Fantasy Baseball Today - Cubs No-Hitter, Arrighetti's Blow Up & Corey Seager Replacements (9/5 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

The Cubs tossed a combined no-hitter, led by Shota Imanaga (2:49)! ... Spencer Arrighetti got destroyed by the Reds (8:03). ... MacKenzie Gore has turned in three quality starts in a row (13:40). ... News (20:18): Corey Seager went on the IL so we need replacements. The Yankees will get creative with their closer role. ... Start, sit or drop Bowden Francis and Yu Darvish (30:33)? ... Is The Glob back (35:55)? ... Taylor Ward is hot again (42:04). ... Zac Gallen threw six no-hit innings (49:17). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (50:35). 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. And first pitch, Washington. 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.

What's up? And welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday. September 5th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, the Cubs through a combined. led by Shota Imanaga. Corey Seeger was placed in the IL, so we do need replacements there.

Clay Holmes is out as closer. Thank you. Also, for now. And much more. Let's jump in. Oh, now about that. All right, I'm going to let Chris decide where we start. Chris put your producer hat on.

I wanted to start with Shota Imanaga. Scott wanted to start with Spencer Arrogati. I'll let you decide. Well, I think we should cut the baby in half and see which. parent it goes to, right? That's how we solve these things. Let's be positive.

Let's celebrate an accomplishment. All right, let's do exactly that. The Cubs threw a combined no-hitter led by Shota Imanaga. He was followed up by Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge. Imanaga threw seven no-hit innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. He had 20 whiffs on 95 pitches. Splitter was fantastic. 10 of his 20 whiffs came on that splitter. You know, he got up to 95 pitches. His season high is 103. Maybe they could have pushed

him a little bit more, but I do understand why, you know, they didn't want to go too far with Chota Imanaga. They're trying to protect their investment, I guess, a little bit more long term here. But great outing for him, no doubt. He's turned in three straight quality starts. And all of a sudden, in the second half, Imanaga's numbers, 304 ERA, a 0.85 whip. That's pretty tremendous stuff there. anything else to add. I mean, it's not really the most fantasy relevant thing, but, you know, it's a pretty big baseball story. You know, I will say, like, you know,

before the show, Scott, you were kind of poo-pooing the idea of celebrating the accomplishment of a combined no-hitter. But like, a no-hitter is inherently a team accomplishment. Unless you strike out 27 in a row, you needed the guys in blue pinstripes to help. you out behind you. And so I have no problem celebrating the accomplishments of the Chicago Cubs.

Look, it's not like, you know, we had another pitcher go six no hit innings in this slate as well, right? Zach Allen? Yep. Yes. And that was another one where that was, that one was more like, I mean, it was a good result, but I don't know if like it's all systems go for Zach Allen moving forward. and we'll talk a little bit more about that later.

But with Imanaga, I think the takeaway is he's just really good. But we've known that, you know, basically since the word go on his season, even in spring training, he looked awesome. So, you know, it's proven sustainable. We had some concerns about how Imanaga would hold up as the weather warmed up and offense took off. And look, the weather warmed up. Offense took off.

And he's sitting here September 5th with a 3.0.299 ERA for the season. So, you know, it's not like the most impactful performance in terms of fantasy, but it's worth highlighting. Yeah. And there have been some bumps in the road, no doubt. There have been some home runs allowed by Imanaga. I think a 9 or 10 earned run start up against the Mets. And even with that, the ERA stands at 299. I think we pretty much said everything, but Scott,

anything to add here. Cubs no-no? Five of his last nine starts, Imanaga has gone more than six innings. Not six innings or more, more than six innings and more than half of his last night starts. So that's not something I expected.

Hopefully it continues. The Cubs also won this game 12 Zip, so some big offensive games did want to highlight Danesby Swanson, who continues to rake three for five with his 14th home run and three RUPS. RBI. Last 48 games for Swanson, he's batting over 300. He's got six homers. Counting stats have been great. 10 steals and an OPS over 800 during that span. And Pete Crow Armstrong also continues to hit well. Three for four with his eighth home run, three RBI. And since July 3rd, that's nearly 50 games worth of action.

280 batting average, seven homers, 11 steals, also an OPS over 800 PCA up to 60% rostered. and I believe both of you guys still have him ranked behind Butler and Cruz, right? Does that make sense? Crow Armstrong? Yeah. Yeah, I have him behind both of those guys. But that doesn't mean I don't like Peacro Armstrong. I think he's a, you know, he was a like 2040 kind of guy in the minors.

And there were a lot of questions about whether he would actually be that good of a hitter. But what we're seeing lately is maybe it's transferable. You know, he's hitting the ball a lot better. He's producing more power. And yeah, I'm pretty happy with what we're seeing from PCM. I was trying to remember. I was like, O'Neill Cruz, who is he talking about? And I was typing in CRUZ, but you meant no, multiple crews.

Oh, Dylan Cruz. Yes. I thought you meant O'Neill Cruz as well. He is outfield eligible now. I wanted to say with regard to Pete Crow Armstrong and DanceB. Swanson, and those two in particular, I wrote an article. I was out on the site yesterday, 20 hitter and pitcher pickups for the stretch run, looked at every team's matchups for the final three weeks,

and the Cubs have the best hitter matchups for the final three weeks. So Crow Armstrong and Swanson were numbers one and two on that list. If they happen to be available in your league, or if you already have them, I think you should hold on to them. All right. Now, Scott, we will go over to your. you, your player of the night. We've talked a lot about Spencer Arrogati recently, but not for this reason. No, he was terrible.

It was a disaster. It was one of the worst starts of the year, probably for anybody, allowed nine earn runs in two-thirds of an inning after, I think rightfully, we were on board with him as basically a must-star pitcher moving forward. I mean, he just had a dominant outing against the Phillies of all teams and double-digit strikeout outings left and right and like he may still be good. I think he probably is still good.

