Fantasy Baseball Today - Drop These Stinky Pitchers? Welcome Back, Burnes & Judge! (9/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Sean Burke has been stinking it up (2:30)! ... Elly De La Cruz has crushed lefties this year (9:52). ... Lazaro Montes hit a 474 ft homer (14:40)! ... Welcome back, Burnes and Judge (18:11). ... News (24:47): Ohtani was out of the lineup Tuesday. ... What's going on with these three struggling pitchers (32:05)? ... Eldridge is finishing strong (46:42). ... Bubba Chandler racked up whiffs with his fastball (57:52). ... Who's hot and who's not plus we wrap up with leftovers (1:04:13).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 9th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, welcome back to Aaron Judge and Corbyn Burns,

who's hot and who's not, let's fire up the dropometer. We had some pitchers who had some very stinky games. We'll get to that in just a bit. Let's jump in. And perhaps the stinkiest of the stinkers came from Sean Burke. Scott, your player of the night for all the wrong reasons. Oh my goodness gracious. That is what everybody who started Sean Burke is saying today.

there was a few bad pitching performances from pitchers that were likely started but yes, this was the worst. Sean Burke allowed seven earned runs and an inning into third on eight hits. It was really bad. And like the worst part is

he seemed like we got the sense he was worrisome. You know, we've seen that from him for a while now a few missteps here lately. But his previous starting, he allowed one hit. He did walk four, but one hit in five and two-thirds innings, and he was facing,

well, he was facing Pittsburgh, I guess that's not such a good match-up, but just, you know, given how good Sean Burke has been for you this year and the fact he seemed like maybe he was riding the ship last time, you probably felt pretty comfortable starting him. Now, though, with this

awful start, his past five have yielded a 752 ERA and a 1.97 whip. Really bad stuff. The main thing is Control. He had the eight-walk start. He had

even that one hit effort last time out was still the four walks. And control had been an issue for him in previous years. Seemed like he had overcome that this year. But, you know, it's been going on long enough at this critical point in the season. if you survive this week from Sean Burke,

I would not risk it again next week. And, you know, then the next place you go with this is, well, what about next year for what looked like one of the biggest breakout pitchers for this year? I guess I'll note that he has now reached his, not with this start, but a couple starts ago he reached his new career high with innings. So it may be related to that, but obviously there isn't a lot of track record here. And for his most dominant stretch of the season, Sean Burke had new velocity that he hasn't been able to sustain all season.

So I think a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted. Doesn't mean like he should go on drafted or anything, but I don't know that I'll have him inside my top 40 even. Tough to say before I line up the names, but I doubt it. I was thinking it'd be hard to get him in the top 50, just because we really have like, what was it like 10 starts starting with that i think it was 11 starts starting with that yankee's game not a start but it was a start um and other than that we don't have a lot of evidence that sean

burke's a particularly good pitcher at the major league level that 11 start stretch like scott said coincided with about a four game jump in velocity and then there was about a month where the velocity was back to normal, but he kept pitching really well. And all I could keep thinking, and I said this multiple times, maybe on the podcast, certainly on social media, someone talk me into why Sean Burke is going to keep this up and not just be the next Davis Martin. And it kind of feels like it was just the next Davis Martin where, look, almost any pitcher in Major League Baseball, especially someone who is established as a legitimate major league is capable of looking really, really good for a month or two. That's just like these guys are all super talented. They're all good. Pitching is a feel thing as

much as anything. And sometimes guys just feel really good and pitch above their heads for a little while. And I'm worried that's what we saw with Sean Burke. And like I said, not to say I won't draft him next season. Or that I think he's just totally persona non grata for fantasy. But, you know, it looked like he might be heading towards being a top 36 starting pitcher for 2027. He got his ERA below three at one point for the whole season. And that was as late as like October 11th or something.

Now it's up to 358. I mean, you'll take that, you know, 358 ERA, 120 whip, 9.8K per 9. that's a good pitcher, but I certainly don't think that's the baseline. And I don't think that's the floor for him. So given that we saw two seasons where he was largely irrelevant for fantasy, I tend to think he's mostly and also ran among starting pitchers. Now, it doesn't mean he shouldn't be drafted, but not someone I am at this point, especially excited to draft for 27.

Just to remind people of the numbers over that 10 game stretch, nine of those being starts for Sean Burke. It was a 160 ERA, a 0.87 whip, 11.5K per 9, 1.6 walks per 9. So obviously the control was amazing during that stretch. All of the ERA estimators were below three. His swinging strike rate was near 15%. And you're right, Chris, the first five games of that, the velocity was up on his fastball.

Then the next five, the velocity was down. He still was getting a lot of whiffs in the, those five starts where the velocity kind of drop that down. So consecutive double-digit strikeout games with his normal velocity. Yeah. It is interesting to try to piece it together and figure out like what exactly happened for Sean Burke during that stretch. But as Scott pointed out, the last five starts have been much worse.

17 walks to 17 strikeouts over his last 20 and a third innings. And I think in this start in particular, I think he tried too hard to go the other way. If you look at his zone percentage, 52% that is very high. So he lived in the zone and he just got clogged. Bobbard. Eight hard hits in this one, 100.1 average EV, which brings me to

the dropometer. Sean Burke is still 93% rostered. He's at the Cardinals this weekend, and he is home against the Tigers next week. I'm not sure the matchups even matter, but where would you guys

play Sean Burke on the dropometer right now? I think it's got to be, like, there's no way you can start him with any amount of confidence. So, right now a nine if he has another bad start against the Tigers this weekend, a 10. Yeah.

Scott? Yeah, I would have no qualms about dropping him if that was a way to get a player I'm going to actually use on my roster. If that was the way, like, kind of I put Chase Burns in the same category. I haven't actually dropped Chase Burns in the league where I have him.

But if that's what it took to get a player, I was actually going to use on my roster, I'd be fine with it. I don't know who that player is right now. Right. If there's not, then it's like, well, just in that slim chance, he goes out and dominates next time. I'll have served him up for somebody else to pick up,

and that'll stink. So, you know, I don't drop just for the sake of dropping. But to give you a number, I guess I'd go like eight for Sean Burke. All right, let's continue on with the players of the night. Chris, over to you. Yeah, and I'll be positive. and point out that Ellie De La Cruz

has seemingly fixed the biggest flaw in his game. He was, for as good a player as Ellie de La Cruz has been so far in his major league career, he was probably

the worst switch hitter in baseball. If we define that as the ability to switch hit, you know, the ability to hit both relatively equally. He was a really good hitter against

right-handed pitch and entering this season he was awful against lefties. Like 613 OPS, I think, for his career. Well, he homered off Terrick Scouble today, famously a left-handed pitcher. I think you could argue a good one. And that pushes his OPS near 1,100 against lefties. He has 10 homers against lefties. He had 13 in three seasons against lefties.

entering this season. His strikeout rate is down to 25% against lefties. His expected Wobah had been 2.94 or lower in each of the first three seasons. It's 370 against lefties this season. It seems, I mean, it's still a small sample size. It's only 163 plate appearances. But it seems like Ellie Dale Cruz has fixed the biggest issue in his game. And all of a sudden, he's having the best season as a hitter of his career.

And he's up to 25 homers and 25 steals. I don't think we're going to get a lot of steals from him the rest of the way, given the quad injury. But I think he just swiped the bag yesterday. Yeah, I think that sounds right. But we might get, like, there's a chance we get a 30-30 season out of Allie Dela-Cruz. And he's hitting 282 now. And he's going to score over 100 runs. And he's probably going to drive in around 75 to 80.

