball. He has turned in five straight quality starts.

David Peterson has. As I mentioned, two earn runs or fewer in 15 of 17 starts. He's down to a 275 ERA, but a 131 whip. So you can just see the disparity right there, Chris. Those things, they don't really line up. The whip is just too high for an ERA that low. 68% rostered is David Peterson. How do you handle a start like this?

It should be no surprise as the podcast's official Seth Lugo skeptic and every other similar pitcher that I have zero faith in what David Peterson is doing right now. This was his first start. He's had this awesome run in August especially, where he had a 186 ERA, 38.2 innings, four straight quality starts added to that today. He had five quality starts and six starts in August. It was with a 346 fifth. Now, that's good, but it's also the 346 FIP coming in the best stretch of David Peterson's career with an ERA almost two runs lower. And so that's where the skepticism comes in for me. He's got a 512 XERA.

So it's not even one of these Andrew Abbott situations where you can say, yeah, but he's limiting hard contact really well. He's not. I don't know where the 20 swinging strikes came from. 17 of them with his foreseamer or sinker. those are not good swing and miss pitches for David Peterson typically. So I would add Redembers ahead of David Peterson in leagues where they're both available personally. You can call me stupid and maybe I am, but that's where I'm at. You know, this is one of those situations, Chris, where I think if this was happening at the beginning of the season,

I would fully be on board with, okay, there's going to be regression. this is not going to last. I don't know if there's enough calendar left for the regression to hit for David Peterson. So we always struggle with that, right? Because like, my thing is, I don't believe that there's, look, maybe there is something David Peterson is doing

that it's just not captured by the numbers, right? Like maybe. He does get lots of ground balls. I will give him credit for that. 53% ground ball. Right, but that's factored into the XERA and the FIP and all that stuff. So I don't know.

Maybe there is something David Peters is doing that is sustainable and I'm just too blind to see it. But my process is always going to be trying to evaluate talent and try to project what that talent is going to do moving forward. I just don't think David Peterson is a particularly talented major league pitcher. And so, look, he might continue it. He might do it through October. And if the Mets make the playoffs, maybe he'll continue it in the playoffs.

But I think it's much more likely that David. Peterson has an ERA over 4.5 moving forward, whether that's the rest of the season, the rest of his career. That's just my approach. I understand that not everybody views it that way. And maybe I'm wrong. But it's, that's just the approach that I have to take as an analyst. I'm going to try to be as talent driven as I can be. I totally get it. I respect that you, you are always very process oriented. and very big on trusting the process with that. I try and do that.

I also try and, I guess, work in more of like a feel thing. Like if a pitcher is just really pitching well, like Ranger Suarez earlier in the season, where we all kind of expected him to regress, but man, he's just hitting his spots and he's executing really well. Maybe that's just what's happening for David Peterson right now. Yeah.

And he's 68% rostered. He could be out there in some shallower leagues. I would rather start him next week than read Demers. David Peterson looks like a two-star pitcher at the blue. at the Phillies, I would rather use Peterson than read Detmer's for next week. I think that's perfectly reasonable. And I have been accused of being stubborn in the past.

It may not be an unfair accusation. Want to give some, oh my goodness gracious shoutouts here. Kyle Schwerber, one of the best games of the season. Five for six with three, one, two, three. Swore bombs, including a three run, go ahead, home run, the ninth inning of that game. It's been a different season here for Kyle Schwerber. He sacrificed some power, but he has improved the batting average dramatically.

Remember the past two years, he's down below the Mendoza line, batting below 200. This season, he's batting 245. He's got a 369 on base percentage with 31 home runs, great counting stats, and 843 OPS. So again, you know, he's not giving you the near 50 home run production. But this version of Schwabber might actually be better for fantasy. The fact that he's hitting around 250, he's probably going to wind up with, you know, 35 to 40 home runs. That's still a really, really useful player for fantasy. So I wanted to give a shout out to Kyle Schwerber, obviously a huge game for him.

And Ben Joyce, how about this? 105.5.5 miles per hour on the fastball. Fastest strikeout pitch in the pitch tracking era since 2008. So we know that Ben Joyce can throw hard. Oddly enough, doesn't get as many whiffs for somebody that you would expect throws this hard for Ben Joyce. but, you know, he's been effective this year. And I think the Angels probably have a closer of the future type here with Ben Joyce. Anything to add on him, this amazingly fast pitch that he threw and Kyle Schwerber's transformation in the season.

Yeah, I don't really have a ton to add on Schwerber because it, you know, if you look at the underlying numbers, it actually doesn't look like there's been that much change in the skill set. He's striking it out a little bit less, but the quality of contact is very, very, very. very similar. So I think there was just a little bit of bad luck in 2022 and 2023 with the batting average. And now we're seeing not good luck because his batting average is actually a little lower than his XBA, which is 246 entering today. But I think we're seeing a little regression, I guess. And then as for Joyce, you know, it's one of those things where the highlights, maybe,

overstate how good he actually is. For a guy who is, I think, at this point the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball, he has a 22% strikeout rate for the season. He had a small sample size, but only 10 strikeouts and 10 innings last season. It feels like he should be a lot more dominant than he is, and that was true in the minors as well. But I still think he, yeah, I think he is the closer. of the future for the Angels. I don't think he is like the next Mason Miller,

despite the eye-popping radar readings. Yeah, I would agree with that as well. I do think, based on the swinging strike rate, 13.2% for Ben Joyce, he probably deserves more strikeouts, a slightly higher strikeout rate, probably more than a strikeout per inning. But yeah, I don't think he's going to turn into this,

you know, 12, 13K per 9 type pitcher in Ben Joyce, but probably should be a little bit better than what we've seen so far. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code and sign up for the FBT newsletter that will take you right to the website where you punch in your email address,

click on that FBT logo, and you will get in a newsletter delivered right to your inbox every weekday for free. I realize as we enter September, you know, priorities change. Football is starting up. There might be not as much time to dedicate to fantasy baseball.

