Fantasy Baseball Today - Drey Jameson's Debut, Week 25 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (9/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Drey Jameson looked great in his debut against the Padres (2:05)! ... Lance McCullers was dominant against the A's (8:10). ... The White Sox clobbered five home runs (11:27). ... Let's put our conspiracy theory hats on (16:00)! ... Shane O Mac is back (19:15)! ... MJ Melendez, Josh Bell, Kevin Gausman and Miles Mikolas are all slowing down (21:00). ... News (29:53): Shane Baz was shut down for the remainder of the season. ... Let's jump into the Week 25 schedule and two-start pitchers (35:15)! ... Which sleeper hitters can you target (47:15)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (52:35). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Tough Fantasy Baseball today on September 16th. Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White today on the show. Drey Jamison looked pretty, pretty good in his debut. Shane O. Mac is back. Week 25 sleepers, two-star pitchers, and much more. Before we get into it, Scottie, listening to the Kokomo Friday theme song, which obviously we love, we're jamming out,

I wonder how many years we'll have to go in the future, before we think, who the heck was Connor Joe? That is the downside, yes. Yes, you make it too topical, then it's going to be, it's going to sound dated very soon. Even though it's fun and it's wonderful in the moment. Oh, look at this. Like, it's just so, so well suited for our show.

But yeah, already it's like, Connor, Joe will never be a fantasy entity again. And I feel pretty comfortable saying that. He couldn't get it done in Colorado. That's it. Hey, you know, I actually sent out a few trade offers in the Scott White Dynasty League earlier in the season. And thankfully, they were turned down because, frankly, I do agree with you. I don't have much faith in our boy, Conor Joe.

But for the real OGs out there, a couple of years from now, we'll be looking back. And you'll remember, hopefully, who Connor Joe is. Let's get into it. Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my goodness gracious, Scotty. You are up. All right, I will take the low-hanging fruit, the olive garden breadstick. I will take Drey Jameson, who yes, much like his

rookie fellow rookie teammate, Ryan Nelson, Drey Jameson had a brilliant seven-inning debut against the Padres. Two hits allowed, no runs, struck out five, eight swinging strikes on 90 pitches. I mean, that's not an impressive number, and five strikeouts and seven innings. I guess is not particularly impressive either. But two hitting a team over seven innings, a playoff-bound team over seven in your major league debut obviously is.

And you can find some highlights, Ray Jameson. You know, he looks pretty impressive in the highlights. I will say that. And he's a guy with some prospect standing. So from that perspective, it's not surprising, but from the perspective of him having a 631 ERA in the minors, this year, it very much is. 631 ERA, 149 whip,

right out of strikeout per inning. But remember, that was also the issue for Ryan Nelson, who then went out and dominated the Dodgers in his second start of the year. So I'm kind of getting the impression, and I mentioned this last time, Alec Thomas, you know, he put up good power numbers in the Diamondbacks minor league system.

I'm kind of getting the impression that it's going to be hard to evaluate diamondbacks prospects based on minor league numbers just because both double a and triple a in their system very hitter friendly of course triple a Reno is is in a league that's hitter friendly as a whole and so I was actually I was trying to find Park Factor numbers for Reno itself and all I could find on baseball America was in relation to other venues in that same league and it didn't really stand out as especially hitter-friendly.

And I was looking at last year's data anyway. So I don't know, you know, when you're trying to find obscure stats like minor league park factors, you know, part of the challenge is just knowing where to find it. And if anyone knows of a better source than this article, Baseball America, publishes once a year, then, you know, feel free to point it out to me. I always, Chris is great at finding stuff like that. just places to find obscure pieces of data like that. But what I'm trying to say is Reno doesn't,

by what I can look up, Reno doesn't stand out that way, and yet we're seeing this happen twice in a row now, pitchers who weren't supposed to struggle in the Dimebyback system, who very much did, and then come up to the majors and look great. Now, having said all that, Drey Jameson's next start is against the Dodgers. Is Lightning going to strike twice,

like it did for Ryan Nelson dominating the Padres and then the Dodgers can Dre Jameson perform the same feat. With everything on the line, I'm going to bet against it. So I'm not sure there's much practical application for him at this point in the season. But just from the perspective of scouting for next year, Drea Jameson could put himself in a position to be somebody we think about taking latent drafts.

So, Scotty, I found an article here, from millb.com, that's myelb.com, where you can find all your minor league stats and lots of fun things for prospects. And according to this article, they have a chart with park factors. This is based on last year. So 2021 in the PCL. Exactly. Which could be, you know, it could be different this year. Yeah, it could be. Definitely could be. But according to them, Reno ranked second in terms of park factors in the PCL. And that is out of, it looks like 18 different. ballparks. So, I mean, that's pretty significant and their fourth and home run park factors. So again, we would have to find that data for 2022, but at least based on last year, Reno was a

pretty hitter-friendly environment. So I don't know how much stock we can put into the numbers for specifically the pitchers when we're evaluating them. Like, if there's inflated ERAs and whips for guys like Drey Jamison and Ryan Nelson, I just don't know how much stock we can put into that. And I I guess the other side, which you also mentioned, power numbers for guys like Alec Thomas and Corbyn Carroll. So I don't want to completely just dismiss it and sweep it under the rug and say, oh, these guys are going to be great now. But, you know, I think you kind of just take it with a bit of a grain of salt.

Small sample size so far, but through three starts combined for Jay Jameson and Ryan Nelson, they look pretty good. So especially if you have either of these guys in Dynasty leagues that, you know, obviously you're excited at what you've seen through the very small sample size, three starts. What was that first park factor number you gave for for Reno? Because you said the second one was home runs. They're fourth. That's what I have too.

It's just in terms of runs, they're second among the PCL ballparks last season. That's interesting. So baseball America has different stats for last year because they have them fourth and runs in the PCL as well. Either, I guess, fourth out of 18 ballparks. That would still rank pretty highly. But yeah, what I'm looking at is second. Anyway, the point is that maybe these guys are actually pretty good. Ryan Nelson and Drew Jameson, Drey Jameson, rather.