And look, it's L.A. Dela-Cruz, right? like this guy's going to be one of the first 15 players drafted in every league next season anyway. But I think it's just worth noting that for as long as he's been around and as much as the hype cycle has built up and then dropped around him, L.A. Dela Cruz is still improving. I think he took a big step forward as a hitter last season before the quad injury. I think he's taking another big step forward as a hitter this season. And 30, 30 guys don't grow on trees. but they are more common than 70 steel guys I think that's where the disconnect comes from

maybe with why it seems like Ellie de la Cruz is less hyped in fantasy now even though he's improved as a hitter is because I think a lot of people out there would prefer a 250 hitting 70 steel guy to a 280 hitting 30 steel guy I don't know if that's given how prevalent steals are

and how scarce batting averages I don't know that I count myself among them. Well, and it's not like those tradeoffs are real. You know, it's not like he has to stop running to hit 282. But he has. No, no, but the likelihooder outcome would have been if he didn't improve as a hitter, he would have just stopped stealing as much anyway. And it would have just been a much worse player either way.

I think that was mostly the right. Yeah, it's not because he hit for a higher average. She stopped running. It was more, I think, because they switched from David Bell to Terry Francona. as their manager, but even so, like, he felt, I think L.A. Dele Cruz felt more like, oh, he could threaten for that top spot fantasy when he was, when he stole 67 bases in his first full season. Yeah. And looking at those updated numbers against lefties,

the OPS now 1074, among qualified hitters, that is the second best OPS against lefties, a season behind only Kobe Mayo. That's exactly who I thought it would be. So, yeah, huge improvement for L.A. the Cruz, oddly enough, just a 784 OPS against Whitey's this year. So, man, if we ever get that year where he's just like awesome against lefties and righties could come as soon as next year.

The, uh, he missed some time this season with the hamstring injury, his 162 game pace, 32 homers, 113 13 runs, 89 RBI, 32 steals there. That's a pretty monster season. It really is. I guess the one concern that I would have with him. And I'm going to rank him as a first round

player. I will draft him in the first round next year. is that he has dealt with some leg injuries the past couple of seasons. It was the hamstring earlier this year, still kind of battling the quad, even though you wouldn't know it. I mean, he just homered in his fourth straight game, and he had the quad last year as well.

So it's just like some like stuff adding up here for Ellie that I don't exactly love, but it hasn't affected his season. So finishing strong here is Ellie Dela Cruz. My player of the night, I'm just going to mention, like, one of the most awesome home runs of the year. Lizarro Montes,

if you had any doubt about the power, You shouldn't. I mean, that's the one thing this guy can provide is power. His second home run, 116.1 miles per hour off the bat, 474 feet, which, you know, we got a text earlier tonight, Chris, from Sam Wershing, who is a huge Mariners fan, and we had him on before the season for a mock draft, which was very fun. And he sat on the scoreboard, it was like the second longest home run in T-Mobile Park history.

I saw a tweet where it was like the longest in the statcast era. It was the longest verified home run in the T-Mobile slash Safeco field era and the second longest home run by a Mariners player in the stack cast era. Okay, gotcha. So previously, yeah. In T-Mobile Park, got you. Yeah, Jared Kalanek, very funnily. So long, long home runs are obviously a game.

guarantee guarantee. Yes. The longest home run at Safeco before this one, Mike Zanino, obviously. It's 240-foot home runs. So. Yes. I guess that's damning with faint praise here for Lizarro Montes in his future. I think the power is absolutely legit. It's still way too early to say. He's only played in six games. He missed some time with a hip injury over the weekend. He's four for 18 so far. Two of those four hits being home runs. He has nine strikeouts to one walk. He's 28% rostered. I don't think he's going to play against lefties the rest of the season. Although the Mariners aren't really playing for much at this point. So they might as well just throw him out there and see what he could do against lefties.

The rest of the schedule this week for Montes, lefty, righty, lefty, lefty, lefty, lefty. So that's not good. And then next week, there are six road games. There are two lefties in the first series. But then three on the road in course field, not this weekend, next weekend. All of those right now look like they're against righties. So it's kind of interesting for next week, Lizarre. Montes.

Yeah. I mean, you could only project so far ahead with pitching matchups. It's a struggle enough just to project a week ahead. But yeah, I mean, if we get a week full of Rides for Lazaro-Montaro, I'd definitely include him among the sleeper hitters. Like, I really hope it works out. You know, sometimes when we take a negative stance on a top prospect, it's like, oh, you're just a hater.

No, I would love. in theory, the good version of Lazaro Montes to become a thing. But obviously, the contact issue, the struggles against lefties, those are major hurdles that prospects as highly regarded or even more highly regarded than him have failed to clear those hurdles. I will also just point out, it's not a fair comp for Lazaro Montez. but watching that home run you can definitely see why people

comp him to Yaron Alvarez aesthetically he looks a lot like him it's just you know he's a big dude too yeah it's just a hulking human being 8% higher strikeout rate probably or more at least in the miners yeah yeah yeah I think it probably

profiles of the three true outcome profile here for Lazaro Montes I am happy to be wrong but so far the slight tower power it's pretty pretty fun player to watch early on in his career. Welcome back to Corbyn Burns and Aaron Judge.

Corbyn Burns in his return at the Royals. Three shutout innings, two walks, two strikeouts. I don't, well, he got up to 57 pitches, so maybe next time out it's 70, maybe the time after that, it's 80s, something like that. I thought he looked okay here. The velocity was down compared to where it was last year. I thought it was a good sign that he got a decent amount of

chases outside of the zone here. for Corbin Burns, but what did you guys see? 54% rostered. Do you have any interest? Do we have any utility for Corbyn Burns? I mean, any? Sure. I have any interest.

I don't think I have a lot of interest. It's, you know, the 40 pitch jump in his pitch count this time, that's huge. And it makes me definitely more interested in him than I expected to be, because I thought it'd be closer to like a 40 pitch limit. but the velocity was down a lot. 1.4 mile per hour on the cutter, more on most of the rest of the arsenal. He wasn't an ace the last time we saw him.

We've certainly seen a diminished version of Corbyn Burns. I would guess typically when guys come back from long layoffs, you actually see their velocity a little higher in that first outing, especially if they're on a pitch limit. here it's extenuating circumstances because he had only thrown 17 pitches he was actually having to you know keep something in the tank presumably but I think it was an okay start but I don't think like he's already 54% rostered it's hard for me to think that carbon burns needs to be rostered more widely than that I would guess most of the people who had him in an IEL spot are just

going to have to drop him now that he's been activated, which includes me in a couple leagues. There's a non-zero chance over the next, probably not next week because of the start he just had with the diminished velocity and only going, it was three innings, right? Yeah. Probably not next

week, but there's a non-zero chance he looks good enough next week that you'll risk it with Burns in the final week of the season. But there's a non-zero chance that, like I said earlier, Sean Park looks good enough in his next start that you'd be willing to start him

in the final week. So like bringing this full circle, do you drop Sean Burke to chase Corbyn Burns? I don't know that there's I don't know that there's a significantly higher percentage or even a higher percentage that Burns is more startable the final week than Burke.

Is he going to be a two-star pitcher? Are they going to go six-man when Soroka and Gallin are back? It looks like they're going to go six-man if I'm reading it correctly. Okay, so he's probably not going to be a two-star pitcher next week. I mean, both guys, I don't know.

