Fantasy Baseball Today - Duvall does it again, Scheduling, and more Waiver Adds! (09/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

How bout them Braves!? They put up 29 runs on Wednesday, led by Adam Duvall. Is he a must-add player? ... For our OMGG standouts, Corbin Burnes was spectacular while Pablo Lopez and Matthew Boyd were not (7:03). Would Scott rather have Burnes or Sixto Sanchez next season? Is it time to drop Lopez and Boyd? ... On to news and notes, Rowdy Tellez is out for the season while Tommy Pham is returning next week (19:50). Now is the time to stash Jameson Taillon in keeper leagues and Justin Verlander seems close to returning. ... We have more waiver adds for your playoff runs (24:39)! Ryan Mountcastle or Clint Frazier? Deivi Garcia or Dane Dunning? Is DJ Stewart legit? ... In deeper leagues, do we have any interest in Brewers hitters or Edward Olivares (33:55)? Who is this Luis Garcia on the Astros? ... What does the scheduling look like over the final two weeks (39:28)? Who plays the most games, who plays the least, and does it matter? ... Let's go Mets (44:49)! ... What else happened on Wednesday (48:30)? .. Who are the best pitchers to stream on Thursday (57:14)? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

On a day where a team won 19 zip, you assume that would be the biggest margin of victory, right? Raw. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, September 10th, Frank Stanful, alongside Scott White, and how about them Braves? Normally, we start with, oh my goodness gracious, and we're going to get there. Don't you worry. But for now, it's all Braves all the time. Final score, 29 to 9, the Atlanta Braves, over the Miami Marlins. What's up, Scott? Where would you like to start with this team? Oh, man. I don't even know where to be. start. It's like a whole lineup full of

oh my goodness gracious. Actually, I do know where to start because the most oh my goodness gracious performance of all was Mr. Adam Duvall. Okay? Remember how when Adam Duvall had that three homer game

oh about a week ago we talked about how he might be useful for power but you're not, I think I explicitly said you're not going to get another three homer game from him. Yeah. Well, I'd lied because you did, provided you started him, provided you started and he hit three home runs

in this 29 to 9 route. He drove in nine runs, scored five times, even chipped in two walks. It was a lifetime, once in a lifetime performance, I would say, except, you know, he had something similar a week ago. He's now up to eight home runs in his past eight games. He has 13, home runs on the season. And I got to tell you, Frank, I got to tell you, I'm in a mighty fine mood today because I did not have the foresight of this particular thing happening.

That was not something that crossed my mind. And yet somehow, some way, I ended up starting Austin, I'm sorry, Adam Duvall in six of my leagues this week. Six. What? as the Joker would say. Six.

Are you serious? Yes. Six. Every single roado, every single mixed roto league I'm in, two 15 teamers, two 12 teamers, including tout wars and TGFBI. I started him in my big, important 24 team dynasty league. I got a lot of Adam Duval this week.

I think I had one share of Adam Duvall last week. I think we talked about earlier this week when I was kind of, hyping Bobby Dahlbeck, I was telling you, in a lot of my rotelies, the category I need the most help in right now is home runs. And so I figure, okay, well, the one thing Adam DeVold is available everywhere. Like, I need cheap home runs. That's the one thing this guy does. Five outfield spots to fill.

Let's fill them with one of them with him. So that's great. I'm really excited. I wish I had recommended it to everybody listening. I wish I had recommended it in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this upcoming week. because, you know, I'm going to, at the risk of making the same mistake, I'm going to say this isn't going to happen again for Adam DuFall. He's twice been a 30 homer guy in the majors.

And so, like, there's definitely the potential he gets hot and hits a lot of home runs in a short period of time. He does basically nothing else. Like, he's outperforming his stat cast measures now is, batting average up to 272. I mean, he's, he's not going to sustain a 272 batting average. So keep that in my, but if you're in the same position I am, I know a lot of good it does you now, but maybe there will be more home runs. If you're in the same position I am and you need help in that specific category, that's where I think Duval is useful. And I'm just fortunate that that's the

category I needed help in this week. Yeah, and you said that he's available everywhere and that's pretty much correct. 28% rostered on CBS, so I'd imagine a lot of 12-team leagues where he is available and typically in his career has hit better against lefties than right-ies. This season, he has an 844 OPS against right-handed pitching

and 860 OPS against left-handed pitching. So he's held his own and he's pretty much playing every day for the Atlanta Braves, has started nine of the last 10 games. So Scott, let me ask you if you want to add Adam Duval, then you have to drop someone for him. Would you be willing to drop Austin Meadows,

who we spoke about yesterday for Adam Duvall? I don't think so. Like I said, I see him as a category specialist, basically. So he's not like a must roster player because of this. No. No. No. I mean, would you disagree?

No. I don't think that he needs to be owned in three outfielder leagues, head-to-head points leagues. he still strikes out a ton. But I could see owning him in all five outfielder leagues. Yeah, right. I mean, at this point, like, somebody in your league needs him in a five outfielder league,

and I'm sure, even if you're not the one who needs help in the home run category. But that's really the only way I see him helping going forward. And, you know, maybe in conjunction with that, he helps in RBI too. But I don't suspect he's going to help you in batting average from today to the end of the season or in runs. scored because he's not a high on base guy. He bats in the lower third of the lineup. You know, that's not really on the table.

Obviously, not a steel source. So it's just home runs, maybe RBI. Or maybe he goes ice cold and he gives you nothing. But if you're trying to catch up in a category for free, and specifically in the home run category for free, I feel like he's one of the best, your best options for doing that. All right, the rest of the Braves, they scored 29 runs. How did they do it?

