Fantasy Baseball Today - Drop E-Rod or Matt Chapman? Prospect Updates & Week 12 Sleepers! (6/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 11, 2021

Scott's Prospect Report- https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-prospects-report-jarred-kelenic-still-worth-stashing-but-how-many-other-prospects-are/ Where did Scott's couches go!? Is it time to drop Eduardo Rodriguez (4:20)? Let's highlight a bunch of Marlins! ... Aroldis Chapman got destroyed on Thursday and his spin rates were way down (14:50). ... News and Notes (17:27)! Nick Madrigal went to the 60-day IL, Byron Buxton is rehabbing, and more. ... We have prospect updates (22:50)! ... Which two-start pitchers should you target in Week 12 (28:03)? What about sleeper hitters? ... Dallas Keuchel had a bunch of whiffs on Thursday (36:45). ... Should Zack Wheeler be ranked ahead of Aaron Nola (39:47)? ... Is it time to drop Matt Chapman (41:40)? ... Luis Castillo has now been okay for two straight starts (44:33)! ... These are the top waiver options from Thursday (46:13)? ... Is there anything wrong with Betts, Freeman, or Bellinger (49:49)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, streamers, and your APR questions. ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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

Happy Kokomo Friday and welcome into fantasy baseball today presented by Lining Cougals. More on their delicious beverages later on in the podcast. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White, who single-handedly got rid of the couches that you normally see behind him here on YouTube. Scott, how'd you do it, man? A lot of brute force. No, you know, you wouldn't remember Frank because you weren't here yet, but two years ago, We were doing a podcast like we are now. It wasn't being broadcast live on YouTube,

but it was being clipped to put on YouTube later. And in the middle of me talking, these guys start disassembling my living room behind me because they arrived to install windows and they came earlier than expected. So I was still in the middle of the podcast. My living room starts coming undone behind me. So I guess I invited those guys back

and this time they made off with my furniture. But no, no. We're getting new, new sofas. It's a sofa and a love seat for the living room. And we've made room for them. Very nice. I've seen the comments. You know, it being broadcast live on YouTube, there's comments and people comment live.

I've seen your comments, your snide remarks. It's quite a bit of snoot there in the comments calling our living room. The living space my family has been. built together saying I'm broadcasting from my grandparents basement or something because they don't look like the look of my sofa that I'll admit, you know, it looks probably like it's 40 years old. And so it's not. It might be 20 years old, but it's old and now it's gone. And so, you know, when you get a new house, you know, you pretty much empty your bank account and you have all this new space to fill. And it's like, you're going to buy furniture right away. You're, you're

you'd think you're going to die because your bank accounts and you're emptied, right? So, you know, we took my wife's grandmother's sofa and we put it back there. Little did I know it would be the backdrop for every podcast and I'd have to hear about it every show. But, you know, the government keeps throwing money at us. So we decided to get new sofas. So hopefully, hopefully this appeals to the taste of the commenters out there. And they can stop giving me a hard time for the way my living, room works. I love it. I love it. Scottie is fired up. Looks. Scottie is fired up. I mentioned two weeks

ago Scott was on here, ranting and raving about Will Craig not stepping on first base, who has been optioned back to the minor leagues, by the way. I don't know if that factored in the decision, but I love it, man. Scotty's rants every Friday. We're going to do it right here. Scott, have you ever seen the movie Grandma's Boy? No. It's like your favorite movie, that, right? It is one of my favorite movies. And, you know, people are starting to understand. There's Holly Shore in it? He's, he might as well should have been based on the cast of that movie. Nick Swartson plays a huge role and I love him as well. But yeah, I've seen a bunch of like cheesy comedies in my life. There's a scene in that movie where people come in, the guy wasn't paying his rent.

He didn't know. Long story short, people just start packing up his stuff behind him. And he's like, who are you guys? And that's what I was just reminded of. I thought it was a pretty similar situation. That is your homework, not for this weekend, because I'm just throwing a. at you now. I don't know. By the end of June, let's get Scott White to watch Grandma's Boy. Today on the podcast, Week 12 Sleepers, two-star pitchers, random big whiff games from random starting pitchers, two bigger names you might be able to drop. I think we're going to talk about one here at the top. What's wrong with Mookiee Betts and Freddie Freeman, your APR questions and much more. Let's jump right in, Scott.

Oh my goodness gracious. All right, you are oh my goodness gracious standout from Thursday. So I feel like my, oh my goodness gracious picks have leaned more toward the negative lately, and that's what I'm doing again here with Eduardo Rodriguez. Another really bad start for Eduardo Rodriguez. He gave up six earned runs in four and two-thirds innings. That's now four earned runs or more and five of his past six starts. It's taken his ERA from 382 to 603.

which is bad and hopefully you gave up on starting him a while ago because that's you know he's he's hanging he's been hanging a crooked number on you

for a while now and I don't I don't I don't really get what's going on with him I don't I'm not saying

you know obviously he needs to be out of your lineup does he need to be dropped I think it's certainly in the discussion in like a 12 team league you're shallower, but you look at all the expected stats across the board.

Did they make them out not to just be better than he's been? They make them out to be really good. His ex-fip, this is updated after this start, is 344. His XERA, this is actually from, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. There it is. Okay, his XERA is 357. Even his FIPP is 3.6.

despite a higher than usual home run rate, even the FIP, which takes into account home run rate, estimates ERA, including home run rate versus the XFIP, which does fly ball rate. You know, the FIP is 370, which is certainly respectable. So I don't know. It's weird. It's weird. It doesn't totally add up to me. I don't see how you can trust Eduardo Rodriguez until he puts together a couple decent starts in a row, probably.

is what it would take at this point. But the walk rate is like the lowest he's ever had. The strikeout rate is about the highest he's ever had. So I don't know. It's the strange case of Eduardo Rodriguez. It is very strange. For all the reasons that you highlighted, the underlying numbers are very good for him on the season.