I was going to say deserve to be in. I mean, Zach Gallen has really kind of falling off. But Soroka pitched well earlier the season. You know, Gallin has, you know, obviously a history with organization. So. I don't know. Who's going to be out of the rotation?

Well, I guess Merrill Kelly has looked a little bit better as of late. Brandon fought has pitched well. They're not going to take him out. Erod has been great all year. They're not going to take him out. But I think they have, they can just slot Soroka in whenever he's ready. and there's a chance burns they have him pitch out of the bullpen

once those guys are back because since he's building up anyway yeah I think can't treat him like a normal starter yeah most likely yeah I just think the name and like the money that they're paying burns they probably want to keep him as a starter I mean you still got what like four years left after this one yeah yeah but it's you know they're fighting for a wild card spot

they don't they can't afford to to let egos get in the way Fair. And a welcome back to Aaron Judge who made his return. He was in right field and he hit third in the lineup. He went 0 for three with two strikeouts. He left after six innings. Nothing concerning there. That was planned. They're going to ease him back into the lineup. And I saw this tweet from Brendan Cuddy, who covers the Yankees for the athletic. Judge's bat speed on his strikeout in the first inning was 79.6 miles per hour. His average for the season is 76.1. So pretty good sign that, Judge is swinging that hard. Obviously, we'll see how he bounces back in the next couple days, but early returns, the bat speed is there for Aaron Judge. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes.

Shohei Otani was out of the lineup after returning on Monday. Dave Roberts said Otani was available as a pinch hitter and is expected to return to the lineup on Wednesday. So it looks like the Dodgers are also easing Shohei Otani back into the lineup as a hitter. Corbyn Carroll was out of the lineup due to lower back discomfort, and he has been bad for a while now. His last 62 games dating back to late June, it's a 185 batting average, 667 OPS,

still hitting the ball hard during that stretch. The barrel rate looks pretty good. The expectus to adds 225XBA 395X lug during that span. I just kind of wonder if maybe he's been battling this back or something else, multiple things, because he really has not looked right since the end of June. Just throw it on the pile. Another first round or early round mainstay who we're going to have some doubts about drafting in that range next year.

I'm really interested in seeing how this goes. I hope that there isn't too firm of a consensus that develops because 2027 is shaping up to be a year that doesn't deserve to have a firm consensus in the first. first couple rounds. Yeah. Go ahead. No, no. I was just going to say, like, just diving into the numbers a little bit, you're seeing hard hit

rates down, pull rate is down a little bit. He's hitting fewer fly balls. Just all kind of seems like that's in the second half of the season for Otani. It all kind of seems like he's just a little late, which like the eye test, that's also my vibe is that he just, he's not getting around as quickly as he, as he was before. You were talking about Atani, but my comment was about Corbyn Carole. I feel pretty confident that Otani's going to be a top three pick next year. Gosh, yeah, I got confused. I'm sorry.

Yeah, that's okay. Just didn't want the audience confused. Yeah. While you were saying that, I was actually looking up the bat speed for Corbyn Carroll because I thought that's who you were talking about for a second. The bat speed is actually up for Corby and Carol this year and it hasn't mattered. Kind of just, we down season for Corbyn Carroll. Garrett Crochet is tracking towards being ready for the first round of the playoffs as a reliever, that is. You want to talk about fun players to rank for next season.

Garer Crochet definitely in that mix. Wilson Contreras took batting practice on Tuesday. He is on the IL with a left hamstring strain. J.J. Weatherholt took swings on Monday and is aiming to return during the Cardinals' upcoming homestand. And it is a very long one. It starts this Friday, September 11th, and it lasts until September 20th. So somewhere in that stretch,

JJ Weatherholt is looking to return. Shay Langalears will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. He's working his way back from a meniskectomy. That is a fun word to say. That he underwent on his right knee at the end of July. Jazz Chisholm left early with a thumb injury. We'll see if he's in the lineup on Wednesday. Jake Bowers has sat out three of the last four games.

He continues to deal with shin splints. Jack Caglione has missed three straight with a left flex. Xer strain. Taste the Lodder has missed straight with a sprained right wrist. I believe it was just yesterday or on Monday. Stephen Vote said that DeLotter was getting better, but still not in the lineup on Tuesday.

So that is unfortunate. Devin Williams threw a bullpen on Tuesday his first time throwing off a mound since being diagnosed with a right shoulder strain nearly a month ago. Kodai Senga did pick up another save. He gave up a run in that one. He's mostly looked pretty good as the Mets closer

here in lieu of Devin Williams. Lazaro Montes, we mentioned that already he returned to the lineup after dealing with a hip injury. Bryce Elder is expected to be sidelined three to four weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and Scott I know you were very sad about Bryce Elder before we started.

In the season now, I don't want to watch a league that Bryce Elder isn't a part of. I'm sorry, bud. Ryan Wethers did some flat ground throwing from 75 feet on Tuesday. He's working his way back from a flexor strain likely would be as a reliever down the stretch. Josh Young started a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday, and we do have

some prospect news. The Nationals promoted Eli Willits to AA. He's only 18 years old. He was the first overall pick in last year's draft, and it's interesting because he tore up low A this year. He wasn't as good at high A. Look, 18 years old at high A, get it like, you know, age to level production. But at high A, 2.30 batting average, seven homers, 31 steals, 813 OPS. 19% walk, 19% K. So like, he held his own. It's a lower batting average. 18 years old moving up to AA.

It's, it's impressive. I'm just, I'm kind of confounded by the timing, I guess, with Eli Willits. Yeah. A season's over. I think that's the, I think they, the double, AA plays a week longer. All right. That honestly sounds like the exact reason for this happening.

Yeah. And, you know, he probably just starts next. next year at AA, I would guess. But, yeah, I think... Depending how this goes. Yeah, I think it's because they just want to get him a few more. Yeah, that makes sense. I was going to BS another reason that, like,

they got to figure out if they want to, what they want to do with Seaver King, and to help them do that, they need to gauge how close Eli Willits is to debuting. But your reason makes more sense. I mean, either way, 18 years old at AA, that's pretty awesome, man. This guy is flying through the system. Great season overall here for Eli Willits.

And worth noting, a 118 WRC plus is an 18 year old, a high A is very impressive. Yeah. In its own right. Yeah, I guess how it's just looking at it. Yeah, no, no, it's not as good as he was much better at Lowe for sure. But he was still very productive at that level. This looks like a legit prospect for sure. Yep. And in some bad prospect news, the A's top prospect, Leo DeVries, will have right shoulder surgery to repair an anterior labrum tear.

And he could miss up to eight months. Doesn't mean it will be eight months. But if he misses eight months, that would take us all the way till up to May of next season. So someone that we thought could have been in the mix for trying to earn an opening day starting job with the A's during spring training. Clearly, it seems like that will not be happening now. for Leo DeVries. Yeah, that's my exact take. I was actually putting together an article, I've been slowly putting together an article, early bowl predictions for 2027, and one of them was, it was a handful of prospects that will make the opening day roster,

but DeVries was one of them. That obviously removes him from consideration for that. And this is a serious injury, so no idea how he comes back. I do think his prospect standing should take a little hit here. All right, let's get into some other pitchers who just had some stinky performances here on Tuesday night. What is going on with these pitchers? Sandy O'Contara, rocked by the Mets.