Ronald Ocuna had three hits, a home run, three RBI and three walks just like that. He is up over a 280 batting average, got up to a bit of a slow start. Freddie Freeman, three hits as well, a home run and six RBI. Danes Bandsby Swanson, three hits and five runs scored. Ozzie Albies returned to the lineup for the Braves.

Here's the catalyst. They just missed Ozzy Albies, my guy. They hit him eight. So, of course, he got six of bats, I mean. Three hits, a home run, and a stolen base for Ozzy Albies. Really nice return there. And how did they score all these runs?

Who did they score all of these runs off of? Not great, Bob. Oh, my goodness gracious. How about Pablo Lopez? That's a big old yikes. And it seems like Pablo Lopez is good for at least one of these blowups every single season. We've referenced this before. Last year he had the 10 earned run game against the New York Mets.

How about one in two thirds, four hits, seven earned, four walks, back to back, subpar, not even subpar, pretty bad starts for Pablo Lopez here. And not that it's fantasy relevant, but I did want to mention his teammate Jordan Yamamoto in relief, 2 and 2 thirds, 11 hits, 13 runs aloud. Yeah, Lopez was not the worst pitcher in that game.

Scott, are we dropping Pablo Lopez? Where are we at? No, I mean, look, we talked about it yesterday. He did not look like a good start for today. against this Braves lineup. I don't think any of us were anticipating anything quite this bad, but it just seems like he ran into a buzzsaw. Like I said,

Jordan Yamamoto was no match for them either. Really, no pitcher the Marlins threw at this Braves lineup was able to stop the bleeding. And look, even after the, really, it's been too bad starts in a row for Pablo Lopez. ZRA has gone from 210 to 450 over his last two starts. And yet his updated ex-fip, even with the numbers from today, is 346, which is a pretty darn good ex-fip. I mean, that would put him pretty high on the leaderboard if it was a full-season leaderboard.

Obviously, there's some skewed stats in this short season. So he still looks pretty good, even though the past couple. couple of starts have gone well. I think this is strong indication he's not a must-start pitcher if you were treating him as such, hopefully he weren't. So it looks like he's going to have a two-start week next week. Lovely. The Marlins have nine games next week and his first start is expected to come against the Phillies. The second one will either be Boston or against the national. So you might not to drop him yet because he has those two starts. I still think that it's a slam dunk to start him in a points league.

Okay. Categories league. That's a little scary. It's a little scary. It might have to weigh how much help you need in wins and strikeouts versus ERA and whip. But in points leagues, I think he's still automatic in a two-star week like that. Somebody asked me on Twitter, Scott, if I would drop Pablo Lopez for any of these names, Spencer Turnbull, Seth Lugo, or Sandy Alcantanar.

Oh, well, definitely not Turnbull, but the other two are interesting. The other two might be better than Lopez. I actually said I would do it for Alcantara, and I wanted to ask you because now I'm kind of like second-guessing myself. I think the most exciting of those three is actually Lugo, and he did go five innings his last start. I can't remember what the pitch count was, obviously converting from the bullpen to the rotation for the Mets,

and it just seems like the stuff is held up very well with that transition. and he's been untouchable as a starter brief though those start brief though those brief though those starts were

and but Alcantara's been great in two of his three starts too you know and he gets a pass for the one where he was bad because he was coming back from a long layoff a stint on the IL

so yeah I man that's tough you want to keep Lopez around for the two-star week, I feel like. But I do like Lugo, and I think at this point, Alcantaro more, yeah. Alcantara does pitch on Thursday when you're listening to this today, technically. So see what happens. If you pitch as well, then yeah, I think that's probably a move that you should make,

dropping Pablo Lopez for Sandy Alcantara. All right, Scott, oh my goodness gracious. A Wednesday standout. Who do you got? Should I go with the good one or the bad one? I'm going to talk about both of them anyway. So we're extending the, oh my goodness gracious today to three players. All right, let's talk about Corbyn Burns.

I feel like I have more to say about Mr. Burns. Wow. What a start against the Tigers. But still, seven innings, one hit, 11 strikeouts, no walks. he has been awesome since returning to the rotation. And I look, he had 16 whiffs in this game, more sliders. The slider has been awesome all year. There's a 30% whiff rate on the slider, which is just, you rarely see that on any pitch for any pitcher.

30% whiff rate on one like that. So he's going to keep throwing that slider to that extent. I mean, there could be some really sunny days ahead for Corbyn Burns. But what really puts me over the moon is the efficiency he's shown since moving back to the rotation. Because remember the one concern after they moved him out and he worked in long relief and then he was going back into the rotation. First five appearances this season for Corbyn's 14 walks in 21 innings. Nobody was hitting him.

But that's a terrible walk rate. And how was that going to go? I think when he was moving back to the rotation, I expressed hope that the walk rate would just get better, judging by his track record. And it has immediately. His last four starts, five walks in 24 in a third innings. Remember, that's versus 14 and 21 innings,

five and 24 in a third. His strike percentage itself went from 58 in those first five starts to 64 in this most recent four appearances, not starts. So 58 to 64, which is right at the MLB average, 64 is. So control is not an issue for him anymore. And in fact, the pitch, he threw 95 pitches in these seven innings. He has yet to, oh, I'm sorry, he was less than 95. He has yet to throw 95 pitches in a game this season, and he's been going,

he's been going deeper and deeper into games every timeout. So like, it's hard to find anything to ding burns for at this point. I mean, it just looks awesome. And maybe he is. Maybe he is, Frank. And this is someone we were excited about. I mean, this is part of the reason why at some point we probably told the listeners to drop him. So I'm not going to make it sound like we said, hold on to him the entire time.

He's bouncing between the bullpen and the rotation. It was very frustrating. But remember, we were very excited about Burns heading into the season for this very reason, what he's showing right now. Our email of the day from Matthew, he says, I have Burns in a Keeper League, and I'm trying to gauge his value moving forward. I'm not going to give you the old who to keep, etc.