Obviously, we'd love for you to stick around. We're still going to do the podcast five times per week here. But if you don't have a lot of, enough time, maybe you just want to read the newsletter or check out the N5 podcast, feel free to do those things as well. Let's take our first break and when we return, we'll hit the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk news and notes. Corey Seeger will have his workload managed over the final month of the season.

Bruce Bogey added that Seeger is not 100%. And there were some big spots in Tuesday's game where he wasn't even used as a pinch hitter. So I think they're going to be pretty strict about this, like when Seeger is, when he doesn't play, he's just not going to play. He's not even going to appear as a pinch hitter type thing. Chris, do you still think Seeger is worth holding on to, even though he's going to sit more often than we're used to seeing? I mean, that's an impossible question to answer because like the Rangers 10 games before today, Tuesday, I guess.

One, he had a 1016 OPS. He was incredible. And two, he started and played the full game. in eight of the 10 and was removed in the seventh inning in one. So like what does that mean? We have a sample of one where he was, he was not in the lineup, but does that mean he's gonna sit 50% of their games the rest of the way, 20%, 70%, I would guess he's gonna sit like 20%.

Like it's still Corey Seeger, you still want him out there. It was a lefty on the mound so maybe they just play it like that, sit him against him. type thing. I would have a hard to like maybe in a head to head points league if you've got another really good option I could sit him. But Corey Seeger in 80% of the games is probably better than anyone you're picking up on waivers. Yeah.

Yeah, I think so too. I would hold on to Corey Seeger. I think regardless of format, how shallow your league is, even if he plays, even if he plays 70% of the games, I think he's probably better than any of the other options playing 100% of their games. I'm not going to go out Zach Netto or whatever. Yeah. Not Zach Galloff. Yeah.

Jack Netto I might actually start over court seager the rest of the way. Yeah, that one might make some sense. Let's get back into the news and notes. Tyler Glass now is scheduled to throw a bullpen session later this week. Ozzy Albies is no longer wearing a brace and took fielding practice on Tuesday, but has yet to be clear to hit. Justin Steele, who was scratched from his start on Tuesday, was diagnosed with left elbow inflammation. He'll undergo additional imaging.

Bo Bichette ran the basis Monday and we'll do so again on Wednesday. If all goes well, he's expected to begin a rehab assignment soon. Alec Bohm likely won't play for the Phillies current series against the Blue Jays due to inflammation in his left hand. Christian Walker was reinstated from the IL. He was in the lineup batting cleanup.

Josh Bell was also in the lineup as the DH but against a left-handed pitcher. My guess is that Jock Peterson will still play against Ritees as the D.H and they'll probably use Josh Bell as a short side platoon, do you think he'll play more than that, Chris? If it's just a short,

a short platoon, Josh Bell probably doesn't need to be rostered anymore. Yeah, that is the concern, although I'm, there was a, there was a quote last week where they did say that he's not just going to be out of the picture entirely,

but yeah, maybe Christian Walker gets an extra day off and they find three or four starts a week for Josh Bell, depending on the matchups, But yeah, I think he's probably not playing every day, certainly, because Jack Peterson is way too good against Wrighties in his role to even consider sitting. Yeah.

So, you know, with Josh Bell, 15-team Roto Leagues with a corner infield spot, I think you could probably hold on to him there, but 12-teamers, anything shallower than that, I think it might be a right to drop Josh Bell in those leagues. Xavier Edwards was reinstated from the IL. He was back at leadoff on Tuesday. Connor Norby was moved down to second in the Marlins lineup. Vinie Pasquantino underwent successful surgery for his fractured right thumb.

He faces a six to eight week recovery timeline. Luis Heel will return Friday with Clark Schmidt returning on Saturday. Nessor Cortez is expected to pitch in relief behind one of Heel or Schmidt before being reinserted into the Yankees rotation. So before everyone freaks out and thinks, okay, I just have to drop Nester Cortez for anything, Aaron Boone did already say that Nestor Cortez is going to pitch next week against the Red Sox.

Not that that's a great matchup. Yeah, that's kind of... That's a little iffy. Yeah, I don't know. Would you drop Nestor Cortez for like Detmer's or David Peterson then? I would rather start... Like you said to start David Peterson next week. Yeah.

I would start David Peterson over a one-start Nestor-Cortez, especially in a points league. Yeah. All right. Lordis Gurriel was placed in the aisle with a left castrain. Austin Wells was out of the lineup Tuesday due to handsornness. After getting hit by a pitch on Monday, X-rays came back negative.

Red's pitching prospect, Rhett Louder, will stay in their rotation and is scheduled to start Thursday against the Astros. And John Gray was placed in the aisle with a foot injury. He will miss the rest of the season. Let's get into Waver Wire Pitchers. I mentioned, lots of names popping up here. We already spoke about two of them with Reed Detmer's and David Peterson. Jeffrey Springs, just up at the top, I think he's kind of, you know, head and shoulders above these other names that we're going to talk about. and he's only available in 22% of CBS leagues.

So 10 team leagues, maybe some points leagues he's out there. But strong start. It was actually his first quality start since returning, six innings, one run, four strikeouts here for Jeffrey Springs, who is down to a 327 ERA, and he is 78% rostered. Does that need to be 100% at this point, Chris? I'm going to be honest.

I don't think so. Because like you said, most of those leagues where Springs is rostered are probably shallower head-to-head points leagues. And that's his less useful format because like you said, first quality starts in seven tries. And you might think, ah, they're finally,

but that's because they weren't letting him loose earlier. No, he only threw 82 pitches in this one. It was just that he was much more efficient this time. And look, maybe they let him go to 90 at some point over the next couple of weeks. But based on what we've seen, the Razor being very careful with Jeffrey Springs,

which isn't surprising. This is the raise. They're very careful with guys who aren't coming back from Tommy John's surgery. So I think quality starts are going to be few and far between. Winds are going to be hard to come by.

And he should still be a useful pitcher, especially in a Roto League, especially with two starts next week. But if you don't have a good chance to get those, what, at 10 extra points from a win and a quality start in any giving outing, it really limits the upside to the point where I don't think springs in a head-to-head point.

