Fantasy Baseball Today - Cole Ragans vs. Gavin Williams, Bellinger Dynasty Value & Peralta League Winner? (8/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Cole Ragans has made two strong starts for the Royals (2:00)! ... Rank Ragans, Gavin Williams and Chase Silseth (5:55). ... Could Freddy Peralta be a league winner down the stretch (11:50)? ... Sal Frelick or James Outman (15:45)? ... How should we value Cody Bellinger in dynasty/keeper leagues (22:43). ... What do we think of Max Fried, Brandon Woodruff Eury Perez's recent returns (32:30)? ... News (36:37): Josh Jung will have surgery on his thumb. ... Spencer Strider, Seth Lugo and Tony Gonsolin all got rocked (46:40). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (50:51). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Could Freddie Peralta be a league winner? Let's find out.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, August 8th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. today on the show, some big waiver wire pitching performances, Cole Regans, looks pretty good, how to value Cody Bellinger and Keeper and Dynasty Leagues. I think this is a confounding conversation, and I think it's kind of an interesting one here, Scott, so we'll talk about that.

And of course, we'll talk about Freddie Peralta's recent run of success. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or, Spotify. Shout out to you, Scotty. You and Chris, you held it down last night. I did watch some of the podcast when I got home. And I thought it went really well. What'd you think? Yeah. And I mean, more credit to Chris than to me. He put together the show notes, which is always, it's an avalanche of notes coming out of the weekend. Yes. And steered us through the show. So I think he earned the

right to sit tonight out after doing that. And glad to have you back. Yeah. I got. I gotta watch out though, man. Towers, he did well. Might steal my job. I gotta keep my head on a swivel. Watch the old towers. Anyway, you know, I thought my voice sounded fine all day, and now I'm realizing, you know, two days of Metallica and one weekend, probably not the best idea either, but you live and you learn.

Let's jump in. All right, Scott, you are up player of the night. I'm gonna go with Cole Regens, who turned in his second impressive start since rejoining the Royals rotation. and remember when he came over to the Rangers, I think he got a start right away, then was sent to the miners. Didn't come back until after the trade deadline

when Ryan Yarbrough was sent to the Dodgers. O'Regan's has a rotation spot of his own now, and I didn't get a chance to talk about him after his first start, you know, first start back in the rotation, following the Yarbrough trade, where he threw six shutout innings against the Mets, struck out eight.

I was not on the show the day that happened, so I didn't get a chance to comment on it. But I did include him among my sleeper pitchers for this week. It was with some amount of hand-wringing and, you know, an acknowledgement that part of the reason I'm including him is he's so widely available. But he came through. He came through with even better numbers than that start against the Mets. Cole Riggins struck out 11 in 6 and 2-thirds at Boston. allowing just one earned run. And I think there's definitely something to see here,

given how good he's looked in his return to the rotation. So I'll kind of go through the whole backstory here with Cole Reagan's. It was a pretty highly regarded prospect, had health issues in the minors that caused his stock to tumble, came to spring training this year throwing much, much harder than a year ago. In fact, his average fastball velocity this year four miles per hour harder

than last year. And so that put him on my radar right then this spring. Wow, this guy's throwing hard. I was hoping he could find a way into the Rangers rotation. It didn't happen. He pitched out of the bullpen.

The performance was kind of meh and has spent some time in the minors this year too and the performance there is kind of meh. But when he rejoined the Royal's rotation for that turn against the Mets following the Ryan Yarborough trade, striking out eight. Cole Reagan's arsenal was a little different. He actually confused Stackcast by throwing two different velocities of cutter,

which now in the second start has been reclassified, the slower one's been reclassified as a slider. And that seems to have brought it all together for him, because if you, I said his performance in the majors prior to these two starts had been kind of meh. It's because he was struggling against left-handers, actually. He throws left-handed, but those were the ones that were beating him, left-handed hitters. He thought the cutter was an ineffective weapon against him. It was too close in the velocity to the fastball, so he introduced this slider in his last start. Again, continued to throw it in this start and got four whiffs on.

on the 12 that he threw. Pretty good. And yeah, everything, everything played up nicely. 18 swinging strikes, 11 strikeouts, like I said. I think it's time to get Cole Ragon's on all of our radar. Pick them up regardless of the fact that you missed out on the two-star week. And hope he can pitch well enough to maybe secure some wins even with the Royals. And he is widely available.

25% rostered is Cole Ragan's on CBS. He is a SPARP as well. So if you're playing a points league, he has that RP eligibility, a little bit of a cheat code. The one thing we have to watch for, it wasn't an issue in this start. The walks, walks have been a big issue for him in the minors, but outside of that, I mean, like you said, the velocity, the arsenal change here. And it's a good park to pitch in Kansas City as well. So lots to like there with Cole Regens. Lots of like with a few other pitchers here who also pitched on Monday Scott.

Gavin Williams, amazing start up against the Toronto Blue Jays. seven shutout innings, one hit, one walk, 12 strikeouts with 17 swinging strikes, 12 of those coming on his fastball. Velocity was up basically across the board here, specifically on his two breaking pitches. We had some other pitchers pitch well, too. I don't know that they're in the same stratosphere. It's Brandon Williamson and Patrick Sandoval. I think it's kind of a two-horse race here, Scott.

Who would you rather have between Gavin Williams and Cole Regens? I'm going to say Gavin Williams, because obviously there's much more of a prospect. pedigree there. And look, what he did against the Blue Jays was awfully impressive. And when you consider the improved velocity on the slider and curveball, which by the way, was also true in his previous start. In fact, he was throwing those even harder. So they're up about a mile per hour and a half in this start. Gavin Williams was throwing him like to two to three miles per hour harder in his previous start. Didn't get great results against the Astros. So I don't even know if we had a show that day, but it was one of those situations well since he didn't get good results. Is

it even worth pointing out that he was throwing him harder? But then he bounces right back with the best start of his career so hard so far against the Blue Jays. And okay, yeah, maybe there's something to this, throwing those breaking balls harder, throwing them more too, which is something I wanted to see him do. Seems like a lot of pitchers lean too much on their fastball early on. We've seen that with Brandt have fought too.

And it takes them a while to come around to throwing their off-speed pitchers. is more when often that's the key for them really beginning to shine. And hopefully we're seeing that with Gavin Williams because the upside is enormous. I can't take credit for him in this two-star week. I did not call him a sleeper pitcher. In fact, I said he wasn't worth starting just because the performance had been so uninspiring so far. But here's a reminder of his upside. An awesome start against the Blue Jays.