His last eight starts, he has a 7.58 ERA. That is a long stretch of starts to be that bad. So he is one of the players I wanted to ask Scott. Can we drop him? And I'm going to throw a bunch of names your way, some of the most added starting pitchers on CBS. And you tell me, yes or no,

can you drop Eduardo Rodriguez for these pitchers? First one up is Terrick Scoobel. Yes. Austin Gomber. You can. You can. I don't think that's a must. Tucker Davidson.

Yeah. I wouldn't do that. I think at the long read, I think from today forward, My honest opinion is Rodriguez is going to be better than Tucker Davidson. But, I mean, if Davidson has one more start like the three he's had, I think we'll see a mass pickup event of him. And I think, like the thing is, if you drop Eduardo Rodriguez now, again, thinking like 12 teams are shallow, who's picking him up?

Who's picking him up? Probably nobody. Not immediately. And his next star comes at the Brave, so don't like that either. You could. You could drop Eduardo Rodriguez for Davidson if you wanted to be aggressive and, you know, kind of beat the rush to Davidson if he does keep this going for another turn or two. How about for Logan Gilbert? I don't feel much urgency to do that.

I know Logan Gilbert's last start. There were some encouraging signs. He had a lot of swinging strikes, but it's not quite enough, especially since the results from that start weren't very good. Luis Severino, who is now 72% rostered and has started his rehab assignment for the Yankees. Ooh, yeah. Luis Severino probably needs to be picked up everywhere. So if Eduardo Rodriguez is your path to making that happen, then totally fine with that.

The last one I'm going to ask you about is one of those random starting pitchers who had a ton of whiffs on Thursday. Mike Minor, he was at the Oakland A's seven innings, one run, one walk, eight strikeouts, a great performance. 19 swinging strikes on 106 pitches over his last six starts for Mike Miner. 3.32 ERA, 44 strikeouts, over 38 innings pitched. He is 58% rostered, and he faces the Tigers next week.

All of a sudden, I am pretty interested in Mike Miner. Scott, would you make that swap? Eduardo Rodriguez from Minor. I think it's fine. I think it's fine. Yeah, again, if I was going to put money on who had the better numbers from the rest of season from today.

I would probably say what Rodriguez, but, you know, they're pretty close in ranking to me, for me. Minor and Rodriguez, certainly minor is more startable for this upcoming week. So I'd be fine with that. Miner is among my 10 sleeper pitchers for the upcoming week. And as you mentioned, he's on a really nice run right now. Oh, my goodness gracious for me, I'm just going to highlight an entire team. And that team is the Miami Marlins, who won 114 against the Rockies.

They had 16 hits, and we'll start actually on the pitching side of things. Trevor Rogers, seven innings, two runs, one walk, eight strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Eight of those came on the changeup, seven on the four-scene fastball. That's three straight quality starts for Trevor Rogers. He has allowed three earned runs or less. In every start this season, a 2.02 ERA and a 1.06 whip. to this point. I think we do have to worry about him being limited at some point,

potentially being shut down. I don't think that we're anywhere close to that point, but maybe in August it's something we have to start to worry about. So continue to ride out with Trevor Rogers, but as we approach that time, I think we will talk more and more about potentially selling off on Trevor Rogers. Let's look at the offensive side of things here. 16 hits, 11 run scored for the Marlins in this game.

Jazz Chisholm, the Jazz Man. Went two for four with his eighth home run of the season. Jorge Alfaro went three, four, five with a run scored and an RBI. He is 24% rostered. Scott, all of a sudden, we have a bunch of catchers on the waiver wire that are actually playing pretty well. So how would you rank these four? Al Farrow, Eric Haas, Max Stasi, and William Contreras. Let's say if you're playing a one-catcher league.

Look, one-catcher league, I would probably go, I would sell out all. almost entirely for the short term with this group. Eric Haas, I don't have a lot of faith in him because he's a 28-year-old, basically career minor leaguer, who hit 244 over his minor league career. He has a big strike at right now. But he did show a lot of power, and he is getting playing time even in the outfield

in addition to catcher. So I think, you know, if it is a two-catcher league and you have the freedom to kind of just ride the hot hand, I think he's my favor for right now. If you're asking me to commit to one for the rest of the season, I actually think William Contreras is who I'd go with. Any concern over when Travis Darno returns, you still think Contreras is going to be the everyday catcher?

No, but we're a long ways off from that. Yeah, I believe Darno is on the 60-day I-L. Don't know when he's eligible to return, but it's not anytime soon. Let me look at Stassie here real quick, because I know he's been hot. since coming off the aisle. He was gone for so long. And he's one of those players

who seemed like he broke out in 2020 as much as that, as much weight as that seemed to have. I'm being sarcastic there. Yeah. Stassie's been great, man. I picked him up in a two-catcher league, a 15-team two-catcher league.

Stassie was available. I picked him up, I think, last week, and I've been just reaping all these rewards. So he had big power last year. He's shown some upside. but he has to stay healthy. He's dealt with so many injuries in his career. I do like Sassy quite a bit.

If you do playing two catcher leagues, he might be available in yours. The last name I wanted to mention here, Stalling Marte went four for five with his fifth home run of the season. Mind you, he missed about a month and a half with, I forget what the injury, I think it was an oblique injury.

And since returning from the IL, he is batting 419 in 12 games. And on the season, he has a career high 11.7% walk rate. Whenever we would talk about players who excel in Roto versus head-to-head points and the biggest difference is there, Starling Marte has always stood out because he never walks this much. I don't know that he's going to keep this up for the rest of the season, but Scott, as long as he is walking a near 12% walk rate, he's going to be great in points league. He's averaging 3.9 fantasy

points per game, which is fourth best among outfielders this season. Yeah, it's pretty wild. I mean, frankly, he's hitting so well and still running plenty and still hitting for power. I mean, he's kind of never done all of those things in the same season, right? Had the 20 to 25 Homer Power and the 30 steel,

the 30 stolen bases and the high batting average. He's never done it all at once in the same season. He's kind of done two of the three at a time. But right now he's doing all. of it and then the walk rate on top of it. So it's yeah, I mean he looks like he looks like the stud outfielder he's pretty much always been. It's just kind of a different mix right now. And he is older at this point. He's 32 years old. If I'm reading his spot track page correctly, he is in a contract years. So maybe some added motivation there for stalling

Marte to get the final contract of his career. He has been great. Hopefully he can keep this walk right up. The sticky stuff. We've got to talk about the sticky stuff because why not? And of course it involves my New York Yankees, those cheaters, those scoundrels. A roll of Chapman was crushed on Thursday in the ninth inning. He allowed a game tying two-run home run to Josh Donaldson. And when I say crushed, let me look up how far this home run was. This, it was a mammoth home run by Josh Donaldson. Then not only that, that tied the game. And then two batters later, Nelson Cruz hits a walk-off two-run home run. What I noticed, was that the fastball velocity was down 2.3 miles per hour.