Four and a third, seven hits, seven runs, four walks, one strikeout, three homers allowed. Just one of the weirdest lines that you will see. The velocity was down across the board between one to two miles per hour for Sandy. In this one, 11 hard hits allowed. he is given up four plus earned runs in three straight. He has three strikeouts or fewer in all three of those. He is still 97% rostered. He's 85% started.

Chris, I didn't include him as part of the dropometer here because he was so good for so long. I don't think you're dropping Sandy Alcansara, but I mean, maybe you are if you're just planning not to use him. It looks like he lines up for two starts next week at the D-backs at the Padres, but it's three pretty rough starts in a row. It's three pretty rough starts in a row. I think it's the most

runs he's allowed in a three-start stretch this season as well. It's possible that he's just kind of lost it. He is 15 innings above where he finished last season. I don't know. This is a guy who's turned 225 in a season. I don't think getting to 200 is all of a sudden wrecking him.

But I kind of view Alcantra as just kind of take it for what you see. he's got a 378 ERA the peripherals are largely in that range the FIP is over four now after this start but it was lower than that before I think he is he's

almost 19 innings ahead of every other pitcher in baseball this season so he is back to being an absolute standout when it comes to volume that might be the only place he stands out you know it might just be he is the biggest standout in volume, and he is just kind of a guy otherwise.

And that's very valuable in a points league. It's pretty valuable in a Roto League. But I think on the whole, yeah, he's probably not an ace anymore. But I think it's still been a very successful season. I think you've generally been very happy to have him on your team. It's just, you know, this worst or second worst stretch of the season coming at an especially bad time for Alcantra. I don't take too much out of it beyond what it's doing to the overall numbers,

which I think mostly tell the story here. He's a pretty good pitcher who gets a ton of volume. Yeah. And that really does help him in a points league more than anything else. Entering Tuesday, Sandy O'Consora was the ninth highest scoring starting pitcher in CBS headhead points leagues. Obviously, and you know, we were worried about the wins coming in because the Marlins, you know, we didn't expect him to be as good as they were. Obviously, like, you know, they surprised this this year,

but 13 wins on the year for Sania. That's actually really good for him. The ratios now have kind of, you know, really elevated. I think in a points league, I would still use him next week, but in a category's league, I would be very pick and choosy about, you know. If you're really guarding ratios, I probably wouldn't do it. If you're chasing wins and you're not really going to get strikeouts, if you're just chasing wins, then I think you could go for.

for it, but yeah, any type of ratio guarding, I would not be using Sandale Concord. Let's fire up the drop o meter for a couple of their names here, and we already talked about Sean Burke. What about Tanner Bybee? A rough one here at the Orioles. Five runs aloud over four and a third, and his velocity was down as well in this start. Five earned runs in back-to-back starts. 579 ERA over his last six. Still 82% rostered. Looks like he lines up for two next week against the White Sox and the athletics. So Scott,

where is Tainer Biby on the drop home year? Oh, like a nine. I think he's been above six for most of the year. I would have had

no qualms about dropping Bibi for a hotter hand type all year, really. Since it became clear anyway that he wasn't going to regain

the strikeouts that he lost, last year. So he's an innings eater who is worth streaming with the right matchups and maybe with two

starts coming up you give him another shot in a points league. I don't like that the velocity's been down now two starts in a row

and the results haven't been good but he's a pretty mid-pitcher these days. Four ERA, just over 7K per 9. Again, good

innings. Works deep into games when he's going well. But that sounds like streamer territory to me. So, yeah, I could go as high as nine for Pipey. Yeah, even when he had a pretty good stretch from like late May to early August, he had a 324 ERA over 12 starts.

It was two start, three starts with more than five strikeouts. It just, yeah, he's been, even when he's been good, he's been pretty iffy. So kind of a poor man. Sandy Alcounter, which is not high praise at this point. Yeah, I think a 9 or 10 on the dropometer is reasonable. All right, and it's been a rough start to the week for our league-winning starting pitchers. This one being Andrew Painter, who took a big step back here against the Astros. And I just want everyone to know that I feel your pain.

Money where your mouth is. I started him in my home league head-to-head points championship against my dad, by the way. And obviously, that did not go very well. My dad also had Jesus Lazzardo on Monday, so yeah, overall, it's not looking very good early on. But five runs over five innings here against the Astros, two homers loud. Still got a bunch of whiffs in this one for Andrew Painter. And obviously, the seven starts before this since returning to the Phillies looked much better. He's at the Braves this weekend.

He's at the Mets next week. He's 78% rostered. But if you picked up Andrew Painter for the two-star week, are you holding on? if there's someone else emerges, is it okay to drop? What do you guys think about Painter? I'm probably holding on. You know, I keep having to come up with 10 pitchers to stream every week because that's an article that I write every week.

I think it's been a few weeks now where there's really, there's really been only three pitchers on the waiver wire worth adding one, Jacob Lopez. He struggled yesterday. He struggled not as badly as Painter, but yeah, it wasn't a great start. It's worth start in a while. One's Jacob Lopez, one is Andrew Painter, one is Tyler Malley. Maybe you could throw Walbert-Irana in there, too.

He's still available in a number of leagues. But otherwise, it's slim pickets. So the Braves offense struggling right now. I think he'll, I think Painter will bounce back against them this weekend. And hopefully, mostly salvage the two-star week. And then the Mets matchup next week doesn't seem so bad. You might end up using him then too. I like that he got a lot of whiffs on this.

Still use that new change-up a lot. and yeah, at least it wasn't Sean Burke. You can take some comfort in that. And another thing, like, this is one of the good things about baseball, one of the good things about fantasy baseball. I think it fantasy sport mirrors the real one in this way, and that one player isn't likely to make you, one player isn't likely to sink you.

Like, even the smallish, the fantasy baseball leagues with the smallest, rosters, you start 16 players. So, you know, you have other ones that can make up for a bad start. It's rare to go a whole week without getting a bad start from anyone. So you don't have to consider it, oh, my whole week is ruined because I started Andrew Painter. Probably not. If the rest of your team does what it's supposed to do, you're probably going to be okay. Yeah, and I just think the key thing is I don't know who I'd be adding for him anyway. Like if someone emerges between now and Sunday and has a really unexpectedly great start and shows something. Maybe, you know, like, look, Jared Jones, I think, is about 61% rostered.

If you want to make that swap, I think that's okay. But I still feel like I'm a lot more likely to start Painter than. I think so, too. But, you know, but then I'm looking at like, I mean, gauge jump. No. No. I think Peter Lambert's getting decent results lately, but I don't think I have more faith in him. I think an interesting name, and I saw it pop up in the chat a few times.

If you're just chasing the volume, it looks like a two-star pitcher for next week is Quinn Matthews, who had a quality start here on Tuesday. Look, he's not perfect for sure. He walks a lot, but it looks like he gets the Giants and the Nationals next week as a two-star pitcher. Let's try not to throw out process completely. I know it, I know we're dealing this late in the year, two lineup blocks left, presuming your league plays out the whole season. So you're really just looking at the immediate term

and who can do what for me right now, you're not thinking about the long game. I still think Andrew Painter, from what we've seen of him recently, is a better pitcher than who did you say? Quinn Matthews. Quinn Matthews, yeah, right now. Quinn Matthews having the obvious control issue.