What I would like is your opinion of what the underlying data shows about him. Is he still a two-pitch pitcher who has benefited from a soft schedule, or is he legitimately breaking out? And Scott, I think you hit on a lot of a ton there. So I don't think we need to spend too much time on this, but I will just say in terms of the two pitches, according to Fangraphs,

Corbyn Burns has, uses six different pitches at least 9% of the time. That includes a four-seam fastball, a cutter, a sinker. So that's three different iterations of a fastball, a change-up, a slider, and a curveball. So, he's like, there's not, I don't think there's anything to worry about just like, two pitch pitcher. Like that is not the case at all for Corbyn Burns and after today's start, his ex-fip is 3.20. He leans heavily on a fastball, a cutter, and a slider. And the slider is the

best one, as I pointed out. Yeah, I don't know how legit those other pitches are in terms, I mean, he doesn't throw them very often. And so I don't know if he's just, he just kind of has them around for a different look or if there's a reason they get mischaracterized based on the velocity he throws them at. But he's definitely not just a two-pitch pitcher.

According to Fangraphs as well, he has a positive pitch value on all of these pitches. So, you know, obviously the fastball is his best one, then the slider is the second best and the cutter is third. Scott mentioned he leans on those the most, but every one of these pitches has a positive pitch value. So

he looks legit. Scott, let me ask you this. heading into next season. Corbyn Burns or Sixtho Sanchez? I don't have to answer right away, Frank. I mean, definitely Burns. Definitely, am I going to say that? Burns looks like the higher ceiling guy right now. He looks like the higher ceiling option.

I think, I feel like Sixthos Sanchez because the control is so good and he has so groundball oriented, the floor is just like, he feels like it can't miss prospect to me. obviously gotten off to a very good start in his major league career. So, if you're asking me today, if you're asking me today, I go Burns,

because, man, I'm excited right now. They're very close. If I asked you yesterday, you might have said Sixthel Sanchez. I'm sure I would have, yeah. All right, so I'm holding you to that, Scott. If you change your mind at all throughout the off season, I'm just going to call you out, say, no, no, no, no, no, Scott. You said Corbyn Burns over Sixtho Sanchez,

but I can see why both of those players are going to be. going to gain a lot of hype and rightfully so they've been great so the brewer scored 19 runs in this game in terms of run support for corbin burns how did they do that well that came on matthew boyd a.k a.k a doctor jekyll and mr hyde three innings eight hits seven earned four walks two home runs allowed he was back to the same old matthew boyd what i'd say about this he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone he gone scott we're dropping matthew Boyd everywhere. Yeah, yeah.

I think that's fair. If it's going to go this poorly when it goes bad, you know, an encouraging three-start stretch isn't enough to stick with them. And the change-up I was crediting for the turnaround, I mean, he threw a 24% of the time in this one,

and it didn't matter. It's a bad lineup he was facing, that Brewer's lineup, gave up two home runs in his three innings, eight hits, four walks, where did that come from? Yeah, it's, I don't think, I can't imagine him doing anything that makes me trust him again this season. Shout out to Eric Cross on Twitter, too. He does fantastic work with fan tracks. He pointed this out. Worst ERAs since June 1st of 2019, at least 150 innings pitched. Matthew Boyd has a 5.93 ERA since then and has allowed 2.52 home runs per 9.

that is the worst since that span. So have no problem dropping. Matthew Boyd, I'll just throw a few names your way, say yes or no, whether or not you would drop Boyd for these guys. Tony Gonsolin. Yes. Trevor Rogers. Yes.

Dane Dunning. Yes. Dean Kramer. Yeah. Tyler Malley. Oh, yeah. Tarek Scouble. I'm less enthusiastic about this one than those others,

but I don't see why not. I mean, his last start was good. He's trending the right direction. Yes, and Tariq's Scoob will pitches on Thursday as well. So let's see how he does. Davey Garcia. Yeah, that could have been, oh, my goodness gracious, if there wasn't so many other things going on today.

He had a very strong performance for the Yankees, so I would be happy to drop Boyd for Davey Garcia. Don't look now. The Bronx Bombers are back. Last name I'll ask you about Keegan Aiken. Would you drop Boyd for Keegan Aiken? I don't care enough about Keegan Aiken to do that, but I

would not miss Boyd if you wanted to do it. News and notes. Routy Telez was placed on the aisle with a knee injury Wednesday and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season. Christian Javier won't start during the two-game series against the Dodgers this weekend. So if you were depending on a two-star week, it's not happening, which is unfortunate.

through 50 to 55 pitches in a bullpen session on Wednesday, he is still without an official timetable. Jameson threw 25 pitches at the Pirates' alternate training site Wednesday. He's not going to return this season. But Scott, any interest in picking James and Tyone up in a keeper league where maybe you can keep him for like a last round pick if you just pick him up now? I love it. I love it. I have him stashed away.

Granted, it's a 24 teamer. but I think he's, I think there's a very good chance he's like a top 40 pitcher next year and if you can keep him for next to nothing. It's going to be good for you. Top 40. I like the sound of that.

I used to be a huge James and Tyone fan. He's only 8% roster on CBS. So again, if you can pick him up and keep him for cheap or nothing? I don't know how deep I want to go into Tyone analysis today, but he's a guy who's secondary arsenals always look great

and he just didn't throw it enough. pitch selection issues as a lot of pirates pitchers had. Tell me about it, Joe Musgrove. Yeah, yeah. So we don't know how, if he's going to be back to full force coming off Tommy John surgery, of course, but if he is, I think it bodes well.