I think it was just one of those days, but he wasn't good today and he let a lot of people down. Now, I do reserve some hope that it ends up being three earned runs instead of nine because he had two outs and the base is loaded in the first end. and a fairly routine grounder was hit to Jeremy Pena that he just, he tried to field it from the side instead of getting in front of it.

And it was ruled a double, a basis clearing double instead of what should have been the third out of the inning. So there was an 11, there was what looked like an 11 earned run outing for George Kirby earlier, just a few weeks ago. And it ended up being a six earned runouting instead of 11 because an error was, A hit was changed to an error after the fact. So I'm hoping that ends up happening here with Aragutti and saving a lot of people,

a lot of pain, but I can't guarantee it's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, if I wanted to like give myself and I think all of us a little bit of credit, you know, we were very excited about Spencer Aragetti after his recent run. What was three starts with double digit strikeouts out of five in the month of August? he was incredible. And ironically, the one bad start he had in that stretch was against the white socks.

But, you know, I was looking at what I wrote after Aragetti's last start. And, you know, my, the headline of the FBT newsletter that day, it's time to add Spencer Erigetti everywhere. But I did say, I still think there's quite a wide range of possible outcomes for Arogati. I think we all kind of had that same sense about him. You know, like it was really good, but we've seen really, really low lows from Araggetty as well this season. But I actually don't feel like I deserve the absolution of that because I was very excited about Spencer Argetti. And if I had him, you know, I think I only have him in my one AL only league.

But I definitely started him there. And if I had him in any of my other leagues, I absolutely would have started him in this one. I was not expecting anything like this. And so, yeah, it stinks. Given the timing, absolutely one of the worst starts of the season, it doesn't really, I don't think, change how you should view Spencer Arrogatti. Now, there's a decent chance that if you had Spencer Arrogati in your lineup, and it doesn't get changed to an error, it might not matter.

Your season might be over. In head-to-head leagues, negative 21 fantasy points on CBS. That's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. You could win. You could still win. But it's pretty hard to go from, you know, expecting 15 to 20 points and actually getting negative. Right.

No, it's not good. It's not good. I'm just saying it feels like a bigger disaster. We talk about it all the time. It's why we have a higher threshold to meet for two-star streamers in Roto than than points leagues because the damage in roto leagues from a bad start is always worse. But I say all that just to say that like the the thought process behind Spencer Arrogati isn't really that much different after this start even though, yeah, it was a terrible, terrible start. Now, if he has another start like this, I might say otherwise.

But overall, I'm still pretty excited about Araggeti, his upside, the direction his career is headed. It's so much better than I ever would have imagined when he was first breaking into the majors. But yeah, this was a bad one. And hopefully he learns from it, which is basically what he said after the game. Yeah, look, the previous nine starts before this one for Aragutti, ace-like production, 277, ERA, 103 whip, 11.6K per 9, 14.5% swinging strike. rate. So it's unfortunate. There's no doubt about it. But like the way he was pitching, I can't blame anybody for having him in in their lineups. He was 63% started on CBS. So a good amount of people did have him. I have a segment for later on, start, sit, or drop. This is looking ahead

to next week. What do you guys think for Spencer Arrogati? He lines up to face the Oakland A's next week. I'm going to lean towards start. I won't as reflexively as I did for this past turn. But That's a pretty vulnerable lineup. Who was it today who just had a nice bounce back starting against the A's? George Kirby, George Kirby, who had been struggling for a while, was great against them. So I'm going to lean towards starts still. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I understand if you don't want to, but I think I would.

All right, Chris, over to you for your player of the night. McKenzie Gore, who has looked significantly better over the past couple of starts, had a perfect game into the sixth inning, gave up one earned run, one hit, six innings, nine strikeouts against the Marlins today. Velocity on that four-seem fastball. Still up 96.2 miles per hour. That's right at the season average. But if you remember, when things were going very poorly for McKenzie Gore, the velocity had really trailed off. And that's been back over the past three starts. And wouldn't you know it, he's had three really good starts, three quality starts in a row. And the nationals did talk around

mid-August about there being some mechanical issues that McKenzie Gore was working through. He has a pretty complicated delivery. It kind of has always reminded me of Clayton Kershaw a little bit. That's probably the best comp. And that's one of those ones where like Clayton Kershaw is kind of the only guy who throws like that besides McKenzie Gore. And there's probably a reason for it. It's a tough delivery to repeat. But the fact that he has bounced back with three quality starts in a row. Looks like 19 strikeouts over 18 innings in that stretch. Only four runs loud.

Only two walks in those starts. That might be the most encouraging thing of all. I think I understand, again, being skeptical about McKenzie Gore, given how inconsistent his career has been and this season has been. But when he's been on, he's been phenomenal. this season. He's been really, really good. Remember, we were talking about him as one of the biggest breakouts through the first couple of months of the season before things fell apart. And I think I would rather have Araggetti the rest of the way, but I think he's in that conversation.

You know, Gore mentioned after his previous start, well, this is exactly what he said. It's a long season and you go through periods of time where you just don't feel as good. And he credited the National's medical staff. So he may have been going through something physically that was impacting his complicated delivery that was leading to the familiar control problems. And that made him useless in fantasy. And then hopefully he is a two-star pitcher next week. Yeah.

It looks like that for now. I do realize we spoke a lot about matchups for next week. I mean, this time of year, so many things can change. So I guess take what we're saying with a grain of salt. Obviously, we'll just provide some context based on. on what it says on the site as of now, but obviously things are ever changing this time of year. So keep that in mind when looking at the matchups.