The fastball spin rate was down 129 RPM. The slider spin rate was down 184 RPM. So how's that for controversy, Scott? That is controversial. That is controversial. Yeah, no, I mean, I had the same thoughts you did. The spin rate being down so much on both those pitches. It was interesting that the velocity was also down over two.

miles per hour on the fastball. But hard to make much of it after just one outing. Obviously, Eroltus Chapin has a long track record of dominance before any of this spider grip.

Is that what it's called spider grip? Spider-Tack? Is that what it's called? Spider-Tac? I don't remember what it's called. Yeah, Spider-Tac. Spider-Tac. Okay. Before any of that even really came into the scene. so

I don't know we'll see what we'll see what happens to Chapman from here but it raises the old eyebrow the old eyebrow we've got our eyes on you

our oldest Chapman the home run he allowed to Josh Donaldson actually I thought it was further than this but 438 feet Nelson Cruz 457 feet

and a very welcome Donaldson's kind of anointed himself the anti-sticky crusader too yeah I've got to tell you Scott. As a Yankee fan

watching the game, it sucked man. Gosh, going for the sweep, you're in the ninth inning, offense is coming around, John Carlos Stanton's hot, get crushed in the ninth. It was, it sucked, I've got to say. Before we hit the news and notes, you can

follow in stream both fantasy baseball today and FBT and 5 on Spotify. If you're listening on Spotify right now, go to the show page and hit that rectangle follow button so that when new episodes are dropped, They'll be at the top of your feed. And if you're listening elsewhere or watching on YouTube,

give Spotify a try and drop S a follow. Some news and notes from Thursday, Nick Madrigal was placed on the 60-day I-L with a right hamstring tear. Some potential replacements, if you are in a shallower league. Thai France, Jonathan Scope, and Josh Rojas, they're all rostered in less than 70% of CBS League.

Scott, who do you prefer from France? Scope, Rojas? I think actually Rojas. He's been kind of cold lately, but I still prefer him. And in deeper leagues, I will just throw the name out there, Brendan Rogers.

He's only 30% rostered. He went two for two on Thursday with his second home run of the season. Oddly enough... I think he's coming around. I think it's happening. It's happening for Brendan Rogers. I hope so.

It's just, is the playing time going to be there? Which we always have to worry about with the Rockies. Now that Trevor Story's back, it might be a little. bit tougher. Yeah, I mean, the Rockies have their history, but if, if, if, if it's happening for Brendan Rogers, if he is breaking through and living up to the prospect pedigree,

and the Rockies do play a full week at home next week, this upcoming week. So, um, that, that'll only help his cause. You know, obviously they're going to get him in the lineup. Josh Fuentes could easily, you know, hit the, get, get kicked. to the curb there if they needed to. They've been a little more committed to him than either Rogers or Hampson, but that doesn't have to continue.

Hit the road, Josh. Trevor Rosenthal is progressing, quote, rapidly through his strength program according to A's manager Bob Melvin. Scott, if Rosenthal returned this season for the A's, do you think he would be the closer? I don't. Okay.

I don't. I mean, we'll see what their bullpen looks like. at the time because we're talking two months from now, right? But no, the way Trevino's pitched and Jake Deekman too, I think that, I don't think there would be much reason for them to switch to Rosenthal

at that point, as things currently stand. Byron Bucksin had a double dung, not in the majors, but in the minors. He is currently on a rehab assignment at AAA, and it's kind of wondering if, even once Bucson returns, is Trevor Larnock going to stick around?

I think he's been pretty good. I think he's earned the right to continue to stay with the team. He's batting 265 within 830 OPS. What do you think? Yeah, I think so. Exactly how the playing time would shake out there? Well, Kiroloff leaving today with an injury, what did he injure? Ankle sprain.

Yes. That doesn't sound like a major thing, though. So maybe it won't put him on the aisle if it does. Probably not for long. But that might buy them some time to delay that decision. But, you know, Rob Reff Snyder, when he was looking indispensable, he landed on the aisle. Now he's back. He didn't miss that much time. But kind of feel like it took the wind out of his sails in terms of,

oh, we got to find a way to get Rob Reff Snyder in the lineup. So you could definitely envision a scenario where Buxton is flanked by Larnock and Kiroloff, at least until Max Kepler returns from injury. Right. but we'll cross that bridge and when we come to it. I mean, who knows? Who knows what Miguelson knows

numbers are going to look like at that point? Obviously, Kiroloff can play first base. It's possible to keep them all around and just rotate them. But yeah, I mean, Larnik is reaching base at like a 390 clip. So it would be genuinely surprising to me if you got option to the minors.

The twins, you know, we've talked about this before, Scott, how we are so player individually focused on this show that half the time I don't even know what the records are in baseball just from like a macro perspective. But the twins are very bad this year. They're 25 and 37. And if they start to sell off some of their older players and Nelson Cruz, a Josh

Donaldson, that's going to open up more playing time for their youngsters. Nick Gordon is another one who, he's a former first round pick. He was very bad in the minors. He lost a lot of his prospect luster, but he's been really good since he's rejoined the team. So another name to pay attention there, I don't think you need to go out and add him. But if they start trading players away, I think Nick Gordon is a name to remember. John Carlos Staten is likely to be benched for the Yankees this weekend

as they have a two-game set in a National League park against the Phillies, and they do not want him playing the outfield, at least not yet. Trevor Story returned on Thursday. He finished one for three with a walk and a run scored. Alex Kirillov, which we mentioned left with a low-grade ankle sprain. Kent and Maeda worked four endings of one-run ball in his rehab start Wednesday at AAA. He added five strikeouts. T.J. Antone was not an option out of the Reds bullpen on Thursday.