Mitch Keller threw 43 pitches over to three innings during a live batting practice session on Wednesday. He could return very soon. Stephen Piscotti received a cortisone shot in his wrist and will be unavailable for at least a couple days. Catelle Marte was placed on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation. Quite a disappointing season here

from Cotel Marte. You right, Scott? Yeah, I mean, obviously this has a potential to be a season ender. It won't necessarily be. But only one home run, I think, he hit. That's... Maintain the high batting average. Yeah.

But the batted ball profile looked a lot more like two years ago than last year. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. And as bad as second base has been on the hole, he'll probably still be top five going into next year, right? I don't know. Two homers this year, he's batting 290, barely walking.

His ISO went from 264 last season to 117 this year, so it's even lower than where it was at in 2018 when he had a 177 isolated power. Again, that is Catelle Marte. It seems like he might have been one of the beneficiaries of the juice ball, but... It does seem like he might have been, but I don't think we can say that for sure.

And like I said, how many second basemen are you ranking over him? I don't think Altuvae's done anything this year to warrant ranking over him. Brandon Lau, who looked that way at first, has crashed hard over the past few weeks. I think Kevin Bigio probably, DJ LaMayhew, yeah? Probably still take labor over him,

even though he's done nothing. but that's fair. Yep, Glaber. Yeah, Kessenhira hasn't been great, lots of strikeouts. Probably still take Ozzy Albies over him. Yeah, this position is still going to be very bad. Oh, and of course, Whitmerfield, someone we didn't mention. Although he slowed down a lot as well, but... Yeah, I guess all that's fair.

I guess I could see Kattel Marte getting pushed out of the top five. But let's see how the season concludes for all of those guys. Probably wind up in like the 8 to 10 range. but we'll see what happens. Chris Bryant was not in the starting lineup on Wednesday as a result of elbow soreness. He was hit by a pitch on Tuesday. Dallas Keiko dealing with a back injury

will not make his scheduled start this weekend against the Detroit Tigers. David Dahl was reinstated from the 10-day I.L. on Wednesday. Shinsu Chu landed on the injured list with a sprained right hand. Danny Santana underwent surgery on his right elbow and is expected to require about eight months to recover.

That brings us to, like, May. or potentially June, so see what happens there. Assuming he ever contributes anything worthwhile in fantasy again, which I think is very much an open question. Yeah, he looks like one of the legit one-hit wonders from the 2019 season. Tommy Fam could return from his fractured hemate bone next week. He is 61% rostered. Any interest got?

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. And Jose Ramirez was back in the Indians lineup on Wednesday. He finished 0 for 2 with a walk. All right, back to the waiver wire. I don't know how many more times I could possibly say this guy's name, so I'm just going to say it once.

Please don't get mad at me. It seems like it's just been the Ryan Mountcastle podcast recently. But he went 4-4 on Tuesday. He has 12 strikeouts and six walks in 17 games. He's making a very good amount of contact. Batting average is phenomenal. He's only 50% rostered, and he has eight games next week. I'll just throw it out there.

The roster percentage should be higher, especially in weekly leagues where he has eight games. That's it. That's all I'll say about Ryan Malkassas. How about his teammate? DJ Stewart, Scott. The pickup percentage has really been lacking for him. I agree.

DJ Stewart three hits on Tuesday, including his fifth home run in the last four games. He has a very high average exit velocity, a very high barrel rate and hits a lot of fly balls, which we've seen that work out very well for Anthony Santander so far this season. Former prospect,

and, I mean, DJ Stewart's available everywhere, if you're interested. Yeah. Yeah, he's really gone on a home run binge here. Somebody who would have been nice to pick up if you were looking to make up ground in the home run category, but I can't complain too much, can I? It's weird. because his expect, like, he's putting the ball in the air so much

that his expected batting average, according to stat cast, is like 136. At least it was coming into this game. Strikeout rate high, obvious, 35%. That's contributing to that too, or at least the end of the day, at 35%. So really extreme profile right now from DJ Stewart. But he's a guy who actually didn't strike out that much

over his minor league career and last year between three levels had a 948 OPS in the minors walks a fair amount power has been there I'm not I'm not ready to anoint him

anything more than an interesting flyer off the waiver wire. It's 26 years old already but I think there's the potential maybe DJ Stewart could become more. really needs to strike out less. I think that's the biggest key for him.

Scott, how would you rank these hitters that are rostered in 20% or less of CBS leagues? So more so for deeper formats, but Ty France, DJ Stewart, Bobby Dalbeck, and Garrett Cooper. How would you rank those four? Are you talking about just for right now

in a redraft league? Yeah, sure. Okay, I would probably go Cooper one, Dalbeck, 2, Stewart 3, France, 4. I think France would rank higher if we're talking about

stashing away in the Dynasty League, but he hasn't really done enough yet to get me interested in him in a redraft league. And, you know, Dahlbeck and Stewart can at least be home run specialists, maybe if you need that kind of helping a five outfielder league. The final Baltimore Oriole that we will talk about today, hopefully, is Cedric Mowens, who has five hits over his last two games, was leading off Tuesday, stole his fifth game, fifth base of the season, and his sprint speed is in the 87th percentile. Any interest there, Scott? Sure, in a deep league sense. I mean, anybody who's stealing bases and playing consistently is of some interest in rotissory leagues. I don't think it's a great hitter.

profile for Sedric Mullins, but he's playing every day and stealing some bases. The pitchers that we should point out, Davey Garcia mentioned the name already, seven innings, two runs, six strikeouts, zero walks. It's so interesting. He now has just two walks in three starts, and his control was rated a 45 on the prospect grading scale. So, like, he struggled with walks in the minors, and all of a sudden he comes up here, and he's striking people out and he's not walking anyone again.