I agree. I don't think you're picking up either one. But, you know, let's see how they finish out the season. Dre Jameson, 3% rostered. Just in terms of the pitch mix here, he threw his fastball 44% for scene fastball. 44% his sinker was 28%. So really kind of just leaning on those two fastball so far. 17% slider, 10% change up. And he did average 96 miles per hour on his fastball.

But he did look very good. So shout out to Dre Jameson in his debut. Oh my goodness gracious for me, Scottie, is Lance McCullors, who we have not really talked about much since returning from the IL. He put up a season high 11 strikeouts against the Oakland A's. He went six innings, two runs, those 11 strikeouts through four walks. He had 16 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. His 11 strikeouts are his most in a start since July 29th of 2018. So really great one. here for McCullors and through six starts. He's got a 2.34 ERA over a strikeout per inning. The walks are just a huge issue.

He's got 4.9 walks per nine for McCullors so far. Do you feel comfortable starting him at Tampa Bay next week? They are 21st in Wobah against right-handed pitching. I wouldn't say it's a high priority. Yeah, the walks do concern me. And I mean, this was clearly the best McCullors has looked so far, which is nice to see. see, but a one-star week, a pretty good matchup there against the race, but still, I think,

I think most highly competitive teams at this stage of the season are probably going to be better to be able to do better than the colors. If, you know, if I could get them on my sleeper pitchers week, if I could get them on my pitcher, gosh, I can't talk today. If I could get them on my sleeper pitchers list for this week, he would probably rank fifth at best. So I wanted to say it's a, you can do it, but I want to say it's the highest priority to start McCullors. And he is not on your sleeper pitchers list because he, I assume is two rostered at this point. Yeah, two rostered.

He's 89% rostered. He's 66% started, which, you know, kind of makes sense. There's probably some shallower format, some 10 team leagues in there. 12 team points leagues where you only start five pitchers where Lance McCullors again might not be a priority for you, but this was a great start for him. And, you know, if he can finish out the season strong and maybe show us something in the postseason, maybe we're excited about drafting Lance McCullors once again in 2023. We mentioned Dre Jameson earlier. Let's talk about another prospect, a hitter. Jordan Groschens. He followed up his three for three outing on Wednesday with his first career

homer on Thursday. And it wasn't like a moonshot or anything like that. No kind of crazy. But I thought it was pretty impressive. I watched his home run. It was an inside pitch. It was really in there. And he pulled his hands in. I was really impressed. And, you know, he was able to pull it down the line.

So just kind of impressed by just, I guess, his hitting mechanics, his hitting skill to get that one out. He's only 7% rostered. I don't think he's a high priority either, Scott. But Jordan Grosh in six games next week does have Cubs and Nationals pitching. So I don't know. Maybe if you play in a deeper league and you're really desperate for me, middle infielder, maybe? I don't know. Yeah, the Marlins matchups are pretty good, but this was the fourth home run Grosians has hit all year and it, you know, it's, it's not like it

was a strong demonstration of power, as you pointed out. He just kind of hit it in the right spot. So I can't imagine any league where I'd be looking to use them right now. All right. Oh my goodness gracious offense from Thursday, the White Sox. They hit five home runs up against the Cleveland Guardians. I believe they were facing a pitcher in his Major League debut. Poor guy, I'm sorry. But the point here is that they hit five home runs.

Andrew Vaughn hit his 16th. Gavin Sheets hit his 13th. Yasmani Grandal hit his ninth. Yohan Moncada hit his 10th home run. And in eight games since returning, he's betting 389 with three homers, 91 mile per hour average exit velocity, and a 52% fly ball rate.

So really small sample, but Moncada is kind of doing some things right now. And then Elvis Andrews, who hit his 14th home run, that is now the second most in his career. I don't know what's going on. Turn him back the clocks. If you lost out, if you lost any kind of middle infielder to injury

and you just kind of scooped up Elvis Andrews, he has been amazing. 25 games with the White Sox. 308 batting average, six homers, three steals. We'll get to him a little bit later on with the sleeper hitters. Scott, I want to ask you about Moncada. I read off the numbers.

He's hitting the ball hard. He's putting it in the air. 54% rostered. he's got six games next week. Any love for Yoam O'Mankada next week? The matchups are decent. He's got a three-game series against the Tigers. It's basically been two games.

He had that five-hit game in Oakland, the launching pad, and then he's had this four-hit game on Thursday. In between, he went two for 17. And correct me if I'm wrong, but this home run he hit on Thursday was a 420-foot home run. He hit it 100-5.

miles per hour. Now, 104 miles per hour is, you know, it's hard contact. Is it 420 foot contact? I mean, that, I'm sure somebody could tell me somebody who's a little more, more statistically minded could tell me if that's normal. But that, that seems like I don't feel like most 400, I feel like most 420 foot homeruns are hit harder than that, right? Like, something going on.

So what are you, what are you getting at, Scott? The fly ball rate was higher in September, the highest it's been all year. It could just be environmental conditions. The ball stored in the humidor this year. It's just this is the most optimal environment for those right now. But I don't know. It makes me, it just makes me wonder, that's all. And about Moncada specifically, I just feel like it's a lot, but I,

still feel like it's too little too late. So I was watching the Diamondbacks game later on, and to see Dre Jameson, I wanted to see what he was doing. Emmanuel Rivera hit a home run. It was 98 miles per hour off the bat. And they showed the stat cast data for it. And the league average on home runs a season is 104 miles per hour, according to the graphic that they showed. So Moncada hitting this home run 104 off the bat, I'm sure average home run distance is not 420. Obviously, not every home run is created equal. I understand that, but... Yeah, it's not purely a measure of exit velocity

how far the home run goes. Of course, you have trajectory and all of that, but I don't know. I only bothered to look into it because with Moncada's performance at Oakland, you know, it seemed like it was definitely inflated by the environment there. And did he had two home runs that day?

Let me see if I can look at it. I have my podcast notes. Like I've just been working off the same document all year. So I have all my podcast notes going back to the start of April. Yeah. How do you manage that? I don't know. I'm interested in seeing how many characters it ends up being at the end of the year.