Hopefully we see more of it going forward as he continued. to lean into those breaking balls more. All right. So Gavin Williams over Cole Reagan. Scott, what if I put Chase Silseth in that mix? I know you and Chris talked extensively about him yesterday as well. Where would Silseth rank among those three? Yeah, obviously there's a lot to like about Silseth as we talked about yesterday.

You know, he's made some changes to his slider. He started to see some success with the split finger fastball in his most recent start. I think he drops to third on this list, which I know, you know, as much as we talked them up yesterday, that's kind of like, wow, recency bias much. But Silseth is in a six-man rotation. So, you know, the likelihood of him getting a two-star week at any point moving forward is very small.

And I think of the three, we've seen the angels be most careful, more careful with, his workload than these other two. Gavin Williams, I don't think, has any major league, major workload concerns to close out the season, even given his young age. They've been so careful with them up to this point. So I'm going to put Silseth third of that group.

Okay, I quickly ran through the names, Brandon Williamson and Patrick Sandoval as well. For Williamson, last seven starts since the beginning of July, 319, ERA, a 104 whip right around a strikeout per inning for him. His velocity was up, you know, around a mile, mile and a half on a couple of different pitches here on Monday. And Patrick Sandoval, eight strikeouts over six and two-thirds innings. He threw his change-up more. He made it his most used pitch in this outing.

And that's something we've long wondered. Why doesn't Patrick Sandoval throw his change up more? It's a fantastic change-up. But over his last five starts, a 248 ERA and a 107 whip, it's got any enthusiasm for those two, Williamson and Patrick Sandoval. Look, it was great to see. see from Brandon Williamson today. Red's left-hander, if you're unfamiliar, we haven't had much reason to talk about him since he got

called up. It's great to see 17 swinging strikes on 89 pitches, nine strikeouts. Three different pitches, the cutter, the fastball and the change-up ball got five swinging strikes or more. So I just got to see where it goes from here because it's a totally isolated incident from a pitcher

who we had little reason to care about prior to this. So Brandon Williamson, if we're combining all these pictures together, he's at the very bottom of the list. Number five, Sandoval, I would put forth. I would put him behind Silseth and ahead of Williamson, which again, Williamson and Williams are different pitchers.

We're kind of talking about him. And so Gavin Williams is one guy. Brandon Williamson is another. Brandon, Gavin Williamson. I'm sorry. Sorry, I'm mixing myself up. Brandon Williams at the top of the list, Brandon Williamson at the bottom.

But with Sandoval, there's just been so many walks even as he's had better results in preventing runs the walks have been high the efficiency's been low he hasn't been pitching deep into starts as another guy who's stuck in that six-man

rotation for the angels it was encouraging to see him throw us change up more and also the velocity on that change-up here Monday was down two miles per hour which was interesting it didn't seem to hinder its effectiveness at all of his 16th swinging

strikes, 12 came on that change up. So maybe that's, maybe there was some kind of conscious change there happening for Patrick Sandoval that can help him reach the levels we've seen him reach before. But sort of like with Williamson, I have to see more before I'm going to make too much of it. All right. Well, let's slide over to another pitcher who I wanted to highlight up top here, Freddie Pralta, with an amazing start here up and against the Colorado Rockies.

I get it. The Rockies were on the road here. The start came in Milwaukee. So obviously it's a fantastic matchup, but tied a career high with 13 strikeouts. 31. 31 swinging strikes on 94 pitches for Freddie Peralta in this start. Seven innings, one run, those 13 strikeouts, zero walks.

You know, walks and home runs have been a big problem for Freddie Peralta this year. But yeah, he spread out those swinging strikes across all of his pitches, The 17 of them came on the fastball. His velocity was up, slider up 1.8 miles per hour. The curve up 2.1 miles per hour in this start. And over his last five starts here in the second half for Freddie Peralta, it's a 3.0 ERA on the nose, a 0.83 whip, 44 strikeouts, over 30 innings pitched.

And we've seen big upside from Freddie Peralta in the past got, so I wanted to pose the question. Do you think that Freddie Peralta could turn into a league winner here in the second half? it's possible. Obviously two of his last three starts have been amazing. 31 whiffs in one, 24 whiffs in the other, 13 strikeouts in each, with a decent start in between the two. So it's not like it's been this Jekyll and Hyde stuff we've seen

from so much of the pitcher crop this year. I mean, you could classify Peralta's entire season as Jekyll and Hyde, I guess, which is why his overall numbers are so pedestrian. But recently here, for at least last three starts. He has looked like, he has looked like somebody you should trust in your lineup every week again. And I did have him as a must-start two-star pitcher for this week.

I felt a little weird doing it based on the way his season is gone, but so far so good. I'm reluctant to say he's totally fine, and we can put all our trust in Freddie Peralta going forward just because that's not, that's not, that's not been a wise thing to say about many pitchers this season. I mean, when you see what happened to Spencer Strider against the pirates today, it's just another reminder of sort of the random number generator effect

that we've seen throughout the pitcher pool this year. And Peralta's been as susceptible to it as anybody. We know he has big upside from one start to the next. We know he has a ton of strikeout potential, but can he, like if I say right now, yes, Freddie Peralta's back, look at how many strikeouts he has over his last three starts, what do I say when he allows Ader and runs in his next start? Like, I'm not confident that won't happen.

Like, how can I be confident that won't happen? Yeah, I hear you, Scott. And another name that I guess we could talk about a little bit later on, Seth Lugo, someone I've been, you know, pumping up talking how much, how under-rastered he is and how reliable he's been, and he goes out and he gets destroyed by the Dodgers. it's a tough matchup, but yeah. So just another pitcher there that had been pretty reliable and does not come through.

Look, I think if Freddie Paralta could keep those walks and home runs down, it sounds so easy, right? Yeah, just do this. But it's clearly not. And I do think that there is a chance for big upside here in the second half of the season for Freddie Paralta, a team that, you know, they're in the thick of it in the NL Central. And I think, you know, he could be a big part of that. It's just a matter of consistency now for one, Freddie Peralta. Peralta. I did want to give a shout out to Pete Alonzo, who kind of looks like he's back here in the second half. Three for four with a double dong six RBI on Monday. He is back up to 33 home runs.