That's Davey Garcia. 14 swinging strikes on 95 pitches on Tuesday against the Blue Jays. 59% forcing fastball. Average is like 92.5 miles per hour. I have heard the Yankees broadcast talk about how it's a high spin rate fastball. So even though he doesn't throw it very hard, it kind of plays up a little bit. He had six whiffs on the changeup.

He used a slider a little bit more on Wednesday night. And not for nothing, all three of his second. pitch is the slider, the curb ball, and the change-up have been pretty solid to this point. He's just 43% rostered on CBS, and looks like he's slated to pitch again on Monday in a six-game week, which means, I think that he'll have two starts, which will come against- Assuming they don't send him down again, they sent him down after each of his first two starts. I don't see how they can do it. I mean- Yeah, they need a fifth starter.

Jordan Montgomery has been terrible too. It's like they can't justify sending him down. But, yeah. Two of his three starts have been great. The one that wasn't great, I had a high whiff rate. And as you said, I mean, the control, this is a guy who had 4.5 walks per nine innings in the minors last year. 67.5% of his pitches for strikes in those three starts, which I told you with Corbman Burns, 64 is about average. So that's a really high strike percentage from a guy who, I mean, control is probably the biggest concern coming in. It's interesting.

Where did you see that 45 rating for control? Is that MLB.com? Yes. Because I just looked it up in the baseball America handbook, and they gave him a 55 for control, which is significantly better than 45. Yeah. And they look like the soothsayers now, don't they?

Yeah, these things are going to differ. Now I want to see what Fangraves has them graded as. But Scott, would you drop Pablo Lopez for Dave Garcia? No, I wouldn't. But that's, like, I have a hard time imagining dropping Pablo Lopez. I feel like it'd have to be a pretty shallow league for you to even consider it.

Davy Garcia probably should be picked up in most leagues after today's performance. So you'll drop... I think we already asked is Matthew Boyd. No question. Drop him. Fangraphs has Davey Garcia

as a 40 on command with the upside to become a 50. It's interesting. It's interesting how he has pitched thus far. And then Dane Dunning. These are the two kind of pitchers I wanted to marry together

and which one would you rather have Dane Dunning's 6th shutout on Wednesday against the pirates. Only three strikeouts, seven swinging strikes on 78 pitches. They're very similar in terms of their roster percentage. 45% rostered for Dane Dunning. And it looks like he'll have two starts next week

against the twins and the Reds. Who would you rather have Davy Garcia or Dane Dunning? I would rather still have Dane Dunning. I mean, the Wiffs were so good for him in his first three starts. They weren't as good in this start, but, you know, it's obviously you take the hole rather than the little pieces and it still comes out looking pretty good for Dane Dunning. And I like that he went six innings and was efficient about it because the first three starts the most he went was five and, you know, how useful is any pitcher who was only going five innings, you know, Dane Dunning. Chaudy's capable of going more.

78 pitches to get through those six innings. So it was nice to see. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the one reason why I might lean toward Davy Garcia is that they let Davey Garcia throw 95 pitches on Wednesday, whereas Dunning, through 78 in this start, he's been below 80 and three of his four starts. I like both of them, but if you just have to, if you're looking for a tiebreaker, splitting hairs, I think I would lean with Davey Garcia over Dane Dunning. Speaking of the Yankees, we haven't spoke about Clint Fraser in a while,

but he had two more hits with a stolen base on Wednesday. Now has multiple hits in four of his last six games. He's batting 288 with a 944 OPS. He's 49% rostered. So this is another one where I feel like that number should be higher. He's hitting right in the middle of the lineup. He was batting cleanup on Wednesday. Scott, who would you rather have, Mountcastle or Clint Frazier?

I think Mountcastle, but it's close. It is. And looking at their rest of season's schedules, the Yankees have 13 games left heading into next week and Baltimore has 14, so not a huge difference. But something that I have noticed.

James McCann had a double dong for RBI. He's batting 333. The problem is he just doesn't play enough, right, Scott? So like... Right. Useful in two catcher leagues, but not really anything else. It's a shame then a catcher who's actually hitting well

just doesn't play enough to be of much use to most people. Some deep waiver names. What happened in the Brewer's onslaught? They scored 19 runs. How did they do it? Jed Jerko. Nando de Fino favorite. Double Dong with two home runs in that game.

Ryan Braun had three hits, a home run, and three RBI. Luis Arias had three hits and five RBI. And a gentleman named Tyrone Taylor, who is a top 30 prospect for the Milwaukee Brewers, had four hits, including his first career home run. And three RBI. Jerko, Braun. Arias, Tyrone Taylor.

Any interest in deeper redraft leagues rest of season, Scott? Not really. No. I mean, what's... Jerko has seven home runs in an OPS over a thousand now, but the data doesn't look

particularly good for him. It doesn't look like he's made some big leap. I guess he's hitting the ball a little harder, but striking out a ton. Yeah. I'm not really moved by Jed Jerko here. And the playing time hasn't been super consistent for him. Maybe it'll be a little more now that smoke is gone,

but I don't think he's going to play regularly enough. Let's see how much more playing time Tyrone Taylor gets. Because he's been up for a while. Now this was only the second game he started. He was a pretty highly regarded prospect several years ago and just kind of fell off. a guy who has some power, has some speed, didn't strike out much in the miners,

a lot of infield flies. And so the Babbup was never what you expect to see for quality minor league hitter. And he's 26 years old now. So, you know, I think he kind of got pegged more as a potential fourth outfielder type than a potential star for the brewers. But, you know, if they've decided they're out of it

and they just want to give them a look for next year. And I don't know why they would have decided they're out of it yet. I don't think they're really 19 and 22. That's still in it, right? In the NL? I feel like every team is still in it technically. Yeah, I mean, the AL is getting, is, you know, looking a little more settled than the NL.