Oh my gosh. So Moncada, this was on September 8th. Moncada went five for five, two home runs in Oakland, both hit 100 miles per hour. Yeah. I'm just saying, like, he may be excelling partly because this is the most favorable,

the hitting environment has been all season. And that could change very quickly because we're days away from the fall. Not that, you know, not that climate response to the calendar, exactly, but it could change very suddenly. Scott,

do you have a hat available, like near you at all? Just a hat? cap or anything like that. Actually, I do. All right, let's put that hat on. Let's get that on you. It's got to mess up my hair, though. This is, your hair will look fine, Scott. This is, Scott is now wearing his conspiracy theory hat. We're going to take a little trip down, conspiracy theory lane, because I saw someone chirping about this on Twitter. I forgot who it was, so I apologize. Aaron Judge obviously is chasing a home run record. It's not the home run record.

Some people consider it to be the home run record. I don't myself. It is the American League home run record for what it's worth. Obviously, he's chasing Roger Marr, 61 home runs. Would it really surprise anybody if MLB was like, hey, let's mix in some of those juice balls and hopefully Aaron Judge can break this record and we can make a big deal about it and get some eyes on baseball would not surprise me one bit, Scott? Like I was saying the other day, people lose faith in institutions. The conspiracy theories run rampant. So I think. I think we're at that point with the institution of MLB. Now, I don't know that I subscribe to that myself.

I don't. I think that requires a level of intention that they generally don't demonstrate and foresight that they don't generally demonstrate. And so I don't know that that's it. But I have thought this. And I was tweeting about the other day, and it seemed like kind of a novel thought. We've learned in the past five years or so just how much of a difference, very small deviations in the ball, the way the ball is manufactured can make, like how tightly it's wound, the firmness of the core, etc.

Just very small, imperceptible differences can make a huge difference in how home run. are hit, how frequently they're hit. So, you know, you look back at 1961, you got Roger Maris hitting 61, you got Mickey Mantle hitting 60, and like home runs were basically up across the league. So I'm just saying, like, for most of the history,

the manufacturing of the balls has been done by hand. There had to be a ton of variability in how they were put together. Like, I just, it just makes me question how legitimate any home run record is, you know, because, like, so much just depends on the equipment. And I haven't done enough research into the history of baseball to know if there would have been any motives to, I don't know, have a bouncier ball back then, but obviously. No, I don't, I don't think, I don't think anybody knew. Like, this seems like a recent, I don't even know that they had the equipment to test that, you know? Right. Yeah. But it would not surprise. me if they do it now because we've seen them kind of, you know,

change the ball around in different seasons and different months within seasons. So I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me. Do I personally believe that? Probably not. And I don't want to discount what Judge is doing because obviously he's been awesome, but it just would not surprise me one bit. Anyway, let's get back to actual baseball. Shane O'Mack is back.

Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk. Here comes the money. Oh, Scott. I've been waiting to hear that song once again. And he looked pretty good. Five shutout innings with five strikeouts against the Blue Jays.

14 swinging strikes on 69 pitches. That is a 20% swinging strike rate in this one. Velocity was up, seemed to be healthy, amped up in this one. Slider was up 2.4 miles per hour. The fastball was up one mile per hour. And obviously, I'm not going to read out his season long numbers because he's been awesome regardless.

I think he's in line for two starts next week, Scott. So I assume it's all systems go with Shane McClanahan. Yeah. Yeah, and this is pretty impressive. I mean, we knew he wasn't going to go throw 90 pitches. You know, first start back, no rehab assignment, but he got 369, and as he pointed out, the velocity was up on everything. So he looked great.

And he had two-star next week. See what those matchups are. Not that it really matters. It might. The Astros and Blue Jays. It's not great. Look, you're starting. Yeah, I mean, the matches aren't great,

but a shame McClain had with two starts. Right, yes, you're starting. After looking perfectly fine in its return. So, yeah, they don't matter. How about this? Oh, I hope it lines up this way. It probably won't. But Verlander pitches Friday.

Can we get Shane O. Mack versus Verlander next week? I don't think it's going to be enough time in between, but man, that would be fun. You know, whoever wins gets the Sy Young, let's just kind of put it on the table there. Shane O'Mack versus Justin Verlander. Dylan Cs has something to say about that as well. But anyway, Shane O'Mack looked great.

Get him back in your lineups if he isn't already. Some players that are scuffling to the finish line, Scott. I've got two hitters and two pitchers here. We'll start off with MJ Melendez, who, man, 04 with two strikeouts here on Thursday. Over his last 30 games, he is hitting 158 with one homer, a 504 OPS. And, you know, we've been getting questions about, can I drop this star player? Can I drop this star player? MJ Melendez is not a star,

but he is a starting worthy catcher just because the position is quite bad. But at this point, I think you could probably drop someone like this. The question is, who would you add? So would you be willing to drop Melendez for someone like Cal Raleigh or Danny Jansen or Eric Haas? Those are really the only catchers that are popping off right now. No, I mean, that's the thing.

Like, you don't have to go far down at the catcher, position to get to a really desperate place. Cow Raleigh, I guess, is the most interesting of him, of them. He doesn't have great matchups next week.

No, actually, he does. I'm sorry. I was looking at the wrong team. No, the Mariners do have the second best matchups next week. So I could see that, I guess, especially if you're talking about a categories league. In a points league, I think Raleigh strikes out so much that I want it. bother. But in a categories league, I could see starting him over Melendez, given how late we are in

the season. So, you know, you don't have to worry about, oh, I'm never going to get Melendez back when he turns things around. I'm obviously not a concern right now. So I can see doing that, sure. Would you do it for Yasmani Grundal, who, I think he returned in, was it late August? I looked up his numbers. They weren't good. I think, I think this was like his second home run since returning. Right. Yeah. He's just not doing much either.