His last three starts have been good, but not like overpowering good, and one of them he's still walked four. and so even playing the short game, understanding that Painter's last start wasn't very good and Quinn Matthews was pretty good. I'm still thinking next start from how I gauge this pitcher,

Painter is better. It gets tricky when you get the multiple bad starts in a row and you just feel like this guy is kryptonite right now, radioactive right now is probably a better word to use. but even then you could get you stray from the better pitcher and he looks like the better pitcher all of a sudden and it's playing the streakiness game is a dangerous one yeah rhythm and feel matter for sure

and sometimes guys just get locked in and sometimes guys just get locked out it is really really hard to know when that's real versus when it's just the vagaries of a baseball season, you know, the things that just happen. And I know we are all uncomfortable by the idea that sometimes things just happen and there's not a good explanation for it. But that happens in life all the time. And so just because Andrew Painter was not great today does not mean he will not be good the next time out.

I do think, like, someone in the chat asked Nick Pavetta or Andrew Painter, based on what we saw in their most recent start, I would still rather have Andrew Painter. Would much rather have Andrew Painter than Corbyn Burns for the rest of the season. Yeah, I think that one's an easy call. Where it gets a little trickier is like Hayden Wesneski, who I don't think is as talented as painter,

but does seem to be on a good run right now. Not as good as painters until this most recent start. Right. It's also, yeah, because it's also like, the process part is like, well, yeah, he's got 7.1K per 9 and 2.8 walks per 9. Like, that's probably not a 3-ish pitch ERA pitcher like he's been. It's probably closer to 4 ERA pitcher. So even then, I think you'd rather just have Painter. So yeah.

And this is in his range of outcomes. If you look at the previous seven starts for Painter, mostly good, 312, VRA, 0.89 whip, 12.7% swinging strike rate, like, legitimately good numbers here for Painter. There was a start in there where he gave up five earned runs. He gave up five earned runs in this start. So again, it's within his range of outcomes. It sucks that it's happening now in a very pivotal time for most people if you're

playing in a head to head championship. But again, this is within his range of outcome. So I totally get that. And going back to Scott's point, like, don't give up in your head-to-head championship or playoffs just because it's like one bad day. I mean, it's a long season. it's a long week. Like a lot of things can change in one week.

And in fact, like, all of the head-to-head leagues that I play in, every playoff matchup is two weeks long. And I like to do that just because, like, it gives more time for, like, the legitimately better team to kind of pull out and prevail and come back if something blows up in one day. So I do like the two-week matchup in a playoff period, and I would recommend that for most people if you play in a head-to-head-style league. Let's take our final break.

When we return, I've got some waiver names. I've got who's hot and who's. not, we'll do all that right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's talk some Waverwire hitters and some shallow league names here. Cody Clemens hit his 25th home run and he went

through a lull. He's picking things back up. Last 21 games hitting 297 with five home runs in OPS over 900 and he's hit the ball hard all year long. Cody Clemens has good numbers, solid numbers against lefties. He's held his own there. 77% rostered. Travis Bazzana

hit his 11th home run. Had three RBI as well. It's like a tale of two seasons. His first 46 games, he was great. His next 62, it is an OPS around 650, so really has fallen off as the season has gone on. Sixty nine percent rostered there for Bazaana. And Bryce Eldridge hit his 16th home run. This one off of a lefty. Last 24 games, the batting average is over 300. He's got five homers, 950 OPS. I've been thinking about this a lot. Like, Bryce Eldridge is someone I'm going to be really excited about for next season, man. Like, there's just so much good under the hood here for Eldridge. He hits lefties.

He hits the ball really hard. His strikeout rate has not been prohibitive like we thought it might be. He's 66% rostered. Still feel like that number should be higher. But any thoughts on these three? Clemens, 77%. Bazana, 69%. Eldridge, 66%.

Yeah, I feel like Eldridge has been a free space in the sleeper hitters all year. Because I think there was a brief point where his roster rate climbed over 80, but it went back down because he fell into a little bit of a slump. But yeah, he's been good more often than he's been bad, and the strikeout rate has made a big leap. And he might be among those bold predictions for 2027. A little spoiler alert for you. This year, South Stewart, Bryce Eldridge, baby.

Sal Stewart might have a bold prediction in there too. Who knows? Who knows? I'm going to have to whittle this list down. So literally, who knows. But I do have at least the beginnings of a prediction for both of them. I just, the thing I'm struggling to get my head around with Eldridge is he's been better at home than on the road, which doesn't really make sense. And he's been better as a power hitter on the road.

And that's where you would really expect him to struggle with Oracle Park. And it might just be that he has better as a power hitter at home? At home, yeah. Okay. And so, you know, that might, he might just have the kind of power like Raphael Devers, where it just doesn't matter and he can overcome it. But it's relatively small sample size. It's still only 200 plate appearances at home, 216 on the road.

So it's still, I still have that just small amount of, I don't know, discomfort around him. But I agree he's a super talented player who probably going to be overlooked next year. Do you have any thoughts on these guys As potential like adds the rest of the season Clemens, Bazana and Eldridge? I think Bazana at 69% roster is probably too high

Clemens is 77%. I mean When he's hot like this He's worth using in all formats But you can't count on him to hit 300 Moving forward He's a 228 or 238 hitter for the season So I don't think he'll be as good moving forward

as he has been lately So 77% rostered. It's hard for me to argue that's too low for Cody Clemens either. All right, moving on here. A couple of their names. Jacob Marcy has been better in the second half. He went three for four with a run and RBI. Last 30 games hitting 292-409 on base percentage,

three homers, three steals in 878 OPS. He is 41% rostered. Tim Tawa, three for five with his 10th home run. He actually has been slowing down lately, striking out a lot. Still been pretty good in the second half. It's like a 20-20 pace over a full season. 27% rostered, first, second, third, and outfield eligible. Scott, do you think either of these numbers need to be higher?

Marcy, 41% Tawa 27. Only if I really like their matchups. And I'm looking at those now. Again, subject to change. Miami's look pretty good. Arizona's look pretty bad so Tawa's more usable

with the multi-eligibility the thing about Marcy is even in this game with the three hits he didn't have a single hard hit ball in fact one of the hits was hit like 50 miles per hour or something so I don't

his hot street making me think twice about whether I should keep him in the Scott White Dynasty League which is a 24 teamer but other than that I like I still lean no

I still lean no to keeping them in the 24 teamer with the other players I have to keep if the Marlins had anybody else who could play center field respectively I think there would be some real playing time risk here well Cam Canarella sure yeah I guess

they're a great center fielder defensively at AAA who's getting on base a ton and has had a good year. And he's also on my Scott Way Dynasty League, which are the two am I got to keep? Canarella is $5 cheaper, $6 cheaper. The thing that's especially frustrating with Marcy is the stolen bases. I mean, only 22 on the season. He's attempted 34. He's been incredibly inefficient.

And only three steals in the second half. So it's like even when he's been hot, he's really not all that useful. Was his sprint speed this bad last year? It's only 63rd percentile. Yeah, it was 68th percentile last season. That feels like something I just completely overlooked. Yeah, I mean, him and Xavier Edwards were both guys who don't really run all that fast, but they've been productive base dealers.

And you do see in both cases, really, this season, they've been, I think, a little bit disappointing with the stolen bases. You can run into that, yeah. A couple catchers here. Raphael Flores hit his eighth home run. Last 21 games, 257. Seven home runs. His OPS is around 8.50. The strikeout rate is over 30% during that stretch.

He also set out three of the past seven games, so it felt like the playing time was maybe trending down here for Flores. And Kyle Teal, homered again. That's back-to-back games. He has started three of four since returning. He has 24% roster. Who do you guys like more as a second catcher here? Rafael Flores or Kyle Teal?