Manager David Bell did not provide a reason. More on the fun Cincinnati Reds bullpen a little bit later on. The Cardinals have activated Paul DeYoung. Luke Voight could begin a rehab assignment on Sunday. Kevin Biggio could be reinstated this weekend. Travis Shaw landed on the aisle with a dislocated left shoulder. And Jake Bowers was traded to the Mariners in exchange for cash considerations. I should have mentioned this at the top.

But we are going to talk about prospects a little bit here because Scott released his prospect report on Thursday, and I think it's worth talking about. Before we get into those specific players that you wrote about, Scott, I do want to mention Brewer's pitching prospect, Aaron Ashby, was moved to the bullpen at AAA to work as a multi-enning reliever in preparation for an eventual call-up this season.

I wonder if their plan is long-term for this season to piggyback Freddie Peralta to limit his innings. So just something that came to mind there. If you have Aaron Ashby in a Dynasty League, Tiger's outfield prospect, Das Cameron was recalled, and was batting sixth on Thursday for the Tigers.

He was batting 299 with two homers and four steals at AAA, with a career-best 17% strikeout rate. So I don't want to put too much stock into that. It's a small sample size this season so far, but strikeouts have always been a huge issue for Das Cameron, and he was making a lot more contact this. here. According to Scott's prospect update article, which you could find on the site, I'll actually throw it in the podcast description so you can follow along. Five on the verge of being called up,

Wanda Franco, Vidal Bruhan, Joe Adele, Hazu Sanchez, and Jaron, that list hasn't really changed. Those are a few of the top prospects in the league that we're currently waiting on. And, Scott, you actually... There have been some changes. Jackson Cowar was in there the last couple weeks. And to clarify, these are the five that I think are most worth stashing in redraft leagues, not necessarily the five that I think will be up the soonest. Yeah. Yeah, I would say Franco, Bruhan, Adele Sanchez. They're pretty much fixed there.

Jaron Duran, I don't know. I don't know. He just got back from Team USA helping them qualify for the Olympics and had a good performance there. I mean, obviously the Red Sox are contenders this year. They have a center field problem. Duran is 24 years old and playing well at AAA. Like, it just seems too easy, right, that he'll be up at some point. I don't know.

The Red Sox seemed to be downplaying that idea. So could just be talk, but I don't know. I don't know. What did you want to ask me about, though? I did want to ask you about Jared Kelnick, who you led the article with. And obviously, he was demoted earlier in the week. we didn't have you on the podcast that day. So I wanted to ask you if you have Kelnick,

would you keep holding on to him while he's demoted? I think in anything 12 teams are deeper, that's probably a good idea. I intentionally left him out of the Five on the Verge for this week because I just, I wrote a lot about him in the lead of the article. And, you know, I wanted to write about different players further down there. But, you know, probably from next week forward,

he'll be in my Five on the Verge. and I would put him probably first. I think I would continue to stash him over Wander Franco and Vidal Bruhan. And really, those three are the only ones I'm genuinely excited to stash in redraft leagues just based on the way prospect callups performed going back to last year, which is something we've talked about. And really, I wrote a lot about it in the article. Just the way they haven't really been paying off.

like we're used to, like we've grown accustomed to in recent history. So, yeah, the interesting thing about Kelnick, and maybe you guys talked about this when I wasn't on, is that he seemed fine for at the start. I'm specifically referring to strikeout rate. His first, let me see if I can find it here. Yeah, his first 13 games, he struck out 16.4% of the time. Very good, right?

his final 10 games, he struck out 45.9% of the time. So the way he characterized it is he was swinging well first, was getting unlucky and then started to press. And I would say the strikeout rate itself seems to tell that same story. So whatever's going on with prospects when they first get called up and struggling so badly, I don't know that Kelnick necessarily fits into that category because I think it's probably true. He was just having bad luck at first. but, you know, clearly needed to reset down in the minor leagues because he was spiraling

after running into that bad luck and trying to force the issue. So I think he'll be up soon and I think there's a good chance he'll be great from that point forward. But it is awfully frustrating to think you had this ace in the hole and then it turns out he hits 096 and gets into the minors again. Yep. It's definitely disappointing, but as we've seen with a lot of prospects, not all prospects, but a lot of them the past two years. It's been a pretty rough go here. Scott's five prospects that are on the periphery.

Bryson Stott, a shortstop for the Phillies. Brett Beatty, a third basement for the Mets. Miguel Vargas, a third baseman for the Dodgers. Jake Adair, a starting pitcher for the Marlins. And Ken Waldichuk, a starting pitcher from the Bronx Bamas, the New York Yankees. Let's jump into the week 12 pitcher and hitter planners presented by Lion and Coogles. And as always, Scott, we will start with your favorite two-start pitchers heading into next week. Okay, yeah, my favorite two-start pitchers, not a great week for two-start sleepers.

Put that out there right away. But if you must have them, Jordan Montgomery, he's getting close to 80% roster ship, but he is making two starts and he's been pretty good lately. His matchups are nothing special at Toronto versus Oakland and I wouldn't call him must start necessarily

but he's probably the most attractive two-star pitcher who might be available. Austin Gomber would be more attractive if his two starts weren't at home. That makes it very scary rolling the dice on him but

one of his two matchups is against the Brewers who were a bottom five offense, and he's been great lately. He's been pretty much since the start of May. Gompers been good, including at home. Most of his starts have been on the road, but including at home. So it might work out. It's just a roll of the dice for sure. Marco Gonzalez, 63% rostered in a second start from the aisle, then it goes well as the first.