Yeah. I mean, there's no reason to switch from Melendez to him. Right. All right. So if you do want to go with a streamer, Cal Raleigh, potentially someone for next week,

Josh Bell has been quite bad with the San Diego Padres. In 38 games, he is betting 204 with three home runs and the ground balls are way up, once again, 55% since joining the Padres. Strikeout rate is also up

compared to where it was earlier in the season. would you drop Josh Bell in shallower leagues, Scott, just for the final couple of weeks. You know, Yandy Diaz is someone who popped out, for me, who hit his ninth home run on Thursday. Obviously, like, not a lot of power or anything, but if you're playing a points league, Yandy Diaz has last 30 games,

hitting 365, three homers, 11 doubles, just crushing the ball, and he's 77% rostered. Would you make that swap? Josh Bell for Yandy Diaz. 77% and I presume that includes most, of the points leagues because that is better format.

Let me make that swap. Wow. I mean, the Padres do have the better matchups between the two teams next week. I mean, I could go either way with that. I've just continued to start Bell. I haven't been a couple points leagues,

and I've just kind of kept running them out there. But I don't have alternatives as good as young. D. Diaz, I would say. So, you could do it or you cannot do it. You want me to give you a definitive answer, I'm sure. I would do it.

Sure, the bench bell for Diaz in a points league. I would do it. Would you do it for Joey Meneses? Nah. Nationals have really tough matchups next week. All right. A couple of pitchers who are scuffling recently, Kevin Gosman gives up another five earned runs

over seven innings pitch against Tampa Bay. this is now his fifth start with five or more runs this season and over his last seven starts Gosman has a 502 ERA well over a strikeout per number per inning rather his underlying numbers are still very good during this time like they have been for most of the season

the only thing that isn't good is his babbip which continues to be a massive problem it's up over 350 during the seven start stretch it's 365 on the season which I'll pull it up. I think that's probably still the league leader among qualified pitchers. It's 100 points higher than last year.

It's so weird to figure out. I know he plays in Toronto now and the artificial turf. Maybe when he gives up hard hits, it's just harder to turn into outs there. But would you continue to start Gosman? Next week, he's at the Philadelphia Phillies. Yeah, I would.

It seems like a pretty fluky thing. And you look at the ERA estimators for Gosman, and I know the ERA itself is plenty respectable. 345. Well, it's a little worse than I thought, actually. 345 ERA, but you look at the ERA estimators, you know, 279 X-FIP, 241 FIP. Even the XERA, at least coming into this start, was lower than last year. It's been going on all year, so that does give me pause.

But sometimes fluke things happen like this with BABIP and a thing. The pitcher just, he just has bad luck all year. You know what? I think it really might be an artificial turf thing in Rogers Center because he has a 4.67 ERA with a 144 whip at home this year. That is Kevin Gossman, 245 ERA, 108 whip on the road. So I'm going to have to do more research on that in the offseason, but I know Gossman, you know, even with the Giants,

he gives up a lot of hard contact. It's just he gets so many whiffs that he's able to kind of wiggle around it. But, you know, maybe that hard contact just doesn't work out as well in Toronto. Considering he's on the road next week at the Phillies, yes, I'm going to continue to start him here down the stretch. The last one is Miles Michaelis, who did you have anything else got on Gosman? Well, his ground ball rates really low for what it's worth. It's below 40%. So I think he gives up a lot of line drives too.

He has this year. Yeah. So that, you know, you would think he was getting burned if he was getting burned by the turf. you'd think you'd be giving up a lot of ground balls, right? I would. But that's, yeah, that's a curious case for sure. Miles Michaelis did turn in a quality start, but it was like, yeah, one of those not so great quality starts,

six innings, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts, and over his last five starts, he is, he has a 4.20 ERA. So, you know, kind of a league average pitcher during that span. He is at the Padres next week, Scott, who, over the last, 14 days are 28th and weighted on base average. So they're a pretty good matchup. What do you think about Michaelis at the Padres? It's an okay start. I would say it's not a must start. Kind of in the same territory of Lance McCullors, I would say. Where, no, I'd like to have a better option than a one-star, Miles Michaelis against the Padres.

But if I feel like that's the best I could do, you know, it's not the end of the world. I'm not going to pick up some scrub to start over him. All right. Well, that is. Miles Michaelis, and again at the poddages next week, and their offense is just absolutely scuffling right now. Before we hit the break, just want to let you know the schedule for next week. Obviously, we're only doing four podcasts per week

throughout the month of September. So next week's live YouTube schedule will be Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday night. So no Wednesday night next week. I'm going to see some rassling, but you will have a podcast in your audio feed Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, and Friday morning of next week.

Let's hit the break, and we'll get to the news and notes here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes, and this might be our lightest news and notes segment of the season, which frankly isn't an issue. Shane Boz will not return the season. He was shut down back in July due to a right elbow sprain. Scott, what's your worryometer for Shane Boz from a dynasty context? Well, anytime there's something going on with the elbow ligament, I'm fearful that Tommy John is just around the corner. Of course, I got that very wrong with Zach Allen this year. But Shane Boz is a guy that we've never seen take on a lot of innings. So my concern level is medium, I would say.

Obviously, he's still a huge dynasty asset. saying sell him for nickels on the dollar, but I would have liked to see him get through his rookie season healthy, and clearly he hasn't. And what's kept him sidelined is the sort of thing that potentially points to a continued issues. Stop me if you've heard this before. Luis Robert was out of the lineup on Thursday with left hand and wrist discomfort. And I keep getting questions about whether people can drop Luis Robert Scott with, you know, two and a half, a little over two and a half weeks left. What do you think about that?

I wouldn't want to do that. Now, I always wonder when people bring this up, like, what does your roster look like in terms of, like, how many bench spots do you have? Because I would think it's worth holding on Louise Robert just so it doesn't come back to bite you, you know? Like, I don't... Early in the season, you really need...