And so far in the second half, 280 batting average with seven home runs and a 954 OPS. Sounds a lot like Pete Alonzo. So good to see that after a cold stretch there coming back from the wrist injury. We spoke about the waiver wire pitchers a little bit earlier on. Let's talk about some waiver wire hitters, Scott, I've got two names here, two outfielders. Sal Freelick, who went two for three with a walk and his third home run. He's batting 273 with a 980 OPS early on here. He was one of your sleeper hitters for this week. And James Outman, who had four hits. He went four for four with a walk and two run scored has performed much better in the second half. The plate discipline has been a lot better. They're exactly at 65% rostered. Who would you prefer Freelick or James Outman?

I would definitely prefer Freelick. I think he's more integral to the Brewer's lineup than Outman is to the Dodgers. Just checking to see what the playing time's been like for Outman recently. He's starting most of the time sitting against some left-handers, it looks like. So, you know, they seem to be putting a lot of trust in him again. But Freelick, I think, has a more durable skill set. And interestingly, as well as he's hit. You look at his expected stats on stat cast, and they're pretty awful.

A guy doesn't make hard contact, but he puts the ball in the right places, and he seems to be a master of that looking at his minor league track record. I'm not willing to bet against it the kind of start he's off to. I do want to see him running more because I feel like steals have to be a big part of Freelix game, unless he can sustain the power he's shown so far. Only one steel, but I suspect that the steel. are going to continue for Freelick as he continues to get on base. With Altman, one word of warning beyond the possibility of him sitting against left-handers is,

okay, so he's been hot since July 1st, betting 337, 4 home runs, 5 steals in 28 games. His average exit velocity during that stretch is like 85 miles per hour. It's weird. Yeah, and while Freelick can get away with soft contact on average, I'm not sure Outman. can. So that is a bit contradictory that he's hitting so well while making such weak contact on average. I wouldn't bet on it being a long, I wouldn't bet on it being a path to success for him. All right. Again, that was Free League versus Outman. I do agree with you. I would take Freelick the fact that when he plays, you know, it seems like so far he's sitting against lefties, but when he's

in the lineup, he's batting right there in the middle of the Brewers lineup. And the plate discipline has been really good so far. Fourteen walks will. 13 strikeouts for Sal Freelick. In that small sample, that's a 23% walk rate versus an 18% strikeout rate for Sal Freelick. Do any of these players matter for fantasy, Scott? Some hitters that I've got, Luis Camp Usano went four for four with a double dong

and four RBI. He's played 20 games this season, and he's got a 319 batting average, four home runs, an 878 OPS. Of course, this game had a lot to do with it for Luis CampuSano. Bryce Tarang went one for three with his sixth home run and since returning from the miners he is batting

357 excuse me with three home runs and four steals so a little bit of power and speed there for Terang and Mitch Garver three for four with two doubles and two RBI hitting 284 with 854 OPS and getting the opportunity to play more with Jonah Heim hurt to any of these players matter Scott Garver Terang and Campusano I think the catchers are more likely to matter than Terang is, especially Garver, because it sounds like, it sounds like Jonah Heim's injury,

you know, even if he makes it back from it this year, he might only be able to bat from, I think it was the left side, they said. And if he's limited to that degree, how well is he going to perform? I don't know. I don't have a lot of hope for Jonah Heim rest of season. He needs surgery on his wrist. I think it's a torn tendon sheath in the wrist, right? And they're just trying to get him through this season. Meanwhile, since he's gone down, Garver has been the Ranger's primary catcher. And we know how that goes when Garver gets at bats and is able to avoid the IAL himself.

He generally produces. He has big power. It's the ball very hard. In his past 12 games now after this three for four performance, Garver hitting 375 with three home runs, doubles average exit velocity 94 miles per hour and so I think I think it's to the point now where in one catcher leagues if you're dissatisfied with who you have behind the plates

I don't know maybe like Elias sorry Elias Diaz is on the road or whoever else whoever else if you're dissatisfied with your catching option I think you could potentially look into Garver now Camp Rusano I can't say that yet because

Gary Sanchez is still playing more often than him, but maybe that won't last. I mean, we have a lot of doubts about how good Gary Sanchez actually is. It seems like the home runs keep coming either way. But Camposano, you know, I kind of have prospect fatigue with him. I'm not even sure he really counts as a prospect anymore because he's gotten scattered opportunities in the majors over the years. But it's taken so long.

It continues to take so long for the Padres to give. him regular playing time that it's easy to forget Luis Campusano at AAA last year hit 298 with an 846 OPS the year before hit 295 with a 906 OPS. The very fact he played back-to-back seasons at AAA tells you how much they've slow played this guy. But he's still only 24 and may have a future for them behind the plate. I just need to see the playing time increase before I recommend Campiucano outside of deep two catcher leagues. Yeah, so he's only started one of the past three games there and the acquisitions of G. Man Choy and Garrett Cooper mean that Camp Usano and Sanchez are probably going to split catcher duties for the time being. Before those

guys came, you know, one of the one of the catchers would play DH, the other one at catcher. So that was actually good for the playing time. But following these moves, we'll see what the playing time looks like for Luis Camp Usano. Let's take our first break. And when we return, what to do with Cody Bellinger long term? Keeper and Dynasty Leagues, I think it's really interesting conversation. We'll talk about it right after this. Welcome back and a quick reminder to join our fantasy baseball today Facebook group. Obviously it's free. You can find the link, facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today or just search fantasy baseball today on Facebook. You'll be able to find it. Join up. You can ask your questions, interact with other fans of the

show, some listeners and people who hang out on YouTube, waiver wire questions, trades, dynasty keeper, all that kind of fun stuff. Join our Facebook group. start asking your questions today. Speaking of Keeper and Dynasty Leagues, Cody Bellinger, what do we do? He went three for three on Monday with two RBI. He is now batting 332 with 16 home runs, 17 steals, and a 935 OPS on the year,

and that's with him missing some time. He had an IL since in there. Last 30 games for Cody Bellinger. This guy is on fire. 4.30 batting average, nine homers, seven steals, and 1191 OPS. and he drastically has reduced the strikeout rate this year.

What I keep coming back to, Scott, is the quality of contact and the expected numbers. They're so underwhelming, and I've brought up some theories about how he's changed his approach this year with two strikes, and he's just looking to put the ball in play, and, you know, that might kind of drag down his average exit velocity and some of those expected numbers.