I just want to put McKenzie Gore up against some of the waiver wire pitchers we spoke about yesterday. Would you guys take Gore over Jeffrey Springs? I'll stick with Springs. I think I had to head points league. I would have Gore ranked ahead. What about Gore versus David Peterson? 11 strikeouts yesterday. Gore fairly.

Yeah. Okay. What about Gore versus? is Ryan Nelson. That one's a little closer. It might just come down to the matchups. I do not remember what Nelson's project. I think he was projected as a two-star pitcher next week.

I think he's projected for one at the Brewers. Okay, yeah. I think the two starts for this week. Yeah, Gore's got the Braves and Marlins next week at home. So I would go with Gore. Yeah, that's fair. What about Gore versus David Festa? Gore.

Definitely Gore. and Gore versus maybe his American League counterpart, Spider-Man meme, Reid Detmer's. Gore's had three good starts in a row. Detmer's had one, so I will go with Gore. Unless you count the three in the minors. You probably shun it, but. We talked about that. Yeah, I think there are reasons to be optimistic about Redetmer's, but the history of

Redetmer's has been reasons to be optimistic, followed by, disaster, which history for Gore, too. Yeah, very similar. But let me just check real quick here, because I had Dettmers on that list of players to pick up

for the final three weeks. It looks like he gets the Astros for one next week. Yeah, it's more of the final two weeks that are in Detmer's favor. So with Gore having the better matchups for next week, we'll give him the edge for now. All right, before we hit the break, Big thanks to everyone for hanging out, watching live.

Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. That's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. We're going to be here all throughout September five times per week. Nothing's changing, at least in terms of our programming schedule. And if you enjoy the pod and you listen on the audio side, feel free to drop a five-star rating and review on both Apple and Spotify. It helps us out a bunch, and we really do appreciate it. Let's take our first break.

And when we return, we'll hit the news and notes, Corey Seeger, Clay Holmes, lots of time. talk about. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in news and notes. And I think Bruce Bochy's comments about load management for Corey Seeger makes a little bit more sense now that he was placed on the IL with hip discomfort. So we are looking for replacements. Obviously Corey Seeger is universally ranked as a top

six or eight shortstop in our ranking. So it's a pretty big loss. Two names to check for in the shallowest of leagues. We mentioned Danesby Swanson, who's 80% rostered on CBS. The other is Xavier Edwards, who was activated off the IL, and he's 78% rostered. So some people dropped him, maybe prematurely, and he could be out there. I did not realize that many people had dropped him. Who would you guys rather have just in a vacuum, Swanson or Edwards? Edwards.

Yeah, I mean, I love Swanson for the last three weeks. Like I said, and he's been great since August 1st. Top 5 shortstopping points leaked since August 1st. But Edwards. Yeah. Two names who are available in a few months. more leagues. Mason Wynne is at 72% rostered. Tommy Edmund at 57%. Both of those were on the list for the final three weeks. Look at that.

Look at that. Synergy. Swanson, let's just say Swanson and Edwards are already rostered. Who would you prefer between Wynn and Tommy Edmund? When? When? Okay. If you need a middle infielder, so getting a little bit further down the list now, Brooks Lee 31%, Heraldo Pardomo 30%, Isaiah Kinearfah, 29%, and Paul DeYoung is 27%. The only one of those that I considered for this, this,

uh, these, these pickups for the final three weeks was Brooks Lee. Though obviously, no idea what to actually expect from him. I, I will just say like, Paul de Young continues to hit.

It's, it's weird. I don't quite understand it. He isn't 8.30 OPS since getting to the royals. He's not, uh, I don't think playing quite every day, but it's pretty much all home runs.

Remain. Yeah. Yeah. But he has remained productive, I think, rather shockingly, all season. And like, there is a non-zero chance we get a 30 Homer Paul DeYoung season. Wow. 24, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12. He has started 11 of the past 12 games for the Royal.

So he's playing quite a bit. Yeah. You know, the batting average is actually better than it was with the White Sox. All right. Let's go. He's got like a 40% strikeout rate with the Royals. Royals so it's it's not all good news but of these deep league options he's probably the one that's going to give you the closest skill set to seeger right if you're just looking for power it's

paul d young look i understand what i just looking for power i would agree with the if you're just looking to replace kyle seger's power what do you what do you think seger is i would uh because like i do want to just take a moment because if this is cori seger at the end of cori seger's Seeger season. The overall numbers are a little underwhelming. He ends up with an 864 OPS. He's been Corey Seeger basically since the start of May. It was a bad first month and like five games. His OPS fell to 594 on May 5th.

Since then, 963 OPS with a 50 homer pace for Corey Seeger. So it's a, it's a huge loss. One that I don't think. Paul DeYoung will overcome. And then two names in the deepest of leagues. You know, 15-team Brodo, ALN-L-only, Jose Tena and Otto Lopez.

If you just need a shortstop, that's playing. Those are a few options for you. I like Tena probably better than some of the guys we mentioned. I like it more than ICAF, yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. Joe Espada told reporters that it's unlikely Kyle Tucker will be activated before Thursday's game against the Reds. Tucker is basically day-to-day-day.