But, you know, obviously there's a pretty good track record there. One of his matches is against the race who have struggled against left-handed pitchers. Shane McClanahan, his last two starts been pretty rough, but at the White Sox at Seattle, it's a pretty good matchups. For McClanahan, Tucker Davidson, I just talked about earlier,

he's the most available of the ones I've mentioned so far, 35% rostered on CBS. Problem there is one of his matchups is against the Red Sox, others against the Cardinals, which is not a gray matchups, but it's not so bad either. And then if you want me to keep going,

Last one, I really don't feel great about this one. I don't feel great about any of them, but especially not this one. But Vladimir Gutierrez, highly available, 18% rostered. One of his two matchups is at Milwaukee. Obviously, he's pitch well so far, but I'm skeptical because of the high fly ball rate. The second matchup is at San Diego, which San Diego does not rate as high as you think they do in terms of team OPS. So that's actually not such a bad matchup. but yeah

we're kind of reaching to the point where we're looking at Vladimir Gutierrez I wanted to ask you about Bruce Zimmerman Scott who looks like he's on par for on par on pace for two starts next week

he's 7% roster yeah I don't think he is that was when I had to remove what I looked at rotation alignments and you know maybe I'm wrong I'm wrong sometimes but it looks like Zimmerman is starting this weekend

and Matt Harvey's actually the Orioles pitcher lined up for two starts Zimmerman would be pretty interesting if he was lined up for two starts, but I don't think he is. All right, Scott. So let's take a look at some of those single-start sleepers that you like for next week. I think I heard you mentioned Mike Minor is one of them. Yes, yes.

Terek Scoobel at Kansas City. That's probably my favorite sleeper pitcher overall. Kind of run. He's been on strikeouts jumping up over his past few starts. You say Kukuchi against the race. He's been pitching well late, and I mentioned earlier, the race struggle against left-handed pitchers. Mike Biner has the Tigers.

It's pretty good. We'll try tapping into J.T. Brubaker again because he's facing Cleveland. So that's been a dicey one. Brewbaker appears on this list a lot, and I don't know how often it's worked out for you. But yeah, I'll go to him one more time here. J.T. Brubaker is your sleeper pitcher to your C.J. Crone is your sleeper hitter, Scott. Yep. CJ Crohn's on the sleeper

hitter list for this week with the Rockies at home for full seven games. Now, they're probably 10th respectively on the pitcher and hitter sleeper list. They do a top 10 every week. Each of those guys is 10th, so I'm just tacking them on there. Almost for old time's sake,

Frank, because, you know, if I leave them off and the one week it actually pays off, then I'll feel pretty dumb. What other hitters are you looking at, Scott, outside of C.J. Crone. I mentioned the Rockies have a full week at home. One of the two teams visiting is the Brewer,

which is good news for Avi Sal Garcia. It's also good news for Willie Adamas, who has had back-to-back multi-hit games here, and you look at his career splits, you realized how much Tropicana Field was holding him back. So Coorsfield, other end of the spectrum. His other series this week is at Miller Park, so also opposite end of the spectrum.

I don't think it's called Miller Park anymore, right? they recently changed their name. Did they? I think so. I think I heard that. I'll look it up. It's a shame. Miller Park, Coorsfield, Battle of the Brands.

It is. Willie Adamas was taking the beer tour. American Family Field is what Google is telling me. Yeah. Anyway, Justin Upton. It's got a hitting street going. Been really productive since moving to the lead-off spot for the Angels. I think he's still betting there.

and four left-handers on the schedule. He has a near 1,000 OPS against left-handers so far this season, just an up to us. Tigers have pretty good matchups this week. Robbie Grossman is now homered him back-to-back game, so he's picking it up again. Of course, we know Jonathan's scope is hot. I like both of them.

I mentioned Crone. I mentioned Rogers earlier. Brendan Rogers, with all those home games, is on this list. And I'm going to leave it there. There's a couple other names. I couldn't mention, but then you wouldn't have to go read the article. So can't give the whole thing away here on the podcast. Professional broadcaster.

Professional broadcaster, Scott White, with the old tease. Go read the article, of course. CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. And just to recap, the five teams with the best hitter matchups, Cleveland, the Mets, the Brewers, the Padres, and the Nationals, the five teams with the worst hitter matchups for next week. The Astros, the Rangers, the Phillies, the Reds, and the D-BACs.

So there you have it, the week 12 pitcher and hitter planners presented by Line and Cougals. And I'll actually be at City Field on Friday. Enjoying Jacob de Grom versus Fernando Tatsis. I am super excited about this matchup. If anyone else watching or listening to this is going to be at City Field, hit me up. We'll meet up.

We'll grab a beer or something. And speaking of beers, I'll have one or two before I leave for the stadium, little pre-game action. There's nothing better. to do that with than a Line & Cougall's Summer Shandy to get you ready for that baseball game. It's an awesome blend of crisp beer

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we gotta talk about Dallas Caico. Dallas Caico, really? Do it next here on Fantasy Baseball today. So Dallas Caico was that other pitcher, random pitcher, with all these whiffs Thursday. He was going up against the Toronto Blue Jays, six innings, six hits, two runs, two walks, eight strikeouts, and a season high 21, that's right, 21 swinging strikes on a hundred and four pitches, his

previous season high in swinging strikes was actually 13. He threw a season high, 35 cutters, and I love it. I don't know why he didn't do it sooner. It was far and away his best pitch last season and he threw it 31% of the time last year, when he had a great, whatever it was, 10, 12 starts. But entering Thursday, he was only using the cutter 21% of the time this season. Again, that is Dallas Keikle. And I know he's fringy, Scott, but I thought this was very encouraging. I agree.

It was encouraging. I want to see more of it. I don't think he's going to have another 21 swinging strikes. I think that was just a total anomaly. But, yeah, emphasizing the cutter may be the path forward for him. and we'll see where it goes from here. I'm actually looking to see if 21 swinging strikes was his career high. Okay, I got back as far back as 2016.