We haven't seen him perform like this since 2019. When he won the MVP, he's on a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs. He's 28 years old. I think it is a fascinating conversation. What do we do with Cody Bellinger long-term in Keeper and Dynasty League? Your thoughts? Well, I think it's important to remember it.

I mean, this season for Cody Bellinger is serving as a reminder that strikeout rate versus average exit velocity, which is more important. Well, ultimately, you'd rather make contact of any kind than no contact at all because your chances of getting a hit on a contacted ball of any sort is infinitely higher than on a ball you don't make contact on. And case and point was this three-for-three performance today where Cody Bellinger got two singles of less than 80 miles per hour. It's kind of been the story of his whole season.

So that's one point to bring up. Second point I want to bring up. You mentioned his expected stats are underwhelming. They're not as underwhelming as they used to be. They did get better. I noticed that too. Yeah, 80th percentile now for expected batting average, 66th percentile for expected slug. His actual batting average in slug are still much higher than his expected stats, but the expected stat don't look bad on their own anymore for Cody Bellinger.

So that's point number two I want to bring up. As for your broad question, what do we do with Cody Bellinger in Dynasty leagues? I think, if you can, cash in. That's what I think you should do. I mean, even if you buy completely that he's who he's who he is right now, that he's earned everything he's done so far, and he's going to sustain this completely for the rest of the season. I have my doubts about that.

But even if you buy that completely, his profile has been so volatile over the course of his career. He's run into so many mechanical issues that have put him in a deep hole that's taken years to come out of. Why even mess with it anymore? And it'd be different if I sensed that nobody was really buying it. Okay. Enjoy it while at last, if that's the case. But what I've seen in my own dynasty leagues is people who have Cody Bellinger declaring him untouchable.

I've seen him multiple dynasty leagues. People send out a message saying, you know, you can ask about Cody Bellinger, but I consider him my whatever best keeper and I'll need to be blown away to trade him. That's what I've seen. Now, maybe that's just gamesmanship. Maybe they're just trying to milk everything they can out of this performance,

but I haven't actually seen him traded either in any of my dynasty leagues. So I do think there's this sense among people that Cody Bellinger is back. And maybe he is, but the whole point of selling high is that even if you guess wrong about a player's ability to sustain it, you've already,

you've already gotten a proper return for him at his highest value. So it's really a no-risk situation. I don't know exactly what a sell high offer looks like. That would be hard to sort out, especially given how different Dynasty leagues can be with keeper costs, entire economies can vary so much from Dynasty League to Dynasty League. But I want to just rest on my Laurels with Cody Ballinger. I would try to shop them and

avoid future headaches. And if it doesn't work out, fine, you still have Cody Bellinger. Yeah, I think the question on what to try and get back in a Dynasty League, it's pretty impossible to answer specifics. I mean, it'll come down to you're trying to sell Cody Bellinger to a team that's probably competing or they need an outfielder or a first baseman, whatever it might be. So you have to find a team that you line up with from a trade perspective.

And then it's, you know, what do they have in return that you're looking for? Is it, are you trying to flip them for a pitcher or a prospect? I did pull up your mid-season top 50 fantasy baseball prospects, Scott. And, you know, maybe some things have changed since you published this list.

But let's just say you did want to try and flip Cody Bellinger for a prospect. we'll throw it out there. Okay. What would you think is a fair return? Like, what would you be looking for if you had Bellinger on your team? Is it a top 25 prospect? Is that realistic?

Is it like a top 50 guy somewhere in like the 26 to 50 range? Like, what do you think might be a realistic return if you're selling Cody Bellinger? Well, you're asking me to answer an impossible question. Because, again, it varies so much. Depending on the specific setup of your dynasty. League, there are some that I'm sure you could sell Bellinger for like a top five prospect, for like a Jackson Chorio or a Jackson Holiday, potentially. I mean, if you're selling him to a contender and there aren't many prospects kept per team,

I think that's something you could try. If it's a deeper dynasty league that goes deeper into the prospect pool and values prospects similarly to the way major league teams do where they're much, much cheaper to keep than full-fledged major leaguers are, then I still think you've got to look at like,

I don't know, the top dozen or so. I mean, you get to 13th in my mid-season prospect rankings is Colson Montgomery. you get Drew Jones at 15, Harry Ford at 16. I mean, these are not, I don't know, I think you might need a prospect package for Bellinger if that's throughout your planning to go. I mean, I know in our 2014 dynasty league that I set up

where minor leaguers are free to keep and major leagers salary escalates pretty quickly from year to year, prospects carry a lot more value in that format, but I don't think the average dynasty league is set up that way. Yeah, I was looking right around the top 20 range. You know, maybe I'm selling Bellinger a little bit short, but like Pete Crowe Armstrong, Heston Kirstad, and Colt Keith, you have 18 through 20.

Those are all pretty interesting, you know, offensive prospects, right? From like a hitting perspective long term, they look like pretty interesting players. Well, okay. But let's consider this also because if you have Bellinger, there's a very good chance you got him for very cheap this year. And if you do play in the sort of dynasty leagues where players are kept at disparate values,

then Bellinger himself is probably a high value keeper. And he's only 28. So if the theory is he's turned his career around and has years like this ahead of him, I would be very careful about selling him short. I do think it's worth selling him if you can get a monster return for him. But I don't know, like, from a redraft perspective,

where do you see Cody Bellinger going next year? I mean, it kind of depends, obviously, how the next two months go. But as things stand right now, round four, round five, something like that. I was going to say top 60 player. So in a 12 team league, that's a top five round pick, yeah. Yeah. So that's, you know, that gives you an idea of what you should be looking to give for him.

And if it is the sort of league where you keep him for much cheaper than round four, round five value, then that's all the more you should expect in return. Yeah, and it's an interesting point that you bring up about if you keep a player based on where you got them in the draft or your salary cap draft, whatever it might be. I'm looking at my home league, for example. We keep four players. they move up one round in value each year. Cody Bellinger was drafted in round 19.

He's a round 18 keeper next year. That's a really, really good keeper. So just to, again, kind of put that in perspective. We can't really talk about it from like a blanket perspective because, again, like so many keeper in Dynasty League are so different, but that's a really good point on Cody Bellinger there. And just a really, really interesting player heading into this all season. He is, I mentioned he's on a one-year deal with the Cubs.