You can't have enough bench spots early in the season because you're trying to cast a wide net and get all those early breakouts off the waiver wire. But at this point in the season, like using that bench spot defensively, I think that's pretty high priority. And obviously, Luis Robert is somebody who could do a lot of damage. I understand the frustration and not feeling like,

I mean, he's not playing right now, so you can't start him. But I'd rather hold on to him. It's a good point that you bring up about playing defense. this time of year because I had a buddy tell me about how he dropped Jeffrey Springs last week after his three-enning outing, you know, where he got piggybacked by Yanni Chorinos and then his opponent in a two-week daily lineup matchup

picked him up and used him this week when he had that awesome star he got six shutout innings, whatever it was. So, you know, it's kind of rough. You do have to play a bit of defense at this point. It's just even when Luis Robert has been in the lineup, he clearly isn't himself because he's battling this, injury. Let's say he's your worst outfielder, Scott. Would you drop him for

Oscar Gonzalez? If I needed to start an outfielder, if Oscar Gonzalez was clearly the best choice for me to start next week and dropping Louise Robert was the only viable way to get him on my roster, yeah, I guess I'd do that, but I think

I'm talking to a very small sliver of people who meet all those criteria. Alejandro Kirk was out of the lineup Thursday due to a or hip, Reese Hoskins, also out of the lineup after getting hit by a pitch on his hand on Wednesday. X-rays were negative for that. David Peterson will be moved to the Mets bullpen within a few days as expected. Sounds like Max Scherzer will be back early next week. Luis Arise, not in the lineup Thursday due to hamstring tightness. Twins outfielder Trevor Larnick had his rehab assignment move to AAA. He had core muscle surgery back in June. Red's pitcher Justin Dunn was placed on the IL with right shoulder

tightness, and we do have one prospect update. There are some rumblings that Rockies prospect, Ezekiel Tovar, who has been rehabbing, coming back from an injury, could finish the season in the major leagues with the Colorado Rockies, Scott. So I know there's not much use to stashing players at this point, but I don't know. What do you think? He's a pretty big prospect, Ezekiel Tovar. Oh, he's probably...

It's like a top. 20 fantasy prospect wherever right I mean he's arguably the biggest prospect riser this year he went from being not a top 100 guy at the start of the year to as you said maybe top top 20 I think I've maybe even seen him top 15 on some prospect list right now so it's it's definitely interesting and he'd be jumping straight from double a only 21 years old to be a very aggressive move from the Rockies to call him up here's the thing if he's not up by the end of next week he doesn't get a single game at course field this year right So there's no point in picking him up outside of a dynasty keeper context. I mean, dynasty leagues, I'm sure he's already rostered, but maybe a league where you keep a dozen players or more. It might make sense to pick him up for that purpose, but I just, I don't see us getting use out of him this year. If you just have an absolute dead roster spot that you are not using, I wouldn't mind

stashing him this weekend just in case he gets the call. and then he has those seven games in Corus Field next week. And then if he doesn't get the call for next week, all right, whatever, you could just drop them again, but it's something to think about. Again, if you just have a completely dead roster spot. Let's jump into week 25. Week 25 already, huh?

Only two and a half weeks left. The schedule for next week, we have 16 teams with six games. We have 12 teams with seven games. Two teams with eight games, the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers. Thankfully, no teams with five games next week. Start or sit these fringe Two Start pitchers Scott I have a lot of names on the list

And let's start it's a big list this week A lot of A lot of quality options too If you don't have a lot of two start pitchers In your lineup next week That's a problem Let's start off with our guy Uncle Chuck

Charlie Morton Going up against the Nationals at home And then the Phillies on the road I will point out that we got an email From a listener named Lewis Who let us know that Charlie Morton has been been great the season at home. I think it's a two four or five ERA and terrible on the road.

So I think it's like a four and a half ERA, something like that. So yeah, one start at home, one start on the road next week. What do we do? You probably start him. I'm not saying it's a must, but you probably, probably do it. As we went over yesterday, I was saying, maybe he's a matchups play the rest of the season. Then we looked at his matchups and it's like, okay, well, if he is a matchup's play, you're just going to keep starting him. know what, I do want to quickly pull up his splits because those are two teams that he probably has faced earlier in the season. So I'm just going to talk about things while I pull that up quickly.

Charlie Morton, that's so far the season. All right, let's see. Against the nationals, he has made one start, seven innings, two runs. All right, pretty good there. And against the Phillies, he has made four starts. He's got a 4.15 ERA. So, you know what? I just kind of feel like, again, the splits, he'll probably have a great start.

against the Nationals and then maybe not so good against the Phillies. So do with that, which you will. I'm definitely starting in a Points League. You know, Roto, if you have better options, maybe not. But Scott says yes. Merle Kelly at the Dodgers and home against the Giants. I would say probably yes on him too. I know those are, you don't like starting anybody

against the Dodgers and Merrill Kelly's been kind of shaky this year. I pointed out after his last start that he's been allowing more home runs lately. Again, with this issue of home runs being up in September. But he's still going deep into games, you know? He's still, like, he hasn't gotten throttled. He's just been a little shaky.

And with the kind of track record, with the kind of season he's put together, I don't think he's somebody could seriously consider sitting with the two-star week. How about this? Merrill Kelly has made four starts against each of the Dodgers and Giants this year. and against the Dodgers he has an 8.50 ERA

and against the Giants 1.27. So again, do with that what you will. Jekyll and Hyde matchups for Merrill Kelly. Drew Rasmussen is at home for two against the Astros and the Blue Jays. So, you know, some tough offenses there. Yeah, Lane, yes on him also. Luis, go ahead, Scott.

It's just the quality of the pitcher is too high. I know the matchups are tough, but again, with his many, with as many solid two-start options. I mean, I got 25 two-star pitchers who I'm recommending on some level, even if it's just in a points league. So you're, you know,

you kind of have to look at your opponent. How many starts are they getting this week? So I mean, it's a head-to-head league, obviously. And that might factor into your thinking as well. But I'm not going to let the matchups disoad me from a pitcher who I think is good and is in line for two starts. Luis Garcia of the Astros quietly has an ERA over 4.04 on the season. When did that happen?

It feels like he's pitched well, but maybe he slowed up a little bit. He's at Tampa Bay and at the Orioles next week. Yeah, so he has good matchups. If he didn't, I might be a little iffy on him, but matchups are good enough that I'll run Luis Garcia out there. Cal Quantrell has pitched quite well here in the second half. He is home against the twins and then at the Texas. Rangers. Probably just points

leagues for him. Adam Wainwright is at the Padres and at the Dodgers. Same thing. Points League's only. He's been giving up a lot of hits lately. His whip now, I believe it's around 1.25. That's up two-tenths

of a point from the past two years. So he's and mostly it's because of all the hits he's given up lately, but even so, it makes him, you know, I think it's turned what's, I think his season's turning out to be kind of a disappointment, actually. He had 17 wins last year. I don't know what he's at now, but it's much less than 17.