He had a 23 swinging strike game. So it was not a career high for Dallas Kikell, but it was one of his best. I should probably ask you this after the podcast, Scott, but maybe other people are wondering as well, and this can help them do some of their own research. but where do you go to find game log swinging strikes

because I go to Brooks baseball but I have to like calculate all of them together and it takes a while. Baseball reference if you look at the player's game log it has a swinging strikes column so that's where I'm looking I don't know

if the count ends up being the same as as baseball savants I don't know sometimes there seems to be a discrepancy there. I don't know why there would be, because that seems like something you should be able to count pretty easily if you're watching. Yeah. But I don't know. For whatever reason, they don't often line up exactly. That is probably the biggest flaw in my analysis is I don't know

how to use baseball reference. So I think, I need you to teach me, Scott. We've got to do a baseball reference tutorial because I feel like there's a lot on there that I am not taking advantage of. So, I think it's still the. most powerful. It offers the most bang for the buck of any of the sites. It doesn't have quite the same level of sophistication as baseball savant or fan graphs, but it has the highest concentration of useful and usable, the best combination of that.

All right. So, well, uh, that's, that's my, that's my promotion for baseball reference, free promotion there. Uh, we'll hook up at some point in, and, in, in, you know, You'll teach me. We had a pitching masterpiece in Philly on Thursday. Ian Anderson against Zach Wheeler. And Ian Anderson, seven shutout, four hits, one walk, four strikeouts. This comes after two clunkers, so a welcome site there from Ian Anderson.

And then Zach Wheeler, I mean, even in my best possible projection, I don't think I could have seen this coming from Zach Wheeler. Against the Braves, eight shutout, four hits, zero walks, 12 strikeouts for Wheeler. Over his last five starts, a 1.49 ERA, 56 strikeouts to just five walks. 56 to 5, over 36 and 2 thirds. And he's pitched for Wheeler. He lowers the ERA to 2.29. The whip is now down at 0.90. And Scott, my question to you is, should we rank Wheeler ahead of his teammate, Aaron Nola, rest of season?

I'm starting to wonder, yeah, we might be there. We might be to that point. I was a little skeptical of Wheeler's jump and strikeouts when it first started, but now this is four out of five starts, double-digit strikeouts, and the whiff rate is way up, and the pitch selection has changed.

I mean, he's kind of gone to the old trick of ditching the sinker for more four seamers and sliders. It's more of a maximize the missing of bats approach. And not only that, but he's getting ahead of the count better. He's throwing more strikes. So that combination has really allowed him to have this kind of second breakthrough where he goes from good to great.

And obviously with each passing start, I buy into it more and more. I don't know that anything's wrong with Aaron Nola lately, but it's been kind of frustrating. He's definitely underachieved so far. Can I drop Mac Chapman? this is a question that I received on Twitter and I was going to pair him up with Eduardo Rodriguez who we've already

spoken about so Matt Chapman he's he went 0 for 2 well at least over 2 last time that I checked probably update that but last time I saw he was betting 202 with a 633 OPS is Matt Chapman and he's still 89% rostered what he finished no he went 0 for 3 so that's now

201 with a 630 OPS for Matt Chapman. He's still 89% rostered. The problem is, and we've talked about this before, who are you dropping Matt Chapman before? Because I'll read off a bunch of third baseman right now that are rostered in less than 70% of CBS leagues. None of them really

excite me. So Scott, would you drop Matt Chapman for Miguel Suno? Look, I'd rather start Suno next week. I don't know. It's difficult to say that. But like, the only reason you'd be holding on to Chapman right now is because of track record, right? There's

there is nothing redeeming in actual numbers. The expected stats all look awful, and of course the actual stats do too. And this is after an offseason where he had surgery to repair a torn laborman his hip, which, I mean, part of the reason we thought Buster Posey was done as a fantasy asset

is because his first year back from that same surgery, he didn't look so good at the plate either. So it may be, affecting Chapman a lot. And it may not be this year where we see him make a full recovery from it. So, uh, so no is not somebody I have a lot of confidence in,

but twins have pretty good matchups next week. He's been hitting the ball well for the past week. I don't, I just don't really see you regretting that move. Not so much because Suno will be good, but just because I don't, I'd be surprised. if you end up missing Chapman. Just give me a yes or no on these, Scott.

Okay. Would you drop Matt Chapman for Alec Bome? I guess. How about for Patrick Wisdom? Yeah, I mean, right, you're not getting me excited about these names, but I might, I might, man, I don't know. I don't know, Frank. I imagine the guy who's asking already has somebody else he can plug in at third base,

but maybe not. That might be the case. A few other names, Hunter Dozier? No. Jonathan, India. Ooh. No, I don't think I could do it. And the last one is Luis Arias for the Brewers.

No. All right. I know that was painful. And I was like extracting teeth. No, it was fine. Luis Castillo made a star on Thursday, which means we have to talk about it. He went five and two thirds, one hit,

three earned runs, three walks. seven strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes on 96 pitches. Pretty good ratio there for him. He only allowed four hearted balls. I thought that was a step in the right direction. He actually left the game with runners on first and second. He was only allowing one run at the time.

Lucas Sims, that's right. Lucas Sims, the closer, the one that we have dubbed the closer of the Cincinnati Reds, came in in the sixth inning of the game, and he went on to allow three runs to score. So obviously two of those were charged to Luis Casillo, the final line doesn't look very good, but I actually thought that Luis Castillo pitched much better in this one.

So that's two solid starts in a row now. Anything that you would like to add, Scott, on Luis Castillo? Yeah, it is two solid starts in a row. Obviously, you shouldn't be flirting with the idea of dropping him right now. I think more likely starting him, because he is in line for two starts next week at Milwaukee at San Diego. So I think in points league, I would say yes to that for sure.

And even in categories leagues, I might consider it. As for Sims, clearly it was a high leverage situation he was brought into. So I don't know that that negates the idea that he's their most trusted reliever right now, at least, you know, other than Anton, who they're probably not going to use in safe situations. Five of his previous appearances had been four saves.

You know, since he struggled so much, I wonder if David Bell loses confidence in him, but I would still say Sims is the guy to have in that bullpen for saves. All right, let's hit a few waiver wire options here, Scott. I'll read off what they've done recently. You tell me your excitement level. Or let's just do, are they a must add?

That's probably a better way to do it. Jonathan Scope went three for four with his 10th home run on Thursday. His last 24 games, 24. Pretty big sample-ish, kind of. 358 batting average with eight home runs. He is 63% rostered. Scott. Must add. John in the scope.