Point League is actually a must start pitcher, even with two starts. You're probably starting him. But him versus a two start David Peterson, I think is a more interesting discussion because while I'm not a Peterson believer, I think there's more upside because the chances of Springs going seven innings like David Peterson has done what two two starts in a row now. He has done it. I think like four of his last five. He's been going deep.

Yeah. I just don't think Springs has that in him. And it's not necessarily his fault, but that, that matters. Yeah, it honestly might be a format driven decision, Peterson versus Jeffrey Springs. Like, in a Roto League, I would trust Springs to provide better ratios over two starts. So, yeah, like, you know, head to head categories or a Roto league, I would go with Springs for next week. But if you're playing a points league and you're really trying to maximize volume and get quality starts. Probably a better, Springs probably a better bet for strikeouts, too.

Yeah. Even with fewer projected innings. Yeah. So I think I talked myself into that, Peterson and Points Leagues and Springs and in Roto or categories. Let's talk about Ryan Nelson, who was great once again this time at the Giants, six and two-thirds innings, two runs, nine strikeouts. And he did change the pitch mix a little bit here. He more than doubled his slider usage.

And it was pretty good. Only had two whiffs, but the quality of contact was really good for Ryan Nelson on that slider. His last 11 starts, 276 ERR. and a 0.97 whip. 69% rostered. Looks like he only has one start against the Brewers next week. That's actually a pretty tough matchup. So where does Ryan Nelson kind of fit into all these?

We've talked about Detmer's and Springs and David Peterson. I think just for next week, I would probably start him ahead of Detmer's, but not the other two-star guys. Yeah, I guess the two-star guys, probably not. But man, this is a guy who is going deep into. his games consistently. It's that five straight quality starts for him. And him, it does line up with one and underlying skills change, the strikeout rate,

up to a strikeout per inning over those past 11 starts, like you mentioned. And that was also in line with a change in his approach to prioritize his fastball and prioritize it up in the zone, which, in fairness, that's what Peterson was doing today. and he executed it really well. It's just not something we've seen from him before. Nelson, this stretch has come along with that fastball. And it's not necessarily like a dominant fastball in the way that you would think. Like, oh, yeah, throw it 70% of the time and that's going to work.

But it has been working in a way that makes me less skeptical. So if we had more time left in the season, I might be willing to to rank Ryan Nelson ahead of uh Sting Peterson Springs and Peters and Peterson.

Yeah. I might be willing to do that. But because he's got only one start next week, presumably and then Peterson and Springs have two. Although this is also the point in the season where projecting five days out. Yeah. Gets real tough because teams are going to,

change their rotations a lot more now than they would have in, you know, July. That's fair. Yeah. I mean, if you just want to solely look at the matchups, right? I mean, with Peterson, he gets the Blue Jays and Phillies. That's like one good matchup, one not so good. Jeffrey Springs gets the Phillies and the Guardians, which again, it's kind of like- It's pretty tough, yeah. Yeah, mix and match on those. But, you know, even Ryan Nelson just against the Brewers, they are seventh in Wobah against Whitey, so that's not really a great matchup for him either. Let's talk about Andrew Heaney, who pitched well up against the Yankees. He threw five shutout innings with eight

strikeouts, had 14 whiffs on 86 pitches, and I think we know who Andrew Heaney is. He's in the streamer conversation. He routinely does not throw more than five innings. He has completed six innings just once since the start of July. That's an 11-start stretch. He's also at

the Mariners next week, so that's a really good matchup. Yeah, I think he's a viable one-start streamer, but you have to be in the kind of situation where one-star streamer really matters for you. But, you know, probably not a good bet to go six innings, even against the Mariners. But if he struck out eight over five innings and allowed one earned run, I wouldn't be surprised, no. Yeah, pretty similar to what he actually just did against the Yankees.

Two young starting pitchers, we already spoke about Reid Detmer, so I guess just one young starting pitcher. David Festa turned in another solid start at Tampa Bay, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 90 pitches. in that one. You know, it kind of looks similar to Bailey Ober where the fastballs get hit hard. The secondaries look like they're pretty good pitches. The change up in the slider here.

But since returning from the miners, 313 ERA, a 107 whip, 50 strikeouts over 37 and a third. David Festals look pretty good. And another one, as of now, looks like he might project for two starts up against the Angels and the Reds. Those are pretty good matchups. I could maybe be talked into David Festa ahead of David Peterson.

I think he's more talented. I like his matchups more. I think him versus Springs is also very interesting, especially in a points league because neither seems particularly likely to throw six innings. Springs has done it once. Festa has done it once. But Festa probably has the upside to get there in a way that it's harder to see Springs doing he just has a higher pitch limit and I like the matchups better you said it was

Cleveland and Philadelphia for Jeffrey Springs yeah I could maybe be talked into it I really do like David Fest I think he's pretty talented I think the approach is working for him like you said the fastball gets hit hard but one thing he does that both Joe Ryan and Bailey Oberdue this is a twins thing is they get a ton of fly balls with their fastballs. Now, when that's not working, as we've seen with Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober a few times this season, you can get hit really hard and give up like five home runs in the blink of an eye. But when it is working, you can get whiffs that way despite not having, you know, elite velocity, although Festa throws pretty hard and does, it's very tall. So it plays up. And he's got multiple

swing and miss pitches besides that. So I, I think David Fess is actually, really interesting. I'm going to almost certainly have him on a sleeper's column for next season. For the sake of not confusing all the listeners because we've talked about a lot of names here, let's just rank them and we'll go two star

pitchers and then the one star guys. So we have Festa Peterson Springs. Those are the two star guys. I'm going to go Peterson Springs in Roto, Festa in points. So maybe springs at the top in

roto at the bottom and points. That's how I would rank it. Okay. And then the single start streamers, we have Detmer's, who looks like he'll face the Astros, Heaney against the Mariners, and Ryan Nelson against the Brewers. I would go Nelson, Heaney, Detmer's. All right. Three other names in deeper leagues. Patrick Corbyn was...