You know what I noticed, Scott? I don't know if this happens to you either. I mean, because we're just so player-oriented here, on the show, like focusing on fantasy, I realize at times that I don't even know what's happening in real baseball. Like, I don't know what the standings are. I don't know, like, who's leading the playoff race

or like the wild cards. It's like half the time I'm just only focusing on players and their performance that I just don't even know what's happening in real baseball. And I'm like, how is this possible? Like, I host a baseball podcast. I know. It's funny. We have such a granular form of analysis

that we, you know, kind of overlook the big picture that that like general baseball writers are writing about. They kind of focus on the opposite thing we do. Because yeah, that does happen. But I've been trying to pay attention to the standings. And yeah, there are eight teams in the AL right now that, let's see, who, I don't know who comes up with the percent chance of making the playoffs,

but there are eight teams with a 90 percent chance or better, which means it's basically decided. NL, a lot more wide open. There are only one, two, three, four. We'll give the Phillies. We'll round up for the Phillies and say five teams with a 90% chance or better of making the playoffs. All right.

If you say it, it must be true. I trust you, Scott. Edward Olivares, another deep name. Two more hits on Wednesday. He now has 10 hits in six games since joining the Royals and has started four straight. He's only 4% rostered. The only problem, the Royals only play.

five games next week. So I think this is really just a name to look at in deeper roto leagues, you know, 15 team leagues or deeper, I think that makes sense. And then Luis Garcia, not the shortstop prospect for the nationals. A pitcher for the Houston Astros. A top 20 prospect in their organization, apparently.

Five shutout on Wednesday against the Oakland A's, four strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 86 pitches, and his minor league career is pretty damn good. 54 games, 32 starts. So he's bounced the round as a reliever and a starter. Again, this is Luis Garcia of the Astros. 2.50 ERA, 1.17 whip, 284 strikeouts over 205 innings pitched. He's just 2% rostered.

Anything there, Scott? It was 13.9 K-per-9 last year for this Luis Garcia. And it was at A-ball. He didn't advance past A-ball. So, you know, he's made kind of a big leap here. as like Chris Boobitch of the of the Royals has really good change up I'd say he's worth monitoring I'm not rushing out to pick him up after one good start

this was his first start right he had a long relief appearance earlier yeah he had one other appearance where it was like four and a third I'm not sure if that was a starter yeah I'm not sure either double check that but got to click on the right Louis Garcia Yeah, no, I think he's worth monitoring him.

I think he's worth monitoring, but I don't think it's a rush out and pick him up right away situation. All right, here's the schedules, how things are lining up for the final two weeks. If you're looking ahead and trying to figure out who plays the most games for the rest of the season. Again, that's not including the rest of this week. It's just for the final two scoring periods in fantasy baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals lead all teams. They still have 18 remaining games. The Marlins, the pirates and the brewers.

They all have 16 remaining games. The Phillies and the Nationals have 15 games over the final two weeks. And then all of these teams have 14 games. The White Sox, the Oakland A's, the Rockies, including six of those in Coorsfield, the Blue Jays, the Mariners, and the Orioles, these teams have 13 games. The Yankees, the Reds, the Mets, the Astros, the Indians, the Rangers,

the Dodgers, the Braves, the Rays, and then 12 games. We have the Red Sox, the Royals, the twins, the giants, the angels, the Diamondbacks, the Tigers, and the Cubs. And the only team that only has 11 games over the final two weeks is the Sande Diego Padres. Should this matter at all, Scott? Because a few people have already asked us, like, you know, should we be planning ahead already

for the final couple of weeks? Would you be going out and consciously trying to add Cardinals or Marlins or Brewers only because they have more games than everyone else? And vice versa, would you be looking to drop any of your Padres because they only have 11 games over the final two weeks? I think you could overthink this tremendously, especially since,

well, we didn't break down exactly how many of these games are double-heder games, but I assume obviously more games means more double-headers, and those are only seven innings. So it's kind of like a 14-inning game as opposed to two games, you know. It makes a difference. But don't overthink it. Yeah, I wouldn't overthink it. I mean, I wouldn't start a worse hitter because, like, in a,

typical week if you know one game difference on the schedule for one team versus another how much of a difference does it make when setting my lineup it would have to be the same range of hitter for it to even weigh into my decision making I'm not setting a stud for

a guy just picked up off waivers because he happens to be playing a game or even two more you know yeah and I feel like it only might matter in deeper leagues Because between the Cardinals, the Marlins, the pirates, and the brewers who all have 16 or more games, like, you're not really chasing any of those hitters in those lineups anyway. So don't overthink it.

But I know some people have been asking about the final two-week schedule and looking forward. But don't factor that in too much. All right, we're going to take a quick break when we come back. I want to highlight some of the Mets, not just the Yankees here on fantasy baseball today. but we've got a little bit more to get to some Wednesday standout, some bullpen notes. Thursday to stream or not stream. We'll do that here right after the break. All right, welcome back to fantasy baseball today.

And before we get into those Mets, I just want to remind you to join our Facebook group and awesome collection of peeps, interesting questions and conversations. That's facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. And also support our football brothers on FFT for more than a decade. Fantasy Football Today has been delivering league winning analysis and advice as part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network. Now they're coming at you fast with a brand new feed. Don't worry, the old one will stay the same. The Fantasy Football Today and Five Podcast is your audio outlet for fantasy news and advice in five minutes or fewer.

They'll feature familiar voices like Adamazer and the rest of the FFT crew, Jamie Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings, as they break down what matters most to help you win your league. in a quick-hitting format. Available first thing in the morning, Monday through Friday, download and subscribe to Fantasy Football Today and 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stisher, your smart speakers,

and anywhere else, podcasts are found. All right, it's time to get to those New York Mets. Spend a lot of time talking about the Yankees, Davy Garcia, Clint Frazier. Uh-uh. Let's go Mets. Those icky Yankees. Yeah.