Teal. I agree. Okay. Some names in deeper leagues here. Johandi Morales hit his second home run, and his playing time has been very odd. I mean, that's, I guess, just the nationals for you, but he got called up, he started three straight, he sat three straight, he started this one, and he homered. So he also has eight strikeouts and 16 played appearances so far. Great numbers in the minors. Not really sure what to do with this.

12% rostered. Do you have, let's say, is it only N. only, or is there any type of mixed league setting you would look into Johandi Morales so far? I mean, I had him as a sleeper hitter this week, 10th on the list of 10. It was kind of a deep league special. Hopefully not. I could see in a roto league, you know, where Thai France was long ago picked up and you have a needed corner infield. And okay, maybe. Maybe if the matchups are right like they were for the nationals this week, you could give Morales a shot. But that's, you're in kind of a desperate spot if you have to do that, to be honest.

Yeah, I think the thing he runs into also is just beyond just being newer to the majors. Is there any reason to sit Brady House for him? I think you could make the case that like, okay, Brady House has been around long enough that, you know, we have an idea of what he is. Might as well see what Morales does. But Morales is like a year and a half older than Brady House, probably, not as good defensively a third base. They haven't played him a third base yet, I don't think. Yeah, it hasn't happened yet that they've sat house for him.

It's been more Chaparro and Abimelech Ortiz who have sat for Morales. And by the way, Morales himself sat twice over the weekend. Yeah. And so it's just, if they're not going to play him at third base, then it's hard to see how Yohandy Morales matters. They have three players for two spots, basically. first base in DH and

even there James Woods is playing a lot of DH right now. Yeah, and I think they want to see what Abamelik Ortiz can do. He had a couple games when he first got called up where he looked good, but he really slowed down. Antris Chaparro actually has looked pretty good for them, but it feels like they mostly just want to start

him against lefties, so yeah, it's really just two spots for three players right now with Ortiz, Morales, and Chaparro. In the deepest of leagues, Adel Amador of the Rockies went one for three with his third home run. He has started six straight and in those games he has

eight hits, two homers, four RBI and five runs scored. Still just 23 years old. This is a former top prospect for the Rockies. Do you guys have any really like NL only interest but any thoughts on Amador, any intrigue?

He has played a lot at AAA in an extremely favorable offensive environment and has not done a ton at that level. This season, he's been a below average hitter at AAA. Last season, I guess he was slightly above average,

but not as good as an 883 OPS might leave you to believe because, again, incredibly favorable offensive environment. And then he's played a decent amount at the major league level and has shown nothing before this week, I guess. I'm not writing him off. He's young enough, and there have been flashes at AAA. He got called up really young as well. The way they were handling him early in his career was just weird.

They kept shuttling him back between AA and the majors, like multiple times which you just never see. And so I don't want to write him off entirely, but I think it's pretty unlikely. Adelaide al-Amador is going to matter much. Yeah, that was the previous regime for the Rockies, which I don't know if they, really understood what they were doing at all

at any level of anything. I give a little bit more credit and respectability to the new front office that they have there. But yeah, I don't really see too much either. I looked into the minor league numbers. I don't really see too much with Amador. Even though he tagged

Cam Schiller. It was pretty impressive stuff. Some waiver wire pitchers here. Bubba Chandler was the big name from Tuesday against the White Sox. Six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He had 17 whiffs. on 95 pitches. 16 of those on his four-scene fastball.

Scott, what did you see here from Bubba Chandler? Do you have any interest in potentially using him next week against the Royals? He's at the Cubs later this week. Not a ton of interest. Obviously, he looked great in this one.

If his fastball plays like this moving forward, this is kind of the fastball we were promised, actually. Then Bubba Chandler has a very bright future. But we have one instance of it happening and most of the time when we've talked about, wow, this pitcher did this amazing thing this time, if he can keep doing it, blah, blah, blah. Well, he doesn't keep doing it.

That's usually what's happened. Chandler's previous start, he had one whiff total, one whiff, not just on the fastball, total. And he was on a pretty good run there, 324 in his previous eight starts, 7.5% swinging strike rate, which is awful. Like, he had been missing no bats prior to this. more like a ground ball specialist when he had done well.

So yeah, I'm not that motivated to pull the trigger yet. I will say when it comes to young, talented, frustrating, flawed pitchers, sometimes that's the way they need to do it, is just establish a baseline of unspectacular success before building the swing and miss game on top of it. And so, you know, when you're looking at him from that perspective, it could be a sign that there's some forward momentum to build on, certainly. But I think what Scott said as a whole is still true.

This is the first time in a while we've actually seen bat missing potential from Bubba Chandler. So I don't know if I said it on the podcast or before when we were just chatting. I think I'm more likely to draft Bubba Chandler in 2027 than Jared Jones, just because from my perspective, I think the talent level is incredibly similar. And I think Jared Jones is just going to cost a lot more. And rightly so. He should.

I'm not saying they should be ranked or drafted together, but I would rather make the bet on the young guy who's going to be cheaper when I'm not sure that the other guy is going to be great anyway, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I can see people really talking themselves into Jared Jones and him kind of, there's usually a couple of breakouts that go around that, like SP 30 range.

It's usually between picks, I don't know, 100 and 150 or 125. And I could see Jared Jones kind of falling in that rate, like being drafted somewhere in that range. And Bubba Chandler going closer to like 200 or just outside the top 200.

So I get that would align with my expectation as well. What I heard when we were talking before the podcast, you probably didn't say this, but how I interpreted is you saying, I'm going to rank Bubba Chandler ahead of John's. But you're saying at cost, I'd rather. That makes sense.

Yeah. A couple of their waiver wire pitchers here. Hayden Wisniewski pitched well. I'll just read off the upcoming matchups. It looks like he is at the raise this weekend. Wesneski, home against the Braves next week. Land and Rup, another quality start, just like the most Land and Roup start ever.

Six shutout innings, four walks, two strikeouts. He is, looks like at the Cardinals at the Dodgers next week. So kind of Jekyll and Hyde matchups there. Cal Quantrell kind of feels like he got away with it in this start. He gave up a three-run homer. hard hits 93.6 average EV. He is at the D-backs this weekend, home against the Blue Jays next week. Pretty good matchups on paper still.

He ended up being this weekend? He's not making us start this. Oh, maybe he is. It's only Tuesday. He wasn't supposed to be a two-star pitcher originally. I guess if he ends up being that even better. I had him as a sleeper pitcher facing the Mariners. Yeah, he is.

Fangraphs probable pitchers have him going Sunday at the D-back. as well, yeah, Cal Quantrell. Okay. And then he gets the Blue Jays. Next week, good matchup, and then Quinn Matthews, I mentioned earlier. Looks like he's home for two against the Giants and the Nationals next week. So can I interest you in any of these pitchers matchups, Quinn

Matthews, Cal Quantrell, Landon Rup, and Hayden Winsneski. Look, if you're streaming off the waiver wire, Cal Quantrell is more attractive than most of what you'll find. He's not better than those four pictures I listed earlier. If they're still available, Jacob Lopez, Andrew Painter,

Hurston Waldrop, Tyler Malley. But after that, you're dealing with a bunch of pitchers that I don't believe in, really, on a talent level. And Cal Quantrell has been insanely reliable and has good matchups coming up. So if you're going to play that game, I'm not saying you have to play that game, but if you're going to, Cal Quantrel would be pretty high on the list. Last nine starts, 164 ERA, 0.79 whip, 8.2K per nine. Scott, I think we need to figure out who the third pitcher was in that list,

because you said Hurston Waldrop, and he's having Tommy John surgery. Tyler Malley. Another brave picture with this splitter. I'd rather have a lot. I think Kyle Quantrell is absolutely the type of pitcher who is going to give it all back at some point. I have zero faith that he's even like a sub 450 R a guy. You set that over under a $4.99. I might take the over moving forward.