It's actually a mutual option for 2024. but you know, as good as you play. Mutual options ever get exercise. No, it's probably not going to happen. I mean, unless you're like best friends with the GM or something. Yeah. So interesting player there in Cody Bellinger. I know this happened over the weekend, Scott, but Chris Towers texted me.

He's like, oh, crap, I forgot to talk about Max Fried and Brandon Woodruff. So I was like, all right, there wasn't really much going on here on Monday. So let's talk about that. We had some pitcher returns. Max Fried, a great return on Friday at the Cubs. He went six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. And, you know, it's a small sample this year, but he's got a 169 ERA and a 0.97 whip.

He obviously has arguably the best run support in baseball with the Atlanta Braves. Brandon Woodruff looked pretty good in his return on Sunday as well, facing the Pirates. He allowed two runs over five innings with nine strikeouts to zero walks, 16 swinging tracks on 85 pitches. Velocity mostly looked fine for him. Again, it's a really small sample for Woodruff,

but when he's pitched, he's looked really good. Tons of swinging strikes, lots of strikeouts here. Scott, do you think Max Fried and Brandon Woodruff should be valued as top 24, top 20 starting pitchers, rest of season? Yeah. They immediately are, they transcend the glob. They are among the couple dozen pitchers who do. You couldn't ask for a better return from either of them. And I would have, I mean, obviously the lineups have already locked for this week,

but I would have no hesitation about putting either of them back in my lineup. I'm looking at the rankings now. And so I previously moved Tyler Glass now inside of my top 12. And now he's dealing with injury. But man, I think the back end of that top 12, you can make an argument right there. It's like Max Fried and Brandon Woodruff, we've seen these guys be really good in the past. And then you get into names like Logan Webb and Max Scherzer and Aranola. Webb has been fine.

But, you know, Scherzer and Nola, they've been, you know, kind of inconsistent. I have more trust in Woodruff and Freed at this point than either of them. Yeah. Speaking of returns, by the way, Yuri Perez did make his return to the Marlins on Monday. Didn't look too great. Four and two thirds innings, four runs allowed,

seven strikeouts, two home runs allowed. Did get a ton of whiffs in this one, 16 swinging strikes on 78 pitches, but gave up a decent amount of hard contact. Velocity looked fine for Yuri Perez. I don't know that there's too much to take away here, Scott. It's his first start back in the majors after a while. So maybe just shaking off a little bit of rust

what you see from Yuri Perez. Yeah, I mean, considering he lined up for two starts right away, and so I recommended everybody starting him. It's disappointing in that sense. He didn't deliver a good outcome. But in the ways that are more predictive, the ways that measure skill level more, Yuri Perez looked great.

He had a lot of whiffs. He had a lot of strikeouts. He, you know, the velocity was actually up a little from when we saw him before. and I was surprised that he came within and out of going five innings. I figured after throwing just 45 and 63 pitches in his two warm-up appearances in the minors, Perez might be cut off right at four innings. Well, he wasn't getting great results and he still went almost five. So that gives me hope that the Marlins aren't going to baby him too much down the stretch.

Now, they haven't been winning many games since the All-Star break, so they could quickly fall out of the race here. maybe they consider shutting Yuri Perez down thin and there. But he appears to have some runway for the time being. And while I would be shocked if he went beyond six innings and anyone start the rest of the way, this one gives me some hope that he might go six innings every now and then. Yeah, but I think, you know, on a per-running basis, if Yuri Perez is giving you five or six innings consistently,

he's probably still going to be really, really good during that time. We'll see. The Marlins are a half a game out of the wild card spot right now and three and seven in their last 10 games. So definitely need Yuri Perez to come through for them. And speaking of that start, we actually had some rookie on rookie crime here. Scott Christian and Carnaccio on Strand went one for three with his second home run and it came off of Yuri Perez 107.4 exit velocity for CES and actually went back to back with Joey Votto in that game against the Marlins. Let's hit some news and notes. Josh Young was placed on the IL and will have surgery to stabilize his fractured left thumb. Obviously a very big loss from this past weekend.

He's expected to miss the next six weeks. And Bruce Bochie did say the expectation is that Young will play again this season. But, you know, we're probably looking at the second or third week of September. So not really going to be much time left at that point. Shane Bieber was clear to begin a throwing program on Wednesday. He is reportedly pain free following right elbow inflammation. But that's another one where if he's just starting a throwing program now, maybe mid-September, third week of September, something like that.

So not too much time left here for Shane Bieber. Tristan McKenzie was able to play catch on five consecutive days without issue. A good sign as he continues his recovery from a right UCL sprain. Remains hopeful to pitch again the season, but also remains without a timetable. that is Tristan McKenzie. Carlos Rodan was placed on the aisle with a left hamstring strain. The Yankees did not announce the timeline.

And obviously it's been a very disappointing first season riddled with injury. We had the back injury. We had the forearm injury. And on top of that, poor performance when he has been healthy. So not a great first year here for Carlos Rodon. Trevor's story will make his season debut Tuesday against the Royals. And in 13 games on his rehab assignment, he hit 300 with four home runs, one steel, and an 1117 OPS.

So a potential difference maker here coming with Trevor's story. Same thing could be said for Chris Sale, likely to be activated to start Friday against the Tigers, and he threw 53 pitches in his last rehab outing. Maybe he gets up to 70, 75 pitches. But Scott, let's say you play in a daily lineup league. Would you throw Chris Sale out there against the Tigers this Friday? I mean, the fact it's against the Tigers, yeah, I think you have to do that in a daily,

don't line up league. If it was a tougher matchup, maybe it played safe, but that one's too favorable. And he looked good on his rehab assignment. I think velocity was down a little bit, but that's always kind of all over the place for sale anyway. Clayton Kershaw is, quote, very likely to return Thursday against the Rockies. He's been out since July 3rd with left shoulder inflammation. And I assume it's the same thing there, Scott. if Daily lineup league,

Kershaw against the Rockies, I think we throw them out there, right? Yeah, obviously daily lineup leagues are, you're incentivized to get as many starts as you can. So I think I told people to play it safe in weekly lineup leagues, sit Kershaw for his first start back, but daily lineup league's different animal, again, favorable matchup.

He did not have a rehab assignment, which is a little worrisome. He just threw SIM games. but I imagine Kershaw will probably be fine in this start. Starling Marte was placed on the IL with a right groin strain and a brutal season for a 34-year-old coming off of groin surgery. And I probably should have saw this one coming. I was optimistic about Starling Marte.