Nice little Let's go Mets jingle there. They were awesome. Again, on Wednesday, Jeff McNeil, in particular, multiple hits in eight of his last 11 games. He's homered in four straight. Pete Alonzo, his first 18 games, he was batting 197 with two home runs and a 30% strikeout rate.

His next 23 games, batting 261 with nine home runs and a 21% strikeout rate. And then Michael Conforto, just been rock solid. I feel like we barely talk about him, but just doing his thing, his eighth home run on Wednesday.

He's batting 3.40. Scott, McNeil's slow start coming around. Pete Alonzo's slow start. Coming around. Michael Conforto, just consistent. Yeah, no, it's not surprised. Well, I had some concerns, I'll admit, with McNeil,

whether that the power serves, the fact he hit, we looked it up yesterday. 21 of his 23 home runs came in the final four months last year. He had two in the first two months. and I think it was still fair to wonder which version was the real McNeil. And when he got, like, it's just fascinating the distribution of his power production,

his home run production specifically the past two years. Because he just goes from not being a home run hitter to being a home run hitter at the snap of a finger. The really interesting one is Conforto because he's actually not just, doing his thing this year. He is better than we've ever seen him before. He's never been a great source of batting average, and yet his expected batting

average is in the 90th percentile. 304 is what it, at least what it was, entering today. And part of it's striking out less, not ridiculously so, but less. I would imagine he's hitting line drives at a higher rate.

Let me see if I can find that, yeah, I mean, at least according to to stat cast he is. He's got a... Rates are actually different on baseball savant and fan graphs. So that's why I credit the source of the line drive right there.

He looks... He's going the opposite way a lot more, too. Like, he's... Yeah, he looks like a guy who's maybe tried a little too hard to hit home runs in the past and now isn't. And he's still getting the home runs, but overall, the package,

the complete package for Michael looking forwarder looks like he's looking like a stud. And I do believe that this was in his range of outcomes because we've seen him maintain a 939 OPS over the course of 109 games back in 2017. That was his breakout season. He had 27 home runs in just 109 games. And then he had all the shoulder issues. So he came back a little bit too soon, 2018.

And then, you know, last year he bounced back, but never to the level that we saw again in 2017, and now this year, a 973 OPS. Yeah, I think this was in the range of outcomes. 412 badbed, probably not sustainable, even with a 29.8% line drive rate, but even if he was closer to his expected batting average, around 300, just, yeah, this is really the best version that we've seen out of Michael Conforto.

So, let's go Mets. Happy that they are performing well. Scott, we had a pitcher's duel in Chicago, the Trevor Bauer Revenge Tour. continued. His revenge against me, of course. Seven and two-thirds shutout. Three hits, ten strikeouts, zero walks. Is he a rate down to 1.74?

14 swinging strikes on 112 pitches. That's the one thing is like, no matter where he's been, Cincinnati, Cleveland, they just let him go. I don't know if it's because he's just crazy and no one wants to actually like try and take him off the mound. But he, they just leave him out there. And then on the other side, U. Darvish,

six innings, three runs, three walks, nine strikeouts, his one mistake was a three-run home run to Mike Mustakis. Scott, would you believe this? This is U. Darvich's first start with three walks since June 5th of last season. He went 26 straight starts with two walks or less. I do believe it because it was a major talking point in the off season, but I'm sure many listening at home or in their cars or wherever else they may be. are dumbfounded by it.

Yeah. Ridiculous. You Darvish and Trevor Bauer, both, you know, two of the 10 best pitchers in fantasy this season. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Trevor Bauer, where he lands in the offseason. Does he resign with Cincinnati?

Does he wind up somewhere else? It's got to be really interesting to see because he is, in the past, said that once he's done with the initial years of team control, dating back to his Diamondbacks days. He's going to sign one-year contract every year to maximize his earnings. That's what he said.

We'll see if he actually follows through on it because obviously he's taking on a lot more risk health-wise, you know, with his health holding up by doing that. So he's going to be a very interesting free agent case, Trevor Bowers. Yeah, and based on how he's pitched this year, you know, one year, what can he make?

25 million 25 you think more more you think you'll be more than 25 million in a year yeah yeah he would get 25 million over six years probably well 25 million per right so right right that's what I'm saying yeah damn

all right shout out to Trevor Bauer Carlos Carrasco nice little bounce back seven innings of one run ball this is actually two starts in a row where he's been really good I had six strikeouts zero walks excuse me three straight starts allowing one run or less for Carlos Carrasco, 15 swinging strikes on 101 pitches.

It has a two-start week. Next week, a nice bounce back for Jesus Lozardo as well against the Astros, seven innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. He had two bad starts over his last four entering Wednesday night. Anything you want to add on those two? Scott, Carrasco and Lazzardo? Not really.

I continue to be underwhelmed by Luzardo's. strikeouts and I think he's at less than one per inning. He was right at, he had seven and seven innings today. So I still, I think that keeps him less than one per inning. Yeah, I looked this up before. I think he's at like 8.7 K per nine for the season. But the whiff rate on his curveball and change up is,

it's good for both. So I don't know. I kind of feel like it's a pitch selection thing. Like he's showing the stuff is there to miss a lot of bats. He's, the ground ball rate has been really high. you know, maybe more sinkers than four seamers. Maybe that could stand to change too if he's going for strikeouts.