No. No. I know. I know. I know. But, but he had eight strikeouts here. I know. His last three starts. It's a 153 ERA and a 108 whip. Carter velocity has been up.

It was up 2.5 miles per hour in this one. And, and it looks like Corbyn will face the Marlins again next week. So, look, man. Deeper league streamer. I'll just start out there. Patrick Corbin could have like three straight good years. And I would still expect him to get bombed the next time out. That's fair.

No. Absolutely not. That is completely fair. What about Cade Povich who had the best start of his young career up against the White Sox? Seven and a third shot out innings with 10 strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 98 pitches. He did change the pitch mix in this one. He threw a few more curveballs and sweepers. Completely ditched his cutter, which seems like a very smart thing for Cade Povich to do.

Looks like he might line up for two stars next week at the Red Sox at the Tiger. So one good matchup, one bad. This was against the White Sox. So how much do you buy into it? I don't know. Yeah, I don't really buy into it very much. It's the White Sox. Povich has been pretty bad.

Now, the problem with this whole podcast is, like, Reed Detmer's has been pretty bad his whole career, basically. And I was moderately excited about him early on. So every time a pitcher with a bad track record comes up and I'm like, oh, yeah, but that guy's had a bad track record, it makes me sound like a, like I'm in. insistent. And, you know, there's a quote by Walt Whitman. And it was like, do I contradict myself very well? I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes. I am large. I contain multitudes. Thank you, Walt. I just think the biggest problem for Povich in both the minors where he was good and then the majors where he's been very bad has just been not being able to generate either chases on pitches outside of the same. zone or whiffs on pitches in the zone. He's incredibly reliant on generating whiffs outside of the zone and has not been able to

induce whiffs or chases from major leaguers. And he did today, you know, 36% out of zone swing rate. It had been like 24% or something before this, which is really low. Major league average is 29%. So kudos to him. It's the white socks, though. Yeah, yeah. I agree.

Like the next lineup he faces, and this is not an exaggeration, probably has seven more major league caliber hitters than the White Sox lineup right now. Because they would have nine major league caliber hitters and the White Sox have two. And that's being generous by including like either Andrew Vaughn or Gavin Sheets, if you want to include them. It might just be one. Yeah. It's,

yeah. I can't. I can't deny any of that. Did you see the, the white socks go full white socks? Did you see the play and hear the call by any chance? So the one I saw was their pitcher hitting Anthony Santander on the head. No.

He was running the bases. I saw that one. So they had a, a pop up down the left field line with the bases loaded. And the third basement, I think it was Miguel Vargas just collided with the left fielder and the ball just dropped. And the Orioles announcer says,

the White Sox go full White Sox. And it was like the insult to injury. By what I was talking about earlier, right, with the Rangers where they, you know, took this big step forward and then took a huge step back. Like the Orioles or the White Sox might be the best bet in baseball to improve their win loss record next season.

I just don't know how that actually happened. Like they can't be worse than they are this year. The only place they can go is up. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's just mathematically, like no team in baseball history has ever been this bad.

I think the Marlins are going to score like 90 more runs than this than this season. The Marlins. My goodness. But I, yeah, like, I don't have any reason to be hopeful about anything with the White Sox. It's disgusting.

Yeah. Last name on this list. Technically, Walker Bueller is on waiver wires, so I will include him here. I don't think anyone's adding him, but I just wanted to mention that he was not terrible for once. So maybe a step in the right direction. He was at the Angels. That's a good matchup. Five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, still allowed two homers in this one.

But he changed the pitch mix a little bit. He leaned a little bit more on the fastball and the curve ball. The curve and the cutter, they looked better than usual. Oddly enough, his spin rates were way down across the board, and this was the best he's looked. I don't really know how to explain that, but anything you'd like to add on Walker Bueller? I think it's very unlikely that there will be any point

the rest of the way where we feel comfortable starting Walker Bueller. All I'm hoping for at this point is he gives us some reason to be optimistic about him next year. Yep, I think that's fair. Let's take our final break, and when we return, a lightnate for Waverwire hitters. I've got three names here. We'll talk about those right after this.

Welcome back in. A light night for Waver Wire hitters. I only have three names here. Josh Young has picked things up recently. Two for three with a sock and a shoe. His sixth homer, his fourth steal. He has three straight multi-hit games. He has homered in two of his last three.

And over his last 14, he's batting 291. He's got three homers, three steals. He's 78% rostered, so a shallow league name. But the problem with this, Chris, is Scott and I just spoke about A. Eugenio Suarez either yesterday or, yeah, I guess it must have been yesterday. he's also 78% rostered which in my mind seems seems criminal like how is Suarez

not 100% like he's been so hot for so long I'd rather have Suarez than Josh yeah no I think that's perfectly reasonable it just it's good to see it's kind of like Bueller where for the most part with Young I'm just

looking for reasons to be optimistic about next season now it's to a different extent right like I think you young usable. I'm still starting him in a few of the Rotar leagues where you have a corner infield spot. But for the most part, yeah,

I'm hoping he gets, gets and stays hot the rest of the way so I can be excited about him for 2025. Let's talk about Josh Lowe, who's been running wild lately, one for three with a walk and two steals over his last 22 games. He's batting 282

with two homers and 11 steals. He's hitting the ball hard. Lots of line drives during that time. 70% rostered on CBS, I think makes sense for Josh Lowe any higher than we're talking about three outfielder points leagues and I'm not sure Josh Lowe needs to be

rostered in those but he's 57% rostered on Yahoo and those are lots of daily lineup leagues so if you need steals you can just play him whenever he's in the lineup against the righty I think Josh Lowe on Yahoo probably should be more than 57% rostered

I think that's reasonable although those are also three outfielder to utility but generally speaking pretty shallow lineups. So that does make it harder for a guy that's a strict platoon player. But yeah, I think that's reasonable. Like given the league makeups on CBS, which are mostly points leagues, mostly those shallower rosters, he shouldn't be more rostered on CBS than Yahoo at the very least.