at this point could be activated at any point. We don't really know. I assume you guys talked about this on Monday, right? We, that what we said actually was true, what everybody said. It's just frustrating. Don't they have to be transparent

about injuries like this? I don't know. Like, I don't know what MLB's injury reporting rules actually are. Maybe I'm just thinking of the NFL. I know that they have to report. NBA have more stringent protocols. I don't know, but like,

but it also took the athletic getting an internal source to report it before they finally confirmed it as well. So yeah, it's a annoying and frustrating that what we all knew was the case, was the case. Bryce Harper left after getting hit by a pitch on his left elbow. And after the game, Harper said that he did feel better after getting some treatment, hopes to not miss any. games here. Again, that's Bryce Harper.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto will return Tuesday against the Cubs. He only built up to 53 pitches in his last rehab start. So that feels like a sit his first time back, right? I'd try to avoid it, sure. You know, maybe not in deeper roto leagues

because I think the percentages will be good. But hopefully just that one is all you sit him for and then he's good to go after that. All right, there it is finally. Aaron Boone, has pulled the plug on Clay Holmes, said they're going to get creative with the closer role going forward. He also mentioned that Clay Holmes could still be in the mix, but I think

there should be no way that's allowed to happen, but crazier things have happened with the Yankees, of course. I think any of Luke Weaver, Mark Leiter Jr., Jake Cousins, Tommy Canley, maybe even Louise Heel could be in this mix for saves. All right, but like, let's be real here. Clay Holmes is better than all of those dudes. No, he stinks, dude. Like, he doesn't. No, he's good. I understand.

We went through this, but, like, Clay Holmes is better than Luke Weaver. Get out of here with that. Jake Cousins has a better, I looked at this earlier, K-minus walk rate and Sierra, than Clay Holmes this season. So. In 33-hittings. Oh. I'm just saying, I was trying to look for, like, a dark horse candidate here,

and he was the one that popped up. There's nothing. I mean, Chris, I think Chris. I think Chris is right. Like, Clay Holmes wouldn't be closing for most teams in the majors, but that doesn't mean that the Yankees have an upgrade from Clay Holmes hidden somewhere in their bullpen. That part I do agree with. I don't really know where they go from here.

And I said that exact thing yesterday. It's just, you know, he leads the league in blown saves. It just, it is what it is. I mean, that is a factual statement. It's a move they had to make. I don't think that. they are suddenly, they will probably blow fewer saves moving forward, just because the amount of saves that Clay Holmes has blown relative to his actual

talent level and runs aloud is outrageous. But I don't, I'd be surprised if there was just one guy here. I still think their best bet would be heel if they wanted to go that route. I just have no idea if they want to go that route. It is a possibility. There was a tweet from Jack Curry who covers the Yankees for Yes Network, quote, when Boone was asked if Luis Heel or Clark Schmidt could be a late-ending bullpen option, he said, never say never.

Boone said one starter will need to go to the pen when everyone is back. And that's got to be heel, right? Like given... It makes too much sense. Yeah. Like, I understand not wanting to disrupt what's been in a fantastic season, but it just, if it were me making the decision, it would be, I would be trying to get Louise Heel in that. Well, you probably can't pick up heel.

So if there is one Yankees reliever to pick up, I'm trying to see who's been the eighth inning guy. It looks like Tommy Canley, right? Yeah. Not that. They've mixed and matched. They've used Luke Weaver in that role a lot this season two. Yeah, but more seventh inning recently.

Like, it probably won't be just one guy, but if you have to speculate on one guy, maybe Canley. Yeah. In deeper leagues, they'll say that with a lot of enthusiasm. he has him. In deeper leagues, I would add Jake Cousins. I think the numbers are pretty good

there for him. What do you guys do with Clay Holmes, if you have him? I would hang on to him in 12-team or deeper roto, but I think I would be willing to drop him anywhere else. It's the same as Bednar and Seawald and Kimbril. I mean, I'd probably

roster Holmes over Seawald and Kimbril at this point. Well, definitely Kimbril. I don't know about Seawald. I mean, Justin Martinez is not looking good. All right. Let's talk about Justin Steele, who was placed in the aisle with left elbow tendonitis, which will more than likely end his season. Royce Lewis made his first ever start at second base on Wednesday. Jose Miranda started at third with Carlos Santana at first.

Grayson Rodriguez threw a bullpen session on Wednesday, his first time throwing off a mound since he was diagnosed with a strained lat about a month ago. Kodai Senga threw a 25 pitch bullpen session on Wednesday, and there has been some talk that he could return the season as a reliever. That's not what they're planning to use him as, you know, in the future. It's just he doesn't have enough time to get built up. So that's a way that Senga could still contribute is potentially as a reliever this season. Jorge Lopez was placed in the aisle with a right groin train, which further ensures Porter

Hodge as the top saves option for the Cubs. Yeah, he did pitch. He saved the no-hitter. Yeah, he pitched the ninth inning of the no-hitter there. So, yeah, that was a good call by you, Scott. you ranked a bunch of relievers yesterday, and you had Porter Hodge very high on that list. You didn't know there was going to be an injury involved here,

but, you know, he's a nice to have the clarity. Yep. Heston Kirstad has cleared concussion protocol and is ramping up activities. Ryan Weathers tossed three scoreless innings in his first rehab start at Singaleigh on Tuesday, and Paul Blackburn will rejoin the Mets rotation early next week in Toronto.

Start, sit, or drop. We already spoke about Spencer Arrogation, Bauden Francis looked a little bit more human, still managed a quality start here up against the Phillies. He still had 16 whiffs on 89 pitches. Overall, a good start. He did allow some hard contact here. I don't think we're dropping him. So it's more of like a starter sit question for next week.

Up against the Mets. How do you guys feel about Bauden-Francis for next week? I would have to start Bauden-Francis at this point. Who did you say the matchup was? Home against the Mets. So that, I think, is going to be the last questionable one Because his matchups thereafter I believe he will

I believe he'll line up for two starts. Let me see if I'm right about this. Yeah, I think so I think his final three starts will be Texas and Tampa Bay in the same week, the second to last week, and then the final start will be Miami. So if he can get through that Mets start okay, then he should be smooth sailing.

after that, as Bowden Francis we're talking about. And I'd probably still start against the Mets. I mean, this was bad by the standards of he gave up as many hits as his previous four starts combined. But when that number six, it was still a pretty good start for Badden Francis. Yep. What about you, Darvish, who made his long-awaited return.