He has 11 wins, a 3.29 ERA, and a 1.24 whip with, you know, well under a strikeout per inning. He has 137 strikeouts and 178 in his pitch. It's not great. Not a great season. Kyle Gibson is home against the Blue Jays and the Braves. next week? No. I agree. Rwanzi Contreras at the Yankees and home against the Cubs.

No. Mike Clevenger, home against the Cardinals at the Rockies. No. I agree. Brian Bayo at the Reds and at the Yankees. No. I will say of the four pitchers we mentioned there,

if you're desperate, I probably would like Brian Bayo the most. Save it, Frank. Save it for 14. in favor is the brave, all right? Don't spoil it. Two start pitchers to add and stream next week, Scott. You have two, four, six names on this list.

Who are they? Well, Frank, if you must ask. They are Nicola Dolo. Of course, of course. He is the pitcher who I cannot stop talking about down the stretch this year's matchups this week, Red Sox and Brewers. Pretty favorable there,

especially the Brewers. They're bad against lefties. Ross Stripling. at Philadelphia, at Tampa Bay, and the matchups are so-so, but obviously Ross Stripling has been very reliable lately six-dray quality starts two-star week.

I think you go ahead with him. Drew Smiley. We talked about all these guys yesterday. Match-ups are ridiculously good. Marlins and pirates. He's only 35% rostered still for as much as we've been talking about him. And if you did miss the stat yesterday,

Drew Smiley in his past 8%. starts to 23 ERA. So very excited to start him. Patrick Sandoval, at the Rangers, at the Twins. Okay, so-so matchups, but he's making two starts and sometimes he's pretty good. So we'll have him on here as a sleeper pitcher. Jose Suarez gets the Mariners and twins.

You know, we're getting pretty deep on the list here now. That might just be a, that might be more of a deeper league play, especially like a points league play. and Dean Kramer's same thing. Tigers, really good matchup. Astros, not so much. However, they're both in Baltimore where Dean Kramer, like every fly ball pitcher,

tends to be at his best. Scott, excuse me if you said this. Forgive me if you said this, but you have two Angels pitchers on here as two-star pitchers. They have, even if they have seven games next week with a six-man rotation, can they have two-star pitchers?

Sandoval and who else? Jose Suarez. Oh, Jose Suarez. Hmm. Okay, so let me double check that. I only started thinking about it because I have Patrick Sandoval in a two-week matchup

and I would love for him to have two more starts next week. I just don't know if it's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. I think good catch. Let me double check, see how the rotation's looking.

Yeah, they're going six-man like they always do. Yeah, that's probably not going to happen. I don't know who got left out here. Okay, so I think Suarez I think Suarez will have the two-star guy and not Sandoval Ah, my heart Sorry about that, Frank.

He got me hyped for a second. Yeah, I'm gonna take him out. I don't, I don't, I'm not as excited about him with one start against the Rangers. Geez. So that's going to add Adrian Sampson as a two-start sleeper pitcher. He has those same matchups

that Drew Smiley does, Marlins and Pirates. I mean, those... My gosh, I do not... I do not trust him at all because he doesn't miss any bats. But those are two really favorable matchups. He's only 5% rostered. I mean, that's as true of a sleeper

as you're going to find. Yeah, you really cannot get better than that in a two-start week. Maybe tigers and A, something like that. Yeah, the... You mean in terms of the matchups, not in terms of the pitcher. Oh, yeah.

Look, if Adrian Samson... Adrian Samson is not a good pitcher. He has a 3.48 ERA with a 127 whip, right? So those two things do not line up, but these matchups are so good, Scott. I would be willing to play him in a points league. And if you're chasing volume in a categories league, I'm going for it. Those matchups are just amazing. I wanted to make him my fortune favors the brave pick,

which is, of course, not really a recommendation. Mm-hmm. because I don't really want to recommend him, but he rounds out the list here. I got to have a 10th pitcher, and so it's going to be Adrian Sampson. All right, which brings us to the aforementioned. Fortune favors the brave.

I had a name. Well, I didn't get the one-star options. Oh, right. What am I doing? Well, do we do this first. Yeah, yeah, we'll do the two-star pair. I think we usually do this first. I don't know.

Okay, whatever. Anyway, fortune favors the brave, the brave, as Scott mentioned, you've listened to us. You know, this is probably someone you should not be playing. but desperate times call for desperate measures. It's crunch time. So if you are chasing volume,

maybe you're down in a two-week head-to-head matchup and you just need all the help you can get in the world. Scott, who will be your... I can't pick Adrian Samson now because I've already used him as just a normal sleeper. You know, it feels kind of dirty to put Brian Beow in this conversation because I feel like he's a better pitcher than the ones we normally recommend for this segment.

It feels disrespectful to him. I mean, the talent is there, but has he had a start that's been that useful in fantasy yet? I think maybe... He's been getting better, but... Yeah. But, you know, still... There are still issues going on there, so I think it's fine. If you...

I'll pick Dylan Bundy. He has the Royals and Angels. Yeah, those are pretty good matchups. The one I was going to give out was Tyler Wells. He has the Tigers, but then the Astros. So, you know, one really good matchup, one terrible matchup. And he's been... But again, they're...

this year. They're both in Baltimore. Yeah. Yeah. So that definitely could help him. And, you know, well, the cherry on top is Brian Payah. We'll give you him as well. If you're desperate, but you probably should not play those players. Single start streamers for next week, Scott, who you got? Okay. So a few pretty good ones here. Trevor Rogers gets the Nationals. And I'm back on board with him, especially with a matchup that good. John Gray gets the Guardians. And he looked good in his return short start because he didn't have a have assignment, but I trust him with that matchup. And Johnny Quedo gets the Tigers. I say that as if it's the last one. It's the second to last one. Marcus Stroman at Miami.