But you get what I'm saying. No, no, I know. It's working. And like you said earlier, pitching is sometimes about feel and rhythm and sometimes guys just get on a line. I'm not even making that argument. I'm just saying if you're going to insist on streaming a pitcher out of the waiver wire beyond those four I listed off, they're not that good.

So Cal Quantrell, as hot as he is, as good as his matchups are, is probably next on the list, just by default. Yeah, it's really the matchups that kind of push it over the edge there for me with Cal Quantrell. The other name on this list is Quinn Matthews that I don't love, but I could see next week against the Giants Nationals. National is really good against Lefty, so it is risky, but I could see it in a deeper context there with Quinn Matthews. Who's Hot and Who's Not?

Hitter edition here. I've got four who are hot. Pete Alonzo stayed hot. 34th home run in the second half. It's 13 home runs, a 939 OPS. Zach Netto looks like he's finishing strong. 4-4-5, 24th homer. Last 19 games, 363, 4 homers,

three steals, an OPS over 950. Yandi Diaz is on a heater once again. Last 28 games, 353, 7 homers, his OPS over 950. And Kazuma Okamoto hit his 30th home run, just the fifth Japanese-born player to hit 30 home runs in a season. And over his last 24, 279, 6 homers, OPS over 900. He is heating back up here. Chris, any thoughts on these four? Hot hitters, Pete Alonzo, Zach Netto, Yandy Diaz, and Kazima Okamoto.

I mean, I thought Pete Alonzo was being overdrafted as like a borderline second rounder this season. And now I'm wondering, is he going to be a borderline second round or next season as well? You've kind of got to be, given how many guys have struggled, and he notably hasn't. And just the consistency provides you year in and year out. Yeah, he's been pretty awesome. So that's worked out really well.

Zagnetto, I guess, has been a mild disappointment. He's going to end up probably near last year's home run total. He's too shy, but the steals are seven shy now. in 12 more games. So that's frustrating. He's still running a ton. Like, he's still got 30 steel attempts. He's just been a lot less efficient.

That I don't care about. Like, that's the kind of thing next year should be fine. So, I don't know. He's probably going to drop in drafts and rightly so. But I don't think the outlook for Zach Netto has changed a ton. Yon Diaz is really good. Yeah. That is my main thing there.

I think he's probably going to be because he is, what, 35? Is he older than that? He's around there, and I believe he's a free agent, which kind of... He just turned 35. He is a free agent at the end of this season. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes, but it's not like Tampa's a great place to hit, and a lot of people doubted him leaving Steinbrenner Field,

and he's been awesome at Tropicana. So I think the age is the biggest not. on Yandi Diaz, but he's been one of the most profitable hitters in fantasy for the last, I don't know, four or five seasons now. So I think more likely than not to continue in 2027 because I don't think the price is going to be particularly high. I'll just mention with Diaz real quick. He has a vesting option for next year, 500 plus plate appearances and a past physical. So that feels like that's going to go through. All right.

See if you guys think this is right. You mentioned that Akamoto is the fifth Japanese born player with 30 home runs. The other four I came up with were Hideki Matsui, Shoheotani, Saya Suzuki, and Munataka Murakami.

That's the list. Yeah, that's the list. All right. I did it. All right. Who's not hot right now? Trey Turner, he hit his 18th home run, but man, what happened to this guy this season?

He has this one month with an OPS over 800. That was July. He was awesome. Really outside of that one month, he's been quite bad this season, is Trey Turner. Dylan Dingler, really struggling. He was out of the lineup on Tuesday. He is not homered since August 6th, and that 27 game stretch hitting 117, which is three extra base hits in a 317 OPS. And then Wyatt Langford, he had a sock into shoe here on Tuesday, 16th Homer 12th Steel, but his previous 39 games before this one, 175 batting average, 619. OPS. Scott, what's going on with these three? Langford, Dylan Dingler, and just a down year overall for Trey Turner.

Yeah, I think Trey Turner's cooked. Of all the early round mainstays who have faltered this year, he is the one I'm most confident saying isn't coming back. Not that he's useless now. But, you know, he's gone the way of moogie bets here, who I don't think we considered an early round mainstay anymore, but also is not coming back to his old stealth, still has his uses, but clearly a lower tier now. Langford, man, it's been bad, and I still don't feel like we've gotten what we were promised from him. Notably during this awful stretch since the start of August, he has more walks than strikeouts, so still has an on-base percentage over 350. and I think we'll still like him going into next year. Again, there were some injuries that interfered with him this year.

But it's been frustrating, and one of those situations where he's got to deliver at some point to keep getting benefit of the Dow, he was pretty good last year. I shouldn't be so dismissive of who he is. He has been. It just hasn't been who we were promised. When he was coming up, people were drafting him

in like round two, you know? He was still like a top 50 pick this year, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. And he hasn't done it yet. But there are still like really interesting skills across the board. And he's on a 162 game pace of 28 homers and 21 steals. And the play discipline's pretty good.

And there's still a lot of things to like about Wyatt Langford. but like Scott said at some point you have to stop just being interesting and start being actually good and he hasn't done that yet and he's gotten a lot of benefit of doubt that he has not lived up to yet I think he probably will still end up being a top 100 pick next season probably should be given the skills but I didn't put him in the outfield it is getting outfielder? Probably. But it is like... I don't know that he will be.

This is a comp that is a little bit unfair. But stay with me. Nomar Mazar was a similar prospect who got a ton of benefit of the doubt right up until he didn't. Like this guy just kept being

just like a 260, 18 homer like 85 RBI guy. I think he might have had one year with like 23, 25 home or something like that. But for the most part, he just kind of kept getting the benefit of the doubt for being young and having interesting skills. And he just never put it together. And I think White Lankford's been better, mostly because he steals bases. That's kind of the one thing that at least, you know, having that well-rounded skill set, but also the good play discipline. And he gets on base.

Yeah, it's going to drop the money ball meme. But it feels like that where at some point you've got to just. just do it. At some point you've got to stop getting the benefit of the doubt. And I do think 2027's got to get, if it's another like 18, 18 season or whatever from Wyatt Langford in 2027, his, his ADP is finally going to drop like a rock.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It'll drop a significant amount this year. But it'll, but like a rock. Yeah, I think that's, if he doesn't,

if he doesn't have a, year like is 2025 again, probably. it'll drop like a rock. I also just, we should mention Dylan Dingler, I think the likeliest explanation here is being a catcher's really hard. He's been, like, his underlying numbers are disaster.

Over the last hundred played appearances, it's like a 195 ex-wova. That is like you don't belong in the majors kind of production. Obviously, he belongs in the majors. He's a very good player. But it looked like he might be a top five catcher for 2027. And I guess one thing that helps is everyone else a catcher has been bad in the second half.

So he's not alone. It's like Cal Raleigh and Gabriel Moreno have been great and everybody else has been terrible. And so that helps. But yeah, I think this was a guy that, you know, we looked at and said, okay, he might be an elite catcher. The underlying numbers were certainly there. His underlying numbers are actually worse than they were last season now. So certainly a top 12 catcher, but not the guy we thought was a difference maker.