His first start since May 29th, he was not very good up against the Tigers, two and two-thirds innings, four hits, three runs, four strikeouts. He did get whiffs. He leaned on the slider. The slider was great. Only through 59% of his pitches for strikes. But now that he's off the IL, you might have to make a decision in your league.

Do I keep this guy on my bench? Do I just drop him? He does get the Mariners next week, so it's a good matchup. What do you guys think? Start, sit, or drop, you, Darvish? Sit. I'm probably not dropping him, but I'm certainly not starting him.

So sit is the other alternative. His velocity was mostly fine. Look, I mean, it's the Mariners. It's the Mariners, but it was only 63 pitches, and it was the Tigers this time. Yeah. Like, the Tigers aren't Mariners, but they're a pretty good matchup.

Yeah. Yeah, they've become kind of a mid-tier offense, but, and it was Darvish's, first start back and the velocity was fine, as you said. And it's the Mariners. So like I, I'm not saying you have to start you Darvish against the Mariners, but if his roster rate remains below 80%, he's almost certainly going to be in my sleeper pitchers for next week because.

You know what? Tell Janssen junk that it's the Mariners. Ike throws junk. What are you talking about? Did he pitch today? Did he get rocked? All three of the pitchers for the A's gave up four months or four runs or more. and only six strikeouts, which I'm just going to say

as a season low for the Mariners. It might be. I believe, so next week it's Seattle for Darvish, and I believe it would be the White Sox the following week. Pretty good. Even if you don't want to start him

against the Mariners, if it goes well, you'll absolutely want to start him against the White Sox. Hold Hugh Darvish. For sure. Pretty sure both of these names are just okay to drop,

but I'll ask anyway. Albert Suarez, I mean, that's baseball, Susan. last couple starts were great and then he gets the white socks and he gives up six earned runs. Yeah, and the difference is I think Spencer Aragetti is good. I never really thought Albert Suarez was good or at least it's been a long time since I thought he was good and I understand he had looked good recently since rejoining the rotation five starts. He had a 119 ERA, but I didn't actually think he was good. And so, okay, you roll the dice against the white socks because it was what the

sucks, but I think this is confirmation that Albert Suarez isn't actually good, and yeah, you can move on. By the way, just a memo to all the haters out there, the Mariners have had seven games with fewer than six strikeouts this season. So there you go. Take that, Chris. It's the lowest mark in baseball. What about Bobby Miller, who will always have that start, I think, two turns ago where he looked pretty good. And then at the Angels here, seven earned runs, three homers allowed.

He's still 55% rostered. I think that's an easy drop, right? I would agree. I was holding out hope, the faintest hope. So two starts ago, he went back to featuring his secondary arsenal heavily through the fastball just 31% of the time.

And oh, look, maybe Bobby Miller's back. Last start, fastball was back. up to 49% what do you do in bobby miller well this start the fastball was only 25%. So he did mix in all the secondaries which was the key to his success last year I think it didn't matter. He still got knocked around by the angels. So yeah, we can move on from Bobby Miller. Clearly out of the glob. Yeah.

But not in the good way. Go ahead. So you're you're saying there is a glob now, Chris. Yeah, I think the glob is squarely bad. Yeah. There's nothing square about a glob. Okay. As the nation's foremost expert in globology,

you two are just, you know, a couple of pupils. You're going to look me and America in the eye and say Carlos Rodon is not in a glob. I don't think he's in a glob. No, he's been very consistent recently. And like, let's think about what the glob is. The glob is this indistinguishable mass of pit. pitchers, or it was, I should say, this indistinguishable mass of pitchers after the true, reliable aces.

I see delineations after the aces. There are tiers beyond the ace tier. I would put Araggeti in a higher tier than Nick Povetta, for instance. When I was having trouble distinguishing between that range of starting pitchers last year, which is how I came to know them as the glob. So there may be some pitching phenomenon going on now, but I don't. I don't think it's a glob unless you disagree, unless you think it is just one indistinguishable mass again. I think we just have a different, a different definition of the glob then.

Well, maybe I didn't do a good enough job. Because for me, it's more, I think there are like 20 something pitchers I feel that I can trust. And then after that, it's just a bunch of dudes who they could have three good starts in a row and then completely wreck your ratios and undo all of that. and I feel like there's like 50 of those guys. I mean, George Kirby just did that a few starts ago. Yeah, but George Kirby has done that like twice this year.

Carlos Rodon has done it like seven times. He's done it seven times. I think there's a clear distinction between what George Kirby has done to your ratios and what Carlos Rodon has done. I mean, if you want to say there are a handful of volatile pitchers, sure. I think they're all volatile.

is my point. It kind of feels more that way since offense has been up. Yeah, I think it's since like June. Yeah, I mean, obviously, if offense goes up, some pitchers are going to suffer, but like...

It feels like a lot of pitchers have suffered. Well, Jack Flaherty's outside all of our top 25, I would assume, at least our top 20 rest of season. And he's... Does he feel like he's in this glob? He kind of feels like a midpoint. He hasn't had the blood.

low up starts necessarily, but he also hasn't had like a huge start. So I, yeah, I think he could go either way fairly easy. Yeah. I don't know. I don't want to, I don't want to dilute the glob by claiming there's a glob every year. I don't think there's a glob this year. I think, you know, it's just the nature of baseball, you're going to see some random bad starts from good pitchers from time to time.

But that, you can still distinguish them as good pitchers. Yeah. It's not, again, this indistinguishable mass. I think you and I just disagree on Carlos Rodon, I guess. Maybe, I mean. Look, what were the numbers? I wasn't on yesterday's show. He's having a really good second half.