Love it. Great start there. Let's move over to the sleeper hitters. The best hitter matchups include the Giants who have seven games next week, including four in Coorsfield. The Mariners, the Dodgers, the Yankees, and the Cubs. The worst hitter matchups, the A's,

the Nationals, the Phillies, Cardinals, and the Rays. With that being said, Scott, your sleeper hitters for next week. I don't love these sleeper hitters, if I'm being honest, but it's the best we have. So, Jack Peterson, I think, is the big matchups winner. I see names on here, Scott, that you would never recommend. Exactly. Jack Peterson is the big matchups winner.

The Giants have the best ones, as you said, then four games at Coors Field, and only one lefty on the schedule. So expect Jack Peterson to play a lot and take advantage of those matchups. Elvis Andrews, of course, has been hot. White Sucks matchups, or at least decent three games against the Tigers.

Brian Hayes. He's been hot lately, and especially good against left-handers. The pirates have three of those on the schedule. You mean the Cubs? Because he's on the Pirates. Yeah. The Pirates have three lefties on the schedule.

I heard it as you were saying, like, the Pirates have three lefties pitching. And I'm like, wait, that doesn't make sense. But he is going against Cubs pitchers. So, you know, the matchups are not bad. Frickie Brian Hayes, Isaiah Connor Folefa. Let's go. Hey, Yankees have the Force Best matchups, and he's been as hot as Isaiah Kiner for Leffa can be.

We talked about Will Myers yesterday. He gets a three-game series at Coresfield. And it's been playing first base consistently, hitting pretty well. So I do have Oscar Gonzalez and Gunner Henderson on this list just because I think they're under-rastered. Their matchups are whatever, but they're not bad enough to steer me away from them.

And, you know, they meet the roster threshold. of qualifying for this list. So they're on here too. I'll throw one more name at you. Carlos Santana. Hasn't done a lot. It's basically been home run or nothing. But he has like three home runs in the past week.

And he gets a series at Oakland. The matchups are good. The Mariners have the second best matchups of any team this week. And he's at that launching pad. So hopefully he can hit a couple home runs in that series and make him a worthwhile start, a guy who's available in 90% of leagues. Again, this is not a terribly exciting list.

Hopefully, if you're in your league's championship game or whatever, you have pretty good hitters on your roster already. Man, can you tell that there's two weeks left in the baseball season? We're recommending Elvis Andrus every day here on the show. And now we're talking about Oakland Coliseum like it's Cores Field. What is going on? I feel like we need to pull up the weather for next week in Oakland to see whether it's going to be hot or not, right? It's true.

I probably should. Yeah. And he just didn't do that. Maybe I'll do that, you know, while you're talking about something else. Scott, any love for the Punisher? Aristides Aquino, he went two for four with his ninth home run on Thursday. His last 14 games now, he's hitting 354, 5 homers, 21% strikeout rate, hitting the ball hard, putting the ball in the air.

He's got six games next week. Two of those matchups are against Corbyn Burns and Woodruff. So, eh. But widely available if you're playing five outfielder leagues. what do you think about a keynote? Uh, mm. And not,

not particularly excited. Have you watched the show, The Punisher? No. Why not? Why not? It's really good. Well, did it really end?

Didn't Netflix just kind of dump all those comic book shows in the garbage after, after Disney got the rights to them all? It's so tragic, too. I think, Daredevil is going to make a comeback, which was also very good.

I think Punisher was even better. I'm not going to invest in a show that doesn't really end. Does it end? I don't think so. I think there was only two seasons, but they were really good, Scott. I highly recommend it. All right, so I've got the weather pulled up for Oakland next week. I don't even know which series it is.

Is it the first part of the week or the second part of the week? So the first part of the week is not that hot, but Friday, Saturday, Sunday, in Oakland, California, 80 degrees, 87, 86. That'll work. Yeah, but it's not that part of the week. It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday where it's rainy highs in the 70s. I mean, I don't know what's normal in Oakland is the same. No, I mean, I think that's pretty normal this time of year, but I wish we were getting that later part of the week with that Oakland weather. Alas, this is, you know, again, this point of the year. This is the stuff that we need to dive into, right? We're looking at the weather in Oakland. Alas. Did I just say alas twice in like 30 seconds? Why did I do that? Let's wrap up

with some leftovers here from Thursday's action, some pitching standouts. Lance Lynn makes it seven straight outings allowing two earned runs or fewer. He was at the Guardian, six in a third, two runs allowed, six strikeouts. And during that span, he has a 1.43 ERA, 51 strikeouts to just five walks and a 17% swinging strike rate. He's been amazing. Like clockwork, everybody benches Pablo Lopez, and he goes out and has a great start against the Phillies. Six and two-thirds, two runs aloud, five strikeouts in this one, gets his ERA back below four.

3.99 on the season. Carlos Carrasco put up a season high, 11 strikeouts against the Pirates. He goes six innings, one run, 11 strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes. It's got anything you'd like to add on those three. Lance Lynn, Pablo Lopez, and Carlos Carrasco. Just so frustrated with Pablo Lopez all year. Like, he's single-handedly ruined one of my teams. And four of his last five starts have been good,

but the one that wasn't was so disastrous that, yeah, I couldn't start him against the Phillies. And he bounces back with a nice start. So that's just great. Indeed it is. Speaking of Pablo, do you start or sit next week at home against the Cubs,

which typically is a good matchup. How about this got so weird that I saw this? Pavel Lopez's home ERA this year, 4.82 in Marlins Park. Yeah. Seems weird. It's a run higher

than his overall ERA, right? Yep. So I don't know that I, I mean, just one awful start could skew that. You know, lean yes on that, I guess. but I'd rather not have to be in a position where I have to think about it all.

I'd rather my pitching just be so good that whatever, Pablo Lopez can just stay out of the way. But I lean, yes, I guess. How about Carlos Carrasco? He is at the Brewers next week, and their offense in general has not been good over the past two weeks, but they are great against righties,

fourth and weighted on base average against right-handed pitching. Who did you say? The Brewers. Carlos Carrasco at the Brewers. Yeah, probably start him. Okay. Let's move over to some hitting leftovers. Vlad Jr. went one for four with his eighth steel.