I wouldn't say must add. No. I think there's a limited ceiling here. I think we know exactly who he is, and he's hot right now. And I like him as a sleeper, hitter for this upcoming week. But I don't think he's going to be a fixture

for standard-sized leagues moving forward. Willie Adomas went two for five with two doubles and two runs scored. He is 39% rostered. And shout out to Tom Bruback, who tweeted me this earlier, and he said, Brewbaker? Not Brewbaker, Breubeck. He said, Adamas continues to have an 865 OPS

away from Tropicana Field in over 700 plate appearances at this point. Must add Willie Adamas. Yay or nay. Well, no. The must add threshold, I think, is pretty high. Like, I'm afraid I'm going to end up saying no to all these guys. All right, so where would you add?

I like Adamas for next week. if you need a shortstop, he's probably one of the more attractive ones out there, but I'm sure he's available in some of my leagues, and I'm not rushing out to add him in all of them, so that by definition makes him not must add, right? I think so. And the last one I'll mention, Joe Evato went one for four with his sixth home run. He did add two strikeouts. He's only betting 217, just returned from injury, but he is hitting the ball the hardest he ever has in the Stackast era this year at, I don't have his age in front of me, but I'm sure he's approaching 40 years old.

At 262XBA, 518 X-SL, those are very good numbers for Joey Votto. It's just, it hasn't translated yet. He's 44% rostered Scott. Your excitement level for Joey Votto. Yeah, and maybe we should have stuck to that standard. Yeah, it's, let's put it on a 1 to 10 scale. All right, we're figuring out this segment as we go. And I would say my excitement level for Joey Votto is about a,

Six. I think that's, yeah, I was kind of excited for him before he broke his thumb. Now that he's back, I think he could end up being usable at a position where I know I have a need in several leagues. I would probably rather invest in Votto than like Josh Bell at this point. They said Josh is kind of weird. Josh Bell. Let's try that again with a little more confidence. Josh Bell. It's not my kind of guy. Joey Votto is. There you go.

Did we just create a new meter? Is that the exciteometer? Yeah. Or I guess we could go with like waiverometer, but that's kind of boring. I like excitometer more. So yeah. It's more exciting. For sure.

Joey Votto is six on the excitometer. In deeper leagues, mentioned the name a few times now. Jake Fraley. He stole another base on Thursday. Now is three steals over his last seven games. So in deeper five outfielder leagues, he's only 5% rostered.

And Christian Arroyo for the, the Red Sox. He went one for three with his second home run of the season. He added four RBI, so not overly exciting, obviously, but he is batting 284 on the season and has started seven of the last nine games for the Boston Red Sox. I was going to go into a deeper look on what's going on with Mooky Betts and Freddie Freeman this season, and even Cody Bellinger, three early round picks that are not performing to the level we expected them to this season. But we have other things that I would like to get to. So is there anything in particular that you would like to hit quickly on Betts, Freeman, or Bellinger?

No, not specifically. I'm curious about what's going on with Mooky Betts and how much it has to do with all the environment changes we've seen this year, but I don't have any real conclusions yet. I suspect he's still going to be a top five outfielder, but it's a situation I don't feel like I have a great handle on yet. for mooky bets you mentioned the environment scott i think that's a good place to start with him 7.6% home runs to fly ball ratio entering thursday last year that was 19% and the uh in each of the previous three years 2018 through 2020 it was at least 13% so way down for moogie betts some of the you know some of his hard hit numbers are down as well so that will factor into that but but it would appear the environment's about to change again so yeah hopefully that's like i'd

It's hard to say anything environment related with a great deal of confidence right now, because in addition to the deadened baseball, we now have a spin change happening. So who knows? Who knows where we go from here? Certainly not me. Freddie Freeman of this group has the best underlying numbers. So I think he's just been really unlucky. He's got a 226 bad up on the season.

That's 337 for his career. Yeah. I have zero concerns about Freddie Freeman. I've long had concerns about Cody Bellinger. Yep. I am developing mild concerns for mooky bets, but ultimately I'd be more likely to buy him than sell him right now. Cody Bellinger, I'm not so sure that I would be looking to buy. He's betting 200 in 11 games since returning from the IL.

Hard contact is way down. Strikeouts are way up. Remember, coming back from off-season shoulder surgery. So I think this is kind of expected, a slow-ish. start for him. Some Thursday left over is Gene Seguera. Three for five with three RBI. He's now batting 323 on the season. He's been great. Oduble Herrera went two for four with his fourth steal of the season. He has let off eight straight games for the Phillies. Only 30% rostered, if you are desperate for an outfielder. Mitch Hanigur had a double dong and now has 16 home

runs in the season. He's slowed down quite a bit. He's got a 238 batting average over his last 21 games, but the expected numbers are still very good for Mitch Hanigur. Glaber Torres went three for four on Thursday, albeit only three singles. He is now betting 338 in 233 games since hitting his first home run back on May 9th. So I think he was pressing for that first homer and now things are starting to fall into place.

Still hasn't been a lot of power, but the batting average, very good for Glaber Torres recently. Christian Vasquez had a big game and he needed it. He went three for four with three runs scored and three RBI. Not a lot of bullpen updates, but that's fine. I'm actually okay with that.

For the Phillies, Hector Narris had his third blown save of the season. He allowed a solo home run to Freddie Freeman in the 9th. I kind of give him a pass for that, obviously. And Liam Hendricks got his 16th save of the season to stream or not to stream, Scott, for the weekend. And we will start with Friday. Kegan Aiken at the Rays,

Garrett Richards versus the Blue Jays, Terrick Scouble versus the White Sox, Justin Dunn at Cleveland, Brady Singer at the A's, and Cole Irvin versus the Royals. This list was much worse yesterday, so it got better. It got better. How did it get better?

Was Scoobel here yesterday? No, he wasn't. I like scubal in all circumstances. Yes. Yesterday I picked Irvin versus Casey. I'm going to stick with that. And I think I picked Garrett Richards versus Toronto. I'm going to stick with that.