It's like a low three Z-R-A and 11K per 9 or something like that. Last eight starts for Carlos Rodon, 318 ERA 108-WIP, 11.9K per 9. It's really good. Yeah, that's nice for him. For him? I don't trust it. That's basically what. I don't trust it.

I can't think of his name. The Cubs pitcher. That's basically his numbers on the year. It kind of feels like semantics here because I kind of agree with Chris. It feels like from SP 30 to 70, they're not really all that different. And there is a lot of volatility involved with those pitchers. But maybe it's not the same glob as it was last year. So Chris, if you want to take on a homework assignment and come up with your own

new version of the clob or whatever you would call it yeah i wrote about it for tomorrow's newsletter but i'm going to have to scrap that whole thing i'm going to have to scrap it the morning two days in a row now t m scott just a mason made the mistake of not trademarking it but not me there he is scott white the uh the man who made the glob or not not really not really made it got white copy right troll yeah it's yeah anywho let's take our final break and when we return we'll get back into baseball. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's get into the waiver wire options from Wednesday's action. And for the pitchers, McKenzie Gore was very clearly the best one available here. Some names that could be

out there in deeper leagues, do any of these matter? Griffin Canning pitched well against the Dodgers, six and two-thirds innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 98 pitches. Valenti Beyozo turned in a strong start up against the Nationals. Six shutout innings, only one strikeout there. And Jonathan Cannon pitched well at the Orioles. Five and two-thirds, one run, four strikeouts. If we are trying to project matchups for next week, Cannon gets the Guardians,

Bejo gets the Pirates and Nationals, and Canning is at the Twins. Do any of these matter in deeper leagues? I'm going to say no. Not really. I mean, it was a great start for Canning. He's had flashes in the past, but I'm not going to look at one random good start in September,

even against the Dodgers, and say, yes, Griffin Canning is somebody we should care about. Agreed. All right, let's get into the Waverwire hitters here, and starting with the outfielders, Taylor Ward. The guys, he's hot. He's hot, once again, three for four with his 21st home run. Last 38 games.

This has gone on for quite some time now. 293 batting average, seven homers, 20 RBI, and OPS over 800 during that time. He's 62% rostered. Jesse Winker is looking to pick things back up, one for three, with a grand slam over his last seven games. He's batting 3.91, two homers and seven RBI. And Brandon Marsh has quietly had a solid season. Three for three in this one, last 15 games, 326 batting average, three homers, two steals. very bad against lefties, does not play against them.

Brandon Marsh, he kind of defies all analytics. He strikes out 33% of the time. His zone contact is great. He doesn't swing and miss, and he doesn't chase pitches. I don't know how he has a 33% strikeout rate. It's very weird. I'm going to guess he just doesn't swing at all. Yeah, like maybe he's too passive, and then, you know,

it just gets two strikes. Yeah, I would guess he gets too deep in accounts too often, and that's the biggest issue. How would you guys rank Taylor Ward, Jesse Winker, and Brandon Marsh? Just like that, Ward Winker and Marsh. And Ward is actually on the list of players to pick up for the final three weeks. He has had this uncanny quality where he tends to be very hot at the start of the season and very hot at the end of the season and does a whole lot of nothing in the middle.

And it seems to be playing out again. I mean, four home runs in his last five games. That's not something we normally see from Taylor Ward except when he's going through one of those stretches. And I like the Angels matchups overall to close out the season. So I'm feeling pretty dumb for dropping him in the Scott White Dynasty League, which is a 24-teamor.

But I think some leagues much shallower than that word makes for not a bad streaming option. He is going to have one of the least impactful 25 homer seasons in fantasy baseball history, though. Because he's only got 59 runs and 62 RBI in 132 games, which is less than one combined per game. And even in this hot stretch, he has 36 combined in 38 games. So, yeah, which is weird because the top of that lineup is actually decent, at least with guys who can get on base. but I'm not sure what's going on there. Yeah, he bets toward the top of that lineup, doesn't he?

I think he's been hitting lead off for them. That would explain it then. Yeah. Would you guys take Taylor Ward over P. Kronstrom or Dylan Cruz? No. No. Would you take him over JJ Bladay?

They seem like similar players. Yeah, I have a slight preference for Bladay, but only a slight one. I think I have a slight preference for Ward, but only a slight one. I think I have a slight preference for Ward, but only a similar players. for Ward, but only a slight one. I will break the tie, and I will go with JJ Bladay. Which corner infielder do you like better between

these two? Carlos Santana has quietly had a very solid season. One for three with two walks and his 20th home run. He's homered in back-to-back games. And Matt Veerling had a big game here on Wednesday night. I believe it was two hits, a sock

and a shoe for for veiling. He's been good for quite some time as well. Who do you like more? I guess you could say neither. If you don't like these guys, what are man? Santana or Matt Veerling? I mean, Santana,

so he has home runs in back-to-back games, but prior to that, Carlos Santana had hit 204 since July 1st. So when most of the league was hot, heating up at the plate, Santana was ice cold. And look, the twins have pretty good matchups to close out the season. I just think the priority for Santana is pretty low. Yeah, I prefer him to Veerling, but that's, I don't think so much.

Yeah, I prefer Ward to both. Would you take Santana over any of Torkelson, Noel, or Manzardo? Those feel like the corner infielers we've talked about recently. Maybe over Noel, just because it seems like playing time is a bigger issue for him, but has it been steady recently? It was looking steady. Has that changed? That was the one thing.

I wasn't sure how Manzardo's. addition was impacting noel noel sat out the past two games okay but he started a lot before that yeah but mansard has only been there for three games yeah yeah those could very clearly be correlated yeah that's my concern and i don't well the other thing is i don't know that i have much confidence at all in minzardo at this point uh he's he's obviously been more productive since returning but that doesn't mean I'm totally won over to fantasy utility.