Some pitching leftovers per opta stats on X since ERA became official in both leagues in 1913, no MLB pitcher has finished a season with a sub 2.50 ERA and 200 plus strikeouts after entering that season with fewer than 75 career innings to his name. Both Jacob Mizirowski and Cam Schlittler are on pace to do that this year. Jacob Mizirowski, six and a third, one run, nine strikeouts. And you know what they say about the Miz? Because I'm the Miz. He's pretty awesome.

You need to come up with a sound clip for Schlitler now. Yeah, that one I have to be careful with, though. Cam Schlittler, monster start here against the Rockies, seven innings, one run, 10 strikeouts to zero walks. And the updated Cy Young numbers, Cam, 5.7F war, Dillen C's 5.5. They're both awesome. Anything on Cam and The Mizz?

I think Schlittler probably locked up the AL-Sai Young with this start. Of course, there are technically, he could be awful in his last two starts and blow it. But he clearly pulled ahead of Dillen Cs with the way their last two starts went and overcame that little control lapse he had in August. and looks great. Certainly doesn't hurt that he's thrown 17 and a third more innings than don't cease this season. Yeah. For the Mizz, I will just point out,

nice bounce back. His last start was his only start with more than three earned runs all season. So he was allowed to have a bad start, but obviously bounce back here in a big way against the Cups. Other standouts, I'll just mention the names. Terrick Scuba, Reed Detmer, Detmer, Freddie Peralta, Michael Waka, and Jose Soriano. Five names here, Chris.

all of them pitched well, anything that you like to quickly mention on Soriano, Waka, Peralta, Detmerz, and Terrick Scoobel. Well, Detmer's, I am just always going to struggle to fully embrace him. There's a lot of McKenzie Gore there where the talent is obvious, but he's been so disappointing for so long. But he has been spectacular for long stretches this season. And over the next couple of times. a couple of weeks beginning next week, I'm going to be writing like a toughest players to rank at every position because the first weekend after the season, I plan on the first Monday after the season, I plan on publishing the first top 12s. I think Scott, you're going to have a similar cadence, but they'll probably come out a little later, right?

Yeah, I mean, one position at a time. Yeah. I don't know if you were planning to do like top schools all once. Yeah, yeah. I'll go a little deeper and a little more thorough. And I'll, yeah. I think that is definitely going to be one. of the toughest pitchers to rank for next season because I just he's been really good and he's doing it

and I want to believe but it's so hard to actually believe. He's been good for the last two, like good is understating. He's been an ace

for the last two-thirds of the season. The only way he hasn't been an ace is because he hasn't won games. Yeah. And that's not his fault. And one of the reason,

you know, I may have a bold prediction for Reid, Detmer's in that Bull Predictions article that'll eventually come out also. If I could quantify it, last 19 starts, say 247 ERA, 0.91 whip and 10.4K per 9. That's amazing. And then... Point 91 whip over a 19-star stretch.

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that really is awesome. And then, just, Freddie Peralta, like, I know he's on a nice little run here, two runs over his last three starts. There have been some changes to what he's done since getting to the raise. Most notably, he's pitching out of the stretch full-time after going back to his wind-up with the Mets. It's not the Freddie Peralta of old, certainly. They've found success with him, but he's kind of pitching like Nick Martinez right now, you know?

And like, look, if the raise get Nick Martinez out of Freddie Peralta for the next month heading into the playoffs, and into the playoffs, they would feel great about that. But when you're positively comping Freddie Peralta to Nick Martinez, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong for Freddie Peralta. The call to the bullpen for the twins. Yowendris Gomez picked up his 22nd save for the Astros. Josh Hader got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He allowed a run, but he picked up his 24th save.

For the Mets, Kodai Senga got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a run, but picked up his seventh. save for the Yankees. Tim Hill started the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up a two-run homer. David Bednar came on to get the final out for his 30-second save. For the raise, Brian Baker made his first appearance since leaving Friday with an illness, and he came into the game with a six-run lead. It was a clean inning, but his velocity was down quite a bit. So I just think it's something to watch here for Brian Baker. Fastball was down almost two miles per hour. His change-up down almost four miles per hour. For the debacks, Kevin Ginkle recorded four outs,

across the fifth and sixth innings. Then Juan Morillo later got the ninth with a two-run lead. He allowed a two-run homer. He took his fifth blown save. It was lefty Blake Walston, who wound up getting the win in extras. The D-Backs bullpen remains pretty messy, I would say, right now. Yeah, it's a three-headed closer. I would have put Murillo at the front of it.

Maybe this blown save changes that. But Kevin Ginkle and I don't know. The top one to roster is probably Brandon Garcia again, though he's the least likely to become a set closer since he's the left-hander. For the Cubs, Jacob Webb got the ninth with a two-run lead, and it was his first time pitching since he took a comebacker off of his right arm, and he gave up a two-run homer. He took his seventh-blowed save, and the Cubs would lose an extras.

Daniel Polencia has been bad since returning as well. Is there anybody to speculate on in the Cubs bullpen right now? not really other guys have had the opportunity and it's only those two guys have been any good so it's hard to get excited about anybody here is that for John's been terrible

yeah he's been awful I know there was some excitement about him but yeah the control's gotten worse yeah I don't I don't really see anybody else here that you're can we just like the Chicago Cubs are nine games back in the division with 16 games left.

They had two different 10 game winning streaks this season. How wild is that? Very weird. They also had a 10 game losing streak. Yeah. That is just what a weird season. Yeah. For the Blue Jays, Louis Varland was unavailable.

Spencer Miles tossed two perfect innings for his second save. And for the Dodgers, Tanner Scott got the ninth with a one-run lead. He walked one, but he picked up his 20-second save. To stream or not to stream, On Wednesday, we have Will Warren up against the Rockies in New York. Zeb Matthews is at the Tigers. Catero Montero is home against the twins. Andre Palante is at the Giants.

We have Cody Bradford at the Mariners. Walker Bueller, home against the Nationals. Home against the Guardians. Griffin Jacks at the Braves, Davis Martin home against the Pirates. Yeah. I could see five good innings from Will Warren. I don't have a lot of hope for much beyond. On that, I'm into Andre Palante at the Giants.

Yeah, I guess. I feel good with a lowercase G about that one. Yeah, I think Boz Palante, Boz Warren. Baws is okay. It's probably why I write those three. I kind of want to start Griffin Jacks, but it didn't go very well last time. Yeah. So we got to see another one.

Are the Braves a good matchup or not? I really cannot figure them out. Their offense has been up and down this season. Matt Olson, I feel like, has completely fallen apart in the second half. He's batting under, I think he's batting under $2.50 now for the year. Yep. Yeah, he's down to like the eighth best fantasy first baseman now. On Thursday, we have just a five-game slate.

So I guess just ranked these three. Jared Jones at the White Sox, Martin Perez against the Rays, Christian Javier at the Phillies. I will go. Jared Jones. End of list. I'll put Martin Perez ahead of Christian Javier since he's a lefty and the race struggle against lefties.

Sure. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for listening to Fantasy Baseball. Today, please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

Out of the shadows of Paramount Mountain, Three heroes level up. Axe, Tyrus and Gileus, battle against the evil giant death batter to save the kingdom of Uria from so much peril. Laser knives, ordinary dwarves, bad brothers, sentient skeletons, sword scorpions, death armor, fire in this thing, that thing,

whatever that is, so much peril at heroes! This is just the beginning of the story of Hampton Square! Golden Axe! New series streaming September 16th on Paramount Plus.