Scott, you were not, and you nailed that one on Starling Marte this year. Suspensions were handed out for Saturday's brawl between the White Sox and the Guardians. Did you guys talk about that yesterday, by the way, Scott? Of course. Amazing. I mean, I don't know. We don't condone violence here on the podcast, but it's pretty entertaining stuff between Tim Anderson and Jose Ramirez. Anderson suspended six games. Ramirez, three games, Emmanuel Class A got one game, and each of the managers, Pedro Grifold and Terry Francona, each suspended one game. Anderson and Ramirez will both appeal.

Did you ever hear what they were upset about? Like, why? Because it was just, it seemed like a ordinary play. Yeah, I saw a few different things. I read, I saw someone say that Jose Ramirez, like, didn't like the tag. I think maybe he got hit in the face. But then I also heard on one of the broadcasts tonight that I think Tim Anderson was like chirping at some of the Guardians rookies and I don't know, said some kind of like messed up stuff to them.

So there's probably a few different stories out there. It's interesting. Anderson got twice as long as the suspension of a suspension from Jose Ramirez because I was trying to watch the video. video, like slow it down to see if I could figure out who exactly instigated. It looked to me like Jose Ramirez was asking for help up after he was tagged. And I don't know what words were exchanged, but it kind of escalated from there. Tim Anderson wasn't helping him up.

And I was trying to see who actually squared up first. And it was pretty simultaneous, but it did look like Tim Anderson did a shade earlier. Right. So I guess he was deemed to be more of the instigator than Ramirez was. Yeah, I'm watching it back now. And Tim Anderson, he did kind of like push Jose Ramirez first. He was the first one to kind of like start that. And then definitely he squared up like a split second earlier than Jose Ramirez.

But wow, crazy, crazy, crazy fight there this past weekend between the Guardians and the White Sox. Tim Anderson, by the way, was removed Monday due to a bruised left forearm. He suffered on a hit by pitch. Marcus Stroman will throw a bullpen session on Tuesday. The Cubs are hoping he will return when first eligible on August 16th. Jazz Chisholm underwent an MRI that revealed no structural damage to his right hamstring. He did not start on Monday, but he did hit a pinch hit home run. Walker Bueller will face hitters this week, and it was reported last week that he was close to beginning a rehab assignment.

Could potentially make an impact in September. Walker Bueller 57% rostered and somebody that you should be stashing right now. Royce Lewis will begin a rehab assignment Tuesday with AAA, and he's been out since July 1st with a left oblique strain. He's 47% rostered. Scott, I am not sure where Royce Lewis is going to play when he returns to the twins. I mean, Edward Julian has hit pretty well over the past month. They still have Correa. They have Jorge Polanco who's now playing third base. I don't know.

Well, Jorge Polanco is playing third base sometimes. Actually, not as often as Willie Castro and Kyle Farmer are playing third base. Polanco's been kind of bouncing around and I don't think Julian's coming out I think they're sold on Julian at least against right-handed pitchers I noticed he actually got to start against the left-hander recently too I wonder if it might be Polanco not to say Palanco will never play again

but if he might just kind of fade into a super utility role here and spell everybody as necessary I know Royce Lewis has played the outfield in the past but I don't think they want him to play the outfield right Right, that's where he got. That's where he tore the Vial the second time. So I doubt that. Yeah, I doubt it as well.

So I don't know. Well, we'll see. I mean, technically it's a good problem for the twins to have. But yeah, Royce Lewis could be back soon. Brett Beatty was optioned back to AAA, which means Mark Vientos will likely get a look as an everyday player here for the Mets. Brett Beatty, 23 years old. Still pretty small sample size in his career, 353 plate appearances, but has not performed very well, Scott. I guess this is more of a philosophical question,

and it might depend on the player, right? It's like what are their flaws? What specific flaws does each young player have? But how much do you need to see before you start losing a lot of faith in a player from a dynasty perspective, like a Brett Beatty? How much more do you need to see before, you know, you actually start to sour on that player?

I need to see more, especially knowing the quality of contact that he makes. and, you know, at times, overall the plate discipline has been solid. So I think there's still a lot to like there with Brett Beatty. It's not even a full season's worth of at Bats that he's accumulated between this year and last year. We've only started to see signs of Spencer Torkelson

turning it around. You know, even that's, even that's, I would say the jury's still out on him because it's been more like bursts of production than steady production. It's been steady production from Tristan Kossis, but it only took until his third month in the majors to get there. So I guess I'm kind of talking around the question, and I don't really know.

I'm just providing different examples of times where patients is paid off. You could say the same to a certain degree for Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez last year, for Gunner Henderson to a degree. We have talked a lot over the past few years about how it seems like even the highest end prospects are taking longer to really find their footing in the majors. And it's been a difficult adjustment because we kind of got used to,

oh, you stash this prospect who's killing it at AAA, and as soon as he gets called up, you're going to have a stud. And it's rarely played out that way the past few years. But if you're talking from a diney-steeth perspective, I've already sunk years into this guy how long before I consider selling him for nickels on the dollar. I can't give you a 100% blanket answer. Maybe at least a year, maybe like at least a full season's worth of it bats before you start thinking about it,

which Torkelson is there now. but Beatty obviously is not. But the point is specifically on Beatty, you need to see more, and I think that makes sense for him. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll get into the leftovers.

What else happened here on Monday? We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back, and we did mention earlier that some pitchers got rocked here on Monday. Spencer Strider. What happened, man? He got hit hard by the Pirates of all teams. He only lasted two and two-thirds innings.

He gave up five runs, three walks, three strikeouts. I saw some quotes after the game. Strider said, you know, he gave credits of the pirates. He said they were fouling off a lot of pitches and I kind of hurt myself with all the walks here. You know,

kind of just held himself accountable and just a rough outing here. It just stinks that it came against the pirates of all teams. And then in a, you know, shootout here between the Dodgers and Padres, Seth Lugo and Tony Gonsland both crushed against each other. Lugo last only three and a third. innings. I was watching the start. The first three

innings, he looked perfectly fine. I walked away. I think I went to go get some lunch or something. I came back. He gave up eight runs. Like, what happens to Seth Lugo? Yeah, so he gave up the eight runs here. His ERA jumps up to 4.19. And Tony Gonsolin, we spoke about him recently. Scott, it's been a rough year.