I would probably rank them Torkelson, Manzardo, Santana, Noel Veerling. Yeah, I think if you need someone to play right now, I'd probably put Torkelson at the top and then Santana.

But if you just want to shoot for upside, I think Manzardo's fine. Yeah, I think, yeah, Torkelson's clearly the top. Torkelson's clearly one. Yeah. One name in deeper five outfielder leagues, Tommy Fam has had an up and down season, but he now finds himself leading off for the Royals.

Pretty good offense, although there's no more Vinny past Quantino, unfortunately. Two for four with his eighth home run here. He's let off four games in a row for the Royals. 16% rostered, so again, deeper five out for the other leagues. You're just looking to get some at bats, maybe a little bit of power and speed. I think Tommy Fam is a fine option. I like him better than Brandon Marsh. Sure.

Okay. Let's talk about Zach Allen, who threw those six no-hills. hit innings and then he was pulled due to his pitch count. He got up to 100 pitches, but he threw those six no hit innings, four walks, eight strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 100 pitches. He did throw more curve balls and changeups in this one and both were good. And I think that's a good sign for him because really the biggest problems for Gallon this year, those are his two best pitches last season. Both of them have just regressed.

They have not been as good. The whiff rates are down on both. the quality of contact is a little bit worse on each of those pitches as well. You know, the walks have been a problem for it. You know, just all around, it's been a down season here for Zach Allen. But this is probably the best we've seen him in a while, I would say.

Yeah, I can't really argue with that. I will point out that he still walked four. And in 13 starts since returning from the IL, he has 4.2 walks per 9, which is a problem. Yep. But, yeah, if the curveball and change up, if this was a sign of a turnaround for those two pitches, it's going to mean better days ahead for Zach Gallen. And I still have them as top 20 pitch of rest of season.

So hopefully, hopefully he builds off this. All right. Let's get into some of the leftovers and some pitchers who had great starts here on Wednesday. Christopher Sanchez at the Blue J. Seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. Seth Lugo was great. great up against the Guardian. Seven innings, one run, four strikeouts.

He has delivered a seven inning quality start in three of his last four outings. Sunny Gray was awesome at the Brewers. Seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts there. Last two starts have been very good for Sunny Gray. Nathan Avaldi turned in a strong outing up against the Yankees. Seven innings, two runs, six strikeouts. And George Kirby bounced back a quality start at the A's. Six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts for him.

Chris, anything that stood out here. here for Kirby of Valdi, Sunny Gray, Seth Lugo, and Christopher Sanchez. I think, you know, Sanchez has had his ups and downs this season, but I think overall, he's about as what you see is what you get as any pitcher in baseball. Like his three, what is it, 47 season long ERA, 345, 126 whip. Like, I think that's probably just what Christopher Sanchez is. And it's a solid pitcher. And I don't, you know,

But there have been those ups and downs, but I don't know how much I care about the peaks and valleys. I think that is what he is. Whereas, like, Seth Lugo, I've been pretty skeptical of for most of the season. And, you know, lately that has looked pretty good. But there have still been very good starts in there, including the last two. I think the ups and downs are also just part of it with Seth Lugo, but that's probably more of a, he's a mediocre pitcher and more like a four ERA guy

which is basically what he's been since the start of July so yeah that's where I'm at on Lugo it's been frustrating just the experience of having Sanchez though maybe it's because I only have him in head to head leagues

that's exactly what I was thinking yeah and so I just always I regain faith him and then he gives me a bunch of crummy starts and so I lose faith in him and that's when he gives me throws the seven inning gems and uh he's not he's not good enough consistently enough to just remain a fixture in the lineup so I'm having to play this streaming game with him and it's just is so annoying he's been he's been the most frustrating pitcher this year I think some hitting leftovers Kyle swarber stayed hot two for three with his 30 second home run last two games he's

got seven hits, four homers, five runs, seven RBI. It was also his 13th leadoff home run of the season, which ties an MLB record previously held by Alfonso Soriano. Well, I guess he still holds it, unless Kyle's Worber breaks it. Gunner Henderson looks locked in once again, three for four with his 35th home run over his last four games. He's got two homers and two steals. Cedric Mullins has been hitting well last 24 games, batting 297 with three home runs, seven steals, and OPS over 850. Elie Dela Cruz, a solid game in that route of the Astros, 3 for 4 with 3 runs, 2 RBI, and his 60 second steel.

Juan Soto, 3 for 3 with a walk, and his 38th home run. And Wyatt Langford, very clearly heard me say that he was dropable, and he's making me eat my words, because he's turned it up lately. 3 for 4 with a double, a walk, 3 runs, 2 RBI, dominated the Yankees in that series. Last 18 games, 308 batting average, four homers, 18 RBI, one steal here for

Wyatt Langford. Anything to add here? Some pretty interesting performances. Langford, Soto, Ellie, Mullins, Gunner Henderson, and Kyle Schwerber. Maybe I was on to something by continuing to rank Wyatt Langford ahead of Dylan Cruz. Except I didn't, because you guys

bullied me out of it. The lesson here, Scott, don't fall for the bullies. It's, it's, appeasement never works. We're just going to keep bullying you. Yeah, okay. Fair enough.