I do have to point out one thing just to return to one previous discussion because someone said it on the chat and I had to look it up to make sure it was true. and it is. The White Sox slugging 338 as a team this season. Yikes. Zach Granky, a pitcher famously, has a career 336 slugging percentage. So if you just cloned Zach Grinke 27 times, 26 times,

and replaced every player on the White Sox with him, their offense might not be worse and their pitching would be way better. There's your stat of the day. My gosh. Oh, wow. Yeah, I guess not surprising, given how bad this White Sox team has been. Last Waver Wire hitter,

Kyle Manzardo has impressed in a very small sample since returning three for four with a double here on Tuesday, and in three games since returning five for ten with two home runs. Had a great season in the minors. He's 22% rostered. Seven games next week. Looks like only one lefty on the schedule. And four revenge games.

against the raise. I'm kind of buying in here. I'm buying into the narrative with Kyle Manzardo, at least for next week. Chris, how would you rank, I think I gave Scott these, I'll give you four names.

Corner infielders, Spencer Torkelson, Jean-Kenzie Noel, Anthony Rizzo, who just returned for the Yankees, and Kyle Manzardo. How would you rank those for? Torkelson, Manzardo, Noel Rizzo.

All right. Let's get into some young outfielders. How do we foresee ranking these names for 2025? And as we mentioned, final month of the season, we're going to try and work in more content and be more forward-looking for 2025 as well. Colton Kouser continues his strong second half,

one-for-three with two runs, two RBI here on Tuesday. Second half, batting 289, eight home runs, three steals in 8-47 OPS. Jackson Turyo, another day, another homer. Two-for-four with his 19th home run. He has homered in three of his last four games. He's up to 19 home runs, 20 steals, a 280 batting average as a 20-year-old.

Just insane stuff. Wyatt Langford is looking to pick things back up one-for-five with a walk-off grand slam. Don't worry. I have thoughts for Clay Holmes. That's coming a little bit later on. Last 11 games for Langford, he's batting 275 with three homers, 11 RBI and one steel.

And Lawrence Butler, another day. Another homer, one-for-four with his 21st home run. Last 12 games for Butler. He is so back. He's red-hot again. 4-12 batting average, eight home runs, three steals. Feel free to talk about anything they did here, Chris,

and maybe the rest of this season, but also how do you foresee ranking them for next year? Couser, Chorio, Langford, Lawrence Butler. So just those four, I think I would take Churio by a wide margin. I think he's a clear stand out here. I think all, I think Couser,

be a top 100 pick, although just off the top of my head that doesn't exactly sound right, you have to project a bit of improvement there because while he's going to end up with probably 25-ish homers and 10 steals, it's going to come with a pretty bad batting average and a 30% strikeout rate. And the batting average has improved in the second half, but I'm not sure how much I buy it. So I'm going to go Churio, Gap, Kouser, Langford, Butler, I don't know, man. We're talking about a platoon player who had one unbelievable month

and then has had two good weeks and has basically done nothing outside of those two stretches. So we'll see what the final 26 games or whatever we have left is 24 games probably. We'll see what that looks like. But he feels like

a clear number four in this group. Lawrence Butler against lefties this season, Chris. 291 batting average. Four home runs. 892 OPS. What's the sample size on that bad boy? 55 at bats. It's pretty small.

Yeah. Yeah. So that is... I think that's enough to give you confidence that he can be an everyday player for next season. So this is always the thing with these things. is it's not whether I think Lawrence Butler can be an everyday player. If it were up to me, it's the same thing with Luis Garcia.

If it were up to me, there's no question that... I do think he's been playing every day, though. And he should be. And we'll see how it goes the rest of the way. But it's one of those things where it's just I don't... If they're not going to let him play every day, or if they do let him play every day the rest of the way, but then we go into next season

and it doesn't look like he's playing every day. It's just how high can you rank that guy? Even with his very obvious skills, I think he's a very talented player, but I, yeah, I don't know. I think he's a clear fourth. I don't want to put any more declarative statement out there than that. But, yeah, I think Churio is clear one,

and what we're seeing so far in the majors is exactly what we saw at basically every level of the miners, where it took him a little while to figure it out. But here's a GIF pass and tweet from Sunday. Over the past three months, this was as of Sunday. He's already hit a home run since then. 7th and batting average in the majors, 12th in OBP, 372, 14th and slugging percentage, 542. 13 homers, 13 steals, 15.8% strikeout rate. That was basically June, July, and August.

He's 20. I don't think he doesn't turn 21 until like March. March. Like, he won't be able to buy an alcoholic beverage legally in the United States until like three weeks into spring training next year. Yeah, spring training's going to start. He can't even go out for a beer. Yeah.

Yeah, it's. It's wild. So yeah, I just, I don't see any reason to be skeptical of Churio and the, and the steps he's taken because of the age, because of the minor league track record where he did the exact same thing at every level. It seems like once he figures it out, he figures it out. And I think he could be a, I think he's a top 50 pick next year for sure. Yesterday, Scott and I were speculating third round Jackson Trio for next year,

which I don't know. I don't know if I'll do that. But somebody probably will. Yeah. If I was ranking those four, I was smiling while you were giving analysis because you were so confident that Lawrence Butler was fourth on that list. I think he's second. I think I would go churio.

I think that's reasonable. And then I would go Butler. Langford is going to be so polarizing. Yeah, I have no idea. I have no idea. But I think I would still put Langford third. And maybe that's, maybe I'm just. Not being fair to Colton Couser, but you will notice of those three,

Wyatt Langford is the one that I had the least to say about because I, I genuinely, like, we have a very, very small sample of him being a very, very productive player as a profession. I believe he will be, but it was like 34 games or whatever last year,

you know, it was, I still believe in him. I'm probably going to draft him a lot more of this in 2025. I did in 2024, where I don't think I ended up with him on any of my teams. But I, yeah, I have no idea. Real quick, if we throw Jackson, Merrill and James Wood in there, I assume they just, they jump near the top somewhere with Churio.