When did this happen? All eight steals have come since July 27th. Vlad Jr. is tied for eighth most in Major League Baseball during that time. That's weird. It's very weird. But it just adds a little bit of a wrinkle. obviously we talked a lot about this recently where there's going to be more steals than ever next year so maybe ultimately it doesn't matter that much but if he's not that ever but more than in a long time

yeah if he's a 280 hitter with 35 home runs and you know six or seven steals that matters i mean you know that factors into his his roto output so for years it helped freddie freeman so i don't know maybe yeah i i don't know that it will anymore next year though i i i think six steals will be basically irrelevant, given the number of players that are going to have 15-20 plus. That's my guess. And I don't think Vladimir Guerrero is going to be one that has 15-20 plus. Francisco Lindor went one for five with his 24th homer. Yordaun Alvarez starting to pick it back up. He has three straight multi-hit games. That's good, getting hot at the right time. Salvador Perez went two-for-four with his 21st homer. Better late than never, Scott.

43 games since returning from the IL. Salvador Perez is hitting 291 with 10 homers, 34 RBI, 92.8 mile per hour average exit velocity, 45% fly ball rate, and that is a 34 homer, 118 RBI pace over 150 games. Yeah, it's more like it.

Yeah, where was that? Salvi. We had done that from the beginning. Yeah. Then I'd be patting myself on the back right now, but he didn't. Carl's Correa went one for two with two walks and his 21st homer, just having a fantastic September, looking to opt out and maybe cash in another big contract, but in the month he's hitting 373, six homers, a 1233 OPS for Carl's Correa.

Ketel Marte hit his 11th home run, which ended a 36-game homerless drought for Ketel Marte. I just wanted to take a little bit of time, Scott, to take a look at Marte and figure out what went wrong this season. You know, you look at his career, and it's kind of this roller coaster. One year, he looks like an MVP candidate. He was dreadful in the shortened season. He bounced back last year.

He looked pretty good once again. And then, you know, we had confidence coming into this year, and, you know, he's taking another big step back. 4-11 slug, 161 ISO. His home run to fly ball ratio basically, no, it's not basically. It's more than chopped in half from last year to this year. So what have you seen?

What went wrong with Concelle Marte this year? You know, that's a good question. I, you look at it even now in like max exit velocity, 96th percentile. Like, when he gets into one, he really gets into one. And so that, that makes me think he should be a pretty good source of power.

I mean, even the average exit velocity is not bad. It's 68th percentile. It is down compared to last year, though, quite a bit. But yeah, it is. But it's good enough that you wouldn't expect him to have only 11 home runs and that extended drought. But, you know, apart from 2019 when he hit the 32 home runs, and 2019 was, of course, the year that everybody set a career high in home runs because of the juice ball, there isn't really a lot of evidence that he's a home run hitter of any sort, apart from that one season.

Yes, he had 14 and 90 games last year, which is a pretty good pay. but not like, oh, this guy's a slugger, you know? So I just, I don't know. I don't know. I'm tempted to say I'm out on Cotel Marte, but like second base is pretty dreadful position. Yeah. And you still, you see that stat cast page and you're like, yes,

you know, this looks like a pretty talented player. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe Chris is going to talk us all into him to getting next year. Probably that's exactly what I'm thinking right now. The call to the bullpen for the Marlins. They had a two-run lead. Tanner Scott pitched in the eighth.

Dylan Floro then pitched in the ninth. He gave up a run, but did pick up his fifth save of the season. That's now two saves in a row for Dylan Floreau. He's 11% rostered. For the Astros, Ryan Presley was unavailable. Raphael Montero picked up his 13th save for the twins. I guess Jorge Lopez was unavailable. He did pitch on Wednesday, but

it's not like he was Roy Lopez hasn't had a save in September and he's been he's been bad since coming over the twins yeah not good Yoan Duran struck out two for his seventh save in that twins game and then for the Reds

Alexis Diaz gave up a run but picked up his seventh save he is 40% rostered uh Scott let's say you need saves we're gonna rank these four Alexis Diaz Dylan Floro and I had the other two on my mind

and now they're gone. Jose LeClerc. Jose LeClerc and Pete Fairbanks. Those are the four. Fairbanks, LeClerc, Floro, Alexis Dias. So this was actually Diaz's first save of September as well, not that that means he's, you know, he could get one tomorrow, obviously.

It's just how saves work. The reds are bad. All right. So even though he probably has the most tenuous grasp on the role, I think I'm going to put Fairbanks first, and then LeClerc and then Diaz and then Floro. All right, to stream or not to stream, Friday, Hermann Marquez at the Cubs,

Marcus Troman versus the Rockies, Matt Manning versus the White Sox, Mitch Keller at the Mets, and Bailey Ober making his return at the Guardians. Let's go with Marcus Strowman and maybe Hermann Marquez, but not if you're looking to preserve VRA and Whip. On Saturday, Jose Cantana versus the Reds, Hunter Green in his return at the Cardinals, Trevor Rogers at the Nationals, Eduardo Rodriguez versus the White Sox, and John Gray at the Rays. So I've got to go Trevor Rogers at the Nationals, which I guess means he's going to have two starts against the Nationals in a row.

generally that's an advantage for the hitters. But whatever. I think Trevor Rogers is good again. And I'm also fine with John Gray. On Sunday, 1-800 Glenn Otto at Tampa Bay, Bailey Falter at the Braves, Kyle Bradish at the Blue Jays,

Jays, Javier Assad versus the Rockies, Marco Gonzalez at the Angels and Ryan Nelson versus the Padres. Not loving any of these. Yeah, me neither. If I had to start one, it'd probably be Ryan Nelson, actually, even though I've told everyone not to start him, not to bother with them. Yeah, I agree. If you're really desperate in a deeper league, Assad against the Rockies in Chicago, I guess. I mean, Marco Gonzalez that the Angels could

turn out okay too. Yeah. But I'm not, I don't necessarily want to sign up for that. Sign my name next to that. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.