It's a coin flip who's better the rest of the way. And I had them probably three spots apart the one way, and now they're like three spots apart the other way. So they're essentially the same, I think, in terms of talent and likelihood of contributing positively for your fantasy team the rest of the way. The one thing with both is they're both batting. at the top of the order now. Lankford has been hitting second,

the last couple of games at least, right? Yeah, the last two games. And with Siger out, I would think that's going to continue down the stretch. So that's, that helps Wyatt Lankford close whatever gap crews has had as a, you know,

is he, is he batting lead off for the nationals? I think he has, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, that closes that gap. I will say this has nothing to the fantasy baseball. It's just the way my brain works. For some reason, when we talk, when I thought about Dylan Cruz, I never thought that

Cruz and Cruz and Cruz are all the same name. Like for some reason in my head, I never said it the same like O'Neill Cruz and Dylan Cruz. Like we had the confusion earlier on in the podcast about that. it's only now that I'm realizing oh yeah that is only now that is a was it a not an an antonym I don't know it's just some kind of nym

homophone a homophone yeah yeah that's that's that's all you don't need to respond I think we need to be maybe a little bit more clear moving forward with first names and you know it's you know it's Cruz like a like a crew neck shirt type thing and you know obviously it's hard to pick up over audio and you have Tom Cruise So if he ever comes up, that just makes it even more confusing.

Right. That's a completely different spelling. Yeah. And what's crazy is when I was describing Dylan Cruz's name earlier, I would say it's like you have multiple groups of people who are manning a cruise. But then I realized that would be confusing because it's for throwing an extra kind of cruise. And that would be cruises. Right. Cruises.

You have all the different crews for the different cruises. Yeah, you would have the crew of a cruise. Yeah. Right. Right. By the way, I got a bonus news item here. Matt Chapman and the Giants have agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension. Wow.

So that's a good change right there. Takes out the two years that were remaining on his current deal. So it's not like on top of the remaining years. It's, uh, yeah. Did they have some kind of opt out or something? I think he had an opt out each of the name. next three years with like a $5 million buyout or something. It's gone so well with him with the Giants that I think we're all happy to hear that.

Yeah. It's been a great season for Chapman, 247 batting average, 22 homers, 90 run scored, 13 steals and a 778 OPS. Yeah. It's so interesting that everyone else's steals on the Giants have come down this year under Bob Melvin, except for Matt Chapman. Very weird. He's just had a weird season because it's also like,

the 90 runs, he's batting almost exclusively fourth and fifth. And yet he's scoring way more runs than he's driving in. It's all weird. Everything about Matt Chapman's production so far has been weird. But it's been a terrific bounce back season. The defense has been excellent. And I'm really happy to see it. He's long been one of my favorite players.

Yep. All right. Good for Matt Chapman there. Yes, six years, $151 million, staying with the, Giants. Some bullpen updates for the Phillies. Carlos Estevez walked one but struck out two for his 24th save. Jeff Hoffman worked a perfect eighth inning in that game. For the Marlins, Calvin Foshae entered with the bases loaded, no outs in the eighth inning, a two-run lead. He gave up a walk and a double. He let three runs in. He took his second blown save. For the Braves, Riesel Iglesiasias,

walked one, but struck out two for his 30th save. For the Royals, Lucas Ersig, back in the ninth inning, like nothing ever happened. He struck out one, picked up his ninth save. I still think he's probably the most likely to get saves, I guess, moving forward. But it's been weird usage, I guess. Yeah, well, yeah. And he had been struggling, obviously. So hopefully this gets him back on track.

I had given some thought to picking up Hunter Harvey again in those very deep leagues where saves are scarce. He's currently still on the IL, but should be back soon. But there's, yeah, I would still bet on Erseg being the guy rest of season. For the Rangers, Kirby Yates entered with two outs in the ninth, a four-run lead. Two runners on. He got the final out for his 26th save. For the D-backs, Justin Martinez got the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk and two hits.

Has been given up some runs lately, so that's a situation to watch. And for the Tigers in extra eight. innings. Jason Foley, I believe it was the bottom of the 10th inning. Yep. And he gave up a hit. The Manfred Man came into score, which was Jackson Merrill. And Jason Foley gets tagged with his fifth loss of the season. To stream or not to stream on Thursday. Go for it. They walked Sandra Bogart, or no, they walked Luis Arias to get to Fernando Tatis. Like, I get that you want to have the force outs there and Luis Raias hasn't struck out in like 96 plate appearances in a row or something. But, um, yeah, Fernando Tatis is not a player I'd want to face in that situation.

That, so didn't love that decision by the Padres there. Definitely has a little bit of the Diamondbacks. Galaxy tigers. Tigers. Geez. Yeah. Okay. Definitely has some Galaxy brain, uh, right there. walking a rise to get to Fernando Tutsis. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, some... All right, Cody Bradford up against the Angels. That one's pretty good. Martine Perez faces the Tigers.

I think those are the only two for me, yeah. Yeah, Jake Irvin's been bad lately, but it's a good matchup at the Pirates, so I don't know. That's really not such a good matchup anymore. They're kind of like the Tigers. They've gained a lot of ground in the run scored standings. All right, so I guess we'll go with Cody Bradford

and Martin Perez on Thursday. on Friday we get Frankie Montas who faces the Rockies in Milwaukee DJ Hers is at the Pirates Luis Ortiz faces the Nationals Shane Bosz is at the Orioles Zebby Matthews at the Royals but got destroyed his last time out

and Matthew Boyd has been pitching well but he's at the Dodgers Yeah I I could see Ortiz being okay I could see DJ Hers being okay I could see Frankie Montas being okay I'm not particularly excited about any of these guys. And there's no way you can start Samuel Aldegari after Spencer

Arrogati just got destroyed. Because their name sounds similar. I was like, where does he go with that? Yeah, I think Monash... Just let me make my dumb jokes, you know? But, you know, sometimes they're not dumb jokes. Sometimes they're so smart, they just go over my head and I have no idea what's going on. That almost never happens. Yeah, I think Montas against the Rockies is probably my favorite. And then DJ hers at the Pirates. Yeah, damning with faint praise, but I agree. Sure. Scott will choose not to answer to stream or not to stream.

We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, especially the cats while they're eating. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.