Six runs allowed over six innings pitched. He's up to a 442 ERA and a 1.19 whip. Anything actionable on these players. Strider, Lugo, Gonsolin. You know, maybe we're dropping Gonson. He's still 92% rostered. Yeah, I think he's over-rastered Gonselin.

Even when he's pitched well, which hasn't been very often, he hasn't gone six innings. This was just a second six-inning start in his last nine, and obviously it wasn't very good. So I think we're fine letting him go. Seth Lugo was a letdown, obviously.

He was much higher than Cole Riggins, for instance, on my sleeper pitcher's list for this week. It was a tough matchup, and so maybe we give him a pass for that. Really, it seemed like his curveball wasn't quite right, and that's the key to everything for Seth Lugo. It's a pitch with a lot of movement. It gets, he tends to throw it a lot.

It has a nice whiff rate, given how much he throws it. He got zero whiffs on 19 curveballs in this start, so he wasn't throwing it as much, and it didn't seem to be effective at all. An isolated start like this, it's not anything to worry about, but if it becomes a pattern, then we might be off of Seth Lugo

just as quickly as we were on him. Strider, it's kind of a similar story. His fastball did not seem to be up to capacity. It's not like the velocity was down that much, or I think he was getting more drop on the fastball, just a little. You know, normally it's, Seth Strider has that, like, textbook rising fastball

that hit her swing under, and that's why it's been such an effective pitch for him more than just pure velocity. And he only got one whiff on 31 fastballs in this start against the Pirates lineup. So that's, I think, the clearest indication that it wasn't quite right. Was it just an isolated incident for him?

Probably, but he's basically right at his career high innings now. So could some fatigue? be setting in here for Strider, I wouldn't rule it out. I just, you know, obviously you're talking about top three starting pitcher and fantasy by most people's rankings, so you don't want to overreact to one bad start even against the pirates.

I do have to point out with him also, though, his ERA hasn't been lower than 344 since early June. So it's at 394 after this start. It hasn't been lower than 344 since early June. So, you know, over two months of an ERA in the mid-time. high threes, even low fours at times for Spencer Strider. So he has had, he's had, kind of had these, these starts where things just go wrong for him.

You know, he might be one of those pitchers where it doesn't take his fastball being off that much for it to go from being completely unhittable to pretty hit a ball, which is why we've kind of been hoping he'd develop a third pitch, a changeup at some point. and he's flashed at a time to this year, but seems reluctant to stick with it. All right, let's slide over to a few other pitching leftovers. Four names here that actually pitched pretty well. Pablo Lopez at the Tigers. He went seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes on 96 pitches for him.

Brian Beow has struggled a little bit recently, but bounced back with a quality start up against the Royals. He went six and two-thirds innings with one run allowed. Dylan Sees walked seven, somehow did not allow a run against the Yankees. He only allowed one hit in this one with six strikeouts over a five and a third. And Kodai Senga bounced back

with a quality start up against the Cubs. His velocity was down in his last outing and it was back up. It seemed like it was fine, pretty much in line with the rest of the season. Scott, any thoughts on Kodai Senga, Dylan Cis, Brian Beo, and Pablo Lopez. Pablo Lopez transcends the blob at this point.

I'm sorry, the glob. What's a blob? The glob. He is not a globby pitcher anymore. He is just somebody you start all the time and expect good results from. And that's what the underlying number said he was all along. But he had, you know, he had some rough stretches earlier this year than inflated his ERA. Not so much recently.

I think he can totally trust in Pablo Lopez going forward. I think Kodi Senga is verging on that. just the fact that he was you know kind of bad in his previous start would suggest Kodi Senga is still globby but

there's been a pretty clear turning point for him really coinciding with his walk rate and his first 12 starts 5.6 walks per 9 and his last 9 starts 2.9 walks per 9 so it went from 5.6 to 2.9 that's a big turnaround for Kodai Seng it has been much more consistent,

apart from the occasional misfire, like we saw in his previous outing. So I have a lot of trust in him. Brian Bayo, you know, he's had some rough outings recently, but they haven't been like total blowout outings. He's done a good job of limiting damage, and that's what that heavy ground ball profile tends to do. And, yeah, Dylan sees a very weird stat line

with the seven walks and only one hit. You know, I don't know one more to say about Dylan's, cease, he's, he's, I guess he's more Blake Snell than not at this point, right? Like, he has the same headache and, I think he's a lot, a lot worse than Blake Snell. I mean, obviously, based on like the ERA, but he's, well, he's been, yeah, I mean, do you think Blake Snell is as good as his ERA? That's part of, um, yeah, you know, that, it is a good question. I think I recently moved Dylan C's down behind Blake Snell because that's reasonable. Yeah, but I'm saying in terms of, you're just as likely to get

you know five walks from him as you're you are to get nine strikeouts or whatever however you want to phrase it just like the walks are so high that you never feel totally comfortable with him even knowing he has great stuff and can get a lot of strikeouts for you Dylan sees back into the glob you go

some hitting leftovers here three names Mookie Betz went one for five with a grand slam that's back-to-back games with a homer for him. He also has four home runs in his past seven games. 31 home runs so far this year for Mookiee Betz, a great season. William Contreras went three for five with a double and three RBI. And since the start of July, his last 30 games, William Contreras batting 3.49 with three home runs and a 913 OPS. He's hitting the ball hard, but you see that number three home runs during the stretch. Too many ground balls.

54% groundball rate for William Contreras during that span. He's the better Contreras brother at this point, though, as far as I'm concerned. I've moved William ahead of Wilson. I still have them back to back. I know the quality of contact this year has been really, really good for Contreras, for Wilson Contreras, but the results haven't been there for Wilson. So it's kind of weird. Just overall, I guess a weird year for the Cardinals and the way that everything kind of got started

with Wilson Contreras, just odd season. Carlos Correa. Yeah. He went two for three with his 13th home run. He added four RBI. What has happened this year, Scott? I mean, a 224 batting average, a 690 OPS. This comes, you know, one year after he actually performed pretty well with the Minnesota Twins. And, you know, we thought he would bounce back this year and be a value based on where he was going in draft. And that has not happened. What have you seen here, Scotty? I mean, yeah, especially considering the guy was offered like a billion dollars worth in contracts this offseason. between the Giants Mets and finally the twins.