Yeah, it's a question of where would I rank them versus where they'll be drafted. I think James Wood might be the first drafted among them. I think he probably ranks below Churio for me. Um, it's really close. And then I think Merrill's third, but I might just be giving Wood credit for Upside and Jackson Merrill not. And I don't know if that's even fair because Jackson Merrill's been incredible. Yeah, I think I would go as of now, Churio, James Wood, Merrill, Gap, Butler,

Langford, and Colson Couser entering next season. Let's get into some buy or sell scenarios. And let's talk about Francisco Lindor who continues. used to dominate. He's obviously having an MVP-worthy season two for four with his 30th home run, three RBI. He is four steals away from going back-to-back 30-30 seasons here. And I actually had some you know, Metz fan friends asking me recently, does Lindor have a shot at the NLMVP? At least according to Fangraph's war, he should. He's, he's a seven-war player entering Tuesday and Shohei Otani is 6.6.

You know, not that that's the end-all be-all here. But Chris, by yourself, Francisco Lindor still has a shot to win the NL MVP. A shot, yes. I don't think he will. Like the entirety of the argument comes down to, in the one formulation of wins above replacement that FanGraphs uses,

he ranks what, point two ahead of point four? Point four, yeah. On baseball reference, Otani's up by like point nine. I assume it's something similar at baseball prospectus, although I don't know for sure. If Otani goes 50-50, there's, he's not not winning.

Yeah. MVP. And like, it seems really likely he's going to go 50-50 at this point. So, uh, maybe more. Yeah, like, look, Lindor is one of my very favorite players in baseball.

I, I think he's unbelievable. I love watching him play. He's incredible. Otani, you know, like he has a chance, yes. And Otani is more than a win clear of Francisco Lindor on baseball perspective. So I, Lindor's having an incredible season, but it's going to be, it's going to be Lindor or Otani.

Yeah. Someone asked me for a percentage chance that Lindor wins. I said 2%. Yeah, I was going to say five. Yes. Not much. Chris Sale, let's talk about him,

continues to dominate this time up against the Rockies in Atlanta, so obviously an amazing matchup. Not that the matchups really matter for Chris Sale, but he threw six shot-out innings, nine strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 93 pitches.

Slider was amazing as always. Interestingly enough, the velocity was down quite a bit in this start for Chris Sale. Fastball was down two miles per hour. The slider was down 1.2, and 93 miles per hour on the fastball was a season low for Chris Sale.

This is someone who's dealt with a lot of arm injuries in his career. It could be nothing. Next start, he could bounce back and he's up at 95 miles per hour again. But buy or sell Chris that we should be concerned about this VLO drop for Chris Sale. So what are you going to do? Drop them? No, no, I just, I guess. Yeah, like, no, I understand.

Like, you wake up tomorrow and he's like, oh, I'm getting an MRI on my arm type thing. It's possible, but absent any other evidence, I'm not going to worry about that. There are, Frank, there are so many things in this life to worry about. Yeah. You know,

the coral reefs are bleaching. I'm not going to worry about Chris Sale's velocity being down in one start. That sounds like someone who doesn't have Chris Sale on their fantasy teams. I do. I very much have Chris Sale in, in multiple leagues that are still alive. I'm just,

I will be concerned when they give me a reason to be concerned. Fair enough. Yeah, I mean, even with the velocity down, he was still. amazing. He was, he was, yeah. I mean, it's, it's the Rockies, you know. Yeah, but still. Yeah. Let's talk about Jazz Chisholm, who, uh, he has just been wreaking havoc on the base

paths since joining the Yankees. Two for four with a run scored in this one. He also forced a reliever into a balk where he was just dancing from second to third base down the line and just it was, he's so fun to watch. Uh, since joining the Yankees, 25 games, 340 batting average, nine homers, 10 steals, hitting the ball hard, pulling like 52% pulling, pull rate. I mean, you do that as a lefty in Yankee Stadium. It's just, gosh, so many good things are going to happen here. I feel like this could probably be a buyer sell every season for Jazz, but hear me out. If he plays 150 games with the Yankees next season, he will return first round value by yourself. Yeah, so what I'm trying to look up is his per 150 game pace when he was in

Miami. It was 25 homers and 801, 30 stolen bases. 25 homers, 30 stolen bases. 25 homers, 3 31 stolen bases with a 246 average. That's probably not quite first round value. Yeah, it's not. But it's pretty good. So I would say no. I'll sell that one, I guess. But if it happened,

I would be surprised that he stayed healthy for 150 games. True. Although he's not going to be far off this year if he doesn't get hurt the rest of the way, right? Yeah, he's only had the one I-L stint. He's at 126. and we have, what, 20-something games left to play? Yeah, he's going to get to, if he doesn't miss any more time,

he's going to get to about 145. Yeah, and he's up to 22 homers and 32 steals on the season already. Man, yeah, might get to, there's like an outside chance of a 2540 season. If he stays healthy for 150 games in Yankee Stadium next year, it's entirely possible. He could go like 30, 40.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, no, I think that's entirely possible, but I wouldn't say, I don't, even with the caveat of him playing 150 games, I'll sell it. All right. Paul Skeens was solid at the Cubs. He threw five shutout innings, four hits, four walks, six strikeouts,

and looks like he just unleashed a new changeup out of nowhere. And it was awesome. He threw it 19 times. And he had 10 of his 16 whiffs on that changeup. I just, I love when Paulske, this isn't the first time he's done this, where he just introduces a new pitch, and it's amazing.

right away. We'll see if it carries over to other starts or if he even uses this change up more moving forward. Control has been a little bit spotty here in the second half. We know he's not going as deep into his starts. But by yourself, Chris, that Paul Skeen should be ranked as the SP1, the entering 2025. Okay. So Paul Skeen's currently has a 223 ERA, which is slightly, yeah, it's better than what Terrick Scouble did in a slightly smaller sample size last season, about a half run better, over currently about 30 more innings. But then Terrick Scouble went out this year and has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball. So I would still take Terrick Scubal ahead of Paul Skeens. I think Paul Skeens is incredible. I don't know exactly where I would rank him, but

it's top five, certainly, and probably top. three or four. But like, Chris Sale has the larger sample size of very similar dominance. You know, underlying numbers for Chris Sale are actually a little better, as they are for Terek Scouble than Paul Skeen. So I can't really come up with a good argument for Paul Skeens ahead of

Tarek Scuba and Chrisale beyond Paul Skeens could be anything. Yeah. You can, you like, we have it. For me, it's just, it's going to come down to we will have seen Chris Sale and Terrick Scoobble pitch at that level for a hundred and probably 80 innings for both of them this season. We will have not seen Paul Skeens do it. Maybe it's unfair to knock him for something he hasn't done. But when you're not talking about a significant gap in proven ability between Skeens, Scoobel and Sale and even Wheeler, you know, in points leagues, I think you could take him over them.