For Saturday, Alex Cobb at the Diamondbacks, James Caprillion versus the Royals. Jackson Cowar at the A's Vince Velasquez versus the Yankees Joe Ross versus the Giants and Sy Young Contender John Gant at the Cubs

Come on, did you see his last start? Come on. He turned back into John Gant. Yeah, the magic war off. James Caprillion versus KC is pretty good. None of the others are very good. Cobb has been okay recently and the Diamondbacks are

Bad. Yeah. I guess. I'm not wild. John Gamm might actually be my second choice here. Oh, gosh. Yeah. All right,

Saturday is rough. We'll just leave it at that. Sunday. I actually think Sunday is okay here, Scott. Patrick Sandoval versus the Diamondbacks. Chris Bubich at the A's. Adrian Houser versus the Pirates.

Drew Smiley at the Marlins, Logan Gilbert at Cleveland, and Martine Perez versus the Blue Jays. How many swinging strikes did Sandoval have in his last start? 32. I think so. it's good to see him getting another start after that.

I think I would prefer Adrian Houser versus Pittsburgh to him, to Zandoval. Pittsburgh has officially become the worst offense in terms of OPS. But Sandoval would probably be my second choice. And my third choice... Gilberg. Logan Gilbert. All right, fine.

Logan Gilbert. I was actually saying, in Gilberg, it's a wrestling thing, Scott, so we don't have to go down that rabbit hole. But yeah, you want to me to pick Logan Gilbert, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't mind Logan Gilbert against Cleveland. It's actually Logan Gilbert versus Shane Bieber, so.

I have no frame of reference for wrestling. That whole phenomenon just passed me by. Oh, man, I could go down a rabbit hole. All right, I'll just tell you very quickly. Gilbert was a parody of Goldberg, who actually played. college football at the University of Georgia for the Bulldogs. I did know that, yeah.

So he was very popular in the state of Atlanta. State of Atlanta, oh gosh, it's been a long week, Scott. In the state of Georgia. So I thought I would just marry those two things together because obviously you are from there. Let's wrap this whole thing up with some Apple podcast review questions. Leave a five-star review with a question if you enjoy the podcast and we will answer it in the future.

This one's from the Ginger King 1031. Grade the Trade, 12-team Roto Keeper League. I give Charlie Blackman for Tim Anderson and the Yerminator, your mean Mercedes. A. Yes. I'm not exactly sure what the other person is thinking. You'd love to hear that from Austin Frankie. Hey, that's me. Not really.

Grade the Trade, 10 team 5x5 Roto with seven keepers. I give Anthony Rendon and Lucas Gialito for Nick Cassi and Craig Kimbril. Currently in ninth place really needed saves, ERA, runs, home run, RBI. Oh. It's a no for me.

It's a no for me, dog. No for me. I don't... I don't think it's... I don't think it's egregious, actually, Scott. I think it's a C-minus. I wouldn't have done the trade. I think G. Leto for Castianos

at this point is a fair trade. Randone for Kimbril. I think in a vacuum you probably still want Rendon, but Kimbril has been one of the three best closers in fantasy this year? He's been really good.

Yeah. Part of it for me is the keeper aspect. Yeah, true. If it was just a... I could maybe give it a C-minus if it was just a redraft league, but with the keeper consideration there, I'll go D-plus. That is fair.

12 team head to head points. Oh, this one's from Jerry in New Jersey. 12 team head to head points. Start four outfielders, two utility, and six starting pitchers. I have a beefy pitching staff, thanks to you guys. Who should I trade to receive a high-profile hitter?

Mostly need outfield, but can upgrade anywhere. What would it take to get a Rafael Devers or J.D. Martinez type? I have Jacob de Grom, Max Scherzer, Corbyn Burns, Lance Lynn, Ian Anderson, Sandy Alconsora, Framber Valdez, and Luis.

Castillo. It is a keeper league, so Burns is kind of untouchable. Yeah, he should be. I'd be most likely to shop Lynn, I think. Yes, that is the answer. I think that's the best combination of you'll actually get something high quality for him, but particularly considering it's a keeper league, you won't mind giving him up as much as some of the others. So, yeah, shop Len, he might be able to get you a Devers or a J.D. Martinez type.

I would look more, I would look first to who needs the pitcher versus what precise hitter do you want and then see, you know, what kind of hitters they might have available for trade. But yeah, you should aim very high with Lance Len. And that is so important, Scott, that you bring up, and you brought it up before.

But when making trades, it's not about what players you want. It could be what category. do I need, but you have to look at what is your position of strength for this gentleman, it is pitching, and you have to find someone who is compatible, a trade

companion who is in need of pitching. So don't just lock on to certain players, although you might want them. You've got to find someone who needs pitching, ultimately. So it's a good point that you bring up there. From Spike Vermont, grade the trade, 12 team head to head points with five outfielders. Send

a Eugenio Suarez for Jock Peterson. Peterson. Why'd I say it like that? Peterson. We've both been saying words and names strangely today. Whenever we get to Friday's podcast, Scott, it's just, it's wacky, man. Yeah.

I mean, I don't think Jack Peterson has much value in a 12-team league, even a five outfielder format. I know Suarez has been terrible, but I still retain some hope for him bouncing back. So this trade's a no for me. I think it's a D. Ooh. A. Eugenio Suarez in points leagues this season is averaging 2.2 fantasy points for game.

Scott, would you like to guess what Jock Peterson is averaging this season? In a standard points league 2.4? 2.2. The same exact amount as A. E. E. E. E. E. Horenaio Suarez has been, I would still bet on him being better

than Jack Peterson rest of season. The last one. the week. We're here. We did it from Kevin two time. Grade to trade. 12 team headset categories. Send Marcus Semyon for Trevor's story. Yeah, I think you have to do it.

And I would give it a B plus. All right. And you know what? I just realized as I was saying that, it kind of sounded like I didn't appreciate what we do, Scott. Like, we're here, we did it. It's the end of the week. It's not like that. So I would I think you should celebrate that we made it to the end of your notes.

When's the last time that happened? Now, that is something we're celebrating. So I rescind my statement about being excited that the week is over. I'm actually sad. I wish we could podcast every day of the week. No, I don't actually wish that. We need weekends off. I don't know where I'm going with this.

I need to wrap this thing up. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.