But also, if you remove the one terrible start he had, obviously I don't have the updated numbers with tonight's performance added in. But if you remove that one awful start he had, his ERA would be, I believe, below three for the season. So things are going well for him. just a little underwhelmed in the strikeout department. Yeah, and I'll always reference that one really bad start for Lazzardo because he found out he was pitching the day of. So, like, that was the game where Montas got placed on the IL

or, you know, just pushback because he was dealing with back stiffness. So I don't really hold that against Hazel's Lozardo. And if anyone sees the overall numbers heading into next year and they're thinking about fading him, I would caution against doing so. The last few things I did want to mention, Danny Duffy, 5 and 2 thirds shutout with only four strikeouts. He is at Detroit next week, which on paper looks like a good matchup,

but they're actually really good against left-handed pitching. They're like third and weighted on base average against lefties this year, so keep that in mind. Happy Labor Day. Looks like he might be coming around two for five with a home run for RBI. Isaiah Kinear-Falepha, 4-4 on Wednesday with his eighth stolen base. It's batting 322. The only thing that sucks about this is that he will not have catcher eligibility

heading into next season. Womp, womp, oh yeah, this is, this is basically a one and done situation for kinder Folefas fantasy relevance at least in standard mixed leagues maybe a steel specialist next year I don't know uh Clayton Kirshaw bruh just took you in the second round of our 2021 mock what's going on five innings four runs three of those earned only three strikeouts at Arizona it's supposed to be a good matchup boo boo this man Clayton Kirshaw Zach Davies another quality start against the Rocky six and

three runs, eight strikeouts. The ERA is now 2.48. Three runs or less in all eight starts this season. 14 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. That's with 45% changeups, which is like 79 miles per hour. Take that, Scott. Take that. That's what you get for downing. Zach Davies. How dare you? Oh, come on. You were right there with me. Yeah, come on. I am starting, I may be starting to come around to Zach Davies a little. Swinging strike rate, best of his career, and it's been even better over his past four starts. It's been,

it's been Zach Wheeler-like over his last four starts, which sounds really impressive, but Zach Wheeler's already always been notoriously bad with the swinging strikes. I don't know. The ex-fip for Zach Davies is just around 425 at this point, which is not terrible. It's not great, of course,

but it's not terrible. So I may, like, there may be some usefulness here. I just don't know that I'm going to come all the way around fast enough for it to be of any benefit to anybody this year. I'd still rather stay away, I think. Scott, if it were like May, if it was mid-May, and we were, you know, two months into a normal season, I would be yelling at people to sell high on Zach Davies.

If you can just get anything for him. So I'm right there with you. I'm not going to take anything away from the guy. Like, he's changed up the pitch mix this year. He's pitching really well. As Scott mentioned, his ex-fip and his Sierra is up over four. So I don't think that it would actually be sustainable over a full season. Some bullpen notes.

Greg Holland was back for more on Wednesday. This time as the closer, he picked up his third save of the season. Josh Stallmont was used in the eighth. Jesse Hahn was used in the seventh. Edwin Diaz nailed down a save in a one-run game for the Mets. And just like that, his ERA is 1.4. 0.89. Reisely Glacius had a clean save. Trevor Rosenthal picked up another save for the San Diego Padres. Ryan Presley recorded just two outs, allowed a run in the ninth in a tie game, which means he took the loss.

The name, I guess, to pay attention to behind him. I just feel like they're going to ride it out with Presley. But Enoli Paredes is someone who has pitched quite consistently in the eighth inning. The numbers are not terrible for him either. And then Kevin Ginkle allowed two runs, one of which was the runner that starts on second base. So that was an unearned run, but it's kind of been a mixed bag from Kevin Ginkl. Anything you want to add there, Scott, specifically on the Astros or Diamondbacks?

Yeah, I'm not really worried about Presley. He's actually been great since his... Basically, from the third game of the season on, he's allowed a total of four earned runs, including this game. So I think he's fine. Yeah, I mean, Rosen's... It sure looks like Rosenthal's the guy, right? It sure looks like Rosenthal's the guy. He was acquired a week and a half ago, and this was only the second time he's been able to put it to the test to see who the Padres go to in a safe situation. And both times it's been Rosenthal, with Drew Pomerant's consistently working more of a setup role. So that's good. Thursday, to stream or not to stream, the must starts that I have here, Garrett Cole versus Baltimore, Jack Flaherty versus the Detroit,

Tigers, Dylan Bundy versus the Rangers, Aaron Savali versus the Royals, and Sunny Gray at the Cubs. Scott, would you start Chris Paddock at home against the Giants? I can't believe that we're at this point, but I don't think he's a must-star pitcher. I don't think so either, and the Giants have scored a lot of runs this year. I still think I'd do it. How about Dustin May at Arizona? Yeah. On the other side, Madison Bumgarner going up against the Dodgers.

No way. Kegan Aiken at the Yankees, who has made two solid starts against the Yankees. I don't care about Kegan Aiken. Enough with the Keegan Aiken. It's a really hard name to say, first of all. Keegan Aiken. What did he ever do to you, Scott? Come on. I don't know.

Keegan Aiken. He's got to do a lot more to me to raise my interest. Tarice Gulal at the Cardinals. That sounded weird too. No, I won't. Jordan Zimmerman at the Cardinals? Jordan Zimmerman, really? No.

Jose Erykiti at Oakland. Didn't get great results his first outing, and he's still stretching out, so no. Sean Minaya versus the Astros. He's been okay recently, but it's... I'd rather not. How have the Astros been against the lefties? Their seventh.

You waited on base average. Yeah, probably wouldn't do it either. Kyle Gibson versus the Angels. Nope. Brady Singer at Cleveland? Nope. Josh Fleming versus the Boston Red Sox? Nope.

Jake Areetta at Miami? Nope. Sandy Alcantara versus the Phillies? Yes. Oh, we finally found one. And Adbert Alzalay against the Reds. No, thank you. Well, thank you, Scott.

And that'll do it here on the show. Thank you all for listening and watching on the Fantasy Baseball today YouTube channel. He is Scott. I am Frank. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.