I'll just go with the guys who have proven that they can do it at that level over that workload. All right, let's get into some leftovers here and four pitchers who pitched well. Cutter Crawford, a quality start at the Mets, six innings, one hit, two earned runs, eight strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 93 pitches.

He's really leaned on the cutter, no pun intended, more over his last four starts and he's pitched really well during that time. Tanner Bybee bounced back with a quality start at the Royals, six innings, one run, six strikeouts there. Carlos Rodan was awesome at the Rangers. Six innings, one hit, one run, 11 strikeouts, a season high with 19 whiffs on 99 pitches, and Luis Castillo, a quality start at the Oakland A's, seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts with 15 wifts on 99 pitches.

His first quality start since August 11th. Anything here, Chris, on Castillo, Rodon, Bibi, and Cutter Crawford. If you were building a rotation, of guys who have been incredibly frustrating this season. Are these four of your five? All frustrating team starters. Yeah, I still don't have a lot of faith in Crawford and the way the strikeout rate in particular has collapsed in the second half. But the improvements that he's making lately,

throwing the cutter a little more, maybe that's one way to mitigate that by just generating a lot more weak contact. It's not something the Cuttercroffer generally does super well, unlike Tanner Howk, who has managed to remain effective despite losing his strikeouts. So I... Wow, Chris. Are you even a professional podcast? No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Bybee, it really just seems like the feel for the breaking balls just comes and goes.

And the fastball's good, but the difference between. the really good starts and or the really good stretches and the more mediocre ones seems to be the feel for the secondaries. And that's been a consistent issue all season. So I don't know. Rodon, Bybee and Castillo, like all three of them when they're at their best are really good and feel like they should be better than they have. And I haven't known what to make of them all year. I was talking to my friend who's a Mariners fan this weekend. And I suggested the possibility of trying to trade Castillo this offseason team has an overabundance of pitching.

Apparently he's got a no trade clause, so that doesn't seem too likely. But yeah, I think I might be out on Castillo next season, at least as an ace. If we're talking about him more like a low-end SP2, you know, a high floor guy, I think that makes sense. But the dips in strikeout rate in conjunction. with his fastball suddenly becoming much more easy to hit and the quality of contact taking a step back makes Castillo someone that I'm pretty worried about for next year. Yeah, I think that actually makes a lot of sense

trying to move him in the offseason. You know, if they can get just a proven hitter, the Mariners lineup is so bad. If they can flip Castillo for, you know, whatever his counterpart would be in a hitter form, you know, someone who's in their 30s who's just a really stable hitter, who's maybe going to give you 25 home runs,

and they just, they need more of that in the middle of that lineup. Yeah, I think that would be a pretty good route for them. You know who'd look really good, is Zeyohenia Suarez. Uh, yeah, they just gave them up, right? I know.

Chose not to re-sign him or whatever. Did they trade him? Or was he just a free agent? I believe that was a trade, right? Didn't they just get, like, wasn't it just Josh Rojas back or something? That's, it was basically a salary dump. Yeah, that sounds right.

Some hitting leftovers. Vlad Jr. had himself another. big game four for five with his 28th home run. We haven't done a haircut update. Yeah, we need that haircut update. Yeah, 64 games since cutting the hair. 382 batting average. 21 homers, 61 RBI, OPS pushing 1,200. That's just a, that's just a normal Aaron Judge season right there. That's like one month for Aaron Judge. I'm sorry. Bryson Stott has been picking things back up last 18 games batting 310 with two homers, seven steals, and an OPS approaching 900. Paul

Gullschmidt has been raking lately. Three for five. with a sock in the shoe, and his last eight games, he's batting 5, 63 with two homers and one steal. If you manage to make it this far and you're still competing for something with Paul Goldschman on your team, you might help you.

My guess is if you drafted him in, I don't know, the top 75 picks? Yeah. You're probably not playing for much at this point in the season. Mookie Betts, another one that just keeps on raking since his return. 21 games, 2.96 batting average, five homers, 22 RBI, five steals, and an 895 OPS.

for Mookie Betz. We were talking about first rounders last week. We definitely included Mookie Betts, right? I want to make sure we weren't like forgetting him. Yeah, I think definitely first rounders. We had like a top eight or nine and then Betts was in it. Absolutely needs to be in it. Yeah.

Some bullpen updates for Tampa Bay. Edwin Useta got the ninth inning with a one run lead. He gave up back-to-back hits and then he struck out two. He was relieved by lefty Garrett Clevenger, who came on to face lefty Trevor Larnick. And then Larnick was replaced by a pinch hitter, Christian Vasquez, Clevenger got the final out for his fifth save of the season. Tampa Bay's bullpen just kind of feels like a mess

to figure out right now. For the Braves, Reisel Iglesias struck out one for his 29th save. For the Blue Jays, Chad Green had been really reliable. He got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up that three-run homer to Kyle Schwabber and Chad Green took his second blown save and fifth loss of the season.

For the Phillies, Matt Strom got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a solo homer but picked up his second save. I guess Hoffman and Estevez have been used a lot recently or it could have been one of those things where Matt Strom was warming up the previous inning and so they just went with him but he did pick up his second save. Yeah, if they were trailing by three.