And I don't really think that's really... Obviously, the reason that happened is because the first two teams backed out because of what showed up on the physical. But I don't really think that's related. It was a long-standing health issue that he had. And it would be weird that it would just suddenly manifest this year

after a bunch of attention was drawn to it. I don't really know. what happened to Carlos Correa so I guess if you want to theorize what I just rejected I can't really stop you I haven't it's been a long time since I've hoped

for the turnaround from him since I really thought that was going to happen and even this game as good as it was him hitting a three run homer that three run homer for Carlos Correa had an expected batting average of 040 it was not hit very hard

oh geez which, you know, his max exit velocities are still good. He's still capable of hitting the ball hard. It's just, I don't know. It's last year with the twins was pretty disappointing for him, and it's been even worse this year. Yeah, it just looks like everything on the fringe has kind of gotten a little bit worse for Carlos Correa.

The strikeout rate is slightly up. The ground balls are slightly up. His barrel rate slightly down this year. Expected numbers not good. He's also been day-to-day four different times this year. with various injuries. Back, heel, plantar fasciitis, so it wouldn't surprise me if perhaps those things

have been affecting Carlos Correa this season. A few bullpen updates here for the Reds, Alexis Diaz walked two but picked up his 33rd save. For the Blue Jays, Eric Swanson entered in the seventh inning with the game tied zero-zero-zero facing the heart of the Guardians' lineup. So perhaps he's mostly high leverage at this point. Jordan Hicks eventually got the ninth inning

with a two-run lead excuse me he allowed three base runners but did escape with his 10th save and Hicks now has two of three saves since Jordan Romano went down with injury do you think that's how it's going to play out I guess for the I don't know

short-term future here Scotty I think it's two of four saves right two for Hicks two for Swanson so the first save that Swanson got that was before they acquired Jordan Hicks so I guess it was Romano went down, but they didn't have Hicks yet? I know there was one game where Hicks set up for Swanson.

So I don't know. I mean, Romano is not going to be out long enough that it probably is worth sorting out if they're going to go back and forth between those two. I think Swanson's a better pitcher than Hicks, although he hasn't been very good lately. So, I don't know. I mean, you could go with either one in the hope of getting saves. Maybe Eileen Hicks now just because he got the last one with Swanson working the sevens. But it wouldn't surprise me if they changed it up tomorrow.

Yeah, I think if you play in a deeper league, 15 team league, and you're probably just, you're probably desperate for saves, I would imagine in leagues that deep. I know I have been. I'm starting Eric Swanson in a league that deep. So I think you probably could get away with starting Swanson and Jordan Hicks in those deeper leagues for now. For the Royals, Carlos Hernandez, got the ninth inning with the third inning with The game tied, he gave up a walk-off grand slam.

And to be fair, I was watching this game. Luis Arias had a check swing with two strikes. He very clearly went around. The umpire did not rule it that way. And the next hitter hit a grand slam. Walk off grand slam there against Carlos Hernandez. So no-bueno. For the White Sox, Gregory Santos is on the bereavement list.

Brian Shaw pitched a final two innings for his first save of the season. for the Mets. I thought this was just kind of interesting, Scott, that Brooks Raleigh, with a five-run lead, he entered in the seventh inning, and he recorded the next five out. So I don't know if that's telling moving forward, but I don't know, it was a little weird.

Yeah, it may be more of a committee than it seemed diverse. Yeah, I would imagine Adamadovino, if anybody could be the other name there, getting saves for the Mets. Since he didn't get traded, yeah. For the Angels, Carlos Estevez has been struggling big time. Entered in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up five runs on three hits and two walks.

He's now giving up four plus runs in two of his last three outings. And I don't know, Scott. Let's say, I mean, something does happen here and someone else gets an opportunity. Who would it be for the Angels? Is it Ronaldo Lopez? It might be. I know a lot of people were speculating at the time Lopez was acquired that maybe he, could threaten Carlos Estevez's job.

It didn't really make sense to me then because Estevez had a sub-2 ERA, but now his ERA is up to 357, his whips up to 150. Yeah. And Lopez, meanwhile, I know he was bad in the role for the White Sox earlier this year, but he in his past 12 appearances has a 0.64 ERA 107 whip 13.5K per 9. If I was looking to add anyone as Estevez insurance, it would be Lopez. All right. And for the Rangers, Will Smith picked up his 21st save, and he just kind of looks like the guy again.

I think Chapman got one save after the All-Star break, and Will Smith has the other five or six during that time. So Will Smith, once again, get in the saves. Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream. And on Tuesday, we have actually, I would say, a pretty decent, group of pitchers here, Scott. Cutter Crawford going up against the Royals, I think, is pretty good. I think Ranger Suarez against the Nationals is fine. And I don't know.

I'm like kind of in between, I think Josiah Gray at the Phillies or Wade Miley versus the Rockies in Milwaukee. I think those are both fine. Maybe even Clark Schmidt at the White Sox. Yeah. Those all sound like good options to me. My favorite two are Cutter Crawford against the Royals and Rangers Suarez against the nationals.

If you want a random number generator, Miles, Michael, has set the race. Yeah. He might go seven shutout innings. He might go three, seven run innings. Yeah. Brady Singer has pitched well, but at the Red Sox,

I don't think I want to do it. Neither do I. Yeah. Same thing with Brendan Faw. His last star was really good, but against the Dodgers, no way. So it's a start to watch. And let's, you know,

if I think if Fott pitches well there, then we might be talking about him as a waiver wire ad again, but not tomorrow. Don't start him tomorrow. On Wednesday, or Tuesday, today when you're listening to this. On Wednesday, we have, I think, Graham Ashcraft versus the Marlins. Ugh.

Maybe. Ugh. He's pitched well, Scott, no. He has in a way that's hard to make sense of because the strikeouts are so low, the walks are so high. true. I would prefer Brian Wu against the Padres. Okay. Brian Wu, Kyle Hendricks at the Mets, maybe. Maybe. He got rocked his last time out, but it was against the Brave, so it's, you know,

obviously a super tough matchup. I think the Mets a little bit better there. So yeah, I think Brian Wu at the top of the list, followed by Kyle Hendricks and Graham Ashcraft for me. Uh, anything here on like Adrian Houser versus the Rockies, Logan Allen versus the Blue Jays, Mike Clevenger versus the Yankees. No, I want to do any of those. All right. Well, I did have team name Tuesday lined up here. And I actually think we got some pretty good team names here. But we're already running a little bit long.

I'll save it for tomorrow. Chris will be on the podcast. And obviously, he'll know all these pop references. And it'll be a lot better. So we'll wait for Chris tomorrow. We are going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.