Yeah. That would make sense that they just had him up already. For the Royals, Lucas Ursaig, pitched the, for the first time since taking a comebacker off of his pitching hand last week. He entered in the eighth inning down four to one. He recorded two outs. He was also charged with three runs. He's given up seven earned runs over his last three outings,

none of which were save opportunities. If you play in a shallower league, a points league, and you picked him up, or I don't know, a 10-teen categories league, I think you could probably find someone better than Lucas Ersig right now. Yeah, unfortunately, Hunter Harvey, we haven't heard anything about him in a couple of weeks. So, no idea, I guess James MacArthur, but we know the deal there. He's nothing special. Yep.

For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley entered in the bottom of the 11th with a one-run lead. He allowed the Manford Man to come in and score. The Cardinals then took the lead in the 12th. Helsley stayed out there. He closed it out for his seventh win of the season. You know, annoying thing for Chris, I've got him in that weird Tout Wars League that I'm in, which is saves plus holds and no wins. So I get nothing for that one.

I think he struck out four. That helps. Yeah, I get some strikeouts. Okay. Yeah. No, but I get what you're saying. For the debacks, Justin Martinez recorded the final four outs. He gave up a run.

He struck out three for his eighth save of the season, and the best for last. Clay Holmes of my New York Yankees, he got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. There's no way this can go wrong. He gave up a walk-off grand slam to Wyatt Langford. Clay Holmes took his league leading, 11th blown save of the season. I just want to say something. And it's not trolling. It's a genuine question.

That absolutely means that it's true. You know who led the league in blown saves last year? Emmanuel Class A. Emmanuel Class A, I believe the last four seasons, it's three, five, 12, four blown saves. Clay Holmes, I believe the last three seasons is three, four, is 11 now? 11. He has 11 blown saves with 20 earn runs allowed, four of which came today, 20 percent. 20% of his season total.

I am not saying that Yankees fans should not be frustrated about the season Clay Holmes's habit. I think you should. And if they wanted to give someone else a look in the ninth inning, I think that would be reasonable. I just don't think your opinion of Clay Holmes should change very much based on this season. This is just a weird season where the times he happens to have struggled, which I will note have been incredibly rare. He's giving up 20-year-run runs all season. He's got like a 3-23 ERA after today.

He's still having a good season. His FIP is like 260. It just so happens that the times he has struggled, one, the defense behind him has been really bad. Shouldn't have been a one-run game today. That's true. Shout out to DJ Lemieux. Yep.

Bigger villain. And two, he just so happens to have struggled in a lot of one-run situations. And look, that's the job. You are a closer. Your job is to close the game. And he has not done that job as well as he should have this season. I'm not denying that. I am just saying that, like, Clay Holmes is a very good pitcher.

And it could be a lot worse. That's all I'm saying. Chris, that was incredibly thoughtful, well-thought-out, very rational. Clay Holmes stinks. He stinks. He stinks. He should not be a closer. I don't care what anyone says. His inability to throw strikes

in big moments. And then when he does, it's just like he gives up. I know a lot of things have been like blue pits and yes, out of his control here. A walk off grand slam. It's just like one thing after another, it's just like it just feels like an avalanche for Clay Holmes this season. Eleven blown saves, right? Like how else can you what else can you say about it? He leads the league in blown series.

It's bad. It's bad. Like, there's, where else can they go? Where, like, this is, this is a roster construction thing. I mean, like, Brian Cashman is to blame as much as anybody here. You have one season of Juan Soto, and your biggest bullpen upgrade at the deadline was Mark Leiter Jr. and Enel de Los Santos, who is now Diofate. He's not even on the team anymore.

They don't have anywhere else they can go. I mean, they can go with, like, cousins, or, you know, maybe they could try Luis Heel in that role. They clearly want Luis Heel to be a starter, so they're not going to do that. They don't have anywhere else they can go. I don't know what they can do. It should have been Luis Heel a couple months ago. Like that just for me, like... But they're not going to do it. Yeah, it doesn't seem likely that they're going to do it. And I understand why they didn't do it in the past because of injuries and they didn't have, but like, yeah, I think the best move would have been

try Luis Heel there a couple months ago, see if he can make that work in the bullpen, didn't work out. Yeah, it's frustrating. I get it. I understand why you're frustrated. I just, I think Clay Holmes, if he's the closer next year, probably blows like six saves and has the exact same season. I think he's a free Asian. He might be, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I would be pretty surprised, A, if he's back on the Yankees, and B, if he is the closer for the Yankees next year. I mean, I'd be surprised if he was back and not the closer. But, you know what? If it's Brian Cashman, I won't put any. anything past because, you know, he's stuck in his ways. He's stubborn.

He's the smartest guy in the room. And so I'm sure Clay Holmes will be back again with, you know, 15 blown saves next year. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Albert Suarez who gets the White Sox. We have McKenzie Gore at the Marlins. We have J.P. Sears up against the Mariners. I think that's a pretty good top three. I think, yeah, Swara, I would rank them Gore. Sears Suarez.

Gore has looked much better the past couple of starts. Velocity has been back on the fastball lately. So that's a very good sign after that was flagging. They mentioned some mechanical issues that he had. So seems like maybe they got those fixed. And he's back to averaging 96 with the fastball. And yeah, I actually, I expect McKenzie Gore to do well. All right.

And then on Thursday, we have Rhett Louder. That was a dumb thing to say out loud. I expect McKenzie. What was I thinking? I'm trying to get ahead of it. Expect the unexpected. That is McKenzie Gore. On Thursday, Rhett Louder up against the Astros.

We have Joey Estes gets the Mariners. Jake Irvin at the Pirates. Luis Ortiz gets the Nationals. Martin Perez up against the Tigers. A decidedly less interesting group. Yeah. If I had to start one, it would probably be Estes, I guess, but I don't like any of these guys.

Yeah, I don't love them either. I would go Estes and then Jake Irvin's been so bad, but the pirates are pretty bad against Ritey's. I'll say Estes, Irvin, and Martine Perez, but I do like Wednesday streamers much, much more. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

We will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.